(CNN)  Lebanon's government has blamed a large quantity of poorly stored ammonium nitrate for the huge blast that rocked its capital, Beirut, killing scores of people and devastating swathes of the city. What is this chemical, and why did it explode?

Ammonium nitrate is an industrial chemical commonly used around the world as an agricultural fertilizer, and in explosives for mining.

It has also been used as a key component in improvised explosives, notably in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, in the 2002 bombings in Bali, Indonesia, and by far-right Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik in his 2011 shooting and bombing attack.

In this case, according to Lebanese officials, about 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate had been stockpiled at a Beirut port warehouse, just a few minutes' walk from the city's shopping and nightlife districts, since it was confiscated in 2014.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab said the chemical had been stored for the past six years "without preventive measures," and promised an investigation.

It's not yet clear what caused the stockpile in Beirut's port to ignite, with such deadly results, on Tuesday evening.

"Ammonium nitrate is ... relatively safe by itself, although a strong oxidant, but highly dangerous when contaminated by any kind of fuel, such as oil or organic material, even in just a few per cent," Roger W. Read, Honorary Associate Professor at the University of New South Wales' School of Chemistry, told the Science Media Centre.

"In the presence of heat, such a mixture can easily lead to catastrophic outcomes," Read added.

Ammonium nitrate is not flammable in itself, Associate Professor Stewart Walker, from the school of Forensic, Environmental and Analytical Chemistry at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, told CNN.

"In this instance, it appears that there was a fire and that fire has caused the ammonium nitrate that had been stockpiled to combust, and when it's in a confined space, it releases a lot of hot gas," he said.

"Because the gas takes up a higher volume than the solid, there's a build-up of pressure and because of the heat released, the hot gas is higher in volume, so you get to the point that when it's confined it will suddenly explode and will release that pressure in a shockwave," Walker added.

Video footage of Tuesday's explosion shows that "the fire starts with a grey-white cloud and then, at the time of the explosion, there is a large column of reddy-orange-brown smoke and a large white 'mushroom cloud,' which is the shockwave," said Walker.

The red-orange-brown smoke is characteristic of nitrous oxide, a toxic gas released from the ammonium nitrate, he said.

Has this happened before?

It's not the first time that ammonium nitrate, which is reasonably cheap to manufacture, has been implicated in deadly industrial explosions.

Perhaps the closest comparison, in terms of scale, is a blast in Texas City in 1947. The fire caused an explosion and additional fires that damaged more than 1,000 buildings and killed nearly 400 people, according to the website of the Texas Historical Association.

For perspective, that explosion was triggered by 2,300 US tons (about 2,087 metric tons) of ammonium nitrate, according to US Homeland Security.

"Poorly stored ammonium nitrate is notorious for explosions  for example in Oppau, Germany; in Galveston Bay, Texas; and more recently at West in Waco, Texas; and Tianjin in China," Andrea Sella, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at University College London, told the Science Media Centre.

"This is a catastrophic regulatory failure because regulations on the storage of ammonium nitrate are typically very clear. The idea that such a quantity would have been left unattended for six years beggars belief and was an accident waiting to happen."

More than 100 people were killed in the port city of Tianjin in 2015 when a warehouse containing several hundred tons of dangerous chemicals, including ammonium nitrate, went up in a series of massive explosions.

The blast at a fertilizer plant in the small town of West, Texas, in 2013 killed 15 people, including 12 first responders, and destroyed 500 homes. It was so powerful it caused a magnitude-2.1 earthquake.

Were other materials involved in Beirut?

The size of the blast, as well as Lebanon's troubled history, has prompted speculation that military explosives may have been involved.

US President Donald Trump added to the confusion when he referred to the incident at an "attack," though US Defense Department officials told CNN afterward there was no indication that was the case. Lebanese officials also raised concerns with US diplomats about the use of the phrase "attack," two State Department officials said.

Former British army major Chris Hunter, an expert in fertilizer bombs and explosives disposal, said he was "almost certain" that the main detonation was caused by an "industrial accident."

Hunter, who continues to work in Iraq and Syria training bomb disposal crews and was involved in operations to prevent a fertilizer bomb plot in London a few years ago, has watched numerous videos of the explosions.

"You can see an intense fire at the early stages, plus what may be fireworks or ammunition exploding. This is the sort of heat source that would be needed to cause a large amount of ammonium nitrate to explode. It would normally burn but if ignited by intense fire, then the white cloud that characterized this blast is what we'd expect from ammonium nitrate," he said.

"If the reports of 2,700 tonnes of the chemical are accurate then this is also consistent with the scale of a blast and the damage done," he added.

How should ammonium nitrate be stored?

Previous disasters have led to improved regulations for the safe storage of ammonium nitrate  a valuable inorganic fertilizer which has helped to feed the world's growing population  Walker said; such rules mean it tends to be kept away from population centers.

"Both of these things will be questioned in the investigation into the Beirut explosion, because they had such a large amount of ammonium nitrate, which may not have been stored appropriately, and in an area where there is a large number of people," he said.

Safe storage would mean keeping the ammonium nitrate away from any source of ignition, keeping it away from anything combustible and keeping it in small enough containers, far enough away from one another, that if one were to ignite it would not spread to the others, he said.

Given its potentially hazardous nature, governments typically restrict access to ammonium nitrate, and require people to have a license to buy it. Breivik, the Norwegian terrorist, was able to acquire and stockpile it because he had a small farm, Walker explained.

As a result of these precautions, accidents more often occur when the chemical is in transit, either in trucks or by ship, Walker added.

Two such incidents have occurred in Queensland, Australia, he said. In 2014, a truck carrying ammonium nitrate exploded in Wyandra after rolling, destroying a bridge. And in 1972, three people were killed in Taroom when a truck transporting ammonium nitrate exploded after experiencing an electrical fault and fire.

Who produces it?

Russia is the world's largest producer of ammonium nitrate, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

But the country has faced obstacles in their attempts to sell the fertilizer to Europe. For decades, the European Union has placed anti-dumping tariffs on their import to prevent Russian producers from undercutting EU-based suppliers.

"It's a question of having a level playing field between European producers and Russian producers," Antoine Hoxha, technical director of the Fertilizers Europe organization, told CNN.

"Dumping is not a fair trade practice: there are international agreements on this. If there is a practice of dumping and it is verified, then they take measures to restore a playing field," he said. The EU has applied the measures on a rolling basis, most recently reducing them slightly in 2018.

The production of ammonium nitrate is subject to strict testing measures in Europe, which Hoxha says were ramped up after a 2001 explosion in Toulouse, France that killed dozens.

"You physically abuse the product by heating and cooling it, to genuinely alter its substance and to simulate it being mistreated or mis-stored or heated and cooled, which might happen in extreme storage conditions," Jo Gilbertson, sector head for fertilizers at the UK's Agricultural Industries Confederation, told CNN.

"We deliberately abuse it, and then try to blow it up," he said, adding that the same standards may not be applied outside the EU.

"It's an industry where you must never be complacent," Gilbertson added. "The product we're dealing with is incredibly safe when you look after it. But if you don't look after it, it's very easy to make a mistake."

This story was first published on CNN.com "Ammonium nitrate may have sparked the Beirut explosion. It happened in Texas, in 1947, too"
Vice President Mike Pence is taking aim at Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, calling him a "disappointment to conservatives" after failing to vote as expected in recent high-profile cases.

"We have great respect for the institution of the Supreme Court of the United States but Chief Justice Roberts has been a disappointment to conservatives," Pence told CBN's David Brody in Florida on Wednesday.  Vice President Pence also mentioned a case in Louisiana in which the Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana pro-life law that said doctors from abortion clinics would have to have admitting privileges at local hospitals. Once again, Roberts sided with the four liberals on the court.

The superficial conservative pretense that courts should remain non-partisan and judges non-activist is evaporating as a general election approaches.

Roberts was nominated to the court by George W. Bush in 2005. Though undoubtedly conservative in his outlook and votes, he has angered Trump-era Republicans and has sided more often with liberal justices as cases trended toward right wing culture war bullshit.
Earlier, Zelensky asked Lukashenko over the phone to extradite a number of the arrested mercenaries, who are believed to have also committed crimes in the Donbas warzone, fighting alongside Russian occupation forces.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has suggested inviting chief prosecutors of Russia and Ukraine to help local law enforcers investigate the recently detained group of Russian Wagner Private Military Company.

"We should invite the prosecutor general's offices of Russia and Ukraine to look into the situation with the militants detained in Belarus, President Aleksandr Lukashenko said at a meeting held on 6 August to discuss ways to maintain security during the presidential election," reports BelTA, the Belarusian information agency.

Read also"Little green men" in Belarus: Dozens of militants detained near Minsk part of Russia's PMC Wagner  media (Video)

As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during his phone talks with Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko on Wednesday, August 5, requested that Belarus extradite a number of detained Wagner troops to Ukraine.

"I hope that all suspects involved in terrorism on the Ukrainian soil will be handed over for prosecution in accordance with the current international legal agreements," the Ukrainian President's Office quoted Zelensky as saying.

Background
By Asma Hafiz, TwoCircles.net

Srinagar: On the first anniversary of abrogation of Article 370, two images stood out in Kashmir. One was of an Indian journalist enjoying an ice cream on the banks of Dal lake and the other was the image of the detention of a Kashmiri journalist Qazi Shibli.

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While August 5 was marked by curfew and restrictions in Kashmir with little movement of people and transport, the guided media tour offered by Jammu and Kashmir administration for the Indian media to showcase its one year of achievements since Article 370 was scrapped has been criticized by local people and the press.

Journalists from the region said that its ironic that the government is giving guided media tours to Indian media, while at the same time muzzling the voices of Kashmir media.

Senior journalist Hilal Mir has been consistently highlighting the problems faced by the local press in Kashmir.

Talking to TwoCircles.net, Hilal said that the guided tours given to national journalists is an attempt to prevent the world from knowing the ground reality of Kashmir.

Booking Kashmiri journalists under anti-terror laws and airdropping cheerleaders masquerading as journalists in Kashmir has a message: Kashmiri voices dont matter. While the local press suffers, national media enjoys special perks, Hilal said.

The guided media tour for Indian media by the JK administration comes at a time when Kashmirs beleaguered media has been facing unprecedented curbs.

Since the Indian government revoked Article 370 and stripped Kashmir of its limited autonomy, journalists in Kashmir have accused state authorities, especially police of harassing and intimidating them.In April, Peerzada Ashiq, a correspondent with The Hindu, was booked for his follow up report on an encounter on Sophian. Whereas Masrat Zahra and Gowher Geelani were booked for their social media posts which were deemed  anti-national.

Kashmiri journalist Anees Zargar told TwoCircles.net that doing journalism has never been easy in Kashmir. There have always been attempts to obfuscate facts. Sometimes it is done through the media itself. The state of local media in Kashmir tells us how it has been silenced, Anees said.

In December last year, Anees was beaten up by policemen while covering a student protest at Islamia College of Science and Commerce in Srinagar. A time-bound internal enquiry was ordered but it yielded zero results.

Independent journalist Safwat Zargar, who was the first to break the news of civilian killing in Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370, told TwoCircles.net the Indian journalists who have come to Kashmir on the media tour organized by the government are no different than tourists.

National media comes on a tour to Kashmir and outrightly refuses to believe that the situation is not normal. On the other hand, local media is suppressed for speaking up. It is incredible to see how even after all these repressive measures, Kashmiri journalists remain undeterred, Safwat said.

Safwat said that during the security and communication lockdown in Kashmir after the revocation of Kashmirs special status, movement of journalists was extremely difficult. However, many national journalists faced no issues during their travels for some of them were in support of the governments decision. For this, they were rewarded with guided tours through the union territory to showcase normalcy.

You hardly see a national journalist interviewing the families of those who have been detained under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA). Their nationalistic view of the situation in Kashmir never changes. Rather than talking to people who are suffering, they are busy parroting the official word about it. That is national media for you. If they see a tourist walking by the banks of Dal lake during curfew, the situation in Kashmir is completely fine for them. But what about the 1.25 crores Kashmiri people locked inside their homes?, Safwat said.

Quratul-Ain Rehbar is a female freelance journalist based in Srinagar. After a massive security lockdown was imposed in Kashmir on August 5 last year, she could not travel back to her hometown Pulwama for a long time. Qurat decided to stay put and report on ground realities of Kashmir from Srinagar, even if that meant walking on foot for several kilometres.

Reporting was so difficult at that time. We had no way of knowing what was happening in other parts of Kashmir. I remember we once went to South Kashmir to ascertain the situation. If we would spot someone on the street, we would ask him if there was any arrest or case of torture in his/her locality. Other than that, there was no way of getting information, she said.

The local press is viewed as an enemy here. For our unbiased reporting, we are slapped with charges. Ironically, national media are given special guided tours. For Kashmiri journalists, speaking the truth comes with an unbearable cost, she said.

Qurat says the situation of local journalists in Kashmir is grim. Repeated attempts by the administration to throttle the voices of local media is hampering the smooth flow of information, she said.

Independent multimedia journalist from Kashmir Bhat Burhan told TwoCircles.net that the local media in Kashmir was suppressed even before the Article 370 revocation, adding that, things aggravated after the government of India stripped Kashmir of its autonomy, or whatever was left of it.

We used to go to the Press Club in Lal Chowk with the hope to stumble upon a colleague. There we used to exchange information and with time, this became a trend. Problems would arise when we had to go to South or North Kashmir for reporting. With no phones, there was no way of informing your family that you have reached. For days together, we would have no contact with them, he says.

Bhat Burhan recalls the day when he was beaten ruthlessly by the men in uniform. Burhan was beaten outside his office in 2018. He said that even after showing his press card, he was hurled with abuses and detained. He was released after several hours only after his editor intervened.

Local journalists are treated like criminals while national media receives special treatment in Kashmir. If you speak for the government, you will be treated with respect. Unfortunately, this is what it has come to, Burhan said.
All Victorian federal MPs and senators, including Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Health Minister Greg Hunt, will be forced into 14 days of self-quarantine from Saturday if they want to attend federal Parliament later this month.

Health authorities have decided no federal representatives can travel to the Australian Capital Territory for the August 24 fortnight of parliamentary sittings without first undertaking two weeks without either leaving their home or hotel room.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg arrives wearing a mask for his address to the National Press Club of Australia in Canberra on Friday. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The federal opposition will push for Victorian MPs who choose not to travel to Canberra to speak in Parliament via videolink, however they will not be given voting rights.

The decision has privately frustrated many MPs, including cabinet ministers, who had been prepared to undertake strict social distancing practices, including wearing masks, travelling alone, driving hire cars and eating, sleeping and showering in their offices.
The Yagbonwura Tutumba Bore Esa, the King of the Gonja Kingdom, has commended the security personnel for their swift response to issues in the Savannah Region.



He said, "The Gonja Kingdom wholeheartedly welcome the arrest of the Kafaba killing and wish to further express our satisfaction with the arrest of about seven persons believed to have taken part in the lynching of Akua Denteh, the 90-year-old woman who was accused of witchcraft at Kafaba in the East Gonja Municipality."



He further commended the Regional Police Command for reducing the crime in the region.



He pledged the Kingdom's continued support to the Regional Police Command to combat crime in the region.



The Yagbonwura made the remarks when the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mr James Oppong-Boanuh, paid a courtesy call on him as part of his working visit to the region.



He appealed to the Police Command to establish police posts to serve Makango, Larabanga, Kong Traditional Area and the Kusawgu - Tulwe enclave to enhance security.



The IGP commended the Yagbonwura and the Regional Minister for the support provided to security personnel in the region to enhance their work.

He appealed to the people not to relent in their efforts in supporting the service to combat crime in the region.



He noted that the country recorded some challenges in the voter registration exercise, where some lawless youth caused violence, saying



"It is a very worrying development and the Police are ready to collaborate with all stakeholders to educate the youth to avoid violence during this year's elections."



He advised the youth not to allow politicians to use them as tools for violence.



The visit of the IGP was to enable him to assess the security situation in the region and to prepare personnel ahead of the 2020 general elections.

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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Throwing their weight behind the India-United States relationship which enjoys bipartisan support, two top American lawmakers have said that close partnership between the two countries assumes significance in view of the "aggression" that New Delhi faces from Beijing.

Photograph: / Rediff.com IMAGE: Security personnel walk past a banner featuring an image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump in Ahmedabad.

Writing jointly to demonstrate the strong bipartisan support for the US-India relationship, the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in a letter to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said members of both the parties recognise the impact that a strong US-India partnership will have on the trajectory of the 21st century.

"As Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi said in February of this year, our ties 'are no longer just another partnership. It is a far greater and closer relationship'", said the letter signed by Eliot Engel, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Michael T McCaul, its Ranking Member.

"This closer relationship is all the more important as India faces aggression from China along your shared border, which is part of the Chinese government's consistent pattern of unlawful and belligerent territorial aggression across the Indo-Pacific," the two powerful Congressmen said.

Their remarks came amid the border face-off between India and China in eastern Ladakh.

Twenty Indian army personnel were killed during the clashes with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley on June 15.

The Chinese side also suffered casualties in the clashes but it is yet to give out details.

The number of casualties on the Chinese side was 35, according to a US intelligence report.

The United States will remain steadfast in support of India's efforts to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity, said the letter dated August 5 and was tweeted by the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

"As champions of the US-India relationship, we have been delighted to see our countries' close cooperation on issues from defense to climate change. It is because of our support for the bilateral relationship that we note with concern that conditions in Jammu and Kashmir have not normalised one year after India's repeal of Article 370 and the establishment of Jammu and Kashmir as a Union Territory," they wrote.

"We acknowledge the ongoing serious security and counterterrorism concerns in the region and look forward to working with your government to address these concerns while upholding our shared commitments to the democratic values and freedoms on which our countries' bond was built," the lawmakers wrote.

"As Prime Minister Modi said earlier this year, 'Unity in diversity and unity's vibrancy is the key to a strong relationship between India and America'. We look forward to working with you to continue to strengthen and advance this vibrant and consequential relationship," Engel and McCaul wrote.
Lim Guan Eng speaks to reporters at the Finance Ministry in Putrajaya in June 2018.

Lim Guan Eng, a former finance minister and senior leader of Malaysias opposition, was taken into custody Thursday night on suspicion of alleged corruption tied to a U.S. $1.5 billion undersea tunnel and highway project, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission announced.

In a statement, the MACC said it had received permission from the attorney general to bring charges against Guan Eng, who previously served as Penang states chief minister from 2008 to 2018, over allegations of soliciting or receiving bribes and of abusing his position for personal gain. He is scheduled to appear before the Special Corruption Court in Kuala Lumpur on Friday and the Penang Sessions Court on Monday to be charged.

Both charges in the Kuala Lumpur and Penang courts are related to the Penang undersea project, MACC said in its statement.

A MACC source who said he was not cleared to speak to the media confirmed Guan Engs arrest.

Yes, he was arrested at 9:30 p.m. and is to be produced in court in the morning, the source told BenarNews.

MACC also said that Guan Eng, the secretary general of the opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP), was to appear Tuesday in Penang Sessions Court to face another charge of abusing his position for personal gain from a different case, but did not release details about the case.

If convicted, Guan Eng faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years with fines of five times the amount of gratification under both sections.

The 4.47-mile (7.2-km) tunnel project was started in 2016 under former Prime Minister Najib Razak as a third connection between mainland Penang and Penang Island. Set for completion in 2025, it would be the first undersea tunnel in Malaysia.

Liew Chin Tong, a senator and DAP Central Executive Council member, questioned why Guan Eng was taken into custody.

MACC could have just informed our secretary general, Lim Guan Eng, to be present at the courtroom at a certain time. There is no need to keep him overnight, he wont run away, Liew said in a statement.

Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad appointed Guan Eng as finance minister shortly after the May 2018 election upset of Najibs coalition. Mahathirs Pakatan Harapan coalition campaigned on a pledge to rid the government of corruption and bring to justice those involved in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.

Within weeks of taking the lead at the finance ministry, Guan Eng on July 5, 2018, announced the suspension of Chinese-backed rail and pipeline projects, citing concerns over combined costs estimated to run as high as the U.S. $23 billion.

He suspended the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) and the two pipeline projects after seeking advice from then-Attorney General Tommy Thomas and after Mahathir had announced the government needed to get the national debt left by Najibs administration under control.

The decisions are solely directed toward the related contractors relating to provisions mentioned in the agreements, and not at any particular country, Guan Eng said at the time.

He said the ECRL cost had increased by $6.4 billion to $20 billion.

In September 2018, the Penang High Court cleared Guan Eng of two counts of corruption brought by Najibs government over his 2015 purchase of a bungalow at well below market value.

In August 2019, Mahathir announced that Malaysia had recouped more that $243 million from a Chinese state company for the unfinished pipelines. He also announced construction of the ECRL was resuming after negotiations with China slashed the construction cost by about a third.

Two years earlier, Najib called the ECRL a game changer. He led Malaysian efforts to develop the project as part of Chinas One Belt One Road initiative to connect it to nations in South and Southeast Asia and beyond through ports, roads, railways and trade routes.

Najib responds

The former prime minister posted accusations against Guan Eng regarding the tunnel project on his Facebook in December 2019. Following the news of Guan Engs arrest, Najib on Thursday again shared the post with his 4.2 million Facebook followers.

I am again sharing their slick method to gain tens of billions of ringgits, wrote Najib who faces his own legal woes because of the 1MDB. (The post was shared) 10,000 times since I wrote it in December but it was not even once disputed by the DAP.

Najib was found guilty last month of seven counts involving abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money laundering over the looting of millions of dollars from SRC International, a subsidiary of the sovereign wealth fund 1MDB. A Kuala Lumpur High Court judge sentenced him to 12 years and fined him 210 million ringgit (U.S. $49.3 million).

The former prime minister, who faces a total of 42 criminal charges, is standing trial in another court on 25 corruption charges in the 1MDB scandal.

Najib established 1MDB in 2009 when he was prime minister and finance minister, saying it would benefit the Malaysian people. U.S. and Malaysian officials alleged more than $4.5 billion was diverted from 1MDB through fraudulent shell companies to Najib and his associates, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

Nisha David in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.
A structurally complex foundation for coral attachment with additional elements to aid the removal of sediments from the corals. Credit: AFCD

Architects and marine scientists at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) have jointly developed a novel method for coral restoration making use of specially designed 3-D printed artificial 'reef tiles' for attachment by corals to enhance their chance of survival in the Hoi Ha Wan Marine Park in Hong Kong waters.

The restoration project was commissioned by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) as part of the active management of coral communities in the Marine Park. Architects from the Robotic Fabrication Lab, under the Fabrication and Material Technologies Lab of the Faculty of Architecture, and marine scientists from the Swire Institute of Marine Science (SWIMS) of the Faculty of Science at HKU collaborated to produce reef tiles tailored for coral attachment and monitor the development of the coral community in the Marine Park.

The Marine Park is a local biodiversity hotspot accounting for more than three-quarters of reef-building corals in Hong Kong and more than 120 fish species. However, in recent years, gradual deterioration of the coral habitat, a process known as bioerosion, coupled with coral bleaching and mass mortality events in 2015-2016, are putting the future of the coral community at risk.

Under the project, 3-D printed terracotta 'reef tiles', designed and developed by the Robotic Fabrication Lab, covering roughly 40 m2 in total, were deployed in July 2020 at three selected sites within the Marine Park, including Coral Beach, Moon Island, and a sheltered bay near the WWF Marine Life Centre.

A 3-D-designed reef tile was printed through a robotic 3-D clay printing method with generic terracotta clay and then fired at 1125 degrees Celsius. Credit: Christian J. Lange

To help corals survive and thrive

The artificial reef tiles are specially designed to aid coral restoration by providing a structurally complex foundation for coral attachmentand to prevent sedimentation, one of the major threats to corals. They provide anchors for corals of opportunity, i.e. dislodged coral fragments that are unlikely to survive on their own, giving them a second chance to thrive.

The tiles, seeded with coral fragments, were outplanted in July 2020. Three coral species historically common in the Marine Park, namelyAcropora,PlatygyraandPavona, were selected for the study. They have different growth forms, representing the branching 'staghorn', massive 'brain', and foliose 'plating' colony forms, creating a diverse habitat for other marine species. Marine scientists at SWIMS will investigate the success of restoration using the mono-, mix- and polyculture of the three coral species, while researchers will monitor the performance of corals on the tiles for the next one and a half years.

The 128 pieces of reef tile with a diameter of 600mm were printed through a robotic 3-D clay printing method with generic terracotta clay and then fired at 1125 degrees Celsius. The design was inspired by the patterns typical to corals and integrated several performative aspects addressing the specific conditions in Hong Kong waters.

In addition to the novel design of the tiles, the materials used are more eco-friendly than the conventional use of concrete and metal. The tiles were printed in clay and then hardened to terracotta (ceramic) in a kiln. The team plans to expand their collaboration to new designs with additional functions for seabed restoration in the region.

The researchers hope that this new method for artificial reef tiles will help to restore corals and conserve biodiversity more effectively, and become a vital contribution to the ongoing global efforts to save the degraded coral reef systems.

Explore further Bleaching affects aquarium corals, too
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CLEVELAND, Ohio  The Commission on Presidential Debates rejected Republican President Donald Trumps request for a fourth presidential debate, preserving Clevelands status as host city of the first forum.

Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani penned a letter to the commission Wednesday asking the it to either add a debate or move the third debate to the first week in September, citing early voting and mail-in ballot requests going out before the Sept. 29 debate in Cleveland. In a Thursday response, the commission declined to add a fourth contest, noting that those who request a ballot early can always wait to mail it in until after the first debate.

In 2016, when the debate schedule was similar, only .0069% of the electorate had voted at the time of the first debate, the commission wrote in the letter. While more people will likely vote by mail in 2020, the debate schedule has been and will be highly publicized. Any voter who wishes to watch one or more debates before voting will be well aware of that opportunity.

Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic were awarded the first presidential debate after the University of Notre Dame dropped out due to concerns about the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Trump and Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden are currently slated for three debates, and one vice presidential debate is scheduled as well.

The schedule for the debates following Clevelands are:

Oct. 7  Vice Presidential Debate, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah

Oct. 15  Second Presidential Debate, Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Miami, Florida

Oct. 22  Third Presidential Debate, Belmont University, Nashville, Tennessee
Republican senators support more relief aid for airlines that have warned of possible layoffs a month before elections.

A group of 16 Republican senators has endorsed giving more money to airlines to avoid layoffs right before United States elections in November, giving a boost to a lobbying effort by airlines and their unions.

In a letter to Republican and Democratic leaders, the GOP senators did not specify an amount on Wednesday, but a proposal by several airline unions would give the hard-hit aviation industry $32bn, including $25bn for passenger airlines.

Late on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump also expressed support when asked about the senators letter.

We dont want to lose our airlines so if theyre looking at that, whether theyre Republican or Democrat, Id be certainly in favour, Trump said at a White House briefing.

Airline stocks rose. American Airlines, viewed as the most financially troubled among the major airlines, gained the most, closing up 9.5 percent.

The senators said they support relief because air travel remains depressed and several airlines have warned of possible job cuts on October 1, when a prohibition on airline layoffs expires. They said Congress should also consider more help for airport concessionaires and aircraft manufacturers.

In March, aviation companies got $32bn to help cover payroll costs for six months in exchange for not laying off workers.

Nine of the 16 GOP senators who signed the letter are up for re-election in November and could be hurt by headlines about thousands of airline furloughs the month before voters go to the polls on November 3.

Some of those senators face difficult re-election races, including Susan Collins of Maine and Cory Gardner of Colorado. Others represent states with large numbers of airline workers, such as John Cornyn of Texas.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky made no provision for airline workers in his $1 trillion proposal for additional virus relief. A spokesman for McConnell had no comment.

A majority in the House, including more than two dozen Republicans, have endorsed the spending. The Treasury Department has so far declined to comment on the Trump administrations position.

No US legislators have spoken out against the airline provision, although aides said some object to helping workers in one industry when there are millions of other workers who have already lost their jobs during the pandemic.

Air travel is not expected to return to previous levels for several years  not until 2024, according to a trade group for global airlines  leading some industry observers to say airlines should be allowed to shrink to match lower demand, even if it means fewer jobs.

Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, responded by saying the airline provision was the most successful jobs programme in the $2.2-trillion virus-relief measure approved in March. The bill maintained air service to cities that had flights before the pandemic.
Everyone is hitting a wall now. We have mask fatigue, caution fatigue. We are supposed to be on vacation now. Its normal to feel sad and over it. Read more

Ive hit my COVID-19 wall.

Im over obsessively rubbing my hands in sanitizer as I move through the aisles of the grocery store. I miss getting my hair done. I really miss the yoga studio. Im now afraid of public restrooms. And Im incredibly nervous that at any moment, Ill get a call from my mom telling me that my dad  who has a compromised immune system  has contracted the coronavirus. I dont think I can take it.

I know Im not alone.

America is having a hard time, said Dr. Olafur S. Palsson, a professor of psychology and medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Palsson has partnered with Harvard University professors to publish The U.S. National Pandemic Emotional Impact Report. According to the survey of 1,500 Americans published in late June, more than 90% of us are struggling emotionally as a result of the pandemic. About a quarter of Americans are so distressed, our collective mental health is becoming impacted, Palsson said. Thats about 82 million people.

Even former First Lady Michelle Obama admitted Wednesday to suffering from a low-grade depression because of the pandemic quarantine.

We might fare better if we knew how long the discomfort will last, Palsson said. Most of us budgeted enough mental strength to get us through the end of August, as we were certain the pandemic would be contained by the start of the school year. Instead, the virus continues to scourge its way through the South, and cases in and around Philadelphia continue to fluctuate. All the while the federal government cant seem to agree on a reopening plan. That spells chaos for many in a society that defines normalcy by a predictable school schedule.

 READ MORE: Its official: Phillys school year to begin fully remotely

When stress becomes chronic  meaning we are dealing with an uncomfortable situation for more than six months  the most vulnerable of us will start to crack, Palsson said. The virus is not the only mental stressor: The economy is fragile. America is in the midst of a racial reckoning as well as likely the most contentious presidential election ever is on the horizon. Plus, the holiday season is just around the corner. How will we come together safely? We are on the verge of a serious mental health crisis, Palsson said.

How do we press on in the midst of uncertainty and guard our mental health? We spoke to some experts.

Im over coronavirus and I miss my old life. Am I being a baby about this?

No. You are not.

The first thing you have to do is accept that we are going to be in this for a while, said Eric A. Zillmer, a professor of neuropsychology at Drexel University. If you are chasing the high of your February life, you are going to set yourself up for failure, Zillmer said Our rush to return to yesterday is part of the reason why we are seeing people engage in risky behavior. When people dont feel like they have control, they often throw caution to the wind. Those in denial want to survive, too, Zillmer said. And if fear of the coronavirus takes over their lives, they may not be able to deal with it.

The second most important thing is to acknowledge your fatigue. Everyone is hitting a wall now, Zillmer said. We have mask fatigue, caution fatigue. We are supposed to be on vacation now. Its normal to feel sad and over it.

How do I know if Im hitting that wall?

You will start to feel the symptoms of depression and anxiety, Palsson said. How do you know that youre depressed and anxious? You will notice feelings of sadness and lack of energy. If you cannot stop worrying about things or you cannot focus on what you are doing, that is a clear symptom of stressor anxiety, Palsson said. If you are feeling like this four out of seven days in the week, then you should seek professional help.

Many therapists and psychologists are taking appointments through virtual patient programs. If you fear a true mental health crisis is underway, call the citys 24-hour crisis hotline at 215-685-6440. You can also call the 24-hour National Suicide Prevention Hot Line at 800-273-8255.

Im not sure if I hit the wall, but I sure am bored.

This is a totally normal, Palsson said. In fact, according to the emotional impact report, 74% of us reported feeling anywhere between a little bit and extremely bored during this pandemic. Boredom is a negative feeling that is driving us to act out, Palsson said, and thats especially true for young adults who feel isolated because of a virus they cant see, and is not as deadly to them. Instead of focusing on boredom and what you are not able to do, Palsson said, use the time to find creative ways to amuse yourself. Learn to cook and invite a few people over for a socially distanced meal. Get a bike. Take up a yoga practice. And when you feel really overwhelmed, turn to deep breathing. If we let chronic boredom seep in and take over, we are more likely to break the rules, Palsson said.

 READ MORE: Feeling pandemic stress? These easy breathing techniques can help.

Another way to deal with boredom is to focus your attention on another person, said Lily A. Brown, the director of the Center of the Treatment and Study of Anxiety at the University of Pennsylvania. Boredom is a self-focused emotion. You will feel so much better if you can contribute to society in a way that feels meaningful. For example, shop for neighbors. Walk dogs in a shelter or make masks for people in need.

Im floundering through this and I dont feel like myself. What can I do?

Its time for you to reset, Brown said. These five months have made it easy to get coronavirus lazy as you work in more wine and less exercise time. Put yourself back on a schedule, Brown said. And follow these lifestyle tips:

Try to get up and go to bed at the same time every day. Getting sufficient sleep is key.

Eat regular meals. You wont be hungry and over eat.

Exercise every day. Movement helps.

Limit the amount of news you watch a day. After 20 minutes, it gets repetitive and causes anxiety and makes you more prone to political fatigue, Zillmer said.

Monitor your work hours. If you are working from home, set boundaries so that you are not constantly working around the clock.

Remain social. Sit on a friends stoop for lemonade. Join that virtual book club. Isolation breeds depression.

 READ MORE: How to reset your routine, keep your energy up, and stay motivated while social distancing

Is there a way I can prepare for the future?

None of us knows whats around the corner. Youve done your best. Youve socially distanced. You wear your mask while shopping and in crowded outdoor spaces. You were careful visiting your elderly relatives. Youve done everything you can. So until, and if, a second wave hits, all you can do is live in the moment.

We wont have the psychological assurance we need until we have a vaccine, Zillmer said. In the meantime, youve got to take care of yourself and your family and be OK with what is because living in the past causes depression and living in the future causes anxiety. All you really have is now.
On August 2, a man from Florida was arrested by authorities months after it was reported that he sexually abused a 4-year-old girl that he was babysitting.

Child abuse

The suspect is 19-year-old Braxton Upshaw. According to WTXL, he babysat the two children of a mother that had to go to work. He looked after them two to four times every week from August 2019 until the sexual abuse incident that happened in October 2019.

According to the Leon County police, the mother stated that Upshaw watched her children while she went to work on October 7. When the woman came home, her 4-year-old daughter told her that Upshaw touched her inappropriately.

The court documents stated that the mother sensed that the babysitter looked anxious to leave when she returned home that evening. Although it is not stated whether the mother alerted the police on the night of the incident, a warrant for Upshaw's arrest was issued on April 22.

Also Read: Prince Andrew's Alleged Victim: Virginia Giuffre Reveals Royal's Fetishes in Court Documents

The arrest report stated that the man would sometimes babysit the children late, around 7 pm, and he had also spent the night at the home in the past. However, it is not known how often that happened, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.

The authorities collected DNA samples from the little girl to conduct a rape kit. WTXL also reported that during the interview with the authorities, the little girl said that Upshaw "hurt" her all the time.

The investigators also gathered DNA from Upshaw, who had denied all the claims and said that his DNA would not be found on the 4-year-old girl.

Upshaw was charged with lewd or lascivious molestation on a victim under 12 years old. According to the report of The Tallahassee Democrat, Upshaw was released without bail after a court hearing on August 3. He was ordered to wear a GPS monitoring device and he is barred from contacting the little girl and her family.

Similar incident

Earlier this year, a man from Springfield was given numerous felony charges after he was accused of repeatedly sexually abusing two young boys.

The 41-year-old suspect, Michael Siepel, was charged in January with 12 counts of statutory sodomy for acts that happened between 2006 and 2011.

According to the court documents obtained by Springfield News Leader, Siepel was entrusted to babysit the victims. He started to sexually abuse one victim when the boy was only 10 years old, and the other boy was only 5 years old.

The allegations include Siepel performing lewd sex acts on the boys and trying to get them to perform sex acts on him. The statement also said that Siepel was investigated for the first time in 2014, when the older boy told his parents that Siepel abused him.

In March 2014, the Republic police interviewed Siepel, and he denied having any sexual contact with any of the victims. No charges were filed after the first victim came forward and it was not explained why.

A second victim came forward in April 2019, and the court document states that the second boy was not aware of the case that was filed by the first boy back in 2014.

The online records show a warrant was issued for Siepel's arrest. Ten of his statutory sodomy charges are first-degree, which carry possible life sentences.

Related Article: Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell Allegedly Instructed Victim Not to Recruit Black Girls

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Sure, it might be warm Wednesday, but what about the rest of the week?
Even if the Ontario government had done absolutely everything right with its back-to-school plan, parents, students and teachers would have every right to be in a state of high anxiety.

For parents, especially those of younger kids, sending them off to school is already stressful  fears of bullying, transportation risk, classroom stress are normal and understandable. Never in recent memory has the risk of kids being exposed to a potentially deadly virus been in that mix. For teachers, more than a few must be thinking they didnt sign up for this. They are in the business of putting kids first, but rarely have the stakes been this high. For kids, younger and older, back-to-school stress is typically bad enough. Now, thanks to the pandemic and all the conditions it is imposing, it is exponentially worse.

A previous editorial, Sat., Aug. 1, looked at the strengths and potential weaknesses of the plan, so we wont rehash that entirely. However, there are new developments that merit discussion.

The most serious one is around class sizes, a subject that the Ford government has had issues with before. Now the stakes are infinitely higher.

The existing plan will see students in kindergarten through Grade 8 return to school in regular-sized classes. According to the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario, even though funding is based on average class sizes of 26, in reality there are many classes with nearly 30 students.

That aspect of the plan is alarming many parents and teachers. How can anything like safe distancing be in place in classrooms with that many kids? And given that younger kids are, by their nature, less able to sit still, how can it be safe to have that many students in the same room?

This is the advice from Dr. Theresa Tam, Canadas top public health official: Arrange your school environment, physically and otherwise, so that physical distancing can happen. Ensure that the number of contacts children and teachers have is minimized.

Both federal officials and a panel of experts from Ontario pediatric hospitals say distancing is an essential component of any back-to-school plan.

The Ford government insists its plan, developed in concert with provincial health officials, is safe for students and teachers. Everyone wants to believe that. But this is not a small contradiction with federal officials. The present plan is either optimally safe or it is not, and right now there is reason to think the latter is true.

Ford and his government need to recognize and address that. If they have overwhelming evidence and support showing classrooms of up to 30 young students are safe, let them present it. It is no longer enough to simply say dont worry, weve got this, not when credible sources are saying the opposite.

As noted in our original editorial, there are many positive aspects to this plan. Masking from Grade 4 to 12, smaller secondary school class sizes, the option for parents to keep their kids at home in a remote learning setting all seem like sensible measures.

Everyone involved understands the government, as well as teachers and parents, is caught between a rock and a hard place. There is overwhelming evidence from health, education and pediatric experts that children really do need to be in school if at all possible. Their educational abilities, social health and integration and overall mental health has already been affected by the pandemic and lockdown, and a longer absence from classrooms will only make that worse.

But surely this cannot be school at any cost. The class size issue is now a gaping contradiction based on expert advice. Ford must deal with this and change the plan as necessary.
STORY LINK BoE and Melbourne Lockdown Sends the Pound Australian Dollar (GBP/AUD) Exchange Rate Higher

Pound Sterling Australian Dollar (GBP/AUD) Exchange Rate Jumps Following BoE Meeting

There are some very hard yards, to borrow a rugby phrase, to come. And frankly, we are ready to act, should that be needed.

Australian Dollar (AUD) Slides as Melbourne Enters New Lockdown

Weve flattened that curve once, well flatten that curve again.

Pound Australian Dollar Outlook: RBA Statement in Focus

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The Pound Sterling Australian Dollar (GBP/AUD) exchange rate rallied by 0.6% on Thursday morning following the Bank of Englands (BoE) monetary policy meeting.This left the pairing trading at around AU$1.8343.The Pound was able to strengthen against a handful of currencies including the Australian Dollar after the BoEs more optimistic tone.The latest economic forecasts were not as grim as those presented just a few months ago in May, which boosted Sterling.The economy is now expected to slump by -9.5% in 2020, which would make this the worst performance in 99 years.Although, this was more upbeat than the previous predication of a -14.5% contraction, which would have seen the British economy suffer its worst decline in growth in over 300 years.However, while the bank expects the downturn will be less severe than previously thought, policymakers still believe the unemployment rate will almost double.Unemployment is expected to jump to 7.5% by the end of the year, but below earlier estimation of 10% unemployment.Added to this, the Bank of England also believe it will take the economy longer to return to pre-coronavirus levels.The BoEs governor, Andrew Bailey noted the country faces some very hard yards and the unemployment forecasts is a very bad story.Speaking on Thursday, Bailey said:The Australian Dollar struggled to make gains against the Pound on Thursday after an upbeat Bank of England (BoE) meeting.Although, in the latest Reuters poll saw analysts upgrade forecasts for the Aussie.The Australian currency was being supported by upbeat data from China. The Chinese economy continues to purchase Australian resources which has upped the price for key exports including iron ore.This also boosted the currency as the country was gifted with its largest current account surplus in decades.A weaker US Dollar also offered support overnight, but the US currencys recovery later today caused AUD to edge lower.The Australian Dollar also suffered losses after the countrys second-largest city began the first day of a fresh six-week lockdown.Melbourne saw the closure of most shops and businesses which sparked new fears of food shortages as city officials battle a second wave of the virus.Australias Health Minister, Greg Hunt told reporters:Looking ahead, the Australian Dollar (AUD) could extend its losses against the Pound (GBP) following the release of the latest Ai Group Services Index.If the index disappoints traders and does not rise as high as expected in July, it will weigh on the Australian Dollar.Meanwhile, the Aussie could reverse earlier losses following the release of the Reserve Bank of Australias (RBA) Statement on Monetary Policy.If the banks official statement is more upbeat than expected after the bank said it would step into the market to purchase more government debt earlier this week, it will send the Pound Australian Dollar (GBP/AUD) exchange rate higher.

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.

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New York, Aug 6 : Twitter has censored a video showing a display of Lord Ram and the temple being built in Ayodhya as "potentially sensitive content", while allowing without any caution a photo from a protest against Hindu shrine by an Islamic group with offensive slogans.

Jagdish Sewhani, the chairman of the Ram Janma Bhoomi Shilanyas Celebrations Committee of USA tweeted a nine-second video of a display in New York's Times Square.

"I was so proud to see our Ram Mandir and Ramji in Times Square today. Let's celebrate this once in a lifetime event tonight at 7.30 p.m.," he said in a following tweet.

Twitter blanked out the video with the message: "The following media includes potentially sensitive content." The video display on Times Square had been turned off after being shown for a few hours on Wednesday morning following protests from Islamic groups and others.

However, Twitter allowed without any cautionary statement a tweet from the Indian American Muslim Council showing their protest in Times Square on Wednesday even though the image in it contained offensive words.

The counter protest was against a celebration held in Times Square for the laying of the foundation stone for the temple in Ayodhya at the site where Lord Ram is said to have been born.

Twitter has been accused of following ideological double standards favouring the liberals and the left, while censoring those on the right.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey had himself posed with a poster with the incendiary communal message, "Smash Brahminical patriarchy", while on a visit to India in 2018.

An influential Republican member of the House of Representatives, Jim Jordan had said recently that "no matter how you spin it, there seems to be different rules for conservatives and liberals on the (Twitter) platform".

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter at @arulouis)
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RIDGEFIELD  As more than 65,000 homes in greater Danbury were looking at another night without power, scores of roads remained blocked or closed in neighborhoods from here to Sherman.

Its a mess in town, an absolute mess, First Selectman Rudy Marconi said Wednesday. We have 200-plus incidents of trees and wires.

The trouble is that municipal crews can only clear so much, said Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, who declared a state of emergency over damage from Tuesdays tropical storm Isaias.

Our crews were finished cleaning around 12:30 a.m., Boughton posted on Twitter on Wednesday. The remaining trees cant be picked up until Eversource makes them safe.

Eversource is the utility tasked with clearing trees entangled with power lines.

Our crews have been out all night clearing as much of the roads as we can, Boughton tweeted. We need Eversource to be able to open the rest of the roads and restore power.

Boughton and other leaders were preparing residents to be ready to wait. With so many people out of power in greater Danbury and across the state, full restoration could take weeks.

Here is a snapshot of the road closures in greater Danbury towns.

Newtown

At least 50 roads were blocked or impassable Wednesday, and as much as 80 percent of Eversource customers here were without power.

We hope to have better clarity later today or tomorrow as to timing for the town, the town said in a statement on its website Wednesday. Based on the extent of the damage to our community, and the lack of Eversource crews at present, it is reasonable to assume complete restoration of power will take several days or more.

In the meantime, the town urged residents to stay safe, warning against using outside cooking equipment inside, and reminding residents to keep generator exhaust away from homes.

Stay away from power lines. Assume all power lines are charged and dangerous, the town statement read. Use extreme caution when cleaning up storm debris. Storm damaged trees are very hazardous. Do not drive through barricades and road closures.

Bethel

In Bethel, some 5,000 homes were looking at another night without power, or about 57 percent of the town.

First Selectman Matt Knickerbocker said most of the roads had reopened but warned that it is likely to take anywhere from one to two weeks for all power to be fully restored, based on our previous experience with large scale outages.

We do not yet have initial restoration estimates from Eversource, and we are aware that the company will be bringing in mutual aid crews from around the nation to assist, Knickerbocker said. This will be a very large scale operation.

Knickerbocker also cautioned people to stay away from trees with wires, and to be sure home generators are installed properly to prevent injury to power line workers.

Sherman

Big power problems remain in Fairfields smallest town.

The 1,800 households without power on Wednesday evening represent more than 90 percent of the town.

Roads that were closed late Wednesday included Spring Lake Road, Wanzer Hill Road, Andersen Road East, Oak Drive, Hemlock Drive and Holiday Point Road.

Redding

25 roads remained blocked Thursday, Redding First Selectman Julia Pemberton said.

Danbury

The good news is more than 50 roads were cleared of trees and debris.

The bad news: More than 40 roads remained blocked on Wednesday, Boughton said.

By the evening, 15,870 homes were without power, representing 42 percent of Eversources customers in the Hat City.

Closed roads included Middle River Road, Aunt Hack Road and Stadley Rough Road.

Ridgefield

The streets were so bad in Ridgefield that neighbors in some cases got out their chainsaws.

We figured: Why wait for the town?  said Sean Morrison, who was out with his neighbor Bobby Kelly and others, chainsawing fallen trees off Bennetts Farm Road.

Nearby, Beth Peyser stood on Waters Edge Way looking at her house, and the huge tree that had fallen on it.

It was like Bigfoot stomped on the roof, she said.

Marconi said the situation was similar across Ridgefield.

We still have Route 33 closed between Olmstead and St. Johns, due to a large tree and just a rats nest of wires, Marconi said Wednesday. On Rockwell Road, there is a tree down at the top and tree at the bottom of the road, so people are absolutely trapped. We have eight to 10 of those situations.

New Fairfield

Road closures as of Thursday morning include sections of Bigelow Road, Hudson Drive, Routes 37 and 39, Warwick Road, Hillside Drive, Candle Hill Road and Pembroke Road.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342
Seeyengkee Ly, a correctional sergeant at Valley State Prison in Chowchilla seen in a family photo, is the eighth state prison employee to die of COVID-19. (Ly family)

A correctional sergeant at Valley State Prison in Chowchilla has become the eighth state prison employee to die of COVID-19, authorities said.

Sgt. Seeyengkee Ly, 38, died Aug. 2, according to a statement released by the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn. He spent more than 17 years with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and served at several prison facilities.

Seeyengkee accomplished a lot in his life, wrote his sister, Mor Ly, on a GoFundMe page set up for the officer. He was an exceptional son, hard working father, wonderful husband, an awesome friend to everyone, and a tough big brother.

Ly was diagnosed with COVID-19 about four weeks ago, his sister said, and died from complications of pneumonia after two weeks on a ventilator.

According to the Department of Corrections , 1,927 prison employees have tested positive for the virus, including more than 40 at the two facilities in Chowchilla.

The virus has run rampant in the state prison population, and the Corrections Department is preparing to release thousands of prisoners by the end of August in an attempt to stop the spread. To date, 1,251 inmates have been infected with the virus, and 51 have died .

In a statement, the peace officers association president, Glen Stailey, expressed condolences to Lys family.

"He will be remembered for his life and service," Stailey said. "His ultimate sacrifice is a reminder of the challenges faced by all of those who choose to walk the line behind prison walls."

Ly is survived by his wife and four children, three siblings and his parents.
The leaked draft of the economic and security partnership between Iran and China has raised concern over Indias relations with and investments in Iran. It is believed that China has promised to invest $400 billion in Irans infrastructure and military development. Chinese investments are accepted by Iran at a time when US sanctions are hurting its economy. This will ensure that Chinese influence over Tehran will increase.

India, under US pressure, has stopped oil imports from Iran, and Iran, in turn, has raised concerns over New Delhis policies and actions on Kashmir. Any political space vacated by the US or India is filled by China through its investments, which countries seem unable to resist. When India stops oil imports from Iran, Tehran would naturally perceive India to be aligning itself with the US. India should project its independent foreign policy, and its decisions should be perceived to have been taken in self-interest.

Indias relations with Iran are not beneficial just economically but have strategic implications, too. Unlike other South Asian countries, India needs Iran geographically and politically to counter Pakistan and the Taliban in Afghanistan and also to counter Chinese influence in Central Asia.

Gateway to Afghanistan

In the late 1980s, Pakistan had huge influence in Afghanistan, especially among the mujahideen groups and diverted them to fight against India in Kashmir. Pakistan-backed insurgency declined in Kashmir only after the US Global War on Terror in Afghanistan. India realised with greater intensity that the strategic relationship with Afghanistan is important to counter Pakistan.

India did not choose military relations to increase its influence in Kabul, as it could have backfired with rising insurgency in Kashmir once the US left Afghanistan. India cautiously increased its soft power by increasing its investments in Afghanistan. India has invested in the construction of the countrys parliament building, hydro-power dams and other infrastructure projects.

Afghanistan, being landlocked, is accessible only through Pakistan over land or through Iran from the Arabian Sea. Pakistan took advantage of this and did not allow India to access Afghanistan through the land route. So, India developed strategic relations with Iran and got access to Chabahar port, which has helped India bypass Pakistan and reach Afghanistan.

India now exports most of its goods and aid to Afghanistan from Chabahar port. Afghanistan has also started exporting its wares from Chabahar port. This has increased Indias influence economically and reduced Afghanistans over-dependence on Pakistan.

Recently, the UNs 6+2+1 had talks with the Taliban and accepted the Taliban demand that the Afghan government should not be part of talks. India stood firmly with the Afghan government at the UN and argued that any talks without the participation of the elected government in Kabul would be an injustice to the Afghan people. India pushed for an Afghan-owned, Afghan-led and Afghan-controlled peace process. This led to political support from the Afghan government and people.

Today, the Taliban has talks with the Afghan government internally. And if it is to be successful, it needs Indias support. Realising Indias role, the Taliban, which was once against Indias position in Kashmir, has recently recognised Kashmir as internal issue of India. This will ensure that Pakistan would not be able to use Afghanistan against India and will help reduce insurgency in Kashmir post-US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

At this point, if India loses Iran to China completely, then India will lose its influence in Afghanistan slowly and Indias position may be taken by China, which would support Pakistan and strengthen its position.

Central Asia and Russia

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Indias economic relations with the Central Asian countries and Russia declined. The main reason for this was that Central Asias landlocked countries were inaccessible to India.

China increased its influence in this mineral-rich region through the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation and now the Belt and Road Initiative. India also understands the significance of this region and has proposed several infrastructure projects which would connect Central Asia to Iran and then to India. The International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) and the Ashgabat Agreement would help India to reach Central Asia. If India loses Iran, then India will also lose access to Central Asia.

India has strategic and military relations with Russia, but the economic relations between the two countries is almost insignificant. If India can reach Russia through the INSTC, then it would ensure growth in economic relations as well. So, Iran plays an important role in our ability to reach Russia, too.

Way forward

India should be cautious in dealing with any country in the world today. Every Indian loss will be a Chinese gain, whether it is Iran, Nepal or any other country.

Even though India cannot invest billions of dollars like China, India has some advantages. India is one of the largest oil consumers and Iran definitely wouldnt want to lose the Indian market. Indias connectivity projects would help Iran also to diversify its markets and grow economically.

India should balance its relations with Iran and the US and strive to maintain an independent foreign policy to ensure that its strategic relationship with Tehran is not compromised to please the US.

(Vinjarapu is a civil service aspirant; Sandeep is faculty at Navodaya Foundation, Mysore)
Sydney residents are on high alert after several popular venues were hit with coronavirus as New South Wales records another 12 new COVID-19 cases.

All of the new cases announced on Thursday were locally transmitted, with none coming from overseas travellers in hotel quarantine.

Ten were linked to known cases, including one person linked to cluster at the Apollo Restaurant in Potts Point.

One is linked to the cluster at the Mounties club in Mount Pritchard and eight are household contacts of known cases.

Two cases are still under investigation, one is a man in his 20s from Sydney who visited several venues in the inner-west, the other is a teenager from Newcastle.

Health authorities have issued an urgent warning to anyone who may have come into contact with both men as the state battles to avoid a second wave of infections as seen in Victoria.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has urged young people to reduce their social activities during the critical time as the government ramps up its fight against the coronavirus

Two cases are still under investigation, one is a man in his 20s from Sydney who visited several venues in the inner-west including Woolworths in Marrickville

From midnight on Thursday all arrivals from Victoria will be forced to undergo 14 days of hotel quarantine at their own expense in a bid to avoid an outbreak like what has been seen in Victoria

The man in his 20s dined at the Jambo Jambo African restaurant in Glebe on July 31 from 7pm to 8.30pm.

Anyone who attended at this time is a close contact and should immediately self-isolate until 14 days after they were last there and get tested even if they have no symptoms.

Sydney venues on alert for COVID-19:  The Eveleigh Hotel in Redfern on 31 July from 8.30pm to 10pm  Warren View Hotel in Enmore on 1 August from 4pm to 4.20pm  Mary's in Macquarie Place, Sydney on 1 August from 6.45pm to 7.15pm  Cubby's Kitchen in Sydney on 1 August from 7.35pm to 9.30pm  Burrow Bar in Sydney on 1 August from 9.35pm to 11.15pm  Woolworths Marrickville Metro on 2 August from 7pm to 7.20pm Advertisement

He also visited several inner-city venues, sparking a warning for casual contacts to monitor for symptoms. Venues included Eveleigh Hotel in Redfern, Warren View Hotel in Enmore, Mary's in Macquarie Place and Woolworths in Marrickville.

The teenager from Newcastle attended St Pius X High School while infectious. The school has been closed for cleaning and contact tracing is underway.

Anyone who attended St Pius X High School on Monday has been urged to be on the lookout for COVID-19 symptoms and to get tested immediately should any symptoms occur.

The teenager caught the Number 26 bus (Hamilton to Adamstown) on Monday at 8.20am.

NSW Health has asked that all people on the bus at this time immediately self-isolate until 14 days have passed and get tested even if they have no symptoms, watch for COVID-19 symptoms and get re-tested should any symptoms recur.

The teenager is also a member of the Newcastle Jets under 15's representative squad which played a soccer match against the Stanmore Hawks at Arlington Oval in Dulwich Hill on Saturday.

Members of both teams are considered close contacts and are also required to isolate for 14 days. All close contacts of the teenager are being notified and must isolate for 14 days.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has urged young people to reduce their social activities during the critical time as the government ramps up its fight against the coronavirus.

Australian Defence Force staff and Victorian police are seen on patrol as a lockdown of Melbourne forces people to stay at home

Some of the 200 odd daily passengers walk through a near empty Sydney airport after arriving from the corona capital Melbourne

'If you have the virus and you go out five times a week to different places you could potentially be spreading it to five different locations, and then we have to contract trace everybody,' she told Sydney radio Triple M.

NSW known clusters: There are now:  107 cases associated with Thai Rock Wetherill Park cluster  58 cases associated with the Crossroads Hotel cluster  50 cases associated with the funeral events in Bankstown and surrounding suburbs, including 15 associated with Mounties in Mount Pritchard  32 cases associated with the Potts Point cluster, including 26 cases linked to the Apollo Restaurant cluster and 6 cases linked with the Thai Rock Restaurant Potts Point cluster (two cases attended both and are counted as Thai Rock cases) Advertisement

'It's not anybody's fault but it's just the nature of the virus. It's so contagious that if you don't know you have it and you are still socialising you have the potential to give it to so many people.

'It only takes a few cases to get out of control.'

Her warning comes as new data shows 16 recent cases had no known link to other cases or clusters in the past four weeks, proving there undetected COVID-19 cases within the community.

Residents in their 20s made up the largest number of coronavirus transmissions in NSW.

'We're not saying don't socialise or don't go out at all but we are saying please limit you behaviours just in the next few weeks,' Ms Berejiklian said.

From midnight on Thursday all arrivals from Victoria will be forced to undergo 14 days of hotel quarantine at their own expense in a bid to avoid an outbreak like what has been seen in Victoria.

Travellers will only be allowed to return to the state through Sydney airport, unless they live within the NSW border regions.

Ms Berejiklian said the new line of defence would reduce the risk of spreading the virus throughout the state.

'We love our Victorian fellow citizens, but their rates of infection are incredibly high at the moment and not going down,' Ms Berejiklian.

New South Wales is tightening its quarantine rules for travellers from Victoria as the government ramps up its fight against the coronavirus

A man uses his mobile phone as he awaits his Uber car booking at Sydney Airport after arriving from Melbourne on Tuesday

'We are not an island, we are a state within a nation with geographic proximity to, unfortunately, other states.'

The move comes as an alarming number of travellers from Melbourne continue to flock to Sydney.

Between 100 and 200 people have arrived in the Harbour City from Australia's coronavirus capital every day over the past week.

Anyone who has been in Victoria in the past 14 days is banned from entering New South Wales without a border permit under the Public Health (COVID-19 Border Control) Amendment.

She said border permits will also be restricted further.

'We are reviewing and look to tightening some of those definitions to make sure only those with absolutely necessary requirements [are allowed to enter],' she said.

Victoria has recorded 471 new cases and eight more deaths from COVID-19 as Melbourne suffers its fourth day of stage-four lockdown

From 11.59pm on Wednesday, only workers in certain industries will be allowed to send their children to daycare and must apply for an Access to Childcare Permit to do so. Pictured: Police patrol parks in Melbourne

A person wearing a face mask is seen outside of Flinders Street Station in Melbourne on Thursday

But there will be some exemptions, she said.

'The death of an immediate family member would be an example of a situation where we would allow obviously people to continue coming in to NSW.'

Passengers arriving domestically were previously only required to spend 14 days in self-isolation at their own home, rather than locked inside a hotel.

Dr Kerry Chant said the change would reduce the number of people entering NSW from Victoria and reduce the risk of community transmission.

Victoria announced 471 new cases of coronavirus on Thursday. The figure marks a dramatic decrease from the record 725 cases on Wednesday.

On Thursday morning, thousands of businesses were scrambling to operate under strict new rules which limit the number of staff allowed on site in a bid to slow the virus spread.

People wearing face masks are seen outside of Flinders Street Station in Melbourne on Thursday

A Police car is seen outside of Flinders Street Station in Melbourne on Thursday

The state government only released a full list of businesses which are allowed to continue operating at 11pm last night, just one hour before the rules kicked in.

Premier Daniel Andrews had warned earlier this week the new restrictions, which would see normal staffing levels at food warehouse and meat production outlets reduced to one-third, would impact food supply.

Retail stores across the city will largely be closed to customers from Thursday, while construction and manufacturing work will also been scaled back in a bid to slow the spread of the virus.

Employees allowed to work on-site now have to show a permit or official work ID if they are by stopped police to prove they can leave their homes, or face fines of up to $99,123 for businesses and up to $19,826 for individuals.

Permitted workers and those working from home who cannot supervise their kids must fill out separate forms to send them to child care, kindergarten or primary school.
Mathura : , Aug 6 (IANS) With the 'bhumi pujan' clearing the way for the construction of the grand Ram temple in Ayodhya, the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi Nirman Nyas has now been set up in Mathura with 80 saints from 14 states as part of it.

Acharya Devmurari Bapu, who heads the trust, said, "We got the Nyas registered on July 23 on the occasion of 'Haryali Teej' and there are 11 saints from Vrindavan who are part of the trust." The Acharya further said that a signature campaign will soon be launched to connect other saints and seers for the 'liberation' of the Krishna Janmabhoomi.

"After the signature campaign, we will launch a nationwide movement on the issue. We had started the campaign in February, but we did not proceed further due to the lockdown," he said.

The main dispute for the Krishna Janmabhoomi is the Shahi Idgah which is located adjacent to the Krishna Janmabhoomi Temple in Mathura.

The Trust is already laying claim to the four-and-a-half-acre land next to the mosque to use it as a 'Ranga Manch' (variety hall) for religious and cultural functions organised by it and the temple authorities.

The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), since the demolition of the Babri mosque in 1992, has been claiming that 'liberation' of Krishna Janmabhoomi in Mathura and the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi is next on its agenda.

However, the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, which was passed by the then Narsimha Rao government, prohibits conversion of places of worship -- like churches, mosques and temples -- into places of worship of a different religion.

Section 4 of the Act preserves the "religious character" of a place of worship, as it existed on August 15, 1947. It also says that any court proceeding regarding any such conversion would cease after the Act came into force.

However, Section 5 of the Act specifically exempted the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute, and any court proceedings concerning it.

It goes on to provide for three-year imprisonment and a fine for conversion of places of worship.

The Act was passed amid severe opposition from several BJP leaders.

"These are minor hurdles and we will cross the bridges when we come to them. Our resolve to liberate Krishna Janmabhoomi is firm," the Acharya said.

Latest updates on Ayodhya Ram Temple Bhumi Pujan
For communication, this means the speed of a message traveling in these packets is no longer affected by traveling through different materials of different densities

ORLANDO, August 6, 2020 - University of Central Florida researchers have developed a new type of laser beam that doesn't follow long-held principles about how light refracts and travels.

The findings, which were published recently in Nature Photonics, could have huge implications for optical communication and laser technologies.

"This new class of laser beams has unique properties that are not shared by common laser beams," says Ayman Abouraddy, a professor in UCF's College of Optics and Photonics and the study's principal investigator.

The beams, known as spacetime wave packets, follow different rules when they refract, that is when they pass through different materials. Normally, light slows down when it travels into a denser material.

"In contrast, spacetime wave packets can be arranged to behave in the usual manner, to not change speed at all, or even to anomalously speed up in denser materials," Abouraddy says. "As such, these pulses of light can arrive at different points in space at the same time."

"Think about how a spoon inside a water-filled glass looks broken at the point where the water and air meet," Abouraddy says. "The speed of light in air is different from the speed of light in water. And so, the light rays wind up bending after they cross the surface between air to water, and so apparently the spoon looks bent. This is a well-known phenomenon described by Snell's Law."

Although Snell's Law still applies, the underlying change in velocity of the pulses is no longer applicable for the new laser beams, Abouraddy says. These abilities are counter to Fermat's Principle that says light always travels such that it takes the shortest path, he says.

"What we find here, though, is no matter how different the materials are that light passes through, there always exists one of our spacetime wave packets that could cross the interface of the two materials without changing its velocity," Abouraddy says. "So, no matter what the properties of the medium are, it will go across the interface and continue as if it's not there."

For communication, this means the speed of a message traveling in these packets is no longer affected by traveling through different materials of different densities.

"If you think of a plane trying to communicate with two submarines at the same depth but one is far away and the other one's close by, the one that's farther away will incur a longer delay than the one that's close by," Abouraddy says. "We find that we can arrange for our pulses to propagate such that they arrive at the two submarines at the same time. In fact, now the person sending the pulse doesn't even need to know where the submarine is, as long as they are at the same depth. All those submarines will receive the pulse at the same time so you can blindly synchronize them without knowing where they are."

Abouraddy's research team created the spacetime wave packets by using a device known as a spatial light modulator to reorganize the energy of a pulse of light so that its properties in space and time are no longer separate. This allows them to control the "group velocity" of the pulse of light, which is roughly the speed at which the peak of the pulse travels.

Previous work has shown the team's ability to control the group velocity of the spacetime wave packets, including in optical materials. The current study built upon that work by finding they could also control the spacetime wave packets' speed through different media. This does not contradict special relativity in any way, because it applies to the propagation of the pulse peak rather than to the underlying oscillations of the light wave.

"This new field that we're developing is a new concept for light beams," Abouraddy says. "As a result, everything we look into using these beams reveals new behavior. All the behavior we know about light really takes tacitly an underlying presumption that its properties in space and time are separable. So, all we know in optics is based on that. It's a built-in assumption. It's taken to be the natural state of affairs. But now, breaking that underlying assumption, we're starting to see new behavior all over the place."

Co-authors of the study were Basanta Bhaduri, lead author and a former research scientist with UCF's College of Optics and Photonics, now with Bruker Nano Surfaces in California, and Murat Yessenov, a doctoral candidate in the college.

Bhaduri became interested in Abouraddy's research after reading about it in journals, such as Optics Express and Nature Photonics, and joined the professor's research team in 2018. For the study, he helped develop the concept and designed the experiments, as well as carried out measurements and analyzed data.

He says the study results are important in many ways, including the new research avenues it opens.

"Space-time refraction defies our expectations derived from Fermat's principle and offers new opportunities for molding the flow of light and other wave phenomena," Bhaduri says.

Yessenov's roles included data analysis, derivations and simulations. He says he became interested in the work by wanting to explore more about entanglement, which in quantum systems is when two well-separated objects still have a relation to each other.

"We believe that spacetime wave packets have more to offer and many more interesting effects can be unveiled using them," Yessenov says.

Abouraddy says next steps for the research include studying the interaction of these new laser beams with devices such as laser cavities and optical fibers, in addition to applying these new insights to matter rather than to light waves.

###

The research was funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research.

Bhaduri earned his doctorate in physics (applied optics) from the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, India. He was a research scientist at UCF before recently moving to Bruker Nano Surfaces in California where he is a senior staff optical engineer.

Yessenov earned his bachelor's in physics from Nazabayev University, Kazakhstan, and joined Abouraddy's group in 2017.

Abouraddy received his doctorate in electrical engineering from Boston University and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He joined UCF in 2008.

CONTACT: Robert H. Wells, Office of Research, 407-823-0861, robert.wells@ucf.edu
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ATLANTA Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Wednesday signed into law a new measure providing additional legal protections to police officers, a step that critics say is flawed and out of step with nationwide efforts to make officers more accountable for their actions.

House Bill 838 creates a new crime: bias-motivated intimidation, which would apply to the death or serious bodily injury of a police officer, firefighter or emergency medical technician. The crime would also apply any time someone causes more than $500 in damage to property owned by police, firefighters or emergency medical technicians because of actual or perceived employment as a first responder.

The measure was passed alongside a new bill penalizing hate crimes in Georgia. Senate Republicans originally sought to include first responders as a protected class in the hate crimes bill, but a furious revolt by Democrats threatened to sink the effort, especially because some Republicans opposed the hate crimes bill.

Faced with pressure from business groups and the possibility of national embarrassment after the February death of Ahmaud Arbery which federal authorities are investigating as a possible white-on-Black hate crime legislative leaders agreed to strip first-responder protection from the hate crimes bill. But Republicans then separately rammed through the police protections bill with almost no Democratic support.

Although giving police more protections goes against a national climate of demands for more police accountability after George Floyds death in Minneapolis, it was no surprise that Kemp signed the measure. He has repeatedly called for Georgia to back the blue and called out the National Guard to protect state office buildings after a girl was shot by armed men on July 4 during a protest at the site of a fast food restaurant where Atlanta police had shot a Black man named Rayshard Brooks the month before. Kemp contended that the city of Atlanta couldnt provide adequate protection.

House Bill 838 is a step forward as we work to protect those who are risking their lives to protect us," Kemp said in a statement Wednesday after he signed the measure. While some vilify, target, and attack our men and women in uniform for personal or political gain, this legislation is a clear reminder that Georgia is a state that unapologetically backs the blue.

The crime is punishable by one to five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000. The measure says the sentence must be stacked atop any other criminal conviction and cant be served at the same time and that each violation must be a separate crime. That could lead to long sentences for violations such as vandalism aimed at officers.

The measure also allows police officers to file lawsuits against any person, company or group for infringing on the officers civil rights arising out of the officers performance of official duties or filing a knowingly false complaint against an officer.

Opponents said the measure was unneeded, in part because Georgia lawmakers several years ago added stiffer penalties for assault against a police officer.

The Georgia code already includes more than sufficient protections for police officers, said Andrea Young, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia. HB 838 was hastily drafted as a direct swipe at Georgians participating in the Black Lives Matter protests who were asserting their constitutional rights.

In attempting to persuade the governor to veto the measure, the ACLU argued that the way the bill is written, it could have the unintentional effect of reducing the penalty for killing a police officer from mandatory life in prison to the maximum of five years now specified in the law. Supporters say that wont happen.

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
The government of India has added 15 Chinese apps to the list of banned apps in the latest development. These apps include photo editor AirBrush, video tool MeiPai and camera editor BoXxCAM among others.

Owned by Chinese company Meitu, these apps were banned following the flagship Meitu app ban in the first round of 59 banned apps. The Mi Browser Pro that came inbuilt with Xiaomi, Redmi and Poco smartphones has also been added in the list of apps that were banned in the latest move. Mi Community app was banned in the earlier round of Chinese app ban.

A Xiaomi spokesperson told India Today, "Xiaomi continues to comply and adhere to all data privacy and security requirements under the Indian law. We are working towards understanding the development and will take appropriate measures as required. As part of the process, we will work with key stakeholders for an opportunity to make our submissions."

The aforementioned apps will no longer find a place on Google Play Store. However, Android users who already had the apps can still access these apps.

Baidu Search and Search Lite have also been included in the app-ban list. The Centre has blocked Baidu Search and Weibo apps and asked service providers to block them at the earliest.

Seven versions of Parallel Space, an app that allows a user to log in to two accounts on a single Android device have also been blocked by the government. "We will take a call on further action if any of the apps try to come back with different names," a government official told ET.

In late July, India banned 47 apps that were clones of the 59 Chinese apps that were first banned over security concerns. The 47 apps that were banned in the follow-up were mostly pro and lite versions of the apps including TikTok Lite, Helo Lite, SHAREit Lite, BIGO LIVE Lite, and VFY Lite. Besides, Email service NetEase, gaming app Heroes War, and SlidePlus by QuVideo Inc are other apps that were also issued a ban.

The government is scrutinising over 200 apps that can face a ban in India. These apps include Tencent-owned PubG, Zili by Xiaomi, and AliExpress, an online shopping portal by Alibaba group.

The government banned 59 Chinese apps including TikTok, Shareit, UC Browser among others in late June stating that these apps were engaged in activities that were prejudicial to the sovereignty, integrity and defense of India.
BEIRUT - The Latest on the explosion in Beirut (all times local):

9:15 p.m.

French President Emmanuel Macron has denied that hes seeking to pull the strings in Lebanon and revive Frances colonial-era influence over a country reeling from a giant, deadly explosion.

Macron was on a visit to devastated Beirut on Thursday. He said he was asked by local leaders and by people in the street to return to the mandate, when the region was a French protectorate a century ago. He firmly dismissed the idea.

He told the crowd: You cant ask me to substitute for your leaders. Its not possible. And in any case, it would not be a solution.

Its up to you to write your history.

Still, he repeatedly referred to close ties between the countries and promised everlasting support for Lebanon after a blast that killed more than 100 people and injured thousands and further ravaged a country already on the verge of economic collapse.

Macron promised that France will never let Lebanon go. It will never abandon Lebanon and the Lebanese, and added that the heart of the French people still beats to the pulse of Beirut.

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9:10 p.m.

The United Nations says it is releasing $9 million to address immediate needs following the explosion that devastated Beirut and help strengthen operations in the citys hospitals.

U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said on Thursday the money from the Lebanese Humanitarian Fund will be followed by additional funds from the U.N.s Central Emergency Response Fund.

He said the U.N. is carrying out assessments of the damage and needs resulting from the massive explosion and hopes to hold a meeting on Monday to inform the 193 U.N. member states of the results and launch an appeal to help Lebanon.

He says: Were trying to get the relevant figures ready as soon as we can.

Haq said the World Health Organization reported that the blast left three hospitals unusable and two others with substantial damage and that the equivalent of 500 hospital beds have been lost.

He said the initial $9 million will be used to expand and establish additional intensive care units where needed and provide trauma kits, ventilators, medical supplies and medicine.

WHO will help cover 1,000 trauma interventions and 1,000 surgical interventions for people suffering from burns and wounds caused by glass and other debris resulting from the blast.

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8:50 p.m.

Lebanese military investigators will begin questioning a former Cabinet minister and the head of the Beiruts port over this weeks explosion that killed and wounded a large number of people in the capital.

A person familiar with the investigation said the questioning of Ghazi Aridi, who was public works minister in 2013 when the 2,750 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate arrived in the country, and Beirut port chief, Hassan Koraytem will take place on Friday.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak publicly about the investigation.

Also Thursday, a committee at the countrys central bank decided to freeze bank accounts of several figures, including Koraytem and the head of the customs department and his predecessor.

The announcement came a day after the government declared a two-week state of emergency and placed an unspecified number of officials under house arrest. Authorities said they will report findings into the blast that destroyed Beiruts port and damaged large parts of the city within five days.

By Bassem Mroue.

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7:45 p.m.

The managing director of the International Monetary Fund is calling for national unity in Lebanon and says its time to overcome the impasse over necessary reforms that has so far scuttled talks with the lender of last resort.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said Thursday in the wake of the Beirut port explosion that the international community needs to step up help for the troubled country already mired in financial and economic problems.

Georgieva said the IMF is exploring all possible ways to support the people of Lebanon but that national unity will be required to overcome the disaster and the financial crisis.

Before the Tuesday explosion, Lebanon was buckling under the weight of a crippling economic and financial crisis that drove nearly half of the population into poverty and sent inflation soaring. The cash-strapped government started talks with the IMF in May which were marred by political divisions.

Georgieva said it is essential to overcome the impasse to put in place a program to turn around the economy and build accountability and trust in the future of the country.

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7::00

The commander of a U.S. Department of Defence division with responsibility for the Middle East says the United States is willing to work with Lebanons armed forces in the aftermath of the explosion in Beirut.

A U.S. Central Command spokesman said Gen. Frank McKenzie spoke with Lebanons Gen. Joseph Aoun on Thursday to offer condolences and to share that the United States is sending three military transport planes with food, water and medical supplies.

The Central Command issued a statement saying McKenzie expressed a desire to work with the Lebanese Armed Forces, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and the U.S. Agency for International Development to identify and expedite support for Lebanons recovery effort.

The call ended with the generals agreeing to keep in touch, according to the statement.

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6:55 p.m.

The head of Lebanons customs department says one of the countrys main security agencies reported to the Cabinet in the past year about the danger from explosive chemicals being stored at the port.

Badri Daher told The Associated Press on Thursday that State Security had been investigating the stockpile of ammonium nitrate for the past year. He said it raised reports about the danger to the Cabinet, state prosecutor and other state institutions.

Security officials were no immediately available for comment.

He confirmed that he sent a letter in 2017 to a judge in which he warned of the dangers if the materials remain where they are, affecting the safety of (port) employees and asked the judge for guidance.

Daher said he and his predecessor sent a total of six letters but never got a response.

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5:30 p.m.

French President Emmanuel Macron says an independent, transparent investigation into the massive explosion in Beirut is owed to the victims and their families by Lebanese authorities.

During a visit to the city on Thursday, Macron walked past gutted silos and charred carcasses of cargo containers.

Angry crowds approached him and the Beirut governor as they walked through a blast-torn street, and through a devastated pharmacy.

After meeting with political leaders later, the French leader mentioned the anger in the street he had witnessed earlier.

He said: There is a political, moral, economic and financial crisis that has lasted several months, several years. This implies strong political responsibility.

He said he discussed addressing corruption and other needed reforms with Lebanons president and prime minister.

I came here to show the support of the French nation for the Lebanese people, Macron said, stressing the word people.

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5:15 p.m.

Media reports in the nation of Georgia say the tons of ammonium nitrate that exploded in Beirut originated from the Georgian city of Rustavi, home to a large chemical production plant.

The company that operates the plant issued a statement on Thursday that neither confirmed nor denied the provenance of the 2,750 tons of the chemical stored in a Beirut warehouse that is believed to have been touched off by a fire.

The ammonium nitrate  a highly explosive component of fertilizers  had been stored there since 2013 despite repeated warnings.

Rustavi Azot said it has been operating the plant only for the past three years and was unable to confirm whether the ammonium nitrate was produced in Georgia or in the city of Rustavi.

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4:30 p.m.

Cyprus foreign minister says a team of Cypriot doctors will travel to Lebanon Sunday to help treat the wounded from Tuesdays blast in Beirut.

Nikos Christodoulides told private Sigma TV that Greece will provide a military transport plane to carry specialized equipment needed in Lebanon.

He said Cyprus will also dispatch additional rescuers and paramedics on top of the 10 emergency response personnel and eight sniffer dogs sent on Wednesday.

Christodoulides said private companies have responded to an appeal to provide quantities of aluminium and glass that Lebanon needs to rebuild.

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4 p.m.

Denmark is donating 12 million kroner ($1.9 million) to Lebanon, chiefly to be channeled via the Red Cross, and 600 chemical protection suits.

Development Minister Rasmus Prehn said Tuesdays explosions in Beirut come at the worst possible time for Lebanon. The countrys economy and health care are already completely on their knees, he said.

And COVID-19 just makes the situation worse. At the same time, the country is home to 1.5 million refugees who also need support.

So far this year, Denmark has provided 32 million kroner ($5.1 million) in humanitarian aid to Lebanon, mainly to help refugees in the Middle Eastern country.

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3:50 p.m.

Italy has sent 8.5 tons of medical equipment to Lebanon in a second aid flight following the massive explosion in Beirut.

The foreign ministry says the flight left from Brindisi on Thursday morning following a request from Lebanese authorities. On board were surgical and trauma kits. Earlier, a team of firefighters and experts in chemical and biological agents flew in to help.

In a statement, the foreign ministry said the Italian assistance represents a new show of friendship and solidarity toward the Lebanese people and authorities.

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3:30 p.m.

Two Jordanian Air Force military aircraft are flying to Lebanon carrying material for a field hospital thats expected to be set up within the next 24 hours in Beirut.

The military field hospital will be staffed by 160 medics and other staff and will include 45 beds, 10 intensive care beds and 2 surgery rooms.

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3 p.m.

Switzerland has sent a team of specialists including engineers and logistics experts to Lebanon to help with the aftermath of the explosion in Beirut.

The Alpine nation says it is responding to a request from Lebanese authorities.

The Swiss team, which also includes telecom engineers and a psychologist, will assist in securing the countrys damaged embassy and ambassadorial residence. Switzerlands Foreign Ministry says the experts also will be available to examine the condition of Lebanons public buildings such as schools and hospitals.

The Foreign Ministry says it has no indication that Swiss citizens were among the victims of Tuesdays explosion.

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1:20 p.m.

China says it is sending a medical team and supplies to Lebanon in the aftermath of the port explosion that injured more than 5,000 people.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Thursday that Chinese leader Xi Jinping had conveyed a message of condolence to Lebanese President Michel Aoun following the blast, which killed at least 135 people.

As a friendly country to Lebanon, China is willing to continue to provide assistance within its capacity for Lebanon to tide over the difficulties, Wang told reporters at a daily briefing.

China has long been a major customer for Middle Eastern oil and gas, and in recent years has sought to boost its influence in the area as an alternative to the U.S. and Europe. For many years, China has also contributed soldiers to the United Nations peacekeeping operation in southern Lebanon.

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1 p.m.

Germanys foreign minister says an employee of the German Embassy in Beirut was killed in the huge blast that devastated the Lebanese capital earlier this week.

Heiko Maas says in a statement that the woman died as a result of the consequences of the explosion in her apartment. He has offered his condolences to embassy staff.

The embassy building was damaged in the blast.

Tuesdays explosion appeared to have been caused by an accidental fire that ignited a stockpile of ammonium nitrate at Beiruts port. It killed at least 135 people, injured more than 5,000 and caused widespread destruction.

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12:05 p.m.

Britain is sending a Royal Navy ship to Beirut to help the city recover from Tuesdays devastating port explosion.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace says the survey vessel HMS Enterprise, currently in Cyprus, will assess damage and help Lebanese authorities prepare to rebuild the port.

Britain has pledged a 5 million pound ($6.6 million) humanitarian support package for Lebanon and says it will send search and rescue teams and expert medical support.

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11 a.m.

A French presidential official says French President Emmanuel Macron is arriving in Beirut following Tuesdays deadly port explosion and will be greeted by Lebanese President Michel Aoun. The official says Macron will go directly to the port and meet Lebanese and French teams in the disaster area.

The official spoke anonymously in accordance with the presidencys practices.

Later in the day, Macron will head to the presidential palace for meetings with top officials. He will also meet with members of different political factions and civil society.

The French official says Macrons trip is meant to show that Lebanon is not alone and to give the Lebanese people confidence. Macron has said his role is to show that he believes in the country.
As hurricane season heats up, a growing number of properties located outside of FEMA-designated high-risk flood zones are already flooding. The problem is especially bad in the urban areas of Americas cities. A national survey shows nearly 85% report experiencing urban flooding. Insurance claims are on the rise, too.

Urban flooding is kind of this hidden danger among all flood risks in the United States, according to Dr. Sam Brody of Texas A&M University and Director of the Center for Texas Beaches and Shores.

It occurs mostly in high growth areas, where development brings rain impervious surfaces, such as roads, driveways, and parking lots, which change the natural drainage pattern of the land.

Its bringing flood impacts to unexpected areas, sometimes miles outside of the FEMA-designated 100-year flood plain.

The Rise in Urban Flooding

Brodys joint study with the University of Maryland titled, The Growing Threat of Urban Flooding: A National Challenge 2018, highlights neighborhoods that were miles away from known flood risk zones but were surrounded by man-made barriers, such as roads, railroad tracks, and sound walls, referred to as built environment barriers.

These features of the built environment are creating the flood hazard and the associated impact. Theyre either exacerbating or entirely creating the situation of risk. FEMAs models, which are all based on stream channels, dont account for these growing areas of risk and impact, Brody said.

He noted that 2017s Hurricane Harvey, one of the largest flood events in U.S. history, exposed a lot of underlying conditions of urban flooding, especially in Houston, Texas, the fourth largest city in the country.

The study looked primarily at rainfall, but urban flooding can occur with tidal events, too, including high-tide or sunny day flooding, as seen in some South Florida communities. Dr. Alec Bogdanoff is principal scientist and co-founder of Brizaga, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based firm that assists businesses and communities in becoming more resilient to the effects of sea level rise and long-term environmental changes. He said some storm water systems, which are meant for collecting and sending rainwater out to sea are instead becoming conduits for saltwater to back up into communities during this period of sea level rise.

The challenge comes if you end up with a high-tide sunny day flooding example and instead of it being a sunny day, its a rainy day. You now have to wait for the tides to go down before that rainwater is going to go out, Bogdanoff said.

In a recent episode of the Florida Insurance Roundup podcast, Bogdanoff and Brody discussed the study, which included a survey of more than 400 flood control professionals across all 50 states. It found that 83% had experienced urban flooding and 46% indicated it has occurred in numerous or most areas.

To me, the number one surprising result was that 85% of respondents experienced urban flooding outside of the FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA), which means this is a problem and its growing nationwide, said Brody. There are hotspots like Miami, Palm Beach, and Houston of urban flooding but this is something that needs to be addressed at all scales starting from the national level down to the local.

Challenges in Reducing Flood Risk

This phenomenon is greatly affecting businesses and homes to the point that it should become a part of the conversation when it comes to insurance, to cover the losses that occur. The flood protection gap, which is the difference between the insured and the actual value of flood damage, has been apparent after recent catastrophes. In Hurricane Harvey, the estimated insured losses were $30 billion but the overall value of damage was nearly three times greater, at an estimated $85 billion. More than 75% of those flooded properties, some in urban areas, had no flood insurance to pay for their losses.

Part of the problem is adequately communicating risk to property owners. FEMAs flood insurance rate maps, whose flood zones area binary, are limited to show simply whether a particular property is in or out of a zone.

Weve worked with clients who are in the hundred-year flood zone, so they think they have a 1% chance every year of being flooded, but the reality is you can be in a much higher-risk zone within that hundred-year flood zone than FEMA dictates from their maps, Bogdanoff pointed out.

Were trying to have people understand that its not if youre in or out, its how far you are from that boundary and there are gradients of risk extending outward from the hundred-year flood plain that people need to be aware of, Brody said.

Improving Flood Prediction and Resilience

The experts say there are some solutions. Brody said his team, with support from FEMA, has developed a new method to predict and map hazards and risk. Instead of hydrology and hydraulics models, they are using statistics and machine learning techniques to improve flood prediction.

We may not replace the FEMA floodplain maps but we can augment them and complement them to help resident be more prepared and mitigate impacts, he said.

Bogdanoff said Broward County, Fla., has developed a series of incremental but fairly significant changes to improve resiliency. They include a 100-year flood map that guides future development, a Fort Lauderdale seawall ordinance to provide better flood protection, another ordinance requiring flood disclosure, new infrastructure improvements, and efforts to encourage resilient building design. Ultimately what you want is insurance to be the last risk transfer. We want to do as much as we can to protect people so that they dont have to use insurance, he said.

FEMA has also planned a rollout this fall of its Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program. BRIC focuses on pre-disaster mitigation by helping local and state governments fund projects that will reduce risk from natural hazards and disasters, such as flooding. It replaces the existing Pre-Disaster Mitigation program.

Under BRIC, FEMA will set aside 6% of estimated disaster expenses for each major disaster to fund a mitigation grant program. With demand expected to exceed the programs resources, both Brody and Bogdanoff favor focusing on projects of regional importance to maximize the federal funding.

Water doesnt care about political boundaries, said Bogdanoff. If you build resiliently in one community, build higher in one community, you could end up hurting another community.

He pointed to the Central and South Florida Flood Control System with its thousands of miles of canals extending from Lake Okeechobee as an example of a regional solution providing flood control, water supply, and salt water intrusion protection for multiple counties.

Brody agreed. If we dont think regionally, were going to come up with the wrong answer.

He said Hurricane Harvey was a wake-up call for Texas. The Texas Water Development Board now has a new program that divides the state by water sheds and is creating collaborative plans to deal with unintended consequences of upstream development on downstream communities.

Over the long-term, theres going to be less need for federal funding and outside support, because these communities will be more resilient in the first place, Brody said.

Flooding is the most frequent disaster, the most expensive, and can leave lasting economic devastation to communities and to those who cannot afford to repair or replace their buildings without insurance. If you dont have flood insurance, your possessions and life savings are at risk. And further, were on the hook as taxpayers having to subsidize those neighbors without flood coverage. The water doesnt understand a line on a map. Just because it says youre not in a high-risk area doesnt mean that youre not high-risk.

To hear the full podcast, please visit: Florida Insurance Roundup

Topics Texas Florida Flood Hurricane
Retailers are observing this shift and are becoming innovative in branding their product, not only virtually but also physically. Chinn emphasizes "the days of utilizing cheap finishes are gone," and creating a stronger experience and identity "from the front door through the entire store" are important. Mirror, a recently completed project by ADC, is a novel brand of fitness programs implemented into a digital mirror one can purchase for their home. ADC used trending elements such as large format slabs of cool-toned solid surfaces and softened the store's design with warm tones of wood. Chinn notes the "arc of experiential retail is on the rise" and "should be portrayed in every [part of the design.]" With this approach, ADC emulated Mirror's cutting-edge idea through high-end finishes that reflect the quality of their brand.

Tommy Bahama also decided to reimagine the architectural concept of their Newport Beach location with finishes that echo the coastal California ambiance. ADC's team utilized light wood-style tile, concrete-style tile, and quartz countertops to complement the dark blue fabrics creating a brighter, more inviting space.

Retailers are perceptive on how connections occur digitally and tangibly and are taking extra marketing measures to ensure success across all platforms. The results of COVID-19 in retail remain unknown, but ADC recognizes that one solution is to focus on enhancing user experiences in stores with quality and cost-effective finishes that elevate retailer brands, while simultaneously evoking their online presence across multiple mediums.

For more information about ADC, visit https://adcollaborative.com/

About Architecture Design Collaborative

Architecture Design Collaborative (ADC) is a Top 25 Architecture Design Firm servicing clients

nationwide offering multi-disciplinary architectural, planning, and interior design services. ADC specializes in mixed-use, residential, retail, and commercial projects.

Contact: Craig Chinn, AIA

[email protected]

www.adcollaborative.com

SOURCE Architecture Design Collaborative

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On Tuesday, at the height of Tropical Storm Isaias, John Skillin watched his brother-in-law get in his car and said goodbye. He made it a few yards down the road before the storms winds knocked down a tree and totaled the car.

He miraculously escaped with a few little scratches on his arm, Skillin told NJ Advance Media. Another three or four seconds, if the trunk had landed on his car, he would have been killed for sure.

Now, with the storm over, the next phase begins for Skillin and the hundreds of thousands of homes still without power: dealing with the outages from knocked-over trees and waiting for the pick-up crews to come.

After overcoming his shock, Skillin spent Wednesday sweeping his yard of branches and debris. The tree is still sitting draped over the wrecked car in the middle of Rosemilt Place in Morristown, barricading Skillin and his neighbors in on one end of the cul-de-sac.

Residents across the state are in the same boat, waiting on energy companies and their towns departments of public works to respond so they can carry on with normal life. Officials at Gov. Phil Murphys daily briefing said they expected 80% of customers to have power back by Friday, though the rest could take much longer.

Many residents harkened back to Hurricane Sandy, the states largest power outage in history, which knocked out electricity in some places for two weeks. As of 1 p.m. Wednesday, more than 860,000 homes and businesses still sat in the dark.

Its getting very frustrating -- Im getting used to it, but I dont like it, Chuck Wise, who said outages happen in his Morris County neighborhood all the time, told NJ Advance Media. Wise was taking refuge at Laundry Land, where the air conditioning and electricity allowed customers to escape their homes on a particularly hot afternoon. After trying to sleep with no electricity, Wise said it was murder inside last night.

Rafael Avelar perched on a rocking chair on his front porch to stay cool, saying that the temperature outside was much nicer than inside.

For those with generators, the wait for power to return is more bearable. Many purchased the machines after Sandy, not wanting to be left without electricity again.

When we became homeowners, we said were not going to own a house in a tree-lined neighborhood without a generator, Morristown resident Adam Freedgood told NJ Advance Media, recalling how affected Jersey City was during Sandy where he and his wife lived in an apartment.

Freedgood has his generator hooked up to his home, a neighbors fridge and a charging station in front of his home. He left a lamp out on the stations table last night and posted on the neighborhood social media app, NextDoor, encouraging others to come charge their devices. Not sure how long hell need to keep the generator running, Freedgood estimates hell go through 10 gallons of gas a day.

We felt fortunate not to have any horrible damage, so were just trying to pay it forward by sharing the extra juice we have from the generator, Freedgood said.

More people could be seen Wednesday filling canisters with gas for their generators, most reporting skepticism that power would be coming back anytime soon.

Others spent Wednesday waiting for insurance, tree removal or utility crews.

Barry and Patty Enright were inside their home on Tuesday when a tree crashed into the upper level of their house. The fire department encouraged them to stay out of the house, so theyve been in between their parents home -- which does not have power -- and their air-conditioned car. The Enrights are hoping to repair the 100-year-old Morristown home, but first need to see the tree removed.

Residents across the state are caught in a holding pattern, but amid the grumbling and sweating, many New Jerseyans expressed a positive attitude with a shrug and a smile.

I just try and make the best of it, thats all you can do, Morristown resident John Thomas told NJ Advance Media. With the (coronavirus) pandemic going on now, what more can hit us but you just have to do the best you can.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Josh Axelrod may be reached at jaxelrod@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
With investigations revealing treasure troves of evidence of deep-state malfeasance in their bid to Get Trump, rats are fleeing a sinking ship. Deep State is now trying to get its stories straight. And in former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates's Senate testimony this Wednesday, it looks as if James Comey is the designated fall guy. Blame him and the rest get off the hook.

First, there was this case, from the Daily Caller:

Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates said Wednesday that she would not have signed an application to conduct surveillance against former Trump aide Carter Page had she known it contained inaccurate information. If I had known that it contained incorrect information, I certainly wouldnt have signed it, Yates said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Yates signed an application to continue surveillance against Page under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) on Jan. 17, 2017, just days before the start of the Trump administration. The FBI and Justice Department obtained the initial FISA order on Page on Oct. 21, 2016

Didn't know? Why those dirty cops at the FBI.. She had no idea! House intelligence committee ranking member Devin Nunes called bee ess on that to Fox News, by the way, saying she would have been "the most oblivious deputy attorney general in U.S. history" if she didn't know.

Second, there was this, from the Washington Examiner:

" I don't remember" is what a top Justice Department official testified on Wednesday to the question of whether former Vice President Joe Biden brought up the Logan Act during a heavily scrutinized January 2017 Oval Office meeting featuring former President Barack Obama and others related to the investigation into retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. Sally Yates, the deputy attorney general under Obama who briefly served as acting attorney general during the first 10 days of President Trumps tenure, testified before the Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, claiming that neither Obama nor Biden tried to influence any investigation during the small meeting on Jan. 5, 2017, which included herself, Obama, Biden, former FBI Director James Comey, and former national security adviser Susan Rice. But, when pressed, Yates claimed she could not recall whether Biden brought up the controversial Logan Act as notes from now-fired FBI special agent Peter Strzok indicate he did. Chairman Lindsey Graham asked Yates whether Biden mentioned the Logan Act during the meeting. She replied: You know, I dont remember the vice president saying much of anything in this meeting. The South Carolina Republican followed up, asking, So you dont remember him mentioning the Logan Act? Yates said, No, I dont. When Graham asked if anyone mentioned the Logan Act during the meeting, Yates said, I have a vague memory of Director Comey mentioning the Logan Act, but noted she couldnt recall if it was then or just after her one-on-one discussion with Comey. The senator asked whether she believed Flynns discussions with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak amounted to a Logan Act violation, and Yates replied that it certainly couldve been a technical violation, but that was not the focus of the FBI or us  we were really focused on a counterintelligence investigation.

She's saying that Comey, not Joe Biden, brought up the gamy Logan Act charge idea, something that is obviously now an embarrassment. Yates is someone who is a Democrat from a prominent Democrat family and her claims of no bias are nonsense. She stands to benefit from a Joe Biden presidential appointment in a Joe Biden administration, so no surprise, she's defending Joe by hurling Comey under the bus.

There was also the perjury trap issue being set for Gen. Michael Flynn, a longtime opponent of the Obama administration, as he was being eased into he position as President Trump's National Security Advisor.

"Did Comey go rogue," asked Sen. Lindsey Graham.

Yates said yes.

That, according to Graham, pretty well showed that Democrats and their deep state establishment were designating Comey as the fall guy and circling their wagons. He said they were treating Comey as "radioactive" and "rats fleeing a sinking ship" as well as running from him like he "had the plague."

Obviously, they're protecting Joe Biden, as well as President Obama, the people who stand to have real power or had it.

That leaves Comey just a little superfluous, especially since he's been acting weirdly of late. What's Comey got to say on his Twitter? He's been curiously silent. That signals there's some sort of fix in, knock down Comey and call the whole thing over. The only thing one can conclude by this is that they are protecting much bigger fish.

Image credit: Fox News, via shareable YouTube, screen shot
In the movies it happens overnight. An American doctor hunkers down in a lab with a crate full of monkeys and by morning its ready: the vaccine that will save the world.

Unfortunately in a real life pandemic, science moves a little slower. Scratch that  a lot slower.

Vaccines, it turns out, are the product of years of labour, not hours. And as opposed to a single miracle serum depicted in movies, in the real world of COVID-19, it feels like there are too many vaccines in development to keep track of.

Also in reality: countries like Canada (that dont seem to exist in Hollywood catastrophe movies) cant rely on the generosity of the United States to develop and administer a life-saving injection to the world in the course of a single day. In real life, good news comes in small doses.

This week we got some. News emerged Wednesday that the Canadian government is negotiating deals with pharmaceutical and biotech companies Pfizer and Moderna to secure millions of doses of their COVID-19 vaccines in the event that they are approved for mass use, hopefully in 2021. In other words, while we are still a long way off from the end of our own COVID-19 movie, we know the federal government is at the very least trying to get us there.

Though she wouldnt specify how many doses the government will obtain nor how much money its spending to obtain them, Minister of Public Services and Procurement, Anita Anand, stressed at a press conference that these agreements with Moderna and Pfizer are indicative of our aggressive approach to secure access to vaccine candidates now so that Canadians are at the front of a line when a vaccine becomes available.

Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, appeared equally optimistic. Our government firmly believes in the role of science in good decision-making, he said at the same press conference.

But the question remains: does the Canadian public believe the same thing? That is, are we firm believers in the role of science in good decision-making, or are we, rather, believers in conspiracy theories we read on Facebook?

Theres another major difference between how pandemics play out in the movies and how they play out in real life. In the movies people generally cant wait to get their hands on a vaccine when it arrives. In a real world pandemic, theyre not quite as eager.

According to a recent survey conducted by the Angus Reid Institute, 46 per cent of Canadians say they would get a COVID-19 vaccination as soon as one becomes available. However, 32 per cent say that while they would get one, they would wait a while first. Conversely, 14 per cent are opposed to being vaccinated altogether and 8 per cent arent sure where they stand. According to Angus Reid, The majority of those who say they will wait to get the vaccine also say they are worried about side effects (76 per cent).

Some of these concerns are understandable, especially in light of the unprecedented speed with which these vaccines are being developed and tested. But its also likely that a large chunk of this fear is the result of misinformation, namely COVID-19 conspiracy theories that are proving to be very popular online; theories about the dangers of potential vaccines to the dangers of mask wearing and 5G cellular networks.

Canadians like to mock Americans who believe their president when he straight up lies to them, but we believe a lot of similar bunk in our own right. A May study from the School of Journalism and Communication at Carleton University indicated that nearly half of Canadians (46 per cent) believed at least one of four COVID-19 conspiracy theories and myths including the discredited theory that the virus was engineered in a Chinese lab, and that regularly rinsing your nose with a saline solution can help protect individuals from infection.

Another recent study by researchers at McGill University concluded that exposure to social media networks is associated with misperceptions regarding basic facts about COVID-19 while the inverse is true for news media. These misconceptions are in turn associated with lower compliance with social distancing measures.

What remains to be seen is whether such misconceptions will result in a lower than desired COVID-19 vaccination rate when a safe vaccine is widely available.

Government and health officials are fond of saying that a vaccine is not a silver bullet. If we want to beat this thing, they argue, we must continue to be vigilant by way of physically distancing and wearing masks.

What they often fail to mention, though, is that we also must be vigilant about the kinds of health information we consume and share online.

Its wonderful that the federal government is a firm believer in the role of science in good decision-making. But if the general public doesnt share that belief, the outcome of its decisions might not be very good at all.
The mutilated carcass of a leopard was found in Odishas Sundergarh district on Wednesday, triggering suspicion of poaching by villagers.

Forest officials in Sundargarh district said the caracass of the leopard with its lower limb severed was found near a railway track at Badarampia village under Hemagir forest range. Sundargarh District Forest Officer (DFO) Sanjay Swain said as the leopard had attacked and injured five villagers of the area on Tuesday evening, there is possibility that the locals killed the animal.

We are investigating into the issue and would take action against anyone who is found to have killed the leopard, he said. The Hemgiri Forest Range is reportedly home to many big cats including leopard, tiger and black panther. Leopards are protected under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Over the last 10 years, at least 155 leopards have been poached across Odisha.

The killing of the leopard came days after the all India Tiger Census 2018 conducted by the National Tiger Conservation Authority revealed that the number of tigers in Odisha have remained static between 2014 and 2018. Wildlife conservationists of Odisha blamed poaching for the lack of rise in tiger numbers.

In last two months, forest department as well as special task force of Crime Branch of Odisha Police have seized five leopard skins indicating its largescale poaching. Last month, a joint team of Chhattisgarh Police and Odisha forest department had arrested a person on charges of leopard skin trade in Nuapada district on the Odisha-Chhattisgarh border. A bag containing leopard skin was seized from his possession.

In June, the Special Task Force of Odisha Crime Branch has seized four leopard skins and arrested three people in Nayagarh district who were engaged in trading of leopard skin.

Odisha has been losing both tigers and leopards due to poaching despite the state having excellent habitat and vast forests for the big cats to flourish. The forest department has miserably failed to control poaching even in tiger reserves like Simlipal and Satkosia, alleged wildlife conservationist Biswajit Mohanty.
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KALININGRAD, Russia -- The official chart of new coronavirus cases for the western Russian exclave of Kaliningrad looks encouraging. In May and June, between 40 and 50 new cases were being reported daily, while in July and early August, the numbers were between 10 and 20, even as the region took significant steps to restart its economy.

According to the official numbers, 45 people in the region have died since the pandemic began, eight of them since July 1.

But some locals have raised the alarm that the rosy picture is being created artificially by a sharp reduction in the number of tests being administered.

"In my opinion, the authorities simply don't want to ruin the nascent tourism season, which they have worked so hard to get going," Kaliningrad journalist Oksana Shevchenko said. "They don't want to close everything down again."

"All these figures are simply fiction," she asserted.

'Don't Worry, Go Home'

Shevchenko drew this conclusion not only from her own reporting on the pandemic in this city of about 480,000, capital of the Baltic Sea exclave with a total population of about 1 million, but also from her own experience. Late last month, she developed symptoms including headaches, a fever of up to 38.4 degrees Celsius, and difficulty breathing.

After trying unsuccessfully to reach her neighborhood public clinic by telephone, she went there in person. "After an hour and a half of waiting, I was able to see a doctor," she recalled. "She listened to my lungs, looked in my throat and send me home. She said my lungs were clear and advised me to buy an over-the-counter antiviral medication. She told me not to worry."

She was not offered a coronavirus test. Moreover, while she was waiting, she ran into a classmate of her daughter's, who also had a fever and a sore throat. Moreover, he was considered a high-risk patient because he'd previously been treated for tuberculosis.

"He came out of the doctor's office literally after two or three minutes," Shevchenko said. "He was told not to worry and to go home and go to bed. I asked if they took a coronavirus test and he said, 'No, they didn't mention it.'"

Several days later, Shevchenko lost her sense of smell. A second trip to the clinic produced the same result -- she was told to go home and take some cough medicine.

At the urging of her mother and after spending nearly a week in her apartment with her three children, Shevchenko paid for a coronavirus test at a private clinic. On July 28, it came back positive and she was rushed to Kaliningrad's main infectious-diseases hospital.

When her local clinic learned about her diagnosis, they contacted her to request the test results.

"I said to them, "How did it happen that I went to you for help and you sent me away? I have three children and now they are home alone and I'm in the hospital,'" Shevchenko told RFE/RL. "And she said: 'Yes, it turned out inconveniently. But we have an order only to give tests to patients older than 65 or with clear signs of pneumonia.'"

"I was on my own for a whole week and theoretically could have infected many people," she said. Her parents and eldest daughter have since been tested with negative results. Her two youngest children have not been tested.

"In April, they tested everybody," Shevchenko added. "And now practically no one. The reduction in the number of cases has been created artificially. They have simply stopped testing."

Opening Up

In July, the region entered Phase 2 of the reopening of the economy, which included the opening of all cafes and restaurants; all retail outlets without restrictions; and all hotels, resorts, and sanatoriums. The exclave's tourist attractions include Baltic Sea beaches and historic architecture in the capital, formerly the Prussian city of Koenigsberg.

The regional office of Rospotrebnadzor, which maintains the coronavirus statistics, declined to comment for this story. The agency does not report on the number of people tested by region.

The press office of the regional Health Ministry explained that "testing is not included in the program of free medical services, that is why it is conducted only according to specific medical indications or according to the instructions of Rospotrebnadzor -- for people who have had contact with infected people."

"Therefore, in accordance with the recommendation of Rospotrebnadzor as of July 27, free testing is available for workers in food services, retail sales, education establishments, and those who present with symptoms indicating a coronavirus infection," the press office statement continued.

The officially reported coronavirus statistics from Russia have been the subject of serious doubts since the pandemic began. A survey of doctors in May found that more than 35 percent said they had been "given instructions" to manipulate statistics on the COVID-19 outbreak.

'Nothing But Ballast'

In early July, it was reported that Rospotrebnadzor had ordered doctors in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg to sharply restrict the number of CT scans performed to diagnose coronavirus. There were reports of similar instructions in other cities, including Oryol and Orenburg. Critics speculated that the orders had been issued to paint an encouraging picture in the run-up to a national plebiscite on a controversial package of constitutional amendments that, among other things, enabled President Vladimir Putin to seek two more terms as president and possibly remain in power until 2036.

Ropotrebnadzor in Yekaterinburg denied issuing such an instruction.

Yelena Voitekhovich, a 62-year-old retiree in Kaliningrad, also recently experienced symptoms but was unable to get a test, despite being in a high-risk group.

"Retirees are a risk group -- they told us that, warned us, and promised to help us," Voitekhovich told RFE/RL. "But once again we see the bitter truth that the elderly in Russia are nothing but ballast to the government."

Voitekhovich has scheduled a CT scan at a private clinic at a cost of 3,500 rubles ($48), minus a 5 percent senior discount.

"How can we believe the infection figures if diagnostics are so controversial and selective," she said. "Doubts are inevitable. Maybe there is such a policy -- not to reveal the whole picture of what is going on, to paint over reality so that it won't be so frightening? Since the authorities are constantly lying to us -- and this is a main feature of the system -- it would be perfectly consistent to embellish the statistics."

Written by Robert Coalson based on reporting from Kaliningrad by Yulia Paramonova of the North Desk of RFE/RL's Russian Service
Christian B., the suspect in the case, Maddie, has had to contend with in his efforts to release from prison a setback. An advocate General of the European court of justice on Thursday came in a legal opinion to the result that the 43-year-old German was allowed to be sentenced in December 2019 by the regional court of Braunschweig because of the rape of an American woman. The opinion is for the ECJ judges are not binding, they usually follow the evaluation of the competent General Prosecutor.

Specifically, the ECJ process is that Christian B. calls for an annulment of the judgment because of the rape, because he was originally on the basis of a European arrest warrant for a different Offence to Germany delivered. He refers to the fact that there are EU rules on the European arrest warrant a ban, that someone is prosecuted because of other, prior to the extradition crime has been committed.

According to the legal opinion of this scheme, however, is irrelevant to the case, because the man in Germany had, in the meantime, leave voluntarily, and only after a new European arrest warrant back to Germany. This was enforced by authorities in Italy  the agreed, too, that the man is being prosecuted for the rape and convicted. In this case, the restrictions for the first warrant not in the opinion of the advocate General.

Updated Date: 06 August 2020, 07:20
Iran's daily gas exports hit new record high

07/22/20

Source: Tehran Times

TEHRAN- Iran's daily natural gas exports hit a record high of 79 million cubic meters (mcm) during the Iranian calendar month of Tir (June 21-July 21), Head of National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC)'s Dispatching Department said. "Iran's gas exports to other countries had never reached 70 million cubic meters per day, but in Tir a new record was set and [the exports] reached 79 million cubic meters per day," Shana quoted Mohammadreza Jolaei as saying.

The official noted that the average figure for the daily exports of gas to Iraq and Turkey currently stands at 75 mcm.



According to Jolaei, this record has been achieved in a situation where Iran is at the peak of its summer electricity consumption and most of the gas refineries have been under annual overhaul.



The consumption by the country's power plant was also at its peak, however, their required gas was fully supplied and no liquid fuel was used, he added.



The official reminded that the country's natural gas is currently exported to Iraq and Turkey and Iran is ready to provide any amount requested by the importers.



Back in June, NIGC Managing Director Hassan Montazer Torbati announced that natural gas exports to the neighboring countries increased by 3.6 billion cubic meters in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19) registering a 26-percent rise year on year.



Referring to the gas industry's new records in production, transmission, distribution, and exports during the previous Iranian calendar year, Torbati pointed to the unprecedented increase of natural gas exports last year and said that the surge in exports was realized despite the significant increase in the domestic consumption.



Earlier in May, Torbati had said that the conditions governing Iran's long-term gas contracts probably undergo essential changes after the coronavirus pandemic.



The official told ILNA that Iran would introduce new pricing mechanisms in gas export deals in the future, without elaborating on how they would work.
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), left, and Rep. Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) are on Joe Biden's short list for vice president. Picking either woman would be big news for California. (Associated Press)

Gov. Gavin Newsom would be anointed a kingmaker  or queenmaker  if Joe Biden selected California Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate.

Thats because Newsom, on his own, would select Harris Senate replacement if the Democratic presidential ticket won on Nov. 3. The U.S. Constitution gives governors that right.

If Biden instead chose another Californian, U.S. Rep. Karen Bass of Los Angeles, Newsom would not have a formal role in her replacement. Voters in her 37th Congressional District would select a new representative in a special election. And that would alter the L.A. political landscape.

So for Newsom and California, theres a lot more riding on Bidens decision than who fills out the Democratic presidential ticket.

Harris and Bass are among the women on the presumptive presidential nominees short list of potential running mates.

Others include former national security advisor Susan Rice, Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Theres heavy political pressure for Biden to choose a woman of color. That presumably leaves out Warren, who is white. Warren is too liberal for him anyway, although she excites party progressives.

Some Biden insiders think he should select a Black woman in this political atmosphere with the Black Lives Matter movement fighting hard for racial equality.

That would exclude Duckworth, a Thai American who has a compelling story: She is an Iraq war veteran who lost both legs piloting a helicopter in combat, and the first senator to give birth in office.

That leaves Harris, Bass and Rice, who are Black, as the leading contenders. And the top two seem to be Harris and Rice.

Rice, 55, would be a good choice. The diplomat served in both the Clinton and Obama administrations in high-level foreign policy positions. She was Obamas U.S. ambassador to the United Nations before becoming national security advisor. Biden got to know her well when he was Obamas vice president.

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Rice certainly would be hammered by President Trump for initially mislabeling the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi. She called it spontaneous, although it turned out to be a planned terrorist assault. But Trump will pounce on whomever Biden picks.

One drawback: Rice has never run for public office. She could flub up on the campaign trail. But she has operated successfully on the world stage and is classy.

Bass, 66, is very likable and evokes a positive attitude, is a liberal who can deal productively with Republicans  she initially proved that as California Assembly speaker  and has been a civil rights fighter all her career.

But shes relatively unknown, including to Biden. And she has never run for office outside her district, so theres some question about how shed fare in a bruising national campaign. I suspect darn well.

Harris, 55, is charismatic and can deliver a stinging campaign punch  Biden was stung by her in an early presidential debate. But she flopped running for president. And she carries baggage from unremarkable  critics say disappointing  stints as state attorney general and San Francisco district attorney.

But Biden is apparently drawn to Harris because she and his late son, Beau, had a strong alliance when both were state attorneys general.

Many political pros think Biden would be crazy to put any Californian on the ticket.

Hed be well advised not to pick a Californian, says Darry Sragow, a veteran Democratic strategist who publishes the nonpartisan California Target Book, which handicaps congressional and legislative races.

One, it wont add to his electoral votes because he already has Californias 55 in the bag. Two, most of the country doesnt like California. They cant relate to us and think we dont relate to them," Sragow said.

Hes probably going to pick someone from a different state  or no state, like Susan Rice."

Rice was born and raised in Washington, D.C., the daughter of public policy scholars.

But what if Biden did choose Harris?

It would be a huge gift to Newsom. If the Biden-Harris ticket won  as current polls show is likely  hed be able to reward a Democratic ally by choosing the senators successor.

And if Newsom picked an elected statewide official  such as Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra or Secretary of State Alex Padilla  hed get a twofer: He could also select their replacements, subject to legislative confirmation.

Newsom likes to be the first at things  being the first governor to decree a statewide stay at home order during the virus pandemic  and he could name the first Latino U.S. senator from California.

Becerra would seem the most qualified by experience, having been a U.S. House member from Los Angeles for 24 years before being picked by Gov. Jerry Brown to replace Harris when she was elected to the Senate in 2016.

Theres also Rep. Adam B. Schiff of Burbank, the House Intelligence Committee chairman who helped lead the impeachment of Trump. Hes on everyones potential Senate list. But he isnt close to Newsom. Neither is another option: L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti.

If Newsom wanted to replace Harris with another woman, Bass should top his list. Other possibilities include Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, state Controller Betty Yee, state Treasurer Fiona Ma, state Senate leader Toni Atkins of San Diego and L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis, a former House member and U.S. labor secretary.

If Bass became vice president, thered be a special election to fill her House seat.

Prominent potential candidates include L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, L.A. City Councilman Herb Wesson and state Sen. Holly Mitchell. Wesson and Mitchell are running against each other for Ridley-Thomas termed-out supervisorial seat. It gets complicated.

We can speculate on and on  at least until Biden ends the VP suspense.
The intense drought in Europe from 2018 to 2019 was the first two-year dry period in 250 years, the study found

Punishing two-year droughts like the record-breaking one that gripped Central Europe from 2018 to 2019 could become much more frequent if the region fails to curb greenhouse gas emissions, researchers said Thursday, affecting huge swathes of its cultivated land.

The five hottest years in recorded history have occurred in the last five years.

This extreme heat was exacerbated in 2018 and 2019 by two consecutive summers of drought that affected more than half of Central Europe, according to a new study published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports.

Researchers in Germany and the Czech Republic used data going back to 1766 to conclude the drought was the largest-scale and most severe dry spell ever recorded.

"The observational record suggests that the ongoing 20182019 European drought event is unprecedented in the last 250 years, with substanprolongedtial implications for vegetation health," the study said.

Researchers then sought to estimate whether prolonged droughts would become more frequent in the future by using global climate change models.

Under a scenario where greenhouse gas emissions continue their inexorable rise, the researchers predicted that the number of extreme two-year droughts will increase sevenfold in Europe in the second half of this century.

"This projection also suggested that drought-affected cropland areas across Central Europe will nearly double," said co-author Rohini Kumar, of the UFZ-Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, in Leipzig.

This would result in a total of 40 million hectares of cultivated land affectedequivalent to 60 percent of all crop areas in the region.

When researchers modelled for moderate emissions, the predicted number of two-year droughts halved compared to the worst case scenario, while the area expected to be hit by the drought also reduced.

Kumar said this suggests a reduction in emissions could lower the risk of these damaging dry periods.

The five hottest years in recorded history have occurred in the last five years

Threat to agriculture

The researcher said a two-year dry period presents a far greater threat to vegetation than the single-summer droughts of previous years because the land cannot recover as quickly.

He said around a fifth of the Central European region had recorded poor vegetation health in the last two years.

"Thus, it is with the utmost urgency that we need to recognise the importance of these persevering consecutive year events, and to develop a holistic framework to model the risk," he added.

The study defined Central Europe as including parts of Germany, France, Poland, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, as well as Czech Republic, Belgium, Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia.

Over 34 percent of the total land area in the region is extensively used for agricultural purposes, it said.

The 2015 Paris climate deal commits nations to capping temperature rises to "well-below" 2C (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels and to strive for a 1.5C limit if at all possible.

With just 1C of warming so far, Earth is already buffeted by record-breaking droughts, wildfires and super storms made more potent by rising sea levels.

To keep in line with the 1.5C target, the United Nations says global emissions must fall by 7.6 percent every year this decade.

More information: Increased future occurrences of the exceptional 20182019 Central European drought under global warming, Scientific Reports (2020). www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-68872-9 Journal information: Scientific Reports Increased future occurrences of the exceptional 20182019 Central European drought under global warming,(2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-68872-9

 2020 AFP
Scotts attorney, David Bross, said such a lengthy gap in court dates is not normal even amid COVID-19 pandemic concerns. Scott said the six-month delay could have absolutely detrimental lasting consequences for someone without access to the resources Scott has.

The fact we had to wait until the last minute for charges to even be put forward against us, and now that our hearing is scheduled in February, its just a representation of the authorities flexing their power and holding us hostage, Scott said.

News cameras filmed Bucks arrest by Tulsa police who acted at the behest of a member of Trumps private campaign security staff on the morning of June 20. The staffer apparently reported Buck for trespassing after she refused to leave the area of 400 South Cheyenne Avenue, which was within a fenced perimeter. Buck was wearing a T-shirt with the words I Cant Breathe as an act of protest against police brutality.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 18:13:16|Editor: huaxia

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MOGADISHU, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Somali National Army (SNA) on Wednesday killed 17 al-Shabab militants and injured 23 others in a fierce fight in the outskirts of Baidoa town in the southern region of Bay, a military officer confirmed on Thursday.

Mohamed Abdullahi, commander of SNA's 60th Unit told journalists that al-Shabab militants launched an attack on a base run by Somali army in Daynunay village, but the forces repulsed them.

"The militants' attempt to overrun the base was foiled as the army fought them bravely killing 17 of them including three senior officials and injuring 23 others," Abdullahi said.

He added that four government soldiers including a senior official were killed during the fierce fight between the army and the militants.

Locals told Xinhua that the town witnessed intense clashes between government forces and al-Shabab militants which caused casualties on both the warring sides and the residents.

The latest fight came barely four days after Somali National Army (SNA) killed five al-Shabab militants including a senior official in an operation in Jamame town in the southern region of Lower Juba.

Government forces have intensified operations against al-Shabab extremists in the southern regions in recent days, but the militants are still hiding in the rural areas of those regions and are conducting ambushes and planting landmines. Enditem
Under previous guidelines from Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, officers werent forbidden from shooting at and from moving vehicles, nor were they forbidden from using chokeholds.

That changed recently when the department announced updates to its policies that outline when and how officers can use lethal and less-lethal force.

Some of those who have been most critical of IMPD said the changes are welcome updates to a section of the departments General Orders that hasnt changed since 2016  the department usually updates its use-of-force policies every four years  but they also made clear this cant be the conclusion.

Its a critical step, said Katie Blair, director of advocacy and public policy at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Indiana, but we know that a few trainings and updates to IMPDs policies are not gonna cut it.

The new policy went into effect when it was announced July 29, and the department said officers could begin training as soon as this month.

Dave Rozzell, pastor at The Way of Yeshua Fellowship and Ministries, called the updates a somewhat encouraging sign that IMPD is willing to meet some demands. Rozzell is also public relations director for the local chapter of the National Association of Black Veterans but spoke only for himself as a community activist.

The updated policy includes an emphasis on de-escalation, which didnt get a mention in the previous policy from 2016. Now, the first section of the policy says officers must never knowingly or intentionally escalate a situation in violation of this section.

The updated policy also says officers should use force that is proportionate to the circumstances and that officers have to stop and report any use of force that violates laws or department policies. Both of those directives are new.

In a section dedicated to less-lethal force, officers are directed to only use a chemical spray  tear gas, for example  when someone is in passive resistance only.

But talking about tear gas and other chemical agents is a non-starter for some because it has been banned in war since shortly after World War I.

If theyre banned in international warfare, they ought to be banned in American streets, said Jane Henegar, executive director of the ACLU of Indiana, which recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of Indy10 Black Lives Matter against IMPD for using chemical weapons against protesters.

IMPD has defended its use of tear gas as a means of riot control.

The most common criticism from those interviewed for this article is that there isnt enough civilian participation on the various boards that implement these guidelines and hold officers accountable.

Its not enough for us to simply have policy, said Jessica Louise of Indy10. We need to know what happens when inevitably officers violate these policies.

A new Use of Force Review Board will examine use-of-force incidents, but its not yet clear how many civilians will be on that board. And an imperfect process for choosing civilians leaves the possibility that civilian seats  which are supposed to represent the community in holding IMPD accountable  are filled by what Louise called police sympathizers.

City-county councilors Keith Potts and Crista Carlino recently called for a new General Orders Board to replace the current General Orders Committee, which has final say when it comes to department policy.

The new board would include civilians, whereas the current committee includes two appointments from the chief and one appointment from the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP).

As it stands now, activists can give credit to IMPD for the updates to its use-of-force policy while remaining worried the departments bureaucratic functions will limit the effectiveness of any reform.

So all of this basically says IMPD is judging itself, Rozzell said. You dont get any civilian oversight until after all of the decisions have been made.

Contact staff writer Tyler Fenwick at 317-762-7853. Follow him on Twitter @Ty_Fenwick.

Police stand around at the corner of East Washington and South Pennsylvania streets after arresting at least three people May 31, the first night of curfew in Indianapolis. (Photo/Tyler Fenwick)
Lightner We are beyond enthusiastic about Davids addition to the team, which was backed unanimously by the Board, said Board Chair Teresa Radzinski. "He is the right person at the right time to take us to the next level.

The Lightner Museum is thrilled to announce that David Bagnall will join the museum as the new Executive Director on September 8, 2020. The Board retained Sterling Search & Consulting, a Jacksonville-based firm specializing in nonprofits, to conduct this successful national search. The effort was led by Managing Partner Betsy Jacobs.

Bagnall offers substantial leadership experience at premier institutions, most recently as Director of Preservation and Interpretation for the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust in Chicago. His fresh perspective will help the museum expand its current efforts to engage the public in new and innovative ways. He also has an extensive background in formal grant writing and success in developing cultural and philanthropic partnerships.

Previously, Bagnall served as Executive Director of the Driehaus Museum in Chicago, located in the restored Nickerson Mansion. There, he was instrumental in the restoration of this vibrant masterpiece of the Gilded Age, and developed a cohesive master plan to shape the museums future, defining its mission and brand identity while preparing the permanent collection for exhibition. He also handled the Public Art Collection of the City for Chicagos Department of Cultural Affairs.

Bagnall holds a Master of Arts degree from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London.

We are beyond enthusiastic about Davids addition to the team, which was backed unanimously by the Board, said Board Chair Teresa Radzinski. His comprehensive curatorial, architectural, operating and fundraising experience will help us continue to present the Lightners collection in a way that re-engages our community with programs that will highlight its broad appeal. He is the right person at the right time to take us to the next level.

Bagnalls role will include a focus on grant funding for larger programming opportunities and an emphasis on public engagement in the age of COVID, creating a variety of experiences, both virtually and in-person. With 80,000 square feet available for comfortable social distancing, the museum offers a safe, indoor space to take in the beauty of St. Augustines historic art scene. The museums programming boasts many new additions this fall, namely:



Illuminate: Lightner Museum's Stained-Glass Rediscovered features thirteen pieces of the Lightner's newly restored stained-glass collection, including works from Tiffany. The exhibit will open to the public on September 10. The museum worked with RLA Conservation on the restoration with custom light boxes built by Building 4 Fabrication.

The Music Room Mural Competition announced Joshua Cooper, a realist painter living in Jacksonville as the artist who will create the new mural for the back wall of the newly restored music room on the first floor of the museum. The news followed an open call to invite artists to submit a mural concept and design that reflected the history of the museum, the Gilded Age, or the history of music. A mural unveiling event will take place in the fall.

Virtual Gilded Age opening in early Fall 2020 will allow guests the opportunity to design their own Gilded Age mansion using some of the most popular pieces of the Lightner Museum's collection in a new, immersive, digital gallery created by Integrated Visions.

The Lightner Museum is an architectural masterpiece with a compelling story to tell, and I am thrilled to be joining the organization, said Bagnall. I look forward to building connections in the historic community of St. Augustine, and to creating programming that inspires locals and visitors alike. Bagnall will be joined by his wife and daughter as he takes the reigns in his new role.

About the Lightner Museum: For the past 25 years, Lightner Museum has taken on multiple projects and highly acclaimed exhibits such as the Downton Abbey exhibition, Dressing Downton: Changing Fashion for Changing Times and Edgar Degas: The Private Impressionist. Located in the former Alcazar Hotel in St. Augustine, Florida and home to one of the finest collections of 19th century art in the country, the three floors of the museum are unique and represent different genres of artwork. The museum offers a speaker series, curator tours, learning labs, and after-hours events. The Lightner is open seven days a week, 363 days a year from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 75 King Street, St. Augustine, Florida 32084. For General Museum & Donations, email info@lightnermuseum.org or call 904-824-2874.
The three-time Member of Parliament from Ghazipur and a former Union Minister Manoj Sinha, who has been now appointed as the lieutenant governor of Jammu and Kashmir, has also been a front runner for the post of Uttar Pradesh chief minister after the Bharatiya Janata Party won the state assembly elections in 2017. The IIT-BHU alumnus has been quite famous as Vikas Purush (man who focuses on development) among the locals of Ghazipur.

The appointment of Sinha as Lt Governor of Jammu and Kashmir is also seen as a political step by many, as he hails from Bhumihar community which is strong in eastern part of the state and also in the state of Bihar that is due for polls. The former Minister of State for Railways is also considered to be close to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The three-time BJP MP from Ghazipur constituency went for admission in civil engineering at the Benaras Hindu University in mid 1970s during the emergency era. However, soon after Sinha became an active member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidharthi Parishad (ABVP), the youth wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party. By the age of 23, in the year 1982, Sinha stepped into student politics and became the President of BHU.

The Vikas Purush of Ghazipur however went on to fight his first Lok Sabha Election in 1998 from Ghazipur constituency and then repeated his win in 1999. The third time when Manoj Sinha won from Ghazipur Lok Sabha constituency was in the year 2014 during the Modi wave. After which Sinha was appointed as a cabinet minister as well. He was named as the star campaigner of the BJP during the 2017 State Assembly Polls.

The clean image and honesty of Manoj Sinha has always kept him out of any kind of controversy. The civil engineer from BHU is also known for his massive connect with the masses from rural regions.
World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated every year from Aug. 1 to 7 to help raise awareness around the benefits of breastfeeding and encourage mothers to consider the option. Despite the extensive list of benefits breastfeeding has for both mothers and babies, many still question whether or not they should breastfeed. This year, mothers may have additional questions about breastfeeding due to COVID-19. Dr. Cameual Wright, the medical director at CareSource, a nonprofit health plan, has tips and information about breastfeeding to help answer the questions and concerns that mothers may have.

Breastfeeding Benefits for Mother and Baby

The World Health Organization (WHO) actively promotes breastfeeding as the best source of nourishment for infants and young children. Breast milk is specifically formulated for optimal nutrition for your newborn. The composition of breast milk changes to match your babys needs as it grows and its nutritional requirements change. Babies also receive immune support from the antibodies provided in breast milk. Breast milk offers immunity in the early stages of life before a baby can receive vaccinations. In addition to the ample amount of health benefits, breast milk is economically favorable. Especially during COVID-19 when people are paying attention to finances, breast milk offers the best nutrition for free.

Breastfeeding offers benefits to mothers as well. It creates a special bond between mother and baby. Breastfeeding reduces health risks like breast cancer and ovarian cancer. It even burns extra calories and helps many mothers return to their pre-pregnancy weight.

COVID-19s Impact on Breastfeeding

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has raised many questions for mothers and expecting mothers. Many wonder if its safe to breastfeed and risk the spread of COVID-19. If the baby is positive for COVID-19, the mother can breastfeed as she normally would. If a baby is negative for COVID-19 but the mother is positive, the mother should consult her health care provider. Those who are considering breastfeeding their child but worry about the risk should know that there are rare exceptions to when breastfeeding is not recommended, as the benefits almost always outweigh the risks.

Cultural Barriers to Breastfeeding

There are cultural considerations that need to be made when it comes to breastfeeding. Women generally emulate what those in their community do. If breastfeeding is common within their community, they are more likely to breastfeed as well. Black women are not as likely to breastfeed due to these cultural barriers. Cultural barriers in terms of breastfeeding can include less generational knowledge, implicit biases, women from specific cultures receiving less education and encouragement to breastfeed when in the hospital and lack of representation in educational materials. We should strive for culturally appropriate education and representation in the health care spaces and work to grow awareness of and remove implicit biases.

CareSource encourages mothers and expecting mothers to learn more about breastfeeding as it is a major health benefit to both mothers and babies. CareSource provides case management workers who can connect them to resources in their community including lactation consultants. Mothers with questions can use CareSource24, our 24-hour nurse helpline, to ask questions and get advice on questions like these. Lactation consultants are covered by CareSource and can provide mothers with prenatal education and postnatal assistance with breastfeeding.

Visit www.caresource.com for more information about their services for mothers and expecting mothers.

Dr. Cameual Wright is CareSource Indiana medical director.
Ivanka Trump brought in $4 million dollars for her father's re-election campaign in her first virtual fundraiser Wednesday that featured a surprise appearance from President Donald Trump.

The first daughter's return to the fundraising circuit comes as President Trump has lagged behind Democratic rival Joe Biden in fundraising, trailing him in second quarter totals.

Ivanka Trump appeared on the zoom call with Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, a source with knowledge of the fundraiser told DailyMail.com.

During the fundraiser, President Trump made a surprise phone call to Ivanka and spoke briefly to her and the more than 70 donors on the call.

Ivanka Trump brought in $4 million dollars for her father's re-election campaign in her first virtual fundraiser Wednesday

President Donald Trump made a surprise call into the zoom fundraiser to speak to Ivanka Trump and the more than 70 donors - father and daughter are seen together at the White House at a June event

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel was also on the call, which marked Ivanka Trump's return to the high-dollar fundraising circuit

The money from the fundraiser went to the Trump Victory fund - a joint fundraising committee benefiting the president's campaign, the RNC, and roughly two dozen state parties.

Ivanka Trump, who serves as an unpaid adviser in the White House, is the second highest requested fundraiser next to the president, according to the source.

Her $4 million haul tops the $1.7 million that Elizabeth Warren raised for Biden last Friday. But, in June, Warren brought in $6 million for Biden in his largest single-event to date.

With the election less than 100 days away, the competition is heating up and the pressure to fill the campaign coffers is building on both presidential candidates.

Biden beat President Trump in second quarter fundraising: $282 million to $266 million.

Biden's campaign also announced Wednesday night it raised $140 million in July.

But the joint Trump/GOP fundraising committee announced it raised $165 million in July, topping over $1 billion raised for the joint effort. July marked the largest online fundraising month ever for the re-election effort.

'The enthusiasm behind President Trump's re-election continues to grow as July's massive fundraising totals prove,' said Bill Stepien, Trump 2020 campaign manager, in a statement.

Wednesday also marks the beginning of Ivanka Trump's return to fundraising circuit for the campaign cycle.

She will be in Wyoming later this month for a high-dollar fundraiser with prominent GOP businessman Foster Friess.

Friess told CNBC the first daughter, her husband Jared Kushner, Donald Trump Jr. and his girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle will all be at the August 10 event.

Ivanka Trump was a prominent campaign surrogate for her father during the 2016 election and made appearances for several Republican candidates during the 2016 midterm race.

She also joined the president at several campaign rallies in the early part of 2020 before such events ended in March because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Ivanka Trump with President Trump at a campaign rally in Manchester in February 2020

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner - in the center - joined family members Tiffany Trump, Lara Trump, Eric Trump, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Donald Trump Jr. at President Donald Trump's re-election campaign kick off in June 2019 in Orlando

Meanwhile Donald Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle will kick off a long weekend of high-dollar, in-person fundraisers for President Trump's re-election campaign in the Hamptons this Thursday.

President Trump is scheduled to join the posh Long Island fundraisers on Saturday.
Detention of widow of killed St. Petersburg rapper appealed

 The United press service of St. Petersburg courts

11:00 06/08/2020

ST. PETERSBURG, August 6 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov)  Detention of the widow of rapper Alexander Yushko known as Andy Cartwright, Marina Kokhal charged with the husbands murder, has been appealed, according to the information of the website of the St. Petersburg Smolninsky District Court.

Kokhals defense lawyer Sergey Lukyanov arguing the defendants detention stated that experts had not determined the cause of death and if it had a criminal nature.

According to the investigation, on July 29, the woman had a conflict with Yushko and then killed him and dismembered his body in order to further wean it off.

Kokhal pleads not guilty. During the questioning, she said that her husband died from drug overdose.

Yushko known as Andy Cartwright took part in rap battles and released his sole tracks on the Internet.




Ok, we know what you're thinking--"hugging booth in the pandemic...how could this ever be safe?"

Before you get too far along that line of thinking, the hugging booth that a Houston-area couple created is pandemic-safe and has proven to be a new way for seniors in one Woodlands assisted living community to connect to their loved ones.

"They're able to get birthday hugs," Amber Crenshaw said. "Just tears of joy...just smiles, that's what I've seen. Also for family members. You see a decline right now with the residents and the family members, almost like a depression because they're not able to touch and to be involved with each other. So this booth has been the best scenario for right now."

'I'M FLOORED': Spring woman stunned by $3K insurance bill for 3-minute COVID-19 test

Steve and Amber Crenshaw own Handle With Care and work with Assisted Living by Unlimited Care Cottages. The creative couple came up with the idea after family contact was limited due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the owner of Unlimited Care Cottages, Buck Buckholtz, loved the idea.

"Basically we put a hugging booth inside a door," Crenshaw said. "It allows family members to hug and talk."

The innovative booth is designed with a slab of plexiglass with holes for the arms and specialty sleeves. Family members are able to just walk up and give somebody a hug who's inside the booth, by sticking arms in the specialty sleeves and protected holes. Crenshaw said the booths are fully sanitized.

"I had one senior come up to me saying, 'What you're doing is such a good thing.'" Crenshaw said. "They just smile and cry. It brings the tears out on both sides. The staff is able to provide this for them. It's been a real blessing."

Crenshaw said she's already seeing a demand in the hugging booths.

"We've already had several requests for orders. Someone's interested in us making 35," Crenshaw said. "As word gets out, the orders are coming in."

Crenshaw said she's just happy to bring a little uplift and hope into the residents' lives.

"I would say this--it brings back hope and joy," Crenshaw said. "I just feel like there's been so difficult for seniors with the quarantine and regulations. We're doing this to spread joy and hope. That's why we're doing it."

alison.medley@chron.com
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Over 9,30,000 stranded Indians have returned from abroad after the government launched the 'Vande Bharat' evacuation mission on May 7 in view of the coronavirus pandemic, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said on Thursday.

Addressing the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation- National Centre for Good Governance (ITEC-NCGG) Workshop on COVID-19-Good Governance Practices in a Pandemic, Muraleedharan said so far more than 120,000 foreigners belonging to 120 countries have been repatriated from India.

"So far more than 9,30,000 stranded Indians have returned home and now many are going back to the countries where they were working before the pandemic struck. Not only we brought our stranded citizens back but also facilitated repatriation of foreign nationals stuck in India. So far more than 1,20,000 foreigners belonging to 120 countries have been repatriated from India," he was quoted as saying in a statement by the External Affairs Ministry.

He said the government also undertook a number of medical and early responder missions across the world.

"Operation Sanjeevani delivered 6.2 tonnes of essential medicines and hospital consumables to the Maldives. We overcame daunting logistical challenges to supply medicines and medical items to Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Seychelles and the Dominican Republic," he said.

He further said India also deployed Rapid Response medical Teams to help Maldives, Kuwait, Mauritius and Comoros deal with the pandemic.

"India launched Mission SAGAR, under which an Indian Naval Ship Kesari delivered coronavirus related assistance to Maldives, Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros and Seychelles.

This was the first time that a single operation covered all these countries in the region," he added.

On the MEA's prestigious Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programmes meant for capacity building in developing countries, he said they have been reformed and revamped considering the requirements of the changing times and technology.

"As you might be aware, ITEC aims to enhance India's development cooperation with partner countries. eITEC is one of the new modalities for delivery of ITEC programmes in which the learning is shifted to our partner countries and live online training is delivered by Indian faculties through video conferencing," he said.

The MEA has till date organised 10 such COVID-19 related eITEC training webinars in association with premier medical and governance institutions like All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG), etc. in which around 850 trainees from all around the world have participated, Muraleedharan added.

"These eITEC training programmes have been appreciated much and I hope our partner countries would continue to take advantage of them for developing their human resource," he said.
Wilkes is the highest ranked institution in Luzerne County and within the top 25 percent of independent institutions in the nation. Wilkes University is once again being recognized for its commitment to social mobility. In
Amidst the worsening security situation across Nigeria, the U.S. government has advised its citizens not to travel to many states in Nigeria for security reasons.

The reasons include terrorism, kidnapping, civil unrest and maritime crime.

The U.S. government published this advisory on the website of its Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs.

The U.S. advised Americans not to travel to Borno, Yobe and the Northern part of Adamawa State due to terrorism.

Adamawa, Borno and Yobe are the three states most affected by the Boko Haram insurgency that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since 2009 and displaced millions of others.

The U.S. also advised its citizens not to travel to Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, and Yobe states due to kidnappings.

Kidnapping for ransom has become rampant in many Nigerian states including the listed states,

For maritime crimes, civil unrest, kidnapping and other crimes, the consulate listed the coastal areas of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross Rivers, Delta, and Rivers states  with the exception of Port Harcourt  as vulnerable areas.

While giving its summary of Nigeria, the consulate said the country is known for violent crimes such as armed robbery, assault, carjacking, kidnapping, and rape.

Exercise extreme caution throughout the country due to the threat of indiscriminate violence.

Terrorists continue plotting and carrying out attacks in Nigeria, especially in the Northeast. Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting shopping centers, malls, markets, hotels, places of worship, restaurants, bars, schools, government installations, transportation hubs, and other places where crowds gather.

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Sporadic violence occurs between communities of farmers and herders in rural areas.

It also warned that the U.S. government has limited ability to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in many areas of Nigeria due to security conditions.

Apart from the Boko Haram insurgency in Borno and its neighbouring states, armed bandits are also attacking northwestern states randomly, killing and kidnapping people regularly.

Many people have also been killed in renewed violence in Southern Kaduna, Kaduna State.

Amidst the worsening security situation, the Senate (twice) and the House of Representatives have demanded the sack of the service chiefs, who should have retired from the military based on military rules. President Buhari has repeatedly rejected the lawmakers resolutions.

The president said, at a security meeting on Monday, that the military chiefs had done their best despite the security situation. He asked them to do more to resolve the multiple problems but resisted calls for their removal.
(Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp.s talks with TikTok remain focused on buying the Chinese companys operations in the U.S. and three other nations, people familiar with the discussions said, after the Financial Times reported that the software giant was pursuing the entire business.

Talks remain focused on the U.S., Australia, Canada and New Zealand, and the two sides havent expanded the scope of negotiations, the people said, asking not to be named revealing information that isnt public.

On Sunday, Microsoft said it was in talks with ByteDance Ltd., the Chinese owner of TikTok, to buy part of the business in an effort to ward off a U.S. ban by President Donald Trump.

Microsoft and TikTok declined to comment on the FT report.

The U.S. government has threatened to block TikTok over concerns it gathers data on users that could be turned over to the Chinese government. Trump has said TikTok will have to close down in the U.S. by Sept. 15 unless a deal can be reached to sell the domestic assets to an American company. Microsoft has been the only firm to publicly declare it is in active discussions with ByteDance over TikTok.

Cleaving just the U.S. operations off a global app would be particularly challenging. The Financial Times said one reason Microsoft is considering buying the whole operation instead has to do with the difficulty of separating back-office functions and ensuring that people would still be able to use the app when traveling between countries.

One person familiar with the White Houses discussions of TikTok has said its global business would be worth about $50 billion, with its U.S. operations valued at less than that. Analysts and bankers have estimated the U.S. operations at $15 billion to $50 billion.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

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Physician-assisted suicide is sold to the public as a compassionate measure, necessary to spare those with no reasonable chance of recovery the unbearable pain and suffering of the last days of their life. In every context in which it has been made legal, however, what might be called euthanasia-by-another-name has never remained limited to the rare instances on which it was sold.

There are reasons this slope has proven so slippery, literally everywhere it has been made legal. Once it is decided that certain lives are not worth living, the list of people eligible for physician-assisted suicide inevitably grows. As the list of people without intrinsic value grows, it becomes impossible to not re-evaluate lives based on some other criteria, perhaps convenience or financial costs. Its a small step indeed from eligible to die to expected to die.

Wherever doctor assisted suicide is legalized, in a bait-and-switch from what is sold to the public, the category of terminal illness is often expanded to include chronic illnesses and permanent disabilities. Even mental illness and depression are now considered sufficient justification for suicide in places such as Belgium and the Netherlands.

Given this trajectory, its only a matter of time before we dispense with the requirement of any illness whatsoever. In fact, thats what has just happened in the Netherlands. A recently introduced bill there would allow healthy individuals over the age of 75 to request assisted suicide, if they have had a strong death wish for at least two months. The bill, which is expected to be up for a vote sometime in 2021, would, according to the bills sponsor, give the elderly the choice at an advanced age, if [they] consider their lives complete, to die with dignity, with careful help.

Thankfully, the two Christian parties in the governing coalition are strongly opposing the measure, but it will not be easy to keep it from becoming law. After all, the bill is the next logical step in the Dutch trajectory. Having embraced what novelist Walker Percy called Thanatos Syndrome, every promise to limit euthanasia in any way has only been broken, and any so-called safeguards have been swept aside.

For example, the people were promised that only those certifiably in their right minds would be euthanized. That was a lie. Anyone who goes into an American emergency room and tells doctors they had a strong death wish and were done with life would be diagnosed with suicidal ideation and immediately admitted to the psych ward. To not do so, in fact, would be medical malpractice. Suicidal ideation is rightly regarded as a symptom of an underlying mental disorder. People with untreated mental illnesses are not allowed to make life-and-death decisions.

Or at least they werent. In Oregon, since doctor-assisted-suicide was legalized, over 96 percent of people given lethal drugs did not undergo a psychiatric evaluation. To not evaluate is neglect, but if this Dutch bill becomes law, any elderly person who admits suicidal wishes will be referred to those who will help them turn their desires into reality.

This is why, as our recent What Would You Say video so clearly explained, theres nothing compassionate about physician-assisted-suicide. In fact, it is the exact opposite of compassion, the abdication of a civilized peoples responsibility to offer compassion to those who need it most when they need it most.

In his book The Thanatos Syndrome, Walker Percy described how a society devolves to the point of thinking that killing patients instead of healing them is compassionate. A psychiatrist, he wrote of well-trained and exquisitely credentialed doctors who turn their backs on the oath of Hippocrates and kill millions of old useless people, unborn children, born malformed children, for the good of mankind.

Percys literary prophecy, written in 1987, is becoming reality. Some form of assisted suicide is now legal in nine states and the District of Columbia. That number will only grow unless we convince people what true compassion is and make the idea that assisted suicide is compassionate unthinkable.

Come to WhatWouldYouSay.org for the latest video on assisted suicide, and be equipped to make the case. And please, share it with your pastor, community leaders, and legislators. Its literally a life-and-death issue.

Originally posted at breakpoint.org
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Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi gives an exclusive interview to Xinhua on China-U.S. ties in Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 5, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan)

Starting a "diplomatic war" does not prove the strength of the United States, but exposes its increasing lack of confidence, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Wednesday.

The Chinese Consulate-General in Houston was the first consulate-general opened by China in the United States after the establishment of the diplomatic ties, and it was always an important symbol of China-U.S. friendship, Wang said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua.

Closing such a consulate-general that bears both historical and current significance is closing a window for exchange and mutual understanding between the Chinese and Americans, Wang said.

This move has undermined the normal growth of China-U.S. relations and the friendship between the two peoples, he noted.

All the excuses for closure claimed by the U.S. side are nothing but fabrications designed to slander China, and none of the excuses is backed by any evidence or can stand up to scrutiny, Wang said.

China would not swallow the arbitrary and unscrupulous move, and China's countermeasure is legitimate, justified and lawful, which also fully conforms to diplomatic norms, Wang underscored.

China has no intention to fight a "diplomatic war" with the United States as it will only hurt the interests of the two peoples even more, Wang said.

If the United States is bent on going down the wrong path, China is ready to make due response, Wang added.
French President Emmanuel Macron hugs a woman as he visits the Gemayzeh neighborhood, which suffered extensive damage from the explosionTuesday that hit the seaport of Beirut. Read more

BEIRUT  Residents of Beirut vented their fury at Lebanons leaders Thursday during a visit by French President Emmanuel Macron, blaming them for the deadly explosion that ravaged the capital. Shouting, Revolution! they crowded around the visiting leader who promised to press the politicians for reform.

A military judge leading the investigation into Tuesday's blast said 16 employees of Beirut's port, where the explosion took place, had been detained. He said 18 had been questioned, including port and customs officials, according to the state news agency.

But while investigators focus on port officials, many Lebanese put the blame squarely on the political elite and the corruption and mismanagement that even before the disaster had pushed the country to the brink of economic collapse.

The Cabinet was previously warned by a security agency that a stockpile of explosive chemicals stored at the port was dangerous, Lebanons customs chief told the Associated Press  a report that could raise questions of high-level neglect.

That stockpile of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate set off the massive blast, apparently when touched off by a fire at the port. The chemical had been left sitting in a warehouse ever since it was confiscated from an impounded cargo ship in 2013.

The explosion, powerful enough to be felt in Cyprus across the Eastern Mediterranean, killed more than 130 people, wounded thousands and blasted buildings for miles around. Two days later, some 300,000 people  more than 12% of Beiruts population  cant return to their homes, officials estimate. Damaged hospitals are still struggling to deal with the wounded. Dozens are still missing. Officials have estimated losses at $10 billion to $15 billion.

Furthermore, the disaster struck at a time when peoples savings have melted away, and unemployment and poverty have mounted in the financial crisis. Few have capacity to rebuild homes and businesses, and the government is scraping for dollars.

After talks with Lebanese leaders, Frances Macron announced his country will organize a conference in the next few days with European, American, Middle Eastern and other donors to raise money for food, medicine, housing and other urgent aid.

But he warned Lebanons political elite that he wouldnt give blank checks to a system that no longer has the trust of its people. He called on them to create a new political order.

He promised a clear and transparent governance so that the aid goes directly to the population and aid groups.

In startling scenes, Macron  whose country once was Lebanons colonial ruler  presented himself as a champion for the Lebanese to push change on their leadership.

After visiting the devastated port, Macron walked through one of the worst-hit neighborhoods, Gemmayzeh, down a street lined with wrecked buildings.

On the narrow street, a crowd gathered around him and shouted their anger, chanting, Revolution! and The people want to bring down the regime!  slogans used at mass protests last year.

Macron told them he would propose a new political pact when he met the government later. Then, he added, I will be back on the first of September and if they cant do it, I will keep my responsibility toward you. He also promised that French aid would be given out with transparency and will not go into the hands of corruption.

One woman shouted at Macron, You are sitting with warlords. They have been manipulating us for the past year. He replied, Im not here to help them. Im here to help you. They then hugged.

Notably, none of Lebanons top politicians have toured residential areas damaged by the blast, though President Michel Aoun and others did visit the port. Hours after Macron left Gemmayzeh, Justice Minister Marie-Claude Najm tried to visit, only to be driven out by protesters.

Resign, you criminal! Would you accept anything less if your sister were among those killed? one protester shouted at her. As she was about to respond, another sprayed her with a water hose. She left as protesters chanted, Revolution! and Resign.

Beiruts hospitals remained overwhelmed by the wounded, and there were fears of a spike in coronavirus cases.

In one hospital, 4-month-old Sophie Ajoury, perhaps the smallest survivor of Tuedsays blast, was fighting for her life. She suffered head injuries while breastfeeding from her mother near a window with the shock wave hit.

Her nurse said external bleeding had stopped, and the baby girl was awake and eating, and they were monitoring her condition for internal bleeding.

Emergency aid was starting to come into Lebanon, with European, Arab and Asian countries sending doctors, medical supplies or field hospitals. The United Nations said Thursday it was releasing $9 million from its emergency fund for Lebanon to strengthen hospitals and intensive care units.

However, the international community has been reluctant in past years to offer support to the notoriously dysfunctional government.

The same factions  and in most cases the same figures  have ruled Lebanon since the 1975-1990 civil war, including Iranian-backed Hezbollah. Almost all public institutions are divided up among the factions, which use them as patronage generators for themselves and their supporters. That means they tend to turn a blind eye to corruption, petty or major, and little actual development is put into the institutions. Even basic services like electricity and trash collection are a shambles.

For more than a decade, officials, watchdog groups and Lebanons media have reported on widespread corruption at the Port of Beirut, including bribery and hiding of merchandise from custom duties or taxes. One former finance minister has said corruption at the port cost the state more than $1 billion a year in revenues.

The investigation into the blast is focusing on how the chemical stockpile came to be stored in the ports Warehouse 12 and why it was never dealt with. Authorities have promised to issue results within days, and President Michel Aoun promised whoever was responsible would be punished.

Lead investigator, military judge Fadi Akki, said 16 port employees have been detained and 18 people have been questioned so far, all port and customs officials as well as those in charge of maintenance at the warehouse where the ammonium nitrate was stored.

The investigators on Friday will interview the ports general manager, Hassan Koraytem, and Ghazi Aridi, who was public works and transport minister in 2013, when the ship was impounded, a person familiar with the investigation said. The Central Bank also froze the bank accounts of several figures, including Koraytem and the head of the customs department, Badri Daher.

Daher told the AP that State Security, one of Lebanons main security agencies, had been investigating the stockpile over the past year. During that investigation, State Security sent reports to the Cabinet, state prosecutor and other state institutions about the danger of the material.

Security officials were not immediately available for comment. But if correct, it would be the first evidence that top level officials were notified of the danger so close to residential areas.

Daher confirmed to the AP that he had sent a letter in 2017 to a judge warning of the danger from the ammonium nitrate and asking for guidance on what to do with the material. He said he and his predecessor sent six letters but never got a response.

I dont know who they answered but we did not get any answers, he said, adding that it wasnt his job to deal with the stockpile but that he sent the letters out of safety concerns.

He said the port is run by an agency known as the Management and Investment of Port of Beirut. Asked if it took any measures, he said, No, because had they done anything the problem would have had been solved.
Goelitz started making Jelly Belly brand jelly beans in 1976, although Reagan was a fan of their original mini-jelly beans while kicking a pipe-smoking habit during his stint as governor of California, according to the Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. The company had a manufacturing plant in the San Francisco Bay Area and sent a monthly shipment to his office during his two terms as governor.
South Bengal Frontier of BSF on Wednesday (July 5) busted a human trafficking network which was involved in infiltrating people into the Indian territory from Bangladesh. A total of 18 people, including 17 Bangladeshis who were trying to infiltrate and one Indian tout - were nabbed by the BSF jawans from the zero line in West Bengal's Nadia district.

As per the inputs shared by the Intelligence Branch of BSF, jawans were keeping a close watch on the Indo-Bangla border in Nadia district of West Bengal when they noticed suspicious movements around the zero line.

In the first instance, suspicious movement was noticed by the Post Commander of Border Out Post (BOP) Jhorpara during Zero Line Border Patrolling. The jawans later apprehended three persons and a child.

After noticing suspicious movement, we challenged suspected people who were hiding themselves in a banana orchard and asked them to surrender. Instead, they tried to flee but the alert jawans chased them and apprehended four people including a child, said a senior official of BSF South Bengal Frontier.



On preliminary questioning, the apprehended persons revealed the names of touts who were involved in assisting them to cross the International Border (IB) and infiltrate into the Indian territory. The apprehended persons also revealed that they paid a sum of Rs.12000 per person to the tout who was helping them cross over into India. These people were to further travel to Hyderabad and the tout was supposed to help them find work there. They paid Rs.12,000 for each of them, added the official.

In another incident, suspicious movement was noticed at the Kumari BOP in Nadia district of West Bengal and 14 people including five children were were nabbed while trying to cross into India from the Bangladesh side.

Upon receipt of intelligence input, the Company Commander of BOP - Kumari planned a special patrol and simultaneously alerted all the Observation Posts. Troops deployed at the Observation Post, intercepted an auto on the Indo-Bangladesh Border Road carrying nine persons and four persons were walking behind the auto in a suspicious manner at around 10am on Wednesday. Immediately, they were all apprehended," said a BSF official.

On preliminary questioning, the apprehended persons revealed the names of Indian touts assisting them. They further revealed that they paid Rs.1500 per person to the touts, added the official.

During the search, some personal belongings, Bangladeshi Rupees and Indian Rupees were recovered from them. All the apprehended persons along with their belongings were handed over to PS Hanskhali after lodging FIR against the defaulters for further investigation, the BSF senior official said.
Chanel's iconic No.5, a scent described as a 'holiday in a bottle' and a fragrance that took three years to create are among the most popular perfumes of all time, Glamour magazine has revealed.

The British publication rounded up the world's 10 best-selling fragrances which have achieved cult status with their instantly recognisable scents, perfectly balanced blends and signature bottles - and all are available in Australian department stores.

Parisian beauty labels dominated the list, with Chanel's Coco Mademoiselle ($134) and No.5 ($123), and Yves Saint Laurent's Libre ($109) and Black Opium ($101) taking four of the top spots.

Chanel No.5 enjoys an unrivalled 100-year legacy as the world's most identifiable scent, with its elegant mix of jasmine, bergamot, lemon and rose.

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Chanel's iconic No.5 (left) and Yves Saint Laurent's edgy Black Opium (right) are among the world's most popular perfumes, according to Glamour magazine

The iconic fragrance is worn by some of the world's biggest stars, including Celine Dion and French actress Catherine Deneuve.

Equally popular but distinctly edgier is Yves Saint Laurent's Black Opium, made from a sultry blend of coffee, pink pepper, jasmine and cedar which has been dubbed 'the epitome of rock'n'roll'.

Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen is a famous fan of Black Opium.

Estee Lauder's Bronze Goddess, widely referred to as 'a holiday in a bottle'

Chanel's Coco Mademoiselle (left) and Lancome's La Vie Est Belle (right), which famously took three years and more than 5,000 versions to perfect

The world's most popular perfumes - Chanel No.5 ($123 - $240) - Yves Saint Laurent Black Opium ($101 - $225) - Chanel Coco Mademoiselle ($134 - $240) - Lancome La Vie Est Belle ($108 - $150) - Giorgio Armani Si ($100 - $245) - Paco Rabanne Lady Million ($99) - Jo Malone London Pomegranate Noir ($204) - Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess ($135) - Yves Saint Laurent Libre ($109 - $185) - Dior Miss Dior ($99 - $169) - Viktor and Rolf Flowerbomb ($105 - $215) All available from David Jones, Myer and Chemist Warehouse. Advertisement

Fellow Parisian cosmetics giant Lancome also featured, with its floral-based La Vie Est Belle ($108) which famously took three years and more than 5,000 versions to perfect.

French fashion house Dior's 'Miss Dior' ($99) made the cut, with its sensual but sophisticated fusion of Turkish rose, mandarin and amber at a unusually affordable price.

Spanish and Italian brands were recognised for their creations, with Paco Rabanne's 'Lady Million' ($99) and Giorgio Armani's Si ($100) among the best-sellers.

Dior's Miss Dior (left) and Paco Rabanne's Lady Million (right)

The only American label to feature was Estee Lauder, who bagged a top spot with its Bronze Goddess, widely referred to as a 'holiday in a bottle'.

Also on the list was Jo Malone's Pomegranate Noir ($204), described as a 'captivating' blend of lime basil, patchouli and lily, and Dutch brand Viktor and Rolf's Flowerbomb ($105).

The 'glamorous' fragrance is fresh and sweet thanks to jasmine, bergamot and green tea, according to an overview on the brand's website.
A day after a man was robbed and killed, and his friend grievously injured, by three unidentified men in west Delhis Tilak Nagar, police on Thursday said they have arrested all three and detained a juvenile accomplice.

Police said the attack was planned as a revenge by one of the arrested suspects, who was an employee of the man who survived the attack and was sacked recently.

The man who planned the attack was identified as Sonu Singh, 19, and he used to work at the packaged food distribution agency run by the injured man, Dheeraj, until a few months ago. His associates were identified as Kawaljeet Kumar, 19, previously involved in six criminal cases, and Anil Bahadur, 19 -- all residents of Tilak Nagar.

While one juvenile accomplice was also apprehended, police said theyre on the lookout for another suspect, Kuldeep Prakash, who is on the run and was previously involved in a murder and robbery case in Vikas Puri.

According to the police, a call was received at the Tilak Nagar police station at 11.29pm reporting that a few men had stabbed two men at Block 24 in Tilak Nagar and had fled towards Mall Road. A police team reached the spot found that the injured persons had already been taken to Deen Dayal Upadhyay hospital. While one of the injured men, Ranjan Mishra, 25, who had sustained stab wounds to his right thigh, was pronounced dead at the hospital, his friend Dheeraj, who was also critically injured, survived and is undergoing treatment. His condition continues to be critical due to excessive bleeding, said a police officer, who did not want to be named.

Additional deputy commissioner of police (west) Sameer Sharma said one of the eyewitnesses, who helped shift the injured to DDU hospital, told the police that he had seen three men attacking the duo and then fleeing on a motorcycle.

The eyewitness said the injured also told him that they have been robbed of their laptop, mobile phone and 45,000 cash. A case of robbery and murder was registered and the investigation was taken up, Sharma said.

He said, after hours of scanning CCTV footage, technical surveillance, local enquiries and verification of least 50 active criminals, the suspects were identified as residents of Tilak Nagar. Our teams raided their hideouts and arrested them. Of the money they had stolen, 24,640 was recovered along with a knife used in the murder, the additional DCP said.

Sharma said, during interrogation, Sonu revealed that he used to be an employee of Dheeraj at the latters shop. He said they had gotten into a dispute over salary and Dheeraj had sacked him. When Sonu told his juvenile friend about Dheeraj, he introduced him to Kawaljeet, Anil and Kuldeep. As Sonu had also told them that Dheeraj leaves for his house every night with a daily collection of about 50,000, they hatched a plan to rob Dheeraj, he said.

The officer said, as planned, the juvenile suspect followed Dheeraj and Ranjan as soon as they left the shop around 10.30pm Tuesday. When they reached Choukhandi Chowk, the juvenile informed Sonu, Kanwaljeet and Anil, who intercepted the duo near Block 24 to rob them. But when the two men fought back, the trio stabbed both of them and fled with their valuables, Sharma said. He said Kuldeep had helped the trio in carrying out the crime and several police teams are currently searching for him..
Germany will introduce mandatory coronavirus tests for travellers returning from designated risk zones from Saturday, the country's health minister said.

Having announced the measure last week, minister Jens Spahn said it would take effect from this weekend, as fears grow over rising case numbers blamed on summer holidays and local outbreaks.

"It is already the case that travellers from risk zones are obliged to either go into a two-week quarantine or provide an up-to-date negative test result," he said at a press conference Thursday.

From Saturday, "travellers entering Germany will have to bring a test result with them or be tested on arrival", he added, confirming once again that the tests would be paid for by the government.

Germany's list of "risk zones" currently includes most non-EU countries, as well as certain provinces in Belgium and Spain.

The country's 16 states agreed last month on free tests for all returning travellers, but had stopped short of making the tests mandatory.

Spahn said however that that imposing tests was "the safe option".

"I appreciate that this is an infringement on individual freedom, but I think it is a justifiable one," he said.

Germany has fared relatively well in the coronavirus crisis so far, and pupils began returning to schools in parts of the country this week.

But a recent rise in cases widely attributed to Germans returning from holiday has sparked concern in recent weeks, with Spahn among those urging Germans not to become complacent.

On Thursday, the Robert Koch Institute for public health recorded 1,045 new cases in the previous 24 hours, the highest daily toll since the beginning of May.

More info here
Goiania: Chief Aritana Yawalapiti, one of Brazil's most influential Indigenous leaders who led the people of Upper Xingu in central Brazil and helped create an Indigenous reserve there, has died from COVID-19.

His death underscores the threat that Brazil's Indigenous people are facing from the coronavirus pandemic that has spread to their vulnerable communities, infecting thousands and killing hundreds.

Victim of COVID-19: Aritana Yawalapiti, Indigenous chief of the Yawalapiti people of the Xingu, Amazon state, in Brazil.

One of the most traditional Indigenous leaders in Central Brazil, Aritana led the people of the Upper Xingu and was one of the last speakers of the language of his tribe, Yawalapiti.

He worked with the indianist Villas-Boas brothers to create the Xingu National Park, the first vast protected Indigenous area in the Amazon where 16 tribes live.
Other than the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 series, Samsung has also unveiled the Galaxy Z Fold 2 foldable smartphone as well as well as the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 series. While not much is known in regards to the Malaysia release date of the device, Samsung did mention that tablet will most likely be available in selected markets very soon.

In terms of the tech specs, the Z Fold 2 comes equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus, 12GB of RAM, 512GB of internal storage, and a 4356mAh internal battery which supports 15W fast charging. The device will also come with a 7.6-inch foldable 120Hz display with HDR10+, and a secondary 6.2-inch Super AMOLED display.

Camera-wise, the foldable device has a 64MP + 12MP + 16MP triple rear camera and two separate 10MP selfie cameras which are located on the foldable display, as well as the Super AMOLED display. As for the colour options, it will be available in Mystic Black, Mystic Bronze, as well the Thom Browne Edition for a little extra.

Other than the Z Fold 2, theres also the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 series which consists of the Galaxy Tab S7, as well as the Tab S7 Plus, which are priced at USD349 (~RM2720) and USD849 (~RM3559) respectively. Similar to the device mentioned previously, theres no official information in regards to the Malaysia release date and local pricing for now. On to the tech specs, the Tab S7 comes with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus, up to 256GB internal storage, 11-inch IPS 120Hz display with HDR10+ support, and a huge 7040mAh internal battery.

The Galaxy Tab S7 Plus, on the other hand, comes with largely the same specs except for a larger 12.4-inch 120Hz AMOLED display with HDR10+ support, in-display fingerprint sensor, and a much larger 10090mAh internal battery.

With all that said, would you be interested in getting either the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 or Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 as soon as it is available in Malaysia? Let us know on our Facebook page and for more updates like this, stay tuned to TechNave.com.
Tamil Nadu: Government begins deployment of artificial reefs along Chennai coast to support marine life

by SV Krishna Chaitanya

August 06,2020 | Source: The New Indian Express

The Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday began a major exercise to deploy artificial reefs along the Chennai coast. A total of 30 sites have been chosen in Chennai, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur and Chengalpattu districts for the purpose. Fisheries minister D Jayakumar flagged off and personally supervised the deployment of 200 units of artificial reefs over three nautical miles off the Urur Kuppam fishing village in Besant Nagar.



The idea is to revive traditional fishing grounds of small fishermen and create a cluster of artificial reefs, which act as natural breakwaters by reducing wave energy, along the coast with the focus on fragile coastal stretches as Tamil Nadu is experiencing increasing recurrence of extreme weather events and erosion of beaches.



The concept is nothing new for Tamil Nadu. Since 2006, the Department of Fisheries has deployed artificial reefs in 35 coastal sites spread across eight districts and later in 2014, the International Funding for Agricultural Development (IFAD) assisted the Post Tsunami Sustainable Livelihoods Programme of Department of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj to deploy reefs in six coastal sites, both with technical assistance of the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI).



GS Sameeran, director of fisheries, told The New Indian Express that the government has approved two projects. "The government has accorded permission for installing artificial reefs in 30 locations off shore of Chennai and the neighboring districts, which were affected in the 2017 oil spill. The restoration claim of Rs 10 crore received from insurers of shipping companies is being used for implementation of the project."



As per the GO, the insurers of two merchant ships BW Maple and MT Dawn Kancheepuram that collided off the Ennore coast resulting in a massive oil spill have deposited Rs 141 crore, including the restoration claim of Rs 10 crore, besides providing a bank guarantee of Rs 84 crore.



"The compensation received has been disbursed to the affected fishermen of Chennai, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram. Further, as a measure to improve the coastal marine fishery resources through stock enhancement, it has been proposed to deploy artificial reefs in the coastal villages of these three districts," Sameeran said. Later, another project costing Rs 18 crore under the Gaja Rehabilitation Project was sanctioned where artificial reefs would be installed at different offshore locations from Cuddalore to Ramanathapuram covering the entire east coast of Tamil Nadu.



CMFRI scientist Joe K Kizhakudan, who was offering technical support to the fisheries ministry for the project, told The New Indian Express that a combination of three types of artificial reef modules - Grouper, Fish and Crustacean - were used. "These modules would start supporting life (growth of corals) from the third month and would take two years to mature and stabilise. These structures are known to act as a perfect habitat for marine life which helps in augmenting the productivity of the marine ecosystem. It increases the available area for food, shelter and breeding activities for fishes and other marine organisms. It also enhances the fish production through increased breeding activity and increases the survival of young ones."



Kizhakudan said the deployment activity would continue till the end of this month to cover all the 30 sites provided the weather cooperates. "Each day, about 200 units would be dumped into the sea weighing close to 150 tonnes." The fisheries director said a safety mechanism would be developed to protect these sites from trawler boats.
Shortages of some types of oral contraceptive medication have been reported in Australia and New Zealand, as experts warn remaining stock could run out by September.

The medications Norimin, Brevinor, and Norinyl are listed as unavailable on the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration website, with some not expected to be available again until December.

Pharmac, the medicine regulator in New Zealand, has also listed Brevinor and Noramin as in short supply, with Norimin already out of stock and Brevinor to run out in August.

Certain types of oral contraceptive medication has become unavailable in Australia and New Zealand, as experts warn remaining stock could run out by September (stock image)

The agencies advise that while some chemists may have enough of the birth control medications in stock to fill prescriptions, supply will be sparse and inconsistent.

More than 14,000 women in Australia are estimated to use the medication, while in New Zealand there are more than 9,000 users.

According to the TGA website a manufacturing issue is responsible for the shortage.

The medicines are manufactured by global giant Pfizer and contain the active ingredients norethisterone and ethinylestradiol.

Pfizer has reportedly explained the shortage is because the company is upgrading manufacturing equipment on packaging and implementing additional lines.

Authorities have advised women using these oral contraceptives to speak to their doctor about switching to an alternative medicine, with many available.

'We have worked closely with Pfizer to try to avoid this situation, including looking for an alternative brand, but it has not been possible to source a chemically equivalent medicine to bring into New Zealand', says PHARMAC's director of operations, Lisa Williams.

'We realise this short supply situation will be disruptive for some people and we encourage people taking Brevinor-1 28 Day, who need more supplies of this medicine, to go back to their prescriber to discuss an alternative contraceptive option.'

Daily Mail Australia has contacted the TGA, Pharmac, and Pfizer for comment.

Authorities have advised women using these pills to speak to their doctor about switching to an alternative medicine, with many available (stock image)
The mother of PC Andrew Harper has said she saw her sons killers laughing and joking in court, saying they showed no remorse for their actions.

Debbie Adlam said she didnt see any remorse from the trio who killed her son, during an interview with Good Morning Britain in which she launched her campaign for harsher sentences for people who kill police officers.

She said her sons killers were laughing, they were joking, they were chatting to each other, their mics werent even switched on and I dont understand how thats appropriate.

Read More: PC Andrew Harper's heartbroken wife shares emotional statement as killers jailed

Adlams campaign is aiming to implement Andrews law to increase the minimum sentence for killing a police officer to 20 years.

PC Harper died from horrific injuries last year after he tried to stop three teenagers from stealing a quad bike, only for his ankle to be caught in a strap attached to the thieves getaway car. He was dragged to his death.

Deborah Adlam, the mother of PC Andrew Harper. (PA)

The driver, Henry Long, 19, was sentenced to 16 years in jail, while 18-year-olds Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers were handed 13-year sentences.

Adlam, 53, said: Weve come to realise that, with the outcome of the trial as it stands, something needs to change.

He is worth much more than this, and weve been thinking for some time that something needs to be brought in to protect our police officers.

PC Andrew Harper. (PA)

Theres nobody looking out for them, and we aim to change that.

Adlam added: Were looking to bring in a minimum term  20 years. No parole, no reductions.

On Tuesday, the Attorney Generals Office confirmed that it has been asked to consider if the jail terms handed to PC Harpers killers are too lenient.

Currently defendants under the age of 21 receive lower sentences but Adlam believes this should end.

She said: As far as their age and the reductions go, my personal thoughts are there is no sense whatsoever in being 18 or 19 and getting time off your sentence.

Story continues

Photos issued by Thames Valley Police of (left to right), Henry Long, 19, Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers, both 18, who are all to be sentenced for the death of Pc Andrew Harper. (PA)

My gut turns when I think about that because you can change your gender, you can get a mortgage, you can serve in the Army, and the thing that really bugs me is you can be on a jury  yet you are not treated as an adult until youre 21 in the judicial system.

That cant be right.

PC Harpers widow, Lissie Harper, has launched her own campaign, backed by the Police Federation of England and Wales, for full-life prison terms for those who kill emergency services workers.

She said: As a widow of a police officer  a title which I would give everything to not have  I have witnessed first-hand the lenient and insufficient way in which the justice system deals with criminals who take the lives of our emergency workers.

The people responsible for wreaking utter despair and grief in all of our lives will spend an inadequate amount of time behind bars.

Lissie Harper, the widow of PC Andrew Harper. (PA)

These men who showed no remorse, no guilt or sorrow for taking such an innocent and heroic life away will find themselves able to live out the rest of their lives free and able to commit more crimes and continue to put people in danger when they are released in a very small number of years.

Mrs Harper is due to meet Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel in the next few weeks.

Since 2015, the starting point for a judge sentencing an adult over the age of 21 who has been convicted of murdering a police or prison officer is a whole life sentence.

The judge then has to take into account the factors around the case before deciding to pass a life sentence with a minimum jail term or a whole life order.

A Ministry of Justice source told PA that the Justice Secretary will set out his proposals for sentencing reform later this year, adding: No stone will be left unturned, and we will look at everything from community orders up to sentences for serious violent crime.
EATONTOWN, N.J., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Caregility, a clinical collaboration and communications company moving the access point of care closer to the patient, and Oneview Healthcare, a care experience company focused on providing digital tools for patients and care teams, announce a partnership to deliver Caregility's telehealth applications on Oneview's Care Experience Platform in the US and Australia.

With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing, inpatient telehealth capability is a critical part of virtual care programs for healthcare systems. Strategic infrastructure is required to replace the tactical solutions deployed in the early days of the crisis. This partnership will enable customers to scale inpatient telehealth across their hospitals cost-effectively, enabling virtual rounding, virtual consults and virtual visitation by friends and family while mitigating virus spread within the hospital.

The partnership will initially make Caregility's iConsult Mobile Bedside application, a purpose-built tool for the unique requirements of inpatient telehealth, available on Oneview's Android touchscreen devices. iConsult enables clinicians to connect virtually over a secure, HIPAA compliant video connection to patients. Auto-answer capability enables virtual rounding without requiring the patient to answer a call or a staff member to enter the room to launch the call, reducing staff exposure and PPE use. Clinicians can invite guests such as family members or interpreters  or both  directly into video calls, helping providers keep families and care teams connected amid visitation restrictions.

Oneview customers will benefit from access to Caregility's versatile telehealth platform leveraging their Oneview equipment, expanding telehealth services in the acute setting. The partnership will enable Caregility customers to scale their inpatient telehealth capabilities on Oneview's cost-effective bedside hardware. The partnership marks the latest step in Caregility's international expansion into Australian and Middle Eastern markets to meet the growing need for telehealth solutions that can keep healthcare workers safe and patients engaged as the world grapples with challenges brought on by the pandemic.

"All of our customers have sought virtual care solutions during the COVID-19 pandemic to enable communication with patients," said Oneview's CEO, James Fitter. "Our partnership with Caregility will allow us to offer an end-to-end virtual care solution, designed specifically for clinician and patient needs. Caregility's dedicated healthcare focus aligns with our own and we target the same customer segment  leading healthcare systems - making them the ideal partner."

"This partnership provides a way for healthcare providers in the US and Australia to quickly expand remote observation and interaction with patients while limiting the need for staff to enter the room," said Caregility's President and COO, Mike Brandofino. "We are happy to partner with Oneview to help our customers protect caregivers from exposure while increasing the ability to provide care for patients remotely, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic."

If you are interested in learning more about how Caregility and Oneview can help your organization scale inpatient telehealth, please contact us at [email protected] or [email protected].

About Caregility

Caregility ( www.caregility.com ) is a clinical collaboration and communications company moving the access point of care closer to the patient. Leveraging over eight years of experience in clinical environments, Caregility's core telehealth offering, the UHE Platform, is a purpose-built ecosystem for the entire healthcare continuum. The UHE Platform provides secure, reliable two-way audio and video communication designed for any device and clinical workflow, in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Today, Caregility supports over 6,500 access points of care systems across the U.S. From ambulatory/acute/ICU/post-acute care settings to virtual care operation centers to patients in the home, Caregility is helping transform patient care delivery. Follow Caregility on Twitter @caregility.

About Oneview Healthcare

For healthcare systems who lead on exemplary care, Oneview Healthcare (www.oneviewhealthcare.com) provides digital tools for patients, families and caregivers to improve the care experience. Unifying a facility's systems, content and services into one digital Care Experience Platform at the point of care, Oneview helps providers to measure and improve experience, optimize patient flow, deliver virtual care and enable patients and families with dedicated touch and TV devices. Oneview has partnered with leading healthcare systems in the US, Australia, the Middle East and Asia to unify the care experience, in 55 hospitals across 18 cities. Follow Oneview on Twitter @oneviewhc.

SOURCE Caregility

Related Links

https://caregility.com


With predictions of increased outbreaks in the coming months, and early reports of COVID-19 clusters at other higher education institutions, we simply cannot put our on-campus residential students in harms way and risk further disruption to them and their families if they needed to move home mid-semester because of an outbreak in one of our residence halls or if the city reverts back to phase three.
SARATOGA SPRINGS  A testing method pioneered by Saratoga Hospital in the Capital Region is being encouraged nationwide after a pilot program showed it can preserve desperately needed supplies and reduce the time and labor that goes into COVID-19 testing.

The method, known as pool or batch testing, involves combining samples taken from multiple people who are considered low risk for the disease into a single vial for testing. If the test comes back negative, everyone whose sample was in the vial is considered negative. If it comes back positive, each person must be retested individually.

Now in its fifth month of pool testing, Saratoga Hospital has tested samples from 3,300 people this way and seen fewer than 1 percent come back positive. Roughly 2,300 high-demand test cartridges were saved in the process, as were countless pieces of personal protective gear.

We knew in principle that pooled testing could work for infectious disease testing, said Richard Vandell, administrative director of the hospitals laboratory services. Its been done in a number of settings over the years. But when we thought about doing it ourselves, at that time there really wasnt much information about COVID-19 pooled testing.

The approach was first reported in Germany and the University of Nebraska this spring. In April, Saratoga Hospital became the first to pilot it locally, spurred in large part by its desire to reassure staff and the community at large by testing every patient who walked through its door.

Weve seen during the peak of the COVID epidemic a lot of people who wouldnt come to the hospital because they were afraid, said Dr. David Mastrianni, senior vice president of the hospitals Medical Group. We wanted to tell the community its safe to come here.

Supply chain issues made mass testing difficult, though. The hospital had already seen shortages of nasopharyngeal swabs used to collect samples and viral transport media used to move them. It was able to get around this by making its own transport media and found a 3D printing operation to manufacture the swabs.

By the time we started to see shortages with the cartridges, we were very used to finding workarounds for these issues, Vandell said.

To conduct pool testing, the hospital sought emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration to shorten what would normally be a lengthy validation and approval process. It also consulted with the state Wadsworth Laboratorys virology lab for advice and feedback.

Key to the methods success was making sure the samples came from people who were unlikely to have the novel coronavirus, Mastrianni said.

You could end up actually using more cartridges if you put high-risk patients in the pool because if they test positive you have to then go back and individually test everyone, he said.

Emergency room staff were trained in how to screen a patients risk level, and anyone deemed low risk was selected for pool testing, he said. During the pilot, a maximum of three unique samples were combined in a vial. That number has since risen to five, though Vandell said if infection rates were to rise they would consider reducing the pool size.

Results from the pilot were published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Hospital Medicine last month. From April 17 to May 11, the hospital conducted 530 unique patient tests using 179 cartridges. Just four of the tests came back positive, requiring the hospital to re-test 11 patients individually. All told, the hospital used 190 cartridges and saved 340 cartridges. None of the patients from the negative pool developed virus symptoms during their hospitalization.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

There were also clinical benefits: With results typically back in under two hours, patients could be sorted into COVID and non-COVID units much quicker than they would have otherwise, reducing potential exposures in the ER and saving on personal protective equipment.

Had we not done this pool testing we would have had to give up our strategy of testing all the admitted patients, and for us that was a very important strategy, Mastrianni said. We really based a lot of the hospital operations around that strategy and we think it helped patient care and made the staff feel much better.

Mastrianni and Vandell predict pooled testing for COVID-19 will become more common as people return to schools and workplaces and demand for mass testing increases. Other area hospitals have reached out to the hospital about the method, and have begun using it to test patients pre-surgery, they said.

On Thursday, local state Assemblymembers Angelo Santabarbara, Jim Tedisco and Mary Beth Walsh called on Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to create a statewide testing plan for anyone returning to school, and urged him to consider Saratoga Hospitals pool testing method as a way to save money and supplies.

On Saturday, the FDA issued interim guidance for providers and laboratories interested in trying pool testing, but reminded them it should only be used in areas or situations where the number of positive test results is expected to be low, such as communities with low infection rates.

There seems to be a lot of interest in trying to make this more widely available, Vandell said. Youre starting to hear about it more in the national conversation. Most laboratories that experience that supply pressure are looking into all sorts of ways to expand their capacity, so I think well see more applications of this as the pandemic progresses.
Cybereason, a leader in endpoint security, and deepwatch, a leading provider of intelligence driven managed security services, today announced a partnership to help security operations teams protect enterprises from advanced cyber threats through a new Managed Endpoint Detection & Response (MEDR) solution.

We are excited to partner with deepwatch and help protect our mutual clients in an increasingly interconnected world. Deepwatchs MEDR service powered by Cybereason provides our joint customers with world class threat detection and remediation tools which allow deepwatchs security analysts to drive faster responses and reduce mean-time-to-repair, said Gary Kevelson, Global Head, MSS Strategy and Program, Cybereason. With deepwatchs new MEDR service, joint customers can quickly implement, administer and receive value from a fully managed EDR solution.

The joint MEDR solution gives security analysts and operations teams the industrys deepest visualized cloud services and the ability to stop targeted attacks. Security analysts can stay ahead of advanced threats because Cybereason delivers an industry-leading ratio of one analyst to 150,000 endpoints, compared to the industry benchmark of one analyst to 20,000 endpoints.

Cybereason is an innovative leader in the endpoint market and has the industrys best cloud-based EDR solution, and we are thrilled to be working with them to deliver a new MEDR service to our joint customers, said Corey Bodzin, CTO, deepwatch. Our labs team recently reviewed a variety of Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR) products and Cybereason was the best of all of them.

About deepwatch

deepwatch secures enterprises via its unique, highly automated cloud based SOC platform backed by a world class team of experts that protect your network and digital assets 24/7/365. deepwatch extends your team and proactively improves your cybersecurity posture via our proprietary maturity model. deepwatch's managed security services are trusted by leading global organizations. Learn more at https://www.deepwatch.com

About Cybereason

Cybereason, creators of the leading Cybereason Defense Platform, gives the advantage back to the defender through a completely new approach to cybersecurity. Cybereason offers endpoint prevention, detection and response and active monitoring. The solution delivers multi-layered endpoint prevention by leveraging signature and signatureless techniques to prevent known and unknown threats in conjunction with behavioral and deception techniques to prevent ransomware and fileless attacks. Cybereason is a privately held, international company, headquartered in Boston, MA with customers in more than 30 countries.

Learn more: https://www.cybereason.com

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Media Contacts:

Bill Keeler

Senior Director, Global Public Relations

Cybereason

bill.keeler@cybereason.com

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We know for sure children are less likely to fall seriously ill from the coronavirus, and emerging evidence suggests they're less likely to be infected too; what's less clear is how much they spread the virus once infected

President Donald Trump has been censored on Facebook and Twitter after saying children are "almost immune" from COVID-19. What do the facts say?

We know for sure children are less likely to fall seriously ill from the coronavirus, and emerging evidence suggests they're less likely to be infected too.

What's less clear is how much they spread the virus once infected.

Children rarely become seriously ill

Under-18s have accounted for just two percent of hospitalized COVID-19 cases and less than 0.1 percent of all deaths in the United States, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

A total of 45 children died from the coronavirus in the United States between February 1 and August 1compared to 105 who died from seasonal fluout of a total of 13,000 children who died of all of causes over the period.

When they do catch the virus, children are far less likely than adults to fall seriously ill.

An informative study of 2,143 confirmed or suspected cases of coronavirus among children in China found 94 percent of cases were asymptomatic, mild or moderate.

Those children who do fall ill often have underlying conditions. A study found all 10 pediatric patients who were hospitalized in Chicago in March and April with COVID-19 had either pre-existing conditions or co-infections.

The bottom line here is that children get sick and die from COVID-19 far less often than adults do, though that does not mean they are immune.

Some limited research indicates infants (under one) may be at slightly higher risk than older children.

It's worth emphasizing that given that children are more prone to severe cases of flu, it wasn't obvious at the start of the pandemic that children would be less susceptible to COVID-19.

There is also a highly rare, post-viral condition called Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) which can develop about a month after SARS-CoV-2 infection and causes multiple organs to become painfully inflamed.

As of July 15, the CDC had reported 342 cases and six deathsa death rate of under two percent. The average age was eight-years-old, and 70 percent of cases occurred among either Hispanic or black children.

They seem less likely to contract the virus

The next question is, are children major drivers of viral transmission? This breaks down into two parts: 1) How easily do they become infected? 2) How much do they spread the virus once they have it?

There have now been several studies on the first part that do indeed seem to suggest children, especially younger children are infected less often.

Icelandic researchers selected just over 13,000 people for viral screening, including some 850 children under 10. The overall prevalence of the coronavirus was 0.8 percent, but no children under 10 were infected.

Similar surveys carried out in Spain, Italy and Switzerland all had similar results, finding children accounted for a far smaller proportion of infections compared to adults.

That said, this remains an area of ongoing study.

In the US, top infectious diseases official Anthony Fauci is leading a study into the question of infection and transmission rates among children and adults, with results expected by December.

We don't know yet how contagious children are

This is perhaps the most pressing question as authorities consider when and how to reopen schools.

If children are major spreaders, then they could cause fresh outbreaks within their homes and communitiesand unfortunately the evidence right now on this point is mixed.

A study out of Chicago that appeared last week found that children under the age of five carry between 10 to 100 times greater levels of viral nucleic acid in their noses compared to adults.

Since this genetic material causes the virus to grow in labs, the authors suggested that children are probably important drivers of transmission.

That hypothesis merits more study but is not yet proven.

Another way of approaching the problem is through the lens of epidemiologythat is, what happened in real life?

On the one hand, spectacular clusters have eruptedfor example at a summer camp in the US state of Georgia where hundreds of unmasked children who slept together in large dorms were infected.

Israel, too has been a cautionary tale, with outbreaks in multiple schools that infected hundreds of students, teachers and relatives.

Conversely, a large study in South Korea showed that children under the age of 10 infect household contacts at much lower rates than those above 10 and adults.

As for possible reasons as to why children seem to get infected lessno one knows for sure, but there are ideas.

Maybe the virus can't latch on as readily to the cell receptors of children.

Another theory gaining more traction is that the four coronaviruses that cause the common cold are remembered by the body's T cellswhite blood cells that fight infectionswhich then provide cross immunity.

Since children often get colds, they may have more immunity than adults.

The hypothesis remains to be tested through widespread screening.

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

 2020 AFP
Ryan Reynolds is set to star in the upcoming Universal monster parenting comedy.

The currently untitled film will be based on the satirical New Yorker essay Everyday Parenting Tips by Simon Rich, and is set to be helmed by Paddington director Paul King, Deadline reported on Wednesday.

It will take place in a fictional world, as a dad (Reynolds) handles everyday parenting challenges during a Monstrous Uprising.

New star: Ryan Reynolds is set to star in the upcoming Universal monster parenting comedy, based on a satirical New Yorker parenting essay, Deadline reported on Wednesday

Reynold's Maximum Effort Productions will produce alongside Lord Millers Phil Lord, Chris Miller, Aditya Sood, George Dewey and writer Rich.

Rich's essay follows a father parenting his child who believes a monster is hiding under the bed during the Monstrous Uprising.

Recently, Rich's other essay was adapted into the upcoming Seth Rogen HBO Max film The American Pickle.

Behind the scenes: Reynold's Maximum Effort Productions will produce alongside Lord Millers Phil Lord, Chris Miller, Aditya Sood, George Dewey and writer Rich

Director: The currently untitled film will be based on the satirical New Yorker essay Everyday Parenting Tips by Simon Rich, and is set to be helmed by Paddington director Paul King (pictured in 2018)

Rich will pen the movie's script, after pitching to Lord Miller and was brought to Universal with the company's first-look deal.

Recently, Reynolds made headlines for branding marrying Blake Lively on a plantation back in 2012 'a giant f***ing mistake', during an interview with the September issue of Fast Company.

The Deadpool actor, 43, and the Gossip Girl star, 32, tied the knot at Boone Hall, a former plantation in South Carolina, and were subsequently criticized for glamorizing a place where black slaves once suffered and died.

Ryan was unequivocal in his apology, calling the choice of location 'something we'll always be deeply and unreservedly sorry for'.

'A giant f***ing mistake': Recently, Reynolds made headlines for branding marrying Blake Lively on a plantation back in 2012 'a giant f***ing mistake', during an interview with the September issue of Fast Company (The couple seen here in 2011)

He said: 'It's impossible to reconcile. What we saw at the time was a wedding venue on Pinterest. What we saw after was a place built upon devastating tragedy.'

'Years ago we got married again at home - but shame works in weird ways. A giant f***ing mistake like that can either cause you to shut down or it can reframe things and move you into action,' continued the action star.

'It doesn't mean you won't f*** up again. But repatterning and challenging lifelong social conditioning is a job that doesn't end.'

It is one of America's oldest working plantations. In the 19th century it was owned by Henry and John Horlbeck who were in the brick business, building many of the public spaces in downtown Charleston using brick from the plantation.
Three months of 20 percent off rent for a house in the Excelsior District. Nine hundred dollars off per month for a condo in Hayes Valley. A 16 percent reduction in base rent, six weeks free and a $2,500 bonus for a luxury apartment in Jack London Square. Just a few months ago, deals like these would have read like Bay Area rental fan fiction. But in a local housing market hit hard by the fallout of COVID-19, the price of rent is increasingly up for negotiation.

Many renters are discussing new arrangements with their landlords and property managers, largely because the pandemic has had such a devastating effect on incomes, said Igor Popov, chief economist at online rental marketplace Apartment List.

In April, the company released the results of a national survey that found 11 percent of U.S. renters had their rent proactively lowered in the wake of shelter-in-place orders, while nearly half of those who could no longer pay their rent in full were able to negotiate for reduced or deferred payment.

On top of that, many local tech companies announced extended or indefinite plans to work remotely, prompting some workers to leave San Francisco in search of greener pastures, freeing up once highly coveted real estate in the process.

Popov believes that the majority of rental negotiations are borne out of necessity as a result of a COVID-19 related reduction in wages, as was the case with Julian Shipp, who lives in San Franciscos Excelsior neighborhood.

I pushed my roommates to let me start a negotiation because I was about to move in with my parents. My mom is high risk and I really wanted to avoid this, so we emailed the landlady. All of us had lost some or all work by [then] so my roommates agreed, said Shipp, who ultimately received a temporary $700 per month decrease in rent.



Other Bay Area residents, however, are motivated to negotiate not by dire financial straits, but a desire to take advantage of a rental market that has finally tipped the scales in their favor. (Some sources in this story chose to remain anonymous for reasons of confidentiality.)

I've lived in San Francisco since 2013 and I have had a really stressful time finding reasonably priced housing. I was really excited to turn the tables, said one resident. She was able to negotiate four percent off of an already-discounted property as well as secure more favorable terms in her lease. It gives me a feeling of getting revenge for all of those years.

Thinking of negotiating with your own landlord? Go in prepared with these tips we heard from successful negotiators, real estate professionals, tenants rights activists, and more.

Consult the experts

Fred Sherburn-Zimmer, Executive Director of the Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco (HRCSF), recommends that those trying to negotiate with their landlord reach out to a tenants rights organization first  especially if you feel youre at risk of losing your housing.

Between the health crisis and the eviction moratoriums currently in place throughout much of the Bay Area, no tenant should be moving out right now because they cant pay rent. A huge percentage of tenants calling us right now do not know that, Sherburn-Zimmer said.

Beyond the HRCSF, Sherburn-Zimmer recommends the San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition. Other local tenants rights organizations include the East Bay Community Law Center, Bay Area Legal Aid, Eviction Defense Center and Tenants Together.

Cite hard evidence

Using data always helps make the case, said Ben Metcalf, Managing Director for the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley.

Look at online rental listings to get a feel for the going rate in your desired area, or use a tool like Rentometer. You can also check in with neighbors to see what theyre paying  try turning to Nextdoor if youre feeling sheepish.

And remember, many vacant units are now sitting empty for a month or more, so if you calculate a month's rent on your home, subtract that from the annual rent and divide by 12, you have a new offer to present to your landlord when renewing your lease, advised Lisa McCarrel, managing partner of MoveBayArea.com.

Lay your cards on the table

Dont feel the need to beat around the bush  in the current housing market, you can afford to be upfront about your situation.

After his building manager reached out to set the terms of a lease renewal, Bob, a resident of Oakland, replied saying basically, Look, my first choice is to stay here, but here are these other buildings offering cheaper rents and promotional deals. It is hard to justify staying here when I can pay so much less elsewhere.

At first, the manager didnt bite, but after another email saying I was ready to move and a few days of waiting, she came back with a lower offer, which I accepted, he added.

Get it in writing

If your landlord tries to push for a phone or in-person conversation, insist on moving it to email or another form of written communication.

Although one Jack London Square residents landlord tried to do as much [negotiation] as possible over the phone, they insisted on continuing the conversation over email  something that later proved essential when their landlord doubled back on a particular offer. With a previous email serving as proof, they were able to negotiate on the terms they had originally agreed to.

Consider organizing

Tenants are always stronger together, but now we see them organizing more than we've ever seen before, Sherburn-Zimmer said. It's a really powerful measure to make sure people are protected throughout a building  especially really vulnerable tenants, such as non-fluent English speakers or those with Section 8 Housing.

Ryan Perkins of Oakland consulted housing organization Tenant and Neighborhood Councils (TANC) to form a tenants union with five of the six units in his building. Together, they drafted and sent a letter to their landlord, then proceeded to successfully negotiate a rent reduction with the help of a tenants rights lawyer.

The residents in the building are very happy that we came together and received some concession, even if it is minor, Perkins said.

Be persistent

Of course, not all landlords are on board with negotiating, but as the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, that may very well change.

I've negotiated with several landlords, but I find 99% of the landlords I speak with to be misinformed  [they] really, really want to believe they will still have tens of thousands of students coming into town, desperate for housing and willing to pay astronomical rental prices, said one recent graduate of UC Berkeley. The funny thing is that, at rentals where landlords denied my request for a modest $100 or $200 per month [off], those units are still vacant months later.

Still, this didnt dissuade them from attempting to negotiate in the future.

Landlords certainly don't hold back when it comes to treating their rentals as a pure business, instead of someone's home, so tenants should also treat this as a business and negotiate.

Emily Blaire is a freelance writer in the Bay Area. Contact her at em.writes12@gmail.com
But theres more. The Republican governor faces the very real possibility of becoming a true lame duck for the last two years of his tenure if Democrats manage to take control of either or both chambers of the Legislature in November.

Democrats need to oust just one of the 31 Republicans to force a coalition in the state House; picking up two seats would give them absolute control.

The state Senate is a bigger hurdle, with Democrats having to move two seats into their column for a tie and three for a majority.

And all this comes as both Trump and Ducey are under fire from multiple quarters about how they have handled the pandemic.

For Trump, the issues center around his denial for months that there was a problem and his insistence that it would go away. Then there were the mixed messages, with the president at some points saying governors should bow to his leadership and then saying this is not a federal problem.

He still faces scrutiny as his own health experts continue to publicly disagree with him about the best course of action.
On August 7, 1990, the then prime minister, VP Singh, made a historic announcement in Parliament. Singh declared before both Houses that Other Backward Classes (OBCs) would get 27% reservation in jobs in central government services and public sector units.

By giving reservation to OBCs in employment, Singh was fulfilling only one half of the first recommendation of the Mandal Commission. The Mandal Commission was set up on January 1, 1979, under the chairmanship of BP Mandal. It submitted its report on December 31, 1980. The second half of the Commissions recommendation was the reservation for OBCs in central educational institutions. The OBCs had to wait till 2006 for this.

The Mandal Commission had also recommended land redistribution and change in relations of production. It said in its report, Reservations in government employment and educational institutions, as also all financial assistance will remain mere palliatives unless the problem of backwardness is tackled at its root. Bulk of the small landholders, tenants, agricultural labour, impoverished village artisans, unskilled workers, etc, belong to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.

The Commission further commented, It is the Commissions firm conviction that a radical transformation of the existing production relations is the most important single step that can be taken for the welfare and upliftment of all backward classes. Even if this is not possible in the industrial sector for various reasons, in the agricultural sector a change of this nature is both feasible and overdue.

No Union government has taken any substantial steps to bring about the structural change that was advocated by the Mandal Commission. We are moving in the opposite direction. Even though OBCs have got 27% reservation in employment and education, implementation remains inadequate. Agriculture, the backbone of the rural economy, has become economically unviable. Industrial capital remains firmly in the hands of the upper castes.

Last month, the central government admitted in the Madras High Court (HC) that OBCs were not given reservation in the All India quota of medical seats in courses such as the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery and Bachelor of Dental Surgery since 1986. This will hopefully change from next year as the HC has given clear directions to set up a committee to look into this issue. But one wonders how many such other cases exist in which OBC reservation is not being implemented just because no one has noticed yet.

The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), for example, do not offer reservation in teaching posts and have no intention of doing so in the future. These 20 IIMs had requested the Union government to include them in the Institutions of Excellence category, which would exempt them from the implementation of reservation in faculty positions.

The data collected by scholars Christophe Jaffrelot and Kalaiyarasan A shows that OBCs occupied only 8.37% posts in the Class A of central government services and only 10.01% of the Class B posts. These figures demonstrate the severe under-representation of the communities that make up more than half of Indias population.

The history of reservation for the backward castes goes back to 1902 when Shahu Maharaj, the ruler of the princely state of Kolhapur, reserved 50% jobs for backward castes (all communities except forward groups such as Brahmins, Prabhus, Shenvis and Parsis).

When Indias Constitution came into force in 1950, the question of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes was already settled. But what is meant by backward classes and who should be included in this category were questions that remained mired in controversy for decades. The Jawaharlal Nehru government set up a backward classes commission in 1953, which drew up a list of 2,399 communities listing them as backward. But the government did not act on this report.

The Nehru dispensation was largely hostile to the idea of accepting caste as the basis for defining backward classes. This view was shared by the upper caste-dominated media and academia too, which would have preferred secular criteria such as income, literacy, or occupation. The belief that acknowledging ascriptive units such as caste would make them firmer in the minds of people was held by many. (The secularists have finally won with the institution of quotas for economically weaker sections, which makes income a criterion for backwardness.)

Due to the governments inertia, the OBC category could not gain any meaningful traction nationally until August 7, 1990. Retrospectively speaking, the four lost decades did immense harm to OBCs. They remain severely under-represented in government jobs and the corridors of power, and, after the promising start of the 1990s, their political representation, too, has weakened. Hopefully, the 30th anniversary of the Mandal moment will give a new fillip to their politics.

Tejas Harad is a social and political commentator

The views expressed are personal
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) authorities have ordered compensation of Rs 1 lakh each for 13 human rights activists and lawyers, including Delhi University (DU) Professor Nandini Sundar, who were falsely implicated by Chhattisgarh Police for raising the issue of tribals rights violations in the Bastar region in 2016.

The NHRC made its observation on the basis of two cases filed by the Chhattisgarh Police in the Bastar region in 2016  one at Tongpal police station and another at Kishtaram police station of Sukma district.

The order was issued by NHRC on March 13, 2020 and was received by the complainant on July 7. As per order, the Chhattisgarh government was directed to submit the compliance report along with the proof of payment within the next six weeks.

Altogether, 13 rights activists and lawyers were booked in the two cases, including Professor Sundar and others from the Telangana Democratic Front (TDF), who had tried to enter Chhattisgarh on a fact-finding mission about alleged human rights violations in December, 2016.

The NHRC order is directed to the director-general of police (DGP), Chhattisgarh, DM Awasthi, and the state chief secretary, RP Mandal.

The rights panel stated that it took suo motu cognisance of the alleged harassment and intimidation to the human rights activists and lawyers by the Chhattisgarh Police.

The state government was also directed to inform the status of the probe being conducted about the burning of effigies of human rights activists and lawyers by the Chhattisgarh Auxiliary Police (CAP).

The NHRC order cited trumped-up first information reports (FIRs) registered against Professor Sundar and others, including the fact-finding team of lawyers from Telangana and Dr. Lakhan Singh, who was the president of the Chhattisgarh chapter of Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), one of the largest human rights bodies in the country, and also the arrest of a local journalist Santosh Yadav.

As regards to the registration of FIRs against Professor Nandini Sundar and others, the DGP has submitted that during the investigation, no evidence was found against her, Archana Prasad, Vineet Tiwari, Sanjay Parate, Manju, and Mangla Ram Karma. Hence, their names have been removed from the FIRs, the NHRC said.

We recommend and direct Chhattisgarh government through the chief secretary to pay a sum of Rs 1 lakh each as monetary compensation to Nandini Sundar, Archana Prasad, Vineet Tiwari, Sanjay Parate, Manju and Mangla Ram Karma, whose human rights were violated by the Chhattisgarh Police. The chief secretary shall submit the compliance report along with the proof of payment within six weeks, it added.

DGP Awasthi submitted that all the other seven accused -- CH Prabhakar, B Durga Prasad, B Rabindranath, D Prabhakar, R Lakshimaiya, Mohammad Nazir and K Rajendra Prasad -- were acquitted of all the charges by the chief judicial magistrate, Sukma.

Professor Sundar reacted to the NHRCs directives to the Chhattisgarh government.

We are yet to receive any compensation. But, as and when I receive it, I plan to share the sum as legal aid for innocent tribals, who are falsely implicated, she said.

RP Mandal, chief secretary, Chhattisgarh, told HT that the state government has received NHRCs directives.

We have received the directives from NHRC. The state government is taking appropriate steps about them, Mandal added.

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Los Angeles, Aug 6 : Actress Alyssa Milano has opened up about her battle with Covid-19, saying she felt she was dying.

In an Instagram post, the 47-year-old actress revealed that she tested positive, after taking three other tests that had indicated she was negative for the coronavirus, reports etonline.com.

"This was me on April 2nd after being sick for 2 weeks. I had never been this kind of sick," she wrote while sharing a picture of herself wearing an oxygen mask.

"I had never been this kind of sick. Everything hurt. Loss of smell. It felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't keep food in me. I lost 9 pounds in 2 weeks. I was confused. Low grade fever. And the headaches were horrible. I basically had every Covid symptom. At the very end of march I took two covid19 tests and both were negative. I also took a covid antibody test (the finger prick test) after I was feeling a bit better. NEGATIVE," she added.

The actress continued to narrate her ordeal, saying: "After living the last 4 months with lingering symptoms like, vertigo, stomach abnormalities, irregular periods, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, zero short term memory, and general malaise, I went and got an antibody test from a blood draw (not the finger prick) from a lab. I am POSITIVE for covid antibodies. I had Covid19." "I just want you to be aware that our testing system is flawed and we don't know the real numbers. I also want you to know, this illness is not a hoax. I thought I was dying. It felt like I was dying. I will be donating my plasma with hopes that I might save a life. Please take care of yourselves. Please wash your hands and wear a mask and social distance. I don't want anyone to feel the way I felt. Be well. I love you all," she added.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
An HIV-positive man who had protected intercourse with three women without telling them about his health status has had his aggravated sexual assault conviction upheld.

In dismissing his appeal, Ontarios top court rejected arguments that condom use is a sure fire way to prevent transmission of the virus that can lead to AIDS.

There is no dispute that a perfectly functioning latex condom provides a perfect barrier to HIV transmission, the Appeal Court said. (But) condoms do not always work as they are intended to work.

For one thing, the court said, if a person is unaware of the risk, he or she may also not be as vigilant when using a condom.

Trial evidence was that the man, identified only as N.G., had been warned in October 2013 to tell prospective partners he was HIV-positive. He failed to do so, despite having repeated sex with the three women over several months.

They complained they would not have had intercourse with him had they known. One contracted HIV after sex with N.G., but its not known whether he infected her. Another said she felt suicidal while awaiting test results.

At trial, N.G. argued condom use made HIV transmission impossible. However, Superior Court Justice Edward Gareau rejected the argument in November 2017. While condoms can prevent HIV transmission, Gareau found they are only 80 to 85 per cent effective in real world circumstances.

Citing a 2012 Supreme Court of Canada ruling known as Mabior, the judge found a realistic possibility of HIV transmission existed when N.G., who was highly contagious, was having sex with the women. The 2012 ruling also made it clear that the failure to tell a partner about ones status amounted to legal fraud that negated consent to sex.

Gareau convicted the accused but before sentencing him to 42 months, N.G. tried to reopen the trial by arguing the Supreme Court jurisprudence should be modified. He called in one expert on whom the top court had previous relied, Dr. John Smith from Winnipeg. Smith testified his thinking on condom use had evolved in recent years.

An individual who always uses a condom and is careful in its use can be almost 100 per cent sure that the HIV virus will not be transmitted, Smith said.

Intervenors such as the HIV Legal Network also argued proper condom use alone should be enough to remove a realistic possibility of transmission for criminal law purposes.

Both Gareau and the Appeal Court rejected the assertion given the potential for condom failure.

The Mabior decision reflects the Supreme Courts appreciation for the fact that perfectly operating latex condoms provide a perfect barrier to the transmission of HIV, the Appeal Court said. It also reflects the courts understanding that sex happens in the real world and that, in that world, human error and condom failure are concerns across the population.

In this case, the appellate court said, N.G. had intercourse with the women at a time his viral load  a strong indicator of infectiousness  was not low. Wearing a condom did not definitively rule out a realistic possibility of HIV transmission, it said.

The intervenors also argued that criminalizing people with HIV who use condoms is bad public policy and only adds to their stigmatization. While the issue might one day be reconsidered, the Appeal Court found no reason to do so in the current case.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States plans to hold a United Nations Security Council vote next week to extend an arms embargo on Iran, setting the stage for a crisis at the international body amid heightened Middle East tensions.

"There are nations lining up to sell weapons that will destabilize the Middle East, put Israel at risk, put Europe at risk, risk American lives as well," Pompeo told reporters on August 5. "We're not going to let it happen.

The U.S.-drafted resolution seeks to extend an international arms embargo on Iran, which is set to be progressively eased beginning on October 18 under a Security Council resolution that enshrined the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.

In the Security Council, veto-wielding Russia and China have said they oppose extending the arms embargo and have questioned Washingtons right to use a disputed legal move to force a return of UN sanctions on Iran.

If the Security Council doesnt prevent Iran from buying and selling weapons when the embargo ends, Washington has said it will trigger a snapback of all UN sanctions on Iran.

Pompeo and Iran hard-liners in Washington claim the United States remains a participant in the accord because it was listed as such in the 2015 resolution and can therefore bring back sanctions since Iran has not fully complied with its nuclear commitments.

The U.S. position is likely to be fraught with difficulty because the United States quit the deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran. In response, Iran gradually started breaching its nuclear commitments.

Russia and China, as well as European allies that were signatories to the nuclear pact, have questioned the U.S. claim it is still a participant able to trigger the snapback mechanism.



Britain, France, and Germany are concerned about the arms embargo being lifted but have said they are trying to reach a compromise out of concern Iran will completely exit the nuclear deal and act on threats to pull out of a key nonproliferation treaty.

With reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters
The Prime Minister, who laid the foundation stone of the temple amid chanting of mantras at a special ceremony, said it should be built with bricks of love, respect and brotherhood there was need to respect the sentiments of all.Noting that Lord Ram advocated change and modernity, he talked of his government's slogan of "sabka saath, sabka vishawas" and said a self-reliant and self-confident India has be to built through determination and hard work.In his nearly half-an-hour speech, the Prime Minister recited several couplets about Lord Ram's life and his teachings."Shree Ram Temple would be the modern symbol of our culture and I am intentionally using the word 'modern'. It will symbolise our eternal hope. It will epitomise our national feeling. This temple will be the emblem of the collective will power of millions of people. This shrine would inspire hope, devotion and determination in the minds of the future generations," the Prime Minister said.He said India is witnessing a golden historic moment with the blessings of the mighty Lord Bhaskara (sun) on the banks of the auspicious river Saryu and the process of temple construction will foster national unity."Across the length and breadth of India, from Kanyakumari to KsheerBhawani, from Koteshwar to Kamakhya, from Jagannath to Kedarnath, from Somnath to Kashi Vishwanath, SametShikhar to ShrawanBelagola, from Bodhgaya to Sarnath, from Amritsar to Patna Sahib, from Andaman to Ajmer, from Lakshadweep to Leh, the entire country is encompassed by and for Lord Ram," he said.The Prime Minister said a grand temple for Ram Lalla will be constructed in place of tents now."The whole country is ecstatic and each heart is illuminated. The entire country is emotional and overwhelmed to be a part of history and witness this long-awaited historic moment. The centuries of wait is getting over today. Crores of Indians, I am sure, are unable to believe that they could be a part of such a momentous occasion in their lifetimes. Time has come when a proper temple can be provided to Lord Ram by moving it from the makeshift tent and canopy, where it was kept for decades. A grand temple will now be built for our Lord Rama. Today, the Ram Janmabhoomi has become free from the centuries-old chain of destruction and resurrection," he said.The Prime Minister said the ancient texts have said that there has not been a rule-abiding king like Lord Ram and he was entrenched in people's hearts who take inspiration from him."Look at the phenomenal powers of Lord Rama. Buildings collapsed, every attempt was made to erase the existence ... but Lord Rama is fully embedded in our hearts. Lord Rama is the foundation of our culture. He is the dignity of India. He personifies dignity. It is with this splendour that the "bhoomi pujan" (ground-breaking) ceremony of the grand temple of Sri Ram has taken place," he said.The Prime Minister said that just as August 15 is representative of sacrifices by people all across the country towards the freedom struggle, August 5 marks the immense dedication and continuous struggle across generations for the Ram temple.He recalled the struggle of people over generations and sacrifice and dedication during the movement for the construction of Ram temple."Today marks the culmination of that centuries-old penance, sacrifices and resolve. There was sacrifice, dedication and resolve during the movement for the construction of the Ram Temple and that dream is being realized today because of their sacrifices and struggle," he said."I, on behalf of the 130 crore people of the country, salute them and bow before them for their sacrifices which have led to the foundation of the Ram Temple. Today, all the powers of the Universe, everybody who was involved in the sacred struggle for the construction of the Ram Temple, are watching this programme. They are all very happy and blessing this occasion," he added.Recalling the contours of Ram Rajya dreamt by Mahatma Gandhi, he said the teaching of Lord Ram state that motherland is more important than heaven, no one should be poor or unhappy, men and women should be equally happy, farmers and animal keepers should always be happy, the old, children and doctors should always be protected and it is the duty to protect those who seek asylum.Noting that policy of Lord Ram was that there cannot be love without fear, he said it will be more peaceful and happy as it grows stronger.He cited a couplet and said Lord Ram speaks and acts according to time, place and situation."He teaches us to grow with time, walk with it. He is in favour of change. He is in favour of modernity. With these inspirations, with these ideals, India is moving ahead today.""Lord Ram has taught us how to follow our duties. He taught us the path of deliberation and realisation by coming out of the opposition. We have to join the shilas of Ram temple with our love and brotherhood. We have to keep in mind that when humanity has followed Lord Ram, there has been the development and when we have gone astray, the doors to destruction have opened. We have to keep in mind everyone's feelings," he said.The Prime Minister recalled how people from various walks of life including the poor, backwards, dalits, tribals had been instrumental in feats such as the victory of Lord Ram in the battle in Ramayana, Lord Krishna lifting Govardhan, Chatrapati Shivaji establishing swaraj and Mahatma Gandhi leading independence movement."Similarly, the construction of Ram Mandir has started with the help and contribution of common citizens," he said.The Prime Minister said that Lord Ram always stuck to the truth and established social harmony as the cornerstone of his rule."He loved his subjects equally but had a special kindness for the poor and the needy. There is no aspect of life where Lord Ram doesn't serve as an inspiration and his impact is visible in several aspects of culture, philosophy, faith and tradition of the country," the Prime Minister said.He said Lord Ram acted as a guiding light for people through Valmiki Ramayan in ancient times, through Tulsidas, Kabir and Guru Nanak in medieval times and was also present in the bhajans of Mahatma Gandhi as the power source of non-violence and truth.Lord Buddha is also associated with Lord Ram and the city of Ayodhya has been a center of faith of Jains since centuries, he said.Referring to different Ramayans written in various languages, the Prime Minister noted that Lord Ram is the common thread of unity in diversity in the country.Noting that Lord Ram is revered in several countries, he said Ramayan is popular in Indonesia, the country with the maximum Muslim population, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and said that references to Lord Ram are also found in Iran and China and `Ram Kathas' are popular in several countries.He said that people in all these countries must be feeling happy today with the start of construction of Ram temple.The Prime Minister expressed hope that the temple will serve as an inspiration for the entire humanity in eras to come and said it is important that the message of Lord Ram, of the temple and India's age-old traditions goes to the entire world.Keeping this in mind, a Ram circuit is being made in the country, he said and added that the construction of temple will also open up several opportunities across sectors and change the economy of the region.He recalled the significance of the path of 'maryada' of Lord Ram in the backdrop of the COVID situation.He said that the current situation demands the maryada to be 'do gaz ki doori - mask hai zaroori' and urged everyone to follow the same.Earlier, the Prime Minister unveiled plaque of temple and a commemorative postage stamp. He also planted a 'parijat' sapling, considered a divine plant, in the temple premises.President of Ram Mandir Trust Mahant Nitya Gopal Das, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Governor Anandiben Patel and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat were also present on the occasion.The special ceremony was conducted by following social distancing norms.Before bhoomi pujan, the Prime Minister visited Hanuman Garhi temple. (ANI)
BELLEVILLE, Ontario, Aug. 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Janitors working at Loyalist College have been labouring day and night to prepare for students return to campus in September. But despite their best efforts and commitment to student health, janitors are not being granted the working conditions they need to ensure safe and healthy conditions during the pandemic.

Janitors at Loyalist College are fighting their employer for sick days, a fair wage, and retirement security. Absent paid sick days and adequate pay, workers feel compelled by financial constraints to come into work even while sick. This has potential to spread illness to other janitors and the rest of campus population.

This state of affairs is untenable for janitors. Unionized under the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 2, janitors have already thrown 100% of their support behind a strike mandate vote, which was conducted on July 23rd.

Jennifer Johnson is a janitor at Loyalist College. Like the rest of her co-workers, Johnson isnt going back down unless janitors minimum requirements are met. Johnson says: We need sick days, retirement security and better pay, and we are ready to fight to get them.

The students, janitors, and staff of Loyalist College, plus the wider Belleville community, deserve to know that every step is being taken to ensure health and safety. The janitors employer, a cleaning contracting company called Compass Canada, has refused to equip janitors with the bare necessities they need to maintain sanitary conditions.

Two strike mandates are required before janitors will go on strike. The employer and the janitors are set to meet again to negotiate on August 7th. If a fair settlement cannot be reached, the janitors will proceed with a second and final strike mandate vote.

SEIU Local 2 represents over 10,000 janitors in Nova Scotia, Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia.
Saigon Investment spoke with Asso. Prof. Dr. Dinh Trong Thinh, senior lecturer at the Finance Academy under the Ministry of Finance, to share his opinion on this issue.

JOURNALIST: - Sir, of late ecommerce and online trading businesses have been flourishing, and individuals and businesses have reported good growth in this field. Is this the flow of currency that tax authorities have been unable to control?

Asso. Prof. Dr. DINH TRONG THINH: - First of all, we must acknowledge that ecommerce is the inevitable future trend towards digital economy and the 4.0 tech era. This trend we cannot deny and must learn to live with. The current Covid-19 pandemic has shown us the many advantages of ecommerce. When people are being forced to follow social distancing, and so many production and business activities have temporarily been suspended, many businesses and even small households and individuals are having to innovate. For this reason, it is understandable that in order to generate income, many online businesses are now thriving, but still fault with taxes.

Most of these businesses, households and individuals doing such online businesses collect payment for goods in cash and use websites, or social media sites, to only advertise their products, but the actual sales are via phone or text, which makes it extremely difficult for tax authorities to assess their revenue. People also have a habit of buying goods without wanting a receipt, and therefore undisclosed cash for goods from consumers also unknowingly helps in evading tax. This is a problem that has been talked about a lot but so far remains uncontrollable.

In the current tense pandemic scenario, manufacturing industries are operating in moderation, while many businesses have even shut down. The National Assembly brought out a Resolution to reduce 30% on enterprise income tax in 2020 for small and micro enterprises, which also affects the State budget revenue. Groups of small and micro enterprises account for a majority of operating enterprises, hence a tax reduction will significantly also reduce the state budget revenue. The reduction of upto 30% of corporate income tax means that the budget revenue will greatly reduce.

This is double pressure on the fiscal policy for this year, or even for many years to come. The balance of revenue and expenditure this year will be very difficult and surely create a budget deficit. Every year the budget is in deficit, but this year the deficit rate may increase by 1.2% to 1.5% compared to other years. This also means that the National Assembly budget deficit target will be very difficult to achieve. It is therefore necessary to expand and strictly control budget revenue. I think that controlling the revenue of online businesses will definitely benefit the state budget revenue.

Some survey results show that out of 35% of businesses selling goods on social media sites, there are probably millions of individuals and business households selling and exchanging goods on facebook, in which case a very large chunk of revenue is going tax free. So, this is a huge gap in our budget revenue today.

- Sir, the collection of corporate income tax and individuals selling goods online is in accordance with international practices. However, the implementation of regulations for control are facing many obstacles. In your opinion, where is the problem and what is the solution for this?

- I think the biggest difficulty right now is lack of close coordination between authorities, ministries and agencies. Specifically, there is a lack of coordination between the tax office in the Ministry of Finance and banks where the cash flow can be controlled, and various operators and agencies that control personal account information on social networks. Due to inadequate management by the business registration authority, as well as lack of coordination between operators, tax authorities and commercial banks, the sanctions are not strict which then leads to loss of tax revenue from online businesses.

Without the coordination of network content providers, internet information management units cannot provide user data to tax authorities. However, whether cross-border digital content providers are willing to cooperate with the tax authorities or not is difficult to confirm. For example, in order to obtain information on internet business transactions based primarily on direct comments and messages between sellers and buyers, the tax authorities must coordinate with the Ministry of Information and Communication and network providers. However, the authorities can only collect flat taxes on each facebook account, making it difficult to determine specific income.

In order to ensure that the tax administration for ecommerce businesses in general and online selling in particular, in my opinion, should have close cooperation with the Ministry of Finance and the State Bank, to create a payment method. This will help in building a national ecommerce payment system, and integrate electronic payment for widespread use. At the same time, it is necessary to set up a payment transaction and supervision State management for ecommerce services, trading via social networks and providing online services.

It is hence necessary to strengthen coordination between the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Information and Communication, and the Ministry of Public Security to manage ecommerce activities in accordance with the law. This would include sharing of information on enterprises and individuals operating in the field of ecommerce. On the other hand, organizations such as Google and Facebook could set up branch offices in Vietnam, as contact points, and strictly manage the provision of services, especially the declaration and payment of tax on these services.

- Thank you very much.

Hoang Son (interviewer)
With just a week to go before results day, schools in England were last night given fresh powers to appeal against poor grades.

Exam watchdog Ofqual was spurred into action by the outcry over Tuesdays Scottish Highers, nearly a quarter of which were downgraded by education chiefs.

This years A-level and GCSE exams were cancelled due to the coronavirus crisis, so teenagers are to be awarded marks based on their teachers assessments.

The regulator now admits that high ability students at poor schools could get worse-than-deserved results. This is because exam boards will check whether their grades are out of step with their schools historic performance.

But rather than rectify the situation before marks are sent out, Ofqual says it will be up to schools to mount an appeal.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson welcomed the watchdogs decision last night.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said: 'It is vital that students with exceptional circumstances are not held back by the way grades have been calculated'

Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham, said: It is a welcome about-turn by Ofqual in attempting to reduce the unfairness in awarding these grades.

It would have been better if they had foreseen it at the outset.

What it does once and for all is to show we really do need exams at GCSE and A-level... and it is very difficult to take what the teachers are saying and moderate it so it is fair to all pupils.

You would have thought that the regulator, with all the experts it can call upon, would have thought of some of these things and avoided an about-turn at such a late date.

Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at Exeter University, added: It will be a national scandal if poorer pupils are disproportionately penalised by the system of calculated grades.

Individual pupils will not be allowed to challenge grades themselves, Ofqual has confirmed

It would be grossly unfair on poorer students if they are downgraded through no fault of their own  particularly if that damages their prospects of getting jobs or gaining places at universities.

A-level results day is next Thursday, while GCSE results come out a week later. Under the new Ofqual rules, schools can now appeal if the grades of unusually high or low ability students have been affected by the model because they fall outside the pattern of results in that centre in recent years.

Individual pupils will not be allowed to challenge grades themselves, so schools and colleges will need to appeal on their behalf.

In cases where students suspect racism or bias lies behind their teachers decision-making, their only option is raise a complaint rather than access the appeals procedure.

Q&A: What do the new measures mean? How will grades work? Teachers were asked to decide what their pupils were most likely to get if teaching, learning and exams had happened as planned. Since then, exam boards have run a standardisation process to bring high or low results into line. A key part is looking at a schools past performance, which means talented pupils could be marked down. How will appeals work? Appeals can only be made by schools, not pupils. They were initially restricted to technicalities, such as basic mistakes inputting data, until Ofqual eased the system yesterday. Appeals can also be mounted if a schools past performance is unlikely to be an accurate guide. Examples include where a single-sex school changed to being co-educational or a new headmaster was appointed. For students who are told there is not enough evidence to appeal, they will have the option of sitting an exam in the autumn. They will then be able to use the higher of the two grades. In cases where students suspect bias behind teachers decision-making, their only option is to raise a complaint. What will happen to university offers? The Education Secretary has said universities should be flexible and do all they can to support students and ensure they can progress to higher education. Therefore students who miss out on an offer need to be ready to contact their university of choice and explain why they feel they should be admitted despite their marks. If students need to do resits, it may be possible to start their courses in the New Year after sitting exams in the autumn and getting fresh results before Christmas. But Ofqual has cautioned that such flexibility might only be possible in a minority of cases. Advertisement

Responding to the regulators announcement, Mr Williamson said: It is vital that students with exceptional circumstances are not held back by the way grades have been calculated  including those who are highly talented in schools that have not in the past had strong results, or where schools have undergone significant changes such as a new leadership team.

Tens of thousands have signed a petition calling for all students in Scotland to be re-evaluated.

According to the Scottish Qualification Authoritys own analysis, the most deprived pupils had their marks reduced by 15.2 per cent, whereas the wealthiest had reductions of only 6.9 per cent.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon even admitted yesterday she would probably have protested if her grades had been downgraded while she was at school.

Ofqual denied that its move on appeals was in response to the situation in Scotland  even though the meetings which led to the changes took place on the day Scottish results were released.

In a statement, it said: Students can appeal, through their school or college, if they believe an error has been made or that something has gone wrong in their case.

If they are concerned that bias or discrimination has affected their results they can make a complaint.

'Centres will also be able to appeal if they can show evidence an error has occurred  including where they can show students grades are lower than expected because previous cohorts are not sufficiently representative of this years students.

Meanwhile, the boss of the National Education Union has urged schools to ignore threatening noises from government and refuse to reopen if they feel is it unsafe.

Dr Mary Bousted told councillors in an online meeting that current guidance was unworkable and schools should come up with their own plans.

The latest iteration of government guidance is so unworkable that you cant trust it. Local authorities and schools should take the confidence to do what they can do and that will mean for many schools that they cannot have all children fully back in September, she said.

Now, the Governments making threatening noises about that. But in the end, they wont be able to carry out their threats. She said some schools might find it simply impossible to operate safely and therefore could not have all children back, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Dr Bousteds Left-wing union has been repeatedly accused of using the Covid crisis as an excuse to bash the Tories.

A spokesman said: The NEU echoes the calls from the scientific community for a robust test, track, and trace to be in place in schools and colleges and for there to be a plan B in case of any regional or national spikes to ensure all students remain connected to learning.

Schools and colleges can appeal if they were expecting results this year to 'show a very different pattern of grades' to results in previous years because of the ability profile of students this year.

If a school has had a 'significant change in leadership or governance' - and it can provide evidence that its previous grades are 'not a reliable indicator' of this year's results - it will also be allowed to challenge results.

If a single-sex school has changed to co-educational - or a school has experienced a 'monumental event' such as flooding or fire which meant it had to move and it affected previous exam results - then they can appeal grades.

Schools and colleges can appeal to the exam board if it believes it made an error when submitting a grade or if it believes an exam board made a mistake.

Pupils can ask their school or college to check whether it made an administrative error when submitting their grade - and they can ask them to submit an appeal to the exam board if it did.

Concerns have been raised that the 'narrow' criteria for challenging grades may 'exacerbate existing inequalities'

Ofqual has advised students to complain to their college or school in the first place about potential malpractice. If their concerns are not addressed, pupils can formally complain to the exam board.

Students in England who are unhappy with their grades will also have the opportunity to take A-level exams in October and GCSE exams in November.

Not allowing pupils the right to appeal GCSE or A-Level exam grades they think are unfair had earlier been linked to imposing a 'life sentence'.

There are concerns that results day next week could be chaotic as thousands of teenagers may receive 'unfair' marks.

Dr Martin Stephen, the former High Master of St Paul's Boys' School told The Daily Telegraph the system was equivalent to 'imposing a life sentence, with no right of appeal'.

The new guidance comes after outrage in Scotland where the grade moderation process reduced the pass rate of the poorest Higher pupils by more than twice that of the richest.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority downgraded the students' marks for the exams that were not sat, changing a massive 93.1 per cent of all the moderated scores.

Chief Examining Officer Fiona Robertson said if the SQA had not stepped in exam pass rates would have risen at every level and would have been the highest on record.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday registered an FIR in Sushant Singh Rajput death case, after a Central notification on Wednesday handed over the case to the agency on the recommendation of the Bihar government, said agency officials.

The FIR filed by the agency is based on the one registered by Bihar police in Patna and names Rhea Chakraborty, her parents, her brother Showik apart from two others for suspected offences of criminal conspiracy, abetment of suicide, wrongful restraint, wrongful confinement, theft, criminal breach of trust, cheating and criminal intimidation.

The investigation of FIR No. 241/2020 dated 25.07.2020 registered u/s 341, 342, 380, 406, 420, 306, 506, 120B IPC, PS- Rajiv Nagar, District-Patna, related to death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput has been transferred to Central Bureau of Investigation for investigation, the CBI FIR says.

The agency had earlier said that it was in touch with Bihar police, which had first registered the FIR against Sushants former live in partner Rhea Chakraborty and his family members on his fathers complaint.

A regular case is therefore registered u/s 341, 342, 380, 406, 420, 306, 506, 120B IPC against (1) Rhea Chakarborty and her family members (2) Shri Indarjit Chakarborty, (3) Smt. Sandhya Chakraborty, (4) Sh. Showik Chakraborty, (5) Sh Samuel Miranda, and (6 ) Mrs Shruti Modi and others, the CBI FIR states further.

Officials added that CBIs Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is currently investigating the AgustaWestland scam and bank fraud case against Vijay Mallya, will probe actor Sushant Singh Rajput case.

The development comes amid Maharashtra governments strong opposition to handing over the case to the CBI claiming it was being done for political reasons including the upcoming assembly polls in Bihar. Maharashtra has raised issues of jurisdiction to claim Bihar government or police had no locus standi in the case since Sushants death took place in Mumbai.

Also Read: Sooraj Pancholi dismisses reports linking him to Sushant Singh Rajputs death

However, the case was handed over to the CBI after Sushants father and Bihar police alleged a cover-up by Mumbai police to save influential people. They have accused Mumbai police of destroying evidence and deliberately ignoring leads in the case in an attempt to derail it.

The Mumbai police and Maharashtra government have vehemently denied the allegations.

Mumbai police have been probing the circumstances of Sushants death since his body was found at his Bandra flat on June 14 but has not registered an FIR in the case.

Sushants death has been shrouded in conspiracy theories including him being a victim of an alleged culture of nepotism in Bollywood which shuts out outsiders forcing them to take extreme steps.

Also Read: Sushant Singh Rajput couldnt sleep for 4 nights waiting for Sanjana Sanghi to clear Me Too allegations

Another theory points to an alleged role of his former girlfriend and live-in partner Rhea Chakraborty, who has been accused by Sushants family of abetting his suicide by harassing him and diverting his money among other offences.

The focus of CBIs case will also be on Rhea Chakraborty since the agency has taken over the case registered against her in Bihar. The Enforcement Directorate has also summoned her on Friday for questioning for alleged financial misconduct in the Sushant case.
Foreign Trade

Ghana's exports decreased to 2889.10 USD Million in the third quarter of 2017 from 3251.80 USD Million in the second quarter of 2017. IT also decreased to $3,407.70 million in the second quarter of 2012 from $4,040.10 million in the first quarter of 2012. Historically, from 2003 until 2012, Ghana exports averaged $1,506.50 million reaching an all-time high of $4,040.10 million in February of 2012 and a record low of $565.06 million in February of 2003. Therefore Ghana's exports averaged 2033.34 USD Million from 2003 until 2017, reaching an all time high of 4118.30 USD Million in the first quarter of 2012 and a record low of 565.06 USD Million in the first quarter of 2003.

Ghana's main exports are gold, cocoa beans and timber products. Others include tuna, aluminum, manganese ore, diamonds and horticulture. Ghana's main export partners are Netherlands, Burkina Faso, South Africa and United Kingdom.

Source: https://tradingeconomics.com/ghana/exports
Mozper, a new service launching from Y Combinator's latest cohort to provide digital banking services, takes its name from the English words for money, prosperity and Generation Z, according to co-founder Yael Israeli.

A former banker at Lehman Brothers and Barclays Capital, Israeli worked as a consultant for Copa Airlines and then as an independent advisor from her home in Panama.

It was during conversations with her husband's roommate from Israel, Gabriel Roizner, a serial entrepreneur who built consumer startups in Latin America (like Disca, the online fashion community), that Mozper was born.

Roizner had spent years wandering from Uruguay to France to Brazil to Israel to Mexico and now, settled in Miami, Roizner was ready to start another business.

So the two began planning a service for Latin American consumers that would mirror the kinds of options parents and children have in the U.S. and Europe through startups like Greenlight and GoHenry. Last year, in a sign of how well the business resonates with investors, Greenlight Card raised $54 million in funding to roll out its banking business for parents to teach kids about money.

The team added longtime tech developer Pablo Klestorny as chief technology officer and co-founder and set out to raise capital for their business.

Mozper co-founders Gabriel Roizner, Pablo Klestorny and Yael Israeli. Image Credit: Mozper

Investors know a good thing when they've seen it before, so Mozper has already managed to raise roughly $1.5 million on the back of the company's founders' personal connections and a business plan that's proven successful.

What's different in Latin America is the massive disparity in financial education. Only 30% of Latin Americans have received financial education, according to Israeli. So a service like Mozper's is far more necessary, she says.

Like the incumbents in the U.S. and Europe, Mozper intends to charge a fee for access to the card and will provide a debit card and an app that both parents and their children can access.

Mozper's initial market is Mexico, where it launched in late July. The company uses Toka as its sponsor bank and is working on getting its fintech license from the Mexican government. Mozper has also partnered with Visa on card processing services, according to Israeli.
"We are thrilled to have Dr. Ramlawi join the team at Main Line Health," says Phil Robinson, FACHE, President, Lankenau Medical Center. "Dr. Ramlawi's impressive clinical experience and extensive research background further enhance our ability to provide cutting-edge cardiac care to our patients throughout the region and beyond."

In his position at Main Line Health, Dr. Ramlawi will assume the role of co-director of the Lankenau Heart Institute, Main Line Health's team of cardiologists, cardiovascular surgeons and subspecialists seamlessly integrated into one uncompromising service focused on prevention, diagnostics, treatment, rehabilitation and disease management. In particular, Dr. Ramlawi will oversee the ongoing clinical enrichment of the Lankenau Heart Institute's Cardiac Surgery program.

"I am honored to take the helm of such a nationally renowned cardiac surgery and research team, to lead such excellent physicians and continue to build Main Line Health's reputation for best-in-class heart and vascular care," says Dr. Ramlawi. "It is a privilege to lead the team toward more innovative, advanced treatments that maintain the same quality care we would want for our own families."

Dr. Ramlawi most recently served as chairman of the Heart & Vascular Center at Valley Health System, comprised of six hospitals in Virginia, where he served as founding director of their Advanced Valve and Aortic Center. Additionally, he led a service that offered integrated care for patients with aortic disease, available only at a few hospitals in the nation, involving collaboration among cardiothoracic and vascular surgeons, interventional radiologists, structural cardiologists and internal medicine physicians. Prior to joining Valley Health System, Dr. Ramlawi held positions at world-renowned health systems including the Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center in Houston, Texas, Columbia University and NY-Presbyterian Hospital.

"Dr. Ramlawi's experience builds upon an already strong foundation in minimally invasive cardiac surgical intervention and advanced cardiovascular research through Main Line Health's Lankenau Institute for Medical Research, and further positions our program among the most comprehensive and progressive cardiac surgical programs in the broader region," says William Gray, MD, System Chief of Cardiovascular Diseases and President of Lankenau Heart Institute. "I look forward to working with Dr. Ramlawi so that we can continue to advance the high-quality cardiac care we provide in the communities we serve."

Dr. Ramlawi earned his medical degree from McMaster University Medical School in Hamilton, Canada, followed by cardiac surgical training at the University of Western Ontario. He then completed a postdoctoral fellowship funded by the National Institutes of Health and earned an MMSc degree from Harvard Medical School. He subsequently completed an advanced clinical fellowship in heart failure and minimally invasive valve surgery at Columbia University.

He has received several prestigious awards, including the American Heart Association's Vivien Thomas Award, The American Federation for Medical Research Henry Christian Award, and the Detweiler Fellowship from The Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons of Canada. He was also selected as one of Houston's Top Forty Under Forty Award recipients by the Houston Business Journal. Dr. Ramlawi has co-authored over 85 medical and scientific papers, abstracts and book chapters. He is an active speaker at national and international cardiology and cardiovascular surgery conferences. His research interests include clinical outcomes and technological innovations within cardiovascular care, specifically heart valve repair, aortic pathology, atrial fibrillation and heart failure.

About Main Line Health

Founded in 1985, Main Line Health is a not-for-profit health system serving portions of Philadelphia and its western suburbs. Main Line Health's commitmentto deliver advanced medicine to treat and cure disease while also playing an important role in prevention and disease management as well as training physicians and other health care providersreflects our intent to keep our community and ourselves well ahead. A team of more than 10,000 employees and 2,000 physicians care for patients throughout the Main Line Health system.

At Main Line Health's core are four of the region's most respected acute care hospitalsLankenau Medical Center, Bryn Mawr Hospital, Paoli Hospital and Riddle Hospitalas well as one of the nation's recognized facilities for rehabilitative medicine, Bryn Mawr Rehabilitation Hospital.

Main Line Health also includes Mirmont Treatment Center for drug and alcohol recovery; Main Line Health HomeCare & Hospice, which includes skilled home health care, hospice and home infusion services; Main Line Health Centers, primary and specialty care, lab and radiology, and other outpatient services located in Broomall, Collegeville, Concordville, Exton and Newtown Square; Lankenau Institute for Medical Research, a biomedical research organization; and Main Line HealthCare, one of the region's largest multispecialty physician networks.

Main Line Health is the recipient of numerous awards for quality care and service, including System Magnet designation, the nation's highest distinction for nursing excellence and the Mid-Atlantic Alliance for Performance Excellence (MAAPE) Excellence Award. Main Line Health is committed to creating an environment of diversity, respect and inclusion and has proudly embraced the American Hospital Association's #123forEquity Pledge to Act to eliminate disparities in care. We are dedicated to advancing patient-centered care, education and research to help our community stay healthy. To learn more, visit mainlinehealth.org.

About Lankenau Heart Institute

The Lankenau Heart Institute is Main Line Health's premier, comprehensive cardiovascular medicine and surgery program. The Lankenau Heart Institute brings together the clinical expertise of all four Main Line Health acute care hospitals and community cardiology practices to ensure that patients receive a level of quality, service, and experience that is unprecedented in the region. Through the system-wide coordination of services, the Lankenau Heart Institute delivers preventive, diagnostic, therapeutic, and rehabilitative cardiovascular services at each of our locations including Lankenau Medical Center, recognized by IBM Watson Health as a 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospital for the twelfth year, Bryn Mawr Hospital, Paoli Hospital and Riddle Hospital.

Lankenau Heart Institute continues to be a pioneer in the use of beating-heart techniques and robotic-assisted procedures for coronary artery revascularization, minimally invasive and transcatheter approaches for valve repair and replacement, and complex aortic surgeries. With our growing experience and focus on minimally invasive techniques, Lankenau Heart Institute has expanded participation in clinical trials year over year. Our physicians are frequently invited to participate in clinical/medical device trials, many of these designed to facilitate minimally invasive procedures/approaches.

With a collaborative team of expert consultative cardiologists, interventional cardiologists, electrophysiologists, cardiovascular surgeons and specially trained nurses and technologists, the Lankenau Heart Institute is dedicated to managing and treating patients with heart failure, aortic disease, coronary and peripheral vascular disease, heart rhythm disorders and valve disease. Our team of cardiologists and cardiac specialists provide patients and their families with expert cardiac care, close to home. To learn more, visit mainlinehealth.org/heart.

SOURCE Main Line Health

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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) New York, United States  Thu, August 6, 2020 09:56 531 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066becf86 2 World coronavirus-restrictions,New-York-City,COVID-19,checkpoint,coronavirus,COVID-19-infection,COVID-19-travel-restriction,pandemic,SARS-CoV-2,virus-corona,novel-coronavirus Free

New York will put up checkpoints at key entry points to the city to ensure that travelers are complying with the state's quarantine requirements, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday.

Visitors from 35 US states, including Florida and Texas, are currently required to quarantine for two weeks after entering New York in an attempt to contain the spread of coronavirus.

De Blasio said law enforcement agencies will operate "traveler registration checkpoints" at major bridge and tunnel crossings into the Big Apple from Thursday.

Travelers from the states on the quarantine list will have to fill out a health form which will help authorities with contact tracing in case of an infection.

Arrivals at New York's airports already have to complete the form. Anyone who refuses to is subject to a $2,000 fine.

"New York City is holding the line against COVID-19, and New Yorkers have shown tremendous discipline," de Blasio said.

"We're not going to let our hard work slip away and will continue to do everything we can to keep New Yorkers safe and healthy," he added.

COVID-19 has killed more than 32,000 people in New York state, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University.

The city was the epicenter of America's outbreak back in March and April but the spread of the virus has largely been brought under control, even as cases have surged elsewhere in the country.

Individuals who violate New York's quarantine can be fined $10,000.
PH Coffee, 2200 Lexington, was robbed on Aug. 1, 2020, and police are asking for the public's help identifying a suspect. Around 8:30 Saturday morning, the suspect entered PH Coffee, walked up to the barista and quietly demanded cash from the register while brandishing a handgun, Pendleton Heights Neighborhood Association President Chris Binkley said in a Facebook post.
Varun & Sidharth Malhotra

Bollywood actors, Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra condoled the actor's death. Varun shared Sameer's picture and captioned it, "ripsameersharma," while Sidharth wrote, "Really sad and unfortunate #RIPSameerSharma."

Sneha & Preetam

Sneha Wagh: Just heard about the grave passing of my co-actor Samir Sharma! Extremely shocked by this terrible news. My deepest sympathy to his near and dear ones. RIP.

Pritam Singh: Wats happening with Actors community. Sad to c Tv actor #sameersharma suicide or killed .. Bro RIP ...

Kavita Kaushik

"While the whole country is busy fighting each other's opinions over religion n politics, there are humans struggling to just survive, yet another actor ended his life , perhaps no one is genuinely listening and no one really cares unless it fulfills an agenda. R.i.p Sameer ."

Kritika, Raj & Lata

Kritika Kamra: I hope they let you rest in peace Sameer Sharma.

Raj Singh Arora: What the Hell ...... #SameerSharma RIP 

Lata Sabharwal: We are still in shock!! It is very sad and unfortunate!! May his soul rest in peace. It never came across that he would do something like this! I still have the music piece he created online and gifted to me on my b'day. He was quite jovial and a gentleman. Unbelievable!! Rest in peace Samir....

Avinash Sachdev: Sam Was Not Someone Who Would Give Up

Samir's IPKKND co-star Avinash Sachdev told BT, "I was in touch with him through the lockdown; just two weeks ago, we were chatting with each other via voice notes. He told me that he feels blessed to have come back from a bad phase in life, which he fought successfully and now he was busy with work. He went through a rough patch when he fell ill and was hospitalised in Bengaluru, a couple of years ago. After his recovery, his parents were averse to him returning to Mumbai, but he came back and rented an apartment not too far from my residence."

The actor said that when he passed through his lane, he saw two fire brigades and a police van outside the building on Wednesday and got to know that someone had died by suicide. He got to know yesterday that it was Sam. Avinash added, "I am still shaken up and can't come to terms with it. Sam was a fighter, not someone who would give up. Just 15 days ago, he was in Lonavala and had told me that he wanted to step out."

Gautam Chaturvedi: Im Shocked & Numb

Sameer's actor-friend, Gautam Chaturvedi told TOI, "Samir was always buzzing with ideas and along with acting, he wanted to produce music and start a channel online. On July 27, he texted me and asked me to call him, but my sister was unwell and so, I told him that I would connect later. And today, after hearing the news of his demise, I am shocked and numb. I wish we had connected that day."

He further added, "He used to make wonderful videos and wanted to produce music. He had also wished to start his own music channel and you can see his work on his social media accounts, too. He was fine and we were a good bunch of friends. I am shocked by what has happened."
WILLIAMSPORT  A federal agency has opened an investigation into a complaint that an employee snooped into the medical records of a co-worker at UPMC Susquehanna.

A spokesperson for the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Health and Human Services says it does not comment on investigations but PennLive has been provided a copy of a letter from that agency that contains the case number.

The letter says the office is committed to expeditiously resolving the complaint involving former UPMC Susquehanna employee Taylor Fausnaught, as well as a complaint by her mother, Lori Fausnaught.

UPMC has confirmed Taylor Fausnaughts medical records were examined by a fellow employee, Tasha Klock, at its skilled nursing and rehabilitation center in Muncy where they worked on different shifts.

Taylor Fausnaught has sued UPMC Susquehanna and Klock. Fausnaught, who resigned in May 2018 when she had a miscarriage, claims Klock used an employee password to access ultrasound images of her early pregnancy, urinary culture and attestation reports.

Her mother, Lori Fausnaught, reported in early March that 14 pages of records of another patient were included in the aftercare paperworks she received following an outpatient procedure at UPMC.

Lycoming County Judge Eric R. Linhardt Tuesday heard arguments on preliminary objections by UPMC to Fausnaughts amended complaint. The complaint was amended after the judge previously dismissed three negligence claims against UPMC, but let a liability claim stand.

Taylor Fausnaught argues her mother receiving someone elses records shows UPMC is negligent and does not take adequate precautions to prevent disclosure of private medical records.

UPMC attorney Austin White argued they were isolated incidents and the suit deals only with what happened to Taylor Fausnaught.
LIRA  The music fraternity has been hit by the loss of Northern Ugandas music king Ogwang Benard commonly known as Mzee B-Beniman who passed on earlier this week.

Mzee B who was battling cancer was admitted at the Uganda Cancer Institute where he finally met his death.

The stars death was confirmed by his manager Mr Brian Opio also known as the Ghetto Prince in a Facebook post. Rest In Peace King, finally today at he takes his rest, till we meet again he posted.

Previously, a number of artists, fans and celebrities had come together to support Mzee Bs recovery through a campaign tagged save Mzee B from cancer where they have been buying t-shirts and jumpers printed on his name in a bid to raise money for his medical bills.

Mzee B who succumbed to cancer hails from Lira started singing in 2005 with a breakthrough hit song called Anyim. He had other songs like Figure, Super glue, Wan bulu among others.

Top celebrities have come out to send their condolences messages to the bereaved family including one of Ugandas top television personalities Daglous Lwanga.

If you come from Northern Uganda, you definitely know Mzee B from Lira. Rest in Peace Mzee B-Beenieman. The music industry will miss you, he posted.

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She is an international supermodel extraordinaire.

And Alessandra Ambrosio showed it even when glimpsed maintaining her fitness regime in Los Angeles this Wednesday.

The 39-year-old bared her sculpted midriff in tight workout gear as she emerged from lockdown to enjoy a sunlit hike.

Out and about: Alessandra Ambrosio showed it even when glimpsed maintaining her fitness regime in Los Angeles this Wednesday

Sweeping her dark hair back into a high ponytail, she tied a bright orange sweater around her waist in case it got a bit chilly.

She made sure to take the precaution of bringing a face mask with her as she stepped out amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The sizzling sensation added a touch of dazzle to the ensemble with a pair of earrings and accessorized with shades.

Alessandra, who hails from the Brazilian town of Erechim, has gone into lockdown with her beau Nicolo Oddi and her children.

Legging it: The 39-year-old bared her sculpted midriff in tight workout gear as she emerged from lockdown to enjoy a sunlit hike

She shares her two children, 11-year-old Anja and eight-year-old Noah, with her ex-fiance Jamie Mazur who co-founded RE/DONE.

In 2018, Alessandra broke her decade-long engagement to Jamie, and she has since taken up with Nicolo, who founded the fashion brand Alanui with his sister Carlotta.

Anja, Noah and Nicolo were all with Alessandra when she rang in her 39th birthday at home in self-isolation this April.

Careful: She made sure to take the precaution of bringing a face mask with her as she stepped out amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic

Alessandra rose to international fame as a Victoria's Secret Angel, announcing that she was giving up the title at the end of 2017.

She has collaborated with Aline and a pal called Gisele Coria to launch a new swimwear line called Gal Floripa, which debuted last March.

The brand takes its title from a nickname for Florianopolis, the Brazilian city where Alessandra gave birth to both of her children.
Firefighters have managed to control the fire which broke out at the ICU of the hospital

The fire started around 3.30 am in the ICU unit of Shrey Hospital in Ahmedabad. (Photo-Twitter)

Ahmedabad: Eight people lost their live after a massive fire broke out at Shrey hospital in Gujarat's Ahmedabad on Wednesday (August 5) night. The fire erupted at the fourth floor of the hospital located in Ahmedabad's Navrangpura area.

It is learnt that 35 other patients were shifted to other hospitals following the fire incident at the hospital. Firefighters have managed to control the fire which broke out at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed grief over the incident and said that he was saddened by the tragic hospital fire in Ahmedabad.

The prime minister added that he spoke to Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani and Ahmedabad Mayor Bijal Patel over the incident.

PM Modi has also announced ex-gratia of Rs 2 Lakhs each from Prime Minister's National Relief Fund (PMNRF) to the next of kin of the deceased. He announced that Rs 50,000 will be given to those injured due to the fire.
A federal appeals court on Thursday held that a Pennsylvania school district was not liable under Title IX for an assistant principals sexual relationship with a student, rejecting the students theory that her abuser was an appropriate district official with knowledge of the harassment and the authority to remedy it.

We hold that a perpetrator of sexual harassment who has authority to remedy Title IX violations is not an appropriate person for assessing a school districts Title IX liability in a private right of action, said a unanimous opinion by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, in Philadelphia.

The decision in M.S. v. Susquehanna Township School District comes in a high-profile case in which Shawn A. Sharkey, a special educator and assistant principal, carried on a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old female student. According to court papers, rumors of the relationship spread among students in early 2013, and administrators conducted an investigation. But both Sharkey and the student identifed as M.S. denied a relationship, and an examination of their emails and texts failed to turn up evidence of anything inappropriate. The school superintendent ended the investigation in consultation with the districts lawyer, court papers say.

In September 2013, the rumors resurfaced, and the district brought in the police. After police threatened to get a search warrant for M.S.'s phone, she acknowledged and provided details about the relationship.

Sharkey resigned from his job and later pleaded guilty to sexual contact with a minor and other charges. He was sentenced to six to 18 months in a work-release program.

M.S. and her mother sued the Susquehanna district and Sharkey under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which bars sex discrimination in federally funded schools. The suit alleged that the district failed to respond adequately to the sexual harassment of M.S.

A federal district court dismissed some of the familys claims and later issued summary judgment to the district on a claim of a hostile sexual environment. The district court entered a default judgment against Sharkey and ordered him to pay $700,000 in damages.

The key issue in the familys appeal to the 3rd Circuit court was whether a perpetrator of sex-based harassment who has authority to address Title IX violations is an appropriate person within a school district for purposes of holding the district liable.

Lawyers for the family argued that under the U.S. Supreme Courts 1998 decision in Gebser v. Lago Vista Independent School District , a key decision on school district liability under Title IX, once any appropriate person has knowledge of the harassment, including when the perpetrator is someone with authority to address such violations, then the district would be liable if that official was deliberately indifferent to the harassment.

When an appropriate person himself ... causes the Title IX violation, knowledge by another appropriate person is not required, lawyers for M.S. argued.

The 3rd Circuit court disagreed. The court said M.S.'s approach has some intuitive appeal but it was expressly rejected by the Supreme Court in its Gebser decision.

A perpetrators knowledge of his own Title IX discrimination does not satisfy Gebsers actual-knowledge requirement even if the perpetrator would otherwise be an appropriate person, the 3rd Circuit court said. For a school district to have actual knowledge, a report must be made to an appropriate person who is not the perpetrator.

The decision said only one other federal appeals court has ruled on the question of whether the perpetrator may be an appropriate official, and that court reached the same conclusion as the 3rd Circuit. (The Supreme Court declined to take up an appeal of that decision in 2017.)

The 3rd Circuit court went on to say that when an authorized official perpetrates sexual harassment in violation of a school districts stated policy, that persons failure to respond could not constitute deliberate indifference on behalf of the school district.

Once the Susquehanna district had actual knowledge of the inappropriate relationship, it took action, the court said.

Here, before September 2013, appropriate people did not have actual knowledge of either Title IX discrimination by Sharkey or of facts showing that he posed a substantial danger to students, the court said. At most, appropriate people had informationwhich they did not ignoresuggesting the possibility of a sexual relationship between M.S. and Sharkey. The known facts before September 2013 were insufficient to impose liability on the school district under an actual-knowledge standard.
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

Six temples of different deities in Ram temple's final blueprint

Mind your business, India tells Pak on Ram Temple

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Aug 06: India on Thursday strongly rejected Pakistan's criticism of the launch of construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, and asked the neighbouring country to refrain from "communal incitement."

External affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava also asked Pakistan to desist from interfering in India's affairs.

Hard talk on the hotline: India snubs China on step back suggestion

Sushant death probe: CBI registers FIR against Rhea, others | Oneindia News

"We have seen the press statement by the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on a matter internal to India. It should desist from interfering in India's affairs and refrain from communal incitement," Srivastava said.

"While this is not a surprising stance from a nation that practices cross-border terrorism and denies its own minorities their religious rights, such comments are nevertheless deeply regrettable," he added.

Pakistan on Wednesday criticised the foundation laying of the Ram temple.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, August 6, 2020, 18:40 [IST]
It was the scandal that derailed Jussie Smollett's successful acting career.

And now his actress sister Jurnee Smollett is speaking out for the first time about the ongoing legal battle the Empire star faces after being accused of staging a racist attack against himself and then lying about it to police.

'It's been f***ing painful, one of the most painful things my family's ever experienced,' Jurnee, 33, told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published Wednesday.

Standing by him: Jurnee Smollett has described her brother Jussie's 'staged attack' scandal as 'one of the most painful things my family's ever experienced'. The siblings are pictured in 2018

She went on: 'To love someone as much as we love my brother, and to watch someone who you love that much go through something like this, that is so public, has been devastating.'

In February, Jussie, 38, pleaded not guilty to six counts of disorderly conduct for allegedly lying to police about being the victim of a hate crime.

He has been accused of paying two brothers to stage an anti-gay and racist attack against him in Chicago in January 2019, an incident that made headlines and prompted a high profile investigation by law enforcement.

When Chicago police claimed the actor had orchestrated the while thing himself, Jussie was cut from season 5 of Fox's drama series Empire and then fired ahead of the show's sixth and final season.

Jussie has consistently denied the allegations made against him.

Court case: In February, Jussie, 38, pleaded not guilty to six counts of disorderly conduct for allegedly lying to police about being the victim of a hate crime. He claimed he'd been assaulted in Chicago in January 2019 in a racist and homophobic attack by two white men

Written out: Jussie, who has consistently denied the allegations against him, was fired from Fox's hit series Empire as a result of the scandal. He's pictured fourth from right with his co-stars in 2015 - Trai Byers, Taraji P Henson, Terrence Howard and Bryshere Y. Gray

Speaking out: Jurnee, 33, pictured in February, told The Hollywood Reporter: 'To love someone as much as we love my brother, and to watch someone who you love that much go through something like this, that is so public, has been devastating'

'I've tried to not let it make me pessimistic. But everyone who knows me knows that I love my brother and I believe my brother,' Jurnee told The Hollywood Reporter.

She added: 'We are blessed to have a community of people who know him, and know that he wouldn't do this. I mean, f**k, man, I look at him sometimes and I'm like, 'He's so strong'.'

The latest charges against Jussie were brought after prosecutors tossed out an original 16-count indictment against him in March 2019, only to have a grand jury re-investigate the incident which prompted the charges leveled against him this past February.

The city of Chicago is also suing Jussie to recover $130,106 for its investigation into the actor's claims.

He, in turn, is counter-suing for 'malicious prosecution'.
MIAMI and NEW YORK, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Parkinson's Foundation today announced a $3.4 million investment across 34 research grants to advance promising Parkinson's disease (PD) research. Grants support Parkinson's research across a variety of disciplines for scientists who are actively studying various aspects of Parkinson's with the hope of making life better for people with the disease and ultimately, leading to a cure.

"The Parkinson's Foundation continues to provide these annual grant opportunities especially during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure that PD research can successfully move forward," said John L. Lehr, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Parkinson's Foundation. "These research grants are a critical to driving better patient outcomes and ensuring a better future for people with Parkinson's disease."

Parkinson's Foundation research grants fund a diverse array of research studies that provide pre and postdoctoral researchers with training opportunities, and established scientists and clinicians with the support to test innovative ideas that can lead to impactful research findings in the Parkinson's field.

"With the support of the Parkinson's Foundation, we hope to better understand how the nervous system functions as it relates to people with advanced Parkinson's disease experience freezing gait, an inability to move their feet, during demanding or particularly stressful situations," said Kevin Wilkins, PhD, a postdoctoral grant recipient. "We hope to develop ways to identify those at risk of developing cognitive and walking impairments as their disease progresses and provide the key to better therapies."

This year the Foundation invested $450,000 in Impact Award programs. This award supports high-risk, high-reward projects that discover more about the biology of Parkinson's and new treatments to people with Parkinson's. Impact Award recipients received a maximum of $150,000 for approximately one year.

"These research grants allow us to better understand Parkinson's disease and move the needle forward for better care and therapies for people with PD," said James Beck, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of the Parkinson's Foundation. "We are thrilled to support these highly-promising grant recipients as they advance research towards a cure."

Parkinson's Foundation research investments are selected through a competitive application process and peer-reviewed by a panel that includes scientific experts and Foundation-trained research advocates. Since 1957, the Foundation has invested more than $365 million in Parkinson's research and clinical care.

Research award categories include: independent investigator awards, fellowships and early career awards, collaborative fellowships awards and Parkinson's Foundation Research Centers awards. For more information about Parkinson's Foundation research grants, visit Parkinson.org/Research.

About the Parkinson's Foundation

The Parkinson's Foundation makes life better for people with Parkinson's disease by improving care and advancing research toward a cure. In everything we do, we build on the energy, experience and passion of our global Parkinson's community. For more information, visit www.parkinson.org or call (800) 4PD-INFO (473-4636).

About Parkinson's Disease

Affecting nearly one million Americans and 10 million worldwide, Parkinson's disease is the second-most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer's and is the 14th-leading cause of death in the United States. It is associated with a progressive loss of motor control (e.g., shaking or tremor at rest and lack of facial expression), as well as non-motor symptoms (e.g., depression and anxiety). There is no cure for Parkinson's and 60,000 new cases are diagnosed each year in the United States alone.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Mona Clifton

Parkinson's Foundation

[email protected]

858-264-1713

Parkinson.org

SOURCE Parkinson's Foundation

Related Links

http://www.parkinson.org


Are Christian couples biblically mandated to have children? John Piper answers

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Theologian John Piper believes Christian couples are biblically called to have children unless God makes it crystal clear that the self-denying path of Christ-exalting obedience is childlessness.

In an episode of the podcast Ask Pastor John, a listener asked the 74-year-old founder of DesiringGod.org, Is it permissible for an ordinary Christian couple to simply choose to not have children?

In response, the chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary in Minneapolis, Minnesota first argued that theres no such thing as simply choosing to have children.

There are always realities, in our hearts and in our minds and in our experiences, that shape our so-called simply choosing, he explained. We are not simply choosing. We are choosing because of who we are, because of deep realities that have shaped our hearts, our preferences, our desires, our wants, our inclinations.

Piper then offered five observations that he said may reveal some of the hidden things of the heart.

He stressed, first and foremost, that Scripture defines children as a blessing.

[Children ] are a gift; children are a blessing. When they are withheld, it is a heartache  sometimes even a judgment, Piper said. What a sadness when many modern women, shortsightedly I think, choose to forgo that blessing, while millions would literally give their right arm to have it.

Second, Scripture is starkly realistic about how badly things may go in families, Piper acknowledged, adding: The Bible is not a Pollyanna tale of happy families.

Almost all of them in the Bible are broken  one way or the other, he continued. But none of this  none of it  hinders the ongoing reality that conceiving and raising children is normal, beautiful, fitting, natural, normative.

Third, Piper pointed out that the Bible does not share the modern mindset that the aim of life is the avoidance of hardship or heartache or suffering.

Before having children, parents do not know whether their offspring will have special needs, break their hearts with unbelief, or live six hours and die, he explained. However, they do know that raising a child in the Lord demands spiritual desperation, prayer, focus, and attention.

But from the standpoint of Gods word, none of those possible heartaches and none of these guaranteed stresses are reasons not to have children, because the Bible does not share the modern viewpoint that the aim of life is the avoidance of hardship, he said.

Fourth, the bestselling author pointed out that parents cant predict their childrens influence, and thus cannot presume to think that they can do more good by not having children.

[We] simply do not know whether our child will be a debit or a credit to the human race  a curse or a blessing, a taker or a giver, he said. We dont know.  Who do we think we are? My goodness, who do we think we are to predict that our children will be a loss rather than a gain for the world, and for the glory of Christ, whom we can believe and pray to?

Finally, Piper argued that most couples dont decide to have children after calculating the effect of their child on global warming, or the replacement rate for the population so that 30 years from now the workforce will be big enough to sustain the aged, or whether we will certainly have enough resources to establish the child in a fruitful location.

Rather, children are often the culmination of the biblical blessing pronounced upon having children together with the voice of God in nature every month as a woman ovulates and as the man stands ever-ready to deposit his seed as the deep-seated, God-given longings of a man and a woman to be a father and a mother rise up.

Piper concluded by saying that the biblical blessing, voice of nature and God-given longing should be followed unless God himself makes it crystal clear that the self-denying path of Christ-exalting obedience is childlessness.

Previously, Piper suggested it is permissible for Christian couples to wait to have kids and to limit the number of children they have.

God knows your heart. Hes a merciful Father, and he loves children, he said in 2018. But our having children is not his highest priority. His highest priority for his children is Christ-exalting faith and Christ-magnifying joy that overflows in meeting the needs of others. Thats his highest priority.

The theologian also said in the past that it is permissible, in some cases, for a missionary couple to forgo children altogether.

A recent survey by the Guttmacher Institute found that about a third of women in the United States ages 18 to 49 were planning to postpone pregnancy or forgo adding a child to their family because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Similarly, Wellesley College economics professor Dr. Phillip Levine, a one-time White House economic advisor, and a team of researchers from the Brookings Institution are projecting a decline of 300,000 to 500,000 births in the U.S. next year.

But birth rates were steadily declining in Western countries before the pandemic. According to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of births in the U.S. dropped to a three-decade low in 2018.

Its estimated that by 2035, the number of Americans over the age of 65 will outnumber those under the age of 18.
In a letter sent to the medical staff on August 4, he noted that Vietnam has entered a new phase of COVID-19 with complicated developments as the epidemic has spread to many localities, including big cities, and several medical workers have been infected.

Following Party General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trongs appeal and with the motto fighting the epidemic like fighting an enemy, the entire political system and people have united to battle against COVID-19, he said, adding that the Government and the Prime Minister have made drastic directions and mobilised all available resources to suppress the outbreak hotbeds, particularly in Da Nang City and Quang Nam Province.

The PM highly appreciated the Health Ministry and the military medical force for their prompt direction and assistance in the fight against COVID-19.

Many brave examples and noble deeds have been established by people of all ages and economic and social backgrounds, with most prominent being those in white coats in Da Nang City and the provinces Quang Nam and Thua Thien Hue along with others in hospitals, research institutes and medical universities nationwide.

The Government leader also took the occasion to express his thanks to family members and relatives of medical workers for their understanding and empathy in the situation, thus serving as firm support for the white-coated soldiers to fulfil their tasks.

In the context of the unpredictable developments of the COVID-19, he asked the health sector to roll out all efforts to control the spread of the epidemic and provide medical staff with adequate equipment to ensure their safety.

He called on doctors and medical staff across the country to continue staying ready, showing their determination and responsibility, and joining the entire Party and people to win the battle against the epidemic.

The PM also urged people nationwide to continue uniting and working together to support soldiers in white coats in the tough and dangerous fight against COVID-19.

He described medical works as peoples heroes, wishing them good health and soon roll back the pandemic, thus accomplishing their task of caring for and protecting public health.
Montreal Area Real Estate Market

Residential Sales  July 2020

Residential Sales  July 2020

LILE-DES-SURS, Quebec, Aug. 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers (QPAREB) has just released its most recent residential real estate market statistics for the Montreal Census Metropolitan Area (CMA), based on the real estate brokers Centris provincial database.



In total, 5,356 residential sales transactions were concluded in July 2020, a 46 per cent increase compared to July of last year and a new sales record for a month of July. In a continuation of what was observed in June, the catching-up of transactions that could not be concluded in early spring due to the measures aimed at reducing the spread of the new coronavirus largely explains the extension of this sales rebound into July.

"The resumption of transactions is gaining strength in Montreal, as is  to a lesser extent  the resumption of new listings, which does not suggest a significant relaxing of market conditions for the time being," said Julie Saucier, president and chief executive officer of the QPAREB. "Conditions remained very favourable for sellers in July with prices still rising sharply," she added.

Sales by geographic area

All six main areas of the Montreal CMA registered a significant increase in sales compared to July of last year, with particularly impressive increases on the North Shore of Montreal (+84 per cent) and in Vaudreuil-Soulanges (+65 per cent).

Thus, the peripheral markets of the CMA continue to benefit from a significant surge in interest, which has increased in the context of the health crisis. The areas of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and the South Shore of Montreal also registered a strong rebound in transactions of 51 per cent and 41 per cent, respectively, followed by Laval with an increase of 33 per cent.

Sales on the Island of Montreal have also resumed much more sustained activity since the start of the pandemic, posting a 31 per cent increase in transactions year-over-year.

Story continues

Sales by property category

Across the CMA, single-family homes were the property category that posted the largest sales increase in July, with a 48 per cent jump in transactions.

Sales of condominiums and plexes also increased considerably, rising by 45 per cent and 34 per cent, respectively.

Selling times decreased for all three property categories in July. On average, it took only 41 days for a condominium to sell, which is 30 days less than in July of last year. The amount of time it took to sell a single-family home (57 days) and a plex (71 days) fell by 6 days and 7 days, respectively.

Prices

Price increases were particularly strong in July for all three property categories.

Across the CMA, the median price of single-family homes reached $423,000, an 18 per cent increase compared to July of last year.

The median price of condominiums rose by 12 per cent to reach $312,000, while that of plex increased by 7 per cent to reach $624,900.

Number of properties for sale

In terms of the supply of properties for sale, the 5,960 new listings in July represented a 38 per cent increase compared to July of last year and a reversal of trend after six consecutive years of declines in the month of July. The last time a similar number was observed was back in July 2014, at the time of the last peak (5,588). In contrast, there were 12,803 active residential listings on the Centris system in July, a 24 per cent drop compared to one year earlier.

For July 2020 and year-to-date statistics charts, click here .

About the Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers

The Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers (QPAREB) is a non-profit association that brings together more than 13,000 real estate brokers and agencies. It is responsible for promoting and defending their interests while taking into account the issues facing the profession and the various professional and regional realities of its members. The QPAREB is also an important player in many real estate dossiers, including the implementation of measures that promote homeownership. The Association reports on Quebec's residential real estate market statistics, provides training, tools and services relating to real estate, and facilitates the collection, dissemination and exchange of information. The QPAREB is headquartered in Quebec City and has its administrative offices in Montreal. It has two subsidiaries: Centris Inc. and the College de l'immobilier du Quebec. Follow its activities at qpareb.ca or via its social media pages: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.

About Centris

Centris.ca is Quebecs real estate industry website for consumers, grouping all properties for sale by a real estate broker under the same address. Societe Centris provides real estate industry stakeholders with access to real estate data and a wide range of technology tools. Centris also manages the collaboration system used by more than 13,000 real estate brokers in Quebec.



For more information:



Taissa Hrycay

Director

Communications and Marketing



1-888-762-2440 or

514-762-2440, ext. 157

media@qpareb.ca

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1a937648-e6bc-445c-b4ba-e4b7b53e7cc9




Stocks in Asia Pacific were mixed on Thursday as investors continued to monitor tensions between the U.S. and China.

South Korea's Kospi jumped 1.33% to close at 2,342.61 as shares of automaker Hyundai Motor soared 7.84%.

Mainland Chinese stocks were mixed on the day, with the Shanghai composite up 0.26% to about 3,386.46 while the Shenzhen component slipped 0.7% to around 13,863.13.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index closed 0.69% lower at 24,930.58.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 dipped 0.43% to close at 22,418.15 while the Topix index shed 0.31% to end the trading day at 1,549.88.

Shares in Australia edged higher as the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.68% to close at 6,042.20.

Overall, the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index was 0.41% higher.

On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that President Donald Trump's administration wants to ban "untrusted" Chinese apps such as TikTok and WeChat from U.S. app stores. That development followed tensions between Washington and Beijing heating up in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, a range of issues remains unresolved among lawmakers stateside in coronavirus relief negotiations, with the White House threatening to act on its own if it fails to reach a deal with Democrats.

On the earnings front, Japanese automaker Toyota Motor reported that first-quarter net income attributable to the company plunged 74.3% from last year. Shares of Toyota jumped 2.29% on Thursday.

Shares of Singapore bank DBS Group rose 2.87% on Thursday after the firm reported a second-quarter net profit that beat estimates despite falling about 22% from last year. DBS said its profit for the second quarter came in at 1.25 billion Singapore dollars ($912.9 million). That compared against an average estimate of 1.19 billion Singapore dollars, according to Refinitiv data.
China repeated that it would take measures if Washington didnt renew visas for Chinese journalists working in the U.S., amid questions over whether it will make a tit-for-tat move against American reporters in Hong Kong.

We learned that relevant Chinese journalists applied for visa extensions but none of them have received a clear reply from the U.S. side, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a daily briefing in Beijing on Thursday, echoing comments he made earlier this week.

If the U.S. is bent on going down the wrong path, China will take necessary and legitimate measures to defend its interests.

Speculation over the future visa status of U.S. journalists working in Hong Kong mounted this week following online posts by Global Times editor-in-chief Hu Xijin that a number of Chinese journalists would see their visas expire on Aug. 6, and none of them had yet been renewed.

From what I know, given that the US side hasnt renewed visa of Chinese journalists, Chinese side has prepared for the worst scenario that all Chinese journalists have to leave the US, Hu wrote Tuesday on Twitter. If thats the case, Chinese side will retaliate, including targeting US journalists based in HK.

The Foreign Correspondents Club of Hong Kong said Thursday that it opposes using journalists visas as a weapon in international disputes.

The club is aware of recent examples of delays involving the issuing of visas to foreign journalists in Hong Kong, as well as suggestions by the Chinese government that more foreign journalists could face repercussions in response to U.S. actions, it said in a statement.

The FCC calls on the Trump administration to lift its restrictions on Chinese media working in the U.S., and on Hong Kong and Chinas governments to refrain from retribution in targeting U.S. media and journalists working in Hong Kong, it said.

Hong Kongs ability to determine its own immigration policy has been undermined in recent years, and any squeezing of journalists in the financial hub could fuel a broader escalation in tensions between the U.S. and China.

We said many times that the U.S. caused the current situation and is responsible for it, said Wang, the Foreign Ministry spokesman. The U.S. should immediately correct its mistakes and stop its political oppression against Chinese journalists.
LATHAM, N.Y.  Fitness center owners from the Capital Region demonstrated new safety measures put into place in order to safely reopen indoor fitness activities.

They were joined by local elected officials to support their reopening plan. The fitness industry has submitted a safety plan to the State and will always have the health and safety of the public as the top priority. The industrys mission, even before COVID-19, has always been to enhance the physical and mental health of our clients and remain committed to that mission.

Fitness centers across New York State have endured months of uncertainty and lost revenue, with many smaller-scale establishments having to close their doors as a result, Assemblymember Patricia Fahy (D-Albany) stated. Ive recently signed a letter alongside Assembly colleagues that calls for a safe and responsible opening of these establishments, following submission of a thorough reopening plan like the one submitted by the NYS Fitness Alliance, with necessary precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

With local jobs on the line and federal business loans drying up as a result of the current Congressional impasse, these businesses need a lifeline and to be allowed to reopen safely and responsibly.

Today, as COVID-19 continues to impact our lives, there remains a continued need to return to normalcy in a smart and safe way, Assemblymember John McDonald III (D-Cohoes) added. I cannot think of a better way to get back to normal than to open our gyms in a safe manner, as detailed in the plans laid out by the NYS Fitness Alliance.

Lets face it, New Yorkers have not been able to be as active as they used to be. We need to focus on helping people resume their daily exercise safely as it will lead to better physical, mental and emotional health.

Being diabetic, fitness is essential to keeping my blood sugar under control, Assemblymember Phil Steck (D-Colonie) remarked. I really miss Metabolic Meltdown! Its highly motivational! We have introduced legislation to basically codify what the Fitness Alliance is requesting: specific criteria under which clubs can reopen with verification by County Health Departments that the procedures to be employed are adequate.

The Legislature gave the Governor extraordinary powers during COVID. These powers need to be exercised not only to close things down but to provide for the safest possible reopening.

The reopening plan submitted by the NYS Fitness Alliance includes extensive safety protocols for employees, members, and contractors. Fitness center employees will be required to wear face coverings, clean surfaces regularly, and be trained on all safety protocols.

The plan meets or exceeds Centers for Disease Control (CDC), New York State Department of Health (DOH), and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) guidelines, and includes protocols for assisting the State in contact tracing efforts.

In our facilities we have every other treadmill and floor station out of service and every other rower removed to properly follow six feet social distancing for members, Paola Horvath, Franchise Owner, Orangetheory Fitness explained. We also have rigorous cleaning protocols that will be followed and will also include a fast-acting surface treatment fogging system that kills bacteria and virus on contact.

Our classes are designed by our corporate team to allow for proper social distancing and to allow for additional time in-between classes to properly clean and sanitize before the next class begins. Every member will need to make a reservation to attend class. Our ability to provide New York with contact tracing data is above any other industry.

For many fitness center members, the physical and mental progress achieved through exercise programs is an essential element of their overall health and wellness. Many members have underlying health conditions that could result in significant complications if COVID-19 is contracted, such as hypertension and diabetes, that are kept in check through exercise.

These members consider their fitness centers essential to their health. Fitness professionals are a first line of defense in preventative health for many New Yorkers who may struggle with obesity, heart conditions, and diabetes.

I can honestly say that when the pandemic hit and we went into quarantine a switch flipped for me, Nick Latal, a local fitness club member said. The drive I had for two straight years was suddenly nowhere to be found. Not being involved in group classes deeply affected my physical and mental well-being.

It quickly became obvious that I would not be able to continue the level of fitness I was used too, despite having resources at my disposal.

Many industries that require in-person contact have reopened with safety measures in place and there has been no increase in coronavirus cases. Gyms are no different than office buildings, malls, grocery stores, and barber shops and salons  if health and safety measures are taken the spread of the virus can be effectively contained.

NYSFA continues to plan for a safe reopening that protects our employees, customers and the general public, Bill Lia, Executive Director of New York State Fitness Alliance remarked. We are ready to reopen upon state approval, to continue to promote a healthy lifestyle only gyms and fitness centers can provide.

The Governor has done a tremendous job leading New York through this crisis by following the facts and our plan continues that approach while allowing New Yorkers to improve their physical health.
Iraq announced Thursday it will create an inventory of all hazardous materials at ports and airports after the ignition of ammonium nitrate fertiliser at a portside warehouse levelled swathes of Beirut.

An emergency committee chaired by the head of Iraqs border agency said it had been tasked with carrying out the work and had given itself 72 hours to complete it.

The goal was to avoid any repetition of what happened in Lebanon in Iraq, the panel said.

The huge blast that caused widespread destruction across the Lebanese capital on Tuesday was triggered by 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertiliser that had been stored in the citys port for years.

A security official said on condition of anonymity the ammonium nitrate had arrived in Lebanon in 2013 on board a Moldovan-flagged ship sailing from Georgia and bound for Mozambique.

Port authorities unloaded the ammonium nitrate and stored it in a rundown warehouse with cracks in its walls, several security officials said.

Security forces launched an investigation in 2019 after the warehouse reportedly started to exude a strange odour, and concluded that the dangerous chemicals should be removed, but no action was taken.

The revelations have sparked fury in Lebanon that so much ammonium nitrate could be stored for so long in the heart of the capital.

The standing of Lebanons political class was already close to rock bottom after months of mass protests against mismanagement of the deeply indebted economy, before social distancing related to the coronavirus pandemic brought some breathing space for the establishment.

Iraq too has seen mass protests over the past year against a political system based on confessional quotas that is seen as corrupt and incompetent.

The searing summer heat in Iraq makes it even more vulnerable to the danger of accidental explosions of poorly stored hazardous materials.

The accidental ignition of munitions stocked in residential areas has caused deadly explosions in Iraq in the past, although such incidents have largely been put down to the costs of war.
When Rowan Coleman said in her novel that we are all made of stars, people might think she was only being a hopeless romantic comparing the depths of her love to stars exploding, supernova.

But that might not be the case anymore. Maybe the "We Are All Made of Stars" author was telling the truth.

The calcium in human bones and teeth came from stars exploding in supernovas, which scatters the mineral calcium across the universe.

An international team does this new study with 70 scientists after receiving a tip from an amateur astronomer.

The report says that Joel Shepherd saw a bright burst as he watched the spiral galaxy called Messier, which was 55 million light-years away.

Shepherd also saw a bright orange dot, which he soon shared with the astronomy community.

The finding shared by Shepherd went viral on the astronomer's community. They named this event of explosion SN 2019ehk.

Researchers later on, found that they had observed a calcium-rich supernova. X-rays showed new findings on the explosion and star itself.

Half of the calcium in the universe likely came from calcium-rich supernovae, according to a CNN report.

However, these explosions are considered to be rare occurrences, and scientists are finding it challenging to observe and analyze the incident. This is why they are not sure how calcium was created in these explosions.

Aside from calcium, explosions of stars are also known to make other elements such as gold and platinum.

"Observing supernovae within hours of the explosion is the new 'it' thing in our field right now," said Wynn Jacobson-Galan, study author, was quoted in a report.

Jacobson-Galan also said that the supernova revealed that when you discover something young, you can access the final moments of the star's life before the explosion.

"The stars responsible for calcium-rich supernovae shed layers of material in the last months before explosion," Jacobson-Galan said.

The researchers said that the heat and pressure from the explosion creates a chemical reaction, making calcium.

The research said that each star produces only a small amount of calcium, but when a calcium-rich supernova happens, lots of calcium are made and released in the universe in seconds.

Jacobson-Galan said that calcium-rich supernovae produce just enough additional calcium in the explosion. He added that nature chooses that path of least resistance, and calcium provides that path when enough of it is present in a star explosion.

The researchers said the SN 2019ehk was the most calcium-rich ever observed in one event.

Raffaella Margutti, senior study author and assistant professor of physics and astronomy in Northwestern's Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, said the event was not the most calcium-rich event. It was the richest of the rich.

Jacobson-Galan said the Hubble Space Telescope had observed this galaxy for the last 25 years. However, it never actually registered the specific star that caused the calcium-rich explosion.

He said that it was because the star was very faint.

Margutti said without the explosion; nothing could be seen there, adding that the Hubble can not even see it.

"We are designing observing strategies that would allow us to find a supernova when they are very young (and faint) and immediately repoint the X-ray spacecraft to catch the bright but short-lived X-ray emission," Margutti was quoted.

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But its unclear how serious North Koreas current situation is.

Though a really extensive local outbreak might not have occurred yet, its likely that a considerable number of people has been infected, said analyst Hong Min at Seouls Korea Institute for National Unification. Even though North Korea locks itself down, there should be suspected cases there and authorities must aggressively diagnose them. But North Korea has never been transparent about whether it has such a capacity and the will to do so.

North Koreas state media have recently churned out articles thick with rallying propaganda that describe the latest anti-virus work as an all-peoples campaign that demonstrates the Kim governments resolve to protect public safety at any cost. The articles also say that any individual carelessness or breach of anti-virus guidelines may lead to critical consequences.

State media said North Korea has deployed more health workers, sanitized personnel and goods, and used loudspeakers to raise public awareness of the virus. The Korean Central News Agency said Thursday that 550,000 aid items have been sent to Kaesong.
The 345,000-square-foot old Cook County Hospital was decommissioned in 2002 and remained vacant for more than 15 years, disquieting preservationists, historians, and other concerned citizens that the magnificent Beaux Arts building was at risk of demolition. Those fears were relieved when it was officially announced in 2018 that the prominent medical institution would be given life once more.

The development converted the former hospital and medical college into a 210-room dual branded Hyatt House and Hyatt Place hotel. The project also delivers medical office and retail spaces and the 10,000-square-foot Dr. Murphy's Food Hall, named in honor of the renowned surgeon, Dr. John Benjamin Murphy, who studied, practiced and taught within Cook County Hospital and the Illinois Medical District.

Architect Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designed the project to incorporate features highlighting the building's long history as one of the world's top teaching hospitals and significant place in the history of Chicago as its first public hospital. The building also includes a museum that chronicles the hospital's noteworthy contributions to the region and to the medical field.

"The old Cook County Hospital is rich in history, having served our community and nation for over a century, while at the same time being a fountain of medical research, innovation, and advancements," said Dan Walsh, co-chairman of Walsh Construction. "The Walsh Group is proud to have played a leading role in saving and transforming this unique historic structure; and delivering a reborn building that welcomes visitors and economic revival to the Near West Side of Chicago for another 100 years."

Restoring a Landmark

Walsh Construction began renovations at the top floor and proceeded to work down to ground level, crews removed all interior partitions, leaving a clear floor plate nearly 550 feet long and 70 feet wide. Once the floor plate was cleared, new composite decks were installed. The original terrazzo flooring was completely refurbished, and the intricate interior moldings were meticulously repaired to its original condition.

On the exterior of the building, masons labored to preserve, repair and recreate the historic $18 million facade, requiring more than 4,160 individual pieces of terra cotta to be repaired or duplicated by Gladding, McBean  one of only two terra cotta manufacturers in the United States.

Built for the Community, by the Community

Walsh Construction in partnership with Cook County Government, organized multiple MBE/WBE general trades outreach events to discuss the project and inform the local trade and subcontracting communities of the project's employment opportunities.

"This project is based upon community revival and opportunity for the local workforce and the Near West Side community," said Jeff Pezza, vice president at Walsh Construction. "A tremendous amount of gratitude must be given to our dedicated project team, and especially the elected officials, organizations and individuals like Larry Huggins from The Granite Companies who helped champion this project across Chicago."

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, Alderman Walter Burnett, Jr., Alderman Jason Ervin, Cook County Commissioner Dennis Deer, Joe Williams from the Target Group and Rachel Ivy from Communities Empowered Through Construction played impactful roles in community participation and outreach.

Throughout the course of renovations, Walsh Construction sponsored two eight-week pre-apprenticeship programs, which allowed candidates to gain construction exposure and experience by participating in the old Cook County Hospital project. Pre-Apprentices shadowed management staff, superintendents. industry-based training was also made available, including flagging certification, fall protection, confined space and first aid. After completion of the program, the pre-apprentice candidates were hired directly into local trades.

"The reborn Cook County Hospital will further energize the Medical District and supplement the neighboring healthcare institutions," said Tom Caplis, vice president of healthcare at Walsh Construction. "This building has been rejuvenated and will serve as a place of history, comfort and hospitality to all who visit."

About Walsh Construction

Walsh Construction is a part of The Walsh Group, a 122-year-old family-owned company providing design, build, finance, operation and activation services throughout the building, transportation and water markets. Headquartered in Chicago, The Walsh Group operates as Walsh Construction, Archer Western and Walsh Canada across 20 regional offices and is consistently listed among the top U.S. contractors per Engineering News-Record (ENR). Connect with The Walsh Group at walshgroup.com; LinkedIn; Twitter; Facebook; and Instagram.

Contact:

The Walsh Group

Pete Doherty

312.492.1533

[email protected]

SOURCE Walsh Construction

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Portland environmental officials say theyll likely learn later this month whether traces of tear gas got into the citys stormwater system.

The results would come from samples recently taken from sediment in storm drains near the federal courthouse downtown. Among the substances being tested for are cyanide, barium and others specific to CS gas, said Diane Dulken, a spokesperson for the citys Bureau of Environmental Services, which oversees Portlands sewer and stormwater systems.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality sent a letter to the city last week requiring the testing and monitoring of the stormwater after repeated tear gas use by city and federal officers over the last two months of demonstrations. Its unclear what all the impacts of the tear gas deployments are, which also enveloped people, trees and buildings. OPB reported that dozens of protesters believe their regular exposure to tear gas during Portland demonstrations led to irregularities within their menstrual cycles.

Dulken said city officials are also concerned after seeing videos online of federal officers using a hose to spray contaminants off the sidewalk into a storm drain in front of the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse. She said its against city code to flush any material into Portlands storm system that isnt rainwater.

City workers cleaned six storm drains of tear gas residue Wednesday along Southwest Third Avenue between Salmon Street and Main Street, Dulken said. The city is still trying to get access to a seventh storm drain behind the unpermitted fence that surrounds the federal courthouse, she said.

The Willamette River is about three blocks east of the courthouse. The city plans to test an outfall to the river after the next significant rainstorm.

Portlands last measurable rainfall, three-hundredths of an inch, occurred July 7, according to the National Weather Service.

Our primary goal is pollution prevention, said Matt Criblez, Portlands environmental services compliance manager. We know that a certain amount of these chemicals have settled into the citys storm drains. We are going to remove as much as possible to prevent that material from being flushed into the Willamette River.

-- Everton Bailey Jr; ebailey@oregonian.com | 503-221-8343 | @EvertonBailey

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday conducted raids at 16 locations in Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Ludhiana in connection with the J&K Bank scam.

According to information, raids are also being conducted at the residence of former J&K Finance Minister Rahim Rathers son Hilal in connection with the case.

The central probe agency has filed a money laundering case against Hilal Rather and others, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), taking cognisance of a CBI FIR and Income Tax Department probe against him and pertains to a Rs 177-crore alleged bank fraud scam.

The raids are aimed to gather more evidence, the agency said.

The CBI has alleged that Hilal Rather entered into a criminal conspiracy with the then officials of the J&K Bank to get loans of Rs 177.68 crore (approx) in violation of rules and guidelines.

His father, a former finance minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, is a National Conference (NC) leader.

The Income Tax Department had last year conducted search and seizure operations on properties of Hilal Rather covering 4 premises in the Kashmir Valley and 6 places in the Jammu region.

Hilal Rather is under the scanner of central agencies for concealing his income and indulging in illegal activities. The Hilal Rather Business group is engaged in real estate and information technology. The Hilal Rather-led business group is accused of large-scale diversion and misappropriation of loan taken from J&K Bank by the group.

During the search, Income Tax detected that the Hilal has been given the illegal benefits of Rs 60 crore by Jammu and Kashmir Bank. His outstanding loan of Rs 190 crore was settled at Rs 130 crore, although he did not deserve any concessional treatment.

During the search operation, Income Tax sleuths found the evidence that the Hilal Rather was a director in a Dubai based company. He is also holding and operating a foreign bank account. Neither his interest in the Dubai Company nor the foreign bank account has ever been disclosed by him in his tax returns.

He is now facing action under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015.

Field enquires have also revealed that the Hilal has sold/booked part of his real estate project of Paradise Avenue near Jammu against unaccounted cash. The cash component has neither been disclosed in tax returns by purchasers of the flats of Paradise Avenue nor has he disclosed these receipts in his books of accounts.

Other than the Paradise Avenue project, the tax evader has also undertaken real estate transactions in his personal capacity or in the name of family members wherein allegedly more than Rs 7 crore of unaccounted cash has changed hands.

During the demonetisation period, the group had made cash deposits of Rs. 1.44 crore. Hilal Rather could not explain the source of these cash deposits during the course of search action.
AUSTIN, Texas  The staggering videos from the Lebanese capital are grimly familiar to Tommy Muska thousands of miles away in Texas: a towering blast, a thundering explosion and shock waves demolishing buildings with horrifying speed.

It is what the mayor of West, Texas, lived seven years ago when one of the deadliest fertilizer plant explosions in U.S. history partly leveled his rural town. On Wednesday, Muska also couldnt shake a familiar feeling  that yet again, no lessons will be learned.

I dont know what people were thinking about storing that stuff, Muska told The Associated Press. He was a volunteer firefighter at the time of the West explosion.

The 2013 disaster at the West Fertilizer Co. was a fraction of the size of Tuesdays explosion at Beiruts port that authorities say killed least 135 people and wounded about 5,000. Both blasts involved massive stockpiles of ammonium nitrate, a common but highly explosive chemical, and swift allegations that negligence and weak government oversight were to blame.

Few significant crackdowns on chemical storage came in the wake of the West explosion, which killed 15 people. President Donald Trump scaled back industrial safety and disaster regulations enacted in direct response to the tragedy in Texas.

With a government mired in factional fighting and corruption, Lebanon offers an extreme example of what was once a bustling business economy operating now under little dependable regulation and enforcement.

The investigation is focusing on how a reported 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate came to be stored at the facility for six years and why nothing was done about it. The chemical had been stored at the port since it was confiscated from a ship in 2013. On Tuesday it is believed to have detonated when a fire started nearby.

In Texas, authorities suspected arson but no arrests have been made. The West explosion had the force of a small earthquake. It flattened homes in a five-block radius and destroyed a nursing home where residents, some in wheelchairs, were trapped in rubble. Ten of those killed in the blast were firefighters or first responders.

We dont seem to learn that chemical is deadly, Muska said. I feel for those people in Beirut, I surely do. It brought back a lot of memories.

Last year, the Trump administration scaled back chemical safety measures that included ending a requirement that plants provide members of the public information about chemical risks upon request. Chemical manufacturers had pushed for the changes.

The Obama-era Chemical Disaster Rule is one of several rules or proposals meant to lessen the risks of major, possibly high-casualty industrial disasters that have been weakened under Trump. Others include stripping a Nuclear Regulatory Commission proposed rule that would have required nuclear plants to greatly harden their facilities against the kind of natural disasters that struck the plant in Fukushima, Japan.

Other steps cut proposed safety requirements for offshore rigs after the Deepwater Horizon explosion, and allowed shipment of liquefied natural gas by rail despite criticism from several states, firefighters and the National Transportation Safety Board.

The Environmental Protection Agency, which has trimmed scores of environmental and public health protections that the Trump administration sees as unfriendly to business, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday about the rollback.

At the time, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said the weakening of the proposed Chemical Disaster Rule would save $88 million a year in compliance costs. Wheeler said the administrations move addresses emergency responders longstanding concerns and maintains important public safety measures while saving money.

Elena Craft, a Texas-based senior director with the Environmental Defense Fund environmental group, cited the Chemical Disaster Rule among a series of other proposals weakening protections for the communities  often lower-income, and disproportionately Black or Hispanic  living around dangerous industrial sites.

Even the West, Texas, disaster, with its toll on first responders, failed to change the regulatory picture much after the headlines faded away, Craft said. Its always been sort of the constant story  it gets to be accepted business in Texas.

In 1989, Juan Flores was in sixth grade when an explosion at a Phillips 66 plastics plant near his Galena Park, Texas, community outside Houston killed 23. The blast shook Flores school and blew out windows.

That area bordering Houstons Shipping Channel is the nations hub for oil and gas and petrochemicals. Yet Houstons lack of zoning means residents yards in poorer and minority neighborhoods butt up against looming chemical and petroleum storage tanks or booming industrial sites working with hazardous materials.

Six major chemical explosions have rocked the Houston area since March 2019 alone. One, an explosion at a chemical tank, prompted widespread shelter-in-place orders for residents and sent a mile-high plume of smoke over the city for days. A more recent chemical blast, in January, killed three people and damaged more than 450 surrounding buildings.

To see that happen in Beirut, it was the worst-case scenario for already worried people in his community, said Flores, a community activist and former Galena Park mayor. Theres one or two plants here, if they ever go, theres a chance we could wind up in that situation.

In West, street images on Google Maps still show crumbled buildings that were taken shortly after the blast that shook the town of only 3,000 people. Theyve never come back with their little car, Muska said of Google.

Ammonium nitrate isnt stored in the town any longer. Its got its useful places in the farming community, Muska said. But its also, like we just saw yesterday, it can just be devastating.

___

Knickmeyer reported from Oklahoma City.
He could also use another dose of the Crimea effect at home, where hes been losing popularity of late and facing protests in the countrys far east. In 2014, Russians rallied around him patriotically after he sent his little green men  Russian fighters in unmarked uniforms  into Crimea and stared down the West. To have that option in Belarus, he already appears to have dispatched scores of Russian mercenaries working for the Wagner Group, a private militia firm, to cause mischief, some 33 of whom Lukashenko arrested in July.
The sisters of Nicole Helou flank their mother as they mourn in Sarba, Lebanon, on Aug. 6, 2020. Helou was among those killed in the blast two days earlier in Beirut. (Mohammed Zaatari / Associated Press)

At 6:06 p.m. Tuesday, Amin Zahed, a 42-year-old father of two who worked as a night manager in the port of Beirut, sent a photograph to his brother on WhatsApp, showing a building at the port on fire.

Two minutes later, a massive explosion shook the port, sending up a mushroom cloud that some initially mistook for a nuclear bomb and blasting shock waves across the Lebanese capital.

He took a picture and sent it to me and wrote, Theres a fire, Mohammed Zahed recalled Thursday, standing in front of the port where his brother was last seen. And then the explosion happened, and he disappeared. He stopped answering.

Zahed's wife and siblings immediately began calling anyone they could think of who might have information about his fate. They called the civil defense and the Red Cross. They began a tour of Beiruts hospitals, which were in a state of chaos, overwhelmed by the wounded. Some of the hospitals had been damaged in the blast. They came up empty.

For three days, weve been going around in circles and searching for him, and we havent found him, said Zahed's sister, Rima.

The Zahed family is not alone. Tuesdays explosion  believed to have been caused by a fire that spread to a warehouse storing ammonium nitrate  killed 137 people and injured about 5,000, according to government figures updated Thursday. It reduced buildings that had survived years of war into hollowed-out shells and displaced as many as 300,000 people.

The anger around the tragedy was palpable when French President Emmanuel Macron  who at one point during his tour of the city Thursday  was surrounded by residents angry with their own government chanting "Revolution!"

Estimates of the number of people missing have ranged from the dozens to hundreds. Representatives of the Lebanese Red Cross and Lebanese army said they could not provide an official count.

There is no precise data because you know its a huge" incident, said Red Cross spokesman Ayad Monzer.

Story continues

Reda Moussawi, advisor to Health Minister Hamad Hassan, said the Health Ministry had a list of about 40 people reported missing and 21 unidentified bodies were in various hospitals.

Lebanons Disaster Risk Management unit announced Thursday that it had set up a hotline for family members to report or request information on missing loved ones. In the meantime, many families had already resorted to searching on social media. An Instagram page set up to help families find missing loved ones has garnered more than 108,000 followers.

It was also via social media that the Zahed family received the news that at first seemed to mean its search was over.

On Wednesday, photographs and video being circulated showed a boat carrying a group of wounded men who had been pulled from the sea by an army rescue team.

Theres a boat with six people in it, and one of them is my brother, Rima Zahed said.

His face was clear" although he was bloodied, she said. "We knew it was him, that my brother is alive, he is moving.

News sites began to pick up the story from social media and declared it a miracle: The missing port worker had been pulled from the sea after 30 hours. (In reality, Mohammed Zahed said, his brother was probably in the water only for about an hour.)

The family managed to get in contact with a member of the rescue team, Mohammed Zahed said, but there they hit another blank wall.

He told us, I rescued him and he was still alive, he was breathing, and they took him out and brought him to the military hospital and from the military hospital, the Red Cross took him, Mohammed Zahed said, noting that his brother could not be admitted to the military hospital because he is not a member of the army.

But neither the army nor the Red Cross could tell them which hospital he had been taken to after that, he said.

A Red Cross spokesman referred questions about the case to the army. An army spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

Once again, the family began making the rounds of the hospitals, but the answer was always the same: They had no patient by the name of Amin Zahed.

Zahed's 9-year-old son, the younger of his two children, still doesnt know that his father is missing, Rima Zahed said. He believes his father has been at work for the last three days.

Rima Zahed is certain that her brother is alive and will come home again. Pulling up the video of the rescue on her phone, she points to the image of him lying on the bottom of a small fishing vessel.

Look at my brother  my brother didnt die, this is him, look. This is my brother, sleeping on the floor, my brother is alive, hes breathing.

But shes beginning to lose hope of finding him.

Its not one or two or three or four  weve searched all of the hospitals in Lebanon, she said.

While they are frustrated with the Kafkaesque nature of the search, Mohammed and Rima Zahed save most of their vitriol for the government officials whom they hold responsible for the explosion.

The warehouse that caught fire held about 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate that had been stored there for years after being confiscated from a cargo ship by Lebanese authorities, despite warnings that it could pose a hazard to Beiruts residents.

The government has launched an investigation and placed port officials under house arrest. A military judge leading the investigation said that 16 port employees had been detained and 18 questioned, including port and customs officials.

But many Lebanese, who had already been enraged by the governments inertia in addressing the countrys economic crisis, saw the actions as a deflection of responsibility. Soon after Macron toured Gemmayzeh, one of the areas hardest hit by the blast, Justice Minister Marie-Claude Najm tried to visit the area but was driven out by protesters shouting, Resign, you criminal!

Macron also alluded to the governments crisis of confidence in his remarks. While announcing that France will organize a conference in the next few days to raise funds from international donors for the humanitarian response, he warned that he would not give blank checks to a system that no longer has the trust of its people and called on the Lebanese to create a new political order.

The Zahed family members, like many victims of the blast, are bitter toward the government they see as responsible for their misfortune.

To the government: May God not give you good fortune, Mohammed Zahed said. May God not give you good fortune, all of you.This is a government of liars and con men.

While the Zaheds were standing in front of the port, a journalist approached Rima Zahed and told her he had gotten a tip that her brother was at the American University of Beirut hospital, but it turned out, once again, to be a false lead. The family continued its rounds.

Sewell is a special correspondent.
Now that the Hindutva movement has achieved its manifest destiny with the laying of the foundation stone for the Ram temple, the time has come for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to become a leader for all Indians and focus on the economic and social challenges that confront the country. As the lead edit says here, it is important for the governing establishment to move beyond this narrow majoritarian issue.

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The chemicals that went up in flames in Beirut's deadliest peace-time explosion arrived in the Lebanese capital seven years ago on a leaky Russian-leased cargo ship that, according to its captain, should never have stopped there.

"They were being greedy," said Boris Prokoshev, who was captain of the Rhosus in 2013 when he says the owner told him to make an unscheduled stop in Lebanon to pick up extra cargo.

Prokoshev said the ship was carrying 2,750 tonnes of a highly combustible chemical from Georgia to Mozambique when the order came to divert to Beirut on its way through the Mediterranean.

The crew were asked to load some heavy road equipment and take it to Jordan's Port of Aqaba before resuming their journey onto Africa, where the ammonium nitrate was to be delivered to an explosives manufacturer.

But the ship was never to leave Beirut, having tried and failed to safely load the additional cargo before becoming embroiled in a lengthy legal dispute over port fees.

"It was impossible," Prokoshev, 70, told Reuters of the operation to try and load the extra cargo. "It could have ruined the whole ship and I said no," he said by 'phone from his home in the Russian resort town of Sochi on the Black Sea coast.

The captain and lawyers acting for some creditors accused the ship's owner of abandoning the vessel and succeeded in having it arrested. Months later, for safety reasons, the ammonium nitrate was unloaded and put in a dock warehouse.

On Tuesday, that stockpile caught fire and exploded not far from a built-up residential area of the city. The huge blast killed 145 people, injured 5,000, flattened buildings and made more than a quarter of a million people homeless.

The ship might have succeeded in leaving Beirut, had it managed to load the additional cargo.

The crew had stacked the equipment, including excavators and road-rollers, on top of the doors to the cargo hold which held the ammonium nitrate below, according to the ship's Ukrainian boatswain, Boris Musinchak. But the hold doors buckled.

"The ship was old and the cover of the hold bent," Musinchak said by 'phone. "We decided not to take risks."

The captain and three crew spent 11 months on the ship while the legal dispute dragged on, without wages and with only limited supplies of food. Once they left, the ammonium nitrate was unloaded.

"The cargo was highly explosive. That's why it was kept on board when we were there ... That ammonium nitrate had a very high concentration," Prokoshev said.

BOUND FOR MOZAMBIQUE

Prokoshev identified the ship's owner as Russian businessman Igor Grechushkin. Attempts to contact Grechushkin were unsuccessful.

Cypriot police questioned Grechushkin at his home in Cyprus on Thursday, a security source said. A Cyprus police spokesman said an individual, whom he did not name, had been questioned at the request of Interpol Beirut in relation to the cargo.

The ammonium nitrate was sold by Georgian fertiliser maker Rustavi Azot LLC, and was to be delivered to a Mozambique explosives maker, Fabrica de Explosivos.

A senior representative for Fabrica de Explosivos did not immediately respond when sent a request for comment on LinkedIn.

Levan Burdiladze, the Rustavi Azot plant director, told Reuters that his company had only operated the chemical factory for the last three years and so he could not confirm whether the ammonium nitrate was produced there.

He called the decision to store the material in Beirut port a "gross violation of safe storage measures, considering that ammonium nitrate loses its useful properties in six months."

Initial Lebanese investigations into what happened have pointed to inaction and negligence in the handling of the potentially dangerous chemical.

Lebanon's cabinet on Wednesday agreed to place all Beirut port officials who have overseen storage and security since 2014 under house arrest, ministerial sources said.

The head of Beirut port and the head of customs said that several letters were sent to the judiciary asking for the material be removed, but no action was taken.

Reuters could not immediately reach Lebanon's justice minister for comment. The Justice Ministry is closed for three days of national mourning.

According to Prokoshev, the ship had been leaking but was seaworthy when it sailed into Beirut in September 2013. However, he said Lebanese authorities paid little attention to the ammonium nitrate, which had been stacked in the hull in large sacks.

"I feel sorry for the people (killed or injured in the blast). But local authorities, the Lebanese, should be punished. They did not care about the cargo at all," he said.

The abandoned Rhosus sank where she was moored in Beirut harbour, according to a May, 2018 email from a lawyer to Prokoshev, which said it had gone down "recently".

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Doris Buffett, a self-styled retail philanthropist who once declared that her billionaire younger brother, Warren Buffett, loves to make money and I love to give it away, died on Tuesday at her home in Rockport, Me. She was 92.

Her death was confirmed by her grandson Alexander Buffett Rozek.

Ms. Buffett had been a benefactor in her own right when her brother, one of the worlds most successful investors, announced his intention in 2006 to donate nearly his entire fortune before he died, opening the gates to a flood of supplicants. At the time his worth was estimated at $44 billion.

While he ran Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate that includes Dairy Queen, Duracell and Geico, Mr. Buffett entrusted his sister and a group of women she had recruited to sift the requests for financial help, assess their merits and monitor the impact of those that were granted.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Maharashtra government to apprise it of the enquiry and action taken against the errant police personnel in the alleged lynching of three people, including two seers, in Palghar district in April.

A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan and R Subhash Reddy asked the state government to also file the charge sheet before it, saying it would like to examine them.

"A further affidavit dated July 29, 2020, has been filed by the State of Maharashtra which mentions in paragraph 3 that two charge sheets have been filed in July 2020. Let the State bring the charge sheets on record," the bench said.

The top court said, "It has further been stated that a departmental inquiry against the police personnel was ordered and show-cause notices have been issued. Let details of the inquiry, including the action taken against the police personnel as well as enquiry report, are also brought on the record."

The bench asked Maharashtra to file an affidavit and posted the matter after three weeks. The bench was hearing a batch of petitions including the one filed by Sadhus of 'Shri Panch Dashban Juna Akhara' and relatives of the deceased seers.

During the hearing, Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said the media reports suggest that the charge sheets filed in the case comprised more than 10,000 pages.

He said it has to be considered by the court as to whether there were any policemen involved in the offence or was there any dereliction of duty calling for disciplinary action.

Counsel appearing for one of the petitioners said that the two seers were virtually handed over to the mob and it was a massacre.

Advocate Rahul Chitnis and Sachin Patil, appearing for the Maharashtra government, told the top court that two charge sheets have been filed in the alleged lynching case.

Chitnis said the third Charge sheet will be filed by next Monday relating to attack on policemen when they went to arrest the accused persons. He said this case was not directly related to the alleged lynching incident.

Mehta suggested that the third Charge sheet should be filed before the top court as well and the court should decide whether it's relevant or not.

Advocate Shashank Shekhar Jha, appearing in-person, said that unless the Centre looks into the matter, seers will continue to be killed in Maharashtra and NIA should investigate the matter.

He said the incident happened in April and now it's August, but still no action has been taken against any policeman.

The three victims from Kandivali in Mumbai were travelling in a car to attend a funeral at Surat in Gujarat amid the COVID-19 nationwide lockdown when their vehicle was stopped and they were attacked and killed by a mob in Gadchinchile village on the night of April 16 in the presence of police.

The victims were identified as Chikne Maharaj Kalpavrukshagiri, 70, Sushil Giri Maharaj, 35, and Nilesh Telgade, 30, who was driving the vehicle.

The state government in its affidavit filed in the top court by Assistant Inspector General of Police (Law and order) said that investigation of the incident was carried out by the district police up to April 20.

It said that considering the seriousness of the incident, number of accused involved, and in order to maintain complete fairness, independence, and transparency in the investigation, the case was transferred to the specialised unit of State Criminal Investigation Department with effect from April 20.

The affidavit said two charge sheets were filed in the cases by the CID on July 15, in which 126 persons each were made as accused.

"A departmental enquiry was ordered against the police personnel, who have been prima-facie found negligent and derelict in the performance of their duties in handling the incident and preventing the commission of crime at and around the time of the incident," it said.

The affidavit said that after completion of the departmental inquiry against the delinquent police personnel, Special Inspector General of Police, Konkan range has issued show-cause notice to six police personnel out of which five are suspended.

It said that after receipt of replies from the suspended police personnel to the show cause notice, further action will be taken against them.

On June 11, the top court had sought a response from the state government on two petitions seeking separate probes by the CBI and the NIA into the alleged lynching.

The plea filed by the sadhus of 'Shri Panch Dashban Juna Akhara' and relatives of the deceased seers has alleged that the investigation by the state police was being conducted in a biased manner and sought transfer of the probe to CBI.

"Several video clippings have emerged on social media and news reports which very clearly demonstrate the active involvement of the police present, who can be seen handing over the three persons to the unlawful assembly of persons gathered," the plea has claimed.

The other pleas, seeking a probe by central agencies into the incident, has been filed by Ghanshyam Upadhyay and Shashank Shekhar Jha.

The top court had on May 1, directed the Maharashtra government to submit a status report on the investigation in the matter. The police has arrested over 100 people in connection with the case.
Speaking to Dayton, Ohio insurance agents in a Zooming Meeting roundtable, a leading specialist in long-term care planning, said the Presidential and Congressional campaigns are not adequately addressing long-term care.

"Considering the impact of COVID-19 on long-term care, you would think we would hear more about the problem of aging and the related health issues coming from longevity. When we do hear something, it is often very misinformed," according to Matt McCann, a nationally known expert in Long-Term Care Insurance and planning.

"Perhaps I shouldn't be amazed, but it still amazes me how candidates for federal office address the problem superficially. Some of these candidates talk about needing new programs, and they ignore the programs already in place. Perhaps they are unaware, or perhaps they are addicted to funding more federal programs, but it really doesn't address the issue," McCann said.

McCann said both President Trump and Vice President Biden have given some lip service to long-term care. Both appear to want some additional tax incentives for private Long-Term Care Insurance. After that, little substance, according to McCann.

The Trump administration has reacted to the COVID-19 crisis with resources for additional testing in long-term care facilities. Former Vice President Biden has proposed a $5,000 tax credit for informal caregivers. That can help those who have not planned, but it places family members into the role of being caregivers.

"Then we have Congressional candidates talking about new programs and ignoring the Partnership Long-Term Care Insurance program. Forty-five states offer these affordable policies that offer dollar-for-dollar asset protection. The partnership program is one of the biggest kept secrets in retirement planning, and we should be shining a huge light on this program," McCann explained.

Today's Long-Term Care Insurance is an affordable way to have access to guaranteed tax-free resources to pay for quality care either in a person's home or in a facility. The partnership benefits allow a person to shelter part of their estate even if they exhaust their insurance benefits and still qualify for the Medicaid Long-Term Care benefit.



With so many Generation X, Late-Boomers, and the remaining Baby Boomers, long-term care is a critical issue.



"Even small partnership policies provide substantial asset protection while providing a choice of quality care. But long-term care is more than just a cash flow problem. It is a family problem. When you own a policy you give your family the time to be family," McCann explained.

McCann urged candidates to talk more about long-term care. He said as more people own Long-Term Care Insurance, it reduces the pressure on government budgets. He says LTC Insurance is good for all American families.

"Calling more attention to this issue will encourage more people to plan for the financial costs and burdens of aging before they retire as part of their overall retirement plan. But politicians must understand the programs that already exist and how they benefit all Americans before adding new programs to be funded by taxpayers," McCann added.

McCann said Long-Term Care Insurance is already helping American families keep loved ones at home with quality home care. In 2019 the major insurance companies paid over $11 billion in Long-Term Care Insurance benefits.

He recommends consumers not wait for additional government incentives since many already exist. McCann says the ideal time to obtain coverage is when you are in your 40s or 50s when premiums are much lower, and you are more likely to qualify for preferred health rates.

The LTC NEWS Ultimate Long-Term Care Guide is an outstanding resource, according to McCann. He also suggests visiting his website, which has many tools available.

McCann works with consumers throughout the country, helping them plan for the financial costs and burdens of aging. He is licensed nationwide and works with the major insurance companies and their many long-term care solution products.

Consumers can seek his assistance directly by contacting him from his website or calling his office  866-751-7957. McCann is also available for speeches and media interviews.
Lebanon Declares 2-Week State of Emergency After Deadly Blast

By VOA News August 05, 2020

Lebanon's cabinet declared a two-week state of emergency Wednesday in Beirut and ordered the military to place anyone under house arrest who was involved in warehousing explosive material that detonated at the city's port, devastating entire neighborhoods and killing scores of people.

The declaration effectively gives the military full powers after Tuesday's massive explosion.

The exact cause of the blast was not clear, but Lebanese officials put the focus on what they said was tons of ammonium nitrate that had been stored at port warehouses for the past six years.

The explosion devastated entire neighborhoods, killing at least 135 people and injuring more than 5,000 others, Health Minister Hamad Hassan said Wednesday.

Beirut Governor Marwan Abboud said the "apocalyptic situation" has left an estimated 300,000 people homeless.

Rescue crews continued their search Wednesday for survivors as Prime Minister Hassan Diab declared three days of mourning in the country.

Officials said they expected the number of victims to rise as crews worked their way through rubble of damaged buildings and people searched for missing family and friends.

The explosion took place in the evening, sending a huge mushroom cloud into the sky and shockwaves that blew out doors and windows far from the port, overturned cars and damaged numerous buildings.

In the aftermath, hospitals were overrun with people seeking care.

The World Health Organization said Wednesday three hospitals in Beirut were heavily damaged in the blast and are not currently functional. The WHO said two other hospitals are only partly operational.

The U.S. Embassy in Beirut urged people to stay inside due to reports of toxic gases being released in the blast.

Leaders called for a quick investigation, with Diab pledging "those responsible will pay the price."

Lebanese President Michel Aoun, who called an emergency cabinet meeting Wednesday, said those accountable would face "the most severe penalties."

"It is unacceptable that a shipment of ammonium nitrate estimated at 2750 tons has been present for 6 years in a warehouse without taking preventive measures that endanger the safety of citizens," Aoun tweeted.

In addition to wrecking the main entry port for a country heavily reliant on food imports, the blast also destroyed a massive grain silo at the site.

Economy Minister Raoul Nehme told Reuters on Wednesday that the country had enough grain reserves to last "a bit less than a month," and that it needed reserves of at least three months to ensure food security.

The blast has also compelled the Special Tribunal for Lebanon to postpone its verdict in the trial of four men accused of the 2005 bombing that killed former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri and 21 others.

The United Nations-backed court was scheduled to hand down a verdict on Friday, but the court said in an online statement Wednesday it would be postponed until Aug. 18 "out of respect for the countless victims of the devasting explosion that shook Beirut on 4 August, and the three days of public mourning in Lebanon."

The international community has responded with both condolences for the dead and offers to help the people of Beirut with recovery efforts.

French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Beirut on Thursday to meet with political leaders, his office said Wednesday. France previously said it was sending emergency doctors and several tons of medical equipment, while Russia said it would contribute a mobile hospital along with doctors.

Qatar is transporting field hospitals and medical aid to Beirut, according to the state news agency QNA.

Jordan said it was sending its own field hospital and medical workers to Lebanon, while Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said his government stood ready to dispatch medical aid.

Czech Republic Interior Minister Jan Hamaceck said Lebanese leaders had accepted his country's offer to send 37 rescuers with sniffer dogs to help search for people in Beirut.

The United Nations also said it was helping with the response and "remains committed to supporting Lebanon at this difficult time."

A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he "expresses his deepest condolences to the families of the victims, as well as to the people and Government of Lebanon, following the horrific explosions in Beirut today. He wishes a speedy recovery to the injured, including several United Nations personnel working in Lebanon."

The United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon said the blast damaged one of its ships docked at the port and injured some peacekeepers.

"We are with the people and the Government of Lebanon during this difficult time and stand ready to help and provide any assistance and support," UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander Major General Del Col said.

U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that the United States "stands ready to assist Lebanon," adding that the blast "looks like a terrible attack."

When asked whether he was confident the incident was an attack, and not an accident, Trump said: "Well, it would seem like it, based on the explosion. I've met with some of our great generals, and they just seem to feel that it was. This was not a -- some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of event. This was a -- seems to be, according to them -- they would know better than I would, but they seem to think it was an attack. It was a bomb of some kind."

The Department of Defense, when asked about Trump's comment, referred VOA to the White House.

The New York Times, Reuters and CNN all cited U.S. officials saying initial information about the explosion did not indicate the cause was an attack.

Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who is opposing Trump in this year's election, expressed sympathy for the victims of the explosion and urged the Trump administration and international community "to immediately mobilize assistance to the thousands injured in the blast."

At the Vatican, Pope Francis offered prayers Wednesday for Lebanon.

"We are praying for the victims and their family members and we are praying for Lebanon because with the efforts of all of its social groups  political and religious  it can face this tragic and painful moment and with the help of the international community, it can overcome the grave crisis it is going through," the pope said.

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The Uttarkashi district administration has decided to conduct the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) test on each security personnel at its entry point that shares a border with China.

The decision was taken after 30 Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel, deployed in Uttarkashi district, were found to be infected with SARS-CoV-2, which causes the disease, on Wednesday.

Mayur Dixit, district magistrate (DM), Uttarkashi, said that some of the ITBP personnel had come in contact with earlier Covid-19 patients, and the others had returned from leave from their respective native places.

There is no need to panic, as rigorous contact tracing is in progress. All security personnel coming to the district will be tested at the entry point itself before they are sent to the border areas in a bid to contain the spread of the contagion, said the DM.

Plans are afoot to conduct 500 tests a day, he added.

Officials said an ITBP jawan, who had returned from leave in July, was posted along the India-China border on completion of his quarantine period. Last week, he tested Covid-19 positive.

Swab samples of over 60 ITBP jawans posted at the India-China border were sent for testing, of whom 30 were found to be infected on Wednesday evening.

Uttarkashi district shares a border with China via Harsil and Nelong valleys and a few other frontier hamlets.

In Uttarakhand, over 150 security personnel, including the Indian Army, ITBP and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), have tested Covid-19 positive to date.

On July 19, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had spoken to state Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat over the phone to find out about the Covid-19-affected army jawans in the state and gave necessary directions to curb the viral outbreak in the hill state, officials said.

The PM returned the CMs call after Rawat had informed Modi on the previous day that 110 army personnel had tested Covid-19 positive in the state, of which around 100 cases were reported in the past three-four days.

The PM had asked the CM to provide every possible help to the army personnel for treatment with proper coordination between the state government and the army, an official from the state secretariat, privy to the matter, had said.

(With inputs from Vipin Negi in Uttarkashi)
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KABUL - A traditional council met Friday in Kabul to decide whether to release a final 400 Taliban prisoners, the last hurdle to negotiations between Afghanistans political leadership and the Taliban under a peace deal the insurgents signed with the United States earlier this year.

The meeting of the council of elders, known as Loya Jirga, was initially expected to last three days but could end as early as Saturday.

The Kabul-Taliban negotiations are seen as a critical step toward lasting peace in Afghanistan and a roadmap to what the country might look like after decades of war, with the Taliban joining the political mainstream. They are also to decide what constitutional changes would be made in a post-war Afghanistan, and how the rights of women and minorities would be protected.

The negotiations would also determine the fate of the tens of thousands of heavily armed men on both sides of the conflict  the Taliban on one side, and the warlords and armed militias loyal to Kabul on the other.

The Taliban have rejected Fridays gathering in Kabul, claiming it had no legal status. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement late Thursday saying the 400 prisoners had to be released if peace talks with the Taliban were to move forward.

We acknowledge that the release of these prisoners is unpopular, Pompeo said. But this difficult action will lead to an important result long sought by Afghans and Afghanistans friends: reduction of violence and direct talks resulting in a peace agreement and an end to the war.

If the council agrees to free the 400 Taliban  the last batch of prisoners whose release the insurgents have demanded under the U.S.-Taliban accord from February  talks between Kabul and the Taliban could begin as early as Monday.

A survey circulated at the Loya Jirga on Friday put the choice bluntly: decide to free the Taliban prisoners and talks could begin on Monday, or refuse and the war would continue. If the Taliban are freed, direct talks could be followed by a lasting cease-fire.

The Loya Jirga, which is expected to cost the cash-strapped Afghanistan $4.5 million, is being attended by several thousand participants even as the Health Ministry earlier this week said as many as half of Kabuls residents have been infected with the coronavirus. The true figures are believed to far surpass the more than 36,900 officially reported cases, including 1,298 deaths.

The Afghan health minister, Jawad Osmani, recently said as many as 10 million people  a third of Afghanistans population  have been infected.

In his statement, Pompeo said the Taliban had also committed to significantly reduce violence and casualties during the talks.

Since the U.S.-Taliban deal in February, the Taliban have not attacked American and NATO troops, but have continued to wage war on Afghan security forces. The U.S. and NATO have also begun withdrawing some troops in line with the agreement.

The deal calls on the Taliban to guarantee that Afghanistan will not be used as a staging ground for attacks on the United States or its allies. The withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops hinges on the Taliban meeting those commitments and not on a positive outcome to negotiations between the Taliban and Kabuls political leadership.

The deal also called on Kabul to free 5,000 Taliban while the insurgents were to free 1,000 government and military personnel.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has so far freed all but 400 of the Taliban prisoners, insisting on a traditional council to decide their release, saying their crimes were too serious for him to decide on alone.

At the council on Friday, Abdullah Abdullah, who was made head of the High Council for National Reconciliation to end political infighting in Kabul, took over the leadership of the Loya Jirga from its previous head, Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a warlord.

Sayyaf  a deeply conservative ally of Ghanis and an inspiration for the Philippine terrorist group Abu Sayyaf  urged the participants to not create obstacles to peace, without elaborating.

Ghani told the participants they must decide one way or another on the 400 Taliban prisoners.

It is time to decide, Ghani said, urging the participants to decide quickly.

___

Gannon reported from Islamabad.

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Caprion-HistoGeneX, a specialized CRO providing immunology, proteomics, histopathology and genomics services, and Viroclinics-DDL, a provider of preclinical and clinical trial services for vaccine, antiviral, and diagnostic development, are pleased to announce a new partnership that will offer global, integrated services to support discovery and development of vaccines and antiviral therapies.



MONTREAL and ROTTERDAM, Netherlands, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Caprion-HistoGeneX and Viroclinics-DDL announced today a new strategic partnership to expand their global capabilities addressing the emerging needs for therapeutic and prophylactic solutions to target infectious diseases including COVID-19. This partnership brings together the leadership of two prominent contract research organizations serving the pharmaceutical and biotechnology community with specialized assays and technologies relevant to clinical and preclinical studies aimed at developing vaccines and other therapies for infectious diseases.

By combining their respective expertise, the two companies offer a full suite of specialized services to support vaccine and antiviral studies along with a broad global presence, including sites in The Netherlands, Canada, USA, Belgium, UK, Australia, and China.

"We are excited to partner with Caprion-HistoGeneX and combine the unique strengths of our companies to deliver first class contract research services to our customers developing innovative modalities to combat infectious diseases." said Davide Molho DVM, the new CEO of Viroclinics-DDL.



The partnership allows for a seamless, integrated service experience for customers worldwide, with a broad service offering covering all stages of vaccine and antiviral development, ranging from preclinical and in-vitro research models to the deployment of custom-developed and off-the-shelf functional assays for monitoring vaccine efficacy. In addition to leveraging a broad selection of specialized platforms such as viral neutralization, flow cytometry, ELISpot and immuno-assays, the partnership will also provide access to an extended global network of clinical sample processing facilities across North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia, along with operational and logistical services including sample management and sampling kits.

"With our complementary competencies, we are able to fulfill the R&D and clinical outsourcing needs of the market. In the wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, we believe that this joint initiative will bring vaccine and antiviral testing to the next level." said Martin LeBlanc, CEO of Caprion-HistoGeneX.

About Caprion Biosciences Inc.

Caprion - HistoGeneX is a leading provider of specialized precision medicine services to the biopharmaceutical industry including flow and mass cytometry immune monitoring, quantitative mass spectrometry, molecular profiling, as well as quantitative immunohistochemistry. Leveraging its integrated platforms, Caprion-HistoGeneX supports the entire drug development cycle, from discovery to clinical trials. The company operates globally with laboratories located in Canada, USA, Belgium, UK, Australia, and China.

For more information: www.caprion.com and www.histogenex.com

About Viroclinics-DDL

Viroclinics-DDL is a global leading virology contract research organization, serving the biopharmaceutical community with a broad range of preclinical research, clinical diagnostic, assay development and clinical trial logistic services. Viroclinics' extensive experience with clinical and preclinical studies for viruses, including its specialty in respiratory viruses, puts the company at the forefront in supporting the development of vaccines, antibodies and antiviral compounds targeting viral infectious diseases. Our in-house state of the art preclinical and clinical BSL-2 and BSL-3 laboratories allow for complex experiments with highly pathogenic organisms. Viroclinics is based in Rotterdam, Rijswijk, Schaijk, (The Netherlands) and employs more than 270 well-trained, dedicated scientists and technical experts. For more information: www.viroclinics.com and www.ddl.nl



SOURCE Caprion Biosciences

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The large scale testing campaign has ended as the country progresses to the next testing phase. Dr Ulf Nehrbass discussed the process with RTL television.

Dr Nehrbass, general director of the Luxembourg Institute of Health and coordinator for the Covid-Task-Force, told RTL there had been no false negatives or positives in the large scale testing project.

The campaign used a so-called pooling method, testing 4 samples at a time to save time and money.

If the result of the pooled analysis came back negative, it confirmed that none of the four people tested carried the virus.

In cases where the pool yielded a positive result, the laboratory tested each of the four samples separately within a period of two hours to identify the infected person, who was then advised to quarantine.

A new testing phase is set to begin, with a focus on antibody testing in order to better understand the spread of the virus in Luxembourg.

However, Dr Nehrbass clarified that the presence of antibodies did not necessarily mean a person would be protected against further Covid-19 infection.

The LNS is also in contact with researchers based in the UK with regard to faster tests, which yield a result within 90 minutes.

These tests could be put into use in Luxembourg before long, although the national laboratory would evaluate and validate the tests prior to using them on a widespread basis.
The bill advanced from first-round debate  with only Sens. Ernie Chambers and Megan Hunt, both of Omaha, voting no  after several procedural challenges to block the proposal failed. The measure now appears poised to pass in the waning days of the 2020 session, which ends Aug. 13.

But there were plenty of concerns raised about whether the state  amid the fiscal uncertainty of a pandemic  could afford the extra state tax credits and tax exemptions called for in the bill. In addition, there was criticism that the proposal  which is still being fine-tuned  was drafted too hurriedly and wouldnt provide significant relief from Nebraskas traditionally high property taxes, which rank among the top 10 in the nation.

This is not what were bragging it up to be, said State Sen. Steve Erdman of Bayard, calculating that a friend who is seeing a $500 increase in property taxes would get only $90 in tax relief from the bill.

This is a minuscule, unrecognizable reduction in your taxes, he said.

This is peanuts. This is just throwing money at a problem, said another critic, North Platte Sen. Mike Groene.


By Ricardo Hausmann





CAMBRIDGE  Before COVID-19, spending on business travel totaled $1.5 trillion a year (about 1.7% of world GDP). Now it is down to a trickle, as countries have closed their borders and social distancing has taken hold. Planes have been grounded, hotels are closed, and executives are not earning frequent flier miles. Many travel and hospitality jobs are feeling the consequences. But if this were all there was to it, the impact, however large, would probably be much smaller than the decline in general international tourism, and easily reversible once the pandemic ends.



Alas, recent research by Harvard's Frank Neffke, Michele Coscia of IT University in Copenhagen, and me, forthcoming in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Human Behavior, finds that the impact of closing down business travel may be much larger and more durable. To understand why, we first must ask ourselves why business travel was so big to begin with, and why it had been growing at three times the rate of global GDP, despite the availability of Skype, Facetime, WhatsApp, or just e-mail  all tools that predate both COVID-19 and Zoom.



Was it all about perks, or was that $1.5 trillion mostly money well spent? If so, why, and what are the implications if those activities are now restricted?



Clearly, when we started this research, we could not have imagined such a complete shutdown of business travel. But our analysis does shed light on the possible consequences.



At the time, we were studying technological diffusion. Technology, we argue, is really three types of knowledge: embodied knowledge in tools; codified knowledge in codes, recipes, formulas, algorithms, and how-to-do manuals; and tacit knowledge in brains. Of the three, tools and codes are easy to move around, but know-how moves very slowly from brain to brain through a long process of imitation, repetition, and feedback, as when learning to speak a new language or to play a musical instrument.



As Malcolm Gladwell argues in his book Outliers, it can take 10,000 hours of practice to become good at something. Faced with the difficulty of moving know-how from brain to brain, people long ago figured out that it was much easier to just move the brains. Many scholars, including us, had studied the movement of know-how between firms, regions, and countries through labor mobility, migration and diasporas.



But what about business travel? In previous work, we had shown that it is poorly correlated with trade or even new flows of foreign direct investment. It seems to be much more closely correlated with the number of establishments in one country that are owned by firms in another country.



According to Dun & Bradstreet, there are 1.5 million such establishments in the world. To run a firm, you need not only information, but also the capacity to figure things out. You need know-how. One of the advantages of multinational corporations and global consulting, accounting, and law firms is that they can move that capacity to different points in their network.



With data on business travel provided by the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, we were able to figure out if business travel was important in technological diffusion by making know-how available to recipient countries. That is exactly what we found. Business travel from countries that are good in a particular industry translates into higher productivity, employment, and exports in those industries in the recipient country in the subsequent three years. Moreover, the variation in business travel associated with differences in bilateral visa regimes enables us to interpret this relationship not just as a correlation, but as a causal link.



The countries that benefit the most from inflows of know-how through business travel are Austria, Ireland, Switzerland, Denmark, Belgium, Hong Kong, and Singapore. There are no developing countries among the top 25 recipients. The best performers in the developing world are Panama, Uruguay, Serbia, Malaysia, South Africa, and Chile. The countries that share their knowledge more profusely are Germany, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, South Korea, France, and Japan. India, Brazil, and China rank 12th, 15th, and 17th, respectively.



According to our estimates, a complete permanent shutdown of international business travel would shrink global GDP by over 17 percent of GDP, an order of magnitude larger than the 1.7 percent of GDP that was being spent in 2018. The worst-affected countries would be those that currently benefit the most from inflows of know-how.



The pre-pandemic world increasingly relied on the ability to source know-how globally. Economies that were able to connect to these know-how flows benefited from higher productivity, output, and exports. Much of the developing world was quite peripheral to these flows, but whatever they got was still very important for their economic diversification and development.



Many people, including me, are finding that they can be as productive working from home and connecting through Zoom as they were in the office or traveling for business. But this may be a short-term illusion that varies significantly by activity. The International Monetary Fund has been able to disburse financial assistance to many countries quickly, by doing deskwork, talking through Webex, and then just wiring funds. But development banks have had much more trouble putting together infrastructure projects, where physical presence is unavoidable. Without access to global in-person know-how, local firms have had trouble building structures, repairing equipment, or figuring out how to improve operations.



Our research implies that the world will pay a significant price for the shutdown of business travel, which will become apparent through lower post-crisis productivity growth, employment, and output. Time is a non-renewable resource, and the lost travel is not coming back, even if future travel returns to normal. Although the shutdown of travel is unavoidable, given the public-health imperative, the costs are real.



These costs will rise further if we forgo the global investments in vaccinations and certifications needed to reopen travel safely as quickly as possible. And, obviously, countries will pay an even higher price if they use COVID-19 as an excuse to advance a restrictive visa agenda, as U.S. President Donald Trump's administration tried to do by limiting professional visas and barring foreign students whose campuses do not reopen in the fall.



To be sure, the pandemic and technologies such as Zoom are likely to show that some business travel really is not necessary. But our research suggests that moving brains to share know-how will be just as crucial in the post-COVID-19 world as it was before, and that the consequences of shutting down business travel will be long-lasting.





Ricardo Hausmann, a former minister of planning of Venezuela and former chief economist at the Inter-American Development Bank, is a professor at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government and director of the Harvard Growth Lab. His article was distributed by Project Syndicate (www.project-syndicate.org)


Dozens of protesters who were arrested in Lagos and Abuja on Wednesday were released hours later. However, the protesters arrested in Osun were detained overnight.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how scores of protesters were arrested in different states as security agencies used force to stop the largely peaceful #RevolutionNow protests.

The protesters are demanding better governance in Nigeria, an end to corruption and improvement in the security and welfare of citizens.

The actions of the security agencies have been condemned by civic groups and many Nigerians.

In Lagos, journalist Agba Jalingo and 18 other protesters who were arrested during the protest were released Wednesday evening. Inibehe Effiong, a lawyer and activist, told PREMIUM TIMES that all the 19 protesters that were arrested in Lagos had been freed.

They were taken from Area F to Ikeja police command and were subsequently taken to mobile court, and all of them were discharged, he said.

In Abuja, Deji Adeyanju, one of the organisers of the protest confirmed that all the arrested protesters had been released.

All #RevolutionNow protesters in Lagos freed by the court. pic.twitter.com/1AoGxHCN4K  Comrade Deji Adeyanju (@adeyanjudeji) August 5, 2020

However, it was a different story for seven protesters in Osun who were kept in custody after their arrest.

Olawale Bakare and six others arrested at the #RevolutionNow protest in Osun State will be spending the night at the State Security Service custody, PREMIUM TIMES learnt.

Mr Bakare was arrested alongside Dunsi Olowolafe, Abiodun Sanusi, Gift Martins, Martins Jesuloni, and two others in Osogbo on Wednesday.

On Wednesday evening, this newspaper spoke with one of the arrested protesters, Mr Olowolafe, who confirmed that they were still in SSS custody and would be spending the night there.

A lawyer to the Osun protesters, Alfred Adegoke, also narrated his experience in trying to secure bail for his clients.

We got to the SSS today to check on the arrested individuals but the overzealous SSS did not allow us to get them released. They have gone to obtain an order to detain them for 14 days, Mr Adegoke said.

PREMIUM TIMES could not obtain the details of the remand order allegedly obtained by the SSS, as of the time of this report.

Mr Adegoke said he would return to the SSS office on Thursday to demand bail for the protesters.
With more and more families and seniors increasingly rent burdened and reeling from the impact of the pandemic, it is crucial that we continue to build and preserve affordable housing throughout Illinois to address this urgent need, executive director Kristin Faust said in a statement.
(Newser)  Mike Pence called out Chief Justice John Roberts by name in a TV interview set to air Thursday, and it wasn't to compliment him. "We have great respect for the institution of the Supreme Court of the United States but Chief Justice Roberts has been a disappointment to conservatives," Pence told Christian broadcaster CBN News, which had asked Pence if he thought Roberts had been a letdown for conservatives. The Hill reports the comments are the first instance in which Pence or Trump has commented specifically on Roberts over his rulings. I think several cases out of the Supreme Court are reminders of just how important this election is for the future of the Supreme Court, Pence continued. He offered specifics on cases where Roberts' stance was a letdown, including the 2012 ruling that kept ObamaCare in place.

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Pence also flagged two recent cases in which Roberts joined the court's four liberal justices: one involving abortion-clinic doctors in Louisiana, whose admitting privileges at local hospitals were maintained, and a case out of Nevada, where the 50-person cap on the size of church gatherings was upheld. Pence said the Louisiana decision in particular was "a wake up call for pro-life voters around the country who understand in a very real sense that the destiny of the Supreme Court is on the ballot in 2020." Ruth Bader Ginsburg is currently the court's oldest member at 87. While the comments mark a first, Fox News reports "Pence has been in what might be described as 'attack mode' in recent days," with other targets including New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee. (Read more Mike Pence stories.)
A woman and her accomplices have robbed of a man of 26,000 and a mobile phone in Daresi on Wednesday evening.

The victim, who owns a meat shop in Daulat Colony, said that the accused had also assaulted him before robbing him.

The victim has been identified as Mohammad Saif, 25, of Gulabi Bagh Colony. In his complaint to the police, he said that his ex-girlfriend Soniya orchestrated the attack on him. The incident took place when Saif was returning home and when he reached near New Madhopuri, one of the accused Dalip intercepted him while his aides started assaulting him with sharp-edged weapons and robbed him of 26,000 cash and his mobile phone.

When he raised the alarm, they fled the spot.

ASI Om Parkash, who is investigating the case, said that an FIR under Sections 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 379-B (snatching with hurt, wrongful restraint or fear of hurt), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against the accused at Daresi police station.
A Kiwi thug who strangled and bit a young policewoman in Queensland has been deported back to New Zealand.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton bid 24-year-old Hylton King 'good riddance' overnight.

Mr Dutton said King deserved to be deported after the attack.

Hylton King, who strangled and bit a young policewoman in Queensland, has been deported back to New Zealand

'It was a vicious crime, it was a cowardly act, and I think my decision to cancel his visa and deport him from our country reflects the values of most Australians,' Mr Dutton told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.

'Ninety nine per cent of people who come to our country do the right thing but in this case, clearly he has done the wrong thing and we just don't want people of that very poor character in our country.

'So I think it's good riddance to him, I'm glad that he's gone, and I'm sorry that young police officer will live for the rest of her life scarred with the memory of that incident.'

King and his 30-year-old sister Ariana last month pleaded guilty to seriously assaulting the police officer in May 2019.

The pair had been with friends at the Brook Hotel in Mitchelton before threatening staff and being thrown out.

Outside the pub, King swore at police and then grabbed the female officer around the throat as she tried to handcuff him.

King (left, with a relative) swore at police and then grabbed the female officer around the throat as she tried to handcuff him

King repeatedly choked the officer during the melee, causing her to temporarily lose consciousness.

He also bit the officer's fingers as she attempted to eye-gouge him.

The pair were given suspended sentences and Ariana King is also expected to return to New Zealand.
New Delhi: After getting the notification from the Centre to probe the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, the CBI is in the process of registration of the case. The actor was found dead at his Bandra residence on June 14, 2020.

"We are also in touch with Bihar Police. The FIR will be uploaded on CBI's website soon", said the official.

The agency is in touch with the Bihar police and will soon begin the probe. The case was handed over to India's premier investigation agency on Wednesday after Centre accepted Bihar government's request for a CBI probe.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar recommended the CBI probe into the case after Sushant's father KK Singh spoke to state Director General of Police (DGP) and gave his consent for the same.

Now, as the case is with CBI after the FIR is filed, the team investigating the case will procure the documents from Bihar Police. The investigation will be done in Mumbai in a fresh manner.

Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned Sushant's girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty on Wednesday and asked her to appear before the agency on Friday.
The Sea Hawks were playing their first game in three weeks, but were able to hold off the Panthers for the win.
SRINAGAR, India - Authorities enforced security restrictions in many parts of Indian-controlled Kashmir on Wednesday, a year after New Delhi revoked the disputed regions semi-autonomy in a decision that set off anger and economic ruin amid a harsh security clampdown.

Officials lifted a curfew in the restive regions main city of Srinagar late Tuesday, but said restrictions on public movement, transport and commercial activities would continue because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Government forces placed steel barricades and razor wire across many roads, bridges and intersections. Shops and businesses remained shut and police and soldiers stopped residents at checkpoints, only letting an occasional vehicle or pedestrian pass.

Several residents said government forces stopped them at checkpoints, saying the curfew was still in place.

You call it a curfew or virus lockdown, the fact is that were under a brutal siege and this siege is a year old now, said Ishfaq Ahmed, a Srinagar resident.

On Aug. 5, 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modis Hindu nationalist government stripped Jammu and Kashmirs statehood, scrapped its separate constitution and removed inherited protections on land and jobs.

The region was also split into two federal territories  Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir. Following the move, Indian authorities enforced an information blackout and a security clampdown in Kashmir for months. Thousands of Kashmiri youths and pro-independence leaders, as well as pro-India Kashmiri politicians, were arrested. Hundreds are still incarcerated.

As some of the restrictions were eased, India enforced another harsh lockdown to combat the spread of the coronavirus, deepening the economic crisis in the region.

In Ladakhs Muslim-majority Kargil district, where people have resented Indias move, religious and political groups demanded revocation of the order, calling Aug. 5 a black day. Businesses and shops remained closed in most of the district.

China on Wednesday called Indias action in Kashmir illegal and said it hoped Pakistan and India would resolve their differences through dialogue.

China pays great attention to the situation in Kashmir, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at daily briefing in Beijing. Any unilateral change of the status quo in the Kashmir region is illegal and invalid.

Indias foreign ministry responded late Wednesday, saying China has no standing in the matter and is advised not to comment on the internal affairs of other nations.

Chinese and Indian soldiers are locked in a military standoff along their disputed border in Ladakh region since May. During one confrontation on June 15, 20 Indian soldiers were killed and dozens wounded when the two nations soldiers fought hand to hand.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan demanded Wednesday that the international community force India to reverse its present course against the Kashmiri people.

Pakistan will always be with its brothers and sisters in Indian-controlled Kashmir, Khan said in a statement.

On Tuesday, Khan unveiled a new map of Pakistan that includes Indian-held Kashmir and Junagadh, part of the western Indian state of Gujrat, within the Muslim-majority countrys boundaries for the first time in 70 years. India rejected the move as an exercise in political absurdity.

On Wednesday, Pakistans military accused Indian troops of targeting civilians in a border village in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, killing a teenage girl and wounding six others. In a statement, it said a combination of mortars and heavy fire hit the village of Hot Spring, and Pakistani troops retaliated.

Pakistans foreign ministry summoned a senior diplomat at the Indian Embassy to protest, another Pakistani statement said.

There was no immediate comment from India.

While most Kashmiris were confined to their homes Wednesday, over a dozen activists from Modis Hindu-nationalist governing party assembled in Srinagar to celebrate the scrapping of regions special status.

Today were celebrating because ever since Bharatiya Janata Party came into being its slogan always has been one constitution, one leader and one flag. That has been completed, said Altaf Thakur, the partys regional spokesman.

Authorities barred some pro-India Kashmiri leaders who have opposed the decision from meeting in Srinagar.

BJP displaying its hypocrisy. They can gather & celebrate, tweeted Omar Abdullah, the regions former top elected official who was released after about eight months in detention. The rest of us cant even meet to discuss whats happening in the region, he said.

In Pakistan, several anti-India rallies were organized to denounce last years changes by India. In the capital, Islamabad, President Arif Alvi addressed a rally and sought a solution to the Kashmir issue under 1948 U.N. resolutions.

The anti-India rallies were peaceful, but in port city of Karachi, someone threw a powerful cracker at the rally of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan on Wednesday, wounding 39 people, police said. They said one person was listed in critical condition at a hospital. It was unclear who targeted Islamists at the rally.

The status of Kashmir has been a key point of dispute between Pakistan and India since the two split after the end of British colonial rule. They each control part of Kashmir and have fought two wars over their rival claims.

Initially, the anti-India movement in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir was largely peaceful, but after a series of political blunders, broken promises and a crackdown on dissent, Kashmiris launched a full-blown armed revolt in 1989.

Meanwhile, 18 U.N. human rights experts urged India and the international community on Wednesday to take urgent action to address the alarming human rights situation in Indian-administered Kashmir. They asked India to allow U.N. teams to visit the disputed region.

If India will not take any genuine and immediate steps to resolve the situation, meet their obligations to investigate historic and recent cases of human rights violations and prevent future violations, then the international community should step up, they said in a statement.

___

Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

Read more about:
Nineteen stalwarts of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) have filed their nominations to contest various positions when the party goes to congress on August 15, 2020, to elect national officers and its flag bearer for the 2020 presidential election.



Out of the number, three filed to contest the flagbearer position, four for the National Chairman position, three for the three Vice Chairperson positions, three for the position of General Secretary, two for the National Organiser, and two each for the positions of Women Organiser and Youth Organiser.



The congress shall elect the national chairperson, national vice chairpersons, the general secretary, the national treasurer, the national organiser, the national womens organiser and the national youth organiser. At the close of the nomination, no one had filed for the position of national treasurer.



The CPP fixed July 31, 2020, as the deadline for the receipt of applications for the various positions but because it was a holiday, it was extended to August 3, 2020.



Candidates



For the flagbearer position, a former General Secretary and the 2016 presidential candidate of the CPP, Mr Ivor Kobina Greenstreet, will be seeking to represent the party again in the 2020 elections but would have to contend with Accra-based legal practitioner, Mr Bright Oblitei Akwetey and a pastor, Rev. Dr Divine Ayivor.



The acting Chairperson of the CPP, Hajia Hamdatu Ibrahim, is seeking to be confirmed as the substantive chairperson but is facing a fierce challenge from three others, namely Nana Akosua Frimpomaa-Sarpong, Nana Oduro Kwarteng and Mr Kweku Quansah.



It appears the three aspirants for the position of vice chairperson may slip through as there are no contenders. The three are Mr Emmanuel Ogbordzor, Mr Edwin Ayorkor Olandzor and Mr Onzy Nkrumah, son of Ghanas first President.



Other positions



In the other positions, acting General Secretary, Mr James Kwabena Bomfeh Jnr, will battle it out with a former Director of Public Affairs and External Affairs of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), Nana Yaa Akyempim Jantuah, and a Marketing Communication Consultant, Mr Joseph Kwadwo Afari-Yeboah.



Two individuals, Mr Moses Yirimanbo and Mr Rashid Allao, are vying for the position of National Organiser while incumbent Women Organiser, Hajia Aisha Sulley Futa, is being challenged by Madam Rose Endah with Messrs Solomon Amponsah and Osei Kofi Acquah vying for the Youth Organiser position.



Format of congress



Per the schedule of activities of the party, the national congress will be held on regional basis as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, with each region setting up election centres.



Nine delegates from each of the constituencies will be expected to cast their votes between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. on August 15, 2020, under the supervision of officials of the Electoral Commission (EC).



In previous congresses of the CPP, all the delegates congregated at a national centre where the election took place.



Per the new arrangement due to COVID-19, all the delegates will be expected to cast their votes at the designated regional centres and return to their constituencies immediately after casting their votes.



Officials of the EC, who will supervise the election, will collate and declare the final results and communicate the results through the party communication channels.



Background



The CPP was originally scheduled to hold its national delegates congress from March 27 to March 28 in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.



The party opened nominations from February 6, 2020, to February 28, 2020.



However, on February 27, 2020, the eve of the last day for the filing of nominations, the party was served with a suit, compelling the leadership to postpone the filing of the nominations and date of the congress.



The suit centred on an alleged bank account opened by some national executive members on behalf of the party and the manner in which regional elections were held in the Central, Oti, Volta and Western regions.



On July 2, 2020, the High Court accepted the terms of a consent judgment, including the setting up of a five-member IOC to superintend the holding of the national congress.



IOC



The Council of Elders of the CPP, on July 3, 2020, inaugurated a five-member IOC under the chairmanship of Mr R.O. Frimpong-Manso to oversee the activities of the party towards the national delegates congress.



The council appointed Dr Adolf Lutterodt and Prof. Nii Noi Dowuona as the chairmen for the Extended Congress Planning Committee and Vetting Committee respectively.



This was in line with the terms of the consent judgment adopted and granted by Mrs Justice Mariama Sammo of the Accra Commercial High Court.



Forward march



In an interview with the Daily Graphic, Mr Frimpong-Manso urged all the aspirants to put the interest of the CPP ahead of theirs.



He, therefore, urged the aspirants to conduct their campaign with civility and decorum.



He said time was not on the side of the CPP, hence the need for all party faithful to be united in restoring the integrity and reputation of the CPP, stressing that anyone with the spirit of Nkrumah must stand united with us.



He, therefore, called on all members of the party to put their differences behind them and come together for the good of the CPP.

Source: Graphic.com.gh









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MOSCOW  When a group of young Russians set up a chat group on social media nearly three years ago, they called themselves the Club of Plant Lovers, creating an innocuous gathering place for online discussion about their hobbies, university studies and sometimes politics.

After a few weeks, however, the chat group, which had changed its name to New Greatness, was joined by a new member who promoted unusually strident views against President Vladimir V. Putin and pushed to turn the online chatter into a political movement dedicated to radical change.

The new member, who gave his name as Ruslan Danilov and wrote a political manifesto for the group calling for Mr. Putins overthrow and having a peoples tribunal prosecute him, was actually an informer and agent provocateur working for Russias security apparatus.

As a result of the informers work and subsequent testimony as a prosecution witness in what became known as the New Greatness Case, a Moscow court on Thursday found seven original members of the group guilty of creating an extremist society with intent to prepare or commit extremist crimes.
The findings, published in the journal Current Biology, are based on a digital reconstruction of the crushed skull of Tanystropheus, which lived more than 240 million years ago.

Although first described in 1852, scientists have been debating whether the 20ft reptile lived on land or under water  because its bizarre body didnt make things clear one way or the other.

Tanystropheuss neck was 10ft long  three times as long as its torso  but not very flexible and had only 13 extremely elongated vertebrae to hold it in place.

The researchers said the reptiles neck bears similarities to the tall neck of a giraffe, which has only seven neck bones.

However, skull reconstruction revealed Tanystropheus to have several very clear adaptations for life in water.

The researchers found its nostrils to be located on top of the snout, similar to that of modern-day crocodiles.

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In addition, the teeth were long and curved, which would have helped in catching slippery prey such as fish.

Olivier Rieppel, a paleontologist at the Field Museum in Chicago, US, and one of the authors on the study, described the creature as a stubby crocodile with a very, very long neck.

He added: That neck doesnt make sense in a terrestrial environment.

Its just an awkward structure to carry around.

In spite of being a creature of the ocean, the researchers believe Tanystropheus may have been a poor swimmer, because of the lack of visible adaptations for swimming in the limbs and tail.

Stephan Spiekman, a paleontologist at the University of Zurich in Switzerland and lead author on the study, said: It likely hunted by stealthily approaching its prey in murky water using its small head and very long neck to remain hidden.

Tanystropheus lived 242 million years ago, during the middle Triassic period, when dinosaurs were just starting to emerge on land and giant reptiles dominated in the sea.

Remains of this creature were unearthed at Monte San Giorgio on the border between Switzerland and Italy.

Scientists have also found fossils in the area that look similar to Tanystropheus but are just 4ft long.

To find out whether these smaller specimens were juveniles or a separate species, the researchers examined the bones to look for growth rings, which then determine the age of the species.

Analysis revealed the smaller creatures to be mature, indicating they belonged to a different species.

Nick Fraser, keeper of natural sciences at National Museums Scotland and a co-author on the paper, said: It is hugely significant to discover that there were two quite separate species of this bizarrely long-necked reptile who swam and lived alongside each other in the coastal waters of the great sea of Tethys approximately 240 million years ago.

Mr Spiekman added: These two closely related species had evolved to use different food sources in the same environment.

The small species likely fed on small shelled animals, like shrimp, in contrast to the fish and squid the large species ate.

This is really remarkable, because we expected the bizarre neck of Tanystropheus to be specialised for a single task, like the neck of a giraffe.

But actually, it allowed for several lifestyles. This completely changes the way we look at this animal.
The head of the Army's directed-energy weapon effort said Wednesday that soldiers will be firing lasers from Stryker combat vehicles in a test next year to select the firm to equip the service with the high-tech air-defense weapon.

Army program officials for the service's Directed-Energy Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense (M-SHORAD) effort -- a key modernization priority designed to equip a platoon of Stryker wheeled combat vehicles with 50-kilowatt lasers in fiscal 2021 -- outlined new details of the shoot-off event between Northrop Grumman and Raytheon scheduled for the third quarter of fiscal 2021.

As part of its new modernization strategy, the Army continues to stress the importance of involving soldiers in equipment development and testing much earlier than in past efforts.

"The soldiers will actually do the combat shoot-off; it won't be done by contractors," Lt. Gen. L. Neil Thurgood, director of Hypersonics, Directed Energy, Space, and Rapid Acquisition, said during a Defense News space and missile defense webinar.

Read Next: Army to Speed Up Testing of Planned Hypersonic Missile

In July 2019, the Army selected Northrop and Raytheon to develop competing prototypes of 50-kilowatt laser-equipped Strykers as part of a $203 million deal that includes Kord Technologies as the prime contractor.

Once fielded, the laser-armed Strykers will protect Brigade Combat Teams from unmanned aerial systems (UAS); rotary-wing aircraft; and rockets, artillery and mortars.

"We are super excited about the directed-energy mission and bringing that technology to bear on the battlefield," Thurgood said.

The Army plans to team the directed-energy M-SHORAD Strykers with kinetic M-SHORADs, which will be equipped with more conventional air defense weapons.

"In the operational construct, there is a mix of kinetic killers and directed-energy killers," Thurgood said. "That's important because there really is no one weapon system that is the placebo of life. ... You need a mix of weapon systems on the battlefield to be successful."

Northrop and Raytheon will each bring their laser-equipped Stryker to the competitive shoot-off, he added, explaining that one of those Strykers will ultimately be the first of four vehicles fielded to the first platoon equipped with the 50-kilowatt version of M-SHORAD.

"We make a down-select, we buy three more of those, and we field that unit," Thurgood said.

-- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.

Related: 50-Kilowatt Laser Will Be a 'Game-Changer,' Company Says
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Linkedin Norman Harsono (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, August 6, 2020 07:50 531 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066be30c1 1 Business pertamina,biodiesel,palm-oil,Airlangga-Hartarto Free

The government has rekindled plans to escalate Indonesias biodiesel program after a five-month hiatus caused by weak palm oil prices and the unfolding global health crisis.

Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto recently ordered state-owned fuel giant Pertamina to revive the program a few days after the company produced an experimental batch of new biodiesel and signed a deal to build a biodiesel catalyst factory.

The minister ordered Pertamina to produce a first-ever 40 percent mixed biodiesel (B40) composed of 30 percent Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAME), 10 percent green diesel and 60 percent fossil fuel diesel.

I want it by July 2021, he said in a webinar hosted by CNBC Indonesia on July 30.

The biodiesel program is one of Indonesias many strategies to cut oil imports and lower carbon dioxide emissions. The program has been escalated since 2016 starting with the B20 biodiesel, as per Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry Regulation No. 12/2015.

The ministers order also followed state-owned Pertaminas successful three-day trial production of 1,000 barrels per day (bpd) of D100 green diesel at its refinery in Dumai, Riau, which is Indonesias palm oil heartland.

Minister Airlangga first announced the B40 plan in February but kept quiet about it after palm oil prices began tumbling the following months and as Indonesia redirected its resources to tackle COVID-19.

Global palm oil prices reached their lowest this year at 2,000 ringgit (US$476.47) a ton on May 6 but have since recovered to 2,780 ringgit a ton on July 30, according to the global benchmark Bursa Malaysia Derivatives.

The government, led by Minister Airlangga, has also begun reopening the economy, which is expected to boost domestic consumption of palm oil.

Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry renewables director Sutijastoto also said his office was working on a new regulation to accommodate the B40 biofuel, as the existing regulation does not require Indonesia to escalate beyond B30.

We will push it. But this might come out either this year or next year, he said on July 28.

The Indonesian Automotive Manufacturers Association (Gaikindo) has yet to voice support for the governments B40 plan.

Gaikindo asks to be given time to prepare for the implementation of B40, association chairman Jongkie Sugiarto told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Automakers needed time to redesign vehicles to suit the new fuel, he explained. The lower emission fuel is notorious among commercial vehicle associations for damaging engines and requiring higher maintenance.

Meanwhile, Indonesia is still pushing forward with its complaint to the World Trade Organization (WTO) against European Union restrictions on palm oil-based biofuels.

The European Commission concluded in 2019 that palm oil cultivation leads to excessive deforestation and passed a law to phase out its use as transportation fuel between 2023 and 2030.

We dont need to fear those negative foreign NGOs, said Indonesian Biofuel Producers Association (Aprobi) chairman Master Parulian Tumanggor.

Producing green diesel remains much more expensive than producing B30, said Budi Santoso Syarif, deputy director of refinery subsidiary PT Pertamina Kilang International, also on Thursday.

We need incentives to make the product competitive, he said.

Pertamina also signed on July 29 a deal with state-owned fertilizer producer PT Pupuk Kujang and the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) to build a biodiesel catalyst factory.

The fertilizer maker expects to begin construction in 2020 and finish by the second quarter of 2021. The facility will be built in the Kujang Cikampek Industrial Area in West Java.

Production is ready so the next step will be the market, Indonesian Olefin, Aromatic and Plastic Industry Association (Inaplas) secretary general Fajar Budiyono told the Post.
The Socialist Equality Party (SEP), which fielded a total of 43 candidates for the Colombo, Jaffna and Nuwara Eliya districts, held its third and concluding election meeting on August 2. It followed a vigorous campaign by SEP and International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) members and supporters in the three election districts and other key parts of the country.

The event was streamed on the SEPs Facebook page and attended by about 100 people from Sri Lanka and internationally. More than 1,500 people later viewed the video with scores of others posting greetings, comments and questions.

While the COVID-19 pandemic limited face to face interactions, SEP and IYSSE campaigners distributed thousands of copies of its Fight against war, social devastation and dictatorship election manifesto. Discussions were held with workers and young people in the railways, irrigation facilities, ports, major free trade zones and tea plantations.

The online SEP election meeting

The August 2 meeting was chaired by SEP Political Committee member and Colombo district candidate Pani Wijesiriwardena. He began by explaining how COVID-19 had deepened the economic and political crisis of the Sri Lankan capitalist class.

The Rajapakse government is determined to impose the full burden of this crisis onto the backs of the working class and the poor. Knowing well that the harsh measures will provoke workers opposition, Rajapakse is moving towards a presidential dictatorship in order to crush this resistance, he said. As part of this right-wing agenda, Rajapakse and his chauvinist allies have instigated an anti-Tamil and anti-Muslim campaign to divide and weaken the working class.

Wijesiriwardena said the ruling elites everywhere have responded to the pandemic by imposing austerity measures and handing over trillions of dollars to the financial oligarchy. The speaker explained that about 400,000 manufacturing sector jobs had been eliminated in Sri Lanka even as the government provided funds to big business and backed company wage and job cuts.

Wijesiriwardena noted the rising resistance of workers internationally and said this would further develop in the coming months. The SEP and its sister parties in the International Committee of the Fourth International, he said, will fight to mobilise this working-class movement with an international socialist perspective. Our intervention in this election is part of that struggle, he said.

The next speaker Vilani Peiris, who leads the Colombo district SEP slate, reviewed the election campaigns of the capitalist and pseudo-left parties. No section of the Sri Lankan bourgeoisie, she said, has a progressive solution to the economic crisis they face.

The Rajapakse government is trying to borrow heavily from China and the international financial institutions. Ranil Wickremesinghe, leader of the United National Party, claims he has the potential to build the economy by borrowing from the International Monetary Fund. All of them are prepared to drag the country into a huge debt trap and impose it on workers and the poor, Peiris said.

The speaker noted President Gotabhaya Rajapakses response to port worker protests against the proposed sale of a terminal at the Colombo Port to an Indian company. Rajapakse publicly declared that he will not be intimidated by such action. This means that privatisation will continue irrespective of workers opposition.

Peiris said the militarisation of Rajapakses administration, which was in order to take on the working class, was not challenged by the opposition parties or the pseudo-left because they all fear the developing class struggle.

SEP Political Committee member M. Thevarajah, who headed the partys list in Nuwara Eliya, told the meeting that the Tamil nationalist parties wanted more seats in parliament in order to secure a better deal with whoever won government. The Tamil National Alliance, he said, has publicly promised to negotiate in a meaningful way with Rajapakse, even as he is preparing a dictatorship.

Thevarajah reviewed the Tamil nationalists orientation towards the imperialist powers and their endorsement of Washingtons preparations for war against China. The democratic rights of oppressed Tamils can only be won, he said, by opposing these reactionary positions and fighting for the unity of workers across ethnic lines to overthrow capitalism and establish a Sri Lanka-Eelam socialist republic as part of a union of South Asia socialist republics.

The speaker said that the major plantation unions, including the Ceylon Workers Congress, were assisting the companies to impose greater productivity and exploitation. Workers and their families are being given small plots of the plantation to look after. This means the whole family will have to toil to earn a living income. This is another slave labour system, he said, and called for plantation workers to build independent action committees and fight for workers control of the production.

Speaking on behalf of the IYSSE, Dinesh Hemal explained Colombos attacks on education and students. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it is clear that these austerity measures are threatening the lives of students. Many schools cannot provide the minimum measures required to prevent the pandemic spreading.

Hemal also pointed to the governments anti-democratic attacks on students. The government has deployed intelligence officers in the universities to hunt down student activists. Although students were resisting this repression, he continued, their struggle could only be advanced by turning to the working class and fighting for socialism.

Concluding the online meeting, Pani Wijesiriwardena thanked all those who had supported the SEPs defence campaign against the military harassment of the partys Jaffna district candidates.

The anti-democratic military provocations, he said, are a part of an international response by the ruling classes everywhere to the growing influence of the international Trotskyist movement. In Germany, for example, the government has decided to place the SEP on its state surveillance list, whilst in the US, SEP presidential candidates are being are anti-democratically deprived of ballot access.

Wijesiriwardena noted the actions of US autoworkers and teachers against unsafe COVID-19 returns-to-work and the nationwide mass demonstrations over the police murder of George Floyd.

These developments, he said, are indications of the growing opposition of the working class and youth against capitalist reaction. The protests were not just a response to Floyds murder but an explosion of social anger against deep social inequality in the US.

The speaker referred to mass protests in Sri Lanka against privatisation of a Colombo Port terminal. Workers were propelled into action, he said, by a broad range of issues, including the deterioration of working and living conditions.

Although the trade union bureaucracies are trying to dissipate workers anger with a limited protest, this struggle directly raises the political necessity of defeating the governments IMF-dictated policies.

Wijesiriwardena concluded the meeting by stressing that the SEP was contesting the elections in order to unite and mobilise workers as a single international class.

The SEPs central aim is to organise workers independently of the unions and the capitalist parties and assist them to build their own action committees. Our political program is the fight for a workers and peasants government in the form of a Sri Lanka-Eelam Socialist Republic as part of the fight for international socialism.
LOS ANGELES (AP)  The husband of Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey has been charged with pointing a gun at Black Lives Matter members who demonstrated outside the couples home the day before she faced a primary election in March.

The state attorney general filed three misdemeanor charges Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court against David Lacey for assault with a firearm for the March 2 incident.

Lacey, 66, pointed a gun at demonstrators who protested outside the couple's home before dawn on March 2 and said I will shoot you," according to video of the incident.

Jackie Lacey offered an emotional apology at the time, saying her husband told her he pulled the gun and told protesters to leave.

Lacey's campaign issued a statement Tuesday saying her husband thought they were in danger and was trying to protect them.

The events that took place earlier this year have caused my family immense pain, Lacey said in the statement. My husband acted in fear for my safety after we were subjected to months of harassment that included a death threat no less than a week earlier.

Lacey, the first Black person and first woman to run what is the nation's largest local prosecutor's office, has been targeted for nearly three years by Black Lives Matter protesters, who have held weekly demonstrations outside her office calling for her ouster. The protests were once small, but have numbered in the hundreds and thousands after the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd.

Protesters claim she has failed to hold law enforcement accountable in fatal shootings. She has charged one officer in a fatal on-duty killing, but has declined to file charges in more than 340 other fatal shootings.

Melina Abdullah, who is the victim named in count one of the criminal complaint, declined to comment but said she would hold a news conference Wednesday afternoon before Black Lives Matter's weekly Jackie Lacey Must Go protest outside the Hall of Justice.

Story continues

Lacey faces a runoff in November for her third term. She is being challenged by former San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon, a longtime police officer and former chief who vows to reform the office.

David Lacey, who is also Black, was an investigative auditor with the DAs office until his 2016 retirement. He was seen in video shot by protesters telling them: I will shoot you. Get off of my porch.

His attorney issued a statement saying they were disappointed that he was charged with a crime, but they wouldn't discuss the facts at this time.

We disagree entirely with their assessment, but we have the utmost faith in the justice system, and we are confident that the correct result will be reached, attorney Samuel Tyre said. My clients human instinct is forever and always to protect his wife and his family and to keep them safe from physical harm.

The charges were first reported by Politico.
New Delhi: The twin deaths of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput on June 14 and his former manager Disha Salian on June 8, 2020, has raised enough suspicion amongst fans, who on social media platforms have been pressing for a fair probe.

According to Mumbai police sources, Disha allegedly died by falling off the high-rise apartment on the night of June 8. During that time, the deadly novel coronavirus outbreak was at its peak. On June 9, Disha's body was taken to Shatabdi Hospital where her COVID-19 test was carried out. The report came on June 11, confirming that she was COVID-19 negative. After that, the body was taken for autopsy.

The Mumbai police have the complete June 8 CCTV footage of the building which shows only essential services and staff entered the apartment. The police have recorded statements of all who entered the apartment that day.

Disha worked with a company named Cornerstone, through which she came into contact with late actor Sushant Singh Rajput. However, their association was completely professional.

Just ahead of Disha's mysterious death, she talked to a friend for nearly 45 minutes discussing her professional life. She shared how she is unable to confirm a few deals.

It has been nearly two months to Disha's death, and recently Mumbai police urged the people to share information or evidence, if they know of, related to Disha's death.
Nomad Foods Limited (NYSE: NOMD), today announced its intention to commence a "modified Dutch auction" tender offer to purchase with cash up to $500 million of its ordinary shares, at a range expected to be between $23.00 and $25.50 per share as soon as reasonably practicable, which would represent 11% of the Company's market capitalization (based on the Company's close price on August 5, 2020 of $23.34).

Noam Gottesman, Nomad Foods' Co-Chairman and Founder, commented, "We are pleased to announce our intended return of capital to shareholders which underscores the Board's confidence in the growth prospects of our business and our commitment to pursuing a disciplined, value-enhancing capital allocation strategy. In addition, we are accelerating investments behind key organic growth initiatives, including the expansion of our European plant protein sub-brand, Green Cuisine

Sir Martin E. Franklin, Nomad Foods' Co-Chairman and Founder, added, "At the same time, we are sharpening our M&A focus behind a targeted pipeline of European frozen food acquisitions. This refined strategic approach creates an opportunity to drive long-term shareholder value through the accretive return of excess cash while retaining financial flexibility to pursue our growth ambitions."

The terms and conditions of the tender offer will be described in an offer to purchase and related letter of transmittal that will be sent to the Company's shareholders shortly after commencement of the tender offer. The tender offer will be subject to certain conditions described in the offer to purchase. The tender offer will be held open for at least twenty business days following its commencement, and tenders of shares must be made prior to the expiration of the tender offer period. Neither the Company nor its board of directors makes any recommendation as to whether any shareholder should participate or refrain from participating in the tender offer or as to the price or prices at which shareholders may choose to tender their shares in the tender offer.

Pre-Commencement Communication

This press release is for informational purposes only and is not an offer to buy or the solicitation of an offer to sell any of the Company's ordinary shares. The anticipated tender offer described in this press release has not yet commenced, and while the Company intends to commence the tender offer as soon as reasonably practicable and complete the tender offer, there can be no assurance that it will commence or that the Company will complete the tender offer on the terms described in this press release, or at all. If the Company commences the tender offer, the solicitation and offer to buy ordinary shares will be made only pursuant to an offer to purchase, letter of transmittal and related materials that the Company intends to distribute to its shareholders and file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). The full details of the tender offer, including complete instructions on how to tender shares, will be included in the offer to purchase, letter of transmittal and related materials, which will become available to shareholders upon commencement of the tender offer.

Prior to making any decision with respect to the proposed tender offer, shareholders should read carefully the information in the offer to purchase, letter of transmittal and related materials because they will contain important information, including the various terms of, and conditions to, the tender offer. A free copy of the tender offer documents that will be filed with the SEC may be obtained when filed from the SEC's website at www.sec.gov or by calling the information agent (to be identified at the time the offer is made). Shareholders are urged to read these materials, when available, carefully prior to making any decision with respect to the tender offer. Neither the Company nor its directors make any recommendation as to whether to tender shares or as to the price at which to tender them.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this announcement are forward-looking statements which are based on the Company's expectations, intentions and projections regarding its future performance, anticipated events or trends and other matters that are not historical facts, including expectations regarding the tender offer, the Company's intended return of capital to shareholders, the Company's belief that the tender offer is a compelling and accretive use of the Company's cash, the Company's growth prospects, the Company's capital allocation strategy, the Company's key organic growth initiatives, its M&A focus and its refined strategic approach related thereto. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including: (i) the Company's ability to satisfy the conditions to the tender offer; (ii) the price per share at which the Company ultimately determines to purchase shares in the tender offer and the number of shares tendered in the tender offer; (iii) the Company's ability to commence and complete the tender offer, including the number of shares the Company is able to purchase pursuant to the tender offer; (iv) the ability to achieve the benefits contemplated by the tender offer; (v) any adverse impact that the tender offer may have on the Company and the trading market for the Company's ordinary shares; (vi) the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Company's business, suppliers, co-manufacturers, distributors, transportation or logistics providers, customers, consumers and employees; (vii) tapering or reduction of consumer demand for frozen foods as pandemic-related restrictions are lifted or conditions improve; (viii) the Company's ability to meet elevated demand; (ix) the success of the Company's strategic investments and capital allocation strategy (x) disruptions or inefficiencies in the Company's operations, supply chain or distribution channels, including as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Company's ability to maintain the health and safety of its workforce; (xi) the duration, spread and intensity of the pandemic and related government restrictions and other government responses; (xii) the Company's ability to successfully identify suitable acquisition targets and adequately evaluate the potential performance of such acquisition targets; (xiii) the Company's ability to successfully implement its strategies (including its M&A strategy) and strategic initiatives and to recognize the anticipated benefits of such strategic initiatives; (xiv) the Company's ability to accurately predict the performance of its Green Cuisine brand and its impact on the Company's growth; (xv) the Company's ability to effectively compete in its markets, including the ability of Green Cuisine to effectively compete in Continental Europe; (xvi) changes in consumer preferences, such as meat substitutes, and the Company's failure to anticipate and respond to such changes or to successfully develop and renovate products; (xvii) the effects of reputational damage from unsafe or poor quality food products; (xviii) the risk that securities markets will react negatively to actions by the Company; (xix) the adequacy of the Company's cash resources to achieve its anticipated growth agenda; (xx) increases in operating costs, including labor costs, and the Company's ability to manage its cost structure; (xxi) fluctuations in the availability of food ingredients and packaging materials that the Company uses in its products; (xxii) the Company's ability to effectively mitigate factors that negatively impact its supply of raw materials; (xxiii) the Company's ability to protect its brand names and trademarks; (xxiv) uncertainty about the terms of any trade agreement between the UK and the EU associated with Brexit, as well as the potential adverse impact of Brexit on currency exchange rates, global economic conditions and cross-border agreements that affect the Company's business; (xxv) loss of the Company's financial arrangements with respect to receivables factoring; (xxvi) the loss of any of the Company's major customers or a decrease in demand for its products; (xxvii) economic conditions that may affect the Company's future performance including exchange rate fluctuations; (xxviii) the Company's ability to successfully interpret and respond to key industry trends and to realize the expected benefits of its responsive actions; (xxix) the Company's failure to comply with, and liabilities related to, environmental, health and safety laws and regulations; (xxx) changes in applicable laws or regulations; and (xxxi) the other risks and uncertainties disclosed in the Company's public filings and any other public disclosures by the Company. Given these risks and uncertainties, prospective investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of such statements and, except as required by applicable law, the Company does not undertake any obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About Nomad Foods

Nomad Foods (NYSE: NOMD) is a leading frozen foods company building a global portfolio of best-in-class food companies and brands within the frozen category and across the broader food sector. The company's portfolio of iconic brands, which includes Birds Eye, Findus, Iglo, Aunt Bessie's and Goodfella's, have been a part of consumers' meals for generations, standing for great tasting food that is convenient, high quality and nutritious. Nomad Foods is headquartered in the United Kingdom. Additional information may be found at www.nomadfoods.com

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His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa directed yesterday to dispatch urgent humanitarian relief aid to Lebanon to help alleviate their suffering in the aftermath of the massive blasts which rocked the capital Beirut.

HM the King assigned the Royal Humanitarian Foundation (RHF) to undertake the operation, under the supervision of HM the Kings Humanitarian Work and Youth Affairs representative His Highness Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al-Khalifa.

HH Shaikh Nasser paid tribute to HM the King, who is the RHF honourary chairman, hailing his continuous humanitarian initiatives in support of disaster-hit people. He hailed the royal drive which, he said, reflects the unwavering stance of Bahrains leadership, government and people towards brotherly and friendly countries and peoples in times of adversity.

HH Shaikh Nasser lauded HM the Kings keenness to extend a helping hand to all people, describing the royal drive as stemming from the fraternal and humane ties binding all nations worldwide and the brotherly relations linking the Kingdom and Lebanon.

He said that the foundation is honoured to implement HM the Kings directives to extend support to Lebanon on all levels, reiterating Bahrains solidarity with the Lebanese people, who are facing painful humanitarian conditions in the aftermath of the massive explosions that rocked Beirut.

HH Shaikh Nasser announced that the foundation is preparing a consignment to be dispatched urgently, reiterating heartfelt condolences to Lebanons leadership, government and people as well as the bereaved victims families.

RHF secretary-general Dr Mustafa Al Sayed announced that, based on HM the Kings initiative and HH Shaikh Nassers directives, a medical consignment would be dispatched to Lebanon, in cooperation with the Ministry of Health and other relevant authorities.

Dr Al Sayed said that other initiatives and efforts would be undertaken to support the people of Lebanon in the aftermath of the painful incident, lauding strong fraternal and historic relations binding Bahrain and Lebanon. The Kingdom of Bahrain has always been among the first states that extends aid and support to brotherly and friendly countries, under all humanitarian circumstances facing them, Dr Al Sayed said.
Myanmar & COVID-19 Myanmar Pastors Jailed for Defying COVID-19 Restrictions

Christian pastor Saw David Lah, who was found guilty of violating COVID-19 restrictions, appeared in court for the first time on May 20. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

YANGONTwo pastors and one of their followers who organized religious gatherings linked to Myanmars largest cluster of COVID-19 transmissions, including two deaths, have been sentenced to three months in prison with hard labor for violating the countrys COVID-19 restrictions.

Christian pastors Saw Kwae Wah and Saw David Lah, a Canadian Citizen, and two of their followers, U Wai Tun and Saw Raygandi, were sued by the Yangon regional government under the Natural Disaster Management Law on April 14 for violating regulations aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus.

Myanmar has banned mass gatherings since March, but the two pastors organized religious gatherings in Yangons Insein and Mayangone townships in late March and early April.

The gatherings are linked to at least 80 confirmed cases of COVID-19, making them the largest cluster found so far in Myanmar.

Saw David Lah himself tested positive for the coronavirus in April and was discharged from the hospital in late April after recovering.

About 30 people who did not attend either gathering but had contact with Saw David Lah were also tested for COVID-19, including Myanmar Vice President U Henry Van Htio and his family. Everyone from this cohort tested negative for the coronavirus.

Myanmar police arrested pastor Saw David Lah and Saw Kwae Wah on May 20 after the former finished his post-recovery quarantine period.

U Wai Tun and Saw Raygandi also contracted COVID-19 and were arrested later after they finished their own post-recovery quarantine periods.

On Thursday, Saw David Lah and U Wai Tun were sentenced to three months in prison by the Mayangone Township Court under Article 30 (a) of the Natural Disaster Management Law.

The two had previously been charged under Article 25 of the law, which criminalizes negligence and willful actions that cause natural disasters and carries a prison sentence of up to three years.

Article 30 (a) of the law, however, covers failure to comply with official directives related to natural disaster management and carries a sentence of up to one year in prison.

When asked about the change from one statute to the other, Mayangone Township Court judge U Moe Swe declined to comment during his press briefing on Thursday.

On the same day, pastor U Saw Kwae Wah was sentenced to three months in prison by the Insein Township Court under the Natural Disaster Management Law for breaching the governments orders, according to Police Colonel Tin Hla of the Insein Township Police Station.

U Saw Kwae Wah was also sentenced under Article 30 (a) of the law after first being charged under Article 25, according to the police colonel.

U Saw Raygandi had been charged under the same law but was released by the Insein Township Court last week as he was innocent, according to Police Col. Tin Hla.

Both pastors will only serve two more weeks in prison as they have already been held for more than two months.

As of Thursday morning, 357 COVID-19 cases have been reported in Myanmar, including 6 deaths and 305 recoveries. According to the Health Ministry, 198 of the total are imported cases.

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Myanmar Pastor Charged with Breaching COVID-19 Rules with Religious Services

Pastors Arrested for Holding Gatherings Amid Myanmars COVID-19 Restrictions
Up to 12,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate is being stored near homes in a busy Australian industrial town, sparking fears of a Beirut-style mega blast.

At least 135 people have died and a further 5,000 were injured when 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate blew up in Lebanon early on Wednesday AEST, with the death toll expected to rise.

Just three kilometres from Newcastle, north of Sydney, up to 12,000 tonnes of the same chemical is stored at the Orica Plant in Kooragang - 800m from suburban homes in North Stockton.

At least 300 residents in the Stockton Community Action Group have long been calling on the government to relocate the plant or reduce the stockpiles of the deadly chemical.

Scroll down for video

An injured worker walks at the explosion scene that hit the seaport of Beirut, Lebanon

Just three kilometres from Newcastle on the New South Wales north coast, up to 12,000 tonnes of the same chemical is stored at the Orica Plant in Kooragang (part of the plant pictured)

Dramatic footage shows smoke billowing from the port area shortly before an enormous fireball explodes into the sky and blankets the city in a thick mushroom cloud

Residents in neighbouring suburbs, including Mayfield and Tighes Hill, have expressed similar concerns over the explosive's proximity to homes.

'That factory is only three kilometres from Newcastle's CBD and only 800 metres from North Stockton residents,' chemical engineer and community campaigner Keith Craig told ABC.

'It's a totally inappropriate place to have such a dangerous material produced and stored, and it's something we've been complaining about for many, many years.'

He said he had no doubt 'many people would be killed and injured if we had an accident at Orica'.

Newcastle is New South Wales' second largest city and home to more than 322,000 people.

A man reacts at the scene of an explosion at the port in Lebanon's capital Beirut on August 4. The same chemical which caused the explosion is also housed near Newcastle, on the NSW north coast

A destroyed silo is seen amid the rubble and debris following the blast at the port of Lebanon's capital Beirut

The plant (pictured) is just three kilometres from the Newcastle CBD and 800m from North Stockton - which is a major concern for locals, particularly after the latest explosion

Pictured: A wounded man is helped by a fireman near the scene of an explosion in Beirut

But a spokesman for the company said stringent protocols are maintained and drills are completed annually alongside emergency services to ensure the product is being managed safely.

'It's important to note that there has not been a single incident involving the storage of ammonium nitrate in the Kooragang Island site's 51-year history,' the spokesman told Daily Mail Australia.

The ammonium nitrate is stored in areas of the complex which are fire resistant and built from non-flammable materials to minimise any threats.

'There are no flammable sources within designated exclusion zones around these areas,' the spokesman said.

Orica Kooragang Island holds a Major Hazard Facility licence, which was assigned following strict auditing and verification by SafeWork New South Wales.

The site is regularly inspected by the NSW Environment Protection Authority to ensure compliance with the licence conditions.

'Recent inspections have not identified any significant concerns with respect to chemical storage at ammonium nitrate storage facilities,' EPA said in a statement.

Community groups have cited multiple past incidents involving the chemical which have resulted in loss of life.

Pictured: Army soldiers evacuate injured people from the site of the explosion in Beirut. Similar explosions have also occurred in France and the United States

In 2001, 29 people were killed in Toulouse following an explosion at a French fertiliser factory.

Similarly, 15 people were killed in Texas in the United States following a 2013 explosion.

Both blasts involved about 300 tonnes of ammonium nitrate - much less than the 6,000 to 12,000 tonnes stored in Orica at any given time.

Early indications have suggested that the explosion in Beirut was set off by nearby welding work.

The chemical, which is used in fertilisers and bombs, had reportedly been stored at the port for six years without correct safety measures.

Witnesses reported windows being shattered and buildings damaged 10km from the blast area.

At least one Australian is among the 135 dead, and others have come forward to share details of the horror explosion.

Wounded people are treated at a hospital following the explosion, which has left hundreds of casualties in Beirut last night

Fires were still burning at the destroyed port on Wednesday morning as the full extent of the devastation - in a country that was already in the midst of an economic crisis - was laid bare

An injured man waits for help at the explosion scene that hit the seaport. So far, 135 people have been confirmed dead, but that figure is expected to rise

Omair Jheir, from Sydney, was relaxing at his apartment in the Lebanese capital at the time of the explosion.

'The sheer magnitude of it was more powerful than anything I have ever experienced. I was thrown against the wall, bruising my ribs, and my house just collapsed around us,' Mr Jheir told The Daily Telegraph.

The 41-year-old - who owns a now destroyed hotel, restaurant and coffee shop close to the port - frantically tried to find medical help as he walked over dead bodies and watched buildings collapse around him.

'My friends, my neighbours, my customers, they were just ripped apart. There was blood gushing out of their faces. There were people on the floor dead. It was devastating,' he said.

'I was not wearing shoes and there was glass everywhere. My feet were cut to ribbons as I walked down the street.'

Mr Jheir created a makeshift bandage out of sheets to protect his feet before he and a friend went in search of a hospital.

Young Lebanese women wearing protective masks and gloves stand amid the rubble in Beirut's Gimmayzeh commercial district which was heavily damaged after the explosion tore through Lebanon's capital

Newlyweds Omair Jheir and Hala Okeil had their lives torn apart after the explosion ripped through the city of Beirut on Wednesday morning AEST

But the nearest medical centre was flattened and the next three were already overwhelmed by patients.

He was finally able to get help after presenting to a fifth facility, then drove two hours north where he was admitted to a hospital in Tripoli.

Mr Jheir suffered serious abrasions to his face and body, as well as a broken arm.

His three businesses on Gemmayze Street were completely destroyed.

His yoga instructor wife Hala Okeili was lucky to avoid the worst of the blast.

'I was reaching home when [the port exploded]. I was lucky to be two minutes away,' Ms Okeili said.

'In five minutes, I lost my home and everything in it, I almost lost my husband. Thank God he survived the... massive destruction,' she wrote.

A drone captures the devastation wrought by the explosion, including a watery crater (bottom left) where the warehouse containing the explosive chemicals previously stood

People run in the aftermath of the massive explosion on August 4 after a warehouse containing ammonium nitrate caught fire

'The yoga studio is extremely damaged, my cat who means the world to me is missing.

'The entire street we live in is down to ashes... many have died... our lives as we know it are gone. What more is left!?'

In a tearful video online she added: 'Thank God we're alive. Thank God my husband is alive. Thank God the helper that works with us is alive.

'Our house is gone. The studio destroyed. But we're alive. It's really tough times, so thank you for all your solidarity. God be with those who lost their lives. God be with their parents.'

The pair had only returned to Lebanon a month ago after a dream wedding in Sydney.

Photos from the day show the happy couple smiling as they shared the moment with friends in front of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

An injured man covered in blood is seen in Beirut following the explosion on Tuesday

Ammonium nitrate - the terrorist's bomb ingredient Ammonium nitrate - identified as the cause of the deadly explosion in Beirut - is an odourless crystalline substance used as a fertilizer that has been behind many industrial explosions and terrorist attacks over the decades. Two tonnes of it was used to create the bomb in the 1995 Oklahoma City attack that destroyed a federal building, leaving 168 people dead, and it has been widely used by the Taliban in improvised devices. Experts say a fire in Beirut started after a spark from a welder likely ignited the highly reactive chemical, causing a blast the equivalent to three million kilotons of TNT, killing at least 100 people and leaving thousands more injured. There were 2,750 tonnes of the hazardous chemical held in the warehouse at the time of the explosion - which measured as the equivalent of a 3.5 earthquake. Death and injury from the explosion would have come in a number of phases, according to Dr David Caldicott from the Australian National University. 'Primary injuries are blast-related, as a consequence of the overpressure wave interacting with the hollow space in victims; lung injuries are often survived, but subsequently fatal, and bowel injuries are common. 'Secondary injuries are caused by flying debris; effectively environmental shrapnel. 'Tertiary injuries are as a consequence of being thrown by the blast, and quaternary injuries by other features such as inhalation.' When combined with fuel oils, ammonium nitrate creates a potent explosive widely used in the construction industry, but also by insurgent groups to create bombs. As well as the Oklahoma City bomb in the US, it has been used in a number of IRA attacks on the UK. These include the Bishopsgate attack in April 1993 that left 40 injured and a 40ft wide crater, and a 3,300lb bomb in Manchester in June 1996 that left 2000 injured but no deaths due to a phone warning an hour before the blast. In agriculture, ammonium nitrate fertiliser is applied in granule form and quickly dissolves under moisture, allowing nitrogen to be released into the soil. However, under normal storage conditions and without very high heat, it is difficult to ignite ammonium nitrate, Jimmie Oxley, a chemistry professor at the University of Rhode Island, said. 'If you look at the video (of the Beirut explosion), you saw the black smoke, you saw the red smoke - that was an incomplete reaction,' she said. 'I am assuming that there was a small explosion that instigated the reaction of the ammonium nitrate - whether that small explosion was an accident or something on purpose I haven't heard yet.' That's because ammonium nitrate is an oxidiser - it intensifies combustion and allows other substances to ignite more readily, but is not itself very combustible. For these reasons, there are generally very strict rules about where it can be stored: for example, it must be kept away from fuels and sources of heat. In fact, many countries in the European Union require that calcium carbonate to be added to ammonium nitrate to create calcium ammonium nitrate, which is safer. In the United States, regulations were tightened significantly after the Oklahoma City attack, with inspections required if more than 2,000lbs of it are stored in one place. Advertisement

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the Australian embassy in the Lebanese capital had been 'significantly impacted' but staff escaped without major injuries.

'It's my deep regret to inform you that one Australian has been killed in this horrific blast,' he told Nine Network.

Mr Morrison said there were usually about 20,000 Australians in the Lebanese capital but he was unsure how many had returned to Australia because of the coronavirus pandemic.

'Our hearts really go out to our Lebanese Australian community,' the prime minister said.

'I know there will be many prayers in the churches and the mosques in Australia but given the COVID restrictions, I would just urge the appropriate response.'

Australia has already dedicated $2 million in humanitarian support to Lebanon to help with the recovery.

The funding will consist of $1 million each to trusted aid partners, the World Food Program and the Red Cross movement, to help ensure food, medical care and essential items were provided to those affected by the tragedy.

'Australia and Lebanon have a strong relationship built on extensive community ties, with more than 230,000 Australians having Lebanese heritage. This tragedy will affect many people in both countries,' Foreign Minister Marise Payne said.

Australians who need consular assistance after the Beirut explosion can call (+61) 2 6261 3305 (outside Australia) or 1300 555 135 (inside Australia).
A centralized power grid has become more expensive as days pass. Government agencies around the world find it challenging to install power stations in rural areas. This situation is the main reason why electricity is still a privilege and not a service that everyone enjoys today.

Things can change if a company from Singapore succeeds in its project to start a solar energy trading platform. Many are looking forward to this ground-breaking vision. It will give a more affordable source of electricity for many communities.

Sell excess solar energy

According to Singaporean energy firm Electrify, they are working on a project called Synergy. The project highlights a peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading platform. It will allow owners of solar panels to trade or sell extra energy.

Many consumers and business people see this innovation as a good deal. Solar panel owners will decide on the rate. However, the company will assure that they are still fair and reasonable. Sellers should also comply with the standards set by the national grid of Singapore.

The platform also has advanced features. It includes a smart meter, which monitors real-time energy generation and usage. Traders can easily find their potential clients through the system according to their preferred rates.

Solar energy to energize the world

Singapore wants to light up 350,000 homes by 2030. The trading platform is one of the significant steps welcomed. It can spark a change for businesses to appreciate renewable sources of power.

In a statement, the National University of Singapore's Solar Energy Research Institute Head Tan Congyi said that this could lure many developers to go solar. If this happens, many can see the advantages of this energy source.

Moreover, Electrify Chief Executive Officer Martin Lim emphasized that Synergy is a development for all. It can also be the answer to some problems regarding renewable sources of energy.

"If you live on the sixth floor of an apartment HDB, you can't get solar power... then you forget about it, you move on. But now you don't have to forget about it because now it enters into the vernacular, enters into the conversation," the CEO said.

Likewise, the move to switch to solar is part of the progress of the energy field. The selling of electricity will be for everyone and not just for business people.

"This is significant, as it underscores the important role that solar energy will play in Singapore's long-term energy plans," Lim added.

Read more: Engineers Have Just Invented a Type of Hydrogel Material that Can Turn Overheating Gadgets' Heat into Electricity





The project is a partnership between Electrify, Seneko Energy, and ENGIE Factory. The project started its one-year pilot run as of writing. They will move forward with their next step if the first phase becomes successful.

Electrify aims to supply energy for more households and businesses until they meet their target number. They also hope to bring this technological advancement to various parts of the world.
The Centre may allow Aadhaar authentication for delivery of the social welfare benefits by government entities to ensure good governance and for prevention of dissipation of welfare benefits to the people, a government order has said.

Till now, the government has allowed seeding of Aadhaar number for delivery of social welfare benefits under some programmes such as Public Distribution System. However, for delivery of the benefit such as food grains under the public distribution system or money under pension schemes, Aadhaar authentication was not needed.

This could, however, change with the new rules called the Aadhaar Authentication for Good Governance (Social Welfare, Innovation, Knowledge) Rules, 2020.

The Central government may allow Aadhaar authentication by requesting entities in the interest of good governance, preventing leakage of public funds, promoting ease of living of residents and enabling better access to services for them, the rules notified by the ministry of electronics and information technology on Wednesday said.

To be sure, the rules are in consonance with the 2016 Supreme Court judgment that struck down section 57 of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016, which did not allow private entities to use Aadhaar database for authentication.

Social welfare activists, however, said the move could lead to further exclusion of the poor people from getting benefits under the various social welfare schemes without putting any check on corruption and leakages from these schemes.

There is already so much evidence to show that Aadhaar has led to exclusion of poor people in disbursement of subsidised ration in Jharkhand, Odisha and Bihar. The decision could lead to further exclusion as in rural areas there is very poor connectivity and biometrics of many people dont work, said Reetika Ghera, a development economist working at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

Abdul Lateef Jamil Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) study done in 10 districts of Jharkhand by economist Karthik Muralidharan in 2019 had found that the Aadhaar seeding in the PDS had lead to many genuine persons getting excluded from the PDS scheme without very little benefit of plugging food grains leakages.

About six percent of total ration cards in these 10 districts were cancelled between 2016 and 2018, as they could not be linked to Aadhaar. However, after a lot of hue and cry by activists, physical verification of ration card holders was done and many ration cards were restored. About 88% of the cancelled ration cards were real and qualified to receive ration, the study had found.

According to the new rules, the Central government could allow requesting government entities --- Central and state government departments --- to carry out Aadhaar authentication.

For availing authentication services, individual departments will have to seek approval of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which is the statutory body to manage Aadhaar and runs Aadhaar-based services.

A Central government official privy to the development said that the purpose of the order is to ensure that genuine beneficiaries get benefits of the government schemes in real-time without any delay. Authentication will also help in plugging the leakages, if any, in the schemes. The rules provide government agencies a framework to seek UIDAIs authentication services, the official said.

The rules say authentication will be allowed for three purposes --- to ensure good governance, prevention of dissipation of social welfare benefits and enablement of innovation and spread of knowledge. However, innovation and knowledge has not been defined in the rules.

The rules say Aadhaar authentication will be voluntary.

If the department says that people will not get the welfare services without authentication, voluntary becomes mandatory, said development economist Jean Dreze, who has been arguing against making Aadhaar mandatory to avail social welfare schemes.

Under the authentication mechanism, the UIDAI from its database verifies whether the Aadhaar number or biometric details given are of a particular person or not. The UIDAI server replies only in Yes or No without providing any demographic details of the person, whose identity is being verified. Through the Aadhaar seeding system, the verification is done through the departments database, not Aadhaar.

According to Aadhaar Act, a requesting entity means an agency or person that submits the Aadhaar number, and demographic information or biometric information, of an individual to the Central Identities Data Repository for authentication.

The new rule makes it clear that only the government agencies would be allowed to use Aadhaar authentication services, not any private entity. This is in line with the 2016 Supreme Court judgment that upheld the Aadhaar law but struck down section 57 which allowed private entities to use Aadhaar database for authentication.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Chetan Chauhan Chetan Chauhan heads regional editions as Deputy National Affairs Editor. A journalist for over 20 years, he has written extensively on social sector with special focus on environment and political economy. ...view detail
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COVID-19 Will Doom Public Education

Unless parents and the community stand up and fight what is going on in Education, I am afraid the Public education system is doomed for increased failure. Between the Politicians and the Teacher Unions I am afraid it is only going to get worse.



Let me start by saying as a life- long teacher and School Administrator I have the greatest respect for the teachers in the profession. Over the years I have worked with staffs for the most part were excellent and dedicated professionals. All teachers are like any profession there are superior ones, good and unfortunately bad ones.



However their Unions are another story. Again in full disclosure I have been involved in unions as both a teacher and an administrator. Let us take on the first myth of unions. Teacher Unions are not there for the kids they are by definition there to support all teachers and get the best benefits and salary for them as possible as well as protecting their jobs. This is not unusual as it is the purpose for all unions and their membership. Enter COVID 19. Teacher unions around the nation are clamoring for smaller class sizes and distance learning for indefinite periods. Teacher demands since the very beginning have always fought to reduce class size and teacher class load. COVID 19 may give them a vehicle to do so.



Many Districts are closing down for at least the fall semester. Some using Distance learning and others a combination of distance learning and maybe in class instruction for a week every 2 to 3 weeks. While this may work for the accelerated student and the above average motivated ones, the rest will not fully comply or comply at all and fall further and further behind. All this program will do is to further exacerbate the divide or differences between students. Most average or below average students will pay token attention to on line classes and be even further behind when they actually do get to class. Generally tests scores will decline and the gap between reporting groups will grow wider. The gap between Minorities and Majority will expand.



Add to the mix the rural counties where there may be spotty internet if any at all. Poorer kids may not have computers to do the classwork at home or the computers may be so old they are not suitable for this use. I know Districts are responding they could use either one at the Library or maybe one at a neighbors or relatives house. Again not it is not realistic and will further add to the disparity of results.



Add to that the trend that has been developing for decades where we stopped teaching History and Classics. We stopped teaching the Constitution and what it really means. We stopped teaching Critical Thinking. We have replaced it with a group think.



By using COVID 19 the way it is being used we have weaponized/ politicalized Education. We need to take several steps if we are going to regain control of our schools and put COVID 19 in its proper prospective. First we must stop the panic over COVID19. Yes one life lost is a tragedy. However with a recovery rate at 98% in North Carolina it is far from a pandemic. Schools need to re-open on time. Teachers need to teach in front of students not over the internet. Our Governor needs to look at his own figures and stop using this as a tool to effect the Election in November. Kids not in school, Parents worried how to supervise them while they work. Or they cannot work because of it. Again with a 98% recover rate in North Carolina.



After we get schools open we need to elect Politicians and School Board members that will revise and replace a progressive curriculum. Exactly what needs to be changed is another column. Stay tuned..............


Thursday, August 6, 2020 at 8:16AM

Samsung and Microsoft launched their partnership at last year's Galaxy Unpacked event. The goal was to allow Android and Windows to work better together. And this partnership is being explored with the new Galaxy Note 20 series. One way is allowing the Galaxy Note 20 apps to work on Windows 10 PC. Right now, it can only run one app at a time. But Microsoft claims that it'll be possible to run multiple apps at once, as you see in the GIF below, sometime in November. It will also be possible to pin apps to your Start menu or Windows taskbar for quicker access.

It's also easier to sync information between the Galaxy Note 20 series and Microsoft 365 suite of apps. Notes you've made on your Samsung Notes app will soon sync with your OneNote app and OneNote feed in Outlook on the web. Samsung Reminders will also sync with Microsoft To Do, Outlook, and Teams apps.

Samsung Galaxy Note 20 users also get access to a new Xbox Game Pass app exclusively available through the Samsung Galaxy Store. It will allow Xbox players to redeem tokens and make in-app purchases (like buying skins and DLC items) in the Xbox store. The Xbox Game Pass app available on the Google Play Store doesn't allow for this type of in-app purchases, suggesting Microsoft and Samsung struck an exclusive deal to make this happen. It also undercuts the 30% Google asks for when it comes to in-app purchases.

This deal comes while Google is reportedly trying to convince Samsung to promote the Play Store over its alternative.

For those who pre-order the new phones, Samsung is also offering an Xbox Game Pass bundle for free.

Source: The Verge 1 + 2
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This was the moment of pure joy the mother of tragic Charlie Gard could scarcely believe.

She locked her eyes on Charlies miracle baby brother for the first time as, following a successful caesarean, he was handed to her wrapped in a towel.

Connie Yates said she felt a surge of pure love as the newborn snuggled in her arms.

She and proud father Chris Gard wept with joy as they said he was the spitting image of Charlie.

Connie Yates shared a precious moment with her newborn baby boy, just over three years since tragic Charlie died from mitochondrial depletion syndrome

He arrived on Wednesday night  only a day after the fourth anniversary of the birth of Charlie, who died of a rare genetic condition three years ago, shortly before his first birthday.

Last night Mr Gard said: We are extremely tired but do not want to sleep as we just want to look at him the whole time. Hes absolutely gorgeous and has passed every medical examination hes been given.

Miss Yates has been crying with happiness since their second child, not yet named, was born weighing 8lb 6oz.

Yesterday Mr Gard, 36, told the Daily Mail: The world feels a whole lot more beautiful this morning.

'Weve had about an hours sleep between us, but we just cant stop looking at him. Connie was amazing, as always.

Care worker Miss Yates, 34, of Bedfont, south-west London, said: 'Its scary looking back at photos of Charlie and looking at our new baby... spitting image. Pictured left is baby Gard, and right is Charlie Gard at one day old

Care worker Miss Yates, 34, of Bedfont, south-west London, said: He looks so similar to Charlie at the same age  its quite uncanny.

'Its scary looking back at photos of Charlie and looking at our new baby... spitting image.

Charlie was born on August 4, 2016. He battled a rare genetic condition while his parents fought the medical system in the courts for permission to take him to the US for pioneering treatment.

They were blocked by hospital chiefs but their cause attracted support from millions around the world, including the Pope and President Donald Trump.

The courts stood in their way and on July 28, 2017, Charlie succumbed to mitochondrial depletion syndrome, which saps energy from the organs.

Charlie (pictured) was born in 2016. Despite desperate lobbying from his parents, he died from mitochondrial depletion syndrome in July 2017, just shy of his first birthday

Throughout the hearings at the High Court, Appeal Court and Supreme Court, Charlies father clutched his sons favourite soft toy, a cuddly monkey.

Yesterday they placed a baby version of the monkey next to their new son in a poignant reminder of his older sibling.

Baby Gard stood a one-in-four chance of being born with the same devastating illness as Charlie. But he was tested in the womb and declared free of the syndrome.

More tests followed after his birth at Queen Charlottes and Chelsea Hospital.

So happy: Connie and Chris with their son. Mr Gard said: 'It was a truly magical and extremely emotional moment. Now we have genuine smiles on our faces.

Mr Gard, a postman, said: They have been amazing from start to finish. They knew the history and have done everything possible for us  and now, here we are, with the baby we have craved in our arms.

He is a perfectly healthy boy  weve now been told this on numerous occasions. It is just music to our ears, because we went through such hell last time.

It is one of lifes true miracles, watching your child being born, and this was no different for us.

'It was a truly magical and extremely emotional moment. Now we have genuine smiles on our faces.

The couple raised 1.3million to help Charlie, which they have now given to the Charlie Gard Foundation, which was set up to help other families in similar situations.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 23:46:00|Editor: huaxia

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KUWAIT CITY, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Kuwait on Thursday reported 620 new COVID-19 cases and one more death, raising the tally of infections to 70,045 and the death toll to 469, the Health Ministry said in a statement.

Currently, 7,966 patients are receiving treatment, including 127 in ICU, the statement added.

The ministry also announced the recovery of 704 more patients, raising the total recoveries in the country to 61,610.

On July 28, Kuwait started the third-phase plan of restoring normal life.

During the third phase, labor capacity will increase to no more than 50 percent and visits to social care homes will be allowed.

Kuwait and China have been supporting each other and cooperating closely in combating the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kuwait donated medical supplies worth 3 million U.S. dollars to China at the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak.

On April 27, a team of Chinese medical experts visited Kuwait to assist the Gulf country's anti-coronavirus fight, through sharing their experience and expertise in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19. Enditem
Credit unions have an opportunity to position themselves as trusted financial partners of the immigrant community. Last month, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in favor of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. This immigration program was created through an executive order from President Obama in June 2012. For the last eight years, the DACA program has helped many immigrants fulfill dreams and achieve success in this country, by providing deportation relief and work authorization. Credit unions were at the forefront of providing financial services to the first DACA beneficiaries. We witnessed credit unions create Dreamer Loans to help individuals pay for their legal and immigrant fees. Now that DACA has been given new life, will credit unions rise to the challenge once again to help with the obstacles young immigrants face?

DACA recipients are aware of the vulnerability of the program because it is not a law. The September 2017 decision by the Trump Administration to rescind the DACA program left many young immigrants in a challenging position. After a three-year legal battle between federal courts and the administration, the case was ultimately heard by the Supreme Court. The administration has decided to continue accepting DACA renewals while limiting the term from two years to one. It was also decided that they will not be accepting first-time applications and most advance parole applications. This contradicts the Supreme Courts ruling and immigrant advocates are planning to challenge their decision.

Terminating the program would negatively impact immigrant families, our healthcare system, essential workers, and the economy as a whole. The Center for American Progress estimated that more than 1.1. million undocumented immigrants met the basic DACA requirements. Roughly 825,000 immigrants have been granted DACA at some point during these eight years, leaving approximately 300,000 young immigrants who would qualify to apply for the first time.

Credit unions play a very important role in the lives of immigrants. From opening accounts and providing services to those who have Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITIN) and alternative forms of identification.

If the administration moves to accept first-time applications, about 300,000 young immigrants will need assistance to pay for their legal and immigration fees. These individuals do not have social security numbers. Here are some steps to take to assist them:

Ensure your policies are welcoming of individuals with ITINs. A member may be considered an unauthorized immigrant today, but may obtain a legal status later.

Repackage a personal loan as an immigration loan. This will help your credit union with marketing and awareness among an immigrant population.

Partner with non-profit and legal service providers to support their efforts to help young immigrants complete their first-time and renewal DACA applications.

Expand your scholarships to include both undocumented and DACA recipient students, as they cannot access federal aid to pay for higher education.

Credit unions helped DACA recipients back in 2012. Since then, they have built long, lasting relationships and many have even financed their first mortgages with the same credit unions that lent them money for that first-time DACA application. Here is an opportunity to help young immigrants again. Is your credit union ready?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is again warning people not to drink hand sanitizer after four people died from methanol poisoning.

From May 1 through June 30, 2020, 15 cases of methanol poisoning were reported in Arizona and New Mexico, associated with swallowing alcohol-based hand sanitizers. Four patients died, and three were discharged with visual impairment, the CDC reported.

The CDC said the people who became sick had alcohol use disorder and were diagnosed with methanol poisoning associated with the ingestion of alcohol-based hand sanitizers.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been warning consumers since mid-June about hand sanitizers that have been found to contain methanol, also known as wood alcohol, which is toxic when ingested.

The FDA maintains an ever-growing do-not-use list of brands of hand sanitizer that should be avoided. The FDA also has established import alerts on the products. Most - but not all - are made in Mexico. The FDA also has added to the list products that are subpotent and that contain microbial contamination in addition to either testing positive for methanol or being made in the same facility as another brand that was found to contain methanol.

The FDA yesterday added these brands to the list:

Quimica Magna de Mexico SA de CV (Mexico)

Bernal Hand Sanitizer, subpotent

Datsen Hand Sanitizer, subpotent

Soluciones Cosmeticas SA de CV

Purity Advanced Hand Sanitizer

Spartan Chemical Co. Inc. (Ohio)

Lite n Foamy Lemon Blossom Hand Sanitizer, contains microbial contamination

Alcohol-based hand sanitizers should only contain ethanol or isopropanol, but some products imported into the United States have been found to contain methanol, the CDC said.

The issue has moved to the forefront during the coronavirus pandemic because of the proliferation of manufacturers of hand sanitizer.

Health officials have been and still are encouraging people to wash their hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds to prevent the spread of the disease. In the absence of soap and water, hand sanitizer can be used. Thus, the hand sanitizer business exploded as demand surged.

In the early weeks of the pandemic, hand sanitizer became hard to find. And, cases of price gouging were mounting.

FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hain has previously said, Unfortunately, there are some companies taking advantage of the increased usage of hand sanitizer during the coronavirus pandemic and putting lives at risk by selling products with dangerous and unacceptable ingredients. Consumers and health care providers should not use methanol-containing hand sanitizers.

The CDC said, Swallowing alcohol-based hand sanitizer products containing methanol can cause life-threatening methanol poisoning. Young children might unintentionally swallow these products, whereas adolescents or adults with history of alcohol use disorder might intentionally swallow these products as an alcohol (ethanol) substitute.

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ATLANTA - Democrats are asking a federal judge to order Georgia election officials to take steps to prevent long lines at the polls on Election Day.

A lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court in Atlanta alleges that the causes of long lines that have forced Georgians to wait hours to vote during multiple elections, including the June primary, are directly traceable to election officials. The lawsuit seeks to remedy the fundamentally unreasonable conditions that have led, repeatedly, to unconstitutional burdens on countless Georgia voters.

The lawsuit was filed by the Democratic Party of Georgia, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and three Georgia voters against Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, whos the top elections official in the state, and other state and county election officials.

Raffenspergers office did not immediately have a comment on the lawsuit Thursday.

At the end of the day, what matters to us is that voters are not negatively impacted at any level of the electoral process, state Sen. Nikema Williams, chair of the state Democratic Party, told reporters Thursday.

The long lines are caused by the closure and consolidation of polling places, a failure to provide adequate equipment, insufficient training of election officials and volunteers, a shortage of technicians to address technical problems, insufficient time to set up polling locations and a lack of emergency paper ballot backups when equipment fails, the lawsuit says.

It asks a judge to declare that these problems violate voters constitutional rights and to order election officials to provide enough polling places and other election resources to prevent long lines on Election Day.
Regular nosebleeds, three bouts with cancer and blinding cataracts.

Its been 75 years since the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima  marking the end of World War II and the dawn of the nuclear age  but survivors like Masaaki Takano still live with the consequences.

I'm mentally trying hard to pretend Im OK, Takano, 82, told NBC News by telephone from Japan in Japanese.

For decades Takano quietly lived with his ailments. He was not recognized as a hibakusha  a survivor of the bombing  because he was not within the immediate radius of the blast that killed an estimated 140,000 people, vaporizing them instantly or poisoning them slowly.

Image: A correspondent stands in the rubble in Hiroshima on Sept. 8, 1945, a month after the first atomic bomb ever used in warfare was dropped by the U.S. (Stanley Troutman / AP)

But last week, a Japanese court finally acknowledged that he and 83 other plaintiffs had been exposed to dangerous radiation from black rain  the nuclear fallout that poured from the skies in the aftermath of the explosion.

We are doing this because we want to deliver the truth, Takano said of the suit filed in 2015. Its too late to stand up after everyone dies.

Although the case has renewed public consciousness of the bombing, and the technology that made it, some worry that the world hasnt heeded the dangers of nuclear weapons. And today, the awesome and terrifying destructive power unleashed by Little Boy, as the Hiroshima bomb was known, still haunts the world in the form of vast stockpiles of nuclear weapons.

And as the aging Hibakusha die, many fear their stories will fade from the worlds memory.

Bigger than lightning

Takano was at school about 12 miles from the bomb's hypocenter, or detonation point, on Aug 6, 1945. He still recalls seeing a flash bigger than lightning and hearing a massive explosion  bang!

He was sent home while debris fell from the sky. Seven years old, Takano said he tried to catch some of the objects as they showered down.

In the following days, he had a high fever and diarrhea. Although he recovered, Takano later endured many illnesses because of the exposure to radiation. He also lost his mother to cancer 19 years after the bomb dropped.

Story continues

Image: The mushroom cloud about one hour after the nuclear bomb was detonated above Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. (U.S. Army via AP)

For those closer to the hypocenter, the damage came faster.

Tetsushi Yonezawa, who turns 86 on Sunday, was traveling on a busy train just 820 yards from the bomb.

Once on the military truck that rescued him and his mother, he recalls seeing people with broken bones protruding from their flesh and blood flowing from their ears.

One elderly woman held an eyeball with her hand to avoid it falling out completely.

The effects lingered.

I think the next day the war ended, Yonezawa said. When I woke up, I saw my pillow had turned black. Looking carefully, I noticed that it was covered with my hair. I was so surprised, I touched my hair and it fell onto the sheets. I ran to my mother and she had also lost her hair. Both of us lost all our hair on the same day.

His mothers symptoms worsened  including bleeding gums and purple spots all over her skin. She was dead less than a month later, Yonezawa said.

Survivors of the explosion of the Atom bomb at Hiroshima 1945 suffering the effects of radiation. ICRC photograph. (Universal History Archive via Getty Images)

I think that the sad thing is that that legacy has died somewhat, said Dan Smith, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. There are now a number of developments happening in the nuclear arms field, which are seeming to receive no public attention whatsoever.

There are an estimated 13,400 nuclear weapons in existence globally, according to the institute. The vast majority of them belong to the United States and Russia, with more than 6,000 weapons each.

Although it's far fewer than the peak of about 65,000 weapons in the 1980s  a product of the Cold War  warheads today are far more powerful.

An exchange of fewer than 1,000 nuclear weapons could kill as many as 100 million people in a matter of hours, said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the nonpartisan Arms Control Association, based in Washington.

A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought, he said. It's in everyone's interest to reduce the risk of this ever happening.

Image: Hiroshima Prepares For the 75th Anniversary of Atomic Bomb (Carl Court / Getty Images)

Yet global tensions are at their highest since the end of the Cold War, Kimball said. Recent years have seen mounting threats among the U.S., Russia, North Korea and China. One nonproliferation treaty between the U.S. and Russia is also set to expire in February.

Even countries with smaller arsenals, such as India and Pakistan, with fewer than 200 warheads each, have increasingly been at odds, Kimball said.

There needs to be a combination of leadership and creativity to head off additional competition and arms racing, he said.

Download the NBC News app for breaking news and politics

Yet, the U.S. has committed more than $1.7 trillion in the coming years to upgrading its arsenal, and Russia has similar plans, experts say.

The argument for the investment is less about the practical defense the weapons offer and more about technological developments and support for the economy, said Robert Jacobs, a history professor at the Hiroshima Peace Institute.

These are militarily useless weapons, Jacobs said. The risks of starting down that path are uncontrollable.

Amid the global economic challenges sparked by the coronavirus pandemic, experts say that now may be the moment to question whether governments should be funding military technologies designed for crises of a previous generation.

No matter how much money we spend to harden our infrastructure against a terrorist threat, that does nothing to defend us against a tiny invisible virus, Kimball said. I think this is the time to seriously rethink the role of nuclear weapons.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, finding childcare in the Charlottesville area was a challenge.

Now, childcare openings are almost nonexistent, said Tori Maxey, the provider network coordinator with Piedmont Virginia Community Colleges Network2Work program, which helps people find jobs by connecting them with employers and training.

Maxey works with community agencies to support students in the program and overcome hurdles such as transportation and childcare  the latter of which is one of the biggest barriers for getting people back to work.

Network2Work is always willing to help absorb the cost by job seekers, but at this point, we just need help with who has openings, she said. Who is safe and clean enough for our job seekers to go to work and not worry about their children?

Stretched thin by capacity constraints and other COVID-19 precautions, child care providers in the Charlottesville area are struggling to meet demand for their services as area businesses start to reopen. Further gaps in services as schools reopen online will most likely have to be filled by community groups and other partnerships.

Our students never stopped during COVID, Maxey said. Theyve worked so hard, have received their credential, and theyve gotten hired. We dont want to stop that motivation. We want to be able to keep going. We dont want to just throw another wrench into it. Im really anxious to see the outcome of this

To assist with the child care challenge, the Brooks Family YMCA announced over the weekend that it will open a virtual learning center for the school year for kindergarten through fifth-graders. Registration for some grade levels filled up on the first day, but the Y asked families to sign up for the waitlist so staffers can gauge need.

On Wednesday, the YMCA said in a news release it was hiring certified, lead and assistant teachers to support and supervise children at the center. Walk-in interviews will be conducted 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Aug. 11 and 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 12 outside the Brooks Family YMCA.

In the same release, YMCA officials said they are currently in talks with community partners about opening one or more additional sites to expand enrollment and adjusting the fee structure to make the program more affordable. Another announcement is expected within the next week.

Child care providers have been reeling since the pandemic began in March. Many have closed, though they were not required to shut down, while others have adapted and implemented new policies. As parents started to be called back into work, students have started to return. However, with the capacity restrictions because of social distancing, they cant accept more students beyond those who were previously enrolled.

Barbara Hutchinson, vice president of community impact for the United Way of Greater Charlottesville, said the organization is receiving three to five phone calls a day from families looking for childcare. For the most part, though, there are no open spaces to which to direct them. The need is greater now compared to other years.

With childcare providers already at capacity, it means they wont be able to pivot to help the school systems, Hutchinson said.

Social distancing is having a dramatic impact, Hutchinson said. ... Childcare centers and home daycares are struggling to survive.

United Ways efforts are currently focused on those who provide care for children from birth to 5 years old. The nonprofit is working with its Early Education Task Force and other groups to boost the number of childcare slots in the area and support those currently providing care.

ReadyKids and United Way partnered to host a weekly Zoom call where the different providers could talk to one another and share tips as well as hear from medical professionals and other experts to help them adjust to the new normal.

Theyre figuring out how to get lunch prepared and served in the classroom and how to keep children engaged and playing apart, Hutchinson said.

Under the states reopening guidelines, childcare centers are limited to groups of 12 for children under 4 years old. For children 4 to 13 years old, groups are limited to 22, including staff.

Groups of children can share the same space as long as they can maintain six feet of distance between one another. Childcare centers also have had to step up their cleaning and disinfection protocols.

The group limits and new cleaning means more expenses and less revenue for providers, as well as less space for families coming back. Additionally, Hutchinson said United Way is having problems helping providers find sanitization supplies.

Its just a difficult situation and becoming more of a crisis for this industry, Hutchinson said.  ... Difficulty for providers in turns creates more difficulties for parents.

Emily Griffey, policy director for advocacy group Voices for Virginias Children said preschool and Head Start programming seems to be one of the last decisions school divisions are making as they reopen.

What were seeing in the other localities, where schools are just closed, is that its childcare thats open, and so thats where families are looking right now to make up the difference, she said.

About one-third of providers in the state who responded in a recent survey said they expect to close within the six months if they dont receive additional public support. Advocacy groups are seeking an additional $50 billion for childcare in the next stimulus bill, up for $3.5 billion that was appropriated in March.

Childcare is education and schools are childcare, Griffey said. We have to be looking at this continuum of support for families and what our society is providing to be able to support kids and families across the board as public goods.

What public preschool will look in the coming year is not clear but the programs through Charlottesville, Albemarle County and Head Start are actively recruiting students.

Carol Fox, coordinator of the countys Bright Stars program, said registration is ongoing and encouraged families to apply. The public preschool programs, including Head Start, use a common application.

Once a family submits the application and the required accompanying documentation, it is reviewed to determine eligibility in the programs the family has applied to. If eligible, and space permits, an offer is made to the family.

For more information, contact Fox at cfox@albemarle.org or (434) 484-0940.

The Charlottesville school division working with other community partners to tackle the issue. Charlottesville City Schools will provide more information Thursday during the School Board meeting, which starts at 5 p.m.

Phil Giaramita, spokesman for the Albemarle County school division, said the school system is likely to offer childcare for teachers and essential classified staff during the school day for children 4 to 12 years old.

The division plans to survey employees who might need childcare. To staff the program, the division is reaching out to staff members in the Extended Day Enrichment Program and Special Education to see if they would be interested.

Giaramita said the division has been talking with local providers such as the YMCA about their capacity to provide services and is looking to let parents and employees know about those opportunities offered by community organizations.

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The number of people on a Norwegian cruise ship who have tested positive for the coronavirus has now reached 53.

Following the outbreak on the MS Roald Amundsen, the ship's owner halted all cruises on Monday and Norway closed its ports to cruise ships for two weeks.

The Norwegian Institute of Public Health said that during its two journeys last month, a total of 37 crew members and 16 passengers have tested positive. The passengers all registered as living in Norway.

The Hurtigruten cruise ship MS Roald Amundsen moored in the Breivika harbour, in Tromso, northern Norway, on board which 53 people have tested positive for coronavirus

'The preliminary results now show that there are a total of 53 people with confirmed infection on these two voyages; 37 among the crew and 16 passengers,' the Norwegian Institute of Public Health said.

The cruise liner often acts like a local ferry, traveling from port to port along Norway's west coast. Some passengers disembarked along the route and authorities fear they may have spread the virus to local communities.

In the Arctic harbor of Bodoe, the crew and passengers on the cruise ship Seadream 1 all tested negative for the virus. The tests were made 'in an abundance of caution,' according to Norway-based company that owns the ship, SeaDream Yacht Club.

The ship was put in quarantine after a person from Denmark tested positive on Tuesday upon returning home. The vessel arrived in Bodoe early Wednesday.

Workers re seen cleaning the MS Roald Amundsen, operated by Norway's Hurtigruten line, after an outbreak of Covid-19 on board the ship

Norway will on Saturday reimpose a 10-day quarantine for all travellers from France, Switzerland and the Czech Republic, due to the rising number of coronavirus cases in those countries, its public health institute said on Thursday.

Norway will also reimpose quarantine for people travelling from Monaco and from certain regions in neighbouring Sweden, while lifting quarantine for other regions.

The Nordic country, which is not a member of the European Union but belongs to the passport-free Schengen travel zone, had some of the strictest travel restrictions in Europe in the early phase of the pandemic before gradually lifting them from June.

Other countries in Europe are considering what measures, if any, to impose to prevent a new wave of infections.

Norway will on Saturday reimpose a 10-day quarantine for all travellers from France, Switzerland and the Czech Republic. Above, people relax outside the Oslo Opera House amid the coronavirus pandemic

Germany announced on Thursday mandatory tests for travellers returning from high-risk regions after new coronavirus cases breached the 1,000-a-day threshold for the first time since May.

Norwegian authorities are also discussing whether to update guidelines on the wearing of face masks in crowded spaces.

Norway and other Nordic countries, unlike many other European countries, are for now not recommending people wear them in public spaces, but authorities have said they are reviewing their advice in the wake of rising cases in Europe.

The country of 5.4 million inhabitants has seen an uptick in the number of COVID-19 infections with 9,409 cases reported as of Thursday, up 12 cases from the day before. The total number of deaths was unchanged at 256.
There is no evidence linking the explosions and Hezbollah. But Western intelligence officials looking into the episode are likely to scrutinize the militant groups well-documented use of the port for smuggling rockets and other weapons, current and former U.S. officials said. Also potentially relevant is Hezbollahs long-standing interest in ammonium nitrate, which the group has previously sought to acquire for bombmaking, the officials said.
WASHINGTON -- Agents assigned to protect federal buildings in Portland, Ore., during ongoing protests will stop wearing camouflage uniforms in response to criticism that the officers look too much like troops, a top official for the Department of Homeland Security told senators.

"We are moving rapidly to replace those uniforms for those personnel," Acting Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

Related: SecDef Wants to Stop Federal Law Enforcement Agents Dressing Like US Troops

However, Cuccinelli said the agents will remain largely unidentified despite some lawmakers blasting the move, calling Homeland Security personnel a "secret police."

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said during the hearing that President Donald Trump deployed "heavily armed secret police snatching Portlanders off the streets." He said Trump did so "to create images of chaos for his own political gain -- to air in campaign ads."

Protests have roiled Portland since the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer in May. Demonstrations swelled after clashes between protesters and federal law enforcement. Protesters targeted the federal courthouse, vandalizing the area, throwing objects, and setting fires in the streets.

Police have been criticized for using aggressive tactics on protestors not engaging in violent or destructive acts, sometimes attacking journalists with tear gas and rubber bullets. Two weeks ago, an unarmed Navy veteran was beaten with a baton and doused with pepper spray.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown had demanded federal agents withdraw from Portland, calling them an "occupying force" who "refused accountability and brought violence." She announced last week that some federal agents began leaving the city.

Cuccinelli said the lack of identification on uniforms protected officers and their families from being targeted and harassed. He also said the use of unmarked vehicles is a common law enforcement tactic to "avoid unnecessary, potential attacks by lawless criminals, such as the ones assaulting our officers in Portland on a nightly basis."

"Violent extremists across the country have intentionally attacked marked police vehicles and attempted to set them on fire -- including with officers inside -- which creates significant danger for the public and our officers," Cuccinelli said.

Officers using uniforms virtually identical to the Army has raised eyebrows at the Pentagon. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said last month that he was worried federal agents could be confused with military personnel.

"There are some law enforcement that wear uniforms that make them appear military in appearance. The secretary has expressed a concern of this within the administration that we want a system where people can tell the difference," chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said last month. "I know [Esper] has expressed his concern that in some cases, law enforcement, appropriately performing law enforcement duties, were misconstrued with military personnel who would not be appropriately doing those roles."
By Express News Service

KOCHI: Amid strong protests from residents of West Kochi against the complete lockdown imposed on 28 divisions, including fort Kochi and Mattanchery, the authorities concerned are forced to continue with the restrictions as the number of Covid-19 cases is rising in the area. Raising alarming bells, 31 persons in West Kochi area tested positive for the virus on Wednesday. These, include 17 people from Fort Kochi, eight from Mattanchery and six persons from Palluruthy. Health officials said the densely populated West Kochi area requires more attention as the number of local transmission cases is also increasing by the day in the district. Of the total 120 new Covid-19 cases reported on Wednesday in Ernakulam district, 88 got infected through local transmission while the rest have arrived from other affected states.

Fort Kochi and the nearby areas are densely populated and therefore we are taking all measures to contain the spread. Three mobile sample collection units are there on-field and over 50 samples are collected on a daily basis, said a health official.

More positive cases are also being reported from Nellikuzhi near Kothamangalam area. Ten people have tested positive in Nellikuzhi. Those tested positive, include a healthcare worker. A 27-year-old Kottayam native healthcare worker and currently staying at Palarivattom, is working at a private hospital in Kochi.The health department also confirmed the Covid death of an 87-year-old Chellanam native.

A source said the woman was admitted to a private hospital and was under treatment for age-related ailments. She passed away on Tuesday night and her samples were found to be positive on Wednesday.

According to Minister V S Sunil Kumar, in the wake of the rising number of Covid cases, all necessary arrangements are made in the district to handle the Covid situation. Of the 141 First- level treatment centres (FLTC) in the district, 11 are fully functional and as the cases increase more FLTCs will readied, he said.Meanwhile, 35 recovered from the illness and were discharged from hospital. With this, 1,219 patients are undergoing treatment for Covid in various hospitals in the district.

Eight in critical conditionat Kalamassery MCH

A Fathahudeen, nodal officer for Covid at the Kalamassery Medical College Hospital (KMC), said in a release that eight patients are in critical condition at the hospital.

A 53-year-old Kunnukkara, Aluva, native is in critical condition at the KMC ICU . . A 71-year-old Kodungallur native, who had tested positive on July 27, is in serious condition.

A 70-year-old Edappally native, who was admitted following breathing difficulty is in the ICU. An 84-year-old Cherthala native is in critical condition and there is no progress in his case.

A 54-year-old Moothakunnam native, who was undergoing treatment for cancer, was shifted to the KMC is in a critical state.

A 64-year-old Palluruthy native is in critical stage and his Covid test results are also positive. A 64-year-old inmate of Karunalayam is in serious condition and a 41-year-old Muvattupuzha native is also in serious condition.

Suspected Covid death

P G Babu, a 60-year-old Elamakkara native, who had been admitted to the Kalamassery Medical College Hospital on July 29, passed away. He was undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Ernakulam and was shifted to the KMC with Covid symptoms including difficulty in breathing . According to the hospital authorities, his swabs have been sent to the Alappuzha Virology Institute to confirm whether the death occurred due to Covid.
A backbencher is under fire for using the word 'barren' while debating a childless female political rival.

Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MP Phil Donato used the word in the New South Wales lower house on Tuesday while critiquing Nationals MP Steph Cooke's views on pedestrian crossings for children.

Ms Cooke, the member for Cootamundra, had argued against the need for a supervisor for school children at a highway crossing and Mr Donato, the member for Orange, disagreed.

Steph Cooke (pictured), the member for Cootamundra, had previously argued against the implementation of a supervisor for school children at a crossing on a highway

'The amendment by the member for Cootamundra was not noble, not conscionable and barren of any consideration of children  those who are the most precious and vulnerable,' he said.

Ms Cooke believes the Member for Orange was alluding to her the fact that she does not have children when he used the word 'barren'.

She told the ABC it was time to call out 'sexist behaviour'.

'A fish rots from the head and if we can't get it right in this place then what hope have we got of getting it right in our communities,' she said.

'The member for Orange is a former police prosecutor, they know how to choose their words very carefully.'

Phil Donato (pictured) told Daily Mail Australia that the term was taken out of context

The member for Orange claimed he meant Ms Cooke's point of view was barren of consideration, rather that she was barren for having no children (pictured during the speech)

But Mr Donato told Daily Mail Australia that the term was taken out of context.

The member for Orange claimed he meant Ms Cooke's point of view was barren of consideration, rather than that she was barren for having no children.

'I maintain that that word was genuinely and appropriately used to emphasise her extreme lack or absence of care for those children, whom she allowed to continue crossing a busy highway without supervision for six months,' he said.

'Steph Cooke has taken that word, and in her own words, used it in context of her own personal situation, which I had no previous knowledge of.'

Ms Cooke was supported by her colleagues, including Minister for Women Bronnie Taylor and Deputy Premier and Nationals Leader John Barilaro.

'There is still a fundamental shift required in society in the way we respect women in their decision making when it comes to the family,' he said.
Artist's interpretation (without labels) of the calcium-rich supernova 2019ehk. Shown in orange is the calcium-rich material created in the explosion. Purple coloring represents gas shed by the star right before the explosion, which then produced bright X-ray emission when the material collided with the supernova shockwave. CREDIT A. M. Geller/Northwestern University/CTIO/SOAR/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA

Astronomers using several telescopes at NOIRLab, including the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope, have obtained critical data on a particular type of exploding star that produces copious amounts of calcium.

The calcium produced in this unique type of supernova explosion is the same calcium found in our bones and teeth and these events account for up to half of the calcium found in the Universe.

Thanks to detailed observations using the SOAR Telescope, located on Cerro Pachon in Chile, and a host of telescopes around the world and in space [1], astronomers have been able to probe the inner workings of a special type of supernova explosion. These particular explosions, from compact stars that lose copious amounts of mass late in their lives, appear to create the element calcium in their last dying gasps -- and it is dispersed by the explosion throughout galaxies like the Milky Way. SOAR is a facility of Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF's NOIRLab.

"Most massive stars create small amounts of calcium during their lifetimes, but events like SN 2019ehk appear to be responsible for producing vast quantities of calcium and in the process of exploding disperse it through interstellar space within galaxies. Ultimately this calcium makes its way into forming planetary systems," according to Regis Cartier, an astronomer at NOIRLab and a member of the research team, "...and into our bodies in the case of our Earth!"

Raffaella Margutti, senior author of the study at Northwestern University, adds that prior to this event astronomers had only indirect information on these events, called calcium-rich supernovae. "With this direct evidence, we can now confidently rule out the production of calcium-rich supernovae by the vast majority of massive stars," said Margutti.

"By observing what this star did in its final month before it reached its critical, tumultuous end, we peered into a place previously unexplored, opening new avenues of study," said Wynn Jacobson-Galan, of Northwestern University, who led the study. The results are published in the 5 August issue of The Astrophysical Journal, which included contributions from a huge collaboration of nearly 70 co-authors from over 15 countries.

The SOAR data were critical to the result. In particular, the infrared spectrum acquired with SOAR, only the second ever obtained of a calcium-rich supernova, opened a new window on the kind of elements expelled by the supernova -- elements such as helium, carbon, magnesium and calcium, all of which have a clear spectral fingerprint at infrared wavelengths. Understanding how much and what kind of elements are expelled by a supernova provides critical clues to the nature of the explosion -- what kind of star exploded and how it exploded. It also provides insights into how calcium-rich supernovae produce so much calcium. While that interesting question remains an open issue, the SOAR observations represent some of the first steps toward an answer.

"Because these events are so rare, and difficult to detect because they are faint, we don't have a lot of data on which to base our theories about what happens as these stars expel material in their death throes," said Cartier.

The explosive event occurred in the relatively nearby galaxy known as Messier 100 which is a popular target for amateur astronomers and is readily visible through small telescopes. In fact, it was amateur astronomer Joel Shepherd who first spotted the light from the exploding star while stargazing in Seattle on 28 April 2019, and soon thereafter it was designated SN 2019ehk. Messier 100 is a beautiful spiral galaxy similar to our Milky Way and is located some 55 million light-years away towards the constellation of Coma Berenices (Berenice's Hair) in the northern sky near the constellation of Ursa Major (The Great Bear) which contains the Big Dipper.

According to Jacobson-Galan, once the discovery was announced telescopes around the world and in space were pointed at the exploding star.

Augmenting optical and infrared observations like those by SOAR, X-ray observations revealed a flood of high-energy X-rays from SN 2019ehk -- the first time they were observed in a calcium-rich supernova. According to the researchers, nobody had ever thought to look at this type of explosion in X-ray light so soon after it occured.

The combination of observations by SOAR and other telescopes led to the team's conclusion that this calcium-rich supernova was a compact star that expelled an outer layer of gas as it expired. When it exploded its expelled material collided with surrounding material in its outer shell and the extremely hot temperatures produced X-rays and powered the chemical reactions that make calcium.

The SOAR Telescope's role in studying this event reflects its evolution toward preparations for the massive Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), which will be carried out at the nearby Vera C. Rubin Observatory, also sited on Cerro Pachon. As SOAR Director Jay Elias explained, "The SOAR Telescope is a flexible platform, designed to be able to respond quickly to unexpected astronomical events like this one. In recent years, SOAR has observed many such transient events discovered by large-area surveys in order to probe the nature of those events. We are continually working to increase the telescope's efficiency and agility as we prepare for the start of LSST."

"This type of science, which is critically time-dependent, is an important aspect of where astronomy is heading," said Edward Ajhar of the US National Science Foundation. "Future facilities such as the Rubin Observatory will discover thousands of transient events like this and will keep astronomers busy making many new discoveries."

Notes

[1] Post-explosion observations and spectra for this result were also collected by several facilities at NOIRLab observatories including the Bok 2.3-meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory and Las Cumbres Observatory telescopes at CTIO, as well as at the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, the Swope 1-meter telescope at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, the PlaneWave CDK-700 0.7-meter telescope at Thacher Observatory in California, Las Cumbres Observatory telescopes in South Africa (Sutherland), Australia (Siding Spring, Faulkes Telescope South) and the US (McDonald and Faulkes Telescope North), the ATLAS twin 0.5-meter telescope system in Hawai'i, the Konkoly Observatory in Hungary, the ESO New Technology Telescope, the MMT Observatory, and the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array in New Mexico. Pre-explosion data from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory were also used.

Astrochemistry



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Testing and contact tracing would allow precise isolation for populations who could carry the infection to others. But... none of this is happening.





by Vijay Prashad





Six months ago, on January 30, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, announced a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC). Ten days before this, the Chinese government had saidto great alarmthat the coronavirus could be transmitted from human to human. The contagiousness of this virus led the WHO to make the declaration, which came a month after the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention told their counterparts in the United States about the virus. On the day that the WHO declared the PHEIC, Trump gave a press conference, where he bewilderingly said, We think we have it very well under control. From January 30 onward, the Trump administrations response to the virus was incoherent and outrageously incompetent.





Trump





On July 31, the WHOs International Health Regulations (2005) Emergency Committee met and the following day asked governments to continue with and even increase their work of educating their populations to be vigilant with the basic WHO rules (to wear masks, to keep hands clean); the WHO also asked governments to continue to enhance capacity for public health surveillance, testing, and contact tracing. These recommendations when they were first issued on January 29, and since they were updated on June 5, had been immediately followed by the governments of Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, Venezuela, New Zealand, South Korea, and the Indian state of Kerala. But they were forcefully ignored by countries such as Brazil, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States.





Surprised





On July 30, the executive director of the WHOs Health Emergencies Program, Dr. Mike Ryan, told a press conference that he was certainly surprised by the slowness in general of systems to react on things like contact tracing, cluster investigation, testing, [and] being able to bring a comprehensive public health strategy to bear. The WHO, he said, spent the first months after January offering technical and operational assistance to countries that we would traditionally feel need that assistance. This was a mistake. In many countries that they assumed would handle the pandemic effectively, such as the United States of America and the United Kingdom, the entire system failed.





I think were all learning lessons; that theres been a deep underinvestment in the public health architecture, Dr. Ryan said. This is a UN official being polite; it seems that he would like to simply say that in countries like the United States, the government utterly failed the public.





There are more than 18 million active cases in the world, with more than 4.8 million of them in the United States of America. The U.S. has about 59,000 to 66,000 cases per daya catastrophically high number, especially when you compare it to Laos and Vietnam, which have almost no new cases and which have few fatalities (Laos has none; Vietnam has had six). How does one understand the total failure of the Trump administration to break the chain of the infection?





Austerity





From 2010 to 2019, the budget for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was cut by 10 percent. In February, after the PHEIC had been declared, the Trump administration proposed a funding cut to the Department of Health and Human Services of $9.5 billion, which included a 15 percent cut to the CDC ($1.2 billion) and a sharp decrease in the contribution to the Infectious Diseases Rapid Response Reserve Fund. In March, Trumps budget team defended these cuts.





Not only has the U.S. government cut the public health budgets for the CDC and other federal agencies, but it has also made sure to slice the funds for state and local public health officials. In 2009, a report by Trust for Americas Health found that there has been a shortfall of $20 billion annuallyacross state, local, and federal governmentin funding for critical U.S. public health programs. A more recent study by the Trust for Americas Health found that public health funding for local governments fell from about $1 billion after 9/11 to under $650 million in 2019. A superb Associated Press investigation found that nearly two-thirds of Americans live in counties that spend more than twice as much on policing as nonhospital health care, which includes public health.





Between 2008 and 2017, as a consequence of the austerity, state and local health departments had to lay off 55,000 peopleone in five health workers. In 2008, the Association of Schools of Public Health reported that by 2020 the nation will be facing a shortfall of more than 250,000 public health workers. Nothing was done to heed this warning.





Tests





In March, Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner was tasked with forming a committee to manage the pandemic. On the committee were cronies of Kushner, including his former college roommate, supposedly the A-team of people who get shit done; absent from the committee were leaders of key departments in the U.S. government, including Admiral Brett Giroir who had been appointed on March 12 to coordinate COVID-19 diagnostic testing (he left the position in June).





Despite the cronyism of the committee, it is said to have produced a plan that included setting up a system of national oversight and coordination to surge supplies, allocate test kits, lift regulatory and contractual roadblocks, and establish a widespread virus surveillance system. The national testing plan, it was said, would be announced by President Trump in early April. It was not.





Instead, Trump continued to brag about his administrations response, which was essentially nil. On April 27, Trump was joined at the White House by the CEOs of Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp, who both bragged that their firms would be able to handle the testing. Steve Rusckowski of Quest Diagnostics said in Trump-style, weve made tremendous progress. They were then doing 50,000 tests a day; they are currently doing about 150,000 tests a day.





The issue is not the number of test samples taken per day, but the time it takes to get the results to the person tested. In mid-July, Dr. Rajiv Shah, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, said that he is disheartened by the private sector testing system. No one expected that the lag time would go from a day or two to seven or, in some cases, 14 days, said Shah. With the seven-day lead time you basically arent testing at all, its the structural equivalent of doing zero tests. These are powerful words from the former head of USAID, whose foundation released on July 16 a National COVID-19 Testing Action Plan, which should have been developed by the U.S. government in March and put into action immediately. The Trump administration neither adopted the White House committees plan from March, nor have they adopted the Rockefellers plan; they have, in fact, announced no plan.





Three days after the Rockefeller Foundation released its plan, Trump made another one of his ludicrous statements. He went on Fox News and said, Cases are up because we have the best testing in the world and we have the most testing. There is nothing factual about either of these claims. In June, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield said that as many as 90 percent of the cases in the U.S. are being missed because of an absence of testing. There are probably, therefore, 20 million people with the disease rather than the 2.3 million confirmed cases. More testing would show higher numbers.





Testing and contact tracing would allow precise isolation for populations who could carry the infection to others. None of this is happening. When Admiral Giroir was asked in a congressional hearing on July 31 if it was possible to get tests returned within 48 to 72 hours, he replied, It is not a possible benchmark we can achieve today given the demand and supply.





The incompetence of the Trump administrationmirroring the dangerous incompetence of Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil and Narendra Modi of Indiacoming on top of a destroyed public health system and a failed private sector testing establishment has condemned millions of people in the U.S. to catch the disease and pass it on. There isthus farno prospect of breaking the chain of infection in the United States.





This article was produced by Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute.





Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor and journalist. He is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute. He is the chief editor of LeftWord Books and the director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He has written more than 20 books, including The Darker Nations and The Poorer Nations. His latest book is Washington Bullets, with an introduction by Evo Morales Ayma.
On Jan 20, the China Philharmonic Orchestra performed at the Romanian Athenaeum, an iconic landmark concert hall in the center of Romania's capital, Bucharest. This was the orchestra's last stop on their 2020 tour of eastern Europe.

Conductor Huang Yi and the China Philharmonic Orchestra perform at the Poly Theater in Beijing on Sunday. JIANG DONG/CHINA DAILY

As musicians returned to their homes in China to celebrate Lunar New Year, the orchestra planned to take a short break.

However, the coronavirus pandemic hit. The orchestra was forced to cancel or postpone their concerts and tours planned for the first half of the year.

The orchestra announced its comeback, 195 days later, with a concert at the Poly Theater on Sunday. Under the baton of conductor Huang Yi, the orchestra performed various pieces, including the classic Chinese work, Red Flag, composed by the noted musician Lyu Qiming in 1965, Hungarian composer Franz Lehar's Gold and Silver (Gold und Silber) Waltz, Op.79 and Waltz of the Flowers from the second act of The Nutcracker, a ballet composed by Tchaikovsky.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has appealed to the general public to disregard the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and their flagbearer's allegations that the ruling party is intimidating people in order to prevent them from participating in the voter registration exercise.



The General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, in a video circulating on social media, has alleged that some military officers deployed to maintain peace in the Banda constituency after a fracas which led to the death of one person are rather preventing the people in the constituency to partake in the registration exercise.



Asiedu Nketia's allegations follow several accusations by members and leadership of the NDC that the Akufo-Addo government was doing everything possible to ensure some people, particularly residents in the Volta Region, are disenfranchised.



The party's flagbearer and former President, John Dramani Mahama also shares similar sentiments.



But the NPP leadership, speaking at a press conference at Alisa Hotel in Accra, says the former President and his NDC are the ones rather inciting their grass roots against the security forces.



According to the party, the ploy by the NDC is to get their grass roots to cower the security forces from doing their legitimate work, so that they can use foul means to populate the voter register.



''The military were deployed months ago to patrol all our borders for a variety of security-related reasons. The numbers were even greater along our northern borders than the south east. There were no complaints. John Mahama is using this reckless ploy to try to motivate the NDCs grassroots, cower the security agents from doing their legitimate job so that the NDC can employ foul means to populate the register'', they stated.



Describing the NDC agenda as ''hate-for-votes'', they argued that no attempts have been made to disenfrachise residents in the Volta Region, hence revealing over 800000 Voltarians have so far registered their names and received their voters' ID card.



''Ladies and Gentlemen, Is it true that Voltarians are really being disenfranchised? The facts say NO, theyre not! As at the end of Phase 5 of the registration exercise after 30 days, 816,069 people had registered in the Volta Region alone as against the 2019 regional voters register of 999,368. Indeed, on a national average, registration in Volta Region, particularly, in Ketu South, has been among the highest in the country.



''As against the 2019 register, Greater Accra has performed the best across all regions of the country, followed by Upper West, Northern, Central, Savannah (John Mahamas own region), followed by Bono, Bono East, Western, Volta before Eastern. Where is the discrimination? Are the people of Savannah facing discrimination? What about the Northern Region? Are the Krobos and Ewes in Eastern Region, specifically the Abuakwa areas, complaining about discrimination? Have they not lived there for decades and is that not where Akufo-Addo comes from? Please, let us not allow John Mahama to fool us with his hate-for-votes agenda.''



The NPP also advised the public not to ''confuse the genuine efforts to police the borders throughout the country to mean that the NPP is against anyone. Elections in Ghana are for Ghanaians. Yet, as we speak, a number of Togolese and Nigerians have either been convicted or have their cases pending at the Keta circuit court charged with registering for a voter ID card''.

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 accused's bail application was adjourned for a week

A man accused of a burglary where a stun gun was fired at a woman allegedly caused the shutdown of a Belfast park by escaping from police, a court has been told.



It was also claimed that Marian-Cristian Filip shone a laser pen into the eyes of a PSNI officer driving a vehicle in a separate incident.

Details of further cases against the 23-year-old Romanian national emerged as he mounted a new bid to be released from custody.

Filip faces charges of aggravated burglary, grievous bodily harm with intent, threats to kill, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, possessing a prohibited weapon, having a knife with intent to commit burglary, and criminal damage.

He was allegedly among three men who broke into a property on Ashley Avenue, south Belfast on December 11 last year.

The city's Magistrates Court previously heard the intruders grabbed one of two women staying there, trailing her upstairs breaking a strap on her clothing.

She was kicked around and then tried to escape, only to be "Tasered" with a stun gun until she nearly passed out, according to police.

The two women were then tied together with a belt.

Nearly 2,000 was said to have been stolen from the property.

Filip, with an address at Agincourt Avenue in Belfast, was later arrested and charged following alleged police identification. He denies involvement in the burglary.

Defence barrister Barry McKenna argued that forensic tests carried out on the victim's ripped dress found no trace of his client's DNA.

Filip was out on bail, but returned to custody following further charges of criminal damage to an electronic monitoring tag and escaping from lawful custody in April this year.

A detective claimed on Thursday that he fled while being escorted to a PSNI vehicle for a suspected breach of bail, remaining at large for several days.

He was allegedly seen running towards Ormeau Park, where a police dog was brought in to find him.

"The park had to be closed off at all exits to ensure he was located," the detective said.

District Judge Mark Hamill heard Filip is separately accused of causing danger to road users over an incident in January.

That charge relates to "shining a laser pen in the eyes of police officers driving a vehicle".

Concerns were raised that the defendant may try to move back to Romania permanently if released again.

But Mr McKenna insisted Filip was not picked out at an identification procedure for the burglary case.

"The only evidence connecting him to those offences is alleged identification by one police officer," counsel said.

Adjourning the bail application for a week, Mr Hamill identified the risk of flight as a key issue.

The judge pointed out: "He's charged with escaping from lawful custody, and an allegation that while police were trying to apprehend him he made himself scarce."
Meeting place of the wireless community in Munich: Wireless Congress: Systems & Applications

Parallel to Electronica, Wireless Congress: Systems & Applications will start on 11 November 2020 at the ICM  International Congress Center Munich. For two days, Munich will once again be the meeting place for wireless developers and professional users.

The Future of Wireless  the motto of the panel discussion with keynote speakers at the Wireless Congress: Systems & Applications  is also the motto of the entire congress programme. Not only in the lectures in the Technology, Industrial and Compliance sessions will speakers address topics that will be of decisive importance for future wireless applications. With their know-how, all speakers will contribute to enabling participants to make better decisions in the future.

The 17th Wireless Congress: Systems & Applications is being organized by the editorial staff of Elektronik in cooperation with Messe Munchen  organizer of Electronica - and ZVEI  Zentralverband Elektrotechnik- und Elektronikindustrie e.V. It will take place on 11 and 12 November 2020 in the ICM  International Congress Center Munich, directly adjacent to the exhibition grounds. Should the Corona Pandemic in November restrict attendance at the event, the Wireless Congress 2020 will be a virtual conference that will enable participants to participate via the Internet from anywhere in the world.

Two days, 49 lectures, four keynotes

The second day of the 17th Wireless Congress on 12 November 2020 begins with a keynote session:

Joseph Barry , Vice President, Wireless Communications Business Unit, Analog Devices: A Roadmap for 5G Implementation in the Industrial Market.

, Vice President, Wireless Communications Business Unit, Analog Devices: A Roadmap for 5G Implementation in the Industrial Market. Dr. Josef Blanz , Qualcomm CDMA Technologies: 5G Goes Industry 4.0.

, Qualcomm CDMA Technologies: 5G Goes Industry 4.0. Prof. Dr. Nils Weimann, University of Duisburg-Essen: Semiconductor Components for Terahertz Electronics.

They will then talk about the future of wireless in a panel discussion  moderated by Prof. Dr. Axel Sikora, Hochschule Offenburg, Hahn-Schickard  and answer questions from the participants.

The day before, the security aspect in wireless communication will be the subject of the keynote:

Gunter Grundmann, VdS Schadenverhutung: Demands and Requirements in Fire Protection and Security Techniques for Wireless Communication.

Compliance  Europe's Radio Equipment Directive

10-11 November 2020 in Munich.www.wireless-congress.com

The Directive 2014/53/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to the making available on the market of radio equipment and repealing Directive 1999/5/EC is something that manufacturers worldwide will have to deal with if they want to sell wireless products in Europe. The directive allows the EU Commission to issue regulations to define technical requirements for certain devices.

Currently, the EU Commission is working on a regulation on wireless equipment that can be modified by software. Experts from the industry and a representative of the European Parliament will present the status of the work and what impact the regulation can have on the industry. They will then discuss with the participants and answer questions.

Expert knowledge  Tutorials

Harald Naumann, Tekmodul, and Gunther Klenner, K&K Prime Engineering, reveal antenna secrets in the two tutorials Antenna Design at the 17th Wireless Congress. They show what is important when choosing antennas and why the right antenna can be decisive for the success of a radio application.

The third tutorial IP500 of the IP500 Alliance, led by Helmut Adamski, shows the potential of a wireless network that is installed as a secure and certified communication platform in commercial buildings.

The complete program of the 17th Wireless Congress can be found on the congress website www.wireless-congress.com.

Those who register by 10 September can benefit from the early-bird discount. Members of Wireless Alliances who support the Wireless Congress will receive an additional discount code through their membership.
Nearly 10 years after the Tohoku-oki earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant and triggered an unprecedented release radioactivity into the ocean, radiation levels have fallen to safe levels in all but the waters closest to the shuttered power plant. Today, fish and other seafood caught in waters beyond all but a limited region have been found to be well within Japan's strict limits for radioactive contamination, but a new hazard exists and is growing every day in the number of storage tanks on land surrounding the power plant that hold contaminated wastewater. An article published August 8 in the journal Science takes a look at some of the many radioactive elements contained in the tanks and suggests that more needs to be done to understand the potential risks of releasing wastewater from the tanks into the ocean.

"We've watched over the past nine-plus years as the levels of radioactive cesium have declined in seawater and in marine life in the Pacific," said Ken Buesseler, a marine chemist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and author of the new paper. "But there are quite a few radioactive contaminants still in those tanks that we need to think about, some of which that were not seen in large amounts in 2011, but most importantly, they don't all act the same in the ocean."

Since 2011, Buesseler has been studying the spread of radiation from Fukushima into and across the Pacific. In June of that year, he mobilized a team of scientists to conduct the first international research cruise to study the early pathways that cesium-134 and -137, two radioactive isotopes of cesium produced in reactors, were taking as they entered the powerful Kuroshio Current off the coast of Japan. He has also built a network of citizen scientists in the U.S. and Canada who have helped monitor the arrival and movement of radioactive material on the Pacific coast of North America.

Now, he is more concerned about the more than 1,000 tanks on the grounds of the power plant filling with ground water and cooling water that have become contaminated through contact with the reactors and their containment buildings. Sophisticated cleaning processes have been able to remove many radioactive isotopes and efforts to divert groundwater flows around the reactors have greatly reduced the amount of contaminated water being collected to less than 200 metric tons per day, but some estimates see the tanks being filled in the near future, leading some Japanese officials to suggest treated water should be released into the ocean to free up space for more wastewater.

One of the radioactive isotopes that remains at the highest levels in the treated water and would be released is tritium, an isotope of hydrogen is almost impossible to remove, as it becomes part of the water molecule itself. However, tritium has a relatively short half-life, which measures the rate of decay of an isotope; is not absorbed as easily by marine life or seafloor sediments, and produces beta particles, which is not as damaging to living tissue as other forms of radiation. Isotopes that remain in the treated wastewater include carbon-14, cobalt-60, and strontium-90. These and the other isotopes that remain, which were only revealed in 2018, all take much longer to decay and have much greater affinities for seafloor sediments and marine organisms like fish, which means they could be potentially hazardous to humans and the environment for much longer and in more complex ways than tritium.

"The current focus on tritium in the wastewater holding tanks ignores the presence other radioactive isotopes in the wastewater," said Buesseler. "It's a hard problem, but it's solvable. The first step is to clean up those additional radioactive contaminants that remain in the tanks, and then make plans based on what remains. Any option that involves ocean releases would need independent groups keeping track of all of the potential contaminants in seawater, the seafloor, and marine life. The health of the ocean -- and the livelihoods of countless people -- rely on this being done right."
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There are many numbers to tell the story of what happened in Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. There are the grim tallies of suffering: an unbearable count of the dead, and a nearly uncountable reckoning of destruction. Around this, there is one humble number that quietly tells a haunting tale of the truth of the nuclear bombing.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 5/8/2020 (531 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There are many numbers to tell the story of what happened in Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. There are the grim tallies of suffering: an unbearable count of the dead, and a nearly uncountable reckoning of destruction. Around this, there is one humble number that quietly tells a haunting tale of the truth of the nuclear bombing.

That number is five. Just five. Five photographs known to have been taken in the city that day.

U.S. AIR FORCE / ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES The plume of smoke from a mushroom cloud reaches 20,000 feet after the "Little Boy" nuclear bomb was detonated above Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945.

These five images were taken by one man, Yoshito Matsuhige, a 32-year-old newspaper photographer who lived a few kilometers from the hypocentre. Injured by flying glass when the blast ripped through his house, he grabbed his camera and set out towards the inferno that raged over Hiroshima's downtown.

At a bridge near his home, Matsuhige encountered a group of survivors, mostly children. They staggered together, clothes and skin both dangling from their bodies like rags, while police officers poured cooking oil on their burns. It was the only relief many would find in the desperate hours after the bombing.

Matsuhige lifted his camera, but was so disturbed by what he saw that he struggled to push the shutter. He finally forced himself to take two photos on the bridge, before moving on: "Even today, I clearly remember how the viewfinder was clouded over with my tears," the photographer recalled in an interview many years later.

Closer to ground zero, he stepped into a charred streetcar and found a jumble of 15 corpses, stripped naked by the blast. This time, he touched his camera, but couldn't bear to take a picture; for the next three hours, Matsuhige explored Hiroshima's scorched and desecrated heart, but he did not take another photo of its horrors.

He was not alone. Of all the army or newspaper photographers in the city that day, none appears to have taken any images in those first 24 hours. Matsuhige's five photos stand as the only visual testimony to one of the most history-changing moments of the 20th century, and even they were chosen to avoid the brutality of what he saw.

EUGENE HOSHIKO / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A visitor prays in front of the cenotaph for the atomic bombing victims before the start of a ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of the U.S. bombing in Hiroshima.

So it is that the near-absence of photos tells its own story of the monstrous inhumanity that marked the violent dawn of the Atomic Age. Its horrific sights were seared into victims' eyeballs and brains, to forever haunt the memories of those who could not look away, including the photographers who put down their cameras.

In that moment, Matsuhige and others made a declaration of humanity, at the very time and place that it had been most degraded. What images persist of the hours after the bombings, they come from the testimony and drawings given by survivors, who often find in their recollections a compassion denied to the bomb's victims.

This week, as the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki approach, I thought of this again. I thought about it as videos emerged from Tuesday's devastating explosion in Beirut, videos in some cases livestreamed by people who reportedly died in the blast. We can all be made eyewitnesses now, in an instant.

And this is important, because how we understand history is so often made in a battle over public perception, and images can be weapons in the service of peace. Think of the image of Phan Thi Kim Phuc, a little girl fleeing a U.S. napalm attack on her Vietnamese village; think of the photo of Alan Kurdi, drowned in the Mediterranean Sea.

NATIONAL ARCHIVES A view of a section of Hiroshima flanking the Motoyasu River after the bombing. Except for very heavy masonry structures, the entire area was leveled.

Indeed, it took years for the whole truth of what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to become known. In 1947, as detailed reporting began to come out, the American public began to grow uncomfortable with what it was learning. In response, U.S. war secretary Henry Stimson penned a piece for Harper's magazine, defending the bombings.

Stimson's argument  that the bombings were required to end the war sooner, with fewer casualties  was quickly adopted by a majority of Americans and those in allied countries, who, quite frankly, didn't want to think too deeply about the moral culpability of the atomic bomb, about the indiscriminate horror unleashed on civilians.

That explanation shaped generations of public opinion. Even today, most believe the bombs were justified.

In fact, the sum total of historical evidence tells a far more complicated story. There's not enough space here to litigate that fully, except to say that the bombs were as much an opening salvo in the Cold War as a finale to the Second World War; how much they actually hastened the end of battle is in doubt, as are Stimson's casualty estimates.

EUGENE HOSHIKO / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Kazumi Matsui, right, mayor of Hiroshima, and the family of the deceased bow before they place the victims list of the Atomic Bomb at Hiroshima Memorial Cenotaph during the ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of the bombing at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park Thursday.

Everyone should study this evidence, and come to their own convictions. Mine are, to put it simply, that the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are among the most heinous war crimes ever committed, crimes for which no one responsible would ever pay a price. The only justice will be to ensure their horrors are never forgotten.

That isn't to say that life does not go on. Today, neither city is defined by the bomb: they are beautiful and vibrant, each nestled between mountains and the glittering blue sea. In the spring, cherry blossoms scatter over the rivers around Hiroshima's Peace Park, and people gather under the trees to sip sake and laugh into the dusk.

Everything can heal. Every hell can become a paradise, given enough time and peace to let life unfold.

So when the rest of the world thinks of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, they think first of a horror that can be imagined more than seen. But in Japan the most common word associations, at least according to Google searches recently run by historian Nick Kapur, are for Hiroshima-style cabbage pancake and Nagasaki's famous castella sponge cake.

STANLEY TROUTMAN / ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES An allied correspondent stands in the rubble of the shell of a building that once was a movie theater in Hiroshima, Japan, on Sept. 8, 1945. (CP PICTURE ARCHIVE/AP/)

And today, one of the photos Matsuhige took at that bridge holds a stark, gut-wrenching vigil near the entrance to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. The museum was renovated last year, one of many sites across Japan to get a facelift in preparation for what were supposed to be the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

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Thursday, on the 75th anniversary of the bombing, the world was supposed to be converging on the country to share in the promise of peace. Hiroshima itself was planning a major ceremony, to be attended by prominent world leaders, calling for nuclear disarmament and to remember the horrors of nuclear war.

Instead, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the Olympics have been postponed until next year. The ceremony to mark the Hiroshima bombing, which began at 4:30 p.m. Winnipeg time Wednesday, was stripped down, with speakers participating by video. A vigil scattered by circumstances, calling on all of us instead to remember where we already are.

That will be the way of things soon. The average age of survivors is now 83; in a handful of years, the truth of the bombs will pass out of living memory. It will remain held for posterity by hundreds of drawings, hours of eyewitness testimony, thousands of artifacts and documents... and just five photographs of that day.

These come from many sources. But taken together, they speak with one voice, one soul and one message: let there be no more Hiroshimas. Let there be no more Nagasakis. Let us never again unleash the most destructive forces of the world on each other, and let us never forget the memory of sights too horrible to be seen.

"We hope that such suffering will never be experienced again by our children and our grandchildren," Matsuhige said in his testimony. "All future generations should not have to go through this tragedy. That is why I want young people to listen to our testimonies and to choose the right path, the path which leads to peace."

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca
Delhi: Two days after 12-year-old raped, one person with criminal record held

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Aug 06: A 12-year-old girl, who was sexually assaulted and found in a pool of blood two nights ago, is battling for life with grievous intestinal and head injuries, doctors said on Thursday as outrage over the case escalated and police finally arrested one person.

Late on Thursday night, after a day of protests and anguish expressed by politicians, activists and others, one man was arrested on charges of attempting to murder and sexually assaulting inside her home in Peeragarhi in west Delhi. The man was identified on the basis of CCTV footage and has previous criminal records, police officials said without disclosing his identity.

Delhi CM visits AIIMS to enquire about condition of 12-year-old victim of 'sexual assault'

The child, whose parents work as labourers in a factory, was beaten and brutalised with a sharp object. She is critical and on oxygen support, said a senior doctor at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) where she is admitted.

"She has a massive head injury and she is critical. Her rectum and intestines were injured severely by some kind of impalement for which she needed immediate intervention and that is why she was operated upon as soon as she reached the institute," he said.

Sushant death probe: CBI registers FIR against Rhea, others | Oneindia News

Police said the girl, who lives with her parents and elder sister, was found by neighbours in a pool of blood on Tuesday evening. She was alone at the time. She was first taken to the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital and later shifted to AIIMS for further treatment.

Given the seriousness of her condition - recalling the horrors of the Nirbhaya rape case -- doctors operated on her that night itself. "During the surgery, her intestines and rectum were repaired and perforations were closed. She also may require neurosurgical intervention. She is disoriented at present and is being closely monitored 24x7," a senior doctor said.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who visited the hospital, said the "barbaric attack" on the girl had led to injuries that are even hard to even describe. Earlier, in a tweet, he said the brutality inflicted on the girl has "shaken his soul". The chief minister said he has spoken to Delhi Police Commissioner S N Shrivastava about the case.

"The toughest punishment will be given to the culprits on behalf of the Delhi government," Kejriwal said. The Delhi government will hire the best lawyers for the case and ensure the accused gets the strictest punishment, he said.

"She has suffered serious internal injuries, which are very hard to even describe. She is currently in a state of unconsciousness, and the doctor was telling me that she was in a really bad condition when she was brought to the hospital on Tuesday.

Unlock 3.0: Allow hotels, gyms, weekly markets to reopen in Delhi, AAP govt's proposal to LG

"She has undergone surgery and the doctors are trying their best to save her. It will take around 24-48 hours to know and assess whether she will be out of danger," the chief minister said. Police officials said they have scanned CCTV footage. "Delhi Police has taken the case registered under POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) at Paschim Vihar police station seriously," said Delhi Police spokesperson Eish Singhal. The injuries on her body were caused by a sharp object, a senior police official added. The minor was not just sexually assaulted but also hit on her head and her face with a sharp object, he said.

According to a Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) insider, only her father worked initially. However, given the financial crisis in the family following the lockdown, her mother too started working in the same factory. That was probably why she was alone at home. DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal, who also visited the girl in hospital, said she had multiple fractures and bite marks all over her body.

"She has been so brutally assaulted that every body part has injury marks," Maliwal said. The rape of the young girl, highlighting once again the vulnerability of women in India's national capital, led to outrage all over. "Finally, now the police has arrested a person. There should be no delay in getting justice for the daughter. May God bless the girl with good health. Rape cannot be allowed to become a common practice in the country," Maliwal tweeted after the arrest. East Delhi MP and BJP leader Gautam Gambhir also demanded death penalty for the culprit.

"The brutal rape of a 12-yr-old child is absolutely horrific! Those animals deserve nothing less than death. All of us are praying for her and I urge @DelhiPolice to bring the perpetrators to justice at the earliest," he tweeted. Delhi Congress worker staged a protest outside AIIMS and also approached Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal over the law and order situation in the city.

"A shameful case of rape of a 13-year-old girl from Bihar in Peeragarhi area of the national capital has come to light. This incident has again shamed humanity and showed the kind of hatred that exists against women in the society. Those who do it should be hanged," women's rights activist Yogita Bhayana tweeted.

According to child rights activist Anant Asthana, the safety of people living alone, be they children, women, elderly or persons with disability is a grave concern and pandemic has definitely increased vulnerability in several ways. The Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) has issued a notice to the SHO of the Paschim Vihar Police Station.
The Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison has begged to differ from the 0.9 percent projected growth of the economy predicted by the Minister of Finance for the end of the year.



According to Dr. Ernest Addison, the countrys economic growth for the end of the year would pick up strongly more than the projected percent predicted by the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta.



Dr. Ernest Addison at a Monetary Policy Committee meeting said that the rising deficit and total public debt stock which now stand at GH258 billion would all depend on the sector, hoping that the funds would be advanced, which could help stimulate growth.



Dr. Addison said that the forecast which will make the economy pick up stronger than the projected figure by the Finance Minister would be based on the countrys export earnings which are also picking up strongly.



Activities of the receiver of the defunct financial institutions



Touching on the activities of the receiver of the defunct financial institutions, Dr. Ernest Addison revealed that that the receiver appointed to liquidate some of the commercial banks have been able to realize GH2 billion.



With regards to payment, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana noted that more than 96 percent of the customers of the defunct Savings and Loans and Microfinance institutions have been paid. Dr. Addison was hopeful that the remaining funds would be paid soon.



Ghana cedi and a half-year performance



The Governor of the Bank of Ghana has however assured of having the adequate reserves to support the local currency as the Ghana Cedi has witnessed some pressure in recent times.



We have received a lot of resources in the first half of this year however, the outflows have also been very significant when you look at outstanding payments of non-resident outstanding bonds and this is really a question of net inflows, Governor of Bank of Ghana expressed concern.

Source: Daniel Adu Darko/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected]









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A pandemic and the reduced demand have driven the weaver community, known for their exquisite craftsmanship into dire state

Many businesses and industries have been negatively impacted since the outbreak of Covid-19, with many companies even getting closed for operations because of the restrictions.

However, the pandemic and, even worse, public apathy have dealt the most significant blow to the handloom industry. Even as we celebrate National Handloom Day on August 7, weavers across India have been facing the dire consequences of no work owing to reduced demands.

Sahithi Divi; Sustainability for weavers

Sahithi Divi, Co-founder of Impact Scientist and Rural Innovator, a gender equality influencing platform in Hyderabad, has continuously worked for three months now with weavers of Mori, a smart village in East Godavari, Andhra Pradesh. She chose to work with weavers as the profession is dying out and the economic suppression and exploitation in the field.

Lives of weavers are extremely challenged across multiple platforms right from wage disparity and middle-men commission to health issues, she articulates. The weavers hardly make `250500 per day even after working long hours. Added to it, they become susceptible to knee cap issues as they sit for long hours in a confined space. And worse, families dont want their kids to come into the profession for the lack of stability.

Now with COVID-19, the situation has further worsened for these people because there is low demand and they have surplus stock at home but no money.

Wholesalers have vanished, shops are empty and the local buyers tend to bargain, Sahithi adds. We need to come together to support the weavers and make them atmanirbhar (self-reliant) so that no one takes undue advantage of them.

Kaninika Mishra: An invaluable national heritage

Kaninika Mishra, author of The Indic Quotient, travelled across the length and breadth of India for her research, meeting several among the artisan community. She tells us that the handloom industry has been badly hit due to the pandemic.

The inventory remains unsold as a result of low demand during the last few months. Payments remain pending for goods already sold to wholesalers and the access to raw materials has become difficult for the few who do have new orders, Kaninika points out.

She talks about a fourth-generation weaver she met in Maheshwar, Madhya Pradesh, pointing out how the vocation has consequences beyond those measured in economic terms. The weavers mother, even though too old to sit for long hours, enjoyed spending some time on the loom every day. Being a creative process, weaving was an outlet of artistic expression for her, says Kaninika.

Suren Chowdhary: Get vocal for local

Even though India is home to various indigenous art forms, specific to each of the region, weavers have time and again adapted to the latest fashion trends by either up-skilling themselves or by migrating to a different location as per work demands. But with the ongoing pandemic, these migrant artisans are left high and dry, points out Suren Chowdhary, Founder, Indeloom.

Many artisans in Hyderabad belong to West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, and they have moved back to their hometowns because of the pandemic. Now, they are shut out of retail, says Suren, who has also been affected because of the lack of skilled kalamkari workers at his workshop at Srikalahasti town, Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh since the lockdown. The sorry situation of our artisans can only be overcome by raising awareness among consumers to buy locally produced goods, and support the livelihoods of local rural economies.

Mamata Reddy: Retail sale picking up

Mamata Reddy of Kalam Creations Artisans Society tells us that as a profession, weaving runs on through several generations of a family.

So they cant stop working all of a sudden and look for alternatives because of even something like a COVID-19, says Mamata, who has been one of the pioneers of promoting Kalamkari works. Talking about how the pandemic has resulted in only 10% work happening, she even informs how in the initial days of lockdown, the whole production had stopped due to the unavailability of raw materials.

Now, it is slowly gaining momentum. And even though there is no wholesale marketing happening, retail sales have started picking up because of online sales, she adds. The second generation weavers who are well versed with technology are selling their handloom works online and in turn bridging the gap between customers and weavers.
" " In this 1990 photo we see Atlanta's Faye Yager, who launched an underground network to protect victims of child abuse and devil worship.  Sophie Elbaz/Sygma/Corbis

Witchcraft theorists and interrogators of the 15th century obtained their testimony through intimidation and torture  and as such the confessions of their victims matched and even exceeded their expectations for supernatural evil and debauchery.

So how did such testimony arise in the late 20th century without the aid of thumb screws and breaking wheels? Why through the interrogation of impressionable, young children of course.

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By the late 1970s, child abuse was already a trending topic in American media coverage. Reports of kidnapping, child murder and child pornography outraged and sickened the public  and rightfully so. In 1978, the death of children at the Jonestown religious commune in Guyana blurred the lines between real-life fringe religious movements and fictional satanic cults.

Then, in 1984, allegations of sexual abuse at California's McMartin preschool and the lengthy trial to follow firmly established the notion of satanic ritual abuse (SRA) in contemporary America. The trial ended six years later in acquittal and dismissal, but the fantastic allegations created a media feeding frenzy. Prosecutors charged that a ring of teachers had sexually abused hundreds of children in rituals that involved robes, masks, pentagrams and altars.

Numerous cases sprang up across the United States, all following the pattern set by the McMartin case. Often, the incident would begin with a single, plausible accusation of realistic abuse. Then, the subsequent investigation would lead to therapist-derived accounts of wider abuse, each fueled by leading questions and the impressionable child's eagerness to provide suitably shocking details [source: Jenkins].

By the mid-1990s, hundreds of day care workers and parents had been accused of and, in many cases, convicted of SRA [source: Frankfurter]. Make no mistake: Satanic ritual abuse had become an actual diagnostic and criminological category.

But satanic panic entailed a perceived threat not only to the children of the present, but also to the children of the past. After all, such a well-connected cult of secretive Satanists had surely been targeting children for quite some time. Perhaps even your childhood contained an incident of satanic ritual abuse. All you needed to do was reclaim the buried memory of the encounter.

This is where the reclaimed memories movement of the 1980s enters our understanding of the panic. Proponents theorized that traumatic memories  especially childhood sex abuse  can become buried in the subconscious. While essentially forgotten, these bits of emotional shrapnel still could negatively impact your life. The only answer was to allow a therapist to dig them out with recovered-memory therapy (RMT).

The issue is a sticky one to say the least. For starters, most childhood sex abuse victims at least partially remember what happened to them. In the rare event that such an incident or incidents are forgotten, the victim can certainly remember it later  but they can just as likely construct a convincing pseudomemory, or false memory [source: APA].

Remember, memories are not set in stone. If anything, the medium is soft clay: highly susceptible to manipulation by ourselves and others each time we draw them from storage. In fact, Harvard psychologist Daniel Schacter recognizes no fewer than seven different factors that can inhibit accurate recall, including the power of suggestion. Fantasy, social conditions and cultural influences can all color the recollection. Once created, a pseudomemory can be as difficult to banish as a real one.

The 1980 book "Michelle Remembers" helped to cement the notion of buried SRA memories in the public mindset. Written by Canadian psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder and his patient (and later wife) Michelle Smith, the book detailed Smith's therapy-aided recall of long-term torture and abuse by a satanic cult in 1950s Vancouver. While eventually discredited, the book provided a basic template for a host of SRA survivor memoirs and was quite a media sensation at the time.

Perhaps you can see the appeal of reclaimed SRA memories. What if the problems you face in your adult life are due to some buried trauma? What if a therapist could extract it from your psyche  drag it out of the darkness and confront it head on? Perhaps you can also imagine a well-meaning therapist's zeal in extracting such a malignant memory, no matter how much of a hand they take in crafting that falsified memory from the cultural script of satanic panic.

And so the headlines ran with accounts of satanic rites and lost memories. Geraldo Rivera's 1988 prime-time special "Exposing Satan's Underground" and other TV exposes paraded a familiar assortment of "expert" therapists, law enforcement veterans and SRA survivors.

The message was clear: The Satanists were out there, intent on ritually abusing and murdering our children in the name of an ancient, evil religion. From the safety of our own sphere of values and beliefs, we could gaze out and blame so much pain on the ultimate  and completely nonexistent  group of outsiders.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has waded into a Twitter row to defend Labour MP Rosie Duffield after she was accused of transphobia.

The Rev Justin Welby branded Duffield, 49, as a 'brilliant constituency MP' and suggested she was simply misunderstood.

It comes after the Canterbury MP liked a Tweet that criticised CNN for sharing new American Cancer Society guidelines on August 1.

The media outlet captioned the post: 'Individuals with a cervix are now recommended to start cervical cancers screening at 25 and continue through age 65, with HPV testing every five years.'

The Archbishop of Canterbury has waded into a Twitter row to defend Labour MP Rosie Duffield after she was accused of transphobia

And Duffield's decision to like Piers Morgan's reply - 'do you mean women?' - drew criticism online.

Labour activist and Canterbury resident Sarah Cundy tweeted: 'Add to the list of reasons Rosie Duffield needs booting, she's a transphobe too.'

Ms Duffield then responded: 'I'm a 'transphobe' for knowing that only women have a cervix...?!'

She went on to tell other users: 'The implication that one cannot describe oneself as a woman without inviting a pile-on is beyond ridiculous now.

'Almost 52% of the UK population are women.'

In a bold message of solidarity, Rev Welby told his 152,000 Twitter followers on Tuesday: 'I know Rosie Duffield who is a brilliant constituency MP for Canterbury as well as brave, honest, kind and passionate for justice.

'She does not seek to demean others.

'To troll her is simply cruel and wrong.'

London Young Labour's LGBT officer Caoimhe Hale revealed that she had filed a complaint, while the Labour Campaign for Trans Rights said they were 'shocked and saddened at the inaccurate, transphobic comments.'

They are now calling on the party to 'take action.'

Social media users were quick to blast Rev Justin Welby's message.

Labour MP Rosie Duffield (pictured) was accused of transphobia on Twitter

Max fumed: 'P**s off, Justin, eh?

'She made transphobic comments, doubled down on them, and played the victim when she was called on it.

'Fictional Jesus doesn't want you to defend bigotry.'

Grace Petrie - who previously campaigned for Duffield - voiced her shame.

She said: 'This is, at best, spectacularly misguided.

'Rosie made some thoughtless transphobic comments and has refused to engage with anyone trying to point out how that negatively impacts an already marginalised community.'

Meanwhile others took the opportunity to blast the Archbishop for his support of other high-profile figures.

Kate said: 'To be fair you also support Prince Andrew, it seems that men of the church are strangers to morality and decent behaviour.'

Susan added: 'Brilliant constituency MP?

The Tweet from CNN that was criticised for using the phrase 'individuals with a cervix'

'18,000 unanswered emails and abuse of her own constituents on social media says otherwise I'm afraid.'

Rhammel O'Dwyer-Afflick added: ''She does not seek to demean others' and yet that's exactly what she went out of her way to do.'

Rebecca said: 'It's good to know your position on trans rights.

'To support Rosie universally is to support her awful views.

'We. See. You.'

There were widespread calls for Ms Duffield to resign from her post as MP.

She resigned from the shadow front bench in May after it emerged that she had broken lockdown.
The king has spoken.

And he has proclaimed Margaret River the leading wine region in Australia. Again.

James Halliday and his tribe of scribes tasted 10,000 wines as part of the Halliday Wine Companion awards.

The country's top authority on wine, James Halliday, and his tribe of wine scribes have waded through 10,000-plus wines over several months  often in trying times of isolation  and declared the victors of his annual awards, held in conjunction with the release of his Wine Companion, considered the bible of wine guides.

Margaret River was home to the best chardonnay (Leeuwin Estate, 99 points), sauvignon blanc (Flowstone, 97), rose (Nocturne, 96) and cabernet sauvignon (Moss Wood, 99), winning four of 16 best varietal categories at the 2021 Halliday Wine Companion Awards, broadcast online for the first time due to the coronavirus pandemic.
A new report, released in the Pacific Journalism Review on July 31, highlights the growing need to address media freedom in the region, particularly in Vanuatu, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and West Papua. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is concerned about the ongoing media repression and urges governments across the region to uphold journalist rights.

The Pacific Journalism Review (PJR) has partnered with the Melanesia Media Freedom Forum (MMFF) and Griffith University in bringing together wide-ranging responses discussed at a MMFF seminar in Brisbane, Australia, in December 2019. The IFJ contributed to these discussions.

The violations highlighted in the PJR include the case of Dan McGarry from the Vanuatu Post who was denied permission to re-enter Vanuatu after taking part in the MMFF discussion in Brisbane. According to the PRJ, this heralds a troubling future for press freedom. McGarry claimed that Prime Minister Salwai had him personally reprimanded for alleged negative coverage.

In Fiji, the journal finds that the legacy of the countries former military dictatorship continues to constrict media freedom under Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama. It states that there is a culture of self-censorship in Fiji due to the 2010 Media Industry Development Decree that established a state-controlled Media Industry Development Authority.

The journal also reveals that the 2019 election of Prime Minister James Marape in Papua New Guinea has not guaranteed media freedom despite the countries press being removed from the dictatorial grip of the former Prime Minister Peter ONeill. Journalists in Papua New Guinea still lack real agency in reporting to the local communities. The government also attempted to suspend senior journalist Scott Waide for airing a story critical of the government in 2018, and successfully fired Neville Choi for non-compliance.

The status of media freedom in Indonesian-occupied West Papua is a major concern as freedom of expression and the press continues to deteriorate. Nearly all foreign media have been banned from entering the country and local journalists walk a thin line between compliance and press freedom, like Jubi editor Victor Mambor, the journal stated.

The IFJ said: Across Melanesia, journalists are finding themselves under pressure largely because of restrictions imposed by their own governments. The IFJ stresses the importance of a free and independent media, for fair, balanced and quality reporting and calls on governments in the region to uphold the values of press freedom.
PHILIPSBURG:--- PPA leader Gracita Arrindell states that the border blockade is being used increasingly as an instrument to control the free movement of our people. Once that  Genie is out of the bottle its hard to put it back in. Theres a sea of difference between a border-blockade and border control. Whichever the case, both measures seriously hamper the internal free movement of people and goods as proclaimed in the over 300-year Treaty of Concordia.

We support the many voices that call for the overturn of this latest Paris mandated ad hoc- decision. Inadvertently, this issue has now been elevated to an international level given the latest twitter rant by the current President of the USA.

Mr. Trump took the Prime Minister of the Dutch side to task for closing the border to Americans.

The complaint regarding the border closure for Americans belongs in France with President Macron, and the Netherlands Prime Minister Rutte. While the elephants fight our grass (St. Maarten- St. Martin ) gets trampled.

It is no secret that France and the USA have always had a love-hate relationship. Who can forget the silly French-freedom fries pseudo-war between the two countries; said Gracita

Gracita states: Constant changes to this policy for one to visit or go home on either side of this 37 square mile territory underscores the unfair and unjustifiable nature of this measure. The Prefecture in St. Martin takes orders from Paris and implement their instructions and leave the island. Au revoir! Good-by Charlie! We suffer the consequences. Going home or visiting friends and families or keeping appointments without first providing a test is mandatory. August is traditionally the period for storewide sales for most businesses in the North and now this too has been compromised. This is making a very bad situation worse. What now?

Arrindell continues:  the present discussion is not whether we should become one island. More importantly, is to acknowledge that we may be two countries in one island but we are one island in heart and spirit and we must think like one.

Its about what steps can be taken locally to overturn and prevent ill-conceived decisions are taken thousands of miles away by bureaucrats who may or may not understand us and may or may not have our best interests in mind for the future? Some steps the government in Philipsburg can consider are :

1. a meeting based on a clear agenda held as soon as possible with the local French side authorities aimed at reopening the borders. The local vacant position of a French- Dutch liaison officer should be filled soonest. This candidate must be knowledgeable of the issues, tasked with a proactive (mediating ) role.

2. the Department of Interior and Kingdom relations that resort under the Prime Minister can play a key and active role in these discussions between Philipsburg, Marigot, Paris, and the Hague. The office of the local representative for the Dutch government as represented by Mr. Chris Johnson can serve as the center for diplomacy and discussions on this urgent matter.

3. Parliament must have a meaningful and prominent role other than some members voicing their opinions on this matter outside of Parliament. The Treaty of Concordia must be an urgent agenda point. The results of this meeting will carry more weight in the Hague and Paris and around the world when prepared and executed correctly.

Gracita concludes: our economy depends on over 70 percent of American-based tourists. Having health screening policies in place that protect both our local residents as well as people from other tourist destinations is in order. Making decisions in Paris or the Hague that negatively affects our way of life as a People is outright wrong.

Defending the letter and spirit of one of the worlds oldest Treaties is worth fighting for.

Let us think of the next generation and put the proverbial genie back in the bottle for the next 372 years. Its time to cut the remote-control bureaucratic red-tape hampering our free movement. Remove those container barricades and keep your hands off our Treaty of Concordia.
Wahyoo's team, including CEO Peter Shearer (third from left)

While growing up, Peter Shearer watched his mother get up every day at 2AM or 3AM to prepare for her catering business. For many people who own small food businesses in Indonesia, "everything is handled on their own, so I really, really wanted to create a system so they can have better operations and get more quality of life," Shearer told TechCrunch.

His startup, Wahyoo, was founded in 2017 to help small eateries, called warung makan, digitize and automate more tasks, from ordering supplies to managing finances. Today, Wahyoo announced that it has raised $5 million in Series A funding led by Intudo Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on Indonesia.

Other investors in the round included Kinesys Group, Amatil X (the corporate venture program of Coca-Cola Amatil, one of the world five largest Coca-Cola bottlers), Arkblu Capital, Indogen Capital, Selera Kapital, Gratyo Universal Indonesia and Isenta Hioe. The capital will be used on hiring, developing Wahyoos tech platform and expanding beyond the Greater Jakarta area.

In a press statement about the investment, Intudo Ventures founding partner Patrick Yip said, "Small-and medium enterprises represent one of the major engines of economic growth in Indonesia and are being transformed through new innovative businesses like Wahyoo, bringing greater economic prosperity to small business owners throughout the country. Through the companys digitization efforts, Wahyoos highly targeted support for warung makan businesses is creating positive economic and social impact for Indonesias working class."

Wahyoo launched its app almost exactly a year ago and has onboarded about 13,800 warung makan so far. The companys co-founders are Shearer, the chief executive officer; chief operating officer Daniel Cahyadi; and chief technology officer Michael Dihardja.

With about 268 million people, Indonesia is Southeast Asias largest markets, and there are already startups, like Warung Pintar and BakuWarung, that focus on helping warung, or small corner stores, digitize more of their operations.

Story continues

Shearer said he wanted to focus on Indonesian eateries in particular because "my background is in the food industry and I love anything related to food. Second, the potential is very big because no one has tapped into this type of warung before. Everyone focuses on retail, but no one taps into the culinary business."

Wahyoo currently employs about 170 people, including on-the-ground teams who meet with warung makan owners. The eateries are "usually run by a family, from generation to generation," with almost all tasks performed manually, including bookkeeping and going to markets early in the morning to buy ingredients, Shearer said.

A warung makan owner on Wahyoo's platform

Wahyoos features include a next-day grocery delivery service from its own warehouses and integration with Go Food, a popular delivery app. The startup also runs an education program called Wahyoo Academy, with financial courses to help warung makan owners increase customer traffic and revenue, and offers advertising and brand partnerships.

For example, a restaurant on Wahyoos platform can earn money by placing ad banners or brochures in their stores. That is one of the way Wahyoo monetizes. It is free to use for restaurant owners, and makes revenue by taking a percentage of brand commissions.

Another revenue stream is Wahyoos fried chicken franchise, which gives warung makan owners the option of opening a small stall in front of their stores. It currently has about 350 stalls and keeps costs low by partnering with one of Indonesias largest poultry suppliers. Shearer said the companys goal is to increase the number of stalls to 1,000 by the end of this year.

While eateries on Wahyoo saw a drop in their business in April and May because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Shearer said that it began to recover in June and July, and is now back to normal, partly because of the platforms Go Food integration.

In the future, Wahyoo may face competition from other warung-focused startups if they decided to expand their services to restaurants as well, and new startups that want to tap into the business opportunity offered by the 59.3 million small- to medium-sized businesses in Indonesia, many of which havent digitized their operations yet.

Shearer said Wahyoos value proposition is its portfolio of complementary services. "We are basically creating an ecosystem," he added. "We are not only focusing on the supply chain, but also our own brand. We have the fried chicken brand and in the future we will tap into financial technology and the catering business as well."
Multiple residents and businesses remained in the dark on Thursday and into Friday as electric company line workers labored to repair downed wires and broken utility poles in areas that received extensive damage in Storm Isaias Tuesday.

As of Thursday evening there were 27,775 residents and businesses statewide without electricity. Many of those outages are small ones scattered throughout the state.

The recovery is going really well, it is mostly about the power outages now and the utility companies are handling those, said Christopher Besse, spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.

The storm raged through Massachusetts Tuesday evening bringing wind gusts of as much as 60 mph. It downed trees onto dozens of houses and cars and hundreds of power lines across Western Massachusetts. More than 220,000 residents across the state without power in a few short hours.

One resident in Springfield was injured when a tree in his backyard fell on him.

Some of the largest power outages remain in Western Massachusetts with towns in Hampden and Berkshire counties especially hit hard by the storm.

In Springfield the outages have been reduced to 1,934 customers, or about 3 percent of the city by Thursday night. Most of the power is expected to be restored before Friday morning, said Priscilla Ress, spokeswoman for Eversource.

Our crews are working hard into the night Thursday to restore the remaining customer outages caused by Tropical Storm Isaias, she said. The remaining work requires crews to repair pockets of extensive damage, including fallen trees, broken poles and downed lines. This work is time-consuming and we are working as quickly as safety allows.

Eversource is sending out automated phone messages to give restoration estimates to residents who are still without power, she said.

As of Thursday night there were also outages in some of the nearby towns. There were still 878 customers without power in Longmeadow, 525 in Agawam, 596 in West Springfield and 333 in Ludlow, according to the Eversource website.

National Grid is still estimating restoration will not be complete in communities such as Wilbraham, Brimfield, Palmer, Monson and East Longmeadow until Saturday afternoon. In some of those communities 95 percent of the residents and businesses lost power at the height of the storm.

While power has been restored to many homes, there were still 2,375 businesses and homes in East Longmeadow, 797 in Hampden, 1,977 in Monson, 1,053 in Brimfield and 887 in Wilbraham without electricity as of Thursday evening, according to the National Grid website.

Officials for the company did not return requests for comment.

Many other communities had small numbers of outages, for example there were five residents without electricity in Northampton, 23 in Amherst and 14 in Southampton.

Officials at different power companies said some of the small remaining outages are caused by damage to wires that lead to one house or a small cluster of homes. Typically crews try to prioritize repairs so problems that involve the largest number of people and can are fixed first.

Westfield was also hard-hit with 7,000 of the 18,000 homes and businesses left in the dark at the peak of the storm. Power had been restored to about 6,000 of the customers by Wednesday night, said Lisa Stowe, marketing and communications manager for Westfield Gas and Electric.

The remaining customers were in spots where damage was extensive and the restoration was time-consuming, including the area around Southampton Road. Crews continued to work all day on Thursday and expect to have the majority of service restored sometime Thursday night.

She posted a photo of a utility pole snapped in half in the top and dangling to show customers the challenges crews were facing.

Westfield Gas and Electric posted this picture of damaged caused by Tropical Storm Isaias to show residents why it is taking so long to restore electricity.

For those wondering whats taking so long? we present this image. Crews have now been working two full days and there is still destruction like this across the city. Have a kind thought for the (Westfield Gas and Electric) line crews, DPW, tree crews, and mutual aid teams who will keep on working until everyone is back in service, the post said.

Officials for municipal electric companies in Chicopee, Holyoke and South Hadley restored electricity for all or nearly all customers by Thursday afternoon.

None of it is easy, said James Lavelle, manager of Holyoke Gas and Electric. Over the past few days, crews were dealing with dozens of destroyed poles, uprooted trees that crashed down on wires and trees that fell in alleyways and had to be removed before repairs could be made.

Even after all the power has been turned on, crews will continue to work to replace police and other infrastructure which was damaged by the high winds and fallen trees but did not cause outages. That work is being put off until all power is restored and crews can then get some rest, power company officials said.

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The Delhi Police on Thursday arrested a man accused in the brutal rape of a 12-year-old girl in Paschim Vihar area. The accused was identified on the basis of CCTV footage and has a criminal record.

In a gruesome incident, the minor has been brutally raped and critically injured with a sharp weapon in Paschim Vihar area of the national capital. Currently, the child is undergoing treatment at All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). The condition of the minor is extremely critical and she is fighting for her life.

The accused lives in Manglapuri area of New Delhi. The child saw him committing burglary and screamed. The accused then raped her. Many cases have been filed against the accused and he also committed murder in 2006.

"More than 20 teams were formed and they scanned hundreds of CCTV footages and interrogated all the suspects who have a similar background. Finally, the accused was arrested on Thursday," news agency PTI quoted Joint Commissioner of Police (west) Shalini Singh.

"During his interrogation, he has corroborated the sequence of events leading to the assault on the child. Krishan has four criminal cases, including one murder, one attempt to murder as well as burglary, against him. We are further investigating," Singh said.

Police said Krishan had entered the house for burglary. The girl saw him and screamed. The accused caught her and attacked her with a pair of scissors. He stabbed her multiple times with the scissors. The victim sustained injuries on her face, head and other body parts, they said.

The rape survivor was admitted to the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital on August 4 evening by the Delhi Police in a blood-soaked condition. The body of the child has deep wounds and there was constant bleeding from her private part. Her whole body was soaked with blood and there were injury marks, of a sharp weapon, on the back of her head and body. The team of doctors referred her to AIIMS after initial treatment.

According to the police, the incident took place with the girl at a time when she was alone. A case under POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act) was registered.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday visited the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), where she is battling for life, and met her family and the doctors treating her. He announced an aid of Rs 10 lakh to the family of the 12-year-old child.

CM Kejriwal said that after meeting the doctors, he was told that the next 48 hours are crucial for the girl. He asserted that he also spoke to Police Commissioner S N Srivastava, adding that the perpetrators of this heinous crime will receive the harshest punishment.

Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter, he tweeted in Hindi saying, "AIIMS mein doctors aur parivaar se milkar bachi ka haal jaana. Doctors ne bataaya ki agle 48 ghante aham hai. Maine police commissioner se bhee baat kee. Is jaghanya vaardaat karne vaale aparaadhiyon ko sakht se sakht saza dilavaenge. Parivaar ko sarkaar Rs 10 lakh sahaayata raashi de rahee hain. (Came to know about the condition of the girl by meeting doctors and family in AIIMS. Doctors said that the next 48 hours are important. I also spoke to the police commissioner. The perpetrators of this heinous crime will will receive harshest punishment. The government is giving 10 lakh rupees aid to the family.)"

CM Kejriwal was also accompanied by Delhi Commission For Women (DCW) Chief Swati Maliwal on his visit to AIIMS. In a video on Twitter Maliwal said, "The girl has multiple head fractures and bite marks all over her body. She has been brutally assaulted to the extent that every body part has injury marks."

She accused the police of delay in arresting the accused. Despite the brutal nature of the assault, two days have passed since the incident and the police have not arrested the accused yet, she pointed out. "I am summoning the DCP. I am going to ask him about the investigation," Maliwal said.
SYDNEY, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Australia will spend A$1.66 billion ($1.19 billion) over the next 10 years to strengthen the cyber defences of private companies and households following a rise in cyber attacks, Prime Minister Scott Morrison will announce on Thursday.

Cyber attacks on businesses and households are costing about A$29 billion or 1.5% of the country's Gross Domestic Product, according to Morrison's prepared remarks seen by Reuters.

The package is the latest cyber spending commitment from Australia, coming just weeks after Canberra said it will spend A$1.35 billion over the next decade to bolster the capabilities of the country's chief cyber intelligence agency.

That spending followed an attack by a "sophisticated state-based actor" on all levels of government, political bodies, essential service providers and operators of critical infrastructure.

Although Australia has declined to say who it believed was responsible for those attacks, three sources briefed on the matter told Reuters the country believed China was responsible, a suggestion swiftly dismissed by Beijing.

While much of Australia's cyber policy to date has focused on bolstering the defences of government agencies after an attack on the country's parliament in 2019, but malicious cyber activity is increasing against small and medium businesses, universities and households, says Morrison.

Morrison will pledge the increased spending to fortify the defences of critical infrastructure, boost police efforts to disrupt the criminal activity on the dark web and strengthen community awareness.

"We will protect our vital infrastructure and services from cyber attacks. We will support businesses to protect themselves so they can succeed in the digital economy," says Morrison.

While Australia seeks to strength its cyber defences, it will also embark on a more aggressive approach to disrupting would-be attackers.

The Australian Signals Directorate - which Reuters revealed late last year determined China was responsible for hacking Australia's parliament - will be given new funding to counter foreign cyber attacks.

China denies it was responsible for the attack on the country's parliament that came just months ahead of a national election.

($1 = 1.3877 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Renju Jose and Colin Packham; Editing by Michael Perry)
Parliament has approved an agreement between the African Union (AU) and the Government of Ghana (GoG) to host the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat (AfCFTA) in the country.

The host country's agreement was executed between the nation and the AU Commission on February 10, 2020 for the establishment of the Secretariat of the AfCFTA in Accra.

The agreement was laid in Parliament on June 3, 2020 by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, in pursuant to Article 75(2) of the 1992 Constitution, which was referred to the Committee on Foreign and Affairs for consideration and report in accordance with Order 140(4) and 183 of the Standing Orders of the House.

Background

The agreement establishing the AfCFTA was adopted by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the AU at its 10th Extraordinary Session on March 21, 2018 in Kigali, Rwanda.

At the 12th Extraordinary Session held on July 7, 2019 in Niamey, Niger and per its decision Ext/Assembly/A.U./Dec.2 (XII) of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government, wherein the Assembly decided that Ghana should host the AfCFTA Secretariat.

The assembly further requested the commission, in collaboration with Ghana, to finalise the host country agreement following the Executive Council Decision Ex. CL/ 195(Vl) Rev. l of July 2005 on hosting Organs of the AU.

Key Provisions of the Agreement

Key provisions of the agreement include a definition section which sets forth certain terms and expressions and their meaning as pertains to the agreement, the host country shall provide at its own expense a secure, equipped and furnished permanent premises for the Secretariat.

The government shall provide a secured, equipped and furnished official residence for the head of the secretariat and shall guarantee the inviolability of the premises of the secretariat.

The secretariat shall freely purchase any currencies through authorized channels and hold and dispose of them, transfer its funds to or from the host country, and operate accounts in any currency.

It is also exempted from any direct or indirect taxes, except for charges and taxes on public utility services, including compulsory contributions to any social security scheme of the host country.

The Chairman of the Committee, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, said any dispute arising out of or in connection with the agreement, including any question regarding its validity or termination shall be resolved amicably through diplomatic channels.

Observations

He said the committee was informed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration worked closely with the Ministry of Trade and Industry and other stakeholders in concluding the Host Country Agreement.

Stakeholder consultations were organized to seek inputs before finalizing the agreement with the AU Commission. A working group was also constituted to review the agreement together with officials of the AU Commission, he reported.

According to him, the committee was informed that the AfCFTA Secretary-General had been appointed by AU Heads of State and Government at the 33rd Ordinary Session of the Assembly.

In addition, four directors are currently being recruited. The committee was informed that other essential staff for the secretariat would be seconded by the AU Commission and the member states.

Employment Opportunities for Ghanaians

Mr. Annoh-Dompreh, who is also the Member of Parliament for Nsawam-Adoagyiri, noted that the committee observed that hosting the secretariat in Ghana would offer job opportunities for Ghanaians.

The committee was informed that apart from staff seconded by the AU Commission, member states and regional community groups and associations, the secretariat is required to hire the majority of its general staff from the host country.

On the settling-in cash grant of US$10 million for the secretariat to commence its operations, he stated that the committee was informed that the amount was not meant to be paid upfront to the AU Commission but was to be released as and when a request was made for the preparatory works and programme of the secretariat.

---Daily Guide
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif visited Moscow last month for the third time in the past six months for meetings with senior Russian officials. Although they have often been adversaries since first establishing diplomatic relations in the 16th century, Iran and Russia are purposely seeking to develop an increasingly close bilateral relationship.

Currently the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the Middle East and with its economy in shambles after the United States withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear agreement and applied a maximum pressure campaign, Iran rejected the US offer to negotiate lifting sanctions in return for a new agreement that would remove nuclear program sunset clauses and address Irans state-sponsored terrorism and ballistic missile program.

Iran chose instead to develop its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and engage in state-sponsored terrorism, with an eye toward inducing the other JCPOA signatories to support its demand for a return to the flawed JCPOA as a precursor to negotiations.

Iran began escalating attacks on the United States and its allies in summer 2019 by attacking oil tankers in the Gulf, seizing the Stena Impero oil tanker, shooting down a US drone and launching a missile attack against Saudi Aramco.

In January, Iran launched 15 ballistic missiles at US troops in Iraq in retaliation for the US airstrike, which killed Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani.

In July 2019, Iran began exceeding the limit on its stockpile of low enriched uranium set under the JCPOA. Iran has also nearly tripled its stockpile of enriched uranium since November 2019, also in violation of the JCPOA, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Irans current stockpile brings it dangerously close to the amount needed to produce a nuclear weapon.

With its aggressive nuclear and military brinkmanship strategy having failed to deliver on a path toward economic growth, Iran turned to China, with whom Iran is negotiating comprehensive trade and military agreements, as well as Russia.

In resource-rich Central Asia, which historically has served as strategic depth for Russia against Iran and other regional powers, Russia and Iran partnered closely. With military bases in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, Russia has collaborated with Iran against drug traffickers and militants transiting from Afghanistan. Russia and Iran each has cultural, linguistic and historical leverage in the region. Iran offers a unique energy transport route for Central Asian nations to the Persian Gulf and jointly with China built a railway in 2014 connecting Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.

The Kremlin saw an opportunity to exploit Irans status as a pariah state as early as the mid-1990s, when Russia agreed to construct the nuclear reactor plant at Bushehr. Russia sold Iran the S-300 missile defense system and signed a reported $10 billion military deal in 2016, which included helicopters, planes and artillery systems.

Russia has been a staunch defender of Iran in the United Nations, most recently in May, when Russias UN ambassador emphasized the Kremlin would oppose any extension of an arms embargo on Iran.

Also facing sanctions for its illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, attacks on Ukraine and attempted assassination of former Russian military intelligence officer Sergey Skripal, Russia is motivated to partner with Iran, which has relied on Russia as a key trading partner, especially for its excess oil reserves and a military ally in the Middle East, where for now the Kremlins interests coincide with Tehrans.

Iran and Russia share a common interest and strategy of countering the United States. While deferring to the United States to bear the burden of destroying the Islamic State and combating al-Qaeda, both Tehran and Moscow are focused on limiting US political, military and economic influence in the Middle East, Central Asia and Southeast Asia.

Significant Great Power rivalry has been an ever-present reality for over a century in the Middle East, albeit with a short hiatus following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Iran clearly sees value in growing its bilateral relationships with Russia and China and welcoming their growing influence in the Middle East, even possibly to the point of playing off Moscow and Beijing against one another to obtain more favorable terms.

Weary from the Bush administrations costly policy of securing US interests through regime change, the United States lacks the leverage to counter Chinas and Russias growing influence in the Middle East, on which Irans ability to counter US sanctions and strategy to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon will increasingly rely.
When schools let out last spring as the coronavirus pandemic began sweeping the nation, Heather Benbrook, a counselor in Alvin ISD, began regular phone check-ins with a student.

The daily contact allowed her to maintain their connection.

We would talk every day. She would text me or we would (chat via) FaceTime, Benbrook said. Her demeanor changed just by being able to hear my voice. For these kids, its all about the connection, and whether its physical or just the sound of my voice, it still goes to the heart.

Benbrook, who works at Nelson Elementary School and heading into her eighth year of counseling, will strive to maintain those important connections with her students this fall whether they are attending school on campuses or studying virtually from home, which is proving a popular choice.

Weve been working to look at what we need to do to plan for virtual and face-to-face counseling. We want the kids to feel loved and know that were still here, she said.

Alvin ISD schools will begin classes online on Aug. 24, which will be followed by a phased approach. On Sept. 14, all students who have chosen in-person instruction will be in schools.

Challenges will be traumatic for some kids

Classes in Pearland ISD schools will start Aug. 31 amid worries from parents and teachers.

Trustee Crystal Carbone previously worked in the district as a licensed specialist in school psychology. She said counselors working this year will have a tall order when it comes to kids mental and emotional-health needs.

How school looks this year will be traumatic for some kids, Carbone said. Its very much going to be the responsibilities of our professionals to fill the gaps and to go above and beyond to build connections in between social-distancing (protocols).

We will have to work that much harder to access (remote) kids and get them what they need in terms of mental health, but our staff is up to the challenge, she said. I think theyre going to have an eyes-wide-open approach and will seek opportunities to meet kids, to talk about how theyre feeling and what theyre experiencing.

The counseling staff at Alvin ISD is lining up district and outside mental health resources for parents to access, utilizing online platforms like Nearpod and sharing ideas on best practices and new ideas for what they know will be a challenging year.

Uncharted territory

In Pearland ISD, Chenda Moore, the districts coordinator of guidance services, said protocols are being put in place to provide individual and group sessions with safety in mind, including restorative circles for staff and students to build relationships and skills to address challenges.

She and her team also are developing plans for virtual counseling, creating videos for self-care and conflict resolution for students and staff and just trying to be as imaginative as possible in how they deliver services.

Virtual counseling is tough; we would rather see our kiddos in person, but it doesnt mean we cant be effective, Moore said. But these are exciting times because its uncharted territory. We have to choose to look at this in a positive way and as an opportunity to learn, be adaptable and to grow.

Nevertheless, both Alvin and Pearland districts will offer in-person sessions for remote learners who request it.

But no matter how the kids interact with their counselors this year, a large focus will be combating students feelings of social isolation, depression and anxiety, even providing crisis counseling of any kinds. Benbrook said Alvin ISD will use online platforms like Google Hangout and Google Meet if the situation calls for it.

We have plans in place to do that at every level to make sure our kids are safe, she said.

Moore, Benbrook and Carbone all agreed this year will present expected and unexpected challenges. But they added that children are resilient and that they will tailor their interactions with them with that in mind.

This will be a defining moment for a lot of kids, said Pearlands Carbone. They will learn a lot about themselves.

Benbrook reflected that todays students have faced challenges before, namely Hurricane Harvey.

These kids have been through the wringer, but theyre building resistance, she said. These kids are amazing, and theyll grow from this.
By PTI

LONDON: Two minor children with Indian nationality, aged 11 and 9, are caught up in the foster care system in England, with local authorities wanting to change their citizenship status to British amid a legal row with their parents, which has landed in the UK's Court of Appeal.

In a judgment handed down by a three-judge bench including Lord Justice Peter Jackson, Lord Justice Richard McCombe and Lady Justice Eleanor King on Thursday, it was decided that the Birmingham Children's Trust must seek the court's approval before any attempt to apply for British citizenship for the children in the face of "parental opposition".

"Changing a child's citizenship is a momentous step with profound and enduring consequences that requires the most careful consideration," the judges noted in the ruling, handed down remotely under the coronavirus lockdown protocol.

"In the present case, the local authority would require leave to apply for the court to exercise its inherent jurisdiction" if it was in the children's interests for them to become British citizens, there is reasonable cause to believe that they would be likely to be significantly harmed by that course not being pursued; the nature of the harm being their liability to removal from their lifelong home country on reaching adulthood," the judgment concludes, indicating that a future application for a change in citizenship before the court has some prospect of success.

As in many family court matters, none of the parties in the case has been identified.

The case, which originated in the Birmingham Family Court, involved the UK-based father being represented in court by prominent Indian lawyer Harish Salve.

The Singapore-based mother was assisted by a "Ms Rao", described as a legally qualified "McKenzie friend" based in Delhi.

The unusual case dates back to August 2015, when the children were removed from the care of their Indian-origin parents who came to the UK in 2004.

While the reasons behind that children's removal were not revealed in court, it was noted that contact with the parents has not taken place for nearly five years now.

"The mother left the UK in November 2015 while pregnant and now lives in Singapore. The father has remained in England, but his antagonism towards the local authority has made contact unachievable," the court noted.

In the course of a complex set of proceedings over the years, the children became the subject of placement orders, or were to be put up for adoption.

However, the search for adoptive parents was not successful and in December 2018, the local authority applied to discharge the placement orders.

The parents responded with an application to also discharge the underlying care orders in order to secure the children's return to their care or to the care of family members in India or Singapore.

But following a court ruling in December last year, it was determined that the children must remain in long-term foster care for the remainder of their childhoods.

It was during the course of those proceedings that the local authority, the Birmingham Children's Trust, stated that it would seek to secure the children's immigration status by making applications for British citizenship, which would have the effect of removing their Indian nationality.

"Although these children had been in the care of the local authority for several years, no steps had been taken to regularise their immigration position.

That is a matter of justified concern, even though there is no immediate threat of removal.

The children would clearly benefit emotionally from their position being regularised and from being able to travel in and out of the country, for example, if opportunities for school trips or holidays were to arise," this week's ruling notes, as it gives the local authority the option to make a further application to the court to consider the childrens' citizenship issue.

"Depending upon expert advice, it [the application] may not need to be made as a matter of urgency, and consideration might be given to whether it should be taken at a time when the children would be more able to express their own views.

"That of course does not prevent an application being made now as it would be open to the court to approve an application being made at a later date," the judgment adds.

It was also noted that the hearings in the case have proved "challenging", requiring interpreters.
He is set to reprise his role as Angelo Rosetta on Home and Away after almost a decade away.

And Luke Jacobz, 39, took the opportunity to tease fans about his return to Summer Bay while wearing a mask on Bondi Beach on Wednesday.

Taking to Instagram, Luke covered his face with a surgical mask, sunglasses and black and red headphones.

'Ghost from the past': Home and Away star Luke Jacobz, 39, wore a surgical mask at the beach on Wednesday which he shared to Instagram, as he teased his return to Summer Bay

'Who's the ghost from the past @homeandaway... can you guess from the front?' he wrote, adding the hashtags backtothebay, staysafe and covidstyle.

The actor then added: 'It's strange to thing... this is just the normal look now.'

A number of the show's fans were clearly pleased with Luke and his return to the beloved Australian drama.

'Looking forward to seeing you back in the bay mate, we were devastated when Angelo was shot,' one fan wrote. Another added: 'Angelo'.

Pleased: 'Looking forward to seeing you back in the bay mate, we were devastated when Angelo was shot,' one fan wrote. Another added: 'Angelo' under the snap. Pictured: Luke

Luke recently relocated from Los Angeles to Sydney to reprise his role as Angelo. He previously told The Daily Telegraph that Channel Seven contracted him in January.

'[Network executives] called me in and said, "How do you feel about Angelo coming back to the bay?"' said the actor.

'I said ''very good'' - and almost straight away it was, ''Okay, let's get a haircut, a wardrobe fitting and look at some scripts,'' he enthused.

'Unfortunately the last time I saw her was in January': Luke revealed how the coronavirus had negatively impacted his relationship with his American fiancee, Raychel Stuart this month

Earlier this month, Luke revealed how the coronavirus pandemic had negatively impacted his relationship with his American fiancee, Raychel Stuart.

Luke, 39 said: 'Unfortunately the last time I saw her was in January.'

The former X Factor host revealed that the couple had plans to relocate Down Under later this year, however they've been postponed.

Apart: Luke revealed the strain on his relationship with his American fiancee Raychel Stuart (L) was under after relocating to Australia to film Home and Away

'She was actually supposed to be moving over here around now so she obviously hasn't been able to get over yet or even to come to set and watch,' he explained.

'We were planning that with each production break over the year I would fly over there with an empty suitcase and just pack a T-shirt and start bringing her stuff back and forth,' he told the publication.

Luke returns to Home and Away on Thursday, August 13
New Delhi, Aug 6 : A day after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) received a request from the Central government to probe the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, the agency said it is in the process of registering a case and is also in touch with the Bihar Police.

A CBI spokesperson here said, "After getting the notification from the Central government, CBI is in the process of registration of the case." He said the agency is in touch with the Bihar Police. The development comes a day after the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) issued a notification, paving the way for the central investigative agency to register a case.

Sushant was found dead in his flat in Mumbai's Bandra on June 14. On Tuesday, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar recommended a CBI probe on the request of Sushant's father K.K. Singh. Many political leaders have also called for a CBI probe into Sushant's death.

On K.K. Singh's complaint, the Bihar Police registered a case against Sushant's girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty on July 25. Sushant's father had lodged an FIR against Rhea in Patna, accusing her of cheating and threatening his son. Sushant's family has also accused her of keeping him away from them.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also initiated a money laundering probe on the basis of the Patna Police's FIR and has summoned Rhea for questioning on Friday.

Earlier, a verbal duel erupted between the governments of Maharashtra and Bihar over the investigation by the Bihar Police in the case.

Latest updates on Sushant Singh Rajput Death Mystery

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
SAVOY  When Eversource workers were dispatched for a safety check at 72 Jackson Road in this rural town in the Berkshires, they encountered something unexpected: a $3 million marijuana grow operation, police say.

The property had been logging $10,000 monthly electricity bills, said a spokesman for the Massachusetts State Police. Utility workers traveled to the property on July 29 and were met by a man who said he didnt speak English, refused access to the house and stuffed an envelope full on $ 100 bills into one of the workers front pockets, according to police records.

The Eversource employee attempted to give the money back to Yebin Mai, who pushed the linemans hand away. At that point the crew decided to leave the power on, leave the property, and request police presence as they felt there was a potential conflict with the resident, said David Procopio, spokesman for the state police.

Mai left the property with two other men in a white pickup truck with New York license plates, though they were briefly detained by troopers. They gave the envelope stuffed with several hundred dollars back to Mai, reports state. Troopers detected a whiff of fresh grown marijuana in the air, Procopio said. They obtained a search warrant two days later and eventually found nearly 3,600 marijuana plants inside with an estimated street value of $3 million.

Mai, of Staten Island, New York, and the owner of the home, Bin Huang, 32, of Brooklyn, New York, were arrested Wednesday and charged with marijuana trafficking when they attempted to return to the secluded home set on 14 acres of land. They have been held on $100,000 bail, police said.

This home at 32 Main St. in Monson was among five properties raided by federal agents probing a large-scale marijuana grow operation.

The same week, agents with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration arrested two Chinese nationals at a warehouse in Monson, where they allegedly found 1,100 marijuana plants  plus 3,000 more at four residential properties in that town and neighboring Palmer.

Weiqing Li, 41, and Li Qin Li, 49, were charged with manufacturing marijuana and processing marijuana with intent to distribute in U.S. District Court. Weiqing Li told agents he had traveled to Massachusetts from Chicago for the sole purpose of growing marijuana.

During a detention hearing before a federal magistrate judge on Thursday, his attorney, Charles Dolan, said Weiqing Li was a dupe, and a low-level player in a larger-scale marijuana trafficking ring.

Mr. Li is an extremely minor player in this whole thing  I might say maybe, I dont know what the translation would be in Chinese  but, a dupe, Dolan told U.S. Magistrate Judge Katherine Robertson.

Federal prosecutors lost a bid for Weiqing Li to be held behind bars pending trial. Assistant U.S. Attorney Catherine Curley argued the strength of the governments case was strong, and Li had strong ties to China.

Mr. Li later admitted he was at the warehouse to grow marijuana. He had come to Massachusetts around February of this year for the purpose of growing marijuana, Curley said.

News reports from across the country suggest a trend of Chinese nationals setting up grow operations in rural towns where property values are generally low, with murky financing. Police and federal agents have conducted raids in Washington, California, Colorado and now Massachusetts  all states that have legalized marijuana sales but under strictly controlled state and municipal guidelines and for licensed operators.

The federal government, however, still considers marijuana illegal but in many cases lets states regulate the drug on their own, with police only sweeping in on larger scale operations.

In the Monson-Palmer investigation, agents raided five properties including four residential properties in Monson and Palmer: 32 Main St. and 36 Main St. in Monson, and 4026 Pleasant St. and 1036 Central St. in Palmer. All five were purchased at once by BG Real Estate Inc., whose sole officer is listed as Yu Xiang Liu, according to corporate records filed with the state. He lists his address as 32 Main St. in Monson, and has not been charged in the case.

The Savoy property was purchased for $200,000 in cash in November of 2017, according to state police. A town of about 700 residents, Savoy is dominated by state forests and protected land. Troopers said plywood covered the interior of the buildings windows. Each entrance had a surveillance camera perched above it, troopers with the Cheshire barracks observed.

The Monson properties are located along a well-traveled stretch of Route 32 populated by farmland, businesses, historic homes, a country club and a trailer park. The residential properties are not exactly run-down, but overgrown with foliage.

About two miles west of those homes is the warehouse  a squat, one story white building with an expired town license on the door that says its owner is Yin Guo Wang, a construction supervisor.

This warehouse at 151 Palmer Road in Monson was among five properties raided by federal agents in connection with a marijuana trafficking operation.

During Thursdays hearing in federal court, Curley told the judge she did not believe Weiqing Li had any ownership interest in any of the properties but told investigators he had been asked by people higher up than him to provide his identification and social security number to open the warehouse.

Dolan said Li has no prior criminal record and came to the U.S. in 2011. He has a wife and two sons in Chicago; the couple opened a restaurant that failed in 2019, and he worked at a Chinese restaurant until late February when the pandemic forced it to close its doors.

It is unclear what his connections were to Massachusetts. Robertson freed Weiqing Li on a $5,000 bond, revoked his passport and sent him back to Chicago with his family to await the resolution of his case. Li Qin Li also was released on bail.

Mai and Huang, the defendants in the Savoy case, are scheduled to be arraigned in North Adams District Court on Aug. 7.

Authorities say both the federal and state investigations are ongoing.

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Researchers at the University of Michigan are interested in changing the behavior of some 2 million farm youths affected by hazardous noise exposure and hearing loss in the United States.

A study by the U-M School of Nursing found that incorporating hearing health education into an existing safety program increased the knowledge and attitude of hearing conservation practices among farm youths. It suggests that revisiting in-person lessons with online "boosters" or re-cap lessons may provide a pathway for sustainable hearing protection behaviors.

The research followed nearly 2,000 fourth graders from farm and rural communities, splitting them into groups to determine the effectiveness of various hearing health education programs. They were split into roughly three even groups: one group took part in a Safety Day hosted by the Progressive Agriculture Foundation; another group participated in that same program but also received a follow-up online booster; and the third group had no planned hearing health education lesson.

In comparison to the group without the lesson, those who had received the in-person lesson and the booster showed significant increases in favorable knowledge and attitudes toward hearing conservation practices.

While the content of the lessons were designed by Marjorie McCullagh, U-M professor of nursing, and her team, the actual instructors were community volunteers.

The volunteers were almost exclusively untrained in education and health care, but they were committed to the idea that farm safety for kids is important." Marjorie McCullagh, U-M Professor of Nursing

When volunteers submitted their 20-minute lessons for review, McCullagh said the team was impressed by the skill in using best practices for educating children.

"The instructors jumped in and learned the curriculum and did a fantastic job," she said.

The lesson developed and tested by McCullagh's research team has been adopted by the Progressive Agriculture Foundation for inclusion in its curriculum--delivered to more than 100,000 farm children and adults annually.

The study also revealed how frequently farm youth are exposed to hazardous noises. Nearly 10% of participants reported hearing loud sounds that "made your ears hurt or made you hear ringing sounds," and 85%, 63% and 43% reported exposure to one, two, and three sources of hazardous noise, respectively, at least once per week.

McCullagh said such noise exposure is unfortunately considered normal. Farm children usually start operating tractors by age 7 or 8. Even infants may be given tractor rides while still in their carriers.

Children from farm and rural communities are also more likely to be exposed to bystander noise, such as a running tractor used to power other machinery. While an adult farm worker might wear hearing protection when operating the tractor, children playing around the farm and exposed to the noise most likely do not.

In one of the study's exercises, students held a handful of chenille stems that represented hairlike cells inside the inner ear. The students then imagined a typical day, and, for encounters with progressively louder noises (talking with parents, using the lawn mower, a July 4 fireworks show), the students would run their hands over the chenille stems with increasing vigor. When asked to straighten the stems back to their original state, the students realized they couldn't.

The message was clear: Hearing damage cannot be undone.

While the study provides evidence for improvement in knowledge and attitudes toward hearing conservation and noise mitigation strategies, there was no significant evidence that the online booster affected participants' actual intent to use such strategies.

Possible limitations included measuring by self-report and potential confounding due to the "measurement effect," wherein repeated testing (interviewing participants) might have served as its own intervention.

The finding isn't unfavorable, McCullagh says.

"There's not going to be a one-shot solution," she said. "We were successful in changing knowledge, attitudes and beliefs, which is encouraging because we know that those are precursors to changing behavior in the long term."

It's the long-term change in behavior that interests McCullagh. A native of North Dakota, she has witnessed first hand how farmers are at risk for many occupational hazards and underserved by health and safety programs.

Her next project will focus on determining the prevalence of farmer suicide. The issue is interconnected with hearing health, she says, since individuals with hearing loss often socially isolate and develop low self-esteem, which contributes to depression and anxiety.

McCullagh hopes her work with children can inspire the right habits to break such a vicious cycle.

"There is still so much to be done," she said.
Two U.S. senators are proposing legislation to prohibit private companies from collecting biometric data without consumers and employees consent.

Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon said this week he is introducing the reform measure along with independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. The effort comes after growing concerns about biometric data collection among private companies, including the use of facial-recognition technology.

The senators cited a recent Reuters investigation into Rite Aids facial-recognition program among other reports causing alarm about the technologys use.

We have to fight against a big brother surveillance state that eradicates our privacy and our control of our own information, be it a threat from the government or from private companies," Merkley said in a statement.

The bill is backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Open Technology Institute.

This year, Merkley introduced legislation to impose a moratorium on all federal governmental use of facial-recognition technology until Congress passes a bill outlining specific uses. Congress has held committee hearings on facial recognition, but no legislation has been approved.

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Photo: (Photo : unsplash/Ivan Aleksic)

On Monday, a second-grader at Sixes Elementary, located at the Cherokee County School District, tested positive for COVID-19. Now, the whole class is quarantined for 14 days.

WSVN News reported that on Tuesday, all 20 students and their class adviser had to stay at home for two weeks. The school admin closed their classroom for cleaning.

Face masks not required

Photos from two different schools in Georgia revealed that it is not yet safe for them to reopen. Just one day of schooling has caused the students to go back and stay at home for safety. Cherokee County School District urges students to wear face masks but does not require them to do so.

See also: School reopening: 5 things parents must consider

The district has a different requirement from its students - shoulders should be covered, and pants and skirts should not have frayed ends. Apart from that, students should wear specific undergarments, but they do not require wearing face masks.

Upworthy notes that school reopenings in an area where the coronavirus is not controlled are already risky. Add the fact that they did not require wearing face masks which makes it scarier. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended delaying school reopening until a place has a lower than five percent positivity rate for the deadly disease. Georgia has a higher than 12 percent of the rate, which means they should not allow kids to go back to physical schooling yet.

See also: Coronavirus: Your Ultimate Guide to Risky Activities [Avoid Risk Level 9]

Learning in-person is better

According to Upworthy, learning in-person is essential, but there is no denying that students' safety should be the top priority. Since there are still too many cases and the country even could not control the virus, school reopening should be delayed just yet.

After the first day of opening, schools had to shut down for at least two weeks. That will happen every time a single student or teacher tests positive with the coronavirus. If the cases from Georgia are low enough, then maybe they could find ways to proceed with schooling. However, they should not do so knowing that they have a high rate without following any measures.





See also: Childhood Obesity May Increase Due to School Closures

Student safety first

Dr. Anthony Fauci urges school reopenings if it is safe enough while following the precautionary measures. Although President Donald Trump tweeted in all caps that schools should reopen, one should still consider the current condition. Students are not safe from the virus, and they could either get sick or be carriers of it. Letting school reopen without any measures is not the wisest choice to make. Unless they require students and teachers to wear face masks, keep a safe distance, and no gathering for photo ops, no one is safe.
Some wines stick to the bones. They give you such a deep sense of satisfaction that they leave an imprint. A memory. A desire to return to them again because theyre more a place than an experience.

These wines earn a cultlike following. They become destinations of sorts. Just the names evoke that small longing to return to them in those who have experienced their charms and have been gently  or powerfully  taken with these wines. Chablis. Champagne. Bordeaux. Barolo. Burgundy. These are just a handful.

These stand tall as classics. Theyre looked to and revered by both wine drinkers and winemakers. Champagne is usually a blend of Pinot Noir with Chardonnay, and sometimes Pinot Meunier that undergoes a second fermentation in bottle to create a sparkling wine. Chablis is Chardonnay  often unoaked  with a cool minerality underpinning the fruit. And most of the finest reds of Bordeaux are based on a mix of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, sometimes seasoned with Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot. These are just a few archetypes  and these styles have inspired wines made elsewhere.

Even the humble dry rose of Provence with its pale hue and gentle, even whispering allusions of cool berries and sea salt have influenced other producers to make comparable wines.

And yes, a sip of smart Champagne, cru Chablis or classed growth Bordeaux renews faith in the concept of terroir: the idea that wines hold a distinguishable sense of place. And the finest of those classics are certainly distinctive. But wines inspired by them  or simply made from similar grape varieties grown elsewhere  can hold much charm too. Especially when the price is right.

The Uco Valley of Argentina is doing marvellous things with Malbec these days. The grapes are grown at high elevations, which help them retain bright acidity due to the temperature fluctuations between night and day. And the powerful UV rays at high altitudes cause the berries to grow thicker skins, which is where much of the flavour and colour of the wines come from. Whats more, Argentina can make wine more economically than many other places for a variety of reasons such as cheaper land and labour. The results are good wines at reasonable prices.

To see what I mean, taste the 2017 La Celia Malbec-Cabernet from the Uco Valley (Vintages 618280, $14.95). This exciting red  released at the LCBO Aug. 8  tastes tranquil and deep. Each sip rolls in with smooth, velvety flavours of blackberry and ripe black plum that hover then fade to let earthy, chalky notes show through. The finish doesnt last long, but the texture and purity of this wine is fabulous. Score: 92. This is just the sort of wine to pair with sunset and something still sizzling off the grill.

The Uco Valley can produce pulse-quickening whites, too. The stunning 2018 Susana Balbo Signature White Blend (Vintages 558734, $21.95), which is also released Aug. 8 in Ontario, is a blend of equal parts Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Torrontes. Its aromatic, vivacious and complex, immediately arresting the senses with mouth-filling flavours of apricot and peach puree, juicy grapefruit and zesty lime with electric acidity, and stony, saline undercurrents that linger on the finish. Its juicy and flavourful and bone dry. Just a gem. Score: 95. Pair this wine with creamy, mild cheese such as a young Gouda or a handful of macadamia nuts.

Ontario is making world class sparkling wine these days. The combination of our cool climate and stony soils can produce marvellously elegant bubbly. The NV 13th Street Winery Cuvee Rose Brut VQA Niagara Peninsula (13thstreetwinery.com, LCBO Vintages Essential 147504, $29.95) is a shining example and its widely available.

Crafted by winemaker Jean Pierre Colas from Chablis in France, its about half Chardonnay and half Pinot Noir. It gleams the colour of wild salmon, and the fragrance lifts, spins and embraces with soft suggestions of strawberry and crushed seashell. The attack is cool and crisp with a subtle kaleidoscope of flavour and feeling. It calls to mind a sunlit porch, the spray of lemon oil as you twist the peel, a kitchen where someone is making raspberry jam. The bubbles are tiny and delicate.

And on the finish, the scent of wet stones after a cool rain lingers along with a touch of grapefruit pith that leaves the palate scraped clean. This is refined refreshment at a very good price for what it is. Score: 94. Pour this wine with smoked salmon on thin toast.

We all know California can make sun-drenched styles of red wine. And a riveting Rhone-inspired red worth your attention was released earlier this summer at the LCBO, of which theres still a fair amount left on shelves.

The 2017 22 Pirates Red Blend from California (LCBO 14384, $25.95) combines Syrah, Petite Sirah, Grenache, Carignane and Cinsault for a wildly complex result thats full-bodied and rich. The entry is lush and saturated, unspooling with sweet black cherry, smoked meat, blueberry cobbler and a soft sifting of cocoa powder that lingers. Score: 92. Open-handed and hedonistic, this delicious wine works well on its own, cocktail style, at sunset.

So there you have it. Some white, red and sparkling rose to keep you sailing through summer tastefully.
BERKELEY, Calif., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- When patients arrive in a doctor's office, they expect to be treated for a particular ailment based on that practitioner's background and certifications.

Most people associate a chiropractor for example, with relief from back and neck pain. What doesn't necessarily come to mind is holistic healing that can go beyond that.

Zone School of Healing founder

One San Francisco-based chiropractic doctor is changing that with a revolutionary technique that has the power to catapult patients into perfect zone health.

The Zone School of Healing teaches the Zone Technique, an authentic healing method guided by 25-year global practitioner Dr. Peter Goldman.

Built on the principle teachings of Zone Therapy created by Dr. Thurman Fleet in 1931, along with many other influences, Dr. Goldman has refined his Zone Technique to transform patients' lives.

Dr. Goldman teaches the implementation of physical and metaphysical healing in a way that enhances a practice by adding new skills, saving time and significantly increasing healing results and profitability.

"The Zone School is for everyone  every healer and type of doctor," says Dr. Goldman. "You can spend one-tenth the time with a patient and get 20 times the results."

In the Zone Technique, Dr. Goldman teaches practitioners how each zone relates to the body and mind. He reworks physical, chemical and emotional imbalances using only the technique, his hands and a flat bench.

Dr. Goldman has demonstrated that the Zone Technique can deliver life-altering results during just two-minute zone adjustments that stimulate the spinal cord in specific areas to reset related centers of the brain.

From eliminating pain and poor digestion to restoring sleep, focus and energy, the Zone Technique achieves balance within the human body for optimal quality of life at any age.

He explains there are points on the back of the head that relate to six different systems in the body: the glandular, eliminative, nerve, digestive, muscular and circulatory systems.

A disturbance to any of those systems results in a short circuit so to speak to related parts of the body. In this case, a Zone Practitioner examines the patient to determine which of the brain centers is not in harmony with the systems they control.

"Once I feel the points on the back of the head to determine which system to work on, I gently stimulate the spine in specific places that relate to that system," says Dr. Goldman. "I show you how to stimulate the spinal cord to reset the brain."

The Zone Technique is a powerful methodology that continues to gain momentum. Fellow practitioners have reported unparalleled patient results after applying the Zone Technique, with one calling it "magical."

"This new skill will empower you and reignite a passion for your practice," he says. "Becoming certified in the Zone Technique gives you the confidence to handle mostly anything presented to you."

To learn more about enrolling in Dr. Peter Goldman's Zone School of Healing, visit zonetechnique.com.

Contact: [email protected]

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Dr. Peter Goldman

Zone School of Healing founder

SOURCE Zone School of Healing
Japans powerful business lobby, the Keidanren, is dominated by energy-intensive sectors that represent less than 10 percent of the economy, resulting in national policies that favour coal and hindering attempts to combat climate change, a new study said.

The influence of the countrys electricity, steel, cement, car and fossil fuel sectors undermines Japans attempts to meet its Paris Agreement commitments, according to the report by London-based data analysis company InfluenceMap.

The Keidanren, also known as the Japan Business Federation and which has close ties with the trade and industry ministry, as well as other government bodies, sits on expert panels and other forums where government policies are debated. It has acted as a central negotiating point on climate policy for two decades, the report said.

While it claims to represent all of Japanese business, the claim clearly should be questioned on climate/energy policy, InfluenceMap said. It added the most powerful industries within Keidanren only employ about 2.7 million people, while those with little influence employ 10 times that number.

Lobbying and consultation by business groups will be critical next year when the government reviews its strategic energy plan.

The Keidanrens influence was seen last year when it argued that a target proposed by the government to reduce emissions by 80 percent by 2050 was extremely ambitious and pushed for any new target to be a vision, InfluenceMap said.

Japan later adopted a goal of achieving carbon neutrality as soon as possible in the latter half of this century, rather than an explicit 2050 emissions target.

The Keidanren said in a statement to Reuters that it could not comment on the study as it had yet to formally receive a copy. But it added it had made policy commitments towards creating a low-carbon society and the governments climate goals were consistent with Paris Agreement goals.

The United Nations-backed Paris Agreement entered into force on November 4, 2016, and aims to keep a global temperature rise this century well below two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees F).

Surging coal use

InfluenceMap noted that other groups in Japan which count blue-chip firms from the retail, finance, tech and construction sectors among their members  such as the Japan Climate Initiative and Japan Climate Leaders Partnership  have sharply criticised the governments climate change efforts.

The studys findings are mostly consistent with my personal experience as a policymaker in Japan to negotiate the Kyoto Protocol and to develop national legislation, Hikaru Kobayashi, who was vice minister for the environment from July 2009 to January 2011, told Reuters.

What surprises me is that this remains unchanged today.

Japans coal use has surged to record levels in the years following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster that led to the shutdown of most of the countrys reactors.

Japan is also the only G7 country working on a major rollout of coal power, with companies planning to build around 20 new coal-fired plants with a total capacity of about 12,000 megawatts, within a decade, a Reuters survey showed last year.

Coal now generates 32 percent of Japans electricity, although the government wants that proportion to fall to 26 percent and renewables to climb to 22-24 percent by 2030 from about 18 percent currently.

Using government statistics, InfluenceMap ranked business sectors by economic importance and then assessed the influence of industry associations both within the Keidanren and outside the federation.

It chose 50 groups for the purposes of the study, ranking them using two metrics  how supportive a group is of climate policies that meet Paris goals and how intensely a group engages with the government on climate policy.
SEOUL A massive search was under way in South Korea on Thursday for five rescue workers swept over a dam when their boats overturned in surging floodwaters, while President Moon Jae-in raised concerns about North Korea releasing excess water without notification.

Parts of South Korea have seen 44 consecutive days of rain, the longest monsoon since 2013, and continued showers across the Korean peninsula are threatening to bring new floods and landslides.

In a visit to one of the hardest-hit areas, near the border with North Korea, Moon expressed regret about a North Korean move earlier in the week to suddenly release excess water from a dam without notifying the South.

While no specific damage from the release was reported and it was unrelated to the rescue accident, Moon said the unexpected rush of water had made it more difficult for South Korean authorities to manage already swollen rivers.

Heavy rain has also fallen in North Korea and state media published pictures of flooded streets but did not give any detail of damage or casualties.

The government in North Korea had issued a flood alert for areas near some its biggest rivers and lakes, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported.

South Korean Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun, meanwhile, visited a river near the city of Chuncheon, to the northeast of Seoul, where more than 800 police and fire officials using seven helicopters and 69 boats were searching for the missing rescue workers.

Two rescue boats were trying to free a police boat stuck in wire by a dam near Chuncheon when they overturned, Yonhap news agency reported.

One man was rescued at the scene but seven others were swept over the dams floodgates.

One of the seven, a 68-year-old man, was found near the dam suffering from cardiac arrest but was recovering. Another, also 68, was recovered dead about 20 km (12 miles) downstream, Yonhap reported.

A local police official could not confirm the details.

Elsewhere in South Korea, at least 16 people have been killed and 11 are missing, with more than 1,600 people displaced over recent days.

In Seoul, the Han River swelled over its banks in some areas after authorities were forced to open floodgates on upstream dams. Some highways by the river had to be closed, Yonhap reported.

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(Natural News) Vulnerable school children may be the latest targets of Marxists and radicals posing as teachers and educators according to authorities after a Texas school counselor was found to have circulated Marxist and communist propaganda among her colleagues.

The counselor, identified as Dianne Evans of the Plano Independent School District, was found to have attended an online seminar organized by Nova Southeastern University called Understanding the Black Experience in America: Be the Change You Want to See in the World. (Related: Trump threatens to cut off funding from Marxist indoctrination centers disguised as American colleges and universities.)

The seminar, which was centered on social justice and racial equality, was so designed to purportedly encourage counselors and others to start discussions regarding Black lives with their clients and patients. In addition, the online seminar also teaches its participants how to become better allies of social justice activists such as those affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement.

A copy of Evans email, which was obtained from local community leaders and confirmed to be genuine, was found to have included a document from the said webinar.

Created by St. Louis-based clinical psychologist Marva Robinson, the document lists down several talking points that counselors can use to discuss with patients several delicate issues surrounding racial justice in the United States, such as the killing of George Floyd by then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, as well as the deaths of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery.

Aside from providing a copy of Robinsons document, the email passed around by Evans to her colleagues also included a Justice In June document that outlines several activities and online lessons related to racial justice that one can take for a set period of time.

In addition to the list of recommended activities, Evans email also contained a list of readings and documentary films centered on social justice, most of which are Marxist and communist in nature. Among the titles featured in the document are Freedom is a Constant Struggle by long-time Civil Rights advocate Angela Davis; the Beginners Guide to Marxism; The Autobiography of Malcolm X; Womens Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle by Thomas Sankara; The State and Revolution by Vladimir Lenin; and The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

PISD Superintendent Sara Bonser has confirmed that the webinar and propaganda circulated by Evans were not authorized or supported by the school district.

The discovery of the email has caused outrage within the community.

As a father with two children in Plano ISD, as a member of the Plano City Council who took an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States, and as a proud American, Im deeply concerned about the apparent promotion of Marxist propaganda and its dangerous agenda by one of the Plano ISD staff, Shelby Williams, a Plano City Councilman, said in an interview with Texas Scorecard, adding that the district should do everything in its power to get to the bottom of the issue.

I urge the Plano ISD board and administration to conduct a very thorough investigation into this issue and to take appropriate action to ensure such an insidious ideology is neither promoted nor encouraged within our school system, by anyone at any time, Williams added, echoing calls by what is considered a fairly conservative community in a conservative state.

Marxist lessons to be taught to kindergarten students in Virginia

A similar situation happened in Virginias Loudon County, where a new curriculum will require kindergarten students to learn about concepts such as systemic racism at the same time as the alphabet and basic mathematics for the upcoming school year.

As reported by the Free Beacon, this development is the result of a partnership between the county and the Southern Poverty Law Centers (SPLC) education arm Teaching Tolerance.

The proposed lesson plan, which was first introduced by the Virginia Department of Educations superintendent, recommends the restructuring of history and social studies classes in order to emphasize slavery and its role in American society. This change will affect students from kindergarten to fifth grade.

Sugarcoating or ignoring slavery until later grades make students more upset by or even resistant to true stories about American history, the documents from the SPLC said, noting that part of the changes to be implemented in the instruction of history and social studies classes will be a change in its structure.

According to the documents, history and social studies classes will be structured similar to math classes.

Before we teach algebra, we teach its component parts. We should structure history instruction the same way, the SPLC documents said.

The move, which has since earned criticism, has spurred authorities to note that using the resources from the SPLC will be optional.

The Teaching Tolerance resources are optional, Rob Doolittle, a spokesman for the county, said.

In addition, while the state Board of Education does approve content standards and curriculum frameworks for history and social studies classes, it is the local school boards who will be the ones responsible for developing the curriculum.

Several Loudoun County educators meanwhile have also noted that they are not on board with the administrations direction, with one longtime elementary school teacher even noting that the focus on racial politics may, in fact, be motivated by politics, rather than education.

I teach lower grades in elementary school. [Never before] did I have to teach about slavery, the teacher  who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution  said, adding that their lessons, prior to the shift, have always focused on famous Americans, such as George Washington and Martin Luther King Jr. and that their classes all highlighted their accomplishments.

According to the teacher, her fear is that the push to include social justice theories in the school curriculum will prove divisive for the students who, because of their age, still lack the maturity to deal with the subject.

Theyre pointing out that theres whiteness and blackness and thats crazy. We never taught about that in school. We learn about how to get along with one another and be kind and respect others. But now, with this new curriculum that theyre adding, its going to do the total opposite, the teacher said, noting that the curriculum will incite hate.

Max Eden, an education policy expert at the right-leaning think tank the Manhattan Institute, said the curriculums focus on political activism and the horrors of slavery are not suitable for kindergarten students, noting that children of that age are not prepared and that they do not yet have a nuanced sense of history.

According to Eden, these changes in the curriculum could be part of a ploy to push left-wing, Marxist ideologies and narratives into impressionable minds.

This, Eden said, could compel children to follow leftist ideals in the future.

Parents, according to reports, have been upset by the news, with several already expressing disappointment with the school district.

SPLC is pushing Marxist ideology more or less. Theyre really pushing those concepts of revolution and dismantling the system that we have, a father  who spoke on condition of anonymity  said, adding that rather than teaching everyone to come together and build something great together, the changes in the school curriculum will destroy whats been built.

Several pundits have weighed in on the motion, with Virginia-based columnist James Bacon describing it as soft totalitarianism.

It takes a village to raise a child. Unfortunately, the village is increasingly likely to be run by a Social Justice commissar, Bacon said in a column condemning the education boards move.

The SPLC has yet to issue a comment on the matter as of press time.

Sources include:

TheNewAmerican.com

TexasScoreCard.com

TennesseeStar.com

FreeBeacon.com

BaconsRebellion.com

s29017.PCDN.co [PDF]
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Meadows Reiterates Trumps Description of Beirut Attack

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said that President Donald Trumps claim that the explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, was caused by a bomb has not been ruled outcoming after a top Pentagon official said it was likely caused by an accident.

Trump, on several occasions this week, suggested that the deadly blast may have been an attack via a bomb of some kind, citing comments made by generals. It prompted Defense Secretary Mark Esper to say that he believes it was an accident.

I can tell you from Secretary Espers standpoint, he doesnt know. I had a meeting with him earlier today, Meadows said on Wednesday, as reported by Politico. I can tell you the initial reports was exactly what the president shared with all of you.

Esper said that most people believe the explosion was an accident, as reported, according to The Associated Press.

Meadows, however, said that the bomb theory hasnt been ruled out.

A destroyed silo is seen amid the rubble and debris following yesterdays blast at the port of Lebanons capital Beirut, on Aug. 5, 2020. (Anwar Amro/AFP via Getty Images)

A drone picture shows the scene of an explosion at the seaport of Beirut, Lebanon, on Aug. 5, 2020. (Hussein Malla/AP Photo)

The scene of the explosion that hit the seaport of Beirut, Lebanon, on Aug. 5, 2020. (Hussein Malla/AP Photo)

The initial reports looked at the explosion. We still have not totally ruled that out, Meadows said in a news conference. He added that officials are still gathering intelligence.

The chief of staff said, Obviously, theres no group that has claimed any responsibility. But what the president shared with the American people is what he was briefed on. And as we look at that, well continue to evaluate it. Hopefully it was just a tragic accident and not an act of terror.

Trump later added at the conference: I mean, somebody left some terrible explosive type of devices and things around, perhaps it was that, perhaps it was [an] attack. I dont think anybody can say right now. You have some people think it was an attack and some people think it wasnt.

President Donald Trump participates in the swearing in of General Charles Q. Brown as the incoming Chief of Staff of the Air Force, in the Oval Office of the White House, Aug. 4, 2020. (Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images)

In response to Espers remarks, the president said, Ive heard it both ways too.  it could have been an accident, and it also couldve been something very offensive.

Officials in Lebanon said that hundreds of tons of ammonium nitratea highly explosive material commonly used in fertilizer, but was also used as an explosive in the Oklahoma and Bali bombingswas the cause of the explosion. Some said that the ammonium nitrate was left inside a port-side warehouse for several years after a ship was abandoned. What caused the material to explode, however, is not clear.
A minority Kaman Muslim voter shows his inked finger after casting a ballot at the Khaung Htoke Khar polling station in Sittwe, western Myanmar's Rakhine state, Nov. 8, 2015.

Muslim candidates will compete in Myanmars parliamentary elections in greater numbers than they did in the last elections five years ago, with some of the current 25 contenders in Novembers race openly advocating for Muslim minority rights in the predominantly Buddhist country.

The candidates say they aim to tackle discriminatory policies that in many cases deny native-born Muslims citizenship in Myanmar, a country that has seen waves of anti-Muslim violence in 2012 and 2017 and treats the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

We, as a minority, have always been voiceless, Nyi Nyi, chairman of the Equality Election Victory Committee (EEVC), told RFAs Myanmar Service.

We have been discriminated against, persecuted, and tortured. We have lost our rights. Some of us are minorities within a region, and some are minorities on account of religious beliefs, he said.

The 25-member EEVC is providing support to the Muslim candidates until registration ends on Friday, after which they will undergo evaluations by electoral officials.

Fifteen of the Muslim candidates are in Yangon Region, while the other 10 are in western Myanmars volatile Rakhine state, where a 20-month-long battle is raging between national forces and the rebel Arakan Army (AA).

These candidates are running on the tickets of the Democratic Party for a New Society (DPNS), New Society Party (NSP), National Unity Congress Party (NUCP), and Democracy and Human Rights Party (DHRP).

We will join hands with anyone who holds the same ideal of achieving equality among all citizens, Nyi Nyi said.

EEVC member Phoe Hlaing said the inclusion of Muslim candidates in the elections will raise awareness about issues that affect Muslims, such as discrimination, in the constituencies in which they run.

Through our campaigns, people in the townships will come to know the problems our minority group faces, he said.

Citizenship and human rights

Some of the Muslim candidates are running against popular candidates from the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party in Yangon, and others against influential parties in Rakhine state.

Several candidates from the DHRP, which represents the Rohingya, are entering races in Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships of northern Rakhine state, where a military-led crackdown in 2017 left thousands of Muslims dead and drove more than 740,000 others across the border and into Bangladesh.

The DHRP comprises mostly Muslim members who are contesting the 2020 elections, and has consistently advocated for Rohingya rights in northern Rakhine where more than 300,000 Muslims still live in Buthidaung, Maungdaw, and Rathedaung townships, according to electoral authorities.

The party is chaired by Kyaw Min, the father of Rohingya rights activist Wai Wai Nu and a former legislator from the Committee Representing the Peoples Parliament (CRPP), a political alliance that included ethnic political parties during the latter phase of Myanmars military rule from 1990 to 2011.

Kyaw Min won a parliamentary seat in the 1990 elections as a candidate from Buthidaung township.

Of the total of 26 DHRP candidates planning to run for parliamentary seats nationwide, seven are contesting in Rakhines Maungdaw district, four in Sittwe district, and five in Yangon region.

DHRP secretary Kyaw Soe Aung said the partys mission in contesting the elections is to improve democratic rights, citizenship rights, and human rights that people in the country are losing.

The major party with democratic values won the [last] election, but so far, we havent seen the party working effectively to improve democracy and citizens rights, he told RFA, referring to the NLD.

Some Muslim candidates won parliamentary seats in the 2010 general elections, but there were none following the 2015 elections that the NLD won by a landslide.

By that time, public sentiment concerning Muslims had nosedived following racial and religious tensions that gripped parts of the country, while radical Buddhist monks stoked anti-Muslim tensions in the run-up to the vote.

Two Muslim candidates are running for parliamentary seats on the NLD ticket in this years elections.

Muslim worshipers attend prayers at a mosque in Myanmar's commercial city Yangon, Nov. 6, 2015, two days before voters go to the polls to vote for lawmakers and the next government. Credit: AFP Rejected based on religion

NUCP secretary Aye Ko said that most of the candidate applications submitted by party members have already been rejected because the contenders stated on the forms that they adhered to Islam.

The party has selected four candidates to run in Yangon region and one to contest in central Myanmars Mandalay region, he said.

We submitted 12 candidates, and 11 of them were rejected, Aye Ko said, adding that the rejections were based on the candidates religious beliefs, though the stated reason was that electoral officials questioned the authenticity of the citizenship of their parents.

They rejected all Muslim candidates, he said. The only one who had not been rejected is the son of a famous person. We have submitted appeals.

The lack of full citizen rights that are denied to the Rohingya and other Muslims along with rampant discrimination are fueling the partys passion for contesting this election, Aye Ko said.

We are discriminated against all the time based on our religious beliefs, he said. I want to change this situation. I want to show that we can exercise our rights as citizens to vote and to be elected.

Kyaw Nay Min, an independent Muslim candidate running in Yangons Mingalar Taung Nyunt township, where Muslims and Buddhists live side by side, said he wants to be a lawmaker so he can make sure that parliament addresses issues of concern for Muslims.

Whenever it comes to our minority groups issues, everyone shows the same attitudes, he said. Muslims are affected by several events occurring in the world, but the parliament doesnt raise any issues related to Muslims.

While official estimates put Myanmars Muslim population at roughly 4 percent, Kyaw May Min said the real figure could be as much as 10 percent of the Southeast Asian nations population of 54 million  high enough that lawmakers should take up matters of interest to the minority community.

Whenever issues related to Muslims come up, the ruling NLD, the opposition Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), and military lawmakers who are appointed rather than elected lawmakers under the constitution, all have taken the same stance, he said.

So, we would like to be in parliament to speak for the voiceless, Kyaw May Min said, adding that he will raise issues concerning the persecuted Rohingya minority if he wins a seat.

Myanmar has 96 registered political parties whose candidates will compete for 1,171 seats available in both houses of the national parliament and in state and regional legislatures on Nov. 8.

Reported by Kyaw Lwin Oo for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
The front of the house in the 200 block of North Simpson St. where Zamar Jones, 7, was playing on his porch when he was struck in the head by gunfire on Aug. 1. Read more

The third man suspected of being involved in a West Philadelphia shootout that left a 7-year-old boy dead from a stray bullet surrendered to police on Thursday.

Damar B. Jones will face charges of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, firearms violations, tampering with evidence, and related charges, police said.

One day before Jones surrendered, he had posted on Facebook that he and another man did not initiate Saturdays gun battle, and that he picked up his gun and returned fire because he was targeted by a man he didnt know.

Jones, while wanted on a murder warrant, said in two posts published Wednesday that he was not the killer of Zamar Jones, and that he was hurt and sick over the boys death, in part because he has an 8-year-old daughter.

I never wanted for that kid to die my life was in danger, Jones wrote.

Jones said he and Michael Banks, who police believe also participated in the shootout, dont beef, look for trouble or nothing, and that they did not know Christopher Linder, the man police have accused of driving onto the 200 block of North Simpson Street and spraying gunfire into a crowd.

Police have said at least two men returned fire, though they have not specified who fired the shots.

Banks had surrendered Wednesday, and was arraigned early Thursday on charges of murder, attempted murder and related crimes, according to court records. He was being held without bail.

 READ MORE: Philly is seeing a spike in shootings of children. But motives and arrests are lagging.

Jones did not appear to shy from admitting his role on Facebook. We aint running or hiding we battling this [expletive] out, he wrote. He denied involvement in the murder, saying he was innocent, but added that he would stand on all ten of my toes about my involvement in the gun battle, calling it defense in my situation.

Jones explanation did not satisfy everyone. Inspector Derrick Wood, a police commander who oversees the area where the shooting happened, wrote on Twitter: Apology not accepted! Turn yourself in!

Jane Roh, a spokesperson for the District Attorneys Office, declined to comment.

Police have said Linder drove onto Simpson around 7:40 p.m. Saturday and fired his gun out of his Chevrolet Silverado.

One of the shots hit Zamar in the head as he sat on his porch next to his toy race car and scooter.

 READ MORE: 7-year-old Zamar Jones, shot in the head in front of his West Philadelphia home this weekend, has died, police say

Linder crashed his truck on Simpson, police said, then stole an SUV and drove away. But police said he returned to the scene and encountered officers responding to the crime. They chased Linder and arrested him, and he has been arraigned on charges of murder, attempted murder, and related crimes. He remains jailed without bail.

Zamar was taken to Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, where he died Monday.

Police have said the motive remains under investigation. Jones said on Facebook that we were targeted by an unknown man, and that he had never seen or spoken with Linder before.

I dont know what was the cause Im really not sure, he wrote.

In 2018, Jones pleaded guilty in Delaware County to a count of terroristic threats and received a one-year probation sentence, according to court records.

Banks criminal record includes a guilty plea in February 2019 to illegally carrying a gun in Philadelphia. He received a three-to-nine-month jail sentence, court records show, but was given immediate parole for time served and was sentenced to two years of probation.

At the time of that guilty plea, he was already on probation for a 2017 conviction in Delaware County for conspiracy in a retail theft case, according to court records. In April 2019  after pleading guilty in the gun case in Philadelphia  he was sentenced to 12 to 24 months in jail for violating probation in the Delaware County case, the records show. They do not specify when he was released.

Zamars death came amid a sharp increase in the number of children shot in the city. Wednesday night, just hours after a community vigil for Zamar, a 6-year-old girl was struck by a stray bullet in West Philadelphia. As of late Thursday afternoon, there had been no arrests in that shooting.
San Antonio must cut more than $120 million over the next two years as a result of economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, City Manager Erik Walsh said Wednesday  but local activists who took up cries of defund the police during this summers protests may be disappointed.

Layoffs for the citys civilian employees are off the table for now, though the possibility of unpaid furlough days lingers next year, Walsh said.

The city manager will call for spending less on street maintenance, economic development incentives and overtime for police officers when he presents the citys $2.9 billion annual budget to the City Council today.

The cuts are necessary because millions less in revenue is expected from retail and restaurant sales, hotel room bookings and flights in and out of San Antonio International Airport.

Im so tired of saying unprecedented and uncertainty but thats the reality of what we find ourselves in, Walsh said.

But not everything will be cut.

The citys police spending will climb by $8 million to $487 million under the proposed budget, a move likely to at least temporarily rile protesters who have demanded that cities across the country slash spending on police departments and reroute those dollars to other causes.

Now Playing: People protesting the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer chant and wave signs at San Antonio police officers in Alamo Plaza Saturday, May 30, 2020. Video: Express-News

The killing of George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis, while in police custody spurred debates over how much cities should spend on police.

Walsh said Wednesday he doesnt want to haphazardly cut police spending, much of which is tied up in the police unions contract. The proposed budgets increase is tied to pay raises already laid out in the contract.

Instead, Walsh plans to embark on a months-long process to re-evaluate the Police Departments role, undertaking issues such as police accountability and discipline and figuring out what San Antonio residents want from officers.

When parents are calling the police because their 17-year-old wont get out of bed to go to school, Im not sure thats a call we want the police to go on, Walsh said.

In the meantime, the city plans to apply for the Justice Departments Community-Oriented Policing grant and assign 25 officers to focus on domestic violence prevention and intervention.

The proposed budget calls for $1 million in new spending on homelessness and mental health outreach, typically domains of the Police Department.

The city also plans to consolidate all of its violence prevention programs under one division at the Metropolitan Health District and transfer 20 civilian employees who work with domestic violence victims from SAPD to Metro Health.

I think weve all come to the conclusion here at the city that violence prevention should remain a municipal responsibility, Walsh said. Now it can look differently and it doesnt just have to look like police.

Budget outlook

The pandemic has wrought havoc on the citys budget as it deals with an expected $127 million loss in revenue, mostly from depleting sales and hotel occupancy taxes.

Hardest hit is the citys hotel occupancy tax fund, which has dried up as the pandemic scared off tourists and business travelers. The city expected $129.3 million in taxes from hotel room bookings in its current budget. After COVID-19 hit, that amount sits at $69 million.

Budget writers project $78 million in hotel occupancy taxes over the next year, but Walsh said it could take five to seven years for bookings and resulting tax revenue to bounce back.

Passenger traffic to San Antonio International has been decimated.

In 2019, more than 10 million passengers passed through the San Antonio airfield. This year, that number stands at 5.3 million. Next year, the city expects 4.7 million  and a $34 million loss in airport revenue.

The citys general fund  which pays for services such as police and fire protection, streets and infrastructure and parks  is expected to climb by about $5 million to $1.28 billion. Overall, the citys $2.9 billion spending plan will be about $7 million less than last year.

Civilians wont get pay raises under the proposed budget, though they would pay lower health insurance premiums to make up for that, Walsh said. The city also will continue a hiring freeze it instituted earlier this year  saving the city $14 million in total.

The citys uniform employees still are slated to get pay increases because of their union contracts  5 percent for police officers and 2 percent for firefighters plus a 1 percent bonus.

The city also is slashing $8 million from its annual street maintenance budget, which will sit at $102 million, and reducing police overtime by $3.4 million  which it can do because of an incoming cadet class, Walsh said.

Other departments that are seeing increases include Metro Health, which is slated to get $3.6 million more than it did last year, a 23 percent increase.

Joshua Fechter is a staff writer covering San Antonio government and politics. To read more from Joshua, become a subscriber. jfechter@express-news.net | Twitter: @JFreports
ROCKFORD, Ill., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Veteran-owned Fire Department Coffee recently introduced its newest coffee roast, Shellback Espresso, paying tribute to one of the Navy's most time-honored traditions and shining a light on the deep connections between the Navy and the fire service.

In a centuries-old seafaring tradition, upon crossing the equator for the first time, a sailor sheds their lowly "Pollywog" status and becomes a "Shellback." The occasion is marked by an elaborate ceremony that incorporates the mythology of King Neptune and Davy Jones.

Shellback Espresso features a blend of Brazilian, Indonesian and Colombian coffee beans, harvested along the equator.

Fire Dept. Coffee founder Luke Schneider served in the U.S. Navy from 2004 to 2008, receiving an honorable discharge as a Damage Controlman 2nd Class Petty Officer. He also obtained the Shellback status, reserved for sailors who have crossed the equator.

"The Shellback Espresso honors those who serve and have served in our U.S. Navy," said Schneider, who is a full-time firefighter and paramedic in Rockford, Illinois. "Every sailor is trained as a firefighter so there's a natural connection between shipboard firefighters and civilian firefighters. Both know that coffee is essential for working long hours on little sleep."

To order new Shellback Espresso and Shellback gear , visit FireDeptCoffee.com .

About Fire Department Coffee

Luke Schneider founded Fire Department Coffee in 2016 with the mission to make great-tasting coffee and to help his fellow firefighters and first responders. Luke Schneider is a Navy veteran and a full-time firefighter-paramedic in Rockford, Illinois. Jason Patton, also a full-time firefighter-paramedic, is the vice president of Fire Department Coffee.

Fire Department Coffee is freshly roasted by a dedicated team of firefighters, first responders, and coffee connoisseurs, inspired by the vital role that coffee plays in helping firefighters stay alert and energized through long shifts.

Along with providing premium, handcrafted coffee  including its signature Spirit-Infused roasts  Fire Department Coffee supports heroes in need through the Fire Department Coffee Foundation. Ten percent of net proceeds are donated to help provide essential resources and assistance to first responders who have been injured on the job, mentally or physically, or who are facing other serious health challenges.

SOURCE Fire Department Coffee

Related Links

firedeptcoffee.com


The Cubs announced that theyve signed right-hander Kelvin Herrera and left-hander Matt Dermody to minor league contracts and assigned them to their alternate training site. The teams 60-man player pool is now full. Herrera, 30, was recently cut loose by the White Sox after being designated for assignment. Dermody, also 30, had been pitching in the independent Constellation Energy League.

Herrera was once a high-end setup man and eventually a closer for the Royals. The hard-throwing righty was part of a juggernaut Kansas City bullpen that fueled the teams 2014 and 2015 World Series appearances, pitching to a 2.75 ERA with 8.9 K/9 against 2.6 BB/9 in 441 1/3 frames in parts of eight seasons with the Royals. He was eventually traded from K.C. to D.C. in a swap that sent minor leaguers Kelvin Gutierrez, Blake Perkins and Yohanse Morel from the Nats to the Royals.

Herreras time with the Nats didnt go well, however. He missed time early with a shoulder impingement, and upon returning he suffered a Lisfranc fracture in his left foot that ended his season. That was hardly an ideal run-up to his first foray into free agency, but Herreras standout track record still netted him a two-year, $18MM deal with the White Sox. The pact went even more poorly, though, as Herrera was shelled for 6.54 ERA in 53 2/3 frames with the South Siders before being released last week.

Dermody, meanwhile, has just 25 1/3 innings of big league experience under his belt  all coming with the 2016-17 Blue Jays. Hes spent his entire pro career in the Toronto organization prior to this season, during which time hes posted a 4.12 ERA in parts of four Triple-A campaigns. His lack of track record may seem questionable, but Dermody has been lights out on the indie circuit this season, allowing just one earned run on 13 hits and six walks with 23 strikeouts in 17 1/3 frames. That showing clearly made an impression on the Cubs, wholl now have Dermody on hand as a depth option should the need arise.

The Cubs have gotten out to a hot start, but their bullpen remains an obvious weakness. High-priced closer Craig Kimbrel has looked lost since signing in Chicago, and the team hasnt spent on any other bullpen help in the past several years. Theyre currently relying on a patchwork group that has seen Rowan Wick and the talented-but-inconsistent Jeremy Jeffress shoulder the bulk of the high-leverage situations as Kimbrel continues to struggle. Herrera is the second former AL Central All-Star on whom the Cubs are rolling the dice. They signed former Indians closer Cody Allen to a minor league deal and assigned him to their alternate training site last week.

Cubs starters rank first in the Majors in ERA (1.95), second in FIP (2.52) and sixth in xFIP (3.51). Their relievers, as a whole, rank 29th in ERA (7.20), dead last in FIP (6.90) and 23rd in xFIP (4.81).
A U.S. Marine Corps pilot has gone down on record as the first military pilot to log 1,000 flight hours in an F-35 Lightning II combat aircraft.

Lt. Col. Brian W. Bann logged his 1,000th flight hour during a delivery mission to Marine Aircraft Group 13 at Yuma, Arizonas Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS), on Dec. 11, 2019.

The Lightning II aircraft model falls under the Marine Corpss F-35B Joint Strike Fighter family of combat aircraft. According to Military.com, the plane can both take off and land vertically, a characteristic known among pilots as Short Takeoff and Vertical Landing (STOVL).

This nimble feature allows the Lightning II to take off from tight locations with very little runway space, such as the flight decks of amphibious assault ships.

Lt. Col. Bann prepares to exit an F-35 Lightning II at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona on June 29, 2017. (Staff Sgt. Jensen Stidham/U.S. Air Force)

Bann is currently on assignment at the Lockheed Martin F-35 production facility in Fort Worth, Texas, according to a Marine Corps press release. Working for the Defense Contract Management Agency, Bann is responsible for conducting test flights to check aircraft functionality on all three iterations of the F-35: A, B, and C.

As part of his role, it is often required of Bann to deliver an F-35 to an operational unit elsewhere in the country, and on his December trip to Yuma, he killed two proverbial birds with one military aircraft: made the drop, and made history in the process.

Lt. Co l. Bann piloting the F-35 Lightning II from Fort Worth, Texas (Staff Sgt. Jensen Stidham/U.S. Air Force)

The Marine Corps maintains roughly 100 F-35Bs and F-35Cs in its inventory, held between Air Stations in three U.S. statesYuma, Arizona; Beaufort, South Carolina; and Miramar, Californiaand one in Iwakuni, Japan.

Bann joined the Marine Corps in 2000. In total, he has amassed over 3,000 hours of flight time in various fighter jets, in addition to the F-35, including the AV-8B Harrier II with Marine Attack Squadron 211 at MCAS Yuma, Arizona; and the F-16 Fighting Falcon with the 55th Fighter Squadron at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina.

The accomplished pilot became one of the first Marine Corps pilots ever to fly the Joint Strike Fighter aircraft at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida in 2013 and went on to become an F-35B Instructor Pilot.

F-35 instructor pilot Lt. Col. Martin Tesli shakes hands with Bann upon arriving at Luke Air Force Base on June 29, 2017 (Airman 1st Class Alexander Cook/U.S. Air Force)

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Dhaka, Aug 6 : The Bangladesh Police on Thursday took Teknaf Police Station officer-in-charge (OC) Pradeep Kumar Das and eight others into custody, hours after an arrest warrant was issued against him in a case filed over killing of former Army Sinha Md Rashed Khan in police fire.

"Das came to know that an arrest warrant was issued against him. He then went to the Divisional Police Hospital in Dampara area of Chittagong to receive a treatment on Thursday," said Chittagong Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mahbubur Rahman.

The OC later told the police that he wanted to surrender before the Cox's Bazar court after an arrest warrant was issued against him.

Sinha's sister Sharmin Shahria Ferdous charged Das and eight other policemen with murder in a case started on Wednesday.

Folowing that police have withdrawn Das from duty as the officer-in-charge of their Teknaf station in Cox's Bazar.

The arrest warrants were issued against Pardip Kumar Das, Baharchhara Check-post In-Charge Liyakat among the policemen chargedwith the killing of retired Army officer.

Inspector of Baharchhara Police Investigation Centre Liyakat Ali and Officer-in-charge of Teknaf Police Station Prodip Kumar Das were made first and second accused of the case respectively.

Other accused are -- policemen Nando Dulal Rakkhit, Safanur Karim, Kamal Hossain, Md Abdullah Al Mamun, Liton Miah, Tutul, and Md Mustafa.

An eyewitness said he saw the police firing in which Major (Retd) Sinha was shot dead. Claiming the incident a murder, he said everything happened within 30 minutes.

36-year-old old Sinha, who served in the Special Security Force (SSF) of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and took voluntary retirement from the Army two years ago, was killed in police firing at Teknaf checkpost on July 31 night.
Nostrils located on the top of the snout and curved teeth, perfectly adapted for catching slippery prey: The skull of Tanystropheus has several clear adaptations for life in water. Credit: Emma Finley-Jacob

A fossil called Tanystropheus was first described in 1852, and it's been puzzling scientists ever since. At one point, paleontologists thought it was a flying pterosaur, like a pterodactyl, and that its long, hollow bones were phalanges in the finger that supported the wing. Later on, they figured out that those were elongated neck bones, and that it was a twenty-foot-long reptile with a ten-foot neck: three times as long as its torso. Scientists still weren't sure if it lived on land or in the water, and they didn't know if smaller specimens were juveniles or a completely different speciesuntil now. By CT-scanning the fossils' crushed skulls and digitally reassembling them, researchers found evidence that the animals were water-dwelling, and by examining the growth rings in bones, determined that the big and little Tanystropheus were separate species that could live alongside each other without competing because they hunted different prey.

"I've been studying Tanystropheus for over thirty years, so it's extremely satisfying to see these creatures demystified," says Olivier Rieppel, a paleontologist at the Field Museum in Chicago and one of the authors of a new paper in Current Biology detailing the discovery.

Tanystropheus lived 242 million years ago, during the middle Triassic. On land, dinosaurs were just starting to emerge, and the sea was ruled by giant reptiles. For a long time, though, scientists weren't sure whether Tanystropheus lived on land or in the water. Its bizarre body didn't make things clear one way or the other.

"Tanystropheus looked like a stubby crocodile with a very, very long neck," says Rieppel. The larger specimens were twenty feet long, with their necks making up ten feet of that length. Oddly for animals with such long necks, they only had thirteen neck vertebrae, just really elongated. (We see the same thing with giraffes, which have only seven neck bones, just like humans.) And their necks were rather inflexible, reinforced with extra bones called cervical ribs.

In the same region where many of the big Tanystropheus fossils were found, in what's now Switzerland, there were also fossils from similar-looking animals that were only about four feet long. So not only were scientists unsure if these were land-dwellers or marine animals, but they also didn't know if the smaller specimens were juveniles, or a separate species from the twenty-footers.

Size comparison of T. hydroides, T. longobardicus, and a human. Credit: Stephan Spiekman et al.

To solve these two long-standing mysteries, the researchers used newer technologies to see details of the animals' bones. The large Tanystropheus fossils' skulls had been crushed, but Stephan Spiekman, the paper's lead author and a researcher at the University of Zurich, was able to take CT scans of the fossil slabs and generate 3-D images of the bone fragments inside.

"The power of CT scanning allows us to see details that are otherwise impossible to observe in fossils," says Spiekman. "From a strongly crushed skull we have been able to reconstruct an almost complete 3-D skull, revealing crucial morphological details."

The skulls had key features, including nostrils on top of the snout like a crocodile's, that suggested Tanystropheus lived in the water. It probably lay in wait, waiting for fish and squid-like animals to swim by, and then snagged them with its long, curved teeth. It may have come to land to lay eggs, but overall, it stayed in the ocean.

The digitially reconstructed skull of Tanystropheus, using CT scans of the crushed skull pieces. Credit: Stephan Spiekman et al.

Rieppel wasn't surprised that evidence pointed to a water-dwelling Tanystropheus. "That neck doesn't make sense in a terrestrial environment," he says. "It's just an awkward structure to carry around."

So that answered one question, about where Tanystropheus lived. To learn whether the small specimens were juveniles or a separate species, the researchers examined the bones for signs of growth and aging.

"We looked at cross sections of bones from the small type and were very excited to find many growth rings. This tells us that these animals were mature," says Torsten Scheyer, the study's senior author and a researcher at University of Zurich.

"The small form is an adult, which basically sealed the case," says Rieppel. "It's proven now that these are two species." The researchers named the larger one Tanystropheus hydroides, after the long-necked hydras in Greek mythology. The small form bears the original name Tanystropheus longobardicus.

An illustration showing Tanystropheus hydroides hunting. Credit: Emma Finley-Jacob

"For many years now we have had our suspicions that there were two species of Tanystropheus, but until we were able to CT scan the larger specimens we had no definitive evidence. Now we do," says Nick Fraser, Keeper of Natural Sciences at National Museums Scotland and a co-author of the paper. "It is hugely significant to discover that there were two quite separate species of this bizarrely long-necked reptile who swam and lived alongside each other in the coastal waters of the great sea of Tethys approximately 240 million years ago."

The animals' different sizes, along with cone-shaped teeth in the big species and crown-shaped teeth in the little species, meant they probably weren't competing for the same prey.

"These two closely related species had evolved to use different food sources in the same environment," says Spiekman. "The small species likely fed on small shelled animals, like shrimp, in contrast to the fish and squid the large species ate. This is really remarkable, because we expected the bizarre neck of Tanystropheus to be specialized for a single task, like the neck of a giraffe. But actually, it allowed for several lifestyles. This completely changes the way we look at this animal."

This "splitting up" of a habitat to accommodate two similar species is called niche partitioning. "Darwin focused a lot on competition between species, and how competing over resources can even result in one of the species going extinct," says Rieppel. "But this kind of radical competition happens in restricted environments like islands. The marine basins that Tanystropheus lived in could apparently support niche partitioning. It's an important ecological phenomenon."

"Tanystropheus is an iconic fossil and has always been," adds Rieppel. "To clarify its taxonomy is an important first step to understanding that group and its evolution."

Explore further Prehistoric sea creatures evolved pebble-shaped teeth to crush shellfish
As Japan marks 75 years since the devastating attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the last generation of nuclear bomb survivors are working to ensure their message lives on after them.

The "hibakusha" -- literally "person affected by the bomb" -- have for decades been a powerful voice calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

There are an estimated 136,700 left, many of whom were infants or unborn children at the time of the attacks.

The average age of a survivor now is a little over 83, according to Japan's health ministry, lending an urgency as they share their testimonies and call for a ban on nuclear weapons.

"What we hibakusha are saying is we can't repeat (a nuclear attack)," 88-year-old Terumi Tanaka, who survived the Nagasaki bombing, told AFP ahead of the anniversaries.

"To this end, we have to let people know what we experienced, for them to hear the facts."

Tanaka was 13 when the bomb hit his hometown. The attack on Nagasaki killed 74,000 people and came three days after a first bomb devastated the city of Hiroshima, killing 140,000.

He has spent much of his life sharing his experience, hoping that explaining the horrors of nuclear weapons will convince people to support a ban.

But he recognises that the community of those who lived through the attacks is shrinking, and their message will have to be passed on by others in the decades to come.

"We will all pass away, eventually," he said.

"We set up a group called No More Hibakusha Project, which works on preserving records as archives, including what we've written... so that (the next generation) can use them in their campaigns."

Nuclear ban

Tanaka worries at times that interest is fading, acknowledging that speeches by hibakusha often attract no more than a handful of people.

"We do our best," he said. "But if no one comes, it's a swing and a miss."

At 74, Jiro Hamasumi is among the youngest survivors of the attacks. His mother was pregnant with him in Hiroshima when the bomb struck.

It killed his father, most likely instantaneously, and claimed several other relatives in the aftermath.

"Not a day goes by when I don't think about my father," he told AFP.

His knowledge of the attack comes from the accounts of his siblings, who described the dizzying flash and ear-splitting roar that formed the first indication the bomb known as Little Boy had detonated.

His father was at work when the bomb hit, just a few hundred metres from the epicentre. Hamasumi's mother and siblings tried to reach his office the day after but were forced back by the "heat and smell of burned flesh".

When they finally reached his father's office, they found only "something resembling his body". All they could retrieve were a few metal items that survived the flames -- a belt buckle, a key and part of his wallet.

Born in February 1946, Hamasumi escaped the physical effects experienced by many children exposed to radiation in the womb.

But the attack has defined his life, and he has spent decades campaigning against nuclear weapons.

"To me, the nuclear umbrella only means the mushroom cloud," Hamasumi said.

"Hibakusha want the United States to apologise to us, but the proof of the apology is nuclear abolition, we're not after vengeance."

Fading from memory

As the hibakusha age, they are passing the baton to young activists, many from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, who have grown up steeped in the memories of survivors.

Mitsuhiro Hayashida, 28, is the grandchild of a Nagasaki hibakusha and organises events for survivors to share their stories.

He also helps oversee an international online petition for a ban on nuclear weapons, which has garnered more than 11 million signatures.

But he too worries that the attacks are fading from collective memory.

"Today, the children and grandchildren of survivors, like me, are campaigning, but the weight of our words is probably less than half of the testimonies of survivors," he told AFP.

"We really need the world to move towards nuclear abolition while atomic bomb survivors are alive."

That desire is what animates Keiko Ogura, who turns 83 this week and was just eight when the bomb struck Hiroshima.

"We are ageing and don't know when our time will come," she told journalists last month.

"We old hibakusha want to see nuclear abolition as soon as possible, because we want to report it to those who died when we see them (in the afterlife)."
YEREVAN, AUGUST 6, ARMENPRESS. Opposition Bright Armenia party leader Edmon Marukyan has addressed Minister of Emergency Situations Felix Tsolakyan over what he describes as huge amounts of ammonia, liquid ammonia and 300kg of mercury stored at the premises of the currently defunct Vanadzor Chemical Combine in the eponymous Armenian town.

Marukyan raised the issue days after the catastrophic Beirut explosion on Tuesday which involved ammonium nitrate stored at a warehouse.

The opposition lawmaker said the plant doesnt have security and all personnel are not working. He said the chemical materials pose a serious risk to the city of Vanadzor if left unattended. According to the MP, the substances could potentially explode due to unsafe conditions and cause thousands of deaths and major destruction.

Therefore I asked the minister to urgently issue orders to solve the existing risk of explosion at the plant and eliminate the toxic substances, Marukyan said.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
- Ghana's COVID-19 death toll is now 199, according to the latest figures by the Ghana Health Service

- A total of 35,563 people have also recovered and have been discharged

- Ghana's national cumulative tally is 39,075

- Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in

Eight more COVID-19 related fatalities have been recorded, taking Ghanas death toll to 199.

According to the latest update from the Ghana Health Service, 574 new cases were recorded on August 2, 2020, shooting the case tally to 39, 075.

A total of 574 new cases were reported on August 2, 2020. These are samples that were taken from the period 23 June to 1 August 2020 from the lab on August 2, the GHS said.

Dr. Patrick Aboagye. Source: Ministry of Information/Facebook.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: You are also in your final year - WASSCE students tell Akufo-Addo over elective 1st paper (video)

Also, out of the national cases 35, 563 have recovered leaving the active cases at 3, 313.

Regional breakdown:

Greater Accra Region  20,080

Ashanti Region  9,588

Western Region  2,738

Central Region  1,620

Eastern Region  1,579

Volta Region  610

Bono East Region  536

Western North Region  526

Bono Region  439

Ahafo Region  364

Northern Region  354

Upper East Region  282

Oti Region  200

Upper West Region  88

Savannah Region  62

North East Region  9

READ ALSO: Kennedy Agyapong lists 24 properties Dr. Duffour allegedly bought using uniBank depositors' money

Nine of the 95 nurses from Ghana who arrived in Barbados late July on a two-year contract have tested positive for COVID-19, health officials have confirmed.

The Chief Medical Officer of Best Dos-Santos Public health Laboratory, Dr. Kenneth George, disclosed on Saturday, August 1 at a press conference.

The tests were conducted on 248 persons out of which nine of the Ghanaian nurses came out positive with the rest returning negative.

Dr. George said all of them were showing no symptoms and are likely to be in the recovery phase, with only one persons indicators pointing to being in the acute phase. He said everyone who tested positive was immediately placed in isolation.

Senior Minister, Osafo-Maafo tests positive for COVID-19 | #Yencomgh

READ ALSO: Donald Trump: US president defends doctor who said she cured COVID-19 patients

Have national and human interest issues to discuss? Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition?

Your stories and photos are always welcome. Get interactive via our Facebook page!

Source: YEN.com.gh
Integration to enable remote IT support and provide enhanced security solutions

Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO), a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company, today announced that it will join forces with Intel to enable Wipro's LIVE Workspace, Wipro's digital workspace solution with the Intel vPro platform. This joint collaboration will help customers drive business continuity by enabling remote IT support and solutions, as they seek to keep employees productive amid social distancing boundaries and other remote-work limitations that have become the new normal.

Wipro integrated the Intel vPro platform into LIVE Workspace, a suite of digital workplace services to provide remote manageability of devices. This extends to users at home or in the office and provides enhanced protection and security against firmware-level attacks. The combined solution provides practical business continuity services to enable enterprises to rapidly design, deploy, and manage a true remote work experience. Intel recently introduced its 10th Gen Intel Core vPro processors that are built for business to power next generation business computing needs. Wipro will leverage the Intel vPro platform which features Intel Active Management Technology (Intel AMT) and Intel Endpoint Management Assistant (Intel EMA). This will enable remote work and drive seamless productivity and collaboration while giving employees the flexibility to work from anywhere in a safe, more secure and reliable manner.

Satish Yadavalli, Vice President, Cloud and Infrastructure Services, Wipro Limited said, "The collaboration is a testament of our strength and our joint resolve to enhance the value we can create for our customers. We intend to bring together our strong complementary capabilities on remote working tools platforms, desktop application integration and managed services, to help mitigate the impact of the pandemic. Wipro is a leader in workplace management services and Intel in client computing solutions. Together, we can equip enterprises to enhance employee experiences and connectivity to help achieve strategic business outcomes."

"Our partnership with Wipro has been strong and we applaud Wipro's laser focus on driving customer value. The Intel vPro platform is built for business, and Wipro's digital workspace solution is perfect for customers adapting to the new normal of remote workplace management. Together we are delivering on a vision for seamless productivity and collaboration, so people can contribute at the highest level regardless of where they are," said Stephanie Hallford, Intel Vice President of the Client Computing Group and General Manager of Business Client Platforms.

Intel, the Intel logo, and other Intel marks are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries.

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 180,000 dedicated employees serving clients across six continents. Together, we discover ideas and connect the dots to build a better and a bold new future.

Forward-Looking Statements

The forward-looking statements contained herein represent Wipro's beliefs regarding future events, many of which are by their nature, inherently uncertain and outside Wipro's control. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding Wipro's growth prospects, its future financial operating results, and its plans, expectations and intentions. Wipro cautions readers that the forward-looking statements contained herein are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results anticipated by such statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in our earnings, revenue and profits, our ability to generate and manage growth, complete proposed corporate actions, 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. The conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic could decrease technology spending, adversely affect demand for our products, affect the rate of customer spending and could adversely affect our customers' ability or willingness to purchase our offerings, delay prospective customers' purchasing decisions, adversely impact our ability to provide on-site consulting services and our inability to deliver our customers or delay the provisioning of our offerings, all of which could adversely affect our future sales, operating results and overall financial performance. Our operations may also be negatively affected by a range of external factors related to the COVID-19 pandemic that are not within our control. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not limited to, Annual Reports on Form 20-F. 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.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200806005563/en/

Contacts:

Nisha Chandrasekaran

Wipro Limited

nisha.chandrasekaran@wipro.com
She's no stranger to putting on a showstopping display on a night out.

And Chelsee Healey was back at it on Thursday night as she cut a chic figure while out celebrating her 32nd birthday at The Ivy restaurant.

The Hollyoaks star stunned in a strapless, cream ruffled top as she posed up a storm with pal and co-star Jennifer Metcalfe outside the swanky eatery.

Birthday girl: Chelsee Healey was back at it on Thursday night as she cut a chic figure while out celebrating her 32nd birthday at The Ivy restaurant

Birthday girl Chelsee was sure to impress in her ensemble, with her pretty top featuring billowing layers and a floral embellishment.

The star, who plays Goldie McQueen in the Channel 4 soap, teamed her top with a pair of cropped, flared white trousers.

Boosting her petite height, Chelsee added a pair of gold heels, while she carried her essentials in a metallic handbag.

McQueen dream team: The Hollyoaks star stunned in a strapless, cream ruffled top as she posed up a storm with pal and co-star Jennifer Metcalfe outside the swanky eatery

The beauty wore her caramel tresses in bouncy curls which cascaded over her shoulders, while she finished her look with a sleek palette of make-up.

Chelsee was in great spirits as she hugged and giggled with fellow soap siren Jennifer, 36, who was out to help her pal celebrate in style.

The Mercedes McQueen actress also looked stylish in a black tank top and black, leather effect joggers.

Dressed to impress: Birthday girl Chelsee was sure to impress in her ensemble, with her pretty top featuring billowing layers and a floral embellishment

Golden: The star, who plays Goldie McQueen in the Channel 4 soap, teamed her top with a pair of cropped, flared white trousers and added a pair of gold heels and a metallic handbag

Lovely: The beauty wore her caramel tresses in bouncy curls which cascaded over her shoulders, while she finished her look with a sleek palette of make-up

She added a pair of silver star print trainers to her look while she wore her raven locks loose for the occasion.

Their outing comes as Hollyoaks resumed filming last month after it was forced to suspend production for four months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bosses confirmed that stars have returned to the soap's Liverpool set, with temperature checks and social distancing measures in place.

Meanwhile, Hollyoaks has temporarily come off-air from until September, when it will air four episodes a week.

Besties: Chelsee was in great spirits as she hugged and giggled with fellow soap siren Jennifer, 36, who was out to help her pal celebrate in style
(TNS)  With the need for broadband Internet access heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bastrop County is partnering with a nonprofit to analyze accessibility around the county.The county's newly formed Bastrop County Broadband Committee has partnered with the nonprofit Connected Nation Texas to identify areas with deficient Internet access and to find solutions to bring those areas online.According to broadband research company BroadbandNow , 81% of people in the county have access to Internet at speeds above 25 megabits per second, which is the minimum broadband speed as defined by the Federal Communications Commission. Around 75% of people have access to Internet speeds of 100 mbps or greater, which is about 15% lower than the state average. And under 10% of the county has access to speeds of 1 gigabit per second, which is about 30% lower than the state average."Access to health care through the Internet is key to providing our community with vital information as well as effective care," said Bastrop County Health Authority Desmar Walkes, who is leading the local response to the coronavirus pandemic. "The lack of consistent Internet service in Bastrop County limits public access to care, which ultimately costs all of us time, money and, in some cases, lives."The project, funded by Bastrop County Cares, will compile input from local Internet service providers, residents and business owners. Last month, Connected Nation Texas launched a survey for residents, businesses and community organizations in the county. The surveys are specific to the types of Internet users, such as domestic users, agricultural users, educators and heath care providers.The survey data will be used to develop a Bastrop County technology action plan using a Connected Nation program  which charts a course for accelerating local access  that has already developed more than 350 plans for communities across the country."It's so important that everyone take part in this and share what they can about their Internet access," said Bastrop County Cares Excutive Director Debbie Bresette."We understand that our children deserve strong Internet service so they can complete their school assignments, area adults need service so they can work, local senior citizens need service so they can access telehealth options for care, and our businesses need service so they can compete not just locally but globally, keeping their tax dollars here at home," she said.The survey will be available for approximately 90 days since its July launch.
Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani ordered a probe in the fire incident at Shrey hospital in Ahmedabad on Thursday in which eight people lost their lives.

The police are required to send the report to the chief minister within three days, the chief ministers office (CMO) office said. The probe will be led by Sangeetha Singh, additional chief secretary of the home department of Gujarat.

CM Vijay Rupani has ordered a probe in the incident of fire at Shrey Hospital in Ahmedabad. Sangeeta Singh, Additional Chief Secretary (Home Department) will be leading the probe. The CM has ordered for a report within 3 days, the CMO said.

Rupani also announced ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh each to the family of those killed and Rs 50,000 to the injured.

As many as eight people including five men and three women, lost their lives on Thursday morning after a fire broke at the hospital Gujarats commercial hub.

News agency ANI quoted additional chief secretary Rajiv Kumar Gupta as saying that the fire broke out in the ICCU due to short circuit.

The hospital has been sealed now and the 41 patients have been shifted to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel hospital, ANI further quoted him.

Meanwhile, the police are interrogating a trustee of the hospital, Rajendra Asari, joint commissioner of police, Sector 1 Ahmedabad said.

We are taking the help of fire and forensic experts in the investigation, he added.
An Austin bike shop has canceled its contract to sell bikes to the Austin Police Department.

Mellow Johnnys, which was founded by Lance Armstrong, said Wednesday the decision was made "in the context of the current evaluation of community policing."

"We are not anti-police," the bike shop wrote on Facebook. "We do believe our local police force will protect us from the very threats we are receiving right now."

Under the contract with the city, signed in 2019, Mellow Johnny's was to sell 40 Trek Police Bikes each year for five years. The bikes cost $1,495 each for a total purchase of $314,000.

READ ALSO: A San Antonio punk rock band, stark naked and on fire, once caused a stampede in Norway

Trek, the bike's manufacturer, recently spoke out about the use of its bikes during the George Floyd protests.

"Recently we have seen photos and video of Trek bikes that have been used by police in ways that are abhorrent and vastly different from their intended use," Trek said in a statement.

The company wrote that while "the past two weeks have turned the view of police on bikes from a community asset to a liability," bikes could play a positive role by getting officers "out of cars and armored trucks and into the community where trust can be built."

Mellow Johnnys decision was publicized Tuesday in a since-deleted Facebook post by APDs Christopher Carlisle, according to the Austin American-Statesman. He said some of the bike shop's employees had complained to ownership about the department's use of bikes in crowd management.

"The ownership of MJs has decided to listen to three employees and is sending APD an email canceling the four years left on our contract because three employees do not like police officers and did not like us in the store," Carlisle wrote.

A 2019 article in POLICE Magazine described the use of bikes in crowd control, noting that multiple officers can create a "bike fence" by overlapping their tires. The formation "allows for a skirmish line to be created in a mobile field force situation," the magazine wrote.

The response to Mellow Johnnys Facebook post was mixed. A sample: Ally Robinson replied, "I appreciate a business that values its employees and morals over its bottom line," while Mark Smith said, "Your attempt to placate the misguided few will be the downfall of your business."

The bike shop concluded its statement by writing, "We wish this entire community peace and progress and togetherness at the conclusion of these trying times. And we intend to be a part of the discourse, struggle, and growth for Austin, as we have since we opened our doors in 2008."
Some of the more than 1,000 tanks holding treated and untreated wastewater from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant visible at left in this photo of the power plant site from 2013. Credit: Ken Buesseler, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Nearly 10 years after the Tohoku-oki earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant and triggered an unprecedented release radioactivity into the ocean, radiation levels have fallen to safe levels in all but the waters closest to the shuttered power plant. Today, fish and other seafood caught in waters beyond all but a limited region have been found to be well within Japan's strict limits for radioactive contamination, but a new hazard exists and is growing every day in the number of storage tanks on land surrounding the power plant that hold contaminated wastewater. An article published August 8 in the journal Science takes a look at some of the many radioactive elements contained in the tanks and suggests that more needs to be done to understand the potential risks of releasing wastewater from the tanks into the ocean.

"We've watched over the past nine-plus years as the levels of radioactive cesium have declined in seawater and in marine life in the Pacific," said Ken Buesseler, a marine chemist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and author of the new paper. "But there are quite a few radioactive contaminants still in those tanks that we need to think about, some of which that were not seen in large amounts in 2011, but most importantly, they don't all act the same in the ocean."

Since 2011, Buesseler has been studying the spread of radiation from Fukushima into and across the Pacific. In June of that year, he mobilized a team of scientists to conduct the first international research cruise to study the early pathways that cesium-134 and -137, two radioactive isotopes of cesium produced in reactors, were taking as they entered the powerful Kuroshio Current off the coast of Japan. He has also built a network of citizen scientists in the U.S. and Canada who have helped monitor the arrival and movement of radioactive material on the Pacific coast of North America.

The tanks hold a mixture of radioactive isotopes that decay at different rates and that exhibit a range of affinities for seafloor sediments and marine organisms. Credit: Ken Buesseler, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Now, he is more concerned about the more than 1,000 tanks on the grounds of the power plant filling with ground water and cooling water that have become contaminated through contact with the reactors and their containment buildings. Sophisticated cleaning processes have been able to remove many radioactive isotopes and efforts to divert groundwater flows around the reactors have greatly reduced the amount of contaminated water being collected to less than 200 metric tons per day, but some estimates see the tanks being filled in the near future, leading some Japanese officials to suggest treated water should be released into the ocean to free up space for more wastewater.

One of the radioactive isotopes that remains at the highest levels in the treated water and would be released is tritium, an isotope of hydrogen is almost impossible to remove, as it becomes part of the water molecule itself. However, tritium has a relatively short half-life, which measures the rate of decay of an isotope; is not absorbed as easily by marine life or seafloor sediments, and produces beta particles, which is not as damaging to living tissue as other forms of radiation. Isotopes that remain in the treated wastewater include carbon-14, cobalt-60, and strontium-90. These and the other isotopes that remain, which were only revealed in 2018, all take much longer to decay and have much greater affinities for seafloor sediments and marine organisms like fish, which means they could be potentially hazardous to humans and the environment for much longer and in more complex ways than tritium.

"The current focus on tritium in the wastewater holding tanks ignores the presence other radioactive isotopes in the wastewater," said Buesseler. "It's a hard problem, but it's solvable. The first step is to clean up those additional radioactive contaminants that remain in the tanks, and then make plans based on what remains. Any option that involves ocean releases would need independent groups keeping track of all of the potential contaminants in seawater, the seafloor, and marine life. The health of the oceanand the livelihoods of countless peoplerely on this being done right."
Italy's defence ministry said on Wednesday it would strengthen cooperation with Libya, citing a willingness for improved relations with the war-torn country's UN-recognised government. Italian Defence Minister Lorenzo Guerini met in Tripoli on Wednesday with Fayez al-Sarraj, the head of Libya's Government of National Accord, the ministry said in a brief statement. Both countries will collaborate on reclamation and demining activities, the ministry said, while expanding cooperation in medicine and military health within the Misurata hospital, which it said would be moved to a "more functional area". The statement also cited construction of a new hospital centre in Tripoli, and a plan to train Libyan military officers and cadets. The ministry cited a "mutual willingness" to cooperate on defence "for an improvement" in relations. Libya's unity government, with Turkey's backing, is battling forces loyal to strongman Khalifa Haftar, who has support from Egypt, Russia and the United Arab Emirates. A year-long push by Haftar to seize the capital of Tripoli was repelled in June. Italy's foreign minister, Luigi Di Maio, met al-Sarraj in late June, promising that a Mediterranean naval operation to enforce an ongoing arms embargo would be effective. Italy, which is the main arrival point for migrants leaving Libya, signed an agreement with Libya in 2017 for its coast guard to block migrants before they can reach Europe. Rights groups have severely criticised the deal, as migrants are returned to overcrowded detention centres in Libya, where many are victims of abuse and even torture.
Thousands of workers will miss out on a huge rebate after the controversial backpacker tax was ruled as valid.

The Australian Tax Office will deny an estimated 75,000 working holiday-makers any tax return after a Federal Court ruling on Thursday.

The court originally ruled the backpacker tax as invalid after deciding it was 'discrimination based on nationality' in October.

The Federal Court granted an appeal from the Australian Taxation Office and ruled the controversial 'backpacker tax' as valid on Thursday (Woman pictured in a vineyard)

The court decided the tax was invalid in October after British backpacker Catherine Addy (pictured) disputed her tax and it was ruled as 'discrimination based on nationality'

Working holiday-makers have had to pay 15 per cent tax on their earnings in Australia while residents are not taxed on incomes up to $18,200.

This was called into question in October when the court ruled a British woman on a working holiday visa in Australia, Catherine Addy, did not have to pay the tax.

Ms Addy worked in Australia from 2015 to 2017 and disputed her tax bill after returning to the UK.

Her tax was then determined to be in violation of a non-discrimination clause in a double taxation treaty between Australia and the United Kingdom.

This decision meant around 75,000 working holiday-makers could have been eligible for a tax return from the ATO.

But a full bench of the Federal Court ruled the backpacker tax as valid and granted the ATO an appeal on Thursday.

The appeal was mainly upheld as Justices Davies, Derrington, and Steward agreed Ms Addy should not have been considered an Australian resident for tax purposes.

The court overturned its decision and said Ms Addy (pictured) should not have been considered an Australian resident for tax purposes

An estimated 75,000 working holiday-makers (papaya farm worker pictured in Queensland) who were eligible for a tax rebate will continue to be taxed at 15 per cent on their earnings

Australia has a tax treaty with the UK that states working backpackers (a worker at Ashbern strawberry farm on the Sunshine Coast pictured) can qualify as residents for tax purposes

'There is little doubt that while the duration of Ms Addy's presence in Australia for almost 18 months might tend to evidence residency here,

'The nature and quality of her occupation at the Earlwood house weighed heavily against that conclusion, as did her modality of life,' Justice Derrington said.

The original decision said Ms Addy should be considered a resident for tax purposes as she primarily resided at sharehouse in southwest Sydney.

Justice Davies disagreed with his fellow justices on if the backpacker tax was discriminatory.

He said the tax on holiday-makers 'is discriminatory against British nationals resident in Australia who derive such income' and said it was an infringement of the Australia-United Kingdom Double Tax Agreement.

Australia has a tax treaty with the UK, Chile, Finland, Germany, Japan, Norway and Turkey that states working backpackers can qualify as residents for tax purposes.

The treaties state the holiday-workers should not be taxed 'in a more burdensome way' than Australian citizens.

The backpacker tax fixes deductions on all holiday-makers' earnings at 15 per cent.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Australian Taxation office for comment
Becoming a father is a life-changing experience for any man, and Jennifer Hawkins has revealed that was certainly true for her husband, Jake Wall.

The former Miss Universe, 36, noticed a marked shift in Jake's personality after they welcomed their daughter, Frankie Violet, in October last year.

She told 9Honey on Thursday that the property developer, 37, often acts like a total goofball around their child - a side to him she had never seen before.

A whole new man! Becoming a father is a life-changing experience for any man, and Jennifer Hawkins (right) has revealed that was certainly true for her husband, Jake Wall (left)

'It's pretty amazing to see your partner just become a father and be silly with her,' she said. 'He's been silly with me before, but he is next level silly with the baby.

'And the love he shows one, Frankie, and two, me... it's a nice thing.'

It comes after the supermodel revealed how her daily routine has changed since becoming a mother.

Transition: The former Miss Universe, 36, noticed a marked shift in Jake's personality after they welcomed their daughter, Frankie Violet, in October last year

'The biggest thing I've learnt being a mum is that you can't plan a lot. You just have to breeeeeeathe,' she told Body + Soul on Wednesday.

She added that her sleeping has been seriously interrupted now that Frankie, nine months, is her new 'alarm clock'.

'I wake up between five and seven AM - depending on when she wakes up,' she said.

'I check in on Frankie. Sometimes she'll just be babbling, happily in her cot. So usually the first thing I do is just get up and feed her. I can't lie!'

Daddy's little girl: She told 9Honey on Thursday that the property developer, 37, often acts like a total goofball around their child - a side to him she had never seen before

The way they were: Jennifer and Jake are pictured here on June 29, 2005 in Sydney

Jennifer also loves taking Frankie for walks throughout the day, but their evening routine is by far her 'favourite time'.

'From five - it's bath time, and I have a bath with her, which I love. Then Jake comes home from work, then Frankie goes down from between 6.30 to 7pm and then we have "adult time" - it's important! It's really nice,' she said.

Earlier this week, the former Myer ambassador told The Daily Telegraph that she actively 'works on keeping it a bit sexy' with Jake now that they're busy parents.

'You have to be a good wifey, too. [Jake] is not just to the side,' she said. 'You have to work on keeping it a bit sexy.'

Making an effort: Earlier this week, the former Myer ambassador told The Daily Telegraph that she actively 'works on keeping it a bit sexy' with Jake now that they're busy parents

She explained that she tries her best to 'keep it together' and look good for Jake while juggling motherhood.

'Sometimes I will be sitting here at dinner [with a breast pump] and will go, "This is super sexy, isn't it, Jake?"' she joked.

The genetically-blessed couple, who married in Bali in 2013 after eight years of dating, welcomed Frankie on October 17.
Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has sold over $3.1 billion worth of the company's shares this week, according to documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Following tax deductions, the world's richest man will take home an estimated $2.4 billion, Forbes reported on Wednesday.

While the reason behind the current share sales is not known, Bezos had earlier said he would be selling $1 billion worth of Amazon shares every year to fund Blue Origin, his space exploration company.

According to the filings, the latest share sales, which bring the Amazon CEO's total cash out in 2020 to a little over $7.2 billion so far, were part of a prearranged 10b5-1 trading plan, CNBC reported.

This is a quite a huge number compared to the $2.8 billion worth of shares sold by him in 2019. The Amazon CEO still holds more than 54 million shares.

Amazon reported solid second quarter results last week, registering a 40 per cent increase in net sales to $88.9 billion, compared with $63.4 billion in the same period last year.

Bezos, along with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, SundarPichai of Google and Tim Cook of Apple, appeared in a US Congress panel hearing into their companies' anti-competition practices barely a week ago.
NORWALK  Half of the city remained without power Wednesday as crews worked to clear debris and restore electricity after Tropical Storm Isaias swept through the area.

Mayor Harry Rilling described the storm, which passed through the area briefly and brought winds up to 75 mph, as one of the most powerful to ever hit the city.

We know this was a powerful storm, probably more powerful than we anticipated, Rilling said. If the storm had been slower moving, we wouldve been much worse off than we are.

Gov. Ned Lamont said it could be days before power is restored to Connecticut customers that are reporting outages. The governor declared a state of emergency on Wednesday as 700,000 Connecticut residents remained without power, including nearly half of all of the states Eversource customers and 95,000 customers of United Illuminating.

In Norwalk, more than 15,000 Eversource customers were still without power Wednesday morning, including 9,000 city residents served by South Norwalk Electric and Water. But about four hours after power had been restored to its substations, SNEW announced only a couple hundred customers were in the dark.

At this time, there is no estimate for restoration, but information continues to come in and residents should plan to be without power for a few days, said Michele DeLuca, deputy director of emergency management.

Rilling said some customers could be without power through the weekend.

Hopefully, thatll not be the case. he added. Im really disappointed in the situation regarding restoration of power ... I know were not the only city with the state of Connecticut, but to still have 12,000 customers without power after a day and a half is unacceptable.

Rilling has spoken to Eversource, which is sending in crews from Canada, Vermont and New Hampshire to help with restoration. He also spoke with U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4, and U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy to express his concerns about the situation.

The mayor added hes also heard complaints about internet outages, particularly in the Cranbury area where many were without WiFi and cellphone service throughout the day on Wednesday.

The Norwalk Public Librarys main branch, while still closed to the public, set up outlets outside the building Wednesday, so people could charge their devices and access WiFi as many remain working from home as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Charging stations are located in the front of the building on the lawn on Mott Avenue and by the back door off Belden Avenue. There are also free books available there from the friends giveaway cart.

Public meetings scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday were canceled and the graduation ceremonies planned for Brien McMahon and Norwalk high schools have been postponed due to the outages. Summer school classes were also canceled for the day.

The hours for the Yard Waste Site were also extended due to the storm. The site will be open until 5:30 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.

Sen. Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, posted on Facebook around noon Wednesday, saying Eversource was bringing in 1,000 crews from Canada, as well as aid from New Hampshire and eastern Massachusetts once restoration was completed there. There is no estimate on when restoration will be completed, only that it will be done over multiple days.

Duff added that Eversource is still completing damage assessment and clearing hazards, at which point the Department of Public Works can begin clearing roads.

But Rilling said he had not seen a single Eversource truck around the city on Wednesday. Instead, city crews have been out since Tuesday night responding to more than 200 reports of downed trees and wires, prioritizing roads that are completely blocked off.

We need people to report them so we know exactly where they are, Rilling said. We have to prioritize the most serious situations first.

Cranbury Park, Veterans Park, and Calf Pasture/Shady Beach, remained closed Wednesday as cleanup continued throughout the city.

While many residents may want to walk outside to survey the damage, its important to remember that debris can be dangerous, DeLuca said. Downed trees and limbs can contain wires and other hazards. Some wires may still have a current and can dangerous to adults, pets and children.

Some businesses, like The SoNo Collection, remained closed Wednesday due to power outages after closing early Tuesday when the storm began to pick up. The tropical storm caused winds so strong that the area was under a tornado watch for about a half an hour, according to the National Weather Service.

The city was also working with the American Red Cross to provide non-congregate sheltering options in light of the coronavirus for residents who sustained direct damage to their homes. Residents can contact the Red Cross at 877-287-3327.

Residents can contact Norwalk Customer Service at 203-854-3200 to report damage. Eversource customers should report power outages to Eversource. by phone, text or app. The city will continue to post information on its website.

erin.kayata@hearstmediact.com
Sulaimaniyah (Iraq) (AFP) - In Iraq's Kurdistan region and at the country's Muslim Shiite holy sites, trading US dollars for rials from Iran was once big business.

But the money exchange trade has been hard hit by lockdown restrictions to stop the spread of COVID-19, and by deep economic woes in both countries.

Traders in Sulaimaniyah, the second city of Iraqi Kurdistan and close to the border with Iran, have seen dramatic changes.

In March, before restrictions to stem the pandemic which has killed more than 5,000 Iraqis and infected more than 130,000 others, one dollar traded for 150,000 Iranian rials.

Today, one dollar fetches 250,000 rials, money changer Amanaj Saleh told AFP.

Tehran and Washington may be at loggerheads -- coming close to open war in Iraq at the beginning of the year -- but Iraqis have no problem keeping a mix of the rival banknotes in their wallets.

Betting on a rebound in the Iranian currency -- and hoping the coronavirus crisis would pass quickly -- many Iraqis rushed to snap up rials on the cheap.

The dollar-rial trade seemed like a welcome alternative income during the financial turmoil, which has destroyed countless livelihoods.

A survey by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) aid organisation has found 87 percent of people questioned said they could no longer work because of the disease.

- Big losses -

Iraq is going through its worst economic crisis in its recent history, hit by a slump in oil prices that account for almost all public revenues.

Government austerity cuts are expected to be severe.

"Since the appearance of coronavirus and the economic crisis it has caused, people who can no longer work are investing in Iranian currency to make their capital work," said Saleh.

But the trader, a man with a small grey moustache sitting under a huge framed reproduction $100 bill, warned that not all had found profit in the gamble.

"Those who had bought Iranian rials at the exchange rate of 200,000 rials for one dollar, now resell them at the lower rate: 250,000 rials for a dollar," he said.

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Many Iraqis use American dollars and their own dinars interchangeably, with the rates stable between the two currencies.

It is the big swings between dollars and Iran's rial that attract those hopeful of winning on the difference.

American sanctions have long stifled the Iranian economy, and the closure of official border crossings between Iran and Iraq has added to the woes.

Hazar Rahim, a labourer in Sulaimaniyah, found this out the hard way.

"A few days ago, I bought five billion Iranian rials," he told AFP. "I was betting on the market but I was taken by surprise. In a few hours, the rial dropped, and I'd lost 13,000 dollars."

- Religious tourism frozen -

Two of the most holy sites for Shiites, Karbala and Najaf, are both in southern Iraq. Millions of Shiite pilgrims, the majority from Iran, visit every year.

They bring Iranian rials to spend and trade. In past years, the visitors brought in up to five billion dollars -- crucial in a country where almost all tourism is to religious sites.

It also provided hundreds of thousands of jobs and accounted for around 2.5 percent of GDP, according to official figures.

But with travel restrictions in place because of the virus, the shops and restaurants once busy with visitors are closed.

Iranian arrivals had already slowed amid deep economic woes at home since the United States in 2018 withdrew from the Iranian nuclear agreement and reinstated punishing sanctions.

Coronavirus in Iran -- the worst in the region with more than 17,000 deaths and 310,000 infections -- has only worsened the situation of the country.

The crisis has reduced Iran's exports, causing devaluation and inflation.

According to the International Monetary Fund, Iran's GDP is expected to shrink six percent in 2020, after contracting 7.6 percent last year.

In Iraq, meanwhile, tougher times loom as well. The economy is expected to contract almost 10 percent this year.

But with few apparent alternatives, dozens of Iraqis keep coming to the money traders in the hope that times will change, the rial will rise, and they can cash in.


Akshay Kumar is one actor who believes it is important to work hard to keep his success on point. He loves to be on his toes even after being one of the most successful people in the industry for years now. Akshay was the first actor to shoot during the pandemic and now he has become the first actor to leave for an international shooting schedule during the COVID-19 outbreak. The actor jetted off to Scotland this afternoon along with the cast of the film including Huma Qureshi and Lara Dutta, which is something we already informed you all about.





But weve got our hands on pictures that show Akshay was accompanied by wife Twinkle Khanna, son Aarav and daughter Nitara on this shooting schedule. All dressed in proper safety gear, the family seemed to be excited to head for an international trip together amidst the ongoing pandemic. Check out the pictures.
Fogg Filler "The addition of Fogg to our already strong filling systems lineup means our customers have access to over 225 combined years of filling expertise backed by more than 350 team members focused on our keystone filling solutions."-- Doug Stambaugh, ProMach President, Primary Packaging

ProMach, a worldwide leader in packaging machinery solutions, announced today that it has acquired Fogg Filler Company, a market leader in the design and manufacture of rotary filling systems for the liquids industry. The addition of Fogg continues ProMachs growth into more advanced filling capabilities, bringing a strong expertise in Extended Shelf Life (ESL) filling systems for hot and cold applications along with other innovative filling systems for food and beverage customers around the globe.

Fogg, founded in 1956 by Clyde Fogg, began as a small machinery rebuild shop and progressed over the years to become a premier filling machinery provider under the leadership of his sons Jon and Mike Fogg and subsequently his grandson Ben Fogg, continuing the family business for a third generation. Fogg now provides rotary filling, capping, bottle rinsing, cap sorting, and cap sterilization systems to a wide range of companies in the dairy, juice, water, alcohol, food, pharmaceutical, chemical, and other consumer packaged goods markets. The Fogg tradition of quality, innovation, and outstanding customer service has endured for over 60 years, with thousands of machine installations around the world.

The Fogg brand is well known and highly regarded in the marketplace and we are thrilled to welcome the entire Fogg team to ProMach, said Mark Anderson, ProMach President and CEO. Fogg shares the same commitment as ProMach for bringing value and unwavering support to their customer base, which makes them a perfect fit for what ProMach customers have come to know and expect when working with us.

With the addition of Fogg, added Mr. Anderson, ProMach now has a very comprehensive filling technologies portfolio for rigid containers to meet nearly any customer need. And when you layer in ProMachs strong individual product brands and expertise across nearly all parts of the packaging line, whether in filling, capping, labeling, robotics, case packing, or overall line integration, the true value of partnering with ProMach becomes clear. We are in a unique position to meet our customers wherever they are on their packaging journey  whether they need standalone packaging machines, cellular integrated packaging systems, or complete turnkey packaging line solutions  today, tomorrow, and for the long-term future.

Based in Holland, Michigan, Fogg handles a wide variety of customer applications, from flavored waters to wine, milk, orange juice, beer, kombucha, antifreeze, and much more including both carbonated and non-carbonated liquids. Fogg gravity and pressure gravity filling technologies can fill containers up to 5 liters in size, with a broad machinery range from up to 120 filling valve systems that run at speeds up to 1,200 bottles per minute all the way to compact footprint, entry level systems for smaller plants with lower production rates. All Fogg fillers are designed to fit with Foggs other equipment offerings such as cappers, rinsers, sanitizers, and skids and can be fully integrated into monobloc filler/capper combinations or tribloc rinser/filler/capper combinations for a complete turnkey solution. Foggs filling machinery can also be provided with HEPA filtration enclosures, clean in place (CIP) systems, customized safety and sanitation guarding, change parts carts, and much more.

Fogg joins ProMachs Filling Business Line along with existing ProMach product brands Modern, Pacific, and Federal. The addition of Fogg to our already strong filling systems lineup means our customers have access to over 225 combined years of filling expertise backed by more than 350 team members focused on designing, manufacturing, and supporting our keystone filling solutions in the marketplace, said Doug Stambaugh, ProMach President, Primary Packaging. ProMach now has one of the most robust lineups of liquid filling technologies in the world, with gravity, pressure gravity, fill-to-level, net weight, volumetric, and flow meter filling systems available to our entire customer base through our Pacific, Federal, and Fogg product brands. Whatever liquid filling challenges our customers face, we can consult with them to provide the right filling solution for their business. Additionally, we can partner with customers beyond the filler to provide the choice of some of the best technology in the world to make their products stand out on the shelf with decorative labeling systems from our P.E. Labellers product brand and capping systems from our Zalkin product brand.

Current Fogg Owner Ben Fogg will continue leading the Fogg team that includes over 170 employees from their Michigan location. ProMach will continue to invest in Foggs team, brand, products, services, and facility to further advance its position as a leader in filling technologies.

Weve watched Fogg transform over the last decade into one of the strongest filler OEMs in the marketplace under the leadership of Ben Fogg and we are very excited to have him join ProMach, added Mr. Anderson. His stellar team and tremendous products come from their beautiful 107,000 square foot headquarters that brings another flagship facility to showcase all that ProMach can do to deliver value, commitment, and support to our entire customer base.

ProMach and Fogg bring together a tremendous amount of experience and success in complementary and diverse markets, said Mr. Fogg. We share a common strategic vision for the long-term future, and we have an outstanding opportunity to better serve our mutual customers and introduce new customers to some of the most innovative solutions across the entire packaging line. Im proud of the history and success Fogg has had for over three generations and the Fogg legacy remains steadfast and unchanged  we are fully committed to providing the global marketplace with the foremost filling technology and support bar none. I firmly believe with ProMach we have the ideal partner to help us continue our tremendous growth  one that will provide strength, stability, and continued investment so we can continue expanding the Fogg brand into the marketplace with new products, new innovations, new geographies, and much more.

I very much look forward to continuing to lead the Fogg team as we enter the next chapter of our story, added Mr. Fogg. Our entire management team is excited to build and nurture our partnership with ProMach to bring customers around the globe the best experience they can have with a packaging machinery partner.

For more information about Fogg please call them at +1 (616) 786-3644 or visit them online at http://www.FoggFiller.com.

About ProMach

ProMach is a family of best-in-class packaging solution brands serving manufacturers of all sizes and geographies in the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, and household and industrial goods industries. ProMach brands operate across the entire packaging spectrum: filling, bottling and capping, decorative labeling, flexibles and trays, pharma, handling and sterilizing, labeling and coding, and robotics and end of line. ProMach also provides systems and integration including turnkey solutions, design/build, engineering services, and productivity software to optimize packaging line design and deliver maximum uptime.

ProMach designs, manufactures, integrates, and supports the most sophisticated and advanced packaging solutions in the global marketplace. Its diverse customer base, from Fortune 500 companies to smaller, privately-held businesses worldwide, depends on reliable, flexible, technologically advanced equipment and integrated solutions. ProMach is headquartered near Cincinnati, Ohio, with manufacturing facilities and offices throughout North America, Europe, South America, and Asia. For more information about ProMach, visit http://www.ProMachBuilt.com.
Windsor's Ali Roumie said his "heart dropped" when the call he made to his mom, who is visiting Lebanon, went unanswered following Tuesday's port explosion.

He's one of many in the region, anxious to reach family after an explosion Tuesday, which is said to have been caused by 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored at Beirut's port, killed at least 135 people and left more than 5,000 injured.

"Those five minutes between her calling me back did drop my heart, I won't lie," said Roumie, confirming that his mom and other family members are all well and accounted for.

According to Statistics Canada's 2016 census, more than 10,000 are of Lebanese ethnic origin in the Windsor area.

At this time, the Lebanese government said it is putting an unspecified number of the city's port officials under house arrest pending an investigation. The move comes amid speculation that negligence was to blame for the blast.

Sanjay Maru/CBC

Roumie said he first saw the explosion on social media.

"At first I look at the video [of the explosion] and I was like 'there's no way this is real, this looks fake," he said, adding that he's "never seen something happen like this in the world ever."

As soon as he realized what he was seeing was real, Roumie called his mom, who he had brought to the airport last week so that she could fly to Lebanon.

Once they connected, she said everyone was okay, but the blast had shattered the windows of their home.

"It's ridiculous...my prayers go out to them and I hope everything is good," Roumie said.

Anwar Amro/AFP/Getty Images

'It was absolutely one of the scariest days'

For Edy Haddad, a Windsor resident who was born in Beirut and has family living there, Tuesday's explosion was "absolutely horrifying."

"I started praying, I didn't know what else to do," Haddad said when he first saw videos of the tragedy, which he thought looked like "the apocalypse."

Story continues

"We didn't know what was happening, we couldn't contact anybody, we didn't have everybody accounted for," he said. "It was absolutely one of the scariest days I've ever had."

He said some of his uncles were hurt in the accident and that his family experienced property damage.

To help the local community cope with what has happened, Haddad scheduled a candlelight vigil for Friday at 7 p.m. by the peace monument near Ouellette Avenue and Riverside Drive.

"Let us come together in prayer to honour those who have lost their lives and were injured in Tuesday's explosion. Let us pray for peace in Lebanon," reads a post on the Facebook event page.

The event page also says that anyone is welcome to join and should bring masks, candles and keep physical distance.

Windsor's St. Peter's Maronite Catholic Church released a statement Wednesday saying "Our hearts are so heavy and filled with sadness watching the devastating news from Lebanon."

The church says it is the first and only Lebanese church in the region.

Submitted by: Edy Haddad

"We have parishioners who have family members who lost their homes in Beirut and were also wounded. There are still people missing and the rescue and search times are still trying to locate them," the statement said.

The church is holding a mass for the victims and wounded on Thursday at 6 p.m. and Sunday at 11:30 a.m.
By PTI

DHAKA: Bangladesh will construct a monument in the memory of the Indian soldiers martyred in the 1971 Liberation War against Pakistan, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the country's independence, Liberation War Affairs Minister Mozammel Haque said here on Thursday.

He made the comments when outgoing Indian High Commisisoner Riva Ganguly paid him a farewell visit.

"We are constructing the monument coinciding with the 50th anniversary of our independence" crucially backed by India, a ministry spokesman quoted Haque as saying.

The minister recalled with gratitude the cooperation of Indian government and its people during the Liberation War.

Das said that Bangladesh and India were tested friends.

"Some people are out to spread misleading information purposely to worsen the relations between the two next-door neighbours but the Bangladesh-India ties are not so fragile," she said.

Das requested the minister for taking up initiatives for translating the books on the Liberation War in Hindi.

Das also expressed India's willingness to become a part of the golden jubilee celebrations of Bangladesh's independence in 2021.

An official familiar with the monument project said the government has selected 3.5 acres of land at frontier Ashuganj of Brahmanbaia district bordering Agartala.

High Commissioner @rivagdas called on Minister for Liberation War Affairs, H.E. AKM Mozammel Haque on 6/8/2020. They discussed matters of mutual interest and the upcoming 50 year anniversary of Liberation War. pic.twitter.com/TAv6vWMr4W  India in Bangladesh (@ihcdhaka) August 6, 2020

"The site which has been selected has historic significance Indian army fought Pakistanis some decisive wars in 1971 along with our freedom fighters in Ashuganj," the official said.

He said the construction of the monument was expected to begin by this year and is expected to complete in the next two years while its abstract architectural design was aimed to reflect the bonding between the two neighbours.

Haque congratulated Riva on her next posting as Secretary (East) in the External Affairs Ministry, saying the relations between the two nations will reach a different dimension during her tenure.

Bangladesh earlier felicitated Indian soldiers and veterans and posthumously honoured the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and several other distinguished Indians for their role in 1971.

Bangladesh has National Martyr's Memorial on the outskirts of Dhaka where ceremonial homage is paid for all the 1971 martyrs.

The war in 1971 began after the sudden crackdown at midnight on March 25 that year in erstwhile East Pakistan by Pakistani troops and ended on December 16 as Pakistan conceded defeat and unconditionally surrendered in Dhaka to the allied forces comprising Bengali freedom fighters and the Indian Army.

Officially three million people were killed during the nine-month-long war.
Marla Harvey looked closely at her computer screen. Her grandmother, Annie Ballard, looked semi-conscious in her bed at San Miguel Villa, a nursing home in Concord.

Is she sick? Does she have COVID? Harvey frantically asked the aide who was facilitating the Zoom call between her and her grandmother in late May.

She was told no, her 89-year-old grandmother was just tired.

After the call, Harveys mother spent four hours on the phone trying to get more information on her mothers health, but never reached anyone that day.

Harveys mother is the designated decision maker for Ballard, meaning state guidelines entitle her to get information on Ballards health.

Two days after the Zoom call, Harvey learned from the facility that her grandmother had tested positive for the virus, but didnt show any symptoms. Five days after that, she learned her grandmother had died in a local hospital where shed been transported.

Harvey didnt know how widespread the outbreak was at San Miguel Villa until The Chronicle published a story in June detailing that 65 residents were infected, 17 of whom died.

Nearly five months into the pandemic, many nursing homes continue to leave families in the dark about their relatives test results or the prevalence of the virus in the facility. The state requires nursing homes and assisted living facilities to notify family members immediately after a positive test anywhere in the facility. But families and nursing home experts say that doesnt always happen.

Im mad, helpless and angry, Harvey said. We didnt feel like we were getting information from the nursing home. Something needs to change. Months into this and we know that nursing homes have had outbreaks, they shouldve been taking better precautions.

Health care experts and advocates say that reliable information is necessary in understanding how widespread the potentially deadly virus is in these assisted living places. Without it, people are unable to make critical decisions for their families who live in them, including whether or not to remove them.

It is so awful and unnecessarily sad that people are having to worry about people they love in care facilities and not getting any real information from facilities or from the state, said Jessica Lehman, executive director at advocacy group Senior and Disability Action in San Francisco. Especially looking at the appallingly high rate of deaths in care facilities from COVID, that information has to be provided.

Facilities say its not always that easy. Forest Allen, the administrator at San Miguel Villa, said staff follow state and county rules, notifying family members if a resident tests positive or negative. But Allen said families are sometimes confused about how to get accurate information.

We are supposed to notify the responsible party for all of our residents, Allen said.

Its difficult because if its not the responsible party and theyre just a family member, I cant tell them specific medical information because of HIPAA guidelines, he said, referring to a federal health privacy law.

DeAnn Walters, the director of clinical affairs and quality improvement at the California Association of Health Facilities, agreed. She said families often arent aware that facilities cant give out information to anyone but the designated representative.

Furthermore, with the pandemic, staffing shortages at nursing homes, due to sick workers or turnover, make it even harder, Walters said. Nursing homes will have to shift workers to focus on patient care  their first priority  to make sure residents care needs are met, she added.

Nursing homes and assisted living facilities should provide weekly updates regarding COVID conditions, said Michael Dark, a staff attorney at California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform. They should also designate a staff member as a family liaison.

Deaths at nursing homes and assisted care facilities account for nearly 45% of all coronavirus fatalities in California. In Contra Costa County, where Harveys grandmother lived, deaths at long-term care facilities make up more than 65% of all the countys deaths  or 86 out of 131 total deaths  despite accounting for only 7.7% of all positive cases. In San Mateo County, the deaths account for 67% of all the countys deaths  or 80 out of 120 total deaths, despite cases at long-term facilities making up only 9.6% of all positive cases.

In May, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a rule that requires all skilled nursing facilities to report COVID-19 data to the CDC and to notify residents, residents representatives and their families when there are COVID-19-positive residents or health care workers in the facility. The state Department of Social Services, which oversees assisted living facilities, issued a similar guidance a month earlier.

Nursing homes must also alert families and family representatives when three or more residents or staff have respiratory symptoms  for example, shortness of breath  within 72 hours of each other.

That information must be released by 5 p.m. the next calendar day, according to the state guidelines.

Failure to report to the state or alert families could result in federal or state action, which includes fines.

Still, nursing home experts say the lack of information about whether a family member has tested positive isnt a surprise. The industry is mostly for-profit, and having COVID cases could affect future revenues, Dark said.

Some of that may be negligence and incompetence and some of that may be on purpose because they dont want the information to get out, Dark said. Either way, it leaves families in a harrowing black hole of information where theyre not able to make good decisions for their loved ones.

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.

Scott Strazzante / The Chronicle

When Tina Gullotta called her father one April morning, he didnt greet her as doll as he normally does. Instead, he breathed heavily in the phone.

Daddy, are you OK? Gullotta asked. When he didnt answer, she called Atria in Daly City, the assisted living facility where he lived. Gullotta said staff told her that her father was OK, just hungry. Gullotta didnt believe them and instead removed her father from the facility that day and brought him home.

Within two days, her father was in the hospital and doctors suspected he had COVID-19. Her father died from the virus in April.

How could they have missed something so serious? Gullotta said. I dont really understand it, and Im not sure I ever will.

Atria did not return a request for comment.

For two months this spring, Dave Sander didnt know if his 93-year-old father had COVID-19. James Sander seemed well cared for at Carlton Senior Living, his assisted living facility in downtown Pleasant Hill. The facility was routinely testing residents. Sander knew it was likely his father wasnt sick, but wanted to be sure. His father had memory loss and couldnt properly communicate details of the test himself.

So Sander, his fathers representative, asked staff at the Carlton Senior Living facility, who said they didnt know. They said hed need to talk with the doctor at Kaiser, who refused to say. Sanders calls to the executive director of Carlton went unanswered.

I was concerned that I didnt really know what my dad was facing, Dave Sander said. I would wake up in the middle of the night not being able to go back to sleep.

After The Chronicle inquired about Carltons communication protocols and shared Sanders story, Sander heard back about his fathers test result: negative.

The brick wall left Sander and his wife, Debbie Sander, feeling frustrated and afraid. Debbie Sander said the lack of information was unconscionable.

Where is the staff-family relationship? she asked. I realize that they have been fighting fires for at least two months, but that doesnt excuse the lack of honest information for families.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
Hanover (Luzerne County) Area School Board member Frank Ciavarella Jr. posted a meme on Facebook about state Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine, and a Department of Health spokesperson responded by citing previous statements from Levine and Gov. Tom Wolf on transphobic hate comments directed at her.

The meme shows two photos, one of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden with the caption that says I need a running mate with ... The other photo is of Levine, a transgender woman, with the caption Ive got you covered.

Ciavarella, a supporter of President Donald Trump, said the post was intended to poke fun at Biden and not meant to be show any disrespect toward Levine. He said he would take the post down.

I dont judge people on that, Ciavarella said. Im not that type of person.

Maggi Mumma, deputy press secretary for the Health Department, responded Wednesday with an email: Levine remains laser-focused on protecting the health and well-being of Pennsylvanians as we navigate this ongoing pandemic and does not have any further comment, Mumma said, citing previous statements.

Levine addressed LGBTQ harassment and specifically transphobia directed at her in a statement last week. Wolf on July 22 issued a statement in response to a post made on Facebook by the Bloomsburg Fair mocking Levine.

Bloomsburg Fair officials removed the Facebook post July 22 that compared a man in womens clothing to Levine and apologized, claiming the comparison was the result of a poor attempt at a Marilyn Monroe costume.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought hate and transphobia into the spotlight through relentless comments and slurs directed at Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine. ... The derogatory incident involving the Bloomsburg Fair is the latest of these vile acts, which by extension impact transgender people across the commonwealth and nation, Wolf said.

Levine said last week that such comments end up hurting the thousands of LGBTQ Pennsylvanians who suffer directly from these current demonstrations of harassment.

In May, a Pittsburgh radio host repeatedly referred to Levine as sir during a media conference call, and Levine politely asked the man to stop misgendering her.

By Michael P. Buffer, The Citizens Voice, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. (TNS)

More:

Dr. Rachel Levine remains laser focused despite critics, insults: Their health is still important to me

Russ Diamond: Instead of censuring me over mask statement, Gov. Wolf and health secretary Levine should leave
Foreign Buyers are Pumping the Brakes on Home Purchases

Foreign buyers cut back their investment in U.S. residential properties over the 12 months that ended in March. It was the second year-over-year decline.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) annual survey among its members about their transactions with international clients found foreign buyers purchased $74 billion in existing U.S. homes from April 2019 through March 2020, a 5 percent decline from the same period a year earlier. The number of properties purchased dropped 16 percent to 154,000.

Foreign buyers who were U.S. residents, either as recent immigrants or holding the appropriate visas, purchased $41 billion in residential real estate, down 8 percent from the prior period. Foreign buyers living abroad spent $33 billion, a 1 percent decrease. Those two types of international buyers were responsible for 4 percent of the nation's total existing home sales of $1.7 trillion during that period.

"Foreign buyers and recent immigrants have become less of a force in the U.S. housing market over the last couple of years," said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. "A lack of housing inventory - the primary factor hindering domestic buyers - is also holding back some foreign buyers. Additionally, less cross-border travel, falling international trade and fewer foreign students attending American universities are impacting foreign homebuyers."

Persons from China and Canada were the most prolific buyers of U.S. homes, spending $11.5 billion and $9.5 billion, respectively. Those countries have produced the most buyers every year since 2013 although Chinese investment was down more than $2 billion from the previous year. Mexico at $5.8 billion, India at $5.4 billion, and Colombia at $1.3 billion rounded out the top five. Colombia replaced the United Kingdom as the fifth largest country of origin by dollar volume of foreign buyers.

International buyers spent a median of $314,600 on existing homes,15 percent more than the median price of $274,600 for all such U.S. sales. NAR says the difference is due to the location and type of properties purchased. The median purchase by Chinese buyers, $449,500, reflects that more than half the properties were in either California or New York.

"In the upcoming year, better opportunities may become available for foreign buyers in large U.S. cities like New York and San Francisco," said Yun. "New patterns of domestic migration are trending away from expensive cities to more affordable suburbs and small communities because of the pandemic and greater work-from-home possibilities."

Foreign buyers preferred the suburbs to cities; 48 percent purchased in the former location versus 29 percent in an urban area, a trend has persisted for five years. Seven percent bought in a resort area, down from 15 percent in 2009, and reflecting fewer buyers from the United Kingdom and Canada who made many of those purchases.

The Sunbelt remains the preferred destination. Florida led the list for the 12th straight year with 22 percent of international purchases. California ranked second at 15 percent. Texas at 9 percent, New York at 5 percent, and New Jersey at 4 percent completed the top five U.S. destinations.

Thirty-nine percent of purchases were all-cash, with a higher percentage of those transactions, 58 percent, than resident buyers at 27 percent. The highest share of all-cash purchases, 66 percent, were made by Canadian buyers while 40 percent of Chinese buyers also paid cash. Asian Indian buyers were the least likely to pay all-cash at just 8 percent, and the most likely to obtain a mortgage at 87 percent.

Half of foreign buyers purchased the property for primary residence use. Three in four - 74 percent - purchased detached single-family homes and townhouses.

Katie Johnson, NAR's general counsel and chief member experience officer said the association collaborates with local Realtor groups to educate foreign buyers on the opportunities in U.S. real estate and maximize the global business potential in local markets. "NAR and the Realtor brand... has grown to a network of 104 real estate associations across 85 countries, ensuring stable, accessible markets that allow our members to make direct connections with global real estate professionals and sources of foreign investment."
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Linkedin Yunindita Prasidya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, August 6, 2020 20:58 530 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c238b0 1 Business Satu-Data-Indonesia,bappenas,finance-ministry,Administrative-and-Bureaucratic-Reform-Ministry,data-center,big-data Free

Government agencies have reported that data standardization and interoperability, or the ability for data to be exchanged between systems, are among the challenges authorities face in establishing a data portal initiative referred to as Satu Data Indonesia (One Data Indonesia).

The National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), which acts as the programs director, explained that the agency was instituting a standard on data collection and data filing between state agencies in order to increase efficiency within the system.

So far, we know that there is no standard in [our] data, whereas we hope that data can support the planning, execution, evaluation and control of [the country's] development, Bappenas expert staff member and secretariat coordinator of Satu Data Indonesia Oktorialdi said during a webinar on Tuesday.

Indonesia has been struggling with data scattered around different government ministries and institutions, hindering the authorities in devising data-based policies and the public in obtaining accurate data, as institutions publish different figures on the same object.

The Satu Data Indonesia portal, accessible via data.go.id, aims to increase the governments transparency and accountability by providing public access to data from various state agencies, as well as to support data-driven policy-making.

The initiative was officiated in June last year when President Joko Jokowi Widodo signed Presidential Regulation (Perpres) No. 39/2019 on Satu Data Indonesia, ordering state agencies to reinforce the program with data trustees and data producers.

Oktorialdi reported that only 47 of 85 state agencies had named their data trustees for the initiative, calling on the rest of the state institutions to submit the names to Bappenas.

Under Satu Data Indonesias action plan, the agency planned to develop a data center as well as big data in 2021 after strengthening procedures for data collection this year.

However, digital data governance has yet to be adopted equally between different state institutions, further hampering the process.

The implementation of an electronic government system (SPBE) is still being done separately or still shallow and has yet to build collaboration and integration within state agencies, the Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Ministrys undersecretary for institutions and governance, Rini Widyantini, said during the webinar.

According to the ministrys data, the national SPBE index stood at 2.18 in 2019, a 20 basis point increase from last year. Most ministry offices scored well on the index, with 82 percent of 34 ministries achieving the target score of above 2.6.

Meanwhile, digital transformation lags in regional offices, the data show. Of the 384 regional agencies the ministry surveyed, 80 percent scored below target.

To assist with the digital transformation, Rini recommended developing an integrated information technology infrastructure and increasing the human resource capacity, among other things.

Indonesias data governance has seen improvements over the years. Indonesia ranked 88th on the United Nations (UN) e-government index 2020, up 19 places from 2018. The index is published by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs over a two-year period.

The UNs e-government survey states that countries in the Asian region are making progress toward digital transformation, with Indonesia and the Philippines having used digital social registry systems as gateways for social protection programs.

Digital registry systems such as these allow more transparency and credibility in the design and delivery of social protection programs, the report says.

On that note, Sudarto, the Finance Ministrys expert staff member on organization, bureaucracy and information technology, said the ministry was in partnership with the Social Affairs Ministry to deliver social aid to almost 30 million beneficiary families.

He explained during the webinar that the ministry had used existing data infrastructure, in this case, the citizenship identification number (NIK), as data reference, while striving for good data interoperability in the process.

"The data must be well-organized, and there must be interoperability with the entirety of financial data," Sudarto said.
SANFORD, N.C., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Community Outreach program for DisposeRx, Inc., is now available in all 50 states with the addition of Essex CHIPS (Community Health Initiatives & Programs for Students) in Essex, Vermonta non-profit organization that delivers substance abuse prevention campaigns and promotes healthy living.

Essex CHIPS joins 10 other new non-profit partners that signed on in July to work with DisposeRxthe market-leader in at-home drug disposal solutions.

"In October 2018, as part of the federal SUPPORT (Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities) Act, we increased our commitment to local communities by pledging to donate enough DisposeRx packets to dispose of 10 million opioid pills," said DisposeRx President William Simpson. "We are so proud that our Community Outreach program has grown exponentially in less than two years and now can be found in all 50 states."

DisposeRx now partners with 277 organizations  including civic groups, churches, foundations, health departments and law enforcement agencies  by donating packets of its simple at-home medication disposal solution and providing education materials on the importance of safe medication management.

In addition to Essex CHIPS, the other new Community Outreach partners are:

About DisposeRx Packets

DisposeRx at-home medication disposal packets are comprised of materials that are FDA-approved for oral medications and provide a simple, convenient and effective solution for the disposal of unused or expired medications. The active ingredient in the medication is chemically and physically sequestered in a polymer gel when water and the DisposeRx powder are added to a prescription vial and shaken. Patients can use the patented product with pills, tablets, capsules, liquids and powders and can then throw away the vial in the household trash.

About DisposeRx, Inc.

DisposeRx, Inc., a North Carolina-based company, is dedicated to decreasing the risks of drug diversion, overdoses, suicides, accidental poisonings and antibiotic resistance by facilitating medication management behavior change and eradicating the misuse of leftover medications. DisposeRx's market-leading, patented drug disposal packets and education programs are currently available at almost 50% of retail pharmacies and through 90% of the wholesale pharmacy and medical distributors across the nation. For more information, visit DisposeRx.com.

SOURCE DisposeRx, Inc.

Related Links

https://disposerx.com/


Hryvnia strengthens to UAH 27.70 to U.S. dollar on Aug 6

11:55, 06.08.20 4409

The official forex rate against the euro for Thursday is fixed at UAH 32.90 per euro.
Q: Attached are photos of my Japanese maple from 2008 when we moved into our house and this year. You can see how sparse it is becoming. Why would so many of its small branches be dying and dropping?

A: Ive had variants of this same question from many locations across Texas this spring  far more than usual. Ive even seen it in my own Japanese maples. I think part of it could be attributed to the unusual weather of late summer and fall last year. Part of it is probably due to the fact that many more people now grow Japanese maples than ever before, so there are bound to be more questions.

Trying to help you, I spent most of an hour online researching twig death of Acer palmatum and didnt really find any specific cause. I think it must be primarily environmental. Your tree is so handsome, I would suggest you have a certified arborist do a close-up inspection of it to look for something I cant pick up from the photos.

Q: Last spring I purchased a Lady Banksia rose from a very reputable nursery. I put it in a pot against a brick wall with a trellis. I watered and fed it and enjoyed its blooms. But since then all Ive had is green leaves. Did I buy a dud?

A: Lady Banksia is a spectacular rose. It grows vigorously to be 15 or 20 feet tall and wide, so I have trouble picturing it in a container for very long. Hopefully you were also aware that Lady Banksia, like many of the other old roses, is a spring-only bloomer. It has the one round of spring flowers, then it produces only vegetative growth until the following spring. Thats why the only pruning that should be done to it should come following its bloom.

Q: I thought I would try an impatiens. It bloomed, grew leggy, and I trimmed it. Half the plant died and the other half is growing leggy again. I brought it inside to get it out of the heat. What more can I do?

A: Impatiens plants historically have gone downhill in Texas as temperatures have climbed above 90 to 95 degrees repeatedly. Theyre much more satisfied in climates that range from 65 to 85 degrees daily. In those conditions they do best in morning sun and with shade in the afternoon, but they are not houseplants.

I generally use them for bright color in my landscape from March through June, somewhat as I do geraniums. There are selections that are somewhat more tolerant of heat, but it sounds like you did not get one of them.

Q: I planted a magnolia in my backyard six years ago. It has not done well. I fertilize and water it properly, or at least I think I do. Can you tell me what more I can do? Photo attached.

A: Ive seen many magnolias that look just like yours, including one in my own landscape many years ago. They are not bothered by insects or diseases.

I can almost guarantee you that your tree got too dry one or more times years ago and that it has struggled ever since to fill back in. I allowed the same thing to happen to one of mine, and it took it a couple of years of applying nitrogen (lawn fertilizer, but being careful never to have a weedkiller included) and watering diligently to get it back on track. Its been fine ever since. Youll get there.

Q: I have crape myrtles growing outside my apartment windows. Im new to Texas and just learning the plants. Are they considered shrubs or trees?

A: There are 150 or more varieties of crape myrtles in the nursery trade. Some are dwarf, growing only to 3 to 5 feet tall, so they would always be used as shrubs. But the majority grow to be much taller.

Genetically they are all shrubs, but if we remove side branches and unwanted trunks, we can train them to be small trees. Landscapers began doing that across Texas and through the crape myrtle zones starting around 1960 as city lots were growing smaller and the need to find small landscape trees was increasing.

Mail questions to Neil Sperry, c/o Features Department, San Antonio Express-News, P.O. Box 2171, San Antonio, TX 78297-2171, or email him at SAENgardenQA@sperrygardens.com.
 Flash

Chinese President Xi Jinping sent on Wednesday a message of condolence to his Lebanese counterpart, Michel Aoun, over the huge explosions in the Lebanese capital Beirut.

In his message, Xi said he was shocked to learn about the huge explosions in Beirut, which caused heavy casualties.

On behalf of the Chinese government and people and in his own name, Xi extended profound condolences to the victims, conveyed heartfelt sympathies to the bereaved families and the injured, and wished the injured a quick recovery.
In a shock move, Nova Scotia premier Stephen McNeil has announced he will be leaving politics, ending a 17-year political career, the past six years of which he spent as the provinces leader.

Citing the demands on his family, McNeil told reporters Thursday hed decided it was time for a change.

Its time for someone else to lead the province  give it some new energy, he said.

Let me be clear, Im still enjoying the job. Im not leaving because I dont like the job. I love the job, as a matter of fact. And Ive had tremendous support.

He said he had, earlier in the year, considered making the announcement in April, but delayed that decision when the coronavirus pandemic hit.

His decision now is a matter of timing, in order to allow his Liberal party to choose a new leader. He said he will stay on as premier until that time.

His announcement caught many off guard. McNeil, who was first elected premier in 2013, and re-elected in 2017, had previously said he expected to run for a third term. He said hed only advised his party and his caucus of his decision earlier Thursday morning.

Many people are surprised today that I work with, and Im sure many Nova Scotians are surprised, he said.

Sounding at times emotional  talking about his family  at times defiant  speaking about his battles with unions  and at some points just tired, McNeil said hes proud of his track record.

I spent the last six years doing what I believe is in the best interest of all Nova Scotians. Not everyone agreed with that, and I appreciate that. But Im leaving office, knowing that I believe in my heart that I did what was in the best interest of all of us, not in the best interest of a few of us.

He said he considers among his key accomplishments promoting growth of the private sector, promoting exports from Nova Scotia, and keeping a handle on the cost of public-sector wages.

That last item comes with a price, though, because the premier will also be remembered for some epic public battles with teachers unions, health-care unions and civil servant unions.

His government has also faced criticism for a lack of transparency. As he leaves, Nova Scotia is anticipating a public inquiry into the events surrounding the Portapique shooting in April, and a review of the coronavirus outbreak at Northwood long-term care facility in Halifax, where more than 50 residents died after contracting the virus.

In the former case, public pressure caused the federal and provincial governments to backtrack on what would have been a secretive review process in order to establish a public inquiry. In the latter, calls are growing to change the process from a review to an open public inquiry also.

But the time was likely right for him to walk away, said Lori Turnbull, director of the School of Public Administration at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Hes ending his term as premier in a most unusual time; in some ways one of the most tragic moments in the provinces history, said Turnbull, citing the COVID crisis and the Portapique massacre and upcoming inquiry.

But hes coming through that as somebody who was visible to Nova Scotians throughout the pandemic, and after the massacre  almost every day.

With the province dealing with the coronavirus epidemic better than most, and an inquiry on the way for the Portapique shooting, a lot of urgent matters have been handled, said Turnbull, opening the door for McNeil to step down.

He can leave knowing that its a responsible choice for him, she said. And like he said, Nobody can accuse me of leaving at a politically opportune time. Im leaving on my own terms. And I think when you give yourself to public office like that, thats important to you. He doesnt feel chased out of office.

Notwithstanding his pre-March 2020 accomplishments, the thing people will mostly closely associate McNeil with will be his response to the pandemic  including what became a rallying cry after he told residents to stay the blazes home.

Theyll remember him for COVID, Turnbull said. Theyll remember his absolutely matter-of-fact down-home approach.

And theyll remember him as a compassionate leader who was absolutely shocked over the (Portapique) massacre.

Theyll also remember him as somebody who didnt get along with unions and who made changes to education that a lot of people did not agree with, and still dont agree with.

McNeils successor will not have an easy row to hoe. They will inherit an $853-million deficit, rather than the $55-million surplus projected at the beginning of the year  thanks to COVID.

It will fall to them to usher the province back to economic stability in a volatile and unstable environment. They will have to repair relationships with unions, or choose to exacerbate the fractures there for the sake of that economic recovery.

They will also have to choose whether or not to take the path to a more transparent government, whether that might mean speaking to and being more accessible to the legislature, or the media, or the public, in terms of upcoming reviews and inquiries.

The person who takes this on is going to have an enormous responsibility. And this is not going to be easy work, said Turnbull. This is a very daunting task.

That person wont have to deal with the expected second wave of COVID, though; McNeil says hell be around to deal with that.

And though it might seem that McNeil, as an outgoing leader, will be hamstrung in his decisions, his mandate as manager of the provinces epidemic response will not suffer, said Turnbull.

But he is unlikely to make decisions with long-term consequences outside of the coronavirus context.

I think this is a sign that the government does not have new initiatives planned from now until the next election, in terms of non-COVID things, she said. I think hes looking toward COVID management and passing the reins before any major approach to economic recovery begins.

For McNeils part, his professed plans are a lot simpler.

Im looking forward to playing a bit of golf with (family) and spending some time and not being blamed for everything, he said, chuckling.

SM Steve McKinley is a Halifax-based reporter for the Star. Reach him via email: stevemckinley@thestar.ca or follow him on Twitter: @smckinley1

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An 'extreme' stalker accused of tormenting a Utah family by sending them more than 500 unwanted services has pleaded guilty to one count of cyberstalking.

Loren Okamura, 44, is said to have ordered food deliveries, locksmiths and prostitutes, to the home of Walt Gilmore and his family for more than a year.

The family's attorney Nathan Crane said Okamura, from Hawaii, targeted the Gilmores because he felt 'slighted' by a member of the family, though he declined to provide more specifics.

Okamura entered the pleas during a video conference hearing based out of U.S. District Court in Utah last week. He is scheduled to be sentenced October 5.

His guilty plea capped off a case that prosecutors called an 'extreme' example of the darker and seedier side of modern technology.

Okamura's online stalking in 2018 and 2019 targeted the Gilmore family, who live in a quiet, middle-class suburb of Salt Lake City, prosecutors alleged.

He sent one woman threatening messages and posted her picture and address online, authorities said. In one email he is said to have told her she should 'sleep with one eye open and keep looking over her shoulder.'

Loren Okamura, 44, was accused of sending 'food deliveries, repairs, tow trucks, locksmiths, plumbers and prostitutes' to a family's home in Utah (pictured)

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. They were also forced 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.

Utah police went to the North Salt Lake house more than 80 times over a four-month period from November 2018 to February 2019.

Police estimate the combined loss to companies is more than $20,000 in wages and uncollected fees.

This year two teens arrived at the house to sell fishing equipment for an agreed $100, according to a classified ad.

In March, a man with a health condition came by to be driven to Portland as per and agreement in a Craig's List ad.

'He was really upset,' Gilmore said. 'He needed someone to drive with him.'

A police cruiser was also parked in front of the home around the clock. North Salt Lake Police Sgt. Mitch Gwillian previously called it 'stalking on steroids'.

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 didn't have for the 18 months when he was stalking them.'

Gilmore previously said: 'A family member knows him but does not have any further interaction with this individual and this is his way of getting back at our family because we don't want to have anything to do with him.'

Gilmore added: 'My wife is scared to death constantly. My other family members don't like to go outside because they don't know who's coming.'

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 he's 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.

Utah Attorney General John Huber, pictured right, reported the arrest in a press conference in November last year. At left is Sgt. Jeff Plank of the Utah Department of Public Safety, who was assigned to the FBI's cybercrime task force

Okamura didn't offer any apologies or explanations during Monday's 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.

'It's 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 wasn't arrested until late November because police struggled to find him because he didn't have a permanent address or job and authorities said he was 'savvy' with technology used to mask his phone's location.

Prosecutors have said they have records from Okamura's cellphone and Apple ID to support the charges.

Vanessa Ramos, his federal public defender in Utah, declined to comment after the hearing.

Okamura's 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.
ORLANDO, Fla.  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rescinded an order requiring people traveling from New Jersey, New York and Connecticut to the Sunshine State to quarantine or isolate for 14 days.

The order signed by DeSantis and made public Thursday also eliminated detailed requirements for when restaurant employees should be kept from reporting to work because of coronavirus concerns.

Early in the national outbreak, DeSantis, a Republican, ordered that travelers arriving in Florida from then-hard-hit New York City and its suburbs quarantine themselves for two weeks, giving them a lot of the blame for spreading the disease in his state. But New Yorks statewide daily infection-rate has plummeted since late April and is now about one-tenth Floridas even though the states have similar populations.

As cases shot up in southern and western states and decreased in the New York area this summer, Democratic New York, New Jersey and Connecticut governors Andrew Cuomo, Phil Murphy and Ned Lamont issued their own order in June, requiring residents in several states, including Florida, to quarantine upon arriving in their states

DeSantis' latest order also eased up the detailed requirements for when restaurant workers should be kept home. An earlier order had spelled out that restaurant workers should stay home if they were showing COVID-19 symptoms, had been in contact with an infected person, had traveled through an airport or been on a cruise ship in the past 14 days or had been ill with the virus but hadn't had two negative test results.

The latest order replaces those details with language saying the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation should ensure restaurants have screening protocols that follow protocols from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Meanwhile, Florida on Thursday reported 7,650 new coronavirus cases. The state now has a total of 510,389 cases, second only to California, and at least 7,781 deaths.

It also reported 120 new deaths from the virus, bringing the seven-day average in reported daily deaths to 169. Thats down from a high of 185 deaths and below 170 deaths for the first time in a nearly a week. Floridas rate of deaths over the past week is second only to Texas, and its third behind Mississippi and Arizona in per capita deaths.

Patients being treated in Florida hospitals for COVID-19 were down by about 270 cases from the previous day to 7,349 patients  more than 2,000 fewer than two weeks ago.

Florida also logged results of more than 100,000 tests for the disease, returning to levels of testing seen prior to the three-day shutdown of state-run drive-through test sites last weekend because of Tropical Storm Isaias.

Also on Thursday, figures released by the Department of Labor showed that the number of Floridians filing new jobless claims dropped last week by more than 17,500 from the previous week. There were 73,955 new claims for unemployment benefits filed last week in Florida, a drop from the previous week's 91,462 claims.

The report from the U.S. Department of Labor noted that last week there were fewer layoffs in agriculture, construction, manufacturing, retail and service industries than the previous week.

Nationally, the number of applications for unemployment benefits dropped by almost a quarter million to 1.2 million new claims.

Since the pandemic started in March, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity has confirmed 3.2 million jobless claims and paid out $12.8 billion in benefits.
And finally: Five years of Hamilton

Five years ago today, Lin-Manuel Miranda took his biggest shot yet. He opened his musical Hamilton on Broadway, and ever since  until the coronavirus outbreak interrupted  electrified crowds have been humming along to the shows rap battles and tongue-twisting lyrics.

To mark the anniversary, I spoke with my colleague Michael Paulson, who has covered the musical since its pre-Broadway run at the Public Theater, about the shows impact and influence:

Q: Why does Hamilton still resonate so widely five years later?

A: First, its genuinely excellent. Second, the subject matter (America, and more specifically Americas revolutionary origins and aspirations) and the casting choices (predominantly Black, Hispanic and Asian-American) feel important and contemporary. And third, it was, at least until theaters shut down, ubiquitous  the show everyone talked about, which made it a must-see.

What influence has the show had on musical theater since its debut?

I want to believe that the success of Hamilton is helping to embolden writers and producers to take more risks, topically and musically. Its hard to know what the next big smash will be, and it undoubtedly wont look anything like Hamilton, but I think everyone who loves theater hopes that the show will have inspired a new generation of musical theater writers to be ambitious and adventurous with their choices.

With discounted tickets and the move to Disney+, what is the musicals legacy when it comes to increasing access to Broadway productions?

Its mixed: Its true that there were substantially discounted lottery tickets and free shows for students at schools with high percentages of low-income families. The shows artists have also done an amazing job engaging with their fans. But seeing the show on Broadway, and in many other cities, is still quite expensive. (The best seats cost $847 before the pandemic.) That kept the show unaffordable for many people.

Its Thursday  write like youre running out of time.

Metropolitan Diary: Sideways
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Read our full Opinion Policies here. Updated on 10/7/2020
LAKE COUNTY -- Lake County to date has the third lowest number of positive COVID-19 cases in Michigan's lower peninsula, the lowest in the region, and the lowest in Health Department District No. 10.

Over half of the county's cases have recovered. The state's definition of recovered is if someone survives 30 days past confirmation of being positive.

Confirmed positive cases as of July 31, according to DHD No. 10 are, Lake County - 15, Crawford County - 86, Kalkaska County - 35, Manistee County - 30, Mason County - 84, Mecosta County - 50, Missuakee County - 26, Newaygo County - 238, Oceana County - 442, and Wexford County 54.

For more information visit dhd10.org.

On July 29, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer extended executive order 2020-160, amending Michigna's safe start order, prohibiting any indoor social gathering of more than ten people.

At the same time, the order closed bars across the state, including the Travers City region and the Upper Peninsula.

For more information on executive orders visit michigan.gov/COVID-19.

Lake County Emergency Management reminds residents to continue to take steps to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus by wearing face coverings in enclosed public spaces and crowded outdoor spaces.

COVID-19 spreads mainly among people who are in close contact. All of us have droplets in coughs and sneezes that can carry COVID-19 to others. Coughs spray droplets at least 6 feet. Sneezes travel as far as 27 feet. Droplets also may spread when we talk or raise our voice.

When you wear a mask, it keeps more of your droplets with you. A mask also adds an extra layer of protection between you and other people's droplets.

For more information on how to stop the spread of COIVD-19, visit dhd10.org.

Assistance continues to be available to families in need.

The Feeding America food truck will be at St. Ann's Senior Center, 1091 Maple St., Baldwin, at 1 p.m., Friday, Aug. 21 and at Grace Lutheran Church, 8636 M-37, Baldwin, at 10 a.m., Tuesday, Aug. 25.

The Bread of Life Pantry is open every Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. They offer food and financial counseling. They are located at 870 Beech St., Baldwin. For information call 231-745-3274.

St. Ann's meals on wheels continues to deliver food to homes in the area, and they are giving out Farm to Families food boxes. For information call 231-754-7201.

Baldwin community schools feeding program is on Mondays and Thursdays from 9 to 11 a.m. at the school.

Houseman's is offering curb-side grocery pick-up to seniors and at-risk populations. Call 231-745-2761 to provide a shopping list and secure payment.

Yates Dial-A-Ride is offering free pick up and delivery of food and medicine to seniors and vulnerable populations. For information call 231-745-7311.

August is National Immunization month. With back-to-school time occurring in August, the Michigan Department of Community Health encourages infants, children, college student and adults to see their family doctor to update their immunizations. For more information visit Michigan.gov.mdhhs.

With the warmer weather, many residents are using campfires and burn pits. Before you light a fire, be sure you know what is in it. Fires at home or at a campsite should be made with only natural materials like wood, brush and logs.

Burning plastic, foam or other hazardous substances releases harmful chemicals into the environment. That includes items such as plastic cups, food packaging, paint and electronics. These items should be recycled and not burned.

For more information visit Michigan.gov/OpenBurning.

(MDHHS) statewide mental health hotline: 888-PEER-753 (888-733-7753).

Please sign-up for CodeRED by calling (231) 745-2711. CodeRED is Lake County's emergency alerting system.
A UN-backed tribunal in charge of the investigation of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has postponed final ruling on the case owing to the Tuesday deadly blast that rocked capital Beirut and killed more than 113 people.

The Netherlands-based court, the worlds first international tribunal set up to probe terrorist crimes, said in a statement that the verdict slated for Friday, August 7, has been postponed until August 18.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) is deeply saddened and shocked by the tragic events that shook Lebanon yesterday. The Tribunal expresses its solidarity with the Lebanese people in these difficult times, the statement said.

Today, the STL Trial Chamber issued a scheduling order postponing the pronouncement of the Judgment in the Ayyash et al. case, which it had scheduled for Friday 7 August 2020. This was out of respect for the countless victims of the devastating explosion that shook Beirut on August 4, and the three-day of public mourning in Lebanon.

Countrys President Michel Aoun Wednesday requested two-week of state of emergency after the unparalleled explosion ripped through the Lebanese capital.

Four alleged members of Hezbollah, a powerful Shia movement, are standing trial in connection with the 2005 powerful bomb explosion that killed Hariri and 21 other people.

Hariri was Lebanons Sunni Prime Minister until 2004 when he resigned over Syrias role as a power-broker in the country.

Prosecutors believe Hariri was slain because he was perceived as a severe threat to Syrias control over Lebnon.

Hezbollah, an ally of the Syrian regime, has refused to hand over its members of the court.
At issue are rules that establish new criteria for who can be considered dependent on the government for public assistance and therefore disqualified for green cards and a path to U.S. citizenship. Under the 2019 Department of Homeland Security policy, immigrants who are in the United States legally are considered public charges and ineligible if they use any benefits or are declared likely to someday rely on such assistance.
Leadership, management training necessary to improve education

Leadership and management training plays an important role in improving educational quality and fulfilling the demands of modern society, experts said at a meeting held last Wednesday in Ho Chi Minh City.

First-graders at Tran Nguyen Han Primary School in District 8, Ho Chi Minh City



At the roundtable discussion, the chairman of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation (SEAMEO), Pehin Abu Bakar Apong, said that such training had become urgent, particularly in developing countries like Vietnam.

Dr Ho Thanh My Phuong, deputy head of SEAMEO\'s Regional Training Centre in Vietnam, said the Ministry of Education and Training in Vietnam has strongly urged this kind of training, saying it should be offered to improve human resources.

Asso Prof and Dr Mark Power Robison of the University of Southern California said that leaders and managers of educational institutions face challenges to reform their institutions on a large scale in order to attract teachers and students.

Leaders need to develop the capacity to transfer experiences in educational development from other countries.

Dr. Witaya Jeradechakul, the head of the secretariat of SEAMEO, added that leadership, management and functional competencies were vital for leaders and managers.

They need the critical and synthesizing minds as well as foresight, he said.

Foresight competence helps leaders and managers decide the ways their organisation would operate in future in order to achieve the best results, he added.

They can foresee obstacles and then reduce these obstacles\' negative influences on their organisation\'s development, thanks to foresight capacity, he added.

At the workshop, Phuong said leadership and management-training programmes had been carried out in recent years in Vietnam.



Phuong said these programmes had attracted many leaders and managers, including rectors, principals, deans and vice-principals of schools, universities and heads of educational departments and offices nationwide.



Educational institutes implementing leadership and management training programmes include pedagogy universities, the institutes of education management in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi and SEAMEO RETRAC, she said.

Vietnam\'s government has worked with the European Community to carry out a project on reform of education management, she added.
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An Air Force C-17 Globemaster III landed at Beirut's airport Thursday with the first pallets of relief supplies from the U.S. after the Lebanese capital was shattered by immense explosions in the port area Tuesday, U.S. Central Command said.

The first flight by the 816th Air Expeditionary Airlift Squadron from Al Udeid Air Base in the Gulf state of Qatar brought 11 pallets of food, water and medical supplies.

Read Next: Meet the Only Man to Witness All 3 WWII Atomic Bomb Blasts

"We are closely coordinating with the Lebanon Armed Forces, and expect that we will continue to provide additional assistance throughout Lebanon's recovery effort," Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of CENTCOM, said in a statement.

Two more CENTCOM C-17 relief flights are expected to reach Beirut by Friday, CENTCOM said.

At a news briefing, chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said the scope of military support of relief efforts in Lebanon will be coordinated through the State Department.

Hoffman also sought to avoid speculation on what may have triggered the blast in a waterfront warehouse where more than 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate was stored for at least six years, according to the Lebanese government.

At the White House on Tuesday, President Donald Trump said the blast may have been the result of an attack or a bomb, but on Wednesday said it may also have been an accident.

Also Wednesday, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said initial indications were that it was an accident, but added that the assessment was preliminary.

"The investigation into the explosion is ongoing," Hoffmann said. "We're going to defer to and give the Lebanese government space to complete their investigation and reach their conclusions. I'm not going to offer any conclusions from the U.S. government or from the intel community today."

He said the U.S. is prepared to work with the Lebanese on the investigation "if they ask for assistance." Lebanese officials have speculated that the blasts were caused by a fire in a nearby building that triggered the ammonium nitrate.

In Beirut -- riven by war, civil unrest, political corruption and terrorism dating back to the 1970s and now facing economic collapse -- Lebanese authorities declared it a "disaster city" and imposed a two-week state of emergency.

The death toll has been reported at 137, but that is expected to rise as hundreds are still listed as missing after blasts that were felt in Cyprus, nearly 150 miles away. At least 5,000 are believed to have been injured and about 300,000 have lost their homes, according to Lebanese officials.

French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Beirut on Thursday to pledge that France, the former colonial power, will deliver aid. He told an angry crowd in mostly Christian East Beirut that he is backing a new "political pact" for Lebanon to address reform and root out corruption.

The crowd shouted back, "They are terrorists," referring to the existing political leadership and a government in which they have lost faith, according to CNN.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.

Related: Fireworks, Ammonium Nitrate Likely Fueled Beirut Explosion
A recent Washington Post article asserts that the effects of administration of puberty blockers (GnRHa) to minors presenting with gender dysphoria (GD) are reversible. In support, the Post cites an American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Policy Statement. However, public sources and even the Policy Statement itself disclose information belying reversibility. The AAP Policy Statement states: reversibility is based on the little data that are currently available. A report of an American Psychiatric Association (APA) Task Force clarifies there is not just an issue of little available data, but, rather, it is a complete lack of randomized controlled treatment outcome studies, and that is one reason why there is no consensus regarding treatment of children presenting with GD and why opinions vary widely among experts as to treatments. The policy statement further admits: The effect of sustained puberty suppression on fertility is unknown.

Bioethicist Michael Cook reports that, according to Nature magazine, only in 2017 did the National Institutes of Health launch the first prospective study to examine the effects of drugs that block puberty until a teenagers body and mind is mature enough to begin cross-sex hormone treatment. The study (per the grant application) will be the first in the U.S. to evaluate longitudinal outcomes of medical treatment for transgender youth and will provide essential evidence-based data on the physiological and psychosocial effects and safety of treatments currently used for transgender youth.

Given that there are and have been no randomized longitudinal treatment outcome studies and the AAP admits that the effect of suppression on fertility is unknown, there can be no credible claim that use of puberty blockers is either a safe or reversible treatment for children presenting with GD.

Information from the U.K. reveals actual evidence as to physical harm and ethical issues arising from administration of puberty blockers. In 2011 the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust (Tavistock) started an experimental treatment program for minors presenting with GD using puberty blockers. Many professionals were and are opposed to the program. After continued program noncompliance with requirements to provide detailed outcome reports, many have sought to determine the results of the program, even to the point of filing a Freedom of Information demand. Oxford Professor Michael Biggs reviewed a 2019 report from the government oversight Health Research Authority (HRA) related to its investigation into the experimental Tavistock program. Biggs stated several observations after his review: (a) For a statistically valid and meaningful longitudinal study to result, it would be necessary to follow-up on outcomes for each participant into adulthood. That was not done because the consent forms signed by or on behalf of participants only permitted follow-up until age 16. (b) Tavistock gave children and parents incomplete and misleading information, which contradicted the research proposal. Whether they could provide informed consent, in such circumstances, is open to serious question. (c) Tavistocks director admitted: The blocker is said to be completely reversible, which is disingenuous because nothings completely reversible.

The HRA itself concluded: Researchers and clinical staff should consider carefully the terms they use in describing treatments e.g. avoid referring to puberty suppression as providing a breathing space, to avoid risk of misunderstanding. In other words, parents and the public are on warning that puberty blockers should not be represented or considered to be reversible and do not result in a mere pause or time to decide or breathing space to explore options.

Biggs described additional negative outcomes of the Tavistock program which he gleaned from documents from Tavistock or its endocrinologist:

1. there was no overall improvement in mood or psychological wellbeing using standardized psychological measures.

2. Natal girls showed an increase in internalising problems from t0 to t1 [after 12 months on GnRHa] as reported by their parents.

3. After a year on GnRHa, a significant increase was found in the first item I deliberately try to hurt or kill self.

4. Partial suppression [of sex hormones by GnRHa] may produce more side effects due to hormone swings, and also a lowering in mood leading to clinical depression. Expectations of improvement in functioning and relief of the dysphoria are not as extensive as anticipated, and psychometric indices do not always improve nor does the prevalence of measures of disturbance such as deliberate self-harm improve.

Finally, Biggs refers to a recent article (Tobin, Ting, and Butler 2018) cited by Tavistock, emphasizing that bone density did not decline, in absolute terms, after GnRHa was administered, misleading the reader because growing children need bone density to increase. The article did admit that the children did experience a decline relative to the normal standard for their age group, a decline especially marked for girls. Biggs graphed the actual distributions implied by the articles figures:

A critical prerequisite for dispensing of medical and psychiatric advice and treatment (including puberty blockers) is the securing of informed consent from all children presenting with GD (and/or their authorized parents or guardians). Examination of two publicly available informed consent forms (Childrens and Fenway) reveals that such forms may be inadequate, misleading, or outright false. Missing is the information described above and disclosure of other material adverse medical, social, and economic risks and consequences, both of treatment and of transition, such as (a) findings in a review of 88 studies that an estimated 31.0% of transgenders (37.9% for trans women and 13.1% for trans men) are engaged in the sex trade, (b) meta-analysis estimates that a quarter (22-28%) of transgender women are living with HIV, and more than half (an estimated 56%) of black/African American transgender women are living with HIV, and (c) findings in a 2018 study that 87.5% of participants (almost all of the heterosexual participants) would not consider a dating relationship with a transgender.

Given the lack of proper longitudinal treatment outcome studies and the discovery of adverse treatment results at Tavistock, one must conclude that administration of puberty blockers to children presenting with GD is unwise, unsafe, and should not be represented as reversible. Further, the deficiencies in the Tavistock study are strong warnings that an unbiased oversight committee should provide continuing detailed review of the protocols, procedures, and practices of the U.S. study so that unbiased managers (who have no vested interest in the promotion of GnRHa) are appointed, appropriate requirements (including the securing of informed consent and the inclusion of a control group not receiving the drug) are implemented, proper periodic reports are filed, and the purposes of the study are fulfilled.
HALIFAX - The husband of a woman killed in the Nova Scotia mass shooting is criticizing the continued online sale of retired police vehicles that are still equipped with official gear.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 6/8/2020 (530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This photo showing a replica RCMP vehicle being driven by the gunman in Debert, N.S., was released as the Nova Scotia RCMP as they provided an update on Tuesday, April 28, 2020 into their investigation into the killing of 22 people. The husband of a woman killed in the Nova Scotia mass shooting has concerns about online sales of retired police vehicles with some gear still on the cars.THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Nova Scotia RCMP MANDATORY CREDIT

HALIFAX - The husband of a woman killed in the Nova Scotia mass shooting is criticizing the continued online sale of retired police vehicles that are still equipped with official gear.

Nick Beaton, whose pregnant wife Kristen was killed by a gunman during the April 18-19 rampage, said today it's discouraging to find police cars with antennae and some rear bumper reflectors advertised on Nova Scotia online marketplaces.

The gunman who killed 22 people acquired four former police vehicles at auction, then used one of them  a Ford Taurus with RCMP decals  during his attacks across five communities.

Beaton points to a private Facebook group advertising the sale of a 2013 Ford Taurus retired police vehicle equipped with antennae, rear bumper stickers and a push bar, as well as another ad for a similar vehicle on Nova Scotia Kijiji.

Opposition Leader Tim Houston said in a news release today sales of retired police vehicles should be regulated to ensure the cars are decommissioned with no insignia, accessories or equipment that could reasonably confuse people.

Houston says he will introduce legislation to make those changes as soon as the legislature resumes.

Beaton says he's hoping legal restrictions will require that official police equipment be removed from vehicles prior to them being put on the market.

"It shouldn't just be anyone (who) can sell them," he said in an interview. "And if they do allow private sales, make it the law that everything has to be removed from the vehicles."

Nova Scotia and the federal government are holding a joint public inquiry into April's mass shooting. Authorities said that among the issues they want to explore are the "public policies on the disposal of police vehicles and associated equipment."

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The gunman had carefully applied decals and added flashing lights to one of his replica vehicles, which helped him escape the rural community of Portapique on April 18 after taking the lives of his first 13 victims.

While sales of police cars are permitted, it is explicitly illegal under the Criminal Code for anyone to use them to impersonate a police officer.

Provincial legislation, however, doesn't explicitly prohibit ordinary citizens from owning items such as the distinctive light bars of police vehicles, with their flashing red lights.

Nova Scotia's Motor Vehicle Act, for example, prohibits people from driving a vehicle on a highway with the flashing lights  but doesn't explicitly prohibit owning the light bars.

Police unions and associations have said its time to tighten up those rules in light of the potential dangers the Nova Scotia gunmans actions demonstrated.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 6, 2020.
The massive ammonium nitrate explosion that killed at least 135 people in Beirut was sparked by the same deadly chemical that is stockpiled across Australia.

The chemical is stored in 170 sites in South Australia alone with a huge supply also in Newcastle, north of Sydney.

The explosion in Lebanon's capital reportedly came from a facility that had 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, which has brought attention to the possible dangers of Australia's own stockpiles.

Of great concern is the massive ammonium nitrate hoard at the Orica facility, north of Sydney, which is 3km from Newcastle's CBD and just 800 metres from residents in Stockton.

Up to 12,000 tonnes are stored at Orica's Kooragang Island factory, which produces 430,000 tonnes each year.

More than 300 local residents were campaigning to relocate the plant or reduce the stockpiles long before Tuesday's explosion in Beirut.

The deadly chemical blast in Beirut has sparked fears about stockpiles of ammonium nitrate on Australia (stock image)

'It would be catastrophic for Newcastle if it went up for sure,' Stockton Community Action Group spokesman Keith Craig told the Today Show on Thursday.

'The likelihood is low but if you look at a risk profile, if it ever did happen, the outcome would be catastrophic.'

He renewed calls for the plant to reduce the amount of ammonium nitrate and consider having a separate storage away from communities.

'It really brings it back to the community, to the regulators and government, just how powerful this explosive is and it is a real concern,' Mr Craig said.

'Accidents can happen and in this case if an accident did happen it would be catastrophic. It is not the right place for this sort of plant.

The company insists stringent protocols are maintained to ensure the product is being managed safely.

Stockton Community Action Group spokesman Keith Craig is concerned about the nearby Orica factory (pictured behind him)

'It's important to note that there has not been a single incident involving the storage of ammonium nitrate in the Kooragang Island site's 51-year history,' an Orica spokesman said.

The ammonium nitrate is stored in areas of the complex which are fire resistant and built from non-flammable materials.

'There are no flammable sources within designated exclusion zones around these areas,' the spokesman said.

Workplace safety watchdog SafeWork SA said the state's 170 licensed locations that stored the chemical were all low risk.

'All of the ammonium nitrate storages in the state are heavily regulated, heavily controlled and we monitor the condition of the ammonium nitrate stores,' SafeWork SA chemicals, hazards and explosive materials expert Natasha Wright told the ABC.

She added the state's largest stockpile has around 270 tonnes, less than 10 per cent of the amount that sparked the blast in Beirut.

Orica says there hasn't been a a single incident involving the storage of ammonium nitrate in the Kooragang Island site's 51-year history in Newcastle

Other sites contained as little as half a kilogram are in remote locations.

'All of those sites have been inspected by  our agency [and] we've reviewed their safety and security management plans,' Ms Wright assured.

Small quantities of ammonium nitrate are used to fertilising crops with larger amounts utilised for mining.

Since 2006, anyone who buys, transports, uses, or stores the chemical must have SafeWork SA licence.

Ms Wright said ammonium nitrate is 'a low risk for storage' under safe and strict conditions.

'I can't imagine what may have occurred in Beirut for such an accident to occur,' she added.

The explosion in Beirut (pictured) has claimed at least 135 lives so far, including an Australian

Explosives expert Tony Richards called for stockpiles to be relocated away from population centres such as Newcastle, NSW's second largest city home to more than 322,000.

While he was confident in safety practices of the companies were stringent, he says there's always very small possibility of something going horribly wrong.

'If you went to the company a couple of days beforehand and said what's the chance of the plant blowing up and killing lots of people and causing billions of dollars of damage, they would say no chance,' Mr Richards told the Sydney Morning Herald.
This mentality has dealt a crushing blow to the cadre of already-fragile mall retailers who make money dressing customers for their nine-to-five life. J. Crew, a bastion of business casual, was the first to succumb, filing for bankruptcy in May. J.C. Penney Co. went into bankruptcy soon after, pledging to close more than 150 stores and thus reducing access points for affordably priced professional wear. By July, things got downright ugly, with a steady succession of stumbles: storied mens clothier Brooks Brothers filed for bankruptcy and said it would close about one-fifth of its stores. The corporate parent of womens dress-wear seller New York & Co. filed for Chapter 11 protection days later, saying it may close all of its locations. The following week, the company behind Jos. A. Bank and Mens Wearhouse announced plans to shutter 500 stores. Next fell Ascena Retail Group Inc., promising widespread store closures including a select number in its Ann Taylor chain. The pain continued in August, with Lord & Taylor filing for bankruptcy earlier this week.
Azar's Taiwan visit intensifies provocation

Global Times

By Zhang Hui Source: Global Times Published: 2020/8/5 21:52:25

Odds of military conflict high 'if US crosses line'

The US health secretary's scheduled visit to the island of Taiwan in a few days, which marks the highest level visit by a US official in more than four decades, shows that Washington is likely to send more officials from sensitive departments, such as foreign affairs and defense, to visit the island, Chinese mainland experts said.

Potential provocations from the US could immediately escalate tensions with China, and the danger of a military conflict will increase. If the US ignores China's warning and firm stance on its sovereignty over the island, a war in the region would be inevitable, analysts said.

The separatist authority on the island is willing to play the most loyal card for the US, and would love to cooperate with the US to provoke the mainland, and this could eventually cross the bottom line set by the mainland, which would make a military conflict more and more likely to happen, analysts added.

US Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar will lead a delegation to the island of Taiwan a few days from now. This marks the first visit to the island by an HHS Secretary, the first Cabinet member to visit the island in six years, and the most senior official to make such a trip since 1979, when China and the US established diplomatic ties, and Washington cut "diplomatic ties" with the Taiwan authority, the HHS website said.

Azar praised Taiwan as a "model of transparency and cooperation in global health during the COVID-19 pandemic." He said this trip represents an opportunity to strengthen economic and public health cooperation with the island.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a routine press conference on Wednesday that China has lodged solemn representations to the US, and urged the US not to send wrong signals to Taiwan secessionists.

The US should "stop all official exchanges with Taiwanand avoid undermining China-US relations and the stability of the Taiwan Straits," Wang said.

Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, also said in a statement on Wednesday that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authority on the island is willing to "play a pawn" for Washington and colluding with the US to seek political gains, and this is "extremely dangerous and doomed to fail."

Azar's visit comes after former US president Barack Obama sent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy to Taiwan in 2014. In 2000, then president Bill Clinton also sent the secretary of transportation to Taiwan.

Azar would be the highest US official to visit the island, as the HHS secretary is more senior than the transportation secretary in terms of the presidential line of succession in the US.

The visit would be more provocative amid tensions in China-US relations and cross-Straits relations, and will trigger a tough response from the mainland, Xin Qiang, deputy director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

The Trump administration has intensified its containment policy against China with several "punches," including a trade war, the South China Sea issue, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Xinjiang, as well as the blame game on COVID-19, experts said.

Among them, "the Taiwan card" is the most effective, sensitive and vital tool to provoke the mainland, Chang Ya-chung, a professor at the National Taiwan University, told the Global Times on Wednesday, noting that Washington will play two cards at the same time on Azar's trip: Taiwan and the coronavirus blame game.

The separatist DPP authority would also like to be "the most important tool" for the US to provoke the mainland, Chang said.

The US has been helping the island seek a greater presence in the international arena during the COVID-19 pandemic, over-praising the island and harshly and groundlessly criticizing the mainland.

Chang said that the Trump administration will make best use of the Taiwan card before November's presidential elections to gain more support from conservative voters with sinophobia, and is likely to continue upgrading its relations with the island by sending more officials from sensitive departments, such as foreign affairs and defense, to Taiwan.

These are old and little tricks played by the Trump administration and the separatist authority of the island since Tsai Ing-wen, the current leader of the island and the chairwoman of the DPP, took office, Xin said.

The Trump administration keeps using these tricks "to provoke China from time to time, but dares not risk a complete break-up by crossing the bottom line," as it is scared of China's powerful influence and diplomatic, military and economic strength. Once a "complete break-up" happens, the cost and loss will be unbearable for the US, Xin said.

If the US plays "the Taiwan card" too much, that would result in "the card being ripped up," and Taiwan would face huge losses, Xin noted.

Analysts said a military conflict in the Taiwan Straits will be unavoidable if the US and the separatist authority on the island continue to make more provocations, such as having more high-level official contacts and military cooperation against the Chinese mainland.

Ezra Vogel, Professor Emeritus at Harvard University and a leading American scholar on East Asian affairs, warned in an exclusive interview with the Global Times that there is real danger of war between China and the US "if Beijing leaders fear that the pressure of "Taiwan independence" crosses a red line."

"A conflict over Taiwan could escalate into an all-out war that could be devastating to all mankind. We must develop an understanding between Chinese and American leaders to avoid this great danger," he said.

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A man snapped the toes off a 200-year-old plaster cast statue while posing for a picture at a museum in Possagno, Italy, on July 31, authorities reported, sharing video of the incident.

Police said that they had identified an Austrian tourist as a suspect. A court in Treviso was deciding whether or not to press charges, CNN reported.

Surveillance footage provided by the police shows a man leaning on a plaster cast model of Antonio Canovas statue of Paolina Bonaparte while someone takes a photo of him. A photo shows the toes snapped off. The statue was an original plaster cast model, made in 1804, for the marble sculpture of Paolina Bonaparte housed at the Galleria Borghese in Rome, The Art Newspaper reported.

The Gypsotheca Museum said that the man turned himself in on August 4. Credit: Carabinieri Treviso via Storyful
Modi Lays Temple Foundation Stone Marking Victory for Hindu Nationalist Party

By Anjana Pasricha August 05, 2020

In a ceremony watched by millions of Indians on television, Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered prayers and laid the foundation stone for a grand Hindu temple to be built in the northern town of Ayodhya on the site of a mosque demolished by Hindu radicals.

The ceremony marks a historic triumph for Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, whose rise to political prominence was propelled by the three-decade campaign to build a temple to honor the revered Hindu deity Rama.

"It is an emotional moment for India. A long wait ends today," Modi said after the ceremony that was held even as the COVID-19 pandemic continues in India.

The temple is being built on the exact spot Hindus believe is the birthplace of Lord Rama. The demolition of the 16th century mosque that stood there in 1992 sparked deadly Hindu-Muslim riots and became a deeply divisive issue in the Hindu-majority country, where many Hindus want the temple to be built.

The Supreme Court approved the temple's construction last November when it handed the bitterly contested plot of land to a Hindu group after a long legal battle.

Modi said the site had been liberated and a "grand house" would be constructed for Lord Rama.

Building the temple in Ayodhya has long been a rallying cry of the BJP, which critics accuse of pursuing a Hindu nationalist agenda. Wednesday's groundbreaking ceremony coincided with the first anniversary of the scrapping of the special status for Muslim majority Kashmir  another core promise that was made by the party.

The response of the Muslim community to the temple project has been muted with some saying it is time to "move on."

"Whatever happened are things of the past," said Iqbal Ansari, one of the Muslim litigants in the Supreme Court case, who was invited to attend the ceremony.

The small, sleepy town of Ayodhya was given a makeover for the ceremony. Saffron flags fluttered in the streets and houses got a splash of yellow paint, both believed to be auspicious colors.

Paramilitary soldiers guarded the streets as COVID-19 restrictions kept people indoors. Many, however, stood on rooftops in the pilgrim town dotted with temples.

Wednesday's ceremony marks the consolidation of Hindu nationalism under the BJP during its six-year rule, say analysts.

"A constellation of forces has allowed them to take advantage now, they have a favorable court judgment and all groups have come to believe that let us resolve the issue," says Sandeep Shastri, a political analyst and Pro Vice Chancellor of Jain University. "This also seems to be the voice in the minority Muslim community that in order to buy peace if this is what we need to agree to, it is all right."

The proposed five-domed temple spread over nearly 8,000 square meters, is expected to be completed in three-and-a-half years and could yield political dividends for the BJP when it faces the next general election in 2024.

"This reinforces Modi's persona, the halo, he is the man who has delivered the temple," says political analyst Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay. "This is the moment of Hindu supremacy, and Muslims recognize, and there is very little they can do by law after the Supreme Court rejected their petition for a review of its judgment."

A prominent Muslim lawmaker questioned the prime minister's attendance, though, at the ceremony, saying that it violated his constitutional oath in India. "Secularism is part of the Basic Structure of Constitution," Asaduddin Owaisi wrote on Twitter.

There is unease among the Muslim community and some fear the construction of a temple at Ayodhya could pave the way for similar demands in other towns where Hindu groups claim mosques have been built on sites holy to Hindus.

"The larger question would be, would it end here or is this the starting point of other developments. That is the more serious question," said Shastri.

Some questions also have been raised about holding the ceremony during a pandemic in India when there have been repeated warnings by health experts that large gatherings should be avoided.

The venue of the ceremony, attended by about 175 prominent BJP leaders and Hindu priests, was cordoned off and chairs kept at a distance to maintain social distancing.

The ceremony became a moment of celebration across many homes in the country, where the temple campaign turned into a deeply emotive issue. Hindus make up about 80 percent of the population.

Devotees are reported to have sent silver and gold coins to pay for the temple's construction.

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On Wednesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that New York City is initiating a quarantine-checkpoint program at key entry points along major bridges and tunnels in an effort to halt the spread of the coronavirus. The New York City Sheriffs Office will be in charge of the checkpoints and will stop a random sampling of cars entering the five boroughs. If stopped, drivers from one of 35 states and territories with a substantial outbreak will be required to fill out a registration form to complete a two-week quarantine. On Thursday, the city will also station teams at Penn Station and the Port Authority Bus Terminal to conduct similar screenings on passengers coming from out of state.

If you come here, you must quarantine, de Blasio said on Wednesday. It is not optional, de Blasio said. We do not want to fine you. We do not want to penalize you. In fact, we want to help you quarantine. But if you dont respect our laws, we will penalize you.

New York City Sheriff Joseph Fucito clarified to the Wall Street Journal that out-of-state residents will not be targeted. In fact what were looking to do is educate people whove spent time in COVID-19 hot spots regardless of their residence, he said. With a random sampling of cars being stopped and no authority to enforce the quarantine, the checkpoints will largely serve as a PR campaign to inform those traveling into the city about the rules for people whove spent times in other states.

De Blasios abrupt announcement of the plan Wednesday was greeted with confusion by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates NYCs bridges and tunnels, and said they were caught off guard by the announcement. In another sign of a somewhat chaotic roll out of the plan, the NYPD has also asked civilian staff to volunteer at the checkpoints.

Officially, there are penalties for violating the quarantine: $2,000 fine for a first violation, $5,000 for a second, and up to $10,000 if visitors cause harm. The state previously had Department of Health enforcement teams in the citys three major airports requiring incoming passengers to fill out a traveler form for contact-tracing purposes. Dr. Ted Long, director of New York Citys Test & Trace Corps, announced on Wednesday that 20 percent of new COVID-19 cases in New York City are from out-of-state visitors.

After visitors make contact with Longs contact-tracing team, they will continue to hear from the Test & Trace Corps throughout the two-week quarantine through text messages and calls. If we cant get through to you on the phone, weve deployed teams that are now knocking on your door and making sure youre safe, Long said, adding that the city is prepared to aid in the quarantine through free food deliveries and assistance with medications.

The quarantine order applies to any state that has a positive testing rate of more than ten per 100,000 residents or any states with a 10 percent or greater positive rate, both over a seven-day rolling average. (New York States positive testing rate is now at one percent.) Those states and territories currently include Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.
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.
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - August 5, 2020) - Red Light Holland Corp. (CSE: TRIP) (FSE: 4YX) ("Red Light Holland" or the "Company"), an Ontario-based corporation positioning itself to engage in the production, growth and sale of a its brand of magic truffles to the legal, recreational market within the Netherlands (initially, in the form of its previously announced Microdosing Packs), is pleased to announce that it has expedited the build out of its approximately 3,000 square feet, custom built, indoor growing, production and distribution facility of the Company, in Horst, the Netherlands (the "Facility") and has commenced growing its first crop of magic truffles.

"After careful research and planning, including working with our staff, consultants and contractors in the Netherlands and sourcing our truffles' genetics, substrates and the proper equipment, Red Light Holland is ecstatic to announce that we have started to grow our first batch of magic truffles, much quicker than originally anticipated. This is another important milestone for the Company and we are quite proud to be moving along so quickly and efficiently," said Todd Shapiro, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Red Light Holland.

Red Light Holland is currently growing three different strains of magic truffles, including Psilocybe Mexicana, Psilocybe Galindoi, and Psilocybe Tampanensis, and expects to have an initial batch of approximately 100,000 grams of magic truffles available in late October, 2020. Once ready, the magic truffles will be harvested over an approximate six week period, in order to be ready for internal testing and ultimately packaging and distribution within the Netherlands.

"This is an exciting day for the Company! I feel like cutting a ribbon to celebrate with our hard working team of consultants and growers behind the scenes who have helped get us to this point so rapidly. We have remained aggressive, despite COVID-19 slowdowns and Red Light Holland's growth operation has officially begun," added Hans Derix, President of Red Light Holland (who resides in Horst).

Story continues

About Red Light Holland Corp.

The Company is an Ontario-based corporation positioning itself to engage in the production, growth and sale of its brand of magic truffles to the legal, recreational market within the Netherlands, in accordance with the highest standards, in compliance with all applicable laws. The Company's brand of magic truffles are expected to be sold in the Netherlands through existing Smart Shops as well as its e-commerce platform, and are expected to be initially made available in the form of its previously announced Microdosing Packs.

For additional information on the Company:

Todd Shapiro

Chief Executive Officer and Director

Tel: 647-204-7129

Email: todd@redlighttruffles.com

Website: https://redlighttruffles.com

Forward-Looking Statements

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Certain information in this news release constitutes forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. Any statements that are contained in this news release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements are often identified by terms such as "may", "should", "anticipate", "expect", "potential", "believe", "intend" or the negative of these terms and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are placed will occur. Readers are further cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such forward-looking statements (including, but not limited to, the assumption that (i) the Company will be able to execute on its business plan, and will receive one or multiple licenses, permits, and authorizations from time to time necessary to execute on its business plan, (ii) the Company's financial condition and development plans do not change as a result of unforeseen events, (iii) there will continue to be a demand, and market opportunity, for the Company's product offerings, (iv) the Company will be able to establish, preserve and develop its brand, and attract and retain required personnel, (v) the Company will be successful in completing the build-out of the Facility and distributing its product offerings on the terms and within the timelines anticipated by the Company, (vi) current and future economic conditions will neither affect the business and operations of the Company nor the Company's ability to capitalize on anticipated business opportunities, and (vii) the magic truffles currently being grown by the Company will be ready for harvest and distribution within the timelines anticipated by the Company, and in particular, will pass the testing criteria established by the Company), although considered reasonable by management of the Company at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and result in actual results differing materially from those anticipated, and as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements included in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company does not undertake an obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect new information, subsequent events or otherwise unless required by applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements, forward-looking financial information and other metrics presented herein are not intended as guidance or projections for the periods referenced herein or any future periods, and in particular, past performance is not an indicator of future results and the results of the Company in this press release may not be indicative of, and are not an estimate, forecast or projection of the Company's future results. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

Not for distribution to United States newswire services or for dissemination in the United States.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/61094
President Tsai Ing-wen, first elected in a landslide in 2016, was easily re-elected in early 2020 while her Democratic Progressive Party retained control of the legislature. The thumping victory over the China-friendly Kuomintang party was attributed in part to the mainlands hard line on Hong Kongs pro-democracy movement and its mounting political pressure on Taiwan. Chinese President Xi Jinping insists China must and will be united under the one-country, two systems model that operates in Hong Kong  a position the Chinese government reiterated after Tsais re-election. Tsai says Chinas demands for Taiwan are not feasible, as democracy and authoritarianism cannot coexist in one country, and has vowed to defend Taiwans sovereignty. Taiwan and Hong Kong have become increasingly sensitive flash points in Chinas relationship with the U.S., with tensions heightened further in May when Beijings legislature approved sweeping security laws for Hong Kong. In August, the U.S. said it was sending the highest-level cabinet official to visit Taiwan since cutting ties more than 40 years ago. During Tsais time in office, China has intensified patrolsaround Taiwan, pressured global companies to acknowledge Chinas claims and barred its citizens from traveling to the island. The U.S.-China trade war actually boosted Taiwanese businesses, as has Tsais push to get local companies to spend more at home.
Traveller Grace Millane was killed in New Zealand - Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

A New Zealand man found guilty of murdering a British backpacker appealed his conviction and punishment on Thursday, with his new lawyer arguing he did not get a fair trial and his sentence was too harsh.

A jury had earlier determined that tourist Grace Millane was strangled to death on her 22nd birthday in December 2018 by a man she had met through the dating app Tinder.

She went out for drinks with him before returning to his hotel apartment in central Auckland, where he killed her. He stuffed her body into a suitcase, drove to a forest and buried it in a shallow grave, where police found it a week later.

Prosecutors argued in the trial that the man deliberately strangled Ms Millane to death, while defence lawyers claimed the death was accidental after the pair engaged in consensual erotic choking that went too far.

The jury found the man guilty and a judge sentenced him to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years.

Lawyer Rachael Reed told the Court of Appeal judges that she was not seeking to excuse the man's "abhorrent" actions after Ms Millane's death, according to news organisation Stuff. But she said the judge placed too much weight on those actions in determining the man's sentence.

Ms Reed also said the conviction had problems, including questions around the issue of consent, some of the expert evidence, and negative evidence given by other women about the man's character.

The name of the 28-year-old man convicted of murder is being kept secret for now by court order, a restriction that is sometimes imposed in the New Zealand judicial system for reasons such as another pending trial.
Check out the news you should not miss today:

Politics

 Thousands of bottles of medicine from Cuba to help Vietnam respond to the local novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreaks were handed over at a ceremony in Hanoi on Wednesday. Cuba has also sent experts to Da Nang, the current outbreak epicenter in central Vietnam, to support the fight.

Society

 Vietnam on Thursday morning reported four new cases of COVID-19 including a bus operator in Hanoi and three people in the central province of Quang Nam, all traced to Da Nang. The countrys tally has reached 717 with 328 under treatment, 381 recoveries, and eight deaths.

 A face mask ATM will be launched in Tan Phu District in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday to provide free masks to help people cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. The machine is an initiative of local Hoang Tuan Anh, who earlier launched the widely praised rice ATM in the city for people affected by the pandemic.

 The COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam will likely peak in ten days, Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son warned on Wednesday, reminding that people should take precautions and strictly follow recommendations for COVID-19 prevention.

 As of Wednesday, there were 371 foreign experts and investors quarantined at hotels in Ho Chi Minh City with the 14-day mandatory quarantine setting them back around VND13.5 million (US$584) per person on average.

 Within five days from August 1, traffic police across Vietnam patrolled and detected drivers of ten truck, 47 cars, over 1,300 motorbikes and six motorized bicycles with violations related to driving under the influence.

 Border guards in the north-central province of Quang Tri on Wednesday said it recently collaborated with Laos authorities to successfully break up a huge drug ring at the Vietnam-Laos border, seizing up to 479,000 tablets of synthetic drugs.

Business

 Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh on Wednesday worked with Commercial Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Vietnam Hu Suo Jin to boost exports of farm produce, especially longan, to China, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

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Srinagar, Aug 6 : After the completion of one year of the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir, active militancy is in its "lowest" phase in the erstwhile state in decades and all terror groups are "leaderless" due to the continuous anti-terror operations by the security forces as well as the administration.

Dilbag Singh, J&K Director General of Police, shared the details while talking to IANS here about the current situation in the Union territory since the nullification of Article 370 on August 5 last year.

"The number of active terrorists in J&K has been around 200 compared to 350 or 400 earlier. All the terror organisations are leaderless now and those militants who are recruited as leaders of any group by Pakistan-based handlers are caught or killed," Singh said.

"In 2019, a total of 131 militants were killed till July but only 29 were killed from July to December that year as we were busy maintaining law and order, and our operations had declined. In total, we killed 160 militants in 2019 in 67 successful operations and over 5,000 cordon and area search operations," Singh said.

This year so far, Singh said, a total of 150 terrorists have been killed.

Of these 150 terrorists, 30 were foreign and 120 were locals, including 39 top commanders of all major groups. "All terrorists are almost leaderless now," the DGP said.

Calling 2018 a "landmark" year compared to 2013, the DGP said that security is "much better now than ever before".

"The number of poster boys of militancy started increasing in 2013 and major recruitment was done till 2017. Poster boys like Manan Wani, Burhan Wani and Riyaz Naikoo were so famous here at that time. Youths used to carry their photos and girls got attracted to them.

"Operations against such groups improved in 2017 and 2018 was a landmark year as far as our operations were concerned. Governor's rule came in 2018, and there was a huge difference in the first six months and second half of 2018 in terms of law and order and militancy operations," Singh said.

As per the J&K police chief, the graph of anti-militancy operations reached a high that was not achieved in the last 10 years.

Of the 350 to 375 active militants in 2018, 260 were killed in 2018 itself, said the 1987-batch IPS officer who was given additional charge as the Director General of Police (DGP) of Jammu & Kashmir, replacing S.P. Vaid.

The officer said 93 successful operations took place in 3,600 cordon and search operations in 2018, and the trend set in 2018 was maintained in 2019.

In 2018-2019, the officer said, "we managed to target the support structure of the terrorists." "Earlier, there was a free hand to kill terrorists but it was difficult to touch their handlers. In 2018-2019 we kept targeting group leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, separatist groups, JKLF and their leaders. Hundreds of leaders were caught during this period. It was the biggest solid damage to terrorism in 2019. And its results were seen on the ground." "We targeted a very big group of Over Ground Workers (OWGs) who provide 'oxygen' to militancy, help militants. All help to militants was cut off and a time came when militants used to record messages on mobiles and then give them to others to pass on to their commanders for further orders. They even stopped giving letters." The officer said "the only target was to better the situation which had worsened in 2016, and we were successful in 2018 and further improved it in 2019." "We almost had the situation in control till August when the abrogation period came. In one week since the abrogation of Article 370, we picked up around 5,500 people, told the stone pelters to fill a 'Good Behaviour Bond' and handed them over to their family members after keeping them in custody for 4 to 5 days. We kept only 1,200 people in custody who were a threat to law and order," Singh said.

The 1,200 people in custody include Hurriyat members, some stone pelters and some OWG workers.

The officer clarified that the number of people in custody never crossed 1,200. "Our total present custody is 560 in which a majority are booked under substantive cases. A former J&K Chief Minister is the only politician in our custody, some belong to Hurriyat and other categories. The remaining are hardcore stone pelters." The officer said a total of 144 stone pelters aged below 18 were picked up under legal procedures and all of them, except 17, were handed over to their families after warning them. "These 17 were put in juvenile homes and court cases were filed." (Rajnish Singh can be contacted at rajnish.s@ians.in)
Researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Jilin University in Changchun/China investigated a highly promising anode material for future high-performance batteries -- lithium lanthanum titanate with a perovskite crystal structure (LLTO). As the team reported in the Nature Communications journal, LLTO can improve the energy density, power density, charging rate, safety, and cycle life of batteries without requiring a decrease of the particle size from micro to nano scale.

The demand for electric vehicles is increasing, accompanied by a growing need for smart grids that ensure a sustainable energy supply. These and other mobile and stationary technologies require suitable batteries. Storing as much energy as possible in the smallest possible space with the lowest possible weight -- lithium-ion batteries (LIB) still meet this requirement best. The research aims at improving the energy density, power density, safety, and cycle life of these batteries. The electrode material is of major importance here. Anodes of lithium-ion batteries consist of a current collector and an active material applied to it that stores energy in the form of chemical bonds. In most cases, graphite is used as the active material. However, negative electrodes made of graphite have a low charging rate. Moreover, they are associated with safety issues. Among the alternative active materials, lithium titanate oxide (LTO) has already been commercialized. Negative electrodes with LTO present a higher charging rate and are considered to be safer than those made of graphite. The drawback is that lithium-ion batteries with lithium titanate oxide tend to have a lower energy density.

The demand for electric vehicles is increasing, accompanied by a growing need for smart grids that ensure a sustainable energy supply. These and other mobile and stationary technologies require suitable batteries. Storing as much energy as possible in the smallest possible space with the lowest possible weight -- lithium-ion batteries (LIB) still meet this requirement best. The research aims at improving the energy density, power density, safety, and cycle life of these batteries. The electrode material is of major importance here. Anodes of lithium-ion batteries consist of a current collector and an active material applied to it that stores energy in the form of chemical bonds. In most cases, graphite is used as the active material. However, negative electrodes made of graphite have a low charging rate. Moreover, they are associated with safety issues. Among the alternative active materials, lithium titanate oxide (LTO) has already been commercialized. Negative electrodes with LTO present a higher charging rate and are considered to be safer than those made of graphite. The drawback is that lithium-ion batteries with lithium titanate oxide tend to have a lower energy density.

The team around Professor Helmut Ehrenberg, head of the Institute for Applied Materials -- Energy Storage Systems (IAM-ESS) of KIT, now investigated another highly promising anode material: lithium lanthanum titanate with a perovskite crystal structure (LLTO). According to the study, which was carried out in collaboration with scientists from Jilin University in Changchun (China) and other research institutes in China and Singapore, LLTO anodes have a lower electrode potential compared to commercialized LTO anodes, which allows for a higher cell voltage and a higher capacity. "Cell voltage and storage capacity ultimately determine the energy density of a battery," explains Ehrenberg. "In the future, LLTO anodes might be used to build particularly safe high-performance cells with a long cycle life." The study contributes to the work of the research platform for electrochemical storage, CELEST (Center for Electrochemical Energy Storage Ulm & Karlsruhe), one of the largest battery research platforms worldwide, which also includes the POLiS excellence cluster.

Besides energy density, power density, safety and cycle life, the charging rate is another determining factor for the suitability of a battery for demanding applications. In principle, the maximum discharge current and the minimum charging time depend on the ion and electron transport both within the solid body and at the interfaces between the electrode and electrolyte materials. To improve the charging rate, it is common practice to reduce the particle size of the electrode material from micro to nano scale. The study, which was published in the Nature Communications journal by KIT researchers and their cooperation partners, shows that even particles of a few micrometers in size in LLTOs with a perovskite structure feature a higher power density and a better charging rate than LTO nanoparticles. The research team attributes this to the so-called pseudocapacitance of LLTO: Not only are individual electrons attached to this anode material, but also charged ions, which are bound by weak forces and can reversibly transfer charges to the anode. "Thanks to the larger particles, LLTO basically enables simpler and more cost-effective electrode manufacturing processes," explains Ehrenberg.
PARIS: Six hostages are being held by a male assailant in a bank in Le Havre, northern France, a police source said. The source said officers from the elite tactical RAID unit of the police were being deployed.

One hostage has been released, the police source added.
People in Chile on Wednesday marked the 10th anniversary of the successful rescue of 33 miners who were trapped underground for more than two months.

The 69-day operation to free them from the mine in Copiapo gripped the world, and on their return to the surface they were feted as heroes and became overnight celebrities.

The miners won a compensation claim against the Chilean state a couple of years ago which would have seen them awarded around 100,000 US dollars each.

But the state has appealed, and the judicial process has been postponed because of the pandemic.

"With the pandemic issue we remained unemployed, we are not receiving any salary, because we worked as independent contractors, and we are still without a job, we survive only with the pension," said Omar Reygada, one of the rescued miners.

A movie about their ordeal was made, but the miners claim that they were deceived by lawyers who negotiated to make them give up their rights.

"We did not earn anything with that movie, the lawyer we hired to help us ripped us off," said miner Jimmy Sanchez.

(Image Credit Pixabay)
Two days after Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar sought strict action against party MPs Partap Singh Bajwa and Shamsher Singh Dullo, the entire Punjab cabinet on Thursday pitched for the duos immediate expulsion for their alleged anti-party and anti-government activities, which they termed as gross indiscipline.

The actions of the two Rajya Sabha MPs call for immediate and strict action against them by the party high command, said the cabinet ministers, seeking dismissal of Bajwa and Dullo for attacking their own Congress government in the state over the hooch tragedy that has taken over 110 lives.

The duo had slammed Amarinder Singh government over the tragedy and suggested complicity of government officials in patronising the illicit liquor mafia. They also demanded a CBI probe into the incident that recently killed at least 110 people in three districts of the state.

The ministers, in a joint statement, called for cracking the whip on the two MPs without any laxity or delay. Indiscipline could not be tolerated at any time, least of all when Assembly elections in the state are less than two years way, their statement said, pointing to the MPs repeated attacks on the state government, including chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh.

Also Read: Punjab hooch tragedy: Suspects will be probed irrespective of political affiliation or rank, says officer

The ministers said the two MPs had never, in their Rajya Sabha term, bothered to raise any issue of the interest of the state they represented. Why did they not press for the completion of the ED probe into the drugs issue during the Akali regime? Why did they not protest in the House against the anti-farm Ordinances of the Union Government? Why did they never speak about the CBIs failure to probe the sacrilege cases? the ministers asked.

The ministers alleged that the two MPs had bypassed all party and government forums to protest against the handling of the hooch tragedy and by approaching the governor seeking a CBI and ED probe into the matter. The ministers joint statement also pointed out that a CBI probe is needed only in cases when the police fail to deliver, which was definitely not true in this case at present. The ministers further alleged that CBI had been inefficient in investigating the sacrilege cases, which is eventually being solved by the state police.

The rift within Punjab Congress has again come to the fore in the aftermath of the tragedy and the Punjab Congress leadership is hoping that party high command in Delhi will sanction the two MPs for their alleged dissidence.

Also Read: Punjab Cabinet approves smartphone distribution to all Class 12 govt school students by November

The statement accuses both Bajwa and Dullo of being intent on destabilising their own partys government for either serving their own interests or of those who want to derail the Congress in Punjab.

The ministers claimed that the duo had continued their offensive against the government without being even remotely apologetic.

The party high command in Delhi has not taken a position on the demand so far.
ALTON  Newly appointed Alton Superintendent Kristie Baumgartner and newly elected Lewis and Clark Community College President Ken Trzaska joined the RiverBend Growth Association for a virtual meet-and-greet Wednesday.

Baumgartner accepted the superintendent position July 21, after the retirement of Mark Cappel. She had worked for the district for 21 years before becoming superintendent and considers it an honor and privilege to serve.

Even in these unprecedented times, I wouldnt want to work anywhere else, said Baumgartner, as shes already faced a major challenge in age of COVID-19.

She elaborated further about a decision announced Tuesday about the school districts move to remote-only instruction for the first quarter of the school year.

It was a really tough decision, she said. We knew that was going to place a hardship on many working parents and were trying to work through and offer solutions for parents.

She said that community based organizations have offered support through child care providers that can help support remote learning.

Baumgartner also noted that the district still has its original plan ready, in case the number of COVID-19 cases in the county and district subside. As of now, other school districts in Madison County are maintaining plans for a hybrid of in-person and remote learning.

Trzaska officially takes the role as the sixth LCCC president Sept. 21. He replaces Dale Chapman.

Originally born in Buffalo, New York, he moved to Europe when he was 6 years old and grew up in Germany. Trzaska comes to the college from Seward County Community College in Liberal, Kansas, where he has been president since 2015.

I am proud to be able to serve, and looking forward to jumping strait in next month, Trzaska said.

Trzaska said that he has reviewed the colleges reopening plan and that while he values face-to-face learning, it is not going to be as easy at it typically is.

Reopening is going to be tricky, he said.

I think the plan we have in place at Lewis and Clark is going to be successful, and were going to do everything in our power to make sure that students are able to pursue their goal in a safe and healthy environment.

Near the end of the meeting, Al Womack Jr. of the Boys & Girls Club of Alton asked Baumgartner about the districts approach should students express themselves based on what has been going on the past couple of months in regards to the Black Lives Matter movement and the death of George Floyd at the hands of police.

Baumgartner replied that the district has been working on a Pathways to Equity Plan, which is working for higher enrollment of students from lower-income homes in Advanced Placement and dual honors classes. She also mentioned the specific trauma that some students have suffered over the last five months.

We know that we have the responsibility that when students return to us, our schools have to be safe, protective and inclusive environments, she said.

She said that there is various training being done with district staff to make sure that the faculty are sensitive to these issues.

There is going to be anxiety, fear, anger, depression, and we have to be able to handle that thoughtfully, she said.
Kochi, Aug 6 : The NIA probing the controversial gold smuggling case has informed a court here on Thursday that the prime accused in the case, Swapna Suresh was 'influential' in the office of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan though the claim has been denied by Swapna's counsel.

The NIA team made these disclosures in the court, when the bail application of Swapna came up for hearing.

The court has now posted the matter for August 10.

Soon after Swapna's arrest, it had surfaced that she and Vijayan's principal secretary and state IT secretary M.Sivasankar, who have since been suspended, were "very thick".

Her counsel Geo Paul told the media that there was no reference made to Vijayan or his office in the court on Thursday.

"Her statement says she knew Vijayan (who wouldn't know him)," Paul said, adding that it was pointed out that Sivasankar was her mentor.

He argued that the UAPA sections invoked by the NIA will not stand.

Incidentally it was Vijayan who had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking an NIA probe into this case, a point that the NIA has mentioned in court. He has also given a free hand to the NIA to probe any angle in the case.

The NIA made these disclosures in the court, while Swapna's bail application was being heard.

The gold smuggling case that has large scale ramifications across sectors, first surfaced when P.S.Sarith, a former employee of the UAE Consulate, was arrested by the Customs on July 5 while he was facilitating smuggling of 30 kg gold in diplomatic baggage from Dubai to Thiruvananthapuram.

It turned murkier when the name of Swapna, a former employee of the UAE Consulate here and employed with the IT Department, surfaced and it turned full circle when her links with Sivasankar became public.

The NIA also informed the court that even while she and Sivasankar were close, he refused to call the Customs which had confiscated the gold baggage, despite her repeated requests.

The NIA also pointed out that Swapna had huge influence in the UAE Consulate here, as she was being paid a retainer fee, even after she left the job and joined the state-run newly formed Space Park, set up to scout for new companies working in the fields of aerospace, at a huge monthly salary.

Soon after her arrest by the NIA, it emerged that Swapna got this job because of Sivasankar's influence. This even as Swapan's brother claimed that he was not sure whether she has even passed Class 10.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], Aug 6 (ANI/NewsVoir): Addressing the ever-growing need for credible and accessible eye-care, Titan Eyeplus in association with Sankara Nethralaya has launched teleconsultation with ophthalmologists across its stores in select cities, first one being the Koramangala store at Bangalore, soon to be followed by Mumbai & Delhi.

Titan Company and Sankara Nethralaya have a going relationship since 2008 through technical collaboration for training of Titan Eyeplus store staff and for knowledge sharing in the field of optical dispensing.

With this new arrangement eye-care consultation by super specialist eye doctors from Sankara Nethralaya shall no longer be limited to their own centre in Chennai but be available through an online platform enabled by chat/telephonic call/video call across select Titan Eyeplus stores and website.

"Disruptive innovation and customer obsession has been at the heart of Titan Eyeplus' business model. We ensure that every single one of our 2500 staff across 580 stores are certified in advanced optical dispensing in collaboration with Sankara Nethralaya, right since the inception. Present ongoing global disruption gave us an opportunity to reimagine and find ways to serve our customers better. We realised the growing need of making quality eye care accessible across the nation especially when mobility is a huge constraint and a health hazard. That's how we decided to partner with Sankara Nethralaya to make this happen across 230 cities and towns leveraging our retail network and trained staff," said Saumen Bhaumik, CEO, Eyewear Divison, Titan Company Limited sharing his vision behind the service.

"We are facing adversity which has turned our world upside down in past 4 months. 'It's not the adversity itself but our reaction to the adversity which will determine how our life's story will develop'. Adversity can be turned to opportunity simply by adjusting our perception and attitude. Sankara Nethralaya is happy that we had a meeting of minds with Titan when we recognised an opportunity to collaborate to use our resources and respective expertise to reach out to our clientele and provide quality eye care at literally their doorsteps. We will be using our SN-TCS EMR which has been upgraded to handle the teleconsultation while seamlessly integrating with our database. For this project, success will be delivering quality teleconsultation to all patients in a safe environment without putting extra burden on the partnering organizations including Zeiss and Appasamy," said Dr Girish S Rao, Medical Director (Administration) & President Medical Research Foundation, Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai, while speaking on this occasion.

The teleconsultation service shall be available to be booked through sankaranethralaya.org website and very soon will be enabled on titaneyeplus.com at an affordable consultation fees of Rs 500.

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.)
BEIRUT  The Latest on the explosion in Beirut (all times local):

9:15 p.m.

French President Emmanuel Macron has denied that hes seeking to pull the strings in Lebanon and revive Frances colonial-era influence over a country reeling from a giant, deadly explosion.

Macron was on a visit to devastated Beirut on Thursday. He said he was asked by local leaders and by people in the street to return to the mandate, when the region was a French protectorate a century ago. He firmly dismissed the idea.

He told the crowd: You cant ask me to substitute for your leaders. Its not possible. And in any case, it would not be a solution.

Its up to you to write your history.

Still, he repeatedly referred to close ties between the countries and promised everlasting support for Lebanon after a blast that killed more than 100 people and injured thousands and further ravaged a country already on the verge of economic collapse.

Macron promised that France will never let Lebanon go. It will never abandon Lebanon and the Lebanese, and added that the heart of the French people still beats to the pulse of Beirut.

___

9:10 p.m.

The United Nations says it is releasing $9 million to address immediate needs following the explosion that devastated Beirut and help strengthen operations in the citys hospitals.

U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said on Thursday the money from the Lebanese Humanitarian Fund will be followed by additional funds from the U.N.s Central Emergency Response Fund.

He said the U.N. is carrying out assessments of the damage and needs resulting from the massive explosion and hopes to hold a meeting on Monday to inform the 193 U.N. member states of the results and launch an appeal to help Lebanon.

He says: Were trying to get the relevant figures ready as soon as we can.

Haq said the World Health Organization reported that the blast left three hospitals unusable and two others with substantial damage and that the equivalent of 500 hospital beds have been lost.

He said the initial $9 million will be used to expand and establish additional intensive care units where needed and provide trauma kits, ventilators, medical supplies and medicine.

WHO will help cover 1,000 trauma interventions and 1,000 surgical interventions for people suffering from burns and wounds caused by glass and other debris resulting from the blast.

___

8:50 p.m.

Lebanese military investigators will begin questioning a former Cabinet minister and the head of the Beiruts port over this weeks explosion that killed and wounded a large number of people in the capital.

A person familiar with the investigation said the questioning of Ghazi Aridi, who was public works minister in 2013 when the 2,750 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate arrived in the country, and Beirut port chief, Hassan Koraytem will take place on Friday.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak publicly about the investigation.

Also Thursday, a committee at the countrys central bank decided to freeze bank accounts of several figures, including Koraytem and the head of the customs department and his predecessor.

The announcement came a day after the government declared a two-week state of emergency and placed an unspecified number of officials under house arrest. Authorities said they will report findings into the blast that destroyed Beiruts port and damaged large parts of the city within five days.

By Bassem Mroue.

___

7:45 p.m.

The managing director of the International Monetary Fund is calling for national unity in Lebanon and says its time to overcome the impasse over necessary reforms that has so far scuttled talks with the lender of last resort.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said Thursday in the wake of the Beirut port explosion that the international community needs to step up help for the troubled country already mired in financial and economic problems.

Georgieva said the IMF is exploring all possible ways to support the people of Lebanon but that national unity will be required to overcome the disaster and the financial crisis.

Before the Tuesday explosion, Lebanon was buckling under the weight of a crippling economic and financial crisis that drove nearly half of the population into poverty and sent inflation soaring. The cash-strapped government started talks with the IMF in May which were marred by political divisions.

Georgieva said it is essential to overcome the impasse to put in place a program to turn around the economy and build accountability and trust in the future of the country.

___

7::00

The commander of a U.S. Department of Defense division with responsibility for the Middle East says the United States is willing to work with Lebanons armed forces in the aftermath of the explosion in Beirut.

A U.S. Central Command spokesman said Gen. Frank McKenzie spoke with Lebanons Gen. Joseph Aoun on Thursday to offer condolences and to share that the United States is sending three military transport planes with food, water and medical supplies.

The Central Command issued a statement saying McKenzie expressed a desire to work with the Lebanese Armed Forces, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and the U.S. Agency for International Development to identify and expedite support for Lebanons recovery effort.

The call ended with the generals agreeing to keep in touch, according to the statement.

___

6:55 p.m.

The head of Lebanons customs department says one of the countrys main security agencies reported to the Cabinet in the past year about the danger from explosive chemicals being stored at the port.

Badri Daher told The Associated Press on Thursday that State Security had been investigating the stockpile of ammonium nitrate for the past year. He said it raised reports about the danger to the Cabinet, state prosecutor and other state institutions.

Security officials were no immediately available for comment.

He confirmed that he sent a letter in 2017 to a judge in which he warned of the dangers if the materials remain where they are, affecting the safety of (port) employees and asked the judge for guidance.

Daher said he and his predecessor sent a total of six letters but never got a response.

___

5:30 p.m.

French President Emmanuel Macron says an independent, transparent investigation into the massive explosion in Beirut is owed to the victims and their families by Lebanese authorities.

During a visit to the city on Thursday, Macron walked past gutted silos and charred carcasses of cargo containers.

Angry crowds approached him and the Beirut governor as they walked through a blast-torn street, and through a devastated pharmacy.

After meeting with political leaders later, the French leader mentioned the anger in the street he had witnessed earlier.

He said: There is a political, moral, economic and financial crisis that has lasted several months, several years. This implies strong political responsibility.

He said he discussed addressing corruption and other needed reforms with Lebanons president and prime minister.

I came here to show the support of the French nation for the Lebanese people, Macron said, stressing the word people.

___

5:15 p.m.

Media reports in the nation of Georgia say the tons of ammonium nitrate that exploded in Beirut originated from the Georgian city of Rustavi, home to a large chemical production plant.

The company that operates the plant issued a statement on Thursday that neither confirmed nor denied the provenance of the 2,750 tons of the chemical stored in a Beirut warehouse that is believed to have been touched off by a fire.

The ammonium nitrate  a highly explosive component of fertilizers  had been stored there since 2013 despite repeated warnings.

Rustavi Azot said it has been operating the plant only for the past three years and was unable to confirm whether the ammonium nitrate was produced in Georgia or in the city of Rustavi.

___

4:30 p.m.

Cyprus foreign minister says a team of Cypriot doctors will travel to Lebanon Sunday to help treat the wounded from Tuesdays blast in Beirut.

Nikos Christodoulides told private Sigma TV that Greece will provide a military transport plane to carry specialized equipment needed in Lebanon.

He said Cyprus will also dispatch additional rescuers and paramedics on top of the 10 emergency response personnel and eight sniffer dogs sent on Wednesday.

Christodoulides said private companies have responded to an appeal to provide quantities of aluminium and glass that Lebanon needs to rebuild.

___

4 p.m.

Denmark is donating 12 million kroner ($1.9 million) to Lebanon, chiefly to be channeled via the Red Cross, and 600 chemical protection suits.

Development Minister Rasmus Prehn said Tuesdays explosions in Beirut come at the worst possible time for Lebanon. The countrys economy and health care are already completely on their knees, he said.

And COVID-19 just makes the situation worse. At the same time, the country is home to 1.5 million refugees who also need support.

So far this year, Denmark has provided 32 million kroner ($5.1 million) in humanitarian aid to Lebanon, mainly to help refugees in the Middle Eastern country.

___

3:50 p.m.

Italy has sent 8.5 tons of medical equipment to Lebanon in a second aid flight following the massive explosion in Beirut.

The foreign ministry says the flight left from Brindisi on Thursday morning following a request from Lebanese authorities. On board were surgical and trauma kits. Earlier, a team of firefighters and experts in chemical and biological agents flew in to help.

In a statement, the foreign ministry said the Italian assistance represents a new show of friendship and solidarity toward the Lebanese people and authorities.

___

3:30 p.m.

Two Jordanian Air Force military aircraft are flying to Lebanon carrying material for a field hospital thats expected to be set up within the next 24 hours in Beirut.

The military field hospital will be staffed by 160 medics and other staff and will include 45 beds, 10 intensive care beds and 2 surgery rooms.

___

3 p.m.

Switzerland has sent a team of specialists including engineers and logistics experts to Lebanon to help with the aftermath of the explosion in Beirut.

The Alpine nation says it is responding to a request from Lebanese authorities.

The Swiss team, which also includes telecom engineers and a psychologist, will assist in securing the countrys damaged embassy and ambassadorial residence. Switzerlands Foreign Ministry says the experts also will be available to examine the condition of Lebanons public buildings such as schools and hospitals.

The Foreign Ministry says it has no indication that Swiss citizens were among the victims of Tuesdays explosion.

___

1:20 p.m.

China says it is sending a medical team and supplies to Lebanon in the aftermath of the port explosion that injured more than 5,000 people.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Thursday that Chinese leader Xi Jinping had conveyed a message of condolence to Lebanese President Michel Aoun following the blast, which killed at least 135 people.

As a friendly country to Lebanon, China is willing to continue to provide assistance within its capacity for Lebanon to tide over the difficulties, Wang told reporters at a daily briefing.

China has long been a major customer for Middle Eastern oil and gas, and in recent years has sought to boost its influence in the area as an alternative to the U.S. and Europe. For many years, China has also contributed soldiers to the United Nations peacekeeping operation in southern Lebanon.

___

1 p.m.

Germanys foreign minister says an employee of the German Embassy in Beirut was killed in the huge blast that devastated the Lebanese capital earlier this week.

Heiko Maas says in a statement that the woman died as a result of the consequences of the explosion in her apartment. He has offered his condolences to embassy staff.

The embassy building was damaged in the blast.

Tuesdays explosion appeared to have been caused by an accidental fire that ignited a stockpile of ammonium nitrate at Beiruts port. It killed at least 135 people, injured more than 5,000 and caused widespread destruction.

___

12:05 p.m.

Britain is sending a Royal Navy ship to Beirut to help the city recover from Tuesdays devastating port explosion.

Defense Secretary Ben Wallace says the survey vessel HMS Enterprise, currently in Cyprus, will assess damage and help Lebanese authorities prepare to rebuild the port.

Britain has pledged a 5 million pound ($6.6 million) humanitarian support package for Lebanon and says it will send search and rescue teams and expert medical support.

___

11 a.m.

A French presidential official says French President Emmanuel Macron is arriving in Beirut following Tuesdays deadly port explosion and will be greeted by Lebanese President Michel Aoun. The official says Macron will go directly to the port and meet Lebanese and French teams in the disaster area.

The official spoke anonymously in accordance with the presidencys practices.

Later in the day, Macron will head to the presidential palace for meetings with top officials. He will also meet with members of different political factions and civil society.

The French official says Macrons trip is meant to show that Lebanon is not alone and to give the Lebanese people confidence. Macron has said his role is to show that he believes in the country.
The Guardian

The Steelers quarterback is headed to the Hall of Fame. But he was unloved outside Pittsburgh for understandable reasons Ben Roethlisberger almost certainly played his final game in the NFL on Sunday. Photograph: Ed Zurga/AP Ben Roethlisberger is lucky that football legacies are not decided by finales. If Sunday night was indeed Big Bens last ever NFL game, as he has strongly hinted, it wasnt exactly a mic drop. In the 42-21 beatdown by the Chiefs, Roethlisberger struggled with rollouts, and l
Plowing through southern New England on Tuesday as it made its slow trek northward, Tropical Storm Isaias toppled numerous power lines, destroyed trees and knocked out electricity for tens of thousands of residents throughout Massachusetts.

The harsh summer storm split utility polls in half, uprooted vegetation and brought winds as high as 63 miles per hour to parts of the commonwealth, forecasters said.

In Springfield, more than 10,000 households were left in the dark, with Isaias impacting roughly 17% of the city at one point. The Western Massachusetts community reported the highest number of outages in the state for two days straight.

One resident in the city was seriously injured after a large tree in his backyard fell on him, pinning both of his legs underneath its branches.

Some towns, like Holland and Wales in Hampden County, saw nearly 100% of their households lose power. The two Pioneer Valley communities were still reporting that a majority of their homes and businesses were without electricity Thursday afternoon.

Officials are now expecting power to return for a majority of Massachusetts households by Thursday evening, though some homes and businesses may not have their electricity restored until later in the week.

At around 3 p.m., the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency was reporting that 29,488 customers were still without power, most of which were in Hampden and Worcester counties, two areas that consistently saw the most outages after Isaias battered the state.

MEMA, which tracks the number of households that do not have electricity using data from the states four electrical providers, updates its online map every 15 to 30 minutes.

More than 22,000 of the households that did not have power Thursday afternoon were in communities serviced by National Grid, one of the states electrical provider that has more than 1.3 million customers.

At the peak of the storm, 7 p.m. Tuesday night, we had nearly 190,000 customers in Massachusetts without power, and the vast majority of the remaining customers we anticipate having power back by 7 p.m. Thursday, said Christine Milligan, a National Grid. The very, very last customers could receive power by Friday night or Saturday, because weve just seen so much widespread damage.

Those damages, Milligan said, included entire trees that were knocked onto power lines and utility poles that were split in half by Isaias and needed to be replaced.

By Thursday morning, the utility company had deployed more than 1,800 workers to help make repairs, she said, emphasizing that getting power up and running has been a statewide effort.

Adding to the urgency National Grid is feeling to restore electricity to households is the coronavirus pandemic.

Officials at the utility company are very cognizant of the fact that many residents need to have power during the COVID-19 public health crisis and must be able to stay inside their homes.

Were doing our best, Milligan told MassLive. It was a very quick storm, but it was a very hard-hitting storm.

On Wednesday morning, Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno issued an emergency declaration due to the power, cell phone and water outages in the Hampden County city, which saw some of the biggest damages from Isaias in Massachusetts.

As of Thursday afternoon, Springfield was still reporting the most households without electricity in the entire state. Around 4% of the citys customers, an estimated 2,552 homes and businesses, remained in the dark.

A spokesperson for Eversource, which services Springfield, said the utility company is working around the clock to get power back to the thousands of customers in Western Massachusetts who lost electricity.

What time exactly households in Springfield and other communities around Hampden County will have their power restored remains uncertain, though.

Eversource said its customers will receive restoration estimates specific to their outages when crews work on their repair jobs.

Since the storm restoration process began, weve replaced 210 broken utility poles, more than 50 miles of overhead electric lines, 95 transformers and cleared 235 blocked roads across the state, said Priscilla Ress, an Eversource spokesperson. Well continue working nonstop until all of our customers are restored.

Those interested in seeing the latest restoration data from Eversource can look at the companys online outage map.

Related Content:
KNOXVILLE, Tenn.  One month before the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, killing an estimated 150,000 people in Hiroshima and 75,000 people in Nagasaki, some of the Manhattan Project's leading scientists tried to beseech President Harry S. Truman to call off the bombings.

Their requests were never heard by the president.

Instead, two of the administration's top officials schemed to keep the president in the dark about objections raised by the scientists, who were shocked by the fearsome destructive power of what they had created. Ultimately an assistant stamped two petitions from scientists "secret" before they ever reached the president's desk, and they were stored away until they were declassified in 1958.

75th anniversary: The 10 most important dates leading to the end of World War II

The atomic bombs were dropped on Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, 1945, flattening Hiroshima and Nagasaki and shocking the obstinate Japanese into submission. Americans, and much of the world, celebrated the vanquishing of a fierce enemy and the end of the world's bloodiest war.

Still, the concerns concealed in those petitions 75 years ago have echoed across generations of people deeply troubled by the destruction of entire cities.

The question lingered: Could the scientists' pleas have ended the war with less bloodshed?

This handout picture released by the U.S. Army shows the plume of smoke from a mushroom cloud billow about one hour after the nuclear bomb was detonated above Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945. Two planes participated in this mission; the Enola Gay carried and dropped the weapon, and another was an escort.

Chief physicist tries to stop the bombs

Leo Szilard was working as the chief physicist at the Chicago Met Lab in the spring of 1945 when he started to rethink the morality of using atomic bombs.

Szilard was an integral part of the project. He developed the idea of the nuclear chain reaction in 1933.

Though Szilard was a pacifist at heart, he co-wrote a letter with Albert Einstein in 1936 to President Franklin Roosevelt that encouraged the U.S. to begin building an atomic bomb. The men were afraid the technology would be developed first by Nazi Germany.

Scientist Leo Szilard (Michael Tucker, right) enlists Albert Einstein (Peter Boretsky) in a last-ditch attempt to prevent the dropping of the atomic bomb in Day One."

But now that the weapon was reality, Szilard reverted to his initial feelings.

Story continues

"Leo Szilard believed that there would be a way to make known the power of these bombs without actually killing anyone," said Ray Smith, historian at Y-12, the Oak Ridge, Tennessee, facility that produced the uranium used in those first atomic bombs.

After his arguments were rebuffed by Secretary of State James F. Byrnes, Szilard became determined to reach the president. He softened his stance over the course of several petition drafts and sent a revised version to other Manhattan Project scientists and technicians for their signature.

Petition arrives in Oak Ridge

Most workers at the labs knew only enough to do their jobs. They were unaware that they were building a bomb, much less the most destructive bomb in human history.

Some people at the lab in Oak Ridge caught on to what was happening inside "The Secret City," a place where workers could not even mutter the word "uranium."

A group of workers, including Alvin Weinberg, the lab administrator, looked over Szilard's letter when it arrived in June. They responded with two petitions of their own.

Alvin Weinberg

The first version was signed by 18 people at the lab and outlined three requests:

We respectfully petition that the use of atomic bombs, particularly against cities, be sanctioned by you as the Chief Executive only under the following conditions:

Opportunity has been given to the Japanese to surrender on terms ensuring them the possibility of peaceful development in their homeland. Convincing warnings have been given that a refusal to surrender will be followed by the use of a new weapon. Responsibility for use of atomic bombs is shared with our allies.

In a second version of the petition, a group of scientists stressed the "moral obligation on the government and people of the United States" if the weapon were to be used. They suggested that its powers be described and demonstrated, giving Japan the opportunity to consider the consequences of refusing to surrender. Sixty-seven signed the letter.

"Those letters were an attempt to not drop the bombs on people," Smith said. "They were the result of scientists who understood what they had and knew the damage that could be done. They were trying to avoid loss of life."

Historians think that between 85 and 150 people signed the various drafts at the Oak Ridge and Chicago sites. The petition never gained signatures at the other project locations because many people didn't want the word to spread  for good reason.

Keeping the petitions classified

Plenty of people involved in the Manhattan Project wanted to quash Szilard's petitions. Project director Gen. Leslie Groves and Secretary of War Henry Stimson were by far the most adamant about keeping petitions out of the president's hands.

"Stimson and Groves wanted to proceed with the plan that they had in place," Smith said. "They didn't think that dropping the bomb out in Tokyo Bay would have had the same impact than dropping it on a military target."

Groves insisted that if Szilard and the other signees wanted the petition to reach Truman, it had to go through him.

Members of the military were sure that any straying from orders would undercut the entire project, and it could have. Spies swarmed the country to steal secrets, and there were reports of informants in Oak Ridge. A leak could have jeopardized the security that Groves and Stimson worked hard to achieve.

Nevertheless, Groves made Szilard jump through hoops to deliver the letter. Szilard first passed the petition to fellow physicist Arthur Compton. He passed it to Kenneth Nichols, who passed it to Groves himself. Groves held on to the petition until August, when he knew Stimson would be in Europe with the president. Stimson's assistant filed it "secret," and it was never seen by Stimson or Truman.

"The scientists had no idea that the president hadn't seen the letter until after the bombs were dropped," Smith said.

Petitions unlikely to change history

Despite support from one of the project's leading scientists and many workers, Smith doesn't believe that the petitions would have made any difference in the outcome of the bombings.

"(The petitions) were stopped because the plans had already been set in motion," Smith said. "It was too little, too late."

Little Boy and Fat Man, the names of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively, were dropped, killing hundreds of thousands and destroying buildings across miles of each city.

On Aug. 14, Japan surrendered unconditionally and World War II ended.

An Allied correspondent stands in the rubble in front of the shell of a building that once was a movie theater in Hiroshima, Japan, on Sept. 8, 1945, a month after the first atomic bomb ever used in warfare was dropped by the U.S.

The abrupt end to the war has spurred countless "what if?" conversations. Did the bombings ultimately save many more lives? Were the Japanese actually beat and would have collapsed with a bit more pressure from conventional bombings and blockades?

The U.S. military expected anywhere from 250,000 to 1 million American service members to die in the invasion of Japan, and many more Japanese (former Military Review editor D.M. Giangreco wrote in 2010 that the Japanese military estimated the country would lose 20 million people in an American invasion).

"If it were not for the bombs, the pressure would have not been put on (Japanese Emperor Hirohito) that caused him to change his mind and surrender so quickly," Smith said.

Manhattan Project sites across the country are commemorating the anniversary of the bombings by looking back on the end of the terrible confrontation in those August days 75 years ago, and forward to efforts to rein in the spread of nuclear weapons to ensure none are used again.

Follow Allie Clouse on Twitter @allie_clouse

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: How Manhattan Project scientists tried to stop atomic bombs
House arrest of U.S. investor Calvey prolonged for three months

 Moskva city news agency, Alexander Avilov

12:32 06/08/2020

MOSCOW, August 5 (RAPSI)  House arrest of Baring Vostok investment company's founder Michael Calvey charged in a 2.5-billion-ruble (about $40 million) embezzlement case has been extended until November 13, RAPSI has learnt from the press service of the Moscow City Court.

The court has also prolonged house arrest of five other defendants, Baring Vostok partner for the financial industry sector Philippe Delpal, Baring Vostok investment director Ivan Zyuzin, partner Vagan Abgaryan, CEO of the First Collectors Bureau Maxim Vladimirov and former chairmen of the board of Vostochny bank Alexey Kordichev.

In early December, the Moscow City Court denied release of over 7.5 million rubles ($117,000) belonging to Calvey from attachment but overturned the seizure of his flat.

In mid-February 2019, Moscows Basmanny District Court ordered detention of Calvey and five other defendants including Delpal, the companys partners Vagan Abgaryan, Baring Vostok Investment Director Ivan Zyuzin, Maxim Vladimirov and ex- chairman of Vostochny bank board Alexey Kordichev.

On April 11, Moscows Basmanny District Court released Calvey from detention and put him under house arrest. Delpals measure of restrained was changed in October.

According to investigation, Calvey knowing about a 2.5-billion-ruble debt of the First Collector Bureau, a firm under his control, has organized the sale of its shares to Vostochny bank that has led to embezzlement.

The Investigative Committee claims that he committed a crime that could not be classified as business crime because he used a chain of sham companies settling the deal. Moreover, investigators say they have a PricewaterhouseCoopers audit report on the done deal estimating the sold shares at 600,000 rubles, which indicates an instance of fraud.

Calvey denies allegations insisting that the deal was fair as both companies agreed its terms and stood for it, including a person reporting an alleged crime to law enforcement bodies. He noted that a report has been filed with police by a member of Vostochny bank board of directors Sherzod Yusupov. According to Calvey, the real reason of his prosecution is a wide corporate dispute related to the control of the bank by two groups of shareholders: Baring Vostok and stockholders coming from Uniastrum bank, which was reorganized and joined to Vostochny in early 2017.

Baring Vostok company founded by Calvey in 1994 focuses on private equity investments in the CIS and Russia. The company has invested in shares of Yandex, Vkusvill, Tinkoff Bank and other major projects.




HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- WAAY 31, the ABC affiliate in Huntsville, Alabama, has launched a daily newscast in Spanish: WAAY 31 en Espanol.

Hispanics are the fastest-growing minority group in the country with more than half of the US population growth since 2010. More than 200,000 Hispanics and Latinos live and work in Alabama.

WAAY 31 en espanol

"During the coronavirus pandemic, we see how minority groups are being disproportionately affected," said WAAY 31 News Anchor/Reporter Alex-Torres Perez, who anchors the nightly WAAY 31 en Espanol newscast. "In Hispanic communities, part of the problem is a lack of information. I think it's my job to help provide Spanish-speakers with valuable information they need to stay safe."

WAAY 31 had been producing a weekly roundup of stories in Spanish for North Alabama residents for more than a year. "With information about the coronavirus pandemic changing daily, however, it could quickly become out of date," said WAAY 31 General Manager Paul Dughi. "There was a near-total lack of accurate and timely information available to our Spanish-speaking residents about what was happening in our area."

Torres-Perez, along with local and national reporters, report on the latest COVID-19 information daily along with other important news stories and items of interest to Hispanic and Latino residents.

"I am honored to be able to provide this service to the Hispanic community in North Alabama," said Torres-Perez. "I always need to know what's happening where I live. I want to make sure all Spanish-speakers have the same opportunity to know what's going on in their community."

WAAY 31 en Espanol can be seen nightly at waaytv.com/news/espanol, on the station's mobile news app, YouTube channel, and on Roku, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire TV.

Major news stories affecting Alabama residents are also posted multiple times a day at waaytv.com/news/espanol.

Contact: Suzanne Sullivan, WAAY 31

Phone: 256-533-8581

Email: [email protected]

Related Images

waay-31-en-espanol.png

WAAY 31 en espanol

WAAY 31 en espanol

SOURCE WAAY-TV
New Delhi, Aug 6 : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday announced assistance of Rs 10 lakh for the 12-year-old girl, who was sexually assaulted and brutally attacked at her home earlier this week and is battling for her life at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

Kejriwal, along with Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal, also met the family of the victim at the hospital.

Ahead of his visit to AIIMS, Kejriwal had, in a Hindi tweet, said that learning about the incident had shaken him, and that the perpetrators of such a crime should not be allowed to walk around freely.

He later said that he had talked to doctors who said that the next 48 hours are crucial for the girl.

Meanwhile, Congress' Delhi unit chief, Chaudhary Anil Kumar, too visited the AIIMS to meet the victim's family and assured them of all assistance.

He further announced that a protest would also be organised outside the house of Lt Governor Anil Baijal.

Meanwhile, Maliwal has issued summons to the DCP in-charge asking as to why an arrest has not been made in this case so far.

Talking to reporters after her visit, Maliwal said: "The victim was raped brutally and was hurt so badly that there is no organ which is not affected. Even after such a brutal crime has occurred, no arrest has been made." "I am issuing fresh summons to the DCP in-charge in order to know why an arrest has not been made so far, what kind of investigation are they conducting," she said, adding that a law has been prepared for punishment for rapists of minors in a period of six months, it has still not been enacted.

Maliwal further assured all possible assistance to the victim and her family.

The minor was sexually assaulted and brutally attacked at her home in Outer Delhi's Paschim Vihar West on Tuesday evening, when she was alone there.

According to police, the girl, found critically injured and bleeding profusely, was first taken to the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital and doctors there referred her to AIIMS.

Police said that there were injury marks of a sharp weapon on back of her head and body.

An FIR has been registered against unknown accused under relevant sections of the IPC and the POCSO Act, and further investigation is under progress, a senior police officer had said.

On Wednesday, the DCW, taking suo motu cognizance of the incident, issued notice to the Delhi Police.

Through the notice addressed to the Station House Officer of Paschim Vihar, the Commission sought a copy of FIR registered in the matter, and detailed action taken report in the case.
TikTok has said that it will open a 375 million data centre in Ireland.

The announcement comes as the Trump administration has threatened to ban the app or have it be bought by Microsoft, following concerns about the data it collects and its relationship to the Chinese government.

TikTok currently has data centres in the United States and Singapore, however the US government believes that it could be forced by the Chinese government to hand over information about American citizens based on the countrys 2017 National Intelligence Law, something TikTok has denied.

The addition of a data server in Ireland would mean that information on British and European users could be kept on Irish servers, giving users and governments confidence that their data is secure.

Until now, that information has been stored in facilities in the US.

Building on recent local leadership appointments in markets including the UK, this dedicated regional hub will place an even greater focus on strengthening policies, technologies and moderation strategies and ensuring that they complement both local culture and context, the announcement says.

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The hub will also collaborate closely with regional regulators, policymakers, government and law enforcement agencies where required in the continued pursuit of promoting the highest possible standard of user safety, it continues.

TikTok was reportedly approved by the UK government to launch its headquarters in London, but has not confirmed it, only saying that the company is considering the possibility of headquarters outside of the United States.

TikToks moderation policies have also been called into question in the past; a report in 2019 based on leaked documents about how TikTok deals with content on its platform, stated that the viral video app censored content that mentioned Tiananmen Square, Tibetan independence, or the banned religious group Falun Gong.

At the time, TikTok said the documents were based on heavy-handed rules the company enforced while it was starting up and are now not being used.

Since then, TiKTok has released comparatively more information than other social media companies about how its algorithm works with regards to content moderation and content recommendation.

The company has apparently been thinking about developing a European data centre for some time.

It's a significant investment, TikToks director of public policy for Europe Theo Bertram, told the BBC.

It's a symbol of our long-term commitment to Europe, and I think that's an important message for our users and our creators at this time.

There are lots of reasons to come to Dublin, our prime reason being access to a great talent pool, he told the Irish Times, but also shed no light on the future location of its global headquarters.
The United States on Wednesday announced an expanded five-pronged Clean Network initiative to further reduce Chinese access to data on Americans. It would include removing untrusted Chinese apps such as TikTok and WeChat from American apps stores.

With parent companies based in China, apps like TikTok, WeChat, and others are significant threats to the personal data of American citizens, not to mention tools for CCP content censorship, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters at a news briefing.

TikTok is in talks with Microsoft to sell its US operations at a reported price of $30 billion. As President Donald Trump announced earlier in the week, TikTok faces a ban in the US if the deal is not clinched by September 15.

The top US diplomat went on to unveil an expanded version of the Clean Path initiative he had launched in April. Its called the Clean Network and 30 countries have already signed on.

Here are the five lines of the network: Clean Carrier, to keep out untrusted Chinese telecommunications companies connecting the US and foreign destinations; Clean Store, to remove untrusted Chinese apps from US apps stores; Clean Apps, to prevent Chinese companies such as Huawei from pre-installing or making available for download on their devices US apps; Clean Cloud, to keep Chinese cloud service providers from accessing data on Americans; and Clean Cable, to to ensure Chinese government cannot compromise information carried through undersea cables.

On undersea cables, Secretary Pompeo cited Huawei, which, he said, significantly underbids rival companies on multiple procurements to connect Asia, the Pacific, Africa, and Europe using Chinese state-backed underseas technology.

The secretary said the state department will be working closely with the department of commerce and other agencies to limit the ability of Chinese cloud service providers to collect, to store, and to process vast amounts of data and sensitive information here in the United States.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 23:17:16|Editor: huaxia

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PHNOM PENH, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia decided Thursday to allow all cinemas and arts performing facilities across the kingdom to reopen following the temporary shutdown in mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said a Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts (MCFA) statement.

"To ease economic hardship as well as to encourage artists, producers, traders, cinema owners and arts performing venue owners to conserve and uplift national culture and arts, the government allows in principle to reopen the cinemas and arts performing venues," the statement said.

However, the owners must apply for a reopening license and sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the MCFA on the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at their establishments, it added.

In June, the Southeast Asian country also allowed the reopening of all museums.

Cambodia has seen success in controlling the spread of the COVID-19. According to the Ministry of Health, the kingdom has recorded a total of 243 confirmed COVID-19 cases to date, with 210 patients cured and 33 remained in hospital. Enditem
Ireland's first drive-through confirmation began in driving rain  but the sun came out for the anointing of the children.

Parish priest, Fr. Roy Donovan, gamely donned waterproof gear over his vestments yesterday afternoon to preside over the novel lunchtime ceremony in the teeming rain in the car park of Caherline Church in Co. Limerick.

Father Donovan said the original plan of an open-air ceremony for the 26 fifth-class pupils in the church car park had to be abandoned due to inclement weather conditions.

Maybe the novelty will make an extra-strong memory of it", he said.It evolved because we wanted to keep each class together and they couldnt go into the church.

Obviously the weather didnt work out for us and then one of the teachers suggested, 'let them bring in their cars.

We had a Plan B of letting each pupil go into the church with their sponsor and the rest would remain outside and even a plan C to live stream from the church to those outside.

We didnt go down that road so it has worked out very well. I was relying on the creativity of the school as well, ideas were coming from the staff as we went along."

He said there was a very good-humoured atmosphere around the church car park during the unique ceremony.

All the cars with the confirmation child in the car park faced the priest who was standing at a makeshift altar.

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I just wore rain gear over the alb (liturgical vestment). I didnt get wet at all. Then the lovely warm sun came out for the anointing. Otherwise I was going to go around and anoint them in each car.

Each child was called out by name and were able to come up to the table and they got high visibility and a bit of attention.

School principal Gearoid Power, said 25 sixth class pupils were confirmed at 2pm with the 26 fifth class pupils at 12.

I imagine it is the first drive-through confirmation, he said. Its a unique experience, I suppose, and theyll never forget their confirmation.

They were communicating out through the windows and talking and waving out the windows at each other.

It ran off fairly well and everyone was happy enough to be able to stay out of the weather. Father (Donovan) was a real hero. He wasnt fazed. Were very fortunate to have him in the parish."

Orla Collins, mother of 11 year old Charlie Collins, said the ceremony was a sign of times.

It shows how modern Father Roy is. He was there in his Regatta rain jacket in the driving rain. The kids were delighted. Theyll always remember it and they will always be the kids who made their confirmation in the schoolyard.

Father Roy is such a modern priest and really relates to the children.

We could hear perfectly and my son did his reading out of the window of the car. It was nice to do something different."
Female doctors are going through the menopause with no support from bosses or colleagues due to sexist and ageist attitudes putting them off seeking help, a new report has found.

A study by the British Medical Association (BMA), the professional organisation for doctors, found doctors felt they would be laughed at or ridiculed if they discussed their menopausal symptoms in the workplace.

The majority of the 3.4 million women between 50 and 64 in the UK will be suffering symptoms of the menopause. These include heart palpitations, hot flushes, night sweats, insomnia, headaches, vaginal dryness and pain, a reduced sex drive, recurrent urinary tract infections  as well as anxiety, mood changes, feelings of sadness, difficulty concentrating and issues with memory.

The study, which surveyed 2,000 doctors, found more than a third said they were keen to make changes to their working lives due to the menopause but were not able to do so.

Ninety per cent said they were suffering from menopausal symptoms ranging from insomnia to fatigue, loss of confidence and debilitating hot flushes which were impacting their capacity to carry out their work.

Almost half said they wanted to talk about the menopause with their manager but did not feel confident or comfortable enough to broach the subject.

Dr Helen Fidler, who is deputy chair of the BMA UK Consultants Committee and a member of the BMA Council, told The Independent she has suffered from menopausal symptoms for the last seven years.

The 57-year-old said: The hot flushes was the worst thing. They meant I wasnt getting enough sleep. For me, the most devastating thing is tiredness as it is very hard to work. We have a job where you cant take your eye off the ball for a moment. Particularly for me as a consultant.

There can be grave dangers from not being fully on the ball. But the menopause is a taboo. It really would not have occurred to me to mention it to my bosses. Two-thirds of consultants are male  the chances are is that your boss is male. People would just be embarrassed and unprepared if you brought it up. There is no training for them in how they might make adjustments.

Then you get the issue of gendered ageism. It is a taboo for female doctors as they get older to admit their age is impacting their work. It is the same for men, but if you add the menopause in, it exacerbates the issue. The menopause is an even bigger taboo to getting older in the workplace. The menopause is treated as a joke by colleagues and bosses and not taken seriously. You are expected to put up and shut up.

She said other female staff she works with  particularly nursing staff  formed an informal support network in the workplace to provide support for her menopausal symptoms.

Dr Fidler, who is a consultant gastroenterologist at Lewisham and Greenwich Trust, argued the menopause is an issue which could easily be accommodated at work.

She added: Ninety per cent of the people who answered our survey said it impacted on their work and these are senior doctors the NHS desperately needs. We cant afford to lose them because of their menopausal symptoms.

The report reveals many women left management roles, cut their hours, or were planning to stop being doctors due to problems they encountered when going through menopause.

Around 30,000 female doctors in the UK are believed to be going through the menopause. The BMA is demanding steps are taken to relieve menopausal symptoms by allowing doctors to work more flexibly, offering help for mental health, and enabling honest conversations about the menopause in the workplace.

One female doctor told researchers: There are very few older women left at my senior level in my traditional profession. If I mentioned my perimenopausal symptoms, I would be stigmatised and disrespected as someone who was no longer rational or capable.

Another said: I suffer attacks of low confidence which makes me question my worth and ability to do my job. When coupled with the symptoms, I have often felt like giving up.

A third respondent called for a change in attitudes to menopause across both the NHS and wider society to support menopausal women in the workplace.

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Dr Helena McKeown, of the BMA, said: Menopause is still a taboo subject in many workplaces and that includes the medical profession. Many women feel uncomfortable discussing their needs with their managers. The survey clearly shows that this is a significant problem within the medical profession. Doctors are aware of these issues for their patients, so its time to extend this awareness to an improved, more sympathetic working for doctors experiencing this themselves.

We need to ensure that we retain women doctors who are a crucial part of the workforce. Simple steps taken now to help women experiencing the menopause now and for those in the future, will help to retain them and ensure less lost working days because of menopausal symptoms.

Research from Nuffield Health has shown one in four women will experience debilitating symptoms that can last up to 15 years from menopause.

Professor Neena Modi, president of the Medical Womens Federation said: The menopause affects more than half of the population, many to a debilitating extent. There are also wider impacts on all of society because of the huge importance of women to a well-functioning workforce. We hope this report will help employers provide appropriate support for their employees and end the taboos around a normal physiological process.
Congressman Mike Conaway, R-Midland, visited the West Texas Food Bank on Wednesday to meet with WTFB Executive Director Libby Campbell and help distribute boxes of food from the Farmers to Families program.

The WTFB received its first shipment from the United States Department of Agriculture's new program that helps distribute fresh produce. The Farmers to Families Program started last month and will distribute fresh fruits and vegetables to West Texans.

The distribution will address the issues associated with hunger with people losing jobs or having reduced hours, all the things that are happening here in West Texas ripples into people not being able to feed their families, he said. It doesnt fix everything, but it does fix a certain amount of the issue associated with hunger in West Texas.

The food bank distributed 1.2-million pounds of food last month and 40 percent of the people receiving boxes havent applied for food assistance in the past, Campbell said. On Wednesday, volunteers distributed food to 251 families.

That speaks to how deep this problem is in our society, Conaway said. Youve got people who have never needed the public assistance system and are needing it through this program.

Want to help? Donate at https://wtxfoodbank.org/donate-money/ See More Collapse

The food bank is only accepting monetary donations due to staffing limitations, Campbell said. There is more work involved with accepting physical food donations, including sorting and sanitizing that the team doesnt have time for currently. The National Guard has left, and there are 48 staff members working to fulfill the food needs of people in 19 counties.

Conaway said the program started with the work done in Washington, D.C., when the bill was passed in March. The USDA then made the program a reality. However, he said the real heroes are the people who work at the food bank.

The real heroes are the folks who work at the food bank, he said. Libby Campbell and her team are the real heroes.

He added that its troubling that so many people are suffering from food insecurity, but it does feel good that the community has been responding positively to the ongoing problem with help.

Nobody expected this obviously, (it is) a real credit to the citizens of Odessa and Midland to have provided this facility and the brand-new facility in Midland, he said. Good-hearted people have made it happen. ...To have this facility and asset in place to be able to respond to this is a real credit to the communities and the vision that was associated with making all of this happen.

This is Conaways first visit to the food bank since the coronavirus pandemic began, but he has attended other distribution days previously. He hopes the Farmers to Families Program will continue into October.

There is a response with assets and tools in place in our communities, he said. There are a lot of folks who are still hurting. This is not the full response to people being hungry, but it is a good response in that regard. The bigger issue is to take care of each other.
A series of arrests were made following Tuesday's devastating explosions in Beirut, Lebanon. At least 137 people were killed in a flash, more than 5,000 and some 300,000 left homeless. Lebanese President Michel Aoun warned that the death toll is likely to rise.

"It is time to grieve for our martyrs, wounded and missing," he told the country's national news agency.

As new details emerged, the government on Wednesday ordered the house arrest of port officials who knew about the thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate explosives stored at the port for six years without safety measures. Aoun said the officials would face "the harshest punishment" if they are found responsible.

Records show that a Russian-owned cargo ship ran into trouble and pulled into port in 2013. Abandoned, its deadly cargo was transferred to a port warehouse.

Small explosions thought to be from fireworks in storage were seen before the massive shock wave that swept through the capital, shattering the peace of a summer's afternoon. A smiling bride posing for pictures on her wedding day. The children watching the fire at the port burn from a window. The domestic worker who risked her own life to save a toddler.

At least one U.S. citizen was killed in the blast, and "several" more were injured, a State Department official confirmed Wednesday. The department said they are attempting to track down any other Americans who may have been injured in the catastrophic explosions.

Beirut's governor, Marwan Abboud, compared the destruction to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II. "Never in my life have I seen destruction of such magnitude," he told local reporters.

Journalist Ghada Asharif said she was lucky she was at work. Her home was destroyed. "I think everybody is in immense shock," Asharif said. "I think beyond the physical damage, there's the mental sort of national trauma that everybody is processing."

Story continues

There is much to process. In addition to the deaths, mass injuries and widespread destruction. The blast leveled the port and decimated its grain silos, in a country that was already facing an economic collapse long before the explosions.

Sophie Lewis contributed to this report.

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US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo on Wednesday said that the Trump administration is "working hard" to protect Americans from the threats of "untrusted vendors" such as Tik Tok and WeChat, which it wants to remove from US app stores like those operated by Apple and Google.

"We are working hard to keep Americans safe from the threats and keeping their data safe from untrusted vendors. We are working to ensure that untrusted Chinese telecom companies don't provide telecommunication services between US and foreign destinations," Pompeo said at a press briefing of the State Department.

He added, "We want to see untrusted Chinese apps removed from US app stores. President Trump has mentioned impending action on and for a good reason."

Further speaking on the expansion of the clean network, Pompeo urged "freedom-loving nations' to join the clean network and also called for ending the use of Chinese cloud providers.

"I'm pleased to announce the expansion of the Clean Network with the launch of five new lines of effort. We call on all freedom-loving nations and companies to join the Clean Network," he said further.

Pompeo's announcement comes as part of the Trump administration's efforts to push back at China in several areas including over Beijing imposing restrictions on Hong Kong and its maritime claims in the South China Sea. Earlier, Pompeo in an interview to Fox News said that Chinese software companies doing business in the United States are feeding data directly to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

President said that the US will be banning Chinese video-sharing app Also, US politicians have repeatedly criticised TikTok, owned by Beijing-based startup ByteDance, of being a threat to national security because of its ties to China.

China and the US are at loggerheads on a variety of issues including Hong Kong national security law, the South China Sea, the novel coronavirus and trade.

Meanwhile, the US Secretary of State Pompeo on Wednesday further urged the American citizens to exercise "increased caution" while travelling to and within China.

"The world has witnessed more examples of CCP efforts to coerce and control its citizens. I urge US citizens to exercise increased caution while travelling to or in China. Freedom-loving nations must together confront the CCP's aggressive behaviour and the good news is that tide is absolutely turning," Pompeo said during the press briefing.

This comes days after South China Morning Post reported that six people including activist Nathan Law Kwun-Chung and former British consulate employee Simon Cheng Man-kit are being sought by Hong Kong police on suspicion of breaking the new draconian national security law.

(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.)
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Linkedin Moch. Fiqih Prawira Adjie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, August 6, 2020 16:06 530 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c107e8 1 National COVID-19,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,face-masks,coronavirus,Muhadjir-Effendy,pandemic,health-protocol Free

The government is set to step up its public campaign to encourage mask-wearing in the next few weeks as COVID-19 cases in the country continue to rise.

[President Joko Jokowi Widodo] has asked us to educate the public on health protocols, Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister Muhadjir Effendy said in a statement on Tuesday. We [will] start with the essential, which is mask-wearing.

Muhadjir said the government would establish a program, spearheaded by the coordinating ministers office, to intensify the campaign to wear a face mask in public places, including appointing a mask-wearing ambassador and distributing social aid packages that include face masks.

Additionally, the government plans to issue public service commercials in print and online publications, social media and billboards, in addition to educating the public on the law regarding wearing a face mask.

The main targets of this campaign are people who have activities in traditional and modern markets, terminals, stations, public facilities, houses of worship, public open spaces, those who co-live such as in orphanages and those who have activities on the streets and so on, he said.

The coordinating minister also ordered the Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Ministry and the State-Owned Enterprises Ministry to procure a large number of face masks from micro and ultra-micro industries to fulfill the public need while supporting small businesses.

The government drafted the campaign amid rising cases of COVID-19 in the country after most regional administrations began easing restrictions in early June to prevent a further economic downturn.

Compliance with health protocols still leaves much to be desired. For example, the Jakarta administration announced Monday that it had collected a total of Rp 2.47 billion (US$188,120) in fines from violators of social restrictions, including from 62,198 people who were not wearing a mask.

Businesses have also been fined for failing to adhere to health protocols, such as limiting visitor capacity. According to the official government count, Indonesia has 116,871 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 5,452 deaths as of Wednesday.
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Linkedin Antonio Guterres (The Jakarta Post) New York, United States  Thu, August 6, 2020 10:58 531 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c4637d 3 Opinion Hiroshima,Hiroshima-atomic-bombing,nuclear-disaster,atomic-bomb Free

This month marks the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, when humanity learned of the devastation a single nuclear bomb can unleash.

The lingering suffering caused to the survivors, the hibakusha, should give us daily motivation to eliminate all nuclear arms. They have shared their stories so the horror experienced by Hiroshima and Nagasaki will never be forgotten. Yet the nuclear threat is growing once more.

Read also: Japan set to mark 75 years since Hiroshima, Nagasaki atomic bombing

A web of agreements and instruments has been constructed to prevent the use of these uniquely destructive weapons and ultimately to eliminate them. But that framework has idled for decades and is starting to erode. The potential that nuclear weapons will be used  intentionally, accidentally or as a result of miscalculation  is dangerously high.

Fueled by mounting international tensions and the dissolution of trust, relations between countries that possess nuclear weapons are devolving into dangerous and destabilizing confrontations. As governments lean heavily on nuclear weapons for security, politicians are trading heated rhetoric about their possible use and devoting vast sums of money to improving their lethality, money that would be much better spent on peaceful, sustainable development.

For decades, nuclear testing led to horrific human and environmental consequences. This relic of a former age should be confined there forever. Only a legally-binding, verifiable prohibition on all nuclear testing can achieve this.

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty has proven its worth, yet some States have still to sign or ratify the treaty, preventing it from fulfilling its full potential as an essential element in the framework to eliminate nuclear weapons.

Along with climate change, nuclear weapons represent an existential threat to our societies. Most of the roughly 13,000 nuclear arms currently in global arsenals are vastly more destructive than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Any use would precipitate a humanitarian disaster of unimaginable proportions.

It is time to return to the shared understanding that a nuclear war cannot be won and must not be fought, to the collective agreement that we should work towards a world free of nuclear weapons, and to the spirit of cooperation that enabled historic progress towards their elimination.

The United States and the Russian Federation, as the possessors of some 90 percent of nuclear weapons, are expected to lead the way. The New START treaty retains verifiable caps. Its extension for five years would buy time to negotiate new agreements, including by potentially bringing in other countries possessing nuclear weapons.

Read also: In milestone year, A-bomb survivor keeps up fight for nuclear disarmament

Next year, the United Nations will host the Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), one of the most successful international security agreements. It contains the only treaty-based commitments undertaken by the five largest nuclear-armed countries to pursue the elimination of nuclear weapons and imposes verifiable obligations not to acquire or develop nuclear weapons. Its near universal membership means the vast majority of the international community is bound by these commitments. The NPT Review Conference is an opportunity to stem the erosion of the international nuclear order.

Fortunately, most United Nations member states remain committed to the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons. This is reflected in the 122 countries that supported the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. They understand that the consequences of any use of nuclear arms would be catastrophic.

We cannot risk another Hiroshima or Nagasaki or worse. As we reflect on the suffering of the hibakusha, let us view this tragedy as a rallying cry for humanity and recommit to a world free of nuclear weapons.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
CLAT 2020 was initially slated to be held on 10 May and has been pushed back at least four times sine then due to the COVID-19 pandemic

The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2020 which was scheduled to be held on 22 August has been postponed till further notice.

The Consortium of National Law Universities that organises CLAT has said, "Registration for the examination closed on 10 July 2020. The exam scheduled for 22 August has been postponed until further notice."

The examination has been postponed at least four times this year. CLAT 2020 was initially slated to be held on 10 May and has been pushed back ever since then due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year the examination was held on 26 May and the result was announced in June.

NDTV quoted convenor of CLAT 2020 professor Balraj Chouhan as saying that the new dates of the exam will be announced after consulting ministries.

Chouhan, vice-chancellor of Dharmashastra National Law University (DNLU) in Jabalpur, said students will find it difficult to appear for the exams due to lockdowns and hence they had to postpone the exam.

CLAT is conducted for admission to undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) law programmes offered by 22 NLUs.

CLAT Exam Pattern

For undergraduates, the paper comprises of 150 multiple choice questions (MCQs) of one mark each. There is negative marking of 0.25 for each wrong answer. The total duration of the exam is two hours. It tests a candidates proficiency in English, current affairs, logical reasoning and quantitative techniques.

The paper for postgraduation comprises 100 MCQs of 1 mark each and two essay type questions of 25 marks each.

Candidates have to write two 800 word essays on the topics of law and contemporary issues. There is a negative marking of 0.25 for MCQs.
WASHINGTON (AP)  President Donald Trump took in $165 million for his reelection effort in the month of July, a sum that that surpasses what his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, raised during the same period.

But a massive cash-on-hand advantage that once gave the Republican a significant competitive edge has largely been closed, with Biden and the Democratic Party reporting that they are just $6 million shy of the $300 million that the president and the Republican National Committee have banked.

The money puts the two on a virtually even footing that will allow both to saturate the airwaves with advertising, fund get-out-the-vote efforts and mobilize supporters  even if it has to be done virtually in many cases due to the coronavirus.

The sums also suggest that even in the midst of a pandemic that has curtailed conventional campaign activities, Trump has continued to spend at a vigorous pace while Biden has cut expenses and stockpiled cash.

Trump's large haul was welcomed by his campaign, which had been bested in fundraising by Biden, the former vice president, over the past two months. His advisers said they didn't just beat Biden  they boasted that they've raised a staggering $1.1 billion this cycle.

"The presidents support continues to increase while Joe Biden just posted a down fundraising month from his basement, campaign manager Bill Stepien said, referring to the basement studio where Biden has been attending many of his digital-only campaign events.

Campaigns often tout small contributions from grassroots donors as a sign of enthusiasm and Biden's campaign is no exception. They claim support from ordinary people has swelled and point to an average online contribution of $34.77 as proof.

Campaign manager Jen OMalley Dillion called it a lights-out fundraising month and said the money will help Democrats build support "to defeat Donald Trump this fall and win the battle for the soul of our nation.

The fundraising totals include donations collected by each candidate, national political parties and a series of joint fundraising committees both contenders have set up in conjunction with their parties. These financial arrangements allow donors to contribute six-figure sums.
Jason Copenhaver (above), 47, allegedly spit on a boy who refused to remove a mask inside a Florida restaurant on Sunday

An intoxicated 47-year-old man wandered into a Florida restaurant and spat in the face of a young boy when the victim refused to take off his mask, telling him; 'You now have coronavirus,' it has been alleged.

Jason Copenhaver was arrested by police in Treasure Island after confronting the child inside Ricky T's Bar and Grille Restaurant on Sunday, according to police.

Copenhaver, who was allegedly drunk and barefoot, approached the child's table on Sunday and asked the boy if he was wearing a mask, according to Treasure Island police.

Authorities did not release the boy's age.

Police said the 47-year-old then told the child to take it off.

He then grabbed the boy's hand tightly and put his face next to the child's, telling the boy he now had the coronavirus, according to police reports.

'Victim stated that (Copenhaver) was in such close proximity that spit particles from (Copenhaver's) mouth landed in his face,' an officer wrote in the police report.

Restaurant workers asked Copenhaver to sit down, saying he appeared drunk and wasn't wearing shoes.

The police report said he also tried to hit an employee.

One of the workers at the restaurant took Copenhaver outside and held onto him until police arrived, according to WTVT-TV.

News outlets reported that he was charged with simple battery and disorderly conduct.

He was freed after posting $650 bail.

Witnesses said Copenhaver appeared intoxicated and was not wearing shoes when he walked into Ricky T's restaurant in Treasure Island, Florida, on Sunday and committed the alleged assault

It was not immediately clear whether Copenhaver had an attorney who could comment on the charges.

Police said Copenhaver told them he didn't know if he had coronavirus and has never been tested.

Florida this week became the second state in the country to surpass 500,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus.

State health officials have also reported record highs of more than 600 hospitalizations per day in recent weeks.

Though the state's new cases were below 10,000 for the 11th day in a row, Florida officials reported an additional 5,409 cases on Wednesday to push the statewide total past 500,000.

Florida now has 502,739 infections, just second to California, which has more than 519,000 cases.

According to the Florida Department of Health, 225 new deaths were reported, bringing the total to 7,627. Florida's weekly death average is now 185 people per day, the largest rate on record.

According to the Florida Department of Health, 225 new deaths were reported, bringing the total to 7,627.
Illustration: Xia Qing/GT

US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar will visit the island of Taiwan "in the coming days." The last time a US cabinet official visited the island was in 2014, when then Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy paid a visit. As the Health and Human Services Secretary is a cabinet post, Azar's trip to the island will be more provocative.

Why did the US exercise restraint in sending officials to Taiwan in the past four decades? Because international rules require it to do so.

The US established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China on January 1, 1979 and cut its ties with the island of Taiwan at the same time. It's a manifestation of Washington's compliance with diplomatic norms that no official exchanges between the US and the island of Taiwan should be carried out. The "embassy" of the US in Taipei was renamed the American Institute in Taiwan, Taipei Office as a matter of course.

The US passed the so-called Taiwan Relations Act in January 1979, which forcibly opened a way for relations between Washington and the island of Taiwan outside the framework of China-US diplomatic relations. As the act seriously contravenes international law, Washington has maintained restraint in using it.

The past two years have seen the passage of a series of US bills, such as the so-called Taiwan Travel Act that allows higher-level US officials to visit the island of Taiwan. This has paved the way for new provocations against China. Azar's visit will be the boldest step taken by the US at a sensitive time.

If the US and the island of Taiwan have made up their minds to further enhance bilateral ties, they will have many cards to play. Azar's visit is only a sign. The Chinese mainland must be fully prepared for more moves from the US and the island of Taiwan. The Taiwan question is the lever that the US can most conveniently and comfortably use to exert pressure on China. It's the most challenging issue for China in its strategic maneuvering with the US.

Washington wants to undermine existing rules between China and the US in handling the Taiwan question. The international community, including Americans, knows that the US is deliberately provoking and pressuring China. As long as China handles it in a proper way, China will have the moral high ground to tackle the Taiwan question.

If the cross-Straits situation spirals out of control and leads to a military showdown, the US and the island of Taiwan will be less confident than the Chinese mainland. The mainland's military strength that has grown rapidly has an advantage in the Taiwan Straits. China has the moral high ground, and the Chinese people have the strong will to safeguard national unification.

It is anticipated that the US and the island of Taiwan dare not to push the situation in the Taiwan Straits to the extreme. The Trump administration cannot cross the line even if it wants to boost its election chances by heightening China-US tensions. If bilateral relations spiral out of control, it may deal a heavy blow to Trump's reelection. This is the risk Washington must carefully assess.

The US sent Azar to Taiwan as Washington needs to morally justify its provocation. As the epidemic situation in the US worsens, Washington uses health exchanges as an excuse. Beijing should expose the immorality of US provocation in the Taiwan Straits, and suppress US ambitions to further step across the line.

Even if China and the US have much room for cooperation, the latter is pushing bilateral relations toward a confrontation. Although the US tries to cover up its intentions with ideology, it destroys rules and the basis for communications between major powers, and hurts world peace and stability. China's necessary countermeasures against US provocations will create complexities to the international pattern, but are within the expectations of the international community, and will block the escalating collusion between the US and the island of Taiwan.

As China strengthens its morality, every card it plays will have greater deterrence. We should also make Taiwan society realize that indulging the Tsai Ing-wen authorities in upgrading US-Taiwan ties by "salami tactics" is a dangerous move, and being a pawn in the US' hard-line strategy toward China will lead the island of Taiwan to unbearable disaster.

The mainland has many cards, including the military card. More importantly, it is much more determined to play the cards than Washington.
The $1,200 Stimulus checks were mistakenly sent to thousands of foreign workers who had visited the U.S for temporary work visas during the first round of stimulus payments.

Many of the recipients of the wrong addressed checks are spending the money in their nations. While some of them are trying to amend their returns, thinking that the mistakenly received stimulus checks would affect their green card application, visa status, or ability to go back to the U.S.

According to NPR, one tax preparation form told them that it has clients from 129 countries who mistakenly addressed it to receive stimulus checks. Some of these countries are Canada, India, China, Brazil, Nigeria, and South Korea, Argentina, Colombia, Ghana, Germany, Japan, Nepal, Mongolia, Nigeria. Pakistan, Russia, Peru, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.

The mistake happened due to many foreign workers filing incorrect tax returns unintentionally or on purpose that made the foreigners appear to be U.S residents, as per government officials and tax experts, as per IB Times.

The amount that was sent to improper recipients who live overseas is challenging to identify. However, according to Sprintax, the company that prepares the U.S tax for nonresidents, about 400 amended returns were made for people mistakenly filed as U.S residency last year. This year, 5,000 or almost 5% of the total federal tax returns were processed to fix residency.

There will be an estimated $43 million stimulus check-in error if it is only 5% of more than 700,000 student and seasonal workers for last year's record with F-1 and J-1 visas.

The error of sending a $1,200 stimulus check to non-U.S citizens is the latest in a series of mishaps for the COVID-19 relief efforts in America. The set of mishaps includes sending nearly $1.4 billion relief package checks to dead Americans.

As Congress is still in debates about another pandemic relief packages, they are also considering a second round of stimulus payments that will exclude the deceased. However, the new bill does not have to do with the problem of $1,200 checks mistakenly sent to foreign workers.

The majority of the recipients are college students from South and Central America, or Eastern Europe who traveled to the U.S for a seasonal low-wage occupation. NPR reported that one of the receivers of the mistakenly addressed stimulus was a 24-year-old citizen of the Dominican Republic who worked at a Cape Cod grocery store last summer. This spring season, the person received a $1,2000 stimulus check with the sign of President Donald J. Trump.

NPR stated that the U.S government acknowledges that some stimulus checks were improperly sent to foreign workers. The Treasury Department is said to explore possible options to prevent the mishaps from happening again.

1040 is the form commonly used by individual U.S taxpayers, according to Clayton Cartwright, Georgia attorney. However, most foreign workers mistakenly file for it instead of the 1040-NR form (NR stands for nonresident).

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JCC Signs Partnership Agreement with WGU North Carolina JCC grads will be able to transfer seamlessly to WGU and receive a tuition discount

SMITHFIELD, N.C.  WGU North Carolina, an affiliate of national online nonprofit Western Governors University, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) agreement with Johnston Community College that will ease the transition for graduates to pursue bachelors degrees offered by WGU, provide tuition discounts, and provide access to scholarship funds.

The MOU establishes the principles that all articulated associate degrees at JCC will transfer to WGU, thus facilitating a seamless process for graduates who wish to pursue a bachelors degree. WGU is fully accredited and offers more than 60 undergraduate and graduate degrees in the high-demand fields of business, information technology, education, and healthcare, including nursing.

In addition, JCC graduates, faculty, and staff will receive a 5 percent discount on WGUs already cost-effective tuition of around $3,225 per six-month term for most undergraduate programs. They will also be eligible to apply for scholarships through the WGU Community College Partnerships Scholarship program, which provides each recipient with tuition credit of $2,000, awarded over four terms at $500 each term. WGU will provide webinar training to JCC faculty and staff to ensure understanding of the partnership and articulation pathways.

Johnston Community College is proud to provide another avenue for students to obtain their bachelors degree through transfer to a nationally acclaimed university, WGU, stated Dr. David Johnson, president of Johnston Community College. Working with WGU to create and implement this articulation agreement has not only been a joy, but it supports our deep-rooted philosophy of student success. Thank you, WGU!

As a teacher in the Johnston County School District many years ago, I always appreciated the work that JCC did to further higher education in the community, said WGU North Carolina Chancellor Catherine Truitt. I am thrilled that this partnership will help prepare Johnston County residents to meet North Carolinas future workforce needs.

WGU North Carolina officially launched in October 2017 through a partnership between the State and nationally recognized Western Governors University. More than 3,700 North Carolina residents are currently enrolled at WGU, and more than 4,000 alumni live in North Carolina.
Two people suffered stab wounds and two were arrested after a large brawl at a Southern California hotel that involved as many as 100 people, police said.

Officers found 60 to 100 people involved in a fight in a parking lot outside and in the lobby of the Cambria Hotel around 12:40 p.m. Wednesday, said Sgt. Shane Carringer, an Anaheim police spokesman.

"People did arm themselves with makeshift weapons. It appears they used broomsticks and the legs of chairs," Carringer said. "It was obviously a chaotic scene."

Two people suffered lacerations that Carringer described as stab wounds, but the injuries were not life-threatening, he said.

Every officer available, about 50 or 60, was dispatched to separate the two groups, as well as 10 officers from Orange County, Carringer said. There were no injuries to police or hotel staff, and the fight was contained to guests, he said.

Image: Anaheim police (@AnaheimPD)

The Cambria Hotel, which is relatively new, has a pool and water park, Carringer said. The hotel's website says the pool and water park is open but with social distancing rules because of the coronavirus epidemic.

A person who answered the phone at the front desk said a manager was not immediately available and said to call back Thursday. A representative for the company that franchised the hotel, but which does not own it, said it was looking into the situation.

The fight and what prompted it are under investigation, Carringer said.

Witnesses told local television station KTLA that the fight was sparked after someone accidentally pushed a child into a pool.

A juvenile was arrested, as well as one other person, Carringer said. Both were accused of fighting in public and resisting an officer, which are misdemeanors, and they were issued citations and released, he said.

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Police along with the Orange County Health Care Agency will investigate whether the hotel has been following rules in place because of the coronavirus epidemic.

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"We are reaching out to staff to learn if there have been any COVID-related issues at this location," a spokesman for the health care agency said in an email.

Because of the number of people involved, police did a floor-by-floor search of the hotel. It is not unusual for police to respond to fights, but "what was noteworthy was the amount of people involved," Carringer said.

There are no conventions in Anaheim, Carringer said. Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park, which is also in Anaheim, are closed.

"This is a big hotel with a water park," Carringer said. "People are coming to spend their time there."

Related video: Are hotels safe during the coronavirus pandemic?
In its response to Mr. Giuliani on Thursday, the commission said that people planning to vote by mail could wait until after viewing the debates to send in their ballots if they so choose.

While more people will likely vote by mail in 2020, the debate schedule has been and will be highly publicized, the commission, which is nonpartisan, said in the letter. Any voter who wishes to watch one or more debates before voting will be well aware of that opportunity.

The commission also sidestepped Mr. Giulianis list of preferred moderators, saying simply that it would exercise great care, as always, to ensure that the selected moderators are qualified and fair. Mr. Giulianis list was heavy on Fox News personalities and conservative talk-show hosts.

Campaigns have no formal say in the debate schedule, which was set months ago, and at least technically speaking, the commission has sole discretion when it comes to selecting moderators. But officials have already had to change the location of two of its four events, after a pair of universities that were set to host pulled out because of concerns about the coronavirus.

The first presidential debate is scheduled to be held on Sept. 29 in Cleveland; the second on Oct. 15 in Miami; and the third on Oct. 22 in Nashville. A vice-presidential debate, scheduled for Oct. 7, will be held in Salt Lake City.
The California Department of Public Health announced Thursday it's no longer adding and removing counties to and from the watch list while a glitch in the COVID-19 data-tracking system gets fixed. The state hasn't received full counts on the number of tests conducted for days.

"We are working to assess the impact of the data issues on disease transmission metrics in the county data monitoring program and will get it back up and running as soon as possible," CDPH said in a statement.

The state set up the watch list to create a system for monitoring counties that experience significant increases in COVID-19 infection and hospitalization rates. There are currently 38 of the state's 58 counties on the list that are working with the state to identify the causes for any worrisome trends and next steps to mitigate the virus spread.

If a county is on a watch list for three days or longer, the state will order officials to roll back some reopenings. They also are not allowed to open school campuses until they have been off the watch list for at least 14 days.

The watch list is constantly changing based on the latest data available from public health departments, but for now it's frozen.

Data glitch impacts reporting of new cases in California

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday the state has seen a 21.2% drop in the seven-day infection rate from the week before.

The next day, the governor's statement was brought into question. Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said in a Tuesday press briefing California hasn't received complete reports of the number of tests implemented for days, nor the number that came back positive for COVID-19. In other words, the state doesn't have a clear idea of whether cases are going up or down right now.

"Just as we had back in February and March when we didn't have enough testing, we felt blind. I would say right now were back to feeling blind. We dont know how the epidemic is trending," Santa Clara County Health Officer Sara Cody said Wednesday. "Its not just inconvenient. This lack of data doesnt allow us to know where this epidemic is heading, if its growing."

The data glitch doesn't impact the reporting of hospitalizations and deaths, however.

The California Reportable Disease Information Exchange (CalREDIE) is where the data breakdown occurred. The state system electronically receives COVID-19 test data from individual labs.

"Theres a specific component that feeds information from labs to both the states system and the local public health system," Ghaly said. "That may actually be the place where data is getting stuck."

As a result, not all the confirmed positive cases are in the state database and county dashboards aren't accurate as well.

The daily tally posted Tuesday on California's COVID-19 data page showed 4,526 additional confirmed positives, the lowest total in more than six weeks and a precipitous drop from the record of nearly 13,000 reported two weeks ago. Many counties individually reported to the state that it thinks the case numbers are being underreported or delayed.

Coronavirus cases in Sonoma County, for example, may be underreported by up to one-third, according to the Press Democrat.

The state has deployed an emergency team from the state's Department of Technology to fix the data glitch. Meanwhile all laboratories in the state are manually reporting cases to county health officials until the problem is corrected.

SFGATE Managing Editor Katie Dowd and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Amy Graff is the news editor for SFGATE. Email her: agraff@sfgate.com.
Oslo: European countries are moving to curb travel as fears of a second wave of coronavirus sweep across the continent.

Norway announced on Thursday it would impose a 10-day quarantine for all travellers from France, Switzerland and the Czech Republic, while Austria advised its citizens against all non-essential travel to mainland Spain.

A passenger is tested upon arrival at Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. Travellers entering France from 16 countries where the coronavirus is circulating widely are having to undergo tests upon arrival at French airports. Even so, France has just been added to a quarantine list for Norway. Credit:AP

Norway will also reimpose quarantine for people travelling from Monaco and from certain regions in neighbouring Sweden.

The Nordic country, which is not a member of the European Union but belongs to the passport-free Schengen travel zone, had some of the strictest travel restrictions in Europe in the early phase of the pandemic.
Public dissatisfaction boiled over late last year, when protesters took to the streets calling for the ouster of the political class. The protests toppled the prime minister, but Lebanons troubles only grew worse

Beirut: Since an orphaned shipment of highly explosive chemicals arrived at the port of Beirut in 2013, Lebanese officials treated it the way they have dealt with the countrys lack of electricity, poisonous tap water and overflowing garbage: By bickering and hoping the problem might solve itself.

But the 2,750 tonnes of high-density ammonium nitrate combusted Tuesday, officials said, unleashing a shock wave on the Lebanese capital that gutted landmark buildings, killed 135 people, wounded at least 5,000 and rendered hundreds of thousands of residents homeless.

The government has vowed to investigate the blast and hold those responsible to account. But as residents waded through the war-like destruction on Wednesday to salvage what they could from their homes and businesses, many saw the explosion as the culmination of years of mismanagement and neglect by the countrys politicians.

Nada Chemali, an angry business owner, urged her fellow Lebanese to confront the political leaders, the big ones she accused of driving the country to ruin. Go to their homes! she shouted.

Her housewares shop and her home had been destroyed and she expected no government aid to fix them.

Who from the big ones is going to help us? she yelled. Who is going to reimburse us?

The toll from the blast came into stark relief across Beirut and beyond Wednesday, the day after it left a smouldering crater where the port had been. Beiruts governor said the damage extended over half of the city, estimating it at $3 billion.

Rescue workers struggled to treat the thousands of wounded with few resources and several hospitals knocked out of commission. We need everything to hospitalise the victims, and there is an acute shortage of everything, said Hamad Hassan, the health minister.

No neighbourhood was spared. While the damage was greatest along the Mediterranean waterfront and in the residential districts near the port, the shock waves also blew out windows miles away in the hills above Beirut.

Near the city centre, the walls of windows on the citys landmark hotels had been shattered, their curtains left to blow in the wind. In the downtown quarter rebuilt after Lebanons 15-year civil war, a proud symbol of the countrys rise from the ashes, high-end boutiques and posh restaurants had collapsed inward, littered with their own debris.

Gemmayzeh, an upscale Christian neighbourhood known in better times for its historic buildings, abundant churches and rowdy nightlife, resembled a war zone. Cars with smashed windshields lined the curbs. Branches torn from trees blocked roads. Everywhere, it seemed, residents were cleaning glass, rubble and blood from shops, homes and balconies.

But with the country already deep in the throes of a major economic crisis, residents had no idea how they could afford to rebuild.

Roger Matar, 42, said his familys apartment doors and windows were blown in, scattering window frames on beds and glass across the floors and couches. He had heard a boom, he said, then suddenly everything was shaking and all the doors and windows were gone.

Because of the financial crisis, banks have placed strict limits on cash withdrawals to prevent runs.

The banks are holding our money, and if you need to pay workers, you need cash, Matar said. It should be the government that helps, but they are bankrupt. The country is broken.

After its civil war ended in 1990, Lebanon aimed to rebuild itself as a cultural and financial hub in West Asia, a Switzerland on the Med with skilled bankers, trilingual professionals and dance clubs that raged till dawn. But former warlords became power-brokers in its weak sectarian democracy, leading to chronic political deadlock and widespread corruption, as well as shoddy infrastructure and massive government debt.

Public dissatisfaction boiled over late last year, when protesters took to the streets calling for the ouster of the political class. The protests toppled the prime minister, but Lebanons troubles only grew worse. Since then, the currency has lost 80 percent of its value, unemployment has spiked and prices have skyrocketed. Lockdowns aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus have further damaged the economy.

Few Lebanese have any faith that the government will help them or get to the bottom of the explosion that ravaged the capital.

And new details about how such a large quantity of potentially explosive chemicals ended up unprotected near the citys downtown and several residential neighborhoods seemed only to highlight the government dysfunction Lebanese have long complained of.

The ship carrying the chemicals was en route to Mozambique when it was detained in Beirut. A Lebanese court impounded the cargo, so the ammonium nitrate was transferred to a port hangar.

Over the next six years, port officials repeatedly asked the judge to find a way to get rid of the chemicals.

In a 2016 letter, they cited the serious danger posed by keeping this shipment in the warehouses in an inappropriate climate and asked that it be dealt with to preserve the safety of the port and its workers.

The ports director, Hassan Koraytem, said that port officials were told the materials would be auctioned off, but the auction never happened and the judiciary ignored the port authoritys letters.

He said he was unaware of the power of the chemicals, so the port took no special precautions to protect them.

Now we are living a national catastrophe, he said. There is no more port.

Judicial officials could not be reached for comment.

The blast struck particularly heavy blows against the very hospitals Beirut needs to recover from it. At least two were so damaged in the explosion that they shut their doors, with no clear sign of when they would reopen.

At Rosary Hospital, a small Catholic hospital near the port, the explosion had tossed patients from their beds, killed a nurse and broken the legs of the nurse who ran the operating room, said Dr Joseph Elias, the head of the cardiology department.

He estimated the damage at more than $5 million.

All the elevators are broken, all the respirators, all the monitors, all the doors  everything is destroyed, he said. It is just the walls of the hospital that are still here.

Like Beiruts residents, the hospital expected no help from the government.

We arent expecting any support because there is no State, said Tony Toufic, a hospital engineer.

Saint George Hospital University Medical Centre, which had been open for more than a century, including throughout the civil war, also shut down.

Four of its nurses and at least 13 patients were killed in the blast, said Dr Alexandre Nehme, the chief medical officer. Everyone else had to be evacuated in the dark because the electricity was cut off, while new patients wounded in the blast were arriving and hoping for treatment.

This is as bad as 9/11, said Dr Raja Ashou, head of radiology. For us, it is like that.

For many, the anger they felt was more acute because the countrys latest catastrophe had been not caused by a historic foe but was self-inflicted.

I wish it had been an Israeli explosion and not silly neglect from our leaders, said Dr Dominique Daou. It would be much easier, not being hit from inside your home.

Lebanons preexisting troubles will hamper its ability to recover from the explosion. Even people with money will struggle to rebuild their homes and restart businesses if they cant get that money out of the bank.

As you can see, my shop is barely standing, said Iman Hashem, standing amid shattered glass in a coffee shop that bears her name.

She had not renewed her insurance because her bank had barred her from transferring money, and business had nearly ground to a halt as the economy tanked. Then the blast hit.

Now its all gone. The money in the till got stolen, she said. Where am I to begin to rebuild now?

Ben Hubbard c.2020 The New York Times Company
Citing United Nations data, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sought a clarification about his omission of 8 crore people yesterday during his speech when he had congratulated 130 crore Indians on the Bhoomi Pujan of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

PM Modi congratulated 130 crore Indians when he spoke at the Ram Mandir yesterday. But Indias population is estimated at 1,38,00,04,385 in mid-2020, a/c to UN data. An omission of 8 crore people is worrying to many, after CAA/NRC. If inadvertent, a correction would be reassuring, Tharoor said in a tweet, hinting that the omission may not be a mistake.

He stressed that after the new and controversial citizenship law, which had triggered large-scale protests across India; such an omission may be a cause of worry for a part of the countrys population. He urged the Prime Minister to reassure people if the figure had been inadvertent.

A day before, the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, had also lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and said that neither Lord Ram nor the philosophy of Hinduism belonged to the ruling party alone and the appeal of both was universal. The articulate Congress leader emphasized that Lord Ram belonged to all of humanity and had also invoked Mahatma Gandhis idea of the legendary Hindu king, who was born in Ayodhya, according to the epic Ramyana.

He is the ideal man whose image is deeply etched in the hearts & minds of millions. Gandhiji always sang his hymns & died w/ Hey Ram on his lips. He talked about a Ram Rajya where all would live in peace & prosperity. Cant let His name be hijacked! Tharoor had tweeted on Wednesday.

The Congress leader had also clarified that the Congress party had never been opposed to the construction of a Ram Temple in Ayodhya, but it was against the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992.

A day earlier, India witnessed the historic ceremony of the Bhoomi Pujan in Ayodhya with celebrations panning out across states. The much-awaited foundation stone laying ceremony for the Ram Temple in Ayodhya was concluded by PM Narendra Modi on Wednesday afternoon.

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(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Here is a scenario the European Union could face just across its eastern perimeter come Sunday, Aug. 9, after the polls close in Belaruss presidential election.

For the first time in 26 years, according to this turn of events, a Belarusian poll doesnt unequivocally confirm the iron-fisted rule of autocratic strongman Alexander Lukashenko. As usual, he still claims victory, having once again jailed or exiled his most prominent challengers, rigged the system and counted an official majority of votes for him. But this time, events unfold differently.

Two wives of the disbarred opposition candidates had stepped in for their husbands and formed a compelling alternative for voters. Before the election, tens of thousands of Belarusians had flocked to their rallies, which resembled rock concerts, and expressed their frustration with Lukashenkos corruption and his coronavirus antics  just drink vodka and drive a tractor and youll be fine, hed suggested.

Now, after the election, these enthusiastic Belarusians take to the streets, defying even the specter of Lukashenkos thugs, who are out in force as usual. What happens next?

Lukashenko considers his options. Hes tempted to crack down, as is his wont. He knows that this would invite further sanctions from the EU and high-minded lectures from Brussels, Berlin and other Western capitals about human rights and democracy. But Lukashenko has been dealing with those meddlesome western Europeans for years, and has always, quite adroitly, kept them at bay by turning for support to his eastern ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Glancing at Moscow now, however, Lukashenko is worried. Yes, hes nominally still pro-Russian. In 1999, in a nostalgic nod to the Soviet Union, he even agreed to merge huge Russia and little Belarus into a new union state. But that was on the assumption that he, Lukashenko  rather than the weak Russian president at the time, Boris Yeltsin  would become its head of state.

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That notion is long gone. These days Putin rules the Kremlin like a modern czar, having just changed Russias constitution to make his reign perpetual. In a new union state, Putin would be the alpha male, demoting Lukashenko to the status of a regional governor, or worse. So Lukanshenko is nowadays against his old idea of a confederation.

But that has caused rising tensions with Moscow. To keep Putin at bay, Lukashenko has therefore sought detente with, and support from, the EU, betting that Putin cant afford yet another confrontation with the West on top of his ongoing provocations in Ukraine. Hed rather not jeopardize this fragile rapprochement with the EU by cracking down too hard on the protesters.

Putin, for his part, looks at Minsk and sees both risks and opportunities. If the Belarusian protests escalate, they could turn into another color revolution, leading to yet another post-Soviet satellite state drifting further toward the West and away from the Russian world that Putin wants to reassemble.

In this sense, Lukashenko has been starting to remind Putin of Viktor Yanukovych, the feckless and corrupt but nominally pro-Russian former leader of Ukraine who was swept away in his countrys revolution of 2014, thus becoming useless to Moscow. That event prompted Putin to seize Crimea and subvert Ukrainian statehood with an ongoing war in the countrys east.

Putin could give Belarus a similar treatment. Its population is generally pro-Russian and mainly speaks Russian. And yet, there had already been stirrings of a new and separate national identity, with efforts to revive the use of Belarusian and evoke the countrys golden age under Lithuanian rule. Putin may conclude that he should intervene sooner rather than later.

He could also use another dose of the Crimea effect at home, where hes been losing popularity of late and facing protests in the countrys far east. In 2014, Russians rallied around him patriotically after he sent his little green men  Russian fighters in unmarked uniforms  into Crimea and stared down the West. To have that option in Belarus, he already appears to have dispatched scores of Russian mercenaries working for the Wagner Group, a private militia firm, to cause mischief, some 33 of whom Lukashenko arrested in July.

So the EUs leaders are potentially facing a familiar dilemma. They know that Lukashenko, unsavory as he may be, is the best guarantor of Belarusian independence from Russia, and thus of Belarus as a buffer zone. For the sake of the EUs own geopolitical interests, they should support him, at least tacitly.

At the same time, they wouldnt be able to cynically ignore democratic protests against Lukashenko, for that would mean betraying Europes values and losing credibility throughout the region and beyond. So the EU should support the opposition. But if the demonstrations were to become an all-out revolution, that would probably draw in Putin, in yet another round of hybrid warfare and geopolitical escalation that ultimately makes the EU look impotent.

As this plausible scenario right on the EUs doorstep shows once again, its hard to conduct foreign policy with only the soft power of values, when interests demand instead a realism thats wholly alien to EU diplomacy. For now, the EUs leaders can only hope that after Sunday things turn out differently in Belarus.

(This column was updated to correct the number of wives of opposition candidates who stepped in for their husbands, in the third paragraph. )

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Andreas Kluth is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. He was previously editor in chief of Handelsblatt Global and a writer for the Economist. He's the author of "Hannibal and Me."

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion

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Mayor Ron Nirenbergs long-term plan to use sales tax dollars to get San Antonio back on its feet is taking shape, a week before the City Council decides whether the matter should be on the November ballot.

Council members got their first look at a broad outline of the economic recovery plan Wednesday from Alex Lopez, director of the citys economic development department.

It calls for using $154 million over the next four years to pay for job training and college degrees for those the novel coronavirus pandemic put out of work, as well as financial assistance while they complete those programs.

About 154,000 San Antonio residents have been laid off since the start of the pandemic, more than a third of them in the retail, hospitality, restaurant and health care industries. Under the plan, an estimated 40,000 residents would benefit from workforce training or higher education programs.

Industry leaders and elected officials have long bemoaned the citys lack of skilled workers and low number of people with college degrees, which they say have kept large employers away from San Antonio and exacerbated the citys entrenched poverty.

Nirenberg has seized on the pandemic as an opportunity to begin reversing those trends.

San Antonio does not have to be one of the poorest big cities in the country, Nirenberg said. We can jump-start our citys trajectory and beat those odds. Thats the chance we have in front of us.

A Nirenberg-appointed task force of local executives and higher education officials  including Craig Boyan of H-E-B and Mike Flores of Alamo Colleges  pinpointed 23,000 jobs in industries including bioscience, health care, construction and information technology that cant be filled because employers cant find workers with the necessary skills.

But council members raised several concerns about the initiative, including whether those who completed the program could be guaranteed employment and whether those jobs pay well enough.

District 5 Councilwoman Shirley Gonzales pointed to a posting cited by city staff for a child development associate that pays $23,270 a year, not even a living wage for a single person with no children, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

It has to be worth it, Gonzales said. People have to feel like when they get this degree that theyre going to be getting a higher wage. And thats not always the case.

Once someone becomes certified to become a child development associate, they can seek degrees that help them earn more pay, Flores said.

Others worried the program would not guarantee those who obtain industry certificates and two- to four-year degrees a job  and that employers wouldnt necessarily consider them to fill vacancies.

I know guarantee is a hard word to use, District 9 Councilman John Courage said. But I think thats what someone who goes through the training is going to expect.

Another concern brought up by District 10 Councilman Clayton Perry: Would those who complete the program move to Austin, Houston or Dallas to find higher wages?

Alex Lopez, head of the citys economic development department, said training would be geared toward jobs available locally. But Perry wasnt convinced.

What is the hook to keep them here in San Antonio? Perry said. I dont want to be training people and then they take off to Austin. Austin will say, thank you very much.

Nirenberg and the plans backers on the council  Rebecca Viagran of District 3 and Adriana Rocha Garcia of District 4  acknowledged the plan wouldnt be a silver bullet for the citys economic woes but would be a big step toward helping the local economy recover from the virus.

We know what wont work, which is that we allow them to remain unemployed, Nirenberg said.

The money to fund the initiative would come out of a 1/8-cent sales tax that must be approved by voters. Currently, the 1/8-cent tax goes to pay to protect the citys primary source of drinking water, the Edwards Aquifer, and build linear parks and creekways. Under the plan, that tax would be allowed to expire and a new one for the recovery plan would be put on the ballot.

Nirenberg had previously sought the 1/8-cent tax to pay for expanded bus service and other transit initiatives, but backed off the push over the summer as the pandemic and ensuing economic fallout intensified. VIA Metropolitan Transits board revolted and vowed to put the matter before voters anyway  in defiance of the mayor.

In July, Nirenberg and VIA officials struck a deal: the city would hang on to the sales tax for a few years to fund economic recovery efforts. Initially, the city would have kept the tax for three years, but now the plan is to keep it for four.

After those four years, the city would hand off the tax to VIA, if voters approve.

Council members plan to decide whether to put the measure on the November ballot at their Aug. 13 meeting.

Money from the sales tax for the recovery programs would be on top of $75 million the council approved in early June, part of a $191 million package intended to blunt economic damage caused by the pandemic. Officials aim to help 10,000 residents with that money by September 2021.

Joshua Fechter is a staff writer covering San Antonio government and politics. To read more from Joshua, become a subscriber. jfechter@express-news.net | Twitter: @JFReports
A university is now standing up to Chinese intimidation and admitting it was wrong to delete social media messages in support of harassed Hong Kong democracy campaigners.

University of New South Wales Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Jacobs has apologised to academic staff for the removal of a Tweet on the university's account last Friday.

The tweet was promoting an article critical of the Chinese Communist Party, written by UNSW lecturer and Human Rights Watch Australia director Elaine Pearson.

'That tweet should not have been removed,' Prof. Jacobs said in an email.

'I apologise for this mistake and reaffirm unequivocally our previous commitment to freedom of expression and academic freedom.'

A university is now standing up to China and admitting it was wrong to delete social media messages in support of harassed Hong Kong democracy campaigners. Pictured is a Chinese Student Association UNSW event in 2019. They attend a university that is particularly dependent on international students

Prof. Jacobs' explanation said the tweet was removed 'after protests were received' online by pro-China groups.

The Vice-Chancellor declared 'we will not limit freedom of expression within the law simply because some find it offensive or challenging'.

Ms Pearson, an adjunct lecturer at UNSW, said Prof. Jacobs' apology should have been distributed more broadly.

'I am still puzzled why the UNSW VC's statement and apology only went to staff,' she said.

'Why has it not gone to students?

'Why not put it on UNSW's website and share it through UNSW's social media channels?'

University of New South Wales Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Jacobs has apologised to academic staff after Human Rights Watch Australia director Elaine Pearson's critique of the Chinese Communist Party was removed from Twitter on Friday

NSW Labor senator Tony Sheldon, a critic of China, echoed her call in a message to UNSW.

Pictured: UNSW Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Jacobs's apology

'Your students, including international students, need to hear directly from university leadership that free academic inquiry and freedom of speech are for them too,' he said.

As of Thursday afternoon, Ms Pearson's original article wasn't on UNSW's Newsroom section of its website featuring analysis pieces from academics.

UNSW's Twitter also failed to feature her deleted piece criticising the Chinese Communist Party's crackdown on Hong Kong democracy campaigners, following the lightning passage of new national security laws in contravention of a 1984 agreement with the UK relating to the 1997 handover.

Shortly before her article was deleted, UNSW administrators and lecturers were bombarded with emails from Chinese international students protesting against the publication of Ms Pearson's article.

Shortly before the article was deleted, UNSW administrators and lecturers were bombarded with emails from Chinese international students protesting against the publication of Ms Pearson's article condeming the Communist Party's crackdown on Hong Kong protesters (pictured in May, 2020)

The protests also circulated in social media chat groups.

'This article is full of ignorance and bias, which was likely to discriminate against China and its people,' one email obtained by Daily Mail Australia said.

Elaine Pearson, an adjunct lecturer at UNSW, didn't accept the apology, tweeting the university's Vice-Chancellor should have instead emailed all students and not just academic staff

'We have been severely offended.'

In one message, Haoxue Wang complained about Ms Pearson's article titled: 'China needs international pressure to end Hong Kong wrongs.'

'This is totally unacceptable. As a Chinese law student, I request a formal investigation into this issue,' the complaint said.

Chinese students last year made up 68.8 per cent of international enrolments at the University of New South Wales, an analysis by the Centre for Independent Studies found.

As part of its so-called Wolf Warrior diplomacy, China's ambassador to Australia Cheng Jingye in April threatened a student boycott of Australian university education after Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Foreign Minister Marise Payne advocated an inquiry into the causes of COVID-19.

NSW Labor senator Tony Sheldon, a critic of China within the centre-left party, echoed her call on Twitter
The top prosecutor in New York state has filed a lawsuit to disband the powerful National Rifle Association, accusing it of widespread fraud and wrongdoing.

At the conclusion of an 18-month investigation into the gun industry lobbying organisation that has donated millions of dollars to politicians, including Donald Trump, New York state attorney Letitia James accused the group of being fraught with fraud and abuse.

In her comments on Thursday morning, Ms James highlighted the alleged wrongdoing of four current senior leaders of the group, members including Wayne LaPierre, the longtime chief executive.

The others named in the suit were John Frazer, the NRAs general counsel, Josh Powell, a former aide to Mr LaPierre, and Woody Phillips, who once served as chief financial officer.

In a statement, Ms James, who in the spring of 2019 launched an investigation into the Trump Organisation and issued subpoenas to Deutsche Bank and Investors Bank for records relating to four Trump Organisation projects, alleged the NRA leaders used millions upon millions from NRA reserves for personal use.

She said they failed to abide by the NRAs own internal policies as well as state and federal laws.

The NRA has operated as a breeding ground for greed, abuse and brazen illegality, she alleged, adding: No one is above the law.

Mr Trump was among those quick to respond to the developments.

Just like Radical Left New York is trying to destroy the NRA, if Biden becomes President your GREAT SECOND AMENDMENT doesnt have a chance. Your guns will be taken away, immediately and without notice. No police, no guns, he wrote.

The problems confronting the once powerful NRA, which politicians have long feared and sought to appease, have been some time coming.

When Ms James last year announced she was investigating allegations of illegality and wrongdoing at the organisation, it came against the backdrop of problems that had already spilled into public view.

 President Trump addresses NRA convention in Indianapolis

Among them was the decision to spend millions of dollars with Oklahoma-based consulting agency Ackerman McQueen, one that blew up when the NRA sued the advertising agency on which it had spent up to $40m (30m) a year, accusing it of withholding billing information and breaching its contract.

At the same time as Ms James filed the civil lawsuit in state court in Manhattan, her counterpart in Washington DC sued the NRA Foundation, a charitable arm of the organisation designed to provide programmes for firearm safety, marksmanship and hunting safety, accusing it of diverting funds to the NRA to help pay for lavish spending by its top executives.

Ms James said the organisations problem were long cloaked by loyal lieutenants. At the same time, it went from a near-$28m surplus in 2015 to a $36m deficit in 2018.

Charitable organisations function as public trusts  and district law requires them to use their funds to benefit the public, not to support political campaigns, lobbying, or private interests, Washington attorney general Karl Racine said. With this lawsuit, we aim to recover donated funds that the NRA Foundation wasted.

Mr LaPierre, 70, who has been in charge of the NRAs day-to-day operations since 1991, is accused of spending millions of dollars on private travel and personal security, accepting expensive gifts such as African safaris and use of a 107-foot yacht from vendors and setting himself up with a $17m contract with the NRA if he were to leave, without board approval.

There was no immediate response from Mr LaPierre or the NRA, whose members last year witnessed high drama at its annual meeting when its then president, Oliver North, was denied a traditional second term amid a tussle with Mr LaPierre as he sought to independently review the NRAs expenses and operations. Mr North accused Mr LaPierre of exerting dictatorial control.

The organisation has consistently sought to reject any gun control measures, even as mass shootings at places such as schools and colleges have continued to tear at the nation.

Additional reporting by agencies
RAMAT GAN

Israel

Aug. 5, 2020

$250,000

$10 Million

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the United States

Israel

Cyprus

Greece

/PRNewswire/ -- Merchavia Holdings and Investments Ltd. (TASE: MRHL) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for its first investment in the Aura Smart Air, a company that deals with purification and air quality management using artificial intelligence technology. According to the MoU, Merchavia will investand will receive preference shares, which constitute approximately 1.93% of Aura Air's issued and fully diluted capital for its investment. Merchavia's investment will be made at avaluation and is a part of anfinancing round.In experiments on COVID-19 that Aura Air conducted and is conducting with Sheba Medical Center, preliminary results showed that Aura's solution succeeded in eliminating COVID-19 by 99.9%Aura Air is an Israeli company that has developed a platform for managing air quality in enclosed spaces through three phases: monitoring, analysis and air purification. The system monitors in real time the presence of airborne particles and gases inside and outside, and performs purification and disinfection of viruses, molds, bacteria and fungi using four dedicated patented filters. Aura Air recently completed pilots in office towers, hotels, residential buildings, and buses inand other countries around the globe. The company also began a pilot designed to aid return to school routine inby installing the system in classrooms.In addition, the MoU stipulates that the companies will work to sign a marketing and distribution agreement under which Merchavia will be given the right to distribute and market the system inandfor a period to be determined under the binding agreement. Completion of negotiations and signing of the binding agreement will be made within 30 days of signing the MoU.Contact: Eli Arad Eli@merchavia.co.il

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/merchavia-invest-in-aura-smart-air-a-company-that-deals-with-purification-and-air-quality-management-using-artificial-intelligence-technology-301106394.html



SOURCE Merchavia Holdings and Investments




It has been a long time since I enjoyed a book as much as I did LOVE IN THE BLITZ (Harper/HarperCollins, 496 pp., $28.99). Of the hundreds of books about World War II that Ive read, this is one of the best. I would welcome the author, Eileen Alexander, as a fresh new voice, but for the fact that she has been dead for nearly 50 years.

This volume is a selection of letters Alexander wrote to her lover during the course of the war. They were not discovered until a few years ago and are being published only now. Her letters tell a rich, multilayered story  a wealthy and bright young womans day-by-day experience in London during the war, the growth of her love for a young man and her insiders view of a fascinating slice of upper-class Jewish life in mid-20th-century England. One of her closest friends is Aubrey Eban, who would later become Abba Eban, the influential foreign minister of Israel. Simply everybody she knows from Cambridge University, where she took a first in English just before the war, has gone to work at Bletchley Park, famous nowadays as the headquarters for British code breaking during the war. She lunches with Anthony Eden, dines with Orde Wingate, chats with Bernard Lewis and argues about politics with Michael Foot. One of her friends is court-martialed and tossed out of the Royal Air Force after losing his copy of some top secret war plans because he was distracted by a letter he was writing to Yehudi Menuhin about the proper way to play the third movement of a certain violin concerto.

To top it off, Alexander is a lovely writer, reflecting her readings of great English literature, especially Shakespeare and Donne, but also Samuel Johnson, Daniel Defoe, C. S. Lewis and Jane Austen. Imagine how that last novelist might have witnessed the Blitz, and you have a sense of this wonderful book. Of her lawyer father, she acidly notes that he has an extraordinary power of making other people unhappy from the best motives in the world. And yes, reader, she went on to marry her beloved, bear a child and translate some of the detective novels of Georges Simenon.

Alexanders book is about intense personal love. ATOMIC DOCTORS: Conscience and Complicity at the Dawn of the Nuclear Age (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 304 pp., $29.95) is about the opposite: the decline into depersonalization by doctors involved in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.
(CNN)  Coronavirus conspiracy theorists have spread baseless rumors online -- frequently targeting minorities -- since the beginning of the pandemic. In England the latest wave of vitriol criticizes Muslims, blaming them for spreading COVID-19.

Muslims were caught off guard last week, when the UK government suddenly announced local lockdowns in a slew of areas in northern England where cases have spiked. The announcement came just hours before Eid al-Adha, one of the holiest festivals in Islam.

The affected areas included Greater Manchester, Burnley, Blackburn with Darwen, Bradford and Leicester -- all places with a significant Islamic population according to the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB).

The restrictions -- published late last Thursday evening -- banned people in the named areas from mixing with other households.

Local politicians and Muslim leaders criticized the timing of the announcement.

"The timing ... it focused people's minds [on Muslims]," Rabnawaz Akbar, a Labour Party councilor in Manchester, told CNN.

The government "have done it on the eve of Eid," leading people to think "it must be the Muslim community's fault," Akbar said. "You see how people would have come to the assumption. [The government] have done it without thinking but of course, they're highlighting a particular demographic. And people are angry and now that anger is focused on a particular community."

A Downing Street spokesperson said in a statement to CNN: "Decisions on lockdowns are based solely on scientific advice and the latest data. Where there are local outbreaks, our priority will remain taking whatever steps are necessary to protect people."

Akbar also criticized Craig Whittaker, a Conservative MP who suggested that England's ethnic minorities were not adhering to pandemic guidelines.

"What I have seen in my constituency is that we have areas of our community ... that are just not taking the pandemic seriously enough," Whittaker said Friday, when asked about the local lockdowns during an interview with LBC radio.

When asked if he was talking about the Muslim population, Whittaker replied: "Of course."

"If you look at the areas where we've seen rises and cases the vast majority -- not, by any stretch of the imagination, all areas -- but it is the BAME [Black, Asian, and minority ethnic] communities that are not taking it seriously enough," he added.

Whittaker's comments were met with an outcry and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was asked about them at a press briefing on Friday.

The British leader did not condemn the MP, and said: "Well, I think it's up to all of us in government to make sure that the message is being heard loud and clear by everybody across the country, and to make sure that everybody is complying with the guidance."

This week, the Downing Street spokesperson told CNN: "At Friday's press conference the Prime Minister apologized to all those who could not celebrate Eid in the way they had wished, and thanked the work of mosques and imams in getting the message out about the importance of following safety guidance.

"And he set out in his Eid message that he is hugely grateful to the Muslim community for their efforts and sacrifices throughout this pandemic."

Tell MAMA, a group which monitors anti-Muslim incidents in the UK, has called on Whittaker to apologize for his comments.

"To single out one community this way is wholly wrong, stigmatizing and unbecoming of an MP," the group said in a statement.

Following the controversy, Whittaker said his evidence was based on data from local officials at Calderdale Council in West Yorkshire.

"Calderdale Council has not only identified a causal correlation between the locations of a high concentration of our ethnic Asian residents and that of COVID 19 infections, but has also formed the opinion that behaviour in these areas needs to be addressed through engagement in order to reduce the infection rate in these communities," Whittaker said in a statement on his website.

"In an age where authenticity is a behaviour scarcely exhibited by public figures, I am glad that I have chosen open, honest and frank discussion over political expediency and ... I make no apology for my comments," he added.

Tell MAMA director Iman Atta told CNN that far-right extremists had been blaming Muslims for the pandemic since the beginning of the UK's lockdown in March.

"In March, April, May, we saw a lot of conspiracy theories floating around," she said. "The far right were sharing photos of Muslims congregating and flouting the rules at mosques which were, in reality, shut down and not functioning. The photos were from last year," she said.

"And they have spread rumors online about how BAME communities are the ones spreading the virus, so [people] should not be interacting with them."

Atta's findings are echoed by those of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), which represents several UK mosques and Muslim organizations.

Earlier in the lockdown "there were theories spreading that Muslims would gather secretly during Ramadan, that mosques were secretly open -- none of that was true and there was no evidence," Zainab Gulamali, a spokesperson for the organization, told CNN.

Gulamali added that she was disappointed that Johnson and his Conservative Party colleagues had failed to condemn Whittaker's comments on BAME people.

Johnson himself has repeatedly been accused of Islamophobia. He drew sharp rebukes from Muslim communities in 2018 over an article he wrote about Muslim women wearing burqas. The politician said women who wore the veil resembled "letter boxes" and "bank robbers."

He later offered a partial apology, saying: "In so far as my words have given offense over the last twenty or thirty years when I've been a journalist and people have taken those words out of my articles and escalated them, of course, I am sorry for the offense they have caused."

Crime figures suggest that the UK has become a more hostile place for Muslims in recent years. Despite accounting for less than 5% of the UK's 66 million-strong population, 52% of religious hate crime offenses committed in England and Wales between 2017 and 2018 targeted Muslims.

Much of the recent blame placed on Muslims appears to be driven by the fact that Covid-19 has hit the country's ethnic minorities hard.

According to Public Health England (PHE), those of Bangladeshi heritage who tested positive for coronavirus were twice as likely to die as their white counterparts. PHE found that the discrepancy was caused by a complex of range of factors, including the fact that BAME people were more likely to live in overcrowded and urban areas, and to work in jobs that put them at risk of catching Covid-19.

In June, an academic paper considered by the government's scientific advisers warned that an earlier local lockdown in the city of Leicester had caused a rise in racial tension. The city has a large British Asian population.

"There is extensive racist commentary on social media," the researchers wrote. "Videos have also been circulated on social media showing the South Asian community flouting social distancing in an attempt to stir conflict."

"We don't want to sweep under the carpet the issues that [Muslim communities] do face," Rabnawaz Akbar said.

"A lot of people live in densely-populated terraced housing," he said, explaining that many Muslims "live with their parents or their grandparents, so you have multigenerational households. A lot of people work in low income and frontline jobs -- they're taxi drivers or health care [workers] ... they're inevitably going to be at risk of catching the virus."

"But rather than blame them, the solution is that local and central government should work with the communities to take extra precautions," he said.

Muslims are far from alone in shouldering increased racial resentment during the Covid-19 crisis.

Coronavirus has fueled xenophobia against those of East Asian descent worldwide, and lockdown measures have triggered an explosion of online anti-Semitic hate incidents.

For many minorities the new threat of the pandemic has only intensified the age-old danger of bigotry.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "In the latest sign of COVID-19-related racism, Muslims are being blamed for England's coronavirus outbreaks."
A small-scale miner in Tanzania, who became an instant millionaire after selling three rough Tanzanite stones for $5.4m (4.1m), has told the BBC he is optimistic that he will make other big finds of the rare gems in the near future.



Saniniu Laizer - who has been in the mining business in northern Tanzania for more than 15 years - said this was the first time he had struck such luck.



He sold two stones to the government in June for $3.4m, and a third on Monday for $2m.



Mr Laizer said he was confident of discovering more of the precious stones - found only in northern Tanzania - because of analysis conducted by his geologist.



Some have envied Mr Laizer, while others have been inspired by him.



He warned that the business was not as easy as people think.



"It is very expensive to operate the mines. Most of the times we get loans, while at other times we are forced to contribute money among ourselves as small-scale miners," he told the BBC.



Mr Laizer has diversified his business interests and has ventured into other areas, including the construction of shopping malls.



He has also used part of his fortune to build a school and a church in his community.



"Farmers and pastoralists kids are often not attending school because schools sometimes are very far and children spend most of the time looking after animals," he said.

Source: BBC









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Just one child attended Dawson Street Children's Co-operative in Brunswick on Thursday.

The childs parents were the only family that managed to get their permit signed by their employer in time, centre director Narelle Lawton said.

Narelle Lawton, director of Dawson Street Children's Co-operative, said parents had not been given enough time to get their permits in. Credit:Eddie Jim

Having announced on Sunday that access to childcare would be limited from Thursday under Melbournes stage four coronavirus restrictions, the Andrews government took until Wednesday evening to release the permission form parents need to gain access to care.

Under the rules, only children of permitted workers and those who are vulnerable can access childcare in Melbourne for the next six weeks.
"One of Taziki's top priorities has always been providing high-quality food to all guests," said Dan Simpson, CEO of Taziki's Mediterranean Cafe. "Our focus begins far before the food arrives at the stores; when choosing the farmers behind our food, Taziki's searches for the best partners with great practices."

One of Taziki's proud partners is Dane Farms, a family owned business that began operating in the 1800s. Dane Farms is one of Taziki's lamb purveyors, providing high-quality American Lamb that has grown in popularity at Taziki's since the restaurant's inception over 21 years ago. Taziki's rejects the idea of processed meat on a spit and has built a 20+ year demand around the fresh, real lamb that their customers have become accustomed to on their menu.

The Char-Grilled Lamb is known as one of the best protein options Taziki's has available at their restaurants across 17 states.

"This incredible protein has been something that our guests have enjoyed since the inception of our brand," said Simpson. "Our lamb is seasoned with Greek Seasoning and char-grilled fresh to-order to provide you the adventure of authentic Mediterranean flavors."

Taziki's Lamb has quickly become a guest go-to protein for an elevated at-home dinner or an adventurous lunch option on the go, so the growing relationship with American Lamb is a natural one.

Here are some of the curated lamb dishes that can be ordered when visiting Taziki's:

Lamb Family Feast features char-grilled lamb with fresh salad, rice or potatoes, dip and pita. Feeds families of four, six, or eight for lunch or dinner.

Lamb Feast Greek Salad comes with your choice of rice or potatoes.

Grilled Lamb Gyro includes Taziki's Sauce, tomatoes, mixed lettuce, and grilled onions. Served with chips and a healthy side.

Lamb Mediterranean Salad mixes lettuces with garbanzo beans, roasted red peppers, red onions, diced tomatoes, roasted pecans and feta served with Taziki's homemade balsamic vinaigrette.

Greek Salad Gyro features char-grilled lamb, tomatoes, cucumbers, roasted red peppers, red onions, mixed lettuce, feta and Greek dressing.

"We thank Taziki's for their commitment to using American Lamb. Menuing of local lamb supports the nation's shepherds and their families," said Megan Wortman, executive director of the Denver-based American Lamb Board. "American Lamb is known for its distinctive yet mild flavor and we love Taziki's use of fresh char-grilled leg of lamb in their gyros, salads and Family Feast."

About Taziki's Mediterranean Cafe

Taziki's Mediterranean Cafe is a rapidly expanding brand, named one of America's fastest growing leaders by Inc. 5000 in the fresh-casual industry. Having more than tripled in size since 2011, Taziki's has more than 90 restaurant locations, spanning across 18 states nationally. Development plans include building the brand in existing markets, as well as entering new areas across the country by 2023.

The essence of Taziki's Mediterranean Cafe is defined by serving fresh ingredients and hand-cut meats daily. The Mediterranean influence in their name echoes across their best-in-class chef-inspired cuisine but is intentionally approachable for any person, anywhere. Taziki's takes pride in their made-from-scratch food that nourishes customers daily and the artisanship that goes behind doing so without the use of fryers, or microwaves.

Taziki's mission is to create an environment that combines extraordinary food with meaningful human connection.

About the American Lamb Board

The American Lamb Board is an industry-funded research and promotions commodity board that represents all sectors of the American Lamb industry. The Board is focused on increasing demand by promoting the freshness, flavor, nutritional benefits and culinary versatility of American Lamb. The work of the American Lamb Board is overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the board's programs are supported and implemented by the staff in Denver, Colo. For more information, visit www.americanlamb.com .

Contact: Lauren Price

Taziki's Mediterranean Cafe

[email protected]

SOURCE Taziki's Mediterranean Cafe

Related Links

https://www.tazikis.com/


Suicide

Mumbai: Television actor Sameer Sharma allegedly committed suicide at his home in suburban Malad, police said on Thursday.

Sharma, 44, who worked in serials like 'Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi', 'Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki' and 'Yeh Rishtey Hain Pyar Ke', was found hanging from a ceiling fan in the kitchen of his flat at Neha building in Chincholi Bunder locality in Malad (West) on Wednesday night, a police official said.

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suicideNo suicide note was found at the spot and it is suspected he hanged himself two days back, Malad police station's senior inspector George Fernandes said.

The incident came to light when the building's watchman peeped through the kitchen window and saw him hanging. He then alerted the other society members.

Later, the society members informed the police who rushed to the spot and took Sharma to a hospital where doctors declared him brought dead, another official said.

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Sameer Sharma The actor was living alone in the rented flat since February, he said, adding the police were trying to get in touch with his family members.

"We have not found any suicide note at the spot. It seems to be suicide case. It is suspected that he hanged himself two days back. We have sent the body for an autopsy," Fernandes said.
Lets be reasonable, says a person in a conversational quest to avoid or de-escalate a conflict. And if its offered sincerely and in the spirit of compromise, more often than not its an entreaty worth heeding.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 6/8/2020 (530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

"Lets be reasonable," says a person in a conversational quest to avoid or de-escalate a conflict. And if its offered sincerely and in the spirit of compromise, more often than not its an entreaty worth heeding.

When it comes to Canadas response to the COVID-19 pandemic, "reasonable" is both an apt description of the publics behaviour and a fairly accurate summation of the nations relative success in battling the coronavirus scourge.

Across the country and, to varying degrees, in each province, governments have imposed reasonable restrictions and citizens have paid reasonable attention. The result has been a case count and death toll that compare favourably to what has happened in other parts of the world, and are in direct contrast with the still-mushrooming pandemic disaster unfolding on the other side of the Canada-U.S. border.

Canadians willingness to act and react reasonably is likely to be tested in the coming months when COVID-19s inevitable second wave begins to spread. And fortunately, a recent survey suggests theyll continue to be willing to do the right things. A Globe and Mail/Nanos Research poll released this week found more than seven in 10 Canadians would support the re-imposition of strict economic and social restrictions  including the shutdown of non-essential businesses and asking citizens to once again self-isolate  in the event of a significant second-wave outbreak.

"Even with the economic uncertainty, Canadians are quite receptive to a shutdown of the economy again if there was a resurgence," pollster Nik Nanos told the Globe. "Its pretty clear that Canadians understand that even though we may be doing OK, this is not over."

Mr. Nanos pointed out that daily reporting on the disastrous pandemic response in the U.S., where the death toll is nearing 160,000, has probably contributed to Canadians willingness to concede otherwise-routine rights and freedoms in support of the public-health effort.

Want more great journalism? Get our best news and features delivered in your inbox every weekday evening. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

Canadians willingness to act and react reasonably is likely to be tested in the coming months when COVID19s inevitable second wave begins to spread. And fortunately, a recent survey suggests theyll continue to be willing to do the right things.

In Australia, the state of Victoria last weekend imposed extremely strict new measures after a recent upsurge in COVID-19 infections linked to travellers entering or returning to the region. After declaring a "state of disaster," Premier Daniel Andrews introduced a nightly curfew from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m., outlawed all non-essential travel, shifted school classes back to online learning and instructed Victorians that only one member of a household will be allowed outside, once per day, to pick up essential goods within five kilometres of home.

"Where you slept last night is where youll need to stay for the next six weeks," Mr. Andrews advised.

Its unlikely, given Manitobas relative success in mitigating the coronaviruss impact here, that such draconian measures will be required of the Pallister government in the near term. But this provinces caseload numbers have been on the rise for much of the past month  remember those heady early-summer afternoons when Manitoba had but one active COVID-19 case?  and the much-dreaded second wave has yet to alight on Canadian soil.

Rather than continuing his determined push for this province to be first to reopen various sectors and re-establish travel links with other parts of the country, the premier might be well advised to shift his competitive zeal toward ensuring Manitobans are first and best among the majority of Canadians prepared and willing to endure another wave of hardship in order to beat back the coronavirus a second time.

Because its coming. It would be unreasonable to expect otherwise.
Black Lives Matter protests may have quieted in New Orleans in recent days, but street artists have kept the message in the public eye with five loud and proud aerosol murals.

The protest paintings have popped up on a boarded-up Frenchmen Street nightclub-restaurant; on graffiti-tagged stretches of St. Claude and Elysian Fields avenues; the back wall of a Broadmoor convenience store; and the show window of a well-known chain clothing boutique in the French Quarter.

Empathy Loves Company by Lionel Milton, The Maison, 508 Frenchmen St.

Lionel Miltons painting is a masterpiece of wry social criticism that belongs in NOMA or the Ogden someday. Milton seduces onlookers with a lush pallet of pink, white and scarlet, as if the mural were an enormous Valentines Day card. But, trust me, the message is anything but sentimental or saccharine.

In the center is Miltons portrait of Christ. He depicts Christ, who died at the hands of authorities, as a Black man pleading for empathy. The words Be blessed, stay alive, appear beside him. Among his flock of followers, one wears a coronavirus-suppressing mask marked with tiny red hearts. But, as Milton put it, with a mask on or not, if youre Black, youre in danger.

The background of the painting includes several more comforting red hearts, symbolizing the possibility of love. But there are also what seem to be leaking red bullet holes, symbolizing the threat of violence.

The part of the painting with the most subversive punch, is, of all things, Miltons adorable depiction of a fluffy, friendly pooch  positioned near the faux biblical commandment love thy negro as ye love thy pets.

As the artist explained, the same people who will greet a strange dog on the street with effusive affection, will look at a Black man like hes going to rob them. As a Black person in America, we see you have empathy for things with four legs. Have empathy for two legs.

To his surprise, Milton said, a few people have posed for selfies with their pets with the mural in the background. He believes they get the ironic point.

Ive gotten the most incredible thank-yous for opening my eyes, he said.

Like Picasso said of the best art, Miltons mural bristles with razor blades. For those of us old enough to remember, it has the painful wit of Gil Scott-Herons rhyme The Revolution will not be Televised or Richard Pryors N-----s versus Police routine.

The People United Will Never Be Defeated by Zac Maras, Mr. Balloon Hands and Dirty Funq, on the back wall of the Fast Stop meat market at 2745 Broad St., visible from the Propeller parking lot at 4035 Washington Ave.

You might know Zac Maras best for the post-Impressionist pig logo he painted for Central City BBQ or the Louisiana wildlife mural he recently wrapped around Toups Meatery on North Carrollton Avenue, but The People United mural he co-created behind a Broad Street grocery is a breakthrough.

Maras, who lives in Abita Springs, said he was painting a mural at a Baton Rouge sushi bar when the art-loving owner mentioned that he had a property with an available blank wall in Broadmoor in New Orleans. Maras said that as the George Floyd era erupted around him, he pined to make a statement of his own.

It was just something I wanted to contribute to, to show some support of the movement.

+25 Why has coronavirus-era art star Josh Wingerter opened a gallery in historic old Westwego? It wasnt a big surprise to learn that artist Josh Wingerter planned to open a gallery of his own. After all, hes currently the most high-pro

So, in early July he invited two of his favorite fellow aerosol masters, the otherwise anonymous Mr. Balloon Hands and Dirty Funq, to help spray the concept into reality  or surreality, as the case may be.

The result is a dreamy wetland landscape, with a grinning alligator, weird cyclops daisies and lolling butterflies against a grape-colored twilight sky. Punching upward in the center are three clenched fists, symbolizing Black Lives Matter. The overall effect is a psychedelic take on current events, where a society-changing movement can pop up as swiftly as mushrooms after a spring rain.

Black Lives Matter, Say Their Names, Dont Shoot by Ria Reynolds and Ally Burgess, Urban Outfitters store, 400 N. Peters St.

Originally, we started to see other stores putting up murals or signs to state their support for the BLM movement, explained clothing store manager Crystal Duron. We wanted to get our store involved as well. We knew (employees) Ally and Ria were both extremely talented artists, so we approached them and asked them to come up with some ideas. Within that day, they had worked together and sketched up what would become our mural.

The French quarter stores declaration of BLM support didnt go unnoticed. As we began to paint the mural, customers stopped us in our tracks before we could even finish just to take pictures, Reynolds wrote via email. We heard car beeps from people passing by, customers stopped their cars in the middle of traffic to take pictures.

+3 Student's orange 'safety pouch' invention aims to make traffic stops easier, less dangerous 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 r

The mural, which includes scores of names of victims of police violence, addresses the BLM movement with a feminist emphasis. The woman in the portrait is not anyone specific, wrote Burgess. But I wanted black girls to feel represented.

The combination of charming cartoon style and grim body count gave the painting an unexpected resonance, which was made more compelling by its placement on an otherwise cheerful storefront.

Im a Black Man by Jarrad McKay, 2101 St. Claude Ave.

Tattoo artist and muralist Jarrad McKay said he doesnt usually dabble in political art, but after he attended a Black Lives Matter protest march back in June, I just went with my mood.

The image is certainly meant as a protest, but an upbeat, affable one. The young protester McKay depicted in the piece is flanked by flowers and wears a buoyantly pattered shirt and matching mask.

I thought I should put something thats positive, he said. Thats my protest, 'bringing light to the world.'

McKay said that when he chose the spot, he didnt realize the mural had a captive audience of customers from the nearby Walgreens drugstore waiting in the drive-through prescription line.

Mama I Cant Breath by unknown artist, 616 Elysian fields

The mural is a chilling reminder of the last words attributed to George Floyd, who died at the hands of Minneapolis police in May. But it may be more as well. Considering the rainbow color of the word "breath," the image may symbolically include reference to the LGBTQ aspect of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

It is not yet possible to predict earthquakes, but the analysis of different types of seismic data allows scientists to pinpoint where and when each type of earthquake originated, and hence better understand when and where tectonic slip might occur via damaging earthquakes. Tens of thousands of seismic stations around the world continuously record local seismic activity, with an output that is far beyond what scientists can process. Here, researchers from Northwestern University have called over 2,000 citizen scientists to the rescue for the crowd-based analysis of seismic recordings, rendered into audiovisual format, through the program Earthquake Detective on the Open-Science platform Zooniverse. They show that citizens are at least as accurate as machine learning, and can even identify tectonic tremors, which previously was only possible for trained professionals. The results are published today in Frontiers in Earth Science.

"My aim was to receive help with detections of these special seismic events because I felt overwhelmed by the rapidly growing mountain of data I was investigating for my Ph.D. research," says lead author Vivian Tang, a graduate student at the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences of Northwestern University, Illlinois. "With Zooniverse and the Earthquake Detective team, we provide people everywhere with a simple and engaging way to help further scientific research."

After completing a tutorial and practice session, each citizen scientist was asked to listen to a random selection from among 2,467 recordings captured by seismic stations across Alaska, part of the USArray of stations across North America. Visual traces were shown alongside the audio data. Each recording corresponded to the first 2,000 seconds (but sped up 800 times to audible frequencies) after the estimated arrival at each station of the surface waves from one of 30 known major earthquakes that occurred somewhere in the world between between 2013 and 2018. When the wave from a faraway earthquake reaches a seismically active location such as Alaska, where the Pacific tectonic plate slides under the North American, it may trigger local seismic events, such as smaller earthquakes or tectonic tremors, which are series of thousands of slow, tiny vibrations deep inside the Earth's crust that may last for days or weeks. Tremors were first discovered in 2001 and have since become an important focus of study, because they show us where tectonic slip occurs without earthquakes, yet are thought to play a role in the origin of earthquakes.

Audio file of an earthquake, sped up 800 times. Credit: The authors

Audio recording of tremor, sped up 800 times. Credit: The authors

Audio recording of seismic noise, sped up 800 times. Credit: The authors

Each recording was presented to ten different citizens, who had to classify it as an earthquake, tremor, background noise, or none of the above. Sped up, the seismic recordings of earthquakes typically sound like a slamming door, while tremor sounds like a train going over railway tracks, and background noise can sound like whistling wind, crinkling tin foil, or radio static. The researchers used the number of citizens agreeing on each classification as a measure of the degree of consensus. A selection of the dataset was also classified by trained seismologists among the authors, while output from a machine learning algorithm developed specifically by them to identify earthquakes were used as a benchmark for the citizens' performance. Artificial intelligence has not yet been able to identify tectonic tremor, which until the present study where citizens successfully mastered this task, could only be recognized within seismic data by seismologists.

The citizens reached a collective decision for 91% of the tested recordings. There was more consensus when classifying earthquakes (74% of recordings with this collective decision reached the preset threshold of 40% votes for the majority classification) than for tremor (51%) and background noise (66%). When their collective decision was compared to the correct classification, as determined by the professional scientists, the citizens were collectively 85% accurate in identifying earthquakes, higher than the 76% accuracy of the machine learning algorithm.

The authors conclude that citizen scientists can make a major contribution to seismology, allowing scientists to process much more data than they ever could on their own, thus helping them to better understand processes deep inside the Earth's crust and forecast earthquakes with greater precision. The citizens' ability to collectively identify tremors, which artificial intelligence can't yet do, will be especially valuable for the field.

"Earthquake Detective can be a resource for other researchers in this field who are interested in receiving input from an impressive group of volunteer scientists. We strongly encourage these researchers to point us to seismograms they would like to see classified, so that we can include them in Earthquake Detective, and return the volunteer classifications to the researchers," says Tang.

Explore further Project recruits help from citizen scientists to classify seismic events
An online survey involving nearly 800 cigar smokers found that majority of the people surveyed intended to quit smoking due to concerns about elevated health risks if they contracted COVID-19, more than twice as many reported they increased rather than decreased their tobacco use since the pandemics onset.

The multi-institutional study led by researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill examined cigar smokers perceived risk of COVID-19, quit intentions, and behaviours during the pandemic. Their findings were published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

We are not sure why many participants reported increasing their tobacco use, but it is possible that they are stressed or anxious, they are bored at home, they stockpiled tobacco products in advance of sheltering-in-place orders, or they are not able to easily access evidence-based cessation resources like pharmacotherapy or behavioural support, said Sarah Kowitt PhD, MPH, the papers first author, and an assistant professor in the UNC School of Medicine Department of Family Medicine.

Adam Goldstein, MD, MPH, director of UNC Tobacco Intervention Programs and professor of family medicine at UNC School of Medicine, is the studys senior author.

The researchers conducted an online survey for two weeks starting on April 23 as part of an ongoing study examining perceptions of health effects of cigars. All respondents reported using cigars during the past 30 days and most used other tobacco products, like cigarettes. The average age of those surveyed was 39.3 years, most were white (66.2 percent), and nearly half (48.9 percent) were women.

Far more respondents reported increasing their tobacco use since COVID-19 started (40.9 percent) vs. decreasing their tobacco use (17.8 percent). This finding was significant, Kowitt said, because cigar use is associated with multiple cancers and other health effects.

However, Black or African American participants, those who used a quitline (a telephone-based tobacco cessation service), and those with higher COVID-19 risk perceptions had higher intentions to quit using tobacco due to COVID-19 and higher odds of making a quit attempt since COVID-19 started.

Nearly half (46.5 percent) of the respondents reported they had tried to quit smoking since the pandemics onset and 70.8 percent were planning to quit within six months. Kowitt said this finding has important public health policy implications.

Studies have shown that to convert quit attempts into successful cessation, support should be made available during this time, including increased access to nicotine replacement therapy, virtual support with tobacco treatment counsellors, and mental health assistance, particularly since better perceived mental health was associated with increased intentions to quit.

Kowitt said tailoring support to sub-groups of tobacco users may also be important. For instance, tobacco users who have increased their tobacco use in response to COVID-19 may need additional help with higher dependency, as well as with coping strategies targeting stress and anxiety. Those who have decreased their tobacco use have an even greater chance of successfully quitting with clinician support.

It is important, especially during the pandemic, that we provide support for tobacco users who want to quit smoking, A growing body of research suggests that tobacco users, compared to non-users, may be at greater risk for experiencing COVID-19 complications, so it is critical that we identify opportunities and approaches to encourage tobacco users to consider quitting and to provide them the support they need to quit successfully, said Kowitt.

(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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Twitter has unveiled new labels marking the tweets and accounts of 'state-backed media' as well as official government entities, in a move it says will 'increase transparency and accountability.'

Twitter on Thursday announced the new steps to prevent the spread of content from state-affiliated media used to advance a government's political agenda -- a move affecting key outlets from Russia and China.

Official government accounts, such as the White House, and key government officials tasked with communicating foreign policy abroad will also receive the labels.

For now, Twitter says the changes will only be applied to the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, which are the US, UK, France, Russia and China.

Russian outlet RT mocked Twitter's decision to label its tweets as state-backed media

Twitter also slapped the new label on Sputnik, a Russian state-controlled news outlet

Twitter said that it would define state-backed media outlets as 'outlets where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution.'

'Unlike independent media, state-affiliated media frequently use their news coverage as a means to advance a political agenda,' the company said in a statement.

Already, the label has been applied to a number of Russian outlets, including RT and Sputnik, as well as Chinese news services such as China Daily and Xinhua.

Top editors and senior staff at the designated news outlets will also receive the label on their tweets, Twitter said.

Twitter said the decision would not affect 'state-financed media organizations with editorial independence,' specifically citing the British-based BBC and US-based National Public Radio.

Chinese outlets China Daily and Xinhua were also among those to receive the new label

Twitter's announcement follows a similar action by Facebook earlier this year which labeled content from media which are editorially controlled by governments.

It follows increasing tension over Twitter's role as an arbiter of public debate, after bitter spats between the social media site and President Donald Trump.

In recent months, Twitter has moved aggressively to slap fact-checking labels and warnings on certain of Trump's tweets, and this week even removed a video of the president claiming that children are 'almost immune' to coronavirus, calling it medical misinformation.

In fact, children are not immune to the virus, but appear to suffer serious side affects and mortality at a dramatically lower rate than older individuals.

Twitter's latest move come amid concerns over campaigns by governments aimed at influencing elections and public sentiment in other countries through media outlets that disguise their true origins.

State-led influence campaigns were prominent on social media during the 2016 US elections and have been seen around the world.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is seen in a file photo. The social media site has been taking more aggressive steps to label and even remove controversial content ahead of the election

Official government accounts such as the White House also received new labels from Twitter

A recent report by Oxford University researchers found disinformation and conspiracy theories spread by leading media outlets from Russia and China, as well as from Iran and Turkey -- all of which are state-controlled or closely aligned to regimes in power.

Twitter also plans new authentication labels for 'key government officials' authorized to speak on behalf of the state.

'We believe this is an important step so that when people see an account discussing geopolitical issues from another country, they have context on its national affiliation and are better informed about who they represent,' the statement said.

Meanwhile, Facebook on Thursday said it took down accounts running a deceptive campaign out of Romania pretending to be Americans supporting US President Donald Trump.

The network targeted the US with posts about the upcoming presidential election; the Trump campaign, conservative ideology, Christian beliefs and the 'Qanon' conspiracy theory, according to Facebook.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab were labeled

Facebook removed 35 Facebook accounts, three pages, and 88 Instagram accounts as part of an ongoing fight against 'coordinated inauthentic behavior,' according to security policy head Nathaniel Gleicher.

'The people behind this network used fake accounts to pose as Americans, amplify and comment on their own content, and manage pages including some posing as President Trump fan pages,' Gleicher said.

The Facebook security team determined that the activity originated in Romania and focused on the US.

'We found this network as part of our investigation into suspected coordinated inauthentic behavior ahead of the 2020 election in the US,' Gleicher said.

The network often reposted stories by US conservative news networks and from the Trump campaign, according to Facebook.

Facebook pages in the campaign had about 1,600 followers, while about 7,200 people followed one or more of its Instagram accounts, the California-based internet giant reported.

Coordinated deception such as this 'blurs the live between healthy public debate and manipulation,' Gleicher said while briefing reporters.

'We can only tackle one piece of what is a whole-of-society challenge; it is increasingly clear no single organization can handle this alone.'

He echoed a call from Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg for political leaders to establish clear rules regarding what kinds of contents or behaviors should not be tolerated by online platforms.

'Even though it is hard to pin down motive, the behavior still violates our policies and we can take down the content,' he said. 'It doesn't matter what side they are on.'
PHOENIX  Arizonas top health official and the states education chief laid out a series of guidelines Thursday that public schools were urged to use when deciding whether coronavirus infection rates are low enough to safely reopen for full in-person learning.

The officials, however, said parents should not expect to see a return to normal at their childs school anytime soon.

We think it is going to be several weeks before any county meets those benchmarks, but we do see it trending down, said Dr. Cara Christ, who leads the Arizona Health Services Department.

The scientific guidelines released by Christs department lay out three key measurements of the virus community effects. But they are just guidelines, and school districts wont be required to reopen or forced to close if they are not met. The metrics will be broken out for all 15 Arizona counties, and schools will use their countys numbers.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman discouraged school boards from deviating.

Schools should adhere to these benchmarks, and school boards should be held accountable by their community members to follow the public health recommendations, Hoffman said.

The guidelines say schools can consider reopening for partial in-person learning once their county meets several criteria as measured over two weeks: fewer than 100 new cases per 100,000 people or a sustained drop in new cases; a rate of positive tests that is 7% or less; and fewer than 10% of hospital visits for COVID-like symptoms.

Schools can consider fully reopening once there are fewer than 10 new cases per 100,000 people, the test positivity rate falls below 5% and fewer than 5% of hospital visits are for COVID-like symptoms.

Arizona is only meeting one of those three standards now, as the state finally is seeing a drop in cases over the past several weeks. But the rate of positive tests and COVID-like illnesses remain above the thresholds.

Data gathered by The Associated Press from Johns Hopkins University shows the 7-day rolling average of new cases statewide went from 2,751 new cases a day on July 22 to 1,990 new cases a day on Wednesday. The positivity rate in Arizona dropped from a high of 21% the week of June 28 to 11% last week, according to data from the state.

Arizona has 1.1 million students attending K-12 public schools, either traditional district schools or charter schools.

Even if schools decide their county meets the thresholds to fully reopen, Christ said she knows some children wont return right away.

We know that some parents are not going to be comfortable sending their kids back until there is a vaccine, Christ said.

Another troubling problem for schools is a rising number of resignations or early retirements by teachers, some of whom are concerned about becoming infected if they return to work or about bringing the virus home to a vulnerable family member. Others are quitting to care for their own children who arent able to go to school.

It is concerning for me because we were already experiencing a shortage of teachers, Hoffman said.

For instance, one-fifth of Arizona classrooms lacked a fully qualified teacher in January, before the pandemic, Hoffman noted.

Many Arizona schools began their fall semesters this week, with online learning models only. Gov. Doug Ducey issued an earlier order requiring them not to reopen for in-person learning before Aug. 17. Two weeks ago, he said schools would not be required to reopen at that point, saying instead that state health officials would develop the guidelines that were released Thursday.

The Republican governor had set Aug. 17 as the aspirational date for schools to reopen in full, but the states two-month surge of virus cases made that impossible.

Schools were required to begin classes on their normal start date and provide instruction for the full 180 required school days, starting with remote online classes.

They also were required to ensure that in-person resources are available for at-risk students and those whose parents need to send them to school so they can work. That could include computer labs where children can complete online work rather than traditional in-person schooling.

Ducey has been briefing the media weekly since shortly after the pandemic began hitting Arizona in March, but he was in Washington to meet with President Donald Trump and other governors this week. The briefing on schools was instead given by Hoffman and Christ, and television stations were not allowed to broadcast it.

___

This story has been corrected to show that schools can consider partially reopening when the test positivity rate falls to 7%, not 10%.
Fighting cybercrime is a crucial area for national security policy but the challenge will be balancing the risks against the costs of protecting our networks.

The risks which were detailed in a new federal cyber security strategy released on Thursday range from malignant attacks by foreign powers on infrastructure, such as power stations and airports, to data theft and so-called ransomware which inserts destructive viruses on networks.

Terrorists and organised crime groups, such as paedophile rings, can also use encrypted software or the so-called dark web to operate worldwide without detection.

The federal governments strategy has committed $1.6 billion over the next four years, about 10 times more than previously, to help businesses, individuals and government departments fight these threats. That will pay for more cyber security experts, public awareness campaigns, better software design and the like.

Yet on the other side of the ledger the global software industry and privacy advocates are concerned that in the name of protecting Australia, the government could overstep.
The Congress on Thursday demanded that a session of Parliament be convened to enable discussion on key issues like the COVID-19 situation, the standoff with China at the border and the state of the economy in the country.

Senior Congress spokesperson Ajay Maken said a way should be found out soon to hold a session of the Parliament.

He said various leaders of the Congress have asked for holding the Parliament session early and the government should act accordingly. "There are so many issues concerning the country and a way should be found out to call a Parliament session," he told reporters at a virtual press conference.

Maken said it is not just the Chinese transgression which is a big issue, the coronavirus pandemic and the economic situation in the country should also be discussed in Parliament.

"There are very important things. There should be a way out to convene Parliament  a virtual session or there should be different ways  the government should look at different ways and means to call the session," the Congress leader said.

The party has been demanding early convening of a Parliament session to discuss important issues. The Monsoon Session of Parliament is due and sources indicate that the same could be convened by the end of this month or early next month.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

French universities will reopen in September after nearly six months but students will be encouraged to wear face masks, the ministry of higher education announced Thursday.

Universities in France closed on March 16 as part of the new coronavirus restrictions. Schools gradually reopened on May 11 but the country's 74 universities have remained shuttered.

"The wearing of masks in classrooms is highly recommended," the ministry said, asking universities and leading higher education institutions "to let in a greater number of students while respecting health regulations."

"We are working in tandem with these establishments to put in place measures .... to protect teachers, personnel and students from the virus," Higher Education Minister Frederique Vidal said.

She said social distancing would be observed with a meter maintained between each student in classrooms. Face masks will be mandatory in libraries.

Closed spaces will be aired twice a day and pedestrian traffic will be regulated in busy areas, it said.

There has been a rise in COVID-19 cases in France in recent weeks but the current daily numbers of deaths and hospitalisations are far lower than they were earlier.

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

 2020 AFP
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky addressed a letter to Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, in which he urged to take, together with the staff of the National Security and Defense Council and the Security Council of Ukraine, comprehensive measures to protect the economic interests of the state, the press service of the head of state reported.

"Thus, a comprehensive assessment of the state of activity of state-owned facilities that are of strategic importance for the economy and security of the state, including the identification and elimination of factors locking their operation, must be exercised," said the message released on Thursday.

Also, the head of state insists on taking comprehensive action to remove the economically unjustified sale of property of enterprises of strategic importance for the economy and security of the state and business entities in which the state has corporate rights.

"In addition, the impact of the state of privatization or sale of corporate rights in charter capitals of enterprises with a monopoly (dominant) position in the market of goods, scientific and research (scientific and technology) institutions, as well as enterprises of strategic importance for the economy and security of the state, in particular public joint stock company Motor Sich, on the state of economic security must be systematically assessed," the message says.

The prime minister must personally inform the President of the respective results.

As reported, on the night of August 6, Beijing Xinwei Technology Group Co., Ltd at the Shanghai Stock Exchange reported that the subsidiary of Beijing Skyrizon and the DCH Group of Ukrainian businessman Oeksandr Yaroslavsky and its affiliated companies jointly submitted a new application to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine on August 4 (AMCU) on the purchase of Motor Sich shares.

Xinwei reports that on the same day, its subsidiary Beijing Skyrizon withdrew from the Antimonopoly Committee the statement that it had previously submitted together with the state concern Ukroboronprom.

The report notes that DCH Group is one of the important industrial financial groups in Ukraine, uniting metallurgical, mining, engineering, infrastructure, financial and other industries.

According to a source in government, currently about 75% of Motor Sich shares are already owned by a group of Chinese owners, and the AMCU was considering the issue of agreeing on a deal to buy this stake from them by Skyrizon and Xinwei Technology with further free transfer to Ukroboronprom 25,00002% shares. At the same time, the disputed block of shares in Motor Sich acts as a pledge for financing provided, among other things, by China Development Bank.

During a visit to Kyiv at the end of August 2019, John Bolton, the then U.S. President's Security Advisor, spoke about US concerns about the sale of Motor Sich to Chinese owners. Motor Sich shares have been under arrest since April 2018 at the request of an SBU investigator in order to preserve material evidence in a criminal case initiated in July 2017.

Motor Sich PJSC is one of the world's largest manufacturers of engines for aviation equipment, as well as industrial gas turbine units. It supplies products to more than 100 countries around the world. In January-June 2020, the enterprise received UAH 595.56 million of net profit, while for the same period in 2019, the net loss was UAH 428.58 million.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug.6

By Rufiz Hafizoglu, deputy editor-in-chief of Trend news agency:

The capital of Lebanon, fabulous Beirut - once known as the "Paris of the Arab world" - has been going through hard times since the middle of the last century. The civil war, political and religious tensions for many years did not allow this small country with a very rich culture to develop.

The one who rules Lebanon, namely Beirut, rules the Middle East, the country's people say rather reasonably. Indeed, in Lebanon, the interests of not only neighboring Syria and Israel, but also Turkey, Russia, the US and other Western countries have historically collided.

Meanwhile, as its known, political chaos, military clashes and civil wars often provide fertile grounds for the flourishing of terrorist organizations.

So, one of them, odious ASALA, was established during the civil war in 1975 in Beirut by Lebanese Armenian Hakob Hakobyan, who took part in the activity of the Palestinian armed organizations in the early 1970s.

Lebanon, being an Arab country, is a member of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and so its logical that Baku expects from it an unequivocal support in the issue of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. But, unfortunately, the Lebanese authorities still have not provided much-needed political support to Azerbaijan. Only once the ex-Prime Minister of Lebanon Saad Al Hariri said that his country stand for a peaceful solution to the conflict.

Surely, the main reason for this paradoxical behavior is the influence of the Armenian community and the Armenian lobby on the Lebanese authorities.

Nevertheless, despite thecourse of official Beirut, ordinary Lebanese people are exhausted by the lies of the Armenians, who position themselves allegedly as a"long-suffering nation".

As its known, on August 4, a massive explosion occurred in the port of Beirut, as a result of which hundreds were killed and more than four thousand Lebanese citizens were injured. The whole world was shocked by this incident.

According to one of the versions, the explosion was caused by 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in the port warehouses.

World leaders expressed their condolences to Lebanons president.

The next day after the tragedy, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev sent a letter of condolences to Lebanese President Michel Aoun, in which he expressed the solidarity of the Azerbaijani people with the people of Lebanon.

"The Republic of Azerbaijan will render financial aid to the friendly Republic of Lebanon to help eliminate the consequences of this tragedy," the head of the Azerbaijani state wrote.

On the same day, Azerbaijani Prime Minister Ali Asadov signed an order on provision of financial assistance to the country.

The order said that taking into account Lebanon's need for humanitarian aid to eliminate the consequences of the tragedy, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry shall allocate $1 million in manat equivalent to provide Lebanon with financial assistance from reserve funds of the Azerbaijani 2020 state budget.

The Azerbaijani Ministry of Finance was instructed to ensure the payment of the allocated funds in the prescribed manner. The order came into force the date of its signing.

It means that while the heads of other countries, including Armenia which claims to be friendly to Lebanon, made routine statements, Azerbaijan, represented by President Ilham Aliyev, acted generously and very humanely.

Of course, the people of Lebanon are well aware that changing the avatars in social networks as a sign of solidarity with the victims, as some political figures and representatives of the Armenian community in Lebanon did, will not heal the wounded and will not ease the heartache of the victims relatives and friends. Not without reason it is said that a friend in need is a friend indeed.

Thus, by providing Lebanon with the necessary and timely financial assistance, official Baku once again has demonstrated to the whole world how much the Azerbaijani people and state care about the universal values.

Its no doubt that this gesture of Azerbaijan will leave an indelible trace in the hearts of the Lebanese, thereby shattering the myth of the brotherly attitude of Armenians to the people of Lebanon, and will open the eyes of the Lebanese to who is their friend indeed.

---

Follow the author on Twitter:@rhafizoglu
Processing shrimp for export (Photo: VNA)

HCM City - Vietnam is expected to continue growing its share of global exports despite decline amid the resurgence in the COVID-19 pandemic after three months of no local transmissions, according to an HSBC report.

If there was a new wave of infections in Vietnam, it could still be relatively better off given that the situation is worse in many other markets and regions, according to HSBC Global Research.Vietnam is not alone as Hong Kong, which had also largely contained the outbreak, has also seen a surge in cases recently, showing the risks are far from over and investors need to position themselves accordingly.Vietnamese authorities have done a good job in containing the transmission by far, which increases our confidence that the country is better prepared to deal with any further waves.Vietnam is one of the best long-term growth stories in Asia.If Vietnam were a company, we would highlight market share gains, a strong balance sheet, robust growth, and good management. We maintain our positive view on Vietnam.The pandemic and US-China trade tensions have urged companies to persify their supply chains. Japan recently announced a first list of companies it will subsidise to relocate from China to Southeast Asia.Some 30 companies plan to move to Southeast Asia, half of which could move to Vietnam to produce medical equipment, semiconductors, phone components, air conditioners, and power modules.The report, titled Asia Frontier Insights: Reassessing the markets: Vietnam encore, expected Vietnams GDP to grow by 3 percent this year, the only ASEAN country to have positive growth this year.Despite the outbreak, most economic indicators are showing signs of normalisation. The economy is getting back on track. Vietnams second quarter GDP growth was 0.4 percent year-on-year despite lockdowns and other impacts of the pandemic.Retail sales rebounded by 6.2 percent year-on-year in June while industrial production grew by 7 percent.But experts warn that the pandemic is too unpredictable and could impact Vietnam more negatively than anticipated.The Asian Development Bank has forecast Vietnam to grow at 4.1 percent this year.In its latest update on June 18 it said developing economies in Asia would grow very little this year since preventive measures against COVID-19 have affected their economic activity while import demand has weakened.The International Monetary Fund forecast the global economy to grow at minus 4.9 percent this year, the US at minus 8 percent and the EU at minus 10.2 percent, and China by only 1 percent.The World Bank expects the global economy to shrink by 5.2 percent, developed countries by 7 percent as domestic demand and supply, trade and finance have been severely disrupted and emerging and developing markets by 2.5 percent.The EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), which took effect on August 1, will reduce duties to zero percent on 71 percent of goods, rising to 99 percent in seven years. This should also be positive for Vietnams exporters in sectors like electronics and textiles, according to the HSBC report.Speaking at a recent meeting on trade cooperation with EU partners, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Hoang Quoc Vuong said bilateral trade has increased from about 4.1 billion USD in 2000 to 56.45 billion USD last year. Vietnamese exports to the EU were worth almost 41.5 billion USD.With a population of more than 500 million and a combined GDP of over 15 trillion USD, or 22 percent of the worlds GDP, the EU is the largest exporter and importer in the world with annual trade of 3.8 trillion USD.Under the EVFTA, the EU will immediately remove import duties on 85.6 percent of tariff lines  equivalent to 70.3 percent of Vietnams exports.After seven years, 99.2 percent of tariff lines, equivalent to 99.7 percent of Vietnams exports, will be eliminated.Vietnam will cut 48.5 percent of tariff lines, equivalent to 64.5 percent of EU exports, to zero immediately and 91.8 percent of tariff lines in seven years.
Summa Silver Corp. Closes $8,000,000 Private Placement Financing, Including a Lead Investment by Eric Sprott

Posted by Publisher Internet

Summa Silver Corp. (?Summa? or the ?Company?  https://www.commodity-tv.com/ondemand/companies/profil/summa-silver-corp/) (CSE:SSVR) (Frankfurt:48X) is pleased to announce that it has closed the non-brokered private placement financing of units of the Company (the ?Units?) at a price of $1.00 per Unit (the ?Offering?) for gross proceeds of $8,000,000. Participation in the Offering included a lead order of $5,000,000 from Mr. Eric Sprott.

Each Unit is comprised of one common share of the Company (a ?Common Share?) and one-half of one Common Share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a ?Warrant?). Each full Warrant shall be exercisable to acquire one Common Share (a ?Warrant Share?) at a price of $1.75 per Warrant Share for a period of 24 months from the closing of the Offering. ?If the volume-weighted average trading price of the Common Shares as quoted on the Canadian Securities Exchange (the ?CSE?) is equal to or greater than $3.00 for a period of ten consecutive trading days, Summa will have the right to accelerate the expiry date of the Warrants by giving notice, via a news release, to the holders of the Warrants that the Warrants will expire on the date that is 30 days after the issuance of said news release.

Galen McNamara, CEO of the Company, stated: ?I would like to thank all new and existing shareholders for their continued support. Closing this financing has placed Summa Silver in a strong position to push forward with an aggressive exploration program on the eastern side of the historic Tonopah district. With drilling now in progress and advancing well, we look forward to releasing assay results in a timely manner as they are received.?

The Company issued 8,000,000 Units at a price of $1.00 per Unit pursuant to the Offering. Net proceeds of the Offering will be used for exploration, corporate development, and general working capital purposes. Securities issued pursuant to the Offering are subject to a four month and one-day statutory hold period. The Offering is subject to the receipt and final approval of the CSE.?

In connection with the Offering, the Company paid total finder?s fees of $446,400 in cash and issued 446,400 finder?s warrants (the ?Finder?s Warrants?) to eligible finders.? Each Finder?s Warrant is exercisable into one Common Share of the Company at a price of $1.00 for a period of two years.

Eventus Capital Corp. acted as a finder in connection with a portion of the Offering.

A director of the Company subscribed for a total of 100,000 Units in the Offering. As a result, the Offering is a related party transaction (as defined under Multilateral Instrument 61-101?Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions?(?MI 61-101?)).? The Company relied upon exemptions from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements under MI 61-101.

Prior to the Offering, Mr. Sprott beneficially owned or controlled 4,000,000 Common Shares.? Following closing of the Offering, Mr. Sprott beneficially owns or controls 9,000,000 Common Shares and 2,500,000 Warrants representing 17.64% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares on a non-diluted basis and 21.50% on a partially diluted basis assuming the exercise of Warrants

The securities were acquired by Mr. Sprott, through 2176423 Ontario Ltd., for investment purposes. Mr. Sprott may acquire additional securities of the Company including on the open market or through private acquisitions or he may sell securities of the Company including on the open market or through private dispositions in the future depending on market conditions, reformulation of plans and/or other relevant factors that Mr. Sprott considers relevant from time to time.

A copy of 2176423 Ontario Ltd.\-\-s related early warning report will appear on the Company\-\-s profile on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) and may also be obtained by calling Mr. Sprott\-\-s office at (416) 945-3294 (200 Bay Street, Suite 2600, Royal Bank Plaza, South Tower, Toronto, Ontario M5J 2J1).

About Summa Silver Corp

Summa Silver Corp is a Canadian junior mineral exploration company. The Company is focused on the Hughes Property located in central Nevada, which is host to the high-grade historically producing Belmont Mine, one of the most prolific silver producers in the United States between 1903 and 1929. The mine has remained inactive since commercial production ceased in 1929 due to heavily depressed metal prices and little to no modern exploration work has ever been completed.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

?Galen McNamara?

Galen McNamara, Chief Executive Officer

info@summasilver.com

www.summasilver.com

Investor Relations Contact:

Kin Communications

Richard Graham

604-684-6730

SSVR@kincommunications.com

In Europe:

Swiss Resource Capital AG

Jochen Staiger

info@resource-capital.ch

www.resource-capital.ch

?

The CSE has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. 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.

Cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements

This news release contains certain ?forward looking statements? and certain ?forward-looking information? as defined under applicable Canadian and U.S. securities laws. Forward-looking statements and information can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as ?may?, ?will?, ?should?, ?expect?, ?intend?, ?estimate?, ?anticipate?, ?believe?, ?continue?, ?plans? or similar terminology. The forward-looking information contained herein is provided for the purpose of assisting readers in understanding management?s current expectations and plans relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that such information may not be appropriate for other purposes.

Forward-looking statements and information include, but are not limited to, statements in respect of the Offering including the proposed use of proceeds and receipt of regulatory and stock exchange approvals.

Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual actions, events or results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: the requirement for regulatory approvals; enhanced uncertainty in global financial markets as a result of the current COVID-19 pandemic; unquantifiable risks related to government actions and interventions; stock market volatility; regulatory restrictions; and other related risks and uncertainties.

Forward-looking information are based on management of the parties? reasonable assumptions, estimates, expectations, analyses and opinions, which are based on such management?s experience and perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, and other factors that management believes are relevant and reasonable in the circumstances, but which may prove to be incorrect.

The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information except as required by applicable law. Such forward-looking information represents management?s best judgment based on information currently available. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed and actual future results may vary materially. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information.
A six-year-old boy has had to undergo plastic surgery to reconstruct his face after he was mauled by his 'loveable' family dog.

Camdon Bozbell was at his grandmother's house in Schoolcraft, Michigan on April 18 and was attacked when he got up to get a snack by Chaos the five-year-old pit bull.

His grandmother heard his screams and raced out of the bathroom to tear the pet away from the child but he suffered horrific injuries including a broken nose, skull fracture, and nerve damage.

'When I got to the hospital, I feared the worst,' the boy's mother Tristin Lent said.

***WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT***

Camdon Bozbell was mauled by the dog after getting up to get a snack in April. He has been left with permanent facial scars

Camdon Bozbell, six, was attacked by his family dog at his grandmother's house in Michigan

The family says Chaos the pit bull is a 'lovable' dog who doesn't live up to his name

Lent works jobs as a receptionist and cleaner.

She had left the boy with his grandmother after she was called into work at the last minute but an hour later police called and she had to drive 90 minutes to Bronson Hospital in Kalamazoo where she waited 30 minutes to see her son.

'They wouldn't let me see Camdon at first and then a nurse came out and said "good news he's breathing on his own" and I freaked out  I thought why wouldn't he be?' Lent said.

Her son's face was wrapped in gauze so she didn't know the extent of his injuries until he came out of surgery.

The boy had to have many stitches and has suffered permanent scarring. His nose will need to be rebuilt due to tissue loss.

His mother Tristin Lent (center) - who also has a nine-year-old daughter named Jenessa (left) - was at work at the time

She had to drive 90 minutes to Bronson Hospital in Kalamazoo where she waited 30 minutes to see her son who was wrapped in gauze

'The first responders said it was the worse thing they had ever seen,' the mother said.

'And it was the worse day of my life. I spent a month crying for Camdon.'

Lent couldn't believe the amount of damage the dog was able to do and noted that Chaos has been around children for years and had never shown any signs of aggression.

Lent said the family will never know why the dog attacked her son, whether it was related to the child's sudden movement or if Chaos wanted the food.

'He was called Chaos, but that name did not suit his temperament at all,' Lent explained.

She previously told Fox 17 that when she tells people the story she doesn't want to tell them the breed because the stigma around pit bulls.

Kalamazoo County Animal Control is investigating the case. The dog's current whereabouts is unclear.

'The first responders said it was the worse thing they had ever seen,' the mother said. Lent couldn't believe the amount of damage the dog was able to do

'The dog was not even an inch from his eyes. I'm just happy his ears and eyes were okay,' the mother said

The mother said she 'spent a month crying for Camdon' who was allowed to recover at home two days after entering hospital

'If the dog had attacked him an inch or two below and got Camdon's throat, my son would be dead,' Lent said as she warned parents not to leave their children alone with a dog.

'The dog was not even an inch from his eyes. I'm just happy his ears and eyes were okay.'

The child bravely rode in the ambulance alone due to the COVID-19 pandemic and displayed optimism when he was discharged from hospital on April 20 to recover at home, saying: 'I'm glad that dog didn't kill me, I didn't want to die.'

However his mother  who also has a nine-year-old daughter named Janessa - thinks he will have to undergo counselling at a later date.

A GoFundMe fundraiser set up by his aunt has raised nearly $40,000 of a $2,000 goal.

'The scars don't bother Camdon but people stare in the grocery store and that upsets him, especially when they ask what happened,' Lent said.

'The trauma is not over. It's going to be something that we're going to deal with for the rest of his life.'

Now his mother is warning parents not to leave children alone with dogs after the attack

'The scars don't bother Camdon but people stare in the grocery store and that upsets him, especially when they ask what happened,' Lent said

She thinks he will have to undergo counselling at a later date. 'The trauma is not over. It's going to be something that we're going to deal with for the rest of his life,' Lent said
ARLINGTON, Va., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- HyperQube Technologies, the Arlington, Virginia, company that brings the power of "copy and paste" to complex cloud networks, today announced Leawood Venture Capital as the lead investor in their $2.5 million Series Seed financing round.

The HyperQube platform provides IT teams with the ability to replicate entire cloud networks with the click of a button. Companies benefit by reducing overall virtualization spend by up to 80% while eliminating the waste associated with replicating infrastructure. HyperQube is cloud-agnostic, with current API support for both VMWare and AWS.

Since HyperQube launched out of the Mach 37 program in 2018, the company has experienced significant growth helping enterprises spin up new networks much faster than before. Craig Stevenson, HyperQube's founder and CEO said, "With the growing remote workforce necessitating a rush to the cloud, HyperQube is poised to accelerate and manage that process while simultaneously reducing costs and enhancing security."

The HyperQube "no-code" platform helps organizations rapidly review, comment, and iterate on infrastructure as code. "We're excited to invest in HyperQube because of the substantial impact their powerful solutions can have across multiple markets," said Karl Gemperli, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Leawood Venture Capital. "As investors, we strive to identify talented and dedicated leadership teams with deep domain expertise and unique technology. Their proven platform is already helping established public and private sector partners improve their cybersecurity systems."

HyperQube plans to use the $2.5 million in funding to fuel its growth by expanding the sales, marketing, and engineering teams.

About HyperQube: HyperQube (https://HyperQube.io) is a 2018 graduate of the cybersecurity accelerator program Mach37 which included other innovative technology startups including NS8, Huntress Labs, and RunSafe Security. Founded in 2018, HyperQube is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.

About Leawood: Leawood Venture Capital (http://LeawoodVC.com) invests in disruptive early-stage technology companies nationwide. Founded by successful founders and experienced business operators, Leawood VC has raised multiple funds and has invested in the growth of dozens of successful portfolio companies.

Media Contact:

Jessica Crytzer

[email protected]

SOURCE HyperQube Technologies, Inc
An investigation has been launched to find out the cause of the fire at the hospital in Ahmedabad in Gujarat state.

At least eight coronavirus patients died in a fire that broke out in an intensive care unit at a hospital in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad early on Thursday, officials said.

It took firefighters half an hour to contain the blaze at Shrey Hospital in Ahmadabad, officer Yusuf Khan told AP news agency. Thirty-five patients had been moved to other hospitals, he said.

The blaze broke out at approximately 3am at the hospital in the Navrangpura neighbourhood, ndtv.com reported.

An investigation has been launched to find out the cause of the fire.

I am saddened to hear that Eight patients in the ICU ward of #ShreyHospital died after fire breaks out in #Ahmedabad . Government should ensure the safety of patients. My thoughts and prayers to all those affected. May injured patients recovery soon. #COVID19 #COVID__19 pic.twitter.com/lbcyI4LTRx  Dhruvil Gajjar (@meggi_07) August 6, 2020

Police stopped angry relatives from entering the hospital after the tragedy which, according to emergency services, was caused by a medical staff members personal protective equipment (PPE) catching fire.

A staffer whose PPE caught fire ran out of the ward to douse it, but the fire spread rapidly to the whole ward, said Rajesh Bhatt, additional chief fire officer of the Ahmedabad Fire and Emergency Services.

Saddened by the tragic hospital fire in Ahmedabad. Condolences to the bereaved families Administration is providing all possible assistance to the affected, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted.

A compensation of Rs 200,000 ($2,672) each would be given to the relatives of victims, the prime minister tweeted.

Gujarat, Modis home state, is among the states worst-hit by the coronavirus pandemic, with more than 65,000 cases so far.

With 1.9 million cases, India is the third-worst hit country by COVID-19. Nearly 40,000 people have died due to the disease, which originated in China last December.

Fires are common in buildings in India because of poor safety standards with inadequate fire extinguishers, smoke detectors and fire alarm systems.
(Natural News) There is so much talk on the news these days about the need for more government intervention to preserve public health that many people have been led to believe that there is no other way to protect themselves against infection with the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19). But what about nutrition?

Nutritional science is all but completely absent from the national conversation on plandemic solutions, which is unfortunate considering that there are ways people can help protect themselves right now that have nothing to do with new future vaccines or novel, magic-bullet therapeutics.

As we are seeing with the ongoing crusade against hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and zinc, even old-time remedies are being shunned in favor of more government control over peoples lives, which is continually presented as the only cure for the plandemic.

Lets be honest; inexpensive, safe drugs or natural alternatives like herbal or nutritional compounds wont provide pharma with the big payday they are banking on from COVID-19, reports Childrens Health Defense (CHD). They are opportunists, and you can bet they are going to make the most out of this opportunity.

Much like parasites, bacteria, and yes, even viruses, the opportunists in government who do not want you to know about things like quinone and vitamin D would rather have you deathly afraid of an invisible virus that has no cure so that they can provide you with said cure when the time is just right.

These pharma opportunists are getting our government to fund the development and production of these drugs and vaccines to the tune of billions of dollars  AND they will potentially reap hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue from the sales (all underwritten by each of us taxpayers), CHD further reveals.

Glutathione is critical for mitigating the oxidative stress caused by infection

In other words, vaccine manufacturers are being awarded handsome contracts to produce liability-free vaccines, all while not having to foot a penny in terms of investment. It is a dream come true for Big Pharma, and a nightmare coming to fruition for the general public.

Even though there are literally thousands of studies out there demonstrating the effectiveness of natural compounds that help to treat viral infections, the medical deep state has instead chosen to focus on future cures that do not yet exist, encouraging the public to anxiously await their arrival.

They do that in numerous ways, but the two overarching strategies is first to prime or boost the bodys own ability to attack and destroy the pathological microbes and second, to block key biochemical pathways that the virus needs to enter the cell and proliferate, CHD reports about these natural compounds, one of which is glutathione, the master antioxidant.

In COVID-19s case, these pathways into the cell are called the ACE-2 receptors. The cells lining the lungs and airways are particularly rich in these receptors making the lungs a receptive target for COVID-19. Nutritional compounds can also effectively manage the high levels of inflammation and collateral damage caused by the infection, which is one of the main reasons the COVID-19 infection can reach catastrophic levels and, in some cases becomes fatal.

How glutathione can help is by fighting infection and mitigating the damaging effects of oxidative stress that it produces. When glutathione is in short supply inside the body, oxidative stress quickly gets out of control, resulting in more disease, more sickness, and possibly loss of life.

Therefore, reducing inflammation and oxidative stress naturally not only decreases the severity of the infection and risk of death, but also the long-term health altering after-effects post infection, CHD further adds.

Be sure to read the full CHD article about natural remedies for infection at this link

You can also keep up with the latest news about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) by visiting Pandemic.news.

Sources for this article include:

ChildrensHealthDefense.org

NaturalNews.com
ANN ARBOR, MI  The man accused of beating and strangling his father to death during a drunken argument more than a year ago has been sentenced to prison.

Washtenaw County Trial Judge David Swartz sentenced Michael B. Krause to serve 14 to 40 years in prison for the murder of his father, Ann Arbor dentist Michael E. Krause, court records show. The sentencing took place in May during COVID shutdowns, according to the records.

The sentence came after Krause, 32, pleaded guilty but mentally ill on March 9 to one count of second-degree murder for the strangulation death of his father.

Son pleads guilty but mentally ill to murder of father in Ann Arbor

His sentencing, originally scheduled for April 6, was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused many state operations to temporarily shut down.

The states Center for Forensic Psychiatry, which previously found Krause competent to stand trial, determined he was mentally ill on the date of offense but that he did not meet the definition of being legally insane, his attorney Joe Simon said previously.

The dentists wife called police about 8 p.m. Jan. 26, 2019, to report a fight between the 66-year-old father and his son in their home in the 700 block of Watershed Drive on Ann Arbors east side after the pair had been drinking together, police said.

The son then called 911 to say, that his dad was yelling at him and his mom and  that basically he snapped and started hitting his father, police said.

The elder Krause was beaten and strangled, according to his death certificate.

The son was being supervised by Washtenaw County Community Mental Health before the incident and his mother also told police, when she called 911 the day of her husbands death, that her son suffers from mental illness, Simon said.

Due to COVID-19 concerns, Krause is still lodged in the Washtenaw County Jail and has not yet been transferred to the Michigan Department of Corrections.

More from The Ann Arbor News:

Independence Lakes beach closed due to high E. coli levels

Township supervisor on probation for animal cruelty charges comes out on top in primary election

Woman sentenced 10-30 years in prison for I-94 crash that killed tow truck driver, passenger
In a statement posted on its website, which was withdrawn on Thursday afternoon, the Ministry of Defence belatedly admitted what the government has stoutly denied so far: That Chinese troops had transgressed the Line of Actual Control (LAC)  the de facto Sino-Indian border  in several sectors in May, and that the present standoff is likely to be prolonged. That leaves the government with a simple question: Will those responsible be called to account? India has never been hot on accountability for national security lapses.

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Officials from the YMCA of Greater Houston recently announced the launch of Y Learning Centers, a new type of virtual learning center designed to offer support to students taking online classes and parents who must return to work this fall. Two new Y Learning Centers are being offered in Fort Bend County.

We understand these are uncertain times and many families are worried how they are going to balance work and follow the vital school curriculum at home, YMCA President and CEO Stephen Ives said in a statement. We have been helping parents since the start of the pandemic by providing child care for essential workers so they could return to work. As a helping hand and community partner, we want to continue assisting families in their virtual learning to help keep students on track for the school year and provide some relief to parents. We believe it is important for all children to have access to necessary resources and aid during this time.
Mining magnate Clive Palmers legal challenge to WAs hard border should be subject to a retrial following the Commonwealth withdrawing its involvement, the WA government says.

An urgent application, to be heard during a case management hearing in the Federal Court on Friday, will consider whether to vacate July's four-day trial in favour of a new trial before a new judge.

WA Premier Mark McGowan, QLD businessman and politician Clive Palmer. Credit:Nine

Two days after the initial hearing, the Commonwealth withdrew its support of Mr Palmers position that WAs all-or-nothing approach to the border closure was unconstitutional.

A spokesman for Premier Mark McGowan said the Premier had requested the federal government back WAs application for a retrial.
SHB Finance was the first consumer finance firm in Vietnam to be assessed and rated by Moodys in its very first year of operation

After an April decision to ponder downgrades in the Vietnamese financial system due to the impacts of COVID-19, international ratings agency Moody's has recently reconfirmed the long-term ratings and assessments of three finance companies and two banks in Vietnam, including FE Credit, Home Credit Vietnam (HCV), and SHB Finance.

Particularly for SHB Finance, Moodys has maintained a stable B3 rating based on the expectation that solvency and liquidity risks will be mitigated for three major reasons.

First and foremost, the early reopening of Vietnams economy due to the successful control of the COVID-19 pandemic is a positive sign for the whole nation.

Secondly, Moodys highly appreciated Vietnams stable financing conditions, which have been buoyed by ample liquidity following supportive domestic and global measures.

Last but not least, the ratings agency was convinced by the strong showing of SHB Finance in managing credit and liquidity risks amidst pandemic-induced disruptions.

According to Moodys, SHB Finances funding and liquidity positions were stable during the review period, supported by ample international and domestic liquidity, which helped the company to roll over its existing funding and access new capital.

Furthermore, SHB Finance has diversified its funding sources and reduced funding costs, along with prudent risk management measures, such as tightening underwriting criteria to witness upbeat performance in the first half.

This went largely against the tide, as leading economists like Can Van Luc point to a surge in overdue loans threatening Vietnamese enterprises earnings and capital accretion momentum, especially in the young and volatile consumer finance industry.

Particularly, for the first half 2020, SHB Finance has nearly completed its revenue target (over 90 per cent), with total outstanding loan balance of 92 per cent, while bad debts were maintained at 5.97 per cent  a low level in todays challenging market environment.

Up to 100 management personnel at SHB Finances mid-year business meeting in 2020

Immense potential

Besides solid growth fundamentals in the Vietnamese market, SHB Finance is tying the knot with several high-profile international investment funds to diversify its funding for business expansion.

On July 22, SHB Finance inked a loan agreement with Switzerland-headquartered management fund responsAbility Investment AG on a basis of trust, after qualifying all of the accompanying strict criteria.

The loan agreement with the $3.5 billion investment fund giant will offer great mutual benefits, where the Swiss fund could jump on the lucrative consumer finance bandwagon in Vietnam, and SHB Finance could enhance its operations to international standards. SHB Finance can also gain in size and trust from overseas funds as this co-operation can put the firm on the radar of world-class investors.

The capital injection from responsAbility Investment will enable SHB Finance to deliver top-notch services to clients, with a better cushion, ample liquidity resources, and a stable operation structure.

At the same time, SHB Finance signalled that it would need an additional $25-30 million in capital to diversify business channels as well as ensure sound financial sources with an affordable cost.

Do Quang Hien, chairman of SHBs Board of Directors, shared that there is no shortage of interested foreign partners, saying, We are in the middle of negotiations, and a successful tie-up deal in 2020 is very much on the cards.

Dinh Quang Huy, CEO of SHB Finance speaking at the mid-year business meeting

Disruptions

While the pandemic has been a short-term dampener on consumer finance lending, the dynamic changes wrought by on-boarding fintech and other technological innovations keep the segment heavy with growth potential on longer timescales.

Demand will continue to grow for products such e-wallets, AI-based alternative credit scoring products, and consumer lending, among others. So opportunities for consumer finance in Vietnam, especially for companies with good reputation like SHB Finance, are vast, said Frederick Burke, partner at law firm Baker McKenzie told VIR in an interview.

Riding these waves, SHB Finances dedicated team of professionals has rolled out a number of high-tech services such as the upcoming e-Know-Your-Customers (e-KYC) to enhance customer experience.

We are proud of having a team rich in experience in financial solutions and a solid banking background, Dinh Quang Huy, CEO of SHB Finance told VIR. With our comprehensive knowledge in the field, we believe were evolving in sync with the burgeoning demands of the consumer finance industry.

As of now, the firm has successfully delivered its disruptive services to more than 180,000 customers across the country.

To keep up with our ever-evolving quest, we are committed to make credit accessible to people to build a better Vietnam. Bringing fast, affordable and high-quality consumer finance services to clients is our top priority  as part of our customer-centric approach, said Tran Thanh Nu Tuong Vy, deputy general director at SHB Finance.
A row has been triggered this week in Egypt after a senior tax authority official said that the government imposes an income tax on drug trafficking, arms trade and prostitution if law violators have been arrested.

Some said that it is an indication that the government recognizes these illegal practices, but the official has denied that, saying that collecting taxes from those people is only a commitment to imposing taxes on anyone who is engaged in any such activities.

On July 29, Saeed Fouad, head of the central administration in the office of the head of the Tax Authority, said that drug dealers, illegal arms traders and prostitutes are subject to income tax if they get arrested.

We deal with them like any tax financiers even if their activities are illegal, Fouad said in TV statements. He added that if the drug dealer confesses that he has been practicing this activity for a specified period of time, a tax will be applied on him for that period.

This also applies to crimes like prostitution and illegal arms trading, the official said, stressing that collecting the tax is not a recognition of the legitimacy of these practices that are criminalized by law, but a recognition of revenues that are subject to taxes.

The Tax Authority was not available for comment.

Fouads statements have triggered a widespread row and outrage in Egypt with lawyers and parliamentarians saying that this is not constitutional and the official should be held accountable.

The official is irresponsible and his statements mean that Egypt is legalizing these illegal practices, which of course is not true, Bassant Fahmi, a member of parliament, told Al-Monitor.

She noted that what should happen in these cases is confiscating their money without imposing any taxes on them. This is a call for people to be drug dealers and prostitutes as the officials statements mean that the state is legalizing these practices  which is not actually happening in the country, Fahmi added.

Reda Eldanoubki, a lawyer and executive director of the Womens Center for Guidance and Legal Awareness, said that this is a direct and frank call for human trafficking, especially against women, as the official is saying that the government will impose taxes on prostitution.

According to the law, this is illegal and taxes are only imposed on legal practices not illegal ones, Eldanoubki told Al-Monitor.

He added that if taxes will be applied on illegal practices, this will pave the way for more drug dealers, prostitutes and illegal arms traders. Strict action should be taken against the official who apparently does not know the grave consequences of his statements, Eldanoubki said.

Egypt has introduced new amendments to the tax law in order to create a more fair tax payment system, make facilitations for lower social brackets and impose new penalties on tax filing breaches.

On May 7, parliament approved the new amendments to the Stamp Duty Law No. 111 of 1980, increasing levels of income that are subject to taxes from five to seven brackets.

The new annual income taxes are applied on a first bracket with an annual income of up to 15,000 Egyptian pounds ($938), which is subject to a 0% tax rate, to a seventh bracket with an annual income surpassing 400,000 Egyptian pounds ($25,000), which is taxable at a 25% tax rate.

The tax exemption limit has increased by 60%, as the exempted portion from each financier was raised from 8,000 Egyptian pounds ($500) to 15,000 Egyptian pounds, in addition to increasing the exemption limit for individual salaries from 7,000 pounds ($438) to 9,000 Egyptian pounds ($563).

Egypt has also been trying to face the negative economic repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic by financially supporting limited-income brackets and putting off payment of all kinds of loans.

On July 5, parliament also approved a bill submitted by the government on solidarity contributions to face some economic repercussions resulting from the spread of the coronavirus pandemic or the occurrence of natural disasters.

As of July this year and for a period of a year, a deduction of 1% will be applied on the net income of workers and 0.5% deduction will be applied on pensions.
A woman has been charged after a seven-week-old baby boy allegedly died with meth and amphetamine in his system more than two years ago.

Emergency services were called to a home in Annandale in Sydney's inner-west after the baby was found unresponsive on February 18, 2018.

Paramedics treated the youngster but he died at the scene on Ferris Street and both drugs were allegedly found inside him during a post-mortem examination.

A woman has been arrested and charged after a seven-week-old baby boy allegedly died with meth and amphetamine in his system more than two years ago (file image)

Emergency services were called to a home on Ferris Street (pictured) in Annandale in Sydney's inner-west after the baby was found unresponsive in February 2018

Detectives from Leichhardt Police Area Command then set up Strike Force Corry to investigate his death.

New South Wales Police said following lengthy investigations detectives arrested a 40-year-old woman at a Silverwater correctional facility in Sydney's west.

She has been charged with poisoning to endanger life and was refused bail to appear at Newtown Local Court on Friday.
New Delhi/Islamabad, Aug 6 : The government on Thursday asked Pakistan to desist from inciting communal tensions in India with its provocative statements on its internal matters.

Pakistan on Wednesday had strongly condemned the 'bhumi pujan' ceremony for the construction of the grand Ram temple in Ayodhya.

In response to media queries on the issue, the official spokesperson of the External Affairs Ministry, Anurag Srivastava, said on Thursday, "We have seen the press statement by the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on a matter internal to India." Issuing a warning to Pakistan, the spokesperson said that it should "desist from interfering in India's affairs and refrain from communal incitement." "While this is not a surprising stance from a nation that practices cross-border terrorism and denies its own minorities their religious rights, such comments are nevertheless deeply regrettable," he added.

The Pakistan government led by Imran Khan had claimed in an official statement on Wednesday that the Ram temple was being constructed "on the site where the historic Babri Masjid stood for around five centuries.

Calling the Indian Supreme Court judgement, which paved the way the for construction of the temple, "flawed", Islamabad said that "it not only reflected the preponderance of faith over justice but also the growing majoritarianism in today's India, where minorities, particularly Muslims and their places of worship, are increasingly under attack." The Imran Khan government said, "The temple built on the site of a historic mosque will remain a blot on the face of the so-called Indian democracy for the times to come. The painful scenes of the demolition of Babri Masjid by the BJP and its extremist Hindu affiliates in 1992 remain fresh in the minds of Muslims across the globe." The statement said that since then, the OIC (Organization of Islamic Countries) has passed numerous resolutions condemning the heinous act of demolishing the centuries-old mosque.

"Future generations of Muslims would continue to be cognizant of the new illegitimate structure which the Hindutva-driven BJP has campaigned for, and is bent upon constructing as part of its agenda of converting India into a 'Hindu Rashtra'. Todaya's event in Ayodhya reflected an unrelenting drive in this direction," Islamabad said.

Pakistan in its statement had urged the Indian government to ensure safety, security and protection of minorities, particularly Muslims and their places of worship and other Islamic sites on which the Hindu extremists and zealots have laid claims.

The international community, the United Nations and relevant international organisations should play their part in saving the Islamic heritage sites in India from the 'Hindutva' regime and ensure protection and religious rights of minorities in India, the Imran Khan government said.
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau on Wednesday said he spoke to counterparts from the United States and Britain and discussed the need to support global supply chains amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Finance ministers from Australia and New Zealand were also on a call that Morneau hosted. The nations are members of the so-called Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network.

"The Finance Ministers and I discussed the importance of working together to support the resilience of global supply chains from which we all benefit," he said in a statement.

"(This) is important for economic recovery and long-term prosperity, and we discussed ways to further cooperate on supply-chain challenges."

The call was the third in a series of what Morneau called regular conversations between Five Eyes finance ministers.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Sandra Maler and Aurora Ellis)
Central government said on Thursday that it had no plans to bring back a state of alarm, despite there being 580 monitored localised outbreaks in Spain. Finance minister, Maria Jesus Montero, explained, The indicators of the epidemic dont point in that direction and no autonomous regional government has requested it.

In the latest reported case data on Thursday, the outbreaks in Spain were still concentrated in the north of the country.

related story Local coronavirus outbreaks shoot up on the western Costa del Sol

Aragon and the Basque Country were reporting that their health services could come under strain. 338 new individual cases were reported in the Basque Country in a day, levels last seen at the end of April, and 329 in Aragon.

Meanwhile, residents of Aranda del Duero in the central Castilla y Leon region have been told they cannot leave for two weeks as cases grow there.
LONDON, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Commonwealth of Dominica announced notable changes to its Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Programme last month. Published in the country's Official Gazette on July 29, 2020, the Commonwealth of Dominica Citizenship by Investment (Amendment) Regulations, 2020 widen the scope of eligible 'dependants' and post-citizenship additions.

Siblings aged 25 or under can now be included in a citizenship application if they meet certain requirements. The expanded definition includes adult children aged 18 to 30, disabled adult children, parents, grandparents, spouses of eligible parents and grandparents, and siblings. The main applicant or their spouse would need to be supporting the aforementioned dependants substantially.

To facilitate family reunification, the new regulations remove the prerequisite for dependant adult children to be in full-time education, and the age and co-housing requirements of parents and grandparents. The changes also permit economic citizens to apply for citizenship on behalf of their new-born or adopted children, as well as a new spouse. This means that those considering applying for Dominican citizenship and wishing to include family members are more likely to be able to do so.

Main applicants may also make post-citizenship additions in respect of family members who could have qualified as dependants at the time the original application was made. Moreover, the amendment allows for a one-year 'grace period' for economic citizens wishing to add pre-existing dependants.

"The changes we are announcing are exciting," commented the Dominican Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit in a recent government press release. "They are meant to accelerate family reunification in a world where togetherness, and the right to all be able to live in a safe, stable, and welcoming environment is more important than ever," he added.

All main applicants and their dependants aged 16 or over must first pass a due diligence process. The past three editions of the CBI Index, published by the Financial Times' PWM magazine, ranked Dominica as the world's best country for economic citizenship. It offers vetted investors the safety and security of having second citizenship if they choose to contribute to the Economic Diversification Fund or invest in a pre-approved real estate project.

Successful applicants are granted citizenship for life and can live or work in the Caribbean country. They can also have visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 140 destinations around the world.

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In the evening hours of Aug. 5, the 12-story Tel Aviv city hall building was lit up like the Lebanese flag in solidarity with victims of the Beirut port explosion. Hundreds of residents and international news photographers arrived at Rabin Square, fronting the building, to document the historic moment when an official Israeli institution expressed solidarity with a declared enemy state even as military tensions spike along the border between the two neighbors. Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai tweeted, Humanity precedes any conflict. Our hearts are with the Lebanese people following the terrible disaster that befell them."

Tel Aviv is considered Israels most liberal city, but it was not alone. A spokesperson of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tweeted a photo of the display and wrote, incredibly, The State of Israel stands together with the Lebanese people, its government and army. Our hearts are with you and we are with you.

The Foreign Ministry's Arabic-language Twitter account also expressed support. Humanity above all, it read. From the heart of Tel Aviv, Shalom to Beirut. The prime ministers Arabic-language spokesperson Ofir Gendelman hailed the gesture, tweeting, For the very first time in Israel's history, Tel Aviv's city hall was lit tonight with the colors of the Lebanese flag as a sign of solidarity w/ the people of Lebanon and support for them following the horrific #beirutblasts.

In addition to the public displays, Israel also offered Lebanon humanitarian and medical aid, including hospital treatment for the injured. Although the COVID-19 epidemic has filled hospitals to capacity, the Ziv Hospital in the northern town of Safed, where casualties of the Syrian civil war have been treated, said in a statement, We are experienced and we are ready.

The much larger Rambam Medical Center in the port city of Haifa also spoke up. Its spokesperson noted that following events in Beirut, in coordination with official agencies, Rambam would prepare medically and logistically to take in casualties of the event if needed, putting to use its extensive trauma treatment experience. Head of the Arab media division of the IDF Spokesperson's Unit Avichai Adraee tweeted the Israeli aid offer in Arabic, adding, Israel has extensive experience in these fields and it has sent delegations to provide humanitarian assistance around the world. This is the time to put aside all divisions.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also offered help. First of all, in the name of the Israeli government, I am conveying our condolences to the Lebanese people, he said, addressing the Knesset. Yesterday there was a very great catastrophe in Lebanon. We are ready to send humanitarian assistance to Lebanon, as human beings to human beings.

Lebanon, however, did not receive Israels displays of sympathy with enthusiasm. Many Lebanese and other Arab social media users reacted with curses and expressions of scorn, accusing Israel of hypocrisy and noting that Israel had bombed Beirut heavily during the 2006 Second Lebanon War that broke out after Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers.

It was expected that Lebanon would reject Israels outreach, said Ron Schleifer, a professor of media and psychological warfare at Ariel University. The anti-Israel incitement in the Arab media is so significant that even a beautiful humanitarian gesture such as Israels is met with a cold shoulder. As far as most Lebanese are concerned, we Israelis are repulsive.  They cannot accept that fact that Israel is the most prosperous state in the region, in total disproportion to all its neighbors. Accepting help would be conceding this unpleasant fact. According to Schleifer, the only way to transfer aid is covertly, through international bodies. Israels public offers of help did not stand a chance, he added.

While many on the political right also supported humanitarian aid to Lebanon, the projection of its flag in the center of Tel Aviv and Israels official statements of solidarity with an enemy state riled many. Israel Beitenu chair Avigdor Liberman responded, When the mayor of Tel Aviv decides to light up the city hall in the colors of the Lebanese flag as a sign of solidarity, it is a step of treason. Minister for Jerusalem and Heritage Affairs Rabbi Rafi Peretz tweeted that Israel can and should offer humanitarian help to civilians injured in Lebanon, but raising the flag of an enemy state in the heart of Tel Aviv is moral confusion. Knesset member Ayelet Shaked of right-wing Yamina expressed similar criticism, while the prime ministers son Yair Netanyahu tweeted, The law bans flying an enemy flag. Knesset member Ofir Sofer of the right-wing Ichud Leumi (National Union) party wrote, The Book of Proverbs says, 'Do not rejoice at the downfall of enemies, but that does not mean you have to fly their flag.

In an online poll by Maariv, slightly more respondents supported the move, but the anti-Israel responses in Lebanon appear to have disappointed many in Israel. Many Israelis are convinced that if they only reach out a hand to the Lebanese people and express sincere empathy, the hatred will disappear, said Schleifer. But that is far from being the case. Israels offers were sincere. I am sure Ron Huldai really was well intentioned, but it will never work as long as the Arab world refuses to accept Israelis presence in the region as legitimate. Only once that happens will good neighborly relations be created.
A great-grandmother who was arrested for having CBD oil at Magic Kingdom last year has filed a lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company.

Hester Burkhalter is being represented by attorney Benjamin Crump, who announced the lawsuit during a press conference on Wednesday.
Sterling climbed 0.4% to notch a fresh five-month high of $1.317 shortly after the announcement, but slightly pared gains as the European trading session progressed.

The Bank of England said on Thursday it was keeping benchmark interest rates at an all-time low of 0.1% and left the size of its bond-buying program unchanged at 745 billion ($981 billion).

The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed down by 0.7% provisionally, with basic resources falling over 2% to lead losses as most sectors and major bourses slid into negative territory.

The BOE said the U.K.'s gross domestic product (GDP) was expected to have fallen 20% in the second quarter when compared to the final three months of last year. The Monetary Policy Committee's central projection was for U.K. GDP to continue to recover beyond the near term, but it warned that the economy was unlikely to exceed its pre-pandemic level until the end of 2021.

On Wall Street, stocks were mixed as investors continued to monitor the ongoing brinkmanship between U.S. lawmakers over a new prospective stimulus package. President Donald Trump's administration threatened on Wednesday to act on its own to provide coronavirus relief after another day of talks on Capitol Hill failed to result in an agreement.

Traders also monitored simmering tensions between the U.S. and China, the world's two largest economies.

Looking at individual stocks, French diagnostics company Eurofins surged to the top of the European benchmark. Shares of the Paris-listed stock jumped more than 17% after the firm launched a new, lower-cost product to detect the coronavirus.

Meanwhile, British engineer Meggitt tumbled over 4% amid speculation the company may need to raise new equity in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The company said in a statement on Thursday that its financial and liquidity position remained robust, Reuters reported.
(Newser)  Beirut has been devastated by a massive explosion that killed at least 137 people and left an estimated 300,000 people homelessand angry residents say the country was broken long before the Tuesday blast. Residents blame corruption and incompetence for the fact that 2,750 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate was stored at a port facility for six years despite clear warnings of the danger, reports the Washington Post. "People saw firsthand with devastating results what it means to have a failed state, says Paul Abi Nasr of the Lebanese Association of Industrialists. "Its not just that the government is corrupt, that the state is weak, that there are weapons outside the hands of the government. We saw these things come together catastrophically." More:

Missed warnings. Documents have revealed numerous warnings about the ammonium nitrate, which was unloaded from a ship impounded in 2013, the Guardian reports. Just six months ago, officials who inspected the consignment reportedly warned that if it wasn't moved, it would "blow up all of Beirut." Insiders say several judges and committees failed to take action despite the repeated warnings. Port officials have been placed under house arrest.

story continues below

"Beirut is screaming." Residents are calling for justicebut they say they do not trust the government to deliver it. "Beirut is crying, Beirut is screaming, people are hysterical and people are tired," filmmaker Jude Chehab tells the BBC. Human Rights Watch called for an independent investigation, saying it has doubts about the government's ability to "conduct a credible and transparent investigation on its own."

Residents are calling for justicebut they say they do not trust the government to deliver it. "Beirut is crying, Beirut is screaming, people are hysterical and people are tired," filmmaker Jude Chehab tells the BBC. Human Rights Watch called for an independent investigation, saying it has doubts about the government's ability to "conduct a credible and transparent investigation on its own." Hospitals devastated . More than 5,000 people were injured in the blastand two hospitals that could have treated them were so badly damaged they have had to close indefinitely, the New York Times reports. "We arent expecting any support because there is no state," says Tony Toufic, an engineer at a small hospital near the port, which was almost completely wrecked. The larger St. George Hospital University Medical Center says the blast killed four nurses and 13 patients.

. More than 5,000 people were injured in the blastand two hospitals that could have treated them were so badly damaged they have had to close indefinitely, the New York Times reports. "We arent expecting any support because there is no state," says Tony Toufic, an engineer at a small hospital near the port, which was almost completely wrecked. The larger St. George Hospital University Medical Center says the blast killed four nurses and 13 patients. Volunteers lead rescue efforts . In hard-hit neighborhoods, volunteers are leading cleanup and rescue efforts. "They have declared war on us, this corrupt state, and it's up to us to clear up the mess. We know they're not going to help. We don't want their help," Roy Rached, a 30-year-old unemployed man, tells Al Jazeera.

. In hard-hit neighborhoods, volunteers are leading cleanup and rescue efforts. "They have declared war on us, this corrupt state, and it's up to us to clear up the mess. We know they're not going to help. We don't want their help," Roy Rached, a 30-year-old unemployed man, tells Al Jazeera. Country was "already on the brink of the collapse." The AP reports that Lebanon was "already on the brink of the collapse" when the blast hit, with the economy devastated by the pandemic and a financial crisis that wiped out people's savings. With coronavirus cases rising, a new lockdown had been due to come into effect this week. Officials now fear cases will rise sharply, with the many thousands made homeless by the blast now crowding into relatives' homes.

The AP reports that Lebanon was "already on the brink of the collapse" when the blast hit, with the economy devastated by the pandemic and a financial crisis that wiped out people's savings. With coronavirus cases rising, a new lockdown had been due to come into effect this week. Officials now fear cases will rise sharply, with the many thousands made homeless by the blast now crowding into relatives' homes. Foreign aid incoming. The government estimates that rebuilding will cost more than $12 billion. Numerous countries, including China and Britain, are sending medical teams and other assistance. The BBC reports that on Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron became the first foreign leader to visit Lebanon since the catastrophe. He visited the devastated port area and said the disaster is "an opportunity to have a frank and challenging dialogue with the Lebanese political powers and institutions."

(Read more Beirut stories.)
A baby, a heavily-pregnant woman and young children are among migrants to land on Kent beach as smugglers tell them to make dangerous Channel crossing before Brexit 'closes the door'.

One group of around 16 refugees including 10 young children landed on Dungeness beach in Kent around 8.30am today, and a further cluster of migrants were pictured being rescued at nearby Dover.

A further three were later brought into the town's marina by a small white passenger boat carrying a charity swimmer at 4pm.

It has been reported authorities have so far been involved in the rescue of more than 120 migrants in small boats that took the dangerous crossing this morning.

It means 3,643 migrants have made the life-risking Channel crossing this year - nearly double the 1,850-odd who arrived in the whole of last year.

Last Thursday, a single-day record of 202 people in 20 boats landed.

Sky News reports at least seven dinghies and a kayak were seen being taken into Dover, and that another two kayaks have been detected in the Channel.

Border Force vessels Speedwell and Hunter were docked in Dover Marina at 2.30pm, and are shortly expected to be back out on the water to rescue another small boat.

It comes just a day after 13 migrants - who were Afghan, Iranian, Iraqi, Eritrean and Sri Lankan - were picked up yesterday morning in a similar area of the coast.

The 10 males and three females were taken into Dover to be medically checked and questioned by immigration officials.

It has been reported that authorities have so far been involved in the rescue of more than 100 migrants in small boats that took the dangerous crossing this morning. Pictured: A heavily pregnant refugee arrived on the Kent coast today

A newborn baby is brought into Dover harbour amid the rush of migrants crossing the Channel today

A heavily pregnant woman and young children landed at the coast in Kent today

A different groups of migrants, also including young children, was picked up by officials today at Dover

A mother and her young child arrived at Dungeness this morning after travelling on a small boat

Another group of migrants arrived on a vessel and were picked up by Border Force patrols at Dover, Kent

This follows the general secretary of the Immigration Service Union, Lucy Moreton, saying earlier this year that people smugglers and traffickers are using Brexit as a 'driver' to encourage people to make the crossing.

She told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme in January: 'One of the drivers, we're being told, is that people smugglers and traffickers are telling these folk that after Brexit Britain will close in some way.

'In practice, of course, this is illegal anyway, and it will be as illegal on 31 January as it is on 1 February. Brexit doesn't make a difference, but we do know that the criminals are using this to try to drive more business.'

Today's images show 16 migrants arriving on one small boat, with further vessels thought to have been detected off the Kent coast.

One of the kids, a boy aged around four, looked exhausted as he laid back on the pebbles with his arms spread out.

A group of around 16 migrants including 10 kids and an eight-month pregnant woman landed on Dungeness beach, Kent, today

Young children were picked up today at Dover, it is understood 100 migrants have made it to the Kent coast today

The group of young children, women, and a man, sat on the coast at Dungeness, Kent

A boat used by migrants to cross the English Channel today is in the harbour at Dover as immigration officials stand nearby

The children all wore coats and one of the girls had a fluffy red onesie on.

The pregnant woman - thought to be eight months gone - was wearing a black dress and face mask as she held the hand of a child.

She looked weary and had her head in her hand at one point.

Amateur photographer Susan Pilcher, who saw them on the beach, said: 'I could hear the Border Force workers asking how many months pregnant she was and she said eight.

'They didn't speak much English at all.

'When you think that she's doing such a risky crossing over the Channel when she's heavily pregnant, that says how much they've been through.

'It must be such a frightening thing to do. One of the kids was playing with an empty hand sanitiser bottle, filling it up with stones from the beach.

A man who was rescued by Border Force officials is escorted by authorities at the Kent coast this morning

Border force officials rescued the migrants this morning making the dangerous Channel crossing

'It's heartbreaking - you can't imagine what they've been through, but for them it's just like a day out.

'It was good to see them wrapped up warm - they don't always have coats on and it must be really cold out at sea at night. I feel so sorry for all of them.'

Border Force, police and paramedics were at the scene and the migrants had their temperatures taken.

Astonished couple find two migrant stowaways hiding under their van after returning home to Essex from trip to France An astonished couple found two illegal migrants under their van after they returned from a trip to France. Dean Darke and wife May, both in their 60s, caught the men crawling out on their driveway in Basildon, Essex, after the journey last Wednesday. Dean Darke, 60, and wife May caught the men crawling out on their driveway in Basildon, Essex, after the journey last week The stowaways had boarded the van as it arrived at the port city of Caen, ahead of the Darkes' 225-mile drive home from Brittany via Portsmouth. They got out on the couple's driveway and waited beside the van until police came to arrest them. They said they were trying to get to Manchester where they had family - and Mrs Darke said they were happy to wait for authorities. Advertisement

Conditions were perfect for crossing with a calm sea and good visibility.

Border Force vessels Speedwell and Hunter were docked in Dover Marina at 2.30pm

But 15 minutes later, a crew member on board Hunter shouted across to the lifeboat station: 'We're going out again. We've got another one.'

A crew member of the Dover Lifeboat was heard asking Border Force officers whether they had any spare towels for migrants as they had 'run out' due to earlier crossings.

A Border Force officer then handed over around 10 light blue towels before Hunter steamed off into the Channel at 3pm.

Across the Marina, a number of migrants could be seen being processed by staff in hi-vis jackets near the DHB Dauntless tugboat.

A police van was also stationed outside the small building where migrants are processed.

Minister for Immigration Compliance and the Courts Chris Philp said: 'We are determined to make this route unviable and therefore give migrants no reason to gather on the northern coast of France.

'France is a safe country with a well-functioning asylum system and there is no need for migrants to leave and attempt to come to the UK illegally.

'We have offered to work with the French on safe returns at sea and we will continue work to return anyone who attempts the crossing.

'We are continuing to go after the heinous criminals and organised crime networks putting people's lives at risk.'

Minister for Immigration Compliance and the Courts Chris Philp said: 'I share the anger and frustration of the public at the appalling number of crossings we have seen today.

'The crossings are totally unacceptable and unnecessary as France is a safe country.'

'We work closely with France and I will be in Paris early next week to seek to agree stronger measures with them, including interceptions and returns. This situation simply cannot go on.

'We have to make the route completely unviable. Then migrants will have no incentive to come to northern France or attempt the crossing in the first place.

'We intend to return as many migrants who have arrived as possible. There are returns flights planned in the coming days.

'And we will also continue to go after the heinous criminals and organised crime networks putting people's lives at risk. Twenty-two people smugglers have been jailed this year and two more were charged last weekend.'
MADISON  A federal agency has fined the University of Wisconsin-Madison $74,000 for 28 violations of federal animal research treatment standards.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture assessed the fines for violations accumulated from 2015 to 2019, according to a settlement the university reached with the agency.

Many of the violations involved incidents in which monkeys became injured after staff errors, or equipment failures allowed animals to exit their cages. At least a dozen animals sustained injuries that required amputations of their fingers, toes or portions of their tongue, including an incident as recent as April 2019.

Other incidents include:

Three rhesus monkeys suffered dehydration after their drinking water supply became disconnected in 2015. USDA said the disconnection lasted at least four days, though the university said it was unclear how long the disruption lasted and that the monkeys did not show outward signs of dehydration during daily monitoring by staff. After the water disconnection was discovered, the animals received treatment, but one monkey did not improve and had to be euthanized. Personnel changes were made after the loss, according to the university.

In another 2015 incident, a monkey caged with another sustained wounds so deep that part of the animals vertebrae became exposed. After receiving medical treatment, the monkey was returned to the cage shared with the same animal who caused the injuries. A couple of days later, the monkey was found dead. USDA inspectors issued the citation because they said the earlier injuries provided enough evidence of incompatibility between the monkeys to prevent the animals return to the same cage. UW-Madison said its animal care and research staff make extensive efforts to safely house and monitor monkeys in groups, but occasional injuries may arise.

In 2016, three cages of mice went without food for three days, leading one mouse to starve and another having to be euthanized. The loss of the mice led to more stringent record-keeping and increased monitoring of the animals.

PETA, an animal rights group and frequent critic of universities practices with animals, said in a statement that UW-Madison shouldnt be allowed another chance to harm and kill animals.

UW-Madison previously paid the USDA a more than $35,000 fine in 2014 for animal research-related violations.

The university has a large animal research program, with about 7,000 people certified to work with animals in nearly 50 facilities.

Most of the problems described in the most recent settlement were immediately reported by campus staff to federal agencies, according to university spokeswoman Kelly Tyrrell. UW-Madison took steps to prevent future violations, including upgrading procedures, equipment and staffing, long before the settlement was reached April 15 and the fine was paid April 29.

Studying animals is still the only way to answer many crucial questions about how human and animal biology works and how disease affects them, and the best way to develop ways to prevent and treat many of those disorders, Tyrrell said, adding that UW-Madison is committed to conducting this research in a responsible and ethical manner.
These are the schools that have canceled classes for Jan. 18

Some school districts across the county are virtual today. Others will make up the snow day.
Justice X Law Group Files Class Action Complaint Against LAPD

The Department is accused of falsely identifying thousands of Blacks and Latinx men and women as gang members.

The Justice X Law Group has filed a Class Action Complaint in federal court against the LAPD for falsely identifying thousands of Black and Latinx men and women as gang members in a systemic manner.

There are over 20 officers under investigation and 57 charges. According to the Justice X Law Group, this is just a small number of officers and there are many more to come.

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The dehumanization and dismantling of lives occurred for many years and even decades, Dove indicates. He states that Blacks and Latinos are placed in categories that make them less than others. It is part of a systemic injustice that is transpired to the minority community, Dove infers.

This lawsuit is huge. It is one of the biggest lawsuits that we believe we ever landed in the city of Los Angeles and it speaks to the heart of the corruption that has destroyed and devastated so many Black men and women. So many Latino men and women. Its more widespread than people think, says Civil Rights Attorney Austin R. Dove.

The individuals who have been misidentified and misclassified as gang membersthe financial and economic disadvantage is incalculable.

The Co-Founder of the Justice Law Group, Stephen King, says police have a presumption of guilt for Black and Brown people. He states, police take illegal steps based on fear.

If you instill fear on someone, there can be no equality in justice with fear. We fear the criminal justice system; we fear the police and they know it. They are taking away our abilities to earn a living for families, says King. These cops will pay. They know what they are doing is wrong. They laugh about it; they high five it, King implies.

King mentions this kind of action destroys the morale of the Black community and it has to stop. Even when a person is falsely accused and proven innocent, they still suffer the consequences of that mischaracterization, King tells reporters. They are trying to take away what were trying to build.

Branden Costas is a victim of police racial inequality. Costas graduated from Palisades Charter High School in 2006, when police falsely accused him of being a shooter. He faced life in prison.

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At the age of 18, I was thrown into a situation where police took me from my house. I was guilty until proven innocent. I was facing a life-sentence for something I didnt see happen.

Attorney Christian Contreras infers there is a written and unwritten policy in the police department, where supervisors and policymakers are telling officers to arrest Black and Brown people. The entire system is corrupt, where police officers think they can criminalize these people and misclassify Black and Brown people.

Contreras mentions that the LAPD is waging war against poor people. Were talking about the criminalization of people who are living in a certain neighborhood. What they are saying is just because you hang around certain people, youre a gang associate.

Police are involved with gang activity themselves. Thats what we really need to look at, says Attorney Humberto Guizar. He states its a gang mentality within the police department. They think they are above everybody and they can mistrust everybody else because they have a badge, says Guizar.

Anybody out there that has been mistreated by the police come to us and we will gladly embrace you. Call us at 877-71-JusticeX, states Guizar.
SAN DIEGO, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- TOOTRiS, the fastest growing tech-enabled service provider connecting parents to high-quality Child Care, today announced Learning Hubs, a Child Care program for school-aged children aimed at solving distance learning challenges. Working parents are concerned about juggling work responsibilities and managing their childrens' remote school days, while their employers are worried about absenteeism and workforce productivity. In direct response, TOOTRiS is expanding its real-time 0-5 aged Child-Care services to support parents as they face the challenge to provide school aged children with academic supervision and assistance in this new distant learning era.

TOOTRiS is leveraging their network of more 4,000 licensed and credentialed Child Care providers who have remained open for business during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Learning Hubs empower providers to take on school-aged children and leverage their already nurturing programs to provide a contained, safe and structured small group environment, not to exceed 8 children per CDC guidelines.

TOOTRiS is partnering with the employer community to stand up and subsidize on-site Learning Hubs as an extension to their benefits program. Employers recognize that now more than ever they need to support their workforce to solve their childcare challenges if they expect employees to get back to productivity levels.

"Workforce productivity starts with Work/Life balance. Our economy will not recover unless the employer community recognizes their imperative role in helping to solve this Child Care crisis," said Alessandra Lezama, CEO of TOOTRiS. "Learning Hubs ensures that children are getting appropriate supervision and a renewed sense of normalcy to help them navigate the challenges of virtual classrooms."

With Governor Newsom's remote learning mandate for the start of the 2020-21 school year, Learning Hubs are a Win-Win-Win Solution for children, parents, and employers. Other cities like San Francisco recognize the importance and immense value of the Learning Hubs concept to working parents and their children. The Department of Children, Youth and Their Families recently announced that it will similarly transform some public facilities for high need San Francisco Unified School District students, into Learning Hubs starting this fall. Maria Su, Executive Director of SFDCYF, said, "We need to make sure that families do not have to choose between working and taking care of their children."

To learn more about Learning Hubs and how employers can implement Child Care as a Benefit, go to tootris.com/learninghubs for complete program information and details.

ABOUT TOOTRiS

TOOTRiS believes that every child deserves the opportunity to attend high-quality Child Care. As a tech-enabled service that combines tools for parents, providers, and employers, all within a single app, we empower working parents  especially women  by delivering real time access to Child Care, enabling them to find, communicate, enroll and pay, all while completely contactless. Providers grow their program with TOOTRiS curriculums, business, and marketing automation, while employers incorporate Child Care-as-a-Benefit, increasing their productivity, attracting and retaining top talent. In response to classrooms going virtual, we have created Learning Hubs, a service that provides safe and supervised small group environments designed to give school-aged children a place to learn and thrive. As we all adapt to our "new normal," TOOTRiS gives parents peace of mind that their children, the most important people in the world, are safe and secure in high-quality care. TOOTRiS is headquartered in San Diego, California. Learn more at tootris.com .

Contact: Jasmin Belisario

O: (858) 208-4044 x104

M: (858) 880-6029

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE TOOTRiS

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Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday spoke of the need to put in place a clear-cut framework for China-U.S. relations amid the most complex situation since the establishment of the bilateral diplomatic relations in 1979.

China's U.S. policy is always consistent and stable, and in the meantime, China is also prepared for possible bumps and storms ahead, Wang said during an exclusive interview with Xinhua.

"The U.S. move to turn China into an adversary is a fundamental, strategic miscalculation. It means that the United States is funneling its strategic resources in the wrong area," he said.

"We are always ready to develop a China-U.S. relationship featuring no conflict, no confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation based on coordination, cooperation and stability," he added.

In the meantime, China will firmly defend its sovereignty, security and development interests, because this is a legitimate right inherent in China being an independent sovereign state, Wang stressed.

The United States should honor the principle of sovereign equality enshrined in the UN Charter, learn how to get along with different systems and civilizations and adapt itself to peaceful coexistence, and accept the reality that the world is moving toward multipolarity, said Wang.

Wang expounded on the clear-cut framework for the relationship.

First, steer clear of red lines and avoid confrontation. For China-U.S. relations to develop soundly, the most critical thing is mutual respect, Wang noted.

China never intends to and will never interfere in U.S. elections or other U.S. internal affairs. Likewise, the United States must abandon its fantasy of remodeling China to U.S. needs. It must stop its meddling in China's internal affairs, and stop its irrational cracking down on China's legitimate rights and interests, he said.

Second, keep the channels open for candid dialogue. Dialogue is the prerequisite for addressing problems, and without dialogue, problems will only pile up and even get out of control, he said.

"China's door to dialogue remains open. We are willing, in the spirit of equality and open-mindedness, to talk and interact with the United States, and resume dialogue mechanisms at all levels and in all fields," said Wang.

Third, reject decoupling and uphold cooperation. The interests of the two countries are deeply entwined. Forced decoupling will inflict a lasting impact on bilateral relations, and endanger the security of international industrial chains and interests of all countries, Wang said.

With COVID-19 still raging across the world, China is prepared to have mutually beneficial cooperation with the United States on epidemic control and economic recovery, learn from each other and share experience on containing COVID-19, and join together with the United States the global response and multilateral cooperation in fighting COVID-19, he said.

Fourth, abandon the zero-sum mentality and stand up to shared responsibilities. "Our world still faces many global challenges. Traditional and non-traditional security challenges are intertwined. Almost all regional and international hotspot issues require a coordinated response from China, the United States and other countries," he said.

China and the United States must always bear in mind the well-being of mankind, live up to their responsibilities as two major countries, coordinate and cooperate as needed in the UN and other multilateral institutions, and work together for world peace and stability, said Wang.
New Delhi:

For the third time in one month, the GST Council on Saturday failed to break deadlock over control of assessees under the new indirect tax regime, an issue that has been holding up supporting bills essential for the GST rollout from April 1 next year.

The Council, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, will meet again on December 11 and 12 to hammer out the differences on which assessees will be controlled by states and who would be governed by centre, as also approving the draft supporting legislation CGST and SGST.

Besides, the Council will also have to approve a law detailing compensation to states for loss of revenue in the first five years of the rollout and Integrated GST (IGST).

Are we close to a resolution? Ill keep my fingers crossed, said Jaitley when asked whether the Council would be able to reach a consensus on key issues to enable the country to migrate to the new tax regime from April 1.

I hope during the next meeting on December 11-12, there is a positive movement as far as laws are concerned. But on the critical issue of cross empowerment, 2-3 suggestions have come, he added.

The minister, however, added the new regime will have to be put into place latest by September 16, 2017, as it is a constitutional requirement.

Giving further details, Jaitley said during the two days the Council discussed draft CGST and IGST laws.

We started approving the laws clause by clause and almost 9 chapters of each have been discussed. We are heading towards consensus on these laws. There are two other laws - Compensation and IGST which will be discussed in the next meeting on December 11, 12. The issue of dual control linked IGST remains unresolved we will discuss this as well in the next meeting, the minister added.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac said: There is no consensus... we were not able to arrive at a consensus regarding the cross empowerment model. Therefore, the GST laws could not be completed.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
The answer was an easy one on Wednesday for Rudy Marconi, asked by a town worker in Ridgefield, where he is first selectman, on the best way to prod tree crews into action in a widespread power outage.

Marconi and the employee had been at the ready for several hours, in a church parking lot awaiting an OK from Eversource.

The solution, still not in use by Eversource after years of talking about it: Assign a manager in every town in Connecticut, to approve work immediately after mass blackout events like Tropical Storm Isaias. Eight years after Marconi and other municipal leaders suggested such a policy on the heels of the 2012 superstorm Sandy, thousands of Ridgefield residents were left in the dark again on Wednesday, waiting for that OK.

Thats just one system improvement, or would-be improvement, that came out of the triad of devastating storms in 2011 and 2012: Irene, the 2011 hurricane that became a tropical storm as it hit Connecticut; the noreaster snowstorm of late October that same year; and a year later, Sandy.

Since those storms, Eversource and United Illuminating invested hundreds of millions of ratepayer dollars to gird, or harden, Connecticuts electric grid for punishing storms like Isaias. In the wake of this latest storm, which knocked out power to more than 900,000 customers statewide, was the money well spent?

Now Gov. Ned Lamont is asking that, and he has ordered an investigation by Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, known as PURA.

Eversource, in particular, again saw flaws exposed in its initial response, frustrating hundreds of thousands of customers statewide as mobile phones drained, food went to waste in refrigerators and estimates of power restoration range into several days or even longer.

The storm hit even as updated plans were underway for a resilient grid that includes concepts such as smart meters. Eversource revealed last week its plan to invest $600 million in the devices.

Another idea: batteries to store excess electricity from generators can feed power independent of the grid like solar panels.

But while those long-term plans might make sense, people on the ground are once again irate  this time, with a nearly decade-long history of improvements that were supposed to make calamities like this weeks mass outage not happen.

Battery storage? That dog wont hunt for me, Marconi said Wednesday between calls on town restoration. Theyve increased profitability to the point where Eversource is no longer a powerline company  its a bottom-line company, and when that happens, they shouldnt be in the business.

What weve learned

After meeting Wednesday afternoon with Eversource executives in Berlin, Lamont called on the PURA to investigate Eversource and its Avangrid counterpart United Illuminating, calling the utilities responses wholly inadequate in preparing for Isaias given the forecast track of the storm which proved spot-on.

I want to hear more urgency, Lamont said of the response by Eversource.

And the state wanbts to know: What happened to all that planning that followed the Big Three storms of 2011-12?

It is the first instance of mass outages statewide during the tenure of Eversource CEO Jim Judge, whose compensation Eversource estimated at $11 million last year, a 17 percent increase due to increases in the value of the executives pension plan. Judge also chairs the Eversource board of directors.

Were going to see what weve learned over the last 10 years, what weve learned since Sandy, what weve learned as weve tried to modernize and to harden ... our grid, Lamont said Wednesday. Eversource has put in hundreds of millions of dollars in  doing the things that I would have hoped limited the scale of the damage. But 10 years later this is one of the worst outages weve ever had.

In the months leading up to Tropical Storm Isaias, PURA was already far along a wide-ranging analysis of how to improve the grids resilience to threats including storm systems.

Attention was focused more than eight years ago on pruning back trees that threaten power lines, and on protecting substations from flooding, especially along the shoreline. Management issues such as communcating more effectively with towns was also on the list, along with improvements to transmission lines.

The newest study focuses on leveraging emerging technologies like smart meters and battery storage, rather than intensifying investment in storm response and hardening poles, wires and substations against wind and water.

Should we continue spending what we are on reliability and resilience? said Rich Sobolewski, acting consumer counsel for the state of Connecticut. Or are there things that might be better investments?

In May, PURA asked for industry ideas toward that larger goal. But that doesnt answer the question about all those hundreds of millions of dollard Eversource already spent.

Reliability up  when theres no storm

Members of the Connecticut General Assembly promised their own probe during a Wednesday press conference in Essex, led by state Sen. Norm Needleman, whos also the first selectman and the towns largest employer, as owner of a company that makes bromide tablets.

The legislature convened a two storm panel in 2011 on the heels of mass outages as a result of the Halloween noreaster and Tropical Storm Irene, on steps Eversource and United Illuminating could take to ward off any repeat.

In 2015, PURA approved a $368 million program for Eversource upgrades over the following four years through 2019, coinciding with Judges tenure as CEO. The funds have been used to troubleshoot potential points of failure, including through helicopter surveys; trim back trees and overhanging branches from wires; replace old poles; and shore up substations in coastal areas.

The panels findings went beyond physical resiliency, however, citing the need for improved worst-case planning and staffing by Eversource and United Illuminating. And the panel suggested linking outcomes on power restoration to any future amounts the utilities can charge ratepayers via the electric system improvements component of their bills  in effect putting investors more on the hook for any failures by cutting into profits.

At the recommendation of the panel, Eversource underwrote the creation of an Eversource Energy Center for research at the University of Connecticut, with its work extending beyond physical resilience of lines to distributed solar generation, physical security of electric substations and cyber security.

The UConn centers grid resilience work has been led by Prof. Ross Bagtzoglou, who was not available for comment this week on the centers assessment of Eversource efforts to date.

Sobolewski indicated the investment has produced improvements in reducing both frequency and duration of outages, but with Isaias proving that the Connecticut grid remains no match for a direct hit from a hurricane or tropical storm.

Absent storms, their reliability has really improved over the last eight or nine years, said Sobelewski in the Connecticut consumer counsel office. Weve allowed them a significant amount of capital expenditures and other expenses.  The improvements have been drastic.

Eversource executives suggest they did all they could to prepare for Isaias. Theres no utility in the country that would staff to handle this magnitude of storm, said Craig Hallstrom, president of electric operations.

Since superstorm Sandy, he said, Weve put 100 people full time as first responders.

And Hallstrom added, If you look back several years youll see that our reliability has actually increased. Last year we had out best year ever for reliability in Connecticut.

What can be done?

Hallstrom said Eversource would like to do more tree-trimming but is often rebuffed by the owners of the trees.

Other measures have been weighed but rejected on concern for cost, such as running lines underground in leafy areas. And others have been sidelined in anticipation of aesthetic concerns in neighborhoods, such as installing high poles to elevate lines above the heaviest branches and otherwise gain clearance from any trees toppling nearby.

Back in Ridgefield, Marconi invested himself in the purchase of a generator after Sandy, a small, portable unit that he has loaned out on occasion for varying projects in town. Isaias marked the first time Marconi used it at his own home to furnish a dribble of power as he waited for crews to get to work.

With roughly three months to go in the annual window for a haymaker out of the Caribbean, the founder of The Generator Guys in Southbury believes there will be plenty more who follow suit, as Isaias becomes the last straw for some as outages lengthen into next week.

We have never been busier, said Raj Bhatia of The Generator Guys. There are hundreds of customers running [power] right now.

Includes prior reporting by Kaitlyn Krasselt, Tara ONeill and Pat Tomlinson.

Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulman
Zoom meeting, put Toy Story on the TV, Zoom meeting, change a nappy, Zoom meeting.

This could be the pace of Melbourne father of two Danny Whelan's days for the next six weeks if he loses his bid to be categorised as a "permitted worker" under the Victorian government's new stage four restrictions.

Danny Whelan with his children Phoebe, 5 and Pippa, 1. Mr Whelan says it will be "impossible" for him to look after his children while working full-time from home. Credit:Justin McManus

The new rules remove access to childcare for all but the vulnerable and households of permitted workers.

While Mr Whelan's wife Katie is a nurse - a permitted worker - he oversees a large-scale online software project for a government department from home.
FILE - In this Sept. 15, 2016, file photo, Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, joins businessman and billionaire Arkady Rotenberg, during to a visit to the construction site of the Kerch Strait bridge in Kerch, Crimea. Investigators traced $18 million in art buys to shell companies linked to Arkady Rotenberg and his brother Boris, who are close Putin associates who American officials say benefited financially from the Crimean annexation. (Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik, Kremlin, File Pool Photo via AP)

NEW YORK (AP)  Russian oligarchs have skirted U.S. sanctions through murky high-end art deals, according to a congressional report released Wednesday that urged lawmakers to rein in an unregulated industry favored by money launderers.

The secrecy of the art world  in which buyers often remain anonymous  gave billionaire friends of President Vladimir Putin access to the American economy even after the United States sanctioned them following Russias 2014 annexation of Crimea, the report found.

Investigators traced $18 million in art buys to shell companies linked to Arkady and Boris Rotenberg, close Putin associates who American officials say benefited financially from the Crimean annexation.

The Senates Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations highlighted loopholes that exempt even the most lucrative art sales from financial safeguards aimed at stopping money laundering.

Major U.S. auction houses acknowledged never asking for the true identity of the buyer, the report found, dealing with an intermediary for the sales in question even when it was well-known that the ultimate owner was someone else.

In all, the shell companies linked to the oligarchs moved at least $91 million through the U.S. financial system after the sanctions were imposed, the report found.

"It is alarming and completely unacceptable that common sense regulations designed to prevent money laundering and the financing of terrorism do not apply if someone is purchasing a multimillion-dollar piece of art, said U.S. Sen. Tom Carper, of Delaware, the subcommittee's top Democrat.

U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, said he supports legislation to lift the curtain of secrecy that has made the art industry a preferred vehicle of money launderers.

The Rotenbergs could not be reached for comment. They have been the subject of U.S. sanctions since March 2014, singled out for their close ties to Putin. Arkady Rotenberg is a childhood friend and former judo sparring partner of Putin. His companies won billions in road contracts in Sochi, the host of the 2014 Winter Games.

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Global art sales reached about $64 billion last year, with the United States accounting for nearly half the market. The industry remains unregulated in the U.S., however, attracting the likes of racketeers and money launderers.

Any reforms to the notoriously opaque art world will face vigorous opposition from well-heeled collectors who dont want anybody to know what they have, said Robert Wittman, a former FBI agent who founded the bureaus Art Crime Team.

U.S. art sales would plummet, Wittman said, if Congress followed the subcommittee's recommendation to extend the Bank Secrecy Act to businesses brokering high-value art transactions.

The report points to new anti-money laundering rules the European Union adopted recently for expensive art deals, including verifying the identity of the buyer and seller of the art. That directive followed the release of the so-called Panama Papers, a collection of more than 11 million secret financial documents that illustrated how some of the worlds richest people hide their money.

The congressional report released Wednesday cited an email chain contained in the Panama Papers that listed nine shell companies in the British Virgin Islands linked to the Rotenbergs.

It said the Rotenbergs' art deals in the U.S. were facilitated by Gregory Baltser, an American citizen and art advisor based in Moscow who has no plans to return to the United States.

Baltser's attorney sent the congressional subcommittee a letter denying allegations that he did business with the Rotenbergs.
Florida, a pivotal battleground that could decide the Nov. 3 presidential election, is well poised to handle an increase in voting by mail spurred by the pandemic, according to an analysis released Wednesday from an independent government watchdog.

The 38-page report also looks at what went wrong in Floridas 2018 elections and reviews legislative fixes passed in 2019 to correct those problems.

"When it comes to the integrity of an election, perception is everything," said Ben Wilcox, Research Director of Integrity Florida, during a Zoom conference with reporters Wednesday morning. "That's especially true in Florida where close elections and post-election meltdowns are the norm rather than the exception.

The report took a close look at the 2018 election, with its historic voter turnout for a midterm election and three statewide races that required a recount. The biggest problems were in Broward and Palm Beach counties, which led to allegations of voter fraud and misconduct by elections officials.

Read the report here VBM: A Safe Option for Florida Voters  The Implications in a Battleground State

Both supervisors, in heavily Democratic counties, were removed and replaced by Republican governors  Browards longtime supervisor was replaced by outgoing Gov. Rick Scott with GOP troubleshooter Pete Antonacci, and Palm Beachs supervisor was replaced by Gov. Ron DeSantis shortly after he took office with Palm Beach County attorney Wendy Sartory Link, a longtime Republican who became a Democrat this year.

Their replacements raised concerns about partisanship, but both supervisors have worked hard to fix the problems of the past and ensure voter participation, Wilcox said.

The study also delved into changes made by the Legislature in 2019 and 2020 to address problems encountered in 2018 and modify the vote-by-mail process.

The Legislature passed a bill (SB 7066) that was an omnibus of election reforms crafted by election supervisors and lawmakers keen to not repeat the mistakes of the past. The legislation:

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Extended the deadline to cure defective ballots from 5 p.m. on the day before the election to 5 p.m. the second day after the election.

Modified the ballot envelope to include voters email address to notify them if their signatures were defective.

Created a provisional ballot signature "cure" process that mirrors the revised vote-by-mail process.

Moved the last day for voters to request mail ballots from six to 10 days before an election.

Prohibits supervisors from mailing out such ballots less than eight days prior to an election.

Allowed supervisors to mail out ballots between 40 and 33 days before an election, rather than the previous 35 to 28 days.

Allowed voters to drop off their ballots at a secure drop box location at each active early voting site and the supervisors offices.

Allowed canvassing of mail ballots to start a week earlier, at 22 days before the election instead of 15.

"A lot of work was done by the Legislature and election supervisors to make sure the vote-by-mail system is reliable," Wilcox said. "I think were in good shape, but I could easily be proven wrong given that this is Florida."

The report also examined the impact COVID-19 will likely have on voting in Florida and nationally. More people are deciding to vote by mail rather than show up at precincts to vote, where they could risk exposure to the coronavirus.

Im sure there will be a lot more voters by mail in this election, Wilcox said.

The report also explores allegations made by President Donald Trump and other Republicans that increased voting by mail will lead to increased voter fraud.

It looked at the five states that have universal mail ballots  Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, and Washington  and 29 no excuses states, including Florida, where people dont need to give a reason to vote by mail.

Florida voters have had that option since 2002. In 2016, under Scott, the state replaced the term absentee ballot to "vote-by-mail" to reflect the no-excuse clause.

Despite what officials have said, vote-by-mail doesnt favor any political party, Wilcox said. Studies have shown it helps increase voter participation of both parties, and it's exceedingly rare to conduct vote fraud by mail, Wilcox said.

A Washington Post study found only 372 possible cases of double-voting out of 14.6 million votes cast in three vote-by-mail states in the 2016 and 2018 elections. Nearly every credible study refutes Trumps warnings about widespread voter fraud by mail, the report said.

The study also showed many Republicans pushing back against Trumps criticism of mail-in voting, and universal voting by mail in particular.

Even if you request a Vote-By-Mail ballot, you can still vote in person during early voting or on Election Day.

In light of recent reports that more Democrats than Republicans were requesting to vote by mail, Trump recently signaled support for mail-in voting in Florida, which he declared was Safe and Secure, Tried and True on Tuesday.

While Trump criticizes universal mail-in voting, the Integrity Florida report recommends Florida lawmakers consider it as an option in future elections.

I am not sure how seriously people are taking President Trump for his advice for the election, Wilcox told reporters. I think it is based more on a re-election strategy than reality.

Contact Jeff Schweers at jschweers@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @jeffschweers.

Subscribe today and never miss a story.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Election 2020: Watchdog says Florida in 'good shape' for vote-by-mail
BOOK OF THE WEEK

ENID: THE SCANDALOUS HIGH SOCIETY LIFE OF THE FORMIDABLE 'LADY KILLMORE'

By Robert Wainwright ( Allen & Unwin, 16.99, 368pp)

Enid Lindeman's first husband was a commoner, her second a general, her third a viscount, her fourth an earl. Every one of these husbands died quite young, while she was still married to them.

It's no surprise, then, that her friend Somerset Maugham gave her the nickname 'Lady Killmore'.

She wasn't a husband-murderer, but she does come across as a hard-hearted social climber. A serene, enigmatic, tomboyish beauty who enjoyed riding and gambling, she sailed undaunted through her four widowhoods, eventually making the ultimate sacrifice of aborting her last baby to enable the brother of her final deceased husband to inherit the title.

Fourth time lucky? Enid wed the Earl of Kenmare in 1943. The bride and bridegroom after the ceremony, Kightsbridge, London

Her moral code was: 'Never be afraid, never be ill (or don't talk about it) and, above all, never be jealous.'

My jaw kept dropping as I devoured Robert Wainwright's wonderfully racy biography, full of comedy and tragedy and populated by some of the most dissolute and eccentric aristocrats of the 20th century.

Who would have guessed that young, sporty Enid, an Australian wine merchant's daughter who grew up near Sydney, would one day be driving along Park Lane in a Bentley with her pet cheetah in a diamond collar?

The fun started when a 45-year-old American tycoon, Roderick Cameron, spotted 21-year-old Enid at a charity ball in Sydney Town Hall in 1913.

Enid moved into the villa La Fiorentina on the French Riviera in 1939 with husband number three Marmaduke Furness

Enid, 21, married her first husband American tycoon Roderick Cameron, 45 - together they had a son Rory. Pictured: Enid and Rory pictured in 1914 after the death of her first husband

He married her and whisked her off to a grand, but lonely, life in Manhattan, teaching her the basics of gambling. Roderick popped his clogs two years later (cancer), just before their son Rory's first birthday, leaving most of his fortune to Enid, which made her, for ever after, prey to gold-digging men.

She tried going back to Australia, but found it too parochial. Off she went to Paris, working as a volunteer nurse by day  she bought and kitted out her own ambulance to collect injured soldiers from the front  and changing in the evening into beaded and fringed dresses from the House of Worth to dine at top restaurants. Marriage number two was arranged by an older friend of Enid's, Lord Derby, to Lieutenant Colonel (later Brigadier-General) Frederick Cavendish.

Known as 'Caviar Cavendish' for his high living, actually he was an impoverished aristocrat who had been swindled out of his inheritance.

As Enid's daughter Pat explained: 'It was considered best to get rich, young widows safely married and let them get on with whatever they wanted to do. Lord Derby cleverly produced my father.'

What Enid wanted to do, it seems, was to have affairs; she later let on to Pat that, while she and Cavendish were stationed in Egypt with the 9th Lancers in the early Twenties, someone had dared her to sleep with all the officers in her husband's regiment, and she couldn't resist.

She and Cavendish had two children, Pat and Caryll. It was her money, not his, that enabled him to keep a string of polo ponies. The family spent two months of every summer living it up in Le Touquet, before Cavendish died of a cerebral haemorrhage in 1931, leaving an estate worth just 286. Luckily (or unluckily), Enid still had her Cameron money.

Enid bought and kitted out her own ambulance to collect injured soldiers during WWI

Along came shipbuilding millionaire Marmaduke Furness, who had buried his pitifully ill young first wife, Daisy Hogg, at sea during what sounds like the yacht voyage from hell, and had then divorced Thelma, Lady Furness, as a result of her affair with the Prince of Wales.

When 'Duke', as he was always known, first spotted Enid in a Le Touquet casino, he was holding a winning poker hand, but was so captivated that he threw it in. He wooed her with jewels, flowers and a chauffeured Rolls-Royce.

She sent them all straight back, playing hard-to-get. He raised his game, offering her a trip back to Britain on his private plane, and she surrendered.

On marrying him in 1933, she handed over her Cameron fortune; not a good idea.

Enid guiding a polo pony. She and Cavendish had two children, Pat and Caryll. With her money the family kept a string of polo ponies

Enid with her son Rory who she had with her first husband Roderick Cameron

Furness was, by all accounts, vile with a furious temper. Enid's terrified children came to meet him and she told them to bow and curtsey and call him 'Daddy'. 'I am not your father,' he said to them, 'and do not address me as such.'

He ordered Pat's dog be put down because he made too much noise. Enid intervened, but the dog had to be given away. 'I had always disliked my stepfather, but now I hated him,' said Pat.

Duke was a terrible snob, estranging himself from his daughter Averill (from his first marriage) when she married a handsome hunter he called 'a bloody tradesman'.

Enid, meanwhile, had four lady's maids, six cooks and her own private plane, as well as the cheetah. Duke had what we would now diagnose as OCD, furious if his shoelaces hadn't been ironed, and he had to have his nails buffed three times a day.

Enid: The Scandalous High-society Life of the Formidable 'Lady Killmore' By Robert Wainwright ( Allen & Unwin, 16.99, 368pp)

They kept a dozen Rolls-Royces in Kenya, where Duke owned a safari lodge. He and Enid became part of the infamous Happy Valley set for three champagne-soaked months of each year  although Enid was never keen on orgies and would step over the writhing naked bodies when she got up in the night.

There was misery behind the facade. Duke was increasingly eaten up with self-loathing, and descended into drug and alcohol-fuelled binges.

When Enid fell off her horse, he managed to procure unlimited morphine from his doctor for them both. She weaned herself off it; he didn't and became seriously ill.

Did Enid win big in the casinos, or was it Duke's money that enabled her to acquire, in 1939, one of the great properties on the French Riviera, Villa La Fiorentina? No one is quite sure. In 2014, it was rumoured to be on the market for $525 million  making it one of the most expensive houses in the world.

It sounds like a paradise, but when war broke out it became a gilded prison in a country thick with Nazi collaborators.

In October 1940, Duke died from morphine addiction, aged 56. Enid and Pat managed to get back to England by selling off jewellery and hiding paper money in Pat's hair under her beret.

Husband number four, Valentine Castlerosse, Earl of Kenmare, weighed 21 st and sounds sweet and very good company, apart from the occasional furniture-throwing jealous rage. Enid was advised by the doctor to withhold sex because Castlerosse's heart might not take it. She went against the advice. 'It was one of the only pleasures left to him, so how could I ration him?'

To his delight, Enid fell pregnant, aged 51. But Castlerosse died of a heart attack less than a year after their wedding, while Enid was still pregnant with their son. Tragically, she agreed to have an abortion, under pressure from Castlerosse's furious mother so her own son Gerald could inherit the title.

Gerald died nine years later, and the titles of Kenmare and Castlerosse became extinct.

Enid lived on until 1973, spending her final widowhood breeding thoroughbreds in South Africa.

But she could never quite escape the endless inferences in the world's gossip columns that she had bumped off all her husbands.
The search list for Bushkill Park after Tropical Storm Isaias reads a little bigger than a missing garbage can or lawn furniture that floated away.

The Forks Township park is missing a purple Whip car, a blue train, a Sky Fighter car, kiddie Whip cars and a few hundred plastic ducks.

Workers have found two picnic tables and two park benches, but are still looking for more tables, benches and mowers, said Jeremy Carrington, Bushkill Parks director of operations.

Carrington posted a list of missing items on the Bushkill Park Connoisseurs Facebook page. If anyone has seen the items, he said, they should call the park at 610-258-6941.

If you find anything, we will come and retrieve it, Carrington said. Were just hoping it didnt go too far.

Floating pieces can travel pretty far. In 2004, a piece of the park floated 45 miles away into New Jersey and was discovered by a farmer, he said.

Talking Thursday afternoon, Carrington said scouts were getting ready to go down the Bushkill Creek by about 4 p.m.

The park, which reopened in early July, took on 9 feet of water down the midway, about the same level as Hurricane Ivan, he said.

The ground around the park was still soaked Thursday, and Carrington was looking for volunteers to help clean up the park this Sunday.

Usually they have about a four-hour window during a storm to take care of things, Carrington said, but Tropical Storm Isaias gave them only minutes.

When Carrington went to take the park off the power grid, water was at the tires of one of the car rides. By the time he was done, the water was at the bumper, he said.

It certainly came up faster than anyone thought, he said.

Carrington got stuck in the roller rink, which had about 4 feet of water during the storm, and Pennsylvania Water Rescue helped him out.

It wasnt all destruction. Carrington said the rides that were restored with hurricane protection in mind survived the storm.

Workers have mirrored procedures at Knoebels, which faces its fair share of flooding during storms. As crews rebuilt and restored Bushkill Park rides over the past five years, they made changes so the rides could survive flooding.

Everything that we rebuilt acted as it was designed to do, as it was supposed to, Carrington said. The rides we restored survived. The rides that we did not yet restore, those are the ones that took on damage.

Those that had minimal damage include the Lil Stinger Coaster, the Cops and Clown ride, the Swan ride, the ferris wheel and the Dry Boats. These rides can reopen once electric service is restored to the park.

Power has been restored to the roller rink and crews were repairing it.

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Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com.
DULUTH, Ga., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 500 veterinary students from across the U.S., as well as animal health researchers and leaders from three dozen top veterinary schools, convened virtually this week for the Veterinary Summer Scholars Symposium and presentation of the annual Boehringer Ingelheim Research Awards for Graduate Veterinarians and Veterinary Students.

This annual scientific colloquium  normally conducted in person -- showcases research by veterinary students completing summer research internships. It provides an opportunity for students in the Boehringer Ingelheim Veterinary Scholars Program to present and discuss research findings. Veterinary Scholars also have the opportunity to network with each other and with mentors from academia, industry and government.

The Boehringer Ingelheim Veterinary Scholars Program was established more than 30 years ago to introduce first- and second-year veterinary medical students to biomedical research. Nearly 4,000 students have received stipends from Boehringer Ingelheim to conduct research since the program started. More information is available at http://veterinaryscholars.boehringer-ingelheim.com/.

At each participating school, Boehringer Ingelheim Veterinary Scholars are assigned a mentor and laboratory. Each scholar conducts a hypothesis-driven research project. The research project is typically conducted over a 10-12 week period during the summer, with students presenting their work at the conclusion. This year, the 35 participating schools quickly deployed alternative plans to comply with COVID-19 safety measures. Some offered lab-based projects to students in a way that provided social distancing and related protections. Others refocused students' research work on projects involving data analysis, which could be conducted offsite.

"We hope that some good can come from the many lessons we have learned during this year's pandemic, such that we can better detect and treat -- or even prevent -- the next pandemic or major threat to human and animal health," said Caroline Belmont, head of U.S. Animal Health Innovation for Boehringer Ingelheim. "Recent events have highlighted how important both innovation and collaboration are in addressing unmet needs in animal and human health. We look forward to the many future contributions today's veterinary students and researchers will make in advancing these efforts."

Students from the more than three dozen veterinary schools participating in the Veterinary Scholars Program are eligible to apply for two annual awards: The Boehringer Ingelheim Veterinary Graduate Award and the Veterinary Research Scholar Award. Winning students receive monetary prizes and a stipend to attend the annual Veterinary Scholars Symposium to accept their awards and present their research.

The 2020 Boehringer Ingelheim Veterinary Graduate Award was presented at the virtual Veterinary Scholars Symposium to Dr. Sara Hamman Osum, a graduate student completing her Ph.D. in the Comparative and Molecular Biosciences Graduate Program at the University of Minnesota's College of Veterinary Medicine.

Dr. Osum's Ph.D. research has focused on developing and characterizing the first porcine model of Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), a devastating neurologic disease for which there is no cure. Before joining the DVM/PhD program at the University of Minnesota, she spent four years as a research associate, studying tolerance and autoimmunity models and fostering her interest in advancing animal welfare through the development of improved animal models for preclinical research. Dr. Osum received her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the University of Minnesota in 2016, and her Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of California in Santa Cruz, Calif., in 2008.

The Boehringer Ingelheim Veterinary Graduate Award promotes research in veterinary biosciences. It recognizes graduate veterinarians who have completed or will soon complete a Ph.D. program or are in their final years of residency training in veterinary pathology, medicine, surgery, radiology/ imaging, or laboratory animal medicine. Recipients receive an honorarium and are invited to present their research at the annual Veterinary Scholars Symposium.

The recipient of the 2020 Boehringer Ingelheim Veterinary Research Scholar Award is Megan Fahey, a DVM and Ph.D. degree student at Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine. Fahey is committed to a career as a veterinary clinician scientist, and her research interests have evolved to focus on zoonotic disease, virology, and immunology. Her work in the Boehringer Ingelheim Veterinary Scholars Program has involved exploration of the use of mesenchymal stem cells to prevent or reduce degeneration in intervertebral disc disease.

Caroline Schlaeppi Fisher, from North Carolina State University's College of Veterinary Medicine, received an honorable mention, 2020 Boehringer Ingelheim Veterinary Research Scholar. That distinction recognizes her work evaluating the effectiveness of reuse and sterilization of certain devices used in veterinary surgery, work intended to help shape evidence-based guidelines for the reuse of these devices.

Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health

The lives of animals and humans are interconnected in deep and complex ways. We know that when animals are healthy, humans are healthier too. Across the globe, our 10,000 employees are dedicated to delivering value through innovation, thus enhancing the well-being of both.

Respect for animals, humans and the environment is at the heart of what we do. We develop solutions and provide services to protect animals from disease and pain. We support our customers in taking care of the health of their animals and protect our communities against life- and society- threatening diseases.

Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health is the second largest animal health business in the world, with net sales of $4.5 billion (4 billion euros) in 2019 and presence in more than 150 countries.

Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health has a significant presence in the United States, with more than 3,100 employees in places that include Georgia, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, New Jersey and Puerto Rico. To learn more, visit www.boehringer-ingelheim.us, www.facebook.com/BoehringerAHUS or www.twitter.com/Boehringer_AH.

Boehringer Ingelheim

Making new and better medicines for humans and animals is at the heart of what we do. Our mission is to create breakthrough therapies that change lives. Since its founding in 1885, Boehringer Ingelheim has been independent and family-owned. We have the freedom to pursue our long-term vision, looking ahead to identify the health challenges of the future and targeting those areas of need where we can do the most good.

As a world-leading, research-driven pharmaceutical company, more than 51,000 employees create value through innovation daily for our three business areas: Human Pharma, Animal Health, and Biopharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing.

In 2019, Boehringer Ingelheim achieved net sales of $21.3 billion (19 billion euros). Our significant investment of over $3.9 billion (3.5 billion euros) in R&D drives innovation, enabling the next generation of medicines that save lives and improve quality of life.

We realize more scientific opportunities by embracing the power of partnership and diversity of experts across the life-science community. By working together, we accelerate the delivery of the next medical breakthrough that will transform the lives of patients now, and in generations to come.

More information about Boehringer Ingelheim can be found at www.boehringer-ingelheim.com or in our annual report: http://annualreport.boehringer-ingelheim.com.

SOURCE Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health USA Inc.

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Finance Minister, Ken OforiAtta is expected to appear in Parliament later today Thursday, August 6 to provide justification for the suspension of the fiscal rule for the 2020 financial year.

The fiscal responsibility act makes it an offence for the annual budget deficit to exceed five percent of GDP.

But the Minister made known his intentions to suspend the rule in the mid-year budget review due to the impact of COVID-19 on government's projections.

Minister for Monitoring and Evaluation and Member of the Economic Management Team, Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei told Citi News that the justification has been reviewed and the finance committee deems it to be proper.

The law allows the Minister to suspend the rule under certain conditions and the law says that he must provide a justification He has brought it, the committee has reviewed it and it is proper and so we will come and report to the house.

Besides the Ministers justification before the plenary, the Finance Committee of Parliament will also present its report on the suspension to the plenary.

The Fiscal Responsibility Act, the landmark legislation passed in December 2018, four months before Ghana exited its four-year protracted IMF bailout programme, was intended to safeguard the gains the country had made in achieving macroeconomic stability.

The Finance Minister in the mid-year budget review indicated that expected revenues from taxes and grants dropped by 26% to GHS 22 billion in the first half of the year.

He attributed the shortfall to the outbreak of COVID-19.

Revenue and grants for January to June 2020 amounted to GH22.01 billion, compared with the programme target of GH29.76 billion, resulting in a shortfall of 26 per cent or a performance rate of 74 per cent.

Meanwhile, Parliament, on Wednesday, 29 July 2020, granted the Ministers request for GH11.8 billion to be granted to supplement the 2020 budget in the face of the economic devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

---citinewsroom
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu extended his condolences to the Lebanese people on Wednesday and repeated an offer to send humanitarian aid to the country in the aftermath of the devastating explosion in Beirut.

Netanyahu addressed lawmakers in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, and said the Israeli government stood ready to assist the Lebanese "as human beings to human beings."

Netanyahu on Tuesday reached out to the UN to offer aid through indirect channels.

Opposition lawmakers heckled the prime minister during his remarks, and several were ejected from the Knesset hall.

Israel and Lebanon remain officially in a state of war and do not have formal diplomatic relations.
By Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR: Heavy showers, induced by low pressure, lashed many parts of the State and helped reduce the rainfall deficit which was threatening the kharif activities in last 24 hours. The States deficit rainfall between June and August dropped from 17 pc to 11 pc after the recent weather activity. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said light to moderate rainfall occurred at most places in Odisha, while heavy showers lashed northern as well as southern regions. Sambalpurs Jujumara received the maximum rainfall of 290 mm, followed by Khairmal (180 mm) and Sonepur and Kantapada (170 mm).

The Twin City also received good showers. Bhubaneswar recorded 149.4 mm rainfall and Cuttack 63.2 mm between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning. The IMD informed that south-west monsoon is active over the State and attributed the enhanced rainfall activity to the well-marked low pressure which now lies over north-west Bay of Bengal, adjoining north Odisha and West Bengal coasts. Besides, a trough runs from south Gujarat across south Chhattisgarh, Vidarbha and north central Maharashtra. The monsoon trough now passes through Bikaner to northwest Bay of Bengal.

All these systems have increased the rainfall activity in the State, said Bhubaneswar Meteorological Centre S c i e n t i s t , Umasankar Das. Meanwhile, more rains are in the offing since a fourth low pressure area of the monsoon season is expected to form over Bay of Bengal by the end of this week. The low pressure is likely to develop over west-central and adjoining north Bay of Bengal around August 9 and will trigger rainfall activity in Odisha, said Das. Meanwhile, the Government on Tuesday put Collectors on alert to monitor the situation in their districts. Special Relief Commissioner PK Jena asked the districts to remain in readiness to meet any eventuality as the downpour may result in waterlogging in low lying areas and flood-like situation.
The Defence Headquarters has allayed fears of Nigerians over alleged plans by Al-Qaeda and ISIS to make an inroad into Southern Nigeria and penetrate the north-western part of the country.

The Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, John Enenche, a major general, while answering questions from journalists at the updates briefing on military operations across the country on Thursday in Abuja, said there was nothing to fear about the claim.

The U.S. had said Al-Qaeda and ISIS were looking to make an inroad into Southern Nigeria and that Al-Qaeda had started penetrating the north-western part of the country.

The Commander of the U.S. special operations command, Africa, Dagvin Anderson, made the claim in a digital briefing on Wednesday.

Mr Enenche, however, said the claim was nothing but just an alarm and that Nigeria security agencies were equal to the task, urging the public not to be afraid of such a claim.

The coordinator, who described the statement as a wakeup call or form of advice, said the security agencies were on top of the situation.

On the issue that terrorists from other zones are coming to the country, I think it will be good for us to be keeping records as events are unfolding, for me this is not the first time they are raising such an alarm.

Its as good as may be five or ten years ago, and the armed forces and the country are conscious of it.

When the conflict in Libya was declared ended and which actually was not, what happened? It was we, our NIA and the SSS that said these people were moving which is true.

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Have we not captured foreigners that have been terrorising us in this country?

So it is just a piece of advice or call that you still keep doing what you are doing, of which I can assure the general public that the security agencies are on top of that, he said.

Mr Enenche said the military in their recent exploits had captured some foreigners who came from neighbouring countries into Niger State.

Where are they coming from, why do we have ISWAP here now, or is ISWAP indigenous from Nigeria? No. So it is telling you the obvious and I want to tell you that look, continue to ensure that you have measures in place to continue taming them.

`I read the details of the presentation, it was not accusing, it was not specific, it is like saying you people should put efforts to continue to contain them.

Because when pressure is on them from other climes, they will still continue to increase their influx, he said.

Mr Enenche also said the military was winning the battle against terrorism in the country, adding that huge successes had been recorded.

He added that while the people outside there do expectation analysis, the military do operational analysis based on the direction of operation.

He said, What has flattened it is that you will discover that from March up till now, it is offensive, offensive with sacrifices made on the part of the military.

Yes, of course, we lost some people but the gains have outweighed what we lost which is what we signed for, so what you have seen is success and it will continue to improve.

This is because, as it is now, we have been given marching orders again, all we need to do is to go and dig up where we have our contingencies because by our training, we are trained to face challenges, he said.

Mr Enenche explained that the terrorists had been decimated seriously, adding that there was a leadership problem in the enemy camp at present.

He said, The air and artillery bombardment conducted have decimated them and this is going to dovetail into all the other major aspects of the initial strategies of the northeast which is domination and occupation and we are getting there.

(NAN)

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The ineffectiveness of new MPs of the 7th Parliament can be attributed to below-par leadership in the House, Kinna Likimani, the Director of Special Programmes at Odekro, has said.

Speaking on Eyewitness News, Mrs. Likimani said the fact that these concerns were being raised by the Minority Leader in Parliament was problematic.

The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, at a forum organised by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, said less than five new members of the current Parliament participate in regular law-making processes.

Mrs. Likimani noted that it was up to the leadership of Parliament to create opportunities for the first-time MPs but that has not been done.

We think that a lot more can be done by the leadership of the Majority and Minority and the other Parliamentary leadership to create space for first-term MPs to participate effectively.

She also questioned the rigour of monitoring in Parliament given the concerns over lack of participation.

If you have first-term members and they come into a body and they are not working, where is the oversight It has been a crisis of Parliaments in Ghana not to hold the performance of their own members to account, Mrs. Likimani said.

Beyond these points, she further observed that most contributions are done more by senior Members of Parliament.

We know from some of the surveys that we have done that it can be very difficult for a first MP to be called upon to even speak, Mrs. Likimani added.

But also speaking on Eyewitness News, Daniel Okyem-Aboagye, the Bantama MP, who is a first-time legislator, sided with the Minority Leaders assessment of first time MPs.

He believes the first time MPs ought to take up more initiatives.

You have to be reliable and dependable. You have to attend committee meetings. You have to be ready to learn and make yourself available.

Mr. Okyem-Aboagye also noted that the new MPs have to be savvy in the way they handle the pressures in their constituencies.

In an attempt to try and retain your seat by standing or chasing development projects in your area, if you don't take care, you may end up not following what is going on in Parliament and every time you come, things may look new to you.

---citinewsroom
Tiniest secrets of integrated circuits revealed with new imaging technique

The life-givers of integrated circuits and quantum devices in silicon are small structures made from patches of foreign atoms called dopants. The dopant structures provide charge carriers that flow through the components of the circuit, giving the components their ability to function. These days the dopant structures are only a few atoms across and so need to be made in precise locations within a circuit and have very well-defined electrical properties. At present manufacturers find it hard to tell in a non-destructive way whether they have made their devices according to these strict requirements. A new imaging paradigm promises to change all that.

The imaging mode called broadband electric force microscopy, developed by Dr Georg Gramse at Keysight technologies & JKU uses a very sharp probe that sends electromagnetic waves into a silicon chip, to image and localize dopant structures underneath the surface. Dr Gramse says that because the microscope can use waves with many frequencies it can provide a wealth of previously inaccessible detail about the electrical environment around the dopant structures. The extra information is crucial to predicting how well the devices will ultimately perform.

The imaging approach was tested on two tiny dopant structures made with a templating process which is unique in achieving atomically sharp interfaces between differently doped regions. Dr Tomas Skeren at IBM produced the world's first electronic diode (a circuit component which passes current in only one direction) fabricated with this templating process, while Dr Alex Kolker at UCL created a multilevel 3-D device with atomic scale precision.

The results, published in the journal Nature Electronics, demonstrate that the technique can take pictures and resolve as few as 200 dopant atoms even if they are hidden below the same number of Si atoms. It can tell the difference between certain flavours of dopant atoms, and can also provide information about the way charge carriers move through the structures and about atomic-sized 'traps' that can stop them from moving.

Professor Neil Curson, who leads the group at UCL, said: "This research could not have come at a better time for the massive world-wide effort to make smaller electronics or quantum computers in silicon. While the success in making components smaller and more complicated has been spectacular, the technology required to actually observe what is being made has not been keeping up. This has become a major problem for quality control in silicon chip manufacture and for information security, when you can't see what's inside the chips you are making or buying. Our new research will help solve many of these issues."

Dr Andreas Fuhrer from IBM Research, added: "After learning to make the first tiny dopant device structures consisting of two different dopant species, boron and phosphorous, it was extremely useful to work with this international team to discover subtle details about our structures that would just not be possible in any other way."

###

This story has been published on: 2020-08-06. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
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The global bubble wrap packaging market is expected to grow at a rapid pace during the forecast period due to a number of key factors. In a study, Market Research Future (MRFR) identifies the growing use of eco-friendly materials in roofing, the development of energy efficient cool roofs, and the burgeoning demand for a new generation single ply tech to be some of the key factors driving the growth of the global market. The report further states that the global market for roofing materials is expected to garner a CAGR of 3% during the forecast period between 2016 and 2023.

At present, the market is increasing primarily due to the expanding construction industry across the world. Furthermore, the burgeoning Foreign Direct Investments in the construction sector of emerging countries and favorable government regulations and policies are some of the other fueling factors of the market. Governments are even seen taking measures to promote and develop the infrastructure and construction industries. The emerging countries in various regions are bringing forward various reforms and regulations to accelerate the growth of the market. However, at the same time, the lack of awareness concerning these roofing materials among the consumers is a big factor that can hamper the growth of the market.

Regional Analysis

The global roofing materials market is geographically segmented into Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, and the Rest of the World (RoW).

The Asia Pacific region is the dominant player in the global market with the highest share percentage and is anticipated to grow in the forthcoming years with the highest CAGR. The expanding urbanized population, the increasing industrialization, and the rising spending capacity of consumers are some of the key drivers pushing the market growth in the Asia Pacific region. Add to this, the increasing re-roofing activities also hold a positive influence on the market growth of roofing materials.

The North American region holds the second largest share in the roofing materials market. The proliferating demand for residential housing and the growing support from the government in the form of rebates and implementing various other tax benefits is expected to drive the growth of the region. Additionally, the presence of various key manufacturers in the region and their ability to provide a wide portfolio of products to the customers is anticipated to cause a positive influence over the growth of the regional market.

Market Segmentation

The global roofing materials market segmentation is based upon product type and application.

By product, the market segments into metal roof, tile roof, plastic roof, and others. The tile roof segment holds a dominant share of the market and is expected to continue its dominance in the near future. Metal roofs is projected to grow at the fastest manner during the forecast period owing to the high service life and high durability.

By application, the market comprises residential and non-residential segments. The residential sector holds the dominant hand in the application market. The expanding housing sector in major economies like India, US, and China is a key driver of roofing materials.

Competitive Landscape

Some of the key players identified in the global roofing materials market include names such as Owens Corning Corp. (U.S.), GAF Materials Corporation (U.S.), Etex (Belgium), TAMKO Building Products, Inc. (U.S.), Atlas Roofing Corporation (U.S.), Braas Monier Building Group S.A. (Europe), Icopal Holding Aps (Denmark), CertainTeed Corporation (U.S.), Fletcher Building Limited (New Zealand), North American Roofing (U.S.) and others.

April 25th 2019, the Democratic Progressive Party Member of Parliament named Fukumele Mukumbwa of Chitipa Central Constituency Clement has cemented his willingness to hold onto its position for the next five years as he has donated roofind materials worth K-17 million to the Ishalikira Primary School.
A pregnant woman walking with her daughter says a woman sprayed water on them, then punched her in the face despite the unborn baby shes carrying.

Worse, the woman, who is Asian-American, says the unprovoked attack on a Philadelphia street was all due to her race, as 6ABC in Philly reports:

I asked her, Why did you do that? said Jing Chen, who asked that her face be hidden during the TV interview, fearing for her safety.

Chen said the woman turned around and said, "You (expletive), Chinese (expletive)."

The encounter wasnt over, however.

So, I, as a mom said, You too! Chen recounted. She went back to me in front of my face and I asked her, What you gonna do, Im pregnant, are you going to hurt me? That lady looked at my belly for two seconds, So what? She punched me on my face!

6ABC reported that Philadelphia police are still trying to track down a suspect in the case from last week. Authorities say they currently can't pursue this as an ethnic hate crime, however.

The incident occurred as Chen and her daughter were walking near busy 13th and Walnut Street last week. The woman came out of nowhere and started spraying water at both her and her 12-year-old daughter, Chen told the news station.

Philadelphia police say they are looking to question a panhandler who the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office identified as Delores Marte in the case. Police have a warrant for Marte's arrest on charges of simple assault, recklessly endangering another person and harassment, 6ABC says.

This is an active investigation and we have not ruled out additional charges, but there is not sufficient evidence that has been presented to us that this is a case of ethnic intimidation at this time, the DAs office in a statement to 6ABC.

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Registered sex offender accused of stalking Pa. community, videotaping women and children in stores

Pa. assistant principal jailed, accused of asking girl, 11, for explicit photos on Snapchat

Pa. girl, 6, shot in chest during gun battle, as Philly nears 100 kids shot this year: report

Star football player at Pa. high school accused of shooting, killing his older brother

Pa. woman accused of fatally shooting boyfriend in back of head in bed after argument over sex: state cops

Pa. man, 53, accused of arranging sex with girl, 15, by offering $100 allowance for being a good girl: cops

Driver arrested, charged in fatal hit-and-run of I-81 construction worker

Mysterious Pa. Moneyman holds public scavenger hunt with $10K prize

Growing trend of riding dirt bikes on Pa. streets results in violent crash with SUV

Search on for car that killed I-81 construction worker as family pleads for hit-and-run drivers arrest

Pa. man, 22, accused of raping teen girl after bike ride: cops

3rd man accused of forcing kidnapped woman to perform sex acts to pay off debts: Pa. cops

Wawa to build first drive-thru-only stores in Pa., N.J.

Mike Pence tends to 2 injured Pa. cops after his motorcade is hit by dump truck

Released killer accused of raping guest at Pa. hotel where he worked: cops

Communist! Pa. shopper with 6 kids in tow berates cashiers for asking her to wear face mask: report
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency for several New York counties following the damage caused by Tropical Storm Isaias, including Staten Island.

The storm impacted New York on Tuesday, leaving hundreds of thousands without power and scrambling to clean up debris from high winds.

On Staten Island alone, more than 2,000 downed trees were reported and 16,000 Con Edison customers were still without power Wednesday afternoon.

Declaring a state of emergency allows the state government to provide additional support to localities during the recovery process.

Were taking an all-hands-on-deck approach and activating every resource at our disposal to expedite communities recovery from the impacts of Tropical Storm Isaias, Cuomo said. The state is working closely with local governments to help ensure they have the help they need to get back on their feet.

The declaration includes all five boroughs, Dutchess, Nassau, Orange, Putman, Rockland, Suffolk, Westchester, Columbia, Ulster and Sullivan counties.

As of Wednesday evening, 703,191 people in the region remained without power, according to the governors office. At the peak of the outages, there were more than 920,000 without power.

The governor called for an investigation into six utility companies due to apparent lack of adequate planning, a press release from his office states.

The investigation will look into responses by Verizon, PSEG Long Island, Con Edison, Central Hudson Gas & Electric, Orange and Rockland Utilities, and New York State Electric & Gas to determine the causes of their alleged failures.

Aside from the investigation, the Department of Public Service is working to help the restoration of power to move as quickly and safely as possible.

Approximately 7,000 workers have been deployed to help with the restoration service, authorities noted.

Were far too familiar with severe weather, but New Yorkers show their true spirit in times of crisis and well prove it once more, Cuomo added.
One of the best analogies I've ever heard came from Bill Whittle, who likened Democrats to a younger brother repeatedly poking his older brother. After ignoring the first few pokes, the older brother eventually becomes agitated and slaps his younger brother's hand away. The younger brother cries to Mommy, demanding that his older brother be punished for his behavior.

We see this analogy routinely play out in politics, and while a seasoned mother may inquire about what preceded the hand-slapping, in our current political climate, that is a question we're not supposed to ask.

The Portland mayor cited Donald Trump sending in federal troops as the culprit for violence in Portland. We are supposed to believe that before federal law enforcement arrived in Portland, "peaceful protesters" were holding hands, singing "Give Peace a Chance." We are not to ask what led to Trump sending in federal troops or make any mention of rampant violence and burning buildings prior to Trump's actions.

When protesters tried to blockade a public road, a female driver attempted to maneuver past the crowd. Aghast at the audacity of anyone unwilling to comply with their decision to ban any public street, at any time, the "peaceful protesters" miraculously transformed into a violent mob. While jumping on the car, kicking, and hitting the vehicle, some rioters urged to get the "license plate and face" of the driver as they recorded the incident.

Why do they tell others to get a view of the license plate number and driver's face on camera? To report her to the police.

Ironically, the violent rioters fighting for the abolition of law enforcement are incredibly eager to report any resistance to the authorities. The protesters were admittedly "[b]egging them to arrest this woman who just tried to run over protestors." You can imagine their outrage when the police did not arrest the woman for attempted murder because rioters jumped in front of her car after arbitrarily canceling the public street.

When challenged, the little brother's boldness evaporates, and he has no reservations about calling for Mommy. The source of the younger brother's confidence is knowing that Mom will punish the older brother if things go awry. If the older brother is punished, the younger will have even more room to operate next time. For this reason, anytime the left is met with matched aggression, not only are the leftists victims, but they're adamant that their alleged bullies receive severe consequences. This also happened in St. Louis, when the McCloskeys defended their home from violent mobs and were immediately labeled bullies, facing criminal charges. The violent rioters who broke through their gate and threatened them are victims.

There is almost no circumstance where leftists are presented as bullies. No matter the situation, the media will carefully craft the story to portray them as victims.

Recently, Business Insider published an article titled "A protestor says California police forced her to drink cold water to lower her temperature so she could be put in jail." The protester was part of a group of 14 who "chained themselves to California Governor Gavin Newsom's house demanding the release of inmates due to coronavirus fears."

Business Insider seems appalled that a police officer forced a girl to drink cold water, but it was 97 degrees in Fair Oaks, California that day. Perhaps the police did not want protesters to die of heat exhaustion or dehydration and then have their cohorts accuse the police of killing the protesters?

But the victimhood goes farther. According to Newsweek, the demonstrators "allege that when they were initially booked into the jail, they were repeatedly forced to put their unwashed fingers in their mouths to demonstrate that they were not hiding any contraband." The arrested protesters also accused jail staff of unhygienic practices, citing clogged toilets and crowded jail cells.

The bullies are not the protesters who went to the governor's residence, chained themselves to his property, and refused to leave until he catered to their demands. The bullies are local law enforcement for making them drink cold water and local jails not meeting the protesters' expectations of luxury and comfort.

These instances of the left behaving like bullies but crying victimhood is tactical. An easy way to expose the disingenuous charade is by asking those outraged by the incidents: what alternative actions should we take?

The answer is typically the same: we should do nothing  the left should be allowed to do whatever it wants. Some alternative responses include evading the question entirely or proposing some form of civil negotiation with these radical activists  which incorrectly assumes that these activists are rational people who respond to reason.

What is consistent across all responses is the acceptance of the self-anointed victim status of violent radicals and the conviction that the burden of changing behaviors does not fall on their shoulders. Their rage is justified. Suggesting that victims should change is "victim-blaming."

If victims are always right, the media's role is to play judge and jury in determining victimhood. Therefore, once the media decide that the leftists are the victims, everyone else must change his ways. This defense is remarkably effective in protecting all the abhorrent behaviors of leftism and advancing leftist causes.

If the police officers had not given the protesters cold water to drink, would they have solved the issue? Of course not. In the same article, the arrested protesters also complained about being deprived of food and water once in jail. Heads, they win; tails, you lose.

In Minneapolis, authorities are already warning those who live and work in the area to "not walk alone" and "be prepared to give up your cell phone and purse/wallet" after dramatic surges in criminal behavior. The lion's share of effort is not to arrest the criminals  they are victims of systemic racism. It is innocent Minneapolis citizens who must change their behaviors. If Democrats win in November, similar warnings will expand across the country.

If that happens, the suburban white woman with a Black Lives Matter sign on her lawn, is in for a rude awakening when she's fired from her job for criticizing leftists on Facebook. It won't matter if she criticized them for burning down her children's school because a white guy killed a black guy in Buffalo. Her criticism makes her the bully, and she's responsible for changing  by checking her privilege.

Maybe then she'll learn that leftists are always victims and never bullies.

Bode Lang is a conservative blogger who regularly produces conservative videos on YouTube. You can find him at https://www.youtube.com/c/Bodelang.
live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

Rohan Patil

For the last four months, the benchmark index has been trading in a rising channel formation.

Within that period, prices respected the lower band of the channel almost three times and eventually successfully rallied higher.

Liquidity driven rally has almost completed 78.60 percent retracement of the entire downswing seen from January 2020 top to March 2020 bottom.

On August 5, Nifty started the day with a half-a-percent rise and extended the rally for an hour. Later on, the market witnessed selling and traded with a bearish to sideways tilt and closed near yesterday's high.

Due to a strong positive opening and a closing near the previous days high, the market breadth remained in favour of bulls. For a couple of gainers, there was a loser.

For the last couple of weeks, India VIX seems to have flattened out and blocked in a range of 26 -23 levels.

One of the positive aspects since the last couple of months is that the Nifty is closely trading above its 21 and 50  day exponential moving averages which is a major technical supporting factor.

Immediate support for Nifty is coming near 10,900 -10,950 zone and resistance is formed near 11,350 -11,400 zone.

If the next impulse up-move unfolds, the way it should, then we expect Nifty to rally towards 11,600 in the coming weeks.

Support for Nifty bank is coming near 20,800  20,700 zone and resistance is coming near 23,000 -23,200 zone; a break of this level will open the gate for 25,000 in the banking index.

Here are three trading ideas for the next 2-3 weeks:

Jubilant Foodworks | Buy | LTP: Rs 1,858 | Target price: Rs 2,020 | Stop loss: Rs 1,770 | Upside: 9%

On August 5, the stock finally managed to surpass the multiple resistance zones around Rs 1,800  1,820, which eventually confirmed a triangle pattern breakout on the daily interval.

The recent leg of strong up-move is also supported by strong volumes and it also resembles a strong consolidation breakout.

Prices are trading above the 21 and 50-day exponential moving averages on the daily chart.

Momentum oscillator RSI (14) is reading above 60 levels with positive crossover. The MACD indicator is reading above its line of polarity with positive sentiments.

Traders can accumulate the stock in the range of Rs 1,855-1866.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries | Buy | LTP: Rs 529.75 | Target price: Rs 578 | Stop loss: Rs 500 | Upside: 9%

On the weekly chart, Sun pharma has given a breakout of the consolidation pattern, sustaining above all its major exponential moving averages.

A bullish candle formed on the weekly candle has closed above its previous several weeks high.

The majority of indicators an oscillators are showing a positive trend for the current scenario.

As almost every stock in this space is showing outperformance one after another, its time for this stock to move out of its box.

Traders can accumulate the stock in the range of Rs 526 - 531.

Pidilite Industries | Sell | LTP: Rs 1,317 | Target price: Rs 1,235 | Stop loss: Rs 1,360 | Downside: 6%

The stock has witnessed a triangle pattern breakdown on daily intervals and is now trading below its trendline resistance.

The short and medium-term trend of the stock is negative as it is trading below 21, 50 and 100- day exponential moving averages on the daily interval.

Momentum oscillator RSI (14), on the daily chart, is trading below 45 levels with negative crossover on the cards.

The counter is underperforming Nifty on a weekly chart which is visible on the Relative Strength (RS) indicator.

Traders can short the stock in the range of Rs 1,310 - 1,320.

(The author is a technical analyst at Bonanza Portfolio)

The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on Moneycontrol.com are their own and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
The General Services Administrations move to cut the 8(a) STARS II contract vehicle's duration by two years has sparked a backlash by small businesses and triggered a letter from several lawmakers.

They have written to GSA Administrator Emily Murphy and Small Business Administration Administrator Jovita Carranza asking for an explanation of why the period of performance was shortened. Carranza is included because SBA signed off on the shortening of the contracts period of performance.

Signing the letter to the administrators are Reps. Gerry Connolly, Donald Beyer Jr., Jennifer Wexton and Ben McAdams and Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner. All are Virginia Democrats except for McAdams, who hails from Utah. Washington D.C. D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton also sent a letter to Murphy asking for information.

James Fontana, an attorney with the Dempsey Fontana firm, has written a commentary critical of the decision and pointed out flaws he sees in GSA and SBAs reasoning. His guest column is what brought the changes to my attention.

Fontanas column and the letter from the legislators targets the Justification and Authorization document GSA issued explaining why they wanted to increase the ceiling for STARS II and why they needed to cut the period of performance short. They've pulled the end date for STARS II back from Aug. 30, 2024, to June 30, 2022. In essence, they are limiting new task orders to just two years, if they were awarded before July 1, 2020. So now the future task orders cant even be for two years because we are less than two years away from June 30, 2022.

No one argues with the reasoning to raise the ceiling. GSA wants the extra room to give agencies a ready vehicle to respond to COVID-19 needs.

But the J&A document is largely silent on why they felt the need to cut back the period of performance.

Fontana explains that GSA later said it wanted to limit the work that graduated 8(a) companies on STARS II could receive. They didnt want these companies to take work away from the new crop of 8(a) companies that will be on STARS III. Few of the current companies on STARS II are eligible for STARS III because 78 percent of the 787 companies on STARS II have graduated from the 8(a) program.

None of that reasoning (which many might argue isnt convincing) is in the J&A document. That came out in a later industry zoom call.

The lawmakers want to know why and have listed eight areas for Murphy and Carranza to address. Questions include:

How and when agencies were informed of the change? Did anyone express concerns?

How many solicitations have been cancelled because of the shortened period of performance?

How many two-year task orders have been awarded?

They also question how quickly the STARS III with its new crop of 8(a)s will be in the field:

In the last 5 years, how many IT GWACs, and which ones, have been awarded according to the original schedule announced by GSA? How many have had an award delay from GSAs original award estimate and what was the duration of the delay?

I dont have to do any research and I can say pretty confidently that number is zero. They also experience delays, particularly because of pre- and post-award protests.

The letter asks for answers by Aug. 14, so well see.

Some elements here remind me of when GSA announced the cancellation of the Alliant 2 Small Business contract. That announcement came late in the day on July 2, the last business day before the long July 4th holiday. An old-fashioned way of burying news in hopes to not garner too much attention, which almost never works.

In the case of STARS II, GSA announced the ceiling change on June 24 but does not mention the period of performance. The J&A document came out on July 9.

Fontana also related that on June 26, GSA send a modification notice to contractor holders tell them they had to sign by June 30 or they couldnt accept new STARS II task orders.

June 26 was a Friday and the notice went out late that day, according to Fontana. Basically, companies had two business days to respond and GSA gave no advance warning of this change.

While everyone was celebrating the increase in the ceiling, GSA snuck through a dramatic change in the contract.

In addition to the legislators asking for answers, I wouldnt be surprised if there are some more direct challenges from contract holders. Im not sure if youd call it a protest or something else, but some kind of litigation could happen.

The thing is GSA probably has good intentions here -- promoting 8(a) businesses -- but it seems their solutions is causing more problems than it solves.
Gov. Newsom Reappoints Tia Boatman Patterson to Lead Cal Housing Finance Agency

Last week, Gov. Newsom reappointed Tia Boatman Patterson, executive director of the California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA), a role she has served in since 2014. Her nomination is now pending the State Senates approval.

California first set up CalHFA in 1975 to help lower-to moderate-income California residents find homes across the state.

Over the years, Boatman Patterson, 53, says, she has learned how to work across government  federal, state and local  to get things done. Building partnerships, establishing trust, collaborating with policymakers, and opening cross-departmental work and communication channels that, she says, is the only way her agency can help California meet its housing goals. Top among them: creating a more affordable housing market that more people can access as well as helping to decrease the states alarming homelessness rate.

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During her six-year tenure at CalHFA, the agency has assisted about 60,000 renters and homebuyers move into new places they can call home.

She said providing more opportunity to buy homes for racial and ethnic minorities who have faced discrimination over the years in housing markets across the state is another priority.

It is important to me that not only have we increased the number of families we have helped to achieve the dream of homeownership, but we have been able to help the historically underserved Black and Brown communities, Boatman Patterson said.

Under Boatman Pattersons leadership, the number of California families CalHFA has assisted to purchase their first home has seen exponential growth. In 2014, the agency, which is self-supporting and receives no taxpayer-funding, provided affordable mortgages to just 1,000 homebuyers in the total amount of $240 million. But during the last year alone, CalHFA assisted 13,000 California families with mortgage lending, totaling an unprecedented high of $4 billion.

During the last year, CalHFAs lending and bond issuance also increased to about $950 million.

Ms. Boatman Patterson continues to be a leader in the affordable housing space both for California and the nation, said Stockton Williams, the executive director of the National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA).

In the rental market, under Boatman Pattersons leadership, CalHFA has generated about $100 million to finance nearly 900 affordable rental units.

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At the federal level, Boatman Patterson also serves as chair of Board of Directors of the National Council of State Housing Agencies and a member of the National Housing Conferences National Advisory Council. She has also worked in an advisory role to the Governors Office on housing.

Before Gov. Jerry Brown appointed her executive director of CalHFA in 2014, Boatman Patterson served on the agencys board.

From 2009 to 2014, she worked as general counsel at the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency. She had been the legal counsel there, too, from 1999 to 2003.

From 2004 to 2009, Boatman Patterson worked as a senior policy advisor in the California State Assembly Speakers Office. Just before that, she did a stint as a senior associate at the Sacramento law firm Best Best & Krieger, LLP, from 2003 to 2004.

A resident of Sacramento with California roots dating back for generations to the late 1800s, Boatman Patterson was born and grew up in Tulare, a city in the Central Valley about 45 miles south of Fresno. She earned her law degree at the University of the Pacific in Stockton.
Karnataka SSLC Result 2020: Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB) is likely to announce the Karnataka SSLC Results 2020 soon on its official website. The state education minister S Suresh Kumar had told the reporters that they are planning to declare the Karnataka SSLC results in the first week of August. However, the board is yet to announce the exact date and time for the announcement of the Karnataka class 10 results.

Direct link to check Karnataka SSLC Result 2020.

After the results are declared, students of class 10 will be able to check their scores online at kseeb.kar.nic.in or karresults.nic.in.

Earlier, the board had scheduled the Karnataka SSLC exam to be conducted from March 27 to April 9, 2020, which was later postponed due to the Covid-19 lockdown. Karnataka SSLC exam was later conducted from June 25 to July 4. Nearly, 8.48 lakh students had registered for the Karnataka class 10th examination.

How to check Karnataka SSLC result 2020 after it is declared:

Visit the official websites - karresults.nic.in or kseeb.kar.nic.in

Click on the link for Karnataka SSLC result on the homepage

Enter the required details like registration number and submit

Your result will be displayed on the screen

Download the Karnataka SSLC result 2020 and take a print out of the same
People accused of sexual assault would be granted anonymity in all cases, not just rape trials, under sweeping reforms of how sexual offences cases are carried out.

A crackdown on those who reveal the identity of rape victims on social media, the right for barristers to object to how a victim is being questioned about their sexual history, and new training to help judges and lawyers understand the experience of survivors are also tipped in a highly anticipated report which will be published today.

The O'Malley report, which reviewed how vulnerable people are treated during sexual offences prosecutions and trials, was ordered by the Irish government following the high-profile trial on rape charges of two rugby players in Belfast in 2018.

Ireland and Ulster rugby players Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding were found not guilty by a jury of raping a young student at a house party two years ago.

Mr Jackson (26) was also found not guilty of sexually assaulting the then 19-year-old woman.

Two other players were also cleared of lesser charges: Blane McIlroy (26) was found not guilty of exposure, and Rory Harrison (25) was found not guilty of perverting the course of justice and withholding information.

There was widespread concern that the complainant's experience could deter sexual violence survivors from coming forward.

The review, which was chaired by Tom O'Malley of NUIG, did not decide to recommend that victims of sexual violence have their own legal representation throughout a trial.

It also decided against a blanket ban on victims being questioned about their sexual history in court, citing concerns about potential miscarriages of justice.

At the moment, a victim can only be asked about their sexual history if a judge gives permission because they believe it would be unfair to the defendant or potentially change the verdict to not allow such questions to be asked.

The O'Malley report has called for judges and lawyers to make sure they are familiar with a 2017 law which says victims should not be re-traumatised when questioned about their personal lives in court. It said such questions can sometimes lead to "character assassination".

The report's 50 recommendations included telling legal teams to make it clear that they want to apply for permission to ask victims about their sexual history at new preliminary trials.

Victims are only allowed their own legal representation when the defence in a rape trial is applying to ask them about their sexual history, and they are usually represented by a junior counsel.

The report said this right should be extended to victims in sexual assault trials.

It said the Legal Aid Board should make sure the person representing a victim is as senior as the person representing the prosecution and the defence.

It also said the counsel who represents a victim during an application to ask about their sexual history should be allowed to object to some of the questions the victim is being asked if they end up being cross-examined about their past.

It said victims should also be made aware of their right to object to records from their counselling sessions being disclosed in court.

A new code of practice would help guide how a victim's text messages and internet history could be used in a trial.

Victims of sexual violence are entitled to anonymity during trials.

The report said laws which prosecute people for revealing a victim's identity in the media should be updated to include social media.

"Nowadays, information about criminal trials is just as likely to circulate on the internet and on social media, perhaps even more than in the traditional media," it said.

Anonymity would also be extended to victims relating to 2017 laws which criminalise the sexual abuse of people with a mental illness or a mental or intellectual disability.

People accused of rape are currently given anonymity during a trial, until they are convicted.

The report said there was "no logical reason" why this shouldn't also apply to people accused of sexual assault.

The report also said that while giving anonymity to people accused of sexual offences was a "contested" issue, there is a "heavy stigma" associated with being accused of a sexual offence.
A teacher with a Medicine Hat-area school division is speaking out after a Tweet of his regarding masks and the provinces back-to-school plan went viral on Tuesday.

Scott Raible, who teaches under the Prairie Rose School Division, says his tweet was taken the wrong way by fellow Twitter users.

Raibles Tweet read, Just bought some non medical masks as teachers are being forced to wear them now. They should arrive before school starts. Cant wait to wear them in front of my students. This semester looking forward to teaching my students the novel 1984. Very timely. #abed #1984 #medhat.

Attached to the Tweet was a photo, with four handmade masks on it. Each mask had a different message. They read, So you think this mask works? This mask does nothing. Only wearing to make you feel better. Pointless placebo.

He says it was intended as a joke, but quickly got out of hand.

It was meant as tongue in cheek, he said. I would never actually wear a mask like that in front of my students and I do teach 1984 as part of the curriculum.

I was surprised so many people took it the way they did, but thats how social media is. People see everything in absolutes and really dont welcome ideas that arent in line with their own.

Raible says his Tweet stems from disappointment in the provincial governments mask announcement.

Like many Albertans I was watching Tuesday morning to see what the plan was, he said. After so many parents and teachers have spoken out, I guess I was disappointed that the only thing they decided to change was mandatory masks for Grades 4-12. Its not that the masks are mandatory, its that its non-medical, cloth masks.

I think N95 masks provide protection and would work much better.

The teacher says he has a number of concerns.

The psychological impact on students as well as staff, but especially students, he said. Ive seen so many students struggle through COVID-19 as I was teaching them remotely.

Im also worried about the sanitation aspect of this. Students have to wear a mask in a common area like a hallway. But in the classroom, they can take the mask off. Then they put it back on to walk through that same hallway.

Through a six- or seven-hour day, with one mask, its going to be very unsanitary.

He added that the provincial government should find better ways to keep people safe.

If we really cared, shouldnt we be looking at ways to reduce class size? he said. I just think it shouldnt be about the cheapest way possible with something like this.

Of all the options to keep students and staff safe, we ignored the best options.

Prairie Rose School Division sent a statement to the News.

Prairie Rose School Division is aware of the comment posted on a staff members personal social media account. We will not be providing additional comments about the individual or their personal opinions.

A second statement from the school board added more context, and stated that it welcomes the Tuesday morning announcement regarding mask usage by students and school staff.

Raible is looking forward to being back to teaching in the fall.

I plan on following the guidelines put out by the government, he said. Whatever they are, I will be following them.

This reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.

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Guwahati: The Assam police on Thursday imposed curfew for an indefinite period in parts of central Assams Sonitpur district following a communal clash between two communities over a rally organised to celebrate the foundation stone-laying ceremony of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.

The clash broke out after some local minority organisations raised objection to a bike-rally organised by Bajarang Dal activists in Thelamara area of Dhekiajuli to celebrate the foundation-laying ceremony of Ram Mandir on Wednesday.

Pointing out that the bikers were playing loud music, shouting slogans while heading to a Shiv temple in Bhora Singori under Thelamara police station, security sources said that local minority organisations argued that at the time of COVID-19 such rallies were banned so rallies should be stopped.

Informing that this led to arguments and clashes between two communities in which several persons were injured and some bikes were set on fire, security sources said that local police rushed to the incident site and opened fire in the air to disperse the crowd.

At least 14 people were injured and several vehicles damaged when two communities clashed on Wednesday night. Initial clashes were reported from Telia Gaon area near Dhekiajuli town.

Sonitpur district deputy commissioner MP Singh said, Miscreants armed with sticks attacked a rally. The vehicle of Dhiakajuli circle inspector was damaged. The law and order situation is tense. To control the situation, police had to resort to firing in the air and additional forces have been deployed as senior police officers are also camping in the area on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal has directed Assam Director General of Police Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta to hold an enquiry into the incident. The Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) G P Singh who visited the trouble-torn area on Thursday said that all those involved in the incident would be brought to book. Appealing the people to maintain communal harmony, Singh said that none would be spared.

He said that local administration has clamped the curfew and additional companies of security forces have also been mobilised to contain the situation. He however refused to blame any particular group for the incident. We are going to hold detailed enquiry to fix the responsibility of those responsible for the clash. All, irrespective of any caste, creed or religion would be penalised if found guilty in the enquiry, said Singh adding that situation was tense but under control.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights have released a report document those killed by all sides during the month of July.

At least 107 civilians, including 26 children and 11 women, were killed in July by all waring parties and 13 people died under torture during the same period, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) documented.

According to a legal report, the SNHRs Victim Documentation team documented the deaths of 107 civilians, including 26 children and 11 women in July. This figure is broken down according to the perpetrators in each case, with 21 of the civilians, including four children, killed at the hands of Syrian regime forces, while seven civilians, including four children and two women, were killed at the hands of the armed opposition/ the Syrian National Army, and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham killed two civilians.

The report also documents the deaths of four civilians at the hands of Syrian Democratic Forces, while 73 civilians, including 18 children and nine women, killed at the hands of other parties.

According to the report, the SNHRs working team documented at least 31 individuals who died due to torture in July 2020; 10 of these victims died at the hands of Syrian regime forces, one at the hands of the armed opposition/ the Syrian National Army, and two at the hands of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

The report also documents four massacres in July, all at the hands of other parties, using the term massacre to refer to an attack that caused the death of at least five peaceful individuals in the same incident. According to this definition, the report recorded that in July 2020 three massacres occurred as a result of bombings whose perpetrators have not yet been identified by the report, and one massacre by fires of unknown source.

The Syrian regime has violated international humanitarian law and customary law, and all UN Security Council resolutions, particularly Resolution 2139, Resolution 2042, and Resolution 2254, all without any accountability.

The report notes that there is no record of any warnings being issued by the Syrian regime or Russian forces prior to any attack in accordance with the requirements of international humanitarian law. This has been the case since the beginning of the popular uprising for freedom, providing another blatant demonstration of these forces total disregard for the lives of civilians in Syria.

The conflict in Syria has killed more than 500,000 people and displaced 13.2 millions.

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.
A Rajasthan high court division bench on Thursday disposed of a petition seeking an immediate stay on the merger of six Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) lawmakers with the ruling Congress in 2019, saying a single judge hearing a similar plea will decide the matter.

We remain confident that the Honble Single Judge will hear and dispose of the stay applications filed by the appellants on the same day in accordance with law and without, in any manner, being prejudiced by any directions/observations issued by us hereinabove, said the division bench of chief justice Indrajit Mahanty and justice Prakash Gupta.

Rajasthan assembly speaker C P Joshi approved the merger a day after the six joined the Congress in September 2019 and prompted opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to seek their disqualification in February. Joshi on July 30 rejected the BJPs disqualification petition.

The single-judge bench sought replies of Joshi and the six lawmakers by August 11 after BSP and BJP lawmaker Madan Dilawar moved the court against the speakers order. On Tuesday, BSP and Dilawar filed a review petition seeking a stay on the merger.

The six lawmakers are crucial to chief minister Ashok Gehlot as he faces a revolt by his former deputy, Sachin Pilot, and 18 Congress lawmakers supporting him. The Gehlot camp has claimed support of 101 legislators in the 200-member assembly. The BJP has 72 members in the House.

The division bench said the notices issued to the six should be served on or before August 8. The District Judge, Jaisalmer, is directed to provide all necessary assistance to the special messenger to effect service of such notices, and if required, the District Judge may seek necessary assistance of the Superintendent of Police, Jaisalmer, for effecting service on the private respondents who are said to be residing at Jaisalmer, the court said. We further direct the appellants and petitioners to publish a notice in daily newspaper Rajasthan Patrika, Barmer-Jaisalmer edition.

The single judge will hear the case next on August 11.

Joshis lawyer, Prateek Kasliwal, said the division bench found Dilawar and BSPs plea unmaintainable.

BSPs lawyer, Dinesh Kumar Garg, said the directions on Thursday were in their favour. Our biggest concern was the serving of notice and the division bench has heard our plea. Previously, we were not sure that whether the notices issued in would be served but todays directions of will ensure that notices are served. We have full justice in the court and todays direction will go in favour of the party.

Dilawars lawyer, Ashish Sharma, said their biggest concern was the six are staying at a Jaisalmer hotel, where they have been put up until the assembly session begins on August 14, and the notices would not be served on time.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 6)  Most of the new clusters of COVID-19 came from communities, including households, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Thursday.

It noted that these have contributed to the surge in daily case reports of infections.

At least 148 more areas with clustering were identified nationwide over the past week, according to the DOH. Of this number, 124 were from community transmissions, based on its Aug. 5 data.

There is an ongoing community transmission, the DOH said. This means that it is becoming harder to clearly identify who infected our new cases or from which venues they are getting the infection.

The department typically consider an area a cluster if there are more than two cases of the disease at the same time.

Earlier, National Task Force chief implementer Carlito Galvez said family reunions amid mass gathering restrictions are one of the new sources of viral transmission in the country. He cited a specific case in Nueva Ecija wherein he said a family reunion led to the infection of 60 people.

Health officials added that closed settings such as workplaces and health facilities are also at higher risk due to the increased challenges in maintaining physical distancing.

The Philippines has hit a grim milestone six times over the past week  when it broke its record for daily increase in infections for five days, and when it topped the list of nations in Southeast Asia in terms of coronavirus cases, with a tally approaching 120,000 on Thursday.

Besides community transmission, authorities have attributed the rise in numbers to an improved testing capacity, with the DOH saying the country has tested more unique individuals than any other nation in Southeast Asia.
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Washington, United States  Thu, August 6, 2020 15:15 530 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c0bf72 2 World US-China,US-China-tension,Taiwan,diplomatic-relations,diplomatic-spat,diplomatic-tension Free

Why has the announcement by the United States of its highest-level visit to Taiwan for four decades sparked such anger from Beijing?

Here is a recap of the key issues surrounding the delicate relations between the US, China and Taiwan.

Bitter history

The deep rift between China and Taiwan dates back to China's civil war, which erupted in 1927 and pitted forces aligned with the Communist Party of China against the Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) army.

Eventually defeated by Mao Zedong's Communists, KMT chief Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan, which was still under KMT control.

From there, Chiang continued to claim the entirety of China -- just as the mainland claimed Taiwan.

Taiwan's official name remains the Republic of China, while the mainland is the People's Republic of China.

For years both sides still formally claimed to represent all of China although that landscape has changed in recent decades.

Since the late 1990s, Taiwan has transformed from an autocracy into a vibrant democracy and a distinct Taiwanese identity has emerged.

The current ruling party, led by popular president Tsai Ing-wen, regards Taiwan as a de facto sovereign nation, not part of China.

The KMT, now in opposition, is more supportive of better ties with Beijing, especially on trade and maintains the idea that Taiwan is part of China.

Why the fuss?

Washington cut formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1979, switching recognition to Beijing as the sole representative of China, with the mainland becoming a major trading partner.

But the United States at the same time maintained a decisive, if at times delicate, role in supporting Taiwan.

Under a law passed by Congress, the United States is required to sell Taiwan military supplies to ensure its self-defense against Beijing's vastly larger armed forces.

In recent decades US presidents have been somewhat reluctant to sell big ticket items to Taiwan, fearful of incurring Beijing's wrath.

US President Donald Trump's administration has no such qualms and has approved a string of military sales, including an $8 billion fighter jet deal to replace Taiwan's ageing fleet.

'One China' policy

In 1992, Taiwan and mainland China both pledged there is only "one China" but they agreed to disagree about what that precisely meant.

Only 14 nations, all in the developing world, and the Vatican still recognize Taiwan.

Beijing has tried hard to stop any international recognition for the island.

The United States, while recognizing Beijing, is deliberately careful in its wording.

The United States says only that it "acknowledges" Beijing's claim to Taiwan -- and leaves it for the two sides to work out a solution while opposing any use of force to change the status quo.

In practice, Taiwan enjoys many of the trappings of a full diplomatic relationship with the United States.

While there is no US embassy in Taipei, Washington runs a center called the American Institute in Taiwan. In the United States, the island's diplomats enjoy the status of other nations' personnel.

Beijing is sensitive to any move that could amount to official recognition of Taiwan, such as when Tsai spoke by telephone to Trump after his election but before his inauguration.

The United States has pushed for Taiwan to be included in UN bodies such as the World Health Organization.

The topic is sure to come up during the visit of Alex Azar, the secretary of health and human services, who like many around the world has praised Taiwan's effective response to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
https://www.aish.com/ci/s/Hiroshima-and-the-Pilots-Tear.html

How a survivor of the atom bomb stopped hating the pilot who flew the plane.

As presidents boast of their nuclear arsenal, tossing threats and taunts to and fro, east and west over our heads, it behooves us to be reminded what theyre talking about. No nuclear warhead has ever been dropped on a human population, but the far smaller atomic bomb has of course already been used, and witnessed.

After that atomic bombing, which brought World War II to an end, Koko Tanimoto was a child in Hiroshima and I a child in Connecticut. The two of us wouldnt meet until 40 years had gone by, but our fathers, no longer alive, had shared a dream.

It was the writer Pearl S. Buck who brought the two idealistic young men together in 1949, from opposite sides of a divided world. Reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto, a survivor of the Bomb, was operating a sewing workshop for 25 young women maimed in the explosion. The writer and editor Norman Cousins, my father, was an American Jew struggling in the wake of the Holocaust to fathom humanitys deadly hatred for Jews, and Americas abhorrent distinction as the first nation not only to use the A-bomb, but to celebrate its victory in ominously blithe unawareness of the new era to which their country had just introduced mankind.

Reverend Tanimoto had asked Mrs. Buck if she could gather a group of Americans who would help support his sewing workshop, but she said she herself was too old and tired. She knew of an American writer and editor, though, who she thought would help raise funds.

A few weeks later, on the first of many visits to the destroyed city, my father observed that Reverend Tanimotos small sewing workshop in Hiroshima functioned primarily as the young womens protective haven from their compatriots uncompassionate eyes and mores. The thousands who perished instantly in the explosion, or who died later on from radiation sickness, could be reverently memorialized, but these young women  most of whom were still in their teens, the same age as the Americans eldest daughter  had lost face figuratively and literally. With their deformed bodies, and with faces obliterated in many cases beyond recognition by keloid scars, they stood for all to see as ignominious living reminders of Japans disgrace, defeated in a war that they themselves began.

Reverend Tanimoto and my father decided to create the Hiroshima Maiden Project, to send this group of women to the United States for plastic surgery. Contributions were solicited from readers of my fathers magazine, The Saturday Review, and the response was greater than anticipated.

At 8:10 on that August morning in 1945, Mrs. Tanimoto had just picked up her 8-month-old baby girl from the tatami mat where shed been crawling when the world lit up strangely with a dazzling flash brighter than the sun. There was an ear-splitting roar, the ground thundered and trembled violently, and in the next instant, struck by a shock wave, the house collapsed on top of them.

Reverend Tanimoto had awakened early that morning to help a friend on the outskirts of the city. Now, burned bodies, living and dead, lay everywhere. He stepped over the unrecognizable corpses, and as far as the eye could see, there was an inconceivable sea of strangely glowing fire, consuming earth and sky. There was no earth or sky, only an inferno without beginning or end, populated by staggering, wandering, ghostly figures with melted eyeballs hanging out of their sockets, and burned skin hanging from outstretched arms.

As he fought his way through the firestorm in search of his wife and child, dying people reached out constantly, pleading for water. Each time, he could not refrain from stopping to bow, and to apologize, I am sorry. I cannot help you before pressing on.

The memory of turning away from those dying people would torment him for the rest of his life.

Ten years after his death, I came to Japan for a memorial to be given in honor of my father in Hiroshima Peace Park. At some point during my 10 days there, it occurred to me to ask Koko something that Id never had an opportunity to ask any Japanese citizen. Koko, I said, it was Japan that started the war, with the attack on Pearl Harbor. And also, as a Jew

I know. You are going to say that we brought the war on ourselves. And that the Japanese emperor supported Nazi Germany.

I nodded.

Sarah, she said, What you say is the truth. God punished us.

I will tell you a story. One time, I was talking to a group of Americans about the Bomb and about the need for nuclear disarmament, and afterward when everyone else had left the hall, a man approached me. He looked down at me  he was very tall  and said I was at Pearl Harbor.

I just stood there. Neither of us could speak. We understood each other.

Koko continued: While I grew up, my father and mother were always involved with the Hiroshima Maidens. They were working very hard on the church project, to help them. Because anyone who was damaged by the bomb was shunned by the rest of society. They had lost face. They were flawed. They held not only their own shame. They were a symbol of our disgrace and our punishment. Japan had lost the war that she herself had started. Those girls used to go around in veils to cover themselves because of the feeling against them. So my father opened up his church basement to make a workshop and got many sewing machines and they would all come there, all the girls. They spent their time there sewing. It was their honorable work.

Pearl Buck came to see the workshop, and it was she who went back to America and told your father about it. When your father and mother came, in the beginning many of the girls would not show their faces, they were so ashamed.

I myself had no scars from the bomb. But the Maidens, everyone paid much attention to them. So I felt left out. I felt my father did not pay attention to me. I was not so important! On the morning that the bomb fell, I was just an 8monthold baby. I was a very active baby, my mother told me, and she was busy that day. She didnt have time to be running after me through the house, keeping me from trouble, so she just picked me up and did her chores with me in her arms. That is why I survived. When the house collapsed in the atomic explosion, I was protected by her arms and I was not hurt.

My father tried to come home from the church, but there were so many people who needed help on the way that it took him a long time. He was thinking: I must go home! He found the house and he heard us crying under the house and dug us out.

Koko continues. As the years went by, in one respect, it gradually became apparent that I too was not normal. I did not grow. So I was taken to the Atomic Energy Commission, because they were tabulating the effects of radiation on the population that had been near the epicenter. They found that this is how the radiation affected me. No other sign.

Every year after year the bomb, the AEC held a convention in Japan, to discuss their studies and findings. I was one of their case histories. So every year, I was brought to the auditorium where they had their big meeting and I was taken up on stage. Each year, I was supposed to stand in my underwear and the doctors and scientists examined me and discussed my progress.

When I turned 12, I was beginning, you know Koko gestured to her chest. To develop, a girl. The AEC convention was meeting, and I was summoned as usual. They told me to undress. And I did not know how torefuse them. So I did as they expected. The audience  it was full of male doctors and scientists, hundreds of them. And I stood on stage. They looked.

That was my atomic explosion.

That was my Hiroshima bomb.

When I got older, I still did not grow. But when it came time to marry, I fell in love, and the boy loved me. But the boys parents refused to allow him to marry me because I had been damaged in the bomb. People did not usually know when they looked at me that I had been hurt. My scars were internal. But this family knew I was flawed.

I did marry. But I could not have any children

The American television program This Is Your Life brought my parents and me to the US to do one of their shows about the Reverend Tanimoto, who saved the Hiroshima Maidens; he was famous by now. My father didnt know that your father and Mr. Ralph Edwards, the moderator, had arranged secretly for me and my mother to come from Japan also, to be on the show. My father heard my and my mothers voices and he was very surprised, and we came out to embrace him. My father cried. Then we got a shock. There was the voice of someone who was saying he was the pilot of the plane that bombed Hiroshima. This I could not believe. I could not believe this! I had always imagined this man and hated him. Id grown up thinking that if I could kill that man, I would!

Then we met him and I saw a tear in the corner of his eye. He cried.

That tear saved me from hatred.
Delhis deputy CM and education minister Manish Sisodia spoke about the National Education Policy announced by the Union government, a plan for reopening city schools that have been shut in the wake of the Covid pandemic, a possible influx of students from private to government schools, and the issue of salaries in some MCD and DU institutions. Edited excerpts:

As Delhis education minister, what is your view on the National Education Policy announced by the Centre recently?

The NEP has many progressive ideas -- but the road map to achieve those is missing. Its good that NEP has emphasised on foundational learning. The policy lists both anganwadi workers and pre-primary teachers for the purpose. However, with due respect, anganwadi workers have been selected with the intention of serving cooked meals, and not for assisting in foundational learning. The policy calls for the engagement of these workers in foundational learning without any expertise for a large segment of children. At the same time, children in private schools will be taught by pre-primary teachers. This will create a divide. It is good that the policy has mentioned providing breakfast in addition to midday meals.

The policy talks about a revised 5+3+3+4 pedagogical structure. Will the replacement of the 10+2 system improve learning levels?

The 5+3+3+4 formula will help, but there has to be the preparation for it, else it will be a disaster. The policy doesnt give much clarity on how it will be implemented. For instance, the earlier structure separated the Class 9-10 from the Class 11-12 group. Under the new structure, the secondary level comprises Classes 9 to 12. I had asked if this group would be taught by trained graduate teachers (who teach till Class 10) or postgraduate teachers (who teach higher secondary). Basics such as these havent been clarified, and the drawback is that this policy could remain a piece of paper.

Is there a paradigm shift from the previous education policy?

I could not see any paradigm shift. Education is still not getting funds under the present policy. It leaves parents confused about whether they should enroll their children in government schools, or be uncertain about private school fees. The policy should have assured the country that it will focus on the improvement of the government schools and reduce dependency on private schools. This concept or commitment is missing from the policy. Since the national education policy gives encouragement to private schools, the intent becomes clear. However, in Delhi, its exactly the opposite. The AAP government is working on strengthening structure of public schools while regularising private institutes.

The Covid pandemic has taught us that technology will be playing a crucial role in the education system in the future. However, it has exposed gaps in access. Whats the future of online education?

Online education cannot be the only way, which is why we have a semi-online model. In addition to sharing resource material on WhatsApp, we created means for parents to come to schools and collect worksheets if they do not have access to devices or the internet. I was asked to increase the duration of online classes, but we wanted to keep online and offline learning at the same level. The learning curriculum during Covid has been prepared keeping that in mind. After reviewing these classes, we found out that nearly 85% of children are in touch with their teachers. Of these, around 70-85% are using e-resources and the rest are collecting worksheets from schools.

Can the government give devices to all to bridge the digital divide?

The idea is good and I wish I could give devices to all but the government doesnt have the money. We dont even have the money to pay our teachers.

Teachers in the North Delhi municipal corporation-run primary schools have not been paid since May. They have now threatened to stop online classes. The corporation says that the Delhi government has not been releasing their funds on time. What the governments position on this?

The government has paid all the pending dues to the north MCD and other MCDs. The north MCD should make the data public mentioning the funds Delhi government had given them in the last five years and what they have done with it. If the MCD cannot pay their teachers even after getting the funds they should hand over their schools to us. We will run them and pay the teachers as well.

Similar issues have been raised by the 12 Delhi University colleges that are fully funded by the Delhi government. They are alleging that the government is either delaying or giving insufficient funds.

The Delhi government has been paying sufficient funds to its fully funded DU colleges. We have increased their salary funds over the past five years, and yet they are not able to pay their employees. They must answer where these funds are going, which is why audits must be conducted. The university has been delaying the formation of governing bodies in these colleges despite Delhi governments orders. The problem with DU is that its trying to do both corruption and politics. If they want to work with the Delhi government, they will have to work with transparency and without politics. Otherwise, they should hand over our colleges to us (Delhi government).

The situation is improving in Delhi now with the number of Covid-19 cases declining and the death rate has also come down. When will Delhi be ready to reopen schools?

There is no discussion yet on the reopening of schools. We cannot decide this on the basis of the number of Covid-19 cases. We will have to take the decision considering the situation in neighbouring states as well since many of our students come from UP and Haryana as well. We are now working on removing the fear of schools from the minds of parents. I am regularly reviewing the suggestions we have received from parents, teachers and different stakeholders on the reopening of schools. We are still analysing the parameters based on which the decision of the reopening of schools will be taken.

Will it be challenging to bring back students to the classrooms whenever the schools reopen?

We had asked the schools to identify the students who are completely out of contact and we found that at least 15% of students enrolled in Delhi government schools are out of touch. We are trying to reach out to them through different modes. Its after Delhi governments continuous efforts that some of our students, who moved back to their home towns, are now attending online classes from those states.

Several parents in the city are withdrawing their children from private schools due to financial constraints in the wake of the pandemic. Do you anticipate an influx of students from private schools to government schools in Delhi this year?

I think there will be an influx of students from private to government schools this year. I would like to have them because no student should be left out of the education system. Although we are not letting private schools revise their fees structure, parents will still have to pay some amount of fee.

It will be difficult for many parents who have lost their jobs amid the pandemic to pay fees. We are ready for the influx. We might have to increase the teacher-student ratio to accommodate more pupils this year.
Walmart is bringing the big screen to parking lots around Houston as part of its first-ever drive-in movie theater tour.

From Aug. 14 through Oct. 21, the Walmart drive-in will have 320 showings of hit movies in partnership with Tribeca Enterprises at 160 stores across the country.

CHIP AND JOANNA ARE BRINGING FIXER UPPER BACK: Video: Chip and Joanna Gaines reveal 'Fixer Upper' is coming back

We recognize the challenges our customers and their families have faced over the last few months and we wanted to create an experience where they could come together safely to create new memories, said Janey Whiteside, Walmarts Chief Customer Officer. The Walmart Drive-in is one small way were supporting the communities we serve," stated a press release.

The Walmart drive-in will transform its parking lots into a fun, contact-free experience to enjoy films by the Tribeca Film Festival.

Filmmakers and surprise guests are scheduled to make appearances at select showings, according to the press release. Drew Barrymore will serve as a virtual host for all events.

Some of the films audiences can expect to see include Friday Night Lights, The Karate Kid, Black Panther, Wonder Woman, Back to The Future, The Wizard of Oz, Selena, and many more!

Families will also be able to enjoy the full movie experience by picking up their favorite theater concessions through Walmart's convenient pickup or delivery services, according to the press release. A mask will be required when outside of your vehicle.

To reserve a space or for more information, you can visit www.TheWalmartDriveIn.com to discover dates, store locations, and the movies for each stop of the movie tour.

STAY INFORMED: Sign up to receive breaking news alerts delivered to your email here.
A resident is taken from the Epping Hardens Aged Care Home on July 29, 2020 in Melbourne, Australia. (Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

Aussie States Could Repeat Vic Health Failures

The nations peak workplace health and safety body has called for immediate action to address the rampant spread of coronavirus among healthcare staff.

Other states could repeat Victorias hospital and aged care COVID-19 outbreaks if personal protective equipment and other protocols arent overhauled urgently, a peak body says.

The Australian Institute of Health and Safety is calling for immediate government intervention to address the rampant spread of coronavirus in healthcare settings.

It comes as Thursdays figures confirm 1388 healthcare workers in Victoria have contracted the virus, with 810 cases still active.

The latest breakdown of active cases shows 48 doctors, 346 nurses and 416 other healthcare workers are battling the virus.

Two-thirds of those infected fall between the ages of 20 to 39.

The current infection rate is unacceptable, AIHS chairwoman Naomi Kemp said in a statement on Thursday.

But more tragically, it is preventable.

Another 1435 of Victorias 7449 total active cases are linked to aged care.

The failure to instil adequate health and safety standards contributed to the states second wave infiltrating hospitals and aged care centres, Kemp said.

The national safety body claims many building site workers have better personal protective equipment to combat the virus than doctors and nurses.

National PPE guidance for use in hospitals does not require staff to wear P2 or N95 masks while treating confirmed or potential COVID-19 patients.

Surgical masks, more commonly used in hospitals, do not offer the same level of protection against the airborne virus.

The AIHS wants federal and state governments to step in and mandate the use of P2 and N95 respirators in these circumstances among a bevy of best-practice virus upgrades.

The Victorian experience will simply be repeated in other states unless we act urgently to introduce better protocols across Australia, Kemp said.

Were not saying that individual hospitals and aged care centres arent trying.

But many are only implementing the minimum health and safety standards, and those requirements are dangerously inadequate for frontline workers.

The AIHS echoed calls from Victorian anaesthetists last week to provide staff-wide PPE fit testing.

Fit testing involves checking whether airborne particles can penetrate an N95 mask and other safety gear.

The Australian Society of Anaesthetists said it had made numerous approaches to federal and state health authorities to request mandatory fit testing in all hospitals.

By Callum Godde in Melbourne
Dr. Anthony Fauci Discusses the Impact and Severity of COVID-19 Disparities in African Americans

During a 30-minute interview with BlackPressUSA that was streamed live over Facebook, YouTube, and www.BlackPressUSA.com, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, spoke of the importance of convincing African Americans to participate in clinical trials. He also said that school re-openings should depend mainly upon the location and the infection rate in a given area.

Fauci also said a viable coronavirus vaccine is likely only a few months away.

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The fundamental principle is that we should try as best as we possibly can to get children back to school because we know the psychological aspect of that and the unintended consequences for mothers and fathers who may need to stop working, so we should try to get back to school, Dr. Fauci said when asked about the impact of the pandemic on the upcoming school year.

However, paramount needs to be the safety, health, and welfare of children, teachers, and families, Dr. Fauci added.

We live in a big country. Some places have low incidents and can open schools while some are high. Some areas rate of infection is so high where its not prudent to open schools. You dont want to endanger their health.

A member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, Fauci has at times found himself at odds with President Donald Trump. For example, earlier this year, the president announced that he would withdraw U.S. funding and support for the World Health Organization (WHO). However, Dr. Fauci told BlackPressUSA that he still maintains a close relationship with the organization.

I still work closely with the World Health Organization, said Dr. Fauci. Im on a weekly phone call with them, and I signed a memorandum of understanding. Were all in with the WHO.

During the interview, which included National Newspaper Publishers Association President and CEO, Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., Dr. Fauci also demonstrated the proper way to wear a facemask.

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Early on, there was a shortage of masks because we didnt want to take masks away from health providers who needed them, Dr. Fauci remarked. Its easy to get a cloth mask now.

Dr. Fauci explained further that, when there are droplets when someone sneezes or coughs, you [are protected]. You can take it and wash it with soap and water or stick it in the washing machine.

Addressing the disparities surrounding COVID-19 and other illnesses, Dr. Fauci pointed to many African Americans, Latinx, and Native Americans occupying essential jobs that provide employees with little  or no  protection.

On the one hand, theres a greater opportunity and risk of getting infected, but even as important is that once you get infected, you have prevalence and incidence of co-morbidities that make it more likely youll get a severe outcome from the infection, Dr. Fauci noted.

Those co-morbidities are like diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, chronic kidney disease, and lung disease. Its very clear that African Americans have a higher incidence, and the reality is that you suffer more.

The hospitalization rates per 100,000 people are stunning when comparing African Americans and Caucasians, Dr. Fauci proclaimed.

In many respects, its unacceptable that it should be that way, he said, noting that the hospitalization rate per 100,000 African Americans stands at 247, compared to 53 per 100,000 Whites.

In other words, thats almost five times the chance of getting hospitalized even though African Americans comprise just 13 percent of the [U.S.] population, Dr. Fauci observed.

Thats more than something we need to deal with.

Dr. Fauci added that there are five fundamental things everyone could do to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Wear a mask, avoid crowds of more than 10, keep a distance of at least six feet, locations should seriously consider closing bars and getting people who go to bars to stop or do it outside, and wash hands frequently either with soap and water or alcohol Purell.

Clinical trials are vital, Dr. Fauci said.

We hope that we will have an effective vaccine by the end of the year, which means that as we get into 2021, we want to distribute it for those who could benefit, he added.

We need to spend extra effort to protect African Americans, and the way you find out if the vaccine is effective is the enrollment in a vaccine trial. It would be a terrible shame if African Americans stayed away from clinical trials, and they didnt provide for themselves the vaccine that could protect them.

Dr. Fauci suggested that he wears a mask everywhere goes and demanded that doing so shouldnt be about politics.

This is about protecting each other. Were all in this together, Dr. Fauci said.

Im pleased to see that we now have the president talking about wearing a mask where he didnt before, and the vice president wears a mask everywhere he goes. Weve got to pull together.

Whether reinfection of the coronavirus can occur remains somewhat of a mystery, Dr. Fauci explained.

When you get infected with any virus, generally, when you recover, your body has made a good immune response to recover, Dr. Fauci noted.

We know that happens in people who had COVID-19. We dont know what the duration of that is. There are varying levels of antibodies in people who recover, and what were following is how long they last. Some people find that it doesnt last very long.

He continued:

There are other types of immunity that go beyond, and theyre called T-cells or cellular immunity, which may also play a role in protecting people from being infected. Likely a degree of protection is pretty good for a finite period.

There are no well-documented cases of people actually being re-infected. There have been some anecdotally stories of people recovering who seemed to have gotten infected, but we dont know. Theres no real hard evidence thats happening.

@StacyBrownMedia @DrBenChavis @NIH @NNPA_BlackPress #WearYourMask
India on Thursday strongly rejected Pakistan's criticism of the launch of construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya and asked the neighbouring country to refrain from "communal incitement".

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat performs Bhoomi Pujan at Shree Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir, in Ayodhya. Photograph: PIB/PTI Photo

External affairs ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava also asked Pakistan to desist from interfering in India's internal affairs.

"We have seen the press statement by the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on a matter internal to India. It should desist from interfering in India's affairs and refrain from communal incitement," Srivastava said.

"While this is not a surprising stance from a nation that practices cross border terrorism and denies its own minorities their religious rights, such comments are nevertheless deeply regrettable," he added.

He was responding to a question on Pakistan's criticism of the laying of foundation stone of the Ram temple in Ayodhya on the site of the Babri Masjid.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday laid the foundation of the Ram temple in Ayodhya at a grand ceremony.

Last November, the Supreme Court paved the way for the construction of the Ram temple at the site where the 16th century Babri mosque was demolished in December 1992.



While allotting the Ram Janmabhoomi site for a temple to be built by a trust, it ordered that a five-acre site should be found elsewhere in Ayodhya for a new mosque.

Separately at a media briefing, Srivastava hit out at Pakistan for coming out with a new political map of the country incorporating Jammu and Kashmir and parts of Gujarat as its territories.

He said this type of absurd claims showed that Pakistan wants to take control of more areas by using cross border terrorism.

On Tuesday, he had described the Pakistani move as "political absurdity" and said these "ridiculous assertions" have neither legal validity nor international credibility.



"We have seen a so-called 'political map' of Pakistan that has been released by Prime Minister Imran Khan. This is an exercise in political absurdity, laying untenable claims to territories in the Indian state of Gujarat and our Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and of Ladakh," he had said.
DENVER, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- EnerCom, Inc. is pleased to announce strong participation from the midstream sector as part of its 25th annual The Oil & Gas Conference. Event registration is open at www.theoilandgasconference.com.

Midstream companies include:

DCP Midstream

Steel Reef Infrastructure Corp.

Vaquero Midstream

Taproot Energy Partners

DCP Midstream will be presenting at 7 a.m. MT on Wednesday, August 19th. DCP is a Fortune 500 company and one of the largest producers of NGLs and one of the largest natural gas processing companies in the U.S. with strong geographic diversity and leading positions in key basins, including the DJ Basin, the Permian Basin, and the STACK/SCOOP areas of the Midcontinent. The company will be sharing details of its groundbreaking methane management initiative across DCP's portfolio of natural gas assets with Kairos Aerospace Inc. to use sophisticated airborne methane monitoring techniques and advanced data analytics to digitally enable DCP's goals of operational excellence and sustainability.

On Tuesday, August 18th at 11.25 am  12.30 pm The Oil and Gas Conference will host a Midstream Panel discussion with panel companies Steel Reef Infrastructure Corp., Vaquero Midstream and Taproot Energy Partners.

The panel will review and discuss the evolving midstream environment in oil and gas, including such topics as challenges with contractual relationships and mitigating risk, the impact of well shut-ins and barriers to pipeline expansion and construction.

Steel Reef acquires, constructs and operates oil and gas infrastructure focused in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin and Bakken Resource Play. Steel Reef's gathering, processing, transportation and storage facilities are strategically located to provide solutions for oil and gas exploration and production activities in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin and the Bakken formation of the Williston Basin.

Vaquero Midstream designs, builds and operates midstream infrastructure in emerging basins to provide midstream solution and takeaway options for producers. Vaquero has successfully built and operated fully integrated midstream natural gas and crude oil systems across a wide range of domestic shale basins including the Barnett, Eagle Ford, Haynesville and the Permian.

Taproot Energy Partners is a diversified and innovative midstream company focused on the design, construction and operation of world-class midstream assets. Taproot's core business is the gathering and transportation of crude oil, produced water, natural gas and fresh water, as well as natural gas processing, treating and liquids handling.

For a full list of presenters across the three full days of the digital event, visit www.theoilandgasconference.com

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.

Preng & Associates

Preng & Associates is the world's leading executive search firm totally dedicated to the energy industry. Over our 40 years, we have assisted more than 750 management teams and boards in 75 countries and conducted over 3,700 engagements. Our mission continues to be helping companies and boards identify and attract talent around the world that will impact shareholder value.

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

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A0izawl, Aug 7 : A huge haul of Methamphetamine tablets worth Rs 10.50 crore have been seized in Mizoram by the Assam Rifles troopers and a drug peddler from Myanmar was arrested in connection with the case, officials said on Thursday.

Acting on secret information, Aizawl battalion of para-military Assam Rifles launched a joint operation with the officials of the Special Narcotics wing in eastern Mizoram's Champhai district and seized three lakh lakhs of Methamphetamine tablets.

An Assam Rifles' press statement said that the approximate market value of these drugs is estimated to be Rs 10.50 crore.

"A drug peddler, resident of Tahan in neighbouring Myanmar was arrested during the operation. The detainee along with the recovered drugs was handed over to Mizoram police for further investigations and prosecution," the statement said.

It said : "Ongoing illegal drug trades are a major cause of concern for the state of Mizoram. Assam Rifles, rightly christened as the 'Sentinels of North East' have been successful in launching such operations against the illicit smuggling in Mizoram." Methamphetamine tablets (also called Yaba tablet or party tablet) contain a mix of methamphetamine and caffeine and are misused as high-dosage drugs in India, Bangladesh and neighbouring countries.

According to the Border Security Force, Assam Rifles and intelligence officials, Yaba tablets and other drugs are smuggled into the northeastern states from neighbouring Myanmar and then smuggled to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and various Indian states.

Although Mizoram's international border with Bangladesh and Myanmar and inter-state borders with Tripura, Assam and Manipur are sealed in view of the COVID-19 outbreak, smuggling of various drugs, arms and ammunition and other contraband is still going on.

Mizoram police on July 26 have arrested a man and his son with 1.9 kg heroin smuggled from neigbouring Myanmar to the state, while Assam Rifles personnel recently seized 25 trucks laden with betel nuts, worth around Rs 4 crore, smuggled from Myanmar.

Assam forest officials on July 28 have seized some exotic wildlife species, suspected to have been smuggled from Myanmar, and arrested a truck driver and his assistant for carrying the endangered animals -- a kangaroo, six Macaw parrots, three Aldabra tortoises and two capuchin monkeys.

The truck was coming from Mizoram. Mountainous Mizoram has an unfenced international border of 404 kms with Myanmar and 318 kms with Bangladesh. While the BSF guards the Bangladesh border, the border with Myanmar is looked after by Assam Rifles.
The job of a school leader can be an isolating onenow more so than ever. In this column, two experienced former principals will share their decades of expertise with their colleagues.

Twice a month, Sharif El-Mekki and Tamara McWilliams will alternate by answering questions about the complex ins-and-outs of running a school during these uncertain times. Sharif El-Mekki has served as a teacher and administrator in three schools in west Philadelphia across his 27-year career. He has also helped to launch efforts like The FellowshipBlack Male Educators for Social Justice, Phillys 7th Ward blog, 8 Black Hands podcast, and the Center for Black Educator Development.

Tamara McWilliams is a 28-year veteran in education. She has taught English in middle school and high school and has served her district as a principal on the elementary, middle, and high school campuses. She is now the assistant superintendent of curriculum and testing in Ozona, Texas.

Have a question? Send it in to the AskAPrincipal@educationweek.org , and check back to see if it appears in an upcoming column. To join the conversation, use #AskAPrincipal on Twitter.
Britain's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab arrives in Downing street in central London on May 28, 2020. (Niklas Halle'n/AFP via Getty Images)

Britain, Japan Stand Side by Side on Hong Kong: UK Foreign Secretary

The United Kingdom and Japan stand side by side on Hong Kong and a range of other international issues, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said after meeting with his Japanese counterpart on Wednesday.

Japan is a close friend of the UK and our key security partner in Asia, Raab said following talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu, who was on an official visit to London.

Japan is a close friend and a linchpin security partner in Asia. This evening I welcomed Japans Minister for Foreign Affairs @moteging to London where we discussed shared threats, challenges and opportunities. Our partnership continues to go from strength to strength   Dominic Raab (@DominicRaab) August 5, 2020

Whether its our collective response to COVID-19, cyber security, climate change, or support for freedom in Hong Kongthe UK and Japan stand side by side, and I look forward to an even closer partnership in future.

Raab and Motegi confirmed that they would work closely to ensure the rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong are respected in the aftermaths of Beijings imposition of a National Security Law on the former British colony, according to Japans Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Riot police detain a man as they clear protesters taking part in a rally against a new national security law in Hong Kong on July 1, 2020, on the 23rd anniversary of the citys handover from Britain to China. (Dale de la Rey/AFP via Getty Images)

The national security law, which went into effect on June 30, criminalizes individuals for any acts of subversion, secession, and collusion with foreign forces against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

The two ministers also voiced their grave concerns over the postponement of Hong Kongs legislative elections, which were due to be held in September.

The Hong Kong government announced on July 31 that it had postponed the 2020 Legislative Council election for a year, citing a local surge in cases of the CCP virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus.

It also disqualified key pro-democracy candidates, who were deemed unfit to uphold Hong Kong Basic Law or loyalty to the Chinese regime.

UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab (L) and Japans Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi shake hands as they arrive for the eighth Japan-UK Foreign Ministers Strategic Dialogue at Iikura Guest House in Tokyo, Japan, on Feb. 8, 2020. (Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images)

Raab and Motegi, who last met in Tokyo in February, affirmed that Japan and the UK have the same position on the issues of the East and South China Seas and that they would continue to coordinate closely on these issues.

During the CCP virus pandemic, the Chinese regime has ramped up its provocations in East and South China Seas, where it has a series of territorial disputes with Japan and a number of Southeast Asian countries.

Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force P-3C Orion surveillance plane flies over the disputed islands, called the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, in the East China Sea, on Oct. 13, 2011. (Kyodo News via AP/File)

The two ministers agreed to boost defense cooperation, including joint exercises and joint research, and pledged to arrange to hold the next face-to-face Japan-UK Foreign and Defense Ministerial Meeting (2+2) as early as possible.

Raab and Motegi also agreed on the need to speed up negotiations on a bilateral trade agreement, as the UK will no longer benefit from the existing deal between Japan and the European Union after the Brexit transition period ends on Dec. 31, 2020.

Isabel van Brugen and Yinyin Liao contributed to this report.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China rejects any attempt to create a new Cold War and urged a resumption of talks with the United States at any level about any issue, as the relationship between the worlds two biggest economies hits its lowest ebb in decades.

In a wide-ranging interview with the official Xinhua News Agency on Wednesday, the state councilor and top diplomat said China is not the former Soviet Union and has no intention of becoming another United States.

China rejects any attempt to create a so-called new Cold War, Wang added. Anyone who tries to start a new Cold War in the 21st century will be on the wrong side of history and will only be remembered as the one who has upended international cooperation.

Wangs remarks came as tensions between the U.S. and China have dramatically escalated in recent months on multiple fronts, including trade, technology, diplomacy, and the Covid-19 pandemic. The latest salvo was on Sunday when Washington gave Chinese company ByteDance Ltd. just 45 days to sell its popular social video app TikTok.

Faced with the heightened tensions, Wang again called for candid, effective consultation with the U.S. as China is ready to restart dialogue mechanisms with the U.S. side at any level, in any area and at any time.

All issues can be put on the table for discussion, he stressed.

The bilateral high-level dialogue mechanisms, which have been suspended amid rising tensions, were established by Chinese President Xi and U.S. President Donald Trump during a summit in 2017.

Chinas message, as Wang concluded, is quite clear.

We urge the U.S. to stop acting with arrogance and prejudice but enter into constructive dialogue with us on an equal footing, he said, adding that China will also make cool-headed and sensible responses to the impulsive moves and anxiety of the U.S. side.

China and the U.S. are facing the gravest challenge since the two big powers normalized diplomatic ties in 1979, Wang said. He decried some American politicians who are biased against and hostile to China as the root cause of the deteriorating ties.

What they want is to revive McCarthyism in an attempt which will plunge the world into chaos and division again, he said.

Bracing for possible bumps and storms ahead, Wang said China will firmly defend its sovereignty, security and development interests, while in the meantime it is always ready for a conflict-free China-U.S. relationship and win-win cooperation.

When asked about the tit-for-tat closures of consulates last month, Wang said China has no intention to fight a diplomatic war with the U.S. and triggering the war could only expose Washington's increasing lack of confidence.

If the US is bent on going down the wrong path, China is ready to make due response, he added.

In the interview, Wang proposed a four-point clear-cut framework to deal with the most complex situation in bilateral relations. The first point was to steer clear of each countrys red lines and avoid confrontation. Wang said China never intends to interfere in U.S. elections and internal politics, and neither should the U.S. meddle in Chinas domestic affairs.

The second was to keep channels open for candid dialogue, while the third was to reject decoupling and uphold cooperation.

Forced decoupling will inflict a lasting impact on bilateral relations and endanger the security of international industrial chains and the interests of all countries, Wang said.

The last principle suggested the two major countries abandon a zero-sum mentality and stand up to shared responsibilities for global issues such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Wang also pointed out the real challenge the U.S. has posed to the current international order, such as withdrawing from the World Health Organization.

By contrast, China must not allow the international system to be undermined arbitrarily, or the world divided again, vowed Wang.

Contact editor Joshua Dummer (joshuadummer@caixin.com)

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A harrowing outbreak of the novel coronavirus at a Missouri City nursing home has left 17 residents dead, marking the third-highest known death toll among nursing facilities in the Houston region.

The staggering number of deaths  which comes nearly five months after the state banned visitors to all nursing homes and ended group activities in the facilities  highlights again the extreme vulnerability of nursing home residents to COVID-19 even as they have faced isolation from family and friends.

In a shift, the state late Thursday announced it would allow limited visitation in long-term care facilities that had not had an infected staff member in two weeks and where there were no residents currently sick from the disease. Outdoor visits will be permitted only at nursing homes that test staff weekly. Indoor visits will also be allowed at assisted living facilities with plexiglass barriers.

News of the outbreak at Paradigm at First Colony prompted calls from local politicians for increased diligence, with Missouri City Mayor Yolanda Ford calling it a harrowing development that evidenced the pandemics severity, and state Rep. Ron Reynolds, D-Missouri City, saying it needed to be a wake-up call for the state to do better by nursing home residents.

We have to do more to protect them, Reynolds said, and that means that we need to do more testing, we need more oversight, we need to make sure that the officials there are following all of the safety protocols.

State data released Wednesday showed 19 residents had died, a figure shared by Missouri City officials in a news release expressing concern about the outbreak. But that initial information was incorrect, Paradigm at First Colony Administrator Stephen Kelley confirmed in an email Thursday.

The death toll at Paradigm at First Colony was neither the worst in the Houston region nor the state: Focused Care at Westwood reported that 24 of its residents with COVID-19 had died at its Houston facility  the highest number at a licensed nursing home locally.

A nursing home in Corpus Christi, meanwhile, reported 27 residents with COVID-19 had died  the most in Texas.

Given that the state data was current only as of July 23, its possible that other nursing homes in Texas have seen higher death tolls since. Although facilities are required to report new cases to relatives and family members, the public is largely left in the dark until state and federal databases catch up.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Texas finally got COVID data on nursing homes  and Houston is faring the worst

The two-week lag was needed so that the facility-reported data could be reviewed for potential administrative, clerical or reporting errors, wrote Elliott Sprehe, a spokesman for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, in response to emailed questions.

During a two-week period, however, a lot of things can change, said Greg Shelley, program manager of the Harris County Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program at UTHealths Cizik School of Nursing.

At Paradigm at First Colony, there were 37 infected residents as of July 23. The facility said in a statement Thursday that 11 remained sick.

To help mitigate the outbreak, facility staff were trained on infection control and use of personal protective equipment, according to the statement. State and Fort Bend County health officials inspected the nursing home and helped staff create a unit dedicated to COVID-19 patients.

We appreciate the many individuals and institutions working together to care for residents at Paradigm at First Colony, the statement said. Our Paradigm at First Colony frontline staff continue to inspire us daily as they provide patient care during this time.

Ford, the Missouri City mayor, said in her statement that the city was concerned about these residents and their families. She called for people to take the pandemic more seriously; as academics have noted, worse nursing home outbreaks are expected in communities with higher numbers of coronavirus cases.

The state banned nursing home visitors in mid-March, but advocates increasingly called for finding a safe way to allow families to visit in relatively safe ways, pointing out that the isolation has come at a sometimes severe cost to residents mental and physical health.

State officials said they hoped Thursdays move to allow limited visitation under strict safety protocols would address such concerns.

This is a rapidly evolving situation and we are constantly assessing what actions are necessary to keep residents and staff safe in these facilities, said Phil Wilson, executive commissioner of the Texas HHSC, in a prepared statement. By following these procedures and rules, facilities can more effectively prevent the spread of COVID-19 and help us achieve our shared goal of reuniting residents with their families and friends.

State officials Thursday also announced new rules for how nursing facilities respond to the coronavirus, including that they have plans for obtaining and maintaining a two-week supply of personal protective equipment and resident recovery plans for continuing care when a resident recovers from COVID-19.

The state has not mandated regular testing of staff who come in and out of nursing homes, making it nearly impossible to keep the virus out. It instead required testing of all staff and residents once. The new rules say all residents, staff and visitors must be screened for signs and symptoms in accordance with specified criteria, with residents checked three times a day.

Nursing home residents continue to be disproportionately affected by the virus across Texas and the country. Nearly 80 percent of licensed nursing homes in Texas had seen at least one infection as of Wednesday, according to another set of state data. Across the state, 17,891 nursing home residents had been infected; of those, 2,391 residents had died. Their deaths represented 30 percent of the states total number of fatalities from the novel coronavirus.

On HoustonChronicle.com: See COVID cases and deaths at Texas state-run care facilities
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Scout Willis has been trying to get back to a semblance of routine, amid these uncertain times, after spending extended time quarantining with her blended family in Idaho.

And on Wednesday, the daughter of actors Bruce Willis and Demi Moore was spotted while out on an errand run that included a stop at trip to a FedEx store with her rescue dog Grandma in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles.

The actress and musician, who turned 29 last month, opted for a casual-cool in a plunging, beige blouse and blue jeans that were cuffed above her ankles.

Scout Willis, 29, headed out to take care of some errands in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles with her dog, Grandma

Giving her ensemble a lift both literally and figuratively, Willis also donned a pair of green, open-toe platform shoes that added a few inches of extra height. She had her dark brown tresses pulled into a bun.

The beauty also carried a red a red bag over her left shoulder and wore a white protective mask, in adherence to health and safety protocols in the wake of the still raging coronavirus.

But it was her beloved pet pooch, who she carried in a beige crossbody sling, that garnered much of her attention during their afternoon excursion.

What a lift: The musician wore a plunging, beige blouse that was tucked into a blue denim jeans that were cuffed above her ankles with platform shoes

Willis and her tan and white pet pooch, whom she rescued off the streets in 2017, appear to be inseparable as she's often seen carrying her in that beige sling while out and about.

The Idaho native is one of three daughters that Hollywood A-listers Willis. 65, and Moore, 57, share from their 13-year marriage that ended in 2000.

She also has sisters Rumer Willis, 31, and Tallulah Willis, 26.

Out of the spotlight: The actress-musician predominantly grew up at the Willis-Moore home in Sun Valley, Idaho

Lockdown: The Willis-Moore family had been quarantining together in Idaho until around early June; Scout (right) is pictured with her sisters Rumer, Tallulah and their mother Demi

Her father, who's best known for the Die Hard movie franchise, also has two daughters with his second wife Emma Heming  Mabel, eight, and Evelyn, six.

The blended family quarantined together at the Willis-Moore home in Sun Valley, Idaho, where Scout and her sisters grew up for much of their early years.

They decided to ride out the initial weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic when the crisis began to have a big impact on travel.

Scout has been dating beau Jake Miller for about two years.
In Nod To Russia, U.S. Condemns Foreign Military Involvement In Libya

By RFE/RL August 05, 2020

WASHINGTON -- The United States has said it is "deeply troubled" by growing violence in Libya and called on foreign powers to end their proxy war in the troubled North African nation.

"We strongly oppose foreign military involvement, including the use of mercenaries and private military contractors, by all sides" in Libya, White House national-security adviser Robert O'Brien said in a statement on August 4.

The U.S. military has accused Moscow of supplying Russian mercenaries and military hardware to Libya in an attempt to gain a foothold in the North African country.

The Pentagon has said that Russia is using the Vagner Group, a private Russia paramilitary organization believed to be close to the Kremlin, as a "proxy" in Libya to establish a long-term presence on the Mediterranean Sea.

Russia has been helping Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) in the east of the country in its fight against the UN-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) based in the capital, Tripoli.

France, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates also back Haftar's forces.

Turkey, which has deployed troops, drones, and Syrian rebel mercenaries to Libya, supports the government in Tripoli, alongside Qatar and Italy.

Ankara's intervention in Libya in January turned the tide of the war by rolling back Haftar's offensive against Tripoli.

O'Brien said President Donald Trump has spoken with "several" world leaders over the past few weeks to discuss the deteriorating situation in Libya.

O'Brien said the action of foreign powers in Libya poses "grave threats to regional stability and global commerce."

The United States is calling on foreign powers to allow Libya's National Oil Corporation, the nation's main source of revenue, to resume its work.

Oil is being illegally exported from the country, depriving the struggling government of cash to repair its economy.

The United States is also calling for a cease-fire and for countries to respect a UN arms embargo.

Libya has been torn by civil war since a NATO-backed popular uprising ousted and killed the country's longtime dictator, Colonel Muammar Qaddafi, in 2011.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/u-s-condemns- russian-military-involvement-in- libya-russia/30767050.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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Beginning in March, as COVID-19 cases surged in various states in the U.S., the COVID-19 Pandemic Breast Cancer Consortium released recommendations that operations for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) be deferred due to the pandemic. DCIS, which goes by many names including "stage 0" breast cancer, is a non-invasive form of cancer that begins in the milk ducts and is generally surgically excised. In approximately one in five cases, surgeons may find evidence of invasive cancer during surgery. During the pandemic, patients and clinicians expressed concern about what surgical delays might mean for patients' outcomes. A new study led by, investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital, of more than 378,000 patients who were diagnosed with very early stage breast cancer between 2010 and 2016 offers new data and insights to help address these unknowns. The research team found that while increased time to surgery was associated with a small increase in pathological upstaging in DCIS patients, it did not impact overall survival. Results are published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

"The most pressing question today is what will surgical delays due to the pandemic mean for patient outcomes, and the reality is that we will only have the answers years from now," said lead author Christina Minami, MD, MS, a surgeon in the Division of Breast Surgery at the Brigham. "In the meantime, these data should provide some reassurance and encouragement -- they don't indicate that outcomes will be changed dramatically. But we do encourage patients to follow up with their surgeons on a care plan as COVID-19 surges grow or subside locally."

Minami and colleagues leveraged data from the National Cancer Database for patients, which captures approximately 70 percent of newly diagnosed cancer in the U.S. All patients diagnosed January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2016 who underwent breast cancer surgery were identified. The team focused on patients with DCIS or early-stage (cT1-2N0) ER+ disease, an early form of breast cancer that may be susceptible to hormone therapy drugs.

More than 98 percent of patients with DCIS underwent surgery within three months. Among those who delayed surgery 60 days or longer, there was no significant difference in overall survival but there was a slight increase in upstaging. In patients with cT1-2N0 disease who were placed on neoadjuvant endocrine therapy -- a hormone therapy -- increased time to surgery did not impact stage or overall survival.

The authors note that extrapolating from the historical data to determine what this means for patients whose surgery has been delayed during the pandemic is challenging. Those who delayed surgery during the study period were a highly selective group -- they may not be representative of the wide swath of patients whose surgery was delayed due to the pandemic. In addition, the research team was only able to look at outcomes of three to four years -- understanding the longer-term effects of surgical delays may provide more meaningful insights for patients and clinicians.

"Anxiety for both surgeons and patients alike stems from the unknown -- what does a delay in surgery mean for our patients?" said Minami. "We sought to help address questions about outcomes. Ideally, we'd like to have randomized, controlled studies, but under the circumstances, we needed to take the more unconventional approach by looking at retrospective data."

###

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. Minami reports research support (to institution) from Conquer Cancer Foundation (Young Investigator Award, 2020-2021) and American College of Surgeons (Faculty Research Fellowship, 2020-2022). Additional disclosures can be found in the paper.

Paper cited: Minami, CA et al. "Association between Time to Surgery and Pathological Stage in Ductal Carcinoma in Situ and Early-Stage Hormone Receptor-Positive Breast Cancers" JACS DOI: 10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2020.06.021
Author: Abdul Rashid Gbambu

06.08.2020 LISTEN

Ghana has earned a high recognition in security sector reform in sub-Saharan Africa. The constitution of Ghana has clearly provided room for civilian control over the military by creating avenues for checks and balances to prevent any conflict between the civilian leadership and the military community. An example is the delineation of national security structure and its chain of command. Professor Kwesi Aning and many other scholars in security studies, have written extensively on some of these achievements. While this is commendable, our constitution still left a loop on accountability over the civilian control over the security sector in our current democratic dispensation, especially the military, raising serious questions of future security implications on safety.

The recent pouches of incidents of military presence in civilian quarters in the past 3 to 4 months, has brought the once revered security institution, into a seemly disrepute. The remote cause could be linked to the alleged military brutalities in many parts of the country in view of the Covid-19 lockdown measures. However, while the military command came out to refute some of these allegations, some were so visible that there was no room for rebuttals. Military brutalities in Tamale during this period was a clear case study. Further, the immediate incidents of military deployments in the Volta region and some parts of the country, prior to the Electoral Commissions registration exercise and most recently in Banda, in the Bono Ahafo region, increased the concerns of many meaningful citizens.

At the early stages, some of us argued in favor of the government, playing the devils advocate, that if the move by government was apolitical, and had the intention of securing our borders, then it would have been praise worthy. However, current trends have changed this perception, as it is now becoming clear that the move was only meant to tame certain groups of people for political gain.

It appears the political elite in our current regime are dragging the images of the military and other security operatives into disrepute. This can be associated with the lapses in our constitution with respect to grey areas in the operations of parliamentary oversight committees. For example, the constitution placed the overall authority in appointment and management of the security sector to the Executive arm of government, with little oversight from other arms of government (see: Aning and Lartey, (2005).By this, the military, like any other security institution, takes command from the executive arm of government. Even though this might have been done to prevent the recurrence of the rampant military take overs in the past, it may not have served the purpose it was meant for and rather created room for appointing those who are sympathetic to the government of the day.

The constitution outlined the civil-military (civilian-military) relations in terms of the relationship between the military and civilian political leadership control, the role of the military in society in a form of national security and the attitude of the military towards civil society. Among other things, the principles of militarism, stresses on the soldiers loyalty to civil society or state and not to an individual, group of people, a particular ideology or political party.

On civilian-military relations, scholars like Huntington (1957), had envisaged challenges in the likelihood of breach of trust between the military and the civilian control, and postulated what he referred to as objective civilian control as a possible remedy, where there will be balance between the two, so that the interest of one party does not exceed the other to provoke any chaos. For instance, Huntington saw the military activities as part of national security strategy. He argued that, the military has a two-fold role in this respect and their attitude or activities should be influenced by the changing trends in society; externally and internally, otherwise, the military is likely to abuse its strength.

The role of the military externally is to provide protection to the state from exterior aggressions. And to intervene internally, when there is subversion or take over governance when civilian leadership or society fails to govern itself. A very good example was the military interventions in Burkina Faso and Zimbabwe, when there were civilian agitations against their then ruling governments. However, as masters of violence, professionally trained to exert force, Huntington, suggested the need to check and control these activities. In this regard, therefore, the military must not involve in lime light politics, but take orders from the civilian political leadership. In summary, Huntingtons solution concentrated on a politically neutral, autonomous, and professional conduct of the military community (Huntington, 1957).

This suggests that, the military only takes instructions from the civilian political head, in this case the Executive arm of government.

Looking into the future, particularly ahei of December 7, 2020 Polls, the executive organ of government must be circumspect in the use of its powers in the security sector, since it has advert effects on our national security. The implication is that, while the military are deployed for personal or partisan Interests, the society's perception over their neutrality and professionalism become questionable. The recurrence appearances of the military in the mainstream media, and the loud cries of the populace, will provoke and change their attitude towards the society. This will go a long to deteriorate the smooth relationship with their civilian master and the society as a whole..

In the wake of such unfortunate turn, the country will suffer, since the military in their quest to redeem the image will turn to disobey or decide to ignore any possible intelligence, which could lead to escalation of violence conflicts.

The security sector reforms instruments in the constitution of Ghana, needs to be enacted to provide alternative measures for the security sector control. The parliamentary oversight must also be properly checked, with a clearly spelt out provisions to ensure accountability. The military and other security institutions must be respected and should not be reduced to ridicules by partisan Interests. Depoliticization of the security sector, should be a major factor in the supposed enactment law, with stringent procedures in the recruitment process to avoid procedural security breaches.

God Bless Our Home Land Ghana

By: Abdul Rashid Gbambu

Media Communication and Security Analyst

[email protected]

+233266593893
06.08.2020 LISTEN

The Electoral Commission (EC) has debunked claims that the voters registration exercise in Viepe in the Ketu South Constituency has been discontinued to pave way for Ghana card registration.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary candidate for the constituency, Dzifa Gomashie is alleged to have made the claim in a video that has gone viral.

She is alleged to have said the move forms part of a ploy to reduce votes in Ketu South.

The EC in a statement, however, described Dzifa Gomashies statement as untrue.

The Commission finds the statement by the aspiring Member of Parliament unfortunate. Not only is her statement untrue but it also has the tendency of causing unnecessary tensions and disaffection for the Commission and its staff.

The EC asked Ghanaians to disregard the content of the said video as the allegations are baseless and unfounded.

As a Commission, our cardinal goal is to ensure that all eligible voters are captured on the Electoral Roll. We have put in place systems to ensure this happens.
Sentences Handed Down In 66th Judicial District Court The office of District Attorney Mark Pratt prosecuted felony criminal cases in the 66th Judicial District Court, presided over by District Judge Lee Harris, in July.



The following Texas Department of Criminal Justice sentences were handed down:



Tyler Edwin Hernandez, two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, 10 years prison



Trevor Robert Parker, evading arrest/detention with a vehicle, five years prison



Genaro Tepetate Dominguez, violation of bond/protective order two or more times within 12 months, six years prison; burglary of a habitation, six years prison



Stephanie Easley Hamm, theft under $1,500 with prior theft conviction, 16 months state jail



Victor Valtierra Romero, possession of marijuana between five and 50 lbs., six years prison; possession of cocaine between four and 200 grams, six years prison



Rebecca Joan McDade, forgery of a financial instrument - elderly, two years prison; injury to elderly with intentional bodily injury, two years prison



Jonathan Bryaan Yanes-Flores, driving while intoxicated - third or more, three years prison; evading arrest/detention with a vehicle, three years prison



Everardo Quiroga Jr., unauthorized use of a vehicle, eight months state jail



Justin Duane Staples, intoxication assault, seven years prison; intoxication assault, seven years prison



William Rittenbaugh, misapplication of fiduciary/financial property over $300,000, 12 years prison; misapplication of fiduciary/financial property, 10 years prison; theft of cattle/horse/exotic livestock under $150,000, eight years prison



Brandi Clinkscales, bail jump and failure to appear, two years prison; possession of methamphetamine under one gram, 10 months state jail



Juan Carlos Garcia- Vazquez, possession of cocaine under one gram, 15 months state jail



Curt Lamar Chambers, theft of a firearm, 18 months state jail; bail jump and failure to appear, five years prison.


California [US], Aug 4 (ANI): Whatsapp has rolled out a new feature, allowing users to fact-check the forwarded messages by searching it on the web.

"WhatsApp provides a special forwarded label to messages shared in chats that have been forwarded many times. These two arrows help people know when they've received a message that was not written by close contact. Earlier this year, we set limits on how many times they can be sent at once to maintain the private nature of WhatsApp," Whatsapp said in a statement.

Also Read | Mumbai Rains: Fish Seen Swimming at Waterlogged Railway Tracks in Parel After Local Services Suspended (Watch Video).

"Today, we're piloting a simple way to double-check these messages by tapping a magnifying glass button in the chat. Providing a simple way to search messages that have been forwarded many times may help people find news results or other sources of information about the content they have received," it added.

The feature was made available on Monday in Brazil, Italy, Ireland, Mexico, Spain, UK, and the US, for those on the latest versions of WhatsApp for Android, iOS and WhatsApp Web.

Also Read | Sushant Singh Rajput Suicide Case: Two PILs Filed in Supreme Court for CBI Probe Into Actor's Death.

"This feature works by allowing users to upload the message via their browser without WhatsApp ever seeing the message itself," the statement read. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
>>> Prime Minister praises doctors and medical staff

>>> Pandemic fight should concentrate on high-risk areas: deputy PM



>>> Two new COVID-19 cases linked to Da Nang outbreak

On the afternoon of August 4, Acting Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long assigned the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Hanoi Medical University and Bach Mai Hospital to support the Hanoi medical sector in COVID-19 testing, with a focus on returnees from Da Nang  the current hotbed for COVID-19 in Vietnam  and suspected cases.

* The same afternoon, the Treatment Sub-Committee under the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control conducted the seventh consultation session on treatment for COVID-19 patients. Experts made recommendations for each seriously ill patient to better their treatment.

From July 25 until now, Vietnam recorded nearly 260 COVID-19 infections. Within this figure, eight deaths have been reported, with patients with the SARS-CoV-2 virus having multiple underlying conditions and most of them being elderly.

According to Nguyen Trung Cap, Deputy Director of the Hanoi-based National Hospital for Tropical Diseases, the outbreak in Da Nang mostly spreads among the groups of patients with chronic kidney failure, those undergoing cancer treatment and those in intensive care for many years.

In these patients, the risk of death is always a potential due to their weak resistance, regardless of COVID-19 infection or not. The addition of COVID-19 is like the final straw, causing the death rate to rise abnormally. Therefore, according to Cap, these deaths do not reflect public health or virulence of the corona virus.

Previously, Acting Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long reported that the virus found among patients in the Da Nang outbreak was a new strain, with a higher rate of transmission but its virulence has not increased.

* To support Da Nang in bracing the new outbreaks, Hai Phong City has decided to send a medical team of eight doctors and 25 nurses to the central coastal city this week. At the same time, Hai Phong will support Da Nang and Quang Nam Province with 200,000 medical masks and VND5 billion each.

* On August 4, Thanh Hoa Province reported that four local people returning from Da Nang have showed signs of fever and cough and they have been hospitalised and isolated for testing.

A medical workers is spraying disinfectants at a local isolation camp in Quang Nam Province. (Photo: NDO/Tan Nguyen)



* On the same day, Vice Chairman of Quang Nam People's Committee Tran Van Tan signed a decision to blockade and quarantine a residential area at high risk from Covid-19 in Que Son District for 14 days, from 0:00 on August 5, to strengthen prevention and control of Covid-19 epidemic.

* Also on August 4, Vice Chairman of Quang Nam People's Committee Tran Van Tan signed a decision to blockade and quarantine two residential areas at high risk of COVID-19 infection in Dong Phu Town, Que Son District, for 14 days from 0:00 on August 5. There are two COVID-19 cases and more than 100 related contacts from the areas being isolated and under medical supervision.

* On the same day, Soc Trang Province reported that the 140 Vietnamese citizens repatriated from Canada being isolated at the provincial Military School are in stable health.

Quang Ninh provincial leaders inspect the preparation of the national high school graduation exams in the province. (Photo: NDO/Quang Tho)



* The Ministry of Education and Training has sent a dispatch to the local authorities across the nation on the organising of the national high school graduation exams 2020 amid the new outbreaks of the pandemic. Accordingly, localities under strict social distancing, such as Da Nang and some locales in Quang Nam Province, can delay the organisation of exams, while the remaining localities should organised the exams according to the set plan from August 8 to 10, with serious implementation of measures to prevent and control the epidemic under the guidance from the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education and Training.

* That day, the Minister of Health requested the Departments of Health in provinces and cities across the nation to closely coordinate with the Departments of Education and Training to deploy measures to ensure safety for the high school graduation exams.

* Two flights are scheduled to departure from Da Nang this morning to bring tourists who have been trapped in the city amid the current lockdown back to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, as announced by the Da Nang Tourism Department. Airfares are paid by the travellers.

* Thua Thien Hue Province announced that, as of 18:30 on August 4, the whole province had tested 21,156 people returning from COVID-19-hit areas and 14,732 samples were negative for the coronavirus.

Conducting COVID-19 PCR test at Hue Central Hospital. (Photo: NDO/Cong Hau)



* On the same day, the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Thua Thien Hue decided to provide over VND1.82 billion from the local COVID-19 fund to support the anti-epidemic work of the Centre for Disease Control and the Steering Committee for Medical Isolation in the province.

* Also that day, the Han River Mutant Orchid Club presented Da Nang Hospital with five Puritan Bennett ventilators worth a total VND2.75 billion.

* On the morning of August 5, the Cong An Nhan Dan (People's Police) Newspaper coordinated with Ngoc Dung Beauty Salon system to donate 7,000 medical protective suits to seven hospitals in Da Nang (each hospital receiving 1,000 medical protective suits), valuing over VND700 million in total.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 04:57:34|Editor: huaxia

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UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations, which has more than 100 people injured in the devastating Beirut explosion, is assessing damage and planning alternative aid operations, a UN spokesman said on Wednesday.

Among the injured were about 22 members of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), including those from the Maritime Task Force of the mission, who were in the port when the blast occurred Tuesday, said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

A ship of the Maritime Task Force docked in the port was damaged, leaving some UNIFIL naval peacekeepers injured, some of them seriously, he said.

"We expect that the damage of the port will significantly exacerbate the economic and food security situation in Lebanon, which imports about 80 to 85 percent of its food," Haq said. "This is a place that's used both for goods for Lebanon but also for some of our activities in Syria."

"We'll need to assess how that damage affects our deliveries and how we can redirect, in the short term, more of our activities through the airport rather than through the seaport," the spokesman said. "Obviously, the loss of the port will affect our activities."

The United Nations is working closely with the Lebanese government to support all ongoing response efforts, particularly in the delivery of emergency medical assistance, said Haq. Support for hospitals and trauma response capacity is a top priority.

The World Health Organization is working with Lebanon's Ministry of Health to assess hospital facilities in Beirut, their functionality and needs for additional support, particularly amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Specialists are being dispatched to Beirut to assist in the emergency response, both from the United Nations and several countries, Haq said. Experts also are on the way to support urban search and rescue operations.

"We're heartened to see the declarations of support from different governments around the world, and we hope that all of the governments and all of us can stand beside the Lebanese people," said Haq. "We need to remember that the people of Lebanon have been extremely generous and extremely helpful for many years."

Lebanon has taken in tens of thousands of refugees from Syria, and there has been a long-time Palestine refugee population in Lebanon, he said. "These are people who have given a lot of support to others, and this is a time when they themselves will need help, and we will certainly try to give it to them as much as we can." Enditem
JERUSALEM - The Israeli army said it attacked targets in the northern Gaza Strip late Thursday after Palestinian militants launched explosive balloons from the territory into Israel.

In a brief statement, the army said airstrikes struck infrastrucure used for underground activities by Gazas ruling Hamas militant group. There were no reports of injuries.

Earlier, Israeli police reported that an explosive device had landed in the southern town of Arad. A police bomb squad dismantled the device.

Israel and Hamas have fought three wars and numerous smaller skirmishes since the Islamic militant group seized control of Gaza in 2007.

In recent months, both sides have honoured an informal cease-fire. Israel holds Hamas responsible for all fire emanating from the coastal strip.

Read more about:
By Yingzhi Yang and Brenda Goh

BEIJING (Reuters) - ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming told employees on Tuesday there were misunderstandings on Chinese social media about TikTok's situation in the United States and that the company could face more difficulties as anti-Chinese sentiment rose abroad.

His comments in a letter to ByteDance's Chinese employees came after the company and Zhang were heavily criticised on Chinese social media for entering into talks with Microsoft Corp to sell TikTok's U.S. operations.

Chinese media first reported the contents of the internal letter. A source confirmed the content of the memo to Reuters.

ByteDance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"I actually understand (the criticism)," Zhang said in the letter. "People have high expectations of a company founded by a Chinese person which is going global but have little information about it. With lots of grievances towards the U.S. government, they tend to lash out at us with harsh criticism."

Since Monday, some users of China's Twitter-like Weibo have said they would uninstall ByteDance's Chinese short video app Douyin and news aggregator Jinri Toutiao because they believed ByteDance had given in too quickly to Washington.

Others urged ByteDance to learn from U.S. giant Google, which opted to pull its search engine out of the Chinese market in 2010 after China asked it to censor its search results, rather than selling off its Chinese operations.

Zhang said some people had misunderstood the U.S. situation. He said Washington's goal was not to force a sale of TikTok's U.S. operations through the Committee of Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) but to ban the app, and there was a legal process ByteDance had no choice but to follow.

Zhang told staff on Monday in another internal letter that the company had started talks with a tech company so it could continue to offer the TikTok app in the United States.

U.S. President Donald Trump initially dismissed the idea of selling TikTok's U.S. operations to Microsoft but changed his mind following pressure from some advisers and many in the Republican party, because banning TikTok could alienate many young voters, Reuters has reported.

Zhang also told employees that over the last two years, anti-Chinese sentiment had risen in many countries and the company must brace for more difficulties in the current atmosphere.

(Reporting by Yingzhi Yang in Beijing and Brenda Goh in Shanghai; Editing by Louise Heavens)
New Delhi, Aug 6 : India's Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday asserted that the spread of coronavirus has been contained in the country, citing how half the total cases are from three states only and another 30 per cent from seven others.

His remarks come as the country is inching towards the grim mark of two million cases. It has already logged over 40,000 deaths and is recording more than 50,000 daily cases since the past few days.

Speaking at a virtual meeting of WHO's Regional Director, South East Asia, Poonam Khetrapal Singh with Health Ministers from the region on maintaining essential health services and public health programmes in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, Harsh Vardhan alluded to the efficacy of the government's containment strategy.

"The strategy has been successful in that 50 per cent of the cases are from three states and 32 per cent of the rest are from seven states. The spread of the virus thus has been contained." The Minister said that the lockdown was effective in slowing down the rate of growth of cases and gave the government time to augment the health infrastructure and testing facilities.

"From one lab in January, India has 1,370 labs today. Indians anywhere can access a lab within three hours travel time. 33 of the 36 states and UTs (Union Territories) exceed WHO's recommendation of testing 140 people per million per day." Harsh Vardhan also said that the country was "preparing for the pandemic as soon as China informed the World Health Organisation on January 7", over three weeks before the first case emerged.

India had reported its first coronavirus case on January 30 when a student from Kerala, who was studying in China's Wuhan University, came back to India and tested positive for the deadly virus.

Harsh Vardhan also stressed that earlier viral outbreaks like the Avian Influenza, H1N1, Zika and Nipah had provided institutional memory in designing containment and management strategies.

"India's proactive and graded multi-level institutional response to Covid-19 made it possible to have very low cases per million and deaths per million in spite of having a high population density, and low fractional GDP spending, per capita doctor, and hospital bed availability as compared to other developed countries," he contended.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
PRESS RELEASE

6th August 2020

NHRC Orders Chhattisgarh Government to Compensate Human Rights Defenders Rs 1 lakh each afor Mental Agony and Violation of Human Rightsa caused by false charges and arrests.

The National Human Rights Commission has directed the Chhattisgarh State Government to compensate human rights defenders Rs 1 lakh each for false cases filed against them, with compliance within six weeks.

On 5th November 2016, the Chhattisgarh police lodged an FIR against us under various sections of the IPC, Arms Act, and UAPA for the alleged murder of one Shamnath Baghel of Nama village, Sukma District. The case was supposedly filed on the written complaint of Shyamnath Baghelas widow, Vimla Baghel. However, she is on record saying she did not name anyone. On 15th November 2016, the Supreme Court gave us protection from arrest. In 2018, since the Chhattisgarh police had not taken any steps to investigate or close the matter, we filed a petition in the Supreme Court. Following Court directions, the Chhattisgarh government investigated, and finding there was no case against us, dropped the charges in February 2019. The NHRC had also taken up this matter in 2016, along with the police burning our effigies and IG Kalluri threatening to stone us if we entered Bastar.

In February 2020, taking note of the Chhattisgarh Police admission that there was no case against us, the NHRC noted:

aIn our considered opinion, these persons would have certainly suffered a great mental pain and agony as a result of registration of false FIRs against them by the police, which is a violation of their human rights and for this the State Government should compensate them. Therefore we recommend and direct the Government of Chhattisgarh through its Chief Secretary to pay a sum of Rs One Lakh each as monetary compensations to the six persons namely Prof Nandini Sundar, Ms. Archana Prasad, Shri Vineet Tiwari, Shri Sanjay Parate, Ms. Manju and Shri Mangla Ram Karma, whose human rights were gravely violated by the Chhattisgarh police.a

The NHRC also directed the same monetary compensation to a fact-finding team of lawyers from Telangana who were acquitted of all charges after having spent some seven months in Sukma jail. (Letter dated 13.3.2020 reporting NHRC decision of 13.2.2020).

We welcome the NHRC order and hope that the Chhattisgarh government will act promptly to redress the reputational loss and mental agony suffered by us.

We hope that the police officials responsible for filing false charges against us, especially then IG Bastar Mr. SRP Kalluri will be investigated and prosecuted. The false charges were filed immediately after the CBI indicted SPOs and Salwa Judum leaders under Mr. Kallurias command for the burning of the villages of Tadmetla, Timapuram and Morpalli as well as the murderous attack on Swami Agnivesh in 2011.

To date, despite NHRC recommendations in 2008 and repeated Supreme Court directions, the Government of Chhattisgarh has not compensated the thousands of villagers whose homes were burnt by Salwa Judum or prosecuted those responsible for rapes and murders. Fake encounters and false arrests continue to be a grave concern in Chhattisgarh.

We are grateful to the PUCL for taking up the cases of all human rights defenders in Chhattisgarh and for informing us about the NHRC order. It is deeply distressing that PUCL Secretary and Advocate Sudha Bhardwaj who took up such cases in Chhattisgarh has herself been arrested under false charges. We trust that all human rights defenders who have been falsely accused will get justice.

Nandini Sundar, Archana Prasad, Manju Kawasi, Vineet Tiwari, Sanjay Parate, Mangla Ram Karma
US Lawmaker Proposes Bill Requiring Disclosures of Beijing Ties for Publicly Traded Companies

Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) has introduced a bill requiring companies listed on the U.S. stock exchanges to disclose if they have ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

This legislation would provide unprecedented transparency for American investors with respect to CCP investments in publicly traded companies, Barr said in an Aug. 5 press release.

CCP investment in American companies frequently leads to CCP manipulation of American companies and investorswhether it be the forced transfer of technology or the outright theft of American intellectual property.

There are 172 Chinese companies listed on major U.S. stock exchanges as of September 2019, according to the U.S.China Economic and Security Review Commission. Many of them are state-owned companies or receive Chinese government funding.

Listed Chinese companies are not subject to U.S. auditing. Beijing doesnt allow the Securities and Exchange Commission or U.S. regulators to examine their records, claiming that their books are state secrets that cant be shared with outside parties.

The bill, named the Transparency in Chinese Government Investment Act of 2020 (H.R.7924), would amend the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to require publicly traded companies to disclose any financial support they receive from the CCP, such as subsidies, grants, loans, loan guarantees, tax breaks, tax incentives, or any preferential treatment related to state procurement policies, according to the press release.

One of the longstanding U.S. demands in ongoing trade talks is that Beijing end its massive government subsidies granted to Chinese companies, which U.S. companies say make it difficult for them to compete in the Chinese market on a level playing field.

Beijing subsidizes Chinese companies, in particular those deemed state champions, to achieve its economic goals, such as promoting the countrys technological development or industrial competitiveness.

The bill requires that companies reveal whether any of their officers or directors who hold or previously held positions are or were part of the CCP, the Chinese government, or have other Chinese affiliations, according to the press release.

Top executives at major Chinese companies are often Party members or have past affiliations with the Chinese regime. For example, Chinese tech giant Huawei, which has been banned by many countries, including the United States, from their 5G networks, was founded by Ren Zhengfei, a former director of telecoms research in the Chinese militarys General Staff Department.

If enacted, the bill would also require companies to disclose any connection with Chinas strategic initiatives, such as Made in China 2025 or the New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan.

China rolled out the industrial plan Made in China 2025 in 2015, with the aim of making China a global competitor in 10 tech sectors by 2025. These sectors include advanced information technology, robotics, and new energy vehicles.

Beijing has steadily phased out any mentions of Made in China 2025 due to close scrutiny by U.S. officials. In recent months, Beijing has sought to achieve tech domination under a new plan called China Standards 2035, focusing on areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things, and big data.

In 2017, China rolled out the New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development, a roadmap that set out strategic goals by 2020, 2025, and 2030 to achieve major breakthroughs in AI theories such as big data intelligence and human-machine hybrid intelligence. Ultimately, the plan is to turn China into an AI innovation powerhouse by 2030.

The bill would expose Chinese companies raising capital in American markets that are part of broader CCP strategic initiatives that undermine American national security and further some of the CCPs most dangerous activities, Barr said.

Barr is currently a member of the China Task Force, launched by House Republicans in early May to specifically address threats posed by the CCP.
WASHINGTON  A former senior Pentagon official, Michele Flournoy, said Thursday she would be open to serving as the country's first female defense secretary if Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden wins the White House in November.

NBC News correspondent Courtney Kube asked Flournoy if she would accept the job if Biden became president and nominated her for the position. Flournoy said she did not want to engage in speculation but indicated she would be ready to serve if called upon.

"I've spent 30 years in some form of public service either in government or in the non-profit sector. That is my calling," Flournoy said at the Aspen Security Forum, which was held online.

"Who knows, but I have come out and endorsed Joe Biden. I do think he's the right answer for the country. And I would do anything to support his success and for the sake of the country, frankly," she said.

Flournoy, an influential and pragmatic voice on defense issues in Democratic circles, became the first woman to serve as the Pentagon's number three-ranking official in 2009 during the Obama administration. As under secretary of defense for policy from February 2009 to February 2012, Flournoy helped shape national security strategy at a time when tens of thousands of American troops were in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Related: He also accused the U.S. of fueling tensions in the South China Sea by sending ships to the region: "This is really raising the risk of a conflict."

Flournoy criticized how the Trump administration has treated U.S. allies and said the U.S. risked losing its technological edge over China's military within 10 years without changes in strategy and spending on new weapons.

Flournoy also said the U.S. should avoid a hasty troop exit from Afghanistan until a genuine peace negotiation begins between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

"I think it would be a mistake for the U.S. to precipitously draw down or withdraw, particularly to leave before that peace is solidified," she said. "Because we would basically be pulling the carpet out from under our Afghan government partners, and Afghan women and Afghan civil society, that we fought so hard to help achieve a place at the table."
Former Air Force base in Gettysburg on market for $4.5 M

A former air force base near Gettysburg is up for sale. The base is listed as having 50 beds and 15 bathrooms on a 42-acre parcel of land.
The image of Lord Ram and the grand to be built in beamed across a giant billboard at the iconic Times Square in City where members of the Indian community gathered in large numbers to celebrate the Bhoomi Poojan' performed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The bright image of Lord Ram, the grand temple and the Indian tricolour beamed on a giant wrap-around LED display screen on Wednesday.

While the organisers had planned to beam the photos from 8 AM to 10 PM on Wednesday, the image of Lord Ram and the temple was displayed for about four hours till 1 PM.

Extremist groups can try to stymie us but they cannot silence Hindus. Come celebrate our RamJi in Times Square tonight at 7:30 for a diya lighting!! (there will be no displays in the evening), the organisers said on the website ramcelebration.org.

Prominent community leader and President of the American India Public Affairs Committee Jagdish Sewhani and organiser of the event said that the members of the Indian community gathered in huge numbers to celebrate the historic day when Prime Minister Modi performed the Bhoomi Pujan' of the in

Dressed in cultural attires, members of the Indian diaspora from across the tri-state area and many travelling from other states gathered in the evening at Times Square where the organisers had planned to light diyas, sing Bhajans and distribute sweets.

Chanting Jai Shree Ram' and waving flags and banners, the people celebrated the groundbreaking ceremony of the temple in Times Square.

Sources said that the company running the billboard cited legal obligations to say they could not run political advertisements.

The sources, however, added that the image was not political in nature.

They said that the image of Lord Ram being displayed at Times Square, even if for four hours and not for the entire day as initially planned, is unprecedented and historic in itself.

Sewhani had earlier said: This is not a once in a lifetime or a once in a century event. This is an event that comes once in the life of mankind. We had to give it a befitting celebration and what better place than the iconic Times Square to commemorate the 'Ram Janma Bhoomi Shilanyas'.

Under Prime Minister Modi, the construction of the is a dream come true for Hindus all over the world. Till six years back, we never thought that this day will come soon but due to Modi's leadership, this day has come and we want to celebrate it in a befitting way.

However, some groups had voiced opposition to the celebration in Times Square and the display of the image of Lord Ram and the temple on the billboards.

Coalition Against Fascism in India, Hindus for Human Rights and Indian-American Muslim Council had signed a petition to City Mayor Bill de Blasio against the display of the image on billboards.

The Coalition Against Fascism in India had organised a protest at Times Square at the same time that members of the Indian community gathered to celebrate the occasion.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organisation, also opposed the celebration at Times Square.

(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.)
BEIRUT French President Emmanuel Macron called for urgent support for Lebanon where he arrived on Thursday, two days after a devastating blast ripped through Beirut, killing 145 people and generating a seismic shock that was felt across the region.

Dozens are still missing after Tuesdays blast at the port that injured 5,000 people and left up to a quarter of a million without homes fit to live in, hammering a nation already reeling from economic meltdown and a surge in coronavirus cases.

A security source said the death toll had reached 145, and officials said the figure was likely to rise.

Macron, making the first visit by a foreign leader since the explosion, promised to help organise international aid for Lebanon but said its government must implement economic reforms and crack down on corruption.

If these reforms are not made, Lebanon will continue to suffer, Macron said after being met by his Lebanese counterpart Michel Aoun at Beirut airport.

At the port, destroyed by Tuesdays giant mushroom cloud and fireball, families gathered seeking news about the missing, amid public anger at the authorities for allowing highly explosive material to be stored there for years in unsafe conditions.

They will scapegoat somebody to defer responsibility, said Rabee Azar, a 33-year-old construction worker, speaking near the smashed remains of the ports grain silo, surrounded by other mangled masonry and flattened buildings.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab declared three days of mourning from Thursday after the most devastating explosion ever to hit the city that is still scarred by civil war three decades ago.

With banks in crisis, a collapsing currency and one of the worlds biggest debt burdens, Economy Minister Raoul Nehme said Lebanon had very limited resources to deal with the disaster, which by some estimates may have cost the nation up to $15 billion. He said the country needed foreign aid.

DEMANDING REFORM

Offers of medical and other immediate aid have poured in, as officials have said hospitals, some heavily damaged in the blast, do not have enough beds and equipment. But Lebanon was already struggling to secure longer term, economic support.

The governments failure to tackle a runaway budget, mounting debt and endemic corruption has prompted Western donors to demand reform. Gulf Arab states who once helped Lebanon have baulked at bailing out a nation they say is increasingly influenced by their rival Iran.

Lebanons president blamed the explosion on 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, used in fertilisers and bombs, that had been stored for six years at the port after it was seized. He promised to investigate and hold those responsible to account.

The government ordered some port officials to be put under house arrest.

But ordinary Lebanese, who have lost jobs and watched savings evaporate in the financial crisis, blamed politicians in charge during decades of state corruption and bad governance.

Our leaders are crooks and liars. I dont believe any investigation they will do. They destroyed the country and theyre still lying to the people. Who are they kidding? said Jean Abi Hanna, 80, a retired port worker whose home was damaged and daughter and granddaughter injured in the blast.

An official source familiar with preliminary investigations blamed the incident on inaction and negligence, saying nothing was done to remove hazardous material.

ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE

Some local media reported sightings of drones or planes flying in the area shortly before the explosion and some Beirut residents said they saw missiles fired. But officials have denied the incident was the result of any attack.

A Lebanese security source said the initial blaze that sparked the explosion was caused by welding work.

Veteran politician Walid Jumblatt, leader of Lebanons Druze community, called for an international investigation, saying he had no trust in the government to find out the truth.

The White House said the U.S. government had still not ruled out the possibility that Tuesdays explosion was an attack.

People who felt the explosive force said they had witnessed nothing comparable in years of conflict and upheaval in Beirut, which was devastated by the 1975-1990 civil war and since then has experienced big bomb attacks, unrest and a war with Israel.

First we heard one sound. Seconds later there was a big explosion. All hell broke loose, said Ibrahim Zoobi, who works near the port. I saw people thrown five or six metres.

Seismic tremors from the blast were recorded in Eilat on Israels Red Sea coast, about 580 km (360 miles) away.

Beirut Governor Marwan Abboud told Al Hadath TV total losses from the blast could reach $15 billion, including losses to businesses amid the broader fallout.

Operations have been paralysed at Beirut port, Lebanons main route for imports needed to feed a nation of more than 6 million people, forcing ships to divert to smaller ports.

The World Bank said it would work with Lebanons partners to mobilise financing for reconstruction. But it was unclear whether this would affect Lebanons difficult negotiations with the International Monetary Fund.

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Colorado Springs, Aug. 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- Gold Resource Corporation (NYSE American: GORO) (the Company) today announced the appointment of Ms. Kimberly Perry to succeed John Labate as Chief Financial Officer, who is retiring from the Company. Ms. Perry, a current member on the Board of Directors, will move into the CFO position and step down from her board seat effective August 14, 2020. Gold Resource Corporation is a gold and silver producer, developer and explorer with operations in Oaxaca, Mexico and Nevada, USA. The Company has returned consecutive monthly dividends since July 2010 and offers its shareholders the option to convert their cash dividends into physical gold and silver and take delivery.



Ms. Perry has served as a member of the Companys Board of Directors since April 11, 2019. She is an accomplished mining professional with 16 years of industry experience. She has held senior executive positions including most recently at Alacer Gold Corporation as Treasurer & Vice President, and prior to that as Chief Compliance Officer & Director, Internal Audit (2012 to 2019). Prior to her tenure at Alacer Gold, Ms. Perry held increasingly senior positions at Newmont Mining Corporation including Director Finance Solutions, Compliance Audit Executive, and North America Internal Audit Manager (2005 to 2012). Ms. Perry graduated from Auburn University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and is a Certified Public Accountant. Ms. Perry will maintain management of the Companys Safety & Sustainability Committee. The Company plans to appoint a new independent board member in the near future to continue satisfying its exchange listing requirements.

After a successful 35-year career in the mining industry, Mr. Labate has made the decision to retire. Mr. Labate joined the Company as CFO in 2015 and has been instrumental in strengthening the Companys financial strategy and structure. Mr. Labate has agreed to act as a consultant to the Company to ensure a smooth transition.

Story continues

It has truly been a pleasure working with John these past five years, stated Gold Resource Corporations CEO and President, Mr. Jason Reid. His professionalism, excellent work product and positive impact to the Company and its financial team will continue to have a constructive presence even after his departure. On behalf of the Board of Directors and team here at Gold Resource Corporation, we thank you and wish you a happy and content retirement.

I would like to welcome Ms. Perry to her upcoming post as CFO and welcome her to the management team of Gold Resource Corporation, continued Mr. Reid. Knowing her extensive experience and excellent reviews of our financial reports while serving on the Board, as well as her ESG focus, I am confident she will succeed and bring value as the Companys CFO. Welcome aboard.

"It has been a privilege to conclude my work career alongside the talented and dedicated Gold Resource Corporation team," said Mr. Labate. "I am proud of the progress we have made and the team we have built, and I am committed to ensuring a smooth transition."

About GRC:

Gold Resource Corporation is a gold and silver producer, developer and explorer with operations in Oaxaca, Mexico and Nevada, USA. The Company targets low capital expenditure projects with potential for generating high returns on capital. The Company has reached milestones including a decade of production, generated over $1 billion in revenue and has returned $114 million back to its shareholders in consecutive monthly dividends since July 2010. In addition, the Company also offers its shareholders the option to convert their cash dividends into physical gold and silver and take delivery. For more information, please visit GRCs website, located at www.goldresourcecorp.com and read the Companys 10-K for an understanding of the risk factors involved.

Cautionary Statements:

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. The statements contained in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Exchange Act. When used in this press release, the words plan, target, "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "intend" and "expect" and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements include, without limitation, the statements regarding Gold Resource Corporations strategy, future plans for production, future expenses and costs, future liquidity and capital resources, and estimates of mineralized material. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon information available to Gold Resource Corporation on the date of this press release, and the company assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, and there can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those discussed in this press release. In particular, the scope, duration, and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mining operations, Company employees, and supply chains as well as the scope, duration and impact of government action aimed at mitigating the pandemic may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Also, there can be no assurance that production will continue at any specific rate. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those discussed in the Companys 10-K filed with the SEC.

Contacts:

Corporate Development

Greg Patterson

303-320-7708

www.goldresourcecorp.com




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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) New York, United States  Thu, August 6, 2020 11:15 530 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066bf76d0 2 World New-York-Times,subscription,digital-subscribtion,newspaper,news-outlet,media-report,media-industry,media-company,journalism Free

The New York Times on Wednesday reported strong gains in its digital subscriptions, helping the newspaper weather a big decline in advertising revenue.

The prestigious daily said profit in the second quarter dipped six percent to $23.7 million, while revenues declined 7.5 percent to $404 million.

The newspaper added some 669,000 online subscribers in the quarter including 493,000 for its core news product.

That brought the number of digital-only subscriptions to 5.7 million and total subscriptions to 6.5 million, putting the newspaper on track to its goal of 10 million subscribers.

"We've proven that it's possible to create a virtuous circle in which whole-hearted investment in high quality journalism drives deep audience engagement which in turn drives revenue growth and further investment capacity," said outgoing chief executive Mark Thompson.

"This is why our newsroom is growing when so many others are being reduced."

The New York Times Co. announced last month Meredith Kopit Levien would take over as new president and chief executive from Thompson, who held the job for eight years and led the daily's digital transformation.

Kopit Levien, 49, has been chief operating officer since June 2017, a role in which she led digital product efforts, according to the company.

"As I turn over the reins on September 8 to Meredith Kopit Levien, I do so with every confidence that The Times will continue to lead the way in showing that people will pay for accurate, trustworthy news, and that there is a sustainable future for deeply-reported, mission-driven journalism," Thompson said.

The latest quarter results showed a sharp 44 percent drop in ad revenues, attributed to lower demand caused by the COVID-19 outbreak and related economic turmoil.

Subscription revenue increased 8.4 percent, and accounted for more than 70 percent of receipts at the Times, in line with the strategy to reduce dependence on advertising.

Thompson said that "for the first time in our history total digital revenue exceeded print revenue -- a key milestone in the transformation of The New York Times."
Firefighters search debris during rescue efforts at the resort area in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi Province, Monday. Yonhap



By Jung Min-ho






Anger swelled as people demanded to know who was to blame for the explosion, which may have been caused by thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate, an ingredient in both fertilizer and explosives.

Lebanese officials said the dangerous cache arrived aboard a Russian-owned cargo ship that stopped in Beirut more than six years ago. The cargo was headed to Mozambique but was impounded after port officials discovered significant faults on the ship.

We have been waiting for this to be resolved for six years, in vain, the general manager of the port said. The blast displaced some 300,000 people from their homes.

Heres what we know so far. These images show the scale of the destruction.

For those looking for ways to give support, several organizations have mobilized in the region. You can read a personal account from Vivian Yee, our Middle East correspondent, in our Back Story below.
As a legislator and single mom of three boys, I have closely monitored the Texas Education Agencys reopening plans as school districts across Texas struggle to determine when and how campuses will open. Unfortunately, many divorced parents now find themselves in a bind when deciding what is best for their children. That is because thousands of Texas custody orders grant both of them equal rights to make decisions governing their childrens education. The COVID-19 disaster is forcing those parents to make unanticipated choices that they have never faced before and the options seem to be changing daily. What happens if parents disagree?

This is not a problem when one parent is named sole conservator, or given exclusive right to make educational decisions. And, of course, it is always best when parents can agree on their childrens education. When both parents have the right to decide, as is true in a very large number of cases, and they cannot agree, there must be a way to decide the issue.

As a member of the House Committee on Juvenile Justice & Family Issues, I asked the Texas Supreme Court to form a task force to provide guidance to parents and for the courts to address this issue. Many of my colleagues joined my letter.

The reply from Chief Justice Nathan Hecht and the Childrens Commission of the State Supreme Court recognizes the magnitude and complexity of the issue, but concludes that the resolution of parental disagreements over educational issues is both nuanced and fact specific. They concluded the issue cannot be addressed by the kind of blanket Supreme Court orders used to address other issues, including some involving possession orders tied to school calendars.

So, local judges must make decisions in each of these disputes. But the courts themselves have been hamstrung by the pandemic. No one planned for an influx of thousands of cases that could be filed to modify existing orders. While some court proceedings are being handled via Zoom, most cases have been delayed or put on an indefinite hold. Chief Justice Hecht correctly recognized that things are still very much in flux and may later lend themselves to general guidelines. However, parents need a process they can depend on now.

How can parents rely on the overburdened courts to quickly resolve disputes regarding their childrens educational options? I have suggested several steps the Supreme Court could take to help.

First, the Supreme Court should direct all Texas judges to make these cases priorities.

Second, if a trial court that would normally hear a given case is overwhelmed, the judge should ask its regional presiding judge to provide another judge to assist. In Harris County and elsewhere, many courts not specifically designated for family law still have authority to handle those cases. Across Texas, visiting judges can be brought in to help.

Third, the Supreme Court should recognize that many parents, especially those without ready access to a computer or who are not technologically proficient, may have limited access to the courts unless they receive assistance. The court should direct the Texas Access to Justice Commission to reach out to Texas legal aid societies and request they provide emergency assistance to low-income parents with these issues. Finally, the Supreme Court should request assistance from members of the family law bar who are willing to provide services pro bono to those in need.

Emergency orders issued under our Family Code are temporary. Temporary emergency orders can be revised at any time to meet the needs of Texas children. After the disaster, the original orders would once again govern these issues.

Our courts must quickly ramp up to address the needs of Texas children and parents. It is my hope that the Supreme Court will implement our suggestions accordingly. Then, when it convenes in January, the Legislature can make any needed changes in the Family Code.

Calanni represents Texas House District 132.
Bloomberg  58 

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 08:35:20|Editor: huaxia

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ISLAMABAD, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- A Pakistani soldier was killed in firing from across the Afghan border, Pakistan's army said Wednesday night.

An army statement said that mortar and heavy weapons were fired from across the Afghan border in Bin Shahi area of Dir district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

One soldier was killed while two got injured, the statement from the army's media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations said.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a tweet.

Pakistani security officials have long been saying that militants have crossed border into Afghanistan as a result of major operations in the country's tribal regions.

The Pakistani militants routinely attack the border posts from the Afghan side.

Pakistan and Afghanistan have a nearly 2,600-km border, mostly porous. Pakistan is fencing the border with Afghanistan to block the movement of the militants.

Last week, Pakistan's army said that a soldier was killed when terrorists carried out a firing raid from the Afghan side of the border on a security forces' post in Bajaur district, a tribal district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Enditem
There are many cases of social gatherings and parties in Los Angeles, California, since the lockdown was implemented. In order to teach citizens a lesson, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti announced a punishment that they can't resist to happen. Are you still willing to party?





Here's the punishment once caught partying in L.A.

On July 14, famous Youtuber Jake Paul held a huge party in the middle of Coronavirus pandemic, in one of his places at Los Angeles city of Calabasas.

Alicia Weintraub, mayor of the city, was 'outraged' when the news popped out. One of the COVID-19 regulations is to stop all social gatherings and parties at all times, to protect everyone from too much crowd, which could result in virus spread.

Unfortunately, Paul was not the only one. Other popular Youtubers like Tana Mongeau, James Charles, Charli D'Amelio, Emma Chamberlain, and others are also caught in a party during the quarantine.

To solve this problem, L.A. Garcetti has a plan. All houses that will conduct parties and social gatherings will be punished for cutting down their power and water supply.

What will happen?

In a Business Insider report, Garcetti said on Wednesday, Aug. 5, that the rule will be implemented starting on Friday, Aug. 7.

"Starting on Friday night, if LAPD responds and verifies that a large gathering is occurring at a property, and we see these properties offending time and time again, they will provide notice and initiate the process to request that DWP shut off service within the next 48 hours," warns Garcetti.

The regulation is targeted to people that are "determined to break the rules, posing significant public dangers and a threat to all of us."

Even first-time offenders will be facing the same punishment. However, it may also hold off once people still repeatedly violate the social-distancing rules.

Though it did not mention that the rule is meant for all the Youtubers and TikTokers who partied these past weeks, it was apparent where the regulation was referred to.

'We need to follow rules'

Garcetti warns the regular citizens also to stop inviting people over their houses. Once it happened, it could cause "unsafety and cost Angelenos their lives."

He also reminded everyone to follow the rule and put the economy and the lives of all citizens in the right place. As of now, Aug. 6, the number of positive cases in the city is over 500,000, while death counts to nearly 10,000 people.

Maybe, a tough hand is what L.A. needs right now.

ALSO READ: COVID-19 Update: 1 Shot of Moderna Vaccine Can Block Infection for 7 Weeks; 2 Doses Protected Mice for 13 Weeks

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Jamie Pancho

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
New insight on differences in the brains of men and women with autism has been published today in the open-access journal eLife.

The study suggests that autistic men, but not women, have enhanced neural excitability in specific brain regions that are important for social cognition and self-reflection, and this may differentially impact their ability to navigate social situations.

These findings support the idea that imbalances between excitation and inhibition in the brain affect some individuals with autism more than others. They also pave the way for further research to measure the imbalance of excitation and inhibition with non-invasive neuroimaging techniques. This could help scientists evaluate how different treatments may affect this aspect of the brain's biology.

The brain possesses its own natural balance between excitation and inhibition, but this balance differs among individuals. Higher levels of excitation are linked to the function of some autism-relevant genes that are found on the sex chromosomes, and can also be affected by hormones produced in higher quantities in men, such as testosterone. Differences in these sex-related mechanisms are important as autism affects males more than females.

"With this study, we wanted to gain a better understanding of how excitation-inhibition imbalance may affect autistic men differently to women," says one of the study's lead authors, Stavros Trakoshis, a graduate student at the Laboratory for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) in Rovereto, Italy, and also based at the University of Cyprus.

To do this, Trakoshis and his colleagues started by using a computer model that simulates excitatory and inhibitory neurons as they interact and influence each other within the brain. The model allowed them to control the ratio of mixture between excitation and inhibition, simulated these interactions, and then reported neuronal population responses over time. The outputs are similar to data commonly measured with neuroimaging techniques, such as electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Trakoshis and the team observed that specific statistical attributes of the simulated data changed systematically with changes to the underlying excitation-inhibition ratios. These statistical changes were also validated using data from fMRI scans of brains in living mice that were given drugs to induce enhanced excitation.

After validating that non-invasive fMRI can reveal changes to the underlying cellular excitation-inhibition ratio, the team next applied their technique to fMRI data from adult men and women with autism. This revealed that autistic men, but not women, have atypically enhanced excitation in a brain region called the medial prefrontal cortex. The function of this brain region is typically associated with social cognition and self-reflection. The analysis also showed that, in women with autism, a more intact medial prefrontal cortex response (with less enhanced excitation, for example) was associated with better camouflaging of social difficulties in real-world social situations.

"Our work suggests that sex-related biological mechanisms could be integral for how excitation-inhibition balance develops in autistic men versus women," says senior author Michael Lombardo, Director of the Laboratory for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders at the IIT. "This could help explain why we see phenomena such as camouflaging manifesting differently in autistic males versus females."

"Our approach could also be useful for understanding other neurodevelopmental conditions that affect males more than females, such as attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder," Lombardo concludes.
R escuers continue to hunt for survivors following a deadly blast that killed more than 100 people and left thousands injured in Beirut.

Lebanon's Government has put all of its port security officials under arrest while investigators probe the cause of the huge explosion.

The investigation is reportedly focusing on possible negligence in the storage of tonnes of a highly explosive fertiliser in a waterfront warehouse.

In particular, investigators will be asking how 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive chemical used in fertilisers, came to be stored at the facility for six years and why nothing was done about it.

The blast's death toll has risen to 135 people with 5,000 injured and 300,000 left homeless.

International aid flights began to arrive as Lebanon's leaders struggled to deal with the widespread damage and shocking aftermath of Tuesday's blast.

Lebanon: Beirut explosion aftermath - In pictures 1 /90 Lebanon: Beirut explosion aftermath - In pictures The scene of an explosion in Beirut AFP via Getty Images A man reacts at the scene of an explosion at the port in Lebanon's capital Beirut AFP via Getty Images Firefighters spray water at a fire following an explosion in Beirut's port area, Lebanon REUTERS A helicopter puts out a fire at the scene of an explosion at the port of Lebanon's capital Beirut AFP via Getty Images An aerial view of ruined structures at the port Getty Images A Lebanese couple drive past the debris of a building in the damaged neighbourhood of Mar Mikhael AFP via Getty Images An aerial view of ruined structures at the port Getty Images Lebanese activists take part in a campaign to clean the damaged neighbourhood of Mar Mikhael AFP via Getty Images An aerial view of ruined structures at the port, Getty Images A statue representing the Lebanese expatriate is seen in front of a building that was damaged by an explosion that hit the seaport of Beirut, Lebanon AP A fireball exploding while smoke is billowing at the port of the Lebanese capital Beirut MOUAFAC HARB/AFP via Getty Image Lebanese firefighters work at the scene of an explosion in the Lebanese capital Beirut AFP via Getty Images The scene of an explosion at the port in the Lebanese capital Beiru AFP via Getty Images A helicopter puts out a fire at the scene of an explosion at the port of Lebanon's capital Beirut AFP via Getty Images TALAL TRABOULSI via REUTERS A view shows the aftermath of yesterday's blast at the port of Lebanon's capital Beiru AFP via Getty Images Lebanese soldiers search for survivors after a massive explosion in Beirut, Lebanon AP A man walks by an overturned car and destroyed buildings on August 4, 2020 in Beirut, Lebano Getty Images Lebanese soldiers search for survivors after a massive explosion in Beirut, Lebanon AP A view shows the aftermath of yesterday's blast at the port of Lebanon's capital Beiru AFP via Getty Images Smoke rises after an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon via REUTERS A drone picture shows the scene of an explosion that hit the seaport of Beirut, Lebanon AP People gather outside American University of Beirut (AUB) medical centre following an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon REUTERS People ride past a car destroyed after a building wall collapsed after a large explosion in Beirut Getty Images Damaged church and vehicles are seen following yesterday's blast that shook the Lebanese capital Beirut AFP via Getty Images A drone picture shows the scene of an explosion at the seaport of Beirut, Lebanon AP The scene of an explosion at the port of Lebanon's capital Beirut AFP via Getty Images Buildings and cars are partially destroyed in the neighbourhood of Mar Mikhael following an explosion at the port of Beiru AFP via Getty Images A rescue worker tends to an injured man following an explosion at the port of Beirut AFP via Getty Images Smoke rises from a port facility after large explosions Getty Images The destroyed silo sits in rubble and debris after an explosion at the seaport of Beirut, Lebanon AP Smoke is seen after an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon GABY MAAMARY via REUTERS Civilians help an injured man at the explosion scene that hit the seaport of Beirut, Lebanon AP Smoke rises as people walk near the site of an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon REUTERS Lebanese soldiers stand outside American University of Beirut (AUB) medical centre following an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon REUTERS Smoke rises from a port facility after large explosions Getty Images Damaged vehicle and buildings are pictured near the site of Tuesday's blast in Beirut's port area, Lebanon REUTERS A general view shows the damage near the site of Tuesday's blast in Beirut's port area, Lebanon REUTERS People stand near damaged cars following an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon REUTERS Smoke rises from a port facility after large explosions Getty Images People inspect the damage near the site of Tuesday's blast in Beirut's port area, Lebanon REUTERS A view shows the damaged facade of a building following Tuesday's blast in Beirut's port area, Lebano REUTERS A wounded man walks next to a damaged car on a street, following an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon via REUTERS Damaged buildings are seen after an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon via REUTERS Smoke rises over destroyed structures following large explosion Getty Images A view shows the aftermath at the site of Tuesday's blast in Beirut's port area, Lebanon REUTERS Smoke rises from a port facility after large explosion Getty Images AFP via Getty Images AFP via Getty Images AFP via Getty Images AFP via Getty Images AFP via Getty Images AFP via Getty Images REUTERS AFP via Getty Images AFP via Getty Images AFP via Getty Images AFP via Getty Images AFP via Getty Images AFP via Getty Images REUTERS REUTERS AFP via Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images REUTERS REUTERS Getty Images

Losses from the blast are estimated to be between $10 billion to $15 billion, Beirut Governor Marwan Abboud told Saudi-owned TV station Al-Hadath.

Hospitals were overwhelmed by the injured. One that was damaged in the blast had to evacuate all its patients to a nearby field for treatment.

It was the worst single explosion to strike Lebanon, a country whose history is filled with destruction  from a 1975-1990 civil war, conflicts with Israel and periodic terrorist attacks.

Lebanon already was on the brink of collapse amid a severe economic crisis and the coronavirus pandemic.

Many have lost their jobs and seen their savings evaporate because of a currency crisis.

Food security is a worry, since the country imports nearly all its vital goods and its main port is now devastated. The Government is strapped for cash.

Lebanon's economy was already in ruins before the blast / REUTERS

"Beirut as we know it is gone and people won't be able to rebuild their lives," said Amy, a woman who swept glass from a small alley beside by a tall building that served as a showroom for a famous Lebanese designer.

"This is hell. How are they (people) going to survive. What are they going to do?" she said, blaming officials for lack of responsibility and "stupidity."

President Michael Aoun vowed before a Cabinet meeting that the investigation would be transparent and that those responsible will be punished.

"There are no words to describe the catastrophe that hit Beirut last night," he said.

After the meeting, the Cabinet ordered an unspecified number of Beirut port officials put under house arrest pending the investigation.
Sweden's light-touch lockdown failed to spare its economy from a historic plunge in GDP as COVID-19 triggered a collapse in exports and spending.

Output contracted by a record 8.6 per cent in the second quarter compared with the previous three months, but the Nordic nation suffered a much smaller hit than many European economies. Despite some of the most relaxed COVID-19 restrictions in the world, its exporters were hit by tumbling global demand and household spending slumped as the virus struck.

Sweden took an unconventional approach to a lockdown. Credit:AP

"The economic crunch over the first half of the year is in a different league entirely to the horror shows elsewhere in Europe," said David Oxley at Capital Economics.

It is "still likely to be among the best of a bad bunch this year", he said, pointing to signs of a rebound at the start of the third quarter. While the hit to GDP was lower than the 12 per cent slump in the eurozone in the second quarter, Sweden's Nordic neighbours have managed to avoid both a health and economic crisis.
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Tomorrow could be the hottest day in British history as a sweltering 110F (38C) may roast the country at the start of a six-day heatwave.

Temperatures will rocket above 86F (30C) every day from today - hotter than Barbados and Jamaica - until at least next Tuesday, with the Met Office issuing a level-three heat health alert which warns Britons to look out for the elderly, vulnerable and young children.

There are also fears tourists flocking to coastal hotspots will ignore social distancing rules and cram on to packed seafronts in scenes similar to last weekend - risking further spread of the dreaded coronavirus.

Forecasters said there was a chance tomorrow will pass the 100.04F (37.8C) high recorded in London last Friday, which was the UK's hottest day of the year so far and the country's third warmest ever.

Britain has never recorded two days with temperatures over 99F (37C) in the same year in more than 100 years of observations. Tomorrow's temperature needs to top 101.7F (38.7C) it hit in Cambridge last July, as well as the 101.3F (38.5C) in Faversham, Kent, in August 2003.

The Met Office warned people in South East England to close curtains on rooms facing the sun to keep indoor spaces cooler, drink plenty of fluids, avoid excess alcohol, dress appropriately and 'slow down when it is hot'.

It comes as the staycation boom continues, with Britons flocking to seasides across the UK and Halfords reporting a sales surge in camping equipment since lockdown was lifted on July 4 - with gas stoves up 300 per cent, cool boxes up 180 per cent, airbeds up 130 per cent, roofboxes up 165 per cent and camping chairs up 120 per cent.

Hot weather brings sunseekers out to beach at Brighton in East Sussex today as temperatures start to rise again in Britain

A girl is among a group of children jumping into the sea off a pontoon in Brighton this afternoon as the sun came out again

Swarms of people were seen relaxing on Bournemouth beach today

A woman's hair flicks back as she launches herself off a pontoon in Brighton in East Sussex as men stand behind her fishing

A group of mates backflip off Cullercoats pier on North Tyneside this afternoon as they cool down in the sea as the mercury continues to rise

People make the most of warm weather at Camber in East Sussex today as the South East experiences hotter temperatures

A groups of friends play volleyball on the sand at Tynemouth's Longsands beach in the North East on Thursday afternoon

Crowds of people flocked to Bournemouth beach today to enjoy the warm temperatures

One sunbather chats on her mobile phone as she tans on the pebbles at Brighton beach on the south coast ahead of a five-day heatwave

A man and a woman lie on towels as they enjoy the soft sand at Bournemouth beach this afternoon as crowds start to gather in coastal resorts

The mercury in London had already hit 68F (20C) by 6am today, with highs of 86F (30C) this afternoon, before 100F (38C) tomorrow, 91F (33C) on Saturday, 88F (31C) on Sunday and Monday and 86F (30C) on Tuesday.

But the RNLI has warned of 'plenty of potential dangers' amid an expected rush to the beaches during the UK's staycation surge which has been boosted by foreign holidays now being in doubt due to coronavirus restrictions.

The heat is from southerly winds moving from Europe and parts of northern Africa and is expected to stay around well into next week, although it may then be replaced by thunderstorms by next Wednesday.

This morning will have a cloudy but generally dry start to the day, although this will be replaced by hot sunny spells that will continue over the weekend and into the early part of next week.

Sunseekers head to Brighton beach in East Sussex today as temperatures rise across the UK and another heatwave begins

Thrillseekers were spotted plunging off a ledge into a sea from Cullercoats pier on North Tyneside

Families head to Bournemouth beach in Dorset today to enjoy the warm conditions as a six-day heatwave gets underway

Pepole enjoy the warm weather at Bournemouth beach in Dorset today as very hot conditions are forecast for England

Two women sit and have a chat on the sand at Bournemouth beach today as they relax on a Thursday off work

Crowds started tp gather again at Bournemouth beach today as families and youths took to the coast to enjoy the hot weather today

A paddle boarder enjoys the hot weather amid the calm waters at Tynemouth's Longsands beach

The Heacham beach in Norfolk is starting to get busy as the heatwave continues and scorching temperatures are expected tomorrow

Eight surfers prepare to take to the waves on Tynemouth's Longsands beach on Thursday afternoon as the sun came out

Beachgoers relaxed in the sun at Longsands beach in Tynemouth

Much of the South of England will be hotter than the Caribbean, with highs of 91F (33C) in Jamaica and just 84F (29C) Barbados. But sleeping will be comfortable, with a maximum of 15C (59F) expected over the next few nights.

Plea to beachgoers as Britain braces for another rush to the coast The RNLI has urged families heading to the beach this week to be aware of potential dangers as the UK braces itself for a potential heatwave. Last Friday, on the hottest day of the year so far, The Coastguard reported its busiest day for more than four years as it dealt with more than 300 incidents. Ahead of this week's sunny spell, Gareth Morrison, RNLI head of water safety, said: 'Our coastline is a fantastic place to spend time together as a family, especially when the sun is out and it's hot. 'But there are also plenty of potential dangers, especially for those who aren't fully aware of their surroundings and may be visiting a particular beach for the first time. 'We are advising everyone planning a visit to a beach or the coast to follow (the) beach safety advice.' Advertisement

Met Office forecaster Oli Claydon said: 'There's a strong likelihood London and the South East could see a heatwave this week, with four or even five consecutive days of incredibly warm temperatures reaching a high of 37C (99F) on Friday.'

The threshold for a heatwave is three days over 82F (28C) in London and 77F (25C) in most other parts of the country. Today, Much of the South will reach 84F (29C) this afternoon, with 75F (24C) in the north.

Tomorrow will peak in the mid to high-30Cs around East Anglia, Kent and London, while up to 84F (29C) is expected in Manchester and Liverpool. The heat could generate showers but these will be light and fleeting.

Saturday will see temperatures remain in the 90Fs (mid-20Cs) in the North, while 95F (35C) will still be typical in the South. Sunday will see the mercury hit the 80Fs (mid to high-20Cs) throughout England and Wales, before temperatures climb again the following day.

Another Met Office forecaster, Greg Dewhurst, said: 'Next week's models are looking at 32C (90F) to 33C (91F) again from Monday, so it's just a slight dip on Sunday but it will still be warm.

'There will be cooler, fresher weather when we get to Wednesday or Thursday as the winds start to come from the north rather than the south.' He added: 'I wouldn't call it a mini-heatwave. I'd just say heatwave.'

The Met Office said there was a 'low chance' that last week's record temperature would be beaten again but that large parts of the UK would see 'four or even five consecutive days of incredibly warm temperatures'.

A spokesman said: 'It is the result of southerly winds moving from Europe and parts of northern Africa, which will push the temperatures up. It's pretty unusual to get two successive events like this within a week of each other with such high temperatures.'

The Met Office has issued a level three heat health alert which warns Britons to look out for the elderly and young children

Friends and family splash around in the waves below the cliffs at Bournemouth as the mercury shot up again on Thursday afternoon

A man prepares to launch the ball over the net as he takes part in a game of volleyball at Tynemouth's Longsands beach

Tourists and locals take a stroll along the promenade at Bournemouth beach today as crowds gathered on the beach below

Emergency powers are used to stop wild camping in parts of Dartmoor amid surge in staycation visitors A temporary ban on wild camping has been introduced in one of the few places it is legal in England and Wales, following a surge of visitors to the area. Dartmoor National Park Authority has used emergency powers under the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985 after large numbers of people treated Riddon Ridge at Bellever as an informal campsite. People are usually legally allowed to backpack camp - carrying their own equipment as part of their walk and staying one to two nights maximum - in certain areas of Dartmoor. But since the easing of Covid-19 lockdown restrictions, the area has seen a significant increase in numbers, with people camping in tents, motorhomes and camper vans - many in breach of the National Park byelaws. Dartmoor National Park Authority said there had been 'unsustainable levels' of anti-social behaviour at Bellever, with littering, human waste and fires causing damage to habitats and animals. On one night in July, 70 tents were recorded at Bellever and 50 fire pits were counted along a 500 metre length of river bank. There were large amounts of debris including broken bottles, plastic bottles and bags, disposable barbecues, wet wipes and used toilet paper left behind. The shaded area shows where camping is allowed in Dartmoor. There is a temporary ban on all overnight stays and camping in the Bellever area from August 7 until September 2 Kevin Bishop, chief executive of Dartmoor National Park Authority said, 'There is absolutely no excuse for this type of behaviour. We recognise the coronavirus pandemic has been a difficult time for us all and that people want to come to Dartmoor to enjoy the fresh air, get some exercise and connect with nature. 'We enjoy seeing people benefit from this, it's great for their physical and mental health and wellbeing. But we, alongside other National Parks and countryside organisations, are appalled and concerned at the actions of the disrespectful few; those who are treating the countryside like a toilet or a rubbish dump. There is simply no excuse for it.' The camping ban, lasting for 27 days, comes into force from Friday to prevent large numbers of people camping and to allow the area to recover. It has been enforced under S10 (4) of the Dartmoor Commons Act and prohibits overnight sleeping or camping and the pitching of tents at all times in the Bellever and Riddon Ridge area. National Park marshals, supported by funding from the Devon and Cornwall police and crime commissioner, will be employed to assist rangers with enforcing the ban. Dartmoor National Park Authority said the lighting of campfires and moving of stones posed a 'real threat' to Bellever's ancient monuments, field systems and 3,000-year-old Bronze Age hut circles. Discarded rubbish is harmful to wildlife and other animals living on the moor, with plastic bags and wet wipes not good for ponies to eat. The authority said it was concerned that a 'wholly avoidable health hazard' was being created due to the high levels of human waste left at the site. It is also making it 'almost impossible' for other people and local residents, who are respectful of the countryside, to enjoy the area, it said. Simon Lee, ranger team manager, said: 'We've not experienced anything like this before across the National Park. Most of our work is clearing debris people have abandoned, rather than doing vital access work and helping people get the most from their visit. 'This unsociable behaviour is taking up lots of our time and poses a big risk to other people, wildlife and habitats. The situation is becoming intolerable; no one should need to see or deal with this type of mess and that's why we're taking this action.' The ban is supported by partners including Devon and Cornwall Police and the area's police and crime commissioner Alison Hernandez, as well as the landowner and Forestry England, which manages the neighbouring Bellever Forest. Sergeant Seth Saunders said it was 'crucial' that people were respectful of the local communities, habitats and wildlife on Dartmoor. 'Officers will be in the area in coming days supporting Dartmoor Rangers to engage with members of the public in efforts to prevent disorder and anti-social behaviour,' he said. Since lockdown eased, more waste than authorities usually see in a year has been collected from the site. Ben Robinson, forester for Forestry England said: 'This situation is simply unsustainable, and is diverting time and money that could be better spent maintaining this beautiful landscape and improving access for all. It is sad that it has come to this, but we fully support Dartmoor National Park's necessary action.' Advertisement

It comes after a YouGov poll found 28 per cent of Britons plan to take a holiday in the UK this year - the equivalent of 19million people - while only 9 per cent will go abroad and a further 49 per cent do not intend on holidaying.

Top temperatures since UK records began in 1659 July 25, 2019 - 101.7F (38.7C) - Cambridge August 10, 2003 - 101.3F (38.5C) - Faversham, Kent July 31, 2020 - 100F (37.8C) - London Heathrow August 3, 1990 - 98.8F (37.1C) - Cheltenham Advertisement

And the warm weather will concern local authorities in areas such as Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Sussex which can expect another huge influx of holidaymakers as people in the UK shun foreign trips to go on staycations.

Beleaguered Cornish residents reported over the weekend how the popular county had turned into 'Benidorm on steroids' as floods of visitors left them too scared to leave their homes.

Meanwhile Thanet District Council in Kent begged people to avoid four of the area's beaches - including the popular Margate's Main Sands - due to the number of visitors.

And a drunken fight broke out on the seafront in Brighton last Saturday night as two women went toe-to-toe and others cheered and ignored social distancing.

Over the weekend, street marshals were deployed in Cornwall as tourists poured down narrow streets and flouted social-distancing rules - despite clear warning signs in place.

Cornwall Council slammed the 'ignorant' visitors who descended on beauty spots without their face masks, as Britons elsewhere appeared to ignore social distancing rules while gathering at bars.

A stunning shot shows sunseekers start to gather on Bournemouth beach today ahead of another boiling weekend across England

People queue to get refreshments from a Cornish pasty shop on the seafront in Bournemouth, Dorset, this afternoon

Two people shut their eyes as they sunbathe on the sand at Bournemouth beach as the sun came out again on Thursday afternoon

Holidaymakers and locals took to the seaside as calm waters made for perfect swimming conditions today in Bournemouth

Lucy Bishop (left) and Lauren Barclay walk through a field of sunflowers in Altrincham, Cheshire, as the warm weather continues

A bee rests on a sunflower in Altrincham, Cheshire, as another stands nearby as the warm weather continues across Britain today
Health authorities are scrambling to confirm whether the latest suspected coronavirus case in Queensland is a positive result.

Health Minister Steven Miles said a 68-year-old Ipswich woman returned a positive result for COVID-19 on Wednesday before a second swab showed 'mixed results' including a negative test.

'She certainly tested positive on the first test, and that's why we reported it,' Mr Miles told ABC Radio.

'Subsequent tests came back negative, so we're just working through what's happened there.'

Queensland health authorities are scrambling to confirm whether the latest coronavirus case in the state was a false positive or not after a second test returned 'mixed results' (healthcare worker pictured conducting a COVID-19 test)

Mr Miles said a series of new tests will be conducted on Thursday to determine a conclusive result.

'We're doing a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test, a serology test today and that will tell us one way or the other,' he said.

'The stakes of that could be high.'

Mr Miles is concerned they haven't yet been able to establish where the 68-year-old could have contracted coronavirus.

'We are starting to have more confidence that we've found all cases, but we won't know for sure until we hit the 14 day mark,' he said.

'The weekend was tense, we thought there would be multiple outbreaks and we were concerned by the aged care facility... it was a relief when those 105 residents all tested negative.'

It was the only new case recorded in Queensland on Wednesday and if confirmed as a true positive it will bring the state's total to 1,088 with six deaths.

The Ipswich woman was the only new case in Queensland on Wednesday, if proven positive it brings the state's total to 1,088 with six deaths

The possible case comes only days before Queensland will close its border to New South Wales from 1am on Saturday, August 8.

The decision to close the border came after Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young declared NSW a coronavirus hotspot, which also includes the ACT.

People from non-hotspot locations will have to travel to Queensland by air or via the Northern Territory border.

The border closure will be reviewed again at the end of August.
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Tel Aviv (AFP) - Lebanon's flag was projected from Tel Aviv's city hall on Wednesday after the devastating Beirut blasts, in Israel's latest gesture towards a country with which it is technically at war.

"Humanity precedes any conflict, and our hearts are with the Lebanese people in the wake of the terrible disaster that befell them," Tel Aviv's Mayor Ron Huldai said on Twitter ahead of the event.

Dozens of Israeli passers-by in Rabin Square below city hall looked on as white, red and green lights on the windows of the large building in the centre of the Mediterranean city lit up at 7:55 pm (1655GMT).

Tel Aviv resident Russel told AFP he was "very proud" to live in the city.

"Innocent people were killed and our hearts go out to them. This has nothing to do with politics. This has nothing to do with borders," he said.

"This has to do with people to people and Tel Aviv is a city that loves people."

Not all Israelis supported the city hall's gesture of solidarity.

Israel's minister for Jerusalem affairs, a member of the far-right Jewish Home party, condemned the move following the explosions at Beirut port that killed more than 110 people and injured thousands of others across the city.

"It is possible and necessary to provide humanitarian aid to civilians who were hurt in Lebanon, but waving an enemy flag in the heart of Tel Aviv is moral confusion," Raffi Peretz wrote on Twitter.

Israel and Lebanon are still technically at war, while tensions with the powerful Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah have spiked in recent weeks.

Hezbollah and Israel fought a devastating month-long conflict in 2006 in which Lebanon's infrastructure was battered in heavy Israeli air strikes.

The war killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 160 Israelis, most of them soldiers.

But on Tuesday, hours after the tragedy in Beirut, right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his National Security Council had offered Lebanon aid, via the United Nations.

Story continues

Addressing Israel's parliament on Wednesday, Netanyahu extended "condolences to the people of Lebanon" and said Israel remained ready to offer "humanitarian assistance" to those affected.

In Gaza, a Palestinian territory where the poverty rate exceeds 50 percent due at least in part to a crippling Israeli blockade, residents of Khan Yunis organised a blood drive for casualties in Beirut.

Israel tightly controls everything that enters and exits the Islamist Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, but local authorities in Khan Younis said they were working with the Red Cross and Red Crescent to deliver the donated blood to Lebanon.
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Clear Ice Makers Market is estimated to be valued at USD 2,861.1 Billion by 2025, registering a CAGR of 6.27% during the forecast period. The growth of the foodservice industry and increasing use of clear ice makers in households are the major factors driving market growth. Product innovation is expected to create new opportunities for vendors active in the global market. However, the need for high initial investments is restricting the growth of the market.

North America accounted for a dominant share of the global clear ice makers market in 2018. The regional market is projected to exhibit a CAGR of 6.13% during the review period. The increasing consumption of alcoholic beverages is anticipated to fuel the growth of the clear ice makers market in North America. Also, product launches are a major trend gaining traction in the North American clear ice makers market. The US accounted for 78.70% of the regional market in 2018 and the market is estimated to remain dominant during the forecast period. The European garnered a significant market share in 2018 and is expected to exhibit an above-average growth rate during the forecast period. However, the market in Asia-Pacific is projected to register the highest growth rate of 6.71% during the forecast period. Rapid urbanization and a growing number of restaurants and bars are anticipated to drive the growth of the clear ice makers market in the region.

Get a Free Sample Copy @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/8590

Segmental Analysis

The Global Clear Ice Makers Market has been segmented on the basis of Product Type, Category, End Use, Distribution Channel and Region.

By product type, the market has been divided into flake ice makers, ice cube makers, nugget ice makers, and others.

In terms of category, the global clear ice makers market has been bifurcated into mass-market and premium.

Based on end use, the global clear ice makers market has been classified as residential and commercial.

On the basis of distribution channel, the market has been bifurcated into store-based and non-store-based. The store-based distribution channel segment is estimated to retain its dominance during the forecast period. However, the non-store-based segment is projected to register the higher growth rate during the forecast period. The store-based segment has been further divided into supermarkets & hypermarkets and specialty stores.

Regional Analysis

Geographically, the global clear ice makers market has been categorized as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the rest of the world (RoW). As per MRFR analysis, North America dominated the market, accounting for the largest share in 2018. The market in Asia-Pacific is expected to register the highest CAGR of 6.71% during the forecast period. Europe accounted for the second-largest market share in 2018.

Browse Full Report Details @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/clear-ice-makers-market-8590

Key Players

Market Research Future recognizes Welbilt Inc. (US), Electrolux AB (Sweden), Sunpentown Inc. (US), Hoshizaki Corporation (Japan), Igloo Products Corp. (US), NewAir (US), Himalyanequipment Manufacturing Co. (India), Koller Refrigeration & Equipment (Hong Kong), Cornelius, Inc. (US), Ice-O-Matic (US), Scotsman Ice Machines (US), and Whynter LLC (US) as the key players in the Global Clear Ice Makers Market.

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Our team of researchers are studying Covid19 and its impact on various industry verticals and wherever required will be considering covid19 footprints for a better analysis of markets and industries. Cordially get in touch for more details.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug.6

By Ilhama Isabalayeva - Trend:

A lump-sum compensation is envisioned to be paid to Azerbaijans health workers who became temporarily disabled due to coronavirus infection, as well as families of the workers who died from this disease, the State Agency on Mandatory Health Insurance told Trend.

According to the agency, the Ministry of Finance has already prepared proposals to pay a lump-sum compensation to them.

Currently, the discussions of issues on the project implementation with relevant government authorities are underway, the agency said.
NETANYA, Israel, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE: CEL) (TASE: CEL) (hereinafter: the "Company") announced today that a purported class action was filed against the Company, alleging that the Company misled its customers by failing to disclose certain information in relation to a certain service. The amount claimed from the Company, if the lawsuit is certified as a class action, was estimated by the plaintiff to be approximately NIS 179 million. At this preliminary stage, the Company is unable to assess the lawsuit's chances of success.

About Cellcom Israel

Cellcom Israel Ltd., established in 1994, is a leading Israeli communications group, providing a wide range of communications services. Cellcom Israel is the largest Israeli cellular provider, providing its approximately 2.747 million cellular subscribers (as at March 31, 2020) with a broad range of services including cellular telephony, roaming services for tourists in Israel and for its subscribers abroad, text and multimedia messaging, advanced cellular content and data services and other value-added services in the areas of music, video, mobile office etc., based on Cellcom Israel's technologically advanced infrastructure. The Company operates an LTE 4 generation network and an HSPA 3.5 Generation network enabling advanced high speed broadband multimedia services, in addition to GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks. Cellcom Israel offers Israel's broadest and largest customer service infrastructure including telephone customer service centers, retail stores, and service and sale centers, distributed nationwide. Cellcom Israel further provides OTT TV services, internet infrastructure and connectivity services and international calling services, as well as landline telephone services in Israel. Cellcom Israel's shares are traded both on the New York Stock Exchange (CEL) and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (CEL).

For additional information please visit the Company's website http://investors.cellcom.co.il.

Company Contact Elad Levy Investor Relations Manager [email protected] Tel: +972-52-998-4774 Investor Relations Contact Ehud Helft GK Investor & Public Relations [email protected] Tel: +1 617 418 3096

SOURCE Cellcom Israel Ltd.
The immediate cause of that explosion, which sent a towering plume of red smoke into the sky, appeared to be 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly volatile material used in fertilizer that can also be used to make bombs. It was stored in a warehouse at the port for about six years despite repeated warnings about the risk it posed  a revelation that has shaken Lebanon and crystallized decades of frustration at feckless political parties.
Signals begin to appear on the Arab landscape that the paralysis of the last nine and a half years, in terms of finding Arab solutions to Arab problems, is over

For the last nine and a half years, the Arab world has failed to have a determining say in how Arab crises and conflicts unfolded. Most Arab countries stood almost helpless before the Arab drama of countries torn apart, and Syria is a crying example, with Arab people either displaced, killed, maimed or seeking asylum in foreign lands. In some cases, they became silent numbers among those drowned in the Mediterranean while escaping the countries of their fathers and grandfathers.

The near absence of Arab countries from international and regional efforts to search for permanent solutions to these crises and conflicts made it easy for regional powers to shape the outcomes and the destinies of Arab lands and people. It is no wonder that the Astana Process comprises Russia, Turkey and Iran, and these three powers have been trying for the last three years to shape the future of Syria without the presence of any Arab power.

Sadly enough, the future of the Middle East has been discussed, debated and is being negotiated at the expense of Arab interests and future security.

The Arab League is another absentee from international and regional deliberation concerning Arab questions. However, Libya is an exception for the Arab League has partnered with both the European Union and the African Union in a joint effort to push for a negotiated solution to the intractable Libyan question, which the United Nations has warned lately could trigger a regional war.

This near Arab paralysis is unprecedented. Previously, the Arabs had mustered enough political will coupled with a common vision to deal with a myriad of threats and challenges to their independence and national security. That coincided, historically, with an active Arab policy by Egypt. Egyptian diplomacy had been proactive at dangerous crossroads in modern Arab history. In 1961, Egypt was behind the decision to send Arab peacekeeping forces to the Kuwaiti borders with Iraq after the latter, under the Abdel-Karim Kassam government, threatened to invade. Nine years later, Egypt under the leadership of late president Gamal Abdel-Nasser called for an emergency Arab summit to defuse the Jordanian-Palestinian crisis that could have pitted the Jordanian army against Palestinian national liberation forces in Jordan.

Egypt hosted in 1990 another summit to deal with the catastrophic Iraqi invasion of Kuwait that had taken place 2 August the same year.

In the last nine and a half years, Egyptian diplomacy has faced serious challenges to which it allocated almost all of its resources, let alone the internal political situation up to 2014. After the election of present Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi, we could argue that Egypt has become more involved in Arab affairs based on the perception that Egyptian national security cannot be delinked from the national security of other Arab countries. We have seen how Egypt has taken a firm stand on the Libyan question, and how the Egyptian president let it be known that Cairo could intervene militarily in Libya under certain circumstances that could develop into a major threat along its western borders.

On 27 July, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faysal Bin Farhan paid a visit to Cairo where he held talks with the Egyptian president as well as Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry. His visit came in the context of a tour in North Africa that included Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.

Judging from the statements he made in the capitals he visited, it seems that Saudi Arabia is trying to elaborate a joint Arab position against growing Turkish meddling, mainly in Libya, along with other Arab countries like Syria and Iraq.

The Saudi efforts are welcome by Egypt and other North African countries, save the Libyan Government of National Accord based in Tripoli  a government whose will has been superseded by Turkish dictates.

The recent Arab awakening could become a driver for the implementation of UN Security Council resolutions pertaining to Libya and other Arab crises. Needless to say, the road would be relatively bumpy, for the regional powers that have held sway during the last decade in Arab affairs would not welcome easily the return of a more proactive Arab diplomacy. These regional powers have enjoyed a free hand for a long period of time, meddling dangerously in Arab countries. Still, there is no other alternative before the Arabs if they are really serious in regaining the initiative in finding permanent Arab solutions for Arab conflicts.

Libya is a good starting point on this path. If the neighbouring countries of Libya with the weight of Saudi Arabia could come together, once again, to broker a negotiated political solution to the Libyan question, that could be tried elsewhere in the Arab world  particularly in Syria. For this to succeed, Arab countries, or some of them, particularly in the Gulf, should think seriously hard about dropping their grievances and objections to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.

In the not-too-distant past, the Arabs were always successful in marshalling enough political will to find quick solutions to problems that could develop into major conflicts if kept unresolved. The Arabs have a chance today to try and muster enough political will to turn the page of their paralysis in the last nine and a half years. For this to materialise, Egypt should take the initiative in sustained diplomatic efforts across the Arab world. It should seek common denominators with other Arab countries, and its objectives should be in complete alignment with resolutions adopted by the Security Council related to the crises and conflicts that have been raging  unnecessarily  across the Arab world.

The writer is former assistant foreign minister.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 6 August, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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PITTSBURGH, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- "Traditional sink sprayers get in the way," said an inventor, from Lebanon, Tenn. "I though there could be a better design, so I invented the TUBELESS SINK SPRAYER."

The patent-pending invention provides a more effective sink sprayer option for a kitchen sink. In doing so, it eliminates the hassles associated with traditional, corded sink sprayers and guiding a length of water tube back into the base. As a result, it increases maneuverability and convenience. The invention features an ergonomic design that is easy to install and use so it is ideal for households, plumbers, contractors and do-it-yourselfers. Additionally, it is producible in design variations.

The inventor described the invention design. "My design provides added convenience when washing dishes."

The original design was submitted to the Nashville sales office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 19-NMJ-511, 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

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BALTIMORE  A Maryland state trooper pleaded guilty to perjury and misconduct charges for fabricating drunken-driving arrests and issuing tickets to people who did not exist, in an apparent attempt to boost his stats.

The Attorney Generals Office, which handled the case, said Cpl. John Sollon, 36, was assigned to the unit that specializes in DUI cases. Between Jan. 20, 2018, and Dec. 29, 2019, prosecutors said Sollon charged fictitious people in six arrests that had not occurred.

In each case, no actual traffic stop was conducted, no individual was arrested, and the individual purportedly stopped did not exist, the Attorney Generals Office said in a news release.

The charges were forwarded to the District Court for adjudication, and in four of the cases arrest warrants were issued for the fictitious people not appearing in court.

State police said Sollon was reported by fellow troopers.

Sollon was charged late last month and pleaded guilty Wednesday, receiving a suspended sentence of six years, to be followed by three years of probation. He also was fined $6,000 and has to perform 300 hours of community service.

Maryland State Police give out awards for top producing troopers who make the most DUI arrests. Sollon was a member of S.P.I.D.R.E., which stands for State Police Impaired Driving Effort and is described as an elite unit, since its inception in 2013.

The Attorney Generals Office noted that in 2018, the fake arrests allowed Sollon to reach 30, the threshold to receive a traffic safety award. In 2019, they pushed him over 50 arrests, which set a S.P.I.D.R.E. supervisor record.

Sollons defense attorney declined to comment.

In three of the four cases in which court officials believed those arrested had failed to appear for court, other police officers traveled to the addresses Sollon listed for the fictitious defendants in futile efforts to serve warrants, prosecutors said.

The citizens of Maryland have an expectation that law enforcement officers are conducting their jobs honestly and with the utmost integrity, state Attorney General Brian Frosh said. When officers do not tell the truth, it is a betrayal of the public trust.

Story continues

Sollon remains employed but suspended without pay.

Now that a criminal conviction has occurred, the Maryland State Police administrative disciplinary process regarding the corporal will ensue, state police spokesman Greg Shipley said.



2020 The Baltimore Sun

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The 360 shows you diverse perspectives on the days top stories and debates.

Whats happening

Across the country, more than 80 city and county governments have declared racism a public health emergency. The overwhelming majority have come in the past two months, amid a widespread push to address systemic racism prompted by protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The specifics of the declarations vary from place to place, but they share the central vision that racism is the root cause of health disparities between white and Black Americans. The difference in health outcomes is stark. Black people have a lower life expectancy and experience higher rates of death from a long list of diseases, including cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Black mothers are four times more likely to die of pregnancy-related complications. The infant mortality rate for black children is double that of white children.

The coronavirus has shone an especially harsh light on health inequities in the United States. Black people make up a disproportionate number of COVID-19 cases and have a higher death rate than other races.

Why theres debate

While the health disparities between white and Black Americans are well-documented, there are disagreements over whether declaring racism as a public health emergency is the right way to address them.

Supporters of the idea say inequities in health can only be fixed by addressing their root causes  many of which can be directly tied to racism. Discriminatory housing policies like redlining, for example, have made Black people more likely to live in densely populated areas with less access to health care and increased exposure to harmful pollutants. Advocates say a broad view that considers the impacts of racism on a society-wide level is much more effective than a collection of piecemeal solutions across different areas that dont share a unifying philosophy.

Scientists have also begun to see evidence that the stress of dealing with everyday racism leads to worse health outcomes that cant be explained by social or environmental factors like poverty or location. Doctors are also less likely to believe Black women who say they are in pain, which can cause dangerous conditions to go untreated. This shows that racism itself must be confronted if health disparities are going to be fixed, some argue.

Story continues

Skeptics say declaring racism a public health emergency is nothing but an empty gesture if it isnt followed up by concrete action. Many of the ordinances passed by cities and counties lack tangible plans for addressing the problem. There are also concerns that trying to tackle the impacts of racism from the top down could interfere with progress being made on the ground in individual sectors like education, housing and police reform.

Whats next

A number of other cities are considering declaring racism a public health emergency, including Louisville, Kentucky, where the police shooting of Breonna Taylor has led to ongoing protests. Colorado is set to make a similar declaration statewide, according to a top health official. Three Democratic senators introduced a resolution to declare a health emergency nationwide in June, but the bill is not expected to be taken up by the full Senate in the near future.

Perspectives

The declarations are meaningless if not followed by concrete actions

Acknowledging the damage done by racism is a critical step in improving the lives of all Americans. Yet the declarations will be nothing more than symbolic without effective action.  Editorial, Minneapolis Star-Tribune

The public health lens helps address harm caused by racism across society

Weve been remiss to address them in their individual sectors, in criminal justice, in education, and housing .So I think looking at it from the health perspective is an astute strategy.  Racial and social justice researcher Ronnie Dunn to WBUR

Racism is abstract and difficult to measure

The public health emergency here, racism, is quite amorphous because racism is at the foundation of much of what we do in this society...Its not like an acute traumatic event like a hurricane or an earthquake that we know has a beginning, middle and end,  Health equity expert Thomas LaVeist to Marketplace

Racism is the root cause of the many inequities that lead to health problems

Racism is a public health problem, meaning racism is at the root of the inequities in health that we see, particularly for blacks in this country. So whether it's housing, criminal justice, education, wealth, economic opportunities, healthcare, all of these interlocking systems of racism really are the main fundamental drivers of the racial inequities that we see among black Americans.  Epidemiologist Dr. Sharrelle Barber to Smithsonian

An official declaration forces lawmakers to remain focused on addressing the problem

We need our leaders to be morally invested as well as fiscally invested in eliminating this threat to our health and well-being; we must expect and countermand the expected return to complacency. We need systemic solutions when white allies fade into the social media background and grow weary of marching. Black America wont have the luxury of giving up on the crisis that is racism.  Renee Branch Canady, Lansing State Journal

Coronavirus shows how systemic racism leads to health disparities

I think of the coronavirus as a tutorial on racism because it illustrates the multiple pathways by which racism can have consequences for health.  Public health researcher David Williams to NPR

Ignoring race leads to unequal treatment

In an effort to engender trust in what they would like to see as a postracial society, some U.S. clinicians proclaim that they dont see color. But color must be seen. By looking through a racially impervious lens, clinicians neglect the life experiences and historical inequities that shape patients and disease processes. They may inadvertently feed the robust structural racism that influences access to care, quality of care, and resultant health disparities.  Editorial, New England Journal of Medicine

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Armenias former top utility regulator was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of giving privileged treatment to a company allegedly linked to Mikael Minasian, former President Serzh Sarkisians fugitive son-in-law.

The Special Investigative Service (SIS) said Robert Nazarian, who headed the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) from 2003-2018, was taken into custody as part of a criminal investigation into DzoraHEK, a major hydroelectric plant privatized in 2010.

The SIS said that in 2011 Nazarian abused his position to have the PSRC include DzoraHEK on a list of small hydroelectric facilities allowed to sell electricity to the national power grid at a much higher price. As a result, the plant made more than 7 billion drams ($14.5 million) in extra profits over the next eight years, the law-enforcement agency added in a statement.

The statement implied that DzoraHEK received the privileged treatment because it was owned at the time by individuals linked to former President Serzh Sarkisians son-in-law Mikael Minasian.

The SIS did not formally charge Nazarian with abuse of power yet. It was not clear whether the former PSRC chief, who had also served as mayor of Yerevan from 2001-2003, admitted any wrongdoing.

There was no immediate reaction from Minasian, who left Armenia in late 2018 and is now facing separate corruption charges rejected by him as politically motivated.

The SIS move prompted criticism from lawyers representing Sarkisian. In a joint statement, they accused the investigators of spreading manipulative information aimed at discrediting their client.

Armen Ashotian, the deputy chairman of Sarkisians Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), alleged, meanwhile, that the SIS arrested Nazarian in a bid to force him to give false incriminating testimony against the ex-president. He said that Nazarian refused to implicate Sarkisian in any corrupt practices.

Robert Nazarian is proving that there have been and there will be unbreakable, ethical and strong guys in Armenia, Ashotian wrote on Facebook.

The DzoraHEK plant was handed over to the Armenia Defense Ministry in 2001 one year after Serzh Sarkisian was appointed as defense minister. The latter held that post until 2007 and went on to become Armenias president in 2008.

In 2010, Sarkisians government decided to sell the hydroelectric plant, located in the northern Lori province, to a private company, Dzoraget Hydro, for 3.6 billion drams ($7.5 million). Some Armenian media outlets speculated at the time that the company is controlled by Minasian.

Prosecutors said in May 2019 DzoraHEK was in fact worth an estimated 8 billion drams ($16.8 million). Earlier this year, they indicted Seyran Ohanian, Armenias defense minister from 2008 to 2016, over the 26-megawatt facilitys privatization which they said caused substantial damage to the state.

Ohanian denied any responsibility for the deal, saying that it was negotiated by the Armenian Energy Ministry and approved by the former government.

In 2016, DzoraHEK was sold to another private company reportedly owned by Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetian.
After essaying goody-two-shoe and bubbly-lover-girl roles, a few glam divas are slowing treading a dark path these days first case in point being Samantha Akkineni.

After tasting huge success with her fun-centric role in Oh! Baby, the talented actress is all set to showcase her dark side in the second season of the web-series, Family Man.

Then there is our very own Ritu Varma, the pretty actress who rose to fame with Pellichoopulu. She played a con woman in her recent release Kanulu Kanulanu Dochayante. Why should actresses play only certain roles? asks a smiling Ritu Varma, who essayed the bold role of a girl who fakes love with men only to rob them. In the case of my role in Kanulu Kanulanu Dochayante rather than seeing it as a grey or dark role, I was honestly hooked on to the well-etched character that director Desingh narrated. The crux of the story was how an intelligent pretty young woman could outsmart guys with multiple shades in it.

Ritus character in the film, which turns from grey to dark, even took the audiences by surprise.

We intentionally held back the storyline and promoted it as a regular romantic comedy to give the audiences a pleasant surprise, explains Ritu, whose looks in the movie were kept simple, as the soft-spoken beautician in the first half of the movie, which slowly matched her characters attitude and the gait that adds to her walk as her heartless side is unravelled. I like to explore varied shades because the young audiences love to watch divas in roles that are close to reality. Personally, I like the challenge of new characters.

Similarly, Samantha, who played soft-glam roles in Dhookudu and Aa Aa, is all set to unleash her dark side in her much-hyped Hindi debut, playing a terrorist in the Hindi web series.

We hear Samantha agreed to do her role in the gripping saga helmed by Raj Nidimoru with his friend Krishna D.K, not only for novelty that web series brought, but also because she felt her dark role has enough meat to justify her presence in the series.

From glamour to larger-than-life

Another southern belle who donned the role of a baddy is Tamil actress Varalakshmi Sarath Kumar. She took on a negative role with panache in the Telugu film Tenali Ramakrishna BA BL, breaching the male dominion in such roles.

Director G. Nageshwar Reddy, who roped her after watching Vishals Pandem Kodi 2, tells us, casting a woman in a villains role brings novelty to an action film besides breaking the monotony of seeing male villains on screen.

Varalakshmis fiery look in her eyes truly looked menacing in Tenali Ramakrishna BA BL. She is abundantly talented and has the appropriate physical appearance to carry off a larger-than-life role and make audiences believe that she could kill her opponent. She can pull off roles with dark shades with consummate ease, he adds.

Meanwhile, Varalakshmi has been taking on more grey roles in upcoming Tollywood movies such as Krack and Naandhi, in which she will surely leave her mark.

Nivedha Thomas, another girl-next-door who impressed audiences with her roles in Ninnu Kori and Brochevarevarura, is doing a bold role in Vakeel Saab, the remake of Pink. Reprising Tapsees role, in the story, she accepts in court that she had few affairs but files a case of rape against a rich brat who forced himself on her despite her saying no..

Earlier, Tammanah, also known mostly for glam roles in films such as Rebel and Rachcha, played a bold role in Next Enti, in which she dumps her lover, and settles for a middle-aged divorcee. In the film, she is also seen having a drink or two like a new-age woman.

Even Kajal broke the trend to reinvent her image with her grey role in Sita in which she plays a ruthless, money-minded business tycoon who enjoys a live-in relationship with the films baddy, played by Sonu Sood, all so she can get her work done.

The film may have failed to live up to its makers expectations but even its producer, Anil Sunkara admits to us that Kajal did a good job in a challenging role with grey shades.

While it was always known that women could carry out pretty much anything with a flare, it is encouraging to see the film industry and the audiences accepting them in roles other than the stereotypical ones that supposedly brought in the footfalls into the theatres.
The Central Intelligence Agency has ignored requests to brief senators as part of a Republican-led investigation that targets presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his son Hunter, according to sources familiar with the matter and an email described to POLITICO.

The spy agencys resistance comes amid intelligence officials deep skepticism of the probe, which is being led by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and focuses on Hunter Bidens role on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. Democrats argue the investigation is based on Russian disinformation aimed at tipping the outcome of the election toward President Donald Trump  a charge Johnson rejects.

Some intelligence officials similarly fear the Biden probe will only boost the Russian intervention. And while the motivations of the CIA are not certain, Johnson is considered toxic by some members of the intelligence community, according to people with direct knowledge of the dynamic.

The agency's reluctance to engage with the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which Johnson chairs, underscores the intelligence communitys doubts about the probe. And while it is unlikely to deter Johnson from moving forward, it could give Democrats more support as they seek to rebut Trump and GOP allegations that Biden is corrupt.

The episode began earlier this year, when Democrats raised concerns about Johnsons investigation and the committee asked the FBI to brief senators. The FBI responded by saying the CIA should also participate, according to a person familiar with the matter  a highly unusual ask given that the Homeland Security Committee rarely, if ever, deals with the CIA.

On May 14, the Democratic committee staff sent an email to the CIAs office of congressional affairs detailing the scope of the requested briefing, according to sources who described the email to POLITICO. Republican aides on the panel were copied on the email, which was unclassified.

Story continues

The committee followed up the next day, but the CIA never responded. After publication of this story, CIA press secretary Timothy Barrett said, Our Office of Congressional Affairs works closely with intelligence oversight committees to ensure they are informed of our activities.

Democrats have long demanded what are known as defensive briefings from intelligence officials on potential efforts by the Russian government to promote disinformation and influence the 2020 presidential election. The CIAs stance comes as Democratic congressional leaders have also been pushing senior intelligence officials to disclose more information to the public about Russias latest interference campaign.

But securing a briefing for the committee has been a challenge. In addition to potential concerns about Johnsons probe, the CIA is wary of providing a briefing that could reveal sensitive sources and methods to a panel other than the Senate or House intelligence committees, which are the agencys direct oversight bodies in Congress.

There is a significant trust gap there, said one current national security official. At what point does someone turn from an unwitting participant in that to a witting one?

The official added that enough is known about certain bad actors that it should be out of the question to consider their information legitimate investigative material, referring to the Ukrainians who have sought to feed information to Johnson and other Trump allies on Capitol Hill.

Johnson has maintained that his investigation has nothing to do with the presidential election and that his committee fully vets all the information it receives.

Austin Altenburg, a spokesman for Johnson, said the criticisms are an example of the bias that exists within the federal bureaucracy, including, unfortunately, our intelligence agencies. He also accused Democrats of requesting briefings that are untethered to our work.

What the email doesnt show are the intelligence briefings and documents the committee has already received and the multiple conversations in which the agencies told Democrats that they had no further information relevant to our investigation, Altenburg added.

Family members gather for a road naming ceremony with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, centre, his son Hunter Biden, left, and his sister Valerie Biden Owens, right, joined by other family members during a ceremony to name a national road after his late son Joseph R.

The May email to the CIAs congressional affairs office outlined what senators wanted to hear from intelligence officials as the Biden investigation ramped up. The committee specifically asked for information about the foreign nationals pushing allegations against the Bidens, including whether they have ties to foreign governments or foreign security services. Lawmakers also wanted to know more about efforts to interfere in the 2020 election more broadly.

Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, renewed his demand for such briefings in a letter to Johnson last month, imploring Johnson to pursue the issue if he continued with his probe. A spokeswoman for Peters declined to comment for this story.

Johnsons aides, though, have blamed Democrats for the delay. Last week, Johnson sent a letter to CIA Director Gina Haspel requesting a slew of documents related to the origins of the federal investigation into Russian interference in 2016, but the letter did not mention the CIAs apparent refusal to brief his committee.

Democrats first called for the briefings in March, when the FBIs Foreign Influence Task Force briefed committee staffers about Andrii Telizhenko, a Ukrainian who has amplified disputed claims about coordination between Kyiv and the Democratic National Committee in 2016. Johnson was set to subpoena Telizhenko, but he scrapped plans for a committee vote on the matter after the briefing, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The day before, FBI Director Christopher Wray had briefed all senators in a classified setting about election security. POLITICO previously reported that Democratic senators pressed him about Telizhenko in the context of Russias efforts to sow disinformation in American politics, including about whether Telizhenko was a willing partner in the Kremlin-backed campaign.

The briefing was described as combative and personal by attendees, who said Johnson engaged directly with some of his detractors in the Senate as he sought to defend his investigation.

More recently, though, as Johnson has sought to highlight, all senators have received briefings from the intelligence community on threats to the integrity of the 2020 vote. Those briefings have touched on Telizhenko and Andrii Derkach, a Ukrainian lawmaker who has sent information about the Bidens to Trump allies on Capitol Hill, including Johnson.

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe and other national security and intelligence officials briefed senators on Monday about election security and foreign influence, and they appeared to signal that they were preparing to disclose more information to the public about Russias intentions.

The House received a similar briefing last week, during which William Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, acknowledged that Russia is again trying to boost Trumps reelection and denigrate his Democratic opponent.

Evanina was chastised during that briefing by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who along with other Democrats has urged the intelligence community to make public more details about Russias ongoing interference efforts.

Pelosi told CNN on Monday morning that it could be unwitting on [Johnsons] part  I dont know what he knows. Thats why we want the intelligence community to tell the American people what they know, not jeopardizing sources and methods.

There is plenty they could be telling the American people, Pelosi said, and including the United States senators who may be associating with some of these people.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Quoc Dung speaks at the event (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi - Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Quoc Dung, Head of Vietnam's ASEAN SOM, attended the 33rd ASEAN-US Dialogue, which was held via video conference on August 5 to discuss cooperation orientations between the two sides in the coming time and exchange views on regional and international issues of mutual concern.

David Stilwell, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said the US always attaches great importance to relations with ASEAN and supports the blocs central role in the regional architecture. The US also highly evaluated Vietnams role as ASEAN Chair 2020 in coordinating and leading ASEAN to overcome difficulties and challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The two sides agreed to further deepen the bilateral strategic partnership and cooperation in the coming time, as well as implementing effectively current cooperation programmes and initiatives such as ASEAN-US Trade and Investment Framework, ASEAN-US Connect Initiative, ASEAN-US Smart Cities Partnership, and Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative.

ASEAN agreed to strengthen coordination with the US to implement the ASEAN-US action plan for 2016-2020 and soon adopt the bilateral cooperation action plan for 2021-2025.

The two sides pledged to actively work together to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic, especially enhancing preparedness to cope with new waves of infections, supporting each other to minimise the impact of the disease, maintaining regional and global supply chains, and promoting sustainable recovery.

The US announced that it has provided about 87 million USD for ASEAN countries to cope with the pandemic, and affirmed its continued assistance to the regional countries to improve their capacity to respond to diseases, with the priority given to the implementation of the ASEAN-US Health Futures Initiative, training health experts and building pandemic control mechanisms.

ASEAN welcomed the USs timely financial assistance in curbing the pandemic and called on the US to actively support and contribute to ASEAN's initiatives on the COVID-19 Response Fund and Regional Reserve of Medical Supplies.

The US applauded ASEAN's efforts to promote its role in stepping up cooperation, dialogue and trust building in the region, as well as advocated the bloc's endeavours to implement fully and strictly the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and build an effective Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) in line with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Quoc Dung affirmed that amid the complicated developments of COVID-19, ASEAN has upheld its Cohesive and Responsive spirit and promoted solidarity, unity and efforts to overcome difficulties and challenges.

The Vietnamese official highly appreciated the US's timely assistance to ASEAN in coping with the epidemic right from the beginning of the outbreak.

He proposed the US continue supporting ASEAN to improve its capacity to cope with, reduce the impact of the disease, and promote sustainable economic recovery.

ASEAN welcomed and was willing to create optimal conditions for US businesses and investors to operate in the region, Dung affirmed.

He applauded the US proposal on building the Mekong-US Partnership, supporting the promotion and harmonisation of subregional development efforts, including the Mekong subregion in the overall development of ASEAN.

The Deputy Minister shared the views of other countries that in the current context, countries need to promote dialogues, build trust and hold responsible for building the East Sea into a sea of peace, friendship and cooperation.

He reiterated ASEAN's stance at the 36th ASEAN Summit on ensuring peace, security, stability, safety and freedom of aviation and navigation in the East Sea. The related parties should refrain from taking actions that complicate the situation and not carry out militarisation activities, Dung said.

Any disputes should be resolved via peaceful measures in accordance with international law, including the 1982 UNCLOS, while continuing to implement fully and effectively the DOC and soon resuming negotiations to complete an effective COC, contributing to the maintenance of peace, security and stability in the East Sea, he added.

The official also announced plans to hold ministerial meetings and summits between ASEAN and the US as part of Vietnam's ASEAN Chairmanship in 2020.

Founded in 1967, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) groups 10 member countries, namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Algonac officials are hoping to encourage commerce in the city amid the COVID-19 pandemic by allowing alcohol in Riverfront Park.

At its Aug. 5 meeting, the Algonac City Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2020-10, which suspends city code section 28-4 to allow alcoholic liquor in Riverfront Park.

As you know, July 1, 2020, the Michigan Legislature passed and our governor signed the Public Act 125 of 2020 into law that allows for the sale of alcoholic liquor in qualified containers for the consumption off the licensed premises through Dec. 31, 2025, Mayor Terry Stoneburner said. This will help increase sales for local bars and restaurants.

Public Act 58 of 1998, the Michigan Liquor Control Code, MCL Section 436.1915 allows for the lawful possession and consumption of alcoholic liquor in public parks and for municipal governments to legislate restrictions on same.

The city of Algonac may determine that a temporary suspension of the prohibition established in the code section 28-4 as to the possession and consumption of alcoholic liquor only in Riverfront Park is in the public interest and serves an important civic purpose in encouraging commerce in the city so affected by the coronavirus outbreak, Stoneburner said. This resolution would suspend enforcement of the code as to alcoholic liquor in Riverfront Park effective immediately.

She said Port Huron and St. Clair have taken similar actions to establish a social district.

We really dont have an area to make a social area, she said.

She also mentioned that the resolution would not allow any old thing into the park.

There are specifications on what is allowed and how it is properly marked to be there, she said.

I think anything that lets our citizens have a good time and helps our businesses is well worth it, council member Michael Bembas said.

Council member Jacob Skarbek noted that people consume alcohol in the park anyway, so the city might as well adopt the resolution.

I say we trust people until they show us that they cannot be responsible, Bembas said. Were all adults. Theres nothing wrong with having a beer or a glass of wine or something. And if it becomes a problem, then we relook at it.

Stoneburner agreed and said if there is an issue, the city can unsuspend the enforcement of the drinks.

Of course, drunk and disorderly is still something that the sheriff will respond to, City Manager Denice Gerstenberg said. You still cannot be drunk and disorderly in the park. Thats not changed.

Mayor Pro Tem Rocky Gillis asked if there have been any incidents during the Music in the Park events, which the city allows alcohol in the park during. Gerstenberg said there have not been any.

Council member Helen Meldrum asked if the sheriff was consulted about the resolution, and Gerstenberg said he was aware of it.

Gerstenberg also noted that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer set the date of Dec. 31, 2025, but the city can sunset it before then.

I was surprised that she set it at 2025, Stoneburner said. I didnt realize that it would go out that far.

Its quite a ways down the road, council member Raymond Martin said.

Other agenda items

At the Aug. 5 meeting, council members unanimously approved payment for fire hydrant replacement parts to EJ USA Inc. in the amount of roughly $2,000. The repair was necessary, officials said, as a vehicle had hit and damaged a city fire hydrant located at Michigan and Center streets. All fire hydrants installed in the city are made by EJ USA Inc.

Council member Corey Blair asked if there would be any recourse for the person who damaged the fire hydrant. Gerstenberg said Treasurer Linda Mackie is looking into it.

The council also awarded engineering services for a water plant filtration building roof parapet study in the not-to-exceed amount of $9,220 to Hubbell, Roth and Clark.

There is a problem with the block wall parapet at the east end of the roof of the filtration building, the Aug. 5 agenda states. The top course of block has begun to protrude from the wall fascia.

HRC did a preliminary inspection and recommended the study in order to determine the cause of the movement and provide recommendations for remediation of the issue.

In addition, the council approved engineering for the structural analysis of the raw water pump station roof in the not-to-exceed amount of $9,498 to HRC.

The structural analysis will assist the city to lift the existing 16-inch automatic water strainer assembly from its current position in order to perform necessary repairs.
Alan and Alex Stokes, two brothers known on social media as the Stokes Twins, have each been charged on Wednesday with false imprisonment and swatting after performing two prank bank robberies last October in Orange County.

The brothers each face one felony count of false imprisonment effected by violence, menace, fraud, or deceit and one misdemeanor count of falsely reporting an emergency. If convicted, the 23-year-old twin brothers  who have over 4.8 million subscribers on YouTube and over 25 million on TikTok  face up to four years in prison.

The fake bank robberies, video of which was posted to YouTube on Oct. 20 last year and garnered over 1.4 million views before being made private on Aug. 5, involved the twins dressing up in all black with ski masks and carrying duffel bags of cash to appear as if they had just robbed a bank. After running through crowds, the twins ordered an Uber, but the driver  who was unaware of the prank  refused to drive the twins. A bystander then called the police after believing the driver was being carjacked, leading Irvine police to arrive at the scene and order the Uber driver out of the car at gunpoint, according to the Orange County District Attorneys Office.

Also Read: FBI Raid YouTube Star Jake Paul's California Mansion

The Stokes Twins were issued a warning by the police, according to the District Attorneys office, before performing a similar fake bank robbery prank at the University of Irvine four hours later. Police then received more emergency calls regarding a supposed bank robbery.

These were not pranks, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement. These are crimes that could have resulted in someone getting seriously injured or even killed. Law enforcement officers are sworn to protect the public and when someone calls 911 to report an active bank robbery they are going to respond to protect lives. Instead, what they found was some kind of twisted attempt to gain more popularity on the internet by unnecessarily putting members of the public and police officers in danger.

Representatives for the Stokes Twins did not immediately respond to TheWraps request for comment.

Read original story Stokes Twins Charged With False Imprisonment, Swatting After Prank Bank Robberies At TheWrap
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San Francisco, 6 Aug 2020: The Report Iron Ore Pellets Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product (Blast Furnace, Direct Reduced), By Trade (Captive, Seaborne), By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2020 - 2027

The global iron ore pellets market size is expected to reach USD 63.52 billion by 2027, expanding at a CAGR of 3.7% from 2020 to 2027, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The product demand is predicted to be largely driven by rising steel production in Asia Pacific.

Iron ore pellets are an important source for steel manufacturing. Rapid industrialization and urbanization in emerging economies of Asia Pacific since the past few years have stimulated the production of steel. This has caused a surge in demand for iron ore pellets in the region.

The product is mainly used in captive form by large integrated steel producers. However, there is ample potential for seaborne trade of the product as cross country trade is expected to rise over the coming years owing to rising demand from Asia Pacific and Middle East and Africa.

China dominates the market owing to huge steel production capacity in the country. However, emerging economies such as India, Vietnam, Myanmar, Philippines, and Indonesia are expected to witness significant growth as these countries are posing a significant challenge to the Chinese steel producers owing to their comparatively lower labor costs and supportive government policies.

Major players in the industry include multinational companies such as Vale, Rio Tinto, and BHP Billiton. Rio Tinto surpassed Vale as the leading global supplier of iron ore as well as its pellets in the first quarter of the year 2020 as Vale witnessed a sharp decline in iron ore output due to a deadly dam burst owned by Vale in 2019.

Access Research Report of Iron Ore Pellets Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/iron-ore-pellets-market

Iron Ore Pellets Market Report Highlights

Asia Pacific acquired the largest volume share of 52.3% in 2019. This can be attributed to a large steel production base in China

By product, direct reduced pellet is anticipated to exhibit the fastest CAGR of 3.8% from 2020 to 2027 in terms of revenue owing to rising penetration of direct reduction production method

Based on trade, the captive segment dominated the market with a volume share of 70.8% in 2019 owing to a large number of integrated steel plants across the globe

Middle East and Africa is expected to expand at a significant CAGR of 3.1% from 2020 to 2027 in terms of revenue owing to several economic diversification programs implemented by Middle Eastern and North African countries

The global market is highly competitive with Vale and Rio Tinto leading in terms of production capacity and market share.

Browse more reports of this category by Grand View Research at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry/automotive-and-aerospace-interior-materials

Grand View Research has segmented the global iron ore pellets market report on the basis of product, trade, and region:

Iron Ore Pellets Product Outlook (Volume, Kilotons; Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

Blast Furnace (BF) Iron Ore Pellet

Direct Reduced (DR) Iron Ore Pellet

Iron Ore Pellets Trade Outlook (Volume, Kilotons; Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

Captive

Seaborne

Iron Ore Pellets Regional Outlook (Volume, Kilotons; Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Central & South America

Middle East & Africa

List of Key Players of Iron Ore Pellets Market

Vale

Rio Tinto

Cleveland-Cliffs

BHP Billiton

US Steel

Fortescue Metals

ArcelorMittal

Bahrain Steel

LKAB

NMDC Limited

Access Press Release of Iron Ore Pellets Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-iron-ore-pellets-market

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.

For More Information:www.grandviewresearch.com
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 14:06:45|Editor: huaxia

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YANGON, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar's domestic investment exceeded 1.1 billion U.S. dollars in the first 10 months of the present fiscal year (FY) 2019-2020, state-run media reported on Thursday.

From Oct. 1, 2019 to July 31 this year, Myanmar Investment Commission gave the go-ahead to 113 local enterprises with a capital of 1.2 trillion kyats (over 881 million U.S. dollars) and some existing enterprises expanded their capitals.

During the period, the domestic investment involved the country's sectors of real estate, manufacturing, hotels and tourism, construction, industrial estate, energy, mining, livestock and fisheries, agriculture and other services.

Of them, construction, manufacturing, real estate development, hotels and tourism and agriculture sectors attracted most domestic investment. Enditem
By Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR: After a fire accident at a Covid hospital in Ahmedabad claimed at least eight lives, DG Fire Services Satyajit Mohanty on Thursday directed the officers concerned to review the fire safety arrangements at the facilities in Odisha where the coronavirus-infected patients are being admitted for

treatment.

"We have directed our assistant and deputy fire officers to visit the Covid hospitals and Covid care centres under their respective jurisdictions and review the fire safety arrangements," said Mohanty.

In case of any deficiency, DG Fire Services has directed the officers to advise the hospital and Covid care centre officials to implement the required fire safety arrangements.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik expressed his condolences over the tragic incident in Gujarat's Ahmedabad.

"Deeply saddened by the loss of lives in the fire accident in a Covid hospital in Ahmedabad. Wish the bereaved families have the courage to overcome the

irreparable loss and pray for the speedy recovery of the injured," the Chief Minister said in a tweet.
The government is pushing to punish anyone who sends propaganda leaflets to North Korea after the North blew up the inter-Korean liaison office in Kaesong in fury over the flyering campaign.

The government also wants to ban loudspeakers or electronic display devices for propaganda purposes near the demilitarized zone, which until recently was official military policy.

Violators could face up to three years in prison or a fine of up to W30 million for "seriously endangering" cross-border relations (US$1=W1,189).

According to the Unification Ministry, the government has told lawmakers it will accept a bill to that effect tabled by Song Young-gil, the chairman of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee.

The bill, tabled in June when North Korea's hysteria was at its height, stipulates that any activity including the floating of propaganda leaflets or use of loudspeakers or electronic display devices across the border is a violation of inter-Korean agreements.

The bill was moved to a subcommittee on Monday and will be deliberated for 90 days. But the ruling Minjoo Party has a comfortable majority, and no amount of opposition filibustering could stop it if the ruling party puts its mind to it.

The ruling party has already submitted a revision to the Inter-Korean exchange and cooperation law, which adds propaganda leaflets to a list of items that need government approval when imported from or sent to the North.

The opposition has denounced the move as flying in the face of the spirit of the law, which is intended to regulate friendly exchanges, donations and business.

The government has already revoked the charitable status of two defector groups at the forefront of the leaflet campaign and threatened audits of dozens more civic groups that are critical of North Korea.

The move has drawn condemnation from international human rights groups. It is unclear why the ruling party is pushing ahead with the new legislation now even though there has been no further trouble from North Korea for over a month since leader Kim Jong-un called off a buildup of forces at the border.
Germany turned up the heat on Boris Johnson over Brexit trade talks today demanding he is more 'realistic and pragmatic'.

Berlin's Europe minister Michael Roth said he was 'disappointed' with the UK's tough stance amid rising fears that the negotiations could fail.

With the clock running down to the end of the transition period in December, the two sides still appear to be deadlocked over calls for Britain to fall into line with EU rules and access to fishing waters.

The government insists it is ready to walk away this Autumn if there is no hope of a breakthrough. Another round of discussions between the EU's Michel Barnier and British counterpart David Frost is due to take place in Brussels this month.

But the Bank of England has raised questions about how much the outcome matters amid the much bigger impact of coronavirus.

Governor Andrew Bailey said the pandemic 'dwarfed' the issue of trade terms, and might already have 'taken over' much of the damage from a failure to get a deal.

Berlin's Europe minister Michael Roth (right) said he was 'disappointed' with the tough stance taken by Boris Johnson (left) amid rising fears that the negotiations could fail

In an interview with Sky News after the Bank predicted the economy will shrink by 9.5 per cent this year, Mr Bailey said: 'Both Covid and Brexit could potentially negatively affect trade... Covid is the bigger shock now...

'Moreover of course Covid has already had an effect on trade.

'You then get to the extremely complicated question - which I don't think we're in a position to give very much frankly useful guidance on at the moment - which is to say if you think about the less good outcomes on Brexit... how much of that effect on trade has already been taken over by what's happened with Covid?'

Asked whether that meant the risk from Covid dwarfed that from a failure to strike Brexit trade terms, Mr Bailey said: 'I think at the moment it does dwarf it.'

Ministers have told drugs companies to restart stockpiling medicines amid fears that trade terms will not be settled in time.

Department of Health officials sent a letter to medical suppliers urging them to 'replenish' their drug stock.

They have even warned companies to be prepared to reroute shipping to avoid the Channel.

The government has also revealed plans to fine lorry drivers destined for the Channel ports 300 if they drive into Kent after December 31 without necessary export paperwork.

Ministers fear that, in the absence of a trade deal, the EU will impose strict import checks on all goods entering the bloc, potentially causing gridlock.

Governor Andrew Bailey said the pandemic 'dwarfed' the issue of trade terms, and might already have 'taken over' much of the damage from a failure to get a deal

Another round of discussions between the EU's Michel Barnier and British counterpart David Frost (pictured left and right respectively in London last month) is due to take place in Brussels

In an interview with the AFP news agency, Mr Roth said he was 'disappointed that London is shifting further and further away from the political declaration agreed between us as a reliable basis for negotiations'.

'I would like those responsible in London to be more realistic and pragmatic. The Brits are known for the latter,' he said.

Brussels has been engaging in sabre-rattling as the discussions near the critical moment.

French minister for Europe Clement Beaune recently swiped that no deal is better than a bad deal, insisting Paris will not be 'intimidated'.

He said France would be 'intransigent' on fishing, and will not be 'intimidated' by Britain in the negotiation 'game'.

'Let's not kid ourselves, if there is no deal, it will be a difficult issue,' he added. 'We'll have to organise a response for sectors like fisheries. Support our fishermen financially. We're not there yet.'
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) state president and Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann on Thursday blamed the Congress government for the loss of 110 lives due to consumption of spurious liquor in three districts of the Majha region. He also demanded that a murder case be registered against chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh.

Mann said, The chief minister, who also holds the excise and home portfolio, is responsible for the tragedy and a murder case must be registered against him.

He said his party will no longer address the CM as Captain as he had undermined the honour accorded to the position.

AAP has been demanding that a murder case be registered against all involved in the spurious liquor tragedy that led to the death of 110 people since the first day. All kinds of mafias have been enjoying the governments patronage from the last 15 years, he said.

Earlier the reins of the mafia were in the hands of the Badals. Now, they are in the hands of the Congress MLAs, ministers and the CM himself, Mann said.

He alleged that the liquor mafia active in Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Batala (Gurdaspur) areas were connected to illicit distilleries at Rajpura, Ghanour and Khanna, which indicated that the liquor mafia was calling the shots under the patronage of the CMs wife and Patiala MP Preneet Kaur.

He demanded a time-bound inquiry into the matter by a sitting high court judge or the CBI. These mafias are controlled by the whos who of the ruling party through police stations and the civil administration, he said.

AAP also demanded that a liquor corporation be setup in the state.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Retired IAS officer and economist V Bhaskar died late on Tuesday night at a private hospital after a battle with COVID-19 for 10 days. He was about 68-years-old. His son Krishna Bhaskar, also an IAS officer is at present the Collector of Rajanna Sircilla district in Telangana. Bhaskar retired from service just before the bifurcation of AP.

Bhaskar, a 1981 batch IAS officer, was a policy analyst and handled several important assignments in his career and one of it was his role in the 13th Finance Commission which recommended GST reforms. He also worked in the International Monetary Fund at Washington DC.

Bhaskar held a Master's Degree from Harvard University in Public Administration and Master's in Science from St Stephen's College, Delhi and PhD in economics from the University of Hyderabad.

Mourning his death, Telangana State IAS Officers Association president BP Acharya, who is also Director General of Dr Marri Channa Reddy HRD Institute, conveyed his condolences to Krishna Bhaskars family. Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao expressed shock over his death.

The Governor described him as a versatile personality who rendered invaluable service in various capacities including that of the Chief Special Secretary in the Finance Department. The Chief Minister recalled his services in his capacity as Collector, as head of commercial taxes, Special Chief Secretary, Finance and as Chairman of AP Electricity Regulatory Commission before the bifurcation of the State.
In a surprise move  exactly a year after Parliament effected constitutional changes in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and just a little over nine months after he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor (L-G) of Indias most

sensitive Union Territory  GC Murmu has resigned as L-G. The Centre has appointed Manoj Sinha as the new constitutional head of the UT.

Mr Sinha is a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politician, a former minister, a leader rooted in the politics of Uttar Pradesh, and is understood to enjoy Prime Minister Narendra Modis confidence. The fact that a political figure has been sent to J&K is a positive sign, for the impasse in Kashmir is fundamentally political. Politicians often have deftness, agility, interpersonal skills, the ability to reconcile contradictions, and look for out-of-the-box solutions that bureaucrats lack, mired as they are in a lifetimes training of following processes and rules.

But being a politician alone is not enough. Mr Sinha will have to understand the nuances of Kashmiri politics and society, the security scenario, and establish a cordial relationship with all stakeholders immediately. He must also reach out to mainstream political leaders, some of whom remain in detention, and bring them back into the political process; create a more democratic environment for civil society to function; and then, create conditions for elections. Mr Sinha will be judged on whether he can hold free and fair elections in J&K, ensure a return to normalcy with democratic rights, and maintain peace.
The parent company behind medical and recreational marijuana dispensary New England Treatment Access has approved $3 million in grants to aid in medical research of cannabis.

Parallel, which owns NETA, announced the grant money will be used to partner with the University of Pittsburg for a 10-year study researching the effects of medical cannabis. The grant, through Parallels Goodblend brand, will specifically focus on the effect of using cannabis to treat chronic conditions such as sickle cell disease, anxiety and chronic intractable pain.

Parallel is one of the largest privately held multi-state cannabis companies in the world. It operates in Massachusetts as NETA. NETA has medical and recreational dispensaries in Northampton and Brookline and runs a grow operation in Franklin.

Parallel is honored to be the medical cannabis partner of the University of Pittsburgh, said William Beau Wrigley, Jr., Parallel chief executive officer. Their position as one of the leading global medical research institutions will assist us in advancing our medical understanding of the benefits of cannabinoids in treating a wide spectrum of diseases and conditions.

Research will begin with a clinical trial in patients who suffer from sickle cell disease, according to a press release from Parallel. The program will be led Dr. Laura DeCastro, associate professor of medicine and director of clinical translational research for the Sickle Cell Disease Research Center of Excellence. SCD is a red blood cell disorder characterized by anemia and pain. Approximately 100,000 Americans suffer from SCD. According to the company, about 15% of SCD patients suffer chronic pain and are typically treated with opioids.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, more than 67,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2018 and the majority of those deaths, almost 70%, involved a prescription or illicit opioid.

The research team will investigate what role cannabis can play in treating the symptoms of SCD.

Patients with sickle cell disease and chronic pain have no real alternative to chronic opioid therapy, which has severe limitations and disadvantages, said Laura DeCastro, MD, MBBS and Pitt associate professor of medicine, director of benign hematology for the Institute for Transfusion Medicine and UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, and director of Clinical Translational Research for the Sickle Cell Disease Research Center of Excellence. We are proud to have this opportunity to study potential cannabis treatments for these patients who live in constant debilitating pain.

The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine (Pitt) is one of eight Pennsylvania academic research universities approved to conduct clinical research in association with the commonwealths medical marijuana program.
Three arrested for drug trafficking in Carlisle County
Pelatro Plc's (LON:PTRO) price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 26x might make it look like a strong sell right now compared to the market in the United Kingdom, where around half of the companies have P/E ratios below 15x and even P/E's below 9x are quite common. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the highly elevated P/E.

Pelatro has been struggling lately as its earnings have declined faster than most other companies. It might be that many expect the dismal earnings performance to recover substantially, which has kept the P/E from collapsing. You'd really hope so, otherwise you're paying a pretty hefty price for no particular reason.

See our latest analysis for Pelatro

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Keen to find out how analysts think Pelatro's future stacks up against the industry? In that case, our free report is a great place to start.

Does Growth Match The High P/E?

The only time you'd be truly comfortable seeing a P/E as steep as Pelatro's is when the company's growth is on track to outshine the market decidedly.

Taking a look back first, the company's earnings per share growth last year wasn't something to get excited about as it posted a disappointing decline of 69%. That put a dampener on the good run it was having over the longer-term as its three-year EPS growth is still a noteworthy 12% in total. So we can start by confirming that the company has generally done a good job of growing earnings over that time, even though it had some hiccups along the way.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the three analysts covering the company suggest earnings growth will be highly resilient over the next year growing by 1.9%. Meanwhile, the broader market is forecast to contract by 8.3%, which would indicate the company is doing very well.

With this information, we can see why Pelatro is trading at such a high P/E compared to the market. At this time, shareholders aren't keen to offload something that is potentially eyeing a much more prosperous future.

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 Pelatro's analyst forecasts revealed that its superior earnings outlook against a shaky market is contributing to its high P/E. Right now shareholders are comfortable with the P/E as they are quite confident future earnings aren't under threat. We still remain cautious about the company's ability to keep swimming against the current of the broader market turmoil. Although, if the company's prospects don't change they will continue to provide strong support to the share price.

Plus, you should also learn about these 4 warning signs we've spotted with Pelatro.

If you're unsure about the strength of Pelatro's business, why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals for some other companies you may have missed.

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.
The world already faced a learning crisis before COVID-19 began spreading, but the pandemic has led to the greatest disruption of education ever an upset affecting more than one billion students.

As the world faces unsustainable levels of inequality, we need education  the great equalizer  more than ever, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wrote Tuesday in a policy brief on the UN website. We must take bold steps now, to create inclusive, resilient, quality education systems fit for the future.

Guterres made note of the fact that even though lessons were delivered remotely using television, radio and of course, online platforms, many students still struggled or didn't receive the necessary resources to learn effectively. And for those who did have access to remote learning, their living conditions posed a different barrier.

"Learners with disabilities, those in minority or disadvantaged communities, displaced and refugee students and those in remote areas are at highest risk of being left behind," Guterres wrote.

NO FUNDING: Texas Education Agency will not fund schools closed under unlawful health orders

Guterres used the post to announce the launch of Save our Future,' a campaign with education partners and UN agencies calling for action in four key areas. The campaign's top priority is reopening schools and getting students back on track as safely (and quickly) as possible once local transmission of COVID-19 is under control.

Before the crisis hit, low and middle-income countries already faced an education funding gap of $1.5 trillion dollars a year, Guterres wrote, so his second recommendation focuses on making sure education is included when making financial decisions.

"Education initiatives must seek to reach those at greatest risk of being left behind  people in emergencies and crises; minority groups of all kinds; displaced people and those with disabilities," Guterres wrote, targeting the third key area. "They should be sensitive to the specific challenges faced by girls, boys, women and men, and should urgently seek to bridge the digital divide."

Lastly, investing in digital literacy and infrastructure will strengthen the bridge between formal and non-formal education, Guterres wrote, which is necessary in a time of uncertainty such as the present.
TOWAMENCIN  The body of a 5-year-old autistic child was found Wednesday morning at Fischers Park in Towamencin Township, Police Chief Tim Dickinson confirmed during an afternoon press conference.

The victim, identified as Eliza Talal, of Towamencin Township, was discovered around 10:40 a.m. in the park on Bustard Road on the land in an area of foliage adjacent to the creek by an area resident, Dickinson said while addressing reporters at the Towamencin Township office at 1090 Troxel Road.

Police responded to a home on the 2000 block of Spring Valley Road early Tuesday afternoon after receiving a call around 12:36 p.m. reporting Eliza missing.

The girl was last seen by her family around noon on Tuesday, according to Dickinson. After contacting police, crews began searching using several methods, including boats, two helicopters, drones and search-and-rescue teams. The chief added there were several hundred people involved in the day-and-night effort to locate Eliza.

Dickinson confirmed that a creek is located behind the house on Spring Valley Road, which is roughly 1.5 miles from Fischers Park.

Eliza went out of the house around the height of the storm, and we all know  that creek was very swollen, he said. So we believe based on the circumstances  that she left the house and somehow got into the water.

Dickinson said the investigation will continue with law enforcement representatives from the local police department and the Montgomery County Detective Bureau.

We want to try to learn as best as we can what happened, he said.

Numerous agencies assisted at the local, state and federal levels including the Upper Gwynedd Township Police Department, the Towamencin Volunteer Fire Company, the Montgomery County Department of Public Safety, the Pennsylvania State Police, and the FBI.

Dickinson expressed his appreciation for the responders and local townspeoples help.

We have hope until theres no longer hope and I can tell you that these police officers here, and first responders, and community members searched tirelessly, he said. Its amazing when you see people come together  what they can do.

Dickinson also took a moment to extend his heartfelt condolences to Elizas loved ones.

Our prayers go out to her family who suffered a terrible loss, he said.

Elizas initial disappearance came during periods of heavy rainfall, flooding and strong wind as Tropical Storm Isaias moved over the greater Philadelphia area. Dickinson cited treacherous conditions during parts of Tuesday.

Well, the search yesterday was very challenging, especially initially, with the weather conditions that we faced. Fortunately, we didnt get the high winds that we predicted, we got some but not as much, but the rain certainly inhibited us, and of course, the general activity in the area drained our resources very quickly, Dickinson said.

According to the local police chief, about 11 water rescues took place on Tuesday, with the assistance of the Towamencin Volunteer Fire Company, as the search for the 5-year-old girl carried on.

Dickinson added portions of the park sustained damage as a result of storm conditions. He said he was stunned by the sheer volume of water. The National Weather Service recorded about 8 inches of rainfall by 2:30 p.m. Tuesday in parts of Montgomery County.

Ive been police chief here for 15 years, and I have never seen that level of flooding in Towamencin Township throughout the township  and that includes Hurricane Sandy, Dickinson said.
In all of my years at CIA, but most especially when I served as Director of the CIA Middle East Division, I never worked with any foreign official who had a better understanding of counterterrorism than Dr. Saad, said Daniel Hoffman, who retired from the agency in 2017. He justifiably deserves significant credit for building the U.S.-Saudi counterterrorism partnership following 9/11 to the close partnership on which our national security so deeply relies today. He was key to disrupting numerous al-Qaeda plots, which would have caused significant destruction and casualties in the U.S.
Arkansas Requires Schools to Open for On-campus Learning 5 Days a Week

State officials in Arkansas made it clear Wednesday that they expect schools to open for in-person learning five days a week when the new school year starts later this month.

This is not a change in our stance at all since March when the governor made the announcement to close schools for on-site instruction, said Arkansas Education Secretary Johnny Key during a press briefing. We have said since Day One that the plan for the fall is to come back and have school on-site.

We had been made aware that some districts were making plans that were for fewer than five days [per week], and we felt like that clarification was needed today to make sure that districts understood we do have a state responsibility, Key continued.

In response to districts reopening plans to reduce the number of days of on-campus, face-to-face learning, Key issued a clarification memo (pdf) Wednesday, requiring most school districts in the state to offer a full week of in-person learning experience for all students, unless otherwise advised by the Arkansas Department of Health.

A parent and her children look over the free book table after picking up their personal belongings that have been put in a paper bag in the gym at Freedom Preparatory Academy in Provo, Utah, on May 18, 2020. (George Frey/Getty Images)

Arkansas Constitution requires the State to provide a general, suitable, and efficient system of free public schools, meaning a substantially equal opportunity for an adequate education, read the memo. School districts not affording onsite educational opportunities each day creates inequity that impedes the state from ensuring its responsibility is met.

The memo also requires districts that operate on five-day schedules but only offer in-person learning on four of those days to open on the fifth day for students to participate as needed or to access needed resources for instruction, interventions and therapy. Similarly, districts that only open three days for in-person learning must be open for the other two days for students to interact or to get resources they need.

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson supported the directive, saying that schools staying open five days a week is essential to parents who find it hard to rejoin workforce while taking care of children learning from home.

How to you go to work two dayswith kids at home leaning virtual? Because that has to have some parental supervision, the Republican governor said during a press conference Wedneday. If theyre learning virtual, particularly the younger grades, and even the higher grades, you dont leave them in the house alone. You have to have some supervision there.

And so it really impacts the workflow, and thats what Ive heard from the parents that are concerned about that schedule, said Hutchinson.
Insurance fraud seems like it might be an easy thing to do. Insurance companies are often so huge, one wonders how they might not even notic...
Nigeria a young but highly troubled nation can only preserve itself democratically by continuously listening to hard questions from citizens who in exercising their lawful rights, are speaking out loudly against the unfair conditions currently happening across the country.

To psychologically theorize Nigeria from the point of turning around, we all saw what I call the August-September Nonviolent Revolution in full display in the last 24 hours.

The RevolutionNow Protesters, had a choice between using violence, such as injuring, wounding or killing people, or using non-violence, such as peacefully marching, singing or obstructing traffic, as the world saw they chose nonviolent direct actions like peaceful demonstrations.

Clearly, the protesters shunned physical violence, which is physical harm to someone or to officials, and they even stayed away from psychological violence which can be manifested through falsehoods, manipulation, or threats.

Yet, the government using the police, military, and other security operatives brutalized protesters by way of whippings, beatings, kicking and jailing, and in the most dehumanizing way a protester was treated like a physical slave.

During the historical slave trade especially in Nigeria, in the 15th century in particular, before Africans were being sold as slaves, Europeans were known to involuntarily shave the hair of captured Africans for one main reason, to dehumanize them and alter their sense of self choice.

Like the brutalizing ways of slavery, one of the peaceful protesters, Damilare Adenola, in his own words was forced to prostrate on the floor by violent officials. At which time one of officials pulled out a knife while another used a broken bottle to shave off his dreadlocks and hair, and badly bruised his back.

Like the European type slavery, the victim was reportedly flogged with iron rod, chained, and kicked to the ground. To fully discriminate and humiliate him the security agents dehumanized him for wearing "brown hair' like woman.

Mr. Femi Falana, there is need to let President Muhammadu Buhari know about this, because there is no way he would have agreed to the enslavement of a protester by way of chaining, whipping, beating and forceful cutting of his hair.

The Buhari administration in an extreme but in an understandable way could have deployed police, security and military personnel for patrol and cautionary purposes but meting out some of the known horrors of slavery could not have been sanctioned by the Buhari administration.

As I write this the picture of the involuntary hair shaving of a peaceful protester with a broken bottle has flooded the internet, as such the officer or officers involved in this slavery act, needs to be identified for prosecution on the ground of human rights or enslavement violations.

This protest which I now call the August-September Nonviolent Revolution, is a human right calling for steady accountability and good governance on the part of the Buhari administration. To use all sorts of excessive force on protesters is not only unlawful but out right catastrophic physically, psychologically, and traumatically, especially to the young man who was treated like a slave.

We now leave in a world of social media and this current protest remains anchored on justice, policy and integrity-based civil disobedience campaign as it focuses on calls for good/fair policies, equal justice and reducing oppression in the hands of the government.

One thing that is a reality, is that peaceful demonstrations will continue and responding with escalating force such as beatings and other brutalizing acts doesnt work, instead may result to violent clashes between police and protesters, as such it is essential to give training in good policing of peaceful demonstration as the world is watching Nigeria.

Prof John Egbeazien Oshodi, is a Forensic/Clinical/Legal Psychologist and the President of the Dr John Egbeazien Oshodi Foundation (JEOF), a community and Online based psychology, forensic and behavioral Center. [email protected]
This last year has presented the world with two of the gravest health and humanitarian crises in a generation. In each case, the UN organization specifically tasked to prevent, prepare for and mitigate these disasters has not only failed to respond effectively, but has significantly contributed to the toll in human suffering.

The catastrophic role of World Health Organization in the critical early days of the COVID-19 outbreak is well known. In a series of decisions that prioritized politics over human health, WHO leadership ignored urgent warnings from Taiwan, provided mixed messages on whether the virus was transmissible among humans, opposed international travel restrictions when they were most needed, and failed to push Chinese leaders for the kind of access and transparency that would have ameliorated the crisis. The WHOs refusal to address these concerns or even acknowledge the need for reform, let alone institute reforms, convinced President Trump to pull U.S. funding and look for more effective and trustworthy ways to promote global health.

Less well known is the story behind the UN Food and Agriculture Organizations insufficient and potentially catastrophic initial response under former Director General Graziano to the locust plague now spreading across major portions of Africa, the Middle East and India. Locust swarms as large as cities, comprised of billions of ravenous, grasshopper-like insects, blanket the countryside. These insects can travel 90 miles a day through the air, and they strip the ground bare of vegetation wherever they land.

Last winter, Kenyan authorities described it as the worst locust invasion in 75 years. But wet weather has provided ideal breeding conditions, and experts believe that new swarms may be 500 times bigger and could spread even further across Africa.

The UN warns that in East Africa alone, 22 million people will be facing acute food insecurity by the end of this year. Many of these regions are already beset by chronic undernourishment, terrorism, and ongoing military conflict. Add in COVID-19, and we cannot assume food aid will be sufficient to stem widespread social collapse and massive loss of life.

The FAO has been aware of the developing crisis since as early as June 2019, when locust swarms crossed from Yemen into Somalia and fanned out to neighboring countries. Yet many months later few control activities had been launched: Kenya had only four planes equipped for aerial spraying of pesticides, the only effective way to combat the swarms. The FAO did put out an appeal for funding. Only about half of the money has been raised.

Like viral pandemics, locusts are an ever-present threat. Containment requires early and rapid intervention, ideally spraying the locusts before they swarm. The FAO closely monitors locust sightings for exactly this reason. Nevertheless, it failed to get the necessary pesticides and equipment to the field in time, and belated efforts to do so have been tragically hampered by COVID-19.

The problem runs deeper than bureaucratic inertia. Under the previous Director General, Graziano da Silva (2012-2019), the FAO became increasingly politicized, transforming from a science-based development organization into a champion of agrarian peasant movements supported by well-funded NGOs that condemn trade as neo-colonialism and equate property rights with oppression.

Advanced under the banner of agroecology, this new approach rejects the 20th century agricultural technologies -- including advanced biotech seed varieties, modern pesticides and fertilizer -- that undergird food security in every developed and successfully developing nation. In their place, the FAOs agroecologists and their allies promote practices that are deemed more culturally sensitive and hold up subsistence farming as an ideal. But this endless cycle of back-breaking labor and low yield production keeps so much of the world mired in underdevelopment.

One reason Africa wasnt prepared for the locusts is that the FAO spent the seven years of Grazianos reign actively campaigning alongside agroecology activists to convince government leaders to ban pesticides and use natural, organic methods instead. Even as swarms landed in Kenya last June, government ministers at a conference in Nairobi were being told at the launching of a FAO Scaling up Agroecology initiative that GMOs cause cancer , pesticides make men infertile, and other debunked claims widely propagated by fringe groups promoting themselves as environmentalists.

Soon after, allied activists were using the conference presentation materials to lobby elected Kenyan officials to ban GMOs and pesticides -- including the very pesticides so desperately needed to fight the locust plague. This was no aberration. Numerous such conferences have been held around the world as part of a ten-year FAO initiative. Before COVID, one was scheduled for this August in Kenya.

The current Director General, Qu Dongyu, elected last June, has promised reforms. There are others in leadership who fully appreciate the need to embrace innovation and stop demonizing the private sector, but the ideologues are firmly entrenched in the FAO bureaucracy and fiercely resist change. Unfortunately, the European Union and many EU governments have fully embraced agroecology -- for Africans, if not yet for themselves -- and many of their FAO ambassadors vote to perpetuate Grazianos legacy.

As with the WHO, the United States has been the largest individual donor to the FAO since its founding in 1945. In those years, the organization helped lead the Green Revolution that saved billions of people from starvation and lifted billions more out of poverty. Now FAO agroecologists appear dedicated to undoing that great work. The locust plague is a wakeup call. FAO must shed this radical ideology and return to its core mission that began 75 years ago.

Kip Tom is the United States Ambassador and Permanent Representative, United Nations Rome Based Agencies. The views expressed are the author's own.
Total deaths included: Portage Township, 18, no change; Center Township, 15, no change; Westchester Township, six, no change; Liberty Township, one, no change; and Union Township, one, no change.

The Porter County Health Department listed three patients hospitalized and 1,010 people recovered as of Wednesday.

The Westville Correctional Facility on Thursday had 201 inmates and 109 staff who had tested positive for COVID-19. A total of 197 inmates and 104 staff have recovered, according to the Indiana Department of Correction.

A total of 804,345 people in Indiana had been tested for COVID-19, with an 8.8% total positivity rate and 7.4% seven-day positivity rate, ISDH said.

The Region's seven-day positivity rates included Newton County, 9.2%; Jasper County, 8.5%; Lake County, 7.7%; Porter County, 5.1%; and LaPorte County, 5%.

The seven-day positivity rates were reported between July 24 and 30.

ISDH reported 63,388 people tested in Lake County, 16,869 in Porter County, 13,540 in LaPorte County, 3,579 in Jasper County, and 983 in Newton County.

New tests were reported between May 7 and Wednesday.
BRIDGEPORT  A furious Mayor Joe Ganim demanded Wednesday evening that United Illuminating work harder and faster to return power to thousands of constituents, particularly those living in older senior housing.

UI, turn the power back on in the City of Bridgeport, Ganim said while standing outside of a senior living complex at 2400 North Ave. We need it.

If not, Ganim threatened that his administration would take the utility to court, either civil or possibly criminal.

Some of these violations are flagrant, reckless endangerment to human lives, the mayor said. We have vulnerable residents who cant stand another day of this heat.

He went on to accuse an unidentified UI employee of hanging up on him when he phoned the company for answers and of discrimination against people in the City of Bridgeport who have less means and less ability, Ganim said.

United Illuminating reported having about 116,000 reported outages Tuesday night in its territories in the New Haven and Bridgeport areas, with Fairfield and Shelton hit hardest with 13,000 and 11,000 outages respectively, with Milford and Stratford in excess of 9,000; New Haven above 8,000; and Bridgeport and Trumbull hovering around the 7,000 mark.

United Illuminating Co. officials said the outages could continue for days. Similarly, cable and internet providers said not to expect service to resume before the power comes back on, as most of the outages are related to power outages at company sites.

According to UIs online outage map, as of just before 6 p.m., 7,552 of its 61,033 Bridgeport customers  or 12.37 percent were without electricity.

In an interview afterward, Ganim and the citys longtime head of emergency operations, Scott Appleby, said municipal officials have a special command line to UI to deal with life or death emergencies.

So, the mayor said, he called it, and was put on hold. He left his number and was not given a return call. He phoned back and was told the command line was only used for complaints like fallen live wires.

He and Appleby also claimed they received an email from UI that the company was only prioritizing make safe work  clearing debris  and still working on a restoration plan.

This type of tropical storm, there should be a make safe process including restoration based on the most at-risk, Appleby said. It has to coincide. You cant say, Im not even talking restoration for the most at risk when Im cutting down trees.
SAN JOSE, Calif., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Accion Opportunity Fund (AOF), the nation's leading nonprofit organization supporting diverse, resilient entrepreneurs with funding, advocacy and business advice, announced today it has received a $15 million transformative grant from MacKenzie Scott. This is the largest individual donation Accion Opportunity Fund has received in its 26-year history.

The grant accelerates AOF's efforts to reach thousands of underserved entrepreneurs with $1.2 billion in capital across the United States in the next five years. It also kicks off a $100 million capacity-building campaign, scheduled to launch fall 2020, to increase resources, including access to affordable credit, connections, and quality business advice for entrepreneurs who may otherwise be left behind.

"Like many, I watched the first half of 2020 with a mixture of heartbreak and horror," Ms. Scott said in a statement regarding her philanthropy. "Life will never stop finding fresh ways to expose inequities in our systems; or waking us up to the fact that a civilization this imbalanced is not only unjust, but also unstable. What fills me with hope is the thought of what will come if each of us reflects on what we can offer."

Accion Opportunity Fund creates a more equitable financial system by finding, funding, and supporting small businesses run by people of color, women and immigrants. Nearly 90% of businesses in its portfolio are run by entrepreneurs of color, women, and immigrants.

AOF CEO Luz Urrutia praised the gift from the philanthropist and novelist. "We are deeply humbled and grateful for Ms. Scott's extraordinary generosity and confidence in Accion Opportunity Fund and other organizations that are working tirelessly to widen economic opportunities for many who have been undervalued and excluded for far too long."

MacKenzie Scott donated $1.7 billion to organizations tackling a variety of social issues. Her contributions included support for women, racial equality and economic mobility  all causes supported by AOF and impacted by the organization's mission.

Phil Black, True Ventures Co-founder, Accion Opportunity Fund Board member, and chair of AOF's upcoming Campaign Steering Committee, said, "Ms. Scott's leadership and generosity  especially during this moment of a global pandemic and the fight for racial equality  will inspire other philanthropists and advocates as AOF advances its mission and bolsters its impact in a time when resources are more important than ever."

"Her focus on building a more just, equitable society reflects our highest ambitions, which makes this grant, in this moment, so special," said Black.

About Accion Opportunity Fund

Accion Opportunity Fund is a U.S.-based nonprofit working to create an inclusive, healthy financial system that supports the nation's small business owners. For thirty years, the organization has supported underserved entrepreneurs  including entrepreneurs of color, low-income entrepreneurs, and women  who often lack access to the financial services they need to build and grow their businesses.

About Opportunity Fund

Opportunity Fund, the nation's leading nonprofit small business lender, believes small dollar loans help hard-working entrepreneurs make lasting change in their own lives and build stronger communities by growing businesses and creating jobs. Opportunity Fund's community of donors and investors is creating an inclusive financial system that empowers women, immigrant, and minority small business owners. Our strategy combines microloans for small business owners and New Markets Tax Credit investments in high-impact community infrastructure projects. Since 1994, Opportunity Fund has deployed more than $1 billion and helped thousands of entrepreneurs invest in their families' futures. The organization has committed to lending an additional $1.2 billion to small business owners across the country and investing $174 million in community real estate projects by 2023.

In March, 2020, Opportunity Fund and Accion, The US Network, joined forces to establish Accion Opportunity Fund , the first organization focused on a national microlending strategy to meet the credit needs of small businesses  developing new products, establishing new partnerships, promoting research and financial education, and leveraging digital technologies to support mission-driven lending. www.opportunityfund.org

SOURCE Accion Opportunity Fund
Thomas Chumbley is seeking a seat on the township board for the second time in two years, and in 2020 he says he hopes local voters will see his passion and choose him for a leadership role within the community. He is seeking the Position 2 seat on the board.

The active local resident who has held numerous roles on various village association boards in The Woodlands is one of three current candidates who have filed official papers with the township to appear on the Nov. 3 ballot. Chumbley is joined by current Position 2 incumbent Jason J. Nelson, who was appointed to the seat on April 16, and Luis Louis Granados.

Related: Snyder cruises to massive victory in re-election bid for Woodlands board

I am not a one-hit wonder, like many here, who run then run away after a loss. It was interesting that people who thought I was part of a slate against them (in 2019)  their political enemy  found out that, no I was just independent from them, Chumbley said in an email to The Villager. I think it would be great to have a director, like me, on the board without the big donations, subjugation to political action committees or a coalition built on (uneducated voters). Even elected officials with a good heart sometimes are pulled by their political base. I believe this would be a WIN for the people in that (voters) would know that there is no influence going on from other sources. I want to win without having to grovel to outside influencers who get me votes.

Chumbley ran unsuccessfully in 2019, challenging Position 6 incumbent Ann Snyder along with two other challengers  Alan Richel and Granados. The 2019 race ended in a landslide win for Snyder, who secured her third term in office with the win. He first filed to seek the Position 7 seat in 2019, which was being vacated by Carol Stromatt. However, Chumbley decided instead to switch his efforts to the Position 6 seat and challenge Snyder.

Now, a year later, Chumbley and Granados are back again  this time aiming to win the seat vacated by former director Brian Boniface and currently held by appointee Nelson.

Related: Woodlands board candidate Chumbley says quality leadership is needed

A consistent theme of Chumbleys platform is his leadership skills and claims to be independent from outside influences, something he alleges is a problem with the current board. He did not specify which of the seven director he feels are swayed by outside forces, but vowed if elected he would not kneel to anybody trying to persuade him to take certain actions.

My problem is corrupting  or potentially corrupting  influences. When I speak, when I am supportive or critical, when I make a decision, or vote a certain way, the public can know I do so because I have researched it and I truly believe it is the right thing to do for our township without concern of a hidden agenda, some attempt to slip something under the noses of the public, or rent-seeking, he added. I want my concerns to be completely the facts and not politically motivated. Thats somewhat refreshing to many. This is an opportunity for the voters as I see it.

Background in villages touted

Chumbley has resided in The Woodlands for 11 years with his wife and four children, having been active in both the Grogans Mill and Cochrans Crossing village association boards. He also spent several years working with township officals on the law enforcement advisory committee.

I (was) in a Ph.D. leadership program and a lot of the literature (we were reading) indicates there is a crisis in leadership, Chumbley said in 2019. Their encouragement (was) to step up and take a risk and be involved. (Last year) I felt the impetus to move beyond neighbors complaining about dogsthis is one way to give back. I am about what is best for The Woodlands.

Chumbley, 45, works as a leadership consultant for his own personal company he founded. He previously served for three years on the Grogans Mill Village Association board and is currently a member of the Cochrans Crossing Village Association board. He was a member of the townships Law Enforcement Advisory Council for two years, representing the Village of Grogans Mill until June of 2017 on the advisory body.

What you get in me is an authentic; if somewhat flawed, but authentic person whose major concern is effective running of The Woodlands now and effective stewardship for the long term. I think people really want that, I think we need that in todays world. I think, secretly, even some of our good local politicians want it, Chumbley said. In the 1980 and 1990s, there was a lot of literature about there being a leadership crisis, and, those concerns just havent gone away. We talk openly about that for issues in business like Enron, but we rarely speak openly about that issue in politics. I think it is important to find people and raise them up to fulfill positions of leadership who are real servant leaders on behalf of the public. Id like to be given a chance to show my mettle in this regard.

Bare-bones campaign

Running a bare-bones campaign in 2019 had its challenges, Chumbley admitted. He said aside from a key endorsement he received from former township director Peggy Hausman, he felt that voters did not know him well. His performance in the lone major candidate forum hosted by The Woodlands Area Chamber of Commerce was marked by some confusing responses to questions, something he said was not indicative of his leadership skills and abilities.

Last year people really didnt know me and as a result I was greatly misjudged by several key political players who saw me as a potential threat  that is  on the other side of the local politics. I have to say, Peggy Hausman was one of the few who saw to my core from the beginning and understood where my heart lies, he said. I feel I earned the respect and even affection of many good and important people in this community after they really got to know me. And that respect and affection is returned. We are so fortunate to have so many good people here. I know I have garnered the support of several key people because they know who I am and what I am about.

Chumbley said his platform from 2019 has not changed much, and he also noted that he maintained his candidate website after the election was over as a way for voters who may not have chosen him to learn more about his beliefs and candidacy. He said the COVID-19 pandemic, police and law enforcement issues as well as the incoming new township general manager are three big issues.

Certainly COVID will be an issue. If you look way back when the first case hit Houston area youll see (on my Facebook) me wearing an N95 mask encouraging others to do the same, despite the CDC actively opposing the use of masks and especially prohibiting N95 types for sole use for medical.I think we need to deal with the issue of policing. When I was on the Grogans Mill board, so were talking years ago, I advocated police cameras, he explained. Id have to say the third most impactful issue is likely going to be the transition to the new president/general manager. This change can be disruptive or a boon to internal operations. It creates opportunities for our Board of Directors to take more of a leadership role as well. Theres a balance to be had between the administrative professionals and the community leadership.

jeff.forward@chron.com
Health inspection reports are available on healthspace.com/erieny, though there can be a lag in reporting, and the reports do not consistently indicate whether a bar or restaurant was shut down by the Health Department. Of the three restaurants shut down by the state for what were labeled "non-critical violations," only one report stated that a shutdown order was issued. Health sanitarians did indicate "an imminent health hazard condition" regarding crowding and lack of face mask usage.

The law proposed by members of the Republican-supported minority caucus asks that the county provide more details that justify the decision to shut down a business, a copy of the closure order, and "any and all evidence" the county government has to justify the order. Legislators have said they also would like more detailed information regarding how much contact a health inspector had with a restaurant before taking the drastic step to close a private business.

Minority Leader Joseph Lorigo said Wednesday he was offended by what he considered Poloncarz's attempts to avoid accountability.
A New Zealand government job advertisement has raised speculation the country's borders may be closed to tourists for up to two years.

A job offer was posted on Tuesday for a communications advisory role at the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment.

The role will help coordinate returning Kiwis' stays in hotel quarantine and has been listed as a fixed two year contract.

New Zealand shut its borders to tourists in March during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic (pictured man in Queenstown)

The listing said it had several roles 'being set up to support Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) unit at MBIE to contribute to the All of Government Response to COVID-19'.

'This is a significant public service and career development opportunity supporting our country's first line of defence against COVID-19 spreading in our communities.

'Our communications team will also support operational communications targeting returnees from the moment they book their ticket through to stay in and their exit from managed isolation and quarantine.'

New Zealand closed its borders to all non residents in March during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Government on Wednesday passed a law that will enable them to charge returning travellers to stay in hotel quarantine.

The fees will apply to any Kiwis who leave the country after August 10 or those who left earlier but are only coming back to visit New Zealand.

Any returning travellers are being made to stay and isolate in the hotels for 14 days.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment said there was no set time frames for staff amid the pandemic.

A trans-Tasman travel bubble had been discussed between Australia and New Zealand but is now unlikely following a surge in coronavirus cases (pictured passengers arrive at Sydney Airport on Wednesday from Melbourne)

'There is no timeframe for the operation of the managed isolation and quarantine system. We are in an unprecedented times with a global pandemic uncontrolled outside our borders,' the spokesperson said.

'Managed isolation is a cornerstone in the defence against COVID-19 and will remain in place as long as necessary, to protect New Zealanders and those returning home.

'Staff working in the MIQ team within MBIE are being hired on a range of different contract lengths, and timeframes may be revised if necessary.'

Discussions had surrounded a possible trans-Tasman bubble between New Zealand and Australia but Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern dismissed the idea.

Ms Ardern on Monday said Australia's surge in COVID-19 cases was too risky to open up travel between the two countries.

'One of the things we said as part of our criteria was that anywhere we have quarantine-free travel, they have to be free of community transmission for a period of time, 28 days,' she told The AM Show.

'That is going to take a long time for Australia to get back to that place.'
New York Attorney General Letitia James describes a lawsuit seeking to dissolve the National Rifle Association, alleging executives violated state nonprofit laws. The NRA filed a countersuit in New York state court, and President Trump suggested the organization should move to Texas. Photo: Justin Lane/Shutterstock
By Akbar Mammadov

President Ilham Aliyev has said that there are positive dynamics in the countrys fight against COVID-19 and situation around the pandemic is under control.

Aliyev made this remark at the government session held via video conference on measures to combat COVID-19 and the socio-economic situation in the country.

There is positive dynamics in the fight against coronavirus. The positive trend observed since 16 July gives us a reason to say that all measures taken were quite timely. As a result of these measures, the situation is under control to this day. Since July 16, the number of new infection cases is far lower than the number of people recovering from the disease. This positive trend suggests that we will continue to keep the coronavirus disease under control, Aliyev said.

The president noted that presently, 46 hospitals across the country treat only coronavirus patients. Of these 46 hospitals, 41 were built or overhauled and provided with state-of-the-art equipment in the past 17 years. If we had not taken these steps on time, we would be faced with great problems and a tragic situation today, the president said.

Aliyev stressed that Azerbaijan is one of the leading countries in the world in terms of the number of tests per capita.

We have increased five-fold the number of laboratories in a short period of time. The new laboratories to be acquired in the near future will enable even more tests. We must increase the total number of laboratories to 45, the president said.

Aliyev reminded that 40 new ambulances were brought to the country recently and that their number will reach 100.

The president also touched upon the construction of new hospitals.

Nine modular hospitals have been commissioned to date. Four of them started operating in one day  on 29 July. These hospitals were opened with my participation in Gobustan, Ismayilli, Gabala and Shaki. In the near future, the total number of modular hospitals will reach 16. A total of 3,200 coronavirus patients will be treated in these hospitals alone, he said.

Aliyev underlined that an 800-bed hospital has already been commissioned through the Ministry of Emergency Situations, and a 1,300-bed hospital will be commissioned by the end of August, which amounts to additional 2,100 beds.

He reminded that Azerbaijan recently turned two Olympic Sports Complexes into hospitals in a short period of time. Each of these complexes has a capacity to treaty about 300 patients.

There is no need for that yet, but if there is a need, we can, of course, use these opportunities, Aliyev said.

Commenting on the number of doctors treating COVID-19 patients, Aliyev said that presently, doctors from several countries have been invited to the country. Medical teams from Turkey, Russia, Cuba, Italy and China have arrived in Azerbaijan and have already started working. This, of course, gives us additional opportunities.

Social aid

The president reiterated his earlier statement that COVID-19 will not affect the social project carried out in the country.

Our extensive social package has covered around 5 million people. The vast majority of the 900,000 people working in the public sector are unemployed, but are paid by the state. 760,000 people were provided with the necessary financial support and their jobs were protected. Otherwise, 760,000 people could have lost their jobs as sectors they are employed in are the ones that have suffered most as a result of the pandemic, Aliyev said.

The president highlighted the fact that 600,000 unemployed people have received 190 manats in allowance for several months now. The aid package also covers unofficially employed people and people who have temporarily lost their jobs, as well as those of low-income families.

Aliyev said that social support program must be continued in the 13 cities and regions where the strict quarantine regime is applied.

The president stressed that in 2020, the volume of social projects reached a record level, adding that not a single social project has been remained unfinished or reduced.

This year a record number of IDP families will be provided with houses and apartments. Over 7,000 IDP families will benefit from this opportunity. A record number of 1,500 families of martyrs and disabled people of the Karabakh war will be provided with housing this year. More than 400 servicemen who impeccably served in the army will be provided with free housing by the state. This means, at least 9,000 families will be provided with housing by the state this year, Aliyev said.

Support to businesses

The president reiterated the importance of business support programs amid COVID-19.

Business support programs must be further implemented. I believe the projects planned at the beginning of the year, the provision of loans and subsidies to entrepreneurs on favorable terms, the stimulation of agriculture, as well as the works done in connection with the pandemic, fully reflect our policy, Aliyev said.

Furthermore, the president said that Azerbaijans solid economic foundation allows the government to tackle any economic crisis and fluctuations in oil prices.

Even if the oil price is at $35, Azerbaijan will fulfill all social obligations, implement infrastructure projects and create additional funds to strengthen its military potential, Aliyev said.

The government session was participated by Prime Minister Ali Asadov, Economy Minister Mikayil Jabbarov and Sahil Babayev, Minister of Social Protection of Population and Labor.

---

Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
The State Department lifted its international travel advisory on Thursday, roughly four months after warning Americans not to fly abroad due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The big picture: American travelers are still barred from traveling to numerous countries, including European Union member states, because the U.S. has yet to control the spread of the virus.

Despite those restrictions to American travel abroad, U.S. airline stocks reacted favorably to the lift, Bloomberg reports.

The S&P Supercomposite Airlines Industry Index rose as much as 3%, with the biggest gainers including American Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Alaska Air and Allegiant.

What they're saying: "With health and safety conditions improving in some countries and potentially deteriorating in others, the Department is returning to our previous system of country-specific levels of travel advice ... in order to give travelers detailed and actionable information to make informed travel decisions," the agency said in a statement.

"We continue to recommend U.S. citizens exercise caution when traveling abroad due to the unpredictable nature of the pandemic."

Go deeper: Virgin Atlantic declares bankruptcy
The China share market finished session mixed on Thursday, 06 August 2020, as investors elected to book recent profit amid mounting tensions between the U. S. and China after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on US app stores to remove untrusted Chinese-owned apps, including WeChat and TikTok. This expanded the US charge against Huawei and other Chinese tech giants over a mix of security and human rights abuse claims.

At closing bell, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index added 0.26%, or 8.90 points, to 3,386.46, registering fifth straight session of advancing. But the Shenzhen Composite Index, which tracks stocks on China's second exchange, fell 0.62%, or 14.40 points, to 2,304.52 and the blue-chip CSI300 index shed 0.3%, or 14.35 points, to 4,762.76.

Military and aerospace stocks led the gain.

AVIC Shenyang Aircraft and aircraft maker Avicopter surged by the daily limit of 10%.

Vaccine-related and healthcare stocks were among big losers as traders took profits from surges since the pandemic. Chengdu Kanghua Biological Products and Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products plunged by the daily cap of 10%.

Liquor stocks were also laggards, as the government of Guizhou province where Kweichow Moutai is based told distributors not to raise prices. Kweichow Moutai fell 1.7%, while Shanxi Xinghuacun Fen Wine Factory lost 4.4%.

CURRENCY NEWS: The yuan eased against greenback, despite firmer mid-point fixing by central bank as greenback regained some ground on hopes U. S. lawmakers will soon agree to an economic stimulus package. Prior to market opening, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) set the midpoint rate CNY=PBOC at 6.9438 per dollar, 0.45% firmer than the previous fix of 6.9752.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Acting Police Commissioner McDonald Jacob has been given notice by leader of The First Wave Movement, Umar Abdullah, that there will be two more peaceful marches this month.

It comes on the heels of Abdullah being charged on Monday for leading a march around the Queens Park Savannah without permission from the acting police commissioner.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 22:59:57|Editor: huaxia

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WASHINGTON, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Three 15-year-old boys in the southeastern U.S. state of Florida have been taken into custody after trespassing on President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago property with an AK-47 in a backpack when fleeing police, local media reported on Thursday.

The teenagers jumped a wall at the Mar-a-Lago on Friday, but probably didn't know that's where they were, Palm Beach Police spokesman Michael Ogrodnick told local media.

After entering the grounds of the resort, they dumped the backpack, which contained a mini AK-47 with a loaded 14-round magazine, said Ogrodnick.

The three boys are lucky that neither the president nor any of his family members were there, otherwise Secret Service agents might have shot them, Ogrodnick said.

Police officers surrounded the resort and a helicopter and police dog were used to help find them, Ogrodnick said.

The teens have been charged with trespassing with a firearm, burglary with a firearm and resisting arrest without violence, according to a CBS report. Enditem
The ParkMobile app is the #1 parking app in the U.S. with over 19 million users and is a free download for both iPhone and Android devices. The app can be used to pay for parking in over 400 cities across the United States and is widely available in the Mid-Atlantic region including New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington, DC, Arlington, and Alexandria. In the state of Delaware, the app can be used in Wilmington, Rehoboth Beach, Dewey Beach, Bethany Beach, Lewes, and Fenwick Island.

To pay for parking with the ParkMobile app, a user enters the zone number posted on stickers and signs around the meter, selects the amount of time needed and touches the "Start Parking" button to begin the session. The user can also extend the time of the parking session on their mobile device, without having to go back to the meter.

"We are proud to work with the State of Delaware on this important initiative to keep people safe," says Jon Ziglar, CEO of ParkMobile. "We have over 700,000 users in Delaware and several million across the Mid-Atlantic area who should take common sense safety precautions including using the mobile app to avoid touching the meter."

"We appreciate this partnership with ParkMobile and the opportunity to share important safety messages with Delawareans and visitors," said Governor Carney. "We know the best ways to limit transmission of COVID-19. Please wear a mask in public settings. Wash your hands frequently and distance from others outside your household. Stay vigilant and we'll get through this."

"Partnerships with businesses like ParkMobile are vital to put essential information in visitor's hands," said Liz Keller, Delaware Tourism Director. "As we work to build consumer confidence and share what to expect with travelers when they arrive in Delaware, every touch point from social media to email helps ensure everyone is exploring safely."

In addition to partnerships, the Delaware Tourism Office and Division of Small Business have programs to inform residents and visitors on guidelines in place throughout the State. DTO's Go-To Guide is a resource for travelers to familiarize themselves with COVID-19 rules in place in Delaware. And DSB's COVID-19 Customer Protection Standards are a way for businesses to quickly let potential customers know they are making an effort to operate safely.

The State of Delaware encourages all residents and visitors to Summer Safely by wearing a face covering, washing your hands frequently, practicing social distancing, and by staying home if you are sick. You can get more information by visiting the Delaware Coronavirus website, de.gov/coronavirus.

View More information about how to Summer Safely in Delaware: http://visitdelaware.com/gotoguide

About ParkMobile

ParkMobile, LLC is the leading provider of smart parking and mobility solutions in North America, using a contactless approach to help millions of people easily find, reserve, and pay for parking on their mobile device. The company's technology is used in thousands of locations across the country, including 8 of the top 10 cities as well as college campuses, airports, and stadiums. People can use ParkMobile solutions to quickly pay for on-street and off-street parking without having to use a meter or kiosk. Additionally, ParkMobile offers parking reservations at stadium venues for concerts and sporting events. Reservations are also available in metro area garages, allowing people to drive into the city without having to worry about finding parking. ParkMobile has been named to the Inc. 5000, Deloitte Fast 500, Smart Cities Connect "Smart 50," and the Atlanta Journal Constitution's Top Workplaces. Additionally, the company won the 2020 Stevie Awards for Product Innovation. For more information, visit ParkMobile.io or @ParkMobile on Twitter.

ParkMobile Contact: Jeff Perkins, CMO, [email protected]

State of Delaware Contact: Jonathan Starkey, Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications,

[email protected]

SOURCE ParkMobile, LLC

Related Links

https://parkmobile.io


Germany progressed in its recovery from its record slump, with manufacturing orders rising much stronger than forecast in June and the number of workers on government support programs diminishing.

Having shrunk the most in at least half a century in the second quarter as a result of restrictions imposed to control the covid-19 outbreak, Germany's economy is now showing signs of bouncing back more quickly than other euro-area countries.

Industrial orders increased 27.9%, climbing for a second month, data showed on Thursday. The catchup process was particularly pronounced for investment goods, and the Economy Ministry said demand is already at 90.7% of the level recorded at the end of last year.

Meanwhile, the Ifo Institute reported that the number of people working reduced hours under a program known as Kurzarbeit in German fell to 5.6 million last month, down from 7.3 million in May. The drop was especially strong in hospitality and retail, after restaurants and shops reopened.

The euro was trading near a two-year high after the data were published, and stood at $1.1842 at 10:37 a.m. in Frankfurt.

Germany's recovery so far has been primarily driven by domestic demand, with orders from abroad lagging behind. Given the country's export focus, that's raised questions about how sustainable the upturn will be.

European Central Bank Chief Economist Philip Lane has cautioned against excessive optimism about the euro area's rebound. A less-bad-than-expected drop in activity in the second quarter may mean a "less-steep step up" in the following three months, he said, adding that a renewed increase in coronavirus infections risks dampening consumer spending and business investment.

Germany's flagship car industry -- already struggling before the pandemic -- has been severely hit by the crisis. BMW recorded its first quarterly deficit since 2009, while Volkswagen lost 2.4 billion euros ($2.9 billion) and cut its dividend. Daimler argued it had weathered the worst but still needs to slash about 20,000 jobs.

Reports from IHS Markit this week also showed European companies made further cuts to their workforce last month.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines)  Living up to its name, the Taobao Maker Festival (TMF) of the Alibaba Group is innovating ways to promote the apps young entrepreneurs, designers, and creatives amid these challenging times.

On its fifth year, the usually jam-packed TMF has hit the road on July 30 with a double-decker truck converted into mobile storefronts. The 20-day road trip will traverse four cities  Hangzhou, Chengdu, Xian, and Wuhan  allowing dozens of merchants to display their products in each city and meet their fans while following safety protocols. At each stop, Taobao, Chinas biggest online marketplace, and selected makers will hold mini offline events that draw on each citys unique culture and heritage.

The Taobao Maker Festival Caravan went on a road trip to visit four Chinese cities, starting with Hangzhou, followed by Xian, Chengdu and Wuhan.

Hybrid offline-online experience

TMF will also live stream the road show throughout the month to online audiences around the country. This will be complemented with an immersive 3D simulation of the exhibition on the Taobao mobile app on Aug. 10-14. Powered by Taobao Life, a 3D avatar-based virtual world, the apps users can visit a six-themed online pavilion using their unique avatar, interacting with the virtual figures of what they call the apps New Blood. Fans can explore the booths of more than 150 featured merchants spread across the kingdoms of technology, fashion, anime and games, food, cultural heritage, and novel designs and curiosities.

Chris Tung, Chief Marketing Officer of Alibaba Group, said that Taobao has upgraded its popular TMF awards into a rating system that will provide Chinas most talented and entrepreneurial young minds with a year of brand exposure and marketing resources.

Young makers are shaping the future and leading the way, said Chris Tung, chief marketing officer of Alibaba Group, in an online press conference. They are tech innovators, fashion designers, and gadget makers who come to Taobao to launch their stores, to introduce what they stand for, and to make friends. It goes beyond a buy-and-sell relationship. Our makers are creating communities and telling stories.

Digital tools for the New Blood

Launched in 2016, Taobao Maker Festival is the annual culmination of Taobaos advocacy of championing idea creators, emerging brands, and young entrepreneurs. The mobile app has introduced various rich-media formats and digital tools to help these makers connect with millions of consumers.

For one, the aforementioned Taobao Live, its live streaming channel has been proven a hit among the merchants to communicate with their customers amid the lockdown. This is on top of Weitao  a social media platform on Taobao  that allows merchants to publish short-form videos and microblogs to build a following.

The Taobao Maker Festival Caravan was transformed into a mobile exhibition hall. The caravan departed from Hangzhou and traveled to Chengdu, Xi'an and Wuhan to display selected goods featured in the Taobao Maker Festival 2020.

It was a no-brainer for me to launch my business on Taobao because it is so simple to get started, said Wu Qiuqiao, owner of a Taobao store that specializes in heritage-inspired pet costumes. This is also the go-to platform for me and many other young Chinese consumers in terms of shopping, showcasing our lifestyles, and interacting with one another, she added.

Wu, who is among one of the young makers participating in this years Taobao Maker Festival, shared that the apps dedicated merchant-support team and extensive online tutorials helped her gain 16,000 followers in just one year of business.

GRAF, another merchant creator of the Taobao Maker Festival 2020, introduced original new works during the press conference. He encouraged young entrepreneurs to make use of Taobao when starting their business. If youre a college student, it wont cost that much. Take the chance. Somebody gonna give you a chance, said GRAF, who now has two million followers after being a merchant on the app for seven years.

New Maker Rating Experience

Chris Tung, Chief Marketing Officer of Alibaba Group (second from left) and merchant creators (first and second from right) at the Taobao Maker Festival 2020 press conference.

To help support merchants like Wu and GRAF, Taobao has also upgraded its popular TMF awards into a rating system that will provide year-long brand exposure and marketing resources to Chinas most talented and entrepreneurial young minds.

A panel of industry experts will review and rate all the TMF merchants that have participated over the past five years. The four-tiered rating system will reward digital badges to approximately 200 merchants. This will allow them to be included under the personalized product recommendation feature Good Find section on the Taobao app.

The new rating system promotes and celebrates originality and creativity. It will enable merchants to leverage their participation in the Taobao Maker Festival into a source of year-round benefit for growing their business and customers, said Tung. This is an initiative driven by our longstanding goal of helping small businesses and young makers to achieve their dreams and find success.
A Kansas City mother of three with strong ties to Alabama has been missing since Aug. 1 and family members are praying she will be found safe.

Marilane Carter, a 36-year-old graduate of Samford Universitys Beeson Divinity School and the wife of an Overland Park pastor, was last seen about 8:15 p.m. Saturday when she left home headed toward Birmingham, according to the Overland Park Police Department.

Her brother-in-law, Brady McLaughlin, said Carter was coming to Birmingham to seek mental health help and that they believe she had reached out to Grandview Medical Center and/or UAB to set that up. The last known telephone contact with family put her in Memphis near Interstate 55 about 8 p.m. on Sunday.

Marilane Carter, 36, left Kansas City headed to Birmingham on Aug. 1 and has not been heard from since Aug. 2. (Contributed)

Since then, McLaughlin said, there has been no contact and no vehicle sighting. Her phone is dead and there have been no credit card charges or bank activity.

Carter is married to the Rev. Adam Carter who is the lead pastor of Leawood Baptist Church in Kansas. The couple has two young sons and a daughter. The children are being cared for by family members while Carters husband is helping in the search for her. She also has family members in Fairhope.

Carter was driving her gray 2011 GMC Acadia with Kansas license plate 194LFY. She is 5-feet, 8-inches tall and weighs about 130 pounds. She has long brown hair and green eyes. She was last known to be wearing a green t-shirt and black yoga pants.

Police said she had made concerning statements to her family. A Facebook page called Find Marilane has been set up to share information, tips, and leads.

Marilane Carter, 36, left Kansas City headed to Birmingham on Aug. 1 and has not been heard from since Aug. 2. (Contributed)

Marilanes husband and three children, as well as our entire family, just want to know that Marilane is safe. We are extremely grateful for the outpouring of prayers and support,' McLaughlin said. The biggest way to help now is to share this story, share any leads or information with law enforcement and pray that God orchestrates a path for her to be found safely.

Anyone with information on Carters whereabouts is asked to call 911.
New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is likely to file an FIR in actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death case on Thursday. The case was handed over to India's premier investigation agency on Wednesday after Centre accepted Bihar government's request for a CBI probe. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar recommended the CBI probe into the case after Sushant's father KK Singh spoke to state Director General of Police (DGP) and gave his consent for the same.

Now, as the case is with CBI, after the FIR is filed, the team investigating the case will procure the documents from Bihar Police. The investigation will be done in Mumbai in a fresh manner.

Family, friends, and fans of Sushant were demanding a CBI investigation after he was found dead on June 14 at his home in Mumbai's Bandra. The case was being investigated by the Mumbai Police. However, on July 25, his father KK Singh, who resides in Rajiv Nagar locality of the city, lodged an FIR against Sushant's actress girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty with the local police station accusing her of abetment to suicide and mentally and financially exploiting the actor.

Soon after the FIR was filed, a four-member team of Bihar Police set up a parallel investigation in Mumbai. Meanwhile, Rhea moved the Supreme Court seeking transfer of the Patna FIR to Mumbai.

The Supreme Court heard Rhea's petition on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned Rhea on Wednesday and asked her to appear before the agency on Friday.

Here are some of the developments in the case as of now:

- Rumour has it that Rhea has returned home. However, it is not officially confirmed. Earlier, the Bihar Police has claimed that she cannot be located.

- ED has already questioned Sushant's house manager Samuel Miranda in relation to the death of the actor. He is also an accused in the case as per the Bihar Police FIR.

- Sushant's former manager Disha Salian's post-mortem report has also been accessed. Questions are being raised on why post-mortem was done two days after she died allegedly by suicide.

- Another WhatsApp chat between Sushant's sister and brother-in-law OP Singh has been accessed. Singh had shared it with Mumbai Deputy Commissioner of Police Paramjit Singh Dahiya in which the family had suspected Rhea and some of her friends of wrongdoing.
People queue up outside a Centrelink office for government payments in Melbourne on April 20, 2020. (William West/AFP via Getty Images )

Victorias Shutdown to Weigh on Australian Economy

Economists are busily adjusting their economic forecasts as a result of the tough measures taken by the Victorian government to try and put the lid on its COVID-19 outbreak.

Chief economist at consultants KPMG Brendan Rynne expects the stage four lockdown in Australias second largest state will see an $830 million economic output loss in Augusta 2.5 percent decline.

September could be even worse, particularly if the construction sector runs out of work in the next four weeks.

My calculations are about 130,000 workers now caught in Stage 4 are in work types that wont be able to work from home, Rynne told AAP.

Of these about 75,000 are in manufacturing, while there is possibly around 50,000 construction jobs that may end up not working by the end of the shutdown.

Overall, Australia will have a shallower recovery than it would have done, he said.

AMP Capital chief economist Shane Oliver expects Victorias decision will delay the return to positive economic growth in the December quarter.

The further hit to the economy and likely additional upwards pressure on unemployment is increasing pressure for more policy stimulus, Oliver said.

While the RBA left monetary policy on hold at its August meeting further easing is likely aheadit could take the form of a rate cut to 0.1 percent.

The cash rate already sits at a record low 0.25 percent.

ANZ senior economist Catherine Birch had expected national unemployment would average eight percent in the September quarter, rising to 8.5 percent in the December quarter.

On the face of it, weaker employment growth should result in higher unemployment, she said in a note to clients.

But how much higher the official unemployment rate will rise due to the tighter restrictions in Victoria remains unclear and subject to policy changes and movements in participation.

Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe predicts the jobless rate could reach 10 percent by year-end, although concedes it is difficult to make forecasts in the face of a pandemic.

This would be higher than the 9.25 percent forecast by the Treasury two weeks ago and prior to the tougher restrictions.

The Reserve Bank will release a range of scenarios for the economic outlook when it releases its quarterly statement on monetary policy on Aug 7.

Colin Brinsden in Canberra
Two years ago, bones were found in a red, black and white chequered plastic bag in the Royal National Park in Sydney's south, but the identity of their owner remains a mystery.

After a number of forensic tests and help from a university in New Zealand, police now hope they are closer to identifying the remains and bringing closure to a family.

Forensic tests have been carried out on the bones of a man that were found in Sydney's south two years ago. Credit:NSW Police

The bones, including part of a skull, were found by a motorist who stopped for a toilet break on Sir Bertram Stevens Drive about 4.45pm on September 22, 2018.

The remains showed evidence of weathering and fire damage.
CALGARY, Alberta, Aug. 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Parkland Corporation ("Parkland", "we", the "Company", or "our") (TSX:PKI) announced today its financial and operating results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020. Highlights from the second quarter (three months) include:



Adjusted EBITDA attributable to Parkland ("Adjusted EBITDA") of $191 million.





Net earnings attributable to Parkland of $32 million or $0.22 per share, basic.





Cash flow from operations fully funded capital expenditures, acquisitions and net dividend payments.





Fuel and petroleum product volume decreased by 14 percent relative to 2019 due to the impact of COVID-19.





Operating and marketing, general and administrative ("MG&A") costs decreased by a combined $80 million relative to 2019. The cost reductions and strong per unit fuel margins helped offset the impact of volume declines.





Refinery utilization was 64 percent for the quarter, reflecting the impact of the Burnaby refinery turnaround (the "Turnaround"). Post the Turnaround, utilization was between 75 - 80 percent to account for lower product demand.





Closed $400 million offering of Senior Notes due 2028 and subsequently redeemed $400 million of Senior Notes maturing in 2021 and 2022.





Improved liquidity of $1.6 billion and Total Funded Debt to Credit Facility EBITDA ratio of 2.7 times as of June 30, 2020.





Modest increase to expected 2020 capital expenditures of $50 million, to an expected total of $325 million +/- 5%.





Proudly supported our Canadian, US and International communities through the COVID-19 pandemic by donating over $4 million of fuel and premium food items.

"I would like to thank the Parkland team for safely serving our customers and delivering strong financial and operating performance, in what was the most challenging macro environment we have ever seen, said Bob Espey, President and Chief Executive Officer. "We delivered solid margins, won new business and successfully managed our cash flow by reducing costs and controlling capital expenditures. Our financial and operating performance through the second quarter demonstrates the flexibility and resilience of our diversified business model. While we remain nimble in light of ongoing COVID-19 uncertainty, we are confident in our ability to advance our growth agenda.

Story continues

Q2 2020 Segment Highlights

Canada

Strong per unit fuel margins and convenience store traffic drove an over 30 percent increase in Adjusted EBITDA relative to 2019. We advanced key organic growth initiatives such as real-time pricing and enhanced digital analytics and continued to win new commercial business. We delivered our 18th consecutive quarter of Company C-Store same-store sales growth ("SSSG'), completed the roll out of our JOURNIE Rewards program and advanced our National Fueling Network ("NFN") to prepare for a second half 2020 launch. Second quarter highlights include:

Adjusted EBITDA of $93 million, an increase of $22 million relative to 2019. The increase was primarily driven by strong per unit fuel margins, higher convenience store baskets and lower operating and MG&A costs.





Fuel and petroleum product volume of 1.8 billion litres, a decrease of 24 percent relative to 2019 due to the impact of COVID-19. Retail fuel volume declined 28 percent while commercial and other volume declined 16 percent.





Company volume SSSG of negative 29.3 percent, reflecting the volume decline due to COVID-19.





Company C-Store SSSG of 12.1 percent, our 18th consecutive quarter of positive C-Store SSSG. The convenience store channel has been an attractive consumer option through COVID-19 and performed well despite the significant decline in forecourt traffic. The sales increase was driven by strong tobacco, alcohol, household essential, grocery and take-home format performance offset by lower car wash, fresh food and dispensed beverage offerings. Excluding the impact of cigarettes, Company C-Store SSSG was 7.3 percent.





Operating Costs decreased $25 million and MG&A costs decreased $11 million relative to 2019, reflecting the natural variability in our cost structure, proactive cost control measures and a benefit from relief provided under the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy ("CEWS") program.





Completed the roll out of JOURNIE Rewards at over 900 sites under the Chevron, Pioneer and Ultramar brands in Canada. Initial results are encouraging, with increased convenience and fuel baskets and early momentum with CIBC linked customers. We plan to begin joint marketing efforts with CIBC later this year as market conditions warrant. For more information on JOURNIE, to save money on your fuel purchases and earn in-store rewards, please visit www.journie.ca.





Our Canadian Commercial team secured a series of new organic business wins, including multi-million litre cardlock customers.

International

The International segment delivered a strong quarter despite an extensive COVID-19 impact in the Caribbean and South American regions. Our geographic and product diversity underpinned performance, with natural resource sector activity in South America and diversified economies in the Spanish Caribbean helping offset significant declines in aviation and retail. In addition, we meaningfully reduced costs and completed some of our ongoing integration work. The International team grew market share with minimal capital investment, including an exclusive commercial fuel supply agreement in Guyana and continued growth in the commercial mining sector. Our second quarter results demonstrate a robust base business excluding tourism and reinforce the long-term potential for International. Second quarter highlights include:

Adjusted EBITDA of $54 million, a decrease of $20 million relative to 2019. The decrease was primarily driven by COVID-19 shutdowns, national curfew measures which required us to close certain retail gasoline and convenience stores, and lower aviation activity.





Fuel and petroleum product volume of 1.2 billion litres, a decrease of 4 percent relative to 2019 due to the impact of COVID-19. Retail fuel volume declined 35 percent while commercial and other volume increased 15 percent. While Commercial and other volumes have lower per unit margins, this organic growth helped mitigate the overall decline.





Reduced operating costs by $9 million and MG&A costs by $10 million relative to 2019, reflecting the natural variability in our cost structure, integration efforts and proactive cost control measures taken during the quarter.





Our International team secured a five-year marine fuel contract with an international energy company in Guyana and continues to grow our presence in the power, energy, mining and construction sectors across the region.

USA

Our USA business performed well, with strong fuel margins, recent acquisitions, organic national accounts growth and proactive cost management contributing to a year over year increase in Adjusted EBITDA. We closed our previously announced acquisition of ConoMart Super Stores in mid-May, bringing seven high quality corporate retail locations and expanding our presence in Montana. Our recent acquisitions continue to perform well, and in particular, Tropic Oil delivered a record quarter through organic growth initiatives, including joint business opportunities with International and strength in the marine bunkering business in Miami. COVID-19 volume declines were offset by strong per unit retail and marine fuel margins. Second quarter highlights include:

Adjusted EBITDA of $22 million, an increase of $9 million relative to 2019. The increase was primarily due to acquisitions, organic growth and strong retail and marine fuel margins.





Fuel and petroleum product volume of 626 million litres, an increase of 59 percent relative to 2019 due to the impact of acquisitions and organic growth, offset by the impact of COVID-19. Retail fuel volume declined 14 percent while wholesale and commercial volume increased 73 percent.





Operating Costs increased $15 million and MG&A costs increased $1 million relative to 2019, due to the impact of acquisitions.





Our US team continues to win new business in a tough environment, adding national accounts customers in seven states, including several multi-million litre customers.

Supply

The Supply team delivered a safe and successful restart of the planned Turnaround in late April and reliable fuel supply to our customers with no interruptions. Our integrated logistics business performed well despite COVID-19 supply and demand impacts which lowered overall system volume. Refinery utilization and margins increased through June as the market recovered and we exited the quarter with balanced crude and finished product inventory levels. Second quarter highlights include:

Adjusted EBITDA of $40 million, a decrease of $178 million relative to 2019 due to extended Turnaround timing driven by labour productivity challenges, some of which were COVID-19 related, reduced refinery utilization in response to lower product demand and strong refining crack spreads in the comparable 2019 period.





Refinery utilization was 64 percent, reflecting downtime in early April and a standard production ramp up process. Utilization was between 75 - 80 percent for the remainder of the quarter and was supported by our integrated marketing channels in British Columbia.





Invested $71 million of capital on the Turnaround during the six months ended June 30, 2020. Capital expenditures for the Turnaround were above original estimates of $60 million due to labour productivity challenges, some of which were COVID-19 related.





Reduced operating costs by $26 million and MG&A costs by $3 million relative to 2019, reflecting the variable components of production costs, proactive cost control measures and relief provided under the CEWS program.





We continue to pursue high-quality growth projects that extend our supply advantage, such as a fuel import terminal opportunity in the Port of Oshawa, Ontario, to provide a further cost-effective fuel supply source to our integrated marketing operations in the Greater Toronto Area.

Corporate

The Corporate segment includes centralized administrative services and expenses incurred to support operations. Second quarter highlights include:

MG&A costs of $17 million, a decrease of $12 million relative to 2019, reflecting the natural variability in our cost structure, deliberate cost control measures and relief provided under the CEWS program.





Adjusted EBITDA expense of $18 million, which includes MG&A costs and minor foreign exchange impacts during the quarter.





As a percentage of total adjusted gross profit, MG&A costs decreased to 3.5 percent (from 4.0 percent in 2019).





We continue to enhance base systems and processes to capture efficiency, limit costs from re-emerging in 2021 and position ourselves to scale the business without adding complexity. Examples include teaming up with Amazon Web Services to strengthen our customer value proposition and accelerate our digital transformation and process improvements to further simplify reporting and deliver efficiencies.

Consolidated Financial Overview

($ millions, unless otherwise noted) Three months ended June 30, Six months ended June 30, Financial Summary 2020(4) 2019(4) 2018(4) 2020(4) 2019(4) 2018(4) Sales and operating revenue 2,704 4,854 3,783 7,032 9,069 7,125 Fuel and petroleum product volume (million litres) 4,757 5,525 4,202 10,684 10,861 8,413 Adjusted gross profit(1) 487 728 513 1,080 1,425 943 Adjusted EBITDA including non-controlling interest ("NCI") 208 370 249 422 709 402 Adjusted EBITDA attributable to Parkland ("Adjusted EBITDA")(1) 191 346 249 382 661 402 Supply 40 218 170 80 361 241 Canada(2) 93 71 100 195 188 207 International 54 74  121 145  USA 22 13 5 40 24 9 Corporate (18 ) (30 ) (26 ) (54 ) (57 ) (55 ) Net earnings (loss) 31 111 60 (43 ) 202 80 Net earnings (loss) attributable to Parkland 32 105 60 (47 ) 182 80 Net earnings (loss) per share ($ per share) Per share  basic 0.22 0.72 0.45 (0.32 ) 1.25 0.61 Per share  diluted 0.21 0.70 0.45 (0.32 ) 1.22 0.60 Dividends 45 45 41 90 88 79 Per share 0.3036 0.2985 0.2934 0.6038 0.5936 0.5836 Weighted average number of common shares (million shares) 149 147 132 149 146 132 TTM distributable cash flow(1)(5) 331 562 237 331 562 237 Per share(1)(3)(5) 2.24 4.04 1.81 2.24 4.04 1.81 TTM adjusted distributable cash flow(1)(5) 364 612 415 364 612 415 Per share(1)(3)(5) 2.46 4.40 3.17 2.46 4.40 3.17 TTM dividends(5) 179 168 156 179 168 156 TTM dividend payout ratio(1)(5) 54 % 30 % 66 % 54 % 30 % 66 % TTM adjusted dividend payout ratio(1)(5) 49 % 27 % 38 % 49 % 27 % 38 % TTM weighted average number of common shares (million shares) 148 139 131 148 139 131 Total assets 9,702 9,104 5,592 9,702 9,104 5,592 Total Funded Debt to Credit Facility EBITDA ratio(1)(6) 2.70 2.47 2.39 2.70 2.47 2.39 Interest coverage ratio(1) 5.40 6.47 6.08 5.40 6.47 6.08 Growth capital expenditures attributable to Parkland(1) 19 52 13 50 80 23 Maintenance capital expenditures attributable to Parkland(1) 50 45 31 168 95 107

(1) Measure of segment profit and Non-GAAP financial measures. See Section 12 of the MD&A.

(2) For comparative purposes, information for the three and six months ended June 30, 2019 was restated due to a change in segment presentation. Canada Retail and Canada Commercial, formerly presented separately as individual segments and Canadian distribution business, formerly presented in Supply are now included in Canada, reflecting a change in organizational structure in the first six months of 2020.

(3) Calculated using the weighted average number of common shares.

(4) 2020 and 2019 results reflect the adoption of IFRS 16 as of January 1, 2019. 2018 comparative figures reflect the accounting standards in effect for that year and are not restated to reflect the impact of IFRS 16, as is allowed under the modified retrospective approach for IFRS 16 adoption.

(5) Amounts presented on a trailing-twelve-month ("TTM") basis.

(6) Beginning in Q1 2020, Credit Facility EBITDA includes Adjusted EBITDA attributable to NCI and excludes IFRS 16 impact attributable to NCI, and Total Funded Debt includes long term debt attributable to NCI, letters of credit attributable to NCI and cash and cash equivalents attributable to NCI. The amounts presented for 2019 and 2018 have not been restated.





Update on COVID-19 Business Impacts

While the beginning of the economic recovery from COVID-19 has not been linear, we saw a steady increase in fuel volumes through the second quarter and into July. The potential for a COVID-19 second wave and associated economic impacts are difficult to forecast, however, our business has demonstrated tremendous resilience and flexibility through the uncertainty and these characteristics position us well for the future. Operational highlights subsequent to quarter end include:

Canada segment volumes steadily improved through the quarter and continued into July and are now trending approximately 15 percent lower relative to 2019, consisting of an approximate 15 percent decline in both retail volume and commercial and other volume. Retail volume continues to trend upwards, while the recovery in commercial and wholesale volume has slowed in-line with seasonal activity. Consolidated per unit fuel margins have moderated slightly from Q2 2020 but remain above prior year levels.





Canadian convenience store sales have remained robust through July. Convenience store margins have improved slightly relative to Q2 2020 as higher margin categories such as car wash and fresh food and beverage offerings recover.





Our International segment is entering a seasonal low period. Although many countries have begun to reopen their economies, certain key markets have temporarily increased their restrictions as a result of rising COVID-19 cases. Volumes are trending approximately 20 percent lower in July relative to 2019 as a result of lower wholesale and aviation volumes, consisting of an approximate 25 percent decline in the commercial lines of business and 10 percent in the retail line of business. Per unit fuel margins for the segment have modestly increased relative to Q2 2020 as a result of the shifting product mix.





Including the impact of acquisitions, US retail gasoline volumes in July are trending in-line relative to 2019 while preliminary wholesale and commercial volume continues to trend well above 2019. Per unit fuel margins have moderated from the historical strength in Q2 2020.





Refinery utilization has been between 80 and 85 percent through July 2020. We continue to optimize throughput rates and refinery yields to maximize margin within current market conditions.

2020 Capital Guidance

On March 30, 2020, Parkland took decisive action in response to COVID-19 and reduced its guidance for 2020 total capital expenditures to $275 million +/- 5%, a reduction of $300 million. This reduction was consistent with our priority to maintain financial flexibility and balance sheet strength. Based on stronger cash flow generation relative to our initial COVID-19 planning scenario, higher Turnaround costs and other maintenance spend, we have increased our 2020 total capital expenditure guidance (the "2020 Capital Program") by $50 million to $325 million +/- 5%. We remain flexible with our second half program to adapt to the economic environment. Details of our amended capital program are below:

Capital Expenditures ($ millions) Previous Updated Growth 85 105 2020 Refinery Turnaround Maintenance 60 75 Other Maintenance 130 145 2020 Capital Program 275 325 +/- 5%

Conference Call and Webcast Details

Parkland will host a webcast and conference call on Friday, August 7, at 6:30am MDT (8:30am EDT) to discuss the results.

To listen to the live webcast and watch the presentation, please use the following link:

https://produceredition.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1345078

Analysts and institutional investors interested in participating in the question and answer session of the conference call may do so by calling 1-888-390-0546 (toll-free) (Conference ID: 51995975). International participants can call 1-587-880-2171 (toll) (Conference ID: 51995975).

Please connect and log in approximately 10 minutes before the beginning of the call.

The webcast will be available for replay two hours after the conference call ends at the link above. It will remain available for one year and will also be posted to www.parkland.ca .

MD&A and Consolidated Financial Statements

The Q2 2020 MD&A and Q2 2020 Financial Statements provide a detailed explanation of Parkland's operating results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020. An English version of these documents will be available online at www.parkland.ca and SEDAR after the results are released by newswire under Parkland's profile at www.sedar.com . The Q2 2020 French MD&A and Q2 2020 French Financial Statements will be posted to www.parkland.ca and SEDAR as soon as they become available.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking information and statements (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). When used in this news release the words "expect", "will", "could", "would", "believe", "continue", "pursue" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. In particular, this news release contains forward-looking statements with respect to, among other things, business objectives, estimated 2020 capital expenditures, the ongoing launch of the JOURNIE Rewards loyalty program, expected Burnaby refinery utilization rates, the expected launch of the National Fueling Network program in the second half of 2020, potential supply import opportunities, and Parkland's ability to advance its growth agenda. Additionally, this press release contains certain preliminary July results to illustrate the impact COVID-19 has had on our business. These numbers are preliminary, subject to finalization and quarter-end accounting procedures and do not constitute guidance.

These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. No assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward-looking statements included in this news release should not be unduly relied upon. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this news release. Parkland does not undertake any obligations to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements except as required by securities law. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of numerous risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, general economic, market and business conditions, including the duration and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; Parkland's ability to execute its business strategies; industry capacity; competitive action by other companies; refining and marketing margins; the ability of suppliers to meet commitments; actions by governmental authorities and other regulators including but not limited to increases in taxes or restricted access to markets; changes and developments in environmental and other regulations; and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of Parkland. See also the risks and uncertainties described in "Forward-Looking Information" and "Risk Factors" included in Parkland's Annual Information Form dated March 20, 2020, and "Forward-Looking Information" and "Risk Factors" included in the Q2 2020 MD&A dated August 6, 2020, each filed on SEDAR and available on the Parkland website at www.parkland.ca . The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This news release refers to certain non-GAAP financial measures that are not determined in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS"). Distributable cash flow, distributable cash flow per share, adjusted distributable cash flow, adjusted distributable cash flow per share, total funded debt to credit facility EBITDA ratio, dividend payout ratio and adjusted dividend payout ratio are not measures recognized under IFRS and do not have standardized meanings prescribed by IFRS. Management considers these to be important supplemental measures of Parkland's performance and believes these measures are frequently used by securities analysts, investors and other interested parties in the evaluation of companies in our industry. See Section 12 of the Q2 2020 MD&A for a discussion of non-GAAP measures and their reconciliations to the nearest applicable IFRS measure.

Adjusted EBITDA and adjusted gross profit are measures of segment profit. See Section 12 of the Q2 2020 MD&A and Note 20 of the Q2 2020 FS for a reconciliation of these measures of segment profit. Investors are encouraged to evaluate each measure and the reasons Parkland considers it appropriate for supplemental analysis.

In addition to non-GAAP financial measures, Parkland uses a number of operational KPIs to measure the success of our strategic objectives and to set variable compensation targets for employees. These KPIs are not accounting measures, do not have comparable IFRS measures, and may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers, as other issuers may calculate these metrics differently. See Section 12 of the Q2 2020 MD&A for further details.

Investors are cautioned that these measures should not be construed as an alternative to net earnings determined in accordance with IFRS as an indication of Parkland's performance.

Effective January 1, 2019, Parkland adopted the new accounting standard, IFRS 16 - Leases ("IFRS 16"). The adoption of IFRS 16 has a significant effect on Parkland's reported results. Due to Parkland's selected transition method, it has not restated its prior year comparatives. Certain financial statement measures are presented excluding the impact of IFRS 16 ("Pre-IFRS 16 measures").

About Parkland Corporation

Parkland is an independent supplier and marketer of fuel and petroleum products and a leading convenience store operator. Parkland services customers across Canada, the United States, the Caribbean region and the Americas through three channels: Retail, Commercial and Wholesale. Parkland optimizes its fuel supply across these three channels by operating and leveraging a growing portfolio of supply relationships and storage infrastructure. Parkland provides trusted and locally relevant fuel brands and convenience store offerings in the communities it serves.

Parkland creates value for shareholders by focusing on its proven strategy of growing organically, realizing a supply advantage and acquiring prudently and integrating successfully. At the core of our strategy are our people, as well as our values of safety, integrity, community and respect, which are embraced across our organization.

For Further Information

Investor Inquiries

Brad Monaco

Director, Capital Markets

587-997-1447

Brad.Monaco@parkland.ca

Media Inquiries

Leroy McKinnon

Senior Specialist, Corporate Communications

403-567-2573

Leroy.McKinnon@parkland.ca








Los Angeles County has paid roughly $55 million in settlements in cases in which sheriff's deputies were alleged to belong to a secret society.

The records, that were obtained by the Los Angeles Times shed light on a subculture that has plagued the Sheriff's Department for decades.

The multi-million dollar figure was arrived at using a list that registered the payouts in dozens of lawsuits and claims, that saw deputies associated with tattooed groups who were accused of glorifying an aggressive style of policing.

The list totals almost 60 cases in all, with some claims still in progress.

The gangs were dragged into the spotlight most recently after The LA Times reported that the Banditos which operated out of the East LA station ended up knocking a deputy unconscious during an off-duty party in 2018.

A mouse and mouse pad appear to have the design from the tattoo

In a claim filed against Los Angeles County, Deputy Sheriff Austreberto Gonzalez claims the Compton station is plagued by a gang of officers who terrorize other deputies and threaten to not enforce laws so they can get preferred treatment

Eight specific cliques are also mentioned by name including the Vikings, Regulators, 3000 Boys and the Banditos.

The deputy groups are alleged to have been operating for decades out of jails and Sheriff's Department stations, exhibiting behavior not dissimilar to street gangs.

No matter who has been in charge at the top of the LAPD, the groups have always failed to be brought under control despite numerous internal investigations and a probe by the FBI.

'I think it's a willful failure,' said John Sweeney, a lawyer who has represented families of people killed by deputies to the Times. 'For some reason, they pride themselves, the Sheriff's Department, on having these violent cliques I guess to show the public who's the boss. But, you know, what it does is just fosters a horrible relationship between the community that these sheriffs serve.'

The groups were dragged into the spotlight after The LA Times reported that the Banditos which operated out of the East L.A. station ended up knocking a deputy unconscious during an off-duty party in 2018.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff announced an inquiry into supposed secret 'gangs' of deputies sporting matching skeleton tattoos operating with the department

At Compton sheriff's station, there are 20 'inked' members of the Executioners gang in the station, and another 20 who are prospective members or close associates.

The 'inked' members have matching tattoos - 'a skull with Nazi imagery, holding an AK-47' - that indicate their affiliation with the gang, Deputy Sheriff Austreberto Gonzalez alleged in a claim. There are no black or female members.

The claim details that the Executioners 'operate at CPT with impunity,' with members acting out against their fellow deputies and the public to increase their standing in the organization.

Nearly all the members have a matching tattoo to symbolize their status in the gang - comprised of a skull with Nazi imagery and an AK-47. The firearm is heavily associated with gang activity and not with law enforcement, the claim states.

'Members become inked as 'Executioners' after executing members of the public, or otherwise committing acts of violence in furtherance of the gang,' the claim alleges. Those involved in fatal shootings are 'immediately' tatted during one of the many 'inking parties.'

The deputy also accused the gang of threatening work slowdowns by disregarding radio calls or responding to them slowly, as well as instituting illegal arrest quotas, if they did not get their desired schedules or assignments.

In February, Sheriff Alex Villanueva said that there were now measures that had been put in place to prohibit deputies from taking part in cliques.

The skeleton tattoo design also includes the letters 'C P T,' which is short for Compton. The officers with tattoo are posted to the LAPD Compton Station (pictured)

Compton, California City Attorney Damon Brown, left, with Mayor Aja Brown, standing right, calls on the state attorney general's office and the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the Los Angeles County Sheriff's station at a news conference in Compton on Tuesday,

Sheriff Alex Villanueva released a statement declaring their was no gang at the department but announced that an investigation was underway

Last week during a Facebook Live event he said that 'there is no gang of any deputies running any station.' But he later issued a statement saying he takes the allegations seriously 'and recently published a policy specifically addressing illicit groups, deputy cliques, and subgroups.'

'The fact that I've had to address these issues which have been festering since 1990 is an illustration of the failure of past sheriffs from addressing the issue head on,' he said in a statement.

But it doesn't appear to have solved the problem entirely.

Inspector General Max Huntsman said that he was not away of any of Villanueva's new measures being implemented and that any attempt to investigate the 'secret societies' was essentially blocked by the Sheriff's Department.

Multiple investigations are now underway - including one by the FBI.
North Korea is quarantining thousands of people and shipping food and other aid to a southern city locked down over coronavirus worries, officials said, as the country's response to a suspected case reinforces doubt about its longstanding claim to be virus-free.

But amid the outside skepticism and a stream of North Korean propaganda glorifying its virus efforts, an exchange between Pyongyang and the United Nations is providing new clarity - and actual numbers - about what might be happening in the North, which has closed its borders and cut travel - never a free-flowing stream - by outsider monitors and journalists.

In late July, North Korea said it had imposed its 'maximum emergency system' to guard against the virus spreading after finding a person with COVID-19 symptoms in Kaesong city, near the border with rival South Korea.

State media reported that leader Kim Jong Un then ordered a total lockdown of Kaesong, and said the suspected case was a North Korean who had earlier fled to South Korea before slipping back into Kaesong last month.

North Korea's public admission of its first potential case and the emergency steps it took prompted immediate outside speculation that Pyongyang may be worried about a big outbreak after months of steadfastly claiming it had no cases. Foreign experts are highly skeptical over the North's assertion of no cases, in large part because of its long, porous border with China, where the virus emerged, and its history of hiding past disease outbreaks.

In a report to the World Health Organization obtained by The Associated Press, North Korea said it has quarantined 64 first contacts of the suspected Keasong case and 3,571 secondary contacts in state-run facilities for 40 days, according to Dr. Edwin Salvador, WHO representative to North Korea.

In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, presides over an executive policy council meeting at the ruling Workers' Party in Pyongyang, North Korea, yesterday. Kim Jong Un directed his government agencies to act immediately to stabilize the livelihoods of residents in a city locked down over coronavirus concerns, state media reported today

This picture taken yesterday and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) today shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (centre, top) and members of the Executive Policy Council of the WPK Central Committee attending a Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) meeting at the office building of the Central Committee of the WPK in Pyongyang

Salvador said in an email to AP that North Korea also informed WHO of the suspected first case, saying that person was tested for COVID-19 but the test results were inconclusive. Salvador said the WHO has requested that North Korea share more information about the person.

Salvador said all North Korea's international borders remain closed, group gatherings are banned, masks are required in public, and all educational institutions, including preschools, are on an extended summer break. Since the end of December, Salvador said North Korea has quarantined and released 25,905 people, 382 of them foreigners.

Many outside observers are all but certain the virus already entered North Korea because it closed the border with China, its biggest trading partner, cme weeks after the world's first known virus cases were recorded in China in December. Monitoring groups in Seoul have steadfastly reported about North Korean virus cases and deaths.

A major coronavirus outbreak may cause a humanitarian disaster because of North Korea's broken public health care system and lack of medical supplies.

But it's unclear how serious the North's current situation is.

'Though a really extensive local outbreak might not have occurred yet, it's likely that a considerable number of people has been infected,' said analyst Hong Min at Seoul's Korea Institute for National Unification. 'Even though North Korea locks itself down, there should be suspected cases there and authorities must aggressively diagnose them. But North Korea has never been transparent about whether it has such a capacity and the will to do so.'

The North's state media have recently churned out articles thick with rallying propaganda that describe the latest anti-virus work as 'an all-people's campaign' that demonstrates the Kim government's resolve to protect public safety 'at any cost.' The articles also say that any individual carelessness or breach of anti-virus guidelines may lead to 'critical consequences.'

Hand clean gels are displayed at the Imjingak Pavilion in Paju, near the border with North Korea, Sunday, July 26, 2020. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un placed the city of Kaesong near the border with South Korea under total lockdown after a person was found with suspected COVID-19 symptoms, saying he believes "the vicious virus" may have entered the country, state media reported Sunday

State media said North Korea has deployed more health workers, sanitized personnel and goods, and used loudspeakers to raise public awareness of the virus. The Korean Central News Agency said Thursday that 550,000 aid items have been sent to Kaesong.

North Korea's claimed emergency steps suggest that an outbreak there may have worsened, Kim Sin-gon, a professor at Korea University College of Medicine in Seoul, said. The North may also aim to win aid from South Korea or others, but wants to save face by saying its suspected Kaesong case is someone who had been in South Korea, he said.

Before returning to North Korea, the suspected first case, identified in South Korea as a 24-year-old surnamed Kim, hadn't tested positive in South Korea and never had contact with any patient, South Korean health official Yoon Taeho said.

The motive for his return to North Korea isn't known. More than 33,000 North Koreans have escaped to South Korea over the past 22 years for political and economic reasons, but only a handful of them have returned to North Korea.

Police said the man was questioned in June on an allegation that he had sexually assaulted a fellow female North Korean refugee. The man denied the accusation. Last month, the national forensic service told police it found DNA evidence of the assault, and police were continuing to investigate, according to the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency.
OTTAWAThe director of a group that reports on Canadian charities told a parliamentary committee Thursday that it was easy to find information about WE Charitys debt, as opposition MPs argued the federal government should have seen red flags before it outsourced a $544-million grant program to the Toronto-based organization.

Kate Bahen, managing director of Charity Intelligence Canada, described to the House of Commons finance committee how she used easy-to-access financial information to report on her groups website that WE Charity had $13.7 million in bank loans in 2019, and that the organization was in breach of its financial covenant on this debt.

Audited financial statements were posted on WE Charitys website, and we believe that due diligence starts with the audited financial statements, Bahen said. So it would be clicking, receiving those documents and reading through.

Greg Thomson, director of research at Charity Intelligence, later added: Anyone with financial knowledge could have seen what we saw.

Opposition MPs asking questions during the committee hearing said the information should have given the Liberal government pause before it awarded the large grant program to WE Charity, especially after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he asked the public service for further due diligence on its recommendation to outsource the program to WE.

Trudeau said last Friday that the due diligence was really about defending himself against questions about his familys ties to WE.

It seems awfully concerning that all of these red flags were ignored, Conservative MP Marty Morantz said Thursday. It just seems to stretch credulity that the federal government, during their due diligence, wouldnt have been able to also find this information given their vast resources.

Liberal MPs on the committee questioned the reliability of a small outfit like Charity Intelligences reporting on organizations like WE and scores of others across Canada.

My job is not to defend WE here, theyll do that themselves. But I do have concerns about subjectivity, said Liberal MP Peter Fragiskatos. Its hard for me to understand how an organization of four people can judge 250 organizations on a range of criteria.

The federal government has been rocked with controversy over its decision to award the Canada Student Service Grant program to WE, an organization that has given Trudeaus wife, brother and mother tens of thousands of dollars in fees and expenses. Finance Minister Bill Morneaus daughter has worked for WE, while Morneau has recently repaid more than $41,000 to the organization for trips abroad that he and his family took with WE in 2017.

Trudeau and Morneau are now facing investigations by the House of Commons ethics commissioner, and both have expressed regret for participating in the Liberal cabinet decision to award the program to WE on May 22.

Trudeau has already broken the Commons ethics law twice as prime minister.

During his own testimony to the finance committee on July 30, Trudeau was asked whether WEs financial situation meant it had the capacity to deliver this large government program. The prime minister said the public service  which the Liberal government says recommended outsourcing the program to WE was the only way to deliver it this summer  has a rigorous and strong process in which he is confident.

WE co-founders Marc and Craig Kielburger told the committee two days earlier, on July 28, that they were in breach of their bank covenant because of how they changed their fiscal year in 2019 and that WE was in a very solid operational state when it was awarded the grant program.

Earlier that day, WE Charitys former board director Michelle Douglas told the committee she was asked to resign in March after asking for financial details as the organization planned to lay off hundreds of employees. The Star previously reported that two sources said the program was seen within the organization as a way to keep the lights on during the pandemic.

The finance committee is now expecting to receive a range of documents related to the contract and has asked the government to provide them before the weekend.

The Star has been asking the government since Tuesday for the exact text of the public service recommendation on the program but has not received a response.
"You must reside in Ward 3, and have been a resident in Ward 3 for at least a year," said borough Manager Christine Hart.
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Linkedin Amber Wang and Jerome Taylor (Agence France-Presse) Taipei, Taiwan/Hong Kong  Thu, August 6, 2020 12:15 530 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066bfb399 2 World US,US-China,US-China-tension,Taiwan,visit Free

The United States announced Wednesday its highest-level visit to Taiwan since it switched diplomatic recognition to China in 1979, a move Beijing blasted as a threat to "peace and stability".

The visit, headed by health chief Alex Azar, comes as relations between the world's two biggest powers plunge to historic lows.

"This marks... the first Cabinet member to visit in six years, and the highest level visit by a US Cabinet official since 1979," said Washington's de facto embassy, the American Institute in Taiwan, with no date yet given for the visit.

Washington remains the leading arms supplier to the island but has historically been cautious in holding official contacts with it.

Beijing views Taiwan as its own territory -- vowing to one day seize it -- and bristles at any moves by other countries to recognize or communicate with Taipei.

"China firmly opposes official exchanges between the US and Taiwan," Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said as he called for the visit to be cancelled.

"We urge the US to abide by the one-China principle... to avoid seriously endangering Sino-US relations, as well as peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait."

Taiwan said Azar would meet President Tsai Ing-wen.

"[The] timely visit is another testament to the strong Taiwan-US partnership based on our longstanding friendship and shared values," Tsai wrote on Twitter.

Relations have warmed dramatically under President Donald Trump, who has used embracing democratic Taiwan more closely as a way to hit back at authoritarian Beijing as he clashes with China on a host of issues, including trade and coronavirus.

Blossoming friendship

Taiwan's success at stopping its own virus outbreak -- and its emergence as one of Asia's most progressive democracies -- has also earned the island growing bipartisan support in Washington.

"The Trump administration is increasing its relations with Taiwan to a record-high level, sending a message to China that the US will not sacrifice Taiwan for its relations with China," Eric Huang, an international relations analyst at Tamkang University in Taipei, told AFP.

Shortly after Trump's election win in 2016, Tsai phoned to congratulate him, making him the first president -- sitting or newly elected -- to speak directly with a Taiwanese leader since 1979.

Taiwan is massively outgunned by China and Trump's administration has sold a number of big-ticket military items -- including fighter jets -- that previous presidents more wary of angering Beijing had balked at.

Trump also signed a bipartisan bill in 2018 upgrading relations and allowing more high-level visits to take place.

In their statements Washington and Taipei painted Azar's visit as linked to Taiwan being a leading example in the battle against the pandemic.

Despite its proximity and close economic ties to China -- where the outbreak emerged late last year -- Taiwan has fewer than 500 cases and just seven deaths thanks to a world-class tracing and testing regime and a virtual shutdown of its borders.

'Less contentious'

But Beijing sees Azar's visit as part of a wider attempt to give Taiwan greater international recognition.

It has ramped up diplomatic, economic and military pressure on Taiwan ever since the 2016 election of Tsai, who rejects Beijing's view that the island in part of "one China".

It keeps Taiwan diplomatically frozen out of global bodies such as the World Health Organization, and has poached its dwindling number of official allies.

That pressure campaign has only bolstered Tsai, who won a landslide re-election earlier this year.

"Beijing... will likely view [the visit] as further evidence of the Trump administration moving away from the 'one China policy'," Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told AFP.

"But it isn't precedent-setting and it is justifiable given Taiwan's exemplary performance in responding to COVID-19 and Beijing's exclusion of Taiwan from the World Health Assembly."

Clayton Dube, director of the University of Southern California's US-China Institute, said sending a health official should be "less contentious" than an envoy from the State Department or Pentagon.

The last cabinet-level trip to Taiwan was in 2014 with the then head of the Environmental Protection Agency. In 2000, a transport secretary visited.
RALEIGH, N.C. - North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said Thursday that President Donald Trumps administration still lacks a sufficient strategy to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, sharpening his criticism of the president as the Democratic governor seeks reelection in the key battleground state.

I like the fact that he did provide some help for hurricane recovery in North Carolina. I do like the push for a vaccine. But most of the federal strategy that weve had during this pandemic has been nonexistent, Cooper said during a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press.

Cooper has largely refrained thus far from direct attacks on Trump as he manages the politically divided states pandemic response heading into the November election. Cooper faces the states Republican lieutenant governor, who has been endorsed by the president.

I dont mind talking about President Trump, Cooper said. I oppose him when I disagree with him. I will support his actions when they help North Carolina. I always put North Carolina first.

The governor reiterated his support for former Vice-President Joe Biden, though he wouldnt say whether he voted for Biden in the states March 3 primary. Thats my business. I support him, but the ballot is private, he said.

Cooper, who has consistently led gubernatorial opponent Lt. Gov. Dan Forest in public opinion polls, chastised the Republican for flouting public health guidance at campaign events.

My opponent, Dan Forest, is going around holding in-person receptions without a mask, without social distancing and hes talking about saying that hes shaking as many hands as he possibly can, Cooper said. Thats the kind of thing we need to stop.

A tweet posted last weekend by state GOP Chairman Michael Whatley showed Forest at a Mount Airy restaurant without a mask standing close to maskless voters and volunteers. Forests campaign posted a photo on Facebook on July 14 showing the lieutenant governor speaking to dozens of maskless supporters in Iredell County.

Forest declined an AP interview request, and his campaign dismissed concerns about safety at his events and concerns about erroneous claims the lieutenant governor made last month to the Hendersonville Times-News that scientific studies have shown that masks do not work with viruses.

The Forest campaign instead criticized Cooper for walking through a protest outside the governors mansion in June with a mask looped around one ear but not covering his face.

Not a single one of our events has been as large as the protest in downtown Raleigh that Gov. Cooper marched in with his mask dangling from his ear, said an email from Andrew Dunn, a spokesman for Forest.

Cooper said he and his campaign have no plans to resume the in-person events it halted in March. Asked how and whether hed enforce his statewide mask mandate against Forest, Cooper said he didnt want to violate peoples First Amendment free speech rights. Instead, he is banking on public pressure to halt Forest.

No. 1, were calling him out, Cooper said of Forests campaign practices. We hope that he will see the light and stop this, and I think hes having significantly fewer people that are attending his events because they are concerned about their own health and safety.

Republicans have criticized Coopers slow reopening moves during the pandemic, while some Democrats wish hed do more to enforce his executive orders that limit mass gatherings and prevent certain businesses from reopening. Cooper on Wednesday announced a five-week extension to the states Phase 2 reopening plan, which requires bars, gyms, movie theatres and amusement parks to remain closed and requires face coverings in public places.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services said last month that it has only issued a single abatement order, which was for a racetrack that refused to close.

But Cooper insisted the state is cracking down on companies that violate his executive order by largely working behind the scenes with state alcohol regulators and law enforcement.

Enforcement is going as well as it can, Cooper said. Were constantly looking at more ways to require better enforcement of the orders.

He noted that he wished he had more authority to take action by levying fines.

The statute is limited as to what the governor can do in enforcement of orders, and that its limited to misdemeanour criminal violations, which when we go back and analyze this pandemic and what we need to do differently, I think getting some authority to put in lesser types of enforcement actions like fines for a governor, I think could make it better, Cooper said. When we get to the end of this, we can look at ways to make some changes.

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Follow Anderson at https://twitter.com/BryanRAnderson

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Anderson is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a non-profit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
An aged carpenter's online carpentry skills have become a hit with fans across the world.

Known as "Grandpa Amu", the 63-year-old from Shandong, who originally took up woodworking to help support his family, now shares his videos with viewers all over the world.

Using ancient techniques, similar to those found in the Forbidden City, Amu is able to create carpentry with just wood; no screws, nails or glue.

Grandpa Amu's most popular video, showing his wooden arch bridge, has more than 42 million views on YouTube and he has gathered 1.22 million subscribers on the platform.

Chiseling into pieces of wood, drawing lines then interlocking sections, the 63-year-old helps viewers to appreciate the sophistication of ancient "mortise and tenon" techniques.

Amu says his excellent woodworking skills were developed from the age of thirteen as a means of supporting his family in East China's Shandong Province.

The 63-year-old even makes toys for his grandson, including a Peppa Pig toy and a bubble-blowing machine which are his grandson's favourite.

One video shows grandson blowing a bamboo bird-whistle made by grandpa.

"The grandson is so happy, as there have been so many exquisite and unique toys made by grandpa from an early age," commented one online fan; while others said they hope these ancient crafts can be passed on.

Despite his internet fame, Amu still insists he is just an ordinary farmer.

He had this wisdom to share with fans.

"If you do something, you have to love it, and you have to be interested in it; however, being interested doesn't mean there's only happiness and no pain," he said.
An increase in the number of Covid-19 outbreaks among the vulnerable communities is a "dangerous situation" that requires a targeted approach, support groups have warned.

Of the 37 outbreaks of Covid-19 recorded in Ireland in the last week, six of these have occurred among the Traveller community or Direct Provision residents, according to information from public health officials.

The National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) highlighted the number of clusters in both settings - and among people in the Roma community, homelessness services and meat factories - when warning against entering into phase four of the Government's Roadmap for Reopening Society and Business.

Nphet's advice identifies "significant and growing concerns" about the number of outbreaks among vulnerable groups and those living in direct provision settings.

It also said there have been "significant outbreaks" identified in the construction and food production sectors.

Health officials said there have been 37 new outbreaks in the past week, bringing the total to 2,319 overall with 188 remaining active.

This included 21 outbreaks in Direct Provision centres involving 235 individual cases, and 47 new cases centred on four clusters were identified in the last week.

Separately, there have been 10 coronavirus outbreaks among the Traveller community which involved 89 people testing positive for Covid-19. In the past week, 21 new cases relating to two clusters have been linked to the Traveller community.

"Unfortunately, it's not surprising to us in Pavee Point that we have seen an increase in the number of Travellers contracting the virus," Martin Collins, director of Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre, told the Irish Independent.

"There are a number of factors contributing to a situation where Travellers are more vulnerable.

"Many Travellers are living in overcrowded conditions where you have multiple individuals and families sharing services and facilities in very confined spaces, whether that's in houses or in halting sites. In particular, for Travellers in halting sites, many are very poorly serviced and maintained.

"Some don't have electricity or water, so you cannot meet the basic requirement of washing your hands, and you certainly don't have the luxury of self-isolating if needs be. It's a very dangerous situation and we are very concerned."

The figures given to Nphet show that there have been four outbreaks in the Roma community since the start of the pandemic, involving 42 people testing positive for the virus.

Nurul Amin, who has been helping co-ordinate the health response for members of the Roma community who contact Pavee Point, said language and cultural barriers have made it difficult to disseminate the message about protecting against the virus. Communities are tight-knit and reluctant to interact with outsiders.

"One of the ways we are trying to disseminate the message is by speaking to Elders," Mr Amin said.

"These people then talk about the issue with others in the community. We have done videos as well to try and get the message across effectively. One of our Roma workers is a pastor, so we use him a lot to help spread the message through his church, but there are difficulties with language and culture."

A dedicated phone line with information on Covid-19 has been set up by Pavee Point, the Capuchin Centre and Cairde with the support of the HSE to help the vulnerable Traveller and Roma communities.

All the previous challenges Roma and Traveller people experienced before Covid-19 - including no access to social welfare for some, overcrowding in homes and fear of discrimination and racism - have become heightened during the pandemic, Mr Collins warned.

"We know from our counterparts across Europe that the far right have exploited the situation to further ostracise and stigmatise the Roma community as being the sole carriers and spreaders of the virus," he said.

"Thankfully, we have not witnessed any such backlash here in Ireland. There is a much more enlightened and progressive attitude here in terms of getting the supports in place."

However, Mr Collins warned that new arrivals into the Roma community in recent weeks was a cause for concern.

"We have many Roma coming in now, in particular from eastern Romania," he said.

"This area seems to be a hotbed for the virus and many of these Roma are coming in through Dublin airport.

"The regime seems, from what we have seen, to be very relaxed in terms of tracking and testing.

"The feedback we are getting is that there are no checks and balances, that has been over the last two weeks or so.

"The Roma come, they have very little money, they have nowhere to live so they end up doubling up with other family members.

"You have four or five families living together. Then many of these Roma don't have access to basic services so they have no access to medical care. They are living in destitution."

Meanwhile, there have been four outbreaks involving 15 people in homelessness services. Many of these people are availing of emergency accommodation in overcrowded settings where social distancing and self-isolation is impossible, according to Louisa Santoro, chief executive of the Mendicity Institution.

Rough sleepers are a priority group for the Dublin-based charity, which also provides support for other marginalised communities.

"If somebody comes into a hostel and is sharing a room with someone else who becomes ill, it's not ideal," she said.

"People are also mixing, maybe staying in different places every night, and there is no social distancing. These are people who tend to already be in some form of crisis.

"This (pandemic) is no more important to them than something that is already going on in their life.

"We have to walk a line in terms of reminding people. We want to make the message as relatable and as meaningful as we can in the context of somebody who is already experiencing difficulty."

In relation to other clusters, health officials identified 51 workplace clusters of the virus with almost half (24) linked to meat processing plants around the country.

There have been two outbreaks in meat factories in the last week, involving 47 new cases.

Afraid

Speaking about her own experience at the start of the pandemic, Monaghan-based GP Dr Illona Duffy said workers in factories faced a number of barriers when it came to dealing with Covid-19.

"What we saw was that workers had no understanding of what they were entitled to and were afraid to report symptoms," she said.

"They didn't understand that they would get a Covid payment. They didn't have a GP, which meant that they had no one to go to.

"Often it was their employers ringing asking GPs would we see them. Then there was the whole issue of being afraid to report because they were thinking, 'I'll have no income'.

"Not understanding the whole issue of certs, how to fill in the form, how to get them, there was a variety of issues."

Ms Duffy said she felt that work needed to be done in factory settings - for example, broadcasting messages over PA systems in different languages.

"A targeted approach is what was needed," she said.

"We also found that when we called people to inform them about a positive result, we asked them about who they lived with, how they got to work, etcetera.

"An awful lot of the spread was coming about through shared transport, maybe five of them travelling to work in the one car. The cohort was the disadvantaged, crowded in their accommodation, sharing transport to work in these factories."
Chattanooga Ballet announces its new partnership with and satellite location at Silverdale Academy, 7236 Bonny Oaks Dr. in Chattanooga.



Classes for early learners ages three to seven, Creative Movement, Pre-Ballet & Level 1, will be held at the school this fall in anticipation of moving into their new state-of-the-art theatre and rehearsal space in the spring of 2021. This is Chattanooga Ballets first geographic expansion under its new

management team of Executive Director John Farrimond, Artistic Director Brian McSween and

Director of Education Nena Widtfeldt.



Additionally, Chattanooga Ballet will relocate its Signal Mountain classes to the Mountain

Arts Community Center, 809 Kentucky Ave. in Signal Mountain, and their newly rehabilitated dance studio. The Signal Mountain location will offer Creative Movement, Pre-Ballet & Level 1 classes.



The fall semester classes begin on Monday, Aug. 17. Registration is at https://chattballet.org/school/.

Details on Chattanooga Ballets strict Covid-19 protocols and Covid-19 related refund policies can be

found at the following links: https://chattballet.org/cb-covid-19-policies/ and https://chattballet.org/fall-2020-school-refund-policy/.



Chattanooga Ballets annual Open House will take place at its main location, 817 N. Market St. in

Chattanooga, on Sunday, Aug. 9 from 3-5 p.m. Their Covid-19 policies require windows of entry based on class enrollment. On site registration will be available.



3-3:30 p.m.  Creative Movement, Pre-Ballet, Level 1

3:45-4:15 p.m.  Level 2, Level 3, Level 4

4:30-5 p.m.  Intermediate-Advanced, Adult Levels, Contemporary & Tap
CALGARY - An international trade expert says Canada can expect more U.S. moves like the imposition of aluminum import tariffs as protectionism gains popularity in the United States ahead of the November presidential election.

Jack Mintz, presidents fellow in the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary, says President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden are both promoting U.S.-first policies as they try to enlist voter support.

Trump announced in Ohio on Thursday he intends to reimpose 10 per cent tariffs on aluminum imported from Canada, saying that United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has advised him the step was necessary to defend the U.S. aluminum industry.

Mintz said Canada has the option to retaliate with its own tariffs, adding that while that option is politically attractive, such moves may wind up hurting this country as much as they do the United States.

He said the tariffs are opposed by some members of the aluminum industry in the U.S. and Canada should work with those allies to try to head off such anti-free-trade moves.

The tariffs come about one month after the new North America trade agreement went into effect and illustrate how important it was for that agreement to be established, Mintz said.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that Canada was taking advantage of us, as usual.





I think were into a world where theres going to be increased protectionism by countries, said Mintz.

I think this aluminum (tariff) is a good example of that kind of minefield ... Canadas going to have to work very hard to make sure it maintains its access to the U.S.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 7, 2020.

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Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage Darragh OBrien, has announced the national allocations for the 73.75 million made available in 2020 for Housing Adaptation Grants for Older People and People with a Disability living in private houses.

Leitrim County Council received the lowest allocation in the country with 439,498 in exchequer funding and 109,875 in local authority contribution, resulting in a total allocation of 549,373.

Longford County Council was the next lowest with 658,881 in exchequer funding and 164,720 in local authority funding, giving a combined total of 823,601.

All other local authorities received combined funding of over 1,000,000.

Locally, Donegal County Council was allocated a total of 1,675,125, Roscommon County Council 1,157,814, and Sligo County Council 1,415,423.

The funding announced supports home adaptations for older people, people with a disability and people with mobility issues. It will enable older people and people with disabilities to remain living independently in their own homes for longer should they wish and will also facilitate early return from hospital, according to the Minister.

Grants of up to 30,000 are available to assist people with a disability in carrying out necessary works to make a house more suitable for their needs, up to 8,000 to assist older people living in poor housing conditions to have necessary repairs or improvements carried out and up to 6,000 for mobility aids to address mobility problems for a member of the household.

The grants are 80% funded from the exchequer by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, with 20% funding from the relevant local authority.

The grants also create employment opportunities for builders and local businesses and help reduce the dependency on health services by supporting independent living for as long as possible.

Minister of State at the Department of Health, Frank Feighan welcomed the funding for the counties in the North West.
In what has come as a major relief for fans and family of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, who died on June 14, the Centre has accepted the Bihar governments request to hand over the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Union of India has in principle accepted the request by Bihar to have a CBI probe, Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta told the Supreme Court, during hearing of a plea by Rajputs girlfriend, actor Rhea Chakraborty, to transfer the case registered by his family in Patna, Bihar, to Mumbai. Meanwhile, a PIL was filed in the SC for a court-monitored CBI probe into the death of Disha Salian, a former manager of Rajput, saying that both deaths were linked.

Reacting to the decision of a CBI probe into his death, Rajputs sister Shweta Singh Kirti, tweeted: CBI it is!!! JusticeForSushant #CBIEnquiryForSSR #CBIenquiry.

Heres what some people in the film industry have to say:

RAVEENA TANDON, actor- I believe its an important and progressive step which will ultimately take us closer to the truth. There have been several theories around Sushants demise, hence its high time this mystery gets resolved. Besides his fans and well-wishers, even as an industry, we must know the truth. We support his family and can truly understand their grief and pain. Ive been a fan of his work and am confident that the truth shall prevail

ADHYAYAN SUMAN, actor- Its an absolutely big victory for the entire nation, and people the world over who loved him. They have been continuously fighting since the beginning. To be very honest, I am just one part of it, my father (Shekhar Suman) has been there from the beginning, talking continuously about it. I hope that with the CBI enquiry now, it comes out rightly. We dont want any other Sushant Singh (case) ever happening. It breaks my heart, the least we can do is get justice.

SAMIR SONI, actor- CBI investigation should happen, and the truth should come out. There have been issues between the police, and so many theories coming out, so like anybody else, I have also been following that. My reaction is that of any lay man- to find out what happened.

HANSAL MEHTA, filmmaker- Finally the investigation will be conducted by one agency. It is not about the investigation, which must go on and thoroughly at that, my problem is the witch hunt in the media. It is not about finding the truth but shaming and naming people.

DIVYA DUTTA, actor- Whatever it takes to unearth the truth. We should find the truth and what happened to Sushant

VIVEK AGNIHOTRI, filmmaker- I feel that an unbiased investigation is conducted by the CBI as it has been two months now and Mumbai police isnt telling us clearly about what happened. Sushants death is mysterious and it seems like there as foul play. I think there is a nexus between vested interests. And now the truth has to come out.

SHEKHAR SUMAN, actor- I am very happy and I was absolutely sure about this decision. When his fans said it doesnt seem possible, I told them, So many of you are fighting and it will happen. You can sideline the truth but you cant hide the truth for long. It is a huge victory and we will keep following the case till its end.

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New Delhi, Aug 6 : Following a massive decline in revenues of 88 per cent up to July because of the Covid impact, Air India Express has announced a rationalisation scheme for pay cuts for employees, with pilot allowances reduced by 40 per cent.

The scheme is similar to what has been implemented by its parent company, Air India.

In a office circular dated August 5, T. Vijayakrishnan, Chief of HR, said that the company, along with other aviation companies, has been adversely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Consequently, the airline's revenues up to the month of July have declined as much as 88 per cent," the circular said.

In order to meet the payment commitments to banks, aircraft lessors and other key vendors, the airline has been forced to increase its working capital borrowings. It has been taking measures to cut costs and fixed charges on the meagre earnings through renegotiation of contracts with all key vendors.

"As you all may be aware, Air India, our parent company, has also implemented a rationalisation scheme to reduce the funds outflow in terms of compensation to employees," the circular said.

It has received directions from the Civil Aviation Ministry and parent company to implement a similar rationalisation exercise in Air India Express as its situation is no different at this point of time.

"It is therefore necessary for all of us in Air India Express to accept commensurate sacrifice in our monthly remunerations, until the adverse effect of Covid pandemic on our operations/revenues substantially wears off," Vijayakrishnan said.

The allowances of pilots has been reduced by 40 per cent. These include flying allowances, special pay and layover allowances.

For ground employees, there will be no reduction for emoluments up to Rs 25,000, 5 per cent reduction up to the grade of Senior Officers and reduction of 7.5 per cent of gross emoluments for employees above this level, going up to CEO.

The rationalisation scheme will be effective from April 1 and will continue till further review by the board of directors.

For Commanders who fall in special contracts of 15 days on and 15 days off, their gross remuneration will be reduced by 50 per cent.

For trainee captains, the remuneration will be reduced by 40 per cent. For first officers, co-pilots, trainee co-pilots, the flying allowance will be reduced by 40 per cent.

The monthly stipend of trainee co-pilots will be reduced by 10 per cent. For cabin crew, the domestic layover allowance will stand reduced by 10 per cent.
New online platform looks to reverse 70% faith dropoff for college freshman

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A new online platform has emerged with the goal of addressing the massive amount of Christian students who leave their faith during college by connecting them with other believers to establish or join Gospel-centered communities wherever they are.

The faith-based nonprofit group Campus Renewal has launched an initiative called Every Student Sent. According to the organization, the effort hopes to reverse a trend in which 70% of students abandon their Christian faith after entering college.

Every Student Sent replaces the previous platform of Campus Ministry Link, which was founded three years ago with a similar goal.

The initiative enables Christian college students to access a database with information about the campus ministries and Christian groups at nearly every school in the country.

John Decker, the strategic partnership director for Every Student Sent, told The Christain Post that the platform will enable rising college freshmen to apply to a college ministry. From there, students can join a social group around that ministry.

[The] students actually get to meet with each other and work together before they land on campus and work with a campus staff member, Decker said. Therefore, whether the college is virtual or physical this year, they can build a community long before they arrive on campus.

Decker believes that it is important to get students involved with campus ministries as early as possible in their college careers because the first 72 hours on a campus often dictate which crowd a student will tag around with. That crowd, he said, will usually define their college spiritual experience.

Every Student Sent works to reinforce the vision of Campus Renewal, which is to strengthen the influence of the body of Christ on campus by bringing students, campus ministries, and local churches together in prayer and evangelism.

To really grow as a Christian, your faith is cemented when  a student actually gets to lead another student to Christ, Decker proclaimed. We have seen that when students for the first time participate in leading their friends to Christ, their faith gets cemented.

While the target audience for Every Student Sent is college students, the platform also features special tools for Christian high schools and churches so they can upload all of their students and then check their progress, Decker added.

But helping students maintain their faith is not the only mission of Every Student Sent.

Its important that students find their correct career and major and calling. We have a growing set of resources to help them with that as well as helping students minimize student debt, he added.

When asked what caused the massive dropoff in faith among college students, Decker explained that students are not prepared with the right worldview.

They are not prepared for the social pressures that affect a young person, he said.

According to Decker, this problem appears to be getting worse, not better.

It used to be that 30% of students would come back to their church by the time they were age 30, the strategic partnership director said. But now because culture is becoming less Christian, these students are not coming back to church as much anymore.

Every Student Sent hopes to address the lack of preparedness among rising college students through an extensive learning management system that incorporates missional training for students so they are ready for college, he said.

In addition, Every Student Sent is working with major ministries and other leaders to develop a library of material to help make students college-ready.

Decker is optimistic about the influence that Every Student Sent will have on the youth of the United States.

The amount of interest between leaders of all faiths and ministries and denominations is a testament to the fact that Gods bringing unity to youth missions," he said. "And so, this seems like an opportune time for a national awareness so that it becomes normal for every student to prepare and connect for college using Every Student Sent.

In January 2019, LifeWay Research released survey data showing that about 66 percent of young adults who attended a Protestant church regularly for at least a year as a teenager dropped out for at least a year between the ages of 18 and 22.
Manitoba's NDP has qualms with the provincial government's plan to slice funding and shuffle regulations for early childhood education  a series of proposed changes that could see parent costs for child care significantly increase in coming years.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 6/8/2020 (530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba's NDP has qualms with the provincial government's plan to slice funding and shuffle regulations for early childhood education  a series of proposed changes that could see parent costs for child care significantly increase in coming years.

Provincial NDP leader Wab Kinew was joined by parents, educators and media outside the Discovery Children's Centre in St. James Thursday to denounce "deep cuts" the province is considering within the child-care sector.

"Any parent, in particular working parents, can tell you what an impact the pandemic has had at home; trying to juggle working remotely while also keeping an eye on your kids and looking after their early-childhood education and development has been a huge challenge for many of our families, my own included," Kinew said during the press conference.

"Now is not the time to be cutting child care. Now is the time when any rational government that cares about the people of Manitoba should be making investments in strengthening child care and making sure early childhood education is strong."

The proposed set of regulatory changes in the child-care sector would see the Enhanced Nursery Grant  a chunk of funding dedicated to supporting operating costs at nearly 70 nursery schools  axed entirely, while deregulating fees for unlicensed daycare programs.

The changes could ultimately see the cost of early childhood education double or triple for Manitoba families still working to navigate the financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Laura Burla, executive director of the St. James Montessori School, represents one of more than 60 preschools on the funding chopping block. As it currently stands, the Enhanced Nursery Grant covers enough operating costs to allow schools like Burla's to charge parents just $5 a day in fees, a figure Burla said would necessarily increase should the government eliminate the grant.

"Really what we need from the province is a little bit of rational thinking," Burla said during Thursday's press conference. "We need them to make investments in child care, not cuts, and at the end of the day any cuts to our child-care sector are not acceptable right now."

Burla added that enhanced nursery schools have not yet been given permission to open in the fall, leaving educators and parents uncertain about September plans.

Laura Burla, executive director of the St. James Montessori School, says the province needs to deal in rational thinking. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press)

"These parents are left wondering: 'Will I have child care, will I not have child care?'" Burla said.

"If they end up losing their spots, that's thousands of Manitobans who lose their child-care early years services. That affects their ability to go back to work, their ability to go to school, every aspect of their life."

The NDP are asking the provincial government to "back off" and abandon regulatory changes, and to better spend funds allocated to child care at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Start putting that money to work by investing in making parent fees cheaper, allowing protective equipment to be purchased by those who work in the child-care sector, and to create more spaces for kids to be educated," Kinew said.

Burla recently started a petition asking the Minister of Families, Heather Stefanson, to reconsider the funding cuts. As of Thursday the petition had garnered more than 4,500 signatures.

An email statement from the families minister said the regulatory changes are being considered to eliminate a two-tiered nursery school system in the province. Of Manitoba's approximately 162 nursery schools, 66 receive enhanced funding of $4,180 per student per year, while 96 receive the regular funding of up to $528 per year, creating differences in parent fees without significant differences in services, Stefanson wrote.

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"There are no immediate plans to alter the enhanced nursery school operating grants or parent fees charged by nursery schools receiving these grants," Stefanson's statement said.

"The regulation can be passed without impacting the administration of the program, and once passed these regulations will simply provide our government with the legal foundation to make necessary changes to improve the nursery school system for families. Once a new model is determined, centres will be given significant advance notice."

The province has given parents until Aug. 12 to submit feedback on the proposed changes through the Manitoba Regulatory Consultation portal. Changes could come into effect as soon as Sept. 1.

julia-simone.rutgers@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jsrutgers
Judy Baumgartner spearheaded consolidation of the Visiting Nursing Association of Western New York into a new office building last year and has led Kaleida Health lab testing strategy and operations during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

She will become president of Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital and DeGraff Medical Park on Aug. 24.

Kaleida Health President and CEO Jody Lomeo made the announcement Thursday.

He also announced that registered nurse Lisa Greisler, chief operating officer with the VNA, will succeed Baumgartner as president of the 135-year-old organization that is part of the largest health system in the region.

Judy and Lisa have done a tremendous job in leading the VNA to its rightful place as a national leader in home health care, Lomeo said. Together, they have built a team of highly engaged care professionals who are truly making a difference for patients in our community. I have full confidence that they will continue to bring our organization to the next level in their new roles.
A mother played a solemn but uplifting tune on a piano amongst the wreckage of her home in Beirut, Lebanon, after a massive explosion destroyed buildings in the city and killed at least 135 people.

Hoda Melki filmed her mother-in-law playing a rendition of Auld Lang Syne in her home in the Beirut neighbourhood of Achrafieh, which is around one kilometre from the port where the explosion occurred.

More than 5,000 people were injured by the explosion, according to figures released by Lebanons health minister.

The Daily Star Lebanon said dozens of people remained missing on Wednesday evening as residents assisted rescue efforts and the cleanup operation. Credit: Hoda Melki via Storyful
French President Emmanuel Macron was expected in Lebanon Thursday, two days after a monster blast sowed unfathomable destruction in Beirut and brought Pariss Middle East protege to its knees.

The highest-ranking foreign official to visit the country since Tuesdays tragedy, Macron will visit the site of the blast that obliterated part of Beirut port and ripped through entire neighbourhoods of the city.

Two days on, Lebanon was still reeling from a blast so huge it was felt in neighbouring countries, its mushroom-shaped cloud drawing comparisons with Hiroshima and the devastation caused by its shockwave with the scene of an earthquake.

The provisional death toll stood at 137 but with dozens missing and 5,000 wounded, the number of victims was expected to rise as rescue workers continued to comb through the rubble.

According to several officials, the explosion was caused by a fire igniting 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertiliser stored in a portside warehouse.

Apocalypse, Armageddon -- Lebanese were lost for words to describe the impact of the blast, which dwarfed anything the country had ever experienced despite its violence-plagued history.

The Beirut governor estimated up to 300,000 people may have been made temporarily homeless by the destruction, which he said would cost the debt-ridden country in excess of three billion dollars.

International probe

Even as they counted their dead and cleaned up the streets, many Lebanese were boiling with anger over a blast they see as the most shocking expression yet of their leaderships incompetence and corruption.

We cant bear more than this. This is it. The whole system has got to go, said 30-year-old Mohammad Suyur as he picked up broken glass in Mar Mikhail, one of the most affected districts in Beirut.

Many questions were being asked as to how such a huge cargo of highly explosive material could have been left unsecured in Beirut for years.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab and President Michel Aoun promised to put the culprits behind bars but trust in institutions is low and few on the streets of the Lebanese capital held out any hope of an impartial inquiry.

Human Rights Watch on Thursday supported mounting calls for an international probe as the only credible option.

An independent investigation with international experts is the best guarantee that victims of the explosion will get the justice they deserve, the watchdog said.

In France, prosecutors on Wednesday opened a probe into the blast over injuries inflicted to 21 French citizens.

Paris spearheaded international mobilisation in support of Lebanon, which will mark its centenary next month but has looked like a country on its last legs since defaulting on its debt earlier this year.

Flights carrying medical aid, field hospitals, rescue experts and tracking dogs have been flying in since Wednesday to Beirut airport, which sustained no serious damage from the explosion.

Political backlash

Besides the international emergency effort, the aftermath of the terrible explosion yielded countless uplifting examples of spontaneous solidarity.

Much of the cleanup was being handled by volunteers who improvised working groups, bringing their own equipment and making appeals for help on social media.

Were sending people into the damaged homes of the elderly and handicapped to help them find a home for tonight, said Husam Abu Nasr, a 30-year-old volunteer.

We dont have a state to take these steps, so we took matters into our own hands, he said.

Business owners swiftly took to social media, posting offers to repair doors, paint damaged walls or replace shattered windows for free.

An unprecedented nationwide and cross-sectarian protest movement that erupted on October 17 last year had looked for a moment like it could topple what it considers a hereditary kleptocracy.

The euphoria faded as change failed to materialise and the combination of economic hardship and the coronavirus pandemic left the revolution in tatters.

The revulsion at Tuesdays tragedy and its implications could rekindle the flame however and activists social media accounts were rife with calls for a new push to remove Lebanons widely reviled political leaders.

Lebanons political class should be on guard in the weeks ahead, Faysal Itani, a deputy director at the Center for Global Policy, wrote in an opinion piece for the New York Times.

Shock will inevitably turn to anger.
07.08.2020 LISTEN

Per what we saw and heard, it is not ordinary that most of the 2020 WASSCE students vented their anger, curses, insults, and frustrations on the government after the science paper. The unprecedented outcry of students after the science paper clearly shows that our students have a certain perception of this year's WASSCE examination.

This first batch of free SHS flooded social media with videos expressing their disgust on the management of schools, WAEC, and government for denying them "apo" which they highly anticipated. To many including me, it is as if they have been denied something they had been promised.

Background checks indicate that these are the crop of students who wrote BECE in 2017 and were given automatic placements to high Schools irrespective of the aggregates they got. This impression of automatic placement make some of the students think that academic life is just about presenting your self for examination without prior preparation.

The first thing that baffled my mind was how almost every student had smart phones on campus as if it was legal to use them in schools. This clearly indicates the level of indiscipline portrayed by some of these students. Unfortunately, these students were almost untouchable because they were treated as first borns with all the attention given to them by government.

In some of the videos that were circulating on social media, students were seen cursing the president Nana Addo Danquah for deceiving them with his past questions. The interesting and worrying aspect was how some students had the temerity to insult and boldly tell the president they would not vote for him come the 7th December elections.

Sad enough, I don't blame these naive students who have always heard the president say they will pass without charging them to study assiduously. The president even bought them some past questions from 2013-2019 with the corresponding marking schemes for the students. As rightly said by one counsellor, Daniel Fenyi, these past questions psychologically affected students as they felt government was subtly telling them to focus on 2013-2019 questions.

These students by far know what the government wants from them especially when EC had to all of a sudden invade schools to register students even when Coronavirus was killing a lot of people. I can confidently say these students wanted something like barter trade such that the government of the day gives them cheap examination and they would also inturn, vote for the government.

Students of Ndewura Jakpa are on record to have vandalized school properties because of social distance protocols during the writing of exams while students of Nana Tweneboa shs called their Headmaster a very wicked man because he was strict during the invigilation. Just imagine the temerity of these high school students.

It should be a national concern that some our students without shame complain of strict invigilation when it is only normal to do so during such important examinations. How on earth can students call those who are avoiding examination malpractice NDC party members? Does it mean the president told our dear students that he would ensure they engage in malpractices?. This is the peak of politics in our educational sector and should be addressed as quick as possible.

The education given to students today presents to us the kind of labour force to expect in the future but if politics interfere in what we actually produce, then we are doomed as a nation.

There should be a national agenda for education that every government must follow for the interest of the nation. The activities of political parties in schools are gradually corrupting our students at such tender ages.

The humble advice for our students is that they should sit up and prepare adequately for the next paper so that we don't witness another national disgrace. We can't say anything until the results are in because this government will do anything to a point.

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LOS ANGELES FBI agents in tactical gear on Wednesday raided the Los Angeles-area mansion home of YouTube star and social media influencer Jake Paul in an investigation stemming from a looting spree at an upscale shopping mall in Scottsdale, Arizona, officials said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation also searched two locations in Las Vegas, but no one was taken into custody during the raids and no arrest warrant has been issued for Paul, the agency said.

Paul, 23, was not present when his home was searched, according to Laura Eimiller, an FBI spokeswoman in Los Angeles.

Pauls lawyer, Richard Schonfeld, in a statement acknowledged that his clients home was searched and promised cooperation with the investigation.

Paul, whose viral YouTube video postings of provocative pranks have won him millions of followers, had no comment on his Twitter and Instagram accounts.

An FBI spokeswoman in Phoenix, Brooke Brennan, said agents were investigating allegations of criminal acts surrounding the incident at Scottsdale Fashion Square in May." She declined further comment because the search warrant was under court seal.

Local news video footage from the raid showed officers removing several rifles from Pauls mansion in Calabasas, about 30 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

Scottsdale police said separately that misdemeanor charges filed in June accusing Paul of criminal trespass and unlawful assembly in connection with the Fashion Square riots" were dismissed on Wednesday in conjunction with the federal probe.

Misdemeanor charges from that incident were likewise dropped against two men police described as Pauls associates, one of them a Las Vegas nightclub promoter.

Police said dismissal of those charges was tied to completing the federal investigation, adding that prosecutors could refile the case if warranted.

Civil disturbances in Scottsdale on May 30 grew out of demonstrations triggered by the George Floyd killing that week. Police said Paul took part in the unrest and was present after the protest was declared an unlawful assembly. He also was accused of illegally entering the shopping mall and remaining inside after it was closed.

Paul denied that he or anyone with him took part in looting or vandalism, and said he was documenting, not engaging" in, lawlessness.

(Reporting and writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Jill Serjeant in Los Angeles and David Schwartz in Phoenix; editing by Bill Tarrant and Leslie Adler)

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
President Donald Trump is never shy about stirring the pot or sending out over-the-top tweets.

But recent statements and actions undercut two of the nations core institutions: its election system, including the peaceful transition from one administration to the next, and its decennial census, which determines political representation as well as the amount of federal money states receive for everything from hospitals to schools.

Late last week, Trump suggested delaying the Nov. 3 election due to the pandemic until people can properly, securely and safely vote.

The United States has held a presidential election every four years since 1788. Even as battles raged during the Civil War, a presidential election was held.

Trump sometimes draws comparisons between himself and President Abraham Lincoln. But Lincoln, who also assumed the presidency with less than a majority of votes, understood the credibility a reelection victory would give him, and he needed an election mandate to finish the war. In 2020, to even suggest delaying the election (P.S.  it also requires an act of Congress) usurps public trust in the process and could discourage voters from participating. And in an earlier interview on Fox News Sunday Trump tap-danced around questions about accepting the election results. Trump said mail-in balloting would cause the election to be rigged and No, Im not going to just say yes. Im not going to say no, and I didnt last time either.

The obvious correct answer was Of course. Some version of mail-in balloting, including absentee, is all but a certainty across the nation due to the pandemic. And yes, New York is still having issues counting the deluge of mail-in ballots it received in its June primary. But absentee balloting worked well in New Mexico in the June primary with minimal result delays and no issues of voter fraud. And states can still learn lessons before the November general election.

Trump should be pushing for funding for poll workers and the U.S. Postal Service to expeditiously deliver ballots, not undermining the results before a ballot is cast.

The president has also targeted the census. A memo he signed July 21 seeks to have the U.S. Department of Commerce count only U.S. citizens and certain immigrants for divvying up the 435 seats in the House of Representatives. Trump lost a similar fight last year when he tried to add a question about citizenship and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the effort violated administrative law. The White House says states should not be rewarded for welcoming immigrants illegally and the Constitution doesnt define who must be included for the purposes of apportionment. Whether undocumented immigrants should be included is a valid constitutional argument, but changing the rules during counting could exacerbate the predicted undercount, and thus have long-lasting financial ramifications. One estimate says New Mexico would lose $780 million if just 1% of the population doesnt participate  money we could not afford to lose even pre-pandemic.

New Mexico had the nations second-lowest participation rate last census at 60%. Reasons include rural, hard-to-reach areas and reluctance by many undocumented residents to participate. Add the pandemic and Census Bureaus decision to end 2020 counting efforts early, on Sept. 30, and undercount is not only possible, its probable.

Instead of muddying the waters, Trump should be sending a clear message to Americans: Get counted and vote.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
 Soldiers fortified trenches and protesters formed a human chain Saturday to try to defend this strategic port city in southeastern Ukraine as fear spread that Russia would expand its incursion into its neighbor.

Military analysts think Mariupol could be a next target because it has access to the sea and also would provide a valuable land bridge to Crimea, the former autonomous Ukrainian territory annexed by Russia in March. Rebels supported by Russian soldiers, tanks and armored personnel vehicles seized control of the town of Novoazovsk  just 30 miles east of here  Thursday, according to Ukrainian military officials.

On Sunday morning, residents said the town had quieted, although it remains under insurgent control.

The West has grown increasingly alarmed by what it considers Russias brazen push into Ukraine. On Saturday, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the crisis in eastern Ukraine could soon near a point of no return and that Europe might impose new sanctions on Russia. Ukraines president, Petro Poroshenko, warned that the conflict could spread further into Europe. Russia denies it is sending military forces into Ukraine.

On Capitol Hill, Republican Sens. John McCain (Ariz.) and Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) urged the administration to immediately supply weapons to Ukraine and to increase economic sanctions on Russia.

The capture of Novoazovsk could open a new front in the five-month-long Ukraine conflict, which until now has centered on the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, farther to the north. The small border town appears to be firmly in the hands of Russian-backed separatists, who flew flags of a new territory they are calling Novorossiya . A spokesman for the rebels told the Associated Press on Friday that their plan was to push onward to Mariupol.

Fighting continued Saturday in other parts of eastern Ukraine. In Ilovaysk, a southeastern town that has been besieged by pro-Russian separatists, 28 of more than 200 Ukrainian soldiers trapped in the town managed to escape.

The Ukrainians returned 10 Russian paratroopers captured on its territory to Russia, and Russia handed over 63 Ukrainian soldiers who had crossed the border, a Russian military official in charge of the airborne forces told Russian media.

Ukraine trumpeted the capture of the paratroopers last Monday as proof that Russians were operating a special mission in Ukraine, while Russia claimed that they had only crossed by accident.

Although Mariupol was quiet Saturday, a Ukrainian military spokesman in Kiev showed reporters leaflets he said were being handed out in Novoazovsk offering money for information on Ukrainian troop movements and instructing locals on how to prepare for the arrival of peacekeeping troops of the Russian Federation. There was no confirmation of who had printed up the leaflets.

Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said that the army was ready to defend Mariupol, having organized round-the-clock patrols and reinforced entrances to the city. Hundreds of Ukrainian army troops were at posts around the city, according to Mariupols mayor, Yuriy Khotlubey.

Mariupols residents were preparing in their own way. Many had stocked up on bread and other provisions. There were long lines of cars exiting the city through checkpoints. Supplies of some medicines ran low. More than 800 basements and shelters had been designated for use in case of shelling, the mayor said.

The city gave free train tickets to refugees from other parts of the war-torn country so they could flee yet again  to safer areas.

On Saturday, protesters held hands and chanted Out with Putin! at a checkpoint on the eastern edge of Mariupol.

Other citizens chose to preserve their routines. Residents strolled in parks with their dogs and children on a cool end-of-summer day. Outdoor concerts, picnics and two weddings  the mayor noted  went on as scheduled. Occasional convoys of cars careened down the streets, their occupants honking and waving blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags.

But the threat just up the road loomed large.

We are living in this town as peaceful citizens, but we know the tanks are coming, said Vladimir Marchenko, a sailor. We dont want to become part of another country.

The residents, a mix of ethnic Russians, Ukrainians and Greeks, have endured considerable turmoil this year. After the country descended into civil conflict following mass protests against the countrys president earlier this year, pro-Russian separatists established a strong presence in the city from April 13 to May 9. Their tenure was capped by a firefight that killed nine at the police headquarters.

NATO officials and Ukraines government say that Russia has been sending military equipment and hundreds of soldiers into Ukraine to help the separatists. Russian officials have denied the charge  saying some Russians volunteered to assist the rebels, and some wandered into Ukraine by mistake.

Some residents of Mariupol say they would welcome Russian soldiers if their tanks rolled into Mariupol.

If the Russians would come here there would be no war. No one would be killed. It would be like Crimea, said Natalia Obolonskaya, a nurse. I would feel better with the Russian army than the Ukrainians.

Others who remembered life before Ukraine became independent in 1991, in the waning days of the Soviet Union, feel differently.

Ludmila Elagina, a retired engineer, volunteered to help dig trenches in the city this past week because she fears the return of a repressive regime.

When we lived under the U.S.S.R., we felt we were being controlled, she said. We were told what to wear. We were told what to say. Independence was like a second life, the birth of something new. My wings spread and I started to remember poems I recited to my mother as a child. Now, I have poems of terror.

The pressures of living in a politically divided city have taken their toll, and the anxiety has worsened in the last week, according to Ulyana Tokareva, the director of the citys social services center.

Their two main questions are, What is happening, and what do I do next? People are panicking right now, she said. The panic is happening because people dont know who to trust.

At a modest brick building Saturday, groups of families who had fled the fighting in the rebel-controlled cities of Donetsk and Luhansk arrived, toting their possessions, to pick up free train tickets out of the city.

Ludmila Kosych, 55, who ran a small food store, fled with her family from the Donetsk region Aug. 20 after they witnessed continued horror: missile fire, dead children, an average of 10 funerals a day.

They thought they had reached a safe place in Mariupol. But now she said she was wrong.

Imagine if a bomb is flying over there, she said, gesturing to a nearby column of trees. It explodes and by any piece of it you could be killed. You dont know where its coming from, the Ukrainians or the rebels. Its human, animal fear.

Karoun Demirjian contributed to this report from Moscow. Natalie Gryvnyak contributed from Mariupol.
(Natural News) Despite glaring health risks linked to aspartame, a chemical ingredient used in processed foods and drinks, authorities still consider the infamous sugar substitute safe for human consumption.

But a pair of scientists from the University of Sussex in the U.K. sounded the alarm on unreliable studies declaring aspartame safe. In particular, the duo blasted a risk assessment of aspartame conducted by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in 2013.

Their report pointed out that the EFSA panel discounted the results of all 73 studies that indicated aspartame could be harmful to human health. The panel had also considered them unreliable and used demanding criteria in judging their results.

On the other hand, the same panel treated 84 percent of the pro-aspartame studies as reliable. The duos analysis also indicated that the panel had used more relaxed criteria in assessing their results, thus suggesting a potential bias in

Scientists cast doubt on the purported safety of aspartame

Erik Paul Millstone, an emeritus professor of science policy in the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex, called for the suspension of the authorization to sell or use aspartame in the European Union pending an independent re-examination of studies on aspartame, a neurotoxic additive.

This position came about after Millstone and a colleague pointed out glaring faults, unreliable results and potential bias in a 2013 risk assessment of aspartame.

In their report, the duo explained that the panel had used different criteria in assessing the results of studies for and against aspartame. The pair pointed out that the discrepancies in criteria used indicate a possible unfairness or bias on the part of the panel.

Furthermore, the panel had deemed 62 of the 81 pro-aspartame studies as reliable. This figure accounts for an astounding 81 percent despite numerous shortcomings and prima facie proof that indicate aspartame is safe.

On the other hand, the panel had considered all 73 studies that indicated possible harm linked to aspartame use as unreliable. The duo pointed out that these studies also had less serious errors than those in support of aspartame use.

But the figures alone, explained the researchers, are enough to indicate that the panel had been more alert to the pro-aspartame studies.

The duo also cited numerous toxicological studies on aspartame ascertaining the neurological problems linked to aspartame consumption, including headaches, epileptic seizures and brain tumors. (Related: The dangers of aspartame explained.)

Based on these results, the researchers concluded that both the discrepancies in criteria used and the unfair assessment of studies are problematic for authorities tasked to prioritize public health.

This also means that their conclusion in 2013 declaring aspartame safe is premature at best, as there needs to be further research using fair and consistent benchmarks.

Commenting on the research findings, Tim Lang, a professor of food policy at City, University of London, said that the paper is both important and timely. Experts encourage reducing sugar intake, but much of the food industry simply use sugar substitutes like aspartame to get around this global health recommendation, Lang added.

He further notes that in effect, this recent report underscores the need to reduce the intake of both sugar and sugar substitutes for better health.

Science points to serious health risks related to aspartame consumption

Numerous studies point to a range of health risks linked to aspartame. One of the most common ones includes a heightened risk of chronic conditions like cancer and heart disease.

For instance, scientists from the Cesare Maltoni Cancer Research Center of the Ramazzini Institute in Italy found that aspartame is a multipotential carcinogenic agent.

Clinical studies and animal-based research also reinforce the cancer-causing effect of aspartame. In particular, at doses close to the acceptable daily intake of aspartame to humans, the sugar substitute has pronounced carcinogenic effects in mice.

In 1996, scientists also reported that aspartame consumption corresponded to a significant increase in the incidence of malignant brain tumors.

John Olney, a neuroscientist and the lead author of that study, recommended that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reassess their approval of aspartame.

But as Millstones report indicates, not much has changed in the regulations and legislation surrounding aspartame production and consumption.

Therefore, until authorities roll out updated guidelines and regulations on aspartame, its best to limit the consumption of processed foods containing sugar substitutes or steer clear of them altogether.

Learn more about the health risks and dangers linked to aspartame at Aspartame.news.

Sources include:

NaturalHealth365.com

ArchPublicHealth.BioMedCentral.com

ClinicalEducation.org

USRTK.org
Xiaomi got a phone approved by TENAA last week, and we suspect it is the Redmi K30 Ultra. Later the company confirmed a new device is scheduled to arrive this month, celebrating its first decade in the world of smartphones.

The new Redmi K30 was initially expected on August 14, but today Xiaomi revealed the launch will be on Tuesday, August 11. The machine-translated name of the phone is K30 Extreme Commemorative Edition, but it will likely go with the much simpler Ultra when/if it escapes China.

The big difference from the Redmi K30 Pro and Redmi K30 Pro Zoom appears to be the chipset - the TENAA listing points to Dimensity 1000+ from Mediatek instead of a Qualcomm platform. All the other specs appear to be the same - a 64MP main camera, a 20MP selfie shooter, up to 12GB RAM and 512 gigs of storage.

The device might be very similar on the inside, but it is the looks that confirm were looking at the same phone - this M2006J10C device has the same circular setup with an X design for the cameras, the same positioning of the buttons and the Redmi logo, and the dimensions down to the last millimeter.

Source (in Chinese) | Via
Caucus for Democratic Governance, Ghana (CDG-Gh), congratulates Prof Naana Jane Opoku Agyemang for her presentation during her out dooring as vice presidential nominee for NDC. She is an amazing woman characterized by quality, substance and sound proficiency. Her presentation was full of wisdom, hope, empowerment, with human resource orientation.

Naana Jane represents a conceptualized advancement into the 21st century. She identifies what has so divided the country, and stresses, and I quote we are all Ghanaians unquote, we should therefore not be subjected to tribal bigotry, intimidation, brut force and violence with the aim to disenfranchise citizens.

NPP Leadership

The NPP today, is driven by leadership, that has no valid future concept for the country. All their desires are centered on rigging the next election. Indeed NPP leadership has nothing for the next generation; a paradigm that can put Ghana`s development prospects into perpetual absurdity. Naana Jane will open the door, enter and hold the door open for the next generation. As an academician, she has had to cross many troubled waters and dangerous rivers to get to the very top. This one shall also pass by the Grace of God. With her on board, I believe NDC has become more attractive to the electorate.

Development Plan

In order to enable John and Jane to restructure our educational policies and system, we need a development plan for the next Century with the support and contribution of all. The red and green fantasy shift system of NPP could not solve any problem; worse still, it has badly damaged and affected the quality of education. We need a fresh approach by John and Jane who understand the philosophy of education in Nation Building towards 21st century. The NDC under HE John Mahama, will raise the bar and set the tone for formal redefinition of excellence in leadership and Nation Building.

Conclusion

As was expected, Prof Naana Jane Opoku Agyemang`s presentation has released ice cold waters on the optimistic and ambitious hopes and rigging plans of NPP and set confusion and panic ablaze in their leadership. Thanks to HE John Dramani Mahama for his candid choice.

Dr E.K.Hayford

Executive Director, CDG-GH

0277606338 / 0547694343
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - August 6, 2020) - Aurania Resources Ltd. (TSXV: ARU) (OTCQB: AUIAF) (FSE: 20Q) ("Aurania" or the "Company") is pleased to report on additional sedimentary-hosted high-grade copper-silver in the Kirus target area in its Lost Cities - Cutucu Project ("Project") in southeastern Ecuador. Sedimentary-hosted mineralization has now been found over an area of 8km by 3km, with grades of up to 6.1% copper and 51 grams per tonne ("g/t") silver recorded in recent sampling (see Figure 1).

Dr. Keith Barron, Chairman and CEO of Aurania commented, "While our last few press releases have focused on high-grade copper and silver from various targets in the Tsenken area, we've also been working in the Kirus target area six kilometres to the south. I'm delighted to report that sedimentary-hosted copper and silver have been encountered over an extensive area there too. At Tsenken, one large target area is resolving into specific targets that will be drill-tested shortly; in the same way, we expect that ongoing work at Kirus will lead to the definition of specific targets to be tested by scout drilling."

Additional sampling of boulders and outcrop at Kirus has doubled the size of the area over which high-grade copper-silver has been found since the initial press release on the target, dated April 9, 2019. As is the case with other sedimentary-hosted copper-silver targets identified in the Project, the principal copper-bearing minerals are malachite, chrysocolla, tenorite and chalcocite, in sedimentary layers that contain carbonized, fossilized plant fragments (Figure 2).

The high-grade samples are from an area adjacent to the conspicuous, 5km diameter magnetic feature (Figure 1) that initially drew exploration attention to the Kirus area. Intrusive and subvolcanic rocks ranging from magnetic, porphyritic basaltic-trachyandesite to monzonite have been mapped in outcrop over part of the Kirus magnetic feature. The magnetic centre is a target for copper porphyries. Porphyries are typically about 1km in diameter, so a geophysical feature that is approximately 20 square kilometres in extent may contain a porphyry cluster. Soil sampling is underway to identify areas of copper enrichment that may reflect underlying porphyry mineralization.

Story continues







Figure 1. Location of high-grade copper-silver samples taken from outcrops and boulders in streams in the Kirus target area on a background of magnetic data (negative reduction to the equator, which is roughly equivalent to reduction to the pole ("RTP")).



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

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2477/61157_b152876d84b6a93b_001full.jpg





Figure 2. Photo of a piece of Sample Y992012 with 1.6% copper and 39.6 g/t silver. The green mineral is malachite. Scale bar is in centimetres.



To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2477/61157_b152876d84b6a93b_002full.jpg

Sample Analysis & Quality Assurance / Quality Control ("QAQC")

Laboratories: The rock samples were prepared for analysis at MS Analytical ("MSA") in Cuenca, Ecuador, and the analyses were done in Vancouver, Canada.

Sample preparation: The rock samples were jaw-crushed to 10 mesh (crushed material passes through a mesh with apertures of 2 millimetres ("mm")), from which a one-kilogram sub-sample was taken. The sub-sample was crushed to a grain size of 0.075mm and a 200 gram ("g") split was set aside for analysis.

Analytical procedure: Approximately 0.25g of rock pulp underwent four-acid digestion and analysis for 48 elements by ICP-MS. For the over-limit samples, those that had a grade of greater than 1% copper and 100g/t silver, 0.4 grams of pulp underwent digestion in four acids and the resulting liquid was diluted and analyzed by ICP-MS.

QAQC: Aurania personnel inserted a certified standard pulp sample, alternating with a field blank, at approximate 20 sample intervals in all sample batches. Aurania's analysis of results from its independent QAQC samples showed the batches reported on above, lie within acceptable limits. In addition, the labs reported that the analyses had passed their internal QAQC tests.

Qualified Person

The technical information contained in this news release has been verified and approved by Jean-Paul Pallier, MSc. Mr. Pallier is a designated EurGeol by the European Federation of Geologists and is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators.

About Aurania

Aurania is a mineral exploration company engaged in the identification, evaluation, acquisition and exploration of mineral property interests, with a focus on precious metals and copper in South America. Its flagship asset, The Lost Cities - Cutucu Project, is located in the Jurassic Metallogenic Belt in the eastern foothills of the Andes mountain range of southeastern Ecuador.

Information on Aurania and technical reports are available at www.aurania.com and www.sedar.com, as well as on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/auranialtd/, Twitter at https://twitter.com/auranialtd, and LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/aurania-resources-ltd-.

For further information, please contact:

Carolyn Muir

VP Investor Relations

Aurania Resources Ltd.

(416) 367-3200

carolyn.muir@aurania.com

Dr. Richard Spencer

President

Aurania Resources Ltd.

(416) 367-3200

richard.spencer@aurania.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may contain forward-looking information that involves substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties, most of which are beyond the control of Aurania. Forward-looking statements include estimates and statements that describe Aurania's future plans, objectives or goals, including words to the effect that Aurania or its 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 Aurania, Aurania 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, Aurania's objectives, goals or future plans, statements, exploration results, potential mineralization, the corporation's portfolio, treasury, management team and enhanced capital markets profile, the estimation of mineral resources, exploration and mine development plans, timing of the commencement of operations and estimates of market conditions. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, failure to identify mineral resources, failure to convert estimated mineral resources to reserves, the inability to complete a feasibility study which recommends a production decision, the preliminary nature of metallurgical test results, delays in obtaining or failures to obtain required governmental, regulatory, environmental or other project approvals, political risks, inability to fulfill the duty to accommodate indigenous peoples, uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, changes in equity markets, inflation, changes in exchange rates, fluctuations in commodity prices, delays in the development of projects, capital and operating costs varying significantly from estimates and the other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry, and those risks set out in Aurania's public documents filed on SEDAR. Although Aurania 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. Aurania 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.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/61157
(CNN)  First-grade teacher Amy Forehand was stunned to learn young students in her Georgia school district will return to classrooms by the end of this month.

"We were notified yesterday that the county is going to send kindergarten students and first-grade students back into the building August 26," the Gwinnett County teacher said Wednesday.

"This came as a big surprise to us. Up until now, we've been doing and preparing to go virtual. So we're going to have to pivot."

School districts across the country are making last-minute pivots and decisions as several students have already tested positive during their first days back.

More studies reveal how easily children can get and spread coronavirus. Hundreds of attendees at a Georgia summer camp came down with Covid-19, including 51% of those tested between the ages of 6 and 10.

About 260 employees at Forehand's school district have already been infected or exposed to coronavirus, Gwinnett County Public Schools said. At least one teacher has resigned after being denied the option to teach from home.

"I have a lot of fears. The community spread is still very high," Forehand said. "I have asthma. My 2-year-old son is showing indications he as well has asthma."

Like virtually all teachers, Forehand said, she wants in-person learning to resume as soon as possible -- once it's safe to do so.

But "right now, I am actually afraid for my life," she said. "And I'm not going to be able to teach any children if I am having to take extended medical leave, or if I die."

Prolonged virtual learning could lead to more job losses

On the flip side, keeping students at home could lead to millions of parents being forced to quit their jobs, according to economists from Goldmach Sachs.

While some parents have jobs that allow them to work from home, many are essential workers who must work jobs outside the house. Single parents and those without access to child care are at risk.

"We have failed the parents and the kids of this country," said Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez, a primary care pediatrician and assistant professor of pediatrics at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

"This was predictable. This could have been avoided."

Throughout the pandemic, she's been asking parents whether their families have enough food to eat or if they're at risk of getting evicted from their homes.

"Although they have been at risk, and although at times they have not had enough to eat, when I ask them, 'What are you doing this fall? Are you sending your kids back to school?' They look at me like I have lost my mind," the pediatrician said.

"And what they're starting to tell me is that they have started to quit their jobs, and it's usually moms who are quitting their jobs so that they can watch their kids at home. And not only watch them -- but teach them at home," Bracho-Sanchez said.

"And so these parents are saying, "No way, no how. I'm not sending my child to school. I'm going to do what's safest. And if that means that things are going to be even harder for my family, then that's the way it's going to be."

Keep an open window, Fauci says

Speaking to CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta during a Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health forum on Wednesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, addressed simple things that Americans can do when dealing with a respiratory virus such as the novel coronavirus.

"Its simplicity is so, so obvious, that people don't pay attention to it," Fauci said when asked whether buildings such as schools need to install HEPA filters.

He said if you can, keep windows open.

"Like you mean telling me, we've got this big crisis and you're telling me to open up a window? Yes! I'm telling you to open up the window," he said.

Fauci said other measures such as filters for air conditioning systems are being considered as research is done on how the virus spreads.

Dr. George Rutherford, principal investigator of the state of California's contract tracing program, said that he believes the recent Covid-19 outbreak at a sleepaway camp in Georgia is not necessarily an example of what might happen when schools open.

Rutherford and a CDC report pointed out that the children were not wearing masks, there was regular singing and cheering, and that windows and doors were closed in the cabins. These closed windows and doors probably increased recirculated air and the risk factors, according to Rutherford.

Researchers examined test results following a summer camp in Georgia that more than 600 campers and 120 staffers attended. Of the hundreds of people tested, 51% of those ages 6 to 10 tested positive; 44% of those ages 11 to 17 tested positive; and 33% of those ages 18 to 21 tested positive, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

What we know now about kids and Covid-19

While President Donald Trump said children are "virtually immune," and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said kids are "stoppers" of Covid-19, studies and data show otherwise.

"Kids can transmit the virus. They are susceptible to it," said Anne Rimoin, an epidemiology professor at UCLA. "And the rates of hospitalization is going up."

In Florida, for example, the number of children who had been hospitalized with Covid-19 surged 23% in eight days -- from 246 to 303.

While children are far less likely to die from Covid-19 than adults, they can still pass the disease on to others.

-- A study out of South Korea shows children at least 10 years old can transmit Covid-19 within a household just as much as adults can.

-- At some schools that have already reopened, students have tested positive. In Indiana, a student at Greenfield-Central Junior High School attended class for part of a day before receiving a positive test result.

In Canton, Georgia, a second-grader tested positive, sending a teacher and 20 other classmates into a two-week quarantine, the Cherokee County School District said.

Children from minority and lower socioeconomic backgrounds at greater risk

Covid-19 is affecting minority children and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds more than their peers, according to a new study.

The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, examined 1,000 patients tested at a Children's National Covid-19 testing site in Washington, DC, between March 21 and April 28.

Of that group, just 7.3% of White children tested positive for coronavirus, in contrast to 30% of Black children and 46.4% of Hispanic children.

Three times as many Black children reported known exposure to the virus as White children did, Dr. Monika Goyal of Children's National Hospital and colleagues reported.

And while about 9.7% of those in the highest-income quartile were infected, 37.7% in the lowest quartile tested positive, Goyal's team found.

"Understanding and addressing the root causes of these disparities are needed to mitigate the spread of infection," the team wrote.

This story was first published on CNN.com Quit my job, or risk serious illness? Parents aand teachers face grueling decisions as schools reopen
Kerala's Kumbalangi to be first synthetic pad-free village in India

How Kerala Police CCSE under Cyberdome is fighting crimes against children

Kerala Gold Smuggling: ED gets custody of Swapna Suresh

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Aug 06: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday obtained the custody of three people, including main accused Swapna Suresh, in connection with the Kerala gold smuggling-money laundering case, officials said.

The agency got their custody from a special NIA court in Thiruvananthapuram, they said.

The ED has got the custody of Sarith PS, Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair who were arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) earlier in this case, they said.

Kerala Gold Smuggling: NIA digs deeper, makes fresh arrests

The three will be questioned and their statements recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the officials said.

The central probe agency had filed a PMLA case last month to probe the alleged gold smuggling using a 'diplomatic bag' after studying an NIA FIR.

The central agency will investigate if proceeds of crime were generated by the accused by laundering of funds that were earned through the alleged gold smuggling racket.

The case emerged on July 5 when gold, weighing over 30 kg, was seized by the Customs Department from the "diplomatic baggage" that had landed by air cargo at the Thiruvananthapuram international airport from the Gulf.

The seized gold is stated to be worth nearly Rs 15 crore.

The ED is the fourth central agency that is probing the accused involved in the case after the Customs, NIA and the Income Tax Department.

RBI: Repo rate unchanged at 4%, Reverse Repo Rate unchanged at 3.3% | Oneindia News

Kerala Gold Smuggling: Deliberate attempt to undermine economic stability of India

The NIA had arrested the prime accused in the case, Swapna Suresh and her associate Sandeep Nair, from Bengaluru on July 11.

Sarith P S, also a former employee of the UAE consulate in Kerala, was arrested by the Customs Department after the gold was seized.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, August 6, 2020, 8:11 [IST]
She recently revealed she is looking for love but admitted she can be 'savage' when it comes to men.

But Imogen Thomas brushed aside her love quest for a relaxing sunbathing session during her trip to Mykonos on Thursday morning.

The model, 37, looked sensational as she slipped into a blue swimsuit, after meeting up with Turkish chef Salt Bae, real name Nusret Gokce, at his Nusr-Et Steakhouse on Wednesday evening.

'Myk you are dreamy': Bikini-clad Imogen Thomas brushed aside her love quest for a relaxing sunbathing session during her trip to Mykonos on Thursday morning

Putting on a busty display, the former Big Brother star stunned in her plunging one-piece, which highlighted her curvaceous figure.

The online influencer sported drenched locks after a dip in the pool and showcased her naturally radiant complexion by going make-up free.

A day earlier, the brunette lived it up as she visited the celeb sensation's eatery, where she took the opportunity to pose for a snap with him.

Celebs galore: The model, 37, met up with Turkish chef Salt Bae, real name Nusret Gokce, at his Nusr-Et Steakhouse on Wednesday evening

Open to finding 'The One': The former Big Brother star recently revealed she is looking for love but admitted she can be 'savage' when it comes to men

Single mother Imogen, who has two daughters with ex-partner Adam Horsley, recently admitted she is 'so fussy it's unreal' and no one has been 'good enough' to introduce to her children.

She said in an interview with this week's new! magazine: 'I cut guys off more than I eat hot dinners.

'I'm savage and I'm not very nice to guys. I don't even know what I want myself, but I will know when he comes along.'

Airport chic: The reality star arrived at Gatwick earlier in the week ahead of her holiday to Greece

Radiant: The former beauty pageant queen nailed casual style as she teamed a loose-fitting white shirt with denim shorts

All in the details: The media personality rounded things off with circular-framed shades

The reality star, who rose to fame on Big Brother in 2006, also said lockdown has 'rebooted' her dating life.

Imogen, who is a member of exclusive dating app Raya, explained how she is 'bored' of swiping and admitted there are a lot of people that she has dubbed 'Raya Players'.

The model, who split from former partner Adam in 2018 following a six-year relationship, also said she is cautious of introducing someone to her daughters Ariana, seven, and Siera, four.
Albany, N.Y.  The governor who in large measure has defined states up-and-down fight against the coronavirus, including occasional combat with the White House, is poised to widen his national spotlight.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo took the reins of the National Governors Association on Wednesday during a meeting held virtually because of the disease.

Cuomo, who was tapped for the position in 2018, said governors whove shouldered the brunt of responding to Covid-19 will unite to prepare for the next virus and control a pandemic still taking the lives of thousands.

The new chair said governors will push for a federally funded infrastructure plan, while asking for unprecedented testing capacity and stockpiles of protective gear, supplies and medicine. He said governors would help each other safely revitalize economies and schools and fix beleaguered public health systems.

There has never been a moment when state governments have been more instrumental in the lives of the people of this country, he said, adding: We now have shown what states can do.

The association representing governors in all 50 states and territories has long focused on training and lobbying for federal aid, but it's emerged from the political shadows since the pandemic erupted in the U.S. The chairman who is handing off to Cuomo, Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, has pushed the group to put bipartisan pressure on the Trump administration to provide supplies and budget help to the states.

In a recent interview, Hogan noted times when President Donald Trump would bristle because he wants people to thank him for the job hes done and to say everythings great.

But my job as chairman of the governors was to stand up for the governors and kind of speak out, Hogan said. Ive praised them when they made progress, but Ive also been, as nicely as I could, you know, pushed them when I thought they needed to get something else done.

Cuomo signaled Wednesday he'll follow his predecessor's bipartisanship  but the governor hasn't been shy from using the sharp-elbow approach when needed with Trump. While he has worked with Trump to secure more ventilators and has praised the president at times, he has blasted the administration in recent weeks.

He criticized it for failing to mandate masks nationwide, waiting until mid-March to ban travel from Europe and not providing additional aid to state governments beyond an initial infusion of cash in early spring. Unlike Trump, Cuomos approval ratings have risen as hes used highly-watched televised appearances to position himself as a steady, data-driven alternative.

Every American knows this was the worst government blunder in modern history, Cuomo said earlier this week. Not since the Vietnam War have Americans sat in their living room to see the numbers on the TV screen every night saying what a mistake it was.

Trump, for his part, has rarely attacked Cuomo  an indication of a begrudging respect between the two, who grew up in nearby Queens neighborhoods.

That relationship could benefit the NGA, said political consultant Harry Giannoulis, a former senior aide to Cuomos late father and former governor, Mario Cuomo, said.

Cuomo also has chastised governors in states where the virus is surging for failing to learn lessons about the coronavirus that New York grappled with this spring, when the dead piled up by the thousands in New York City. Cuomo himself has been criticized for New Yorks high Covid-19 death toll at nursing homes.

Cuomo will have his work cut out for him as he seeks consensus among governors across the political spectrum  currently 26 Republicans and 24 Democrats.

If someone doesnt like it, theyre just going to quit, University of Illinois at Chicago political science professor Chris Mooney said. The NGAs incentive is to keep as many members possible.

Cuomos elevated profile could help the governors association become more influential as it lobbies for $500 billion in unrestricted federal aid to states, which remains a contentious bargaining point as congressional Democrats and Republicans struggle to compromise on another big coronavirus relief package.

Heres one of the biggest national crises going on in the country and these governors are in the spotlight, empowered on this issue, Giannoulis said. And heres Andrew Cuomo, whos widely seen as having handled this issue.

The third-term, 62-year-old governor has repeatedly said he isnt running for president this year and claims he isnt focused on politics. Cuomo has brought Northeast governors together to collaborate on issues such as travel restrictions and is now sending his staff to help other states with testing, tracing and protective gear.

Whats going to happen is Cuomo will continue to speak out probably, said University of Illinois at Chicago political science professor Chris Mooney. And then every time he speaks out, hes going to be labeled as the chair of the National Governors Association.

The incoming vice chairman, Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, said he isn't concerned about Cuomo using the association as a platform to take digs at the Trump administration. He said the association is most effective when it advocates on behalf of problems facing all states, such as increasing virus testing and shoring up budgets.

Cuomo could use his new national platform to seek more uniformity among the states in how they are responding to the virus surge, perhaps influencing national policy.

A lot of the most thorny political issues, youre just going to leave off the table because youre not going to have an agreement, said former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat who led the NGA once Trump took office.
British American Tobacco South Africa (BATSA) went to court on Wednesday for the first day of hearings in a case against a government-imposed ban on tobacco sales to limit the spread of coronavirus.

South Africans have been unable to legally purchase cigarettes since the country went into a strict nationwide lockdown on March 27.

While confinement measures are being gradually lifted, tobacco products have remained banned for the time being due to "health risks" associated to smoking.

BATSA, which covers 78 percent of the legal cigarette market in South Africa, decided to sue the state in May after talks with the government fell through.

Speaking before the Western Cape High Court on Wednesday, BATSA advocate Alfred Cockrell argued the ban was "unconstitutional" and "unscientific".

Cockrell said the measure had "devastated" the tobacco industry in an already ailing economy and was costing the state around 38 million rand ($2.2 million) per day in excise taxes.

Government representative Andrew Breitenbach argued the case was about "lives and livelihoods" but said the minister behind the ban had "taken steps" to allow trade between tobacco producers and cigarette manufacturers.

"The ban deals with prohibiting sales," Breitenbach added. "So infringements on rights are just incidental."

BATSA estimates that South Africa has around 8 million smokers.

The company reported paying 13 billion rands ($750 million) in taxes last year, supplying cigarettes through 50,000 outlets including grocery stores, liquor shops, informal traders and fuel stations.

Its legal action has been backed by Japan Tobacco International and by groups and organisations representing consumers, retailers and tobacco farmers, who agree that the ban is fuelling an illicit cigarette market.

The Fair Trade Independent Tobacco Association (FITA) legally challenged the "irrational" ban last month, claiming it has diverted revenue away from a multi-million dollar business and into the black market.

The court has since ruled in favour of the government but granted FITA leave to appeal.

BATSA's case is scheduled to resume on Thursday.

South Africa was already in recession before the coronavirus struck in March and the economy is now forecast to contract by more than six percent this year as a result of the pandemic.

The country is the hardest-hit in Africa with at least 521,318 infections diagnosed so far, accounting for more than half the continent's cases.

Its mortality rate has remained low however, with just over 8,800 deaths reported to date.
New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday obtained the custody of three people, including main accused Swapna Suresh, in connection with the Kerala gold smuggling-money laundering case, officials said.

The agency got their custody from a special NIA court in Thiruvananthapuram, they said.

The ED has got the custody of Sarith PS, Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair who were arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) earlier in this case, they said.

The three will be questioned and their statements recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the officials said.

The central probe agency had filed a PMLA case last month to probe the alleged gold smuggling using a 'diplomatic bag' after studying an NIA FIR.

The central agency will investigate if proceeds of crime were generated by the accused by laundering of funds that were earned through the alleged gold smuggling racket.

The case emerged on July 5 when gold, weighing over 30 kg, was seized by the Customs Department from the "diplomatic baggage" that had landed by air cargo at the Thiruvananthapuram international airport from the Gulf.

The seized gold is stated to be worth nearly Rs 15 crore.

The ED is the fourth central agency that is probing the accused involved in the case after the Customs, NIA and the Income Tax Department.

The NIA had arrested the prime accused in the case, Swapna Suresh and her associate Sandeep Nair, from Bengaluru on July 11.

Sarith P S, also a former employee of the UAE consulate in Kerala, was arrested by the Customs Department after the gold was seized.
Students of Ndewura Jakpa Senior High Technical School at Damongo in the Savanna Region, rioted on Wednesday night in protest against what they describe as strict invigilation by the school authorities in the ongoing West African Secondary School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE).

They are also against the social-distancing measures put in place in the exam hall.

The rioting students vandalised school property, a situation that necessitated the deployment of both soldiers and police personnel to bring the situation under control.

The male students ran away upon seeing the soldiers.

During the melee, the headmaster and staff on campus had to flee from the stone-hurling students.

The MCE for West Gonja Municipal Assembly, Saeed Jibril intervened by speaking to the students for calm to prevail.

No arrest has been made yet.

This is the third such incident in less than a week since the WASSCE started on Monday.

For instance, a team of police officers had to be deployed to the Juaben SHS in the Juaben District of the Ashanti region after the final-year students hit the streets to demonstrate against the teachers and the headmaster of the school over similar concerns.

The students said they could not write the paper because none of the things they studied featured in the exam questions.

The police say they had to move in quickly to disperse the students from the streets.

In order to ensure peace on campus as the students sat the Leatherwork and ICT (elective) paper on Wednesday, ACP Stephen Tane Ngissah told Kumasi FM's Elisha Adarkwah that they have deployed a team of police personnel to the school.

Prior to the Juaben SHS incident, students of the Tweneboa Kodua SHS at Kumawu in the Sekyere Kumawu District, also in the Ashanti region, vandalised school property in anger for not being allowed to cheat in their first paper.

The enraged students hurled abusive words at the school authorities as they went about destroying school property amidst complaints that the first paper was too difficult an exam to sit.

They also complained that the supervision of the invigilators was too strict.

It took the intervention of the District Chief Executive (DCE) of Sekyere Kumawu, Mr Addai Agyekum, told calm the situation.

On Wednesday, a Deputy Chairperson of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Ms Kathleen Addy, condemned the vandalism.

Speaking about the incident on the Civics 101 segment of Class91.3FMs Executive Breakfast Show on Wednesday, 5 August 2020, Ms Addy told host Benjamin Akakpo that: For me, its one of the saddest things that happened in a country that is pushing, trying to make things betters, especially in the education sector

For this to happen, I think its extremely unfortunate the students made these videos where they were talking and being very rude to everybody and the only thing they are concerned about is that their exam was tough and they were not allowed to cheat, she condemned.

Ms Addy said: I think its a tragedy that young people can confidently stand up and say that.

As far as she is concerned, the destruction caused by the students is inexcusable and unjustifiable.

The video I saw was that they were upset that the exam was difficult, they were upset that the invigilation was too strict, and, for me, Im sorry but I cant make any kind of excuse for those things. To trash up your school and school property and go on the rampage for that, Im sorry but I can never excuse it because even if you have a problem, theres got to be a way of resolving it  parents can come in, all kinds of others can be drawn into it to ensure that the right thing is done, she said.

 And considering that these are the people who have enjoyed free education, they are the first group of people who have actually enjoyed free SHS, its sad that this happened but by the way, this is a small percentage, a very very minute percentage of the total number of people who wrote the exam, she pointed out.

This years WASSCE started on Monday with a total of 375,737 candidates in over 796 examination centres across the country.

Some 187,574 of the candidates are males and 188,163 are females.

The Ashanti region had the highest number of candidates, 87,295, followed by Eastern region with 56,467 candidates.

The Bono, Bono East and Bono West regions presented 45,295 candidates made up of 22,043 males and 23,252 females in that order.

The Central region presented 42,946 candidates, comprising 21,009 males and 21,937 females.

According to the statistics, Greater Accra had 37,974 candidates with 19,484 being females; Oti and Volta regions 34,466 candidates with 17,622 being males.

In the Northern, Savana and North East Regions, 24,830 candidates are expected to sit the examination with 14,105 being males.

The Western and Western North regions has 24,332 candidates with 12,601 females.

Upper East and West regions has 13,334 and 8,798 candidates, respectively.

The candidates are from 641 public and 335 private schools.

The private schools presented a total of 61,899 candidates with public schools presenting 313,838 students.

Depending on their courses, the candidates are expected to write four core subjects and three other electives.

The examination is expected to end on 5 September 2020.

---classfmonline
NEW DELHI: Highly placed sources said on Thursday (August 6, 2020) that 690 tons of explosive chemical Ammonium Nitrate, which were seized by Customs authorities in 2015, are safely stored at a Private Container Freight Station (CFS) located in Manali, to the North of Chennai city.

The seized chemicals are valued at around Rs.1.80 Crore and were seized by Chennai customs in 2015.

Its importer was M/s Amman Chemicals, Karur, Tamil Nadu and this firm did not have the requisite license for importing this chemical then.

Officials said that the chemicals are under safe custody. It is also understood that the chemicals are under the E-auction process for disposal.

Ammonium Nitrate, which is widely used in fertilizers and explosives has been in the news recently after the Lebanese government pointed out that it was 2,700 tons of the same chemical which caused a massive explosion at the Beirut port on Tuesday evening.

In pure form, Ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) is a white, crystalline chemical which is soluble in water. It is the main ingredient in the manufacture of commercial explosives used in mining and construction.
When power outages occur, Ringgold Volunteer Fire and Rescue often receives calls from people who are on oxygen and need somewhere to plug in.

Chief Mike Neal said they invite those people to the station, where a massive generator wired into the system keeps the building running at all times.

Since the majority of houses in the area surrounding the station have well water, which shuts down when electricity goes out, power outages also lead to people coming to the station to get water or ice. While not something that is needed everyday, having a generator connected to the building allows the department to run at 100% capacity all of the time and even helps the community during outages.

Its something you dont use all the time, but when you need it you need it, Neal said.

With funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Pittsylvania County Public Safety is outfitting Climax Fire, Renan Fire, Cascade Fire and Rescue, and Cool Branch Fire with generators. This will mean all but the smallest Pittsylvania County fire and rescue department  Riverbend Fire  has a generator and is ready to serve as a temporary shelter and provide service during an emergency or extended power outage, said county Pittsylvania County Public Safety Director Chris Slemp.

Those fire stations are further out and spread out, said Slemp.

The majority of the funding for the generators will come through FEMA mitigation funds from Tropical Storm Michael, which caused extensive damage to the Dan River Region in October 2018. Trees were downed, power remained out for a few days in some areas, and multiple people died. When a major named storm comes through, FEMA allocates money to pay for the damage, as well as mitigation money that is intended to reduce the risk of extensive damage and help localities respond better the next time  which is the source of this money.

This grant, which totals almost $181,000, is more than 2/3 federally funded, includes some additional money from Virginia Emergency Management Department and requires a Pittsylvania County contribution of about $8,600. Grants from FEMA already had allowed the county to outfit six other stations with generators several years ago.

Having power at all times in the station is important not just for the off-chance of having to house community members, but also for allowing department to continue to effectively run calls when the electricity goes out.

It allows our volunteer agencies to function at 100% capacity in a storm situation, Slemp said.

Without electricity, getting vehicles in and out of the station becomes quite complicated, said Eric Clark, fire chief at Cascade Volunteer Fire Department.

Youre looking at several minutes that it could take to get out of the building, he said.

Instead of pushing a button to open the garage door, someone has to manually pull a rope  one that is very finicky and difficult to work with, Clark said. After motoring the ambulance or truck outside, someone then has to go back inside to pull the door down before going out the regular door. Having a generator prevents that process from happening.

In addition to the doors, theres also the question of charging the equipment. Most ambulances and some fire trucks plug up to charge equipment in the station. Not having power could cause those essential pieces of equipment  ranging from a ambulance defibrillator to flashlights on a fire truck  to be low on power when needed.

During and after Tropical Storm Michael, many people came to the Ringgold station to do things like charge cellphones and take showers, with some staying overnight on cots. Slemp said having generators will allow these smaller stations to function in a similar way but on a smaller scale during a major storm like Hurricane Isaias. At one point projected to send down as much as 4 inches in the Danville area, Isaias, which caused some damage and power outages in other areas of Virginia earlier this week, ended up not having much of an impact in the Dan River Region.

At Cascade Fire and Rescue, one of the departments slated to receive a generator in the coming months, having a generator will be a big help, Clark said. He noted that its rural area is often one of the last to have power restored.

Were so far out in the sticks that we sometimes are on the lower priority list when theres a major outage, Clark said. Sometimes were on a back burner.

At this time, the Cascade station, which has one bathroom and no shower, could not function as an emergency shelter for extended periods of time like Ringgold and some of the countys other larger stations, but Clark said he is working with officials on acquiring funds for those types of additions.

Thats something were trying to work on with the county  to add some of that stuff to our building, he said.

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How do you respond when someone raves to you about a must-see TV series? Increasingly now, the answer tends to be: Whats it on? The response, Oh, its only on DVD is tantamount to suggesting it can only be viewed by performing some occult summoning ritual  I mean, who has the time, or the playback device? We are sliding towards a disc-less, algorithmic future, in which DVDs and Blu-rays survive for many only as time-consuming, space-intruding throwbacks.

Of course, the streaming revolution has mostly been positive, especially to us Brits. In a matter of years, Netflixs unflagging rise to power has seen the modern TV fanatic evolve from knuckle-dragging box-set buyer to tech-savvy streaming sophisticate. No longer do we have to kowtow to the whims of a TV scheduler, or splurge money on overpriced DVD collections, replete with half-cocked miscellanea and deleted scenes that are, more often than not, deleted for good reason.

The vaults of British TV history are open, and accessible, in a way that would have been inconceivable even a decade ago. A multitude of classic series can be streamed for free on BBC iPlayer or All 4; if you supplement their catalogues with a paid subscription or two  to Netflix, for example, or BritBox  you can enjoy a fairly comprehensive selection of essential British TV, at least from the 1980s onwards. But while its a treat to have ready access to treasures like Alan Bleasdales GBH (on All 4), the picture turns cloudier when you start to look for fare from beyond our nations shores.

Last month marked the 30th anniversary of Northern Exposure. Running from 1990 to 1995, the show is an affecting, offbeat drama about a neurotic doctor forced by the terms of his student loan to run a practice in a remote town in Alaska. Northern Exposure won an Emmy and two Golden Globes for best drama series, and retains an ardent, if modest, fanbase; a revival is supposedly in the works at CBS. In the UK, its anniversary passed virtually unacknowledged. This is no surprise  the series is unavailable to stream here, and the only means of seeing it (with its original soundtrack intact) is a Blu-ray box-set that costs around 100.

Northern Exposure is far from the only example. While the US has proved itself the dominant TV force over the past few decades  nothing the UK produces is likely to command nearly as many eyeballs as Friends, or Game of Thrones, or The Simpsons  older American series are being left behind. NYPD Blue, the long-running cop procedural whose fingerprints can be lifted from pretty much every police series since, is another cast-aside relic of a bygone era. Five of its 12 seasons can be purchased digitally, for 23 each on Amazon; anyone wanting to watch all 12 would have to buy the complete series on DVD for around 150. This is not some obscure cult gem. This is a series that was nominated for literally hundreds of industry awards (winning 20 Emmys), gave one-off guest roles to just about every recognisable character actor under the sun, and whose complicated, explicitly racist protagonist Andy Sipowicz was a precursor of the Noughties wave of male antiheroes.

Cop show aficionados should feel doubly aggrieved; also absent from the corridors of the UK streaming platforms is Homicide: Life on the Street, the subversive Baltimore-set drama adapted from a book by a pre-Wire David Simon. Like NYPD Blue, it also featured its share of big-name guests, including Robin Williams, Steve Buscemi and Jake Gyllenhaal. Andre Braugher, the actor whose broad deadpan has rightly endeared him to a generation of sitcom-watchers on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, is blisteringly good in Homicide, as ace detective Frank Pembleton. All seven seasons are available on DVD, at a relatively affordable price (50), but most people, especially younger people, are unlikely to bother seeking it out.

Classic US sitcoms are just as poorly served as dramas. Seminal heavy-hitters like Cheers, Taxi and M*A*S*H are unavailable to stream anywhere freely. Some more obscure programmes, like the beloved 1990s workplace sitcom NewsRadio, or Al Jean and Mike Reisss post-Simpsons cartoon The Critic, have never been given physical releases in the UK, despite being decades old. Naturally, the coverage of foreign series thins out much more drastically when we look beyond the US. Netflix has given the UK access to a panoply of recent foreign-language originals, but very little in the way of older non-originals. While streaming services like Mubi and BFI Player can be a reasonably reliable source of foreign and arthouse films, there is no real equivalent for TV series; esteemed works like Krzysztof Kieslowskis Dekalog, Rainer Werner Fassbenders Berlin Alexanderplatz and Edgar Reitzs Heimat all require physical purchases.

Hey now! Rip Torn, Jeffrey Tambor and Garry Shandling in the influential The Larry Sanders Show (HBO)

Netflix is one of the worst offenders when it comes to ignoring the past: recent research suggests 81 per cent of its content was released in the 2010s, with only 3 per cent coming from the 1990s, and 2 per cent from the 1980s. This can largely be attributed to its full-bore tunnelling into the world of original content production. Some other streaming services fare better  more than 25 per cent of the content on Disney+ dates back to the 20th century, for instance  but theyre still far from ideal.

Now TV, the Sky-owned streaming service that has the exclusive streaming rights to HBO programming, does a decent job of making many of the golden age TV series available. The Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood  these were the types of shows that were synonymous with the box-set era, the kind of prestige TV that redefined the medium and banished the notion that television was a lesser art form. But HBOs older catalogue is not shown the same love. Inimitably great talk-show sitcom The Larry Sanders Show (from which Ricky Gervais would liberally borrow in making The Office) and groundbreaking sketch comedy Mr Show with Bob and David (which made cult stars of its two leads, Bob Odenkirk and David Cross) are both omitted from the Now TV streaming conveyor belt; they have never been given the chance to take root here.

Weve seen this happen before, of course. The artistic canons  of everything, from literature to music to film  have always been inextricably tied to accessibility. While the rise of streaming has done wonders in some regards, the omission of so many significant TV landmarks is a glaring failing, a myopic devotion to the shiny and own-branded new. There are two logical outcomes from this lack of access. Either the series will simply go unseen  a crying shame, in many cases  or the cash-strapped TV fanatic will turn to internet piracy. The ethics of digital piracy is a hotly contested issue, but I dont imagine most people would have to perform particularly complex mental gymnastics to rationalise downloading a series like Slings and Arrows, the superb (and hard to obtain) Canadian dramedy about a haunted Shakespearean theatre director.

The streaming vs DVD divide has sometimes been compared to the modern housing market  we have transitioned from a culture of ownership to one of renting. As with renting a house, you are all too often subject to the whims and demands of a private landlord, who is under no obligation to cater to you. Netflix may refer to its content as a library, but its a far cry from a public service. Imagine a world where no libraries carried copies of Charles Dickens novels, or where John Steinbecks works could only be ordered online in editions worth 150. What a sorry sight that would be.
Editors Note: Welcome to Inside Out, our weekly roundup of stories about Staten Islanders of all ages who are making waves, being seen, supporting our community and just making our borough a special place to live. Have a story for Inside Out? Email Carol Ann Benanti at benanti@siadvance.com.

Dr. Maxim Shulimovich (Courtesy/RUMC/Alexander Lutz) Staten Island Advance
A man ties his shoe laces - Yegor Aleyev/TASS

A former deputy police chief was allegedly caught filming under womens skirts in a Paris department store using cameras fitted to his shoes.

The 61-year-old man, who has not been named, was allegedly approaching women and sticking his feet out to capture images under their clothing.

Some of the women complained about his behaviour and a security guard at the BHV store in central Paris realised that he appeared to be upskirting, or surreptitiously taking photos up women's skirts. He called the police, who arrested the man on Monday. He is due to stand trial in January for voyeurism and taking intimate images without permission.

The accused man retired in June from the police force of the Val de Marne district, south-east of Paris, where he had served as the second highest ranking officer for seven years.

A technology enthusiast, he reportedly headed Frances first police unit wholly dedicated to investigating computer and online fraud in the 1990s, which earned him the nickname cybercop.

Upskirting is prohibited under voyeurism and privacy laws in France and also became a criminal offence in the UK last year.

Police searched his home after arresting him, but declined to say if they had found illegal images or video.

The suspect had an illustrious career and held a series of senior posts in Paris, during which he was awarded the Police Medal of Honour and the National Order of Merit .

Police declined to comment on the case, but according to Le Parisien newspaper, he was described by former colleagues as discreet, a gentleman and a strict officer who demanded exemplary behaviour from those under his command.

Earlier this year a policeman in the Paris area was charged with infringement of privacy after admitting that he had filmed a woman in the fitting room of a sportswear shop. He explained his actions by saying he needed adrenalin.

Police forces across England and Wales recorded more than 150 allegations of upskirting in the six months after it became a criminal offence last year.
Innovation is typically met with curiosity and enthusiasm, but when it comes to architecture, it often tends to affect commercial value negatively in the long run. In other words, some architecture is just too weird to stay popular over time.

The dazzling Kuwait Towers in Kuwait City  just one of 13 feats of architectural modernism to be awarded a

In particular, buildings that fall under the category of modernist architecture often seem to be too unique. Modernism, a movement beginning in the early 20th century in response to large-scale changes in both technology and society, predominantly adopted the use of concrete, glass, and steel to streamline architecture. This resulted in the creation of countless eye-catching and one-of-a-kind buildings throughout the era, but today many of the movements most shining examples sit in a state of disrepair  not exactly the most appealing to potential investors.

The Getty Foundation, whose mission is to advance and share the worlds visual art and cultural heritage for the benefit of all, recently announced a plan to help conserve 13 of the worlds modernist monuments.

Gandhi Bhawan at India's Panjab University  just one of 13 feats of architectural modernism to be awarded a

The unreal swimming pools in Leca, Alvaro Siza, Portugal  just one of 13 feats of architectural modernism to be awarded a

The architectural designs of the modernist era were full of experimentation with both materials and engineering.The Getty notes that these experiments were often untested and have not always performed well over time. Many of the buildings have been neglected or even completely abandoned, since restoration is expensive, but the Institute hopes to slow their degradation and keep them from being demolished with a total of $2.2 million in grants.

One remarkable recipient of this funding is the Buzludzha Monument, a saucer-dome of concrete found on a mountaintop in Bulgaria. Built in 1981 to commemorate the founding of the Bulgarian Communist Party, the building  along with the intricate mosaic curving through its interior  has been neglected for decades now. Hugely popular with photo tourists, the funds will protect the mosaic and support a plan to adapt the structure for future use.

The flying saucer-like Buzludzha Monument in Bulgaria  just one of 13 feats of architectural modernism to be awarded a

The funds, collectively referred to as the Keeping It Modern grants, are a result of a program that has dedicated itself to preserving buildings since its inception in 2014. To date, 77 projects in 40 nations around the world have benefited from the program, with this years candidates hailing from places like Chile, Kuwait, Nigeria, Portugal, India, and Senegal.

Story continues

Modern architecture, with its experimental materials and structural innovations, is a powerful cultural expression that took many forms worldwide, says Joan Weinstein, Director of the Getty Foundation. These buildings embody human ingenuity, but many are showing their age and face irreversible damage or even demolition if we fail to act. Our Keeping It Modern grantees across the globe are working to safeguard this modern heritage for future generations, and to produce models of best practice that other stewards of modern architecture can learn from.

The White Tower in Ekaterinburg, Russia  just one of 13 feats of architectural modernism to be awarded a

Tecton Buildings at Dudley Zoo and Castle  just one of 13 feats of architectural modernism to be awarded a

International Fairgrounds in Dakar  just one of 13 feats of architectural modernism to be awarded a

The Oberstufen-Schulzentrum Wedding Secondary School in Berlin  just one of 13 feats of architectural modernism to be awarded a

The oldest building in this years group is the White Tower in Ekaterinburg, Russia by Moisei Reisher, which began construction in 1929. Another well-aged candidate is the Tecton Buildings at Dudley Zoo and Castle in the United Kingdom by architects Berthold Lubetkin and the Tecton Group, erected in 1937. In the way of more recent projects, several buildings from the 1970s are also receiving grants, including the International Fairgrounds in Dakar, Senegal by architects Jean-Francois Lamoureux and Jean-Louis Marin (197), the Kuwait Towers by architect Malene Bjrn (1976), and the Oberstufen-Schulzentrum Wedding secondary school in Berlin, Germany by architects Pysall, Jensen, Stahrenberg & Partner (1976).
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The often high leverage in forex trading is both a blessing and curse, enabling either high profits or immense losses

Falling for gimmicks such as AI, matrix algorithms, or promises of more than 30 per cent profit per month, many investors have been withdrawing their capital to channel in foreign exchange (forex) investments.

Along with forex moves, new models of investment have been wooing the attention of investors recently, in the form of a hybrid of forex, cryptocurrency, and various forms of multi-level marketing (MLM). They promise to bring tremendous profits with their allegedly top-notch, world-class business models. Investor Nguyen Thanh Hai said that he had just been invited by a friend to open an account at Emas Fintech for a lucrative profit of 2-4 per cent per day, and 30 per cent per month. In addition, investors could also reap the benefits of other commissions, which are sometimes higher than the trading interest.

Rumour has it that Emas Fintech is the only trading model in the world where cryptocurrency and real money collide. They make profit by trading between virtual currencies, similar to forex trading.

The firm insists it boasts a smart paring-based matrix algorithm, with probability of loss said to be almost zero. Besides that, a handful of packages are introduced to entice investors. For example, when pouring money into the basic package, which would cost between $500 and $4,500, investors are entitled to 50 per cent of trading profits. On the other hand, if investors bet big on the premium package, which sets back $10,000, a spectacular 70 per cent of trading profits could be gained.

The remainder is split between brokers (15 per cent) and companies (15-35 per cent). In short, the more the merrier  the bigger the investment, the more commission someone can get.

However the actual transaction interest, as well as its promising commission, is just an act of fabrication. Experts pointed out that brokers cannot guarantee high profits or money back if all transactions are conducted via internet, with payment made on a voluntary basis.

Senior economist Nguyen Tri Hieu cautioned, Hardly anyone can stand a chance of gaining 2-4 per cent daily interest without much effort. If these firms are so confident in their success, they would face no obstacles in raising funds from high-profile investors, let alone enticing small investors online.

Algorithms count for little

Along with Emas Fintech, recently a flood of forex trading companies have been increasing their footprint in Vietnam, luring a number of customers. These primarily employ the model of forex investment combined with MLM.

Finance lecturer Huy Doan from the School of Business and Management at RMIT Vietnam told VIR, In the last few years, a number of unscrupulous operators in these markets have expanded their customer networks through social media marketing and guaranteed profits to potential investors without a solid financial knowledge. They even provide testimonials from people who claimed to earn a fortune from trading with them or vouched for their long experience and trading abilities.

He also drew an example of a popular method in which the firm offers an advanced system to identify the correct timing of currency trading, either through professional recommendations or AI. To make it supposedly more promising, it introduces a complex trading algorithm to generate automatic trades that earn money while investors sleep. To earn money, it is claimed the unsuspecting trader just needs to hand over their money to the firm brokerage account for the privilege of trade recommendation. Alternatively, he or she can earn commission by encouraging their acquaintance to join the trading community.

Forex is the worlds largest, most liquid, and most active marketplace, with global daily currency turnover surging to many trillions of US dollars. Notwithstanding, leverage is commonly as high as 100:1 or more, and this is where the double-edged sword comes in, as leverage has the potential to enlarge your profits or losses by the same magnitude, according to Investopia.

Notably, various introductory courses in the style of Forex 101 have mushroomed, with irresistible advertisements. Investors are persuaded to open trading accounts, deposit money, and jump on the forex bandwagon later on.

At first they could gain some profits, which will quickly turn sour because of continuous losses. This is similar to the gambler mindset where they will continue to lay out more cash to compensate until their pockets are emptied.

Hence, fraudsters can take advantage of forexs immense potential to put a new spin on an old type of fraud.

Last year, I started my very first deal through a friends recommendation. I started out small, paying $10 per day and earning $60 in return. The second week, I paid an additional $1,000 and won $1,200, said Nguyen Ngoc Vinh, one market participant. At that moment, I couldnt control my urges to trade  the rewards of trading stuck to my mind all day long. I then accumulate money for a grand investment, which costs me all of my deposits and even the interest I just gained.

Bad turned to worse for the participant, who paid an additional $2,000 to make up for previous mistakes. The vicious cycle repeated until April this year, when the money ran out. I lost a total of VND300 million ($13,000) before pulling out of the field, he added.

According to Vinh, brokers of the forex trading floor reaffirmed that the platform boasts plentiful opportunities with its AI trading robots and smart algorithms to analyse, predict, and trade efficiently. And while these tools might be effective in certain situations, they have yet to reach the level of reliable accuracy.

Therefore market participants, especially novice ones, can still experience considerable risks. Having a beat the market mindset often causes traders to trade too aggressively or go against trends, which is a sure recipe for disaster, according to expert Hieu.

In fact, according to experts, 99 per cent of forex investors lose money and end up quitting, even experienced ones. A notable example is the case of Phan Hoang Nam, director of Nobel Global. Nam lost dozens of thousands of US dollars taken from his stakeholders to invest in forex.

However, unlike cases where trustee deviate the money consigned, most forex investors deal directly with brokers. Therefore, even if a forex service involves fraud, investors cannot take the matter to court, as the laws of Vietnam do not allow individuals to invest in forex.

The fact that transactions between investors and middlemen are mainly carried out online does not help in making the matter more transparent.

In Vietnam, fraudsters can take advantage of forexs immense potential to put a new spin on an old type of fraud

Legal loopholes

The current bout of market turbulence has pushed investors into riskier positions, with the forex market being highly volatile and carrying substantial perils.

Betting on forex-MLM hybrids is not a new trend, but the attractiveness of the model still remains, as illustrated by the increasing number of its victims.

In the past 15 years, many forex investment companies labelled as investment trust, or closed-end trust have collapsed after raising trillions of VND or hundreds of thousands of US dollars from investors such as Golden Rock, VGX, IMMS, and Khai Thai.

Doan of RMIT also noted, Hedge funds and well-known institutional investors, such as Renaissance Technologies and Blackrock, have paid lucrative salaries to talents in the setup of a proper trading system, therefore requiring high management fees from potential investors. So, it does not make sense if unsuspecting traders only pay around a few hundred dollars for the so-called accurate algorithmic trading.

According to current regulations, only institutions approved by the State Bank of Vietnam are permitted to trade foreign exchange. Individual forex trading is not officially legal, so individual investors cannot be protected by laws. In some cases, these investors are liable to a fine of VND50-100 million ($2,170-4,350).

Insiders said forex trading is continuing to gain ground, partly because the legal framework has not been completed yet, paving the way for fraudsters. At the click of a button, people could be trading with hundreds of currency pairings and thus, trading has never been easier to access.

Because forex transactions mainly take place online, it is deemed to be intrinsic for local authorities to regulate. Experts suggest that cooperation with banks could be a means to crack the whip. For instance, most investors on forex exchanges often use bank accounts of prominent lenders such as Vietcombank or VietinBank.

Phan Dung Khanh, investment director at Maybank Kim Eng Securities, noted, There are many unscrupulous people who try to catch individual investors eyes by their guarantees, such as sky-high profits. But the only free cheese is in the mouse trap. Swindlers will try to exploit your optimism, your fears, and your lack of knowledge.
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Berlin, Germany  Thu, August 6, 2020 17:45 530 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c19e01 2 World Germany,coronavirus,COVID-19,COVID-19-infection,pandemic,SARS-CoV-2,virus-corona,novel-coronavirus Free

The number of confirmed new coronavirus cases in Germany has breached the 1,000 threshold for the first time since early May, in the latest sign that slackening social distancing is raising the risk of a second wave of the disease.

According to data published by the Robert Koch Institute early on Thursday morning, the number of new infections rose by 1,045 to 213,067, breaching a key psychological barrier after creeping up for weeks.

With Europe's largest economy only now starting to recover from the near-total lockdown that was imposed in March to stem the disease's spread, any sign of renewed restrictions on the horizon will dismay investors. The head of the German doctors' union said earlier this week that Germany was already contending with a second wave of the coronavirus and risks squandering its early success by flouting social distancing rules.

Officials, including Health Minister Jens Spahn, have warned that it will become far harder to control the spread of new infections from autumn onwards, making it all the more important to keep numbers down as the summer draws to a close.

The lockdown and social distancing pushed the number of new cases down to as low as 159 in mid-July but numbers have been rising since, fuelled by local outbreaks, including one centered on a slaughterhouse that required restrictions to be placed on the entire town of Guetersloh.

Ominously, a poll for Der Spiegel magazine showed four-fifths of Germans expect the further lockdowns to be imposed to control the coronavirus pandemic, with half of them expecting future measures to be more severe.

Spahn is due to give a news conference on the latest developments in infection numbers later on Thursday.
WASHINGTON, Aug 5 (Reuters) - The Manhattan district attorney's office, which has been seeking President Donald Trump's tax records, subpoenaed his longtime lender Deutsche Bank last year, suggesting its criminal investigation into Trump's business practices is more wide-ranging than previously known, the New York Times said on Wednesday.

The prosecutors issued the subpoena last year, seeking financial records that the Republican president and his company had provided to the bank, the Times said, citing four unnamed people.

The office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance declined to confirm or deny the report. Deutsche Bank and the White House did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

The Times said Deutsche Bank complied with the subpoena and provided prosecutors with "detailed records, including financial statements and other materials" that Trump had provided to the bank as he sought loans.

Vance, a Democrat, this week suggested a grand jury subpoena for Trump's tax returns was part of an investigation of "possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization," including alleged insurance and bank fraud.

Vance's investigation into Trump and the Trump Organization was spurred by disclosures of hush payments to two women who said they had had sexual relationships with Trump before he became president. Trump has denied the claims.

Vance, who is seeking to dismiss Trump's latest challenge to the subpoena for eight years of personal and corporate tax records, raised the scope of the probe in court papers filed in federal court in Manhattan on Monday.

While Deutsche Bank's response to the subpoena "reinforces the seriousness of the legal threat" the investigation poses for the Republican president and his business, the inquiry is still at an early stage, the Times said, citing an unnamed person. (Reporting by Mohammad Zargham and Eric Beech; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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Lake Tahoe has seen a record breaking year of real estate sales and the inventory of properties is at a shocking low amid the pandemic as people working from home seek refuge in the picturesque mountains.

Local real estate agents in the Lake Tahoe and Reno area reveal home sales in the area are up 20 percent compared to July last year and the number of active listings are down 25 percent, with properties whisked off the market in a matter of days.

'People were thinking of leaving the Bay area, leaving more populated cities and coming to areas like Lake Tahoe, which is traditionally a second home market, and buying homes there and working remotely,' Senior Buyers Agent Sarah Russell with RedFin tells DailyMail.com.

She says she saw the wave of buyers hit around the third and fourth week of the pandemic when offices closed and people started working remotely.

Russell says the market is so hot in-demand properties receive multiple offers often leading to bidding wars and waived contingencies.

'I know in Tahoe we just dont have enough homes even on the market for buyers to look at. By the time you schedule a tour the agent is already calling saying, hey Ive got offers. Its very hot market,' she said.

Lake Tahoe has seen a record breaking year of real estate sales amid the pandemic as tech employees working remotely and big families flee cities for greener pastures

RedFin revealed to DailyMail.com agents recently sold this $819,000 four bedroom home in less than a month after it was listed on the market on May 21 in Lake Tahoe. Typically homes take 30 to 120 days to sell

This idyllic renovated three-bedroom, two bathroom home in South Lake Tahoe was on the market for 41 days when it sold at $647,000, RedFin revealed

She revealed that homes in the area usually take between 30 and 120 days to sell, but now theyre hitting the market and being snapped up in less than 30 days, often with many buyers expressing interest and handing in offers.

Bay Area tech employees are a part of the wave seeking greener pastures as Google, Facebook and Apple say employees won't return to the office until 2021.

Remote learning in most schools means families can leave big cities for more outdoor space too.

The influx of demand in Tahoe, which typically draws locals looking for a second home, has seen this year's numbers skyrocket.

According to RedFin home sales are up 20 percent in the Lake Tahoe and Reno area for the four weeks ending in July 26 compared to this time last year.

The median sale price is up seven percent to a median of $413,000.

And the inventory of homes is at a historic low with the number of actively listed homes down 25 percent from last year.

According to RedFin home sales are up 20% in the Lake Tahoe and Reno area for the four weeks ending in July 26 compared to this time last year and the median sale price is up seven percent to a median of $413,000

This home in Carson City, Nevada near Lake Tahoe was snapped up in just 28 days selling for $324,900, Redfin shared

With so little demand buyers are putting in offers on any property they can, amping up the competition.

Russell says she recently helped a client on the Nevada side of Tahoe purchase a property that had gone into escrow, but the offers for the house kept coming in.

'It was very intense because we had to be perfect with our timelines because we knew there were three back up offers behind us so we had to be really diligent so that way our client won the house,' she said.

'You had homes that sat [on the market] for a year, and all of a sudden you have multiple offers. Its nothing Ive seen before,' Jamie Moore, a principal agent for Redfin said to SFGate.

This incredible three bedroom, two bathroom home nestled in the woods of the mountains in Truckee in Lake Tahoe is on the market on RedFin for a whopping $1,850,000. It's been on the market for six days

The home is on the 'hot homes' list meaning it's anticipated to sell faster than 95% of nearby homes. A back view of the mountain home above, which offers views of Donner Lake

This three bedroom, two bathroom yellow painted home is on the market in South Lake Tahoe for $469,000

The home also includes a deck and a hot tub. Typically houses are on the market for 30 and 120 days in Lake Tahoe. But given the pandemic, properties are being snapped up in less than 30 days

The demand has been so high, inventory is historical low.

In June 2019 there were 817 properties on the market and 127 sold that month, according to Tahoe Sierra MLS.

By contrast this year in June 2020 there were only 408 homes on the market and 212 sold.

Susan Lowe, the senior vice president and corporate broker for Chase International, says theres not just an influx of people from the Bay Area, people are coming from all over California state and even Nevada.

'What I see different is a mindset change. I believe people had time to reflect on whats important in life while they were secluded at home. They want a place to come thats safe and a better quality of life,' she said.

She said she recently sold a home that had 14 showings in four days and it received a stunning five officers.

'People just want to be here at all costs. The world is discovering that Lake Tahoe is one of the most beautiful places in the world.'

This three bedroom, two bathroom home in Tahoma is on the market for $645,000 and has been on the market for five days but is already expected to sell soon

The home is remodeled inside and boasts high ceilings and plenty of windows for scenic views of the surrounding nature

The back deck of the open and airy house above

And the offers coming in are consistent at asking price or well above.

'The buyer pool feels like its doubled or even tripled, and the seller pool has greatly reduced,' Katherina Haug, Sales Associate with Sierra Sothebys International Realty, said to SFGate.

'Our inventory is so low right now. Something comes on the market and almost every property is getting multiple offers and at asking or over-asking,' she added.

Lake Tahoe has long been a perfect escape for Californians as its nestled in the Sierra Nevada mountains and, on the Nevada side, has lower taxes.

One property on the market recently priced at $1.65million in downtown Truckee, California went into contract less than 24 hours later and closed for $2million, according to CNBC.

This three bedroom, 2.5 bathroom home is on the market in Truckee for $849,000 and has been on sale for four days but is expected to sell soon

A view of the cozy living inside the lavish home above. The residence features a large deck over looking the nearby meadow with a view of the Northstar

The resort of community of Tahoe Donner usually has between 80 and 120 homes on the market and now only has about a dozen.

Kaili Sanchez with Sierra Sothebys said the companys pending sales in June for the Tahoe area totalled a whopping $191million, up from $72million last year.

From July 1 to 15 pending sales racked up $129million, more than three times last years total.

Some buyers are now snapping up empty land to build a home for themselves as there are few properties left to purchase.

Local builders, construction companies, and architects say the waiting lists are getting longer for their services as ambitious people come in with plans to design their dream vacation home.
George Orwell showed in Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm that totalitarians and "movements" usually need a real or even an imaginary enemy against which to rally their followers, lest their leaders otherwise become irrelevant. The rulers of Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia in Nineteen Eighty-Four needed one another as enemies to convince their people that "increasing" the weekly chocolate ration from 25 to 20 grams was necessary for the war effort. David Duke and Richard Spencer would be relative nobodies were it not for leftist extremists who engage in looting, arson, rioting, and vandalism. This is, in fact, a strong incentive for white supremacists to infiltrate nominally peaceful Black Lives Matter events to incite violence. The leaders of Antifa and the BLM movement would similarly be relative nobodies were it not for swastika-waving white supremacists chanting, "You will not replace us" and engaging in violence on their own behalf.

The famous educator Booker T. Washington said of this, "There is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs  partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs." White supremacist demagogues manipulate their Caucasian followers similarly, and it is past time for the country to tell both groups that we want none of what they are selling.

The "Woke" Left Promotes Racism by "Othering" Black People

The BLM movement needs racism the same way medieval witch-hunters needed witches (whether real or imaginary). This is not to say there are no white racists  rallies with swastika flags, burning crosses, and the dregs of Caucasian society in sheets and hoods exemplify the concept  but rather that the problems are far less pervasive than the manipulators claim. This makes it absolutely vital for BLM to aggravate the very problems it claims to fight, much as a quack "doctor" might infest a water supply with a disease so he can then peddle what he calls the cure.

Proposals for reparations to be paid by people who never owned slaves to people who never were slaves serves no purpose other than to set black Americans apart from other Americans and evoke resentment against them. This nurtures rather than starves the very racism and animosity that the BLM movement and white supremacist organizations need to prosper or even survive.

BLM Global Network often uses the word "allies" to depict Caucasians who support black Americans, as do many "woke" universities. Rutgers, for example, has the "Black Graduate Students and Allies," while Harvard's "Fighting Anti-Blackness Resource List" includes a link to "'Acknowledging Your Privilege and Becoming an Ally': a Guide to Resources for White Folks." The linked material adds, "This reflection has led me to reach out to my loved ones to engage and discuss how we can be better allies to Black and Brown people[.]"

This is commonly known as "othering," or defining a given racial, religious, or ethnic group as outsiders. Othering has traditionally come in the form of explicit hate speech as levied by Nazis against Jews, but BLM and the "woke" left have repackaged the same trash in boxes labeled with nice-sounding but patronizing words like "support" and "allies." They impute some kind of privilege to all Caucasians, an inherently racist assumption by definition, and then segregate Caucasians from non-white people by defining them as "allies." All that's missing are the "White" and "Colored" signs that we relegated to the (tr)ash heap of history long ago.

An alliance is an association of convenience, and often one between people or entities that do not even like one another. In Sharpe's Challenge starring Sean Bean, an Indian commander named Mohan Singh explains why he is fighting on the British side. "[T]hat makes you my enemy's enemy, and therefore, a necessary evil." The British took over most of India by becoming a "necessary evil" to various local rulers, as in "divide and conquer." The Soviet Union, as ruled by the genocidal dictator Joseph Stalin, was similarly a necessary evil during the Second World War and a Cold War adversary shortly afterward. Make no mistake: an ally is an "other" regardless of how convenient he might be at the moment.

If Theodore Roosevelt was still around, he would explain, and perhaps with the aid of his Big Stick upside the heads (figuratively speaking) of the "woke" left, that a black American is not our ally and therefore some kind of outsider who is alien, different, or otherwise not really "one of us." He is a fellow American citizen and therefore interchangeable with any of us.

Theodore Roosevelt on Inclusion and Diversity

Roosevelt's essay on Americanism said of immigrants who have adopted our nation's values, "An immense number of them have become completely Americanized, and these stand on exactly the same plane as the descendants of any Puritan, Cavalier, or Knickerbocker among us, and do their full and honorable share of the nation's work." It doesn't matter if your ancestors came over on the Mayflower as free people or indentured servants, or in the hold of a slave ship, or you yourself took the naturalization oath today. You are an American who is interchangeable with any other American  end of story.

Roosevelt added, "To bear the name of American is to bear the most honorable titles; and whoever does not so believe has no business to bear the name at all, and, if he comes from Europe, the sooner he goes back there the better." We do not have a white nation, a black nation, a Nation of Islam, or anything other than the American nation between Mexico and Canada. This applies equally to Rashida Tlaib and her "Palestinian people," and also white nationalists.

Roosevelt also had no use for "othering" Americans of any race, religion, or ethnicity. "Americanism is a question of spirit, conviction, and purpose, not of creed or birthplace. ... It is a base outrage to oppose a man because of his religion or birthplace, and all good citizens will hold any such effort in abhorrence. A Scandinavian, a German, or an Irishman who has really become an American has the right to stand on exactly the same footing as any native-born citizen in the land, and is just as much entitled to the friendship and support, social and political, of his neighbors." We hope that, with the aid of the president whom Rudyard Kipling called "Great-Heart," Americans now see through the manipulation and fraud being perpetrated on our country by white supremacists and "woke" leftists alike and reject both groups now and forever in the future.

Civis Americanus is the pen name of a contributor who remembers the lessons of history, and wants to ensure that our country never needs to learn those lessons again the hard way. The author is remaining anonymous due to the likely prospect of being subjected to "cancel culture" for exposing the Big Lie behind Black Lives Matter.

Image: Johnny Silvercloud via Flickr (cropped).
(Natural News) According to Erin Nealy Cox, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has opened more than 300 investigations on domestic terrorism as a result of the nationwide wave of engineered rioting that erupted after the death of George Floyd in late May.

Cox made this announcement during her testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitutions hearing on preventing violence in protests. Cox was appointed by Attorney General William Barr to lead a newly created task force that would investigate anti-government extremist groups and individuals that may have violent tendencies. The subcommittee is led by chairman Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, and the hearing Cox was speaking in was titled The Right of the People Peaceably to Assemble: Protecting Speech by Stopping Anarchist Violence.

Cox task force is co-headed by Craig Carpenito, U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey. It is composed of both prosecutors as well as officers from the FBI. Not only has Barr given the task force the responsibility of investigating extremist groups, but it will also be learning everything it can about the individuals within the movements, as well as all of their associated networks.

[The task force] has, since May 28, opened over 300 domestic terrorist investigations, said Cox during her testimony. That does not include any potential civil rights investigations or violent crime associated with the riots.

Any group, regardless of their name, if theyre violent and anti-government, we will be looking at them, Cox continued.

The U.S. attorney elaborated that if any extremist groups engaged in gang or drug activity, then those criminal actions would not fall under the responsibilities of the new task force, as they will be focusing all of their resources on investigating violent anti-government activities.

Listen to this episode of the Health Ranger Report, a podcast by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, as he talks about how the mainstream media is complicit in the Left-wing domestic terrorism perpetrated by groups like Antifa and the Black Lives Matter movement, which has led to a national wave of engineered rioting that has gripped the entire country for over two months.

Democrats want new task force to be shuttered

The Democratic senators in the subcommittee immediately raised concerns when they were told of Coxs new task force. Many of their supposed hangups revolve around their allegations that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is not taking the threat coming from white supremacist and other far-right groups seriously. They claim this despite the fact that, last year, Director of the FBI Christopher Wray, a Republican, stated that a large percentage of the bureaus ongoing domestic terrorism investigations were linked to white supremacy.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, one of the Democrats in the subcommittee, asked Cox why the DOJ has stopped tracking white supremacist incidents as a separate category of domestic terrorism. Cox refused to answer, and Ted Cruz diverted the subcommittees attention to the original topic of the hearing.

During the testimony of Ken Cuccinelli, the acting deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), he told the senators in the subcommittee that around 140 federal law enforcement personnel guarding a federal courthouse in Portland have sustained over 277 injuries due to the extremely violent and sustained nightly battles they have had to wage against the Antifa and Black Lives Matter rioters in the city.

At one point during the hearing, Cuccinelli picked up a frozen water bottle and banged it on the desk. He said that these have been thrown at officers, along with other projectiles such as pipes, Molotov cocktails and fireworks.

The other Democrats on the subcommittee attempted to weigh in by diverting the hearings attention to other matters, such as when Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island asked Cuccinelli about an incident involving a U.S. Navy veteran allegedly getting beaten. The acting secretary merely responded by saying that the incident is being investigated by the DHS inspector general, and Cox responded by saying that the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) was also conducting an investigation on the matter.

Americans have a right to peaceably protest. They do not have a right to engage in violence & anarchy. pic.twitter.com/0V4LIyvgDT  Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) August 4, 2020

Cruz kept the hearing focused by stating that denouncing the Left-wing extremism of Antifa and other groups like it shouldnt be a political game.

Dont kill people. Dont set police cars on fire, he further said, stating something that he believes should be obvious to the Democrats in the subcommittee.

The Democrats in the hearing were of one mind in their belief that Cruz and other Republicans have been overstating Antifas involvement in the demonstrations, as well as the threat the radical group poses to property and lives.

All of this talk about leftist anarchy is just a big deflection from the nationwide call for justice, said Sen. Ron Wyden, one of Oregons two Democratic senators. Wyden lives in Portland. (Related: Black journalist stabbed in the back at Portland protest was targeted for being conservative.)

Keep an eye out for the latest criminal actions conducted by Antifa and other radical Left-wing domestic terrorist organizations like the Black Lives Matter movement by reading the articles at AntifaWatch.news.

Sources include:

FoxNews.com

VOANews.com

CourthouseNews.com
Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 27F. Winds WSW at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 27F. Winds WSW at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.
A sarpanch of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) died in South Kashmirs Qazigund area, in Kulgam district, after being attacked by terrorists.

According to the police, the attack took place on Thursday morning. The sarpanch has been identified as Sajjad Ahmad.

The police said that terrorists fired upon Ahmad outside his residence. He was rushed to the hospital where authorities declared him brought dead.

This was the second attack on a sarpanch by terrorists in the last three days.

Earlier, the terrorists had attacked BJP sarpanch from Akhran in the same district. Sarpanch Arif Ahmad was critically injured in the attack.

Last month, former BJP district president Waseem Bari, his father and brother were killed inside their shop after militants fired on them from close range. Bari had a 10-member police security and all of them were suspended and arrested because they were not with him when he was attacked.

In June, Congress sarpanch Ajay Kumar Pandita was killed outside his house at Lokbhawan in Anantnag district.
TOWN OF LINN  Illinois residents with second homes in the Lake Geneva region are trying to enroll their children in schools here this fall during the coronavirus pandemic.

School administrators speculate that parents are seeking school districts with more options for in-person classroom instruction, or are looking for schools where their kids will not be required to wear face masks.

State law allows Illinois families to transfer their children into Wisconsin school districts, as long as the families own property north of the border and can establish residency in their new district.

At Reek Elementary School in the town of Linn, five families from Illinois already have come forward to inquire about crossing the state line to enroll their children this fall where the families own second homes.

Reek Elementary is offering in-person classroom instruction with no requirement that students wear face masks.

Principal and district administrator Samantha Polek said she instructed those families that they are welcome to enroll their kids in the Reek Elementary district.

If theyre residents and they have that proof of residency, she said. they certainly can attend their local school.

At Walworth Elementary School in Walworth, principal Phill Klamm said he, too, has heard rumors about Illinois families coming across the state line to enroll their kids this fall.

So far, Klamm added: I wouldnt say that we have anyone coming up to their second homes and asking about enrolling here.

Although Illinois is allowing schools to offer in-person classroom instruction, many school districts are planning strictly online remote instruction. That includes districts just south of the Lake Geneva region, including the McHenry High School District, the Harvard School District, the Huntley School District and the Prairie Grove School District.

Wisconsin state officials say cross-border enrollment is permitted and local school districts set their own procedures for verifying a familys residency.

Chris Bucher, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instructioin, said each school district determines its own policies and requirements for proving residency. Schools can demand pay stubs or utility bills, or simply check that a familys address is in the district.

Residency determinations are made by local school districts, Bucher said. The Department of Public Institution doesnt play a role in that. It comes down to the school districts.

Even if a family is found not to be a Wisconsin resident, parents can still enroll their child by paying a non-resident tuition, possibly thousands of dollars a year.

In the current coronavirus pandemic, Illinois families might be shopping for school options, particularly if they own property in Wisconsin.

Polek said she believes one reason families may be moving their kids is to ensure that their students receive in-person instruction, as opposed to remote learning from home.

Polek said families might also be looking for a geographic area with fewer cases of coronavirus, or they might want a school where students are not required to wear face masks as a safeguard that some families find objectionable.

With enrollment open until Aug. Polek said, it was too early to forecast class sizes, but she does not believe an influx of Illinois transfers will cause a dramatic increase at Reek.

Its a small pickup at this point  not huge for us, she said.

Other area school districts said they have not detected any Illinois residents moving to second homes for the schools.

Kellie Bohn, administrator of Brookwood schools in Genoa City, said despite being close to the state line, she has not received any inquiries about Illinois residents enrolling this fall.

Bohn said open enrollment rules allow such cross-border residency moves, but she said said the Genoa City area does not have many second homes for Illinois residents.

We havent had parents coming to inquire about alternative open enrollment in that situation, she said.

Traver Elementary School administrator Allyssa Andersen said she has not received any specific inquiries, either. Anderson, however, said the Traver area does include many secondary homes used for vacations.

We wouldnt have anything on the school side of things that would tell us anything about tax records or anything like that, Andersen said. If they say they are living in the district and we can verify their address is in the district, then we would say yes.

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The Turkish foreign ministry on Wednesday criticised Indias decision to revoke Jammu and Kashmirs special status in August last year, asserting that it did not contribute to peace and stability in the region. India had, Recep Tayyip Erdogans government in Ankara said, further complicated the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and not served peace and stability in the region. It also called for dialogue between India and Pakistan.

The Turkish statement has been seen to have been issued in coordination with Imran Khans government in Pakistan, the only country other than Xi Jinpings China to have put out a statement on the first anniversary of Jammu and Kashmirs new status in the Indian constitution. Erdogans government did not make any reference to Pakistans new map that had been issued just hours earlier that counts Indian territories as its own.

Also Read: In Imran Khans 18-point Kashmir plan for Aug 5, outreach to Turkey, Malaysia and China

New Delhi isnt surprised. In the past, Erdogan has gone out of his way to echo Imran Khan on Kashmir. Like in February this year, Erdogans speech in the Pakistan National Assembly during his visit to Islamabad compared the struggle of Kashmiris with the Ottoman Empires fight during World War I.

But this isnt all that Ankara has been doing. An intelligence report on the role played by fronts for the Turkish government last month accused Ankara of efforts to radicalise Indian Muslims and recruit fundamentalists. Turkey had emerged as the the hub of anti-India activities next only to Pakistan.

A second report handed over to national security planners over the past week said fronts for the Turkish government or the outfits it supports - some of them directly linked to Erdogan and his family - appeared to have made deeper inroads in India than assessed earlier. Much of this effort is directed via three sectors: Turkish state media, educational institutes and the nonprofit sector, or NGOs.

Also Read: Imran Khans Pakistan might end up regretting its new political map. Here is why

The intelligence assessment identified individuals and groups, some of them also suspected to be in touch with Pakistans ISI, who had been lured to work with entities in Turkey that had strong links with the Erdogan regime.

In particular, the report listed organisations that had started accelerating what it described as lucrative scholarships to Indians to study in Turkey.

Turkey has been providing lucrative scholarships and running exchange programmes for Indian Kashmiri and Muslim students to study in Turkey through state-sponsored NGOs. Once the students land in Turkey, they are approached and taken over by the Pakistan proxies operating there, the report said.

The list of outfits that sponsor the scholarships is long, the report said. It includes Turkey Youth Foundation (TUGVA), Presidency of Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB), Turkish Airlines, Yunnus Emre Institute (YEI), Turkeys Diyanet Foundation (TDF) and Turkist Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA).

Most of these organisations have direct connections with the Turkish government, President Erdogan or his family, a counter-terror official said.

Also Read: Red flags in Delhi over Erdogans Turkey funding anti-India activities: Official

The TUGVA, which functions under Erdogans son Bilals patronage, has developed strong links within India by establishing connections with Islamic outfits in India including Jamaat-e-Islamic Organisations student wing, Student Islamic Organisation (SIO), the report said.

SIOs Fawaz Shaheen, however, denied that the students body had anything to do with any Turkish group or entity related to Erdogan or his family. We have nothing to do with either Turkish or other groups involved in anti-India activities, Fawaz Shaheen said.

The intel report also accused the Turkish Embassy in Delhi of forging alliances with Indian NGOs, pointing that Indian activists who serve Ankaras agenda are increasingly being sent to Turkey on exposure trips and encouraged to speak against India. Some of the Turkish organisations that have been used to launch coordinated attacks on India are its International Humanitarian Relief Foundation, the TDF (which also funds scholarships) and Pak-Turkey Cultural Association.

The TDF is part of the religious directorate of Turkey, now deployed with Erdogan supporters, and tasked to build Erdogans image as the tallest leader of the Muslim community by championing the Islamic cause where it suits Erdogans ambitions.

And Turkeys authoritarian leader for 18 years has many.

The most prominent has been to lead the Muslim world, building on Turkeys imperial Ottoman past. The Ottoman sultans doubled as the caliphs of the Muslim world. Erdogan and his supporters believe they can revive the Ottoman Empires former glory that collapsed nearly a century back, and its peak in the 1500s ruled over much of Southeastern Europe, west Asia, and North Africas coastal strip.

Erdogans effort to expand its influence among South Asian Muslims comes against the backdrop of his pitch to challenge Saudi Arabias dominance in the Islamic world and offering a conservative Turkey with Ottoman traditions as a model for Islamic nations to follow.

It is a narrative that works well for Imran Khan in the Indian subcontinent, particularly given Indias recent success in deepening its ties with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In April, Pakistans public broadcaster started airing Turkeys television series, Ertugrul Gazi, which is loosely based on the story of the 13th century Muslim Oghuz Turk leader Ertugrul, whose son Osman Ghazi is considered to be the founder of the Ottoman Empire.

The series dubbed in Urdu, promoted by Imran Khan in Pakistan just as it was supported by Erdogan in Turkey, depicts the bravery of Muslim Oghuz Turks fighting the Mongol, Christians and Byzantines, glorifies the Ottoman Empire and is seen as a key part of Turkeys soft power influence in the Muslim world.

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Boris Johnson today defended not suspending a senior Tory MP accused of rape, saying the party will 'wait for the police to decide'.

Speaking about the case for the first time, the PM insisted the situation was being taken 'extremely seriously'.

The former minister was arrested and bailed by police last week after allegations were made by an ex-Parliamentary researcher in her 20s. He denies the claims. Neither is being named for legal reasons.

The woman reportedly wants the ex-minister identified and suspended from the Tories, saying it would not put her own anonymity at risk.

Asked about the case during a visit to Warrington this afternoon, Mr Johnson told reporters: 'I think it's very, very important that we take all these cases extremely seriously and we will continue to do so.

'I think we've got to wait for the police to decide whether they want to make charges and take a decision on that basis.'

Speaking about the case for the first time on a visit to Warrington today, Boris Johnson insisted the situation was being taken 'extremely seriously'

The woman raised her allegations with Tory chief whip Mark Spencer in April but claims he did not take any action or encourage her to contact police.

It is understood Mr Spencer does not believe that a sexual assault was reported to him in their conversation, but acknowledges that she told him of abusive behaviour and threats while the pair were in a relationship. He suggested that she take her allegations to the appropriate authority.

Mr Spencer appeared to suggest earlier this week that taking action against the politician could undermine the woman's anonymity. He said the allegations - which are denied by the MP - were being taken 'seriously' but it was for the police to investigate.

However, according to the Telegraph, the alleged victim told friends that she wanted the man named.

'I didn't work for this MP and in any case I have lifelong anonymity so there is no risk of me being ''outed'' in the press.'

The alleged victim reportedly said senior ministers 'seem to care more about protecting the MP and the party than protecting victims and other women'.

The woman said: 'I feel like the chief whip has never taken my allegations seriously or even cared. Since the news of the arrest the chief whip  or anyone from the party  has not contacted me at all, not to...offer support or anything.'

Claire Waxman, the victims' commissioner for London, criticised the Prime Minister over the handling of the case earlier this week.

She tweeted: ''Women must have the confidence that crimes, domestic violence and sexual abuse, are treated seriously' said Boris Johnson last year.

'However, not suspending an MP accused of rape while investigations are ongoing conveys a different message.'

MPs have previously chosen to suspend themselves after being accused of wrongdoing.

The accuser raised her allegations with Conservative chief whip Mark Spencer (pictured this week) in April but claims he did not take any action or encourage her to contact police

Conservative Nigel Evans gave up the whip and the deputy speaker role in 2013 as he faced allegations of sexual assault.

He was later cleared and recently became deputy speaker again.

On Friday police received allegations relating to four incidents in London. They said a man was arrested on Saturday on suspicion of rape.

He has been bailed until mid-August. The MP is accused of coercing the woman into sex while they were in a relationship.
A dating app from Canadian comedian Norm Macdonald? It is not the punch line to a joke, but a real thing developed by the Quebec City-born comic and actor and entrepreneur Vivek Jain of Regina.

Called LOKO  an anagram for look  its a video-only app that lets users create profiles with videos instead of photos and set up virtual dates.

It has already been launched in other countries, including the U.S. and Germany, and is available in Canada on the App Store and Google Play. The app is free, but a subscription of $1.99 a week or $3.99 a month is required to connect and set dates.

LOKO eliminates the first date of sorts, so you dont have to go two hours into something when you know within minutes if the date is bad, Macdonald said in a statement.

With video, you cant pretend to be someone else. You already have a good idea of what youre in for.

Jain pitched LOKO on the CBC entrepreneur show Dragons Den last year.

Debra Yeo, The Canadian Press

Fear of media scrutiny led to Caroline Flacks suicide, coroner says

A British coroner ruled Thursday that reality TV host Caroline Flack killed herself while facing an assault trial she feared would end her career and bring unbearable media scrutiny.

Flack, the former host of the U.K. version of Love Island, was found dead at her London apartment in February, weeks before she was due to stand trial for allegedly assaulting her boyfriend.

North London Coroner Mary Hassell said in an inquest verdict that the 40-year-old Flack took her own life because of an exacerbation of fluctuating ill health and distress.

She knew she would face the media, press, publicity  it would all come down upon her, the coroner said.

Flacks family have accused police and prosecutors of singling her out because of her celebrity status when they charged her with assaulting boyfriend Lewis Burton as he slept in December 2019. Burton had said he did not want Flack to be prosecuted.

Flacks death renewed debate about the pressures placed on those in the public eye and the ethics of reality television.

The Associated Press

Domingo plans to clear his name from sexual abuse allegations

Placido Domingo is back in Europe to receive a lifetime achievement award after a bout with the coronavirus, vowing in an interview with a top Italian daily newspaper to clear his name from allegations of sexual misconduct.

The opera legends appearance Thursday to accept the award from the Austria Music Theater will be his first in public since recovering from the virus at his home in Acapulco, Mexico. Domingo, 79, told La Repubblica that his illness made him no longer afraid to speak out about the allegations that virtually ended his performance career in both the United States and his native Spain.

When I knew that I had COVID, I promised myself that if I came out alive, I would fight to clear my name, Domingo said. I never abused anyone. I will repeat that as long as I live.

In AP stories last year, multiple women accused Domingo of sexual harassment and abusing his power while he held management positions at LA Opera and Washington National Opera, with dozens of people saying his behaviour was an open secret in the opera world. Most of the women spoke on condition of anonymity.

The allegations split the industry, with U.S. opera houses cancelling Domingos engagements and Europe houses mostly sticking by him. He is about to embark on a busy fall European calendar, including performances in Caserta near Naples, the Verona Arena and Milans La Scala.

Investigations by the American Guild of Musical Artists and LA Opera found allegations of sexual misconduct against Domingo to be credible.

The Associated Press

Stokes twins charged over prank fake robbery

Twin brothers who have won millions of followers by posting prank videos on social media have been charged for faking bank robberies in Southern California and could go to prison if convicted, authorities said Wednesday.

Alan and Alex Stokes, 23, of Irvine were charged with false imprisonment effected by violence, menace, fraud or deceit, according to a statement from the Orange County district attorneys office.

They also were charged with a misdemeanour count of falsely reporting an emergency.

The twins, wearing black clothing and ski masks and carrying duffle bags full of cash, shot a video last October in which they pretended to have robbed a bank, prosecutors said.

They ordered an Uber and when they got in the vehicle the Uber driver, who was unaware of the prank, refused to drive them, according to the press statement. A bystander witnessed this, believing the two men had just robbed a bank and were attempting to carjack the Uber driver.

If convicted, the twins, who have nearly five million YouTube followers, could face up to four years each in prison.
The Salvation Army in Harrisburg hosted award-winning White House chef Andre Rush on Thursday, Aug. 6.

Rush was the special guest speaker at the new locations open house and grand opening celebration. On Thursday, he offered some heath tips for good eating and nutrition.

As a youth myself, I didnt have a lot of opportunities, Rush said. So when I built my own platform, I said Im going to give back 100%. So thats what Im doing. Its important for [the kids] to start now.

Rush is a retired Master Sergeant, combat veteran and was a freelance chef on the White House staff in 1997.

The new Salvation Army is located at 509 South 29th St. in Harrisburg.

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With rains in several parts of Karnataka amid Covid-19 pandemic, state Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar on Thursday asked the people to maintain caution and contact the Health department helpline in case of any symptoms.

"There is heavy rain in several districts of the state's coastal, Malnad and north interior regions. People have to observe utmost caution during these rains amid corona infections. In case of any symptoms like fever, cough and cold immediately call the health department helpline 104," Sudhakar tweeted.

For latest updates and live news on coronavirus, click here

As of August 5 evening, cumulatively 1,51,449 Covid-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state, which includes 2,804 deaths and 74,679 discharges.

Among the districts where the new cases were reported, Bengaluru urban tops the list accounting for 64,881 cases.

Regarding Bengaluru, Sudhakar said, there are 4,276 beds across 11 Covid care centres in Bengaluru.

READ: Advancing monsoon brings widespread rain in south Karnataka

"As of today morning, 936 of them i.e., 27.79 percent are vacant. Out of the 3,346 patients, 306 patients are due for discharge today," he said in another tweet.

Aimed at availing beds at Covid-19 hospitals for symptomatic patients and those in need, the government had decided to shift all asymptomatic patients to Covid care centres.
The deal, which was first made public on Tuesday August 4, sees SS Steel take 99% of the shares in Saleh Steel Industries Ltd. SS Steel has pledged to invest a further 1.34 billion taka toward the "smooth running" of the Saleh plant.Saleh Steel has a steelmaking capacity of 84,000 tonnes per year from an induction furnace in Chattogram province. The unit is located under 10 kilometers away from production facilities belonging to BSRM and Abul Khair, which are the countrys two largest steelmakers.On completing the deal, SS Steel will raise its overall steelmaking capacity to 192,000 tpy. SS Steel previously had a capacity of 108,000 tpy as of 2019, according to Bangladeshi stock broker UCB Capital.SS Steel has a production facility and head office within the administrative division of Dhaka, which also holds the countrys bustling capital city.Like most Bangladeshi steelmakers, the company produces steel billet from an induction furnace which consumes scrap and sponge iron. It then rolls the billet using a bar mill made in Italy, the firms website said.Some market participants expect further mergers and consolidation within Bangladeshs steel industry while its markets continue to mature over the coming years.Induction furnace mills in Dhaka have endured a difficult time in recent months , with the Covid-19 lockdown in India and subsequent measures in Bangladesh making the procurement of sponge iron - which is supplied by producers in India - very challenging.Steel demand in Bangladesh is also being squeezed by the countrys Covid-19 crisis, and some steelmakers have resorted to slashing domestic billet prices in recent weeks to achieve sales and generate cash.Bangladesh has a steelmaking capacity of around 9 million tonnes, but most of this capability is concentrated in the hands of the countrys four largest producers.To find out more about the development of the Bangladesh import market for steel scrap, download Fastmarkets new whitepaper which explores the topic in more depth.
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Despite repeated requests from Pakistan to hold a foreign ministers' meeting on Kashmir, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation has shown reluctance to convene such a conference, prompting an upset Islamabad to threaten that it may call a separate gathering on the issue.

Pakistan has been pushing the 57-member organisation, which is the second largest intergovernmental body after the UN, for the foreign ministers' meeting since India revoked the special status of the Jammu and Kashmir in last August.

However, there has not been any positive response from the OIC, the biggest bloc of Islamic countries in the world, to Pakistan's request so far.

"I am once again respectfully telling OIC that a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers is our expectation," Qureshi said during a talk show on ARY News on Wednesday.

"If you cannot convene it, then I'll be compelled to ask Prime Minister Imran Khan to call a meeting of the Islamic countries that are ready to stand with us on the issue of Kashmir..," he threatened.

A major reason behind the OIC's inaction has been Saudi Arabia's reluctance to accept Pakistan's request for one specifically on Kashmir. Riyadh's support is crucial for any move at the OIC, which is dominated by Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries.

During a virtual meeting of the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir held "on the request of Pakistan" on June 22 also, Qureshi had urged the grouping to "step up its efforts" to resolve the Kashmir issue.
(Natural News) In the latest escalation of state-sponsored covid-19 terrorism against innocent citizens, Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti is now threatening to shut off the water and electricity to private homes and businesses that dont comply with his increasingly draconian lockdown rules.

This threat is, of course, a form of state-sponsored terrorism against citizens. Cutting off electricity from a private home in the middle of a Southern California heat wave is the equivalent of condemning the targeted family to death via heat exhaustion. Cutting off electricity also causes refrigerators and freezers to fail, destroying the home food supply of that same family. Lack of air conditioning also results in the near-instant growth of black mold, an indoor chemical contaminant that leads to severe fatigue and even death. This destroys the value of the home and makes it nearly impossible to sell.

With this threat to shut off electricity and water, the City of Los Angeles is essentially engaged in acts of war against its own citizens over covid-19 lockdown rules. Those who refuse to comply with the draconian demands of an obviously insane mayor will be placed on an enemies list and have city services shut off.

Beginning Friday night, if Los Angeles Police Department officers respond to and verify that a large party is occurring at a property, and theres evidence that the venue has repeatedly engaged in such behavior, the department will request that the city shut off water and power services within 48 hours, reports the LA Times.

No due process, no rule of law, no recourse, no appeal just full-blown government tyranny

The problem with this aggressive action is that it is being conducted outside any due process. No court hearing, no right to any defense, no right to appeal. Its simply the government acting like tyrannical militants who are declaring war on the private homes and businesses they dont like. Yet how many times have LA police conducted no-knock raids on the wrong homes?

Bureaucrats are stupid and corrupt. They get home addresses wrong all the time. What happens when they cut off the water and power to the wrong private home or business? Because this is taking place completely outside the rule of law, theres no recourse for those who are innocently harmed.

And who decides what constitutes a large gathering in the first place? In the minds of twisted, irrational Leftists, a 3-person gang shooting is counted as a mass shooting. Does that mean a gathering of just 3 people will be condemned as a large party? Its quite clear that the LA mayor is simply going to make this up as he goes along, which means private homes owned by Republicans or Trump supporters might be magically condemned as hosting large gatherings even when they arent. Just as the First Amendment is has now been stripped away from conservatives, in Los Angeles, the right to have access to electricity and water may soon be limited only to those who support Democrats.

We are watching this nation plunge into medical fascism and even state-sponsored terrorism, mostly at the hands of Democrat mayors and governors who seem to be relishing their newfound powers to punish all those who dont comply with each days new covid insanity.

Whats next? Forced demolition of private homes that dont comply?

Before long, Los Angeles will probably start ordering the demolition of private homes and businesses that refuse to comply.

Oh wait, thats already the case in the UK, where local councils have just been granted the power to seize and demolish private buildings that are deemed to be contaminated. As Breitbart.com now reports:

The Department of Health and Social Cares COVID-19 Contain Framework laid out a series of laws, including the Coronavirus Act 2020 to impose restrictions or requirements to close contaminated premises; close public spaces in the area of the local authority; detain a conveyance or movable structure; disinfect or decontaminate premises; or order that a building, conveyance or structure be destroyed.

So now governments can cut off your electricity, shut off your water and even demolish your private home if you dont comply.

And the lockdowns are only getting more insane by the day, too, completely without any real effort to solve the pandemic by recommending nutrition and hydroxychloroquine as preventive measures.

We have now arrived at the point where the left-wing government is your true enemy, and they will kidnap you under quarantine laws, forcibly vaccinate you with an untested, experimental vaccine or even demolish your private home without warning all because you refused to comply with their totalitarian power grabs that only seek to destroy human civilization and kill as many people as possible.

We are now truly ruled by insane, demented, criminal tyrants. They must be stopped. Its time to #CancelDemocrats  but why stop there? Frankly, its time to end big government and reclaim our right to self-rule. If we dont, government tyranny will kill far more people than covid-19, and we will end up living as homeless, destitute street rats in the post-apocalyptic world of a global economic collapse.

This is what they are deliberately working to achieve. If they succeed, we will be ruled by morons while we suffer and die.

Download my Global Reset Survival Guide nine-hour audio book for free, and learn how to survive the engineered collapse

All this explains why Ive recorded and released a nine-hour audio book called the Global Reset Survival Guide. Were releasing it today and its FREE to download. Its nine hours of audio (MP3 files) plus a 190+ page reference PDF document thats printable.

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NOTE: The subscribe now download form on that page is getting heavy traffic so it takes up to 20 seconds to submit be patient with it.

This critical guide reveals everything you need to know for:

 Financial survival and asset protection during the collapse

 Self-defense survival against the violent mobs

 How to survive the engineered mass famine / food supply collapse

 How to get out of the cities and suburbs and relocate to an area thats survivable

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Now you know that Democrat-run government is truly your enemy, and if you dont prepare to defend yourself, the government will kill you, destroy your property, confiscate your assets and probably lock you away in a FEMA death camp.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, August 6, 2020 14:01 530 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c05fbf 1 Entertainment One-Direction,music,Britain,anniversary,YouTube Free

The 10th anniversary of British boy band One Direction has caused an explosion of interest on its YouTube channel.

Even though the band has been on hiatus since 2015, One Direction saw a 468 percent increase in subscribers on its YouTube Music channel on July 23, the date of its anniversary, reported variety.com.

One Direction premiered the 10 Years of One Direction on its official YouTube channel on the same date. The retrospective, a video clocking in at just under 5 minutes and the first video uploaded to the channel since 2016, has garnered more than 15 million views since its premiere.

In addition to the 10-year anniversary special, the band also uploaded 4K music videos of their hits, including What Makes You Beautiful, Steal My Girl and History.

Read also: One Direction surprises fans with social media comeback on 10th anniversary

The group was formed by judge Simon Cowell in 2010 during the seventh edition of The X Factor UK, to finish third and sign up with Cowells record label, Syco Records.

Since it was formed, One Direction became established as one of the most impactful and profitable musical groups of the 2010s.

Over a span of five years until the band broke up, One Direction released five albums, topped the major charts and toured sold-out concerts around the world.

In March 2015, member Zayn Malik became the first to leave the group, citing his reason as wanting "to live a normal life". Then the band announced a hiatus in 2016, which allowed the remaining members  Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson  to pursue solo projects.

By 2020, One Direction had sold 70 million records worldwide. (gis/wng)
Some 24,000 health workers in South Africa have contracted coronavirus, 181 of whom have died, since the pandemic hit the country in March, the health minister announced on Wednesday. South Africa is the hardest-hit country in Africa with at least 521,318 infections diagnosed so far, accounting for more than half the continent's cases. Health Minister Zweli Mkwize told a news conference that the numbers of health workers who tested positive for coronavirus stood at 24,104 with 181 deaths. The tally translates to around five percent of the country's total caseload, compared to the global rate of some 10 percent, he said. Unions have since the start of the pandemic been raising concerns about safety in hospitals as well as the availability, quality and size of protective gear. The minister warned he would act against hospital administrators who failed to ensure workplace safety. South Africa's overall caseload has risen rapidly in recent weeks, although the daily increase has recently begun to slow. Mkhize cautioned it was too early to draw conclusions about this. "We are not out of the woods yet, but so far we have fought a good fight," he said. "We havenat got to the stage where we donat have hospital space for patients." Health authorities have been expecting a surge in infections after the easing of a strict lockdown imposed on March 27. Mkize suggested the country "might be over the surge by the end of August" but warned that the risk of a second wave remained and containment measures should not be abandoned. South Africa sits in the top five globally in terms of the number of infections.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 23:43:02|Editor: huaxia

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URUMQI, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Surrounded by cheering medical staff, four patients who have recovered from the novel coronavirus left a hospital in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region days ago, with special hand-painted certificates in their hands.

On each of the certificates, medical workers painted a watercolor scene complete with warm words -- Dear friend, you have overcome both mental and physical suffering over the past several days. Today, we are glad that you can leave the hospital.

"You cannot say a COVID-19 patient fully recovered from the virus if he or she still suffers psychological problems. They need more support even after being discharged," said Niu Ling, deputy director of the respiratory and critical care medical center at the region's people's hospital, who has been dispatched to the designated hospital to receive COVID-19 cases in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang.

In April, Niu traveled to Kyrgyzstan with a Chinese medical team to aid the fight against the pandemic. In mid-July, when new COVID-19 cases were reported in the region, Niu was once again assigned to the designated hospital to treat COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms.

Over 1,900 medical workers from across the region have been sent to the designated hospital to help treat COVID-19 cases.

"Giving patients hand-painted certificates is a way to encourage them, and we hope that they can get back to normal life as soon as possible," explained Niu, adding that the idea came from some young colleagues.

"They made the certificates during their break time, writing down blessings and rehabilitation tips on the certificates. Although the frontline medics face intensive work around the clock, they remain optimistic and inspire patients," Niu added.

"It's a unique keepsake for me. It reminds me of how frontline staff devoted themselves to catering to my every need. I really appreciate them," said Wang Yulan, a patient.

"For most patients, maintaining a positive attitude can help facilitate recovery. What we need to do is to give them enough care, while the certificate is part of these efforts," Niu said.

Wang Yan, a nurse, chatted with an elderly patient before bidding farewell to her several days ago.

"It gave me a sense of achievement offering psychological care for the patient. Seeing her get better day by day, it makes everything worthwhile," said the nurse.

Thanks in part to the meticulous care offered by medical staff, Xinjiang is winning the fight against COVID-19. By Wednesday, 60 patients had been discharged from the hospital.

"We are pleased to see that more and more hand-painted certificates will be issued to cured patients," Niu said. Enditem
In June, the photographer Shakira Rochelle started taking photographs of Black Lives Matter protesters in her hometown Cincinnati. She shared the images and other supportive B.L.M. content on her personal Instagram account. Shortly, thereafter she received a text from a couple who had hired her to photograph their wedding.

In a screenshot of the text that has since gone viral, the couple said they wanted to cancel their contract because they didnt feel Ms. Rochelle was a fit if she supported the Black Lives Matter movement.

Mr. Rochelle isnt the only wedding professional who has seen fallout from voicing opinions in tweets and posts online. The New York-based photographer Clane Gessel also lost a client when he posted an Instagram story while at a Black Lives Matter protest. First the clients unfollowed his social media account. Then they called to say that they didnt feel comfortable with Mr. Gessel at the wedding and didnt want their wedding photos next to posts that dont support the guests views.

Mr. Gessel wasnt bothered by the cancellation. Silence is the enemy here, and the only reason we see change is when people speak and act out, he said. We should speak up regardless of the monetary penalties involved to do whats right.
Following yesterdays news that a number of kit vendors may not be taking new orders for 4G equipment from Vodafone Idea due to concerns about recovering payments comes news that Nokia may pull out of its relationship with BSNL.

Nokia is one of the biggest suppliers for Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limiteds mobile networks, which connect over 120 million people across India with voice and data services.

According to Indian news reports, Nokia says it is owed about $120 million for base stations, software and other network infrastructure components by BSNL and wants the outstanding payment  plus interest  cleared immediately.

As Nokia is responsible for around 40 per cent of BSNLs network equipment, this threat  if serious  could have major consequences. Ongoing maintenance of installed BSNL equipment would be hit. It could also mean Nokia has to make job cuts among employees working on the BSNL account.

BSNL has apparently offered more than one commitment to payment, only to default. Non-payment is only part of the story, however. Nokia notes that its finances have been affected by the ongoing pandemic  but, that, presumably, makes it even more imperative that the company gets paid.

As a market player BSNL has a strong presence in fixed-line services but is a distant fourth among mobile operators. In addition BSNL is not new to non-payment problems. Late last year vendors that had sold goods or services to BSNL and MTNL were said to be considering insolvency pleas against the state-run operators after non-payment of dues.

Before this, in October 2019, the Indian government announced a revival package for BSNL and MTNL which included monetising assets, raising funds, a voluntary retirement scheme for employees and, finally, a merger of the two companies. Judging from Nokias complaints, BSNL may still be some way from being on a sound financial footing.
Barrels of ink have been spilled covering the geopolitical conflicts in the South China Sea over the past few years, with plenty of speculation over whether these diplomatic tensions could explode into genuine warfare as China pushes further and further into the territory. The disputed area includes both islands and maritime areas that are the subject of contentious claims on the part of Brunei, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. The main source of these tensions has arisen from Chinas continued military presence in foreign waters and dubious claims to land and sea that belong to other sovereign nations. The reason? The usual: oil. Just last month, though overshadowed by the pandemics endless news cycle, the South China Sea burst back into headlines as the geopolitical tensions in the region heated up, in no small part thanks to U.S. involvement. An article by Asia Times, entitled Oil and gas fueling South China Sea tensions reports that Vietnams crucial offshore energy industry is being squeezed as US-China tensions rise in the South China Sea.

Source: CSIS

Not to be left out of any geopolitical skirmish worth its salt, Russia is also involved in the most recent conflict. According to Asia Times, China is pressing for the termination of a Vietnamese offshore development with Rosneft Vietnam, a joint Russia-Vietnam venture that recently canceled its contract for London-based Noble Corps semi-submersible exploration rig.

But while these oversteps and complex international tensions, which have only become exacerbated by the economic crisis spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, have led to much speculation about an impending oil war, a foreign policy op-ed published by Lawfare this week says that these concerns are overblown.

Related: Venezuelas Rig Count Officially Falls To Zero



While the confrontations spurred by Chinas repeated interference with Vietnamese and Malaysian oil and natural gas exploration in the South China Sea have prompted concerns that they could provoke a larger military conflict, especially as China exploits the unsteadiness created by the coronavirus to become more aggressive in its various international territorial disputes, columnist Emily Meierding says that its highly unlikely that this will come to pass.

Happily, Meierding writes, the historical record indicates that China and its neighbors are unlikely to escalate their energy sparring. Contrary to the overheated rhetoric, countries do not actually take the oil, to use President Trumps controversial and inaccurate phrase. Instead, my recent research demonstrates that countries avoid fighting for oil resources.

And that historical record referenced by Meierding is as robust as it is lengthy. Not just in China, but around the world, resource-rich territories have been breeding grounds for geopolitical tensions virtually as long as there have been civilizations, a phenomenon which went on to explode along with the industrial revolution. Between 1912 and 2010, countries fought 180 times over territories that containedor were believed to containoil or natural gas resources, Meierding writes, citing specific clashes and so-called oil wars from World War II to the Falklands War. However, a closer look at these conflicts reveals that none merits the classic oil war label. Although countries did fight over oil-endowed territories, they usually fought for other reasons, including aspirations to regional hegemony, domestic politics, national pride, or the contested territories other strategic, economic, or symbolic assets. Oil was an uncommon trigger for international confrontations and never caused major conflicts.

Oil, in other words, is undoubtedly a factor in these conflicts, but rarely, if ever, the factor. Why? In fact, classic oil wars are extraordinarily costly, the op-ed argues. A country that aims to seize foreign oil faces, first, the costs of invading another country. International aggression is destructive and expensive under the best of circumstances. It may also damage the oil infrastructure that a conqueror hopes to acquire. Next, if a conqueror plans to exploit oil resources over the long term, it faces the costs of occupying seized territory. As the United States has learned from its endless wars, foreign occupation is extremely challenging, even for the worlds most powerful country.

If this argument holds water, and if China has learned anything from this long historical record, or has any vested interest in self-preservation during this particularly vulnerable chapter in world history, the conflict in the South China Sea will remain just that--a series of skirmishes and tensions--and will not fester into the all-out war that looms in the headlines.

By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Regular readers will know that we love our dividends at Simply Wall St, which is why it's exciting to see M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:MDC) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next four days. Investors can purchase shares before the 11th of August in order to be eligible for this dividend, which will be paid on the 26th of August.

M.D.C. Holdings's next dividend payment will be US$0.33 per share, and in the last 12 months, the company paid a total of US$1.32 per share. Based on the last year's worth of payments, M.D.C. Holdings stock has a trailing yield of around 2.9% on the current share price of $44.76. Dividends are a major contributor to investment returns for long term holders, but only if the dividend continues to be paid. That's why we should always check whether the dividend payments appear sustainable, and if the company is growing.

View our latest analysis for M.D.C. Holdings

Dividends are typically paid out of company income, so if a company pays out more than it earned, its dividend is usually at a higher risk of being cut. Fortunately M.D.C. Holdings's payout ratio is modest, at just 31% of profit. Yet cash flow is typically more important than profit for assessing dividend sustainability, so we should always check if the company generated enough cash to afford its dividend. Over the last year, it paid out dividends equivalent to 232% of what it generated in free cash flow, a disturbingly high percentage. Unless there were something in the business we're not grasping, this could signal a risk that the dividend may have to be cut in the future.

M.D.C. Holdings paid out less in dividends than it reported in profits, but unfortunately it didn't generate enough cash to cover the dividend. Cash is king, as they say, and were M.D.C. Holdings to repeatedly pay dividends that aren't well covered by cashflow, we would consider this a warning sign.

Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.

Story continues

Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?

Stocks in companies that generate sustainable earnings growth often make the best dividend prospects, as it is easier to lift the dividend when earnings are rising. Investors love dividends, so if earnings fall and the dividend is reduced, expect a stock to be sold off heavily at the same time. That's why it's comforting to see M.D.C. Holdings's earnings have been skyrocketing, up 32% per annum for the past five years. Earnings have been growing quickly, but we're concerned dividend payments consumed most of the company's cash flow over the past year.

Another key way to measure a company's dividend prospects is by measuring its historical rate of dividend growth. M.D.C. Holdings has delivered 4.9% dividend growth per year on average over the past 10 years. It's good to see both earnings and the dividend have improved - although the former has been rising much quicker than the latter, possibly due to the company reinvesting more of its profits in growth.

To Sum It Up

Is M.D.C. Holdings worth buying for its dividend? We're glad to see the company has been improving its earnings per share while also paying out a low percentage of income. However, it's not great to see it paying out what we see as an uncomfortably high percentage of its cash flow. Overall we're not hugely bearish on the stock, but there are likely better dividend investments out there.

So while M.D.C. Holdings looks good from a dividend perspective, it's always worthwhile being up to date with the risks involved in this stock. Our analysis shows 4 warning signs for M.D.C. Holdings that we strongly recommend you have a look at before investing in the company.

A common investment mistake is buying the first interesting stock you see. Here you can find a list of promising dividend stocks with a greater than 2% yield and an upcoming dividend.

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.
Prasanta Mazumdar By

Express News Service

GUWAHATI: An indefinite curfew was clamped in parts of Assams Sonitpur district following an incident of communal violence on Wednesday night.

The violence broke out during a bike rally taken out to celebrate the foundation stone-laying ceremony of Rama temple at Ayodhya.

The mobs torched each others two-wheelers and targeted the vehicle of District Magistrate Manvendra Pratap Singh by pelting stones at it when the IAS officer was trying to placate them. The police restored normalcy by using batons and firing in the air.

Official sources said additional forces had been deployed to the trouble-torn areas falling under Thelamara and Dhekiajuli police stations where curfew was clamped.

The DM said five-six people were injured in the incident while two people arrested. Narrating the incident, he said 50 odd bikers had gone to a temple in an area where people belonging to one community is in a large majority.

I was told there was a scuffle between the bikers and locals. One reason could be that the bikers were playing music loudly. During the violence, vehicles belonging to both sides were torched, Singh said.

He said the mobs pelted stones at his vehicle and the escort vehicles. During the unrest, the police rescued some people held captive. The DM said the bikers had not obtained permission for the rally. He said the situation was under control.

Meanwhile, the North-East Minorities Students Union condemned the incident. It wondered as to how the members of Bajrang Dal, Rama Sena, and other groups could take out the rally when various restrictions had been put in place due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The students body demanded a high-level probe into the incident and action as per the law against the guilty.
At a cavernous factory in the Chinese city of Xuzhou, 100 new workers have just been hired to produce giant construction cranes. Nearby, at another sprawling factory, employees toil until midnight to assemble drilling and tunnelling machines. A few blocks away, their colleagues at a factory that makes dump trucks have received enough orders to keep them busy well into next year.

These factories, and half a dozen more in the city, are all owned by Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group, a state-owned industrial behemoth that manufactures the outsize machines behind China's latest construction boom.

China is using a familiar strategy to get its economy back on track. Credit:Bloomberg

The company, China's largest producer of construction equipment, is at the centre of Beijing's strategy to revive the country's economy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic by doubling down on a tested strategy: investing in infrastructure projects at home.

China appears to have mostly eradicated the coronavirus within its borders. But outbreaks overseas have caused economic downturns elsewhere that have hurt foreign demand for Chinese exports, including the trucks and machines made in Xuzhou.
The United Arab Emirates says issuance of visas to Nigerian was suspended temporarily because of the COVID-19 pandemic as against speculations of severed bilateral relations between the two countries.

Earlier this week, a graphic from Flyworld travel and tour surfaced on social media, indicating that visa renewal for Nigerians in UAE, approval for permanent residents returning and tourist visas had been stopped.

All Previously Issued Visa Invalid. All Visas for those presently in Dubai Expires Next week, the travel agency added.

Social media users, in their reactions, linked the restrictions to the cases involving multi-million-dollar fraudsters, Ramon Abbas and Olalekan Ponle, the two Nigerians who were nabbed in Dubai in June.

Popularly addressed as Hushpuppi and Woodberry respectively, the duo had been extradited to the U.S. and are facing charges bordering wire fraud.

However, in response to the recent social media reports, the UAE embassy in Nigeria said the restriction was in line with the COVID-19 protocols.

In an affirmation of the growing bilateral relations between the two friendly countries, the UAE Embassy in Abuja denies the accuracy of the information contained in these reports, the statement shared via its verified Twitter handle read.

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the UAE took a number of precautionary measures to combat the virus spread, including the temporary suspension on issuing UAE visas for all nationalities as of March 17, 2020.

After entering the recovery phase of the pandemic, the UAE eased some measures on July 7, permitting visitors from various countries to adhere to the necessary precautionary measures, including by showing negative PCR test results within 92 hours of travelling to the UAE. This includes those visiting from Nigeria.

The embassy noted that the travel between the UAE and Nigeria has remained limited due to the closure of Nigerian airspace.

 the UAE Embassy in Abuja continues to work closely with the Nigerian Government to obtain the necessary approvals to facilitate travel between the two countries, it stated.
Nepal Communist Party's executive chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' on Thursday held talks with former Speaker Subhash Nembang, a close ally of Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli, to resolve the intra-party rift.

As Thursday's proposed one-on-one meeting between Oli and Prachanda could not take place, Nembang met the executive chairman on behalf of the Prime Minister, a party source said. "The meeting was held in a positive manner," Nembang told reporters, without sharing details.

He said it is the responsibility of "all of us to create understanding between the two top leaders to save the party from splitting". Prachanda's office said that Nembang visited him to represent Oli in order to create a positive environment to sort out their differences.

Oli and Prachanda have held at least ten 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.

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.

The two leaders are also engaged in tightening their grip within the party with the escalation of intra-party feud. On July 28, Prime Minister Oli postponed the crucial Standing Committee meeting for the ninth time.

While Oli wants to call the Secretariat meeting to resolve the differences, Prachanda says it would be inappropriate to call the Secretariat meeting as the Standing Committee meeting that was put off on July 28 is yet to be over. Prime Minister Oli wants the Secretariat meeting to resolve the key issues of intra-party dispute as he now commands a majority in the nine-member body after Vice Chairman Gautam stood in his favour.

Prachanda, who is backed by senior party leader and former prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, believes that the Standing Committee could take decisions favourable to him as their faction commands a comfortable majority, according to reports.
Portland Wall of Moms founder Bev Barnum spoke with The Oregonian/OregonLive on Tuesday after a tumultuous week in which her intentions were questioned and she was removed from the group she launched weeks earlier.

Barnum and the Wall of Moms leaders cut ties over the weekend. All former group leaders and administrators of the groups social media pages also stepped down. Legal documents and account information have all been turned over to the new leaders, according to a post on the Wall of Moms Facebook page.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A 30-year-old Grand Rapids man is expected to be arraigned Thursday for the deaths of two people found shot in a vehicle in early June.

The man is already in custody on a perjury charge.

Jaionna Braden, 20, and Quavon Lee, 23, were found dead in a vehicle just before midnight June 7 in the 800 block of Bemis Street SE.

Grand Rapids police announced the charges Wednesday, Aug. 5.

The 30-year-old is expected in court Thursday for a probable cause hearing on the perjury charge and is likely to be arraigned on the murder charges at that time.

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Politicians and teachers are calling on the Ontario government to revisit its back-to-school plan as the premier continued to assert the strategy to reopen classrooms does enough to keep students and staff safe from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 5/8/2020 (531 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A health-care worker prepares a swab at a temporary COVID-19 test clinic in Montreal, on Friday, May 15, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

Politicians and teachers are calling on the Ontario government to revisit its back-to-school plan as the premier continued to assert the strategy to reopen classrooms does enough to keep students and staff safe from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Doug Ford stood firm in the face of mounting criticism about the provincial plan, which does not impose maximum class sizes on elementary school students. Opponents describe the strategy as underfunded and unsafe, noting aspects of it are at odds with the scientific advice Ford insists his government is following.

As the premier continued to tout the plan's safety measures, critics called for the province to go back to the drawing board.

"I'm asking Mr. Ford to listen to the parents who are worried," Opposition NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said Wednesday in a statement.

"Listen to the experts that say small class sizes are necessary to keep our kids safe. Time is running out, but it's not too late. We need smaller, safer classes in September."

While the Progressive Conservative government has garnered some praise for aspects of its plan for returning to school next month, the issue of elementary school class sizes has proven contentious since it was announced last week.

The plan will see students in kindergarten through Grade 8 return to school without any reduction in class sizes, though students will spend the day in a single cohort to limit contact with other children.

Most high schoolers will also be in class full-time, though students at two dozen boards across the province will take half their courses online in a bid to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Masks will be mandatory for those in Grade 4 and up, while those in Grade 3 and below will be encouraged  though not required  to wear them.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford makes an announcement with Vic Fedeli, Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade at Clean Works Corp. in Beamsville, Ont., on Tuesday, August 4, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tara Walton

Both federal public health officials and a panel of experts from leading Ontario pediatric hospitals have said physical distancing is a necessary component of any back-to-school plan.

Ford, however, cited pre-pandemic class-size caps as evidence the province was heeding expert advice.

Ford said kindergarten class sizes are capped at 30 students staffed by one teacher and one early childhood educator, arguing such a setup would allow each education worker to oversee a cohort of 15 children. He said extra funds are available for boards requiring extra support, citing $309 million in new education spending announced when the back-to-school plan was unveiled last week.

"If it was up to all of us, we'd have five kids in a classroom," he said at his daily news briefing Wednesday.

"But in saying that, we have the lowest amount of kids in (junior kindergarten) in the country. We have the lowest kids from Grade 1 to 3 in the country ... So we're doing pretty good, let's give this a shot at least."

Ford repeatedly said the strategy was founded on guidance from experts at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children and other institutions. The guidance document issued by the hospital last week, however, described smaller class sizes as a "priority strategy" for maintaining physical distancing measures crucial in curbing the spread of COVID-19.

The panel deviated from widespread public health advice slightly by saying a distance of one metre instead of two might be enough among elementary-school students, though two metres is still ideal among older kids. The panel also called for widespread mask use, a measure the government has adopted.

Sick Kids, Cheo and five other pediatric health-care facilities issued a joint statement on Wednesday stating physical distancing and class sizes are among many measures that need to be in place for a safe return to class.

"Our guidance statements stress the critical importance of an appropriate bundle of health and safety measures  with emphasis on hand hygiene, cleaning, physical distancing, class sizes, cohorting, masking for older students when distancing is not possible, and improved ventilation in classrooms," the statement said.

"Only a combined approach to all safety measures will maximize the mitigation of risk."

Education Minister Stephen Lecce backed Ford's support for the strategy, saying it was informed by the best medical and scientific minds in the country.

"We have been clear, we will never waver in our commitment to protecting the health and safety of Ontario's students and education staff," Lecce said in a statement. "That is why we are spending at record levels and taking all the necessary steps to ensure a safe return to schools in September."

Those assertions fell short for Ontario Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner, who urged the government to give scientists an even more active role in shaping the province's return to class.

"Advisors from SickKids hospital clearly recommended that smaller class sizes should be a priority strategy, yet the premier has ignored this recommendation," Schreiner said. "It's time for the premier to cut class sizes instead of corners and make sure schools are safe for our children."

Sam Hammond, president of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario, also called on the government to substantially revise its back-to-school proposal.

"Boards need funding to reduce class sizes and only Ford can provide that funding," he said.

The ongoing tussle over education came as Ontario reported 86 new cases of COVID-19. Wednesday's numbers marked the third day in a row, and fifth time in a week, that the provincial case figures fell under 100. There were also 146 newly resolved cases and no new deaths.

Ontario now has 35,747 resolved cases out of 39,714 in total. The death toll stands at 2,782.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 5, 2020.
Chinese, Russian Banks Refuse Transactions With Iran

Radio Farda August 05, 2020

A member of Iran's Chamber of Commerce has said that China's Kunlun Bank is refusing to deal with Iran, as warnings from the international watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) regarding banking ties with the Islamic Republic have become tougher this year.

Ali Shariati told local news website ILNA August 5 that for Iran the toughest challenge is in importing basic goods from China and occasionally Russia. "China is reverting to excuses regarding [sanctions on] shipping and money transfers," Shariati said.

New pressures on Iran's trade relations come from the fact that FATF finally put Iran back on its black list earlier this year after Tehran failed to fully comply with its demands to put legislative safeguards against money laundering and financing of terrorism.

Shariati told ILNA that FATF's new restrictions "have definitely created new problems even with neighboring and regional countries".

The Paris-based FATF is a financial watchdog monitoring the legal performance of banks and governments in the world and if it detects problems with transparency or signs of money laundering it issues warnings that can put banks and countries in a difficult situation.

Iran's presidential administration tried since 2017 to have new legislation passed to satisfy FATF's concerns but hardliners allied with the country's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei prevented the full passage of four bills.

Shariari has reiterated that Iran currently has no banking relations with China and Russia, its two diplomatic allies. Recently, Tehran has been advertising a proposed 25-year economic deal with Beijing, but so far there has been no public response from the Asian economic powerhouse.

Source: https://en.radiofarda.com/a/chinese -russian-banks-refuse-transactions -with-iran/30767647.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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WAKHAN, Afghanistan -- The picturesque northeastern province of Badakhshan in Afghanistan has long been a sightseeing destination for Afghans and foreigners alike.

Every year hundreds of tourists, particularly foreign backpackers, have flocked to a remote, peaceful region to experience the landscape of the high-peaked Pamir Mountains, rivers, and natural springs that comprises the Wakhan Corridor within Badakhshan. For many globetrotters, experiencing Wakhan, a narrow strip of territory connecting Afghanistan to northwestern China while separating Tajikistan from Pakistan's Gilgit-Baltistan region, is a bucket-list opportunity.

But the rampant spread of the coronavirus pandemic in addition to closed borders for travel has made it much more challenging for foreigners to access the remote corridors of the province.

Hundreds of foreign tourists from various countries around the world would come and visit the different districts of Badakhshan, and many of them would often stay at my guesthouse, where I would provide them with everything they need, Qubaduddin, a local travel host, told Radio Free Afghanistan.

Qubaduddin has been guiding and arranging travel for foreign tourists in his hometown of Wakhan for six years, but he says fewer foreigners are coming now because of the pandemic.

Normally, I arrange transportation and accommodation for guests. I have two cars, one guesthouse, and four horses. Guests could rent my cars to drive throughout the villages. In areas where traveling by car is difficult, they would resort to using horses, and in return I would receive a large sum of money for the services I provided. On a yearly basis, I made around $10,000 from all of these services, and it helped me out a lot, he added.

Last year, Qubaduddin hosted 35 foreign tourists. This year, he hosted zero.

This year, like other years, I prepared myself for foreign visitors, but because of the coronavirus not one foreigner came to visit Wakhan, and specifically my guesthouse. This is worrisome for me and my eight workers, as we are all struggling financially, he said.

Sediqi Larzad heads the tourism department in Badakhshans directorate of information and culture ministry. He tells Radio Free Afghanistan that a combination of three issues has weakened tourism in the province: the pandemic, closed borders, and unsafe routes between Kabul and Badakhshan, resulting in no foreign tourists in the past six months.

Despite Afghanistan as a country not being the typical global tourist hotspot due to mounting insecurity, the province of Badakhshan was always one of the exceptions to this rule. Badakhshan specifically has long had a reliable number of internal and external visitors year-round.

The fact that the more than four decades of war have hardly touched Wakhan made it a major attraction for Western adventure seekers looking for experiencing the lives of some of the most remote communities on the globe.

Last year, Badakhshan hosted 475 foreign visitors and more than 45,000 Afghan visitors, according to local officials.

We had the biggest influx of foreign visitors and tourists last year. Unfortunately, we expected the number of tourists to increase this year, but due to the coronavirus, we could not receive even one foreign tourist, Larzad said.

Badakhshan is trying hard to attract more Afghan tourists in order to make up for lost revenue from foreigners. But the economy has already faced a downward spiral and the current situation has rendered travel to the remote region nearly impossible.

Naqibullah Saqidyar, provincial director of the Afghan information and culture ministry, says the lack of foreign tourists has significantly affected the economy of the province, especially for those involved in the tourism and hospitality industry.

Tourist centers are all closed, leaving a large gap in the economy for the locals. Twelve companies offered transportation and accommodation for foreigners, and two of those companies canceled their licenses [because of no business], he said.

As part of its appeal, Badakhshan is home to one of the largest national parks in the country. A host of wildlife inhabits the area including snow leopards, Afghanistans national animal. And its main districts Wakhan, Shughnan, and Shuhada are renowned for their unspoiled natural beauty.

Nilly Kohzad wrote this story based on Radio Free Afghanistan correspondent Nimatullah Ahmadis reporting from Badakhshan, Afghanistan.
The Delhi government will conduct a study to find ways to improve revenues, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said on Wednesday.

The move comes a day after the government sent notices to around 10,800 companies in the city for paying lesser or no tax between January and March this year. The Delhi governments tax collection in January-March this year has gone down by over 2,000 crore compared to the same period last year.

On Wednesday, Sisodia, who is also Delhis finance minister, held a meeting, for the second consecutive day, to discuss ways to increase governments revenue collection. Sisodia on Wednesday directed the Dialogue and Development Commission of Delhi (DDC) to prepare a detailed study to improve the revenue base in Delhi and submit its report in two months.

The DDC is a policy think tank of the Delhi government. Its chairperson is chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and vice-chairperson is Jasmine Shah, who is also the media advisor to the CM.

Talking about the scope of the study, Sisodia said the DDC would have to suggest short and long-term measures to improve revenue collection. He also directed DDC to consult with experts in the field and organisations working in public finance while carrying out the study.

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has put a huge strain on government revenues in the national Capital territory (NCT) of Delhi. Therefore, all out efforts need to be made towards revenue augmentation so that the government is able to undertake all necessary works and programmes for the welfare of people of Delhi, Sisodia said after the meeting.

According to Delhis economic survey for 2019-20, Delhi is ranked position is 19th in terms of its own tax revenue as the percentage (4.73%) of the gross state domestic product (GSDP) during 2018-19.

For 2018-19, Uttar Pradeshs tax revenue as percentage of GSDP is 9.1%, Keralas is 7.7%, Rajasthan 7.2%, Maharashtra 7.1% and Andhra Pradesh 7%. Looking at Delhis trend itself, its tax revenue to GSDP was 6.18% in 2009-10, which reduced to 5.38% in 2014-15 and further reduced to 4.73% in 2018-19. In comparison, the average tax revenue for all states as a percentage of their GSDP was 5.94% in 2009-10, which increased to 6.25% in 2014-15 and further increased to 6.69% in 2018-19, the government said in a statement.

DDC vice-chairman Jasmine Shah said the Delhi governments early call for opening the economy and a robust healthcare strategy has set the right conditions for an economic revival. The DDC will perform a rigorous study on the improvement of the revenue base of Delhi. We will involve the field experts to perform this study. Today, the Delhi model of fighting against Covid-19 has become a model for across India and we are confident that with time and a proper strategy, we will be able to overcome the revenue deficit too, he said.

In a bid to improve Delhis revenue deficit, the trade and taxes department of the Delhi government has started analysing the returns by taxpayers registered under GST. On Tuesday, Sisodia held a meeting with the officials, in which it was said that of the 15,000 taxpayers analysed so far, nearly 970 taxpayers have not filed returns for 2020-21 from January to March. The Delhi government has also found that this year, nearly 10,800 companies paid lesser or zero tax from January to March. Taking cognizance of these findings, the Delhi government has prepared a list of defaulters.

The deputy chief minister has appealed to all the companies to immediately deposit their taxes. He also said that the Delhi government will take stringent action against the defaulters.

The Delhi government has evaluated 15,000 companies so far but in the future up to 7 lakh companies registered under GST will be evaluated. The Delhi government will take strict action against all the defaulters after the evaluation, Sisodia said.
France is among the many countries sending aid and search teams to Beirut on Wednesday as the death continues to rise after an explosion at a warehouse in the capital's port on Tuesday sent a blast across the city, killing at more than 135 and injuring more than 5,000 people, with many still missing.

Lebanon's cabinet has declared a two-week state of emergency, giving security control to the military.

Rescue workers searched for survivors amidst the wreckage. They are being helped by Turkey's Humanitarian Relief Foundation, who are digging through debris to find people and recover bodies.

The blast was felt all the way to Cyprus, an island almost 200km away.

The government says the explosion stemmed from 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, which is used as a fertiliser, but can also be used to make explosives, that was seized at the port in 2014.

All port personnel who have worked since 2014 are under house arrest while the blast is being investigated, in what officials believe was due to negligence.

France has also decided to open an investigation into the explosion after Paris prosecutor Remy Heintz said that at least 21 French citizens were wounded in the incident.

Anger, sadness

Many Lebanese are upset at the government as the port is the main entry for food imports. Lebanon is suffering an economic crisis and fears that people could go hungry, including some nearly one million Syrian refugees.

The government has allocated 100 billion Lebanese pounds, or approximately 55 million (according to the official exchange rate) to deal with the crisis, but the money on the parallel market would only be worth 10 million..

Governor Marwan Abboud told Lebanese media that the blast has caused between 2.5 to 4.2 billion in damage.

In addition to the economic hardship and pandemic, a UN-backed tribunal in the Netherlands is set to announce the verdicts on Friday of the four Hezbollah members who were charged in absentia with collaborating in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.

France pledges assistance

France's President Emmanuel Macron will be flying to Beirut on Thursday to meet politicians and government officials, while two planes filled with 55 security personnel, 10 emergency doctors and six tonnes of health equipment traveled on Wednesday to help the strapped Lebanese hospitals in and around Beirut.

Included on the planes are emergency experts with chemical and technological specialties who can work in damaged industrial sites and identify if there are other risks in the area, said France's national security spokesman Michael Bernier.

Macron's office said French peacekeepers who are stationed in Lebanon, have been helping since the explosions.

International effort to help Lebanon

Indonesian peacekeepers, also part of the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNFIL) are also helping to evacuate civilians, although there are a number of UNFIL peacekeepers injured, who were at the port at the time of the explosion.

Bangladesh's military said at least 21 Bangladesh Navy UNFIL members were injured.

The European Union is activating its emergency system across its 27 member states, as it plans to send more than 100 firefighters and vehicles and sniffer dogs for people trapped in urban areas. The Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Poland and the Netherlands as well as France have said they are participating in this effort and other countries are expected to join.

The EU is also using its Copernicus special satellite mapping system to establish the extent of the damage, according to Crisis Management Commissioner Janez Lenarcic.

Help is also coming from a number of countries around the world. Iraq has given one plane with medical supplies, Egypt has given two planes with medical supplies. Qatar is sending four flights beginning on Wednesday with medical supplies and is delivering two 500-bed field hospitals with supplies and respirators.

Kuwait has delivered medical aid, while local Iranian press say Iran is giving nine tonnes of food, medical supplies and personnel, and a field hospital.

Tunisia is sending two planes of food and medical aid, and Tunisian President Kais Saied announced that the country could take 100 people to be treated in their hospitals.

Russia is sending five planes filled with medical personnel and supplies.

Cyprus is sending two helicopters, 10 rescuers and eight rescue dogs, and has offered to repatriate any Cypriots who want to return50 have reportedly already taken the offer.

Norway is sending 40 tonnes of medical equipment and 2.34 million in financial aid, while Italy is reportedly sending two Air Force planes filled with eight tonnes of medical equipment as well as medical personnel.

Australia says it will donate 1.2 million in humanitarian support through the World Food Program and the Red Cross for Lebanon.

The World Health Organization says it is airlifting medical supplies to Lebanon on Wednesday for 1,000 trauma interventions, including burns and wounds, and supplies for 1,000 surgical interventions.

The supplies are made after a request for help from Hamad Hasan, Lebanon's health minister.

Help from within

Lebanese have opened their homes to the more than 250,000 people who have been made homeless due to the blast, using the hashtag #OurHomesAreOpen in Arabic and English on social media. Spare beds and empty properties have been offered to the victims.

Those in need have gone to ThawraMap, (Revolution Map in Arabic) on Instagram and twitter, showing a map of the locations offered, including in hotels. ThawraMap is usually used to show where protests are in the capital.

Many who remember the civil war from 1975 to 1990 have been also offering to transport people and give shelter in their homes. The contact information of doctors who could suture wounds sustained in the blast was also being given.

Some diplomacy in dark times

Although Israel is still in a state of war with Lebanon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, offering condolences to the people of Lebanon, said that Israel had offered aid through the United Nations.

Israel's capital Tel Aviv is also offering a gesture, although far right politicians were unhappy with mayor Ron Huldai's announcement.

"Tonight we will illuminate the city hall with the Lebanese flag," said Huldai on social media.

"Humanity precedes any conflict, and our hearts are with the Lebanese people in the wake of the terrible disaster that befell them," he added.

In addition to the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic crisis hitting the country, there had been raised tensions between the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah group and Israel in recent weeks.

Those in Khan Yunis, a city in the occupied Palestinian Territory of the Gaza Strip, have organized a blood drive to help Beirut casualties and are working with the Red Cross and Red Crescent to deliver the blood to Lebanon.
TORONTO, Aug. 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mandalay Resources Corporation ("Mandalay" or "the Company") (TSX: MND, OTCQB: MNDJF) today announced that its second quarter 2020 financial results will be released after market close on August 12, 2020, followed by a conference call with Dominic Duffy, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mandalay, for investors and analysts on August 13, 2020, at 8:00 AM (Toronto time).



Analysts and interested investors are invited to participate using the following dial-in numbers:

Participant Number: (201) 689-8341 Participant Number (Toll free): (877) 407-8289 Conference ID: 13708185



A replay of the conference call will be available until 11:59 PM (Toronto time), August 27, 2020, and can be accessed using the following dial-in number:

Encore Toll Free Dial-in Number: (877) 660-6853 Encore ID: 13708185

For Further Information:

Dominic Duffy

President and Chief Executive Officer

Edison Nguyen

Manager, Analytics and Investor Relations

Contact:

(647) 260-1566

About Mandalay Resources Corporation:

Mandalay Resources is a Canadian-based natural resource company with producing assets in Australia and Sweden, and care and maintenance and development projects in Chile. The Company is focused on growing production at its gold and antimony operation in Australia, and gold production from its operation in Sweden to generate near term cash flow.
First Nations lawyers in NSW have urged the state government to act swiftly to establish the long-awaited Walama Court to help divert Indigenous offenders from prison and reduce reoffending.

Sydney barrister Tony McAvoy, SC, the nation's first Indigenous silk, and Professors Larissa Behrendt and Megan Davis are among high-powered Indigenous lawyers calling in an open letter for the government to set up the court "as a matter of urgency".

Sydney barrister Damian Beaufils outside the Supreme Court in King Street. Credit:Louise Kennerley

The proposed court, located in and backed by the NSW District Court, takes its name from the word for "come back" in Dharug language and would involve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders in sentencing discussions, rehabilitation and monitoring.

Sydney barrister Damian Beaufils, who signed the letter, told the Herald it was clear First Nations people are incarcerated at a rate much higher than non-Indigenous people and that the court was urgently required.
The United States announced Wednesday its highest-level visit to Taiwan since it switched diplomatic recognition to China in 1979, a move Beijing blasted as a threat to "peace and stability". The visit, headed by health chief Alex Azar, comes as relations between the world's two biggest powers plunge to historic lows. Azar, speaking to Fox News, praised Taipei as an example of good governance, singling out its successful handling of the coronavirus pandemic. "Taiwan has been a model of transparency, cooperation and collaboration in the international community," he added. "Their response to COVID has been incredible." He has previously accused China of attempting to conceal the outbreak, which first emerged in the city of Wuhan late last year. Azar will be the first cabinet member to visit in six years, and the "highest level visit" by a US cabinet official since 1979, according to Washington's de facto embassy, the American Institute in Taiwan. No date was given yet for the visit. Washington remains the leading arms supplier to the island but has historically been cautious in holding official contacts with it. Beijing views Taiwan as its own territory -- vowing to one day seize it -- and bristles at any moves by other countries to recognise or communicate with Taipei. "China firmly opposes official exchanges between the US and Taiwan," Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said as he called for the visit to be cancelled. "We urge the US to abide by the one-China principle... to avoid seriously endangering Sino-US relations, as well as peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait." Taiwan said Azar would meet President Tsai Ing-wen. "(The) timely visit is another testament to the strong Taiwan-US partnership based on our longstanding friendship and shared values," Tsai wrote on Twitter. Relations have warmed dramatically under President Donald Trump, who has used embracing democratic Taiwan more closely as a way to hit back at authoritarian Beijing as he clashes with China on a host of issues, including trade and coronavirus. - Blossoming friendship - Taiwan's success at stopping its own virus outbreak -- and its emergence as one of Asia's most progressive democracies -- has also earned the island growing bipartisan support in Washington. "The Trump administration is increasing its relations with Taiwan to a record-high level, sending a message to China that the US will not sacrifice Taiwan for its relations with China," Eric Huang, an international relations analyst at Tamkang University in Taipei, told AFP. Shortly after Trump's election win in 2016, Tsai phoned to congratulate him, making him the first president -- sitting or newly elected -- to speak directly with a Taiwanese leader since 1979. Taiwan is massively outgunned by China and Trump's administration has sold a number of big-ticket military items -- including fighter jets -- that previous presidents more wary of angering Beijing had balked at. Trump also signed a bipartisan bill in 2018 upgrading relations and allowing more high-level visits to take place. In their statements Washington and Taipei painted Azar's visit as linked to Taiwan being a leading example in the battle against the pandemic. Despite its proximity and close economic ties to China -- where the outbreak emerged late last year -- Taiwan has fewer than 500 cases and just seven deaths thanks to a world-class tracing and testing regime and a virtual shutdown of its borders. - 'Less contentious' - But Beijing sees Azar's visit as part of a wider attempt to give Taiwan greater international recognition. It has ramped up diplomatic, economic and military pressure on Taiwan ever since the 2016 election of Tsai, who rejects Beijing's view that the island in part of "one China". It keeps Taiwan diplomatically frozen out of global bodies such as the World Health Organization, and has poached its dwindling number of official allies. That pressure campaign has only bolstered Tsai, who won a landslide re-election earlier this year. "Beijing... will likely view (the visit) as further evidence of the Trump administration moving away from the 'one China policy'," Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told AFP. "But it isn't precedent-setting and it is justifiable given Taiwan's exemplary performance in responding to COVID-19 and Beijing's exclusion of Taiwan from the World Health Assembly."
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Minister Coveney announces reconciliation funding of over 2m for 78 projects

Statement

Simon Coveney T.D., Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defence, announces funding of over 2 million for 78 projects through the Department of Foreign Affairs Reconciliation Fund. Projects from across the community and voluntary sector, mainly in Northern Ireland and the Border region were selected in this round. These projects will promote reconciliation and help to create better understanding and relations between people and traditions on the island of Ireland.

Announcing this round of grants the Minister said:

I am delighted to announce funding for 78 projects amounting to just over 2 million. The support of these projects demonstrates the Governments continued commitment to strengthening ties between communities in Northern Ireland, and supporting the building of relationships between both parts of the island as well as between Ireland and Britain.

The Fund welcomed an extensive range of applications in this round for unique and varied projects. The numbers seeking funding continues to rise, with more than 200 applications received in this round. This increase demonstrates the key role that the Irish Government can play, through the Reconciliation Fund, in supporting peacebuilding on the island of Ireland.

The Minister also noted the impact of Covid-19 on organisations working in reconciliation:

It is important that we acknowledge the unprecedented impact that Covid-19 has had on those working to promote reconciliation across the island. Civil Society organisations have faced very serious challenges in trying to manage the financial and logistical issues that arose as a result of the crisis, while also seeking to support their local communities and continue the work of reconciliation.

In operating this recent funding round, my Department has sought to be as flexible and supportive as possible. We have accepted revised funding proposals that will allow groups to proceed with projects with adjusted timelines or using alternative delivery methods. Other organisations have been facilitated in reallocating project funds towards core running costs, to assist them in navigating successfully through the crisis period.

The Minister concluded by paying tribute to those working in reconciliation at this difficult time:

I would like to commend these organisations on rising to the recent challenge and submitting creative, viable and most importantly, safe proposals, which have the potential to contribute to reconciliation between communities and traditions on this island. I am delighted that my Department, and the Reconciliation Fund in particular, continues to play its part in supporting this vital work.

The Reconciliation Fund has been in existence since 1982 and was increased significantly following the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. All parties to that Agreement undertook to positively examine the case for enhanced financial assistance for the work of reconciliation.

As a result the Irish Government has provided increased support through the Reconciliation Fund since 1998. In the 2014 Stormont House Agreement, the Government committed to support measures to promote reconciliation, including through continued annual provision of 2.7m in the Reconciliation Fund.

On 22 May 2018, at an event marking the 20 th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement referendums, Tanaiste Simon Coveney T.D. announced an additional 1m funding for the Reconciliation Fund from 2019. Further information on this announcement is available here: https://www.dfa.ie/news-and-media/press-releases/press-release-archive/2018/may/tanaiste-commits-additional-1-million-for-ireland/

anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement referendums, Tanaiste Simon Coveney T.D. announced an additional 1m funding for the Reconciliation Fund from 2019. Further information on this announcement is available here: https://www.dfa.ie/news-and-media/press-releases/press-release-archive/2018/may/tanaiste-commits-additional-1-million-for-ireland/ In the recent agreement (New Decade, New Approach) which paved the way for the restoration of devolved Government in Northern Ireland, the Irish Government re-stated its commitment to maintaining provision of 3.7 million per year for the Reconciliation Fund.

A list of organisations being supported through this first funding round of 2020 can be found here.

Further information on the Reconciliation Fund can be found at: www.dfa.ie/reconciliation

| Next Item 
By Akbar Mammadov

Azerbaijani and Turkish armed forces have conducted live-fire joint tactical exercises as part of the large-scale drills that started on July 30, the Ministry of Defense said on August 6.

According to the training scenario, the units performed various combat elements, as well as other training and combat tasks using armoured vehicles and helicopters.

The Land and Air forces of the two countries are participating in the military exercises 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.

Thus, 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.

---

Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
China's top insurance regulator on Wednesday unveiled a three-year action plan to promote the high-quality development of the property-insurance industry.



By 2022, China aims to forge a complete market system for the property-insurance sector, with the further enhancement of its service capabilities and financial strength, according to the document issued by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission.

China's property-insurance market has been transitioning from fast growth to high-quality development, increasing the urgency of strengthening top-level design and rolling out overall regulation measures, the plan says.

Efforts will be made to improve the governance of insurance firms as well as to boost innovation in the sector and its ability to serve national economic and social development.

China will expand the opening-up of the sector, implement major financial opening-up measures and accelerate the development of the reinsurance market, according to the document.
The Trump administration proposed last month a reform of the regulations implementing the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act, for decades a source of massive delay and cost increases for federal projects, yielding actual environmental harm because of an inherent bias in favor of the status quo over new investment promising improved environmental outcomes. It can come as no surprise that criticism from the environmental left has been vociferous; even as the critics claim that the reform will sacrifice our clean air, clean water, public health, and even our future, they have failed to acknowledge that the delays and higher costs are real, consuming resources and time and blocking investment in cleaner infrastructure replacing facilities older and dirtier.

Sometimes a useful perspective can be achieved by shifting from a focus on our own disputes toward one presenting analogous problems elsewhere. Consider for example the recent political impasse in Guyana. In brief: The vote-counting for the presidential election in early March has been afflicted with allegations of various forms of fraud. A laborious recount conducted under international supervision showed a victory for the political opposition, but the ruling coalition attempted to use a controversial report of large numbers of ineligible votes by emigrants and deceased voters to delay a transfer of power despite several rounds of court cases. After more than five months of uncertainty, the impasses was resolved last Saturday when the incumbent President David Granger stepped down in the face of heavy international pressure, and the opposition candidate Irfaan Ali was sworn in as the new president of Guyana.

The stakes are high because of a discovery five years ago by Exxon-Mobil of large offshore oil and gas reserves that might be worth more than $100 billion. That newly discovered national wealth might triple per-capita GDP---living standards---within a decade as the resource is developed.

Make that: if the resource is developed. Alas, such resources are not developed and produced spontaneously. It is necessary that large investments be made, and those require favorable legal and regulatory institutions and a public decisionmaking process that is predictable and not afflicted by delays without end. Because of the disputed election and ensuing maneuverings, the opposite condition has developed in Guyana. There has not been a functioning legislature, as Parliament was dissolved in December, so that the Finance Ministry is sharply constrained in terms of its ability to fund programs. For the energy sector, government officials have become more reluctant to issue needed permits, one result of which is ongoing delay in planned production increases, exploration, and other operations. The new government could take immediate steps to facilitate and speed the development process, but as yet has not indicated that such approvals will be a priority.

Unsurprisingly, the delays and uncertainty have afflicted complementary industries as well, with serious adverse employment impacts. Government revenues---needed for energy-related infrastructure investments and for other important functions serving a wealthier population demanding improved public services---have been lost or delayed.

Such effects exacerbate the impacts of international energy prices depressed by adverse economic conditions attendant upon the COVID-19 pandemic. Energy resources are an important form of national wealth, but they are hardly unique to Guyana or any other individual economy. Just as international fossil producers can choose to invest in Guyana as a response to favorable resource and economic conditions, so they can choose to invest elsewhere as shifting conditions come to favor other economies. Accordingly: Whatever the economic environment shaped by international price conditions, local political and regulatory factors can exacerbate an adverse general economic environment, or they can help to compensate for it.

Which brings us back to the U.S. The huge technological advance in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling yielding the massive increase in energy production was not a natural phenomenon. Instead: It was the result of private property rights, a favorable legal and regulatory environment, and a system of environmental and other regulation allowing for needed complementary investment, whatever the delays and frictions characterizing the system.

But there is nothing guaranteed about this, and increasing political opposition to that investment (e.g., pipelines) poses a real threat to the increase in national wealth and individual wellbeing promised by continued development of energy resources. The policy parallels between the U.S. and Guyana energy sectors are surprisingly similar, a truth that U.S. policymakers interested in American economic wellbeing would be wise not to ignore.
In a file photo, tourists walk through the Potala Palace, in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet.

UPDATED 05:00 p.m. EST 08/07/20

Beijing still tightly restricts travel by U.S. citizens to Tibet and other Tibetan regions of China, the U.S. State Department says, describing the situation as unimproved in its second report to Congress under a law aimed at pressing Beijing to allow greater access to the Himalayan region.

Signed into law in December 2018, the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act requires the Department to identify, and to bar from entry into the United States, Chinese officials responsible for excluding U.S. citizens, including Americans of Tibetan ethnic origin, from travel in Chinas Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).

The law also requires the State Department to provide to the Congress each year a list of U.S. citizens denied entry into Tibet.

Chinas government last year systematically impeded travel to the [Tibet] Autonomous Region (TAR) for U.S. diplomats and officials, journalists, and tourists in 2019, the Aug. 5 Report to Congress says, describing the situation as unimproved from that described in last years report.

Even when permitted, U.S. official visits to Tibet were highly restricted, the report says, adding that travel in Tibetan areas outside the TAR were also closely supervised by Chinese police and government officials.

PRC security forces used conspicuous monitoring to intimidate U.S. diplomats and officials, following them at all times, prevented them from meeting or speaking with local contacts, harassed them, and restricted their movements in these areas, the report said.

Chinas government meanwhile heavily restricted and controlled access for U.S. journalists to the TAR and directly threatened to expel journalists reporting on developments [there], according to the report.

Chinese officials and other citizens enjoy far greater access to the United States than they allow to travelers wishing to visit Tibet, a State Department spokesperson told RFA.

"The United States seeks fair, transparent, and reciproval treatment from the People's Republic of China for our citizens."

"We will continue to work closely with Congress in pursuit of our shared goal of seeing Americans have full access to China, including the [Tibet] Autonomous Region and other Tibetan areas," the State Department said.

'Unacceptable'

Beijings continuing restrictions on foreign travel to Tibet stand in violation of the principle of reciprocity among countries, Matteo Mecacci, president of the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet, said in an Aug. 5 statement.

The TAR is the only region of China that requires a special permit for foreign citizens to travel there, while no such restrictions are imposed for Chinese citizens in the United States or other democratic countries. This is unacceptable, Mecacci said.

The isolation of Tibet from the outside world is part of the Chinese governments strategy to hide the reality in which the Tibetan people have been forced to live under the oppressive rule of the Chinese Communist Party since the 1950s with no civil, political and human rights, Mecacci said.

Restrictions on U.S. travel to Tibet are an admission by China that life in Tibet is not going so well for many people there, added Timothy Heath, a senior international defense analyst with the RAND Corporation.

And the Chinese government is embarrassed about that, Heath said.

They are reluctant to allow Westerners to go and see for themselves what the situation is like, because they know that for Western people, and for many people, what they find there will not be viewed as acceptable, and will be viewed as highly repressive, abusive, and just intolerant of minorities.

Beijing's claims challenged

Access by foreign travelers to Tibet is essential for the world to examine Beijings claims of stability and progress in Tibet and other Tibetan areas of China, said Tsewang Gyalpo Arya, spokesman for Tibet's Dharamsala, India-based government in exile, the Central Tibetan Administration.



If China claims that Tibetans in Tibet are happy and free, they must let the international community investigate those claims and see for themselves if they are true, he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on July 7 announced visa restrictions on Chinese government and Communist Party officials deemed involved in the blocking of access for foreigners to Tibetan areas. Beijing said that it would enact similar measures against U.S. individuals with egregious conduct related to Tibet issues.

On July 27, the U.S. consulate in the southwestern city of Chengdu was closed in retaliation for the earlier U.S. order to shutter the Chinese consulate in Houston, amid allegations from the Donald Trump administration that the facility was a hub for espionage activities.

China denied the allegations, but later made similar claims about the activities of U.S. personnel based in Chengdu. A mission human rights experts said was critical in gathering reliable information coming out of Tibet and Xinjiang.

A formerly independent nation, Tibet was taken over and incorporated into China by force nearly 70 years ago, following which Tibets spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and thousands of his followers fled into exile in India.

Chinese authorities maintain a tight grip on the region, restricting Tibetans political activities and peaceful expression of ethnic and religious identities, and subjecting Tibetans to persecution, torture, imprisonment, and extrajudicial killings.



Reported by Tashi Wangchuk for RFAs Tibetan Service. Translated by Tashi Wangchuk and Tenzin Dickyi. Written in English by Richard Finney.

UPDATED to include comments by a State Department spokesperson received on Aug. 7, 2020.






PRESDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa is seeking to suffocate opposition parties in the country by crafting tough laws that will regulate their operations.Mnangagwas government is also drafting laws to criminalise campaigning against ones country after he accused the Nelson Chamisa-led MDC Alliance of inviting Western sanctions on the country.





Speaking during a post-Cabinet media briefing in Harare yesterday, Women Affairs, Community, Small andMedium Enterprises minister Sithembiso Nyoni said Vice-President Kembo Mohadi would soon present recommendations to Parliament which came from the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) which seek to regulate political parties.





Recommendations from the 2018 and 2019 annual reports of the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission, which were adopted by Cabinet: The Vice-President will present the recommendations to Parliament in due course as required by the Constitution, Nyoni said.





Highlights of the recommendations include the following, that legislation and a code of conduct will be put in place to regulate the operations and conduct of all political parties. That campaigning against ones country shall be legislated at law and criminalised.





Zanu PF has been calling for a law that would make it a criminal offence for citizens to campaign against the country.Zanu PF party chief whip Pupurai Togarepi has been lobbying for the law.





Mnangagwa on Tuesday accused the MDC Alliance of being a terrorist organisation, working with Western countries to remove him from power.He also defended security forces brutal clampdown on protesters on July 31.





Following the launch of a social media #ZimbabweanLivesMatter campaign over rights abuses in Zimbabwe, Mnangagwa signalled a more radical approach, threatening to flush out bad apples.





Nyoni said the NPRC also called for the strengthening of laws to ensure unity in Zimbabwe.





That existing laws shall be strengthened to include elements that foster tolerance, equality and social cohesion among Zimbabweans as well as prohibit hate speech by public officials, media houses and citizens in public spaces and social, print and electronic media platforms, she said.









Meanwhile, Cabinet has called on nurses and doctors who are on strike to immediately return to work, saying their grievances would be addressed while they are working.




Two minor children with Indian nationality, aged 11 and 9, are caught up in the foster care system in England, with local authorities wanting to change their citizenship status to British amid a legal row with their parents, which has landed in the UK's Court of Appeal.

In a judgment handed down by a three-judge bench including Lord Justice Peter Jackson, Lord Justice Richard McCombe and Lady Justice Eleanor King on Thursday, it was decided that the Birmingham Children's Trust must seek the court's approval before any attempt to apply for British citizenship for the children in the face of parental opposition.

Changing a child's citizenship is a momentous step with profound and enduring consequences that requires the most careful consideration,the judges noted in the ruling, handed down remotely under the coronavirus lockdown protocol.

In the present case, the local authority would require leave to apply for the court to exercise its inherent jurisdiction if it was in the children's interests for them to become British citizens, there is reasonable cause to believe that they would be likely to be significantly harmed by that course not being pursued; the nature of the harm being their liability to removal from their lifelong home country on reaching adulthood,the judgment concludes, indicating that a future application for a change in citizenship before the court has some prospect of success.

As in many family court matters, none of the parties in the case has been identified. The case, which originated in the Birmingham Family Court, involved the UK-based father being represented in court by prominent Indian lawyer Harish Salve.

The Singapore-based mother was assisted by a Ms Rao, described as a legally qualified McKenzie friend based in Delhi.

The unusual case dates back to August 2015, when the children were removed from the care of their Indian-origin parents who came to the UK in 2004.

While the reasons behind that children's removal were not revealed in court, it was noted that contact with the parents has not taken place for nearly five years now.

The mother left the UK in November 2015 while pregnant and now lives in Singapore. The father has remained in England, but his antagonism towards the local authority has made contact unachievable, the court noted.

In the course of a complex set of proceedings over the years, the children became the subject of placement orders, or were to be put up for adoption. However, the search for adoptive parents was not successful and in December 2018, the local authority applied to discharge the placement orders.

The parents responded with an application to also discharge the underlying care orders in order to secure the children's return to their care or to the care of family members in India or Singapore.

But following a court ruling in December last year, it was determined that the children must remain in long-term foster care for the remainder of their childhoods.

It was during the course of those proceedings that the local authority, the Birmingham Children's Trust, stated that it would seek to secure the children's immigration status by making applications for British citizenship, which would have the effect of removing their Indian nationality.

Although these children had been in the care of the local authority for several years, no steps had been taken to regularise their immigration position. That is a matter of justified concern, even though there is no immediate threat of removal.

The children would clearly benefit emotionally from their position being regularised and from being able to travel in and out of the country, for example, if opportunities for school trips or holidays were to arise, this week's ruling notes, as it gives the local authority the option to make a further application to the court to consider the childrens' citizenship issue.

Depending upon expert advice, it [the application] may not need to be made as a matter of urgency, and consideration might be given to whether it should be taken at a time when the children would be more able to express their own views.

"That of course does not prevent an application being made now as it would be open to the court to approve an application being made at a later date, the judgment adds.

It was also noted that the hearings in the case have proved "challenging", requiring interpreters.
What is Elon Musks Boring Company building in the desert between Los Angeles and Las Vegas?

Thats the question posed by an article in Teslarati, a publication that tracks new developments in all of Elon Musks various ventures. And it suggests the answer might be a tunnel for ultra-high-speed travel between the two cities.

The publication showed photos of the Boring Company's San Bernardino County facility in the desert near Adelanto, Calif., including a tunneling machine and large storage tents. Teslaratis main clue about the tunnels purpose seems to be a map of the Boring Companys Vegas Loop project, currently underway, which shows an arrow at the southern end of that intra-city route and the words to Los Angeles.



But other evidence for the construction of an L.A.-Vegas line is scant. Commenters on the article note there dont seem to be any government filings of plans, permission requests or other public documents related to such a project. Others suggest it might just be a new test tunnel to try out the technology. Still, the report serves as a reminder that work is quietly continuing on projects by Musk, Sir Richard Branson, and other similar entrepreneurs to develop a wholly new kind of superfast surface (or under the surface) transportation system in the U.S. and abroad.

Musks Boring Company has been drilling under Las Vegas, and it is expected to cut the ribbon early next year on an underground Loop system that connects the various portions of the citys massive convention center. The company has longer-term plans to connect those tunnels to a much longer line under Las Vegas that would take travelers up and down The Strip to its various mega-hotels, perhaps with a later extension to McCarran Airport  and even to Los Angeles someday.

The initial Vegas Loop system will carry passengers in autonomous electric cars (made by Tesla, of course) and possibly larger 12- to 16-passenger vans, traveling no more than 35 mph under the convention center but up to 155 mph beyond that. For longer inter-city routes, the company would use a Hyperloop system  whisking passenger-carrying pods along at 600+ mph through vacuum-sealed tunnels. By contrast, Bransons Virgin Hyperloop would rely on above-ground tubes that let travelers achieve similar speeds, using the same magnetic levitation technology.



The government is getting on board to speed up the technology. Last year, the Transportation Department formed a new Non-Traditional and Emerging Transportation Technology Council, and last month that group issued new guidelines aimed at helping DOT create policies and a regulatory framework that can facilitate hyperloop projects created by private companies. Virgin Hyperloop noted that this could also make some of these projects eligible for federal funding assistance. Earlier in July, the House of Representatives passed a bill called the Moving Forward Act that includes provisions aimed at advancing hyperloop transportation projects.

Two months ago, the Boring Company won the backing of San Bernardino County officials to proceed with plans for a 2.8-mile tunnel called the Ontario Airport Loop, linking the airport to Rancho Cucamonga, using electric vehicles to make the trip in about 90 seconds. Officials said it would be a much less expensive alternative to proposed surface rail projects.

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A couple of years ago, the Boring Company also got a green light from Chicagos then-mayor Rahm Emanuel to move ahead with a high-speed tunnel project linking the citys downtown core with OHare Airport. However, after Emanuels successor Lori Lightfoot took over as mayor last year, that project was essentially scrapped. Lightfoot reportedly doubted Musks contention that it could be built without taxpayer funds.

Musks company has also proposed a 35-mile tunnel linking Baltimore to Washington D.C. and another project in Los Angeles connecting Dodger Stadium to a Metro Red Line station in Los Feliz, East Hollywood or Rampart Village.

Virgin Hyperloop

Bransons Virgin Hyperloop, meanwhile, also has a variety of projects on its agenda. This spring, the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, working with Virgin Hyperloop, released a feasibility study for the development of a high-speed line from Chicago to Pittsburgh via Columbus. It found that hyperloop transportation could cut travel time to a fraction of what it takes to drive and would cost less than an airplane ticket.

Other U.S. proposals on Virgin Hyperloops plate include a 248-mile trans-Missouri project from St. Louis to Kansas City via Columbia, a line in North Carolina linking Raleigh with Chapel Hill via Durham and a north-south trans-Texas corridor connecting Dallas to Ft. Worth, Austin, San Antonio and Laredo.

Earlier this year, Saudi Arabias Ministry of Transport signed a contract with Virgin Hyperloop to conduct a pre-feasibility study aimed at creating a network of hyperloop routes across the country. The study is the first at a national level to be carried out anywhere in the world and will examine viable routes, expected demand, anticipated costs and explore the socio-economic benefits of creating jobs and develop high-tech skills, the company said.

In India, Virgin Hyperloop is looking into a project to build a 92-mile line from Mumbai to Pune that could carry 150 million passengers a year.

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CENTENNIAL, Colo., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- DHI Group, Inc. (NYSE: DHX) ("DHI" or the "Company") today announced the following financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2020.

Second Quarter 2020 Financial Results

Total revenues were $33.8 million , down 10% year over year (9% excluding impact of foreign exchange).

, down 10% year over year (9% excluding impact of foreign exchange). Dice revenues were $20.5 million , down 12% year over year.

, down 12% year over year. ClearanceJobs revenues were $7.1 million , up 18% year over year.

, up 18% year over year. eFinancialCareers revenues were $6.2 million , down 24% year over year (21% excluding impact of foreign exchange).

, down 24% year over year (21% excluding impact of foreign exchange). Net income was $1.9 million , or earnings per diluted share of $0.04 , compared to net income of $3.1 million , or $0.06 per diluted share, in the year ago quarter.

, or earnings per diluted share of , compared to net income of , or per diluted share, in the year ago quarter. Cash flow from operations was $7.1 million , compared to $11.1 million in the year-ago quarter.

, compared to in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted EBITDA 1 was $7.8 million , or an Adjusted EBITDA margin 1 of 23% compared to $9.1 million and 24% in the year-ago quarter.

was , or an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 23% compared to and 24% in the year-ago quarter. Cash was $27.5 million and net debt1 was $9.5 million .

Commenting on the quarter, Art Zeile, President and CEO of DHI Group, Inc., said:

"We continued to strengthen our product offering with dozens of new releases introduced during the second quarter, and while the overall job market was impacted by COVID-19, job postings for technologists have steadily been improving from their low point during the quarter as employers, including ourselves, have started to hire again. As we strive to lead the industry with the development of our career marketplaces for matching tech professionals with employers, our continued investment in product development and sales and marketing positions us well as we look to capitalize on the improving market dynamics through the remainder of the year."

Product Highlights

Below are the key product highlights delivered during the second quarter:

Dice

Dice Recruiter Profile is the first major release in Dice's transformation from a job board to a full-scale career marketplace. With Dice Marketplace, DHI Group is creating a trusted place where recruiters and candidates can confidently search, match and communicate in real time. Dice Recruiter Profile launches that evolution by allowing clients to enrich their profiles with photos, personal information, details about corporate brand and culture, news and latest hires, upcoming events and future hiring needsall of which create more transparency and personalize the recruiter behind the role.

Dice Remote Jobs is an excellent opportunity for employers to tap into pools of remote workers across the U.S. to increase talent pipelines and diversify work forces as part of the nationwide shift toward remote work. Given technologists' desire for flexible and remote work options and the proven success of at-home work over the past several months, technologists are increasingly seeking out employers that offer this type of work/life balance moving forward. Dice clients now have a way to designate a job posting as remote, without an on-site location, and tech professionals on Dice can now easily filter their job searches for remote-only jobs as well as have these job postings directly delivered to their inbox with a saved search. Since the company launched Remote Jobs, the views for these job postings have been 50% higher than the non-remote job postings.

ClearanceJobs

CJ Automated Recruiter Workflow is a product feature that allows recruiters to pre-program processes throughout the talent acquisition lifecycle, saving them time on typically tedious recruiting tasks. Workflow allows recruiting teams to automate recruitment processes like connecting with potential candidates, sending introduction messages, or tagging candidates to a specific job opening. ClearanceJobs estimates that this powerful set of tools can eliminate approximately 3.5 hours of administrative task time per recruiter per day. ClearanceJobs is the only career site in the world that incorporates this capability. ClearanceJobs continues to be DHI's testbed for key market leading features like this one of a kind patented technology.

eFinancialCareers

eFC Enhanced Candidate Profile enables candidates to expose a richer profile, equivalent to that offered in ClearanceJobs, to recruiters specializing in their respective field. In mid-July eFC also launched eFC Follow, Voice and Video. These features complete the foundation of eFC's marketplace, delivering a rich set of communication tools for recruiters and professionals to engage in career discussions. Now finance and tech professionals and recruiters can connect virtually with video and voice calling, as well as instant messaging all through the eFC platform.

Business Outlook

"We continue to invest in our long term growth plan, while at the same time balancing our costs with our revenue opportunity in these challenging times," commented Kevin Bostick, CFO of DHI Group, Inc. "While we are not providing specific guidance, we continue to operate the business to Adjusted EBITDA margins1 in the 20% range."

Conference Call Information

Art Zeile, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Kevin Bostick, Chief Financial Officer, will host a conference call today, August 6, 2020, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time to discuss the Company's financial results, recent developments and progress on its tech-focused strategy.

The call can be accessed by dialing 1-844-890-1790 (in the U.S.) or 1-412-380-7407 (outside the U.S.). Please ask to be placed into the DHI Group, Inc. call. A live webcast of the call will simultaneously be available through the Investor Relations section of the Company's website, https://www.dhigroupinc.com , and available for replay after the call ends.

About DHI Group, Inc.

DHI Group, Inc (NYSE: DHX) is a provider of software products, online tools and services to deliver career marketplaces to candidates and employers globally. DHI's three brandsDice, ClearanceJobs and eFinancialCareers enable recruiters and hiring managers to efficiently search, match and connect with highly skilled technologists in specialized fields, particularly technology, those with active government security clearances and in financial services. Professionals find ideal employment opportunities, relevant job advice and personalized data to best manage their whole technologist life. For nearly 30 years, we have leveraged the latest technology to foster career connections in multiple markets including North America, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia Pacific region. Find out more at www.dhigroupinc.com.

Investor Contact

Todd Kehrli or Jim Byers

MKR Investor Relations, Inc.

212-448-4181

[email protected]

Media Contact

Rachel Ceccarelli

Senior Director Communications

212-448-8288

[email protected]

Notes Regarding the Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

The Company has provided certain non-GAAP financial information as additional information for its operating results. These measures are not in accordance with, or an alternative for, measures in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States ("GAAP") and may be different from similarly titled non-GAAP measures reported by other companies. The Company believes that its presentation of non-GAAP measures, such as Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin, and Net Debt provides useful information to management and investors regarding certain financial and business trends relating to its financial condition and results of operations. In addition, the Company's management uses these measures for reviewing the financial results of the Company and for budgeting and planning purposes. The non-GAAP measures apply to consolidated results and results by segment or other measure as shown within this document. The Company has provided required reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP measures elsewhere in the document.

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin are non-GAAP metrics used by management to measure operating performance. Management uses Adjusted EBITDA as a performance measure for internal monitoring and planning, including preparation of annual budgets, analyzing investment decisions and evaluating profitability and performance comparisons between us and our competitors. The Company also uses this measure to calculate amounts of performance based compensation under the senior management incentive bonus program. Adjusted EBITDA represents net income plus (to the extent deducted in calculating such net income) interest expense, income tax expense, depreciation and amortization, non-cash stock based compensation, losses resulting from certain dispositions outside the ordinary course of business including prior negative operating results of those divested businesses, certain writeoffs in connection with indebtedness, impairment charges with respect to long-lived assets, expenses incurred in connection with an equity offering or any other offering of securities by the Company, extraordinary or non-recurring non-cash expenses or losses, transaction costs in connection with the credit agreement, deferred revenues written off in connection with acquisition purchase accounting adjustments, writeoff of non-cash stock based compensation expense, severance and retention costs related to dispositions and reorganizations of the Company, losses related to legal claims and fees that are unusual in nature or infrequent, minus (to the extent included in calculating such net income) non-cash income or gains, interest income, business interruption insurance proceeds, and any income or gain resulting from certain dispositions outside the ordinary course of business, including prior positive operating results of those divested businesses, and gains related to legal claims that are unusual in nature or infrequent.

We also consider Adjusted EBITDA, as defined above, to be an important indicator to investors because it provides information related to our ability to provide cash flows to meet future debt service, capital expenditures and working capital requirements and to fund future growth. We present Adjusted EBITDA as a supplemental performance measure because we believe that this measure provides our board of directors, management and investors with additional information to measure our performance, provide comparisons from period to period and company to company by excluding potential differences caused by variations in capital structures (affecting interest expense) and tax positions (such as the impact on periods or companies of changes in effective tax rates or net operating losses), and to estimate our value.

Adjusted EBITDA Margin is computed as Adjusted EBITDA divided by Revenues.

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin are not measurements of our financial performance under GAAP and should not be considered as an alternative to revenue, net income, operating income, cash provided by operating activities, or any other performance measures derived in accordance with GAAP as a measure of our profitability.

Net Debt

Net Debt is defined as total principal outstanding debt less cash and cash equivalents. We consider Net Debt to be an important measure of liquidity and indicator of our ability to meet ongoing obligations. We also use Net Debt, among other measures, in evaluating our choices for capital deployment. Net Debt presented herein is a non-GAAP measure and may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release and oral statements made from time to time by our representatives contain forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on those statements because they are subject to numerous uncertainties and factors relating to our operations and business environment, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond our control. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, information concerning our possible or assumed future results of operations. These statements often include words such as "may," "will," "should," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "estimate" or similar expressions. These statements are based on assumptions that we have made in light of our experience in the industry as well as our perceptions of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors we believe are appropriate under the circumstances. Although we believe that these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, you should be aware that many factors could affect our actual financial results or results of operations and could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, our ability to execute our tech-focused strategy, competition from existing and future competitors in the highly competitive markets in which we operate, failure to adapt our business model to keep pace with rapid changes in the recruiting and career services business, failure to maintain and develop our reputation and brand recognition, failure to increase or maintain the number of customers who purchase recruitment packages, cyclicality or downturns in the economy or industries we serve, the impact of the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak on our operations and financial results, the uncertainty in respect of the regulation of data protection and data privacy, failure to attract qualified professionals to our websites or grow the number of qualified professionals who use our websites, failure to successfully identify or integrate acquisitions, U.S. and foreign government regulation of the Internet and taxation, our ability to borrow funds under our revolving credit facility or refinance our indebtedness and restrictions on our current and future operations under such indebtedness. These factors and others are discussed in more detail in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, all of which are available on the Investors page of our website at www.dhigroupinc.com, including the Company's most recently filed periodic reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q and subsequent filings under the headings "Risk Factors," "Forward-Looking Statements" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations." You should keep in mind that any forward-looking statement made by the Company or its representatives herein, or elsewhere, speaks only as of the date on which it is made. New risks and uncertainties come up from time to time, and it is impossible to predict these events or how they may affect us. We have no obligation to update any forward-looking statements after the date hereof, except as required by federal securities laws.

1 See "Notes Regarding the Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures" later in this press release.

DHI GROUP, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (Unaudited) (in thousands, except per share amounts)





























For the three months ended June 30,

For the six months ended June 30,







2020

2019

2020

2019





















Revenues $ 33,784



$ 37,359



$ 70,417



$ 74,479























Operating expenses:













Cost of revenues 4,159



3,916



8,335



7,741

Product development 3,774



4,391



7,939



8,587

Sales and marketing 12,297



13,774



26,835



28,053

General and administrative 8,082



7,790



16,633



15,718

Depreciation 3,019



2,361



6,272



4,786

Impairment of intangible assets 







7,200





Disposition related and other costs 



825







1,700



Total operating expenses 31,331



33,057



73,214



66,585

Loss on sale of business 



(537)







(537)

Operating income (loss) 2,453



3,765



(2,797)



7,357

Interest expense and other (161)



(219)



(344)



(324)

Impairment of equity investment 







(2,002)





Income (loss) before income taxes 2,292



3,546



(5,143)



7,033

Income tax expense (benefit) 430



485



(455)



2,384

Net income (loss) $ 1,862



$ 3,061



$ (4,688)



$ 4,649























Basic earnings (loss) per share $ 0.04



$ 0.06



$ (0.10)



$ 0.10

Diluted earnings (loss) per share $ 0.04



$ 0.06



$ (0.10)



$ 0.09























Weighted average basic shares outstanding 48,427



48,918



48,781



48,513

Weighted average diluted shares

outstanding 49,691



51,875



48,781



51,139



DHI GROUP, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (Unaudited) (in thousands)

























For the three months

ended June 30,

For the six months

ended June 30,





2020

2019

2020

2019 Cash flows from (used in) operating activities:













Net income (loss) $ 1,862



$ 3,061



$ (4,688)



$ 4,649

Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash flows from (used in) operating

activities:













Depreciation 3,019



2,361



6,272



4,786

Deferred income taxes 458



150



(804)



95

Amortization of deferred financing costs 37



37



74



74

Stock based compensation 1,615



1,620



3,411



3,078

Impairment of intangible assets 







7,200





Impairment of equity investment 







2,002





Change in accrual for unrecognized tax benefits 63



89



(18)



210

Gain on sale of equity investment (200)







(200)





Loss on sale of business 



537







537

Changes in operating assets and liabilities:













Accounts receivable 4,876



6,015



2,765



3,806

Prepaid expenses and other assets 313



(189)



355



187

Capitalized contract costs 121



253



980



961

Accounts payable and accrued expenses 2,526



73



(4,242)



(7,546)

Income taxes receivable/payable 101



(67)



255



1,429

Deferred revenue (8,423)



(2,879)



(4,041)



1,906

Other, net 719



76



699



203

Net cash flows from operating activities 7,087



11,137



10,020



14,375

Cash flows from (used in) investing activities:













Net cash received from sale of businesses 



2,683







2,683

Net cash received from sale of equity investment 200







200





Purchases of fixed assets (4,117)



(3,234)



(8,405)



(6,286)

Net cash flows used in investing activities (3,917)



(551)



(8,205)



(3,603)

Cash flows from (used in) financing activities:













Payments on long-term debt (7,444)



(7,000)



(9,444)



(22,000)

Proceeds from long-term debt 7,444







36,444



14,000

Payments under stock repurchase plan (3,433)







(5,076)



(491)

Purchase of treasury stock related to vested restricted stock and performance

stock units (175)



(518)



(1,523)



(1,050)

Net cash flows from (used in) financing activities (3,608)



(7,518)



20,401



(9,541)

Effect of exchange rate changes 90



(149)



(122)



(90)

Net change in cash and cash equivalents for the period (348)



2,919



22,094



1,141

Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period 27,823



4,694



5,381



6,472

Cash and cash equivalents, end of period $ 27,475



$ 7,613



$ 27,475



$ 7,613



DHI GROUP, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (Unaudited) (in thousands)











ASSETS June 30, 2020

December 31, 2019 Current assets







Cash and cash equivalents $ 27,475



$ 5,381



Accounts receivable, net 18,119



21,158



Income taxes receivable 2,132



2,353



Prepaid and other current assets 3,227



4,180





Total current assets 50,953



33,072

Fixed assets, net 22,256



20,352

Acquired intangible assets 31,800



39,000

Capitalized contract costs 6,467



7,515

Goodwill 152,082



156,059

Deferred income taxes 8



7

Operating lease right-of-use asset 17,592



19,712

Other assets 1,115



2,604





Total assets $ 282,273



$ 278,321

























LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY





Current liabilities







Accounts payable and accrued expenses $ 14,426



$ 18,908



Operating lease liabilities 3,244



3,643



Deferred revenue 46,644



50,568



Income taxes payable 1,028



984





Total current liabilities 65,342



74,103

Long-term debt, net 36,509



9,435

Deferred income taxes 11,987



12,823

Deferred revenue 525



1,058

Accrual for unrecognized tax benefits 1,769



1,787

Operating lease liabilities 14,959



16,664

Other long-term liabilities 1,917



1,256





Total liabilities 133,008



117,126





Total stockholders' equity 149,265



161,195





Total liabilities and stockholders' equity $ 282,273



$ 278,321



Supplemental Information and Non-GAAP Reconciliations

On the pages that follow, the Company has provided certain supplemental information that we believe will assist the reader in assessing our business operations and performance, including certain non-GAAP financial information and required reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP measure. A statement of operations and statement of cash flows for the three and six month periods ended June 30, 2020 and 2019 and balance sheets as of June 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019 are provided elsewhere in this press release.

DHI GROUP, INC. NON-GAAP SUPPLEMENTAL DATA (Unaudited) (dollars in thousands, except per customer data)







































For the three months

ended June 30,

For the six months

ended June 30,



2020

2019

2020

2019 Reconciliation of Net Income (loss) to Adjusted EBITDA:













Net income (loss) $ 1,862



$ 3,061



$ (4,688)



$ 4,649



Interest expense 362



217



541



326



Income tax expense (benefit) 430



485



(455)



2,384



Depreciation 3,019



2,361



6,272



4,786



Non-cash stock based compensation 1,615



1,620



3,411



3,078



Loss on sale of business 



537







537



Disposition related and other costs 



825







1,700



Legal contingencies and related fees 



19







163



Impairment of intangible assets 







7,200







Impairment of equity investment 







2,002







Gain on sale of equity investment (200)







(200)







Severance and related costs 699







1,217







Other (1)



2



3



(2)

Adjusted EBITDA $ 7,786



$ 9,127



$ 15,303



$ 17,621

















Reconciliation of Operating Cash Flows to Adjusted EBITDA:













Net cash provided by operating activities $ 7,087



$ 11,137



$ 10,020



$ 14,375



Interest expense 362



217



541



326



Amortization of deferred financing costs (37)



(37)



(74)



(74)



Income tax expense (benefit) 430



485



(455)



2,384



Deferred income taxes (458)



(150)



804



(95)



Change in accrual for unrecognized tax benefits (63)



(89)



18



(210)



Change in accounts receivable (4,876)



(6,015)



(2,765)



(3,806)



Change in deferred revenue 8,423



2,879



4,041



(1,906)



Disposition related and other costs 



825







1,700



Legal contingencies and related fees 



19







163



Severance and related costs 699







1,217







Changes in working capital and other (3,781)



(144)



1,956



4,764

Adjusted EBITDA $ 7,786



$ 9,127



$ 15,303



$ 17,621



















Dice Recruitment Package Customers













Beginning of period 5,850



6,100



6,000



6,200

End of period 5,450



6,100



5,450



6,100



















Average for the period (1) 5,600



6,100



5,750



6,100



















Dice Average Monthly Revenue per Recruitment Package Customer (2) $ 1,131



$ 1,130



$ 1,142



$ 1,132



















(1) Reflects the daily average of recruitment package customers during the period. (2) Reflects the simple average of each period presented.

Summary of Deferred Revenue and Backlog:

June 30, 2020

December 31, 2019

Deferred Revenue



$ 47,169



$ 51,626



Contractual commitments not invoiced



23,910



37,093



Backlog3



$ 71,079



$ 88,719

















(3) Backlog consists of deferred revenue plus customer contractual commitments not invoiced representing the value of future services to be rendered under committed contracts.

DHI GROUP, INC. NON-GAAP SUPPLEMENTAL DATA (CONTINUED) (Unaudited) (in thousands)

Reconciliation of Debt to Net Debt:

June 30, 2020

December 31, 2019 Long term debt, net



$ 36,509



$ 9,435

Add: Deferred financing costs, net



491



565

Principal debt outstanding



37,000



10,000

Less: Cash and cash equivalents



27,475



5,381

Net Debt



$ 9,525



$ 4,619







Revenue



Q2 2020

Q2 2019

Change

$ Fx Impact1 Dice

$ 20,489



$ 23,215



(12)%

$ 

ClearanceJobs

7,107



6,014



18%



eFinancialCareers

6,188



8,130



(24)%

(207)

Total Revenues

$ 33,784



$ 37,359



(10)%

$ (207)



















Net Income (loss)2

$ 1,862



$ 3,061









Diluted earnings (loss) per share2

$ 0.04



$ 0.06









Adjusted EBITDA

$ 7,786



$ 9,127









Adjusted EBITDA Margin

23%



24%































Revenue



FY 2020

FY 2019

Change

$ Fx Impact1 Dice

$ 42,974



$ 46,361



(7)%

$ 

ClearanceJobs

14,007



11,796



19%



eFinancialCareers

13,436



16,322



(18)%

(337)

Total Revenues

$ 70,417



$ 74,479



(5)%

$ (337)



















Net Income (loss)3

$ (4,688)



$ 4,649









Diluted earnings (loss) per share3

$ (0.10)



$ 0.09









Adjusted EBITDA

$ 15,303



$ 17,621









Adjusted EBITDA Margin

22%



24%



























(1) Foreign exchange impact is calculated by determining the increase (decrease) in current period revenues where current period revenues are translated using prior period exchange rates. (2) For the three months ended June 30, 2020, the Company recorded a gain from sale of equity investment, which was offset by severance and related costs, net of tax, and discrete tax items that negatively impacted net income $0.4 million, or $0.01 per diluted share. For the three months ended June 30, 2019, the Company recorded disposition related and other costs and loss on sale of businesses, net of tax, and discrete tax items that negatively impacted net income $0.8 million, or $0.02 per diluted share. (3) For the six months ended June 30, 2020, the Company recorded a gain from sale of equity investment, impairment, and severance and related costs, net of tax, and discrete tax items that negatively impacted net income by $8.6 million, or $0.17 per diluted share. For the six months ended June 30, 2019, the Company recorded disposition related and other costs and loss on sale of businesses, net of tax, and discrete tax items that negatively impacted net income $2.6 million, or $0.05 per diluted share.

SOURCE DHI Group, Inc.

Related Links

www.dicholdingsinc.com


The classrooms at Northern Arizona Universitys School of Hotel and Restaurant Management will look much like local businesses adapting to COVID-19 when campus reopens to students this fall.

As students enter the schools kitchen classroom, they will do their traditional line up to verify they are properly dressed and prepared to work in a kitchen, plus complete a new health screening for COVID-19.

Were not doing this for health reasons. Were really doing it to demonstrate what is happening now in best practice, said Mark Molinaro, interim associate executive director and senior chef lecturer at HRM.

He said the curriculum within the School of Hotel and Restaurant Management (HRM) will be modified to include crisis management concepts to prepare for scenarios like COVID-19, as well as transferrable skills in the case students would lose their jobs like many service workers have during the pandemic.

This fall, class sizes in HRM will be cut in half, to no more than 16 students at one time for distancing. Upon entering the kitchen, students will saturate a tissue with alcohol to clean their cell phones, which are often used for classroom activities. The hallway doors will be closed during class, but windows will be opened and all range hoods will be turned on to increase ventilation.

Molinaro said he is considering taking his culinary classes outside to the patio when possible to reduce possible transmission. The Spanish rice dish paella  which is often cooked over an open fire  could be a possible outdoor lesson, he noted.

Before leaving class, students have always been required to clean and disinfect their workstations for the next class. The school just implemented a new product, though, to help speed up this process and prepare students for the table-turning aspect of working in a restaurant.

Molinaro tells his students on the first day of class that cooking is 25% cleaning.

Whats the best way to clean up a mess? Dont make it, Molinaro said.

The new cleaner-sanitizer being used in the HRM kitchen, created by infection prevention company Ecolab, takes 30 seconds to kill viruses, compared to several minutes for some older sanitizers.

It takes time to break down the protein shells of viruses. Thats what the chemical is doing. It basically strips the skin off [the virus] and then it dies, said Scott Downard, Ecolabs territory manager for the northern Arizona, in a demonstration.

Going from something like a five- to eight-minute table time to a two-minute table time can translate into hundreds of thousands of dollars and a lot of irate versus happy guests, Molinaro said of the cleaners applications for restaurants where his students may be employed. Were trying to be the safe kitchen of the future, to be current in our field and try to stay on top of the latest and greatest products and processes that we can provide to teach our students.

NAU classes are scheduled to begin August 12 virtually, with those requiring in-person attendance starting on campus the following week. All other classes will begin in-person instruction August 31.

Kaitlin Olson can be reached at the office at kolson@azdailysun.com or by phone at (928) 556-2253.

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By Express News Service

COIMBATORE/MADURAI: Was the man who died in Coimbatore really Sri Lankan don Angoda Lokka? Was he the same wanted criminal against whom the Interpol had issued a Red Alert? With multiple theories doing rounds, a special team of the CB-CID investigating the case has initiated DNA tests on samples collected from the dead body.

A five-member team of officials from the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) met their CB-CID counterparts to find out more about the death of the gangster, who is supposed to have controlled his criminal empire back in the island nation, virtually from India. CB-CID IG K Shankar dismissed the meeting as a usual procedure, but Sri Lankan media suspect Lokka had links with LTTE.

Currently, sources tell Express, the only evidence to prove that the dead man is Lokka are statements provided by three persons arrested in connection with the case, including Lokkas girlfriend Amani Dhanji. She was admitted to Coimbatore Medical College Hospital after suffering a miscarriage, and was discharged on Thursday.

Lokka was allegedly living in India under the name Pradeep Singh, as per the Aadhaar card he had secured. He was declared brought dead at a hospital in Coimbatore on July 3. While its alleged that he died of a cardiac arrest, the Sri Lankan media suspects he was poisoned, following which the police of the island nation reached out to their counterparts in Coimbatore for information. The CB-CID sleuths on Thursday raided the houses of two others arrested  advocate Sivakami Sundari and Thiyaneshwaran  and seized several documents.

CBI-CID sends Lankan don Lokkas viscera to city for examination

Coimbatore Police on Sunday arrested Sivakami Sundari, Dyaneswaran and Amani Thanji, a Sri Lankan woman, on charges of forging documents to get an Aadhaar card for Lokka. According to sources, Amani Thanjis husband was killed by Lokka in Sri Lanka and after that she was staying with him. After Lokka died, the trio allegedly took his body to Madurai and buried it there. In order to establish Lokkas identity, CB-CID has sent the viscera to Chennai for examination,the police official added.

Meanwhile, Shankar told reporters the CBCID will take Sivakami Sundari, a Madurai-based lawyer, into custody to find if there was any possibility of LTTE connection after it emerged that she had transactions of nearly `1 crore in seven accounts. Sundari had allegedly assisted the other two in taking the body for cremation in Madurai. Sundaris father is allegedly a known LTTE sympathiser and one of the seven special teams was on the job to establish his possible links with the LTTE, Shankar said.

The agency is checking these money transactions and wanted to know from where she was getting the money and if there was any foreign link, he added. The CB-CID IG said that all the three arrested will be taken into custody for interrogation.

In Madurai, the CB-CID team seized currencies of Sri Lanka, Canada, China and Singapore, bank passbooks, passports and a few bond papers from the house of Sivakami. Apart from Sivakamis house, the team had also conducted a search at her office in Railar Nagar, Koodal Pudur. Sources said Sivakami had shifted five houses in the last one year.

Meanwhile, officials said that in the CCTV footage they obtained from Thathaneri crematorium, where Lokka was allegedly cremated, Sivagami is seen standing with two other persons. These unidentified persons are believed to have stayed at the office along with another elderly man for a while, the officials said. (With inputs from agencies)


Grace Millane's murderer's 'abhorrent' treatment of her dead body did not mean he was 'callous' when he actually killed her, his lawyers claim.

Jesse Kempson, 28, is appealing his conviction and life sentence for strangling the young British backpacker during 'rough sex' on December 1, 2018.

The pair met on Tinder and after several drinks went back to his hotel room in Auckland, New Zealand, the night before her 22nd birthday.

Kempson took photos of her body after her death and she was later found in a suitcase buried in a forested area outside the city.

He was jailed for at least 17 years in February after a drawn-out trial where his defence claimed to have accidentally killed her during sex.

British backpacker Grace Millane's (pictured) was strangled on December 1, 2018, in an Auckland hotel room the night before her 22nd birthday

Jesse Kempson, 28, is appealing his conviction and life sentence for strangling Ms Millane during 'rough sex' on December 1, 2018

Rachael Reed, his lawyer for the appeal, said the case was about process, not to justify Kempson's reprehensible treatment of her body.

'I do not in any way seek to condone or excuse his actions after Ms Millane's death,' she told the Court of Appeal in Auckland on Thursday.

'I cannot and will not do so - they are inexcusable. This appeal is about whether the trial process miscarried.'

Kempson, who watched on from a video link to his jail while his family sat in the courtroom, still maintains his innocence on the murder charge.

But there is no argument that he took intimate photos of her body before watching hours of hardcore pornography as she lay dead in the room.

Neither is it disputed that Kempson organised a Tinder date with another woman, telling a bogus story about a 'friend' who accidentally killed a girl during sex, just before he callously dumped Ms Millane's body.

Kempson, who watched on from a video link to his jail while his family sat in the courtroom, still maintains his innocence on the murder charge

Ms Millane's killer played for an amateur softball team in Auckland. He told would-be sexual partners that his cousin was a rugby star for the All Blacks and that he was suffering cancer

Ms Reed argued Kempson's 17-year non-parole period was manifestly unjust because the judge put too much weight on his post-killing actions.

'The post death conduct is certainly at times abhorrent. What we do need to look at though is what connection that has to the state of mind he had at the time of the murder,' she said.

Ms Reed said none of his 'distasteful' actions had any bearing on the level of callousness present when he killed Ms Millane.

She said Kempson may have been so horrified with what he had done that he used the pornography to distract himself.

In sentencing in February, Justice Simon Moore told the murderer his actions amounted to 'conduct that underscores a lack of empathy and sense of self-entitlement and objectification'.

The Hon Justice Simon Moore (pictured) branded Kempson 'depraved' and ordered he not be considered for parole for at least 17 years

He said the attack was not pre-meditated or driven by rage, but there was no doubt that Ms Millane was vulnerable.

Justice Moore described the photos Kempson took of Ms Millane's body as 'depraved' and said his actions showed a 'lack of empathy'.

'You are a large and powerful man, she was diminutive. You were in a position of total physical dominance. She trusted you,' he said.

'You didn't ring an ambulance, or call the police, instead you embarked on a well-planned and sustained and coordinated course of action to conceal any evidence of what had occurred in your room.'

Ms Reed on Thursday reiterated that there was no evidence Kempson planned to kill Ms Millane, as Justice Moore also noted.

She noted there were no defensive injuries to her client which implied Ms Millane did not fight back and consented to being choked.

Ms Reed also argued Ms Millaine was not vulnerable when she was killed due to her consenting to the rough sex.

The non-parole period was therefore too long and should be shortened to 12 years, she argued on Thursday.

Crown prosecutor Robin McCoubrey rejected Ms Reed's argument that Kempson just panicked and tried to cover up his crime as ridiculous.

Parents of murdered British backpacker Grace Millane, Dave and Gillian speak to the media outside the High Court, in Auckland, New Zealand last November

He was convicted of murdering Ms Millane (pictured, left and right) by strangling her in a hotel in Auckland after meeting her via Tinder on December 1, 2018  the day before her 22nd birthday

He insisted the murder was callous and Justice Moore was right to take into account Kempson's treatment of her body.

'A woman can't be more exposed at that point in which she's engaging in sexual relations, she was particularly vulnerable,' he said.

'You're involved in the most intimate activity - the last thing on your mind is that you're about to be murdered by your sexual partner.'

Kempson's legal team also claims the jury should not have convicted him because Ms Millane consented to the injuries that killed her.

Ms Reed laid out four grounds for appeal on legal technicalities primarily relating to how the jury was instructed before its deliberations.

Other claimed miscarriages of justice included the jury's ability to understand expert evidence, probability, and character evidence given by Kempson's previous lovers.

The central point discussed on Thursday was whether the jury was properly directed to adequately consider the issue of Ms Millane's consent to being choked.

For murder to be proven in the case's circumstances, Kempson must have acted with 'reckless violence' - otherwise it could only be a lesser crime.

Ms Reed said the jury should have been better directed to consider up to what point Kempson believed he had Ms Millane's consent to choke her.

'Whether the appellant had an honest belief in consent, this is a crucial live issue and the jury were unable to engage,' she said.

'Did he have time to realise it had occurred prior to her death and if he did, did he maintain an honest belief in consent at that time?'

Left, Grace in April 2017. Right, Adventure-loving Grace is pictured here in September 2016, in front of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge

Shocking pictures played to the jury reveal the moment police discovered the body of murdered British backpacker Grace Millane dumped in this muddy hole in the ground

Ms Reed also questioned whether Kempson formed the 'reckless intent' required for murder between applying pressure to Ms Millane's neck and her dying.

She claimed if the jury was better able to consider Kempson's 'state of mind' and 'conscious appreciation' of the situation, it may have decided he believed he still had consent even after she passed out.

'And he didn't turn his mind to the risks of carrying on in those circumstances and that [death] was a reasonable possibility,' she said.

'Consent shouldn't be removed just because someone has died.'

Much of the legal discussion concerned the 'question trail' given to the jury to help them reach a verdict.

Question trails are a 'logical path to follow in their deliberations' that keep jurors focused on the facts of the case and not on emotion or irrelevant details.

'That path is a series of questions that cover the elements of the offence for which proof is required, specific to each charge being determined,' the New Zealand courts website explains.

'The question trails also remind juries about the onus and standard of proof for each element.'

Grace Millane inside a hotel lift with her murderer in the hours before her death on December 1, 2018

The pair walk along a street in Auckland on their night out before going back to Kempson's hotel room

Justice Stephen Kos told Ms Reed the implications of her argument were 'grave' and could put forward consent as a defence to murder.

'I for one resist your proposition,' he said.

Ms Reed clarified that was not her intention, and the point was just that if Kempson did not act recklessly then he could not be guilty of murder.

She also argued that the 'ordinary members of the public' didn't have the experience to understand the expert evidence about how Ms Millane died.

Therefore, they should have been given specific and 'more balanced' directions about what to look for and consider.

Ms Reed also objected to evidence from Kempson's ex-lovers that attacked his character and tainted the jury's view of him.

She argued their evidence was irrelevant and in once case 'heavily disputed', and therefore should not have been allowed.

Crown solicitor Brian Dickey defended how the question trail was written and refuted arguments the jury was not properly directed to examine the consent issue.

He said Kempson's story was full of lies and there was no evidence Ms Millane's death was an accident and not deliberate strangulation.

Kempson himself did not link consensual rough sex to her death when interviewed by police as he was too busy lying about it, Mr Dickey said.

'We have the most flimsy basis of consent,' he said.

Detective Inspector Scott Beard addresses media outside the High Court in Auckland on February 21. Speaking after the sentencing, Detective Beard of Auckland City Police said the death was 'senseless and needless'

Pictures of the bedroom where Kempson throttled Ms Millane during what he claimed was a sex game that went wrong

Speaking after the sentencing, Detective Inspector Scott Beard of Auckland City Police said the death was 'senseless and needless'.

The 'rough sex' defense used during the trial sparked outrage among women's rights activists, who have called for men in murder trials to be banned from using it.

Kempson took a series of intimate photographs of her naked body before watching hardcore pornography through the early hours of the morning after her death.

Even before he buried her body, he was arranging another Tinder date for that afternoon, in which he told a woman a bogus story about a supposed friend who had killed a woman during sex.

He was first snared by a message he left on Grace's Facebook profile page the night before, as he waited to leave the Bluestone Room bar around the corner.

Contacted by police, he wove an elaborate web of lies, at first claiming he and Grace had parted as friends, planning to meet the next day.

Kempson changed his story several times before settling on the defence used at trial.
Lufthansa put German workers on notice of compulsory lay-offs on Thursday, saying tumbling air travel and slow progress in union negotiations meant cuts were unavoidable after it lost 1.7 billion euros ($2 billion) in a single quarter.

The German airline, which secured a 9 billion euro state bailout in June, flew just 4% of prior-year passengers between April and June as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and expects capacity to increase to only around 50% by the end of the year and two-thirds of last years level in 2021.

Its outlook is more pessimistic than rivals such as Air France-KLM, which expects to fly 80% of its pre-crisis flights next year, and British Airways and Iberia owner IAG , which forecasts capacity to be 24% lower in 2021.

Tentative signs of a European recovery have been undermined by new localised outbreaks and restrictions, while long-haul flights such as to the United States - which are important for Lufthansa - remain largely grounded due to rising infections.

Lufthansa Chief Executive Carsten Spohr said on Thursday he does not expect demand for air travel to return to pre-crisis levels until 2024, echoing a forecast last month by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

The airline, which has already announced plans to cut 20% of its leadership positions and 1,000 administrative jobs, said it had run out of patience in talks with unions.

It aims to reduce 22,000 full-time jobs and said it had 8,300 fewer employees by the end of June, due mainly to people leaving jobs at its catering business and non-German businesses, which include Swiss, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines.

BRIGHT SPOT

The sharp drop in passenger numbers pushed Lufthansa to a quarterly adjusted operating loss of 1.7 billion euros, the worst performance in its 65-year history.

That was 300 million euros lower than the average analyst forecast in a company-compiled consensus, boosted by a strong performance in its cargo business which gained from a shrinkage in global air freight capacity.

Lufthansa plans to cut capital expenditure to 1.3 billion euros this year and next, below the levels of Air France-KLM and IAG.

And it expects to burn through around 400-500 million euros in cash per month for the rest of the year and hopes to get back to positive free cash flow in the course of 2021.

Bernstein analysts described the results as the first step on a long journey back. Shares were down 1.7% at 1010 GMT. ($1 = 0.8432 euros) (Reporting by Caroline Copley and Ilona Wissenbach; Editing by Maria Sheahan and Alexander Smith)
D aisy Coleman, a sexual assault victim activist and subject of the Netflix documentary Audrie & Daisy, has died aged 23, her mother has confirmed.

Melinda Coleman told TMZ that her daughter took her own life on Tuesday night.

Audrie & Daisy followed the young womans experiences of trauma and the impact on her family following the alleged attack she suffered as a teenager.

She was 14 when she reported being raped at a party in Maryville, Missouri.

Daisy Coleman's case prompted widespread attention / Getty Images for the World Child

No one was ever convicted of the assault, and the charge against the teenage boy she accused was dropped.

Ms Coleman spoke of being bullied in light of the incident, which sparked national attention.

She was reportedly found dead after her mother called police to check on her.

"She was my best friend and amazing daughter," her mother wrote in a Facebook post.

"I think she had to make it seem like I could live without her. I can't.

"I wish I could have taken the pain from her! She never recovered from what those boys did to her and it's just not fair. My baby girl is gone."

Daisy alleged she was assaulted by a 17-year-old Matthew Barnett at a house party in January 2012.

Melinda said she found her daughter outside the following morning wearing just a T-shirt and tracksuit bottoms in sub-zero temperatures.

Barnett was charged with a felony sexual assault but the case was eventually dropped. Ms Coleman's family argued that this was due the boy's family's local political connections.

Barnett pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of endangering the welfare of a child, arguing he had had consensual sex with Daisy.
Sinduja Jane By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: A group of young volunteers has been working tirelessly throughout the lockdown to ensure hundreds of newborn babies at the Egmore Government Institute of Child Health and Children's Hospital in Chennai don't go hungry by sourcing 100 litres of breast milk over the past four months.

The Thangadhiravam Breastmilk Donation is a group formed by three lactating mothers -- Baby Shree Karan, Koushalya Jagadeesh, and Ramyaa Sankaranarayanan -- to donate mothers milk for newborns at the ICHs breast milk bank. Breast milk banks were launched in the State by late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.

The hospital staff is full of praise for the group for ensuring the bank was kept full despite the restrictions on movement and transport during the lockdown. "These volunteers were extremely helpful in this period. Their support helped us feed the babies, said D Akila Devi, nursing coordinator, Neonatology Department at the Institute of Child Health.

According to her, the hospitals Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) has an average of 52-60 babies on admission. Many of these babies are separated from their mothers who may be at home, or at other hospitals being treated for complications that came up during delivery, she said.

During the lockdown, families of these babies were unable to regularly bring the mothers milk to the hospital to feed the newborns. Daily at least 10 babies would be in need of milk and we have to feed them 10-12 times a day. One baby would require a minimum of 10ml for one feed," explained Akila.

This is where the group stepped in. They coordinated donations from lactating mothers while a handful of dedicated volunteers would pick up the milk and drop it off at the hospital.

We managed to donate 98 litres of breastmilk during the lockdown only because it was a team effort, said Shree Karan. Many mothers couldn't go to hospitals to donate because of fear of contracting infection and restrictions on movement. This pick-and-drop service helped a lot. We need more awareness about this," she said.

M Ashok Kumar, a college student who has roped in other students to help, was one of those delivering the milk to the hospital. He admitted there were difficulties. During the complete lockdown days, all main roads in Chennai were barricaded making it difficult to reach the hospital. I had to take a detour. Police also used to stop us, but we had a permission letter from the hospital, said Ashok.

For K Arun Raj, a volunteer, the problem was at home. "Whenever I have to drop off the milk at the hospital, I tell my mother something else to get out of the house. She still doesnt know I am going to the hospital for this. She is afraid I might contract an infection from hospitals," he smiled.

Aadhithyan Ganesan, another volunteer, also had to overcome opposition from his family.

"My family, especially my mother, did not approve of me going to the hospital when the Covid-19 cases were at the peak. But I asked her that if everyone started thinking like that and stayed home, who will help people in need? he recalled. She understood eventually but she is still not fully convinced," he admitted.

In recognition of their valiant efforts, the ICH recently presented the volunteers an award during a World Breastfeeding Week event recently.
PORT ARTHUR  Mayor Thurman Bill Bartie is asking his residents, along with leaders from surrounding school boards, cities and counties, to join with him to turn down the numbers of new cases of coronavirus. He hopes this push will result in a clear decrease in cases by the end of the month.

If we only do this in Port Arthur  its kind of like moot, he said.

The program itself consists only of taking the Turn Down the Numbers Pledge, which reemphasizes precautions that have been stressed largely since the beginning of the pandemic. Individuals who take the pledge also are then encouraged to serve as ambassadors to communicate those precautions to others.

The pledge can be found on the city of Port Arthurs website. Bartie said hard copies of it could also be obtained at City Hall. The building is not open, but he said they could be obtained by asking one of the police officers who stands in the entryway ensuring unauthorized individuals dont come in.

Related: COVID claims pastor who lived life of giving

Bartie said he hopes phrasing the precautions in this way, coupled with the fact that many more people now have firsthand experience with the virus, will prompt buy-in from residents, which he said has been slipping.

Bartie announced the program at a gathering of local media Wednesday on the steps of the Port Arthur City Hall. The news conference came more than a month after the last one  a major change from the almost weekly gatherings he was having when the pandemic first began.

The gathering and a Spanish translation provided by a member of city staff underscore the movements importance, he said.

More Information Coronavirus testing sites When: 8 a.m.-4 p.m. today Where: Carl A. Parker Multipurpose Center, 1800 Lakeshore Drive, Port Arthur When: 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Thursday Where: Orange County Convention and Expo Center, 11475 Farm Road 1442, Orange When: 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday to July 14 Where: Central High School girls' gym, 88 Jaguar Drive, Beaumont See More Collapse

Bartie came up with the idea after the U.S. Conference of Mayors challenged its membership to take action that reinvigorated residents around stopping the spread of coronavirus.

Top hits: Get Beaumont Enterprise stories sent directly to your inbox

Port Arthur Public Health Director Judith Smith said if residents started rigid adherence to mask wearing and other precautions during the first few months of the pandemic, it likely wouldnt have gotten this bad. However, once community spread begins, she said, its hard to get a handle on it again.

Its just one of those things that if we could have gotten a grip on this from the beginning, even as businesses began to open, we should have still honored the social distancing, wearing a mask, Smith said.

She noted that, at this point, once an individual contracts coronavirus in public, theyve been bringing it back to their household and infecting those members. Limiting the public community spread likely also would limit these household cases.

When asked why starting such a program fell on him, as opposed to the Jefferson County judge or the mayor of Beaumont, the countys largest city, Bartie said he expected those leaders were given the same information he was and they, too, are working on their own responses. However, he also invited them to use his model.

Related: COVID-19 recoveries soar after CDC guidance change

Despite Tuesday showing confirmed cases higher than any single day since July 21, on Wednesday they seemed to be back to the overall downward trend the county has seen for a few weeks.

Jefferson County confirmed 49 new cases of the virus on Wednesday. Port Arthur confirmed its 15th virus-related death.

That brings the county to a total of 4,321 positive cases and 72 deaths since the pandemic began.

Join Port Arthurs Mayor, Thurman Bartie, to turn down the numbers. It can be done, Bartie said.

Take the pledge, but dont only take the pledge. Make it part of your existence, he added later.

Kaitlin Bain is the Government Reporter for the Beaumont Enterprise. Contact her at Kaitlin.Bain@BeaumontEnterprise.com or on Twitter by clicking here.

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DANBURY  As 59,600 homes and businesses faced a third night without power in greater Danbury due to tropical storm Isaias, a state leader promised an investigation of a utility companys response.

The response thus far by Eversource has been incomprehensible, said state Rep. David Arconti, chair of the House Energy and Technology committee. I will see to it that the committee will be conducting our own, separate hearing ... investigating their storm management response, delivery charges, whether or not enough investments have been made hardening our grid, and whether Eversource needs to make immediate investments in their linemen.

Arconti, who represents Danbury, said he will also pressure Eversource to make the Hat City a priority.

By Thursday evening, Danbury still had 14,430 homes and businesses without power, giving the city the second-highest outage total in the state, after West Hartford.

The 5 p.m. outage numbers for Danbury and 11 surrounding towns means Eversource restored power to 3,400 greater Danbury addresses on Thursday.

Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton called it by far the worst response he has ever seen, taking to Twitter to criticize the companys CEO and caption a photo of people looking through binoculars with waiting on @eversourceenergy.

A utility spokesman responded that Eversource is dealing with overwhelming disruption, with more than a half million addresses still without electricity in Connecticut.

We serve 149 of (Connecticuts) towns and cities and all of them have significant outages, Eversource spokesman Mitch Gross said Thursday. As of now we are telling people to expect outages for multiple days.

Late on Thursday, Boughton said Eversource had restored high-priority addresses including senior housing, the homeless shelter and City Hall.

Other nearby cities were also in an outage crisis, including Norwalk with 11,175 addresses without power, Westport with 11,370, Waterbury with 13,360.

Across greater Danbury, meanwhile, a handful of towns remain almost completely without power. In Bridgewater, 99.8 percent of addresses served by Eversource were powerless, according to company data at 5 p.m. Three other towns  Redding, Roxbury and Sherman  had at least 90 percent of addresses served by Eversource without power.

The most progress in restoring electricity to homes has been in Newtown, which saw 81 percent of its addresses without power Wednesday night reduced to 66 percent by 5 p.m. Thursday.

New Milford saw 1,100 addresses restored Thursday, and Brookfield saw 590 addressed restored, but most other greater Danbury towns remained unchanged, Eversource data shows.

In Danbury, restoration work was visible, but modest. More than 16,000 addresses were without power at 9 a.m., and by 5 p.m, that number had dropped to 14,430 according to Eversource.

Boughton and other elected officials have lambasted Eversources response.

An Eversource executive responded on Thursday.

We understand our customers frustration and know it is an especially challenging time to be without power given the ongoing pandemic and hot summer weather, said Craig Hallstrom, Eversource president of regional electric operations. Our entire Eversource team is dedicated to this effort and is working with an extreme sense of urgency to get all of our customers the power they need.

Gross added that, in addition to Connecticut contractors hired by Eversource to help with the storm, the company has pulled in help from Massachusetts, Michigan and Canada.

In Danbury, the city was concerned about diminished cell service as batteries drains on towers, so the city arranged for Verizon to install a temporary cell tower at Broadview Middle School.

We recognize how difficult it is to be without electricity especially while many people continue working from home during the pandemic, Hayhurst said. Our crews will continue working until every customer has power back while also complying with stringent pandemic protocols.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342
Waking up and smelling the socialist coffee, New York's Gov. Cuomo is doing Mayor Bill de Blasio's job now, begging New York City's residents to not move away from New York City.

The middle class, the rich and the super-rich are doing just that, with 420,000 already just getting the hell out.

ALBANY  Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been begging rich people to return to New York City from their second-home retreats so they can pay taxes to help offset the states growing coronavirus-related revenue shortfall. I literally talk to people all day long who are now in their Hamptons house who also lived here, or in their Hudson Valley house, or in their Connecticut weekend house, and I say, You got to come back! Well go to dinner! Ill buy you a drink! Come over, Ill cook! the Democratic governor said Monday. Theyre not coming back right now. And you know what else theyre thinking? If I stay there, Ill pay a lower income tax, because they dont pay the New York City surcharge, he added, noting the wealthiest 1 percent of the Empire States population picks up roughly 50 percent of the states tax burden.

It's what happens in all socialist hellholes, from East Berlin to Caracas. People flee. It's not a bug, it's a feature.

According to this 2018 Empire Center report, rich people in what's known as the top 1% -- making more than $713,706 a year --pay more than 50% of New York state's taxes, and at least 43% of New York City's taxes.

Yet what they get for their money is pretty much zilch, starting with personal security. New York's police have been defunded by $1 billion and before that's even gone through, robberies on the wealthy Upper East Side have spiked 286%, according to the Daily Mail. Sure, some rich New Yorkers have security guards. But in a thick crowded city like New York, it's often not the story. What's more, many of the wealthy live in New York City because they like the stimulating experience of city living, hopping over to Bergdorf's for a new outfit and then strolling over to Harry Cipriani's for the ladies who lunch, and then taking in a gallery or a play. A lot of the nice restaurants frequented by the rich are shutting down, leaving one less reason to stay. So's Broadway. And the schools in the age of COVID, for those who use public schools, which the productive middle class certainly does, are costing big in taxes and now delivering nothing. And now with taxes set to go sky high with a $1.5 billion plan to shake down the rich in the works from the rabidly left state legislature, why would anyone want to stay?

As Billy Joel once sang: Is that all you get for your money?

The same sort of socialist hog-wallowing, followed by elected leaders begging residents to stay has also been seen in Seattle and Minneapolis in recent weeks. It might be some sort of trend. But it won't stop people from fleeing.

Such wretched pleas completely fail to recognize why people are fleeing.

Yet they're a far cry from what has been seen in California, which treats the flight of its productive residents as no crisis (even the state's illegal immigrants are fleeing), and literally cheers when businesses pull up stakes and move to Texas. Remember this?

After Elon Musk sued local authorities in California and threatened to move Teslas HQ to Texas or Nevada over attempts to contain the coronavirus outbreak, one Democratic state politician had a blunt message for the electric car magnate: F*ck Elon Musk. Lorena S Gonzalez from San Diego, who describes herself on Twitter as a Mama, Labor Leader turned CA Assemblywoman [and] Progressive Latina Democrat, tweeted the pithy rebuke on Saturday night, earning predictable press attention. She did not immediately comment further.

Cuomo's plaint calls to mind that leftist blue cities and states can be divided into two groups of people - those who look at the bookkeeping, and those who don't. Cuomo is doing de Blasio's job by calling on New York City's fleeing residents to not flee. De Blasio is busy painting Black Lives Matter graffiti in New York's city streets. Minnesota's denizens are begging for businesses not to leave. California's are cheering those who do. It's almost a litmus test for separating out the crazy socialists from the really crazy socialists. Hugo Chavez used to cheer when wealthy Venezuelans moved out of his country as he was turning it into a hellhole. Maybe this litmus test of the crazy and the crazier is an indicator of which places become Venezuela the fastest.
A spate of COVID-19 outbreaks have been reported at four separate workplace locations in Swindon. Workers at a Royal Mail delivery office, a fire station, the Honda car factory, and a distribution centre for the food supermarket chain, Iceland, have been taken ill.

Swindon, in Wiltshire in the southwest of England, has a population of 200,000. The outbreaks at varying workplace locations across the town within the space of two days are unprecedented. Yet the response of the local media was to express fears of another lockdown, rather than focusing on the heightened threat the outbreaks posed to workers and their families.

Local Director of Public Health Steve Maddern stated blithely, As lockdown restrictions are eased, we would expect to see small outbreaks to occurthis is usual, and it is being dealt with in the usual way. He stressed that an outbreak was defined as just two people at a linked situation.

This is in line with a pattern of official indifference nationally. Local health officials and the Public Health bodies have sought to minimise any disruption to the operations of the corporations as outbreaks of the virus have flared up in the meat processing industry and retail distribution centres in Wales and the north of England. Employers have been absolved of all responsibility, while the onus has been shifted onto workers and the public to follow loose guidelines on personal hygiene.

The Royal Mail delivery office in Dorcan, Swindon, with around 1,000 staff, was closed for 48 hours from July 21 to organise a deep clean, after two postal workers tested positive for the virus. Public Health England (PHE) was reported as satisfied that procedures had been followed and there were no outstanding concerns. While postal workers were sent home, no mandatory testing was organised and, according to one account, they were informed that they could report back to duty before receiving their results.

Since the start of the pandemic, Royal Mail has been a flashpoint for walkouts and stoppages by postal workers over the lack of social distancing and personal protective equipment (PPE) in delivery and sorting offices around the UK. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported that 40 postal workers, mail sorters, messengers and couriers have died after contracting COVID-19. Concerns had been raised by postal workers at the Swindon delivery office back in March about the failure to provide gloves and hand sanitiser.

On July 22 it was announced that three firefighters tested positive at Swindon fire station. Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service issued a press release stating that the organisation of further testing would be conditional on whether other staff became symptomatic. Assistant Chief Fire Officer James Mahoney said there was no requirement to review existing practices in the workplace to safeguard against COVID-19.

The fire and rescue service are overstretched nationally due to years of job cuts and a failure by the government to introduce priority testing. Services in the UK were operating with 11,500 firefighters fewer than in 2010, according to the Fire Brigades Union (FBU). The government has ignored calls made by the FBU to introduce priority testing. In April, the union estimated that up to 12 percent of firefighters and control staff nationally were in self-isolation.

Honda posted an on-site notice on July 21 that a worker at its factory in south Marston had tested positive for the virus. The risk of transmission to the 3,000 workers employed at the site has been underplayed by the company, which has withheld details of the extent of infections and continued production. It citing the authority of PHE that it is complying with all safety requirements to maintain a Covid-secure site.

The developments at Honda should serve as a warning to all car workers in the UK. The company suspended production from March 18 and reopened in early June, along with Nissan in Sunderland. BMW, PSA and Ford resumed production in mid-May. In the US, after the auto giants were forced to temporarily shut production due to walkouts by car workers, the resumption of production has led to a wave of infections.

Attempts at cover-ups have unravelled, most clearly at the Iceland distribution centre in Bridgemead, which employs over 700 workers and is operated by XPO Logistics.

The distribution hub has remained open with the approval of PHE, even as the number of workers testing positive has more than quadrupled after a mobile testing unit was set up on-site July 29. The previous Friday there were 13 reported cases. Based on the most up-to-date figures, 64 cases have been confirmed and two workers have been hospitalised. A total of 150 staff are self-isolating.

Swindon accounted for the highest increase in coronavirus cases per 100,000 of the population in England in the final week of July. The outbreak at the Iceland distribution centre was the most important factor in the increased ratio from 19.8 per 100,000 the previous week to 48.6 per 100,000.

As far as the Director of Public Health is concerned, however, testing and tracing is simply a case of compiling statistics with no consideration given to any measures of containment that would interfere with the flow of business. Maddern declared that the risk of a wider community outbreak remains low.

A few days later, five workers bused from Swindon to the Bakkavor cake factory in the nearby town of Devizes tested positive.

Official irresponsibility is meeting with significant resistance. The empty assurances of public health officials who sing from the same balance sheet as the government and corporations, has failed to convince around half of the workforce at the Iceland distribution centre to return to work.

Opposition is developing independently of the unions. Speaking to BBC Radio Wilshire, Unite official John McGookin stated, As I understand it now, a lot of the workforce have voted with their feet and decided its not safe to go to work at the minute.

McGookin acknowledged that XPO Logistics was refusing to speak to the union but issued no call to mobilise against the company. He said he had no idea why the company had not closed the site.

This is self-serving rubbish. The conduct of XPO Logistics and Iceland has a definite class logic, which Unite tries to conceal. The risk of infection and death is viewed as collateral damage in the pursuit of profit. XPO Logistics has followed the same course at the distribution centre it operates on behalf of ASOS in south Yorkshire, where they refused to close the site for a deep clean after nine workers tested positive for the virus in May. Its reckless actions have been backed to the hilt by the local Labour authority.

Further evidence of a growing intransigence among workers has been expressed at the Bakkavor cake factory in Devizes, which employs 540. On Monday evening, workers staged a strike from 6 p.m. to midnight over having to work in unsafe conditions after the infections of the Swindon workers were discovered.

This emerging opposition must find organised political expression. A socially responsible approach to the pandemic is inconceivable as long as policy is dictated by the corporate elite and its stooges.

The Socialist Equality Party has outlined how a fight can be taken forward in its call for workplace safety committees. This perspective is already finding traction among US workers, with the development of a network of such committees being established in the major car plants, at Fiat Chrysler and Ford.
Its not every day a law enforcement officer has a chance to save the lives of eight people after an accident.



But thats what happened on Friday, Dec. 13, 2019, when Whitfield County Sheriffs Office deputies Shawn Giles and Andy Center witnessed an accident while transporting an inmate back to Dalton.

While Center kept a watch on the prisoner and remained in local contact, Deputy Giles ran down a steep embankment to help passengers trapped in two vehicles knocked off the road by a jackknifing tractor-trailer on I-75 at I-475 in Macon.



In the midst of a cold rain, Deputy Giles was able to pull all seven individuals out of the bottom vehicle, including two children, then extricated the lone occupant of the vehicle on top.



He administered basic first aid the best he could and stayed with all patients until local first responders could arrive, Whitfield County Sheriff Scott Chitwood said in his letter nominating Deputy Giles for a statewide honor. To our knowledge, everybody survived and made a full recovery.



Last Wednesday, July 29, Deputy Giles was honored as the Georgia Sheriffs Association Deputy Sheriff of the Year during the annual summer training conference held at Lake Lanier Islands.



Though he was in the right place at the right time, it shows that a law enforcement officer is expected to always respond accordingly, Sheriff Chitwood said. Having witnessed the accident along with Deputy Andy Center, we feel certain his quick response was critical in the recovery of all eight passengers being removed from the two vehicles in the wreckage.



Deputy Giles has been employed by the Sheriffs Office about 19 years, currently assigned to Court Services, and works at the Courthouse, primarily in the courtrooms.



Membership in the Georgia Sheriffs Association is comprised of Georgias 159 elected sheriffs. The Georgia Sheriffs Association also relies on the financial support of nearly 70,000 Honorary Members who believe in the office of Sheriff and its mission to preserve the peace in our communities.


BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 6

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

By providing financial assistance to Lebanon, Azerbaijan, represented by President Ilham Aliyev, has demonstrated Islamic solidarity, which is so necessary at the present time, Lebanese MP Imad al-Hout told Trend.

The MP said that the assistance provided by the Azerbaijani government to the people of Lebanon is very important and well-timed.

We shall express our gratitude to President Ilham Aliyev, the government of Azerbaijan, and fraternal Azerbaijani people for the provided financial support, he added.

Al-Hout also noted that the financial support by Azerbaijan to Lebanon will become a great impetus for strengthening relations between the two countries, which primarily is beneficial to Beirut.

On August 4, a massive explosion occurred in the port of Beirut, as a result of which hundreds were killed and more than 4,000 Lebanese were injured.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev sent a letter of condolences to Lebanese President Michel Aoun on August 5 and expressed the solidarity of the Azerbaijani people with the people of Lebanon.

On the same day, Azerbaijani Prime Minister Ali Asadov signed an order on providing financial assistance to Lebanon.

According to the order, taking into account Lebanon's need for humanitarian assistance to eliminate the consequences of the tragedy and in order to provide this country with financial assistance, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs is allocated $1 million manat from the reserve fund envisaged in the state budget of Azerbaijan for 2020.

The Azerbaijani Ministry of Finance is instructed to ensure payment of the allocated funds in the prescribed manner. The order came into force from the date of signing.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Pennsylvania more than doubled as of August 1 the fee for all unconventional well permit applications, while shale companies call on state officials to find other mechanisms to fund the oil and gas program of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

The fee for all unconventional well permit applications is now $12,500up from US$5,000 for nonvertical unconventional wells and US$4,200 for vertical unconventional wells. The increase is designed to sustain the Program at current staff levels and operating costs, according to the new rule.

However, the rule and the decision to hike the fees by 150 percent were made on the basis of well permit analyses in the period 2014 through 2017, and were outdated even before the current crisis in the oil and gas industry, Laura Legere of Pittsburg Post-Gazette writes.

The state reviews the fees every three years, but Neil Shader, spokesman of the Department of Environmental Protection, told the Pittsburg Post-Gazette that we will revisit the fee schedule accordingly.

The Department of Environmental Protection of Pennsylvania  the state home to parts of the Marcellus and Utica shale gas basins  funds a large part of its oil and gas program with the fees for well permit applications.

The Marcellus Shale Coalition says that the fees for well permit applications in Pennsylvania are now the highest in the United States and called for the Department of Environmental Protection and the administration to continue to strongly urge DEP and the administration to pursue a more sustainable and equitable funding mechanism for its oil and gas program, as carried by Pittsburg Post-Gazette.

The department has issued just 523 permits to companies in the first half this year, the lowest number of permits since 1993, as the low natural gas prices and the pandemic-driven demand crash discouraged firms from rushing to secure well permits.

Gas production in the Appalachia shale basin is expected to drop by 210 million cubic feet/day between July and August, to 32.713 billion cubic feet/day this month, according to EIAs latest Drilling Productivity Report.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
The captain of a Russian ship carrying a cargo of ammonium nitrate which was impounded in Beirut said he regularly sounded the alarm over the 'power keg', years before it exploded and destroyed large parts of the city.

Boris Prokoshev, who was at the helm of tanker Rhosus in 2013 when it had to make an emergency stop in Lebanon, said he wrote to Vladimir Putin regularly about the dangerous vessel after it was impounded.

Prokoshev, now 70, told MailOnline that Igor Grechushkin, the owner of the vessel and the ammonium on board, had 'washed his hands' of the vessel, leaving the crew and cargo stranded for months.

The crew were freed the following year and the ammonium placed in a warehouse where it sat for six years, until it was ignited by a fire earlier this week - causing a blast that has killed at least 137 people and wounded 5,000.

Boris Prokoshev (left and right), captain of a Russian vessel carrying 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate that ultimately caused the Beirut blast, says he issued warnings over the vessel

Boris Prokoshev (right), captain of cargo vessel Rhosus, and boatswain Boris Musinchak pose next to a freight hold loaded with ammonium nitrate in the port of Beirut, Lebanon, in a summer 2014 photograph

Prokoshev was at the helm of the Rhosus (pictured) in 2013 when it had to make an unscheduled stop in Beirut due to engine problems, where it was impounded for a year

Prokoshev explained that the Rhosus was en route from Batumi, in Georgia, to Mozambique with its dangerous cargo when it had to make an unscheduled stop in Beirut due to trouble with its radar and engine.

He also added today that the ship's owners had asked him to pick up extra cargo from the city.

'They were being greedy,' said Prokoshev, recalling when he was asked to make the unscheduled stop to pick up extra cargo.

After trying to load the extra cargo, Prokoshev felt 'it was impossible' and that it 'could have ruined the whole ship.'

The vessel spent more than a year in port, with Prokoshev and a handful of Ukrainian sailors aboard, as the Lebanese tried to extract fees and fines from Grechushkin.

In the wake of the explosion, Grechushkin appears to have gone into hiding amid reports that he is being hunted by the secret services in Cyprus where he resides.

Speaking to MailOnline, Prokoshev claimed that he wrote to Putin 'every month' while the ship was being held, adding: 'The vessel's owner abandoned it.

'The owner abandoned the cargo, ammonium nitrate. It is an explosive substance. And we were abandoned too.

'We were living on a powder keg for ten months without being paid.'

He told Putin that he had been left in limbo with the explosive cargo by the Russian owner of the vessel.

He wrote: 'Our condition is worse than prisoners. A prisoner knows when he will be released. We do not know.'

During a year in confinement, Prokoshev said he wrote to Vladimir Putin every day about the dangerous cargo, urging the Russia state to intervene

Prokoshev accused businessman Igor Grechushkin, owner of the cargo, of 'washing his hands' of it - though said ultimate blame for the disaster lies with Lebanon

Captain Boris Prokoshev and crew members demand their release from the arrested cargo vessel Rhosus in the port of Beirut, Lebanon, in a summer 2014 photograph

Captain Boris Prokoshev and crew members demand their release from the arrested cargo vessel Rhosus in the port of Beirut, Lebanon, in a summer 2014 photograph

He was officially told that his appeal for Putin to act over the ship had been passed to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

He said the consul in Beirut had mocked him asking: 'What do you want - Putin to send special forces to be released here by force?'

Eventually the crew were allowed to go home after they successfully mounted a legal challenge in Beirut claiming that they were being detained illegally.

Then the ammonium nitrate was 'unloaded to the warehouse, under the responsibility of the (Lebanese) Ministry of Transport,' the captain told MailOnline.

'I learned about this from sailors who came to Beirut. The ship eventually sank, two or three years ago.

'It had a small hole, it was necessary to periodically pump out water. And without a crew there was no-one to do it.'

Asked about this week's explosion, he said the Lebanese authorities were responsible.

'They are to blame. There was no point in arresting this ship. It was necessary to get rid of it as soon as possible,' he added.

And given they kept the cargo, they should have used it as fertiliser rather than leave the unstable load in the port.

The ammonium was eventually impounded by Lebanon, where it was allowed to sit in a warehouse for six years before it detonated during a fire, killing at least 137 people

'They could take out to the fields,' he said. 'If nobody claimed the cargo, it means that it is nobody's.'

The conditions on the ship have been recalled by those on board.

Semyon Nikolenko, hired as an electrical engineer on the Rhosus , said the management were 'not good', reported RT.

'It was my first contract, my first [sailing] experience  and a bitter one,' said the sailor, now living in Crimea.

Grechushkin was a 'sly' man who was 'all talk' and did not deliver on his promises.

At one point the sailors went on strike in a bid to demand action.

They barely had enough to eat, say those on board.

The crew were not paid and Grechushkin pleaded bankruptcy - but Prokoshev has disputed this.

The owner's son is known to have attended private school in Cyprus.
The inaugural Middle Ground Book Fest came to a close on Sunday, August 2, with Back to the Future: What to Expect After 2020 in Middle Grade Publishing, a panel featuring Kaitlyn Johnson, literary agent at BelCastro Agency; Shelly Romero, assistant editor at Scholastic; Patrice Caldwell, literary agent at Howard Morhaim Literary; Mabel Hsu, editor at HarperCollins/Tegen; and Megan Manzano, literary agent at D4EO Literary.

After the introductions, moderator Janae Marks (From the Desk of Zoe Washington, HarperCollins/Tegen), one of the festivals cofounders, asked the panelists to describe their respective roles. Hsu explained how editors read through agented submissions, taking acquired manuscripts through the approximately two-year publication process. A lot of it is communicating with the authors, Romero added, as well as communicating with the other departments involved in bringing a book to fruition.

Johnson described agenting as being the middleman between the writer and editor. Agents work with writers to polish their manuscripts and then send those manuscripts to editors, helping to negotiate contracts if a match is made, she said. Caldwell added her perspective as a former editor: I dont really think an agents role ends when we sell the book, she said, speculating that shes very hands on, as she brings up marketing plans and blurb-seeking and uses her own contacts to bolster the process. While Caldwell formally represents the author, its also a partnership between me and the editor, she concluded. I want them to know that Im their first resource. Manzano agreed, saying that ideally, agents help their authors develop books and ideas for a long-term career.

Marks then asked why the panelists loved middle grade and why they choose to work with it.

A lot of change is happening, Manzano answered, identifying middle grade as a crucial time period and admiring the first discovery aspect and whimsical atmosphere endemic to middle grade novels.

Its a time when authors really start talking up to kids, and thats really important, Hsu said, appreciating the way that middle grade authors balance tough topics.

Caldwell said that for her, its all about that grand adventure, calling middle grade, especially contemporary fantasy, particularly memorable and magical.

Romero agreed with Caldwells assessment, asserting that middle grade books were foundational when she was learning English as a second language as a child. I feel like you really do grow through your middle grade reading, she mused. It can just make kids have that long-lasting love of reading.

Its that time of your life where that anything-can-happen persona clashes with the reality of life, Johnson said. Theres just so much potential behind it.

Next, Marks asked the panelists for middle grade recommendations for projects theyve worked on.

I have two that are coming out next year, Johnson shared: a sci-fi novel by Rebecca Thorne called The Secrets of Star Whales (North Star Editions), which she termed Dr. Who meets The Magic School Bus plus whales in space, and a contemporary novel by Jaime Berry called Hope Springs (Little, Brown), about a girl and her grandmother finding their forever home.

Romero named three from Scholastic Press: Keep It Together, Keiko Carter by Debbi Michiko Florence, which deals with microaggressions, toxicity, friendship dissolution, and first crushes; Cattywampus by Ash Van Otterloo, a voice-y and magical debut about two witches from rival families in the Appalachians; and Hide and Seeker by Daka Hermon, a horror novel featuring a Slenderman-esque figure called the Seeker.

Caldwell selected Sayantani DasGuptas The Serpents Secret (Scholastic Press), an Indian-American contemporary fantasy that was her first acquisition as an editor; Claribel A. Ortegas Ghost Squad (Scholastic Press), a heartfelt and spooky novel; Kwame Mbalias Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky (Disney/Rick Riordan Presents), a book of my heart. Caldwell also called out two forthcoming books: Nina Varelas Juniper Harvey and the Vanishing Kingdom (Little, Brown), a contemporary fantasy that centers a queer girl who goes through a chase through parallel worlds; and Julian Randalls Pilar Ramirez and the Prison of Zafa (Holt), which features Dominican folklore and fantasy.

Hsu praised moderator Janae Markss From the Desk of Zoe Washington, which features a voice thats so true, as well as the forthcoming One Jar of Magic by Corey Ann Haydu, a book about magic and expectations and the complicated feelings of family, and Filipino American artist Ken Lamugs humorous graphic novel about a villainess named Mischief and her sidekick cat Mayhem.

Manzano named two books still in the midst of the submission process: a contemporary novel featuring the sassiest 12-year-old figuring out herself, her family, and her queerness when shes sent to Scotland to live with her aunt; and a tough but ultimately hopeful novel featuring parental abuse, magic, and imaginary friends.

The panelists then shared their perspectives on why middle grade is experiencing a lot of growth.

Caldwell spoke on the early 2000s boom of young adult; people in the industry are now looking for a new avenue. The success of imprints like Rick Riordan Presents has also contributed to a flourishing contemporary fantasy middle grade scene. Ultimately, fewer authors are writing middle grade than YA, Caldwell said, so the area currently has a lot more space.

Moreover, the versatility of middle gradelower and upper divisionsadds to the range, Romero reported, especially since middle grade can also attract reluctant readers through illustrations.

Manzano commented that because of the recent boom in darker YA and YA titles with adult crossover potential, theres more of a demand for that younger voice that weve kind of neglected for a few years.

Caldwell noted that foreign markets, as well as school and educational markets, have been affected by the U.S. market pushing mostly YA and not enough middle grade-YA crossover titles.

Johnson added that historical middle grade narratives are becoming more popular because were actually trusting those readers a lot more than we used to. She concluded, Were at a point in our history right now where a unity and understanding in the younger generations is going to be pivotal moving forward in general.

As for what each panelist hopes for what is on the horizon for middle grade, Romero requested more spooky stories and horror books, especially with diverse casts of characters, as well as middle grade supernatural tales.

Caldwell seconded the latter request, and added that nonfiction and graphic novels will continue being a really healthy market.

Manzano called for more diverse middle grade featuring identity exploration, from queerness to protagonists just not being white, as well as series that have the potential to grow with their readership.

Johnson re-emphasized her desire for more historical, as well as deeper, more encompassing fantasies and queer first-crush narratives.

Hsu hopes for a resurgence in kids sci-fi, as well as nonfiction about random topics that are not just young readers editions of adult titles.

The panel concluded with brief discussions on middle grade cover art, the middle grade-YA crossover market, and advice for aspiring middle grade authors.
More than 100 people in a Mississippi school district have been instructed to self-isolate, due to an outbreak of coronavirus less than two weeks after they reopened.

At least 116 people in Corinth, a city in Mississippi, have been told to quarantine for two weeks, after six students and one staff member tested positive for Covid-19 over the past week.

Taylor Coombs, spokeswoman for the Corinth School District, told NBC News that any person who was considered to have been in close contact with the people who tested positive for Covid-19, have been instructed to self-isolate.

Five of the students who tested positive attend high school, one goes to a local middle school, and the other person is a teacher at an elementary school in the city.

The Corinth School District reopened facilities on 27 July, after a period of closure due to the coronavirus pandemic, and parents were given the option to send their kids back or take virtual classes, with 85 per cent of them opting for in-person learning.

The students affected by the quarantine will now join the 15 per cent of children being taught virtually in the school district, until they can go back to class.

In an interview with Fox13 on Thursday, Corinth School District superintendent Lee Childress said that no major changes are planned, despite the outbreak of cases.

Its been interesting to watch unfold but its not something that was unexpected. We knew we would have positive cases. I dont think it matters if you open schools in July, August, September, or October.

Its something everyone is going to experience. The key is, we had the procedures in-place to do the screening at the schools need to take place prior to children coming.

In a later statement he added: We believe that most of these earlier cases are the result of community transmission, which further highlights the need for all community members to adopt and practice recommended safety measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Schools will only be as safe as the community in which they operate.

Mississippi has seen a rise in coronavirus cases over the last month, and currently has the fifth highest number of Covid-19 cases per capita in the US.

The state currently has 63,444 confirmed coronavirus cases and at least 1,804 deaths since the pandemic began, with its number of fatalities rising from an average of 10 a day in June to 30 in August, according to CNN.

In response to the rise in deaths in the state, governor Tate Reeves announced on Tuesday that face masks will be mandated in public and in schools for the next two weeks.

Recommended One in six Mississippi lawmakers infected with coronavirus

I (had) taken a piecemeal approach because I believe firmly that this was the best way to get the most number of people to participate, Mr Reeves told reporters.

However, he added: I believe that there is enough motivation to safely get our kids in school that we can really juice the participation of mask wearing throughout our state for the next two weeks.

According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, in the US as a whole, some 4.8 million people have tested positive for coronavirus. The death toll has reached at least 159,433.
President Donald Trump returns to the White House in Washington, DC, on July 27, 2020 (Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump to Sign Sweeping Executive Order to Reduce US Reliance on China

WASHINGTONIn response to supply disruptions caused by the pandemic, President Donald Trump will sign an executive order in Ohio Thursday to ensure essential medicines, medical supplies, and equipment are made in the United States.

If weve learned anything from the China virus pandemic, it is simply that were dangerously over-dependent on foreign nations, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told reporters on Thursday.

He said the president will sign a broad executive order in Ohio that covers not just medicines, but also medical supplies such as masks, gloves, goggles, and medical equipment like ventilators.

The executive order is called Combating Public Health Emergencies and Strengthening National Security by Ensuring Essential Medicines, Medical Countermeasures, and Critical Inputs are Made in the United States.

According to Navarro, the executive order has three components, which include the Buy American order to ensure that government agencies, including the departments of Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, and Defense, buy American products.

The order aims to increase government demand for U.S.-made products to help create a market for manufacturers to invest and to produce in the United States.

The other component of the order is the deregulation, which ensures the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ease rules for the development of advanced manufacturing facilities in the United States.

This will help create a more rational and streamlined regulatory process to address national security threats in a timely fashion, Navarro said.

And the third part, which is critical to keep drug prices down is to catalyze advanced manufacturing and continuous manufacturing techniques. The objective is to create economies of scale and scope to help reduce the cost of production in the United States.

Besides essential medicines, medical countermeasures are also a key part of this order, Navarro said, as they are crucial to fight national security threats including chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN), as well as pandemic threats.

The executive order also has an element to combat the trafficking of counterfeit medicines coming in, primarily from Communist China, he added.

The administration has been working for months on the executive order. The pandemic has forced the U.S. government to revisit Americas over-reliance on other countries.

China controls 90 percent of the core chemicals used in generic drugs, which are copies of prescription drugs that are allowed for sale after patent protections on the original drugs expire.

China is also the dominant supplier of personal protective equipment, such as masks, respirators, surgical gowns, and gloves, which are currently in high demand.

During the pandemic, countries where production facilities are located, such as India and China, have imposed export restrictions for critically needed items. Thats disrupted the U.S. pharmaceutical industrys global supply chain and prompted the White House to take action.

At a minimum, we need to have enough production to deal with pandemic and CBRN threats, Navarro said in response to a question by The Epoch Times.

Were a long way from that but we can move in Trump time, which is to say as quickly as possible towards closing that gap and today is a big step towards that.
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Two RFE/RL journalists were assaulted at a rally for Bulgaria's ruling GERB party in Sofia, where Prime Minister Boyko Borisov was speaking. RFE/RL has called for an investigation and for Bulgarian authorities to condemn the incident.
(Natural News) The National Health Service (NHS), the government-run medical system of the United Kingdom (UK), has published a new informational booklet on cervical cancer that completely removes women from those at risk, now claiming that only trans women  or mentally ill men in drag who decided to chemically alter or surgically remove their private parts  can develop the disease.

After a very heated debate that ultimately led to the major UK charity Jos Cervical Cancer Trust rejecting the scientific truth that only biological women have cervixes, the NHS decided to up the ante by redefining who can develop biologically exclusive health conditions such as cervical cancer.

Much to the pleasure of the LGBTQ mob, the NHS now says that biological men who wear womens clothes and pretend to be female can, in fact, develop cervical cancer. The government-controlled health system has further indicated that it will no longer even use the word woman to describe health conditions that can only be developed by actual biological women.

If you are a transgender (trans) man registered with your GP (general practitioner) as a female, we will send you invitations for cervical screening, the NHS booklet, which is funded by British taxpayers along with the NHS itself, now states.

If you are registered as male you will not receive invitations, but your GP or practice nurse can arrange an appointment for you if you have a cervix. If you are a trans woman you do not need a cervical screening, the document goes on to explain further, indicating that biological females pretending to be males need not have their cervixes examined any longer.

How much worse does it need to get before decent human beings step up and put a stop to the LGBTQ mafia?

The NHS website still refers to women and uses the word woman to talk about cervical cancer, however. It specifically states, in accordance with actual science and not LGBTQ delusion, that cervical cancer develops in a womans cervix (the entrance to the womb from the vagina). It mainly affects sexually active women aged between 30 and 45.

How the NHS could ever get around this type of verbiage and still be taken seriously remains to be seen. And you can be sure that the government entity will try very hard to contort reality in accordance with the demands of the LGBTQ mafia, the members of which live in their own delusional reality that has no basis in truth.

This all likewise aligns with the agenda of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), which recently announced in its Transgender Safer Sex guide that only biological men who think they are women have vaginas, while actual biological women merely have front holes.

And let us not forget Canadian Cancer, which on its website features an image of a male-to-female transitioned woman as the poster model for its informational page on cervical cancer and the types of people who can supposedly develop it.

Just like in the U.S. and the U.K., Canadas health system says that biological men with mental illness are capable of developing cervical cancer in their fake cervixes that do not even exist.

Wheres the exit? asked one National File commenter in response to the NHS changes. This world sucks.

This is extremely dangerous, wrote another, commenting at the Daily Mail Online.

Already not enough women have the smear test and to make language confusing it may stop women booking a test. Utter stupidity to pander to a vocal minority group.

For more related news about the horrors of gender insanity sweeping the globe, be sure to check out Gender.news.

Sources for this article include:

NationalFile.com

NaturalNews.com

DailyMail.co.uk
- President Uhuru Kenyatta launched a youth programme dubbed Generation Unlimited Kenya on Wednesday, August 5

- The head of state addressed the youths via zoom saying he was impressed with the work that they were doing in government

- Uhuru said he was ready to hire more youths in his government to help advance his development agenda

President Uhuru Kenyatta has hinted of a possible Cabinet reshuffle in which he will appoint more youths to the Chief Administrative Secretary positions.

The head of state expressed he was impressed with the work done by some youths he had appointed to such positions and was interested in having more youths to join his government.

READ ALSO: Mgeni wa DP Ruto apatikana na coronavirus siku mbili baada ya kutembea Karen

President Uhuru Kenyatta addressing youths during launch of Generation Unlimited Kenya, on Thursday, August 5.Photo: State House

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Counties revenue standoff: Raila changes tune, supports Johnson Sakaja's proposal on funds allocation

Speaking during launch of a new youth programme dubbed Generation Unlimited Kenya, on Thursday, August 5, Uhuru expressed his administration was interested in investing on the youths for better future.

I really look forward to working with our young people and as I said earlier, in the coming days I will be adding a good number of CASs of the same generation.

"Young men and women whom I hope will engage with their fellow young people and bring them on board to become decision-makers of today, he said.

The head of state expressed a lot of optimism in the Kenyan youths saying they had potential to expand Kenyas and Africas productive workforce and turn Africa into a frontier of growth and innovation.

READ ALSO: Millicent Omanga among 5 senators facing fresh purge as Jubilee's disciplinary committee files report

"Therefore, my administration has prioritised investments in young people. These investments are yielding results and we can confidently say that Kenya has made good progress towards the achievement of objectives of GenU," Uhuru lauded.

Among other youths who were appointed CASs in Uhuru's administration include Zack Kinuthia (Education Ministry), Nadia Ahmed (ICT and Youth Affairs) and Mercy Mwangangi (Health Ministry).

The highly anticipated reshuffle is said to have targeted Deputy President William Ruto's allies in favour of Uhuru's handshake partners ahead of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) referendum.

READ ALSO: Kenyans stunned after spotting man with striking resemblance to President Uhuru Kenyatta

Reports about the looming reshuffle emerged in June but weeks later the president was reported to have shelved the plan and now he seems to have gone back on it.

The plan to appoint new CASs will be a shot in the arm for the youth who have criticised the president for neglecting them.

Do you have an inspirational story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Follow us on Telegram: Tuko news

Source: TUKO.co.ke
A federal law enforcement officer emerges from the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse as fires burn during a riot in Portland, Ore., on July 22, 2020. (Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian via AP)

DHS: Local Officials Abandoned Feds in Portland

WASHINGTONLike clockwork, for more than 60 nights, between midnight and 5 a.m., rioters and anarchists besieged the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse in Portland, Oregon.

Throughout June, as violence escalated and Federal Protective Service officers requested help, the Department of Homeland Security sent in about 20 more officers.

In early July, more agents were deployed, including Border Patrol tactical units and other agents, said Chad Wolf, acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), during a Senate hearing on Aug. 6.

Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) accused Wolf of choosing to escalate conflicts by sending in a surge of federal personnel who did not have proper training to deescalate a situation, instead of working with state and local officials.

Instead of aligning your departments resources, personnel, and mission to tackle the white supremacist terrorist threat, you have chosen to focus on optics, Peters said.

However, Wolf said, until last week, federal law enforcement officers were abandoned due to the dangerous policies by local officials.

Local and state officials refused to partner with his agents and even prohibited local law enforcement from arresting anyone who was attacking federal property, Wolf said.

Officials did not allow local law enforcement to police the area immediately around the federal facilities, nor in the parks nearbywhich violent opportunists used as a staging ground to prepare for their nightly assault on the courthouse and our officers, Wolf said.

The Portland City Council issued a resolution on July 22 banning Portland police bureau members from cooperating with federal law enforcement.

The City of Portland started fining the federal governmenta maximum of $500 every 15 minutesfor maintaining a fence around the courthouse to create a blockade against rioters.

As of yesterday, the federal government owes us $192,000 and counting, City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly said in a July 28 statement.

The tide started turning on July 30, after Oregon Gov. Kate Brown sent state troopers to help DHS agents quell the violence and destruction around the courthouse. Since then, violent attacks at the courthouse have abated, but crowds have targeted other buildings and clashed repeatedly with Portland police officers.

Wolf said the lack of state and local coordination with federal agents for so long was what allowed the situation to get so out of control.

[It] allowed these violent individuals to continue to attack a federal facility night after night with no repercussion, he said. So they became more emboldened, night after night. And we started seeing some of the weapons that they used became more and more sophisticated.

Wolf said bricks, frozen water bottles, and canned food were used as projectiles to throw at law enforcement.

Night after night, 30 days in, 40 days in, theres no consequence to them doing that, so then they come back with commercial-grade fireworks, and then they come back with IEDs, and then they come back with power tools.

Wolf said federal agents have suffered a total of 277 injuries from the violence.

Officers have suffered chemical burns, bloody wounds, and attacks with blinding lasers, leaving some of our colleagues with eye injuries, he said.

He said it appears some attacks have been clearly coordinated and that some rioters seem to be trained.

Federal officers have arrested 199 individuals during the riots, Wolf said.

The FBI has opened more than 300 domestic terrorist investigations since May 28, according to Erin Neeley Cox, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas and co-head of the Department of Justice Task Force on Violent Anti-Government Extremists.

That does not include any potential civil rights violations investigations or violent crime associated with the riots, Cox said in a Senate hearing on Aug. 4.

At the same time, shootings have spiked in Portland since a gun violence reduction team was disbanded by Mayor Ted Wheeler.

The city recorded 63 shootings through July 26, compared to 28 in July of 2019, according to data obtained by The Oregonian.
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Linkedin Ardila Syakriah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, August 7 2020

The possible development of a vaccine has brought as much hope to Indonesia as it has to any other country battered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said in late July that he expected that next year the Indonesian economy would be able to recover and that a vaccine would be discovered and mass vaccination for "all the people in the country" would be rolled out.

Indonesia saw its GDP contract 5.32 percent in the second quarter of this year, the worst contraction since the 1998 Asian financial crisis, and unemployment haunts around 10 million people.

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Thousands of Western Massachusetts residents will remain in the dark and face spoiling food through the weekend after Tropical Storm Isaias wreaked havoc on the region toppling trees and knocking branches on electrical wires.

At the height of the Tuesday evening storm, which brought winds of 40 mph or more, upwards of 220,000 residents were left without power. In some hard-hit communities as Wilbraham, Monson and Becket more than 90 percent of homes and businesses were left without electricity.

The power outages caused problems throughout the region. In Springfield an outage followed by the failure of a back-up generator at the Indian Orchard sewage pumping station caused between 500,000 to 750,000 gallons of untreated wastewater to be dumped into the Chicopee and Connecticut rivers, said Jaimye Bartak, communications manager for Springfield Water and Sewer.

The release occurred at about 6:40 p.m. on Tuesday and was resolved by 11 p.m. Communities who are downstream were alerted to the release, which is being investigated, Bartak said.

The outages also closed Baystate Health medical offices at four locations at 2 Medical Center Drive in Springfield, 34 Hubbard St., Ludlow, 300 Carew St., Springfield, 95 Sargent St., Belchertown and 2344 Boston Road, Wilbraham on Wednesday. Anyone who had appointments was contacted about the closures but is it not certain when they will be able to reopen, said Shelly Hazlett, Manager of Public Affairs for Baystate.

All five Baystate hospitals are operating without problems and COVID-19 testing for Baystate is expected to continue on Thursday, she said.

The storm hit the Springfield area around 4:30 p.m. While predicted flooding was avoided, high winds blew trees and tree limbs down across the region. At least a half-dozen fell on homes in Longmeadow and multiple ones hit homes in Springfield and Agawam. Others fell on cars and blocked hundreds of roads.

Were making good progress responding to extensive damage caused by Tropical Storm Isaias throughout Massachusetts, including broken or fallen trees, broken poles and downed lines, said Priscilla Ress, spokeswoman for Eversource.

The weather has cooperated since it was warm, breezy making it easier to clear debris and make repairs, she said.

In Western Massachusetts, 16,268 of the more than 219,000 homes and businesses served by Eversource remained without power about 24 hours after the storm began. Most of the power should be restored in the Greenfield, Hadley and Pittsfield areas by late Wednesday and all electricity in Springfield should be turned on around 11:30 p.m. on Thursday, she said.

National Grid, which had more outages across the state is estimating multiple Western Massachusetts communities will not have power returned until 2 p.m. on Saturday. Some of those communities include Wilbraham where 4,667 people lost power; East Longmeadow where 5,055 lost power; and Ware and Palmer which each have about 1,900 customers without electricity.

At the peak of the storm, more than 7,000 of the 18,000 homes and businesses in Westfield lost power Tuesday night. By about 3 p.m. on Wednesday power had been restored to about 5,000 homes and another 1,000 were expected to have electricity by the evening, said Lisa Stowe, marketing and communications manager.

The company hopes to have all customers with power before Friday morning, she said.

They are making really good progress, it is a nice day so that helps, she said. We have a significant number of poles to set and that is a big job.

Branches and in some cases whole trees were blown down throughout the city and when they fell they took down wires and in many cases splintered and broke utility poles. Replacing poles takes time and there are dozens to replace, she said.

All the municipal electric companies received additional help from the Municipal Electric Association. Two additional crews from New York traveled to Westfield and a third from West Boylston also assisted and was then released to Chicopee to do work there, Stowe said.

All electric companies are also operating during the COVID-19 pandemic and have to put in precautions.

We have one person per vehicle and are working under social distancing guidelines and that is slowing us down a little, said James Lavelle, manager of Holyoke Gas and Electric.

At the worst of the storm, 999 residents and businesses lost power in Holyoke. Outages were across the city but some of the biggest problems were in the Highlands, the Holy Family Road area and Main Street, he said.

By Wednesday evening there were about 40 customers left without power and many of them were in the Highlands where trees came down on wires and snapped multiple poles. Lavelle said he hoped to have all electricity restored by 10 p.m. Wednesday if everything went smoothly.

None of it was easy. We had trees down in alleys and poles were down, he said. The crews are doing an amazing job and they made great progress.

They started working as soon as the storm hit but on Tuesday night there were high winds and it was raining. Work in some areas, especially where multiple trees, wires and poles were all down, was put off until morning because it was too dangerous and crews instead concentrated efforts on areas where they could work safely, he said.

The biggest challenge from the storm has been the amount of damage caused by trees throughout the city, said Jeffrey, general manager of Chicopee Electric Light.

At the end of the storm, about 5,000 residents and businesses had no power in Chicopee. About 24 hours later service to all but about 200 customers have been restored. Cady said he hopes to return power to the remaining homes and businesses sometime on Thursday.

About 400 people in South Hadley lost power during the storm and electricity had been restored to all but 50 customers on Wednesday. General Manager Sean Fitzgerald said he is hoping everyone will have electricity by Wednesday night.

Some of those without power are individual homes where connecting wires were downed or small clusters of houses, he said.

But he joined others who said restoration work will continue for days even after electricity is restored to every customer, because there are still a lot of damaged poles and other infrastructure which has to be repaired. That work is being put off until all power is restored and crews can then get some rest, he said.

We still have so much cleanup to do. It will take days, he said.

Related content:

Electricity restoration will take days after Tropical Storm Isaias knocks out power to more than 250,000 statewide

There are trees down all over: Tropical Storm Isaias causes widespread damage, power outages in Massachusetts

22-year-old man killed, another man seriously injured after crash in Chelmsford during Tropical Storm Isaias cleanup
It wasn't as if the symptoms of coronavirus weren't bad enough, now there's a new report claiming that those who recovered from the disease have been left with lung damage.

According to a report on coronavirus by a hospital in China's Wuhan, about 90 per cent of recovered COVID-19 patients in the city have lung damage while five per cent are in quarantine again after testing positive for the highly contagious disease a second time.

Doctors at the Zhongnan Hospital have been monitoring the health of hundred recovered patients since the month of April. Based on the first phase results, around 90 per cent of these recovered patients have damaged lungs; the team of doctors explained that the ventilation and gas exchange functions of their lungs have not recovered and functioning like that of a healthy person yet.

Also read: Coronavirus May Have Spread In Wuhan In August 2019, Harvard Study Says

AFP

The team revealed that some of the recovered patients still need oxygen machines even three months after being discharged from hospitals. The results also showed that the recovered patients could only walk 400 metres in six minutes; an average healthy person can walk 500 metres in the same time period.

In about 10 per cent of the recovered patients, the antibodies against the virus disappeared while five per cent showed symptoms of the disease and had to be placed under quarantine again.

Also read: Wuhan Family Rushes To Hospital To Get Tested For COVID-19 After Finding Dead Bat In Soup

AFP

Since Wuhan is the place where the pandemic began, these findings in the first phase are important.

Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the provincial capital, has reported a total of 68,138 confirmed COVID-19 cases till now. The disease has claimed 4,512 lives in the province, according to the official data.



Also read: WHO Team Had 'Extensive Discussions' With Wuhan Scientists Over COVID's Origins, Bats The Most Likely Source

AFP

China reported 27 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, including 22 locally-transmitted cases, the National Health Commission (NHC) said on Wednesday.

Altogether 79,047 people had been discharged after recovery, and 4,634 had died of the disease in the mainland, the NHC said.


A person of interest in a Shepherd shooting and vehicle theft was arrested Thursday evening in Billings by police in the area of Alkali Creek and Tumbleweed Drive. He could be one of the two men being sought most of the day in a multi-agency search in the Heights aided by drones and dogs.

Police had been looking for someone matching the man's description and one other male suspect since at least 9 a.m. Thursday.

The man was arrested on a probation violation warrant, but Yellowstone County Sheriff Mike Linder said he matched part of a description law enforcement had of a person that might have been involved in the incidents in Shepherd. Linder specified that he considered the man a person of interest, as opposed to a suspect.

Multiple people reported sighting the shirtless man throughout the afternoon in the Heights area, and law enforcement kept following up until they found him late in the afternoon, according to the sheriff.

"We had officers and deputies in the area already so they were able to get over there and scoop him up right away," Linder said. Before his arrest the man emerged from brush and trees, and Linder said he might have tried to run on foot before he was finally arrested.
EAGLEVILLE  Tropical Storm Isaias battered Montgomery County on Tuesday, leaving a trail of destruction that included floods and power outages and leading county officials to issue an emergency declaration.

The importance of the declaration of a disaster emergency from the county will allow us to collect data on any damage  and should the federal government or the governor declare a state of emergency in our region from this storm then that gives us the legal mechanism to request reimbursement both for the response that the county had, which was quite extensive, as well as for individual property owners whove had property damaged, county Commissioners Chairwoman Dr. Valerie Arkoosh explained during a Wednesday news briefing.

The countys 911 Emergency Dispatch Center in Eagleville received a total of 5,097 calls on Tuesday, according to Arkoosh. On a typical day, the center receives between 2,200 and 2,300 calls, officials said.

First to arrive was the torrential rain which resulted in both severe flash flooding on our roadways and significant river flooding and in our creeks and streams. Our emergency responders performed 134 water rescues across the county, pulling stranded commuters from their vehicles and ferrying residents from their homes, said Arkoosh, who was joined at the briefing by fellow Commissioner Kenneth E. Lawrence Jr.

Arkoosh said the Perkiomen Creek rose to levels not seen in more than 106 years while a rainfall total of more than 8.5 inches was measured in Lower Merion Township.

Rainfall amounts associated with Isaias in the county, according to the National Weather Service, included 8.59 inches in Wynnewood; 8.0 inches in Skippack and Collegeville; 7.56 inches in Worcester; 7.46 inches in Gilbertsville; 6.14 inches in Ambler; 6.12 inches in New Hanover; 6.08 inches in Norristown; 6.07 inches in Royersford; 5.57 inches in Upper Providence; 5.46 inches in Graterford; 5.03 inches in Pottstown; 5.02 inches in Worcester; and 4.36 inches in Fort Washington.

Around mid-day strong winds joined the rain, toppling hundreds of trees and pulling down numerous utility lines, Arkoosh said.

The treacherous conditions knocked out power to about 65,000 residents in Montgomery County. As of 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, about 10,500 customers countywide still remained without power, officials said.

Arkoosh said a maximum wind gust of 50 mph was recorded at 1:35 p.m. Tuesday in Upper Dublin Township.

In addition, the National Weather Service has placed two separate areas under investigation for possible tornado activity, Arkoosh said. Apparently, there are two fairly long lines of potential activity that crossed multiple townships.

The National Weather Service in Mount Holly, N.J., on Wednesday confirmed a tornado touched down in Worcester Township on Tuesday. A final assessment including an EF-Scale rating on the tornado is expected to be completed but will likely take several days to complete, officials said.

Tragically, the storm also claimed the life of a 5-year-old Towamencin girl, Eliza Talal, who went missing on Tuesday and whose body was discovered Wednesday morning at Fischers Park.

At 12:11 p.m. Tuesday, a 911 caller reported observing a person they believed was swept into the Schuylkill River near the Spring Mill train station in Whitemarsh. First responders from Montgomery and Philadelphia counties conducted ground and water searches but did not locate anybody.

Officials said the Pennsylvania National Guard also deployed a Pennsylvania Helicopter Aquatic Rescue Team to conduct aerial searches of the river between Montgomery County and Philadelphia. The unit conducted an extensive search for a subject in the river but was unable to locate anyone and the search was ultimately called off late Tuesday.

A day after the storm swept through the region, members of the Montgomery County Department of Public Safety were out assessing damages in at least six municipalities, primarily located along the Perkiomen Creek.

The damage assessment thats happening is really our emergency management staff going out and documenting what happened, Todd Stieritz, public affairs coordinator for the Department of Public Safety, said on Wednesday.

County officials were canvassing Collegeville Borough, Green Lane Borough and Perkiomen, Skippack, Marlborough and Towamencin townships, according to Stieritz.

Certainly the close proximity to the Perkiomen Creek is a factor. We are aware that flooding from the creek certainly occurred there, Stieritz said.

Arkoosh and Stieritz recommended that residents who sustained damage to their properties should initially contact their township or borough officials, who will compile local damage reports and then submit them to county public safety officials who will perform damage assessments. The damage assessments would be helpful if any state or federal emergency financial assistance potentially becomes available.

Document everything and notify your township or borough, even if you do have insurance, so that we can get an overall picture of the extent of damages and possibly connect you with resources to help, Arkoosh explained.

Residents should also get in contact with their insurance companies, Stieritz said.

Thats something that doesnt always occur to people as the first thing to do after theyve experienced damage from a storm, Stieritz said. People think they have to clean up right away, but besides mitigating any significant life safety hazards, they should get in contact with their insurance companies and document everything that happened. That includes taking pictures or videos as well as jotting down notes on what happened and when it happened.

Stieritz said storm damage victims also must be mindful of potential hazards that come with post-flood cleanup.

When floodwaters come into a home or business they bring with them any of the hazardous chemicals that would be in any home or business, anything that people had stored in their garages, under their sinks, all that stuff is now in the floodwaters, Stieritz warned. So people should treat any area of their home or business that was flooded as if theyve been touched by a hazardous chemical. So they should use proper safety equipment, including gloves and disinfectant and eye protection when performing any cleanup.

Although the power outage numbers decreased significantly by Wednesday afternoon there still were a large number of customers in Montgomery County that were without power. Those affected by outages have electric services with PECO, PPL and Met-Ed/First Energy.

We like to remind people that you never go near a downed power line, especially with any pooling of water on peoples property that can pose a hazard for that person, Stieritz said.

If the power outage for some individuals continues for hours into days, we remind people that you never use a generator indoors and also exercise extreme caution when using candles because of the significant fire hazard that they pose, Stieritz added.
An Idaho judge ruled Tuesday that there is enough evidence against Lori Vallows husband, Chad Daybell, for the case against him to go to trial. The remains of two of Vallows children were found on Daybells property in June.

Daybell is charged with two felony counts of conspiracy to commit destruction, alteration or concealment of evidence and two felony counts of destruction, alteration or concealment of evidence. He pleaded not guilty to these charges, according to court documents. He is schedule to appear for an arraignment on Aug. 21, in Fremont County. Daybells wife, Lori Vallow, is the mother of the children, Tylee Ryan and Joshua JJ Vallow, who had not been seen since September 2019.

Joshua Vallow and Tylee Ryan. (Freemont County Sheriff's Office)

A criminal complaint alleges that Daybell concealed the remains between Sept. 22, 2019, and June 9, 2020. Rexburg Police in Idaho began the search for the children in November 2019 when JJs grandmother requested a welfare check on him.

Vallow and Daybell had refused to cooperate with the investigation and left the state. Vallow was arrested in February in Hawaii on charges of desertion and nonsupport of dependent children. Following the discovery of her childrens remains, Vallow is now facing two felony charges of conspiracy to commit destruction, alteration or concealment of evidence. The initial charges that prompted Vallows February arrest have been dropped.

In Madison County, Idaho, Vallow is also charged with misdemeanor resisting or obstructing officers, criminal solicitation to commit a crime and contempt of court. She pleaded not guilty to those charges. A jury trial is set for January 2021.

Chad Daybell at his preliminary hearing.

The ruling for Daybells case to go to trial came down Tuesday after a two-day preliminary hearing of witness testimony and evidence. Over a dozen witnesses were called to the stand, including detectives who described the gruesome discovery of the bodies of 17-year-old Tylee and 7-year-old JJ, on Daybells property in Fremont County, Idaho, on June 9 following a months long search.

Story continues

In his testimony, Rexburg Police Detective Ray Hermosillo said JJs body was found in a black plastic bag, buried beneath fresh sod, which was under three large flat white rocks in a row, along with a piece of wood paneling.

As soon as they removed the paneling, I immediately could smell the odor of a decomposing body, Det. Hermosillo said. They discovered what would appear to be a mass of burnt flesh and charred bone.

He also said JJ was covered in a white trash bag and his wrists and ankles were bound with duct tape. He was wearing red pajamas and black socks.

The body of JJs sister, Tylee, was found a short distance away, Hermosillo testified. They found evidence that her remains appeared to have been burned, he said. During the detectives testimony, JJs grandparents were seen weeping in court.

The bodies were found by tracking the movements of Lori Vallows brother, Alex Cox, using cellphone data. Cox died of an apparent blood clot in his lung in December 2019.

Authorities are still investigating the deaths of other family members linked to Vallow and Daybell.

In July 2019, police responded to Vallows home in Arizona where her then-husband, Charles Vallow, had been shot and killed by Vallows brother, Alex Cox. Cox claimed he shot him in self-defense following an argument between his sister and her husband.

In October of 2019, Daybell's wife, Tammy, 49, was found dead at their home in Idaho of what was initially believed to be natural causes. Her body was exhumed in December after authorities began to question the circumstances of her death. Autopsy results are pending.

Just two weeks after Tammys death, Daybell and Vallow were married in Hawaii where there was no sign of the children.

This weeks hearing also featured testimony from the couples mutual friend, Melanie Gibb, who is considered a key witness in the case. Gibb told Dateline in Junethat when she visited with Lori and Chad in September, she saw JJ. Gibb said Lori confided in her that JJ had become a zombie just the day before. Gibb said Tylee was not there during that visit and the couple was under the belief Tylee was also a zombie. Neither child was seen alive after September.

During the initial welfare check on JJ in November 2019 requested by his grandmother, Vallow had told police that JJ was with her friend Gibb in Gilbert, Arizona.

She said, I told the police that you were at Frozen 2 with JJ. Gibb said on the stand. (Lori said), Get your cell phone out and take a picture of random kids running around to make it look like you (have) him with you.'

When Gibb was asked by a police officer about JJs whereabouts, she told them, I had been with JJ but hes back with Lori.

Gibb testified that she later called the same police officer and admitted that she had not been with JJ.

When asked on the stand why she initially lied to the police officer, Gibb claimed that Vallow was manipulating me to believe JJ was in danger. She added that Vallow told her she was worried that JJs grandmother Kay Woodcock had also turned into a zombie and was going to kidnap JJ.

I was very perplexed, very troubled, and I really did not know what to do, Gibb said.

She later recorded a 21-minute phone call between herself and Vallow and Daybell.

The phone call was played in court this week. Gibb is heard asking the couple about JJs whereabouts. On the call, Vallow tells Gibb she had to move JJ and was keeping him protected.

A more recent phone call, this one between Vallow and Daybell, was also played during the hearing. The call took place at the same time authorities were searching Daybells property: June 9 -- the day the childrens bodies were discovered.

Vallow is heard from jail asking, Are they seizing stuff again? Daybell replies with, Theyre searching. They have search warrants and stuff. Their phone call ends with the two of them saying, I love you.

On Thursday, Vallow waived her preliminary hearing, which means her case will now go directly to district court. Vallow will either plead guilty or not guilty to the conspiracy charges she faces. If she pleads not guilty, a judge will set a jury trial date. Her court arraignment date has not been scheduled.
Former Vice President Joe Biden has pledged to name a woman as his running mate, and the presumed short list is impressive. As with anyone who has been in public life for an extended time, each of their records is fair game to dissect. What is not fair are the sexist tropes that are coming their way from fellow Democrats  in many cases, older men, including former Sen. Chris Dodd, 76, on the search committee.

Too ambitious? Eyes fixed on a future presidential run? Those are the shots being fired at Sen. Kamala Harris. Since when has ambition  or potential to work behind the desk in the Oval Office  been a disqualifier for veep? Biden had been running for the top job since 1988, yet he proved a loyal partner to President Barack Obama.

Unapologetic for primary elbows? Yes, Harris stung Biden with her that little girl was me debate line. Some may have forgotten that George H. W. Bush derided Ronald Reagans trickle-down theory as voodoo economics ... until he became Reagans 1980 running mate. Besides, the former prosecutor Harris skill at evisceration (see: Senate hearings with Sessions, Kavanaugh, Barr) just might come in handy in what is expected to be a rough-and-tumble campaign.

Not ambitious enough? Rep. Karen Bass has made it clear she has no designs on the presidency, but she sure showed her leadership chops as speaker of the 80-member state Assembly, making excruciating choices when the state was in the depths of the Great Recession. Would you rather have someone who wants the job without the title (Dick Cheney) or someone eminently ill suited to lead the country (Dan Quayle, Sarah Palin)?

Doesnt smile readily? Sure, Susan Rice can be serious and tough. It would be quite an upgrade from a vice president (Mike Pence) who stands by with a sheepish grin while the commander in chief routinely disgraces the office with braggadocio and lies.

Too openly campaigning for the job? Stacey Abrams aggressive pursuit of the job was reminiscent of John F. Kennedys all-out but ultimately unsuccessful push to partner with Adlai Stevenson in 1956. It sure didnt hurt JFK four years later, when he was elected president.

The double standard is undeniable. Well present more commentary on the matter in Sunday Insight. Bidens decision is expected Monday.

What were saying in editorials

Mail-in voting: After Nevada became the latest state to authorize distribution of absentee ballots to all voters, Trump wrote on Twitter that the post office could never handle the traffic of mail-in votes  or so he hopes  and accused the state of using COVID to steal the election. That is precisely the point of his own relentless attack on the safest and surest available means of voting. Our editorial

Keep Caltrain rolling: The turf war, which was days away from claiming the November ballot measure and perhaps Caltrains continued operations as casualties, was no showcase of local statesmanship. But a cadre of officials from San Francisco, Santa Clara County and San Mateo County deserve credit for cobbling together a truce before it was too late. Our editorial

Tear down those dams: California, in in cooperation with Oregon, is on the verge of a major environmental change on the Klamath River. The four dams dating back a century produce little electricity and need hugely expensive repairs to fish ladders which barely work. Taking out the structures would restore miles of upriver salmon habitat. Our editorial

Guest opinions

Lowering the bar: I learned that California has the most difficult professional examination in the nation. People from Harvard, Yale, and Stanford have quit rather than try again if unsuccessful. Not me. Im proud of having passed it, and am none too pleased that the Supreme Court just lowered the threshold for a passing score. Read the full piece

Disaster at San Quentin: The recent mortalities on Death Row came by extrajudicial means, namely COVID-19 complications, and thats why depleting the ranks of Condemned Row should not give anybody, even death penalty advocates, any comfort. Death Row is a microcosm of the larger society. Read the full piece

Driving unfairness: When employers misclassify their workers as independent contractors, they gain an unfair advantage against competitors and shift costs onto workers and taxpayers. Its a key reason why city and state enforcement officials have brought misclassification lawsuits against companies like Uber, Lyft, Instacart and DoorDash. Read the full piece

Letter of the Week

Rocky Leplin of Richmond, one of our regular contributors, argued for keeping zoos open during the pandemic:

I dont get it. The only indoor spaces the public enters at zoos aside from the bathrooms are nocturnal animal exhibits and the gift shop.

So close those two. The rest of zoo areas are spacious and outdoors, where people can socially distance, wearing masks. It makes even less sense to close zoos than it did to close dog parks. (After all, dogs could jump up and pull someones mask off!)

And please check out our other letters of the day responding to this and other matters. You can send us a letter via this form.

Where to follow us

We have a Twitter channel, Opinion Central (@sfc_opinions). Please add it to your stream. Youll catch our editorials and opinion pieces, as well as our drive-by comments on assorted subjects in the news. Follow me on Twitter: @JohnDiazChron

Just a reminder

The Chronicles editorials represent the collective judgment of our Editorial Board, which includes the publisher as well as the writers and editors from the opinion team. Our editors and reporters on the news side are not involved in those decisions (including election endorsements). They are charged with reporting fairly and objectively without regard to our editorial positions. It is one of the core values here at Fifth and Mission streets.

Opinion Central is a thrice-weekly newsletter from John Diaz, The Chronicles editorial page editor, and the rest of the Editorial Board. Follow along on Twitter: @sfc_opinions
The Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality presented to the public a detailed climate action plan on Aug. 5, making it the first Israeli municipality program designed to cope with the threat of climate change.

The climate action plan took several months to develop. The process took place within the framework of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, a global network of cities fighting global warming. Tel Aviv-Yafo is part of this network that includes Durban in South Africa, Chengdu in China, Jakarta in Indonesia and many more. As such, it is committed to adopting a program for adapting to climate change, including preparing for rising temperatures and changes to rainfall trends and quantities.

The plan is composed of three parts. First, Israeli experts identified the specific climate threats Tel Aviv is currently facing. They include, for instance, a yearly increase of approximately 30 days exceeding 33 degrees Celsius over the next decade, expected rising sea levels and an increase in population groups considered to be vulnerable. The second portion lists the city's two key objectives: temperature reduction and water management. The third portion outlines how the city will operate and the efforts that will be employed to realize these objectives.

The plan is short and concrete. The authors propose three phases of action: an immediate response (for this year and the next), a gradual response (by 2030) and then the fostering of urban innovation in a more global approach. The immediate response includes steps like reducing the removal of trees, strict implementation of permeation requirements in construction plans and permits and enabling solar energy independence for public buildings during times of crisis. All are measures that the public can understand, support and promote.

For Eytan Halon, head of the municipalitys international press division, the action plan presents "an in-depth look at the key threats and challenges facing the city." He said the plan also emphasizes a rapid response for vulnerable population groups.

Tammy Gannot-Rosenstreich, director of policy and strategy at the nongovernmental organization Adam Teva V'Din, praised the Tel Aviv program. "It is very impressive. Above all, because its the first one here. Globally, there is growing recognition in the cities critical role on facing the climate crisis. This is true both on the level of preparedness and on the level of reducing CO2 emissions. Tel Aviv is the first city in Israel to acknowledge this responsibility and to adopt a program that offers solutions for coping with these challenges. In Tel Aviv they understand that this is not a privilege but a critical need of every city wishing to preserve reasonable life for its residents."

In 2015, Israel signed the Paris climate agreement. And while the country did not set very high goals in reducing CO2 emissions comparing with other Western countries, it is working in that direction. In the last five years, all Israel's environmental protection ministers have committed themselves to these goals, even when US President Donald Trump walked away from the agreement. Gannot-Rosenstreich said that in 2019, the Tel Aviv municipality has decided on higher CO2 reduction goals than those Israel had committed to, though no specific plan has been established yet to meet them.

Gannot-Rosenstreich added that the Tel Aviv plan could be used as a model for other Israeli cities. She notes that Adam Teva V'Din is now working on a climate action document to responsibilities in this domain and force the government to adopt more ambitious goals for reducing CO2 emissions and prepare a national plan for coping with climate challenges.
Eight coronavirus patients have died after a major fire broke out at the main Covid-19 hospital in Indias Ahmedabad city.

The fire began in the small hours of the morning with an electrical short-circuit in the Shrey Hospitals intensive care unit (ICU), where dozens of patients were being treated with high-flow oxygen.

Firefighters and 15 fire engines were called and the blaze was contained and extinguished within half an hour, officials said, but the ICU was already gutted.

A staffer whose PPE (personal protective equipment) caught fire ran out of the ward to douse it but the fire spread rapidly to the whole ward, fire official Rajesh Bhatt told the Reuters news agency.

Five men and three women, who were undergoing treatment for the novel coronavirus were not in a position to escape... they died due to smoke and heat caused by the fire, he said.

Thirty-five patients have been moved to other hospitals, and there was a large police presence outside the hospital on Thursday to prevent angry relatives from entering the facility.

Prime minister Narendra Modi announced that compensation of Rs 200,000 (about 2,000) would be given to the families of those killed, a figure which was later doubled by the Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani.

An additional Rs 50,000 (500) would be given to anyone injured. A Gujarat state official said there was at least on paramedic being treated for burns after they tried to douse the flames.

Saddened by the tragic hospital fire in Ahmedabad, Mr Modi tweeted. Condolences to the bereaved families. May the injured recover soon.

Mr Rupani said he had ordered an inquiry into the fire and that it would deliver its initial findings within three days. Rajendra Asari, a senior Ahmedabad police official, said the cause of the fire would be fully investigated with support from fire and forensic experts. Police said one trustee of the hospital and a porter working on the ICU ward had been detained.

Ahmedabad is the largest city and erstwhile capital of the relatively affluent Indian state of Gujarat, but fire safety standards across the country remain poor, with inadequate alarm, detection and containment systems being the norm.




IN A surprising development, doctors and nurses have welcomed the appointment of Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, pictured, as Zimbabwes new Health and Child Care minister, the Daily News reports.





This comes as the powerful VPs appointment has split both public and legal opinions  with some lawyers arguing that his occupation of a ministerial post violates the countrys Constitution.





The secretary-general of the Senior Hospital Doctors Association (SHDA), Aaron Musara, told the Daily News yesterday that their hope was that Chiwenga would manage to end the health sectors myriad problems.





Doctors welcome his appointment. Coming from the presidium, he will look into the issues affecting the health sector  we hope he will be able to bring the much needed change in the health system, Musara said.





The Zimbabwe Nurses Association (Zina) also said Chiwengas appointment was a welcome development.





As Zina, we welcome the appointees to the positions of substantive minister of Health and Child Care, as well as permanent secretary for the same ministry.





It is our hope that the two appointees have been briefed on the situation prevailing in the health sector and what has led to the impasse between health workers and their employer.









We look forward to being engaged on the basis of mutual respect, where our constitutional and labour rights to fair wage and not to work in unsafe conditions are respected.









Further we look forward to having our demands acknowledged and met, Zina said.





However, lawyers are split over Chiwengas appointment  which sees him having a dual role as both VP and minister.





Lawyer Obert Gutu is among those who say Chiwengas appointment is consistent with the Constitution.





Section 99 and Section 103 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe are NOT mutually exclusive. The appointment of Vice President CG Chiwenga as Minister of Health & Child Care is, therefore, NOT unconstitutional, Gutu wrote on Twitter.





But MDC vice president Tendai Biti said Chiwengas appointment was a violation of the Constitution.





The appointment is clearly null and void and must be tested in a court of law. It violates the Constitution, but more than that it is irrational and grossly unreasonable.





No person of sound mind, properly applying his mind, would have made the same, he wrote on Twitter.





All the same, this is not the first time that a serving VP has been tasked with ministerial functions. Until last year, Chiwenga was also Defence minister.





Before that, the then Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa was also appointed Justice minister by the late former president Robert Mugabe.





Constitutional law expert Lovemore Madhuku filed an application at the Constitutional Court (Con-Court) at the time, challenging Mnangagwas dual roles  without success.

Zimbabwe has been operating without a substantive Health minister and confirmed leaders of public health institutions  following the recent dismissal of Obadiah Moyo on allegations of corruption and the sacking of hospital chief executive officers.




T he Xbox Series X is arriving at the end of this year and Microsoft has shared a lot of information about the console's gamepad.

We recently found out that the Xbox One controller will also work completely with the Series X, but still, the new controller certainly has a lot of nice features.

The Xbox Series X controller is an upgrade to the current one, supposedly optimised for the Series X's emphasis on "speed and compatibility across generations", says an Xbox blog post.

This new gamepad will bring improved ergonomics for a wider range of people, better cross-device connectivity, easier sharing, and reduced latency on button input, meaning your button presses and the action in a game are instantaneous.

Here is everything we know about the Xbox Series X's gamepad.

Microsoft

Design

From pictures we've seen, the new controller doesn't look too different from the Xbox One, and there's a reason for that.

Microsoft is using it as a base. The company said when approaching the idea for a new controller for the Series X, it wanted to "build on the Xbox One controller in a smart, evolutionary way while ensuring the muscle memory players have built up over the years remains intact".

While this might be a line to gloss over not making many differences, Microsoft also said it didn't want to change the controller up just for the sake of it.

Regardless, the new controller has been designed specifically to fit a wider range of hand sizes, with an emphasis on being more accessible to people with smaller hands.

The new multi-facetted directional pad / Microsoft

Microsoft has said it is doing this by rounding out bumpers, slighting reducing the rounding parts of the triggers and changing up the grip.

As you'll immediately notice, the directional pad (D-pad) has gone through something of a transformation.

This has been done, again, to make the layout more accessible to everyone. Some people barely use the D-pad and some games don't require it at all, so being able to have the freedom to interact with it different is Microsoft's intended goal here.

An Xbox blog post reads: "When looking at the wide range of game genres and personal play-styles today, the D-pad is used in a lot of different ways. Thats why our Elite controllers have swappable D-pads. For some games, having crisp cardinal directions (up, down, left, right) with well-defined edges is what gamers need".

To this end, the new controller has more of a faceted dish, giving more accuracy on which direction you're pressing.

The slightly deeper dish gives your thumb a nice little home to sit in and the angles are finely tuned to give you a good amount of leverage with minimal movement.

Compatibility and connectivity

You don't need to look far to see that Microsoft is trying to make the Xbox Series X all about backwards compatibility.

From the xCloud service being included in the Xbox Game Pass subscription to the recent news that Xbox One controllers will work on the Series X, Microsoft has hit a niche here.

To this end, the Series X controller will reportedly work on iOS and Android phones via xCloud, the Xbox One and PC.

The triggers have had slight tweaks / Microsoft

The controller will be the common touchpoint to your Xbox games across basically all devices and it will connect wirelessly through Bluetooth.

It can also remember multiple devices so switching between them is more seamless. Thankfully, the controllers will also have USB-C ports to allow for charging through a cable.

In terms of reducing latency input, Microsoft says it will be implementing dynamic latency input (DLI), which helps bridge the connection between your controller and console using the HDMI, supposedly.

Essentially, information is sent more frequently from the controller and matched with exact frames of your game on-screen. Which means, in theory, your button presses will be instantaneous.

Share button

Just like the PS4 and PS5's DualSense, the new Series X will have a share button.

The share button is in the middle, underneath the Xbox home button / Microsoft

This is a way to record clips, short or long, of gameplay to then immediately upload to the likes of YouTube and social media.

An Xbox blog post about the controller acknowledges the importance of being able to capture and share "meme-worthy moments" while playing games.

Grips and dot patterns

Just like special edition Xbox One controllers, the new gamepad will have dot patterns on the triggers and bumpers.

This is something Microsoft says was 'loved' by fans, and now it is the standard for all new controllers.

There's also some subtle pattern on the grips, as well as the D-pad, bumpers, and triggers having a matte finish to help make the controller feel smooth.

That's everything about the new controller we'll be using when playing games. From everything we've seen it is just going to be a better version of the Xbox One's design.

It is important to note, however, that Microsoft also announced you don't need an Xbox Series X controller to play on the new console as it will support using an Xbox One gamepad.

This means your old Xbox One controller will work just fine on any Xbox Series X or normal Xbox game on the console.

This flies in the face of a recent announcement from Sony that the DualSense PS5 controller will only work with that console and the PlayStation 4's DualShock can be used on the new gaming device but only when playing PS4 games.
Pennsylvania is expanding its number of testing locations, yet some of those locations are taking up to two weeks to deliver results, state officials acknowledged Thursday.

Two weeks, thats almost useless, Gov. Tom Wolf said during a briefing on the subject.

Pennsylvania now has about 445 testing locations, with the state promising to add more.

But many Pennsylvania testing sites rely on national labs which are getting swamped with tests from the most hard-hit states around the country, resulting in major delays in returning results.

For example, Walmart will open a drive-through location in Elizabethville in northern Dauphin County on Friday, the 13th Walmart testing location in the state. However, Walmart relies on Quest Diagnostics, one of the national labs, which is returning results in an average of about seven days, and sometimes as many as 14, a Walmart official said.

Moreover, some hospital labs in Pennsylvania are facing shortages of chemical reagents needed to process the tests, resulting in longer waits, state health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said Thursday.

Levine said the needed chemicals are tied to national supplies and the federal government, and Pennsylvania lacks ability to provide the chemicals, Levine said.

Officials said Pennsylvanias state lab is delivering results in 24-48 hours, a more useful time frame. However, the state lab is reserved for high priority tests involving long term care facilities, health care workers and first responders, and schools in the event of serious outbreaks.

Levine said the state lab is expanding its capacity, but will continue to be stressed by testing at long term care facilities, with the testing critical to keeping out infections and allowing facilities to resume visitation.

She said the state is working with the federal government and the national labs to get the needed chemicals to Pennsylvania hospitals and deliver faster results.

Still, officials said the state has greatly expanded testing capacity and is now averaging about 22,000 tests per day. They said that equates to testing about 4% of the states population per month. Levine said the goal is 5% or more per month.

Wolf said he wants to move Pennsylvania into the above average range in three areas related to testing. He said Pennsylvania is ninth in the country for number of tests, but thats too low given it has the fifth-highest population.

He said Pennsylvania also must decrease the wait for results and gain access to tests that are easier to administer and cause less discomfort.

For example, the Walmart drive-though locations use a hands-off process where an attendant hands the person a long swab which the person inserts into their own nose while sitting in their car before dropping it into a baggie.

A Walmart official acknowledged this can be hard for some people, and advised those who are uneasy to bring a companion to insert the swab. He also said that, if the person finds it impossible to self-swab, Walmart will connect them to another method.

Before going to a Walmart testing location, people must register at www.myquestcovidtestpa.com.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-07 01:07:13|Editor: huaxia

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NAIROBI, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Kenya on Thursday launched a recovery plan for lions and hyenas to help sustain their viable populations in the country.

Najib Balala, Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary said the second edition of the lion and spotted hyena Recovery and Action Plan addresses complex threats faced by the two carnivores in a holistic and collaborative manner.

"This aims for the long-term vision of sustaining viable populations of lions and spotted hyenas in healthy ecosystems as a world heritage valued by the people of Kenya," Balala said in a statement issued after the launch of the plan in Maasai Mara National Reserve.

He said the Recovery and Action plan was developed through a consultative planning process and in accordance with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Convention for International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) and Convention of Migratory Species (CMS) guidelines.

"The planning process was participative, transparent and informed by the best available science," he said, noting that the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) together with partners initiated the process of surveying lions in diverse ecosystems using a standardized method.

He also noted that results from the surveys have provided more accurate estimates of lions in the country, saying Kenya is the only country in Africa that has undertaken such a massive survey of lions inside and outside the key protected area ecosystems.

Balala said in future no structures should be put up in protected areas across the country without approval from his ministry, noting that wildlife data should be handled well and that only the national government will deal with such data to avoid confusion and misrepresentation.

Balala said lack of proper planning had led to increased cases of human-wildlife conflict but cautioned communities against taking the law into their hands by killing wildlife.

Lion and spotted hyena are two of Kenya's most iconic but threatened predators.

The lion is a charismatic large mammal and is revered in cultures across the world. The spotted hyena, while less well-known and revered than the lion, can be found in nearly every location a lion can be found, and threats to their survival are closely linked.

Both species are archetypes of the large mammal community in sub-Saharan Africa, a community that supports a rich and vibrant tourism economy across the region, driving both local and national economic growth.

Fred Sego, principal secretary for the State Department of Wildlife, said the Recovery and Action plan recognizes the threats facing both species and prescribes elaborate measures for their recovery.

Sego said among the objectives of the plan is working with communities, consolidation of efforts among stakeholders, the establishment of population status and distribution for the adoption of conservation units. Enditem
In a new development in the sensational gold smuggling case the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday told a special court in Kochi that prime accused in the case Swapna Suresh had a strong connection with Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayans office.

Assistant Solicitor General P Vijaykumar informed this in the NIA court in Kochi while opposing the bail plea of Swapna Suresh. He said she had established a good rapport with the CMs office through suspended senior bureaucrat M Sivasankar with whom she enjoyed a good rapport and he had helped her get good postings.

However, the Assistant Solicitor General said investigation so far showed Sivasankar did not interfere in the release of the consignment when Customs blocked it due to some suspicion despite repeated pleas from Suresh. The case came to light on July 5 after 30 kg of gold was seized from the UAE consulate in Thiruvananthapuram.

P Sarith, a former employee of the consulate who came to receive the consignment, was arrested by the Customs immediately and two other accused Suresh and her accomplice Sandip Nair were arrested from their hideout in Bengaluru five days later. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayans principal secretary M Sivasankar, a senior IAS officer, was later suspended after his alleged links with Suresh surfaced.

Though Sivasankars alleged ties with Suresh were doing the rounds for some time this is the first time the NIA has come on record about this. Similarly her close links with the CMs office is also coming out for the first time. Due to this proximity, Sivasankar had gone out of his way to appoint Suresh in a key post in the Space Park controlled by the state government, the counsel told the court.

But Sureshs counsel Joe Paul said she was made a victim in the tug of war between the Centre and state governments. He said a month after the investigation began, the NIA had failed to produce any fresh evidence against the accused. The court later observed it will decide the bail plea on Monday.

Earlier the court had asked the NIA how provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) can be invoked against the accused. But it said a good portion of the proceeds from the smuggling were diverted to fund anti-national activities. It also said after preliminary investigation it found one of the accused K T Ramees, who is under NIA custody now, was in touch with some fundamentalist organizations. He also undertook many foreign trips, including to Africa and he was suspected to be a part of an international smuggling and drug racket, the NIA said.

When Sureshs two bank lockers were opened by the probe team ten days back it reportedly found Rs one crore in cash and two kg of gold. These lockers were in the joint name of Suresh and a chartered accountant. The latter reportedly told the team that he was allegedly asked by Sivasankar to help Suresh to open lockers three years ago.

After the NIA affidavit came out, the opposition Congress and BJP stepped up pressure seeking the resignation of the CM. The CM cant get away by sacrificing his secretary. He should resign at least now, said opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala. The CM is expected to comment during the daily press briefing later in the evening.
Ninety-one people caught COVID-19 after a man infected with the virus attended a church service in Ohio.

Governor Mike DeWine tweeted a graphic from the Ohio Department of Health on Tuesday, which showed how the 56-year-old man was responsible for 91 infections.

The man infected 53 people at the service, and 18 of them then passed the virus to at least one other person, the graphic said.

Experts have previously warned that religious ceremonies are breeding grounds for the virus.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

churches new york coronavirus first amendment lockdown reopening social distancing

People pray at St. Michael's Church in Brooklyn, NY, on May 26, 2020.

Stephanie Keith/Getty Images

Close to 100 people contracted the coronavirus in Ohio after one person who had the virus attended a church service and spread it to dozens others.

As a warning to religious institutions in the state, Gov. Mike DeWine tweeted a graphic from the Ohio Department of Health on Tuesday to show how the 56-year-old churchgoer essentially infected 91 people.

Fifty-three people who attended the church service fell ill, and 18 of them then gave it to at least one other person, the graphic showed.

Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) August 4, 2020

The service took place June 14, The Kansas City Star reported. By July 4, a total of 91 people ranging from ages one to 67 across four Ohio counties had tested positive for COVID-19, all stemmed from that one case, the newspaper said.

"It is vital that to control the spread of the virus that any time people gather together, including for religious services, that everyone wear masks, practice social distancing, wash hands, and also while indoors, making sure there is good ventilation and airflow," he said, according to The Kansas City Star.

It is not clear whether anyone at the church service wore masks or practiced social distancing. Ohio's mandatory face-mask only came into effect on July 23.

Story continues

Ohio has a resurgence in coronavirus cases in recent weeks. As of Wednesday, it has recorded more than 96,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 3,600 deaths.





donald trump church

President Donald Trump holds a Bible while visiting St. John's Church in Washington, DC, on June 1, 2020, after authorities forcibly cleared the area of protesters.

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images

In late May, President Donald Trump declared religious institutions "essential" services and told state governors to let them start admitting people again.

But religious services have been identified as situations where the coronavirus can spread like wildfire.

Experts have warned that loud talking and singing could spread the coronavirus further than six feet. When people give exhalations that require more energy, the droplets they emit can travel further. Some research has also suggested that louder speech produces more droplets.

"It's an ideal setting for transmission," Carlos del Rio, an infectious-disease expert at Emory University, told The New York Times, referring to church services. "You have a lot of people in a closed space. And they're speaking loudly, they're singing. All those things are exactly what you don't want."

A number of churches have caught headlines after large chunks of their parishioners caught the coronavirus.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Its not the 100th birthday Bianca Scala pictured for her grandmother, but shell make the best of it.

Instead of a big family gathering in the backyard, Consiglia LaFratta will get a drive-by salute from friends and family on Saturday, Aug. 15, to mark a century on this planet.

The Niagara Falls senior will be watching from the front of Oakwood Park Lodge, where she has resided since 2018. Strict social distancing is in place at the seniors care centre.

The nurses have been really good there, so theyre going to take her outside and we can drive by and see her at least, said Scala. Thats all we can really do.

The birthday drive-by starts at 11 a.m. and goes to 11:30 a.m.

LaFratta was born in 1920 in Castropignano, Italy. After her husband died, she immigrated to Canada in 1971 and settled in Thorold with her six children. She raised them mostly on her own, said Scala.

Her family eventually grew to 15 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

Scala has many fond memories visiting her grandmothers small home on Richmond Street.

What a nice lady she is, she said. We always had family gatherings at her house in Thorold. It was just a tiny house but we always seemed to fit everyone in.

We would always have celebrations in there. I actually really miss that.

Oakwood Park Lodge is at 6747 Oakwood Dr.
In the night of August 1, three men from Guinea were brutally attacked by neo-Nazis in Erfurt and had to be taken to hospital. One of them, a 21-year-old youth, suffered such severe head injuries that his condition was still considered critical days later; he is still in hospital.

It was in the early hours of the morning when the three happened to pass a neo-Nazi meeting place. They did not know that the Neue Starke Erfurt e.V., a martial arts club in a former shopping centre in the south of the city, had been occupied for five years by fascists from Der III. Weg (The 3rd Way) and used as a clubhouse. Several men standing around outside on that night attacked the three passers-by without any cause, beating and kicking them most brutally.

The police arrested 12 of them, but after a few hours, the violent perpetrators, all neo-Nazis known to the city authorities and the police, were free again. Senior Public Prosecutor Hannes Grunseisen, spokesman for Thuringias Public Prosecutor Generals Office, reported they were under investigation for committing grievous bodily harm and breach of the peace. However, since there was no danger of a cover-up or of them fleeing, there was no reason for their detention.

Witnesses are still being sought to clarify the exact course of events. The injured victims, whose death the Nazi thugs had accepted, are apparently out of the question as witnesses.

The attack is only the tip of an iceberg. In Erfurt, right-wing gangs of thugs can act completely freely and uninhibitedly under the eyes of the state authorities. This is what happened just a few days earlier, on July 18, when masked right-wing extremists attacked a group of young people celebrating in front of the state chancellery, where surveillance cameras record everything, day and night. At least five of the 12 or so attacked, including young women, were left lying on the floor, some of them seriously injured. As in the case of the Guineans, the Thuringian State Criminal Office (LKA) quickly took over the investigationand apparently, let it fizzle out.

Last Saturday, about 400 protested in an Erfurt demonstration against racism, right-wing violence and its cover-up by the state. A spokeswoman for the Thuringian Ezra victim advisory service, Christin Fiedler, described the attack in front of the state chancellery:

This was not a mass brawl or confrontation, but a targeted, coordinated and insidious attack on people celebrating peacefully by right-wing violent criminals, presumably experienced in martial arts. The perpetrators were partially masked and knew exactly what they were doing. They acted without restraint and with enormous brutality and knowingly accepted causing possible fatal injuries, for example by continuing to kick people who were lying unconscious on the ground.

For Fiedler, the fact that the attack took place in public, with video monitoring directly in front of the building of the Thuringia state government shows how secure the perpetrators felt, who did not even stop when the police were already on the scene.

The fascist attacks in Erfurt are part of a wave of right-wing extremist and anti-Semitic violence. These have increased considerably in Germany. Even the federal Interior Minister, Horst Seehofer, had to admit this when he spoke of a long trail of blood in May, when presenting the police crime statistics, which leads from the actions of the neo-fascist NSU, responsible for a series of xenophobic murders, to the attacks in Munich, Halle and Hanau, to the murder of Kassels district president Walter Lubcke. Seehofer said, The greatest threat in our country comes from the right.

But the neo-Nazis and anti-Semites have no mass support among the population, unlike the 1930s. The majority hates and despises right-wing extremism and expresses this again and againsometimes in mass demonstrations. The fascists only feel so strong because they know that the state within the statethe dark channels and neo-Nazi networks in the police, the Bundeswehr (Armed Forces) and the secret serviceare at their side. That is why Erfurts well-known neo-Nazis, who are prepared to use violence, are again at large in the city, even though they have just beaten three Guineans half to death.

The decision to let them roam free evinces such open support for the right-wingers that Thuringia state interior minister Georg Maier (Social Democratic Party, SPD) felt compelled to publicly criticise it. The Nazi thugs of Erfurt are all walking free again, Maier tweeted. I know its not my place to criticise the justice system, but its a disaster for the victims and the people of Herrenberg. Herrenberg is the housing estate where the attack took place.

Like Seehofer, Maier is trying to cover his tracks. The federal interior minister showed his solidarity with radical right-wing protests in Chemnitz in September 2018, among other things. Maier is part of a state government in Thuringia, which is led by a state premier from the Left Party, Bodo Ramelow, and which courts the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and seeks to cooperate with it. This was demonstrated only a few hours after Ramelows re-election in the spring.

On March 6, Ramelow used his casting vote to help the AfD take over the vice presidency of the Thuringia state legislature. Ramelow then explicitly stated on Twitter that he had very fundamentally decided to use my vote to clear the way for parliamentary participation, which must be granted to every parliamentary group.

The Left Party, for which many voters had only cast their ballot because they wanted to set an example against the right wing, thus very consciously ensured the AfDs parliamentary participationa party that plays down Nazism, fans racism and, especially in Thuringia, has open neo-Nazis in its ranks. It is precisely this policy of the Left Party and the SPD that strengthens and encourages the extreme right-wing gangs of thugs. The SPD interior minister is only concerned because the effects of the right-wing policies of the Ramelow government are visible. He is not taking any action in the matter, despite the public prosecutors office being part of his department.

Nazi parties such as Die Rechte (The Right) and Der III. Weg have been explicitly allowed to use the building in Erfurt-South, where the Guineans were attacked, as a clubhouse for five years. Undisturbed by the authorities, they organize right-wing rock concerts, martial arts training, and party meetings there. Enrico Biczysko is a right-wing figurehead in Erfurts city council for the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party of Germany, and the neo-Nazis have friends and supporters in the judiciary and police.

The first police press release after the attack was already characteristic for this right-wing swamp. In officialese, it blandly states, On 01.08.2020 at about 03:05, a verbal dispute between a group of three foreign fellow citizens and about 10 Germans occurred, which culminated in a physical confrontation. In the course of this quarrel, two persons with a migration background were injured, some of them seriously. The cynicism of this police communication can hardly be surpassed. Through their presence in Germany, the Guineans had put themselves in danger and ultimately brought about their own injuries.
A perplexed Senator Lynn Boylan has said it beggars belief that the 100 million Bord na Mona Derryadd wind farm development is going ahead on the site of the proposed Mid Shannon Wilderness Park.

Senator Boylan visited Longford last week, where she met representatives from the Irish Wildlife Trust, at the site.

The former Sinn Fein MEP was accompanied by her Longford Westmeath party colleague, Sorca Clarke TD, and she says she has written to Ministers Eamon Ryan and Catherine Martin to ask how the decision to build a wind farm on the site is in keeping with the national peatlands strategy?

Actions A9 and A12 of that strategy refer specifically to harnessing the potential of peatlands to contribute to both our environmental and ecological wealth, with a particular emphasis on mitigating carbon losses, and the potential to develop peatlands to bring tourism and recreation attractions to the midlands and west, outlined Senator Boylan.

She added, I hope that when the Minister Ryan, comes before the House again, he will address the contradictions in policy of using public money to rehabilitate Bord na Mona peatlands while the organisation itself appears to be dead set on undoing the existing rehabilitation projects.

In 2013, Longford County Council Senior Planner Donall Mac An Bheatha brought forward a detailed proposal for a wilderness park and Senator Boylan said the proposal was an important step in addressing the biodiversity crisis we have in this country.

Whooper swans, lapwings, curlews and golden plovers are already present at the site. In addition, a wilderness park would stabilise the emissions on the degraded peatlands and contribute to flood relief.

Senator Boylan contends, Given that the proposed wilderness park is referenced in the national peatlands strategy and only last week we had the Minister with responsibility for climate action, Deputy Eamon Ryan, announcing funding to rehabilitate 33,000 ha of Bord na Mona peatlands, it beggars belief that this wind farm is going ahead.

The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) has also written to Minister Ryan asking that he instruct Bord na Mona to get behind the Mid Shannon Wilderness Park, which they believe is a landmark project that could breathe new life into the region.

Earlier this year, Longford County Council secured 482,806 to commence the process of developing the Mid Shannon Wilderness Park which will eventually encompass the cutaway bogs in the Mount Dillon complex in county Longford and neighbouring Roscommon.

In June, An Bord Pleanala announced that it was granting approval to Bord na Mona for the 24 turbine wind farm development to proceed. The No to Derryadd Wind Farm group were dismayed by the decision and they subsequently announced they will be seeking a judicial review.

A group spokesperson said, Peter Sweetman has instructed Walter P Toolan & Sons Solicitors, High Street, Ballinamore and as this is now a legal matter we won't be making further comments in relation to these developments.
During these times of global uncertainty Ian Fairweather has found comfort in gazing out of his window at a mob of kangaroos that graze in the grassy bushland next to his Lilydale home.

When we first moved here we thought How good is this?, he says. We have grandkids who absolutely adore them. As soon as they arrive theyre straight to the back window to see if the roos are out there.

Lilydale resident Ian Fairweather and his grandchildren, Heidi, 4, Sammy 7 and Jack 11 in his backyard on Thursday. Credit:Eddie Jim

For residents in the Kinley housing estate this family mob of about 30 eastern grey kangaroos has been a welcome presence for many years. But they are likely to soon be culled as their habitat is developed for housing.

The prospect is distressing for residents and their children not least because the developer says it put forward alternative proposals  such as relocation and sterilisation  to the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, only to have them knocked back.
Signs agreement with leading moped operator, MiMoto, for platform integration and acquisition

Mopeds to begin operating in Milan, Turin, Genoa, Rapallo, Santa Margherita Ligure and Portofino

Helbiz, a global leader in micro-mobility, today announced that it has signed an agreement with MiMoto Smart Mobility S.r.l., the first Italian mover in the electric moped market. This agreement marks the first step that will lead to the acquisition of MiMoto, at which point, all of MiMoto's mopeds will become fully integrated and branded as Helbiz vehicles. The strategic acquisition will expand Helbiz's innovative fleet of electric vehicles, which already includes electric scooters and electric bicycles and represents the company's continued commitment to providing the most innovative transportation solutions on the market. Helbiz will now be the only company offering these three sustainable transportation options, seamlessly on its app.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200806005650/en/

Helbiz expands its innovative fleet of micro-mobility vehicles with the addition of electric mopeds through signed agreement with leading moped operator MiMoto (Photo: Business Wire)

"This agreement with MiMoto is an important milestone for Helbiz as we strive to lead the charge in driving sustainable and environmentally friendly transportation around the world," said Salvatore Palella, founder and CEO of Helbiz. "Our riders will now be able to access our enhanced fleet of innovative vehicles, which accommodates a wide range of travel options from short trips to long distances. We'll begin offering mopeds in Italy with plans to expand into every market we operate in."

"The signed agreement signifies the first step of this acquisition, which will allow customers within the growing Helbiz ecosystem to ensure safe and sustainable rides all from one app," said the founders of MiMoto, Alessandro Vincenti, Gianluca Iorio and Vittorio Muratore"Our complementary offerings help accelerate the integration of green micro-mobility services within existing city infrastructure, and we're excited to offer riders more travel alternatives across Italy."

Through this acquisition, Helbiz's fleet in Italy will include 7,000 e-scooters, 3,000 e-bikes and 1,000 mopeds, serving over 1.2 million users with electric micro-mobility solutions. At launch, electric mopeds will be available in Milan, Turin, Genoa, Rapallo, Santa Margherita Ligure and Portofino with plans for expansion into Rome, Florence, Bari, Pescara and Naples. Helbiz also plans to offer mopeds in all the markets it operates in including in the USA and across Europe.

As part of the transaction, Helbiz was assisted by Ortoli Rosenstadt and Deloitte Legal for the legal aspects in the USA and Italy respectively. MiMoto was assisted by Inexo for M&A activities and by Dentons for legal aspects.

For more information visit, www.helbiz.com.

ABOUT HELBIZ

Helbiz is a global leader in micro-mobility services. Launched in 2017 and headquartered in New York City, the company operates e-scooters and e-bicycles in over 20 cities around the world including Milan, Madrid, Belgrade and Miami. Helbiz utilizes a customized, proprietary fleet management platform, artificial intelligence and environmental mapping to optimize operations and business sustainability.

ABOUT MIMOTO

MiMoto is the first made in Italy service of 100% electric free flow active scooter sharing in the cities of Milan, Turin and Genoa. Born in 2015 from the idea of three young Italian entrepreneurs and started from Milan, in a few years MiMoto has increasingly expanded its fleet revolutionizing the concept of urban mobility in smart and green key, and making it simple, fun and eco-sustainable to move within the city. It's simple because you only need to use your smartphone to reach your desired destination, reducing costs and travel time. Thanks to the proprietary app the user can easily locate, book, switch on and leave the vehicle, all without worrying about wallet or recharge. It's fun because the eScooters in the MiMoto fleet are light, manageable, easy to drive and allow total freedom of movement, even for two people. It's environmentally friendly because, with a 3,000 W electric motor, all vehicles are zero-emission and environmentally friendly. These elements have made MiMoto a true icon of smart mobility and a service with a unique experience that will continue to grow by exporting its smart, fun and green model to other Italian cities and conquering new eRiders, with the aim of reaching 700 thousand active users, 17 cities and 6 thousand eScooters by 2022.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200806005650/en/

Contacts:

Press contacts Europe:

MY PR

+39 02 54123452

Giorgio Cattaneo

+39 335,7053742

giorgio.cattaneo@mypr.it

Giulia Makaus +39 338,9291793

giulia.makaus@mypr.it

Fabio Micali +39 340,8758736

fabio.micali@mypr.it

US press contacts:

Sandy@agentofchange.com
Madeleine McCann was three when she went missing in 2007 (PA)

German authorities did not follow correct procedures when they extradited a German man from Italy for a rape charge whom investigators also suspect of murdering British toddler Madeleine McCann, an adviser to Europe's top court said on Thursday.

Christian B, who lived in the Algarve region of Portugal when 3-year-old Madeleine vanished from her bedroom in 2007, had challenged the validity of the European arrest warrant issued by Germany because it cited a drugs conviction but not the 2005 rape charge.

The 43-year-old German was extradited to Germany from Italy under the warrant in 2018 and subsequently convicted and sentenced for the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Portugal in December 2019.

A German court subsequently sought guidance from the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

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German authorities were required to get the consent of the Italian authorities for the rape charge so that the former could carry out their proceedings lawfully, CJEU Advocate General Michal Bobek said in a non-binding opinion.

The Court, which will rule in the coming months, follows such non-binding recommendations in four out of five cases.

Christian B is currently serving a sentence for drug dealing in the prison in Kiel in the north of Germany but could be freed any day now as he has already served two-thirds of his sentence.

Under German law, police have not released the suspect's surname and media in Germany are not permitted to report it, although it has appeared in some British outlets.
MIAMISBURG, Ohio, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Verso Corporation (NYSE: VRS) today reported financial results for the second quarter of 2020 and announced that it will pay a special cash dividend of $3.00 per share of common stock and a quarterly cash dividend of $0.10 per share of common stock, each to be paid on September 28, 2020.

Second Quarter 2020 Highlights :

Net sales of $268 million , down $334 million compared to second quarter 2019

, down compared to second quarter 2019 Net loss of $(34) million or $(0.99) per diluted share, compared to net loss of $(112) million or $(3.23) per diluted share in second quarter 2019

or per diluted share, compared to net loss of or per diluted share in second quarter 2019 Adjusted EBITDA of $(9) million , compared to $44 million in second quarter 2019

Overview

"As expected, the second quarter was extremely challenging for Verso. The rapidly-evolving COVID-19 pandemic continues to force many of our end use customer segments to significantly reduce their print advertising, therefore decreasing demand for our graphic papers, and impacting our financial performance," said Verso President and Chief Executive Officer Adam St. John. "During these uncertain and unprecedented times, the safety and health of our essential employees remain our top concern as we take decisive, proactive actions to respond to the economic environment and adverse market conditions. Strategically, the decision to idle our Duluth and Wisconsin Rapids mills allows us to streamline our business and build a stronger, more flexible operating model and product strategy around our remaining two high performing mills. We believe this strategy, together with our cost reduction efforts, including managing SG&A under 5% of revenues and controlling capital spending, will create a cash generating platform and long-term value for all of our stakeholders. As we navigate this ever changing environment, we remain steadfast in positioning our business for long-term stockholder value, including returning considerable capital to our stockholders through means such as cash dividends and share repurchases. With this additional special cash dividend, we have ramped up delivery on our commitment to return to our stockholders a substantial portion of the net cash proceeds from the sale of our Androscoggin and Stevens Point mills."

Dividends

The special cash dividend of $3.00 per share will return approximately $100 million of the net cash proceeds from the sale of Verso's Androscoggin and Stevens Point mills to Verso's stockholders. Verso has made a corresponding reduction of its previously announced authorization to repurchase shares of Verso's outstanding common stock, from $250 million to $150 million, leaving approximately $127 million authorized for the repurchase of shares after giving effect to prior repurchases.

Results of Operations  Comparison of Three Months Ended June 30, 2020 to Three Months Ended June 30, 2019



Three Months Ended

June 30,

Three Month (Dollars in millions) 2019

2020

$ Change Net sales $ 602

$ 268

$ (334) Costs and expenses:









Cost of products sold (exclusive of depreciation and amortization) 540

271

(269) Depreciation and amortization 104

22

(82) Selling, general and administrative expenses 29

16

(13) Restructuring charges 40

-

(40) Other operating (income) expense 1

1

- Operating income (loss) (112)

(42)

70 Interest expense 1

-

(1) Other (income) expense (1)

(5)

(4) Income (loss) before income taxes (112)

(37)

75 Income tax expense (benefit) -

(3)

(3) Net income (loss) $ (112)

$ (34)

$ 78













Comments to Results of Operations - Comparison of Three Months Ended June 30, 2020 to Three Months Ended June 30, 2019

Net sales

Net sales for the second quarter of 2020 decreased by $334 million compared to the second quarter of 2019, as a result of significant declines in sales volume and unfavorable price/mix. Of the $334 million, or 55%, net sales decline, $65 million, or 11%, was attributable to the closure of our Luke Mill in June 2019 and $134 million, or 22%, was a result of the sale of our Androscoggin and Stevens Point mills in February 2020. Total company sales volume was down from 646 thousand tons during the second quarter of 2019, to 346 thousand tons during the same period of the current year. Of the 300 thousand ton volume decline, 66 thousand tons were attributable to the closure of our Luke Mill in June 2019, 131 thousand tons were a result of the sale of our Androscoggin and Stevens Point mills in February 2020 and the additional decline in volume resulted from lower customer demand driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. We expect the COVID-19 pandemic to continue to have a negative impact on our net sales in the third quarter of 2020.

Operating income

Operating loss was $42 million for the second quarter of 2020, an improvement of $70 million when compared to operating loss of $112 million for the second quarter of 2019.

Operating results for the second quarter of 2020 were positively impacted by:

Lower input costs of $6 million , driven by lower chemical, energy and purchased pulp costs, partially offset by higher wood costs

, driven by lower chemical, energy and purchased pulp costs, partially offset by higher wood costs Lower depreciation expense of $82 million due primarily to $76 million in accelerated depreciation associated with the closure of our Luke Mill in June 2019

due primarily to in accelerated depreciation associated with the closure of our in Reduced planned major maintenance costs of $14 million , driven primarily by the deferral of the annual outage at our Wisconsin Rapids Mill

, driven primarily by the deferral of the annual outage at our Wisconsin Rapids Mill Lower Selling, general and administrative expenses of $13 million , driven primarily by cost reduction initiatives in connection with the sale of our Androscoggin and Stevens Point mills in February 2020 , lower equity compensation expense and lower severance costs

, driven primarily by cost reduction initiatives in connection with the sale of our Androscoggin and Stevens Point mills in , lower equity compensation expense and lower severance costs Lower restructuring charges of $40 million associated with the closure of our Luke Mill in June 2019

Operating results for the second quarter of 2020 were negatively impacted by:

Unfavorable net selling price and product mix of $36 million

Lower sales volume resulting in a decrease of $45 million in net operating income, driven by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the sale of our Androscoggin and Stevens Point mills in February 2020 and the closure of our Luke Mill in June 2019

in net operating income, driven by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the sale of our Androscoggin and Stevens Point mills in and the closure of our in Higher net operating expenses of $4 million driven primarily by market downtime and a necessary extension of the planned outage at our Quinnesec Mill, partially offset by improved performance and cost reduction initiatives across our mill system

Other income

Other income for the second quarter of 2020 and 2019 includes income of $5 million and $1 million, respectively, associated with the non-operating components of net periodic pension cost (income).

Income tax expense

Income tax benefit of $3 million for the second quarter of 2020 primarily reflects the estimated taxes for the period and $1 million of valuation allowance recognized against state tax credits. The second quarter of 2020 includes $7 million of income tax expense related to the year ended December 31, 2019. This resulted from recording an adjustment for the federal tax effect on deferred tax assets for state net operating losses and state tax credits established in 2019 without a federal tax effect. Income tax benefit for the second quarter of 2019 was primarily offset by the valuation allowance adjustment.

Results of Operations  Comparison of Six Months Ended June 30, 2020 to Six Months Ended June 30, 2019



Six Months Ended

June 30,

Six Month (Dollars in millions) 2019

2020

$ Change Net sales $ 1,241

$ 739

$ (502) Costs and expenses:









Cost of products sold (exclusive of depreciation and amortization) 1,089

698

(391) Depreciation and amortization 132

45

(87) Selling, general and administrative expenses 53

43

(10) Restructuring charges 40

6

(34) Other operating (income) expense 2

(87)

(89) Operating income (loss) (75)

34

109 Interest expense 2

-

(2) Other (income) expense (2)

(9)

(7) Income (loss) before income taxes (75)

43

118 Income tax expense (benefit) 1

23

22 Net income (loss) $ (76)

$ 20

$ 96













Comments to Results of Operations - Comparison of Six Months Ended June 30, 2020 to Six Months Ended June 30, 2019

Net sales

Net sales for the first half of 2020 decreased $502 million compared to the first half of 2019, as a result of significant declines in sales volume and unfavorable price/mix. Of the $502 million, or 40%, net sales decline, $132 million, or 11%, was attributable to the closure of our Luke Mill in June 2019 and $206 million, or 17%, was a result of the sale of our Androscoggin and Stevens Point mills in February 2020. Total company sales volume was down from 1,311 thousand tons during the first half of 2019, to 900 thousand tons during the same period of the current year. Of the 411 thousand ton volume decline, 132 thousand tons were attributable to the closure of our Luke Mill in June 2019, 193 thousand tons were a result of the sale of our Androscoggin and Stevens Point mills in February 2020 and the additional decline in volume resulted from lower customer demand driven by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Operating income

Operating income was $34 million for the first half of 2020, an increase of $109 million when compared to operating loss of $75 million for the first half of 2019

Operating results for the first half of 2020 were positively impacted by:

Lower input costs of $16 million , driven by lower chemical, energy and purchased pulp costs, partially offset by higher wood costs

, driven by lower chemical, energy and purchased pulp costs, partially offset by higher wood costs Lower freight costs of $6 million

Lower depreciation expense of $87 million due primarily to $76 million in accelerated depreciation associated with the closure of our Luke Mill in June 2019

due primarily to in accelerated depreciation associated with the closure of our in Reduced planned major maintenance costs of $16 million , driven primarily by the deferral of the annual outage at our Wisconsin Rapids Mill

, driven primarily by the deferral of the annual outage at our Wisconsin Rapids Mill Lower Selling, general and administrative costs of $10 million driven primarily by cost reduction initiatives in connection with the sale of our Androscoggin and Stevens Point mills in February 2020 and lower equity compensation expense, partially offset by increased severance costs incurred due to our headcount reduction initiatives and costs associated with the proxy solicitation contest

driven primarily by cost reduction initiatives in connection with the sale of our Androscoggin and Stevens Point mills in and lower equity compensation expense, partially offset by increased severance costs incurred due to our headcount reduction initiatives and costs associated with the proxy solicitation contest Lower restructuring charges of $34 million primarily associated with the closure of our Luke Mill in June 2019

primarily associated with the closure of our in Higher other operating income of $89 million , primarily as a result of the $88 million gain on the sale of our Androscoggin and Stevens Point mills

Operating results for the first half of 2020 were negatively impacted by:

Unfavorable price/mix of $82 million

Lower sales volume resulting in a decrease of $57 million in net operating income, driven by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the sale of our Androscoggin and Stevens Point mills in February 2020 and the closure of our Luke Mill in June 2019

in net operating income, driven by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the sale of our Androscoggin and Stevens Point mills in and the closure of our in Higher net operating expenses of $10 million driven primarily by market downtime, a necessary extension of the planned outage at our Quinnesec Mill and sell through of higher cost inventory produced in 2019, partially offset by improved performance and cost reduction initiatives across our mill system, reduced corporate overhead and union ratification expense for signing bonuses and for the settlement of various work arrangement issues in the first quarter of 2019 that did not recur in 2020

Other income

Other income for the first half of 2020 and 2019 includes income of $10 million and $2 million, respectively, associated with the non-operating components of net periodic pension cost (income).

Income tax expense

Income tax expense of $23 million for the first half of 2020 primarily reflects estimated taxes for the period and $7 million of additional valuation allowance recognized against state tax credits. The first half of 2020 includes $7 million of income tax expense related to the year ended December 31, 2019. This resulted from recording an adjustment for the federal tax effect on deferred tax assets for state net operating losses and state tax credits established in 2019 without a federal tax effect. Income tax benefit for the first half of 2019 was primarily offset by the valuation allowance adjustment.

Reconciliation of Net Income (Loss) to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA

EBITDA consists of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. Adjusted EBITDA reflects adjustments to EBITDA to eliminate the impact of certain items that we do not consider to be indicative of our ongoing performance. We use EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as a way of evaluating our performance relative to that of our peers and to assess compliance with our credit facilities. We believe that EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are non-GAAP operating performance measures commonly used in our industry that provide investors and analysts with measures of ongoing operating results, unaffected by differences in capital structures, capital investment cycles and ages of related assets among otherwise comparable companies.

We believe that the supplemental adjustments applied in calculating Adjusted EBITDA are reasonable and appropriate to provide additional information to investors.

Because EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are not measurements determined in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and are susceptible to varying calculations, EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA, as presented, may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies. You should consider our EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA in addition to, and not as a substitute for, or superior to, our operating or net income (loss), which are determined in accordance with GAAP.

The following table reconciles Net income (loss) to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA for the periods presented:























Three Months Ended

June 30,

Six Months Ended

June 30, (Dollars in millions) 2019

2020

2019

2020 Net income (loss) $ (112)

$ (34)

$ (76)

$ 20 Income tax expense (benefit) -

(3)

1

23 Interest expense 1

-

2

- Depreciation and amortization 104

22

132

45 EBITDA $ (7)

$ (15)

$ 59

$ 88 Adjustments to EBITDA:















Restructuring charges (1) 40

-

40

6

Luke Mill post-closure costs (2) 1

3

1

6

Non-cash equity award compensation (3) 6

2

8

4

Gain on Sale of the Androscoggin/Stevens Point Mills (4) -

-

-

(88)

(Gain) loss on sale or disposal of assets (5) -

-

1

-

Stockholders proxy solicitation costs (6) -

-

-

4

Other severance costs (7) 2

1

2

5

Other items, net (8) 2

-

2

1 Adjusted EBITDA $ 44

$ (9)

$ 113

$ 26



















(1) Charges associated with the closure of our Luke Mill in June 2019. (2) Costs recorded after production ceased at our Luke Mill that are not associated with product sales or restructuring

activities. (3) Amortization of non-cash incentive compensation. (4) Gain on the sale of the outstanding membership interests in Verso Androscoggin, LLC in February 2020, which included our

Androscoggin Mill and Stevens Point Mill. (5) Realized (gain) loss on the sale or disposal of assets. (6) Costs incurred in connection with the stockholders proxy solicitation contest. (7) Severance and related benefit costs not associated with restructuring activities. (8) Other miscellaneous adjustments.

About Verso

Verso Corporation is the turn-to company for those looking to successfully navigate the complexities of paper sourcing and performance. A leading North American producer of graphic and specialty papers, packaging papers and pulp, Verso provides insightful solutions that help drive improved customer efficiency, productivity, brand awareness and business results. Verso's long-standing reputation for quality and reliability is directly tied to our vision to be a company with passion that is respected and trusted by all. Verso's passion is rooted in ethical business practices that demand safe workplaces for our employees and sustainable wood sourcing for our products. This passion, combined with our flexible manufacturing capabilities and an unmatched commitment to product performance, delivery and service, make Verso a preferred choice among commercial printers, paper merchants and brokers, converters, publishers and other end users. For more information, visit us online at versoco.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

In this press release, all statements that are not purely historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the words "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "project," "plan," "estimate," "intend," "potential" and other similar expressions. They include, for example, statements relating to our business and operating outlook; the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; assessment of market conditions; and the growth potential of the industry in which we operate. Forward-looking statements are based on currently available business, economic, financial, and other information and reflect management's current beliefs, expectations, and views with respect to future developments and their potential effects on Verso. Actual results could vary materially depending on risks and uncertainties that may affect Verso and its business. Verso's actual actions and results may differ materially from what is expressed or implied by these statements due to a variety of factors, including: uncertainties regarding the duration and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic and measures intended to reduce its spread; the long-term structural decline and general softening of demand facing the paper industry; adverse developments in general business and economic conditions; developments in alternative media, which are expected to adversely affect the demand for some of Verso's key products, and the effectiveness of Verso's responses to these developments; intense competition in the paper manufacturing industry; Verso's ability to compete with respect to certain specialty paper products for a period of two years after the closing of the Pixelle Sale; Verso's business being less diversified following the sale of two mills after the closing of the Pixelle Sale; Verso's dependence on a small number of customers for a significant portion of its business; Verso's limited ability to control the pricing of its products or pass through increases in its costs to its customers; changes in the costs of raw materials and purchased energy; negative publicity, even if unjustified; any failure to comply with environmental or other laws or regulations, even if inadvertent; legal proceedings or disputes; any labor disputes; and the potential risks and uncertainties described under the caption "Risk Factors" in Verso's Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019, Verso's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the three months ended March 31, 2020, and from time to time in Verso's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Verso assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement made in this press release to reflect subsequent events or circumstances or actual outcomes.

Conference Call

Verso will host a conference call and webcast for analysts and investors on Thursday, August 6, 2020 at 11:30 a.m. (EDT) to discuss second quarter 2020 financial results.

Analysts and investors may access the live conference call only by dialing 888-317-6003 (U.S. toll-free), 866-284-3684 (Canada toll-free) or 412-317-6061 (international) and referencing elite entry number 4187035 and Verso Corporation. To register, please dial in 10 minutes before the conference call begins. The news release and second quarter 2020 results will be available on Verso's website at http://investor.versoco.com by navigating to the Financial Information page.

Analysts and investors may also access the live conference call and webcast by clicking on the event link https://www.webcaster4.com/Webcast/Page/1524/36301 or by visiting Verso's website at http://investor.versoco.com and navigating to the Events page. Please go to this link at least one hour before the call and follow the instructions to register, download and install any necessary audio/video software.

A telephonic replay of the call can be accessed at 877-344-7529 (U.S. toll-free), 855-669-9658 (Canada toll-free) or 412-317-0088 (international), access code 10146931. The replay will be available starting at 1:30 p.m. (EDT) Thursday, August 6, 2020, and will remain available until September 6, 2020. An archive of the conference call and webcast will be available at http://investor.versoco.com starting at 1:30 p.m. (EDT) Thursday, August 6, 2020, and will remain available for 120 days.

SOURCE Verso Corporation

Related Links

http://versoco.com


Doctors in China have removed 29 magnetic beads from a man's bladder after they were stuck there for more than 10 days.

The unidentified man had inserted the toy balls into his urethra one by one before the metal spheres slipped down and bundled up, a medic told reporters.

The patient went to a hospital in north-western China's Shaanxi Province after allegedly seeing blood in his pee and feeling pain while urinating.

An X-ray scan shows that the magnetic balls - a popular toy in China - bundled up in the man's bladder and formed what looked like a bracelet after getting stuck in the organ for 10 days

Dr Qu Liming in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, displays the beads after they were removed in surgery

The news was reported by Jiangxi Net TV Station, citing staff from the Second People's Hospital of Shaanxi Province.

According to the report, the man who lives in the provincial capital of Xi'an had experienced extreme discomfort before he rushed to the hospital.

He confessed that he had put some 'small beads' into his privates, but refused to tell doctors why he had done so.

An X-ray scan showed that the magnetic balls - a popular toy in China - had attracted each other in the man's bladder and formed what looked like a bracelet.

Medics found a total of 29 beads inside the man's body after giving him a medical checkup

The patient refused to tell his doctor why he had put the magnetic beads into his privates

Dr Qu Liming, a supervising urologist of the hospital, told reporters: 'He said he had put them in one by one. Because they were magnetic, therefore they linked up.'

It is reported that the man had visited several hospitals, but declined to be treated there due to fears of surgery.

Dr Qu and his team eventually pulled out the beads from the man's genitals through minimally invasive surgery.

He had started to see blood in his urine before rushing to seek medical attention, Dr Qu noted

Dr Qu said one of his patients had tucked a three-foot-long power cable into his genitalia. The wire eventually became tangled and formed a knot in the patient's bladder, he told reporters

The patient has recovered from the operation, according to Dr Qu.

The medic warned men not to put objects into their urethra.

He said he had received many similar patients, including one man who had tucked a three-foot-long power cable into his genitalia. The wire eventually became tangled and formed a knot in the patient's bladder.
There are no new cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand today.

The Minister of Health Chris Hipkins and the Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield provided a COVID-19 update at 1pm today.

It has been 97 days since the last case of COVID-19 was acquired locally from an unknown source.

Dr Ashley Bloomfield says one further case is considered to have recovered.

This brings the total number of active cases in managed isolation facilities is now 23.

Ashley says no one is receiving hospital-level care.

Yesterday, laboratories processed 5200 tests for COVID-19.

Two of those swabs were taken in managed isolation and quarantine facilities, and the rest were undertaken in the community.

Ashley says it is encouraging to see the rise in testing numbers.

The Government has confirmed a community-wide trial of CovidCard technology as it explores options for COVID-19 contact tracing. They will roll out a trial involving around 250-300 people in Rotorua.

Chris Hipkins says the card has the potential to make contact tracing faster.

Any decision on whether to deploy the CovidCard will be made later this year, he says.

At this stage, it is not anticipated that the CovidCard would be mandatory.

Face masks

Dr Bloomfield says the Ministry has updated its advice on face masks.

It is now recommending households add sufficient masks for every member of the household.

"These do not need to be medical-grade masks."

Currently it is not necessary to wear masks, Ashley says but if there are further outbreaks of COVID-19, masks will be another important component for the government's strategy.

"We are asking members of the public to view face masks as another important component of their emergency preparedness kits," he says.

"Masks are one tool in the toolbox to help reduce the risk of spread between people. Our elimination strategy of course is still based on strong border protection, testing, contact tracing, isolating people who are infected and of course - the minister's mentioned this - physical distancing."

"We will be continuing to work with the health system to ensure there are medical-grade masks available to people who need them."

Earlier:

There were two new cases of COVID-19 to report in managed isolation facilities in New Zealand yesterday.

The first case was a man in his 20s who arrived in New Zealand on July 23 from the Philippines via Hong Kong.

He has been in managed isolation at the Rydges in Rotorua and tested negative for COVID-19 around day 3 of his stay.

He has been transferred to the Auckland quarantine facility after testing positive around day 12 of his stay in managed isolation, says a statement from the Ministry of Health.

The second case was a a woman in her 40s who arrived in New Zealand on August 1 from the Philippines via Hong Kong.

She has been in managed isolation at the Grand Millennium in Auckland, and tested positive around day 3 of her stay.

The total number of active cases in managed isolation facilities in New Zealand was 24.

-Additional reporting RNZ
Stock Investors What to do if Trump Bans TikTok

By Justin Spittler : Its the hottest social media platform on the planet. Its growing faster than Facebook (FB), Twitter (TWTR), and Instagram. And it could come crashing down any day now.

Of course, Im talking about TikTok. You may have heard of TikTok. You may even have a teenager suddenly singing and dancing around the house because of it.

In short, TikTok is a video sharing app where users can create short dance, lip-sync, comedy, and talent videos.

And Right Now, Millions Of Young Americans Are Hooked

In the first quarter of 2020, there was a total of 315 million downloads worldwidea 58% increase from the previous quarter and the most to date. Currently, TikTok has 800 million users worldwide, and an estimated 80 million users in the US.

And get this: TikTok has only been available in the US since 2018! These days, young people in the US now spend almost as much time on TikTok as they do watching videos on YouTube.

But as I said, this addictive app could soon be gone for good. You see, not only is it insanely popular, Its also highly controversial. In fact, Trump and his administration are looking into banning it. Not months from now, but weeks.

And when he does, it could send one specific stock to the moon. Let me explain.

TikTok Isnt An American Company

Its owned by the Chinese parent company ByteDance which, thanks to TikTok, is worth a whopping $75 billion. Its the worlds most valuable private company, according to CB Insights. When companies get this big, they attract criticism, especially Chinese companies.

You see, its no secret that the US government and China arent on the best terms. Trumps been waging a trade war on China since he stepped into the Oval Office.

The Chinese Communist Party is also infamous for stealing intellectual property. And, as a social media app, TikTok has mountains of personal data to collect on its users.

Now, TikTok Is Doing Everything It Can To Distance Itself From The Chinese Government

In May, it hired American and former Disney executive Kevin Mayer as CEO. It also says its never provided user data to the Chinese government, nor would we do so if asked.

Still, many cybersecurity experts fear that the private data of American users could end up in the hands of Chinas Communist Party. There are even reports that TikTok can read anything and everything on users Apple (AAPL) iPhone devices. That includes passwords, work documents, sensitive emails, and financial information!

Wells Fargo (WFC)one of the nations biggest bankshas banned its employees from using it. The US Army and Navy have also barred service members from using the app on government phones, after the Pentagon issued a warning.

Earlier This Month, Trump Called Out TikTok By Name

He said his administration is now considering banning the app. That same week, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called TikTok a national security threat.

Pompeo also said that the administration was certainly looking at banning the app. And the Trump administration is now running ad campaigns asking for support of a TikTok ban.

Now, its too early to tell if Trump will ban TikTok outright. But it wouldnt surprise me at all if he does.

The White House has already said that restrictions on TikTok could come in weeks, not months. The US wouldnt even be the first country to ban TikTok.

Last month, India banned TikTok along with 59 other Chinese apps due to an ongoing border clash with China. India was an even bigger TikTok market than the US. It accounted for 30% of all TikTok downloads!

If Trump Does Clamp Down On TikTok, That Will Cause One US Stock To Soar

Im talking about Snap (SNAP). Snap is the biggest US social media company after Facebook. It owns the wildly popular app, Snapchat.

Like TikTok, Snapchat is a hit with the kids. About 90% of 13- to 24-year-olds in the US use Snapchat. To put that in perspective, just 39% of young folks use Facebook.

Snap is also at the forefront of the augmented reality (AR) megatrend . Snap could explode higher if Trump bans TikTok. And Im clearly not the only investor who thinks so. On July 8, Snap spiked 6% on talk of a TikTok ban.

To be fair, Snap isnt the exact same experience as TikTok. But it could offer something eerily similar soon. You see, Snapchat is currently recreating the TikTok experience on its platform. According to TechCrunch, Snapchat has begun experimenting with a vertical swiping motion that mimics how TikTok works.

This tells me Snapchat is looking to fill the huge void that will come from a TikTok ban . But thats not the only reason for you to consider investing in SNAP . The stock is also emerging from a monster base that its been carving out since it went public three years ago.

Its now close to eclipsing its IPO-day high. A breakout at this key level would represent a massive change in character for the stock. And it could signal the beginning of a major long-term rally for SNAP.

In closing, SNAP looks like its on the cusp of a major move higher. And a TikTok ban by Trump could be the catalyst that sends this stock through the roof.

The Great Disruptors: 3 Breakthrough Stocks Set to Double Your Money"

Get our latest report where we reveal our three favorite stocks that will hand you 100% gains as they disrupt whole industries. Get your free copy here.

By Justin Spittler

Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.

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Niagara Falls needs enforcement, not ambassadors

Re: Niagara Falls councillor, mayor differ on how best to address pandemic guidelines, rules, Aug. 1

After reading the article regarding Mayor Jim Diodati and Coun. Carolynn Ioannoni, I felt compelled to voice my opinion.

Both make good points regarding implementation of mask wearing, but I feel Coun. Ioannoni wins the battle.

This is a worldwide pandemic and, unless youve been unconscious for the past six months, we all know the importance of mask wearing, hand washing and physical distancing.

Money would be well spent hiring bylaw enforcement officers instead of seeking crush the curve ambassadors.

This is a serious, death threatening virus and from what Ive observed in Niagara Falls, there are still too many people not following the guidelines.

We are a few weeks away from schools opening.

Does the mayor not find it more important to keep the residents of Niagara Falls as safe as possible so children can return to school, or is tourism the No. 1 priority?

We could have the best of both worlds if visitors and residents understood there are consequences to not following the rules.

Do they still teach this in school?

Linda Holmes Niagara Falls

Theres no reasonable rationale for opening the border

Re: July 31: Border closure paranoia not warranted and other letters to the editor

I read with dismay letters that advocate opening our border with the U.S.

Clearly little thought or research has gone into claims that the situation with COVID-19 is not really so bad. It is bad in the U.S., the worst in the world, and all it takes is one or two so-called super-spreaders to come into Canada and a whole new massive wave of infections would cause thousands more deaths here.

I do advocate Canada Border Services Agency having the discretion to allow entry in certain special cases, of course, humanitarian and perhaps medical as well as family reunions.

However, we have the example of Americans falsely stating their purpose to drive to Alaska as they enter B.C. One can imagine the wish to get out of the U.S. hell-hole of pandemic growing stronger, not weaker.

In addition, COVID-19 has not really been stamped out in the U.S.

There is no rationale whatsoever for opening borders to entry from a country where simple mask wearing is questioned and millions still believe the pandemic is a hoax.

Kaspar PoldNiagara-on-the-Lake

Pressure needed to ensure seniors have safe places to live

I and the political advocacy committee of the local branch of the Retired Teachers of Ontario are dismayed at the weaknesses and problems COVID-19 has exposed in the way we house our vulnerable senior citizens.

The situation for them is abysmal and the problems are myriad.

Amongst them:

Overcrowding;

Underpaid workers who are forced to work at multiple locations;

Under-trained workers;

Overworked staff who cannot do all that is needed for good hygiene;

Inadequate inspections that can be done over the phone.

All of these problems help spread disease.

The customers/patients/residents, call them what you will, are our parents, grandparents and even us. Their age and situation make them perfect targets for any disease, especially one as potentially deadly as COVID-19.

I applaud Premier Doug Ford for his commitment to tackle these horrendous conditions. Surely, however, it is incumbent upon us, as citizens and concerned human beings, to keep the pressure on our governments to do the right thing, the humane thing, to address these problems.

We need to ensure our senior citizens have decent and safe places to live out their remaining years.

Richard Kent Retired Teachers of Ontario St. Catharines

Letters welcome

We welcome letters from our readers. Send them to letters@niagaradailies.com or mail to 55 King St., Suite 600, St. Catharines, Ont., L2H 3HR. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Please include your name, address and phone number for verification purposes.
After the arrest of a man in Pennsylvania who opened fire at seven police officers, and struck one of them, his lawyer claimed that he only did that because he is not handling the COVID-19 pandemic too well.

According to John Waldron, attorney of the Adam Zabrowski, the man who was arrested after the incident, his client was just "getting stretched too tight" amid the coronavirus pandemic. In a statement, the attorney said that Zabrowski has been through a lot in the past couple of months after losing his job and also losing custody over his child. He also added that his client is likely to be tested in order to find out what led him to react the way he did.

On Saturday, authorities from Bethlehem Township in Northampton County tried to serve an arrest warrant to the 35-year-old perpetrator after an incident that happened in a store the previous day. However, instead of coming peacefully with the police, the suspect fled on a pickup truck.

The police then tried to pursue the suspect. When they caught up to him and pulled him over, the suspect immediately became defensive and shot at the officers with an AK-47 and a pistol that he possessed.

According to Fox News, Lehigh County District Attorney, Jim Martin, the police fired back at Zabrowski and hit the suspect. The shot was not fatal and it is expected to survive. In addition, an officer was also hit by one of the shots that Zabrowski fired, though the wound was minor.

Read also: Ice Cream Vendor Known as 'Grandpa' Seen Dead in a Pool of Blood, 3 Suspects Arrested

Aside from the offenses that were initially filed in the warrant, the suspect is set to face 22 additional charges, which include aggravated assault with the use of a deadly weapon and a number of attempted murder counts. Zabrowski is currently being held with a bail of $1 million after his arraignment on Saturday.

Waldron also stated that he has already worked as Zabrowski's attorney in the past and explained that this behavior is very unlikely to the suspect. He also emphasized that the fact that his client was hit twice despite the fact that he had a hand gun and an AK-47 with him says a lot about his experience with violence and guns.

Before the shootout happened, the police were trying to serve a warrant to Zabrowski for an incident that happened in a local cigar store on Friday which also included shots being fired.

According to the statement of the authorities, Zabrowski entered the shop without a face mask. When he was called out for his behavior and was told to wear one, Zabrowski got mad and took two cigars from a shelf and left without paying, The Morning Call reported.

Thus, a staff from the store followed him out. This is when the suspect took out a handgun and fired at the staff member twice, based on the police allegations. Meanwhile, no one was reported injured during Friday's encounter between Zabrowski and the staff of the cigar shop.

Related article: 16-Year-Old Daughter and Her Boyfriend Slaughters Parents in Home Invasion

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Digital nomads are defined as professionals who live in a nomadic manner and work remotely, usually operating out of coffee shops, co-working spaces and even, while staycationing in another country. All you need in a lifestyle like this, is a constant internet connection and a laptop or smartphone. Most people choose to become digital nomads for positive reasons, including financial independence and a career that allows one to work from anywhere. The downside, however, is that these set of professionals might feel lonely or easily burnt out when theyre constantly connected to the digital ecosystem - a pattern several professionals have been battling with in the last 5 months weve been adapting to work from home.

The term Digital Nomad was first-heard in the book by the same name, written by Tsugio Makimoto and David Manners in 1997, however, theres no evidence to prove that the term was coined here first or pre-existed. Digital nomads are known to adapt to a minimal lifestyle and may also sell a number of possessions in order to travel lighter and be able to move around easily, without baggages, figuratively and literally.

In the pandemic and post-pandemic world, when travel is looking different as per the forecasts and is expected to serve different purposes for everyone, the term digital nomadism has been doing the rounds again. Countries, especially those whose economies are heavily-dependent on tourism, are competing for a new generation of remote workers in a bid to ride out the pandemic and make up for lost visitors, by offering sunny beaches, cheap living and low infection rates.

A blog called digitalnomads.com reported in 2017 that Bangkok was a digital nomad hub as it only costs $280 per week to live here.

From Barbados to Estonia, several countries are launching visa regimes aimed at wooing digital nomads to revive their tourism-dependent economies, chasing the sort of people who mix work with travel and can set up shop any place with an internet connection.

Work from Paradise, as Barbados 12-month Welcome Stamp Visa boasts, launched in July allowing remote workers to relocate to the Caribbean island for one year.

Our new... (visa) allows you to ... work from one of the worlds most beloved tourism destinations, the countrys Prime Minster Mia Mottley wrote in a welcome message on the page.

Even before the pandemic, numbers were growing, with more than 7 million people in the United States calling themselves digital nomads in 2019, up from about 5 million in 2018, according to research from the firm.

Countries launching the new visa regimes hope that luring some of them could help stimulate local economies hit by the new coronavirus and make up for some of the lost tourism.

Digital Nomad Visa

Estonia launched a Digital Nomad Visa last week in an endeavour to boost the countrys credentials as an innovation hub. The main aim of the programme is to promote Estonia, Annus told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, explaining the scheme was one of the first in the world to target remote-working employees, as well as freelancers and contractors. The more known Estonia is, the more our companies can export our e-services and more and more people are interested in investing ... and of course ... the more tourists we shall have.

In Georgia, which also announced plans for a digital nomad visa last month, economy minister Natia Turnava said she hoped to shore up the countrys real estate and hospitality sectors.

Georgia has an image of a safe country in terms of epidemiological standpoint and we want to use this chance, the local media reported her saying.

Barbados and the North Atlantic British territory of Bermuda - which launched a Work from Bermuda one-year residential certificate this week - also flaunted their virus credentials.

No need to be trapped in your apartment in a densely populated city with the accompanying restrictions and high risk of infection, Bermudas premier David Burt wrote online.

Come spend the year with us working or coding on the water, they added.

In Bermudas Work from Bermuda Certificate Program, visitors only have to show valid healthcare insurance, and pay an online fee of $263. This will allow them to come and work in the country, and leave as often as they like for a year-long period.

Estonia is asking that applicants prove they earn at least 3,504 euro ($4,100) a month, while those moving to the Barbados have to pay a $2,000 fee.

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NEW YORK/MEXICO CITY  U.S. glass manufacturer O-I Glass Inc is seeking to seize an oil tanker owned by Venezuela to collect part of a $500 million arbitration award it won after the 2010 expropriation of two manufacturing plants, according to a summons filed with a Singapore court seen by Reuters.

The attempt is a new threat against Venezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuelas fleet of tankers at a time when U.S. sanctions on the firm are making it difficult for the company known as PDVSA to book ships to transport its crude.

The lack of available tankers has contributed to a collapse in Venezuelas oil exports to below 400,000 barrels per day (bpd), down from around 1.5 million bpd before Washington imposed the sanctions in an effort to oust socialist President Nicolas Maduro. Exports are at the lowest level in over seven decades for the crisis-stricken OPEC nation.

With Washington ramping up pressure, the use of its own in-house fleet of tankers is one of the few options left to PDVSA for exporting its crude, and a loss of any of those vessels would make that more difficult.

The Singapore suit brought by O-I Glass, formerly known as Owens-Illinois Inc, also highlights the risks to PDVSAs assets around the world from creditors seeking to collect on unpaid debt or arbitral awards, which have mounted as Venezuelas economy has collapsed under Maduro.

In the summons to the Singapore court, dated June 4, O-I Glass asserted it was entitled to shares in Ayacucho Shipping Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based company that was the vehicle through which PDVSAs maritime subsidiary, PDV Marina, and Chinas PetroChina co-owned the vessel named Ayacucho.

The vessel was one of four that the two companies jointly owned through their Singapore joint venture CV Shipping. CV Shipping began a court-administered in February, according to an entry in Singapores government gazette.

Venezuelas state-run maritime authority INEA became the owner of Ayacucho in May and changed the vessels name to Maximo Gorki, according to shipping database Equasis and Refinitiv Eikon.

It was unclear if the transfer of the tankers ownership to INEA would affect O-I Glasss attempts to take control of the vessel.

A hearing in the case is scheduled for Aug. 7, according to the Singapore Supreme Courts website.

Neither O-I nor PDVSA responded to requests for comment. PetroChina could not be reached for comment outside normal business hours.

Diminished Fleet

Except for short trips to Cuba, most of PDVSAs tanker fleet has stayed in Venezuelan waters in recent years as piling debts and U.S. sanctions have left many vessels without operators, insurance or the classification needed to navigate international waters.

The Maximo Gorki has been in Venezuelan waters since 2018, and PDVSA has this year used it as floating storage, according to Refinitiv Eikon shipping data.

In July, the vessel topped up with Venezuelan crude to reach full capacity, according to PDVSAs loading schedules, seen by Reuters.

The company now plans to send it to a Chinese shipyard for maintenance and to discharge the 2 million barrels of heavy crude it has, though it is yet to line a customer up, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The ship is worth around $24 million, according to market valuations of similar vessels built the same year, one of the sources said. Reuters was unable to confirm the valuation.

O-I Glass won the award in 2015 from the World Banks International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in relation to the 2010 seizure and nationalization of two of its plants in Venezuela under late former President Hugo Chavez, Maduros predecessor and mentor.

The award includes $372.5 million of principal, plus interest. Both the ICSID case and the lawsuit in Singapore were introduced by O-I Glass subsidiary OI European Group BV.
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci at the White House in Washington on April 17, 2020. (Leah Millis/Reuters)

Fauci Says No Need For Lockdown If All Americans Follow Five or Six Fundamental Measures

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that the United States does not need another lockdown to contain COVID-19, provided that Americans embrace five or six fundamental public health measures.

Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, told Politicos Pulse Check podcast on Wednesday that he thinks we can get through this without having to revert back to a shutdown, but only if everyone follows such basics as wearing masks, social distancing, and thorough hygiene.

You dont have to lock down again, but everybody has got to be on board for doing these five or six fundamental public health measures, he said.

In its guidance on preventing COVID-19 infection, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lists six measures to stay healthy and stem the spread of the potentially deadly bug: hand-washing, avoiding close contact with other people, covering the nose and mouth when around others, always covering the mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing and then immediately after washing or sanitizing ones hands, daily cleaning and disinfecting frequently touched surfaces, and monitoring ones health daily.

When you have a weak link, then the whole system is unsuccessful, Fauci said, insisting that only a concerted effort would make it possible to pick a path through the pandemic that avoids extremes.

There seems to be a misperception that either you shut down completely and damage a lot of things, mental health, the economy, all kinds of things, or let it rip and do whatever you want, Fauci said, adding, Theres a stepwise fashion that you can open up the economy successfully.

Reinforcing Faucis view that its possible to find a middle ground and contain the outbreak while moving to reopen, top White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow told Fox News recently that he doesnt think any form of lockdown is a good idea. Instead, people should rely on precautions such as social distancing, mask-wearing, and sanitizing to stem the outbreak, while letting businesses and schools open.

This idea of more lockdowns, people just throw this out willy-nilly, forgetting the enormous human cost as well as the enormous economic cost, Kudlow said. The country cant take that.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters at a briefing on August 4 that the administration wasnt considering a lockdown.

The president is not considering a national lockdown, she said. What he is encouraging is mitigation efforts like wearing a mask, which is patriotic, like social distancing, and engaging in these really commonsense, safe measures to safely reopen and avoid the health consequences of a lockdown.

McEnany cited a series of negative outcomes that she linked to lockdowns, including a surge in drug overdoses and suicides.

It comes after a top Federal Reserve official said in an interview on Aug. 2 that the U.S. economy could benefit if the nation were to lock down really hard for 4 to 6 weeks.

Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari told CBSs Face the Nation that only if the virus is brought under control will Americas economy be able to mount a robust recovery.

If we dont do that, and we just have this raging virus spreading throughout the country with flare-ups and local lockdowns for the next year or two, which is entirely possible, were going to see many, many more business bankruptcies, Kashkari said. Thats going to be a much slower recovery for all of us.

Americas economy, in the second quarter of this year, suffered its biggest blow since the Great Depression.

Kudlow said if common-sense health precautions combined with business and school reopening can get America moving again, that a sharp, V-shaped economic recovery is possible.

Youll get your 20 percent, he said of recent predictions for economic growth in the third quarter, adding, the V-shaped recovery, I think, is still in place.
Welcome Guest! You Are Here:
HOUSTON, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Flotek Industries, Inc. ("Flotek" or the "Company") (NYSE: FTK) welcomes Harsha V. Agadi to its Board of Directors. He will also serve as the chair of the Compensation Committee.

For more than 30 years, Agadi has held senior executive positions at Fortune 50 companies and has been a serial president and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for numerous classic American brands, including Crawford & Company, Friendly's Ice Cream Corporation, Church's Chicken, Inc. and Little Caesar's Enterprises.

Agadi is a seasoned board member, with extensive experience leading compensation committees, having previously served as compensation committee chair for two publicly traded companies: Belmond Ltd., a worldwide hospitality and leisure company, and Crawford & Company, the world's largest publicly listed independent claims management company.

John W. Gibson, Jr., Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Flotek stated: "We are honored to welcome Harsha to Flotek's board. He is a passionate, experienced global leader who has leveraged his skills in identifying strengths in business and people  while championing diversity as a primary platform for excellence  to build successful global brands throughout his highly accomplished career. He joins us as the Company launches our commercial sanitizer and surface cleaning business, and will contribute deep knowledge, insights and relationships in food service and leading quick service restaurant brands  a significant commercial market opportunity for our high-quality products. I look forward to partnering with him and the board to continue to advance our strategy of diversifying our business, while building on our existing strengths to capture high-growth, high-margin opportunities."

Agadi said, "I'm truly honored to serve on the Flotek board and sit alongside an extremely able and seasoned Chairman and CEO, John W. Gibson, Jr., who is an innovative, thought leader in energy technology. As the Company leverages its specialty chemistry expertise to address the market need for high-quality sanitizers, I look forward to contributing strategic insights and that can help the Company accelerate its growth."

Agadi is currently the Chairman and CEO of GHS Holdings, LLC, an investing and restaurant consulting business. From 2015-2020, he was president and CEO of Crawford & Company. Prior to his role at Crawford, he was Chairman of the Board for Quizno's LLC and the Krystal Company. Prior to that, Agadi was Chairman and CEO of Friendly's Ice Cream LLC, a restaurant chain which provides ice cream desserts and sandwiches, following his role as President and CEO of Church's Chicken, a franchised quick service chicken restaurant with operations in 20 plus countries around the world. He continues to serve on the boards of Diversified Foodservice Supply, Inc, a leading private distributor of supplies and equipment to the foodservice industry, and Crawford and Co. He is also Chairman of the SKSVMA College of Engineering and Agadi Sunrise Hospital Private Limited in India.

Born in Bangalore, India, Agadi is the great grandson of the first Indian aviator. His past recognitions include being named 2017 Most Admired CEO by Atlanta Business Chronicle for his leadership at Crawford and in 2019, receiving the B'nai B'rith International Distinguished Achievement Award, which acknowledges the accomplishments of key community and business leaders from around the world. He received a Master of Business Administration from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and a Bachelor of Commerce from University of Mumbai.

About Flotek

Flotek empowers the energy industry to maximize the value of their hydrocarbon streams and improve return on invested capital through data-driven platforms and chemistry technologies. Flotek serves downstream, midstream and upstream customers, both domestic and international. Flotek is a publicly traded company headquartered in Houston, Texas, and its common shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "FTK." For additional information, please visit Flotek's web site at www.flotekind.com .

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements set forth in this press release constitute forward-looking statements (within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934) regarding Flotek Industries, Inc.'s business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Words such as will, continue, expects, anticipates, intends, plans, believes, seeks, estimates and similar expressions or variations of such words are intended to identify forward-looking statements, but are not the exclusive means of identifying forward-looking statements in this press release. Although forward-looking statements in this press release reflect the good faith judgment of management, such statements can only be based on facts and factors currently known to management. Consequently, forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results and outcomes may differ materially from the results and outcomes discussed in the forward-looking statements. Further information about the risks and uncertainties that may impact the Company are set forth in the Company's most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Form 10-K (including, without limitation, in the "Risk Factors" section thereof), and in the Company's other SEC filings and publicly available documents. Readers are urged not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect any event or circumstance that may arise after the date of this press release.

SOURCE Flotek Industries, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.flotekind.com


JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- EdgePresence, an owner and operator of multi-tenant, edge computing points-of-presence (PoPs), providing space, power, bandwidth, and interconnection, announces today the expansion of its newest Point of Presence with the deployment of a new edge data center in Statesboro, Ga .

Strategically located, featuring SOC II certification and turnkey infrastructure, this will be the first multi-tenant data center available in Statesboro, opening up a variety of different opportunities for local businesses as well as national companies operating in the region. In relation to edge computing, this will enable applications that require lower latency as well as local cloud and data offloading. For traditional colocation, it will enable local and national companies to utilize a local data center as opposed to regional data centers that are hundreds of miles away, saving both time and money.

"Statesboro has routinely placed in the top three of America's Best Communities national competition and is heralded as one of Georgia's nine live, work, and play cities. Opening one of our edge data centers here aligns well with our mission to bring micro data centers and network access to the customers that are closest to that user equipment's access point," states Doug Recker , Founder and President of EdgePresence. "Additionally, its proximity to industries such as commerce, education, manufacturing, healthcare and technology makes it ideal for companies offering hosted managed services, e-commerce, industrial IoT, telemedicine, e-learning and more, along with next generation applications that need super-low latencies and short network routes."

EdgePresence also recently announced its status as one of the top 10 finalists for the "Edge Startup of the Year Award," part of Edge Computing World's 2020 Startup of the Year Competition . The award program, which will take place virtually on October 12-13th, recognizes the best startups in edge computing and aims to highlight the quality and breadth of emerging companies in the vibrant edge computing space.

For more information on EdgePresence, visit https://edgepresence.com .

About EdgePresence

EdgePresence , an owner and operator of multi-tenant, edge computing points-of-presence (PoPs), providing space, power, bandwidth, and interconnection, is currently deploying its edge data centers (EDCs) across 20 markets throughout the U.S. Edge Data Centers are purpose-built edge micro data centers, comprehensively and compactly designed to include critical power, distribution, physical security and cooling. EDCs are anchored at the base of cell towers, key real estate, and enterprise campus locations enabling us to deploy within 12 miles from end users. This can be called the "far edge." EdgePresence is serving as a turnkey solution for businesses looking to implement a flexible and dynamic edge compute strategy, nationally. Along with its Cell Tower partners, EdgePresence will build, deploy and operate hundreds of micro edge data centers across the United States with initial markets in Jacksonville, FL, Austin, TX, Pittsburgh, PA, Statesboro, GA, Denver, CO, Atlanta, GA, Boulder, CO and Greenville, SC.

SOURCE EdgePresence

Related Links

http://www.edgepresence.com


 

1
TikTok to assist Chinese farming videos production

By:Zheng Qian | From:english.eastday.com | 2020-08-06 09:41

Short videos concerned with agriculture, the countryside and farmers are embracing new opportunities. TikTok, the Chinese video-sharing social network, announced on August 4 a new farmersplan to support the production of videos themed around the Chinese countryside.

Short videos have become a new platform for rural innovation and farmersentrepreneurship. The coronavirus epidemic has even boosted more rural short video producers to showcase and sell their local products via live streaming. For example, through live streaming of agricultural products like honey and dried bamboo shoots on TikTok, a post-90s generation beekeeper from Songyang county in Zhejiang province reaped annual sales of 15 million yuan.

(A post- 90s generation beekeeper sells honey by live streaming on TikTok.)

Data shows that as of July this year, the number of agriculture-related video producers with more than 10,000 fans on TikTok has increased by more than 6 times year-on-year, and the number and views of these videos have increased by more than 2 and 3 times respectively.

TikTok hopes to spread the agricultural information with video producers who are willing to help construct a new countryside, so as to accelerate poverty relief and rural revitalization,said a person responsible for TikToks new campaign.

Besides strengthening exposure of these videos, the online platform will also carry out training courses to teach people video production skills as well as monetization.
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Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-07 00:26:30|Editor: huaxia

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SANAA, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- At least 10 people were killed on Thursday when an "alleged Saudi-led coalition airstrike hit residential houses in Yemen's northern province of al-Jawf," the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported.

The victims included seven children, said the television, citing local residents and medics.

And 12 others, mostly women and children, were critically wounded in the airstrike on al-Ma'atirah area of "Khabb wa ash Sha'af" district, the television added.

There was no comment yet from the coalition over the alleged airstrike.

Last month, another coalition airstrike killed at least 25 people in al-Jawf and 10 others in the neighbouring province of Hajjah.

Yemen has been mired in 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-Rabbuh Mansour Hadi out of the capital Sanaa.

The Saudi-led military coalition intervened in the Yemeni conflict in March 2015 to support Hadi's government.

The war has killed tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, displaced over 3 million and pushed more than 20 million to the brink of famine. Enditem
Amnesty International says they are very concerned for the welfare of a British-Australian academic who is being held in detention in one of Irans most notorious prisons.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who was most recently a lecturer in Islamic studies at Melbourne University, had originally been held in Tehrans Evin prison since she was reportedly given a 10-year sentence in September 2018 on charges of spying.

However, last week she was moved from Evin to the infamous desert prison Qarchak, reportedly as a form of punishment.

Nassim Papayianni, Amnesty Internationals Iran campaigner, said: Along with anyone held in Shahr-e Rey prison (also known as Qarchak), were very concerned for Kylie Moore-Gilberts welfare at this prison.

Ms Moore-Gilbert was educated at Cambridge University (Joe Giddens/PA)

We remain very concerned that Kylie may have been imprisoned solely for exercising her rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly  including through her work as an academic. If so, she should be released immediately and unconditionally.

Kylie should at the very least be provided with regular access to her family through telephone calls, to a lawyer of her own choosing and to consular assistance, as well as being given all the medical care she needs.

Mr Papayianni also said Ms Moore-Gilbert had made allegations of torture and those claims must be immediately investigated and those suspected of responsibility brought to justice.

According to reports and information provided to Amnesty, conditions in Qarchak are appalling and fall well below the standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners Nassim Papayianni

He described the conditions at Qarchak, a former industrial chicken farm, as appalling.

He said: According to reports and information provided to Amnesty, conditions in Qarchak are appalling and fall well below the standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners.

Prisoners at the jail have reported overcrowding and filthy conditions, including urine-stained floors, as well as self-harm and rampant drug use. The food has been described as inedible and the water not fit for drinking because its so salty.

There are frequent reports from the facility of assaults against inmates both by other prisoners and by prison staff. This is placing Kylie in physical danger as well exposing her to the risk of infectious diseases.

On Tuesday, Australias Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said Ms Moore-Gilbert had received a visit from ambassador to Iran Lyndall Sachs.

Australias ambassador to Iran made a consular visit to Dr Moore-Gilbert in Qarchak Prison on 2 August, DFAT said.

Dr Moore-Gilbert is well and has access to food, medical facilities and books.

We will continue to seek regular consular access to Dr Moore-Gilbert.

Ms Moore-Gilberts family said they were reassured by the Australian consular visit.

We, the family, have been reassured after the Australian embassys visit with Kylie on Sunday, they said in the DFAT statement.

We remain committed to getting our Kylie home as soon as possible and this is our top and only priority.

Letters smuggled out of prison and published in January revealed the lecturers fears for her mental health.

She said: Im 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.

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.
Everest Group Going forward, organizations that can rapidly prioritize or quickly re-energize their infrastructure transformation efforts stand the best chance of surviving the crisis and emerging stronger than before.

Everest Group now predicts the 2020 growth rate of IT infrastructure services market will be as low as -4% to -6%, which represents lost revenues ranging from US$33 billion to nearly $50 billion. In the pre-COVID-19 world, the IT infrastructure services market was slated to grow at a modest rate of 2-3%; however, the pandemic has led to uncertainties across the globe. Recovery of the market will depend on the COVID-19 recovery curve across different countries, which remains uncertain.

The severe demand slump being experienced in the IT services industry is reflective of the strains the COVID-19 pandemic has placed upon enterprises, including:



Demand reduction

Supply chain disruption

Business and service continuity challenges

Cybersecurity risks

Going forward, organizations that can rapidly prioritize or quickly re-energize their infrastructure transformation efforts stand the best chance of surviving the crisis and emerging stronger than before. Everest Group urges enterprises to identify relevant infrastructure transformation opportunities across workplace, cloud, network and security.

A well-planned transformation will not only rescue enterprises in the short-term, but also revitalize them for future growth, said Ashwin Venkatesan, vice president at Everest Group. While infrastructure will play a key role in rescuing enterprises from this crisis, they will have to take a holistic view and focus on evolving the services delivery model, seek efficiency and optimization measures, push toward modernization and digitalization, pivot to new business models, and invest in talent of the future.

As we emerge from this pandemic, we will enter a world of the next normal rather than return to the normal, continued Venkatesan. We believe that COVID-19 will act as an inflection point, giving way to structural changes in the global services industry such as ushering in new models of delivery, enabling enterprises to pivot to newer business models, and increasing the appetite for modernization and digital transformation.

Everest Group provides an in-depth analysis of these new, COVID-19 inspired enterprise priorities in its recently published State of the Market Report on cloud and infrastructure services, Combatting COVID-19 Through Infrastructure-led Transformation. The report also provides an analysis of the IT services market; IS buyer adoption trends across geographies, industry verticals and revenue sizes; and key trends shaping the cloud and IS market. In addition, the report offers Everest Groups outlook for the market for 2020-2021.

***Download a complimentary abstract of the report.***

IT Infrastructure Services Market Highlights



The United States takes the lions share (90%) of the deal volume emanating from North America. The United Kingdom dominates the European deals landscape with typically 30-35% of the volume, followed by Germany at 10-15%. Australia and New Zealand captured 30-35% of the deals in the Asia Pacific region.

Banking, Financial Services and Insurance continues to be the early adopter of technology innovation, but this market segment has witnessed growth in recent times primarily due to regulatory pressures.

COVID-19 has accelerated the modernization journey of enterprises to cloud.

Work from home has become the next normal and will be an integral part of the workplace of the future.

Networks are finally getting due recognition, and software-defined networking is driving growth.

***Read about the full scope and content of the report here***

About Everest Group

Everest Group is a consulting and research firm focused on strategic IT, business services, engineering services, and sourcing. Our clients include leading global enterprises, service providers, and investors. Through our research-informed insights and deep experience, we guide clients in their journeys to achieve heightened operational and financial performance, accelerated value delivery, and high-impact business outcomes. Details and in-depth content are available at http://www.everestgrp.com/.
Night and weekend curfew in Jammu and Kashmir 2022: Know guidelines, rules: What is allowed, what is not

Several positive changes in J&K over the past 12 months which reflect 'complete normalcy': MEA

India

pti-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Aug 06: Several positive changes have taken place in terms of development in Jammu and Kashmir in the last one year which reflect return to "complete normalcy", the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Thursday.

The assertion came after the Chairman and Ranking Member of the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs in a letter to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar expressed concern over the situation in Jammu and Kashmir one year after Article 370 was abrogated and the state was bifurcated into Union territories.

Mind your business, India tells Pak on Ram Temple

Asked about the reference to Jammu and Kashmir in the letter, MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said, "Regarding the specific issue, there have been several positive changes in the UT of J and K over the past one year, be it in terms of ensuring good governance or socio economic development or justice to the disadvantaged sections of the population."

Elections have been held to block development councils in October 2019, the first ever 'Khelo India' winter games were held in March 2020, schools have re-opened, new educational facilities are being established, there are provisions of better healthcare with new health facilities coming up, infrastructure development has taken place and long pending projects have been completed, he said, listing the positive developments in Jammu and Kashmir in the past one year.

"So, all this certainly reflects return to complete normalcy. We continue to be engaged with and brief our interlocutors including the (US) Congress in this regard and we will be happy to brief the (US) Congress," Srivastava said at an online media briefing.

The letter, signed by Eliot Engel, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Michael T McCaul, its Ranking Member, said, "As champions of the US-India relationship, we have been delighted to see our countries' close cooperation on issues from defense to climate change."

Srivastava said the letter reflects a strong bipartisan support for India in the US. Engel further writes, "It is because of our support for the bilateral relationship that we note with concern that conditions in Jammu and Kashmir have not normalised one year after India's repeal of Article 370 and the establishment of Jammu and Kashmir as a Union Territory."

Hard talk on the hotline: India snubs China on step back suggestion

On August 5 last year, the Centre announced its decision to withdraw special powers of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcate the state into two union territories. To a question on whether India has briefed friendly countries on Jammu and Kashmir around the first anniversary of the Centre's decision to revoke the special status of the region, Srivastava said Indian envoys in various countries keep meeting their interlocutors and briefing them.

"During their briefings, they brief about the socio-economic changes and the development that has taken place in J&K. Briefings are given on important steps taken by our government in the sectors of education, health and infrastructure development and in other sectors which have brought about a change in the lives of the common people," he said.

To a separate question on businessman Vijay Mallya's extradition from the UK, Srivastava said the Indian side was in constant touch with the UK side on the issue of his early extradition to india.
Dovato allows adults living with HIV to reduce the number of antiretroviral therapies they take each day, while maintaining efficacy and high barrier to resistance comparable to tenofovir-based regimens of at least three drugs

Virologically suppressed adults living with HIV who may want to switch HIV treatments now have a new option with Dovato

ViiV Healthcare, the global specialist HIV company majority owned by GSK, with Pfizer Inc. and Shionogi Limited as shareholders, today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Dovato (dolutegravir/lamivudine) as a complete regimen for the treatment of HIV-1 infection to replace the current antiretroviral (ARV) regimen in adults who are virologically suppressed (HIV-1 RNA less than 50 copies per mL) on a stable ARV regimen with no history of treatment failure and no known resistance to the individual components of Dovato.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200806006103/en/

Dovato Product Shot (Photo: Business Wire)

Dovato, a complete, once-daily, single-tablet, two-drug regimen of dolutegravir (DTG) 50 mg and lamivudine (3TC) 300 mg, allows adults living with HIV the option to manage their virus without a third ARV. It is free of tenofovir alafenamide fumarate (TAF), tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) and abacavir (ABC). Dovato was first approved by the FDA in April 2019 as a complete regimen for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in adults with no ARV treatment history and with no known resistance to the individual components of Dovato.

Lynn Baxter, Head of North America, ViiV Healthcare, said: "As HIV treatment and care progress, people living with HIV will be on medication for decades and need solutions to challenges that may arise from prolonged use of ARV therapy. At ViiV Healthcare, we've proven that with Dovato, adults living with HIV can reduce the number of ARVs they take every day without compromising efficacy or barrier to resistance. This remarkable, innovative approach challenges the notion that three or more drugs are needed to maintain virologic suppression, and today's FDA approval brings this switch treatment option to virologically suppressed adults living with HIV."

The approval of Dovato in adults who are virologically suppressed is based on the Week 48 results from the phase III TANGO study. This study demonstrated adults living with HIV-1, who had maintained virologic suppression for at least six months on a TAF-containing regimen of at least three drugs, were able to maintain similar rates of virologic suppression after switching to Dovato, compared with those who continued the original regimen. No participants on Dovato and one participant (<1%) on the TAF-containing regimen met confirmed virologic failure criteria, with no resistance mutations observed at failure. The safety results for those who switched to Dovato were consistent with the product labeling for dolutegravir and lamivudine.1

Dr. Charlotte-Paige Rolle, Director of Research Operations, Orlando Immunology Center, said: "This expanded approval for Dovato is particularly important for my virologically suppressed patients living with HIV who are seeking a new option that can reduce the number of drugs they are exposed to each day. The data supporting the approval demonstrates how virologically suppressed adults with no known resistance to dolutegravir or lamivudine were able to switch from a TAF-containing regimen of at least three drugs to Dovato while maintaining similar efficacy with zero cases of treatment-emergent resistance through 48 weeks."

Dovato is approved for the treatment of HIV-1 in treatment-naive and virologically suppressed adults by the European Medicines Agency and additional regulatory authorities around the world. In 2019, the Adult and Adolescent Antiretroviral Treatment Guidelines from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) included Dovato in the list of Recommend Initial Regimens for Most People with HIV, the first time a complete two-drug regimen has been recommended by the DHHS in the first-line setting (except in individuals with HIV RNA >500,000 copies/ml, HBV co-infection, or in whom ART is to be started before the results of the HIV genotypic resistance testing for RT or HBV testing are available).2

About Dovato (dolutegravir/lamivudine)

Dolutegravir is an integrase strand transfer inhibitor (INSTI) for use in combination with other antiretroviral agents for the treatment of HIV-1. INSTIs block HIV replication by preventing the viral DNA from integrating into the genetic material of human immune cells (T-cells). This step is essential in the HIV replication cycle and is also responsible for establishing chronic infection. Dolutegravir is authorized in more than 100 countries across North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Lamivudine, commonly known as 3TC, is a nucleoside analogue used in combination with other antiretroviral agents for the treatment of HIV-1 infection. Lamivudine is available in branded and generic forms.

Dolutegravir plus lamivudine (Dovato) is a complete, once-daily, single-tablet regimen to treat HIV-1 infection in adults with no antiretroviral (ARV) treatment history or to replace the current ARV regimen in those who are virologically suppressed (HIV-1 RN <50 copies/mL) on a stable ARV regimen with no known history of treatment failure and no known resistance to any component of Dovato.

Trademarks are owned by or licensed to the ViiV Healthcare group of companies.

About TANGO

TANGO (NCT03446573) is a phase III, randomized, open-label, active-controlled, multicenter study to assess the antiviral efficacy and safety of switching to a two-drug regimen consisting of DTG/3TC in HIV-infected adults who are virologically suppressed and on a stable antiretroviral regimen with no treatment failure.

Study participants were HIV-1 infected adults on a TAF-containing regimen with HIV-1 RNA<50c/mL for at least six months, without prior virologic failure, no historical nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTI) or integrase strand transfer inhibitor (INSTI) major resistance mutation, and no evidence of hepatitis B infection. Participants were randomized to switch to DTG/3TC or continue on the TAF-containing regimen through Week 148. The primary endpoint was the proportion of participants with a viral load of >50 c/mL at Week 48 (FDA Snapshot algorithm) for the Intention To Treat-Exposed (ITT-E) population. In the primary analysis, no participants on Dovato and one participant (<1%) on the TAF-containing regimen met confirmed virologic failure criteria, with no resistance mutations observed at failure.

Important Safety Information for Dovato

The following ISI is based on the Highlights section of the Prescribing Information for Dovato. Please consult the full Prescribing Information for all the labeled safety information for Dovato.

WARNING: PATIENTS CO-INFECTED WITH HEPATITIS B VIRUS (HBV) AND HUMAN IMMUNODEFICIENCY VIRUS (HIV-1): EMERGENCE OF LAMIVUDINE-RESISTANT HBV AND EXACERBATIONS OF HBV

All patients with HIV-1 should be tested for the presence of HBV prior to or when initiating Dovato. Emergence of lamivudine-resistant HBV variants associated with lamivudine-containing antiretroviral regimens has been reported. If Dovato is used in patients co-infected with HIV-1 and HBV, additional treatment should be considered for appropriate treatment of chronic HBV; otherwise, consider an alternative regimen.

Severe acute exacerbations of HBV have been reported in patients who are co-infected with HIV-1 and HBV and have discontinued lamivudine, a component of Dovato. Closely monitor hepatic function in these patients and, if appropriate, initiate anti-HBV treatment

DOSAGE AND ADMINISTRATION

Prior to or when initiating Dovato, test patients for HBV infection.

Pregnancy Testing: Perform pregnancy testing before initiation of Dovato in individuals of childbearing potential.

One tablet taken orally once daily with or without food.

The dolutegravir dose (50 mg) in Dovato is insufficient when coadministered with carbamazepine or rifampin. If Dovato is coadministered with carbamazepine or rifampin, take one tablet of Dovato once daily, followed by an additional dolutegravir 50-mg tablet, approximately 12 hours from the dose of Dovato.

CONTRAINDICATIONS

Prior hypersensitivity reaction to dolutegravir or lamivudine.

Coadministration with dofetilide.

WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS

Hypersensitivity reactions characterized by rash, constitutional findings, and sometimes organ dysfunction, including liver injury, have been reported with dolutegravir. Discontinue Dovato immediately if signs or symptoms of hypersensitivity reactions develop, as a delay in stopping treatment may result in a life-threatening reaction.

Hepatotoxicity has been reported in patients receiving a dolutegravir-containing regimen. Patients with underlying hepatitis B or C may be at increased risk for worsening or development of transaminase elevations with Dovato. Monitoring for hepatotoxicity is recommended.

Embryo-fetal toxicity may occur when used at the time of conception and in early pregnancy. Avoid use of Dovato at the time of conception through the first trimester of pregnancy due to the risk of neural tube defects. Advise individuals of childbearing potential to use effective contraception.

Lactic acidosis and severe hepatomegaly with steatosis, including fatal cases, have been reported with the use of nucleoside analogues.

Immune reconstitution syndrome has been reported in patients treated with combination antiretroviral therapy.

ADVERSE REACTIONS

The most common adverse reactions (all grades) observed in =2% (in those receiving Dovato) were headache, nausea, diarrhea, insomnia, fatigue, and anxiety.

DRUG INTERACTIONS

Dovato is a complete regimen for the treatment of HIV-1 infection; therefore, coadministration with other antiretroviral drugs for the treatment of HIV-1 infection is not recommended.

Refer to the full prescribing information for important drug interactions with Dovato.

USE IN SPECIFIC POPULATIONS

Pregnancy: An alternative treatment to Dovato should be considered at the time of conception through the first trimester due to the risk of neural tube defects.

Lactation: Breastfeeding is not recommended due to the potential for HIV-1 transmission.

Females and males of reproductive potential: Pregnancy testing and contraception are recommended in individuals of childbearing potential.

Renal Impairment: Dovato is not recommended in patients with creatinine clearance less than 50 mL/min.

Hepatic Impairment: Dovato is not recommended in patients with severe hepatic impairment (Child-Pugh Score C).

About ViiV Healthcare

ViiV Healthcare is a global specialist HIV company established in November 2009 by GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK) and Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) dedicated to delivering advances in treatment and care for people living with HIV and for people who are at risk of becoming infected with HIV. Shionogi joined in October 2012. The company's aim is to take a deeper and broader interest in HIV and AIDS than any company has done before and take a new approach to deliver effective and innovative medicines for HIV treatment and prevention, as well as support communities affected by HIV.

For more information on the company, its management, portfolio, pipeline and commitment, please visit www.viivhealthcare.com.

About ViiV Healthcare's Patient Support Program

ViiV Healthcare is committed to providing assistance to eligible people living with HIV who need our medicines. ViiV Healthcare's centralised service, ViiV Connect, provides comprehensive information on access and coverage to help patients get their prescribed ViiV Healthcare medicines whether they are insured, underinsured or uninsured. ViiV Connect provides one-on-one support from dedicated access coordinators, as well as having an integrated website, one site with many resources, including a portal. For more information on ViiV Connect, visit www.viivconnect.com.

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.

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.

1 Dovato (dolutegravir/lamivudine) Prescribing Information. US Approval 2020.

2 Panel on Antiretroviral Guidelines for Adults and Adolescents. Guidelines for the Use of Antiretroviral Agents in Adults and Adolescents with HIV. Department of Health and Human Services. December 2019.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200806006103/en/

Contacts:

ViiV Healthcare Media enquiries:

Audrey Abernathy, +1 919 605 4521

Patricia O'Connor, +44 20 8047 5982

GSK Global Media enquiries:

Simon Steel, +44 (0) 20 8047 5502 (London)

Tim Foley, +44 (0) 20 8047 5502 (London)

GSK US Media enquiries:

Kristen Neese, +1 804 217 8147 (Philadelphia)

Kathleen Quinn, +1 202 603 5003 (Washington DC)

Analyst/Investor enquiries:

Sarah Elton-Farr, +44 (0) 20 8047 5194 (London)

Danielle Smith, +44 (0) 20 8047 0932 (London)

James Dodwell, +44 (0) 20 8047 2406 (London)

Jeff McLaughlin, +1 215 751 7002 (Philadelphia)

Frannie DeFranco, +1 215 751 4855 (Philadelphia)
Prosecturos have ruled they will not bring murder charges over the death of station worker Belly Mujinga after tests confirmed a suspect who 'spat at' her did not have coronavirus.

On March 22, while working a shift as a ticket officer at London Victoria, Belly Mujinga was allegedly spat at by a man claiming to have coronavirus.

The married mother-of-one was admitted to hospital in Barnet less than two weeks later and placed on a ventilator, but died on April 5.

British Transport Police launched an inquiry in May, after news of the incident broke, and later interviewed a 57-year-old man over the incident.

Despite reviewing witness statements and CCTV footage, BTP said there was not enough evidence that a crime had taken place.

That conclusion has today been echoed by the Crown Prosecution Service.

Belly Mujinga, 47, died at Barnet Hospital with Covid-19 in April, two weeks after she was spat at during a shift as a ticket officer in London Victoria. Prosecutors have today ruled no charges will be brought following her death

Following a review by CPS, Deputy chief Crown prosecutor Suzanne Llewellyn said: 'Belly Mujinga's death from Covid-19 aged just 47 in April was a heartbreaking event that shocked the country.

'We considered whether charges could be brought in relation to homicide, assault or public order offences.

'As part of this review, we studied enhanced CCTV, forensic materials and witness statements.

Friends have raised more than 230,000 in Belly Mujinga's memory, which will go toward supporting her daughter, Ingrid

'CCTV and witness evidence was insufficiently clear and consistent to substantiate allegations of deliberate coughing or spitting, meaning no charges can be brought for assault or public order offences.

'Medical tests confirmed the suspect had not been infected with coronavirus, which together with the lack of other evidence rules out any charges in relation to homicide.

'Therefore after careful consideration and with all lines of inquiry explored, we have advised BTP no further reliable evidence has become available to change their original decision in this case.

'We have met with the family of Ms Mujinga to explain our reasoning, which we know will be disappointing for them. Our deepest sympathies remain with the family.'

Following her death four months ago, the Prime Minister's spokesman offered his condolences to Ms Mujinga's family, saying: 'Our thoughts are with Mrs Mujinga familys at this terrible time.'

Prosecutors and police reviewed CCTV fotoage from London Victoria to see if any charges could be brought following the death of the mother and wife

Friends and well-wishers have raised more than 230,000 online to support husband Gode and daughter Ingrid.

Having covered the cost of her funeral, the bulk of the donations are now going towards Ms Mujinga's daughter.

Her husband Gode Kadalay wrote: 'Ingrid and I would like to say a big thank you to all for the donations, for the kind words, the support and especially for the encouragement received during this difficult time.

'Your kindness will remain engraved in our memories.'
Ashish R Shukla is currently basking in the success of his suspense thriller, Undekhi. The show received positive reviews and has been praised by all from Anurag Kashyap to Rajkummar Rao. Ashish was the creative director on Anurags Dev D and is happy that the filmmaker loved his show. Despite spending more than 20 years in the industry, Ashish feels he can achieve a lot more and rubbishes the use of the word nepotism as just an excuse for those lacking patience.

In an interview with Hindustan Times, the Undekhi director reveals the lead actor Harsh Chhaya didnt take a single sip of alcohol to get into his alcoholic character, and promises to abstain from the use of too many abusive words in the second season. He also shared his thoughts on the ongoing insider-outsider debate. Excerpts:

What was your vision for the show to make it stand out from the swarm of crime thrillers on the digital platform?

Before I came on board, the show was being written since two years. Talking about the title of the show, all such stories just become a small newspaper clipping and you turn over the page. So you read a story in the newspaper that a dancer was shot during a party and you turn the page, but if you were present at that party, would you have turned that page? In the current scenario, so many people are dying of coronavirus but its just a number for you until it happens to you or someone known to you. It is kind of a tribute to all such stories that if you were a part of it, what would have been your conscience call? Each episode questions your morality.

Harsh Chhaya in a still from Undekhi.

What brief was given to Harsh Chhaya for the role of Papaji?

When we were casting for the show, we needed someone like Rishi Kapoor who could be that fat Punjabi, who can be loud at all times and loved his drinks. But the actor was undergoing treatment for cancer. I was recommended Harshs name many times but I was bit apprehensive, and I am also sorry for that. Harsh has an entirely different personality -- he is a Gujarati and even agrees that he looks like a US-returned doctor. But he said that since he was born and brought up in Delhi while being surrounded by Punjabis, he wanted to show something. During a narration, he recorded a 15-minute video where he was simply abusing in Punjabi and looked completely drunk. We got our papaji and he created his own look. He is a non-alcoholic and didnt even take a sip of alcohol.

Did you use a stunt double for Apeksha Porwal?

We used a stunt double for a few risky scenes. But Apeksha was wearing just a single layer in minus degree temperature and had to run barefoot. We used to clear the floor but still she was struck by thorns and stones. She became immune to the cold after some time. Its the first show for five lead actors and all have done a great job. The writing was very sharp, had clarity and the actors trained well during the workshops.

Sometimes you create a character and you dont use it, which becomes an issue of promise and delivery. Even the goons had very specific characteristics in Undekhi. Varun Badola and Siddharth Sengupta had done half of the job during the writing of dialogues. When I watch the show now, I feel we went overboard with abuses, I will take care of it in the second season.

What are your preparations for the sequel?

It is being written by creator Siddharth Sengupta. I cant reveal much but can assure you that there will be much more drama and twists. We left the first show on such a cliffhanger that you will get to see much more revenge and violence in the second season.

You are also working on a film titled Bahut Hua Samman?

It is a satire based in Banaras. It stars Abhishek Chauhan and Raghav Juyal who try to do a bank robbery with help from Sanjay Mishra. There are many more actors including Ram Kapoor and Namit Das and there are many parallel stories in the film. It will be releasing online in one or two months.

Also read: Paatal Lok actor Abhishek Banerjee: I stopped giving auditions in my late 20s because I was rejected so many times

How do you see the ongoing insider-outsider debate?

There is nothing called an insider or outsider. When the film industry was made in 1930s-40s, all from Prithviraj Kapoor, Dileep Kumar to BR Chopra were outsiders. Every time an outsider comes and finds success, he brings his child or other family members in the industry. Priyanka Chopra was an outsider, now her sister is also here. Everybody will do the same one day. Every person sets up his shop and wants his son/daughter to inherit it, this happens in all businesses. I have seen many star kids who are talented and humble and there are also outsiders who are arrogant and have attitude. Only those who are humble and talented are making progress. There are also star kids who consider themselves artists and feel they dont need to upgrade themselves and flop.

Everyone gets a chance in the industry. Look at Paatal Lok, who is an insider among Jaideep Ahlawat, Abhishek Banerjee and Neeraj Kabi? If nepotistic films are being made, you want to watch them, which is why they are being made. If you really wanted to save someones career, you should have seen those films of that actor which flopped. I never felt this thing because I believed that I am yet to do a lot more work and my time is yet to come. We work on projects and always look for a new face, not a star kid. Those who do not have patience and want to find success as soon as they start, they look for excuses and nepotism is one of them. If an outsider who has become a star rejects a script; a producer also has the right to reject an outsider because its his film. People have painted it in black and white, but its a grey area. One thing I would say, no one has the time and money to focus on destroying someones career. Its a conspiracy theory.

Author tweets @ruchik87

Follow @htshowbiz for more
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By Anna J. Park







Korea's financial industry is heading towards greater innovation based on various applications of big data from clients. With the implementation this month of revisions to three data-related laws  the Personal Information Protection Act, the Information, Communications Network Act and the Protection of Credit Information Act  financial firms now have more leeway in their use of customers' information to create and improve financial services.







One of the imminent game changes in the industry is the government-led "MyData" business plan. Originally conceived in 2018, the program was part of the a long-term plan to help the nation's data industry by stimulating healthy competition between financial firms in the development of innovative financial products based on AI and big data.







Under the MyData business plan, financial institutions are obliged to provide customers' personal information to a third party approved by the government as a MyData business operator, which compiles customers' information and allows access to it with a convenient application programming interface (API). Customers can enjoy a streamlined service which allows them to browse all of their financial information at one easy glance using the mobile app or the website of a MyData business operator.







What is also different from the so-called "open banking" service already in place in Korea is that while it is similar to a MyData business in that it allows customers to have a look at their entire account information in financial institutions, MyData expands the realm of practical use of personal financial data, such as recommendations of financial products based on the data. Thus, the MyData business goes beyond just an account aggregation service to many other forms such as a sophisticated analysis of consumption patterns.







So far, a total of 64 companies had submitted their applications earlier this month to be selected as MyData business operators. The Financial Supervisory Service plans to evaluate about 40 applications in the first batch starting early next month; the 40 are those that are already involved in providing open banking services or are big data-driven techfin companies. After completing the firms' assessment, the remaining applications will be evaluated. The final results are slated to be released early next year.











About 17 of the 64 companies that applied for the MyData operator approval are brokerage houses, including major firms such as NH Investment & Securities, Shinhan Financial Investment, Samsung Securities, KB Securities, Mirae Asset Daewoo and Korea Investment & Securities.







Each company has been preparing for the MyData business model for some time. While most big securities firms such as Mirae Asset Daewoo created a special taskforce to develop business strategies in the area, Shinhan and Hana Financial Investment approached the state-led business plan with the full support of their parent groups. Shinhan went through business consulting to advance and solidify its service plan, and Hana cooperated with the financial group's data strategy team that had been created earlier exclusively for the development of an AI data analysis platform.







NH Investment & Securities joined hands with Seoul National University's graduate school of data science to develop core asset management technologies at the end of last month, aiming to have particular strength in this field. The brokerage house also signed an MOU with fintech marketing firm Rich Planet early last year to jointly develop the service.







Hanwha Investment & Securities launched Data Analytics Lab  a company affiliate solely focusing on data analysis  in the summer of 2018, aiming to dominate the market.







Smaller brokerage firms, Kiwoom, Daishin, and Hi Investment, have also been preparing to work on the MyData project. Kiwoom Securities signed an MOU in late 2018 with fintech firm Rainist, which operates Bank Salad  one of the most popular asset management mobile apps in Korea  as part of plans to bolster capacity in the data business.







Big tech giants Naver Financial and Kakao Pay have also joined the data war, as both companies submitted applications for the government-led business plan.







Yet, each of these securities firms' specific and detailed services remain a secret. As unique differentiation could be the key to success of the MyData business model, they are hiding key strategies from the media. Public relations officials of the firms declined to comment on specific business plans, saying that such information was not even shared inside the company.







"Details of the plan will be made public, only if the firm is publicly designated as a MyData business operator," officials from some securities firms told The Korea Times, adding that only employees related to the strategic data team know the specifics so far.







Market analysts expect the MyData business will accelerate the financial industry's change towards digital-based platforms.







"The clock of financial firms that will be MyData operators and IT-based digital platform techfin firms will go faster and faster," said Cho Yong-sun, an analyst at SK Securities. "Financial customers' inclinations are already leaning towards flexibility from rigidity."







Other market watchers pointed out that the MyData business will, eventurally, enhance customers' benefits through fairer competition.







"MyData business will help expand customers' financial options, with the increased use of big data," Kwon Min-kyeong, a research fellow at Korea Capital Market Institute, told The Korea Times.







"Previously, big major financial institutions had access to customers' financial information, which bolstered their clout and influence in the market, because they could use the information in marketing strategies. However, the MyData business model will create an environment where smaller-sized companies can join the competition on a fairer, level playing field, which will lower prices and enhance customer services," Kwon added.


A BIG sigh of relief for the locally stranded individuals (LSI) after Cebu City opened the month of August for trips to and from other provinces. A SunStar Cebu report said 1,321 LSIs have already left Cebu while 379 Cebu residents have arrived in the past five days.

Cebu City is now under general community quarantine (GCQ), which allows public transport subject to health protocols.

The last months have been like a disintegration scene in a Marvel movie for not a few businesses in the city, leaving hundreds losing their jobs. Late last month, Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Felix Taguiam revealed that around 92 traders have expressed their intention to shut down businesses after incurring irrecoverable losses. The bulk of these LSIs come from the sector of displaced workers, and even while businesses try to grasp for new life in the new normal, the options are shrinking.

Philippine Statistics Authority data showed the Philippines plunged back to a familiar slump 29 years ago in gross domestic product. GDP tumbled 16.5 percent in April to June from last years.

The Philippines was among the fast-growing economies pre-Covid, but government now expects a GDP shrink of 5.5 percent this year, the biggest yearly drop in 25 years.

However, with the assurance of vaccines in the pipeline, the future doesnt appear too bleak. Government foresees a rebound in 2021 and 2022.

Governments idea of bringing sectors of the populace back to the provinces makes perfect sense. A certain dispersal may be economically strategic.

Government must pour investments into the countryside, spread out lucrative economic activities by way of agriculture and trade in those parts of the country.

Meantime, a first step would be to facilitate the return of LSIs to their home provinces. Cebu City can, perhaps, streamline procedures to make it easier for them to take the trip back home and safer for the receiving communities.
A body was found in the backseat of the pickup truck driven by murder suspect Abdulaziz Alubidy. (Courtesy of Anaheim Police Department)

OC Man Charged With Murder After Body Found in Crashed Truck

Orange County, California, prosecutors filed a murder charge on Aug. 4 against Anaheim-resident Abdulaziz Munther Alubidy, accusing him of killing a woman whose body was discovered in the back of his pickup truck after a collision in north San Diego County on July 31.

The body was found after the truck crashed into another vehicle at the intersection of San Marcos Boulevard and Rancho Sante Fe in San Marcos around 4 p.m. At least one person was taken to a hospital following the crash.

Jessie Villesca, 56, also of Anaheim, was identified as the deceased woman found inside the cab of Alubidys gray 2018 Toyota Tundra.

According to an Aug. 2 Anaheim Police Department press release, Villescas injuries led investigators to suspect she was the victim of a homicide.

We dont believe that theres additional homicide victims, Sgt. Shane Carringer, an Anaheim Police Department spokesperson, told The Epoch Times.

San Diego Sheriffs homicide detectives found evidence pointing to Villesca having been killed near West Corporate Way and North Muller Street in Anaheim earlier in the day on July 31, according to the press release. Anaheim homicide detectives then took over the investigation.



Murder suspect Abdulaziz Alubidy. (Courtesy of Anaheim Police Department)

Police believe evidence shows a link to the relationship between Villesca and Alubidy as a possible motivation behind the crime, Carringer saidbut details are few, and the investigation is ongoing. The press release listed the suspects age as 28 years old, though reports vary.



Senior Orange County Deputy District Attorney Whitney Bokosky said that Villescas severely beaten body was found in the backseat of the four-door truck.

Alubidy allegedly tried to run from deputies and had to be subdued with a Taser, the prosecutor said.

The suspect was booked into the Anaheim Detention Facility and initially denied bail, Bokosky said. A judge will reconsider bail at Alubidys arraignment, which is scheduled for Aug. 19 in the jail courtroom in Santa Ana.

Alubidy is originally from Iraq and has been in the country since 2014.

City News Service contributed to this report.
BANNING, Calif.  Authorities on Tuesday lifted most evacuation orders as firefighters made slow progress against a huge blaze in the Southern California mountains that forced thousands of people from their homes.

The wildfire straddling Riverside and San Bernardino counties had consumed nearly 42 square miles (more than 108 square kilometers) of dry brush and chaparral since it broke out Friday evening, according to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

As of Tuesday night, it was 20% contained. On Tuesday, evacuation orders were lifted for all of Riverside County. Only some homes in the small community of Oak Glen remain under the orders.

At its peak, about 7,000 people were under evacuation orders.

The blaze, which began Friday, burned a dozen buildings, including four homes.

Jack Thompson evacuated his canyon home as flames drew closer Sunday. He said his wife grabbed his hand as they rounded a corner in their SUV and encountered a wall of smoke and fire.

`Were going to be all right, I said, then I put the pedal to the floor. We broke through the flames and saw a clear path ahead, Thompson told the Los Angeles Times.

The wildfire was sparked by a vehicle spewing burning carbon from its exhaust system, igniting several fires in the Cherry Valley area east of downtown Los Angeles, officials said Monday.

In Northern California, crews made progress against a blaze that burned close to homes near East Park Reservoir in Colusa County. It was 90% contained Monday.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
She has a notoriously weak stomach.

And on Thursday, radio star Jackie 'O' Henderson ran out of a live segment to vomit after she heaved on air.

The 45-year-old was forced to flee the studio after The Kyle and Jackie Show invited 'Dr Crack' on to help staff improve their posture.

Gross! On Thursday, radio star Jackie 'O' Henderson (pictured) was forced to flee the studio to vomit during a live segment

The chiropractor put producer Jaimee 'Mayo' Hassos down on a table where he planned to perform a series of adjustments to her back and neck.

'Everything was relaxed, it was a release... it felt good,' Mayo admitted following the first crack.

As the doctor explained what would happen next, Jackie could be heard heaving in the background, prompting her co-host Kyle Sandilands to tease her.

Get cracking! The incident occurred after The Kyle and Jackie Show invited 'Dr Crack' to help staff improve their posture and he performed a series of adjustments on producer Mayo (pictured)

'Jackie, why are vomiting? Why are you dry retching?' he asked the mother-of-one.

Jackie responded: 'I don't know but it's actually making me feel really sick... this segment.'

A shocked Kyle then revealed the blonde stunner had fled.

That's enough: Unable to stand the noise, Jackie fled to vomit after she could be heard retching on air

'Ok, Jackie has just left the building, she's going to the bathroom to hurl,' he announced

'She has a very week stomach that woman,' he added.

Following a neck adjustment, Jackie returned and Kyle couldn't wait to tell her what she missed.

Repeat offender: This isn't the first time the blonde beauty has stormed out of the studio after a segment turned her stomach. Jackie 'refused' to be part of a story in February, which saw a producer brush his teeth using a toothbrush involved in a scandal on Married At First Sight

'She's back! Jackie, good thing you left as we just adjusted the neck and my stomach felt a little weak... Jackie's gone again,' he said, as the blonde could be heard heaving on her way out.

Dr Cody, a chiropractor based in Sydney, has earned the nickname 'Dr Crack' after sharing spine-tingling back adjustments to Instagram, which result in a loud popping sound.

This isn't the first time the beauty has stormed out of the studio after a segment turned her stomach.

'This is the lowest of the low,' she told listeners. 'I'm leaving! I refuse to be a part of this disgusting segment'

Jackie 'refused' to take part of a story in February, which saw a producer brush his teeth using a toothbrush which had been involved in a scandal on Married At First Sight.

'This is the lowest of the low,' she told listeners. 'I'm leaving! I refuse to be a part of this disgusting segment.'

The toothbrush had infamously belonged to reality star Hayley Vernon and was used by her 'husband' David Cannon to clean the toilet with after he discovered she cheated with Michael Goonan.

Hayley used the toothbrush for five days before being told that footage of David contaminating it was being circulated among cast members.
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On the 5th of August 2020, ContextVision held an Extraordinary General Meeting in Stockholm.

The Board's proposal for adoption of new articles of association was approved

The Board's proposal for decision on the share split of the company's share was approved

No other matters were processed at the meeting.

For further information, please contact:

Ann-Charlotte Linderoth (CFO)

tel +46 (0)8 7503550, e-mail ann-charlotte.linderoth@contextvision.se



###





About ContextVision

ContextVision is a medical technology software company specialized in image analysis and artificial intelligence. As the global market leader within image enhancement, we are a trusted partner to leading manufacturers of ultrasound, X-ray and MRI equipment around the world.

Our expertise is to develop powerful software products, based on proprietary technology and artificial intelligence for image-based applications. Our cutting-edge technology helps clinicians accurately interpret medical images, a crucial foundation for better diagnosis and treatment.

ContextVision is now entering the fast-growing digital pathology market. We are re-investing significantly in our product portfolio of decision support tools and we are dedicated to becoming a leading resource for pathologists to radically develop cancer diagnosis and improve patient care.

The company, established in 1983, is based in Sweden with local representation in the U.S., Japan, China and Korea. ContextVision is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker COV.





This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section 5-12 the Norwegian Securities Trading Act

Attachment




New Delhi, Aug 7 : Two-wheeler industry unit sales are now likely to decline between 16 and 18 per cent to around 17 million units in FY2021 on the back of the overall macro-economic scenario, ICRA Ratings said on Thursday.

The ratings agency had earlier estimated a decline of 11-13 per cent, but revised the forecast considering the Covid-19 demand-supply disruptions, looming income uncertainties and increased cost of ownership of BS-VI vehicles.

Accordingly, ICRA expects two-wheeler OEMs to brace for another year of lower earnings and decline in average operating margins by 150-200 bps to 11.5-12 per cent.

Nonetheless, the price escalation and the depreciating rupee, coupled with continuous cost rationalisation initiatives, would provide some support, it said.

"The aggregate capacity utilisation levels for the industry sample is expected to decline to 55-60 per cent from around 70 per cent. However, despite moderation, the 2W OEMs will continue to have strong credit profiles characterised by healthy 'ROCE' (average ranging between 18-20 per cent) and comfortable balance sheets with negligible debt and strong cash and liquid investments," the ratings agency said in a statement.

"While any major expansion plans are expected to be deferred till the demand recovers sufficiently, it is expected that OEMs will continue investing in new product development and network expansion." According to the ratings agency, fiscal 2021 started on a sombre note as the pandemic outbreak caused unprecedented disruptions to both supply and demand.

"While the operations resumed in May 2020, the unabated rise in Covid-19 infections in unlock phase have resulted in localised re-imposition of lockdowns in several states," the statement said.

"This has interrupted the pace of overall economic recovery and has led ICRA to revise its forecast for GDP contraction in FY2021 to 9.5 per cent YoY from 5 per cent estimated earlier." Notwithstanding the overall muted macro-economic sentiments, the agency said that on the positive side, the rural economy offers some growth off-shoots in the form of healthy rabi output and lower Covid-19 impact.

"Higher farm income has led to sequential pick-up in 2W demand in June and July 2020. After a timely onset, monsoon progress remains healthy across most regions," the statement said.

"Benefiting from favourable moisture conditions and seasonally high reservoir levels, kharif sowing has been progressing well (up 19 per cent till July 24, 2020). These factors coupled with the government's various agri-focused initiatives, are expected to support farm cash flows and 2W demand." In the urban markets, which have been more severely impacted by the pandemic, the agency said a preference towards personal mobility could push near-term demand.

"However, these would only help to partially offset the adverse impact of the pandemic. Given the expectation of sharp decline India's GDP, lower job creation and income uncertainties, two-wheeler demand will most certainly remain adversely impacted," the statement said.

"There is a likelihood of downtrading by consumers as well once the economy starts to cripple back to normalcy." On the export front, ICRA said that while long-term drivers remain favourable, Covid-19 fallout and volatility in crude oil prices (as it impacts demand in key markets) remain a near term negative.

"Nonetheless, an attractive product portfolio and continued focus of Indian 2W OEMs on building and expanding overseas sales and after sales networks (replacement market) provides potential for growth in the medium term," the agency's statement added.
Jana Kramer broke down in tears in an emotional video to her fans on social media, revealing her pneumonia diagnosis shut down production on her movie project.

The 36-year-old One Tree Hill star took to her Instagram story on Wednesday with an emotional video, where she revealed she's 'really upset right now' and she 'just got back from the ER' and that she has 'pneumonitis, which is early on pneumonia.'

She also told fans in the caption that she 'was going to 'go dark from Instagram' so she can rest and recuperate.

Tears: Jana Kramer broke down in tears in an emotional video to her fans on social media, revealing her pneumonia diagnosis shut down production on her movie project

'I was having a really hard time breathing. I got tested again for COVID, it is negative again, so somehow whatever my head cold [was] went into my lungs,' she added.

'Production has been amazing. I feel terrible, of course. I booked something and I haven't been sick forever, and all of the sudden this,' she added.

'Im just so upset about it. Im going to rest for the two or three days. Take a bunch of medicines,' she added, before explaining why she's taking a social media break.

Breathing: 'I was having a really hard time breathing. I got tested again for COVID, it is negative again, so somehow whatever my head cold [was] went into my lungs,' she added

'Im going to be off here for a minute, because If not, Im going to continue to be upset, because Im not working. Love you guys. Sorry for the sob story, but I just wanted you to know why Im going dark.

Her video was also accompanied by a caption, which read, 'About to go dark from Instagram so I can rest and be ready to go back to work.'

'There is nothing more upsetting then finally getting the chance to work and then randomly getting pneumonia which I have NEVER had,' she added.

Off here: 'Im going to be off here for a minute, because If not, Im going to continue to be upset, because Im not working. Love you guys. Sorry for the sob story, but I just wanted you to know why Im going dark'

Upsetting: 'There is nothing more upsetting then finally getting the chance to work and then randomly getting pneumonia which I have NEVER had,' she added

'But Ive got meds, Ive got the best movie producers and team that are giving me the time off I need so thank you!!' she concluded in her caption.

While the actress didn't mention what movie project it was, it may be a project called Riptide, which is currently in pre-production.

The film follows a biker gang whose drug operation is raided by the ATF as the biker gang leaders' sons battle over the gang's future.

Meds: 'But Ive got meds, Ive got the best movie producers and team that are giving me the time off I need so thank you!!' she concluded in her caption

Kramer recently made headlines when she revealed that her and husband Mike Caussin auditioned for Bravo's Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

The couple reportedly auditioned for the long-running reality series last month, but haven't heard back from producers, according to People.

The couple spoke about their reality TV hopes on the latest episode of their podcast Whine Down with Jana Kramer and Michael Caussin which featured guests Joe and Melissa Gorga from Real Housewives Of New Jersey.

Headlines: Kramer recently made headlines when she revealed that her and husband Mike Caussin auditioned for Bravo's Real Housewives of Beverly Hills
The massive explosion at Beirut's port on Tuesday is threatening to plunge even more Lebanese into hunger, Christian Aid has warned.

The development agency said the blast had destroyed livelihoods at a time when the country - home to a million Syrian refugees - was already on the brink after months of social and economic crisis.

"The horrific and shocking explosion in Beirut comes amid what was already a perfect storm in Lebanon of displacement, pandemic, civil unrest, government corruption and economic crisis," it said.

"This morning our partners are waking up to devastation in Lebanon's capital city. There are scarcely any homes that are not damaged, with many destroyed; businesses and livelihoods were wiped out in seconds."

The IMF predicts Lebanon's GDP will shrink by 12%, the worst in 30 years, with poverty expected to rise among the Lebanese by 52%, and among Syrian refugees by 83%.

Covid-19 has only worsened the crisis, with many workers experiencing a "steep drop" in living standards during the pandemic.

"These people have no social protection to help them weather the economic crisis," Christian Aid said.

Its partner in Lebanon, Basmeh & Zeitooneh, was already reporting widespread hunger in April, with some families having no food at all at home.

Now, after the explosion, the food crisis will "deepen further", Christian Aid said.

"The grain stores in the port are completely destroyed. The port is the entry way for Lebanon's grain imports; they import 90% of their grain for the staple Lebanese bread," it said.

"This explosion has made a very dire situation worse  with a growing number of Lebanese vulnerable to destitution - and could not have come at a worse time for the besieged country."

Reposted courtesy of Christian Today
Draft decisions and voting form of joint stock company GRINDEKS Extraordinary General Meeting of shareholders



The Management Board of joint stock company GRINDEKS, registration number: 40003034935, legal address: 53 Krustpils street, Riga, Latvia, LV-1057 (hereafter  the Company), considering the Covid-19 pandemic, with the aim to preserve health of shareholders, the Companys employees as well as public in general, encourages all shareholders to participate in the Extraordinary General Meeting of shareholders to be held on August 18, 2020 in a written mode prior to the shareholders meeting by filling in voting form which is attached to this notification.

We kindly ask completed voting form and send:

electronically signed with the electronic signature to the Company's e-mail address: liene.snore@grindeks.lv; or

in paper form signed to the postal address of the Company: 53 Krustpils street, Riga, LV-1057, Latvia. In this case, the voting form should be notarized or with the attached shareholders contact information (telephone number and email addresses) in order to let the Company's Management Board to identify the shareholder.

A shareholder who has voted prior to the shareholders meeting may request the Company to confirm receipt of the voting form. The Company shall send the shareholder confirmation without delay after receiving the shareholder's voting form.

The voting will take into account all duly received votes received by the Company till August 17, 2020.

Appendix:

Draft resolutions of Extraordinary General Meeting of JSC GRINDEKS;

Voting form.

The Management Board of joint stock company GRINDEKS

Additional information:

Laila Klavina

Head of the Communications Department JSC GRINDEKS

Phones: (+371) 67083370, (+371) 29256012

Fax: (+371) 67083505

E-mail: laila.klavina@grindeks.lv

www.grindeks.eu









Attachments




A sailor killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor 78 years ago has finally been laid to rest next to his parents in Missouri after DNA testing identified his remains last year.

On Wednesday, a number of patriotic Americans lined the streets from Willow Springs all the way to Mountain View, the next town over, to see Navy Seaman 1st Class Orval Austin Tranbarger laid to rest.

Tranbarger received a hero's sendoff to Chapel Hill Cemetery, where he was buried next to his parents, Major and Minerva Tranbarger, at 1pm in a touching ceremony.

Navy Seaman 1st Class Orval Austin Tranbarger (pictured) was laid to rest next to his family at Chapel Hill Cemetery in Mountain View, Missouri, on Wednesday

Tranbarger's remains were left unidentified for 78 years and they were kept among several others at the National Cemetery of the Pacific. Pictured: Seaman carry Tranbarger's casket on Wednesday

'We said, why not bring him home,' Burl Tranbarger, a younger brother of Tranbarger, told KY3.

The seaman was one of 11 children. He is survived by two brothers and two sisters.

Tranbarger, eager to serve his country, joined the Navy just one day after his 18 birthday.

On December 7, 1941, he would become one of 429 crewmen killed aboard USS Oklahoma during the attack on Pearl Harbor at age 20. Just over 2,400 people died in total.

Several veterans and residents lined the streets in Mountain View to give Tranbarger a proper send off before he was buried at Chapel Hill Cemetery

The surprise military strike from Japan took place at the Pearl Harbor naval base in Honolulu, Hawaii, and the USS Oklahoma was torpedoed several times until it capsized.

It was a catalyst in the United States' formal entry into World War II after being neutral in the fight for two years.

Navy personnel would spend more than three years trying to recover the remains of their deceased servicemen, but by September 1947 only 35 had been positively identified.

Tranbarger's remains were left unidentified for nearly eight decades, but last year the U.S. Department of Defense POW/MAI Accounting Agency made a positive match using DNA and contacted his family, Springfield News-Leader reports.

Tranbarger was among more than 400 crewman killed on the USS Oklahoma after it was torpedoed several times in an attack at Pearl Harbor by Japan

Burl Tranbarger (pictured), one of four surviving siblings, accepted a folded American flag during the ceremony

Tranbarger's remains had been among several others to be kept at the National Cemetery of the Pacific.

In 2015, the remaining caskets linked to the USS Oklahoma were all exhumed and transferred to a laboratory where Tranbarger was identified on September 18, 2019.

But the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in January quickly halted any burial plans as Americans closed themselves inside and businesses shuttered. Missouri has recorded 56,272 coronavirus cases and 1,300 deaths.

The Tranbarger family held the burial just five miles away from where the serviceman grew up.

'On the way here I thought, well Orval, you finally are welcomed home,' Burl said.

Burl was just two-year-old when Tranbarger was killed. He accepted a folded American flag during the ceremony.

'Today has got me convinced that people do honor the fallen military. They honor our nation,' said Burl.

Burl (center): 'Today has got me convinced that people do honor the fallen military. They honor our nation'

Although most did not know Tranbarger personally, many residents and veterans attended the burial service on Wednesday in Mountain View

In addition to extended family, several local residents in Mountain View took time out to honor Tranbarger and watch his funeral procession.

'This is our hometown. This is where he was from and I think its just a wonderful thing,' Sandy Pruett told KY3.

Army Veteran Brandon Wright noted that the attention Tranbarger's burial has received shows a love for America's troops.

'Hes somebody they obviously didnt know, who was well before many of their times,' said Wright.

'It showed they love America and they love people that support America, the troops, him being one of them. Happy to see him get a welcome home.'

Michael Plum, a chaplain at the VFW Post No. 3009 in Mountain View, is a Marine veteran who wanted to honor Tranbarger.

DNA testing of Tranbarger's remains positively identified him in September 2019 after nearly eight decades

Michael Plum: 'It showed they love America and they love people that support America, the troops, him being one of them. Happy to see him get a welcome home'

'When you go into the service, as veterans we sign a blank check that we are willing to give our life for our fellow Americans, for our country,' Plum told Springfield News-Leader.

'When a soldier, sailor, marine or airman ... gives their life for their country, it gives you a feeling of pride. You want to honor that person.

'Orval has never received the kind of recognition he deserves going down on the USS Oklahoma with all the others.'

After getting involved in Tranbarger's honoring, Plum found out their bond goes beyond being servicemen.

'Come to find out, my grandfather is a cousin to Orval,' said Plum.

Tranbarger's name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, where the names of other missing World War II soldiers remain today.

A rosette was placed next to his name to show he has now been identified.
Nana Saforo Okoampah, Chief of Akuapem Apirede, says Okere has enjoyed a fair share of national development under the New Patriotic Party government.



He said "Okere has seen massive development in the road network in addition to the creation of Okere District and we are forever grateful to you"



Nana Okoampah made these remarks at a grand Durbar organized in honour of President Akufo-Addo after he commissioned the 20.5 km Tinkon-Amanfro road as part of his three day visit to the Eastern Region.



The Chief disclosed that some of the town roads in Okere had not seen any rehabilitation since the Busia regime mentioning specifically Apirede town roads.



He added that Okere District was created two years ago, yet construction of a district assembly office was far advanced and thanked the President for keeping faith with the people of Okere.



On behalf of the Chiefs and people of Okere he presented a cow as a token of appreciation to the President.



The President in response thanked the Okere people for the show of support for his governments and assured that he will fulfil all the promises made to the people of Ghana.



The President later inspected the construction of the Okere District Assembly office which started some months ago.



The President started the three day visit to the Region with a voter card registration at Kyebi and followed the next day with a visit to New Juaben South, Akropong and Okere Districts.

Source: GNA









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"Dont you bring your poison/ Dont you bring your grog/ Dont you bring your smallpox/ Sure to kill our mob." Midnight Oil's first new song in 18 years, Gadigal Land, was introduced to the world by drummer and songwriter Rob Hirst on Sydney's Redfern-based Koori Radio station on Thursday morning.

"We can live without your gallows/ We can do without your chains/ We can do without the massacres/ The sorrow and the pain," Peter Garrett sings in harmony with Dan Sultan on the first track from the band's coming mini-album, The Makarrata Project.

Midnight Oil perform in Sydney's Domain in November 2017. Credit: Brook Mitchell

Propelled by the Oils' unmistakable brass-studded attack, it is an uncompromising song of rage on behalf of the First Nations people acknowledged in the song's title and represented more broadly by the guest performers.

Sultan, the Stiff Gins' Kaleena Briggs and co-writers Bunna Lawrie and Joel Davison contribute to a climactic shout-out from their various homelands: Arrernte, Gurindji, Wiradjuri, Yorta Yorta, Mirning and Gadigal.
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WASHINGTON - Local and national leaders pushed back Wednesday against President Donald Trump's desire to deliver his convention acceptance speech from the White House, warning that the event could bring protests and novel coronavirus spread to the nation's capital while violating historic norms that separate political activity from the seat of presidential power.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., predicted that a political convention gathering at the White House "won't happen," for legal and ethical reasons, while District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, said she did not plan to offer "any exemptions" for the event from a recent health order that restricts the movement of nonessential visitors to the city from 27 states with elevated rates of the virus.

Members of the District Council expressed alarm about the idea, and on Capitol Hill, some Republicans also voiced concern. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas called it "problematic," Sen. John Thune of South Dakota questioned the legality of political events at the White House, and Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin suggested that other plans should be made.

"Probably not allowed," he said. "Probably shouldn't do it."

The pushback came as Trump indicated publicly for the first time that he preferred speaking from the White House at the end of four nights of convention programming, from Aug. 24-27, that will be a mix of live speeches from around the country and prerecorded video. In an interview Wednesday on "Fox and Friends," he described the White House as a "beautiful setting" that is "greatly representative of our nation" where the logistics would be easy and inexpensive to arrange.

A Republican involved in the planning said it was highly likely that Trump's speech would be delivered at the White House, perhaps on the South Lawn, but various locations were being discussed. Vice President Mike Pence was considering Fort McHenry in Maryland, the site of a major battle in the War of 1812, to give his convention speech.

This official said Republicans were not concerned about the ethics of staging convention events at the White House and thought the American public would understand, particularly because the president's travel options are limited by the pandemic. Republicans already have moved the convention celebrations from both Jacksonville, Fla., and Charlotte.

"I will probably do mine live from the White House," Trump said Wednesday morning. "If for some reason somebody had difficulty with it, I could go with someplace else."

When asked about Republican concerns over the legality of using the White House for a political event, Trump was dismissive. "It is legal," he said during a Wednesday evening news conference.

Trump has traveled to several key November states in recent months to hold rallies and fundraisers, but former vice president Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has limited his campaign activities to occasional policy speeches near his Delaware home, a visit to Washington to meet with former president Barack Obama, and regular virtual events.

Democrats on Wednesday announced that Biden had canceled his plans to travel to Milwaukee for the convention because of the virus. Instead, he will address the nation from his home in Wilmington, Del., on Aug. 20 with the rest of the Democratic convention occurring virtually from locations around the country beginning Aug. 17.

Unlike other cities, the District has little power to prevent presidential events from taking place on federal land, with protection provided through a combination of local police and federal officials.

When the Trump administration moved forward with plans to hold Independence Day festivities on the National Mall, city officials urged people not to attend and to celebrate at home. But the mayor was powerless to stop an event on federal property and did not take formal steps to curb attendance, such as when she ordered the closure of city streets near the Tidal Basin when the cherry blossoms drew crowds.

That has not stopped members of the District Council from speaking out. "My first priority is to ensure the health and safety of District residents," District Council member Brooke Pinto, a Democrat, whose district includes downtown, said in a statement Wednesday. "I do not believe that hosting the Republican National Convention in DC will help us to meet that goal."

District Council member Mary Cheh, a Democrat, said Wednesday that the events could stir up protests against Trump and police brutality that filled streets near the White House in June.

"It could be a lightning rod for confrontation," she said.

One obstacle for Republican planners are current health orders in District that require anyone who comes to the city for a nonessential reason from coronavirus hot spots to self-quarantine in a hotel room, house or apartment for 14 days, venturing out only for essentials such as groceries or medical treatment. Those hot spots include many states important to Trump's reelection, including Florida and Wisconsin, potentially restricting who could attend his convention events.

That timeline would, for the affected convention attendees, begin early next week, but it was not clear whether delegates from those states planned to attend. District rules limit public gatherings to 50 people.

"If they comply with the law, they are more than welcome to come to Washington," Cheh said. "Otherwise, they should stay home."

Under the mayor's order, government employees, including the president, are exempted from the quarantine rules and are allowed to move around as soon as they arrive in the District, as long as they monitor themselves for symptoms.

Republican officials have noted that Bowser has not been actively enforcing her order by seeking out those who break it. Under local law, anyone who "willfully violates" the order can be charged with a misdemeanor, fined up to $1,000 and imprisoned for up to 30 days, though no charges have yet been filed.

A District police spokeswoman would not answer specific questions about convention events but said officers are focused on education rather than fines or arrests while enforcing the mayor's orders.

"MPD continues to do our part to help stop the spread of covid-19 in our city by encouraging and educating the public on wearing masks and adhering to the Mayor's orders," the spokeswoman said. "Voluntary compliance is our desired goal."

In a news briefing on Wednesday, Bowser said she had not had any conversations about planning for Republican convention activity.

"I don't know we anticipate any exemptions for the quarantine until we lift the quarantine," she said.

Civil rights leaders are planning a march in Washington that could draw thousands to the city on Aug. 28, one day after Trump plans to delivers his acceptance speech. The Rev. Al Sharpton, who is organizing the march, said he has been working with Bowser's office to ensure that the event does not violate local rules. He said people from the states listed in the mayor's quarantine order are being told to stay home, and no buses carrying protesters will travel from those locations.

"We want to make sure that this is ultrasafe," Sharpton said. "We will not let anyone in without taking their temperature both on the buses and the march."

Trump would also have to overcome legal and ethical obstacles that have historically kept the White House from being used for political events.

"You don't have political events at the White House," Pelosi said in an interview Wednesday on MSNBC. "You can't do it."

An adviser to the speaker said Pelosi was concerned that a convention event at the White House could lead to the misuse of congressionally appropriated funds or violate the Hatch Act, which prevents most federal officials from participating in political activity at work.

The Hatch Act exempts both the president and the vice president from restrictions and does not apply to "rooms in the White House or in the residence of the Vice President, which are part of the residence area or which are not regularly used solely in the discharge of official duties." Hatch Act violations are investigated by the Office of Special Counsel, which refers its findings back to the White House to take further action.

But holding a convention event at the White House could still raise complications for any lower-ranking White House officials who participate during work hours. Richard Painter, a Trump critic who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, said the challenge of staging a convention from the White House is not that Trump himself would be violating the law.

"He may not be violating the Hatch Act, but he is ordering other people to," Painter said. "At a certain point you are using White House resources, and that is a violation of the Hatch Act."

Two Democratic lawyers, who requested anonymity to discuss private deliberations, said that while Hatch Act violations do not result in criminal prosecutions, the misuse of congressionally appropriated funds for a political purpose could be criminally enforceable. The statute of limitations would not have run out in 2021, when the winner of this year's election takes office.

Republican planners have discussed seeking a way to reimburse the federal government for any expenses incurred at the White House or on other federal property for the convention, though it is not clear how the value would be estimated.

"The RNC would have a difficult time arguing that they can reimburse for the expenses, because how do you calculate such things as the fair market value of the White House lawn?" said Kedric Payne, the senior director of ethics at the Campaign Legal Center.

Other Republicans on Capitol Hill were more supportive of Trump's desire to use the White House for convention events, given the pandemic-related restrictions.

"Well, he lives there," Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota said. "What are his options?"

Even Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, a regular Trump critic, expressed some sympathy for the president's plight. "I don't know whether it is technically legal or not," he said, "but it has got to be [held] somewhere."

National Democrats, meanwhile, signaled that they would try to use Trump's decision to pursue a White House political event as another example of his norm-breaking presidency.

"It's epically breathtaking to hear the president say that - 'I'm going to give a political speech from the White House,' " Democratic Party Chairman Tom Perez said on MSNBC. "That would be a nonstarter for any Democrat running. That is so unethical."

- - -

The Washington Post's Karoun Demirjian and Peter Hermann contributed to this report.
CHICAGO  International travel is off the table in 2020, so Miller Lite is getting creative to celebrate International Beer Day.

Celebrated each year on the first Friday of August, the holiday aims to unite fans off beer and those who make it around the world on a single day

And while international travel isnt really possible due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, consumers in 80-plus U.S. cities named after countries can get beer on Miller Lie on Friday, Aug. 7.

We know that summer travel looks a little different this year, and for many beer fans, that means celebrating International Beer Day looks different too, said Sofia Colucci, VP Miller Family of Brands. But its still time for Miller Time, so were embracing the chance to celebrate safely and with good friends on our home turf, in cities like China, MI; Belgium, IL; and Trinidad, CA.

Natty Light giving away air-conditioned mobile dorm equipped with TV, gaming system and beer

In addition to China, Michigan, residents of Norway, Michigan and East Jordan, Michigan are also eligible for the promotion. A complete list of eligible Midwest cities can be seen below.

Consumers across 118 international(ish) zip codes can claim their beer rebate by visiting www.millerlite.com/internationalbeerday and uploading a receipt from the purchase of a 6-pack on Aug. 7.

Purchase is required and then Miller Lite will reimburse participants. Participants must be 21 or older to participate and the purchase receipt must be dated on Aug. 7. Receipt must be submitted by Aug. 14. There is one rebate allowed per phone number.

Other eligible Midwest cities:

Belgium, IL

Cuba, IL

Lebanon, IL

Macedonia, IL

Malta, IL

Palestine, IL

Panama, IL

Peru, IL

Macedonia, IA

Norway, IA

Panama, IA

Jamaica, IA

Cuba, KS

Lebanon, KS

Peru, KS

Lebanon, KY

Canada, KY

Finland, MN

Saint Vincent, MN

Lebanon, NE

Peru, NE

Panama, NE

Malta, OH

Poland, OH

Lebanon, SD

Scotland, SD

Denmark, WI

READ MORE

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Bells Brewery to distribute Mango Oberon for the first time

Busch unveils first-ever flavored beer, Busch Light Apple

Shorts Brewing Company expands distribution network by 5 states

Founders Brewing Company releases first hard seltzer, Mas Agave strawberry
Difficulties accumulated in remaining months of the year

Deputy General Director of Garment 10 Corporation Bach Thang Long said that the corporation posted total revenue of nearly VND1.8 trillion (US$77.9 million) in the past six months, up 16% over the same period last year, but the corporation is encountering many difficulties due to a decrease of 30% in traditional products.

The increase in revenue in the first half of this year was thanks to the revenue from cloth masks but the supply for masks is now saturated and demand is no longer as high as before, Long noted.

The corporation only has enough orders until September this year while in the previous years, the corporation signed enough orders for the first months of the next year.

The reduction in orders is due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic that prevented economies from growing while importers are monitoring market signals and considering their inventory before making new orders.

If the pandemic is not soon restrained, enterprises will certainly encounter difficulties in the remaining months of the year because the money accumulated from the beginning of the year will evaporate while enterprises still have to brace themselves to maintain the labour force and wait for the recovery of the market, Long emphasised.

Sharing the same view, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Hung Yen Garment Corporation (Hugaco) Nguyen Xuan Duong affirmed that enterprises were not much affected by the pandemic in the early months of this year because their orders were signed from the end of 2019. Several orders were suspended, resulting in delays in the export of products but luckily the increased production of masks and medical products offset the decreases. Thus, the production reduction of garment enterprises was not significant, accounting for about 5-10% of their total output.

Thus, Hugaco's revenue reached US$130 million in the first six months of this year, equal to 45% of the years plan. However, the company will really reel under the blow from COVID-19 in the remaining months of this year because it only has orders until the end of August and it is struggling to create jobs and generate incomes for workers.

Director of Vinatex International JSCs Hai Phong branch, Vu Quyet Chien, said that garment and textile enterprises are currently confronting many obstacles as their products cannot be exported to the US and EU countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Amid the decline in the number of orders, enterprises are forced to let their employees take turns to go to work and produce moderately to maintain operations.

There are no signs of prosperity forecast by the years end and maybe early 2021, thus, enterprises can only maintain restrained production and wait for market signals.

If the situation is not improved soon, the loss of labour is entirely possible and about 60-70% of small and medium enterprises are at risk of going bankrupt.

Many garment enterprises only strive to create enough jobs for their employees in this year without daring to think of profits, Chien added.

Seeking the production of alternate products

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic on a global scale has created huge impacts on Vietnams garment and textile industry due to its dependence on exports. Both the supply of raw materials and the output market are interrupted due to the social distancing orders and the closure of stores and distribution systems worldwide.

Chairman of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS) Vu Duc Giang said that the coronavirus pandemic has changed peoples consumption habits, shifting to spending on essential products, resulting in 30-40% reduction in global purchasing power.

The export wave of facemasks is over while new orders have not been signed, leading to the restrained operations of enterprises and more difficulties forecast for the future, Giang noted.

General Director of the Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex) Le Tien Truong said that the groups export revenue in the first half of this year fell by 20% compared to the same period last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

To maintain operations and labour force, the group must rearrange production to retain employees until the market recovers. In addition, the group must take advantage of all available resources, promote niche markets, and receive special orders and orders with high technical requirements.

Chairman of the Board of Directors of Hugaco Nguyen Xuan Duong said that amid tough times, enterprises should unite with each other, receive cheap orders to increase purchase volume and provide training for their employees to improve their skills.

With the declines in global purchasing power and changing consumption habits, the remaining months of this year are anticipated to be a very difficult time for enterprises, requiring them to be more dynamic and take advantage of opportunities from new generation free trade agreements.

However, the infrastructure of the Vietnam's textile and garment industry remains small with inadequate supply of raw materials, which need to be improved to make a breakthrough in exports.

Therefore, it is necessary to make planning and build concentrated and large-scale industrial parks in three regions of the country in order to call for investment in weaving and dyeing to quickly compensate for the insufficient supply.

In addition, the Government should soon issue a strategy to develop the textile and garment industry in the 2020-2040 period to create momentum in the development of enterprise in the field.

Amid the immediate difficulties, enterprises should quickly change the structure of traditional items to items that can adapt quickly to the market such as labour protection items and products serving the health sector. More chains of materials and investment in factories producing raw materials should be promoted to meet domestic and export demands.
The US president called the explosion a 'terrible attack' and said American generals told him it was likely caused by a bomb

Washington: President Donald Trump on Wednesday continued to suggest that the massive explosion that killed at least 135 people in Lebanon might have been a deliberate attack, even as officials in Lebanon and his own defense chief said it's believed to have be an accident.

"Whatever happened, it's terrible, but they don't really know what it is," Trump insisted. "Nobody knows yet."

Investigators probing the deadly blast that ripped across Beirut on Tuesday are focused on possible negligence in the storage of tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive fertilizer, in a waterfront warehouse.

The Lebanese government ordered the house arrest of several port officials in connection with the explosion, which killed at least 135 people and injured 5,000 more.

On Tuesday, Trump called the explosion a terrible attack and said American generals told him it was likely caused by a bomb.

They seem to think it was an attack, Trump said. "It was a bomb of some kind, yes.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper contradicted the president Wednesday, saying most people believe the explosion was an accident, as reported." But later in the day, Trump insisted nobody knows for sure.

How can you say accident if somebody left some terrible explosive-type devices and things around perhaps it was that. Perhaps it was an attack, Trump told reporters during a White House briefing.

"I don't think anybody can say right now. We're looking into it very strongly right now.

Some people think it was an attack and some people think it wasn't. In any event, it was a terrible event and a lot of people were killed and a tremendous number of people were badly wounded, injured. And we're standing with that country.

But whether it was a bomb intentionally set  off it ended up being a bomb," he said.

But no, I've heard it both ways. It could have been an accident and it could have also been something that was very offensive.

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows defended the president, saying Trump only told reporters on Tuesday what military officials had told him.

The president shared with the American people what he was briefed on, with 100% certainty I can tell you that," Meadows told CNN.

But US officials on Wednesday couldn't identify any generals who delivered any such Beirut message to the president. And while none would comment publicly, some noted that defense and intelligence officials didn't have enough information about the explosion to make any statement about the cause on Tuesday evening.

This is not the first time defense officials have been caught off-guard by Trump or scrambled to try to explain something he said without appearing to contradict their commander in chief.

Early in his presidency, Trump announced on Twitter that he was going to ban transgender service members, a move Pentagon leaders didn't know about. And many were caught by surprise when he suddenly announced he was pulling all troops out of Syria.

More recently, defense officials struggled to explain what Trump meant when he suggested the military was planning to play a role in distributing the coronavirus vaccine, something they had no plan to do.

And they openly split with the president when he said he wanted to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy troops to tamp down protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd.

From video and other evidence, experts suggest that fireworks and ammonium nitrate were the fuel that ignited the explosion that rocked the Lebanese capital.

The scale of the damage from the area of the explosion at the port of Beirut to the windows blown out miles away resembled other blasts involving the chemical compound commonly used as an agricultural fertilizer.

The compound typically does not detonate on its own and requires another ignition source.

That likely came from a fire that engulfed what initially appeared to be fireworks stored at the port. The Lebanese government said it was putting an unspecified number of Beirut port officials under house arrest pending an investigation into how 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate came to be stored at the port for years.

The US Embassy in Beirut said at least one American citizen was killed and several more were injured in the explosion.

"We are working closely with local authorities to determine if any additional US citizens were affected, the embassy said in a statement Wednesday. The embassy said all its employees are safe and accounted for.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke Wednesday with Lebanon's Prime Minister Hassan Diab to convey US condolences to the Lebanese people, according to State Department deputy spokesperson Cale Brown.

The US was preparing to provide humanitarian aid and medical or other supplies to the Lebanese people, Esper said online during this year's Aspen Security Forum.
So far nine teenagers (one pictured) - some of them students at elite Sydney private schools - have been charged over the attack, but because of their age none can be identified

A member of the schoolboy gang that allegedly stabbed and bashed an innocent man so violently he was left blinded and in a coma turned on one of their own in the hours that followed.

The 16-year-old boy, who was among the first arrested over the disturbing attack on father-of-one Brett Halcro at Pyrmont, in Sydney's inner-city, at 11pm last Friday, was allegedly sent death threats after speaking to NSW Police.

Another teenager not directly involved in the alleged assault allegedly sent messages afterwards threatening to 'kill' the 16-year-old.

It is understood the messages were sent to a Snapchat group and involved the teen vowing to take revenge against the boy and telling friends he had 'rolled'.

So far nine teenagers - some of them students at elite Sydney private schools - have been charged over the attack, but because of their age none can be identified.

Mr Halcro has been blinded in one eye and will suffer permanent disfigurement to his face as a result of the attack, but a relative said on a GoFundMe post he is set to be taken out of his coma by doctors at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in coming days.

The victim of the horror attack Brett Halcro (pictured) lost his eye and was left in a coma, but is making 'improvements' and is likely to be woken up in the coming days, according to his family

A group of nine teenagers have been arrested over the disturbing attack where they allegedly knocked the father-of-one from his bike, before stomping on him and stabbing him in the eye

'Brett is making steady improvements. He is still heavily sedated and on a respirator, but doctors are hopeful to be able to wake him in coming days,' he said.

'The injuries to Brett's face are substantial and confronting, but the surgeons have done an amazing job. Subsequent surgeries will be very likely.'

Mr Halcro's ex-girlfriend and the mother of his young daughter told The Herald Sun she is 'furious' at his alleged attackers and is adamant they should be jailed if found guilty - regardless of their age.

Theresa Keecherer said she had not been able to bring herself to tell the four-year-old the bad news.

'She does wonder why he hasnt been calling. We normally talk every night,' she said.

'His number one priority is our little girl. She is the highlight of his life.

'I don't care if they are 15 or 16 years old. They need to be locked up. It is psychopathic.'

Mr Halcro was rendered stuck in Sydney and unable to get home to Melbourne when the borders were shut due to COVID-19.

He had been up north helping his father when he was attacked.

Surry Hills Children's Court this week heard that only one boy had shown remorse in the wake of the attack - and he was the one to allegedly be threatened by his mates.

'This is not a case (like some of his co-accused) where he got onto a phone and sent text messages saying what took place,' the threatened boy's lawyer Peter O'Brien said.

'After being reluctant to answer questions, eventually the young person does answer questions and gives police the name of the knife assailant to police.'

Theresa Keecherer (right), Mr Halcro's ex-girlfriend and the mother of his young daughter, said she is 'furious' at his alleged attackers and believes if found guilty they should go to jail

A drug-addicted 15-year-old (left) had his actions slammed as 'vile' by a magistrate, while a 16-year-old who was allegedly wielding a knife (right) was refused bail by the children's court

It was these alleged actions that led the boy to receive death threats from his friend.

His friend was charged with inciting the commission of crimes and refused bail this week.

The details of the alleged attack are so disturbing that an experienced magistrate of both adult and children's courts called them the worst thing she had ever read.

'I have never read anything so abhorrent,' Magistrate Mary Ryan said.

'The facts before me and the actions taken by these young persons are abhorrent. It is reading that offends the normal notions of what a civil society is.

'There is an indication of his thoughts in the form of text messages (he sent) that are so concerning, that it is just something I've not read as facts from an adult who has carried out an offence.'

Police will rely on CCTV, mobile phone footage and eyewitness accounts as part of their case against the youngsters.

It is understood the alleged attack may have been sparked by two girls who were among the group claiming they had been 'raped' or 'groped' by the victim, but NSW Police have said the man was an 'innocent victim'

The alleged attackers and some friends had rented an Airbnb in the city for the night and CCTV footage from the apartment will be used in evidence.

But among their most crucial evidence will be text messages sent by a 15-year-old to a friend after the attack in which he detailed the alleged assault of their victim.

The young man allegedly claimed watching the attack unfold made him laugh.

'I stomped on him and gutted his head he got knocked out after I bottled him on the head,' the youngster allegedly wrote in one text message.

'I put the shattered bottle in his stomach and then jetted (a co-accused) slit his face like 15 times and stabbed him in the eye.'

It is believed the alleged attacker was then asked by his friend if he knew the man.

'Nah mate. Ahahahaha he was in the wrong place at the wrong time,' he allegedly replied.

'He (a co-accused) stuck it in his eye. Put it in deeper and swivelled the knife around. So funny.'

A 15-year-old allegedly sent these shocking text messages to a mate in the hours after he and his gang of mates allegedly bashed and stabbed their victim, leaving him blind in one eye and in a coma. He allegedly detailed the incident in depth and claimed that seeing the incident unfold in front of him was 'so funny'

A number of the youths are due to reappear before Surry Hills Children's Court (pictured) on September 29

The court heard that the attack may have been sparked by a girl who was among the group claiming she had been sexually assaulted by the man.

In the moments before the alleged bashing, one of the girls was asked: 'Is that the one who raped you?' to which she allegedly replied: 'Yeah that's the one'.

But NSW Police claim this is false and the man was an innocent party.

Two of the alleged attackers were known to attend the prestigious Barker College in Sydney's north, while another attended Carlingford High School.

Two of the alleged gang members have been released on bail, while the other seven remain in juvenile detention.

Despite the large number of arrests already made, police inquiries are continuing.
TSX-V Ticker symbol is CCCM

Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - August 6, 2020) - Carube Copper Corp. (TSXV: CUC) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that that effective August 5, 2020 the Company will change its corporate name to C3 Metals Inc. The Toronto Venture Exchange ticker symbol will change from CUC to CCCM and the Company expects its shares will commence trading under the new name and ticker symbol at the Market opening on or about Monday August 10th, 2020.

New Trading Symbol CCCM

The Company anticipates its common shares currently trading under the symbol "CUC" will commence trading at the Market opening on or about Monday August 10th, 2020 under the new ticker symbol "CCCM". No action is required by the Company's shareholders, and stock certificates are not affected by the name change.

New Website www.c3metals.com

A the newly designed corporate website will launch on Thursday August 6, 2020 to coincide with the commencement of the Company's common shares trading under the new ticker symbol. The company's new website can be found at www.c3metals.com. All communications and visits to the Company's current website and will be automatically redirected to the new site.

No Action Required by Stockholders

The name change was approved by shareholders at the Annual General Meeting held on February 28, 2020 and subsequently approved by the Toronto Stock Exchange. No further action is required by stockholders with respect to the name change. Outstanding stock certificates will not be affected by the name change and will not need to be exchanged. The Company encourages any concerns in this regard to be directed to the stockholder's respective broker or agent.

Flag Ship Copper-Gold Property

Carube Copper Corp has changed its corporate name to C3 Metals Inc. ("C3M") to better reflect a shift in focus to the recently acquired Jasperoide copper-gold project in Peru and the diversity of the broader portfolio it now holds in the Americas. The Jasperoide Project is located in the highly prospective Andahuaylas-Yauri belt of Peru, an emerging porphyry copper province that is host to several large-scale producing porphyry / skarn copper deposits. Jasperoide is located approximately 50km east of Minmetal's Las Bambas Mine, 40km northwest of Hudbay's Constancia Mine and 100km northwest of Glencore's Antapaccay Mine.

Jasperoide Project is characterized by extensive outcropping skarn and porphyry style alteration and copper-gold mineralisation developed for over three kilometres along the contact between a multi-phase intrusive complex and carbonate rocks of the Ferrobamba Formation. Strong copper and gold mineralization are hosted in massive magnetite and garnet-diopside skarns coincident with an intense geophysical magnetic and IP chargeability highs. The core area is open in multiple directions and together with a number of mapped extensions will be targeted for an initial copper-gold resource in 2020-21.

Management cautions that past results or discoveries on adjacent properties may not necessarily be indicative to the presence of mineralization on the Jasperoide Project. This press release has been reviewed and approved by Mr. Shannon Baird, P.Geo., Carube Copper's Exploration Manager, in his capacity as a qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

About the Company

C3 Metals is focused on creating substantive long-term value for its shareholders through the discovery and development of large copper and gold deposits. The Company's flagship project is the highly underexplored 5,700 hectare Jasperoide high-grade copper-gold skarn and porphyry system located in the prolific Andahuaylas-Yauri Porphyry-Skarn belt of southern Peru. Mineralization at Jasperoide is hosted in similar geology to the nearby major mining operations at Las Bambas (Minmetals), Constancia (Hudbay) and Antapaccay (Glencore).

C3Metals also holds a 100% interest in 5 licenses covering 207 km2 of highly prospective copper-gold terrain in Jamaica, a 100% interest in two porphyry copper-gold properties covering 337 km2 within the Cascade Magmatic Arc in southwestern British Columbia and a 100% interest in the 46 km2 Stewart Brook gold project in the Meguma gold belt of Nova Scotia. C3 Metals is seeking partners to further develop these highly prospective Canadian and Caribbean assets.

Tony Manini, Executive Chairman

+1 (647) 953-5924  tmanini@c3metals.com

Jeff Ackert, Vice President, Business Development

+1 (647) 957-2249  jackert@c3metals.com

www.c3metals.com

Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

DISCLAIMER & FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements" which are not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and address future events and conditions, and by their very nature involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Although these statements are based on currently available information, C3 Metals Inc. provides no assurance that actual results will meet management's expectations. Factors which cause results to differ materially are set out in the Company's documents filed on SEDAR. Undue reliance should not be placed on "forward looking statements".

IMPORTANT NOTICE: C3 Metals hereby incorporates the entire disclaimer set forth on its website at http://www.carubecopper.com/uploads/1/6/5/2/16521880/disclaimers-and-forward-statements.pdf

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/61222
French President Emmanuel Macron visited shell-shocked Beirut Thursday, pledging support and urging change after a massive explosion devastated the Lebanese capital in a disaster that has has sparked grief and fury.

"Lebanon is not alone," he tweeted on arrival before pledging Paris would coordinate international relief efforts after the colossal blast killed at least 137 people, wounded thousands and caused billions of dollars in damage.

But Macron also warned that Lebanon  already mired in a deep economic crisis, in desperate need of a bailout and torn by political turmoil  would "continue to sink" unless it implements urgent reforms.

Macron visited Beirut's harbourside blast zone, now a wasteland of blackened ruins, rubble and charred debris where a 140 metre (460 feet) wide crater has filled with sea water.

Later, as he toured one of the hardest-hit neighborhoods, an angry crowd vented its fury at Lebanon's political leaders, chanting Revolution and The people want to bring down the regime," slogans used during mass protests last year.

Macron said he was not there to endorse the regime and vowed that French aid would not fall into the hands of corruption".

"I will talk to all political forces to ask them for a new pact. I am here today to propose a new political pact to them," he said, after being greeted by crowds.

First visit by foreign head of state since blast

Macron's visit to the small Mediterranean country, France's Middle East protege and former colonial-era protectorate, was the first by a foreign head of state since Tuesday's unprecedented tragedy.

Two days on, Lebanon was still reeling from a blast so huge it was felt in neighbouring countries, its mushroom-shaped cloud drawing comparisons with the Hiroshima atom bomb.

"Apocalypse", "Armageddon"  Lebanese were lost for words to describe the impact of the blast, which dwarfed anything the country had experienced in its violence-plagued history.

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The provisional death toll stood at 137 but, with dozens missing and 5,000 wounded, the number of victims was expected to rise as rescue workers continued to comb through the rubble.

Offering a glimmer of hope amid the carnage, a French rescuer said there was a "good chance of finding... people alive", especially a group believed to be trapped in a room under the rubble.

"We are looking for seven or eight missing people, who could be stuck in a control room buried by the explosion," the colonel leading a rescue team told Macron as he surveyed the site.

France 'very popular' here in Lebanon

Macron will head to the presidential palace later on Thursday for meetings with all political actors, including Prime Minister Hassan Diab. He will also meet with members of different political factions and civil society before giving a press conference.

Both sides are hoping Macrons visit goes more smoothly than a trip last month by France's top diplomat Jean-Yves Le Drian, who scolded Lebanon's political elite for being too "passive" in the face of an economic crisis compounded by the coronavirus pandemic.

In the aftermath of that visit, Foreign Minister Nassif Hitti resigned in protest at his government's lack of crisis management.

France is very popular here in Lebanon. Theres a longrunning history of a relationship between the two, said FRANCE 24s Leila Molana-Allen, reporting from Beirut.

"Recently, the tensions have been over the fact that of course the French government is not coordinating with the Lebanese government in the way that politicians here want them to but the Lebanese people, many of them, are happy about that. They feel that international money should not be going to this government.

"Many people who have been protesting for the last nine months, they say that this government will not spend it on the things that people actually need, Molana-Allen added.

Paris prosecutor Remy Heitz said Wednesday at least 21 French citizens were injured in the blast and prosecutors had opened a probe into "negligent injury" using their jurisdiction to investigate acts committed abroad.

Two French planes also arrived on Thursday with specialist rescue personnel and equipment .

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and REUTERS)
August 5 marks the first anniversary of the effective abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution that conferred special status on Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) and the reorganisation of the state into two Union territories. Numerous petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court against the changes. Here is a look at where those cases stand.

Challenge to revocation of Article 370

At least 23 petitions are pending before the Supreme Court challenging the Centres decision to end the special status of J&K by revoking the article. These petitions were heard in December 2019 and January 2020 by a five- judge constitution bench headed by justice NV Ramana.

Certain intervenors in the case then requested that the case be referred to a larger bench. This, they argued, was because two earlier SC judgments, Prem Nath Kaul (1959) and Sampat Prakash (1968), are in conflict with regard to the scope and intent of Article 370 and whether the provision was intended to be a temporary or a permanent one. Since both those judgments were delivered by benches of five judges, the intervenors asked the court to refer the issue to a bench of seven or more judges.

Also read: J&K decision a strategic blunder for India, says Pak PM Imran Khan

The central government and the Union territory of J&K opposed the reference and submitted that there was no conflict between the two judgments.

The Constitution bench heard the parties with regard to the reference and delivered its verdict on this limited aspect on March 2. It declined to refer the matter to a larger bench. The case has not been heard after that.

Petitions against lockdown

The abrogation of Article 370 was accompanied by a total shutdown of Kashmir to forestall protests. Telephone lines, mobile communication and internet services were stopped and restrictions imposed on the press and transport within the valley.

A slew of petitions were filed before the SC challenging such restrictions, which the petitioners argued were in violation of their fundamental right to speech and expression and the right to move freely under Article 19 of the Constitution. The petitioners included editor of Kashmir Times newspaper, Anuradha Bhasin, and Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad.

A three-judge top court bench comprising justices NV Ramana, R Subhash Reddy and BR Gavai heard the case and ruled on January 10 that all restrictive orders should be reviewed by the government.

Also read: In a rebuff to Pakistan, UNSC says again Kashmir should be resolved bilaterally

Importantly, it held that freedom of speech and expression and freedom to carry on trade or profession through the internet was a fundamental right under Article 19 of the Constitution and any order suspending internet services can be only for a temporary duration and not for an indefinite period. Such orders should indicate the reasons for the necessity of such a shutdown and they should be put in the public domain, the court ruled.

While the court did say that prohibitions on free speech and movement will be violative of fundamental rights, it did not strike down such prohibitions. Instead, it asked the government itself to review such restrictions. The practical impact of this judgment was little although the government subsequently eased many restrictions in the Valley.

Plea for restoration of 4G services

A petition was filed before the SC in April challenging the order issued by J&K administration in March restricting the internet speed in mobile data to 2G. The petition by the NGO, Foundation for Media Professionals, prayed that 4G internet services be restored in J&K taking into account the Covid -19 pandemic.

The Supreme Court, in a judgment delivered on May 11, refrained from passing directions to restore 4G mobile internet services in J&K, instead constituting a special committee to take a call on the issue and examine the necessity to allow faster internet in certain areas of the newly formed UT. Subsequently, a contempt of court petition was filed by the petitioner in June pointing out that no action had been taken yet to comply with the SCs judgment. The Centre told the SC that a special committee was constituted to review restrictions on mobile internet in J&K and it decided against offering any relaxation for the time being. The case is due to come up for hearing on August 7.

Habeas Corpus petitions

Various Habeas Corpus petitions were also filed before the SC against detention of individuals. Four such petitions:

Omar Abdullah: Former J&K chief minister Omar Abdullahs detention was challenged in February by his sister Sara Abdullah Pilot. The top court on February 14 issued notice to the J&K administration but the petition became infructuous (pointless) after Abdullah was released on March 24.

Mehbooba Mufti: Iltija Mufti , the daughter of former CM Mehbooba Mufti challenged Muftis detention under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) Act, saying that it was based on vague and slanderous grounds that demonstrated personal and political bias against her.

In her petition, Iltija Mufti said that the February 5 order shifting her mother from preventive custody to detention under the PSA was based on a dossier prepared by the superintendent of police, Srinagar, replete with personal remarks and in bad taste. The court issued notice to the Centre on February 26 but the matter has not been heard after that. Saifuddin Soz: This would be the most noteworthy of all the Habeas Corpus pleas from J&K in Supreme Court.

Congress leader and former union minister Saifuddin Sozs detention was challenge before the Supreme Court on June 1 by his wife Mumtazunnisa Soz.

Soz, an octogenarian, has been under detention since August 5, 2019.

When the petition came up for hearing on June 8, the SC sought the response of the Centre and J&K. The Centre filed an affidavit in July stating that Soz was never under detention and the petition was frivolous. It was stated that Soz has been given security personnel for his protection and he is free to go anywhere.

The SC disposed of the case on July 29 after recording the centres stance. There was a twist in the tale as Soz was captured on video by TV channels stating that he was under house arrest. Interestingly, the order passed by the Supreme Court on July 29 disposing of the petition is yet to be uploaded on the website of the court.

Mian Abdul Qayoom: President of the J&K high court bar association, Mian Abdul Qayoom was detained on August 5, 2019 under the PSA. He was subsequently shifted to Agra the same month and then to Tihar jail in January 2020.

Qayooms plea challenging his detention was turned down by the J&K high court on May 29. The high court held that Qayooms ideology was like a live volcano. Qayoom then appealed to the top court. A three-judge bench ordered Qayooms release on July 29 after the central government agreed to it.
No one has ever come out and said 'you are dishonest' before, Inhofe said, quoting his wife, Kay Inhofe. Do we really have to listen to that now?  Im going to factor that into any decision thats made.

Inhofe was referring to Broyles continuing assertion that something was not quite right about the sale of some stock owned by Inhofe just before the stock market plummeted in late winter.

The transaction seems to have been legal and not ordered by Inhofe directly, but Broyles campaign continues to say that, at the very least, it suggests Inhofe has lost touch with the average Oklahoman.

That is the crux of this campaign and most of those involving Inhofe over the past 20 or more years.

Throughout his 50-plus years in government, Inhofe has stuck to very basic issues  mostly transportation, infrastructure and, since going to Congress in 1987, the military. No Oklahoma military base has been closed or downgraded on his watch. Countless miles of highway would not have been built or improved without him.
The official distributor of MG in the Philippines was recently awarded the highest recognition among international MG dealers worldwide. From a list of over 50 distributors overseas, The Covenant Car Company, Inc. (TCCCI) won the 2020 Five-Star Distributor Award.

The award was given to TCCCI based on comprehensive data such as sales performance, marketing, aftersales service, and dealership network. With it, TCCI joins an exclusive club of Five-Star Distributor awardees in 2020. These include the Tajeer Group MG Saudi Arabia, South Pacific Motor Chile SPA, Brisbane MG, and Mansour MG Automotive. Even MG Iloilo took home a Four-Star Award in the dealerships category.

It is our honor at The Covenant Car Company, Inc. to receive the Five Star Distributor recognition from our international principals at MG. We are privileged and proud to represent the MG brand in the Philippines, and to be recognized on our first year of full operations fuels our drive at TCCCI to go further in elevating the MG brand in the country, said Atty. Alberto Arcilla, president, and CEO of TCCCI, MG Philippines.
Pakistan's attempt to internationalise the Kashmir issue through the United Nations has again "come to naught", after a UN Security Council meeting, convened by China to discuss the matter, ended without any outcome, a top Indian diplomat said on Thursday. India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T S Tirumurti said that many other members of the Security Council underlined that Jammu and Kashmir was a bilateral matter between India and Pakistan and also stressed on the importance of the Simla Agreement.

"The attempt of Pakistan to internationalise this issue through the United Nations has again come to naught," Tirumurti told PTI. "Another attempt by Pakistan fails! In today's meeting of UN Security Council (UNSC) which was closed, informal, not recorded, and without any outcome, almost all countries underlined that J&K was bilateral issue & did not deserve time and attention of Council," Tirumurti tweeted.

China, Pakistan's 'all-weather ally', called for a discussion on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir in the Security Council under 'Any Other Business' on Wednesday, when India marked the first anniversary of ending special status to Jammu and Kashmir and its bifurcation into two union territories--Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Sources told PTI that the US took the lead, and many other council members also joined and made it clear that the Kashmir issue was not a matter for the UN body to discuss and is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan.

Pakistan has been unsuccessfully trying to drum up international support against India for withdrawing Jammu and Kashmir's special status and bifurcating it into two Union territories. India has categorically told the international community that the scrapping of Article 370 was its internal matter. It also advised Pakistan to accept reality and stop all anti-India propaganda.

In January this year, China, on behalf of Pakistan, had made a similar attempt to raise the Kashmir issue under "other matters" during closed consultations in the Security Council Consultations Room. Then too, China stood alone in the Pakistani corner to get the Security Council to focus on the Kashmir issue.

The January attempt had failed as other member countries felt that Kashmir was a bilateral matter between India and Pakistan. Earlier on Wednesday, Tirumurti told PTI that contrary to what Pakistan may claim, Islamabad has not been successful in trying to put Jammu and Kashmir on the UN agenda. "Frankly, the attempt by Pakistan to try and internationalise, what is a bilateral issue, is nothing new. A lie repeated a hundred times will not become truth," he said.

He said that contrary to what Foreign Minister of Pakistan Shah Mahmood Qureshi has asserted, there has been "no formal meeting of the Security Council on the India-Pakistan issue even once for the past 55 years, let alone three times!" Tirumurti said what had come up earlier was in a closed-door completely informal meeting under what is called 'Any Other Business'.

"This is a category where literally any item could be brought for discussion by anyone. Even China, being a permanent member, had to face discussion on Hong Kong in the Security Council under AOB earlier this May. These meetings have no records, and there is no outcome," he said. India had on Wednesday slammed China for describing the reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019 as "illegal and invalid", and advised Beijing not to comment on the internal affairs of other nations.

In a sharp reaction to China's comments on the first anniversary of India's decision on Jammu and Kashmir, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said China has no locus standi on the matter. "We have noted the comments of the Chinese MFA spokesperson on the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The Chinese side has no locus standi whatsoever on this matter and is advised not to comment on the internal affairs of other nations," Srivastava said, replying to a question on China's comments that any unilateral change to the status quo of Jammu and Kashmir was illegal and invalid.

In New York on Wednesday, the spokesperson of China's Permanent Mission to the United Nations said on the Security Council's discussion on Kashmir that Chinese Ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun pointed out that "India and Pakistan are both China's friendly neighbours and big developing countries at a critical stage of development". "China is committed to growing friendly relations with both countries and calls on the two countries to focus on national development, set store by peace and stability in South Asia, properly handle historical grievances, abandon the zero-sum thinking, avoid unilateral actions, resolve disputes peacefully through dialogue and consultation, and jointly uphold peace and stability of the region," the official said.

Also read: Strong Indo-US ties crucial amid 'aggression' from Beijing, say US senators
Autonomous vehicles (AVs) will challenge cities in ways that are difficult to fully predict, and yet critical to address early. A particular challenge is the potential for AVs to upset municipal budgets, as they upend traditional auto-related funding streams like vehicle registration fees and parking revenues. To prepare for this uncertain future, cities should practice scenario planning to understand revenue implications and identify alternative solutions.

As a proxy for AVs, researchers often examine transportation network companies (TNCs) like Uber and Lyft, because in many ways they operate as AVs will. In a 2019 NITC Small Starts project, "How Will Autonomous Vehicles Change Local Government Budgeting and Finance?" Benjamin Clark of the University of Oregon (UO) examined Seattle's parking demand and revenue implications for several downtown neighborhoods. Building on that work, Clark and UO colleague Anne Brown took a deeper dive into how new transportation technologies affect on-street parking revenues. Expanding their analysis to the entire City of Seattle, they compared Uber trip data with built environment and parking data from the City. The goal was in part to learn what other localized factors, including TNCs, might explain changes in parking demand. They found that up to a certain point, more Uber trips meant more parking spaces occupied: each additional 1,000 Uber trips was associated with a 17.1 percent increase in parking occupancy.

Download the Final Report "What Makes Cents? How Uber Shapes Municipal On-Street Parking Revenue" at: https://nitc.trec.pdx.edu/research/project/1215

Yet findings reveal that the relationship between TNC trips and parking occupancy is not linear. The model predictions show that parking revenues will decline if or when TNC (or possibly AV) trips are about three times greater than the average number of daily trips taken in 2016.

WAIT...SO WHY IS PARKING MORE OCCUPIED?

Intuition might say that more people using Uber should mean less parking occupation. While some travelers may hail an Uber instead of driving, it's not a simple substitution. Rather than reshuffling a fixed number of travelers from personal cars into Ubers, the advent of TNCs means more people are traveling to and from popular destinations using a combination of modes. TNCs complement other modes and may enable more people to travel on preferred routes and at more convenient times. The data used in this study do not provide insight into which TNC trips substitute for driving, which carry people who previously traveled by other modes or at other times of the day, or which are new trips entirely. Additional research is needed to better understand the potential mode shift dynamics between driving, TNCs, and other modes.

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POLICY OPTIONS FOR CITIES

The analysis presented in this report assumes no policy action by cities. The researchers discuss several possible courses of action in the final report.

Adjust parking policies by time/day

While cities are not in immediate danger of losing parking revenues due to TNCs, parking revenues may erode at high levels of TNCs or AV trip-making. However, TNCs are not the only factor. Parking occupancy and revenue also depend on the local built environment, time of day, number of parking spaces, and parking price. This finding affords a policy opportunity across land uses: Policymakers and planners can adjust parking prices or policies by the time of day, or day of the week, to achieve desired occupancies or outcomes.

Lower parking prices

A simple option would be to lower parking prices to reflect lower demand for parking. However, this approach could run counter to many cities' efforts to encourage car-alternative travel.

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Reduce on-street supply

Instead of lowering prices, cities could maintain parking prices but reduce their on-street parking supply; repurposing on-street spaces for other uses such as parklets, loading spaces, or non-auto parking spaces. This action could produce ancillary benefits such as managing congestion through additional loading spaces, facilitating micromobility with additional non-auto parking spaces, or enhancing the streetscape and public outdoor space.

Find alternative sources of revenue

Many cities are already experimenting with alternative uses for parking spaces: Washington, D.C., recently completed an on-demand, curb-space reservation pilot for a variety of commercial uses including TNCs, food deliveries, and commercial deliveries. Boston, too, is experimenting with similar pilots with some success. In both cases, the city replaced traditional parking revenue with another source (loading zone reservations) while simultaneously addressing congestion issues.

Focus on mixed-use and commercial areas

Per-space parking revenues in Seattle were highest in commercial and mixed-use areas. This may indicate that cities should, in the longer run, focus policy efforts on commercial and mixed-use areas for more revenue opportunities since they are projected to have larger revenue shortfalls. Finding replacements for these revenues, such as the piloted projects in Washington, D.C. or Boston, could help offset projected revenue losses, but may not be a panacea.

WHAT ELSE DO WE NEED TO KNOW?

Parking demand will not disappear overnight. Nevertheless, cities should engage in scenario planning to understand revenue implications as people take more TNC trips -- and eventually AV trips -- in the coming years. Dynamic analyses are needed to assess how parking rates change in response to higher TNC use, and how those changes could affect revenue.

This research was funded by the National Institute for Transportation and Communities, with additional support from the City of Seattle, WA, and the University of Oregon. UO graduate student Jay Matonte provided data collection and research assistance.
She recently revealed she was doing online ballet classes from the comfort of her own home during quarantine.

And Catriona Rowntree, 49, has revealed she has now turned to online French lessons following Melbourne's re-instated lockdown rules.

Despite acknowledging she 'won't be going anywhere soon, the Getaway presenter admitted she was having a great time picking up the new skill with her 'sweetest study partner' - a lamb.

'Not going anywhere soon!' Catriona Rowntree, 49, has revealed she has now turned to online French lessons following Melbourne's re-instated lockdown rules.

Catriona looked in her element as she shared a snap of her learning French while nursing the lamb in a nappy.

She said in her caption: 'Is #covid19 pushing you out of your comfort zone?

'Ive just signed up for French lessons. Hey, I aint going anywhere, no excuses now. Im by far the worst in the class, have learnt a great line cest tres complique and I now have the sweetest study partner.'

Adorable: The Getaway presenter admitted she was having a great time picking up the new skill with her 'sweetest study partner' - a lamb

Catriona offered further advice to those wanting to learn a new language.

'I dare you to give something a whirl. I just called @alliancefrancaise_melbourne on a whim and theyve 5 week express courses starting soon. Bon chance mon ami! #notimelikethepresent,' she concluded.

In the past few months, Catriona and her family have been locked down in their historic Victorian sheep property.

'No time like the present': Catriona offered further advice to those wanting to learn a new language

In June, Catriona diversified her workout routine while in self-isolation.

The mother of two told her Instagram followers she was doing online ballet classes from the comfort of her own home.

She has previously revealed she maintains her toned figure by exercising naked every day after having a shower.
How to safely return our children to school is the biggest debate of this pandemic summer. The stakes are high; many workers cant return to their jobs and our economy will continue its descent into collapse as deficits pile up. If schools set off massive outbreaks in the fall, we will have to endure a second lockdown that may be even more damaging than the first one. One approach to prevent this is to rapidly expand cheap paper-based tests that can cost as little as $1 with a turnaround time of just 10 minutes.

Canadian biotechnology companies have the technology to produce these tests. However, they have not been approved by Health Canada because of their relatively low sensitivity, which is based on an outdated understanding on how COVID-19 is transmitted.

The current gold-standard test is a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test that is highly sensitive; such tests are expensive and extremely, perhaps too, accurate. Each test takes time and requires expensive equipment; they also cost $150 each and have long turnaround times  as long as nine days in the United States  because of a global lack of testing reagents, swabs and other supplies. Such delays make testing, isolation and contact tracing nearly useless, as you could be spreading the virus during the time you are waiting for results.

In a recent landmark paper, Prof. Michael Mina, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Harvard University, shows that cheap paper-based tests are the best way, short of a vaccine, to return to some normal functioning in workplaces and schools. Asymptomatic transmission of COVID-19, especially in children, is not going to be picked up by our current testing system, nor will it be picked up by temperature screenings, a near useless measure some school boards are counting on to screen students. By the time most people get tested after experiencing some symptoms, they have usually been infectious for a week. The frequent use of at-home or at-school paper-strip tests would mitigate the transmission problem and the need for contact tracing.

It works like this: you use paper testing strips similar to a pregnancy test. On these strips are printed antibodies that react to the Sars-CoV-2 virus. Each student spits on a test strip every morning of school, and waits 10 minutes for the result. Positive students are sent home and their close contacts are screened by contact tracers. Even if the test misses occasionally, since youre testing daily, we will eventually pick them up the next day or the day after.

How is this different from current testing? If paper-based tests are like binoculars, current PCR tests are like the Hubble telescope. They will find even the tiniest amount of virus fragments, often days before you are infectious and for weeks after youve recovered and cant transmit to anyone. Paper-based tests detect massive quantities of virus in your body, around the time when you are infectious and have enough virus in your bloodstream and body fluids to transmit to someone else. You could show no symptoms at all, and could be spreading COVID to your loved ones, classmates or work colleagues without knowing.

The technology exists, and U.S. companies such as E25Bio, Sherlock Biosciences and Mammoth Biosciences are already making these tests. They need Health Canada and FDA approval, and even more importantly, the attention of our decision-makers to rapidly scale this technology up in time for school in September.

The benefits of paper-strip tests are immense. They have the potential to restore our daily life to pre-pandemic times and keep the economy afloat while preventing a second virus wave. Students could test themselves every day and show their negative tests as they enter the school, while those who test positive can confirm their results with a PCR test as they self-isolate. This system can also apply to people going to work, bars, malls, restaurants, movie theatres, gyms, etc. We cannot afford to ignore this technology, and with only weeks before the start of school, policy-makers need to act quickly.
Another school has been forced to close as an emerging cluster of coronavirus cases grows.

The new case is a teenager who has been linked to two other cases in Newcastle, which were announced earlier this week. The source of the cluster is not yet known.

A warning has now been issued for anyone who visited St Francis Xavier's College, in Hamilton East, this week to monitor for symptoms.

Shoppers who visited Westfield shopping centre in Penrith, in Sydney's west, on Saturday are also being told to be on high alert after it was revealed a confirmed case had visited the mall that day.

The man in his 20s, who is a previously confirmed case linked to the Mounties club cluster from Mount Pritchard, was at the centre from 10.30am to midday on Saturday.

Anyone who was there during that time has been asked to monitor for symptoms.

NSW is battling at least 104 active coronavirus cases, causing fears it is heading towards an out-of-control second wave of infections as seen in Victoria.

Shoppers who visited Westfield shopping centre in Penrith, in Sydney's west, on Saturday are also being told to be on high alert after it was revealed a confirmed case had visited the mall that day

Another school has been forced to close after an emerging cluster of coronavirus cases grew (Pictured: A cleaner dressed in Personal Protective Equipment in Sydney)

There were 12 new coronavirus infections reported in NSW on Thursday, with two under investigation and 10 linked to known clusters.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has urged young people to reduce their social activities during the critical time as the government ramps up its fight against the coronavirus.

'If you have the virus and you go out five times a week to different places you could potentially be spreading it to five different locations, and then we have to contract trace everybody,' she told Sydney radio Triple M.

'It's not anybody's fault but it's just the nature of the virus. It's so contagious that if you don't know you have it and you are still socialising you have the potential to give it to so many people.

'It only takes a few cases to get out of control.'

Her warning comes as new data shows 16 recent cases had no known link to other cases or clusters in the past four weeks, proving there undetected COVID-19 cases within the community.

Residents in their 20s made up the largest number of coronavirus transmissions in NSW.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has urged young people to reduce their social activities during the critical time as the government ramps up its fight against the coronavirus

From midnight on Thursday all arrivals from Victoria will be forced to undergo 14 days of hotel quarantine at their own expense in a bid to avoid an outbreak like what has been seen in Victoria

'We're not saying don't socialise or don't go out at all but we are saying please limit you behaviours just in the next few weeks,' Ms Berejiklian said.

From midnight on Thursday all arrivals from Victoria will be forced to undergo 14 days of hotel quarantine at their own expense in a bid to avoid an outbreak like what has been seen in Victoria.

Travellers will only be allowed to return to the state through Sydney airport, unless they live within the NSW border regions.

Ms Berejiklian said the new line of defence would reduce the risk of spreading the virus throughout the state.

'We love our Victorian fellow citizens, but their rates of infection are incredibly high at the moment and not going down,' Ms Berejiklian.

'We are not an island, we are a state within a nation with geographic proximity to, unfortunately, other states.'

The move comes as an alarming number of travellers from Melbourne continue to flock to Sydney.

Between 100 and 200 people have arrived in the Harbour City from Australia's coronavirus capital every day over the past week.

A warning has been issued for anyone who visited St Francis Xavier's College, in Hamilton East, this week to monitor for symptoms (Pictured: Commuters mask up as they make their way into work)

Two cases are still under investigation, one is a man in his 20s from Sydney who visited several venues in the inner-west including Woolworths in Marrickville

Anyone who has been in Victoria in the past 14 days is banned from entering New South Wales without a border permit under the Public Health (COVID-19 Border Control) Amendment.

She said border permits will also be restricted further.

'We are reviewing and look to tightening some of those definitions to make sure only those with absolutely necessary requirements [are allowed to enter],' she said.

But there will be some exemptions, she said.

'The death of an immediate family member would be an example of a situation where we would allow obviously people to continue coming in to NSW.'

Passengers arriving domestically were previously only required to spend 14 days in self-isolation at their own home, rather than locked inside a hotel.

Dr Kerry Chant said the change would reduce the number of people entering NSW from Victoria and reduce the risk of community transmission.

Victoria announced 471 new cases of coronavirus on Thursday. The figure marks a dramatic decrease from the record 725 cases on Wednesday.
(PHOTO: Google Street View)

SINGAPORE  A man and a woman accused of killing her four-year-old daughter and later burning the corpse in a metal barrel will be remanded for another week for investigations.

Another woman, also implicated in the disposal of Megan Khung Yu Wais corpse at Paya Ubi Industrial Park, will also be remanded for one more week to assist investigations, after her defence lawyer failed in his bid to quash the prosecutions application for her to be further remanded.

Foo Li Ping, 24, and Wong Shi Xiang, 33, are accused of murdering Megan in common intention some time in February this year at the condominium Suites@Guillemard. They are also accused of disposing the childs body in common intention with each other, and with Nouvelle Chua Ruoshi, by burning it in May this year in order to avoid detection. Chua, 30, is facing the latter charge.

Foo is the girls biological mother, while the relationships between the three accused were not revealed in court.

Apart from his two charges in relation to Megan, Wong faces other charges involving drugs, and possessing two samurai swords and voluntarily causing hurt to another man.

Foo is represented by lawyers Josephus Tan, Cory Wong and Marshall Lim, while Wong is presented by lawyer Vinit Chhabra. Chua is represented by lawyer Thangavelu, who only goes by one name.

All three accused were produced in court via video link on Thursday (6 August) for further mentions of their cases, during which Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Marcus Foo applied to have them further remanded a week for investigations.

At the mention of Chuas case, Thangavelu objected to a further remand and sought to have his clients case separated from Foo and Wong.

Thangavelu stated that Chua had been in police custody since 24 July when she was arrested, and that her case was different from the couple, who were facing murder charges.

Chuas charge was under 308B  for the disposal of a corpse  and was an offence that could be tried in the district court, argued the lawyer. Investigations into her case should be restricted to her role and not to the murders, the lawyer pointed out.

Story continues

He argued against Chua being remanded further unless the prosecution could satisfy the reasons for it.

DPP Foo said that Thangavelus objections were premature as only two weeks have passed since the case was first mentioned in court. Chuas charge explicitly states a common intention to dispose of Megans corpse, the DPP countered, adding that new material had surfaced over the last week so that more investigations were required to obtain a more complete picture of the incident.

Thangavelu argued that the prosecutions reply was not satisfactory at all and added that Chua could still cooperate with investigations by attending appointments at the police station.

The other lawyers for Wong and Foo did not object to their clients being remanded.

District Judge Terence Tay allowed the prosecutions application to remand all three for one more week, citing the severity of the charges faced by Wong and Foo.

However he noted that the more applications the prosecution made for the accused persons to be remanded, the higher the threshold it would have to satisfy to show the court why remand was required and bail could not be offered.

He assured Thangavelu that he would hold the prosecution to more substantive arguments if Chua were to be remanded further in the future.

All three will be remanded with permission for them to be taken out for investigations. They will next return to court on 13 August.

The charge of disposing a corpse in order to prevent detection carries a jail term of up to seven years. Murder may be punishable with death or life imprisonment with caning.

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MFA: Saddened by loss of lives in Beirut blast, no Singaporeans affected
Xu Weihong gets death penalty for manufacturing ketamine as ties between Beijing and Ottawa continue to deteriorate.

A Chinese court has sentenced a Canadian national to death for producing drugs, a ruling that came amid rising tension between the two countries over the Chinese telecommunications giant, Huawei.

Xu Weihong, a Canadian national, was sentenced to death in a trial of first instance, Guangzhou Intermediate Court said in a notice on its website on Thursday. An alleged accomplice, Wen Guanxiong, had been given a life sentence.

The brief court statement said Xus personal property would be confiscated, and gave no further details.

Local media in the southern Chinese city at the heart of the countrys manufacturing industry said Xu and Wen had gathered ingredients and tools, and began making ketamine in October 2016.

Reports said they stored the final product in Xus home in Guangzhous Haizhu district. Police confiscated more than 120kg (266 pounds) of the drug from Xus home and another address, the reports said.

Like many Asian nations, China deals out stiff penalties for manufacturing and selling illegal drugs, including the death penalty.

Relations between China and Canada deteriorated sharply after Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies, in Vancouver in late 2018, on a warrant from the United States.

China last year sentenced Canadians Robert Lloyd Schellenberg and Fan Wei to death on drug charges in separate cases. Both men have lodged appeals.

Two other Canadian men  businessman Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat  were arrested in China days after Mengs arrest, and were charged in June 2020 with espionage.

China has denied that their arrest is linked to Mengs case.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said there was no connection between Xus sentencing and current China-Canada relations.

I would like to stress that Chinas judicial authorities handle the relevant case independently in strict accordance with Chinese law and legal procedures, Wang said at a daily briefing on Thursday.

This case should not inflict any impact on China-Canada relations.
By Trend

Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops 35 times, Trend reports referring to Azerbaijani Defense Ministry.

Armenian armed forces were using large-caliber machine guns.

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
On St. Patricks Day, I happened to be in Florida visiting with my old friend Jim Bielski, who moved there a few years ago.

March 17 was also the date for the presidential primary there. I figured Id tag along with my friend to see how Florida handles elections these days.

Very well, it turns out. The state modernized its system after the 2000 fiasco, in which the presidential election was disputed for a month before the U.S. Supreme Court finally stepped in to sort it out.

The debacle embarrassed Florida politicians to the point they adopted the system I observed as Bielski voted in a high-school gym.

First he presented his ID to an election official who checked it against voter records. Then she handed him a paper ballot, which he took to a voting booth. There he made his choice, which was recorded on the machine and on the paper ballot. He then took the ballot and deposited it in a ballot box, thus providing a back-up for the machine results.

The result was final. There were no hanging chads or butterfly ballots to spark an endless debate  like the one were having now over voting by mail.

On Tuesday, President Trump went to court to stop Nevada from adopting a system of mailing ballots to every eligible voter. (On Wednesday, Trump also lashed out at New Jerseys handling of mail-in ballots.)

That was done in the New Jersey primary at the height of the coronavirus crisis. The system for the November elections here has not yet been announced.

In the Nevada courts, the Trump people argue that the system would make "voter fraud and other ineligible voting inevitable."

The Democrats argue there is scant evidence of irregularities in the states that currently have vote-by-mail. The courts will have to sort that out.

But this is a question on which there is as pure a partisan divide as youre likely to find. Democrats tend to like vote-by-mail for everyone. Republicans tend to believe that if you want to vote, you should show up in person, with exceptions for the military, invalids and those traveling out of state.

This was reflected in a Monmouth University Poll of Iowa voters released on Wednesday. The poll showed that 61 percent of Democrats were intending to vote by mail but just 19 Percent of Republicans were.

Similarly, 61 percent of Democrats expressed confidence that mail ballots would be counted accurately, while 59 percent of Republicans expressed skepticism.

The poll also showed that Trump has a mere three-point lead in the state, so the mail vote could be crucial, as it could also be in other swing states.

If the mail votes in that or any other state cant be counted quickly and accurately, this has the potential to create the long delays we saw in the Bush-Gore debacle.

The Postal Service may not be up to the challenge. On Wednesday the Democratic members of New Jerseys Congressional delegation released a letter to the Postmaster General complaining of delays in the delivery of First Class mail.

The letter cited a Washington Post article reporting that the Postal Service established major operational changesthat could slow down mail delivery. It also cited a report in the Philadelphia Inquirer in which a postal employee was quoted as saying Mail is sitting for a week to 10 days before theyre even scanned to go out.

The letter goes on to ask What measures has USPS taken to protect the integrity of our democratic elections, and ensure ballots are handled securely and delivered on time?

I would suggest to our representatives that the measures taken in Florida would avert any such problems.

There you can get a mail ballot, but you have to submit a detailed application. Meanwhile Bielski tells me the election officials in his county are keeping the polls open for a week in the run-up to the Aug. 18 primaries for local offices.

That should be plenty. An in-person machine vote with a paper backup offers the least potential for chaos. Whatever flaws that system may have are outweighed by its ability to deliver a definitive verdict in a very brief time period.

As for vote-by-mail, imagine that ballots in some key states remain uncounted after Election Day. Every disputed signature will have the potential to become the modern-day equivalent of a hanging chad, with representatives of each party fighting over penmanship.

Why didnt Joe Jones repeat change the loop on those Js? Why didnt Sally S. Smith put that period after her middle initial?

Thats the sort of questioning you will see in a disputed election if significant numbers of mail ballots are involved.

Theres a way to avoid this and ensure a fair and efficient election. And Florida has already figured that out.

PLUS: Read this RealClearPolitics piece about the 28 million mail-in ballots that somehow disappeared.
The World Health Organization warned governments against "vaccine nationalism" on Thursday and urged leaders to make plans now on how to share life-saving inoculations against coronavirus.

WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the threat of COVID-19 can only be snuffed out with global coordination  especially when a vaccine is developed.

"There should be a global consensus to make a vaccine, any product, a global public product," Ghebreyesus told "NBC Nightly News" anchor Lester Holt during a panel discussion organized by the Aspen Security Forum.

"And this is a political choice, a political commitment. And we want political leaders to decide on this. Vaccine nationalism is not good. It will not help us."

Any nation's economy cannot reemerge from this pandemic without defeating the virus across the world, according to Ghebreyesus, who appeared with his top deputies, Drs. Mike Ryan and Maria DeJoseph Van Kerkhove, via Zoom.

"It's not sharing for the sake of sharing. It's only because it has advantages," the world health official said.

"Sharing vaccines or sharing other tools actually helps the world to recover together, and the economic recovery can be faster and the damage from COVID-19 can be lessened. So when those countries who have the means, who have the funding commit to this, they're not giving charity to others, they're doing it for themselves."

Back in March, in the early stages of the pandemic, the Trump administration reportedly attempted to lure a German company seeking a coronavirus vaccine to move its research to America. This prompted German politicians to insist no country should have a monopoly on any future vaccine.

More than 18.8 million people across the world have tested positive and more than 708,000 have died in the pandemic, according to a running count by NBC News and the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center on Thursday.

Story continues

The United States has been particularly hard hit by COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, with total infections topping 4.8 million and deaths approaching 160,000  with no relief in immediate sight.

Earlier this week, Ghebreyesus said there is no "silver bullet" to immediately cure or inoculate the world. He clarified those comments on Thursday, saying he simply wants people to make the most of best practices now.

"Physical distancing, hand hygiene, wearing a mask and so on," Ghebreyesus said. "If we can use all these tools, we can suppress and control this pandemic, many countries have shown. So my message was, let's do what we can do today to save lives."

Dr. Ryan, WHO 's executive director, echoed Ghebreyesus in urging people to act responsibly and not simply to hope for vaccines to save the day.

Six possible vaccines are now in Phase 3 trials: Three in China and one each by AstraZeneca at the University of Oxford, Moderna and Pfizer.

"Just word of caution, Phase 3 doesn't mean 'nearly there,' " Ryan said. "It's the beginning. Up to now, all of the studies have been around safety ... and ensuring that the vaccine generates an immune response in a small number of humans."
The Assam government on Thursday allowed bars to open in Kamrup district from 10 am to 5 pm. However, the district administration has urged the strict compliance of the social distancing and other precautionary norms.

"In pursuance of communication from the Commissioner of Excise, Assam and letter from the Secretary to the Govt. of Assam, Excise Department ...all the IMFL "ON" shops in Kamrup Metropolitan District are hereby allowed to operate from 10:00 A.M. to 5:00 PM with strict compliance of the social distancing and other precautionary norms as per guidelines issued by the Government in view of the COVID-19 pandemic," read an official order.
Amid the controversial issues surrounding his name, Youtube star Jake Paul faced another humiliation after the FBI conducted a raid of his home.

According to Fox News, the FBI's public affairs officer Rukelt Dalberis disclosed that a federal search warrant was executed at Paul's Calabasas home "in connection with an ongoing investigation."

The authorities refused to reveal further details about the search. Moreover, the warrant affidavit has been sealed, making it impossible for the public to get more information.

"The affidavit in support of the search warrant has been sealed by a judge and I am, therefore, prohibited from commenting as to the nature of the investigation," an FBI spokesperson said in a statement, per Sporting News.

Meanwhile, according to reports that the FBI seized multiple firearms from Jake Paul's home. Images of what looked like a rifle leaning against a hot tub inside the Youtube star's Calabasas property have also been making rounds online.

"No arrests are planned," the FBI spokesperson went on.

Furthermore, in a video shared by TMZ, multiple vehicles were seen transporting around two dozens camouflaged officers from the site.

Reason Behind Jake Paul's Home Raid

The 23-year-old Youtube star is no longer a stranger to controversies, and the recent raid caused netizens to guess the real reason behind the search.

On Twitter, many people began to theorize and assume the possible incident that triggered the FBI.

One person said, "My guess.... underage girls. I don't think the FBI would be involved if it wasn't something really bad," to which someone replied, "Even Jake wouldn't stoop that low. I say drugs."

"Absolutely, they generally will bring two officers for one suspect. The fact that it's the FBI means someone was doin dirt and it was crossing state lines otherwise they would use local cops or SWAT. Sadly I have first hand experience..." another one said.

However, according to TMZ, the raid is related to Jake getting arrested in a Scottsdale mall during a George Floyd protest. To recall, Paul was criticized for being on the scene of looting in the said mall, though he denied any criminal act and said he was just there to film the happenings.

Jake Paul, A Trouble Magnet

Just last month, Jake Paul caused a lot of troubles after holding a full-packed party in his Calabasas, California mansion.

In the videos shared online, attendees failed to practice social distancing, and everyone inside the bash was not wearing their masks despite the government protocols.

Meanwhile, Bill Melugin of Fox News Los Angeles reported how the mayor of Calabasas and Paul's neighbors called the gathering "irresponsible" and "selfish."

"Several frustrated neighbors contacted me this morning and shared their own videos of the party," Melugin tweeted. "Calabasas' mayor tells me she's working with the Lost Hills Sheriffs station to ensure a zero tolerance policy on house parties from now on, no more warnings."

Meanwhile, Alicia Weintraub, the mayor of the California city, expressed her outrage to Fox 11.

"They're having this large party, no social distancing, no masks, it's just a big huge disregard for everything that everybody is trying to do to get things back to functioning," Weintraub said. "It's really just a party acting like COVID does not exist, it's acting that businesses aren't closed."

READ MORE: King No More: Spain's Ex-Monarch to Leave Country Amid Corruption Issue
Beirut searches for survivors, and answers

Rescue workers, still struggling to treat thousands of people wounded in the enormous explosion in Beirut, turned their attention to the desperate search for survivors.

At least 135 people were killed in the blast, which leveled whole sections of the Lebanese capital on Tuesday. As many as 300,000 people were displaced from their homes.

Anger swelled as people demanded to know who to blame for the disaster, which may have been caused by the combustion of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, an ingredient in both fertilizer and explosives, that had been stored at the seaport. Many saw the explosion as the culmination of years of mismanagement by the countrys politicians.

Lebanese officials said the dangerous cache arrived aboard a Russian-owned cargo ship more than six years ago. The cargo was headed to Mozambique, but port officials found the ship to be unseaworthy and impounded it for failing to pay various fees.
Beirut, Aug 6 : The death toll from the two deadly explosions at the Beirut port has increased to 135, while the Lebanese cabinet has declared a state of emergency in the capital city of two weeks.

The new toll was confirmed on Wednesday by Health Ministry Hamad Hassan, Xinhua news agency reported.

He added that the number of the injured persons currently stood at 5,000.

Meanwhile, the state of emergency will be under the supervision of the Lebanese army who will maintain security in the city.

Primary information has revealed that 2,700 tonnes ammonium nitrate stored since 2014 in warehouse No. 12 at the port might have caused the explosions on Tuesday evening.

The cabinet decided to arrest port officials who were aware and involved in the storage of the ammonium nitrate.

It also urged the Public Works Ministry to secure import and export activities through Port of Tripoli, given the destruction inflicted by the accident.

The High Relief Commission will work on opening schools and hotels for people who lost their houses.

Investigations into the disaster are ongoing and the Higher Defense Council has promised to reveal some results within five days.

The UN is also assessing the damages and planning alternative aid operations, according to Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Specialists are being dispatched to Beirut to assist in the emergency response, both from the UN and several countries, Haq said, adding that experts are also on the way to support urban search and rescue operations.

Meanwhile, Beirut Governor Marwan Abboud has that the explosions cost the city $3-5 billion in material losses.

Most of the shops in Beirut's downtown area were destroyed since the downtown is located close to Beirut's port.

Buildings in other locations in the city, including Ashrafieh, Gemmayzeh, Mar Michael, Jnah and Ras Beirut, were partly if not fully destroyed.

President of the Syndicate of Hotels Owners Pierre Ashkar revealed on Wednesday that 90 per cent of the hotels in the city were damaged while many of the employees and guests were injured.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
The two-day inquest into the death of tragic television presenter Caroline Flack is due to conclude on Thursday, amid a backdrop of accusations her prosecution was a show trial based on her celebrity status.

The former Love Island hosts family and close friends told the inquest on Wednesday how the 40-year-old feared losing her cherished career, and her mental health spiralled after she was arrested on suspicion of assaulting her boyfriend following a disturbance at her home in December 2019.

Prosecutor Lisa Ramsarran told the inquest how the original decision to give Flack a caution for the alleged attack on model Lewis Burton was challenged by the Metropolitan Police, prompting a review to decide progressing with an assault charge was in the public interest after all.

Expand Close Caroline Flack was a presenter on Love Island (Ian West/PA) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Caroline Flack was a presenter on Love Island (Ian West/PA)

Flacks friends said she believed the case was going to be dropped in the new year, but she met with her lawyers on Valentines Day 2020 to discover she would face trial for assault the following month.

Her twin sister Jody said sections of the press were also hounding her at the time.

Flack, who attempted suicide several times following her arrest two months earlier, killed herself on February 15.

She was discovered by her close friends father, hours after she was last seen, in her Stoke Newington home in north-east London.

But Flacks mother Chris Flack wiped away tears on video link as her statement was read to Poplar Coroners Court on Wednesday.

She said: I believe Caroline was seriously let down by the authorities and in particular the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) for pursuing the case.

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I believe this was a show trial.

Expand Close Caroline Flack won Strictly with Pasha Kovalev in 2014 (Guy Levy/BBC/PA) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Caroline Flack won Strictly with Pasha Kovalev in 2014 (Guy Levy/BBC/PA)

Being well known should not allow special treatment, but it should not allow making an example of someone.

Friend Mollie Grosberg described how the former X Factor presenters mental health had suffered following her arrest, stepping aside from her Love Island presenting role in the wake of the legal action.

She said: Normally the kind of person she was, she could pick herself up.

But she couldnt after December  she lost who she was and she couldnt get it back.

Dr Jonathan Garabette, a consultant psychiatrist who treated Flack, described how she suffered a deterioration of her mental state in December 2019 and said he had concerns regarding the likely impact of the ongoing court case.

Prosecutor Ms Ramsarran said the CPS looked at Flacks mental health when the case was first reviewed, including evidence that the television personality self-harmed at the crime scene when she allegedly assaulted Mr Burton.

However, it was decided to be in the public interest to authorise a charge of assault by beating, particularly considering the domestic violence allegation.

Boyfriend Mr Burton said he did not support the charge, and said Flack was not in a good place emotionally.

Sometimes she talked about taking her own life when she was extremely upset, he said.

Expand Close Caroline Flack leaving Highbury Corner Magistrates Court where she pleaded not guilty to assaulting boyfriend Lewis Burton in December 2019 (Jonathan Brady/PA) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Caroline Flack leaving Highbury Corner Magistrates Court where she pleaded not guilty to assaulting boyfriend Lewis Burton in December 2019 (Jonathan Brady/PA)

The media were constantly bashing her character, writing hurtful stories generally hounding her daily.

The inquest also heard an allegation from Flacks mother that a photograph from the scene which had upset Flack when it was published in the press was passed by Mr Burton to a former partner, who subsequently leaked it.

Flacks death prompted an outpouring of sorrow from celebrity friends, colleagues and fans, who referenced one of the former Strictly winners social media posts from December in which she urged people to be kind.

Her suicide was the latest connected to Love Island, following the deaths of contestants Mike Thalassitis, 26, in March 2019 and Sophie Gradon, 32, in June 2018.

Miss Gradons boyfriend Aaron Armstrong, 25, died three weeks after he found his girlfriend had died.

To contact the Samaritans, call 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org or visit https://www.samaritans.org/
Explosives and safety experts say a Beirut-style mega-blast could not happen in the UK - because of strict production and storage rules on the substance linked to the tragedy.

The Health and Safety Executive said the control of Ammonium Nitrate was tightly regulated, while chemical explosive experts said it was produced to a standard that made it difficult to blow up.

The majority of it has less than 28 per cent nitrogen, a directive introduced after the IRA had used it to make explosives in the Seventies.

There are at least three Ammonium Nitrate producing plants in the county, which make it to supply the farming industry its fertiliser.

A total of 134 sites are on HSE books after declaring they are each storing more than 1,250 tons of the substance.

The destroyed port area in the aftermath of a massive explosion in downtown Beirut, Lebanon,

Three plants in the UK make and distribute Ammonium Nitrate but half of UK's is imported in

The crystalline material has been blamed for the explosion that ripped through Beirut, killing at least 135 people.

Professor Jackie Akhavan, a specialist in explosive chemistry and the Head of the Centre for Defence Chemistry at Cranfield University.

She said regulations in the UK meant it could not suffer a similar disaster to Beirut.

Prof Akhavan told MailOnline: 'Ammonium Nitrate is fertiliser in this country and because the IRA used to use it is subject to very strict regulations.

'It can only be transported and stored in one metre bales, which means a detonation cannot happen.

'When it is brought into this country they do put it in large piles - but only for one day. We never stockpile Ammonium Nitrate.

'The with it in Beirut was it was stored and it has been there for sometime. They should have moved it into smaller quantities.

'The mistake was they shouldn't have stored it for such a long time in those silos, combined with whatever was the cause of the fire - it was was obviously not highly insulated.

Ammonium Nitrate is made in Britain by firms including Cheshire-based CF Fertilisers

'The reason it went was the fire - it wouldn't have gone otherwise.'

Her thoughts were echoed by Dr Katherine Haxton, Senior Lecturer in Chemistry at Keele University, who researches public attitudes towards chemicals.

Dt Haxton said: 'Tragic events like the explosion in Beiruit focus our attention on chemicals like ammonium nitrate which is explosive but it is also used and stored safely all around the world every day.

'It's natural to feel a bit alarmed by this event. In the UK there are tight guidelines from the Health and Safety Executive on how much ammonium nitrate can be stored and how it must be stored.

'It's really important to keep it away from fire, other chemicals, and things that can burn. Really large quantities need to be kept in specially designed facilities.'

Leading forensic explosives engineer Adrian Wilkinson said the UK needed Ammonium Nitrates, but its content was carefully controlled.

He told the MailOnline: 'There is legislation here that restricts the amount of nitrogen in it and that's because less than 28 per cent makes it difficult to make into an explosive.

'As soon as people see explosions they get very worried. We don't have these massive stores of Ammonium Nitrate.

'If this stuff didn't exist we would live a much poorer life. This stuff is being used by the hundreds of thousand of tonnes in the UK for fertiliser.

'The ammonium nitrate fuel oil is used by the quarry industry for explosives. They use instead of military explosive - it crates a less shattering effect. The regulations here are good.'

Over half of the Ammonium Nitrate used in this country is imported in.

Britain has at least three plants that make it, two of which are run by Cheshire-based firm CF Fertilisers.

Ammonium Nitrate: The rules in Britain Under the provisions of the Dangerous Substances (Notification and Marking of Sites) Regulations 1990 (NAMOS) anyone storing quantities of Ammonium Nitrate must notify the relevant regulatory authorities and the emergency services For over 25 tonnes or more HSE or the Local Authority, and the Fire and Rescue Service must be notified For storage of 150 tonnes or more of Ammonium Nitrate or the storage of certain Ammonium Nitrate mixtures an additional notification to their local fire service is required to allow emergency services to prepare their response to incidents on such sites. Local Authorities also have to give permission, known as Hazardous Substance Consent to anyone intending to store in excess of 1250 tonnes of Ammonium Nitrate. When an application is made HSE advises the Local Authority on whether a site is suitable to be granted HSC taking into account risks to local people. The storage of larger quantities of Ammonium Nitrate is subject to the provisions of the Control of Major Accident Hazard Regulations 2015 (COMAH). Advertisement

Their facilities are situated in Ince, Cheshire, and Billingham, Cleveland, and make the chemical for the farming industry.

Company details say they make more than 1.5million tons every year, which makes up 40 per cent of fertiliser needs in the UK.

Derbyshire-based Plater Group also make the crystal salt in its Glossop chemical plant.

It says it offers the product in 25kg and bulk bags for the UK, Ireland and Europe.

Ammonium nitrate is classed as an explosive under the UN classification system, which means it is subject to strict controls under the Explosives Act 1875.

It is not combustible on its own but can explode under heat or severe shock.

Health and Safety Executive guidance says that fertilisers with less than 28 per cent nitrogen do not present a danger.

Those with more than that amount in the UK have to be packaged in a specific way and subject to quality control regulations.

The HSE says the chemical should be stored in single storey and well-ventilated specially-dedicated buildings made from material does not burn  like bricks or steel.

If it is being made near to populated areas it can be stored outside, but away from other combustible materials.

The outdoor element also reduces any risk from fire from lights or any other electrical equipment.

Makers are also told to limit any stacks of Ammonium Nitrate to a maximum of 300 tons, with low density types to be kept below two metres high.

There should also be space of at least a metre between it and the walls, or any pipes or lights.

The rules also state that it should not be stored anywhere near any flammable liquids or powdered metals or acids.

A HSE spokesperson said: 'While our thoughts are with people in Beirut, especially those who have lost loved ones, operators in Britain are subject to some of the most stringent controls in the world.

'The storage of Ammonium Nitrate in Great Britain is subject to a robust regulatory framework, which considers the hazards posed by storage, product safety and measures to deal with emergencies.

'As with all industrial disasters around the world, we will take on board any significant findings from the investigation as and when they emerge.'

Jo Gilbertson, the Agricultural Industries Confederation's Head of Sector for Fertilisers, said storage and testing in the UK meant it was safe.

He told MailOnline: 'Ammonium Nitrate is only a problem is it is mixed with other chemicals it is incompatible with. It is not dangerous on its own, just when mixed with other things.

'It is tested to make sure it is stable and it's stored in a way that it can't mix with anything that would make it dangerous.

'The law under EU regulations adopted in the UK require that every batch can't even be put on the market until it's been tested.

'It goes to another organisation and tested very thoroughly, including with an explosive charge to check it can't be blown up.'
South Korea searches for rescue workers missing in floods A health worker sanitizes the floor of a makeshift shelter for flood sufferers at a gym in Ansung

By Sangmi Cha and Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL (Reuters) - A massive search was under way in South Korea on Thursday for five rescue workers swept over a dam when their boats overturned in surging floodwaters, while President Moon Jae-in raised concerns about North Korea releasing excess water without notification.

Parts of South Korea have seen 44 consecutive days of rain, the longest monsoon since 2013, and continued showers across the Korean peninsula are threatening to bring new floods and landslides.

In a visit to one of the hardest-hit areas, near the border with North Korea, Moon expressed regret about a North Korean move earlier in the week to suddenly release excess water from a dam without notifying the South.

While no specific damage from the release was reported and it was unrelated to the rescue accident, Moon said the unexpected rush of water had made it more difficult for South Korean authorities to manage already swollen rivers.

Heavy rain has also fallen in North Korea and state media published pictures of flooded streets but did not give any detail of damage or casualties.

The government in North Korea had issued a flood alert for areas near some its biggest rivers and lakes, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported.

South Korean Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun, meanwhile, visited a river near the city of Chuncheon, to the northeast of Seoul, where more than 800 police and fire officials using seven helicopters and 69 boats were searching for the missing rescue workers.

Two rescue boats were trying to free a police boat stuck in wire by a dam near Chuncheon when they overturned, Yonhap news agency reported.

One man was rescued at the scene but seven others were swept over the dam's floodgates.

One of the seven, a 68-year-old man, was found near the dam suffering from cardiac arrest but was recovering. Another, also 68, was recovered dead about 20 km (12 miles) downstream, Yonhap reported.

A local police official could not confirm the details.

Story continues

Elsewhere in South Korea, at least 16 people have been killed and 11 are missing, with more than 1,600 people displaced over recent days.

In Seoul, the Han River swelled over its banks in some areas after authorities were forced to open floodgates on upstream dams. Some highways by the river had to be closed, Yonhap reported.

(Reporting by Sangmi Cha and Hyonhee Shin; Additional reporting by Josh Smith; Editing by Robert Birsel and Giles Elgood)
The state government on Thursday sounded a flood alert for Kolhapur district as heavy rains battered western Maharashtra during the past forty eight hours, leading to rising water level of the Panchganga river and water logging in many parts of the district.

The Panchganga river in Kolhapur was flowing well above the alert level mark on Thursday morning following heavy rainfall in the area, district disaster management cell officials informed. The rivers level at the Rajaram Bridge scaled 41.7 feet which is more than two feet above the alert level of 39 feet while the danger level is at 43 feet.

At the same time, water level of Krishna river, in which Panchaganga merges at Shirole village, has also started rising.

According to the highway control, as many as nine state highways and 25 other roads in the district have been affected as a result and traffic has been diverted via safe routes.

Given the grave situation, district collector Daulat Desai appealed to people living on the river banks to immediately move to safer places. Since the rains stopped on Thursday morning, the water level of the river is expected to remain steady. We have shifted people and livestock from villages including Chikhli and Ambewadi, which are flood-prone, to safer places. We are prepared to handle any situation, he said.

Kolhapurs Guardian Minister Satej Patil assessed the situation and directed the administration to remain alert and prepared for any flood-like situation in the district.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has deployed four teams in Kolhapur district as a precautionary measure.

Neighbouring Sangli district also witnessed heavy rains during the past forty eight hours following which the district administration has appealed to the residents living on the banks of the Krishna, Warna and Koyna rivers to remain in a state of alert citing rising water levels in the rivers.

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted heavy to very rainfall in Kolhapur and surrounding regions throughout Thursday. Kolhapur has received an average daily rainfall of 150 mm in the past 24 hours, which led to increase in the river water levels in the district.

Unprecedented rains on August 6 last year had wreaked havoc in western Maharashtra, especially in Kolhapur and Sangli districts, leaving at least 60 people dead while thousands of animals were flown away in flooded rivers and there were serious losses to property. The flood situation that lasted for four days due to incessant rainfall had cut of Mumbai-Bangaluru highway.

This year, many parts of Maharashtra are facing severe waterlogging and flood-like situation following incessant rainfall over the past several days.

Relief and rehabilitation minister Vijay Wadettiwar said on Thursday that 16 NDRF teams have been deployed in several parts of the state in the wake of heavy rainfall.

The state government has deployed 16 teams of NDRF in various parts of state in the wake of heavy rainfall over the last two days. Five of them have been deployed in Mumbai, four in Kolhapur and two in Sangli. Punchganga is nearing its danger level in Kolhapur. The local authorities have been put on alert, he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday assured all possible support to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray regarding the situation prevailing in Mumbai and surrounding areas due to heavy rainfall.

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GREENWICH, LondonJust as seamen looked to the heavens to navigate their sea voyages, visitors to the Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College can look up at the painted ceiling and walls to navigate Britains early 18th-century history.

Decorative artist James Thornhill was commissioned to paint the grand dining hall for the Royal Hospital for Seamen, now known as the Old Royal Naval College. He painted a scheme that showed Britains growing prosperity and naval might.

The Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, London, where hundreds of figures feature in Sir James Thornhills paintings celebrating Britains monarchs and its naval and merchant might. (Old Royal Naval College)

Thornhill was the only British painter of his day to understand and successfully to emulate the European formulas for wall and ceiling painting and was the only native English painter who could challenge on their own ground the many foreign decorative painters then at work in England, according to the Oxford Dictionary of Art.

Thornhills 40,000 square feet of paintings in the Painted Hall, and his paintings in the dome of Londons St. Pauls Cathedralall within two iconic buildings by preeminent architect Sir Christopher Wrenare considered Thornhills masterpieces.

The Importance of History Painting

In 18th-century Britain, history paintings (like those in the Painted Hall) were considered the highest genre of painting.

As to paint a History, a Man ought to have the main qualities of a good Historian, and something more; he must yet go higher, and have the Talents requisite to be a good poet; the rules for the Conduct of a Picture being much the same with those to be observed in writing a poem, notes art historian William Vaughan in his book British Painting: The Golden Age. Vaughan quotes from Jonathan Richardsons 1715 Essay on the Theory of Painting.

The poetry Richardson refers to are the epic poems like those Homer and Virgil told.

The elements of epic poetry that relate to history painting can be found in A Handbook to Literature by William Harmon and C. Hugh Holman. An epic is a long narrative poem in elevated style presenting characters of high position in adventures forming an organic whole through their relation to a central heroic figure and through their development of episodes important to the history of a nation or race.

Each epic painting in the Painted Hall is a proclamation of Britains Protestant rule, with the central heroic figure or figures being the monarchy, and every detail reinforces the importance of these great reigns.

The Need for British History Painting

In the early 18th century, Britain didnt have a strong tradition of history painting to follow because, Vaughan says, there was no training or patronage to sustain a school. Protestant Britain didnt have a rich tradition of royal court painters, nor did it have patronage from the church as Catholic countries did. British painting began to change in the early 18th century when the Protestant monarchy needed to convey its strength.

The late 17th and early 18th centuries were times of immense change for England. In 1688, William of Orange (the Dutch prince) took the throne as William III (along with his wife, Princess Mary) from his Catholic father-in-law, King James II. William and Mary jointly ruled Britain. And from their reign onward, as Parliament stipulated in the 1689 Bill of Rights, Roman Catholics were forbidden to ascend the throne because it hath been found by experience that it is inconsistent with the safety and welfare of this protestant kingdom to be governed by a papist prince.

Williams priority overseas was to contain the expansion of Britains powerful enemy: France. The two countries differed in their beliefs. France was an absolute Catholic monarchy and Britain a Protestant constitutional monarchy. England and Holland fought together in the Nine Years War against France from 16891697. The painting of the Painted Hall began just after this tumultuous period.

Over the 19 years that Thornhill painted the hall, between 1707 and 1726, Britain experienced three reigns: those of King William III (16891702) and Queen Mary II (16891694), Queen Anne (17021714), and King George (17141727.)

The Triumph of Peace and Liberty Over Tyranny

William and Mary are celebrated as the founders of the Royal Hospital for Seamen, as depicted in the lower hall paintings. Set in an ellipse, the lower halls central painting and everything in it reinforces the glory of the monarchy as related to its title: The Triumph of Peace and Liberty Over Tyranny.

The central painting in the lower Painted Hall, titled The Triumph of Peace and Liberty Over Tyranny, features King William III (16501702) and Queen Mary II (16621694), the founders of the Royal Hospital for Seamen. On either side of the central painting are scenes of Britains naval might. (Old Royal Naval College)

The king and queen take center stage in the ellipse. Queen Mary confidently holds a staff and looks directly out of the painting. Peace, dressed in white with two doves by her side, tentatively approaches William, who takes the olive branch from her hand. Both Peace and William use their right hands, echoing the tradition of the handshake.

Queen Mary II and King William III surrounded by allegories indicative of a successful reign, in a detail from the painting The Triumph of Peace and Liberty Over Tyranny, at the Painted Hall in Greenwich, London. (Old Royal Naval College)

Under Williams right leg Louis XIV, king of France, cowers as he holds a broken sword and appears to be crushed. France was the most powerful country in continental Europe at the time, an enemy that Britain feared.

William holds the red cap of Liberty (the Phrygian cap) in his left hand. Europe, who kneels on Williams left side, reaches out toward the cap, which could suggest that William believes he is freeing Europe from Frances tyranny. And perhaps the fact that William takes the olive branch from Peace first indicates that peace must be accepted before freedom can be declared.

Mythological figures surround the monarchs, all to highlight their strength. In the top third of the ellipse, the Greek sun god Apollo stands in his chariot in the heavens, bringing light to the world and to the painting as he chases off a cherub holding a water jug that represents the morning dew.

The Greek god Apollo stands in his chariot as he chases off a cherub, which represents the morning dew, to bring light to the world, in the painting The Triumph of Peace and Liberty Over Tyranny. (Old Royal Naval College)

In Greek mythology, Apollo enjoyed founding towns and cities and establishing civil constitutions. Additionally, Apollo protects the kingdom by warding off evil and helping those in need. All these are important qualities for any righteous ruleto extend the empire and to uphold goodness.

Below Apollo and just above the royals are the four cardinal virtues: Justice holds a sword, Prudence holds a mirror, Temperance holds the golden jug, and Fortitude holds a stone column.

A detail of the painting The Triumph of Peace and Liberty Over Tyranny in which the Spirit of Architecture, dressed in gold, points to a drawing of the Painted Hall. At the bottom, the Greek goddess Pallas Athena, decked in armor, looks down in readiness to defend the kingdom from vices. (Old Royal Naval College)

At the bottom of the painting, the Greek mythological warriors Hercules (with his club) and Pallas Athena (decked in her helmet, shield, and staff), together use their strength and wisdom to protect the virtue of the kingdom by expelling vices.

British Naval Might: 18th-Century Past and Present

On either side of the central ceiling painting, The Triumph of Peace and Liberty Over Tyranny, are two scenes showing Britains naval strength. Naval power was of the utmost importance to Britains expanding empire.

The Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, London, where hundreds of figures feature in Sir James Thornhills paintings celebrating Britains monarchs and its naval and merchant might. (Old Royal Naval College)

The lower halls east painting shows a captured Spanish galleon with the spoils of war, symbolic of Britains capture of Gibraltar in 1704 in the War of the Spanish Succession. In the painting, the moon goddess Diana, who oversees the tides, hands down the necessary tidal knowledge to the royal seamen. Thornhill also painted allegories of Britains important trade rivers.

The ages great astronomers and scientists feature in the painting, such as Isaac Newton with his Principia, principles of natural philosophy. And the first royal astronomer, John Flamsteed (16461719), the founder of the Greenwich Observatory, holds an astronomy chart predicting a future solar eclipse (painted before the predicted date). Fortunately, Flamsteeds prediction was accurate.

The other lower-hall painting displays Britains emerging naval strength. The HMS Blenheim, a British Man-of-War, is seen with the winged figure Victory. Galileo features here, for his astronomical discoveries and work in improving the telescope.

The City of London is represented by a handsome woman with a sword and shield. London is supported by a man, who symbolizes the River Thames, and a woman, the River Isis, the upper part of the Thames. Below them, the River Tyne pours coal into a golden bowl: The Royal Hospital was reliant on coal tax, and London was reliant on coal brought by sea from the Tyne.

A Show of Strength

On the ceiling of the proscenium arch that connects the lower hall and upper hall are the allegorical signs of the zodiac. The figures represent the constellations familiar to the seamen as they navigated by the stars on their voyages.

The proscenium arch connects the lower and upper Painted Hall. On the archs ceiling are the allegorical signs of the zodiac representing the constellations the seamen navigated by. (Old Royal Naval College)

Its in the upper hall that the three generations of Protestant monarchs come together, almost in a show of strength, as if to say that George, then king, appreciated all that came before him.

Throughout the Painted Hall but particularly in the upper hall, Thornhill impressively used gray-tone paintings called grisaille to imitate stone sculptures, and also painted the most spectacular trompe loeil (trick the eye), where astounding classical architecture appears as if solid.

Astounding architecture can be seen inside the Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, London, the majority of it being actual paintings. Decorative painter James Thornhill used a technique called trompe loeil (trick the eye) to give the illusion of architectural features such as these columns. (Old Royal Naval College)

On the west wall, Thornhill painted splendorous classical architecture that stretches up to the heavenly realms. An inscription in Latin from Virgils Eclogues appears on the top stone announcing: A new generation has descended from the heavens, introducing the new Hanoverian dynasty led by George I. George ascended to the throne after Queen Anne died heirless, despite 50 Catholics who were in line to the throne before him.

The upper hall of the Painted Hall in Greenwich, London, depicts King George surrounded by his family to show the strength of his reign and the solidity of the Protestant line. (Old Royal Naval College)

In the painting, in a deliberate display of strength, George is surrounded by his family, the future successors to the throne, showing the solidity of the Protestant line. Georges mother, Sophie of Hanover, who died just two months prior to Queen Annes death, is honored in the painting with a mural crown (a crown representing the city or its boundaries) indicating that shes the protector of the realm.

Everything in this painting indicates Britains future wealth under Georges reign. A figure leans on a cornucopia overflowing with gold; the iconic St. Pauls Cathedral, designed by Wren and the dome painted by Thornhill, features prominently in the background. A figure to the right holds a trident, symbol of the sea, and points to a scroll naming all the naval victories from the Spanish Armada in 1558 to the defeat of the Spanish fleet in 1718.

And to the right, Thornhill puts himself in the painting, gesturing as if to introduce the whole scene. Before hed even finished the commission, he gained knighthood, becoming Sir James Thornhill, the first artist to receive this honor.

To find out more about the Painted Hall at the Old Royal Navy College, take the virtual tour at VirtualTour.ORNC.org
Dublin, Aug. 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Public Safety LTE Market by Solutions, Applications, Devices, Service Provider Revenues and Subscriptions 2020 - 2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



This report provides an analysis of the global public safety LTE and 5G industry including assessment of the technology, market size, and key trends within the public safety LTE and 5G industry. The report includes public safety LTE and 5G market sizing and analysis from 2020 through 2025. The report evaluates the ecosystem including the major players, strategies, and offerings. It also assesses technology impact and the role of 5G in the evolution of public safety broadband.



The market for public safety and other mission-critical communications is rapidly developing as technologies are evolving to provide solutions necessary to meet the emerging demand for improved voice, data, and machine-oriented communications. The public safety community increasingly relies upon IP-based solutions for first responders (ambulance, police, and fire) and dispatch communications as well as overall coordination in the event of a disaster.



Next-generation public safety communications infrastructure is required to handle a variety of communications traffic in real-time and with the highest QoS possible. As the exact occurrence of emergencies cannot be predicted, these QoS requirements are on-demand and cannot be scheduled like many other mission-critical services. This translates into guaranteed service levels on a 24/7 basis rather than the best-effort services of traditional IP based services in non-mission critical public networks.



LTE and 5G offer the most advantageous solutions for secure wireless broadband networks, which need to support the unique devices, communications, and content delivery requirements of public safety organizations. Nonetheless, commercial wireless broadband equipment and networks were not originally developed with first responder applications in mind. To optimally address the next-generation communications needs of the public safety community, vendors are developing dedicated, secure LTE and 5G networks with equipment optimized for emergency services applications.



While seemingly a misnomer, public safety networks are actually private wireless networks in the sense that they are dedicated for use by first responder communications and sharing information between PSAPs and other emergency services personnel and resources. In other words, public safety networks provide a public service, but are secured and dedicated for purposes of ensuring the accuracy, timeliness, and reliability of emergency response and coordination.



Accordingly, dedicated resources are allocated at both the hardware, software level leveraging virtualization, SDN, and other supporting technologies. 5G will have a key role in this regard through advanced capabilities such as network slicing. Supporting technologies such as edge computing will have an important role in supporting ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC) for both voice and URLLC enabled applications such as augmented reality and public safety video and content sharing.



Target Audience:

System Integrators

Public Safety Agencies

LMR Radio Manufacturers

Cellular Network Operators

Smartphone Manufacturers

Public Safety Network Operators

LMR Infrastructure Manufacturers

Public Safety Application Developers

Mobile Computing Equipment Manufacturers

Cellular Network Infrastructure Manufacturers



Key Topics Covered:



1.0 Executive Summary

1.1 Industry Developments since Last Public Safety Broadband Report

1.2 COVID-19 and Pandemic Preparedness



2.0 Introduction



3.0 Public Safety LTE and 5G Technology

3.1 Voice over IP in Cellular

3.1.1 VoIP in Wireless Networks

3.1.2 Voice over LTE

3.1.3 Voice over 5G

3.2 LTE Core and RAN Technology

3.3 LTE and 5G Public Safety Support

3.3.1 Reliable Critical Voice Communications

3.3.2 Non-voice Communications

3.3.1 5G in Public Safety



4.0 Public Safety LTE and 5G Solutions, Devices, and Applications

4.1 Public Safety LTE Application Categories

4.2 Public Safety LTE vs. Other Public and Private LTE Solutions

4.3 Public Safety LTE Deployment Options



5.0 Public Safety LTE and 5G Market Drivers

5.1 Dedicated Public Safety LTE and 5G Networks

5.2 Increasing Need for All-encompassing Critical Communications

5.2.1 Leveraging Data from Many Sources for Public Safety LTE

5.2.2 Integrating Public Safety LTE with IoT Networks and Systems



6.0 Public Safety LTE and 5G Forecasts 2020 to 2025

6.1 Global Public Safety LTE and 5G Market 2020 - 2025

6.1.1 Global Public Safety LTE and 5G Market by Revenue 2020 - 2025

6.1.2 Global Public Safety LTE and 5G Market by Subscriptions 2020 - 2025

6.2 Public Safety LTE and 5G Market by Region 2020 - 2025

6.2.1 Public Safety LTE and 5G Revenue by Region 2020 - 2025

6.2.2 Public Safety LTE and 5G Subscriptions by Region 2020 - 2025

6.3 Public Safety LTE and 5G by Mobile Network Infrastructure 2020 - 2025

6.3.1 Public Safety LTE and 5G by RAN Infrastructure 2020 - 2025

6.3.2 Public Safety LTE and 5G by Devices 2020 - 2025

6.4 Public Safety LTE and 5G by Applications 2020 - 2025

6.4.1 Public Safety LTE and 5G UHD Video & High-Resolution Imagery 2020 - 2025

6.4.2 Public Safety LTE and 5G UHD Video & High-Resolution Imagery 2020 - 2025

6.4.3 Public Safety LTE and 5G Command & Control 2020 - 2025



7.0 Public Safety LTE Forecast 2020 to 2025

7.1 Public Safety LTE Market by Region 2020 - 2025

7.1.1 Public Safety LTE Revenue by Region 2020 - 2025

7.1.2 Public Safety LTE Subscriptions by Region 2020 - 2025

7.2 Public Safety LTE by Mobile Network Infrastructure 2020 - 2025

7.2.1 Public Safety LTE by RAN Infrastructure 2020 - 2025

7.2.2 Public Safety LTE by Devices 2020 - 2025

7.2.2.1 Public Safety LTE by Handheld Devices 2020 - 2025

7.2.2.2 Public Safety LTE by Customer Premises Equipment 2020 - 2025

7.2.2.3 Public Safety LTE by Wearable Devices 2020 - 2025

7.2.2.4 Public Safety LTE by Large Screen Portable Devices 2020 - 2025

7.2.2.5 Public Safety LTE by Vehicle Mounted Router and Terminals 2020 - 2025

7.2.2.6 Public Safety LTE by Embedded IoT Modules 2020 - 2025

7.2.2.1 Public Safety LTE by Unmanned Vehicles, Drones and Robotics 2020 - 2025

7.3 Public Safety LTE by Applications 2020 - 2025

7.3.1 Public Safety LTE UHD Video & High-Resolution Imagery 2020 - 2025

7.3.2 Public Safety LTE Secure & Seamless Mobile Broadband Access 2020 - 2025

7.3.3 Public Safety LTE Command & Control 2020 - 2025



8.0 Public Safety 5G Forecast from 2020 to 2025

8.1 Public Safety 5G Market by Region 2020 - 2025

8.1.1 Public Safety 5G Revenue by Region 2020 - 2025

8.1.2 Public Safety 5G Subscriptions by Region 2020 - 2025

8.2 Public Safety 5G by Mobile Network Infrastructure 2020 - 2025

8.2.1 Public Safety 5G by RAN Infrastructure 2020 - 2025

8.2.2 Public Safety 5G by Devices 2020 - 2025

8.2.2.1 Public Safety 5G by Handheld Devices 2020 - 2025

8.2.2.2 Public Safety 5G by Customer Premises Equipment 2020 - 2025

8.2.2.3 Public Safety 5G by Wearable Devices 2020 - 2025

8.2.2.4 Public Safety 5G by Large Screen Portable Devices 2020 - 2025

8.2.2.5 Public Safety 5G by Vehicle Mounted Router and Terminals 2020 - 2025

8.2.2.6 Public Safety 5G by Embedded IoT Modules 2020 - 2025

8.2.2.7 Public Safety 5G by Unmanned Vehicles, Drones and Robotics 2020 - 2025

8.3 Public Safety 5G by Applications 2020 - 2025

8.3.1 Public Safety 5G UHD Video & High-Resolution Imagery 2020 - 2025

8.3.2 Public Safety 5G Secure & Seamless Mobile Broadband Access 2020 - 2025

8.3.3 Public Safety 5G Command & Control 2020 - 2025



9.0 Appendix: LTE and 5G Technology Details

9.1 Evolution of Mobile Cellular Communications

9.2 LTE Technology

9.2.1 LTE Radio Network Technology

9.2.2 LTE Network Core Technology

9.2.3 LTE Evolution

9.2.3.1 LTE Advanced

9.2.3.2 Peer-to-Peer Communications: LTE Direct

9.2.3.3 LTE Advanced Pro

9.3 5G Technology

9.3.1 LTE vs. 5G OSI Layers

9.3.1.1 5G Network Layer

9.3.1.1 5G Application Layer

9.3.1 5G Radio Network Technology

9.4 LTE vs. 5G Application Support

9.4.1 Massive IoT Networks and Services

9.4.1 Next Generation Public Safety Applications

9.4.2 5G in Private Wireless Networks

9.4.2.1 Public Safety Private 5G Networks

9.4.2.2 Private 5GNR Access Networks

9.5 5G Devices

9.5.1 Smartphones

9.5.2 Wearables

9.5.3 Modems

9.5.4 IoT/M2M Modules

9.6 5G Cybersecurity Issues

9.7 Edge Computing in 5G Networks

9.8 5G Network Slicing



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/rfa580

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.
Some of Montgomery Countys smallest of critters, frogs and toads will serenade prospective mates through the night. However, this cry of the wild may grow louder as the summer winds down.

Chip  chip  chip  chip, chip, chip, utters Dan Saenz, a Nacogdoches-based wildlife biologist with the U.S. Forest Service, as he imitates the small-bodied Rio Grande chirping frog.

Deemed by some biologists as exotic for not being a native to these parts, the Rio Grande chirping frog is one of the more than a dozen frog and toad species populating the Houston area.

Among the characters croaking about the landscape are the American bull frog in all its burliness and the graceful climber that is the green tree frog. The most common species is the Gulf Coast toad.

Some of these amphibians may occasionally make an unwelcomed visit to ones home. But experts say the amphibious invasion soon to come is a result of the spring mating season, the areas increased urbanization and ultimately something Montgomery County residents should embrace.

Because springtimes tadpole progeny will soon be leaving its aquatic stage of life, Saenz is advising Montgomery County residents to expect hordes of little frogs in their backyards and front lawns.

These knots and armies  what groups of toads and frogs are called, respectively  will only be more visible, and audible, with rain likely to come during hurricane season's September peak.

Tips on how to keep frogs and toads out of your home Check your home for any and all holes or gaps in walls and window screens Limit the lights around your home as they draws frogs or toads Keep insects out as they attract frogs or toads Maureen Frank, Texas A&M Agrilife extension specialist See More Collapse

You get a lot of loud noise and lot of frogs calling and trying to breed in these little pools of water that have developed when it rains, Saenz said.

Scary visitor

Joshua Merillat, 35, works as a code enforcement officer for The Woodlands Township. He remembers living in Conroes Rivershire subdivision when a historic flood in October 1994 devastated Montgomery County. The rain acted as a wellspring for frogs, he recalls.

I was the only guy in the whole neighborhood who didnt want to keep one in my pocket, he said of the frogs.

He often finds scorpions and snakes inside his home in New Waverly, just north of Montgomery County. He only half-jokingly says he prefers having those around to frogs or toads.

Merillat suspects it was Churro, his Daschund, who recently brought in a Gulf Coast toad while he, his 18-year-old daughter, Daniella Merillat, and her friend were watching Greys Anatomy.

They noticed the new guest hopping about in the living room, drawing loud cries from the three humans.

I think I was screaming the loudest, Joshua Merillat said.

His daughter managed to pin down the toad with a broom and Joshua Merillat mustered enough courage to toss a Tupperware dish over the little fellow who they escorted out.

Popularly known as ranidaphobia, Joshua Merillat laughs off his fear of frogs and toads as he concedes it is totally irrational, adding that he simply cannot explain it.

Im just terrified of them, he said of the cold-blooded creatures.

Lost territory

Maureen Frank is an assistant professor and extension wildlife specialist at Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, Uvalde. She has a less chaotic solution for helping frogs or toads out. She recommends using a scoop. It could be a jar or other empty container like either a 2-liter or 20-ounce plastic bottle.

She suggests gently guiding the frog or toad and using a piece of paper as a lid and then releasing it on the porch or patio. After handling a frog, Frank wants to remind people to wash their hands with soap and water to avoid irritating the skin with the amphibians secretions.

Its worth getting them outside, instead of killing them. Theyre doing us a service. Theyre out there eating insects and thats fantastic for us, she said of frogs and toads.

Frank said it is common to see amphibians in Montgomery County as the Houston areas high humidity is suitable for the creatures porous skin.

Even though they cannot regulate their body temperature, Dan Saenz said his research demonstrates amphibians do not all respond the same to changes in weather. Climate change, he warned, can alter particular variables like rainfall and shift a frog or toad populations activity.

Houston-area native Cord Eversole is an assistant professor of biology at Texas A&M International University, Laredo. He argues increased urbanization has brought on habitat loss for amphibians in the Greater Houston region.

In turn, he said, the number of species that residents may encounter has been significantly curbed.

The entire Houston area is just growing like crazy, Eversole said, adding that wetlands, bayous and prairies have been affected with frogs being the first to exhibit changes in the environment.

Flood control has cut into habitat space, Eversole noted, signaling out how tall-grass prairies with so-called prairie potholes used to serve as seasonal wetlands where amphibians would breed.

Developers essentially turned them into drainage ditches and covered them in concrete, he said.

Exploring nature

Daniella Merillat is originally from heavily industrialized north Pasadena. Since Joshua Merillat adopted her a couple of years ago, she has been getting acquainted with the more wooded area north of Harris County and at the footsteps of the Sam Houston National Forest.

Its very strange for her living out in kind of the country to have all these things, so it really freaks her out, Joshua Merillat said of the recent high school graduate.

To help newer residents navigate their way around Montgomery Countys frog and toad community, Frank recommends purchasing a field guide.

People looking to take up amphibian watching, known as herping, can log onto iNaturlist.org. Users can post photos and information on amphibians, other animals and just about any live organism observed firsthand.

As of early August, iNaturalist had just under 800 observations and nearly 300 observers for frogs and toads in Montgomery County.

Nature enthusiasts, Eversole explained, can upload photos with their cell phones, log their GPS coordinates and add weather and habitat info. This is then vetted and categorized into research-grade data by scientists, he detailed.

Its been a real game changer, Eversole said of the online source. Previous to this being available to us, it would have been absolutely impossible to collect that kind of quantity of data.

jose.gonzalez@chron.com

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Linkedin Patrick Rahir (Agence France-Presse) Madrid, Spain  Thu, August 6, 2020 11:00 531 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066bf4bb8 2 World Spain,Juan-Carlos,corruption,Saudi-Arabia Free

While Spain's former king Juan Carlos is not under formal investigation, revelations by a former mistress raise legal questions about his financial affairs which officials are poring over both at home and abroad.

In a surprise move, the 82-year-old announced Monday that he was leaving Spain to prevent his personal affairs from undermining his son King Felipe VI's reign, prompting anti-monarchists to accuse him of trying to "flee justice".

But Carmen Calvo, Spain's deputy prime minister, defended the former monarch Wednesday, saying "he is not fleeing anything because he is not implicated in any [criminal] case."

Even so, public prosecutors in Spain and Switzerland are looking into his accounts in the wake of statements made by his former mistress, German businesswoman Corinna Larsen.

In conversations which were apparently recorded without her knowledge that were leaked to the media, Larsen claimed the former king had bank accounts in Switzerland and received a payoff relating to a 2011 high-speed rail contract in Saudi Arabia.

Swiss daily La Tribune reported in March that late Saudi king Abdullah in 2008 deposited $100 million into a Panamanian foundation's account in Swiss private bank Mirabaud to which Juan Carlos had access.

'Out of love'

The former Spanish king used the account until it was closed in 2012, when he transferred the remaining money in it -- nearly $65 million -- to Larsen, the newspaper added.

Larsen told Swiss investigators he had transferred to her nearly 65 million euros in the Bahamas, "not to get rid of the money", but "out of gratitude and out of love", according to Spanish daily El Pais.

La Tribune said a Geneva prosecutor in 2018 opened a criminal investigation into "suspected money laundering" regarding these transactions and formally accused Larsen, Mirabaud bank, a lawyer and a businessman -- but not Juan Carlos.

Swiss prosecutors have declined to comment on the case.

Meanwhile, Spanish prosecutors in 2018 opened a probe into the Saudi high-speed rail contract, which was awarded to a consortium of Spanish companies. The 450-kilometre (280-mile) link between Mecca and Medina was inaugurated in 2018.

Spain's Supreme Court in June announced an investigation to determine whether the contract had involved the "crime of corruption in international transactions" and whether Juan Carlos was legally responsible -- but only for acts committed after his abdication in 2014, because of the immunity he enjoyed until then.

'Disturbing information'

Corruption is one of the most difficult crimes to prove, according to sources at Spain's public prosecutors office.

And it will be hard to argue that the 100 million dollars Juan Carlos allegedly received from Saudi Arabia was a kickback for the high-speed rail contract, which was awarded three years later.

Investigators looking into the former king's bank accounts could search for evidence of money laundering and tax fraud, according to the sources.

But money can be considered to have been laundered only if its source is illegal, the sources said.

So even if it is proven that Juan Carlos received millions of euros from Gulf royals, from Kuwait to Oman to Saudi Arabia as press reports allege, it would still have to be shown that this was not a perfectly legal gift.

And if they found that it was not a mere gift, prosecutors would still have to prove that the former king used this money -- by investing it or transferring it from one bank account to another -- after he lost his immunity when he abdicated in 2014.

If the former king moved his money abroad without declaring it, he can be held liable for tax fraud, but only for events going back five years. Anything before that falls under the statute of limitations.

But while there is no formal investigation, Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in June "the entire Spanish population are receiving disturbing information which is troubling for us all, including me".
Keith Willard sent the message in August last year to then-MP Anna Soubry - a former Conservative MP for Broxtowe, Notts, who later became leader of independent party Change UK

A Brexiteer pensioner, 73, sent a 'threatening' email to a pro-EU party leader telling her to 'remember Jo' - in what is thought to have been a reference to murdered MP Jo Cox.

Keith Willard sent the message in August last year to then-MP Anna Soubry - a former Conservative MP for Broxtowe, Notts, who later became leader of independent party Change UK.

In the email, the pensioner, of Frinton, Essex, wrote that the result of the EU referendum should be respected.

He also told Miss Soubry to 'remember Jo', adding that she had been 'shot and stabbed'.

The email is believed to have been a reference to the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox in June 2016.

But while Willard, of Frinton, Essex, accepted he had sent the email, he denied it was 'threatening'.

The pensioner had been due to stand trial earlier this year at Colchester Magistrates' Court, after denying a charge of sending an article conveying a threatening message.

It was accepted Willard had sent the email, but he denied it was threatening or that it was meant to cause alarm or distress.

Willard said in the email to Miss Soubry (pictured left) to 'remember Jo', adding that she had been 'shot and stabbed'. The email is believed to have been a reference to the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox (pictured right) in June 2016

His trial in January was adjourned due to his poor health.

But following a recent trial at the same court, he was convicted of the offence.

Willard has now been hit with a 300 fine and ordered to pay the same in costs, as well as a 32 victim surcharge.

Jo Cox's killer Thomas Mair, 57, He was found guilty in November 2016 of murder and sentenced to life in prison

It is understood the message had not actually got to Ms Soubry - who was elected to Parliament as a Conservative before defecting to the new party.

In fact, it had been seen by the Metropolitan Police's Parliamentary liaison and investigation team which was set up in the wake of Mrs Cox's death.

Ms Soubry lost her seat in the December 2019 General Election and announced her new political group would be suspended.

Mother-of-two, Ms Cox, was shot dead with an antique gun outside a West Yorkshire library in 2016.

Her killer, Thomas Mair, 57, spent hours looking up information on the Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist organisations before brutally attacking the MP in her hometown of Batley, West Yorkshire.

He was found guilty in November 2016 of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
A face mask ATM started operating in Tan Phu District, Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday, providing citizens with free masks in order to encourage safety amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The machine is an initiative launched by Hoang Tuan Anh, a local resident who earlier introduced the widely praised free rice ATM for people affected by the pandemic.

Rather than cash, Anhs new homemade ATM doles out face masks for those in need.

The machine can detect motion and is controlled by a volunteer who gets an alert on a smartphone app when an individual activates the sensor.

The volunteer can then use the app to release a mask from the machine.

The machine either gives out one cloth face mask per individual that can be washed and reused 20-30 times or a batch of several face masks that can each be reused 3-4 times.

People in need can visit the face mask ATM at 204B Vuon Lai Street in Tan Phu District.

A woman puts on a face mask she has just received from Huynh Tuan Anhs face mask ATM at 204B Vuon Lai Street in Tan Phu District, Ho Chi Minh City, August 6, 2020. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre

Currently, Tuan Anh has collected over 10,000 face masks through donations and is expecting to continue receiving support from the community.

Previously, Anhs rice ATM in Ho Chi Minh City inspired similar machines to be set up in Hanoi, Thua Thien-Hue Province, and Da Nang City.

Anh said he plans to put the rice ATM into operation again in Da Nang in collaboration with a government unit in the central Vietnamese city, now a COVID-19 outbreak epicenter with 192 active infections and six deaths.

The city is currently under 15 days of enhanced social distancing rules which began on July 28 as a means of stemming the spread of the viral disease.

A man receives face masks from Huynh Tuan Anhs face mask ATM at 204B Vuon Lai Street in Tan Phu District, Ho Chi Minh City, August 6, 2020. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre

Vietnam has logged 717 COVID-19 cases, with 381 recoveries and nine deaths as of Thursday morning.

As many as 327 patients are still in treatment.

Ho Chi Minh City has documented eight local infections since the detection of a COVID-19 patient in Da Nang on July 25, which ended Vietnams streak of 99 days without a case in the community.

The southern metropolis has started fining people who fail to wear a face mask in public from Wednesday, with violators required to pay between VND100,000 (US$4) and VND300,000 ($13).

A banner introducing Huynh Tuan Anhs face mask ATM is hung at 204B Vuon Lai Street in Tan Phu District, Ho Chi Minh City, August 2020. Photo: Tuan Anh / Tuoi Tre

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Sudan offered to pay $335 million in compensation, including $100 million for the foreign nationals. That works out to at least $3 million for the Americans, but just $400,000 for the noncitizens. Many of them have sued Sudan in U.S. courts, where they theoretically could be awarded more. But Sudan has no assets in the United States, and there is no guarantee they could collect.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 18:34:36|Editor: huaxia

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SINGAPORE, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Singaporean Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan has cautioned against resorting to blame game amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and called for international cooperation to combat the highly infectious disease.

The biggest challenges facing humanity, including pandemics and climate change, are transnational ones, so dealing with them will require cooperation, multipolar leadership, and multilateral institutions and processes,Balakrishnan told the virtual Aspen Security Forum on Wednesday evening.

"We're moving from a unipolar world into a multipolar world and the hope that America somehow will single-handedly carry this world is not realistic," he said, adding that the "old canard (that) you are either with us or against us does not work in a multipolar world."

Calling the Chinese government's decision to impose a lockdown on the Chinese city of Wuhan two days before the Chinese New Year "a big deal," Balakrishnan said that the move shows that once the Chinese government understood the gravity of the situation, did things most other governments would hesitate to do, and did so decisively and comprehensively.

China's willingness to take decisive measures to contain the coronavirus even at great economic cost is worthwhile and should be credited, he said. Enditem
Garment workers leave at the end of their shift from a factory near Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Feb. 11, 2020.

Cambodias Prime Minister Hun Sen is wrong to assume the EU will stop at partial trade sanctions if he does not end a crackdown on voices critical of his government, observers said Wednesday, a week ahead of a planned return of tariffs to around one-fifth of Cambodian exports to the bloc.

The EU in mid-February announced plans to suspend tariff-free access to its market under the Everything But Arms (EBA) scheme for some 20 percent of Cambodias exports, citing rollbacks on democracy and human rights. The move would reinstate tariffs on goods from the countrys key garment industry 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 are unreasonable and an encroachment on Cambodias internal affairs, and has continued to target members of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), which was banned in November 2017 for its role in an alleged plot to topple the government, and other activists who have spoken out against him.

Seventeen CNRP activists have been held in pretrial detention at Cambodias Prey Sar Prison for incitement to commit a felony or cause social unrest since early this year after slamming Hun Sens leadership and his governments response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The arrest on Friday of prominent union leader Rong Chhun on similar incitement charges has sparked daily protests in the capital just days before the EU decision.

On Wednesday, Brad Adams, executive director of New York-based Human Rights Watchs Asia division, told RFAs Khmer Service that the EU is planning a phased approach in the hopes of providing an incentive to Hun Sen to improve the countrys rights situation, and is reserving even more strong measures if things get worse.

I think that this is a big mistake by Hun Senhes misreading the situation, Adams said.

He probably thinks that 20 percent is where it will stop, so he can go ahead and arrest Rong Chhun and many other people without any consequences.

But Adams warned that the prime minister is playing with fire, noting that the coronavirus pandemic has battered Cambodias already weak economy with reductions in exports, lowered production in factories, and mass layoffs.

This is a particularly bad time for a country with a weak economy to be challenging the worlds largest trading bloc and basically inviting the worlds largest trading bloc to take stronger measures, he said.

Call for stronger measures

Adams called the return of tariffs to 20 percent of exports a concession by the EU to Cambodia and suggested the bloc should have gone much harder because Hun Sens government has failed to meet the terms for the trade preferences.

He also suggested that the only way to make Hun Sen change his ways is to go after the money.

The reason Hun Sen and his cronies  behave the way they do is because they are fabulously wealthythey are wealthy on an international standard, not just a Cambodian standard, he said.

They dont really care about EBA because it doesnt affect them personally. Their wealth will not change.

Instead, Adams said, governments should work to target corruption amongst Cambodias ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) elite through individualized sanctions.

Travel bans are important, but even more important is going after their bank accounts in foreign countries, he said.

These are the kinds of things that will actually hurt and would actually get their attention.

Em Sovannara, a political analyst, told RFA Hun Sen is also miscalculating the impact the EBA withdrawal is going to have on Cambodia, and by extension, his grip on power.

From a political perspective, in terms of foreign policy, Cambodia will lose substantial support from the international communitythe European Union will only undertake additional action against the Cambodian government in order to pressure it to restore democracy and human rights, he said.

From a trade persecptive, losing 20 percent of the EBA will place a huge burden on the garment sector and will cost Cambodia around U.S. $1 billion a year. The reality is that Cambodia still needs to export its goods to European markets [in order to survive economically].

Em Sovannara noted that while the EU continues to monitor human rights in Cambodia, moves by the government to arrest people like Rong Chhun and CNRP activists will only exacerbate the situation.

Protesters demanding the release of union leader Rong Chhun are monitored by security forces during a demonstration in front of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court in Phnom Penh, Aug. 5, 2020. Credit: RFA Protesters beaten

Police in Phnom Penh on Wednesday violently cracked down on a group of around 20 peaceful protesters demanding Rong Chhuns release in front of the court where he was charged, leaving at least two young women badly injured, according to sources.

Rong Chhun, the outspoken president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions (CCU), was officially charged with incitement to commit a felony or cause social unrest under Article 495 of Cambodias Penal Code and jailed at Prey Sar Prison in Phnom Penh Saturday, a day after his arrest for claiming the government has allowed Vietnam to encroach on farmland along their shared border.

The former member of the countrys National Election Committee (NEC), who last month wrote to Hun Sen calling on the government to proactively address issues that the EU has said prompted it to end Cambodias EBA privileges, faces two years in prison if convicted.

Rong Chhuns arrest also followed his joining of a group of more than 200 garment workers who gathered to submit a petition outside the home of Hun Sen to ask for his help following their factorys closure due to the coronavirus outbreak.

On Wednesday, protester So Meta told RFA she sustained leg injuries after members of the security forces pushed her and others to the ground, before kicking and beating them.

First they pushed us and then they kicked me in the legs several timesit hurt extremely badly because they were wearing boots, she said, adding that none of the protesters fought back during the assault.

After kicking me one of them stared at me like he wanted to eat me alive. When I was falling to the ground, they pulled my hand and dragged me violently. Thanks to the help of my fellow protesters, they couldnt detain me.

Another young woman named Chea Kunthyn said she fainted after police officers began beating her.

The moment before I passed out, I saw [So] Meta being kicked in the legs, she said.

I rushed to help her but only got kicked, dragged, and thrown to the ground. I cant believe that those male security forces mistreated us female protesters so badly.

Despite her injuries, Chea Kunthyn vowed to continue protesting for Rong Chhuns release.

Calls by RFA to the spokespersons of the central government, the municipal government, and the National Police went unanswered Wednesday. However, protesters said the security forces claimed they had to crack down on the gathering to preserve public order.

Respecting the constitution

Am Sam Ath, deputy director of Cambodian rights group Licadho, told RFA that the protest was peaceful and should not have been broken up.

I didnt see any public disorder caused by the protest, he said.

The authorities should not have used violence against them. Instead, they should respect the freedom of peaceful assembly and protests enshrined in the constitution.

Political analyst Seng Sary said, meanwhile, that public respect for people like Rong Chhun is high because he regularly meets with them to help them with their problems, unlike lawmakers at the National Assembly, who he called out of touch and only willing to provide assistance during the election season.

Rong Chhun has played the role of unionist, civil society member, and representative of people in need, he said.

The people are hungry for justice, so the government should be helping them to understand the current situation in Cambodia and feel better about the direction the country is moving in  All partiesincluding members of the public, the opposition and the governmentshould sit down and talk to find a [common] solution [to the countrys problems].

The crackdown on Wednesdays protest came as two new groups added their voices to the growing chorus calling for Rong Chhuns release.

In a statement, the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) said Cambodian authorities should immediately release and unconditionally drop all charges against the union leader, and end all attacks on those that peacefully voice their concerns.

Rong Chhun is being punished for doing precisely what the Cambodian government is unwilling to doaddressing peoples concerns over their land and livelihoods, said Sarah Elago, a Philippine Member of Parliament, and member of APHR.

Chhuns arrest and detention reflects the highly repressive environment that human rights defenders operate in under Hun Sens regime. Cambodians should be able to peacefully air their grievances without the fear of reprisals.

Belgium-based Education International also weighed in with a statement to deplore the arrest of Rong Chhun, who was also the former president of the Cambodian Independent Teachers Associationone of the groups member organizations.

The freedom to speak up and represent the interests of working people, as well as the right not to be penalized for the opinions expressed are indispensable to the exercise of freedom of association, said Education Internationals general secretary David Edwards, urging Cambodia to comply with its obligations under international human rights treaties.

Reported by RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Sok Ry Sum, Tin Zakariya, and Nareth Muong. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
06.08.2020 LISTEN

Legendary music producer Zapp Mallet has called on the government to bring back the study of music in the basic school curriculum.

The renowned music producer who was a judge on Citi TVs Keyboard Idol talent audition made this call to aid learning and understanding of the rudiments of music.

When I say back to the schools, I'm talking about the basic schools, especially primary and Junior High Schools. Because we all know the importance or contribution music makes in the development of a human being or a child. We all know; it's been proven. Clinical and psychological tests has proven that music plays an important part in the development of a child. To the extent that when you put music to learning, especially for children they grab it faster, he said.

The veteran Ghanaian record producer further added that music plays an important role in society; it makes you cry; it gives you encouragement; to the extent that music can even cause people to commit suicide. Music is very powerful; music is a powerful tool that we can use in the development of our socio economic or socio political environment so we shouldn't lose guard at all.

He further stated that countries like America are using it to their advantage.

Zapp Mallet has worked with highly respected Ghanaian and international music artistes of various genres.

Notable among them is Kojo Antwi, Ofori Amponsah, Becca, Daasebre Dwamena, Irene Logan, Reggie Rockstone, Lord Kenya, Obuor, Akyeame, Tagoe Sisters, Helena Rhabbles, among others.

He is one of the judges for Citi TVs Keyboard Idol.

Keyboard Idol airs every Saturday at 7:00pm prompt on Citi TV.

Keyboard Idol is proudly sponsored by Asanka powered by TechAide Ghana and Santol Energy and is powered by Citi TV.

citinewsroom.com | Ghana
This new realignment in Asia provides new opportunities not only for China and Iran, but also for Pakistan.

In early July, Irans Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif announced that Tehran is close to entering into a long-term strategic partnership agreement with Beijing. A few weeks later, Indian media reported that Tehran has dropped New Delhi from a key rail project along its border with Afghanistan after it showed reluctance in investing fearing American sanctions.

Despite occupying headlines around the same time, the news of Irans newly formed strategic alliance with China and its alleged cold-shouldering of India were not directly related. Nevertheless, viewed together in the context of the growing tensions between the US and China and the Himalayan border dispute between China and India, these two developments provide valuable insights into the new geopolitical realignments in Asia. It seems the Trump administrations maximum pressure policy against Iran has pushed the country into the arms of China and caused a significant strategic disadvantage to its long-term ally India.

According to a July 11 report by the New York Times, the not yet finalised agreement between Beijing and Tehran will see China invest a total of $400bn in banking, transport and development sectors in Iran. In exchange, Beijing expects to receive a regular, and heavily discounted, supply of Iranian oil over the next 25 years. The deal is part of Chinese President Xi Jinpings ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that aims to extend his countrys economic and strategic influence across Eurasia.

Just a few days after the details of the proposed China-Iran deal were made public, on July 14, Indian daily The Hindu reported that Iran decided to exclude India from an extensive rail project that will connect the Iranian port city of Chabahar to Zahedan, a city near its border with Afghanistan. Indian consultancy IRCON had pledged to provide all services and funding for the project, estimated at about $1.6bn, according to The Hindu report.

The Iranian government swiftly denied the Indian newspapers report, claiming it did not drop New Delhi from the project, as it had not inked any deal with India regarding the Zahedan-Chabahar railway in the first place.

Despite Tehrans denial, however, many viewed Indias apparent removal from the railway project  which will eventually stretch to Zaranj on the Afghan side of the border  as a major setback to its plans to create an alternative trade route to Afghanistan and Central Asia that bypasses Pakistans Chinese-operated Gwadar port.

Chabahar is pivotal to the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), a 7,200-kilometre (4,473-mile) freight route connecting Mumbai to Moscow. For years, India had been enthusiastically promoting the project, which aims to increase connectivity in Eurasia, partially because it believed it could help keep Iran outside Chinas BRI, and cool down any cooperation attempts between Tehran and its primary regional rival, Islamabad.

Over the past 20 years, Iran had been supportive of Indias plans to establish new trade routes and signed several deals to advance these initiatives. Last year, however, as New Delhi stopped purchasing oil from Iran to please Washington and further strengthened its military-strategic ties with its arch foe, Israel, Tehrans attitude towards New Delhis regional connectivity project started to change. The news of New Delhis interest in participating in the Israeli-led Trans-Arabian Corridor (TAP), which aims to connect India to Eurasia through Israel and several Arab states hostile to Iran, further encouraged Tehran to seek other regional alliances.

Irans new partnership deal with China is indicative of its drift away from India. And this budding partnership between the two countries is likely to have significant consequences for New Delhi.

The new deal between Beijing and Tehran includes plans for China to develop several ports in Iran, such as the Bandar-e-Jask port which is strategically situated to the east of the Strait of Hormoz. This is significant as it gives Beijing control over one of the seven key maritime chokepoints in the world. This can potentially undermine the US naval dominance in the Middle East, as having a foothold in Bandar-e-Jask would not only allow China to monitor the US Navys Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain, but together with a presence in Gwadar and Djibouti ports, it would also augment Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean Region. All this could cause India to lose the leverage its close ties to the US provides against China.

Irans inclusion into the BRI framework is also likely to cause India to lose ground against China in Afghanistan. After 9/11, Indian political and economic influence grew in Afghanistan under the US security umbrella. Since the February deal between the US and the Taliban in Doha, however, Indias influence over the country has been shrinking. India was neither part of the US-Taliban deal, nor it has any significant role in the intra-Afghan peace process. After the US withdrawal, Indias influence over the country will minimise further.

Despite Washingtons prodding, New Delhi has been ambivalent about entering into dialogue with the Taliban. China, on the other hand, has long been engaging both with the Kabul government and the Taliban in an effort to not only secure its economic investments and interests in Afghanistan in the aftermath of US withdrawal, but also undercut those of India. This also gives China an edge to potentially connect the post-US Afghanistan in the BRI framework. Chinas growing ties to Iran  a country that has significant clout over and ties with Afghanistan  is likely to help it achieve this goal.

This new realignment in Asia provides new opportunities not only for China, but also for Pakistan. First, Chinas involvement in Iran would weaken Pakistans main rival India, and open up strategic space for Islamabad to efficiently deal with political and security threats it is currently facing. Second, after fully integrating Iran into the BRI framework, Beijing could help Islamabad improve its relations with Tehran and assist the two countries in pacifying the ethno-separatist armed uprising in Balochistan. Third, Chinese presence in Iran would mean the Iranian port city of Chabahar would not compete with Pakistans Gwadar, whose port is operated by China. Finally, Indias ouster from Iran would mean the transit trade from Afghanistan and Central Asia would continue through Pakistani ports.

However, Pakistan will have to overcome its internal governance and security challenges to benefit from what is appearing to be a new, more favourable geopolitical environment.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
A doctor from Beirut has given a harrowing first-person account of what it was like treating some of the 5,000 victims of a massive explosion which tore the city apart earlier this week.

Bassam Osman, who describes himself as an aspiring heart surgeon from the American University Beirut Medical Center, told of how he treated hundreds of patients during a 52-hour shift in a hospital that was also badly damaged in the blast.

He described being surrounded by 'screams, blood and open wounds' in corridors whose lights had gone out and ceilings fallen down, but knowing he had put aside his own panic in order to help.

Bassam Osman, right, has described the 52-hour shift he spent working at a hospital in Beirut treating some of the 5,000 victims of the blast which also killed 137

Osman described being surrounded by 'screams, blood and open wounds' in a hospital that was partially destroyed in the blast (left and right)

The blast occurred around 5pm local time Tuesday as a fire burning in a warehouse at the city's dock ignited 2,750 tons ammonium nitrate which exploded with the force of a small nuke.

Osman recalled that there was around 10 minutes of silence between the blast happening, and the first patients coming through the door.

After that, he said, all hell broke loose.

'With the flood of casualties through one door where an attempt of triage was going on, all concepts of treating and healing were not applicable,' he wrote on Twitter.

'We were left to improvise so we make the best of what we have in terms of equipment and manpower.

'Our response was unprecedented. Attendings, residents, students, nurses, clerks, housekeeping, and hospital staff gathered in every empty space to provide aid.

'There was no moment in my life where I felt more in touch with my own and my surrounding humanity.

'Casualties varied from simple lacerations to holes in the hearts. Many people had to be moved to the operating room and it felt like we were racing time and uncertainty.

'In treating mass trauma there are few basic rules and all else is left to your hunch.

'The agility surgeons were working in was fictional. People were put on operating tables, opened, fixed and disposed in no time.

Osman said that every available member of staff pitched in to treat victims wherever they could, for injuries ranging from lacerations to holes in their hearts

A soldier walks at the devastated site of the explosion in the port of Beirut

Volunteers arrive on Gouraud street in the Gemayzeh neighbourhood of Beirut, to clear debris

'Many of the injured did not make it, but we were only left with our emotionless detachment that held our sanity to move and save the next life.

'As time passed throughout midnight, the scene became slower. Hundreds were discharged home and we were left with nearly a hundred admitted patients.

'A hundred patient to round on starting [at] midnight. Time gave us a break but exhaustion became the enemy.

'The next day, casualties continued to flood into the emergency department but in a slower more organized manner. People were devastated, scared and wounded.

'With no rest, in what seemed like a one long never ending day, all doctors and nurses seemed to still have it all together.'

Describing his feelings now that the initial crisis is over, Osman - like many in Lebanon - expressed frustration at the country's rulers, who were widely viewed as corrupt and incompetent even before the explosion.

'The greatest feeling is not sadness, not anger, not despair, it is abandonment,' he said.

'We already lost all hope in a selfish, comatosed, and now, a criminal personnel that is governing us against our will.'

Some Lebanese were lost for words to describe the impact of the blast, which dwarfed anything the country had experienced in its violence-plagued history.

The deadly explosion left dozens more missing and a staggering 5,000 people wounded, many by flying shards of glass as windows imploded.

Osman and his colleagues are pictured around midnight following the blast, when he estimates they had already treated hundreds of patients in just a few short hours

The death toll was expected to rise as rescue workers keep digging through the rubble.

Offering a glimmer of hope amid the carnage, a French rescuer said there was a 'good chance of finding... people alive', especially a group believed to be trapped in a room under the rubble.

'We are looking for seven or eight missing people, who could be stuck in a control room buried by the explosion,' the colonel told Macron as he surveyed the site.

Paris has spearheaded international mobilisation in support of Lebanon, where flights carrying medical aid, field hospitals, rescue experts and tracking dogs have arrived since Wednesday.

Beirut's governor estimated up to 300,000 people have been left temporarily homeless by the destruction, which he said would cost the debt-ridden country in excess of three billion dollars.

According to several officials, the explosion was caused by a fire igniting 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertiliser stored for years in the warehouse.

Even as they counted their dead and cleaned up the streets, many Lebanese were consumed with anger over a blast they see as the most shocking expression yet of their leadership's incompetence.

'We can't bear more than this. This is it. The whole system has got to go,' said 30-year-old Mohammad Suyur as he picked up broken glass in Mar Mikhail, one of the worst-hit city districts.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab and President Michel Aoun have promised to put the culprits behind bars, but trust in institutions is low and few on Beirut's streets held out hope for an impartial inquiry.

People clear debris from their apartments, in the neighbourhood of Mar Mikaehl which was badly impacted by the explosion

The disaster could reignite a cross-sectarian protest movement that erupted last October and had looked briefly like it could topple what activists consider a hereditary kleptocracy.

The euphoria had faded amid grinding economic hardship and the coronavirus pandemic. But since the disaster, social media is once more rife with calls to kick out Lebanon's widely reviled leaders.

'Lebanon's political class should be on guard in the weeks ahead,' Faysal Itani of think-tank the Center for Global Policy wrote in The New York Times.

'Shock will inevitably turn to anger.'

Human Rights Watch supported mounting calls for an international probe into the disaster, saying it was 'the best guarantee that victims of the explosion will get the justice they deserve'.

In France, prosecutors have opened a probe into the blast over injuries suffered by 21 French citizens.

Amid the gloom and fury, the aftermath of the terrible explosion has also yielded countless uplifting examples of spontaneous solidarity.

Business owners swiftly took to social media, posting offers to repair doors, paint damaged walls or replace shattered windows for free.

Lebanon's diaspora, believed to be nearly three times the tiny country's population of five million, has rushed to launch fundraisers and wire money to loved ones.

In Beirut, much of the cleanup has been handled by volunteers in improvised working groups who bring their own equipment and organise online appeals for help.

'We're sending people into the damaged homes of the elderly and handicapped to help them find a home for tonight,' said Husam Abu Nasr, a 30-year-old volunteer.

'We don't have a state to take these steps, so we took matters into our own hands.'
courtesy Office of Governor Greg Abbott

The deadline to apply for $285 per child in federal aid for eligible families affected by COVID-19 schools closures was recently extended to August 21, Governor Greg Abbott and Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) officials recently announced. The federal Pandemic-Electronic Benefit Transfer program, (P-EBT) offers a one-time payment of $285 per eligible child that can be used the same way benefits received via the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are used to pay for groceries. Eligible families include those with children who lost access to free or reduced-price school meals through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) due to school closures.

"The P-EBT program helps ensure that families continue to have access to healthy food as some schools, and subsequently school lunch programs, remain closed due to COVID-19," Governor Abbott said in a statement. "I encourage eligible Texans to apply for these benefits so they can continue to provide food for their families during these challenging times."
When it comes to gaming laptops, it's hard to find the right balance between power and portability. The desktop replacement machines are usually huge and garish, making them really hard to recommend. But lately, we've been seeing some great options from the likes of ASUS, Dell, MSI, and more.

ASUS has a great line up of ultra portable notebooks in their Zephyrus series. We've reviewed some of those Zephyrus notebooks in the past, but none of them were as refined as their new Zephyrus G14. This is ASUS' new notebook that's arrived in India today.

I've been using the G14 as my primary machine for gaming for about two weeks now, and I've got quite a few things to say about it. So, let's get started.

Design & Build Quality

 MensXP/Karthik Iyer

I've said this in the past and I'll say it again - ASUS has been killing it when it comes to laptop designs. The G14 is no exception. It's an incredible piece of hardware that looks fantastic. ASUS says it's their smallest Zephyrus gaming laptop and we can confirm that it's lighter, smaller, and more powerful than Apple's new MacBook Pro.



When you look at the specs sheet of the unit that we have here, you'll be surprised to find out how ASUS managed to cram all that power in such a small chassis. We're looking at some incredibly powerful components like a Ryzen 9 4900HS, an RTX 2060 Max-Q GPU, and more. More on that later.

 MensXP/Karthik Iyer

I really like the build quality too. It screams quality and feels really good while using. It's got this sleek retro vibe that I am thoroughly enjoying. You can also choose to spend a little more and get the version that comes with a dot-matrix lid on top which ASUS calls AniMe Matrix LED display.



It's totally customizable and can be used to show your style and identity. Even without the dot matrix lid, I think the design is super clean and minimal. I've come to hate obnoxious "gaming laptop looks" and this is a breath of fresh air.

Overall, I think ASUS has done a phenomenal job when it comes to the design and build quality of this laptop. Good job, ASUS!

Display

With the G14, you can choose between display options. If you're a content creator, then I suggest you go with the 1440p option because it's just a really good panel. But if you're a gamer, then you'd be better off with a 1080p 120Hz panel just for that high-refresh-rate. Either way, you're getting a really good 14-inch panel.

 MensXP/Karthik Iyer

I've been using the 1440p panel and my experience has been pretty good. I do miss the high-refresh-rate panel since I am not a content creator and I am into gaming. That being said, it's nice to see that ASUS is giving an option here to choose from. The display is accurate enough for editing purposes and has good brightness levels for day-to-day usage too.



Performance

ASUS has a couple of different options to choose from, so we suggest you check out their website before making a purchase decision. The variant which I received for review is powered by a Ryzen 9 4900HS, RTX 2060 Max-Q GPU, and 16GB RAM. That, in case you're wondering, is quite powerful for a notebook of this size.

So how does it perform? Well, it performs just as good as you'd expect a machine that's powered by Ryzen's latest mobile processors. I am super happy to say that the G14 delivers good performance. I played some Red Dead Redemption 2 on this laptop and I was getting somewhere between 30-40 fps with everything cranked all the way high up to Ultra.

 MensXP/Karthik Iyer

Upon tweaking settings a bit, I was getting a stable 60fps on Red Dead Redemption 2 with great visuals. Shadow Of Tomb Raider was also giving me a solid 60fps throughout with max settings. I even played the new Death Stranding on this laptop and I was able to enjoy the solid gameplay without any lags or stutters while keeping the settings high.



Overall, I'd say that it was an enjoyable experience when it comes to gaming, but I think gamers should go with the 120Hz panel to get the most out of that RTX 2060 Max Q card.

That being said, I do have to point out that the laptop gets quite hot while pushing it through its limits. I mean, I wasn't surprised by that because it's bound to happen when you throw everything into a chassis so small. It's not an immediate threat to the machine as you'll face any thermal throttling. But I'd keep that in mind and monitor how it performs in the long run. The fans can also get a bit loud under heavy load, so keep that in mind too.

Keyboard & Trackpad

 MensXP/Karthik Iyer

I thoroughly enjoyed using the keyboard on this laptop. In fact, I am typing this review on the G14's keyboard and it's been a great experience so far. The keys have decent travel and they're not super loud. The keyboard deck is also very sturdy with minimal flex. The trackpad is also great and it supports Windows Precision drivers. The trackpad size is good and it's very easy to press.



I/O Ports

The port selection, on this laptop I'd say, is very limited. Here's what you get -

 MensXP/Karthik Iyer

1x USB 3.2 Type-C with DisplayPort 1.4 and Power Delivery



1x USB 3.2 Type-C

2x USB 3.2 Type-A

1x 3.5mm audio jack

1x Kensington Lock.

It's indeed a bummer that the laptop lacks an ethernet port as I personally rely on that for competitive online gaming. The laptop supports WiFi 6 though.

 MensXP/Karthik Iyer

Battery Life

It had been a while since I used a gaming laptop with good battery life and the G14 changed that for me. The battery life of G14 is very good and I was able to get through my normal working without having to worry about charging it. A normal working day for me involves juggling between more than a few Chrome tabs, running Spotify in the background, or videos on YouTube.

Despite all that, I was able to get over 8 hours of battery life, which I'd say is quite impressive. I can also confirm that the G14 charges up fairly quickly. I was able to get to 60% battery in just about 40 minutes of charge.

The Final Say

Overall, I can confidently say that Zephyrus G14 is one of the best gaming laptops I've used this year. You can get the G14 without the Matrix lid for a starting price of Rs 80,990. Even at that price, you're looking at an incredibly fast, thin, and light notebook that looks fantastic and lasts long.

The G14 is great for creators as well as gamers who're looking to get a good gameplay experience without compromising much. I'd happily recommend the Zephyrus G14 to anybody who's looking to buy a good gaming laptop in 2020. It definitely sets a new benchmark for how good an ultra portable gaming laptop should be.
The National Rifle Association is speaking out against New York State Attorney General Letitia James lawsuit seeking to shut down the gun rights group.

This was a baseless, premeditated attack on our organization and the Second Amendment freedoms it fights to defend. You could have set your watch by it: the investigation was going to reach its crescendo as we move into the 2020 election cycle, NRA President Carolyn D. Meadows said in a statement Thursday. Its a transparent attempt to score political points and attack the leading voice in opposition to the leftist agenda. This has been a power grab by a political opportunist  a desperate move that is part of a rank political vendetta.

Our members wont be intimidated or bullied in their defense of political and constitutional freedom. As evidenced by the lawsuit filed by the NRA today against the NY AG, we not only will not shrink from this fight  we will confront it and prevail.

AG James announced the lawsuit Thursday morning to dissolve the NRA, accusing the organization of self-dealing and illegal conduct. Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre, who has led the NRA for 39 years, and his top lieutenants allegedly funneled millions from the gun rights group to line their own pockets in a decades-long pattern of fraud and abuse.

No organization is above the law, James said in a statement. Our lawsuit charges the NRA as a whole and four senior leaders, including Wayne LaPierre, with failing to manage the NRAs funds and failing to follow numerous state and federal laws.

The nonprofit organization went from a nearly $28 million surplus in 2015 to a $36 million deficit in 2018, according to James, as leaders allegedly ignored their own bylaws and employee handbook.

The lawsuit, filed in state court in Manhattan after an 18-month investigation, says LaPierre, 70, used NRA funds for personal expenditures, including hair and makeup for his wife, eight trips for his family to the Bahamas over three years, and a $17 million post-employment contract for himself. The lawsuit also names corporate secretary and general counsel John Frazer, retired treasurer and chief financial officer Wilson Phillips, and LaPierres former chief of staff Joshua Powell.

Meadows said NRA is counter-suing the New York attorney generals office.

President Donald Trump accused the Radical Left New York and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden of threatening the Second Amendment.

Just like Radical Left New York is trying to destroy the NRA, if Biden becomes President your GREAT SECOND AMENDMENT doesnt have a chance. Your guns will be taken away, immediately and without notice. No police, no guns! Trump wrote on Twitter.

According to the Associated Press, James is taking aim at the NRA after her office dismantled Trumps charitable foundation last year and fined him $2 million to settle allegations he used donations meant for worthy causes to further his own business and political interests. Though its headquarters is in Virginia, the NRA was chartered as a non-profit in New York in 1871 and continues to be incorporated in the state.

Trump also retweeted Twitter users calling for the Clinton Foundation to be investigated. The U.S. Justice Department investigated the charitable foundation started by former President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, in 2016 and 2018, but no charges have been filed.
Mark Hamill knows how to troll fans. The actor  formerly known as Luke Skywalker  recently pretended he hadnt heard about Star Wars: The Clone Wars breakout Ahsoka Tano. And Star Wars fans always get a thrill out of Hamills playful presence on social media. Now the actor has weighed in on a fan-proposed overhaul of the Skywalker saga.

Mark Hamill at San Diego Comic-Con | Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images

Mark Hamill recently retired from playing Luke Skywalker again

Hamill appears in six entries in the nine-part Skywalker saga. The actor first played Luke Skywalker back in 1977. And the 2019 release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, he has confirmed, marks his final performance in the role. Given that movies relative underperformance, perhaps its best that Hamill step away from the Star Wars saga.

Likely, the actor is ready to move on, and most fans agree the franchise needs to follow new characters and stories. After all, Star Wars spent more than 40 years obsessed with the Skywalkers. Still, rumors persist a young Luke might appear in the upcoming Disney+ series centered on Ewan McGregors Obi-Wan Kenobi.

RELATED: Star Wars: Why the Universe Is Full of Whiny Heroes Like Ahsoka Tano and Luke Skywalker

Fans propose shuffling around the titles of the main Star Wars movies

With enigmatic subtitles like A New Hope and Return of the Jedi, the original trilogy led fans to place the movies titles on a pedestal. The core fan base eventually attempted to dissect the meaning of each title as it was revealed. And as technology has advanced, this has become an even more popular activity.

Nevertheless, one fan took it upon themselves to reassign each title in the Skywalker saga to another movie in the series. For instance, The Phantom Menace and The Rise of Skywalker swap titles. After all, the first movie introduces Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) and the last reveals Palpatines resurrection. So the logic behind it is sound.

Hamill retweeted the 1-minute video, with a fittingly cheeky response. At the very least, it seems like the actor was amused by the fans determination to reconfigure the Star Wars titles. In some cases, the newly proposed title improves what series creator George Lucas and company came up with it.

RELATED: The Mandalorian Has a Wonderful Advantage Over Star Wars Movies, Mark Hamill Said

Mark Hamill could still remain an integral part of the franchise

Even though Hamill has stopped playing Luke Skywalker, some fans still believe he could stay part of the Star Wars family. The actor recently revealed he has played secret roles in every movie of the Disney era. So theres a real opportunity for him to continue voice acting in the saga.

Few actors are as inseparable from their Star Wars counterparts as Hamill. And his regular engagement online with fans of the saga indicates hes in no rush to leave the galaxy far, far away behind completely. The Skywalker story might be done, but Hamill has more to offer.
The U.S. State Department on Thursday lifted its blanket advisory for Americans to avoid international travel, put in place five months ago because of the coronavirus pandemic.

However, that does not mean Americans should travel anywhere they like. Many countries won't allow them to enter anyway. And the State Department still maintains a level 4 alert  its highest  for more than 50 countries. A substantial number remain at level 3, which means reconsider travel.

Only a handful of countries are are designated at the lowest levels of travel risk.

"Health and safety conditions are improving in some countries, while deteriorating in others," Carl Risch, the State Department's assistant secretary for consular affairs, said in a phone briefing with reporters.

What prompted this change?

Karin King, the deputy assistant secretary for overseas citizen services, told reporters that coronavirus conditions have improved in a number of countries, based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In many countries, the risk has receded somewhat, she said.

"We have a significant number of places that went down to level 3," King said.

Still, King noted that most of the countries the State Department monitors are still at a 3 or a 4.

King added that the State Department was not likely to return to a level 4 advisory for all international travel. "I suspect we are going to stay at a country-by-country posture," she said.

Will I be able to renew my passport?

The State Department put passport services on hold as the pandemic gripped the globe. But starting in June, it began a phased resumption of passport services. Risch said the department had reduced its backlog of 1.8 million applications to 1 million since then.

"We are committed to reopening passport services," King said.

What's the difference between the State Department and CDC travel guidance?

Both the State Department and CDC issue travel guidance, and it is coordinated to some extent. However, while State uses a four-level advisory scale, the CDC uses a three-level system.

Story continues

Both issue recommendations by country. While the focus of CDC's travel recommendations is health, the State Department takes more into account. Its travel advisories can be affected by terrorism, civil unrest or even natural disasters.

Unlike the State Department, CDC's recommendations don't include "do not travel." Its highest-level warning means avoid nonessential travel.

If you're planning international travel, it's recommended to consult both.

Where is it safe to go?

There are few individual countries that have low or no risk. Among the places the State Department advises to exercise normal precautions, its lowest level, are Taiwan and Macau. Hong Kong, Thailand and New Zealand are at level 2, exercise increased caution. As King noted, most countries remain a 3 or 4.

The CDC also considers Taiwan, Macau, Thailand and New Zealand low risk or very low risk. The agency has no countries rated as moderate risk, where older adults and people with underlying health conditions should postpone travel. For the balance of countries, the CDC recommends all avoid travel.

Keep in mind that international trips invariably involve air travel, and that poses its own risks for coronavirus. Also note that no cruises will sail in U.S. waters until at least Nov. 1, thanks to the CDC's extension of its no-sail order.

What about Canada or Mexico? Or Europe?

Both the northern and southern land borders remain closed to nonessential travel, though flights are operating to Canada and Mexico.

Most European countries remain closed to American visitors. A couple of exceptions: Croatia and Turkey.

A lone traveler enters an empty baggage claim area in Terminal Four at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix. Airlines are reducing flights due to the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: State Dept. ends 'do not travel' advisory. What it means for travelers
Centre on Thursday approved the appointment of former Union Minister Manoj Sinha as the new Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, in place of Girish Chandra Murmu, who submitted his resignation on Wednesday.

Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor (LG) Girish Chandra Murmu has resigned, public broadcaster All India Radio said on Wednesday. The Centre on Thursday approved the appointment of former Union Minister Manoj Sinha as the new Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, in place of Girish Chandra Murmu, who submitted his resignation on Wednesday.

President Ram Nath Kovind appointed Sinha to the post after accepting the resignation of Girish Chandra Murmu, the incumbent Lt Governor of the union territory. Sinhas appointment will come into effect from the date he assumes charge of his office, according to a release by the Press Secretary to the President, Ajay Kumar Singh.

Sinha, an IAS officer has previously served as secretary in the ministries of finance and home He was Minister of State for Railways. Murmu was in October 2019 appointed as the first Lt Governor of Jammu and Kashmir after it was made a union territory last year.

Also read: As incessant rains pound Mumbai, PM assures all possible support to Uddhav Govt

Also read: Indias Covid-19 tally close to 2 million, death toll now at 40,699

Earlier on Wednesday, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Northern Command Lt Gen YK Joshi met Murmu at the Raj Bhavan and discussed various issues pertaining to the prevailing security scenario in the Union Territory.

Also read: Ayodhya Ram Temples billboard shines at Times Square, see photos
Former Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor GC Murmu was on Thursday appointed as the new Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG). He replaced Rajiv Mehrishi, a 1978 batch IAS officer of the Rajasthan cadre, as the CAG.

An official order read, "The President has been pleased to appoint Shri Girish Chandra Murmu to be the Comptroller and Auditor General of India with effect from the date he assumes charge of his office."

Murmu had resigned on August 5 from his post as Lieutenant Governor of the union territory. The decision came exactly a year after the Central government reorganised Jammu and Kashmir, bifurcating it into two UTs of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

Murmu will take oath on August 8 (Saturday) at the Rashtrapati Bhawan. Earlier in the day, President Ram Nath Kovind accepted Murmu's resignation as the Lt Governor of Jammu and Kashmir.

A 1985 batch IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre, Murmu was Principal Secretary to Narendra Modi when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat. 60-year-old Murmu had on October 29, 2019, taken over as the first Lt Governor of the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.

Senior BJP leader Manoj Sinha was appointed as the new Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir by President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday. "The President has been pleased to appoint Shri Manoj Sinha, to be the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir with effect from the date he assumes charge of his office vice Shri Girish Chandra Murmu," said a statement released by President Kovind's office.

Born on July 1, 1959, Sinha was Minister of Communications (independent charge) and Minister of State (MoS), Railways during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first term. Sinha is a three-time BJP MP from the parliamentary constituency of Ghazipur in eastern Uttar Pradesh. He was defeated by Bahujan Samaj Partys (BSP) Afzal Ansari in 2019 Lok Sabha poll.
During these challenging times, protecting the public health is my highest priority, Davis said in a statement. If youre out in public, use social distancing, and when you cant social distance, please wear a mask. All of us must do our part. Thats what it will take to get through this pandemic.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Only 21% of employees say their employer tracks them with employee monitoring software, according to new data from Clutch, the leading B2B ratings and reviews firm. Searches for employee monitoring software have skyrocketed as a result of COVID-19, leading businesses to weigh the pros and cons of using software to track their employees' productivity.

Nearly half of employees in the U.S. (49%) say their company doesn't use employee monitoring software.

Only 10% of employees believe employee monitoring software could increase trust in their company, according to new data from Clutch. Nearly three-quarters of employees disagree that employee monitoring software would increase their productivity, according to a new survey from Clutch.

Experts say that companies are unlikely to use employee tracking software if they believe that employees can perform without it.

"My entire team is remote, and I do not use employee monitoring software to track their work," said Grey Idol, cofounder of PayrollFunding, a payroll staffing company. "I hire adults, not children, and I trust them to manage their time properly."

Idol's attitude is shared by many managers: Give employees the time, space, trust, and resources to get the job done, and they will execute.

Other employers keep tabs on their employees in more traditional ways. Black Joseph, webmaster at FireStickHacks, which posts reviews and ratings about Amazon's Firestick TV remote, said that instead of monitoring software, he uses more traditional strategies to track employees, such as reviewing their work.

Employee tracking software may be unfamiliar to employees, but being responsible for their work and time is nothing new.

Only 10% of Employees Think Employee Monitoring Software Improves Trust

Morale and trust are main concerns with employee monitoring software. Only 10% of employees believe they would trust their employer more if they used the software.

Dave Morley, general manager of Rockstar Recruiting, a recruiting firm specializing in placing skilled tradespeople, previously worked in HR at a company that introduced employee monitoring software without telling employees.

When employees found out, company morale dropped significantly. Employees became skeptical, and Morley started hearing workers make the same joke: '"Big Brother' was watching over our work." Eventually, numerous employees lost trust in the business and left.

More than one-third of employees (37%) believe employee monitoring software would reduce trust. About half (53%) of employees, however, said employee monitoring software would not affect if they trusted their company.

Generational Differences

While members of Generation X are concerned with their employers seeing what they do on their computer, millennials remain relatively unbothered.

Just 22% of those aged 1834 are concerned with employee monitoring software, while 31% of those aged 3554 are concerned.

Steve Gauche, director and digital strategist at ITrunway, a virtual consulting agency, explains that general technology knowledge and attitudes about privacy are important factors that make young workers more comfortable with employee monitoring software.

Clutch surveyed 400 full-time workers in the U.S. in June 2020.

Read the full report: https://clutch.co/hr/resources/pros-cons-employee-monitoring.

For questions about the survey or a comment on the findings, contact Matthew Miller at [email protected]

About Clutch

Clutch is the leading ratings and reviews platform for IT, marketing, and business service providers. Each month, over half a million buyers and sellers of services use the Clutch platform, and the user base is growing over 50% a year. Clutch has been recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of the 500 fastest growing companies in the U.S. and has been listed as a top 50 startup by LinkedIn.

Media Contact

Matthew Miller

[email protected]

(202) 350-4344

SOURCE Clutch

Related Links

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Hong Kong, China -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/05/2020 -- The investment industry has undergone incredible transformation in recent years thanks to the growth of quants. Selby Jennings HK specialises in supporting the career development of brilliant minds able to use mathematical models to price securities, generate profits and reduce risk, as well as partnering with organisations looking to harness this kind of talent. Quants careers are vibrant in Hong Kong, Kowloon, Tsuen Wan and Yuen Long Kau Hui as this part of the financial services sector continues to evolve and begins to dominate trading operations in most major financial centres.



Selby Jennings HK has a financial services pedigree that stretches back to 2004. The firm has in-depth knowledge of the industry in Hong Kong and across Asia and is part of a network that covers 60+ countries globally. This international connection is a crucial one given then cross border nature of quant careers and the opportunities that exist for those who are keen to grow and travel. Selby Jennings HK is also part of the Phaidon International group, which is the preferred recruitment partner for 70+ world-leading companies.



Consultants at Selby Jennings HK are passionate about what they do and highly knowledgeable when it comes to quant careers in Hong Kong, Kowloon, Tsuen Wan and Yuen Long Kau Hui. The firm invests heavily in training to ensure that the team is fully informed about the opportunities that exist in this part of the sector, both when it comes to individuals taking next steps in stellar careers and organisations looking to work with the brightest minds in order to secure growth and development. As the world has begun to move out of the global lockdown imposed as a result of COVID-19, Selby Jennings HK has been working with businesses across the sector looking to create new opportunities for team building. From switching to remote onboarding processes to using video conferencing for interviews there are many ways in which recruitment is adapting to ensure continuity even in these challenging times.



"During uncertain times, Selby Jennings HK offers reassurance. Crises come in many different forms  financial crashes, oil gluts, and now a global pandemic". commented Andrew McNeilis, Managing Director of APAC at Selby Jennings HK. He went on to say, "Yet, whatever the challenge, we remain steadfast in our service. We continue to offer guidance to clients in the finance sector and help them secure top talent."



At a time when the future is uncertain and the pressure on banking and financial services firms and their leaders to find talent is more acute than it has ever been, Selby Jennings HK is working with businesses across the financial services industry looking to secure exceptional people. For candidates seeking to develop quant careers and take that next step on the path to success there are already plenty of opportunities to pursue.



To find out more information about Quant Careers visit https://www.selbyjennings.hk/disciplines/quantitative-analytics.



For any media enquiries please contact Gary Elliott at Iconic Digital  020 7100 0726.



For all other enquiries please contact Selby Jennings HK: +49 30 72 62 11 444.



For more information about Selby Jennings HK services, please go to https://www.selbyjennings.hk.



About Selby Jennings HK

Selby Jennings HK is a leading specialist recruiter to the financial services sector committed to supporting businesses in solving the number one challenge of talent. The firm's reach extends to 60+ countries and a network of 750+ employees worldwide.
Due to excessive herding and exploitation of mineral resources, the ecological environment of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region was, at one point severely damaged and faced a serious soil erosion problem.

Since the end of 2012, Inner Mongolia has stuck to the path of green development, effectively strengthened the protection and restoration of forest and grassland and promoted desertification prevention and control measures, laying an environmental foundation for economic and social development.

In 2019, the forest coverage rate in Inner Mongolia increased to 22.1 percent and the comprehensive vegetation coverage of grassland reached 44 percent.

The region has completed forestry ecological construction on more than 12 million mu (8,000 square kilometers) of land annually, ranking first in China, and dealt with the problem of soil erosion on an average of over 9 million mu of land a year.

It has also encouraged citizens to voluntarily plant trees and mobilized enterprises to participate in preventing and controlling desertification.
With sudden exit of Jammu and Kashmirs Lieutenant Governor Girish Chandra Murmu in a late night development on Wednesday, President Ramnath Kovind has appointed former Union minister and three-time BJP MP Manoj Sinha as the new incumbent to the constitutional post.

Sinha is considered to have a close rapport with National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah.

The President has accepted the resignation of Girish Chandra Murmu as Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, said an official spokesman of the Rashtrapati Bhawan.

The President has been pleased to appoint Manoj Sinha, to be the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir with effect from the date he assumes charge of his office vice Girish Chandra Murmu, he added.

It is not the first time that Murmu, a 1985-batch IAS officer from Gujarat cadre, has resigned ahead of his tenure.

He was the expenditure secretary in the finance ministry when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah decided to elevate him to the new union territorys Raj Bhawan. Murmu had then resigned from his post a month before his retirement last year in November.

Lieutenant Governors of union territories, quite like governors of states, are appointed for a five-year term.

Murmu, who is said to have the trust of PM Modi and Shah, had worked with them in Gujarat when he was posted in the home department. After PM Modi came to Delhi in 2014, Murmu moved to the Gujarat chief ministers office as principal secretary to Anandiben Patel who had succeeded Modi in the state. He joined the central government less than a year later as a joint secretary in the finance ministry.

Varied reasons are being attributed to Murmus sudden exit. Recently, the Election Commission had taken exception to his comments to the media on the timing of assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

The EC had said that all decisions on the conduct and timing of elections are its sole remit and that L-G should refrain from commenting on issues that are not in his domain.

Another reason being cited is Murmus statement on restoration of 4G network in the union territory. Murmu had reportedly said that he didnt see any problem in the restoration of 4G network Jammu and Kashmir.

The apex court is adjudicating a writ petition over continued suspension of 4G internet in Jammu and Kashmir since August 5 last year when Centre had revoked its special status and bifurcated the erstwhile state into two union territories.

People aware of the developments in Jammu and Kashmir said that since there had been differences between Murmu and chief secretary BVR Subrahmanyam, administrative work was not hassle free.

Then there was a lobby in the bureaucracy, which had not been working the way Murmu wanted. He wanted the entire machinery to reach out to the people in right earnest and ensure speedy development which was not the case, they said.

On Wednesday, Murmu had reviewed security scenario in a meeting with Northern Army commander, Lieutenant General YK Joshi.

Murmu had assumed charge in October last year and his stint in Jammu and Kashmir lasted just nine months.

There is speculation that he may take over as the next Comptroller Auditor General (CAG) of India this week after present incumbent Rajiv Mehrishi attains superannuation.
Washington, Aug 6 : The US will present a resolution in the UN Security Council next week to extend an international arms embargo on Iran, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.

"We're not going to let the arms embargo expire on October 18 of this year," Pompeo said at a press briefing on Wednesday.

He also threatened to trigger the snapback mechanism in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal to reimpose UN sanctions against Tehran, reports Xinhua news agency.

Despite his threats, the US appeared to be isolated on the issue.

Foreign ministers of the UK, France, and Germany had said in June that they would not support any unilateral attempt to trigger a UN sanctions snapback.

Similarly, China's permanent representative to the UN Zhang Jun said two month ago that since US is no longer a participant of the Iran nuclear deal, it has no right to trigger the snapback mechanism.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last month that any attempts to extend the arms embargo against Iran indefinitely were illegitimate.

Under UN Security Council Resolution 2231, the arms embargo will be lifted this October.

Tehran said it would not accept a renewal of the embargo.
BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - Croatia's producer prices declined for the fifth straight month in July, figures from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics showed on Thursday. The producer price index fell 4.0 percent year-on-year in July, following a 4.2 percent decrease in June. Prices in domestic market decreased 2.7 percent annually in June and that in foreign market fell 5.5 percent. On a month-on-month basis, producer prices rose 0.7 percent in June, after a 1.2 percent increase in the previous month. Prices rose for second straight month in a row. 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.
Every name on the BrandBucket marketplace is exclusively listed with BrandBucket. That means that all of our sellers are very responsive, making for quick domain transfers.

A dedicated BrandBucket agent will manage your domain transfer from beginning to end, ensuring a secure and easy transaction. They will manage the receipt of the domain into one of BrandBuckets secure registrar accounts and then complete the transfer to you.

1. Verification and registrar choice

After we receive the payment and verify it, we will reach out via email to confirm which registrar you want the domain transferred to. We also provide a link to our tracking system, where you can communicate with us, check on the status of your transfer, view your invoice, and download your logo files.

In most cases, if a domain is moved between accounts at a single registrar, the transfer is quick and usually completes within 48 hours. If a domain changes registrars (in other words, you would like to move it away from where it is currently registered), the transfer is slower. The total transfer time can then be anywhere from 48 hours to 7 days.

BrandBucket has vetted and supports the following registrars:



GoDaddy

Namesilo

Uniregistry

NameCheap

Google Domains

Network Solutions

Name.com

Dynadot

Amazon Route 53

123 Reg

Gandi

2. We request the name from the seller.

Once we know where you would like the domain transferred, BrandBucket will request the domain from the seller. All of our sellers are very responsive, making for a quick process.

3. Transfer the name into your account

As soon as we receive the name from the seller, we start the transfer into your account and guide you through the whole process.

4. Verify with the buyer that the transfer is complete

Once we confirm that you have received the name, we consider the escrow process to be complete. Only then do we release payment to the domain seller.
Stone tools have been found in Arabia which were used 8,000 years and are unlike anything else found from the region at this time.

The tools were created via a method called fluting and closely resemble instruments first invented up to 13,000 years ago in the Americas.

However, experts believe the tools are not evidence of Native American technologies drifting halfway around the Neolithic world.

Instead, a scientific study concludes that the two groups of people cultivated the same technology independently.

Pictured, atone fluted points dating back 8,000 years ago which were discovered on archaeological sites in Manayzah, Yemen and Ad-Dahariz, Oman. Until now, the prehistoric technique of fluting had been uncovered only on 13,000 year-old Native American sites

Fluting required significant expertise and was used by Native Americans to create a sharp point on a stone which can be attached to a shaft to form a weapon.

This would be used either in conflict with other people or to hunt.

The sites of Manayzah (Yemen) and Ad-Dahariz (Oman) yielded dozens of fluted points. The Arabian examples date to the Neolithic period, about 8,000 to 7,000 years ago, up to 5,000 years later than the American examples

Detailed technological analysis, backed up by stone tool experiments and replication by an expert modern flintknapper, illustrate the similarities between the American and Arabian fluting procedures

Fluting is a specific technique that involves the extraction of an elongated flake along the length of a projectile point, leaving a distinctive groove or depression at the base of the spearhead or arrowhead (pictured)

However, it is thought the inhabitants of Stone Age Arabia did not use it for this purpose, they used the technique simply to show off how good they were at forging tools.

Professor Joy McCorriston, co-author of the study, says: 'Fluting in Arabia was used as a display of skill, rather than serving a purely functional purpose such as hafting, as is more widely accepted in the Americas.'

Fluting involves chipping away chunks of a stone to form a point and a specific shape.

Dozens of the tools were found at the sites of Manayzah and Ad-Dahariz in Yemen and Oman, respectively.

'Given their age and the fact that the fluted points from America and Arabia are separated by thousands of kilometers, there is no possible cultural connection between them,' Professor Felice Petraglia of the Max Planck Institute says.

'This is then a clear and excellent example of cultural convergence, or independent invention in human history.'

The research was published in the journal PLOS One.
An employee of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp works at the company's factory in Beijing. [Photo/Xinhua] China's latest semiconductor policies will offer a golden opportunity for the chip industry to pursue high-quality development and motivate companies to achieve breakthroughs in crucial technologies, experts said on Wednesday. The comments came after the State Council rolled out a set of policies on Tuesday, including tax breaks and financing support, to buoy the growth of the integrated circuit and software sectors. The State Council said chip companies of all ownership types, including foreign enterprises, that set up in China can benefit from the new policy incentives. Wang Peng, deputy head of the China Center for Information Industry Development, said support for semiconductor makers, in what is known as the crown of electronics technologies, will have a profound impact on the industry's development. "It showcases the government's desire to build a globally competitive semiconductor sector, and it will encourage companies to devote more resources to overcome technological bottlenecks," Wang said. Semiconductor chips have become a key part of the information technology infrastructure to power the digital economy. Last year, China, the world's largest semiconductor market, spent about $305.6 billion on chip imports, more than the amount spent on importing crude oil, the General Administration of Customs said. But the number marked a 2.1 percent year-on-year decline, as domestic companies made progress. Wen Ku, a spokesman for the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China's top industry regulator, said the nation's semiconductor sector maintained relatively sound momentum, with more than 100 billion chips produced in the nation in the first half of 2020, marking a 16.4 percent year-on-year increase. Mi Lei, founding partner of Casstar, a technology investment company based in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, said the new policies, such as granting a 10-year tax break for certain qualified chip companies, showcase the government's "unprecedented" support for the sector over the next decade. "It will greatly increase integrated circuit enterprises' profits, and boost the confidence of all employees who work in the sector," Mi said, "The move will also attract more private capital to bankroll promising semiconductor companies." Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Information Consumption Alliance, a telecom industry association, said that compared with previous policies which chiefly benefit chip design enterprises, the new package of favorable measures is designed to support companies in the entire semiconductor chain, including chip equipment, material, packaging and testing. "Such change underlines a rational and long-term vision for the sustainable development of the semiconductor sector. The importance of chips has been further underlined by the US government's efforts to contain the rise of Chinese tech companies," Xiang said. The State Council also said that China will continue improving its business environment for international chip companies to invest and develop in the nation. More efforts will also be made to cultivate talent for the semiconductor sector. Zhang Wenfeng, an engineer at a Shanghai-based chip startup, said he was encouraged by the new policy incentive. "With strong government support and local companies' growing input into R&D, this is the best time for me to work at a chip company."


NEW YORK, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- REDD Intelligence, an online fixed-income intelligence and analytics platform focused on the emerging markets, today announced that it closed a $5.8m equity financing round, effective immediately.

This is REDD's first institutional financing and was led by Nassau Point Investors. Other investors include Neil Osborn, Chairman of REDD Intelligence and Thomas Barry, President and CEO of Zephyr Management L.P. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Proceeds from the capital raise will be used to finance the launch of REDD's Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa (CEEMEA) emerging market fixed-income coverage expected later this summer. CEEMA coverage will be managed from REDD's new London office and other key CEEMEA locations. The company said that this launch will complete REDD's Global Emerging Markets offering, which includes the company's successful Latin America and Asia platforms.

Proceeds will also be used for the further development of AI and alternative data technology to support REDD's core focus on event driven, special situation credit opportunities.

"REDD continues to meet growing market demand for proprietary, specialized EM credit research, data, and insight, and we welcome our new strategic investors to enable this expansion," said Group CEO and Co-Founder Valeria Morozovsky Girimonte.

"We are thrilled to announce the launch of CEEMEA, our final geographic region of coverage. More than ever, in today's global markets, REDD's focus on emerging market high-yield and distressed debt is helping subscribers identify, understand, and take advantage of early stage, event driven opportunities."

New Board Members

REDD also announced today that it is welcoming new members to its Board of Directors under the leadership of Chairman Neil Osborn. New Board members include:

Jonathan Wendell , Founder and Managing Member of Nassau Point Investors;

, Founder and Managing Member of Nassau Point Investors; David Tenney , Operating Partner of Nassau Point Investors and former Co-Chief Operating Officer of Global Research at Goldman Sachs

, Operating Partner of Nassau Point Investors and former Co-Chief Operating Officer of Global Research at Goldman Sachs Christopher Fordham , CIO at Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) and former CEO of Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC.

"We welcome these new Board members and the experience, expertise, and insights that they will bring to REDD," said Mr. Osborn.

Today's news from REDD comes on the heels of a series of recent milestones:

In the six months to June 30, 2020 REDD delivered 42% global revenue growth (GAAP) year-on-year (YoY) with Asia growing at over 100% YoY, demonstrating accelerating momentum and market recognition in the region, coupled with the company's proven market leadership in Latin America .





REDD delivered 42% global revenue growth (GAAP) year-on-year (YoY) with growing at over 100% YoY, demonstrating accelerating momentum and market recognition in the region, coupled with the company's proven market leadership in . In October 2019 REDD appointed Jorge Wilmer as COO to support this global expansion. Mr. Wilmer brings a wealth of knowledge to REDD Intelligence as a veteran banker and an expert in emerging markets, and manages the daily operations of REDD's growing global business while advising the executive management team.





REDD appointed as COO to support this global expansion. Mr. Wilmer brings a wealth of knowledge to REDD Intelligence as a veteran banker and an expert in emerging markets, and manages the daily operations of REDD's growing global business while advising the executive management team. Ahead of the CEEMEA launch expected later this summer, REDD has built an experienced team in major business centers spread across four continents. REDD's emphasis on developing local teams to access primary intelligence in the emerging markets sets it apart from competitors that rely on secondary information sourced offshore.

About Nassau Point Investors

Based in Greenwich, Conn., Nassau Point Investors LLC is an investment firm which works closely with the founders and management of lower-middle-market companies to help them grow their businesses and create substantial value for all stakeholders.

About REDD Intelligence

Headquartered in New York, Risk Event Driven Distressed Intelligence (REDD Intelligence) is a leading provider of material intelligence on emerging market event driven special situations.

Through an online platform and mobile applications, REDD delivers real-time news and analytics on more than 1,400 emerging market companies. REDD's recognized team of journalists and analysts continuously reports on trading catalysts, allowing bankers, asset managers and advisers to focus on opportunities relevant to their unique market or business needs.

For REDD Intelligence

Christie Tan

[email protected]

MEDIA CONTACT:

Peaks Strategies

Armel Leslie

+1 (914) 320-7620

[email protected]

Matt Yemma

+ 1 (909)-633-9396

[email protected]

SOURCE REDD Intelligence
Rent-based evictions are expected to resume late this month for public housing tenants after a federal moratorium expired in July, but private landlords still are subject to Illinois eviction moratorium.

The expiration of a federal moratorium on evictions has created uncertainty for tenants and landlords nationwide as they are left with a patchwork of eviction laws enacted by states and municipalities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The federal moratorium expired on July 24. An estimated 12 million people were protected from evictions for four months because of the moratorium. Gov. J.B. Pritzker extended Illinois eviction moratorium to Aug. 22 and has, so far, extended the state moratorium every month since it was first announced in March. Around 30 other state moratoriums have expired since May.

Morgan County Housing Authority is under public-housing guidelines of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Mary Jo Mast, finance director for the authority, said evictions for rent issues currently are expected to resume after Aug. 24. Evictions for criminal behavior have been allowed for the housing authority throughout the pandemic, but the closure of the courts in the early stages of the pandemic prevented any filings, Mast said.

Private landlords are subject to Illinois moratorium. Jacksonville landlords said most tenants still have been able to pay. Mike Hayes, owner of Hayes Properties, said he is only dealing with one case in which his business has filed for eviction, but the courts have had to move it back because of the extended moratoriums.

It hasnt really been that different from pre-COVID, Hayes said.

The lack of eviction as an option can be frustrating for landlords who still need to make mortgage payments on their properties, and not being able to evict non-paying tenants prevents landlords from being able to find tenants who can pay, Hayes said.

Court Hegar, vice president of the Jacksonville Area Landlord Association, said that while tenants and landlords mostly have been working together, a few non-paying tenants do exist. Landlords with fewer rental units, in particular, could be hurt if a tenant is not paying, Hegar said.

While landlords still can file paperwork for an eviction, they may have to re-file it if the paperwork expires before the moratorium is lifted, Hegar said.

Landlords will have to wait for news about whether the state moratorium will be extended again, Hegar said, adding that communication between landlords and tenants is key.

All of the landlords in the area are super sensitive to the community and whats happening within the community, Hegar said.

Chad Davidsmeyer, president of the Jacksonville Area Landlord Association, said the states Housing Development Authority has launched an Emergency Rental Assistance program to provide up to $5,000 to tenants impacted by COVID-19 to help them pay rent.

Millions of Americans have filed for unemployment during the pandemic, which shut down many businesses, and experts worry that the end of the moratorium and the expiration of an additional $600 in weekly federal unemployment insurance could cause an eviction wave.

The nonpartisan think tank the Aspen Institute projected in June that 20 million Americans could be at risk of losing their homes by Sept. 30 if lawmakers at every level of government do not act to support renters. The think tank found that 776,324 renters, or 20% of renters in the state, could be at risk of eviction the end of September  the final month in the years third fiscal quarter.

Negotiations on a new COVID-19 relief package  including additional unemployment insurance and possible renter relief  are ongoing in Congress. President Donald Trump also has floated the idea of using executive action to stop tenant evictions.
U.S President Donald Trump said that the U.S military generals informed him that they "feel" that the massive explosion that happened in Beirut, Lebanon on August 4 was an attack that was caused by a bomb. The explosion killed at least 70 people.

Attack and not an accident

President Trump was then asked why he called the incident an attack and not an accident since the Lebanese officials themselves said that they have not determined yet the cause of the explosion. Trump told reporters at the White House that "it would seem like ti based on the explosion."

Trump also said that he met with some of the U.S generals and that they "seem to feel that it was." He added that what happened was not "some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of an event. They seem to think it was an attack and it was some kind of a bomb."

President Trump offered his condolences to the victims of the explosion and he said that the United States is ready to assist Lebanon with whatever they need. Trump repeats that "it looks like a terrible attack" as reported by The New York Post.

Also Read: New York's Health Commissioner Resigns After Clashing with Mayor Bill de Blasio Over COVID-19 Response

A spokesman from the Pentagon declined to comment on the explosion in Lebanon, and he referred the questions back to the White House.

The explosion in Beirut flatted half of the port and also damaged the buildings in the capital. It also sent a massive mushroom cloud into the sky. Aside from the 70 people who died, there are more than 3,000 people injured and there were also bodies buried in the rubble, according to Lebanese officials.

The cause of the explosion was not immediately reported but according to initial reports, a fire had detonated a warehouse located at the port.

The chief of Lebanese General Security, Abbas Ibrahim, said that the explosion might have been caused by highly explosive material that was confiscated from a ship years ago and was stored at the port instead of being given to the military.

According to the local television channel LBC, the material was ammonium nitrate. The witnesses said that they saw a strange, orange cloud which is the same thing that appears when toxic nitrogen dioxide gas is released after an explosion involving nitrates.

The cause of the explosion

Officials are now blaming the explosive materials that were stored in a warehouse for six years. President Michel Aoun then tweeted that it was unacceptable that 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate were stored in the port unsafely.

The Lebanese officials are now investigating to find the trigger for the explosion. Those who are responsible would face maximum punishment according to the Supreme Defense Council, as reported by the BBC.

Numerous hospitals nearby are overwhelmed with patients and dozens of buildings were destroyed. President Aoun then declared a three-day mourning period and stated that the government would release 100 billion lira, or $66 million of emergency funds as reported by The New York Times.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab had talked about the dangerous warehouse that was in the port since 2014, but he said that it would not pre-empt the investigation. The local media also showed those who are trapped beneath the rubble.

Related Article: Fatal Beirut Explosion Kills At Least 70, Injures 4,000 After Dangerous Materials Ignited

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Coronavirus: Israel to start human testing of vaccine

(ANSAmed) - TEL AVIV, AUGUST 6 - Israel will begin testing its vaccine for Covid-19 on humans in mid-October, said Defense Minister Benny Gantz after visiting the Institute for Biological Research in Nes Ziona, close to the ministry. ''We will start experiments on humans after the Tishrei holidays'', which end on October 10, Gantz said. During his visit to the institute, Gantz was briefed on recent progress in the development of the vaccine and the antibodies for coronavirus, his office said. (ANSA).




OTTAWA - A House of Commons committee examining the government's ill-fated deal with WE Charity probed deeper into the organization itself Thursday, but with partisan clashes over witnesses from a charity watchdog.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 6/8/2020 (530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appears as a witness via videoconference during a House of Commons finance committee in the Wellington Building on Thursday, July 30, 2020. The committee is looking into Government Spending, WE Charity and the Canada Student Service Grant. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

OTTAWA - A House of Commons committee examining the government's ill-fated deal with WE Charity probed deeper into the organization itself Thursday, but with partisan clashes over witnesses from a charity watchdog.

Charity Intelligence has previously raised alerts about WE's practices and drew rebukes from WE and its co-founders, Craig and Marc Kielburger, who testified before the committee last week.

The controversy around the grant program has raised questions over WE's complex structure and accounting mechanisms, its use of high-profile corporate sponsors and celebrity endorsements and its workplace culture.

The managing director of Charity Intelligence, which is a small charity itself, told MPs she found concerns in two days of reviewing WE's financial data that prompted her to call its management with questions.

"I would really hope that if someone were making an investment of this size, that the government would have felt confident to ask questions and pick up the phone and seek clarification on anything that they were unclear about," Kate Bahen said.

She spoke off the top of the meeting about the need to help cash-strapped charities suffering from a general decline in giving due to the pandemic, including increasing the amount of money foundations have to disburse to charitable causes.

She then said her group has no partisan affiliation and outlined her disdain for partisanship itself  just before it took over the committee.

Liberal MPs questioned her group's findings about WE, and wondered why Charity Intelligence was even at the committee if it couldn't offer insight into the timeline of events surrounding WE and the student-volunteer program the Liberal government selected it to manage.

"I have nothing against you or the organization," Liberal Peter Fragiskatos told Bahen.

But, he want on: "It's hard for me to understand how an organization of four people can judge 250 organizations on a range of criteria, delve in and offer an enormous set of judgments, and for us to look at that as MPs is a challenge."

Opposition MPs argued the group's conclusions, made from poring over public reports, raise new questions about how the Trudeau government decided to hand WE Charity the reins of the student-volunteer program.

"Absolutely no due diligence has been identified in terms of all of the myriad problems, things that should have been a red flag and things that for any other charity in the country would have meant that there was absolutely no possibility of them being considered for funding," said New Democrat Peter Julian.

The agreement with WE was to pay one of its foundations up to $43.5 million to administer a grant program designed to encourage students to sign up for volunteer work related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ottawa budgeted $912 million for the program and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau billed it that way, but the deal with WE was for $543 million. WE itself expected it would cost perhaps half that, the Kielburgers testified, emphasizing they only expected to dispense the money and have their administration costs covered.

In a statement issued after the meeting, WE said its multi-entity structure is partly because of its operations in numerous countries, partly because of "a small number of sub-entities to fulfill donor wishes or operational ease for allocating funds," and partly to manage liability risks.

WE had a foundation with no other activities sign the agreement with the government "to fulfill the government of Canadas request to assume the liability for up to 40,000 youth participants and not-for-profits during a global health pandemic," the statement said.

A controversy has simmered since late June over the sole-sourced nature of the deal and the charity's ties to Trudeau and his family.

Trudeau has been a featured speaker at six WE Day events since becoming prime minister, and his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau hosts a podcast for the group, for which they and WE say they have not been paid. However, Trudeau's mother and brother have been paid almost $300,000 for appearing at numerous WE event over the years and been reimbursed for some $200,000 in expenses.

Trudeau's wife has also had expenses covered.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau has also been embroiled in the affair for his familial ties to the group, and his acknowledgment last month that he repaid WE about $41,000 in sponsored travel for him and his family to view the charity's humanitarian projects in Ecuador and Kenya in 2017.

Both Trudeau and Morneau have apologized for not recusing themselves from the cabinet decision to have WE Charity administer the student grants.

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Opposition parties are hoping the imminent release of government documents will shed some new light on how the deal was awarded. The government has until Saturday to table with the committee all memos, briefing notes, correspondence and other documents related to the now-cancelled agreement.

"There's been so many contradictions through this that I think it's fair to say that the documents, hopefully, will start giving us some answers," Julian said in an interview Wednesday.

"I think in terms of the next witnesses to get answers, the documents will help point us in the right direction."

The committee is also looking to hear from WE Charity's chief financial officer, Victor Li, and Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough.

Another motion adopted by the committee seeks witnesses with knowledge of WE's operations and offers parliamentary privilege as a shield against potential lawsuits.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 6, 2020.
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New Delhi, Aug 7 : The Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) on Thursday urged the government to immediately roll out its decision to widen the scope of the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) by increasing the outstanding dues limit to Rs 50 crore.

In a statement, the industry body also applauded the Reserve Bank of India's decision to extend the provision of restructuring of MSME loans.

"This is a very timely decision as thousands of small and medium enterprises are facing a severe financial crisis and the extension of the provision to restructure MSME loans for borrowers with loans outstanding up to Rs 25 crore till 31 March 2021 will give a fresh lease of life to many," AEPC Chairman A. Sakthivel said.

He said that the MSME sector, which plays an important role in the growth of the Indian economy - contributing 28 per cent of the GDP and 40 per cent of exports while creating jobs for 11 crore people, needs additional funding to get over their cash flow problems, which is disrupting normal operations.

Noting that the government has proactively provided for additional funding of up to Rs 3 lakh crore at a concessional rate through ECLGS for the MSME sector, Sakthivel said that considering the amount sanctioned, till date, wis less than half, the Finance Ministry last week expanded the scheme's scope by increasing the outstanding loan limit to Rs 50 crore from Rs 25 crore, and turnover limit to Rs 250 crore from Rs 100 crore, for extending the benefit to more borrowers.

"While we have requested for increasing the outstanding loan limit to Rs 100 crore and doing away with the turnover limit for exporters, we request the government to execute the partial relief which it has provided. Necessary instructions need to be sent urgently to the banks for executing the revised guidelines under ECLGS," he said.

He added that the liquidity problem at the working capital front is not only hurting normal functioning but is also impacting new job orders and credibility.
F atigue and breathlessness are among the long-lasting symptoms in patients who have been hospitalised with Covid-19, research suggests.

Psychological distress is also common for coronavirus survivors, according to new data from the University of Leeds.

Scientists examined 100 patients who had been in hospital with the virus - 68 who were on a ward and 32 who were treated in intensive care - four to eight weeks after their discharge.

Fatigue was the most commonly reported problem across the group, with more than 60 per cent of those who were on wards suffering with it and 72 per cent of those who were critically ill.

People in both groups also said they had experienced feelings of breathlessness which they had not suffered before contracting the virus.

This was higher in those who had been critically ill - 65.6 per cent compared to 42.6 per cent.

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

Nearly half of the intensive care group (46.9 per cent) reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and more than two-thirds believe their quality of life has deteriorated.

Writing in the paper, published in the Journal of Medical Virology, researchers said: "PTSD symptoms are a well-recognised component of post-intensive care unit syndrome caused by a variety of factors including fear of dying, invasive treatment, pain, delirium, inability to communicate, weakness, immobility, and sensory problems and sleep deprivation."

Dr Manoj Sivan, associate clinical professor at the University of Leeds and a consultant in rehabilitation medicine at Leeds General Infirmary, said the research gives "an important insight into patient needs".

He added: "Covid-19 is a new illness and we have very little information on longer term problems in individuals after discharge from hospital.

"The emerging evidence is that for some, the road to recovery may take months and it is vital specialist rehabilitation is on hand to support them."
MIDDLETOWN  City voters are reminded that the Connecticut Presidential Preference Primary is Tuesday. Voters affiliated with the Democratic and Republican political parties will be able to cast their ballots to decide who will be their partys nominee for president for the Nov. 3 presidential election.

The voting hours in Middletown are from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Gov. Ned Lamont signed an executive order allowing all people to vote by absentee ballot by checking off the box labeled COVID-19, according to a press release.

Applications were sent out to all voters in July. Absentee ballots by law cannot be issued until July 21, Town Clerk Ashley Flynn-Natale said. The ballots are being issued by a mail house and they are sending them out as fast as they can.

Those who have not received their ballots may call 860-638-4910 or email ashley.flynn-natale@middletownct.gov. There is a short window of time remaining to send in applications, the release said.

Voting on Tuesday can also be done at polling places across the city. Ballots may also be mailed. There are two boxes near the corner of Mellili Plaza and Court Street and they are checked every hour or so, Flynn-Natale said.

For information, contact Democratic Registrar of Voters Elizabeth Santangelo at Elizabeth.Santangelo@middletownct.gov or Republican Registrar David Bauer at David.Bauer@middletownct.gov, or call 860-638-4950.

Those voting in person must wear a mask and follow social distancing guidelines by remaining six feet apart from others.
Photo: Four Seasons Resort

Stephen Cameron was the 91st COVID-19 patient in Vietnam and also a witness to the miracles that Vietnams health sector has achieved in the fight against the dangerous pandemic.

The story of the journey to save the life of the British pilot has attracted special attention of international media. People told me I was the most severe patient in Asia at that time. The vast majority of the country knows about patient 91, thats me. Cameron said.

After nearly 100 days of treatment, the British pilot had fully recovered and returned to the UK in mid-July. The recovery of this special patient seems like a medical miracle, earning Vietnams health sector many compliments from the international community.

Stephen Cameron is just one case showing the qualifications and talents of the Vietnamese health sector in an effort to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. During the peak period of the pandemic from March to April, hundreds of other foreigners, including tourists and those living in Vietnam, sent special thanks to the team of medical doctors in Vietnam who had taken care of them and cured them.

Shan Coralie Barker, a British tourist who was successfully treated in Vietnam, said, I thought I was going to die, but the Vietnamese doctors were amazing, they saved my husband and me. We are very lucky to be treated in Vietnam. From the bottom of our hearts, we sincerely thank you.

A nation fully prepared

After the initial success in controlling the pandemic, the Vietnamese health sector once again surprised the international community by successfully manufacturing a set of Real-time RT-PCR kits for rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2 within two hours. The kit is considered to have many advantages compared to the CDC kit used by the US and the World Health Organization and has been exported to 20 other countries around the world.

Furthermore, Vietnam is working on creating a vaccine against COVID-19. It is hoped that by the end of 2021, the Made-in-Vietnam vaccine will be fully manufactured and put into use. The capacity of the Vietnamese health sector is also reflected in the proactive organisation of safe flights to bring back overseas Vietnamese and quickly respond to complicated movements of the pandemic.

On July 29, a flight carrying 219 Vietnamese from Equatorial Guinea to Vietnam, including 129 people with COVID-19 infection, landed at Noi Bai International Airport  all passengers were properly isolated immediately. Meanwhile, a new outbreak is threatening to cause more disruption after the first case of community infection in Danang was discovered after months without any such incident.

Nguyen Lan Hieu, director of the Hanoi Medical University Hospital, said that the countrys wise choices despite modest and limited resources helped Vietnam to have a new face in the eyes of the international community, especially in the health sector. He added that this marks a great opportunity for Vietnam to promote its healthcare to attract foreign patients as well as overseas Vietnamese medical treatment.

Building typical products

According to the statistics from the Ministry of Health, before the pandemic, each year Vietnam earned more than $1 billion from foreign patients. Particularly, in the first 6 months of 2019, there were nearly 90,000 medical examinations and 10,170 foreigners for inpatient treatment at Vietnamese hospitals.

Soline Linh Le, director of Vietnam Dental Tourism, said the companys customers in 2019 increased by 300 per cent compared to the previous year. Particularly overseas Vietnamese and visitors from the US accounted for the highest proportion, while Australian customers accounted for the majority of foreign visitors using dental services provided by Vietnam Dental Tourism.

Vietnam Dental Tourism affiliates with multiple clinics across the country, and qualifies them by strictly following group standards that are internationally proven and endorsed. Dental tourists are well supported throughout their travel, especially useful for post-treatment concerns and follow-ups.

The main reason why international visitors prefer dental services in Vietnam is that the cost of such services is very high in developed countries. In addition, most of the dental services abroad are not covered by insurance, Le said.

The companys director estimates that the average price of dental services in Vietnam is only about half of that in Thailand and about two-thirds of that in Malaysia.

According to experts, there are many reasons for Vietnams medical tourism to become an attractive service sector for foreigners. Besides a number of advantages in tourism resources, professional skills, equipment, and updated facilities in some local hospitals have become renowned through published medical achievements in liver and heart transplantations and other complex surgical procedures.
By PTI

AURANGABAD: A 22-year-old woman was allegedly raped by two unidentified men near a temple on the outskirts of Maharashtra's Aurangabad city, police said on Thursday.

The incident took place when the victim had gone to the Bhangsi Mata Gad area, located 18 km from the city, with a male friend on Tuesday evening, an official from Daulatabad police station said.

The duo was accosted by two unidentified men, who allegedly beat them up and forcibly took the victim to an isolated spot and raped her, he said.

Based on a complaint lodged by the victim, an offence under section 376 (rape) and other provisions of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against the unidentified accused, the official added.
" " Former Secretary of State George C. Marshall speaks on the second anniversary of his address at Harvard University where he outlined the Marshall Plan. He told his audience of representatives of the Marshall Plan nations, "There is much yet to be done." President Harry Truman listens intently, left. Bettman/Getty Images

It took Secretary of State George Marshall only 12 minutes to outline a plan to save Europe after World War II, though he planned to keep his remarks even briefer. Rather than addressing Congress or the newly formed United Nations, Marshall chose a Harvard commencement speech on June 5, 1947, as his platform to unveil the U.S. State Department's strategy for reviving the flagging European economy. Emphasizing poverty relief above political conflict, Marshall spoke in simple, concrete language. Days later, officials in the United States and Europe initiated discussions about what would be recognized as the most significant foreign policy exchange in U.S. history.

World War II, which came to a close in 1945, had devastated Western Europe. A quarter of Germany's urban housing had been destroyed, combined with a 70 percent drop in gross domestic product [source: Hoover]. Industrial production across the continent was at 60 percent of prewar levels [source: Machado]. Though some nations verged on recovery, a drought followed by a brutal winter in 1946 ruined wheat harvests and intensified the scarcity of commodities. The gap between imports and exports widened, worsened by the repayments of war debt. Will Clayton, Under Secretary of Economic Affairs during the Truman administration, observed the postwar wreckage in Europe and described, "millions of people ... slowly starving" [source: Hindley].

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In the face of rising malnutrition, homelessness and unemployment, Communist regimes gained popularity. By 1947, the French Communist Party held a sizeable presence in the national parliament, and Italian Communists had won comparable political influence. As relations between the United States and the Soviet Union chilled, the U.S. government feared the escalation of Communist support in response to the crumbling European economy.

Amid this tenuous international environment, George C. Marshall was slated to receive an honorary doctorate from Harvard. In a letter from Marshall to the university president, the secretary of state explained that he would say a few words of thanks at the commencement ceremony and "perhaps a little more" [source: Hindley].

Addressing a lay crowd gave Marshall more leverage. Strict isolationists in Congress might have dismissed the recovery strategy immediately, forcing him into an uphill battle. Instead, the largely conservative Harvard audience and the media in attendance applauded the plan, paving the way for its reception on Capitol Hill.
A front pushing into the metro area from the coast early Thursday will bring light, occasional rain to Portland, according to the National Weather Service.

Rainfall isnt expected to last long and may only amount to about a tenth of an inch. The rain is likely to arrive about 6 a.m., then taper off by 11 a.m., with some lingering showers possible through the early afternoon.

Temperatures will drop about 10 degrees below average for early August to about 74. Higher rainfall amounts are likely at the coast, in the Coast Range and along the northern Oregon Cascades.

#pdxtraffic Rain is making its way into the metro area at this hour. Be ready for that. Roads have been dry since July 7. pic.twitter.com/i5ft3cPJuI  PDX Traffic Alerts (@TrafficPortland) August 6, 2020

An onshore flow will continue until at least Saturday, which will give Portland more days of morning clouds followed by afternoon sunshine, but no more rain.

Friday will start with a mix of marine clouds and sun breaks, then clear to a mostly sunny day. Temperatures stay cool with a high of near 78 degrees expected at the airport.

Saturday and Sunday should be mostly sunny with highs in the low-to-mid 80s. A look at the longer-range forecast shows temperatures warming early next week under mostly sunny skies.
Facebook has deleted a post by President Donald Trump for the first time, saying it violated its policy against spreading misinformation about the coronavirus.

The post in question featured a link to a Fox News video in which Trump says children are virtually immune to the virus.

Facebook said Wednesday that the video includes false claims that a group of people is immune from COVID-19 which is a violation of our policies around harmful COVID misinformation.

A tweet from Trump with the same video remained up on Twitter as of Wednesday afternoon. Thats even though Twitter has been quicker than Facebook in recent months in labeling posts from the president that violate its policies against misinformation and abuse. Twitter did not have an immediate comment.

This is the first time that Facebook has removed a post from Trump entirely, rather than labeling it, as it has done in the past.

Several studies suggest, but dont prove, that children are less likely to become infected than adults and more likely to have only mild symptoms. But this is not the same as being virtually immune to the virus.

A CDC study involving 2,500 children published in April found that about 1 in 5 infected children were hospitalized versus 1 in 3 adults; three children died. The study lacks complete data on all the cases, but it also suggests that many infected children have no symptoms, which could allow them to spread the virus to others.
The chiefs attorney, Franklyn Gimbel, says Morales relationship with the commission has been deteriorating since he refused the chairmans demand to fire an officer involved in the arrest of Milwaukee Bucks player Sterling Brown in January 2018. Most recently the commission criticized Morales for authorizing tear gas to disperse protesters. The board has also raised questions over how the department has policed Black communities.
Akshay Kumar on Wednesday welcomed the groundbreaking ceremony for the Ram temple in Ayodhya. The actor took to Twitter to hail the moment as "a historic day."

Quoting a tweet, which featured an image of Lord Ram and a 3D portrait of the model of the grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya on a giant billboard in the iconic Times Square in New York, Akshay wrote, "Diwali came early this year. Historical day indeed! Jai Siya Ram."

Meanwhile, Akshay Kumar on Monday announced that he will star in Aanand L Rais upcoming directorial Raksha Bandhan, which revolves around the brother-sister bond. The film, written by Aanands longtime collaborator Himanshu Sharma, will mark the directors second outing with Akshay after their yet-to-be-released romantic-drama Atrangi Re.

Akshay Kumar made the announcement on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan, and said the film was his tribute to his sister Alka Bhatia and also to the brother-sister relationship.

A story that touches your heart so deeply & so instantly,its the quickest Ive signed a film in my career.Dedicating this film,#RakshaBandhan to my sister,Alka & to the most special bond in the world...that of a brother and sister.Thank you @aanandlrai,this one is very special pic.twitter.com/3h4wxPltC1  Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) August 3, 2020

Raksha Bandhan is co-produced by Aanand L Rais Colour Yellow Films and Akshay Kumars Cape of Good Films, while Alka Bhatia is one of its presenters.

The Good Newwz star said that he could not thank Aanand L Rai enough for bringing him one of the most special films of his career.

Hardly ever in life does one come across a story that touches your heart so deeply and so instantly! It will make you laugh, and it will make you cry. And it will make us realise how blessed are those who have sisters.

It makes me happiest that my sister Alka is presenting and producing this film along with ace director Aanand L Rai. Cant thank him enough for bringing me one of the most special films of my life, Akshay Kumar said in a statement.
There are no Ukrainian citizens among those killed and seriously injured in massive explosions in Beirut, Ukraine's Ambassador to Lebanon Ihor Ostash has said.

"The death toll exceeded one hundred and more than 4,000 people were injured. Fortunately, there are no Ukrainians among them. There are some [Ukrainian] families who have been seriously affected. First of all, the issue concerns property, houses, apartments. There are also minor injuries, cuts, bruises, but there are as yet no [Ukrainians] who were seriously injured," Ostash said live on the Ukraine 24 television channel.

According to him, the embassy provides the necessary assistance to everybody who requests it. "We are in constant contact with the Ukrainian community in Lebanon," he said.

Ostash also noted that Ukraine has a great desire to help the Lebanese people.

"The mayors of several Ukrainian cities even called me. We're in constant contact with the [Ukrainian] government, with the President's Office, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. So far, the issue concerns only assistance in restoring houses or apartments," he added.

At least a hundred people were killed and more than 4,000 were injured in powerful explosions that rocked the Lebanese capital on the evening of August 4. In addition, rescuers are searching for more than a hundred people who went missing after the explosions.

According to tentative reports, 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate that had been stored in a Beirut portside warehouse for years blew up, killing dozens of people and causing unprecedented damage to the Lebanese capital.

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Journalist Hopewell Chin'ono, who is facing charges of inciting public violence, was on Thursday denied bail by a Harare High Court judge. His attorneys say they are studying the judge's ruling. Chin'ono and Transform Zimbabwe leader Jacob Ngarivhume are in remand prison.
Hagersville  The OPP have arrested a suspect in the homicide of Tyler King.

A 36-year-old Hagersville man has been charged with first-degree murder and arson.

On July 29, just before 9 p.m., the OPP, firefighters and paramedics were called to Main Street North in Hagersville after a witness reported seeing smoke coming from an apartment above a commercial unit.

After the fire was extinguished, Kings body was found in the apartment.

He was 30 years old, and from Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation.

There were no other people living in the unit.

The Office of the Ontario Fire Marshal has been assisting with the investigation.

The accused was arrested on Aug. 4 and held for a bail hearing on Aug. 5 at the Ontario Court of Justice in Cayuga.

The OPP have said that there was no concern for public safety.
VIP Industries fell 2.53% to Rs 262 after the company reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 51.32 crore in Q1 June 2020 compared with net profit of Rs 35.08 crore in Q1 June 2019.

Net sales tanked 92.9% to Rs 40.33 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019. Pre-tax loss stood at Rs 67.38 crore in Q1 June 2020 as against pre-tax profit of Rs 54.68 crore in Q1 June 2019. The Q1 earnings was announced after trading hours yesterday, 5 August 2020.

Meanwhile, the board of VIP. Industries on 9 July 2020 approved the issue of principal protected, secured, rated, listed, redeemable, non-convertible debentures (NCDs) on private placement basis in one or more tranches/ series/ types aggregating upto Rs 50 crore.

VIP Industries manufactures hard luggage and markets soft luggage imported from Bangladesh and China. VIP is the largest player in the luggage industry in India.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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There's a lot of talk about the end of the world, bad people being thrown into a lake of fire, and good people going to paradise. It's no wonder that a cottage industry of doom-and-gloom prophets has sprung up around it throughout history.

Google Seriously: the image results for 'Revelation' all look like rejected cover art for Dio albums.

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There's a problem, though: ancient apocalypses were never meant to predict future events -- they were supposed to help people reading them get through whatever oppression they were facing at the time. Turns out, apocalyptic fiction was just as popular a genre back in biblical times as it is today. Only instead of wandering hordes of zombies or roving gangs of leather-clad car enthusiasts, the genre was full of trumpets and horned beasts and heavily-coded metaphors about evil governments. People have always thought life-ending disaster was just a few years away; they just had different ways of warning each other about it. Taking Revelation 100% literally would be like building an entire church around the idea that we need to watch out for a literal manifestation of Immortan Joe.

There's even an argument to be made that the writer of Revelation was warning early Christians to keep their heads down and endure political persecution until things get better. So no promises of Jesus and an angelic army wielding flaming swords, no creepy antichrists from a vague Balkan state, no fire and plagues. Just a nice pat on the back and an, "It gets better."

Top image: AMC
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Revenue of mall operators is set to halve this fiscal because of the Covid-19 pandemic-led lockdowns, an analysis by Crisil of the top 10 malls it rates indicates. These malls have total rated debt of Rs 4,200 crore and cover 7.5 million square feet, with pan-India presence. These have strong sponsors and high debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) of 1.5 times on average.

We expect a 50-100 per cent lease waiver for the period of lockdown, followed by a 30-50 per cent concession in rentals in the current quarter and the next, which will reduce to 0-20 per cent in the quarter to March.

A gradual build-up in revenue can be expected from the current quarter, though for the fiscal overall, a revenue loss of 45-50 per cent appears to be in order, said Sachin Gupta, Senior Director, Crisil Ratings. Much of the impact on mall revenue is because multiplexes, food courts, restaurants and gaming zones have not yet opened in many locations as per government orders.

These businesses contribute 22 per cent to the total revenues and are also expected to take the longest to recover. For the other categories, such as apparels, cosmetics, electronics, and bookstores, which contribute 75 per cent of mall revenues, consumption is still low at 30-35 per cent of previous years numbers in the first month of operations post re-opening.

With revenues dented, and recovery expected to be slow, these businesses have started renegotiating their contracts with mall owners for waivers in lease payments. Crisil also expects vacancies to inch up to over 10 per cent over the next 12-18 months compared with four per cent as of March 2020.

Cinemas most hit

Much of the impact on mall revenue is because multiplexes, food courts and restaurants have not yet opened in many locations. These businesses contribute 22 per cent to the total revenue and are expected to take the longest to recover


CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt and Greece signed an agreement on Thursday designating an exclusive economic zone in the eastern Mediterranean between the two countries, an area containing promising oil and gas reserves, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said.

Shoukry made the announcement at a joint press conference with his Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias in Cairo.

"This agreement allows both countries to move forward in maximizing the utilization of the resources available in the exclusive economic zone, especially promising oil and gas reserves," Shoukry said.

In Greece, diplomats said the deal effectively nullified an accord between Turkey and the internationally recognised government of Libya.

Last year, those two parties agreed to maritime boundaries in a deal Egypt and Greece decried as illegal and a violation of international law. Greece maintains it infringed on its continental shelf and specifically that off the island of Crete.

"The agreement with Egypt is within the framework of international law," Dendias said.

"It is the absolute opposite of the illegal, void and legally unfounded memorandum of understanding that was signed between Turkey and Tripoli. Following the signing of this agreement, the non existent Turkish-Libyan memorandum has ended up where it belonged from the beginning: in the trash can."

His statement came hours after Greece said it is ready to start exploratory talks on the demarkation of maritime zones with Turkey as soon as this month.

Tensions were already high between Greece and Turkey over the exploration of energy resources in the eastern Mediterranean. The NATO members are also at odds over a range of issues from overflights in the Aegean Sea to maritime zones in the eastern Mediterranean and ethnically divided Cyprus.

Turkey's Foreign Ministry said the exclusive zone designated in the agreement falls in the area of Turkey's continental shelf. It said Ankara considers the agreement null and void, adding that the deal also violates Libya's maritime rights.

Story continues

In June, Greece and Italy signed an agreement on maritime boundaries, establishing an exclusive economic zone between the two countries.

Earlier this month, Egypt said that part of a seismic survey planned by Turkey in the eastern Mediterranean potentially encroached on waters where Cairo claims exclusive rights.

Egypt hopes to become a regional energy hub with the rapid growth in Egypt's natural gas supplies. It formed with other countries the so-called Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum, which aims to develop the region's gas market.

Turkey is not a member of the forum, which also includes Greece, Cyprus, Israel, Italy and Jordan.

(Reporting by Mahmoud Mourad and Omar Fahmy in Cairo; Additional reporting by Renee Maltezou and Michele Kambas in Athens; Editing by Giles Elgood)
Trial operations of a mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) project will start in Shiojiri City, Nagano Prefecture under the stewardship of Mitsubishi Corporation (MC), which is part of a consortium launching the project.

The "Shiojiri Project" is being undertaken as part of an initiative launched by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) to promote new, regional MaaS applications. MC's partners in the consortium include Next Mobility Co, Ltd (Next Mobility) and, the municipal government of Shiojiri City. Next Mobility is a joint venture between MC and Nishi-Nippon Railroad Co, Ltd (NNR).

As a digital transformation experiment in public transportation, the Shiojiri Project will take advantage of an AI-controlled, on-demand bus service called KnowRoute for specified, inter-regional routes, and driverless vehicles for intra-regional routes.

Other than rail, the only means of public transportation in Shiojiri City is a community bus service, but it has been hampered by a lack of drivers, a limited fleet, and other problems.

The city is also aging. About 28% of its roughly 67,000 residents are at least 65 years old, which has led to an even greater need for public transportation. The Shiojiri Project aims to address both of these challenges.

The Shiojiri Project includes KnowRoute system trial and driverless vehicles trial, which are set to commence in the city within this fiscal year.

With an aim to have the former officially up and running from the beginning of fiscal year 2021 or sometime thereafter, the consortium's next move will be to substantiate a regionally optimised implementation plan.

KnowRoute System Trials: The main purpose of these trials will be to assess how practical and effective the KnowRoute system is within specified areas, but they will also define a pricing scheme for future introduction of a dynamic-pricing system, whereby bus fares will vary according to supply and demand.

Driverless Vehicle Trials: The purpose of these trials is to assess the practicality and safety of using driverless vehicles equipped with a remote-monitoring system on the region's public roads. The trials will be performed by consortium members Aisan Technology Co., Ltd. and Tier IV, Inc., the respective providers of the 3D mapping and autopilot systems.

Through this project, MC aims to leverage its expansive network and customer base to build a safe and sustainable, next-generation model for public transportation and offer a convenient mobility service to regions in Japan that are facing challenges in that space.-- Tradearabia News Service
The Human Rights Commission has urged universities to rigorously defend the free speech of academics and students amid growing concerns about Chinese Communist Party-linked efforts to police dissent in Australia.

Two Australian universities have been embroiled in renewed debate about academic freedom this week over their handling of Chinese student criticism, while the emergence of a CCP-run online reporting tool has raised fears about Beijing's escalating efforts to expand its influence overseas.

Hongkongers and Chinese students in Australia say they fear speaking out against Beijing. Credit:Getty Images

Human rights commissioner Edward Santow said Australian universities had a proud record of defending free speech and academic freedom.

"But this legacy must be rigorously defended, especially whenever our academics and students come under threat for peacefully expressing their views," he said on Thursday.
Relatives, friends, or teachers? Who are you most likely to share the news with when you receive the admission confirmation from your dream university? The mother of a high school graduate first called up a traffic policeman to express her gratitude.

Wang Zhixiong, the 17-year-old son, graduated from Bailuzhou High School in Ji'an City, east China's Jiangxi Province, this summer. He secured excellent grades in this year's annual national college entrance examination, known as Gaokao, and has been admitted to the prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing.

"Without the help of traffic policeman Zhang Bingbing three years ago, my son would not have been able to realize his dream of getting into the coveted university," the mother said.

Some three years ago, Wang was injured in a road accident ahead of his senior high school entrance examination. The driver involved ran off, and local police failed to trace the driver as there was very little clues.

Medical expenses could have brought more burdens to the poor family, thereby inducing negative emotions in Wang.

"At that time, I felt that the accident disrupted my study plan and therefore I once lost confidence in the senior high school entrance examination," recalled Wang.

After learning about the situation, Zhang stepped up efforts in handling the case and helped Wang apply for relief funds for victims of road accidents to cover most of his medical costs.

"The endeavor of life is not always smooth; however, setbacks and difficulties are all transient. To emerge stronger, you need to discover and acknowledge the goodwill around," Zhang told the student a couple of times then to boost his morale.

Wang regained his zeal as he recovered from the injury, and was successfully enrolled in the local senior high school.

Although Wang had not contacted policeman Zhang for the past three years, Zhang's words have continued to kindle his spirits.

"For me, studying hard is the most effective way to change my life," Wang said. "Whenever I met with difficulties in study and life during the past three years, Zhang's encouraging remarks would come to my mind."

Wang's father is a migrant worker, who works for a textile company in the neighboring province of Zhejiang and earns less than 4,000 yuan (about 570 U.S. dollars) per month. Wang's mother used to work in the high school campus.

A total of 10.71 million Chinese students took the national college entrance examination last month, and like Wang, many students are from humble families in rural areas.

After receiving the university admission notice, the mother and son visited the police station to thank officer Zhang.

"I never imagined that an ordinary act of mine would encourage the mother and son for three years," Zhang said.
This pandemic has brought great hardship to Louisianas economy. Were committed to helping businesses get the relief and support they need to weather the storm and find prosperity on the other side of this crisis.

Summit Financial Wealth Advisors (Summit), an independent wealth management firm serving Louisiana and the Gulf Coast, reminded businesses today that relief funds for those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic remain available at the local, state and federal government levels.

The Lafayette Business Recovery Program provides micro-grants to help cover local business expenses, ranging from rent to payroll, utilities and more. The Lafayette Economic Development Authority and Lafayette Consolidated Government engaged in a collaborative effort to launch this business assistance program to provide qualifying businesses with forgivable loans of up to $10,000.

The Louisiana Main Street Recovery effort has also allocated $275 million to establish a grant program dedicated to supporting small businesses. Eligible businesses can apply for up to $15,000 in relief from the program.

Additionally, the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) reopened on July 6, 2020 and is accepting applications through August 8, 2020.

PPP loans are forgivable if businesses use the funds to cover:



Payroll costs

Interest on mortgages

Rent

Utilities

Forgiveness is also based on businesses:



Maintaining employees

Rehiring or quickly replacing employees

Sustaining salary levels

Loan forgiveness can be reduced if full-time headcount declines, or if employee compensation decreases.

Summit Investment Advisor Representative Joel Robideaux, who is also a member of the Louisiana Economic Recovery Task Force and the former Mayor-President of Lafayette, is available to help business owners navigate the recovery process and access key funding.

Assisting in the recovery efforts of our community is one of our top priorities at Summit, Robideaux said. This pandemic has brought great hardship to Louisianas economy. Were committed to helping businesses get the relief and support they need to weather the storm and find prosperity on the other side of this crisis.

###

About Summit Financial Wealth Advisors

Founded in 2003, Lafayette, La.-based Summit Financial Wealth Advisors provides custom and comprehensive wealth management services to clients in the Gulf Coast Region of the U.S. With additional offices in Shreveport, Monroe and Ruston, Summit is one of the largest independent wealth management firms in the state of Louisiana. For more information about Summit, please visit summit-financial.com.
We dont usually compare Apples iPhone device to Android phones, but this is the perfect match for a comparison. In this article, well compare the Google Pixel 4a vs Apple iPhone SE (2020). These two are amongst the best device to get under $400, which is the main reason were comparing them.

Each of these two phones has its advantages, of course, as they are quite a bit different. These two phones are not only different when it comes to their design, but their internals are considerably different as well, and, of course their software builds. These two phones could hardly be any different, and yet, theyre both really great offerings at under $400.

First, well list the spec sheets of these two devices, and then move to the rest of the comparison categories. Well compare the designs of the two phones, and move to display, performance, battery, camera, and audio sections after that. That being said, lets kick off the Google Pixel 4a vs iPhone SE comparison, shall we.

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Specs

Google Pixel 4a iPhone SE (2020) Screen size 5.81-inch fullHD+ OLED display 4.7-inch HD+ Retina IPS LCD display Screen resolution 2340 x 1080 1334 x 750 SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 Apple A13 Bionic RAM 6GB (LPDDR4X) 3GB Storage 128GB, non-expandable 64GB/128GB/256GB; non-expandable Rear cameras 12.2MP (f/1.7 aperture, 27mm lens, 1.4um pixel size, dual pixel PDAF, OIS) 12MP (f/1.8 aperture, PDAF, OIS) Front cameras 8MP (f/2.0 aperture, 24mm lens, 1.12um pixel size) 7MP (f/2.2 aperture) Battery 3,140mAh, non-removable, 18W fast battery charging 1,821mAh, non-removable, 18W fast wired charging, wireless charging Dimensions 144 x 69.4 x 8.2mm 138.4 x 67.3 x 7.3mm Weight 143 grams 148 grams Connectivity LTE, NFC, Bluetooth 5.1, Wi-Fi, USB Type-C LTE, NFC, Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi Security Rear-facing fingerprint scanner Front-facing fingerprint scanner OS Android 10 iOS 13 Price $349 $400 Buy Amazon Apple

Google Pixel 4a vs iPhone SE: Design

When it comes to the design, these two phones are different in pretty much every way. The Google Pixel 4a is made out of polycarbonate (plastic), while the iPhone SE offers glass build. The bezels on the Pixel 4a are a lot thinner than they are on the iPhone SE, its not even close. The Pixel 4a does have a display camera hole, though, in the top-left corner, while the iPhone SE does not.

Both phones offer flat displays, though those displays are a lot different, well talk more about that in the next section. The iPhone SE has a home button on the front, which doubles as a fingerprint scanner. The Pixel 4a takes advantage of on-screen buttons, while its fingerprint scanner is located on the back.

Both devices include a single camera on the front, and on the back. Their camera modules do look quite different in comparison, though. The Pixel 4a is taller, wider, and thicker than the iPhone SE, but not by much. Both of these devices are quite compact, especially for todays standards. The Pixel 4a is considerably less slippery, but it also feels a lot cheaper in the hand.

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Out of the two, the Google Pixel 4a definitely offers a more modern design. Its thin bezels alone make it look years newer than the iPhone SE. If you dont mind the thick bezels, and the home button, the iPhone SE offers great build quality. The phone definitely feels premium in the hand.

Google Pixel 4a vs iPhone SE: Display

Not only are displays on these two phones considerably different in terms of size, but the technology used here is also different. The Google Pixel 4a uses a 5.81-inch fullHD+ OLED panel. The iPhone SE, on the other hand, features a 4.7-inch HD+ IPS LCD display. Both of these displays are flat, by the way.

As you can see, the Google Pixel 4as display is over 1 inch larger than the iPhone SEs, in diagonal. It also supports HDR content, which is not something the iPhone SE can say for itself. Both displays offer a 60Hz refresh rate, so neither offers a high refresh rate. The Google Pixel 4as panel also looks a lot better in comparison, to be quite honest. This is not a high-end panel, but it does offer better output.

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Colors are more vibrant on that display, while blacks are deep. That is not surprising considering this is an OLED display. To the iPhone SEs credit, the IPS LCD panel that it uses is really good, for an LCD display. Do note that you will notice its lower resolution compared to the Pixel 4as display, though.

Google Pixel 4a vs iPhone SE: Performance

So, what about performance? Well, the iPhone SE has the Pixel 4a outmatched in this regard, at least on paper. Both phones feel pretty snappy in real life, but truth be said, the iPhone SE feels snappier. Apples handset comes with the companys most powerful processor, which is a lot more powerful than the Snapdragon 730 that is included in the Pixel 4a.

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The iPhone SE can do pretty much everything faster, but the Pixel 4a will be more than powerful enough for most people. The phone does not feel laggy at all, it feels quite snappy. That may change over time, as the iPhone SE will almost certainly keep its speed for longer. For right now, however, both phones perform really well.

The iPhone SE will do a noticeably better job with graphically intensive games, but the question is do you even want to game on a 4.7-inch display. In any case, the iPhone SE is a winner when it comes to performance, but the Pixel 4a is no slouch, thats for sure.

Google Pixel 4a vs iPhone SE: Battery

The iPhone SEs battery is a lot smaller than the one included in the Pixel 4a. Apples pocket-friendly handsets battery life was far from admirable when it came out. That improved, though, as its actually good now. The Pixel 4a is no slouch in that regard as well, the phone can provide you with over 5 hours of screen on time.

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You may be able to get to 5 and a half, 6, depending on what you do with the device, your brightness, and so on. When it comes to battery longevity, Id say that the two phones are almost on the same playing field now. Its always difficult to compare battery life, as usage varies from one user to the other vastly.

Now, as far as charging is concerned, both offer 18W fast wired charging. Do note that you wont get a fast charger with the iPhone SE, though, so youll have to but it separately in order to take advantage of that charging. Luckily, the iPhone SE also offers wireless charging, unlike the Google Pixel 4a.

Google Pixel 4a vs iPhone SE: Cameras

Each of these two phones has a single camera on the back. That is a rarity to see in mid-range phones in 2020, but there you have it. Just because they have a single camera on the back, doesnt mean those cameras are bad, quite the contrary. Both of these phones are extremely capable camera smartphones, and each of them excels in a particular task.

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The Google Pixel 4a is definitely a better camera smartphone for pictures. Its 12.2-megapixel camera is backed by Googles software, and it basically takes the same shots as the Pixel 4 (XL). In other words, I can say that this is one of the best phones on the market for still shots, no doubt about that. That goes for low light as well, as its Night Sight mode for low light does wonders.

The iPhone SE is not that great in low light, but it can take great-looking pictures in good lighting. Where the iPhone SE truly excels is video, though. The iPhone SE can take some gorgeous video using its single camera, with great stabilization as well. The Pixel 4a is not bad in this regard, but the iPhone SE takes the cake in the video department. Selfies are, however, better on the Google Pixel 4a, noticeably better.

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Audio

First and foremost, it is worth noting that only the Google Pixel 4a has a 3.5mm headphone jack. The iPhone SE does not. Both devices offer stereo speakers, however. In terms of sound through those speakers, the iPhone SEs offering does sound a bit better, at least thats our experience. The sound is a bit clearer, though the Pixel 4a does get louder in that regard.

Sound via a solid pair of headphones is not anything to write home about, on either of these two phones. Its good, dont get me wrong, but its not great. Pretty much every other major flagship this year will deliver better sound quality in that regard. If youre not nitpicking, however, both of these will serve you just fine in the audio department.
A judge has sided with Meghan Markle in her battle to keep the names of five close friends secret while she brings a privacy-invasion lawsuit against a British newspaper.

But he criticised both sides in the case for playing out their battle in the media as well as the courtroom.

High Court judge Mark Warby said: "I have concluded that, for the time being at least, the court should grant the claimant the order that she seeks," protecting the anonymity of friends who defended Ms Markle in the pages of a US magazine.

The Duchess of Sussex is suing the publisher of the 'Mail on Sunday' and the 'MailOnline' website over five articles that published portions of a handwritten letter she wrote to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, after her marriage to Prince Harry in 2018.

Ms Markle (39) is seeking damages from publisher Associated Newspapers Ltd for alleged misuse of private information, copyright infringement and data protection breaches.

The duchess asked the judge to prohibit publishing details of female friends who spoke anonymously to 'People' magazine to condemn the alleged bullying she had received from the media. She argued that the friends were not parties to the case and had a "basic right to privacy".

Following the ruling, a source said the duchess was "happy" with the decision.

Associated Newspapers' attorney Antony White said during a court hearing last week that the friends were potential witnesses in the case, and keeping their names secret "would be a heavy curtailment of the media's and the defendant's entitlement to report this case and the public's right to know about it".

Mr Warby ruled in favour of anonymity, saying it would serve justice by shielding Meghan's friends from the "glare of publicity" in the pretrial stage of the case.

"Generally, it does not help the interests of justice if those involved in litigation are subjected to, or surrounded by, a frenzy of publicity," he said. "At trial, that is a price that may have to be paid in the interests of transparency."

No date has been set for the full trial, which is likely to be one of the highest-profile civil cases in the UK for years.

The judge said that in pretrial wrangling, each side had "overstated its case" and made "hyperbolic assertions" about the other.

"Neither side has, so far, been willing to confine the presentation of its case to the courtroom," Mr Warby said. "Both sides have demonstrated an eagerness to play out the merits of their dispute in public, outside the courtroom." he said.

Associated Newspapers, which is contesting the duchess's privacy-infringement claim, says it was Meghan's friends who brought the letter into the public domain by describing it in the 'People' article. One told the magazine that the duchess had written: "Dad, I'm so heartbroken. I love you. I have one father. Please stop victimising me through the media so we can repair our relationship."

The publisher's lawyers argue that the information about the letter disclosed in the article must have come "directly or indirectly" from Meghan. But Meghan's attorney, Justin Rusbrooke, argued that the duchess was unaware her friends were speaking to the magazine. They say the anonymous interviews were arranged by one of the five friends, who was concerned about the toll media criticism was taking on the duchess who was pregnant at the time.
By Marine Strauss

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Brussels will require people to wear masks in public spaces and in private spaces accessible to the public if the uptick in coronavirus cases continues, the regional government said on Thursday.

The order will kick in when the daily average of cases per 100,000 inhabitants reaches 50 over seven days, Rudi Vervoort, the minister-president of the Brussels region, said. The daily average in the region was 38.4 last week.

Belgium imposed sharp curbs on social contacts on July 27 after coronavirus infections surged in recent weeks.

The British government said on Thursday it would impose a quarantine on arrivals from Belgium, following Estonia, Ireland, Latvia and Norway.

Germany and the Netherlands have also advised their citizens against travelling to the province of Antwerp in the north of Belgium, where the first curfew since World War II was imposed on July 29 to slow rapidly increasing infections.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has designated all of Belgium as a code orange for the new coronavirus, meaning the number of cases per 100,000 inhabitants is 20 or above for two weeks.

Belgium, where the European Union and NATO have their headquarters, imposed a lockdown on March 18 due to COVID-19, which has claimed 9,859 lives in the country, one of the worlds highest fatality figures per capita.

(Reporting by Marine Strauss @StraussMarine, editing by Foo Yun Chee and Giles Elgood)
UN and local officials have confirmed COVID-19 cases in al-Hol camp for Islamic State (IS) families in northeast Syria. Humanitarian organizations warn that the notorious camp is susceptible to an outbreak of the coronavirus due to the poor conditions there.

Three health workers tested positive for COVID-19 on Aug. 3, UN spokesperson David Swanson told Al-Monitor.

These are the first known cases of the virus in the camp.

Al-Hol hosts more 65,000 people in a desert area of northeast Syria near the Iraqi border. The mostly women and children in the camp have varying degrees of affiliations with IS. Most of the population is from Iraq and Syria, but there are thousands of foreigners as well. The area is within the territory of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. The Kurdish-led statelets Syrian Democratic Forces, who are backed by the United States, hold thousands of IS fighters in detention centers as well as their families in al-Hol and other camps.

The workers who tested positive are Syrian nationals working for the Kurdish Red Crescent humanitarian organization, an autonomous administration official responsible for camps told Al-Monitor. They are now isolating at home and are in good condition" after testing positive at a hospital in the city of Hasakah, the official said.

It was not clear where exactly the workers contracted the virus as of late Thursday. Both Swanson and the administration official said that measures have been put in place to restrict entry into the camp in light of the news.

Humanitarian organizations have long warned that al-Hol is susceptible to an outbreak of COVID-19. Residents live in a packed community of tents with limited access to water and other hygiene materials.

A UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs report from late July on al-Hol noted that the camps water supply has been compromised this summer due to disruptions at a water station and reduced water levels in a dam nearby, among other factors.

The Save the Children organization warned in May that overcrowding in the camp puts people there at risk for contracting the virus.

Severe overcrowding in the camp  and notably in the annex where families of foreign nationalities with real or perceived ties to [IS] live  would make social distancing or self-isolation practically impossible in the event of a coronavirus outbreak, the organization said in a press release.
With the recent rift between India and China, the CCP are comparing fighter jets, noting that the Chinese stealth jets are better than India's Newest fighter jets.

The acquisition of the French Rafale superiority fighter by India has led B.S. Dhanoa, the former Indian Air Force chief to say that the J-20 cannot match the French fighter. He also boasted the "top-of-the-line electronic warfare suite, Meteor beyond-visual-range [air-to-air] missile and Scalp air-to-ground weapon with its terrain following capability outguns any threat that the Chinese Air Force produces," reported Forbes.

Dhanoa stressed that they need to worry about the surface-to-air missiles and not the Chinese jets, citing examples that Pakistan is not sold on Chinese weapons, but relies on American Fighting Falcons and French-made Mirages. The JF-17 (joint Sino-Pakistani) was not able to perform as well compared to other fighters. Most of the Pakistani military equipment that is Chinese made is not prioritized for poor quality like the J-20 that is not even a true stealth fighter.

If the Rafale was deployed earlier in the border clashes with China, the Ladakh area of the Himalayas could have been different. There are 36 of the Rafales coming to bolster the India Air Force in any conflict with PLA.

The CCP was miffed at the Indian official's remarks that downgraded their equipment. Global Times crowed that the Rafale is less capable as a 3rd generation plane to the 5th generation J-20, not a 3rd generation as claimed by Beijing.

According to Chinese experts the Rafale despite the more modern avionics is no better than Su-30 MKI fighters. The newer French design is only slightly better than SU-30s even if the Rafale is new, reported Global Times.

Also read: US Navy Sends Two Carrier Strike Groups as Show of Force Against PLA Naval Exercises

However, the Beijing mouthpiece got it wrong on all counts. The Rafale is a 4.5-generation fighter that has some stealth features for less radar detection and heat profile. It is much closer to F-35 with more edge in dogfighting. It has a dual-engine with economic supercruise at the speed of sound compared to older jets.

Chinese fighters will fear the Meteor that is modern air to air seeker with beyond visual range (BVR) at 50-miles to pickoff a J-20. Any fight will be edged by the advanced French fighter.

Sketchy details of the J-20

No one knows the exact specs of the J-20 that are about 50 in service. There are too many unknown information about the exact characteristics of the J-20 that need further verification, including its exact aerial performance to combat characteristics as an interceptor or dogfighter. There might be vectorized nozzles like the F-22s equipped.

The Chinese warbird has its trump card, the PL-15 that is claimed to have 200 kilometers farther than other AA-missiles that will give Indian Rafales a threat, not the stealth.

One glaring defect is the engine type WS-15 for the J-20B that is yet to be seen in larger numbers. The South China Morning Post said the WS-15 jet engine will be ready soon, leaving the Indian Rafales with the better engine by far.

The battle of who's better, Chinese stealth jets, and India's newest fighter jets boil down to support and resources. But the Rafale has seen action while the J-20 is not exactly tested.

Related article: Indian Navy and US Warships Hold Joint Naval Drills in the Indian Ocean

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Lagos demonstrators were detained during a banned anti-government rally under the aegis of the #RevolutionNow Movement.

Police in Nigerias commercial capital Lagos have freed 25 protesters arrested at a banned anti-government demonstration, a spokesman said on Thursday.

All the 25 suspects were released last night after being cautioned against unruly and unlawful behaviour by a magistrate court, Bala Elkana told AFP news agency.

He said the protesters who were arrested on Wednesday in the Ikeja suburb for staging an unlawful protest without obeying the guidelines on COVID-19 on social distancing were arraigned before the court.

After cautioning them, the court ordered their immediate release and we complied. So it was the court that freed them, the police spokesman said.

The Lagos protesters were among dozens who staged peaceful rallies across Nigeria on Wednesday under the aegis of the #RevolutionNow Movement, formed by prominent pro-democracy campaigners, lawyers and civil society groups.

Police used tear gas to disrupt the rallies across the vast African nation of 200 million people.

The Lagos anti-government protesters were among dozens who staged peaceful rallies across Nigeria on Wednesday under the aegis of the #RevolutionNow Movement [Olukayode Jaiyeola/NurPhoto via Getty Images]

Activists said all 62 protesters arrested in the capital Abuja had been released.

Police said protesters were arrested because of COVID-19 breaches, adding that they were freed after being advised to comply with virus safety measures.

Organisers said Wednesdays protest also marked the first anniversary of an abortive demonstration called by Omoyele Sowore, an activist and publisher of online media group Sahara Reporters.

The protest did not go ahead because Sowore was arrested two days earlier, later being charged with treason for calling for a revolution.

The activist regained his freedom only last December.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 6) - Whether the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant will be revived or not, the Department of Energy said that it will not affect the call for introducing nuclear power in the countrys energy mix.

The inclusion of nuclear in our energy mix is not limited to BNPP or not dependent on BNPP. BNPP might be revived, rehabilitated, or not, but it will not stop us from adapting nuclear, said Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi in a meeting with media on Thursday.

That's why we are looking for host communities willing to adapt nuclear as a source of power, he said.

President Rodrigo Duterte recently issued Executive Order 116, creating the Nuclear Energy Program Inter-Agency Committee, which will study the adoption of a national nuclear energy policy.

Located in the town of Morong, the BNPP was the countrys first and only nuclear power facility and was supposed to generate 623 megawatts of clean energy. In 1986, then president Corazon Aquino shut down the facility over corruption and safety concerns after the Chernobyl incident in Russia in the same year.

READ: A look inside a sleeping giant: the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant

The DOE chief pointed out on Thursday that there have been talks of introducing nuclear energy in Cagayan, Palawan, and Sulu.

He said Palawan Governor Jose Alvarez was open to having nuclear power source in the province, but there is still a process to be followed before it happens.

It is still a process, of course we have to go to the usual process of public consultation, said Cusi.

He added that small modular nuclear reactors are planned for Palawan and Sulu.
STRATFORD  Three teens were caught trying to flee when police said they were seen breaking into cars in town.

Police said Heriberto Soto-White, 18, and two juveniles were caught Thursday morning by police patrolling neighborhoods that had been targeted by car burglars over the past week.

The teens tried to run from police, but were all caught after a brief foot chase, police said.

By their own admittance, they left Bridgeport and came to Stratford because they know many residents do not lock their cars or leave the cars unlocked with the car keys in the vehicle, Capt. Frank Eannotti said in a press release.

Most police departments throughout the state, including Stratford, have repeatedly warned residents to lock their car doors and refrain from leaving valuables in the car. Failure to do so creates an environment where these crimes frequently occur, Eannotti said. The first line of defense to protect your property is to secure it and deny criminals an opportunity to commit a crime.

The teens were charged with third-degree burglary, criminal trespass and interfering with an officer.

The two juveniles were released to their parents on Thursday morning.

Soto-White is being held in lieu of $10,000 bond. He was given a court date of Aug. 28.
Cawthorn and Trump Campaign advisor discuss elections at Hendersonville meetup

Madison Cawthorn, GOP nominee for the 11th congressional district, and John Pence, Trump campaign senior adviser and nephew of the vice president, spoke about the upcoming elections during a meetup at the Henderson County Republican Party office hosted by Trump Victory on Wednesday.

Pence said, We need Madison in Washington with Trump ... Madison knows this: There are no shortcuts to great victory in life.

Cawthorn, a Hendersonville native, had a U.S. Naval Academy nomination before he was critically injured in a car crash. In June, he beat Lynda Bennett in the race for the GOP nomination by a large margin. Bennett had the endorsement of President Trump and Mark Meadows, but Cawthorn, 24, acquired more local support, connecting with county commissioners, sheriffs and school board members. Madison Cawthorn, GOP nominee for the 11th congressional district, speaks to audience at meetup on Wednesday.

At the meetup, he said he wants to go to Washington to say no to career politicians. Nancy Pelosi has been in Congress longer than Ive been alive, he said. He said he is not subject to the interests of large contributors like super PACs, but that he reflects the people of Western North Carolina.

Michael Whatley, NCGOP Chairman, introduced the two speakers and said, Weve got to be able to take back the house and put Nancy Pelosi out to pasture.

Cawthorn and Pence spoke of the importance of the upcoming election. Pence said, Americas future is up to vote in 90 days. He said Republicans defend freedoms by defending the police and the constitution.

Cawthorn said that North Carolina has seen state and local governments power in Gov. Coopers response to COVID-19. So, these elections are important, he said. The time is now to take action, to rally your friends ... Dont be the silent majority. He said a vote for Democrats is a vote for bigger government and raising taxes, while a vote for Republicans is a vote for freedom and for fighters.

Both Pence and Whatley said the that Republican campaigns have been strong across the country and across the state. Pence said many volunteers have been making calls and knocking on doors. Whatley said the enthusiasm behind Republican campaigning is a result of the experience of the past four years and the positive state of the economy prior to COVID-19. He quoted the president, saying promises made, promises kept. John Pence, Trump Campaign senior advisor and nephew of the vice president, poses in front of the Henderson County Republican Party office.

Whatley said that Cawthorns success with voters is due to his pro-America stance and his optimism and energy.

Despite Trumps support for Bennet, Cawthorn said he and the president share an ethos of putting America first. Putting America first was a theme in both speakers talks. We are the party of freedom," Pence said, "because we have a president that puts America first.

Cawthorn competes against Democrat Moe Davis in November. Cawthorn said, amid COVID-19, his youth and experience with social media have helped him connect to voters digitally. At the meetup, the audience of more than a dozen people was largely young. Cawthorn turns 25 this month, the minimum age to serve in congress.
<! Victor Edoror takes the oath as new Speaker of Edo House of Assembly >

By Jethro Ibileke/Benin

The majority members of the Edo State House of Assembly, 14 of whom have been locked out in the cold by Governor Godwin Obaseki since last year, elected a new speaker today.

He is Victor Edoror, a former speaker.

He was inaugurated at an undisclosed venue after a motion for the impeachment of Frank Okiye was not opposed.

The minority members said to have shrunk to five, with Frank Okiye as their speaker, meet at the Governors Office, while Governor Obaseki said he was renovating the premises of the State Assembly.

The original 14 majority members now have with them three other members, from the 10 Obaseki and the clerk of the assembly inaugurated last year.

They are Mr. Sunday Aghedo, (APC Ovia SW) and Ohio Ezoma.

Aghedo moved a motion signed by the entire members calling for Okiyes impeachment. It was seconded by Ezomo (APC Owan West).

The motion nominating Edoror was moved by Washington Osifo (APC Uhunmwonde) and was seconded by Eric Okaka (APC, Owan East).

Mr Chris Okaeben (APC, Oredo West) moved the motion that got Emma Agbaje (APC, Akoko-Edo II) who acted as Speaker ex tempore, elected as Deputy Speaker.

Before the election, 12 out of the 14 members who were not sworn in last year took their oaths administered by a former Clerk of Edo Assembly, Tom Efezokhae.

Following the inaugural sitting, Edoror announced that plenary will resume on Friday, 7th August 2020.

When contacted for reaction, the Clerk of Edo Assembly, Mr. CYaya Omogbai said; I dont talk to press, meet my PRO please.

Minority Speaker of Edo Assembly, Frank Okiye, had raised the alarm over a planned hijack of the Assembly complex at the Ring Road in Benin.

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Invesco Perpetual Select Trust plc

LEI: 549300JZQ39WJPD7U596

Annual Financial Report

.

Electronic copies of the Invesco Perpetual Select Trust plc Annual Financial Report for the year ended 31 May 2020, which includes the notice for the annual general meeting, are available on the National Storage Mechanism website: https://data.fca.org.uk/#/nsm/nationalstoragemechanism and on the Invesco website: http://www.invesco.co.uk/investmenttrusts .

Alternatively, direct links to the web pages on the Invesco website dedicated to the four share classes are:

www.invesco.co.uk/selectuk

www.invesco.co.uk/selectglobal

www.invesco.co.uk/selectbr

www.invesco.co.uk/selectml

Hard copies of the annual report will shortly be posted to shareholders registered to receive them in paper format. Copies can be requested from the Company Secretary at the Company's correspondence address, 43-45 Portman Square, London W1H 6LY or by email to investmenttrusts@invesco.com .

.

Invesco Asset Management Limited Corporate Company Secretary 06 August 2020
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.
Some have more dollars than sense, they say, so even companies that have no revenue, no profit, and a record of falling short, can easily find investors. And in their study titled Who Falls Prey to the Wolf of Wall Street?' Leuz et. al. found that it is 'quite common' for investors to lose money by buying into 'pump and dump' schemes.

So if you're like me, you might be more interested in profitable, growing companies, like Realty Income (NYSE:O). Now, I'm not saying that the stock is necessarily undervalued today; but I can't shake an appreciation for the profitability of the business itself. In comparison, loss making companies act like a sponge for capital - but unlike such a sponge they do not always produce something when squeezed.

See our latest analysis for Realty Income

Realty Income's Earnings Per Share Are Growing.

If a company can keep growing earnings per share (EPS) long enough, its share price will eventually follow. That makes EPS growth an attractive quality for any company. Realty Income managed to grow EPS by 7.6% per year, over three years. That might not be particularly high growth, but it does show that per-share earnings are moving steadily in the right direction.

One way to double-check a company's growth is to look at how its revenue, and earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) margins are changing. Realty Income maintained stable EBIT margins over the last year, all while growing revenue 14% to US$1.6b. That's progress.

In the chart below, you can see how the company has grown earnings, and revenue, over time. Click on the chart to see the exact numbers.

You don't drive with your eyes on the rear-view mirror, so you might be more interested in this free report showing analyst forecasts for Realty Income's future profits.

Are Realty Income Insiders Aligned With All Shareholders?

We would not expect to see insiders owning a large percentage of a US$21b company like Realty Income. But we are reassured by the fact they have invested in the company. To be specific, they have US$35m worth of shares. That shows significant buy-in, and may indicate conviction in the business strategy. Despite being just 0.2% of the company, the value of that investment is enough to show insiders have plenty riding on the venture.

Story continues

It means a lot to see insiders invested in the business, but I find myself wondering if remuneration policies are shareholder friendly. Well, based on the CEO pay, I'd say they are indeed. For companies with market capitalizations over US$8.0b, like Realty Income, the median CEO pay is around US$11m.

Realty Income offered total compensation worth US$7.5m to its CEO in the year to . That seems pretty reasonable, especially given its below the median for similar sized companies. CEO remuneration levels are not the most important metric for investors, but when the pay is modest, that does support enhanced alignment between the CEO and the ordinary shareholders. I'd also argue reasonable pay levels attest to good decision making more generally.

Should You Add Realty Income To Your Watchlist?

One positive for Realty Income is that it is growing EPS. That's nice to see. The fact that EPS is growing is a genuine positive for Realty Income, but the pretty picture gets better than that. Boasting both modest CEO pay and considerable insider ownership, I'd argue this one is worthy of the watchlist, at least. We don't want to rain on the parade too much, but we did also find 2 warning signs for Realty Income (1 shouldn't be ignored!) that you need to be mindful of.

Although Realty Income certainly looks good to me, I would like it more if insiders were buying up shares. If you like to see insider buying, too, then this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying, could be exactly what you're looking for.

Please note the insider transactions discussed in this article refer to reportable transactions in the relevant jurisdiction.

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.
Andersen Global announces its debut in Togo by way of a Collaboration Agreement with one of Lomes largest tax and legal firms, VAS Consulting, expanding the organizations breadth of coverage as it continues to build out its platform in West Africa.

Founded in 2016, VAS Consulting, led by Managing Partner Valery Sindjalim, is a corporate, tax and legal advisory practice whose professionals focus on corporate law, tax, finance, business organizations and corporate deals for a multitude of clients including multinational corporations in oil and gas, telecommunications, industrial and finance as well as private and state-owned entities.

Our firm is committed to providing clients with a tailor-made approach to address their tax and legal needs and aims to effectively assist foreign investors in Francophone Africa, Valery said. Our collaboration with Andersen Global enhances our ability to deliver best-in-class service and quality, seamless coverage internationally.

Andersen Global Chairman and Andersen CEO Mark Vorsatz added, The cultural and synergistic fit of each and every one of our member and collaborating firms is critical, and Valery and his team share our commitment to stewardship, independence and transparency. The collaboration with VAS Consulting provides our organization with another strong building block as we continue to create an even more robust presence throughout the continent.

Andersen Global is an international association of legally separate, independent member firms comprised of tax and legal professionals around the world. Established in 2013 by U.S. member firm Andersen Tax LLC, Andersen Global now has more than 6,000 professionals worldwide and a presence in over 183 locations through its member firms and collaborating firms.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200728005319/en/
06.08.2020 LISTEN

The National Communications Officer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi has formally filed a complaint against the Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin North, Hon. Kennedy Agyapong for threatening his life.

Kennedy Agyapong who is the Member of Parliament for Assin Central constituency in the Central Region; in an interview on Asempa FM noted that he can use just three seconds to switch off the light of Sammy George if he does not apologize to the President.

Not taking the matter lightly, Sammy Gyamfi has taken the life-threatening matter up with his lawyers who have officially filed a complaint to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service.

A letter available at Modernghana News Desk from AB&M Legal Consult addressed to the Director-General of the CID has drawn the attention of the security service to probe the threats against the life of the NDC Communications Officer.

We humbly request your good office to cause investigation to be conducted into the complaint herein, relative to the threat of harm and/or death by Mr. Kennedy Agyapong on our clients life, both of which constitute serious offenses under the criminal offenses Act of Ghana, 1960 (Act 29), a portion of the letter reads.

Another part notes, Having regard to recent history and notorious fact that, a prominent investigative journalist by name Ahmed Suale was shot and murdered in cold blood by some unknown criminals following similar threats made on his life by the same Mr. Kennedy Agyapong, our client as a law-abiding citizen feels compelled to formally write to you and lodge a complaint against the said Mr. Kennedy Agyapong, so as to avert a possible repeat of what happened to the late Ahmed Suale when his life was threatened by Mr. Kennedy Agyapong on that very "Ekosisen" platform and other media platforms.

Read the full complaint letter below:
The Defence Headquarters says the troops of Operation DELTA SAFE, on Tuesday, in Bayelsa, raided the Pirates/Militants camp and Kidnappers hideouts, eliminating six criminals.

The Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, Maj.-Gen. John Enenche disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja.

Enenche said the troops, acting on credible intelligence, monitored movements of a suspected pirate/sea gang leader, who had sneaked into town from Port Harcourt, in the company of another known notorious kidnapper.

He explained that the troops thereafter raided the pirates camp at Tukugbene-Ayama Ijaw Local Government Area, to arrest both suspects and their gang members.

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According to him, upon arrival at the personal jetty of the suspect, troops met heavy resistance from harassing gunfire from pirates/militants in five boats that approached from adjoining creek.

But the overwhelming firepower of our troops led to the forceful withdrawal of the pirates/militants, with various degree of gunshots wounds.

The gallant troops sustained the firefight until five of the pirates/militants were neutralised ashore.

Furthermore, three of the attacking boats were sunk while the occupants with various degree of gunshots wounds escaped into the river.

In the process, troops recovered three boats from the pirates.

Additionally, our troops took over the jetty and advanced to the objective area which was empty, he said.

Enenche said that the troops cordon off the area and conducted a search of the building where the suspects were believed to be residing and thereafter cleared the building.

He disclosed that the troops recovered three AK47 rifles with a magazine, two 200 HP Yamaha outbound engines and three 115HP Yamaha outbound engines during the operation.

The coordinator further disclosed that troops also raided an identified hideout belonging to a notorious criminal/kidnapper and oil thief along Mbiama East-West road.

According to him, during the operation, the troops arrested the kingpin while attempting to escape and recovered items which include a locally made pistol and cartridges.

(The suspect) is reported to be a close ally to a notorious criminal known as VIP suspected to be one of the masterminds of the killing of 5 Battalion Soldiers around East-West road.

The Military High Command congratulates the gallant troops for their dexterity and encourages them to remain resolute in curtailing the activities of pirates/militants in the Niger Delta region of the country, he said.
" " A temple compound at Manikarnika Ghat in Varanasi, India was flooded by rising water from River Ganges due to heavy rain in August 2020. Hindustan Times/Hindustan Times via Getty Images

If all the glaciers and ice caps on the planet melted, global sea level would rise by about 230 feet (70 meters). That amount of water would flood nearly every coastal city around the world [source: U.S. Geological Survey]. Rising temperatures, melting arctic ice, drought, desertification and other catastrophic effects of climate change are not examples of future troubles  they are reality today. Climate change isn't just about the environment; its effects touch every part of our lives, from the stability of our governments and economies to our health and where we live.

Where would you go if, say, a flood devastated the city you live in? Millions of people around the world have been forced to answer this question. In 2017, 68.5 million people were displaced  more than at any point in human history, according to the Brookings Institute. More than one-third of those were uprooted by sudden weather events, including floods, forest fires and intense storms. A 2018 report from the World Bank, which focused on three regions  Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America  found that without tangible climate action, more than 143 million people in just these three areas will be forced to move to escape the impacts of climate change by 2050.

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But more than 1 billion people worldwide will live in countries with insufficient infrastructure to withstand climate change by 2050. The Pacific Islands are expected to be affected especially hard. Sea level there is already rising at almost 0.5 inches (12 millimeters) per year. Eight islands have already been submerged and two more are close to vanishing. By the year 2100, experts fear 48 more islands in the Pacific will be completely underwater.

So what about the people who live there? What do we call these people who will be displaced? It's actually complicated. It's difficult to determine what category these migrants should fall under because no global definition exists. Why does that matter? Without a standard method of classification, there's no way to track how many people are affected or displaced by an environmental or climate event. So the most commonly used term is "environmental refugee."

Experts credit the term and its definition to UN Environment Programme (UNEP) researcher Essam El-Hinnawi, who in 1985 wrote the United Nations report titled "Environmental Refugees." El-Hinnawi defined environmental refugees as:

... those people who have been forced to leave their traditional habitat, temporarily or permanently, because of a marked environmental disruption (natural and/or triggered by people) that jeopardized their existence and/or seriously affected the quality of their life.

This working definition has been the baseline for current debate.

But according to the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention, a refugee "is someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion" [source: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees]. Environmental refugees do not legally fall under this status.

" " An Indonesian woman and her children rest at a refugee center for those displaced by recent flash floods on March 21, 2019 in Sentani, Papua province, Indonesia. Ed Wray/Getty Images
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu held talks Thursday in Tripoli with the head of Libya's UN-recognised government on a political solution to end the country's conflict.

Cavusoglu, accompanied by his Maltese counterpart Evaris Bartolo, met Fayez al-Sarraj, whose Government of National Accord (GNA) is backed by Ankara against eastern-based military commander Khalifa Haftar.

"Even if there is no officially declared ceasefire, calm reigns on the ground" for now, Cavusoglu told reporters after the meeting.

But "Libya's problem persists", he added.

A "durable" ceasefire should mean that the GNA, Libya's "legitimate government", is able to spread its control to the east of Tripoli, in areas currently held by Haftar's forces, Cavusoglu said.

That, he added, means being able to take control of the strategic port of Sirte, gateway to the country's oilfields, and Al-Jufra airbase, to the south.

Haftar, he added, "still does not believe in a political solution and can attack... Tripoli any time".

Haftar launched an offensive last year to seize Tripoli, headquarters of the GNA, but earlier this year forces loyal to the UN-recognised government pushed the strongman from much of western Libya.

GNA forces have also vowed to retake Sirte, the last major settlement before the traditional boundary between western Libya and Haftar's stronghold in the east.

Libya has been mired in chaos since the 2011 overthrow of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi, with rival political and armed groups battling for control.

Tensions have been running high between Turkey and nations that back Haftar, notably Russia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The GNA signed security and maritime agreements with Turkey last year, and Ankara's military support has included drones that helped retake Libya's northwest.

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It seems like Google is thinking of releasing a foldable Pixel smartphone at some point, while the Pixel 5a is coming as well. Both of these devices got mentioned in a leaked Android document.

This leaked document mentions both a foldable Google Pixel, and the Pixel 5a

This information comes from 9to5Google, and it seems like both a foldable Google Pixel and Pixel 5a are coming next year. This document actually lists Android OS information for all publicly-launches Pixels since the Pixel 2.

On top of that, some unannounced phones are also mentioned. The Google Pixel 5a is mentioned, under the codename barbette. Three other devices that are currently in development are also mentioned in this document.

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Those three devices are codenamed raven, oriole, and passport. It is noted, in this document, that these codenames may differ from the ones used in AOSP. Googles upcoming phones are usually named after fish, so it makes sense.

Now, the source guesses that the raven and oriole could be the Google Pixel 6 models. The details are not revealed here. The passport is quite interesting, though, for a good reason.

This phone is explicitly referred to as being a foldable. This clearly suggests that Google is developing a foldable Pixel smartphone. In any case, all three of those phones are said to arrive in Q4 2021.

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So, it looks like Google may not only release the Pixel 5a and 6 series handsets next year, but also its very first foldable smartphone. Things may change down the line, of course, but at the moment, thats what this document hints at.

Google did not want to comment on this

The source did reach out to Google for a comment, but the company refused to comment on it. It stated that it does not comment on rumors or speculation. That was the expected response.

Now, some of you may remember that CNET reported, last year, that Google is developing a foldable Pixel. The Pixel head, Mario Queiroz, did say that the company was only prototyping the technology.

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He also noted that the company has been doing that for a long time, and that theres no clear use case yet. Well, things may have changed since then, and Google may actually be developing its first Pixel foldable.

It is also worth noting that this document mentions that the Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5 are coming in October. Google already spilled the beans by accidentally confirming October 8 as the launch date.
Ogden Business Leader to Speak at WSU Commencement

August 6, 2020

OGDEN, Utah  Crystal Call Maggelet, CEO of FJ Management Inc., will speak at Weber State Universitys 155th commencement on Aug. 29 at 8 p.m. in Stewart Stadium. Maggelet will also receive an honorary degree.

Crystal Call Maggelet is a second generation CEO of FJ Management Inc., a diversified family business headquartered in Ogden, Utah, that includes wholly owned subsidiaries Maverik convenience store chain and Big West Oil petroleum refinery. FJ Management also has a minority stake in Pilot Flying J, a chain of truck stops in the United States and Canada. Other family businesses include TAB Bank and the Crystal Inn hotel chain. In addition to her role as chair of the FJ Management Board, she is the director and audit committee chair of the Pilot Flying J Board of Managers.

In 1960, with his sights set on becoming a leader in owning and operating travel plazas along interstate highways, Maggelets father, Jay Call, started a business with one small leased station in Willard, Utah. By 1968, Call had incorporated as Flying J Inc., with four independent gasoline outlets. Over the next 10 years, he rapidly expanded his discount chain by adding 50 stations, primarily along the Pacific Coast and in Idaho.

Maggelet served on her fathers board of directors at age 18. At 22, after graduating from Pepperdine University with a bachelors degree in business administration, Maggelet worked for Flying J as a buyer and seller of liquid petroleum gas. She later earned an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration and worked as a national salesperson for a small credit card company in Connecticut.

After returning to Utah, Maggelet and her husband, Chuck Maggelet, started the Crystal Inn which grew into a regional chain of 14 hotels. She eventually put her business career on hold to raise her four children until her father's untimely death in a 2003 airplane accident and a series of events led to Flying Js bankruptcy. With the fates of thousands of employees resting heavily on her shoulders, Maggelet was able to restructure, pay back every creditor, save jobs and ultimately save the company. She also preserved her fathers name and integrity. At the 2018 Entrepreneur of the Year Awards Gala, Maggelet received a special Lifetime Achievement award in recognition of her accomplishments.

Maggelet is currently one of 18 people appointed by the governor to serve on the Utah Board of Higher Education. She also serves on the Liv Communities Board, Intermountain Healthcare Board and the Zions Bank Advisory Board.

Visit weber.edu/wsutoday for more news about Weber State University.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 09:42:47|Editor: huaxia

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PYONGYANG, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), presided over a meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) on Wednesday to establish a new division and improve the party's functions, official media reported Thursday.

The Fourth Meeting of the Executive Policy Council of the Seventh WPK Central Committee discussed the issue of setting up a new department within the Central Committee and the ways to improve the party's personnel affairs system, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. It did not give further details about the new department.

At the meeting, "Kim Jong Un called upon the members of the Executive Policy Council to decisively improve the work of the fields in their charge by displaying high sense of responsibility and devotion," according to the KCNA report.

Members at the meeting also heard a report on the anti-epidemic work and the situation in Kaesong City, which is completely locked down under the state's maximum emergency system, and decided to provide special supply of food and funds to the city to stabilize the living of its citizens, the report said.

Kim placed Kaesong near the border with South Korea under total lockdown on July 25 after a person there was found with suspected COVID-19 symptoms, though the official media said a few days later that no confirmed case was reported in the country. Currently, Kaesong is still under lockdown, with "the maximum emergency system" being carried out in the whole country to stem the epidemic. Enditem
Coronavirus will exist for years but can likely be controlled without complete shutdowns, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci.

In a new interview, Fauci, the nations leading infectious disease expert, said the highly transmissible nature of the virus makes it unlikely it will be eradicated from the planet.

But what I think we can do with the combination of a good vaccine and attention to public health measures  by attention I dont mean shut down, I mean things that are just prudent  then I think we can get behind this, Fauci said.

Among those prudent steps are wearing masks, maintaining physical distance, washing their hands and opting for outdoor activities over indoor ones to slow transmission of the virus, he added.

Fauci said he believes the virus should become more manageable as time progresses.

I hope and feel its possible that by the time we get through 2021 and go around for another cycle that well have this under control, he said. Is it conceivable that we wont? Of course. I would be unrealistic to say that. Do I think were going to have much, much better control one full year from this winter? I think so.

More than 158,000 Americans have died of COVID-19 with almost 4.8 million confirmed cases in the U.S.

Here are the latest coronavirus headlines

Texas reports almost 9,000 new coronavirus cases

Texas reported 8,706 new coronavirus cases Wednesday, a decline of 461 from Tuesday and 336 from a week ago.

The positivity rate, however, jumped to almost 16%, up 2 percentage points from Monday and up 3 percentage points from a week ago. The state reported 235 deaths Wednesday but saw a decline in hospitalizations.

43% of Floridas COVID-19 deaths linked to long-term care facilities

More than 40% of all COVID-19 deaths in Florida are linked to long-term care facilities.

Data from the Florida Health Department shows 3,155 out of 7,402 deaths are among those in long-term care facilities.

Coronavirus changes Democrat convention plans

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden will not travel to Milwaukee to formally accept his partys 2020 presidential nomination, the Democratic National Committee said.

Biden will accept his nomination virtually from his home state of Delaware. Other speakers, including Bidens eventual running mate, will all address the gathering virtually.

The Democratic convention is planned for Aug. 17-20.
century and will persist even when the current wave of demonstrations ebb. Russia east of the Urals is simply too big in size and too small in population; too economically important and too central to the self-conception of Russians everywhere; too far away from Moscow and too close to China and the Pacific; and yet, too culturally different from Russians in the European portions of the country. Moscow is already more concerned about Siberian regionalism than ever before. But now, the Siberians themselvesethnic Russian and non-Russian alikeare giving the center more compelling reasons to worry.

Russia east of the Urals comprises more than two-thirds of the Russian Federation but has only about one-fifth of that countrys population. It is where most of Russias natural resources are to be found, though the earnings from their extraction largely go to Moscow and not to local people. The region is located three to ten time zones east of Moscow and is linked to the center by few roads or rail lines. Its people are far closer to China and other Pacific rim countriesincluding the United Statesthan to the core of the Russian Federation. Because of their roots in explorers, those fleeing oppression, and those sent there by the state for punishment, eastern Russians have always been more independent minded and entrepreneurial than Russians in central and western Russia. Perhaps the most important measure of this cultural divide is that Protestant faiths dominate the religious scene there, not the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (Zabinfo.ru, Windowoneurasia.blogspot.com, November 8, 2010).

All these features of the Siberian cultural and political scene stem from the tsarist period. In 1818, Russian commentator Nikolay Novikov called attention to the uniqueness of Siberia among Russian lands, pointing out that it had never known serfdom or tight imperial control. He argued that Siberia should, therefore, eventually become an independent country. His ideas were dismissed by imperial authorities as the inventions of Siberian bureaucrats who wanted more power for themselves or of foreigners who wanted to snatch the region from the empire. But the notion had deep roots and continued to influence the thinking of people in the region (BABR, Windowoneurasia.blogspot.com, July 18, 2008).

Following St. Petersburgs suppression of the Polish revolt in 1863 and the exiling of Polish revolutionaries to Siberia, the authorities uncovered an alleged conspiracy of Siberian separatists. The tsarist government brought Grigory Potanin, Nikolay Yadrintsev and Afanasiy Shchapov to trial. These three men came to be known as the founding fathers of what was eventually termed oblastnichestvo, the Russian word for regionalism in general but typically applied only to its Siberian variant. However, their legal case, instead of wiping out Siberian regionalism, actually attracted more attention to their ideas, thus ensuring the survival of oblastnichestvo. Tsarist, Soviet and Russian governments have made similar mistakes since (John Stephan, The Russian Far East, Stanford, 1996).

In the last decades of tsarist power, oblastnichestvo continued to spread as an idea; and when the Russian central government collapsed in 1917, Siberian regionalists were ready to act. By mid-1918, most of Siberia had been cleared of Bolsheviks; and on June 17, a date Siberians still mark, a Provisional Siberian Government issued a declaration on the state independence of Siberia, with Omsk as its capital. Had it sought immediate separation from Bolshevik Moscow or had it not been equally opposed by the anti-Bolshevik movement led by Admiral Alexander Kolchak, Siberia might have gained real independence then. Indeed, though its leadership chose not to pursue this, the region could have sought to exchange a declaration of neutrality in the Russian Civil War for Moscows recognition of its independence.

When that failed to happen, Siberians briefly declared the formation of a buffer Far Eastern Republic (19201922), which todays Khabarovsk protesters have been referring to (URA.ru, July 28). Soviet occupation followed, and Moscow proceeded to engage in divide-and-rule tactics against the Siberians. It kept re-dividing the region into ever smaller territories to block the emergence of a Siberian identity (Region.expert, October 19, 2019; Windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com, October 22, 2019). Moscow relies on those divisions to this day, but Vladimir Putins creation of overarching federal districts has worked in the opposite direction. And it is worth noting that one of the reasons Khabarovsk residents are in the streets was Moscows decision to move the headquarters of the Far Eastern Federal District from their city to Vladivostok.

Moscow has long assumed it could count on Russian fears of Chinese expansionism to keep the Siberians in line. But in the last few years, with Moscow granting concessions to Chinese firms in the region, the center has produced what it most fears: Russians in Siberia are often just as angry at Moscow as they are at China; and they have been demanding greater autonomy and even talking on occasion about a United States of Siberia. They see China as an economic success story they are not allowed to be part of and Moscow as facilitating rather than limiting any Chinese advance (see EDM, June 26, 2018; see Commentaries, September 14, 2015). In this way, along with its clumsy efforts to suppress federalist ideas (Region.expert, September 30, 2019; Windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com, October 1, 2019), Moscow has been promoting regionalism and even separatism across Russia east of the Urals (Ingria.info, Windowoneurasia.blogspot.com, September 28, 2010).

Some in Moscow are finally beginning to pay attention to Siberian regionalism (Nazaccent.ru, Windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com, June 13, 2017), but most in the Kremlin still believe Siberians are incapable of acting on their own. Moreover, Russias leadership remains convinced that Moscow has plenty of ways to counter such moves without making concessions, and that any regionalist or secessionist process in Siberia is fueled by the United States, Ukraine, George Soros or infamous Western voices like Radio Liberty, which has been devoting increasing attention to Siberia (Versia.ru, October 11, 2016; URA.ru, October 12, 2016; see EDM, November 9, 2017). Kremlin officials have also failed to take note of the rise of Siberian and Urals emigration, which calls into question Putins insistence that Russian speakers are, by definition, united under Moscow (Windoweurasia2.blogspot.com, June 28, 2018 and April 17, 2020).

The Kremlin continues to make mistakes, failing to recognize the most important aspect of regionalism in Siberia and the Russian Far East. It is not ethnically limited but rather encompasses various ethnic and religious groups, economic interests, and almost all political partiesas has been the case in Khabarovsk (Windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com, March 15, 2019, August 24, 2019, December 20, 2019).

Moscow is not alone in failing to recognize the power of regionalism. Like the Russian authorities, most Western analysts have overlearned the events of 1991 and continue to assume that nationalism, not regionalism, is the only real threat worth tracking. To be sure, nationalism does remain strong in the North Caucasus, Middle Volga and among the peoples of the High North, but regionalism is already more intense and, thus, will likely play a key role in the future of the Russian Federation (Svobodnaya Pressa, June 10, 2010; Rusplt.ru, June 4, 2016; Windowoneurasia.blogspot.com, September 25, 2007, June 11, 2010, June 11, 2016). As the demonstrations in the streets of Khabarovsk show, regionalism may replace the role of nationalism in the next Russian revolution (Region.expert, December 28, 2016).
If your brother-in-law and his partner dont want to be a part of your childs life, then you have to respect their choice. You might even be grateful for it, because these people sound very demanding and unsupportive. Do not expect them to behave differently, and do not gossip about them or invite others to engage on your behalf.
New South Wales is already deep in the 'red zone' where COVID-19 is hard to control despite reporting a little more than a handful of infections each day, experts warn.

Every day, the Premier of Australia's biggest state, Gladys Berejiklian, warns NSW is on a 'knife edge' despite a seemingly small number of daily cases.

The state has reported just 12 or 13 cases each day this week and is far outpaced by Victoria's stunning triple-digit outbreak. The southern state recorded 725 cases yesterday and 471 new cases today.

But a World Health Organisation infection control adviser said NSW is already in 'difficult to control' territory, claiming it passed a magic number some time ago.

Women wear face masks and protective glasses at Sydney Airport after flying in from Melbourne this week

Victoria was already deep into its red zone in late June, with more than 100 cases reported every two days just before the epidemic sprung out of control

Papers, please: A Victorian man is forced to produce his work permit to patrolling Victoria Police and ADF personnel

In a piece for The Conversation, the University of New South Wales's Professor Mary-Louise McLaws wrote: 'My analysis of the data suggests when cases reach 100 over 14 days - the 'red zone' - then an outbreak becomes very difficult to control.

'This happened in Victoria on June 18, before cases skyrocketed and a second lockdown was called for July 8.'

Epidemiologist Professor Mary-Louise McLaws, from the University of New South Wales

New South Wales has reported about 188 cases in total over the past fortnight according to Health department news releases.

That places the state squarely in Professor McLaw's 'red zone', despite the number of daily cases trending down in recent days.

To move to safer ground the state would need to report an average of just seven cases a day for two weeks.

Disease specialist Professor Tony Blakely warned if the virus was shed by a superspreader, NSW's outbreak has 'got potential to explode in the same way Melbourne did'.

Prof Blakely said there was uncertainty about the number of COVID superspreaders but estimated them at about one in 10 of those infected.

Ms Berejiklian earlier this week warned that just one case could cause a 'huge tidal wave' of coronavirus. She went so far on Thursday as to urge young people to curtail their socialising.

Two of today's 12 cases involving young men visiting several bars around Sydney and Newcastle at the weekend.

'If you have the virus and you go out five times a week to different places you could potentially be spreading it to five different locations, and then we have to contract trace everybody,' Ms Berejiklian said.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has urged young people to reduce their social activities during the critical time as the government ramps up its fight against the coronavirus

The scene in Melbourne: Police inspect a tobacconist amid Victoria's harsh coronavirus lockdown

Victoria has plunged into stage four lockdown with entire industries closed. Above, tourist attraction Hosier Lane is virtually deserted

VIRUS CASES ACROSS AUSTRALIA: THURSDAY New South Wales reported 12 cases including two under investigation Victoria reported 471 new cases and eight deaths Queensland and South Australia reported zero new cases Advertisement

Professor Blakely said NSW contact tracing teams had done a fantastic job in keeping track of the virus.

But 'they're still not keeping ahead of it', with mystery cases popping up each day, he said.

That call is guided by the experience and analysis of the state's chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, he said.

'Whether or not there's a magic number, (Professor McLaw)'s got huge experience and if she says 100, as a rule of thumb, it's a sensible one I think.'

Victorian health officials have provided some sobering statistics on how quickly his state's outbreak got out of control at the beginning of July.

The southern state had 20 cases on June 25.

Just 16 days later, on July 11, it had 200 cases.

Authorities project if that continued, July 27 would have seen the state suffer through 2000 cases a day.

August 12 numbers would have reached 20,000.
A 6-year-old girl was hospitalized in stable condition after being struck in the chest by a stray bullet in front of her familys home Wednesday night in West Philadelphia, police said.

Police were called just before 9:20 p.m. to respond to a reported shooting in the 900 block of North 42nd Street, said Chief Inspector Scott Small. When officers arrived they found evidence of a shooting scene and were initially told by neighbors that a 5-year-old girl had been shot and was rushed by private vehicle to an area hospital.

The girl, who was later determined to be 6, was taken to Temple University Hospital and was listed in stable condition. She later was transferred to St. Christophers Hospital for Children, Small said.

Police found 13 spent shell casings about 500 feet north of where the girl was shot.

She was playing on the sidewalk right in front of her home, Small said. She was playing with other little children.

The kids heard what they thought were firecrackers and then the girl started crying, Small said. She had been shot by a stray bullet.

Detectives were checking nearby surveillance cameras for possible video of the crime.

Polce Commissioner Danielle Outlaw issued a statement: Once again, we find ourselves grieving the senseless shooting of one of our precious children. In this instance, a beautiful six-year-old girl was shot while enjoying a warm summer evening in her neighborhood.

This is not acceptable, this not normal, and this is not something that we should ever tolerate or become immune to as a society. Our children are our future, and we all have a duty and an obligation to keep our children safe from harm. We will utilize all available resources in securing justice and promoting healing for all who are affected by this senseless and shameful act of violence. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the young child and her family, Outlaw said.

The shooting follows the fatal wounding of 7-year-old Zamar Jones on Saturday in the 200 block of North Simpson Street, also in West Philadelphia. He died at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia on Monday.

There was a community vigil for Zamar earlier Wednesday evening.
ALBANY  An advocate for utility customers signaled Tuesday it will strongly contest a proposal from National Grid for higher electric and gas rates for communities across a broad swath of upstate New York.

National Grid said it initially planned to file its rate case in April but delayed the submission because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the company, residential electricity customers would see an average bill increase of 4%, or $3.43 per month. The increase would be steeper for residential gas customers, with an average bill climbing 6%, or $4.53 per month.

Residential gas customers would see an average bill increase of 6%, or $4.53 per month.

Phase in new rates

The proposed rate increases are projected to yield $100.4 million a year in additional revenue from electricity delivery, with higher gas delivery rates projected to generate nearly $42 million annually. The combined increases total some $142 million.

National Grids New York president, John Bruckner, said in a statement the company, while filing a one-year plan, hopes to attain a multi-year agreement that would phase in new rates to further mitigate customer bill impacts.

Richard Berkley, director of the Public Utility Law Project, a ratepayer advocacy group, said both the electric and gas requests have the potential to leave customer facing rate hikes exceeding 10% over a three-year period.

We will oppose any double-digit increases anywhere in the state during this economic crisis that were in, Berkley told CNHI.

National Grids filing is believed to be the first effort by a New York utility to incorporate a plan for addressing the states Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, whose goal is to have the state run on carbon-free electricity by 2040 while also slashing greenhouse gas emissions.

Berkley said he expects municipal leaders from the upstate region will become involved in the proceeding with a view towards negotiating a settlement that does not take an economic toll on the upstate economy

This is going to raise their bills at a time when they are all having significant fiscal stress, he said.

COVID relief

National Grid contends it needs new rates to pay for energy affordability programs, support economic development programs and invest in energy efficiency initiatives and programs that help customers manage usage.

In announcing the filing, National Grid also revealed it will provide $50 million in COVID relief to support economically vulnerable residential customers as well as businesses that are struggling because of the financial impact of the pandemic.

Bruckner said National Grid will work with Public Service Commission staff and other parties to determine eligibility details. The plan to provide the assistance will be filed separately from the request to reset delivery rates beginning in July 2021 so that the COVID relief can be made available to customers more quickly.

The companys current three-year rate agreement expires March 31.

National Grid serves 1.6 million electricity customers in New York, while 600,000 households rely on the utility for natural gas service.

Joe Mahoney covers the New York Statehouse for CNHIs newspapers and websites. Reach him at jmahoney@cnhi.com

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Regulatory DataCorp (RDC) has been recognized in a new report from Celent that profiles vendors of Know Your Customer (KYC) systems. RDC, which Moodys acquired in January, won the 2020 xCelent Customer Base award for KYC Systems.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200805005308/en/

(Graphic: Business Wire)

The number of live customers using its system, and the geographic footprint and business sectors of its client base are among the factors that contributed to RDC earning this award.

RDC combines forward-looking technology with an expansive proprietary risk-relevant dataset to deliver best-in-class customer screening solutions. Organizations around the world employ RDC solutions when onboarding new customers, for their ongoing KYC and AML compliance and anti-bribery and corruption due diligence, and for assessing and managing their vendor risk.

The ability to assess the risk status of new customersas well as changes in the risk profile of existing clientsis a necessary foundation to the risk-based approach to AML compliance, said Neil Katkov, Head of Risk and Compliance, Celent. In this context, a strength of RDCs solution is its coverage for more than 50 categories of risk ranging from money laundering, terrorism, and organized crime to assault, fraud, and human trafficking.

Were honored by this recognition from Celent, said Tom Walsh, CEO of RDC. Our clients believe in and benefit from our groundbreaking solutions, with our shared mission of fighting financial crime each and every day. We especially appreciate this recognition of our customer-first approach, which highlights our outstanding customer service. As this award demonstrates, we are positioned firmly as a leader in the KYC space.

Within Moodys Analytics, RDCs solutions are complemented by those offered by Bureau van Dijk. Bureau van Dijks Orbis is the world's leading entity database, with information on more than 375 million private companies and other entities. Its Compliance Catalyst platform, powered by Orbis, helps clients streamline their KYC, AML, and onboarding activities. Coupled with RDCs GRID database of individuals and organizations that have elevated risk profiles, the combined capabilities provide a powerful solution for both verifying and screening customers.

Learn more about RDC.

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 or 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 11,200 people worldwide and maintains a presence in 40 countries.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200805005308/en/
CHATSWORTH, Calif.Adult industry mental health support group Pineapple Support will be the host of a collaborative therapy group whose main focus will be on the trauma(s) experienced by adult performers. The six-week course, provided by Pineapple Support therapist Angie Gunn, begins tomorrow, August 7, and will be limited to nine participants.

In this collaborative group, we will explore the many layers of trauma and its impact on every facet of well-being, Gunn explained. We will provide the basics of trauma neurobiology and tools for understanding the nuances of the symptoms, while also creating strategies for healing and integration of all the parts of you.

Trauma can be difficult to talk about if its not in the correct settings with the right professionals, said Leya Tanit, the British performer who founded Pineapple Support as a non-profit in 2018. Angie has been specifically trained in sexuality, trauma, attachment and family systems and I know this support group is going to be incredibly beneficial for all those that participate. Space is limited to nine participants, so reserve your place soon.

The six-week course, named "Traumas Shadow," begins tomorrow, August 7, and will take place online from 6 to 7 p.m. each Friday until September 11. For more information and/or to secure a place, click here.
Journalist Lana Murphy went viral earlier this week after she casually dropped the F-bomb on Nine News Melbourne.

And the reporter has since explained what really happened, saying it wasn't actually a live broadcast but a pre-recorded segment that should never have made it to air.

On Tuesday, Murphy tweeted her apologies and confirmed that she hadn't been fired for the gaffe because it wasn't her fault.

'I have a great boss, so I'll be back!' Glamorous Nine News reporter Lana Murphy (pictured) has finally explained her F-bomb gaffe that went viral earlier this week

'Thanks for the love and apologies to those who got more than they bargained for on Nine News Melbourne,' she tweeted.

'Unfortunately the wrong version (clearly) of a pre-record made it to air but thankfully I have a great boss and I'll be back on your screens tomorrow.

'2020 though, am I right?'

'Apologies to those who got more than they bargained for!' On Tuesday, Murphy tweeted her apologies and confirmed that she hadn't been fired for the gaffe because it wasn't her fault

Earlier this week, a pre-recorded blooper of Murphy swearing was played instead of the final version that was supposed to air.

She was reporting on Victoria's coronavirus crisis when she stumbled over her words and sheepishly told someone off camera: 'F**k my life!'

Thinking the camera had stopped rolling, she began fussing with her hair before the segment cut back to Alicia Loxley in the Nine News studio.

Happens to the best of us! Earlier this week, a pre-recorded blooper of Murphy swearing was played instead of the final version that was supposed to air

Some 'live cross' segments are pre-recorded before they are broadcast on television.

It's evident that Murphy's package was filmed beforehand; however, the wrong footage was accidentally handed over to producers.

Many viewers joked that Murphy's 'f**k my life' gaffe was the perfect metaphor for how 2020 has been for many Australians.
Mr. Kleindienst overrode their concerns with an opinion from the Justice Departments legal counsel, William Rehnquist, who had been his protege in their home state, Arizona. Mr. Rehnquist said the act didnt apply; the president had inherent constitutional authority to use troops to protect the functioning of the government. (Mr. Rehnquist would be named to the Supreme Court by Mr. Nixon later that year and elevated to chief justice under President Ronald Reagan.)

Mr. Kleindienst faced another obstacle. David Packard, the deputy secretary of defense, pointed out the procedures a president should follow, under the Insurrection Act, in calling forth the military: a formal order that demonstrators disperse and, if they dont, an executive order to send in troops. Mr. Nixons predecessor, Lyndon Johnson, had done this during the riots in Washington in 1968 after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The White House, however, wanted to keep its involvement under wraps. According to Mr. Haldemans diary, Mr. Nixon let Mr. Packard know he wanted troops sent without any public presidential action. The White House spread the fake news that city officials had requested the military help.

In contrast, Mr. Trump has been open about his desire to send troops to dominate streets in cities with Black Lives Matter protests. After Defense Secretary Mark Esper and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, stood in the way of using active-duty military, the president dispatched forces from agencies including Customs and Border Protection. In June, those agents cleared peaceful demonstrators from Lafayette Square outside the White House for the presidents now-famous photo op in front of a church. In Portland, Ore., they used tear gas and other riot tools to disperse largely peaceful protesters outside the federal courthouse.

During the 1971 Mayday action, as 12,000 people tried to snarl rush-hour traffic with nonviolent civil disobedience, a majority of the regular troops fended off protesters at bridges and federal buildings, or guarded large groups of detained protesters. Most soldiers didnt confront demonstrators directly, but their presence and hardware bolstered the authoritarian tactics and escalated tensions. A police dragnet swept up 7,000 people that Monday, including many young people just walking on the streets wearing hippie-style clothing, and took in more than 5,000 other demonstrators over the next two days. My research confirmed that Mr. Nixon gave the order to make the mass arrests. He made it clear later to a group of conservative members of Congress: The point is, I had the responsibility, he told them. I approved this plan.

As criticism mounted that the dragnet was unconstitutional (courts ultimately agreed, awarding detainees millions in damages), Mr. Nixons involvement was suspected. The White House denied it. Aides instructed the police chief, Mr. Wilson, to take the heat. I wish to emphasize the fact that I made all tactical decisions relating to the recent disorders, he said in a public statement. I took these steps because I felt they were necessary to protect the safety of law-abiding citizens and to maintain order in the city. The tapes show Mr. Nixons men were delighted.

Wilson went to the mat today, Mr. Ehrlichman confirmed to Mr. Nixon. Good for him! the president said. Mr. Ehrlichman added, We programmed him to do this this morning, and he did better than you could possibly have programmed. He went on: He has never let us down yet.

No military leader expressed second thoughts in the weeks after Mayday.

But in June, after General Milley accompanied Mr. Trump to Lafayette Square wearing combat fatigues as protesters were dispersed by federal agents and police, he said he regretted taking part.
Previously unseen concepts for Buzz Lightyear. (Disney/Pixar)

Disney and Pixar have shared previously unseen sketches of iconic Toy Story character Buzz Lightyear, and they show the Space Ranger looking very different.

One version sees the character  voiced by Tim Allen in all four Toy Story films  when he was called Lunar Larry, another sees him donning a pair of holstered ray guns on both hips.

These new images were released as Pixar and Disney announce Pixar Fest, a month-long celebration of 25 years of Toy Story and the animation studios 20 years of support for the charity MediCinema.

Pixar historian Christine Freeman said: Buzz is one of our most popular characters, and its fascinating to see the different ways that Pixars artists imagined him during the evolution of his design.

(Disney / Pixar)

Even his name changed over time  from Tempus of Morph to Lunar Larry, to Buzz Lightyear. You can see the LL belt buckle (for Lunar Larry) in a few of these early designs.

Read more: Tom Hanks in talks to play Geppetto

2020 marks the 25th anniversary of Pixars Toy Story, the pioneering CGI film that would change animation and Hollywood forever.

(Disney / Pixar)

The virtual festival will premiere on Disney+ UK from Sunday, 9 August with an epic collection of Pixar movies, and will feature weekly watchalongs, animator masterclasses, quizzes for movie buffs, arts and crafts for kids, and new product releases.

Pixar revolutionised the art of animation 25 years ago with the release of Toy Story and since then has brought us some of the most iconic and unique moments in filmmaking history, says Tasia Filippatos, SVP Disney EMEA.

(Disney / Pixar)

Pixar Fest will give fans of all ages the chance to celebrate their favourites through a host of activities and even cast their vote in The Golden Lamp Awards. We hope the line-up brings some summer holiday fun and movie magic to homes across the UK.

Read more: New Pixar film announced

Pixar Fests line-up on Pixars Facebook page @PixarUK includes:

Sunday watchalongs on Disneys social channels, with movies streamed on Disney+ including Toy Story (9 August), Cars (16 August), Inside Out (23 August) and The Incredibles (30 August), plus Pixar quizzes hosted by Edith Bowman. Patients in MediCinema hospitals will be able to watch along on bedside screens at the same time and will also receive specially designed activity packs.

Story continues

(Disney / Pixar)

Talent including Tony Hale, animators and celebrities including Katie Piper, Danny Jones, Myleene Klass and Aston Merrygold will be unveiling their favourite Pixar moments over the last 25 years as part of The Golden Lamp Awards with MediCinema nurses and volunteers shortlisting a special Moments that Matter category for fans to vote for their top Pixar moment.

shopDisneys Pixar Fest Party At Home packs, which include everything fans need to host their own Pixar party will also be up for grabs via weekly competitions.

An online masterclass with a Pixar animator, hosted by film aficionado Mark Kermode, to teach fans how to draw Pixar characters and learn some of the secrets behind the animations, hosted on Disneys social channels on 12 August.

(Disney / Pixar)

BAFTA Kids will put on a virtual animation masterclass on 15 August where children submitted their questions to discover everything that they need to know about how to become a top animator.

Fans can also help to raise funds for MediCinema through Pixar Fests Charity Tuesdays to win money-cant-buy Pixar prizes, including a drawing lesson with a Pixar artist and an exclusive piece of Pixar artwork through prize draws run by MediCinema.

(Disney / Pixar)

As part of its ongoing worldwide commitment to provide comfort and inspiration through movie moments and help reduce isolation for seriously ill children in hospitals, Disney has pledged 750,000 to MediCinema to help reach more children by developing and building additional state of the art hospital cinemas in UK and Italy. Visits to these cinemas help improve wellbeing, and combat isolation and the anxiety of spending time on the wards.

Kat Mason, Chief Executive of MediCinema said: In our 20th anniversary year and 20 years of working with Disney, we are incredibly happy to be the recipient of this donation that will help ensure our cinema services can impact so many more children and their families.

(Disney / Pixar)

 In addition, all money raised from the prize draws will help to make sure we can keep our current services running, which is more important now than ever for children and their families facing time spent in hospital."

Pixar fans can also look forward to a range of brand-new products from Mattel, Funko and Pandora. Also launching is a new range of merchandise honouring the heritage of Pixar at shopDisney, including a new line of Aliens products that feature the Toy Story favourites as different characters from Pixar movies.

(Disney / Pixar)

Pixar Fest will run from 9 August - 6 September in support of charity MediCinema. For more information, visit Pixars Facebook page @PixarUK.

Following the celebration of Pixar Fest in the UK, the virtual festival will kick off in the U.S. on 5 September with another month-long celebration of all things Pixar. The U.S. festival line-up will feature Disney and Pixars Onward, Inside Out, The Incredibles, Toy Story and Up. The festivities will also include new product launches, giveaways, Pixar-inspired recipes and other digital activations.
Mortgage rates have continued their historic slide as the economic fallout of the coronavirus unfolds.

The average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 2.88 percent last week, the lowest since the government-sponsored mortgage-finance company Freddie Mac began tracking rates in 1971. That was down from 3.60 percent a year earlier, meaning a new homeowner buying an average-priced home, which in the Houston area is about $320,000, with 20 percent down would save $121 a month. The average rate for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 2.44 percent.

REFINANCES: Refinances surge again as mortgages fall to all-time lows

But many will not be able to take advantage of the historically low rates. "(Banks) have continued to tighten lending standards in July, further restricting available credit," said George Ratiu, senior economist at the home listing website realtor.com, in an email. Prospective homebuyers now often need higher credit scores and downpayments than they did pre-pandemic, and those who are self-employed or own rentals are encountering more stringent requirements to prove their likely future income.

What's more, the number of homes listed for sale in the Houston area remains below what it was a year ago, according to data from the Houston Association of Realtors. "At this pace, tighter lending standards and low inventory will squeeze housing activity and we will see a substantial slow down in sales in the second half of the year," Ratiu said.

While low mortgage rates are good for homebuyers and owners, they signal that investors are concerned about the future of the economy. When investors become nervous, they seek safer investments and pour money into government bonds and mortgage debt  much of it backed by Freddie Mac and its sister company Fannie Mae.

Investors are so hungry for security that they are willing to accept lower yields, driving down the interest paid on bonds and mortgages. Actions by the Federal Reserve to support the economy, including cutting short-term rates to near zero and buying government- and mortgage-backed bonds, are also driving down mortgage rates.
Business activity in China has recovered quickly from the start of the coronavirus health crisis, the CEO of one of Europe's largest manufacturers told CNBC Thursday.

"China has been able to very, very quickly recover from the origin of the crisis. In our business, China is actually up compared to last year's period, so we've seen higher numbers in demand then we used to see pre-crisis," Joe Kaeser, CEO of Siemens, told CNBC's Annette Weisbach.

Between April and June, Chinese orders increased by 6% from a year ago. All the other jurisdictions where Siemens operates, apart from Germany, recorded a drop in the number of orders in the same period.

Siemens reported Thursday net income of 535 million euros ($635 million) for the three months to June. This represented a drop of 53% from a year ago. Despite the challenging economic environment, Siemens also said that higher income taxes contributed to the drop in profit.

Other highlights for the quarter:

Revenues hit 13.5 billion euros  5% lower from a year ago.

Free cash flow jumped to 2.5 billion euros from 434 million euros a year ago.

"All units, but most notably Siemens Mobility, contributed to this substantial improvement," the German firm said in a statement about the 200% surge in cash flow. This was supported by the move to stop some operations, which yielded a positive free cash flow of 433 million euros and a series of asset management measures at Siemens Energy, it said.

For the remainder of the year, Siemens expects that the ongoing economic crisis as a result of the coronavirus pandemic will keep impacting its business.

"Going forward there is some volatility associated with the probability that we will see a second wave," Kaeser said.

However, the firm is still planning to complete the spin-off and public listing of Siemens Energy before the end of its fiscal year.
China plans to launch 2 more meteorological satellites in 2021

Global Times

Source: Xinhua Published: 2020/8/5 14:25:57

China plans to launch two more meteorological satellites in 2021, sources with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation said Wednesday.

One of the planned satellites is called Fengyun-3E (FY-3E). It will be the fifth member of the country's Fengyun-3 series of satellites in polar orbit and the world's first meteorological satellite in dawn-dusk orbit.

A dawn-dusk orbit is a sun-synchronous orbit in which the satellite tracks but never moves into the Earth's shadow. Since the satellite is close to the shadow, the part of Earth the satellite is directly above is always at sunset or sunrise, giving the orbit its name.

As the sun's light is always shining upon the satellite, it can make constant use of its solar panels. Once in orbit, the FY-3E satellite will improve the accuracy and efficiency of global numerical weather prediction, according to the company.

The other satellite is Fengyun-4B (FY-4B), which will be the second geostationary meteorological satellite of the Fengyun-4 series. China launched the FY-4A, a scientific experiment satellite, into space in December 2016. The FY-4B will mark an upgrade of China's meteorological satellites in geostationary orbit.

As early as 1969, China started receiving, processing and using foreign meteorological satellite data. Meanwhile, the country has been developing its own meteorological satellite system.

Over the past 50 years, China's meteorological services have made huge progress. So far, the country has launched a total of 17 Fengyun meteorological satellites.



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An online tool launched to help people find free food amid the ongoing global pandemic has been expanded to include more than 300 sites across 10 coastal counties in South Carolina.

The Lowcountry Food Bank, in partnership with the College of Charleston's Riley Center for Livable Communities, has created an online, interactive Lowcountry Food Finder map, identifying hundreds of sites along the South Carolina coastal region where people can access nutritious food and supplies for their family.

The counties include Charleston, Dorchester, Berkeley, Colleton, Hampton, Jasper, Beaufort, Georgetown, Williamsburg and Horry.

The food bank already had an online map directing people to the group's partner agencies. But after the pandemic broke out earlier this year, devastating the economy and placing many people in financial hardships, the organization wanted to identify additional locations, such as schools with meal programs and soup kitchens at churches.

"There are more and more people food insecure whove never had to ask for help before," said Brenda Shaw, chief development officer for the Lowcountry Food Bank.

People trying to find nearby food pantries can go to https://bit.ly/lowcountry-food-resources and type in their location. A list of food resources with available times and days for sites closest to them will be provided.

The website will be updated as new information becomes available amid the pandemic that continues increasing demand for food assistance.

The food bank continues to see a rise in the number of people in need.

The group's partner agencies are steadily seeing a 40 percent increase in clients coming through their doors for free food, Shaw said.

At the food bank itself, there has been a 484 percent increase in the need for food assistance, Shaw said.

From March 16 to June 30, the food bank distributed just under 4 million meals across its 10-county service area, according to the Riley Center.

Experts expect things to get worse. School meal programs are expected to end this week, and many received their final $600 federal unemployment payment employment in late July.

There is also an expectation that people will begin to lose housing, as 1 year leases often end July 31, said Dr. Bob Kahle, associate director of the Riley Center for Livable Communities at the College of Charleston.

We think all of these things happening together is going to create a greater need for folks to find free food," he said.

In addition to increasing the demand, the virus has complicated food distribution efforts by limiting the number of volunteers and making food distribution more challenging. This has, in turn, forced the closure of 15 percent of Lowcountry Food Bank partners in coastal South Carolina since mid-March.

Shaw expects that number to remain steady as the state continues to grapple with the pandemic.

The virtual tool was created using a grant from the Lowcountry Food Bank, the Riley Center and the city of Charleston. The original Charleston County map cost about $15,000.
Deleted posts feature a link to a Fox News video in which Trump says children are almost immune to the coronavirus.

Facebook Inc has taken down a post by US President Donald Trump, which the company said violated its rules against sharing misinformation about the novel coronavirus.

The post contained a video clip from an interview with Fox & Friends earlier on Wednesday, in which Trump claimed that children are almost immune to COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

This video includes false claims that a group of people is immune from COVID-19, which is a violation of our policies around harmful COVID misinformation, a Facebook spokesman said.

A tweet containing the video that was posted by the Trump campaigns @TeamTrump account and shared by the president was also later hidden by Twitter Inc for breaking its COVID-19 misinformation rules.

A Twitter spokesman said the @TeamTrump account owner would be required to remove the tweet before they could tweet again.

The Trump campaign accused the companies of bias against the president, saying Trump had stated a fact.





Another day, another display of Silicon Valleys flagrant bias against this president, where the rules are only enforced in one direction, said Courtney Parella, a spokeswoman with the campaign.

The president was stating a fact that children are less susceptible to the coronavirus, she said in a statement, adding: Social media companies are not the arbiters of truth.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said while adults make up most of the known COVID-19 cases to date, some children and infants have been sick with the disease and they can also transmit it to others.

An analysis by the World Health Organization (WHO) of six million infections between February 24 and July 12 found that the share of children aged 5-14 years was about 4.6 percent.

But during a briefing at the White House on Wednesday, Trump repeated his claim that the virus had little effect on children.

Children handle it very well, he told reporters.

If you look at the numbers, in terms of mortality, fatalities  for children under a certain age  their immune systems are very very strong and very powerful. They seem to be able to handle it very well and thats according to every statistical claim.

How likely children are to contract or spread the coronavirus has become a deeply contentious issue in the US, with reopening schools essential to enabling many parents to go back to work.

Trump has been calling for both businesses and schools to reopen as part of a push to revive the US economy, whose health is a significant factor in the upcoming presidential election.

But a growing number of US school districts have opted against in-person classes come September, choosing to remain online-only until the pandemic has abated.





Facebooks action against Trump on Wednesday marks the first time it had removed a Trump post for coronavirus misinformation, the companys spokesman said.

It also appeared to be the first reported instance of the social media company taking down a post from the president for breaching its misinformation rules.

The social media giant had placed a disclaimer last month on a post from Trump claiming mail-in voting would lead to a corrupt election, and in June it removed ads by Trumps campaign containing a symbol used by Nazi Germany.

The company was under intense pressure to clamp down on misinformation  which has flourished during the pandemic  including from world leaders, until recently protected by its hands-off policy on political speech.

Twitter has taken down a post retweeted by Trump pointing to a misleading viral video about the coronavirus, but left up clips of the president suggesting scientists should investigate using light or disinfectant on patients.

Twitter said those remarks expressed a wish for treatment, rather than a literal call for action.

It also left up a March post from Tesla Incs outspoken CEO Elon Musk stating kids are essentially immune to the virus.
- Recently, there was a whistleblower that claimed some executives of PhilHealth stole P15 billion

- However, the Palace said that President Rodrigo Duterte will not be firing PhilHealth President Ricardo Morales yet

- Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said that the President needs concrete proof of the corruption

- Roque also expressed his worries over the alleged corruption in PhilHealth

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The Palace has commented over the alleged corruption that has been going on in the state insurance firm, Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).

KAMI learned that the President remains to have trust and confidence in PhilHealth President Ricardo Morales.

Photo from Getty Images

Source: Getty Images

In a report by Inquirer (authored by Krissy Aguilar), Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said that the President has to see the evidence of corruption before he fires Morales from his post.

According to Senator Bong Go, he [President] still does but he wants to see the evidence, Roque said.

If theres evidence that would affect his trust and confidence, of course it will change. And thats why Im hoping that these investigations will document the evidence that the President wants to see, he added.

The Presidential Spokesperson admitted that the alleged corruption in PhilHealth is worrisome and that Morales should take steps to remove the said corruption.

"My beef against General Morales is, I have no evidence that he is corrupt himself, but when he was placed there by the president...our expectation is that he will take concrete steps to rid the agency of corruption. And yesterday, what worried me was that he admitted that corruption was still rampant and I did not hear steps that he has taken to remove corruption in the agency. That, to me, is the most worrisome," Roque said, as reported by Philippine Star (authored by Bella Perez-Rubio).

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PhilHealth was created to implement universal health coverage in the Philippines. However, it is being questioned by the Senate recently because of the alleged anomalies in the state-run firm.

A whistleblower who used to be an official in PhilHealth claimed that some of its executives pocketed P15 billion from its various schemes.

An official also claimed that PhiliHealth can go bankrupt by next year and totally collapse in 2022.

The celebrities also reacted to the alleged corruption that has been happening in PhilHealth amid the COVID-19 crisis.

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Source: KAMI.com.gh
Local authorities to be held responsible for COVID-19 transmission in hospitals

Local authorities must be held responsible for transmissions in hospitals, members of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control said at a meeting in Hanoi on August 6.













Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam chairs the meeting (Photo: VNA)

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, head of the committee, presided over the function to implement preventive measures in the changing circumstances.



Acting Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said the ministry is exerting every effort to deal with the outbreak in the central city of Da Nang.



Patients and their family members as well as medical staff are in the highest-risk group, he said, adding that those returning from Da Nang since July 1 need to remain vigilant.



Some localities, in fact, lowered their guard and relaxed preventive measures, Long pointed out, adding that health facilities and hospitals nationwide must seriously implement preventive and containment measures such as wearing face masks and following social distancing measures.



The ministry is also intensifying testing capacity to quickly detect any new infections.



Members of the committee spoke highly of the active engagement and close coordination of the public security, military, and health forces in the fight against COVID-19 right from the beginning of the outbreak.



The committee urged Da Nang and certain districts and towns in neighbouring Quang Nam province to implement strict social distancing measures.



According to the Ministry of Health, as of the morning of August 6, Vietnam had recorded 717 COVID-19 cases, including 381 recoveries and nine deaths. More than 320 of all infections nationwide were imported.
Brandman University Executive Vice Chancellor Phillip L. Doolittle is the new chair of the WASC Senior College and University Commission. I look forward to working with my colleagues on the commission, as well as with the commission staff, as we continue to encourage and support institutional improvement and educational effectiveness, and to strengthen the accreditation process, Executive Vice Chancellor Phillip L. Doolittle said.

Phillip L. Doolittle, who serves as Brandman Universitys chief financial officer and executive vice chancellor of finance and administration, will serve a three-year term as chair of the WASC Senior College and University Commission.

In addition to his role as Brandmans top financial manager, Doolittle also supervises core university operations including administrative services, facilities, information technology, and human resources. He began his position with Brandman in August 2013, and has served as a member of the WASC Senior College and University Commission since July 2016.

The role of the WASC Senior College and University Commission is vitally important to students, particularly during these challenging times, Doolittle said. I look forward to working with my colleagues on the commission, as well as with the commission staff, as we continue to encourage and support institutional improvement and educational effectiveness, and to strengthen the accreditation process.

The WASC Senior College and University Commission accredits public and private colleges and universities in California, Hawaii, and the Pacific. The commission has also accredited some institutions in other countries.

Accreditation, according to the commission, aids institutions in developing and sustaining effective educational programs and assures the educational community, the general public, and other organizations that an accredited institution has met high standards of quality and effectiveness. The U.S. Department of Education only disburses student aid to enrollees of accredited colleges and universities.

WSCUC already benefits from Phil Doolittles commitments to students, to equity and inclusion, and to rigorous analysis, said Jamienne S. Studley, president of the WASC Senior College and University Commission. His appreciation for complex policy and financial questions, his collaborative approach and gracious manner, and his devotion to effectiveness and improvement will serve accreditation and our member institutions well. Im excited about the further progress WSCUC can make under his leadership as chair of our wise, imaginative commission.

Before joining Brandman, Doolittle served in leadership roles at University of Redlands and in the aerospace industry. He has previously served on the governing boards for several organizations including the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), Redlands Community Hospital, Redlands Symphony, and the Watchorn Lincoln Memorial Association, which provides financial support and other assistance to the Lincoln Memorial Shrine. The Lincoln Memorial Shrine is a museum in Redlands, California focused on the history of President Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.

Doolittle earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Business Administration from University of Redlands and a Master of Business Administration from the Atkinson Graduate School of Management at Willamette University.

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ABOUT BRANDMAN UNIVERSITY

Brandman University is a private, nonprofit institution accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission. As part of the Chapman University System, Brandman blends a legacy of academic excellence with innovative programs and support services designed for students with busy schedules. The university offers undergraduate, graduate, credential and certificate programs designed to be relevant to more than 90 career paths. Brandman serves about 22,000 students, about 14,000 of whom are degree-seeking students, at 25 physical campuses in California and Washington, as well as online. Brandman offers fully-online courses for students anywhere in the United States and for military personnel serving abroad. For additional information, visit the universitys website.


Meanwhile, in North Africa, after the Mossad backed and armed Libyas renegade commander Khalifa Haftar, foreign sources say Israel is taking a more balanced position towards the internationally recognized government in Tripoli





by Yossi Melman





After two months of delays caused by red tape, the Civil Service Commissioner approved R.s appointment as the Intelligence Ministrys new director-general. Although the government should be confirming his appointment soon, the Shin Bet security service is adamant that under law, until the announcement is official, his name cannot be published. The delay in revealing R.s full name apparently stems from his desire to start his new job as the ministrys director-general while technically on loan from his previous employer, the Shin Bet.





Meir Ben Shabbat, left close to the camera, and Yossi Cohen, right at the end of the table, at a security meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu, second left.Credit: Ariel Hermoni / Ministry of Defence

This is an unreasonable, unprecedented and unacceptable development. The director-general of a ministry is not a covert position. It is the highest position within the Civil Service and there can be no going back to the shadows from it.





R., aka Maoz, has worked for the Shin Bet for about 20 years. He was a case officer, recruiting and running agents, and advanced from there. Five years ago he was promoted to head of the Gaza field division, which is responsible for foiling terrorist operations using all of the disciplines at the Shin Bets disposal: case officers in the field, researchers back at desks and SIGINT (eavesdropping on phone calls, bugging computers or infiltrating or hacking and signals intelligence). It was in this position that R. came to know Meir Ben Shabbat, then the Shin Bet southern district chief and today the head of the National Security Council.





At the Shin Bet, R. and Ben Shabbat developed a close working relationship. They complemented each other well, with Ben Shabbat devoting most of his time to research and management roles, and R. drawing on his operational experience. Three years ago Ben Shabbat, who is very close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was appointed to head the NSC. He then chose R. to coordinate ties with the Arab states, with special emphasis on the Gulf states: the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait. At Ben Shabbats behest, R. went there and also received their representatives in Israel.





Mossad chief Yossi Cohen was not keen on these activities by Ben Shabbat and R.





Since its very establishment, the Mossad has been in charge of ties with foreign intelligence agencies and secret ties with countries that have no formal relations with Israel. Over years the Foreign Ministry and Shin Bet encroached into the Mossads monopoly in this area, occasionally causing bitter fights. After the issues were hashed out, finally a division of powers was clarified. Relations between the Shin Bet and Foreign Ministry (which has had its powers diminished by Netanyahu) are now mostly smooth.





But when Ben Shabbat and R. began encroaching on the Mossads territory, Cohens hackles rose anew.





Cohen had been the one who established the Mossads diplomatic division (aka the system in Mossad argot). This division raises diplomacy-related issues that transcend departments, with an emphasis on the Arab world.





Cohen demanded that Ben Shabbat stop infringing on his turf and blocked R. from embarking on some of these special missions. Ben Shabbat rebutted that he was acting on Netanyahus instructions. Cohen dug in his heels and in consultations among the three, a new division of labor was established: The NSC may continue, under Netanyahus guidance, to pursue ties with African countries like Chad and Sudan; efforts are also underway now to foster diplomatic ties with Niger, which has abundant uranium deposits.





Recall that in February, just before the last election, Netanyahu flew to Uganda and met there with the chairman of the Sovereignty Council of Sudan, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. According to foreign press reports, the Mossad is responsible for relationships with the Gulf States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan (in tandem with the Shin Bet), Morocco and Libya.





Foreign sources have reported in the past that Mossad representatives met with Libyan war lord Khalifa Haftar, and that  along with Egypt and UAEs intelligence services  the Mossad has worked closely to supply weapons to Haftar, the renegade commander of the eastern forces in Libya. However, foreign sources who monitor the Libyan situation have noticed that Israel has recently adopted a more balanced approach towards the internationally recognized Tripoli based government of Fayez al Sarraj.





Being intelligent about the coronavirus





At the Intelligence Ministry, R. will be replacing director general Hagai Tzuriel, who arrived from the Mossad in 2016 where he had headed the agencys research department and was station chief of the U.S. branch, among other positions. Having grasped which way the wind was blowing under the new minister, Eli Cohen, Tzuriel resigned.





Meanwhile, since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the Intelligence Ministry has been very active, and produced some important position papers. One, written at the behest of the Education Ministry, stated that the schools were apparently responsible for up to 20 percent of the infection rate among the general population during the first month of the diseases spread. This figure is expected to gradually decline afterwards, the paper projected. It also said that high schools and middle schools were responsible for about half of the increase in the infection rate; and that once the schools were opened, the effect would likely last for months.





A different intriguing report the Intelligence Ministry penned at the behest of the Defense Ministry was about readiness scenarios for the second wave, aka the tsunami, which is presently washing over Israel. The Intelligence Ministry says the scenarios also apply to what lies ahead: i.e., the anticipated third wave in the winter, and until a vaccine is found. Their report warns that the tsunami could recur in one or all of these five scenarios:





1. Lifting lockdowns prematurely, returning to normal too fast.

2. Import from abroad (for instance via the plan to let tens of thousands of yeshiva students into Israel for the High Holidays; Israelis traveling abroad and then returning, including tens of thousands of Haredim expected to visit Uman in Ukraine).

3. A decline in the use of protective measures (masks, social distancing, personal hygiene).

4. Mutation. The coronavirus already exists in several variants and a increase in its infectiousness would portend ill.

5. Seasonality (for instance, winter propensity to flu on top of coronavirus).





Over the years, some talented experts have joined the Intelligence Ministry. Some hailed from military intelligence, the Shin Bet and Mossad, others from academia. One such is Levi Klempner, a polyglot data analyst who speaks 12 languages. Dr. Victor Israel heads the research division. Elisha Stoian runs a department charged with identifying nascent worldwide megatrends to afford the decision-makers time to strategically prepare for them.





For this and other purposes, the ministry employs a laboratory with advanced computing and AI technology, established in cooperation with the Defense Ministrys Directorate of Defense Research & Development.





Despite the high caliber of the Intelligence Ministry personnel, and even if cabinet members and defense officials read the reports and positions papers the ministry produces, its influence on the decision-makers is very limited. Minister Eli Cohens hopes of transforming the Intelligence Ministry into a National Intelligence Administration, a la the U.S. Directorate of National Intelligence, will be quashed by the power, influence and killer instincts of the Mossad, Shin Bet and military intelligence.





( Yossi writes for Haaretz where this piece first appeared.)
The Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) on Thursday urged the Nigerian government to be cautious and have nothing to do with tobacco industry recommendations on so-called harmless alternatives to cigarettes.

The groups call came on the heels of the recent letter from the Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance (NTCA) asking the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment to reject a Draft Policy on Conventional Tobacco and Non-Combusted Alternatives to Cigarettes which the tobacco industry allegedly sent to the ministry for consideration.

Last week, Philip Morris Internationals (PMI) Sub-Saharan Africa Managing Director, Bahman Safakish, said the company was not ready to stop manufacturing of cigarettes because ending cigarette sales would automatically create a niche market for competitors and illicit traders who do not appreciate the need to replace the combustible hazardous smoking with the electronic vapour-producing device.

The statement was syndicated across several news organisations.

In a statement issued in Lagos, CAPPA stated that the media hype on so-called safe alternatives to cigarettes and the draft policy recommendation promoting the idea are orchestrated to mislead the public and policymakers, and ultimately undermine the implementation of the National Tobacco Control Act 2015 and its Regulations 2019.

PMI does not fail to amaze us with their drama and half-truths, said Akinbode Oluwafemi, CAPPAs executive director.

In one breath it claims it is transitioning to the much-discredited so-called less harmful alternatives; in another breath we hear it is raking in billions of dollars from the manufacturing of cigarettes. Then before we could catch our breath, the company is making recommendations to legislate tobacco control. Is that not ironic?

Mr Oluwafemi explained that at a time when the public health community is worried about the delay in the implementation of the NTC Act and its Regulations, the tobacco industry is still busy scheming and scripting how to ensure Nigeria remains in the firm choke-hold of the tobacco addiction and death.

The CAPPA boss cautioned that the Nigerian government should not fall for the bait of PMI and other tobacco entities advancing policies for alternatives to cigarettes.

He suggested that Nigeria should begin immediate implementation of the NTC Act and Regulations and also emulate countries who have banned e-cigarettes such as Brazil, Brunei, Cambodia, Ethiopia, The Gambia, India, Iran, Lebanon, Macau, Mauritius, Singapore, and Uganda, among others.

The time for diversionary tactics is over. We must act decisively to block all loopholes that the industry exploits and will exploit to thwart or delay implementation of the NTC Act and Regulations.

We cannot continue to gamble with the lives of the youth who are made vulnerable by the day as PMI and other tobacco entities unveil new schemes to remain in the business of grabbing their lungs. Now is the time for the Nigerian government to discountenance industry scripted recommendations. Now is the time to side with public health.
The decision to build a monument honouring poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou was supposed to jump-start San Franciscos planned diversification of city sculptures; instead, an opaque selection process has opened new wounds between public officials and local artists.

In 2019, the San Francisco Arts Commission announced that artist Lava Thomas had been chosen to design the monument, but officials soon rescinded the offer after City Supervisor Catherine Stefani  the legislative sponsor behind the project  quickly rejected the design because she disliked its nonfigurative elements. Thomas design featured a nine-foot-tall bronze book with Angelous portrait on one side and her words on the other. Stefani then requested that the commission restart the selection process, focusing on artist proposals that included traditional statues of Angelou.

That reversal came as a shock to Thomas, who said she had spent the last year seeking answers from the commission, which did not respond to her questions and requests for information through the citys freedom of information laws. And when she tried to address the controversy in a public hearing with the commission last month, she was abruptly muted toward the end of her speech and refused extra time.

Uproar ensued, Thomas, 61, said in an interview. The commission broke trust with the public and stonewalled me from asking questions.

At a time when classical bronze statues of men are falling out of favour across the country, some artists see the scrapped Angelou monument, which was intended for a spot outside the citys central library, as an example of politicians thwarting visions of a more diverse future.

Supporters of Thomas are demanding that the citys arts commission enact reforms to prevent another controversy. Lavas monument is a challenge to conventional representations of Black women,  said Angela Hennessy, an artist who helped found the collective See Black Womxn, which has been an advocate of Thomas over the last year. Its quite subversive in a poetic way. That monument would be in production right now in the context of all these other colonial monuments being reconsidered and removed.

Acknowledging the problem, the commission president, Roberto Ordenana, apologized to Thomas on Monday. I want to remind us all that when there are systems failures, the individuals and communities that end up experiencing the most harm as a result of said failures are those of us who experience oppression and marginalization, he said during a public meeting. Due to our failures, we have caused significant harm to an incredibly talented Black woman artist, and we have caused deep pain to members of the Black artist community.

For Thomas and her supporters, it was a step in the right direction. But the group is demanding additional measures, including the resignations of the art commissions visual arts committee chair, Dorka Keehn, and Stefani; a meeting with Mayor London Breed; and the suspension of the reissued call for proposals.

The commission complied with the latter request, voting unanimously to pause the selection process to engage stakeholders and promote clarity and transparency moving forward. Officials have yet to determine a new timeline for the project, which started with a $180,000 (U.S.) budget and has risen to $250,000.

Until the city can prove that it truly cares about the ideals and principles of Maya Angelou, San Francisco doesnt deserve her monument, said Thomas, who is now planning to bring her dedication to the author elsewhere. But its not yet time.
The number of migrants taken into custody along the Mexico border rose 24 percent in July, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection monthly enforcement data released Thursday. It was the third consecutive month that unauthorized crossings have increased despite emergency health orders that allow CBP to promptly expel nearly anyone who crosses the border without authorization.
By ANI

PATNA: Bihar Director General of Police (DGP) Gupteshwar Pandey on Thursday accused Mumbai police of being unprofessional on their action of quarantining Patna Superintendent of Police (SP), Vinay Tiwari.

Tiwari is in Mumbai to probe a case related to the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput. He was quarantined by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) after he travelled via a flight to Mumbai to investigate the case.

Speaking to ANI, Pandey said, "Mumbai police's move of quarantining Bihar Police officer is unprofessional. The Supreme Court has given its observation in the matter."

#WATCH IPS #VinayTiwari has still not be exempted from quarantine, it is like house arrest. We 'll decide what action to take after consultation with the advocate general. Going to the court is also an option, says #Bihar DGP Gupteshwar Pandey pic.twitter.com/Or94KTCsDR  ANI (@ANI) August 6, 2020

"There is no positive response from the Mumbai police and he (Vinay Tiwari) has not been released yet. It is like, they are keeping him in a house arrest," Pandey said.

Pandey further said, "We will wait for one more day, after which we will be taking action against them (Mumbai Police). We are taking advice from the Bihar government and might even pursue court in this regard."

The Central government gave a nod to the Central Bureau Of Investigation (CBI) to probe the death case of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

An FIR was filed by the Patna Police against Rhea Chakraborty on a complaint filed by KK Singh, father of the late actor, under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) including abetment of suicide. A team of Bihar Police is in Mumbai to probe the case.

Rajput was found dead at his Mumbai residence on June 14, after which Mumbai had registered a case and is investigating the matter.
Dublin, Aug. 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "China Medical Robot Industry Report, 2020-2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The report highlights the following:

Development environment for China medical robot industry (global market, economic environment and policy climate);

Development of China medical robot industry (status quo, market size, market structure, competitive landscape, market segments and development trends);

Global and Chinese companies (operation and medical robot business).

Medical robot is the most promising segment of service robot market. By one estimate, globally 7,200 units of medical robots were sold and valued at $2.58 billion in 2019, compared with 5,100 units (up by 50% YoY) in 2018.



Medical robot grows fastest in the US. As of March 31, 2020, Intuitive Surgical has installed 5,669 units of Da Vinci surgical system in all worldwide, including 3,581 units in the US, or 63.2% of the total.



China's intelligent medical robot industry started later than its foreign peers. In current stage, the whole industry is in a transitional phase from research and development and clinical trials to commercialization and mass production. In 2019, China's medical robot market was worth $620 million.



Rehabilitation robot has been the largest segment in China's medical robot market thanks to a combination of positive factors such as broad application and favorable policies, sweeping 42.9% of the market in 2019. Surgical robot makes slow progress in promotion and holds a small share due to high application cost, albeit an upsurge at the early stage.



Of the nearly 100 medical robot companies in China, most are still in infancy. The rosy prospect of medical robot fuels investment enthusiasm. From the financing cases in recent years, it can be seen that companies with clear timetable of product launch or certified by the CFDA, are favored by capital. Players such as Remebot, HOZ Medical, Scream Intelligent Technology, Taimi Robotics Technology, Borns Medical Robotics, Ankon Technologies and Tinavi Medical Technologies even raised more than RMB100 million in their funding rounds.



In the Chinese medical robot market, the ever deeper university-industry-research cooperation stimulates the industry. Companies of industrial robots and medical devices branch out to the intelligent medical robot field progressively with many years of technical expertise, and has collaborations with domestic research institutes at multiple levels; research institutes otherwise market their research results by incubating companies.



Furthermore, COVID-19 pandemic props up demand for medical robots. During the time, hospitals as the battlefront used intelligent medical robots for guide, disinfection and sterilization.



In future, population aging and other factors will animate China's medical robot market which will be worth $2.49 billion in 2026.



Key Topics Covered



1. Medical Robotics

1.1 Definition

1.1.1 Robotics

1.1.2 Medical Robot

1.2 Industry Chain



2. Operation Environment of Medical Robot in China

2.1 Global Market

2.1.1 Status Quo

2.1.2 Competition Pattern

2.2 Economic Environment

2.3 Policies



3. Medical Robot in China

3.1 Overview

3.2 Market Size

3.3 Market Structure

3.4 Competition Pattern

3.5 Market Segments

3.5.1 Rehabilitation Medical Robot

3.5.2 Surgical Robotics

3.5.3 Orthopedic Surgery Robotics

3.5.4 Pharmacy Robotics

3.6 Development Trends

3.6.1 Industry-University-Research Collaboration Brings Life to Development

3.6.2 The Demand for Medical Robot Soars amid COVID-19 Pandemic

3.6.3 VC Investments Facilitates the Medical Robot Industry

3.6.4 Medical Robot Finds Ever More Clinical Application

3.6.5 Novel Robotics Springs up like Single Port Access Surgery Robot, Nanostructure Target Robot, and Flexible Robot

3.6.6 Regulation on Products Gets Tightened



4. Major Medical Robot Companies Worldwide

4.1 Intuitive Surgical, Inc.

4.1.1 Profile

4.1.2 Operation

4.1.3 Revenue Structure

4.1.4 Gross Margin

4.1.5 R&D Cost

4.1.6 Development in China

4.2 Stryker Corporation

4.3 Ekso Bionics Holdings, Inc.

4.4 ReWalk Robotics Ltd.

4.5 Rex Bionics PLC

4.6 Mazor Robotics Ltd.

4.7 Johnson & Johnson

4.8 Avatera Medical

4.9 CMR Surgical

4.10 MedRobotics Corp.

4.11 Medtronic

4.12 Meerecompany

4.13 Titan Medical

4.14 TransEnterix



5. Major Medical Robot Enterprises in China

5.1 Shenyang SIASUN Robot & Automation Co. Ltd.

5.1.1 Profile

5.1.2 Operation

5.1.3 Revenue Structure

5.1.4 Gross Margin

5.1.5 Medical Robot Business

5.1.6 Development Prospect & Forecast

5.2 Guangdong Jinming Machinery Co. Ltd.

5.3 Midea Group Co. Ltd.

5.4 Truking Technology Limited

5.5 Chongqing Dima Industry Co. Ltd.

5.6 Jinho Robot (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.

5.7 Shenzhen Mai Kangxin Medical Co. Ltd.

5.8 Henan Huibo Shenfang Intelligent Rehabilitation Equipment Co. Ltd.

5.9 TINAVI Medical Technologies Co. Ltd.

5.10 Harbin Boshi Automation Co. Ltd.

5.11 Remebot

5.12 Smart Robot Technology Group Co. Ltd.

5.13 Jinshan Science & Technology (Group) Co. Ltd

5.14 Taimi Robotics Technology Co. Ltd.

5.15 ANKON Technologies Co. Ltd.

5.16 Shenzhen Weibond Technology Co. Ltd.

5.17 Shenzhen Sanggu Medical Robot Co. Ltd.

5.18 Wuxi Anzhizhuo Medical Robot Co. Ltd.



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/k3xj0q

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New York prosecutors were able to obtain Donald Trump's financial records from Deutsche Bank last year, it has been revealed, as the state's attorney general plans a mysterious major announcement on Thursday.

The office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, a Democrat, sent a subpoena last year to Deutsche Bank as part of its investigation into Trumps business dealings, the New York Times reported Wednesday, citing four people familiar with the inquiry.

The bank complied with the subpoena, turning over records including financial statements Trump gave the bank when he was borrowing money, two of those people told the Times.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, also a Democrat, also subpoenaed the bank for records related to Trump last year following Michael Cohen's testimony.

The subject of the announcement was not immediately clear, and it may be unrelated to the widening criminal probe into Trump's business practices.

On Wednesday night, James' office said she will deliver a 'major national announcement' on Thursday at 11.30am.

Scroll down for video

The office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance (above) sent a subpoena last year to Deutsche Bank as part of its investigation into Trumps business dealings

New York Attorney General Letitia James (above), a Democrat, also subpoenaed the bank for records related to Trump last year following Cohens testimony

Vance, a Democrat, this week suggested a grand jury subpoena for Trump's tax returns was part of an investigation of 'possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization,' including alleged insurance and bank fraud.

Vance's investigation into Trump and the Trump Organization was spurred by disclosures of hush payments to two women who said they had had sexual relationships with Trump before he became president. Trump has denied the claims.

Vance's office declined to comment on the New York Times report. Attorneys for Trump and for Deutsche Bank didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Manhattan prosecutor, who is a Democrat, was among several authorities in New York who launched investigations last year after Trumps former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, told congress that the president had a practice of misleading business associates and tax officials about the value of his assets.

Prosecutors in New York are conducting a criminal probe into Trump's business dealings

Vance hasn't disclosed details about his probe, but his lawyers told a federal judge this week that it was a 'complex financial investigation' that followed public reports of 'extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization.'

As part of the investigation, Vance asked Trumps accountants to turn over eight years of his personal and corporate tax records. The accounting firm has yet to comply as Trump and Vance have battled in court over the validity of the subpoena.

Other investigators have requested records from Deutsche Bank, which was one of the few banks willing to lend to Trump after a series of corporate bankruptcies starting in the early 1990s.

Trump addressed the case at a White House press briefing on Monday, saying 'This is just a continuation of the witch hunt.'

Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance (pictured) hasn't disclosed details about his probe, but his lawyers told a federal judge this week that it was a 'complex financial investigation' that followed public reports of 'extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization'

'Its Democrat stuff they failed with Mueller they failed with everything,' Trump said, referencing Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, which generally confined itself to allegations of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russians. The report preceded a failed Democratic impeachment effort.

'They failed at every stage of the game,' Trump said. 'Even before I got in this was starting with the Mueller deal. Mueller started a little bit after,' Trump corrected himself. Mueller was appointed after former Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from overseeing the Russia investigation in 2017.

Trump also said he was barely familiar with the matter, which was reported in the New York Times and a variety of outlets as a court filing was made public.

'Theres nothing that I know even about it,' Trump said. 'I said whats this all about? I know nothing about it.'

'Its a terrible thing that they do. Its really a terrible thing. The witch hunt has gone on long enough,' he said.

Two congressional committees, both controlled by Democrats, subpoenaed the bank for documents related to Trump, who sued to block their release.

Trump has said the investigations are all politically motivated. Earlier this week, he called Vances investigation 'a continuation of the witch hunt.'

After Trump's shock election victory in 2016, his relationship with Deutsche Bank has attracted scrutiny from lawmakers.

The House Financial Services Committee has examined possible money laundering in US property deals involving Trump.

The House Intelligence Committee has investigated whether Trumps dealings left him vulnerable to the influence of foreign individuals or governments.

The two committees issued subpoenas in April 2019 requiring Deutsche Bank to hand over the banking records of Trump, his children and his businesses.

Deutsche Bank reportedly complied with the subpoena, turning over records including financial statements Trump gave the bank when he was borrowing money

Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that prosecutors in New York could seek Trump's financial records from lenders including Deutsche Bank.

It is part of a criminal investigation that began in 2018 into Trump and the Trump Organization, the presidents family real estate business, spurred by disclosures of hush payments made to two women who said they had past sexual relationships with him - pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Trump and his aides have denied the relationships.

Investigators hope the records will reveal whether there are any financial links between Trump and Russias government, sources familiar with the probe have said.

Sources within Deutsche Bank have denied any Russian connections to Trump loans.

At the time he became president in January 2017, Trump owed the bank around $350 million, according to sources.

The Financial Services Committee also issued a subpoena to Capital One, which had maintained a long-term relationship with Trump and has been scrutinized for some of its business practices.
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the rights of Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Peaceful Assembly to every Canadian citizen.

Over the last several months, many Canadians have been putting those rights to use, by joining a myriad of protests across the political spectrum: from pushing the provincial government to re-open the economy outside of Queens Park, to supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, to calls to defund police, alongside clashes between renters and landlords as eviction freezes are being lifted in Ontario.

While the right to peacefully protest is a hallmark of Canadian democracy, protesters can still face legal consequences. Three activists from Black Lives Matter Toronto were arrested and charged with mischief on July 18, after allegedly throwing paint on statues of Egerton Ryerson and John A. Macdonald.

If you decide to join a protest, what are your legal rights before and after it? What happens if you get arrested? What, if any, obligations do you have in letting your employer know? And can you be fired for attending a protest?

This Matters host Adrian Cheung and Toronto Star reporter Angelyn Francis break down the intricacies of the law, backed by the advice of employment lawyers, the changing societal acceptance of protests, and the crossection of exercising your rights while potentially putting your job on the line.

Listen to this episode and more at This Matters, or subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts
A double shooting on July 24, killed a New Jersey Urology employee and wounded a patient in this office building at 15000 Midlantic Drive in Mount Laurel. Read more

A judge on Thursday ordered a Burlington County man to remain in custody pending his trial on murder and related charges in last months shooting death of a Mount Laurel medical-office employee and the wounding of a patient.

After an hour-long virtual hearing, Superior Court Judge Mark Tarantino ruled that Bruce Gomola Jr., 52, of Burlington Township, poses a danger to the community.

These were unpredictable, volatile, deadly actions, with little or no provocation or reason, and ... could easily reoccur, the judge said.

The early afternoon July 24 shooting at New Jersey Urology, 15000 Midlantic Drive, occurred after police say Gomola became upset about an appointment for his father, who was in their SUV at the time of the shooting. Gomola, off-duty from his job as a corrections officer at the Burlington County Jail, was seen in video arguing with a patient services representative, Stephanie Horton, in the hallway outside of the clinics suite, then pushing her, authorities said.

Prosecutors say he then shot her in the chest with a .40-caliber pistol. The bullet went through her body and struck another patient in a knee. Horton, 44, of Willingboro, died that afternoon.

Burlington County Assistant Prosecutor Jamie Hutchinson argued for detention, calling the shooting cold-blooded murder.

She also said that although Gomola returned to the scene and surrendered to police that day, he initially drove away and returned at his fathers request.

Defense attorney Mark Catanzaro contended that Gomola has stable family ties, is not a flight risk, has no prior criminal history and could be released with conditions, such as electronic monitoring. He said it is utterly speculative to suggest that Gomola might hurt someone else.

Gomola, who is also charged with aggravated assault and weapon offenses, appeared via video link from the Camden County Correctional Facility.
MANILA, Aug 6 (Reuters) - The Philippines is seeking to confirm whether a recently registered death was that of former Wirecard executive Christopher Bauer, one of several people being investigated over a multi-billion dollar fraud at the German payments firm.

Philippine Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Thursday said his office was trying to secure a certificate for the death of "Christopher Reinhard Bauer", which he said had been recorded in a civil registry in the capital Manila last month.

"Bauer is part of an ongoing NBI/AMLC investigation, and these agencies have an interest to know if he is still alive," Guevarra told Reuters, referring to the National Bureau of Investigation and the Anti-Money Laundering Council.

"We can't confirm until we see the death certificate."

The Southeast Asian country became connected to the accounting saga at Wirecard AG when the German firm initially claimed that a missing $2.1 billion had been kept in two Philippine banks, which the banks said was not true.

The central bank has said no money from Wirecard entered the Philippine financial system.

Wirecard admitted that $2.1 billion of its cash probably did not exist. Auditor EY had said there were clear indications of an elaborate fraud involving multiple parties around the world.

The Philippines was also linked to Wirecard through its former chief operating officer Jan Marsalek, who was recorded as entering the country on June 23 then leaving for China a day later, around the time that news of the scandal broke.

Guevarra last month said those travel records had been falsified.

He confirmed on Thursday that Bauer was among the initial list of people and entities of interest in the Philippine investigation.

They included three local firms - Centurion Online Payment International, PayEasy Solutions and ConePay International. Those companies have not responded to Reuters requests for comment. (Reporting by Karen Lema; Editing by Martin Petty)
Despite strong objections from Al-Azhar, on 19 July parliament provisionally approved a law regulating religious fatwas. Drafted by Osama Al-Abd, the head of parliaments Religious Endowments Committee, and other MPs, the law regulates the selection and performance of the grand mufti and his aides. It also seeks to grant Dar Al-Iftaa, the Egyptian House of Fatwa, financial, technical and administrative independence, said Al-Abd.

Al-Abd explained that the law will stem the tide of bizarre fatwas. Many people who like to describe themselves as religious scholars and clerics issue fatwas on controversial and sensitive issues that might spark sectarian strife or cause social unrest, said Al-Abd.

Egypts grand mufti, Shawki Allam, told MPs that we have seen a kind of fatwa chaos recently, with people without any religious academic experience issuing fatwas through TV channels or via social media networks like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

As religious scholars and MPs, we decided that there should be a law that ends this chaos by entrusting Dar Al-Iftaa with the exclusive prerogative to issue fatwas, he said.

The law states that a Mufti Preparation Centre be set up to provide muftis with scientific training and qualifications. At the end of the preparation period, each mufti will be granted a diploma and licence to issue fatwas on specified religious issues. No religious scholars will be allowed to issue fatwas without the diploma.

Mohamed Abu Hamed, a member of the Religious Affairs and Endowments Committee, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the fatwa law was carefully prepared and discussed.

Many MPs are shocked by the avalanche of bizarre fatwas issued by radical Salafist clerics who do not have any experience and are not graduates of any renowned religious university, said Abu Hamed. We have had Salafist fatwas that say it is haram [religiously forbidden] for Muslims to congratulate Christians on Christmas or Easter, or that Female Genital Mutilation is halal [allowed by Islam].

Ismail Nasreddin, a committee member who participated in drafting the law, said bizarre fatwas are no longer confined to Salafist and radical Islamist clerics.

We were surprised that some Al-Azhar clerics have issued bizarre fatwas. One said kissing is halal, even if it is between a man and a woman who are not married, because kissing is not one of the great seven sins in Islam. Another said that a belly dancer can be considered a martyr if she is killed while on her way to perform dancing in a cabaret.

Another bizarre fatwa was issued by a Syrian cleric who said Muslims living in America or Western European countries can perform the Friday prayers on Sunday because Sunday is the weekly holiday in the West.

Abu Hamed believes that one of the most poisonous fatwas which led MPs to draft the law was issued by radical Salafist cleric Morgan Al-Gohari.

In this fatwa, Al-Gohary said the three Pyramids and the Sphinx should be demolished because they are idols, just like the ones which were destroyed by Prophet Mohamed in Mecca.

Another controversial fatwa which caused tension between Al-Azhar and President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi concerned verbal divorce. President Al-Sisi publicly asked that verbal divorce be prohibited as it is unjust to married women. Al-Azhar, however, objected, insisting that verbal divorce is part and parcel of Islam.

Another contentious fatwa, issued by Salafist cleric Mustafa Rashed, held that due to the high cost of pilgrimage Egyptian Muslims can go to Sinai instead of Mecca and Medina.

The new fatwa law has been heavily criticised by Al-Azhar. In a letter sent to Parliament Speaker Ali Abdel-Aal on 18 July, Al-Azhar and its grand clerics said they believe that the new fatwa law violates Article 7 of the constitution which states that Al-Azhar is an independent Islamic scientific institution, with exclusive exercise over its own affairs, and is the main reference for religious sciences and Islamic affairs.

According to Al-Azhar, the new fatwa law creates a parallel institution that will perform some of Al-Azhars most important roles and duties  including issuing fatwas. It sees the creation of a Mufti Preparation Centre as an attempt to undermine Al-Azhars own diploma courses.

In response, Al-Abd insisted that the Egyptian Fatwa House was created 700 years ago, separate from Al-Azhar. There is no aggression against Al-Azhar. In fact the opposite is true. The law aims to help Al-Azhar fight bizarre fatwas. The mufti and his aides are Al-Azhar clerics themselves.

MP Mohamed Abu Hamed said the Egyptian Fatwa House will be affiliated with the Ministry of Justice, not with Al-Azhar.

One of the reasons why MPs drafted the law to state that the Egyptian Fatwa House will be independent and exclusively entrusted with issuing fatwas is the simple fact that Al-Azhar has not done enough to fight bizarre fatwas.

The draft law states that a fatwa committee will be set up by the Egyptian Fatwa House to receive questions on religious issues, and to refer them to the Mufti and his aides to give answers (or fatwas).

*A version of this article appears in print in the 6 August, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Quantzig, a premier analytics solutions provider, announces the addition of new services to its advanced portfolio of employee acquisition analytics solutions. Quantzig's employee acquisition analytics capabilities cover various aspects of employee management, including- Employee Profiling, Recruitment Profile Selection, and Diversity Compliance Tracking.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200806005491/en/

Schedule a FREE demo to learn how Quantzig can help in acquiring and retaining the best talent.

With business complexities increasing globally, today, the stakes are higher. Hence there is a greater emphasis on developing data-driven tactical recruiting approaches to acquire and retain the right talent. Talent acquisition, unlike the other HR processes, plays a crucial role in filling skill gaps within an organization. Instead of just focusing on filling a requirement, employee acquisition analytics helps align the company's strategic goals with the requirements for the new position.

Drawing on our rich experience in the field of HR analytics, we focus on integrating the best practices to drive continuous process improvements when it comes to acquiring and retaining new talent. Speak to an analyst to know more.

How Can Quantzig's Employee Acquisition Analytics Solutions Help You?

Employee acquisition is not an easy task considering the complexities in today's highly regulated business world. As such, the hiring processes are becoming increasingly complex for organizations looking to recruit new talent. Though analytics plays a crucial role in addressing this issue, businesses are generally unaware that data-driven approaches can deliver meaningful insights into the human resources department to improve business outcomes. Whether it is process optimization or an increased understanding of the impact of talent acquisition on the outcome, Quantzig offers holistic employee analytics solutions that act as a dominant force in the quest to recruiting top talent. By empowering businesses with the insights to make crucial hiring decisions, our solutions help analyze factors that make an employee successful, acquire and retain top performers, and identify and fill skill gaps. Take a look at the complete portfolio of Quantzig's employee acquisition analytics solutions here: https://bit.ly/3fyq8Nh

A unique mix of data science capabilities and technology expertise is what sets us apart, making us the most preferred HR analytics service provider globally. Our solutions also help businesses to drive impactful outcomes by-

Leveraging data mining and pattern recognition to enable best-fit recommendations to derive tangible insights from employee data

Implementing interactive dashboards and visually impactful reports that make it easier for companies to track their adherence to diversity goals and evaluate the performance of different groups across the employee's lifecycle

Correlating employee demographics, past performance, and behavioral traits to identify the profile who is likely to be successful within the organization

Why Partner with Quantzig?

With a huge clientele, which ranges from CEOs to BU heads to stakeholders of Fortune 500 companies, we have played an active part in improving business outcomes globally. Our expertise and domain knowledge also reflects in the number of projects we've worked on and the results that have prompted businesses to engage with us on an ongoing basis, making us the most preferred analytics partner for leading businesses. With more than 15 years of experience and a dedicated team of 550+ analysts and data science professionals, we have a proven track record of helping businesses across North America, Europe, EMEA, and APAC leverage employee acquisition analytics to drive better outcomes. Request a FREE proposal to gain detailed insights into our engagement policies.

About Quantzig

Quantzig is a global analytics and advisory firm with offices in the US, UK, Canada, China, and India. For more than 15 years, we have assisted our clients across the globe with end-to-end data modeling capabilities to leverage analytics for prudent decision making. Today, our firm consists of 120+ clients, including 45 Fortune 500 companies. For more information on our pricing plans, visit: https://www.quantzig.com/request-for-proposal

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200806005491/en/

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ST. THOMAS, U.S. Virgin Islands, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- After three months spent critically ill with COVID-19, Rolly Tolentino was wheeled out of the Schneider Regional Medical Center, waving and smiling while health care providers, staff members, and VI government officials lined the halls, cheering him on. "Sam the Sailor," a nickname that was given by Governor Albert Bryan Jr., was finally on his way home to the Philippines.

Schneider Regional Medical Center

Tolentino tested positive for COVID-19 while working aboard the Maersk Shipping Company cargo ship. The vessel attempted to transport him to Puerto Rico for treatment but was denied entry by their government. The ship then sought refuge in the United States Virgin Islands and was granted entrance by Governor Bryan, allowing the critically ill seaman the ability to seek treatment at the SRMC. Tolentino said it was his faith and daily prayers after contracting COVID-19 that brought him to SRMC: "Thank God for SRMC and the Governor, they accepted me and healed me. I am blessed that the U.S. Virgin Islands did not turn their backs on me."

The 47-year-old Philippine man's release from SRMC came after 12 weeks of treatment at the Roy Lester Schneider Hospital's COVID-19 unit. He also spent five weeks in a medically induced coma allowing the medical team at SRMC to provide lifesaving treatment.

During that time, Sam, the Sailor's family members back in the Philippines, waited with bated breath, unable to catch a flight to the territory to see him in person. His relatives would check in on his progress daily via Skype to see and pray for Rolly.

Dr. Luis Amaro, Interim CEO at SRMC, said, "I can honestly say this was an emotional experience seeing Rolly being released, my heart was overjoyed. Many members of our team were in tears as we said goodbye because once you're a patient here at SRMC, you become a part of our family. I am very proud of my team and the service they provided; this was a testament to the kind of work we are doing here at SRMC."

Tolentino has since tested negative for COVID-19 and has been negative for several weeks now. "These people treated me so good, very kind, and very compassionate. I will never forget the SRMC and the Virgin Islands," Tolentino said.

It was a sight to see as dozens of his new family members said goodbye to Rolly as he boarded the ambulance on his way to the Cyril E King Hospital. Rolly was holding a sign that said what everyone has come to know him as "Survivor."

Link to video: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1o-wkEhZlXTnsAF2UP5hbGpkk6F37iC-r?usp=sharing

Additional footage is available upon request.

Press Contact Karen Rennie 3407768025 [email protected]

Related Images

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Rolly Tolentino

Related Links

SRMC Website

SRMC Facebook

Related Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynb0VUjfRcs

SOURCE Schneider Regional Medical Center
100 years ago

Owner defends employee

Helen De Zaldo, wife of a wealthy New York City banker, was prepared to press grand larceny charges against a Black maid at the Indian Head Tavern in Saratoga Springs. She accused Emma Hills of stealing $5,000 in jewels from her while she was ill in the tavern's restroom during a high society party.

De Zaldo was in the company of Ralph Thompson of Schenectady and New York. John T. Dennin of Albany, the inn owner, declared he had complete faith in Hills' integrity, believed in his employee's innocence and would stand by her throughout the proceedings.

 Times Union, Aug. 7, 1920

50 years ago

Stepping in on bus service

Spurred by the impending shutdown of the United Traction Co., Gov. Rockefeller said he was "accelerating efforts" to staff the new Capital District Regional Transportation Authority and ensure continued bus service. UTC officials sought PSC permission to discontinue service after 81 years of operation. In a terse statement, they predicted losses for the current year exceeding the almost $300,000 lost during 1969. Albany County attorney John J. Clyne indicated the county would probably step in and temporarily operate the carrier, but said it would be only on an interim basis. Rockefeller renewed the state's offer to provide $2.5 million toward the purchase of 100 buses under the 1967 transportation bond Issue. The buses were expected to be delivered in the fall.

 Times Union, Aug. 7, 1970

Looking Back is compiled by C.J. Lais Jr. and Azra Haqqie.
In Kyiv on Wednesday, August 5, the U.S. Embassy officials handed over 100,000 masks, more than 16,000 respirators, some 2,700 protective overalls and more than 1,600 eye shields to Ukrainian border guards, the press service of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine said.

"The total worth of aid is UAH 3 million. The received protective equipment will be distributed between the border guard units and medical institutions of the agency and will contribute to the safe performance of official duties during the fight against a global pandemic," the service said in the statement on Wednesday.

The Ukrainian Border Guard Service said that the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine and in particular Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) is a strategic partner of the State Border Guard Service in the fight against the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) disease.
Laura Whitmore has denied she was trying to "recruit people to the Army" after her appearance on a an Army podcast prompted a backlash.

The Irish Love Island presenter, who was a close friend of the late Caroline Flack, was hit with criticism yesterday after she posted an Instagram ad to promote an episode of The Locker, which is made in collaboration with Army Jobs.

The 35-year-old posted a picture of herself giving a thumbs up and wearing a camouflage top, revealing that she would be speaking to Ella, a soldier about "all things confidence" and "body positivity" and "being female in a male-dominated industry".

The post was accompanied by the hastags: #army confidence, #TheLocker #armyjobs #ad.

The post was later followed up by Whitemore's own tribute to the late John Hume, whose funeral was held yesterday, prompting writer Lisa Hughes to criticise the Dubliner for the juxtaposition of the posts.

After the topic started to trend on social media, Whitmore defended in a series of tweets her Hume tribute, and her podcast, stressing it was a "really important conversation for women".

The matter prompted a mixed reaction from her followers, with some defending her decision to team up with the Army for the podcast. One follower said: "Don't be ashamed. @Britisharmy is a great job for young men and women."

She later removed the #armyjobs hashtag, and subsequently posted a short statement on Twitter in response to the criticism.

"I was asked to be a guest on a podcast talking about body issues and being a female in a male-dominated industry. As I have done in the past.

"The other guest was a young female soldier.

"If this looked like me trying to recruit to the army, that is not the case at all."

She added: "I know to those who actually listen to the podcast they'll understand, but in case there's any confusion I wanted to clear it up."
A rare, transmissible tumor has brought the iconic Tasmanian devil to the brink of extinction, but new research by scientists at Washington State University and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle indicates hope for the animals' survival and possibly new treatment for human cancers.

The study, published in Genetics on Aug. 1, found a single genetic mutation that leads to reduced growth of a transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils in the wild.

"This gene is implicated in human prostate and colon cancers," said Andrew Storfer, professor of biological sciences at WSU. "While the findings hold the most immediate promise to help save the world's few remaining Tasmanian devils, these results could also someday translate to human health."

The research team, led by Storfer and Mark Margres, now a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, studied the genomes of cases of devil facial tumor disease, or DFTD, that regressed spontaneously -- that is, the cancer began disappearing on its own.

They were surprised to find the mutation contributing to tumor regression doesn't change the gene function but instead, turns on a gene that slows cell growth in the tumor. At least, it behaves that way in the lab.

Current human cancer therapies focus on removing every trace of a tumor, often through toxic or debilitating treatments, said David Hockenbery, a cancer biologist at Fred Hutch who contributed to the study.

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"If there were ways that tumors could be tricked into regressing without having to administer cytotoxic drugs or deforming surgeries, it would be a major advance," he said.

While infections cause up to 20 percent of all human cancers -- such as gastric cancer from Helicobacter pylori and cervical cancer from human papillomavirus -- for Tasmanian devils, the cancer is the infection.

DFTD spreads between the animals when they bite each other during common social behaviors. Since the mid-1990s, the disease has decimated the natural population of the carnivorous marsupials, which are now found only on the island state of Tasmania, off the southeastern coast of Australia.

Storfer's lab leads a National Institutes of Health-funded team of researchers from the U.S. and Australia to improve conservation efforts for Tasmanian devils and increase understanding of the co-evolution of the tumor and its host.

Though ferocious with each other, Tasmanian devils take mild handling by people without much fuss, making it easy for investigators to humanely capture the animals, collect tissue samples and tag them for monitoring before release back into the wild.

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As the researchers work to save the devils, they also have an unprecedented opportunity to watch tumors naturally evolve and sometime regress without drugs or surgery.

"Although this disease is largely fatal, we're seeing tumors just disappear from an increasing number of individual animals," Storfer said.

The team is looking at the effects of other promising mutations in regressed tumors as well.

"We hope to learn something that could be applied to understanding and possibly treating a number of human cancers in the future," Storfer said.

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Washington Research Foundation.
MONTREAL - WSP Global sees a lucrative horizon despite fallout from the pandemic, with an updated guidance predicting strong earnings comparable to its pre-COVID-19 expectations.

The outlook, which was suspended after the outbreak, projects net revenues of between $6.7 billion and $7 billion in 2020, with adjusted earnings of at least $1 billion  roughly five per cent below previous guidance

The fresh forecast comes after a quarter where revenues nudged downward but the backlog grew five per cent year over year and profits remained flat in spite of interruptions sparked by the coronavirus.

A five-per-cent drop in net revenue stemmed mainly from hurdles in Canada and the United Kingdom, CEO Alexandre LHeureux said on a conference call with analysts Thursday.

In Canada the depressed oil and gas industry hit WSPs market sectors, though the company derives only about five per cent of its revenues from the power and energy industry. The pandemic also prompted construction sites shutdowns.

In the U.K., the pandemic just proved to be too much for an economy that had already entered 2020 in a weakened position due to the uncertain political and business environment brought forward by Brexit, leading to a particularly hard-hit private sector, LHeureux said.

The downturn in these two countries explains most of the top-line contraction in this quarter.

To its detriment, the Montreal-based company has less exposure to public contracts than rivals SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. and Stantec Inc., with about one-third of WSPs revenues in Canada coming from government-funded projects, according to Laurentian Bank Securities analyst Mona Nazir.

Historically when private sector investment has been weak, governments tend to increase their capital investments, Nazir said. Nonetheless, all companies in our coverage universe will likely benefit from a spike in public sector work, she added.

WSP won several big contracts last year, including for Montreals next massive infrastructure project  repairing the 51-year-old Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine Tunnel that connects the island with the South Shore.

WSP partially offset its shrinking income stream with cost-containment measures such as remote work and travel restrictions.

The engineering firm, whose market value of $9.25 billion now more than doubles that of competitor SNC-Lavalin, reported net earnings of $88.3 million or 83 cents per share in the three months ended June 30 on revenue of $2.2 billion.

This story by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 5, 2020.

Companies in this story: (TSX:WSP, TSX:SNC, TSX:STN)

Read more about:
Michelle Obama has spoken about experiencing low-grade depression during the pandemic, saying its exhausting to continually see Black Americans dehumanised in the news.

Speaking on The Michelle Obama Podcast, the former first lady told journalist Michele Norris: I know that I am dealing with some form of low-grade depression.

Not just because of the quarantine, but because of the racial strife, and just seeing this administration, watching the hypocrisy of it, day in and day out, is dispiriting.

The second episode of her podcast, titled Protests and the Pandemic, was released on Wednesday. It sees the pair discuss the challenges of recent months.

Part of this depression is also a result of what were seeing in terms of the protests, the continued racial unrest, that has plagued this country since its birth, Obama continues.

I have to say, that waking up to the news, waking up to how this administration has or has not responded, waking up to yet another story of a Black man or a Black person somehow being dehumanised, or hurt or killed, or falsely accused of something, it is exhausting. And it has led to a weight that I havent felt in my life in a while.

Obama compared seeing the video of George Floyds death to those pictures of folks standing around lynched bodies in trees.

We talk about fear, you know, we talk about white women clutching their purses at the sight of us, or feeling uncomfortable when we walk in the store, but, I wonder, do you know how afraid we are? Because we know that there are white folks who see us as not human.

To look after her mental health, Obama says she finds maintaining a schedule essential. For her, small things like eating dinner at the same time every day and waking up on cue seem to help.

I try to make sure I get a workout in, although, there have been periods throughout this quarantine, where I just, have felt too low, she says.

You know, Ive gone...

Continue reading on HuffPost
Five days after Pnar Gultekin was reported missing, her dead body was found in the woods of Mugla, a city in south-western Turkey.

Police say the 27-year-old student was beaten and strangled to death, her body then burned and covered in concrete. After the remains of Gultekin were found by the police, 32-year-old Cemal Metin Avc, Gultekin's former partner, was arrested on homicide charges. According to Turkish reports, Avc later confessed to the killing while under question by the police.

Ever since that brutal murder, women in Turkey have been protesting for further action against femicide.

After the first street protests, women extended the call for solidarity to social media, encouraging people to post black and white photos using the hashtags #ChallengeAccepted #IstanbulSozlesmesiYasatr (Istanbul Convention Saves Lives).

It was also intended as a way of simulating media photos of murdered women in Turkey. Through the challenge which went viral, the meaning has been lost somewhat with celebrities from all around the world participating in the challenge, but failing to voice solidarity with the campaign against femicide in Turkey specifically. After a push to centre the original message, it seems things are changing, with the likes of Salma Hayek, Christina Aguilera and Demi Moore, among others, posting their support on Instagram.

Violence against women and femicide have been long-standing issues in Turkey, but they have increased substantially in recent years. According to femicide awareness initiative, Kadn Cinayetlerini Durduracagz Platformu (We Will Stop Femicide Platform), In 2019, at least 474 women were murdered by men.

Meanwhile, president Recep Tayyip Erdogans ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is openly questioning Turkeys participation in the Istanbul Convention which focuses on preventing domestic violence, prosecuting accused offenders and protecting victims. Nevertheless, the women of Turkey are still demanding effective implementation of the Convention.

Turkish authorities signed the treaty in 2011 and adopted the 6284 law (otherwise known as the "law to protect family and prevent violence against women") in 2012 to prevent gender-based violence. Kadn Cinayetlerini Durduracagz Platformu's statistics paint a stark picture. In 2011, at least 121 women were murdered by men. Years later, in the seventh month of 2020, the numbers have risen to 155. In total, between the years 2008-2019, at least 3,185 women have been murdered by men.

Some conservative groups have petitioned for the abandonment of the Istanbul Convention on the ground that it damages traditional Turkish family culture and promotes LGBT+ identities. Commenting on the treaty on 2 July, Numan Kurtulmus, AKPs deputy chairman, said it was wrong of Turkey to ratify the Istanbul Convention. Work on it, review it. If this is what the people want then remove it. If the people demand that it's removed, a decision according to their will, will be made, said the president Erdogan on the same day.

As conservative circles continue to debate, KADEM (Women and Democracy Association)  a womens NGO whose deputy chair is Sumeyye Erdogan, daughter of the president, recently released a statement and gave support to the convention.

According to Bianet, a Turkish press agency, reports on male violence reveal that men killed at least 32 women in July 2020 and 59 per cent of murders happened at the homes of victims. If the reasoning behind demands from women in Turkey that the Istanbul Convention is implemented weren't clear before, they should be now. It matters that the convention is the first European treaty specifically targeting violence against women and domestic violence.

As part of continued protests, women in Istanbul gathered in Kadkoy and in many other cities on Wednesday evening. Activists held banners with the names of the murdered women and noted: If the Istanbul Convention was implemented, they would still be alive today.

We read [the names of murdered women] and demand urgently that our names wont be read by other women on protests, said Feride Eralp from Feminist Mekan (Feminist Space), a womens collective from Istanbul. The Istanbul Convention is an assurance to children, women and LGBT+s who suffer from male violence, she added.

 Marry-your-rapist bill to be introduced by lawmakers in Turkey

Turkish police were also condemned by Eralp, a well-known activist during the protests in Kadkoy. Emine Bulut, who was murdered in front of her 10-year-old daughter by her husband in 2019, went to a police station only half an hour ago before she was murdered and she has already reported many times that her life is in danger. If the Istanbul Convention was implemented fully, she would still be alive today, said Eralp, who urged police to take action when women report that their lives are threatened by men.

While the protest kept going and ended peacefully in Istanbul, police brutally attacked demonstrators in Izmir, on Turkeys Aegean coast, and detained 16 protesters.

AKP was expected to announce the decision on the convention after its central executive meeting on 5 August. However, the government has postponed the meeting to 13 August. They postponed the decision because of our resistance, said Eralp to all women who have joined the protest. Our resistance wont stop and the Istanbul Convention will be fully implemented.

As a young woman who was born and raised in Istanbul, the resistance of women has given me hope. While police and government fail to take action against patriarchal violence, the solidarity only grows and empowers women and LGBT+ people to care for each other. The dynamics of women's resistance is changing, flowing and finding new ways to exist despite oppression by the authorities. As we always chant at the protests, waving purple flags, "If you ever feel alone, remember this crowd; remember us."

Tugce Ozbicer is a Turkish journalist from Istanbul
Washington: US Republican President Donald Trump asserted on Thursday that his Democratic opponent in November's election, Joe Biden, is "against God," even though Biden himself frequently discusses how his Catholic faith has guided his actions as a public official.

With Trump trailing Biden in four recent polls in Ohio, the President was fighting to win voters in the traditional swing state as the coronavirus pandemic threatens his chances of a second term. After addressing a small crowd at a Cleveland airport on Thursday, Trump went on to deliver a campaign-style speech at a Whirlpool plant in Clyde, Ohio.

US President Donald Trump speaks during an event at the Whirlpool Corporation Manufacturing Plant in Ohio. Credit:AP

"He's following the radical-left agenda: take away your guns, destroy your Second Amendment, no religion, no anything, hurt the Bible, hurt God," Trump said about Biden in his Cleveland speech. "He's against God."

The Second Amendment of the US Constitution gives Americans the right to keep and bear arms.
Two-thirds of B2B companies outsource online marketing to manage their online growth processes more effectively.

DesignRush, a B2B marketplace connecting brands with agencies, determined the best digital marketing companies that help brands use online channels to build their brand and grow revenue.

The top digital marketing companies are:

1. Ink, Inc. Creative Group

Ink, Inc. is a full-service agency in Brooklyn, NY, specializing in matters of strategic messaging, branding, and digital marketing for businesses that range in size from SMBs to international enterprises. Their approach is a direct fusion of creativity and strategy.

inkincgroup.com

2. Stevens & Tate Marketing

Stevens & Tate Marketing is a Chicago-based, integrated marketing and advertising agency that services clients nationwide. They specialize in digital marketing, broadcast advertising, package design, media planning and buying, SEO, social media and website design across various industries.

stevens-tate.com

3. Chainlink Relationship Marketing

Chainlink Relationship Marketing is a full-service digital marketing agency based in NYC, helping brands reach targeted audiences with digital marketing, and creating websites and eCommerce stores. They conduct market research, plan and execute targeted campaigns and optimize for strong results.

chainlinkmarketing.com

4. Klint Marketing

Klint Marketing aims to help startups and SMBs grow through data-driven marketing efforts. Their team conducts experiments and analyzes data to scale companies. They believe the best results come from a personalized approach where the customers get involved in the process.

klintmarketing.com

5. Return On Now

Return On Now strives to help businesses of all sizes improve their website visibility, traffic and lead flow. With a focus on SEO, SEM (Pay Per Click Advertising) and Content Marketing, they optimize how prospects are targeted, converted and measured to strengthen existing marketing efforts.

returnonnow.com

6. Altitude Internet  altitude-internet.co.uk

Expertise: Digital Marketing, Paid Media & Pay Per Click, Social Media Marketing and more

7. Brand You - Web & Digital Agency  brandyoudigitalagency.ie

Expertise: Branding, Digital Marketing, Website Design and more

8. Diamond Arrow Digital Marketing  digitalmarketinggilbertaz.com

Expertise: Digital Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Email & Marketing Automation and more

9. Digital Terai  digitalterai.com

Expertise: Social Media Marketing, Website Design, SEO and more

10. Dobies Health Marketing  dobieshealthmarketing.com

Expertise: Digital Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing & Copywriting and more

11. Dos Mundos Creative  dosmundoscreative.com

Expertise: Paid Media & Pay Per Click, Social Media Marketing, Email & Marketing Automation and more

12. Enkrishiv  enkrishiv.com

Expertise: Digital Marketing, SEO, Social Media Optimization and more

13. ePursue  epursue.com

Expertise: Digital Marketing, SEO, Paid Media & Pay Per Click and more

14. Evolve Digital  itsevolve.com

Expertise: Paid Media & Pay Per Click, Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing & Copywriting and more

15. Intellistall Pvt Ltd  intellistall.com

Expertise: Paid Media & Pay Per Click, Digital Marketing, Content Marketing & Copywriting and more

16. Into the Blue Agency  intotheblueagency.com

Expertise: Digital Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing & Copywriting and more

17. Krush Digital Advertising Agency  gokrush.com

Expertise: Digital Marketing, SEO, Video Marketing and more

18. KRV Guru  krvguru.com

Expertise: Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing & Copywriting, Digital Marketing and more

19. MESH Interactive Agency  meshagency.com

Expertise: SEO, Paid Media & Pay Per Click, Integrated Marketing and more

20. Miracle Digital Hong Kong  miracles.com.hk

Expertise: SEO, Social Media Marketing, Email & Marketing Automation and more

21. PopOff Marketing  popoffmarketing.com

Expertise: Paid Media & Pay Per Click, Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing & Copywriting and more

22. Promodo  promodo.com

Expertise: Digital Marketing, SEO, Paid Media & Pay Per Click and more

23. Rocket CRO Lab  rocketcrolab.com

Expertise: Digital Marketing, Paid Media & Pay Per Click, Social Media Marketing and more

24. Splash Designworks LLC  splashdw.com

Expertise: Digital Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Inbound Marketing and more

25. Swivt Technologies  goswivt.com

Expertise: Digital Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Branding and more

26. The Status Bureau  statusbureau.com

Expertise: SEO, Paid Media & Pay Per Click, eCommerce SEO & Marketing and more

27. Ubiweb Media  ubiweb.ca

Expertise: Digital Marketing, SEO, Paid Media & Pay Per Click and more

Brands can explore the top digital marketing companies by location, size, average hourly rate and portfolio on DesignRush.

About DesignRush: DesignRush.com is a B2B marketplace connecting brands with agencies. DesignRush features the top agencies around the world, including the best Digital Agencies, Software Developers, Logo Design, Branding, Digital Marketing, Website Design, eCommerce Web Design Companies and more.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, at a meeting with investors on August 5, assured of his readiness to support projects that improve the image of Ukraine and provide jobs.

The meeting was attended by investors who intend to implement a number of projects in Ukraine. In particular, representatives of Yom Capital Ltd. plan to build a computing data center with a capacity of 1 GW, and representatives of NBT want to build a wind power plant with a capacity of 800 MW and electrolysis-based hydrogen production facilities with a capacity of 200 MW in Zaporizhzhia region. The volume of investments attracted for the construction of the wind farm will amount to more than EUR 1.2 billion and for the production of hydrogen  more than EUR 300 million.

Also, the meeting was attended by a representative of the construction company, H2, LLC.

At the beginning of the event, the head of state said that the authorities are working to build a new country. "A country with investments. When we talk about investments, we are not talking about money. First of all, we are talking about projects. Projects that make it possible to improve the image of Ukraine and provide jobs," Zelensky said.

Chief Executive Officer at NBT Joar Viken recalled that NBT has been operating in Ukraine for many years and has already invested EUR 400 million and plans to make investments worth EUR 1.2 billion this autumn.

He said that the company adheres to strict international standards in its work, high standards of corporate and social responsibility, and is intolerant of corruption. "We need all these to bring investments to this country and work," he said.

Viken noted that the company will commit USD 15 million to the next social project in Zaporizhzhia. In addition, according to him, direct investments worth more than EUR 140 million will be attracted to improve the power systems of Ukraine.

ish
Contributed Photo / Connecticut State Police

NAUGATUCK  Police have identified Raymond Schultz as the man killed by a falling tree in town during the height of the storm Tuesday afternoon.

The Naugatuck Police Department mourns the loss of Schultz with the community and extends our deepest condolences to the family of the deceased, police said.
Ranchi, Aug 7 : Jharkhand has reported 1,100 fresh COVID-19 cases, pushing the state's tally to 15,248, a health official said on Thursday.

According to the official, Godda district has recorded the highest number with 403 cases.

Besides, 22 staff of Chief Minister Hemant Soren's residence, had earlier contracted the disease.

The state also witnessed 584 recoveries in the last 24 hours, added the official.

According to the Health Department officials, the state has also ramped up testing.

As many as 50,000 people have been tested in the last three days.

The state has reported nine fatalities in the last 24 hours, taking the toll to 139.

The number of active cases in the state stood at 9,286, whereas, 5,826 people have been recovered so far.

As many as 3,64,887 samples have been collected in the state so far, out of which 3,51,197 were tested and 3,36,149 have turned out to be negative.

The data further pointed out that the number of travellers under surveillance and asymptomatic was at 5,596, while those who have completed 28 days of compulsory observation stood at 4,333.

The number of people in facility quarantine was at 5,892, while those in home quarantine was 2,43,150.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Plus, Bill's Message of the Day, who are the most admired people in America?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Here's your horoscope for January 19, 2022 

Aries Horoscope: You will be full of confidence as the bank balance remains healthy. There will be a plethora of opportunities for people working on commission. Changes in lifestyle will be beneficial for health. Domestic happiness is promised. Exciting holiday awaits you. The property issue will be resolved amicably. Natives participating in the competition will get an opportunity to improve performance. There will be an occasion when you participate in religious ceremony. You will spend quality time with lover. Remember, love begets love. Lucky Number- 9 Lucky Colour- White

Taurus Horoscope: With increase in income, the quality of life improves as you invest in luxuries. You will be able to take important decisions related to career. Physical activities will keep you fit and energetic. Family will provide support for your new work and show interest in its development. A visit to a tourist place will be memorable. You will get a share in ancestral property. Students will be satisfied with their performances. Fondest dream will materialize. Lucky Number- 6 Lucky Colour- Dark Green

Gemini Horoscope: The financial situation is strong and will sail safely. Your concerns related to investment losses or salary cut are baseless. You should take health-related matters seriously. Your way of trying and infusing new ideas at workplace will be appreciated. People living away from home will be able to return. The journey will be interesting. This is the start of an exciting phase of life for you, when you'll be exposed to strange but exhilarating new experiences. You are in perfect harmony with your love partner. Lucky Number- 17 Lucky Colour- Dark Gray

Cancer Horoscope: Your performance will be incredible. You are following a healthy lifestyle which is keeping you fit and fine. Family life is fulfilling. The guests bring joy to your place. Possibilities related to purchase of property are developing. Students will be able to gather the necessary resources to achieve their objective. Some sort of tension is expected in love life, be careful. There are signs of improvement in your financial situation. You can expect to receive an award or reward in professional life. Lucky Number- 12 Lucky Colour- Marshmallow

Leo Horoscope: It is possible to get rid of seasonal diseases. Meeting family members after a long time will bring happiness in life. Travel will be pleasant and convenient. Auspicious day to start buying or building a new house. Students will top in studies. The experience of positivity in life is amazing. Lots of smaller and bigger things need to be tended, but you can still enjoy some time with your partner. Much financial prosperity is promised to you. Your performance at workplace will keep you ahead. Lucky Number- 18 Lucky Colour- Coffee

Virgo Horoscope: Time will remain positive in terms of health. You will spend time with family. The journey will be fruitful and will finish on time. A premium property can be in your name. By the grace of God, students will receive wise counsel. The stars signal that this is the right time to get closer and strengthen your connection with a colleague in matters of heart. You will feel financially safer than before. Foresight and planning will ensure victory in the competition. Lucky Number- 2 Lucky Colour Coffee

Libra Horoscope: There is no harm in resorting to alternative medicine. It is possible to organize get together in the family. The family life can be exciting. Property related deals can be sealed. Students will be prepared to show up in any kind of exam or competition. If your love partner wants to do something that may not sound fun to you, consider it giving a shot. You will be pleasantly surprised! It will be possible to arrange funds for some important work. The colleague will judge you positively in front of high officials. Lucky Number- 22 Lucky Colour- Blue

Scorpio Horoscope: You will get rid of a long troubling physical pain. A favourable day for traveling with family. The desire to meet a friend can be fulfilled. Good day to start work related to house construction. Students have to overcome their shortcomings. You have Learnt to renounce negative thoughts. Your partner appreciates what makes you different. There is scope for continuous improvement in your financial situation. Time for promotion is active and inspiring you to keep moving forward. Lucky Number- 18 Lucky Colour- White

Sagittarius Horoscope: Rashness regarding fitness is not right. Elderly family members may experience mood swings. Follow traffic rules. With negotiation you will get property deal finalised on your own terms. The behaviour of a classmate or a colleague can woo you. Time to live stress-free life, all apprehensions will be shed. Today all your energy and attention are devoted towards your love partner. There are chances of getting desired success in career. There is going to be a tremendous boom in the financial situation. Lucky Number- 11 Lucky Colour- Orange

Capricorn Horoscope: It is possible to receive good advice in health matters. You will have to help someone in the family. Do not disappoint those seeking help. Be careful with money during the journey, fear of theft is foreseen. Students are required to work harder. It's great for accomplishing things at work and even better in the realm of romance. Understand the importance of budgeting before you begin anything new. You will get a chance to talk to the higher officials regarding your career progress. Lucky Number- 1 Lucky Colour- Maroon

Aquarius Horoscope: You can be seen working hard. Do not let your efforts be reduced with respect to health. Students can expect good news. It will be possible to take a break from regular routine. Students may not receive required guidance or help. Youngsters will rejoice. Ease up on your expectations and bend a little in romance. Simple things like lunch at home with family will be satisfying. The financial situation will remain hopeful. Lucky Number- 5 Lucky Colour- Turquoise

Pisces Horoscope: Family conditions will remain hopeful. You will be able to control lifestyle disorders. Younger people will enjoy the adventure trip. The hard work of the students is paying off. It is possible for you to win in a legal dispute. Your partner wants to see you happy. They'll do just about anything to put a smile on your face, so let them. It is great time for businessmen to earn money. Expecting success without efforts is not fair. Lucky Number- 11 Lucky Colour- Light Green

About Author: Astrologer Manisha Koushik is a renowned Tarot Card Reader, Numerologist, Name Therapist and Vastu-Fengshui Consultant. Know more 

Did we pique your curiosity about your future? Read your detailed Horoscope and Rashifal to know more.
THE Mid West has received a major boost after biopharmaceutical company MeiraGTx announced it is to expand its operations in Shannon.

The New-York based company has selected Shannon as the site of its second current good manufacturing practices, or cGMP viral vector manufacturing facility and cGMP plasmid production facility.

MeiraGTx is a clinical-stage gene therapy company, which is focused on developing potentially curative treatments for patients living with serious diseases.

It has operations globally and hopes to bolster its services by investing in its facility in County Clare.

The 8,300 square metre at the Shannon Free Zone will incorporate two separate buildings and will be designed to meet global regulatory requirements.

It will be used for the manufacture of MeiraGTx viral vectors for gene therapies and the plasmid DNA that is one of the starting materials in viral vector production.

A plasmid production facility is expected to be operational by the end of the year, while a second viral vector manufacturing facility is due to be operational by the end of 2021.

The investment by MeiraGTx will result in the creation of around 100 jobs,

Executive Director of IDA Ireland Mary Buckley has welcomed the expansion plans.

Todays announcement by MeiraGTx is closely aligned with IDA Irelands strategy for the Life Sciences sector, and indeed in winning jobs and investment in regional locations. This investment is an emergent area within biopharma, and strongly endorses the Midwest and Irelands reputation as a key location for the next generation of biopharmaceutical manufacture, she said.

IDA Ireland welcomes MeiraGTx announcement of major expansion of #Shannon facility https://t.co/OkTh8BjygI  IDA Ireland (@IDAIRELAND) August 6, 2020

The MeiraGTx expansion in Shannon will create new highly skilled biopharma jobs with a team to include bio-process scientists, engineers and technicians for manufacturing, engineering, technical and quality roles.

The new facilities are part of a major development programme by Shannon Commercial Properties which, by end of 2020, will see the delivery of almost one million square feet of new or refurbished office, aviation and industrial commercial property facilities at Shannon Free Zone.

Rose Hynes, chairman of Shannon Group, says the decision by MeiraGTx to locate in Shannon Free Zone and the anticipated job creation validates its decision to commence that development programme in 2014.

The expansion by the biopharma company comes on top of significant investments by Jaguar Land Rover, Edwards Lifesciences, Engine Lease Finance and GE Sensing in commercial property solutions developed by Shannon Group in the Shannon Free Zone.

For more Limerick news click here
It may not be as much of a win as last year, but Grape Growers of Ontario is happy to emerge from this years grape price negotiations with an overall one per cent increase in grape prices.

Each year, wine industry stakeholders from Grape Growers of Ontario, Wine Growers Ontario and Ontario Craft Wineries negotiate prices of grapes used for wine production under a process regulated under Ontarios Farm Products Marketing Act.

After a daylong process occurring online July 27, eight representatives hammered out market prices on more than 40 grape varieties.

While not every variety of grape will see the same price increase, Grape Growers chair Matthias Oppenlaender said a tonne of grapes would range between $560 and $2,000, depending on the grape variety.

Ontario Craft Wineries president Richard Linley said, Were really pleased to have arrived at an agreement, and that the July 27 negotiations were positive and constructive.

Compared to an overall price jump of 2.8 per cent in 2019, this years increase is moderate. But in 2019, the negotiations went to arbitration, delaying the outcome of a decision until almost November of that year.

Negotiations are always uncomfortable, said Oppenlaender, but these went better than he expected.

Its obviously different, were under unique circumstances this year, he said, grateful the industry recognized the need for an increase.

With grape price certainty, now growers and wineries alike can focus on what they do best: producing wine.
The members of Granard Municipal District have agreed to write to Minister for Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands Heather Humpreys in the hope that changes might be made to the Local Improvement Scheme (LIS).

The decision came following a motion submitted by Cathaoirleach of Granard MD, Cllr Garry Murtagh at last weeks meeting.

Altering farming measures in rural Ireland and, in particular, the resurgence of dairy farming means that farmers have to increase their holdings in order to be sustainable, said Cllr Murtagh.

They have to acquire large sways of land, thus leading to the demise of small farm holders, which in turn has a negative impact on LIS applications.

Current legislation demands that projects, which can provide access to parcels of land of which at least two are owned or occupied by different persons, engaged in separate agricultural activities. Proof of two landowners must be provided, he continued.

So, where beneficiaries (house-holders on a private lane) are contributing to the LIS, they are not being considered as part of the qualifying criteria.

I feel the rules regarding the LIS need to be adjusted to coincide with the evolving changes in rural Ireland.

This scheme is a vital resource in the protection, support and preservation of an invaluable infrastructure that is the network of rural Ireland.

Cllr Paraic Brady seconded Cllr Murtaghs motion, saying that there are currently are certain criteria that eliminate people for getting laneways done.

There has to be two farming practices on a lane and wed have certain lanes where dairy farms might have gotten bigger and milk trucks are coming in, he said.

Cllr PJ Reilly agreed and supported the motion whole heartedly.

It needs to be expanded more, he said.

There could be ont landowner and three private houses on it and doesnt qualify.

Following the discussion, it was agreed that a letter would be written to Minister Humphreys.
Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 6 : The travails of an Air India whistleblower official continue as he has now been suspended from service on the charge that he spoke to the media, said his counsel.

Speaking to IANS, M.R. Abhilash, counsel for the whistleblower, said that the suspension order has been served to his client by Air India.

"The charge is that he addressed the media on company matters, which is not right," said Abhilash.

The unexpected suspension comes at a time when the ongoing probe by the Kerala Police's Crime Branch into a fabricated sexual harassment case against the Air India official masterminded by the prime accused in the gold smuggling case involving Swapna Suresh has reached a crucial stage.

A few Air India officials have already been quizzed in connection with the case while a few others are expected to be called shortly.

It all started for L.S. Sibu, who was a union leader in Air India and was working as an officer-apron in the Ground Services Department, Trivandrum, in 2014 when he brought to the attention of the CBI, the Central Vigilance Commission and the Prime Minister's Office the financial shenanigans at Trivandrum Airport.

Starting then, Sibu's life took a turn for the worse, as he was transferred to Hyderabad effective April 2015. He had to wait till June 2015 to know the reason why he was transferred and was shocked to learn that 17 female employees had in a letter levelled complaints of sexual harassment against him.

Presently on leave, Sibu who is in his hometown here, got a mail from Air India that he has been suspended from service for addressing the media on company matters.

It was after a few years of a legal battle that the Kerala High Court directed Air India to reinstate him in July 2018, after which he was posted to Hyderabad.

In another order, the court had then directed the Crime Branch to conduct a detailed probe into the sexual harassment case against Sibu.

Incidentally, it was only after the gold smuggling case involving Swapna Suresh came to light that Sibu got some relief.

The Crime Branch investigation unearthed evidence against Swapna Suresh of being the mastermind behind the sexual harassment case and the agency is expected to file a chargesheet shortly as directed by the court.
A new study concludes that opening clinics dedicated specifically to treating influenza can limit the number of people infected and help to "flatten the curve," or reduce the peak prevalence rate. While the work focused on influenza, the findings are relevant for policymakers seeking ways to reduce impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

"Dedicated clinics would have less of an impact than interventions such as vaccination, but at the statewide level, we're talking about cutting the overall number of infections by six figures," says Julie Swann, corresponding author of a paper on the work. Swann is the department head and A. Doug Allison Distinguished Professor of the Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at North Carolina State University.

"And while our work here focused on the H1N1 strain of influenza, the findings are useful as we grapple with how best to respond to COVID-19," Swann says. "COVID-19 is more infectious than H1N1, and has a higher mortality rate. So I would expect the effect of using dedicated clinics to be larger for COVID-19."

Swann and her collaborators were inspired to do the study by the fact that some hospitals opened dedicated H1N1 clinics during the H1N1 influenza pandemic in 2009-2010. These clinics focused exclusively on treating patients who were exhibiting symptoms of H1N1. There was some question at the time as to whether these clinics were a good use of limited resources. It was also unclear as to whether the clinics may have had unintended consequences, such as spreading H1N1 to patients who showed up at the dedicated clinic with flu-like symptoms, but didn't actually have the disease.

For this study, Swann and her collaborators at Purdue University, Georgia Tech and Emory University used a simulation model to address questions related to the ultimate impact of dedicated clinics during an H1N1 pandemic.

The researchers found that opening dedicated clinics reduced disease spread and hospitalizations, particularly when open during the periods of peak prevalence - when the most people are sick. Specifically, the researchers found that if dedicated clinics were open for the entire duration of the pandemic, the clinics would have reduced the overall number of infections by 0.4-1.5%; reduced peak prevalence (or "flattened the curve") by 0.07-0.32%; and reduced hospitalizations by 0.02-0.09%.

"For a state that has a population of 10 million, the difference in the baseline clinic case would be about 100,000 cases, with about 6,000 hospitalizations averted," Swann says. "In other words, dedicated clinics certainly don't make things worse, and can make things at least a little better. And these are benefits that come on top of any benefits we'd see from other, behavioral changes - such as wearing masks - which may be more difficult to implement."

North Carolina's population is approximately 10.5 million.

The study on dedicated clinics is part of a larger research initiative that has already published work examining issues related to vaccine distribution for adults and children; the role of mass gatherings and travel in spreading influenza; and the impact of seasons and mutation in the spread of the disease.

###

The paper, "The impact of opening dedicated clinics on disease transmission during an influenza pandemic," will be published Aug. 6 in the journal PLOS ONE. The paper was co-authored by Pengyi Shi of Purdue University; Jia Yan and Pinar Keskinocak of Georgia Tech; and by Dr. Andi Shane of Emory University and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. The work was done with support from Georgia Tech, Edward P. Fitts and the A. Doug Allison Distinguished Professorship.
A panic-stricken air hostess 'needlessly' ordered the evacuation of an airliner on the runway at Stansted, in which ten people were injured by sliding down escape chutes and being blown over by the plane's exhaust, a report has revealed.

The incident happened after an engine of the A320-214 jet suddenly failed while it was building up speed to take off from the Essex airport last year.

The plane, operated by Austrian airline Laudamotion, was brought to a halt on the left of the runway and the pilot ordered the five cabin crew to take up emergency positions at the exits.

The pilot had intended to taxi back his plane off the runway, using his other working engine after checks revealed there was no fire or immediate danger.

But the confused senior flight attendant instead ordered an evacuation which led to her, the four other cabin crew and passengers opening the six exit doors.

Emergency escape chutes were automatically inflated and the 169 passengers on the flight to Vienna were told to slide down on to the runway.

The scene at Stansted with passengers beside the runway after the Laudamotion plane was needlessly evacuated by a panicking stewardess

Emergency escape chutes were automatically inflated and the 169 passengers on the flight to Vienna were told to slide down on to the runway

An infra red camera picture shows passengers on the runway beside the airliner after they were needlessly evacuated on the runway at Stansted

The panic-stricken stewardess had difficulty communicating with an attendant at the rear of the aircraft after his swivel seat trapped the cable of his handset meaning he could not use it properly

The report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch said ten passengers had to be treated for minor injuries at the scene by paramedics after the 'needless' evacuation.

Most of the injuries were cuts, bruises and sprains, but two passengers were taken to hospital although they were later discharged.

Some passengers later complained to the airline that they were being treated for post traumatic stress disorder as a result of the drama on March 1 last year.

The report said passengers had been exposed to a risk of 'serious injury' as they had been evacuated while the plane's working right engine was still operating.

It meant that they could have been sucked towards the engine if they had strayed in front of it or been hit by the air blasting out at 65mph behind it.

Several passengers who exited beside the right wing revealed that they were blown over by the engine blast or had possessions blasted away.

The steward manning the rear exit on the right side saw his chute flapping horizontally in the stream of air, and stopped passengers from using it.

The evacuation was hampered by many of the passengers trying to take their cabin luggage with them in contravention of evacuation procedures.

Debris from the failed engine of an airliner which was recovered from the runway. The yellow debris was recovered from the emergency chutes which operated when passengers were needlessly evacuated

Attendants on the manned exits ordered passengers to dump their bags, but many of those exiting on the unmanned doors over the wings risked tearing the chutes by taking bags with them.

Several passengers were filmed on CCTV carrying luggage on the runway after the evacuation which happened in darkness at around 8.20pm.

The senior flight attendant said she had been left scared by the loud bang when the left engine of the plane failed just one second after the jet began its take-off roll down the runway.

She did not hear the pilot announce on the intercom: 'Attention: Crew on Station' which meant attendants should stand by their assigned exits and await further instructions.

The stewardess said she was aware 'of all the passengers looking at her' and she felt 'under pressure' and was 'shocked and overwhelmed'.

She had difficulty communicating with an attendant at the rear of the aircraft after his swivel seat trapped the cable of his handset meaning he could not use it properly.

The stewardess thought the attendant had said he had seen flames and sparks coming out of the engine, so she made the announcement: 'Evacuate, Evacuate, Evacuate' over the interphone and the plane's public address system.

The incident happened just two months after the airline was taken over by Ryanair.

The report said that the senior flight attendant may not have been 'well prepared for her role in the emergency' due to deficiencies in her training and the earlier bankruptcy of the airline meaning that she had not worked for a period.

The plane's left engine had what was described as 'a contained failure' with several of its rotor blades cracking and flying off as a result of 'high cycle fatigue' and a faulty lever arm assembly.

Pieces of the blades were later recovered from the runway at Stansted.

The report said that the 44-year-old pilot had immediately shut down the left engine. and after checking that there was no fire had approached air traffic control to ask to use his right thrust to get the plane off the runway.

He was about to instruct flight attendants on the PA to stand down when he noticed that the evacuation had taken place as he could see passengers wandering around the front of the aircraft.

The report concluded: 'As a result of the engine failure and subsequent rejected takeoff, the Senior Flight Attendant commanded an emergency evacuation that was not necessary in the circumstances.

'This was probably the result of a combination of factors that heightened her emotional response to the event and affected her decision making..

'The factors included inexperience as a flight attendant, weaknesses in her training and communication difficulties during the event.

'As a result of the flight crew not being consulted before the evacuation was commenced, the right engine remained running for the first few minutes of the evacuation.

'This led to an increased risk of serious injury to those passengers that evacuated on the right side of the aircraft. Indeed, several passengers sustained minor injuries having been blown over by the exhaust.

'During the evacuation several passengers hindered the evacuation by taking their cabin baggage with them. While some were removed by the flight attendants at the supervised exits, this was not possible at the overwing exits.'

The report said that the airline had improved its training for cabin crew as a result of the incident.

It had also amended its flight safety manual 'to instruct the Flight Attendants to attempt to establish communications with the flight crew to check that an evacuation is safe and necessary before commanding it independently.'

The incident happened after an engine of the A320-214 jet suddenly failed while it was building up speed to take off

The needless evacuation led to the runway being shut for two and a half hours and saw 13 incoming flights being diverted.

The report also recommended the European Union Aviation Safety Agency commission carry out new research to determine how to prevent passengers retrieving their carry-on baggage before an aircraft evacuation.

It said: 'The carried baggage probably slowed the evacuation and had the potential to damage the escape slides or injure other passengers on the slides.'

One passenger estimated that around half of the passengers plane had tried retrieve their luggage from overhead lockers and from under seats before leaving.

The report added that 'numerous passengers' had commented about access to the aisle and exits being 'impeded' by people taking their baggage. As a result, some passengers were shouted at to leave their baggage behind.

It concluded: 'This incident has shown once again that, during an emergency evacuation, a proportion of passengers will attempt to leave the aircraft with their carry-on baggage slowing the evacuation process.'

Laudamotion and Ryanair have been approached for comment.
Thursday, August 6th, 2020 (12:01 am) - Score 1,543

UK ISP Pine Media have announced that they plan to include an additional 20,000 premises into their roll-out of gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband technology in the South Yorkshire city of Sheffield, which will see their total coverage reach 50,000.

The alternative network provider, which has been operating since 2015, initially started life by building Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) based ultrafast broadband networks (AirFibre) to some of the rural areas surrounding Sheffield (mostly homes and smaller businesses); this covered roughly 15,000 properties.

NOTE: Pine charges from 25 per month for a symmetric 100Mbps Pine charges from 25 per month for a symmetric 100Mbps FTTP package and this goes up to 65 for 1000Mbps on a 12 month term (installation is free on some packages, but 60 on others).

However, it wasnt long before they began building gigabit-capable GPON full fibre networks too, albeit initially only focused upon student halls and large private MDU apartment blocks (Multi-Dwelling Units) across the same city. But since then theyve expanded out to include residential MDUs, businesses (including the majority of Sheffields bars, clubs and some breweries) and individual housing (SDU).

By around the end of last year Pine had already managed to cover 11,000 premises (here) with their FTTP network (8,000 were added in 2019 alone) and at the time they intended to cover another 20,000 properties by the end of 2020 (total of c.31,000). The provider has now announced that they will add another 20,000 premises to their build in the city, which should soon take them to 50,000.

At present their primary focus is still on South Yorkshire, although they do have networks in Derbyshire and as far afield as Kent. Naturally though they wont have Sheffield all to themselves as Virgin Media, Openreach and Hyperoptic all have rival networks operating and growing in the city. On the other hand, there are still plenty of sizeable gaps where gigabit capable broadband remains absent.
Head chef Geraud Fabre (L) of French restaurant France-Soir waits for take-away orders in Melbourne Australia, on May 8, 2020. ( WILLIAM WEST/Getty Images)

Tough New Restrictions for Businesses and Workers Kicked-In for Melbourne

Tough new restrictions for businesses and workers kicked-in for Melbourne at midnight but a promised list of who can work on-site, particularly in warehouses, came too late, industry groups say.

People allowed to work on-site now have to show a permit or official work ID if they are stopped by police to prove they can leave their homes, or face fines of up to $99,123 for businesses and up to $19,826 for individuals.

Since the stage four restrictions were announced by the Victorian government on Aug. 2, theres been rising confusion about who can and cannot leave home for work in metropolitan Melbourne.

The government had promised to provide more details ahead of the restrictions coming into effect from Thursday but business groups say it came very late in night, leaving business scrambling.

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said nothing was made available by the Department of Health and Human Services until after 11 p.m. Wednesdayjust an hour before midnight.

Health Minister Jenny Mikakos tweeted a public link to the updated guidelines at 1 a.m. Thursday.

Its still a bit of a disaster, Willox told Nines Today show on Aug 6.

Were now on the first morning of the new lockdown, and businesses still arent clear on what they can and cant do.

Willox said businesses were flying blind, particularly on issues like warehouses, noting that reducing numbers of staff in warehouses would impact on food supplies, among many other things, he told ABC radio.

Premier Daniel Andrews had warned earlier this week the new restrictions, which would see normal staffing levels at food warehouse and meat production outlets reduced to one-third, would impact food supply.

Retail stores across the city will largely be closed to customers from Thursday, while construction and manufacturing work will also been scaled back in a bid to slow the spread of the virus.

Permitted workers and those working from home who cannot supervise their kids must fill out separate forms to send them to child care, kindergarten or primary school.

The rules kick in a day after Victoria recorded its deadliest day of the COVID-19 pandemic with 15 fatalities, including that of a man in his 30s, and 725 new cases.

The states death toll is now 162 and the national toll is 247.

There are 538 Victorians with coronavirus in hospitalup 82 from Tuesdaywith 42 of them in intensive care.

The states second wave of the virus prompted Andrews on Sunday to declare a state of disaster, and flag the stage four restrictions for metropolitan Melbourne, including an 8 p.m.-5 a.m. daily curfew.

Melbourne
With high winds and lashing rain, Tropical Storm Isaias pummeled Connecticut Tuesday afternoon, leaving more than 800,000 without power.

Like Irene and Sandy in previous years, much of the damage came from trees and limbs uprooted or broken off by powerful winds that dropped power lines, smashed into homes and crushed cars or left driveways and roads impassable.

With the winds abated and Connecticut residents left surveying the damage, police and fire departments are still urging caution.

Trees and wires are continuing to come down well after (Tuesdays) storm. Some wires are not live, but others are, and there is no way to tell the difference between the two visually, Bethel Police said in a Facebook post.

If a tree falls on a house, immediately call 911, said Andrew Ellis, fire chief for Brookfield. Firefighters will check the damage, often with a municipal building inspector, to make sure its safe, he explained.

If power and phone service are knocked out as well, he said residents should find a neighbor or someone else who can reach first responders.

If a tree has come down on a homeowners property without taking any wires with it, whose responsibility is it?

The answer is complicated.

If the tree hits something on the property, you may or may not have coverage from your homeowners insurance, said Dick Aarons, emergency management director for the town of Ridgefield.

Generally, if a tree hits a structure  such as a house, fence or shed  on the property, then that falls under the homeowners insurance policy, according to the Insurance Information Institute, a trade organization.

If a tree is in one homeowners yard and causes damage on another property, then the process works like a car crash, Aarons said  the insurance companies for the two homeowners will sort out who is responsible.

If it lives in your property, its your problem, Aarons said. Hire a contractor when things quiet down.
A security officer wearing a face mask to protect against the coronavirus stands outside the Canadian Embassy in Beijing, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2020. China announced on Friday that it had sentenced a Canadian to death on drug charges, the second day in a row Chinese courts handed down the death penalty to a Canadian citizen. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Even with a large surge in absentee ballots for Tuesdays primary, Madison likely wont see a delay in tallying votes on election night like it did in April.

With more than 70,000 absentee ballots requested so far in Madison and 36,263 of those returned as of Wednesday, a large chunk of residents wont have to go to the polls in person, and almost all voting sites will be open, meaning long lines arent expected to be a problem. And election results should be available Tuesday night, unlike the six-day delay seen in May.

This election, everything is  as much as it can be in a pandemic  more routine, Madison city clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl said.

For the presidential primary and spring election April 7, Madison canvassers were still processing absentee ballots until about 1:30 a.m. on April 14.

While results for general elections often stretch into the early-morning hours, its unusual for a spring election to see such a delay. But the April election  the first held in Wisconsin during the COVID-19 pandemic  was anything but usual.
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - August 6, 2020) - Generic Gold Corp. (CSE: GGC) (FSE: 1WD) ("Generic Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has initiated a contract with Laurentia Exploration Inc. to manage its exploration work on the recently acquired Belvais Project ("Belvais" or the "Project") located near the town of Normetal, Quebec, adjacent to Amex Exploration Inc.'s flagship Perron Project. Laurentia Exploration is a full service exploration provider that has been involved in the discovery of multiple gold and base metal discoveries, largely in Quebec. Laurentia is led by a dynamic group of geoscientists with expertise in orogenic gold and VMS mineralization systems. Laurentia has particular experience in the Belvais area, having been neighbouring Amex Exploration's sole geological service provider and project manager since November of 2018.

Laurentia will complete a comprehensive review of all existing government and past exploration data on the Belvais project in order to plan and prepare for an inaugural exploration program in the fall of this year. The Belvais project is divided into three separate properties, as shown in figure 1, namely the East, Centre, and West block. Each of the three properties are situated proximal to the roughly east-southeast trending Normetal fault and the regional Chicobi deformation zone.

The West block, covering 2,136 hectares, is contiguous with and on-trend to Amex Exploration's Perron gold project, who has made numerous high-grade discoveries, and it contiguous to the past-producing Normetal mine, which operated from the 1930's through to 1975 from surface to a depth of 2.4 km. It is underlain by stratified felsic to intermediate volcanic rocks of the Normetal South formation, as well as sediments of the Chicobi group.

The Centre block, comprising 2,905 hectares, covers approximately 12 km of the Normetal fault and the associated Normetal mine horizon, which is the host rock to the past-producing Normetal VMS mine. The Centre block is also host to a significant number of electromagnetic anomalies, compiled by the government of Quebec and available on the SIGEOM geological system.

The East block, covering 3,110 hectares, covers the eastern extension of the Normetal fault, and is contiguous with claims held by Osisko Metals. Of particular interest is a package of claims approximately 2 km from the East block that was recently acquired by IAMGold Corporation. The East block is underlain by mafic to intermediate volcanic rocks as well as a portion of the neoarchean Val-St-Gilles pluton.

Historically, many exploration companies have completed small campaigns on the Belvais project, including airborne geophysics, ground geophysics, diamond drilling, geological mapping, prospecting, and soil sampling. In addition, the region was the subject of a PhD thesis entitled "RECONSTRUCTION D'UN ENVIRONNEMENT DE SULFURES MASSIFS VOLCANOGENES DEFORME: EXEMPLE ARCHEEN DE NORMETAL, ABITIBI." completed by Benoit Lafrance, 2003. All of the available information will be compiled by Laurentia in 2 and 3D in order to define an exploration program for the Belvais Project.

Figure 1: Geological map of the Belvais Project, with respect to Amex Exploration's Perron project and the past-producing Normetal VMS mine





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

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3923/61219_b40f6f4f84af4914_001full.jpg

About Generic Gold

Generic Gold is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on gold projects in the Tintina Gold Belt in the Yukon Territory of Canada and the Abitibi Greenstone Belt in Quebec, Canada. The Company's Yukon exploration portfolio consists of several projects with a total land position of greater than 35,000 hectares, all of which are 100% owned by Generic Gold. Several of these projects are in close proximity to significant gold, including Goldcorp's Coffee project, Victoria Gold's Eagle Gold project, White Gold's Golden Saddle project, and Western Copper & Gold's Casino project. The Company's Quebec exploration portfolio consists of three properties covering 8,148 hectares proximal to the town of Normetal. Generic Gold's board of directors and management team is led by experienced mining industry professionals, with expertise in exploration, finance, capital markets, and mine development. For information on the Company's property portfolio, visit the Company's website at genericgold.ca.

For further information contact:

Generic Gold Corp.

Richard Patricio, President and CEO

Tel: 416-456-6529

rpatricio@genericgold.ca

NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR THEIR REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDERS ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

Certain statements in this press release are "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon the current belief, opinions and expectations of management that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and other contingencies. Many factors could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking 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 statements or forward-looking information that are incorporated by reference herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. Investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein. We seek safe harbour.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/61219
State Department Eases Global CCP Virus Travel Advisory

The U.S. State Department on Thursday lifted the level 4 health advisory that advised Americans to avoid international travel in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With health and safety conditions improving in some countries and potentially deteriorating in others, the Department is returning to our previous system of country-specific levels of travel advice (with Levels from 1-4 depending on country-specific conditions), the Department of State said in a statement. That is designed with the intention of [giving] travelers detailed and actionable information to make informed travel decisions, the agency wrote.

The move will also provide Americans with more detailed information about the current status in each country, said the State Department.

Americans should, however, still exercise caution when traveling outside the United States due to the unpredictable nature of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, a novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

The previous advisory has been in place since mid-March.

But dozens of countries remain under the State Departments Level 4 travel advisory for a wide berth of issues including the CCP virus, terrorism, crime, and other outstanding issues.

A funeral home worker waits for the funeral of a person who died of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), as the outbreak continues, at La Bermeja cemetery in San Salvador, El Salvador, on Aug. 3, 2020. (Jose Cabezas/ Reuters)

Meanwhile, a number of countries have restricted travel from the United States due to the number of virus cases being reported in the country. Canada and the European Union have imposed strict restrictions.

Several areas in the Caribbean and Mexico are welcoming guests and American tourists again as airlines add flights. United Airlines said last Friday it is adding flights to the island of St. Thomas as well as San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Earlier Thursday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revised its travel guidance, saying the changes were driven by how the virus was spreading in different places and how well the public health and health care systems were functioning in dealing with new cases.

Seven places, including Thailand, Fiji, and New Zealand, are in a low-risk group, according to the CDC, although officials there advised that certain people, such as older adults and those with certain underlying medical conditions, talk to their doctors before making the trip. For more than a dozen other locations, it had no precautions. Taiwan, Greenland, and Laos are on that list.

The CDC, however, is continuing to advise against nonessential travel to more than 200 other international locations.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Toyota has launched the limited edition of new Fortuner TRD in India in two trims, at Rs 34.98 lakh (4x2) and Rs 36.88 lakh (4x4). The newly launched limited edition SUV is available in both diesel 4x2 and 4x4 options. The special edition models get distinctive cosmetic and feature updates.

Visually, the newly launched Toyota Fortuner TRD limited edition features dual tone roof, rugged charcoal black R18 alloy wheels, 360 degree panoramic view monitor, auto fold ORVM, dual tone dashboard and illuminated scuffle plate. Additionally, the SUV also gets distinctive front bumper and rear bumper with TRD radiator grille. As for the interior it gets sporty black and maroon leather seats with red stitch accents.

In addition to the standard features, the new Sporty New Fortuner TRD offers a range of digital high-tech optional accessories under the Special Technology Package which includes features like Head up Display (HUD),Tyre Pressure monitor (TPMS), Digital Video Recorder (DVR), wireless smartphone charger and welcome door lamp which will further enhance comfort and style. For the first time from Toyota in India, the vehicle gets an Air Ioniser.

Mechanically, the vehicle continues to be powered by a 2.8-litre, four-cylinder diesel engine generating maximum torque of 450Nm at 1600  2400 rpm with maximum output of 170bhp at 3400rpm. The special edition models are only available with an automatic transmission.Toyota Fortuner TRD limited edition launched in India at Rs 34.98 lakh

Toyota Fortuner  31.38 Lakh Onwards

Toyota | Fortuner | Toyota Fortuner
The NSW government tried to withhold documents that show bureaucrats concealing Premier Gladys Berejiklian's personal involvement in a council grants scheme now alleged to be the subject of rorting.

In email correspondence seen by the Herald, a draft answer to parliamentary questions said the Premier signed off on a $1 million grant to Hunters Hill Council under the Stronger Communities Fund, but that answer was struck out and amended.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian approved of more than $100 million going to councils in Coalition-held seats. Credit:Nick Moir

The correspondence was released to Greens MLC David Shoebridge after Parliament's independent arbiter, Keith Mason, QC, upheld the upper house MP's challenge to the government's claim of privilege over the material.

"Today we can confirm the government deliberately hid the Premiers role in this $250 million local government grants scandal," Mr Shoebridge said.
Todd White says his mission is to 'wake up' 'dysfunctional' church: 'The end is closer than ever'

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One week after publicly repenting for failing to preach the whole Gospel, evangelist Todd White said his mission now is to now wake up the dysfunctional and sleeping American Church.

Last week, I shared, I repent for not preaching the full Gospel, White, founder and president of Lifestyle Christianity, said in a sermon delivered Aug. 2. If any of you think that you know it all about the Gospel, you're deceived. I don't care who you are, I don't care what theologian you are, I don't care if you're a doctor of theology, if you've got your masters of divinity. If you think you know it all, I'm sorry, you're wrong.

I have stepped into a new awareness of why I'm really here, he emphasized. I feel like I just got saved. I feel like I've just met Jesus.

White, a drug addict turned evangelist, said his mission now is to wake up a sleeping church.

I'm very concerned for a large majority of the body of Christ that says that they've met Him and yet lives in sin, he said.

There are people that are coasting through, there is a large majority of the church that sleeping. They're not awake, they're sleeping. We need to wake up. We need to wake up. People are dying. My urgency to share the Gospel, my urgency to reach the lost, my urgency to reach a church that thinks she's found is so big I can't even stand it. I can't even tell you what I feel in my heart.

According to White, the American Church is so dysfunctional right now it's absolutely ridiculous.

Dysfunction is thinking that my way is the only way, the Watauga, Texas-based pastor explained. But Jesus is the way, the Gospel is the way. When I say I haven't preached the full Gospel, it just means that God has taken me to a depth of His heart that I have not yet seen, and I want to see more people come to Christ.

We should all want to be able to be repentant. Repentance isn't the day you get saved only. If something's wrong, you repent. What does that mean? Repentance isn't just changing your mind. I understand that that's taught, and it is an about-face, but it's an about-face with godly intention, with godly sorrow.

White said he loves being corrected by God and cautioned listeners: If youre not being corrected, you might not be His son.

The prayers of those who have interceded on his behalf have worked, White said, adding: Now Im more on fire and more intense than I've ever felt before in my life. I'm more in love with Gods Scripture and God's holiness than I've ever been in my life. I am more convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that the time is now. I am more convinced right now than ever before.

I am fearful for a Church that is walking half-heartedly. I am fearful for the body of Christ that is walking haphazardly, just walking so-so, [saying theyre] with Jesus, yet sin is priority still in their life.

White cited 2 Corinthians 5:10, which reads: For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

This Scripture blew me away, he stressed. There's really no way out. God's a holy God. Some people like some of what I say and they cut out the rest that they don't like. I've got news for you. I am trying to warn you that the time is closer than ever. The end is closer than ever. I want us to run hard, but I want us to run holy.

Earlier in his message, White said many people have accused him of being deceived, and thanked those who have prayed for him.

I am overtaken with gratitude for people that have prayed for me, he said.

White rebuked the show American Gospel: Christ Alone, a series that condemned the prosperity gospel, for assuming and putting him in a place of guilt because of his association with pastors Bill Johnson, Kenneth Copeland, and Benny Hinn.

None of them called me to talk to me, not one of them asked me to share my heart, not one of them asked me what I believe, he said of the American Gospel creators. Now all of a sudden, Todds the biggest heretic on the planet.

Shame on you for not praying for me and talking to me, but making a movie, thinking that you're God's police. You're going to stand before a holy God and answer for your life of judgment and hate, and it's called murder. It's no different than racism. It's the same thing. It's called no love. You have no love.

White made headlines last week after revealing 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.

This has been the hardest season of my life, he shared. Im like, Lord, what are you doing? He said, Im pruning every branch that you have. Im like, Its not OK. It hurts. And He said, If you were dead, it wouldnt hurt. There are parts of you that need to die. Im going to kill them.

White shared that this convicted him and showed him that he had not been preaching the whole Gospel.

I repent! White exclaimed. You have no idea. I will not be responsible. I believe that when I preach that the blood of people is on my hands.
When a person loses their wallet, mobile phone or bag especially if lost in a public place, there is little hope it will ever be returned or find its way back to the owner.

That is why a lot of people do not even register a case when their belongings get stolen in public, and even if they do they can only hope that their belongings will be returned. And even if there is hope, one gets over it in what, one maybe two years?

Well, a case might teach you to keep your hopes up for a little longer but it is sort of bittersweet.

Mumbai Mirror

The Government Railway Police recently told a man that they had recovered the wallet that he lost... 14 years ago. The wallet was lost while the man was travelling in a train.

However, so much has changed in 14 years especially our currency that not all notes found in the wallet are still legal (hint: demonetisation).

Hemant Padalkar is 42 years old now. When he lost his wallet, it reportedly contained Rs 900, including a Rs 500 note, on a CSMT-Panvel local in 2006. Sometime ago, he received a call saying the wallet had been found.

According to Padalkar, the wallet went missing near Vashi. When I realised that my wallet had been stolen, I got down and filed a complaint with the Vashi GRP, he told Mumbai Mirror.

Also Read: Visually Impaired Tamil Nadu Couple Find Savings Worth Rs 24,000 In Demonetised Currency Notes

Representational Image/Reuters

Padalkar said that initially he regularly and diligently followed up with the police but gave up soon (like a lot of us do). I followed this issue aggressively, but after a few months I forgot about it. In April, when I got a call from the Vashi GRP, I was really surprised, he said.

However because of the lockdown, he could visit the GRP only last week. When he reached the office, an on-duty officer told him that the GRP had recovered the wallet, but they could not hand him back the Rs 500 note, as it was no longer legal tender.

The GRP said it has written to the Reserve Bank of India regarding the issue but is yet to receive a reply. The GRP official also said that they have recovered more than a dozen Rs 500 notes from thieves recently.

Also Read: Swedish Traveller Was Unaware Of Demonetisation, Fined Rs 2.5 Lakhs For Possessing Rs 50,000 In Old Notes

Representational Image/Raju Shinde and Deepak Turbhekar

We are trying our best to change these notes, but are yet to receive a reply from the authorities, another Vashi GRP officer reportedly said.

I think this is where the Hindi adage Haath aaye par muh na lage fits.
DETROIT -- A Michigan man wanted by authorities was arrested in California last week after being on the run for more than two decades, according to the Associated Press. James Meece, 71, left Michigan in 1999 after serving an eight years in prison for a pair of convictions involving the rape of two Michigan children in 1991.

Meece was wanted for failure to register as a sex offender following his release from prison.

Federal agents arrested Meece at a central California home last week where he was hiding out with a woman who allegedly was helping him cover his tracks, the AP reports. In March, Meeces case was featured on the TV program In Pursuit with John Walsh. He is currently awaiting extradition to Michigan where he will face charges.

Meece was originally convicted in Delta County in 1991 on two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct on a person under 13 years. Meece raped his then girlfriends two daughter who were ages 9 and 12 and then threatened to kill them and their mother if they told anyone about what happened. His sentence called for him to serve between 3-15 years in prison, but he was released after eight years.

Investigators believe Meece may have victimized many other people while on the run for the past 20 years. The U.S. Marshals service is asking anyone who thinks they may have been a victim of Meeces to contact their local U.S. Marshals office or call the U.S. Marshals Service at 800-336-0102 or submit a tip through this link.

READ MORE

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Thursday, August 6, 2020

Join in this important conversation with Anne Moss Rogers and Gail Rubin.

How can you support someone who has suffered a loss by suicide? Join in this illuminating Reimagine: Life, Loss, & Love Virtual Festival conversation with Anne Moss Rogers and Gail Rubin. The online event takes place on Friday, August 28, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. ET/1:00 p.m. CT/12:00 p.m. MT/11:00 a.m. PT. REGISTER ONLINE HERE.

TEDx and emotionally naked speaker, Anne Moss Rogers, lost her 20-year-old son, Charles Aubrey Rogers, to suicide on June 5, 2015. He struggled with anxiety, depression, and ultimately a heroin addiction.

A loss by suicide is like no other and survivors are especially vulnerable in grief because they often feel they are to blame for not having seen the often-subtle signs. Friends and family members feel helpless and dont know how to respond or what to do. This will be a frank conversation on how you can support the unique needs of those whove lost someone to suicide.

In conversation with pioneering death educator Gail Rubin, CT, we will discuss:

What is suicide and why do people kill themselves?

What to say or do that will support a friend/family member.

What is the wrong thing to say to a friend/family member who has lost someone to suicide.

How to sit with someone in their pain.

How to spot a suicide loss survivor who may be at risk of suicide themselves.

About Anne Moss Rogers

Anne Moss Rogers

Anne Moss Rogers is a TEDx speaker, storyteller, writer, and certified suicide prevention trainer who helps people foster connection to prevent suicide, reduce substance misuse and find life after loss.

She has been interviewed by the New York Times and was the first suicide loss survivor ever invited to speak at the National Institute of Mental Health. Her blog, Emotionally Naked, reached over a half million in its first three years on subjects that have often been shoved to the back of the closet suicide and that which triggers this cause of death, addiction and mental illness and grief. Her book, Diary of a Broken Mind, is an International Book Award Finalist and a nominee for the 2020 Library of Virginia Literary Award.

Originally from Fayetteville, North Carolina and a graduate of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, shes been married to her husband, Randy, since 1986. They raised two sons, the late Charles Aubrey, 20, a comedian, writer, actor and rap artist, and Richard, 26, a graduate of UNC School of the Arts, currently living his dream in Los Angeles as a filmmaker.

About Gail Rubin

Gail Rubin, CT, The Doyenne of Death

Gail Rubin, Certified Thanatologist, hosts the Albuquerque Death Cafe. She is a pioneering death educator. Rubin is a public speaker, a published author of three books, host of a TV interview series and podcast, a blogger, a funeral industry trade journalist, a Certified Funeral Celebrant, and an innovator in the funeral business. She created a conversation-starting game called The Newly-Dead Game, introduced the Death Cafe movement in the United States, and held the first Before I Die Festival west of the Mississippi in 2017. She knocked em dead with her TEDx talk, A Good Goodbye.

Albuquerque Business First named her one of their 2019 Women of Influence. CRaKN, the funeral industry blog, recently identified Gail as a leader to watch. READ THE ARTICLE.

About Reimagine: Life, Loss, & Love

This event is part of the groundbreaking virtual death discussion festival Reimagine: Life, Loss & Love. A Good Goodbye is collaborating with event hosts around the world to co-create this much-needed exploration of death-related topics. Events focus on embracing life, facing death, and loving fully, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Festival events are scheduled through September 1, 2020. VIEW THE FULL SCHEDULE HERE.

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BEIRUT - As dazed Lebanese picked through the wreckage inflicted by the massive explosion in their capital city on Wednesday, shock turned to anger at the corruption and incompetence that allowed a massive pile of dangerous chemicals to sit unattended in a warehouse at Beirut's port for six years.

An estimated 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer and bombmaking ingredient, has been identified as the immediate cause of the blast that engulfed the city on Tuesday, killing at least 135 people, injuring more than 3,000 and leaving more than 100 unaccounted for. The material had been stored in a warehouse since being seized by customs authorities in 2014, despite repeated warnings from port officials that it was a risk.

Government investigators still have not pinpointed the origin of the fire or explosion that erupted some 15 to 20 minutes before the ammonium nitrate ignited, sending a vast mushroom cloud of toxic gases rippling across the city. The blast was heard 150 miles away on the island of Cyprus.

Beirut has witnessed many explosions, including the bombing of the U.S. Marine Barracks in 1983 that killed 241 Marines, the assassination of the former prime minister Rafic Hariri in 2005 and the countless small blasts of the mortars and shells that rained down on the city during the civil war from 1975 to 1990.

This was by far the biggest - and the shock waves reverberated beyond the immediate tragedy of lost lives and homes. It seemed to encapsulate everything that is wrong with Lebanon at this juncture in its turbulent history: A weak state, inept government, corrupt officials and, many said, the existence of a parallel state run by the powerful Hezbollah movement, as well as other Lebanese factions that used the port for their own smuggling operations.

"People saw firsthand with devastating results what it means to have a failed state," said Paul Abi Nasr of the Lebanese Association of Industrialists. "It's not just that the government is corrupt, that the state is weak, that there are weapons outside the hands of the government. We saw these things come together catastrophically."

Nations around the world rushed to offer assistance, with planes bearing humanitarian aid and medical teams landing or due to arrive from Turkey, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, France, Iran and Britain, among others.

President Donald Trump said Thursday that no one could say what caused the blast, but the United States was "looking into it very strongly." Secretary of State Mike Pompeo offered U.S. help in a telephone call with the country's Hezbollah-backed prime minister Hassan Diab, with whom Washington has had frosty relations. Pompeo conveyed the United States' "steadfast commitment to assist the Lebanese people as they cope with the aftermath of this terrifying event," the State Department said in a statement.

But the offers of aid did little to alleviate the bitterness on the streets of Beirut.

"Even if foreign countries send help, the government will steal it," said a 23-year-old student who was among hundreds of volunteers who showed up to help clear the streets of debris and broken glass.

In any case, she said, "we will not be able to repair all this."

Protesters gathered in the central Martyrs Square shortly after midday. Some were in tears.

As the day wore on, the enormity of the devastation became clear. People milled around the wrecked streets of some of Beirut's most vibrant, and wealthiest, neighborhoods in stunned disbelief at the scale of the damage. Volunteers swept away debris and broken glass as people who lived in the stricken area retrieved possessions.

Windows were blown in and doors blown out across a vast swathe of the mostly Christian eastern sector of the city. Many of the buildings were rendered uninhabitable, cracked or buckled beyond repair. They included some of Beirut's fanciest new high-rise apartment complexes as well as the quaint historic houses for which the area is renowned.

The governor of Beirut, Marwan Aboud, said more than 300,000 people in the city of 2.2 million had been left homeless. The Lebanese government said it was putting an unspecified number of Beirut port officials under house arrest as it began an investigation into the blast.

The losses were staggering. The Lebanese Red Cross said any additional bodies found in the rubble must be taken to Beirut's morgues directly, because hospitals could no longer cope.

Residents of Gemmayzeh, a historic neighborhood once dotted with bars and restaurants, dragged suitcases over piles of broken glass and rubble to seek out housing elsewhere.

"We have no home anymore. The ceiling came down," Pierre Feghali said as he tried to start his wrecked car to drive with his wife to his ancestral home in the mountains outside Beirut.

Aboud put the cost of the damage at as much as $5 billion. Whatever costs are eventually incurred will be added to the estimated $100 billion in banking sector losses that had already wiped out the savings of ordinary people.

The prospect of rebuilding at a time when bank rules prohibit people from withdrawing more than small amounts from their accounts was daunting to many of those surveying wrecked homes and businesses. At the House of Butlers, a hip bar known for its many varieties of whiskey, the stench of alcohol hung over a staff retrieving unbroken bottles.

There was no talk of rebuilding, only of salvaging what could be saved, said Ayman Zayour, one of the bartenders loading whiskey into the van.

"We really don't know how we will recover from this," he said. "We were already in economic crisis."

Many voiced similar sentiments, saying they were more inclined to leave the country rather than try to rebuild their shattered lives, perhaps only to see them knocked down by another crisis.

"For me this is the end," said Nabil Allam, the financial manager of the badly damaged Rosary Sisters Hospital, which evacuated patients to other hospitals that were already overwhelmed.

"Do you think the politicians can solve this?" he asked. "This is bigger than any of them."

Allam was at his home three miles outside the city when explosions lighted up the sky. He turned to his wife.

"It's Hiroshima," he told her.

Diab appealed for global help to stanch the suffering. French President Emmanuel Macron was scheduled to arrive in Beirut on Thursday. The European Union said it was activating its civil protection system to round up emergency workers and equipment from across the 27-nation bloc. A video shared on social media showed French firefighters at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, preparing to assist.

The toll is expected to rise as more bodies are unearthed in the wreckage of the port area. An Instagram account set up to appeal for information on the missing included photographs of more than 100 people, including firefighters and civil defense workers who rushed to the scene of the initial fire only to be caught in the far larger blast that followed.

They are unlikely to be found alive, said Freddy, a firefighter at the port who had been on duty for 22 hours. "The whole ground turned inside out," he said as an ambulance bearing sped past.

Simon Abegi hunted for his friend, Rwan Misto, a fellow bartender at the Cyrano cocktail bar. She was standing next to him in the bar when the explosion struck. While he picked himself up, she was still lying on the ground, bleeding profusely. Bystanders put her in a car to take her to hospital. She has not been heard of since.

- - -

Loveluck reported from Baghdad. The Washington Post's Suzan Haidamous and Missy Ryan in Washington contributed to this report.
Former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan said on Thursday that overly focusing on what sovereign rating agencies think can take ones eyes off what needs to be done for the economy.

It is also important to convince both domestic and international investors that after the crisis associated with the pandemic is over, we will return to fiscal responsibility over the medium term, and the government should do more to convince them of that, Rajan told the Global Markets Forum.

India was placed under one of the strictest lockdowns in the world in late March for more than two months to stem the spread of the coronavirus, but cases have continued to rise steadily since the government eased restrictions in June, stymieing hopes of an economic recovery.

The government has announced several initiatives to help the poor and small- and medium-size businesses.

Several attribute the fiscal prudence to fear of a downgrade after Moodys cut Indias rating and outlook in early June followed closely by a change in outlook from Fitch.

The central bank on its part too has reduced the key lending rate by 115 basis points on top of the 135 bps last year and is widely expected to cut rates by another 25 bps later on Thursday.

The RBI and government have certainly been cooperating, but it seems like it is elsewhere, the ball is in the governments court to do more, Rajan said.

He said the RBI needs to focus on whether credit is reaching the stressed areas of the economy and also if the viable firms were able to access credit and not the unviable ones.

And I think thats where it has to focus its attentions, because resources, as you well know, are limited in India today.

Recently analysts, however, have cited the growing possibility the RBI may prefer to pause and cut rates only at its October meeting.

Government officials too have suggested the possibility of any more fiscal stimulus being announced, would only come in the second half of the fiscal year, once a recovery has taken root and coronavirus cases have peaked.

What India should focus on at this point is protecting its economic capabilities, so that when it has dealt with the virus it can go resume activity in a reasonable way. That should be the focus, Rajan said.

And if it does that, there is no reason why the rating agencies will not see that as an appropriate policy.
Hyderabad, Aug 6 : The BJP's Telangana unit has objected to the Cabinet's clearance for the new Secretariat building design on the grounds that the Opposition was not taken into confidence.

Chief spokesperson of the BJP's Telangana unit, K.Krishna Saagar Rao Thursday raised strong objection to the allegedly unilateral decisions being taken by the Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR). Even the design of the upcoming structure was not spared by the BJP on the grounds that it was regressive.

"BJP strongly condemns the unilateral confirmation and passing of new Secretariet building designs without taking opposition parties into confidence, in the cabinet meeting chaired by CM KCR." Rao said.

On Wednesday evening, the state Cabinet had cleared the building plan developed by Chennai based architects Ponni & Oscar. The BJP spokesperson went on to find fault with the design of the new Secretariat building that is to replace the old structure, a Nizam era heritage set-up which was recently being demolished in a record speed.

"BJP believes, the new Secretariat building design resembles Nizam era architecture, it looks more like a Mosque than a state government administrative building. BJP wonders why CM KCR want to regress 500 years backwards to build a foriegn ruler inspired architecture for a modern secretariat building !" Rao wondered.

Ever since the demolition of the old Secretariat complex, the state government has been under attack from Opposition parties and religious groups over the demolition of places of worship on the premises. Earlier, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday had reiterated his demand that two Mosques demolished at the old state Secretariat of Telangana be rebuilt.

There was even a demand from Christian groups also for a Church in the new Secretariat complex.

The demolition work had started on July 7, following the June 29 order of the High Court dismissing petitions challenging the government's decision to build a new complex when the existing buildings were structurally sound.

However, on a couple of fresh petitions, the High Court on July 10 temporarily stayed the demolition work till July 13 and had twice extended the stay. The stay was vacated on Friday. The government has already released the design of the new Secretariat, which it plans to construct at a cost of Rs 400 crore.
Viral content: Irish dancer Morgan Elizabeth from the US shot to fame with her TikTok videos

Popular video sharing platform TikTok is opening a $500m (422m) data centre in Ireland.

The centre will store messages, videos, and other data from its European users.

Prior to this, the information was stored in the United States.

It comes two months after the social networking giant decided to base all of its European privacy operations in Ireland.

The move means even more work for Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner, Helen Dixon.

Ireland is increasingly seen as the European country for tech giants to base their privacy governance operations due to the presence of other tech behemoths here, primarily Google, Facebook, Twitter and Apple.

The Irish privacy regulator is expected to announce rulings on a handful of major investigations in coming months, with the possibility of major fines.
Since he took office in May, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi has been invoking Iraqs fractured national sovereignty as a major impediment to the countrys recovery and progress towards peace and prosperity.

Al-Kadhimis vision for sovereignty seems to mean something precise: without restoring the states authority it will be impossible to end the quagmire into which the countrys human and other resources are being constantly poured.

The issue of Iraqs sovereignty, or rather lack of it, has been debated since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, but it has become starker and more urgent over recent years in view of the countrys internal and external challenges.

The combination of foreign interventions, cross-border terrorism, rising Iran-sponsored militias and transnational corruption offers sophisticated and well-reasoned arguments why Iraq has been in such disarray.

Across a range of other issues, Iraq has been mired in conflicts whose roots lie in interrupted sovereignty and its governments inability to exercise its authority on a number of fronts, including politics, security, the bureaucracy and the economy.

Upon taking office, Al-Kadhimi promised renewed reforms and a fight to restore the states authority. His vision to achieve his ambitions has been spelled out by his spokesman Ahmed Mullah Talal and includes maintaining sovereignty, defending national interests and putting mutual benefits and non-interference in domestic affairs first on the foreign-policy agenda.

Al-Kadhimi is not the first Iraqi prime minister to have promised reforms, but he is the first to have prioritised the countrys sovereignty in achieving stability and shaping up its governance.

One key factor behind Al-Kadhimis drive has been the need to change the countrys stagnant and dysfunctional political system, which has been taken hostage by external and internal actors with self-serving agendas.

Another factor has been the escalation of tensions between neighbouring Iran and the United States, which has turned Iraq into a battleground for a fierce struggle over geopolitical interests and regional influence.

The push has also been prompted by the anti-sectarian and anti-corruption popular uprising in Iraq that forced Al-Kadhimis predecessor Adil Abdul-Mahdi to resign in November last year and brought him to power.

The nationwide uprising, which started last October in protest against government dysfunction, rampant corruption, and political cronyism, is widely seen as having stirred up patriotism and put the countering of Irans influence on the national agenda.

Since the US-led invasion in 2003, Iraq has transitioned through government dysfunction, economic ruin, political chaos, sectarian conflict and foreign meddling.

The disastrous course of Iraqs rebuilding to date has been almost entirely the result of a lack of sovereignty, manifested in systemic pressures emanating from actors inside and outside in shaping the nation-state model.

The question now is whether Al-Kadhimi can reset the clock on his terms and transform a symbolic stance into meaningful change by dismantling the influence of foreign and non-state actors in Iraq.

The first clues came from Al-Kadhimis visit to Tehran late last month, when he sought to recast Iraqs ties with the Islamic Republic as being based on sovereignty and mutual respect.

Iran has gone a long way towards cementing its influence in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003, due largely to flawed policies in Iraq in the post-occupation era.

Through its allied Shia politicians and paramilitary groups in Iraq, Iran has emerged as the dominant force in the country, expanding its influence and its role beyond political and security efforts to commercial, business and cultural ties.

The connections between the two countries, which share a 1,400 km border, have become so intertwined that it is now virtually impossible to fully separate Iraq and Iran.

In his talks in Tehran, Al-Kadhimi tried to make clear that Iraq wants to have balanced ties with Iran based on mutual interests. He emphasised his governments intentions of stopping Iraq becoming a battleground between the US and Iran.

Al-Kadhimi may also have tried to cut back Irans proxies and allies in Iraq, these being the backbone of Tehrans influence and the guardians of its interests in the beleaguered country.

Last month, Al-Kadhimi ordered a raid on a camp in southern Baghdad used by the Kataib Hizbullah militia suspected of launching rocket attacks on US interests and detained dozens of its members.

The raid was the most significant action by Iraqi forces against a major Iran-backed militia group in years and a first sign that Al-Kadhimi intends to make good on pledges to bring the militias to heel.

Another key challenge to Al-Kadhimi in re-establishing state sovereignty comes from Iraqs porous borders and crossing points controlled by armed groups and political factions mostly allied to Iran.

In a bold step to recover billions of dollars in tax revenues lost to bribery, Al-Kadhimi sent counter-terrorism troops and Iraqi security forces to supervise the work of the border points, which are widely seen as providing kickbacks and embezzlement opportunities for officials linked to armed groups.

The campaign stems from a key function of a sovereign state, which is to assert its control over natural and other resources and is embodied in the right of governments to dispose freely of their revenues.

Al-Kadhimi has also made some key changes in government and security forces positions, indicating that the reshuffles are aimed at reasserting the states sovereignty and authority.

Among the changes he has made is naming a new head for the countrys National Security Agency and a new national security adviser to replace Faleh Al-Fayadh, head of the Iraqi Popular Mobilisation Force (PMF) and one of Irans most influential allies in Iraq.

However, Al-Kadhimi seems to have had little success thus far in his efforts to restore the states prestige, another goal of his government.

The response of his foes thus far has underscored how challenging it has been for Al-Kadhimi to carry out the bold reforms needed to resurrect the country and defend its sovereignty.

Irans leaders have been adamant in their desire to stifle Al-Kadhimis bid to wrest back sovereignty from Iran and limit the Islamic regimes influence in Iraq.

They used Al-Kadhimis recent visit to Tehran to underscore their concerns at how his policy could affect Tehrans efforts to undercut the US maximum pressure campaign against Iran.

In a blatant attempt to torpedo the Iraqi-US strategic dialogue, Irans supreme leader Ali Khamenei told Al-Kadhimi that Iran expected the Iraqi government, nation and parliament to expel the US troops from Iraq because the US presence causes insecurity.

Khamenei also pressed Al-Kadhimi to take action against the United States for assassinating Qassem Al-Suleimani, Irans former point-man in Iraq, with some hardline Iranians insisting that Al-Kadhimi played a part in the developments that led to his killing.

Other Iranian officials were more subtle in emphasising their agenda in Iraq, pressing Al-Kadhimi to expand bilateral economic, political and cultural ties, euphemisms for the Iranian influence in the country.

Meanwhile, Al-Kadhimis bid to rein in the Iran-backed militias in Iraq has hit a snag as some of these groups have resisted giving up their autonomy and continue to defy the government.

They have repeatedly launched rocket attacks on military and diplomatic locations housing US personnel, prompting frustration at Al-Kadhimis failure to stem the groups which are aided and abetted by Iraqs ruling political class.

Al-Kadhimi has also made little progress in controlling the border crossings and stopping the loss of billions of dollars in import duties that are widely believed to be syphoned off by political groups and militias unofficially allocated the lucrative business of taking kickbacks at the crossings.

Al-Kadhimis record in establishing his governments authority and restoring the states respect has thus far been far from distinguished, underlining the obstacles to the reform efforts.

The fundamental factors that could lead to Al-Kadhimis failure to back-peddle Iraqi-Iranian relations and curb the militias power have been consistent.

In the first instance, Iran is entrenched in Iraq to the extent that decoupling the two countries will need delicate surgery and will require finding a way out of the conditions that have led them to becoming so intertwined.

Secondly, the response of the powerful militias to Al-Kadhimis attempts to limit their role underscores how challenging it will be for the prime minister to recast the relationship between Iraqs government and the armed groups without a significant showdown.

Thirdly, Al-Kadhimi lacks sufficient political support from the Iraqi ruling class, which is afraid that his reforms will pull the rug out from under their feet. Realising that Al-Kadhimi has no parliamentary bloc in his support, the countrys powerful elites will do everything they can to keep Al-Kadhimi walking through a political minefield.

Lastly, a key challenge to Al-Kadhimis bid to re-establish state sovereignty in Iraq will be badly needed to help stop Iraqs economy collapsing under the double blow of sinking global oil prices and the coronavirus lockdowns.

Rich states in the Arabian Gulf have so far been reluctant to provide help, including on a US-proposed project to connect Iraqs electricity grid to their networks to help wean the country off power from Iran.

By challenging powerful foes that have rarely been confronted, Al-Kadhimi may be taking a considerable gamble, but should he fail Iraqs problems will continue to be unresolved and the country will remain on edge.

Al-Kadhimi may be Iraqs last opportunity to stop the country from descending further into a black hole, with no telling how much damage this could cause to its people, the region and the world at large.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 6 August, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Man, dog pronounced dead after early morning explosion, structure fire near Harbor Springs

A man and a dog have both died as the result of an explosion and structure fire early Tuesday morning in West Traverse Township near Harbor Springs.
Watertown, NY (13601)

Today

Partly cloudy skies early followed by periods of snow showers late. Low -2F. SSE winds at 5 to 10 mph, increasing to 15 to 25 mph. Chance of snow 50%. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early followed by periods of snow showers late. Low -2F. SSE winds at 5 to 10 mph, increasing to 15 to 25 mph. Chance of snow 50%. Higher wind gusts possible.
The Washington Post interviewed Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla about a Covid-19 vaccine that could be ready this year:

In a Washington Post Live interview, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, DVM, PhD said the company could seek regulatory approval for their coronavirus vaccine as soon as October. Bourla said patients' progress would be tracked for over two years. According to Bourla, the company could have approximately 100 million doses this year, which Americans would receive from the government for free. Pfizer's contract with the United States government is priced at $19.50 per dose.

In response to President Trump saying a vaccine could be ready as early as November, Bourla said Pfizer could begin seeking regulatory approval for their coronavirus vaccine as soon as October, allowing for potential distribution in November. Bourla said Pfizer would have "approximately 100 million doses" manufactured this year globally and "a big chunk of that will come to the U.S."

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla says his company could begin seeking regulatory approval for their #coronavirus vaccine as soon as October, and they would have 100 million doses manufactured this year. https://t.co/hOumc3xZgC pic.twitter.com/uYgnJNjBJA  Washington Post Live (@postlive) August 6, 2020

"If the product works, we have already started manufacturing so that we will have available quantities that would be readily availableWe expect, given how fast the regulatory agencies all over the world are reviewing those applications, that we'll do it very quickly."

Bourla said as part of Pfizer's contract with the U.S. government, Americans will receive the first doses of the vaccine allotted to the United States for free: "We took that into consideration, that's why we provided [the U.S. government] with a price that would allow them to do so."

Pfizer CEO @AlbertBourla says their #coronavirus vaccine would require two doses, and the U.S. government would provide it to Americans for free. https://t.co/hOumc3xZgC #postlive pic.twitter.com/9iMkApyxyp  Washington Post Live (@postlive) August 6, 2020

"We have a contract with the U.S. government to provide them, if the vaccine is successful, 100 million doses and we gave it to the U.S. government at the, I believe, very, very reasonable and low price, which is $19.50 a dose. But the U.S. government will give it to the Americans for free."

Bourla said their vaccine would originally require two doses 21 days apart. On tracking the effectiveness of the vaccine Bourla said, "We will follow those patients for at least two years."

Bourla said the need for recurring vaccinations will depend on how durable the vaccination is and whether the virus will mutate. "The good news in both scenarios is the technology we are using right nowis treatable for both scenarios. If the virus changes this technology allows us to change the vaccine in weeks rather than months."

Bourla said Pfizer expects to make a profit on the vaccine that would be "reasonable and good."

"We are not thinking about it right now. The main goal right now is to make sure we have a vaccine. There are two enemies, the virus and time."

Bourla said the vaccine "won't be a silver bullet, but it will be a significant, significant advancement."

Pfizer CEO @AlbertBourla says a #coronavirus vaccine will not be an immediate "silver bullet." It will need to be use in concert with other methods like social distancing until more people are vaccinated and herd immunity is established. https://t.co/hOumc3xZgC pic.twitter.com/XsdtyUpog1  Washington Post Live (@postlive) August 6, 2020

He added that after the first doses of the vaccine are administered, it will need to be in conjunction with other methods like social distancing until more people are vaccinated and herd immunity is achieved.

On political pressure to develop and manufacture a vaccine, Bourla said: "The political pressure doesn't worry me at all because I don't feel itWe have made it very, very clear that we are a company that last year celebrated our 170th anniversary of existenceWe have a legacy of respect. We are not going to put out there any product that we ourselves, our scientists don't feel is safe and effective ever before the FDA speaks."
When officers arrested the teen Tuesday, they also picked up 26-year-old Tryzell Batie from Park Forest, who was with him and armed with a weapon, White said.
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The Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute (KNII) on Wednesday said the most crucial issue to acknowledge the sacrifices the national heroes and heroines in the current political dispensation is to applaud them for the socio-economic development of the country.



The institute said: As a country we should pause and take stock of progress that has been made in major areas of development such as education, agriculture, health care, road construction and the even spread of modern amenities, income generation and in effect, job creation among others.



Dr. Benjamin Anyagre, KNII Executive Secretary told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that, the time had come for Ghanaians to realise that the developmental needs of the nation were of much more importance than any other venture.



He observed that whilst multi-party politics was essential to governance and national building, there was the need to tone down on the divisive and highly opinionated kind of politics currently happening, which was counter-productive and slowed national growth.



Dr. Anyagre called for a strong resolve to forge ahead with a common purpose, instead of the struggle for recognition and the coveted attempt to reinvented national historical facts, we must sing our praises without distorting other historical facts and songs.



He described as very unfortunate, the tendency for succeeding governments to discontinue with developmental projects, which was started but not completed by their predecessors, because they rode on the ticket of another political party.



Doctor Anyagre said such bevahour had effectively slowed down or in some instances halted national growth and in effect, shoved the national cause to the background for political interest.



"A better option is to continue with your political opponent's developmental project and by way of politics, make the people know that you completed the project," he said.



Dr. Anyagre observed that this was the best way to push the national cause as one people, instead of derailing our own country in the name of multi-party politics.



He urged politicians, in the spirit of Founders Day, to realise that the true mandate of their calling was to serve the citizenry by efficiently managing the resources of the state which each individual had a stake in and also, demanded absolute accountability.



"We need to strive towards forging ahead in progress and unity, towards the growth and prosperity of our nation," Dr Anyagre said.

Source: GNA









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A simmering legal conflict between popular veterans organization Team Rubicon Inc. and its global affiliate is out in the open after Team Rubicon Global moved to take the dispute public.

At the heart of the matter are several incidents of sexual harassment allegedly perpetrated by leaders of international spoke organizations licensed under Team Rubicon Global in 2019. When these incidents were not dealt with to Team Rubicons satisfaction, it severed its trademark agreement with Team Rubicon Global. TRG responded with a lawsuit.

Read Next: Court Rules Against Soldier Who Says He Was Forced to Retire Due to Religious Beliefs

That complaint has been moving through the legal system since March. But on July 31, TRG sent out a letter to all supporters on behalf of its board of directors describing the lawsuit and calling it a necessary step to preserve the integrity of the Team Rubicon network.

To be clear, this isnt about TRG against TR-USA. We are proud of the incredible impact created by TR-USAs community of veterans, first responders, civilians and employees, and what weve accomplished together as a united Team Rubicon Network, the letter states. This lawsuit seeks to protect the volunteers who serve with TR-USA, as well as those from country units that TRG launched around the world.

Team Rubicon, called TR-USA in the letter, contests that.

This is a very unfortunate situation made even more so by TRGs attempts to litigate this in public, Jake Wood, a Marine veteran and the organizations CEO and co-founder, said in a statement to Military.com.

Founded in 2010 after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake rocked Haiti, Team Rubicon seeks to help veterans by providing community and ways that they can give back through volunteerism and humanitarian work. Wood and co-founder William McNulty assembled a team to travel to Port-au-Prince to support earthquake relief; the organization has since deployed emergency response teams across the country and internationally.

In 2014, McNulty led the formation of TRG, described in court documents as a legally separate nonprofit to focus on the exportation of the Team Rubicon model to other countries. TRG, which had a trademark use agreement with Team Rubicon, then licensed other countries to use the logo, allowing for the creation of TR-affiliates in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Norway.

The event that disrupted this arrangement was an alleged incident at Team Rubicons annual leadership conference in Estes Park, Colorado, in August 2019. A volunteer with Team Rubicon-Canada claimed she endured sexual harassment from the chief executive officers of the U.K. and Australia affiliate organizations. Citing the volunteers written statement of events, The Intercept reported in May that the harassing behavior included propositions of sex, unwanted touching and attempts to kiss her.

A Team Rubicon investigation into the claims determined they were credible, according to court documents. From there, the organization took quick action, writing to TRG in September and demanding a series of steps in order to keep the Team Rubicon trademark, including the termination of the CEOs, prohibiting them from participating in future activities, and barring them from contacting the victim.

According to an injunction decision delivered in May in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in May, TRG did not respond to that letter or a subsequent one in October, or provide evidence it was taking any of the steps Team Rubicon requested. In December, Team Rubicon informed TRG that its trademark and licensing agreement were being terminated. That got a response from TRG, saying that certain, but not all, of the remedial measures outlined in [Team Rubicons] September letter were being taken, according to the court.

The May preliminary injunction came after the court determined that TRG had continued using the trademark despite the termination notice and had disseminated communications and advertisements insinuating that [Team Rubicon] is a subsidiary of TRG.

This evidence is sufficient to show that the imitative mark was adopted during the relevant period in bad faith, District Judge Laura Taylor Swain wrote for the court. For these reasons, Defendant has demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits of its trademark infringement claim.

TRG is currently using the Team Rubicon logo due to a temporary administrative stay issued by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.

While TRG declined to comment beyond its letter to Military.com, citing ongoing litigation, it states in the letter that some of Team Rubicon's requirements were unmeetable, and in particular that it couldnt fire the CEOs under the relevant countries laws on the basis of unproven, anonymous statements.

It added that TRG had fully investigated claims of inappropriate conduct and found that the investigation done by Team Rubicon was improper, biased, and done with ulterior motive.

Understanding the implications of a lawsuit, the TRG Board has worked hard over the past six years to avoid taking legal action against TR-USA, the letter states. But when TRG learned that TR-USA interfered with and prevented a major donor from supporting TR-[Australia] in their response to the Australian bushfires, the Board concluded that legal action was a necessary last resort to hold TR-USA accountable for its past and recent attempts to dismantle TRG and the independent network of country units around the world.

In the lawsuit, TRG claims Wood contacted potential sponsors of the Australia affiliate personally in January 2020, resulting in the loss of at least $400,000 AUS in donations.

Likewise, Wood, the CEO of Team Rubicon, said his organization was forced into the action it took.

We initially tried to settle this matter independently and privately, he said. However, TRG refused our offers to end our relationship amicably and instead thrust this issue into the courts -- where we have thus far prevailed.

Team Rubicon leaders say the ongoing litigation will not affect the organizations operations.

Despite this attempt to distract us from our mission, TR has launched COVID-19 response operations in nearly 300 communities across America and Canada, Art delaCruz, president and COO of Team Rubicon, said in a statement. Preparations for responses to Hurricane Hanna and Isaias are also underway.

Team Rubicon expects a ruling on the recent stay motion affecting trademarking before the end of the month.

-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.

Related: She Was a Pioneering Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer. A Tsunami of Sexual Harassment Followed
The Russian businessman whose explosives blew up Beiruts port has been interviewed by police at his home in Cyprus - but is likely to avoid any charges.

Igor Grechushkin was asked a list of questions by Cypriot investigators in Limassol this afternoon on behalf of the Lebanese authorities, MailOnline can reveal.

A cargo of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, confiscated back in 2014 from a ship called Rhosus owned by Grechushkin, was the cause of Tuesdays devastating explosion, which has so far killed 135 people and injured 4000 more.

The material, which is used to make fertilizers and bombs, had been stored for around six years in a warehouse at the port without any proper safety measures.

Igor Grechushkin was asked a list of questions by Cypriot investigators in Limassol this afternoon on behalf of the Lebanese authorities, MailOnline can reveal

Cypriot police spokesman Christos Andreou said that as the explosives had been seized by Lebanese authorities, who were ultimately responsible for its storage, Grechushkin was not suspected of any wrongdoing.

He said that officers had questioned the Russian businessman at his home for several hours to get a detailed statement.

Mr Andreou said: There was no need to call him in because he is not facing any charges, nor is it likely that he will.

The request came in late Thursday and we acted on it immediately. It was a list of questions that authorities in Beirut wanted Grechushkin to answer.

A cargo of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, confiscated back in 2014 from a ship called Rhosus owned by Grechushkin, was the cause of Tuesdays devastating explosion, which has so far killed 135 people and injured 4000 more

Mr Andreou refused to elaborate, but he conceded that the questions concerned clarifications and explanations concerning the vessel and its cargo.

Grechushkin lives with his wife, Irina Grechushkina and youngest son Miron in Limassol, a Cypriot city with an estimated 50,000 strong Russian ex-pat community.

Grechushkins cargo ship Rhosus left the former Soviet state of Georgia in September 2013 carrying the explosives, which were destined for Mozambique in Eastern Africa.

However when the 40-year-old vessel docked in Beirut a month later after apparently experiencing technical problems, authorities in Lebanon halted its onward journey not deeming it seaworthy.

The material, which is used to make fertilizers and bombs, had been stored for around six years in a warehouse at the port without any proper safety measures

According to reports, Grechushkin claimed to be unable to pay the port docking fees before declaring himself bankrupt and abandoning the ship, it's contents and crew consisting of eight Ukrainians and two Russians.

The ships captain at the time, Boris Prokoshev and three crew members were forced to remain on board for nearly a year until the debt issue was resolved.

The ammonium nitrate, meanwhile, was later removed from the ship and stored in a warehouse in Beiruts docks, where senior custom officials wrote to the Lebanese courts at least six times between 2014 and 2017 requesting that the material be removed and disposed of properly.

Lebanon has since placed every official responsible for the security of Beirut's port for the last six years under house arrest.

According to reports, Grechushkin claimed to be unable to pay the port docking fees before declaring himself bankrupt and abandoning the ship, it's contents and crew consisting of eight Ukrainians and two Russians

The country's political leaders vowed those responsible for the tragedy would 'pay the price', but customs officials pointed the finger of blame back at them - saying they were repeatedly warned of the danger but failed to act.

Raghida Dergham of the Beirut Institute yesterday said: 'Storing Ammonium Nitrate in a civilian port is a crime against humanity that must not go unpunished.

'Condemnations are not enough. I'm safe but devastated. I lost friends. I lost my apartment. Had I been home, I would have lost my life.'

An official source familiar with preliminary investigations blamed the incident on negligence. Lebanese citizens directed anger at politicians who have overseen decades of state corruption and bad governance that plunged the nation into financial crisis.

The blast threatens to reignite anti-government protests in Lebanon that have been ongoing since last year amid allegations of entrenched incompetence and corruption (aftermath of the blast pictured)

Video taken of the area around the same time shows fire crews at the scene along with heavy grey sliding doors. Beirut's governor has confirmed that 10 firefighters are missing following the blast

Director General of Lebanese Customs Badri Daher said the country's judiciary was told six times about the hazardous chemicals stored in a warehouse in the Lebanese capital.

Customs officials are understood to have asked authorities to move the dangerous substance from Hangar 12 due to the danger they believe it posed to the city and given to the army or sold to an explosives company.

'We requested that it be re-exported but that did not happen. We leave it to the experts and those concerned to determine why,' Daher said.

However, just before 6pm local time in Beirut on Tuesday a fire broke out at a nearby warehouse and spread to the one containing the ammonium nitrate.

The cause of the initial blaze is as of yet unknown, some have blamed sparks from welders sealing a gap while others have noted that a series of bangs which preceded the huge blast suggest fireworks may have been the source.

As a plume of thick smoke rose above Beirut, a massive blast, heard nearly 200 miles away in Cyprus, tore through the city causing billions of pounds worth of damage and leaving as many as 300,000 people homeless.
Migrants: North Macedonia,state of emergency in some regions Due to growing number of refugees, healthcare

(ANSAmed) - SKOPJE, AUGUST 6 - The government of North Macedonia has decided to impose a 30-day-long state of emergency in some regions of the country that are particularly affected by new migrant flows along the Balkan route, local media reported on Thursday. The decision was reportedly taken also in connection with the coronavirus emergency and the risk of contagion. The affected areas are mainly on the southern border (with Greece) and the northern border (with Serbia) of the Balkan country. A Crisis management center will be in permanent session to manage the situation and adopt the necessary measures for the migrant and health emergencies. (ANSAmed) (ANSA).




And while students will be wearing masks, the uniform will be relaxed a bit.

"Normally we require a shirt and tie. We're not going to do that; were going to make it comfortable for students," Newton said.

That means a Timon polo, khakis and sneakers.

Some private schools also are taking steps now to try and ensure the safety of students and staff. Buffalo Seminary is requiring every student to have a Covid-19 test one week before school starts, and Nardin Academy will have students attest that they have not traveled to one of the states on New York's quarantine list.

Private schools have enjoyed an uptick in inquiries from parents asking about their children attending for the fall.

In general, interest has gone up significantly since the public and charter schools have announced their plans, which mostly dont allow for five days of week in-class instruction, Yarwood said.
In brief: Sonos is among the companies that are reporting a hit to their revenue for the three months ending in June, owing to the Covid-19-related store closures. Looking forward, the company believes Amazon's monopolistic powers pose a much bigger threat than the pandemic, and is accusing the retail giant of using "predatory pricing" to drive out the competition.

Last month, Big Tech CEOs were questioned by Congress members on a wide range of issues, in a hearing that was reminiscent of the Big Tobacco grilling in the 1990s, or the one involving Big Banks after the financial crisis.

The House Subcommittee for Antitrust is now busy compiling its report, so a number of companies that have been affected by monopolistic powers in the tech industry are using the opportunity to draw attention to certain issues that weren't covered during the hearing or weren't clarified by the executives in question.

For instance, Sonos CEO Patrick Spence told Protocol that Amazon has been trying to squeeze out the competition in the smart speaker market by selling its Echo devices below their actual production cost. This is known as "predatory pricing," and it's precisely the kind of behavior that got Qualcomm in hot waters in several regions.

During the antitrust hearing last month, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was pressed on this exact issue, but his explanation was that Echo speakers are often on promotion, which can involve slashing their price below cost. Naturally, Spence disagrees with this assessment, noting that companies like Amazon are able to sell certain products at a loss because they can more than make up for it through their other services.

Of course, not all competitors of Amazon in the smart speaker market are able to do this, but the retail giant can always bring up Google as an example of a company that can subsidize its hardware business by virtue of its many online properties. But as it stands, Amazon's Echo devices make up 70 percent of the smart speakers sold every year, mostly thanks to their relatively low price.

As for Google, Sonos sued the search giant in January for patent infringement and was prepared to do the same with Amazon. The company eventually decided that going after two tech giants at once would lead to a more arduous legal process.
A major supermarket has warned of a national food shortage and widespread panic buying after lockdown restrictions restricted the capacity of Victorian abattoirs.

Meatworks in Victoria is being forced to reduce their production by a third from 11.59pm on Friday under the state's draconian Stage 4 lockdown.

One of the country's biggest supermarkets, which has not been named, has appealed directly to the government's COVID advisory committee.

The Supermarkets Taskforce, an alliance of major supermarkets focused on preventing supply shortages during the coronavirus crisis, has also argued the unprecedented restrictions will disrupt the grocery supply chain across Australia.

Victorian distribution centres have been forced to reduce their workforce to two-thirds of normal production during the six-week lockdown.

Empty shelves in a poultry section of a Woolworths supermarket in Melbourne on Wednesday (pictured) as supermarkets warned of panic buying and national food shortages

Shoppers line up to enter a supermarket hours before a city-wide curfew came into force in Melbourne on Sunday (pictured)

The supermarket is part of an alliance focused on preventing supply shortages during the coronavirus crisis (pictured, signage for product limits on Wednesday at a Melbourne Woolworths)

The unidentified supermarket has asked the committee to go all the way to Prime Minister Scott Morrison to express its concerns.

As well as panic buying and food shortages, the supermarket giant also fears restrictions could also lead to customers having to take repeated trips to the shops to fill their baskets, The Australian reported.

The taskforce includes Woolworths, Coles and Aldi and has been communicating with the Department of Home Affairs since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in Australia in March.

Business Council of Australia chief Jennifer Westacott said there were 'serious problems' with current restrictions in Victoria.

'We have to urgently fix supply chain issues at distribution centres,' she told the Sydney Morning Herald.

'These restrictions must be lifted today because they do not recognise that supply chains operate nationwide.'

'We have to urgently fix supply chain issues at distribution centres. These restrictions must be lifted today because they do not recognise that supply chains operate nationwide.'

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard told ABC News Breakfast on Wednesday the state and federal governments would 'find ways around' any potential shortages.

Cedar Meats meatworks in Melbourne (pictured) which had an outbreak in May. Meatworks in Victoria are being forced to reduce their production to two-thirds

An empty Swanston Street is seen at night in the Melbourne CBD during the Stage 4 lockdown due to the continuing spread of COVID-19 (pictured on Wednesday)

'The governments around the country will find ways around it. Well work together to make sure food supplies still get through,' he said.

On Wednesday it emerged vegetable prices are set to soar by as much as 60 per cent as the coronavirus border closures lock out seasonal workers.

Farms are likely to be forced to either lift wages to attract local workers or leave their produce unharvested.

The workforce is usually made up of young people from Europe and South East Asia on working-holiday visas but that labour source has largely dried up as they cannot enter the country, and many who were already here have been forced to return home.

Signage pictured reminding residents of the stage four lockdown restrictions in Melbourne on Wednesday (pictured)

A person wearing a face mask walks in Albert Park in Melbourne with the city skyline behind him (pictured on Wednesday) during the lockdown

The working holiday visa program accounts for 80 per cent of the harvest labour workforce.

Domestic border closures and restrictions also mean the industry cannot use the itinerant workers who move between states from harvest to harvest, according to the Australian Fresh Produce Alliance [AFPA].

'The reduction in workers we're seeing as a result of COVID-19, plus the issues we're finding trying to move workers across production locations is making it even more difficult for fruit and vegetable farmers to secure the workforce needed to continue to supply all Australians with fresh food,' AFPA chief executive Michael Rogers said.
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Thursday, August 6th, 2020 (4:16 pm) - Score 5,351

Broadband ISP Virgin Media has revealed that Wednesdays release of the new Call of Duty: Warzone Season 5 patch saw internet traffic over their network spike to 60% higher than the same time last week. During peak time (8pm to 10pm) there was also a 20% uplift in traffic. Openreach (BT) and TalkTalk were also hit.

The surge is hardly a surprise since the update weighed in at a hefty 34 GigaBytes on the PS4, while it was 50GB on the Xbox and 47GB on PC, which also made it one of the largest updates since Warzone mode was first released. Meanwhile another video game, Fortnite, also released a smaller 2GB update on the same day that could have contributed to the uplift in traffic.

Overall, an additional 22 Petabytes of data was downloaded compared to Monday to Friday last week, with Northern Ireland and Wales seeing the largest uplift. At the peak of recorded traffic, the equivalent of more than 52 PS4 Warzone patches worth of data was being downloaded each second.

Traffic levels were kept in check as PS4 players had the ability to pre-download the update for the first time on Tuesday 4th August, which also saw a 10% uplift in peak time traffic compared to the last four Tuesdays, said a spokesperson for Virgin Media. The operator also noted that their average broadband speeds across all packages remained stable and above the headline speed during this period.

Suffice to say that ISPs are comfortable with having to tackle such events and pressures on their networks. Many also employ Content Delivery Networks (CDN), which help to cache popular content closer to their end-users and this reduces the strain on external capacity links. You can also see the impact of Wednesdays traffic on switches at the London Internet Exchange (LINX).

NOTE: LINX does NOT provide a complete overview of internet traffic flow from all of the ISPs, but they do offer a useful indication of how much extra traffic is flowing around.

Meanwhile, on the same day, Openreach (BT) reported the the highest level ever observed for broadband traffic on their network, with more than 193 PetaBytes of data being consumed. This compares to the previous busiest days of Thursday 9th July (192PB) and Thursday 30th June (189PB).

A spokesperson for Openreach told ISPreview.co.uk: Wednesday saw the anticipated release of another hugely popular update of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, including Warzone Season 5, across a number of gaming platforms including PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. We knew this was coming, and weve built enough capacity in the network to cope with extraordinary peaks like this.

NOTE: 1 PetaByte is equal to 1,000 TeraBytes (TB) or 1,000,000 GigaBytes (GB).

The PC release of another major title, Horizon: Zero Dawn, which started pre-loading today and is due out tomorrow may, also have an impact for the rest of this week.

UPDATE 7th August 2020

Budget ISP TalkTalk have informed us that they also saw a 56% surge in daytime network traffic vs last week following the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Season 5. At 9:45pm on Wednesday last night they recorded a network spike of 6.27Tb/s (Terabits per second), although this isnt quite as high as the 6.71Tb/s seen during the June 2020 release of Season 4 (partly due to the new pre-load feature and the COVID-19 lockdown).
Geojit's report on Agri Picks

The International Cotton Advisory Committee has scaled up its estimate for global consumption in 2020-21 (Aug-Jul) to 23.9 mln tn, compared with 23.3 mln tn projected in the previous month. The International Coffee Organization has pegged global exports of the commodity in June at 10.57 mln bags (1 bag = 60 kg), down 5.3% on year, mainly because of lower production in the 2019-20 (Oct-Sep) season. The Federation of Seed Industry of India urged the Centre to provide some clarity on the cultivation of genetically modified crops, and to soon come up with modalities for the same. The National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India has procured over 200 tn copra, both ball and milling varieties, from farmers in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka as of Monday, an agency official said. The government has extended the term of Securities and Exchange Board of India Chairman Ajay Tyagi by another 18 months to February 2022, according to a notification of Appointments Committee of the Cabinet. Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, in a tweet, urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to allow the geographical indication tag on the basmati rice produced in Madhya Pradesh. China's liquid sugar imports have declined to 67,000 tn in June, down 38.5% on month, UK-based sugar brokerage house Czarnikow said in a note. India received 56.2 mm rainfall in the week ended yesterday, 13% below the normal of 64.4 mm for the period, IMD said. Since Jun 1, the country has received 492.9 mm rainfall, 1% below the normal of 498.3 mm. The National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India has procured over 200 tn copra, both ball and milling varieties, from farmers in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka as of Monday, an agency official said.

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by Pierre Balanian

The international community has no faith in Lebanon. Even France prefers to manage aid for Lebanese schools through its embassy in Beirut. Two more people take their own life because of the economic situation. Many fear Netanyahu will start a war from the south. Others fear war in the north where Sunni extremists armed by Ankara are ready to take revenge for Rafiq Hariris assassination. The International Tribunal will release its final verdict on Friday, likely against Hezbollah and Syria.

Beirut (AsiaNews)  In a surprise move, Lebanons Foreign Minister Nassif Hitti resigned three days ago (pictured) from the countrys technocratic" government.

Led by Prime Minister Hassan Diab, the latter has been known more for its silence and inaction, completely isolated inside the country, and kept at distance by former allies and friends like the EU, the US and the Arab Gulf states.

Since he took office, the now former foreign minister never made any visits abroad, nor received any foreign colleagues, except for one official visit by the French Foreign Minister, who came to save Lebanons French-Language schools, which like all Lebanese schools may not reopen come next school year due to the COVID-19, but also to the countrys disastrous economic situation.

Even so, Prime Minister Diab criticised the French minister's visit because the US$ 17.5 million allocated to French-speaking schools, for the first time, will not go to the Lebanese government, but will be managed directly by the French embassy in Lebanon at the request of individual schools.

This is a clear sign of distrust towards Lebanon and its political establishment, which has run the country for the past three decades and more.

To justify his flight from what the local press calls "the sinking boat", Nassif Hitti said very little, except: Lebanon is going bankrupt . . . and there is no will to introduce reforms.

"What is the use of a foreign minister in Lebanon, whose diplomatic relations are now only with Syria, Iraq and Iran, which Hezbollah already conducts? tweeted Georges Hayek, an intellectual with the Lebanese Forces, a Christian-based political party, with a wide following.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun reacted immediately, appointing his adviser, Charbel Wahbe, a Christian and a former Lebanese ambassador to Venezuela, as the new foreign minister.

Soon afterwards, it was announced that Kuwait invited the new minister to make an official visit, even though the country is closed for Eid Al Adha celebrations. However, no Kuwaiti source has confirmed the information.

Against this background, more and more people are taking their own lives. The latest are a Lebanese man and a foreign worker, an Ethiopian woman, both of whom hanged themselves. The situation is getting so absurd that the media is barely reporting such stories whilst the general public is largely apathetic.

COVID-19 cases are also significantly up, putting the health system and ordinary people at risk since, because of widespread poverty, food is taking precedence over protective masks. And when people do buy masks, the cheapest, go for at least a US dollar a piece.

Two other factors are also raising great concern. First of all, in Israel, anti-Netanyahu protests might push the Israeli leader to start a war in southern Lebanon. Such a move might help him avoid grassroot anger, reduce tensions at home, and unite Israelis behind him in a show of national unity against an external danger that threatens the "very survival of Israel".

The second factor that is troubling the Lebanese is the final verdict of the International Tribunal, expected this Friday, against those responsible for the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

According to rumours, Hezbollah and the Syrian government of Bashar Al Assad are likely to be blamed. In this case, well-armed Sunni groups in Tripoli (picture 2) and northern Lebanon might take revenge, aided by Syrian mercenaries and Islamic State fighters who have been arriving from Turkey over the past few months. The latter are being taken from Idlib (Syria) to Turkey, then transported by sea to Tripoli in Lebanon along with weapons and money.

At present, everyone is waiting to see the televised address Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah (picture 3) is supposed to deliver tomorrow evening at 8.30 pm, before the sentence.

Meanwhile, grassroot protests by hungry Lebanese tentatively resumed yesterday evening with some rallies held in downtown Beirut (picture 4) and Sidon.
Please disregard original release sent out and replace with the following.

Tetra is accelerating its European activities

Tetra's European project receives the approval and support from Malta Enterprise

OTTAWA, ON / ACCESSWIRE / August 6, 2020 / Tetra Bio-Pharma Inc. ("Tetra" or the "Company") (TSX-V:TBP) (OTCQB:TBPMF), a leader in cannabinoid-derived drug discovery and development, is pleased to announce that the Corporation is set to accelerate its European activities. The Corporation has received support from Malta Enterprise and will be creating a subsidiary in Europe to expand its clinical and regulatory activities as well as its future commercial operations for QIXLEEF, in Europe. Malta Enterprise, the national economic development agency of the Government of Malta, has supported the launch of the project of Tetra in Malta, and is now also working together with our team to implement this project.





In Q4 2020, Tetra will open its European office in Malta. The jobs created in Malta will offset consultant and other associated costs. Dr. Guy Chamberland, CEO and CRO stated "We are extremely pleased that our European expansion project has received the approval and support from Malta Enterprise. It is anticipated that this support will allow Tetra to quickly and efficiently launch QIXLEEF in the five Major European Markets, notably Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the UK."

The Malta-based activities will involve regulatory filings with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for all of Tetra's investigational new drugs and European-based clinical trial operations. This includes accelerating the Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) for QIXLEEF in Europe and performing a Phase 3 Plenitude trial, as detailed in the May 2020 supplemental filing and overnight financing.

Tetra had a first meeting with the Malta Medicines Authority, which was facilitated by Malta Enterprise, and resulted in clarifications and identification of the milestones to complete a clinical trial application compliant with the requirements of the local and European Authorities. Tetra intends to submit the Plenitude clinical trial as a Phase 3 study in Q4 2020 as the first step in initiating a clinical trial program in Malta. This trial will be performed in Europe to expand the claims associated with the prescription of the medicinal product QIXLEEF. The Corporation is advancing its MAA filing strategy in Europe and will continue regulatory discussions with the Malta Medicines Authority.

Story continues

Dr. Guy Chamberland, CEO and CRO commented, "The decision to choose Malta was simple. Our scientific and regulatory team recognized and appreciated the professionalism and guidance from Malta Enterprise and the Malta Medicines Authority. Furthermore, Aphria's ARA-Avanti Rx Analytics, the Aphria One facility in Canada, and its subsidiary, ASG Pharma Ltd. which is based in Malta, have all received European Union Good Manufacturing Practices (EU-GMP) certification from the same Competent Authority (Malta Medicines Authority) for the production of cannabis, which will allow for a pharmaceutical GMP compliant trial. These certifications include cannabis flower supply, processing the flower into finished goods, to the ability to ship finished dried flower throughout the European Union. Aphria's GMP quality system will enable Tetra to meet its European market objectives including the ability to perform a Phase 3 trial. The Plenitude trial is designed to prove the efficacy and safety of QIXLEEF for the relief of pain in cancer patients. These pain claims will allow expansion of the market size for QIXLEEF in Europe."

"We are pleased to have partnered with Tetra in the development of QIXLEEF. Since 2014, Aphria has been a leading, trusted choice for Canadian patients seeking high quality pharmaceutical-grade medical cannabis and, today, our EU-GMP certified operations will allow Tetra to expand its drug development and commercial activities to Europe," said Denise Faltischek, Chief Strategy Officer, Aphria, Inc.

Kurt Farrugia, CEO of Malta Enterprise commented, "Malta is placing the areas of life sciences and particularly research and development at the forefront of its foreign direct investment efforts. We welcome the addition of Tetra to Malta's portfolio. Malta Enterprise is delighted to support Tetra to set up its European office in Malta and carry out significant value adding activity to our life sciences sector."

Dr. Guy Chamberland, added, "We will continue to keep shareholders informed as we progress with the commercial strategy for QIXLEEF. We see tremendous value and potential for our botanical-based medicine. The recent financing allowed us to accelerate QIXLEEF to the market and we are pleased to provide our shareholders with an update."

About Tetra Bio-Pharma

Tetra Bio-Pharma (TSX-V: TBP) (OTCQB: TBPMF) is a biopharmaceutical leader in cannabinoid-based drug discovery and development with a Health Canada approved, and FDA reviewed and approved, clinical program aimed at bringing novel prescription drugs and treatments to patients and their healthcare providers. The Company has several subsidiaries engaged in the development of an advanced and growing pipeline of Bio Pharmaceuticals, Natural Health and Veterinary Products containing cannabis and other medicinal plant-based elements. With patients at the core of what we do, Tetra Bio-Pharma is focused on providing rigorous scientific validation and safety data required for inclusion into the existing bio pharma industry by regulators, physicians and insurance companies.

For more information visit: www.tetrabiopharma.com

About Malta Enterprise

Malta Enterprise is the country's economic development agency, tasked with attracting new foreign direct investment as well as facilitating the growth of existing operations. In operation under various guises since the 1950s, which is almost since the beginning of Malta's industrial development, the Corporation contains within it a great deal of accumulated experience in the field. Furthermore, it acts as an adviser to government on economic policy due to its close and constant interaction with the main economic players in the country. Malta Enterprise is also the national contact point for the Enterprise Europe Network through which companies based in Malta can develop links with counterparts in over 60 other countries.

For more information visit: www.maltaenterprise.com

Source: Tetra Bio-Pharma

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-looking statements

Some statements in this release may contain forward-looking information. All statements, other than of historical fact, that address activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future (including, without limitation, statements regarding potential acquisitions and financings) are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by use of the words "may", "will", "should", "continue", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "believe", "intend", "plan" or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's ability to control or predict, that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, without limitation, the inability of the Company to obtain sufficient financing to execute the Company's business plan; competition; regulation and anticipated and unanticipated costs and delays, the success of the Company's research and development strategies, including the success of this product or any other product, the applicability of the discoveries made therein, the successful and timely completion and uncertainties related to the regulatory process, the timing of clinical trials, the timing and outcomes of regulatory or intellectual property decisions and other risks disclosed in the Company's public disclosure record on file with the relevant securities regulatory authorities. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results or events not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements included in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company does not undertake an obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect new information, subsequent events or otherwise unless required by applicable securities legislation.

For further information, please contact Tetra Bio-Pharma Inc.:

Investor Contact:

Alpha Bronze, LLC

Mr. Pascal Nigen

Phone: + 1 (646) 255-0433

tetra@alphabronze.net

Media Contact:

energi PR

Ms. Carol Levine APR, FCPRS

Phone: + 1 (416) 425-9143 ext. 226

Mobile: + 1 (514) 703-0256

carol.levine@energipr.com

SOURCE: Tetra Bio-Pharma





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/600594/CORRECTION-FROM-SOURCE-Tetra-Bio-Pharma-Provides-Update-on-QIXLEEFTMs-European-Activities








Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A new analysis of sibling records from more than 300,000 individuals suggests that some parents continue to reproduce until they have children of both sexes.

The practice, which the two University of Michigan biologists who conducted the study dubbed "coupon-collection behavior" in human reproduction, appears to have increased in popularity in recent decades and reduces the amount of sex-ratio variation among families.

In a study scheduled for publication Aug. 6 in the journal Current Biology, Jianzhi Zhang and Erping Long report that significantly more families than expected had children of the same sex except for the last-born child. The trend is more pronounced in the most recent data.

"We believe that coupon-collection behavior becomes popular only when daughters and sons are considered to have similar utility to families, which would require society-wide improvement in gender equality and appreciation of gender diversity," said Zhang, a professor in the U-M Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

The coupon collector's problem comes from probability theory, where it refers to someone who continues to buy a particular brand of cereal, each package of which contains one randomly placed coupon, until he or she collects all the different types of coupons in the set.

Zhang and Long propose that the concept also applies to reproductive behaviors that reflect a preference for having children of both sexes. At the time of this work, Long was a U-M visiting scientist from Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China.

Their conclusions are based on an analysis of sibling records from the UK Biobank database, which contains genetic, health and family information from volunteer participants in the United Kingdom, the vast majority of whom were born between 1940 and 1970.

The results relating to sex ratio, defined as the proportion of male children in a family, are best explained by 3.3% of the families using coupon-collecting behavior to pursue children of both sexes, according to the researchers. That number is considered a conservative estimate, and the true fraction of families following coupon-collection behavior is likely to be higher.

"Our hypothesis is consistent with reports that Europeans express in interviews their desires to have children of both sexes, and the observations in Denmark, Sweden and Finland that the probability for a mother to have a third child is higher when the first two children are of the same sex than when they are of different sexes," Zhang and Long wrote.

To confirm coupon-collection reproductive behavior and its rising popularity in other populations, the researchers also examined a family tree-based genealogical database that contains 241,000 Dutch families over four centuries, with known numbers and genders of children of each family. They found higher-than-expected sex ratio (SR) variations over much of the history; only after 1940 did sex-ratio variation drop below expected levels.

The Dutch data revealed "a profound difference in the among-family variation of SR after 1940 when compared with the preceding 3.4 centuries," Zhang and Long reported. "Thus, the analysis of the Dutch data confirms the finding from the UK Biobank and suggests that the coupon-collection reproductive behavior is a relatively recent phenomenon."

The odds of conceiving a boy versus a girl are believed to be 50-50, and the outcome is determined by which of the father's sperm makes it to the mother's egg first. If the egg is fertilized by a sperm bearing a Y chromosome, the result is a boy. If it's an X-bearing sperm, a girl.

But post-conception factors can affect the odds of having a boy or a girl, and scientists have known for centuries that slightly more boys are born each year than girls. In the United States, about 51% of the babies born are male.

There is growing evidence for genetic influences on the probability that a birth yields one biological sex over the other. For example, women who carry the BRCA1 and BRCA2 breast cancer susceptibility genes tend to have more female children.

Various environmental factors during pregnancy may also influence the biological sex of the child. And of course, modern contraception, fertility treatments and abortion can all affect the sex ratio in a family.

If the determination of biological sex at birth were a completely random eventlike a 50-50 coin tossthen the probability that a birth yields a boy instead of a girl, known to scientists as Pboy, would be 0.5 for every birth in every family.

But increasing evidence suggests a variable Pboy among families, and the amount of variation around the 0.5 hypothetical random event is known in statistics as the standard deviation (SD) around the mean. The original goal of the study by Zhang and Long was to see whether Pboy is variable in a large set of families and, if so, to determine how variable it is.

Because the sex ratio of the children in a family provides an unbiased though imprecise estimate of the family's Pboy, the standard deviation of the sex ratio among familiesthe SD of SRcan be used to assess among-family variation in Pboy.

"You can imagine that the SD of SR will be higher if Pboy varies among families than when it is always 0.5," Zhang said. "Surprisingly, we found that the SD of SR is smaller than when Pboy is always 0.5. This unexpected observation suggests that some other factors are at work."

Those other factors likely include coupon-collection behavior by a small percentage of the families, according to Zhang and Long. Zhang noted that the decline of the SD of SR does not affect the overall sex ratio in a society.

Explore further Offspring sex ratio is not a heritable trait, study finds
Stressed MSME borrowers would be eligible for restructuring of debt, if their accounts were classified standard.

In a major relief to corporate and retail borrowers, the Reserve Bank on Thursday permitted banks to go for one-time restructuring of loans that are facing stress due to the COVID-19 crisis with a view to mitigating risks to financial stability.

The restructuring will be allowed as per the prudential framework issued on June 7, 2019, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said.

RBI also announced setting up of an expert committee headed by veteran banker K V Kamath which will give recommendations on various parameters to be factored into each resolution plan for corporate loans.

"With the intent to facilitate revival of real sector activities and mitigate the impact on the ultimate borrowers, it has been decided to provide a window...to enable the lenders to implement a resolution plan in respect of eligible corporate exposures without change in ownership, and personal loans, while classifying such exposures as standard, subject to specified conditions," RBI said in its statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies.

While announcing the monetary policy, Governor Das said, "The underlying theme of this resolution window is preservation of the soundness of the Indian banking sector."

Bankers had pitched for a one-time loan recast of accounts facing challenges due to the pandemic.

The Indian Banks Association (IBA) had also given its recommendation on the same to RBI.

Last week, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said the government is working with the RBI on the need for restructuring of loans to help the industry tide over the impact of COVID-19.

"The focus is on restructuring. Finance ministry is actively engaged with RBI on this. In principle, the idea that there may be a restructuring required, is well taken," Sitharaman had said.

RBI further said the resolution under this window is extended only to borrowers facing stress on account of COVID-19.

In light of past experiences with regard to use of regulatory forbearances, necessary safeguards are being incorporated, including prudent entry norms, clearly defined boundary conditions, specific binding covenants, independent validation and strict post-implementation performance monitoring, RBI said.

Only those borrower accounts shall be eligible for resolution under this framework which were classified as standard, but not in default for more than 30 days with any lending institution as on March 1, 2020, it said.

The central bank said the resolution plan may be invoked anytime till December 31, 2020 and shall have to be implemented within 180 days from the date of invocation.

Lenders shall have to keep additional provisions of 10 per cent on the post-resolution debt.

"The lending institutions may allow extension of the residual tenor of the loan, with or without payment moratorium, by a period not more than two years," it said.

RBI said it is constituting an expert committee under the chairmanship of K V Kamath which shall make recommendations to it on the required financial parameters, along with the sector specific benchmark ranges for such parameters, to be factored into each resolution plan.

The expert committee shall also undertake a process validation of resolution plans for accounts above a specified threshold.

RBI said wherever the resolution plans involve conversion of a portion of debt into equity and other debt instruments, the debt instruments with terms similar to the loan shall be counted as part of the post-resolution debt, whereas the portion converted into other non-equity instruments shall be fully written down.

With respect to personal loans, a separate framework is being prescribed, RBI said.

"The resolution plan for personal loans under this framework may be invoked till December 31, 2020 and shall be implemented within 90 days thereafter," it said.

The shorter timeline for personal loans is assessed to be adequate since unlike larger corporate exposures, there will not be any requirement for third-party validation by the expert committee, or by credit rating agencies, or need for inter-creditor agreement (ICA), RBI said.

The contours of the plan may be decided based on the board approved policies of the lenders subject to extension of the residual tenor of the loan, with or without payment moratorium, by a period not more than two years, it said.

The central bank said lenders will have to make disclosures on the number of accounts where one-time restructuring has been implemented under this window on a quarterly basis starting March 31, 2021.

Speaking on the one-time loan recast, State Bank of India chairman Rajnish Kumar said the RBI has addressed the need to offer some form of restructuring facility for standard accounts that are facing difficulty in debt restructuring.

"We welcome the fact that a new resolution framework for COVID-19-related stress facility has been extended to large corporate, SME and personal loans with necessary safeguards in each segment," Kumar said.

Indian Bank managing director and CEO Padmaja Chunduru said the RBI has announced a well-rounded step as it addresses stress not only in the corporate segment but in MSMEs and retail sectors also.

"Banks wanted some flexibility in assessing the restructuring requirement and I think that is met now," she said.

Bank of Maharashtra MD and CEO A S Rajeev said the regulatory changes like setting up of an expert committee for corporate and personal loans resolution plans and increased loan-to-value for gold will provide adequate support to the financial industry and to the wider economy.

L Viswanathan, partner, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, said the restructuring guidelines are an appropriate balance of being cognizant of the immediate distress as well as the longer term safeguards.

PwC Partner Kuntal Sur said the proposed restructuring window covers all sectors and would provide much needed lifeline to corporates and retail borrowers impacted by the COVID-19 crisis.
New Delhi, Aug 6 : In wake of the brutal sexual assault on a minor girl in Delhi, the mother of the December 16, 2012 gang-rape victim 'Nirbhaya' said there is "no fear of law in the criminals" and "instant justice" is needed to deal with them.

"The brutal sexual assault on a minor girl in Delhi's Paschim Vihar is an example of the brazenness of the criminals who did not even spare a child inside her house. The culprits should be brought to book immediately," Asha Devi told IANS.

Nirbhaya's mother said she was shocked to read the ordeal of the 12-year-old in a newspaper on Thursday.

Asha Devi, who struggled for years to bring to justice the rapists and murderers of her daughter, said: "I know how it feels for a mother when her child is in the hospital struggling to survive after a gruesome sexual assault. I struggled for almost eight years for justice to my daughter. I did not rest nor leave the case until finally the convicts were hanged." The four men, convicted of Nirbhaya's gang rape and murder inside a bus on December 16, 2012, were hanged in March this year. There were six accused in the case but one had committed suicide in jail while one was a minor, who has already served his term.

"I thought that the punishment would bring a desirable change in the society but I can read so many cases of rape and sexual assault in the newspapers even now. Even during lockdown, reports of rape and sexual assault surfaced raising serious questions on the security of women," Asha Devi told IANS.

The 12-year-old was sexually and physically assaulted in her house in Outer Delhi's Paschim Vihar on Tuesday while she was alone. The girl suffered injuries on her head and body during the brutal assault with a sharp-edged object. She has been referred to AIIMS where her condition is said to be critical.

As the girl struggles to survive the trauma and physical and sexual assault, the Delhi Police has formed several teams to identify and arrest the accused. The CCTV of the area where the assault took place is being examined to get some clues.

Nirbhaya's mother emphasised that instant justice is the key to stop crime against women and children.

"Only instant justice can bring some change in the minds of the criminals. They should know that they can't just go and languish in jail rather than get served instant justice. Only then the criminals will fear the law," Asha Devi said.

She said that she was also appalled how some NGOs and many other organisations put up resistance and hurdles when it comes to bringing sexual offenders to justice.

"I am surprised that several NGOs and organisations cite human rights when it comes to providing justice to the sexual offenders. I have been through all this. I wish this does not happen with this girl who is admitted in the hospital and struggling for her life," she said.
Egypt's public prosecutor said Wednesday it has ordered an investigation into a gang rape allegation at a luxury hotel in Cairo in 2014 that surfaced on social media last month.

"The Public Prosecution received a letter from the National Council for Women, accompanied by a complaint filed by one of the women who endured sexual abuse by several people at the Fairmont Nile City Hotel in Cairo in 2014," the public prosecutor said in Wednesday's statement.

Attached to the complaint lodged Tuesday "were testimonies from people with knowledge about the incident," the prosecutor added.

Results of the investigations will be announced "in due time," the statement said.

The alleged assault, which took place at a five-star Cairo hotel, involved a group of six men said to have drugged and raped a young woman, according to social media accounts

Names and pictures of the accused, who hail from wealthy families, have circulated widely online but AFP has been unable to verify their authenticity.

Egypt's National Council for Women condemned retaliatory threats made against women exposing sexual misconduct last week.

The council "stands by every woman and girl exposed to any... threat by providing all necessary support", it said.

In a statement last week, the Fairmont Hotel said it had conducted an internal investigation but found "that at no time were any reports of the incident filed to the hotel, nor to the hotel's tourism police".

The allegations come as part of a resurgent #Metoo wave in the deeply conservative country, seeking to hold sexual predators accountable for their actions.

A 2013 study by UN Women found that 99 percent of women in Egypt had at some point in their lives been sexually harassed, either verbally or physically.
Mumbai, Aug 6 : In a major development for digital payment services, the Reserve Bank of India has decided that payment system operators (PSOs) will have to implement Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) systems in a phased manner.

The RBI has said that to begin with, authorised PSOs shall be required to implement ODR systems for failed transactions in their respective payment systems. Based on the experience gained, ODR arrangements will be extended to other types of disputes and grievances.

As the number of digital transactions rise significantly, there is a concomitant increase in the number of disputes and grievances.

"Recourse to technology driven redressal mechanisms that are rule-based, transparent and involve minimum (or no) manual intervention is necessary to deal with them in a timely and effective manner. Accordingly, the Reserve Bank shall require Payment System Operators (PSOs) to introduce Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) Systems in a phased manner," RBI's Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies said.

Further, the central bank has also proposed to allow a pilot scheme for small value payments in off-line mode with built-in features for safeguarding interest of users, liability protection, among others.

It noted that there has been considerable growth in digital payments using mobile phones, cards, wallets, etc. However, lack of internet connectivity or low speed of internet, especially in remote areas, is a major impediment in adoption of digital payments.

Against this backdrop, providing an option of off-line payments through cards, wallets and mobile devices is expected to further the adoption of digital payments. The Reserve Bank has been encouraging entities to develop offline payment solutions.

"Based on experience gained, detailed guidelines for roll-out of the scheme will be announced in due course, said the statement.
Port Louis, Mauritius, Aug 6 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 7th Aug, 2020 ) :Mauritius on Thursday announced that oil was leaking from a bulk carrier that had run aground in the southeast of the island, sparking fears among green campaigners of an environmental disaster.

"The ministry has been informed... that there is a breach in the vessel MV Wakashio and there is a leakage of oil," the environment ministry said in a statement.

"The public in general, including boat operators and fishers, are requested not to venture on the beach and in the lagoons of Blue Bay, Pointe d'Esny and Mahebourg." The carrier, belonging to a Japanese company but Panamanian-flagged, ran aground on July 25 and its crew was evacuated safely.

The ship was empty at the time but was carrying 200 tonnes of diesel and 3,800 tonnes of bunker fuel, according to the local press.

Shipping websites say the Wakashio was built in 2007, with gross tonnage of 101,000 tonnes and deadweight tonnage of 203,000 tonnes, and a length of 299.95 metres (984 feet).

The grounding happened at Pointe d'Esny, which is listed under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, and near the marine park of Blue Bay.

Anti-pollution systems have been sent to the two sites, the ministry said, adding that the government was asking the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion for assistance.

"We are in an environmental crisis situation," Environment Minister Kavy Ramano told a press conference.

"This is the first time that we are faced with a catastrophe of this kind, and we are insufficiently equipped to handle this problem," said Fishing Minister Sudheer Maudhoo.

The ministers said that all attempts to stabilise the ship had failed because of rough seas, and efforts to pump out the oil had also failed.

Ecologists fear the ship could break up, which would cause an even greater leak and inflict potentially catastrophic damage on the island's coastline.

The country depends crucially on its seas for food and for tourism, boasting some of the finest coral reefs in the world.
Vast Resources plc / Ticker: VAST / Index: AIM / Sector: Mining

6 August 2020

Vast Resources plc

(Vast or the Company)

Baita Plai Drilling programme returns highly encouraging results

Baita Plai Polymetallic Mine Update

Vast Resources plc, the AIM-listed mining company, is pleased to update the market on progress at its Baita Plai Polymetallic Mine in Romania Baita Plai.

Underground Diamond Drilling

Following the previous RNS announcements regarding drilling and metallurgical test work updates made on 5th, 12th & 15th May & 24th July 2020 a drilling program targeting the area below 18 level on the Antonio skarn has returned highly encouraging results in line with Company expectations. To date, 692 metres of core representing 20 drill holes has been completed. Assays from the initial 15 drillholes totalling 253.8 metres of submitted sample length have been received from the ALS laboratories located at Rosia Montana, Romania. The drilling took place from 18 level (which is 224 metres above mean sea level) and intercepted the mineralized zone at depths of up to 50 meters below 18 level.

g/t g/t % % % Drill Hole ID Depth (m) From (m) To (m) Length (m) Lithology Au Ag Cu Pb Zn BP18_004 35.1 10.5 15 4.5 Skarn 0.04 12.54 0.20 0.10 0.12 BP18_005 37.5 21.5 31 9.5 Skarn 2.36 210.64 4.04 0.13 0.56 including 21.5 26 4.5 Skarn 4.56 389.89 7.69 0.11 0.33 BP18_006 30 11 16 5 Skarn + Limestone 1.74 180.00 2.78 0.77 2.18 including 11 13 2 Skarn 2.73 188.00 5.32 0.56 0.17 BP18_007 20 9 13 4 Skarn 0.15 19.80 0.82 0.07 0.05 BP18_008 18 6 13 7 Skarn 0.82 57.54 1.35 0.31 0.08 BP18_009 26.5 11 19.5 8.5 Skarn 0.45 59.19 0.98 0.19 0.05 BP18_010 30 7 10 3 Skarn 0.19 15.07 0.34 0.02 0.03 14 19 5 Skarn 1.18 106.42 1.74 0.09 0.02 21 22 1 Skarn 0.11 236.00 0.02 1.12 1.86 BP18_011 39 28 36 8 Skarn 0.38 27.89 1.19 0.22 0.04 BP18_012 34.5 15 18 3 Skarn 0.34 31.93 0.50 0.08 0.02 18 22 4 Skarn 0.20 231.00 0.19 1.69 1.38 28 29 1 Skarn + Limestone 0.01 112.00 0.01 0.45 0.02 BP18_013 60 35 48 13 Skarn 0.22 68.91 1.05 0.32 0.13 51 55 4 Skarn 0.01 78.23 0.05 0.36 0.09 BP18_014 45.8 21 36 15 Skarn 1.09 103.09 1.45 0.39 0.07 including 30 35 5 Skarn 2.89 137.44 2.80 0.02 0.04 BP18_016 42.7 25 31 6 Skarn + Fault 0.06 13.03 0.40 0.03 0.02 BP18_017 27.8 11 20 9 Skarn + Breccia 1.34 66.82 3.36 0.87 1.38 including 12 16 4 Skarn 2.76 116.05 7.27 1.79 2.68 BP18_018 27.6 14 18.5 4.5 Skarn + Limestone 1.61 97.62 1.79 0.04 0.02 BP18_019 36.4 5 10 5 Skarn + Limestone 2.87 162.08 4.67 0.01 0.02 including 5 6 1 Skarn 6.48 438.00 11.55 0.03 0.09 including 8.4 10 1.6 Skarn 7.88 372.38 11.78 0.02 0.03 18 24 6 Skarn + Limestone 0.20 23.67 0.71 0.02 0.02 27.5 29 1.5 Skarn + Limestone 0.52 49.80 3.17 0.03 0.13 34 35 1 Skarn + Limestone 0.76 29.10 0.43 0.00 0.00

The results are able to be correlated with historic underground mining assays and a zonation of high grade copper  gold - silver mineralisation versus more polymetallic copper  lead  zinc mineralisation can be discerned. The ALS laboratories noted the presence of coarse gold in sample number BP180282 which returned a gold assay value of 9.15 gramme per tonne in drill hole BP18_019 at a depth of 8.4 metres to 9.0 metres down the hole.

Story continues

The drilling is designed to provide the necessary data for a JORC mineral resource estimation of the area immediately below 18 level extending 50 metres below to the 19 level elevation. This area will be the initial mining area of Baita Plai and the area outlined is expected to provide sufficient resources for a period of approximately 3 to 4 years at a production rate of 180Ktpa.

Significantly, over 75% of this area being delineated does not form part of the historic official mineral resource (NAEN Code) of 1.88 million tonnes at 2.19% Cu, 128 g/t Ag, 3.46% Zn, 3.07% Pb and 1.41 g/t Au. The historic mineral resource was delineated to a depth of only 12.5 metres below 18 level on the Antonio skarn.

The historical mineral resources above 18 level will be validated while this deeper area is being exploited and where possible will be converted to a JORC compliant mineral resource, if the data is of sufficient quality.

Drilling is continuing on 18 level and additional deeper drilling is planned to provide intersections of the Antonio skarn at depths of between 100m to 150 metres below 18 level. Each 50 metres of depth represents approximately 3 years of mining life at a production rate of 180Ktpa.

Production Update

Following the previous announcement made on 24th July the Company can confirm that underground operations continue and the Company will provide further updates on production shortly. In the meantime the Company is finalising preparations in the floatation plant ahead of the first sale of Baita Plai concentrate to Mercuria, which is being targeted for end of August/beginning September, subject to sufficient quantities being ready for shipment.

The Company will continue to update shareholders via social media.

Qualified Person

The information in this announcement is based on information compiled by Mr Craig Harvey, the Chief Operating Officer for Vast and a full-time employee and Director of the Company. Mr Harvey is a Competent Person who is a Member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists and of the Geological Society of South Africa, a Recognised Professional Organisation included in a list that is posted on the ASX website from time to time.

Mr Harvey has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity being undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves. Mr Harvey consents to the inclusion in the report of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears.

**ENDS**

For further information, visit www.vastplc.com or please contact:

Vast Resources plc

Andrew Prelea (Chief Executive Officer)

Andrew Hall







www.vastplc.com

+44 (0) 20 7846 0974 Beaumont Cornish - Financial & Nominated Adviser

Roland Cornish

James Biddle



www.beaumontcornish.com

+44 (0) 20 7628 3396 SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP  Joint Broker

Richard Morrison

Caroline Rowe



www.spangel.co.uk

+44 (0) 20 3470 0470



Axis Capital Markets Limited  Joint Broker

Richard Hutchison



www.axcap247.com

+44 (0) 20 3206 0320 Blytheweigh

Tim Blythe

Megan Ray



www.blytheweigh.com

+44 (0) 20 7138 3204

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 (MAR).

ABOUT VAST RESOURCES PLC

Vast Resources plc, is a United Kingdom AIM listed mining company with mines and projects in Romania and Zimbabwe - focused on the rapid advancement of high quality projects by recommencing production at previously producing mines in Romania and the commencement of the joint venture mining agreement on the Chiadzwa Community Concession Block of the Chiadzwa Diamond Fields in Zimbabwe.

The Companys portfolio includes an 80% interest in the Baita Plai Polymetallic Mine in Romania, where work is now currently underway, as above, and the Community Concession Block in Chiadzwa, Zimbabwe.

Vast Resources owns the Manaila Polymetallic Mine in Romania, which was commissioned in 2015, currently on care and maintenance. With the granting of the new extended Manaila/Carlibaba Exploitation License it will allow the Company to re-examine the exploitation of the mineral resources within the larger Carlibaba license area

Attachment




As soon as explosions hit Lebanons capital of Beirut on August 4, the Vietnamese Embassy in Egypt, which is concurrently in charge of Lebanon,

sought to contact local authorities and the Vietnamese honorary consular office as well as the Vietnamese community to grasp the situation and support those affected.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Egypt and Lebanon Tran Thanh Cong (Photo: VNA)

Vietnamese Ambassador to Egypt and Lebanon Tran Thanh Cong told the Vietnam News Agency (VNA)'s correspondents in Cairo that a Vietnamese citizen was slightly injured in the explosions and is being treated at a hospital in Beirut.

The embassy has contacted the victim, he said, adding that it will work with Lebanons Ministry of Foreign Affairs to assist those affected.

According to the Ambassador, about 50-60 Vietnamese citizens are living and working in Lebanon, mainly in restaurant services in Beirut.

Cong said he will work with the Embassy of Lebanon in Egypt in the coming days and will contact Lebanons Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be updated on the situation and propose how the Lebanese side can best support Vietnamese citizens.

In case of an emergency, the embassy will dispatch a working delegation to Lebanon to address the difficulties facing Vietnamese citizens, he added.

The explosions killed at least 100 people and injured nearly 4,000 others, according to the latest media reports./.VNA
Loneliness in adult life is experienced differently depending on what age you are, a new scientific study suggests.

Factors associated with feelings of loneliness, such as contact with friends and family, perceived health and employment, differ throughout adult life, scientists say.

Researchers found that these various factors caused loneliness in different measures across three age groups  young adults, the middle aged and the old aged.

Younger adults were more impacted by a lack of contact with their friends, for example, while in older adults, perceived health and lack of contact with family members were factors associated with loneliness.

Dutch scientists say their findings mean there can be no 'one-size-fits-all approach' to combating loneliness, which has become a huge problem during the coronavirus pandemic.

The team speculate that people missing out on what they think is the norm for people of their age  such as young people have fun out with friends  can trigger lonely feelings.

Scroll down for video

Loneliness in adult life is experienced differently depending on age, according to a study published in the open access journal BMC Public Health

'Our results also suggest that during the current Covid-19 pandemic, feelings of loneliness among adults may be impacted in different ways according to the important factors of their life phase,' said study author Thanee Franssen at Maastricht University in the Netherlands.

'For example, young adults are not able to interact with their friends or classmates face-to-face any more.

'This may need to be taken into account when considering the impact on loneliness of the current pandemic.'

Researchers at Maastricht University and in the Public Health Service South-Limburg in the Netherlands used data collected from September to December 2016 for their study.

They examined associations between demographic, social and health-related factors and loneliness in 6,143 young people (between 19 and 34 years), 8,418 early middle-aged people (35 to 49 years) and 11,758 late middle-aged adults (50 to 65 years).

The study, published in the open access journal BMC Public Health, found that overall, 10,309, or 44.3 per cent of the individuals in total, reported experiencing loneliness.

Among young adults, 2,042 (39.7 per cent) reported feelings of loneliness, compared to 3,108 (43.3 per cent) early-middle aged adults and 5,159 late middle-aged adults (48.2 per cent).

The researchers found a number of common factors associated with loneliness across all of the age groups.

These included living alone, frequency of neighbour contact, psychological distress, and psychological and emotional wellbeing.

Educational level was associated with loneliness among young adults only, while an association between employment status and loneliness was found solely among early middle-aged adults

The strongest association with loneliness was found for those who felt excluded from society.

However, some factors were only present in specific age groups only  for example, young adults showed the strongest association between their frequency of contact with friends and loneliness.

According to the study, educational level was associated with loneliness among young adults only, while an association between employment status and loneliness was found solely among early middle-aged adults.

Frequency of family contact was associated with loneliness only among early and late middle-aged adults.

While for late middle-aged adults only, perceived health was associated with loneliness.

The scientists suggest people may feel lonely if what is the norm for their age group  like completing school, being employed or having children  is not reflective of their actual situation.

The difference in factors associated with loneliness between age groups may be because different factors are considered the norm at different stages of adult life.

'The identification of the factors associated with loneliness is necessary to be able to develop and target appropriate interventions,' said Franssen.

'Unfortunately, most of the current interventions seem to be limited in their effect.

'A possible reason for this may be that most interventions for adults are universal.

'Results of this study showed that interventions should be developed for specific age groups.'

The authors caution that some factors that may affect people's perception of loneliness, such as relationship quality, were not included in the current study.

Also, due to the cross-sectional nature of the study, it was not possible to establish cause and effect.
The storage of the chemical in Chennai became a cause for serious concern in the backdrop of the explosion of the chemical in Beirut on Tuesday, which killed 135 people and injured around 4,000

Customs authorities on Thursday sought to allay fears over safety regarding the storage of nearly 700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate at a container freight near the city after a deadly blast caused by the same chemical in Lebanon's Beirut claimed over 130 lives and wounded another 5,000.

The chemical worth Rs 1.80 crore was seized from a Tamil Nadu-based importer in 2015 who had allegedly declared it as fertiliser grade even though it was an explosive grade, a Customs official said. For perspective, the explosive involved in Beirut blast was nearly 2,000 tons

However, the consignment, imported from South Korea, was safe and an e-auction process was on to clear it, he said.

The Customs' clarification comes in the wake of reports in a section of media that huge quantities of the chemical substance being stored could be a risk, even as political party Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) sought the government to ensure its safe disposal.

"The goods are safe and pose no danger" a senior Customs department official told PTI when asked about the fears of safety in the backdrop of the devastating Beirut explosion.

Elaborating, the official, on condition of anonymity, said the sleuths had in November 2015 seized 697 tonnes of ammonium nitrate in 37 containers valued at Rs 1.80 crore from the importer.

"The importer had misdeclared the goods as ammonium nitrate of fertiliser grade whereas on examination it was found to be of explosive grade and that (the importer) had not followed the Ammonium Nitrate Rules, 2012," he said.

The containers were seized then and were since lying at a container freight station in the city while the licence of the importer had been cancelled.

While seven tonnes of the chemical got spoilt during the deluge in December 2015, the remaining 690 tonnes were under process of e-auctioning, he said.

The agency report, however, did not elaborate on the safety arrangements in place to back the official's claim.

Ammonium nitrate (AN), a compound of ammonia and nitrogen, is a highly volatile material used in agricultural fertilizers and bombs. The Environmental Protection Agency says that disasters involving AN are rare but the proper handling and storage of the compound are crucial to avoid any accidents. The compound doesn't burn, but it melts upon supplying heat and emits toxic gases that can cause an explosion. AN may explode when exposed to a strong shock or when subjected to sustained high temperatures in confinement.

It is also not uncommon for traces of other compounds to be introduced in explosive grade AN to bring down the temperature at which it is triggered.

There are also strict guidelines in place for its handling and storage.

US' Occupational Safety and Health Administration states: "All flooring in storage and handling areas, shall be of noncombustible material or protected against impregnation by ammonium nitrate and shall be without open drains, traps, tunnels, pits, or pockets into which any molten ammonium nitrate could flow and be confined in the event of fire."

"In general, the conditions of AN storage are crucial to the safety and stability of the AN. Materials co-located or stored with AN may play a role in its sensitivity to explosion," EPA said.

But past disasters involving AN have been deadly because often safety protocols were ignored.

According to CNN, one of the worst disasters in US history involving a form of ammonia occurred in April 1947 when a ship loaded with 2,300 US tons (about 2087 metric tons) ammonium nitrate caught fire while docked in Texas City. The resulting explosion destroyed 1,000 buildings and killed nearly 400 people.

Another explosion in 1995 in Oklahoma involved just two US tons (1.8 metric tons) of AN and it killed 169 people and injured 467, the report said.



Earlier during the day, PMK founder S Ramadoss urged the government to take immediate steps to safely dispose of the ammonium nitrate, saying a possible Beirut-like incident should be avoided.

Expressing concern over the reported huge quantity of the seized chemical kept at the freight station since 2015, he said the uncleared substance could be a risk and that it should be safely disposed of and utilised for purposes like composting.

Tuesday's explosion in Lebanon's port city of Beirut killed 135 people and injured about 4,000. Buildings were damaged for miles around the city after 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive chemical used in fertilisers, stored at the facility for six years, reportedly caused the explosion.

With inputs from agencies
Photo: (Photo : Instagram/alabamageisha)

An unidentified nurse woke up from the Beirut blast and found herself carrying three babies. The photographer, Bilal Marie Jawich, told CNN how he reached the hospital. He said that he followed the smoke until he reached the port of Beirut. He explained that his "journalistic instinct" led him to the hospital where the nurse is.

He took the photo shortly after the blast had rocked the hospital. Twelve patients, two visitors, and four nurses died on the spot.

Had the babies after waking up from the blast

Jawich said dozens of bodies, wounded or died, surrounded the nurse. The nurse told the photographer that she was in the maternity ward when the blast happened. It left her unconscious. When she woke up, she found herself carrying three babies.

See also: For a month, doctor cared for a baby whose parents are COVID-19 positive

Jawich was amazed when he saw the nurse holding three newborn children. He noticed the nurse's calm demeanor was in contrast with the atmosphere of her surroundings.

Jawich explained that the nurse looked like she possessed a hidden force that helped her save the three children and also gave her self-control. He said that people stand out during the violent, dark, and evil circumstances, adding that the nurse did her task well.

Nothing like the Beirut blast

Jawich shared that throughout his career as a photographer, he has witnessed many wars, but what happened in Beirut was different. He said that there was nothing like the devastation that the area received.

See also: Boy got 90 stitches after protecting sister from dog attack [Watch Marvel heroes reply]

Al Arabiya English heard from a doctor that the hospitals are now moving their patients to medical facilities that were not affected by the blast. Firass Abiad, hospital director, told Metro UK that they are bringing their patients to the emergency building. They are trying to send them to different hospitals from there because the urgent care is also full.

The photo of the nurse holding the newborns while taking phone calls amid the chaos shows how healthcare finds solutions during crisis times. The nurse is a great example of how a person could create winning moments during the darkest tragedies.

What caused the explosion

The devastating explosion that happened in Beirut, Lebanon, has caused a lot of casualties no one ever imagined. It has killed more than 100 people, injured more than 4,000, and left about 300,000 homeless.

See also: COVID-19 Nurse Returns to the Frontline a Few Days After Surgery

Abbas Ibrahim, Lebanon's General Security Chief, said that highly explosive materials caused the blast in the city's port area. They believe that 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate got ignited by a nearby warehouse fire.

Lebanese officials said that in 2013, they confiscated the stored ammonium nitrate from an Africa-bound ship. The massive blast was said to be about one-fifth of the size of the atomic blast that happened in Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945.
Israeli hackers developed new mobile apps that can fight domestic violence and prevent future abuse by alerting women about potential signs from their husbands or partners. According to Wired's latest report, using technology as a tracker to stop domestic violence is trickier than it sounds.

pic.twitter.com/jbhdBvChSW Coffee Talk with Shirli Shavit, Director NA'AMAT Israel for an update on domestic violence in Israel and how we are working to change the current climate - Link to Register is NOW live!! - https://t.co/KROAD0wP0d  naamatpgh (@naamatpgh) August 3, 2020

Also Read: Russian-Speaking Threat Actor Leaked 1,800 Pulse VPN Servers and Login Details in Hackers' Forum

The rising number of social media platforms and smartphone gadgets allowed abusers to easily control, isolate, and monitor their victims. A digital privacy and security researcher at Cornell who works with the Clinic to End tech Abuse in New York, Diana Freed, explained that potential apps might be hard to trust nowadays.

Also Read: China Requires Players to Use Their Real Name in Online Games as Real-Name Verification System to Be Launched by September

She said that although these apps are hidden on the victim's phone, which can alert the authorities with just a single tap, it is still challenging to identify if they have a safety device. Diana also said that people should be aware of the factor of security of their emergency apps.

"We're always concerned about the safety of the client and what the abuser might know," said Diana.

There are also other apps that help women to get rid of any connection they have with their previous abusive partner. In 2019, "Tech Disconnect checklist" was launched to allow victims to exit dangerous relationships by making sure that there are no potential harmful links from their ex-husband or ex-partner after they broke up.

The new apps that can prevent future domestic abuse: Here's how they work

The "Forum's Hackathon" promising set of new technologies can help prevent domestic violence, dividing the different types of initiatives into three segments. The first one will tackle the prevention, studying a nationwide database to look for potential signs of systemic, unreported abuse in the education and healthcare systems. MedFlag was introduced to identify signs of repeated abuse among clinic and hospital patients by analyzing medical records.

The second one will focus on life-threatening emergencies. One of the hackathon's winners is "Stay Tuned," which allows victims to alert authorities about ongoing abuse without touching their device. The app can notify the police, and other contact numbers on the phone by sending them the alarming noises recorded using machine intelligence and voice recognition tech.



The third one will focus on technologies that can prevent domestic abuse before they even happen. A smartphone violence detector called "Aware," uses an algorithm that observes the phone owner's daily usage patterns. Once the app learns its owner's usual phone activity, it can identify if an abuser is using it. It can detect if spyware is being installed, contacts are being blocked or deleted, and the owner's male Facebook friends are removed. These new apps can help not only the women in Israel but also those facing domestic abuse across the globe, male or female.



For more life-changing technologies, keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Also Read: How to Easily Password Protect a PDF from Data Breach

This article is owned by TechTimes,

Written by: Giuliano de Leon.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
of them backwards into their apartment

A couple who believed they were filming a terrible accident in the Port of Beirut have captured the moment they were sent flying after an explosion the size of a small nuke ripped apart their nearby apartment.

The terrifying footage is believed to be the closest taken during the devastating blast in the Lebanese capital which killed more than 145 people, wounded thousands and left tens of thousands homeless.

The explosion was caused when a fire ignited a stockpile of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate that authorities left sitting in a warehouse for six years.

In the video, the couple, Imad Khalil and Lena Allama start recording as they see a fire break out in warehouse 12 at the city's port, with black smoke billowing out of the roof.

Imad Khalil and Lena Allama were seriously injured when they were struck by the explosion at Port of Beirut which they were filming from their balcony. The terrifying footage is believed to be the closest taken to the scene of the blast

Footage believed to be the closest captured during the devastating blast in Beirut shows the blaze that triggered the explosion

As they observe the fire, Lena remarks: 'So unfortunate, hopefully nothing happened to anyone, dear God,' adding, 'Dear God, hopefully no one is harmed.'

She then says in Arabic: 'Seriously. How come no one except us are filming?'

There is then a small explosion, and what look like fireworks shoot out of the building's roof with a low rumbling sound.

Unsure whether it is safe to be outside on her balcony, Lena tells her husband to get inside the apartment: 'What is that sound? Go inside, go inside! Imad, go inside.'

As they observe the fire, Lena remarks: 'So unfortunate, hopefully nothing happened to anyone, dear God,' adding, 'Dear God, hopefully no one is harmed'

The husband carries on filming the scene until a huge explosion, caused by the ammonium nitrate, sends them both flying backwards into their apartment. The camera is then seen lying on the floor

'Oh poor thing! Dear god! Poor thing!' she can be heard saying. 'This is a big thing, dear God hopefully no one's hurt.'

But Imad continues to film the terrifying scene, as she orders him to come inside and close the door and windows.

Seconds later a huge explosion, caused by the ammonium nitrate, pulses out a shockwave sending them both reeling backwards and smashing windows and furniture. The phone recording the scene is left lying on the ground.

A picture believed to be of the couple posted from hospital shows they suffered injuries in the blast but escaped with their lives.

The post by Imad reads: Thank you all from all over for all the messages. Me and Lena are recovering well.

The explosion on Tuesday night, which was the size of a small nuclear bomb, has left at least 137 people dead and a further 5,000 wounded

There are now thought to be 300,000 left homeless and wide-spread damage estimated at up to $5billion - including a 120-metre long cruise ship which capsized as a result of the blast

The explosion on Tuesday night, which was the size of a small nuclear bomb, has left at least 137 people dead and a further 5,000 wounded.

There are now thought to be 300,000 left homeless and wide-spread damage estimated at up to $5billion - including a 120-metre long cruise ship which capsized as a result of the blast.

Cypriot police say they have questioned a Russian man over alleged links to a ship and its cargo of ammonium nitrate said to have caused the devastating explosion.

Sixteen employees at the Port of Beirut, including port and customs officials, have been arrested following questioning.

The explosion has threatened to reignite anti-government protests in Lebanon that have been ongoing since last year amid allegations of entrenched incompetence and corruption.

Emmanuel Macron offered France's support for the Lebanese people as he visited Beirut on Thursday, but warned the country would 'continue to sink' unless its leaders carry out reforms.
Courthouse Cash Coming Soon

Jackson County Finally Poised To Release Coronavirus Relief Funds To Kansas City Kansas City, Missouri is finally poised to see a notable portion of the coronavirus relief funding it requested from Jackson County more than three months ago. In early May, Jackson County received more than $120 million in direct funding from the federal government as part of the CARES Act, but Kansas City did not receive any money directly because it fell short of the 500,000-population threshold to receive a direct payment.

Sleaze Scummit Crime Cont'd

Lee's Summit police investigate summer's second dealership showroom break-in LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. - For the second time this summer, Lee's Summit police are investigating a break-in at a car dealership showroom. Five vehicles have been stolen in all. The most recent crime happened at Executive Auto on S.E. Oldham Parkway in Lee's Summit at approximately 1:40 a.m. Tuesday.

More Risk In Missouri

4 test positive for virus as Missouri lawmakers resume work COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) - Four people tested positive for the coronavirus following open testing at the Capitol in advance of lawmakers returning to work, the state health department announced Wednesday. The agency offered free testing to lawmakers, staffers and others who work at the Capitol at the request of Senate Democratic Minority Leader John Rizzo.

Nurses Fight For Life

Nurses protest outside Research Medical Center calling for more PPE Nurses on the front lines of COVID-19 said they are giving their all.

Champs Confront COVID Challenge

Questions remain for fans return to Arrowhead KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) - The Kansas City, Missouri Health Department Director Dr. Rex Archer says his department and the Chiefs have had major conversations and exchanged many emails. He says the Chiefs are exploring lots of options.

Royal Defeat Repeated

Bubic tosses quality start, Royals lose to Cubs, 6-1 On the heels of five-straight losses, the Royals returned home for a two-game series with the Cubs. Despite a quality start from 22-year-old Kris Bubic, Kansas City's offense sputtered in a 6-1 loss. Bubic was dealing through the first three innings. The left-hander retired the first nine hitters and punched out four of them.

Donations Up In Smoke

Beirut explosion destroys Heart to Heart International shipment LENEXA, Kan. - The port of Beirut is barely recognizable following an explosion Tuesday that killed more than 60 people and injured thousands. In the ruins are more than 5,000 hygiene kits and hundreds of pieces of children's clothing from Lenexa-based Heart to Heart International that arrived this week.

Tonight we're sharing just a few news links, headlines and info that's a worth a glimpse tonight but maybe not tomorrow . . . Checkit:And this is thefor right now . . .
Lebanon's state-run news agency says 16 employees at Beirut's port have been detained over this week's explosion that killed more than 100 people and wounded thousands.

The National News Agency quoted Government Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Fadi Akiki as saying on Thursday that 18 people have been questioned so far. All of them are port and customs officials, as well as individuals in charge of maintenance at the hangar where 2,750 tons of explosive materials have been stored for years.

Akiki said that the investigation began shortly after the blast occurred on Tuesday evening and will continue to cover all suspects in the explosion.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP's earlier story follows below.

BEIRUT (AP) _ Residents of Beirut vented their fury at Lebanon's leaders Thursday during a visit by French President Emmanuel Macron, blaming them for the deadly explosion that ravaged the capital. Lebanon's customs chief told The Associated Press the Cabinet was warned in the past year that a stockpile of explosive chemicals stored at the port was dangerous.

For many Lebanese, Tuesday's blast was the last straw after years of corruption and mismanagement by a political elite that has ruled for decades.

The blast, which killed more than 130 people, wounded thousands and left tens of thousands homeless, is believed to have been caused when a fire touched off a stockpile of 2,750 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate that authorities left sitting in a warehouse for years _ despite a customs official's repeated warnings.

Macron announced that France will organize a conference in the next few days with European, American, Middle Eastern and other donors to raise money for food, medicine, housing and other urgent aid.

But he warned Lebanon's political leadership that he wouldn't give ``blank checks to a system that no longer has the trust of its people.'' He called on them to create a ``new political order.''

He promised a ``clear and transparent governance'' so that the aid goes directly to the population and aid groups.

In startling scenes, Macron _ whose country once was Lebanon's colonial ruler _ presented himself as a champion for the Lebanese to push change on their leadership.

After visiting the devastated port, Macron walked through one of the worst-hit neighborhoods, Gemmayzeh, down a street lined with wrecked buildings. Notably, none of Lebanon's top politicians have toured residential areas damaged by the blast, though President Michel Aoun and others did visit the port.

On the narrow street, a crowd gathered around Macron and shouted their anger, chanting, ``Revolution!'' and ``The people want to bring down the regime!'' _ slogans used at mass protests last year.

Macron told them he would speak to Lebanon's political leaders.

``I will propose to them a new political pact this afternoon,'' he said. ``I will be back on the first of September and if they can't do it, I will keep my responsibility toward you.'' He also promised that French aid would be given out with transparency and ``will not go into the hands of corruption.''

One woman shouted at Macron, ``You are sitting with warlords. They have been manipulating us for the past year.'' He replied, ``I'm not here to help them. I'm here to help you.'' They then hugged.

Hours after Macron left Gemmayzeh, Justice Minister Marie-Claude Najm tried to become the first Lebanese government official to visit the area, only to be driven out by protesters.

``Resign, you criminal! Would you accept anything less if your sister were among those killed?'' one protester shouted at her. As she was about to respond, another sprayed her with a water hose. She left as protesters chanted, ``Revolution!'' and ``Resign.''

Later, Macron met with Aoun and the prime minister and held a gathering with the head of the main parliament blocs.

There have been widespread pledges of international aid to Lebanon, which was already mired in a severe economic crisis that has crippled its ability to rebuild from the blast. However, the international community has been reluctant to offer support to the notoriously corrupt and dysfunctional government.

Lebanon's various factions, including the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group, have ruled the country since the 1975-1990 civil war. Almost all the country's public institutions are divided up among the factions, which use them as patronage generators for themselves and their supporters. Little actual development is put into the institutions and anything that requires joint action often becomes mired in bickering. As a result, even basic services like electricity and trash collection are a shambles.

Losses from the blast were estimated by Beirut Gov. Marwan Abboud to be between $10 billion to $15 billion. He also said nearly 300,000 people are homeless.

The disaster may also have accelerated the country's coronavirus outbreak, as thousands flooded into hospitals. Tens of thousands have had to move in with relatives and friends after their homes were damaged, further raising the risks of exposure. Lebanon on Thursday reported 255 new infections, bringing the total to 5,672 cases, including 70 deaths.

The head of Lebanon's customs department, Badri Daher, told the AP that State Security, one of Lebanon's main security agencies, had been conducting an investigation the past year into the stockpile of ammonium nitrate that had been stored at the port since it was confiscated from an impounded ship in 2013.

During the investigation, the agency sent reports to the Cabinet, state prosecutor and other state institutions about the danger of the material.

Security officials were not immediately available for comment. But if correct, it would be the first evidence that top level officials were notified of the presence of the large amount of ammonium nitrate _ a component of fertilizers that is highly explosive _ kept so close to residential areas.

Daher confirmed that he had sent a letter in 2017 to a judge warning of the danger and asking for guidance on what to do with the material. He said he and his predecessor sent six letters but never got a response.

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Beirut, Lebanon  In Beirut on Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron visited the scene of the massive explosion that killed at least 137 people and left some 5,000 wounded.

As he walked through the historic Gemmayzeh neighbourhood with its century-old buildings  many now destroyed or unsafe  he spoke to the victims and consoled people with frayed nerves.

He did this before any local official came there  two days after the massive explosion ripped through the city and upended life here.

You are sitting with warlords, they have been manipulating us for the past years, a woman told Macron, who would meet with the countrys top leaders later in the day.

Im not here to help them, Im here to help you, he replied, before they entered into a long, silent embrace.

Macron visited the site of the explosion and areas of the city damaged by the massive blast [Thibault Camus/AP Photo]

Macrons short visit to Beirut was heavy with emotion and symbolism. During his welcome at Beiruts airport with President Michel Aoun, the electricity cut  a common occurrence in a country with perennial power cuts, but an embarrassing sign of decades of mismanagement.

When Macron went to survey the damage, he engaged with the rescue workers. In Gemmayze, he was surrounded by scores of people who urged him to help Lebanon, but refrain from giving any aid to the countrys ossified political class, many of whom are former belligerents in the countrys civil war that ended in 1990.

Dont give money to our government, one man shouted repeatedly. You are our only hope, another said.

Lebanons Justice Minister Marie-Claude Najem attempted to visit the site later on, but was sprayed with water and pushed out of the area by dozens of protesters who chanted resign.

When Najem stopped to try to speak with protesters, their screams blocked out her voice, more water was thrown at her, and she finally turned away.

But protesters seemed to feel like Macron was on their side. Revolution! they chanted jubilantly as he walked through the Gemmayze street.

Michel Aoun is a terrorist, they added, referring to Lebanons 85-year-old president.

In meetings with top officials, Macron did not mince words; he told them that they need to get their act together and that it cant go on like this, a source with knowledge of the meeting told Al Jazeera. It was extremely frank.

That air of frankness was carried on to a news conference in the evening, when Macron was asked about comments by Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab that charged the French foreign minister, during a visit last month, of having a lack of knowledge of government reforms.

I felt today that the Lebanese people didnt have knowledge of the reforms, either, he said.

Several times throughout Macrons press conference, local journalists clapped for him. After he was done, they harangued him for selfies. One woman began crying as she spoke to him, and he comforted her.

Sad and awkward. But first time I felt a bit of hope & comfort after this trauma, was when a French leader came to my country & said words that showed he understood my fears & was determined to help me feel secure again, Twitter user Sara Assaf wrote. Not one Lebanese leader was able to do the same.

A woman yells at Lebanese soldiers during scuffles with soldiers who are blocking a road as French President Emmanuel Macron visits Gemmayzeh [Hassan Ammar/AP Photo]

Investigation, international aid

After meeting with top officials, the heads of parliamentary blocs and civil society and independent leaders, Macron called for a transparent international investigation into the Beirut explosion.

Lebanon has formed an investigation committee headed by Diab and including ministers and heads of top security agencies to oversee the probe. Macron said that he supports the inclusion of international experts and that he had offered French technical assistance and expertise.

International organisations including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have also called for the involvement of international experts, citing a lack of trust in Lebanons political class.

Officials have linked Tuesdays blast to 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored at the port for more than six years  a fact seen by many Lebanese as an indictment of the countrys ruling class.

Macron said he would convene an international conference with the European Union, the United States and regional countries to gather much-needed humanitarian aid, including for the displaced, who are estimated to number 300,000.

Beirut Governor Marwan Abboud has said that damage from the blast could amount to $15bn, and Lebanon desperately needs international aid.

Macron promised clear and transparent governance of the funds, which he said would be routed directly to the Lebanese people and non-governmental organisations  a major demand of Lebanese people weary of systemic corruption.

He also said that he does not rule out implementing sanctions on Lebanese officials if sweeping reforms are not implemented, though he said he prefers to engage with them politically.

Beirut Governor Marwan Abboud has said that damage from the blast could amount to $15bn [AFP]

France has organised four donor conferences for Lebanon over the past two decades where over $20bn in funds were pledged to the country for economic development.

At the last one in 2018, the Lebanese government vowed to undertake a host of reforms, including in transparency, in public procurement and to the dilapidated electricity sector that bleeds roughly $1.5bn per year.

Macron said that, more than two years later, no reforms had been implemented. Still, he said he would be back in Beirut in September with a plan to support the Lebanese education system, devastated by the countrys unprecedented economic crisis and the coronavirus pandemic.

The French president called on Lebanese officials to reach a new social pact with the countrys population, saying the current system no longer has the trust of its people.

Karim Emile Bitar was part of a group of civil society leaders who met with Macron.

We congratulated him because he spoke of a Lebanese regime, so it was a way of delegitimising them, Bitar said. He had words of encouragement for the Lebanese reformers, but at the same time insisted that France couldnt interfere in domestic politics, and so its up to use to organise, close ranks and unify the opposition to ultimately win elections, he said.

He genuinely seemed concerned about the Lebanese people, unlike the political class here.
An elderly woman has been found dead after a house was destroyed by fire in Melbourne's west.

Police are investigating the cause of the fire in Brooklyn that Metropolitan Fire Brigade crews were called to about 1.40am on Thursday after smoke and flames were seen coming from a house.

Forensic police and fire crews inspect the remains of a house which burnt down in Eames Avenue. Credit:Jason South

It took an hour for firefighters to bring the fire engulfing the single-storey home on Eames Avenue under control.

Ten trucks and a helicopter were used to help extinguish the flames.
Vigils have been held in multiple cities across the world to honour the victims of the deadly blast in Lebanons capital, Beirut, which has left at least 137 people dead and more than 5,000 injured.

Tuesdays was the most powerful explosion to hit a country that has seen more than its share of destruction. Rescuers searched desperately under the rubble, hoping to find survivors.

Lebanon was already being crushed by an economic crisis, its healthcare system overloaded as it tried to deal with scarce resources in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Ambulances were called in from outside Beirut to help ferry the thousands of injured people to what medical facilities remained standing after the explosion.

In solidarity with the victims, dozens of Palestinians in the city of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip participated in a blood donation drive sponsored by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. I donated my blood in a moment of loyalty to the Lebanese people, said Abu Diab Ouida.

Organisers said they would coordinate with the International Committee of the Red Cross to try to get the blood donations delivered to Lebanon.

The Gaza Strip has been under a joint Israeli-Egyptian blockade since 2007, and it remains unclear whether the donated blood will be able to reach Lebanon.

In Israel, the Tel Aviv municipality lit up City Hall with the Lebanese flag in solidarity, with Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai posting on Twitter that humanity takes precedence over every conflict, and our hearts are with the Lebanese people following the horrible disaster that befell it.

Not everyone agreed with the sentiment.

Yair Netanyahu, the prime ministers son, called the decision simply insane on Twitter. Lebanon is officially an enemy state. By law, it is a criminal offence to fly an enemy flag, he posted. No such law exists in the Israeli legal code.

Israel and Lebanon are officially in a state of war and do not have diplomatic relations.

In Paris, the Eiffel Tower went dark at midnight (22:00 GMT on Wednesday) to mourn those who lost their lives. French President Emmanuel Macron is due to arrive in the shattered Lebanese capital on Thursday.
ASEAN and the US agreed to strengthen capacity to cope with new waves of COVID-19 infection and minimise the pandemics impacts at the virtual 33rd ASEAN-US Dialogue on Wednesday.

US Assistant Secretary of State David R. Stilwell delivers a speech at the teleconference. VNA/VNS Photo

Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Quoc Dung attended the meeting.

US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs David R. Stilwell said the US has so far offered about US$87 million in assistance to ASEAN countries to combat COVID-19, pledging the US's commitment to helping ASEAN improve disease prevention and response capacity including the implementation of the ASEAN-US Health Futures Initiative and human resource training.

Representatives of ASEAN countries welcomed the USs timely financial support in containing the virus and hoped the US would continue to support and contribute to ASEAN's initiatives on the COVID-19 response fund and regional reserve of emergency medical supplies.

Stilwell, the US diplomat, said the US always attaches importance to relations with ASEAN and supports ASEAN in playing a central role in the regional structure. The US highly appreciates Vietnam, as ASEAN Chair, in co-ordinating and guiding ASEAN to overcome difficulties and challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as efforts to continue promoting the blocs co-operation and development orientations.

At the teleconference, the two sides agreed to continue deepening the strategic partnership and co-operation within the framework of existing programmes and initiatives including the US-ASEAN Trade and Investment Arrangement, US-ASEAN Connect Initiative, US-ASEAN Smart Cities Partnership, and Young Southeast Asian Leadership Initiative, among others.

ASEAN agreed to work with the US to complete the implementation of the ASEAN-US Action Plan for 2016-20 period and soon adopt the bilateral co-operation action plan for 2021-25.

Deputy Minister Dung, also Chair of Vietnam's ASEAN Senior Officials' Meeting, said amid the evolving pandemic, ASEAN has promoted the spirit of Cohesive and Responsive, as well as promoted solidarity, unity and the efforts of the whole community to overcome challenges.

ASEAN welcomes and will create favourable conditions for US businesses and investors operating in ASEAN, he said.

He also welcomed the USs proposal to build the Mekong-US Partnership as well as the USs support for the promotion and harmonisation of Mekong sub-regional development efforts.

The Vietnamese official said countries need to promote dialogue, strengthen trust and accountability to build the East Sea (internationally called South China Sea) into a region of peace, friendship and co-operation.

Deputy Minister Dung reiterated ASEAN's principle of ensuring peace, security, stability, safety and freedom of navigation and overflight in the East Sea; urging parties to refrain from taking actions that complicate the situation, avoid militarisation and settle disputes by peaceful measures in line with international laws including1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The principle was agreed by ASEAN leaders at the 36th ASEAN Summit held in June.

It called on countries to continue to fully and effectively implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea and soon resume negotiations to finalise the Code of Conduct in the East Sea. VNS

Vietnam attends 33rd ASEAN-US Dialogue Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Quoc Dung, Head of Vietnam's ASEAN SOM, attended the 33rd ASEAN-US Dialogue, which was held via video conference on August 5
Housing, communities and local government secretary Robert Jenrick defended radical planning reforms. Photo: PA

The UK government is promising to tear down Englands planning system in the most radical shakeup of building rules in decades.

Ministers say the overhaul will increase and speed up the delivery of much-needed new homes. The Confederation of British Industry said the reforms allow housebuilders to get to work, but critics are warning it will undermine the quality, local control and community benefit of new developments.

Housing secretary Robert Jenrick was forced to deny warnings by the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Labour party that the reforms could spark a wave of slum housing, calling them complete nonsense.

Wide-ranging proposals set out in a consultation paper on Thursday include dividing land into three categories  for growth, for renewal or for protection.

READ MORE: UK construction rebounds at fastest pace in five years

Growth areas would see many major developments automatically approved in principle, renewal areas would see a presumption in favour of some developments, and protected areas would have stricter rules.

Official papers say this carving up of land will be through local consensus. But Labours shadow housing and planning minister Mike Amesbury claimed the measures were a developers charter that will see communities side-lined in decisions.

Existing residents and councillors may have far less power to scrutinise, shape or block specific developments once areas have been earmarked for growth or renewal. Local councils ability to tailor housing masterplans for their areas, known as local plans, may also be curtailed, with more control and standardisation by central government.

READ MORE: UK unveils next phase of Green Homes grant plan to create 100,000 jobs

Meanwhile more developers building small sites will also be exempt from councils Section 106 powers, which force them to fund new roads, social housing or other new infrastructure.

The government said it would help small developers bounce back from COVID-19 and build more homes. But Amesbury said it would deny areas vital funding and housing charity Shelter even warned new social housing could face extinction.

Story continues

Englands planning system has been widely criticised. Many see it as too slow, bureaucratic and weighted towards the concerns of existing local residents over the need for more homes.

UK prime minister Boris Johnson blamed the planning system for England having nowhere near enough homes in the right places in the consultation papers foreword. He said the time had come to tear it down and start again, and said the proposed reforms were unlike anything we have seen since the Second World War.

But local authorities and planning chiefs have long argued the planning system is not to blame for housing shortages. Nine in 10 planning applications are approved, and more than a million homes have been signed off but not built by developers, according to the Local Government Association.
By Associated Press

PARIS: With virus cases rising anew, France is struggling to administer enough tests to keep up with demand.

One reason: Many testing labs are closed so that their staff can take summer vacation, just as signs of a second wave are building.

Doctors and experts say the vacation crunch is just part of a larger web of failures in France's testing strategy a strategy that even the government's own virus advisory panel this week called disorganised and "insufficient."

"First, there is a lack of workers to do the testing. If we don't ask all the health workers to be available by mobilizing all of them, there are just not enough people," emergency services doctor Christophe Prudhomme told The Associated Press at his hospital in the Paris suburb of Bobigny.

"And then it's a matter of organisation," he said, urging regional health agencies "to organise testing so that it's not the citizen who has to take his phone and try to call seven or eight labs in order to get an appointment that will take place only next week."

CLICK HERE FOR COVID-19 LIVE UDPATES

Testing troubles have plagued the U.S. and other countries too.

But France's August ritual of fleeing cities for weeks of holiday rest on seashores, mountainsides or grandma's country house is an added tangle.

"Closed for vacation" signs dangle from door after door across Paris this month, from bakeries to shoe shops and iconic cafes.

Doctor's offices and labs are no exception. Their staff need a rest more than ever this difficult year.

And with Parisians vacationing in the provinces, demand for medical services usually plunges in the summer.

But this August, socially distanced lines snake outside the scattered Paris labs that remain open, from the Left Bank to the city's northern canals.

Trying to get a test appointment can take a week or more. So can getting results.

That's worrying news in a country that saw renowned hospitals nearly drown with virus patients in the first wave "in part because of inadequate testing" and has already lost more than 30,000 lives to the pandemic.

Two months of strict lockdown and soul-searching about France's early mistakes seemed to put the country on track to vanquish COVID-19.

But now it's again recording more than 1,000 new cases a day, and the number of patients in intensive care units is edging up, for the first time in months.

France is in better shape than last time to keep ahead of new infections "but testing is key."



The virus didn't disappear at all....The contamination is continuing, and amplifying in some regions, said Francois Blanchecotte, president of the Union of Medical Biologists, who has been in the forefront of French testing efforts.

"We have to adapt the testing strategy to this evolution."

He argues for a more targeted policy that takes into account lab capacities, such as organizing tests at beach resorts or tourist sites where young people are congregating.

He's particularly annoyed at a blanket government campaign to test 1.5 million Parisians to better understand how the virus is spreading.

The free test vouchers were distributed just as dozens of labs shut down for vacation, worsening bottlenecks.

"We are at a crossroads. We've seen a situation of disorder in Paris, in which labs were not ready to face thousands of people at the same time. It's a nightmare to get an appointment," Blanchecotte said.

The government didn't order anyone to skip vacation, which French workers see as a hard-won, fundamental right.

But it issued a special decree late last month authorizing certain medical students, firefighters and rescue workers to administer coronavirus nasal swabs.

That was too late to stop an outbreak in the town of Quiberon in the western region of Brittany, unleashed by a night club party last month.

Authorities urged everyone in the area to get tested a mammoth task on a peninsula where the population swells from 5,000 to 60,000 in the summer.

Some partygoers were foiled by long lines at a makeshift testing station, and gave up.

And the virus spread on.

In Paris, City Hall is trying to relieve the summer strain on labs with a mobile testing site at a beach venue on the La Villette canal, where crowds lined up Wednesday even before it opened.

ALSO WATCH:

Noemie Maoso wants to ensure she's virus-free before heading on a trip to Ireland with her daughter.

"I'm going to do it to be serene during my trip," she said.

Another woman who needs a test to go to Greece to work on a farm couldn't get an appointment last month, so tried her luck again on Wednesday.

Some labs have adjusted their hours to stay open late into the evening, or open on Sundays both unusual for France.

After coming under fire for its limited testing capacity in the first wave, the government now says it can test up to 700,000 people a week, and hit a record high of 581,000 tests over the past week But the number of new positive cases is growing twice as fast as the growth in test rates, according to data from the national health agency.

Blanchecotte is worried, but defended the decision to let lab staff take holiday time.

For months, they worked overtime to keep up with virus testing needs, he said.

Some staggered holiday departures or scaled back vacation plans.

And autumn may be even worse.

"We know that September, October, November are difficult months," he warned.

"We need to be prepared."
Over 130 people were killed, including one Australian and 4000 wounded after a warehouse filled with ammonium nitrate exploded in Beirut, Lebanon on Tuesday.

In this episode, national editor Tory Maguire is joined by Europe correspondent Bevan Shields to discuss the aftermath of the horrific explosion, how it happened and why such a large stockpile of volatile material was housed in the middle of a capital city.

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Seven years after the brutal gangrape of a five year old girl 'Gudiya' who was left to die in a locked room in Delhi's Gandhi Nagar by two men, the capital is again witnessing crime of similar brutality as 12-year-old now battles for her life in the AIIMS hospital.

The girl was brutally attacked allegedly with a sharp object after being sexually assaulted by an unknown person in Outer Delhi's Paschim Vihar on Tuesday evening. The accused is still at large.

"The situation of the girl is very critical. She has bite marks all over her body apart from serious injuries on her stomach and multiple fractures," DCW chief Swati Maliwal said after she met the victim's family at AIIMS on Thursday.

The minor was earlier admitted to the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital where a team of doctors referred her to AIIMS after evaluating her injuries. Police have lodged a case against the unknown attacker under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and Section 307 (attempt to murder) of IPC.

As the 12-year-old struggles to survive the trauma and physical and sexual assault, the Delhi Police has formed several teams to identify and arrest the accused. The CCTV of the area in Paschim Vihar where the assault took place is being examined.

The girl was assaulted when she was alone at home. Her parents are daily wagers.

Maliwal has also summoned DCP Outer Delhi and wants the Commission apprised of the developments in the case.

The heinous act has brought back the tragic memories of April 15, 2013, when two men had shoved objects into a 5-year-old's private parts and abandoned her in a room, believing her to be dead.

The child was rescued 40 hours later.

A Delhi court in January this year sentenced the two men to 20 years in jailand also granted Rs 11 lakh as compensation to the survivor, who was given the name 'Gudiya' after the incident.

Sentencing the two convicts Manoj and Pradeep the court then said, "In our society the minor girls are worshipped as goddess on certain occasions. But in this case, the child, who was aged about five years at the time of crime, had experienced exceptional depravity and extreme brutality."

Crimes against women despite such strict measures have not shown any significant decline. This year till June 30 a total of 636 cases of rape have been reported in the capital. Also, the Delhi Police data shows that till June 30, a total of 1,161 women have reportedly been kidnapped in Delhi.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Several positive changes have taken place in terms of development in Jammu and Kashmir in the last one year which reflect return to "complete normalcy", the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Thursday.

The assertion came after the Chairman and Ranking Member of the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs in a letter to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar expressed concern over the situation in Jammu and Kashmir one year after Article 370 was abrogated and the state was bifurcated into Union territories.

Asked about the reference to Jammu and Kashmir in the letter, MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said, "Regarding the specific issue, there have been several positive changes in the UT of J and K over the past one year, be it in terms of ensuring good governance or socio economic development or justice to the disadvantaged sections of the population."

ALSO READ | Arun Jaitley framed bill on Article 370 nullification that can withstand legal challenge: Wife

Elections have been held to block development councils in October 2019, the first ever 'Khelo India' winter games were held in March 2020, schools have re-opened, new educational facilities are being established, there are provisions of better healthcare with new health facilities coming up, infrastructure development has taken place and long pending projects have been completed, he said, listing the positive developments in Jammu and Kashmir in the past one year.

"So, all this certainly reflects return to complete normalcy. We continue to be engaged with and brief our interlocutors including the (US) Congress in this regard and we will be happy to brief the (US) Congress," Srivastava said at an online media briefing.

The letter, signed by Eliot Engel, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Michael T McCaul, its Ranking Member, said, "As champions of the US-India relationship, we have been delighted to see our countries' close cooperation on issues from defense to climate change."

Srivastava said the letter reflects a strong bipartisan support for India in the US.

Engel further writes, "It is because of our support for the bilateral relationship that we note with concern that conditions in Jammu and Kashmir have not normalised one year after India's repeal of Article 370 and the establishment of Jammu and Kashmir as a Union Territory."

On August 5 last year, the Centre announced its decision to withdraw special powers of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcate the state into two union territories.

ALSO READ | OIC's reluctance to convene foreign ministers' meeting on Kashmir upsets Pakistan

To a question on whether India has briefed friendly countries on Jammu and Kashmir around the first anniversary of the Centre's decision to revoke the special status of the region, Srivastava said Indian envoys in various countries keep meeting their interlocutors and briefing them.

"During their briefings, they brief about the socio-economic changes and the development that has taken place in J&K.

Briefings are given on important steps taken by our government in the sectors of education, health and infrastructure development and in other sectors which have brought about a change in the lives of the common people," he said.

To a separate question on businessman Vijay Mallya's extradition from the UK, Srivastava said the Indian side was in constant touch with the UK side on the issue of his early extradition to india.

India hits out at Turkey

India on Thursday called as factually "incorrect, biased and unwarranted" Turkey's comments that removal of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir has not contributed to peace and stability in the region.

Srivastava also asked Turkey to refrain from interfering in internal matters of India.

"The statement is factually incorrect, biased and unwarranted. We would urge the government of Turkey to get a proper understanding of the situation on the ground and refrain from interfering in matters internal to India," he said at an online media briefing.

A Turkish foreign ministry spokesperson on Wednesday said that withdrawal of special powers of Jammu and Kashmir has further complicated the situation and that it has not served peace and stability in the region.

The criticism came on a day marking first anniversary of India's decision on Jammu and Kashmir.

On August 5 last year, India announced its decision to withdraw special powers of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcate the state into two union territories.
The so-called reservations issue is not new to Tamil Nadu. It also has a century-long history to the scheme, and a slightly longer history, starting with limited struggle by the non-Brahmin upper castes. This time, as on many other occasions, it flowed out of the courts. In January this year, the Supreme Court held that reservations other than those for the SC-ST do not constitute Fundamental Rights under Chapter III of the Constitution, but only a constitutional right. Hence, the petitioners could not seek relief through the writ jurisdiction of the Supreme Court (Article 32). The court reiterated the position in June, when a review was sought. It directed the petitioners to move the Madras High Court, which it said was the right forum for them to seek relief.

The petitioners included the state of Tamil Nadu, the ruling AIADMK, the opposition DMK and a host of other political parties in the state. The case itself related to the distribution of surrendered seats from the all-India quota, in medical colleges (all professional colleges) run by the state government, under the BC-MBC quota scheme. All-India quota seats had become mandatory, following a Supreme Court order in the 1980s.

The petitioners argued that after the NEET, that part of it had been covered, but there remained unfilled all-India seats. The High Court, citing an innocuous commitment in an affidavit filed by the Centre, at an early stage of the proceedings, declined the later-day argument, citing a pending Supreme Court case from Uttar Pradesh. With this verdict, the Supreme Court first and the High Court later, have willy-nilly accepted the generally held view that BC-MBC reservations belong in and to the state, as originally mandated by the First Amendment to the Constitution, as early as 1951, with a year of the statute coming into force.

Earlier this year, the union government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi began considering recasting the income requirement for identifying and eliminating creamy layers from the BC-MBC quota under the Mandal scheme and under the verdict in what became known as the Mandal case (Indra Sawhney vs Union of India, 1992). The Centre wanted to change salary income to family income for eliminating the creamy layer. In Tamil Nadu, as is the wont, all political parties and the state government as a whole have opposed such a scheme. No representative of the castes that would stand to benefit more from such re-definition of the creamy layer has spoken out, however  not that their politically-powerful social voices have been suppressed.

When it all began

Every time, the BC/MBC/OBC reservations topic is in the news, Tamil Nadu is there on the top of the list, or at least close to it. It is a big issue in the state's politics, yes. However, critics of the state and its socio-economic priorities are seldom understood outside for them to appreciate it and acknowledge it as such.

The social justice movement came to Tamil Nadu, rather the-then Madras Presidency, in the second decade of the last century. Though both the Presidency and also the social justice movement had a multi-linguistic southern background and ownership, it is only in Tamil Nadu that the movement took root as the Dravidian political entity.

Elsewhere, in what forms parts of (pre-bifurcation) Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and going up to the Odisha border, the founding fathers and their successors got lost in the new surge of the freedom movement, especially after the Indian National Congress. But not in the Tamil-speaking areas, where Periyar E V Ramaswami (EVR) gave a new, anti-Brahmin colour to what essentially was a non-Brahmin movement, thus keeping it alive until the original purpose got restored, post-Independence.

Madras, now Chennai, is where the British colonial rulers hit it big in the country. They came only as traders but by getting involved in domestic politics, they got revenue-collection rights in what became the Madras Presidency. At the stroke of a pen of the Nawab of Arcot, they got to rule from parts of Andhra to the southern Tirunelveli district in present-day Tamil Nadu. Through battles and pacts, they expanded the Madras Presidency.

The new British masters needed more clerks for this job than they could get. The locals, especially the elite upper castes (not only Brahmins), who had lost royal patronage in the absence of strong local kingdoms for centuries, could do with jobs and family incomes. With the British also came modern education and healthcare.

The upper caste Brahmins were the first to benefit from the scheme. Given their traditional practice of untouchability, and clannishness that is not uncommon among others, they reportedly claimed most available jobs, by co-opting cousins and country-cousins, to the disadvantage of available candidates from other communities. At a time when permanent incomes became an equally compelling economic proposition cutting across all communities, the rest began feeling the pinch.

The non-Brahmin communities started a campaign of sorts against Brahmin domination in job recruitment and higher education, which became available after the British Crown took East India Companys Indian possessions under its umbrella in 1857. The movement got a real shape with the turn of the century.

After a few false starts and failures, the non-Brahmin upper castes founded the South India Liberal Federation (SILP) in 1916. It came to be known as the Justice Party, after the name of its mouthpiece in English. The Justice Party is the ideological forerunner to the later-day Dravidian movement, which comprised Periyars Dravidar Kazhagam (DK), the breakaway DMK and the AIADMK that broke away from the latter.

Quota for Brahmins

With the Indian National Congress (INC), the older and the larger of the two organisations, boycotting the 1920 elections, held under the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms, the Justice Party won a majority of seats in the Madras Presidency Council, and came to power. Keeping its commitment to the cause of social justice, it came up with the First Communal Government Order (1921) and the Second Communal Government Order (1924), introducing reservations for the first time in British India.

However, the princely state of Kolhapur, ruled by a descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji, was where it all began at the turn of the century, in 1902, followed by the princely Mysore state. The two Communal GOs of the Justice Party and the third one, under the successor government of Independents under chief minister P Subbarayan, which also operationalised the same, gave a detailed list of quotas in a broad, community-centric basis.

While often misunderstood, as much inside the state as outside, none of these GOs denied reservations for the Brahmin community. Under the rotational scheme, the quota for Brahmins worked out to 14 per cent. It was lost post-Independence, when the Supreme Court struck it down, citing the Constitution, which provided for reservations only for SC-ST communities (Champakam Dorairajan vs State of Madras). Apart from Brahmins, reservations also went for non-Brahmin castes, Muslims and Christians  other than SC-ST communities.

First Amendment

The Supreme Court verdict ignited protests, especially across the Tamil areas of what became the Composite Madras State under the Constitution. Competing with each other, Periyars DK and breakaway DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, founded in 1949) took to the streets in a big way. K Kamaraj, who later became chief minister (1954-63), who was the state Congress president, took it up with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

The First Amendment to the Constitution, which needed to be passed for certain procedural corrections, included a provision, empowering state governments to create quotas for communities that would identify as Backward Classes (BC). Leaders of Brahmin, Muslim and Christian communities did not protest, nor did they work for including their communities under the First Amendment scheme. If some of them now feel left out, it is owing to their forebears, and not others.

The Congress state government began with 16 per cent reservations for BCs. With Kamaraj becoming chief minister in 1954, and commencing what could well be called the Mandalisation of political leadership in the state, down to the lower levels, no need was really felt for expanding the quota till late in the next decade.

In between, Kamarajs free elementary school education for children and free noon-meals scheme too had brought about a social revolution in rural areas and backward communities. In turn, this increased the pressure for college seats, including professional college seats, when the rival DMK came to power after the historic elections of 1967.

BC to MBC and more

It is not as if the state government did not understand the inequities that the reservations scheme was causing even among the identified BC list. DMK chief minister M Karunanidhi, who succeeded party founder CN Annadurai after the latters short-stint in office, appointed the AN Sattanathan Commission to study the BC reservations scheme in the state. The bureaucratic panel identified individual castes that were getting a larger piece of the cake while others in the list suffered.

Given the social realities and political pressures, the Karunanidhi government did not accept the commissions recommendation to identify the benefited class  or, rather, identified in the report already. If it had happened, Dravidian Tamil Nadu would have been the first to implement the creamy layer concept, which the Supreme Court divined two decades later, in the 1990s. Instead, the state government listed out the less privileged from the existing scheme as Most Backward Classes (MBC), increased the total quota, to benefit the new class, exclusively. At a time, the nation was united in extending the initial 30-year constitutionally mandated reservations for SC-ST, it could not have been otherwise in Tamil Nadu, when it came to the BC-MBC quota.

The MGR government that followed the Karunanidhi regime, appointed the J Ambasankar Commission, likewise, to study the implementation of the BC-MBC quota scheme. The commission came up with an even more innovative idea. Acknowledging the existence of a section of the population, who qualified, going by family incomes but not by birth/caste, the commission recommended and the state government implement a new regime, which included reservations for those with family incomes below Rs 9,000 a year.

However, MGR allowed himself to be convinced that his AIADMKs reversal in the post-Janata Lok Sabha polls to the formidable Congress-DMK alliance in 1980, owed to his quota scheme  and withdrew it. Else, it would have been the pioneer to the current scheme, initiated by the Modi government at the Centre and endorsed by all political parties when a constitutional amendment was moved in both Houses of Parliament, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls last year. However, it remains to be seen how the higher judiciary approaches the question, if and when moved, as in the past, the Supreme Court had unequivocally ruled against economic reservations independent of caste  or, creamy layer.

Tamil Nadu has seen other efforts at enlarging and reaching out, in terms of caste-based reservations, to include other unaddressed aspects. Thus, the DMK government of late Karunanidhi, at different points in time, introduced a 10 per cent quota in professional colleges for a first graduate in a family. It was expected to benefit the rural population in particular. There were also separate reservations for the Muslim community. The Supreme Court struck it down, on the lines of the Andhra law it had quashed earlier.

From within the constitutionally mandated 17 per cent for the SCs, the state government reserved an internal quota for the Arunthathiyar sub-caste, in the western districts especially. The community is both economically and socially backward in relative terms to the other two dominant sub-sects, namely Adi Dravidar in the northern districts and Devendra Kula Vellalar (DKV) in the south, with a separate political identity, too.

Doublespeak

In her time in office, the late J Jayalalithaa also did a lot to swear by the states 69 per cent reservations scheme, as fixed by her political mentor MGR in his time. The Tamil Nadu government case from the mid-1990s is still pending final disposal in the Supreme Court. However, when the top court sought to enforce the 50-per cent upper-limit fixed in the Mandal case, the Jayalalithaa government stuck to 69 per cent at the commencement of the academic year, and would increase the number of seats when queried by the Supreme Court later on, to meet with its 50-per cent upper limit. This explains the sudden spurt in the number of professional colleges in the state, which was mistaken as a product of the economic reforms that coincided at the time. It should also explain the glut over the past few years.

Nothing explains the political doublespeak on the reservations issue in Dravidian Tamil Nadu, dubbing it as more parochial and politically oriented than the conduct of the ruling BJP at the Centre. The party, to its supporters especially in the state, is seen as being progressive and off-beat on matters of reservation. Yet, when it came to the choice of a new state party president, a post that was kept vacant for a few months, the BJP has settled for L Murugan, who is from the well-deserved Arunthathiyar sub-caste among the Dalits in Tamil Nadu.

The party had tried its luck initially with Brahmins, then Vellala-Gounders from the region, in the aftermath of the Coimbatore serial blasts (1998), and later Nadars from the traditional southern strongholds. The party has come a long, long way since the days of another Dalit state unit chief, Dr Kirubakaran, a medical professional, who while quitting office after his three-year term, actually shed tears in public, narrating how he was humiliated by the rest for being born a Dalit, and how he was not allowed to even use his office in the state BJP headquarters in Chennai.

(The writer is Distinguished Fellow and Head-Chennai Initiative, Observer Research Foundation, the multi-disciplinary Indian public-policy think tank, headquartered in New Delhi. Views expressed are personal.)
MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Scholarship America, a nonprofit organization that manages scholarship and tuition assistance programs for different organizations, is providing notice to individuals impacted by the exposure of certain personal information.

On or about April 28, 2020, Scholarship America's internal IT security processes detected suspicious activity within its email system which triggered security protocols. Upon discovery, Scholarship America took immediate action to shut down unauthorized access and remediate the problem. Scholarship America then brought in independent IT security and forensics experts to conduct a detailed systemwide review, which identified unauthorized access to some email accounts and included an extensive inspection of information stored in each impacted account. The investigation confirmed that the impact of this incident was limited to certain Microsoft Office 365 email accounts, and that no other systems or servers within the Scholarship America IT network were impacted, including where student applications and program information are stored.

The data that was subject to unauthorized access was different in individual cases. In general, the data contained a variety of elements such as names, mailing addresses, and telephone numbers, and, in some instances, it included protected information like Social Security numbers. Scholarship America has received no indication to-date that anyone's sensitive information has been misused as a result of this incident.

Scholarship America takes the security of sensitive information that people entrust to it very seriously. Immediate actions were taken to secure the email system and ensure that any further suspicious activity was prevented. This included resetting passwords on all accounts system-wide as well as an activation of enhanced monitoring of IT systems. Scholarship America hired a qualified third-party IT forensic expert to conduct an exhaustive investigation of this matter. The problem has been remediated and the email and IT systems are operating securely. As part of its ongoing commitment to the security of sensitive information, Scholarship America is working to implement additional safeguards and security measures to enhance the privacy and security of information in company systems. In addition, the company is working with law enforcement and sharing information for their investigation.

Scholarship America is mailing letters to impacted individuals and is providing them with information about how to protect their credit and identity. Scholarship America is also posting a notice of this incident on its website, and informing state regulators as required. Anyone with questions about this incident is encouraged to visit the Scholarship America website for more information.

Scholarship America encourages affected individuals to remain vigilant against incidents of identity theft and fraud and to seek to protect against possible identity theft or other financial loss by regularly reviewing their financial account statements, credit reports, and explanations of benefits for suspicious activity.

STEPS YOU CAN TAKE TO PROTECT YOUR INFORMATION

The following information is provided in accordance with certain state legal requirements.

Monitor Your Accounts

Credit Reports . We encourage you to remain vigilant against incidents of identity theft and fraud by reviewing your account statements, explanation of benefits, and monitoring your free credit reports for suspicious activity and to detect errors. Under U.S. law, you are entitled to one free credit report annually from each of the three major credit reporting bureaus. To order your free credit report, visit www.annualcreditreport.com or call, toll-free, 1-877-322-8228. You may also contact the three major credit bureaus directly to request a free copy of your credit report.

Fraud Alerts . At no charge, you can also have these credit bureaus place a "fraud alert" on your file that alerts creditors to take additional steps to verify your identity prior to granting credit in your name. Note, however, that because it tells creditors to follow certain procedures to protect you, it may also delay your ability to obtain credit while the agency verifies your identity. As soon as one credit bureau confirms your fraud alert, the others are notified to place fraud alerts on your file. Should you wish to place a fraud alert, or should you have any questions regarding your credit report, please contact any one of the agencies listed below:

Equifax

P.O. Box 105069 Atlanta, GA 30348 1-800-525-6285

www.equifax.com

Experian

P.O. Box 2002 Allen, TX 75013 1-888-397-3742

www.experian.com

TransUnion

P.O. Box 2000 Chester, PA 19016 1-800-680-7289

www.transunion.com

Security Freeze . You may also place a security freeze on your credit reports. A security freeze prohibits a credit bureau from releasing any information from a consumer's credit report without the consumer's written authorization. However, please be advised that placing a security freeze on your credit report may delay, interfere with, or prevent the timely approval of any requests you make for new loans, credit mortgages, employment, housing, or other services. If you have been a victim of identity theft and you provide the credit bureau with a valid police report, it cannot charge you to place, lift, or remove a security freeze. In all other cases, a credit bureau may charge you a fee to place, temporarily lift, or permanently remove a security freeze. Fees vary based on where you live, but commonly range from $3 to $15. You will need to place a security freeze separately with each of the three major credit bureaus listed above if you wish to place a freeze on all of your credit files. In order to request a security freeze, you will need to supply your full name, address, date of birth, Social Security number, current address, all addresses for up to five previous years, email address, a copy of your state identification card or driver's license, and a copy of a utility bill, bank or insurance statement, or other statement proving residence. To find out more on how to place a security freeze, you can use the following contact information:

Equifax Security Freeze

P.O. Box 105788 Atlanta, GA 30348 1-800-685-1111

www.freeze.equifax.com

Experian Security Freeze

P.O. Box 9554 Allen, TX 75013 1-888-397-3742

www.experian.com/freeze/

TransUnion

P.O. Box 2000 Chester, PA 19016 1-888-909-8872

freeze.transunion.com

Additional Information . You can further educate yourself regarding identity theft, security freezes, fraud alerts, and the steps you can take to protect yourself against identity theft and fraud by contacting the Federal Trade Commission or your state Attorney General. The Federal Trade Commission can be reached at: 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20580; www.identitytheft.gov; 1-877-ID-THEFT (1-877-438-4338); and TTY: 1-866-653-4261. The Federal Trade Commission encourages those who discover that their information has been misused to file a complaint with them. Instances of known or suspected identity theft should be promptly reported to law enforcement, the Federal Trade Commission, and your state Attorney General. You have the right to file a police report if you ever experience identity theft or fraud. Please note that in order to file a crime report or incident report with law enforcement for identity theft, you will likely need to provide some kind of proof that you have been a victim. This notice has not been delayed as the result of a law enforcement investigation.

For Maryland residents, the Attorney General can be reached at: 200 St. Paul Place, 16th Floor, Baltimore, MD 21202; 1-888-743-0023; and www.oag.state.md.us.

For North Carolina residents, the Attorney General can be contacted by mail at 9001 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-9001; toll-free at 1-877-566-7226; by phone at 1-919-716- 6400; and online at www.ncdoj.gov.

SOURCE Scholarship America
Lebanese authorities have arrested 16 people as part of an investigation into the Beirut port warehouse explosion that devastated the capital, according to state media.

Judge Fadi Akiki, a government representative at the military court, said authorities had so far questioned more than 18 port and customs officials and workers responsible for or involved in maintenance at the warehouse, which housed highly explosive material that blew up on Tuesday.

Sixteen people have been taken into custody as part of the investigation, Mr Akiki was quoted as saying by Lebanons state-run National News Agency. Local media reported the port's general manager was among those detained.

Tuesdays blast killed at least 145 people and injured about 5,000 others, while dozens are still missing.

Lebanese president Michel Aoun says the explosion was caused by 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, which had been stored unsafely in a port warehouse ever since it was confiscated from an impounded cargo ship in 2013.

Massive explosion rocks central Beirut Show all 24 1 /24 Massive explosion rocks central Beirut Massive explosion rocks central Beirut Smoke rises after an explosion in Beirut Karim Sokhn/Instagram/Reuters Massive explosion rocks central Beirut Firefighters douse a blaze at the scene AFP via Getty Massive explosion rocks central Beirut Reuters Massive explosion rocks central Beirut A wounded man walks near the scene of the explosion AFP via Getty Massive explosion rocks central Beirut Grabs from a video show the explosion Twitter Massive explosion rocks central Beirut A man reacts at the scene AFP Massive explosion rocks central Beirut A wounded man is checked by a fireman AFP via Getty Massive explosion rocks central Beirut The blast, which rattled entire buildings and broke glass, was felt in several parts of the city AFP via Getty Massive explosion rocks central Beirut Damage is seen Reuters Massive explosion rocks central Beirut Soldiers search for survivors AP Massive explosion rocks central Beirut Damage and debris EPA Massive explosion rocks central Beirut A man walks by an overturned car Getty Images Massive explosion rocks central Beirut Fires burning at the port of Lebanon's capital Beirut AFP via GettY Massive explosion rocks central Beirut AP Massive explosion rocks central Beirut A man walks past damaged buildings Reuters Massive explosion rocks central Beirut Glass was blown out of many buildings AFP via Getty Massive explosion rocks central Beirut AP Massive explosion rocks central Beirut AFP via Getty Massive explosion rocks central Beirut People move a gurney at a damaged hospital Reuters Massive explosion rocks central Beirut A woman takes pictures of a damaged church AP Massive explosion rocks central Beirut Police and forensic officers work at the scene AFP via Getty Massive explosion rocks central Beirut AP Massive explosion rocks central Beirut An injured man sits next to a restauran AFP via Getty Massive explosion rocks central Beirut AP

Lebanons central bank has also ordered a freeze on the accounts of the heads of Beirut port and Lebanese customs along with five others, according to a central bank directive seen by Reuters.

The directive, dated 6 August, from the central bank special investigation commission for money laundering and terrorism fighting said the decision would be circulated to all banks and financial institutions in Lebanon, the public prosecutor in the appeals court and the head of the banking authority.

It said the freeze and lifting of banking secrecy would apply to accounts directly or indirectly linked to Beirut Port general manager Hassan Koraytem, Lebanese customs director general Badri Daher and five others, including present and former port and customs officials.

State prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat ordered a travel ban on the same seven individuals, local media reported.

While investigators have focused on port officials, many Lebanese citizens claim that government corruption and mismanagement led to the disaster.

Frances president Emmanuel Macron, the first world leader to visit Beirut since the explosion, described it as a metaphor for Lebanons current crisis and said a new political order was needed.

Citizens held anti-government protests to coincide with the visit of Mr Macron, who also promised to help coordinate intentional aid  provided the authorities crack down on corruption.

On Thursday evening, reports emerged of security forces using tear gas to disperse protesters close to Beiruts parliament building.

Earlier in the day, Mr Macron was mobbed by demonstrators and residents of Beirut who implored him to take action against the capitals leaders.

After visiting the devastated port, the French president walked through one of the worst-hit neighbourhoods, Gemmayzeh, down a street lined with wrecked buildings.

Gathered protesters chanted Revolution! and The people want to bring down the regime!  slogans used at mass protests last year.

Mr Macron told the crowds he would propose a new political pact when he met the government later. Then, he added, I will be back on the first of September and if they cant do it, I will keep my responsibility toward you. He also promised that French aid would be given out with transparency and will not go into the hands of corruption.

Additional reporting by agencies
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Atico Mining Corporation (the Company or Atico) (TSX.V: ATY | OTC: ATCMF) is pleased to report additional high grade drill results from its 10,000 meter drilling program on the La Plata property in Ecuador. Todays results are from 3 holes completed in the South Block as the drill program continues to confirm and expand the La Plata mineralized footprint with bonanza grades gold & copper intercepts encountered within larger massive sulfides lenses.

La Plata Drilling Highlights Include:

Hole From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) Cu (%) Zn (%) CMLP-20-107 242.49 248.15 5.66 4.14 137.11 1.07 6.10 Including 242.49 243.53 1.04 6.62 359.00 2.30 14.90 Including 243.53 245.20 1.67 7.32 224.00 1.34 5.64 CMLP-20-110 341.28 348.12 6.84 19.54 223.98 12.19 3.70 Including 341.28 344.00 2.72 45.51 478.86 17.34 3.71

















True widths are dependent on uncertainties in the local strike and dip of the mineralization and are estimated to be between 76% and 83% of the drill intercept.

Infill Drilling Program

The infill and step-out drilling program has been implemented to upgrade and potentially expand resources of the La Plata project. Two drill rigs are currently active on the project with one rig currently starting to drill on the North Block in order to in-fill and potentially grow the La Plata resource.

The three diamond drill holes reported today successfully demonstrated the thickness and continuity of the La Plata VMS lenses, as well as potential expansion of the mineralized envelope of the South Block.

Hole CMLP-20-107 was collared above the known VMS envelope and reported good values of precious and base metal grades within massive to semi-massive sulfides over a 5.66 meter intercept mineralised mostly by sphalerite.

Hole CMLP-20-108, drilled for infill purposes in the South Block, demonstrated continuity of the mineralization with an intercept of 5.22 meters composed of both VMS and stockwork also dominated by sphalerite.

Hole CMLP-20-110, in addition to intercepting a high-grade VMS zone within the South Body, cut a second intercept 10 meters below the main zone with 5.48 meters of mineralized stockwork.

Story continues

The Company also reports that it continues to intercept visible massive and semi-massive sulfide mineralization as the ongoing drilling program continues, the core is currently being sent to the lab for analysis and will be released in due course. This current step-out drilling is targeting potential new zones that may lead to further extensions of the South Block mineralized envelope. Additional drill holes are planned to continue testing VMS mineralization outside of the known envelope and along strike of the La Mina area. This includes stepping out towards the north to further test the Guatuza target area which reported high grade values from the earlier trenching program. The 2020 exploration program on the La Plata property, as well as the El Roble drilling program are both fully funded from the highly profitable El Roble mining operation in Colombia.

Infill Drill Program Assay Results:

Intercept* Hole ID Azimuth () Dip () Total Length (m) From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Au

(g/t) Ag

(g/t) Cu

(%) Pb

(%) Zn

(%) CMLP-20-107 318 -57 254.97 242.49 248.15 5.66 4.14 137.11 1.07 2.20 6.10 Including 242.49 243.53 1.04 6.62 359.00 2.30 4.33 14.90 Including 243.53 245.20 1.67 7.32 224.00 1.34 1.37 5.64 CMLP-20-108 285 -67 388.00 381.34 386.56 5.22 3.99 77.99 0.22 0.88 2.18 Including 381.34 382.96 1.62 9.15 200.00 0.61 2.24 6.02 CMLP-20-110 308 -74 370.00 341.28 348.12 6.84 19.54 223.98 12.19 0.33 3.70 Including 341.28 344.00 2.72 45.51 478.86 17.34 0.55 3.71 and 357.40 362.88 5.48 0.43 5.35 1.03 0.03 0.65

True widths are dependent on uncertainties in the local strike and dip of the mineralization and are estimated to be between 76% and 83% of the drill intercept.

La Plata Project

Gold-bearing sulphide mineralization at La Plata occurs as compositional banding composed of chalcopyrite, sphalerite and pyrite laminae with barite occurring as clasts and also as layers. The mineralised lenses have also been dislocated by a few faults and dolerite dikes cutting the body.

The La Plata project is amongst the highest-grade gold-copper VMS deposits in which base and precious metal mineralization is interpreted to have formed as part of multiple volcanic episodes that created a stacked volcanic-exhalite hydrothermal sequence considered favorable for hosting additional VMS lenses. The recent drilling results in the southern portion of the deposit have encountered deeper mineralisation, and an extension of mineralisation to the north has been discovered by recent trenching results.

The La Plata independent Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) dated March 30th 2019, was prepared pursuant to National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101) and reports the La Plata inferred resources at 1.9 million tons at an average grade of 4.1 g/t Au, 49.4g/t silver, 3.3% Cu, 4.5% Zn, 0.6% Pb as available on SEDAR.

The La Plata project consists of two concessions covering a total area of 2,300 hectares along its 9-kilometer length, which contains known mineralization in two VMS lenses and nine priority exploration targets.

The Company has a binding option agreement with a private Ecuadorean company to earn up to 75% in the La Plata project, of which the first option to acquire the initial 60% ownership has been exercised. Please refer to the Companys MD&A for the year ended December 31, 2019 for further details.

Quality Assurance & Quality Control

Before sampling, a centreline, representing bottom of hole (or a reference line when this is not known) is marked on the drill core. The core is cut and sampled, always sampling the right-hand side of the drill core. Samples are selected based on logged geological features, such as rock type, mineralization, alteration, veining etc. Sample length does not exceed 2.5 m nor is smaller than 20 cm. A total of 10% of the samples submitted are certified blanks and standards and field duplicates with, as a minimum, one blank submitted at the beginning of each sample batch. Certified standards are submitted at an average of 6% of the samples submitted. Field duplicates are taken at a rate of 1 in 20 of the samples taken. For all drill holes, analysis was completed by ALS Chemex in North Vancouver with sample preparation completed in Quito. The lab is accredited with International Standards ISO/IEC 17025:2005 and ISO 9001:2015.

All major ALS Geochemistry analytical laboratories are accredited to ISO/IEC 17025:2005 for specific analytical procedures.

Qualified Person

Dr. Michael Druecker, CPG, is a qualified person under NI 43-101 standards and independent of the company, is responsible for ensuring that the information contained in this news release is an accurate summary of the original reports and data provided to or developed by Atico Mining Corporation. Dr. Druecker has approved the scientific and technical content of this news release.

About Atico Mining Corporation

Atico is a growth-oriented Company, focused on exploring, developing and mining copper and gold projects in Latin America. The Company generates significant cash flow through the operation of the El Roble mine and is developing its high-grade La Plata VMS project in Ecuador. The Company is also pursuing additional acquisition of advanced stage opportunities. For more information, please visit www.aticomining.com .

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Fernando E. Ganoza

CEO

Atico Mining Corporation

Trading symbols: TSX.V: ATY | OTC: ATCMF

Investor Relations

Igor Dutina

Tel: +1.604.633.9022

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

No securities regulatory authority has either approved or disapproved of the contents of this news release. The securities being offered 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 in the United States, or to, or for the account or benefit of, a "U.S. person" (as defined in Regulation S of the U.S. Securities Act) unless pursuant to an exemption therefrom. This press release is for information purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities of the Company in any jurisdiction.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements

This announcement includes certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, without limitation the use of net proceeds, are forward-looking statements. Forward- looking statements involve various risks and uncertainties and are based on certain factors and assumptions. 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. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Companys expectations include uncertainties relating to interpretation of drill results and the geology, continuity and grade of mineral deposits; uncertainty of estimates of capital and operating costs; the need to obtain additional financing to maintain its interest in and/or explore and develop the Companys mineral projects; uncertainty of meeting anticipated program milestones for the Companys mineral projects; the world-wide economic and social impact of COVID-19 is managed and the duration and extent of the coronavirus pandemic is minimized or not long-term; disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic or other health and safety issues, or the responses of governments, communities, the Company and others to such pandemic or other issues; and other risks and uncertainties disclosed under the heading Risk Factors in the prospectus of the Company dated March 2, 2012 filed with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com








SINGAPORE A recent spate of suicides and attempted suicides involving migrants in Singapore has heightened concerns over the mental health of thousands of low-paid workers who have been confined to their their dormitories because of COVID-19.

In April, Singapore sealed off sprawling housing blocks where its vast population of mainly South Asian labourers live in crowded bunk rooms, seeking to ring-fence a surge in cases among the workers.

Four months on, some dormitories remain under quarantine, and even migrants who have been declared virus-free have had their movements restricted. They also face uncertainty over the jobs that their families back home depend on.

Rights groups and health officials say this has taken a heavy toll on workers. In some cases migrants have been detained under the mental health act after videos posted on social media showed them teetering on rooftops and high window ledges.

In an incident on Sunday that was widely reported by local media, a 36-year-old migrant was pictured bloodied at the foot of some stairs in his dormitory after self-harming.

The Ministry of Manpower said late Wednesday it was monitoring recent suicides and attempted suicides involving migrant workers in dormitories and working to enhance mental health support programmes.

The ministry said however it had not observed a spike in workers taking their own lives compared to previous years. It did not give any numbers.

Such incidents tended to stem from family issues which may be exacerbated by the distress of not being able to return home due to COVID-19 restrictions, it added.

Kenneth Mak, the health ministrys director of medical services, also raised concerns about the impact on migrants mental health of prolonged periods of isolation in dormitories and movement restrictions.

At a press conference on Thursday, he said addressing the issue was a work in progress", and that authorities were committed to supporting migrant workers mental health needs over the long-term.

Singapore has recorded over 54,000 COVID-19 cases, mainly from dormitories in which around 300,000 workers from Bangladesh, India and China are housed. Only 27 people have died from the disease.

MENTAL ANGUISH

Authorities have said they expect to lift quarantines on all dormitories by Friday, with the exception of some blocks serving as quarantine zones.

But employers power to limit workers movement outside dormitories even if declared virus-free and fears over servicing high debts taken to secure jobs in Singapore are also feeding depression among migrants, rights groups say.

Many of the workers now say that the mental anguish is a more serious problem than the virus." said Deborah Fordyce, president of migrant rights group, Transient Workers Count Too.

Gasper Tan, chief executive of Samaritans of Singapore, said migrants limited access to support from friends and family, especially during lockdowns, can result in overwhelming feelings of negativity".

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
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A man who was blown into the sea when a devastating chemical blast tore through downtown Beirut yesterday has been found alive after 30 hours.

Port of Beirut worker Amin al-Zahed, whose photo was posted on an Instagram page dedicated to locating missing residents, was found in the Mediterannean sea, 30 hours after the blast which rocked the city yesterday.

An image posted on social media shows a member of a rescue team holding a man covered in blood, who is said to be al-Zahed, on the deck of a ship.

According to a report from Al-Arabiya, the port worker was rushed to Rafic Hariri University Hospital in Beirut after his rescue. However, al-Zahed's family spoke on Lebanese TV today, saying they had checked the hospital but have been unable to find him, social media users reported.

Al-Zahed's condition, and how he managed to survive his ordeal, is currently unknown.

Ameen Zahid who was reported missing for 30 hours was found in the sea and he is still alive. He was caught in the Beirut explosion and thrown into the Mediterranean Sea

Port of Beirut worker Amin al-Zahed, whose photo was posted on an Instagram page dedicated to locating missing residents, was reportedly found in the Mediterannean sea, 30 hours after the blast which rocked the city yesterday

Al-Zahed's family spoke on Lebanese TV today, saying they had checked the hospital but have been unable to find him, social media users reported

Shortly after the explosion, an Instagram page was set up to try to help locate missing persons in the aftermath of the blast, which shows hundreds of people whose family's are unaware as to their whereabouts.

One young girl, who was missing, was found alive in Beirut after spending 24 hours under the rubble.

As a frantic hunt for missing people continued in the Lebanese capital tonight, footage emerged of rescue workers finding the child lodged between debris.

By torchlight, the crew are seen trying to shift the rubble from around the girl, whose head pokes out from what appears to be the debris from a collapsed building.

Local media report the video was from tonight and that she spent 24 hours buried following yesterday's massive blast.

Dozens are still unaccounted for in Beirut, which officials have called a 'disaster city' following the huge blast at the city's port after 2,700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate went up in flames.

At least 135 people have died, although this figure is expected to rise, and 5,000 have been wounded, the health minister said tonight.

Desperate relatives have been scouring the wreckage for missing loved-ones, and earlier today a man was pulled alive from the rubble of an apartment building.

People could be heard cheering 'Issam is alive!' as the wounded man was placed on a stretcher and taken to hospital, one of more than 4,000 injured in the blast.

Meanwhile other desperate citizens launched searches for their loved ones online and in hospital, as dozens of people were reported missing.

Among them were workers at the port where the blast occurred, and a fireman who was dispatched to deal was a fire at the docks before the larger explosion rang out.

Meanwhile a nurse was hailed a hero after saving three newborn babies from a hospital that was shredded by the shockwave from the blast.

By torchlight, the crew are seen trying to shift the rubble from around the girl, whose head pokes out from what appears to be the debris from a collapsed building

This is the moment a man - named only as Issam - was pulled alive from the ruins of a destroyed apartment block in central Beirut on Wednesday, 10 hours after the city was hit by a massive explosion

The man was rushed to a waiting ambulance and taken to hospital, one of more than 4,000 people who were wounded during the tragedy which continued unfolding on Wednesday

Dozens of people have been left missing following the blast, which is thought to have been sparked after a fire at the port ignited 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate - a highly explosive chemical

A nurse working at one of Beirut's hospitals was hailed a hero after she was pictured holding three newborn babies in a destroyed reception area, that was filled with bodies and wounded people

The woman, who has not been publicly identified, was pictured cradling the newborns in the reception of the hospital by photographer Bilal Marie Jawich.

He said the reception area was filled with dozens of bodies and people who had been wounded in the explosion.

Four nurses at the hospital were killed, while 200 patients were wounded and the entire building was left without power for several hours.

At least 100 people were killed in the explosion, thought to have been triggered by a fire in a warehouse used to store ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive chemical.

A welder is thought to have been working in an adjacent building, sparking a blaze that eventually reached the ammonium and caused it to go off with the force of 3 kilotons - roughly a fifth of the power of the Little Boy bomb used on Hiroshima.

An Instagram page called 'locate victims Beirut' sprung up in the wake of the tragedy, featuring images of those whose fates were unknown while emergency rooms were thronged with people looking for news.

Marwan Chamaouni (left) and Leila Nasser Fawaz (right) were among those reported as missing by Lebanese media following the explosion in Beirut which killed at least 100 people

A firefighter named Ralph Mallahi (left and right) was also listed among the missing online, with relatives saying he was sent to the site of the initial fire before the main explosion and has not been seen since

Appeals were also issued online for Ali Abbas Ismael (left) and Marwan Chamouni (right), who could not be found after the explosion

The intensity of the blast threw victims into the sea and rescue teams were still trying to recover bodies. Many of those killed were port and custom employees and people working in the area or driving through during rush hour.

The Red Cross was coordinating with the Health Ministry to set up morgues because hospitals were overwhelmed.

As thousands of walking wounded made their way into hospital, search and rescue teams were dispatched into the ruins of the city's port and surrounding area to hunt for survivors and victims.

Authorities warned that the death toll is likely to rise as the day goes on.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab vowed those responsible will 'pay the price' as he declared a two-week state of emergency to deal with the crisis, urging all world leaders and 'friends of Lebanon' to donate aid to the country, adding: 'We are witnessing a real catastrophe.'

A badly-injured man sits in the waiting room of a hospital in Beirut as staff try to cope with huge numbers of walking wounded and critical patients in the wake of the blast

Medics retrieve a body from close to the site of the blast at Beirut's port, which was entirely destroyed by the explosion

More than 100 people have been confirmed dead in the explosion, but authorities warned that number is likely to rise

A wounded man is carried from a boat to waiting medics on Tuesday evening, following the explosion

Wounded men are evacuated following of an explosion at the port of the Lebanese capital Beirut last night

The US, UK, France, Gulf states and even bitter rivals Israel have offered money and assistance, as President Michel Aoun declared three days of mourning and announced he would release $66million of emergency funds.

The European Union said Wednesday it would rush rescuers, search dogs and equipment to Beirut to look for any survivors trapped in rubble after the massive blast that struck the city.

'The EU Civil Protection Mechanism is now coordinating the urgent deployment of over a 100 highly trained firefighters, with vehicles, dogs and equipment, specialised in search and rescue in urban contexts,' the European commission for crisis management, Janez Lenarcic, said in a statement.

'They will work with the Lebanese authorities to save lives on the ground.'

Lebanese authorities requested help under the mechanism after the port of Beirut was hit by twin explosions on Tuesday - the second one a blast that mushroomed out with the force of an earthquake.

Lenarcic said the Czech Republic, Greece and the Netherlands have already committed to the operation, while France, Germany and Poland were offering assistance. He called it 'an immediate first step'.

'We stand with Lebanon and its people and are ready to mobilise further help,' he said.

The EU's Civil Protection Mechanism, created in 2001, enables the European Union to coordinate aid efforts to respond to emergency situations around the world.
The Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Frank Okiye on Wednesday impeached his deputy, Yekini Idiaye, for allegedly planning with members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma, to illegally and violently take over the assembly.

Okiye made this known in his speech titled Urgent Need to Call Imo State Governor, Sen. Hope Uzodinma And Leaders of The APC in Edo State to Order Over Their Plan to Violently and Illegally Take Over The Edo State House of Assembly.

Okiye alleged that the perpetrators planned to import a fake mace to take over the Assembly working in concert with the impeached Deputy Speaker.

He said the action if allowed to happen, is akin to lighting a match in an already tensed political environment, which conflagration is capable of causing crisis in the state on a scale that would be beyond imagination.

We have it on good authority, the dubious plans by the governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodinma, and the stakeholders of APC in Edo State to import a fake maze to take over the Edo State House of Assembly working in cohort with the former deputy speaker who recently declared his support for the governorship candidate of APC to congregate in a separate location to illegally and violently take over the Edo State House of Assembly as brought to our notice. And so, we call on the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari and the presidency to urgently call this governor and others working with him to execute this illegal plan to desist and allow the laws of the state to guide them. The state polity is already heated up by the political tension from the various electioneering campaign. Their planned action is likened to lightening a match in an already tensed political environment which conflagration is capable of causing crisis in the state and may scale beyond imagination.

We call on Edo State people, whose mandate and interest the state legislature holds and protect, to rise against this attack and plot to subvert their will and subjugate them using external forces.

We urge lovers of democracy across the world and institutions that uphold democracy and value, as well as pro-democracy groups to denounce this planned illegality that seems to distract a duly constituted authority. We recognize the constitutional rights of the three members of the Assembly to support the candidate of their choice but that should not distract them from coming to work to carry out the job for which they were elected and become an agent of mutiny against their own primary constituencies. We are as always committed to protecting the democratic rights of our people as the legislature remains the sacred institution in the democratisation process signed by my honourable self on behalf of the Edo State House of Assembly, Okiye said.

Meanwhile, former APC Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole has warned the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that his party is ready to meet violence with violence during the September 19 governorship election.
RTHK: Search for survivors after killer Beirut blast

Lebanese rescue workers dug through the mangled wreckage of buildings on Wednesday looking for survivors after a massive warehouse explosion sent a devastating blast wave across Beirut, killing at least 100 people and injuring nearly 4,000.

Officials said the toll was expected to rise after Tuesday's blast at port warehouses that stored highly explosive material.

The blast was the most powerful ever to rip through Beirut, a city still scarred by civil war three decades ago and reeling from an economic meltdown and a surge in coronavirus infections.

It sent a mushroom cloud into the sky and rattled windows on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, about 160 kilometres away.

President Michel Aoun said 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, used in fertilisers and bombs, had been stored for six years at the port without safety measures. He called it "unacceptable".

An official source familiar with preliminary investigations blamed the incident on negligence. Ordinary Lebanese blamed politicians who have overseen decades of state corruption and bad governance that has plunged Lebanon into financial crisis.

"It's like a war zone. I'm speechless," Beirut's mayor, Jamal Itani, told Reuters while inspecting damage he estimated ran into billions of dollars. "This is a catastrophe for Beirut and Lebanon."

The head of Lebanon's Red Cross, George Kettani, said at least 100 people had been killed.

"We are still sweeping the area. There could still be victims. I hope not," he said.

The intensity of the blast threw victims into the sea and rescue teams were trying to recover bodies. Many of those killed were port and custom employees and people working in the area or driving through during the Tuesday afternoon rush hour.

The Red Cross was coordinating with the Health Ministry to set up morgues because hospitals were overwhelmed, Kettani said.

Facades of central Beirut buildings were ripped off, furniture was sucked into streets and roads were strewn with glass and debris. Cars near the port were flipped over.

"This is the killer blow for Beirut, we are a disaster zone. My building shuddered, I thought it was an earthquake," said Bilal, a man in his 60s, in the downtown area.

Like others, he blamed the political elite. "We already have a financial economic crisis, people are hungry and, these thieves and looters, will they compensate for the losses? Who will compensate for those who lost their loved ones," he said.

Offers of international support poured in. Gulf Arab states, who in the past were major financial supporters of Lebanon but recently stepped back because of what they say is Iranian meddling, sent planes with medical equipment and other supplies. Iran offered food and a field hospital, ISNA news agency said.

The United States, Britain, France and other Western nations, which have been demanding political change in Lebanon, also offered help. The Netherlands said it was sending doctors, nurses and specialised search and rescue teams.

"This explosion seals the collapse of Lebanon. I really blame the ruling class," said Hassan Zaiter, 32, a manager at the heavily damaged Le Gray Hotel in downtown Beirut.

For many it was a dreadful reminder of the 1975 to 1990 civil war that tore the nation apart and destroyed swathes of Beirut, much of which had been rebuilt. Post-war reconstruction and political corruption mired Lebanon in huge debts.

"With this blast they took us back to the years of war ... Our leaders are in a coma," said Ali Abdulwahed, 46, a manager at Cafe de l'Etoile, a restaurant next to parliament.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab promised accountability, saying: "Those responsible will pay the price."

Officials did not say what caused the initial blaze at the port that set off the blast. A security source and media said it was started by welding work being carried out on a warehouse.

The port district was left a tangled wreck, disabling the nation's main route for imports needed to feed a nation of more than 6 million people. Lebanon has already been struggling to house and feed hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria.

Lebanon's main grain silo at the port was destroyed, leaving the nation with less than a month's wheat reserves.

The US embassy in Beirut, which moved to another part of the city after a huge bomb attack struck its originally waterfront embassy in 1983, warned residents about reports of toxic gases released by the port blast.

The explosion came three days before a UN-backed court is due to deliver a verdict in the trial of four suspects from the Iranian-backed Shi'ite Muslim group Hezbollah over a 2005 bombing that killed former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri and 21 others.

Hariri was killed by a huge truck bomb on another part of the Beirut waterfront, about 2 kilometres from the port. (Reuters)

This story has been published on: 2020-08-06. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
The effort was better, but the result was the same. Tyler Johnsons goal with 1:27 left sent the Bruins out of Scotiabank Arena empty-handed as Tampa Bay beat Boston, 3-2, Wednesday in both teams second round-robin seeding game.

The Bruins, who were cruising toward the NHLs best record before the pandemic pause, can finish no higher than the No. 3 seed in next weeks playoffs.

The sharper play and increased energy took a little longer to arrive that Bruce Cassidy would have liked. But after a mostly decaffeinated effort through the first period, the guys in the black and gold jerseys starting looking like the Bruins again in the second and third despite the final result.

Better effort and energy in the second period was rewarded late. Charlie McAvoy unloaded a heavy slap shot past Andrei Vasilevskiy with 3:17 left in the second period.

Chris Wagner, who had Bostons only goal vs. Philadelphia regained the teams postseason lead, 1:47 into the third. Zdeno Charas shot from the point got through Vasilevskiy and the Tampa goalie didnt realize where it landed sparking a race between Wagner and Sean Kuraly for the poke in. Wagner, coming from the right wing got his Bauer Supreme stick their first for the tying goal.

From there, the Bruins and Lightning was high level, physical, a little nasty and entertaining.

The Bruins complete round-robin play Sunday against Washington. Start time hasnt been determined yet. It will depend on how many best-of-five qualifier series are still on going.

Including Thursdays exhibition, the Bruins fell behind for the third straight game. Tuukka Rask made a nice save on Nikita Kucherovs initial shot on a Tampa break in, but didnt know where the puck was, Point found it underneath him and jammed it through Rasks legs to make it 1-0 with 12:27 left in the first.

A bad change and bad luck put the Bruins in a 2-0 hole. With the Bruins killing a penalty for too-men-players on the ice, Victor Hedmans shot from the point pinballed off Alex Killorns skate past Rask with 9:28 left.

The Bruins came to life after that. Torey Krug tried to spark his team by dropping gloves with Blake Coleman. Neither sub-6-foot fighter landed many shot, but the bout announced a change in the mood.

Not long after Nick Ritchie and Patrick Maroon began shouting at each other from opposing benches, Brayden Point got an extra two minutes for his roughing dance with Charlie McAvoy that gave the Bruins a late power play.

David Pastrnak got a shot through Andrei Vasilevskiy, by Ryan McDonagh arrived in time for prevent the puck from trickling over the goal line.

Video highlights:

First period

Tampa 1, Boston 0

Tampa 2, Boston 0

Lightning strikes TWICE. 



Alex Killorn gets the deflection and @TBLightning have an early lead. #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/cNXB7UxQg6  #StanleyCup Qualifiers on NBC (@NHLonNBCSports) August 5, 2020

Second period

Tampa Bay 2, Boston 1

Third period

Boston 2, Tampa Bay 2

Tampa Bay 3, Boston 2 -

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The management of Lagos State University (LASU) has threatened to take legal action against Nigerias foremost investigative newspaper, PREMIUM TIMES over a publication on the reappointment of Adebayo Ninalowo as the Pro-Chancellor of the institution despite his involvement in the controversial diversion of N198 million pension fund.

Last year, PREMIUM TIMES exposed how Mr Ninalowo and the institutions Vice-Chancellor, Olanrewaju Fagbohun, illegally withdrew the huge sum from the contributory pension of the institutions employees to purchase 12 luxury vehicles for top management members.

The management also used an additional N83.37 million from the same fund to buy four buses, documents obtained by this newspaper revealed.

Sources in the university told this newspaper then that the management decided to use a large chunk of the money for things with completely no correlation with that for which it was withdrawn.

The vehicles were three pieces of Toyota Corolla 1.8 Gli CVT AT LS Luxury model at N63 million plus VAT, seven pieces of Toyota Corolla 1,8 Gli CVT AT FS luxury model at N113.9 million, and two pieces of Toyota Yaris Sedan AT LS (New Model) at N21.42 million for a total of N198.34 million.

The cars were distributed to the top management members in the week of October 22, 2018, this newspaper findings revealed.

Defence

In reaction to this newspapers publication, the university through its spokesperson, Ademola Adekoya, had in a statement denied diverting the pension fund of its staff to purchase luxury vehicles.

Mr Adekoya claimed that N474 million was used for accreditation exercise and was from its 2018 budget.

But official memos from the universitys governing council and its bursar, obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, showed that Mr Adekoyas claim was false.

A March 8, 2018 memo with reference number LASU/CM/R.102 signed by the former registrar of the university, Akinwunmi Lewis, clearly said that money for the June accreditation was a temporary borrowing from the university pension/escrow investment.

In view of the pending accreditation exercise and the time constraint, the university sought and obtained the executive approval of the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council for temporary borrowing of the sum of two hundred and fifteen million naira [N215,000,000.00] from the universitys pension/escrow investment in order to cover the expenses of the forthcoming accreditation exercise which would be paid back from the approved grant from the Lagos State Government, when paid to the university, the internal memo stated.

Another memo by the governing council dated October 5, 2018, signed by one Mustapha R.M for the school registrar, also described the N474 million used for the October accreditation as temporary borrowing.

The internal memo was titled: Decision of Governing Council on Ratification of the pro-Chancellor and Chairman, Governing Councils Executive Approval on Temporary Use of Invested University Pension Fund for 2018 Accreditation Exercise.

In view of the impending Accreditation Exercise and time constraint, the university sought and obtained the Executive Approval of the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, Governing Council for temporary borrowing of the sum of Four Hundred and Seventy-Four Million naira (N474,000,000.00) from the university Pension Investment Fund in order to cover the expenses on the forthcoming accreditation exercise which would be paid back together with the interest which ought to accrue, immediately upon receipt of fund from the State Government.

PREMIUM TIMES also obtained three different memos written by the school bursar showing how the N198 million disbursed was used to purchase the luxury vehicles.

Threat

Not pleased with PREMIUM TIMES latest publication about the reappointment of Mr Ninalowo, in spite of documents obtained by this newspaper proving the contrary, the university in a release by Mr Adekoya claimed it has long clarified that the money was not taken from the Contributory Pension Funds but, from the provisions regularly made to meet past services obligations.

The fund was utilised to meet the 2018 Accreditation exercise. The cars referred to as luxury cars are mere Toyota Corolla vehicles. This clarification was made on 26th April, 2019, where the University further opened up relevant records of the institution to an array of members of the institution of Civil Society Organisations..

The same allegation was also investigated by ICPC and found to be spurious. The use of the amount from the Universitys provisions for past services obligations had the approval of the Governing Council of the University and the concurrence of the State Government at the time. It is important to mention that the State Government has since refunded the said funds to the University.

It is apparent that some disgruntled individuals are colluding with this media platform to continuously malign the image of the University and that of the Chairman, Governing Council. Against this background, and considering the persistent mischief by the news platform against the University, the Management of Lagos State University has duly taken steps to brief the lawyers of the University, his statement read.
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- This week, an Indian prime minister, dressed like a priest-king in a saffron scarf, a silver crown and a lockdown-lengthened beard, performed a sacred ritual in the ancient capital of Ayodhya. Narendra Modi thus founded a new Hindu temple on a site where, for hundreds of years, a mosque had stood.

After decades of legal warfare and mob violence, Hindu nationalists have now effectively reclaimed the land where they believe the god Rama was born. The state-sponsored pageantry of the moment, however, proclaimed their greater victory: the transformation of India from a secular-nationalist republic into an ethno-nationalist state.

No mere democratic election could match the elation of this moment, as far as the Hindu revivalists were concerned; theirs was a victory not over politicians but over history itself. In their story of India, centuries of Muslim oppression persisted as long as mosques still stood on disputed land and as long as Indias flawed secular leadership sought to include Muslims in a broad governing coalition. Modis Bharatiya Janata Party effectively ended both, soundly defeating a government led by a Sikh prime minister and a Christian party president. Modis two emphatic election victories, the nationalists believe, have shown India that its Muslims can be safely ignored.

Twenty, even ten years ago, there would have been agonizing in the media and in public over an Indian prime minister presiding over such a religious-political spectacle. Certainly, when the mosque that once stood in Ayodhya was demolished by a mob, general revulsion was great enough for Modis predecessors to claim they were ashamed. Now, Hindu nationalisms capture of the soul of India is so complete that television anchors broke into devotional song and newspaper front pages looked more like religious calendars than broadsheets.

Modi, and India, are not alone. The most ambitious and effective of todays populist-nationalists match themselves against the broad sweep of history and seek to reverse it. When Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan turns the Hagia Sophia into a mosque, he wants to erase not just the legacy of Ataturk but of Ottoman Turkeys humiliation at the hands of the West after the First World War. Its no coincidence that the first prayers at Hagia Sophia were timed to coincide with the anniversary of the Treaty of Lausanne that the defeated Ottomans were forced to sign.

Story continues

Viktor Orbans Hungary mourns its dismemberment in the Treaty of Trianon a century ago  most spectacularly through a new monument in the center of Budapest. As for Vladimir Putin, it is not clear which Russia he wants to celebrate  the Soviet Union that he once served, or the vast Orthodox empire it replaced. Regardless, theres no doubt that he, too, wishes to turn the clock back.

Yet not one of this unprecedented crop of leaders has reversed the tide of history as successfully as Modi has in India  ending, he claimed in his first speech as prime minister, 1,200 years of slavery. Certainly, none of the others, not even Orban, lead a country that seems as convinced of its leaders crusade as India does.

Of course, many Hindus do feel estranged from their co-religionists. In a heartfelt column, the prominent public intellectual Pratap Bhanu Mehta wrote: This temple is the first real colonisation of Hinduism by political power. I feel chained like never before.

But those Indians who disapprove of their countrys new orientation have been indisputably beaten in two national elections. And many of them are exhausted by the number of defeats they have suffered  on migration policy, on judicial independence, on Kashmir, on state-sanctioned Islamophobia. They remind themselves that the Ayodhya temple is but a symbol of the humiliation of Muslims and liberals and that they had better save whatever energy they have left for the additional persecution that may follow.

Sadly, this colonization of religion, the reduction of what is sacred into what Mehta calls a banal and nasty  symbol of ethnic nationalism has been a long time coming. A few weeks before Modis first election victory, six years ago, I visited Ayodhya. I walked through barbed-wire corridors reminiscent of a concentration camp, and was hustled past the small area, covered with a makeshift blue tarp, that was the sanctum sanctorum.

That glimpse seemed insufficient for many in the crowd of pilgrims. The real moment to savor came afterwards as they walked through the bizarre revivalist mall that Ayodhya had become, buying DVDs of the mosques demolition and mob violence set to hymns about peace and tranquillity. They represented, I had always been told, the hate-filled fringe, not Indias tolerant mainstream. Give hate enough oxygen, though, and it will inexorably spread.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Mihir Sharma is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He was a columnist for the Indian Express and the Business Standard, and he is the author of Restart: The Last Chance for the Indian Economy.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion

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Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has asked the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to stop dilly-dallying on the convening of a meeting of its Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) on Kashmir.

Appearing in a talk show on a local TV news channel, the foreign minister said, I am once again respectfully telling the OIC that a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers is our expectation. If you cannot convene it, then Ill be compelled to ask Prime Minister Imran Khan to call a meeting of the Islamic countries that are ready to stand with us on the issue of Kashmir and support the oppressed Kashmiris.

This is being described as an unusual move by observers as the OIC is led by Saudi Arabia, a close ally of Pakistan.

Also read: Turkeys tentacles in India go deeper than thought, says new intel warning

In the TV programme, Qureshi said that if the OIC fails to summon the CFM meeting, Pakistan would be ready to go for a session outside the OIC. In response to another question, he said Pakistan could not wait any further.

Pakistan has been pushing for the foreign ministers meeting of the 57-member bloc of Muslim countries, which is the second largest intergovernmental body after the UN.

Qureshi said Pakistan skipped the Kuala Lumpur Summit last December on a Saudi Arabias request and now Pakistani Muslims are demanding Riyadh to show leadership on the issue.

Also read: India pans China after UNSC rebuffs bid to raise Kashmir

We have our own sensitivities. You have to realise this. Gulf countries should understand this, the foreign minister said, adding that he could no more indulge in diplomatic niceties.

Qureshi made it clear that he was not being emotional and fully understood the implications of his statement. Its right, Im taking a position despite our good ties with Saudi Arabia, he said.
A retiring politician has slammed the Northern Territory's surprisingly lax boating laws, calling them 'nonsensical'.

Gary Higgins' own party, the Country Liberals, recently promised it would never introduce boating licences or blood-alcohol limits in the Top End and that is the cross-party consensus in the territory.

Mr Higgins is calling for the laws to be strengthened in line with all other Australian jurisdictions before more people get hurt.

Retiring politician, Gary Higgins, has slammed the Top End's laid back boating laws, calling them 'nonsensical'

'It sends the wrong message. I know a lot of people in both political parties won't address this issue and it's because of politics, not what we really need to do for the Territory,' the member for Daly told the ABC.

'Until we actually admit this is something that we have to do and start to implement something, we run the risk of having accidents.'

The idea gained some traction back in 2017, after a report was handed down by Chief Justice Trevor Riley, on Northern Territory alcohol policies.

'The person in charge of a vessel in motion should be below .05, we thought it was a reasonable suggestion,' Chief Minister Michael Gunner said at the time.

'We do it on land and now we're doing it at sea.'

But since then politicians have backed down on making the change and the unchecked alcohol laws remain in place.

Mark Casey (left) and his son Andrew, 14, survived a night in crocodile-infested waters in March

The father and son had gone on a fishing trip on the Norther Territory's Daly River when a crocodile knocked the engine off their boat

'The government raised it because they are aware of their liability, but among the community there was a resounding, no!' Ronald Vokolos, the manager of one of Darwin's largest tackle stores Fishing and Outdoor World, told Daily Mail Australia.

'People saw it as the Northern Territory moving towards being a nanny state.'

Mr Vokolos explained that because of the Northern Territory's small population and large waterways accidents are rare, and most customers are not in favour of fishing and boating licences, vessel registration or alcohol limits.

Locals see it as regulation for regulation's sake because the fees generated by such a program would barely cover the costs to implement it, he said.

'Our water and fisheries enforcement is done by police, rather than rangers of parks and wildlife as in other states so if they get a report of a Quintrex Top Ender with a 115 Yamaha doing something wrong, well there are about 1000 of them so it's not practical to enforce.'

A brazen fisherman was seen wading in the shallow water at Shady Camp, a popular boat launching spot in the Northern Territory

Many Territorians who rely on the tourism dollar also feel increased regulation would be a hassle for inbound visitors and could turn them off coming.

But Mr Higgins does not agree.

He once had to inform a woman that her husband had been killed in a boating accident and that traumatic experience had led him to push for a boating accreditation program.

'There's nothing to stop your 12-year-old son driving the boat while mum and dad are intoxicated - these are issues that we have to admit occur,' Mr Higgins said.

But with an election set to be held on August 22, and all major Northern Territory parties against the notion of changing the rules, it's likely to be some time before any changes are made.
First Lady Margaret Kenyatta has commended community health workers for the frontline role they play in combating the COVID-19 pandemic.

The First Lady pointed out that community education on health matters can save lives and it is critical especially at this time of the Coronavirus crisis.

I applaud your selfless commitment to your work and your courage and compassion for people and for the community. I acknowledge the sacrifice you give of your time towards the demanding role of being community health workers, the First Lady told community health volunteers.

The First Lady spoke Tuesday when she presided over the virtual graduation of the first cohort of the 5100 community health volunteers who have completed a one-month training on COVID-19 response sponsored by the Beyond Zero initiative at a cost of Kshs 4.5 million.

The community health volunteers training curriculum developed by the Ministry of Health was delivered virtually by the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) through a digital learning platform called Leap mhealth.

The First Lady expressed optimism that the training the community health volunteers received will ramp up their contribution to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Through the COVID-19 curriculum and guide developed by the Ministry of Health, you are now empowered and equipped with knowledge, skills and competence to protect yourselves, your families and the community, the First Lady told the community health workers.

Congratulating the community health volunteers for successfully completing the training, the First Lady assured them of her support.

The work you are doing is for all of us and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. I just want to say how proud I am with each and every one of you. Please continue with this work because we need you, she praised the community health volunteers.

First Lady Margaret Kenyatta, at the same time, spoke against the stigmatization of individuals and families affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

She emphasized that those affected by the global pandemic should be offered compassion and comfort instead of discrimination.

We are all affected and we will require all of us to support each other in any way we can to ease the disruption this pandemic has caused to our lives, the First Lady said.

The First Lady noted that the support to families and communities has now become more urgent than ever before given the fact that jobs have been lost and household resources stretched beyond limits.

She encouraged all Kenyans to play their part in curbing the spread of the Coronavirus by strictly observing the Ministry of health guidelines that include washing hands with soap, wearing masks and social distancing.

We have learnt that more effort will be required from all of us to eliminate the risks that make us more vulnerable, especially amongst the elderly and those facing other multiple health issues like heart disease, diabetes and cancer, the First Lady said.

The First Lady also acknowledged the role and bravery of all frontline health workers in the fight against the pandemic.

You have been actively involved in contributing towards national efforts in tackling health issues facing communities. Your work keeps us safe especially during this pandemic, the First Lady said.

Other speakers included Nairobi Metropolitan Services Director of Health Dr Josephine Kibaru and AMREF Enterprise CEO Caroline Mbindyo.

Dr Kibaru and Ms Mbindyo applauded the partnership between Beyond Zero, Nairobi Metropolitan Services and AMREF in training community health workers to help in the fight against the spread of Coronavirus.
Seabird species such as gulls and pelicans are often overlooked when it comes to conservation and can struggle to capture the public eye. To raise awareness of their importance to people and the ecosystems we depend on, a Science & Society article appearing August 6 in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution looks at something that most of us find off-putting: their poop. The researchers say that the poop, which is also known as guano and serves as a source of fertilizer and a key contribution to coastal and marine ecosystems, could be worth more than $470 million annually. By calculating this direct benefit to people, they hope to quantify the importance of seabirds and illustrate the monetary cost of declining populations.

"Guano production is an ecosystem service made by seabirds at no cost to us--I can go to an island, collect the guano, and sell it at market price as fertilizer," says co-author Marcus V. Cianciaruso, ecology professor at the Federal University of Goias in Brazil. While few seabird species produce guano that is currently commercialized, the rest provide important nutrients to the ecosystems where their guano is deposited. "Because there is this scientific and biological importance, it's possible to quantify seabird ecosystem services in a language that the general public and policymakers can begin to understand," he says.

To do this, Cianciaruso and Daniel Plazas-Jimenez, a PhD student at the Federal University of Goias, began by gathering data about global seabird populations producing commodifiable guano. "Because guano is a commodity, we used its market price to estimate the added value of guano produced by seabirds each year," says Plazas-Jimenez.

For the species that do not produce commodifiable guano, the researchers then estimated the value of nitrogen and phosphorus deposited every year in their colonies by calculating the cost to replace these nutrients with inorganic versions. The result is staggering: when combined, the nutrient deposition and the commodifiable guano could be worth an estimated $473.83 million per year.

Although not all guano can be commodified, these nutrients that it deposits are important to ecosystems such as coral reefs, where guano's presence can increase reef fish biomass by up to 48%. "We made a very conservative estimate that 10% of coral reef fish stocks depend on seabird nutrients," says Plazas-Jimenez. "According to the United Nations and the Australian government, the annual economic returns of commercial fisheries on coral reefs is over $6 billion. So, 10% of this value is around $600 million per year." When added to the previous figure, the value of nutrients deposited by seabirds increases to an estimated $1 billion.

Much of this value comes from threatened or endangered species. "The example of coral reefs is just for a little group of seabirds," says Plazas-Jimenez. "A huge amount of nutrient deposition happens in Antarctic ecosystems: penguins contribute half of the nitrogen and phosphorous deposited by seabirds every year. However, 60% of this contribution is made by penguin species with declining populations, and these contributions will decrease in the future if no conservation activity is taken."

The researchers hope this paper will shed light on how valuable these species are at a global scale. "Seabirds have a lot of importance to people," says Plazas-Jimenez. "Being able to calculate a monetary value of an ecological function made by a particular species is just another tool in the conservation toolbox."

Only a fraction of the value of seabirds to ecosystems and to people is represented by this estimate--among other functions, they contribute to vast birdwatching and tourism industries around the world. "If you start to look into every function that seabirds have and try to monetize this, the value is going to be much, much higher," says Cianciaruso.

Their estimate also doesn't account for the local importance of the birds. For many coastal communities, the direct and indirect benefits of living with them are essential. "In some areas, fishermen follow seabirds to find places to fish," says Plazas-Jimenez. "To that fisherman, seabirds are everything."

###

This work was supported by CAPES, the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, and the Goias Research Support Foundation.

Trends in Ecology & Evolution, Plazas-Jimenez & Cianciaruso: "Valuing ecosystem services can help to save seabirds" https://www.cell.com/trends/ecology-evolution/fulltext/S0169-5347(20)30170-1

Trends in Ecology & Evolution (@Trends_Ecol_Evo), published by Cell Press, is a monthly review journal that contains polished, concise, and readable reviews, opinions, and letters in all areas of ecology and evolutionary science. It aims to keep scientists informed of new developments and ideas across the full range of ecology and evolutionary biology--from the pure to the applied and from molecular to global. Visit http://www.cell.com/trends/ecology-evolution. To receive Cell Press media alerts, please contact press@cell.com.
(Bloomberg) -- Booking Holdings Inc. beat Wall Streets subdued expectations and gave a positive outlook for the current period, sending the shares 5% higher in extended trading.

The Norwalk, Connecticut-based company said revenue fell a record 84% in the second quarter from a year earlier to $630 million. That was the lowest in a decade and shows how the Covid-19 pandemic has gutted the travel industry.

However, analysts expected worse, with an average sales estimate of $569.4 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. And newly booked room nights were down 35% in July from a year earlier, an improvement from the 85% year-over-year decline in April.

We faced a challenging second quarter and continue to face challenges due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on travel demand, Chief Executive Officer Glenn Fogel said in a statement. However, we have witnessed improvement in booking trends since April, which is encouraging.

Alternative accommodation, or vacation rentals, is seeing growth, Fogel said on a conference call with analysts Thursday. This part of the business represented about 40% of all new bookings in the second quarter, he noted. Demand has been driven by staycations, with travelers taking advantage of work-from-home policies to head to a beach house for a long weekend.

Despite the uptick, Fogel reiterated that the travel industry will not fully recover without a vaccine. New outbreaks of Covid-19 in places such as Australia, Spain and some states in the U.S. threaten to spark another wave of cancellations. It will be years and not quarters before the market returns to pre-Covid levels, the CEO said.

To cut costs, the online travel agent is eliminating 25% of workers at its main Booking.com business. Delivering the news in a video call with staff, Fogel said the past five months represented the largest social and economic crisis of our lifetime.

The Covid-19 pandemic shut down most of the world over the past few months, all but eliminating global travel. Business trips have been replaced with video conferences and vacations have been canceled, forcing airlines to ground flights and hotels to close. Airbnb Inc. and TripAdvisor Inc. also eliminated a quarter of their workforce and last week, Expedia Group Inc. reported a similar revenue decline in the second quarter.

Story continues

There have been some nascent signs of a bounce back in the industry. Airbnb and Expedia have seen an increase in demand for domestic stays as some economies start to reopen. But Booking may take longer to show improvement because it is more exposed to Europe, which accounts for more than half its revenue, Cowen & Co. analyst Kevin Kopelman wrote in a note before the results. The continent was shut down more completely and has been slower to reopen.

Booking, which runs five major travel brands including Kayak and Priceline, had previously signaled that second-quarter results would suffer the full force of the coronavirus since global lockdowns only went into effect near the tail-end of the first quarter. Net income was $122 million, or $2.97 a share, in the period, down more than 80% from a year earlier.

Shares have fallen about 15% this year, while the S&P 500 Index is up about 3%.

(Updates with comments from conference call throughout)

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

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(Natural News) Rare levels of snowfall hit Tasmania overnight on Tuesday, August 4, blanketing the island state for the first time in years.

In Launceston, meteorologists said that snow has not settled since the 1970s. Settled snow means it forms on the ground. And while snowfall is not rare in the region, the tremendous amounts and the subsequent piling up was unprecedented in as much as decades.

Temperatures at the Launceston Airport dropped to below zero after 9 p.m. while temperatures at Scottsdale, northwest of Tasmania, reached 0.9 degrees about half an hour later.

Forecasters are calling all residents to brace for the icy weather as it is expected to continue in the next couple of days, with Launceston to have a record low of negative one and two degrees on Thursday and Friday.

Rare snowfall in several areas in Australia

People went on social media to report the rare weather.

A man tweeted, Im 61 years old. Never seen it snow in Launceston.

2020 gets weirder and weirder, tweeted another. Other people described the settled snow as winter wonderland while Weatherzone meteorologist Ben Domensino compared it to a Swiss-themed village in Launceston.

Grindelwald  a Swiss-themed village just north of Launceston  was looking a little more Swiss than usual this morning. At 190m above sea level in northern Tasmania, this is a rare sight, he tweeted.

He added that it was a historic event.

Snow also settled in Hobart, south of Tasmania where the last two times this happened are in 1986 and 2015. However, Australias Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Matthew Thomas said that snowfall is not uncommon in the south. The bureau also often classifies snowfall as rain if it melted fairly quickly, he added. Temperatures at Hobart are expected to get warmer at the end of the week, although they can still drop to a low of five degrees.

Certain areas in Victoria also experienced snow. The Dandenong and Yarra Ranges as well as the Alpine regions grew a few centimeters of snow while suburbs in Melbourne experienced overnight snow  an occurrence that happens once in every 10 years, according to forecasters. The chilly weather also brought some ice to Ballarat, located in the Victorian Central Highlands, where a flurry of snow blasted on the morning of August 4.

The Australian Capital Territory as well as areas in New South Wales are warned of low temperatures and strong, icy winds in the coming days. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe weather warning for the eastern and southeastern Tasmania, saying that damaging winds could reach as much as 90 to 100 km per hour.

Authorities said that the snowy weather was due to an air mass moving north from Antarctica, which crossed over Tasmania and Victoria. (Related: Extreme winter weather gives Northeast a taste of economic collapse, showing importance of being prepared.)

Cars left stranded, multiple rescues called

The surprising weather led to several stranded cars and rescues across Tasmania, with its State Emergency Service receiving almost 50 calls for help.

The heavy snow clogged Tasmanias major highways late on Tuesday. At Spring Hill on the Midland Highway, about 40 cars were abandoned and police had to rescue many people using road graders to free them. Almost a dozen cars were stuck at Bust-Me-Gall Hill on the Tasman Highway while nearby motels were crowded with people looking for accommodations amidst the bad weather.

Lightning also struck an electricity pole that left almost 14,000 homes without power.

Meanwhile, a special rescue was conducted for a 55-year-old man about 9 p.m. on Tuesday after his boat drifted toward craggy rocks and was reported to have sank in the far south of the state. He was later found unharmed at a nearby creek.

Climate.news has more on recent weather disturbances.

Sources include:

StrangeSounds.org

TheMercury.com.au

IndiaToday.in

ABC.net.au




The State of Tennessee will commemorate its role in the Ratification of the 19th Amendment, which occurred 100 years ago and guaranteed the right to vote for women throughout the United States, with a reenactment of the historic and close vote. The reenactment event on August 18, titled Our Century! Living Tennessee's History of the Ratification, will take place on the floor of the House chamber at the State Capitol  the same day and place it did a century ago  and be livestreamed beginning at 9:30 a.m.CT/10:30 a.m. ET via the TNWoman100 Facebook and YouTube pages, as well as the Facebook pages of the Tennessee State Library and Archives, Tennessee State Museum, Tennessee State Parks and Tennessee Historical Society. TNWoman100.com is the website of The Official Committee of the State of Tennessee Woman Suffrage Centennial. Creative Communications, LLC with TNDV Television, Inc. will produce the reenactment.The livestream will be hosted by Mac Pirkle, founder and CEO of Creative Communications, LLC and Demetria Kalodimos, broadcast journalist and filmmaker best known for her years as the nightly news anchor on WSMV in Nashville. Members of the 1920 House of Representatives will be portrayed by both current members of the Tennessee General Assembly and local actors working from a script created in consultation with The Official Committee. The livestream will be archived and available for future viewing.Our hope is Tennesseans throughout the state, especially educators and school aged children, will tune in to this historic occasion to commemorate a moment in Tennessees history that affected the lives of millions of women throughout the country, said The Official Committee of the State of Tennessee Woman Suffrage Centennial. Tennesseans can be very proud of what was accomplished in our century 100 years ago, not only by those legislators that voted aye for suffrage, but by the many women in our state, and throughout the nation, who fought hard for decades to make it a reality.The 19th Amendment, also known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, passed the U.S. House and Senate on June 4, 1919, and was sent to the states for ratification. To become part of the U.S. Constitution, the Amendment needed to be approved by 36 of the then 48 states. By the summer of 1920, 35 of the 36 states needed for ratification had approved the amendment. Eight states had rejected the amendment; five had not voted. Suffragists saw Tennessee as their last, best hope for ratification before the 1920 presidential election. On Aug. 9, Governor Albert H. Roberts called a special session of the Tennessee General Assembly to consider the issue. Suffragists and anti-suffragists descended on Nashville.In what became known as Tennessees War of the Roses, pro-suffrage activists wore yellow roses as a symbol of support, in stark contrast to the red roses of the opposition. Fierce lobbying commenced on both sides of the issue, but the resolution passed easily in the Tennessee State Senate. Now women lobbied furiously to secure votes in the House of Representatives where the vote was extremely close, and created an even split among Tennessee state representatives.On Aug. 18, 1920, suffragists and anti-suffragists packed the public galleries in the House chamber for its vote. Members and spectators wore yellow or red roses, reflecting their stance. The atmosphere was tense.The Speaker of the House, Seth Walker of Lebanon, served as the anti-suffrage leader although he had previously advocated for suffrage. Joseph Hanover of Memphis led the suffrage cause in the House. After Seth Walker tried unsuccessfully to table the amendment, which would have effectively killed the bill, the House was required to vote on the 19th Amendment. As the roll call began and votes were tallied, the youngest member of the House, 24-year old Harry Burn of Niota, faced a dilemma. In his coat pocket sat a 7-page letter from Febb Ensminger Burn, his mother. Among general news of the family farm, Febb used the letter to persuade her son to change his anti-suffrage stance, writing hurrah and vote for suffrage! As Burns name approached for roll call, the young man, sporting a red anti-suffrage rose, shocked the chamber by claiming aye for the amendment, thus breaking a tie and changing the course of history. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the ratification on August 26, 1920.The Tennessee State Capitol, where the reenactment will take place on August 18, is one of the oldest working capitols in the United States. Designed by noted architect William Strickland, who considered it his crowning achievement, it stands today much as it did when it first opened in 1859. One of 12 state capitols that does not have a dome, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and named a National Historic Landmark in 1971. Tennessee State Capitol serves as home of the Tennessee General Assembly and houses the governors office.
Shoukry said at the conference that the provisions of the deal are in line with international law and the United Nations Convention On The Law Of The Sea

Egypt and Greece have signed a maritime demarcation deal establishing an exclusive economic zone between the two countries, Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said in a joint televised press conference on Thursday.

Shoukry received his Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias in Cairo earlier on Thursday to discuss means to strengthen bilateral relations and coordination between the two countries in the East Mediterranean region.

Shoukry said at the conference that the provisions of the deal are in line with international law and the United Nations Convention On The Law Of The Sea.

The deal targets tapping into the capabilities available in the Eastern Mediterranean region, he added.

"The deal permits Egypt and Greece to go ahead with maximising benefits from riches available in the exclusive economic zones of both countries, particularly the promising gas and oil reserves," he stressed.

Shoukry pointed out the new agreement paves the way for more regional cooperation between the Egyptian and Greek sides in the field of energy, given the membership of the two countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum.

The forums members include Egypt, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Israel, Jordan, and Palestine. The forum was established in January 2019 to "create a regional gas market, optimise resource development, cut the cost of infrastructure, offer competitive prices, and improve trade ties, Egypt's petroleum ministry earlier said.

Shoukry added that the friendly relationship between Egypt and Greece is a key pillar to preserving the security and stability of the Eastern Mediterranean and countering the threats stemming from irresponsible policies that support extremism and terrorism.

Greece and Italy earlier signed an agreement on maritime boundaries on 9 June, establishing an exclusive economic zone between the two countries and resolving longstanding issues over fishing rights in the Ionian Sea.

The recently-signed agreement has paved the road for the Greek-Egyptian agreement and how both countries would gain from signing the agreement for an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

'Historical deal'

Dendias said the deal is "historical" and that it materialised following long rounds of negotiations, adding that the agreement ensures cooperation between both countries.

The process of negotiating exclusive economic zones (EEZ) between Egypt and Greece was launched over three years ago during a visit by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to Athens, where he and then Greek prime minister Alexi Tsipras agreed that to help each country benefit from the possible resources of its national waters an agreement needed to be signed.

According to Nikoaos Garilidis, the Greek ambassador to Cairo, over 13 rounds of negotiations have been held between Cairo and Athens over the past three years.

The Egyptian-Greek deal was inked in accordance with the law of the sea and respects all neighbouring relations.

The deal is the exact opposite of any other illegitimate thing like what was signed between Turkey and Tripoli. That deal was baseless," he added.

In November 2019, Turkey and the Prime Minister of the Government of National Accord (GNA) Fayez Al-Sarraj inked a memorandum of understanding on maritime boundaries in the Mediterranean Sea.

Turkish claims

In response to the Egypt-Greece maritime demarcation deal, Turkey claims it falls in the area of Turkey's continental shelf, Turkey's foreign ministry said on Thursday.

Reuters reported the ministry as saying that Turkey considers the agreement null and void and that the deal also violated Libya's maritime rights.

Knotty background

Egypt, a close ally to Greece and Cyprus, has had strained relations with Turkey since the 2013 ouster of Egypts late Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, a close ally of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogans government.

Relations further deteriorated recently over Turkeys intervention in Libya and a signalled military intervention by Egypt in the war-torn country.

What escalated the tension was the 2019 memorandum of understanding on maritime boundaries in the Mediterranean Sea signed between Turkey and Libya's GNA.

Five countries including Egypt, Greece, and Cyprus called on the United Nations not to register the maritime boundaries deal, describing it as "illegal", particularly after the Speaker of the Libyan House of Representatives Aguila Saleh, in his letter to the UN, rejected the agreement.

As a result of the "illegal" agreement, a seismic survey carried out by Turkey from 21 July to 2 August which Egypt said represented a violation and an attack on sovereign rights and further escalated tensions between the two countries.

In a statement by the Egyptian foreign ministry on 2 August, foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez said that Egypt objects to the Turkish seismic survey, saying it overlaps with Egypts exclusive economic zone.

Hafez said the encroachment violates the UN convention on the Law of the Sea and international law. The statement added that Egypt does not recognise the outcomes or implications that may entail from Turkeys activity in the area of overlap.

The Turkish move has, moreover, stirred a dispute with Greece and Cyprus over drilling rights in the Mediterranean, with Athens stressing it will do whatever is necessary to defend its sovereign rights in response to Ankaras planned move.

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OTTAWA, Aug. 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tariffs imposed today on Canadian aluminum exports by the United States put thousands of workers at risk and the Canadian government must act aggressively to oppose the move.



The announcement today by the U.S. President undermines the stated purpose and spirit of Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement, said Hassan Yussuff, president of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC). The Canadian government must provide support to affected workers while they work out this dispute. The government should respond swiftly with retaliatory actions.

The United States previously imposed tariffs on Canadian aluminum and steel before the ratification of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA). Canadas unions fought for over a year to have them removed.

The imposition of tariffs for a second time is particularly offensive considering the newly renegotiated trade agreement entered into force on July 1st.

Canadian workers are not a prop for Donald Trump to use in his re-election campaign, said Yussuff. This is a clear affront. The federal government has to continue to forcefully stand up for Canadian workers and industry and must counter these unfair tariffs.

To arrange an interview, please contact:

CLC Media Relations

media@clcctc.ca

613-526-7426








By Allison Lampert

MONTREAL, July 29 (Reuters) - European airline and airport executives this week urged the Canadian government to allow a safe "restoration of travel" between Canada and Europe, increasing industry pressure on Ottawa to remove coronavirus-related restrictions that have discouraged international air travel.

In a letter dated July 27, top executives of nearly a dozen European airlines and airports, warned that "since many EU (European Union) countries and Switzerland require reciprocity to re-establish access, Canada's continued entry restriction and quarantine requirements are becoming problematic."

The content of the letter, which was sent to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other government ministers, was reviewed by Reuters.

The EU has taken steps in recent weeks to relax travel requirements both internally and towards citizens of select other countries, including Canada, although Britain reintroduced a 14-day quarantine this week for arrivals from Spain.

Canada has largely kept its borders closed for non-essential travel with the United States, its key trading partner, amid a rise in U.S. coronavirus cases. The restrictions also have been maintained for citizens from other countries with lower infection rates.

Trudeau has dismissed repeated calls from Air Canada to relax air travel restrictions to select countries.

The July 27 letter was signed by executives from Air France-KLM and Germany's Lufthansa Group, among others.

Trudeau's office and Air France-KLM were not immediately available for comment.

"Canada should look to remove the restrictions on travel to European Union and Swiss nationals and allow for a safe, cautious and sensible restoration of travel between two important trading partners," the executives said in the letter. (Reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal Additional reporting by Laurence Frost in Paris and Steve Scherer in Ottawa Editing by Paul Simao)
Punjab spurious Hooch tragedy which has so far claimed more than 100 lives in Amritsar, Batala and Gurdaspur districts has once again brought out the infighting in the Congress ranks to the fore.

The demand for a CBI and ED probe into the tragedy MPs Partap Singh Bajwa and Shamsher Singh Dullo has invited the wrath of the state Congress President Sunil Jakhar. Two days after Jakhar sought strict action against party MPs Pratap Singh Bajwa and Shamsher Singh Dullo, the entire Punjab Cabinet on Thursday also pitched in for the duo's expulsion for their "anti-party and anti-government activities", which they termed as "gross indiscipline".

Jakhar had said two days ago that he would write to party chief Sonia Gandhi to seek strict action against the duo.

Amidst the new row, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has announced that he will visit Tarn Taran tomorrow to meet families of the victims of the hooch tragedy.

Pubjab CM @capt_amarinder will visit Tarn Taran to meet families of victims of #HoochTragedy tomorrow morning. He will be accompanied by @INCPunjab chief @sunilkjakhar, @DGPPunjabPolice Dinkar Gupta & CPSCM Suresh Kumar. Raveen Thukral (@RT_MediaAdvPbCM) August 6, 2020

Raveen Thukral, Media Advisor to Punjab CM Amarinder Singh tweeted from his social media account of Singh's visit to Tarn Taran.

The Punjab Cabinet on Thursday pitched for the expulsion of both Bajwa and Dullo for their anti-party and anti-government activities and called for immediate action against them by the party high command for attacking their own government over the hooch tragedy.

They also accused the two MPs of never raising Punjabs issues in the Rajya Sabha like the ED probe into drug problems during the Akali regime or anti-farmer Ordinances of the Union Government.

The Cabinet alleged the duo of bypassing party and state government forums and directly taken up the matter with the Governor for CBI and ED inquiries into the case. The ministers said a CBI probe is prerogative of the state government not the two MPs.

Sunil Jakhar had hit out at the two MPs on August 4 for attacking their own party over the hooch tragedy. Replying to this, Bajwa had retorted that 117 lives were lost due to greed of some and failure of the government to act in time against the liquor mafia in the state, an issue that both him and Dullo had been raising time and again.

Bajwa had also accused Jakhar of being 'spineless' who did not have the courage to ask such questions to the government as Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president.

Bajwa had denied allegations of backstabbing the party as he said him and Dullo were left with the only constitutional means to communicate with the Chief Minister. He denied any agenda behind his demand for a CBI probe in the hooch tragedy.

Jakhar had said he would write to the party high command Sonia Gandhi to seek action against the two MPs who had crossed their limit and were exploiting a tragedy to further their own political ambitions and interests.

He added that the attack by the two MPs on their own government was a copy paste of how Sachin Pilot had attacked state government in Rajasthan over tragic deaths of 107 infants.
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The Ceramic Coatings Market is rising due to its huge demand in aerospace & defense and automotive industries. These coatings add additional protection to vehicle's exterior and help to retain the look that makes it appear as 'brand new with comparatively minimal maintenance. Such coatings make vehicles resilient in resisting dirt and easier to clean. A layer of Ceramic Coating also protects a vehicle's paint from the sun's ultraviolet rays and reduces the amount of oxidization. During rains, containments like grime and mud fail to bond with paint of a vehicle if it has a Ceramic Coating. Stains and containment can be removed with easy washing.

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Market Research Future (MRFR) has Published a Research Report on Global Ceramic Coating Market that anticipates the growth of this market with 7.6% CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) during the forecast period (2018-2023). During this period, Global Ceramic Coating Market is expected to garner significant revenues worth US $18.136 bn. By this report, the major segmentation of this market has been done based on end user, types, and region. By End User, the segmentation of Ceramic Coating Market covers aerospace & defense, automotive, chemical industry, oil and gas exploration, plastics industry, steel industry, textile industry and others. By Type, Ceramic Coating Market is segmented into alumina, alumina-magnesia, silica, silicon carbide and silicon nitride.

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Regional segmentation of Global Ceramic Coating Market includes Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, Middle East & Africa (MEA), North America and rest of the world (RoW). The Asia Pacific is the largest market of the Ceramic Coating due to high demand from various industries including automotive, oil and gas exploration, and textile industry. Countries generating maximum revenue for the market in this region are China, India, and Japan. Technological advancement also makes it possible to incorporate Ceramic Coatings. In North America - the second largest market for Ceramic Coating - maximum revenue comes from the United States of America (USA), Canada and Mexico. Holding the position of the third largest market for ceramic coatings, Europe witnesses maximum demand, supply, and revenue for this market in France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and United Kingdom (UK). In the Latin America region, Brazil dominates the market for ceramic coatings. In the MEA region, the biggest market for ceramic coating includes Oman, Nigeria, South Africa, UAE, and Qatar.

Key Players:

The Key Players in Global Ceramic Coating Market include Akzo Nobel Chemicals Company (Europe), APS Materials Inc. (USA), Aremco Products Inc. (USA), Bodycote PLC (USA), Ceramic Polymer GmbH (Germany), E.I. Du Pont De Nemours & Company (USA), MBI Coatings (USA), Oerlikon Surface Solutions AG (Switzerland), Praxair Surface Technologies Inc. (USA) and Saint-Gobain Coating Solutions (Europe).

Latest Industry News:

Akzo Nobel Chemicals Company is reportedly planning to sell its business to investors led by American private equity firm Carlyle Group for 10.1 billion Euros ($12.6 billion).

Rolls Royce has awarded Bodycote PLC, a 15-year contract to strengthen the metals used in former's civil aerospace engines. Worth more 160 mn, this deal covers thermal processing services such as hot isostatic pressing of engine blades for Rolls' Trent 700, Trent 900, Trent 1000, Trent 7000 and Trent XWB programmes.

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Impact of COVID-19 on Steel Extruded Products Market @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/report/covid-19-impact-steel-extruded-products-market

Corona virus Outbreak and Plastic Films Market @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/report/covid-19-impact-plastic-films-market

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The issue is how far Britain needs to guarantee a level playing field ensuring fair competition between businesses, which the EU had made a condition of any potential trade deal that would come in after 2020. In July the EUs chief negotiator Michel Barnier indicated the bloc was willing to compromise on its insistence that it retains control over the U.K.s state aid policy. The EU had initially demanded that the U.K. stick to the blocs state aid rules, even if they changed over time. On July 23, Barnier only said: We need consistency, or some kind of equivalence and the two sides are discussing a system that would see the U.K. making its own state-aid decisions but with independent oversight.
EDWARDSVILLE  The widow of a Missouri man killed in a driving under the influence crash near Indian Creek has filed suit against the driver of a Chevrolet Malibu that crossed the center line of South Moreland Road and crashed head-on with the victims Kia Soul.

Hannah Poynter has filed suit against William H. Lewis Jr., who is also facing criminal charges of aggravated driving under the influence resulting in death, reckless homicide and aggravated assault. Bail was set at $150,000. Lewis could face up to 14 years in prison.

The suit is asking for at least $50,000 in damages. Accident victim Christopher Poynter is survived by his wife, a minor son and his parents.

Hannah Poynter is seeking damages for grief and loss of other personal relationships, medical and funeral expenses and loss of earnings. The crash was Oct. 31, 2018. The suit became public Monday.

Lewis, 32, of St. Ann, Missouri, is facing charges after he allegedly drove while high on methamphetamine and ran head-on into the Kia.

Lewis allegedly drove the Malibu through a construction site while driving southeast on Illinois Route 143 and nearly hit a construction worker. The Malibu also ran another car off the road, a court document said.

Before the crash, witnesses told police they saw a Chevrolet Malibu northbound on Interstate 255, weaving from side to side at between 90 and 95 mph. The construction site was at Indian Creek between Edwardsville and Wood River.

After entering the construction site, Lewis then turned around and headed back toward Interstate 255, turning right on South Moreland Road. He was northbound on South Moreland Road when he allegedly crossed the center line and entered the southbound lane, where the car he was driving collided with the car driven by Poynter, 32, of Ballwin, Missouri.

After the head-on crash, the engine of the Malibu came loose and hit a third vehicle, causing injuries. Lewis was injured and treated at a hospital.
Aragon, the new epicenter of the Corona pandemic in Europe. In the Northern Spanish Region last 567 cases were recorded per 100,000 inhabitants within two weeks. The highlight seems to be not exceeded. 614 new infections were reported in the past 24 hours. In Spain overall, the number of Infected per 100,000 inhabitants according to data of the European centre for the prevention and control of diseases in 81. Within the EU, the value is only in Luxembourg, and Romania is higher.

In the community of Aragon has been a tenfold increase in the number of new infections in the past three weeks. Affected especially the city of Zaragoza. It is of concern that there is increased occurrence of infections in old age homes. At the same time more patients need to be in hospitals to be treated. According to Aragon, the Region of Madrid recorded, according to the Spanish Ministry of health, the majority of new infections. So far, the situation had particularly in Catalonia't worry.

Almost all regions report significant increases, also the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands. The Canary Islands, is to assure, in the meantime, holidaymakers against the costs, caused by an infection. For this purpose, the flight home, a possible quarantine accommodation and medical expenses. Switzerland took the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands from the new Quarantine requirement, which applies to returnees from the rest of Spain. Belgium has, however, included the Balearic Islands and Madrid in the list of regions for which a mandatory Quarantine for returnees applies.

Controversial campaign to mask of duty in Madrid

A campaign, with the help of the Spanish capital, Madrid, is trying to take your citizens to move to the permanent adherence of the mask duty, and has a considerable excitement triggered. The equally controversial as impressive Video, "Protegete, protegenos!" (Bless you, protect us!) at the end of a cremation and warns the mask objectors: "cremation oven: 980 degrees. There are things that cause more heat than a protective mask.

The was "very bad taste" and "irreverent", complained users of social networks. Some media described the campaign as "hard" and "brutal" - but the participants of TV talk shows responded, the awareness of the people and in view of the increase in new infections and the irresponsible lax position of many people is necessary.

In Madrid to keep almost all of the in the Free of the obligation to Wear mouth - and nose protection. But in pubs and Restaurants, and at evening Meetings of larger groups in the public and private space is becoming an increasingly more careless behavior is seen mainly in Younger to.

Many complaints, at temperatures that exceed in Madrid in the summer, almost every day, 35 degrees, had to Wear a mask Outdoors torture - especially when you can adhere to the legally prescribed minimum distance of one and a half meters. The answer in the Video: "Your apartment in the summer: 32 degrees. Beers with friends: 30 degrees. Disco: 28 Degrees. Hospital: 25 Degrees. Intensive Care Unit: 22 Degrees. Cremation Furnace: 980 Degrees.

Updated Date: 06 August 2020, 11:20
Originally published March 10, 2008

The story so far:

The citizen-soldiers of the Pennsylvania National Guard are sent to Iraq in 2004 - a year of sitting around and waiting to get blown up. " Over three days in August 2005, six of their company are killed in bomb blasts, leaving the survivors to deal with their loss when they return home.

*

At Fort Dix, where they arrived 11 weeks after the attacks that killed six of their men, Alpha Company veterans were warned that their homecomings with wives and girlfriends might not be easy.

It was October 2005. Nearly a year had passed while they were abroad. The men would need a break, a chance to do nothing. But so would the women. They had been dealing with babies and budgets and busted pipes all on their own.

What's more, the veterans were apt to exhibit symptoms of post-combat stress, including fits of anger and anxiety. That was natural. But if it persisted, it could become a problem.

"You've all changed," said David R. Hulteen of the Army Career and Alumni Program, a bald Vietnam-era veteran with a flowing white beard. "And so has your family. So has everything. "

The veterans looked sleepy and bored as they slumped on hard chairs in the old base chapel. Here they were in South Jersey, an hour's drive from home, maybe less. The autumn landscape beckoned, but they had to sit and listen, during days of debriefings, as one speaker after another told them how hard being a civilian again was going to be.

"It's sometimes just as tough to be back home," said Bonnie Reed of Army Community Services.

Tough? No one wanted to hear it.

"I just wanted to go home," said Sgt. Lorenzo Martinez.

Martinez, like others, could not visualize the road ahead. He could not know that months later, flashing back to a sniper incident in Iraq, he would find home to be a deeply threatening place.

"I dreamt of this place," Staff Sgt. David Jock said.

Nine days before his first Christmas home, the Alpha Company medic was nursing a beer at a bar in tiny Oxford, Chester County. It was where Jock felt most at home since coming back.

He had survived the Aug. 9, 2005, attack in which four men had been killed, and his left shoulder still hurt where the ligaments had been torn when his humvee rolled into a bomb crater.

A slight man with sinewy muscles, Jock said he was dealing with guilt - guilt that he had made it, guilt that he had felt "glad it wasn't me. "

He had not wanted to return to his civilian job as a paramedic. After so much blood in Iraq, he didn't think he could handle the flashbacks he was sure the work would bring. Feeling bad was weighing him down.

He and his wife, Susan, shared a twin house with her disabled grandmother up the street from the tavern. They were having a hard time.

They had been married only a year before he was called up, and they had spent their first anniversary packing his uniforms and toiletries for Iraq. Then he had been away almost 18 months.

Susan, now pregnant, thought Jock was drinking too much.

"We need helmets when we clash," he said.

Several other Alpha Company veterans had returned to find their marriages over. Some marriages that had been weak to start had not stood up to the stresses of the long separation.

A platoon sergeant from Philadelphia's Feltonville section came home to an empty house. His wife had moved to Georgia and taken their 8-year-old daughter.

A soldier from Kutztown said his wife told him while he was still in Iraq that "she didn't want to be married anymore. " He said: "I came home to a bunch of boxes on my front porch. "

Jock knew he was hard to live with. He didn't sleep well and was often angry. He was always on edge, always on guard.

While Christmas shopping at a Wal-Mart in Parkesburg, he had been talking at the checkout with another war veteran. A woman complained that they were holding up the line. Jock wheeled around and cursed at her.

His outburst surprised him.

"I just haven't been feeling like the old Dave," he said. "The old Dave had a good sense of humor. My patience is not what it used to be. The amount of anxiety that has built up is incredible. I have never felt this way before."

*

Two Alpha Company members remained far from home, living in an alien, antiseptic environment.

Sgt. Michael Sarro and Spec. John Ashenfelder were recuperating from serious war injuries at the William Beaumont Army Medical Center, 2,100 miles from home, in El Paso, Texas.

Month after month, Sarro, then 25, of Phoenixville, and Ashenfelder, then 22, of Spring City, lay in adjoining beds on the dry Mexican border, as much a desert as Iraq.

They had both been wounded May 14, 2005, when insurgents had ambushed an Alpha patrol as it passed through the village of As Saliyah. A bomb exploded beneath their feet as they rode in the same humvee. An armor plate on the vehicle floor, thrust upward by the blast, broke Ashenfelder's right heel and snapped his left leg. Moments later, a bullet from an AK-47 rifle went through Sarro's lower right leg.

Martinez, of North Philadelphia, riding in a humvee behind the one that got hit, saw the vehicle explode. He was close enough to feel the heat of the blast. It was an image that would return to him again and again in terrifying flashbacks.

All through the summer of 2005, Sarro and Ashenfelder languished together in Texas, as six of their Alpha comrades were killed in attacks back in Iraq. They languished there through the fall, when the company returned home to Fort Dix. They languished there into the winter as others got back to civilian life.

They had been there so long, they began to play gags on each other, just to make the time pass.

A parade of well-meaning drop-ins - from ministers to school groups to a women's Republican committee - came by their room.

"Whoever saw the door open first would pretend he was asleep so the other person would get stuck with the visitor," Sarro said.

"We had to find ways to entertain ourselves," Ashenfelder said.

The son of a Vietnam veteran and the great-nephew of a soldier killed in World War II, Ashenfelder had joined the National Guard after 9/11 and felt proud to be a part of his family's military tradition. When Alpha was mobilized for Iraq, "I kind of wanted to go," he said.

He had reached a U.S. military hospital in Germany when he groggily called home to tell his wife, Kim, a waitress, what had happened to him. She already knew by then. Hearing him so incoherent only frightened her more.

Sarro, a former Marine, also had wanted to go to Iraq. He had joined the Guard with that aim. In all the time Alpha was in Iraq, he was the only soldier hit by a bullet. The other casualties were from explosions.

His wife, Kelly, a kindergarten teacher, at first had hoped she could visit him in Landstuhl, Germany, where he had been airlifted with Ashenfelder. But within days he was in Texas, so she dropped everything and flew there.

A third soldier injured in the attack joined Sarro and Ashenfelder briefly at the Beaumont hospital.

Though wounded himself - with a broken collarbone, perforated eardrums, shrapnel and burns - Sgt. Bryon Yoder, of Fleetwood, Pa., had lain over the fallen Ashenfelder to protect him from the gunfire.

After recuperating stateside for a few months, Yoder went back to Iraq. "I kind of pushed for it," he said. He wanted to rejoin Alpha.

Sarro and Ashenfelder said they would have done the same, if they had been able to.

But for them, the war was over.

Both men had come close to losing limbs.

Kelly Sarro recalls that a Beaumont surgeon gave her husband a wrenching choice: to have his foot amputated, or to go through months of operations and pain - and still risk losing the limb to infection.

The bullet had left a hole the size of a softball, blowing away bone, muscle, blood vessels, tendons and all other living tissue.

Kelly wanted Mike to fight for the leg, but she admits: "I wasn't thinking about the pain. "

Sarro agreed, in part, he said, not to let his family down. "I always felt I would have gone the other direction," he said, "but you can't have your parents there and say, 'Go ahead and cut it off. ' "

Both wounded men had a cagelike device called a fixator surgically attached to hold their damaged legs in place so missing bone could regenerate. To support it, screws were drilled into the existing bone.

Kelly's job was to tighten Mike's fixator periodically, to maintain the right pressure. For her husband, it was like being stretched on some medieval torture device.

In January 2006, Ashenfelder was ready to leave Texas and go home to Pennsylvania.

He left Sarro behind to soldier on alone.

*

The Thursday after New Years 2006, Spec. Robert Jackson was still at Fort Dix, still in his desert uniform long after most of Alpha Company had been released from duty.

Day after day, he faced the same dull routine - same flat South Jersey landscape, same drab brown-brick buildings, same ritual of cleaning toilets and going to see doctors.

Jackson was on medical hold for injuries he had sustained in Iraq. He had been caught in the ambush on Smugglers Road near Beiji the night four men, including his Iraq roommate, Spec. John Kulick, had been killed. Now Jackson was on hold for chronic back, shoulder, knee and foot injuries.

These injuries were probably the result of the physical stress many a soldier endures - the daily pounding that comes with riding in armored vehicles over rough road and carrying half of his own weight again in guns, ammo and body armor.

Except for weekend passes, Jackson had not been home much to North Philadelphia. The truth was, he didn't really mind. Home had not proved that inviting.

His ex-wife and their two children lived in Chester. He was renting with his two brothers. Neither of them was around much, so Jackson was often by himself.

He was beginning to wonder what the war would achieve. The United States had found no weapons of mass destruction. Saddam Hussein's fall had not produced the national coming-together President Bush had promised; it had only unleashed suppressed hatreds among the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.

Jackson knew the history of the Middle East. He had read his Bible, had read about the ancient wars among Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians and Greeks. "They've been fighting for 2,000 years over there, and they haven't resolved it yet," he said. "The leopard can't change its spots. "

It hurt somewhere deep inside to think about it.

On a SEPTA bus in Philadelphia, Jackson had gotten into a dispute with the driver over a pass. She said she had given it to him; he said she hadn't.

Somehow, he had expected her to accept his word because he was a war veteran.

"I told her, 'I went to war so you could live in peace. '

"She said, 'You never went to war for me. ' She didn't care. "

Crowds made Jackson nervous - they seemed to press in and threaten him - so he didn't much like going out.

"Sometimes," he said on a twilight walk at the fort, "when I go home, I want to get back here. "

The familiarity of military surroundings, of military discipline, was comforting.

"It's a safe zone," he said.

*

On the dreary afternoon of Feb. 8, 2006, three months after Alpha Company came home, more than 200 mourners were packed into Lamm & Witman Funeral Home in Wernersville, west of Reading. They were there to say goodbye to Spec. Tyler Kline, a company veteran.

Alone in his car, Kline had driven off a rural road near his parents' home at 10:49 on a Thursday night and struck a tree. A deputy Berks County coroner ruled him dead on the spot.

By morning, almost all of Alpha had heard the news. The soldiers were devastated. It was as if another man had been killed in Iraq.

Ray Hildebrand, who had been Kline's roommate, said the men had known some might die in the war - but at home? Not the day after a man turned 21.

Kline's birthday had been that Wednesday. Some of his friends had taken him to celebrate at the VFW hall in Myerstown and then at a bar in Robesonia. He had slept safely at Hildebrand's house.

"We all thought we would grow old together and be brothers to the end," Hildebrand said.

Many in Alpha had not seen one another since coming home in October. They had felt a little lost, isolated. Sgt. Jim Murray, 31, of Phoenixville, a poker buddy of Kline, said later that his friend's death set back his own readjustment to civilian life.

"You go through all that crap, wondering if you are going to see the next day," he said. "And then you come home and you're free and life is good - and then some car accident kills you.

"What the heck is the point? "

The Alpha veterans had been on duty at Beiji, 110 miles north of Baghdad, when their six comrades killed in two August 2005 bomb attacks were buried in Pennsylvania. The guardsmen had therefore never really had a chance to mourn.

Now, they were turned out at Christ Lutheran Cemetery in green dress uniforms, desert camouflage and stiff civilian suits. As an honor guard fired three blank volleys and a trumpeter blew Taps, they fought back tears of pent-up grief.

Afterward, Murray and his wife silently wended their way back to Phoenixville and ended up at the home of another Alpha veteran. The one thing they didn't talk about was loss. They'd had enough of that.

*

During that first winter home, Lorenzo Martinez spent many of his days at Fort Eustis, Va., getting treatment for bad feet.

Like Jackson and others from Alpha, he had been on medical hold at Fort Dix. But as new troops kept arriving from Iraq, the Dix medical facilities became so crowded that the Army moved him down the road - five hours from home in Philadelphia.

He was tired of being away, tired of the dull routine - just tired.

One day, sitting with his case manager, talking about the unfocused anxiety he was feeling, Martinez started to cry.

The case manager got up from her desk and came around to his chair. As she put her arms around him, he sobbed and sobbed.

It was the first time since he'd gotten back that he had let go. He didn't even know why he was crying, he said, but "I couldn't stop."

*

Moments after a February sunrise, four Philadelphia police detectives and three uniformed officers banged on the door of a rowhouse on South 53d Street.

They had come with a search warrant.

They were investigating a drive-by shooting that wounded three men. In a car that might have been involved, they had found a Glock semiautomatic pistol. They traced the pistol to an occupant of the house - Joseph Steven Smith, 22, a soldier in Alpha Company.

Now, they wanted to see what was in the house. They found 2.2 grams of crack cocaine and a .22-caliber Beretta pistol they said Smith had bought illegally on the street.

Smith was arrested.

Word spread among Alpha Company veterans that the popular private first class, a beefy 5-foot-11 and 230 pounds, was in jail.

Alpha veterans who were members of the Police Department checked on Smith's status. The rumor was that Smith had been charged in the drive-by shooting. But that was not the case. The District Attorney's Office had only charged him with drug possession and having a stolen firearm.

Staff Sgt. Anthony Kelly, among other Alpha leaders, was shocked. Smith had been an eager soldier, a man who volunteered for extra combat missions when a platoon was short a man for a patrol.

In April 2006, two months after Smith's arrest, the charges were dismissed. But then came another arrest in Essington, Delaware County, in September.

The Delaware County authorities accused him of dealing drugs and arrested him on six criminal charges.

Capt. Kenrick Cato, who had taken over from Anthony Callum as company commander, at one point checked with Smith's mother to make sure Smith had a good lawyer. He did.

Smith, by then, had withdrawn from contact with his old Alpha comrades.

Several months after the Delaware County arrest, Smith pleaded guilty in Delaware County to one charge - criminal conspiracy - and was sentenced to a year in prison. He spent much of it at a state prison before being released.

Smith declined several times to speak with The Inquirer.

Cato said he thought Smith's Iraq experience might have added to his troubles by giving him the sense that, having survived a war, he was invulnerable.

Many of the men, he said, felt that way, at first.

"He thought he was faster and smarter because he was in combat," Cato said.

*

In March 2006, Brad Raudenbush, 25, of Doylestown, a sergeant in Iraq, got ready to start his new job in Washington.

Like more than 40 others in Alpha Company, Raudenbush left the National Guard, even though there was "a fair amount of pressure" to stay.

If not for his war record, Raudenbush probably would not have obtained the dream job he was beginning now - as a member of the personal security team for the U.S. Supreme Court.

In doing their prehiring investigation of Raudenbush, representatives from the Justice Department had gone to see Brandon Miller, a former Alpha sergeant and Purple Heart recipient who works as the community services manager at an apartment complex in Chadds Ford.

As Miller later told it, they asked him if he had ever heard Raudenbush say anything negative about the United States.

Miller sat ominously silent for a moment.

"You do realize," he finally told the men, "that you're talking about a soldier here? "

Everyone - that's everyone - in the military complains.

The agents laughed; they understood.

*

Life gave Dan South a second chance, and in May 2006 he was taking it.

In Alpha Company his survival was a source of wonder. He'd been thrown clear from the humvee in which four other men had been killed by an enormous mine explosion Aug. 9, 2005.

"I still don't remember anything," he said the following winter at a bar in Wrightsville, on the Susquehanna River in York County. "I remember driving down Smugglers Road. The next thing I remember, I was sitting in the field with no weapon, no helmet, no body armor. "

After he got home, he had planned to go live with a friend in the Manayunk section of Philadelphia. But he realized that wasn't his real dream. His real dream was to go to Texas and live with his girlfriend.

So he moved.

He had planned, after he got home, to enroll at West Chester University and finish a degree in business or education.

But his real dream was to train to become a pilot. So that's what he was going to do. A month after arriving in Killeen, Texas, he was starting in a commercial-pilot training program at Central Texas College.

Maybe, he said, he could even become a fighter jockey in the Air Force. He was eager to serve again - if he could fly.

He might as well go for it, he said. At 25, he might not get another chance.

Inquirer correspondent Will Hobson contributed to this article.

How This Series Was Reported

Tom Infield first reported on Alpha Company, a National Guard unit based in Northeast Philadelphia, in November 2004, when the soldiers were preparing to depart for Iraq. In the years since, he has revisited the company many times and written about the deaths of six men in 2005; deployment in Iraq at Forward Operating Base Summerall (which he visited in September 2005); the guardsmen's return to the United States; and the early readjustment at home.

Beginning last March, Infield, later assisted by correspondent Will Hobson, contacted 130 of the 131 survivors on the company roster; 126 agreed to be interviewed or to complete a survey of questions about how they are coping since coming home from Iraq. Some were interviewed more than half a dozen times. In addition to the guardsmen, Infield interviewed wives, girlfriends, parents and children of the soldiers; experts and officials in the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Defense, and the National Guard; and medical authorities on post-traumatic stress disorder.
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State-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Thursday announced the launch of a scheme to facilitate cash credit or loans to weavers against their credit requirements. Under the PNB Weaver Mudra Scheme (PNBWMS), the bank has launched a credit card plan under which loans up to Rs 2 lakh to weavers will be granted as per the scheme of the Ministry of Textiles.

The scheme aims to provide adequate and timely assistance to weavers by way of cash credit or loan by way of loan or cash credit for their credit requirements such as investments and working capital flexibly and cost-effectively in both rural and urban areas, the bank said in a statement.

"With the introduction of MUDRA loan under the PM Mudra Yojana, the Ministry of Textiles wanted options for working capital needs of weavers under 'Shishu' and 'Kishore' Category along with the issue of MUDRA card hence the PNBWMS," it said.

The scheme is launched on the eve of 'National Handloom Day'.

"Prepared after a detailed discussion with the Ministry of Textile, the new product specifically seeks to finance working capital needs of weavers (up to Rs 50,000 to be categorised under Shishu and for above Rs 50,000 and up to Rs 5 lakh to be categorised under Kishore category), where the Government of India has agreed to extend financial assistance in respect of margin money subsidy, interest subsidy and credit guarantee fees," it said.

As per the margin conditions, it said, the government will bear a margin of 20 per cent of the cost of the project (working capital) with a maximum of Rs 10,000, while the rest of the amount will have to be borne by the borrower.

Margin money subsidy will be credited to the account of the borrower after sanctioning of the loan, it said.

All these accounts will be covered under the credit guarantee schemes of credit guarantee corporations.
Is there anything Democrats like to scold more on than the need to "be like Europe"?

That's certainly the case in terms of public employee unions, socialized medicine, open immigration, and command and control directed economies. Europe knows more. Europe does it better.

Lately, that's fraying.

After all, Europe opened its schools, and moved on from COVID. Very few, if any, seeded their nursing homes with COVID patients by government fiat.

And while we're on Europe, there's something else Europe knows:

Mail-in ballots are a disaster.

According to John Lott's respected Crime Prevention Research Center:

In the European Union, 63% have put a ban on mailing in ballots except for citizens living overseas. Another 22% have imposed a ban even for those overseas. And most of those that allow mail-in ballots require some form of photo ID to get one, according to the report from the Crime Prevention Research Center shared with Secrets. These countries have learned the hard way about what happens when mail-in ballots arent secured. They have also discovered how hard it is to detect vote buying when both those buying and selling the votes have an incentive to hide the exchange, said author John R. Lott, the centers president. While politicians in the United States have been debating the pros and cons of mail-in voting due to concerns of spreading COVID-19 at the polls and new reports of postal service and vote counting issues, Lott, whose center is known for its gun research, built a voting database of the European Union and the larger Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries.

Paul Bedard at the Washington Examiner has a very good report here.

Based on this report, apparently quite a few of them have seen what mail-in balloting can do to the integrity of an election and want no part of it. Maybe they experienced it firsthand, maybe they saw it in others. Whatever it was, they passed laws to make sure it wasn't their country that got enmired in it. The potential for ballot-box stuffing, vote-harvesting, and lost and 'found' ballots was incredible, as was the possibility of elections extending on and on and on and on as officials tried to get all votes gathered and counted. The post office was duly noted as a potential political vehicle for determining whose vote got counted and whose didn't, and several other potential problems were noted. Democrats and their media allies are continuously screeching that there's no risk to wide-scale mail-in ballots but numerous cases on the books now tell a different story.

Why does Europe understand this and Democrats don't? Well, the easy reason is that Democrats plan to cheat. But as for Europe, well, lefties still can win elections honestly which may have made all sides want a fair process. Also, most European states are ex-monarchies turned democracy at some point and still value the importance of the integrity in elections. With many Democrats embracing the cynical Chavista socialist dictatorship-in-democracy's-clothing model, there's nothing they can recognize in why Europe prioritizes keeping democracy alive and believable for them. They just want to win at any cost and shut the gate to any other party taking power afterward.

The GOP would do well to wave this in their dishonest faces.

Image credit: U.S. Air Force // public domain
Italys aviation authority has warned Ryanair that repeated violations of coronavirus precautions must stop  or the airline could be banned from Italian airports.

ENAC, the national civil aviation authority of Italy, has written to Ryanair to say that it systematically does not comply with the provisions envisaged in Italy to limit the risk from coronavirus on board aircraft.

The letter says social distancing and rules on face coverings are not observed, and that unless the airline improves it will impose a rule prohibiting Ryanair from filling more than half its seats.

In the event of further non-compliance with the obligations, ENAC warns that Ryanair could be grounded in Italy, and be compelled to re-book passengers on alternative airlines.

Europes biggest budget airline has rejected the criticism, saying: Ryanair complies fully with the measures set out by the Italian government and our customers can rest assured that we are doing everything to reduce interaction on both our aircraft and at airports to protect the health of our passengers.

All passengers are encouraged to check-in online, and the boarding process is now contactless to avoid unnecessary contact at airports.

Ryanair has also implemented specific boarding procedures to avoid unnecessary gathering of passengers both at boarding gates and onboard the aircraft. Ryanair strictly limits carry-on baggage to further reduce passengers congregating while putting bags in overhead lockers.

All Ryanair passengers and crew must wear face masks at all times throughout the flight.

In terms of the number of passengers flown without a single death in an accident, Ryanair is the safest airline in the world.

The airline has announced its intention to fly more than 60 per cent of its originally planned schedule during August.

In July, Ryanair operated 40 per cent of the original timetable.

Eddie Wilson, chief executive of the main division, Ryanair DAC, said: We were pleased to see our people and customers adopt to our healthy flying measures, and encourage all those travelling with us in August to continue to do so.

Were also proud to play our part in helping Europes tourism industry take off again.
After a successful promo last month, Honda Cars Philippines, Inc. (HCPI), the local business unit for the Japanese automotive brand, is extending its Great Deals, Brighter Tomorrow promo to the month of August.

Up until August 31, a Honda Civic RS Turbo CVT is now up for grabs with a whopping P300,000 cash discount. Those who are eyeing to buy a City, BR-V, CR-V, and Mobilio may enjoy the following cash discounts too:

Model with Variant Suggested Retail Price Cash Discount 20YM City 1.5 VX+ Navi CVT P1.068 million P120,000 20YM BR-V 1.5 V CVT P1.155 million P70,000 18YM Civic RS Turbo CVT P1.576 million P300,000 19YM CR-V 2.0 S CVT P1.668 million P150,000 19YM Mobilio 1.5 RS CVT P1.085 million P120,000

Model variants purchased under this months promo will also come with a free Blaupunkt Air Purifier Airpure AP 1.0 set for cleaner cabin airconsidered an essential during these times.

Also being offered in the promo is a special all-in financing program at 10 percent down payment, with 36-60 months payment terms for select modelsavailable via BPI Family Savings Bank, RCBC, China Bank Savings, and Bank of Commerce.

The fight against COVID-19 still continues and HCPIs top priority remains to be our customers safety. Through our latest deals and special offers, we hope to contribute to providing mobility and offering ease of ownership to Filipinos, HCPI President Masahiko Nakamura was quoted as saying.

Nakamura

If you are looking for other payment schemes, HCPI also offers all-in financing promo option offers, such as low cash-out, low monthly amortization, and free one-month amortization at 15 percent and 20-percent down payment with 36-60 months payment terms, under BPI Family Savings Bank, RCBC, Bank of Commerce, China Bank Savings, UCPB, BDO, PNB, PSBank, East West Bank, and Robinsons Bank.

This promo covers three-year LTO Registration and Chattel Mortgage and free one-year Comprehensive Insurance with Acts of Nature through select bank partners.

Story continues

Photos from Honda Cars Philipppines

Also read:

Honda Cars PH to go VIRTUAL in August

Honda announces latest promo amid COVID-19 pandemic

Honda Extends Drive to 2020 Promo
Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has condemned the rude behaviour and vulgar language by some Senior High School (SHS) students towards President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo after writing their first final examination paper.



Lots of videos went viral on social media days ago showing some students in various SHSs insulting the President because they relied on leaked examination questions which didn't appear in their actual exams.



The students, who are beneficiaries of the President's free SHS programme, were disappointed that they couldn't write their exams satisfactorily.



With some of them demonstrating and vandalizing school properties, others also blamed the President for not helping them amidst fears they will fail the exams and so used unpalatable words on the First Gentleman of the land.



Hon. Okudzeto Ablakwa, addressing the issue, has cautioned his fellow legislators, politicians and the entire nation not to condone the student's insubordination.



"Vandalizing school property & insulting the President because you are not pleased with your exams must be the height of indiscipline, insubordination & disrespect which must be condemned by all. Education is not just about passing exams, it is more about shaping good character," he tweeted.

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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By formulating positively charged fluorescent dyes into a new class of materials called small-molecule ionic isolation lattices (SMILES), a compound's brilliant glow can be seamlessly transferred to a solid, crystalline state, researchers report August 6 in the journal Chem. The advance overcomes a long-standing barrier to developing fluorescent solids, resulting in the brightest known materials in existence.

"These materials have potential applications in any technology that needs bright fluorescence or calls for designing optical properties, including solar energy harvesting, bioimaging, and lasers," says Amar Flood, a chemist at Indiana University and co-senior author on the study along with Bo Laursen of the University of Copenhagen.

"Beyond these, there are interesting applications that include upconverting light to capture more of the solar spectrum in solar cells, light-switchable materials used for information storage and photochromic glass, and circularly polarized luminescence that may be used in 3D display technology," Flood says.

While there are currently more than 100,000 different fluorescent dyes available, almost none of these can be mixed and matched in predictable ways to create solid optical materials. Dyes tend to undergo "quenching" when they enter a solid state due to how they behave when packed close together, decreasing the intensity of their fluorescence to produce a more subdued glow.

"The problem of quenching and inter-dye coupling emerges when the dyes stand shoulder-to-shoulder inside solids," says Flood. "They cannot help but 'touch' each other. Like young children sitting at story time, they interfere with each other and stop behaving as individuals."

To overcome this problem, Flood and colleagues mixed a colored dye with a colorless solution of cyanostar, a star-shaped macrocycle molecule that prevents the fluorescent molecules from interacting as the mixture solidified, keeping their optical properties intact. As the mixture became a solid, SMILES formed, which the researchers then grew into crystals, precipitated into dry powders, and finally spun into a thin film or incorporated directly into polymers. Since the cyanostar macrocycles form building blocks that generate a lattice-like checkerboard, the researchers could simply plug a dye into the lattice and, without any further adjustments, the structure would take on its color and appearance.

While previous research had already developed an approach to spacing the dyes apart using macrocycle molecules, it relied on colored macrocycles to do the job. Flood and colleagues found that colorless macrocycles were key.

"Some people think that colorless macrocycles are unattractive, but they allowed the isolation lattice to fully express the bright fluorescence of the dyes unencumbered by the colors of the macrocycles," says Flood.

Next, the researchers plan to explore the properties of fluorescent materials formed using this novel technique, enabling them to work with dye makers in the future to realize the materials' full potential in a variety of different applications.

"These materials are totally new, so we do not know which of their innate properties are actually going to offer superior functionality," says Flood. "We also do not know the materials' limits. So, we will develop a fundamental understanding of how they work, providing a robust set of design rules for making new properties. This is critical for putting these materials into the hands of others--we want to pursue crowd sourcing and to work with others in this effort."

###

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation; the Danish Research Council; the Johnson Center for Innovation and Translational Research (JCITR) Pilot Grant Program, Indiana University; and bridge funding support from the Office of the Vice Provost for Research, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Department of Chemistry at Indiana University. Indiana University and the University of Copenhagen have applied for a patent on this work. Three co-authors are co-founders of a company related to this work.

Chem, Benson et al.: "Plug-and-Play Optical Materials from Fluorescent Dyes and Macrocycles" https://www.cell.com/chem/fulltext/S2451-9294(20)30310-7

Chem (@Chem_CP) is the first physical science journal published by Cell Press. A sister journal to Cell, Chem, which is published monthly, provides a home for seminal and insightful research and showcases how fundamental studies in chemistry and its sub-disciplines may help in finding potential solutions to the global challenges of tomorrow. Visit: http://www.cell.com/chem. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com.
She revealed plans to undergo her third boob job earlier this week because she still feels uncomfortable with her 'massive' implants.

But Laura Anderson still looked the picture of confidence as she relaxed by the pool at her lavish hotel FIVE Palm Jumeirah during her trip to Dubai on Thursday afternoon.

The Love Island star, 31, turned up the heat as she slipped into a 140 brown swimsuit by Hunza G while soaking up the sun.

Lucky for some! Laura Anderson relaxed by the pool in a 140 brown swimsuit by Hunza G at her lavish hotel FIVE Palm Jumeirah during her trip to Dubai on Thursday afternoon

Highlighting her toned figure, the former flight attendant stunned in the designer one-piece, which featured daringly high-cut sides to showcase her upper-thigh tattoo.

Laura opted for neutral-toned make-up and tightened her ponytail while posing up a storm in the outdoor lounge area.

The model, who used to reside in the UAE, captioned her post: 'What Thursdays are made of @secretladiesday @fivepalmjumeirah Can I move back yet.' (sic)

On Wednesday evening, the TV star showed off her surgically-enhanced cleavage in a strapless brown silk corset dress for a slew of snaps from a dinner date.

Relocation? The Love Island star, 31, used to reside in the UAE, captioned her post: 'What Thursdays are made of @secretladiesday @fivepalmjumeirah Can I move back yet.' (sic)

Busty: On Wednesday evening, the TV star showed off her surgically-enhanced cleavage in a strapless brown silk corset dress for a slew of snaps from a dinner date

The radiant beauty put on a sizzling display as she posed in front on the city's skyline.

Laura opted to shun the cardinal legs-or-cleavage rule in favour of full-on glamour as she accentuated her slender figure in the ensemble which came complete with a shimmering miniskirt.

She added a boost to her height with black strappy sandals and wore her hair in a slicked back high bun.

Laura captioned the shot: 'This one time I saw @emilyshak wear a top knot in Dubai, so I too wore a top knot in Dubai'.

Strike a pose: The radiant beauty put on a sizzling display as she posed in front on the city's skyline

Wow factor: Laura opted to shun the cardinal legs-or-cleavage rule in favour of full-on glamour as she slipped her slender figure into the corset dress

It comes after Laura spoke about the disaster she faced when she had a breast enlargement at the age of 18.

The reality star got a loan without her parents knowledge and booked the surgery as soon as she could - but now wishes she could go back in time and stop herself from doing it.

'I regretted it as soon as I came out of surgery,' she told The Sun. 'When I woke up I just cried!'

'I'd asked the surgeon for the C cup implants but theyd put in the bigger ones and said itd "save me cash in the long run as they knew Id want them done again". But I hated them as soon as I saw them, they were massive!'

Regrets: It comes after Laura spoke about the disaster she faced when she had a breast enlargement at the age of 18

She added: 'They just looked too big, it was distasteful but, would I have got onto Love Island without having such big boobs? Im not so sure.'

Laura had wanted to enlarge her chest size from 32B to 32DD so that she could emulate the likes of Lucy Pinder - one of the top glamour girls of the time.

Post-surgery, she did get modelling jobs in lads mags, but the confidence she felt when she received more attention due to her bigger breasts was 'superficial'.

After her stint on Love Island she felt pain in her breasts and went back for further surgery.

Her new surgeon informed her the implants her former surgeon had given her were too large for her body type and positioned too high.

Yet her second round of surgery still didn't make Laura feel a lot better.

Laura is looking into having them redone for a third time after spending the past decade 'bitterly regretting it' and warns young women not to fall down the same trap she did.
Globalia is one of Majorca's major companies. It is a truly integrated travel group with airline, handling, tour operator, travel agencies, and hotels. But this integration is unravelling. The sale of Air Europa to Iberia and the merger of Halcon Viajes with Barcelo's Avoris have been on the cards for months. Now comes a likely merger of the group's Be Live Hotels with BlueBay.

A few weeks ago, it was being stressed that the hotels remained central to the future of Globalia. They were not for sale. They still aren't in that it is a merger which is being proposed and not an acquisition. But as everyone knows, in the world of mergers there is rarely such a thing as an amalgamation of equals. One party will dominate, which is what is being said about the travel agency merger with Barcelo; Avoris would be the main partner.

It's an obvious observation that the virus crisis hasn't helped Globalia at all, but it has been particularly detrimental as the value of Air Europa has slumped. IAG (Iberia) had initially been willing to pay 1,000 million euros; this has been slashed to 500 million. It is thought that there will be agreement, perhaps as early as this month, but IAG are clearly playing hardball. Willie Walsh has said that while negotiations are ongoing, there is as yet no formal agreement. Luis Gallego, the CEO of Iberia, has observed that if they arrive at a point which is good for both parties, "we will do it". "If not, then we won't do it."

Iberia has the upper hand in these negotiations, but it has also of course been badly affected by the crisis. IAG as a group had accumulated losses of 3,800 million euros up to June. It is understood that capital will be raised in order to cover the cost of buying Air Europa, with the Spanish government willing the purchase on. Its interest lies in ensuring that Madrid-Barajas Airport is a major hub that stays in Spanish hands; a key attraction for Iberia is the Air Europa cross-Atlantic network of routes to Central and South America.

Despite the problems faced by other parties in the airline and travel agency discussions, it is Globalia which is more on the back foot. And now comes the proposed merger with Be Live. If this were to go ahead, it would create a group with some 100 hotels and 21,000 rooms in fifteen or so countries. It is the overseas business which is perhaps more attractive to both parties. Neither is that strong in Majorca - BlueBay is best known for having Bellevue in Alcudia; Be Live for the five-star Palace de Muro in Playa de Muro - but in terms of relative overall strength, it might be said that BlueBay has the upper hand. It is bigger when it comes to number of rooms, although the huge Bellevue complex does rather distort this.

If these were to all go ahead, there wouldn't be much left of an independent Globalia, but this process of disappearance is now pretty much inevitable, and not just for Globalia. The crisis will surely hasten consolidation through mergers, and there will always be parties which hold more of the cards.

Cruises: a further setback

Tui Cruises last week hailed the "great success" of a return to the seas and a three-night journey from Hamburg to Norway and back. On Monday this week, the Norwegian government announced a two-week ban on cruise ships at all ports. The reason was a coronavirus outbreak on a ship operated by Hurtigruten: forty-one positive cases were detected on the "Roald Amundsen", which had made the journey between Trmso and Svalbard.

This is a further setback for the cruise industry, especially as the Norwegian health ministry observed that it had to investigate "what went wrong with this outbreak". Had protocols failed, or were they insufficient for what is acknowledged to be a particularly vulnerable form of transport?

MSC Cruises have meanwhile announced that they are preparing two ships - "Grandiosa" and "Magnifica" - with the strictest of health and hygiene protocols. These protocols are indeed extensive, and they include testing for Covid. The cruise line will initially be offering cruises only to residents of Schengen countries. There are to be cruises in the western Mediterranean ("Grandiosa") and eastern Med ("Magnifica"). Greece and Malta will be on the itineraries. Will Spain be? The Spanish government has yet to announce any change to its general ban on cruise ships, although the health ministry has said in the past that it would consider giving specific authorisations. However, the MSC website has, as examples, cruises in November from Barcelona to Portofino and Marseille via Palma.

Costa Cruises, for their part, have developed protocols in collaboration with a panel of independent scientists who are experts in public health. Among the various measures: crew members will be given nasopharyngeal tests; passengers will have to fill out a health self-certification questionnaire; ships' capacities will be reduced; and there will be onboard 24-hour medical attention.

Air corridors: clutching at straws

You wouldn't expect the Balearic and Spanish governments to say anything other than that they are "working" on securing air corridors between the UK and the island regions. The national tourism minister, Reyes Maroto, was repeating this line earlier in the week, and elements of the UK media interpreted what she was saying as an expectation that exemptions for the Balearics and the Canaries were about to be announced "immediately".

One suspects that there was some selective or optimistic translation. Hoping that there might be corridors is not the same as expecting there to be corridors; the Spanish verb "esperar" can be interpreted in various ways. As for any immediacy, this was seemingly solely based on there having been a meeting of officials who review the travel situation.

Still, as the Swiss government is demonstrating, it is possible to distinguish between the islands and the Spanish mainland. Travellers from the Balearics and the Canaries will be exempt from a ten-day quarantine that will apply to the rest of Spain.

Meanwhile, the number of coronavirus cases in the Balearics (mostly all Majorca) has of course gone up. While this increase may owe much to testing and while the cases are predominantly asymptomatic, this type of explanation tends not to convince authorities. The government in Luxembourg said that its increase in cases was due to better testing, but this didn't prevent a UK travel quarantine.
Comedian Jeff Ross is facing renewed allegations that he had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl  claims he has staunchly denied in the past.

Ross, 54, who grew up in Newark, Union and Springfield, has been called the Roastmaster General.

The stand-up comedian is known for participating in comedy roasts at the Friars Club in New York and has been a steady contributor to Comedy Centrals roasts of celebrities, from Pamela Anderson to Joan Rivers, Bob Saget, Charlie Sheen, Roseanne Barr, Justin Bieber and Alec Baldwin.

Jessica Radtke, 36, told Vulture she met Ross at a New York comedy club when she was 15 and he was 33.

Starting in September, she began talking about her alleged relationship with Ross on a Facebook page called Iwas15hewas33. Radtke posted a video from the account in which she addresses her alleged history with Ross, offering context for various pictures of the two of them and tickets to events she says they attended together.

The age of consent in New York is 17. Radtke said she was diagnosed with PTSD and that its taken years to process the exploitative nature of the alleged relationship.

I didnt really know that it was that word  rape  until recently, she told Vulture. Radtke said she intends to pursue legal action against Ross under New Yorks Child Victims Act, which temporarily lifted the statute of limitations on cases involving sexual abuse of children.

Her claims drew more attention from comedians after allegations of sexual misconduct against Ross fellow New Jersey-bred comedian Chris DElia (from Montclair) surfaced in June. Women have alleged that DElia made advances towards them when they were underage and solicited nude photos on social media.

I was 15, he was 33... A video of a few photos and supporting evidence - thank you for watching. Posted by Iwas15hewas33 on Thursday, October 17, 2019

In June, as a video Radtke made circulated on Twitter and comedy chatter centered on claims that Ross has a history of dating underage teens, Ross denied the allegations, calling the story old news that had been investigated but never published. In a statement the comedian shared on Twitter in June, he said he would take legal action against Radtke. Ross, who called himself an ally to women, claimed Radtke and her husband had been harassing him for years.

These disgusting allegations asserted against me are absolutely not true, he said at the time. I have never engaged in any sexual relationship with a minor.

The Vulture story notes that other comedians have previously made a specific type of crack about Ross, who stars in Netflixs Historical Roasts and Bumping Mics with Jeff Ross & Dave Attell.

Jeff gets really hot girls, and I just  How do you get 10s? Teens  Im sorry, I read that wrong, said comedian Nikki Glaser at The Comedy Central Roast of Alec Baldwin.

Comedian Amy Schumer was among those who spoke for the story and said that Ross was known to have young girlfriends.

Jeff is someone I consider a good friend, and I love him, but to be honest, he always has alarmingly young-looking girlfriends, Schumer told Vulture. Never one I have known to be underage, but alarmingly young-looking just the same.

Radtke said she met Ross in 1999 while working at the Boston Comedy Club in New York.

She said he called her later and asked her if it was OK to ask her father if she could go out with him in the city.

Do you want me to be your boyfriend? Ross allegedly asked.

Radtke said they had sex on their date.

He just kept saying, I cant believe youre only 15. I cant believe it, she said. But Radtke alleged that Ross also expressed concern about keeping the relationship a secret.

When we were together, hed say, Youll destroy me if you say anything, she said.

Radtke said she briefly left Ross when she was 18 after she allegedly found Polaroids of what appeared to be naked children in his home (she said he had also taken explicit photos of her). She said the comedian told her the photos belonged to a friend.

The alleged relationship continued until Radtke was 22, she said.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 16:29:34|Editor: huaxia

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CANBERRA, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has described strict coronavirus restrictions put in place across Victoria as a "heavy blow" for the country.

Morrison revealed on Thursday that stage 3 and 4 lockdown restrictions in Victoria that took effect on Wednesday night would cost the Australian economy up to 12 billion Australian dollars (8.6 billion U.S. dollars).

With non-essential businesses closed to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Morrison said that it was estimated the increase in effective unemployment to be between 250,000 and 400,000.

"This is a heavy blow, a heavy blow," Morrison told reporters in a press conference in Canberra.

"Eighty percent of this economic cost is expected to be in the affected areas of Victoria.

"The remainder represents a preliminary estimate, and I underline that, of the broader impact on confidence in other states and supply chain impacts from the shutdown of certain industries in Victoria.

"The combined effect on GDP of the stage 3 and 4 Victorian restrictions through the September quarter is expected to be in the order of 10 billion to 12 billion Australian dollars detracting some 2.5 percentage points from quarterly real GDP growth."

Restrictions in Victoria are now the strictest in the country, with about five million residents of metropolitan Melbourne subjected to a curfew between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. local time.

Also on Thursday, Greg Hunt, the Minister for Health, said that Australians were enduring the "most difficult period in our history."

"We're going to have to go through the most difficult period in our history, I think, arguably the most difficult period because these restrictions are unprecedented," he told Today, an Australian breakfast television program.

"People are being locked in their house by day other than for an hour for shopping or work; people are being locked completely in their houses overnight.

"It is like nothing we've ever experienced and we say it's difficult but this is something that will help us save lives but we'll have to get that tracing done so it's every case, every day, every contact."

His comments came as Australia surpassed 250 coronavirus deaths, with the national toll rising from 247 to 255 between Wednesday and Thursday.

Eight deaths were in Victoria, taking the state's death toll to 170. Four of the eight were linked to outbreaks of the virus in the aged care sector.

Victoria also confirmed 471 new cases in the past 24 hours, compared to a record 725 announced on Wednesday. It brings the state's seven-day average number of daily cases to 537.

"In Victoria at the current time: 2,388 cases may indicate community transmission, 7,449 cases are currently active in Victoria," said a statement from the Department of Health and Human Services in Victoria on Thursday.

Morrison on Thursday acknowledged that the new lockdown would take a toll on Victorians and announced 12 million Australian dollars (8.6 million U.S. dollars) in additional funding for mental health services.

"Mental health and suicide prevention is one of my government's highest priorities," he said.

"For Victorians these last few weeks have been devastating and the loss of freedom that comes from the first lockdown now combined with the second one with the Victorian wave, not being able to connect with friends and loved ones, concerns about employment, all of this takes a toll." Enditem
Lt. Michael Sherman explains how the new automated external defibrillators operate with Mayor Thomas Bernard, Fire Chief Stephen Meranti and grant writer Amalio Jusino of Emergency Response Consulting. The mayor joins firefighters for a presentation on the new units. PreviousNext

North Adams Fire Department Gets New AEDs With Federal Grant



The AEDs will replace units that are more than a decade old. NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  The Fire Department is now equipped with brand-new automated external defibrillators thanks to a federal matching grant.

The department displayed the seven AEDs and a training module on Wednesday that will replace units that are now more than 10 years old. The devices will be accompanied by AMBU, or artificial manual breathing units (bag resuscitators), that have not yet arrived.

"Our grant writer Amalio Jusino did a great job and we were able to purchase seven units, one for each piece of apparatus and we'll save one for the station," Fire Chief Stephen Meranti said. "We take them on every medical call we go on."

The units were purchased for $12,500 through a 2018 Assistance to Firefighters Grant with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security providing $11,904.76 and the city the 5 percent match of $595.24. Meranti thanked Mayor Thomas Bernard for supporting the grant.

Fire Lt. Michael Sherman explained how the Physio-Control LifePaks work. The devices have voice directions and simple images that demonstrate how they are to be used.

"As soon as you open it up, the pads indicate where you are supposed to put these," he said, showing where on an adult the pads are to be placed. "The idea is you want the electrical current to go through the heart. It will read what's going on  the rhythm that the heart's in, the electrical conduction that's going on  and if it's out of rhythm, it will have you stop them. It's that simple."

The device can be set for use with an adult or a child, in contrast to the older models that required using specific pads. The older ones also are voice-activated to older protocols while the new ones are set to current standards. Their software can also be updated to remain current.

"It means we can keep these in service for a longer period," Sherman said.

Jusino, of Emergency Response Consulting and a longtime emergency medical technician, said the newer AEDs also have an educational aspect in being able to see the change in cardiac rhythm.

"It has Bluetooth capabilities so it can notify and send to the responding ambulance the rhythm prior to their arrival," said Jusino. "But on an apparatus, it's not necessary because the responders already there with them."

Sherman said all firefighters are trained on using the AEDs.

"You can't substitute anything for an AED," he said. "When someone drops and it's a cardiac event, they need the electrical current that this is going to provide to reset the heart. You can't do anything else."

Jusino said more than half of cardiac arrests are "shockable rhythm cardiac arrests."

"So the value of these, take your life expectancy from 7 to 10 percent with CPR alone, up to 70-80 percent and, applied within the first minute, near 90 percent," he said. The other value of this ... one of the leading causes of death in the firefighter world is just cardiac arrest. So now they have an AED with the most current technology with them available at all times."

Sherman said communities with great access to AEDs have higher survival rates, pointing to Seattle as an example. According to the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation, residents in King's County, Wash., had a 62 percent survival rate in 2013, significantly higher than most urban areas. This is credited to regional standards in emergency care and first-responders' widespread availability to AEDs.

"We're still a Heart Safe designated community because of the number of AEDs that we have throughout the city," Jusino said. "We're just adding to that platform and the sustainability of it. It's one thing to have that title, but not to maintain that sustainability with new technology ... it would be a failure to the residents. And that's not happening."
Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo on Wednesday promised to speed up the development of hypersonic missiles and unmanned stealth aircraft.

Speaking at an event in Daejeon marking the 50th anniversary of the Agency for Defense Development, Jeong said, "The military will accelerate the development of high-tech weapons such as hypersonic missiles, high-power warheads and Korea's satellite navigation system.


Yi-Chin Lee, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

CenterPoint Energy, the regulated utility that delivers electricity and natural gas to the Houston area, reported lower earnings in the second quarter, reflecting reduced commercial and industrial utility use from the spread of the coronavirus pandemic and lower net revenue from the recent rate case in which CenterPoint received only a small fraction of what it was seeking.

CenterPoint reported a $105 million profit in the second quarter, compared with $195 million profit during the same period in 2019. Revenue declined 5 percent to $1.6 billion in the second quarter from $1.7 billion during the same three-month period a year earlier.
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Linkedin Julien Mivielle (Agence France-Presse) Paris, France  Thu, August 6, 2020 10:46 531 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066bf34d9 2 Business green-energy,coronavirus,coronavirus-effect,COVID-19,coronavirus-restrictions,oil-companies,OilProducers,oversupply,demand Free

With oil prices blasted by a double blow of oversupply and demand throttled by the coronavirus crisis, some industry giants are eyeing less polluting investments as bets on a less hydrocarbon-heavy future.

The world's top five oil firms -- BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell and Total -- reported combined losses of $53 billion for the second quarter in recent days.

BP announced it would cut production by the equivalent of a million barrels of oil per day until 2030 as part of a plan to reach "net zero" greenhouse emissions by mid-century.

"If there was ever a moment to reset, this is it," said Luke Parker of energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie.

"Our view is that BP has taken the prudent course of action."

In recent months, producer countries have been slow to reduce the amount of oil flooding the market even as major consumers like the airline industry saw operations pared back to almost nothing.

In April, oil prices even fell into negative territory for the first time in history as traders scrambled to offload stock.

The impact has accelerated a strategic rethink for some oil companies.

Even before the pandemic struck they could see governments stepping up plans to reach net zero carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the fight against climate change.

'Stranded fossil assets'

"If I were an investor in oil and gas, I would be worried that I would be putting my money in an outdated and risky industry," said Arthur van Benthem, an associate professor at Pennsylvania's Wharton Business School.

The fossil firms' results were not only undermined by reduced activity from the pandemic, but also massive write-downs in the value of their most precious assets - their as-yet untapped oil and gas reserves.

"These assets will either be less profitable when they come on line, or not be produced at all at the future prices now expected," said professor David Elmes of Warwick Business School.

By themselves, forecasts for low energy prices to persist into the coming years can't explain the sizes of the write-downs.

Rather, they are "part of a longer trend in which the rapid pace at which renewable energy is becoming competitive is putting traditional energy companies at risk," van Benthem said.

"Large investment companies, insurers, central banks, and others are warning the market about stranded fossil assets'... the renewable energy market seems a much safer bet."

As companies look to cut costs, new approvals for oil and gas projects could plunge by 75 percent this year, Rystad Energy analysts predict, rather than holding steady as previously expected.

Output slashed

The biggest oil companies "have the scale and money to change away from fossil fuels over time and face a stark choice on when to do so," Warwick professor Elmes said.

Alongside BP's cuts -- set to reduce its production by 40 percent of 2019 levels over the coming decade -- the London-based giant said it would multiply investments in renewable energies by 10 times over the same period.

"This coming decade is critical for the world in the fight against climate change, and to drive the necessary change in global energy systems will require action from everyone," chief executive Bernard Looney said.

Nevertheless, rating agency Standard and Poor's recalled that across the industry, "the proportion of public communications about greener strategies or renewable initiatives by these companies has not been matched by the share of non-oil and gas investment planned".

Renewable energy is likely to fall far short of the profit margins achievable with hydrocarbons, the credit analysts said.

"Overall, we expect oil and gas to remain the largest contributor to supermajors' cash generation for many years," they added.
Lincoln Yards has been in the works for years, and Sterling Bay last year won city approval to build as much as 14.5 million square feet of mixed-use buildings on the sprawling riverfront site along the Lincoln Park and Bucktown neighborhoods. The City Council approved up to $1.3 billion in tax increment financing to help pay for infrastructure such as new roads and bridges on and around the project.
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Sixteen employees at the Port of Beirut have been detained as part of the investigation into the cause of the devastating explosion, a military judge has confirmed.

Residents of the Lebanese capital vented their fury at Lebanon's leaders today, demanding justice for the at least 145 people killed in the blast and thousands more who were injured.

Local reports claim that 18 people have been questioned in total, including officials working in customs and at the port, where the explosion took place on Tuesday.

But while investigators focus on port officials, many Lebanese put the blame squarely on the political elite and the corruption and mismanagement that even before the disaster had pushed the country to the brink of economic collapse.

It comes as a tragic photo emerged showing the final moments of firefighters sent to tackle a blaze at Warehouse 12 in Beirut's port before the stockpile of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate stored inside exploded with the force of a small nuke.

The image - verified by MailOnline - shows firefighters trying to pry the lock off a door beneath a sign that reads 'entrance 12', along with signs warning of hazardous chemicals inside.

The person who took the photo has been confirmed dead with the photo found on his phone, while Beirut's governor has said 10 firefighters are missing after the blast, sparked when 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in the warehouse caught fire.

The image was being widely-circulated on Arab-language twitter accounts on Wednesday as people paid tribute to the firefighters, who are assumed to have perished.

An image has surfaced on social media that shows the final moments of a fire crew sent to tackle a blaze at warehouses in Beirut's port, shortly before chemicals stored inside exploded with the force of a small nuke

Video taken of the area around the same time shows fire crews at the scene along with heavy grey sliding doors. Beirut's governor has confirmed that 10 firefighters are missing following the blast

More footage of the burning warehouses taken from the roof of the building opposite shows the same warehouses on fire before they are blown to smithereens

An image of the warehouse taken some time before the blast shows the same sliding doors and white patch - though without writing on it - along with what appear to be the chemicals that exploded stored inside

Sahar Fares, who was one of the 10-person rapid response team, has been confirmed as killed during the blast and has since been dubbed 'the bride of Beirut' on social media

The ten firefighters who were first on the scene. All of them are missing, with one, Sahar Fares, top centre, confirmed dead. Top left to right: Ralf Mallahi, Sarah Faris, Najib Hati. Middle left to right: Ellie Khuzami, Charbel Hati, Jo Noon, Charbel Karam. Bottom left to right: Jo Bou Saab, Methal Hawwa, Rami Kaaki

The image emerged as...

Emmanuel Macron arrived in Lebanon, a former French colony, where he met with President Michel Aoun and visited the disaster site

French rescue teams, who are helping with the recovery, said there is a 'good chance' of finding survivors

Lebanese officials gave an investigating committee just four days to identify the culprits amid widespread anger at the government

Prince Charles and wife Camilla sent a heartfelt letter to the President of Lebanon, offering 'thoughts and special prayers at this desperately sad time'

Britain sent a Royal Navy ship to Beirut to help the city recover, along with a 5million humanitarian aid package and search and rescue teams

It was revealed that the warehouse was investigated as recently as December last year after a strange odor began coming from it, with a report concluding the 'dangerous' chemicals should be moved

Beirut Gov. Marwan Abboud said losses from the blast are estimated at up to $15billion

CAPTAIN OF SHIP THAT CARRIED EXPLOSIVES SOUNDED ALARM The captain of a Russian ship carrying a cargo of ammonium nitrate which was impounded in Beirut said he regularly sounded the alarm over the 'power keg', years before it exploded and destroyed large parts of the city. Boris Prokoshev, who was at the helm of tanker Rhosus in 2013 when it had to make an emergency stop in Lebanon, said he wrote to Vladimir Putin regularly about the dangerous vessel after it was impounded. Prokoshev, now 70, said Igor Grechushkin, the owner of the vessel and the ammonium on board, had 'washed his hands' of the vessel, leaving the crew and cargo stranded for months. The crew were freed the following year and the ammonium placed in a warehouse where it sat for six years, until it was ignited by a fire earlier this week - causing a blast that has killed at least 137 people and wounded 5,000. Prokoshev explained that the Rhosus was en route from Batumi, in Georgia, to Mozambique with its dangerous cargo when it had to make an unscheduled stop in Beirut due to trouble with its radar and engine. The vessel spent more than a year in port, with Prokoshev and a handful of Ukrainian sailors aboard, as the Lebanese tried to extract fees and fines from Grechushkin. Prokoshev claims that he wrote to Putin 'every month' while the ship was being held, adding: 'The vessel's owner abandoned it. 'The owner abandoned the cargo, ammonium nitrate. It is an explosive substance. And we were abandoned too. 'We were living on a powder keg for ten months without being paid.' Advertisement

Jo Noon, Methal Hawwa and Najib Hati were part of a 10-person rapid response team. Nine of them are still missing while one female colleague, 25-year-old Sahar Faris, has been confirmed dead.

Ms Faris, who has since been dubbed 'the bride of Beirut' on social media, was engaged to be married in June next year. Yesterday, her fiance, Gilbert Karaan, posted a tribute saying, 'you broke my back, you broke my heart'.

The three firemen were photographed in an iconic picture putting their lives on the line to prevent the catastrophe. One of them, Najib Hati, did not even have time to put on his uniform.

They had been dispatched with another colleague, thought to be Ms Faris, from the fire station in La Quarantaine, northeastern Beirut, in an emergency response vehicle and were first on the scene, fire chiefs said.

The six other firefighters followed in a fire engine. 'As the fire service, we have the authority to open any door without the approval of any ministry or military,' a fire service official, who asked not to be named, said.

'When the smoke first started gathering, we sent a unit of 10 people. Six were in the fire engine and four in the emergency response car. The three men in the famous photograph were first on the scene trying to unlock the door to Warehouse 12.

'Following them were the colleagues in the other vehicles. The blast hit all of them. Nine are still missing and one, Sahar Faris, has been found and declared dead. Her family mourned here yesterday. Her fiance is devastated.'

Details from the image - such as the heavy grey sliding doors and white sign with Arabic writing - were also visible in a video taken outside the flaming warehouses as a fire, thought to have been sparked by a welder, took hold.

The video shows firefighters in similar uniforms to those seen in the photo as they assess the scene, seemingly unaware of the danger.

More footage taken from the roof of a building across the street shows identical warehouse buildings being consumed by smoke and flames, along with similar-looking signs on the warehouse doors.

That footage can be verified as genuine because it features a large metal support strut, that can be seen on the roof of a building opposite the warehouse in Google Satellite images.

Meanwhile a photo taken of the warehouse some time ago shows the same grey sliding doors, high square windows and white sign, though without an writing on it. That photo also purports to show sacks filled with ammonium nitrate that caused the explosion.

The second video also features other corroborating details seen in multiple pieces of footage from around Beirut, such as small explosions from what appear to be fireworks moments before the main blast takes place.

That video also features the moment the blast happens, obliterating the warehouse, badly damaging grain silos opposite, and sending out a shockwave that flattened nearby buildings and blew out windows across the city.

Hero Methal Hawwa, front left, is seen here posing with fellow firefighters in this group photograph

2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate stored within the burning warehouse exploded shortly after the images and footage were taken, leaving behind little more than a watery hole in the ground

The blast sent out a shockwave that pulverized nearby warehouses (pictured), shredded the interior of nearby buildings, and blew out glass panes across the city

An aerial image showing the devastation caused to Beirut's port by the blast, with costs estimated at up to $5billion

The blast almost completely destroyed the port along with a grain silo (pictured centre), which were an economic lifeline for Lebanon which was already suffering through an economic crisis

At least 5,000 people were wounded in the explosion which also left 300,000 homeless and caused damage estimated at up to $5billion, with half of Beirut's buildings affected.

The blast threatens to reignite anti-government protests in Lebanon that have been ongoing since last year amid allegations of entrenched incompetence and corruption.

Emmanuel Macron offered France's support for the Lebanese people as he visited Beirut on Thursday, but warned the country would 'continue to sink' unless its leaders carry out reforms.

France has long sought to support its former colony and has sent emergency aid since the blast, but is worried about endemic corruption and has pressed for reforms as a financial crisis deepened in the Middle East country.

IRAQ TAKES STOCK OF CHEMICALS AFTER BEIRUT BLAST Iraq announced Thursday it will create an inventory of all hazardous materials at ports and airports after the ignition of ammonium nitrate fertiliser at a portside warehouse levelled swathes of Beirut. An emergency committee chaired by the head of Iraq's border agency said it had been tasked with carrying out the work and had given itself 72 hours to complete it. The goal was to 'avoid any repetition of what happened in Lebanon' in Iraq, the panel said. Lebanon's government, already seen as incompetent and corrupt, is now facing renewed protests as anger turns on politicians for failing to store the explosive chemicals properly. Iraq has also seen mass protests over the past year against a political system based on confessional quotas that is seen as corrupt and incompetent. The searing summer heat in Iraq makes it even more vulnerable to the danger of accidental explosions of poorly stored hazardous materials. The accidental ignition of munitions stocked in residential areas has caused deadly explosions in Iraq in the past. Advertisement

After landing in Beirut, Macron said France's solidarity with the Lebanese people was unconditional, but said he wanted to tell some 'home truths' to political figures.

'Beyond the blast, we know the crisis here is serious, it involves the historic responsibility of leaders in place,' Macron told reporters.

'We can't do without telling each other some home truths,' he added. 'If reforms are not carried out, Lebanon will continue to sink.'

Lebanon has placed every official responsible for the security of Beirut's port for the last six years under house arrest as it investigates a massive explosion which has devastated the city.

The country's political leaders vowed those responsible for the tragedy would 'pay the price', but customs officials pointed the finger of blame back at them - saying they were repeatedly warned of the danger but failed to act.

The dangerous load is understood to have been abandoned by Russian businessman Igor Grechushkin in September 2013 before eventually being transferred to the port where it remained for six years.

A ship carrying the load was detained en route from Batumi, in the ex-Soviet republic Georgia, to Mozambique, and never recovered.

On Tuesday evening a fire that started in Warehouse 9 before spreading to Warehouse 12, where the chemicals were being stored, igniting them and causing the blast.

Raghida Dergham of the Beirut Institute yesterday said: 'Storing Ammonium Nitrate in a civilian port is a crime against humanity that must not go unpunished.

'Condemnations are not enough. I'm safe but devastated. I lost friends. I lost my apartment. Had I been home, I would have lost my life.'

An official source familiar with preliminary investigations blamed the incident on negligence. Lebanese citizens directed anger at politicians who have overseen decades of state corruption and bad governance that plunged the nation into financial crisis.

Director General of Lebanese Customs Badri Daher said the country's judiciary was told six times about the hazardous chemicals stored in a warehouse in the Lebanese capital.

Customs officials are understood to have asked authorities to move the dangerous substance from Hangar 12 due to the danger they believe it posed to the city and given to the army or sold to an explosives company.

'We requested that it be re-exported but that did not happen. We leave it to the experts and those concerned to determine why,' Daher said.

Another source close to a port employee said a team that inspected the ammonium nitrate six months ago warned that if it was not moved it would 'blow up all of Beirut'.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab vowed those responsible will 'pay the price' as he declared a two-week state of emergency to deal with the crisis, urging all world leaders and 'friends of Lebanon' to donate aid to the country, adding: 'We are witnessing a real catastrophe.'

Port worker is found bloodied but alive 30 hours after being blown into the sea by Beirut blast A man who was blown into the sea when a devastating chemical blast tore through downtown Beirut yesterday has been found alive after 30 hours. Port of Beirut worker Amin al-Zahed, whose photo was posted on an Instagram page dedicated to locating missing residents, was found in the Mediterannean sea, 30 hours after the blast which rocked the city yesterday. An image posted on social media shows a member of a rescue team holding a man covered in blood, who is said to be al-Zahed, on the deck of a ship. Ameen Zahid who was reported missing for 30 hours was found in the sea and he is still alive. He was caught in the Beirut explosion and thrown into the Mediterranean Sea The port worker was rushed to Rafic Hariri University Hospital in Beirut after his rescue, Al-Arabiya reported. Port of Beirut worker Amin al-Zahed Al-Zahed's condition, and how he managed to survive his ordeal, is currently unknown. Shortly after the explosion, an Instagram page was set up to try to help locate missing persons in the aftermath of the blast, which shows hundreds of people whose family's are unaware as to their whereabouts. One young girl, who was missing, was found alive in Beirut after spending 24 hours under the rubble. As a frantic hunt for missing people continued in the Lebanese capital tonight, footage emerged of rescue workers finding the child lodged between debris. By torchlight, the crew are seen trying to shift the rubble from around the girl, whose head pokes out from what appears to be the debris from a collapsed building. Local media report the video was from tonight and that she spent 24 hours buried following yesterday's massive blast. Dozens are still unaccounted for in Beirut, which officials have called a 'disaster city' following the huge blast at the city's port after 2,700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate went up in flames. At least 135 people have died, although this figure is expected to rise, and 5,000 have been wounded, the health minister said tonight. By torchlight, the crew are seen trying to shift the rubble from around the girl, whose head pokes out from what appears to be the debris from a collapsed building Advertisement

A view of the destroyed grain silo is visible through a blown-out window close to Beirut's port on Wednesday

Destroyed warehouses are seen near the port area in the aftermath of a massive explosion in downtown Beirut

Workers remove rubble from damaged buildings near the site of an explosion which brought devastation to central Beirut

People pick their way through the remains of their destroyed office building after a massive explosion in Beirut

Emmanuel Macron arrived in Lebanon, a former French colony, where he met with senior officials and was taken to the site of the blast (pictured), where French rescue teams are helping with the cleanup

Mr Macron told Lebanese leaders that France would stand alongside the country, but warned that unless necessary reforms are carried out the situation will continue to deteriorate

Documents published online suggested it could be given to the army or sold to an explosives company, but did not receive any replies, leaving the explosive cargo languishing in the now destroyed port area of the capital.

Ammonium nitrate is a chemical used in fertiliser bombs and is widely used by the construction industry but also by insurgent groups such as the Taliban and the IRA for improvised explosives.

Authorities have cordoned off the port itself, where the blast left a crater 200 meters (yards) across and shredded a large grain silo, emptying its contents into the rubble. Estimates suggested about 85 per cent of the country's grain was stored there.

Lebanon is highly dependent on imports, and the destruction of the port, along with the worsening cash crisis, have raised fears of shortages.

Two planeloads of French rescue workers and aid were sent to Beirut, and Macron was to arrive Thursday to offer support for the former protectorate. The countries retain close political and economic ties.

Other countries, including Greece, Qatar, Kuwait, Turkey and the European Union, have dispatched medical supplies, humanitarian aid and search-and-rescue teams.

'Lebanon was a heaven, they made it hell': Anger mounts in Beirut as activists vow anti-government protests after blast which killed at least 137

Anger is mounting against Lebanon's government following the massive blast in Beirut which has killed at least 137 people and wounded more than 5,000 as activists vowed to take to the streets as soon as the clean-up is over.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab has vowed that those responsible for the explosion - triggered when 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate being stored at the port caught fire - would 'pay the price', but the blame is increasingly being turned against the political class.

Lina Daoud, 45, a resident of the Mar Mikhail which was all-but destroyed in the explosion, described politicians as 'enemies of the state', saying: 'They killed our dreams, our future. Lebanon was a heaven, they have made it hell.'

Politicians were viewed as corrupt and incompetent even before the explosion, with tens of thousands taking to the streets in demonstrations that started in October last year - and now threaten to return with fresh intensity.

But marches will have to wait, at least for now, since many activists are busy cleaning up their city, rehousing the homeless and repairing damaged buildings amid a near-total absence of state support.

A massive cleanup operation is underway in Beirut after a massive explosion at the port levelled the surrounding neighbourhoods and left half of city's buildings with damage

An army of volunteers have taken to the streets to sweep up glass, clear away rubble, rehouse the homeless and repair buildings amid a near-total absence of state support

Activists have vowed to restart anti-government protests which have been ongoing since last year, once they have finished cleaning up a city that was once known as the Paris of the Middle East

People donate items of clothing, water and food in Martyrs Square in Beirut in an attempt to help those who were injured and left homeless following the huge explosion

Youth volunteers inspect damage to buildings in neighbourhoods close to the site of the blast, triggered when a warehouse filled with 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate caught fire

'What state?' scoffed 42-year-old Melissa Fadlallah, a volunteer cleaning up the hard-hit Mar Mikhail district of the Lebanese capital.

The explosion, which hit just a few hundred metres (yards) away at Beirut's port, blew all the windows and doors off Mar Mikhail's pubs, restaurants and apartment homes on Tuesday.

By Wednesday, a spontaneous cleanup operation was underway there, a glimmer of youthful solidarity and hope after a devastating night.

Wearing plastic gloves and a mask, Fadlallah tossed a shard of glass as long as her arm at the door of the state electricity company's administrative building that looms over the district.

'For me, this state is a dump - and on behalf of yesterday's victims, the dump that killed them is going to stay a dump,' she told AFP.

The blast killed more than 110 people, wounded thousands and compounded public anger that erupted in protests last year against a government seen as corrupt and inefficient.

Volunteers help remove fridges from a destroyed store as a massive cleanup operation gets underway in Beirut

A young man armed with a broom and a rake walks down a destroyed street in Beirut, amid a massive cleanup operation

Military personnel stand amid debris from nearby structures, caused by an explosion at Beirut's port late on Tuesday

'We're trying to fix this country. We've been trying to fix it for nine months but now we're going to do it our way,' said Fadlallah.

'If we had a real state, it would have been in the street since last night cleaning and working. Where are they?'

A few civil defence workers could be seen examining building structures but they were vastly outnumbered by young volunteers flooding the streets to help.

In small groups, they energetically swept up glass beneath blown-out buildings, dragging them into plastic bags.

Others clambered up debris-strewn stairwells to offer their homes to residents who had spent the previous night in the open air.

'We're sending people into the damaged homes of the elderly and handicapped to help them find a home for tonight,' said Husam Abu Nasr, a 30-year-old volunteer.
Thirty years later, the unrelated disappearances and slayings of two San Antonio girls in the summer of 1990 remains a mystery.

It all began Aug. 4, 1990, when Heidi Lynn Seeman didnt make it home after walking from a friends house where she had spent the night. More then 8,000 people showed up over the next 21 days to search for the 11-year-old.

Then-mayor Lila Cockrell even declared Aug. 11, 1990 as Find Heidi Day, the San Antonio Express-News reported.

Then, almost three weeks later, 7-year-old Erica Botello was abducted on Aug. 23 while playing outside her West Side apartment complex.

READ ALSO: 20-year cold case slaying still haunts city

The girls would be found dead on the same day, hours apart. Heidi was found first, on a rural road near Wimberley in the Hill Country on Aug. 25. Ericas body was found inside a storm drain less than a mile from her home.

When police discovered Heidi, they said her body was so badly decomposed it would be almost impossible to determine the cause of death, according to an article in the San Antonio Express-News on Aug. 27, 1990.

Nobody has ever been charged in either slaying.

It was so sad and upsetting to think about these sweet, beautiful girls going missing, said Dottie Laster, who remembered seeing the news on TV. People still tell me that they felt the same way  sad, scared, angered that anyone could hurt a child like this. It was an absolute loss to all of us.

In response to Heidis disappearance, the Heidi Search Center was created as a resource for grieving families to help find missing children in Texas. Laster eventually went on to serve as the executive director of the organization for three years before a lack of funding forced the center to close in 2018.

She said the center helped thousands of families find missing children or bring justice for those who were kidnapped or were killed by their abductor. By the time the Heidi Search Center closed, it had a 98 percent resolution rate and 94 percent of the children they were looking for were found alive.

Being the parent of a missing child is just hell, Laster said. ... It is torture and it is like a nuclear bomb that goes off for the family.

Ericas family went through a roller coaster after she was found dead.

Three men  31-year-old Kenneth Earl Pope, 31-year-old Sherman Bedford III and 17-year-old Rodrick Springs  were briefly considered suspects in her disappearance and death, but later cleared. In Heidis case, investigators looked at two men as possible suspects but no charges were ever brought against anyone.

Laster says the mystery surrounding the girls death still haunts San Antonio to this day.

Some monsters killed them, but the love their parents had for those girls will live on with so many people, Laster said. The people who took their lives are nobodies, they are nothing, but the love for those girls hasnt extinguished.

The Texas Department of Public Safety is still investigating the slayings, something Laster says she hopes gives the families a sense of comfort. She describes it as a relief of pressure to know that people still care about Heidi and Erica.

It has restored some of my faith in humanity, Laster said.

DPS is still offering a $3,000 reward for information leading to the identity of Heidis killer. To be eligible for the cash rewards, tipsters must call the Crime Stoppers hotline at 800-252-8477. All tips are anonymous.

Taylor Pettaway is a breaking news and general assignment reporter for MySA.com | taylor.pettaway@express-news.net | @TaylorPettaway
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - There have been 110 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus and two new virus-related deaths in Rhode Island, the state Department of Health reported Thursday.

There have now been more than 19,600 known cases and 1,014 deaths related to the disaese.

The number of people in the hospital with the coronavirus in the state inched up slightly to 83 on Tuesday, the latest day for which the information was provided. The number of patients in intensive care was down to 11.

The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Rhode Island has risen over the past two weeks from 60.29 new cases per day on July 22 to 97.29 new cases per day on Wednesday, according to the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

The seven-day rolling average of the positivity rate in Rhode Island has risen over the past two weeks from 3.84% on July 22 to 6.15% on Wednesday, Johns Hopkins reported.

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MAYFLOWER II VISIT CANCELED

The Mayflower II, a replica of the ship that brought the Pilgrims to the New World 400 years ago, has cancelled a scheduled stop in Rhode Island because of new travel restrictions required of people who visit the state.

The 64-year-old reproduction is sailing from Mystic, Connecticut, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, after an $11 million renovation project. The Mayflower II made an unscheduled stop in New Bedford, Massachusetts, this week to shelter during Tropical Storm Isaias. It had been scheduled to visit Newport, Rhode Island, on Thursday.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker earlier this week required people from Rhode Island or who have visited the state to quarantine for two weeks because of a rising number of coronavirus cases in the state.

Due to Governor Bakers recent change to the restrictions on travel to states including Rhode Island, Plimoth Plantation has decided out of an abundance of caution to keep Mayflower in New Bedford ... until Saturday, August 8 when the ship will make its way to the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, according to a press release from Plimoth Patuxet.

It is scheduled to arrive in Plymouth on Monday.

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DRIVE-THRU HALLOWEEN

The annual Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular at Roger Williams Park Zoo is being converted into a drive-thru event this year to keep people safe during the pandemic.

The Halloween event that runs every night from Oct. 1 until Nov. 1 features thousands of intricately carved pumpkins.

Vehicles will be allowed to drive slowly through the zoo and families will see the pumpkins from inside the safety of their cars, the zoo announced Wednesday.

Tickets for the event must be purchased in advance.
Decades before suffragists marched in Washington, won the battle for a federal constitutional amendment or cast their first ballots in the 1920 presidential election, a woman asked the Supreme Court to grant women the right to vote.

The nation's highest court, composed of nine white men, unanimously turned her down.

"It's dismissed almost offhand," said Ellen DuBois, a professor emeritus of history and gender studies at UCLA.

The case, filed by Virginia Louisa Minor, a former volunteer hospital worker, often flies under the radar within the colorful history of the women's suffrage movement. But experts say the 1875 court decision forced suffragists to abandon their argument that the Constitution ensured them voting rights and ushered in a new phase of their long fight for access to the ballot.

Ahead of the 1872 presidential election between Republican Ulysses S. Grant and Liberal Republican Horace Greeley, Minor was among hundreds - perhaps thousands - of women who illicitly tried to vote so they could mount a legal challenge when they were blocked. Minor was a founder of the Woman Suffrage Association of Missouri, so it was fitting that her lawsuit was the one to reach the Supreme Court and capture headlines.

Minor was familiar with organizing when she joined the suffrage movement. Her first foray into activism came when she tended to wounded Union soldiers as a member of the Western Sanitary Commission during the Civil War and transported produce from her St. Louis farm to Benton Barracks, a military encampment three miles north.

When the conflict ended in 1865, Minor and other Sanitary Commission volunteers focused their attention on their own rights as women. Before a crowd gathered at a suffrage convention four years later, Minor argued that the 14th Amendment established that women were U.S. citizens and that states could not make any law that blocks citizens' "privileges or immunities." Therefore, she claimed, women had a constitutional right to vote.

Congress passed the 15th Amendment the same year to extend voting rights to non-White citizens. Members of the National Woman Suffrage Association, who had worked with abolitionists to demand universal suffrage, felt betrayed by women's lack of inclusion in the new amendment, said women's rights scholar Sally Roesch Wagner.

The suffragists' feeling that they were "thrown under the bus" was partly responsible for their next strategic move, said Wagner, executive director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation.

"Part of what's driving this is they're angry," she said. "They've been sold out."

With the presidential election approaching, Minor tried to register to vote in St. Louis's 6th District. As she expected, registrar Reese Happersett blocked her because she was not a "male citizen of the United States."

At the time, Wagner said, laws in every state made it illegal for women to vote.

Minor responded by filing a state lawsuit that her husband, attorney Francis Minor, had to co-sign because married women could not sue independently in Missouri until 1889. The couple argued in their complaint that the 14th Amendment established women's citizenship and that the Constitution "nowhere gives [states] the power to prevent" citizens from casting ballots.

The lower court decided against the Minors, and the pair appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court. That court ruled that the 14th Amendment gave voting rights to people recently freed from slavery but did not retract states' power to limit suffrage to male citizens.

Finally, the Supreme Court took up the case. Francis Minor told the justices in an oral presentation that his wife brought the lawsuit not only to advocate for her own rights but also to press for the rights of millions of others.

"It is impossible that this can be a republican government, in which one-half the citizens thereof are forever disenfranchised," he argued.

Chief Justice Morrison Waite issued the court's ruling in Minor v. Happersett in March 1875: Virginia Minor had always been a citizen, regardless of the 14th Amendment, and was entitled to citizenship's privileges and immunities. Voting, however, was not one of those benefits.

"No argument as to woman's need of suffrage can be considered," Waite said in the court's opinion. "We can only act upon her rights as they exist."

And, he added, "The Constitution of the United States does not confer the right of suffrage upon any one."

Matilda Joslyn Gage, then the president of the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), felt strongly that the Supreme Court was wrong. She argued at the association's next conference that the federal government's control of eight classes of voters showed that it, and not state governments, had the authority to determine who got to vote.

At the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, five NWSA officers pushed their way to the platform, presented to officials their Women's Declaration of Rights and conducted an unsanctioned reading of the document, which excoriated the federal government for limiting voting rights to men.

The dramatic presentation demonstrated that the movement had entered a new phase, kicked off by Virginia Minor. Wagner said the previous argument that women already had a constitutional right to vote crumbled under the weight of the Supreme Court's ruling.

"After that case, it's like, 'Boom,'" she said. "The bottom just falls out of it."

The suffragists, Wagner said, realized that the courts were not going to support their view that voting was their constitutional right - unless they could change the Constitution itself. From then on, the women had a new goal: adding to the venerated document the language that eventually became the 19th Amendment.
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Auto component maker Steel Strips Wheels on Thursday said it has received orders worth over USD 2,09,000 (about Rs 1.56 crore) for the US truck and caravan trailer market.

In a regulatory filing, the company said it has bagged "export orders for over 6,000 wheels for the US truck and caravan trailer market to be executed in August from its Chennai plant".

Steel Strips Wheels Ltd (SSWL) said the orders are worth USD 2,09,000.

It said similar orders are expected in times to come from other regular customers as the market remains normalcy.

"This will support further ramping up of production at Chennai steel wheels plant," it added.

Earlier this week, Steel Strips Wheels had received orders worth over USD 1.3 million (about Rs 9.76 crore) for 1.16 lakh wheels for the US caravan trailer market.

Last month, Steel Strips Wheels had said it will clock a revenue of more than Rs 325 crore in the current fiscal year with sale of over 10 lakh alloy wheels, based on current orders. This will represent over 300 per cent growth over last financial year.
Massachusetts health officials announced two more coronavirus deaths on Wednesday, bringing the statewide death toll to 8,438.

Officials also confirmed another 338 cases of the virus, for a total of at least 111,371 across Massachusetts. Thats based on 17,216 new molecular tests reported on Wednesday, according to the Department of Public Health.

The number of COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized in Massachusetts is 396, including 57 people in intensive care.

There were also another 102 probable cases of coronavirus reported on Wednesday, for a total of at least 8,272.

As of Wednesday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reporting roughly 4,748,806 cases of COVID-19 across the country, including 156,311 deaths. Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering is reporting 702,330 global deaths.

On Tuesday, health officials reported 438 new cases of the virus  the largest increase in several months. Massachusetts has been seeing an uptick in infections, which state officials have said could tied to small clusters caused by parties and instances of people ignoring the mask mandate, or not properly social distancing.

Gov. Charlie Baker on Tuesday said officials have not ruled out stricter regulations on businesses and reduced gathering sizes amid the increase in cases. He admitted that there has been some slippage in compliance with the public health guidance, and that officials are investigating the origins and causes of the clusters of infections.

An outbreak at Baystate Medical Center that started last week is just one such cluster. Hospital officials on Monday said least 55 people have tested positive. Baystate Health has since strengthened its rules for mask-wearing and distancing and reconfigured some indoor spaces after hospital officials traced a cluster of new cases there to a single employee who had been to a COVID-19 hotspot state.

Ten Falmouth lifeguards have also tested positive for the coronavirus after several of them had attended a recent party, Town Manager Julian Suso said on Monday. At least 10 others became infected in Chatham following a house party in July.

On Tuesday, DPH announced it would be removing Rhode Island from a list of states exempt from the governors travel order, citing an increase in infections there. To be exempt from the order, which requires that visitors quarantine for 14 days if they cannot produce a negative test result, a state must keep its positive test rate below 10 per 100,000 people and its seven-day average of positive tests below 5%.

Coronavirus in Mass.: See cases, maps, charts and resources

Here are the cases listed by county:

Barnstable County: 1,778

Berkshire County: 664

Bristol County: 9,255

Dukes County: 66

Essex County: 17,571

Franklin County: 407

Hampden County: 7,518

Hampshire County: 1,150

Middlesex County: 26,109

Nantucket County: 34

Norfolk County: 10,488

Plymouth County: 9,185

Suffolk County: 21,579

Worcester County: 13,497

Unknown location: 342

Related Content:
The Accidental Candidate In Belarus Who Is Trying To Unseat 'Europe's Last Dictator'

By Tony Wesolowsky August 05, 2020

Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who is hoping to unseat Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, Europe's longest-serving leader who has been called the continent's last dictator, stepped up to the microphone, gazed out at the crowd, and apologized.

"Sorry.... I'm kind of nervous. There are so many people here," the 37-year-old said as she began her address on July 24 in Navapolatsk, a city of some 100,000 in the north of the Eastern European country of some 9.5 million.

Tsikhanouskaya is running in the August 9 Belarusian presidential election, despite saying she does not really want the job and vowing to relinquish it quickly if she somehow wins.

She entered the race after her husband, Syarhey Tsikhanouski, a firebrand vlogger, was arrested and then barred from collecting signatures to get on the ballot.

He was one of many candidates -- three deemed serious challengers to Lukashenka -- barred from running by the Central Election Commission (CEC).

The 65-year-old Lukashenka, in power since 1994, is facing what many experts are calling his most serious challenge ever as he seeks a sixth term.

Belarus has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, and many blame Lukashenka, who refused to institute any lockdown measures, dismissing the virus as nothing more than "mass psychosis." The World Bank is predicting the economy will contract 4 percent this year, the biggest drop in 25 years.

With Lukashenka's popularity apparently waning, challengers stepped forward, drawing large crowds in Belarus, where unsanctioned rallies are usually dispersed by police. Since May, more than 1,100 people have been detained as Lukashenka vowed there would be no "Maidan," a reference to the 2014 protests in Ukraine that led to the ouster of a Moscow-friendly president.

Lukashenka has lashed out at the West, Poland, even longtime ally Russia, accusing them of fomenting unrest. Thirty-three Russian mercenaries were rounded up in what Lukashenka claimed was a plot to sow "instability" ahead of the vote, charges the Kremlin denied.

Campaign Taking Off

Despite her early doubts and nervous moments, the almost accidental candidate Tsikhanouskaya has managed to wow crowds across Belarus, seeming to tap into pent-up frustration with Lukashenka's handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the stagnant economy, which is still largely reliant on inefficient state-run firms.

Tsikhanouskaya's campaign has taken off, aided by two other high-profile women, in what has been hailed as a new wave of female political activism in conservative Belarus.

Veranika Tsapkala headed the campaign of husband, Valer, a former ambassador to Washington and the founder of Minsk's High Tech Park, who fled amid threats first to Moscow and then to Kyiv. The other woman to join Tsikhanouskaya's team was Maryya Kalesnikava, who led the stymied campaign of Viktar Babaryka, former board chairman at Russian-owned Belgazprombank.

Lukashenka has dismissed the three as "poor things" and contended Belarus was not ready for a woman as president. He's even suggested the constitution be changed to allow only those who served in the military -- virtually an all-boys club in Belarus -- be allowed to run for president.

Valer Karbalevich, a Belarusian political analyst based in Minsk, said Lukashenka let Tsikhanouskaya into the race, figuring she was no rival.

"He thinks that if Belarusians are forced to choose between voting for a housewife or voting for a wiser, more experienced politician, then even those who are skeptical of him, will, facing this choice, vote for him. That's his logic, his thinking," Kabalevich explained in July to Current Time, the Russian network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA.

However, the throngs at her rallies across Belarus suggest Tsikhanouskaya will be no pushover in the election, especially if it is free and fair, something no ballot under Lukashenka has ever been deemed by the West.

On July 30, some 63,000 people, according to the Belarusian NGO Vyasna, (Spring), turned out for a Tsikhanouskaya rally in Minsk. It has been called the biggest opposition gathering in the capital in decades.

It came hours after Tsikhanouskaya and other candidates were called in for a meeting with Belarusian security officials who warned them of "possible provocations" during the rest of the campaign, while announcing stepped-up security measures.

A day earlier on July 29, Belarusian officials announced 33 individuals from a Kremlin-linked private military company, Vagner, had been detained outside Minsk. Lukashenka claimed they had come to sow "instability" ahead of the vote, charges the Kremlin denied as absurd.

Ominously, Belarusian officials linked the 33 to Belarusian opposition leaders, including Tsikhanouski.

At the Minsk rally with her campaign's symbol of a heart, a clenched fist, and a victory sign in the background, Tsikhanouskaya said: "My husband, Syahey Tsikhanouski, is not a criminal."

"I entered politics not to seek power but to seek justice," she added.

She said Lukashenka was trying to discredit the opposition and justify a further crackdown by contending they were in cahoots with the mercenaries, adding Belarusians wouldn't buy Lukashenka's story.

"No one will believe that these hitmen have been dispatched here specifically for the election," Tsikhanouskaya told the crowd.

Tsikhanouskaya and her family have faced threats. In July, she moved her two children out of Belarus to an undisclosed European Union country amid fears for their safety.

Tsikhanouskaya told Current Time that despite facing moments of doubt, she no longer regrets her decision to enter the presidential race, even despite the threats.

"I see how many people come to our rallies and how many have wanted to come but just couldn't, or those who come whether I take part in it or not," she said. "It's a clear sign that people want change. People have woken up. They no longer want to live in fear and humiliation. They want to feel that they are citizens of their country. It's inspiring. I realize there are people behind me, around me, and ahead of me."

As his popularity wanes and the opposition rises, Lukashenka has sharpened his barbs.

In a speech to parliament on August 4, Lukashenka called his opponents well-paid "foreign agents" bent on returning Belarus to the "chaos" of the 1990s.

'She Was A Good Girl'

Tsikhanouskaya was born Svyatlana Pilipchuk on September 11, 1982, in Mikashevichy, some 200 kilometers south of Minsk, in a typical Soviet-style five-floor apartment block where her parents still reside.

"They live here, I think, at this entrance," one woman, who requested her name not be used, points to the grey, concrete brick building. "Yura and Valya Pilipchuk, a simple family. She is a cook and he is a driver. I still remember Svyata as a girl. What can I tell you? I will vote for peace," she said, making clear she will vote for Tsikhanouskaya.

Eva Ivanauna, a retired schoolteacher, says "everyone here is for Svyatlana," recounting how the would-be president was an exemplary person and student.

"I still remember her as a child. She was a good girl. There were never any problems with her. She didn't drink or smoke. She had a good upbringing. Her parents were good, down-to-earth people," Ivanauna said to RFE/RL's Belarus Service.

After graduating from Mazyr State Pedagogical University, Tsikhanouskaya met her future husband, Syarhey. After marrying, they moved to Minsk where she raised the kids while Syarhey turned more and more to exposing corruption on his YouTube channel. A Country For Living has nearly 270,000 subscribers.

Before his detention, Tsikhanouski was attracting big crowds across Belarus, many brandishing bedtime slippers to squash the "cockroach" Lukashenka, the epithet Tsikhanouski tarred him with.

It came as Belarusians used social media to mock the Belarusian leader, with "Sasha 3%" becoming a particularly popular meme, poking fun at Lukashenka's alleged low public support based on informal Internet polling.

While Tsikhanouskaya's candidacy may have been almost accidental, women were long overdue for a leading political role in Belarus, argued Ninina Stuzhynskaya, a Belarusian women's rights activist.

"I think Belarusian society has long been ripe for a woman in a leadership role," she told RFE/RL's Belarus Service in July. "The appearance of these women in the public arena is a beautiful thing. It's encouraging and optimistic."

Belarusian author and Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich has given her backing to Tsikhanouskaya, saying women in Belarus have often answered history's call, although they were later forgotten.

"When I wrote The Unwomanly Face Of War, about how millions of women fought in [World War II], I became convinced that women are at the forefront of their society," Alexievich told RFE/RL's Belarus Service. "They made sacrifices on the altar of victory, and after the war it was not appreciated and forgotten by the state and the people. I'd like that something like that doesn't happen again."

Tsikhanouskaya is not the only female candidate in the race. Hanna Kanapatskaya, who was an opposition member in parliament from 2016 to 2019, is also on the ballot. Despite her opposition bona fides, many analysts have dismissed her as a spoiler candidate.

Despite her early campaign jitters, Tsikhanouskaya has sharpened her political message.

In a speech on state-run television on July 28, Tsikhanouskaya blamed Lukashenka for poverty in the country, blaming it on his mismanagement of the economy. She vowed Belarus would no longer be poor and dependent.

"We say that we want a new president, and the government answers that there will be a 'Maidan,'" Tsikhanouskaya said, referring to the protests in Ukraine in 2014 that led to the ouster of the pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych. "We say that a majority of Belarusians want to live in a free, rich country, and the government threatens us with 'Maidan.'"

She's spoken little of foreign affairs. But Tsikhanouskaya has called for good ties with Russia while voicing opposition to any deeper integration.

"We want to be independent. We want to find friends and not enemies among other countries," she recently told a Russian news site.

Tsikhanouskaya says that if elected she will call for the release of all political prisoners, a return to the 1994 constitution as it was before Lukashenka stripped it of checks and balances, and crucially, a rerun of the presidential election including the barred candidates.

"I am not a politician," she has said. "I am going to perform my mission and quietly step aside, and Belarus will be ruled by a new, decent president."

Many Belarusians may think they've already found one.

Written by RFE/RL Senior Correspondent Tony Wesolowsky with material from RFE/RL Belarus Service's Yuri Drakakhrust and Current Time

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/the-accidental- candidate-in-belarus-who-is-trying-to-unseat- europe-s-last-dictator-/30767486.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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Prime Minister Narendra Modi dialed his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa late on Thursday and congratulated him on the successful conduct of parliamentary elections a day earlier. PM Modi commended the government and electoral institutions of Sri Lanka for effectively organising elections despite constraints of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Thank you, Prime Minister @PresRajapaksa! It was a pleasure to speak to you. Once again, many congratulations. We will work together to further advance all areas of bilateral cooperation and to take our special ties to ever newer heights. https://t.co/123ahoxlMo  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 6, 2020

PM Modi appreciated the Sri Lankan people for their enthusiastic participation in the elections, and said that this reflected the strong democratic values shared by both countries, a statement from the MEA said. He noted that the incoming results of the elections indicate an impressive electoral performance by Rajapaksa's Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party.



Recalling their cordial and fruitful previous interactions, the two leaders reiterated their shared commitment to strengthen the age-old and multi-dimensional India-Sri Lanka relationship. PM Modi informed Rajapaksa about the establishment of an international airport in the Buddhist pilgrimage city of Kushinagar in India and said that the city looked forward to welcoming visitors from Sri Lanka at an early date.



The leaders agreed to remain in close touch as both countries address the challenges posed by COVID-19 pandemic, and resolved to take bilateral relations to newer heights in the coming days.

READ | Sri Lanka Elections Pass Without Glitch Amid Virus

READ | Rohtang Tunnel Expected To Be Inaugurated By PM Modi In Last Week Of September: Jai Ram Thakur

Polls in Sri Lanka

More than 16 million people were eligible to vote to elect 196 lawmakers, with the rest being named from a national list according to the number of votes received by each party or independent group. The election was originally scheduled for April but was twice postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sri Lanka has largely contained the spread of the virus with 2,834 confirmed cases including 11 deaths. Counting starts Thursday and the final results are expected Friday.

At least four members of the family were running in the parliamentary election, and strong support for the Rajapaksas' party could add to their political dynasty.

READ | Basmati GI Tagging: Shivraj Chouhan Slams Punjab CM Amarinder Singh Over Letter To PM Modi

READ | 'Sushma Swaraj Served India Selflessly,' Says PM Modi On Her First Death Anniversary
RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das (PTI)

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das has launched a powerful weapon to fight the coronavirus crisisa one-time restructuring for all loans across sectors affected by the pandemic.

By allowing restructuring, the regulator allows banks to relax terms of a loan that can be done either by extending the payment period, cutting the rate of interest or by offering a payment holiday.

The bonanza, however, comes with riders to avert misuse and a major bad-loan shock. In the past, there have been instances of banks misusing loan recast schemes to clean up their books at a huge cost for the economy.

The details of restructuring will be decided by an expert panel that will be led by veteran banker KV Kamath.

Follow our LIVE blog for the latest updates from the RBI Monetary Policy statement

Long-pending demand

Banks and non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) in multiple meetings with the Reserve Bank and the government demanded a one-time restructuring of loans.

On June 26, Moneycontrol reported that the RBI would allow a one-time loan restructuring scheme taking into account the severe impact of the coronavirus crisis.

With the intent to facilitate the revival of real sector activities and mitigate the impact on the ultimate borrowers, it has been decided to provide a window under the Prudential Framework to enable the lenders to implement a resolution plan in respect of eligible corporate exposures without a change in ownership, and personal loans, while classifying such exposures as Standard subject to specified conditions, the RBI said.

The RBIs decision is important since the economy is under severe stress and many borrowers are on the verge of defaulting. Banks are expecting a major spike in their non-performing assets or bad loans when the moratorium period ends on August 31.

In its recent Financial Stability Report, the central bank cautioned that the gross NPAs in the banking system could shoot up to 14.7 percent by March 2021 in the worst-case scenario.

ALSO READ: RBI allows restructuring of MSME debt under existing framework until March 31 next year

How does the scheme work?

Only those borrowers whose accounts were classified as standard will be eligible for the restructuring, provided they didnt default for more than 30 days with any lending institution as on March 1, 2020.

Also, banks can invoke the resolution plan till December 31, 2020, which will have to be implemented within 180 days from the date of invocation.

Thirdly, lenders shall have to keep additional provisions of 10 percent on the post-resolution debt. Banks not signing the inter-creditor agreement (ICA) within 30 days from the date of invocation shall attract higher provisions of 20 percent.

What does it mean?

Though the RBI has allowed a one-time recast, there will be no free lunch for banks.

Banks will have to do this in a time-bound manner and only for genuinely stressed accounts (repayments overdue for not more than 30 days).

This means chronic defaulters cant be accommodated. Further, banks have to make additional provisions on post-restructuring debt. What this mean is that banks cannot misuse the resolution plan as in the past.

Also, lending institutions may allow extension of the residual tenor of the loan, with or without payment moratorium, by not more than two years.

What about personal loans?

With respect to personal loans, banks can invoke the resolution plan till December 31, 2020, and can implement within 90 days thereafter. The lending institutions are, however, encouraged to strive for early invocation in eligible cases, the RBI said.

The central bank has said stressed that micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) will be eligible under the existing framework, provided their accounts were classified as standard as on March 1, 2020. This restructuring will have to be implemented by March 31, 2021. However, there is already a debt restructuring scheme going on for MSMEs.

In short, banks and NBFCs can heave a sigh of relief with the RBI finally acknowledging their concern and admitting the demand for a one-time restructuring package.

At the same time, given the strict conditions laid out by the RBI, the scheme is unlikely to lead to a major cover-up of bad loans in the industry.
Dippin' Dots launched the cryogenics business in 2018 and has since experienced staggering growth, including manufacturing for the plant-based meat segment, pharmaceutical companies, probiotic brands and animal feed, among others that require high-volume cryogenic freezing.

The new 6,000 square-foot facility is located at 3865 Industrial Drive in Paducah, Kentucky. The $3.2 million project has been under construction for the past nine months and will add 45 new jobs once operating at full capacity. It was designed with efficiency in mind with the goal to duplicate anywhere in the world for future growth.

The Dippin' Dots cryogenics process uses liquid nitrogen to flash-freeze products that require high-quality standards. The process is suitable as a first step for any products that need to be freeze-dried. Industries that create probiotics, bacterial cultures and plant extractions are key examples. The small pellets provide the ideal surface area for freeze drying while maintaining the integrity of the media culture.

"We're excited about the progress we've made and believe there are numerous types of food products still untapped, such as companies that produce sauces or gravies for frozen meals. We've also developed the technology to freeze fresh cream and butter into beads that can be stored in the home freezer," said Stan Jones, Dippin' Dots Vice President of Development. "Another potential use of our technology is for freezing blood plasma and maintaining it at cryogenic temperatures until needed. We're excited to license our technology to help innovate further in other industries around the globe."

In addition to the new production facility in Kentucky, the Dippin' Dots cryogenic team can customize machines based on individual company needs. To date, the company has provided equipment to customers in the Netherlands, South Korea and France, and it is currently working with customers in Brazil and Germany for various applications.

With the additional plant, the Dippin' Dots facility can produce 2 million pounds of product a month. The original facility will be used solely for ice cream production.

"The impact COVID-19 has on businesses across the world, including Dippin' Dots, has obviously created drastic changes in the market and consumer habits. The need for businesses to adapt with unprecedented strategic alternatives is more important than ever. We feel lucky that because of our diversification due to the cryogenics business, our brand has been able to sustain the sales hit better than anticipated," said Scott Fischer, CEO of Dippin' Dots. "During this challenging time, we strategically supplemented our brand with the additional revenue stream from the cryogenics business. We know there's a bright future for more applications and that it's a win-win for Dippin' Dots when it comes to the strength of our company."

For additional information regarding Dippin' Dots Cryogenics, L.L.C., visit https://www.dippindots.com/cryogenics.html.

About Dippin' Dots, L.L.C.

Dippin' Dots has produced and distributed its flash frozen tiny beads of ice cream, yogurt, sherbet and flavored ice products since 1988. Made at the company's production facility in Paducah, Kentucky, Dippin' Dots distributes its unique frozen products in all 50 states and 7 countries through its franchised and direct distribution network. For more information, including franchise opportunities, visit www.dippindots.com.

SOURCE Dippin' Dots

Related Links

https://www.dippindots.com


A 68-year-old Bergen County man who was found dead in his yard on Wednesday may have died from electrocution as he cleaned up after Tropical Storm Isaias, police said.

The man, whose name was not released, was found about 10:30 a.m. outside his Demarest Avenue home in River Vale, police Chief Sean Scheidle told Eyewitness News.

Officers arrived at the scene and found (the homeowner) deceased, Scheidle said. Its being investigated as a possible electrocution.

Police said there were low-hanging wires in the area of the mans home and believe he was doing yard work when he was electrocuted.

The death, which could be the first in New Jersey related to the tropical storm, is under investigation by members of the Bergen County Prosecutors Office.

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Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Guinean President Alpha Conde on Thursday gave his strongest signal yet he will seek a third term in office -- a prospect opened up by a revamped constitution that critics say sidesteps the country's two-term limits.

Here is a factbox on other leaders in sub-Saharan Africa who have sought to extend their time in office through constitutional change.

Success

- Comoros: A constitutional referendum in 2018 enabled President Azali Assoumani to be elected a second time the following year, in polls marred by allegations of fraud.

- Rwanda: Constitutional reforms voted by referendum in 2015 allowed President Paul Kagame to secure a new term in 2017 and in theory rule until 2034.

- Republic of Congo (Brazzaville): Landslide approval in 2015 on constitutional changes allowed veteran ruler Denis Sassou Nguesso to run for a third term. He was re-elected in 2016.

- Zimbabwe: A new constitution adopted in 2013 let Robert Mugabe stand in another election, which he won. He was forced to step down in 2017, after 37 years in power, and died in 2019.

- Djibouti: Parliament approved a constitutional amendment in 2010 allowing President Ismael Omar Guelleh, in power since 1999, to run for a third term. He was re-elected in 2011 and 2016.

- Cameroon: Parliament in 2008 revised the constitution, scrapping term limits on presidents. Paul Biya, in power since 1982, was elected for a seventh term in 2018.

- Uganda: Constitutional changes in 2005 removed limits on presidential terms. In 2019, the Supreme Court also confirmed the quashing of the age limit for the presidency, allowing Yoweri Museveni, in power since 1986, to stand for re-election in 2021.

- Chad: Idriss Deby Itno has been in power since 1990 thanks to a constitutional revision in 2005, adopted after a disputed referendum. In 2016 he was re-elected for a fifth term.

- Togo: A constitutional amendment in 2002 allowing the president to seek reelection without limit paved the way for Gnassingbe Eyadema, in power since 1967, to win another term. When he died in 2005, his son Faure Gnassingbe took over and has since won four contested elections.

Failure

- Burkina Faso: The announcement in 2014 that long-serving president Blaise Compaore sought to extend his rule beyond 30 years sparked mass protests. Compaore was forced to stand down.

- Zambia: Frederick Chiluba was forced in 2001 to bow to popular pressure after trying to change the constitution in order to get a third term.

- Malawi: Parliament in 2002 blocked Bakili Muluzi from seeking a third mandate in the 2004 elections.

Other cases

- Burundi was plunged into a bloody political crisis in which at least 1,200 were killed, after Pierre Nkurunziza won a highly controversial third term in 2015. He stunned observers by not standing for re-election in 2020, despite a referendum in 2018 allowing him to do so. The ruling party's candidate Evariste Ndayishimiy was elected in May. Nkurunziza died on June 8.

- In Ivory Coast, Alassane Ouattara, in power since 2011, announced in March he would not run in the October election, though an earlier change to the constitution he claimed gave him the right to do so. Amadou Gon Coulibaly was nominated as the ruling party's candidate but he died suddenly in July and Ouattara has been under pressure to run.
Mumbai:

Terming taxation laws in the country as ill-defined, Niti Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya on Sunday called for removing ambiguities in them so as to do away with discretion of the tax officer.

He also said that demonetisation of high value currency is just one step to combat black money, and more needs to be done.

Tax reform is really important to curb black money, he said at a panel discussion in Mumbai.

More simplification means reduction and presumably elimination of the many exemptions under the existing laws. Also, we need to spell out many of these rules and laws explicitly. In our case the tax laws are often ill-defined. That of course leads to scope for discretions, he added.

He said tax reforms like reduction in stamp duty are necessary to stop generation of black money in the system and that this should be done at the earliest following the demonetisation of high value banknotes.

Demonetisation is one of the steps to stop creation of black money but a lot more needs to be done, said the academic-turned planner.

Underlining the need for removing ambiguities in tax laws, he said: We have to go back, start looking at those tax laws, if there is a way to make them precise enough so that it is not left to the discretion of the tax officer but the law itself is clear enough that the taxpayer can figure out rather than having to negotiate with the tax officer.

Calling for the need to bring in reforms related to stamp duties to stop black money, Panagariya said: Stamp duties vary widely across the states and there is need to look at that. If you keep the stamp duties too high, that encourages under the table real estate transactions.

Panagariya said demonetisation was not done completely out of the blue but it was part of the Prime Ministers promise to combat corruption.

This was preceded by at least half-a-dozen steps against corruption such as appointing SIT (after the Supreme Court asked it to do) to probe black money stashed away aboard, an income disclosure scheme that ended on September 30 and amendments to the Benami Property Act, he said.

On the impact of notes ban on growth, he admitted that there have been some dislocation in the short term but he was quick to add that some dataprints suggest that industrial activity is rising.

Despite many economists suggesting that the governments claim of a bounty has not fructified, with close to Rs 11 trillion (Rs 11 lakh crore) of the Rs 14 trillion of banned money already reaching bank accounts, he claimed that demonetisation will translate into a lot of extra revenue for the government.

He also called for creating an ecosystem in which the labour-intensive industry can flourish and hoped that the proposed coastal employment zones may play an important role in creating such an environment.

FULL COVERAGE: BLACK MONEY CRACKDOWN

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WeedMD enters exclusive partnership to produce Mary's Medicinals in Canada

Mary's Medicinals innovative product portfolio to be produced and distributed exclusively in Canada by WeedMD

Mary's Medicinals innovative product portfolio to be produced and distributed exclusively in Canada by WeedMD

Award-winning products to be manufactured by CX Industries in Canada starting Q4 2020, for sale across all WeedMDs medical and adult-use channels



The addition of topicals, transdermal patches, and gel pens expands WeedMDs line of Cannabis 2.0 products for exclusive distribution to consumers across all Canadian markets

TORONTO, Aug. 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WeedMD Inc. (TSX-V:WMD) (OTCQX:WDDMF) (FSE:4WE) (WeedMD or the Company), a federally-licensed producer and distributor of medical-grade cannabis, is pleased to announce it has entered into an exclusive licensing, manufacturing and distribution agreement (the Agreement) with premium, U.S.-based cannabis wellness house, MM Technology Holdings, LLC, owner of Marys Brands, and the acclaimed product line, Marys Medicinals (Marys Brands or Marys).

Under the terms of the Agreement, as Marys sole Canadian partner, WeedMD will manufacture a suite of Marys Medicinals products in-house with its own input biomass at its state-of-the-art extraction hub CX Industries later this year. WeedMD will also market, sell and distribute Marys Medicinals products across Canadas provincial adult-use and direct-to-consumer medical channels as it looks to expand new cannabis offerings to address an underserved wellness and medical market segment. Widely recognized for its innovative portfolio of delivery methods, Marys suite of cannabis products includes transdermal gels and patches and topicals.

As we move into the next level of product development, its imperative that we strategically partner with established brands that share our core values and Mary's Brands offers a superior product line that is backed by a team truly dedicated to ensuring the quality, integrity and efficacy of its product offerings, said Angelo Tsebelis, CEO of WeedMD. Were proud to be selected as Marys exclusive Canadian producer and distributor. With our cultivation platform and CX extraction operations fully ramped-up, there's the added pride of developing these renowned products in-house as we expand with new cannabis formats into a lucrative, yet underserved consumer segment.

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Were thrilled to be partnering with WeedMD and its CX extraction team as we execute on our long-term growth strategy to expand the Marys Medicinals brand into Canada, said Jacques Panis, CEO of Marys Brands. Our continued desire to innovate on additional product offerings makes this partnership fitting as we look to collaborate with a strong, experienced team that brings unparalleled expertise in cultivation and extraction along with a proven ability to capture unique, next-level distribution channels.

Check here for upcoming corporate events and to access WeedMDs latest Investor Presentation and latest Corporate Update Video .

About Marys Brands

Mary's Brands, founded in 2013 and known for its award-winning transdermal technology found in its cannabis patch and transdermal dispensing gel pen, is dedicated to pioneering and delivering natural, THC, CBD and other cannabinoid-infused products to positively impact the lives of both people and pets. To learn more about Mary's Brands, visit Marys Medicinals here .

About WeedMD Inc.

WeedMD Inc. is the publicly-traded parent company of WeedMD RX Inc. and Starseed Medicinal Inc., federally-licensed producers of cannabis products for both the medical and adult-use markets. The Company owns and operates a 158-acre state-of-the-art greenhouse, outdoor and processing facility located in Strathroy, Ontario as well as CX Industries Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary which specializes in cannabis extraction from the Companys fully-licensed 26,000 sq. ft. Aylmer, Ontario processing facility. With the addition of Starseed, a medical-centric operator based in Bowmanville, Ontario, WeedMD has expanded its multi-channeled distribution strategy. Starseeds industry-first, exclusive partnership with LiUNA, the largest construction union in Canada, along with other employers and union groups complements WeedMDs direct sales to medical patients. The Company maintains strategic relationships in the seniors market and supply agreements with Shoppers Drug Mart as well as six provincial distribution agencies where adult-use brands Color Cannabis and Saturday are sold.

Follow WeedMD, Color Cannabis & Starseed:

LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/company/weedmd

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WeedMD

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/weedmd/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/callitcolor/

&

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/starseedca/

For further information, please contact:

For Investor Enquiries:

Valter Pinto

Managing Director

KCSA Strategic Communications

1-212-896-1254

weedmd@kcsa.com

For Media Enquiries:

Marianella delaBarrera

VP, Communications & Corporate Affairs

416-897-6644

marianella@weedmd.com

To learn more, visit us at www.weedmd.com

Forward Looking Information This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation which are based upon WeedMD's current internal expectations, estimates, projections, assumptions and beliefs and views of future events. Forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "expect", "likely", "may", "will", "should", "intend", "anticipate", "potential", "proposed", "estimate" and other similar words, including negative and grammatical variations thereof, or statements that certain events or conditions "may", "would" or "will" happen, or by discussions of strategy.

The forward-looking information in this news release is based upon the expectations, estimates, projections, assumptions and views of future events which management believes to be reasonable in the circumstances. Forward-looking information includes estimates, plans, expectations, opinions, forecasts, projections, targets, guidance or other statements that are not statements of fact. Forward-looking information in this news release include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to internal expectations, expectations with respect to actual production volumes, expectations for future growing capacity and the completion of any capital project or expansions. Forward-looking information necessarily involve known and unknown risks, including, without limitation, risks associated with general economic conditions; adverse industry events; loss of markets; future legislative and regulatory developments; inability to access sufficient capital from internal and external sources, and/or inability to access sufficient capital on favourable terms; the cannabis industry in Canada generally; the ability of WeedMD to implement its business strategies; the COVID-19 pandemic; competition; crop failure; and other risks.

Any forward-looking information speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and, except as required by law, WeedMD does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for WeedMD to predict all such factors. When considering this forward-looking information, readers should keep in mind the risk factors and other cautionary statements in WeedMD's Annual Information Form dated June 21, 2019 (the "AIF") and other disclosure documents of WeedMD filed with the applicable Canadian securities regulatory authorities on SEDAR at www.sedar.com . The risk factors and other factors noted in the AIF and other disclosure documents could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those described in any forward-looking information.

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

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c3552686-e5c6-443c-b5ca-7f373b1442b6




Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 17:37:13|Editor: huaxia

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A pedestrian walks past a giant mural painting dedicated to healthcare workers in the Besiktas district in Istanbul, Turkey, on Aug. 6, 2020. A Turkish street artist, in Turkey's most populous city Istanbul, has dedicated a giant mural painting to healthcare workers who have been fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. The artist, known as No More Lies, created his art over a 46-meter-long and 6-meter high wall in the Ortakoy neighborhood in the Besiktas district, local authorities told Xinhua on Thursday. (Photo by Yasin Akgul/Xinhua)

ISTANBUL, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- A Turkish street artist, in Turkey's most populous city Istanbul, has dedicated a giant mural painting to healthcare workers who have been fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

The artist, known as No More Lies, created his art over a 46-meter-long and 6-meter high wall in the Ortakoy neighborhood in the Besiktas district, local authorities told Xinhua on Thursday.

Collaborating with the Besiktas municipality, the artist depicted the coronavirus as being defeated by the hard works of the doctors, who were seen standing gloriously right at the center of the wall with their protective suits, masks, and goggles.

"We wanted to praise our healthcare professionals with an art piece and honor the memory of the ones we have lost in this difficult struggle," Riza Akpolat, mayor of the Besiktas municipality, said at a press release.

The municipality has so far reserved two dormitories with a total of 185-bed capacity for healthcare professionals who shun from going home over fears of bringing the virus to their loved ones, the mayor also noted, adding that all kinds of support will be continuously offered to them.

The country's confirmed 1,178 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, taking the number of total infections to 236,112, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced.

The total death toll, meanwhile, reached 5,784. Enditem
cochetel

New shipwreck off the coast of Nouadhibou #Mauritania of approximately 40 persons on board, there is one survivor (from Guinea). UNHCR & IOM along with authorities & partners are trying to step up efforts to prevent such tragedies, but traffickers keep lying to their clients.
WASHINGTON - Several senators raised concerns Thursday about a Pentagon nominee's links to a firm that intelligence officials have said may have trained a Saudi hit team that killed Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

Louis Bremer, a former Navy SEAL who serves as a managing director at the investment firm Cerberus Capital Management, is the Trump administration's nominee to become assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low intensity conflict (SOLIC), a key role overseeing elite operations across the globe.

He is one of a number of nominees the administration hopes to put in place just months before the November election, filling long-vacant senior positions, despite resistance in some cases from Senate Democrats.

Appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee alongside several other civilian nominees, Bremer faced questions from Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Sen. Angus King, I-Maine), about his role at Tier 1 Group, a Cerberus subsidiary on whose board he sits.

Cerberus co-founder Stephen Feinberg is close to President Donald Trump.

Kaine referred to a March 2019 column by Post columnist David Ignatius, who wrote that the CIA had warned other government agencies that Tier 1 may have trained some members of the Saudi team that traveled to Turkey in October 2018, where the squad killed and dismembered Khashoggi after he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul to get documents necessary for his upcoming marriage.

The CIA later concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered the killing of Khashoggi, a Virginia resident who was a prominent critic of the kingdom's leadership. Saudi officials have characterized the assassins as rogue operatives.

Bremer said he was not aware of Ignatius's article and did not know whether Tier 1 had investigated whether the allegation in the article was correct. He said he would check his records and report back to the committee.

"So until today, you had not been aware that an allegation had been made that a company on which you sit as a director, with a small board of directors, had potentially been involved in training Saudis who were participants in the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi?" Kaine asked.

"Senator, I don't have any recollection of that," Bremer replied. "There is a possibility that we did have a discussion about it. It's a number of years ago."

Speaking later in the hearing, King said he found it "incredibly hard to believe that a five-person board of this company would not have had a fire drill when this allegation arose."

Bremer then said it was "likely" that a probe may have occurred. "I'm not trying to hide any investigation that we may have done or not done," he said.

Later in the day, Kaine issued a statement to Breaking Defense, saying "senators deserve answers to my questions about Tier 1's role in training any Saudis implicated in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. I don't feel comfortable moving forward on this nomination until I get answers."

Aides to both senators said the men would make decisions about whether they would support Bremer's nomination once the nominee had responded to questions about the matter.

If Bremer were confirmed to the SOLIC job, one of his chief responsibilities would be helping shepherd Special Operations forces toward policy changes after years of scandals including assaults and drug use.
There is a danger, however, that, instead of following the juvenile justice reforms to their logical conclusion, these reforms will have the effect of deepening the divide between the special, supportive system provided to children, and the harsh, punitive system now reserved for adults. Young adults routinely face lifelong sentences for crimes that manifest the same forms of immaturity as those committed by teenagers. Our prisons are full of these offenders, many of whom are held long into old age, when the arc of human development has carried even the most serious offender long past any inclination to offend.
Text an eGift to popular national brands with GiftYa. The addition of these brands allows corporate businesses and consumers to give a gift anywhere across the U.S. As we add more and more national merchants every day, it allows us to grow our partnerships and provide a meaningful gift option to our users. - Jason Wolfe

Personalized video and textable eGift service, GiftYa, announced the addition of popular national retailers to their lineup of gifting options. GiftYa offers contact-free gifting capabilities where consumers can text an eGift to national merchants such as Chipotle, Papa Johns, Lowes, and more. All they have to do is choose the merchant, select an amount, and personalize the gift with a photo, video, or uniquely designed wrapper.

While GiftYa offers a wide variety of local restaurants, shops, and personal service eGift options, adding national brands was an intentional next step in the companys development as it provides everyday consumers and businesses a flexible gifting option.

Jason Wolfe, founder of Telos Gifting LLC which is the parent company of GiftYa commented, The addition of these brands allows corporate businesses and consumers to give a gift anywhere across the U.S. As we add more and more national merchants every day, it allows us to grow our partnerships and provide a meaningful gift option to our users.

Visit GiftYas National Brands page to view the latest merchant offers.

ABOUT GIFTYA

GiftYa, a Telos Gifting, LLC company, is reinventing gift giving with a meaningful no loss, no waste e-gift. GiftYa enables you to text a personalized gift for any national or local merchant in the U.S. within seconds. Visit https://www.giftya.com for more information.

ABOUT TELOS GIFTING, LLC

Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Telos Gifting occupies the building at 495 Mansfield Ave in Greentree, Pennsylvania. Telos Gifting, LLC, owns and manages PerfectGift.com, GiftYa.com and GiftCardGranny. Telos Gifting was formed in 2019 by Wolfe, LLC a fin-tech incubator, to re-enter the gift card market after selling GiftCards.com in 2016.
Panaji, Aug 6 : The Union Ministry of Jal Shakti has appointed the National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee to study the salinity in Goa's Mhadei river, according to Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.

"Moreover, you may also recall the discussions held on March 6, in respect of the Mahadayi River Water Dispute and as discussed in the meeting, taking into account the concerns raised by you regarding issue of salinity in Mahadayi river, this ministry has assigned National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee to take up the study of salinity of Mahadayi river and submit a report to this Ministry," Shekhawat said in a letter to Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, which was released by the CMO to the media on Thursday.

Sawant in March this year, had written to Shekhawat, requesting the Union Jal Shakti Ministry to give the Goa government an opportunity to plead its case against a series of dam projects proposed by the Karnataka government across the Mhadei, an inter-state river which spans across Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Karnataka's proposal is currently being examined by the Union Ministry.

In its letter to the Union Ministry in March, Sawant had said that the dams were intended to divert water from the Mhadei river into the depleted basin of the Malaprabha river (also in Karnataka).

The diversion, Sawant had said, would lead to increased salinity in the Mhadei river and also caused "ecological devastation" in the state.
Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das said that the real GDP growth of the country is expected to remain in the contraction zone. "Real GDP in the first half of the year is expected to remain in the contraction zone. For the year 2021 as a whole real GDP growth is also estimated to be negative," said Governor Das during the MPC presser on Thursday.

Das said that in case of an early containment of the COVID-19 spread, there could be an upside to the outlook. "More protracted spread of the pandemic, deviations from the forecast of a normal monsoon, and global financial market volatility are the key downside risks," he added.

"As regards the outlook for growth, the MPC noted that the recovery of the rural economy is expected to be robust, buoyed by the progress in kharif sowing. Manufacturing firms expect domestic demand to recover gradually from Q2 and to sustain through Q1 2021-22. On the other hand, consumer confidence turned more pessimistic in July relative to the preceding round of the Reserve Bank's survey. External demand is expected to remain anaemic under the weight of the global recession and 5 contractions in global trade," Das stated.

He said that the MPC has noted that in such an environment of unprecedented stress, supporting recovery of the economy would assume primacy in the conduct of the monetary policy. "While the space for further monetary policy is available, it is important to use it judiciously to maximise the beneficial effects on the underlying economy," Das highlighted.

Das said there were signs of recovery across the world. "Monetary Policy Committee noted that in India too, economic activity had started to recover, but surges of fresh infections have forced fresh lockdowns, hence several high-frequency indicators have levelled off," he added.

Additionally, the MPC putting all debates to rest, left the repo rate unchanged at 4 per cent and would maintain an accommodative stance.

Also read: RBI keeps repo rate unchanged at 4%, maintains status quo
A total of 10 more hurricanes in the next four months - thats what the latest Atlantic storm forecast is calling for.

According to a report by Tampa Bay Times, Colorado State University, in its updated August hurricane forecast released Wednesday, predicts an even more active storm season through the remainder of this year.

It forecasts a total of 12 hurricanes, five of which would be major hurricanes of Category 3 strength or greater with sustained winds exceeding 111 mph - powerful enough to damage buildings, destroy trees and cause massive power and water loss, the report said.

The report said that total includes the two hurricanes that have already formed in the first 65 days of storm season. Both Hanna and Isaias were Category 1 storms that formed in July, which is traditionally a slow part of the storm season.

Seasonal forecast from @ColoradoStateU increased & now calls for extremely active 2020 Atlantic #hurricane season: 24 named storms (including 9 that have already formed), 12 hurricanes (including 2 that have already formed) & 5 major (Cat 3+) hurricanes:https://t.co/wL1t2D2mgx pic.twitter.com/DfZgG3CAyC  Philip Klotzbach (@philklotzbach) August 5, 2020

As we enter hurricane seasons busiest months - late August through early October - the new forecast raises the prediction of named storms from 16 to 24. Hurricane season officially ends Nov. 30, but storms can still form through December, the report said.

The report noted that Colorado State research scientist Philip Klotzbach said rather than focusing on the rise in named storms, instead, worry about the number of hurricanes.

What is big is forecasting 10 additional hurricanes after Aug. 5, he said. This is the most named storms and hurricanes weve ever forecast in an outlook, the report quoted.

The report said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is set to announce its latest Atlantic forecast on Thursday - another important update to watch. In May, its scientists had forecast 13 to 19 named storms, six to 10 hurricanes and three to six major storms, which is any storm Category 3 or greater on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane scale, the report said.

How will COVID-19 impact evacuations?

Mass evacuations will become especially risky, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The report said that emergency planners ask Floridians to hunker down at home if possible, and to only evacuate if absolutely necessary. Save that space for those who truly need it, because shelters will need more room to practice social isolation.

The CDC is offering tips for this pandemic-hurricane season.

What will be required at shelters?

Masks will be required at Florida storm shelters. The report said that two cloth masks per person (one to wear and one to wash), will be required for those who check into shelters. Also required to bring will be sanitizer and anything else needed to stay safe from the virus. Shelters will practice social distancing, the report said.

What about those who test positive for the virus?

According to the report, those who test positive for the virus or are symptomatic will be separated and may be sheltered in motel rooms.

How should one prepare?

The Tampa Bay Times report said that all Floridians are expected to stock seven days worth of food, medicine and water, which is how long officials expect it will take to re-supply after a direct strike.

According to the report, if 12 hurricanes were to actually form, 2020 would be the worst year since the historically catastrophic 2005 storm season, which saw a record 15 hurricanes form, six of which made landfall, including Hurricane Katrina, the most destructive storm on record.

What is the reason for the new more robust forecast?

The new, more robust forecast is the result of Atlantic waters off the coast of western Africa now running about  degree warmer than normal in celsius, Klotzbach said. Its a common phenomenon that accelerated in July.

It doesnt seem like that much of a difference, Klotzbach said. But it is for the tropics.

One reason for increase in CSU Atlantic #hurricane season forecast is extremely warm tropical Atlantic sea surface temps. Currently 4th warmest on record (since 1982), trailing 2005, 2010 & 2017. Warmer water means more fuel for storms, also typically more atmospheric instability pic.twitter.com/X2S0HDlaBX  Philip Klotzbach (@philklotzbach) August 5, 2020

The waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the eastern seaboard along the North Atlantic are already warm, but Colorado State scientists are concerned by the recent warming of the Atlantic from Africa to the Windward and Leeward Islands, the report said.

Klotzbach said that is the result of a synergy between wind and water. Stronger winds blowing across that Atlantic region would help cool the waters and prevent that  of a degree rise. Stronger shear would also help prevent storms from forming.

But the water isnt being cooled because the winds are weaker, and theres less chance of tamping down future storms from forming - a cyclical process that feeds on itself, the report said.

When the temperatures are warm the shear tends to be low and feeds back into warmer temperatures and less shear, Klotzbach said. That is what they call a positive feedback loop, where one condition feeds the other to create hurricane favorable conditions, the report quoted.

The report noted another factor spawning the more robust forecast: The Saharan Air Layer is receding, so there will be less Saharan dust plumes blowing off the African coast and hampering the formation of Atlantic storms.

Although it was already an active storm season before the new forecast: a record nine named storms (including Hannah and Isaias), and the most to form by July 30 since the satellite era started in 1966, the report states that the number that really matters is how many hurricanes that actually make landfall - or the named storms that come close enough to whip a region with wind, rain and flooding.

Be prepared.

A hyperactive forecast raises the odds of one or multiple storms tearing through the Atlantic, Caribbean Sea or Gulf of Mexico and reaching Florida, the report said. However, there is no correlation between seasonal predictions and actual hurricane strikes - a destructive storm could make landfall in any year, so we need to be prepared.

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Rest assured, Pat Mastroianni misses being in comic cons as much as fans miss going to them.

So to help fill the void during the pandemic, the Degrassi High star has teamed with Niagara Falls Comic Con for a free movie night on Queen Street in Niagara Falls Aug. 26.

Following a screening of Schools Out, the beloved (and somewhat controversial) 1992 made-for-TV movie that ended Degrassi Highs two-year run, hell host a Q&A with fans.

Mastroianni played popular slacker Joey Jeremiah on both Degrassi High and Degrassi Junior High, appearing in 67 total episodes. He then reprised the character for 87 episodes of Degrassi: The Next Generation.

Niagara Falls Comic Con co-owners Chris Dabrowski and James Ponce were fans of the series and brought Mastroianni to town for the 2015 show. It was his first ever Comic Con and he was hooked.

I owe (Chris) and James a huge debt, he says. Theyve been such huge fans and supporters and always invite me out for fun events. This is just another one of their great ideas.

Fans are encouraged to bring their own lawn chairs for the screening which starts at 8 p.m. on the promenade between St. Lawrence and Crysler avenues.

The format is similar to what Mastroianni has been doing for years in theatres. Its normally a nostalgic night of mingling with fans, but COVID-19 has forced some changes. Its now outdoors with physical distancing, and while there wont be any handshaking and up-close photos, it will still be a night full of Degrassi memories.

Ive been riding this wave of nostalgia for the past few years because of all of these conventions and because were all at the age now where life is just so weird that we want to escape, he says.

Just to look back at a simpler time. I think thats why comic cons are so popular right now. Its another way to celebrate nostalgia and have a distraction for a few hours.

Despite his callous attitude at times, Joey Jeremiah was one of the shows most popular characters. After multiple seasons of arrogance and multiple bad decisions, his come-uppance in Schools Out rattled fans. In fact, much of the Degrassi cast saw their characters take a dark turn in what was essentially the franchises final episode for nine years.

We were at our peak in terms of viewership and popularity (and) the series had to end unfortunately at that time, says Mastroianni. Many of us were heading off to university and wed done our time on the show. We felt, lets go out with a bang.

The writers created an amazing story plot and even we, after reading the script, were kind of like, Wow! This really is dark.

RELATED STORIES Niagara Region A Degrassi and Drake reunion for Niagara's Melissa McIntyre

The franchise continued with The Next Generation from 2001 to 2014, which starred Drake and Niagaras Melissa McIntyre, and Degrassi: The Next Class from 2016 to 2017.

The franchises longevity has created fan bases for different eras. Mastroianni says fans of the early seasons love them for their simplicity and made-in-Canada teen angst.

We are the last of an analog generation, he says. We cant go back to a time without the internet and social media. We really did have an innocence that cannot be duplicated again.

I sort of miss that simple world that we lived in.
HALIFAXBy now, millions across the world have watched the videos, horror-struck  a burning building in Beirut suddenly obscured by an incredible blast sending shockwaves that raze large portions of the city, killing hundreds and injuring thousands.

In those videos, a pillar of grey smoke, flecked with occasional orange flashes, rises in the distance. Suddenly, there is a violent explosion  a black, red and orange burst of smoke and flame that is almost immediately swallowed by a rapidly expanding white cloud as a shockwave condenses water in the air.

In some videos, the shockwave can be seen travelling through the city until it reaches the camera with a deafening boom, throwing the person recording it to the ground.

For those in Nova Scotia, the images echo a cultural memory from more than 100 years ago  an explosion that is forever imprinted into the DNA of the city of Halifax.

On the morning of Dec. 6, 1917, in the narrowest part of the strait connecting Halifax Harbour to the Bedford Basin, the Norwegian ship SS Imo collided at low speed with the SS Mont-Blanc, a French ship fully laden with high explosives en route to Bordeaux.

The collision started a fire on the deck of the Mont-Blanc, which quickly grew out of control. Twenty minutes later, the French ship, drifting toward Halifaxs North End, exploded.

It was considered the largest man-made explosion of the preatomic age.

Nearly everything within an 800-metre radius was wiped clean. The explosion destroyed buildings, grounded boats and flung the Mont-Blancs half-ton anchor more than three kilometres. The shockwave shattered glass in Truro, 100 kilometres away, and was felt as far away as Prince Edward Island. The force of the blast exposed the harbour floor briefly. The resultant tsunami, rising more than 18 metres over the normal high-water mark, wiped out the Mikmaq community in Tufts Cove on the other side of the harbour.

Two thousand people died in the explosion, another 9,000, by estimate, were injured.

In Beirut, the reported number of injured is already in the thousands. The death toll, now in the hundreds, is expected to rise significantly.

For Jack Rozdilsky, parallels between the two events are apparent.

Rozdilsky, an associate professor of disaster and emergency management at York University, was also part of a group researching the 1917 Halifax Explosion ahead of the 100th anniversary of that event.

Through watching video from the Beirut explosion and his research into the Halifax explosion, hes observed a number of similarities.

A large explosion in a port city

In both cases, a massive blast occurred in port cities with densely populated urban areas nearby. In Beiruts case, the cause is apparently being traced to a warehouse of explosive ammonium nitrate. In the case of the Halifax Explosion, the cause was a ship full of high explosives.

In both cases, the disaster was exacerbated by the combination of unsafely stored hazardous materials in proximity to dense populations.

A massive chemical explosion

In the Halifax Explosion, the Mont-Blanc, a French munitions ship, was loaded with more than 2,600 tonnes of high explosives, including TNT and the explosive picric acid. The collision with the SS Imo sparked a fire fuelled by the benzene tanks on the deck of the Mont-Blanc. Minutes later, as the Mont-Blanc drifted toward Pier 6 in Halifax Harbour, the fire ignited the munitions on board. The resulting explosion had the equivalent energy of about 2.9 kilotons of TNT.

In Beirut, some reports suggest welding work on a warehouse may have been responsible for the initial blaze. Whatever the cause, it appears that fire was the trigger for the detonation of 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, used both in fertilizers and in bomb making. Timothy McVeigh used less than two tonnes in the 1995 bombing of an Oklahoma City federal building, which killed 168 people.

The nature of injuries

There is a reason for the numerous social media videos of the Beirut blast: Its because people focused their cameras on the initial fire from what they thought was a safe distance. It was while they were photographing the initial plume of smoke  from their apartment balconies, cars and boats  that the second, much larger blast occurred.

In a similar vein, in Halifax, the Mont-Blanc caught fire and drifted for 20 minutes toward the shore. As the crew abandoned ship, people lined the shore to watch the spectacle. And when the munitions on board the Mont-Blanc blew, all those people  on the shores, through the windows of their homes  were staring directly at it.

According to reports, some 1,000 people  one in 50 in Halifax at the time  lost some or all of their sight. More than 200 lost one eye, and dozens more lost both. And hundreds were left with glass shards embedded in their eyes.

For the medium term, after the Halifax Explosion, there was a global shortage of glass eyes, said Rozdilsky.

The explosion was the seminal event in the founding of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind.

A similar pattern may emerge in Beirut, said Rozdilsky, given the number of people who were apparently watching the initial fire. Videos of many of the victims post-explosion show facial injuries.

The severity of the disaster may take a while to fully emerge

Almost immediately following the Halifax Explosion, a blizzard hit the city. Aside from hindering search-and-rescue efforts, it also made determining the extent of the disaster difficult.

From looking at the pictures coming out of Beirut, I might suggest that it may take a while for the enormity of this disaster to set in, said Rozdilsky. We know that this is a catastrophe. But the exact scope of this catastrophe may take days, if not weeks, to determine.

The need for aid from outside

Reports from Beirut are suggesting that hospitals and first-responders are past capacity in the aftermath of the explosion, both from the sheer number of victims and from damage to the citys infrastructure. And that means help, both medical and first-responder help, will have to come in from outside of Beirut.

Its a similar situation to what occurred in Halifax, said Rozdilsky. In the wake of the explosion in the harbour, the fire department was destroyed, the local medical facilities were destroyed and immediate aid was delayed because so many of the components of the relief effort had to come in from all over the country.

Homelessness

Theres another thing that troubles Rozdilsky  shelter. Reports coming out of Beirut suggest that a quarter million people are homeless due to the explosion.

In Beirut, this is definitely going to be a problem, because we know it was a problem in Halifax, he said.

The 25,000 left homeless after the Halifax blast had to deal with a blizzard in the immediate aftermath. In Beirut, they wont have that problem, but the city will have to find a way to find shelter for 250,000 people for the immediate and the near future.

The striking thing to him, said Rozdilsky, is how history repeats itself. Hazardous materials, poorly stored, near a densely populated city. A two-tiered explosion, exposing greater portions of the population to injury. The resultant homelessness and the need for aid from outside because the local infrastructure is gone.

But theres one other thing. Mass disasters, such as Halifax and Beirut, leave scars  deep and lasting scars.

Theres a process of remembering, theres a process of coping, because you have the physical recovery of the community. But theres also a social and psychological recovery of the community, which is a very long, complicated process, Rozdilsky said. And Halifax has been coping with that process for the past 100 years.

I think its easy to understand the physical damage that we see in pictures. And thats not simple to fix, but it can be fixed. Buildings can be repaired. But then coping with the long-term social and psychological impacts in the community that go on for decades. Thats going to be complicated, and thats something that Beirut is going to have to wrap its mind around.

SM Steve McKinley is a Halifax-based reporter for the Star. Reach him via email: stevemckinley@thestar.ca or follow him on Twitter: @smckinley1

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Russia Says Fighter Intercepted U.S. Surveillance Planes Over Black Sea

By RFE/RL August 05, 2020

Russia says a fighter jet intercepted two U.S. military surveillance planes in the Black Sea -- the latest in a series of midair encounters between U.S., NATO, and Russian forces.

Military officials told the state TASS news agency on August 5 that the Su-27 jet met the U.S. planes in international waters in the Black Sea.

"The Russian fighter jet crew approached the aircraft at a safe distance and identified them as an RC-135 strategic reconnaissance aircraft of the U.S. Air Force and an R-8A Poseidon, the U.S. Navy's maritime patrol aircraft," the Defense Ministry said.

There was no immediate confirmation of the incident from U.S. or NATO officials, though civilian radar-tracking sites showed U.S. aircraft in the Black Sea region on August 5, not far from Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula.

Crimea was annexed by Russian in 2014, a move that few foreign countries have recognized. The peninsula is home to the Russian Black Sea Fleet and multiple military installations.

U.S. and NATO jets routinely intercept Russian surveillance and strategic bomber aircraft off NATO member countries and U.S. airspace over the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The vast majority of incidents are routine and considered nonthreatening.

In May, a NATO official told RFE/RL that Russian military aircraft activity in the Black Sea and other parts of Europe had increased since 2014.

Last year, the official said that NATO aircraft took to the skies 290 times to escort or shadow Russian military aircraft across Europe.

With reporting by TASS

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-says- fighter-intercepted-u-s-surveillance-planes -over-black-sea/30768312.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 Ghanaian Ministry of Aviation says social-media rumours that the country's borders are to be re-opened next week are false, insisting that they will remain closed until further notice.

Aviation ministry issues statement refuting claims

A statement issued and signed by the public relations officer at the Aviation Ministry, Madeleine Insaidoo, affirmed that minister of aviation, Joseph Kofi Adda has in no way stated, granted an interview or released any information in regard to the matter.

Follow all the latest coronavirus-related news in Africa on our dedicated live blog

The Ministry wishes to inform the general public that the above news item is false and that at no point in time has Hon. Joseph Kofi Adda, Minister for Aviation stated this in any interview or press release. So, it should be disregarded, the communique read.

Borders closed except for repatriation of stranded Ghanaians

For the time being, Ghana's borders remain closed, although the government has operated some repatriation flights to bring stranded Ghanaians back home following the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak. Foreign Affairs Minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey announced earlier in June that 856 Ghanaians who were stranded have returned home safely.

Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo announced in May the indefinite extension of the closure of borders to human traffic as a result of the continuing spread of Covid-19.

Domestic flights are currently being operated at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA), as announced by the Aviation Ministry on 1 May, while complying with safety protocols and guidelines developed to curb the further spread of the virus.
The Dakota Access oil pipeline again staved off what would have been an unprecedented shutdown, with judges ruling that the Trump administration has to decide whether the conduit can operate while a more robust review is done.

Judges said Wednesday that they expect the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to clarify in front of a federal district court whether the agency thinks the pipeline must shut after a key permit was vacated in July. The decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit buys pipeline operator Energy Transfer LP some time after the July 6 shutdown order rocked the industry.

Despite the mixed decision from the circuit court, the impact is wholly positive for the pipeline, said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Brandon Barnes. Still, the decision leaves open the possibility that Dakota Access has to shut before an appeal is decided, he said.

PROFITS: Enterprise Products Partners shrugs off downturn with $1 billion profit

Energy Transfer units rose as much as 6.2% before paring gains to close up 3.5%. The stock fell in post-market trading after the company said it was lowering adjusted earnings guidance for the year. General Counsel Tom Mason said during a conference call that the company was reviewing the court decision and will run the course with its Dakota Access litigation.

We believe our legal positions are strong, and we are confident that the pipeline will continue to operate, Mason said.

The Army Corps is likely to allow the pipeline to continue operating, according to James W. Coleman, a professor at Southern Methodist Universitys Dedman School of Law. The question is then whether the Corps decision holds up to scrutiny from the district court.

The bad news for the pipeline is that, if the district court orders a shutdown after considering the injunction standard, the same panel of three judges will hear a new request for a stay, Coleman said. So far, they seem inclined to agree with the district court on the need for more environmental review, he said.

LEAK: Gallons of seeping drilling fluid collected at Kinder Morgan pipeline site

The oil industry has been watching the Dakota Access case with bated breath. Pipeline operators and developers are increasingly losing legal battles over key permits, but the Dakota Access order marked the first time a federal court told a major crude pipeline to shut due to violations of the National Environmental Policy Act.

Dakota Access has been in service for three years after drawing months of on-the-ground protests during its construction near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. The district courts July decision said the Army Corps of Engineers violated NEPA when it approved a key permit for the pipeline, ordering the project to shut down while the agency conducts a more robust review.

Energy Transfer, led by billionaire Kelcy Warren, said the judge didnt have the authority to shut the pipeline and that the company would continue to accept capacity reservations beyond when the conduit was supposed to be drained. A week later, the D.C. Circuit issued a temporary stay of that order, allowing the line to keep operating.

FUEL FIX: Our energy news. Your inbox. A perfect combination.

The company had also sought a more permanent stay, which the appeals court declined to grant on Wednesday.

Its interesting what the court did here, said Earthjustice lawyer Jan Hasselman, who represents the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe against Dakota Access. While the focus has been on this judicially imposed shutdown order, the bigger picture is the environmental impact statement and whether a permit will be reissued under the next administration.

2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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Linkedin (Reuters) Mumbai, India  Thu, August 6, 2020 12:00 530 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066bfa152 2 Entertainment actor,India,bollywood,film,death,Sushant-Singh-Rajput Free

India's federal investigative agency will probe the death of a Bollywood actor, its top prosecutor said on Wednesday, the latest twist to a murky case that was reported as a suicide and has dominated Indian social media for over a month.

Sushant Singh Rajput, 34, was found dead at his residence in Mumbai on June 14 which police termed an "accidental death". Local media said he was found hanging from the ceiling and described his death as a suicide.

Rajput's death has triggered heated debate on prime time news channels and conspiracy theories on social media.

His family had also asked for a federal investigation into the factors leading to his death, and a tug-of-war between two state governments over the matter has muddied the waters more.

On Wednesday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Indian Supreme court that the federal government had approved a request from the government of Bihar, Rajput's home state, to turn the inquiry over to the federal investigation agency (CBI).

Read also: Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput found dead in his Mumbai home

The state government of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital, had refused to transfer the case to the CBI from local police, saying it did not warrant a federal inquiry.

Bihar, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party shares power with an ally, is set to go to polls later this year, while Maharashtra, India's richest state, is ruled by a coalition of three opposition parties.

Rajput, a TV actor who came from a middle-class family, was a rare outsider who found success in Bollywood, an industry known for being insular and long dominated by several families.

In the days after his death, several industry insiders, including actress Kangana Ranaut, accused Bollywood of pushing Rajput to the emotional brink by denying him acting opportunities.
The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Railway Protection Force (RPF) rescued 290 passengers from two local trains stranded on flooded tracks between the CSMT and Sandhurst Road station here on Wednesday, said a Central Railway spokesperson.

The city was battered by incessant rains during the day.

Two local trains -- one heading in the direction of Karjat in the north and another heading for Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) in south Mumbai -- came to a standstill in chest-high water around 4 pm.

The joint operation was over at 10 pm with all the passengers rescued, said Shivaji Sutar, chief spokesperson of the Central Railway.

While the NDRF rescued 39 passengers using inflated boats, the RPF rescued 251 passengers, he said.

At Masjid station, the water was above the platform level and it was impossible for the stranded passengers to get down and walk because of the drainage channels along the tracks, he said.

Both Central and Western lines witnessed heavy water-logging on tracks due to heavy rains.

Early in the morning, Western Railway services were badly hit due to waterlogging between Virar and Dahanu.
(Reuters) - Bombardier Inc aims to double deliveries of its flagship business jet during the back half of 2020 and break even this year on free cash, after the company missed on quarterly earnings Thursday, hurt by higher rail costs and COVID-19.

Montreal-based Bombardier expects to roughly double by year's end the 11 Global 7500 jet deliveries it made during the first six months of 2020, as the company becomes a pure play business jet maker with the impending closings of deals to sell its rail and aerostructures businesses.

Corporate planemakers are reporting an uptick in interest as demand for private aviation flights rises, although this rebound in travel has not yet translated into aircraft orders, Bombardier Chief Executive Eric Martel told analysts.

Business jet deliveries are expected to fall industry-wide this year as the pandemic keeps people under lockdown, disrupts global travel and slows economic activity around the world.

"We expect the next few quarters will be challenging and difficult to predict," Martel said.

The maker of business jets and trains recorded a $435 million charge in its rail business during the second quarter, mainly related to costs for several late-stage projects in the UK and Germany.

This led to an adjusted quarterly loss of $319 million compared with a profit of $312 million a year earlier, the company said. Analysts on average were expecting Bombardier to report profit before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $39.33 million.

Business jet deliveries also fell about 43% to 20 planes in the quarter because of the COVID-19 pandemic, with revenue declining about 37% to $2.70 billion but topping analysts' expectation of $2.48 billion.

Bombardier stock dipped 2.3% in morning trade.

The company, however, said it used free cash of about $1.04 billion in the quarter ended June 30, up from $429 million a year earlier, but better than analysts' expectation of $1.47 billion.

Chief Financial Officer John Di Bert says the company still aims to break even on free cash flow in 2020, "assuming operations continue to stabilize."

Bombardier's business aircraft backlog was $12.9 billion as of June 2020, down from $14.4 billion as of 2019 end.

(Reporting By Allison Lampert and Ankit Ajmera; Editing by Maju Samuel Steve Orlofsky)
The government has been caught out lying about evidence on the killing of civilians in Afghanistan by the elite Special Air Service (SAS).

Three years into a civil case in the High Court brought by Saiffulah Yar into the deaths of four family members at the hand of the SAS, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has finally handed over a tranche of e-mails and documents revealing official concerns about the killing of Afghan civilians. The MoD previously indicated it had no such documents.

The documents, written by SAS officers and military personnel, provide evidence of war crimes. They show that while the government claimed that there was no credible evidence about these events, the evidence had been sitting in Whitehall.

It is a damning confirmation of the criminality of the 2001 US-led invasion and occupation of Afghanistan that has led to more than 175,000 deaths, hundreds of thousands of wounded, and millions forced from their homes.

The intervention in Afghanistan, planned well in advance of the bombing of the twin towers in New York in 2001, was not launched to prosecute a war on terrorism but rather to project US military power into Central and South Asia. The US was intent on seizing control of a country bordering on the oil-rich former Soviet republics of the Caspian Basin, as well as China. The UK joined as a willing partner on behalf of its own oil corporations in this criminal venture.

The High Court has now ordered Ben Wallace, the Secretary of State for Defence, to explain why the ministry withheld evidence suggesting SAS soldiers executed 33 civilians in Afghanistan in early 2011. He has until November to reply. The MoD claimed it was not new evidence, as it had been reviewed by the official inquiryOperation Northmoorinto allegations of civilian killings.

Saifullah brought the case against the MoD to discover what happened to his family and whether the case had been thoroughly investigated by the British authorities. His father, two brothers, and a cousin were killed during a raid on his familys home in Qala-e-Bost, east of Lashkar Gah in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, under British occupation in 2011.

After the raid, Saifullah, who was 16 at the time, found his father, Haji Abdul Kaliq, 55, two brothers, Sadam, 23, and Atullah, 25, and a cousin shot dead. One of his brothers and his father had been handcuffed and hooded before being shot as they lay face down on the ground. Royal Military Police (RMP) officers had arrived at his familys compound by helicopter and handcuffed and fingerprinted him, along with the other male members of his family, before he was taken to a barn with the women and children, where they were guarded by soldiers during the raid. He denies that his family had any weapons or were connected to the Taliban, the ostensible cause of the raid.

According to the 1977 Geneva Conventions, shooting civilians is only lawful if they are participating directly in hostilities. With no precise definition of direct participation, civilians are expected to be given the benefit of the doubt. Under UK domestic law, which is applicable to the armed forces, a soldier can use force to defend him/herself and others, including lethal force, only provided it is reasonable in the circumstances.

The MoD had previously maintained that it was unaware of any complaint about the raid until the family launched a legal case in 2013. But six years later, it transpired that the Royal Military Police (RMP) had interviewed 54 soldiers involved in the operation leading up to the raid on Saifullahs family home, with the governments lawyers claiming that none of those involved could remember very much about the operation.

The documents, first revealed by BBC TVs Panorama and the Sunday Times, tell a different story. They confirm claims that the government covered up dozens of allegationsincluding by UK soldiersof the killing of innocent civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Philip Alston, the former UN Special Rapporteur on executions, told Panorama,  I have no doubt that overall many of the allegations [of innocent people being killed] are justified, and that we can conclude that a large number of civilians were killed in night raids, totally unjustifiably.

One of the e-mails, sent by an SAS officer the morning after the raid, described it as the latest massacre! and added, Ive heard a couple of rumours. Another document revealed that there had been a secret review of suspicious killings and a string of related incidents in which the SAS had killed fighting-age men, often during a search of premises, allegedly because they had picked up a weapon.

According to the review that covered the first quarter of 2011, 23 people were killed and 10 guns were recovered in three operations. It was clear a senior officer examining the official reports filed about the SASs night raids was sceptical of their veracity, remarking on their similarity in that the detained men suddenly grabbed a weapon. He found at least five separate incidents where more people were killed than weapons were recovered. Taken together, this led him to conclude, In my view there is enough here to convince me that we are getting some things wrong, right now.

One SAS commander even wrote to London warning there was possibly a deliberate policy and that the SAS troops had potentially strayed into indefensible behaviour that could amount to being criminal.

His concern was that the killings were jeopardising the support of Afghan forces, which were refusing to accompany the British on night raids, and put[ting] at risk the [redacted] transition plan and more importantly the prospects of enduring UK influence in Afghanistan.

While the RMP had launched an investigation called Operation Northmoor into 657 allegations of abuse, mistreatment, and killings, including into the deaths of Saifullahs family members, at the hands of British forces, the government closed it down in 2017. Once again, a three-year-long official probe, costing at least 10 million, failed to result in a single prosecution.

The corporate media had gone into overdrive, branding the investigations as a witch-hunt. The MoD filed complaints against the lawyers bringing civil suits against it, including against Saifullahs lawyer Leigh Day. Leigh Day was cleared of wrongdoing after a six-week tribunal in September 2017.

In March, the government introduced legislation proposing a five-year limit on prosecutions for soldiers serving outside the UK. With its presumption against prosecution that gives the green light to future war crimes, including the mass murder of civilians, the military will now be above the law.

It was WikiLeaks publisher and journalist Julian Assange who, by publishing the Afghan war logs in 2010, a vast trove of leaked US military documents, first brought to the worlds attention evidence of the criminality of a war that has now lasted 19 years. The Afghan war logs exposed the myth that the occupation of Afghanistan was a good war, supposedly waged to defeat terrorism, extend democracy, and protect womens rights. They revealed the mass killings of civilians by both US and UK forces, detailing at least 21 occasions when British troops opened fire on civilians.

It is not just those soldiers who perpetrated these crimes on behalf of British imperialism that have escaped punishment. The guilty include those at the top of the political and military ladder that planned and executed this criminal war, even as they plot new crimes, including catastrophic conflicts with nuclear-armed powers such as China and Russia.

Instead, the only two people who have faced criminal repercussions are those who reported the crimes: Chelsea Manning, who has endured a decade of persecution, and Julian Assange, who is imprisoned in Britains maximum-security Belmarsh Prison awaiting court hearings for his extradition to the US where he faces 175 years of imprisonment under the Espionage Act. The exposures of the horrors of both the Afghan and Iraq wars earned Assange the undying hatred of Britains political establishment, which is why they have hounded, intimidated, tortured and imprisoned him.
V.N.GAIA, Portugal, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Gerber Technology is celebrating 30 years of customer experience, innovation and growth through its European headquarters in Portugal. Since 1990, Portugal has been the European headquarters for the global leader of integrated manufacturing platforms and currently services more than 4,000 customers across the region. In that time, Gerber has heavily invested in their industry-leading technologies, developed the Milan Innovation Center and completely reinvented itself for the digital age. Gerber's success in Europe is largely due to their diverse customer base who are leading the industry by leveraging the most cutting-edge innovations.

"Gerber is a partner that has well adapted to the reality of companies in Portugal, both in innovation and productivity," said Francisco Batista, CEO of the CBI Group, a Gerber customer since 1997. "Gerber offers a good compromise between forefront technology but also to tradition and competitiveness that Portuguese industries need."

"Over the last 30 years, Gerber Portugal has grown tremendously," says Francisco Aguiar, Sales Director of Gerber Technology Portugal. "The company has a team of specialists that deeply understands the markets and the needs of customers. We have a very deep knowledge of the challenges and evolution of the industry and the business of our clients. The long-term relationships we have developed over these 30 years in Portugal are an asset for all our European customers that helps them to remain among the most competitive."

Over the last few decades the Portuguese apparel industry has been able to thoroughly review its strategy and has recently experienced sustainable growth as a result. Gerber has invested heavily in 2D/3D CAD , PLM and digital cutting which has helped European brand, manufacturers and retailers differentiate themselves. By leveraging Gerber's solution, European Gerber customers have increased the interest of global brands, particularly those in the luxury sector, which require more sophisticated and innovative products.

Gerber has a mission to help push the industries forward by being at the forefront of innovation and customer experience. During these unprecedented times, Gerber is not only offering the digital innovations that companies need to succeed, but is also supporting them by helping them convert their supply chains to production of personal protective equipment (PPE) . Gerber is providing the resources and support European companies need to successfully develop masks, face shields, gowns and more. Since its inception, the Gerber PPE Task Force has helped over 500 European companies pivot to PPE.

With continued strong investment, Gerber will completely transform the manufacturing process through advanced hardware and software solutions that enable their customers to take on challenges such as on-demand , personalization and made-to-measure . The undisputed leader of connected platforms is continuing to advance their integrated ecosystem by heavily investing in 3D, digital printing workflows, innovative digital cutting solutions backed by IoT, Industry 4.0 technologies and subscription options to meet the needs of all their customers.

"The goal of our end-to-end solutions is to integrate data, processes and team work," said Aguiar. "Currently, companies have several systems and tools to support their processes. Our goal is to help our customers digitalize their entire supply chain, allowing them to collaborate virtually more efficiently and profitably."

Gerber is the best partner today in helping companies navigate the post-pandemic world by providing them with the tools and insight to thrive in the face of adversity. By leveraging Gerber's end-to-end solution, European brands, retailers and manufacturers are able to optimize production for sustainable, on-demand or short to mass production while improving their relationships with their customers.

About Gerber Technology

Gerber Technology delivers industry-leading software and automation solutions that help apparel and industrial customers improve their manufacturing and design processes and more effectively manage and connect the supply chain, from product development and production to retail and the end customer. With customers in 134 countries, Gerber Technology has a global team of passionate experts to support companies in apparel and accessories, personal protective equipment, home and leisure, transportation, packaging and sign and graphics industries.

Based in Connecticut in the USA, Gerber Technology is owned by AIP, a New York-based, global private equity firm specializing in the technology sector and has more than $3.0 billion assets under management. The company develops and manufactures its products from various locations in the United States and Canada and has additional manufacturing capabilities in China. Visit www.gerbertechnology.com and www.gerbersoftware.com for more information.

Contact: Alexandra Costa

Tel: +351 22 619 78 78

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Gerber Technology

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WONDER POTIONs action-platformer has new content to test in this limited-time preview version of the next side-scrolling hit from NEOWIZ
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Mayor Bill de Blasio's checkpoints for travelers entering New York City from 35 COVID-19 hotspot states were launched on Wednesday night, with sheriff's deputies spotted on bridges and tunnels to question drivers trying to get into the Big Apple.

At a press conference on Wednesday morning, de Blasio said those who do not self-isolate for 14 days once they arrive in the city from those locations could face a $10,000 fine. He failed to explain how he would enforce the order.

Pictures taken by DailyMail.com show police officers stationed at the Goethals Bridge which connects New Jersey and Staten Island on Wednesday evening. The sheriff's department scanned plates and pulled people over, onlookers say.

None had shown up at Port Authority by 10am, despite de Blasio's stern warnings on Wednesday. The bus station was meant to be manned by Department of Health staff, like train stations, but no one was there asking questions on Wednesday morning as people arrived into the city on buses.

New York City Sheriff Joseph Fucito, whose deputies will staff the stations, said there will be 'a random element' and every sixth or eighth car on a bridge might be checked.

But it remains unclear what exactly will be done afterwards to ensure that anyone from one of the hotspot states is in fact quarantining.

The 35 states on Gov. Andrew Cuomo's mandatory quarantine list are; Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin.

The abandoned checkpoint at Port Authority on Wednesday morning where travelers were advised to take a form and fill it out. It's unclear who they were meant to give it to you once they'd completed it

There was no one manning the checkpoint at Port Authority on Wednesday morning as travelers arrived in the city

One woman approached it herself to take the form but she was the only one. De Blasio promised that there would be a stern presence of police and tracers to 'send a clear message' that the quarantine was mandatory and that he was serious

Travelers coming to New York City from 35 states and territories on the state's COVID-19 quarantine list may be met at bridges and train stations and told to fill out travel forms under a program announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio

Pictures taken by DailyMail.com show officers stationed at the Goethals Bridge toll plaza

The sheriff's department scanned plates and pulled people over on Wednesday evening

Thirty-five states are currently on the quarantine list meaning if people enter New York, Connecticut or New Jersey from them, they have to quarantine

The form has up until now only been forced on people on planes. It does not ask for an address if the person's final destination is not New York, and some travelers have anecdotally reported giving fake information once they get off flights from hot-spot cities like Miami once they arrive.

The tunnel and bridge checkpoints will be manned by members of the sheriff's department, but it's unclear what exactly they will ask when they stop a car, or if they will go beyond the questionnaire.

The questionnaire asks eight questions, including whether or not a person has been in one of the COVID-19 hotspot states recently.

It asks how the traveler is arriving in New York, giving a multiple choice answer, and for their flight details - including their seat number - if they've come by plane.

Crucially, when traveling by car, it asks if New York State is the traveler's final destination.

If the traveler answers that it is not, they are not required to give an address.

If they answer that it is, they are.

New York City Sheriff Joseph Fucito, who whose deputies will staff the stations, said there will be 'a random element' and every sixth or eighth car on a bridge might be checked

Thirty-four states plus Puerto Rico are on New York state's quarantine list because of high rates of coronavirus infection

The random check system de Blasio described is similar to what is already in place at airports

It's unclear how that address will be checked when the person fills out the form and hands it back to law enforcement.

When completing it online, a person can enter false information to reach the end and be given a clearance that they do not need to quarantine.

It tells them to show that declaration to a compliance officer if asked.

Sheriff Joseph Fucito said the checks would be random, with every sixth or eight car being checked at tunnels and bridges.

Thirty-four states plus Puerto Rico are on New York state's quarantine list because of high rates of coronavirus infection. The random check system de Blasio described is similar to what is already in place at airports.

Some privacy advocates criticized the plan. 'This is a ludicrous, invasive, and deeply dangerous plan,' Albert Fox Cahn, the executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, said in a statement.

'Rather than addressing the city's backlog in testing capacity and struggling contact tracing program, the mayor is transforming this pandemic into a policing issue.'

Coronavirus infections have eased since the pandemic's peak in the state in April, but new infections continue to occur daily. New York City has yet to go a day without a coronavirus death.

Statewide, more than 630 new infections were reported as of Tuesday, approximately the level that has persisted since early June.

More than 220,000 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in NYC; there have been 18,937 confirmed deaths with an additional 4,626 probable deaths.

At a press conference on Wednesday morning, de Blasio sternly warned those flouting the rules could face a $10,000 fine if they do not self-isolate for 14 days once they arrive in the city. He failed to explain how he would enforce the order

Sheriff's deputies at the Goethals Bridge toll plaza between New Jersey and Staten Island on Wednesday night

The quarantine form has up until now only been forced on people on planes. It does not ask for an address if the person's final destination is not New York, and some travelers have anecdotally reported giving fake information once they get off flights from hot-spot cities like Miami once they arrive.

It asks eight questions, including whether or not a person has been in one of the COVID-19 hotspot states recently. It asks how the traveler is arriving in New York, giving a multiple choice answer, and for their flight details - including their seat number - if they've come by plane.

Crucially, when traveling by car, it asks if New York State is the traveler's final destination. If the traveler answers that it is not, they are not required to give an address. If they answer that it is, they are.

It's unclear how that address will be checked when the person fills out the form and hands it back to law enforcement.

When completing it online, a person can enter false information to reach the end and be given a clearance that they do not need to quarantine.

It tells them to show that declaration to a compliance officer if asked.

Sheriff Joseph Fucito said the checks would be random, with every sixth or eight car being checked at tunnels and bridges.

Travelers at train stations, it seems, will not be contacted by police but will rather be stopped by members of the city's tracing corps.

On Wednesday, a member of that group said: 'Tomorrow, we'll be deploying our teams to stop travelers to ensure they've completed the form. If they haven't we have to complete it with them right then and there.

'If we can't get through to you on the phone, we'll deploy teams to knock on your door.'

But it's unclear what proof of address is required - if any.

'We're not going to be in every apartment,' de Blasio admitted on Wednesday.

He added that the checkpoints are designed to 'send a powerful message'.

'Even if we're not able to reach every single person it's going to get the message across,' he said. After his announcement on Wednesday, de Blasio was with with a wave of criticism.

Some compared New York City to 'Nazi Germany' and said he should focus more on the

When traveling by car, it asks if New York State is the traveler's final destination. If the traveler answers that it is not, they are not required to give an address. If they answer that it is, they are

When completing the form online, a person can enter false information to reach the end and be given a clearance that they do not need to quarantine
Adjusted profit dropped by more than four fifths. (Jacob King/PA)

Retail landlord Hammerson is set to raise more than 800 million as it sells its 50% stake in European shopping centre owner VIA Outlets and asks shareholders to chip in.

The company said that the moves will help it pay down a massive debt bill, reducing it to around 2.2 billion.

It means a major retreat from parts of the European market, where VIA is a big player.

The business owns 11 premium outlets in nine European countries, with 1,130 stores in total, giving it the third largest portfolio by area on the continent.

Hammerson said it had hashed out a deal to sell VIA to its partner APG, a Dutch pension fund for 274 million.

Bosses also plan to ask investors to help them out by buying another 552 million of new shares in the company.

It will plough the cash into paying down debt, and investing in a transformation of the business.

Chief executive David Atkins pronounced the end of the way shops are rented in the UK, saying it was in dire need of change.

The pandemic has exacerbated structural shifts in retail, exerting further pressure on both property owners and brands, and provided further evidence that the UKs historic leasing model has served its time, he said.

It is outdated, inflexible and needs to change.

It was a sentiment echoed by managing director Mark Bourgeois.

Shopping is fundamentally changing, he told the PA news agency, as he set out the companys plans of how to change with it.

The plan mixes new ideas with old ones taken from the continent.

At the moment, much of the UK high street is governed by a framework that was put in place in 1954 where tenants sign long leases, with rents reviewed every five years.

Then at the end of the leases, prices would be renegotiated based on the cost per square foot of another shop close by, even if that was comparing a clothes shop with a stationer.

Now Hammerson hopes to move away from that model, Mr Bourgeois said. Rents will be more tailored to the tenant, and take into account how the store is performing.

The companys hand has somewhat been forced by events. Facing possible bankruptcy many retailers turn to company voluntary agreements (CVAs) to strongarm their landlords into accepting lower rents.

Now Mr Bourgeois is promising more flexible leases and to set rent at a more affordable level.

What youre seeing in the UK is a big disconnect between the amount that occupiers are paying to landlords and what they can truly afford to pay on a sustainable basis, he said.

Were looking for a new lease that recognises that, he added.

Now, when leases are to be renewed, Hammerson wants to look at its tenants margins and footfall to charge a rent the company can afford.

The plan is also to include online sales in rent negotiations. Opening a store in a district often increases the online orders for the same brand, as people try on clothes in store, or window shop, but buy online later.

And finally, rather than being negotiated every five years, rents will go up based on an index, meaning this is more predictable than in the past.

Hammerson, which owns the Bullring in Birmingham, said that it had managed to collect 34% of the rent that is due for the third quarter of the year.

It saw a strong recovery in both France and Ireland, where footfall at its flagships and retail parks was only down 18% last month compared to July 2019.

But its UK portfolio relies more heavily on sites in the centre of cities which rely heavily on officer workers and public transport links.

As both these have been disrupted, with many people working from home and shoppers keen to avoid busses and trains, the UK has been more subdued, down 51% in July compared to the same period last year.

Adjusted profit dropped by 84% in the first half of the year to 17.7m on net rental income of 87.3 million, down by 44%.
Two businesses in Co Down have closed after staff members tested positive for coronavirus.

Kent Amusements and Bon Bon, both in Newcastle, announced the closures on social media.

In a statement, Kent Amusements said: "Unfortunately, this morning Kent Amusements has been notified that some of our staff members have tested positive for Covid-19. We will therefore be closed until further notice."

Kent Amusements said it had undertaken all precautions, risk assessments and procedures required to keep staff and customers safe.

It added: "We continue to carry out deep cleaning of the premises and all our staff will be tested for Covid-19.

"We will reopen when we are assured it is safe to do so.

"We thank all our customers and staff for their much appreciated support at this unprecedented time.

Expand Close Bon Bon, Newcastle. Credit: Google Maps / Facebook

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"We also extend our best wishes to our staff who have tested positive, to other local businesses and their employees and the general public who have tested positive for Covid-19 and wish them all a speedy recovery and return to good health."

Sweet shop Bon Bon said management had been informed that a member of staff had tested positive for the virus yesterday morning.

"We shall be closed until further notice when we have had the proper guidance," a statement read.

"We had taken precautions earlier in the week and deep cleaned and made staff and customers wear masks due to so many local cases as we were hoping to prevent this situation.

"We would appreciate your understanding and support during this time."

It comes after a handful of coronavirus cases were confirmed at a SuperValu store in Newcastle earlier this week.

The latest Department of Health statistics show more than 6,000 people have now contracted coronavirus since testing began.

Another day passed with no further deaths, while 10 tests returned positive, the department said yesterday.

The death toll in Northern Ireland remains at 556.

It has emerged the Stop Covid NI app, launched last week, has been downloaded 170,000 times.

East Londonderry MP Gregory Campbell said: "Northern Ireland was the first region of the UK to have a functioning Covid tracing app and in less than a week it has been downloaded 170,000 times.

"This is almost 20% of the entire adult population of the country in a few days.

"Alongside the more traditional contact tracing which has been in operation for some time now we all hope it can help prevent spread of the virus."

Meanwhile Sinn Fein MLA Catherine Kelly has urged Education Minister Peter Weir to urgently publish a plan around children returning to school later this month.

She said parents are contacting her party's advice centres and schools "on a daily basis" seeking more information about the return to school.

"Only weeks away from the reopening of schools there is still no clear guidance from the minister," she said.

Mr Weir published guidance in June aimed at providing a "planning framework for the restart of schools in August/September".

This guidance states that Primary 7, and Years 12 and 14 should return on August 24 if it is safe to do so, while other year groups should return by the normal school starting date.

Face coverings are strongly encouraged in Northern Ireland's shops, but are not mandatory at present. The Northern Ireland Executive is due to review the policy on August 20, however, some have called for the region to follow England and Wales, where the wearing of face coverings is mandatory in shops.

Health Minister Robin Swann wants the review date brought forward to August 13, a move Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill has indicated she supports.

After the Northern Ireland Executive announced that swimming pools and spas could reopen from July 24, the first are due to welcome the public in Belfast today.

Six pools will reopen, including the newly refurbished Andersonstown Leisure Centre in the west of the city, as well as Lisnasharragh, Olympia, Falls, Whiterock and Grove.
PHILADELPHIA

Aug. 5, 2020

Philadelphia

Oklahoma

Missouri

Tennessee

Georgia

Louisiana

Alabama

Ohio

Indiana

Arizona

Colorado

Lake Michigan

Chicago

Milwaukee

Baltimore

Virginia

Maryland

Washington, D.C.

Boston

New York City

New Jersey

Philadelphia

Oklahoma

Nebraska

Kansas

Dallas

Houston

David Rubin

University of Pennsylvania's

Jing Huang

University of Pennsylvania

July 23

Philadelphia

http://www.policylab.chop.edu

Lauren Walens

Philadelphia

/PRNewswire/ -- New COVID-19 projections released today by PolicyLab at Children's Hospital of(CHOP) show clear evidence that mitigation efforts recommended by the White House Coronavirus Task Force are working to reduce risk of continued widespread transmission in states that have adopted them. Conversely, the model's four-week forecasts have worsened for states that have not enacted masking mandates or adopted strong social distancing practices, such asandIn addition to their regular four-week COVID-19 case projections for 747 counties across the U.S., the researchers have been closely following a special analysis of rollback scenarios involving universal masking and tightening of social distancing and occupancy policies in 158 of the country's largest counties. These modeled scenarios reflect guidance being shared with state governments by the White House Coronavirus Task Force, for whom the scenarios were originally prepared. The researchers are beginning to see improved forecasts in the states that have adopted these policy recommendations, many of which are considered hotspots. For example, transmission risk for the next four weeks has consistently decreased in communities acrossand, which have all established universal masking mandates.Still, many hotspots continue to see concerning forecasts for continued resurgence. The Upper Midwest and communities along the western coast of, includingand, continue to have high risk for resurgence in the coming weeks. The model shows heightened risk for growing case counts to quickly reproduce inand theandsuburbs of, which will likely threaten the nation's capital in the coming weeks. Forecasts fornow look worse than those of, which has been largely insulated from current resurgence in the Northeast, but still remains at risk from increasing infections in, theregion and south following the I-95 corridor. Data from the model also shows that residents in states across the Heartland and to the south, includingand, once again, theandmetro areas, are not practicing enough social distancing to reduce the surging spread of the virus in those regions."In the face of unwillingness to invoke federal powers mandating practical, evidence-based strategies to combat widespread transmission of coronavirus throughout the county, it's encouraging to see that the White House Coronavirus Task Force's work to align state leaders on sensible distancing and masking policies is gaining traction with most governors, leading to improved forecasts and declining national daily case rates," said, MD, MSCE, director of PolicyLab at CHOP and a professor of Pediatrics at thePerelman School of Medicine. "We can only hope that other governors who have been holding out on enacting these strong public health measures will fall in line to unify our response as a nation and sufficiently protect all communities as we head towards fall."For additional comments from lead investigators Dr. Rubin, Dr. Gregory Tasian, and Dr.on their updated forecasts and findings, read this blog post; https://policylab.chop.edu/blog/covid-19-outlook-regaining-controlResearchers at PolicyLab at CHOP and thedeveloped the model, known as COVID-Lab: Mapping COVID-19 in Your Community, which tracks and projects COVID-19 transmission across 747 U.S. counties with active outbreaks, representing 80% of the U.S. population and 89% of all identified coronavirus cases. The researchers built their model to observe how social distancing, population density, daily temperatures, and humidity affect the number and spread of COVID-19 infections over time across a county, accounting for test positivity rates and population characteristics such as age, insurance status, crowding within homes and diabetes prevalence. COVID-Lab's projections forecast the number of coronavirus cases communities could experience over the next four weeks based on a three-day average of their current social distancing practices, defined by the change in travel to non-essential businesses as compared to pre-epidemic. The application of this model, which focuses on time-varying transmission rates during the early months of the pandemic in the U.S., was released on, following peer review, in. You can read more about how the team validates their models for accuracy in this blog post. The data are publicly available in the form of interactive maps and graphs.PolicyLab at Children's Hospital of(CHOP) is dedicated to achieving optimal child health and well-being by informing program and policy changes through interdisciplinary research. Founded in 2008, PolicyLab is a Center of Emphasis within the CHOP Research Institute, one of the largest pediatric research institutes in the country. With more than 30 highly regarded faculty and 60 passionate staff who bring expertise from myriad of fields covering health, research and health policy, our work focuses on improving public systems, improving health care delivery and improving child health outcomes. For more information, visitMEDIA CONTACT:, Strategic Ops & Comms Director PolicyLab at Children's Hospital ofwalensl@email.chop.edu or (734) 904-2181

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/county-level-covid-19-projections-improve-following-new-masking-distancing-requirements-301107046.html



SOURCE PolicyLab at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia




We request Mumbaikars to stay indoors and not venture out unless it's extremely essential, the city police tweeted

Heavy rain lashed Mumbai city, seen in the picture low lying area of Mumbai like wadala under rain flooded water on Tuesday. (DC Photo- Rajesh Jadhav)

Mumbai: Heavy downpour continued to wreak havoc in Mumbai today. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicted that heavy rainfall will continue in the financial capital and neigbouring areas even on Thursday.

"Extremely heavy rains will continue to batter Mumbai and neighbouring areas until Thursday," the IMD said in a special bulletin.

Mumbai police on Wednesday evening issued an alert, asking people not to venture outside unnecessarily. "We request Mumbaikars to stay indoors and not venture out unless it's extremely essential," the city police tweeted.

"Practice all necessary precautions and do not venture out near the shore or water logged areas. Please #Dial100 in any emergency. Take care & stay safe Mumbai," the cops added.

On Wednesday, incessant heavy rainfall and strong winds battered Mumbai and neighbouring Thane and Palghar districts, disrupting suburban train and bus services. Three high-capacity cranes deployed at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust in Raigad district collapsed due to gusty winds in the afternoon, but there was no casualty, an official said.

From 8.30 am to 5.30 pm, extremely heavy rainfall (above 20 cm) lashed parts of Mumbai. Colaba recorded 22.9 cm while Santacruz recorded 8.8 cm of rainfall, according to the India Meteorological Department.

Wind speed reached 70 kmph and gusted at 107 kmph between 5pm and 5.15 pm in Colaba.

"Strong winds with speed reaching 70 kmph along and off the Mumbai and adjoining Konkan coast likely to continue till 6th morning and gradually reduce thereafter. Extremely heavy rainfall is also likely to continue over Mumbai tonight and reduce from tomorrow 6th August," the special bulletin said.


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(TNS)  Come fall, teachers could live-stream instruction to students from empty classrooms.On a 6 to 3 vote, the School Committee on Wednesday decided to submit the district's back-to-school plan to the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. According to the evolving plan, the public schools in Framingham, Mass., will begin remotely and will eventually shift to a mix of in-person and remote learning when it is deemed safe.Chairman Adam Freudberg, Beverly Hugo, Scott Wadland, Priscila Sousa, Karen Dempsey, and Jessica Barnhill backed the plan, while Vice Chairwoman Tiffanie Maskell, Geoffrey Epstein, and William LaBarge rejected it.The district's ask that teachers conduct distance learning from physical classrooms as students remain home in the fall was under a spotlight.Framingham school officials want teachers in school buildings so they can access superior technology, classroom materials, and colleagues for face-to-face collaboration. They also believe it would help kids focus if a teacher live-streams lessons from the backdrop of a classroom rather than their house, said Woodrow Wilson Elementary School Principal Purnima DeMorais."We have experienced this firsthand, with the doorbell ringing, technology issues, a child crying, animal distractions, and so forth. We're not asking teachers to come in to school to feel normal, we're asking staff to come in to meet the needs of children which are not being met in a virtual teaching environment," said DeMorais.The district is currently in negotiations with the teachers union.Accommodations can be made to ensure teachers who share classrooms are not live-teaching in the space at the same time, said Anne Ludes, Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Education. Superintendent Robert Tremblay said exemptions will be allowed, such as if a teacher is immunocompromised.But teachers who spoke during public comment said their classrooms feel abnormal without student presence and students would not benefit from seeing them teach there.When she recently visited Walsh Middle School, Sarah Guernsey said she "burst into tears when [she] walked into what used to be [her] classroom." The room had been cleared of posters, bookshelves, teacher desks, and other aspects that make up a classroom."Last spring, my students and I joked that they are the only students I've ever taught who know my family room is purple, my guest room is yellow, and the two prints hanging in my dining room are from my trip to Alaska...I'm not sure what is added by having students see the white board in an empty classroom instead of my purple walls," said Guernsey.The requirement will also pose health problems, said Framingham Teachers Association President Christine Mulroney, saying buildings will need to be upgraded to meet COVID-19 standards.Opposing the plan, Maskell said she wished teachers were able to choose where they work."The truth is I feel teachers should be able to decide. Teachers are adults. If teachers have distractions, dogs, whatever, then maybe they do prefer to come into the building. But not everyone feels that way and I think they should have that option," said Maskell.As Massachusetts moves through its reopening phases, Barnhill, who is also a Natick teacher, said it is "reasonable to expect that we have to go back to work and teachers, we have to show up.""You can go get your haircut but we're not showing up for our highest need students," said Barnhill.The Department of Public Health on Tuesday reported 438 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Massachusetts  the highest single-day increase in two months. Of the 15,316 people tested, 2.8% were positive for the coronavirus, above the 2.2% seven-day weighted average, which has crept up from a low of 1.7% in mid-July.In other business, the School Committee also voted to approve the 2020-21 school calendar. The school year will begin remotely on Sept. 16, as of now. Before then, teachers and other staff members will receive 10 days of training to prepare for remote learning.Last Wednesday, the committee voted to endorse a completely remote start to the year, with an eventual hybrid approach.Districts have to plan for three models of instruction -- in-person, remote, and hybrid -- for submission to the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Final plans are due by Monday.Preliminary plans were submitted last Friday. Families reserve the right to have their children remain 100% remote.
The Pope to donate 100,000 to help migrants on border of Belarus and Poland

Fourth vaccine against COVID-19 is not enough for Omicron

World is on verge of country defaults

French Foreign Ministry considers unacceptable Azerbaijan statements about Pecresse

US to return two valuable artifacts over 4,000 years old to Iraq

Germany may consider halting Nord Stream 2 if Russia attacks Ukraine

Israel successfully completes test of anti-ballistic missile system

Plane landing in Sochi struck by lightning

Putin and Aliyev discuss Ukraine situation

Greek PM Mitsotakis threatens Turkey with sanctions

Handelsblatt: US and EU abandon idea of disconnecting Russia from SWIFT international payment system

Artsakh President meets representatives of non-governmental organizations

Avalanche kills person in Iran

Erdogan says he is pleased with decline in volatility of lira

NEWS.am daily digest: 18.01.22

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

Nagorno-Karabakh: Remains of another Armenian soldier found in Jrakan region

Tehran to not accept any border change in South Caucasus

Dollar holding relatively steady in Armenia

Armenia special representative: Future process depends on Turkeys constructiveness degree

Erdogan: Gas from Mediterranean to Europe can only be pumped through Turkey

Iranian Consul General discusses customs cooperation in Nakhijevan

Inecobank brings Apple Pay to customers

Parliament vice-speaker says he is familiar with Armenia proposals on border demarcation commission work

US Secretary of State to visit Kyiv

Russia, Iran and China to hold joint naval drills

OSCE Chairmanship on Aliyev statement: We reiterate our full support to Minsk Group Co-Chairs

Artsakh NSS denies rumors about penetration of Azerbaijanis into Karabakh villages

Indonesian parliament approves bill to relocate capital

Armenia PM to Bulgaria colleague: Our interstate relations are marked by continuous development of cooperation

Armenian President meets Abu Dhabi Crown Prince

Azerbaijan to ban foreigners from visiting Nagorno-Karabakh occupied part

European Parliament new speaker elected

Armenian National Interests Fund participates in Abu Dhabi Sustainable Development Week summit

North Korea fires missiles for fourth time this year

ECHR recognizes violation of Armenian PM's rights after 2008 elections

Turkey reveals plans to produce combat aircraft

Karabakh official: Azerbaijan presidents impudent behavior is due to OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs silence

Azerbaijan special services force Artsakh resident to intelligence work

Copper price is stable

Minister of State: OSCE MG Co-Chairs must accept exercise of Karabakh people's right to self-determination

Armenia President, UAE Minister of State discuss possibilities of cooperation in science and technology

Investigation into criminal case of several Armenia soldiers returned from Azerbaijan captivity is over

Canada sends detachment of special forces to Ukraine

Armenia ex-President Kocharyan, former deputy PM now MP Gevorgyan case trial resumes

2 more persons die of coronavirus in Artsakh

Armenia family has 10th child

Converse Bank brings Apple Pay to customers

Gold is getting weaker

Lacote: French institute to operate in Armenia (PHOTOS)

Ardshinbank Brings Apple Pay to Customers

Armenia President in UAE, meets with Emirati environment minister

Armenia legislature approves changes to several laws

Differences in data on coronavirus deaths in Armenia are corrected

360 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Norway to begin Breivik early release hearing

Economy minister to head Armenia side of commission on economic cooperation with Kazakhstan

Mexico crime photojournalist killed

Newspaper: Criminal case against Armenia archbishop dropped

Newspaper: Opposition Armenia Bloc in parliament to toughen its tactics

Scientists discover large breeding colony of icefish in southern Antarctica

China creates low-gravity artificial moon

Tehran welcomes normalization of Armenia-Turkey relations

Russian and Iranian Foreign Ministers discuss regional issues

UN Secretary-General: Vaccinate whole world to end pandemic

Giant asteroid to fly past our planet

Armenian President meets with Executive Director of Mubadala Investment Company

UAE counting on Turkey

Indonesia to move capital by 2024

Passenger traffic at Armenian airports decreased by 30%

Armenian Investigative Committee: Six soldiers captured in November arrested

Turkish government to discuss Rubinyan-Kilic meeting results

German FM threatens Russia in case of aggression against Ukraine

Armenian MFA senior staff meets with ambassadors to European countries

Turkish court acquits German journalist Mesale Tolu

Turkish UAV intercepted over Greek island

Protest in front of Armenian Health Ministry

France introduces vaccine passes

Bitcoin begins to lose out competitors

Exchange rates in Armenia

Safari browser caught leaking user data

Xi Jinping: Confrontation between major powers can have disastrous consequences

Lukashevich: Russia concerned that OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs may not be able to visit Nagorno-Karabakh

Court obligates Armenia ruling force MP to prove ex-President Sargsyan lost more than $100M in casinos

Ex-ruling party official: Armenia authorities may renounce Genocide, Karabakh

Armenian PM's party decides to provide free textbooks to non-state schools

Times: Johnson prepares cadre purge to save his own skin

Pecresse accuses French government of inaction after Aliyev's statements on her Karabakh visit

Armenia President attends Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week forum opening

Armenia legislature ruling majority member: It is possible for us to have neighborly relations with Azerbaijan

President approves Artsakh government decisions on provision of financial assistance

Armenia parliament opposition faction leader on canceling US visit: We must fulfill our international duties

Fire in Abu Dhabi kills three people

ANIF Anti-Crisis Fund to invest in Armenia cargo transportation

Azerbaijan to soon open bus routes to Artsakhs occupied Shushi

Armenia ruling force MP, businessman: Turks will be able to use our medical services in Gyumri, Yerevan

Erdogan wants to save Turkish economy with oil production in the Black Sea

Copper rises in price
STRONGSVILLE, Ohio -- The coronavirus quarantine that shut down Ohio from early March until almost June was a pretty lonely time for many people. While some of us were lucky and got to spend these weeks playing games, watching movies and learning new recipes with family, many people had to spend them alone.

Government-ordered prohibitions on visits by family members and friends of residents at Altenheim Senior Living were very hard on everyone. Many do not realize how beneficial regular visits are to the residents.

Staff members had to start looking for other ways to make the residents feel connected, since the only people allowed on campus were essential workers. They conducted one-on-one visits each day with residents to try to give them a similar feeling, but it just didnt seem like it was enough.

Thats when Michelle Hill of the Strongsville Early Childhood PTA reached out to Linda Begley, Shurmer Place Memory Assisted Living activity director, to develop the Adopt-a-Grandparent program.

This is a program in which volunteers from the Strongsville Early Childhood PTA would adopt one of the residents. Their children would send them crafts, cards and letters throughout the weeks of the quarantine.

Reading hand-written letters is one of the things the residents enjoy most, so it really helped to make them feel special when they would get a couple of letters each week. Some families even included pictures and videos for the residents so they could see who their adopted grandchildren were.

This program has had such great success at Shurmer Place Memory Assisted Living that it has continued throughout the summer, and will continue until the start of school.

Linda Begley notes, Out of this project, I feel that we have developed an inter-generational activity, and look forward to the day when we can all meet together in person.

The residents and staff of Shurmer Place Memory Assisted Living send a big thank you to Hill and all of the volunteers from the Strongsville Early Childhood PTA. They so appreciate their time and effort to make this generous gesture. Now the residents feel extra loved.

Altenheim has recently started outdoor visits for family members, friends and volunteers. Visitors call in advance to reserve a time. During the visits, strict protocols are followed, including mask wearing and social distancing.

The residents really appreciate the time they get to spend with their loved ones.

For more information on Altenheim Senior Living and Shurmer Place Memory Assisted Living, go to www.altenheim.com.

Do not open: The Ohio Department of Agriculture has issued a warning about the mysterious seeds some people -- including several Ohio residents -- have received in the mail, apparently from China.

If you receive a package of this type, please DO NOT plant these seeds. If they are in sealed packaging, do not open the sealed package.

You can report the seeds to ODA online or you may contact the United States Department of Agricultures Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Anti-smuggling Hotline by calling 800-877-3835 or by emailing SITC.Mail@aphis.usda.gov.

Also, if possible, please retain the original packaging, as that information may be useful to trade compliance officers as they work through this issue.

Unsolicited seeds could be invasive species, contain noxious weeds, could introduce diseases to local plants or could be harmful to livestock.

No brush chipping: The citys annual brush-chipping program is not taking place this summer due to financial constraints. With income tax revenue lagging due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Strongsville Service Department was unable to hire part-time seasonal workers, who typically handle the brush-chipping program.

Republic Waste will still pick up branches about 4 feet long that are tied into bundles that weigh no more than 50 pounds. Residents can also bring their branches to the Transfer Station, located behind the municipal offices on Foltz Parkway, for disposal.

Academic achievement: A total of 9,077 Kent State University full-time students were named to the Deans List for superior academic achievement during the 2020 spring semester. Of the full-time students named to the Deans List, 1,398 were also named to the Presidents List, in recognition of an extremely high level of academic achievement.

To be named to the Deans List, full-time students must have achieved a grade point average of 3.40 or greater and must have completed 12 or more letter-graded credit hours. To qualify for the Presidents List, full-time students must have an average in the semester of 4.00 and must have completed 15 or more letter-graded credit hours by the end of the semester.

A total of 1,258 Kent State University part-time students were also named to the Deans List for superior academic achievement. Part-time students may qualify for the Deans list honor once a year, with the list being compiled after spring semester.

Part-time students must complete and pass 12 or more regular letter-graded hours taken during the previous summer, fall and spring semesters and must have a grade point average of 3.40 or greater in those three periods. Part-time students must have registered for fewer than 12 hours in each of the semesters under consideration.

For more information on Kent State University, go to www.kent.edu.

Let the Strongsville community know what is going on with your organization, church, school, business or family. Email me at shirleymac48@att.net.

Read more from the Sun Star Courier.
Advertisement

By West Kentucky Star Staff

Aug. 05, 2020 | MURRAY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 05, 2020 | 05:23 PM | MURRAY

Murray Calloway County Hospital CEO Jerry Penner said Wednesday that July 4th holiday gatherings are the cause of a recent increase in positive cases of COVID-19 in Calloway County.



In a Facebook post, Penner said, "I've heard people say that we are having more positives because the hospital is testing more. That is false."



According to Penner, during the first four months of the pandemic from March through July 16, Calloway County had 116 confirmed cases. However, in the last 20 days, the number has grown by over 90 cases.



"You can draw your own conclusions on how that happened," Penner posted.



He also shared that between March and July the county had one person pass away due to the virus, but in the past 30 days they have experienced four more deaths.



Penner urged county residents to continue to take precautions to keep families and coworkers safe.





You can see the full Facebook post below.




By Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: There is hardly anything surprising about Priyanka Gandhis statement on Ayodhya, said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Responding to questions at his evening briefing, Pinarayi said the Congress has always followed a soft Hindutva line.This is the first official response from the Kerala CPM on the Ayodhya issue.

He said it was the Congress that allowed kar seva in Ayodhya and remained mute spectator when Babri Masjid was demolished. At the time, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) too stood with Congress, he said.

On the governments stance on Ayodhya, Pinarayi said right now the fight against Covid should get top priority.Priyankas remarks come as no wonder. We all know the stance that Congress has adopted over the years. The stance taken by Rajiv Gandhi and Narasimha Rao are part of history. If Congress had a clear stance on secularism, India wouldnt have faced its present fate, he said. He said theres nothing new in the stance adopted by Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi.

The Congress has always followed a soft Hindutva line. It is the Congress which allowed worship at Babri Masjid. It was the Congress government that allowed laying of foundation stone for temple. Who allowed kar seva? It happened when the Congress was in power at the Centre. When Sangh Parivar activists went to demolish Babri Masjid, who had remained mute spectators? It was the Congress government under then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao.

What happened later is the natural culmination of opening Babri Masjid to a section of people, allowing kar seva and laying the foundation stone, he said.

It should also be remembered that the Indian Union Muslim League(IUML) has a history of standing with them, when all these happened. All this is part of our countrys history, said Pinarayi.He said the CPM politburo has already made the partys stance clear.

As per todays (Wednesday) statistics, the number of Covid cases in the country has crossed 19 lakh . We should seriously think about tackling this. There are people facing severe financial crunch due to the prevailing situation. This should get priority. And thats why the government has initiated certain actions in this regard, he said.
The Duchess of Cambridge showcased her support for local businesses yesterday by donning a pair of earrings by a Welsh jewellery designer, as she and Prince William made a series of visits in the country.

Kate Middleton, 38, selected the 62 18k gold plated Alia hoops crafted by female designer Hayley Jones for her brand Spells of Love for the engagements in Barry Island and Cardiff.

The mother-of-three recycled a blue floral Emilia Wickstead gown for the occasion, sweeping her hair into a classic bouncy wave, and tucked her locks behind her ears to reveal the dangling earrings.

The brand is described online as crafting pieces with a mix of 'bohemian feminine influence' and 'trend-led modern aesthetic', with a focus on 'ethical production'.

Kate Middleton, 38, opted to wear 62 gold hoop earrings from an independent Welsh female designer during her visit to the country yesterday

Arriving for the visits yesterday, the royal opted for a natural makeup look, sweeping a dark eyeshadow across her lids and a touch of blusher on her cheeks.

The hoops are described online as 'best selling' and are sent to customers in a '100 per cent plastic free and biodegradable bag.'

The brand is described online as a 'demi-fine jewellery company' which operates from 'a small studio in the heart of Wales'.

It was launched in August 2019, and has since become a favourite for British reality stars and models including Emma Louise Connelly, MIC's Sophie Habbo and TOWIE's Chloe Lewis.

The Duchess of Cambridge donned the gold hoop earrings as she and Prince William visited Barry and Cardiff

The brand, which was founded by designer Hayley Jones in August 2019, describes crafting 'bohemian feminine influence with a trend led and modern aesthetic'

The pieces are described as being 'designed with love and intention' and 'mix bohemian feminine influence with trend led and modern aesthetic'.

Hayley creates her pieces in an 'eco and ethically conscious' way, designing her pieces 'with the intention of making women feel beautiful' in order to 'enhance their inner beauty.'

The Duchess is known for her love of affordable jewellery, and often selects earrings by high street brands including Accessorize.

She donned the earrings as she joined Prince William for a visit to Gavin & Stacey's slot machine arcade in South Wales on Wednesday.

The Duchess swept her hair behind her ear during her visit to a cafe on Barry Island, revealing the delicate gold hoops

The couple hit the real-life beachfront family attractions made famous in comedy favourite Gavin and Stacey.

The couple laughed as they played in Island Leisure amusement - the iconic setting for 'Nessa's Slots' at the Welsh resort - but the prince, who is pals with James Corden, admitted he had not seen the classic BBC show.

Later they visited the Shire Hall Care Home in the Welsh capital three months after speaking to staff and residents via video link and calling out the numbers for their weekly bingo session.
Actor Sushant Singh Rajput and his former manager Disha Salians cases are getting more and more complex. Now, actor Sooraj Pancholi has reacted to the twin cases after his name got associated with them.

Sooraj took to Instagram to quash reports, linking him to Disha, after fake photos of him and Disha started doing the rounds on the internet. He rubbished them and further identified the said person as his friend, Anushri Gaur.

Sharing a screen shot of one such a report and another, an actual picture from the said party, Sooraj wrote: Complete bullsh*t!! #F*ckYouFakeMEDIA Is this the media we are supposed to trust?? That girl in the picture which was clicked in 2016 is not Disha Salian that is my friend @agaur21 (Anushri Gaur) who doesnt even live in India .. Please stop brainwashing people and PLEASE stop harassing me and dragging me into this ! Start being responsible of your actions as it can ruin someones life ! I have said this before and Im saying it again I have never met or spoken to Disha Salian in my life Seriously F*CK YOU AND F*CK YOUR FAKE NEWS! Ive had enough.

In another report in India Today, he had reacted to his name being mentioned in relation to Sushant Singh Rajput death case. He had told the publication, They are dragging me into this for no reason at all. Its better I say nothing. Let them do what they have to. Thank you for reaching out. If there is something, I will reach out to you.

Earlier, BJP leader Narayana Rane had waded into the Sushants death case and reportedly asked why Mumbai Police had not questioned those present at Soorajs house party on June 13. He was quoted in the same report as saying, Why were people present at Sooraj Pancholis house party not questioned? On June 13 there was a party. A lot of rumours had been flouting around about a party at Soorajs home on June 13, a night before Sushants death. Many big names from Bollywood had been present at the party, it has been claimed.

At the same time, Dishas father Satish had written a letter to Mumbai Police, trashing reports linking his daughter to politicians or the fact she attended parties with Bollywood bigwigs. In his letter, he had reportedly written: News about her involvement with any politician or attending parties with big names of film fraternity, rape, murder are all the stories cooked by these media people just to sell it to channels. These stories hold no truth. These are misleading the people and tarnishing my daughters reputation and my familys reputation. These fake news are taking a huge toll on my familys health and we are being victimised by the media.

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(Photo/Screenshot of CCTV news)

China successfully launched a new optical remote-sensing satellite from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 12:01 p.m. Thursday (Beijing Time).

The satellite, Gaofen-9 04, was sent into orbit by a Long March-2D carrier rocket. It has a resolution up to the sub-meter level.

The satellite will be mainly used for land surveys, city planning, land right confirmation, road network design, crop yield estimation and disaster prevention and mitigation.

It will also provide information for the development of the Belt and Road Initiative.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 23:11:34|Editor: huaxia

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A police officer broadcasts epidemic prevention information on the street in Kathmandu, Nepal, Aug. 6, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhou Shengping)

KATHMANDU, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Nepali government on Thursday confirmed the death of five people from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, the largest single day fatality.

With these deaths, Nepal has so far reported a total of 65 deaths from the pandemic.

"Five persons aged between 42 years to 72 years died of the COVID-19 in the last 24 hours," Jageshwor Gautam, spokesperson at the Ministry of Health and Population, told a press briefing on Thursday.

"The fatality rate has risen as infection is growing among the older people," Sameer Adhikari, joint spokesperson at the health ministry told Xinhua on Thursday. "Growing mobility of people after the lockdown was lifted has resulted in more infections among the older people whose immunity remain weaker compared to younger age people."

The Nepali government had enforced lockdown on March 24 to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and lifted it on July 21. But the Himalayan country is witnessing resurgence in new COVID-19 cases in recent days after seeing a steep decline for nearly a month.

According to the Nepal's health ministry, the number of COVID-19 patients who are in critical condition is also rising rapidly in recent days. Till July 31, there were just 24 critical cases which have risen to 66 on Thursday, and many of them are the old.

At the same time, the Himalayan country lacks adequate infrastructure including ventilators to support more critical cases, according to the Nepali officials. "We have the limited Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) kits, Viral Transport Mediums (VTMs) and the ventilators. So, our focus has been on preventive measures," said Adhikari.

Meanwhile, Nepal reported 360 new cases on Thursday as the number of total COVID-19 cases reached 21,750. As new COVID-19 cases started to rise once again, the Nepali government has started to restrict movement of people.

An odd-even rule has been enforced for public and private vehicles plying inside Kathmandu Valley and other districts with more than 200 active cases on Thursday, according to Nepal's Ministry of Home Affairs. Likewise, the home ministry also barred vehicular and public movements from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. in districts having more than 200 COVID-19 cases. Enditem
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - No Turkish hospitals are operating at capacity because of the coronavirus pandemic, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Thursday, after Reuters quoted doctors as saying some dedicated intensive care units (ICU) were full.

"There are no cities, not even a single hospital, working at capacity due to COVID-19. Claims are unfounded," Koca said on Twitter.

Doctors in coronavirus hotspots, including Ankara and the southeastern city of Gaziantep, told Reuters that hospitals are logging more cases than are reflected in the official nationwide count, with some ICUs and emergency rooms at capacity.

Official figures indicate the virus has killed 5,784 people and infected 236,112 in Turkey, with 93% having recovered. The Health Ministry reported 1,178 new cases on Wednesday.

(Writing by Ezgi Erkoyun; Editing by Jonathan Spicer and Timothy Heritage)
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Aug. 25, 2020 | PADUCAH

By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 25, 2020 | 03:54 PM | PADUCAH

The Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce has announced that their Annual DC Fly-In will be based out of Paducah in 2020.



The revised plan include two parts. The first part will be held in late August when the Chamber will schedule small group virtual meetings with the Congressional staff to discuss the Chamber's 2020 priorities. In October, an event now called DC Fly-Back will be held with part virtual and part in-person to host meetings with the Department of Energy and Department of Transportation including the Maritime Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration.



Congressman James Comer will participate in the meetings and invitations will be extended to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Rand Paul as well as other members of the states Congressional delegation.



The Chamber's top three priorities for the DC Fly-In are continued FAA funding for the Barkley Regional Airport terminal project and Essential Air Service funding, continued funding for DOEs clean-up efforts at the Paducah site and an increase in $20 million in FY 2021, and support for a comprehensive Infrastructure Bill to strengthen critical infrastructure including air, roads, bridges, railways, waterways, broadband and public transit systems.



We chose these top three priorities to represent the greatest needs of our community that would also bring the biggest impact, Brent Housman the chair of the Chambers Business Advocacy Committee said. Barkley Regional Airport is the gateway for business and leisure travelers entering the four-state area. Replacing the 70-year-old terminal will make Paducah more attractive to visitors and prospective businesses for years to come. Similarly, increased investment in the DOE Paducah site is an investment in jobs for our area for decades to come and spending on infrastructure will lead to job creation and overall economic growth."



The Chamber also included COVID-19 Recovery Recommendations to help rebuild Americas businesses, especially small businesses in their 2020 priorities including liability protection for businesses, state and local funding, and telehealth.



Further details about the Chambers two-part DC event will be released soon.
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / August 6, 2020 / Upscale Marketing is known as one of the best and fastest-growing marketing agencies, not only in New Jersey but on the entire East Coast. The results-focused company specializes in social media marketing, social media consulting, web design and development, and increasing a company's digital presence. Upscale Marketing is home to seasoned marketing experts that excel in targeting the right market for brands in digital advertising, leading to business growth.

The agency is founded by Konain Shah, an immigrant who came to the United States when he was 11 years old. At a young age, Konain had the heart for business and a determined entrepreneurial spirit. "I personally came from nothing," Konain said. He also didn't know how to speak English. But that didn't stop him from building multiple businesses. At 16, Konain ventured into four businesses but failed, leaving him in debt.

Nonetheless, Konain tried again. At 18, he began doing marketing for other businesses. Seeing his knack for marketing, he soon decided to build his niche around it. His services grew and became well-known faster than he imagined. "It was a lot of work at first because getting clients was hard. But when they saw that we deliver three times the result than their previous marketer or whoever they were with, our name got out," Konain said.

With Konain, Tahseeb Bukhari, at his other business partners at the helm, the company serves both local and national businesses. They also cater to clients in the service sector, such as real estate, tax, as well as others in marketing. Driven by an immense determination to give clients what they deserve, Upscale Marketing often exceeds expectations. They have been dubbed crazy in the best way possible because of the massive results they bring for their clients.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Upscale Marketing took their game to the next level. The team of experts developed innovative ideas on how to market businesses that have been profoundly affected by the crisis. Digital marketing is proven to be one of the most effective ways to revive businesses and services that shut down during the pandemic. Upscale Marketing did their best to boost companies and generate income by pivoting and leading them to transition their process online.

The company has worked with notable brands such as Compass, Coldwell Banker, Keller Williams, Century 21, The Overwatch Consulting Group, LLC, Bungalow Beach, Biergarten, and many more. They are also responsible for the world-class website of Mr. Finger's Alibi Gin, a gin company, and shop in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The web development and design for the said gin company perfectly embodied the personality of the brand, while making it functional and user-friendly at the same time.

Konain is passionate about what he does. He and his team find purpose in creating innovative solutions to help their clients achieve their goals. He is also notorious when it comes to leveraging strategies that would maximize the results for his clients. Beyond generating social media traffic and market funnels for his clients, Konain is translating online clicks to quantifiable outcomes.

Learn more about Upscale Marketing and Konain Shah on their website and Facebook page.

Company: Upscale Marketing

Email: business@konainshah.com

Phone number: (609) 553-8578

Website: UpscaleGM.com

SOURCE: Upscale Marketing

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/600570/Konain-Shah-and-Upscale-Marketing-Take-It-to-the-Next-Level-Through-Digital-Innovation
A former couple are facing serious jail time after filming 'morally repugnant' sex acts with their pet dog.

Kevin Thregold, 48, and Rebecca Thredgold, 36, pleaded guilty to bestiality charges after police uncovered a secret folder on their computer during a separate investigation.

Sixteen videos of the two performing sex acts on the dog on three separate occasions were found under a file titled: 'Do not view - delete if we die'.

Police discovered 16 videos of the two performing sex acts on the dog on three separate occasions (stock photo)

Police don't know whether the lewd acts caused the dog harm because it had died by the time the videos were discovered, news.com.au reported.

The couple, who lived together in South Australia for several years but have since separated, pleaded guilty at Adelaide District Court on Thursday.

Under the state's Criminal Law Act of 1935 bestiality can carry a maximum jail term of 10 years.

Ms Thedgold's lawyer James Marcus told the court the mother of six was 'disgusted with herself' over her behaviour.

'From the perspective of Ms Thredgold, she thought that that was something her partner wanted and it's quite apparent that, from Mr Thredgold's perspective, that is also what he believed,' he told the court.

The former couple, who lived together in South Australia for several years, pleaded guilty to the charges at the Adelaide District Court (pictured) on Thursday

'The offending arose out of an extensive sexual experimentation between the couple in which they engaged in risque activities.'

Police Prosecutor Georgina Venn pushed for a custodial sentence, telling the court the offending was too serious to warrant home detention or a suspended sentence.

'The offending is undoubtedly serious and  morally repugnant in nature,' she said.

The former couple will be sentenced over the offences later this month.
The Delhi high court on Wednesday said all final-year undergraduate students, including those in the general category, who have registered for Delhi Universitys (DU) open book examination (OBE) but cannot complete it, will have the option to physically appear for the exams later  even if they have downloaded the question paper but could not upload or e-mail the answer sheet for any reason.

A bench of justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad passed the order after DU counsel senior advocate Sachin Datta agreed to the courts suggestion that considering the problems related to OBE, the general category should also be given an option to appear for the physical examination like the PWD category students.

Around 240,000 students are set to take the test through OBE on August 10.

The court, however, agreed with DUs contention that if a student uploads or e-mails an answer sheet of any subject, then he or she will not be permitted to sit for the physical examination in that particular subject later on.

DUs counsel said any student unable to take the OBE exam for any other reason will get a chance again when the university holds the physical test at a later date.

The court was hearing petitions filed by law student Prateek Sharma and the National Federation of Blind (NFB), seeking effective mechanisms for visually impaired and specially abled students for the exams.

On Wednesday, DU filed an affidavit in the court, stating that in the second set of mock tests, 186,814 students had registered, of whom 23,693 were able to complete the examination process. In the first phase, 183,376 students had registered, of whom 33,162 students completed the process.

Seeing the outcome, the court noted that data relating to the second phase of the mock test is more abysmal than the first phase. It expressed displeasure at the dismal number appearing for the second mock tests.

Even for the PWD category students and VH students, the data of the second phase is no better than that of the first phase, if not worse. This is a clear indication that final-year students are not thoroughly prepared to participate in the OBE on-line mode of examination that the university of Delhi has proposed to conduct, the court said.

The bench directed the varsity to provide scribes, on request, to visually impaired students at common service centres (CSCs) for the online OBE for final-year undergraduate courses, if they have opted for one.

The court directed DU to finalise the results date. It also asked the university to give specify dates to hold physical examinations for those who could not take the online test.

The bench said the university should provide at least two reading material or text books of each paper to visually handicapped students and granted a weeks time to students to make the request to DU. It said DU will ensure no such student is deprived of a scribe if it has been informed in advance.

A member of the universitys examination branch, who wished not to be named, said, The university from the beginning is saying that another chance will be given to students who are not able to appear in OBE remotely. The exams in the normal pen and paper mode will be conducted only after the declaration of the results of OBE exams.
Dr Anthony Fauci has drawn the ire of Trump because of his perceived willingness to contradict the president.

The United Statess top infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci said that he and his family have required continued security following harassment and death threats from people angry over his guidance on the coronavirus pandemic.

The unseemingly things that crises bring out in the world, it brings out the best of people and the worst of people, and getting death threats to my family and harassing my daughters to the point where I have to get security  its amazing, Fauci said in an interview on Wednesday with CNN.

I wouldnt have imagined in my wildest dreams that people who object to things that are pure public health principles are so set against it and dont like what you and I say, namely in the world of science, that they actually threaten you, he added.

Dr Anthony Fauci adjusts his face mask during a Senate hearing on efforts to get back to work in Washington, DC, US [File: Al Drago/Pool via Reuters]

Fauci has publicly contradicted President Donald Trump and his advisers on several occasions over the severity of the crisis in the country as well as US plans to reopen schools and the economy  provoking the frustration of a president who sees a resurgent economy as key to winning another four years in office.

In the early days of the coronavirus crisis, Trump was flanked in the White House briefing room by a team of public health experts in a seeming portrait of unity to confront the disease that was ravaging the globe.

But as the crisis has spread to all reaches of the country, with escalating deaths and little sense of an endgame, a chasm has widened between the president and health experts. The result: daily delivery of a mixed message to the public at a moment when coherence is most needed.

There is a degree of anti-science feeling in this country, and I think it is not just related to science. Its almost related to authority and a mistrust in authority that spills over, Fauci said during the interview.

Trump and his political advisers insist that the US has no rival in its response to the pandemic. They point to the fact that the US has administered more virus tests than any other nation and that the percentage of deaths among those infected is among the lowest.

In an interview with Axios that aired on Monday, but was recorded last week, Trump said of the pandemic in the US, Its as under control as much as you can control it.

But the surge in infections, hospitalisations and deaths tells a different story. And it suggests that the president is increasingly out of step with the federal governments own medical and public health experts.

The US death toll, which stands at more than 158,000, is expected to accelerate. The latest composite forecast from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projects an average of nearly 1,000 deaths per day through August 22.

Trump has suggested his frustration was spurred by his administration not receiving proper credit for testing so many people or for pushing to replenish the stockpile of ventilators early in the crisis. On Tuesday, he boasted that the US has increased testing capacity by 32,000 percent since March 12 and has far and away the most testing capacity in the world.

Dr Anthony Fauci, speaking about COVID-19 in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington, DC [File: AP Photo/Evan Vucci]

In early March he declared anybody that needs a test gets a test. Yet, in many parts of the country, it can still take a week or longer for patients to receive test results.

His positive self-evaluation gives short shrift to the fact that the US has the worlds fourth-highest per capita virus death rate, according to Johns Hopkins Universitys coronavirus resource centre.

In the Axios interview, Trump insisted that the appropriate statistic to judge the virus response was the ratio of deaths to cases. By that metric, the US ranks 14th among the 20 countries most affected by COVID-19. Chile, India, Argentina, Russia, South Africa and Bangladesh all have lower rates of deaths to infections, according to the Johns Hopkins-compiled data.

And on Thursday, Trump said the US could possibly have a coronavirus vaccine before the November election, a far more optimistic forecast than that of health experts.

Fauci on Wednesday said drugmakers will likely have tens of millions of doses of vaccines available in the early part of next year.
All amounts are in US dollars, unless otherwise indicated.

Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - August 5, 2020) - IAMGOLD Corporation (TSX: IMG) ("IAMGOLD" or the "Company") today announced the Company has filed a National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") Technical Report ("Technical Report") on the Feasibility Study ("Study", or "FS") for its 100%-owned underground Westwood Gold Mine ("Westwood"), located in Quebec, Canada, with an effective date of April 30, 2020. The results of the FS are in-line with expectations and the Company re-affirms long-term production guidance ("Production Guidance") originally disclosed in December 2019 (see news releases dated December 12, 2019 and May 4, 2020).

The Company is also providing an updated Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resource estimate that reflects modified mining methods and operational assumptions, derived from ongoing operating experience at Westwood.

Over the past year, the Company had undertaken a comprehensive review of the technical and economic viability of Westwood that included preferred mining methods, mineral processing, and operational practices, with the overall objective of improving economic returns and establishing an achievable pathway to a safe and profitable long-life underground mine.

"The long-term Production Guidance establishes an achievable operational base case foundation, built upon conservative assumptions, and positions the asset for long-term safe and profitable exploitation," commented Gordon Stothart, IAMGOLD President and CEO. "We have adopted a cautious and empirical based approach that reflects current operational reality, with significant opportunities to improve on the base case. Additionally, given significant mill capacity availability, we are actively pursuing a 'hub-and-spoke' strategy at Westwood that could bring regional exploration value forward from assets like the recently acquired Fayolle Property and the optioned Rouyn Gold Project, and enhance the overall value of Westwood with incremental production growth from supplementary feed."

Story continues

As is typical for underground operations, and supported by reasonable assumptions in-line with historical operating experience, the Company continues to work on converting its significant underground mineral resources to mineral reserves over time. The revised production profile established by the Production Guidance in December 2019 underpinned the Westwood impairment charge referenced in the full-year 2019 results release (see news release dated February 19, 2020).

The Study was completed by IAMGOLD, with inputs from technical studies completed by other consultants. The Technical Report can be found on the Company's website at www.iamgold.com or under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com and www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml.

MINERAL RESOURCES

Total attributable Measured and Indicated Resources (inclusive of Reserves) increased by 6% to 1.557 million ounces grading 10.2 g/t Au. Total attributable Inferred Resources increased by 4% to 1.771 million ounces grading 8.6 g/t. Gold price assumptions were maintained at $1,200 per ounce gold price for estimating underground resources, and $1,500 per ounce for estimating the Grand Duc open pit resources.

Table 1 - Westwood Mineral Resources (100% Basis) As at April 30, 2020 As at December 31, 2019 Classification Tonnes

(000s) Grade

(Au g/t) Contained

(Au koz) Tonnes

(000s) Grade

(Au g/t) Contained

(Au koz) Measured Westwood 941 13.3 402 925 12.1 359 Grand Duc -- -- -- -- -- -- Indicated Westwood 2,777 12.6 1,122 3,064 10.9 1,074 Grand Duc 1,046 1.0 33 1,069 1.0 34 Total M&I 4,764 10.2 1,557 5,058 9.0 1,467 Inferred Westwood 5,771 9.5 1,754 5,493 9.5 1,679 Grand Duc 613 0.9 17 681 0.9 19 Total Inferred 6,384 8.6 1,771 6,174 8.6 1,698

Notes:

CIM (2014) definitions were followed for Mineral Resources. Underground mineral Resources are estimated at a cut-off grade of 5.5 g/t Au over a minimum width of 2.4 metres;

Grand Duc open pit Mineral Resources are estimated at a cut-off grade of 0.44 g/t Au (pit shell $1,500/oz). Underground Mineral Resources are estimated using an average long-term gold price of $1,200/oz and exchange rate of 1.25. Mineral Resources are inclusive of Mineral Reserves. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. Numbers may not add due to rounding.

MINERAL RESERVES

Total attributable Reserves decreased by 48% to 0.618 million ounces grading 7.1 g/t Au. While overall Mineral Resources have remained largely unchanged, Mineral Reserves were impacted primarily by more conservative geotechnical assumptions related to specific zones located in higher seismic risk areas.

Table 2 - Westwood Mineral Reserves (100% Basis) As at April 30, 2020 As at December 31, 2019 Classification Tonnes

(000s) Grade

(Au g/t) Contained

(Au koz) Tonnes

(000s) Grade

(Au g/t) Contained

(Au koz) Proven Westwood 105 7.2 24 1,196 8.1 313 Grand Duc -- -- -- -- -- -- Probable Westwood 2,030 8.8 575 3,491 7.6 851 Grand Duc 563 1.1 19 582 1.1 20 Total Reserves 2,698 7.1 618 5,269 7.0 1,184

Notes:

CIM (2014) definitions were followed for Mineral Reserves. Mineral Reserves estimated assuming underground mining methods for Westwood and open pit mining for Grand Duc. Underground Mineral Reserves are estimated at a cut-off grade of 5.5 g/t over a minimum width of 2.4 metres. Underground Mineral Reserves are estimated using an average long-term gold price of $1,200/oz.

An economic cut-off grade of 0.56 g/t Au at a gold price of $1,500/oz and an exchange rate of 1.25 is applied for Grand Duc Mineral Reserves. Mineral Reserves as of April 30, 2020 include a dilution between 46-99% at a grade of 0.5 g/t. Mine recovery used for Mineral Reserves as of April 30, 2020 varies between 59%-89%.

Grand Duc Mineral Reserves as of April 30, 2020 include a dilution of 10% with a planned recovery of 100%. Gold recovery is estimated to be 92.6% for Westwood underground and 89.0% for Grand Duc. Numbers may not add due to rounding.

MINING METHOD

Long-hole open stoping ("LHOS") is the primary mining method used at Westwood. Stopes are approximately 25 to 30 metres high with a strike varying from 12 to 15 metres in length. The mining width depends on the true width of the mineralization, lens configuration and geotechnical constraints applied to the area, with a minimum mining width of 2.4 metres. Access to production stopes is typically either transverse or longitudinal, with short longitudinal retreat utilized for reducing delays associated to rehabilitation and exposure to induced stress.

Historically, mining has been carried out using bottom-up LHOS methods, either in a pillarless or in a primary and secondary stope configuration. In areas of higher seismic risk the Company intends to utilize underhand LHOS (top to bottom) for better induced stress management. As a result, depending upon the area, either underhand LHOS or bottom-up LHOS mining methods are employed.

FUTURE WORK

The Company continues to advance various geomechanical studies to minimize uncertainty of mineral reserve and resource extraction, and to improve operational reliability of mining in adverse ground conditions. This includes utilization of a geotechnical stress model to identify areas of potential poor ground conditions. The Company continues to closely work with third party consultants with experience in seismically active, narrow-vein underground mines to further reduce geotechnical risk associated with mining and development at Westwood. An oversight committee comprised of subject matter experts has been established which continuously evaluates measures, controls and procedures associated with ground control management, with the intention of maximizing safety and mine recovery in higher risk areas.

HUB-AND-SPOKE DISTRICT MODEL

As noted above, the Company continues to utilize excess mill capacity at Westwood with supplemental material feed from the adjacent Grand Duc open pit satellite deposit. The deposit is anticipated to provide ore feed at a rate of 40,000 tonnes per month until mid-2021 at grades of ~1.0 g/t Au.

Taking into consideration the long-term Production Guidance, the Company recognizes significant opportunity to realize incremental value from excess mill capacity by pursuing a regional "hub-and-spoke" district strategy. The objective is to provide supplemental mill feed from properties within trucking distance of the Westwood mill.

In this context, the Company is focusing its regional exploration and development efforts on the newly acquired Fayolle Property located ~35 km northeast of Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, and the optioned Rouyn Gold Project, located ~4 km south of Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec. Both of these properties have the potential to provide additional feed to the Westwood mill, following the anticipated depletion of the Grand Duc deposit in mid-2021.

IAMGOLD intends to continue with its extensive regional exploration initiatives to identify the most value accretive sources of incremental feed to maximize value from excess mill capacity at Westwood.

Technical Information and Qualified Person/Quality Control Notes

The Mineral Resource and Reserve estimates contained in this news release have been prepared in accordance with NI 43-101. The "Qualified Person" responsible for the resource estimate contained herein is Mr. Donald Trudel, P.Geo., senior geologist, Westwood Mine. The "Qualified Person" responsible for the underground reserve estimate contained herein is Mr. Mauril Gauthier, P.Eng., senior mine engineer. The "Qualified Person" responsible for the open pit reserve estimate contained herein is Mr. Philippe Chabot, P.Eng., Director mining, Technical services at Longueuil. The "Qualified Person" responsible for the information concerning exploration sites is Marie-France Bugnon, P. Geo., General Manager Exploration.

The information in this news release was reviewed and approved by Daniel Vallieres, Vice President, Operations Services for IAMGOLD.

All the above individuals are employees of IAMGOLD and considered Qualified Persons, as defined by NI 43-101 for the technical information reported on. IAMGOLD Qualified Persons are not independent of IAMGOLD and have reviewed and approved this news release. The technical information has been included herein with the consent and prior review of the above noted Qualified Persons. The Qualified Persons have verified the data disclosed, and data underlying the information or opinions contained herein.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

All Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resources estimates reported by the Company were estimated in accordance with NI 43-101 and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum Definition Standards (May 10, 2014). These standards differ significantly from the requirements of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Mineral Resources which are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.

This document contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. This information and these statements, referred to herein as "forward-looking statements" are made as of the date of this document. Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect current estimates, predictions, expectations or beliefs regarding future events and include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to:

(i) the estimated amount and grade of Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves;

(ii) the FS representing a viable development option for the Project;

(iii) estimates of the capital costs of constructing mine facilities and bringing a mine into production, of sustaining capital and the duration of financing payback periods;

(iv) the estimated amount of future production, both produced and metal recovered; and,

(v) estimates of operating costs and total costs, net cash flow, net present value and economic returns from an operating mine.

Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "expects", "anticipates", "plans", "projects", "estimates", "envisages", "assumes", "intends", "strategy", "goals", "objectives" or variations thereof or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved, or the negative of any of these terms and similar expressions) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements.

All forward-looking statements are based on IAMGOLD's or its consultants' current beliefs as well as various assumptions made by them and information currently available to them. The most significant assumptions are set forth above, but generally these assumptions include:

(i) the presence of and continuity of metals at the Westwood mine at estimated grades;

(ii) the geotechnical and metallurgical characteristics of rock conforming to sampled results;

(iii) the capacities and durability of various machinery and equipment;

(iv) the availability of personnel, machinery and equipment at estimated prices and within the estimated delivery times;

(v) currency exchange rates;

(vi) metals sales prices and exchange rate assumed;

(vii) appropriate discount rates applied to the cash flows in the economic analysis;

(viii) tax rates and royalty rates applicable to the proposed mining operation;

(ix) the availability of acceptable financing under assumed structure and costs;

(x) anticipated mining losses and dilution;

(xi) reasonable contingency requirements;

(xii) success in realizing proposed operations;

(xiii) receipt of permits and other regulatory approvals on acceptable terms; and

(xiv) the fulfillment of environmental assessment commitments and arrangements with local communities.

Although management considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to it, they may prove to be incorrect. Many forward-looking statements are made assuming the correctness of other forward looking statements, such as statements of net present value and internal rates of return, which are based on most of the other forward-looking statements and assumptions herein. The cost information is also prepared using current values, but the time for incurring the costs will be in the future and it is assumed costs will remain stable over the relevant period.

By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and risks exist that estimates, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not be achieved or that assumptions do not reflect future experience. We caution readers not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements as a number of important factors could cause the actual outcomes to differ materially from the beliefs, plans, objectives, expectations, anticipations, estimates assumptions and intentions expressed in such forward-looking statements. These risk factors may be generally stated as the risk that the assumptions and estimates expressed above do not occur as forecast, but specifically include, without limitation: risks relating to variations in the mineral content within the material identified as Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves from that predicted; variations in rates of recovery and extraction; the geotechnical characteristics of the rock mined or through which infrastructure is built differing from that predicted, the quantity of water that will need to be diverted or treated during mining operations being different from what is expected to be encountered during mining operations or post closure, or the rate of flow of the water being different; developments in world metals markets; risks relating to fluctuations in the Canadian dollar relative to the US dollar; increases in the estimated capital and operating costs or unanticipated costs; difficulties attracting the necessary work force; increases in financing costs or adverse changes to the terms of available financing, if any; tax rates or royalties being greater than assumed; changes in development or mining plans due to changes in logistical, technical or other factors; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; risks relating to receipt of regulatory approvals; delays in stakeholder negotiations; changes in regulations applying to the development, operation, and closure of mining operations from what currently exists; the effects of competition in the markets in which IAMGOLD operates; operational and infrastructure risks, the potential direct or indirect operational impacts resulting from infectious diseases or pandemics, such as the COVID-19 outbreak and the additional risks described in IAMGOLD's Annual Information Form filed with SEDAR in Canada (available at www.sedar.com) for the year ended December 31, 2019 and in the Corporation's Annual Report Form 40-F filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on EDGAR (available at https://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/companysearch.html). IAMGOLD cautions that the foregoing list of factors that may affect future results is not exhaustive.

When relying on our forward-looking statements to make decisions with respect to IAMGOLD, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. IAMGOLD does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time by IAMGOLD or on our behalf, except as required by law.

About IAMGOLD

IAMGOLD is a mid-tier mining company with three gold mines on three continents, including the Essakane mine in Burkina Faso, the Rosebel mine in Suriname, and the Westwood mine in Canada. A solid base of strategic assets is complemented by the Cote Gold development project in Canada, the Boto Gold development project in Senegal, as well as greenfield and brownfield exploration projects in various countries located in West Africa and the Americas. On July 21, 2020, the Company, together with joint venture partner Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. Ltd., announced the decision to proceed with the construction of the Cote Gold Project.

IAMGOLD is committed to maintaining its culture of accountable mining through high standards of ESG practices and employs approximately 5,000 people. IAMGOLD's commitment is to Zero Harm, in every aspect of its business. IAMGOLD is one of the companies on the JSI index.

IAMGOLD is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (trading symbol "IMG") and the New York Stock Exchange (trading symbol "IAG").

For further information please contact :

Indi Gopinathan, VP, Investor Relations & Corporate Communications, IAMGOLD Corporation

Tel: (416) 360-4743 Mobile: (416) 388-6883

Philip Rabenok, Senior Analyst, Investor Relations, IAMGOLD Corporation

Tel: (416) 933-5783 Mobile: (647) 967-9942

Toll-free: 1-888-464-9999 info@iamgold.com

Please note:

This entire news release may be accessed via fax, e-mail, IAMGOLD's website at www.iamgold.com and through Newsfile's website at www.newsfilecorp.com. All material information on IAMGOLD can be found at www.sedar.com or at www.sec.gov.

Si vous desirez obtenir la version francaise de ce communique, veuillez consulter le www.iamgold.com/French/Home/default.aspx.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/61118
Storyful

A pod of Hectors dolphins joined paddleboarders in Te Waewae Bay, New Zealand, recently shared video shows.Footage by Ross Harvey Trafford shows the dolphins swimming alongside and underneath paddleboarders off the southern coast of New Zealands South Island.New Zealands Department of Conservation lists Hectors dolphins as nationally vulnerable, meaning the species faces a high risk of extinction in the medium term, reports said.There are about 15,000 Hectors dolphins over the age of one, the department said.The Department of Conservation has rules about flying drones near marine mammals. However, it said that Trafford was not in breach of them as this was an unplanned wildlife encounter, with the dolphins swimming into the frame of Traffords video. Credit: Ross Harvey Trafford via Storyful
New Delhi, Aug 6 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday condoled the loss of lives in a fire that broke out in the ICU ward of a private Covid-19 hospital in Ahmedabad. At least eight patients, five men and three women, were killed in the accident.

"Saddened by the tragic hospital fire in Ahmedabad. Condolences to the bereaved families. May the injured recover soon," tweeted PM Modi.

He also spoke to Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and Mayor Bijal Patel regarding the situation and said that the administration is providing all possible assistance to the affected.

The Prime Minister's Office has announced a compensation of Rs two lakh each from Prime Minister's National Relief Fund to the kin of the deceased. "Rs 50,000 each would be given to those injured due to the hospital fire," PMO said in a statement.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah also took to the micro-blogging website to express grief at the incident and prayed for the speedy recovery of those injured.

"Deeply anguished by the loss of lives due to tragic fire accident at a hospital in Ahmedabad. My condolences and thoughts are with the affected families in this hour of grief," he said.

In the wee hours on Thursday, eight people died in a major fire which broke out in a hospital. One seriously burnt patient is being treated while 40 other patients have been evacuated and shifted to the SVP hospital in Ahmedabad.
The hippocampus is a region within the brain that contains many neurons that help us to navigate in space. This leads to the nickname of this area: the GPS of the brain. The higher areas of the cortex send information packages to the hippocampus to generate location signals. However, not all packages contain relevant information. Therefore, the hippocampus needs to have a bouncer in place to select incoming signals. Such a gatekeeper could be the granule cell, a type of neuron situated at the entrance of the hippocampal circuit. Identifying the correct cells

IST Austria Professor Peter Jonas, Xiaomin Zhang, and Alois Schlogl started to examine neuronal signals in granule cells. However, the main problem was cell identification. In the past, experts could not guarantee that they correctly identified the cells. "Since this region is densely packed with various types of neurons, it is technically challenging to identify granule cells, the cells we were interested in," says Xiaomin Zhang, the first author on the paper. This makes it very difficult to distinguish between the activity of granule cells from that of other types of neurons located in the same region. Furthermore, granule cells typically show very sparse activity despite a vast amount of them. Thus, other cell types with higher activity levels could dominate the picture. Gatekeepers of the hippocampus

To record the incoming and outgoing signals of the granule cells, the scientists developed a novel recording technique and machine learning algorithm to decode these signals. To unequivocally identify the neurons, cells were filled with a tracer during recording. In total, they recorded from almost a hundred granule cells, generating a large data set that describes the activity of this important type of cell. They found that a majority of neurons receive spatial information. However, only a minority of neurons relays this spatial information to the rest of the hippocampus. Thus, granule cells indeed appear to operate as gatekeepers. Spatial information processing

However, granule cells not only select information but also appear to be involved in information processing. The team found that the input of the granule cells is broad, but the output is much more selective. Upstream cortical areas neurons are often grid cells that generate activity in multiple locations of the environment. In contrast, downstream hippocampal regions neurons are typically place cells, which fire only at a single location. The new study suggests that granule cells participate in this conversion. "In simplified terms, we can think of the granule cell as a unit that translates one neuronal language into another," Jonas explains. Saving computation power for the future

The majority of granule cells receive spatial information, but only 5% generate spatial output. Xiaomin Zhang explains: "Especially neurons with a more developed structure were active, whereas neurons with less mature structure remained silent." What could be the functional significance of such a unique design, in which a huge fraction of cells is not directly used for information processing? The scientists suggested that the hippocampus reserves most granule cells for future conversion and storage processes.

The new work highlights the power of single-cell recording techniques. "Our study provides information about the inner workings of the brain's GPS and the underlying single-neuron computations," summarizes Professor Peter Jonas.

###
Job Title: Logistics Officer

Organization:

Welthungerhilfe (WHH)

Duty Station:

Yumbe, Uganda

About US:

Welthungerhilfe

(WHH), founded in 1962, is today one of the biggest non-governmental aid and development

agencies in Germany. The objective of the program in Uganda is to improve

livelihoods of the most vulnerable population in rural areas through

interventions that increase their Food and Nutrition Security, improve

sustainable access to WASH services and support the employability of youth

through vocational and life skills training. We understand that livelihoods of

the rural population in Uganda have improved in a sustainable way when people

are able to meet their basic food needs, have access to clean drinking water

and safe sanitation, live in a healthy environment and take up opportunities to

earn and diversify a decent income.





In Uganda,

Welthungerhilfe currently operates in the districts of Arua, Yumbe, Moroto,

Nakapiripirit, Napak, Amudat, Fortportal, Katakwi, Amuria, Mukono, Wakiso and

country office in Kampala.

About Project:

Welthungerhilfe is

anticipating funding from BMZ to implement the project: Cross-border

strengthening of the resilience of South Sudanese refugees and their host and

return communities in Uganda and South Sudan in Yumbe district.





Duration: The

initial contract will be for 12 months with possibility of extension to 3 years

Vacancies in the

Project: Welthungerhilfe is looking for dynamic and team oriented staff who can

work independently and contribute to further improving the quality of the Project.

The successful candidates will be based in the Welthungerhilfe  Yumbe Project

Office in

Yumbe Town. The

positions are to be filled by September 01, 2020.

Job Summary: The Logistics Officer will support the Project

Manager and project staff in overall management of project logistical needs

including but not limited to the processes of procurement (Local and national),

transport of procured good and oversight of asset management and inventory

control. The Logistics officer will provide leadership and coordination of the

entire logistics component for the: Cross-border strengthening of the

resilience of South Sudanese refugees and their host and return communities in Uganda

and South Sudan by ensuring compliance with Welthungerhilfe RAC 2017.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

 Perform phases of sourcing activity to ensure

best value and within required lead times for a variety of requirements in

Yumbe Uganda, including analysis of overall budgetary impact for all types of

procurement transactions

 Lead in the preparation and implementation of

the annual procurement plan supported with budget and timetables.

 Ensure that the Welthungerhilfe regulations

for awarding of contracts (RAC) and donor regulations are upheld in the project

operations.

 Effectively negotiate with suppliers on a

wide variety of commodities (protective equipment, vehicles, materials) and

services for the best overall value to the project

 Contribute to the supply chain management

efforts up to and including logistical support from the ordering point through

the follow-up, expediting, and delivery of the required goods and/or services.

 Prepare, issue, and negotiate RFQ(s) for

assigned procurements such as materials, equipment, commodities, works and

services.

 Understand and ensure compliance with legal

guidelines, contracting principles, sourcing and price/cost analysis

requirements.

 Provide leadership of overall property

management and inventory control, reports, reconciliations for both expendables

and nonexpendables according to WHH/ BMZ rules and regulations.

 Conduct cycle inventory reconciliation and

conduct planned inventory and post spraying inventory exercise and maintain an

updated asset and inventory records for the project.

 Ensure timely reporting on stock status to

the project manager and help project staff plan stock replenishment in various

locations.

 Ensure adherence to Welthungerhilfe standard

procurement operating (SOP) procedures.

 Conduct logistics training workshops for

project staffs on storage, distribution, and inventory control.

 Develop and submit weekly, monthly, quarterly

and end of year reports to the project manager.

 Management of the Vehicle Pool and

Transportation: Organize the allocation and daily availability of vehicle(s)

establish tools for vehicles follow-up: logbooks, technical checkups use of

seatbelts, adherence to speed limits, vehicle booking process and movement

monitoring system etc.

 Maintaining proper records for all the

procurements handled at field office both in soft and hard copies files.

 Maintaining an updated Supplier database and

contracts database

 Ensure proper documentation of all Logistics

and procurement transactions. Prepare and submit to Finance payments for

service providers in compliance with the RAC requirements.

 Responsible for supplier management,

providing information on WHH compliance procedures, support their registration

in the e-Tender Portal and providing continuous feedback on what is required.

 Perform other duties as assigned by the

Project Manager from time to time.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

Required:

 The applicant must hold a post graduate

diploma in procurement and logistics from a recognized institution.

 Minimum of a bachelors degree in Business

Admiration, Economics, Accounting, Procurement

 At least three years procurement and

logistical work and experience in multi sectorial rural development projects

preferable with international NGOs.

 Excellent computer skills in Word, Excel,

Power point, Access etc

 Experience in working independently and

result oriented.

 Valid riding/driving licenses

Desired:

 Very good communication skills both oral and written

 Good command of English and knowledge of

local language is desirable

 Excellent interpersonal skills

How to Apply:

All qualified and

interested applicants should submit via email their application letter and

detailed curriculum vitae (max. 3 pages) containing contact details and

telephone numbers of 3 work related reference persons to uga.kampala.office@welthungerhilfe.de

Files should be submitted in single email with standard file types like MS

Word(.doc) and Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) and should not exceed 2MB.





Please indicate the

position for which you are applying for in the subject line of your E-mail.

Kindly note that only shortlisted applicants will be contacted. Welthungerhilfe

is an equal opportunity employer; qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged

to apply.

Job applicants

privacy notice: All the information you provide during the process will only be

used for the purpose of progressing your application, or to fulfil legal or

regulatory requirements if necessary.





We will not share

any of the information you provide during the recruitment process with any

third parties outside of this purpose.

Deadline: 12th August

2020 at 5:00 pm

For more of the latest jobs, please

visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com or

find us on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UgandanJobline
Thousands of women in Turkey took to the streets on Wednesday to demand that the government does not withdraw from a landmark treaty on preventing domestic violence. The protests were the biggest in recent weeks as anger grows over the rising number of women killed by men in the past decade since the Istanbul Convention was agreed in 2011. The convention is the world's first binding instrument to prevent and combat violence against women, from marital rape to female genital mutilation. Hundreds of women in Istanbul rallied in support of the treaty, an AFP correspondent said, holding placards saying "Women will not forgive violence", "Apply the Istanbul Convention" and "Long live women's solidarity". "Today, throughout Turkey and across political divides, all women need this convention. We are convinced that, with the strength of the women's solidarity, we will prevent the withdrawal," Benazir Coskun, 31, told AFP in Istanbul. In the Aegean region of Izmir, police intervened to stop the women's protest and dozens chose to start a sit-in protest, women's rights group Nar Women's Solidarity said on Twitter. The group claimed 10 women had been detained. There were also protests in Ankara and in the southern cities of Adana and Antalya. The demonstrations began last month after a ruling party official said the convention was "wrong" and speculated over possible withdrawal. In recent years, women's rights groups have accused authorities of failing to implement law 6284 -- created following Turkey's ratification of the treaty in 2012 -- leaving women vulnerable to violence often by their partners, husbands or relatives. But for some conservative groups and individuals, they claim the convention encourages homosexuality and is a force "destroying" the unity of Turkish families. The issue has even appeared to divide the President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's family, with one association whose deputy chair is his daughter Sumeyye supporting the treaty while an organisation linked to his son Bilal has come out against the convention. Rights group "We Will Stop Femicide Platform" says 146 women were killed by men in the first half of 2020. The group says 474 women were killed last year while the figure was 180 in 2010.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 6

By Jala Gasimova  Trend:

The agreement on mutual visa-free regime signed between the governments of Azerbaijan and Turkey in Baku on February 25, 2020, will enter into force on August 13, 2020, Trend reports citing the State Migration Service of Azerbaijan.

The citizens of Azerbaijan and Turkey are exempt from the visa regime to enter the territory of both countries, as well as to transit, leave the country and to temporary stay for up to 90 days. Persons wishing to stay in the respective country for more than 90 days must apply in advance for a temporary residence permit, said the message.

The passports of citizens of both countries must be valid for at least 6 months from the date of entry into the country. Citizens of both countries must comply with the rules and procedures following from national legislation, the report noted.

Turkish citizens temporarily staying in Azerbaijan for more than 15 days must be registered at the place of stay. In addition, the visa-free regime does not give the right to work or engage in any professional activity. The citizens of Turkey wishing to take up paid work in Azerbaijan must get a work permit from their employer in accordance with the current regulations (unless a work permit is not required), said the report.
Credit: Rieger / IST Austria

How do you keep orientation in a complex environment, like the city of Vienna? You can thank your brain's 'global positioning system,' the hippocampus, for this sense of orientation. To further understand its functions, scientists at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria) analyzed single neurons of this GPS in mice. They discovered that so-called granule cells filter and sharpen spatial information. The researchers recently published their findings in Neuron.

The hippocampus is a region within the brain that contains many neurons that help us to navigate in space. This leads to the nickname of this area: the GPS of the brain. The higher areas of the cortex send information packages to the hippocampus to generate location signals. However, not all packages contain relevant information. Therefore, the hippocampus needs to have a bouncer in place to select incoming signals. Such a gatekeeper could be the granule cell, a type of neuron situated at the entrance of the hippocampal circuit.

Identifying the correct cells

IST Austria Professor Peter Jonas, Xiaomin Zhang, and Alois Schlogl started to examine neuronal signals in granule cells. However, the main problem was cell identification. In the past, experts could not guarantee that they correctly identified the cells. "Since this region is densely packed with various types of neurons, it is technically challenging to identify granule cells, the cells we were interested in," says Xiaomin Zhang, the first author on the paper. This makes it very difficult to distinguish between the activity of granule cells from that of other types of neurons located in the same region. Furthermore, granule cells typically show very sparse activity despite a vast amount of them. Thus, other cell types with higher activity levels could dominate the picture.

Gatekeepers of the hippocampus

To record the incoming and outgoing signals of the granule cells, the scientists developed a novel recording technique and machine learning algorithm to decode these signals. To unequivocally identify the neurons, cells were filled with a tracer during recording. In total, they recorded from almost a hundred granule cells, generating a large data set that describes the activity of this important type of cell. They found that a majority of neurons receive spatial information. However, only a minority of neurons relays this spatial information to the rest of the hippocampus. Thus, granule cells indeed appear to operate as gatekeepers.

Spatial information processing

However, granule cells not only select information but also appear to be involved in information processing. The team found that the input of the granule cells is broad, but the output is much more selective. Upstream cortical areas neurons are often grid cells that generate activity in multiple locations of the environment. In contrast, downstream hippocampal regions neurons are typically place cells, which fire only at a single location. The new study suggests that granule cells participate in this conversion. "In simplified terms, we can think of the granule cell as a unit that translates one neuronal language into another," Jonas explains.

Saving computation power for the future

The majority of granule cells receive spatial information, but only 5% generate spatial output. Xiaomin Zhang explains: "Especially neurons with a more developed structure were active, whereas neurons with less mature structure remained silent." What could be the functional significance of such a unique design, in which a huge fraction of cells is not directly used for information processing? The scientists suggested that the hippocampus reserves most granule cells for future conversion and storage processes.

The new work highlights the power of single-cell recording techniques. "Our study provides information about the inner workings of the brain's GPS and the underlying single-neuron computations," says Professor Peter Jonas.

Explore further Why nerve cells in the brain process information differently

More information: Xiaomin Zhang et al. Selective Routing of Spatial Information Flow from Input to Output in Hippocampal Granule Cells, Neuron (2020). Journal information: Neuron Xiaomin Zhang et al. Selective Routing of Spatial Information Flow from Input to Output in Hippocampal Granule Cells,(2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2020.07.006
Blue Federal Credit Union and Blue Foundation Donate $200,000 to 9 Non-Profits and help raise over half a million dollars in the process.

Cheyenne Wyoming, Aug. 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Blue Federal Credit Union (FCU) and Blue Foundation have fully funded their $200,000 match for nine critically important nonprofits. The funds, combined with the funds raised from the nonprofits, totaled over $500,000.

Starting out to do the right thing and living out Blues Do Good spirit, Blue partnered with nine community-centric non-profits to turn the $100,000 from Blue FCU and $100,000 from Blue Foundation into over half a million dollars by letting the non-profits own fundraising efforts be matched

This was one of the most important and impactful initiatives Blue has ever been a part of. With the unprecedented need in our communities, we wanted to be a leader in giving support and showing we are all in this together, said Stephanie Teubner Blue Federal Credit Union President and CEO.

I am beyond proud of the Blue Foundation for supporting this initiative. Our mission is to assist those that need it most and we accomplished that in a big, bold way with the $200,000 match, said Bruce Brady, Blue Foundation President of the Board.

The approach was unique in the speed it was deployed and the people it reached. Within 5 days of the first meeting where it was discussed, funding was secured, and 9 community-centric non-profits were selected. The element of matching funds allowed the non-profits to use Blues messaging around the initiative to expand their reach as well as reach people that might not have been aware of the financial needs of the charities.

The non-profits selected were those that have a track record of serving high need community members. The non-profits supported were as follows:

Realities for Children  Larimer County

ASK  After School for Kids

United Way of Larimer County

United Way of Albany County

United Way of Laramie County

Food Bank of the Rockies

Mile-High United Way-Colorado COVID-19 Relief Fund

Denver Health Foundation  COVID-19 Urgent Response Fund

Mountain Family Center

Story continues

The +$500,000 in donations that was raised has already started to impact all 10 communities that Blue serves and beyond. The estimated number of people positively impacted by the funds is upwards of 200,000. A full breakdown of how the funds were used and distributed is expected by the end of September.

We are honored to have played a role during the crisis and the resulting shockwaves that COVID brought to our communities, says Teubner. We often say Blue is for you, for life and this donation response shows everyone those words are not just a platitude but a promise.

Attachment

CONTACT: Michele Bolkovatz Blue Federal Credit Union 3074325402 mbolkovatz@bluefcu.com




Second quarter revenues of $632.4 million, up 14.6% year-over-year

GAAP Diluted EPS of $1.14 for the second quarter

Non-GAAP Diluted EPS of $1.46 for the second quarter

NEWTOWN, Pennsylvania, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- EPAM Systems, Inc. (NYSE: EPAM), a leading global provider of digital platform engineering and software development services, today announced results for its second quarter ended June 30, 2020.

"EPAM's better than expected second quarter performance demonstrates a continued need for our services during a time when businesses had to quickly pivot and adapt to an unpredictable environment," said Arkadiy Dobkin, CEO & President, EPAM. "As we manage through the continued uncertainty in the global environment, we are driving new levels of collaboration, engagement and efficiency across the organization. Our focus for the second half of this year remains on helping our customers successfully navigate change, ensuring the safety and well-being of our employees while giving back to the communities where we live and work."

Second Quarter 2020 Highlights

Revenues increased to $632.4 million , a year-over-year increase of $80.8 million , or 14.6%, and on a constant currency basis, revenues were up 15.5% over the corresponding period last year;

, a year-over-year increase of , or 14.6%, and on a constant currency basis, revenues were up 15.5% over the corresponding period last year; GAAP income from operations was $83.4 million , an increase of $10.5 million , or 14.5%, compared to $72.9 million in the second quarter of 2019;

, an increase of , or 14.5%, compared to in the second quarter of 2019; Non-GAAP income from operations was $108.2 million , an increase of $15.6 million , or 16.9%, compared to $92.6 million in the second quarter of 2019;

, an increase of , or 16.9%, compared to in the second quarter of 2019; Diluted earnings per share ("EPS") on a GAAP basis was $1.14 , an increase of $0.12 , or 11.8%, compared to $1.02 in the second quarter of 2019 based on weighted average diluted shares outstanding of 58.2 million; and

, an increase of , or 11.8%, compared to in the second quarter of 2019 based on weighted average diluted shares outstanding of 58.2 million; and Non-GAAP diluted EPS was $1.46 , an increase of $0.18 , or 14.1%, compared to $1.28 in the second quarter of 2019.

Cash Flow and Other Metrics

Cash provided by operating activities was $209.4 million for the first six months of 2020, compared to $43.8 million provided by operating activities for the first six months of 2019;

for the first six months of 2020, compared to provided by operating activities for the first six months of 2019; Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash totaled $994.9 million as of June 30, 2020, an increase of $57.2 million , or 6.1%, from $937.7 million as of December 31, 2019; and

as of June 30, 2020, an increase of , or 6.1%, from as of December 31, 2019; and Total headcount was approximately 36,400 as of June 30, 2020. Included in this number were approximately 32,300 delivery professionals, an increase of 9.7% from June 30, 2019 .

Third Quarter 2020 Outlook

Due to heightened uncertainty related to the potential impacts of COVID-19 on the Company's full year business results, EPAM is not providing a full year 2020 financial outlook. The Company expects the following for the third quarter:

Revenues will be in the range of $633 million to $643 million for the third quarter reflecting a year-over-year growth rate of approximately 8.5% at the mid-point of the range. The Company expects that foreign currency translation will have a negligible impact on year-over-year revenue growth during the quarter. The Company expects year-over-year revenue growth on a constant currency basis to be approximately 8.5% at the mid-point of the range;

to for the third quarter reflecting a year-over-year growth rate of approximately 8.5% at the mid-point of the range. The Company expects that foreign currency translation will have a negligible impact on year-over-year revenue growth during the quarter. The Company expects year-over-year revenue growth on a constant currency basis to be approximately 8.5% at the mid-point of the range; For the third quarter, the Company expects GAAP income from operations to be in the range of 13% to 14% of revenues and non-GAAP income from operations to be in the range of 16.5% to 17.5% of revenues;

The Company expects its GAAP effective tax rate to be approximately 16% and its non-GAAP effective tax rate to be approximately 23%; and

The Company expects GAAP diluted EPS will be in the range of $1.15 to $1.24 for the quarter, and non-GAAP diluted EPS will be in the range of $1.40 to $1.49 for the quarter. The Company expects weighted average diluted shares outstanding for the quarter of 58.6 million.

Conference Call Information

EPAM will host a conference call to discuss the results on Thursday, August 6, 2020 at 8:00 a.m. Eastern time. The live conference call will be available by dialing +1 (844) 707-0662 or +1 (703) 318-2250 (outside of the U.S.). A webcast of the conference call can be accessed at the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at https://investors.epam.com/. A replay will be available approximately one hour after the call, by dialing +1 (855) 859-2056 or +1 (404) 537-3406 (outside of the U.S.) and entering the conference ID 7297886. The replay will be available until August 13, 2020.

About EPAM Systems

Since 1993, EPAM Systems, Inc. (NYSE: EPAM) has leveraged its software engineering expertise to become a leading global product development, digital platform engineering, and top digital and product design agency. Through its 'Engineering DNA' and innovative strategy, consulting, and design capabilities, EPAM works in collaboration with its customers to deliver next-gen solutions that turn complex business challenges into real business outcomes. EPAM's global teams serve customers in more than 30 countries across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. As a recognized market leader in multiple categories among top global independent research agencies, EPAM was one of only four technology companies to appear on Forbes 25 Fastest Growing Public Tech Companies list every year of publication since 2013 and was the only IT services company featured on Fortune's 100 Fastest-Growing Companies list of 2019. Learn more at www.epam.com and follow EPAM on Twitter @EPAMSYSTEMS and LinkedIn.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

EPAM supplements results reported in accordance with United States generally accepted accounting principles, referred to as GAAP, with non-GAAP financial measures. Management believes these measures help illustrate underlying trends in EPAM's business and uses the measures to establish budgets and operational goals, communicate internally and externally, for managing EPAM's business and evaluating its performance. Management also believes these measures help investors compare EPAM's operating performance with its results in prior periods. EPAM anticipates that it will continue to report both GAAP and certain non-GAAP financial measures in its financial results, including non-GAAP results that exclude stock-based compensation expenses, acquisition-related costs including amortization of intangible assets, impairment of assets, certain other one-time charges and benefits, changes in fair value of contingent consideration, foreign exchange gains and losses, excess tax benefits related to stock-based compensation, and the related effect on income taxes of the pre-tax adjustments. Management also compares operating results on a basis of "constant currency," which is also a non-GAAP financial measure. This measure excludes the effect of foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations by translating the current period revenues and expenses into U.S. dollars at the weighted average exchange rates of the prior period of comparison. Because EPAM's reported non-GAAP financial measures are not calculated in accordance with GAAP, these measures are not comparable to GAAP and may not be comparable to similarly described non-GAAP measures reported by other companies within EPAM's industry. Consequently, EPAM's non-GAAP financial measures should not be evaluated in isolation or supplant comparable GAAP measures, but rather, should be considered together with the information in EPAM's consolidated financial statements, which are prepared in accordance with GAAP.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes estimates and statements which may constitute forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, the accuracy of which are necessarily subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions as to future events that may not prove to be accurate. Our estimates and forward-looking statements are mainly based on our current expectations and estimates of future events and trends, which affect or may affect our business and operations. Those future events and trends may relate to, among other things, the anticipated impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the effect that it may have on our sales, operations, access to capital, revenues, profitability and customer demand. Other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied include general economic conditions, the factors discussed in the Company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, the factors discussed in the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, filed on or after the date of this press release, particularly in Part I. Item 2. (Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations) and Part II. Item 1A. (Risk Factors), and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Although we believe that these estimates and forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, they are subject to several risks and uncertainties and are made in light of information currently available to us. EPAM undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities law.

EPAM SYSTEMS, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME AND COMPREHENSIVE INCOME

(Unaudited)

(In thousands, except per share data)



Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30,

2020

2019

2020

2019 Revenues $ 632,383



$ 551,587



$ 1,283,742



$ 1,072,920

Operating expenses:













Cost of revenues (exclusive of depreciation and

amortization) 419,540



355,915



843,342



700,604

Selling, general and administrative expenses 114,191



111,762



239,299



213,548

Depreciation and amortization expense 15,226



11,028



30,166



21,228

Income from operations 83,426



72,882



170,935



137,540

Interest and other income, net 1,817



1,190



4,203



4,266

Foreign exchange loss (9,167)



(3,562)



(2,643)



(7,046)

Income before provision for income taxes 76,076



70,510



172,495



134,760

Provision for income taxes 9,452



11,733



20,306



15,229

Net income $ 66,624



$ 58,777



$ 152,189



$ 119,531

Foreign currency translation adjustments, net of tax 12,442



2,620



(16,077)



5,563

Unrealized gain/(loss) on cash-flow hedging instruments, net

of tax 6,446



1,537



(2,922)



4,637

Comprehensive income $ 85,512



$ 62,934



$ 133,190



$ 129,731

















Net income per share:













Basic $ 1.20



$ 1.07



$ 2.74



$ 2.19

Diluted $ 1.14



$ 1.02



$ 2.62



$ 2.08

Shares used in calculation of net income per share:













Basic 55,701



54,682



55,494



54,465

Diluted 58,246



57,614



58,194



57,427



EPAM SYSTEMS, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

(Unaudited)

(In thousands, except share and per share data)



As of June 30, 2020

As of December 31,

2019 Assets





Current assets





Cash and cash equivalents $ 993,724



$ 936,552

Short-term investments 60,025



9

Trade receivables and contract assets, net of allowance of $6,070

and $2,920, respectively 506,908



497,716

Prepaid and other current assets 37,679



39,934

Total current assets 1,598,336



1,474,211

Property and equipment, net 167,359



165,259

Operating lease right-of-use assets 234,760



238,991

Intangible assets, net 55,887



56,258

Goodwill 199,039



195,043

Deferred tax assets 78,102



75,013

Other noncurrent assets 55,647



39,433

Total assets $ 2,389,130



$ 2,244,208









Liabilities





Current liabilities





Accounts payable $ 7,596



$ 7,831

Accrued compensation and benefits expenses 223,436



230,035

Accrued expenses and other current liabilities 62,639



82,476

Income taxes payable, current 10,972



9,064

Operating lease liabilities, current 60,937



57,542

Total current liabilities 365,580



386,948

Long-term debt 25,044



25,074

Income taxes payable, noncurrent 43,391



45,878

Operating lease liabilities, noncurrent 181,705



180,848

Other noncurrent liabilities 20,316



9,315

Total liabilities 636,036



648,063

Commitments and contingencies





Stockholders' equity





Common stock, $0.001 par value; 160,000,000 authorized; 55,845,686

and 55,207,446 shares issued, 55,825,951

and 55,187,711 shares outstanding at June 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019,

respectively 56



55

Additional paid-in capital 630,679



607,051

Retained earnings 1,172,909



1,020,590

Treasury stock (177)



(177)

Accumulated other comprehensive loss (50,373)



(31,374)

Total stockholders' equity 1,753,094



1,596,145

Total liabilities and stockholders' equity $ 2,389,130



$ 2,244,208



EPAM SYSTEMS, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

Reconciliations of Non-GAAP Financial Measures to Comparable GAAP Financial Measures

(Unaudited)

(In thousands, except percent and per share amounts)

Reconciliation of revenue growth on a constant currency basis to revenue growth as reported under GAAP is presented in the table below:



Three Months Ended

June 30, 2020

Six Months Ended

June 30, 2020 Revenue growth on a constant currency basis(1) 15.5 %

20.6 % Foreign exchange rates impact (0.9)



(1.0)

Revenue growth as reported 14.6 %

19.6 %





(1) Constant currency revenue results are calculated by translating current period revenues in local currency into U.S.

dollars at the weighted average exchange rates of the comparable prior period.

Reconciliation of various income statement amounts from GAAP to non-GAAP for the three and six months ended

June 30, 2020 and 2019:



Three Months Ended

June 30, 2020

Six Months Ended

June 30, 2020

GAAP

Adjustments

Non-GAAP

GAAP

Adjustments

Non-GAAP Cost of revenues (exclusive of depreciation and amortization)(2) $ 419,540



$ (8,958)



$ 410,582



$ 843,342



$ (12,942)



$ 830,400

Selling, general and administrative expenses(3) $ 114,191



$ (12,828)



$ 101,363



$ 239,299



$ (23,521)



$ 215,778

Income from operations(4) $ 83,426



$ 24,780



$ 108,206



$ 170,935



$ 42,592



$ 213,527

Operating margin 13.2 %

3.9 %

17.1 %

13.3 %

3.3 %

16.6 % Net income(5) $ 66,624



$ 18,362



$ 84,986



$ 152,189



$ 15,661



$ 167,850

Diluted earnings per share $ 1.14







$ 1.46



$ 2.62







$ 2.88





Three Months Ended

June 30, 2019

Six Months Ended

June 30, 2019



GAAP

Adjustments

Non-GAAP

GAAP

Adjustments

Non-GAAP

Cost of revenues (exclusive of depreciation and amortization)(2) $ 355,915



$ (7,480)



$ 348,435



$ 700,604



$ (20,261)



$ 680,343



Selling, general and administrative expenses(3) $ 111,762



$ (9,606)



$ 102,156



$ 213,548



$ (19,227)



$ 194,321



Income from operations(4) $ 72,882



$ 19,687



$ 92,569



$ 137,540



$ 44,227



$ 181,767



Operating margin 13.2 %

3.6 %

16.8 %

12.8 %

4.1 %

16.9 %

Net income(5) $ 58,777



$ 14,933



$ 73,710



$ 119,531



$ 25,705



$ 145,236



Diluted earnings per share $ 1.02







$ 1.28



$ 2.08







$ 2.53



Items (2) through (5) above are detailed in the table below with the specific cross-reference noted in the appropriate item.



Three Months Ended

June 30,

Six Months Ended

June 30,

2020

2019

2020

2019 Stock-based compensation expenses $ 8,958



$ 7,480



$ 12,942



$ 20,261

Total adjustments to GAAP cost of revenues(2) 8,958



7,480



12,942



20,261

Stock-based compensation expenses 10,481



8,217



18,378



17,292

Other acquisition-related expenses 148



850



616



1,361

One-time charges 2,199



539



4,527



574

Total adjustments to GAAP selling, general and

administrative expenses(3) 12,828



9,606



23,521



19,227

Amortization of acquired intangible assets 2,994



2,601



6,129



4,739

Total adjustments to GAAP income from operations(4) 24,780



19,687



42,592



44,227

Change in fair value of contingent consideration included in

Interest and other income, net (1,000)



1,356



(1,438)



1,356

Impairment of investment 313



-



313



-

Foreign exchange loss 9,167



3,562



2,643



7,046

Provision for income taxes:













Tax effect on non-GAAP adjustments (6,769)



(4,931)



(8,623)



(10,670)

Excess tax benefits related to stock-based compensation (8,129)



(4,741)



(19,826)



(16,254)

Total adjustments to GAAP net income(5) $ 18,362



$ 14,933



$ 15,661



$ 25,705



EPAM SYSTEMS, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

Reconciliations of Guidance Non-GAAP Financial Measures to Comparable GAAP Financial Measures

(Unaudited)

(In percent, except per share amounts)

The below guidance constitutes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws and is

based on a number of assumptions that are subject to change and many of which are outside the control of the

Company. Actual results may differ materially from the Company's expectations depending on factors discussed in

the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Reconciliation of expected revenue growth on a constant currency basis to expected revenue growth on a GAAP

basis is presented in the table below:



Third Quarter 2020 Revenue growth on a constant currency basis (at mid-point of the range) (6) 8.5% Foreign exchange rates impact -% Revenue growth (at mid-point of the range) 8.5%





(6) Constant currency revenue results are calculated by translating expected revenues in local currency into U.S.

dollars at the weighted average exchange rates of the comparable prior period.

Reconciliation of expected GAAP to non-GAAP income from operations as a percentage of revenues is presented in the

table below:



Third Quarter 2020 GAAP income from operations as a percentage of revenues 13% to 14% Stock-based compensation expenses 3.0% Included in cost of revenues (exclusive of depreciation and amortization) 1.4% Included in selling, general and administrative expenses 1.6% Amortization of purchased intangible assets 0.5% Non-GAAP income from operations as a percentage of revenues 16.5% to 17.5%

Reconciliation of expected GAAP to non-GAAP effective tax rate is presented in the table below:



Third Quarter 2020 GAAP effective tax rate (approximately) 16 % Tax effect on non-GAAP adjustments 3.4 % Excess tax benefits related to stock-based compensation 3.6 % Non-GAAP effective tax rate (approximately) 23 %

Reconciliation of expected GAAP to non-GAAP diluted earnings per share is presented in the table below:



Third Quarter 2020 GAAP diluted earnings per share (at least) $1.15 to $1.24 Stock-based compensation expenses 0.33 Included in cost of revenues (exclusive of depreciation and amortization) 0.15 Included in selling, general and administrative expenses 0.18 Other acquisition-related expenses 0.01 Amortization of acquired intangible assets 0.05 Foreign exchange loss 0.05 Provision for income taxes:

Tax effect on non-GAAP adjustments (0.09) Excess tax benefits related to stock-based compensation (0.10) Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share (at least) $1.40 to $1.49

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/722474/EPAM_Logo.jpg
University of Alaska Fairbanks students move their belongings into the Moore-Bartlett-Skarland complex during the first day of student orientation on Sunday afternoon, August 30, 2009. Starting fall 2019, first year freshmen arriving at UAF will be required to live on campus for their first academic year. The decision requiring students to live on campus was not made regarding university funding despite ongoing budget cuts, rather "(The program is) all about academic success and surrounding students with support and holistic well being," according Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Keith Champagne. John Wagner/News-Miner file photo
(Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved GlaxoSmithKline's experimental treatment for a common form of blood cancer.

GSK's belantamab mafodotin, or BLENREP, was approved for treating adults with relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma who no longer respond to treatment with an immunomodulatory agent, the drugmaker said in a statement.

Multiple myeloma is the second most common form of blood cancer in the U.S. and is generally considered treatable, but not curable.

A U.S. FDA panel had earlier raised safety concerns about the drug causing deposits to gather on the cornea in the eyes, but later voted in its favor saying the benefits of the treatment outweigh the risks.

Approval for belantamab mafodotin, a rival to Johnson & Johnson and Genmab's Darzalex treatment, is seen as important for GSK's growing oncology portfolio.

Last month, a panel of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) also recommended approving the drug.

(Reporting by Vishwadha Chander in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
Congressional Democrats, White House see little progress in coronavirus relief talks U.S. Treasury Secretary Mnuchin speaks to reporters in the U.S. Capitol in Washington

By Patricia Zengerle and David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic leaders in the U.S. Congress and top aides to President Donald Trump failed to make substantial progress on Thursday on a new coronavirus aid bill during a contentious meeting that broke up with no clear path to a deal.

Both sides expressed a willingness to continue negotiations, even as Trump stood by his threat to withdraw from the talks if a deal is not reached soon. Instead, he is considering using executive powers to provide some limited aid.

"If we conclude tomorrow that there's not a compromise position on the major issues, the president has alternatives in executive orders," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters.

"We're still very far apart" on key issues, he said.

The two sides have failed for almost two weeks to agree on a fresh round of financial stimulus intended to salve the heavy human and economic toll of a pandemic that has killed nearly 160,000 Americans and thrown tens of millions out of work.

House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the two sides were very far apart.

Their differences centered around new aid to state and local governments and continuing the additional $600 per week federally-backed unemployment benefits agreed to earlier in the crisis.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said White House negotiators refused to "meet in the middle" during more than three hours of talks.

The Democratic-controlled House in mid-May passed a $3.4 trillion coronavirus aid bill. The Senate has failed to pass even a one-week extension of the $600-per-week jobless benefit that expired last Friday.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell last week unveiled a $1 trillion plan that Democrats dismissed, as did many of his fellow Republicans.

With pressure building on Congress and the White House to respond with a fifth major aid bill this year as coronavirus cases and deaths mount, the negotiators were feeling the pressure, especially as some emergency aid programs expired.

Story continues

'SLAMMING THE TABLE'

Pelosi said White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, a former right-wing House member, at one point "slammed the table and walked out" of the Democratic speaker's office. She compared his behavior to that of Trump's at past White House meetings she attended.

"You're slamming the table on our children and their schools. We need to have substantial help for our schools," Pelosi said.

Meadows denied to reporters that he had walked out of the meeting.

For months, congressional Republicans and the White House have bridled at Democrats' demand for around $1 trillion in new aid for state and local governments, saying it was a bailout for fiscal irresponsibility by those governments.

Democrats have countered that state and local governments face devastating layoffs as their revenues have fallen during the coronavirus crisis.

In a shift, Mnuchin said Trump is prepared to help state and local governments with aid that deals with additional coronavirus-related expenses and makes sure first responders, hospitals, police, firemen and school teachers all have "proper funding."

He did not indicate how much money the president was willing to spend, but said it could not be a large sum.

The White House, Mnuchin said, offered a compromise on extending federal unemployment benefits and would consider giving aid to renters so that they do not get evicted during the coronavirus pandemic that has hobbled the U.S. economy.

Since the beginning of the negotiations, the two sides have tangled over whether a sweeping economic stimulus was needed, as Democrats have insisted, or whether some targeted funding would suffice.

Deep into the talks, that remained a thorny issue, as Meadows said Trump instructed him and Mnuchin to push the possibility of a "narrower deal."

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and David Morgan; Writing by Susan Cornwell and Richard Cowan; Editing by Scott Malone and Daniel Wallis)
SPRINGFIELD  Local officials said Thursday they are pleased with progress in the recovery from Tropical Storm Isaias, and are assessing costs to pursue emergency aid.

The officials, including Mayor Domenic J. Sarno and U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, gathered at Forest Park, with a backdrop of downed trees and branches.

They discussed and praised the ongoing cleanup from Tuesdays storm that knocked down countless trees, branches and power lines.

Sarno had declared an emergency in Springfield on Wednesday after a large area of Springfield was left without power, water and cell phone service. The declaration precedes formal requests for federal and state assistance.

Neal, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, said the storm was devastating, with 250,000 households left without power in Massachusetts and a lot of tree damage, everywhere.

I hope that once we compile all the data and numbers, we will submit them to FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), and see if they can offer some relief to these communities, Neal said.

On Thursday, Sarno was hopeful that most customers would have power restored by midnight. He praised the efforts by city departments, in-house and hired forestry crews, and the Hampden County Sheriffs Department.

Its all about team and its all about relationships, Sarno said. Hundreds and hundreds of trees came down which made some very dangerous situations.

The Police and Fire Departments responded to a deluge of calls, he said.

Every inch of this city, everyone has been affected by this storm, said Patrick Sullivan, the citys director of parks, buildings and recreation management.

Sullivan and other city officials said that it is not just the trees ad power lines that pose a threat to the public, but also the hanging, damaged branches and wood debris. The downed branches and brush can create a fire hazard, he said.

The city will seek assistance from the states Urban and Community Forest Program from its urban forest service strike teams to help assess the damage and long-term resources, Sullivan said.

The storm brought sustained winds of 40 miles per hour in some areas and wind gusts up to 65 miles per hour, according to reports.

Making matters worse, a 36-inch diameter water main break occurred Wednesday morning on East Columbus Avenue, at York Street, A Springfield Water and Sewer Commission crew responded to the water break shortly before 6 a.m., and water was restored at approximately 9:45 a.m.

Sarno thanked residents and the business community for their patience as we work together with all of our community partners to clean and clear up our parks, open space and woodland areas, and restore all of of our power and water outages we experienced.

Those who gathered at Forest Park for the storm update and to view some of the damage also included Park Commission Chairman Brian Sullivan, City Forester Alex Sherman, Fire Commissioner Bernard J. Calvi, David Bloniarz from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, and Patrick Carnevale, who serves as director of Gov. Charlie Bakers Western Mass. office.

In addition, those at the storm update included officials from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency and Sheriffs Department.
A wounded man is evacuated from a boat following of an explosion at the port of the Lebanese capital Beirut, on August 4, 2020. (AP)

Beirut: Investigators probing the deadly blast that ripped across Beirut focused Wednesday on possible negligence in the storage of tons of a highly explosive fertilizer in a waterfront warehouse, while the government ordered the house arrest of several port officials.

International aid flights began to arrive as Lebanons leaders struggled to deal with the widespread damage and shocking aftermath of Tuesdays blast, which the Health Ministry said killed 135 people and injured about 5,000 others.

Public anger mounted against the ruling elite that is being blamed for the chronic mismanagement and carelessness that led to the disaster. The Port of Beirut and customs office is notorious for being one of the most corrupt and lucrative institutions in Lebanon where various factions and politicians, including Hezbollah, hold sway.

The investigation is focusing on how 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive chemical used in fertilizers, came to be stored at the facility for six years, and why nothing was done about it.

Losses from the blast are estimated to be between $10 billion to $15 billion, Beirut Gov. Marwan Abboud told Saudi-owned TV station Al-Hadath, adding that nearly 300,000 people are homeless.

Beirut as we know it is gone and people wont be able to rebuild their lives, said Amy, a woman who swept glass from a small alley beside by a tall building that served as a showroom for a famous Lebanese designer and was a neighbourhood landmark.

This is hell. How are they (people) going to survive. What are they going to do? she said, blaming officials for lack of responsibility and stupidity.

Hospitals were overwhelmed by the injured. One that was damaged in the blast had to evacuate all its patients to a nearby field for treatment.

It was the worst single explosion to strike Lebanon, a country whose history is filled with destruction  from a 1975-1990 civil war, conflicts with Israel and periodic terrorist attacks.

Lebanon already was on the brink of collapse amid a severe economic crisis and the coronavirus pandemic. Many have lost their jobs and seen their savings evaporate because of a currency crisis. Food security is a worry, since the country imports nearly all its vital goods and its main port is now devastated. The government is strapped for cash.

A senior U.S. Defense Department official and member of the U.S. intelligence community said there were no indications the explosion was the result of an attack by either a nation-state or proxy forces. Both spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss intelligence briefings publicly. They told AP that at the moment, the explosion seems to have been caused by improper storage of explosives.

Fueling speculation that negligence was to blame for the accident, an official letter circulating online showed the head of the customs department had warned repeatedly over the years that the huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate stored in the port was a danger and had asked judicial officials for a ruling on a way to remove it.

Ammonium nitrate is a component of fertilizer that is potentially explosive. The 2,750-ton cargo had been stored at the port since it was confiscated from a ship in 2013, and on Tuesday it is believed to have detonated after a fire broke out nearby.

The 2017 letter from the customs chief to a judge could not be immediately confirmed, but state prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat ordered security agencies to start an immediate investigation into all letters related to the materials stored at the port, as well as lists of those in charge of maintenance, storage and protection of the hangar.

In the letter, the customs chief warned of the dangers if the materials remain where they are, affecting the safety of (port) employees and asked the judge for guidance. He said five similar letters were sent in 2014, 2015 and 2016. The letter proposes the material be exported or sold to a Lebanese explosives company. It is not known if there was a response.

Badri Daher, the head of the customs department, confirmed to the local LBC TV channel that there were five or six such letters to the judiciary. He said his predecessor also pleaded with the judiciary to issue orders to export the explosive materials because of how dangerous they are to the port and staff there.

Daher said it was his duty to alert authorities of the dangers but that is the most he could do. I am not a technical expert.

President Michael Aoun vowed before a Cabinet meeting that the investigation would be transparent and that those responsible will be punished.

There are no words to describe the catastrophe that hit Beirut last night, he said.

After the meeting, the Cabinet ordered an unspecified number of Beirut port officials put under house arrest pending the investigation.

The government also said public schools and some hotels will be opened for the homeless and promised unspecified compensation for the victims.

With the Port of Beirut destroyed, the government said imports and exports will be secured elsewhere, mostly in the northern city of Tripoli and the southern port of Tyre.

There were signs that public anger went beyond port officials to Lebanons long-entrenched ruling class. Political factions have divided control of public institutions, including the port, using them to benefit their supporters, with little actual development. That has translated into crumbling infrastructure, power outages and poor services.

May the Virgin Mary destroy them and their families, Joseph Qiyameh, a 79-year-old grocery store owner, said of the leadership. The blast damaged his store, his wife was hospitalized with injuries she suffered at home next door, and his arm was hurt. He doesnt have the money to fix his business, with his savings locked up in banks by controls imposed during the financial crisis.

The Hospital of the Sisters of Rosaries was knocked out of service by the blast, with one of the nuns killed and three others badly injured.

In a moment, there was no longer a hospital. It is all gone, said one of the nuns, who suffered a leg injury.

Residents confronted a scene of utter devastation Wednesday, with smoke still rising from the port. The blast tore out a crater 200 meters (yards) across that filled with seawater as if the Mediterranean had taken a bite out of the port and swallowed buildings with it. Much of downtown was littered with damaged cars and debris.

Drone footage shot by the AP showed the blast tore open a silo structure, dumping its contents into the debris. Estimates suggested about 85% of the countrys grain was stored there.

Economy and Trade Minister Raoul Nehme said all the wheat was contaminated and unusable. But he insisted Lebanon had enough for its immediate needs and would import more, according to the state news agency.

Two planeloads of French rescue workers and aid headed to Beirut and French President Emmanuel Macron was to arrive Thursday to offer support for the former protectorate. The countries retain close political and economic ties.

Several planes of medical equipment and supplies from Greece, Kuwait, Qatar and elsewhere arrived at Beiruts international airport. Turkey sent search-and-rescue teams, humanitarian aid, medical equipment and a field hospital, its Foreign Ministry said. The EU planned to send firefighters with vehicles, dogs and equipment designed to find people trapped in the debris.
Whether or not justice is meted out with fairness and equity in a country is purely a subjective issue, but whether fairness in the administration of justice should be in an election manifesto of a candidate is certainly an objective criterion.





by Dr. Ruwantissa Abeyratne

Writing from Montreal





There must be a lot of duplication in our countrys laws," said Dukhi. "Every time there are elections, they talk of passing the same ones passed twenty years ago. Someone should remind them they need to apply the laws."





"For politicians, passing laws is like passing water," said Narayan. "It all ends down the drain.

 Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance





By the time this article is published, the results of the much awaited, and indeed much debated general election would have been held and the results known. Leading up to this momentous event, expatriates such as myself could only measure the candidates and their eligibility through social media which had its own share of lobby groups mudslinging at the allegedly known crooks on the one hand and adulating self-proclaimed saints who could, and would, if elected take the suffering populace to a utopia hitherto never seen. There were also warnings against voting for geriatrics; crooks of all shapes and charlatans intent on charming an unsuspecting and oftentimes gullible proletariat.













Of course, almost all the election promises were to make the lot of the downtrodden better. Fundamentally the theme was economic prosperity which would offer a better deal in food, shelter, clothing and education based on Abraham Maslows foundation of the hierarchy of needs. Even if there were promises of fair play and justice, which is one of the essentials of good governance, it was not readily evidenced through the claims of the panjandrums who occupied the social media.





Whether or not justice is meted out with fairness and equity in a country is purely a subjective issue, but whether fairness in the administration of justice should be in an election manifesto of a candidate is certainly an objective criterion. It is in this context that a fair judicial review should be guaranteed to the populace by any well-meaning statesman.





Judicial review is grounded on the administrative action taken in pursuance of implementing a law, rule or regulation. It is a truism that laws are adopted by the legislature whereas usually, rules and regulations are enforced by the executive on whom the legislature vests power and authority. This authority is used through administrative action and a leader elected through the democratic process should ensure that both administrative action and judicial review are applied through the rule of law. This essentially means that an elected leader should eschew arbitrary and capricious centralization of power.





Roscoe Pound, Dean of Harvard Law said in 1920 that genius of administrative action through commissions endangers the doctrine of the supremacy of law. Commissions established for purposes of administering rules pose one of the dangers of impairing the effectiveness of administrative law. In his book "Is Administrative Law Unlawful? " Philip Hamburger, Professor of Law at Columbia University posits that the centralization of power which deviates from a popular mandate or judicial scrutiny leads to a certain insularity brought upon by bureaucratic ineptitude. It is hard to disagree with this premise as the centralization of power would in turn lead to creative inertia and the causal illusion that, in a so-called democracy, the system runs smoothly and justly. Often, this centralization of power leads to an erosion of the fundamental implementation of the process of administrative law which is enactment (by the legislature); execution (by the executive) and adjudication (by the courts).





Leaders should be wary of the dangers of creating subordinate bodies such as commissions composed of unqualified and self-serving individuals. The creation of commissions more often than not vests power in inept and inefficient entities comprised of political appointees with partisan views and vested personal interests. The process suffocates democracy and the rule of law, making sycophants of the executive and the judiciary. It is interesting to inquire how this blatant subterfuge and disingenuous practice can erode the foundations of administrative law.





P.P. Craig, in his book Administrative Law states: "The legislature and courts will both be of importance in determining the shape of administrative law. It should never be forgotten that it is the legislature which enacts the policies which are directly constitutive of the administrative state. It will be the legislature which chooses whether these policies should be imbued with, for example, a market oriented neo liberal philosophy or one which is more social democratic in its orientation. In this sense, the shape and nature of administrative law will be profoundly affected by the philosophy which underlies government policy. The courts also have a major influence on the nature of the subject. They will decide what particular constraints to impose on administrative action, and more generally on the overall purpose of judicial review. Administrative law, when viewed this way, is always a combination of what is going on in the political world, combined with the reactions of the judiciary.





What commissions do, as Dean Pound said in 1920, is eliminate the supremacy of the law. In fact, eliminate the law in its totality, giving power to the executive (or executive president as the case may be) to do as she pleases, whether to sack a president and CEO of a company owned by the government, or dispense with a high government official, without giving that person recourse to the law.





At common law, which is applicable in England, there lies a remedy in judicial intervention if a government department promulgates advice in a public document that contained directions or advice erroneous in law. In such an instance, as was pronounced by Lord Bridge, in the 1986 Gillick case , although in general such non-statutory advice cannot be questioned by judicial review, the exception to this general rule lay in instances where such advice was inconsistent with the law, where the courts could intervene. The judiciary could also interpret the meaning of codes, circulars and other similar documents, and review the interpretation of such documents by any government entity. There is also the issue of legitimate expectation of the victim of an administrative decision, towards such a decision being consistent with applicable law, and the courts can go into whether such expectation was obviated or eroded.





The courts could also inquire as to whether a decision had relevancy, purpose, reasonableness and was not taken as a result of or corollary to an abuse of discretion. Historically, common law courts have reviewed and exerted control over discretion exercised by public bodies, tribunals and agencies with a view to preventing misuse or abuse of discretion.





The Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Regulations of Canada has stated: "When Parliament confers a power to make regulations, the regulation-maker usually exercises this power by drafting the text of the regulation to be enacted. The regulation-maker may also decide that the contents of an existing document are what should be used in the regulation it intends to enact. One way to make the contents of such a document part of the text of the regulation would be to reproduce it word for word in the regulation. Alternatively, the regulation-maker can simply refer to the title of the document in the regulation. The contents of the document will then be said to be incorporated by reference. The legal effect of incorporation by reference is to write the words of the incorporated document into the regulation just as if it had actually been reproduced word for word. The incorporation by reference of an existing document is no more than a drafting technique, and a regulation-maker need not be granted any specific power in order to resort to this technique. This is referred to as closed or static incorporation by reference.





At the apex of judicial review are the courts which are the ultimate arbiters of the administration of justice in a democracy. In the 1803 seminal case of Marbury v. Madison in the United States, three basic principles of judicial review were upheld. They were: it is the duty of the courts to pronounce what the law is and to interpret it and inquire whether a law has violated the basic tenets of the Constitution of the country; decisions of the Supreme Court are the final authority on the status and interpretation of the Constitution; and decisions of the Supreme Court are the final word on the Constitution. These principles were endorsed in 1958 (155 years after the handing down of the Marbury decision) in the case of Cooper v. Aaron which was co-signed by all 9 judges of the Supreme Court.





It would be interesting to learn how many voters in Sri Lanka considered the sincere promise of equal access to justice and proper judicial review as an essential prerequisite for a leader to be elected.
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Linkedin (Reuters) London, United Kingdom  Thu, August 6, 2020 13:08 530 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066bff06f 2 People Meghan-Markle,Britain,Court,lawsuit,The-Sun,Duchess-of-Sussex,Royal-Family,royals Free

Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, won a court battle on Wednesday to keep the names of five of her friends private for the time being as part of her legal action against a British tabloid which she accuses of invading her privacy.

Meghan, wife of Queen Elizabeth's grandson Prince Harry, is suing Associated Newspapers over articles in the Mail on Sunday that included parts of a handwritten letter she had sent to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, in August 2018.

As part of its defense, the paper argues that it published the letter in Feb. 2019 after five of Meghan's friends gave anonymous interviews to the US magazine People.

The duchess argues that she did not authorize her friends to speak to People and that the Mail on Sunday only wanted to name them to exploit the legal dispute for commercial reasons. She says naming them would pose a threat to their "emotional and mental wellbeing".

Judge Mark Warby ruled at London's High Court that their names could not be published for the moment, but that this could change.

"I have concluded that for the time being at least the Court should grant the claimant the orders she seeks, the effect of which will be to confer protection on the sources identities," he said.

Read also: Royal Meghan and UK tabloid trade blows in court dispute

The anonymity issue is one of a number of preliminary matters with the full trial not expected until next year. Warby said the case had already taken 10 months and was still "some way from trial", saying it needed to move forward at a greater pace.

"The duchess felt it was necessary to take this step to try and protect her friends - as any of us would - and we're glad this was clear," said a source close to Meghan, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"We are happy that the judge has agreed to protect these five individuals."

Meghan and Harry are now living in Los Angeles with their baby son Archie having stepped down from their royal roles at the end of March.

Increasingly hostile relations between the royal couple and some British newspapers they accused of intrusive, inaccurate and sometimes racist coverage was one of the reasons why the couple left Britain for the United States.
Patterson Legal Group will give away 300 free backpacks on August 27th in Wichita, KS. "We decided to host the backpack giveaway to help offset costs associated with preparing for the 2020-2021 school year. " -Gary Patterson, Esq.

Patterson Legal Group is pleased to announce that their law firm will host a backpack giveaway on Thursday, August 27 at Sedgwick County Park (6501 W. 21st Street, Wichita, KS 67205). 300 backpacks stuffed with school supplies will be handed out in the parking lot next to the Boundless Playground from 5:30 p.m. through 7:30 p.m., while supplies last. The law firm decided to host the backpack giveaway to help offset costs associated with preparing for the 2020-2021 school year.

The law firm is hosting two other backpack giveaways in St. Joseph, MO on Saturday, August 8 and Topeka, KS on Saturday, August 29.

Parents with school-age children may find this upcoming school year extra challenging because of financial difficulties related to COVID-19 closures. That is why our team decided to host a backpack giveaway. We wanted to assist our community neighbors to offset back-to-school costs and give students tools to make the school year a success," remarked Managing Partner, Gary Patterson.

Social distancing and other precautionary measures will take place to ensure the health and safety of all participants. Those interested in attending are advised to arrive early as supplies are limited and will be given out on a first-come, first-served basis while they last.

For more information about the Patterson Legal Group backpack giveaways, please contact Ella Reusser with Patterson Legal Group at (888) 687-2400, or via email at ella@pattersonlegalgroup.com. You can also contact the law firm by sending a direct message through their Facebook page.

More About Patterson Legal Group, L.C.

Patterson Legal Group is a personal injury law firm with offices located throughout Kansas and Missouri. Founded on the principle of helping injury victims pursue their legal rights, they are not afraid to take on large insurance companies or to hold negligent persons accountable for injuring a client. Their lawyers are champions of consumer rights with a strong track record for helping people suffering from personal injury or disability. Learn more about the specific legal services and community outreach activities of Patterson Legal Group at pattersonlegalgroup.com. You can also connect and socialize with their legal team through the law firms Facebook page (/PattersonLegalGroup/).
Caprion-HistoGeneX, a specialized CRO providing immunology, proteomics, histopathology and genomics services, and Viroclinics-DDL, a provider of preclinical and clinical trial services for vaccine, antiviral, and diagnostic development, are pleased to announce a new partnership that will offer global, integrated services to support discovery and development of vaccines and antiviral therapies.



MONTREAL and ROTTERDAM, Netherlands, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Caprion-HistoGeneX and Viroclinics-DDL announced today a new strategic partnership to expand their global capabilities addressing the emerging needs for therapeutic and prophylactic solutions to target infectious diseases including COVID-19. This partnership brings together the leadership of two prominent contract research organizations serving the pharmaceutical and biotechnology community with specialized assays and technologies relevant to clinical and preclinical studies aimed at developing vaccines and other therapies for infectious diseases.

By combining their respective expertise, the two companies offer a full suite of specialized services to support vaccine and antiviral studies along with a broad global presence, including sites in The Netherlands, Canada, USA, Belgium, UK, Australia, and China.

"We are excited to partner with Caprion-HistoGeneX and combine the unique strengths of our companies to deliver first class contract research services to our customers developing innovative modalities to combat infectious diseases." said Davide Molho DVM, the new CEO of Viroclinics-DDL.



The partnership allows for a seamless, integrated service experience for customers worldwide, with a broad service offering covering all stages of vaccine and antiviral development, ranging from preclinical and in-vitro research models to the deployment of custom-developed and off-the-shelf functional assays for monitoring vaccine efficacy. In addition to leveraging a broad selection of specialized platforms such as viral neutralization, flow cytometry, ELISpot and immuno-assays, the partnership will also provide access to an extended global network of clinical sample processing facilities across North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia, along with operational and logistical services including sample management and sampling kits.

"With our complementary competencies, we are able to fulfill the R&D and clinical outsourcing needs of the market. In the wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, we believe that this joint initiative will bring vaccine and antiviral testing to the next level." said Martin LeBlanc, CEO of Caprion-HistoGeneX.

About Caprion Biosciences Inc.

Caprion - HistoGeneX is a leading provider of specialized precision medicine services to the biopharmaceutical industry including flow and mass cytometry immune monitoring, quantitative mass spectrometry, molecular profiling, as well as quantitative immunohistochemistry. Leveraging its integrated platforms, Caprion-HistoGeneX supports the entire drug development cycle, from discovery to clinical trials. The company operates globally with laboratories located in Canada, USA, Belgium, UK, Australia, and China.

For more information: www.caprion.com and www.histogenex.com

About Viroclinics-DDL

Viroclinics-DDL is a global leading virology contract research organization, serving the biopharmaceutical community with a broad range of preclinical research, clinical diagnostic, assay development and clinical trial logistic services. Viroclinics' extensive experience with clinical and preclinical studies for viruses, including its specialty in respiratory viruses, puts the company at the forefront in supporting the development of vaccines, antibodies and antiviral compounds targeting viral infectious diseases. Our in-house state of the art preclinical and clinical BSL-2 and BSL-3 laboratories allow for complex experiments with highly pathogenic organisms. Viroclinics is based in Rotterdam, Rijswijk, Schaijk, (The Netherlands) and employs more than 270 well-trained, dedicated scientists and technical experts. For more information: www.viroclinics.com and www.ddl.nl



Media Contact: Viroclinics-DDL, Sander Verkerk, Manager Marketing & Communication, Viroclinics-DDL, marketing@viroclinics.com; Media Contact: Caprion Biosciences Inc.,

Guylaine Galipeau, Global Marketing Director, Caprion Biosciences Inc., info@caprion.com

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1224618/Caprion_Biosciences_Caprion_HistoGeneX_and_Viroclinics_DDL_annou.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1224779/Caprion_Biosciences_Caprion_HistoGeneX_and_Viroclinics_DDL_annou.jpg
(Photo : REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/) A 3-D printed figures are seen in front of displayed Tik Tok logo in this picture illustration taken November 7, 2019. Picture taken November 7, 2019. (Photo : REUTERS/Thomas Peter) A person walks past a Microsoft logo at the Microsoft office in Beijing, China August 4, 2020.

After President Trump threatened to ban TikTok in the United States, Bytedance will be investing $500 million on opening its first data center in Europe. The center will store videos, messages, account information, and other data created by European TikTok users.

While the details of the project are not yet announced, Bytedance aims the center to be operational within two years as it would create hundreds of new job opportunities, according to Daily Express.

Currently, TikTok user information is stored in the U.S. while a back-up copy is held in Singapore. The new data center will then host information of European users as the company hopes this move will give its users confidence about the security of their data and their privacy are highly protected.

TikTok said they are already working on the new Irish data center even before President Trump hinted about banning the app in the U.S.

"It's a significant investment," TikTok Public Policy for Europe director Theo Bertram told the BBC, adding that the construction is a symbol of the company's long-term commitment to Europe. "I think that's an important message for our users and our creators at this time," he said.

Currently, the country's Data Protection Commission has already dealt with privacy issues on the app, and it has been easier since TikTok's chief data protection officer for Europe is already based in Dublin.

Meanwhile, Irish center creation will be built at an undisclosed location and will operate after about 18 to 24 months without any impact on the European users.

Earlier, reports that TikTok will open a new international headquarters in London surface, which the British government said it would not block the project.

Read also: ByteDance CEO Says They Do Not Agree with Selling TikTok's US Operations; Works Overtime to Find Solutions

TikTok's U.S. fate

The announcement of a new data center in Europe comes as President Trump accused the Chinese app as a national risk since its parent company Bytedance is based in Beijing, China. Bytedance denies the charge and has continuously worked its way to appease the U.S. government. Despite the company's efforts, Trump has recently given a 45-day deadline on Microsoft's acquisition of TikTok's U.S. operations or the Chinese app will be banned.

In a corporate statement, Bytedance Chief Executive Officer Zhang Yiming said they have not yet concluded a final resolution if they would push through with the Microsoft deal. He also aired his disagreement with the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment's proposal to release the app's U.S. business. Yiming claimed that they have continuously protected its users' data security as well as TikTok's independence and transparency.

In the same statement, Yiming said they are now meeting with a tech firm, although he did not confirm if it was Microsoft.

A Tech Times report, Microsoft confirmed on Aug. 2 that it will continue its discussions with Bytedance regarding its plan to acquire the short-video app. The statement comes after President Trump announced that he would ban the app as soon as August 1.

Trump said that it will ban the app unless an American company amid acquired TikTok's U.S. operations. The president is concerned that the Chinese government could access user information. Trump's announcement came two days after he threatened to immediately ban the app.

However, Bytedance has always denied it received any request from the Chinese government or that it would accept such a request when the time happens.

Read also: Trump 'May Allow' Microsoft to Buy TikTok on the Following Conditions

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by CJ Robles

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
An Israel El Al airlines plane is seen after its landing following its inaugural flight between Tel Aviv and Nice at Nice international airport

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's Government Companies Authority said it would recommend allowing Eli Rozenberg to buy control of cash-strapped El Al Israel Airlines.

Rozenberg last month offered to funnel $75 million into the airline in return for a 45% stake. He is the son of American businessman Kenny Rozenberg, who is CEO of New York-based nursing home chain Centers Health Care.

The authority said it would allow control of Israel's flag carrier with a stake of over 40% conditioned upon proof of Rozenberg's Israeli citizenship or residency. Israel would retain a golden share.

Israel's finance and transport ministers also need to approve Rozenberg becoming the controlling shareholder.

El Al's board had agreed to a bailout that could put the carrier back under state ownership after the coronavirus crisis pushed it to the verge of bankruptcy.

The government has offered to back $250 million in bank loans while El Al must issue $150 million in shares, which the state will buy if no one else does. The carrier's unions have already agreed to a significant cost-cutting measures.

El Al, which has reported losses for two years running and racked up debt to renew its fleet, suspended flights when Israel closed its borders and furloughed most of its employees.

(Reporting by Steven Scheer; Editing by Tova Cohen)
It has been over a month since George Floyds death sparked a long-overdue worldwide reaction against injustices based on ethnicity and race.

The #BlackLivesMatter movement uses anti-racist protest and advocacy by engaging underrepresented communities in the United States electoral process, hereby seeking to increase the political platform for non-white minorities. While this is specifically directed at the US, European countries such as Britain and France have been digging into their past and acknowledging the still-present racism, too. Luxembourg, on the other hand, seems to only have started exploring its role in discrimination, creating a need for the opening of platforms.

It is extremely important to acknowledge historical context when trying to understand why the anti-racist movement does not seem as prevalent here, because the roots of racism lie in colonialism and the slave trade.

In short (a more elaborate analysis of colonialism has been covered on RTL Today before), European nations were the first to introduce modern colonialism in the late 15th century, exploring, conquering, and exploiting countless civilisations (over 80% of the world has been colonised by a European nation), ultimately leaving a legacy of lingering inequality and poverty. With colonialism came the mass enslavement of Africans, which was later continued on the northern American plantations that at the time were still controlled by Europeans. The Europeans ended large-scale slavery on the continent much sooner given its symbolism of backwardness and its out-of-fashion status, but continued to benefit economically from the overseas slave trade until the 1950s and 60s.

The crucial point here is that the big nations we know today  France, Great Britain, the US, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and the Netherlands  were built in the golden age of slavery. In other words: the very roots of the countries we live in were built in a racist environment and ultimately remain deeply buried. Hence the evasiveness about their history of white supremacy and discrimination.

Yes, but you could argue that this does not apply to Luxembourg, right? Historian Regis Moes doctoral thesis argues otherwise, as he explores the role Luxembourgers had in the Belgian Congo, showing that Luxembourgers, too, cannot neglect the racist narrative. Mostly responsible for colonial administration and supervision of native labourers, they did not exactly advocate against colonialism and its crimes against humanity.

Shifting back to the present, the prevailing attitude remains that Europe is much better than the US when it comes to racial issues because of functioning systems of inclusion and protection. The same applies to Luxembourg: when being asked about racism, many will think it is not a big problem here. It is true that we do not have the overt police violence targeted at non-white minorities that we see online, but this comparative attitude completely neglects the systemic racism that we may not be aware of. After all, racism is much more than overt hate: Scott Woods explains racism as a complex system of social and political levers and pulleys set up generations ago that work in favour of the ethnic majority at the minoritys expense.

Being Black in the EU  Summary /  European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights

Based on a survey conducted in November 2019 by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, Luxembourg scores surprisingly poorly in tackling racial discrimination. The numbers should be analysed with caution given the lack of empirical data (it is very hard to analyse and monitor such private encounters, after all), but they do prove that there is much to be done.

While there was an overall decline in perceived racial discrimination over the previous five years before the survey, Luxembourg scored highest with a perceived rate of discrimination of a staggering 50% among those surveyed. 47% felt racially discriminated against when searching for employment and 36% when searching for housing. There certainly is no need to wait for the situation to deteriorate when there are areas in which institutionalised racism is well and alive. On that note, the lack of statistics based on ethnicity (most states do not record official information based on racial origin in administrative data) must be tackled in order to trace the roots of racism in the first place.

Especially now with the momentum of egalitarian campaigning that George Floyds murder triggered, we have the opportunity to reform the structures that enable racism in Luxembourg. The past two months have seen incredible progress  more discussions are being held, more articles are being written about a previously perceived taboo subject, and parliament has been putting forward motions fighting racial inequalities.

An important step forward was the strengthening of the Centre for Equal Treatment (CET). Created in 2006, the CET aims at promoting, analysing, and monitoring equal treatment between all persons without discrimination on the basis of race, ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, religion or beliefs, handicap or age. Emails were drafted, visuals shared on social media outlets, and indeed passed on to parliamentary discussion. Prior to the initiative, the CET had too little legal powers, staff and funding. I mention this example because it shows how important and effective keeping up the conversation is after the exposure on social media fades, no matter how uncomfortable it is.

Speaking of keeping up the conversation, I believe primary and secondary education are areas that desperately need to strive towards inclusiveness. Unlike in Britain or the US, we were barely taught about colonialism or slavery  maybe a short session about the Belgian Congo (and even then, it will be from the winners perspective, explaining the benefits of the rubber trade on the Belgian economy). This extends beyond ethnic history. The syllabus is outdated, as it struggles to move on from the standard narrative that ignores minorities. What should further be integrated is the LGBTQ+ community and its history as well as a thorough study of the struggle for gender equality.

There are many ways to tackle the underlying inequality in Luxembourg, but educating ourselves is one of the simplest ways of raising awareness and fighting the problem. Europe needs to put itself back in the narrative and acknowledge its complicity in colonialism, segregation, and slavery. It is an uncomfortable process, but we have to be proactive to directly engage with the very establishments that are in need of reform.

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Maura Lehmann is a history student and former RTL Today intern who now regularly contributes as a freelancer. She would also like to draw attention to the fact that this is an extremely versatile subject that is constantly evolving and in need of ceaseless discussion.
A 101-year-old is to lead a virtual clan gathering as coronavirus forced the centuries-old tradition online.

Clan Farquharson members will gather digitally for a week-long programme of events to celebrate its history, heritage and international community.

It will be led by chief Captain Alwyne Farquharson of Invercauld and will involve music, interviews, virtual tours, film and competitions.

The annual gathering is usually centred on the Ballater Highland Games, which was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Jonathan Findlay, UK clan president, said: Scottish clan societies are an important way to celebrate a shared culture and a passion for Scotlands history and traditions.

Expand Close The gathering is usually centred on the Ballater Highland Games, which has been attended by the Duke of Rothesay (Andrew Milligan/PA) PA / Facebook

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Whatsapp The gathering is usually centred on the Ballater Highland Games, which has been attended by the Duke of Rothesay (Andrew Milligan/PA)

While we are unable to meet in person this year, we felt it was important that we find a way to come together for a celebration that will maintain and strengthen our UK and international clan ties.

We have Clan Farquharson societies in the UK, USA, Canada, Jamaica, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand, plus many other individual clan members right across the globe.

We are greatly looking forward to connecting with as many of them as possible and to supporting Braemar community in their fundraising appeal to restore the castle.

More than five million people across the globe have a family connection to the Farquharson clan, which has over 200 associated surnames.

Captain Farquharson of Invercauld is the 16th Baron of Invercauld and Omnalprie.

He is said to have served with distinction in the Royal Scots Greys during the Second World War.
Election 2020 Myanmar Election Officials Scramble to Correct Error-Riddled Voter Lists

Residents of Kyauktada Township in Yangon check voter lists posted outside a polling station on Wednesday. / Htet Wai / The Irrawaddy

YANGONIn the run-up to the general election on Nov. 8, preliminary voter lists released to the public have been the focus of intense criticism, as the rolls are riddled with errors and inaccuracies.

Over the past two weeks, there have been many reports of flaws in the preliminary voter lists, ranging from incorrect names and national registration card numbers to the inclusion of deceased people and the omission of whole families. Released on July 25 and displayed publicly in various cities, the preliminary lists were initially scheduled to remain posted until tomorrow, but will remain on display until Aug. 14 to give voters enough time to submit correction requests.

Amid an outpouring of public complaints over the flawed voter-list rollout, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday instructed officials with primary responsibility for the election process to correct the lists, warning that failure to do so could deny many eligible voters their chance to cast ballots in the election.

Addressing the officials in a videoconference, she said, There are many reports of flaws in voter lists all over the country. This is a very important issue for us to take care of, she stressed as she discussed election preparations with the officials.

Minister of Labor, Immigration and Population U Thein Swe acknowledged the problem. He said that because this is the first time voter lists have been rolled out on such a wide scale, they contain many mistakes, including erroneous exclusions and inclusions, as well as incorrect data.

He vowed to work hard to ensure that the revised voter lists would incorporate all corrections forwarded by the public. The new voter lists are due to be displayed in October.

Continuing her criticism, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said that even some of those whose voter data were correct in the 2015 general election had complained of errors this time. In some cases, she said, the problem was not a mere typo, but involved entirely incorrect sets of data. She asked the officials to explain why the voter lists contained such serious inaccuracies.

Minister U Thein Swe acknowledged that even members of his own family had been affected by incorrect data.

The voter lists were compiled by sub-election commission members working with staff from the Ministry of Labor, Immigration and Population and the General Administration Department across the country. Some 37.5 million people are eligible to vote in the upcoming election.

U Thein Swe pointed out that the voter list in his area had given him a new wife. Even my son found that his mothers name was wrong, while my daughter-in-law found that her late grandmas name was still on the list, he said.

He admitted failings in the process of compiling voter data on the ground, in digitalizing voter data for display, and in the process of double-checking the compiled data.

However, Union Election Commission member U Myint Naing, who joined the videoconference, expressed confidence that the voter lists for this years election would be more accurate than those for the previous vote in 2015, despite the many errors being reported.

He insisted that the collection of information for voter lists focused on actual data of residents, rather than relying on outdated household registration lists.

U Myint Naing added that he was satisfied that more voters were checking the lists this time, compared to the previous election.

As of Aug. 4, more than 6 million [17.6 percent of eligible voters] had checked the lists. This is very satisfying. I have never seen a such large number of people checking the voter lists, said U Myint Naing, who was also a member of the former election commission that oversaw the 2015 election.

But his statement failed to impress the State Counselor, who responded, Thats because theyre afraid the voter lists contain many flaws, isnt it?

Evidence on social media suggests the State Counselor is right. In the days after the voter lists were released, many people posted notes online reminding their fellow voters to check that their names were on the lists, after finding their own information had been omitted or contained errors.

Ko Aung Htet, a native of Sanchaung Township in Yangon Region, wrote on his Facebook account that he was very surprised to discover that the voting list in his area omitted the names of his entire family and everyone living in his building.

He urged others to go and check to make sure their information was included in the list.

According to UEC data, ahead of the 2015 general election, 12.3 percent of eligible voters checked the preliminary lists. Yet, at the time, preliminary lists were only displayed in 10 townships in Yangon. This time, they are being displayed in most cities in the country, except in some conflict-affected areas in Chin and Rakhine states.

Despite the errors, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said it was still a good sign that a large number of people were checking the voter lists to see if their names were there, saying it showed that the people are interested in the election and recognized its importance.

Commissioner U Myint Naing said that so far, over 400,000 people had forwarded correction requests, including fixes for erroneous exclusions and inclusions, and faulty data.

On a different topic, the election commissioner was caught unprepared when asked what steps the UEC had taken to ensure the voting could be successfully held in line with COVID-19 preventive measures issued by the Health Ministry.

The State Counselor expressed concern that the polling stations opening hours would be insufficient to allow all voters to enter the stations compounds before closing at 4 p.m., given that they would have to follow social distancing rules while queuing outside. She asked whether the commission planned to extend voting hours, and whether wearing gloves would hinder voters ability to stamp their ballots.

The commissioner did not have a clear answer for either question.

During the videoconference, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi also urged all citizens who were over the age 18, and therefore eligible to vote, to do their duty and participate in the election.

Criticizing the system without casting a vote is an irresponsible act, she said, adding that all citizens needed to perform their duty by voting, something that required only one day every five years.

Holding an election successfully is not just a matter of politics, but a very important matter for the nation, she said.

With just one day to go in the preliminary voter list display period, the commission decided to extend the period to give voters more time to make corrections, given the large number of errors and inaccuracies discovered in the lists.

Yangon Region sub-election commission chairman U Kyi Myint confirmed to The Irrawaddy that the voter list display period had been extended until Aug. 14.

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Haiti - Crisis : Donation of $27M from the IDB for the fight against the pandemic





The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) approved a reassignment of US$27 million from the non-disbursed balance of Haiti's current investment portfolio, from the IDB Special Donation Fund, in an effort to help the government fight the COVID-19 pandemic.



The goal of the program for an immediate public health response to contain and control the coronavirus and mitigate its impact on the provision of services in Haiti is to help reduce COVID-19 mortality and morbidity rates and ease the indirect impact of the pandemic on health care in the country. To that end, it will concentrate on strengthening coordination at the national level; improving detection and monitoring of cases; supporting efforts to break the chain of transmission of the virus, and boosting Haiti's capacity for providing health care.



Besides all this action aimed directly at containing and controlling the pandemic, the plan will emphasize maternal and child health care, including vaccination, and the fight against contagious diseases. This will allow for mitigating the strong negative impact of the pandemic on these services over the short and medium term, especially among the most vulnerable people in Haiti.



In order to ensure that the program does not clash with measures that are already in place, it will become part of the national plan developed by the Health and Population Ministry and the Cross-Sector Pandemic Management Commission, which was created by the Haitian presidency. In this way the intervention strategies in the IDB initiative are adapted to the Haitian context because they were proposed by the commission, which features broad representation from civil society in Haiti.



This operation is in addition to a US$60 million grant approved in July 2020 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-31292-haiti-covid-19-donation-of-$60m-to-help-the-most-vulnerable-sectors.html to support Haiti's most vulnerable sectors in the face of the crisis caused by COVID-19.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-31292-haiti-covid-19-donation-of-$60m-to-help-the-most-vulnerable-sectors.html



HL/ HaitiLibre




















Ministers spent more than 150milllion buying millions of face masks from a small investment company that cannot be used by NHS medics, court documents reveal today.

Around 50 million Chinese-made FFP2 masks supplied by Ayanda Capital had ear straps rather than head straps, which raised 'concern' they may not provide an 'adequate fixing' around the face.

The private equity company was handed a 252million contract overall to provide personal equipment (PPE) brokered by Andrew Mills, an adviser to Trade Secretary Liz Truss and the Board of Trade - and a senior board adviser at Ayanda.

Ayanda Capital also supplied 150 million masks of another type, which the Government says are unaffected but will be subject to further testing in the UK before any are released for use in the NHS.

Papers supporting a judicial review of the contract against Health Secretary Matt Hancock, brought by the Good Law Project (GLP), notes: 'It is common ground that Ayanda had no prior experience of supplying PPE or indeed and goods or health-related services'.

They went on to allege Mr Mill 'requested' the firm got the contract instead of his own company, Prospermill Ltd, which was set up in February last year with assets of just 100 and had no facilities to handle foreign payments.

'Against that background, the value of the contract awarded to Ayanda without competition - 252million - is staggering', the GLP document written by QC Jason Coppel noted.

'A substantial portion of the masks purchased under the contract - the FFP2 masks - have been determined by the defendant (Mr Hancock) to be not fit for purpose and will not be used in the NHS.'

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called for an inquiry into the failings.

Around 43 million Chinese-made FFP2 masks (like the one pictured) supplied by Ayanda Capital were found to have ear straps rather than head straps, which raised 'concern' they may not provide an 'adequate fixing' for doctors and nurses in high risk wards

Documents supporting a judicial review of the contract, brought by the Good Law Project, run by Jolyon Maugham (above) notes: 'It is common ground that Ayanda had no prior experience of supplying PPE or indeed and goods or health-related services'.

'For months we were told that the Government was purchasing the right equipment for the front line. Yet again it hasn't happened,' he told reporters, during a visit to north Wales.

'There needs now to be an investigation, an inquiry, into what went wrong with this particular contract because it's just not good enough to people who need that protective equipment that we find ourselves in this position.'

Boris Johnson said he was 'very disappointed' that masks bought for the NHS will not be able to be used due to safety concerns.

Fifty million face masks bought by the Government as part of a 252 million contract will not be used because have ear loops rather than head loops, and there are concerns over whether these are adequate.

The Prime Minister told reporters: 'I'm very disappointed that any consignment of PPE should turn out not to be fit for purpose.'

He said there were legal proceedings under way so he would not be drawn on the specific example.

But he added: 'We have achieved a colossal race against time to produce billions of items of PPE, sourcing them from abroad but now increasingly making them here in the UK as well, and stockpiling them now in case we have a second wave in the autumn and the winter.'

Ayala is owned by the Horlick family via 'an entity in Mauritius', the documents claim.

Its website says: 'We are a London-based family office focused on a broad investment strategy. We specialise in currency trading, offshore property, private equity and trade financing.'

Its chief executive Tim Horlick said today: 'Ayanda Capital has today written to the Editor of the Times correcting the assertions made in their article on Ayanda's supply of PPE to DHSC.

'In summary the masks met all Government specifications and standards, the masks are not unusable or unsafe and the Government has not wasted any money in purchasing these masks.'

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called for an inquiry into the failings, saying: 'For months we were told that the Government was purchasing the right equipment for the front line. Yet again it hasn't happened'

The Government disclosed in court papers that the original approach to sell the masks came from Mr Mills. Prospermill had secured exclusive rights to the full production capacity of a large factory in China to produce masks and offered a large quantity almost immediately.

But the legal document revealed Mr Mills requested DHSC's contractual counterparty should be Ayanda rather than Prospermill, as Ayanda already had an established international banking infrastructure that could be used to effect the necessary payments overseas, whereas Prospermill's own bank had indicated it could take some time to set this up on its own account.

Jolyon Maugham, director of the Good Law Project, said: 'Good Law Project wrote to Government on three contracts each worth over a hundred million pounds - with respectively a pest control company, a confectioner and a family hedge fund.

'Each of those contracts has revealed real cause for alarm - including, on Ayanda, that around 150 million was spent on unusable masks. What other failures remain undiscovered?'

The Department of Health's own submission to the judicial review admits that there was a problem with the FFP2 masks from Ayanda and other companies it contracted for supplies.

'Some of the masks DHSC had puchased (including the Ayanda FFP2 masks) have ear-loop fastenings rather than head loops, and there was a concern as to whether the former still provided an adequate fixing, notwithstanding that head loops are not a requirement of the relevant FFP2 technical standard ... and are accepted by other countries.

'To that end, further production of of all ear-looped FFP2 masks has been paused, and these will no longer be recommended for purchase or included in the essential specifications.

'No final decision has yet been taken about the ear-looped FFP2 masks that have been supplied so far, but we can confirm they will not be used int he NHS.'

Liberal Democrat health spokeswoman Munira Wilson said: 'The news that 50million masks are not safe for our NHS and care staff to use is yet another staggering error made by this Government.

'Not only does it mean millions of pounds of taxpayers money being thrown down the drain, but it shows just how Ministers are playing fast and loose when it comes to keeping our NHS staff safe.

'The Government's procurement of personal protective equipment has been shocking from the very beginning of the pandemic. It should not need to be said that Ministers should prioritise protecting the staff in our health service from the virus over awarding Government contracts to their friends.

'It is clear that Boris Johnson's Government are still failing to get a grip on the coronavirus crisis. An inquiry into their handling of the pandemic must begin now, so that they can learn from their mistakes before more lives are put at risk.'

A Government spokesman said: 'Throughout this global pandemic, we have been working tirelessly to deliver PPE to protect people on the front line.

'Over 2.4 billion items have been delivered and more than 30 billion have been ordered from UK-based manufacturers and international partners to provide a continuous supply, which meets the needs of health and social care staff both now and in the future.

'There is a robust process in place to ensure orders are of high quality and meet strict safety standards, with the necessary due diligence undertaken on all Government contracts.'
Burma Myanmar Lawyers Elect New Bar Council for First Time Since Military Regime

The Regional High Court in Yangon. / Htet Wai / The Irrawaddy

MANDALAYFor the first time in over 30 years, the Bar Council of Myanmar announced newly-elected members on Tuesday who will replace the existing council. The move is an important step forward that may offer lawyers more chances to voice criticisms and help improve the countrys judiciary system.

Eleven members were elected to the Bar Council on Sunday, including human rights lawyer U Thein Than Oo, U Khin Maung Than, U Nay Lathe lawyer following the case of the assassination of lawyer U Ko Niand U Mya Theinthe honorary chair of the Myanmar Lawyer Association and the Myanmar Lawyer Network for Media.

The Bar Council is elected by all licensed lawyers in the country.

Four members from the Union Legal Aid Board, which was formed in 2017 with the lawyers from the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, were also elected.

Many lawyers said the election of the Bar Council is a successful step towards reforming the council after decades of control by military regime.

Lawyers said that with protection from the Bar Council, the newly-elected members could make historical changes to the countrys judiciary.

Lawyers have been threatened for many years, in terms of freedom of speech, said lawyer U Robert San Aung. The Bar Council Act was reformed in 1989 and it no longer protected us but was instead under the control of the military regime back then.

The Bar Council Act was first passed in 1929 and specified that councilmembers were to elected democratically.

However, after the Bar Council led lawyers to participate in protests during the 1988 uprising against the military regime, the regimes State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) amended the act. The SPDC amended two articles in 1989 to say that councilmembers would be chosen only by the Chief Justice of the Union.

Since the change under the SPDC regime, there had been no elections of Bar Council members.

Many lawyers say that after the Bar Council members became henchmen of the military government, the council failed to protect the judiciary and the interests of lawyers or ordinary people.

We, the lawyers, could not keep ourselves away from the countrys politics and we have rights to inform the public about lawsuits that concern the national interest, U Robert San Aung explained. But the authorities used to complain to the Bar Council about lawyers who spoke to the media, saying that the Bar Council had to take legal action against these lawyers, such as by terminating their lawyers licenses.

But now, we believe the newly-elected Bar Council will change the whole thing. It will be able to protect the rights of the lawyers and will be able to take part in the restoration of the countrys weak judiciary, he added.

In May 2018, lawyers organizations tried to amend the Bar Council Act again to restore the system for electing councilmembers. The Bar Council Act was finally amended in June 2019.

Some lawyers say the election of the Bar Council on Sunday is a historic milestone that will change the judiciary and open up chances to voice their criticisms and needs.

We have high hopes to protect the public under the legal umbrellaalso to guide and empower lawyers and to be a council that stands strong before the lawyers to protect their rights, which will benefit the public, said lawyer U Thein Than Oo, one of the newly-elected members of the Bar Council.

He said the Bar Council will first push for to amend the Bar Council Act to update outdated rules and regulations.

The other thing to do is to represent the voices of the public and play a part in judicial reform, he said. The Bar Council will take part in empowering lawyers, protecting them and guiding them to be ethically skillful, so that unethical, unprofessional and corrupt lawyers shall be eliminated for the benefit judicial reform.

Within one week of the announcement of the newly-elected Bar Council members, any person who wants to voice a complaint or oppose the election of a member can do so. After one week, if there are no oppositions or complaints, the first meeting of the Bar Council will be held and the former councilmembers will hand over duties to the newly-elected members.

Chief Justice of the Union U Htun Htun is set to chair the new Bar Council. The vice-chairperson and the secretary will be elected by the 11 new members of the council during their first meeting.

The Bar Council is now formed with independent lawyers being elected democratically and I believe it will benefit the countrys judiciary in the future, U Thein Than Oo added. The lawyers have successfully emerged out of the dark days, however, we still have a long way to go for judicial reform.

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As Congress debates what to include in the next coronavirus relief package, almost one-third of households, 32%, owed money for missed rent or mortgage payments from previous months at the beginning of August, according to a survey by Apartment List, an online rental platform.

The finances of many Americans have deteriorated over the past few months as state reopenings have faltered and the unemployment rate remains sky-high. As a result, millions of Americans are missing bill payments, especially housing, which is most people's largest monthly expense. Of the one-third of households who had unpaid housing bills for previous months at the beginning of August, 20% owed at least $1,000.

Those statistics will only get worse if Congress does not pass another stimulus bill soon, according to Morning Consult: An estimated 5.4 million additional people will be unable to pay all of their bills by the end of August without a new job or the extra $600 in weekly unemployment insurance that expired last week.

August marked the fourth straight month that around one-third of U.S. households did not make their full housing payment on time, per Apartment List. In the first week of August, 11% of respondents made a partial payment, while 22% had yet to make any payment at all.

One silver lining: Though numbers of missed on-time payments were also high in July, around 90% of households had paid their bill by the end of the month. Still, that means millions of households could have accrued late payment or non-payment fees.

And with eviction courts reopening across the country, the missed payments have advocates worried about potentially millions of people losing their homes in the middle of a global pandemic.

"This is creating a deep sense of housing insecurity for those struggling to keep up financially," says Apartment List. "With the recent expiration of most federal eviction and foreclosure protections and a lapse in expanded unemployment benefits, this insecurity is sure to deepen over the coming weeks."
No private hospital in Karnataka can turn away a patient without attending to him or her, irrespective of the status, an official has said.

"Private medical establishments shall not deny treatment and admission to any patient approaching the establishment irrespective of the fact that such patient may or may not be suffering from Covid-19," an official from the state Health and Family Welfare Department said on Wednesday.

Likewise, no private hospital can insist on a patient for a Covid-19 test report, said the official invoking the Disaster Management Act.

"The establishments also cannot insist for Covid test report," he said, directing all private hospitals to strictly abide by their responsibilities.

According to the department, it is the duty of every private hospital to provide first aid and take lifesaving steps when any patient approaches it.

"It is the duty of every private medical establishment to provide first aid and take lifesaving measures to stabilise the patient," he said.

The department also invoked statutes from Karnataka Medical Establishments Act 2017, under sections 11 and 11 (A) to drive home the message.

The directives assume significance at a time when several cases of private hospitals denying admissions and fleecing patients across the state have emerged.

"It has been noticed that some of the private hospitals are refusing treatment and admission to emergency patients, causing distress and this has resulted in complications, leading to death in certain cases," said the official.

The district authorities have been directed to take action on the erring hospitals as the department reiterated the responsibilities of private medical establishments.

--IANS

sth/pgh

(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.)
India insisted on 'complete disengagement' in all its talks with China on eastern Ladakh row: Govt

On de-escalation, India in no hurry until Chinese complete dis-engagment

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Aug 06: There shall be no de-escalation in Ladakh until the Chinese complete the disengagement process, India has said.

India has also refused the demand by the Chinese that its troops move back behind the Dhyan Singh Thapa post. An official said that there is no urgency what so ever in de-escalation at Pangong Tso, which has been the biggest point of contention.

Meanwhile a high powered panel headed by National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval held discussions on the issue.

NSA Doval led panel discusses sustained diplomatic-political efforts with China

The discussions were held following the meeting of the military commanders of India and China on Sunday. The efforts with China will need to be sustained both on the political and diplomatic front officials informed.

The meeting that lasted three hours was also attended by Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh, Foreign Minister, S Jaishankar and Army Chief General M M Naravane.

The fifth meeting of the commanders was held on August 2. The panel headed by NSA Doval is informally known as the China Study Group. It met on Tuesday and reviewed the discussions, sources told OneIndia.

The source said that India reiterated to China for complete disengagement and de-escalation. India also sought for full restoration of peace and tranquility in the border areas as had been agreed upon during the earlier meetings.

RBI: Repo rate unchanged at 4%, Reverse Repo Rate unchanged at 3.3% | Oneindia News

The Indian side also sought for restoration of status quo ante along the Line of Actual Control, the source also added. The official cited above said that the Doval led panel would analyse China's response during the talks.

'Hope India treats Confucius Institutes and higher education cooperation in fair manner: China

During the meeting of the military commanders on Sunday, India said that it wanted immediate disengagement at patrolling point 17 (Gogra) and Pangong Tso fingers. While the de-escalation at these points would be a short term solution, diplomatic channels are looking at a long term solution as well which would ensure that the soldiers of both sides are kept apart.

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Story first published: Thursday, August 6, 2020, 8:32 [IST]
Second quarter silver production at Pan American Silver (TSX:PAAS) was 2.8 million ounces, down from 6.4 million during the same quarter a year ago.

The company reported its numbers today.

"The global COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on Q2 results, with all our Latin American operations placed in care and maintenance mode for periods of time during the quarter. Except for our two polymetallic underground mines in Peru, all operations are now back in production under comprehensive health and safety protocols," said Michael Steinmann, President and Chief Executive Officer.

Going forward revenue should bounce stronger. The company said revenue was $249.5 million with gold and silver averaging $1,708 per ounce and $16.58 per ounce, respectively. Both metals are now trading higher.

The company's net cash generated from operations was $62.8 million, which included $46.5 million of COVID-19 related mine care and maintenance costs. Working capital changes resulted in a $31.3 million source of cash, mainly driven by the draw-down in inventories from continued leaching at the company's three heap leach operations during the COVID-19 related suspensions.

COVID-19 costs were significant. The company incurred $46.5 million in care and maintenance costs in Q2 2020 due to COVID-19 related suspensions.

The company said most operations are back online, but wanred of the "humanitarian crisis" due to the pandemic.

"By the end of Q2 2020, all of Pan American's suspended operations had resumed production; however, its Huaron and Morococha operations in Peru were returned to care and maintenance on July 20, 2020 after several workers at the mines tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. A reduced workforce will conduct care and maintenance activities at those mines until it is determined that normal operations can safely resume," wrote the company.

"We remain concerned about the humanitarian crisis that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused throughout much of Latin America. We are adapting our community outreach programs to best support the communities near our mines during this very difficult time."
Every new housing development in England will be required by law to have tree-lined streets as part of the biggest shake-up of planning laws for more than 70 years.

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick will today pledge to cut red tape and streamline the planning process, with an insistence that developments are beautiful.

The changes will however strip local councillors of power to decide on individual developments in an attempt to get the country building.

The plans have also attracted criticism from housing charities, planning officers and architects who warned the changes could lead to a 'generation of slums' and kill off affordable housing projects.

The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) condemned it as disruptive and rushed, saying there are currently up to 1million unbuilt permissions, according to The Guardian.

Alan Jones, president of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) described the proposals as 'shameful', adding 'theres every chance they could also lead to the development of the next generation of slum housing.'

Under the plans, every area in England will be designated for either growth, renewal or protection. In growth areas individual developments will not require planning permission, so the default position will be that homes can be built

The Government insisted that there would be no lowering of building standards as a result.

Mr Jenrick will launch a consultation on proposals that include fast-tracking approvals of housing projects that are in keeping with local character and design.

Developers will be able to skip stages of the planning process if buildings are based on designs in official pattern books drawn up by local authorities.

There will also be a requirement for all new streets to be tree-lined unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Mr Jenrick last night told the Mail: We want our communities to get behind our plans to build much needed homes, which is why we fast-tracking developments that keep in with local character and design.

We will insist development is beautiful  and meets local peoples high standards. Attractive design that fits in with local heritage and character is the best antidote to local objections to building.

Under the plans, every area in England will be designated for either growth, renewal or protection. In growth areas individual developments will not require planning permission, so the default position will be that homes can be built.

Renewal areas will have permission in principle to build, but all developments will have to be approved. In protected areas such as green belt land, most new developments will be banned.

There will also be a requirement for all new streets to be tree-lined unless there are exceptional circumstances. Pictured, a row of newly built houses in central Scotland

Local councillors will be stripped of power to decide on individual developments in an attempt to get the country building. Pictured, an unfinished housing estate in Bordon, Hampshire

Local councils will decide how to designate all the land in their area. All planning applications will be registered online via an interactive map, intended to help local residents participate in decision making.

Planning shake-up to get homes built Local councils will be given two and a half years to draw up plans for building more homes or will face sanctions. Developments that follow locally-agreed pattern books on home design will be fast-tracked, with a requirement for tree-lined streets in all new schemes. Every piece of land in England will be designated as for growth, renewal or protection. Residents will be able to access online maps and data to see what is planned in their local communities. Advertisement

However, there are concerns that those living in growth areas could be confronted with huge new developments they will get little say over.

As part of the overhaul all councils will be given two-and-a-half years to draw up plans for the building of more homes or will face sanctions that are yet to be decided.

Mr Jenrick last night said the existing complex planning system has been a barrier to building the homes people need.

He said the changes would provide a major boost for small building companies across the country by making it easier for them to navigate through the planning process.

Thirty years ago small builders were responsible for 40 per cent of new build homes compared with 12 per cent today.

Mr Jenrick will also replace the community infrastructure levy used by councils to secure money from developers to pay for amenities such a new roads with a standard national levy.

But campaigners voiced concerns about how much say residents would have about developments.

Tom Fyans of the Campaign to Protect Rural England said: The key acid test for the planning reforms is community involvement and its still not clear how this will work under a zoning system.

We also need robust legal guarantees that the public are consulted regarding new development.

Nikki Williams of The Wildlife Trusts said: Its critical that government weaves nature into the heart of every housing development. Proposals for tree-lined streets are nothing like enough.
While Europe tightened virus restrictions to face the threat of a second wave of COVID-19, US President Donald Trump on Wednesday found himself in the crosshairs of Facebook and Twitter because of a video in which he claims children are "almost immune" to the new coronavirus.

The worldwide death toll crossed 700,000 as the two US social media giants took action against Trump for spreading what they called "misinformation" about the virus.

Medical staff prepare to administer rapid antigen coronavirus tests at the Hard Rock Stadium near Miami, Florida. By CHANDAN KHANNA (AFP)

Several European countries and cities reimposed tighter restrictions, including a "wake-up week" in Greece and new face mask and quarantine rules elsewhere.

The US tallied another 1,262 deaths and 53,158 cases Wednesday, marking 157,930 total deaths and more than 4.8 million cases -- making it by far the worst-hit country in the world.

A total of 703,640 deaths have been recorded so far around the world, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources as of 0300 GMT Thursday.

A school is disinfected against the spread of the new coronavirus in Brasilia. By EVARISTO SA (AFP)

Europe remains the hardest-hit region with 211,764 fatalities, but the number of deaths is rising fast in Latin America, with 208,329 deaths recorded.

Restrictions re-introduced

Announcing the re-introduction of restrictions in Greece, government spokesman Stelios Petsas told Mega TV: "We are trying to awaken people with messages and daily announcements on additional measures," citing travel, social gatherings and public transport as major spreading concerns.

Pubs are closed in Aberdeen, Scotland, following the announcement that a local lockdown has been imposed on the city after a spike in the number of cases of novel coronavirus. By Michal Wachucik (POOL/AFP)

Restrictions reimposed on the northeast Scottish city of Aberdeen included the closure of all indoor and outdoor hospitality venues starting late Wednesday as First Minister Nicola Sturgeon referred to what could become a "significant outbreak."

Toulouse in southwest France made face masks compulsory, with more French cities expected to follow suit.

And Germany included Belgium's Antwerp province on its list of regions requiring arriving travelers to quarantine for 14 days unless they can show a negative virus test.

A truck at the meat processing plant Westvlees in Westrozebeke, Belgium after several employees tested positive for the coronavirus. By FranAois WALSCHAERTS (AFP)

In Belgium, one of the country's biggest meat processing plants, Westvlees, sent 225 staff home to quarantine after a cluster of coronavirus cases was discovered.

Switzerland added mainland Spain to a quarantine list of 46 countries as well as Singapore and Romania.

In the Netherlands, similar mask-wearing measures came into force in Rotterdam and in some busy neighborhoods of Amsterdam, including its famous red-light district.

'Misinformation'

In an extraordinary move late Wednesday, Facebook removed a video clip about the virus from Trump's account.

Brazilian Kamayura indigenous chief Aritana Yawalapiti - seen here in 2005 - was one of the Amazon rainforest leaders who died of complications caused by COVID-19. By ANTONIO SCORZA (AFP/File)

It was the first time the social network has taken down one of the president's posts for violating its content rules -- for "claims that a group of people is immune from COVID-19 which is a violation of our policies around harmful COVID misinformation," a Facebook spokesperson told AFP.

Twitter meanwhile said it had blocked Trump's official campaign account, also for a "misinformation" violation over a tweet containing the same video, in which Trump made the case for reopening US schools starting in September.

Soon thereafter, the @TeamTrump account was active, suggesting the contested video had been taken down.

US President Donald Trump speaks to the press in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC. By Olivier DOULIERY (AFP)

Also in the United States, New York mayor Bill de Blasio, announcing new checkpoints at access roads into the city, said: "We're not going to let our hard work slip away and will continue to do everything we can to keep New Yorkers safe and healthy."

The virus killed more than 32,000 people in the city, which was one of its first epicenters in the United States.

Latin America surge

One of Brazil's leading indigenous chiefs, 71-year-old Aritana Yawalapiti, died Wednesday of respiratory complications caused by COVID-19.

The coffin of a COVID-19 victim is wrapped in plastic before burial at a graveyard in Comas, in the northern outskirts of Lima. By ERNESTO BENAVIDES (AFP)

Brazil, South America's largest country, is driving a surge in Latin America and the Caribbean. It has recorded nearly 2.9 million cases, and more than 97,000 deaths, nearly half the region's 208,329 fatalities.

Meanwhile the death toll continued to rise in Peru, which reported a new daily record of 221 deaths and 7,734 new cases, according to Health Ministry figures, bringing the total COVID-19 deaths to 20,228, and 447,624 confirmed cases -- though total deaths could be closer to 50,000 when considering suspected cases, according to press reports.

Peru, population 33 million, has the third highest death toll in Latin America after Brazil and Mexico.

Vaccine trials

In South Africa, the hardest-hit country in Africa, some 24,000 health workers have contracted the coronavirus and 181 have died since March, Health Minister Zweli Mkwize said.

Graphic showing the highest national death tolls around the world since the start of the coronavirus crisis, as of August 6.. By John SAEKI (AFP)

But he added: "We haven't got to the stage where we don't have hospital space for patients."

In Afghanistan, the health ministry said nearly a third of the population -- or 10 million people -- has been infected with the novel coronavirus.

The world's hope of ending the current cycle of outbreaks and lockdowns rests on finding a treatment, which has proved elusive so far.

The US government Wednesday announced a new $1 billion investment in a COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Johnson & Johnson, guaranteeing 100 million doses.

J&J, via its subsidiary Janssen, received $456 million in March.

Clinical trials on humans began in China for a potential coronavirus vaccine developed by German pharmaceutical group BioNTech with Chinese company Fosun Pharma.

burs/caw/ch
A viva's new chief executive, the rugby loving Welshwoman Amanda Blanc, today reported a "robust" set of half-year profits but declared the troubled insurance giant must now only focus on businesses where it is big enough and profitable enough to generate major shareholder returns.

While that will see no split up of its huge general and life insurance businesses, it is expected to see potential exits from overseas operations in countries such as France, Italy, Poland and Asia, which will be put under close scrutiny. The future dividend policy is also up for review with a cut now likely.

Blanc, who was appointed only a month ago after her predecessor quit after just a year in the job amid dissatisfaction from shareholders, signalled a flurry of disposals of businesses to focus on UK, Ireland and Canada.

She said: "We are going to focus on those businesses where we have the necessary size, capability and brilliant customer service to generate superior shareholder returns. This is where we will invest and grow. where we cannot meet our strategic objectives, we will take decisive action we will withdraw capital."

"We must transform our performance and improve efficiency," she said.

Speaking to the Evening Standard, she confirmed there would be no breakup of UK life and general businesses, saying: "My ambition is to be the UK's leading insurer. The UK market is at the heart of this business. We do not believe a break up is the right thing to do."

She stressed there were major benefits in keeping the two sides of the company together in terms of the amount of capital Aviva has to hold back to satisfy regulators that it can pay its claims but also said there were major potential benefits in keeping the business together as a combined operation, particularly if it uses its brand better.

Shareholders have argued that the two businesses would each command higher valuations if they were separate, but Blanc disagreed: "We fundamentally believe we can create the value by being competitive. We will be focused on the UK, Ireland and Canada where we have leading market positions and we are talking today about withdrawing capital from other countries."

Operating profit for the first half of 2020 was 1.2 billion, down from 1.39 billion a year earlier and the company is pressing ahead with a 6p-a-share dividend, although the policy on dividends would be reviewed in the light of Aviva's big debt pile and future restructuring plans. That was taken as a signal of future cuts.

Blanc's predecessor Maurice Tulloch did not cut the dividend, although his three predecessors all did.

Tulloch quit little over a year into the job due to his wife's ill health and his successor Blanc quickly made clear that she would be reassessing his strategy, which included the decision not to break up the business.

Tulloch's strategic review had left shareholders underwhelmed as he decided to keep the business's life and general insurance arms together against many of their wishes. Blanc appears to have decided that he was right, due to the benefits of keeping the two sides of the company together. For regulatory reasons, having the combined operation means Aviva needs to set aside less capital to cover both life and general insurance policies.

Blanc's arrival meant Aviva had both a new chairman and chief executive within the space of little over a month after George Culmer replaced Sir Adrian Montagu on 27 May.

Aviva has struggled with its chief executives' popularity among investors, having seen Tulloch's predecessor Mark Wilson ousted over perceptions of poor performance. After a strong start to his rein with the acquisition of Friends Life and a retrenchment from sprawling global operations, he found it a struggle to grow the vast business's sales. The share price drifted and shareholders questioned whether the public will ever want a one-stop shop for products as different as life insurance and cover for their pets and cars.
The competition, which accepts entries in the fields of music performance and singing, is organised by the Cultural Development Fund

Egypt Cultural Development Fund (CDF), under the Ministry of Culture, has issued a call for talents with special needs to participate in the third edition of the "Golden Talent competition.

Entries can include solo or group singing, playing an instrument, or a performance.

Applicants are requested to submit a sample of their work that does not exceed three minutes through the CDF's website.

The competition accepts entries from Egyptians who have hearing, mental or motor disabilities.

This year the competition expanded its scope to young people aged 15-30 who have visual impairment.

Works can be submitted by an applicant or a private or governmental institution taking care of the applicant's development.

Submission can be made from 9 August with a deadline of 10 September.

The competition is an initiative of Fathy Abdel-Wahab, head of the Cultural Development Fund, in cooperation with El-Balad Today's Development Society.

To apply please visit the Cultural Development Fund's website.

For more information, call at 01005464337 email [email protected]

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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Facebook removed hundreds of accounts from a troll farm in Romania posing as African-Americans supporting Donald Trump and the QAnon conspiracy.

The crackdown was a part of the social network's enforcement against coordinated inauthentic behavior where fake accounts are used to inflate reach of content or products online.

Facebook said Thursday it deleted hundreds of accounts in various countries. In Romania specifically it deleted 35 Facebook accounts, three pages, and 88 Instagram accounts, according to a release.

'We found this network as part of our investigation into suspected coordinated inauthentic behavior ahead of the 2020 election in the US,' Facebook announced.

The farm pushed out content on Instagram under the names 'BlackPeopleVoteForTrump' and 'We Love Our President', according to NBC News.

Facebook has removed over 100 accounts from a troll farm in Romania posing as African-Americans supporting Donald Trump and the QAnon conspiracy as well as hundreds of fake accounts linked to pro-Trump media outlet The Epoch Times that pushed comments about coronavirus and protests in the US

A screenshot one of the posts shared by a Romanian pro-Trump troll farm under the handle 'blackpeoplevoteforTrump'

This is another post that was shared by the since deleted account run by a Romanian troll farm

Here are some posts from the newly discovered Romanian pro-Trump troll farm.



Account names like "BlackPeopleVoteForTrump" and "WeLoveOurPresident."



Note that advanced ops now outsource their troll farms to places like Romania, Vietnam, Macedonia, etc.https://t.co/r9nnORqyzC pic.twitter.com/wbKRVtOHPn  Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) August 6, 2020

Troll farms are groups of people that work together to manipulate internet discourse with fake accounts.

These farms are often purchased by foreign governments or businesses to push specific political opinions and talking points.

Facebooks head of security policy Nathaniel Gleicher said to NBC its not clear what the motivations of the troll farm are but they didnt find 'clear evidence of financial motivation' or 'clear links to known commercial actors in this space.'

Facebook said it took down the accounts based on 'behavior, not content' for breaking rules against fake accounts.

Some Twitter users took screenshots of the last memes some of these Romania troll farm accounts posted

According to Researchers at the Atlantic Council, many of the troll farm posts came from a persona called 'David Adrian', which used a stolen profile photo and claimed to be living in Romania and Montana. A view of one of his last tweeted memes before the account was deleted above

The online persona 'David Adrian' shared these memes before the Twitter account was deleted

According to Researchers at the Atlantic Council, many of the troll farm posts came from a persona called 'David Adrian', which used a stolen profile photo and claimed to be living in Romania and Montana.

This David Adrian personas Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts have been removed.

A separate troll operation that was tied to pro-Trump media organization Epoch Media Group also had hundreds of accounts deleted. Those accounts pushed pro-Trump conspiracy theories about the coronavirus pandemic and protests in the US.

In total 303 Facebook accounts, 181 pages, 44 Facebook groups and 31 Instagram accounts were purged. They were followed by more than two million people across both services.

Epoch Media Group is the parent company of the newspaper The Epoch Times. Those accounts were all tied to digital media outlet TruthMedia, which Facebook has banned from its services.

An example of the content posted to one of the banned The Epoch Times-linked Facebook Pages is seen above from a page last year. Facebook said it had removed 610 accounts, 89 Facebook Pages, 156 Groups and 72 Instagram accounts in December 2019

Above is another sample of the content posted by some of the banned Pages in December 2019 related to the Epoch Times. This was shared by a group called BL. Epoch Times said wasn't pushed by them, but was created by a former employee and BL operated independently

The accounts posted about 'ongoing US protests and conspiracy theories about who is behind them,' Gleicher said.

This isnt the first time Facebook has sought action against the Epoch Times-lreated content.

Facebook banned The Epoch Times from advertising on its platform last year when it was the largest buyer of pro-Trump ads on Facebook outside the Trump campaign.

Facebook also said the Epoch Media Group used AI-generated, deepfake-style profile pictures on fake accounts to push Epoch Times stories and talking points.

Gleicher said the fake accounts used stock photos and not AI-generated photos for profile pictures.
Twin YouTubers Alan and Alex Stokes are facing felony charges for allegedly posing as bank robbers during a series of pranks last year that resulted in an Uber driver being held at gunpoint by police.

The siblings, 23, are each facing a felony count of false imprisonment effected by violence, menace, fraud or deceit, and one misdemeanor count of falsely reporting an emergency, the Orange County District Attorneys Office announced Wednesday.

According to prosecutors, the twins twisted pranks took place in their hometown of Irvine on October 15, last year.

The brothers - dressed in all black, wearing ski masks and carrying duffel bags full of cash - pretended they had just robbed a bank while their videographer filmed them hailing an Uber from afar.

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Twin YouTubers Alan and Alex Stokes are facing felony charges for allegedly posing as bank robbers during a series of pranks last year that resulted in an Uber driver being held at gunpoint by police

According to prosecutors, the twins twisted pranks took place in their hometown of Irvine on October 15, last year

When they got into the vehicle, the driver  who was unaware of the prank - allegedly refused to transport the twins after they told him their 'getaway driver' had abandoned them.

The exchange was witnessed by a bystander who believed the Stokes brothers had just robbed a bank and were now attempting to carjack the Uber driver.

The bystander dialed 911, and when police arrived, they ordered the Uber driver out of the car at gunpoint, releasing him when they realized he was not involved.

Police issued a warning to the Stokes brothers about the dangerous of their conduct and let them go, the DAs Office said in a press release.

However, just four hours later, the Stokes brothers allegedly performed the same prank for a second time, this time on the campus of the University of California.

Law enforcement again received emergency calls regarding a bank robbery, police said.

These were not pranks, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement. These are crimes that could have resulted in someone getting seriously injured or even killed.

Law enforcement officers are sworn to protect the public and when someone calls 911 to report an active bank robbery they are going to respond to protect lives, Spitzer continued.

Instead, what they found was some kind of twisted attempt to gain more popularity on the internet by unnecessarily putting members of the public and police officers in danger.

In the video, the twins are seen running over to the Uber and telling the driver, Our getaway driver just bailed on us, as they climb in

The driver replies: This is weird. Its not funny. You cant take this ride, get out of my car please

In another segment of the video, one of the brothers is depicted speaking with a police officer, telling him he had called the non-emergency phone number ahead of time to alert authorities of their prank

The two so-called pranks were filmed and uploaded to the Stokes' YouTube channel on October 20 last year, titled BANK ROBBER PRANK! (gone wrong)'. The video, which had more than one million views, has since been removed from public viewing.

In the video, the twins are seen running over to the Uber and telling the driver, Our getaway driver just bailed on us, as they climb in.

The driver replies, This is weird. Its not funny. You cant take this ride, get out of my car please.

Later in the video, the two twins are heard recounting the encounter with the Uber driver to a group of students on the UC Irvine campus.

We've had the police called on us like all day, one of the brothers said. I called an Uber driver, right, and we both got in the car, and then the people saw us get into the car with like the ski mask and everything on, and then the Uber driver kicked us out of the car.

One minute later, there were like 10 cop cars that pulled out like guns on him, he continued. They were like rifles. They thought he was the getaway driver, so they had like 15 guns  he's like, I'm not even a part of this. ... Yeah, poor guy.

Each of the brothers faces a maximum sentence of four years in state prison if convicted on all counts, the DAs Office said

In another segment of the video, one of the brothers is depicted speaking with a police officer, telling him he had called the non-emergency phone number ahead of time to alert authorities of their prank.

This is what's going to get someone potentially gun-stuck or someone hurt, the officer responds. We have people stopping in the middle of the street because they're watching this, guys pulling off ski masks, throwing stuff on the ground changing clothes.

A second officer tells him, youve gotta be smarter than that, man. I want you to be creative and do what you want to do, but you've got to be smarter than this, the officer continued. What do you think people are gonna do?

Each of the brothers faces a maximum sentence of four years in state prison if convicted on all counts, the DAs Office said.

The twins boast four million subscribers on YouTube, and also have 24 million followers on TikTok.
The United States will submit a resolution to the United Nations Security Council next week to ensure the arms sale ban on Iran is extended one way or another, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said today.

The Security Councils mission is to maintain international peace and security. The council would make an absolute mockery of that mission if it allowed the No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism to buy and sell weapons freely, Pompeo said during a briefing with reporters.

The 13-year-old arms embargo on Iran is set to expire Oct. 18 as part of the 2015 nuclear deal that removed most international sanctions in exchange for Iran scaling back its nuclear activity.

Iran allies Russia and China are expected to veto any US-drafted arms embargo extension. Should they do so, Pompeo reiterated the State Departments position that the United States can invoke a so-called snapback of UN sanctions.

The nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, allows for a return of sanctions though a complex process if Iran violates its obligations and a JCPOA participant files a complaint to the UN Security Council.

Critics have argued the United States lacks the legal authority to trigger this mechanism because it quit the accord in 2018. The Trump administration says it is technically still a participant state.

Were deeply aware that snapback is an option that is available to the United States, and were going to do everything in our power to make sure that arms embargo is extended, Pompeo said.

Since the US withdrawal from the deal, Iran has steadily enriched uranium beyond what is allowed. Tehran insists its nuclear program is used for peaceful purposes only.

For as long as Iran is allowed to enrich, were going to be having this discussion  how close is Iran to a nuclear breakout? US Iran envoy Brian Hook told the Aspen Security Forum on Wednesday. We need to restore the UN Security Council standard of no enrichment.
Congressman Rodney Davis said Wednesday that he has tested positive for COVID-19.

He said he has been taking his temperature twice a day because of his interaction with people throughout the day. When his temperature rose to 99 degrees, which is higher than normal for me, he was tested.

While my test came back positive, my wifes test came back negative. My staff who Ive worked with in-person this week have received negative tests as well. Other than a higher-than-normal temperature, I am showing no symptoms at this time and feel fine, he said.

His office is contacting those with whom he has met in person during the past two days.

My staff and I take COVID-19 very seriously. My wife is a nurse and a cancer survivor, which puts her in an at-risk category like so many Americans. My office and I have always followed and will continue to follow [Centers for Disease Control] guidelines, use social distancing and wear masks or face coverings when social distancing cannot be maintained, he said.

Davis has postponed public events until he receives a negative test.

During these challenging times, protecting the public health is my highest priority, he said. If youre out in public, use social distancing, and when you cant social distance, please wear a mask. All of us must do our part. Thats what it will take to get through this pandemic.
WILTON  Five fire departments responded to a house fire at 695 Danbury Road on Tuesday, Aug. 4.

According to Georgetown Fire Department Assistant Chief Robert Napoleon, the homeowners were at home when the fire started and were able to get out safely.

Napoleon described the incident as a large body of fire in the kitchen and rear of the house, which was built in 1937, according to the Wilton Assessors database.

The fire, which is not considered suspicious, heavily damaged the rear of the house. Heavy smoke and heat damage in the rest of the house have rendered the house unlivable, he said. The cause of the fire is being investigated by the Georgetown fire marshal.

Georgetown was assisted by the Wilton Fire Department. Tankers were sent from Ridgefield, Redding, Redding Ridge and West Redding.
Denise Richards made a shocking accusation on Wednesday's episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, saying that Brandi Glanville claimed to have had sex with her castmates.

The 49-year-old actress had already spent most of a group trip to Rome denying Brandi's claims that they had ever had sex, and was desperate to deflect attention.

'I'm a very married woman, and I love my husband to death,' she'd told the RHOBH group over their first Rome dinner, tears filling her eyes.

Claims: Denise Richards made a shocking accusation on Wednesday's episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, saying that Brandi Glanville claimed to have had sex with her castmates

Tears: 'I'm a very married woman, and I love my husband to death,' she'd told the RHOBH group over their first Rome dinner, tears filling her eyes

But as things got worse, Denise decided to tell them that Brandi, 47, had made similar claims about some of them, too.

'I will tell you that Brandi has said she's had sex with some of the people from this group,' Denise told the cast the next evening. 'I'm not joking.'

'So you're saying she said she had sex with someone at this table?' asked Kyle Richards, 51, who craned her neck to look pointedly at Lisa Rinna, 57.

Claims: But as things got worse, Denise decided to tell them that Brandi, 47, had made similar claims about some of them, too

Brandi: 'I will tell you that Brandi has said she's had sex with some of the people from this group,' Denise told the cast the next evening. 'I'm not joking'

'Well, that would only be between you and me,' Kyle said to Lisa.

'I've never had sex with a woman,' Lisa swore. 'I think it's a little bit interesting that you're saying that right now.'

'She says it about every single person that she has contact with,' Denise vowed. 'I'm not lying.'

Kyle and Lisa: 'Well, that would only be between you and me,' Kyle said to Lisa

Never: 'I've never had sex with a woman,' Lisa swore. 'I think it's a little bit interesting that you're saying that right now'

In a confessional, Lisa said, 'If you're trying to deflect, it's not working.'

Denise had been devastated the evening before when Teddi Mellencamp Arroyave, 39, informed her that Brandi had told the group she'd been badmouthing them.

'You said things like I am pathetic, you can't stand me, and I am desperate to fit in with this friend group because I have been living in my father's shadow my entire life,' she'd said.

Deflect: In a confessional, Lisa said, 'If you're trying to deflect, it's not working'

In a sensational moment, Teddi added that Brandi had said she and Denise had sex, too.

She then launched into the details of Brandi's accusations, which made Denise cry, deny it, and threaten to call her lawyer.

Lisa urged Denise to talk to Brandi, and the Wild Things actress insisted producers cut the evening's footage if they wanted her to stay on the show.

Teddi: In a sensational moment, Teddi added that Brandi had said she and Denise had sex, too

Threaten: She then launched into the details of Brandi's accusations, which made Denise cry, deny it, and threaten to call her lawyer

The next day, reeling from the gossip, Denise gathered in her hotel room with Garcelle Beauvais, 53, and Dorit Kemsley, 44.

'This is slander,' she marveled. 'This is f***ing slander.'

'Why would she say that you guys slept together?' Garcelle asked. 'Why would she make that up? Is she gonna have text messages?'

Slander: The next day, reeling from the gossip, Denise gathered in her hotel room with Garcelle Beauvais, 53, and Dorit Kemsley, 44

Why: 'Why would she say that you guys slept together?' Garcelle asked. 'Why would she make that up? Is she gonna have text messages?'

'No,' Denise said, laughing. 'Would I say, 'Hey, it was a great f*** last night. Thank you!'

When the women first arrived in Rome, they seemed to have a great time, drinking, gossiping about their sex lives, and going shopping in high-end locations.

On Wednesday's episode, 'There's No Place Like Rome,' Denise ended up taking Lisa to task, asking her why she hadn't told her about the gossip.

Gossip: On Wednesday's episode, 'There's No Place Like Rome,' Denise ended up taking Lisa to task, asking her why she hadn't told her about the gossip

Great time: When the women first arrived in Rome, they seemed to have a great time, drinking, gossiping about their sex lives, and going shopping in high-end locations

'Because it's out there,' Lisa said. 'Oh, yes it is.'

Denise said she'd seen Brandi 'a couple of times in my life,' and shared that she had come up to Mendocino to interview Denise's soap opera cast for a podcast.

She was clear about the fact that they had not fooled around.

Couple of times: Denise said she'd seen Brandi 'a couple of times in my life,' and shared that she had come up to Mendocino to interview Denise's soap opera cast for a podcast

'First of all, I do not have an open marriage, and I have not cheated on my husband, okay?' she told Lisa.

'So why do you think this is happening?' Lisa asked her, to which Denise replied, 'For shock value.'

She shared that Brandi had recently told her things the RHOBH cast had said about her behind her back, which puzzled Lisa.

Not cheated: 'First of all, I do not have an open marriage, and I have not cheated on my husband, okay?' she told Lisa

Puzzled: She shared that Brandi had recently told her things the RHOBH cast had said about her behind her back, which puzzled Lisa

'Denise told me that she didn't talk to Brandi last night before Kyle's party, and this morning she's telling me that she did,' Lisa pointed out in a confessional. 'Denise has never lied to me, so this is really f***ing confusing.'

That day, the RHOBH cast shopped again, visited a wine cellar, rode in expensive cars and tried to regain their calm.

Over lunch, Garcelle asked Denise how she was staying so sanguine.

Confusing: 'Denise told me that she didn't talk to Brandi last night before Kyle's party, and this morning she's telling me that she did,' Lisa pointed out in a confessional. 'Denise has never lied to me, so this is really f***ing confusing'

Sanguine: Over lunch, Garcelle asked Denise how she was staying so sanguine

'My family, we talk about our feelings but we also let it roll off our back, apologize and you move on from it,' Denise said. 'But I find some of the women in this group, it's almost like they want that chaos around them.'

Erika Girardi, 49, brought up her issues with Denise's husband Aaron, who'd lately incensed some of the women in the group.

'It's hard when husbands get involved, because it adds another layer,' Erika said. 'There is a time and a place, and a tone for everything.'

Issues: Erika Girardi, 49, brought up her issues with Denise's husband Aaron, who'd lately incensed some of the women in the group

Involved: 'It's hard when husbands get involved, because it adds another layer,' Erika said. 'There is a time and a place, and a tone for everything'

'I apologize on his behalf,' Denise said. 'I would love to just move past it if we can.'

Dinner started out on a high note, with Erika telling the women she and Denise had put the Aaron issue to bed, and Denise insisting that her husband cared about all of them.

In private, she was more honest. 'After what these women did to me in Rome, I don't think they're gonna get their apology. He's gonna say, 'Fuck 'em.'

Apologize: 'I apologize on his behalf,' Denise said. 'I would love to just move past it if we can'

Kyle told Denise she'd been nervous about seeing her at dinner, and Denise admitted that she often felt unwelcome within the group, especially when she was in the 'hot seat.'

Garcelle urged the gang to move on from the conversation they'd had about Brandi, but admitted, 'I wish Denise would be like, 'This is what I feel, this is what I said, I didn't do this, you guys are crazy, and let's move on.'

In a flashback, Sutton Stracke was shown saying that she'd heard the story about Brandi and Denise two years before, and she told Denise about it, who laughed.

Nervous: Kyle told Denise she'd been nervous about seeing her at dinner, and Denise admitted that she often felt unwelcome within the group, especially when she was in the 'hot seat'

Garcelle: Garcelle urged the gang to move on from the conversation they'd had about Brandi, but admitted, 'I wish Denise would be like, 'This is what I feel, this is what I said, I didn't do this, you guys are crazy, and let's move on

'I don't know Brandi Glanville very well,' Teddi confessed at the table, still thinking about the things Brandi claimed Denise had said about her. 'But I don't know you very well, either.'

'I will tell you how I met her,' Denise began, addressing the table.

She said that she'd gotten a call from 'a mutual branding agent' who suggested she and Brandi go for drinks, and then Brandi flew to Mendocino to interview her for her podcast.

Podcast: She said that she'd gotten a call from 'a mutual branding agent' who suggested she and Brandi go for drinks, and then Brandi flew to Mendocino to interview her for her podcast

'After that, when I had spoken to her, she knew every single thing that was going on in the group,' Denise revealed. 'Recently. Before your party, Kyle.'

The night before, Denise had denied speaking to Brandi at all over the last few months.

'Someone else was sharing things with her,' Denise went on. 'She knew stuff that I did not know. She shared a lot of personal stuff about a lot of people that are involved with this group. I will not repeat it.'

Spoken: 'After that, when I had spoken to her, she knew every single thing that was going on in the group,' Denise revealed. 'Recently. Before your party, Kyle'

'Honey, if you've got something to say that's bad after what was said about you last night, you should let it go,' Erika urged.

Denise protested that there was a 'line,' but then blurted that Brandi said she'd had sex with many women, including those in the RHOBH group.

Kyle didn't buy it, saying she was 'really struggling' with the idea that Brandi said that.

Not buying it: Kyle didn't buy it, saying she was 'really struggling' with the idea that Brandi said that.

Lisa also denied that Brandi would have ever said she'd had sex with her, adding, 'Don't say that! Don't even put that out there.'

The episode ended with a 'to be continued' line, as Denise told her friends, 'This has been the worst trip I have ever been on in my entire life. I don't deserve this. And you know that.'

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills returns next week on Bravo.

No: Lisa also denied that Brandi would have ever said she'd had sex with her, adding, 'Don't say that! Don't even put that out there'
France and the Netherlands are gearing up for stricter mask-wearing rules to fight the coronavirus as the global death toll from the pandemic neared 700,000.

Paris, Toulouse and other cities announced that the wearing of masks would be compulsory in particularly busy streets and squares. People already have to wear them inside most private businesses and all public buildings.

A scientific committee advising the French government warned that the country could lose control of its spread "at any time."

In the Netherlands, the same mask-wearing measure will be applied in Rotterdam and the famous red-light district of Amsterdam from Wednesday.

And Ireland postponed the reopening of pubs and other nightspots on the advice of scientists, concerned about rising infections.

In other developments, the Philippines placed millions of people back under lockdown. And the hunt for an effective treatment continued with the United States launching trials of an antibody treatment for Covid-19.

Millions of people in the Philippines were ordered to stay home Tuesday in a bid to contain the rising rate of infections, and relieve pressure on overwhelmed hospitals.

More than 27 million people on the main island of Luzon, including the capital Manila, went back into a partial lockdown.

People have been told to stay home unless going out to buy essential goods, for exercise or for work, after the number of recorded infections surged past 100,000.

But with only 24 hours' notice of the shutdown, many people were stranded in Manila, unable to get back to their hometowns after public transport and domestic flights were halted.

More than 18 million people worldwide have been infected with the virus since it first emerged in China late last year.

The worst-hit country, the United States, had added 1,300 new deaths as of Tuesday evening, bringing its toll to nearly 156,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. The caseload grew by 53,847 to nearly 4.8 million, it said.

Far from slowing down, the latest figures show that the rate of infection is accelerating.

Brazil is driving a surge in Latin America and the Caribbean, where infections passed five million on Monday.

South America's largest country has recorded more than 2.75 million cases, and nearly 95,000 deaths, nearly half the region's 203,800 deaths.

The world's hope of ending the current cycle of outbreaks and lockdowns rests on finding a treatment.

The United States announced Tuesday it had begun late-stage clinical trials into a drug they hope will be an antibody against the coronavirus.

The Phase 3 trial will initially enroll some 300 volunteers around the world who have been hospitalized with mild to moderate Covid-19 with fewer than 13 days of symptoms.

On Monday, Russia said it aimed to launch mass production of a vaccine in September and turn out "several million" doses per month by next year.

In response, the World Health Organization on Tuesday urged Russia to follow the established guidelines for producing safe and effective vaccines.

Just a day earlier, the agency's chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on countries to focus on basic suppression measures, such as contact tracing, maintaining physical distance and wearing a mask.

"There's no silver bullet at the moment -- and there might never be," he warned.

Despite the grim numbers in America, President Donald Trump adopted a resolutely optimistic tone.

"We're seeing indications that our strong mitigation efforts are working very well, actually, especially to protect those who are most at risk," he said during a White House press conference addressing the pandemic.

In a morning tweet, he lashed out at his coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx after she warned the virus was "extraordinarily widespread" in the US.

Trump -- angered by what he sees as overly pessimistic media coverage of his much-criticized handling of the epidemic -- accused her of giving in to pressure to sound negative about the new surge.

"Deborah took the bait & hit us. Pathetic!" Trump wrote on Twitter Monday.

Despite rising infection numbers in Europe, some countries are pushing ahead with plans to reopen schools and finding ways to keep their battered tourism sectors functioning.

Fears over the virus led defending champion Rafael Nadal to announce on Tuesday that he will not play the US Open, which is due to start in New York on August 31.

"The situation is very complicated worldwide, the Covid-19 cases are increasing, it looks like we still don't have control of it." Nadal said on Twitter.

"This is a decision I never wanted to take... for the time being I rather not travel."

Women's world number one Ashleigh Barty withdrew from the tournament last week citing "significant risks" from Covid-19.
In a move designed to streamline an integrated structure and accelerate growth, Gozoop, one of Indias leading integrated marketing companies, has promoted Premkumar Iyer to the role of Vice-President-National Operations, Gozoop. This comes on the heels of a strong year with the on-boarding of high profile integrated mandates spearheaded by Premkumar and his team. Based out of Gozoops HQ in Mumbai, he will be reporting directly to Ahmed Aftab Naqvi, CEO of Gozoop; with this move all delivery teams across India will be reporting to Premkumar.

Premkumar comes with a very impressive and illustrious track record. He joined Gozoops Mumbai office in 2010 as an Online Marketing Executive and since then has played a pivotal role in Gozoops growth story, including its four acquisitions and its foray into key geographies, including the USA, Singapore and UAE. In a career spanning over a decade, Premkumar has played critical roles which include leading Gozoops Online Marketing, heading Gozoops ORM and SEO business and leading the development of Gozoops distinct expertise in the Digital Listening space. With operational expertise carefully honed over multiple roles, spearheading large teams and an acumen for the people side of the business he has now has taken over the role of Vice-President-National Operations.

Commenting on the development Ahmed Aftab Naqvi, CEO & Co-Founder, Gozoop, said, It has been a privilege to have worked alongside Prem in his formative years and seen him evolve into an industry leader. His determination, passion, and expertise are second to none, and along with that, he has imbibed trust, transparency, and commitment as core values throughout his career. I am confident that the elevation will enhance the value proposition of our organisation and help deliver great outstanding solutions to our partners.

Speaking on the elevation, Rohan Bhansali, Co-Founder & Director, Gozoop, said, Prem has shown outstanding operations capabilities over the years. He has a knack of choosing the best people and then getting the best out of them in the right role. This, coupled with his humility, makes him a venerable Level 5 leader. With him at the helm, and a great extended leadership team to support him, I am confident that we are building an organization with strong fundamentals.

Premkumar Iyer, Vice-President-National Operations, Gozoop, commented on his new role, The world is changing by the minute and it would be absolutely correct to say that technology and the growth of digital media is dominating our present and will completely overshadow our future. Agencies and businesses who adapt with speed and agility will survive and those who cant will be obliterated in the process. My focus over the long term will be to strengthen our creative and digital operations to make it future-proof with nimbleness at its core.
Seventy-five years ago today, on Aug. 6, 1945, the world erupted into a new era. A single B-29 Superfortress airplane, nicknamed Enola Gay, dropped a new kind of weaponan atomic bombon the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Releasing the blast power of 12,500 tons of TNT, the heat of the sun, and a mushroom cloud of radiation, it obliterated 5 square miles of the city and killed 150,000 people, half of them instantaneously. Along with a second A-bomb dropped on Nagasaki three days later, it forced the Japanese to surrender, ending the Second World War. But it also triggered a nuclear arms race that continues to this day; and while the possession of whole arsenals of these weapons, in the hands of nine nations, may have deterred political leaders from starting a few wars, it is also true that, if these bombsmost of them tens or hundreds of times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshimaare ever used in anger again, the consequences could be catastrophic, possibly resulting in a nuclear winter that ends most life on Earth.

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And so, on the anniversaries of Hiroshima, like some doomsday variant of Passover, we ask the four questions that ethicists and historians have been posing for decades:

 Why did President Harry Truman decide to bomb Hiroshima?

 Why did he then decide to bomb Nagasaki?

 Would a demonstration of the weapona massive eyewitnessed explosion in the middle of nowherehave persuaded the Japanese to surrender?

 How might the war have endedwould more or fewer people have diedif the atom bomb had never been invented?

On the first two questions, declassified archival documents are pretty clear: There never was a decision to drop either bomb. Instead, there was a decision to build an atom bomb. Once it was ready, it was used; once the second bomb was ready, it too was used. From the outset, this was the planan automatic sequence from building the bomb to testing it to dropping it on the enemy. The only decision Truman made was not to alter the plan.

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The project to build the bomb began with a 1939 letter from Albert Einstein to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, confiding that a fission chain reaction of uranium could produce a very powerful bomb and warning that German scientists were at work on building one for the Nazi government. Two years later, Roosevelt set in motion the Manhattan Project, a top secret, $2 billion enterprise run by the nations top physicists and engineers, supervised by Gen. Leslie Groves. By the time they detonated the first bomb at the Trinity test site in New Mexico, on July 16, 1945, the Germans had surrendered. And so, it would be used against the Japanese, who were fiercely fighting on.

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Already, by this time, the War Department had created a targeting panel, to decide precisely where to drop the bomb. The minutes of a meeting in May 1945 note that the destruction of the selected target should inflict the greatest psychological effect against Japan. By that measure, Hiroshima has the advantage of being such a size, and with possible focusing from nearby mountains, that a large fraction of the city may be destroyed.

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Scott Sagan, a nuclear scholar at Stanford University, has recently argued that deliberately dropping the bomb on a city, with a prime intention to kill civilians, would be considered a war crimea violation of the Geneva Convention, which hadnt yet been signed in 1945. Still, even well before World War II, distinctions had been drawn between civilian and military targets, especially in the context of aerial bombardment, which had started in the First World War.

The only decision Truman made was not to alter the plan.

However, this Rubicon was firmly crossed by the time of Hiroshima. At the start of World War II, Allied air forces pursued a policy of precision bombing against the vital nerve centers of the German economy. But that meant flying in daylight, in order to see the target, which opened up the bombers to German fighter pilots and anti-aircraft gunners. The Allies started flying at night instead but couldnt find specific targets, so they made a virtue of necessity and proclaimed that the main target of attack was the morale of the German people: It didnt matter what you hit as long as you hit something. Nearly one-fifth of German houses were destroyed or heavily damaged by Allied bombing, 300,000 civilians were killed, and 780,000 wounded. By the same token, Germany fired its V1 and V2 rockets at the heart of London, under the same rationale.

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By the final year of the war, in the Pacific, Gen. Curtis LeMays 21st Bomber Command firebombed Tokyo and nearly every other city in Japan. (When the Target Committee decided which cities to hit with A-bombs, they skipped over the remaining cities that LeMay still planned to incinerate.) In March, LeMay amassed 334 B-29s to drop incendiary bombs over Tokyo, killing 84,000 residents. The unique thing about the atom bomb wasnt that it killed lots of civilians; it was that it did so with stunning efficiencyfor, as the targeting panel put it, the greatest psychological effect.

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In June 1945, a few of the physicists in the Manhattan Project, notably James Franck and Leo Szilard, expressed concerns about what they called political and social problems of the bombits murderous destructiveness and the possibility of a nuclear arms race after the warand urged the administration to demonstrate the bomb, on a desert or barren island, before using it to kill people. A month later, they and 66 of their colleagues signed a petition to the president, making the same points. However, the top-ranking scientists on the projectincluding J. Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, Enrico Fermi, and Arthur Compton (who was Franck and Szilards immediate supervisor)disagreed, saying a peaceful demonstration would prolong the war. The top U.S. officials sided with the directorsor, more accurately, took the directors reports as affirmation of their own position. President Harry Trumanwho hadnt heard of the Manhattan Project until April, when Roosevelt died and he stepped up from vice president to commander in chiefnever saw these petitions, in any case. (After the war, many of these scientists joined or led anti-nuclear organizations. Oppenheimer opposed development of the much more powerful hydrogen bomb and lost his security clearance as a result.)

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Before the bombs fell, Trumans briefers told him that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were military targets. (There was a troop-loading dock on the outskirts of Hiroshima, but this was a minor consideration; the bomb was aimed at the citys center.) For many years after, Truman feigned total comfort with having dropped the bombs, boasting that he never lost any sleep over Hiroshima or Nagasaki. However, the archives reveal that, in fact, he was horrified by the civilian destructionand even ordered his generals not to drop a third bomb, so he wouldnt have to kill more of those kids. Groves, the Manhattan Projects supervisor, had been planning to do just that as soon as a third bomb was ready, sometime after Aug. 24, if Japan hadnt surrendered by then; but Army chief of staff Gen. George Marshall told him not to do so without Trumans express orders. (Not long after the war, Truman imposed civilian control over atomic weapons, telling his generals, This isnt a military weapon; for a few years, A-bombs were kept separate from the planes that would carry and drop them, under the control of the Atomic Energy Commission, not Strategic Air Command.)

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So Truman did decide not to use a third bomb. Could he have decided not to use the second bomb, or even the first bomb? Might Roosevelt, who was privy to all the bombs secrets, have stopped the juggernaut before destroying Hiroshima? Probably not.

The archives show that senior officials did mull the notion of a peaceful demonstration, proposed by Franck, Szilard, and others. However, the officials rejected the idea.

First, they reasoned, the bomb could be a dudin which case a demonstration would be counterproductive; it might convince the Japanese that they could fight on without fear of some superweapon. Even if the next bombthe bomb that hit Japandid explode with great magnitude, they might see its success as the fluke.

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Second, most senior officials by this time had dropped whatever resistance they might have once had to the notion of killing mass numbers of civilians for psychological impact. Giving the Japanese any sort of warning, much less a demonstration, would blunt the surpriseand thus its impact.

The archives reveal Japanese cable trafficwhich Americans had decodedsuggesting a possible readiness to surrender even before the bombs dropped. U.S. officials pursued these hints, but, as other documents show, they led nowhere. Certainly some Japanese officials, and many people, were weary of war, but the top military officers, who effectively ran the government, were keen to fight onand thought they could defeat the Allies once they hit the Japanese mainland. In fact, they surrendered, even after the atomic bombings, only when Emperor Hirohito overruled Japans official powers, invoking his godlike status in a one-time-only sidestepping of normal procedures. Had he not done so, the military might have fought on.

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After the war, some reports maintained that 250,000 U.S. soldiers might have died in the invasion of Japan, which was scheduled for August. In fact, at the time, the estimate was 31,000 in the first 30 days. Still, thats a lot of dead soldiers. After four years of deadly combat, especially amid the brutal war in the Pacific, no president would have decided not to drop an extremely powerful bomba bomb that, moreover, had been built at great expenseif there was a possibility that it could end the war and thus preempt the need for an invasion.

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Few Americans in a position of power were pondering the long-term implications of the bomb.

At least one senior U.S. official saw a side benefit to the bomb. In May 1945, Secretary of War Henry Stimson told his assistant secretary, John McCloy, that possession of the bomb might give the U.S. enormous leveragea royal straight flushover the Soviet Union in the coming postwar competition, which many were seeing as inevitable. Truman was traveling to the Potsdam Conference to discuss the end of the war and the division of postwar Europe with Josef Stalin and Winston Churchill, when the Trinity test occurred. He told Stalin that his scientists had tested a superweapon. Stalin didnt seem impressed, replying only that he hoped it would force Japan to surrender. Stalin of course already knew about the Manhattan Project, thanks to a few Soviet spies on the scene. Two days after Hiroshima, Soviet troops invaded Japan through Manchuria, as Stalin had agreed to do, though the dropping of the bomb pushed up his schedule by several days, so he could grab some of the victoryand territory. Some Japanese officials had been reaching out to Moscow to help them end the war on good terms. The sequence of Hiroshima, then Stalins invasion, then Nagasaki quashed such hopes.

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In any case, the bomb gave the U.S. no discernible advantage in the early years of the Cold War, when the Soviets occupied all of Eastern Europe and tried to make moves on Italy, Greece, and Turkey. In 1949, the Soviets built and tested their own A-bomb. The result was an arms race, which, within a decade, settled into a stalemate of overkill, in which neither side would win a nuclear war, regardless of who fired first.

In the three weeks between Trinity and Hiroshima, few Americans in a position of power were pondering the long-term implications of the bomb, nor did they have much basis for doing so. Outside the small group of physicists working on the project, no one quite grasped just how powerful this new weapon was; the horror of radioactive fallout was still less fully absorbed. The bombs consequences for future matters of war and peacepolitical and social problems, as Franck and Szilard put ittook a back seat to the understandably urgent task of winning the current war before tens of thousands more American troops were sent to their doom.

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Revolutions in warfare often come at times when short-term priorities override futuristic philosophizing. After the 2010 cyberattack known as Stuxnetin which the U.S. and Israel jointly sabotaged the centrifuges in Irans Natanz reactor, setting back the countrys nuclear program by a few yearsretired Gen. Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA and NSA, likened the attack to Hiroshima. I dont want to pretend its the same effect, he told the New York Times David Sanger, recognizing that the A-bomb was of course much more destructive, but in one sense at least, its August 1945.

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He went on: Previous cyber attacks had effects limited to other computers. Stuxnet, however, was the first attack of a major nature that caused physical destruction. Hayden supported the attack, saying, I think destroying a cascade of Iranian centrifuges is an unalloyed good. Even so, he cautioned, Somebody has crossed the Rubicon. Weve got a legion on the other side of the river now.

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Something had shifted in the nature and calculus of warfare. Not long after, in retaliation, Iran launched a cyberattack on Aramco, the U.S.-Saudi oil company, wiping out all its hard drives. North Korea launched a cyberattack on Sony Pictures, avenging the studios release of a movie poking fun atand depicting the assassination ofits leader, Kim Jong-un. More than 20 countries now have cyberunits within their military. We dont yet know whether this will transform the nature of warfare or merely expand its terrain.

The officials and officers who put the Manhattan Project in motion, and did nothing to stop it, didnt know what its ultimate impact would be eitheruntil after it was used and its awful effects were recorded. Even then, for many years after, the officers in charge of war plans portrayed the atomic bomband then the hydrogen bombas ordinary weapons, writ large. Until the 1970s, nuclear weapons remained the centerpiece of those war plans.

This is no longer true, but, even so, the officers at U.S. Strategic Command and various civilian strategists in the Pentagon and various think tanks are seeking new ways to design nuclear weapons smaller (which is to say, only a little bit less powerful than the Hiroshima bomb) and more versatile, to make them more usable in a conflict that gets out of hand. A new era came into being in August 1945, and we are still very much living in it, with no visible way out.

For more of Slates news coverage, subscribe to What Next on Apple Podcasts or listen below.
By Akbar Mammadov

The next stage of the Azerbaijan-Turkey large-scale joint tactical exercises has been completed, the Defense Ministry said on August 5.

At this stage of the military drills, passing through areas with various terrain relief, the units performed training and combat tasks for organizing and conducting counteroffensive operations - using weapons and armoured vehicles, delivering preemptive strikes against the military personnel and combat equipment of the imaginary enemy, as well as for liberating strategically advantageous areas and frontiers.

The ministry noted that the units, demonstrating high professionalism in interaction with other elements of the battle lineup, fulfilled the assigned tasks.

In the meantime, the ministry reported that as part of the "TurAz Qartal - 2020" Joint Flight-Tactical Exercises of the Air Forces of Azerbaijan and Turkey, combat helicopters were also involved.

In the practical part of the training, the helicopters that took off from the base airfields perform tasks for various episodes. The tasks assigned during the tactical flight exercises are successfully performed by the helicopter crews.

In the meantime, Turkeys National Defense Ministry shared a video the TurAz Eagle Exercise performed by the Turkish and Azerbaijani armed forces on August 4.

The video, shared on the Twitter account of the Turkish National Defense Ministry, illustrated displays of the soldiers and manoeuvres of tanks belonging to the Turkish and Azerbaijani armed forces, which were taken by a drone.

The TurAz Eagle Exercise in Azerbaijan continues successfully as planned, the ministry wrote.

It should be noted that the first stage of the Azerbaijani-Turkish joint large-scale tactical exercises started on July 30.

Thus, the Land and Air forces of the two countries are participating in the military exercises 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.

Thus, 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.

---

Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence leads a White House coronavirus disease (COVID-19) task force briefing with Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, at the U.S. Education Department in Washington, U.S., July 8, 2020.

Vice President Mike Pence joined a conservative chorus blasting Chief Justice John Roberts over recent Supreme Court decisions, calling the George W. Bush appointee a "disappointment to conservatives."

President Donald Trump's No. 2 said in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network he has respect for the Supreme Court as an institution.

But, he said that recent decisions on abortion and coronavirus-related restrictions on church services were "a reminder of just how important this election is for the future of the Supreme Court."

"We remember the issue back in 2016, which I believe loomed large in voters' decisions between Hillary Clinton and the man who would become president of the United States," Pence said in the interview published published Wednesday evening. "And some people thought it would not be as big an issue these days, but I think that's all changed."

The Supreme Court term that ended last month, the first full term with both of Trump's appointees on the bench, had Republicans up in arms over what some called politically biased decisions.

While the court handed major wins to both conservatives and liberals in several major cases, high-profile rulings on reproductive rights activists, LGBT workers and the young migrants known as "Dreamers" earned fury from those on the right.

In the interview, Pence singled out the abortion ruling. The case concerned a Louisiana measure that required abortion providers in the state to obtain admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.

The nine-member court struck down the law 5-4, with Roberts joining the court's four Democratic appointees.

Pence called the Louisiana law a "very modest restriction" and said the case was "a wake-up call for pro-life voters around the country who understand, in a very real sense, the destiny of the Supreme Court is on the ballot in 2020."

While Roberts voted with the liberals to strike down the law, he pointedly did not agree with their reasoning, and said his vote was bound by a precedent from 2016, where the court had struck down a nearly identical law in Texas.

Liberals suspected that Roberts' move meant that, even given the loss for conservatives in the Louisiana case, the top court was likely to allow more restrictive abortion laws than it had in the past. That view was bolstered when the court a few days later ordered the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider rulings striking down Indiana abortion laws, including one that Pence had signed as governor.

Roberts did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Pence's remarks.

Trump has sought to make the Supreme Court a key issue for conservatives ahead of the election, including by promising a new list of potential nominees by the fall.

There is evidence that a similar tactic was successful last cycle. More than a quarter of Trump voters told pollsters after the 2016 race that the vacancy on the court at the time was the most important issue shaping their vote.

Whether the top court will be as influential this cycle remains an open question. One key difference is that, at the moment, the court has no vacancies, though its eldest member, 87-year-old liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, continues to fight health problems.

A recent survey by Morning Consult found that the court is one of the less important issues for voters, with 57% of Democrats and 53% of Republicans saying it was very important.

Pence's comments come as other influential conservatives and Republican elected leaders target the Roberts court. One prominent example is Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, who once clerked for Roberts.

Hawley called the abortion decision a "disaster" and said after the court turned back Trump's efforts to end the Obama-era DACA program that it was the "most disappointing week at #SCOTUS in years."

Josh Blackman, a constitutional scholar at the South Texas College of Law, went further. In an opinion article for Newsweek published Monday, he suggested that Roberts should resign, citing recent leaks from the court to CNN.

While Pence has been relatively restrained about criticizing specific justices, Trump has frequently gone on the offensive, reserving his most heated attacks for Roberts. The chief justice has typically followed the Supreme Court's regular practice of not engaging, though he did speak up once in 2018 after Trump accused a lower court judge of being an "Obama judge."

Roberts said at the time that America does not have "Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges."

"What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them," he said.
Turbine Assembly in New Jersey Ramps Up for Demonstration and Commercialization of Marine Renewable Energy in New York City

The marine renewable energy (MRE) technology developer, Verdant Power, has successfully taken additional steps toward the installation of an array of its three, fifth generation (Gen5) tidal power turbines on the Companys novel TriFrame mount at its Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy (RITE) Project site in New York Citys East River.

The turbines were transported from the Companys New Jersey marine engineering support services facility, where the turbines were assembled, to a marine vessel installation services area, where they have been integrated onto a Verdant Power TriFrame mount in preparation for on-water delivery and deployment at the RITE Project site. In addition, the RITE Project Control Room on Roosevelt Island is being readied for the turbine system installation, which is planned for autumn 2020.

A New York-based company, Verdant Power plans to install three of its fifth generation Free Flow Systems or kinetic hydropower system (KHPS) turbines on a single TriFrame mount in the East River. This will be the pre-commercial phase of the Companys Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy (RITE) Project to design its KHPS tidal turbine, optimize the economics of installation and maintenance of arrays, and prove performance.

This is the final pre-commercialization phase in a process that has seen 23 government agencies approve work on the RITE Project, said Verdant Power CEO John T. Banigan. We are proud to have been the first licensed tidal power project in the U.S.

Our focus is on maximizing system power performance, increasing availability and reliability, and reducing project CapEx and operating costs, added Banigan. The RITE Project not only will demonstrate clean power from the tidal currents, but also will demonstrate tidal power as a viable energy resource advancing our industry in the U.S. and globally.

Story continues

The RITE Project site will generate electricity under a hydrokinetic pilot project license issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission  the first commercial license to have been issued for a tidal power project in the United States. The RITE Project has been supported by NYSERDA (the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority) and the U.S. Department of Energy, in addition to New York-based private equity capital support.

About Verdant Power

Founded in 2000, Verdant Power is a leader in the global marine renewable energy industry, developing systems that deliver clean power from tidal and river currents. Through its initiatives worldwide, Verdant Power has developed industry-leading capabilities in device design, system demonstration and operation, tidal and river power resource assessment, and environmental monitoring. It is dedicated to delivering the highest quality MRE technologies and services at the lowest possible cost in the shortest time frame. Learn more at www.verdantpower.com

Contact Details

Andrew Blum

+1 917-783-1680

ajbcomms@gmail.com

Company Website

https://www.verdantpower.com/
OKCoin has offered a "six-figure" grant, i.e. $100,000 or more, to Bitcoin Core software maintainer Marco Falke, the crypto exchange told The Block.

Germany-based Falke has been an active contributor to the Bitcoin code since 2017 and is currently focused on improving Bitcoin's test infrastructure to ensure reliability and security of the network. "Making the Bitcoin Core code more robust is a big priority for me," said Falke.

Specifically, he will focus on fuzz testing. This technique is used in quality assurance to discover errors in code that could lead to malfunctions in networks or security breaches.

Falke will also work on modularizing the Bitcoin Core code to help developers sift through large pieces of the codebase quickly. "Developers are typically good at supporting specific pieces of the code and this helps to clarify the responsibilities," said Falke. "Modularizing the code also provides user advantages; you can turn off modules, like the miner module, or the mempool module, which means you can run Bitcoin Core with less computational resources."

With today's grant, OKCoin said it has provided total grants of over $500,000 to support open-source bitcoin development. Previously, the exchange has awarded grants to bitcoin payment processor BTCPay and individual contributors Fabian Jahr and Amiti Uttarwar.

OKCoin CEO Hong Fang said the exchange provides grants because it is "inherently incentivized to invest in Bitcoin, which is fundamental to the growth of our industry."





 2020 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
John MacArthur addresses critics, says church is not 'spreading anything but the Gospel'

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John MacArthur responded to a pastor's criticisms of his churchs decision to reopen in defiance of Gov. Gavin Newsom's second round of lockdown orders, saying his church is not spreading anything but the Gospel.

We are a church that has a reputation for the last 50 years of obeying the government, MacArthur, senior pastor of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles County, California, said in a Monday interview with Fox News Shannon Bream.

We are a friend to this society, to every level of this society. We have been given awards and accolades and plaques from the city government, the police department, all in authority, because they recognize what an honorable congregation this church has been, he said.

But never before has the government invaded the territory the belongs only to the Lord Jesus Christ and told us we can't meet, we can't worship, we can't sing, the pastor continued. There's no power given to the government to make those kinds of calls against us. ... We love our neighbors. We're not spreading anything but the Gospel.

MacArthurs comments were made in response to Pastor Gavin Ortlund, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Ojai, who wrote in a blog post that while he affirms the vital importance of corporate worship, he believes the current situation is more complicated than MacArthurs perspective allows.

According to Ortlund, there are at least four biblical values that should inform the churchs decision-making in this situation: The importance of worship, love for neighbor, obedience to government, and maintaining a good witness.

What concerns me about defying the state order right now is that it seems to prioritize 1 at the expense of 2-4, Ortlund wrote. Christ, not Caesar, is head of the church: and when the two conflict, we must obey Christ. But when we seek to avoid undue defiance of Caesar, we also act in obedience to Christ.

Similarly, Jonathan Leeman, editorial director of the church-equipping ministry 9Marks, penned a response and said, civil disobedience may not be the only legitimate or moral course of action at this moment. Leeman said he wanted to open up a little space of Christian freedom for other churches to make different judgments.

"Christians have endured the inconveniences of persecution and pandemics for years, even decades, before," he wrote.

Speaking to Bream, MacArthur said that out of 7,000 church members, no one has had any effect if theyve had COVID.

We've had no issues there in the state of California, he said. The statistics are about 8,500 to 9,000 people have died out of 40 million. That means in California, you have a 99.98 percent chance of getting through this without any fatal illness. So the lockdown and the draconian things that have been going on to stifle this culture, to stifle it educationally, to stifle the businesses, to lock down people, and then to shut down churches is just not warranted by the reality of the virus.

We feel like we are the most essential reality in the world, MacArthur added. Look, Jesus is Lord. That is the Christian confession. It's always been our confession since He rose from the dead, Jesus is Lord. He's Lord of the universe, and He's Lord and head of His beloved Church, which He redeemed with His own blood. He is the head of our church. Governor Newsome is not the head of the church, Mayor Garcetti is not the head of the church.

Officials from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health have reportedly threatened MacArthur with repercussions such as fines and even possible arrest if his church doesnt comply with state orders.

In response, MacArthur said that while he respects civil leaders for their their temporal officer leadership in our government, theyre usurping a role that they don't have when they move into the life of the church and tell the church what it can do.

The Constitution doesn't give them the power to do that, he stressed. And they don't certainly have the spiritual power to usurp the place that only Jesus Christ has over His Church.

Californias restrictions for indoor religious gatherings include a ban on singing, as chanting and singing "negate the risk-reduction achieved through six feet of physical distancing," according to health officials.

At least three churches in California have already sued the state for banning singing and chanting in places of worship, calling it an unconstitutional abuse of power.
Covid-19 will reduce gas use in 2020, but recovery will be underpinned by favourable economics, widening access and a longer-term drive towards emissions reductions, including a role for hydrogen and other green gas technologies

LONDON, BARCELONA, Spain, and MILAN, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - After growing by more than 2% in 2019, global gas use is set to fall by around 4% in 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic reduces energy consumption across the global economies. However, the resulting low gas prices, as well as clean air and climate policies, will promote further switching to gas from other more polluting energy sources, such as oil and coal. This trend was already underway before the pandemic, thanks to cost-competitive gas in key sectors including power, industry and transport, and major regions including Europe, North America and Asia.

The Global Gas Report 2020, published today by the International Gas Union (IGU), research company BloombergNEF (BNEF) and Snam, the Italian-headquartered international gas infrastructure company reviews key global gas industry developments over the last year, provides a high-level outlook for future gas market developments, and examines the potential of hydrogen as a clean fuel to help meet climate goals.

The report shows that medium-term growth will come from increasing cost-competitiveness and increased global access to gas. A particular growth opportunity exists in liquefied natural gas. LNG imports reached 482 billion cubic meters in 2019, up 13% from 2018, and while this figure is expected to fall by around 4.2% in 2020, it could rebound quickly to previous levels as soon as 2021, depending on the persistence and longevity of the pandemic.

Ample natural gas resources exist to support demand growth, but greater gas infrastructure development is needed to support growth in the medium term. India is planning to almost double the length of its gas transmission grid, while China will grow its gas network about 60% by 2025.

Ashish Sethia, global head of commodities at BNEF, commented: "The pandemic has created disruption in the global energy sector, but low gas prices will ultimately stimulate demand growth as the economy recovers. We have already seen unprecedented coal-to-gas switching in Europe, and clean air policies in major growth markets such as India and China will drive more gas adoption in the next few years."

Joe Kang, President of IGU, said: "This pandemic crisis comes at great cost to the industry, the economy and society at large. It also reminded the world about the value of clean air and healthy environment for wellbeing, providing a unique opportunity to rebuild better. Gas is an abundant, clean, accessible and flexible substitute to more polluting energy sources, and supporting greater fuel switching from coal and oil to gas in the immediate term, while ensuring infrastructure is ready to accommodate progressively greater scale of clean gas technologies in the coming decade, is the way to secure a sustainable and prosperous future."

Low-carbon gas

In the longer term, there are major opportunities to scale up the use of low-carbon gas technologies, but these depend on substantial policy action and infrastructure investment in the coming years. Clean hydrogen could abate up to 37% of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions, according to BNEF estimates. However, this would require a range of meaningful steps, including emissions pricing linked to clear, Paris-aligned long-term climate targets; harmonized standards governing hydrogen use; coordinated strategies regarding regional and global infrastructure roll-out, and the deployment of hydrogen-ready equipment, such as pipelines, gas turbines and end-use appliances.

Jon Moore, CEO of BNEF, said: "It is increasingly clear that the goals of the Paris Agreement cannot be met without a substantial scale-up of clean gas technologies  such as hydrogen. While the economics are challenging today, a joined-up policy approach could unleash the investment needed to bring costs down, develop scalable business models and drive adoption across the hard-to-abate sectors."

The development of an international hydrogen market could also accelerate adoption. The report finds that Germany, which is pursuing rapid development in hydrogen, could procure cost-competitive hydrogen (at about $1/kg) in 2050 from a variety of sources, including via electrolysis from its own domestic renewable power, or via pipeline imports from North Africa or Southern Europe.

Snam CEO Marco Alvera said: "The hydrogen market is on the verge of a revolution. The goal is to bring down the cost of green hydrogen until it becomes competitive with fossil fuels in many applications in the next five years. A smart way to scale up hydrogen production is blending it with natural gas in existing gas pipelines, something Snam has been testing for two years. We envision a future where clean hydrogen produced in Southern Italy or North Africa can be transported through our pipelines to serve Central and Northern European needs. While matching supply and demand in the most efficient way, the infrastructure is expected to play a central role in supporting the penetration of hydrogen in the energy mix."

Natural gas in the long term

The report also reviews the long-term outlook for natural gas under different existing scenarios, including those from the International Energy Agency, BNEF and IGU analysis. The IEA's Stated Policies Scenario, from its 2019 World Energy Outlook, envisions gas use growing 1.4% per year to 2040, while BNEF's economics-led New Energy Outlook 2019 foresaw 22% growth in power sector gas demand to 2050.

In contrast, the IEA's Sustainable Development Scenario sees natural gas use declining from the end of the 2020s onward as the global energy demand flattens and the world embraces stronger climate action. And both IGU and BNEF analysis indicate that around one-third of energy-related emissions could be abated by adoption of clean gas technologies. This divergence in outlooks highlights both the risks and the opportunities for the global gas sector in the energy transition  and the importance of actions taken by both industry and government to capture the new opportunities and mitigate the risks for the sector in the coming decades.

About BloombergNEF

BloombergNEF (BNEF) is a leading provider of primary research on clean energy, advanced transport, digital industry, innovative materials, and commodities. With a team of experts spread across six continents, BNEF leverages the world's most sophisticated data sets to create clear perspectives and in-depth forecasts that frame the financial, economic and policy implications of industry-transforming trends and technologies. Available online, on mobile and on the Terminal, BNEF is powered by Bloomberg's global network of 19,000 employees in 176 locations, reporting 5,000 news stories a day. Visit https://about.bnef.com/ or request more information.

About IGU

The International Gas Union is the global voice of gas, representing over 95% of the gas industry worldwide, in 85 countries, across all 5 continents. Its mission is to advocate for the social, technical, and economic progress of the global gas industry. The IGU works to improve the competitiveness of gas in the world energy markets by promoting transparency, public endorsement, and the removal of barriers to progress, innovation, access, and development. To achieve this, the IGU also often collaborates with other industry partners, public agencies, and multilateral organisations.

The IGU is committed to a sustainable future, which will require a wide spectrum of clean energy technologies including gas, a critical tool for the world to meet climate goals and deliver on the Sustainable Development agenda.

About Snam

Snam is one of the world's leading energy infrastructure operators and one of the largest Italian listed companies in terms of market capitalization. Through its international subsidiaries, it operates in Albania, Austria, China, France, Greece, the UAE and UK. The company has the largest natural gas transmission network and storage capacity among European peers and is also one of the main operators in regasification. As part of a 6.5 billion plan to 2023, Snam invests 1.4 bn in the SnamTec project, focused on innovation and new energy transition businesses, from sustainable mobility to biomethane and energy efficiency. Snam also aims to enable and promote the development of hydrogen to foster decarbonisation in the energy sector and industries. For more information, visit snam.it.

SOURCE International Gas Union
A large billboard in Times Square displayed an image of the Ram Mandir model, along with an image of the deity and the Indian flag. The advertisement was displayed at the corner of the 47th Street and Seventh Avenue on Wednesday. Ahead of the advertisement that was displayed on the day of the bhoomi pujan or groundbreaking ceremony, reports had stated that the planned Ram Temple advertisement was cancelled due to protests by Muslim groups in the US.

Jagdish Sewhani, President of the American India Public Affairs Committee that organised the Times Square celebrations and bought the prime billboard space disputed reports that the advertisement was to be cancelled. Sewhani told Associated Press that they were just celebrating a "once in a mankind" event and that the celebrations were not against anyone. "This is a once in a mankind event and we thought what better place for it than Times Square," he said.

As described by Sewhani, the American India Public Affairs Committee is a group of people concerned with India-US relations. The committee does not have a website and there is no corporation registered under its name, as stated by the report in Associated Press. Sewhani had also earlier described himself as one of the founders of the US wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party, in an interview to South Asian Insider Show.

#WATCH USA: A digital billboard of #RamMandir comes up in New Yorks Times Square.



Prime Minister Narendra Modi performed 'Bhoomi Pujan' of #RamMandir in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh earlier today. pic.twitter.com/Gq4Gi2kfvR ANI (@ANI) August 5, 2020

The coalition opposing the advertisements had written to New York Mayor Bill de Blasio asking him to stop the display. Shaik Ubaid, President of Indian Minorities Advocacy Network told the news agency that the ads glamorise a cruel act. "They are so confident they are doing this in Times Square, the heart of America," he told the news agency.

The coalition had also called major advertising companies to not run the ads on their billboards. Advertising company Branded Cities had told the coalition that they would not run ads for the Ram Temple celebrations.

The Indian American Muslim Council hired a truck to display images of the now-demolished Babri Masjid. One of the images said, "Once stood this beautiful mosque in India which was demolished by Hindu extremists." The Indian American Muslim Council is part of the coalition protesting the ads.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi took part in the bhoomi pujan or the groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday. The PM first visited the Hanumangarhi Temple to offer his prayers. He also offered prayers to Ram Lalla before laying the foundation stone.

Also read: Ram Mandir Bhoomi Pujan Highlights: With temple construction, history is not only being made but repeated, says PM Modi
The Nigerian army says the attack on the convoy of Babagana Zulum, governor of Borno state, was carried out by members of Boko Haram. ...





The Nigerian army says the attack on the convoy of Babagana Zulum, governor of Borno state, was carried out by members of Boko Haram.

Zulums convoy was attacked on Monday in Baga while on his way to some internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in Kukawa local government area of the state.

The attack was initially believed to have been carried out by Boko Haram insurgents but Zulum alleged sabotage on the part of the army, saying he was attacked by soldiers.

Reacting to the allegation when he featured on Channels Television, John Enenche, coordinator of defence media operations, said the attack was not an act of sabotage, insisting that it was perpetrated by Boko Haram.

According to him, the analysis carried out by the army proved that its officers were not involved in the attack.

It was an allegation which needed to be proved. And Also, I want to say that for such an allegation, it calls for worry on our part at the high command of which we went into action immediately. For you now to say sabotage, you gave superstar a baby to keep for you and youre saying that somebody can kill that baby is a strong accusation, Enenche said.

We investigated it immediately and the strategic level is cleared of that; operational level cleared of that, tactical level, cleared of that. Now from the basics, I was interested and I took a cursory look. We analysed the video, the scenery. Even from the gunshots, the way it all played out, you will discover from the sound of the gunshots, it is not the conventional weapons that we use.

Now, it comes to doubt because, from our training, you could tell the sound of a gun. And of course, if you have operated with an enemy for some time, we call it enemy habit.

From the analysis, it was purely that of the enemies in that area, the Boko Harams. From the tactics, and from the manoeuvres exhibited, it was theirs. And from the search conducted, it was theirs. So, our fears were allayed after 48 hours. So, I can confidently tell the public that it was not anything sabotage.

Enenche also said contrary to public opinion, the army is not short of officers or arms.
Growing up in Ghana in the early 90s I can clearly remember my mum leaving tomatoes, pepper and vegetables in the open on the kitchen cabinet. It kept the items fresh and saved space in the fridge for perishables like meat, fresh fish etc. Foodstuff like yam, plantain and cassava could also be kept in the open without any fear of rot or decay.

Fast forward to 2020 and foodstuff can go bad even in the fridge. Vegetables, tubers etc. for some reason have lost their immunity and just can't stay fresh for days in the open. From tomatoes getting mouldy and foamy while tearing up to vegetables becoming watery and developing dark rotten spots after a few days even in the fridge. Pepper which could last weeks in the open goes bad and gets rotten while refrigerated. Banana which used to be a favourite fruit is one I despise now due to the burning sensation I sometimes experience in my throat and on my tongue when I eat banana. My question has always been what has changed? Why the sudden weakness in foodstuffs and fruits? What causes the rapid decay of foodstuffs? The only conclusion I can draw is the use of chemicals in crop production.

Due to the introduction of new farming methods to improve yields and crop resistance several chemicals have made their way onto the Ghanaian market through agro-industries, these companies are expanding and increasing their reach in the country. Farmers and individuals prefer to spray plants and weeds with weedicides instead of using a hoe or cutlass in getting rid of weeds. As the same soil is used to plant crops fertiliser is added to improve crop growth and yield increasing the chemical composition of the soil. The situation worsens when certain farmers in a bid to speed up the ripening or maturity process, apply chemicals to the crops.

There are several rumours of how market women sprinkle Carbide and other chemicals on banana and pineapple to speed up the ripening process increasing the rate at which the plants are exposed to chemicals directly and indirectly. In 2015 the FDA found some market women used Sudan IV dye to improve the colour of red oil, these and many other practices contaminate the food that should nourish and strengthen individuals into agents of bad health. Tumours, cancer and various growth deficiencies are on the rise according to several studies and might go up. In one study on cancer cases in Kumasi using data from 2015, there was a growth in cancer cases. Most cases recorded were found to have affected the breast, stomach and liver of citizens aged between 15 to 60.

In the long run the land will be barren or contaminated due to the high chemical content, there will be the need to add more fertiliser or other chemicals to improve the soil but that will also increase the chemical composition in the soil. Ghanaians will then have to rely on food supplements which to a large extent is imported but for a few that are produced in the country. So as we import agrochemicals we will soon import more food and food supplements reducing the reliance on locally produced crops. The health sector will struggle with the rise in cases caused by the crops in the long term as cases relating to chemically contaminated foods are not detected quickly. Government, state agencies and NGOS need to monitor the use of chemicals by farmers to and ensure quality and healthy crops are produced.

Organic options should be introduced on the market and the farmers should be trained on how to make them. Food crops being moved to markets in the country should be tagged at each barrier the trucks cross and samples tested for chemical content by the FDA and EPA so a history of the source or origin is recorded in order to easily detect crops that have been contaminated by farmers, market men or women. Farmland can be made fertile through organic means but not by using chemicals that will affect our health in the long run. Health is wealth and since prevention is better than cure we should try to find safe farming practices that protect the people and business owners as a whole because once we get sick through the food we eat then our strength as a nation is gone.
Larry Tye is a bestselling author who recently released a new book called Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy.

Taking on a political bully isnt easy, especially when much of America still embraces him. But in the 1950s, four U.S. senators from Connecticut  Democrats William Benton and Brien McMahon and Republicans Prescott Bush and Raymond Baldwin  did just that with this nations archetypal demagogue, Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy.

Just how brave they were  and how rare it was to have four senators from a single state stand up like that  wasnt apparent in real time. It is now, thanks to records released to this author of McCarthys unscripted writings and correspondence, military records and wartime medical charts, love letters, financial files, academic transcripts, and box after box of other personal and professional documents that were under lock-and-key for 60 years.

On Feb. 9, 1950, McCarthy launched his crusade against communism with a bare-knuckled Lincoln Day Dinner speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, where he charged that the U.S. State Department was riddled with Reds.

Eleven days later the Wisconsin Republican was defending his indefensible allegations on the floor of the Senate, where McMahon challenged him 34 times. McMahon and other outraged Democrats hadnt yet learned yet the futility of taking on an opponent with McCarthys blend of wit, whimsy and mendacity.

Bettmann Archive via Getty Images / Bettmann Archive

McCarthy had learned early that there was no worse a penalty for a big lie than for a little one, but that only the big ones drew a crowd, so he told whoppers. Nor did his rivals appreciate that, backed into a corner, McCarthy could transform himself into either a pit bull or a lamb, whichever would get him out of his particular jam.

In the Senate chamber that night he claimed the high ground and painted McMahon and the rest as ignoble partisans.

All I am doing, McCarthy pleaded, is presenting enough of the picture so that I hope both the Democratic side and the Republican side will forget politics and help clean house. I think this is something in which we cannot think of politics as usual.

Next it was Bentons turn. There is one act of hypocrisy which most offends the deepest convictions of the Christian conscience and also the American spirit of justice and fair play. That act is to put the brand of guilt on an innocent man, Benton told his colleagues in the fall of 1951, just a year before voters would render their verdict on whether to re-elect McCarthy. I submit that there is no one who has erred more recklessly and maliciously in this respect than Senator Joseph McCarthy. Let us now remember the words of Isaiah: Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil.

McCarthy turned to the Book of Exodus for his eye-for-an-eye-style riposte. Even as it was probing McCarthy at the instigation of Benton, McCarthy pushed the Senate to simultaneously probe Benton for what McCarthy said were his Communist sympathies and financial improprieties.

And in a TV interview, the ex-pugilist tried to cut his new rival down to size by dubbing him Little Willie Benton, Connecticuts mental midget. Few were distracted, as it was apparent that it was McCarthy, not Benton, who was on trial.

Benton, meanwhile, was convinced that his phones were tapped, his tax records had been leaked to McCarthy, and his personal safety was imperiled enough that he ordered his chauffeur, an ex-prizefighter, to ensure nobody was following him.

Walter Sanders/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images / The LIFE Picture Collection via

It wasnt pure paranoia. The newly available archives make clear that McCarthy investigators were poring over every bill the Connecticut lawmaker had ever filed and speech hed made, along with unsupported gossip about his sexual preferences surfaced by the Loyal American Underground.

Broadcasters George Sokolsky and Fulton Lewis, and the House Un-American Activities Committee, were scouring their files, too. It was war, and McCarthy, a dont-give-an-inch leatherneck whod fought in the South Pacific, was now enlisting every available ally and weapon. Unable to disprove the message, McCarthy went after the messenger.

During their back-and-forth, Benton borrowed a page from the McCarthy playbook to tease him. He offered to waive his senatorial immunity and dared McCarthy to sue over any of the accusations made during Bentons 30,000 words of anti-McCarthy testimony.

Having painted himself into a corner, McCarthy filed a $2 million libel suit against his Connecticut colleague, the first time anyone could remember one senator suing another and one more in McCarthys string of legal battles.

I consider this lawsuit as a means of pinpointing the contest between America and the Communist Party, he wrote his adversary.

When he eventually dropped the claim, McCarthy said it was because his lawyer had been unable to discover a single person in the whole U.S. who believed Bentons charges. Benton and his backers again called McCarthys bluff, running newspaper ads under the banner We Believe Benton, and generating 1,400 signed responses of people willing to testify.

McCarthys closest friend, judge and one-time McCarthy campaign manager Urban Van Susteren, said the lawsuit never was aimed at a payout, just a payback. Every morning when Benton was shaving, McCarthy hoped, the Nutmegger would look in the mirror and imagine having to fork over $2 million to the man he hated most. And that would make him sweat.

In the end it was Benton and not McCarthy who voters ousted in 1952. The election board at the Hotel Appleton in Wisconsin, where the McCarthy team was celebrating, carried this pronouncement: Benton went to hell at 8:30. And the next morning, the Appleton newspaper said the phrase heard most often among McCarthy partisans was Joe won in Connecticut.

Little Willie Benton got his revenge two years later when his dusted-off resolution provided the foundation for McCarthys condemnation by the Senate.

Al Fenn/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images / The LIFE Picture Collection via

Hardball McCarthy tactics like those alarmed at least one candidate McCarthy tried to help that election year. Prescott Bush, a buttoned-down Republican running for a Senate opening in Connecticut created with the death of one of McCarthys earliest foes, Democrat Brien McMahon, appeared with McCarthy at a rally in Bridgeport.

I never saw such a wild bunch of monkeys in any meeting that Ive ever attended, Bush said looking back.

At the time, he told the standing-room crowd, I must in all candor say that some of us, while we admire his objectives in his fight against Communism, we have very considerable reservations sometimes concerning the methods which he employs.

That was too much for McCarthys fans: The roof went off with boos and hisses and catcalls and Throw him out. McCarthy, however, crossed the stage to shake hands with Bush, who won that race and launched a dynasty that would see his son and grandson make it to the White House.

Over dinner that night McCarthy was even more amiable, signing autographs for fellow diners and leaning over to tell the Wall Street-banker-turned-politician, Now, Pres, what can I do for you? I want you to win this election  Do you need any money?

McMahon, Bush and Benton all might have learned something about the risks of tangling with McCarthy from Baldwin, whod done just that back in the late 1940s. Baldwin chaired a special investigatory subcommittee investigating the Armys handling of the Nazi perpetrators of the bloodiest slaughter of American soldiers during World War II near the medieval city of Malmedy, Belgium. McCarthy, whod accused the Army of botching the investigation and imposing victors justice, was allowed to sit in as an observer, a role that he would exploit and that the panel would rue.

Eileen Darby/The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images / The LIFE Images Collection via G

In classic form, when his arguments didnt prevail, McCarthy stormed out of the proceedings.

I feel that the investigation has degenerated to such a shameful farce that I can no longer take part therein and I am today requesting the expenditures subcommittee chairman to relieve me of the duty to continue, he told Baldwin and the others.

The truth is that nobody in Congress had ever encouraged him to sit in on the Malmedy proceedings or was fazed when he quit. But the always-eager media did care, and so, even before he addressed his fellow senators, McCarthy was ready with a press release blasting his colleagues.

I accuse the subcommittee of being afraid of the facts, he said. I accuse it of attempting to whitewash a shameful episode in the history of our glorious armed forces.

Baldwin, the former three-term governor of Connecticut, responded with the understatement that was characteristic for him and a contrast to his Badger State colleague: The chairman regrets that the junior Senator from Wisconsin, Mr. McCarthy, has lost his temper and with it, the sound impartial judgment which should be exercised in this matter.

Baldwin, who would later serve as chief justice of Connecticuts Supreme Court of Errors (now the state Supreme Court), might also have noted the irony that one of the Senate and the nations most outrageous liars would accuse others of covering up the truth.

While McCarthys favorite targets in Washington were Democrats, Baldwin learned that Republicans werent immune. The Connecticut lawmaker had decided before the Malmedy hearings to resign his Senate seat, but the verbal brutality he suffered at McCarthys hands made him happier to go and convinced his biographer that he was the first victim of McCarthyism.

This article originally appeared in Connecticut Magazine. You can subscribe here , or find the current issue on sale here . Sign up for the newsletter to get the latest and greatest content from Connecticut Magazine delivered right to your inbox. On Facebook and Instagram @connecticutmagazine and Twitter @connecticutmag
YEREVAN, AUGUST 6, ARMENPRESS. The third Russian plane carrying aid and emergency personnel has arrived in Beirut after a massive explosion devastated the Lebanese capital.

The IL-76 aircraft landed in Beirut at 08:04 Moscow time, TASS reported citing the ministry of emergency situation.

Russia had sent two planes earlier as well. The aid comprises emergency doctors, rescuers and a mobile hospital.

A total of 150 Russian rescuers will help the Lebanese authorities in search and rescue operations.

Russian authorities are sending two other aircrafts with aid soon. One of the planes is already airborne.

More than 2700 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded in the port of Beirut at a warehouse on Tuesday, sending massive shockwaves through the Lebanese capital. More than 130 people are dead and 5000 are wounded. Heavy damages occurred across the city.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) The Hague, Netherlands  Thu, August 6, 2020 12:30 530 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066bfba5e 2 World Lebanon,Rafic-Hariri,tribunal,murder-case,Beirut,blast Free

A UN-backed tribunal said Wednesday it had suspended a verdict on the 2005 murder of former Lebanese premier Rafic Hariri following the deadly blast in Beirut.

The court's decision was due on Friday but the ruling has been postponed until August 18, the court said in a statement.

The death toll from Tuesday's huge blast at Beirut port has risen to at least 113, Lebanon's Health Minister Hamad Hassan said earlier Wednesday.

It has been blamed on an unsecured store of ammonium nitrate at the port.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) "is deeply saddened and shocked by the tragic events that shook Lebanon yesterday," the court said in a statement.

"The Tribunal expresses its solidarity with the Lebanese people in these difficult times."

The STL issued "a scheduling order postponing the pronouncement of the judgment," to August 18

In absentia

Four alleged members of the Shiite Muslim fundamentalist group Hezbollah are on trial in absentia at the court in the Netherlands over the huge Beirut suicide bombing that killed Sunni billionaire Hariri and others in 2005.

The judgment harks back to an event that changed the face of the Middle East, with Hariri's assassination triggering a wave of demonstrations that pushed Syrian forces out of Lebanon after 30 years.

The court is billed as the world's first international tribunal set up to probe terrorist crimes, and it has cost at least $600 million since it opened its doors in 2009 following a UN Security Council resolution.

But the tribunal faces doubts over its credibility, with Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah refusing to hand over the defendants and the case relying almost entirely on mobile phone records.

The four defendants went on trial in 2014 on charges including the "intentional homicide" of Hariri and 21 others, attempted homicide of the 226 people who were wounded in the bombing, and conspiracy to commit a terrorist act.

Salim Ayyash, 56, is accused of leading the team that carried out the bombing, which involved a truck packed full of explosives that detonated near Hariri's motorcade on February 14, 2005.

Assad Sabra, 43, and Hussein Oneissi, 46, allegedly sent a fake video to the Al-Jazeera news channel claiming responsibility on behalf of a made-up group.

Hassan Habib Merhi, 54, is accused of general involvement in the plot.

The alleged mastermind of the bombing, Hezbollah commander Mustafa Badreddine, was indicted by the court but is believed to have died while fighting with the Syrian government in May 2016.

'Severe threat'

The surviving suspects face life imprisonment if convicted, although sentencing will be carried out at a later date.

Both the prosecution and defense can appeal the judgment and sentence, while if a defendant is eventually arrested he can request a retrial.

Prosecutors said during the trial that Hariri was assassinated because he was perceived to be a "severe threat" to Syrian control of the country.

Hariri was Lebanon's Sunni premier until his resignation in 2004 over Syria's role as power-broker in the country.

The case was "circumstantial" but "compelling", prosecutors said, resting on mobile phone records allegedly showing the suspects conducting intense surveillance of Hariri from just after his resignation until minutes before the blast.

The court's flag was flown at half-mast on Wednesday "to honor those who lost their lives, who were wounded and who are still missing as a result of the explosion in Beirut".

At least 4,000 people were injured by the explosion, while dozens of people remain missing as rescue efforts continue.

However the court in The Hague rules, the eventual verdict it will not be the end of its work, as it opened a second case last year charging prime suspect Ayyash with terrorism and murder over deadly attacks on politicians in 2004 and 2005.
(REUTERS/Mark Blinch)

The Greater Toronto Areas housing market seems almost immune to the crippling economic effects of COVID-19 right now.

July was a record-breaking month, with 11,081 homes sold, according to new data from the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB). Thats a 29.5 per cent increase compared to the same month last year.

Sales activity was extremely strong for the first full month of summer. Normally we would see sales dip in July relative to June as more households take vacation, especially with children out of school, said TRREB president Susan Patel, in a release.

This year, however, was different with pent-up demand from the COVID-19-related lull in April and May being satisfied in the summer, as economic recovery takes firmer hold, including the Stage 3 re-opening. In addition, fewer people are travelling, which has likely translated into more transactions and listings.

Daniel Foch, broker at Foch Family Real Estate, says the market isnt as hot as some people want to claim it is. He says crashing stock markets when the pandemic first began led to something of a flight to quality into real estate.

I think that we're also seeing an increase in foreign capital spending in the GTA on a similar principle - that Canadian real estate is a flight to quality in a global context. Because real estate is a much less liquid product with a long-run sales cycle, it perpetuated the consumer sentiment of market growth and resilience we were seeing in early March, Foch told Yahoo Finance Canada.

I think the big 6 banks, Bank of Canada, and the federal government also instilled confidence in the consumers that they're basically willing to prop up housing by any means necessary.

Foch says those factors make him believe their is systemic risk. He also says the strength is limited to certain types of homes and regions.

TRREB says sales of low-rise homes, particularly outside of the City of Toronto, lead the way with 7,504 homes sold in the 905 area code.

Story continues

Detached homes saw the biggest jump in sales (43.7 per cent) and average selling price (16 per cent).

Foch says while theres been movement into the suburbs, its not systemic yet.

I'd say it seems to be about 30% driven by seeking greater comfort work-from-home, 30% driven by people conceding that they may not be on an airplane within 24 months and want to live in a vacation-esque locale, and the remaining 40% is a blend of financial stress, deformation of households (millennials moving back in with parents), he said.

The MLS Home Price Index (HPI) Composite Benchmark was up 10 per cent compared to July 2019. A shift into higher priced homes pushed the average selling price 16.9 per cent higher, to a new record high of $943,710.

Foch says a lot of buyers are emotional instead of rational.

There seems to be impulsiveness, ignorance towards the economy and downside risk, especially in regards to illiquidity risk in some of the fringe GTA transactions taking place right now. I think it shows me that people are feeling pretty invincible, supported by the government, and are confident in the asset, he said.

I would go as far as to describe it as brash, and brashness does scare me a little.

The biggest price increases were in South Simcoe County (14.12 per cent), Orangeville (13.91 per cent), and Durham Region (12.27 per cent).

Foch says he thinks over the long-term Toronto real estate will be fine.

But, at some point, investments will behave like investments, which means they'll ebb and flow and bubble and correct, and they'll also be subject to diminishing returns.

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.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks to the media at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on July 30, 2020. (Sean Davey/Getty Images)

Australian PM Details Victoria Mental Health Funding Boost

An extra $5 million in federal government funding will go to mental health support in Victoria as people struggle with the COVID-19 outbreak.

The focus for the new support will be on year 11 and 12 students and young adults, Prime Minister Scott Morrison says, with the money to be divided among three charitiesKids Helpline, Lifeline and Beyond Blue.

This will particularly focus on year 11 and year 12 students, young people who have lost their jobs and tertiary students, the prime minister said on Aug. 6.

Mental health and suicide prevention is one of my governments highest priorities.

For Victorians these last few weeks have been devastating and the loss of freedom that comes from the first lockdown, now combined with the second one with the Victorian wave, not being able to connect with friends and loved ones, concerns about employment, all of this takes a toll.

Young mums who wont be able to have access to child care or have just gone through a long haul of home schooling now having to face another long haul of it. This will put incredible pressure on families.

The prime minister said he would receive a report on Friday from national mental health commission chief executive Christine Morgan and deputy chief medical officer Ruth Vine on what extra mental health measures might be needed for Victoria.

The extra 10 psychological therapy sessions available for Victorians under Medicare will also start on Friday.

Meanwhile, if a family has a child who attends a disability program and the facility is not open, the prime minister said its NDIS plan can be used to have disability support workers visit at home.

Lifeline 13 11 14

beyondblue 1300 22 4636

Melbourne
SRINAGAR, India (AP)  The first batch of five French-made Rafale fighter jets arrived at an Indian air force base on Wednesday, Indian officials said, as the country seeks to modernize its military amid security challenges with Pakistan and China.

The planes landed at the airbase in Ambala in Haryana state amid tight security. Police and soldiers closed roads leading to the base, banned photography and enforced restrictions on gatherings of more than four people, police officer Abhishek Jorwal said.

The birds have landed safely in Ambala, Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted. "If anyone should be worried about or critical about this new capability ... it should be those who want to threaten our territorial integrity.

Indian and Chinese soldiers are locked in a tense stand-off along their disputed border in Ladakh region, while Indian troops regularly clash with Pakistani soldiers along their de facto frontier in disputed Kashmir, which is also claimed by Pakistan.

In 2016, five attackers and three Indian troops were killed in more than 14 hours of fighting in an attack on an Indian air force base in Pathankot in neighboring Punjab state. India blamed Pakistani militants for the attack. Pakistan condemned the attack, calling it a terrorist incident.

The fighter jets are part of a $8.78 billion deal signed with France in 2016. They are to be formally inducted in the Indian air force by mid-August.

India has become the worlds biggest arms importer as it modernizes its military. Indias defense ministry on July 2 approved the purchase of 21 Russian MiG-29 and 12 Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter aircraft costing $2.43 billion to replace obsolete Soviet-era weapons.

The defense deals come amid heightened tensions along the disputed frontier with China in Ladakh, where New Delhi has sent reinforcements of fighter jets and military equipment after hand-to-hand combat between Indian and Chinese soldiers on June 15 left 20 Indians dead.

Story continues

Indian and Chinese military officials and diplomats have held several rounds of talks aimed at reaching a solution, but the standoff has continued.

Indias ties with neighboring Pakistan hit a low since last Aug. 5, when India revoked the statehood and semi-autonomy of the portion of Kashmir it controls. India and Pakistan have fought two wars over control of the Himalayan region since Britain gave them independence from colonial rule in 1947.

On Wednesday, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's adviser for national security, Moeed Yousaf, accused Indian forces of targeting civilians in the Pakistan-administered portion of Kashmir.

He said India's relations with its neighbors, including China, were not good because of its policies. Yousaf said Pakistan will observe Aug. 5 as a day of condemnation" to denounce India's changes in Kashmir's status.

___

Associated Press writer Roshan Mughal in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan, contributed to this report.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread, scientists and health care providers are seeking ways to keep the coronavirus from infecting tissues once they're exposed. A new study suggests luring the virus with a decoy -- an engineered, free-floating receptor protein -- binds the virus and blocks infection.

Erik Procko, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, led the study, published in the journal Science.

To infect a human cell, a virus must first bind to a receptor protein on the surface of the cell. SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, binds to a receptor called ACE2, which plays a number of roles in regulating blood pressure, blood volume, and inflammation. It is found in tissues throughout the body, but especially in the lungs, heart, arteries, kidneys and intestines. Many researchers hypothesize that the host of symptoms associated with COVID-19 may stem from the coronavirus binding to ACE2 and keeping it from doing its job.

"Administering a decoy based on ACE2 might not only neutralize infection, but may have the additional benefit of rescuing lost ACE2 activity and directly treating aspects of COVID-19," Procko said.

As a potential therapeutic agent, a decoy receptor has one advantage over other drugs: To evade it, the virus would have to mutate in a way that would make it less infectious.

"A benefit of a decoy receptor is that it closely resembles the natural receptor. Therefore, the virus cannot easily adapt to escape neutralization without simultaneously losing its ability to bind to its natural receptor. This means the virus has limited ability to acquire resistance," Procko said.

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Although ACE2 binds to SARS-CoV-2, it is not optimized for that purpose, which means that subtle mutations to the receptor could make it bind more strongly. This makes it an ideal candidate for a decoy receptor, Procko said.

Procko examined more than 2,000 ACE2 mutations and created cells with the mutant receptors on their surfaces. By analyzing how these interacted with the coronavirus, he found a combination of three mutations that made a receptor that bound to the virus 50 times more strongly, making it a much more attractive target for the virus.

Procko then made a soluble version of the engineered receptor. Detached from cells, the soluble receptor is suspended in solution and free to interact with the virus as a decoy receptor.

After Procko posted his findings to a preprint server, a colleague connected him with the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. Researchers there, along with the lab of Illinois biochemistry professor David Kranz, verified the strong affinity between the virus and the decoy receptor, rivaling the best antibodies identified to date, Procko said. Furthermore, they found that the decoy receptor not only binds to the virus in live tissue cultures, it effectively neutralizes it, preventing cells from becoming infected.

Further work is required to determine whether the decoy receptors could be an effective treatment of or preventive agent against COVID-19.

"We are testing whether the decoy receptor is safe and stable in mice, and if successful, we then hope to show treatment of disease in animals. Hopefully that data can facilitate a clinical trial," Procko said. He also is exploring how the decoy receptor bonds to other coronaviruses with potential to become future pandemics if they cross from bats to humans.

The National Institutes of Health supported this work.
According to the research, patients with mild or moderate illness might be less contagious eight days after symptom onset.

Beijing: Scientists have assessed respiratory samples from 35 COVID-19 patients, and found that contagious coronavirus was "rarely detectable" beyond eight days after onset of illness, an advance that can help develop better self-isolation and quarantining protocols to curb the spread of the pandemic.

The study, published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, analysed 68 respiratory specimens from 35 COVID-19 patients in Hong Kong, of whom 32 had mild disease, and found that the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 was rarely detectable beyond eight days after onset of illness.

However, the researchers, including Ranawaka Perera from the University of Hong Kong, said the virus genetic material RNA was detectable for many weeks using the RT-PCR technique.

The scientists explained that SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection by RT-PCR does not prove the presence of infectious virus, adding that culture isolation of the pathogen is a better indication of its contagiousness.

They said in patients with predominantly mild COVID-19, virus isolation was positive within the first eight days after onset of illness.

Citing previous studies, the researchers said that "virus culture for mildly ill or moderately ill patients showed virus culture was only successful within the first nine days after onset of illness."

"Patients who are severely ill and immunocompromised might shed infectious virus for much longer periods, and this shedding might also be prolonged by corticosteroid therapy," the scientists wrote in the study.

According to the research, patients with mild or moderate illness might be less contagious eight days after symptom onset.

"Mildly ill patients who have clinically recovered, and are not immunocompromised, might be discharged from containment in nine or more days after symptom onset, as long as they are not being discharged into settings that contain other highly vulnerable persons," the study noted.
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A woman who claims she was abused by billionaire pedophile Jeffery Epstein, has spoken of how he 'got off on her terror' during a sexual assault in his New York home.

Kiki, who chose to keep her real name anonymous, has recounted how she arrived in New York city from Texas at the age of 19 with aspirations of becoming a model.

However, after being dropped by her modelling agency, she was struggling to pay rent and working part time in the Union Square cafe The Coffee Shop.

While working there she says she was approached by an attractive woman, offering her an 'opportunity', which would involve giving her wealthy 'client' a 30 minute massage for several hundred dollars.

She was told that this mystery man had ties to the fashion industry and was friends with supermodels, and was an attractive prospect for a young woman struggling for money.

Pictured: Former model Kiki, who alleges sexual assault by the late Jeffrey Epstein, speaks during a press conference on February 5, 2020. She has recounted her experience of being assaulted by the former billionaire financier, and called on Prince Andrew to give evidence

Kiki, pictured in her modelling days, said that after the alleged assault she went back to Texas to be with her family, but was too afraid to tell anyone of her experience

Kiki recalls how in 2004 she was taken to Epstein's nine-storey mansion - the largest in New York - where the door was answered by a maid who could 'barely look me in the eye,' she told the Sun Online.

'I was super nervous,' Kiki said. 'Finally Jeffrey walks in with a towel wrapped around his body. I realised I didn't know where I was, I hadn't paid attention walking into the house.' She said she felt trapped after the maid closed the door.

Once she began giving Epstein a massage, she was soon told to take her clothes off.

This she did 'trembling' before 'he began to touch me, aggressively, and it quickly turned into an assault.

'I distinctly remember him smiling, enjoying the fact that he was doing this horrible thing to me, that obviously terrified me and was violating me - but he was somehow getting off on that,' she told the website.

She said that before the assault, she had never had a sexual experience, and that it had been her introduction to any kind of intimate experience.

Kiki recalls that afterwards, Epstein handed her $200, and she was let out by the maid, unable to comprehend what had happened to her.

Lisa Bloom, (L) attorney for five victims of Jeffrey Epstein and Former model Kiki. Kiki claims that when she was 19 and living in New York City, she was coaxed to Epstein's 60m apartment in 2004 and assaulted

Pictured: Jeffrey Epstein and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell attend and event in 2005 together. Maxwell is currently in custody facing sex trafficking charges

She quickly called her mother 'bawling, in tears' and escaped New York back to Texas, where she suffered from mental health issues, and was too afraid to tell anyone of her experience.

That is until she heard the news of Epstein's arrest and women subsequently began sharing their stories. One story in particular, Kiki said, sounded exactly like her experience at the hands of Epstein, 15 years earlier.

'I thought it was just something that happened to me,' she said.

Kiki relives the assault in an up-coming documentary 'Surviving Jeffery Epstein' on C+I, in which she recalls that she was told to say she was 17 to please the billionaire at his 60m New York mansion, where Prince Andrew had also been a guest.

Epstein committed suicide in prison in 2019 after being arrested on multiple charges of sex trafficking.

His former girlfriend and madame Ghislaine Maxwell is currently on trial, accused of running the sex trafficking ring and for grooming the girls assaulted by Epstein - a charge she denies.

Pictured: From left, American real estate developer Donald Trump and his girlfriend (and future wife), former model Melania Knauss, financier (and future convicted sex offender) Jeffrey Epstein, and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell pose together at the Mar-a-Lago club, Palm Beach, Florida, in February 2000

Pictured: Prince Andrew, Virginia Roberts, aged 17, and Ghislaine Maxwell at Ghislaine Maxwell's townhouse in London, Britain on March 13 2001. Kiki has called on the prince to give evidence to the FBI

Ghislaine Maxwell, pictured in 2013, is believed to have groomed young girls and trained them to recruit other girls, such as Kiki, to become sex slaves for Epstein and his guests

While her arrest was a 'huge victory', Kiki says that it won't undo the damage already done by her actions, and that while she may well end up in prison, Epstein's victim says Maxwell has still ruined 'hundreds - or maybe thousands' of lives.

Kiki is now calling on Prince Andrew to come forward and give evidence to the FBI about Epstein and Maxwell. The Prince has been accused of sleeping with 17-year-old 'sex slave' Virginia Roberts.

Questioning why Andrew - a father of two daughters himself - wouldn't have any empathy and come forward, Kiki says that he has tarnished the reputation of the British Royal Family, who she says have tried to keep him out of the public eye as much as they can since the allegations came to light.

Now 35, Kiki now wants to train to help others who have been victims of sexual abuse, but has spoken of how she feels cheated of justice by Epstein's suicide. She also wants to see his former associates held to account.

'The people that enabled him in doing these horrible things should be held accountable. Every time someone gets away with something like this, it disintegrates our moral fabric as a society,' she said.
Passengers on a train from Florida stop and register with officials during an effort to screen out-of-state travelers at Penn Station in New York City, on August 6, 2020. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

Quarantine Checkpoint Opens at New York Citys Penn Station to Enforce Travel Rules

NEW YORKA few dozen travelers got off a train from Miami at New York Citys Penn Station on Thursday and were greeted by a team of public health workers and mayoral office staff who handed them informational fliers about the states new COVID-19 quarantine rules.

The team, comprised of Mayor Bill de Blasios public engagement unit and the citys COVID-19 Test & Trace Corps, were running a checkpoint starting at Penn Station on Thursday to ensure that visitors from any of the 35 states on New Yorks travel advisory were aware of the 14-day quarantine mandate.

Their measure aims to keep the infection rate low in the city, formerly the epicenter of the nations epidemic in the spring with thousands of new cases per day.

Matthew Joseph, 46, getting off the train from Miami, said he had not been aware of the quarantine order when he boarded.

Im not as much of a believer on a lot of this stuff, but I follow whatevers necessary to accommodate everyone else, he said.

Checkpoint staff handed out fliers informing disembarking passengers of the quarantine and instructing them to fill out an online form to enable contact tracers to reach them during their stay.

Military officials stand during an effort to screen out-of-state travelers at Penn Station in New York City, on August 6, 2020. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

But it was unclear if the screening at Penn Station, along with other checks of cars at tunnel and bridge crossings into the city, would enhance the governments ability to enforce quarantine orders intended to stop the virus from spreading through interstate travel.

A spokeswoman for City Hall said refusing to fill out the quarantine form could subject travelers from designated states to a $2,000 fine, and violations of the quarantine orders could result in a $10,000 fine.

Website Was Great

The staff also told travelers about home delivery services for food and medication that the mayors office was providing for quarantining visitors.

Joseph said he did not think he would use those resources, since he only planned to be in New York City a very short time to look at a property in Manhattan where he wants to open a bar.

Some travelers welcomed the screening.

Amy Clobertson, arriving from the District of Columbia for a medical appointment on Thursday and wearing latex gloves and a mask, immediately filled out her traveler form at the stationeven though travelers from Washington are no longer required to quarantine.

The website was great. It was really informative. I wish every state was doing this because we have to stop the virus, Clobertson said.

Chris Keeley, Chief Operating Officer of the citys Test and Trace Corps, told Reuters he was pleased with reactions to the screening on its first day of implementation.

People are interested to hear about the responsibilities. People are interested to hear about the resources that are available to them, he said.

By Gabriella Borter
LONDON - Barbara Woodward, Britains ambassador to China, has been announced as the U.K.s next permanent representative to the United Nations in New York.

Woodward succeeds Karen Pierce, who was appointed earlier this year to her new role as the first female British ambassador to the United States.

Woodward has served as ambassador to China since 2015. She previously served as the Foreign Offices head of economic and consular affairs and as the international director of the U.K. Border Force.

U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Kelly Craft warmly welcomed the appointment of a China expert.

I do think that theres a real bonus ... the fact that they are on to China, she said.

I think its really imperative that the U.K. has someone that comes in that understands China, and understands their malicious behaviour within the U.N. and outside, she told a group of reporters Thursday. The U.N. is watching, were watching how theyre trying to infiltrate the U.N. and how theyre trying to infiltrate every corner that they can of the (U.N.) Secretariat.

Woodward joined the Foreign Office in 1994, and her first posting was to the British embassy in Moscow.

She said she was delighted to take up the job at a time when the rules-based international system faces pressing global challenges and a significant reform agenda.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Woodward will bring her formidable intellect and dynamic diplomatic skills to the role.
That work, those lessons, should not be tied to the progress of getting the name off the building or selecting a new name, she said. I believe there are important conversations to be had, painful conversations to be had. But again, as I communicated to Dr. Swinney in a personal email, students and families of color should not be expected to bare their wounds of racism to convince others that the name change or name removal needs to happen along a certain timeline.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 14:00:49|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Ministry of Education (MOE) released a notice on Thursday warning about college admission scams.

The ministry suggests that college candidates and their parents visit the official website or WeChat account of the MOE to verify the authenticity of a qualified university to avoid being swindled by "fake universities," according to the notice.

It said that all colleges and universities registered by the MOE have an exclusive code that can be looked up in the college application systems.

It urged people to use common sense, cautioning against frauds in which "universities" claim candidates can pay to be admitted regardless of their scores. Enditem
Social media giant Facebook, for the first time, has removed a post from United States President Donald Trump in which he claimed that children were "almost immune" to COVID-19, saying it violated its policy against spreading "misinformation" about the novel coronavirus.

The post in question was a video clip of a Trump interview on Fox News Channel uploaded by the Trump campaign on Wednesday.

The US President claims in the clip that children are "almost immune" to COVID-19.

While much remains unknown about the novel coronavirus, children can contract COVID-19 and are believed to be able to spread it to others, even without symptoms.

"This video includes false claims that a group of people is immune from COVID-19 which is a violation of our policies around harmful COVID misinformation," Andy Stone, a Facebook policy spokesperson said in a statement.

A link to the post now diverts to a page that says, "This Content Isn't Available Right Now."

It is the first time that Facebook has removed a post from Trump entirely, rather than labelling it, as it has done in the past, making it a rare instance in which it has been willing to censor the president.

In June, Facebook removed ads that the Trump campaign posted that featured a symbol Nazis used to classify political prisoners during World War II.

Twitter also removed a link to the same video clip, which the official Trump Twitter account @TeamTrump shared earlier on Wednesday. Links to the tweet now point Twitter users to a message that the tweet violated Twitter's rules and is no longer available.

The Trump campaign accused Facebook of "flagrant bias."

"The President was stating a fact that children are less susceptible to the coronavirus," Courtney Parella, the campaign's deputy national press secretary, said in an emailed statement.

"Another day, another display of Silicon Valley's flagrant bias against this President, where the rules are only enforced in one direction. Social media companies are not the arbiters of truth," Parella said.

A US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study involving 2,500 children published in April found that about one in five infected children were hospitalized versus one in three adults; three children died.

Two months ago, Facebook faced a backlash both inside and outside the company for not taking any action against Trump's May 29 comment, posted on Facebook and Instagram, in which he said about Minneapolis protests and civil unrest in the wake of George Floyd's killing by police: "Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!"

Twitter hid the same "looting and shooting" message behind a warning label saying that it violated its policy banning the glorification of violence.
A New Jersey appeals courts decision to revive two lawsuits accusing Johnson & Johnsons iconic Baby Powder of causing cancer may lead to the reinstatement of about 1,000 suits targeting the talc-based product.

A three-judge panel of the New Jersey Superior Court said Wednesday a trial judge erroneously threw out expert testimony backing up claims by two women that talc caused their ovarian cancers, clearing the cases for trial. The ruling could also affect other talc cases on hold before the same judge.

There are approximately 1,000 ovarian cancer cases currently filed in New Jersey state court, with more to come, Ted Meadows, one of the lawyers representing women bringing the baby powder cases, said in a statement. This ruling paves the way for those cases to proceed to trial.

Thats unwelcome news to J&J, which is headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and previously tried to transfer most talc litigation to the state in the belief that it might have a home-court advantage. Wednesdays ruling and a New Jersey jurys February award of $750 million in a talc case may help dispel that notion.

We respect the courts decision and are fully prepared to defend the safety of our product in court, J&J spokeswoman Kim Montagnino said in an emailed statement. We remain confident that our talc is safe, asbestos free, and does not cause cancer.

Mounting Cases

J&J pulled Baby Powder off the market in the U.S. and Canada in May. The number of cases alleging it causes cancer continues to mount, though, increasing 15% over the last eight months, according to J&J securities filings. The company now faces more than 20,000 talc lawsuits, some claiming talc itself causes cancer and others pointing to alleged asbestos contamination in talc.

Holly Froum, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst, said the growing number of cases may force J&J to pay as much as $10 billion to resolve the suits.

In Wednesdays decision, the appellate panel found Atlantic County Judge Nelson Johnson was wrong to assess the credibility of plaintiffs experts Graham Colditz and Daniel Cramer in excluding their testimony, rather than scrutinizing the methodologies behind their conclusions that talc can cause ovarian cancer. Deciding credibility is an issue for the jury, not the judge, they said.

Imerys Talc America, a unit of Paris-based Imerys SA that mined talc used in J&Js baby powder, also was named as a defendant in the cases. But it sought bankruptcy protection from creditors last year. The company is offering to settle more than 14,000 talc lawsuits by selling itself and other Imerys units as part of the bankruptcy and putting the proceeds into a trust for claimants.

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.
Lydia Leconey thought she was just joining a regular Zoom meeting with the administration at Virtua Marlton Hospital.

A few of her colleagues joined the call with her and then the entire group was greeted by a guest.

To all of their shock, it was three-time Grammy Award winner and 11-time Country Music Association award winner Tim McGraw.

When he appeared on my screen, I thought it was someone from the administration, said Leconey, who has been working at Virtua for 36 years. It took me a minute and I was totally speechless, which is very unusual for me.

McGraw, whose appearance is a part of a Spotify series called The Drop-In, greeted the virtual crowd with a big smile. He also made sure they knew how much he appreciates the work they have all been putting in over the past few months.

There are a lot of great people that do a lot of great things and you guys are right at the top of the heap, McGraw said in the video. Thank you for inspiring my daughters. I really appreciate that just as much as anything in the world.

It wasnt just a quick thank you to the staff members at Virtua. McGraw also performed a song.

He called in guitarist Bob Minner and sang I Called Mama, a single from his upcoming album Here On Earth, which is due out Aug. 23.

Tim McGraw Serenades Frontline Workers When you think Tim McGraw, you probably never think he's gonna crash your conference call  See him spread a little hope to frontline heroes in the latest episode of The Drop-In Posted by Spotify on Wednesday, 22 July 2020

I had to look and really make sure it was him, said A.J. Papeika, a lifelong McGraw fan. For him to take the time to speak to us and even give us a song as well was just the cherry on top.

Papeika, who has been at Virtua for seven years, has used McGraws music to help him get through the toughest times in his life and the last few months are no different.

Now, he has his own McGraw claim to fame in being one of the only people to have a live virtual performance of that new song.

Admittedly, Leconey didnt recognize the song at the time but has grown to love it since. She had always been a fan of McGraw and his wife Faith Hill, having seen the ladder a few times back in the day. Now, its nothing but McGraw playing on Alexa around the clock, sometimes to the playful chagrin of her family members.

I cant stop listening to it, she gladly said.

It was really a pleasant stroke of luck this whole arrangement was put together.

Anthony Flaherty, whos been at Virtua for nine years, befriended a bridesmaid of his sister-in-law who happened to be a casting director in California. The Drop-In concept came across her desk one day and Flaherty was the person she called.

Flaherty, who really took a liking to country music while at the University of Delaware but always liked McGraws music, couldnt say no at the idea. Then the challenge became keeping the whole thing under wraps.

After a few weeks of preparation, the payoff on May 27 meant everything.

Hes just such a down-to-earth person and for him to take that time and reach out to us it just meant the world to my staff and to myself, he said. It was a big morale booster and I think it really helped carry us through those tough days.

The video of the call itself was published July 22, which meant the crew had to keep quiet about it for almost two months. That proved to be nearly as tough as keeping the whole thing a secret.

It was at that point that everyone in all departments got to enjoy a big-time celebrity and one of the greatest country artists of all time show his appreciation for them.

Everything that we went through as a team, dealing with our patients and also us trying to take care of ourselves at the same time, this is really an act of kindness that someone from California is thinking of us, said Papeika. At the time, it really got us through tough days and really helped us celebrate the good days as well.

It may seem like a small thing for Tim to do but he should never underestimate the impact that his kind words he had for us meant. We were dealing with so much uncertainty, a lot of fear, grief and despair among many of our COVID patients. This surprise appearance really uplifted our spirits, added Leconey.

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Brian Bobal may be reached at bbobal@njadvancemedia.com.
The experimental vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 that was the first to enter human trials in the United States has been shown to elicit neutralizing antibodies and a helpful T-cell response with the aid of a carefully engineered spike protein that mimics the infection-spreading part of the virus.

The latest paper about a Moderna-NIH vaccine that recently entered phase 3 human trials was published today in the journal Nature; its leading authors are Barney Graham and Kizzmekia Corbett at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' (NIAID) Vaccine Research Center, part of the National Institutes of Health, and Andrea Carfi of biotech company Moderna.

It describes both preclinical results and important protein engineering led by a team at The University of Texas at Austin.

The paper describes in part work to stabilize an otherwise-shifting part of the virus: the protein that fuses with and infects cells, called the spike protein. Earlier research into coronaviruses was critical for the fastest-ever progression from virus genome sequencing to vaccine testing in humans, which took only 66 days.

Several things were key for rapid vaccine development, including understanding the precise atomic-level structure of the spike protein and how to stabilize it. As fast as this all happened, the development was possible because of years of earlier research." Jason McLellan, Stusy Author and Associate Professor of Molecular Biosciences, University of Texas at Austin

In announced earlier this year that they had mapped the molecular structure of a stabilized spike protein within weeks of receiving the genetic sequence, publishing the structure of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in the journal Science.

NIAID and the biotechnology company Moderna, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, worked to develop a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine, which, according to the NIH, directs the body's cells to express the spike in its prefusion conformation to elicit an immune response.

Today's paper describes findings that the vaccine keeps infection from spreading into the airways of mice, produces neutralizing antibodies and prompts a response in immune cells called memory T-cells.

The stabilized spike protein, known as the S-2P protein, also features in several other coronavirus vaccines currently in clinical trials.

The SARS-CoV-2 spike protein is a shape-shifter, changing its structure before and after fusing with cells. The immune system responds best when the spike protein is in its prefusion shape, so McLellan's team reengineered the protein in two key places to lock it into that shape.

McLellan's postdoctoral researcher Nianshuang Wang had identified genetic mutations necessary to stabilize the shape-shifting spike protein for MERS-CoV back in 2017, and the team found the same tactic works with the new coronavirus.

Using small genetic modifications to the gene sequence that encodes for the protein, the researchers essentially make part of the spring-loaded portion of the molecule more rigid, preventing it from rearranging.

Instead of a painful process of trial and error, the researchers designed the necessary mutations within about a day of receiving the SARS-CoV-2 virus genome.

The McLellan lab completed the atomic-level structure, and graduate student Daniel Wrapp harvested and purified the spike protein. Soon after, Corbett and Graham at the NIAID verified that the S-2P protein generated potent antibodies in mice.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testifies during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in Washington on July 30, 2020. (Greg Nash-Pool/Getty Images)

Pompeo Outlines Broad Strategy Against Threat Posed by Chinas Technology

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on American tech companies to remove untrusted Chinese apps from their stores, while outlining the administrations clean network initiative to safeguard U.S. interests.

Pompeos callaimed at Apple and Google for their app storescame as the Trump administration compelled popular video-sharing app TikTok to find an American buyer, citing security concerns. U.S. tech giant Microsoft confirmed it was in talks to buy TikTok from its Beijing-based owner ByteDance.

With parent companies based in China, apps like TikTok, WeChat, and others are significant threats to the personal data of American citizens, not to mention tools for CCP (Chinese Communist Party) content censorship, Pompeo said at a press conference on Aug. 5.

Chinas national intelligence law, which went into effect in 2017, allows Beijing access to all data stored within its national borders.

TikToks existing privacy policy states that the company collects information you [users] share with us from third-party social network providers, and technical and behavioral information about your use of the platform, as well as user information such as IP address and location-related data.

In July, 25 Republican House members wrote (pdf) to President Donald Trump, pointing to TikToks privacy policy as a reason to ban it and other apps linked to the CCP.

WeChat, a popular messaging app owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent, complies with the Chinese regimes censorship rules, and also extends its monitoring and censorship to U.S. app users.

Removal of untrusted Chinese apps was just one of the six-part initiative in the clean network campaign, said Pompeo on Wednesday. The campaign was initially about the U.S. governments effort to push countries to ban Chinese vendors including Huawei from their 5G networks.

The U.S. expands the Clean Network by launching 5 new Clean initiativesClean Carrier, Clean Store, Clean Apps, Clean Cloud & Clean Cableto secure Americans most sensitive information from the CCPs surveillance state. We call on freedom-loving nations and companies to join us. pic.twitter.com/BQSk6YFt1M  Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) August 5, 2020

Pompeo also called on U.S. companies not to make their apps available to untrusted smartphone makers such as Huawei.

We dont want companies to be complicit in Huaweis human rights abuses or the CCPs surveillance apparatus, Pompeo said.

In June, the Pentagon named 20 companies including Huawei, China Mobile, and China Telecom, as being owned or controlled by the Chinese military. In mid-July, the State Department announced it would impose visa restrictions on employees of Huawei and other Chinese tech companies that support Chinas human rights violations around the world.

The clean network campaign also covers issues surrounding Chinese cloud computing and undersea data cables, the latter carrying 99 percent of the worlds data traffic.

Pompeo named five Chinese cloud service providersAlibaba, Baidu, China Mobile, China Telecom, and Tencentand the threat posed to Americans and U.S. companies when they store data, including COVID-19 vaccine research, on these online platforms.

Two state-backed Chinese hackers were indicted in July for stealing trade secrets and attempting to steal COVID-19 research.

The State Department will work closely with Commerce and other agencies to limit the ability of Chinese cloud service providers to collect, to store, and to process vast amounts of data and sensitive information here in the United States, Pompeo said.

The Huawei logo at the IFA consumer tech fair in Berlin on Sept. 6, 2019. (Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters)

In another initiative, Pompeo warned that data transmitted by undersea cables could be compromised by the CCP, in particular those laid down by Huawei Marine.

Huawei Marine was established in 2008 as a joint venture between Huawei and UK-based submarine communications firm Global Marine. Since then, the company has become one of the worlds largest undersea cable providers. Currently, the majority stake owner of Huawei Marine is China-based Hengtong Optic-Electric Corporation, which has ties to the CCP.

In June, Washington urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to block an undersea cable connecting Los Angeles and Hong Kong due to national security risks. The cable, mostly laid and ready to launch, is backed by Google and Facebook.

Finally, Pompeo pointed to the importance of not having Chinese telecom companies connected to U.S. telecommunication networks.

He called on the FCC to bar China Telecom Americas, China Unicom Americas, Pacific Networks and its wholly-owned subsidiary ComNet USA, from providing services to and from the United States.

A Senate report issued in early June warned that Chinas state-owned telecom carriers may assist the Chinese regime in its cyber and economic espionage efforts against the United States.

We call on all freedom-loving nations and companies to join the Clean Network, Pompeo concluded.

Also on Wednesday, Pompeo said the tide is absolutely turning against the CCP since his speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in California on July 23, when he called on free nations to induce change in the CCPs behavior.

The central idea of distrust and then verify, I think the world is coming to see as the right approach to responding to these challenges, he added.
MIDDLETOWN  Local and state officials joined Gov. Ned Lamont Wednesday afternoon at Veterans Memorial Green to assess the significant damage the city suffered in the wake of Tropical Storm Isaias.

Middletown took a direct hit, according to Fire Chief and Emergency Management Services Director Robert Kronenberger. Around 2:30, 3 oclock, there was the talk of tornadoes, however, I think everything that hit us was very powerful, straight-line winds.

When you see trees come down on Main Street, you know the winds are extremely strong. We never see damage on Main Street like that, he said. That was quite surprising.

There were no injuries reported due to the storm.

On the Washington Street green, Lamont marveled at several large trees that had just missed two war monuments.

Restoration is expected to take between three and four days, said Lamont, who was set to meet with the CEO of Eversource at 4 p.m. Were going to push like hell. Weve got 90-degree weather, seniors living at home with no power. You cant survive that way.

In total, 609,180 Eversource customers in Connecticut remained without service early Wednesday evening. In upper Middlesex County, Durham was hit hardest, with 100 percent (3,134) of households without power.

Middletown had 34 percent (7,887) of customers out by early Wedneday evening; 73 percent (3,407) in Portland; 70 percent (2,763) in Haddam; 56 percent (3,528) in East Hampton; and 20 percent (1,406) in Cromwell.

The impact from this storm, in terms of power outages, is greater than Superstorm Sandy. The fierce winds with this storm caused widespread power outages and historic damage, affecting customers in all of the 149 communities we serve in Connecticut, Michael Hayhurst, Eversource vice president of electric operations in Connecticut, said in a statement.

Mayor Ben Florsheim, whose house remained without electricity, was pleased to report outages were on the decline, after peaking at about 9,000. However, they could go back up again.

Crews were working to reopen a handful of streets where trees were tangled in power lines, he said.

The Police Department kept officers who work the day shift on duty Tuesday night to help block off intersections with tons of traffic lights out, the mayor said.

With those outages on Route 66, people know how extraordinary that is, Florsheim said.

This is the third-worst hit in terms of outages in the history of the state, so were not going to over promise, Lamont said.

He said he was anticipating receiving support from the Connecticut National Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Lamont asked whether the city needed shelters for residents who suffered a lot of damage.

If this was a wintertime storm, it would have been a different story, the fire chief said. We should be able to bounce back.

People already are struggling after losing their jobs and having unemployment insurance run out amid the coronavirus pandemic, and are worried about sending their children back to school in the midst of the pandemic, the mayor said.

Now they might have a couple-thousand-dollar bill for removal of debris from their property. Its one thing after another, after another, he said. Thats true for residents, and its also true for municipalities across the state.

Resources are going to be the most important thing, and theyre all interlaced with one another, Florsheim said.

Lamont spoke about challenges facing utility service providers during the pandemic. You probably cant keep full-time staff in place just for that type of emergency. People always say, why dont you trim the trees next to the power wires on a sunny day, then they say youre not taking care of the beauty of the area.

Moving power lines underground, such as those in New Britain, Lamont said, is a long-term solution.

State Rep. Quentin Phipps, D-Middletown, told the governor the city set up microgrids after the last major storm to hit the area, including at Wesleyan University and Middlesex Hospital. As a result, outages were minimal there.

Middletown Public Works crews identified several high-priority areas where streets were still blocked late Wednesday morning, due to trees and wires in the roadway, including Highland Avenue, Camp Street, and Coleman, Freeman and Bretton roads, according to Director William Russo.

It is essential the emergency personnel are able to access these areas, Russo said. In some cases, the department is working with Eversource to confirm the power is cut off before clearing the wreckage.

With temperatures in the 90s, Russo is asking people to be as patient as possible as restoration efforts continue.

I know its warm. This could be a lot worse  an ice storm in the cold and frozen pipes. We are working as quickly as we can to restore everyone, and are pairing up with Eversource as needed, he said.

Were managing safety precautions, and managing COVID, too. We cant forget this is here, Russo said.

Lightning from the storm Tuesday afternoon sparked a fire in a tree outside the Board of Education building on Hunting Hill Avenue, cutting off electricity in the primary power wires, Russo said. The facility remained without power late Wednesday morning.

Essential city personnel are keeping in touch via tablets, cellphone and text instead of email because City Hall was without Internet service, Russo said. While that presents a complication, he assured residents that alternative methods of communication were running smoothly.

Russo urged motorists to treat non-working traffic control lights at intersections as stop signs, and to pay close attention.

Areas of particular concern include South Main Street and Loveland Street, near the entrance and exit ramp to Route 9, and the intersection of Route 3/Newfield Street and Route 66/Washington Street, where stop signs were put in place.

Dispatchers have been fielding calls around the clock about outages and other issues, as well as medical calls, he said, praising their efforts.

He reminded people to contact elderly neighbors and family members to be sure they have everything they need, If they have any medical needs, check on them. Its safer if neighbors are looking out for each other.

Due to a lack of electricity, Xavier High School delayed the release of its 2020-21 reopening plan, the administration posted on Twitter.
The Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, which hears cases from the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, stands in Lower Manhattan, New York City, on Jan. 18, 2019. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Appeals Court Blocks Vermont From Excluding Religious Schools Students From State Program

A federal appeals court has blocked Vermont from enforcing a rule that bars students attending religious schools from participating in a state program that allows high school juniors and seniors to dual-enroll in college courses before they graduate.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Wednesday granted (pdf) an emergency request to block Vermont from enforcing a rule that bars religious schools and their students from participating in the states Dual Enrollment Program while their appeal is pending. The program, which aims to help students reach postsecondary readiness, provides public funding directly to colleges so that eligible high schools students can take college classes before they graduate from high school.

The program is offered to students who are enrolled in a public school, home studies, or an approved independent school that is either designated as the public secondary school for the students district of residence or one that receives publicly funded tuition from a students district of residence. But because Vermonts Constitution prohibits public funding to go to religious schools that lack adequate safeguards against the use of such funds for religious worship, religious schools are effectively precluded from participating.

In the case at hand, four students, their parents, and a Roman Catholic diocese sued the states agency of education secretary in 2019, alleging the state was discriminating against students based on the religious status of the school they attended. They claim that the programs student eligibility requirements violated their First and Fourteenth Amendments under the U.S. Constitution. The district court found for the state earlier this year, prompting an appeal to the circuit court.

While the appeal is playing out in the court, the students lawyers asked the court to grant an emergency injunction pending appeal as one of the students, A.H. is a senior at the religious school Rice Memorial High School and is nearing the time when she has to submit college applications. She is relying on the courts ruling to decide her fate on whether she can participate in the program, they said.

This is A.H.s last chance to participate in the Dual Enrollment Program. She should not have to choose between exercising her faith and accessing this public benefit. Nor should her school. They need this Court to reaffirm that they, too, are members of the community who deserve an equal shot at educational success. This Court should enter the requested injunction saying so before its too late, her lawyer said.

In A.H.s case, her lawyers also claimed discrimination because she comes from a town that only offers a public elementary school but not a public high school. In Vermont, the school district is required to provide secondary education to these students under its Town Tuition Program. To satisfy this requirement, eligible towns must offer to pay tuition for their students to either attend a public school in another district or an approved private school.

As A.H. had chosen to attend a religious school, she is not eligible for the tuition or the dual enrollment program, even though her similarly situated peers attending public schools in another district or secular private schools are eligible, her lawyers argued.

The state denied the claim that the law is discriminatory, arguing in response that the students had failed to provide evidence that eligible high school students who attend religious schools are excluded from participating in the dual enrollment program solely because of the religious status of their schools.

Appellants offer this Court no evidence of purposeful religious discrimination either, the state argued. They establish no basis to conclude that the District Court clearly erred or abused its discretion in assessing the facts and denying Appellants the same relief that they again seek here.

The panel of the 2nd Circuit said on Wednesday that the students have a strong likelihood of success on the merits of their claims in light of a recent Supreme Court decision that ruled on a similar issue. That case, cited as Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, centers on a Montana program that provides a dollar-for-dollar tax credit up to $150 for individuals who donate to non-profit organizations that fund scholarships for families who wish to send their children to private schools.

Shortly after the program was created, the states Department of Revenue enacted a rule that limits the program to non-religious schools to comply with the state constitution that barred public money from going to religious schools. Parents of students who attend a private religious school in Montana sued tax officials over the rule. A trial court sided with the families, saying that they could use the scholarships at religious schools.

But in 2018 the Montana Supreme Court reversed the trial court decision and invalidated the entire program.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June (pdf) that Montanas decision to limit the program had discriminated against religious schools and its students in violation of the Consitutions Free Exercise Clause.

John Bursch, a senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, welcomed the 2nd circuits decision, saying that no state can discriminate against students based on which kind of school they attend. Alliance Defending Freedoms attorneys are representing two of the students, their parents, and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington.

It makes no sense for the state to say it will pay for a student from a public or secular private school to take a college course at a public university, for example, but then say that a student from a faith-based private school cannot receive the same funding to attend that exact public university class. Thats unconstitutional, Bursch said in a statement.

The Epoch Times reached out to Vermonts Agency of Education for comment.

Last year, the Justice Department filed a statement of interest in the Vermont case in support of the students, saying that they have plausibly pled a First Amendment claim.

The State  imposes a penalty on the free exercise of religion: it forces students who are otherwise eligible for the Dual Enrollment Program to choose between participat[ing] in [the] program or remain[ing] [enrolled at] a religious institution,' the department wrote last year (pdf).
SELBYVILLE, Del., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Market Insights, Inc. has recently added a new report on the solar PV mounting system market which estimates the market valuation for solar PV mounting systems will cross US$ 16 billion by 2026. The provision for various tax rebates along with subsidies to support the design and construction of photovoltaic systems will significantly augment the industry growth.

Solar PV Mounting Systems Market is expected to surpass USD 16 billion by 2026, as reported in the latest study by Global Market Insights, Inc.

Fixed mounting systems market will witness significant growth on account of their low operational costs and ease of availability. Less space requirements along with low capital investment will further stimulate the industry growth over the forecast timeline.

Request a sample of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/1647

The growing adoption of solar energy in residential & commercial buildings is projected to drive the rooftop solar PV mounting system installation globally. Several countries including South Africa, and Brazil are emphasizing more on the deployment of photovoltaic systems across households & buildings to effectively deal with the ongoing power scarcity situations. Moreover, the declining solar component costs have further driven the deployment across various developing countries significantly.

The residential sector holds immense growth potential and will witness substantial deployment in the coming years. Conducive regulatory efforts to escalate solar adoption through incentivization, feed in tariffs, net metering and similar supportive policies will drive the industry statistics significantly. In addition, declining technology prices, due to the economies of scale and global competition will further raise the solar PV mounting system market dynamics globally.

Growing focus towards the grid integration of sustainable sources has significantly strengthened the solar PV mounting systems business portfolio across Latin America. The region with its favorable geographical location and strong regulatory measures has emerged as one of the leading and most competitive markets for the mounting systems. Development of large utility-scale projects across Chile and Brazil are further enhancing the industry growth substantially. For instance, in 2019, Chile has announced to build Sol del Desierto project with a capacity of 230 MW. In the coming years, declining component prices with the introduction of favorable incentive measures will surge the market across the region.

Browse key industry insights spread across 240 pages with 434 market data tables & 52 figures & charts from the report, "Solar PV Mounting Systems Market Share & Forecast, 20202026" in detail along with the table of contents:

https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/solar-PV-mounting-systems-market

Few major findings of the solar PV mounting systems market report include:

Ongoing shift toward adoption of sustainable technologies over traditional coal-fired systems will drive the growth of solar PV mounting system market globally.

Rising investments toward the integration of solar PV technologies across residential and commercial establishments will fuel business growth.

Technological advancement toward product design for efficiency enhancement and cost reduction will stimulate the product demand.

Soaring investments for solar PV technologies across African & Middle East countries will supplement the product demand.

Major players operating across the solar PV mounting system market includes, RBI Solar, UNIRAC, Inc., Schletter GmbH, K2 Systems GmbH, Mounting Systems GmbH and Esdec Inc. amongst others.

Browse complete report table of contents @ https://www.gminsights.com/toc/detail/solar-PV-mounting-systems-market

Partial chapters of report table of contents (TOC):

Chapter 3 Solar PV Mounting Systems Industry Insights

3.1 Industry segmentation

3.2 Industry ecosystem analysis

3.2.1 Vendor matrix

3.3 Innovation & sustainability

3.3.1 Schletter GmbH

3.3.2 UNIRAC

3.3.3 Mounting Systems

3.3.4 Clenergy

3.3.5 NEXTracker

3.3.6 Arctech Solar

3.3.7 PV Hardware

3.3.8 ArcelorMittal Projects Exosun

3.3.9 Convert Italia SpA

3.4 Regulatory landscape

3.4.1 North America

3.4.1.1 U.S.

3.4.1.2 Mexico

3.4.2 Europe

3.4.2.1 Regulation

3.4.2.2 UK

3.4.2.3 France

3.4.2.4 Germany

3.4.3 Asia Pacific

3.4.3.1 China

3.4.3.2 India

3.4.3.2.1 National Tariff Policy (Dated 28th January 2016)

3.4.3.3 Australia

3.4.3.3.1 Feed-in tariff

3.4.4 Africa

3.4.4.1 South Africa

3.4.4.1.1 Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Programme (REIPPP)

3.4.4.1.2 Integrated Resource Plan for Electricity (IRP)

3.4.5 Middle East

3.4.5.1 Nigeria

3.4.5.1.1 Nigeria Feed-in Tariff for Renewable Energy Sourced Electricity

3.4.5.2 UAE

3.4.5.2.1 Small-Scale Solar Photovoltaic Energy Netting Regulations

3.4.5.3 Iran

3.4.6 Latin America

3.4.6.1 Chile

3.5 Price trend analysis. By end-use

3.5.1 Residential

3.5.2 Commercial

3.5.3 Utility

3.6 Cost structure analysis

3.6.1 Price learning curve for PV technologies

3.6.2 Capital cost breakdown analysis for solar PV plant, 2019

3.7 Global trends in renewable energy investment 2019 (USD Billion)

3.8 Global solar cost reduction potential, 2025

3.9 Renewable power generation as a share of global power, 2018

3.10 Industry impact forces

3.10.1 Solar PV Mounting Systems Market Growth drivers

3.10.1.1 North America & Latin America

3.10.1.1.1 Stringent targets for solar PV systems installation

3.10.1.1.2 Declining component cost

3.10.1.2 Europe

3.10.1.2.1 Growing demand for conventional energy replacement

3.10.1.3 Asia Pacific

3.10.1.3.1 Favorable clean energy directives

3.10.1.4 Middle East

3.10.1.4.1 Increasing utility-scale investments

3.10.1.5 Africa

3.10.1.5.1 Rising distributed and off-grid solar installations

3.10.2 Industry pitfall & challenges

3.10.2.1 Availability of other sustainable alternatives

3.11 Growth potential analysis

3.12 COVID  19 impact on the overall industry outlook, 2020 - 2026

3.12.1 Top countries impacted by COVID-19

3.12.2 Optimistic View

3.12.3 Realistic View

3.12.4 Pessimistic View

3.13 Porter's analysis

3.13.1 Bargaining power of suppliers

3.13.2 Bargaining power of buyers

3.13.3 Threat of new entrants

3.13.4 Threat of substitutes

3.14 Competitive landscape, 2019

3.14.1 Strategy dashboard

3.14.1.1 Schletter GmbH

3.14.1.2 Mounting Systems, Inc.

3.14.1.3 JinkoSolar

3.14.1.4 UNIRAC

3.14.1.5 K2 Systems

3.14.1.6 Clenergy

3.14.1.7 NEXTracker

3.14.1.8 Array Technologies

3.14.1.9 Arctech Solar

3.14.1.10 Soltech

3.14.1.11 PV Hardware

3.14.1.12 GameChange Solar

3.14.2 Merger & Acquisition

3.14.2.1 RBI Solar

3.14.2.2 Mounting Systems, Inc.

3.14.2.3 UNIRAC

3.15 PESTEL analysis

Browse related report:

Solar PV Module Market Size By Technology (Thin Film, Crystalline Silicon), By Product (Monocrystalline, Polycrystalline, Cadmium Telluride (CdTe), Amorphous Silicon (A-Si), Copper Indium Gallium Di-selenide (CIGS)), By Connectivity (On-Grid, Off-Grid), By Mounting (Ground Mounted, Roof-Top), By End-Use (Residential, Commercial, Utility), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2020  2026

https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/solar-pv-module-market

About Global Market Insights

Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.

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Solar PV Mounting Systems Market to exceed $16 Bn by 2026

Solar PV Mounting Systems Market is expected to surpass USD 16 billion by 2026, as reported in the latest study by Global Market Insights, Inc.

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Solar Energy Storage Market

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CHISINAU (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 06th August, 2020) Moldova's Constitutional Court ruled out that the country's president is obliged to nominate a candidate for the prime minister role if such a candidate is backed by the parliamentary majority, Domnica Manole, the high court's head, said on Thursday.

Moldovan Lawmaker Igor Munteanu has asked the constitutional court to interpret several constitutional articles regarding the procedure of nominating a candidate for the premiership and the president's powers regarding the matter.

"The constitutional court decided to partially satisfy the request of the lawmaker, Igor Munteanu.

Taking into account Article 98, Clause 1 of the constitution, the president's right to nominate a candidate for the prime minister's post is limited," Manole said, adding that the president has to nominate a candidate if he is supported by the "formalized parliamentary majority".

According to the court's head, the president may even be forced to resign if there is a refusal to agree on the nominee, as such an act violates the constitution.

Manole added that the constitutional court's decision was final and cannot be appealed.
LEWISBURG-Eight more inmates at the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary have tested positive for COVID-19 to bring the number to 43.

And, according to Wednesdays statistics of the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), one staff member also has tested positive.

The outbreak, which had been confined to one housing unit, has spread to two others, BOP spokesman Justin Long said.

All of the inmates who have tested positive have been transferred to isolation areas and are in single cells, he said.

A contact tracing investigation is completed for every positive case and any inmate identified as possibly being exposed is screened and tested, as is any symptomatic inmates, he said.

Any staff member who tests positive may not return to work until he or she meets the criteria established by the Centers for Disease Control, he said.

The BOP cannot require staff members to be tested but they are provided information where tests are being conducted, Long said.

Between 20 and 30 staff members with personal protection equipment are assigned to the unit where the outbreak originated, said Andrew Kline, president of Local 148 of the American Federation of Government Employees.

They are remaining at those posts instead of working elsewhere in the prison to try to curtail the spread of the virus, he said.

It doesnt get any more front line that this, Kline said. These are ordinary Americans doing extraordinary things daily.

The first confirmed coronavirus case was last Thursday when an inmate who was feeling ill tested positive. Mass testing of inmates followed.

The Abbott testing machine that provides results in about 15 minutes was used, Long said.

A commercial lab test was conducted if an inmate tested negative but was experiencing COVID-19-related symptoms, he said. It could take up to seven days to get those results, he said.

There have been no recent transfers into Lewisburg with the inmate population in the medium-security prison remaining at 1,047, Long said.

More than 900 inmates arrived in April after a tornado caused extensive damage to the Estill prison in South Carolina.

The state Department of Health records show the number of people who have tested positive in Union County has increased from 129 last Thursday to 201 as of midnight Tuesday.

The number those who have recovered is not available on the county level, spokesman Nate Wardle said.
US Offers $10 Million Reward for Info on Foreign Cyber Election Interference

The Department of State on Aug. 5 offered a $10 million reward for anyone who identifies or locates hackers who work for a foreign government to interfere in the U.S. election.

The United States is specifically looking for information on people who may have violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act while targeting local, state or federal elections. Special counsel Robert Mueller charged 12 Russian nationals in 2018 with violating the same statute in connection to the theft and dissemination of Democratic National Committee emails.

The ability of persons, as well as foreign powers, to interfere in or undermine public confidence in United States elections, including through the unauthorized accessing of election and campaign infrastructure, constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States, the wanted notice states, referencing an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in September 2018.

The U.S. intelligence community assessed in January 2017 that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

The State Department issued the $10 million reward notice with less than three months left until the federal election on Nov. 3. China, Russia, and Iran are actively working to undermine the election, the head of U.S. counterintelligence said on July 24.

The reward is managed by the Rewards for Justice program, which has disbursed more than $150 million to more than 100 people around the world who provided information to bring terrorists to justice and protect national security.

On the same day, the State Department released a report on one of the pillars of Russias ongoing election interference efforts. The report detailed Moscows use of proxy websites to push disinformation and propaganda.

The Kremlin invests massively in its propaganda channels. Its intelligence services and proxies conduct malicious cyber activity to support their disinformation efforts. And it leverages outlets that masquerade as news sites or research institutions to spread false and misleading narratives, U.S. Special Envoy for the Global Engagement Center Lea Gabrielle told reporters in a briefing about the report.

In addition to promoting COVID-19 disinformation and pro-Russia content, Moscow uses the proxy websites to promote pro-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) narratives, the report found.

Beijing has also taken a page from Russias playbook, leveraging conspiracy websites and proxy channels to push disinformation and propaganda with the goal of undermining democratic norms and institutions, Gabrielle said.

The threat of both Chinas and Russias disinformation is real and its dangerous. Authoritarian governments seek to manipulate open and free information environments.
The New Hampshire Department of Justice announced it will review the the taxing methods of states like Massachusetts during the coronavirus pandemic.

The move was prompted by an emergency action taken by Massachusetts on July 21 that requires residents in other states who were working in Massachusetts before the pandemic to be subject to Massachusetts income tax while they work from home.

Normally, income tax is based off of the location a person works. During the pandemic, many New Hampshire residents, who normally commute to Massachusetts for work, are working from home, meaning their location of occupation is in a state that doesnt collect income tax.

We need to maintain that New Hampshire advantage at all costs, New Hamshire Gov. Chris Sununu said in a statement. We will take immediate steps to stop any attempts to impose income taxes on Granite Staters in a manner that violates the law or the New Hampshire or United States Constitution.

The regulation is in effect until Dec. 31 or 90 days after the state of emergency in Massachusetts is lifted.

More than 83,000 New Hampshire residents commute to Massachusetts for work - more than any other state, according to state data.

State Sens. Dan Feltes and Lou D'Allesandro also sent a letter Wednesday to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue calling the move "unfair, anti-worker and anti-public health."

A virtual public hearing on the issue will be held Aug. 27 by the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. In the description of the hearing, it says other states have adopted similar orders amid the pandemic.

Reporting from The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Related Content:
According to the state government, the number of active cases is now at 43,654, while 63,402 people have been discharged from hospitals after treatment

Uttar Pradesh on Thursday recorded its highest daily increase in coronavirus numbers with 61 more deaths and 4,586 fresh infections.

So far, 1,08,974 cases, including 1,918 fatalities, have been reported from the state.

The maximum 16 deaths were reported from Jaunpur; 10 from Kanpur Nagar; five from Varanasi; four from Gorakhpur; three each from Allahabad, Bareilly and Ayodhya among others, a government statement said.

The maximum 664 cases were reported from Lucknow, 447 from Kanpur Nagar and 281 from Varanasi, the statement said.

It, however, kept the number of fresh cases at 4,658 fresh cases with 63 deaths in the past 24 hours.

According to Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad, the number of active cases in the state is now 43,654. He said 63,402 people have been discharged from hospitals after treatment.

Prasad said presently, 14,206 people are in home isolation in the state while 1,282 are admitted to private hospitals and 178 in semi-paid facilities. The remaining are being treated at COVID hospitals set up by the government.

On Wednesday, over 87,000 tests were done in the state. With this, over 27 lakh tests have done so far, Prasad said, adding that a network of 61,350 COVID helpdesks has been set up in the state.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath asked officials to take COVID-19 as a challenge and intensify the fight against it.

He directed them to improve the health facilities in Kanpur, Varanasi, Jhansi, Gorakhpur and Allahabad and send a team of experts from Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGI) and King George's Medical University (KGMU) in Lucknow to Kanpur for guidance.
The Cuban government has been the target of years of increased sanctions by the Trump administration, although the shutdown of commercial flights under coronavirus has had a far more dramatic effect in less than five months. The government has managed to maintain a low rate of infection but the economy is estimated to drop 8% this year after years of near-zero growth.
Inside every cell lies a genome -- a full set of DNA that contains the instructions for building an organism. Across the biological world, genomes show a staggering diversity in size. For example, the genome of the Japanese white flower, Paris japonica, is over 150 billion base pairs, meaning that almost 100 meters of DNA is squeezed into each cell. In comparison, single-celled prokaryotes, like bacteria, have tiny genomes, averaging less than 5 million base pairs. Some prokaryotes have even smaller genomes that are fewer than 500,000 base pairs. But scientists still don't fully understand the driving forces responsible for reducing the size of genomes.

Now, in an international collaboration, led by the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) and the University of Sydney, and including researchers from the University of the Ryukyus, the Tokyo Institute of Technology, and RIKEN, scientists have found a link between mutation rate -- how quickly the DNA sequence changes -- and genome size. Writing in Current Biology, the researchers reported that prokaryotes with higher mutation rates lose genes at a faster pace, and therefore have smaller genomes.

"This was a really surprising result," said Professor Tom Bourguignon, co-first author of the study and head of the Evolutionary Genomics Unit at OIST. "Currently, the most accepted idea is that population size is the main factor that determines genome size in prokaryotes, particularly in endosymbionts, but our research challenges this view."

Endosymbionts are organisms that live inside the bodies or cells of other organisms, and typically have much smaller genomes than their free-living counterparts. The Evolutionary Genomics Unit researches an endosymbiont called Blattabacterium, a bacterial species that lives inside cockroaches and termites and provides their hosts with vital nitrogen-containing nutrients. But only a small number of these bacteria are passed on from a mother insect host to a daughter insect host, which keeps their effective population size very low.

"At small population sizes, natural selection is much less effective, and evolution is driven more strongly by chance," said Dr. Yukihiro Kinjo, co-first author and a postdoctoral scholar from the Evolutionary Genomics Unit. "Without enough selection pressure to maintain specific genes, mutations can arise that inactive and erode these genes, eventually leading to their total loss from the genome."

While population size as a driving force for genome reduction may be an attractive idea, many free-living prokaryotes that live in larger populations have also evolved smaller genomes, suggesting that it's only part of the story. Additional explanations have also been proposed but, until now, the mutation rate -- or the speed at which evolution occurs -- has been overlooked.

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In the study, the scientists collected genome data from a diverse range of prokaryotes, including strains from two endosymbiotic lineages and seven free-living lineages.

For each lineage, the team constructed an evolutionary tree that showed how the strains had diverged from each other. With the help of the OIST Biological Complexity Unit, led by Professor Simone Pigolotti, the scientists then created models that reconstructed how gene loss had occurred in each strain. They then estimated the mutation rate, population size and selection pressure for each strain and compared it to the amount of gene loss.

Surprisingly, the scientists did not find a clear link between estimated population size and rate of gene loss. Instead, they found a relationship between mutation rate and gene loss for seven out of the nine lineages studied, with higher mutation rates associated with faster rates of gene loss, resulting in smaller genomes.

"Although we haven't established a cause, there is a theoretical prediction that explains this observation; if the rate of mutation outweighs a selection pressure to maintain a gene, the gene will be lost from the genome," said Dr. Kinjo.

The scientists also found clues as to how the gene loss occurred, as strains with smaller genomes had lost genes involved in repairing DNA.

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"DNA repair genes fix damaged DNA, so when they are lost the mutation rate of a strain can quickly increase. Most mutations are harmful, so this can quickly inactivate other genes and drive their loss from the genome. If some of these inactivated genes are also involved in DNA repair, this can further accelerate mutation rate and gene loss," explained Professor Gaku Tokuda, from the University of the Ryukyus.

Although the answers to how gene loss occurs are becoming clearer, whether there are evolutionary reasons behind why prokaryotes increase their rate of mutation to shrink their genome, and if so, what these reasons are, remains an open question.

"Figuring out the evolutionary explanation for what we see is really complicated. It could be that an increased rate of mutation occurs to provide an adaptive advantage, such as the removal of unwanted or unnecessary genes. But we still can't rule out the possibility that the increased rate of mutation is non-adaptive and due to chance," said Dr. Kinjo.

Overall, their findings shed new light on the evolution of small genomes, prompting a re-think of the current dominant idea of genome reduction being driven by small population sizes.

"Unlike with population size, our results suggest that mutation rate could drive genome reduction in both free-living and endosymbiotic prokaryotes. This could be the first step in comprehensively understanding what drives changes in genome size across all prokaryotes," said Prof. Bourguignon.
At least eight people were killed as Tropical Storm Isaias battered the U.S. East Coast with rain and fierce winds after making landfall as a hurricane in North Carolina. Millions of people were without power on Wednesday after felled trees downed power lines.

Two people died when Isaias spun off a tornado that struck a North Carolina mobile home park.

Isaias sustained top winds of up to 65 mph (105 kph) more than 18 hours after coming ashore, but it was down to 40 mph max winds as of early Wednesday, according to the National Hurricane Center. On Thursday, North Carolina Emergency Management tweeted the primary storm impacts included damaging wind gusts, dangerous cloud-to-ground lightning and isolated flooding. The possibility for severe afternoon thunderstorms will continue Friday. It added all of North Carolina is under a marginal risk for flash flooding.

The North Carolina National Guard was assisting with Oak Island storm response efforts.

Isaias toggled between hurricane and tropical storm strength as it churned toward the East Coast. Fueled by warm ocean waters, the storm got a late burst of strength as a rejuvenated hurricane with top sustained winds of 85 mph (136 km/h) before coming ashore late Monday near Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina. Its tropical storm status was sustained, but weakened, as it headed north into Canada on Tuesday night.

Before making landfall late Monday, Isaias killed two people in the Caribbean and battered the Bahamas before brushing past Florida.

Some of the worst damage seemed to be east and north of where the hurricanes eye struck land in North Carolina.

Fortunately, this storm was fast-moving and has already left our state, Gov. Roy Cooper said Tuesday.

______

Morgan reported from North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Bryan Anderson is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Catastrophe Flood Hurricane North Carolina
A man has told of how he woke up from a medically-induced coma only to discover his whole household had died of coronavirus.

Scot Miller, 43, was battling Covid-19 in intensive care when his mother and her partner were killed by the disease, he told the BBC.

Mr Miller shared a flat in Edinburgh with his mother Norma, 76, who had dementia, and her 69-year-old partner.

It was only when he was brought out of a medically-induced coma that he found out about their deaths.

The 43-year-old said: "When I was upstairs in ICU fighting for my life, my mum was in a ward downstairs, basically passing away."

He said he first noticed something was wrong on March 21 when his mother had a fall and he was unable to get her back on her feet.

An ambulance took her to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, where she tested positive for the virus.

Meanwhile Mr Miller, too, was succumbing to the disease and by the end of the week he had been admitted to the same hospital, in a critical condition.

His sister-in-law Sharlene Miller told the BBC: "On the Sunday morning we got a call to say Norma had passed away, and we got a call from the consultant to say that Scott was very ill as well.

Then Norma's partner passed away the following Sunday."

After three weeks in intensive care, the 43-year-olds condition improved and he was brought out of the coma.

A nurse then informed him of his mothers death.

"When I came round, I just had a gut feeling that something had happened to mum and when the nurse told me it was just disbelief and shock. It was very hard," he said.

Four months on, Mr Miller is continuing his recovery and has no idea when he will be well enough to return to work.

He said he has been watching the rise in coronavirus cases across the UK with increasing alarm.

"People need to understand it's a real killer, I don't think people are really taking it seriously, he said.
The legendary home to artists, junkies, musicians, designers and dilettantes, New York's Chelsea Hotel has established its iconic status as a character in songs, films, theatre and memoirs. Numerous changes in ownership and legal battles have whittled the number of long-term tenants to around 30, signifying an end to the era of hedonism that attracted artist Andy Warhol, The Sex Pistols, Australian musicians Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, Blondie and many others. For more than 20 years, Melbourne-born Tony Notarberardino has been taking portraits of fellow residents and visitors, capturing the spirit of the Chelsea as it will never be again: a bohemian enclave, a sanctuary for rebels, New York as it once was.

The 12-storey hotel was once the tallest building in Manhattan. Credit:Colin Miller

The Chelsea Hotel was founded on a socialist utopian dream. It was one of the many buildings architect Philip Hubert established in New York in the 1880s as the city's first co-operative apartment houses, based on the principles of French philosopher Charles Fourier. Fouriers vision was one of communal sharing of resources, trust and harmony. A portion of the apartments in the 12-storey Victorian gothic landmark (at that point, Manhattans tallest building), located on West 23rd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues, were reserved for the tradespeople who'd constructed the building: plumbers, electricians, interior designers and builders. The top floor was a dedicated art gallery and the apartments not occupied by construction workers were offered to musicians, writers, actors and artists.

Markko and Cornelius at the Chelsea Hotel, NY Credit:Tony Notarberardino

By 1905 the dream of a romantic commune ended in bankruptcy and the Chelsea was converted into a luxury hotel. Post-war, it was bought by three partners including David Bard who passed management duties to his son, Stanley Bard, in the early 1970s. The younger Bard was a lover of artists, well known for his lackadaisical approach to collecting rent or maintaining cleanliness or repairs and for trading rent for artworks. To his chagrin, he was removed from management in 2007 when the property was sold to developers. When he died in 2017, an obituary in The New York Times described him as "a Robin Hood of innkeepers who nurtured writers and artists and tolerated assorted deadbeats. Since 2011, the Chelsea has been undergoing a $US40 million renovation for its owners King & Grove, with plans to reopen as a luxury boutique hotel. The residents, whittled down to only 30 long-term tenants, have lived in a construction zone for years.
This illustration used data obtained by NASAs Juno mission to depict high-altitude electrical storms on Jupiter. Juno's sensitive Stellar Reference Unit camera detected unusual lightning flashes on the planets dark side during the spacecraft's close flybys of the planet.

NASA's Juno spacecraft - orbiting and closely observing the planet Jupiter - has unexpectedly discovered lightning in the planet's upper atmosphere, according to a multi-institutional study led by the NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which includes two Cornell University researchers.

The work was published Aug. 5 in the journal Nature.

Jupiter's gaseous atmosphere seems placid from a distance, but up close the clouds roil in a turbulent, chemically dynamic realm. As scientists have probed the opaque surface with Juno's sensitive instrumentation, they've learned that Jupiter's lightning occurs not only deep within the water clouds but also in shallow atmospheric regions (at high altitudes with lower pressure) that feature clouds of ammonia mixed with water.

"On the night side of Jupiter, you see fairly frequent flashes - as if you were above an active thunderstorm on Earth," said Jonathan I. Lunine, the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences and chair of the Department of Astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell University. "You get these tall columns and anvils of clouds, and the lightning is going continuously. We can get some pretty substantial lightning here on Earth, and the same is true for Jupiter."

The research, "Small Lightning Flashes From Shallow Electrical Storms on Jupiter," was directed by Heidi N. Becker, the Radiation Monitoring Investigation lead of NASA's Juno mission. Lunine and doctoral candidate Youry Aglyamov were the two Cornell co-authors in the study.

Previous missions to Jupiter - such as Voyager 1, Galileo and New Horizons - had all observed lightning. But thanks to Juno's Stellar Reference Unit, a camera designed to detect dim sources of light, the spacecraft's close observational distance and instrument sensitivity enabled lightning detection at a higher resolution than previously possible.

Ammonia is the key. While there is water and other chemical elements such as molecular hydrogen and helium in Jupiter's clouds, ammonia is the "antifreeze" that keeps water in those upper atmospheric clouds from freezing entirely.

Lunine notes Aglyamov's ongoing dissertation work focuses on how lightning is generated under these conditions. The collision of the falling droplets of mixed ammonia and water with suspended water-ice particles constitutes a way to separate charge and produce cloud electrification - resulting in lightning storms in the upper atmosphere.

"The shallow lightning really points to the role of ammonia, and Youry's models are starting to confirm this," Lunine said. "This would be unlike any process that occurs on Earth."

Jupiter's wild gaseous world fascinates Aglyamov.

"Giant planets in general are a fundamentally different kind of world from Earth and other terrestrial planets," he said. "There are hydrogen seas transitioning gradually into skies stacked with cloud decks, weather systems the size of the Earth and who-knows-what in the interior."

The discovery of shallow lightning on Jupiter shifts our understanding of the planet, Aglyamov said.

"Shallow lightning hadn't really been expected and indicates that there's an unexpected process causing it," he said. "It's one more way in which Juno's observations show a much more complex atmosphere of Jupiter than had been predicted. We know enough now to ask the right questions about processes going on there, but as Juno shows, we're in a stage where every answer also tends to multiply the questions."

###

Funding for the Cornell portion of this research comes from the Southwest Research Institute.

Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.
Nominee to be US ambassador to Ukraine Keith Dayton pledges to counter Russian malign influence if his nomination is confirmed.

It is an honor to appear before you today as President Trumps nominee to serve as the United States Ambassador to Ukraine. If confirmed, I look forward to working with this Committee and Congress to continue our strong bipartisan support for the Ukrainian people, enhance our already deep bilateral relationship, support Ukraines reform agenda, counter Russian malign influence, and work to fully restore sovereignty and territorial integrity, Keith Dayton, nominee to be U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, said at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings on August 5.

In his view, these steps will be critical to advancing our shared goal of Ukraine joining the Euro-Atlantic community as a full and free member.

As reported, U.S. President Donald Trump nominated Keith Dayton for the post of U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine in early May 2020. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba welcomed this decision.

To be officially appointed as U.S. ambassador to a foreign state, a nominee must go through the Senate approval procedure.

Keith W. Dayton currently serves as the Director of the George C. Marshall Center in Garmisch, Germany, a position he has held since 2010. He also serves concurrently as Senior U.S. Defense Advisor to Ukraine, an adjunct duty to his position as Marshall Center Director. This follows a four-decade career in the United States Army from which he honorably retired in 2010 with the rank of Lieutenant General. Among his many assignments, Lt. General Dayton was the U.S. Security Coordinator Israel/Palestinian Authority; Director of Strategy, Plans and Policy, Army Staff, the Pentagon, and Director of Operations for the Defense Intelligence Agency, including as Director of the Iraq Survey Group looking for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

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SAN JOSE (BCN)

San Jose will have a new interim city attorney starting next week after the previously announced retirement of current City Attorney Rick Doyle takes effect.

Assistant City Attorney Nora Frimann will take over for Doyle, whose last day as lead counsel will be Monday, city officials said. Mayor Sam Liccardo announced the appointment of Frimann as interim city attorney Wednesday.

"I will miss Rick's calming presence in our city's leadership, and his successor will know that they have very big shoes to fill," Liccardo said.

Frimann is the city attorney's office representative to the League of California Cities' Legal Advocacy Committee and has also served on various Santa Clara County Bar Association and federal court committees.

She first joined the San Jose City Attorney's Office in 2001 and previously was a shareholder with the San Jose-based law firm Hoge Fenton, city officials said.

The city is in the process of appointing a permanent successor to Doyle.

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.
6th August 2020

Runtime 19:22





Sound Energy recently appointed Graham Lyon as Executive Chairman, and since then he has settled down to the task of delivering a substantial natural gas project in Eastern Morocco for Sound Energy and for #SOU shareholders.



In an interview with @Donald Leggatt, Head of Investor Relations at London South East, I began by asking him to sum up the strengths and challenges which he inherited. Graham said that some may describe it as a 'poisoned chalice.' "We had a reputation which the shareholders have certainly struggled with, and we have a recapitalisation issue in Sound, but there are lots of positives, and that's what took me on board".



According to Graham, these are Sound's strengths



1. Morocco is an an investment-friendly country which is good to do business in

2. Ten year tax holiday

3. The Moroccan legal system is considered to be 'one of the best in Africa'

4. Sound have a lot of acreage in Morocco and with it significant exploration potential

5. Sound have 310 bcf of net discovered resource in Morocco, where the gas price is high

6. #SOU have a supportive shareholder. 20% of the shares are owned by the state

7. Sound is a slim but competent organisation with motivated, hard working staff



As Graham put it "We have retweaked the strategy to look for cash generation and preservation, which is crucial during Covid. If we can convert Sound step by step into a cash converting machine then that's the way to succeed". Breaking the development down into different portions is "a good way to do this, and the Micro LNG is the first stage. Its a good way to get early capital coming back into the business."



Sound has signed a Heads of Agreement for a 10 year Take and Pay offtake of LNG with a local well-known Moroccan conglomerate "and hopefully we will sign them up fully in the Autumn". Sound will be the gas wholesaler of LNG, a new product in Morocco, and part of the transition to more low carbon fuels in the country. Crucially, the offtaker is the distributor and will pay for the transportation from Tendrara to market and will truck it, probably in ISO tankers and then regassify it for the end user.



Although Covid is capable of upsetting any timetable, the plan is still for Final Investment Decisions for the Micro LNG plant and the Tendrara gas pipeline (which links to the Mahgreb pipeline) to be taken before the year end. "Its certainly our target to do that."



Graham told us that since the development has been broken down into phases, he is now in talks with 3 EPC contractors to potentially undertake building the Micro LNG plant, and they may ultimately get involved in the pipeline construction as well. They may even provide some finance by taking a stake in the project. The project costs which were mentioned previously are "at the top end of the costs range and the talks are going well".



Funding

The capital raised in the placing and Broker Option, almost 3.5M, will take the business well beyond FID and into March. "The reason it won't take us into June is because we have a Bond repayment to deal with". This was done at 'market conditions' with no discount to get it away. "Combine this with the money raised in the Heads of Terms which is 13.5M worth of debt and 2M of equity, it puts a debt/equity ratio of two thirds to one third. I'd say it's 'unlikely' we will use equity to pay for the remaining costs of FID."



Potential Farm-in

A Farm-in with another partner is also a possibility and discussions are taking place currently. "We have signed several NDA's for people to come and have a look at the business, there are groups in the datarooms at the moment, and potentially even some of the EPC contractors would be interested in taking a position and funding it as they go along. I'd describe this as normal business practice." It has to be a good deal for Sound shareholders however.

#SOU

#GrahamLyon

#SoundEnergy

#Tendrara

#Morocco

#Gas

#E&P

#Farm-in

#Headsofagreement

#Covid
Biden Owes It to America and Himself to Take a Cognitive Test

Commentary

When Joe Biden reacted to CBS Errol Barnetts query about whether the presumed Democratic presidential candidate had taken a mental competency test with a bizarre rant likening the question to asking the reporter if hes a junkie, I suspected, as I assume many others did, that the former vice president really did need a cognitive test.

Equally bizarrely, Biden had previously said he had been tested, but seems to have changed his mind. How that is possible, Im not exactly sure.

The same day video appeared on Twitter of the former vice president answering a question on China in this manner: The way China will respond is when we gather the rest of the world that in fact [unintelligible] in in fr- in in in in open trade and making sure that were in a position that the world uh that that we deal with WHO the right way that in fact thats when things begin to change.

On the edge of incoherent or over it? Ill go with over it.

Some defended him on Twitter by reminding us poor Joe is a stutterer. Does stuttering mean you finish your sentences with a non sequitur? (Sounds like warmed-over intersectionality to me.)

That Biden refuses to be interviewed by Foxs Chris Wallace, who asked some difficult questions of Trump, does not augur well. The former veep acts like a man whose handlers dread he go out in public, for fear that he will gaffe endlessly.

But its worse than gaffes. He doesnt make sense. Hes not all there, a gnomic candidate, as I wrote some months ago, like Chauncey Gardner in Being There.

I also reminded everyone that he plagiarized in law school, was almost thrown out and had to promise not to do it again to stay in, but then did it again, several times, and had to withdraw from an earlier presidential campaign for cribbing his speeches from famous British legislator Neil Kinnock.

Its hard to believe the Democrats are so desperate for power they would nominate such a person, but they did. (And of course theres much morecorruption with China and Ukraine.)

So it should be obvious. I dont believe Joe Biden is mentally competent to be the leader of the free world (aka POTUS). The thought of him negotiating with Xi Jinping or his successor more than makes me cringe. It fills me with dread for our future.

But I could be wrong. It wouldnt be the first timeor the fifth.

The way to put this to rest and reassure us (Im pretty certain us also includes leaders around the world, notably the allies he constantly references) would be for him to pass a mental competency test.

He wouldnt even need the thirty out of thirty that Trump got, just a decent grade. Most presidents are far from geniuses on the Einstein or Tolstoy level. But they do have to know whats going on.

If he doesnt do this, take and pass the test, and goes on to win, I predict serious trouble ahead.

Already there is considerable buzz about who will really be in charge if Biden is president. Guesses range from Elizabeth Warren to his wife to one of the various women of color in the identity politics governed veepstakes.

Or would it be Barack Obama himself, enjoying his third term with old sidekick Susan Rice ensconced In Number One Observatory Circle, the official residence of the vice president?

Whatever happens the old idea of the buck stops here will be up for grabs. Whos really pulling the strings will be an endless question in the media and on the street.

Who is the decider? It could be someone not remotely mentioned, someone, of course, unelected, of whom we have no idea. How ominous is that for a democratic republic.

Every gaffe, every mistake will reawaken both the accusations of mental incompetence and plagiarism. Biden will be a man constantly humiliated.

Meanwhile, protest action in the streets would likely increase well beyond where they are now. The liberal-progressive pundit class seems to think Antifa, BLM and the rest, appeased, will virtually disappear once a Democrat is elected.

Au contraire. They forgot their French revolutionary history. They dont read Carlyle, or anything much, in the schools anymore. But if they did, they would know where this is headed.

With Chauncey Gardner at the helm.

Roger L. Simon is a prize-winning novelist, Oscar-nominated screenwriter, and co-founder of PJ Media. His most recent books are I Know Best: For Moral Narcissism Is Destroying Our Republic, If It Hasnt Already (non-fiction) and The GOAT (fiction).

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Roanoke and public health officials Wednesday met with leaders of the citys Hispanic community to figure out ways to spread information about the coronavirus.

The disease had disproportionately affected Latinos in both Roanoke and Virginia. The Virginia Department of Health has race and ethnicity data for only about half of the citys 973 COVID-19 cases. As of Thursday, 232 of those have been in Latinos  nearly twice as many cases as in white residents, although the Hispanic population makes up about 6.7% of the citys population, according to estimates by the University of Virginias Weldon Cooper Center.

As of Thursday, Virginia has been unable to identify the race and ethnicity for 23,408 of the states 95,867 cases. For cases with that information, 26,947 are in Latinos, 22,336 in whites, 17,542 in Blacks, 2,846 in Asian or Pacific Islanders, 109 in Native Americans, 431 in two or more races and 2,248 in a race that is not defined. Weldon Cooper demographers say slightly less than 10% of Virginias 8.5 million residents are of Hispanic origin.

The citys meeting, organized by councilwoman Trish White-Boyd, was held at Huff Lane Park, and about 30 Latino and African American community leaders attended. Dr. Molly ODell, who is leading the pandemic efforts for the Roanoke Health District, spoke about the disease, while Yoland Puyana interpreted in Spanish.

We are hoping to get information to you all that you can take back to you community and help mitigate the spread of the disease, White-Boyd said.

More than just a language barrier has prevented the city and the health department from getting the message to the community.

Samara Lott, population heath planning and improvement coordinator for the health district, said that they do have a dedicated Spanish line and translator, and brochures and fliers in Spanish. She said test results might not be written in a way that people can understand.

She said they also are hearing that people need to work and do not qualify for public aid programs, so they might go to work rather than quarantine if they have been exposed or test positive. ODell said about one-third of people infected with the virus do not develop symptoms but can infect others.

The health department is trying to connect people to organizations that can help them with food and other aid if they cannot work while they are isolated.

City Manager Bob Cowell said the city cannot use any of the federal funds it is receiving for pandemic relief to help undocumented residents, but it could support other programs. He also said others could offer financial support for food banks and health clinics.

Jimmy Delgado, co-owner of Farmburguesa restaurant, said people are reluctant to get tested out of fear that they will be turned into immigration. Although he tries to counter that message on social media, it would carry more authority if city officials would make that part of their message.

Cowell asked for ideas on how the city can help to get the word out that information given to the health department remains private.

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Yusen Logistics opens second facility in the Greater Seattle-Tacoma area to serve the growing needs of our customers. We are excited to expand our presence in this important US Northwest shipping market to better serve the growing needs of our customers, said Gerald Hofmann, Sr Vice President of Yusen Logistics (Americas) Contract Logistics Group.

Yusen Logistics (Americas) Inc., a leading global supply chain logistics company, has opened a second Contract Logistics fulfillment and transload center in Sumner, Washington (U.S.). Located just 10 miles from the Port of Tacoma and 30 miles from the Port of Seattle, the facility encompasses 4 acres of yard space, 180,000 square feet of warehouse space, and 43 dock doors to receive, manage, and distribute customers goods.

We are excited to expand our presence in this important U.S. Northwest shipping market to better serve the growing needs of our customers, said Gerald Hofmann, Senior Vice President of Yusen Logistics (Americas) Contract Logistics Group. Whether its moving cargo to or from the Ports of Seattle or Tacoma, or transloading, managing inventory, and providing value-added services for order fulfillment, the facility will enhance our ability to support our customers supply chains.

The new Sumner distribution center is part of Yusen Logistics (Americas) Inc.s Contract Logistics network comprised of more than 2.9 million square feet of warehouse space, with 20 facilities strategically located throughout the United States, as well as 140 acres of yard space located in supply chain hubs. Services include reverse logistics, order fulfillment and distribution, transloading, yard management, cross-dock, and drayage management. The company utilizes top tier information technology solutions for warehousing, transloading, and yard management.

Yusen Logistics is well-positioned to meet the needs of our clients in this high-demand market, said Mikhail Kholyavenko, President and CEO of Yusen Logistics Americas Region. Our Sumner facility solidifies our footprint in the Pacific Northwest and enables us to better leverage our warehousing, land transportation, air and ocean freight forwarding services to deliver complete integrated supply chain solutions to our current and future customers.

The new facility address is 13515 48TH Street East, Sumner, WA 98390. This is the third logistics facility that Yusen Logistics currently operates in the Seattle-Tacoma area. The company has a 125,000 square foot distribution center in Sumner with 20 acres of yard space, an additional 30 acres of yard space in Tacoma, and 40,000 square feet of warehousing space in Kent, which also supports the companys International Freight Forwarding division.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 6

By Fidan Babayeva - Trend:

Azerbaijan has invested significant funds in the Turkish Petkim petrochemical complex, owned by the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), and this is yielding successful results, Trend reports citing the National Confederation of Entrepreneurs (Employers) Organizations of Azerbaijan.

Representative of the Confederation of Entrepreneurs of Azerbaijan in Turkey Asif Gurban made the remark during a business meeting with the Governor of Turkeys Izmir city Yavuz Selim Keshger.

Azerbaijan invests in Turkey both at the individual and at the state level, noted the representative.

At the same time, Turkish-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce and Industry established a forum of the with the aim of further expanding economic cooperation and trade between the two countries, Gurban said.

In turn, Keshger noted that the trade turnover between the two countries has increased.

"I am satisfied with the level of mutual investments. All opportunities have been created for the activities of Azerbaijani businessmen in the Izmir region, and they will do everything possible to overcome the upcoming difficulties, he added.

The parties also discussed the possibility of the organization of a business mission trip to Azerbaijan with participation of the Izmir governor as soon as the situation regarding the spread of coronavirus allows.

In June 2020, the trade between Turkey and Azerbaijan increased by $45.9 million compared to the same month last year, exceeding $164.2 million.

From January through June 2020, the trade turnover between Turkey and Azerbaijan increased by $63 million compared to the same period last year, having surpassed $970.1 million.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: Fidan_Babaeva
Justice Minister of Ukraine Denys Maliuska has disclosed the ministry's plans to hold a "big sale of prisons," which will later grow into a "big construction of prisons".

"We are starting a big sale of prisons. The prisons are likely to lose their purpose and they will be destroyed. The key value in these facilities for investors is the opportunity to get large land plots with already installed general utilities. Does the sale of prisons mean that we will release convicts to freedom? No, it does not. It is just that we have too much surplus property to maintain. This is where the sale begins," Maliuska wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday morning.

He briefly outlined what the "big sale of prisons" would look like according to the Justice Ministry's plans: "we sell frozen prisons (they are not used, and we only lose money for their protection); we optimize the network of existing prisons, release, freeze and sell up to a dozen still functioning prisons;

we choose the cities in which the pretrial detention centers will be removed from the central parts of the city to the industrial zone, or even outside the city limits; we design and construct the first new and modern pretrial detention facilities in the vicinity; we sell old pretrial detention centers in central parts of cities and move to new ones; we construct or reconstruct penal institutions."

The head of the Justice Ministry said that "the first three steps are already in the process of implementation."

According to Maliuska, over the next few weeks, the Justice Ministry will continue to present the first lots and provide an opportunity for potential buyers to inspect them, and will inform about the dates of the auctions separately.

"As it can be seen from the above plan, the 'big sale of prisons' will grow into 'big construction of prisons.' Therefore, if someone believed that 'everything can be stolen,' he was wrong," the minister said.
Racing Point will announce on Thursday that Nico Hulkenberg will race for the team at Silverstone once again this weekend.

Sergio Perez, who sat out last weekend's race at the same circuit following a positive coronavirus test, was expected to be tested again on Wednesday.

His trainer Xavi Martos had told La Vanguardia newspaper that they are "following an action plan for the next race, if they allow him to race".

However, the German broadcaster RTL reports that German Hulkenberg will in fact definitely still be in the 'pink Mercedes' this weekend.

The 32-year-old has reportedly spent the past three days in Racing Point's simulator, whilst also working on his lagging physical fitness.

"Racing fitness is not driving fitness," Hulkenberg insisted. "There is no machine on which you can train for this.

"Especially in the fast corners you can feel how brutal it is on the body, which is why I was limited in how I could go to the limit in Copse or Becketts. I couldn't keep it as clean as usual."

Team boss Otmar Szafnauer said he is happy with how Hulkenberg fared.

"He did a great job getting into a car that he had never driven before, and which was totally different from his previous cars on a difficult circuit like Silverstone," he said.

(GMM)
Malta joins UNODC Blue Heart Campaign against Human Trafficking

 Photo: DOI - Jason Borg

Valletta (Malta), 6 August 2020  On the occasion of the World Day against Trafficking in Human Beings, which is marked every year on 30 July, the Minister for Foreign and European Affairs of Malta Evarist Bartolo and Parliamentary Secretary for Equality and Reforms Rosianne Cutajar announced Maltas partnership in the Blue Heart Campaign of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), during a press conference on 28 July.

Through this partnership with UNODC, Malta will make its second contribution of 10,000 to the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Trafficking in Persons, totalling the countrys contribution to 30,243. Malta also engages in a number of local initiatives aimed at raising awareness of this social scourge.

Lockdowns, travel restrictions, lack of resources, and other measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 are increasing the risk for victims of trafficking, such as women and children, to be trafficked for sexual or labour exploitation as well as for the recruitment of child soldiers, while organised criminal networks continue to take advantage of this situation.

Parliamentary Secretary Rosianne Cutajar spoke on the importance of raising awareness about human trafficking. She held that Malta is not alien to this crime, and thus it is crucial that people are informed about this reality.

Statistics show that in Malta the majority of victims are women who are exploited for work and prostitution purposes. In this context, she reiterated the governments commitment to work hard against human trafficking and to pursue the fight against this heinous crime which violates fundamental human rights.

Minister Bartolo recalled the actions undertaken by Malta at the international level to counter human trafficking, such as its endorsement of the Call to Action to End Forced Labour, Modern Slavery, and Human Trafficking, launched at the UN General Assembly in 2017, and Maltas ratification of the 2014 Protocol to the 1930 Forced Labour Convention, which was presented to the International Labour Organisation last year. This confirms Maltas commitment to continue the fight against forced labour, to protect victims, and to provide them with access to remedies.

The Blue Heart Campaign, which Malta officially joined on the 23rd of July, is an international awareness campaign intended to enhance global efforts to combat and prevent human trafficking and its impact on society. Thirty-two countries have joined the Campaign to date. The Blue Heart is increasingly recognised as the symbol against human trafficking representing, on the one hand, the sadness of the trafficked, and on the other the cold heart of the traffickers.

Further Information

Blue Heart Campaign against Human Trafficking

United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children

UNODC Policy Brief on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on trafficking in persons

Malta joins the Blue Heart Campaign against Trafficking in Human Beings
Rescue efforts continue in Beirut Macron offers help

(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, AUGUST 6 - Rescue teams and volunteers on Thursday searched for survivors of a huge explosion in Beirut that destroyed entire neighborhoods on Tuesday. Lebanese army bulldozers attempted to clear roads for emergency workers while residents of Beirut, which has endured years of civil war, along with thousands of volunteers from all over Lebanon helped rescue and clean-up efforts. At least 137 people have died and the death toll is expected to rise, with over 5,000 wounded and debris across a wide area around the port of Beirut, the epicenter of the blast. Dozens of people are still missing, the health ministry has said. Some 300,000 people have lost their homes, the city's governor said. Material damages, according to early estimates, are believed to total between 10 and 15 billion dollars. French President Emmanuel Macron travelled to Beirut on Wednesday, the first foreign head of State to visit the country since the tragedy. The president met with Lebanese authorities including his counterpart Michel Aoun and offered help, saying he wants to organize ''European cooperation and more widely international cooperation'' while urging for change. Macron noted that without reforms Lebanon ''will continue to sink''. During his meeting with Macron, Aoun expressed the ''firm determination'' of Lebanese authorities to discover what caused the explosion and vowed to ''implement the appropriate sanctions'' against the guilty parties, according to a joint statement issued by the presidents, Lebanese news agency Nna reports. The meeting was also attended by Premier Hassan Diab and the president of Parliament Nabi Berri. The French president was at times greeted by angry crowds protesting against the political establishment and corruption. Reports said Beirut officials did not act on repeated warnings about the stockpile of chemicals that caused the blast. Lebanon was facing a major economic crisis prior to the tragedy and its hospitals were already overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic. The European Commissioner for crisis management, Janez Lenarcic, has offered Europe's ''full support to the Lebanese people''. ''As an immediate first step, the EU Civil Protection Mechanism has been activated upon request of the Lebanese authorities'', the commissioner announced. He added that the mechanism is now ''coordinating the urgent deployment of over 100 highly trained firefighters with vehicles, dogs and equipment, specialized in search and rescue in urban contexts. They will work with Lebanese authorities to save lives on the ground''. As part of the mechanism, Italy on Thursday sent aircrafts with 8.5 of medical supplies. Italy is also sending teams of firefighters and experts to help with efforts on the ground. The explosion on Tuesday devastated the port, causing serious damage to about half of Beirut's urban area. An initial large explosion hit Beirut's port area at around 6:00 pm (1500 GMT) on Tuesday, leading to a fire. It was followed by several blasts and a huge explosion. Lebanon's Prime Minister Hassan Diab said 2,750 tons of fertilizer ammonium nitrate stored in a portside warehouse had blown up. The ammonium nitrate had reportedly arrived in Lebanon in 2013 on board a Moldovan-flagged ship sailing from Georgia. It was later seized by authorities and stored in a rundown warehouse.(ANSAmed) (ANSA).




A woman from Florida was reportedly banned from an American Airlines flight due to her mask being labeled as offensive by a flight attendant.

Arlinda Johns, who hails from South Florida, was on a journey to Illinois when she rode a plane donning a mask that indicated "F--- 12" and a T-shirt that stated "Black Lives Matter."

"F--k 12" is slang for "f--k the police" that has become widely known since the protests transpiring across the country since George Floyd's murder at the hands of the police on Memorial Day.

According to Johns, a flight attendant requested Johns to cover her mask which she promptly followed, reported "The Sun."

The protests held are against police violence and racism.

The passenger also said in a live video posted on Facebook, "Everything she asked me to do, I did," indicated Do You Remember.

Johns said to Florida's Local 10 news station, "I think I got taken off the plane because I'm black."

Despite her obedience, the plane came back to the gate, and prior to the take-off, Johns was then assisted off the aircraft, reported The Independent.

The 12 in 'f*** 12' is directed towards the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and Narcotics Unit. However, it is regularly used broadly to allude to police officials.

The 12 reference's origin is not entirely clear but some people say it is rooted in the 1960s television police show, Adam 12.

Also Read: Muhammad Ali's Son Said His Father Would Not Have Supported Black Lives Matter, 'All Lives Matter'

According to American Airlines in a statement regarding the "offensive" mask, their plane returned to the gate "after (Johns) refused to follow crew member instructions to remove or cover a face mask with offensive language."

"Although (Johns) initially complied, (she) later continued to display the inappropriate language. After arriving at the gate, the passenger was asked to deplane," they continued.

Johns is an activist who believes in defunding and eradicating the police.

When the flight attendant returned to the Florida woman's seat, Johns narrated, "She came back and stood over and said 'I'd better not see that other mask.' I said, 'Leave me alone, lady.' She stood there, she said, 'Okay, I got you.'"

Johns stated, "I am an abolitionist. I believe that we need to defund and abolish the police."

American Airlines has denied that the ban was regarding race.

According to the airline, they are looking into the event. However, they are refunding part of the Florida woman's ticket that she was not able to use.

Meanwhile, Johns stated that she has yet to hear from American Airlines other than a response to her tweet. The passenger has been in talks with a lawyer.

According to American Airlines Conditions of Carriage, it is indicated that "offensive clothing" cannot be tolerated. This includes the "offensive" mask.

Most people know the South Florida activist as Tray.

When the flight attendant rushed to the front of the plane, that was her cue to record the incident with her phone.

Related Article: Rayshard Brooks Death Aftermath: Atlanta Police Resigns, Officer Fired, Wendy's Set Ablaze

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 22:28:34|Editor: huaxia

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ACCRA, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese embassy in Ghana delivered a consignment of medical supplies to Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council on Thursday in a bid to support its efforts to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The medical supplies, including 16,000 masks and 100 infrared thermometers, were presented on behalf of the Fujian Provincial People's Association for Friendship.

The charge d'affaires of the Chinese embassy in Ghana Zhu Jing, who presented the items, said the donation was to reciprocate a similar gesture from the Greater Accra Coordinating Council to Fujian Province earlier in the year.

"The Chinese government and Chinese people empathize and stand firmly with the Ghanaian people as the pandemic rages on the African continent," he said.

Zhu said, "As a sister province to the Greater Accra region, the Fujian People's Association for Friendship decided to donate the masks and thermometers to help the Greater Accra Region defeat the virus."

Greater Accra Regional Minister Ishmael Ashitey expressed gratitude to the provincial government and people of Fujian for their continued support for Ghana.

"This will go a long way to assist us in the fight against the pandemic in the region. We would always want to have this cooperation with the people of China at all levels," Ashitey said.

Since the establishment of their sister province relations in September 2015, the Fujian Province in China and the Greater Accra Region in Ghana have maintained close exchanges and cooperation in areas of trade and investment. Enditem
Of the nine proposals and millage renewals on the Aug. 4 primary election ballot, every one was passed by voters on Tuesday night.

The 2020 road millage renewal, which is estimated to raise $3,431,748 in the first year to fund Midland County Road Commission programs that construct, maintain, repair and improve roadway and bridge systems within the County of Midland, passed with 17,417 yes votes, and 3,260 no votes.

Speaking to Midland Daily News in July, Road Commission director Jon Myers said the passage of the renewal was doubly important this year due to a substantial decrease in gas tax revenue and the road commission has been burdened with many unanticipated expenses this year as a result of May's dam failures and flooding.

"These expenses include emergency response and on-going repairs into the near future," Myers said. "A millage renewal offers additional stability to continue with a portion of the local road projects, while planning for the road and bridge repairs that are still needed to help the county rebuild."

Mosquito abatement millage renewal, which is estimated to $1,734,203 in the first year between 2021 and 2024 to fund the Midland County Mosquito Abatement program  which reduces and controls the mosquito population in Midland County  was passed with 19,604 yes votes and 1,996 no votes.

The 911 Central Dispatch millage renewal, which is estimated to raise $2,422,606 in the first year to fund enhanced 911/Emergency Dispatch services and the countywide radio system, passed with 19,063 yes votes and 2,514 no votes.

The public transportation services millage renewal, which is estimated to raise $865,217 in the first year in funding for existing levels of countywide public transportation services, passed with 17,705 yes votes and 4,424 no votes.

The Greendale Township millage, which is estimated to raise $44,000 in the first year to provide fire protection services, passed with 278 yes votes and 122 no votes.

The Lincoln Township building and emergency services millage renewal, which will allow the township to renew its previously-authorized levy of one mill to improve and maintain its buildings and emergency services and the purchase of related equipment, passed with 595 yes votes and 141 no votes.

The Hope Township road millage, which is estimated to raise $95,000 in the first year to fund the improvement, repair and maintenance of established roads located within Hope Township, passed with 306 yes votes and 83 no votes.

The Geneva Township Fire millage, which will fund fire department operations and equipment, passed with 239 yes votes and 61 no votes.

The Breckenridge Community Schools bonding proposal, which allows the school district to borrow up to $14.9 million to fund a large variety of improvement projects in the schools, narrowly passed with 252 yes votes and 243 no votes.
FILE PHOTO: A logo sits on the window of the Aviva head office in the city of London

By Carolyn Cohn

LONDON (Reuters) - Aviva shares soared to five-month highs on Thursday after the British life, motor and home insurer's new chief executive Amanda Blanc said it would reduce its focus on Asia and Europe in a strategy shift welcomed by analysts.

Blanc took over last month to become the insurance company's third chief executive in less than two years. Analysts have said the insurer is operating in too many countries and sectors, and its shares have lagged rivals.

Aviva will instead focus on Britain, Ireland and Canada, the company said.

Aviva shares rose as much as 7.5% before trimming gains to trade at 296 pence at 0902 GMT, up 4.2% and the top performer in the FTSE 100.

"We are going to shake up the organisation," Blanc told a call about Aviva's first-half results released on Thursday. She said there may be better owners in the long term for some of Aviva's Asian and European businesses.

Aviva's European operations include France, Italy and Poland. It said last year it was selling its stake in its Hong Kong business. Its other Asian operations include Singapore and a joint venture in China.

"Amanda Blanc is not taking her foot off the gas," said Joe Healey, investment research analyst at broker The Share Centre. "It's pleasing to see a prudent process in place to keep the balance sheet healthy."

Aviva posted a 12% drop in first-half operating profit to 1.2 billion pounds ($1.6 billion), though this was above expectations of 1.1 billion pounds, according to a company-supplied consensus forecast.

Aviva's performance was helped by strong results in UK annuities. The value of new business in its UK life business rose 60% to 323 million pounds, but Europe life and Asia life fell by 21% and 6% respectively, to 188 million and 90 million.

Former CEO Maurice Tulloch carried out a strategic review of the Asian businesses last year but sources said he was unable to secure a high enough price to sell Aviva's Singapore division.

Story continues

Aviva also said at the time it was looking at strategic options for Vietnam and Indonesia. It has since pulled out of Indonesia.

JP Morgan analysts said management under Blanc was moving fast on strategy though it reiterated its "neutral" rating on the stock. KBW said the strategic changes were positive, reiterating its "market perform" rating.

The company set aside 165 million pounds in its general insurance business for claims related to the COVID-19 pandemic, in line with a previous estimate.

Aviva, which like several other insurers suspended its final dividend for 2019 earlier this year, said it would pay a 2019 second interim dividend of six pence and would review the final dividend, and its dividend policy later, in the year.

($1 = 0.7590 pounds)

(Reporting by Carolyn Cohn; Editing by Sinead Cruise, Jason Neely and David Clarke)
Mark Latham speaks on September 24, 2019 in the NSW Upper House in Sydney, Australia. (Brook Mitchell/Getty Images)

Students Take a Knee for Neo-Marxist BLM at New South Wales School Assembly

New South Wales One Nation Leader Mark Latham has called out a public school for holding an assembly in solidarity with George Floyd and inviting students to take a knee.

Albion Park High School held a We Stand assembly on June 19 with the focus being to shed light on the Black Lives Matter movement.

A student from the organising committee said at the assembly in a speech (pdf):

We here at Albion Park High wish to show our own solidarity, not just to those in the U.S. who are marching against hate, but our own Indigenous population here in Australia, and in the spark of protests in the U.S., believe that word must be spread of what has happened to them as well.

Year 12 committee groups and the Aboriginal leadership team will now be taking a knee. Anyone who would like to join, feel free, the student concluded.

Recently retired principal of Albion Park High Suzi Clapham said that the assembly has been a shining moment in her career.

The highlight for me, as the retiring principal of APHS, was the Black Lives Matter assembly where all of year 12 students bent the knee in respect of lives lost, Clapham told media company, Illawarra Mercury, on July 31.

These comments did not please Latham, who aired his complaints to 2GB on Tuesday.

The first duty of care a principal has to the students if you are going to be kneeling to an organisation, is that they are credible and respectable, Latham said.

The principal only had to spend five minutes going to the Black Lives Matter website to see that this is a self-confessed Neo-Marxist outfit that believes in de-funding the police, attacks the nuclear family, believes in gender fluidity.

Related Coverage Sydney BLM Activists Defy Supreme Court Ruling and Demand Answers From State Premier

We know in New South Wales they have broken court and health orders so is that really the sort of organisation we are promoting as a role model in New South Wales schools to the point where students are kneeling, Latham said.

Latham said that this kind of politics shouldnt be happening in schools.

And it certainly shouldnt be happening without the consent of parents, Latham added.

Some Media Ignore Fundamental Truths: Indigenous Councillor

From 20062017, the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) found (pdf) that 6 percent of the 82 deceased persons shot by police were Indigenous persons and 90 percent were non-Indigenous persons. The race of the remaining people was not recorded.

Alice Springs Town Councillor Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said that Black Lives Matter ignore these fundamental truths.

This only perpetuates the ongoing carnage and maintains the high rates of Indigenous incarceration, Price wrote in an article for the Centre for Independent Studies.

From 19892012, the AIC reported (pdf) there were 951 Aboriginal victims of homicide, 765 of which were killed by an Indigenous offender.

The fact remains for Aboriginal Australians, as it does for African-Americans, that far more black lives are taken by other black people than by white people, or by white police, Price said.

Clapham declined an interview and a spokesperson for the Department of NSW Education said that the Albion Park High assembly was organised by students, not Clapham or other teachers.

Violence or racism in any form is not accepted at NSW public schools. It is important that schools are mindful of the controversial issues policy at all times, the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

The school has since taken down the Facebook post about the assembly.
Police are now exploring a theory they were attacked in their tent while asleep

Five months have passed and there is no sign of them despite a massive search

Local authorities who found their campsite and car burned out two days later

Russell Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73, went missing during a camping trip in March

Detectives are investigating if two elderly campers who vanished without a trace five months ago were ambushed inside their tent as they slept.

Russell Hill, 74, and his secret lover Carol Clay, 73, went missing during a camping trip on March 19 in the Wonnangatta Valley in Victoria's East Gippsland region.

Their disappearance has baffled authorities, who found their campsite burned to the ground and Mr Hill's car slightly damaged by fire two days later.

Russell Hill, 74, and his friend Carol Clay, 73, went missing during a camping trip on March 19 in the Wonnangatta Valley in Victoria's East Gippsland region

Mr Hill's white Toyota Landcruiser was found with minor fire damage at their burnt campsite near Dry River Creek Track in the valley on March 21

But now police are exploring a theory that the couple were attacked in their sleep, The Herald Sun reports.

Detectives believe the potential attackers may have torched their campsite to destroy forensic evidence of a crime.

The pair were in a secret relationship and didn't tell anyone where they were going. Ms Clay just told friends she would be gone for a few days.

In June, investigators said three theories about Mr Hill and Ms Clay's disappearance were being probed.

Foul play is strongly suspected on the balance of probabilities, but there is no evidence and no suspects.

Another possibility is that the couple were flying Mr Hill's $2,000 drone and died of exposure after getting lost off the path looking for it.

The third is that they died lost in the bush for any reason, but have not been found because wild dogs ate their remains.

Police are confident the pair did not fake their own deaths and do not believe it's case of murder suicide.

Detectives are investigating if Mr Hill and Ms Clay, who vanished without a trace five months ago, were ambushed inside their tent while they slept

The pair went missing in the Wonnangatta Valley, more than 200km north east of Melbourne

The key to unlocking the case may have gone up in flames in a fire that destroyed their campsite.

Mr Hill's Toyota four-wheel-drive had been found by local police next to his burnt-out tent, but the pair were gone without a trace.

The vehicle itself had also sustained damage in the fire, but was still able to be driven away from the scene.

At the time, police had believed the fire was probably started by a dodgy phone charger or campfire spark and the couple had simply been lost in the forest.

But the fire could also have been lit by a thief rummaging around in the tent - or by a murderer trying to cover their tracks.

A spare set of keys was found hidden on the car, but it is believed Mr Hill took the main set with him.

That the car was locked likely indicated the pair left the campsite voluntarily, probably to go for a walk or fly the drone.

The drone remains missing despite an extensive search that ended on April 6 without anyone finding a trace of them.

Russell Hill hangs onto a drone that he had with him when he went missing. The drone has not been found despite an extensive search of the area

A drone similar to the one that remains missing

If wild dogs had found the pair before police, their remains could have been eaten and scattered to the point they would be missed by searchers.

Dogs would have had plenty time to scavenge on the bodies because the pair were not reported missing for some days after their likely deaths.

Mr Hill had left his Drouin home on March 19 for a camping trip along the Dargo River in Victoria's northeast and planned to leave the region on March 26.

Ms Clay, meanwhile, had told friends she was going away for a few days and expected to be home by March 28 or 29.

Mr Hill had been a keen amateur radio enthusiast and made his last broadcast from the bush on March 20.

'This place is in the middle of nowhere,' the source said. 'It's just problematic in the extreme.'

Police are now certain the couple died within 18 hours after Mr Hill's last message, as a passing hiker saw the burned-out campsite about 2pm the next day.

Because the pair weren't due back until up to a week later, the alarm wasn't raised for days and precious time was lost.

The police source said despite the delay in the missing person squad being brought into investigate the case, the fire ravaged camp site was thoroughly investigated at the time.

Personal belongings (circled) were left in Russell Hill's vehicle, which sustained fire damage when his tent went up in flames

Carol Clay, 73, who was once the President of the Country Women's Association of Victoria, had been in a relationship with Russell Hill for many years in the lead up to their disappearance

In May, bizarre details emerged of an 'oddball loner' living in the Victorian Alps, who has been questioned over a number of mysterious disappearances.

Known as 'Buttons' or ominously, 'the Button Man', the expert bushman became a person of interest after concerns about his odd behaviour was raised by locals.

He is understood to have earned his nickname due to his hobby of using deer antlers to make buttons - which he then uses as large ear piercings.

'Being creepy is not illegal,' a police source has told Daily Mail Australia.

A police source confirmed there was nothing to indicate the mysterious loner had killed the couple, but what happened to them remains unknown.

'We don't think they're in Queensland living (a secret) life. They're too old really to drop off the grid and why would they?' the source said.

Police believe it is more likely than not that the pair met with foul play while out in the remote wilderness.

The area itself is considered an ideal spot to commit murder.

A new image of Mr Hill's white Toyota Landcruiser. It was found with minor fire damage at their burnt campsite near Dry River Creek Track in the valley on March 21

Victoria Police Missing Persons Squad Detective Inspector Andrew Stamper is leading the investigation into the mystery

Phone reception is practically nil and unlike some other areas popular with hikers, the remote Wonnangatta Valley does not see a lot of foot or road traffic.

While cold-blooded murder was an avenue of investigation, detectives remain open to all kinds of scenarios.

'There are a lot of people who go up there and do illegal stuff. Like people who go hunting in the national park and ride motorcycles. Has he had a dispute with one of them that turned bad?' the source said.

The pair had been carrying out a secret affair for years behind the back of Mr Hill's wife Robyn, who has described Ms Clay as a 'long time family friend'.

While the relationship was largely hidden from Mr Hill's devastated wife, it has been well known to police since the pair were reported missing by Mrs Hill days after her husband last made contact via radio.

When questioned about the couple's relationship in April, Victoria Police Missing Persons Squad Detective Inspector Andrew Stamper skirted around the question.

'It is delicate and we are being very respectful of both families wishes and concerns here,' he said at the time.

Russell Hill and Carol Clay were last heard from on March 20, with Mr Hill's wife unaware he was travelling with another woman

'Both of these people have large and loving families who are grieving at the moment, and they want answers about where their loved ones are.'

While detectives probed the couple's relationship, it was quickly ruled out as a likely reason for their mysterious disappearance.

Police are desperate for people who may have been in the area at the time to let them know so that they can be ruled out of the investigation.

Detectives are also keen to learn if anyone may be hanging onto dash cam footage that could help identify other leads.

It is understood the case remained 'very wide open'.

'It's a genuine mystery,' the source said.

Anyone with information is urged to contact CrimeStoppers on 1800 333 00
Two thirds of staff at one NHS hospital trust lost their sense of taste or smell during the peak of the coronavirus epidemic but most couldn't get tested, a study shows.

Researchers asked staff at London's Barts Health NHS Trust to complete a questionnaire in the week of April 17 to 23, at the height of the epidemic.

Almost two-thirds of staff at the hospital said they had suffered anosmia - a loss of taste or smell.

However, as anosmia was not listed as an official coronavirus symptom at the time, the NHS workers could only get tested if they had a cough or a fever.

It comes after it was revealed that nine out of 10 health and care workers who caught the coronavirus got it at work, according to a report published at the beginning of July.

And one in five patients hospitalised with Covid-19 had caught the virus while on a ward, raising concerns about the spread of the disease inside hospitals.

Two thirds of staff at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London (pictured) lost their sense of taste or smell during the peak of the coronavirus epidemic but most couldn't get tested, a study shows

Almost two-thirds of staff at the hospital said they had suffered anosmia - a loss of taste or smell (stock picture)

ONE IN FIVE COVID-19 HOSPITAL PATIENTS CAUGHT VIRUS ON A WARD The UK's hospitals have been one of the main breeding grounds for spreading Covid-19, with one in five patients catching the virus while in hospital, scientists say. Papers published in June by Sage, and prepared for the Cabinet Office, showed that at the peak of the crisis, transmission within hospitals was believed to account for up to 22 per cent of cases in hospitalised patients, and up to 11 per cent of deaths. The figures did not include staff, or those attending outpatients appointments, so the numbers could be an underestimate. In light of the data, a letter from NHS England Medical Director Professor Stephen Powis has been sent to hospitals instructing them to 'minimise' close contact between staff and urges workers to 'avoid congregating at central work stations' and take staggered breaks. Reportedly it wasn't until May 18 that Public Health England (PHE) issued guidance to hospital staff as to how they should follow distancing rules, according to an investigation by The Daily Telegraph. This was almost two months after the UK entered lockdown on March 23. The data has fuelled concern that NHS trusts, alongside care homes, are causing Covid-19 to 're-seed' into the community, making it difficult to lift lockdown restrictions. Advertisement

The study, led by the University of East Anglia and University College London, found that two thirds of healthcare workers who completed the questionnaire reported losing their sense of smell or taste at some point between mid-February and mid-April.

But just over one quarter of the 262 participants had been tested for Covid-19, with three quarters of these testing positive.

Senior author Prof Carl Philpott, from UEA's Norwich Medical School, said of the research: 'This suggests that a large proportion of healthcare workers may have already been infected with Covid-19, with only mild symptoms.

'We conducted this research at Barts Health, however we would expect to see similar results from other NHS trusts too.

'Cases like this most likely went undiagnosed at the time because of a lack of awareness about smell loss as a symptom.

'This is really important because healthcare professionals are at the front line of the pandemic and are at high risk of both contracting and spreading coronavirus.

'There is a need for awareness and early recognition of anosmia as a means to identify, urgently test and isolate affected healthcare workers in order to prevent further spread of disease.'

He said the research also indicated a 'strong association between smell loss and the positive Covid-19 test results', with those who had lost their sense of smell being almost five times more likely to test positive.

Public Health England added anosmia to the list of symptoms for Covid-19 on May 18, after which staff displaying the symptom were required to test and self-isolate for seven days.

The research was published in journal The Lancet Microbe.

It comes after scientists last month warned at least one in ten of all coronavirus cases diagnosed in England in May were found in healthcare workers.

Researchers say transmission in homes and hospitals  which often happens between people with no symptoms  acts like a 'revolving door' with outbreaks in the community, with both feeding off each other.

The report estimated an extra one per cent of cases in May were among hospital patients who caught the virus in hospital.
YEREVAN, 6 AUGUST, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 6 August, USD exchange rate down by 0.34 drams to 485.18 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 0.26 drams to 575.37 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.04 drams to 6.62 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 1.83 drams to 639.27 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price down by 1,074.20 drams to 31948.88 drams. Silver price up by 40.52 drams to 420.31 drams. Platinum price up by 832.39 drams to 15052.94 drams.
Anunt de selectare a participantilor si participantelor la cel de-al doilea curs de instruire din cadrul Programului educational pentru dezvoltarea competentelor lucratorilor de tineret
Someone argues gun rights are important. You know everybody gets one single bolt action rifle. Now you go hard to reload. Cant do a whole lot of damage with that, unless youre very well trained. Nobody gets handguns semiautomatic weapons, et cetera, et cetera. We make that deal down. People need to be able to deal with vermin I suppose in rural areas. But obviously, we have a problem too. The countries have with guns indeed feral hogs. They surround your kids. The only thing the Catholic church concerned with is the communist pope that it has. Other than that buddy I wish we had a communist pope shouldnt we disarm the police before we disarm ourselves or with those happen at the same time, you know I mean, the police should definitely need your help. So for instance, the Dallas cops who used a bomb removal robot to actually carry a bomb to a wounded criminal who was lying in a parking garage bleeding to death and then blew him up despite the fact that he was shortly going to be unconscious from blood loss. I mean, I dont think cops should have execution robots right. I think that there are some squads that obviously need to be armed. Thats how it is in the UK in the UK when you would see cops dealing with like you know bicycle altercations as I saw outside my house one time. They usually werent like pulling guns on people. They didnt have guns on them. Indeed They were dealing with bicycle altercations. So you know, I think that you can make those kinds of distinctions. Does the Roman Catholic church have any Im sorry. And is that thoughts on the accusations by moralist catholics that we shouldnt support Black Lives Matter because its marxist. I never know what people mean when they say marxist. I think probably a good 50% of people who have marxist in their Twitter bios dont know what they mean when they say theyre marxist. The term has become so vast its called calm says concept creep. Right critique drift. I have no idea what people mean when they say its Marx as they say its atheistic. I would say this at the March for Life there are atheists there are atheists who come for the March for Life and make a big deal of being atheists and catholics embrace them. There are Mormons at the March for Life. Right There are evangelicals at the March for Life. There are all kinds of people at the March for Life and the catholics. They have no problem with it because theyre like, look, this is a cause right. And the cause is this particular thing were focusing on here. So if you can link arms with people who are secular or people of different faiths for a cause which it seems we can because it happens every year in January at the March for Life then I dont understand why you cant at least identify that this organization, whatever else its intentions or its agenda is the agenda that you know, police should not be killing black people. You know in the street ally George Floyd Orlando Castile and I think you know you can agree on that. And that can be an issue of shared advocacy. Its not just me. This has this has come up again and again from officials in in the church right. This is actually the view of the hierarchy itself. So if you go and read the letter that we have posted on Catholic social action a letter to all of the United States bishops you can see all of the church figures who we have quoted in favor of this very idea. Right So you know go check it out. Go to Catholic social action see whats up. Im not asking you to affirm everything that every organization that is involved in this effort believes. Im just asking you to affirm this one thing. And I think we can reasonably do that. Yeah police are not allowed to execute criminals. Thats where I kind of disagree with rod Dreher a little bit is just because youre resisting arrest doesnt mean the police can execute. You on the spot. Normally we have a trial for that kind of thing. And we put people to death with you know Chinese horse tranquilizers instead of shooting them in the back of the head or whatever crushing their necks and says, how we do things around here arent trials overrated. I mean trials have problems you know. But I think that, you know in absence of a better solution youve got to render the punishment after the trial would be my perspective. And I dont think thats too crazy. I like Coke. I dont know why people in Texas. Usually like Dr. pepper. Its not bad. Ill drink it. But I also call every brown soda Coke. Do you think the left has a problem with tactical unity with other culture factions. Yes well Space Jam to be good while space down line was pretty good. I really, really like Space Jam. Ill still watch Space Jam. Have I ever tried meditation. Yes, I do every day. Yeah dude, what the hell is up with that Dreyer post. That guy was practically salivating for death. I would recommend reading Alan Jacobs response on his blog. Snakes and ladders a.j. he had a very good kind of you know temperate but I think reasonably alarmed response and you know since then rudd has done a few edits where he expands on you know feeling a little less comfortable with what he originally said than he did at the time. Any words of wisdom on this anniversary of the atomic bombing. Yeah, it was a sin and a crime. All right incinerating thousands and thousands of innocent civilians and also poisoning the ground and many, many people who survived including unborn children in such a way that they would be disabled and maimed for the rest of their lives in the very earth itself would be poisonous. Seems like something thats pretty diabolical in nature. I did see a guy on Twitter yesterday say that the atomic bombs arent real that it was just like a fake like we used conventional bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and somehow faked everyone out into believing we had nukes and then everyone else also started pretending to have nukes. Thats a conspiracy theory thats obviously wrong, but its one Im going to dig deeper into because its kind of amusing and considering the existence of actual nuclear weapons is extraordinarily disturbing. I am a nuclear weapon abolitionist very much in favor of disarmament. Check out the documentary countdown to zero. Very much very much in favor of that. I saw it twice in theaters. Do you believe that the Cardinals only elected Francis because they expected him to die soon. Possibly there is this great verse in Jeremiah the heart is deceitful above all things and wicked beyond compare who can understand it. This is like triply true for Catholic Cardinals. Lets see how can a formal religious organization. So closely tied to imperialism be liberator free. Well hope springs eternal right. There is such a thing as liberation theology where the colonized peoples of Latin America who had been evangelized and converted to Catholicism by those very Spanish missionaries who showed up centuries before use that same theology to argue for their own liberation. America, of course violently suppressed a lot of that revolutionary activity and the church itself came out against it at the time. Pope Francis has been warmer to liberation theology and liberation theologians than other popes. And I think with good reason for one he is from Latin America. And so hes seen it on the ground. But obviously, I strongly support that approach. And I do think that this is a fundamentally laboratory faith. Liz can you address the fact that Matt looks exactly like Martin Luther cant say that I have ever noticed that you have to think about that to get in one of those like strange kind of early modern hats and to take a look. Will my toddler be going to school this year. Its not up to me now Ill listen to the local authorities. Do you think that more black people than what is publicized or victimized by police on the daily. I mean, probably right. I gather thats something that lots of black people deal with. I mean, you know if theyre not reporting it, then we dont have statistics. So I wouldnt doubt it. What are you working on these days. Oh, you know this and that. And the other. Im going to have a couple pieces. God willing about the conventions as they happen later this month. Do I like writing books. No, there are too long. I am sure that one day I will do that. But yes you should keep reading Gustavo the person who is asking about liberation theology. Are you moving to Texas perhaps. How are you, Elizabeth. Have you had your coffee yet. Well, because I think I grew up in an extremely hot climate in Texas. I dont drink coffee. I dont drink any hot drinks actually when I get up in the morning for my shot of caffeine I have an icy cold Coca-Cola product. They should pay me at least $1,000 for saying that. All right, you guys can hear the orb. Does Jane support abolishing the snack please. Well Jane. Shes figured out how to drag chairs and into the kitchen get into the high cabin and she can also pick the cabinet locks. So were a little bit at a loss of what to do. Your article didnt say much about st John of apparel Sarah statues being destroyed right. I mean. And that was intentional right. So if you look at what Gloria Purves says she is a devout Catholic. She is a black woman. And she was at the canonization of Saint junipero Serra. She was at the canonization in Washington d.c. during pope Francis first visit to the United States. She was there right. She is not saying tear down statues and burn churches. Quite the opposite. What shes saying is every time we say police killings of black people extrajudicial executions of black people are not good or bad should stop. That there is systemic racism in the United States. We should not have to then before we deal with that issue deal with this question of statutes. She is saying, can we please prioritize such that we are dealing with the issue of human lives before were dealing with the issue of statute. Shes not saying its unimportant. Right just saying that these statues in many cases can be replaced can be rebuilt and she supports that right. Its just that its frustrating to her as a black woman. And I fully understand this. And I think its fairly reasonable that every time she brings up these killings of black people by police instead of having that discussion or feeling solidarity from her co religionists on that front, she has to get into a discussion about statues right. Exactly we can walk and chew gum at the same time. And you know, I think in some situations in order to establish trust and good faith you have to have the one conversation before the other. How do you square your radical democratic politics and economics with the Episcopal sea. Well, I have my techniques I would not describe them as maybe radically democratic. You know I believe in democracy. The church has democratic functions inside of it. So the church is not like wholesale opposed to democracy. In fact, I think there are quite a few encyclicals that encourage it. So is there one piece of writing that you think would be beneficial for all humans to read. I mean, you know, the Iliad is good tells you many things worth considering. I dont l everybody should read the hobbit. Its a lot of fun doing that to my kids. Whos my favorite mystic. I say dog cross really and Gregory Anissa are you in a new place. Yes, I am at my friends house because Im in the process of moving. And so everything is sort of in a big tizzy right now. How do you square Black Lives Matter anti church rhetoric again right. You dont have to pay it to eat. Youre not being asked to affirm everything said by every single person in a broad coalition or movement. Right look at this in 1963 archbishop Patrick Boyle of Washington gave the prayer invocation at the March on Washington. Standing next to Martin Luther King jr. Do you think that he believed and agreed with and affirmed every single thing every faction in that coalition believe. No, I mean, it was interfaith right. There were people of all faiths there were Jewish people there are Catholic people there were Protestant people there secular people no doubt. So obviously saying that the principles at hand here are worthwhile principles that our faith demands. We respect is not the same thing as affirming every single message that comes out of a coalition movement. Right this is very, very easy. What is more essential reading Greek mythology or the Bible. I know you know I mean, I like them both. OK Bible is hard to read. Very difficult to read. Yeah You know people need help. I needed help. I went to school for it. So you know important and good. And I think the parts that are necessary are quite obvious. But you can also kind of guilt turned around in there is it similar to how one can promote the ideas of socialism, communism while acknowledging yes. Elizabeth its a core principle of BLM. Oh my god. Guys stop paying attention to the organization. OK Just dont worry about the Black Lives Matter global network. No one is asking you to affirm everything thats in their agenda statement of principles or what theyre asking to affirm the principle that police should be killing black people right. Thats all you have to. Thats all you have to do here. Or I mean, you dont have to I cant make you Im trying to write a persuasive article. But if what youre saying is this organization thats involved in a vast coalition or movement, which includes people who are in the organization, and like a huge majority of people who are not in the organization. If youre saying that you cant affirm the principles there of this huge coalition movement that is not strictly or I would even say mainly the organization Black Lives Matter global network. Youre saying you cant affirm the principle that there shouldnt be extrajudicial killings of black people, mainly because theyre black because there is an organization involved in this movement that is atheistic or anti church. I dont know what to tell you dont go to the March for Life. For sure, because there are secular people there every year they make a huge deal of it. Right So I dont know what to tell you. St. Thomas Aquinas or st. Augustine st. Augustin. Answer the question. Banana pudding or peach cobbler peach cobbler within the ice cream opinion on baking with soda like baking soda is oftentimes very important. Favorite Ben and Jerrys flavor Cherry Garcia Liz whats the best southern food. Fried chicken. Any tips on homemade pecan pie. Dude I dont like to comply. I dont know. Its not great. Its not great. I dont know. Maybe its just that they comply Ive had. I like the cons a lot. I love the cons. But you know, I like chopped up in oatmeal or something. But to come by. Its not me. I its extra thing. And its sort of like really kind of gooey stuff going on under the Yeah. I dont know. Yes Patrick OBoyle did tell John Lewis to change the speech because he thought it was too militant. The fact that Patrick OBoyle still showed up is evidence that you do not have to agree with everything in a coalition or movement right to agree with the core principles. In fact, you can state. I disagree with this. I disagree with that. But I agree with this. Youre entitled to do that. Thats fine. For instance, I will state. Now I disagree with anti church rhetoric and anti theistic and anti religious rhetoric that comes out of this anti-racist movement. But I affirm that catholics Christians should absolutely be opposed to police killings of black people. Favourite bill Murray movie. Thats a good question. Bill Murray is such an interesting actor. I really, really like lost in translation. I mean caddyshack is very, very hard to beat as well. Have you ever been to Ireland thoughts or opinions. I have never been to beautiful Ireland. I would love to go one day someone says, why just black people again, because that is the issue at hand right. It doesnt mean that every other issue every other killing is extraneous. The question. I think that frustrates so many black catholics and I know Gloria Purvis is when you say, look should police stop killing black people. Should the extrajudicial killings of black people stop when some other conversation has to come before that like what about police killings of other people. What about nuclear disarmament. Isnt it more important that we pull out of Iraq. I mean, yes, these are all conversations that are worth having. But can you just say yes to that one question first, I dont understand why not. Can you explain the Texas expat mindset. I mean, you know, you always miss Texas. I love Texas right. MacIntyre good. Great MacIntyre its great. I love Alice. MacIntyre a key element to examine is is there injustice present. If so Christians must be on the side of justice. I agree. Thoughts on Corrie bush went congratulations been on board since the beginning whataburger order. Oh my god. I mean, I always get fries no matter what else Im getting I like I like a lot of burger junior with everything I like. They like a moderate chicken mouth is really good. I like their barbecue chicken sandwich. The honey butter chicken biscuits you can get at breakfast are so good. I mean, I used to in the summer when I was a short window after I was diagnosed with epilepsy. Before I lost my drivers license that I could drive and when my parents would leave for work in the morning. I around like 745 I would get in my car and put my cat in there with me. I had a siamese at the time. And we would drive to water burger. And I would get a honey butter chicken biscuit and share some of it with them. Because good times miss that someone also asked about I am from Texas. Im from Arlington Texas. And someone asked me, what is my jack in the box order. Much easier. I like the chicken strips. The tacos curly fries with ranch and almost all of their like money boxes are really good. Do I live in Texas. Not currently unfortunately favorite legit Chinese restaurant in d.c. There was a really good place out in Falls Church called peking and gourmet. Its like its quite fancy and the family that owns it is really fantastic. And its great. I love it. Why do Christians have a hard time separating church from state. Well, because you know, Christians feel its only one source of morality. And politics is just a branch of ethics right. Thats just Aristotle so youre from edinburg Texas. Welcome how can the church push priest to support the Black Lives Matter movement, not necessarily organization and church pro-life issues. I think its just a matter of talking the people around you. Only 3% of American catholics are black. There are not many. And oftentimes American catholics are still sort of siloed and mainly black parishes. So I think its a matter of you know bringing people like Gloria in and just having conversation, talk to them as human beings. Do I have a seminary degree. No, I didnt go to seminary because I cannot be clergy. I have a masters of philosophy from Cambridge university and Christian theology. Do people at the New York Times ever say failing New York Times for locals. I know that my parents often say that to me for locals. Also the lying New York Times. So it is what it is. Lets see Miss you on left, right, and center. Miss you too makes for a good breakfast burrito. Well, thats another thing about water bird or whatever your breakfast iquitos is freaking amazing. Theyre awesome. I love them. Like sausage, egg, and cheese breakfast ticky iquitos from whataburger. There is no limit to how many of those. I can eat. I could eat them until I physically injured myself is football or baseball more popular in Texas Well probably football in terms of watching it. But you know people like baseball and my husband played football and baseball bets on the next pope. I cannot I cannot begin to predict. Thoughts on the space trilogy by c.s. Lewis. Freaking awesome. Actually I was talking to someone else yesterday about the sparrow. All all of the catholics in space books are amazing. And there are many of them. Yeah, I love them all. What position did mat play in baseball Matt. What position did you play in baseball all except catcher. He says, do you think you can be Christian while thinking the Bible is not such an essential tax. Read evil Christians. Yeah Well, mean, you know, it. We are. We are not you know as people of the book right. I mean, we havent we have a living faith. Thats still in development right. There are still revelations happening. So the bibles obvious extremely important foundational pillar of the faith. But there are also other things. And so its a matter of discernment and being together in our faith. Its very hard to do Christianity alone. Mainly what you need are other Christians. I think you can probably the orb is the orb is in containment. Would you like to see the orb. Someone asked why have you prioritized Black Lives Matter over COVID. I have written several articles on cove. In fact, I have written at least two reported articles on catholics and copied. So I am paying attention to the plague. All right, I am going to try summoning the orb back. Do you want a green cleric here. Shes going to sleep. Im sorry. Thats why shes calling for me to rescue her because shes being put down for a nap. So shes you know my mother. Come get me out of my baby cage. Why is Christian dating so hard. I cannot even imagine. He is very angry. The orb is furious. Objects are about to start flying off the walls and the electricity is going to go out as she uses her giant mind to tell the kinetically manipulate our surroundings. Do I like Joni Mitchell. Yeah, I really do. I love folk music. I listen to it a. I love Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. I love Neil young on his own you know helplessly hoping as maybe one of my favorite songs of all time. I love a case of you love Stevie Nicks a big fleetwood Mac fan. Very, very often very often listen to Joni Mitchell Joan Baez whos just unrivaled in my opinion. Can we get Ross to march. We can try. You know Gordon Lightfoot love Gordon Lightfoot. Actually theres a great cover of Gordon Lightfoot. I think that Sarah McLachlan did of if you can read my mind, which is like this extremely heartbreaking song he wrote about his divorce. The beautiful, beautiful stuff. I love Gordon Lightfoot. In the early morning rain with a buckle in my hand. Also Steve Wynwood blind faith right. Cant find my way home. Awesome Good stuff too late to help out people. Course all right. So Texas is all about thoughts on southern Baptist dominance in Texas Well you know. I mean, Ive written on Texas in evangelicals several times. And you know I think theres nuance there. And so forth. Thoughts on cardinal Burke always well dressed thoughts on Morgellons. No we get to hear both sides know about that on live. Should I have a kid. Yeah, sure. You know, Im quite attached to mine. I think you know, you know maybe enjoy enjoy it. Ive enjoyed my right. Lets see. Alaska is more than twice the size of Texas. Take that. Thats true. Alaska is bigger in terms of landmass but not in terms of spirit. The Texan soul is enormous. Yeah And you know Texans like that. While the biggest in the continental unites a contiguous United States a kid scares the shit out of me. Oh, it scared the shit out of me. Certainly not wrong about that. My favorite Western. Thats a good question. I like a lot of them. Well, there was this late great period in the 70s where, you have a bunch of fantastic westerns that also have like just amazing soundtracks. Like knockin on heavens door Butch Cassidy and Sundance kid. I mean, all of that John rough sort of dark 1970s westerns with these amazing folk soundtracks. Just kill it. For me personally, we have a Canadian trying to own Texas, which I will I will allow because you know Texas is big enough to sustain some minor distance from our friendly neighbors up north. I dont mean Oklahoma. Oklahoma is absolutely never allowed to diss Texas who is my favorite rapper. Please dont say M&M. Yeah, I know that shes been canceled although Im not sure why, but Im a big Nicki Minhaj fan pills and potions. Great song. I mean, honestly, Ive not heard many songs of hers. And I dont really like John Lee is great. I mean, big Nicki Minhaj fan. This has been the hope this has been a useful chat sort of winding down a bit here. Headwinds book this life. Yeah Im partially through it. Have you seen the pic of big tax on for her. Yes, it was funny. They had him in like a party. It was a bit of a law. Thoughts on the discourse around cultural appropriation. Im not really the best person on it. I havent read deeply enough into it. Sorry I thought is a useful occasionally interesting is seen in 8 or is it something thats learned tendency to sin. Did I grow up in a Texas suburb. Yes, I did. I grew up in a suburb of Dallas and also kind of a suburb of Fort Worth in between the d and the fw Arlington. Who do I need to bribe to get you back. Im left, right, and center. I have no idea. I have no idea. No idea. Where did you cut your posting teeth before Twitter. Well, I dont really remember life before Twitter. I dont know. Thats a good question. Any pub dates puppy updates. Yeah, weve promised the children a puppy. So were trying to figure out how to do that. If CBS offered you Allens job would you take it, absolutely an instant. And I actually am nice right. Im way too passive, to be mean to staff right now. There was someone who tweeted one time that like when a waitress says, do mind if I reach over you. They think to themselves maam you can shoot me with a gun right now. Oh been kind of very similar in dealing with the waitstaff or anyone whos working with me. If you cant be nice to people who are helping you do your job, then you know you need to not have a job. But he got his name the New York Times many crossword. When will you get your name in there. I dont know. I guess when I earn it. Thoughts on corgis. I saw a corgi in a shopping cart yesterday at a Home Depot. Thought it was really cute. I have not read Kennedys head to be an anti-racist though Ive read like a million reviews of it at this point. There was a good one that ran in the Atlantic and there was a good one in The New Yorker. I sometimes end up reading more book reviews than books and unfortunately, some of time you know some navy seals. No, Im not sure that I do. But I would welcome getting to know a navy seal it sounds like an interesting job. Cormac McCarthy fan O my idol right. Enormous Cormac McCarthy fan. I would give anything to have 20% of the writing acumen of Cormac McCarthys. Every time I try to write something in in or manage to Cormac McCarthy I feel like you like ash and the Royal Tenenbaums, You know the frisky leading dusk just comes up really absurd. And he deeply reported pieces upcoming. Oh, Yeah, absolutely. What are you and Frank Czech going to do a podcast called living it up. Thats a good question. Favorite brunch drink. I dont drink alcohol. So at brunch. I usually just have the cold. Frankly not very interesting. Doesnt CarMax sort of lead you to the water and then turn around and walk you away. Yeah well hes a very hes a very interesting sort of poet of moral ambiguity. I think thats what makes him. So great. Right anybody can be didactic and I. I guess my great goal as a writer is to not necessarily be so obviously didactic but to point to moral ambiguity because I think exposure to moral ambiguity develops your moral capacities right. Ultimately you have to develop an internal moral sensibility yourself and only exposure to ambiguity where you have to sort out morality in difficult situations is going to build that capacity that skill set. Whats your disassociated style and poppet troll comes on just like pass out while Im still awake. I mean, I had dreams about puppetry like this. Its just when Paul patrol comes on. I mean, I lose like 10% of my will to live. But you know. You know its better than some alternatives. So have you been in the k hole. What is the k hole. Is that like the k hive. No lose you are one of my favorite whites. Thank you. My friend but the troll for the troll. Yes someone is now posting that. No, I have not been on ketamine. Why am I being asked that. Is this a meme or am I doing something that suggests that Im on ketamine. Is Texas barbecue supreme. Yeah, I mean, I think Texas barbecue is what I was raised with. So of course, Im going to be pretty pretty dedicated to it. How are things going with the peoples policy project. I think its good. Am I a junkie. Biden is curious. No, I dont think so. OK So youve got some kind of ketamine thing going here. No, Im off on the ketamine means cycle IV. Im too old. What do you imagine the heavenly kingdom is like. Yeah, thats a good question. I think Gregory Agnes says God is so infinite right. That your understanding of him and love for him is permanently evolving and always changing. So I imagine heaven as this circumstance of infinite discovery. So think of every time you ever learn something new and felt the pleasure of understanding and the curiosity of searching and the satisfaction of discovering. I think heaven is that over and over and over again about the nature of God. And then also, its a situation where youre permanently loving and growing and love all the time. And you know anyone whos ever been in love knows thats emotional and thrilling and also deeply peaceful. My favorite Japanese kit Kat. Yeah, so theyre like ones youre supposed to put in the oven that are like cheek ache. I think, or something or like a custom I mean, obviously, I cant read the KNG on there. My friend sent them to me when she was living in Japan for a while. But was really good. What is my favorite film that deals with faith. Silence Scorsese Daisy right now. Quite like that one. Its very explicit. Can you cancel my meeting. So I can keep hearing you talk. Yeah post your bosss number right now. This is the New York Times and I need you to release your employees from meetings. This is important. Were talking about my water burger order. Weve talked about liberation is charcuterie Bourgeois. Probably although Matt likes meats on a plate. Some meetings are canceled. What is your opinion on Florida. I think its fine. I mean, you know, it draws heat away from Texas in terms of the press. So you have to appreciate that. Lets see is it true. You can dunk a basketball. No no those reports vastly exaggerated. Did you have, especially memorable pregnancies. I had very easy pregnancies very, very blessed by that easy pregnancies easy deliveries. Would you accept a Joe Rogan invite. Yeah, absolutely. Talk to whoever wants to talk to me, honestly. All right. So my position has always been and always will be that anyone who honestly wants to have a conversation really interested in talking its not just like a bad faith dunk fast or something. I will talk to them. It doesnt matter who they are right or where theyre coming from always willing to talk. All right. How tall am I I am four foot 11. Someone says hello hello what did you think of the Bill Maher movie religious. I remember at one point religious bill Ma goes to like a Christian theme park. And he gets owned by a theme park Jesus because hes like the Trinity doesnt make any sense. And then this guy whose job is to dress up like Jesus and walk around a theme park is like, well, you know think of it like water you have water, but it can also be a gas. And then you have ice and its a solid sea of solid liquid gas. So the Trinity is similar to that though Mars has nothing to say to it. Hes like. And then the next day hes like in a car and hes like, you know it looked like I was owned but actually, I was not. Which I found really entertaining. You know eternity is hard to explain. But the guy did an OK job and the point is whether or not it was like a theologically astute description of the Trinity kid owned by a few for Jesus. Its really enjoyable. Favorite recently published novels. Yeah, Ive been trying to read my year of rest and relaxation. I just havent had a whole lot of time. But you know one of these days. I hope to get through it. I try to keep abreast of the new books the kids are all talking about, and so on. All right or winding down here. Did I ever get into Game of Thrones. I also, it should be said that I was like kind of like in a transitional phase in my life when Game of Thrones was happening, I was like in college and my family got really undo it. So I was home for I think Christmas. It could have been the summer. But I know we got Olive Garden to go for some reason. So like Im standing in the kitchen from which there is a view of my familys TV. My familys all the living room watching TV and Im like standing there eating my you know tour of Italy or whatever. And theres like a little girl being burned to death. And I was like, what the hell is this. And my parents are like, no trust. Trust me, you trust me. Its you know the plot. Its important to the plot. But since that was pretty much my first experience of the show. I tagged out. But I know I know the general plot because it was it was around in the other three minutes 3 minutes of questions and really important stuff for the last three minutes. I cant tell if Matts a baseball fan or cynic is he either. Yeah Matts a fan of all sport. But hes not a fan in the usual sense where he follows teams he just enjoys what he calls good game play. So he likes weird, interesting trick players who used to like Boise State a lot. You know he just likes bizarre things happening in sports, that kind of play with the limitations of the rules. Would you try ketamine with me. Is that not like a veterinary drug. No you guys need to stop stop taking ketamine and stop trying to imitate ketamine. Thoughts on Schwarber. Very good. Favorite sport. I dont know. You know. You know I find football is nice. It reminds me of fall. Raising hay while Boise State a favorite spiritual works on dark knight of soul confessions. Those are you know the showings. Julian Norwood to Norwich very, very important, if not the US. Where would you live and why Canada. Because its nice and everyone is nice there. Do you think Garfield is bad in silence. If so do you think thats the point. A county and Dracula. OK So Bram stokers Dracula is one of the greatest movies of all time. I freaking love that movie because its like just pure 100% kitsch like top to bottom. Total kitsch. It is self-aware. Its got always was its guy Anthony Hopkins doing it kind of a strange cookie monster that voice. Its got Keanu Reeves Winona Ryder I mean, it is bananas and I love that movie. I have it on all the time when company is over because no matter where theres a breaking conversation theres something insane happening in that film. And Garfield I mean, I thought the problem with him in silence was that he basically is just weeping from like frame one through the very end and may you know I suppose thats not too terribly difficult that it is you know or too terribly different than the character of Rodriguez in the novel although I think that Rodriguez in the novel takes a lot longer to kind of collapse and its really that sort of scene in the river where you start to see things go awry. But Yeah, I think its a good film for lunch. Im going to have I think breakfast for lunch. All right. I think Ive got to take off. Get back to work and follow up with you guys later. I hope you have a good day. Thank you for tuning in, and Yeah. OK So one more question would you recommend any other of work. Yes read the C and poison but shes lucky Linda. All right love you guys have a good day. Bye bye.
By PTI

MUMBAI: Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Thursday praised Palghar Police for saving the lives of 22 people who were stranded after heavy rains caused floods in parts of the district.

Those rescued by the Palghar Police on Wednesday included a five-year-old girl, who remained atop a tree for over four hours.

@Palghar_Polices Superintendent of Police Dattatreya Shinde and his colleagues saved the lives of 22 people in flood situation caused by extremely heavy rainfall," Deshmukh tweeted.

"Also streamlined traffic removing roadblocks at many places. I am proud of the promptness shown by Palghar Police in work, he added.

In another tweet, the minister also hailed the district's assistant police inspector Siddhava Jayabhaye and others for heroically saving the five-year-old girl, who clinged to a tree for over four hours after water entered her house.

"She was stuck on a tree surrounded by water. The courage & determination shown by Mamta & Palghar Police is commendable, Deshmukh tweeted with the hashtag of SaviourMahaPolice.
A man tried to smuggle several immigrants inside a recreation vehicle, states an arrest affidavit filed on Monday.

At about 3:15 p.m. Sunday, a white Ford F-250 hauling a Fort Lupton Recreation Vehicle arrived at the U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint. Agents identified the driver as Casey Allen Jamison. He stated he was on his way back to South Carolina.

Jamison stated that there were no passengers inside the RV. But a K-9 unit did alert to possible contraband within the vehicle, according to court documents. Agents referred Jamison to secondary inspection for an X-ray inspection.

The scan allegedly revealed anomalies inside the RV. Agents then discovered six people concealed in various areas, according to court documents.

Four of them were hidden in a compartment under a bed secured with plywood and screws. They had no means of escape from the compartment, states the affidavit.

All individuals found in the RV were immigrants who had crossed the border illegally. Agents also discovered a Dewalt drill, a pack of Phillips head screw bits and a box of screws matching the description of the screws used to secure the plywood and the compartment, records state.

Upon, Jamison invoked his right to remain silent. He was arrested and charged with transport, attempt to transport and conspire to transport the immigrants.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-07 06:18:25|Editor: huaxia

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KHARTOUM, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Sudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok on Thursday received a telephone call from the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during which they reviewed lifting Sudan from the U.S. list of states sponsoring terrorism.

"Today, I had the pleasure of receiving a phone call from Mike Pompeo, the U.S. secretary of state, to continue the discussion on removing Sudan from the list of state sponsors of terrorism," said Hamdok on his Twitter account.

"We are looking forward to the continued support of the U.S. administration to Sudan's transitional government," he added. Enditem




Editor's note: Tom Fowdy is a British political and international relations analyst and a graduate of Durham and Oxford universities. He writes on topics pertaining to China, the DPRK, Britain, and the U.S. The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Amid an ever growing spree of antagonistic actions undertaken by the Trump administration towards China, on August 5 it was announced that U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar would in "the coming days" visit Taiwan, marking what has been contested by some to be the first presidential cabinet visit to the island, since it adopted the one-China principle in 1979 and opened diplomatic relations with Beijing.

Azar will head to Taipei focusing his visit around the COVID-19, aiming to praise the island's response, as well as to voice support for its inclusion into the World Health Organization. Not surprisingly, it is viewed as yet another growing element of tension in U.S.-China ties.

The move is provocative and it is, of course, endemic of a White House that seeks to lash out at China, disrupt and raise the stake on every front possible, but the move is not as unprecedented as it appears.

The choice of a health secretary to make such a visit has been deliberately calibrated to blunt the political fallout out of such a move and prevent it from being interpreted as sharp on a military or diplomatic sense. Pompeo's own comments to play down the visit, despite his fanaticism of late, also indicated restraint. However, even if not completely breaking the boundaries it is an effort to push against them, one which Beijing will interpret as such, regardless.

It has been obvious for a while now that Washington has sought not to rewrite its position on the one-China principle and the "Taiwan Relations Act," but to certainly reinterpret it in a way, which deliberately presses against the boundaries.

Under the Trump administration, the U.S. has moved from what was otherwise a more conditionally neutral position on the dispute between Beijing and Taipei, towards gradually supporting the latter's position. This has included the passing of the Taiwan Travel Act (2018), which mandates more "unofficial" diplomatic exchanges between the two and the Taiwan Allies International Protection and Enhancement Initiative (TAIPEI) Act (2019), which aims to lobby for its participation in international organizations. The administration has also moved to penalize countries who adopt the one-China principle.

As a result and given the current climate, it is hardly a surprise that a U.S. cabinet official is making a visit to Taiwan. The move, however, is not as drastic as the reporting has made it out to be.

First of all, a year ago, U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton met with a Taiwan official who was visiting America. This move was arguably a far graver provocation in real terms given its military dynamic, than the visit of a health official to the island. On the contrary, Azar is not a well-known member of the Trump cabinet, who largely plays a background role and does not show his face on the foreign policy scene. Because of his portfolio, his visit is arguably pressing the boundaries of the one-China issue but he does not carry the personal weight or political baggage to constitute a massive violation. It's quite benign.

This suggests something provocative, but cautious from Washington. This is echoed by comments from Pompeo which sought to play down the significance of the visit. He argued "cabinet ministers have traveled" to the island before and insisted the trip was "consistent with policy of previous times." He then stated, "we're still in a global pandemic" and quickly aimed to cite purported health-related reasons for the visit rather, saying they will talk about" public health issues."

This marked a change from his unusual bombastic style and highly aggressive anti-China statements. It arguably was the most restrained remarks he'd made about an issue relating to China for months. They are pushing against the boundaries, but do not want to give the impression that they are explicitly breaking them.

Nevertheless, Beijing will argue that America's move constitutes a clear violation of one-China provisions. Even if they are not willing to "cross the line" it is arguable that Washington is pursuing a salami-slicing approach to Taiwan relations whereby they move forward just a little bit at a time, but nonetheless the overriding goal is obvious.

Azar's visit is health-related, but on the other hand, China will note it has a clear purpose to try and lobby against the World Health Organization's adoption of the one-China principle, as well as to implicitly politicize the virus by portraying Taiwan as exemplary.

As a result, even though there is a hint of restraint in how this move is being contacted, Beijing can only see it as a provocation and will aim to ensure that the U.S. does not get away with "pushing the boundaries." Thus it is likely to respond to the situation consistently, and will remind Washington of its longstanding diplomatic commitments on this issue.
Facebook has removed several networks of accounts that were spreading misinformation in the US ahead of the 2020 presidential election. One of the troll farms, which was based in Romania, posed as a group of African Americans who said they supported President Donald Trump. They used names like "BlackPeopleVoteForTrump" to share their content.

Nathaniel Gleicher, head of security policy at Facebook, told NBC the group's motives were unclear. However, the company didn't see "clear evidence of financial motivation." Gleicher went on to stress that Facebook took action against the organization for using fake accounts to game the company's algorithms, not the specific content they were posting.

A larger enforcement action saw the company ban 303 Facebook accounts and 31 Instagram accounts operated by Truth Media. Facebooks report says this network showed some links to on-platform activity by Epoch Media Group, the publisher of The Epoch Times. Truth Media pushed conservative conspiracy theories related to the coronavirus pandemic and ongoing Black Lives Matter protests in the US, Canada and a variety of other countries. Facebook said approximately 2 million accounts across both platforms followed the operation.

This is not the first time that Epoch Media Group has been linked to bad actors by Facebook. In August 2019, NBC News reported that Facebook banned ads from The Epoch Times for not following its transparency rules. Later that same year, Facebook banned 610 Facebook accounts and 72 Instagram accounts from an organization known as The BL, saying its investigation linked this activity to Epoch Media Group, a US-based media organization, and individuals in Vietnam working on its behalf. At the time, Facebook said approximately 55 million accounts, many of them based outside of the US, followed the operation in one way or another. In some instances, the troll farm used artificial intelligence to cover its tracks.

Update 8/7: This article has been updated to clarify when and how Facebook has drawn links between bad actors on its platform and Epoch Media Group. The Epoch Times maintains that it is not in any way linked or related with Truth Media, and says it has no business relationship with, or is in any way responsible for the operations of The BL.
Programme Assocaite (M&E), Ankara, Turkey

Organization: United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)

Country: Turkey

City: Ankara, Turkey

Office: WFP Ankara, Turkey

Closing date: Tuesday, 18 August 2020

ABOUT WFP

The World Food Programme (WFP) is the United Nations frontline agency in the fight against global hunger and the worlds largest humanitarian organization.

In Turkey, WFP is supporting the Government with the provision of basic needs, food and livelihood assistance to vulnerable refugees nationwide. This post falls within the livelihood support operations that seek to enhance the self-reliance of refugees and vulnerable host communities.

The post will be located in the WFP Ankara Country Office in Turkey with travel to the field.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

These jobs are found in Country Offices (COs), Area/Field Offices (AOs/FOs). Job holders typically report to a VAM/M&E Officer or designate. At this level, job holders are expected to demonstrate responsibility and initiative to respond independently to various queries with only general guidance.

JOB PURPOSE

Turkey currently hosts the highest number of refugees in the world: 4 million people, of which

6 million are from Syria. WFP in partnership with the Turkish Red Crescent (TRC) and the Government of Turkey have implemented the Emergency Social Safety Net (ESSN) from 2016 until April 2020 to help the most vulnerable refugees meet their basic needs. As the situation in Syria remains volatile, large scale return is not expected soon. In this regard, the Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan (3RP) partners have committed themselves to continued assistance for 2020-2021, supporting the immediate needs of Syrians under Temporary Protection (SuTP) and, as requested by the Government, strengthening the overall resilience of SuTP, host communities and capacities of relevant institutions.

Despite the legislative changes that facilitate access to formal jobs, language barriers and unsuitable skill sets limit employment opportunities for SuTP. In addition, high unemployment, increased competition and skills shortages affect the employment prospects of both SuTP and host communities. Thus, there is scope for an industry-based employment model that provides training and skills in a focused sector to benefit both SuTP and host communities and that attract private-sector interest.

To do so, WFP with project partners implements the Kitchen of Hope (Mutfakta Umut Var - MUV) programme for refugees and local youth from households with vulnerabilities on a culinary arts vocational training.

The programme is modelled around a dual apprenticeship system, in line with the protocols WFP has established with MoNE and the Turkish Employment Agency (ISKUR) and has already proven its scalability, after the successful completion of a pilot in 2019 and scale-up to more cities and participants in 2020.

WFPs Vulnerability Analysis & Mapping and Monitoring & Evaluation (VAM/M&E) unit leads the programme operation in terms of measurement and learning. As the intervention transitions towards more sustainable opportunities and linkages are built between the humanitarian assistance and active labour market programmes, a solid M&E system will be essential in order to measure the effect of the transition. Therefore, WFP is seeking additional capacity to support the M&E systems development and implementation.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

Within the assigned unit and delegated authority VAM/M&E Associate will be responsible for the following duties:

Support the VAME team in data collection, regular extraction of data from WFPs server and lead on data cleaning

Clean and analyse household data using Excel and/or SPSS; construct key indicators and produce descriptive statistics following corporate standards and guidelines

Support the VAME team with reporting and dissemination of data analysis results in order to support operational decision-making, including preparation of powerpoints and reports

Contribute to the design and development of M&E toolkit, including the development of tools on tablets (using ODK or KoBo)

Provide support to all issues related to COMET to ensure its efficient functioning and utilization

Support linkages between M&E data and Vulnerability Analysis & Mapping data

Strengthen links between VAME and other Programme units, through regular provision of relevant VAME data and response to adhoc queries

Perform other related duties as required

Results/Expected Outputs

Support provided to the camp PDM data cleaning, data analysis and reporting

Contribution provided to ongoing VAME internal and external studies, with a specific focus on Lessons Learnt Study

Support provided to MUV monitoring activities through development of survey tools, communication with the field, data cleaning and analysis of different kind of MUV monitoring tools

Support provided to monitoring activities (data collection, data cleaning, analysis, reporting) of Covid-19 related interventions including but not limited to Soup Kitchen Project

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education: University degree in Statistics, Economics, Social Sciences, Development Economics or any other related field attained from a recognized institution

Experience: At least two years of progressively responsible experience, with at least one year in food security analysis, monitoring and database management related functions

Prior experience in consolidating and analyzing secondary data

Expertise in market analysis, including macroeconomic trends and microeconomic data

Skills in report writing and giving presentations

Demonstrated proficiency in the use of several methods for data analysis, qualitative and quantitative.

Computer skills: Excellent knowledge of Microsoft Office. Knowledgeable in at least one standard statistical package (SPSS, Stata, SAS or other).

Language: Fluency in both oral and written communication in English and Turkish.

Nationality and Residency: The applicant should be either a Turkish national or have a valid Turkish residence at the time of application.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Remuneration: A competitive compensation and benefits package is offered.

Annual Leave Entitlement:

83 days per month.

Medical Insurance: Private medical insurance plan for the employee and dependents (spouse, child or children)

Duration of the contract: 12 months (renewable)

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

Deadline: No later than 18 August 2020 Nationality and Residency: The applicant should be either a Turkish national or have a valid Turkish residence at the time of application.
On the left is Rep. Ryu Ho-jeong of the progressive minor opposition Justice Party at a plenary session at the National Assembly, Tuesday. Ryu's short pink dress stirred controversy but many lawmakers expressed their support for Ryu's challenging of old practices in which the majority wear business suits. On the right is former lawmaker Ryu Si-min who also triggered an impropriety controversy for wearing white-color pants at a plenary session of the 16th National Assembly in 2003. Yonhap



By Jung Da-min



Rep. Ryu Ho-jeong of the progressive minor opposition Justice Party is challenging old practices at the 21st National Assembly with her informal outfits.

The 27 year-old lawmaker's casual clothing choices such as jeans and a T-shirt, shorts and dresses have drawn attention at the National Assembly, where the majority of people dress in business attire.



Ryu's short pink dress, which she wore at a plenary session on Tuesday, has sparked controversy as members of some political communities criticized Ryu for her decision to wear what they described as an "improper" outfit at an official gathering of the Assembly.



Some even left sexually discriminatory remarks. One online user of a political community posted her picture at the plenary session and wrote, "Did she come to the plenary session to collect money for drinks?" implying that Ryu's dress gave her the appearance of a bar hostess or prostitute.



Ryu, however, dismissed such criticism saying in a radio interview, Thursday, "I do not think the National Assembly's authority comes from the suits. We can establish authority when we work for the people." She said she wanted to challenge old practices at the National Assembly by wearing casual clothing.



"People say the National Assembly is male-dominated, especially by men in their 50s. I wanted to challenge old practices of the National Assembly which is symbolized by dark-colored suits and neck ties," Ryu said.



Ryu said she and other young lawmakers at a youth forum held a day before the plenary session said that they would wear the same clothes they were at the forum at the plenary session. They were all wearing casual clothing at the forum as they meet with members of the public including young people.



Ryu also said that lawmakers should be allowed to wear any clothes in which they can work, as only some of the people the lawmakers were elected to represent are white-collar workers who wear suits.



"The National Assembly is also a work place I previously worked in the IT industry and there were few people wearing business suits," she said.



Other lawmakers also expressed support for Ryu's decision to wear informal outfits to work.



Justice Party leader Rep. Sim Sang-jung wrote on her Facebook, "Rep. Ryu Ho-jeong of our party had a hard day yesterday. I feel like wearing a dress this morning," adding dresses are worn by many female office workers and the National Assembly is the "office" of lawmakers. "I ask people to support lawmakers to actively work at the Assembly wearing outfits that represent their individuality."



Rep. Yang Hyang-ja of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) said in a radio interview that she felt regret over the situation in which a female lawmaker's outfits brought controversy. "It is quite regretful that a woman became an object of such controversy," Yang said.



Another DPK lawmaker Rep. Ko Min-jung also expressed support for Ryu saying, "I do not agree with all Ryu's opinions, but I cannot agree with the excessive criticism she is receiving for her outfit. I want to thank Ryu for challenging the National Assembly's excessive authoritarianism."



Other male lawmakers also expressed their support for Ryu.



DPK five-term lawmaker Rep. An Min-suk wrote on his Facebook: "A ggondae who is spending his 17th year at the National Assembly supports Rep. Ryu Ho-jeong. Former lawmaker Ryu Si-min's white-color pants were not a problem and Ryu's jeans and dress were not a problem."

Ggondae is a recently coined word among young Koreans meaning older men who try to force "outdated" ideas onto the younger generation with which they are deeply out of touch. An was also referring to a past controversy 17 years ago over former lawmaker Ryu Shi-min's wearing of white pants at a plenary session of the 16th National Assembly.



"Ggondae" means an older conservative man.
[August 05, 2020] EM Key Solutions brings on industry expert David Shackleton as Vice President of Operations ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Aug. 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- EM Key Solutions, Inc. (EMKS), a growing provider of information technology (IT) solutions and services for the federal government, has named Dave Shackleton as its Vice President of Operations. In this role, Shackleton will provide executive leadership supporting all operating components of the business.

Shackleton will be responsible for achieving EMKSs operational objectives by contributing information and recommendations to strategic plans, supporting the companys growth initiatives, incorporating and refining business agility practices, managing senior-level customer relationships, and providing executive leadership for delivery of solutions and promises to clients, partners, and employees alike. I couldnt be more excited to welcome Dave to the EMKS Executive Leadership Team, said EMKS CEO Mike Snyder. He brings a stellar record of success, agile and quality delivery expertise, and strategic insight that will undoubtedly further accelerate the companys growth while addressing the critical needs of our clients in achieving their missions. With over 20 years of proven experience, Shackleton has successfully led and delivered on major challenges, transformations, and modernizations in IT operations in both the commercial and government sectors. He has a broad range of senior leadership experience and has led large and complex government information technology portfolios using industry-leading Agile and DevOps methodologies. Prior to accepting the position of VP of Operations a EMKS, Shackleton served as the Director of National Security at Buchanan & Edwards (B&E) where he provided executive management of the combined National Security (DoD and DHS) and Law Enforcement (DoJ and FBI) business unit representing the companys largest and most diverse portfolio. Shackleton served in portfolio and program management roles at Harmonia Holdings Group, Inalab Consulting, and CGI Federal before joining B&E. Prior to his civilian career, Shackleton served 20 years in the Marine Corps within the Strategic Planning and Operations community at distinguished posts, commands, and the Pentagon. His last assignment was at Marine Corps Systems Command where he was responsible for managing and executing multiple consecutive and highly-successful agile software development lifecycle contracts and performed all duties as the governments Product Owner, Program Manager, and Contracting Officers Representative (COR). As the Product Manager, he established product and system requirements, milestone objectives, deliverables, assigned and maintained priorities, and established key performance parameters (KPPs) and key performance indicators (KPIs) used for testing and software demonstration. Shackleton compliments his experience with a bachelors degree in Business and holds more than a dozen industry-leading Program Management and Agile certifications, including Certified Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Program Consultant (SPC 5) and Six Sigma Black Belt. His Lean Portfolio Management leadership style incorporates proven CMMI and ITIL practices with innovative business agility techniques to ensure that corporate strategies and culture align with customers needs. About EM Key Solutions Founded in 2015, EM Key Solutions (EMKS) is a Service Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) serving our country, our Veterans and Uniformed Services, and the federal market at large with mission-centric, cost-effective and innovative management consulting and healthcare systems solutions, one project at a time. EMKS is an IT solutions and management consulting services provider with exceptional record of experience and performance with core capabilities in Business Transformation and Collaboration, Health IT Systems Solutions and Integration, Performance Management and Engineering, and Cyber Security Services. EMKS delivers a customer-centric approach with proven management processes to each project they undertake. Through sound leadership and management principals, EMKS focuses on offering its clients the solutions they need to be successful throughout the project management lifecycle at the most competitive rates. Visit EMKS on the web at www.emkeysolutions.com

Contact:

EM Key Solutions, Inc.

Phone: 540-287-7126

[ Back to the Next Generation Communications Community's Homepage ]
The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on three individuals and a Malta-based company, accusing them of acting as a network of smugglers and contributing to instability in Libya.

The U.S. Treasury Department in a statement said it blacklisted Faysal al-Wadi, accusing the Libyan national of having smuggled drugs and Libyan fuel into Malta.

Also blacklisted were two associates, Musbah Mohamad M Wadi and Nourddin Milood M Musbah, Malta-based company Alwefaq Ltd, and the vessel Maraya, which the Treasury said Wadi used in his alleged smuggling operations.

The Treasury said that "competition for control of smuggling routes, oil facilities, and transport nodes is a key driver of conflict in Libya and deprives the Libyan people of economic resources."

Thursday's action freezes any U.S. assets of those blacklisted and generally bars Americans from dealing with them.

"Faysal al-Wadi and his associates have smuggled fuel from Libya and used Libya as a transit zone to smuggle illicit drugs," said Deputy Treasury Secretary Justin Muzinich.

"The United States is committed to exposing illicit networks exploiting Libyas resources for their own profit while hurting the Libyan people," he added.

Libya descended into chaos after the NATO-backed overthrow of leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Since 2014, it has been split, with an internationally recognized government controlling the capital, Tripoli, and the northwest, while military leader Khalifa Haftar in Benghazi rules the east

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 21:46:48|Editor: huaxia

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by Zhang Yongxing

SUVA, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Cultural exchange is the key for countries such as Fiji and China to enhance mutual understanding and respect, Fijian and Chinese officials said on Thursday.

Collin Yabaki, director of Fiji's Heritage and Arts Department, told Xinhua on the sideline of the visit to the National Archives of Fiji by Chinese Ambassador Qian Bo that cultural exchange is a bridge and one of the best ways to help the two countries and peoples deepen their mutual understanding and enhance the friendly cooperative ties.

"Culture exchange between Fiji and China is very important, and our relationship goes a long way back. Cultural exchange is actually a bridge which helps us better understand each other and learn from each other," said Yabaki, who visited China twice.

He believed that cultural exchange between the two countries has yielded fruitful results over the past years.

"Our cultural cooperation is great. Fijians go to China and learn about Chinese culture. We can see the integration and cooperation between us. Our two peoples have learned a lot from each other," he said, adding cultural exchange has also "helped us become a family of nations."

The director stressed the importance of respecting different cultures of different countries.

"Both Fiji and China have rich and diversified cultures. We should and we do respect each other's culture and learn from each other," he said.

For his part, Ambassador Qian told Xinhua that cultural exchange is vital for the countries like China and Fiji to learn from each other for common development.

"The development of humankind is a progress of mutual learning and assimilation. Each country is quite different with its own history, culture and advantage. We have to learn from history, respect and learn from each other and promote exchanges and cooperation, so as to achieve common development and progress," he said.

This year marks the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Fiji.

China is now working with the government and people of Fiji to build a comprehensive strategic partnership featuring mutual respect and common development, said Qian, adding the purpose of the visit is to explore the possibility for future cooperation.

"When we say mutual respect, this includes the respect of our culture and history. As developing countries, both China and Fiji share a lot in terms of long history, very old culture and seeking common development. We can learn from each other and we can help each other including cooperation in the field of archives," he said.

Timoci Balenaivalu, acting principal archivist of the National Archives of Fiji, said archives is the records of a country's history, and countries like Fiji and China can learn from history and culture to better their future cooperation.

"I have been to China three times. China has a rich history and culture just as what Fiji does. Cultural exchange like today's visit will help us know better each other. Needless to say, we need to respect each other's history and culture and this will help us enjoy good relationship and cooperation," he said.

Meanwhile, Sun Jie, director of China Cultural Center in Fiji, said the center has played a very important role in promoting cultural exchanges between China and Fiji over the past years.

"Every year, we organize a lot of cultural activities that do help peoples enjoy better understanding and further promote the friendship." Enditem
SAN FRANCISCO  California Gov. Gavin Newsom's press conferences were must-see TV at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Now, crisis fatigue among residents and a summer surge have prevented Newsom from getting into a messaging rhythm.

The state remains in a holding pattern. Indoor restaurant dining, bars and gyms have been closed for weeks. Most schools are planning to start with full distance learning.

A governor's words have rarely meant more than now, when California's nearly 40 million residents are looking for guidance and a glimmer of hope. But with the coronavirus firmly ensconced in the state and no signs of a broad economic reopening, Newsom faces a new challenge: how to communicate for the long haul.

"It doesn't appear he's making much news any longer," said Rob Stutzman, a strategist and former adviser to Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. "When things are going poorly, as they have been over the last four weeks, then the style starts to get a little tiresome and becomes a point of vulnerability and criticism."

In late April, Newsom's approval rating was 70 percent, among the highest in the country and the highest measured since he took office last year. It fell to 58 percent in late May and was holding steady in June, according to a poll conducted by Harvard, Rutgers, Northeastern and Northwestern universities.

Early in the crisis, Newsom garnered plaudits for his early decision to impose a stay-at-home order in mid-March. He was often compared with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose state was facing a far more severe crisis but who also held court daily with reporters on television.

As Newsom issued a four-phase reopening plan and then allowed counties to reopen despite not meeting the state's initial requirements for infection rate and testing capacity, cases surged, putting California in the same breath as problem states Florida, Arizona and Texas.

The pandemic has developed a rhythm of its own that has challenged politicians, said Fred Cook, director of the University of Southern California's Center for Public Relations.

Story continues

"This virus, the way it has evolved, has created a different sort of news cycle," he said. "I think in the beginning it felt like people wanted information more frequently and then after awhile it became less frequent and now it seems to be getting more frequent again. The intensity of the virus almost dictates the intensity of the need for information."

In some cases, Newsom's messaging efforts have fallen flat.

On a recent Friday, he offered vague assurances to the hard-hit Central Valley, which after nearly an hour prompted an Associated Press reporter to ask whether there was an actual new development. The governor returned the following Monday with a sharper message about spending $52 million in the region and sending strike teams there.

The follow-up press conference was the only one Newsom held last week. This Monday, Newsom announced "good news" that California's case count had declined by 21 percent. But that message was undermined in subsequent days when county health officers said that data reporting problems had caused an undercount.

Peter Ragone, who served as Newsom's mayoral communications director in San Francisco and formerly advised both Cuomo and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, said the treacherous political landscape facing Newsom  and other blue state leaders  is "not anything that we have seen in modern political times.

You simultaneously have a pandemic, a major economic crisis, major social protests and unrest in cities throughout the state related to Black Lives Matter, he said, while at the same time confronting the most powerful government on the planet  which is hostile."

Where Cuomo leaned into his candid, abrasive style in the early months of the pandemic to become a social media star, Newsom has been more cerebral, more likely to deploy "candidly" at the start of an evasive answer.

"He does not communicate in a plain-spoken manner," Stutzman said of Newsom. "He uses words that people don't commonly use. He'll cite statistics, which shows a great grasp of what's going on, and it can instill confidence, but does any governor or president need to be the one reciting the daily statistics?"

Still, Cook praised both governors' detail-oriented delivery and said their personal styles matched their respective audiences.

"Cuomo has more emotion, he's a little more of an everyman sort of person, and Newsom is like a tech CEO, a little bit  he's good looking, he's well dressed and he comes across a little more laid back than someone like Cuomo," Cook said. "It's not unlike the typical New Yorker versus the typical Californian in that respect."

Given the risk of saying something too definitive that may have to be walked back or contradicting his own administration officials, like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, governors may want to err on the side of being boring and repetitive, Cook said.

"Nobody wants to have those clips shown of them saying something different a month ago than they are now," he said. "You have to have a consistency of message over a period of time to gain their credibility and their trust, and sometimes that consistency of message is boring."

Newsom doesnt have his topics written or speeches prepared on the teleprompter for the sessions  a risky move by any public official, insiders say.

His communications director, Nathan Click, said the governor thinks that speaking directly to Californians is important, because so much of this challenge is being able to communicate to people what exactly is happening  and how they can address it and fix it  such as when he continues to pound the need for wearing masks and social distancing.

Click said the volume and the intensity of the multiple crises on a daily basis has been daunting  and multiplied by about 200 press calls coming into his office each day.

As the only governor in memory with four children under 11 years old  his youngest, Dutch, is 3  Newsom wakes up really early, Click said, and often starts sending out emails to staffers sometimes as early as 6 a.m.

Click said Newsom begins phone briefings every day by 8 a.m. from his office in the state Capitol, starting with the heads of the Office of Emergency Services and the Department of Public Health, chief of staff Ann O'Leary and cabinet secretary Ana Matosantos. An hour later, he has a broader call with heads of other agencies, where he asks a lot of questions.

Hes a detail person that likes to have a full view of what's actually happening  and get real time updates, Click said.

From those briefings, Newsom develops a message for his press conferences: "What are we trying to improve, what are we trying to fix, what are we saying that we're trying to address, Click said, whether its certain segments of workers being most affected, or certain areas like nursing homes or the Central Valley.

Phil Trounstine, the former communications director for Gov. Gray Davis, said Newsoms detailed, data-driven performances have served panicked state residents well, and that most voters appreciate them.

But now that Newsom is into the fifth month of the crisis, Trounstine said the governor may want to trim those back, if only to better focus his message  and conserve his strength. If I were advising the governor on communications, I would suggest that he take no more than about 15 minutes  that he has a clear concise point that he wants to make any makes it once ... backs it up with a graphic, takes a few questions, he said. And then, get out and back to work.

Click defended the press conferences as a crucial way for Newsom to communicate with residents, citing a web audience of several thousand and an ultimate audience of "more than a million" thanks to radio and TV stations continuing to run the live briefings. "We still have almost every TV station in California picking it up live," he said. "It's pretty astonishing."

In line with those numbers, communications experts give Newsom relatively high marks for his social media presence and for hammering the dual message of staying home and wearing masks when outside. He's been consistently enlisting the help of celebrities, like Bill Nye, who did a hand-washing video, and Sarah Silverman, who urged people to follow the lead of the "hot governor" and wear a mask.

Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, who appointed Newsom to his first political post as a San Francisco parking and traffic commissioner in 1996  and then tapped him a year later to be a San Francisco supervisor  said that his former protege may be going through some challenging times as a communicator.

But Brown said critics may be holding Newsom  one of the nations most high profile governors  to standards that are daunting for most elected officials. In the day-to-day challenges of the work, sometimes, [they] get distracted, or lazy, or theyre not as creative, said Brown, who served as the longest-running speaker of the California Assembly in an era before term limits.

But Gavins a matinee idol, he said. Hell come back.
I got up on stage in my home city Philadelphia, in front of a crowd of just over 500 people to talk to a group of aspiring authors about leveraging the power of the internet to spread their message. I didnt have sweaty palms or a cracking voice, and the talk went very well.

Im not saying this to brag. For whatever reason, speaking in front of groups is easy for me. Im lucky that way.

But plop me in the middle of a small group where Im expected to interact and I am super shy... I never quite know what to say until I warm up a bit.

However, my business requires me to be able to interact with people on a regular basis, sometimes without much notice, and often in small groups. Quite often, I have to be able to seem at ease in situations with people who are new to me  no matter how uncomfortable I feel on the inside.

To learn these particular social skills (which dont come naturally to me), one of the things I did was watch the master, Regis Philbin.

Regis was a master at putting people at ease, and he logged more hours on broadcast television than anyone else in history. His recent death was a loss to the TV landscape, and a loss to me personally.

Here are five lessons I learned watching Regis over the years.

Related: The 5-Hour Rule Used by Bill Gates, Jack Ma and Elon Musk

Always be ready to go

A great portion of Regis career in front of the camera was live and unscripted. And he made it look EASY. That was because, for him, it was. Regis was always prepared to do his job in front of the camera  no matter the subject or circumstance.

Watching him on Live! With Regis and Cathie Lee and later on Live! With Regis and Kelly was watching a master at his craft. He was always able to be funny at just the right moments while giving serious subjects their due gravitas.

Watching how prepared he was in every situation helped me to prepare better myself.

Use stories to make a connection

Philbins co-host Kelly Ripa is quoted in the New York Times as saying, I think he is the worlds greatest storyteller.

Storytelling is an underrated art form, but extremely important for setting people at ease and creating rapport and Regis was a master at it. One of his favorite stories involved the astrologer Sydney Omar, who was the first guest on his first national television show. Omar predicted that Regis would fail that time around and he did, only to come back and become a household name (which Omar also predicted).

Learning how to tell stories well has helped me talk with strangers with a great deal more ease. Its also helped me land new clients and make more sales. People relate to stories at a visceral level. Facts and figures just dont work in the same way.

Related: 10 TV Shows Every Entrepreneur Should Watch on Netflix

Cultivate long-term relationships

One of the many talents of Regis Philbin was his ability to cultivate long-term relationships. Michael Gelman, the producer on the Live! shows, worked with Regis for 29 years.

Having solid, long term relationships like this requires integrity and trust  traits that Philbin had in abundance. Gelman told the New York Times the key to the show was to, Let Regis be Regis.

Ive found that one of the keys to business is the ability to develop relationships where people know you and trust you to deliver a quality product every time you do business with them. If your colleagues trust you then you will get much further than if you try to hustle them and your business will have much more staying power.

Make people comfortable

Regis was a master at making people feel comfortable when he had them as guests on his show.

Regis good-natured joking put people at ease and let them reveal more of themselves than they might have otherwise. According to The Washington Post, part of Regis' appeal was his ability to make fun of his own enthusiasms.

Using gentle humor also works wonders in business settings. You need to be careful how much you use, but humor can put people at ease and make them comfortable like almost nothing else. As Jimmy Kimmel said in a tweet, Philbin was a "great broadcaster, a good friend and a tremendous amount of fun."

Have a great work ethic

Plenty of dubious sales letters depict people frolicking on the beach and working maybe an hour a day, but real business almost always requires a serious work ethic. You have to show up day after day and put in the hours to move your business forward one step at a time.

Sometimes its boring, but thats usually what it takes.

Regis Philbin was the master of work ethic, as proven by his Guinness World Record for the most hours on US television. He clocked in an astounding 16,746.50 hours in front of audiences. Thats someone who showed up ready to work.

Regis Philbin had tremendous talent and work ethic to rival anyone in the industry. He played to his personal strengths and had great character. If we're ever looking to learn more from him, he kindly left behind 16,746.50 hours of lessons.

Related: Ayesha Curry Has Built a Business Empire -- and She's Still Learning

Related:

5 Skills I Learned From the Prolific Regis Philbin

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Hours after police discovered a 31-year-old Boston slain outside a Worcester apartment building Monday, one of the suspects charged in the fatal shooting showed back up at the scene to get his motorcycle helmet, court records said.

Investigators, through a review of surveillance video, then determined the same man was the suspect in the case.

Jacob Grice, 35, and Amber Gravel, 27, both of Worcester, were arrested Wednesday in connection with the Monday killing that left a 31-year-old Boston man dead outside 38 King St. in Worcester.

Court records identified the shooting victim as Darren Dyette.

Grice and Gravel were both being arraigned in Worcester Central District Court Thursday. Gravel was charged with being an accessory after the fact to murder.

Jacob Grice appears via Zoom for his arraignment in Worcester District Court on Aug. 6, 2020.

Grice was charged with assault and battery by firearm, assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon resulting in serious bodily injury resulting, unlawfully carrying a firearm, unlawfully carrying a loaded firearm, possession of ammunition without an FID card and drug trafficking.

Around 5:40 a.m. Monday, police were called to 38 King St. for a report of gunshots

Officers found Dyette on the sidewalk. He had been shot several times, court records said. Dyette was rushed to UMass Memorial Medical Center  University Campus where he was pronounced dead.

A few hours after the fatal shooting, Grice arrived at King Street on a white motor scooter, investigators said in court records.

Grice asked to go inside 38 King St. and retrieve a motorcycle helmet from an apartment inside. He told police his cousin lived in the apartment, police said.

Investigators had Grice give them his information. Grice, according to records, refused to speak to police while he was at the scene. Investigators gave Grice a subpoena to appear before a grand jury in the case.

As detectives conducted a canvass of the area for witnesses, they also obtained surveillance video and audio of the shooting scene.

Surveillance video showed the victim arrive at the scene in a Honda CRV. The same video also showed a dark-colored sedan drive past the King Street address and then park on Queen Street.

A male, later identified through investigation as Grice, exits the front passenger side door wearing all dark clothing and a white face mask, court records said.

Gravel is also seen getting out of the sedan. Both then walked on Queen Street toward King Street.

About 10 minutes later, seven gunshots rang out, authorities said.

Additional surveillance video showed Grice putting on gloves while wearing a white face mask. Grice, according to court records, is caught on video walking toward Dyette. Seconds later, gunshots rang out.

Immediately following the gunshots, Grice runs toward the Honda CRV, records said. Grice is holding what appears to be a handgun in his right hand.

Gravel is spotted in the video running on King Street, investigators said in court records.

According to court records, Gravel admitted she drove with Grice to the area of 38 King St. before the shooting to smoke a blunt with Grices friends who live at the address.

Gravel told detectives Grice walked toward 38 King St. and encountered Dyette outside. She identified Grice as the shooter, records said.

Gravel told police that Grice called her on her cell phone and had her pick him up a few streets away from the shooting scene.

The two drove back to their apartment on Endicott Street in Grices Mercedes Benz, authorities said.

Amber Gravel appears via Zoom for her arraignment in Worcester District Court on Aug. 6. 2020.

While no motive was detailed in court records, Gravel told investigators she did not know that Grice planned to shoot or rob the victim.

Both Gravel and Grice were arrested Wednesday after investigators set up surveillance at 91 Endicott St. where Grices Mercedes Benz was parked. Grice was then seen by officers riding a motor scooter on the street.

Grice was stopped after his motor scooter did not have a license plate. Authorities said he was caught with 29.2 grams of crack cocaine and $2,300 in cash.

Investigators then checked the motor scooter and located ammunition under the seat compartment, records said.

Gravel was located inside an apartment at 91 Endicott St.

Grice told investigators he did not want to talk. Records show he does not have a license to carry a firearm or an FID card.

The family of the victim watched the arraignment on Zoom. It appeared the family of Grice and Gravel were also at the courthouse. Gravels defense lawyer said her parents were inside the courthouse.

Some screaming could be heard during the Zoom arraignment.

The defense attorney for Gravel told a judge she was not aware of what was going to happen at the time of the shooting.

Prosecutor David Feraco wanted the judge set bail for Gravel at $10,000 cash while the defense lawyer wanted her to be released or placed on $1,000 cash bail.

The judge set bail at $1,000 cash. She will return to court on Sept. 11. A not guilty plea was entered in her case.

Grice was held without bail after his arraignment Thursday pending a dangerousness hearing which will be held on Monday. Not guilty pleas were entered in his case. A judge also revoked Grices bail in a pending case out of East Brookfield District Court.

Grice wanted a copy of the statement of facts in the case, but a judge said his defense lawyer would have to go over the document with him and the court would not be handing Grice a copy Thursday.

The death continues a month-long plaque of gun violence experienced in Worcester.
Donald Trump has claimed he forced Boris Johnson to change his stance on allowing Chinese telecoms firm Huawei access to Britains 5G network.

The US President said he had a big and tough talk with the Prime Minister, and threatened to stop doing business with Britain if he went ahead with his plan.

He said this forced Mr Johnson to change his mind and terminate the deal with the Chinese firm. The President, in an interview with Fox News yesterday, boasted: The UK, they were set to buy the Huawei system.

I had a big talk and a tough talk with Boris and I said if you do that system you can forget about Scotland Yard, frankly, because we cant do business with you. And they were all set to do it and they terminated it.

Donald Trump has claimed he forced Boris Johnson to change his stance on allowing Chinese telecoms firm Huawei access to Britains 5G network

It is understood that by Scotland Yard, Mr Trump was actually referring to the intelligence agencies and threats to stop sharing intelligence with Britain.

He also said Italy was set to sign up the Huawei system and then terminated it, and added: Australia has been great from the beginning, Ill tell you what, theyve been a great ally. Asked if there would be a summit, he said: Were very unified. These countries are almost as angry as I am at the plague being released into their country.

China stopped the plague from going into China but they didnt stop the plague from going into Europe and all over the world.

Those countries have suffered more than we have in many ways, theyve been decimated. Mr Trumps comments came after his explosive row with the Prime Minister on the phone after he decided in January this year to allow Huawei to help build the UKs 5G network.

The US President said he had a big and tough talk with the Prime Minister, and threatened to stop doing business with Britain if he went ahead with his plan

Following that decision, the US slapped sanctions on the firm which led to the UK carrying out a fresh review of their decision.

Then last month Mr Johnson did a U-turn and said Huawei  which the US has accused of spying for China  would be banned from the network by 2027. Mobile phone providers are also banned from buying new Huawei kit after the end of this year.

The decision followed growing security concerns about China and increased tensions over its decision to impose a new security law on Hong Kong, a former British territory.

It also followed a mounting rebellion by Tory MPs who claimed they would vote against any government plans to allow Huawei in to the network. The company has repeatedly denied claims it has been used by China as a back door for spying.

Last month Mr Johnson did a U-turn and said Huawei  which the US has accused of spying for China  would be banned from the network by 2027

As speculation mounted that Britain could reverse its original decision on Huawei, Chinas top diplomat in London warned such a move would damage Chinese trust in the UK. At a virtual press briefing in London, Ambassador Liu Xiaoming warned Mr Johnson you cannot have a golden era if you treat China as an enemy.

Liu also defended his countrys new national security law and slammed the UKs offer to give up to 3million Hong Kong nationals a path to citizenship, describing the move as a gross interference in Chinas affairs.

He said a ban on Huawei would have many consequences, including damaging the UKs reputation as a business-friendly, open, transparent environment.

Telecoms experts have warned previously that any Government attempt to force them to remove Huawei kit from the networks too quickly could lead to mass UK phone signal blackouts.

Downing Street did not respond to a request for comment last night.
Fayaz Wani By

Express News Service

SRINAGAR: Militants on Thursday morning shot dead a BJP sarpanch in Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir.

Police sources said the militants fired at BJP Sarpanch Sajad Ahmad Khanday from close range, near his residence at Vessu, Qaizgund in south Kashmir's Kulgam district, today morning.

The militants fled the scene, leaving Sajad in a pool of blood.

The injured sarpanch was shifted to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead.

After the militant attack, police, CRPF, and the army rushed to the area and launched a search operation to track down the militants responsible for the attack.

It is the second attack on BJP panchayat members in militancy-hit south Kashmir in the last 48 hours.

Earlier, on the evening of August 4, militants fired at BJP panch, Arif Ahmad, at Akhran, Qazigund in Kulgam district.

Arif received multiple bullet injuries and is undergoing treatment in the hospital.

On July 8, militants had gunned down BJP district president Bandipora Sheikh Waseem Wari, his younger brother Omar Sheikh and their father Bashir Sheikh at their shop near their guarded residence in Bandipora in north Kashmir.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.  If this latest prediction is accurate, the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season will be the second busiest on record, behind only 2005, the year that spawned Katrina and Wilma and so many other storms (28 in total) that they ran out of letters to name them.

The hurricane experts at Colorado State University said in their latest forecast for the 2020 season, issued Wednesday, that they expect 24 named storms, 12 hurricanes and five major hurricanes this year.

Thats up from the numbers they predicted in their outlooks in June and July, the latter of which called for 20 named storms, nine hurricanes and four major hurricanes.

Sea surface temperatures averaged across the tropical Atlantic are much warmer than normal, and vertical wind shear is well below average, say the outlooks authors, Phil Klotzbach, Michael M. Bell and Jhordanne Jones.

These conditions have turned the Atlantic basin, which includes the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, into a storm assembly line, with nine named storms and two hurricanes having been cranked out so far, including the recent Isaias, which did a close shave of Floridas Atlantic Coast on the weekend and then barreled up the U.S. East Coast.

All of these conditions in combination point to a high likelihood of an extremely active hurricane season in 2020, said the Colorado State outlook.

If this prediction holds, names will be pulled from the Greek alphabet, just like they did in 2005. (The 2020 storm name list has 21 names, with no names being designated for the letters Q, X, U, Y and Z.)

Unfortunately, the grim prediction in an already grim pandemic year from Colorado State Universitys experts mirrors the consensus from the community of tropical weather scientists, including the U.S. governments National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations Climate Prediction Center, which is also forecasting a busy season.



2020 Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)

Visit the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) at www.sun-sentinel.com

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Beirut: at least 137 killed, 5,000 injured in blast Macron visits. 'Without reforms the country will sink'

(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, AUGUST 6 - At least 137 have died and 5,000 have been wounded in a powerful blast at Beirut port, according to the latest toll resealed by the Lebanese health ministry. Dozens of people are still missing, the ministry said. Some 300,000 people have lost their homes, the city's governor said, adding that material damages, according to an early estimate, are believed to top three billion dollars. French President Emmanuel Macron travelled to Beirut on Wednesday to meet with Lebanese authorities. The president said he wants to organize ''European cooperation and more widely international cooperation''. Macron noted that without reforms Lebanon ''will continue to sink''. Lebanon was facing a major economic crisis prior to the deadly blast and its hospitals were already overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic. The European Commissioner for crisis management, Janez Lenarcic, on Tuesday said the EU offered its ''full support to the Lebanese people''.



''As an immediate first step, the EU Civil Protection Mechanism has been activated upon request of the Lebanese authorities. He added that the mechanism is now ''coordinating the urgent deployment of over 100 highly trained firefighters with vehicles, dogs and equipment, specialized in search and rescue in urban contexts. They will work with Lebanese authorities to save lives on the ground''. As part of the mechanism, Italy will be sending aid to Lebanon. Two C130 aircrafts of the Italian air force will bring to Lebanon eight tons of healthcare material as well as teams of firefighters and experts to help with efforts on the ground. The explosion on Tuesday destroyed part of the port, causing serious damage in about half of Beirut's urban area. The extensive damage recorded in the heart of the city has led to concerns that the final death toll could still climb in a significant way. An initial large explosion hit Beirut's port area at around 6:00 pm (1500 GMT) on Tuesday, leading to a fire. It was followed by several blasts and a huge explosion. Lebanon's Prime Minister Hassan Diab said 2,750 tons of fertilizer ammonium nitrate stored in a portside warehouse had blown up. The ammonium nitrate had reportedly arrived in Lebanon in 2013 on board a Moldovan-flagged ship sailing from Georgia. It was later seized by authorities and stored in a rundown warehouse where workers began repairs this week, prompting speculation that the work could have caused the blast. (ANSA).




A 12-year-old girl, who was sexually assaulted and found in a pool of blood two nights ago, is battling for life with grievous intestinal and head injuries, doctors said on Thursday as outrage over the case escalated and police finally arrested one person.

Late on Thursday night, after a day of protests and anguish expressed by politicians, activists and others, one man was arrested on charges of attempting to murder and sexually assaulting inside her home in Peeragarhi in west Delhi.

The man was identified on the basis of CCTV footage and has previous criminal records, police officials said without disclosing his identity.

The child, whose parents work as labourers in a factory, was beaten and brutalised with a sharp object. She is critical and on oxygen support, said a senior doctor at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences where she is admitted.

"She has a massive head injury and she is critical. Her rectum and intestines were injured severely by some kind of impalement for which she needed immediate intervention and that is why she was operated upon as soon as she reached the institute," he said.

Police said the girl, who lives with her parents and elder sister, was found by neighbours in a pool of blood on Tuesday evening. She was alone at the time.

She was first taken to the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital and later shifted to AIIMS for further treatment.

Given the seriousness of her condition -- recalling the horrors of the Nirbhaya rape case -- doctors operated on her that night itself.



"During the surgery, her intestines and rectum were repaired and perforations were closed. She also may require neurosurgical intervention. She is disoriented at present and is being closely monitored 24x7," a senior doctor said.

"Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who visited the hospital, said the 'barbaric attack' on the girl had led to injuries that are even hard to even describe. Earlier, in a tweet, he said the brutality inflicted on the girl has 'shaken his soul'.

The chief minister said he has spoken to Delhi Police Commissioner S N Shrivastava about the case.

"The toughest punishment will be given to the culprits on behalf of the Delhi government," Kejriwal said.

The Delhi government will hire the best lawyers for the case and ensure the accused gets the strictest punishment, he said.

"She has suffered serious internal injuries, which are very hard to even describe. She is currently in a state of unconsciousness, and the doctor was telling me that she was in a really bad condition when she was brought to the hospital on Tuesday.

"She has undergone surgery and the doctors are trying their best to save her. It will take around 24-48 hours to know and assess whether she will be out of danger," the chief minister said.

Police officials said they have scanned CCTV footage.

"Delhi Police has taken the case registered under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences at Paschim Vihar police station seriously," said Delhi Police spokesperson Eish Singhal.

The injuries on her body were caused by a sharp object, a senior police official added.

The minor was not just sexually assaulted but also hit on her head and her face with a sharp object, he said.

According to a Delhi Commission for Women insider, only her father worked initially. However, given the financial crisis in the family following the lockdown, her mother too started working in the same factory. That was probably why she was alone at home.

DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal, who also visited the girl in hospital, said she had multiple fractures and bite marks all over her body.

"She has been so brutally assaulted that every body part has injury marks," Maliwal said.

The rape of the young girl, highlighting once again the vulnerability of women in India's national capital, led to outrage all over.



"Finally, now the police has arrested a person. There should be no delay in getting justice for the daughter. May God bless the girl with good health. Rape cannot be allowed to become a common practice in the country," Maliwal tweeted after the arrest.

East Delhi MP and BJP leader Gautam Gambhir also demanded death penalty for the culprit.

"The brutal rape of a 12-yr-old child is absolutely horrific! Those animals deserve nothing less than death. All of us are praying for her and I urge @DelhiPolice to bring the perpetrators to justice at the earliest," he tweeted.

Delhi Congress worker staged a protest outside AIIMS and also approached Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal over the law and order situation in the city.

"A shameful case of rape of a 13-year-old girl from Bihar in Peeragarhi area of the national capital has come to light. This incident has again shamed humanity and showed the kind of hatred that exists against women in the society. Those who do it should be hanged," women's rights activist Yogita Bhayana tweeted.



According to child rights activist Anant Asthana, the safety of people living alone, be they children, women, elderly or persons with disability is a grave concern and pandemic has definitely increased vulnerability in several ways.

The Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights has issued a notice to the SHO of the Paschim Vihar Police Station.
Known for its craftsmanship and for being an iconic synonym for any foul-weather outerwear, heritage British brand Mackintosh has teamed with luxury essentials British label The Workers Club on a fall capsule collection of co-branded timeless styles, all created in Mackintoshs factory in Nelson, England. The offering is comprised of a three-piece outerwear system known as The Works  consisting of a rain and windproof shell jacket with bonded Japanese waterproof cotton and heat-sealed seams throughout the interior  a Mackintosh signature; a removable hood; a zippable wool gilet made of a khaki herringbone wool, and a printed seersucker reversible bomber jacket, both doubling as liners for the shell jacket and all meant to be worn as stand-alone pieces. The capsule is rounded off with TWCs signature Japanese selvedge denim jacket and slim-fit jeans, available in raw indigo denim and a legacy five-year wash made in Okayama, Japan, and a selection of socks, in plain and varsity style with engineered stripes, all made in the U.K. The collection is available now at Mackintoshs store and e-shop, and will be available at the end of August at The Workers Clubs Goring store.

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Over the past few decades fertility rates have been declining with WHO recognizing Infertility as the third most common issue after Cancer and Heart Disease. According to the Indian Society of Assisted Reproduction (ISAR), one in six couples are battling with infertility in India and millions of people. This has resulted in millions of couples taking up various forms of fertility treatment, especially IVF.

Though IVF has improved leaps and bounds, success rates of 35-40% leave a lot to be desired. Low success rates mean multiple IVF cycles per patients which in turn increases costs. While there are many fertility centres offering treatment at reduced costs, multiple IVF cycles with recurrent medications lead to high expenditure for couples and this has been a cause for concern for countless couples across the country.

Embryo assessment is one of the key factors contributing to a successful pregnancy. Embryo assessment is normally done by a skilled embryologist, who examines each embryo under a microscope and assigns it a grade. The grading enables your fertility centre to choose the embryo with the best chance of leading to a successful pregnancy. This visual assessment is limited to what can be seen with the naked eye down a microscope. Its reliability can also be impacted by unintentional human error or variables, such as tiredness or the need to quickly perform an assessment.

Deep learning for medical imaging is an A.l. technique that enables computers to recognize and classify images. The A.l. trains on previous examples of those images in order to self-learn complex patterns and features relating to image type. Once trained, the A.l. can recognize and classify new, unseen images. Life Whisperer, A.I. driven embryo selection software has been presented with thousands of images of embryos that have been transferred, and their clinical pregnancy outcomes validated. From this, the A.l. has learnt to identify the morphological features of a viable and non-viable embryo - including those invisible to the human eye. Now this assistive technology provides additional evidence beyond the embryologists visual grading to rank the most viable embryos.

GoHealthe, a company that offers turnkey solutions in assisted reproduction has partnered with Life Whisperer, the fertility arm of A.I. healthcare company Presagen, which operates out of Adelaide (South Australia) to provide A.I. powered embryo selection in India to improve IVF success rates and help millions achieve their dream of parenthood.

In a published international clinical study involving blind testing of 1,600 embryos Life Whisperer was shown to perform 25% better than highly experienced embryologists at identifying embryos with the highest chance of leading to a pregnancy.

GoHealthes Director, Sharad Selvam said, At reasonable costs, this advanced A.I. technology eliminates stress for patients and will be an invaluable tool to fertility clinics helping them improve IVF success rates. There are no set-up costs and we have actually set up the software in a matter of minutes for our first fertility centre in Chennai and patients are already reaping the rewards of improved success rates.

On using Life Whisperer, Dr. Vani Sundarapandian, Medical Director of Jananam Fertility Centre, Chennai said, Life Whisperer is very reliable, needs no equipment and is non-invasive. It is a big step forward in fertility treatment and we have had amazing success and higher patient satisfaction using Life Whisperer.

Predicting human embryo viability using advanced artificial intelligence is the next big step in IVF treatment as this technology provides higher success rates and standardisation of embryo assessment across fertility centres in the country.

Ask your fertility specialist if they have access to Life Whisperer and ensure you have the highest possible IVF success rates for your treatment. Visit www.lifewhisperer.com for more details.

Disclaimer: This is a company press release. No HT journalist is involved in creation of this content.

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Preserving Ukraine's territorial integrity and democracy is in the national security interests of the United States.

Ukraine seeks to rid itself of Moscows interference and build a government that is accountable, transparent, and responsive to its citizens. One thing that has not changed  and will not change  is that it is in the national security interests of the United States for Ukraine to overcome these challenges and achieve a future in which it is whole, democratic, and free We must not forget what is at stake, Keith Dayton, nominee to be U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, said at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings on August 5.

He underscored that United States has always been and will be an advocate for a diplomatic resolution [of the war in Donbas] however fully supports Ukraines efforts to defend itself against Russias ongoing aggression in eastern Ukraine.

At home, Ukraine must continue on the path of implementing rule of law, good governance, and economic reforms that ensure the government is accountable to its citizens, Dayton said.

U.S. President Donald Trump nominated Keith Dayton for the post of U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine in early May 2020. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba welcomed this decision.

To be officially appointed as U.S. ambassador to a foreign state, a nominee must go through the Senate approval procedure.

Keith W. Dayton currently serves as the Director of the George C. Marshall Center in Garmisch, Germany, a position he has held since 2010. He also serves concurrently as Senior U.S. Defense Advisor to Ukraine, an adjunct duty to his position as Marshall Center Director. This follows a four-decade career in the United States Army from which he honorably retired in 2010 with the rank of Lieutenant General. Among his many assignments, Lt. General Dayton was the U.S. Security Coordinator Israel/Palestinian Authority; Director of Strategy, Plans and Policy, Army Staff, the Pentagon, and Director of Operations for the Defense Intelligence Agency, including as Director of the Iraq Survey Group looking for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

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Moradabad:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday addressed a 'Parivartan rally' in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad amid tight security.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah had flagged off the Moradabad rally in Saharanpur on November 5.

The Moradabad rally is PM Modi's fourth after Ghazipur, Agra, and Kushinagar.

The yatra which began from four corners of the state will stay for two days before leaving for Rampur. After visiting all the 403 assembly constituencies, the four yatras will be held in Lucknow on December 24.

Uttar Pradesh will go to polls early 2017.

Here are the live updates:

ALSO READ | Parivartan Rally: My country is ready to become Digital India, says PM Modi | Top ten quotes



#My country is in 21st century and is ready to become Digital India

#Is desh mei 40 crore smartphones hai, kum se kum 40 crore log toh notes ke chakkar se nikal jayein; corruption khatm ho jayegi

#I am fighting this war for you, what will those accusing me do? I am a fakir; will exit with my little belongings



# These people in white T shirts are helping people understand digital transactions, now your bank is in your mobile



# I assure you people that I won't let your hard work, your sacrifice, your struggle go in vein

# This country is against corruption but it had become helpless but today they feel that they have fight this menace

# Those who were chanting money, money, money before demonetisation are now chanting Modi, Modi, Modi



# I am finding ways to put behind bars those guilty of stashing their black money into the jandhan accounts of the poor



# These people who are dishonest can't go to banks now so they are lining outside homes of poor and trying to mislead them

# Shouldn't I fight corruption? Is fighting corruption a crime? Why are some people calling me a wrong-doer for fighting corruption

# In ten years Madhya Pradesh has been transformed & is known for development & agriculture

# Whenever and wherever BJP has got a chance to serve, our leaders have followed the path of development

# In ten years, Madhya Pradesh has been transformed & is known for development & agriculture



# That's when I made an announcement from the Red Fort that villages will b electrified in 1000 days, and we are fulfilling it

# When came to power, I personally asked officials on why despite 70 years of independence, many villages are still deprived of electricity?:



# Whenever and wherever BJP has got a chance to serve, our leaders have followed the path of development



# Yes I've come here to Moradabad late but even before I came it was ensured that your years long demand for electricity was met



# You, the people are my high command



# Announcements have been made so many times by so many governments. We have devoted our focus towards accountability



# The brass industry from Moradabad is known all over the nation

# If someone threatens you, say do not, or else I would write a letter to Modi



# Development brings affordable homes, homes with electricity and water...it ensures good health and education facilities



# I had not been able to come to Moradabad in 2014. I did come in 2009. Always felt sad I couldn't come here for so long



# I want to thank the people of Moradabad for extending their support to the BJP during the 2014 elections



# I have not fought from Uttar Pradesh only to become an MP but wanted to initiate a fight against poverty from this huge state



# If one has to eradicate poverty from the country, it is essential to develop big states like UP, Bihar, Maharashtra



# Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing Parivartan Rally in Moradabad



UP: Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in Moradabad, will address Parivartan Rally shortly. pic.twitter.com/KzgNkfdcUI  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) December 3, 2016
Bringing Up Bates star Alyssa Bates Webster has announced that she is pregnant with her fourth child at age 25.

The reality TV star and her husband John Webster, 30, are already parents to five-year-old Allie Jane, three-year-old Lexi Mae, and two-year-old Zoey Joy  and now they're expecting baby number for on February 17, 2021.

'Were so excited to add one more little one to our family,' Alyssa wrote on Instagram today. 'We feel so blessed and thankful to be pregnant again. WE CANNOT WAIT TO BE A FAMILY OF SIX!!!!!'

Another on the way! Bringing Up Bates star Alyssa Bates Webster has announced that she is pregnant with her fourth child at age 25

Family of six: Alyssa and her husband John Webster, 30, are already parents to five-year-old Allie Jane, three-year-old Lexi Mae, and two-year-old Zoey Joy

Woohoo! The couple said they feel 'blessed' and 'excited' about their impending arrival. Baby number four is due February 17, 2021

Alyssa and John married on May 24, 2014, at Salem Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, and in November of that year she announced that she was expecting for the first time.

Their family has continued to grow.

'We cannot wait to meet our little one arriving in February,' they told People. 'Mommy votes girl and Daddy votes boy ... we will soon see which it will be. Either way we are happy and very thankful!'

Alyssa delivered her three other children in a birthing center with no pain medication, and is likely to do the same again this time around.

The Websters also expressed gratitude to be expecting another baby after Alyssa underwent two surgeries for supraventricular tachycardia, a heart condition, last year.

'After having so many health scares last year and wondering if we would be able to have more children, God gave us a little surprise blessing. One we are grateful for each and every day!' Alyssa said.

Scary: The Websters also expressed gratitude to be expecting another baby after Alyssa underwent two surgeries for supraventricular tachycardia, a heart condition, last year

'After having so many health scares last year and wondering if we would be able to have more children, God gave us a little surprise blessing,' Alyssa said

'After such a tough year of health issues God has been so faithful to us through it all! We are beyond blessed and undeserving of Gods goodness!' John added

'Mommy votes girl and Daddy votes boy ... we will soon see which it will be. Either way we are happy and very thankful!' they said

'After such a tough year of health issues God has been so faithful to us through it all! We are beyond blessed and undeserving of Gods goodness!' John added.

The couple had first opened up about her heart condition on Instagram last April.

'For the past several months Alyssa has been having some irregular heart beats and we have been in and out of doctors offices and specialist to find the problem,' John said. 'They found that she had superventricular tachycardia (SVT) which can be fixed with an EP (electrophysiology) study procedure.'

While her ablation was successful, the condition returned, and Alyssa needed another six-hour procedure.

'My doctor said I have won the award for the worst case he's seen for SVT AVNRT,' she said at the time. 'He really thinks he fixed the problem this time (we just won't know for sure for a few more days) but I am so happy that I might be back to normal soon!'

The second surgery, fortunately, was a success.

Right away: Alyssa and John married on May 24, 2014, at Salem Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, and in November of that year she announced that she was expecting

'We feel so blessed and thankful to be pregnant again. WE CANNOT WAIT TO BE A FAMILY OF SIX!!!!!' Alyssa said this time around

Love: Alyssa and John received well wishes on social media from Alyssa's siblings, including Carlin, Zach, Lawson, and Josie

Alyssa and John received well wishes on social media from Alyssa's siblings, including sister Carlin, who wrote: 'Im SO pumped.Cant wait to meet this cutie! Im voting BOYYY!'

Brother Zach and his wife Whitney wrote: 'So excited for you all!'

'Love you and CANT WAIT to meet the newest little one,' added brother Lawson, while sister Josie Bates Balka commented: 'Yayyyy!!! Sooo excited to meet this little one.'

They were also congratulated on Instagram by several members of the Duggar family of 19 Kids and Counting fame. The two fundamentalist Christian families are close friends.

'So HAPPY for you!!!!!' wrote Josh's wife Anna.

Jill Duggar and Joy Anna  who is best friends with Alyssa's sister Carlin  also wrote 'congrats.'

Cousins: On March 25, Tori Bates Smith, 24, and her husband Bobby welcomed their second child, a son named Kolter Gray

More! On January 31, Carlin, 22, welcomed her first child with husband Evan Stewart: a daughter named Layla Rae Stewart

Both Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and Gil and Kelly Jo Bates have 19 children each  but while in the Duggar family, there is rarely just one Duggar pregnant at a time, in this case Alyssa seems to be the only Bates sibling currently expecting.

But there have already been two Bates babies born this year.

On March 25, Tori Bates Smith, 24, and her husband Bobby welcomed their second child, a son named Kolter Gray.

And on January 31, Carlin, 22, welcomed her first child with husband Evan Stewart: a daughter named Layla Rae Stewart.

In May, Carlin revealed that Layla has a small hole in her heart which has caused breathing issues.

'Since Layla was born, she has had breathing problems and episodes of turning blue where she cant catch her breath.'

Things got even more worrisome for the family as Carlin was in the hospital for meningitis when her daughter stayed with her sister Erin.

Heart to heart: In May, Carlin revealed that Layla has a small hole in her heart which has caused breathing issues

She explained: 'When we got a call the next day explaining that [Layla] was having rapid breathing and turning blue, I panicked pretty hard.

'She was rushed to Childrens Hospital, and I was overcome with fear of the unknown, along with feeling guilty that I couldnt be there with her. Evan went back and forth from hospital to hospital, checking on us both. I felt so alone'

Physicians said that Layla's daughters EKG levels weren't reading right and recommended the infant see a heart specialist.

'We found out Layla had a small hole in her heart, which might be causing some of the breathing issues. The doctor encouraged us not to worry, because they will keep a close eye on it, and our prayer is that this small hole will close itself, as they often do.

'Recently, she gave us another scare; she turned white and her O2 levels dropped to 80% Again, I felt like my world was turned upside down as I held her in my arms. I felt so helpless watching her struggle for oxygen.'

Luckily after 10 minutes, Layla's color returned and oxygen levels went back to normal.

The child has since been on put on medication as the doctor believes the recent health scare 'could have also been caused by an acid reflux episode.'
As Connecticut residents recover from Tropical Storm Isaias, a number of municipalities are offering charging stations, allowing those without power to revive their devices.

Here are a few options, among others.

Torrington officials said a charging station was available in front of City Hall.

The City of Torrington will be operating a charging a station in front of City Hall during business hours. Residents are asked to bring their own charging device and limit their charging time to one hour. Social distancing and masks must be worn while utilizing the charging stations, Fire Chief Peter Towey said in a press release.

New Haven residents can visit their local public library branch during normal business hours to charge their devices, according to city spokesman Gage Frank.

The city is also offering 1-gallon bags of ice for folks who need to keep medication cool, Frank said. Those in need can call 203-946-8221 to request ice.

If there is an emergency such as a downed tree or power line, residents can call the Emergency Operations Center at 203-946-8221.

Bridgeport residents can charge devices at the following city schools, according to Mayor Joe Ganim: Beardsley, Harding High School, Johnson, Roosevelt, Hooker, Dunbar and Discover.

Stamford officials are offering a charging station at Westhill High School, 125 Roxbury Road from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., officials said on Facebook.

In Danbury, residents can fill water containers and charge their devices at fire department headquarters, 9 New St. The fire department encourages residents to help themselves, but to maintain social distancing.

The fire headquarters is closed due to the coronavirus and is only open for this storm emergency.

Call 203-796-1523 for further assistance.

More Danbury-area resources can be found here.

Greenwich residents who need to charge electronic devices  or just need a spot to cool off  can head to the John Margenot Atrium located within the Town of Greenwich Public Safety Complex at 11 Bruce Place.

It has been officially designated as a cooling and charging station. The site is open 24 hours a day for residents.

For those in need of food, some local grocers noted they were open and available:

Big Y announced that most stores are open normally, but some are still waiting for power to be restored. Affected locations include those in Torrington, Newtown, Stratford, Avon and Bethel.

Stew Leonards locations reopened Wednesday, according to the companys Facebook page. Stores are open until 9 p.m.

Elm City Market in New Haven is open. Those who spend $40 or more between 4 and 7 p.m. will receive a free rotisserie chicken, officials said on Facebook.

For those in need of gasoline, Cumberland Farms and Shell indicated that their stations in Connecticut are open on their respective websites.

Staffers at Cumberland Farms locations in Bridgeport and North Haven said their stores were open and functioning normally.

william.lambert@hearstmediact.com
The Pakistani military said one of its soldiers was killed and two others wounded by cross-border shelling from Afghanistan.

In a statement on August 6, the Pakistani military said members of its Frontier Corps came under heavy mortar shelling and firing from Afghanistan a day earlier.

The military said the incident occurred in the Lower Dir district of the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Afghan officials have yet to comment on Pakistans claim.

It comes after cross-border shelling by Pakistan killed at least 15 civilians in Afghanistan on July 31, prompting Kabul to put its ground and air forces on alert.

The shelling came after clashes between Pakistani and Afghan security forces at the closed Chaman-Spin Boldak border crossing.

The two countries share a 2,500-kilometer border known as the Durand Line, which Pakistan considers to be an international border. Afghanistan rejects the colonial-era border that was created in 1893.

In 2017, Pakistan started building a fence along the border to improve security, a move that sparked condemnations in Kabul.

Pakistani forces have continued to build border fortifications, sparking numerous clashes along the border.
Julie Halston, PFF Board of Directors I am deeply honored and grateful to join the Board of Directors of the PFF. I look forward to playing a larger role in the crucial work leading to improved treatments, research and care for those living with this devastating disease, said Halston.

The Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation (PFF), the nations leading pulmonary fibrosis (PF) patient education and advocacy organization, has appointed actress and comedienne, Julie Halston, to its Board of Directors. Halston has supported the PF community for 10 years as host and a founder of the annual Broadway Belts for PFF! benefit in New York City.

Pulmonary fibrosis is a progressive, debilitating lung disease with different causes that affects more than 200,000 Americans. Over 50,000 new cases are diagnosed annually. There is no known cure.

I am deeply honored and grateful to join the Board of Directors of the PFF. I look forward to playing a larger role in the crucial work leading to improved treatments, research and care for those living with this devastating disease, said Halston, who is best known for her Broadway roles in Tootsie, Hairspray, Gypsy and You Cant Take It With You.

Broadway Belts for PFF! features legendary Broadway stars who sing their favorite show tunes in a gala evening benefiting the PFF. Since its inception in 2010, the event has raised more than $2 million and is now the PFFs single-largest fundraiser.

Julie has generously devoted herself and has inspired many Broadway celebrities to help raise awareness and funds for PF research and patient programs, said George Eliades, Chair of the PFF Board of Directors. She is a talented and passionate advocate for our community and we are delighted to welcome her to the PFF board.

In 2010, Halston joined Broadway friends D. Michael Dvorchak, Sue Frost, and Ed Windels, in creating a memorial tribute to honor long-time Associated Press theater critic, Michael Kuchwara, who had succumbed to PF. Halstons late husband, Ralph Howard, was battling PF at the time Halston came on board as emcee for the show. He received a life-extending lung transplant that year. Howard passed away from complications from the disease in 2018.

About the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation

The Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation (PFF) mobilizes people and resources to provide access to high quality care and leads research for a cure so people with pulmonary fibrosis will live longer, healthier lives. The PFF collaborates with physicians, organizations, patients, and caregivers worldwide. The PFF has a three-star rating from Charity Navigator and is a Better Business Bureau and National Health Council accredited charity. For more information, visit pulmonaryfibrosis.org or call 844.TalkPFF (844.825.5733) or 312.587.9272 from outside the U.S.

Contact: Dorothy Coyle, 773-332-6201, dorothyccoyle@gmail.com
The Health Ministry has approved research into using plasma from recovered Covid-19 patients to treat the rising number of new outbreak infectees.

Dr. Van Dinh Trang, lead research coordinator, said the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi began to recruit donors starting Monday.

Those eligible for plasma donation are former Covid-19 patients who had fully recovered 14 days post discharge. Donors should be between 18 and 65 years old, weigh over 50 kg if male and over 45 kg if female. All will undergo free hepatitis B, HIV, and syphilis screening.

As of Wednesday, five volunteers had registered to donate their plasma in a process similar to giving blood, including a doctor at the hospital.

The first batch of collected plasma will be allocated to patients in Da Nang City, now the countrys biggest Covid-19 hotspot with 192 infectees. At least nine Covid-19 patients related to the Da Nang outbreak have succumbed to the disease, with many others in critical condition.

Recipients of donated plasma will include those confirmed Covid-19 positive via RT-PCR testing, aged 18 to 75 years old.

Pathogen neutralizing proteins or antibodies in the blood of recovered infectees could boost the immunity of patients following transmission, hopefully killing the virus.

The use of human plasma, the liquid carrier component of blood, in Covid-19 treatment is currently applied in some European countries, China and South Korea.

Plasma treatment has yet to be carried out in Vietnam, necessitating prior evaluation by the local medical establishment.

"There is no vaccine or current treatment for Covid-19. Experimental drugs like antiviral, ARV, and anti-helminthic drugs have not proven effective. Therefore, the use of plasma is expected to save the critically ill from death," Trang said.

Those wanting to donate their plasma are able to voluntarily register with the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi.

"We call on those who have recovered from Covid-19 to join hands with health authorities to heal patients currently fighting the novel coronavirus," said Trang.

Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son said Wednesday that the number of infectees in Vietnam is expected to rise as the second Covid-19 wave peaks in the next 10 days.

Unlike the outbreak at Hanois Bach Mai Hospital a couple months ago, the one at Da Nang Hospital has had a much wider reach, spreading to several other hospitals to infect patients, family members and medical staff, Son said.

Many confirmed patients suffer underlying illnesses, increasing their risk of fatality.

Vietnam has recorded 717 Covid-19 infections to date, 327 of them active.
Although Walmart-Flipkart wholesale game-plan is to target about a $150 billion market out of a total pie of $700 billion in the country, the consolidation marks the end of the multi-brand dream of the American retail giant.

When Walmart India held a town hall meeting at its Gurugram headquarters on July 23 to announce a reverse merger with Flipkart, some 4,000 employees were taken aback by the groups consolidation move during the pandemic.

Although this deal had been in the works after the American retail major Walmart acquired a majority stake in Flipkart for $16 billion in 2018, the timing of the announcement was unusual when a large part of the organisation is still working from home due to Covid-19.

But as an analyst pointed out, businesses often take critical steps in extraordinary times.

The two immediate trigger points that may have fast-tracked Flipkarts acquisition of Walmart India, which operates Best Price Modern Wholesale (cash-and-carry business), are Reliance Retail-owned JioMarts aggressive play in e-grocery and the falling appeal of physical stores post-Covid-19.

But more than anything else, its long-term business sense and an aspiration for higher valuation that prompted the Bentonville-based retail giant to consolidate its loss-making Indian wholesale business (Best Price) with the e-commerce operation of Bengaluru-based Flipkart, say people close to the development.

Bringing B2B and B2C businesses under one umbrella will not only boost Flipkarts ambition of starting an online wholesale operation, but it is also seen as a move to help the start-up founded in 2007 strengthen its balance sheet and valuation before a public listing.

A company source confirmed that the latest consolidation would give Flipkart a definite fillip for an initial public offering (IPO) planned for 2022 at a global exchange, preferably the US.

In the run up to the international listing, Flipkart would logically take steps to boost its valuation, an executive pointed out.

From close to $21 billion in 2018, the firms valuation rose to almost $25 billion recently when Walmart Inc led an investment of $1.2 billion in Flipkart.

Internal assessments suggest Flipkart groups valuation at around $35 billion, if Phone Pe (fully owned by Flipkart) is counted.

With Walmart Best Price joining the bouquet, the valuation should be even higher (the financial details of the latest transaction were not made available).

But there could be some hurdles to the dream IPO.

Lets look at the current wholesale business of Walmart India, which has accumulated losses of Rs 2,181 crore (up to March 2019).

It runs 28 Best Price stores across the country catering to 1.5 million members who are typically small businesses, including kiranas or mom and pop stores.

After 12 years of operating the wholesale business - till recently only through the brick-and-mortar stores and subsequently adding online - physical store expansion will slow down substantially.

In fact, the company is looking at only opening those stores, which are in the planning stage.

No closures are being talked about at this point, some of the physical stores may be converted into fulfilment centres and warehouses for the merged Flipkart business.

There would also be uncertainties in roles of the Walmart India employees, including senior executives.

The actual transition will begin at the end of this year when the Gurugram office shifts to Bengaluru.

In January, Walmart India had let go of 100 senior executives, perhaps as a precursor to the consolidation.

Officials said at this point, no downsizing has been planned.

To allay employee fears, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, chief executive officer (CEO) of Flipkart Group, had said last week, The acquisition of Walmart India adds a strong talent pool with deep expertise in the wholesale business that will strengthen our position to address the needs of kiranas and MSMEs."

Its another matter that Flipkart veteran Adarsh Menon will spearhead the wholesale venture, while Walmart India CEO Sameer Aggarwal will move to another role.

Although Walmart-Flipkart wholesale game-plan is to target about a $150 billion market out of a total pie of $700 billion in the country, the consolidation marks the end of the multi-brand dream of the American retail giant.

It entered India in 2007 in partnership with Bharti Enterprises in the midst of high-decibel protests against the American retailer wanting to wipe out kirana businesses.

Walmart could never open multi-brand stores, as it did in the US and other parts of the world, to sell its products to the Indian masses, even though the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government permitted it with a 51 per cent FDI limit.

Guidelines such as mandatory sourcing from Indian MSMEs and statutory backend infrastructure acted as hurdles for overseas players.

The UKs Tesco was the only player to apply and get approval for multi-brand under the UPA rule, but it never expanded after the National Democratic Alliance government opposed FDI in retail when it came to power at the Centre in 2014.

Walmart has been on its own in the wholesale business ever since it parted ways with Bharti in 2013 over differences in running the India business and an unhelpful regulatory environment.

Scott Price, then Walmart Asia CEO, had famously said on the sidelines of a Bali summit, We created a franchise in retail with Bharti in the hope that there could be a potential freeing up (of FDI) that would allow it to potentially be the base of the business. But frankly, the FDI (opportunity) has passed."

The proverbial seven-year itch after going solo has ended and Walmart India is about to tango with Flipkart in wholesale.

With online being the future and the pandemic changing shopping patterns, e-commerce - which now has single-digit market share in the country - may change the landscape for the American major as it competes with Jeff Bezos Amazon and Mukesh Ambanis Jio.
KT&G operating profit



By Nam Hyun-woo







KT&G started exporting its e-cigarette heating devices to Russia last month in accordance with the company's agreement with Philip Morris International (PMI) under which the two parties will work on promoting global marketing campaigns, according to the tobacco company, Thursday.







During a conference call upon the announcement of its second-quarter results, the company confirmed an analyst question that 12.5 billion won ($10.54 million) worth of e-cigarette devices were exported to Russia throughout last month. KT&G signed a pact for strategic collaboration with its rival PMI in January.







"It is true that e-cigarette devices were exported last month. We plan to announce further details on the outcome of the PMI deal in the near future," the company said during the call. The partnership is calling for KT&G to export its "lil" tobacco heating devices and tobacco sticks worldwide through PMI's global sales network spanning 180 international markets, without specifying which markets the two companies will focus on.







Some questions have persisted over the progress of the deal so far, as no visible outcome has been achieved over the past six months since the agreement was made. However, as exports have now begun, KT&G's effort to expand its e-cigarette presence is anticipated to pick up momentum.







The export came after heat-not-burn (HNB) tobacco products' domestic market penetration rate declined for the second consecutive quarter. The rate stood at 13 percent at the end of last year, but declined to 12.6 percent in the first quarter and 12.4 percent in the second quarter. The company, however, said this does not mean a deadlock in HNB products' growth, citing the expansion in overseas markets.







"From a future business standpoint, the overall heat-not-burn (HNB) tobacco market is expected to grow," the company said. "When the new products are introduced, the market is bound to grow. While there would be some minor impact from governments' policies and market events, there is no doubt about the growth trajectory."







Apart from the e-cigarette business, KT&G said conventional tobacco sales this year will likely exceed its annual goal set earlier as demand remains strong. In exports, the firm has already secured shipping volume destined for Middle Eastern markets in the second half of the year, while other overseas markets are showing signs of recovery from the impact of COVID-19.







Separately, KT&G decided to acquire 2.5 million treasury shares worth 200.25 billion won to improve shareholder value. The company said it has no plans to retire those shares, but the buyback will have the same effect because it will not sell the shares back to market.



KT&G reported 1.32 trillion won in consolidated sales during the latest quarter, up 4.8 percent from a year earlier. But the operating profit contracted by 1.1 percent year-on-year to 394.7 billion won, due to the decline in duty free sales.







Of them, overseas tobacco sales increased by 14.1 percent to 286.4 billion won, as its main export markets in the Middle East show solid recovery. The company expected the growth trajectory will continue as its sales are growing in Latin South America and Africa.




Disulfiram, the medication used to treat alcoholism, may help in the fight against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, according to a study.

The researchers from National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE) in Russia noted that the structural elements of the novel that are less subject to mutation during its evolution should be chosen as a target for the potential treatment.

Otherwise, a medication effective against one strain would no longer be effective against another, they said.

The best candidates for this are conservative proteins, such as the SARS-CoV-2 virus main protease M pro, according to the study published in the Mendeleev Communications journal.

In addition to being resistant to mutations, M pro plays a major role in replication, which means that its inhibition is able to slow down or even completely stop its reproduction inside the body, the researchers said.

The potential drugs were taken from the database of medications approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The modelling data demonstrated that sulphur-containing drugs show unusually high ligand efficiency at the active centre of SARS-CoV-2 main protease Mpro, but only disulfiram 4 retains stable interactions.

Most commonly used for treating alcoholism, disulfiram fights SARS-CoV-2 in two ways, the researchers said.

First, as previously demonstrated in vitro with SARS and MERS coronaviruses, it is a covalent inhibitor, they said.

It fights symptoms such as the significant decrease in reduced glutathione, which is an important antioxidant, according to the researchers.

This deficiency may lead to severe manifestations of the disease, they said.

The Russian chemists said they were also the first to predict the potential efficiency of neratinib, an irreversible tyrosine kinase inhibitor, against SARS-CoV-2.

According to the researchers, the tests that were performed on July 27, 2020, demonstrated that disulfiram really inhibits M pro in 100 nm concentration, which confirmed the results of the modelling.

The second substance -- neratinib -- demonstrated activity on M pro, but it was insufficient for clinical use, they 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.)
Up to 400,000 more Australians could be on the nation's jobless queue by Christmas as the Victorian stage four shutdown smashes the economy, with the Morrison government now preparing for three quarters of negative growth.

In a development that will likely drive the federal budget deficit beyond $200 billion this financial year, Treasury modelling suggests Victoria's response to its COVID-19 disaster will rip between $10 billion and $12 billion out of the national economy in the September quarter.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has revealed Treasury now believes the economy is facing a third quarter of negative growth and higher unemployment due to the lockdowns in Victoria. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The government, Reserve Bank and most private sector economists had been expecting the September quarter to show a rebound out of a contraction of more than 6 per cent through the recently completed June quarter.

Two weeks ago, when releasing a budget update Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the government was expecting the economy to grow by 1.5 per cent in the September quarter.
"I've been balancing the pros and cons," said the flight attendant, who is nearing retirement age but wanted to put more money into savings first. "Do you go back to obviously a very scary situation medically? Do you go back to a company when it will be harder flying, longer days and shorter overnights? Do you go back to the flying, not sure what the flying will be like?"
The MEA added that the Vande Bharat Mission is 'the largest sustained operation for the repatriation of Indians stranded overseas'

New Delhi: Nearly 9.5 lakh Indians have returned from abroad under the government's "Vande Bharat" evacuation mission, making it the largest sustained operation for the repatriation of Indians stranded overseas, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Thursday.

The mission was launched on 7 May in view of the coronavirus pandemic.

"We are nearing the 1 million-mark in the Vande Bharat Mission, making this the largest sustained operation for the repatriation of stranded Indians," MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said at an online media briefing.

"As on date, nearly 9.5 lakh Indians have returned home under this mission. We are presently in phase 5 which was operationalised from 1 August," he said.

Based on the assessment of demand received from Indian missions, the schedule has been augmented with the addition of nearly 60 more flights, Srivastava said.

This takes the total flights scheduled this month to 746 and, in addition, around 200 domestic feeder flights are scheduled to reach 24 airports across India, he said.

This phase is expected to repatriate more than 1,30,000 Indians stranded abroad, he added.

The bilateral arrangements for establishing travel bubbles with the US, Germany and France continue to be in place. "Multiple flights are operating from these countries and are providing onward connections," Srivastava said.

The Civil Aviation Ministry is in discussion with some other countries to operationalise similar arrangements, the MEA spokesperson said.
YEREVAN.  On behalf of the Government of the Republic of Armenia, I would like to express my condolences to the families of the dead, and wish a speedy recovery to all those injured. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said this at Thursdays Cabinet meeting, and regarding Tuesdays powerful and deadly explosion in the Lebanese capital city of Beirut.

"Lebanon is among the closest friends to Armenia. Our two countries and peoples are connected by many historical and cultural threads. Beirut was the capital city of the 20th-century Armenian diaspora. (). To this day, it retains its unique significance and huge role as the most important center of the Armenian presence in the Middle East.

At this difficult time, we cannot remain indifferent to the needs of the fraternal people of Lebanon and the Armenian community in Beirut. The Republic of Armenia has expressed its readiness to assist in overcoming the consequences of the tragedy that befell that city. We will assist the Lebanese government and the local Armenian community as much as possible. The Government of the Republic of Armenia () is in constant contact with the Government of Lebanon and [local Armenian] community structures. The basic needs are being clarified, within the framework of which the Government of the Republic of Armenia will deliver targeted assistance to Beirutboth at the governmental and community levels," Pashinyan said.

The Prime Minister also informed that for all those who want to make individual donations, a special account has been opened at the Central Bank of Armenia for money transfers by the Hayastan (Armenia) All Armenian Fund, and an online fundraising platform on the fund's website.

"The Republic of Armenia stands with our compatriot brothers and sisters in Beirut, and every effort will be made to help them and get out of the difficult situation," said the Prime Minister.

Pashinyan also mentioned that Armenias commissioner for diaspora affairs will soon leave for Beirut to get acquainted with the needs of the local Armenian community on the spot and to inform about it to the Armenian government.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer at a news conference in Lansing, Mich., on May 18, 2020. (Michigan Office of the Governor via AP, Pool)

Michigan Governor Declares Racism a Public Health Crisis

Citing the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on minorities, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order on Wednesday declaring racism a public health crisis and making health equity a major goal.

In signing order 2020-9 (pdf), which cites a range of challenging life circumstances that people of color in Michigan experience and links them to higher vulnerabilities to public health pandemics including COVID-19, Whitmer called for action that would confront systemic racism head on so we can create a more equitable and just Michigan.

Since I was sworn in as governor, I have made it a top priority to include more people of color, more women, and more members of the LGBTQ+ community at the table, Whitmer said in a statement, hailing her administrations accomplishments in building a more inclusive state government while insisting there is more work to do.

In announcing Whitmers signing of the executive order, her office cited COVID-19 statistics that show infection rates are around three times higher and death rates are around four times higher for black Michiganders than for white.

Besides declaring racism a public health crisis, the order calls for steps to fight racial discrimination within state government, including by forcing all state employees to undergo implicit bias training, which is meant to reveal and correct the unconscious preferences we experience without intentional control and how it can impact others.

Implicit, unconscious bias exists within each of us, and as public servants we have a duty to understand how our bias can impact the lives of others, Whitmer said.

Implicit bias testing been criticized by some professionals in the psychoanalytical field, chiefly for its lack of diagnostic ability due to its low rate of test-retest reliability, which Professor Jordan Peterson explained in a 2017 talk with psychology students as the ability of a test to deliver roughly the same results when administered repeatedly.

Theres no evidence whatsoever that those  unconscious bias training programsretraining programshave the effect that theyre supposed to have and theres some evidence that they actually have the reverse effect, Peterson said at the talk, during which he claimed such tests were misused for political purposes.

So what good is it? Well, its good if you want people to send you to retraining exercises so that you can have your perceptions adjusted in the direction that your organization and state thinks is proper, Peterson added.

All Michigan state employees, as well as contract and temporary workers, will be required to undergo implicit bias training twice per year, the order says.

Whitmers order also directs the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) to collect data documenting differences in health outcomes among racial and ethnic groups in Michigan so that it can be used to formulate and implement equitable policies.

Additionally, departments must understand how racial disparities in societal, environmental, and behavioral factors intersect to affect access to resources like good jobs, access to healthy and affordable food and housing, equitable transportation options, and quality public education, Whitmers office said.

With the move, Michigan joins other states, like Colorado and Wisconsin, in declaring racism a public health crisis.

Whitmers executive order, which calls on all state departments and agencies to allocate funding and resources to implement its directives, goes into effect on Aug. 5.
New Delhi, Aug 6 : The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Maharashtra Police to produce a chargesheet in the Palghar lynching case before it for scrutiny.

A bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan and R Subhash Reddy asked the Maharashtra government about the action taken against the erring police officials as months have passed after the lynching incident. The top court asked for inquiry reports, details of investigation and also asked the police to file a chargesheet in the case before it for scrutiny.

A group of petitioners, all Juna Akhara priests and some of the relatives of two 'sadhus', who were lynched at Palghar, stated in a petition that they have no faith in the Maharashtra government or the police, and also do not expect a fair and just investigation into the case, as they suspected their involvement in it. Advocate Shashank Shekhar Jha who claimed to be the main petitioner in the case, contended before the bench that Maharashtra is a land of Sadhus but they were literally handed over to the mob by the police itself.

Justice Bhushan asked advocate Rahul Chitnis, appearing for Maharashtra government, regarding the progress made in the inquiry conducted against the policemen in the lynching of the two Sadhus and their driver in Palghar. Jha contended that the state government must file relevant excerpts of the chargesheet and also file an affidavit on the progress of the investigation so far.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said "Let all chargesheets come on record and let the court decide what is relevant or not." The top court has posted the matter for further hearing after three weeks.

On June 11, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a plea seeking a CBI probe into the lynching of sadhus in Palghar, and sought a response from the Maharashtra government.

A bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan, M R Shah and V Ramasubramanian also issued notice on a separate plea seeking a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe to ensure evidence in the matter is not destroyed.

"There is a reasonable apprehension of bias, if Respondent No. 2 (Maharashtra Police) proceeds with the investigation. It is judicially acknowledged that right to fair and just investigation is guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. Therefore, the petitioners have approached this court inter alia, seeking transfer of investigation of the matter to the Central Bureau of Investigation", argued the petitioners.

Maharashtra government counsel opposed the petitions and contended before the top court that similar matters are pending before the Bombay High Court too. The counsel for the petitioner seeking an NIA probe argued "our apprehension is that the evidence will disappear." Counsel appearing for the Juna Akhara argued, "Witnesses are committing suicide. We have reasons to believe that the investigation is not taking its course." The plea contended that the mob started beating the sadhus, Chikne Maharaj Kalpavrukshagiri, aged 70, and Sushilgiri Maharaj Kalpavrukshagiri, aged 35 in front of the police officials. The plea contended the possible complicity of the Maharashtra Police and the state governmentthat in the lynching of the sadhus.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department is making much-needed and long-sought after change to the way it operates.

After years of efforts, the voices of those in the community are finally being heard. IMPD officers will now have body cameras on their persons and the use-of-force policy is being updated. The updates include specific language on de-escalation and less-lethal force. IMPD should be applauded for these steps toward more transparency and public accountability.

However, these are just steps. We havent arrived at our destination  true systemic change in policing in Indianapolis. I recognize thats a lofty goal, but since when has that stopped Americans? Those who arrived on these shores in search of religious freedom had a lofty goal. The Founding Fathers had a lofty goal. There are countless examples of people in this country forging ahead when all signs point to the impossible. So, I find it quite ironic that in matters of parity for Black Americans, efforts often are stalled because of the level of difficulty in achieving the goal.

I certainly hope IMPD doesnt become a victim of such stagnant thinking.

I know there are those who feel this is enough and Black people should be satisfied. I know there are those who are frustrated that we arent satisfied after making such concessions and think we never will be satisfied because we always want more. I know there are those in IMPD who feel picked on and believe these requests come from an anti-police mentality.

I cant speak for all Black residents of Indianapolis, but I am not satisfied and wont be until we achieve the goal stated previously  true systemic change in policing. I know police officers serve an important function in our society, so I dont think abolishing police is the answer  unless someone can tell me what we replace them with. I am, however, against the current system because Im anti-police brutality. Im against the lack of police accountability. Im against the lack of police transparency. Its unfortunate that some would choose to interpret improving a system so it works well for everyone as a negative.

Were already on the right path. To continue down that road, we need more civilian oversight  from civilians who arent connected to police. Civilians on boards that review the actions of IMPD often are appointed and have current or previous ties to the department. Having people who dont have connections to IMPD would go a long way toward improving community-police relations. It would help civilians understand the challenges police officers face and those civilians could serve as liaisons to their respective communities. For its part, IMPD could benefit from hearing points of view that differ and challenge the department to hold itself to a standard of excellence.

In addition, it would serve those who work for IMPD well to remember they are paid by public dollars. I continue to drive this point home because its often forgotten when discussing police accountability  especially when it comes to Black Americans. The issue of homicides and crimes perpetrated by Black people against Black people often come up in the discussion about police brutality. That deflection may have worked in the 80s, but we recognize that red herring today. Regular, everyday folk arent held to the same standard as police officers. They dont have a duty to serve and protect. They also dont have the training that is supposed to make police officers better equipped to handle intense situations. And, they arent paid by tax dollars to uphold the law. So, its a moot point.

Lets continue to push for change, and IMPD continue to listen and make changes. It can only help make our city better.

By the way, today would be a good day to arrest those responsible for killing Breonna Taylor.
Smart India Hackathon 2020: Pune-based Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT) has won the first prize in the Smart India Hackathon (SIH) 2020, a national-level digital product building competition.

The Defence Ministry, in a statement, said DIATs team of six members provided a solution titled DRISHTI to recognise face, expression and gesture using artificial intelligence (AI).

The team, led by Dr Sunita Dhavale, won the first prize of 1 lakh for solving problem statement MS331 in the category of software posed by the Madhya Pradesh government, it said.

DIAT is a deemed university under the ministrys Department of Defence Research and Development.

G Satheesh Reddy, Secretary, Department of Defence Research and Development, has congratulated the DIAT Team on winning the award for a consecutive second time.

The SIH-2020 is a 36-hour non-stop digital product building competition for software edition organised jointly by the Ministry of Human Resource Development and All India Council for Technical Education, the statement said.

It was organised between August 1 and 3 at Noida Institute of Engineering and Technology in Greater Noida.
James Buckley attends the UKTV Live 2017 photocall at Claridges Hotel on September 13, 2017 in London, England. Broadcaster announces it's programs for the forthcoming season. (Photo by Dave J Hogan/Dave J Hogan/Getty Images)

The Inbetweeners star James Buckley is focusing his attention on his gaming career after growing tired with the acting industry.

The actor, who played Jay in the E4 comedy, has accrued an impressive following on social media and is looking to further his profile as a gamer.

The 32-year-old told The Sun newspaper's Bizarre TV column: "I'm not that excited about the industry and I haven't been for a while. I'm really enjoying the stuff I'm doing with my Twitch channel.

Read more: James Buckley makes 100,000 selling personalised videos

"It feels like a little business that I've got control of. I'm running it and talking to sponsors and trying to be taken seriously in that sphere now."

(From L-R) Joe Thomas, who plays Simon Cooper, James Buckley, who plays Jay Cartwright, Simon Bird, who plays Will McKenzie, and Blake Harrison, who plays Neil Sutherland, during the filming of the forthcoming E4 comedy series 'The Inbetweeners' in Bushey, Hertfordshire. (Photo by Ian West - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images)

He has 419,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel 'Completed It Mate', which takes its name from a quote of his Inbetweeners character. He also has 173,2000 followers on his Twitch channel - a platform that allows users to live stream gaming and interact with their followers - of the same name.

Aside from the popular coming-of-age series and its resulting two films, Buckley has also starred in sitcom White Gold as well guest roles in series such as Red Dwarf and Doctor Who.

But Buckley isn't concentrating on high-profile roles at the moment, prefer to channel his energy into the "special content" created through gaming streaming sites.

"I can't remember the last time something was on television or on traditional media that made me think it was new and fresh," he said.

In the past, the star has candidly spoken about how he struggles with being recognised in public as it makes him anxious and uncomfortable.

Buckley has been married to wife Clair Meek, a Scottish model, since 2012 and the pair share two sons, Harrison and Jude.
This home in the historic Abbott Street area of Kelowna had stood for 113 years before it was demolised several months ago. Now, the owners want city permission to build two new homes on the site, in a process heritage advocates say represents the increasing development pressures on the distinctive neighborhood.
TikTok logos are seen on smartphones in front of a displayed ByteDance logo in this illustration taken on Nov. 27, 2019. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

TikTok to Build European Data Center in Ireland Amid Security Concerns

TikTok said on Thursday that it will set up its first European data center in Ireland. The announcement comes amid increasing scrutiny over the video apps privacy and security risks.

U.S. President Donald Trump, citing national security concerns, on July 31 gave TikToks owner, Beijing-based internet giant Bytedance Technology Co., an ultimatum: either sell TikToks U.S. operations to Microsoft or any other U.S. company by Sept. 15, or get banned in the United States.

Until recently, TikTok Inc., the companys U.S. entity, was the official data controller of TikTok. After July 29, the service provider for European Economic Area (EEA)-Swiss users changed to TikTok Ireland, while the service provider for UK users changed to TikTok UK, according to a statement from TikTok.

The companys Trust and Safety Hub, set up in Dublin in January, deals with regulators and governments in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).

TikTok said the 420 million euro ($499 million) new regional data center will enable faster loading time to give users a better experience,

When our data center is operational, European user data will be stored in this new location.

The investment in Ireland also comes at a fraught time in relations between the Chinese regime and the West, with disagreements on a range of issues from trade and the handling of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus outbreak to the political situation in Hong Kong.

IrelandEuropes Data Center Hub

TikTok said the investment will create Hundreds of New Jobs in Ireland.

CEO of IDA Ireland Martin Shanahan speaks at a European Financial Forum event in Dublin, Ireland, on Feb. 13, 2019. (Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters)

Martin Shanahan, CEO of IDA Ireland, a semi-state agency promoting foreign direct investment into Ireland, said, TikToks decision to establish its first European data center in Ireland, representing a substantial investment here by the company, is very welcome and, following on from the establishment of its EMEA Trust & Safety Hub in Dublin earlier in the year, positions Ireland as an important location in the companys global operations.

Ireland is one of Europes biggest data hubs and already hosts operations for major technology companies such as Amazon, Facebook, and Google. Foreign firms, attracted by a low corporate tax rate, directly account for around 10 percent of Irish jobs.

Like many other countries, Irelands economy has been bruised by lockdown measures to curb the spread of the CCP virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus, which first broke out in Wuhan, China, late last year and caused a global pandemic.

Security Concerns

Cyber-security experts have warned people that TikTok could be used as a spying tool for the CCP, and users content the Chinese regime doesnt approve of could be censored.

Although the companys data server is in the United States, cyber-security firm Penetrum found that the app is substantially linked with Chinese servers.

Panetrum said in an analysis that 37.70 percent of known ip addresses linked to TikTok that were found inside of APK source code are linked to Alibaba.com; a Chinese sanctioned ISP located in Hangzhou. (pdf)

Multiple analyses show that TikTok harvests user information including web browsing history, geolocation data, and what other apps a user is running. Chinese security laws also compel companies to cooperate with intelligence agencies when asked, one of the reasons the Trump administration considers Chinese communications apps a national security risk.

What the American people have to understand is all the data that goes into those mobile apps that kids have so much fun with and seem so convenient, it goes right to servers in China, right to the Chinese military, the Chinese Communist Party, and the agencies that want to steal our intellectual property, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told Fox News.

Those apps can be used to steal personal and financial information for blackmail and extortion, they can be used to steal business intellectual property and proprietary secrets.

Neither the Data Protection Commission in Ireland nor TikTok responded to The Epoch Times requests for comment.

Cathy He and Reuters contributed to this report
CHICAGO, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Aon plc (NYSE: AON), a leading global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions, today launches the latest edition of its monthly Global Catastrophe Recap report, which evaluates the impact of the natural disaster events that occurred worldwide during July 2020.

The report reveals that persistent seasonal rainfall worsened the flood situation across China's Yangtze River Basin during the month, with the death toll since June 1 rising to at least 175, as extensive flooding affected the hardest-hit provinces of Anhui, Hubei and Chongqing municipality. The Ministry of Emergency Management (MEM) noted that nearly 500,000 homes had been damaged or destroyed and 5.2 million hectares (13 million acres) of cropland affected. Direct seasonal economic losses were estimated at CNY150 billion ($22 billion), of which nearly $16 billion occurred in July. Most of the losses were anticipated to be uninsured.

Hurricane Hanna became the earliest eighth-named "H" storm on record in the Atlantic Basin, in addition to being the first hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic Season. Hanna made landfall along the southern Texas coast on July 25 as a 90 mph (150 kph) Category 1 storm. Several feet of storm surge were noted near the landfall location, in addition to hurricane-force wind gusts and torrential rains that prompted inland flooding. Some of the worst flood damage was found in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas into northern Mexico. Total economic losses were estimated into the hundreds of millions of dollars (USD).

Tropical Storm Fay, the earliest sixth-named "F" storm on record in the Atlantic Ocean, killed six people after making landfall in the United States along the New Jersey coast, north of Atlantic City, on July 10 with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph). Total economic losses were estimated at $350 million, with public and private insurers covering roughly one-third of the damage cost.

Michal Lorinc, catastrophe analyst on the Impact Forecasting team at Aon, said, "Despite a record early start to the Atlantic Hurricane Season, the most significant natural peril events were actually noted in Asia during July. An active monsoon season prompted more than $20 billion in flood-related damage in parts of China, Japan, India and Bangladesh during the month alone. Much of the physical damage to property, infrastructure and agriculture was anticipated to be uninsured  only reinforcing the importance of finding ways to help lower the protection gap across the region. Utilizing tools such as catastrophe models can help aid in identifying areas of highest risk."

Further natural hazard events to have occurred in July include:

Record-breaking rainfall triggered widespread flash flooding and landslides across southern Japan from July 3-10 , killing at least 82 people and injuring 114 others. Flood damage was most severe on Kyushu Island as dozens of prefectures reported varying levels of physical damage impacts to homes, businesses, infrastructure and agriculture. The event prompted a nearly $4 billion recovery effort by the federal government.

from , killing at least 82 people and injuring 114 others. Flood damage was most severe on Kyushu Island as dozens of prefectures reported varying levels of physical damage impacts to homes, businesses, infrastructure and agriculture. The event prompted a nearly recovery effort by the federal government. Multiple severe weather events affected the United States ; the costliest outbreak  with primary hazards comprising hail, straight-line winds, and isolated tornadoes  occurred on July 10-12 with widespread impacts from the Rockies into the Midwest. Total economic losses were estimated to reach above $900 million , with a majority being insured.

; the costliest outbreak  with primary hazards comprising hail, straight-line winds, and isolated tornadoes  occurred on with widespread impacts from the Rockies into the Midwest. Total economic losses were estimated to reach above , with a majority being insured. A large wildfire broke in Ukraine's Novoaidar district of the Luhansk region on July 6 and spread to about 8,000 hectares (20,00 acres), killing five people. According to a national forestry agency, losses to the industry might exceed UAH4.0 billion ( $144 million ); however, this total was only a preliminary estimation.

Novoaidar district of the Luhansk region on and spread to about 8,000 hectares (20,00 acres), killing five people. According to a national forestry agency, losses to the industry might exceed UAH4.0 billion ( ); however, this total was only a preliminary estimation. Uncharacteristic and ongoing heavy rainfall led to extensive damage and humanitarian impacts across Somalia during the second half of June through July, killing four people. One of the hardest-hit areas was the Shabelle River Basin, as nearly 200,000 people were displaced from their homes following significant river overflow. More than 200,000 hectares (494,211 acres) of cropland was also submerged. Further flood damage was noted in the districts of Hirshabelle, South West, Jubaland and Mogadishu .

during the second half of June through July, killing four people. One of the hardest-hit areas was the Shabelle River Basin, as nearly 200,000 people were displaced from their homes following significant river overflow. More than 200,000 hectares (494,211 acres) of cropland was also submerged. Further flood damage was noted in the districts of Hirshabelle, South West, Jubaland and . Record-breaking rains, described as a 1-in-500-year event by the Meteorological Service of New Zealand , triggered flash flooding and landslides in northern and western New Zealand on July 17-18 . Thousands of homes and a vast area of agricultural land in Northland were inundated. Local authorities of New Zealand expected a multi-million-dollar level of direct damage and economic loss.

To view the full Impact Forecasting July 2020 Global Catastrophe Recap report, please follow the link:

http://thoughtleadership.aon.com/documents/20200805_analytics-if-july-global-recap.pdf

Along with the report, users can access current and historical natural catastrophe data and event analysis on Impact Forecasting's Catastrophe Insight website, which is updated bi-monthly as new data become available:

http://catastropheinsight.aon.com

About Aon

Aon plc (NYSE:AON) is a leading global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions. Our 50,000 colleagues in 120 countries empower results for clients by using proprietary data and analytics to deliver insights that reduce volatility and improve performance.

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By choosing sustainable fashion brands, buyers are also choosing to support fair wages and better working conditions for the people making the clothes.

After decades of award-winning cinema and television performances, Georgia native, Laurence Fishburne is hosting the educational public television program In Depth with Laurence Fishburne. The In Depth Series interviews a myriad of industry experts about a wide array of topics that impact viewers worldwide. The show will soon dive into the hot topic that is sustainable apparel. In the new episode, industry professionals will discuss the positives of local sustainably produced clothing.

Sustainable fashion is not a new idea  the topic has been in discussion for years. Nowadays, consumers are looking more closely at their purchases and how they impact the environment from produce and meat, down to the beauty products they use and the clothing they wear.

Sustainable clothing takes into account both the environment and social responsibility. Making sustainable clothing involves creating garments out of local, biodegradable fabrics that can, in time, return to the ecosystem after the garments are no longer in wearable condition. Textiles are utilized efficiently in sustainable apparel production, and chemicals are left out, so no environmental pollution is created. By choosing sustainable fashion brands, buyers are also choosing to support fair wages and better working conditions for the people making the clothes.

All around, sustainable apparel is a healthier approach for the environment and the workers behind the clothing. In Depth will share further details about the upside of local, sustainable clothing on the upcoming episode.

In Depth with Laurence Fishburne is cautiously looked over before airing to a public audience. The informative show has accepted a multitude of awards.


Aldi is set to offer incredible deals on home cleaning essentials - including a $29.99 'tornado' cleaning brush, $14.99 spray mop and a $9.99 window washer.

Australian shoppers looking to keep their homes free from germs can head into stores on Wednesday, August 12 for the Special Buys range.

Among the deals is the $29.99 cordless 'tornado' cleaning brush that promises to cut through soap scum, mould, grime and dirt without harsh chemicals.

Aldi is set to offer incredible deals on cleaning essentials - including a $14.99 spray mop (left), $9.99 indoor or outdoor heavy duty broom (centre) and a $29.99 heavy duty bucket (right)

Among the deals is the $29.99 cordless 'tornado' cleaning brush (left) and the $9.99 telescopic window washer (right)

The handheld power cleaning product with a rotating waterproof head does all the scrubbing so all customers have to do is manoeuvre the tool around indoor and outdoor areas.

It comes complete with a rechargeable battery and three interchangeable heads.

The $14.99 spray mop releases a fine mist as you mop as a features a 360 degree rotary head for smooth turning and movement on floors.

The product includes two washable microfibre heads that lift dirt and dust, a lightweight steel handle and a removable bottle for easy filling.

The $14.99 spray mop (pictured) releases a fine mist as you mop as a features a 360 degree rotary head for smooth turning and movement on floors

The $29.99 tornado cleaning brush with a rotating waterproof head does all the scrubbing so all customers have to do is manoeuvre the tool around indoor and outdoor areas

For $9.99, customers can choose between an indoor or outdoor heavy duty broom.

The indoor broom features soft bristles to clean effectively without damaging floors while the outdoor version comes with tough bristles for debris and dust.

For sparkling clean floors, the $9.99 antibacterial cotton mop features a built-in, non-scratch scourer to remove stubborn marks.

The $9.99 telescopic window washer features a stainless steel handle that can extend from 68cm to 1.3m to help shoppers clean higher areas.

It features a 360 degree swivel head control, a microfibre sponge pad for maximum cleaning and a non-scratch, long-lasting rubber blade to remove excess water.

Perfect for absorbing mud and water, the $14.99 wonder mat features anti-slip backing and is machine washable. It's ideal for use in entrances or other wet areas around the house

The $29.99 heavy duty wringer bucket with a foot pad features a superior roller attachment and a non-slip food pedal for left and right operation.

Perfect for absorbing mud and water, the $14.99 wonder mat features anti-slip backing and is machine washable. It's ideal for use in entrances or other wet areas around the house.

There's also a range of cleaning products on sale, including $3.99 disinfectant wipes (100 pack), $2.99 cleaning wet wipes (30 pack), $7.99 microfibre cloths (10 pack), $2.99 bathroom cleaner spray and $6.49 oven cleaning kit.

Other items on sale include a $4.49 heavy duty grout cleaner or rust remover, $3.99 washing machine cleaner tablets or iron cleaner, $15.99 dishwashing tablets (45 pack), $29.99 eucalyptus oil (500mL) and $6.99 paper towel double length (4 pack).
Dubai Economy will extend its consumer protection services to free zones in Dubai under an agreement with the Dubai Free Zones Council (DFZC).



The agreement, which is part of enhancing co-ordination between government, government-related and private entities to improve the overall customer experience in Dubai, will allow consumers of free zone businesses to raise their complaints to Dubai Economy and have them resolved amicably.



Mohammed Ali Rashed Lootah, CEO of Commercial Compliance & Consumer Protection (CCCP) Sector in Dubai Economy, said the agreement is a significant step towards improving customer happiness and strengthening transparency and competitiveness across business in Dubai.



Dubai Economy counts its efficient and responsive consumer protection service as a significant asset that continues to increase consumer confidence and support sustainable business growth in the emirate. We use varied channels, including smart platforms, to improve consumer awareness and make it easier for consumers to raise their complaints and have them resolved efficiently. Free zones in Dubai influence customer perceptions on Dubai significantly as they represent a diversity of business activities and consumers. We are delighted to receive consumer complaints related to free zone business and help resolve them as it supports our efforts to make shopping anywhere in Dubai a pleasant experience, Lootah said.



Dr Juma Al Matrooshi, Deputy to the Secretary General of Dubai Free Zone Council, also expressed his happiness at the agreement and said it would complement efforts to strengthen and streamline free zone business activity.



Free zones in Dubai represent an integrated and expanding ecosystem for diverse business activities, including in new and emerging sectors. Many of these free zones have also grown into self-contained locations where a global community enjoy exceptional ease of business, quality living and convenient access to varied amenities. Extending the consumer protection services of Dubai Economy to the free zones will support our efforts to continuously update our services in line with global best practices. Its also a major step in line with the directives of the leadership on the importance of all sectors working together to make Dubai the happiest city in the world.



Persistent efforts by CCCP to spread consumer awareness and introduce innovative consumer complaints resolution channels have seen an increase in customer engagement with Dubai Economy. Last year Dubai Economy received 39,113 complaints, which was 20% higher than the previous year, and almost 63,356 enquiries and suggestions from consumers. The smart channels of Dubai Economy accounted for 43% of the complaints received.



On receiving consumer complaints Dubai Economy communicates with the parties involved, examines the documents submitted and works towards the appropriate solution. Consumers can submit complaints through the Dubai Consumer app available on the Apple, Google, and Huawei stores, on the Consumererrights.ae website.  TradeArabia News Service
The South Jacksonville board of trustees is scheduled to meet in regular session at 7 p.m. today in Village Hall, 301 Dewey Drive. independent

Among items on the agenda are:
Senior BJP leader Manoj Sinha was appointed as the new Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir by President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday (August 6). Sinha will replace Girish Chandra Murmu who resigned on Wednesday (August 5).

"The President has been pleased to appoint Shri Manoj Sinha, to be the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir with effect from the date he assumes charge of his office vice Shri Girish Chandra Murmu," said a statement released by President Kovind's office.

Born on July 1, 1959, Sinha was Minister of Communications (independent charge) and Minister of State (MoS), Railways during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first term. Sinha is a three-time BJP MP from parliamentary constituency of Ghazipur in eastern Uttar Pradesh. He was defeated by Bahujan Samaj Partys (BSP) Afzal Ansari in 2019 Lok Sabha poll.

Murmu, who was the first Lt Governor of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, resigned late on Wednesday (August 5,2020) night. Murmu was appointed in October 2019. According to sources, Murmu has been appointed as the new Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India.

Incidentally, Murmu's resignation comes exactly a year after Centre's deicsion to abrogate Article 370 which granted special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. The Centre's move also paved way for the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

Murmu, a 1985 batch IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre, will be replacing Rajiv Mehrishi, a 1978 batch IAS officer of the Rajasthan cadre as CAG. Murmu has served as Principal Secretary to Narendra Modi when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat.
The police has filed an Accidental Death Report with regard to Sameer Sharma's demise

Noted television actor Sameer Sharma has been found dead at his Mumbai residence, reports Hindustan Times. The artiste was found hanging at his Malad flat. He was 44.

Asian News International also reported the death, adding that the police has filed an Accidental Death Report. Mid-Day quotes senior inspector George Fernandez of Malad Police Station as saying, A case of accidental death has been registered and the body has been sent for autopsy."

No suicide note was found at the spot, Fernandes said. The police are trying to get in touch with his family members.

According to Mid-Day, Sharma was found hanging from the kitchen ceiling at his home in Neha CHS building, situated at Ahinsa Marg in Malad West. The report adds that the actor's body was first spotted by the watchman of the society who alerted other members.

The police also suspect (based on the condition of the body) that the death took place two days ago.

India TV reports that the actor and model had shifted to this apartment in February this year. He was staying alone in the house. Sharma had suffered from a major heart ailment a few months back but recovered and got back into acting.

Best known for his work in the TV serial Yeh Rishety Hain Pyaar Ke, Sharma appeared in multiple projects namely Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki and Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, Jyoti, Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Du, and Left Right Left, among others.

The actor was last seen essaying the role of Kuhu's father in Yeh Rishtey Hain Pyaar Ke, a television serial on Star Plus.

Check out ANI's tweet on Sameer Sharma's death

TV actor & model Sameer Sharma was found hanging from his kitchen ceiling at his residence in Malad West last night. Accidental Death Report registered, body sent for autopsy. Looking at body's condition, it's suspected that he died by suicide two days back: Malad Police. #Mumbai  ANI (@ANI) August 6, 2020

Mumbai Police are also currently investigating the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, 34, who was found dead at his apartment in suburban Bandra on 14 June.

(With inputs from Press Trust of India)
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine tested negative for COVID-19 on Thursday after testing positive earlier in the day before he was to meet with President Donald Trump, according to a statement from his office.

His wife, Fran DeWine, also tested negative, as did staff members. They underwent a different type of test in Columbus; one considered to be more accurate than the rapid-result test which showed DeWine to be positive for COVID-19 just ahead of a planned meeting with Trump in Cleveland.

The conflicting results underscore the problems with both kinds of tests and are bound to spur more questions about them. Many people in the U.S. cant get lab results on the more accurate version for weeks, rather than the few hours it took the governor to find out.

The governor and first lady plan to undergo another test Saturday, according to the statement.

DeWine, an early advocate among Republicans of wearing masks and other pandemic precautions, said he took a test arranged by the White House in Cleveland as part of standard protocol before he was to meet Trump at an airport. He had planned to join the president on a visit to the Whirlpool Corp. plant in northwest Ohio.

Instead, he received the news he tested positive, called his wife, and returned to central Ohio where he took the other test that showed him to be negative.

The positive result from the first test was a big surprise to our family, DeWine said at a late afternoon news conference broadcast from his porch on his farm in Cedarville in southwestern Ohio, where he planned to quarantine for 14 days.

Dewine, 73, said he didnt know how he would have contracted the coronavirus and that hes already been spending much of his time at his farm, keeping his distance from family members and staff.

DeWine said he feels fine with no symptoms. His only health concern is asthma hes had since he was a teenager, for which he uses an inhaler daily.

He said hed already received some not nice texts Thursday from people claiming the news proves that mask-wearing is pointless.

The lesson that should come from this is that were all human, this virus is everywhere, this virus is very tough, DeWine said before the negative result. And yes you can contract it even when youre being very, very careful and even when youre wearing a mask.

But, the governor said, the odds are dramatically better of avoiding a positive test if people wear a mask.

DeWine, in his first term as governor, is one of Ohios most familiar politicians, previously serving as a U.S. congressman, two-term U.S. senator, Ohio attorney general and lieutenant governor.

Trump offered DeWine his best wishes and said hell be fine in remarks after arriving at the airport, where he was greeted by Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, who tested negative.

A very good friend of mine just tested positive, Trump said. He added that DeWine has done a fantastic job.

Husted said hes been talking with DeWine via teleconference for weeks, and doesnt expect changes in that routine or other aspects of DeWines job.

Trumps visit to Ohio comes amid signs that he faces a tight race with former Vice-President Joe Biden in a state he carried by 8 percentage points in 2016.

DeWine was the second U.S. governor to test positive for the coronavirus after Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt announced he contracted the virus last month.

The number of positive cases in Ohio had decreased after the first surge, hitting a low in late May. But numbers again began to rise in mid-June as Ohio began to reopen businesses. More than 3,600 Ohioans have died.

In recent weeks, DeWine has pleaded with Ohioans to take personal responsibility over the virus spread across the state. He had resisted a statewide mask mandate until July 23. DeWines first try at a statewide requirement for wearing masks inside businesses  back in April  drew backlash that led him to rescind that directive the following day, a stutter among the aggressive moves that had won him early praise in his efforts to curb the virus.

Mask-wearing also has been a point of contention at the Statehouse, where many Democratic lawmakers have donned masks while many Republican lawmakers have not. DeWine has often found himself at odds with members of his own party on the policy.

DeWines key health adviser during the pandemic, Dr. Amy Acton, left government this week. In the early months, she joined DeWine at daily briefings and was a popular figure. However, backlash against state restrictions helped lead to a protest at her home and her decision to step away from the spotlight.

Since early in the pandemic, DeWine has hosted his daily briefings from a room separate from where the press corps gathers at the Ohio Statehouse. He would appear on a television in front of the reporters, who could step up to a microphone and ask questions.

DeWine held one of those briefings Tuesday but no other public events had been announced for this week besides his meeting with Trump. DeWine said he planned to give a previously scheduled coronavirus update Friday.

In at least two briefings, DeWine has shared how several friends had died from the virus, urging the public to think about their loved ones, especially grandparents. The governor has 23 grandchildren.

Notably, DeWine and his wife had avoided political rallies or meeting with members of the White House since the pandemic began. In June, the governor was scheduled to appear at a former General Motors plant in Lordstown but decided against it when Vice-President Mike Pence announced he was going. The facility is now occupied by Lordstown Motors, which plans to build electric pickup trucks there.

Quite candidly, throughout this pandemic, (first lady) Fran and I have avoided crowds, DeWine said. We have not gone out to be close with a lot of people. So were not going to do that.

___

Sewell reported from Cincinnati. Andrew Welsh-Huggins in Bexley, Ohio, contributed to this report. Farnoush Amiri is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a non-profit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

___

This story has been corrected to show the Lordstown plant is a former General Motors plant, not a current GM plant.
The release of antibiotics into Indias rivers by manufacturers and its impact on the spread of potentially fatal drug-resistant infections is the focus of a new 1.2 million research project, the University of Birmingham announced on Thursday.

The project, jointly funded by the UK and India, will be conducted by the university with experts at the Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad. An estimated 58,000 babies die in India every year from superbug infections passed on from their mothers.

The project is part of a 8 million package of UK-India government-backed research aimed at deepening existing scientific research collaboration with five new programmes to tackle anti-microbial resistance (AMR).

Supported by the UKs Natural Environment Research Council and Indias Department of Biotechnology, the cross-disciplinary team also includes researchers from Newcastle University, the James Hutton Institute in Scotland, IIT Gandhinagar and IIT Madras.

Experts will sample and model the two contrasting river networks in India, the Musi river in Hyderabad, which has high concentrations of antibiotics released from production facilities, and the less polluted Adyar river in Chennai.

The team aims to learn how far resistant bacteria travel before they die or are eaten by other organisms in a unique combination of experiments, field sampling and mathematical modelling of resistance dynamics and water flows.

Jan Kreft from the University of Birmingham said: We dont know how quickly antibiotics are degraded in the environment and how much they are diluted by rainfall and by entering larger rivers.

In our AMR flows project, we will learn how antibiotics from manufacturing and the resistant bacteria they select will flow through river networks and how far they can be transported in rivers, from where they can spread onto fields and into communities during floods - allowing us to make a quantitative risk assessment to help create environmental standards for safe concentrations of antibiotics in water bodies.

Indian project lead Shashidhar Thatikonda of IIT Hyderabad added: We know from previous research that the River Musi is now a factory of superbugs. Modelling water flows will be crucial in predicting the fate of resistant bacteria in the environment and we aim to create models that will be applicable in other rivers and countries.

The scientific advances will also allow the team to compare the effectiveness of different interventions such as separate treatment of waste streams from manufacturing of antibiotics, decentralized sewage treatment or containment reservoirs, the university said.

The recommendations we will produce will help bring down the levels of resistance in the environment. This will contribute to reduce the abundance of resistant pathogens that make infections untreatable, Thatikonda said.

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The second day of Caroline Flack's inquest took place on Thursday. (Photo by Keith Mayhew / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)

Caroline Flack took her own life after knowing she would certainly be prosecuted for an alleged assault on her boyfriend, a coroner has said.

The TV presenter was found dead at her home in Stoke Newington, north London, in February, as she faced an allegation she attacked Lewis Burton.

The two-day inquest into her death heard her mental health deteriorated and she attempted suicide after being arrested on suspicion of assaulting her boyfriend Lewis Burton in December 2019.

The inquest has already been told how Flack had talked about suicide when she became extremely upset over fears her reputation could be damaged by the court case and the media intrusion.

In her findings on Thursday, coroner Mary Hassell said Flack intended to kill herself and had fluctuating mental ill health, she had had struggles in the past and these troubles only increased as she got more famous.

It was played out in the national press  and that was incredibly difficult for her.

She faced the prospect of not working in the job she loved, losing a great deal.

She added that Flack knew she was being prosecuted for certainty, and she knew she would face the media, press, publicity  it would all come down upon her.

To me, thats it in essence.

Flacks mother Chris nodded and cried. She told the coroner: I totally agree, I think you got it spot on.

The inquest earlier heard Flack admitted to police multiple times that she hit her boyfriend.

On Thursday, a section from a police incident report from the alleged assault was read out at Poplar Coroners Court.

It said: Ms Flack was naked and covered in blood. Mr Burton was in boxer shorts and bleeding from a cut on his forehead.

Floral tributes placed outside Caroline Flack's former home in north London. (PA Images)

He made an allegation he had been asleep in bed with Ms Flack. He had been suddenly woken by her hitting him on the head with some force.

Flack made a number of admissions in the presence of police officers, statements such as: I hit him, he was cheating on me.

At this time it is unclear what object was used to assault Mr Burton. He assumed it was a desk fan or a lamp.

Story continues

[The] phone has been seized as it has a significant amount of blood on it, and a crack on one of the corners.

The popular presenter was found dead in February. (PA Images)

In Flacks account, given to police at the scene and read out in the court, the presenter said: I admit I did it. I used the phone. I had his phone in one hand, and my phone in the other.

I whacked him round the head  theres no excuse for it, I was upset.

Hassell asked Detective Inspector Lauren Bateman, of the Met, whether she felt Flack had made an admission.

That would mean she could be dealt with by way of a police caution as opposed to a court case.

However, DI Bateman said that, during a later police interview, things were said differently and it was unclear what Caroline was alluding to.

Flack said she flicked Burton to wake him up, the inquest heard, and had not believed she caused injury.

Flack was facing an allegation of assault against her boyfriend Lewis Burton. (PA Images)

In my view, it wasnt a clear admission of what had happened, DI Bateman said, later adding that by no means am I saying Caroline is a domestic abuser.

Asked if Flack was treated differently because she was a celebrity, as asserted by Flacks family, DI Bateman said she was not biased and I treat everyone the same.

Flacks mother Chris said her daughter was taken from the scene and Burton was left there.

She told DI Bateman: You took her away, he (Burton) was allowed to take pictures of the blood of Caroline, send them to friends, and they appeared in the press.

You didnt investigate it.

If it had been an ordinary person, you wouldnt have prosecuted.

I see domestic abuse and I just think you should be disgusted with yourself so there is nothing we can do to bring Caroline back. I hope in hindsight you do regret this.

Flacks mother blamed the polices actions for her daughters distressed state prior to her death saying it was because because you put an appeal through.

Flack's inquest has been held at Poplar Coroner's Court. (PA Images)

Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecutor Alison Wright did not believe pursuing the case was in the public interest, the inquest heard.

In a report of the case, she said the police are not willing to administer a caution and claim I have taken a biased view of the case because Caroline Flack is a celebrity.

Prosecutor Kate Weiss reviewed the decision to charge Flack a week after the alleged assault.

She said that the violence involved, Burton being asleep, the rarity of issuing cautions for a domestic violence case and the polices claim Flack showed no remorse in interview meant a caution was not appropriate, the inquest heard.

A note referencing Lewis  believed to be Burton  in a positive way was found in a magazine after she died, the inquest was told on Wednesday.

Watch video below

In an unpublished social media post, released by her family after her death, Flack insisted she was not an abuser and described the incident as an argument and an accident.

Chris also said media attention for a court hearing forced Caroline to leave her home which she loved.

Being well-known should not allow special treatment, but should not allow making an example of someone, she said, adding that Flack was told not to speak about her case.

I believe she was heartbroken.

I know nothing will bring her back, but I do want people to know what a lovely, kind, generous person she was.

She never spoke badly of anyone and was totally loyal, thats why she was always devastated when people close to her were happy to let her personal life appear in print.
The Kilkenny branch of Family Carers Ireland is seeking nominations for 2020 Netwatch Carer of the Year Awards, which recognise, celebrate and shine a light on the remarkable contribution of Irelands 355,000 family carers.

There are 7,747 Family Carers in Kilkenny, one of whom will be named Kilkenny Carer of the Year for 2020 at the awards ceremony on November 6.

Family carers across Ireland make extraordinary sacrifices and work extremely hard, sometimes 24 hours a day, to provide care for family members and friends in their own homes. The Covid-19 pandemic has further highlighted the importance of their role in society as they prop up our healthcare system by keeping their loved ones at home and out of hospital. With limited access to essential services and particularly respite, family carers are overstretched and receive little acknowledgement for their unpaid work which saves the State 10bn each year.

Nomination forms are now available online at www.familycarers.ie or via the National Freephone Careline 1800 24 07 24. People from Kilkenny are encouraged to nominate a family carer that they know who deserves this recognition.

Mary Walsh, Carlow/Kilkenny Manager with Family Carers Ireland, said,

The awards recognise Kilkennys Kilkenny family carers for their unyielding sacrifice and commitment to care for their loved ones at home. Whilst 2020 has been challenging for people across Ireland, this has particularly been the case for family carers, many of whom lost their vital supports and services during lockdown. Now more than ever, they deserve to be recognised and celebrated for their enormous contribution to our society. I hope people will go online and nominate a local family carer for an award.
As Congress debates a series of sweeping stimulus measures to boost the economy during the pandemic, a multitiered forgiveness process for Paycheck Protection Program loans is gaining steam.

Theres been a growing push to automatically forgive smaller PPP loans from the Small Business Administration. And while Senate Republicans have included automatic forgiveness for loans below $150,000 as part of their stimulus proposal introduced Monday, they have also introduced a middle tier of forgiveness requirements for loans between $150,000 and $2 million.

For those loans, their proposal only requires businesses to complete a certification and retain relevant records and worksheets for up to three years, though banks would still need to submit a loan forgiveness application to the SBA.

Forgiveness provisions for larger loans would remain the same under the proposal. And the Treasury Department and SBA have said they will audit all loans topping $2 million after a public backlash against some publicly traded companies and larger, well-known private companies that received PPP loans.

Business groups, however, were looking for the forgiveness process for more loans below $2 million to be even easier.

It should be one box, said Tom Sullivan, vice president of small-business policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It should be a box that you should put a check mark in that you certify the funds were spent appropriately.

Sullivan said during the initial application process, small businesses already had to certify they would use the funds appropriately and to help support payroll. Even without extensive forgiveness processes, there is more than enough documentation to go after bad actors, he added.

That allows the feds to catch the fraudsters  the person who buys the Lamborghini or the person who goes out to Las Vegas  basically a small minority of PPP borrowers that are making small businesses legitimately pissed off and policy folks like me sick to their stomach, he said.

Forgiveness for the middle tier of loans, he said, should be easier than the SBAs EZ form it had rolled out earlier to small businesses. Loans above $2 million should still be scrutinized heavily with an extra thick pair of eyeglasses, he said.

However, Congress is running out of time to finalize a new forgiveness process as the SBA has set Aug. 10 as the date to open its forgiveness portal to the programs more than 5 million loan recipients. The agency has approved more than $520 billion in PPP loans, with an average loan size of $103,126, according to data through July 29. But a number of questions remain on the loan forgiveness details.

Even for larger loan amounts, members of Congress have proposed bills to make the process easier, including the Calculate Loan Forgiveness Act, introduced by Missouri Reps. Ann Wagner, a Republican, and Lacy Clay, a Democrat. Under that bill, the SBA would create a free, public loan forgiveness calculator or identify and certify a third-party calculator for small-business owners to use.

The legislation is backed by a number of organizations, including the National Association of Realtors, National Federation of Independent Business and the American Institute of CPAs, which has created its own forgiveness calculator for use by small businesses. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also backs the idea, though Sullivan said it doesnt require congressional legislation for the Treasury to identify a trusted forgiveness calculator. That step would help business owners focus on their businesses, he added.

Its all about certainty, Sullivan said. So they can work on rebuilding and reopening and coming out of the pandemic.

But some experts warn of the danger in automatically forgiving loans or reducing reporting requirements. That lowered scrutiny is a convenient way to address the millions of applications that would overwhelm lenders and the SBA, but it also rewards bad actors, creating potential issues if additional PPP loans become available, said Tenley Carp, a partner and PPP expert at law firm Arnall Golden Gregory LLP.

It really sends the message that if you steal a little, we will let you get away with it. We just wont let you steal a lot, Carp said. That sends a message for the next round of PPP loans that every man, woman and child, and maybe even your dog and your cat, should apply for a PPP loan as long as you keep it to right under $150,000.

Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., ranking member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, also expressed reservations about automatically forgiving loans in an earlier interview, adding Congress had already made the forgiveness process much easier.

Carp said banks did little in the way of reviews or scrutiny of PPP loan applications because they were not held liable if the applicant had committed any fraud. But ultimately, these are still taxpayer dollars, she said.

We have an obligation to the taxpayers to make sure these arent made-up companies and these arent made-up employees and that the money is being used for payroll and that the companies really needed the money, Carp said.

This article originally appeared on the Washington Business Journals website.
BEIRUT, Lebanon  Since an orphaned shipment of highly explosive chemicals arrived at the port of Beirut in 2013, Lebanese officials treated it the way they have dealt with the countrys lack of electricity, poisonous tap water and overflowing garbage: by bickering and hoping the problem might solve itself.

But the 2,750 tons of high-density ammonium nitrate combusted Tuesday, officials said, unleashing a shock wave on the Lebanese capital that gutted landmark buildings, killed 135 people, wounded at least 5,000 and rendered hundreds of thousands of residents homeless.

The government has vowed to investigate the blast and hold those responsible to account. But as residents waded through the warlike destruction on Wednesday to salvage what they could from their homes and businesses, many saw the explosion as the culmination of years of mismanagement and neglect by the countrys politicians.

Nada Chemali, an angry business owner, urged her fellow Lebanese to confront the political leaders, the big ones she accused of driving the country to ruin. Go to their homes! she shouted.
Cole, who has made the selfie his Twitter profile picture, said he got the masks after donating to Freitass campaign. He said it was silly for groups to suggest the made in China quip could encourage racial discrimination against Asian Americans, saying that the mask is basically just stating a fact  the virus originated in China.
S pain has reported 14 new Covid-19 outbreaks in the country's popular southern coast, Andalucia.

Figures released on Thursday show there are now 86 active outbreaks across the region, with 893 new confirmed cases.

In the past 24hours, outbreaks have been detected in four of the countries holiday destination spots - eight in Malaga, three in Sevilla, two in Cadiz and one in Granada.

In Huelva, south-western Spain, the number of cases has increased by 316, the highest daily climb since April.

The city also recorded one death linked to the virus.

According to the regional health ministry, 25 more people have been hospitalised.

The resurgence of outbreaks and infections in Spain has prompted some regions to impose fresh restrictions on movement, making masks obligatory at all times outside the home and closing nightclubs again.

The restrictions come at a time where the UK Government strongly advises its citizens against all but essential travel to Spain, including Balearic and Canary Islands where infection rates are lower than on the mainland.

People coming back from the country are expected to quarantine for two weeks.
Environmentalists were devastated by the Greens decision not to support Labor CPRS in 2009. However, this is now political ancient history. Without the balance of power, Gillards government negotiated a carbon tax, one of the first in the world, and carbon emissions trended down, as expected, until it was scrapped by Abbott and certain business interests. Carbon emissions have increased 2 per cent a year ever since. Can everyone stop Green (and Labor) bashing for the current increase in carbon emissions? Instead, can we expose the misinformation campaign run by a few super-powerful, wealthy business owners, especially those who use their own media to thwart action on climate change? Our childrens lives depend on it. I hear we have a mere 50 more habitable years left on Earth, and that is probably an overestimate given science is conservative. - Anne Matheson, Gordon

According to Martin Parkinson (Greens at fault over lack of carbon price: CPRS writer, August 6) the Greens are responsible for the lost decade of climate change action in Australia. This is akin to blaming a concerned onlooker with a violent murder. In 2009, the Greens voted against the deal cobbled together by Rudd and Turnbull because they reasoned it was a dud of a deal. I supported their stance then and still do. What Dr Parkinson (and others including Rudd) does not consider is the probability that a future Coalition government would rescind that 2009 deal. There is overwhelming evidence to suggest they would have done so. The blame for that defeat in the Senate lies squarely with Coalition voters who voted against it. The debacle of climate action since then lies with the Libs and Nats. The Greens can hold their heads high. - Jim Lavis, New Lambton

Dr Parkinsons assertion that the Greens are much to blame for Australias failure to put a price on carbon would be laughable if it were not so dangerous a revision of history. The CPRS legislation that was defeated in the Senate was a dud, not worlds best policy. It was riddled with so many compromises to gain acceptance from the Turnbull-led Liberals that even its most vociferous supporters said it would have to be amped up when the politics were allowed to have any effect. When was that fanciful period going to come? It has still not come because of the complete corruption of our political process by the fossil fuel industry and its government and media supporters. The fossil fuel industry donates heavily to both political parties. Our COVID-19 committee recovery advisory board is stacked with business executives with fossil fuel interests and conflict of interest in its deliberations are hidden. Surprise surprise, they are recommending a fossil fuel-led recovery. In all this, Dr Parkinson singles out the only party with a consistent position on action on climate change for criticism. - Peter Gibson, Wentworthville

Some heights are not worth hitting

Im not convinced that adding 20 storeys to new apartment developments will have any effect on the price of those apartments ("Going up could send city apartment prices down", August 6). Why would developers pass on cost reductions at the expense of their profits? In the market, housing or otherwise, prices are determined by market forces and not costs. Just ask all the dairy farmers who have been unable to sustain their businesses when the supermarkets used milk as the product in their price wars. Adding 20 storeys would make the affected apartments less desirable in the long term as they become the slums of the future. - Elfriede Sangkuhl, Summer Hill

If you believe that raising the height limits for units in Sydney will lower costs, then you believe in the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus. Only two things will happen: developers will get richer and donations to the Liberal Party will go up. - Ian Brennan, Wareemba

The Reserve Bank's research linking higher unit developments to the lowering of property prices in Sydney is a sledgehammer approach. No doubt prices would fall if the rampant overdevelopment of the kind that the bank is suggesting be permitted because these massive buildings and the negative impacts on the neighbourhood would make them much less attractive places to live. Cramming even more people into higher-density buildings in Sydney would also come at a high economic and social cost, and would make controlling any future pandemics even more problematic. The bank should use its resources to research making property prices more affordable by reducing demand through population control. Australia's annual immigration intake needs to be permanently reduced. It is the driest inhabitated continent on the planet with a fragile and damaged environment from human activity. - John Berry, Cammeray
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MIDDLETOWN  As widespread power outages in the city combine with uncomfortable heat and humidity for an extended period, Mayor Ben Florsheim has announced that the city has launched a cooling center and medical needs center.

The cooling area is in City Hall Council Chamber Chambers at 245 deKoven Drive. It will be open daily from until 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., according to a press release.
by Melani Manel Perera

Amid anti-coronavirus measures, 16.3 million voters are called to choose 225 MPs. Card Ranjith urges voters to cast their ballot in a peaceful and conscientious manner. By and large, Christians support the political alliance that opposes the Rajapaksa brothers.

Colombo (AsiaNews)  Sri Lankans go to the polls today to elect a new parliament. Voting will take place from 7 am to 5 pm (local time), in 12,985 polling stations, under tight security, particularly in view of COVID-19. In this regard, the Election Commission stressed that all polling booths are coronavirus-free.

At least 16.3 million voters are called to elect 225 Members of Parliament, 196 in multi-seat constituencies and 29 by proportional representation from party lists. About 7,452 candidates are running for 20 parties and independent groups.

Archbishop Card Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo urged his compatriots to cast their ballot peacefully and conscientiously, choosing suitable candidates. Every vote counts for the future of Sri Lanka. Over the next five years, Parliament will have to make very important decisions, he said.

The country is polarised. About half the population supports President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brother Mahinda, who was president from 2005 to 2015 and is now prime minister. The other half opposes them.

Most Catholics do not want the Rajapaksas to get two thirds of seats, which would allow them to change the constitution. The National Christian Council of Sri Lanka noted that in 2015 a large majority of lawmakers across the political divide approved the 19th Amendment to the constitution, curtailing the powers of the executive branch.

Many Christians back National Peoples Power (NPP) candidates. The NPP is an alliance that includes the Marxist-Leninist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, intellectuals and scholars. It could become the main opposition force in Parliament.

For Wijith Rohan Fernando, a senior lecturer in the Department of Western Classical Culture and Christian Culture at the University of Kelaniya, this is a decisive moment for the country.

As Christians, we have no alternative, he told AsiaNews. We must vote for the NPP; otherwise, there will be no real change. In the past 72 years, our rulers have never served the people; they have only established a kingdom of violence.
ATLANTIC CITY  An annual event celebrating the citys diversity and culture through art, 48 Blocks Atlantic City, will go virtual this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The celebration, a joint production of the Atlantic City Arts Foundation and Stockton University, will go live online Friday through Saturday.

The annual event, named because the city is 48 blocks long, celebrates and features creative art lessons by local and regional artists.

The program in the past has brought out 2,000 to 3,000 people, said Joyce Hagen, executive director of the Atlantic City Arts Foundation.

In the spring we made the decision to take 48 Blocks AC to an online format, Hagen said. I knew that many of the members of our creative community would rise to the occasion and create program ideas to engage our audience  and indeed, they have. Being online offers new possibilities for them to share their talents.

LIVE UPDATES: New Jersey COVID-19 cases up to 170,196, deaths to 14,872 The number of positive cases of COVID-19 in New Jersey has increased by 406, bringing the to

The virtual event also allows artists to present in a new way and in their own space. Some artists will give lessons from other countries, such as Great Britain and China, so Hagen hopes viewership will be up as well.
The announcement by Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday seemed to signal a new crackdown in the citys efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus: Traveler registration checkpoints would be set up at bridges and tunnels, conjuring images of police officers stopping cars and detaining people from out of state.

The reality may be a lot less stark  and a lot more confusing.

The authorities will not be stopping every car. They will likely not be at every crossing on any given day. The Police Department wont even be involved.

Instead of working to enforce the states mandatory quarantine for people coming from states with climbing coronavirus cases, the checkpoints, run by the citys sheriffs office, will focus on informing travelers about the rules.

Even so, Mayor de Blasio presented the program as a crucial step in fending off the resurgence of the virus in the city, which was once the center of the pandemic but has maintained a low rate of infection in recent weeks.
Huge crowds of passionate supporters and interested voters greeted Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya across Belarus as her campaign gained momentum ahead of the country's presidential election on August 9.

But few doubt when the election results are announced, the official winner will be Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who has won five elections so far -- none but the first deemed free and fair by credible international observers -- and ruled the country for 26 years.

RFE/RL looks at five factors that make Lukashenka virtually impossible to beat.

Early Voting

The Belarusian presidential election is officially slated for August 9, but voting actually started five days before.

The Central Election Commission said on August 4 that all of the country's nearly 7 million eligible voters could vote early, casting ballots at 5,767 polling stations set up in public spaces, including medical facilities and army barracks, and at 44 polling stations abroad.

Early voting by students, soldiers, teachers, and other state employees is encouraged -- sometimes enforced -- and critics says it allows more time to tamper with ballots cast and manipulate the outcome.

The parliamentary elections in November 2019 provided a glaring glimpse of alleged fraud in early voting: An independent observer filmed a woman who tried to stuff a pile of ballots into a box at a polling station in the western city of Brest.

The video sparked outrage, but nothing was done. The observer who did the filming, however, was sharply criticized by Central Election Commission (TsKV) chief Lidzia Yarmoshyna.

Commission Control

Yarmoshyna has headed the TsKV for 23 years. She has presided over the process each time Lukashenka, first elected in 1994, has secured a new term: in 2001, 2006, 2010, and 2015.

Yarmoshyna replaced Viktar Hanchar, who was fired by Lukashenka in 1996 after he refused to certify results of a referendum that expanded Lukashenka's power. Hanchar disappeared in 1999, one of up to 30 Lukashenka opponents or perceived foes who went missing around that time. In 2001, the U.S. State Department said it found "credible" allegations that Lukashenka or those close to him had been involved in the disappearances. The cases have never been solved.

When confronted with the news of the alleged ballot box stuffing attempt in Brest in the 2019 parliamentary elections, Yarmoshyna expressed outrage, saying the observer who filmed the video should be stripped of his accreditation. "It doesn't matter what an observer says," she said. "The most important thing is the ballot box. The truth is determined by the vote count."

During those elections, the opposition did not win any seats. Two opposition members who did have seats in the lower house of the National Assembly -- Hanna Kanapatskaya and Alena Anisim -- were barred from running.

Yarmoshyna's TsKV holds the power to determine who does and who doesn't get on the ballot. In the current presidential campaign, all those would-be candidates said to be the most serious challengers to Lukashenka -- vlogger Syarhey Tsikhanouski, former bank executive Viktar Babaryka, ex-ambassador to Washington Valer Tsapkala, and opposition stalwart Mikalay Statkevich -- were all left off the ballot for reasons their supporters said were trumped up.

Monitors Or No Monitors

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) vote-monitoring arm, ODIHR, announced in July that it would not send a mission to observe the presidential election process because of the lack of a timely invitation from the Belarusian authorities.

It's the first time the ODIHR won't be monitoring a nationwide election in Belarus since 2001.

In past elections, international observers have said they have faced problems, including being blocked by Belarusian officials from carrying out their jobs.

Belarus Votes For President Read our ongoing coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election, widely seen as fraudulent.



Katia Glod, a political-risk analyst who has been an OSCE monitor at previous Belarusian elections, told Euronews that it was hard to figure out what was going on at polling stations, especially when ballots are being counted.

"You can't see much even at the polling station, you need to be 5 meters away from the counting table," she said. "You don't get to see the ballots because they are encircled by a group of people and counted secretly."

While the OSCE will not have observers on the ground, there will be international monitors from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a Russian-led grouping of former Soviet republics. In the past, CIS observers has never observed an election in Belarus they didn't like.

Belarus will also have its own monitors as well -- more than 48,000 of them, according to the Belarusian rights group Vyasna (Spring). Most are from state-run or state-controlled bodies.

But a few dozen independent observers, including 47 from the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, have been allowed to monitor polling stations. But according to Vyasna, some independent monitors have been blocked and at least 11 reportedly detained since early voting began.

Media

Lukashenka dominates state-run media outlets, which convey his message to the public uncritically.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Lukashenka has used TV appearances to downplay the scale of the problem, dismissing it as a "mass psychosis" and rejecting calls from the World Health Organization (WHO), among others, to institute social-distancing measures.

"The Soviet Union has survived on television," Nadia Buka, a former journalist at Belarusian state-run Capital TV, told Current Time, suggesting that blatant propaganda remains the norm.

Fear

During the current presidential campaign, Lukashenka has suggested that both Russia and Western powers have been plotting to interfere in the election and destabilize Belarus.

In a speech on August 4, he claimed forces abroad had been cooking up plans for a "color revolution" -- a reference to the protests that have toppled governments in Ukraine, Georgia, and other former Soviet republics.

Lukashenka has hinted he would be ready to use the armed forces to stay in power. On June 23, he called on the military to be prepared to suppress civil unrest and "protect sovereignty" from "hybrid threats."

In the past, Lukashenka has repeatedly calling out security forces to quell any postelection unrest -- with "Bloody Sunday," the crackdown that followed the 2010 presidential election, especially violent. More than 600 people were detained, including seven of the candidates.

One of them, Uladzimer Nyaklyaeu, 64, was arrested while lying in a hospital bed after being beaten unconscious by security forces during the protests.

That Was Then

These methods have worked for Lukashenka in the past, but a changed landscape seems to make their reliability this time around less certain.

State media appears not to be the factor it once was, having been left behind by many Belarusians who use and consume social and independent media instead.

The large crowds that have turned out for rallies addressed by Tsikhanouskaya, who has teamed up with the quashed campaigns of Babaryka and Tsapkala, make the election and its aftermath less predictable.

Lukashenka faces a changed populace, one that wants fair elections and responsible governance, Belarusian writer and Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich told RFE/RL's Belarus Service in a recent interview.

"A new generation has grown up [and] middle-aged people have regained their consciousness," she said. "These are not the same people who existed 26 years ago, when Lukashenka began to rule."
US regulators have assured scientists that political pressure will not determine when a coronavirus vaccine is approved even as the White House hopes to have one ready ahead of the November presidential election, the countrys leading infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci said on Wednesday.

We have assurances, and Ive discussed this with the regulatory authorities, that they promise that they are not going to let political considerations interfere with a regulatory decision, Dr. Fauci told Reuters in an interview.

Weve spoken explicitly about that, because the subject obviously comes up, and the people in charge of the regulatory process assure us that safety and efficacy is going to be the prime consideration, he said.

President Donald Trump, a Republican, is behind Democrat Joe Biden in public opinion polls ahead of the Nov. 3 election. Trump has lost ground in part due to voter concerns over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

A vaccine announcement in October could help Trumps chances in the nationwide vote.

Im certain of what the White House would like to see, but I havent seen any indication of pressure at this point to do anything different than what were doing, said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

I mean obviously theyve expressed: Gee, it would be nice, the sooner the better.

Trump has suggested publicly that a vaccine could be ready long before the end of the year. In the interview Fauci offered a more conservative view, suggesting drugmakers will likely have tens of millions of doses of coronavirus vaccines in the early part of next year.

Fauci and other doctors on the White House Coronavirus Task Force, including its coordinator Deborah Birx, have come under criticism from the president for portraying the pandemic in less rosy terms than he has sought to emphasize.

Trump said in a recent interview with Axios that the virus was under control.

Asked if he shared that assessment, Fauci said some parts of the country were more under control than others.

Were a big country. You can pick out some parts of the country that are looking good and you could say is under control; you could pick some parts of the country that are on fire, in the sense, I mean youre having outbreaks that you know you dont get 70,000 cases a day when nothings going on.

More than 157,000 people have died in the United States from COVID-19 and more than 4.7 million cases have been reported in the country and its territories, according to Reuters tallies.

Earlier this week the president criticized Dr. Birx for giving a sobering description of the state of the pandemic.

Fauci said the doctors try to focus on the science rather than political distractions.

What we try to do, you know maybe some could do it better than others, is to focus like a laser on what were supposed to be doing: getting this epidemic under control, he said.

Fauci said differences in the seriousness with which people had taken the virus in the United States had hampered the response to the pandemic in comparison to other countries.

We have somewhat of a disjointed approach to things, he said. If we had a uniformity of it, and everybody rode together in the same boat, we probably would do much better.

Fauci and other medical professionals have urged Americans to wear masks and maintain a social distance to prevent the spread of the virus. He lamented the fact that mask-wearing had become political earlier in the pandemic.

Trump declined to wear a mask in public for months and Vice President Mike Pence faced criticism for not wearing one when he visited the Mayo Clinic in April.

Thank goodness thats changed, Fauci said. Im very pleased now that were seeing the vice president consistently wearing a mask, the president tweeting that you should be wearing masks. Thats a good thing. Thats a step in the right direction.
Principal poses next to the name of her school
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The president referred to him as an "well-educated" and "wise" man.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has explained that his recent pick for the top position in Ukraine's delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group on Donbas settlement, the country's first president Leonid Kravchuk, is a strong figure worthy of the new post.

Speaking with journalists on a visit to Donetsk region's Chasov Yar on Thursday, August 6, the president referred to Kravchuk as a "well-educated" and "wise" man who enjoys people's respect throughout the country, as seen in a stream broadcast by the President's Office.

Read alsoKravchuk in TCG: cons and pros

"Why did Leonid Makarovych Kravchuk took helm of the [Trilateral Contact] Group? I'll tell you this, we actually had several candidates. I believe that the Group should be headed by someone strong, wise, and well-educated who enjoys respect across Ukraine, including in its parts that are, unfortunately, now being temporarily occupied. This is very important for the [delegation] chair," Zelensky said.

At the same time, he praised the "great work" of Kravchuk's predecessor in the TCG, Leonid Kuchma, which the public "obviously doesn't see."

"Meetings are held behind closed doors, so people only see the reports following meeting of subgroups: political, security, or economic. They last for long hours. I'm grateful to him for this really difficult work. He has really grown tired, there are no other reasons [for his step-down]," the head of state emphasized.

Read alsoKravchuk says ready for compromises with Russia on Donbas

As UNIAN reported earlier, on July 28 came the reports on Leonid Kuchma resigning from the top post in Ukraine's delegation to the TCG.

President Zelensky noted that he respects Kuchma's decision, and thanked him for his work as head of the Ukrainian team.

On July 29, Zelensky said that different candidates were being considered to replace Kuchma, including the delegation's first deputy chairman, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov, and first President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk.

Eventually, Zelensky opted for Kravchuk, appointing him head of delegation on July 30.
Apology letter written by the netizen

BEIJING, August 6 -- Recently, a netizen surnamed Zhou was arrested by the police in accordance with the law, because he spread the rumors online by saying that the poor quality of military vehicles supplied by the Dongfeng Off-road Vehicle Co., Ltd. (hereafter referred to as Dongfeng) has caused the death of Chinese soldiers during the China-India border clash.

On August 3, after learning via the Internet that online-user Zhou had posted rumors on his WeChat Moments by claiming that internal corruption of the Dongfeng Company had led to the poor quality of the its military vehicles, which resulted in the casualties of Chinese soldiers on the China-India border, the Dongfeng Company immediately reported to the local police and established a special working group to investigate and verify the case.

At about 18:00 on August 4, Zhou was arrested by local police. He confessed to his crime of rumor-mongering, showed remorse, and wrote a sincere apology letter.

The Dongfeng company has been engaged in the R&D and manufacturing of high-mobility off-road vehicles for military operations for a long time, being considered as Chinas top military vehicles manufacturer.
An American Airlines plane at a gate at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida on July 16.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

A South Florida woman was kicked off an American Airlines flight last week for wearing a face mask the airline said was "offensive," the Miami news outlet WPLG reported.

Arlinda Johns told the outlet that she complied when she was asked to cover her face mask  which said "F--- 12," an anti-police slogan  but was later escorted off the plane.

The airline told Insider in a statement that Johns "refused to follow crew member instructions to remove or cover a face mask with offensive language."

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

A South Florida activist was kicked off an American Airlines flight last week for wearing a face mask with an anti-law-enforcement slogan, the Miami news outlet WPLG reported.

Arlinda Johns had boarded the plane to Illinois when she was asked to cover her face mask, which said "F--- 12." Johns told the outlet that she's an abolitionist who believes in defunding the police.

Related video: How COVID-19 has affected flight attendants jobs

She said that after a flight attendant confronted her, she put on a new mask. The plane was about to take off when the flight attendant walked up to Johns in her seat and said, "I better not see that other mask," Johns told WPLG.

"I said, 'Leave me alone, lady,'" Johns told the outlet. "She stood there. She said, 'OK, I got you.'"

Minutes later, the plane returned to the gate, and airport officers escorted Johns off the aircraft, WPLG reported. Johns recorded the incident.

"I think I got taken off the plane because I'm Black," she said.

The airline told Insider in a statement that Johns "refused to follow crew member instructions to remove or cover a face mask with offensive language."

Though Johns "initially complied," she "later continued to display the inappropriate language," the airline said. "After arriving at the gate, the passenger was asked to deplane."

The airline also said it refunded the "unused" portion of her ticket.

Johns told WPLG that she had to drive to Illinois and had since reached out to an attorney.

Read the original article on Insider
Jeremy A. Trapp, 24, was arrested on federal criminal charges in Brooklyn Wednesday

The Black Lives Matter protester who is charged with cutting the brake lines on a marked NYPD van made threats to attack the Verrazzanno Bridge and was caught with the assistance of a paid police informant, it has been revealed.

Jeremy A. Trapp, 24, was arrested on federal criminal charges at his home in Brooklyn on Wednesday in relation to the July 17 attack on an NYPD van in the Sunset Park neighborhood.

In a newly unsealed criminal complaint, FBI investigators reveal that Trapp first met the NYPD informant at a demonstration outside the Brooklyn Criminal Court building in downtown Brooklyn on July 13.

Trapp told the confidential informant 'that the police were racist, that he wanted to harm police officers and their supporters, and that he had previously been involved in destroying property and burning a police car,' wrote FBI Special Agent David J. Williams in the complaint.

An NYPD surveillance team took this image on July 17, which police say shows Trapp under a police van attempting to cut the brake line

Over the next several days, Trapp remained in contact with the informant, and the two met up on July 15, according to the complaint.

On that occasion, Trapp allegedly said that he wanted to 'burn the [Verrazzano-Narrows] bridge down' so that 'white supremacists' could not use it to get to Brooklyn from Staten Island.

The Verrazzano Bridge is the longest suspension bridge in America, and connects Staten Island with the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn.

The following day, Trapp and the informant drove to the Brooklyn side of the Verrazzano Bridge, where Trapp took reconnaissance photos of the bridge, according to the complaint.

Throughout, the informant says that Trapp spoke of his desire to harm police, saying that burning cop cars was not enough, and that police stations needed to be burned instead, and the brake lines on police vehicles cut.

Trapp allegedly said that he wanted to destroy the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge (above) so that 'white supremacists' could not use it to get to Brooklyn from Staten Island

Trapp complained 'that the demonstrations were too non-violent and were not accomplishing anything,' wrote Williams.

After failing to spot any unattended police cars on July 16, Trapp and the informant met up again on July 17 and again scouted Brooklyn, according to the complaint.

Trapp showed off a scissor-like tool that could be used to sever brake lines, the informant said, and the two began driving around Brooklyn -- but unbeknownst to Trapp, an undercover NYPD surveillance team was tailing them.

At around 4pm, Trapp and the informant spotted a marked police van parked outside the NYPD's processing center for applicants at 4th Avenue and 42nd Street, and Trapp allegedly crawled underneath while the surveillance team watched his every move.

With the surveillance team in covert pursuit, Trapp allegedly 'expressed excitement' about cutting the brake lines and wanted to look for more police cars, but instead he and the informant drove to the Occupy City Hall protest camp in Manhattan, where demonstrates called for the NYPD to be defunded.

Trapp was arrested soon after returning to Brooklyn.

An evidence photo shows the tampering underneath the NYPD van. Police say an anti-lock brake sensor had been severed, which could affect the handling of the vehicle

The police van was parked outside the NYPD's processing center for applicants at 4th Avenue and 42nd Street (seen in a file photo)

An inspection found that the police van's anti-lock brake sensor had been severed, which could affect the handling of the vehicle. The sensor line was right next to, and looked identical to, the van's main brake line, according to police.

At the time of Trapp's arrest, the role of the informant was not revealed, and police implied that officers had happened to catch him in the act.

The federal complaint does not make clear whether the informant was someone who was previously a paid confidential source, or whether the person came forward to cooperate after hearing of Trapp's plans.

Initially, Trapp was charged locally with criminal mischief and reckless endangerment, and was released without bail the next day by a New York City judge.

Trapp was said to be a regular at the Occupy City Hall camp, seen above in July before it was cleared out and taken down by city workers

On Wednesday, Trapp was ordered detained pending trial by United States Magistrate Judge Steven M. Gold. It was unclear whether he had an attorney to speak on his behalf.

'Trapp's alleged actions had potentially life-threatening consequences for NYPD officers and members of the public, who could have been injured by the vehicle's brake failure,' stated Acting United States Attorney Seth D. DuCharme said in a statement.

'This office will ensure that anyone who targets police officers or acts with the intent to undermine public safety efforts will face justice.'

Trapp faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted on the federal charges.
An investigation has been launched into the coronavirus-stricken St Basil's care home after claims bosses did not tell health officials for almost a week about an outbreak at the facility.

Professor Brendan Murphy confirmed on Wednesday it took five days for the federal government to be notified about the first COVID-19 case on July 9 at the north Melbourne nursing home.

The embattled St Basil's Home for the Aged in Fawkner has since been linked to 159 coronavirus cases and five deaths, with harrowing images showing bodies being wheeled out of the facility.

A police task force will now be formed to lead a coronial investigation into the cluster of cases linked to the home.

The investigation will feature the homicide squad and crime detectives, The Age reported.

A body is removed from St Basil's Homes for the Aged in Fawkner, northern Melbourne on Sunday. (pictured) A coronial investigation has been launched with help from police

'Victoria Police can confirm it is assisting the Victorian State Coroner with enquiries in relation to the death of persons associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and aged care facilities,' a police spokeswoman said.

'As the matter falls within the jurisdiction of the Coroners Court of Victoria, it would be inappropriate to comment any further.'

A Coroner's Court of Victoria spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia Judge John Cain has started an investigation into the deaths of five residents at the home.

'His Honour has directed Victoria Police to compile a coronial brief of evidence,' the spokeswoman said.

Federal Health Department guidelines say aged care homes should establish an outbreak management team in collaboration with the local public health unit 'within hours' of the first COVID-19 detection.

As of Thursday, Victorian aged care homes have been linked to 108 COVID-19 cases.

The aged care sector is connected to 1,533 of the state's 7,449 active cases, amid fears the industry will be overrun by Victoria's COVID-19 second wave.

In the UK, people in aged care homes are expected to make up more than half of the total COVID-19 death toll.

Earlier allegations against the conduct of staff at St Basil's claimed elderly residents were left starving, dehydrated and on the verge of death before being transported out of the home.

Hazardous waste is removed from St. Basil's Home for the Aged last week following an outbreak of coronavirus which government officials said began on July 9 (pictured)

Insiders have claimed some residents were found semi-conscious while others were suffering pneumonia and had very low oxygen levels, The Herald Sun reported.

'They would have died if left like that for another 24 to 48 hours,' a source told the publication.

'Families are angry. Many didn't know their relatives were COVID positive including one who died. They have been told nothing for weeks to months.'

Sources have also claimed residents were taken from the facility in poor conditions with many starving and dehydrated (pictured, hazardous waste is removed from St Basil's on July 28)

The source said some hadn't eaten or drank anything while others weren't given much needed medication.

One elderly resident died shortly after the transfer, while two residents with diabetes had extremely low blood sugar levels, the insider added.

Adding to the chaos, a garbage bag full of coronavirus tests was allegedly left unattended at St Basil's for six hours before being collected by a taxi.

Adding to the chaos, a garbage bag of coronavirus tests (pictured) was allegedly left unattended at St Basil's for six hours before being collected by a taxi

St Basil's chairman Konstantin Kontis was 'horrified' after learning the 200 tests were collected at 11pm - six hours after health staff left the facility, The Age reported.

Many of these tests were positive from residents and staff members.

The bag was labelled: 'Urgent. Mass Nursing Home COVID collection. Process immediately and hand to Molecular staff.'

Melbourne Pathology Medical Director Ellen Maxwell said a taxi picked up the tests after the courier failed to do so, and they were analysed within the next two days.

'There is no considered risk to patients, staff or public in the way these specimens were stored until and including in transport,' she said.
By Dennis Seid, Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal

The union representing information technology workers at the Tennessee Valley Authority is praising the federally owned utilitys decision to reverse the outsourcing of 200 crucial IT jobs to foreign-based firms.

TVA had previously announced that three firms based overseas would be hired to do the work of TVA professionals and that some work would be transferred to foreign nationals working at TVA under H-1B visas.

This is certainly a win for American workers, for TVA ratepayers, and for everyone who relies on the U.S. electrical grid, said Gay Henson, president of the Engineering Association/IFPTE Local 1937. Our members will get their jobs back. TVA ratepayers will benefit from having skilled U.S. workers providing quality service. And the entire U.S. electrical grid will be more secure, with critical information remaining on U.S. soil.

On Monday, President Trump criticized TVAs original move and fired the chair of the board of directors as well as another board member. He also criticized the pay of TVA CEO Jeff Lyash.

The president also signed an executive order requiring federal agencies to document that they are not using H-1B visas -- intended to allow temporary employment of workers from other countries -- to permanently replace U.S. workers.

TVA management announced Thursday that all previous layoffs of EA-represented IT workers have been rescinded and planned future layoffs have been cancelled. Any of the workers who lost their jobs, or who found other employment after receiving a layoff notice, will be offered a chance to return to their IT jobs at TVA or another position at the utility.

I couldnt be prouder today of the members of our union, said IFPTE president Paul Shearon. By rallying to support one another and stating our case to elected officials, the press and the public, we put a spotlight on a terrible decision and got it reversed. It was a violation of TVAs mission to take these jobs out of the Tennessee Valley and it was outrageous that a federal utility would export these jobs during the pandemic and the related economic crisis while the federal government is spending trillions to keep workers employed, he said. However, in the end TVA management made the correct decision.

The IT positions were to be contracted out to Capgemini (based in France), CGI (based in Canada) and Accenture (based in Ireland).

Its good news for now and bodes well for the future that TVA management has listened to our concerns, said EAs Henson. We look forward to a reset and a new, productive relationship. Together, well focus on TVAs core mission: affordable power, job creation and economic development in the Tennessee Valley.

dennis.seid@journalinc.com Twitter: @dennisseid

(c)2020 the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal (Tupelo, Miss.) Visit the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal (Tupelo, Miss.) at www.djournal.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
As an elderly Michigan inmates bid for early release amid the coronavirus pandemic continues, garnering support from everyone from a local prosecutor to a reality star, his situation is becoming more dire.

Michael Thompson, a 69-year-old former Flint resident, is serving a 40- to 60-year sentence for selling marijuana to an informant in 1994. He has petitioned the state, unsuccessfully, for a commuted prison term since 2018, the same year recreational marijuana  the drug that landed him in prison  was legalized in Michigan.

Thompson, who lost his parents and son while incarcerated, isnt eligible for release until 2038. Now his request is more urgent than ever: He has tested positive for COVID-19, his attorney says.

Every day that Michael is incarcerated is a continuing injustice, Kimberly Corral told Yahoo News on Monday. His life is at risk. His health and safety [are] at risk.

Legally, Thompson is out of options, according to documents provided by Corral. His last hope, she says, is for Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to commute his sentence.

Whitmers office did not respond to requests for comment.

Thompsons case has captured national attention since 2019, with director Ava DuVernay and activist Shaun King voicing their support for him on Twitter, and reality star Kim Kardashian writing a letter calling Thompsons incarceration extremely unfair in a state where marijuana is lawful, according to a copy provided to Yahoo News.

I cannot think of a single reason which would justify Michael Thompsons ongoing incarceration, wrote Kardashian, who has advocated for the release of inmates in the past.

Montel Williams, a former television host and an avid supporter of medical marijuana, tweeted about Thompson to Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel on July 31. Thompson is Michigans longest serving non-violent offender, Williams wrote. Michiganders decided the cannabis question at the ballot box years ago. ... Its time to fix this.

Story continues

Nessel replied: Agree.

On Wednesday, Nessel sent a letter to Whitmer asking her to release Thompson as soon as possible, according to a press release.

A decades-long sentence like that imposed on Mr. Thompson is usually reserved for second-degree murder convictions or for particularly heinous rape cases involving multiple aggravated factors, Nessel wrote. Sentences of this length for selling marijuana are simply unheard of, even when accompanied by firearms offenses. Given that recreational and medicinal marijuana is now legal in Michigan, allowing Mr. Thompson to continue to serve this very draconian sentence is even more offensive and unreasonable.

Inmates at the Muskegon Correctional Facility in Michigan in 2010. (Ken Stevens/AP Photo/The Muskegon Chronicle)

Thompsons case isnt the only one that has spawned national petitions, fervent advocacy and celebrity mentions. But for his supporters, his case is especially egregious now that money is being made off the very thing that led to his incarceration.

Michael Thompson and I are both black men who have been arrested on cannabis charges in Michigan, Williams said in a statement to Yahoo News. I received the white glove treatment and Michael Thompson is Michigans longest serving non-violent offender. Mr. Thompson is fighting for his life in a Michigan hospital after being infected with COVID-19 in a prison he should have been released from decades ago.

Thompsons criminal case began in 1994, when he sold about 3 pounds of marijuana to an informant. Police later arrested Thompson and searched his home, where they found 14 weapons. He was later convicted of marijuana possession and delivery charges, along with illegally possessing a firearm as a felon, according to his application for commutation.

Because Thompson had prior felony drug convictions, prosecutors at the time recommended that his sentence be enhanced as a habitual offender. In 1996, he received 10 to 15 years for the marijuana charges and 40 to 60 years for the weapons offenses. According to the Michigan Department of Corrections, he has already served his time for the marijuana counts and is serving time for the weapons charges. But its all one case.

It all stems from one marijuana sale, Corral said. The allegations are that while he sold marijuana at another house, he had guns in his own home  mostly antique guns and a locked gun safe in his closet. But those precipitated gun charges, which the state used to increase his sentence.

Thompsons application indicates that he was swept up in a national movement against violent crime in the 1990s that led to harsher punishments for repeat violent offenders.

Kim Kardashian visited the White House in 2018 to plead for the release of Alice Marie Johnson, right, who had been serving time in a federal prison since 1996 for a nonviolent drug conviction. (AP)

Thompsons crime and convictions are emblematic of the whole era at that time, which was legitimately concerned about an uptick in crime and drugs and the availability of guns, said Ashley Nellis, a research analyst for the Sentencing Project, a nonprofit that researches U.S. incarceration. But if you look at what transpired, he sold to an undercover [informant]. It was marijuana, which is now legal. He did not have a weapon on him. That illustrates how the intention of these laws, which was to try to get violent crime down, [affected] people who were not the target of these laws.

Thompson first requested a commuted sentence in 2018. But then-Gov. Rick Snyder didnt act on the request, according to a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections. A new request was later submitted under Whitmer.

As of right now, the request still sits with the parole board, MDOC spokesman Chris Gautz told Yahoo News on Monday. From there, the board would make a recommendation to the governors office, and the governor would then make a decision one way or another.

But when exactly that decision will come is unclear, and the parole boards recommendation would not be made public. Corral says she submitted a request in January. Then the pandemic hit.

We immediately filed a follow-up request to the governors office, asking that she request an expedited review, which she has the authority to do under Michigan law, Corral said.

That was in March. Corral says she has not heard a direct response from Whitmer, noting that the governor has told media outlets she cant make a decision until the parole board issues a determination of merit and makes a recommendation.

That said, the administrative code, which establishes this process, gives the parole board 60 days to complete that assessment, Corral said. And its obviously been significantly longer than 60 days.

Michigan inmate Michael Thompson and his attorney Kimberly Corral. (Courtesy of Kimberly Corral)

Gautz told Yahoo News that the board continues to work on the request. Meanwhile, Thompson was hospitalized for COVID-19, Corral said. He is showing symptoms but is not on a ventilator, she said.

I think any reasonably minded person would look at this case and say, This is a disgusting injustice that must be corrected and can be corrected, Corral said. We cant give Michael his life back, but we can give him the balance of his life back.

Corral pointed to the overwhelming support for Thompsons request. David Leyton, now the prosecuting attorney for Genesee County, where Thompson was convicted, said he joined Thompsons counsel in his application for clemency, according to a press release issued in April.

I was not the elected prosecutor at the time, but what I can say based on my review of the case file almost 25 years later is that the sentence handed down by the judge certainly appears to be disproportionate to the crime committed, Leyton wrote in a statement.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. (Michigan Office of the Governor via AP, Pool)

Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley submitted a letter in support of Thompson in December 2018 when he was a Michigan state representative. Neeley also happens to be Thompsons nephew.

The sentence he received was beyond excessive, Neeley told Yahoo News.

But Neeley noted that the process to get a commuted sentence, beyond waiting for the parole board, is a difficult process.

And, in general, society doesnt always look favorably upon releasing prisoners from jail, he said. You have to understand the economic ecosystem around criminal justice  each prisoner in a particular place represents a dollar amount. So there are a lot of factors. But in this particular case, without a doubt [Thompson] has been excessively sentenced. Theres no other case in the state of Michigan like this.

In his own words, Thompson said that if he were to be released, he would serve his community and work with troubled youth, according to a letter he submitted to Whitmer in January.

It would be a great injustice to continue to allow me to languish in prison any longer, he wrote.

_____

Read more from Yahoo News:

Thumbnail photo: Michigan Department of Corrections
BANNING, CA  In response to the Apple Fire, which has burned more than 28,000 acres of land in the Cherry Valley, Americares has announced that it will be sending more than four tons of medicine relief supplies to affected families.

Nearly 8,000 people in Riverside and San Bernardino counties have been forced from their homes due to the fire, which is 30 percent contained as of Thursday morning.

Americares, a health-focused relief and development organization that helps those affected by poverty or disaster, is working with Unicare, a partner organization located near the area the Apple Fire burned, to deliver medicine, face masks, hygiene products and other critically needed items for families and health care workers who are caring for patients affected by the fire.

Americares has also offered assistance to partner health facilities in San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

The Apple Fire has displaced thousands of people at a time when COVID-19 cases are rising throughout the state, said Americares Vice President of Emergency Programs Kate Dischino in a prepared statement. Our No.1 priority is meeting the most immediate needs of survivors and health care providers during this double crisis.



Fire management



Control of the fire was transferred to the U.S. Forest Service on Wednesday, which has been providing periodic updates on progress.

Thursday morning, the Forest Service said there were 41 hand crews, 311 engines, 19 helicopters and 2,591 personnel assigned to the fire.

To date, four homes have been destroyed by the fire, officials said.

On Thursday, the U.S. Forest Service said crews will focus on firefighting efforts in the Oak Glen area and in Millard Canyon. In the Oak Glen area, officials said crews are making good progress building a containment line around the perimeter.

In Millard Canyon, officials said fire spotting is a main concern with winds expected to pick up throughout the day Thursday.

On the southern perimeter in the Cherry Valley and Banning Canyon areas, firefighters are mopping up and backhauling equipment and trash from the area, officials said.

Story continues

A community meeting for Pioneertown is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday at the Post Office. A meeting for the Morongo and Yucca Valley communities is scheduled for Friday evening.

COVID-19 precautions



Due to coronavirus precautions, officials said fire camps are more spread out, masks are now part of standard personal protective equipment and personnel are screened on a regular basis.



"While firefighting is challenging during this COVID-19 outbreak, wildland fire personnel are trained to work quickly to adapt to changing situations," U.S. Forest Officials said in an update posted to Facebook Wednesday evening. "Adjusting to COVID-19 conditions and taking precautions is part of this kind of work."

Evacuations

All Riverside County evacuation orders have been lifted. An evacuation warning is still in effect for the area east of Potrero Road, north of Morongo Road and west of Whitewater Canyon Road.



For San Bernardino County residents, the community of Oak Glen remains under an evacuation order. Forest Falls, Pioneertown and Rimrock are all under an evacuation warning.

All road closures in Riverside County have also been lifted. In San Bernardino County, Oak Glen Road at Wildwood Canyon, Oak Glen Road at El Dorado Park and Valley of Falls Drive at Highway 38 are closed.

Donations

Two Apple Fire camps, which are small cities that include sleeping areas, a business area and a large kitchen that provides all assigned personnel three meals per day, have been established. Area residents who wish to make food donations are encouraged to contribute to local food pantries.



Related:





This article originally appeared on the Banning-Beaumont Patch
Womens clothing retailer, Lane Bryant will close several stores in Pennsylvania.

Lane Bryant will close six stores in the state including a store at the Shoppes at Belmont shopping center at 1575 Fruitville Pike in Manheim Township and at the king of Prussia Mall, according to USA Today. The store in Manheim Township was slated to close on Sunday, according to Lancasteronline.

Lane Bryant is closing more than 150 stores (including outlet stores), according to USA Today including these six stores in Pennsylvania.

King of Prussia: 160 North Gulph Road

Lancaster: 1575 Fruitville Pike, Suite A-2

Pittsburgh: 301 S Hills Village

Willow Grove: 2500 W Moreland Road

Erie: 670 Millcreek Mall (outlet store)

Philadelphia: 1900 Franklin Mills Circle (outlet store)

Lane Bryants parent company, Ascena Retail Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month. 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.

Ascena also owns Ann Taylor, Loft, Justice, Catherines, Cacique and Lou & Grey. The company is closing a significant number of Justice stores including stores in Cumberland, Lancaster and York counties, and a select number of Ann Taylor, Loft, Lane Bryant and Lou & Grey stores. The company is closing all of its stores in Canada, Puerto Rico and Mexico and is closing all of its Catherines stores. The company also closed all of its Dress Barn stores last year.

Lane Bryant, which sells womens clothing and caters to plus sizes, was founded by Lena Bryant in 1904.

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Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine gives his victory speech after winning the Ohio gubernatorial race at the Sheraton Capitol Square in Columbus, Ohio, on Nov. 6, 2018. (Justin Merriman/Getty Images)

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine Tests Positive for COVID-19

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine tested positive for COVID-19 but is showing no symptoms, he announced Thursday.

The Republican had been scheduled to greet President Donald Trump at an airport in Cleveland.

As part of standard protocoleveryone who is scheduled to come into contact with the president is tested for COVID-19DeWine was tested, and the results came back positive.

COVID-19 is a disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

DeWine, 73, is showing no symptoms but is returning to Columbus where he and his wife, Fran DeWine, will be tested.

The governor plans on isolating for 14 days, which some health officials recommend after testing positive.

As part of the standard protocol to greet President Trump on the tarmac in Cleveland, I took a COVID test. I tested positive. I have no symptoms at this time. Im following protocol and will quarantine at home for the next 14 days, DeWine said in a statement.

Lt. Governor Jon Husted also took a test on Thursday as part of the protocol to greet the president. Husted tested negative.

Trump touched down in Cleveland at approximately 1:20 p.m. before going on delivering remarks on economic prosperity. His schedule had him touring the Whirlpool Corporation in Sandusky County later Thursday.

Trump was met by Husted; Ohio Republican Speaker Bob Cupp; Lisa Stickan, chairwoman of the Cayahoga County Republican Party; Christina Hagan, a candidate for the seat representing Ohios 13th Congressional District; and Bob Paduchik, a senior campaign adviser.

President Donald Trump points to Christina Hagan, Candidate for U.S. representative from Ohios 13th Congressional District, as he speaks on economic prosperity, at Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland, Ohio, on Aug. 6, 2020. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

Supporters listen as President Donald Trump talks about economic prosperity, at Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland, Ohio, on Aug. 6, 2020. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

A very good friend of mine just tested positive  we want to wish him the best. Hell be fine, Trump said during comments made from a podium in front of Marine One of DeWines testing positive for COVID-19.

DeWine appears to be the second governor in the nation to have a confirmed case of the new disease. Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt tested positive last month.

Stitt, 47, said he sought out a test after feeling fatigued.

The governor said he didnt have other symptoms, such as fever, but would follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines on quarantining.

Symptoms of COVID-19 include chills, shortness of breath, fatigue, and loss of taste or smell.

Health officials believe the CCP virus spreads mainly from person to person between people who are in close contact, or within about six feet, and through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks.

The droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people nearby.

Some studies suggest infected people without symptoms can still spread the virus.

A significant percentage of patients show no or few symptoms, according to health officials. The virus primarily causes severe illness in the elderly or those with compromised immune systems.

A small percentageunder 1 percentof patients die from the disease or complications linked to the disease.

The vast majority of patients recover with no treatment, symptom treatment, or hospital care.
At least 200 other petitioners for civil orders of protection in Cook County were in the same position as Kouk in recent weeks, unable to immediately receive paperwork after securing an order of protection, attorneys who handle these orders say. They took steps to appear for a hearing, sometimes missing work or fleeing a dangerous situation, only to be left without any proof of the order if they need to enforce it.
Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa has directed district in charge ministers in his government to remain in their districts and take charge of relief operations amid continuing heavy rains in the state leading to landslides, flood-like situation, water logging and attendant issues.

The CM, who is currently under treatment for Coved 19, said he had empowered ministers to take immediate steps to mitigate the worsening situation in their respective areas.

In wake of the continued downpour in the state, I have directed District in-charge Ministers to tour the affected areas, remain in their districts, ensure distribution of relief and initiate all necessary measures to help the affected people, a release from Yediyurappas office said.

Yediyurappa had instructed the state chief secretary to take necessary steps to mitigate the damage caused by the rising rainfall and ordered release of Rs 50 crore to meet with exigencies arising out of the emergency situation. On Thursday, Yediyurappa said more money will be released if needed.

I have already ordered release of Rs 50 crores for emergency relief works in rain hit districts and asked Ministers to take decisions about works that need to be immediately carried out in the affected areas. Assured them of additional funds for relief work, if required, the statement added.

Also Read: Landslide in Karnatakas Mudigere due to heavy rains

A red alert has been issued in several districts in Karnataka due to the heavy rainfall in the last two-three days, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had said on Wednesday.

Heavy monsoon rains in Karnataka have caused landslides near Mudigere in the Chikmagalur district and severe waterlogging and flood-like situations prevail in different parts of the Kodagu district.

Cauvery river at Kudige in Kodagu district of the state has crossed the danger level and is rising, according to the state water commission.

Also Read: Covid-19: HAL donates ambulances to Karnataka govt hospitals

Udupi, Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada, Chickamagalur, Shivamogga, Kodagu and Hassan have been battered by incessant rains in the last two-three days creating a threatening situation.

Several districts of the states coastal, Malnad and north interior regions are receiving heavy rains and the showers are expected to continue. Several parts of north Karnataka, especially the border district of Belagavi are also facing flood situation as inflow has increased in Krishna river and its tributaries due to heavy rains in neighboring Maharashtra and also in the district.

With inflow increasing in Tungabhadra river, there is flood like situation in parts of Ballari district also.
ROME (dpa-AFX) - Italy's industrial production rose in June, though at a much softer pace than in May, figures published by the statistical office Istat showed on Thursday. Industrial production rose 8.2 percent month-on-month in June, after a 41.6 percent increase in May. Output was expected to rise 5.1 percent. On a yearly basis, industrial output fell 13.7 percent in June,after a 20.5 percent decrease in the preceding month. Economists had forecast an annual decline of 16.8 percent. The unadjusted industrial production decreased 11.0 percent yearly in June, following a 25.3 percent in the prior month. Among all sectors, consumer goods production rose 9.8 percent monthly in June. Output of intermediate and capital goods gained 9.0 percent and 8.1 percent, respectively. Energy output grew only 2.1 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.
L.A. Metro passenger Danny Armada rides a nearly empty Orange Line bus in Woodland Hills on March 27. (Los Angeles Times)

I bought my first car this week. It smelled like defeat.

One of the great paradoxes of Los Angeles is that a city so closely associated with American car culture once housed one of the nation's most extensive networks of trolleys and streetcars . The demise of that system in the 1940s and 1950s is a sad but familiar story to any student of L.A. history.

Mindful of that fraught past, I resolved not to own a car when I moved to Los Angeles from New York nearly two years ago. I was inspired by David L. Ulins Sidewalking: Coming to Terms With Los Angeles, a meditation on learning this city through the eyes of a pedestrian. I joined the Los Angeles Conservancy and every one of its walking tours. I rented a bike to ride in CicLAvia. I was proud to live in a county that had twice voted  in 2008 and 2016  to raise sales taxes to build light rail, rapid bus routes, and bike networks.

I chose my neighborhood, downtown Los Angeles, based in part on its proximity to a Commuter Express line that goes straight to my workplace in El Segundo, with the Metro Silver Line and C Line as my backups. I took buses everywhere, filling weekends with epic journeys (by mass transit standards)  the No. 2 connecting Westwood to downtown , the No. 181 from Pasadena to Hollywood, the Metro Rapid 733 to Venice. The Expo Line was my route to exploring historic neighborhoods like Leimert Park and Crenshaw. On the rare occasions when public transit just wasnt feasible, I took a shared Lyft.

But while Angelenos have supported Metro with their votes, most havent embraced it in their daily lives. Even before the pandemic, bus ridership had been falling . Buses are used largely by working-class immigrants who cant afford a car, dont know how to drive, or are unable to. Wheelchair users, homeless people and people with severe mental illness also depend on buses to reach vital services. These vehicles are a lifeline, but they've also become a danger zone, where rear-door boarding is required and riders fear cramped spaces. Metro keeps a tally of the hundreds of employees who've contracted COVID-19; a bus operator and a contract security guard have lost their lives to the pandemic.

Story continues

At least for now, Ill be staying away from Metro too, albeit reluctantly. After four months of working from home, I caved in and bought my first car, a used 2017 Prius. I drove it home from a Toyota dealership in Culver City on Tuesday, the same day I obtained my interim driver license from the DMV in South Los Angeles, where the lines snaked around the block.

The truth is, I have found driving nerve-wracking since I got my first license at age 18 in Queens, N.Y., a requirement for an internship in San Francisco. In the intervening decades  Im 42 now  I lived in Washington, New York and London, where public transit is abundant. I had looked forward to riding in fully autonomous self-driving vehicles  in my retirement. The thought of operating a 3,000-pound machine  nowadays, a computer on wheels  still induces anxiety.

Car ownership in Los Angeles seems halfway between privilege and necessity. I feel lucky for the convenience a car affords, from grocery shopping to drive-through restaurants and retailers. And in this time of turmoil and hardship, I hope to find rejuvenation by driving to visit this regions natural wonders. But Im mindful that, in the long run, emissions and pollution make automobile culture unsustainable. It may be years from now, but Im already looking forward to the day when I dont have to pay Geico premiums and can once again wield my Metro TAP card without fear.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry spoke to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo by phone on Thursday and discussed with him recent developments in the region, covering primarily Libya, the disputed Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), and the Palestinian issue.

Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez said the two minister exchanged viewpoints on the proposed solutions to the crises facing the region.

Shoukry presented Egypt's consistent stance on the Libyan issue and the efforts exerted to support the path of a peaceful settlement through the Cairo Declaration, which is part of the outputs of the Berlin summit, the foreign ministry statement said.

Libya has been split since 2014 between two rival administrations: the Libyan National Army (LNA), led by Khalifa Haftar, in the east, and the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) in the west.

The Egyptian initiative was launched on 6 June by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, Haftar, and Libyan parliament speaker Aguila Saleh. It involves a ceasefire, an elected leadership council and a longer-term peace plan for the country.

In the Thursday call, Shoukry also reviewed the latest developments related to the GERD, the subject of ongoing negotiations between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia that have yet to result in a comprehensive agreement.

The African Union-brokered talks stumbled on Tuesday when Egypt and Sudan rejected an Ethiopian proposal that they said backtracks on previous agreements reached during the talks.

Shoukry and Pompeo also touched on the Palestinian issue and the consultations that Shoukry held with Palestinian leaders during his recent visit to Ramallah.

The consultations between the two sides on a number of strategic issues come within the framework of bilateral relations, and as part of efforts to enhance them in all fields in a manner that achieves the common interests of Egypt and the US, Hafez said.

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Fifteen people died in homicides in Portland from July 5 through July 28, the most in a single month in more than three decades, police said.

July 5: Sharon Carr, 73. Police responded at 11:24 a.m. to a disturbance in the 400 block of Southeast 99th Avenue. They said they found her son, Todd Allen Carr, 54, outside the apartment. He told investigators he was experiencing delusions and came home and thought his mother was possessed by demons so he punched her in the face, cut her throat and removed her eyes, according to a probable cause affidavit. Investigators found her eyes in the kitchen garbage, according to police. Todd Carr has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder constituting domestic violence.

July 8: Cody Nicholas Vickers, 32. He was stabbed about 4 p.m. in the 1300 block of Southeast Water Street near the Hawthorne Bridge. Stephen Bache, 52, was arrested but the charge was dismissed after a Multnomah County grand jury found he acted in self-defense.

July 9: Dominque Marcel Dunn, 28. He was shot in the parking lot of a strip club off Southwest Barbur Boulevard about 8:15 p.m. Jordan Christopher Clark, 25, of Tualatin has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder. He is accused of trying to kill two other men that night.

July 10: Nadezhda Volobuev, 61. She was stabbed in the 16300 block of Southeast Foster Road. Police responded to the home just after 9 a.m. to conduct a welfare check. Her daughter, Angelina Marie Volobuev, 29, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and unlawful use of a weapon constituting domestic violence.

July 10: Shai-India Harris, 18. The recent Parkrose High School graduate was shot in the 7400 block of Southeast 84th Avenue about 12:45pm. An arrest warrant has been issued for her ex-boyfriend, Kceon Colbert, 18, accused of murder.

July 10: Julian Heredia, 19. He was shot in the 13600 block of Southeast Powell Boulevard just after 9 p.m. Police have made no arrests.

July 10: Jeffrey Sloan, 67. He died from blunt force trauma after a pistol-whip strike to his head in his home on Northeast Dekum Street, police said. A family friend, Damian Raufmalik Lucas, 36, was arrested. Lucas had gone to Sloans home July 2 to repay $10 to Sloans wife. Jeffrey Sloan apparently joked that Lucas shouldnt be cheap when Lucas said he had a $20 bill and asked for change, according to a probable cause affidavit. Lucas replied he was tired of being disrespected, left and returned with a 1911-style handgun and struck Sloan once in the head, the affidavit said. Sloan lost consciousness and died eight days later. Lucas has pleaded not guilty to a nine-count indictment charging him with second-degree murder, first-degree assault, unlawful use of a weapon, felon in possession of a gun, attempted first-degree robbery, menacing and tampering with evidence.

July 17: Lawrence Murphy, 77, Elmer E. Hughes, 45, and Tashia Cobb, 40. Police responded to a home in the 2500 block of Northeast 122nd Avenue about 10 p.m. and discovered three bodies. Brett Pruett, 58, has pleaded not guilty to a 19-count indictment, charging him with multiple counts of first-degree murder with a firearm, domestic violence assault and unlawful use of a firearm. The three victims were shot in what police suspect was some type of love triangle, but investigators have released few details.

July 25: Tyrell Nathaniel Penney, 27, of Sacramento. He was shot about 5:30 p.m. outside a strip club at Southeast Division Street and 158th Avenue. His cousin, Masico Mase Laveral Walker Jr., was seriously wounded, shot five times and remains hospitalized. Police have made no arrests.

July 26: Derrick James Jensen, 32, of Sandy. He was shot about 11 p.m. in the 6100 block of North Marine Drive. The shooting apparently followed a dispute over minor damage to a car near a spot where speed racing was occurring, police said. Police have made no arrests.

July 27: Mister Ford, 19. He was shot about 10:40 p.m. while in bed in the 700 block of Northeast 87th Avenue. Police have made no arrests.

July 28: Jordan Lee Louis, 22. He was shot at 7:27 p.m. while walking near Woodlawn Park in the 800 block of Northeast Dekum Street. Police said three cars drove up and people got out and in an ambush-style killing, sprayed Louis with bullets. More than 50 shell casings were found at the scene from three guns. Police have made no arrests.

July 28: Aja Rhone-Spears, 34. She was stabbed while attending a memorial vigil for an earlier July shooting victim, Tyrell Nathaniel Penney, 27, of Sacramento. The killing occurred at the Southeast Division home of the mother of Masico Laveral Walker Jr., who was shot along with Penney but survived. Police have made no arrests.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212

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This has been the most profound event in most of these peoples lives, ... this pandemic, said Tuttle-Newhall, who was raised in Madison. Its not something that theyve thought about. There was no preparation for this.

Gov. Roy Cooper issued a statewide mask mandate in late June and in July extended the Safer at Home Phase 2 until Friday.

I honestly believe that people feel, when things go bad and things change in your reality, you want to hold on to the fact that you actually potentially have some control, especially if some people are mandating or pushing you to do something that youre not really sure is the right thing to do ... , said Tuttle-Newhall, who firmly advocates wearing a mask.

While most patients understand the COVID-19 threat is real, Luking said that early on in the pandemic, he had to convince his patients that COVID-19 was not a hoax as the president suggested in early spring.

I still hear from folks that think that overall its overblown, but the folks who say that dont seem to be quite so firm in their convictions anymore, Luking said. And more of them are saying, Yes, its reasonable to try to protect yourself or protect your family.
BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - Facebook has unveiled Instagram Reels as its answer to the popular Chinese-owned video app TikTok. The social media giant said in a blog post that Instagram Reels is a new way to create short, entertaining videos on the photo-sharing app Instagram. Facebook reportedly shut down its TikTok clone Lasso in July, ahead of the launch of Instagram Reels. Lasso was launched in late 2018 as part of Facebook's efforts to compete with TikTok. The app too allowed users to record videos up to 15 seconds long. Facebook said Instagram Reels users can record and edit 15-second multi-clip videos with audio, effects and creative tools. These videos can be shared by the users either publicly or with their friends within the Instagram app. Users can select 'Reels' at the bottom of the Instagram camera, with creative editing tools on the left side of the screen to help create their reel. The editing tools include audio as well as augmented reality or AR effects. Users can also the timer to record their clips hands-free and see a countdown before they begin recording their videos. They can use 'align' to line up objects from their previous clips before recording and select 'speed' to either speed up or slow down part of the video or audio. Instagram users having a public account can share their reel to a dedicated space in Explore, where it could be seen by the wider Instagram community. Users with a private account on Instagram can share to Feed so that only their followers can see their reel. 'Reels in Explore offers anyone the chance to become a creator on Instagram and reach new audiences on a global stage,' Facebook said. President Donald Trump has said he will ban TikTok in the United States unless a tech company such as Microsoft buys it. Last Sunday, Microsoft said it is prepared to continue discussions to explore a purchase of TikTok in the U.S. 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.
HIROSHIMA, Japan - Survivors of the worlds first atomic bombing gathered in diminished numbers near an iconic, blasted dome Thursday to mark the attacks 75th anniversary, many of them urging the world, and their own government, to do more to ban nuclear weapons.

An upsurge of coronavirus cases in Japan meant a much smaller than normal turnout, but the bombing survivors message was more urgent than ever. As their numbers dwindle  their average age is about 83  many nations have bolstered or maintained their nuclear arsenals, and their own government refuses to sign a nuclear weapons ban treaty.

Amid cries of Japanese government hypocrisy, survivors, their relatives and officials marked the 8:15 a.m. blast anniversary with a minute of silence.

The United States dropped the worlds first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, destroying the city and killing 140,000 people. It dropped a second bomb three days later on Nagasaki, killing another 70,000. Japan surrendered Aug. 15, ending World War II and its nearly half-century of aggression in Asia.

But the decades since have seen the weapons stockpiling of the Cold War and a nuclear standoff among nations that continues to this day.

Amid the solemn remembrances at Hiroshimas peace park, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was confronted Thursday by six members of survivors groups over the treaty.

Could you please respond to our request to sign the Nuclear Weapons Prohibition Treaty? Tomoyuki Mimaki, a member of a major survivors group, Hidankyo, implored Abe. The milestone 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing is a chance to change course.

Abe insisted on Japans policy not to sign the treaty, vaguely citing a different approach, though he added that the government shares the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons.

Abes actions dont seem to match his words, said Manabu Iwasa, 47, who came to the park to pray for his father, a bombing survivor who died at age 87 in March. Japan apparently sides with the United States, but it should make more efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons. Its frustrating, but there is not much we individuals can do.

Even though Tokyo renounces its own possession, production or hosting of nuclear weapons, Japan is a top U.S. ally, hosts 50,000 American troops and is protected by the U.S. nuclear umbrella. This complicates the push to get Tokyo to sign the treaty adopted in 2017, especially as it steps up its military role amid North Koreas continuing pursuit of a stronger nuclear program.

Abe, in his speech at the ceremony, said a nuclear-free world cannot be achieved overnight and it has to start with dialogue.

Japans position is to serve as a bridge between different sides and patiently promote their dialogue and actions to achieve a world without nuclear weapons, Abe said.

Earlier, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui urged world leaders to more seriously commit to nuclear disarmament, pointing out Japans failures.

I ask the Japanese government to heed the appeal of the (bombing survivors) to sign, ratify and become a party to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, Matsui said in his peace declaration. As the only nation to suffer a nuclear attack, Japan must persuade the global public to unite with the spirit of Hiroshima.

Thursdays peace ceremony at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park was scaled down because of the coronavirus pandemic. The fewer than 1,000 attendees was one-tenth of those attending in past years.

Some survivors and their relatives prayed at the parks cenotaph before the ceremony. The registry of the atomic bombing victims is stored at the cenotaph, whose inscription reads, Let all the souls here rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the mistake.

The only way to totally eliminate nuclear risk is to totally eliminate nuclear weapons, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a video message from New York for the occasion. Guterres expected visit to Hiroshima had to be cancelled because of the coronavirus.

Seventy-five years is far too long not to have learned that the possession of nuclear weapons diminishes, rather than reinforces, security, he said. Today, a world without nuclear weapons seems to be slipping further from our grasp.

An aging group of survivors, known as hibakusha, feel a growing urgency to tell their stories, in hopes of reaching a younger generation.

Many peace events, including their talks, leading up to the anniversary were cancelled because of the coronavirus, but some survivors have teamed with students or pacifist groups to speak at online events, sometimes connecting with international audiences.

The bombings survivors lamented the slow progress of nuclear disarmament and expressed anger over what they said was the Japanese governments reluctance to help and listen to those who suffered. They want world leaders, especially those from nuclear-weapons states, to visit Hiroshima and see the reality of the atomic bombing.

Pope Francis sent a message to organizers of the anniversary commemoration, recalling that he had prayed at the Hiroshima peace memorial during his 2019 visit to Japan and met with bombing survivors.

He repeated what he said Nov. 24 at the peace memorial: The use of atomic energy for purposes of war is immoral, just as the possessing of nuclear weapons is immoral.

The Holy See was among the first countries to sign and ratify the U.N. nuclear prohibition treaty.

Keiko Ogura, 84, who survived the atomic bombing at age 8, said she wants non-nuclear states to pressure Japan into signing the treaty.

Many survivors are offended by the prime minister of this country because he does not sign the nuclear weapons prohibition treaty, she said.

___

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Kildare is living in the fear of a lockdown, along with Offaly and Laois, a chamber of commerce representative has stated as he urged the need for Government assistance.

Allan Shine, chief executive officer of the County Kildare Chamber of Commerce, told the Irish Independent tonight: We are concerned if there is a lockdown in the region, the effect that will have on business and workers, on children going back to school.

What if there is a local lockdown? No one wants to go back to phase one. Everyone is afraid of a local lockdown in Kildare, in Offaly and in Laois. Its a worrying time for all three counties.

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Mr Shine spoke after a spike in cases across the three counties. Earlier this evening Dr Ronan Glynn, acting chief medical officer, told a Covid-19 briefing that local lockdowns could not be ruled out.

You cant rule anything out, Dr Glynn stated. We will be monitoring the situation closely.

OBrien Foods in Timahoe, Co Kildare, announced it was suspending services for a period after 80 cases of Covid-19.

The company stated it had taken every caution possible. The firm issued a statement explaining that just one isolated case was confirmed on May 15. But by August 5, 80 had been confirmed.

This showed how rapidly the virus had spread and has sent shockwaves through the county as one of its biggest employers works to protect its company and employees from the virus.

There have been a number of outbreaks in meat factories over the past weeks, Mr Shine said.

They are some of the hardest businesses to control, mainly due to their nature of business and the number of people employed.

OBrien Fine Foods are a very respected company in Kildare and are extremely vigilant with their protective measures for infection control, including supervised distancing, mandatory face coverings and their staggered approach to breaks and start times.

Our hope is the company can reopen as soon as the authorities allow as the OBrien family are a huge employer in Kildare.

Covid-19 is a pandemic we are all in the midst of and businesses in Kildare adhere to all protocols issued by the authorities.

This is an unfortunate outbreak and we look forward to OBrien Fine Foods opening their doors and resuming business in the coming weeks.

Over the past 14 days, 246 cases have emerged in the three counties - 48pc or almost half of all cases.

Twenty-two cases are located in Offaly, 19 in Kildare and eight in Laois, while six are in Dublin, and 14 are spread across eight other counties.

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Thirty-nine cases are associated with outbreaks or close contacts of a confirmed case.

Dr Glynn said people living in the three counties had to pay particular attention to public health advice, including social distancing 2m from others, hand hygiene and limiting contacts.

Particular attention had to be headed by those in vulnerable groups, including the over 70s, who are urged to even stay 2m from people outside while exercising and to avoid public transport.

Masks will become a very high priority in these areas but from Monday everyone entering shops will have to wear masks across the country.

People must get in touch with their GP to be tested if they live in any of the three counties and experience symptoms of Covid-19 such as breathlessness, coughing, a loss of taste and smell.

For more information, log onto: https://www2.hse.ie/coronavirus/
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Linkedin Thomas Mukoya (Reuters) Nairobi, Kenya  Thu, August 6, 2020 08:00 531 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066be3538 2 Lifestyle Nairobi,hair,COVID-19,coronavirus,pandemic,salon,hair-salon,beauty Free

Stylist Julia Wanja picks her way delicately through piles of food waste, discarded masks, rubber gloves and other rubbish at Nairobi's Dandora dumpsite, looking for used hair extensions she can clean and resell to customers.

The pandemic means fewer clients with less money and she is cutting down on costs by cleaning and reselling hair from the dumpsite.

Officials direct trucks to dump their loads depending on where the waste has come from. Domestic and commercial waste - which includes bags of hair extensions discarded by other salons - goes to different sections. Medical waste is usually incinerated.

"I have fewer customers," the mother of three told Reuters from her wooden stall near the Dandora dumpsite as vehicle horns blared in the background. "If you are not going to work, there is no need to style your hair."

Wanja said she washes the used hair extensions carefully using detergent, Dettol and hot water. Most of her customers trust her to wash the hair well, she said, although a few like to clean it themselves as well.

Like other scavengers, she wears a mask to sort through the trash.

Read also: Nairobi hair salon defies pandemic with 'coronavirus' style

"We cannot allow anyone to enter the dumpsite without a mask on," fellow scavenger Denis Githaiga said, as he ripped through piles of plastic bags.

Wanja has been selling second-hand hair since 2008, but says there is more demand now since many people cannot afford new extensions.

"New hair is more expensive than second-hand hair," the 38-year-old said. "People don't have money."

Wanja's customers say as long as the hair has been cleaned, they do not mind where it is from. The hair looks new: long, luxuriant locks hang from the walls in Wanja's stall, or are perched on a battered styrofoam head.

"The hair bought new from a shop and bought used only differs in price. But once it is plaited, there is no difference," said Cecilia Githigia as Wanja's fingers worked a weave into her hair.
Pakistan's Khan slams 'oppressor' India over Kashmir

Iran Press TV

Wednesday, 05 August 2020 10:51 AM

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan says India's move last year to revoke Kashmir's autonomous status was a "crime against humanity," describing New Delhi as an "oppressor and aggressor."

Khan said in a statement on Wednesday that New Delhi "stands exposed before the world, yet again, as an oppressor and aggressor."

"Its so-called secular and democratic credentials stand fully discredited," he added.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government announced in August last year that it was removing the Muslim majority region's special status. India also announced the division of the state into two territories to be directly ruled from New Delhi.

Khan made the remarks as anti-India protests were planned across Pakistan to mark the first anniversary of New Delhi's abolition of Kashmir's semi-autonomous status.

The prime minister led a rally through Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir, where thousands of people gathered to mark the anniversary.

He was due to address the region's legislative assembly.

In the capital, Islamabad, a one-minute silence was held, along with a rally led by President Arif Alvi, who said India peruses Israel in changing the demography of Kashmir.

Protesters were displaying billboards and banners with graphic images purportedly of human rights violations by Indian authorities in Kashmir.

Dozens of rallies were also expected in other major cities across Pakistan.

Kashmir has been split between India and Pakistan since their partition in 1947. The countries have fought three wars over the territory.

On Tuesday, khan unveiled a "new political map" of his country that marks the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir as Pakistani territory.

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A San Francisco woman has big plans to trade up from one single bobby pin to a house  and she's already managed to swap up to a MacBook Pro 2017 through 16 transactions.

Demi Skipper, 29, from San Francisco started the Trade Me Project on TikTok and Instagram on May 26, with the plan of making multiple trades to turn her worthless bobby pin into her own home.

She's already had a shocking amount of progress, making 16 trades in less than three months and landing herself a laptop worth about $1,400  while trading for rare sneakers, an iPhone, and even a car along the way.

Ambitious: Demi Skipper, 29, from San Francisco, is trying to trade a bobby pin for a house through a series of swaps that have thus far seen her earn a used car and then a MacBook Pro

Starting small: After being inspired by a similar project in which a man managed to trade up from a red paperclip to a house, Demi decided to try the same thing with a worthless bobby pin

Demi explained on TikTok that she was looking for something to do during the pandemic when she was struck with the idea.

'I'm trading a bobby pin up until I get a house,' she said in her inaugural video.

Using platforms like Craigslist, eBay, and Facebook, Demi is offering to trade one item at a time, with the intent of trading up little by little and eventually ending up with a house  all from that single bobby pin.

She started out with baby steps, swapping that bobby pin for a pair of Marysol earrings worth $10.

She traded those for a set of four margarita glasses worth $24, and those for a $60 Bissell vacuum cleaner.

Demi managed to get someone in need of a carpet cleaning to give her a $95 snowboard for the vacuum, and then traded that snowboard for a $180 Apple TV 4K.

'This trade, specifically, was one of my most valuable so far,' she said in a TikTok video.

She went on to trade the Apple TV for $220 Bose noise-cancelling headphones, and those headphones for an Xbox One, two games, two controllers, and a Kinect sensor bar valued at $320.

Starting small: She started out with baby steps, swapping that bobby pin for a pair of Marysol earrings worth $10. She traded those for a set of four margarita glasses worth $24

Inching up: She traded the glasses for a $60 Bissell vacuum cleaner. Then she managed to get someone in need of a carpet cleaning to give her a $95 snowboard for the vacuum

Getting into tech: She traded that snowboard for a $180 Apple TV 4K: 'This trade, specifically, was one of my most valuable so far'

Moving up: She went on to trade the Apple TV for $220 Bose noise-cancelling headphones, and the headphones for an Xbox One, two games, two controllers, and a Kinect sensor bar

Demi then found a guy who 'really wanted the Xbox'  so much so that he was willing to trade her a MacBook Pro 2011 valued at $400.

That was swapped for a $550 Canon camera set, which became the first item she had to spend any money on because she had to ship the laptop.

That was followed by a $750 pair of Off White Nike Blazers in a men's size nine, a pair of Off White Nike Hyperdunks, and Jordan 1 Reverse Shattered Backboards.

Here, though, she was stuck in the 'sneaker game,' making repeated trades with sneaker fans. She wanted to get out, so when she found someone who desperately wanted those Jordan 1 Reverse Shattered Backboards, she told him what she wanted: an iPhone 11 Pro Max.

That man went out and bought the new phone, and they made the trade.

Her next trade may not have been the biggest value, but it was certainly the most impressive: She swapped that iPhone for a car  specifically, a 2008 Dodge Caravan.

Most recently, she has traded the car for a $1,400 Boosted Board V3 Plus, and that for a 15 MacBook Pro 2017.

Demi then found a guy who 'really wanted the Xbox'  so much so that he was willing to trade her a MacBook Pro 2011 valued at $400. That was swapped for a $550 Canon camera set

Sneaker land: That was followed by a $750 pair of Off White Nike Blazers in a men's size nine

Stylish: Now swapping with sneaker lovers, she moved on to a pair of Off White Nike Hyperdunks (left) and Jordan 1 Reverse Shattered Backboards (right)

Must-have: Someone wanted the Backboards so much, he went out and bought a brand new iPhone to trade for them

Beep beep! Her next trade may not have been the biggest value, but it was certainly the most impressive: She swapped that iPhone for a car  specifically, a 2008 Dodge Caravan

Bit by bit: She traded the car for a $1,400 Boosted Board V3 Plus

Increased value: Most recently, she traded in for a 15 MacBook Pro 2017

'Can you believe this MacBook Pro was once a BOBBY PIN?! I still have to pinch myself,' she wrote on Instagram, showing off her newest item, which came still in the box.

Demi's journey has certainly proven popular, and she has amassed 3.8 million followers on TikTok and 222,000 on Instagram.

Impressive: Demi said she was inspired by entrepreneur Kyle MacDonald, who managed to trade a red paperclip for a two-story farmhouse in 14 steps in 2006

Demi said she was inspired by entrepreneur Kyle MacDonald, who managed to trade a red paperclip for a two-story farmhouse in 14 steps in 2006.

MacDonald spent just a year on the 14 trades, going from the paperclip to a fish pen, a door knob, a coleman stove, a red generator, an 'instant party kit,' a Bombardier Mach 1 snowmobile, a holiday to Yahk, a cube van, a recording contract, a year's free rental in Arizona, an afternoon with Alice Cooper, a Kiss snow globe, and a part in the movie Donna on Demand.

After one year of internet bartering, Kyle  who was 26 at the time  completed the deal and moved into a two-story, three-bedroom farmhouse in Kipling, Canada.

'I'm really pleased. I've never been to Kipling, but I've seen pictures of the house, and it looks great. It looks perfect,' he said at the time.

The inspiration for the project was a children's game called 'Bigger and Better.' Growing up in the suburbs of Vancouver, he watched children go door to door trying to trade their toys for something more valuable.

Another guy: An anonymous software engineer, 28, from Northern Ireland, is determined to swap an old pencil (pictured) for an item worth one million dollars

Progress: He has already managed to trade the worthless object for a box of 12 DavidOff Nicaragua Diademas Cigars worth $230 (pictured)

Step by step: The first item that was traded for the pencil was a single King Edwards cigar worth around $6.00

'I didn't know how I was going to get to my goal of house, or how long it would take me, or where the house would be, but I figured that if I kept at it, I would get there in the end,' he said.

The town of Kipling decided to make the offer for the publicity, Mayor Pat Jackson said.

'We are a small community, just over 1,100 people. We are trying to promote tourism. And who knows, maybe someone out there will think, "This sounds like an interesting town," and decide to move here. That would be just wonderful,' he said.

MacDonald has inspired several other people to make massive trades as well.

An anonymous software engineer from Northern Ireland began trading with an old pencil and now has a handcrafted table worth hundreds of dollars.

The 28-year-old is on a mission to help people in need by bartering his way to a million dollars online and donating the proceeds to charity, and is documenting his journey on Instagram.

Working his way up: Next was a signed copy of a children's book, donated by it's author Mikael Lindnord, worth an estimated $25

It's all a game! A set of three Rubik's cubes worth $29.99 and some stickers was donated as the third item

The project began in October, after the man discovered the old pencil at the bottom of his bag.

He traded it first for a single King Edwards cigar worth $6.00, then swapped that for a signed children's book donated by author Mikael Lindnord worth an estimated $25, and then traded that for a set of Rubik's cubes worth $29.99.

The anonymous man continues to trade, getting a box of 12 DavidOff Nicaragua Diademas Cigars priced at $230; a rare, out-of-print hardback copy of Buffy Season 9, Volume 3; and a Skinny Dip London gift card for $325.

His last update was in April, when he traded that gift card for aLive Edge Walnut side table that was handcrafted from a single piece in Ohio.

The anonymous trader believes that getting to a million dollars will take around ten years, and he has already been offered some bizarre items, such as sex toys and guns.

Speaking to Metro, he said: 'I have to be really careful when deciding what to trade, I am always after something that appeals to a wide range of people. I am in negotiations right now.
Facebook is matching fellow tech companies Google and Uber by extending its work-from-home option for all employees until July 2021.

Based on guidance from health and government experts, as well as decisions drawn from our internal discussions about these matters, we are allowing employees to continue voluntarily working from home until July 2021, the company confirmed. It is also providing an additional $1,000 stipend for home office equipment, following a $1,000 bonus for employees in March.

The Menlo Park social media giant had previously allowed most employees to stay home until the end of the year as the coronavirus pandemic closed its offices. It is also allowing some employees to apply for permanent remote work. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in May that half of the companys employees, which currently total 48,000, could work from home permanently within a decade.

Even before COVID, we had a long-term goal of enabling more remote work since the ability to feel present even when youre remote is a core aspect of our own product work on video presence, workplace, and virtual and augmented reality, Zuckerberg said on an earnings call last month. This will enable us to attract and retain broader pools of talent regardless of where they live.

Facebook said it plans to open offices where both government guidelines allow them and coronavirus trends are consistently improving, but said it was unlikely to open many locations this year given the recent U.S. surge.

The dispersion of Facebooks jobs, along with other tech companies, could damage the Bay Areas economy. The tech industry boom fueled vast construction projects, the restaurant industry and boosted city budgets throughout the region in the past decade. At the same time, some residents have welcomed lower rents and less congestion during the pandemic, which could continue as workers stay home or move elsewhere. Other tech firms including Twitter, Square, Zillow and Coinbase are allowing most employees to work from home permanently.

Facebooks shift to more remote work is not primarily based on seeking cost savings, Zuckerberg said on last months earnings call. Savings on real estate and amenities could be offset by higher travel expenses for employees to gather, David Wehner, Facebooks chief financial officer, said on the call.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

Facebook is continuing major real estate deals. On Monday, the company said it leased 730,000 square feet in New Yorks James A. Farley Building, a former post office that spans a full city block. The office has room for around 3,000 employees based on typical occupancy rates before the pandemic, though its unclear how new social distancing requirements could affect that.

Facebook also has a major expansion proposed at Willow Village in Menlo Park that calls for 1.25 million square feet of office space and 1,735 apartments. Its other offices include Park Tower and 181 Fremont in San Francisco, the Burlingame Point project and a campus in Fremont.

Roland Li is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: roland.li@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rolandlisf
Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has ordered his government to invite Ukrainian and Russian prosecutors to Belarus to investigate a group of 33 mercenaries from the private Russian security firm Vagner Group who've been detained in Minsk.



Lukashenka announced the move during a government meeting in Minsk on August 6.



"The three [Belarusian, Ukrainian, and Russian prosecutor-generals] should sit together and decide the way they find proper," Lukashenka said.



The Belarusian president said a decision on how to treat the case "must be based" on Belarusian and international laws.



Lukashenka said that if the Russian and Ukrainian prosecutors do not travel to Minsk for the meetings, "we will make the decision ourselves."



On August 5, Russia's Security Council Deputy Chief Dmitry Medvedev warned Minsk that the arrest of the private security firm contractors could have grave consequences for Russian-Belarusian relations.



Lukashenka replied to Medvedev's remarks at the August 6 government meeting in Minsk, saying: "There is no need to scare us with repercussions. We are aware of all repercussions."



Lukashenka also said Russia shouldn't try to intimidate the Belarusian government with threats.

Belarus Votes For President Read our ongoing coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election, widely seen as fraudulent.



"At the end of the day, it was not Americans or NATO who have sent [the Vagner contractors] here," Lukashenka said.



On July 29, Belarusian authorities announced they had detained 32 contractors from the Vagner Group near Minsk and apprehended another private security contractor from the firm in southern Belarus.



They were arrested on charges of trying to destabilize Belarus ahead of the country's August 9 presidential election.

Speaking about "safety measures" ahead of the vote, Lukashenka told the August 6 government meeting that many others who want to "destabilize Belarus" also have been detained in the country in recent days -- including individuals who have U.S. passports.

"We are talking not just about the arrest of the Vagner Group's members here," Lukashenka said. "Some of the people detained [recently in Minsk] have American passports; those who are married to American women working in the State Department."

"But the Russian leadership is defending them with bayonets atilt," Lukashenka continued, using a military term to described a bayonet fixed to a rifle and lowered into an attacking position. "A hybrid war against Belarus is under way, and we should wait for dirty tricks from any side."

The Ukrainian Prosecutor-General's Office said on July 31 that Kyiv would seek the extradition of 28 of the Vagner Group detainees on charges they had fought alongside Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. It said nine Ukrainian citizens are among the 28.



Moscow insists that all of the detainees are Russian citizens. It has called on Minsk to release the men and let them return to Russia.



According to Russian authorities, the 33 men were traveling through Belarus on their way to Istanbul before flying to "a third country."



However, Lukashenka says Russia's claim about the mercenaries being en route to Turkey was "a lie."



Lukashenka suggested the detained men were plotting a "color revolution" in Belarus -- a reference to popular upheavals that have toppled governments in Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan during the past two decades.

Lukashenka also reiterated his earlier warnings that he will not allow any "Maidan"-style anti-government protests in Minsk during the election or the day after the vote.



The head of the Belarusian Security Council, Andrey Raukou, said on July 30 that authorities were continuing to search for "upwards of up to 200 militants" said to be part of the alleged destabilization plot.



Belarus's presidential election is shaping up to be a tough race for incumbent Lukashenka, an authoritarian leader who has been in power since 1994.



Lukashenka has cracked down on his political opponents during the election campaign, with the country's law enforcement agencies arresting hundreds of people -- including journalists, bloggers, and political activists.



Charges also have been pressed against two potential candidates from the opposition, effectively preventing them from competing against Lukashenka in the election.

Independent election monitoring groups said on August 5 that many of their observers have been detained while trying to monitor polling stations during early voting that started on August 4.
Despite a steady fall in coronavirus infection rates, it is too early to discount the possibility of a second surge in cases

For the first time in four months, Egypts daily toll of coronavirus cases dropped below 200 this week.

In a cabinet meeting on 29 June, Health Minister Hala Zayed highlighted a report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) which stated that Egypt has the lowest infection rate in the Middle East.

Between 28 June and 3 July, 2,158 coronavirus cases were detected nationwide, compared to 4,080 cases between 21 and 27 June. On Monday, the Health Ministry announced 157 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number to 94,640 since the first case in Egypt was registered on 14 February.

Islam Anan, an epidemics specialist and a pharmaeconomics lecturer at Misr International University, warned on his Facebook page on Monday that announcing the headline fall in the number of infections without releasing the figures of each governorate, or providing information on the number of swabs taken each day, could foster a false sense of security among the public and lead to a reduction in the wearing of masks.

Following Eid Al-Fitr holiday two months ago coronavirus infection rates noticeably increased despite stricter preventive measures, including a night-time curfew. At the time, officials said the hike in infections could be attributed to reckless behaviour and a disregard for the protective measures in place.

This week, a month after Egypt gradually began lifting its coronavirus restrictions, Eid Al-Adha was celebrated. It is a feast usually marked by gatherings.

On 27 June Egypt began lifting many of the restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus, including cancelling the curfew and allowing cafes, cinemas, restaurants and gyms to reopen.

A combination of the coronavirus outbreak, hot weather, summer vacation, and Eid Al-Adha five-day holiday left Cairos streets emptier than usual. Unlike Eid Al-Fitr, Eid Al-Adha was not accompanied by a suspension of transport or travel ban between governorates, and many people took the opportunity to head to the coast for the holiday.

Hisham Al-Shaer, a member of the board of the Chamber of Tourism Establishments, said in a telephone interview with state-owned Channel One on Saturday that there was a surge in demand for hotels and tourist resorts during the vacation along Egypts north and Red Sea coasts.

Egyptian hotels that have hygiene safety certificates were allowed to increase their occupancy rates to 50 per cent as of 1 July, double the 25 per cent cap that applied during Eid Al-Fitr. There are more than 600 certified hotels and resorts nationwide.

Several holiday-makers who travelled to the North Coast told Al-Ahram Weekly that though the pandemic should have cast a shadow over their holiday, they did not feel any difference to their vacation at the same time last year.

Tourist villages and hotel beaches were open, sea activities available, and many cafes and restaurants operated beyond the official closing time of 12am, with a few even serving banned shishas.

Ahmed Sami, a 35-year-old father of two, told the Weekly that life is going on as usual in Sahel, except for the wearing of masks in supermarkets.

North Coast beaches are nearly full, many cafes and restaurants failed to adhere to the 50 per cent maximum occupancy rate, and almost all of them were operating beyond the limited hours, said Sami.

From 26 July, restaurants and cafes were allowed to remain open till midnight rather than 10 pm, and permitted occupancy rates were increased from 25 per cent to 50.

Yasmin Zahi travelled to Sahel with her family during the feast.

After three months of lockdown, we could not take it any longer, she said. The number of infections is decreasing by the day, thank God, and this reassured us.

Like much of the public, Hossam Hosni, head of the Health Ministrys Scientific Committee to Combat Coronavirus, believes Egypt has managed to control the pandemic.

I dont say we have defeated the virus, but we have controlled it, Hosni said on TV. He added that he was expecting zero cases by mid-September, provided the public continue to adhere to preventative measures.

Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli last week attributed the resurgence in some countries of Covid-19 to the lack of awareness and non-compliance with the preventative measures.

Madbouli called on Egyptians to continue to adhere to all precautions, including social distancing and wearing face masks in crowded places, to help the country keep the daily infection tally low and prevent a possible resurgence.

If coronavirus cases resurge, the government will be forced to restore stricter measures, he said.

The Health Ministry began the process of shutting down makeshift isolation facilities at youth hostels on 8 June, and on 28 July the last patients isolated in youth hostels were discharged. The ministry has also wound down several isolation hospitals.

Any sudden increase in numbers, however, will see a shift in track. Dr Jihan Al-Assal, vice president of the Health Ministrys Scientific Committee, said last week that Egypt is ready to deal with any possible second wave of coronavirus.

There are comprehensive preparations for any second wave, Al-Assal said in telephone interview with state TV.

Like Madbouli, Al-Assal warned the public they should continue to socially distance and wear masks. Do not feel safe until a vaccine arrives, she said.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom said during a virtual news briefing on Monday that a number of vaccines are now in phase three clinical trials and we all hope to have effective vaccines that can help prevent infections, however, theres no silver bullet at the moment  and there might never be.

Among the WHO list of candidate vaccines in global pre-clinical evaluation are four local products that Higher Education Minister Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar announced last month. The four vaccines, which have not yet been approved for human clinical trials, include DNA plasmid, inactivated-whole virus, influenza A H1N1 vector, and protein subunit vaccines.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 6 August, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under headline: The numbers game

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The number of Covid-19 patients in Vietnam will continue to rise and the second wave will reach its peak in the next 10 days, according to Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son.

Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son

Son said they would not try to find the patient zero in Danang, instead, contact tracing and quarantining to find and control new outbreaks was more important. Danang is carrying out 8,000-10,000 tests a day. HCM City Pasteur Institute will help Danang Hospital 199 in carrying out the tests. The National Institute Of Hygiene And Epidemiology will help with contact tracing and design quarantine plans.

Even though the outbreak at three hospitals in Danang has been brought under control, the city still needs much help with medical staff and equipment. Many nurses, doctors and family members have been infected. They also have many patients in critical condition due to underlying conditions. The contact tracing task alone needs large numbers of staff. Danang needs help in building new field hospitals and treating new patients at Hoa Vang Medical Centre and Danang Lung Hospital.

Acting Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said, "Danang is lacking medical staff so other localities must quickly train anyone who is working, have retired or still at university to help."

C Hospital will reopen on August 7.

According to Son, the situation in Danang is more complicated than in Hanoi's Bach Mai Hospital outbreak. They have detected new cases that are not related to three hospitals in the outbreak. He went on to say that the number of new cases would continue to rise and may reach a peak in the next 10 days.

"Contact tracing and quarantining the new outbreak have been strongly carried out but we can't relax. Everyone should be extra careful in the next 10 days and follow all preventive measures," Son said. Dtinews
TORONTO, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Denison Mines Corp. ("Denison" or the "Company") (TSX: DML) (NYSE American: DNN) today filed its Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements and Management's Discussion & Analysis ("MD&A") for the quarter ended June 30, 2020. Both documents can be found on the Company's website at www.denisonmines.com or on SEDAR (at www.sedar.com) and EDGAR (at www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml). The highlights provided below are derived from these documents and should be read in conjunction with them. All amounts in this release are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise stated. View PDF version.

David Cates, President and CEO of Denison commented, "We've seen several positive trends develop in the uranium sector over the last several months. Demand has remained relatively stable with nuclear power plants answering the call to provide reliable and competitive base-load energy during the pandemic. At the same time, COVID-19 related supply curtailments and associated producer spot market buying has put upward pressure on the uranium spot price  to the point where the current spot price is approximately 10% higher than the base-case selling price assumed in the Pre-Feasibility Study for first production from Denison's proposed Phoenix In-Situ Recovery ('ISR') operation. While announcements have been made regarding the resumption of certain curtailed uranium mines, this was always expected by market participants. Regardless of the timing of these restarts, we should not lose sight of how impactful even temporary curtailments can be in a market that is actively drawing down inventories and other secondary supplies as part of a cyclical commodity correction  resulting in a permanent acceleration towards sustained improvements to supply-demand fundamentals.

From a Denison perspective, our recent results illustrate our commitment to become the first company to bring the low-cost ISR uranium mining method to the high-grade uranium deposits of the Athabasca Basin region. In June 2020, we reported a significant milestone in the de-risking of the ISR mining method at Phoenix  announcing that an independent specialist firm concluded that a hydrogeologic model, developed based on actual field tests carried out at Phoenix in 2019, had produced 'proof of concept' for the application of the ISR mining method at Phoenix. With this validation in-hand, and with a series of new health and safety protocols in place to ensure a safe work environment amidst the pandemic, we were pleased to also announce the resumption of ISR field testing activities at Phoenix. The 2020 ISR field program is designed to minimize the disruption created by the pandemic to the overall project schedule by collecting additional information necessary to support the completion of a future Feasibility Study.

Additionally, the Company announced the successful completion of an $8 million equity financing and encouraging results from an internal Concept Study evaluating the use of the ISR mining method at the Company's J Zone deposit. Taken together, the second half of 2020 promises to be very active for Denison, with several catalysts on the horizon  including the completion of ISR field testing at Phoenix, an exploration program designed to delineate additional uranium resources at Phoenix, and a Preliminary Economic Assessment for the J Zone deposit, all of which are planned and funded as part of the Company's current Outlook for 2020."

HIGHLIGHTS

Achieved independent "Proof of Concept" for application of In-Situ Recovery ('ISR') mining method at the Phoenix uranium deposit (' Phoenix ')

In June 2020, Denison announced that the hydrogeologic model developed by Petrotek Corporation ('Petrotek'), for the high-grade Phoenix deposit, produced demonstration of "proof of concept" for the application of the ISR mining method at Phoenix, with respect to potential operational extraction and injection rates (see Denison press release dated June 4, 2020). The hydrogeologic model was developed based on the data collected from the ISR field test completed in 2019.

Resumed ISR field testing activities at Phoenix with commencement of 2020 ISR field program

In July 2020, Denison announced the successful resumption of ISR field testing activities with the commencement of the Company's 2020 ISR field program ('2020 Field Test') focused on the Phoenix deposit. The 2020 Field Test is intended to build additional confidence in the results of the hydrogeologic model developed for the deposit by Petrotek, and to support further field work expected to be required for the completion of a future Feasibility Study ('FS'). In order to ensure the Company's operations comply with all applicable health and safety guidelines associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, all operating procedures at the Company's Wheeler River site have been reviewed and adapted to incorporate physical distancing and enhanced hygiene protocols, as well as special travel protocols designed by Denison for northern Saskatchewan.

Completed conceptual mining study ('Concept Study') evaluating the ISR mining method for the J Zone uranium deposit ('J Zone') and initiated Preliminary Economic Assessment ('PEA')

In July 2020, Denison announced the successful completion of an internal Concept Study examining the potential future development of J Zone using the ISR mining method. J Zone is located on the Waterbury Lake property, which is owned by Denison (66.71%) and Korea Waterbury Uranium Limited Partnership (33.29%). Based on the results from the Concept Study, the Company has decided to initiate the preparation of a PEA, which is expected to be completed during the second half of 2020. The cost of completing the PEA is included in the Company's current estimate of exploration and evaluation expenditures in the Outlook for 2020.

Successfully completed $8 million equity financing to provide funding for business activities into 2021

In April 2020, Denison successfully completed a public offering of 28,750,000 common shares at a price of USD$0.20 per common share for gross proceeds of $8,041,000 (USD$5,750,000), which included the full exercise of the overallotment option of 3,750,000 common shares. The estimated net proceeds of $6,878,000 are expected to be used to fund the Company's business activities for the remainder of 2020 and into 2021.

About Wheeler River

Wheeler River is the largest undeveloped uranium project in the infrastructure rich eastern portion of the Athabasca Basin region, in northern Saskatchewan and is a joint venture between Denison (90% and operator) and JCU (Canada) Exploration Company Limited (10%). The project is host to the high-grade Phoenix and Gryphon uranium deposits, discovered by Denison in 2008 and 2014, respectively, estimated to have combined Indicated Mineral Resources of 132.1 million pounds U 3 O 8 (1,809,000 tonnes at an average grade of 3.3% U 3 O 8 ), plus combined Inferred Mineral Resources of 3.0 million pounds U 3 O 8 (82,000 tonnes at an average grade of 1.7% U 3 O 8 ).

A pre-feasibility study ('PFS') was completed in late 2018, considering the potential economic merit of developing the Phoenix deposit as an ISR operation and the Gryphon deposit as a conventional underground mining operation. Taken together, the project is estimated to have mine production of 109.4 million pounds U 3 O 8 over a 14-year mine life, with a base case pre-tax net present value ('NPV') of $1.31 billion (8% discount rate), Internal Rate of Return ('IRR') of 38.7%, and initial pre-production capital expenditures of $322.5 million. The Phoenix ISR operation is estimated to have a stand-alone base case pre-tax NPV of $930.4 million (8% discount rate), IRR of 43.3%, initial pre-production capital expenditures of $322.5 million, and industry leading average operating costs of US$3.33/lb U 3 O 8 . The PFS was prepared on a project (100% ownership) and pre-tax basis, as each of the partners to the Wheeler River Joint Venture are subject to different tax and other obligations.

Further details regarding the PFS, including additional scientific and technical information, as well as after-tax results attributable to Denison's ownership interest, are described in greater detail in the NI 43-101 Technical Report titled "Pre-feasibility Study for the Wheeler River Uranium Project, Saskatchewan, Canada" dated October 30, 2018 with an effective date of September 24, 2018. A copy of this report is available on Denison's website and under its profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml.

Given recent social, financial and market disruptions, Denison has suspended certain activities at Wheeler River, including the EA program, which is on the critical path to achieving the project development schedule outlined in the PFS. Given the uncertainty associated with the duration of suspension, the Company is not currently able to estimate the impact to the project development schedule outlined in the PFS, and users are cautioned against relying on the estimates provided therein regarding the start of pre-production activities in 2021 and first production in 2024.

About Denison

Denison Mines Corp. was formed under the laws of Ontario and is a reporting issuer in all Canadian provinces. Denison's common shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (the 'TSX') under the symbol 'DML' and on the NYSE American exchange under the symbol 'DNN'.

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. 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 currently processing 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 (formerly Denison Environmental Services), which manages Denison's Elliot Lake reclamation projects and provides post-closure mine and maintenance services to a variety of industry and government clients.

Denison is also the manager of Uranium Participation Corporation ('UPC'), a publicly traded company listed on the TSX under the symbol 'U', which invests in uranium oxide in concentrates ('U 3 O 8 ') and uranium hexafluoride ('UF 6 ').

Technical Disclosure and Qualified Person

The disclosure of scientific and technical information regarding Denison's material properties in the MD&A was prepared by, or reviewed and approved by David Bronkhorst, P.Eng., the Company's Vice President Operations, 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: exploration, development and expansion plans and objectives, including the results of, and estimates and assumptions within, the PFS, the plans and objectives for ISR and the related field and hydrogeological testing results, models, "proof of concept", plans and objectives; evaluation activities and plans for a PEA for the J Zone deposit; the suspension of EA activities and anticipated results of such suspension; the impact of COVID-19 on Denison's operations; the estimates of Denison's mineral reserves and mineral resources; plans for any FS, and any work to be undertaken in respect thereto; expectations regarding Denison's joint venture ownership interests; expectations regarding the continuity of its agreements with third parties; and its interpretations of, and expectations for, nuclear power and uranium supply, demand and related market factors. Statements relating to 'mineral reserves' or 'mineral resources' are deemed to be forward-looking information, as they involve the implied assessment, based on certain estimates and assumptions that the mineral reserves and mineral resources described can be profitably produced in the future.

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, the results and underlying assumptions and interpretations of the PFS as well as the ISR field test and hydrogeological test programs discussed herein may not be maintained after further testing or be representative of actual conditions within the applicable deposits. In addition, Denison may decide or otherwise be required to extend the EA and/or otherwise discontinue testing, evaluation and development work, including a FS at Wheeler River or PEA for J Zone at Waterbury Lake, if it is unable to maintain or otherwise secure the necessary approvals or resources (such as testing facilities, capital funding, etc.). 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 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 MD&A 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.

SOURCE Denison Mines Corp.

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Industrial robots are now being used to assemble everything from airplanes to smartphones, using human-like arms to mechanically repeat the same processes over and over, thousands of times a day with nanometric precision.

But according to a new report entitled Rogue Automation, some robots have flaws that could make them vulnerable to advanced hackers, who could steal data or alter a robots movements remotely, like a scene out of science fiction.

Attacks on industrial environments in these sectors could have serious consequences, including operational failure, physical damage, environmental harm and injury or loss of life, according to Federico Maggi, a researcher at Trend Micro Inc., and Marcello Pogliani, an information security researcher at Politecnico di Milano, in a research report reviewed by Bloomberg News. The report will be presented Wednesday at a virtual forum organized by Black Hat, which hosts cybersecurity events around the world.

ABB Ltd. robotic arms position steel sheets for stamping auto parts in Spain. Photographer: Angel Navarrete/Bloomberg

Robots are often connected to networks and run via software, according to the report, and previously unknown vulnerabilities could allow hackers to hide malicious code in them and other automated, programmable manufacturing machines.

The researcher found flaws in software produced and distributed by the Swedish-Swiss multinational ABB Ltd, one among worlds largest industrial robot maker. They also found other vulnerabilities in one of industrys most popular open-source software called Robot Operating System Industrial, or Ros-I, adapted for ABB and for Kuka AG, a German robot maker.

ABB Apps

Maggi and Pogliani said two years ago they stumbled upon something we had never seen before, an app store run by ABB for heavy industrial machines including robots. The apps were written in ABBs proprietary programming language used to automate industrial machines, the types of robots used to assemble cars or handle processed food. They downloaded and reverse engineered some of the apps to figure out how they worked and discovered a vulnerability in one of the apps for ABB robots  just the type of thing a hacker could exploit, they said.

The flaw would have allowed an attacker on the network to exfiltrate any files from the robot controller, including potentially sensitive data. ABBs app store itself also had a vulnerability, according to the researchers. Hackers could upload apps from the store by bypassing validation procedures and making them immediately available to the public even if still pending approval, the researchers said.

Industrial secrets are traded for very high prices in underground marketplaces and have become one of the main targets of cyber warfare operations, the paper said. A vulnerability scanner designed by the researchers discovered another class of flaws into a Ros-Is software component for Kuka and ABB robots that could have allowed an attacker to interfere with robots movements, according to the report.

Vulnerabilities related to ABB have been acknowledged and solved by the company while flaws found into Ros-I software have been mitigated by Ros consortium and confirmed by the U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, also known as CISA.

A spokesman for ABB said the company has fixed the concerns in the Trend Micro tests, which helped us provide greater security for equipment in the market. There is no indication of data exfiltration nor any customers affected by it, he added.

A spokeswoman for Kuka said Ros-I is an open source project, not developed by Kuka and not part of our portfolio. Universities and research institutes decide whether they want to integrate Ros-I via the interface themselves, she added.

Industrial robots are a fast-growing area in the industrial sector, with historical growth rates exceeding 20% in unit terms, with an annual value of $16 billion based on International Federation of Robotics data. Even as Chinas foray into the robots is slowing and the sector may see a decline in 2020, long-term fundamentals remain largely intact, driven by factors such as aging demographics and demand for quality, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mustafa Okur said.

Top Photo: ABB Ltd. robotic arms position steel sheets for stamping auto parts in Spain. Photographer: Angel Navarrete/Bloomberg.

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.

Topics Cyber Trends
New Delhi, Aug 6 : Two days after the sexual assault on a 12-year-old girl in Paschim Vihar who is now battling for life in AIIMS, the Delhi police said that they are hopeful of making headway in the case soon. Terming the matter as sensitive, the police said they are leaving no stone unturned to arrest the culprit.

"Delhi police has taken the case registered under POCSO at PS Paschim Vihar seriously. It is a sensitive case. Police is making all efforts to catch the culprit. Police has already scanned CCTVs and is questioning suspects on the basis of the same. We are hopeful of making headway in the case, Eish Singhal, DCP New Delhi and PRO Delhi police, said on Thursday.

The girl was sexually assaulted in her home in Outer Delhi's Paschim Vihar when she was alone there on Tuesday. Later, she was referred to AIIMS where her condition is said to be critical. The girl has received multiple injuries on her stomach and skull beside several other parts of her body.

The police teams are questioning several suspects, especially people from the same building and around, who could have sneaked in and committed the crime.

The police suspect that the culprit might be someone who knew that the girl's parents were away and she was alone at home. Several men in the area are being interrogated and their statements recorded. The CCTVs around the area are also being scanned to get some clue to the attacker who also brutally assaulted the girl with a sharp object and left her bleeding profusely.

"The condition of the girl is very critical. She has bite marks all over her body apart from serious injuries on her stomach and many fractures," Delhi Commission For Women chief Swati Maliwal said after she met the victim's family at AIIMS on Thursday. She has also summoned the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Outer Delhi to apprise the Commission of the developments in the case.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday announced assistance of Rs 10 lakh for the family of the girl. Kejriwal, along with Maliwal, also met the family of the victim.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A study published in the JAMA Internal Medicine found that asymptomatic carriers of the coronavirus (COVID-19) held as much of the virus as symptomatic carriers  suggesting that isolation of infected people should occur regardless of how extreme the virus manifests.

The study, which included 303 symptomatic and asymptomatic patients and was conducted in isolation at a treatment center in South Korea between March 6 and March 26, set out to shed light on one of the lesser-known aspects of the virus: Asymptomatic transmission.

Researchers analyzed the extent of the virus within patients and were able to test the difference in how much symptomatic and asymptomatic people shed it to others. Additionally, the study clearly distinguished between asymptomatic (people who never exhibit symptoms of the virus) and pre-symptomatic  meaning a person will eventually become ill but doesnt initially display symptoms.

Theres been this big question pretty much since January, since data started coming out of China, about people that were asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic, Jason Kindrachuk, a virologist at the University of Manitoba told the New York Times. What we havent really had any clue of yet is what role people who are asymptomatic play in transmission of disease.

The patients in the study were mostly young, with a median age of just 25, and included 193 symptomatic and 110 asymptomatic people. The researchers said 89 of the asymptomatic carriers were healthy throughout while 21 developed symptoms.

The findings of the study indicate that the viral load of asymptomatic carriers closely rivaled that of symptomatic carriers and that isolation of asymptomatic patients may be necessary to control the spread of SARS-CoV-2.

Asymptomatic transmission has been a topic that has caused confusion and debate.

While the World Health Organization clarified a statement by one of the groups top experts, who said it was very rare for people without symptoms of coronavirus to be contagious in June, the agency later said that asymptomatic spread was possible, though not a primary contributor of the virus spread.

The South Korean team said, Many individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection remained asymptomatic for a prolonged period, and viral load was similar to that in symptomatic patients; therefore, isolation of infected persons should be performed regardless of symptoms.

Its important data, thats for sure, Benjamin Cowling, an epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong said in the New York Times report. And it does confirm what weve suspected for a long time  that asymptomatic cases can transmit infection.
The foreign affairs committee of the Mexican Chamber of Deputies has issued a statement regarding the escalation of tension on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

The statement said, in particular, that the UN calls on member countries to find a peaceful way to resolve conflictsand based on international law, and the UN Charter affirms the maintenance of peace and international security as one of the most important principles.

Also, the foreign affairs committee of the Mexican Chamber of Deputies called for a peaceful settlement of the armed conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, giving priority to the welfare of the population and the protection of human rightson the basis of the respective resolution adopted within the framework of the UN.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 23:08:06|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- China is soliciting ideas for payloads aboard its proposed missions to the moon, an asteroid and a comet, according to the China National Space Administration.

It is asking for primary, middle school and university students across the country to provide ideas for payloads that would fly aboard the Chang'e-7 probe to the moon, and on another spacecraft to the asteroid 2016HO3 and the comet 133P.

The solicitation aims to arouse students' interest in science and inspire them to explore the universe, said the administration.

The space administration, together with six organizations including the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, issued a notice about the solicitation in late July.

The solicitation remains open until Oct. 31. Students from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan are also welcome to offer ideas.

Winners will be awarded with prize money and invited to witness on-site spacecraft launches, according to the notice.

In 2019, administration officials announced the Chang'e-7 mission plan, which will carry out surveys around the South Pole of the moon, including studying terrain and landform, physical composition, as well as the space environment in the region.

The asteroid mission was also unveiled last year. According to previous reports, China will send a probe to fly around the asteroid 2016HO3 and then land on it to collect samples. The probe will then fly back to the proximity of Earth, and release a capsule to return the samples. After that, the probe will continue its journey. With the assistance of the gravity of Earth and Mars, it will finally arrive at the main asteroid belt and orbit comet 133P. Enditem
The National Weather Service in Wakefield issued a flood advisory Thursday afternoon for much of Hampton Roads.

The flash flood threat will continue through the afternoon and evening, forecaster Eswar Iyer said. Given how wet its been in a lot of areas, its not going to take as much rain as it normally would to cause flash flooding.

The storm is moving, but not very quickly, Iyer said.

The weather service said social media reports were showing flooding in the Dam Neck area of Virginia Beach after 2 to 5 inches of rain have fallen on the region. A rain gauge in Dam Neck reported more than 5 inches of rain in the past two hours.

Virginia Beach Public Works has sent a number of crews to areas where flooding is severe, said Drew Langford, a spokesman for the department. He said the city has received many calls about flooding in Ocean Lakes.

The citys police department said in a tweet there was major flooding on General Booth near the Strawbridge Shopping Center and on Nimmo Parkway near Red Mill Shopping Center.

The National Weather Service said flooding is also expected in downtown Norfolk and Portsmouth, as well as parts of Chesapeake. The weather service highlighted potential flooding near Norfolk State University, Ghent, Cradock, South Norfolk and Portlock.

Theres also a flood watch on the Peninsula. The weather service expects the water to rise quickly in rivers and creeks, and in low-lying and poor-drainage areas.

If you encounter flooded roads, turn around, dont drown. Thats our big thing, Iyer said.

The weather service says most flood deaths happen to people in vehicles.

There was a severe thunderstorm warning issued for Mathews after radar indicated a storm was located over Blakes. The storm could bring hail and winds around 60 mph to the area, the weather service said.

More afternoon and evening storms could be on the way tomorrow, Iyer said. Most of the rain in the area is expected to start after 2 p.m.

Given how wet its been, you cant rule out some instances of flash flooding tomorrow as well, Iyer said.

Story continues



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BANGKOK Thai protesters, led by student groups, are returning to the streets calling for the ousting of the government less than two years after a general election was held. One group has openly criticised the monarchy, in a rare show of defiance.

Here are the major events that have led up to these protests:

May 22, 2014 - Military stages a coup, ousting an elected government for the second time in a decade, citing the need to restore order in the face of street demonstrations against a populist government linked to telecoms tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra, who himself was ousted in a coup in 2006.

Oct. 13, 2016 - Constitutional monarch King Bhumibol Adulyadej dies after a 70-year reign. His son becomes King Maha Vajiralongkorn.

April 6, 2017 - A military-backed constitution is ratified after being approved in a referendum, with changes requested by King Vajiralongkorn that increased his powers, paving the way for an election.

Feb. 7, 2019 - The king rebukes his sister, Princess Ubolratana, over a Thaksin-linked partys nomination of her as its candidate for prime minister. The party is later dissolved by a court before the election.

March 24, 2019  General elections held amid complaints of cheating and vote-buying. Former army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha, who led the 2014 coup and was then prime minister of a military government, heads a pro-army party that wins the most votes.

Nov. 20, 2019 - Court disqualifies rising opposition figure Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, leader of the Future Forward Party, from parliament prompting thousands to rally in Bangkok.

Jan. 12, 2020 - More than 12,000 people join an anti-government Run Against Dictatorship" in the biggest show of dissent since the 2014 coup. A rival group holds a run in support of Prayuth.

Feb. 21 - Future Forward Party is banned for illegally taking a loan from its billionaire leader, Thanathorn, prompting small student protests on university campuses.

March 22 - Given restrictions to stop the novel coronavirus, student protests peter out but online criticism of government continues, with some also directing criticism at the king. The hashtag #whydoweneedaking?" is posted more than 1 million times.

June 8 - Small protests held to call for an investigation into the disappearance of an exiled government critic in Cambodia.

June 15 - Prayuth warns political activists not to criticise the monarchy.

June 24 - Protesters gather to mark the anniversary of the end of absolute monarchy in 1932.

July 18 - About 2,500 protesters gather at Democracy Monument, one of the largest demonstrations since the coup, calling for the dissolution of parliament and new elections.

Aug. 4 - Speakers call for the monarchys power to be curbed at a rally attended by hundreds in Bangkok.

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
Evening Standard

Transport for London said significant progress was made over Christmas and the trial operations phase, which began on November 20, saw upgrades to train and signalling software and tunnel fire safety schemes. A precise opening date has yet to be announced but TfL commissioner Andy Byford said he would not allow the line  which will be renamed the Elizabeth line when services start running  to open until he was sure it was reliable. Originally due to have been opened by the Queen in December 2018, Crossrail has gone billions over budget, with the total cost now in excess of 20 billion.
Israels coronavirus cabinet voted to lift a series of restrictions Aug. 5. The most significant concerns air travel, with the countrys skies reopening as of Aug. 16. The cabinet also voted to cancel weekend closures on shopping centers, stores and markets.

The resumption of air travel is not going to be simple. The authorities have now 11 days to form a plan for reopening Israel to air traffic. This means that border-entry requirements will be relaxed for non-Israelis, who have been banned from visiting the country for months. The ministers in charge  Transportation Minister Miri Regev, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi  must quickly reach agreement on the measures needed to be taken.

Israel closed its borders rather quickly when the pandemic first broke out and implemented several preventive measures. But even then, some flights from the United States and other destinations kept operating. Israel managed to keep the number of infected low and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu engaged with other "green countries" with low infection rates to advance the mutual opening of borders. Senior Greek and Cypriot officials visited Israel to discuss the idea.

The second coronavirus wave in Israel halted these plans as Israel slid into the "red" category. The travel bubble plan went down the drain and the current push to reopen air travel will evidently affect only travelers coming from countries authorizing flights to and from Israel.

Another complication on the way to reopening Israeli skies is Israels national carrier El Al. The company was hit hard by the pandemic-induced economic crisis and is on the verge of bankruptcy. At the beginning of June, the Ministry of Finance proposed a bailout deal, with El Al receiving a $250 million loan. Additional $150 million would be raised in an offering on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, with the state committing to buy any shares not purchased by the public. The current major shareholder  the Borovitz family  has clarified it will not participate in the offering.

In July, after the bailout was solidified, a name of a new buyer came up. Israeli regulations demand that the major stakeholder be an Israeli resident. Eli Rozenberg, a yeshiva student, is the son of New York businessman Kenny Rozenberg. Still, the board of El Al is expressing some reservations. Its members are wondering if the real buyer is not Kenny Rozenberg, who is a foreign resident. As such, he cannot buy controlling shares of El Al. On Aug. 2, the board refused to meet with the potential buyer, saying they are waiting on clarification of his identity.
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Linkedin Sonia Elks (Reuters) London, United Kingdom  Thu, August 6, 2020 15:05 530 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c0b951 2 Art & Culture Racism,mural,Tate-Modern,London,Britain,art-and-culture,United-Kingdom,Museum,gallery Free

Britain's Tate museum said it was considering how to address "deeply problematic racist imagery" in a restaurant at one of its London galleries, as anti-racism campaigners called for the art to be removed or the restaurant relocated.

Tate, a network of four government-sponsored art museums, said it was weighing options on Wednesday as Black lawmaker Diane Abbott added her voice to calls to move the restaurant out of a room that is painted with such a "repellent" mural.

The work, by celebrated 1930s artist Rex Whistler, features an enslaved Black boy chained by his neck to a horse and cart and his distressed mother.

"Tate has been open and transparent about the deeply problematic racist imagery in the Rex Whistler mural," a Tate spokesman said in a statement.

"We are continuing to actively discuss how best to address the mural and we will keep the public updated over the coming months," he added, giving no further details.

The restaurant is currently closed due to the pandemic.

Hundreds signed a petition launched this week calling on the central London Tate Britain to remove "The Expedition in Pursuit of Rare Meats" mural or change the restaurant's location.

Read also: London's Tate Modern gallery gears up for Monday reopening

"The reality of the room is truly grotesque," the petition said.

Abbott, a member of the main opposition Labour party and the first Black woman in Britain to become a member of parliament, also spoke out against the notion of fine dining among such "repellent images".

"Museum management need to move the restaurant. Nobody should be eating surrounded by imagery of black slaves," she posted on Twitter.

A statement on the restaurant website acknowledges the 1927 mural includes "offensive" and "unacceptable" content, which it says reflected common attitudes in Britain at the time.

"We hope to tell a more inclusive story of British art and identity and confront these difficult and offensive histories," it added.

The row comes as Black Lives Matter protests around the world demand fresh scrutiny of statues, art and artifacts that campaigners say uphold the legacy of slavery and colonialism.

Campaigners have felled monuments to disgraced white leaders and want others removed, while critics say such works should be recognized as part of a nation's heritage and left to stand.
Due to heavy rains in Mumbai and other regions of Maharashtra, normal life has been disrupted. Due to these heavy rains, people are facing a lot of problems. Prime Minister Modi has spoken to Maharashtra CM Thackeray and has assured him of all the possible support.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday assured all possible support to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray regarding the situation prevailing in Mumbai and surrounding areas due to heavy rainfall. Normal life was disrupted in Mumbai on Wednesday after the city received heavy rainfall at isolated places for the last 12 hours. The India Meteorology Department (IMD) had predicted heavy downpour in the region.

Prime Ministers Office said in a tweet that PM Narendra Modi spoke to Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray regarding the situation prevailing in Mumbai and surrounding areas due to heavy rainfall. The tweet further said that Prime Minister has assured Uddhav Thackeray of all the possible support.

PM @narendramodi spoke to Maharashtra CM Shri Uddhav Thackeray regarding the situation prevailing in Mumbai and surrounding areas due to heavy rainfall. PM assured all possible support. @OfficeofUT  PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 5, 2020

IMD said in a tweet that widespread rainfall with scattered heavy to very heavy falls and isolated extremely heavy falls are most likely to continue over Konkan and Goa (including Mumbai) till August 6 and over Madhya Maharashtra (ghat areas) till August 5 and reduce thereafter.

Also read: Indias Covid-19 tally close to 2 million, death toll now at 40,699

Mumbai city and suburbs are very likely to receive few spells of moderate to heavy rainfall (1-2 cm/hr) during next 3- 4 hrs. accompanied with strongwinds reaching 60-70 kmph occasionally gusting to 80 kmph hrs. during next 3-4 hrs . Possibility of thunder/lightning in some areas  India Met. Dept. (@Indiametdept) August 6, 2020

Also read: Ayodhya Ram Temples billboard shines at Times Square, see photos

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray reviewed the situation after heavy showers crippled Mumbai and its neighbouring areas and instructed the officials to be alert and prepared as India Meteorological Department has forecasted heavy rainfall for Thursday as well. Mumbai may witness very heavy rainfall in the next few hours, the India Meteorological Department official informed.

Heavy waterlogging and traffic congestion have also been reported in several parts of the city following heavy rainfall. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has arranged shelters in the nearby BMC schools for the people stranded due to heavy rains and local train services disrupted. However, heavy waterlogging and traffic congestion reported near Wilson College in Girgaon following heavy rainfall in Mumbai.

Meanwhile, the Central Railway has also decided to suspend the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus-Thane line due to waterlogging.

Also read: 8 dead in massive fire at Covid-19 hospital in Ahmedabad, PMO announces compensation
YEREVAN, AUGUST 6, ARMENPRESS. The High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs of Armenia Zareh Sinanyan will travel to Beirut for on-site assessment of the Armenian communitys needs after the powerful explosion devastated much of the Lebanese capital, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the Cabinet meeting.

Sinanyan will depart to the Lebanese capital on board the emergency aircraft which is due to deliver medical aid and other supplies to Lebanon from Armenia.

More than 2700 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded in the port of Beirut at a warehouse on Tuesday, sending massive shockwaves through the Lebanese capital. More than 130 people are dead and 5000 are wounded. Heavy damages occurred across the city. The cause of the blast is under investigation.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
No casualties were reported in the past day.

Russia's hybrid military forces in Donbas on August 5 fired a grenade in an act of provocation amid the recently-agreed ceasefire.

The enemy employed an under-barrel grenade launcher near the village of Shumy, the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation wrote in a morning update on Facebook on August 6.

"Isolated random shots posed no threat to life and health, so our soldiers held fire. Joint Forces complied with the ceasefire, being ready to adequately respond to possible insidious actions by the adversary," reads the report.

Read alsoUkraine's Security and Defense Council on Donbas truce: "Seventh day without heavy weapons"

No casualties were reported among Ukrainian troops over the past day.

Since Thursday midnight, no attacks by Russian Federation's armed formations have been recorded, the JFO HQ said.

Background
When Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex began dating, royal fans were excited to think that Harry had found his fairytale. The two moved quickly, only dating for about a year and a half before getting engaged.

In no time, rumors began to circulate that Harry and Meghan were no longer on good terms with Prince William and Kate Middleton. By the time Harry and Meghan left the family in March 2020, the rumors of disagreements had turned into a full-fledged feud. Now, William and Kates social media posts could hint at a timeline of the alleged tension with Harry and Meghan  and where things stand today.

Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, Prince William, and Kate Middleton | Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle reportedly left the family on bad terms

When Harry and Meghan announced their royal departure back in January, there were rumors that they werent on the best terms with the family. Last fall, Harry hinted at a rift between him and his brother during the couples groundbreaking interview about their struggles in the royal spotlight. Meghan and Kate were also at the center of feud rumors.

Last November, Harry and Meghan received criticism for posting photos from the British Royal Legions Festival of Remembrance and seemingly cutting the image to eliminate William and Kate from the photo. William and Kates Instagram posts included a photo of Kate and Meghan, so people thought the move was intentional on the Sussexs part.

Tensions started when Harry and Meghan were married in 2018. | Ben Stansall/WPA Pool/Getty Images

RELATED: Kate Middleton and Prince William Wish Meghan Markle a Happy Birthday on Instagram, Fans Say Its Classy of Them

The Cambridges lack of birthday post for Archie suggests there was still tension in May

Harry and Meghan officially left the royal family in March, and their last royal engagement that same month had people thinking things were still cold between them and the Cambridge family. Harry and Meghans son, Archie, celebrated his first birthday in May, and the William and Kate did not wish him a happy birthday on social media.

Archie is William and Kates only nephew on Williams side (Kates sister, Pippa Middleton, also has a son), so it seemed odd that the two wouldnt celebrate his first birthday. The subtle snub suggested tensions were still high between the two couples.

William and Kates post for Meghans birthday could mean tensions have softened

On August 4, William and Kate wished Meghan a happy birthday, which might have hinted at a positive shift in the couples relationship. Compared to the lack of birthday post three months before, posting about Meghan could be a sign that the two couples are working through their problems.

RELATED: Vogue Editor Edward Enninful Says Meghan Markle Never Understood the Royal Family Rules

There were rumors that Harry was having a difficult time acclimating to life in Los Angeles  and that he was leaning on his brother for support. Its possible distance made the heart grow fonder and that the two brothers were able to work things out once Harry took some time apart from the family.

Its unclear when the Sussexes will make another trip to the United Kingdom

Right now, Harry and Meghan are still setting into their new lives in the United States. The two are not working royals, which means they wont be returning to the U.K. for any royal engagements. Plus, with the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak still worsening in the U.S., its unclear how long it could be before Harry, Meghan, William, and Kate reunite.
Ohio. Gov. Mike DeWine and First Lady Fran DeWine at a coronavirus briefing on June 23, 2020.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday before he was supposed to greet President Donald Trump.

DeWine took a COVID-19 test as part of the protocol to meet Trump on the tarmac at Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland. Trump planned to tour the Whirlpool plant in Clyde, Ohio, before attending a private fundraiser in Bratenahl.

DeWine, 73, has no symptoms at the present time, according to a news release. He is returning to Columbus where he and First Lady Fran DeWine will both be tested.

DeWine plans to quarantine at his home in Cedarville for the next 14 days.

Lt. Governor Jon Husted also took the COVID-19 test but tested negative.

DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney said it was not known Thursday where the governor contracted the virus.

"Hes been communicating remotely," Tierney said. "Hes kept the circle small on other staff."

Video: Trumps national security adviser tests positive for coronavirus

DeWine isn't the first governor to test positive for COVID-19. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt announced he had the disease several weeks ago. Last month, DeWine's state prisons' director, Annette Chambers-Smith, announced she received a positive COVID-19 test result after feeling slight symptoms.

DeWine took some of the earliest aggressive action to combat the spread of COVID-19 in his state, one of the first five governors to close bars, restaurants, and wineries in March.

During the first few months of the pandemic, Ohio was reported as an early success story. The state gradually lifted its stay-at-home order throughout May and June and saw a plateau in newly reported cases, as well as a decline in hospitalizations.

In recent weeks, however, cases began to surge, with the state reporting more than 1,000 new cases per day for most of July.

Were going the wrong way, Dewine said of the uptick in cases to NBC's Meet the Press last month.

We are at a crucial stage. We are at the point where we could become Florida," he said, issuing a statewide mask mandate in late July.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine tests positive for COVID-19
Voltas Beko recently rolled out a new digital film for their new dishwasher product. Conceptualised by Wunderman Thompson and titled Word of Moms, the film depicts a group of moms on a video call speaking about the chore of washing dishes. Thats when one suggests Voltas Bekos new dishwasher product to ease the burden.

The home appliance category has seen a demand surge during the Lockdown as consumers, who have to manage responsibilities on dual fronts  personal and professional  look at solutions that can ease the burden. So, products like personal computers, dishwashers, and vacuum cleaners are seeing a surge.

Dishwashers are a relatively nascent category in India. A lot of consumers are not aware of the technology used in a dishwasher. There are also prevailing beliefs that dishwashers wont be able to clean the utensils with Indian food debris and may end up malfunctioning and damaging glass or porcelain utensils. The lack of awareness about the product has led to the lack of adoption. Most Indians prefer to wash their dishes with a scrub and a dab of liquid soap. There are also socio-economic reasons why dishwashers havent taken off in India.

Also Read: Voltas Beko launches new campaign for dishwashers

Nisha Singhania, Co-Founder and Director Infectious Advertising, observed, With labour available cheap and easy in India, most people have never invested in goods like dishwashers and vacuum cleaners. Not only is it a cost, but also occupies space, which is at a premium in most metros.

Adding further, she said, The other issue is that since most people were not used to doing their own dishes and had the luxury of maids, they werent sure if the maids would be able to handle technical products like these. However, due to the recent Lockdown all of that changed and suddenly these products became a necessity, as people had to do their own chores.

Rutu Mody, Founder and MD, Jigsaw Brand Consultants, concurred, Dishwashers are a new concept in India. A category that has seen a slow pace in a country that hasnt ever had any manual labour shortage. Families have never seen the need to invest in a dishwasher, because the Bai is always available to do the dishes. Also, there is a perception that these machines cant be given to the maids to operate, or that Indian food is too oily and greasy and wont work in a western concept like a dishwasher.

The digital film addresses the concerns of Indian consumers by enumerating that the dishwasher takes care of stubborn daag (stains) and oily food residue. For Indians, who may not have the requisite kitchen space to accommodate a large dishwasher, the ad also speaks about Voltas Bekos table top version. Near the end of the film, it also addresses the question, Do you put your glassware in as well?

Even though the film seems to stand for equally divided work, its tagline, Tested by real moms, has led to a spark of criticism on social media. Users on Twitter questioned why the film gives an impression that a real mom is someone who does all the household chores. Some have even pointed out the absence of men in the film, even though everyone is grounded at home during the Lockdown.

Men dont need dishwashers? https://t.co/Fp8h4wAWwt  Faye DSouza (@fayedsouza) July 20, 2020

Obviously. Your life has no value please do your own damn dishes.  Vidya (@VidyaKrishnan) July 21, 2020

Singhania opined, While the film brings out the Lockdown concept and woes really well, I wish it had a gender balance, especially, when most men are participating in household chores. Depicting both men and women in the ad would not only have shown the brand in a more progressive light, but also smartly made the point of ease of use.

Mody added here, The ad campaign is an extremely real depiction of a conversation that friends have with each other. It is extremely relatable because it addresses a deep pain point in a direct manner. The functionalities of the product are explained up front. The ad is doing a good job of educating the consumer on the category which is in fact the need of the hour.

Reacting to the social media criticism, a statement issued by Voltas Beko read, In this advertisement, we captured a fun, casual conversation between four independent friends, who got together over a video call during Lockdown. One of the characters in the video refers to how the family has been managing household chores, with her husband taking over the responsibility of washing dishes. This is when the protagonist of the film recommends a dishwasher. Our products have been developed to create convenience and comfort for all our customers, and are gender agnostic.

We feel the criticism for the campaign is blown out of proportion, since one of the characters does mention that her husband is doing the dishes.

Neither the brand nor the agency replied to emailed queries by Adgully at the time of filing this report.
One person died every 80 seconds from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the United States, according to a new tally showed on Wednesday.

The NBC News reported that the pace in which those 7,486 people who died seems to be accelerating. A total of 26,198 deaths were reported in July, showing that one death is being recorded every 102 seconds.

On Wednesday, more than 158,000 people in the U.S. died of the coronavirus ever since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A new perspective has emerged on how COVID-19 in the U.S. are claiming more and more lives, as shown to a Johns Hopkins University report. The university said COVID-19 in the U.S. had reached another milestone as the world death number from this pandemic reached 700,000.

COVID-19 in the U.S.

The U.S. has reported more than 4.8 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus disease. Around 1.8 million from this number was recorded since July 7. According to an NBC News report, the three millionth case in the U.S. was reported on July 7.

Most of the new cases and deaths have been in the South and South Belt part of the country. However, northeast states like New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts were hit hardest at the beginning of the pandemic. These states were able to flatten the curve and were worrying about the sudden rise in the number of cases.

President Donald Trump was criticized after initially downplaying the pandemic's effects, saying that it will eventually go away "like things go away."

Later on, Trump urged Americans to wear a mask as he said that COVID-19 in the U.S. would likely worsen before it gets better.

"Whether you like the mask or not, they have an impact, they have an effect, and we need everything we can get," Trump said in a report.

COVID-19 in the U.S. Southern Parts

In South Central Alabama, COVID-19 has been spreading in the community at an increasing pace.

The Guardian report said one in every 18 residents has tested positive of COVID-19. Alabama's Republican governor, Kay Ivey, had ordered a statewide mask to prevent the spread of the COVID-19.

July was considered the deadliest month for COVID-19 in Alabama as cases surged, disproportionately affecting African American residents, which make up 41 percent of the 1,580 deaths in the state.

The African American residents in Alabama make up only 26 percent of the entire population.

"Maybe it will help to de-escalate some of the political rhetoric around wearing a mask and doing other things that are necessary to win the battle in this pandemic," Reed said.

COVID-19 Testing in the U.S.

A Vox report said the country does not have systematic surveillance programs as it does for the flu to fill in the gaps, adding that the U.S. is in the dark about what's happening in many minority communities.

These minority communities have lower testing rates reportedly compared to white communities.

Sarah Cobey, an infectious disease modeler at the University of Chicago, said the lack of data feels like flying blind. Cobey added that they do not have good numbers to be starting at to guide them.

Aside from not having a good real-time data, there's also no right metrics on containment on the virus.

"We have understood from the very beginning that this the way this virus spreads fundamentally depends on behavior and politics. And our behavior changed in unprecedented, dramatic ways," Lauren Ancel Meyers, director of the University of Texas Covid-19 Modeling Consortium, said in the report.

Check these out:

Trump on Coronavirus Outbreak: It Will Get Worse Before It Gets Better, Wear a Mask

Change of Plans: Wear Mask Says US Government to Prevent Presymptomatic Transmission of COVID-19



How American Lives are Likely to Change After COVID-19
This powerful picture of a nurse cradling three babies in a hospital lays bare the heartbreaking human reality of the Beirut explosion.

The blast ripped apart the port in the Lebanon capital, levelling buildings and sending shockwaves throughout the city.

Hospitals already struggling with the coronavirus pandemic are now totally overwhelmed with thousands of people injured in the huge explosion.

Wearing blue scrubs and a face mask, she is seen taking a phone call all while holding three babies in the chaotic melee. The photographer said he has documented lots of wars over 16 years but had never come across a scene like it. He wrote: I can say I didnt see what I saw today in Ashrafia area, especially in front of the rum hospital and this heroine caught me inside the hospital and was accelerating to call despite the suspension of communication holding three newborn babies and surrounded by dozens of bodies and wounded. As the desperate hunt for survivors continues, doctors have been forced to treat patients in car parks. A doctor at the scene told Al Arabiya English: Were bringing the patients to the emergency building, and from there, were trying to send them to different hospitals because the urgent care is also full. What can we do? Photographer Bilal Marie Jawish came across the nurse surrounded by dozens of bodies at the Saint George Hospital University Medical Center.

Follow Us on Facebook  @LadunLiadi; Instagram  @LadunLiadi; Twitter  @LadunLiadi; Youtube  @LadunLiadiTV for updates
Prince William and Kate were left in fits of laughter after a care home resident described their bingo calling skills as s*****.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge paid a visit to Shire Hall home in Cardiff, after a zoom bingo call with the residents back in June.

But not all the residents were enamoured with the royals skills, with Joan Drew-Smith telling the couple they did a bloody s***** job.

The 87-year-old had told the royals at the time it wasnt as good as it should have been and William brought up her review straight away as they met.

He said: Hello Joan, do you remember we did the bingo with you? You said we werent very good!

Read more: Tidy! Prince William and Kate compete in Nessa's arcade as they visit Wales for first time since lockdown

William and Kate had taken part in a zoom bingo call with the residents. (Getty Images)

The couple laughed after they heard the blunt review. (Getty Images)

Joan Drew Smith told them exactly what she thought of their online bingo. (Getty Images)

After hearing her blunt reply, they were briefly taken aback before roaring with laughter.

Some were kinder, with Margaret Stocks, 95, winner of the virtual game, telling them: I did enjoy it, I hadnt played it before.

Kate said: Neither had we. Thats why we were so bad.

William added: We enjoyed it just as much as you did. It was a new experience for us.

The couple, both 38, wore face coverings during the visit, despite it being outdoors, a reflection of the more vulnerable people they were meeting.

William told Drew-Smith: We have to wear masks because of the virus, but its difficult to hear sometimes when you cant see someones mouth.

Read more: Where to buy the Duchess of Cambridge's 15 face mask and other affordable floral designs

William wore a blue mask, co-ordinating with his outfit. (Getty Images)

Kate wore the 15 face covering she had donned at the baby bank the day before. (Getty Images)

Drew-Smith asked if Kate was Williams assistant, which she laughed at before putting her hand on her husbands shoulder, and saying: Well I am your assistant, I have been for a long time!

William later told staff: I love Joan, shes brilliant. If only everyone was as honest as her.

The couple told staff they were in the area so popped in to see them. The duke and duchess made the visit after going to Barry Island to see how people can enjoy a staycation in the area.

Story continues

Told they had been to Barry Island, one of the residents Arthur Hobbs, 86, asked: Did you have a paddle in the sea?

No, we didnt bring our bathers! replied William. Next time.
Amaravati, Aug 6 : The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), which governs the Lord Venkateswara shrine at Tirumala, on Thursday came under the attack from the BJP's Andhra Pradesh unit for not telecasting the Ram temple's 'bhoomi pujan' event live from Ayodhya.

With literally every news television channel in the country telecasting the event live, state BJP President Somu Veerraju told IANS that it is unfortunate that such an event was literally blacked out on the Sri Venkateswara Bhakti Channel (SVBC).

Somu Veerraju told IANS, "The event is linked to the nation and the sentiments of Hindus. TTD channel should have definitely telecast it. It's unfortunate that the state government and TTD Board do not have that understanding." The SVBC was established with the express purpose of promoting Hindu thoughts and philosophy. Wednesday's development has stoked controversy, especially since the TTD Board is chaired by YV Subbareddy who is Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy's maternal uncle. The Chief Minister himself is a Christian and frequent concerns have been voiced of late about growing proselytisation in the state.

Veerraju was unwilling to buy the TTD clarification that it could not telecast the Ayodhya event on account of the live broadcast of the Srivari Kalyanotsavam programme telecast everyday from 12 noon for one and a half hours. The TTD had stated that the Ayodhya program would be telecast on Thursday.

"The fact that they did not telecast a live programm that was beamed by all channels shows the state government's mindset." Veerraju said.
If the hit Netflix series Bloodline peaked your interest about life in the Florida Keys, particularly the sliver of paradise thats Islamorada, this new boutique condo, steps from where the dysfunctional Rayburn family called home, is worth investigating.

Part of a brand new, 12-unit, three-building oceanfront development called The Maison, Residence 101 is a sprawling, four-bedroom 3,872-square-foot Key West-style retreat looking out on to a private sandy beach and the blue, blue Atlantic beyond.

More from Robb Report

Right now, Residence 101 is the developments show home and the developer, Heaton Company, is offering a leaseback program to continue showing it. Theyll pay a new owner $15,000 a month for one year, while allowing four weeks useone week a quarterto enjoy it.

So far, six of the 12 units have been built and sold; the remaining six are scheduled for completion by years end. Prices range from $2.9 million for a 3,131-square-foot four-bedroom, to $3.5 million for the remaining 3,875-square-foot four-bedroom units. All come fully-equipped and fully-furnished.

From Miami airport its a 90-minute drive on Highway A1A through Key Largo to the Sport-fishing Capital of the World.

Youll see the sign to the Moorings Village resort where much of Bloodline was filmed, then you turn on to Old Highway before you reach the gates to the Maison at the quieter, more upscale end of the island.

On the grounds theres an 86-foot pool with a sun shelf for lounging and in-pool umbrellas for shade. Steps away is the 350-foot private beach with shallow water for snorkeling or paddle boarding.

The development also has its own 155-foot pier thats perfect for docking your boat to offload the days catch. The Maison also has connections with the nearby Islamorada Marina, which will happily valet your boat by driving it back to the marina, cleaning it, refueling it and stacking it in their high-and-dry.

Story continues

With Floridas hurricane season currently in full swing, its comforting to know the developments two-story buildings have concrete-block walls, roofs made from poured concrete, and windows rated for wind speeds of up to 300 mph.

A private, keyed elevator takes you from the underground parkingtwo spaces includeddirectly into the condo. Residence 101 is on the first floor, above the garage, and 12 feet above sea level.

The highlight of the unit is its huge, open-plan living room with 10-foot ceilings. Disappearing glass sliders open on to the expansive 585-square-foot terrace to give true indoor-outdoor living.

The main kitchen, featuring Ceasarstone countertops, Sub-Zero and Wolf appliances and Kohler hardware, is a chefs dream. Though remember, the seafood delights of nearby Chef Michaels is only a phone call away. Uber Eats delivers.

The unit has four ensuite bedrooms, including an expansive master suite with sliding doors that open to the ocean-front balcony.

The bedroom the closest to the elevator is designed as a self-contained lock-out guest suite. While guests, or maybe staff, can access the suite, the main residence can remain off limits. Which could come in handy for self-quarantining as well as renting.

The beauty of Islamorada and the Keys in general right now, is the sanctuary and safety they offer from the pandemic, says Patrick Cerjan, lead sales executive with IMI Worldwide thats heading up marketing for the Maison.

The Keys have done a terrific job in controlling the virus. Many of the enquiries we get are from people wanting an escape from the city, to a safer, more remote location, he adds.

And, of course, everyone knows Bloodlines Detective John Rayburn will be there to keep people in Islamorada safe.

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Christian athlete Katie Spotz to run 130 miles nonstop to bring clean water to Tanzania

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Katie Spotz pushed her mind and body to become the youngest person to row across the Atlantic Ocean for charity. That was a decade ago. And since then, she has continued to challenge herself with feats few have even attempted.

Now, with a revitalized faith in God, her next quest will come on land when she'll run nonstop across the state of Maine to bring clean water to Tanzanian communities.

Spotz, a Christian endurance athlete, will run 130 miles to raise money for Lifewater International on Sept. 5. Run4Water is her latest challenge benefiting clean water initiatives. As donations and efforts grow, Spotz's faith has also grown over time.

Ive done different challenges like swimming and rowing, and now its a chance to run for water, Spotz told The Christian Post. When God sees people having clean water, it brings a smile to His face. Providing clean water is an extension of how I believe God wants us to live.

Spotz said she originally ran and pursued endurance challenges as a means to fight anxiety and to feel accomplished. She enjoyed pushing herself to see how much success she could bring to herself and the charity.

I believe that were all created in Gods image and we all have value, were all loved, she said. Faith has been a big part of how I see clean water. Its an active obedience of God to share what weve been given.

When Spotz finished her row across the Atlantic in 2010, she received media attention from around the world. She said at first she saw the attention as a way to benefit her goals of clean water, but said she was "duped" by the attention at times.

"When you don't know God, something else becomes it. For me it was achievement, I bought the lies of achievement," Spotz, co-author of Just Keep Rowing, said. "I had this extreme thirst for more and this discontentment. I did not get that promise achievement could bring."

Spotz said she remembered a day she visited a museum with her friend, Meghan. As the friends walked through the museum, they discussed God, which led to Spotz attending church with her friend. Spotz has been growing in her faith ever since, and said it is clear that personal achievement will never earn a love similar to God's.

"When you're no longer attached to 'love is earned, it frees you to receive this never-ending love," she said. "Before I was running on fear. Now I'm running on joy. There's no words that can justify how good and amazing God is  we constantly witness God's goodness and love and if that's not an adventure, I don't know what is.

In speeches to children, the 33-year-old athlete shares with them the Gospel as well as the valuable outlook she learned as she started endurance challenges with a 1-mile run and continued to push for longer runs.

We are capable of more than we think, she has told audiences. It just requires taking one step after another.

Starting at the Canadian border and ending in Belfast, Maine, Spotz will be the first person to run across the state. She ran across New Hampshire and Vermont with the same initiative, and stands as the only woman to complete the two feats.

Billions without clean water

According to the World Health Organization, some 2.2 billion people (40% of the global population) do not have access to safe drinking water. Water insecurity may be assumed to only impact impoverished countries and communities, but Spotz has found the issue to be widespread, even in developed areas.

She said she learned how water insecurity can happen to anyone and any country while living through a drought in Australia. Despite wealth, technology and infrastructure, Spotz said she was surprised to see the limitations on life due to a shortage of water.

Australia is a developed, progressive nation and they had restrictions on when you could water your grass or wash your car, she recalled. That made me think, no one is exempt from something that can and does affect everyone. We even see it in the U.S.

An environmental science class extinguished any hesitation Spotz had about the importance of clean water after her experience in Australia. She said the class described how water could be the reason for a war in the future because it's so basic and fundamental.

Everyone could live in a world of clean water without huge sacrifice, she stressed. Water is the first step in medicine and education. Water affects everything.

Lifewaters Tanzania campaign is a new installment to provide clean water by the company that has been invested in the issue for the last 40 years. According to Lifewater, half of Tanzanias population does not have access to clean water, leading to nationwide illness.

Rural Tanzania communities receive little to no government help, according to Lifewater. Funds raised through Run4Water and the Tanzania campaign as a whole will be used for education, transportation and technology in addition to water.

Run4Water has already surpassed its original goal of $10,000 toward the Tanzania project, with a new goal of $20,000. All in all, Spotz has raised over $400,000 for clean water initiatives from previous challenges.
That resolution is expected to fail, setting the stage for a showdown between the U.S. and the other Security Council members over the reimposition of all international sanctions on Iran. President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal two years ago but his administration argues it retains the right to invoke the snapback of U.N. sanctions because it is a council member. Others disagree.
Beirut

The death toll from explosions that devastated central Beirut has reached 135, Health Minister Hamad Hassan announced Wednesday after residents across much of the city woke in shock, after the devastation of the previous evening.

The blasts occurred at a warehouse in Beirut's port area that apparently housed massive quantities of explosive materials. The initial explosion Tuesday evening ignited a fire; a second blast enveloped the skyline as a mushroom cloud of pastel-colored smoke billowed upward, and a shock wave coursed out across the Lebanese capital, devastating buildings and wounding thousands.

The Lebanese government said it was putting an unspecified number of Beirut port officials under house arrest as it began an investigation into how 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate came to be stored at the port for years.

The losses were staggering. The Lebanese Red Cross said any additional bodies found in the rubble must be taken to Beirut's morgues directly, because hospitals could no longer cope. Marwan Abboud, the city's governor, said as many as a quarter of a million people have been left homeless and that the destruction could take up to $5 billion to repair.

As the sun rose, the scene at the port was almost apocalyptic, with smoke hanging above a crater gouged from the land running down to the sea, and only one side of the warehouse still standing. A silo that provided most of Lebanon's wheat supply was ripped open.

Red Cross workers were still scouring the wrecked and deserted streets in neighborhoods adjoining the port early Wednesday, calling out for residents who might be trapped and injured. At least 4,000 people were wounded, the organization said.

There are bodies in the rubble and in the waters of the port. Families put out frantic calls for missing loved ones across social media.

In residential neighborhoods near the port, the atmosphere was one of shell shock. Historical arched facades were piles of rubble and rebar. Dazed residents were staggered amid the ruin. Young volunteers who had arrived from outside Beirut to aid in the cleanup appeared stunned at the devastation.

There were many indications that the blasts may have been a tragic accident. Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi said it appeared that stocks of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer that can be used in bombmaking, had ignited.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab linked the explosions to 2,700 tons of the dangerous chemical that had been stored at the port since 2014, despite warnings from port officials that it was not safe.

In the central Martyrs Square, protesters gathered shortly after midday, some of them in tears. On social media, there were calls for larger demonstrations Wednesday evening.

On a nearby road linking eastern and western Beirut, a man walked past the backed-up cars holding a sign demanding the execution of the country's head of customs, Badri Daher.

"I promise you that this catastrophe will not pass without accountability Those responsible will pay the price," Diab said in a televised speech the night before. "Facts about this dangerous warehouse that has been there since 2014 will be announced, and I will not preempt the investigations."

Lebanon was already in the throes of economic collapse, accelerated by nationwide protests over a government viewed as corrupt and incompetent. Bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund have repeatedly broken down, and senior Lebanese officials have resigned, claiming that negotiators are not serious about meeting the conditions for a deal.

In the Rosary Sisters' Hospital, patients had been evacuated in the darkness after the blasts shook its walls. Remnants of the scramble were strewn across the sidewalk.

One member of the hospital staff had been killed, and 10 were injured.

As the tiny nation reeled, Diab appealed for global help to staunch the suffering. French President Emmanuel Macron was scheduled to arrive in Beiruton Thursday. The European Union said that it was activating its civil protection system to round up emergency workers and equipment from across the 27-nation bloc.
Insta has launched their own take on the ever-so-popular Tik Tok app called 'Reels'.

The new platform allows users to create videos using multiple clips and adding original audio or music from a provided library.

Insta says their inspiration comes from their "creators and community", explaining that most videos posted on the main feed are under 15 seconds.

With Tik Tok facing a number of security concerns over the last few months, Instagram has included safety and privacy features that will be in-built to Reels.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti speaks at a Los Angeles County Health Department press conference on the CCP virus in Los Angeles, Calif., on March 4, 2020. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

Los Angeles Mayor Orders Water, Power Cut Off to Homes Hosting Parties

Los Angeles authorities will cut off water and power to properties where parties are taking place, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Wednesday.

While we have already closed all nightclubs and bars, these large house parties have essentially become nightclubs in the Hills, Garcetti, a Democrat, said at a press conference.

The consequences of the parties ripple far beyond the events, leading to a higher rate of CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus spread, the mayor asserted, describing them as unsafe and life-endangering.

That is why tonight I am authorizing the city to shut off Los Angeles Department of water and power service in the egregious cases in which houses, businesses, and other venues are hosting unpermitted large gatherings, he said.

Starting Friday night, if police officers respond to a large gathering or party and verify it is occurring, officers will provide notice and initiate a 48-hour process that will end with the property losing access to water and power.

The new order does not target small and ordinary gatherings, the mayor stressed, singling out a party of more than 100 people at a mega-mansion on Mulholland Drive that took place on Monday.

Police officers responded to the party but declined to intervene until after a shooting that left one dead and others injured.

A house party in Los Angeles , Calif., on Aug. 3, 2020. (Courtesy of KCAL/KCBS)

Garcetti said dealing with large gatherings is a tough assignment, which is why we looked for a mechanism that would shut these places down permanently.

By turning off that power, shutting off that water we feel we can close these places down, which usually are not one-time offenders but multiple-offenders, he said.

Pressed on whether shutting off power and water to homes was legal, Garcetti said, Youre breaking the law.

This is rooted in strong law. From the City Attorney, we have the opinion. We know we can do this, he told reporters.

Garcetti in April authorized the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power to shut off water and power for so-called non-essential businesses that continued operating despite harsh restrictions that ordered them to shut down.

In March, the department said it would not shut off water or power to residents of Los Angeles.

The agency didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ben Fordham is one of the biggest names in radio.

And on Thursday, the 43-year-old was awkwardly pulled into a dispute over lawn mowing by two of his neighbours on Sydney's lower north shore.

In a segment on his 2GB radio show, Ben showed his cooler head as he joked about 'not cutting another man's grass' while discussing the neighbourhood furore.

Don't cut my grass! Ben Fordham attempted to mediate a dispute between two neighbours over lawn mowing on his 2GB radio show on Thursday

It all started after a photo was shared to Facebook page Willoughby Living, which showed the image of one lawn dutifully mowed up to a boundary - while another strip of grass remained unkempt.

'There's a blow up on a community Facebook page in Willoughby in regards to someone doing their edges on the footpath outside their home,' Ben said.

The radio star then explained the mechanics of the problem.

Angry: 'They stopped when they reached the boundary line, even though there was just one more metre outside the next person's property,' Ben said, explaining the incident

'They stopped when they reached the boundary line, even though there was just one more metre outside the next person's property,' he added.

Ben then asked what the 'rule' was for the street but was inundated with calls with a number of listeners calling the neighbour petty.

Ben opted to bring more of a cool head to the situation by making a joke: 'I thought cutting another bloke's grass was off limits!'

He'll sort it! The segment led to a number of calls in regards to neighbours fighting over the nature strip and other council owned parts of the street. Here with wife, Jodie Speers

The segment led to a number of calls in regards to neighbours fighting over the nature strip and other council-owned grassed areas of the street.

Willoughby Council says on their website: 'All residents are responsible for caring for the nature strip that fronts or adjoins onto the property in which they reside.'

Ben is certainly no stranger to feuds with him reigniting his rivalry with KIIS FM competitor and pal, Kyle Sandilands, last week.

The gloves are off: Last week, Ben escalated their feud after calling 'Kyle' the male equivalent of a 'Karen' during his program, which upset the shock jock

On Wednesday, Ben escalated the feud between the radio stars by calling 'Kyle' the male equivalent of a 'Karen' during his program.

'I think the male equivalent of a "Karen", is it a "Kyle?",' Ben said on his program.

'Someone who is constantly complaining someone who looks down on life a giant sook, I think the male equivalent of a Karen would be a Kyle.'

Speaking on his own radio program The Kyle And Jackie O Show, Kyle said he was furious, claiming that Ben's segment was a dig at him.

Competitors: The comments from both radio presenters were all in jest, but it comes after Kyle insisted they had instantly become 'mortal enemies' before Ben (L) took over Alan's (R) radio gig in June on a competing station

'He has thrown down the gauntlet so now I have a new enemy,' he said.

'Thank the lord, I have been waiting for a new enemy after I have crushed all these other people that dared go against me.'

Kyle then decided to call Ben and confront him, but the radio host stood by his statement, claiming Kyle's fellow host Jackie 'O' Henderson had already called him a male "Karen".
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Berlin, Germany  Thu, August 6, 2020 07:35 531 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066be2292 2 World German,Germany,China,coronavirus,COVID-19,COVID-19-vaccines,trial Free

Clinical trials on humans have begun in China for a potential coronavirus vaccine developed by German pharmaceutical group BioNTech with Chinese company Fosun Pharma, the companies said Wednesday.

Seventy-two participants have already received their first dose following approval for the phase 1 trial from Chinese regulatory authorities, BioNTech and Fosun Pharma said in a statement.

The vaccine candidate, known as BNT162b1, is one of four based on BioNTech's proprietary mRNA technology.

Another, BNT162b2, is being evaluated in a global phase 3 trial conducted by BioNTech and US giant Pfizer which started on July 27.

The phase 1 trial in China involves 144 participants who will receive two doses 21 days apart.

Those aged 18-55 will be the first to take part, followed by older people.

Laboratories around the world are racing to find a vaccine to curb COVID-19, which has claimed more than 700,000 lives and upended the livelihoods of millions.

More than 200 candidate vaccines are currently being developed with roughly two dozen at the stage of clinical trials with human volunteers.

Several Chinese companies are at the forefront of the global vaccine race, while Russia has said it hopes to be the first in the world to produce a vaccine for the public, with a target date of September.

But the medicines will likely face heightened scrutiny given that the regulatory systems in both countries are far more opaque than they are in the West.

On top of the BioNTech/Pfizer candidate, two other Western coronavirus vaccines are in final phase three trials: one produced by US biotech firm Moderna and the National Institutes for Health; and the other by the University of Oxford and Britain's AstraZeneca.
Canon, the Japanese camera giant, recently fell victim to a ransomware attack where over 10TB of photos, videos, and other data were stolen across multiple devices.

The attack affected the companys storage and email services, Microsoft Teams, as well as the U.S. version of its website.

Following the incident, Canons IT service sent a company-wide notification indicating that it is experiencing widespread system problems affecting multiple applications, computers, email, and other systems may not be available at this time. It also added that as part of the outage, the Canon USA website would be unavailable.

The outage at the image.canon photo storage service took Canons website down from July 30 for 6 days and finally returned on August 4th. The very same day, the company posted a message on image.canon website explaining the incident and maintaining that there was no leak of image data from its cloud service.

However, on August 5, 2020, BleepingComputer, released its own report stating that the attackers managed to steal around 10 TB of data. It also managed to obtain a partial screenshot of the alleged Canon ransom note, which indicates that the company was attacked during the morning of August 5 by the notorious Maze ransomware gang.

When BleepingComputer contacted Maze regarding the Canon attack, they were told by Maze that their attack was conducted this morning when they stole 10 terabytes of data, private databases, etc as part of the attack on Canon.

We hacked your network and now all your files, documents, photos, databases, and other important data are safely encrypted with reliable algorithms. You cannot access the files right now. But do not worry. You can get it back! It is easy to recover in a few steps, the Maze ransom note said.

We have also downloaded a lot of private data from your network, so in case of not contacting us as soon as possible this data will be released. If you do not contact us in three days we will post information about your breach on our public news website and after seven days the whole download info.

However, the gang refused to divulge any more information regarding the attack including proof of stolen data, the ransom amount, and the number of devices encrypted.

The hackers also denied any involvement in the near-week-long image.canon outage that saw the loss of some data from users on its 10GB storage plan. The gang said that they had nothing to do with this ransomware attack.

In a statement to BleepingComputer, a spokesperson for Canon said that they are currently investigating the situation.

Currently, Canon-related websites that down include canonusa.com, usa.canon.com, canonhelp.com, imageland.net, consumer.usa.canon.com, and more.

Visiting these websites display an internal server error message that reads, Were sorry, the site is temporarily undergoing maintenance and could not complete your request.

Watch this space for more updates, as this is a developing story!
A third lawsuit has been filed in connection with last months shooting inside the Riverchase Galleria that killed an 8-year-old boy and wounded three bystanders.

Attorneys for Krystal Lacey on Thursday filed suit in Jefferson County Circuit Court, claiming negligence on the part of Brookfield Properties Retail Inc., the malls owner-operator, general manager Mike White, and security company Andy Frain Services Inc. The suit was filed by attorneys Andrew S. Ladores and Christopher D. Odom of Pepper & Odom.

Lacey was not shot, according to the suit, but was injured as she tried to flee the gunfire and the pandemonium after the shots rang out.

On July 3, Royta Giles Jr. was killed when he, his mother, stepfather Anthony Jones, and sisters Trinity, 5, and Marlee, 4, were waiting to go into the Childrens Place at the Riverchase Galleria to buy new outfits for the Fourth of July. Hoover police say a 22-year-old man armed with an automatic pistol got into a dispute with a group of men and a barrage of gunfire was exchanged.

When it stopped, Royta was motionless on the mall floor, surrounded by his family. He had been shot in the head and would be pronounced dead within hours. According to Hoover police, a shootout that lasted only seconds long ended Roytas life. The three others injured are recovering.

Three people have been charged with capital murder in Roytas death: Montez Moses Miracle Coleman, 22; King Gary Williams, 19, and Demetrius Dewayne Jackson Jr., also 19.

Roytas family filed a similar lawsuit on July 22, and attorneys for an 11-year-old girl who was wounded by gunfire also filed suit in late July. In the 11-year-olds suit, the complaint said the girl was near the malls food court when the gunfire erupted. She started running and was struck in her right leg, as well as grazed in her right cheek and right shoulder.

Defendants have declined to comment on the pending suits.

According to the newest filing, Lacey was with other members of her family waiting in line near the Sneaky Petes restaurant when she heard a sudden, loud noise like gunshots just behind her. As she turned around, she saw a man with his back to her discharging a handgun,' the suit states. Then, pandemonium broke out. People started screaming, running, pushing, shoving and scrambling to safety.

Lacey, according to the filing, was forced up against the counter of the restaurant near the hallway that leads to the bathrooms and left with no option but to try to get over the counter to get to safety and avoid being crushed by the crowd. In the frenzy, (Lacey) suffered a broken left arm, broken left elbow, injured left wrist and severe pain in her legs and chest. She was helped to the kitchen area of the restaurant by one of the workers and then taken to a hospital.

The suit contends the defendants negligently allowed conditions to develop, arise, evolve and be maintained at the mall which they stated have become over the past many years and months to be conducive to the attendance of dangers and unsafe elements.

These conditions have been evidenced by criminal or dangerous activities and presented special circumstances for the planning and performance of reasonable and necessary attention for the security and safety of business invitees,' the filing reads. Defendants knew or should have known of this unique evolution of the facility and especially the common area around the food court which presented special circumstances and relationships with invitees due to the presence of attractions for children, congregation, eating and the condensed gathering of business invitees or ill-intentioned persons for this common area.

The suit asks for unspecified damages.
Wheat Field in Kent County, Maryland; Credit: Edwin Remsberg To keep pace with the growing demands in wheat production, says Tiwari, we need quick integration of new genes and traits in wheat breeding. Our project team is focused on developing a method without genetic modification to speed up the natural breeding process.

Enhancing the production of global staples like wheat to feed a rapidly growing global population requires the fast integration of new genes and traits into usable varieties for growers. To meet this need and incorporate natural genetic variation that improves wheat quality and yield, Vijay Tiwari, assistant professor in Plant Science & Landscape Architecture at the University of Maryland (UMD), is directing a new grant from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA) that applies his unique expertise in Radiation Hybrid (RH) mapping. Used to validate the whole wheat genome sequence, RH mapping can improve the targeting and transfer of valuable genetic traits without incorporating any negative traits that may set back the breeding process. Collaborating with Kansas State University, Tiwari will guide the development of new genetic techniques using RH mapping to incorporate desirable traits into the wheat genome and enhance wheat breeding.

I am very excited about this grant as it provides me with the tools and resources to perform active research on a very important topic that affects global food security, says Tiwari. We previously led the RH mapping work to assist in sequencing the whole wheat reference genome through the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC). Now through this project, we will be combining RH mapping, unique germplasm [or living tissue from which new plants can be grown], and advances in genomics to develop a pipeline for wheat improvement.

To meet future demands of a projected world population of 9.6 billion by 2050, wheat production will need to increase by 60 percent according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. To preserve biodiversity, water, and nutrient resources, this increase has to be predominantly achieved through crop and trait improvement on currently cultivated land using sustainable agricultural approaches.

To keep pace with the growing demands in wheat production, says Tiwari, we need quick integration of new genes and traits in wheat breeding. However, gene transfer from wheats wild and related genetic material brings undesirable traits that negatively influence end-use quality and grain yield. Our project team is focused on developing a method without genetic modification to speed up the natural breeding process and transfer important genes from wheat's genetic ancestors to bread wheat varieties while reducing linkage drag.

Linkage drag is the process by which undesirable traits are dragged over with desirable traits during the genetic recombination process. According to Tiwari, linkage drag is just one of several big recombination barriers to utilize wheats distant gene pool for bread wheat improvement. Using his expertise in RH mapping to validate and create maps of entire chromosomes, Tiwari and his collaborators plan to use genetic markers to develop a method to track genetic variation that can stand in the way of desirable breeding and channel desirable traits for incorporation into new bread wheat varieties.

This fits very well with the work I do under our Maryland Small Grain Breeding and Genetics program at UMD, says Tiwari. UMDs program is focused on developing elite cultivars with novel genes and traits to increase overall crop productivity. The long-term goal of this new project is to reduce the bottlenecks for gene transfer from wheats distant gene pool that will serve as an important step to bring more genes and traits to fight diseases and abiotic stresses like heat. Germplasm developed in this project will be available to breeders across the country. The success of this project will aid our overall goal to ensure global food security.

This work is funded by the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA), Award #2020-67013-31460.


The Maharashtra government on Thursday opposed the PILs seeking a transfer of the Palghar lynching case investigation to the CBI or a court-monitored probe, telling the Supreme Court that "enough has been done" with charge sheets filed against 300 accused and six police officials suspended already.

In an affidavit, Maharashtra Police's Assistant Inspector General of Police, Vinayak Deshmukh, said that considering the seriousness of the case and large number of accused involved, and in "order to maintain the complete fairness, independence and transparency in the investigation", the case had been transferred to the specialised unit of the state CID on April 20.

A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and R. Subhash Reddy, earlier on Thursday, asked the Maharashtra government about the action taken against the erring police officials as months have passed after the lynching incident, which occurred on April 16.

It asked for inquiry reports, details of investigation and asked the police to submit the charge sheet in the case before it for scrutiny.

The Maharashtra government told the court that the CBI probe is not required as "enough has been done". But the top court insisted on examining the charge sheets, as it heard the PIL filed by advocate Shashank Shekhar Jha.

The Maharashtra Police said the CID, after conducting a thorough investigation into the matter, has filed two charge sheets, and in the case registered with Kasa police station, the charge sheet is in the process of being filed against arrested 47 accused.

"A departmental enquiry was ordered against the police personnel who have been, prima facie, found negligent and derelict in the performance of their duties in handling the incident and preventing the commission of crime at and around the time of aforesaid incident," said the affidavit.

The Maharashtra Police informed the apex court that Special Inspector General, Konkan Range, has issued show cause notice against six police personnel in the matter and also 12 riot control police personnel. It assured the top court that after receipt of reply from these police personnel, further appropriate action will be taken against them, and urged the court to dismiss the petition seeking CBI probe into the matter.

The top court will hear the matter after three weeks.

A group of petitioners, all Juna Akhara priests and some of the relatives of two sadhus, who were lynched at Palghar, along with their driver, stated in a petition that they have no faith in the Maharashtra government or the police, and also do not expect a fair and just investigation into the case, as they suspected their involvement in it.
Before Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or YouTube made their entry in the media market, the PatnaDaily had already registered its presence in...
The stock markets have been having a string of good days, as earnings season has been a bit less grim than expected. While aggregated revenues are down nearly 10% year-over-year, many companies have been clearing the lowered expectations bar.

Writing from Wells Fargo on the current mood and prospects, equity strategist Chris Harvey describes the situation as a melt up. He sees room for another 5% growth in the S&P 500 by years end.

Harvey specifically noted that two policies put in place to support the economy against the corona virus shutdowns have had a boosting effect on the stock markets as well. The severe cutback in interest rates by the Federal Reserve and a spree of corporate bond buying both increased the relative value of stocks.

The result has been a buying spree. Investors have pushed the S&P 500 to within its February pre-crash levels, and the NASDAQ has been setting new records since the end of June. Harveys advice for investors? Enjoy the ride while it lasts, but expect less-stable markets at the end of the year.

In the meantime, Harveys colleagues at Wells Fargo have pointed out several stocks that are not just poised to make gains, but are also showing dividend yields in excess of 4%. Its an unbeatable combination for income-minded investors: share appreciation and high-yielding dividend returns.

Weve pulled three of Wells Fargo's stock recommendations from the TipRanks database, to find out what else makes them compelling buys.

First Horizon (FHN)

The first stock on our list today is a bank holding company. First Horizon is the owner of First Tennessee Bank, which has 180 consumer banking locations in Tennessee and the Southeast. Through its subsidiary, First Horizon provides retail and consumer banking, loans, and financial planning services. The company saw $1.9 billion in revenues last year.

Like most of the banking sector, First Horizon saw revenues and earnings plummet in the first quarter of 2020. The shutdowns kept customers at home, and branch traffic dropped to near zero. EPS for the quarter came to just 5 cents, well below the 22-cent forecast and the 47-cent result from Q4. The partial reopenings led to a bounce in Q2, and EPS rose to 20 cents.

Story continues

Despite the tough conditions in 1H20, First Horizon has been able to acquire 30 branches of SunTrusts Truist bank, adding $2.3 billion to its assets on deposit and $440 million to loans under management. FHN has also kept its dividend payment stable, paying out 15 cents per common share in both Q1 and Q2, and recently declaring the Q3 payment at the same rate. The dividend yields is 6.4%, and the company has a 9-year history of keeping it reliable.

Wells Fargo analyst Jared Shaw was particularly impressed by the merger, writing, We view the successful completion of the merger as of 7/1 and reiteration of synergy targets related to it as a positive catalyst and that FHN should begin to reap the benefits almost immediately. Shaw added, We continue to like the story at FHN and 6.5% dividend yield.

In line with his comments, Shaw rates FHN a Buy, and his $11 price target implies a one-year upside of 18% for the stock. (To watch Shaws track record, click here)

Similarly, the rest of the Street is getting onboard. The shares have a Strong Buy analyst consensus rating, based on 6 Buys and 1 Hold, while the $11.50 average price target suggests that FHN has room for 23% upside growth this year. (See First Horizon stock analysis on TipRanks)

FirstEnergy (FE)

FirstEnergy, the second stock on todays list, is another holding company  this time, in the utility industry in the state of Ohio. The company owns generation and distribution subsidiaries in the Ohio electric grid, as well as having an interest in the exploration, drilling, and transport of natural gas.

FirstEnergy showed strong Q1 results, despite the coronavirus, and beat expectation on both EPS and revenues. Q2s results were lower sequentially, but still higher than expected. That was enough to support the $0.39 quarterly dividend payment. At $4.68 annually, this dividend gives a solid yield of 5.26%.

Trouble has come for the company in the current quarter. Last month, several Ohio legislators were arrested by the FBI in a bribery scandal involving the bailout of a former FirstEnergy subsidiary. While FE was not directly involved in the scandal, it was close to all the players  and share fell sharply when news of the arrests broke. FE is down 32% from pre-scandal levels.

Fortunately, the scandal is likely to fade without implicating FirstEnergy. The company spun off the affected subsidiary earlier this year, and has already announced that it will cooperate with the law enforcement investigation. FirstEnergy has over $3.5 billion in liquid assets on its balance sheet, a comfort for investors considering the possibilities of fines or legal costs.

Covering FE for Wells Fargo, 4-star analyst Neil Kalton writes, [We] continue to believe that the current share price reflects a far worse potential financial outcome to the investigation... At this point, we view the potential risks to FE to be a federal fine and reputational issues The FBI investigation has, to date, not resulted in the arrest of any FE employees..

Kalton sees the drop in FEs share price as an opportunity, reducing the cost of entry to an otherwise sound stock. He rates FE a Buy, and his $40 price target indicates confidence in a 40% one-year upside. (To watch Kaltons track record, click here)

Overall, the Wall Street analyst consensus on FirstEnergy is a Moderate Buy based on 6 Buys and 8 Holds issued in recent weeks. FE shares are trading for $29, and have an average price target of $38.32; this suggests a 12-month upside potential of 32%. (See FirstEnergy stock analysis on TipRanks)

Baker Hughes Company (BKR)

The last stock on our list is a support services company in the oil industry. Baker Hughes provides the specialized tech and engineering services  knowledge, tools, and roughnecks on the ground  that allow exploration companies to site and complete wells and maintain drilling operations. Baker Hughes offers services to upstream, midstream, and downstream companies in the oil industry.

A combination of factors has pummeled BKR stock in 1H20. Demand for oil fell dramatically in the first quarter, as the lockdowns and economic halt reduced fuel consumption of all sorts. While economies are starting up, and oil demand is increasing, stockpiles are bloated and so prices are low. The result, for BKR, was deep sequential drops in Q1 and Q2 earnings. Q3 earnings are expected to turn positive, but at only 20% of pre-crisis levels.

Still, investors can take heart on some fronts. Baker Hughes has maintained its dividend, holding the payment steady at 18 cents per share for common stock. The company has been paying out the dividend at this level for the last three years, and with the fall in share prices, the yield is now 4.3%.

Christopher Voie, in his note on BKR for Wells Fargo, sees a clear path for the company next year. He writes, We believe that BKR offers one of the more compelling product portfolios in OFS as well as unique growth opportunities from a diverse, technology driven oil service and industrial equipment platform. In particular, Voie likes the prospects for improved cash flow: We expect significantly higher FCF in 21 (+$920 MM) due to higher margins across product lines and the absence of more than $700 MM of separation & restructuring cash costs.

With such an upbeat outlook, its no wonder that Voie rates BKR shares a Buy. His $22 price target implies an upside of 31% for BKR shares in the year ahead. (To watch Voies track record, click here)

All in all, Wall Street is bullish on Baker Hughes. The stock has a Strong Buy consensus rating, based on 11 Buys against just 2 Holds. Shares are priced at $16.76, and the average price target, at $20.42, suggests it has a 21% upside potential. (See Baker Hughes stock analysis on TipRanks)

To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.
The Agricultural & Applied Economics Assocaiton (AAEA) invites you to attend the 2020 AAEA Virtual Meeting and view the plenary speakers in four separate live presenations with interactive discussions. Media and press are invited to attend any concurrent session, or plenary session with a complimentary media registration.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, AAEA decided to cancel the in-person 2020 AAEA Annual Meeting, and will be hosting all sessions virtually. All Plenary Sessions will be presented live, and then along with all other sessions, will be available online and on-demand for up to 1 year.

The Gordon Rausser Keynote Address features an expert panel discussing their perspectives on the economics of sustainability. Sustainability: The Interface of Food, Agriculture, and the Environment will take place on August 10 at 10:00 AM  11:00 AM CDT. The panalists include:



Shari Rogge-Fidler, Farm Foundation

Sally J. Rockey, Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research

Elena Irwin, The Ohio State University

Emily Johannes, Nestle USA

Dawn Thilmany McFadden from Colorado State University will give her Presidential Address on "Rebalancing OUR Portfolio: Envisioning a more Inclusive, Altruistic and Engaged AAEA" on August 10 at 2:00 PM  3:00 PM CDT.

On August 11 at 10:00 AM  11:00 AM CDT, Chris Barrett from Cornell University will be giving the Fellows Address on Overcoming Global Food Security Challenges through Science and Solidarity.

Wrapping up the meeting will be Dani Rodrik from Harvard University, presenting the Galbraith Forum on Did Globalization Fail us? happening on August 11 at 3:00 PM  4:00 PM CDT.

If you are interested in viewing some of the 2020 AAEA Virtual Meeting presentations or attending any of the live Plenaries, please contact Allison Scheetz in the AAEA Business Office.

ABOUT AAEA: Established in 1910, the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association (AAEA) is the leading professional association for agricultural and applied economists, with 2,500 members in more than 60 countries. Members of the AAEA work in academic or government institutions as well as in industry and not-for-profit organizations, and engage in a variety of research, teaching, and outreach activities in the areas of agriculture, the environment, food, health, and international development. The AAEA publishes two journals, the American Journal of Agricultural Economics and Applied Economic Perspectives & Policy, as well as the online magazine Choices and the online open access publication series Applied Economics Teaching Resources. To learn more, visit http://www.aaea.org.
BALTIMORE, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- emocha has announced partnerships with Francis Parker School, San Diego Jewish Academy, and Santa Fe Christian Schools to monitor students, faculty, and staff for symptoms of COVID-19 in a Return-to-Learn program. emocha's mobile application uses short, asynchronous virtual check-ins to identify, track, and manage symptoms. These partnerships will enable schools to launch summer camp programming and resume classes in the fall, while helping ensure that students and employees returning to campus are symptom-free.

Educational institutions across the country are facing difficult questions about how to reopen schools and bring students back into the classroom due to the COVID-19 pandemic. emocha's platform will assist schools in positioning themselves for a safe resumption of in-person classes and activities. For younger students, parents will assist them in completing check-ins.

emocha's platform allows users to track their symptoms and temperature readings using a HIPAA-compliant mobile application. The emocha app will also provide links to school resources and display a color-coded digital badge indicating the user's return-to-learn status for entrance to campus. For visitors or users who do not have smartphones, emocha has developed an on-site kiosk and web-based check-in forms.

emocha is a leading public health and remote patient monitoring platform, serving over 300 public health departments nationwide. During the Ebola crisis, emocha's technology was leveraged to monitor all travelers who entered the State of Maryland from affected areas. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, emocha rapidly pivoted to provide a remote symptom monitoring service for exposed healthcare professionals at hospitals, a return-to-work service for businesses and employers, and a return-to-learn service for educational institutions.



"We are grateful for the opportunity to use our public health and technology expertise to help students and faculty return to campus. All of these schools have taken a diligent and conservative approach to community safety and we are honored to help support their return-to-learn strategy," says emocha CEO Sebastian Seiguer.

Guidelines from the Center for Disease Control recommend that daily symptom monitoring tools such as emocha's platform be in place before schools consider opening. The partnership between emocha and these schools is informed by public health guidance, including the CDC checklist of symptoms to be used in the mobile app, and protocols issued by the San Diego County Office of Education. emocha is proud to announce this partnership with several of California's schools to enable a safe return-to-learn for students, faculty, and staff.

About emocha Mobile Health

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The entire mainstream media (plus Fox News!) have been assuring us that Portland was a tranquil town, with the occasional peaceful protest ... until President Trumps storm troopers showed up and turned it into a war zone.

This portrayal contrasts markedly with videos that have been posted on Twitter every night for more than two months now, especially by @MrAndyNgo, showing helmeted psychotics hurling Molotov cocktails at the police, among other acts of mindless destruction.

Whom to believe? Videos of the riots? Or smug journalists telling us that they saw nothing untoward?

Luckily, theres the Newspaper of Record to give us the truth. Unluckily, The New York Times sent ... Nicholas Kristof, aka the most easily fooled journalist in America.

Kristof assured Times readers that the Portland crowds are entirely peaceful, until around 11 p.m., when some protesters begin to shoot fireworks or set small trash fires.

Small trash fires.

Also: the federal courthouse, the Justice Center offices, statues, the Portland police union hall, and a decapitated pigs head, among other arsons.

But Kristof also dismissively remarked: No, theyre not trying to burn down the federal courthouse. Do not trust the dozens of videos showing protesters trying to burn down the federal courthouse.

He further reports that  just as MSNBC has said!  the most violent behavior overwhelmingly comes from the federal agents.

So there you have it. You can believe the man who said, Maos legacy is not all bad, or you can believe your lying eyes.

Even without the vast collection of videos documenting the violent riots in Portland, Kristof has a long record of being conned by obvious frauds. Lets review a few of his greatest hits.

In 2009, Kristof wrote a tear-jerker column titled, Are We Going to Let John Die? John was Oregons John Brodniak, who allegedly couldnt get treatment for his cavernous hemangioma because he didnt have health insurance:

With John unable to work, he lost his job  and his insurance coverage ... One hospital has told [John and his wife] not to come back unless he gets insurance, they say.

(They say is widely recognized as evidence in the scientific literature.)

Neighbors have helped, and a community program has paid the rent so that they are not homeless. But bills are piling up, and John and [his wife] Esther dont know how they will cope.

Moral of the story: Pass Obamacare now, you fools!

Then Michelle Malkin made a few phone calls and found out that John was enrolled in Medicaid and was being treated by top neurologists at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland. Hed been a patient there for weeks, including when Kristof wrote his column. Brodniak himself reluctantly admitted the truth to Malkin.

Kristof also wrote several columns and blog posts gushing about Somaly Mam, the Cambodian woman allegedly sold into prostitution as a little girl, who went on to launch an international anti-trafficking organization frequently touted in Kristofs columns.

Hailing Somalys resilience, he once cited this incident as a heartbreaking relic of the trauma shed suffered:

To get to the stage, we took a freight elevator, and it was vaguely like a dark cage. That terrified Somaly, because it reminded her of the cages in which she had been punished and tortured when she was in the brothel.

Then Newsweek investigated and it turned out Somaly  Kristofs friend and hero  was a total fraud. Her childhood friends told the magazine that shed grown up with her parents in their small village, gone to local schools, and had been a happy, pretty girl with pigtails, well liked and well known.

Still, wasnt she doing good work with her charity? In one column, for example, Kristof featured Long Pross, one of the girls Somaly had rescued from a life of violence and prostitution:

Pross was 13 and hadnt even had her first period when a young woman kidnapped her and sold her to a brothel in Phnom Penh. The brothel owner, a woman as is typical, beat Pross and tortured her with electric current until finally the girl acquiesced.

[She] gouged out Prosss right eye with a piece of metal. At that point in telling her story, Pross broke down and we had to suspend the interview.

Prosss eye grew infected and monstrous, spraying blood and pus on customers, she later recounted. The owner discarded her ...

It turned out Pross had never been a prostitute, and she lost her eye during surgery on a nonmalignant tumor, which Newsweek ascertained using the little-known journalistic technique of ... talking to people who knew her and obtaining her medical records.

There are more examples, such as the adventurer-turned-school builder promoted by Kristof ([Hes] done more to advance U.S. interests in the region than the entire military and foreign policy apparatus of the Bush administration) who was later the subject of a scathing 60 Minutes expose  but lets skip the others and get to my favorite.

Last year, Kristof interviewed an expert on Christianity as a special Easter treat for his readers. In the interview, Serene Jones, president of Union Theological Seminary, confirmed to Kristof that:

 God did not send his son to die for our sins.

I could end my column with that, but lets continue. Jones sneeringly described the idea of an abusive God-father who sends his own kid to the cross so God could forgive people as  I quote  nuts.

 God is neither omnipotent nor omniscient. That is a fabrication of Roman juridical theory and Greek mythology, Jones exposited.

 Also, prayer doesnt work and theres no afterlife. (Speaking as a Christian practically drowning in the milk of human kindness, I sincerely hope they both believe that.)

This guy doesnt even have a passing familiarity with the most fundamental elements of Christianity. But you can totally trust his reports from the bucolic streets of Portland.

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Microsoft is giving Android phone users a rather cool feature which will allow them to run the apps on their Android phone side by side with Windows apps on their Windows 10 PC. This is part of the big update to the Your Phone functionality in Windows 10. This cool functionality is part of the next version of the Your Phone app which is shipping to testers as part of the Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20185 and is rolling out to Windows Insider testers at this time. The fact that you can run your Android phones apps side by side mean you wont need to install the same apps on your PC as well, and these can run seamlessly from the phone. Interestingly enough, at this time, the upgraded Your Phone functionality is pretty much limited to Samsung Galaxy smartphones, with further support for the just announced Samsung Galaxy Note 20 and the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra arriving later this year.

The list of compatible phones at this time includes the Samsung Galaxy Note10, Samsung Galaxy Note10+, Samsung Galaxy Note10 Lite, Samsung Galaxy Fold, Samsung Galaxy S20, Samsung Galaxy S20+, Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra, Samsung Galaxy Z Flip, Samsung Galaxy A30s, Samsung Galaxy A31, Samsung Galaxy A40, Samsung Galaxy A50, Samsung Galaxy A50s and the Samsung Galaxy A70, to name a few. Later in the year, Samsung Galaxy Note20 users will experience the power and convenience of running multiple apps side by side and we will continue to work with Samsung to bring this feature to additional devices. Apps will launch in separate windows enabling you to interact with multiple apps at the same time, says Microsoft in an official statement. Expect more Android phones, including those from other brands, to get support for Your Phone's new functionality by the time this rolls out for all users later this year as part of a Windows 10 update.

Microsoft confirms that users will also be able to pin shortcuts for the apps from their Android phone to the Windows 10 task bar or the Windows 10 Start Menu. The Your Phone app will list all the apps on the Android phone connected at the time and will let you access these apps from there itself. It is not just thatyou can also run multiple apps from your phone side-by-side too. The Your Phone app will list the most used apps on your phone at the top of the apps list and any apps that you launch will open in their own dedicated windows on your PC. There will also be new notification badges for your Android phone apps that you have kept open on the Windows 10 PC. However, Microsoft does warn that certain apps may block this functionality considering they do limit the ability to cast screens to other devices, for instance, and itll need an update from the app developers to make those apps compatible with the new Your Phone for Windows 10.

All said and done, this is perhaps the biggest update we will get for the phone mirroring experience on Windows 10 and Android phones. For instance, you will be able to not only access photos and messages from your phone without having to reach out for it, but also not have to duplicate apps between your phone and PC. For instance, WhatsApp, Gmail, Microsoft Word, Microsoft To-Do and Spotify, to name a few. This just makes everything simpler, and you will genuinely be able to plug in your Android phone as a productivity device without actually having to reach out for it much lesser than you probably do right now. Users who arent part of the Windows 10 Insiders testing program can expect this app to rollout for them in the coming months, with support for more phones baked in by then.
A Perth teenager accused of assaulting a fellow high school student so severely he was hospitalised has been warned by a magistrate to take the allegations seriously.

The 15-year-old student appeared in Perth Children's Court on Thursday charged with grievous bodily harm and common assault after allegedly bashing a 14-year-old boy so badly he was hospitalised with a shattered pelvis.

The victim, who has a physical disability and has been in and out of hospital for years, was taken to Perth Children's Hospital for emergency surgery after the alleged assault in the schoolyard on June 10.

He was discharged soon after and has been in a wheelchair since. The 14-year-old alleged victim has left the school.

According to the Education Department, the accused boy has not been excluded from school, with the principal deciding not to recommend an exclusion after reviewing the matter.
LAKEWOOD, Ohio -- State Sen. Nickie J. Antonio wasnt surprised to see a recent CNBC story warning that nearly 40 percent of tenants are in danger of being evicted. The Lakewood representative said early on during the pandemic that she feared a wave of COVID-19-related evictions and foreclosures.

Thats why she and Columbus-based State Sen. Hearcel Craig (D-15) recently sent a letter to Gov. Mike DeWine asking for action after a federal moratorium on evictions and foreclosures expired last week.

This pertains to everyone, Antonio (D-23) said. We know there are a lot of different clocks that are ticking. Our letter is directed at a statewide eviction freeze. We are only one of five states without one.

Its counterintuitive to be evicting people at a point when youre telling them that they should stay home. We already have high numbers of people who are experiencing homelessness. That number is just going to go through the roof if we continue down this path of reinstating evictions.

Earlier this year, Antonio and Craig introduced Senate Bill 297, which if passed would prohibit foreclosures and evictions while Ohio is in a state of emergency. So far, the legislation has only had one hearing.

The legislation would allow for exceptions in eviction cases if the tenants are the subject of a domestic violence protection order, convicted of domestic violence or are violating a domestic violence protection order.

What I know is that the situation hasnt changed for many families, Antonio said. In fact, its gotten worse. If we dont figure out how to do something, I predict well have tent cities in the middle of towns in many of our urban environments, rural areas and suburbs. People cannot continue not having income and be required to pay (rent or a mortgage).

A national plan would be preferable, but at least a statewide plan indefinitely presses pause while putting money in the pocket of property owners, who have mortgages, she said.

A related topic involves additional CARES Act funding. Antonio said many Ohioans have been using the federal funds to pay their rent and mortgage.

Continuing the CARES Act makes more sense than anything else, because that money goes directly to property owners, who have mortgages, Antonio said. Its a domino effect.

If I pay my rent to the person who owns the building, theyre able to pay their mortgage. Everybody is OK. But the minute the machinery fails, we have a problem. We just believe that were setting up for making a public health crisis even worse by evicting people.

Read more news from the Sun Post Herald.
Hours after China raised the Kashmir issue for deliberations in the 15-nation UN Security Council (UNSC) at the behest of all-weather friend Pakistan, India on Thursday said it rejected Chinas interference in Indias internal affairs, adding that the Chinese attempt once again met with little support from the international community.

New Delhi also urged Beijing to draw proper conclusions from such infructuous attempts. This is the second time in two days that India has criticised China for its comments and actions on the Kashmir issue.

Making no secret of the close collaboration on the matter between China and Pakistan, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi tweeted late on Wednesday night that this was the third time in the past one year when the matter was raised at the UN and thanked China especially for the move, adding that Pakistan welcomed the meeting.

The Chinese move in collaboration with Pakistan was obviously planned at the UN due to the first anniversary on Wednesday of Indias revoking of Article 370, a Constitutional provision that had granted special status to the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).

India had also split the erstwhile State of J&K into the two union territories of J&K and Ladakh last year. China first began raising the Kashmir issue last year at the UNSC for informal deliberations soon after India revoked Article 370.

On Thursday, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said, We have noted that China initiated a discussion in the UN Security Council on issues pertaining to the Indian Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir. This was not the first time that China has sought to raise a subject that is solely an internal matter of India. As on such previous occasions, this attempt too met with little support from the international community. We firmly reject Chinas interference in our internal affairs and urge it to draw proper conclusions from such infructuous attempts.

India had on Wednesday too snubbed China and asked it to refrain from interference in Indias internal affairs, just hours after Beijing termed the revoking of Article 370 a year ago by New Delhi as illegal and invalid.

India added that China had no locus standi on the issue. We have noted the comments of the Chinese MFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) spokesperson on the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Chinese side has no locus standi whatsoever on this matter and is advised not to comment on the internal affairs of other nations, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava had said on Wednesday evening.

Chinese MFA Spokesperson Wang Wenbin was quoted by media reports as saying at the regular ministry briefing on Wednesday in Beijing, China follows closely the situation in the Kashmir region. Chinas position on the Kashmir issue is clear and consistent.

This issue is a dispute leftover from history between Pakistan and India. That is an objective fact as laid out by the UN Charter, UN Security Council resolutions and the bilateral agreements between Pakistan and India. Any unilateral change to the status quo is illegal and invalid. This issue should be properly resolved peacefully through dialogue and consultations between the parties concerned.
An aerial view of ruined structures at the Port of Beirut. (Getty)

The scale of the explosion that devastated Lebanons capital could be difficult for anyone to comprehend.

Videos of the blast, which has killed at least 137 people and injured more than 5,000, have been widely shared on social media and show a mushroom cloud propelling into the skyline.

Dozens of others are still missing.

Damage has been reported over six miles away from the site of the explosion with an estimated 300,000 left homeless.

In order to help contextualise the size of the disaster, a professional cartographer has created maps comparing the blast radius of the explosion as if it had happened in London or New York.

Joanna Merson, a cartographic developer at the University of Oregon, shared the comparisons on Twitter.

Read More:

UK offers support to Lebanon after massive Beirut blast

Lebanon Officials Ignored Warnings on Chemical Tied to Blast

Britons 'caught in aftermath' of huge blast that killed at least 100 people

Mersons maps show three rings representing different levels of damage: everything in the 1km radius of the blast has suffered widespread destruction; most structures in the 5km ring have sustained heavy damage; and the 10km showing how far the damage has been reported.

1/x This morning I woke up to see viral maps incorrectly comparing the damage area of the Beirut explosion to London and New York. I have corrected the maps with a little thread to explain my corrections. img 1. tweet with my notes. img 2-4. my new maps. pic.twitter.com/nz9Q1X0wLt  Joanna Merson (@JoannaMerson) August 5, 2020

It is impossible to accurately state whether the levels of destruction are comparable with London and New York. For example, the significant number of densely packed, high rise buildings in both cities could have cushioned the blow and reduced the spread. Similarly, the explosion would likely have caused more damage in London due to a large amount of the blast radius in Beirut being absorbed by the Mediterranean sea.

Story continues

The damage radius of the explosion in Beirut. (Joanna Merson)

However, had the explosion happened in central London it is possible the House of Commons, Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey would have all been caught in the blast.

Most of the City of London, in theory, would fall within the same radius as well as areas as far as Hampstead Heath and Norbury.

The damage radius of the explosion in Beirut if it had happened in London. (Joanna Merson)

Merson explained she avoided using Google Maps due to the images being projected in Web Mercator, which stretches the earth to make it look like a square.

This is done because it is impossible to make the spherical earth appear perfectly in proportion on a flat image.

4/x I picked the 10km radius by measuring the distance to the airport runways in the original map. The circles ignore all topography, while it looks like the actual damage stretched farther along the coastline and not as far inland, uphill(?).  Joanna Merson (@JoannaMerson) August 5, 2020

She also notes her maps fail to account for topography, noting it looks like the actual damage stretched farther along the coastline and not as far inland, uphill?

Merson emphasised her maps did not model what the damage would have been to other cities, they were just there to help visualise the scale of explosion and the wreckage it caused.

5/x If you made it this far, you may already have noticed, my maps use azimuthal equidistant projections, centered on each POI, and are displayed in the same scale, so they can be compared. BECAUSE SCALE AND PROJECTIONS MATTER. Enjoy.  Joanna Merson (@JoannaMerson) August 5, 2020

If the blast had occurred in New York the roughly six-mile radius of damage would have reached as far as The Bronx and likely flattened Wall Street.

The explosion in Beirut was preceded by a large fire at the Port of Beirut, which caused the roof of a warehouse which had 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate inside to set on fire.

The damage radius of the explosion in Beirut if it had happened in New York. (Joanna Merson)

After a series of smaller blasts, a colossal explosion happened around 18:00 local time, creating a mushroom cloud over the city.

Experts from the University of Sheffield said the explosion was unquestionably one of the largest non-nuclear blasts in history.

They predicted the explosion was equivalent to 1,000 to 1,500 tonnes of TNT, which is thought to be about a tenth of the intensity of the Hiroshima atomic bomb.

A general view of the destroyed Port of Beirut. (Getty)

Ammonium nitrate is a crystal-like white solid commonly used for fertilisers.

It can be combined with fuel oil to become explosive and it has been used as a weapon in the past.

The explosion comes at a difficult time for Lebanon as the country struggles to control coronavirus and is suffering from the longest economic downturn in decades.

There has been widespread anger at the government in recent years and has faced accusations of corruption and neglect from the public.

On Wednesday the government put a number of port officials under arrest as it investigated the explosion.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-07 00:11:47|Editor: huaxia

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HONG KONG, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Office of the Commissioner of the Chinese Foreign Ministry in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Thursday refuted a statement of the Foreign Correspondents' Club (FCC) in Hong Kong and urged the FCC to distinguish right from wrong.

The United States, while proclaiming itself as a champion of the freedom of the press, has been ramping up political suppression on Chinese media out of its Cold War mentality and ideological bias, which laid bare its hypocrisy, double standards and hegemonic bullying, a spokesperson of the commissioner's office said.

Given the U.S. action, China will be compelled to take necessary countermeasures to safeguard its rights and interests, the spokesperson said, stressing it is the United States that caused the situation and should be solely responsible for it.

Hong Kong is part of China and the central government has the diplomatic authority to take countermeasures, the spokesperson said.

The national security law in the HKSAR makes it clear that the freedoms of speech, the press and publication of Hong Kong residents will be protected, and the HKSAR government has also reiterated that the law will not erode the institutions that underpin Hong Kong's success as an international city, including the freedoms of expression and the press, and the free flow of information, the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson stressed that any freedom should be exercised within legal boundaries, and media outlets are not free from law anywhere in the world.

The spokesperson expressed firm opposition to external interference in Hong Kong affairs and China's internal affairs as a whole on the pretext of the freedom of the press. Enditem
Samsung's latest Unpacked 2020 event witnessed the launch of five new devices including smartphones, wearables and tablet as well.

Samsung last night launched five new devices at its first virtual Unpacked event. The entire lineup features the Galaxy Note 20 series, Galaxy Z Fold 2, Galaxy Buds Live, Galaxy Watch 3, and the Galaxy Tab S7 series. The new Samsung products will go on sale in select countries from August 6, and August 21 onwards.

In case you missed last nights event, or need to catch up on all the new Samsung devices, heres a roundup.

Galaxy Note 20 series

Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra come with Qualcomms Snapdragon 865+ chipset, 5G support, triple rear cameras and wireless charging. The Note 20 Ultra has a 108-megapixel camera with 50x Space Zoom. It also has a 6.9-inch QHD+ Super AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate. The vanilla Note 20 doesnt have a high refresh rate, and comes with a 64-megapixel primary sensor. For selfies, both phones have a 10-megapixel punch-hole camera. Galaxy Note 20 starts at $999, while the Note 20 Ultra has a starting price of $1,299.

Samsung Galaxy Note 20 series. (Bloomberg)

Galaxy Z Fold 2

This is Samsungs fourth foldable phone and the second-gen Galaxy Fold. It has a similar design like the Galaxy Fold but with punch-hole cameras. Theres a 7.6-inch 120Hz display inside, and a 6.2-inch AMOLED cover display. Galaxy Z Fold 2 has five cameras in total with a 64-megapixel primary sensor, and dual 10-megapixel sensors. It runs on Qualcomms Snapdragon 865+ chipset with 5G support.

Galaxy Buds Live

Samsungs new wireless earbuds have a beans-shaped design. It is equipped with a 12mm speaker and 3 mics. The Galaxy Buds Live have a 60mAh battery, while the charging case has a 472mAh battery. It comes with Bluetooth 5.0, and supports Qi wireless charging. It also offers active noise cancellation (ANC), and a gaming mode to reduce audio latency.

Samsung Galaxy Buds Live wireless earbuds. (Bloomberg)

Galaxy Watch 3

The new Galaxy Watch 3 comes in 45mm and 41mm sizes with a 1.4-inch display and 1.2-inch display respectively. The Galaxy Watch 3 runs on Tizen based Wear OS 5.5, and is powered by the Exynos 9110 chipset. The new Samsung smartwatch packs 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage. The 41mm has two colour variants of Mystic Bronze and Mystic Silver, while the Galaxy Watch 45mm variant comes in Mystic Silver and Mystic Black.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 3. (Bloomberg)

Galaxy Tab S7 series

Samsungs new tablet series features the Galaxy Tab S7 and Tab S7+. The new tablets run on Android 10, and are powered by a 7nm octa-core chipset. Theres up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage which is expandable up to 1TB. The Galaxy Tab S7 series sports a dual camera setup of 13-megapixel and 5-megapixel cameras, and an 8-megapixel front camera. On the Tab S7 you get an 8,000mAh battery, and on the Tab S7+ theres a 10,090mAh battery. Both tablets support 45W fast charging.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Thursday claimed to have the numbers and majority in Rajasthan and said it is eagerly waiting for the state Assembly session on August 14.

Senior spokesperson of the party Ajay Maken said it was "status quo" as far as the rebel Congress MLAs in Rajasthan are concerned.

He said the Congress is "upbeat" about proving its majority as the opposition has not had the courage to bring forth a "no-confidence motion" against the Ashok Gehlot-led government in the state.

"The numbers are with us. The majority is with us and the biggest thing is that the truth is also with us. We wanted to convene a session of the state Assembly and even the opposition has not got the courage to bring a no-confidence motion against us, as everyone knows that the majority is with us," Maken told reporters, when asked about the party's position in Rajasthan.

Maken is one of the two central observers sent by the Congress high-command to oversee the political developments in Rajasthan, where party leader and former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot, along with 18 other MLAs, has revolted against the government.

Asked whether any of the rebels had got in touch with the party, Maken said it was "status quo".

ALSO READ | Rajasthan HC to decide rebel Congress MLA's plea against sedition FIRs on August 14

He said Gehlot has said if the party leadership accepts the rebels, he will also do the same with an open heart and embrace them.

"We are together with all the MLAs and are eagerly waiting for the Assembly session on August 14, where all of us wish to go," Maken said.

All the Congress MLAs supporting Gehlot, who were earlier lodged in a luxury hotel in Jaipur, have now been shifted to Jaisalmer, till the Assembly session is convened.

To another question on the change of the Jammu and Kashmir governor so soon, the Congress leader said it is not a sign of a "healthy administration".

He said people occupying key sensitive positions should not be changed so soon.

Meanwhile, the division bench of Rajasthan High Court on Thursday disposed of appeals filed by a BJP MLA and the Bahujan Samaj Party against the order of a judge, who had refused to stay the functioning of six BSP MLAs as Congress legislators.

BJP MLA Madan Dilawar and BSP national secretary Satish Mishra had approached the division bench on Tuesday appealing against the single-judge bench order.

Both the parties had earlier filed writ petitions challenging the decision of Speaker CP Joshi in September 2019 allowing merger of the six BSP MLAs with the Congress.

The single-judge bench of Justice Mahendra Kumar Goyal had issued notices to the speaker and secretary of the assembly, and the six MLAs on July 30 and directed them to submit replies on August 11.

However, the judge had not granted any interim relief and refused to put a stay on the six BSP MLAs' participation in the proceedings of the House as Congress legislators.

The division bench of Chief Justice Indrajit Mahanty and Justice Prakash Gupta had issued a notice to the assembly speaker on Wednesday on the appeal but no reply was filed on his behalf.

His counsel Kapil Sibal argued in the court that the appeal in the division bench is not maintainable.

Sibal also said that the speaker's office cannot be used as a post office to get the notices served to any MLA.

In response to which, the division bench directed to serve the notices through Jaisalmer's district judge and publish them in two newspapers of Jaisalmer and Barmer.

It said the single judge-bench will hear the stay application of the BJP and the BSP on August 11.

Six BSP MLAs -- Sandeep Yadav, Wajib Ali, Deepchand Kheria, Lakhan Meena, Jogendra Awana and Rajendra Gudha -- defected to the Congress in September last month.
The Spanish Health Ministry reported on Wednesday that 1,772 new Covid-19 cases were diagnosed in the past 24 hours. This is up from 1,178 on Tuesday and 968 on Monday. But there is a discrepancy between the the number of new infections and the total. On Wednesday, the Health Ministry reported a total of 305,767 cases, compared to 302,814 on Tuesday  a difference of 2,953.

The northeastern region of Aragon recorded the highest number of new cases, with 614 in 24 hours, followed by Madrid (539) and Catalonia (146). According to data compiled by the international weekly publication The Economist, Aragon has the highest 14-day cumulative incidence of Covid-19 of any region in Europe, with 567 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. This rate has risen tenfold in just 20 days. By way of comparison, the average incidence rate in Spain is 72 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, while in Catalonia, Spains second-most affected region, the figure is 153.

Locals in the Delicias neighborhood in Zaragoza, the capital of Aragon. CARLOS GIL-ROIG

The rise in cases is beginning to put pressure on hospitals in Aragon, where 491 patients have been admitted for Covid-19, 42 of whom are in intensive care (ICU). In just over 10 days, the number of hospitalizations has doubled, and the regional government is considering suspending staff holidays and recruiting retired doctors to help. The average age of hospital patients has also increased, rising from between 60 to 65 last week to more than 70. On Wednesday, a senior home in Burbaguena, in Teruel province, where 80 cases have been detected, reported the sixth death of a resident.

According to the latest figures, which are based on data provided by the regions, a total of 305,767 Covid-19 cases have been detected in Spain. This figure, like the number of deaths, hospitalizations and ICU admissions, only takes into account cases that have been confirmed via PCR testing, which can detect an inactive infection.

The number of new coronavirus cases on Wednesday is still a long way off from the nearly 10,000 that were reported on March 31, during the peak of the pandemic, but it is also far from the less than 200 detected in the last week of June. To find a similar figure, one has to go back to April 25, when 2,915 infections were registered. But while the number of infections may be similar on that day, there is a significant difference in the number of Covid-19 fatalities. On Wednesday, the Health Ministry reported nine deaths in the last 24 hours, compared to 288 on April 25.

There are several reasons for this difference: at that time coronavirus patients were older, meaning their prognosis was worse; hospitals were overwhelmed, making comprehensive care more difficult; and less was known about the impact of the virus.

The number of weekly diagnosed infections has soared tenfold since June 25, rising from 1,762 to 18,298

This trend is also evident in the other indicators, such as hospitalizations and ICU admissions. According to the latest figures, the total number of hospitalizations is 127,670. Of this figure, 638 were admitted in the last seven days, 42 more than on Tuesday. In the past week, 41 patients have been admitted into the ICU, up from 38 on Tuesday, bringing the total to 11,824.

All of Spains 17 regions, as well as the exclave city of Melilla in North Africa, have recorded a spike in new Covid-19 cases. Indeed, the number of weekly diagnosed infections has soared tenfold since June 25, when Spain was entering the so-called new normality after a prolonged lockdown and deescalation process, rising from 1,762 then to 18,298 on Wednesday.

But not every region has been affected in the same way. Aragon, for instance, has seen a 9,000% rise in the number of weekly diagnosed infections  it went from recording zero cases on June 25 to 91 on Wednesday. In Valencia, there has been a 1,838% spike, and in the Canary Islands, weekly infections have risen 272% since June 25. In the Balearic Islands, 323 cases were diagnosed in 24 hours, and weekly infections have risen 1,438%. This, however, is due to the low number of cases, with just 21 diagnosed between June 18 and 25.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, a total of 28,499 people have died from Covid-19. This figure does not count suspected coronavirus cases who died before being tested for the disease. If these fatalities were taken into account the total death toll in Spain would be closer to 50,000, according to an EL PAIS estimate based on regional records and data from three different agencies.

Outbreaks in Madrid

The Madrid regional health department reported five new outbreaks of Covid-19 on Wednesday, with 80 cases and 75 people under medical surveillance.

A resident at a senior home in the Madrid region. Jesus Hellin (Europa Press)

The first outbreak was detected at the San Marcos senior home, in San Martin de la Vega. A total of 47 people have tested positive, and another 38 are under surveillance. Six of the 47 cases have been hospitalized, and one person has died. It is the largest outbreak recorded since June 9. Of the cases, 28 are residents and nine are staff members.

The second outbreak was detected in the Madrid capital after 33 people attended a birthday party at a bar. A total of 17 people have tested positive for Covid-19, and another 17 are under medical surveillance.

The third outbreak, with three cases and eight people being monitored, happened at a closed nightclub in the capital. The fourth was detected in the municipalities of Alcorcon and Leganes, with four infections and three contacts monitored. And the fifth was reported at a social services residence in Pozuelo de Alarcon, with nine cases and another nine under surveillance.

Seasonal workers to be moved

The regional government of Castilla-La Mancha will begin to relocate on Thursday around 230 seasonal workers who have been confined since July 22 in a trade center in Albacete.

A seasonal worker in Albacete faces police with a sign reading: Please, please, we need our release to leave. We have a family. Manu (EFE)

The workers were placed in quarantine there after a Covid-19 outbreak was detected at an abandoned industrial warehouse, where they were living. Several of the individuals left confinement on Wednesday morning, which prompted local police to cut the road leading to the trade center. The individuals were found shortly after, some carried signs with the message: We need to work to send money to our family. Several non-for-profits have criticized the regional government for not providing the workers with enough information.

The guys are nervous, they have been here two weeks already, many of them have tested negative up to three times and they dont understand why they cant leave to work, explained Cheikhou Cisee, the spokesperson for the Immigrant Support Collective.

With reporting by Elena G. Sevillano and Juan Carlos Espinoso.

English version by Melissa Kitson.
The affordable housing recommendations were the final item on a dense agenda for the City Council meeting that ended just before midnight. I think that a workshop is probably the right direction to go because theres no way were going to be addressing it this evening, this point this hour. Every one of these issues are too important to do at the end of the evening, Chirico said.
Madhya Pradesh chief minister (CM) Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday condemned his Punjab counterpart Capt Amarinder Singhs reported letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him not to allow geographical indication (GI) tagging of basmati rice produced in MP for which the state has been fighting a legal battle for several years.

The Punjab CM wrote to the PM on Wednesday requesting him to intervene in the interest of Punjab and other Basmati growing states which have GI tag for the agriculture produce.

Besides Punjab the other states which have GI tagging for basmati include the states in Indo-Gangetic plains (IGP) below the foothills of Himalayas that include Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Haryana and parts of Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, as per government reports.

Captain Amarinder Singh in his letter reportedly underlined the export of basmati every year worth Rs 33,000 crore from India and also All India Rice Exporters Associations opposition to MPs claim. He said if MP was provided the GI tagging it would have serious negative impact on Indian export potential and any such dilution in registration of Indian Basmati might give advantage to Pakistan which also produces Basmati.

Chouhan, now in home quarantine after being released from hospital on Wednesday following treatment for Covid-19, said the Punjab CMs letter was a politically motivated one.

I condemn the letter written to the Prime Minister by the Congress government of Punjab. I wish to question the chief Minister of Punjab, Captain Amarinder Singh, as to what hostility he has with the farmers of Madhya Pradesh? It is not a matter of Madhya Pradesh or Punjab, it is a matter of farmers of the entire country and their livelihood, he said in a statement.

Chouhan said, The case of Agriculture and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) with Pakistan has no connection with the claims of Madhya Pradesh because it comes under the GI Act of India and has no connection with the claims of basmati rice within the country. Basmati exporters of Punjab and Haryana are buying basmati rice from Madhya Pradesh. The central governments export data confirms this. The central government has been supplying Breeder seed of basmati rice to Madhya Pradesh since the year 1999.

Chouhan went on to say, It is recorded in the then Scindia State records that in the year 1944, seeds were supplied to the farmers of the state. The Indian Institute of Rice Research, Hyderabad has recorded in its Production oriented survey report that basmati rice is being produced in Madhya Pradesh for the last 25 years. The GI tagging to Madhya Pradesh will stabilize the prices of Indias basmati rice in the international markets and boost the countrys export. Basmati is produced in 13 districts of Madhya Pradesh since the year 1908 and has been registered in history. Basmati rice of Madhya Pradesh is considered very tasty and is famous both in the country and abroad for its flavour and fragrance.

The state government also issued a statement saying Chouhan has also written to the Prime Minister in this context referring to the historical connection of Basmati rice of Madhya Pradesh. He urged him to grant GI status to the states basmati rice to encourage farmers and basmati rice based industries.

Madhya Pradesh has been fighting a tough battle on the GI tagging. On May 28, the state government approached the Supreme Court to challenge a Madras high courts judgment that rejected the MP governments appeal and another appeal by a Basmati growers association in March this year. The petitions were filed to challenge exclusion of the 13 districts of Madhya Pradesh from a map submitted by Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), a part of union ministry for Commerce and Industries for GI tags.

Basmati rice is grown in about 75,000 hectares in 13 districts of Madhya Pradesh as compared to 2.6 lakh hectares in Punjab. The total basmati production in Punjab in 2018 was 1.7 million tonne, almost six times of total basmati production in Madhya Pradesh, according to data provided by the two state governments.
The Ministry of Planning and Investment is currently working on possible scenarios for the upcoming period amid the ongoing developments of the global health crisis.

Tran Quoc Phuong, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment, discussed the future key tasks and varying solutions required in order for the country to achieve its yearly targets.

Tran Quoc Phuong, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment

A number of challenges were raised at the Ministry of Planning and Investments (MPI) online meeting with all cities and provinces on July 28 amid the new developments of COVID-19 in the country. What are the MPIs policy scenarios for the upcoming months to ensure economic recovery, thus meeting the highest possible economic growth for 2020?

Recent COVID-19 cases in the central city of Danang have made people concerned. At present, ministries and agencies at all levels, especially the National Steering Committee on COVID-19 Prevention and Control, have taken bold actions to effectively control the situation to prevent a new outbreak of the health crisis in the community, thus easing negative impacts of the pandemic on the ongoing economic recovery for the second half of the year.

The MPI has resumed all works on making reports and building possible scenarios, as well as making necessary proposals and solutions as we did in the first half of the year to give advice to the government in socioeconomic steering works to enable the economy to meet the yearly targets as much as possible.

People have often talked about an adaptive economy. Has Vietnam developed such a thing during COVID-19?

An adaptive economy is a new concept that requires deep study to find appropriate solutions. The pandemic has serious impacts on peoples lives and economic activities. Thus, it is not easy for a country to achieve. Many countries have only just approached the new concept, and none claims to have their own adaptive economy.

Economies are struggling with the rapid developments of COVID-19, but an adaptive economy has been discussed for some time, such as for climate change, or for other specific conditions.

Many struggles may be ahead, so what are key tasks and solutions that the MPI will give priority to for its performance in the second half of the year?

To fulfil the targets, the ministry will continue to make reforms and innovations while taking concrete actions, focusing on the several major tasks and solutions.

First, we will closely work with ministries, agencies, and localities on supervising socioeconomic development at home and abroad, make forecasts, and give timely advice to the government and prime minister about possible solutions for their monitoring and directing, thus enabling the country to meet the set targets.

Moreover, we will focus on synchronous and strong implementation of strategic breakthroughs, and study policies and mechanisms to mobilise and effectively use all resources for business activities and investment development. The MPI will focus on the implementation of new legislation including the Law on Investment, the Law on Enterprises, the Law on Public-Private Partnership, and the Law on Planning, while proposing solutions to uphold the role of economic hubs, growth areas, and major urban areas.

The MPI will collaborate with ministries, central-level agencies, and localities in building reports such as those on socioeconomic development in 2020 and the development plan for 2021; the report on review of the 2016-2020 socioeconomic development plan and the 2021-2025 development plan; and another on review of the governments action plan to fulfil the 2016-2020 socioeconomic development plan and the threshold for the 2021-2025 period.

Also importantly, as leader of the governments macroeconomic executive team, the MPI will work closely with the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and the State Bank of Vietnam on supervising regional and global developments, as well as possible policy changes of economies, thus making forecasts and proposing appropriate policies and solutions to take the initiative in all cases.

Regarding public investment, a number of solutions will be taken to spur the disbursement process, while focusing on building the mid-term public investment plans for the 2021-2025 period.

The MPI will concentrate on three national strategies, six master plans, one law, four decrees, and 10 major reports. They include the national strategy on foreign investment cooperation during 2021-2030; the strategy on service development master plan during 2021-2030 with a vision towards 2050; and another on green growth in the 2021-2030 period.

The six master plans will focus on application of modern administration of state-owned enterprises; criteria on foreign investment attraction, and the others on assessment about efficiency of foreign investment; and management and use of official development assistance and preferential loans until 2025.

Meanwhile, the decrees include one on amending business registration, a second on amending the regulations on outbound investment, and one amending the rules on management of industrial parks and economic zones, among others.

Nguyen Chi Dung - Minister of Planning and Investment During the first half of 2020, Vietnam achieved positive and impressive growth in economic development. However, challenges in the remaining months still exist and even grow fiercer, especially after the new infections were found recently in the central city of Danang. Therefore, the government has outlined solutions for socioeconomic growth. Facing the serious development of the pandemic, the ministry keeps monitoring and building up related policies to submit to the government. Those include the Resolution No.42/NQ-CP stipulating aid for people who have suffered difficulties due to the pandemic, Resolution No.84/NQ-CP outlining duties and solutions to ease burdens for manufacturing activities, accelerating the disbursement of public investment capital, and ensuring the political and social safety amidst the health crisis, among others. Regarding the implementation of the middle-term investment plan and also the Law on Public Investment, the ministry focuses on stimulating the capital disbursement to support economic growth. Regarding the management of official development assistance (ODA) and soft loans of foreign sponsors, the ministry has developed and submitted the related documents related to the government. Those include Decree No.56/2020/ND-CP providing regulations on managing and utilising the assistance from non-governmental organisations. Moreover, the ministry will continue to draft a decree regarding Vietnams assistance for foreign countries and the plan for attracting, managing, and utilising ODA and overseas soft loans in the 2021-2025 period. The ministry has also been carrying out plenty of solutions to boost the disbursement of ODA and foreign soft loans during the last half of 2020. Tran Duy Dong - Director, Department of Local and Territorial Economy The global economy is facing a deep recession. Meanwhile, the domestic economy continues in be in the doldrums due to the pandemics implications with unpredicted proceedings. Therefore, central tasks are to craft a public investment plan for the 2021-2025 period, prudently working on another one for 2021, and push disbursement of public investment capital to quickly resume economic development in the new normal. Both of these plans must be crafted seamlessly, taking into account experiences from the implementation of the previous plans to ensure optimal efficiency. With regards to capital allocation for investment preparation, the lessons drawn from building a medium-term public investment plan during 2016-2020 show that projects with capital allotment prior to working on investment preparation have a better quality with quicker disbursement in place, with little requirements for project adjustment. Localities, therefore, must take the initiative in capital allocation right from 2021 so as to effectively conduct investment preparation as well as select suitable projects matching the planning scheme with connectivity and interregional impacts to push up quick and sustainable socioeconomic development. Dinh Trong Thang - Director, Department of Planning Management Aware of the importance of planning activities as noted in the regulations on planning, the ministries, sectors, and localities have focused on making planning at all levels, including the three national plannings, 39 national-level sectorial ones, and 63 municipal and provincial ones for the 2021-2030 period with a vision toward 2050. The ministries, sectors, and localities have been gradually aware of the importance of building and overseeing the implementation of planning schemes to orientate space disposition and pen out sector-based development policies in their territory to ensure rational and effective exploitation of resources. From there, they are able to push socioeconomic development in quickly and sustainably. Generally, the ministries, sectors, and localities are very proactive in simultaneously drawing planning schemes for the period 2021-2030 in accordance with the national planning system. One hurdle is that the national database on planning has yet to be fully and synchronously developed, causing a lack of information in the process of drawing and overseeing the planning implementation. Do Thanh Trung - Director, Department of National Economic Issues With strict adherence to the governments guidance throughout 2020 as well as the action programme for the 2016-2021 period, in the second half of this year, the MPI will further promote its innovative spirit and take drastic actions for the successful accomplishment of assigned tasks noted in resolutions of the Central Party Committee, the National Assembly, the government, as well as the instructions from the prime minister. Some major tasks involve taking the initiative cooperating with relevant ministries and central and local agencies to keep close tabs on the socioeconomic situation, domestically and internationally; working on summarising, analysing, and forecasting to timely consult the government and the prime minister in regards to management solutions, striving for completion of all targets and plans set for 2020. Meanwhile, the MPI will focus on ensuring radical and consistent implementation of strategic breakthroughs, pared with studying the mechanisms and policies to effectively mobilise and use diverse resources for investment development and the business community. VIR

Bich Thuy

Vietnam proposes post-pandemic recovery measures in ASEAN Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Quoc Dung, head of Vietnams SOM ASEAN, attended an online high-level dialogue on ASEANs recovery post-COVID-19 on July 30.
Donald Trump has praised Kim Kardashian during a White House press briefing in which he addressed reports that he is trying to help Kanye West s presidential bid.

It has been reported that the Republican party have been working with the 43-year-old rapper to help him get on election ballot papers but Trump has deflected a question asking whether this was the case.

The current US president was asked whether party operatives were helping Kanye get on the ballot in swing states, which could help the Republicans beat off the Democrats surge in popularity.

Trump decided to not answer the question directly but instead praised Kim Kardashian for her efforts on criminal justice reform.

Speaking about the 39-year-old Keeping Up With The Kardashians star, Trump said that she has a good heart.

The New York Times had reported that Lane Ruhland, who is a lawyer that has connections to Trumps re-election campaign, had allegedly delivered the signatures required so that Kanye could appear on ballot papers.

The aim is to divert votes away from Joe Bidens bid in key states.

Follow Us on Facebook  @LadunLiadi; Instagram  @LadunLiadi; Twitter  @LadunLiadi; Youtube  @LadunLiadiTV for updates
Atacama Large Millimeter Array image of the protoplanetary disk around HL Tauri. The dark rings are gaps in the dust and gas-rich protoplanetary disk, likely due to the formation of planets. These gaps may be similar to the disk gap thought to be formed by the formation of Jupiter in our protoplanetary disk. Credit: ESO/ALMA

Using some cosmic detective work, a team of researchers has found evidence that tiny pieces of asteroids from the inner solar system may have crossed a gap to the outer solar system, a feat once thought to be unlikely.

About 1 million years after the start of the solar system, it is thought that while Jupiter's core formed, it created a gap in the protoplanetary disk (the disk of dense gas and dust surrounding the sun). Called the "Jupiter Gap," this divide severely limited material from getting across it and is thought to have created two distinct reservoirs in the disk.

Against the odds, however, a team of researchers including Associate Research Professor Devin L. Schrader and Research Scientist Jemma Davidson of Arizona State University's Center for Meteorite Studies have found evidence in meteorites that tiny fragments of asteroids from the inner solar system crossed the Jupiter Gap into the outer solar system. The results of their study have been recently published in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta.

"This research provides new information about the dynamics of the early solar system," lead author Schrader said. "Our research shows that these two reservoirs were not completely isolated from one another."

The research team, which also includes scientists from the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Washington University in St. Louis, and Harvard University, were inspired to conduct this study because of samples brought back from NASA's comet sample return mission, Stardust.

These samples hinted that comets could contain material that migrated from the inner solar system to the outer reaches where comets formed and suggested that the migration of material may have been more widespread in the early solar system than previously thought.

Associate Research Professor Devin Schrader holds a piece of the Murchison meteorite from the ASU Center for Meteorite Studies collection. A piece of the Murchison meteorite was found to contain evidence that inner solar system material migrated to the outer solar system. Credit: Devin Schrader/ASU

"The Stardust mission was like peeking through the blinds at the earliest solar system," said co-author Timothy McCoy, chair and curator of meteorites at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. "We knew that meteorites in our collections could open the window so that we could see the whole view"

With that in mind, they set out to test this hypothesis using samples of meteorites, specifically chondrites, that were present in the early solar system.

And thanks to the large collection of meteorites from the Center for Meteorite Studies, the Smithsonian Institution and NASA, they had access to samples of chondrites that were believed to have formed in the inner solar system as well as those believed to have been formed in the outer solar system.

Using electron probe microanalyzers (to obtain high resolution images of the samples and major and minor element data of individual minerals) and a secondary ion mass spectrometer (used to analyze the isotopic composition of samples), the team was able to provide direct evidence for a complex mixing of materials between the inner and outer solar system.

"By looking at the kinds of samples we have in the Center for Meteorite Studies collection, we were able to investigate how material moved around in the protoplanetary disk four and a half billion years ago," co-author Davidson said.

In future studies, the team hopes to learn more from asteroid sample return missions like the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's Hayabusa2 mission to the asteroid Ryugu, which is scheduled to return samples to Earth later this year and NASA's OSIRIS-REx to the asteroid Bennu, which is expected to return samples to Earth in 2023.

Explore further Meteorites lend clues to solar system's origin

More information: Devin L. Schrader et al. Outward migration of chondrule fragments in the early Solar System: O-isotopic evidence for rocky material crossing the Jupiter Gap?, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (2020). Journal information: Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta Devin L. Schrader et al. Outward migration of chondrule fragments in the early Solar System: O-isotopic evidence for rocky material crossing the Jupiter Gap?,(2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.gca.2020.05.014
This is a complex, multi-faceted issue of great importance in California.

Synagro Technologies, Inc., the preeminent provider of biosolids and residuals solutions services in the United States, is pleased to announce Layne Baroldi, Vice President, Technical Services and Government Affairs, Synagro, will be hosting a virtual roundtable at the 2020 California Association of Sanitation Agencies (CASA) Annual Conference on Wednesday, August 12 from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. PT.

Join Layne online to learn about CV-SALTS implications for biosolids application in Californias Central Valley.

I am pleased to be participating in the regulatory program, said Baroldi. CVSALTS is a collaborative stakeholder-driven and -managed program initiated in 2006 working to develop sustainable salinity and nitrate management planning for the Central Valley. It comprises a broad coalition of agriculture, cities, industry and regulatory agencies who have joined to together to develop a vision and plan for managing salts and nutrients. This is a complex, multi-faceted issue of great importance in California.

About Synagro

Founded in 1986, Synagro Technologies, Inc. works to turn waste into worth by helping more than 800 municipal and industrial water and wastewater facilities in North America move toward safer, cleaner and more environmentally beneficial practices. For some, its simply cleaning the water supply. For others, its much more  we partner with them to process their waste for compost or energy pellets, creating healthy soil and sequestering carbon in the process. As the largest recycler of organic by-products in North America, were trusted because we remove risks while keeping the logistics clean. Because we have the most experienced team in the industry, we can offer tailored solutions that ensure no waste goes to waste. Much of our work isnt pretty. But its a greener world emerging from a cleaner one  worth coming from waste  and we think thats pretty beautiful. Visit synagro.com to learn more.

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Kuwait's Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) agreed to the flights starting from August 10 until October 24, Gulf News quoted the Al Qabas newspaper as saying in the report.

Kuwait City: Kuwait has approved a request to operate flights to repatriate Indian expatriates wishing to return home amid a ban on air travel imposed by Gulf country, including India, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a media report said on Thursday.

According to the DGCA approval, 1,000 Indians will leave Kuwait daily, to be flown equally by Kuwaiti and Indian airlines.

Indians account for almost 1 million of Kuwait's 4.7 million population.

"The arrangements proposed by the Indian side are limited to departure only and do not include their return to Kuwait," the Al Qabas newspaper report said citing an informed source as saying.

"The decision to ban entry of travellers from 31 countries to Kuwait is still in effect."

Earlier this week, Kuwait announced suspending flights from 31 "high-risk" countries, including India, Pakistan, Egypt, and the Philippines.

The travel ban, which took immediate effect, was announced hours after the Kuwait International Airport partially reopened on August 1 for commercial flights after remaining closed for nearly five months.
Lindy Rama-Ellis (formerly Klim) has urged her fans to add 'vagina hydration' to their regular beauty regime.

The ex-wife of Olympic swimmer Michael Klim raised eyebrows last week when she launched Fig Femme, a feminine wellness brand that sells hydrating masks specifically for the vulva.

According to Lindy's website, the designer vagina masks supposedly 'hydrate, soothe and protect' the skin, while also smoothing out wrinkles on the vulva.

Lindy's intimate beauty secret: Lindy Rama-Ellis (pictured) has revealed she spends $75 per week on vagina masks that she claims 'reduce vulva wrinkles'

Each single-use mask costs $25, and is imbued with a variety of 'natural' ingredients, including a probiotic called Lactobacillus ferment to 'reduce odour, irritation and itching'.

They also contain pineapple fruit extract to promote hydration, and willow bark extract, which is traditionally used to alleviate acne.

'If it is a little self-pampering you are after, or assistance with texture, blemishes and rough skin caused by hair removal and ageing, this mask is for you,' Fig Femme's website states.

Skincare for down there: The ex-wife of Olympic swimmer Michael Klim recently launched Fig Femme, a feminine wellness brand that sells hydrating masks specifically for the vulva

Unique: Each single-use mask costs $25, and is imbued with a variety of 'natural' ingredients, including a probiotic called Lactobacillus ferment to 'reduce odour, irritation and itching'

Expensive undercarriage: Lindy recently revealed on Instagram that she uses two to three vagina masks per week - which costs her $75 - and recommended that her fans do the same

Lindy recently revealed on Instagram that she uses two to three vagina masks per week - which costs her $75 - and recommended that her fans do the same.

The Balinese princess, who has no medical qualifications, launched her brand to address the taboos associated with the female anatomy.

'With four kids herself, Lindy Rama-Ellis knows a thing or two when it comes to women's intimate care,' the biography on her website states.

The product we've all being waiting for! Lindy explained to an Instagram follower last week that her vagina masks can assist with reducing 'wrinkles' on the vulva

The website also teases the upcoming release of an 'intimate spray' and 'wash'.

Speaking to The Morning Show on Wednesday, Lindy explained that her product perfectly fills a gap in the skincare market.

'With the amount of waxing and lasering that goes on, that area is very delicate - so I've developed a product for that,' she said.

'It's a sheet mask that you just put on top, like you would for your face.'

Brave: The Balinese princess, who has no medical qualifications, launched her brand to address the taboos associated with the female anatomy

Lindy and Michael Klim split in February 2016, after 10 years of marriage,

She went on to marry property developer Adam Ellis in 2018, and together they share a daughter named Goldie.

Lindy also shares three older children with Michael: daughters Stella, 13, and Frankie, eight, and 11-year-old son Rocco
Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday urged Texans to get flu vaccines early and take action to protect themselves to avoid overburdening already-strained Texas hospitals dealing with the pandemic.

With a flu season that could be prolific, if that leads to greater hospitalizations, coupled with the hospitalizations theyre seeing for COVID-19, you could easily see how hospitals in this region as well as across Texas will be completely overrun with an inability for hospitals to take care of the medical needs of everybody in the entire region, Abbott said in an appearance at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

The Republican governor made the comments in a news conference following a closed-door roundtable discussion about the flu season with top health and medical officials and state lawmakers, including UT Southwestern Medical Center President Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky.

As of Thursday, the rate at which Texans were testing positive for COVID-19 was up to 17 percent, according to state data. Abbott has previously said a positivity rate of above 10 percent is a warning flag.

The number of new confirmed cases has slowly started to decline in some parts of the state, including Harris County, though the 7-day rolling average statewide continues to increase.

Hospitalizations statewide from coronavirus have also decreased slightly since peaking at nearly 11,000 in July but still remain high at about 8,300 as of Thursday, when the state reported 11,600 available beds.

TEXAS TIMELINE: See how COVID-19 took over the Lone Star State

We must sustain that, and we must sustain that at the very least through the flu season, Texas Department of State Health Services Commissioner Dr. John Hellerstedt said of the downward trend. Lets stay where we are in terms of the vigilance and discipline that we have for the measures to prevent COVID-19, and in doing so, I hope, well have the very mildest flu season in history.

Abbott attributed downward COVID-19 trends to Texans almost uniformly adopting the practice of wearing a mask and social distancing. The governor also warned Texans that family gatherings keep surfacing as a spreading event for COVID-19.

Everyone must understand this very simple principle: Until we have medicines that are capable of treating COVID-19, the only tool we have to slow its spread is by everybody adopting these practices, Abbott said.

As some schools prepare to open in September, Abbott said personal protective equipment will be in even higher demand. The Texas Department of Emergency Management has started distributing supplies to school districts, including 60 million masks and 560,000 gallons of hand sanitizer, and he said it will continue to provide more over the course of the school year.

Abbott and other officials on Thursday emphasized the importance of as many people as possible going to get the flu vaccine, which generally hits shelves around September. It could be an uphill battle, early indicators show.

VACCINATIONS DOWN: Texas child vaccination rates down significantly during COVID pandemic, report says

A state report last month showed that child vaccination rates are down by about 44 percent this summer, normally the busiest time of the year, which experts said is likely in large part because of parental fear of contracting the virus in a doctors office as well as a growing anti-vaccine movement. Nationwide, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have also reported decreased immunizations since COVID-19 began spreading.

And an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll in May showed that only about half of Americans said they would get a COVID-19 vaccine if it became available, and about one in five would refuse to get it.

Dr. Kavita Bhavan, associate professor of infectious diseases at UT Southwestern, said Thursday that she and her colleagues are working on improving public education in this area. One such project involves designating high school students in underserved communities as health ambassadors to build trust, which she said has had good initial results.

The ability to vaccinate has been there, but the uptake can be improved, Bhavan said. Were continuing to work in that space and develop research to think through communities that are underserved and undervaccinated, how can we improve upon that?
BEIRUT/PARIS French President Emmanuel Macron promised angry Lebanese crowds in shattered Beirut that aid to rebuild the city would not go to corrupt hands and he urged the political authorities to carry out reforms or risk plunging Lebanon deeper into crisis.

Macron was speaking during the first visit by a foreign leader to the Lebanese capital since the biggest blast in its history tore through the city, killing at least 145 people, injured 5,000 and leaving swathe of the capital in tatters.

After visiting the port at the epicentre of the blast, Macron was greeted by crowds in nearby Gemmayze street, one of the most damaged in the city, shouting chants against the political establishment and endemic corruption.

I guarantee you, this aid will not go to corrupt hands, said Macron, who was wearing a black tie in mourning.

He promised to send more medical and other aid to Lebanon, while those around him chanted Revolution and The people want the fall of the regime.

I will talk to all political forces to ask them for a new pact. I am here today to propose a new political pact to them, he said, shaking hands on roads strewn with rubble and flanked by shops with windows blown out.

Residents, shop owners and volunteers have led clean-up efforts in the popular street of cafes and restaurants, where the blast ripped out balconies and smashed store facades.

Macron was applauded by the crowds in the neighbourhood, in a mainly Christian part of the capital, with chants of Vive la France! Help us! You are our only hope!.

Some also chanted against President Michel Aoun, who is a Maronite Christian under Lebanons political arrangement of dividing powerful positions between sects.

HOME TRUTHS

Macron then headed to the Baabda presidential palace, where he was due to hold talks with Aoun, Prime Minister Hassan Diab, who is a Sunni Muslim, and Nabih Berri, the speaker of parliament who is a Shiite.

After that, he will meet other political groups and civil society at the French ambassadors residence.

France has long sought to support its former colony and has sent emergency aid since the blast. But it has joined other Western nations in pressing for reforms to root out corruption, cut spiralling budget spending and reduce a mountain of debt.

Shortly after landing in Beirut, Macron said Frances solidarity with the Lebanese people was unconditional, but said he wanted to deliver some home truths to political figures.

Beyond the blast, we know the crisis here is serious, it involves the historic responsibility of leaders in place, Macron told reporters after being met at the airport by Aoun.

We cant do without telling each other some home truths, he added.

If reforms are not carried out, Lebanon will continue to sink, he said, citing reforms to the energy sector, as Lebanon suffers acute power shortages, and public tenders, as well as measures to fight corruption.

Officials blamed the blast on a huge stockpile of a highly explosive material stored for years in unsafe conditions at Beirut port. The government ordered some port workers arrested.

Many Lebanese, who have lost jobs and watched savings evaporate in a financial crisis, say the blast was symptomatic of neglect and corruption in the political system.

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
- Israa Seblani, a 29-year-old bride, had an unforgettable wedding photoshoot in Beirut, Lebanon

- A video filmed by Mahmoud Nakib shows how Israas photoshoot got interrupted by the massive explosion in the said city

- The video was taken outside Le Gray Hotel, where Israa and her groom, Ahmad Subeih, were supposed to spend their first night as a married couple

- The bride and the other people with her can be seen in the video scrambling and looking for cover due to the explosion

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Beirut, Lebanon (Photo from Maxpixel.net)

Source: UGC

A 29-year-old bride named Israa Seblani had an unforgettable wedding photoshoot in Beirut, Lebanon.

KAMI learned that a video filmed by Mahmoud Nakib shows how Israas photoshoot got interrupted by the massive explosion in the said city.

The photoshoot took place outside Le Gray Hotel, where Israa and her groom, Ahmad Subeih, were supposed to spend their first night as a married couple.

The video shows the bride and the other people with her scrambling and looking for cover due to the explosion.

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Two Filipinos were killed in the recent twin blasts in Beirut, after 2,750 tons of agricultural fertilizer ammonium nitrate, stored for years at a portside warehouse exploded.

The DFA confirmed that the fatalities were at the homes of their employers. Six other Filipinos were injured, who also happened to be in their employers' homes when the explosions occurred.

Over a hundred people have already died and thousands injured due to the incident, as of this writing.

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Source: KAMI.com.gh
OTTAWA, ON, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Brane Inc., a leading digital asset custodian, announced readiness to begin working with banks in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere. On July 22, 2020, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (the 'OCC') announced that federally chartered banks and thrifts in the United States can provide cryptocurrency custody services to their customers. Brane is ideally positioned to begin working with banks to provide crypto-custodial solutions as a white-label partner to such major financial institutions.

Canadian Digital Asset Custody Company Brane Announces Open for Business to the US.

The announcement by the OCC, a key regulator of the U.S. banking sector, marks a paradigm shift in how the established U.S. banking sector views the embryonic digital asset (including cryptocurrency) ecosystem. Until now, traditional financial services institutions in the U.S. have been unable to hold crypto-assets for their clients, despite the growing demand for this service. Without recognized guidelines from regulators, banks and savings associations were reluctant to enter the field. This announcement removes this uncertainty and clears the way for national banks to hold these assets as a custodian.

"This announcement by the OCC provides validation of both the sector as a whole and Brane's business plan. Now more than ever, the future is digital, and Brane is perfectly placed to participate fully in this 'brave new world.' Brane is open for business to the US." T. Paul Rowland, Brane's CFO and Corporate Secretary.

Although banks in the U.S. now have the green light to proceed with providing custody of digital assets, including cryptocurrency, it is Brane's opinion that most banks will not want to develop their own systems and processes. Having developed relationships with all of the Big Six Canadian banks and a number of US-based banks, Brane believes that banks will prefer to rely on third-party service providers that have deep understanding and experience of blockchain and the crypto-asset space. Brane's technology is an ideal solution as a white-label partner for financial services institutions wishing to provide this needed service for their customers and it augments its current strategy of providing this service directly to its own customers.

Founded in 2017, Brane is a Canadian-based fintech company that offers world-class digital asset custody solutions around the globe. Brane is ISO 27001 certified - first in the world with cryptocurrency in scope, ISO 27017 certified, and NIST Tier 4 - the first company in Canada, in any industry, to receive such certification. Brane offers advanced proprietary technology and processes with over 20 provisional patents, supports all digital assets, and is fully insured against theft and crime.

For more information, please contact:

Adam Miron, Executive Chairman

Telephone: 1.613.986.2422

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Brane Capital
THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY by Matt Haig (Canongate 16.99, 304 pp)

THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY

by Matt Haig (Canongate 16.99, 304 pp)

Depressed Nora is stuck in Bedford, shes lost her job and, to put the tin hat on it, her cat has died.

Just as she prepares to end it all, she finds herself in a library packed with volumes, each containing a life she once considered leading.

In one, shes the Olympic swimmer her father wanted; in another, shes a glaciologist who encounters a polar bear on Arctic pack ice.

In yet another, she stays part of a band and becomes a rock star (I particularly liked that one). Its a brilliant premise and great fun to have so many stories within one book.

If at times it reads slightly like a fictionalised self-help guide, what of it? Right now we need all the help and positivity we can get.

HERE AND NOW

HERE AND NOW by Santa Montefiore (S&S 16.99, 400 pp)

by Santa Montefiore (S&S 16.99, 400 pp)

Montefiores usual beat is aristocratic family dramas in glamorous locations. This story is slightly less posh than usual, and grittier.

Sixtysomething shopkeeper Marigold is succumbing to dementia. Her slow, horrible realisation of the fact is deftly and movingly handled.

Around her, family life goes on for her saintly woodworker husband, grumbling old mother and good-girl, bad-girl daughters, Daisy and Suze.

Good Daisy, on the rebound from a failed affair, is a talented pet portraitist.

The local squire and his wife commission her, meaning that when the squire drops dead and his dishy heir returns from Toronto, Daisy is in pole position.

A thoughtful novel in which tragedy and romance intersect amid rolling countryside and ideal villagedom.

I GIVE IT TO YOU

I GIVE IT TO YOU by Valerie Martin (Serpents Tail 14.99, 304 pp)

by Valerie Martin (Serpents Tail 14.99, 304 pp)

Possibly not the best title for our Covid-conscious times, but an absorbing read nonetheless.

American writer Jan is spending the summer in Tuscany. From the terrace of her guest apartment in a grand villa, she watches the mysterious owners come and go. Gradually, she makes friends with cryptic Luca and glamorous Beatrice and learns of their difficult past.

Their magnificent home has a grubby history, bound up with Mussolini and his fascists. Its future, meanwhile, is threatened by a plotting peasant. Madness, greed and betrayal are additional themes.

The story slips between past and present and is an interesting reversal of all the usual mellow Italian tropes.

We may be Under The Tuscan Sun, but were definitely in the shadows here.
Last week, the chief executives of the four major tech platformsGoogle, Amazon, Apple, and Facebookappeared before Congress (virtually, at least) as part of a year-long investigation into whether antitrust regulators need to take action against any or all of them for anti-competitive behavior. Was the hearing mostly a sideshow, or was it a sign that Congress is planning significant changes to the rules that apply to these digital behemoths? And if regulations are going to change, or antitrust action is going to proceed, what couldor shouldthat look like? How can regulators apply laws that were designed a century ago for railroads and oil companies to digital networks whose products are ephemeral and cost nothing? In an attempt to answer some of these questions, weve been interviewing a number of journalists, academics, and other experts on antitrust, politics, and technology using CJRs Galley discussion platform.

Our first interview was with Zephyr Teachout, an associate professor of law at Fordham University, a former Democratic candidate for governor of New York, and the former national director of the Sunlight Foundation. She said going into the hearing she felt like a teenager on Christmas, ready to be pleased and ready to be horribly disappointed, but came away thinking that the members of the committee posed some tough questions to the four tech titans, and even managed to draw out some revelations, as she put itsuch as an admission from Jeff Bezos, Amazons chief executive, that sellers who use Amazons shipping services are more likely to get access to the coveted buy box at the top of the page with recommended purchases. Teachout also said that the way Apple treats app developers renewed her commitment to antitrust regulation: The 30 percent commission is just on its face highway robbery, she said, adding that it proves how monopoly is theft.

David Dayen, the executive editor of The American Prospect and author of a new book entitled Monopolized: Life in the Age of Corporate Power, said that he felt the hearing exposed a number of obvious antitrust violations, and that the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice could have taken action to prevent some of this conduct but chose not to. Why? A lack of political will, he said. Many of the top officials at FTC and DoJ Antitrust have ties to corporate law firms and have worked for the large companies they are now supposed to regulate, Dayen said. Its kind of staggering how many conflicts there are. Sandeep Vaheesan, legal director at the Open Markets Institute, said the hearing was an important reassertion of Congresss power to regulate markets. The legislative body has been silent for so long on these questions, he said. It felt like a throwback to an earlier time when Congress took its oversight function and matters of market governance seriously.

ICYMI: As election looms, a network of mysterious pink slime local news outlets nearly triples in size

Not everyone agreed that the hearing was a success, or that it proved regulation is necessary. Scott Rosenberg, technology editor at Axios, said the members of the committee showed the four tech giants competing, but didnt come close to proving that any of them have a monopoly. A lot of the conduct that the members of Congress were appalled at was conduct thats neither surprising nor illegalunless youve got a monopoly, Rosenberg said. Showing evidence of rough elbows or price-gouging or underselling isnt the point. Proving that a company has a monopoly is the point, and the committee just didnt tackle that. Dipayan Ghosh, who runs the Digital Platforms and Democracy Project at Harvard and is a former advisor to Facebook and the Obama administration, argued that there is plenty of evidence these companies have monopolies and that they are perpetuating harms in price to society, quality of service rendered to society, and the pace of market innovation.

So what happens now? Matt Stoller, research director at the American Economic Liberties Project, said that breaking up Facebook or forcing it to sell off Instagram or WhatsApp is a real possibility. An acquisition is illegal if the effect of this combination may be substantially to lessen competition, or to tend to create a monopoly, he said, and such mergers can be reversed. Vaheesan, meanwhile, said that while breaking up any or all of the tech titans is a possibility, Congress should also look at implementing conduct remedies, including forcing the platforms to allow interoperability with other services. This could weaken the advantages that Facebook and others enjoy from network effects, he said, and allow for rival social media platforms to grow. And the FTC could also use its consumer protection powers to restrict targeted advertising and data collection, he said.

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Heres more on tech and antitrust:

Harm : An antitrust case has to show that a monopolist has caused harm to consumers and/or the market, and Ghosh argues that Facebook meets this test , even though antitrust cases typically look at consumer prices to determine harm. It has gobbled up smaller competitors and we havent seen much innovation of note in social media; the [intake] of data and attention occurs at a monopolistic rate as evidenced by the historic profit margin of the company; and the extreme amount of noise and dirtiness in the media environment in the form of disinformation, misinformation, hate speech, algorithmic bias, hateful conduct online, and other areas illustrates the deficiencies in quality of service.

Apple : Vaheesan said that while Apple seemed to get less attention from the antitrust hearing, theres an argument to be made that it deserves to be looked at as well, because of the way it monopolizes the mobile app economy. Apples antitrust issues are more discrete so it often flies under the radar in these debates but it deserves close scrutiny too, he said. It wields great power through the App Store, deciding which apps are sold and on what terms to iPhone users [and] it prohibits iPhone app developers from selling their apps directly to iPhone owners or through a rival intermediary. In other words, it has set up the App Store as a bottleneck for the distribution of iPhone apps.

Disruption : Will Oremus, a technology writer with One Zero, said that perceptions of the tech giants have changed fairly dramatically in less than a decade, from seeing them as plucky innovators to seeing them as aggressive monopolists. Facebook bought Instagram in 2012, he said, and that was one of the last years when it was still possible to believe that the Internet was such a dynamic space that todays leader in a given space would be disrupted at any moment, and so you should have a light touch on antitrust because the market was topsy-turvy anyway. Despite that, Oremus said even at that time, it was obvious that Facebook was dominant and Instagram was a competitor.

Other notable stories:

The New York Times reported that its digital revenue exceeded its print revenue for the first time, but part of the reason for that change could be that the newspapers print-advertising revenue fell by 55 percent in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter last year, a result of the decline in advertising due to the coronavirus pandemic (print subscription revenue also fell). Digital-advertising revenue did somewhat better, only dropping 32 percent in the quarter. The Times laid off 68 staffers in June, most of them in the advertising and marketing department. The company said it now has almost six million digital subscribers.

Pete Hamill, a journalist who some called the quintessential New York writer, passed away on Wednesday at the age of 85. A high school dropout who said he was searching for a future after years of academic frustration, Navy life and graphic design work, Hamill walked into the city room of The New York Post in 1960 and worked his way up to the top job there, and later became the editor of its competitor the Daily News . He worked as a foreign correspondent for The Post and The Saturday Evening Post , as a writer for Newsday , The Village Voice , Esquire and other publications. Along the way he also drew attention for his romantic liaisons with famous women like Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Shirley MacLaine, and Linda Ronstadt.

Facebook removed a post from Donald Trumps official account . It was a video clip from a Fox News interview in which Trump falsely said that children are almost immune to COVID-19. A Facebook spokesperson told NBC News that the post was removed because the video includes false claims that a group of people is immune from COVID-19, which is a violation of our policies around harmful COVID misinformation. Twitter temporarily restricted the official Trump-campaign accounts ability to post until a tweet containing the video was removed.

Former MSNBC producer Ariana Pekary wrote a personal essay explaining why she felt she had to quit her job at the news network. My colleagues are very smart people with good intentions, she wrote. The problem is the job itself. It forces skilled journalists to make bad decisions on a daily basis. The focus on ratings, Pekary said, blocks diversity of thought and content because the networks have incentive to amplify fringe voices and events, at the expense of others all because it pumps up the ratings.

James Yeh writes for CJR about how protesters, organizers, and citizen-journalists are staying informed and informing others about the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests, and whether this moment has changed their views on traditional media. To be honest with you, Im not even watching the news, said Joseph Blake, a forty-eight-year-old club promoter, barber, and Portland native. Theyre going to give you their story. Im out hereI am the news for our people. Im doing a lot of live-streaming for people who cant get down there to see. I give it to em rough and raw.

A study of Washington journalists and how they interact with each other on Twitter shows that they not only spend a lot of time talking to others like themselves, but also tend to congregate in even smaller micro-bubbles. That could mean that Beltway journalism may be even more insular than previously thought, according to the authors of the study, Nikki Usher and Yee Man Margaret Ng, both of whom are journalism professors at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The researchers say that their findings raise additional concerns about vulnerability to groupthink and blind spots.

TikTok, the Chinese-owned social networking app that is currently the subject of a debate over whether it will be banned in the US or forced to sell its US operations to Microsoft, announced that it has tightened its rules regarding misinformation, expanded its partnerships with fact-checking services like Politifact and Lead Stories, and is working with working with with the US Department of Homeland Securitys Countering Foreign Influence Task Force. The company also said it is working with other industry-leading threat assessment platforms.

The fall of one of Hungarys last major independent media outlets has exposed how Brussels lacks both the political will and the legal tools to help preserve a vibrant free press in EU member countries, Politico writes . The vast majority of reporters and editors at Hungarys largest news site, Index, quit their jobs in July, following the dismissal of their editor-in-chief, who had warned that the publication was at risk of losing its independence, says Politico . It says the demise of Index comes two years after some 400 media organizations were consolidated into a conglomerate that dominates the media landscape with coverage sympathetic to Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

The public broadcaster in the Netherlands got rid of advertising cookies, those tiny pieces of code that are used by media sites to track the behavior of users in order to target them with ads. But instead of falling, the companys digital revenue has risen dramatically since January of this year, according to a report in Wired magazine, even after the economic shock of the coronavirus pandemic.

ICYMI: It is possible to compete with the New York Times. Heres how.

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Mathew Ingram is CJRs chief digital writer. Previously, he was a senior writer with Fortune magazine. He has written about the intersection between media and technology since the earliest days of the commercial internet. His writing has been published in the Washington Post and the Financial Times as well as by Reuters and Bloomberg.
LIDO: A DIP INTO OUTDOOR SWIMMING POOLS

by Christopher Beanland (Batsford 20)

As swimming pools reopen, this timely book looks at the worlds best lidos, from one in a disused coal mine in Germany to the famous Bondi Icebergs Pool in Australia. Pictured is our very own Brockwell Lido in London, which was the setting for Libby Pages 2018 bestseller Lido.

Beanland interviews people to find out why they swim: for most, its to clear the mind. They arrive with a head full of thoughts but leave with just one: Its time to eat cake. 

So welcome back, lidos, weve missed the head-clearing workouts . . . and the guilt-free hunk of cake afterwards.
HUNTER -- A lamentable side effect of massive crowds heading to two of Greene County's most popular waterfalls has led to a clogged and potentially dangerous highway to the trails, county officials said this week.

Kaaterskill Falls and Fawns Leap Falls, both on Route 23A in Haines Falls are the major attractions this summer and the record crowds have brought illegal parking and unsafe driving conditions, county representatives said. As a result, the town of Hunter has implemented parking regulations and will be towing illegally parked vehicles at the owners expense to the nearby Town Hall Impound Lot.



The main parking lot to Kaaterskill Falls is closed, and the falls can only be accessed from the Laurel House Road and Scutt Road parking areas.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced Thursday he has tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

DeWine was tested Thursday as part of a standard protocol as he prepared to greet President Donald Trump at the tarmac in at Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland, according to a news release issued Thursday afternoon by the governors office.

Less than 10 hours after the initial announcement, DeWine announced he tested negative for coronavirus. The second round of testing was performed through a more sensitive test called a polymerase chain reaction, or PCR test, which detects genetic material from the new coronavirus, the governors office said. The earlier test delivers rapid results by testing the blood for antigens, but is a relatively unproven technology.

As part of the standard protocol to greet President Trump on the tarmac in Cleveland, I took a COVID test. I tested positive. I have no symptoms at this time. Im following protocol and will quarantine at home for the next 14 days.  Mike DeWine (@MikeDeWine) August 6, 2020

Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, who also was in Cleveland to greet the president, tested negative, according to the governors office. Trump is in Ohio to visit the Whirlpool manufacturing plant in Sandusky County and has a fundraiser planned later in Bratenahl.

DeWine has no symptoms, and is returning to Columbus where he will be tested again, as will Ohio First Lady Fran DeWine, the governors office said. He then will head to his home in Cedarville where he plans to self-quarantine for 14 days.

Husted, meanwhile, continued with his plans to meet the president on the runway.

DeWine will make himself available to the media via videoconference at 4:30 p.m. today, the governors office announced later Thursday.

UPDATE: After positive coronavirus test, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine says hes not sure how he got it

DeWine is 73, which places him a higher-risk category for coronavirus patients. He also has a history of respiratory issues. He hospitalized for six days in 2000, while a member of a the U.S. Senate, while he was treated for asthma. Hes had the respiratory condition since he was 25 years old, and receives medication through inhalers, the Toledo Blade reported at the time.

DeWine becomes the second U.S. governor to test positive for COVID-19. Republican Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt tested positive on July 15. He reported to work 12 days later and has declared himself recovered, according to the Tulsa World.

DeWine, a Republican, has become nationally prominent for his cautious approach to dealing with the coronavirus, including being an early advocate for the wearing of facial masks. To try to encourage the public to get tested, he received a nasal swab on live television in late June as a demonstration. He tested negative the next day.

Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in March, DeWine, who once kept his calendar jam packed with photo opportunities, has limited public appearances as he tries to encourage social distancing. In late June, he visited the former General Motors plant in Lordstown, promoting the facilitys acquisition by a start-up electric vehicle company, in his first normal press conference in months.

Officials in the governors office said its unlikely that many other staffers will have to quarantine as a result of the governors positive test. DeWine heads to Columbus twice a week for his coronavirus briefings, but generally works from his home in Cedarville. Most of his staff also work from home. So the only other state officials DeWine likely would come in close contact with include Husted, his security detail and staffers who help with the briefings, Tierney said.

We do an awful lot of work via technology, Tierney said. The vast majority if not all governors staff work remotely.

Sgt. Nathan Dennis, a spokesman for the Ohio State Highway Patrol, said the state troopers assigned to DeWines personal security detail have been tested for COVID-19 and sent home to self-isolate while they await the results.

Right now, its just a matter of waiting and seeing how those results come back and following the guidelines, he said.

The White House issued a statement responding to the news of DeWines positive test.

The President wishes Gov. DeWine a speedy and full recovery and commends the job hes doing for the great state of Ohio, White House spokesman Judd Deere said.

Trump also expressed well wishes to DeWine in a rally-like speech to a group of supporters huddled outside at Burke Lakefront Airport after he arrived Thursday.

Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican, said he and his wife Jane are hopeful the governor will continue to have no symptoms and send our best wishes for a speedy recovery.

I spoke with him yesterday about the ongoing COVID-19 response at the federal and state level and Im certain hell continue to lead a strong and safe reopening of Ohio while following the proper protocols and quarantining at home in Cedarville, Portman said. I hope everyone will support his recovery by continuing to do their part to slow the spread by wearing a mask and practicing social distancing.

The Ohio Democratic Party is saddened to hear of the test result, party Chairman David Pepper said in a statement.

We know how hard hes been working to keep Ohioans safe, and this is just one more reminder that this virus can impact everyone, Pepper said. As fellow Ohioans, we stand with and support our governor and his family at this time.

Cleveland.com / Plain Dealer politics reporter Seth Richardson contributed
Apreo 2 integrates Thermo Fisher's groundbreaking ColorSEM technology, enabling researchers to view and analyze live color images directly within the SEM user interface (UI) without switching to conventional Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) analysis software. Using Apreo 2, researchers can obtain elemental data almost instantly, quickly identifying areas of interest for further exploration.

"Apreo 2 is the most advanced SEM platform on the market, enabling companies and universities to accelerate their nanometer-scale research," said Rosy Lee, vice president of materials science at Thermo Fisher. "By integrating ColorSEM into the Apreo 2, we've designed it for researchers to view and analyze meaningful elemental content differentiated by color directly from within the SEM UI and acquire elemental data up to 10 times faster than was possible with conventional techniques."

The SEM is designed to keep itself always aligned and ready to image with improved stability and SmartAlign automation, allowing researchers to focus on their sample work, not on the microscope. In addition, the Apreo 2 features new auto-focus, auto-stigmator and auto-lens alignment technology - each intended to reduce the need for training and enable any user to obtain high-quality results.

"Advanced automation on the Apreo 2 allows us to focus on characterizing materials and processes for 3D printing tissue scaffolds and studying bone regeneration instead of microscope performance," said Kurt Langworthy, director of CAMCOR at the University of Oregon. "The instrument is intuitive to use, reducing time required for training users. What's more, the high throughput opens up the instrument to more students across our sciences, giving them the high-quality structural and elemental data they need to advance their research."

Apreo 2 is the first SEM on the market with a 1.0-nanometer resolution at a 10-millimeter working distance. This allows users to acquire high-quality images without worrying about microscope components colliding or damaging the sample. High-resolution imaging at long working distance also enables users to pair the best imaging conditions with optimized analytical data collection.

Advancements to Apreo 2 include improved imaging performance, compared to the Apreo 1, at very low beam energies, making it applicable for nanomaterials, polymers and hydrated samples. Finally, improvements at higher beam currents allow for higher-contrast imaging, and improved analytical throughput, compared to the Apreo 1, and when combined with ColorSEM, scientists can generate analytical results even faster than the Apreo 1.

To learn more about Apreo 2, please visit: thermofisher.com/apreo.

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.

Media Contact Information:

Kathy Gill

Thermo Fisher Scientific

+1 971-294-9262

[email protected]

SOURCE Thermo Fisher Scientific

Related Links

http://www.thermofisher.com


Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], Aug 6 (ANI/BusinessWire India): L & T Technology Services Limited, a leading global pure-play engineering services company, announced that it has expanded its collaboration with Microsoft Corporation and launched its latest and enhanced version of the state-of-the-art i-BEMSTM solution on Microsoft Azure to transform buildings into future-ready smart campuses.

With growing digital transformation, there has been a clear impetus on the need for organizations to revamp their office premises to be eco-friendly, taking into consideration sustainability aspects including greenhouse gas and carbon emissions. Another important aspect for office and facility administrators today is to find balance in their buildings to ensure health, safety and wellbeing of their workforce.

LTTS' award-winning Intelligent Building Experience Management System i-BEMSTM is a system-of-systems solution that focuses on creating digital experiences and intelligent space management.

The cloud-based smart buildings/campus/spaces solution helps monitor and manage building operations and optimize business metrics leveraging advanced IoT based Edge Analytics and machine learning algorithms.

i-BEMSTM uses advanced energy analytics and fault diagnostics for energy savings, and net-zero energy compliance. i-BEMSTM has enterprise-grade security features and can create a digital twin to test changes in a virtual build of the building.

LTTS has earlier collaborated with Microsoft to develop a smart campus in Israel for a leading technology company. The two companies have also partnered to leverage Azure IoT platform for Sustainability solutions and connect with Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Field Service to enable real-time optimization, improve ROI, and employee productivity for Facility Management and Operations globally.

In 2018, LTTS furthered their working relationship with Microsoft by setting up a Digital Industrial Transformation Applied Innovation Centre for shared enterprise customers.

The current expanded collaboration leverages Azure to enable i-BEMSTM to act as a Facility Information Broker, unifying data from all systems making the building/campus a single entity rather than a heterogeneous collection of systems focused on employee health and safety and preservation of the immediate environment.

Experts from LTTS and Microsoft also shared the latest best practices on the holistic approach for enterprises planning eco-friendly and safe smart buildings, which can be read here: Smart buildings: From design to reality.

Alind Saxena, Chief Business Officer - Transportation and Alliances, L & T Technology Services said, "With digital transformation, enterprises are also increasingly focusing on finding sustainable ways to grow, while protecting the planet and its resources. Another important determinant for companies is maintaining employee safety and wellbeing within a building by reducing resource usage and improving operational efficiency. i-BEMS covers the best practices from designing to construction to operations for enterprises planning environmentally friendly and socially responsible smart building projects. We are excited to further expand our partnership leveraging Microsoft Azure IoT and Edge technology to serve enterprise customers with industry-leading solutions."

Sanjay Jacob, Senior Director, Microsoft Corporation said, "As a leader in engineering solutions for smart and sustainable campuses, LTTS' Smart Building solutions enable modern workplaces by leveraging cutting-edge Microsoft Azure IoT, Edge & AI technology. Employee safety, energy-efficiency and sustainability is the need of the hour and LTTS delivers an integrated, advanced Azure based Smart Building solution for global enterprises to deploy smart and sustainable campuses. The whitepaper provides an excellent template with the most current best practices for enterprises to go from design to reality of their smart buildings."

This story is provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/BusinessWire India)

DISCLAIMER

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
BRANDON, Man. - Manitoba's largest increase in positive COVID-19 cases in months has prompted a union representing employees at Maple Leaf Food Inc.'s pork processing plant in Brandon to call for it to cease production.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 6/8/2020 (530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Maple Leaf Foods employee walks past a Maple Leaf sign at the company's meat facility in Toronto on December 15, 2008. The union representing employees at a pork processing plant in Manitoba is calling for Maple Leaf to cease production after three more positive COVID-19 cases. The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 832 said in a memo this morning that its calling for the company to stop production at the plant until Aug. 10 at the earliest. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

BRANDON, Man. - Manitoba's largest increase in positive COVID-19 cases in months has prompted a union representing employees at Maple Leaf Food Inc.'s pork processing plant in Brandon to call for it to cease production.

Thirty new cases were announced Thursday in the province, 18 of which are connected to a cluster in Brandon.

The cluster includes four workers who tested positive at the pork plant.

There are 34 active cases in the Prairie Mountain Health Region, which includes the city about 200 kilometres west of Winnipeg.

"Today's case number is a reminder that COVID-19 is not done with us, that we still need to take those fundamental precautions," said Dr. Brent Roussin, the chief provincial public health officer.

Roussin said there was no indication of workplace spread at Maple Leaf.

He said the Brandon cluster is linked to a person who travelled from Eastern Canada and didn't self isolate "perfectly" upon arrival in Manitoba.

While Roussin would not confirm where the traveller came from the province cautioned about possible exposure on a Montreal to Winnipeg flight on July 29.

Until Thursday, there had not been a major single-day increase in the province since 40 cases were announced on April 2.

Jeff Traeger, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 832, said in a memo Thursday that the union wants the company to stop work at the Brandon plant until Aug. 10 at the earliest.

"Until we have more results from the outstanding tests among our members at Maple Leaf," Traeger said.

One worker at the plant tested positive over the weekend and the union said three new cases Wednesday are non-production staff.

The union represents nearly 2,000 people at the pork plant.

Meat-processing plants were the epicentre of some of the largest COVID-19 outbreaks in Canada outside of care homes. Hundreds of people tested positive during outbreaks at two southern Alberta beef-processing plants this spring.

There were three deaths linked to the Cargill plant in High River, Alta. It shut down for two weeks before reopening at reduced capacity. The JBS Canada plant in Brooks, Alta., operated with just a single shift each day for a full month.

Maple Leaf said in an email that a response plan was immediately implemented following the positive tests at the Brandon facility. The company said it appears likely the employees contracted COVID-19 in the community.

However, several employees were asked to self-quarantine.

All employees are given a daily health screening and have their temperatures monitored, the company said. Employees are also supplied personal protective equipment and are required to social distance.

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"We will continue to operate our Brandon plant as long as we believe we can provide an environment that will protect the safety of our people while working," the email from Maple Leaf said.

COVID-19 cases in Manitoba had remained relatively low, with a current total of 474, but there has recently been an increase in infections.

Health Minister Cameron Friesen said the union had sent him a letter requesting the government conduct a full health inspection of the Brandon plant. He said it will be left to public health experts to make determinations about safety.

"We are not there in this case yet."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 6, 2020

 By Kelly Geraldine Malone in Winnipeg
SAPD

San Antonio police officer Humberto Zuniga has been placed on administrative leave at the San Antonio Police Department after being arrested Wednesday for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman police said he was in a relationship with.

According to the woman, Zuniga had sex with her without her consent on July 31. She told police she managed to stop him by grabbing a knife and cutting his arm. The victim called the police and a warrant was later put out for Zuniga's arrest.
First Nations Australians are the most imprisoned people in the world. Justice targets for closing the gap were set down for the first time last week, providing a federal measure for reducing the Indigenous imprisonment rate. Yet the new target  to reduce it by just 15 per cent by 2031  is hugely unambitious.

Indigenous imprisonment ... the close-the-gap target lacks ambition. Credit:Andrew Meares

This nation can do much better. Evidence of that comes this week from Australia's biggest state, NSW, where prisoner numbers  both Indigenous and non-Indigenous  have suddenly and radically fallen this year. Sadly, it has taken COVID-19 to achieve this reduction. Nevertheless, it shows what can be achieved when there is a will.

First, let's recap Australia's woeful position on Indigenous incarceration: it has doubled to 28 per cent of Australia's prison population since the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, yet First Nations people account for only 3.3% of Australians; in NSW, almost a third of all people in prisons are Indigenous; in the Northern Territory it rises to 84 per cent.

But there is hope. Prison statistics for the last quarter, released this week by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, show a 10.7 per cent decrease in the overall prison population and an 11.3 per cent fall in the number of Aboriginal people in prison. Seventy per cent of that decrease is attributed to a decline in the remand population  people denied bail while awaiting trial or sentence. This is because police have been issuing fewer court attendance notices, and police and courts are more likely to grant bail. In April, the number of remandees released on bail doubled. There has also been a 27 per cent fall in the Aboriginal youth detention population.
Exams for JEE and NEET, usually conducted in April for admission to the premier engineering and medical schools in India, have been postponed for about four months now. A particular section of students is demanding the exams be held to avoid any further delay to kickstart the new academic year.

Neev Sikka is preparing for IIT-JEE Mains. Speaking to CNN-New18, he said, We have been preparing for months now. The situation is getting frustrating. If the exam is delayed anymore, well find ourselves appearing with the next batch. That will result in us losing a year of education to the pandemic.

The delay is set to result in increased competition and higher cut-offs. The students have been told by faculty that this year, the percentile that may have landed them in a particular college may not be enough. Due to this, a number of students have complained of stress and anxiety.

Akhilesh Khurana, father to a JEE aspirant, said, Our kids are stressed out and often suffer from sleepless nights and anxiety. As a 17-18 year-old, you are not capable of handling so much pressure. When you have been giving 100% of your time and energy for almost three years now, you expect some results. It is getting difficult for them to concentrate. All they want now is to get done with the exams.

Looking at the increased unrest among the students and the fact that several private institutes like Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology and Vellore Institute of Technology have started the admission process, the IITs plan to conduct the exam in September.

V Ramagopal Rao, director of IIT-Delhi, which is responsible for organising the JEE Advanced this year, said they are prepared to hold the exam with social-distancing and other prevention norms being followed. The number of examination centres has been increased from 80 to 180 and the criteria of scoring a minimum of 75% in Board exams has been scrapped.

Securing admission to IITs is a lengthy procedure. After the exams that are held in two levels, there is a long counselling session. Colleges are already running behind schedule. If the exam is conducted in September, theres no chance the classes will start before November. Private colleges have already started online classes.

Aashish, older brother to Neev Sikka, said, We did mull over him joining a private college but the tuition fees of private colleges is high. We have asked him to wait and are hoping the exam will be conducted as soon as possible.

The lockdown in most parts of the country is being eased now. With the release of Unlock 3.0 guidelines, gyms and markets are open. The Covid-19 curve is still rising and it appears that the pandemic is here to stay. Keeping the current scenario in mind, the universities have offered sanitised transport and classrooms among other precautions once the admission procedure is completed.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 6)  A group of health professionals has called on the government to allow traditional jeepneys to ply their routes, saying this mode of transport poses less risks of viral transmission compared to buses or modern jeepneys.

Dr. Gene Nisperos of Second Opinion PH said there is no scientific basis for excluding traditional jeepneys in the list of vehicles allowed to provide public transportation during the pandemic.

We can't understand where the basis of excluding jeepneys are or where the Inter-Agency Task Force based their decision to exclude jeepneys while including other forms of public transport, Nisperos said in an interview on CNN Philippines on Thursday.

According to Nisperos, traditional jeepneys are a safe public transport option as they allow for better free flow of air owing to their large windows and door-less entrance. In contrast, the riding public has a higher chance of contracting COVID-19 in air-conditioned buses and modern jeepneys due to limited ventilation, the doctor said.

Especially if you put limited passengers [in traditional jeepneys], then the circulation of air would be much preferable than in one that is air-conditioned or one that is enclosed, he added.

Nisperos said the IATF is doing not only jeepney drivers and operators an injustice, but also the riding public, noting that many rely on the public vehicle to transport them to work.

He also hit the task force for some of its policies, including requiring motorcycle riders to have a physical barrier or shield between the driver and the passenger. He called the measure unnecessary, especially for couples already living together.

He added: The driver won't look at you, won't have a chit-chat with you, and won't talk with you, because you are both wearing a helmet already. I don't see why that is and yet, it's a requirement."

The IATF should ensure that its policies on public transportation are logical and helpful to the public, instead of coming up with only arbitrary decisions," Nisperos said.

Metro Manila and the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal are under a modified enhanced community quarantine until August 18, wherein public transportation is suspended anew.
TEHRAN, Iran, Aug. 6

Trend:

In a statement on Aug. 6, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman expressed sympathy with the Lebanese people in connection with the explosion in Beirut and announced that two shipments of humanitarian aid will be sent to Lebanon.

The Seyed Abbas Mousavi also underlined Tehrans solidarity with the nation and government of Lebanon during these difficult times, Trend reports citing Mehr News Agency.



"From the first moments of this incident, we tried to find out what type of aid Lebanese people may need, he said adding that Foreign Minister Javad Zarif talked with his Lebanese counterpart, and other Iranian ministers and officials tried to speak over the phone with their counterparts.



Referring to the president's order to help the Lebanese people, he said: "One or two shipments of our country's medical aid, along with some other items, will be sent to Lebanon.



In the future, some infrastructure aid will be provided to the Lebanese people, the spokesman said adding that the details will be announced later.



A massive explosion near the center of Beirut on Aug. 4 killed at least 100 people, while thousands were injured. More than 300,000 people have been displaced from their homes. There were shockwaves across the Lebanese capital, shattering glass in peoples homes and causing apartment balconies to collapse

Authorities declared Beirut a "disaster city" and imposed a two-week state of emergency.
Virginia officials on Wednesday launched a smartphone app that uses Bluetooth technology to alert people when they have come in contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.

Use of the app, designed to help contain the spread of the virus as public activity increases, is voluntary and would require that individuals download the software on their phones, activate notifications and self-report a positive COVID-19 test.

The app, COVIDWISE, is the result of a collaborative project between Google and Apple, which have been in talks with Virginia and other states to develop and roll out the app for months. Virginia on Wednesday became the first state to fully launch an app with this particular platform.

Gov. Ralph Northam on Wednesday urged Virginians to engage with the new app, which he described as a really powerful tool in our tool box, to fight COVID-19.

Northam and officials of the Virginia Department of Health acknowledged possible privacy concerns, assuring the public that the app does not track their whereabouts or store personal information.
 Read the full article on Motorious

A junkyard 1979 Corvette body was mated to a 1979 Eldorado chassis, and thus this front-wheel-drive C3 Corvette was born.

This could possibly be the worlds only front-wheel-drive Corvette, and you can see it soon at the Corvette Museum. While many Corvette owners will wince over the idea of what a front-wheel-drive Corvette represents, what it actually turned into is at least interesting, if nothing else.

Image Via Corvette Museum



John Jacobi got the inspiration to build this creation out of practicality and his curiosity to that drove him to do things no one else has tried before.

My dad strived to do things differently than most, Jacobis daughter, Tara, told the Corvette Museum. At the time, we lived on Long Island where winters brought snow, Tara wrote.

My dad wanted a front-wheel-drive vehicle for all-weather handling. Also, after repairing numerous rusty cars, he wanted a fiberglass body.

Instead of picking something already made for the market, he decided to source a junkyard 1979 Corvette body, and made it work with a 1979 Cadillac Eldorado chassis from a local junkyard. His plan with to cut 16-inches off the chassis wheelbase, and then drop the Corvette body on it.

Image Via Corvette Museum



The project turned out to be quite the undertaking as the Corvette body rode too high on the chassis, so a chassis specialist was enlisted to section the frame rails, cut the coils springs, and adjust the torsion bars.



Once all of the other components were put together like a jigsaw puzzle, the build would get a 350 cubic inch engine from an Oldsmobile, and mated it to a THM325. A hole had to be cut to accolade the engine, and a radiator had to be customized and cooled by electric fans.

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The IFA exhibition in Berlin is scheduled to take place in a new format this year between September 3 and September 5, and several companies are embracing the idea of having physical events once again.

We already have a confirmation that Realme will attend, and today we received an invite that Honor is also having a press conference which will be on September 4.

The theme of the presentation will be Expand Your Smart Life, where Honor will introduce a wide portfolio of products, including smart bands, personal computers, and tablets, while the image also contains a phone. The event will be livestreamed so you can still follow it from the comfort of your home of office.

Other smartphone companies that are confirmed to attend are LG, TCL, and Huawei, all with conferences scheduled for the first day. The opening keynote will be hosted by Qualcomm where we might hear more on the chip companys roadmap for Q4.

The event used to be a lot bigger with more well-known brands, but given the health situation and the travel restrictions, most are likely to stick to local announcements instead of global unveilings.
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Athens, Greece  Thu, August 6, 2020 08:40 531 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066be57fa 2 World greece,coronavirus,COVID-19,COVID-19-infection,pandemic,SARS-CoV-2,virus-corona,novel-coronavirus Free

Greece's government on Wednesday announced a "wake-up week" on COVID-19, tightening restrictions after a steady rise in mostly domestic infections.

The country has seen infections increase this month to levels last seen in April, with officials blaming overcrowding in clubs and social events.

"We are calling this a wake-up week. We are trying to awaken people with messages and daily announcements on additional measures," government spokesman Stelios Petsas told Mega TV.

"The virus is here, it feeds on our complacency," he said.

Over 380 new infections have been announced in August by the national public health organization.

Only 10 percent of cases in Greece can be traced to foreign arrivals, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Greece has so far recorded 209 COVID-19 deaths and over 4,800 infections.

"We have located three sources of concern: very regular crossings from Balkan countries by ethnic Greeks and residence permit holders... social gatherings, including clubbing youths, weddings and baptisms, and public transport," Petsas said.

The public protection agency last week said masks must be worn in all indoor public areas, and visits to retirement homes and other institutions hosting vulnerable groups are restricted until August 15.

A limit of 100 guests was also set for weddings, baptisms and funerals, and summer fairs were cancelled.

Mitsotakis has already ruled out a general lockdown after gradually reopening the economy in May and starting to accept foreign arrivals in June to salvage part of the tourism season that is vital to the economy.
Heres what you need to know on 5 August. This article was updated at 4.40pm.

Deaths: The government said 46,364 people had died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Tuesday, up by 65 from the day before.

Policy: Coronavirus was able to spread faster through the UK because the government failed to shut the countrys borders in the early stages of the pandemic, MPs have said. A Commons Home Affairs Committee report highlighted critical errors in the governments strategy, including the decision to lift all border restrictions in March. Read more here.

Scotland: Aberdeen is to go back into some of its lockdown measures after an outbreak of coronavirus was linked to 20 pubs and restaurants. Restrictions include no travel outside a five-mile radius, the closure of all indoor and outdoor hospitality, and an end to people entering each others houses. Read more here.

Lockdown: Laws coming into force in Manchester, parts of east Lancashire and West Yorkshire are causing some confusion as a loophole seems to suggest people can meet in hotels but not in their own homes. It means that it will be illegal for people from separate households to have sex in homes  but they will be able to pay for a hotel room. Read more here.

Three pubs in Sunderland have had to close after a drinker had a night out while awaiting the results of his coronavirus test. The unnamed man has since been confirmed as having contracted COVID-19. Read more here.

Schools: The rate of transmission of coronavirus  known as the R value  will go up once schools are reopened in England next month, a former government adviser has warned. Professor Neil Ferguson  who resigned from the government's advisory group Sage after he was found he had broken lockdown guidelines  said ministers "need to plan for all contingencies" when it comes to the reopening of schools. Read more here.

Business: WHSmith could cut up to 1,500 jobs, in another blow to the high street. The company, which dates back to 1792, said total revenues in July were down 57% on a year earlier, despite the easing of UK lockdown rules. Read more here.

Story continues

Read more about COVID-19

How to get a coronavirus test if you have symptoms

What you can and cant do under lockdown rules

In pictures: How UK school classrooms could look in new normal

How public transport could look after lockdown

How our public spaces will change in the future

Rest of the world

Young people going to nightclubs and beaches has led to a rise in new coronavirus cases across the globe, the World Health Organization has said. The proportion of those aged 15 to 24 who are infected has tripled from 4.5% to 15% in about five months, it said. Read more here.

Positive news

The Natural History Museum in London reopened today, with visitors delighted to be able to return to the venue. Slots to visit the museum this week are fully booked, while 80% of the tickets for next week have also already been sold. Read more here.

Coronavirus: what happened today
New Delhi: Indian consumer brand Milagrow has launched three new robots vacuum cleaner devices, Milagrow iMap Max, Milagfrow iMap 10.0, and Milgrow Seagull, which are now available on Amazon Prime Day 2020 Sale that started on Thursday (August 6).

All the three cleaning devices sport independent navigation features and come integrated with the proprietary software called RT2R (real-time terrain recognition) technology for enabling use in both commercial and domestic purposes. Key features of the premium Milagrow iMap Max include high-pressure floor mopping and self-cleaning technology.

Key features, price

Milagrow iMap Max: Wet mopping and vacuuming robot which can self-clean its mops with a pressure of 40N. This self-cleaning robotic vacuum cleaner has a wet mopping mechanism that comes down and puts pressure of 10 N on the floor by two hydraulic shafts, based on an AI algorithm, that cleans dirt and stains from the floor.

After mopping a certain area, iMAP Max returns to base for self-cleaning. AI-based robot vacuum will go back and start cleaning from where it came back as the cleaning map is memorized. The settings on the app can be changed to enlarge or reduce the area.

iMAP Max also features Snail Touch Side brush to clean spaces like corners. The robot has a reusable 1-litre dust bag and users can attach optional disposable bags. Milagrow iMAP Max uses a LIDAR sensor real-time terrain recognition technology for faster mapping and real-time path planning. With a 5200 mAh battery and 2200 pa powerful suction to pick even small stones or beans. The robot is backed with a 2-year warranty and a 5-year warranty on the Japanese suction motor.

The price of Milagrow iMAP Max including the water tank is Rs 99,990/-

Milagrow iMap 10.0: This device is also a fully independent self-navigating robot vacuum that comes with an electronic water tank, but doesn't offer the self-cleaning technology that comes with the iMap Max. It packs a 5,200mAh battery and Milagrow assures that the battery can last for up to three hours and offer powerful suction of 2,700pa. It also includes the LIDAR sensor that is said to offer a cleaning accuracy of up to 8mm.

It comes with a total of 18 sensors and is powered by an octa-core CPU. iMap 10.0 has Electronic Water Tank can take Sodium Hypochlorite 1 per cent solution to kill COVID-19 spores on floor, as recommended by ICMR. Milagrow iMap 10.0 features a triple air filter system with HEPA12 and can remove 99.5 per cent of PM up to 0.1 microns. The robot further comes with full self-diagnosis and troubleshooting display function as it works, in real-time. It comes with a 5-year suction motor warranty and a 2-year comprehensive warranty.

The price for iMap 10.0 is Rs 89,990/-

Milagrow Seagull: Seagull, the Cleaning Robot comes with a height of 7.2 cm, uses the 'Gyro Mapping' technology. It displays real-time progress and map while cleaning on the user's device. The robot plans the path in real-time in each area to reduce the time taken.

This robot vacuum also features anti-bacterial, anti-microbial, and anti-viral (0.5 microns) properties, that help minimize the spread of infections in hospitals and similar environments. The robot can facilitate slight wet cleaning. It has a NIDEC Brushless motor, which has 1500 pa suction power, maximizing the cleaning power.

Seagull comes with a 5-year suction motor warranty and a 2-year comprehensive warranty. The price of Seagull is Rs 20,000/-

Rajeev Karwal, Founder Chairman of Milagrow Robots, said, "These 3 'White Robo-Knights' are especially launched keeping in mind the emerging situation in homes, offices, hospitals, hotels etc due to the pandemic. The need for hygiene and disinfection is greater than ever before. The real-time terrain recognition technology combined with pressure mopping of the floor and then self-cleaning of mops is a world first. We are targeting sales of more than INR 10 million by premiering these robots during Amazon Prime Day on the 6th and 7th of Aug."
In this Nov. 21, 2018 photo, United States Border Patrol agents stand by a vehicle near one of the border walls separating Tijuana, Mexico and San Diego, in San Diego. As of this week, the ACLU has filed nearly 400 lawsuits and other legal actions against the Trump administration, some meeting with setbacks but many resulting in important victories. Of the lawsuits, 174 have dealt with immigrant rights. Read more

NEW YORK  The day after Donald Trumps election in November 2016, the American Civil Liberties Union posted a message to him on its website: See you in court.

As president, Trump hasnt personally squared off against the ACLU from the witness stand, but the broader warning has been borne out. As of this week, the ACLU has filed nearly 400 lawsuits and other legal actions against the Trump administration, some meeting with setbacks but many resulting in important victories.

Among other successes for the ACLU, it prevailed in a U.S. Supreme Court case blocking the administration from placing a citizenship question on the 2020 census. It also spearheaded legal efforts that curtailed the policy of separating many migrant children from their parents.

The assault on civil liberties and civil rights is greater under this administration than any other in modern history, said the ACLUs president, Anthony Romero. Its meant weve been living with a three-alarm fire in every part of our house.

Since the day Trump took office, the ACLU  according to a breakdown it provided to The Associated Press  has filed 237 lawsuits against the administration and about 160 other legal actions, including Freedom of Information Act requests, ethics complaints and administrative complaints.

Of the lawsuits, 174 have dealt with immigrant rights, targeting the family separation policy, detention and deportation practices and the administrations repeated attempts to make it harder to seek asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The other lawsuits address an array of issues high on the ACLUs agenda: voting rights, LGBT rights, racial justice and others. In one long-running case, the ACLU succeeded in blocking the administrations policy of barring young immigrant women in government custody from getting abortions.

Donald Trump has provided a full employment program for ACLU lawyers on all of our issues, Romero said.

By comparison, the ACLU says it filed 13 lawsuits and other legal actions against President George W. Bushs administration in his first term, mostly alleging encroachments on civil liberties related to counter-terrorism policies.

Many of the ACLUs recent lawsuits remain unresolved. Of those that have been decided, Romero said, the ACLU has won far more often than it has lost, though a precise breakdown was unavailable.

Among the setbacks, ACLU national legal director David Cole said, one of the most disappointing involved Trumps efforts to ban foreign nationals from several predominantly Muslim countries. Lawsuits by the ACLU and its allies successfully blocked implementation of the first two versions of the ban, but the Supreme Court allowed a third version to go into effect in 2018.

By a similar 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court also allowed the implementation of the Trump administration policy barring transgender people from enlisting in the military. Lower courts had supported efforts by the ACLU and other groups to scrap the ban.

Another LGBT rights case recently ended in a major victory for the ACLU and its allies when the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in June that gays, lesbians and transgender people were protected from employment discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. One of the ACLUs clients, Aimee Stephens, was fired from her job at a Michigan funeral home because she was transgender; she died just a few weeks before the high court ruled in her favor.

Theres no question the ACLU has caught the attention of Trump and his administration.

The Republican president, at an Evangelicals for Trump rally in January, derided the ACLU as a "group of beauties who had filed a lawsuit accusing public schools in Smith County, Tennessee, of improperly promoting Christian religious beliefs.

We will not allow faithful Americans to be bullied by the hard left, Trump said.

In a May 2018 speech, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions assailed the ACLU for a lawsuit that led to a drop in stop-and-frisk arrests by Chicago police.

If you want crime to go up, let the ACLU run the police department, Sessions said.

Recently, the ACLU has drawn criticism from a longtime supporter, George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley. He worries that the organization is aligning too closely with the Democratic Party and is now less willing than in the past to support unpopular causes, such as the free-speech rights of far-right activists.

In an email, Turley questioned the wisdom of the torrent of lawsuits against the Trump administration.

The result was less of a sniper strategy and more of a saturated bombing strategy, he wrote.

Even as it spars with the administration, the ACLU notes that Trumps presidency has been beneficial in some respects  fueling huge increases in donations and membership.

Romero says the ACLU national office and its state affiliates received about $175 million in donations in the three months after Trump's election. It says it has increased its headquarters staff from 386 to 605 and now has 122 attorneys, up from 84 in November 2016.

Membership has soared from about 400,000 to more than 1.8 million. Romero says many of the newcomers have been asking how they can help as volunteers in bolstering voting rights, immigrants rights and other causes.

Demonstrating its increased interest in electoral politics, the ACLU had directed $28 million of its national funds to its affiliates in battleground states such as Florida, Arizona and Texas. Since 2016, Romero said, the ACLU of Texas has been able to double its budget to $8.5 million and its staff to 65 employees.
There is a new development in Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death case. As per documents obtained by CNN-News18, Sushant's alleged girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty has blocked his phone number on June 8. The call records also suggest that there was no conversation between Sushant and Rhea from June 8 and 14, the day Sushant was found dead in his Bandra house.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday received the Department of Personnel and Training's (DoPT) notification to initiate a probe into actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death. In another related development, the Centre told the Supreme Court that it had accepted the Bihar government's recommendation for a CBI probe into the case.

On Tuesday, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had sought the CBI probe into the death of the actor on June 14 at his Bandra apartment in Mumbai, on the request of Sushant Singh's father K.K. Singh.

On Singh's complaint, the Bihar Police registered a case against Sushant Singh's girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty on July 25.

Sushant's father had lodged an FIR against Rhea in Patna, accusing her of cheating and threatening his son. Sushant's family has also accused her of keeping him away from his family.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has initiated a money laundering probe on the basis of the Patna Police's FIR.

Earlier, a verbal duel erupted between the governments of Maharashtra and Bihar over the investigation by the Bihar Police in the case.
This month marksthe 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, when humanity learned of the devastationa single nuclear bomb can unleash. The lingering suffering caused to the survivors, the hibakusha, should give us daily motivation to eliminate all nuclear arms.They have shared their stories so the horror experienced by Hiroshima and Nagasaki will never be forgotten. Yet the nuclear threat is growing once more.

A web of agreements and instruments has been constructed to prevent the use of these uniquely destructive weapons and ultimately to eliminate them. But that framework has idled for decades and is starting to erode. The potential that nuclear weapons will be used  intentionally, accidentally or as a result of miscalculation  is dangerously high.

Fuelled by mounting international tensions and the dissolution of trust, relations between countries that possess nuclear weapons are devolving into dangerous and destabilizing confrontations. As governments lean heavily on nuclear weapons for security, politicians are trading heated rhetoric about their possible use and devotingvast sumsof money to improving their lethality, money that would be much better spent on peaceful, sustainable development.

For decades, nuclear testing led to horrific human and environmental consequences. Thisrelic of a former age should be confined there forever. Only a legally-binding, verifiable prohibition on all nuclear testing can achieve this.The ComprehensiveNuclear-Test-Ban Treaty has proven its worth, yet some States have stillto sign or ratify the treaty,preventing it from fulfilling its full potential as an essential element in the framework to eliminate nuclear weapons.

Along with climate change,nuclear weapons represent an existential threat to our societies. Most of the roughly 13,000 nuclear armscurrently in global arsenals are vastly more destructive than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Any use would precipitate a humanitarian disaster of unimaginable proportions.

It is time to return to the shared understanding that a nuclear war cannot be won and must not be fought, to the collective agreement that we should work towards a world free of nuclear weapons, and to the spirit of cooperation that enabled historic progress towards their elimination.

The United States and the Russian Federation, as the possessors of some 90 per cent of nuclear weapons,are expected to lead the way. The New START treaty retains verifiable caps. Its extension for five yearswould buy time to negotiate new agreements, including by potentially bringing in other countries possessing nuclear weapons.

Next year, the United Nations will host the Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), one of the most successful international security agreements.Itcontains the only treaty-based commitments undertaken by the five largest nuclear-armed countries to pursue the elimination of nuclear weapons andimposes verifiable obligations not to acquire or develop nuclear weapons. Its near universal membership means the vast majority of the international community is bound by these commitments. The NPT Review Conferenceis an opportunity to stem the erosion of the international nuclear order.

Fortunately, most United NationsMember States remain committed to the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons. This is reflected in the 122 countries that supported the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. They understand that the consequences of any use of nuclear arms would be catastrophic.We cannot risk another Hiroshima or Nagasaki or worse. As we reflect on the suffering of the hibakusha, let us view this tragedy as a rallying cry for humanity and recommit to a world free of nuclear weapons.

*The writer, Antonio Guterres, is the Secretary-General of the United Nations



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The Oregon Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the reductions in public employee pension benefits that the Legislature passed in 2019 to help address the states burgeoning pension funding deficit and rein in the escalating pension costs and resulting budget problems for public employers.

Nine public employees filed suit last August seeking to overturn two benefit reductions the Legislature made in Senate Bill 1049: requiring employees to share a small portion of the cost of their pension benefits, and putting a $195,000 limit on the final salary used in some benefit calculations.

Their lawyers argued that the changes constituted an impairment of contract under the state and federal constitutions, a taking without just compensation and a breach of public employees PERS contract rights.

In a unanimous decision, the court rejected those arguments, sticking with the principle it established in its 2015 decision on the last round of legal wrangling over PERS: the Legislature is entitled to change employee retirement benefits prospectively, for future service, but benefits earned on service already rendered are sacrosanct.

The court recognized that we had taken fair and reasonable steps to reduce rising PERS costs, said Jim Green, executive director of the Oregon School Boards Association. Its a victory for students by allowing Oregon schools to invest more in the classroom.

The impact of Senate Bill 1049 falls mostly on longer-term employees, as well as those at the very top of the states pay scale.

The law redirected a portion of the required retirement contributions that employees make to an individual, 401(k)-like account that supplements their pension benefits to support the pension fund.

Employees making more than $30,000 a year and hired on or before Aug. 28, 2003, are now required to send 2.5% of their salary to support the pension. The remainder of their required retirement contributions  another 3.5% of salary - will still flow to the individual account.

Employees hired after Aug. 28, 2003, who make more than $30,000 a year will be sending 0.75% of salary to support the pension fund, with the remaining 5.25% of salary still flowing to individual accounts.

If the pension fund regains a funded status of 90% or more, the employee pension payments will be suspended and the full 6% of salary will go back into the individual account program. The funded status of the system stood at 72% at the end of 2019, though the way it is calculated for the purposes of the bill, including employers side accounts with PERS, the funded status was 79 percent.

The employee cost-sharing is expected to offset about $300 million in employer contributions statewide during the next two-year budget cycle. It is expected to reduce a 30-year employees overall retirement benefits by about 1% to 2% due to the reduction in ending balances in their individual account.

The $195,000 limit on final salary will impact far fewer public employees, and only those who retire under the full formula retirement method, which is based on a members final salary and years of service. The state of Oregon, for instance, has fewer than 100 employees who made more than that number in 2019, and some of them will retire under the systems other retirement formulas because they will generate higher benefits.

Public employees pushed back hard on Senate Bill 1049, and their unions withdrew support from some lawmakers who backed the bill in the last election cycle. However, the most important piece of the bill financially had nothing to do with employee benefits, but was an accounting gimmick that lowered employers required contributions to PERS by extending the repayment period for its $24.5 billion deficit.

Jennifer James, a school secretary in Molalla, is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit. In an e-mailed statement on Thursday, she said the ruling was deeply disappointing and would have long-term financial impacts for PERS members.

We want to send a very strong message to the governor and the state legislature: enough is enough, she said. With SB 1049 you impacted the people who work on the front lines during pandemics, natural disasters and states of emergencies to keep our communities safe and healthy.... Workers are paying the price for the legislatures unwillingness to keep their promises.

-- Ted Sickinger; tsickinger@oregonian.com; 503-221-8505; @tedsickinger

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The Star Citys hopes for in-person education dimmed Thursday. Roanoke City Public Schools reopening task force now recommends a virtual start to the school year for most students, setting aside an ambitious plan to send students back to the classroom four days per week.

The Transition and Restoration Task Force unanimously agreed to take a more conservative approach after reviewing student intent form data, infrastructure and other points outlined in the initial plan, Superintendent Verletta White said in an interview Thursday morning.

When we put those data points alongside the COVID-19 cases in the city of Roanoke, we realized that we really have to move very steadily, thoughtfully and responsibly, White said. The beauty of our first proposal is that it allowed us to pivot and allowed us to adjust, which is what the task force is recommending to the board.

The division on Thursday afternoon publicly released the updated plan, which must be reviewed and approved by the Roanoke School Board to take effect. The board is expected to review the recommendation and vote on a reopening plan during its meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at William Fleming High School.

If the plan is approved, Roanoke would be the first school division in the Roanoke and New River valleys to go all-virtual when classes start Aug. 31, a drastic rollback from the districts previous plan. With just over 14,000 students, Roanoke is the largest school district in Southwest Virginia.

The updated plan is a phased approach, with the goal of a gradual entrance to in-person learning beginning in the second quarter depending on infection data, White said.

Virtual instruction would still occur in the second nine weeks for students in grades six through 12, while pre-K through fifth grade students would have the option to attend in-person two days per week, according to the detailed 53-page proposal.

All students would be able to attend four days a week in the third nine weeks and five days a week in the fourth nine weeks. Students would also have the option to remain fully virtual.

Certain students would have the opportunity to attend in-person four days a week throughout the first nine weeks, according to White. That includes students who spend more than half of their school day in a special education program, level one English language learners, and identified students who attend Forest Park Academy or Noel C. Taylor Academy at Oakland.

Those numbers are manageable for us, and we are able to provide the in-person instruction for our most academically and socially vulnerable students, White said.

The divisions virtual academy would involve more synchronous learning than advertised in the initial plan, which could range from a morning meeting to real-time instruction.

We want to make sure that every student has an opportunity to speak with and to meet with their teachers, White said, adding that virtual instruction will look significantly different than when schools closed in the spring.

There is also a possibility that small groups of students could go to the classroom one day per week for remediation or enrichment on a case-by-case basis, White said. That would need to be decided between a students teacher and parents.

Making the call

The decision to downshift began to take root when the task force looked at recent COVID-19 case data, White said.

The initial proposal, created using guidance from health organizations including the Virginia Department of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called for 3 feet of physical distancing with masks in several schools that cannot accommodate 6 feet of distancing.

Now that were in more of that substantial community transmission, and knowing that college students are on their way back, now we have to look at 6 feet distance between students, White said. And that kind of changes everything.

We have looked at every option available, she added. Infrastructure and staffing challenges make other options unfeasible, she said. A total of three other options were considered in addition to the initial and updated proposals.

White initially presented a 70% capacity, four-day-a-week plan to the school board on July 14, the day after she presented the plan to the task force for review.

Previous options discussed at task force meetings included sending all students to the classroom one or two days a week or sending pre-K through second grade students daily and dividing upper grades into three cohorts to rotate into the classroom every third week for four days, according to task force minutes reviewed by The Roanoke Times.

Students intent cloudy

The division settled  initially, at least  on the 70% capacity plan for all grades, which was based on feedback from the divisions initial survey.

Approximately 68% of respondents opted for a hybrid plan, and 31% opted for fully virtual. With that many students opting for online, White had said it was feasible to have a 70% capacity school day.

Only 60% of the divisions enrollment filled out the survey, though. The plan was contingent on how many students opted for virtual learning, so the division distributed a formal intent form to receive a fuller response.

However, only 64% of the divisions enrollment filled out that form by the time it closed July 28, which hindered us in knowing exactly how many students we would have to prepare for, White said. Approximately 52% of those respondents chose in-person instruction, according to spokesman Justin McLeod.

Minutes show task force members voiced several concerns when White presented the 70% capacity plan on July 13. Families may have responded to the survey thinking hybrid would mean only one or two days, not four, one person said. (The minutes did not always identify who spoke.)

There was also a worry about teachers and staff not feeling they could discuss their honest opinions.

White said Thursday there was a mixed reaction.

I think that just like with every option presented, not only the four-day option, but one-day options, cohort options, two-day options, theres always a robust discussion about each of those, she said.

Now, the task force voiced a unanimous desire to move forward with virtual learning, so much so that they took it upon themselves to vote to recommend the online-only plan, White said.

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Conakry, Aug 6 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 6th Aug, 2020 ) :Guinea's ruling RPG party on Thursday requested that President Alpha Conde seek a third term in elections due later this year, a scenario that has sparked violent protests.

Under Guinea's constitution, presidents may only serve two terms.

Conde, 82, was elected president in 2010, and again in 2015. His opponents say he pushed through a revamped constitution that has reset the counter to zero, enabling him to extend his time in office.
"They're only hurting themselves. They should unite themselves and do the right thing for the game. Treat this as a wake-up call." Despite his stern warning that continued indiscretions could see the NRL season suspended, as it would put the exemptions in place with the Queensland government in jeopardy, V'landys believes the punishments that will follow should send a clear message to Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. "I don't think it's going to effect the exemptions because we're going to deal with them pretty harshly to show the government that we're credible and we will take the appropriate action," he said. Dragons and Blues prop Paul Vaughan has broken the NRL's biosecurity protocols. Credit:Getty "If they breach protocol, they will be stood down, they will be tested and they will be isolated for 14 days. We're abiding by our own protocols."

V'landys also took umbrage to Bennett saying the protocols are confusing. "I don't think that's valid. It was well known that the rules were relaxed but they were then reintroduced once the Victorian situation caused uncertainty," he said. "Wayne knows the difference between the relaxation and the original. They all knew the original protocols. We relaxed them but when we had this Victorian disaster, we reintroduced them." Bennett stood in the middle of Redfern Oval and watched his players prepare for Friday night's clash against his old club Brisbane as News Limited reported Bennett had dined at Leichhardt restaurant Grappa on Wednesday. It was well known that the rules were relaxed but they were then reintroduced once the Victorian situation caused uncertainty. Peter V'landys

Speaking after Thursday morning's training session, Bennett confirmed he had attended Grappa. "If it was a breach I wouldn't have done it," Bennett said. "I didn't think it was a breach. I went there with my partner, who I live with, just me and her, we had something to eat and that was it. "It's in the hands of the NRL and people who are running our COVID quarantine. "I go shopping, we go to different places to get meals at times. It's just me and my partner who live together. "She was with me, I went somewhere to have something to eat at lunchtime.

"It's [the NRL's] call. The rules have changed that many times about what we can and can't do ... I didn't think I was breaking any rules yesterday because I wasn't with a group, it was just myself and my partner, there was nobody else, and we didn't sit near anybody. "I feel great today." Bennett sat on the Project Apollo committee and is one of the most knowledgeable people in rugby league, and conceded he of all people should have been across the COVID rules. Rival players have already been forced to isolate for similar incidents, including Penrith's Charlie Staines who isolated after partying with too many friends and family after his NRL debut, plus a trip to hospital to be treated for lockjaw. "I think I do know the rules, and I'm confident I do," Bennett said. "I went for lunch yesterday with someone I live with. I know I'm still allowed to eat, aren't I?

"We'll wait and see what happens and what they say. "Of course it has been hard [keeping up]. Look at the TV news programs, people in different parts of Sydney have different rules, we have different rules, there's the border stuff. I come from Queensland where I have family up there still, we're totally confused about what we can and can't do." Bennett then claimed the players and coaches as a whole had done a wonderful job following the protocols, but they had not been perfect. Loading "It's a difficult time for everyone in Australia right now," Bennett said.

"The governments have done a really good job and worked hard to get outcomes. We as a club and game have been good ourselves. "Are we perfect? Probably not. But we've all tried and been supportive of it. "We live in a bubble, but I'm sure we haven't been perfect with it, I'm sure we've had our moments, all of us. Basically we do comply right across the board. [But] to think we've all been perfect, that wouldn't be the fact." Bennett added there may have been a couple of other times he had dined out during the pandemic. It's not the first time Bennett has been in hot water with the NRL this year.
The Daily Mail exclusively revealed Conor Kennedy had a new love interest in model and designer Michaela Vybohova last year.

And the Slovakian born 23-year-old showed she is truly making a name for herself as she modeled a white bikini in the Hamptons on Wednesday.

Vybohova took a dip in the Atlantic on her shoot as she flexed a number of poses.

Showing off: Conor Kennedy's girlfriend Michaela Vybohova flaunted her figure in a bikini photoshoot, in the Hamptons, on Wednesday

The high-heel designer showed off her incredibly toned figure and abs in the white outfit, that included a thick strapped bandeau style top and low-rise bottoms.

Silver metal pieces adorned the sides of her bottoms and the straps of her top.

She looked to be absolutely glowing in the warm sun, with her brunette hair down in a damp and beachy wave.

The back of her suit had a think single strap locking in the back and her bottoms featured a cheeky style.

White look: The high-heel designer showed off her incredibly toned figure and abs in the white outfit, that included a thick strapped bandeau style top and low-rise bottoms

Cheeky: The back of her suit had a think single strap locking in the back and her bottoms featured a cheeky style

Wavy: She looked to be absolutely glowing in the warm sun, with her brunette hair down in a damp and beachy wave

Vybohova kicked and splashed around in the water, before kneeling down for some sultry shots as the water splashed ashore.

She was first linked to Kennedy in August 2019, when they were spotted on a cozy walk in NYC with her dog.

It comes years after the 26-year-old was famously linked to Taylor Swift in 2012 for a few months.

The couple started dating briefly after his mother Mary died, in May, until October.

Dip: Vybohova, 23, took a dip in the Atlantic on her shoot as she flexed a number of poses

Staring at the sun: The photoshoot was taken at golden hour, giving her a warm glow

Happy: She kneeled in the sand as the water came up to shore



Swift bought a $5m mansion just yards away from the famous Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts.

Vybohova is signed to NEXT Management, Model Managemen and IMG Models and owns a high heel brand MIchaela V.

She is originally from Slovakia and began modeling at 16, traveling through Europe for work before arriving in the US and signing her current contracts to model.

Pops: Conor's dad, RFK, Jr., wished him a happy birthday on Instagram last week, when he celebrated his 26th birthday

Questionable celebration: He attended the now infamous Chainsmokers concert in the Hamptons, where Vybohova currently is, that broke COVID-19 distancing and group gathering guidelines as is being investigated by the state

Vybohova recently was the cover star for Maxim Australia's April 2020 issue.

Meanwhile, Kennedy recently celebrated his 26th birthday.

He attended the now infamous Chainsmokers concert in the Hamptons, where Vybohova currently is, that broke COVID-19 distancing and group gathering guidelines as is being investigated by the state.
There is no established democracy anywhere, where at the end of the tenure of a parliament the floodgates open for all kinds of people to be fresh MPs, Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has stated.



Noting events at the recent primaries of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), where some incumbent MPs who perform well in the House lost to new faces, Mr Kyei-Mensah Bonsu regretted the alleged monetization on which some would be MPs are riding to the House.



According to the Majority Leader, in the constituencies where there is an incumbent MP, some of them lost because political parties had no control over them and also over those who contested and won by bearing their own cost.



Mr Kyei-Mensah Bonsu said such lack of control on sitting MPs or their contenders, contributed to the high attrition rate from the House, and makes it difficult for individuals to nurture and develop themselves into career legislators in the House.



He therefore charged political parties to introspect and amend their constitutions and resort to other methods of choosing their Members of Parliament.



Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu made the revelation at a forum organized by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs (MoPA) with the Core Leadership of Parliament in Accra.



The conference, on the theme: Nurturing career legislators in Ghana: Prospects and challenges was to critically examine prospects and challenges of nurturing career legislators in parliament.



The Majority Leader suggested that in constituencies where a party has an MP, the leadership of the party in Parliament must be made to assess the performance of the MP on quarterly or every meeting basis.



He said reports must also be sent to all political parties headquarters as well as reports from the constituency, and these must form the basis to determine the standard assessment criteria where there is congruence of the two reports of good performance and behavior, the incumbent MP must be made to continue.



He said where there are differences the MP must be given the opportunity to straighten things up in the course of his or her tenure and if at the end of the term, he or she is stubborn, voting must be resorted to by allowing all card bearing members of the party in the constituency to vote.



If that happens the monetizing of parties would disappear and the longevity of the tenure of MPs would ensue, the Leader said.



The Minority Leader in Parliament, Haruna Iddrisu said despite Ghanas democratic story being a success in Africa, there was evidence of major threats to Ghanas democracy through vigilantism and monetization of democracy.



He said these things could undermine the entire democratic process and denied the people of Ghana the benefits of the democratic dividends.



It appears that democracy in Ghana is for sale to the highest bidder,



He said if care is not taken to tackle the issue of monetization of politics, Ghanas democracy would become the preserve of the elite and wealthy in the future.



Mr Iddrisu therefore stressed the need for major reforms of the political parties; the way they are organized and run, the determination of party leaders and well as change in the process for the selection of MPs.



The Minority Leader underlined the need to define the roles for parties with MPs in parliament.



Dr Evans Aggrey-Darkoh, Chief Director, Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, said the Ministrys aim for the forum, attended by the Core Leadership of Parliament as well as the Chairman and Ranking Member for the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committees, was to critically examine prospects and challenges of nurturing career legislators in parliament.



He said the dialogue was to identify the institutional and systemic factors fueling the high attrition rate which undermine the object of building a parliament with the requisite skills and competencies to execute its mandate.



He said the interaction also seeks to examine the nature, causes and consequences of the high attrition among parliamentarians and discuss the prospects and challenges of nurturing career legislators.

Source: GNA









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MENLO PARK, Calif., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ensighten, the leader in client-side website security and privacy compliance enforcement, today announced increased investment into threat intelligence powered by machine learning. The new threat intelligence will focus specifically on client-side website threats with a mandate of discovering new methods as well as actively monitoring ongoing attacks against organizations.

Client-side attacks such as web skimming are now one of the leading threat vectors for data breaches and with a rapid acceleration of the digital transformation, businesses are facing a substantially increased risk. With privacy regulations, including the CCPA and GDPR, penalizing organizations for compromised customer data, online businesses of all sizes are facing significant security challenges due to the number of organized criminal groups using sophisticated malware.

"We have seen online attacks grow in both intensity and complexity over the past couple of years, with major businesses having their customers' data stolen," said Marty Greenlow, CEO of Ensighten. "One of the biggest challenges facing digital security is that these attacks happen at the client side in the customers' browser, making them very difficult to detect and often run for significant periods of time. By leveraging threat intelligence and machine learning, our customers will benefit from technology which dynamically adapts to the growing threat." Ensighten already provides the leading client-side website security solution to prevent accidental and malicious data leakage, and by expanding its threat intelligence, not only will it benefit its own technology, but also the security community in general. "We are a pioneer in website security, and we need to continue to lead the way," said Greenlow.

Ensighten's security technology is used by the digital marketing and digital security teams of some of the world's largest brands to protect their website and applications against malicious threats. This new threat intelligence initiative will enable further intelligence-driven capabilities and machine learning will drive automated rules, advanced data analytics, and more accurate identification. "Threat intelligence has always been part of our platform," said Jason Patel, Ensighten CTO, "but this investment will allow us to develop some truly innovative technological solutions to an issue that is unfortunately not only happening more regularly but is also growing in complexity."

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Microsoft Corp is chasing a deal to buy all of TikTok's global business, including its operations in India and Europe, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing five people with knowledge of the talks. TikTok parent ByteDance and Microsoft did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. Microsoft was already said to be in advanced stage talks to take over TikTok's US operations, but US president Donald Trump urged that a partial takeover may not be fruitful, before going on to proclaim rather amusingly that a chunk of the deal's financials must be deposited in the US government's treasury.

TikTok faces a Sept 15 deadline to either complete a sale of its US operations to Microsoft, or face a ban in the United States. The Bytedance-owned short video social media service is already banned in India, after government officials deemed it and 58 other apps to be detrimental towards India's data security and integrity. India was one of TikTok's biggest markets outside of China, and was also one of the fastest growing social media platforms in the country, before it faced the injunction that has marooned all of Bytedance-operated services in India.

TikTok, which is Bytedance's flagship social media service, is also massively popular in USA. The latter has now been embroiled in a prolonged standoff with China. The Donald Trump government began by placing Huawei, incidentally one of China's largest companies and among the world's leading telecommunications service providers, in an entities list. The premise for the imposed bans was growing concerns regarding Chinese cyber espionage, and the way the nation's Communist Party has a stronghold on many private Chinese companies.

The recent aspect of TikTok's potential sale to an American company has also attracted considerable backlash from Chinese state-controlled media, which has criticised Bytedance founder and CEO, Zhang Yiming, for giving in to pressure from the American government. However, it is important to note that being banned in India, and potentially facing a similar future in USA as well, would have considerably hurt Bytedance, for which TikTok was at the centre of all operations.

IF the deal goes through, it will be intriguing to see if the service gets un-banned from nations where it is presently suspended, such as India itself.

(With inputs from Reuters)
Brandi Glanville isn't letting rival Denise Richards play the victim card.

The fashionista slammed her Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills co-star in a furious tweet on Wednesday, telling Richards to 'take responsibility' for her actions after she accused Glanville of lying about their alleged tryst 'for shock value.'

Brandi didn't hold back, telling Denise not to 'f*** your cast mates and expect it not to get out.'

Claws out: Brandi Glanville slammed Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills castmate Denise Richards on Twitter Wednesday, telling the actress to 'take responsibility' for their alleged hook-up

Not mincing words: Brandi didn't hold back, telling Denise not to 'f*** your cast mates and expect it not to get out'

During a teaser for tonight's episode of the Bravo reality romp, the ex of actor Charlie Sheen sat down with Lisa Rinna and tried to set the record straight about rumors she and Brandi had slept with each other.

She staunchly denied any affair, telling Lisa: 'I do not have an open marriage and I have not cheated on my husband, okay?'

But Brandi wasn't having it, taking to Twitter to call out Denise, who is a mother-of-three.

'Maybe if youre so worried about hurting your children then as a married woman you should not f*** your cast mates and expect it not to get out take responsibility for your part DR.'

Not that innocent: Glanville wasn't letting Richards play the victim, calling her out in the rather blunt tweet. Denise is seen in 2012 above

Just gossip: During a teaser for tonight's episode of the Bravo reality romp, the ex of actor Charlie Sheen sat down with Lisa Rinna and tried to set the record straight about rumors she and Brandi had slept with each other

The reality stars hooked up after Denise invited Brandi to stay the night in her hotel room during a trip to Northern California together last year, according to Glanville's accounts.

'I went and I was going to get my room,' Brandi said on the show. 'But Denise said, "No, just stay here. Its fine. Ill get you like a rollaway bed"  There was no rollaway bed, conveniently. And so I just slept in the bed with Denise.'

Their first night together was chaste, but when alcohol came into the mix things got more risque.

'We got really drunk and we were just so f***ed up and  just like, we kind of hooked up. We hooked up,' Brandi admitted.

Girls trip: The reality stars hooked up after Denise invited Brandi to stay the night in her hotel room during a trip to Northern California together, according to Glanville's accounts. They pair are seen 2019 during said vacation above

The drama returned to Beverly Hills last week when cast mate Teddi Mellencamp did some dishing.

Mellencamp recounted how Richards allegedly told Glanville she had an open relationship with husband Aaron Phypers, who she married in 2018.

But according to Glanville, the story changed after they slept together, Richards telling her to keep her mouth shut about it.

Dailymail.com reported back in January that Richards stormed away during a dramatic confrontation on the cast's trip to Rome in November.

An insider said: 'Since the affair was exposed, Denise has basically walked away from the show. Everyone in Beverly Hills knows about it. It was the talk of Kathy Hilton's Christmas party.'
The Edo State House of Assembly Speaker, Frank Okiye, has said police officers stationed at the assembly complex has not denied any pro-Obaseki lawmaker access to the building.

Mr Okiye, who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday, said he had been at the complex and was not denied entrance.

I can now confirm that as a matter of rumour, because when I drove into the said assembly with my Honourable members, seven of us, we inspected the work that has been done. Unfortunately, the contractor could not come to the site because of the same rumour, Mr Okiye said in a phone interview.

News was rife earlier on Thursday that certain members of the Nigerian Police Force had shown up at the premises to take over the assembly in favour of a certain sect.

The Edo State governors spokesperson, Crusoe Osagie, in a statement sent to this newspaper, linked the change in the assemblys police team to a plot to take over the venue and illegally inaugurate 14 dissident members-elect believed to be loyal to Mr Oshiomhole on Thursday.

It was learnt that Comrade Oshiomhole has started mobilising thugs to move to the complex so as to provide cover for the impending planned action to import a fake mace for the members-elect to work in cahoot with the impeached Deputy Speaker of the Assembly, Hon. Yekini Idiaye to actualise this plot, Mr Osagie said in a separate statement sent to earlier on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the addition of the four lawmakers who declared their supports for the APC 2020 governor candidate, Osagie Ize-Iyamu, on Monday, pegged the total number of the Edo State lawmakers against Godwin Obasekis re-election bid at 17 while the remaining seven, continue to hold the gate for him.

Speaking on this new development to this reporter, Mr Okiye, one of the seven pro-Obaseki lawmakers dismissed Mr Osagies statement as rumour when he described his encounter with the said police team.

Yes, there are policemen around, but I have no way of knowing whether they are from in or outside the state, but I saw the DC of Benin and we exchange pleasantries.

I can say that there is no take over of the State House of Assembly, as I speak with you, I am at the premises and there is nobody waylaying anybody. I have called the contractors to come and do their job, he told this newspaper and denied the possibility of any inauguration holding at the complex today.

He also expressed his suspicion that the immediate past national chairman and some governors from the APC are queuing behind the impeached Edo State Deputy Speaker, Yekini Idiaye, to commit an illegal act which he did not explicitly define.

Mr Idiaye was controversially impeached on Wednesday by the seven pro-Obaseki lawmakers, led by the speaker, two days after endorsing the candidacy of Mr Ize-Iyamu

Speaking on the impeachment of the former deputy speaker, Mr Okiye said the latters impeachment does not deter him from attending plenary or exercising his right as one of the state lawmakers.

He (Idiaye) was removed because the seven members consented to it, he defended.

PREMIUM TIMES contacted the Edo State police spokesperson, Chidi Nwabuzor, for comments on the alleged switch in the assembly police team but responded that I have not been briefed.

He, however, argued that the police are there to do their job which is maintain law and order.

At least three lawmakers from pro-Oshiomhole camp were also contacted by this reporter but they all refused to comment on this development.

Some of the contacted pro-Oshiomhole lawmakers include Washington Osifo, Vincent Uwaidia and Christopher Okaeben. The three are lawmaker-elect, yet to be inaugurated.
Priest tells lector to stop wearing BLM T-shirt; archdiocese defends dress code

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The priest of a Roman Catholic Church in New Jersey is being criticized by a local activist group after he asked a lector to refrain from wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt during mass.

Two weeks ago, Rev. Brian Needles, the pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church in South Orange, New Jersey, sent a letter to the lector, 68-year-old Tom Morris.

According to a copy of the letter shared online by the SOMA Black Parents Workshop, Needles explained to Morris that several people complained about his attire at mass. The religious leader asked Morris to refrain from wearing the shirt when lectoring and said that he prefers males wear a collared shirt when they lector.

A t-shirt, incredibly enough, can be a real source of division and distraction, the letter declared.

We live in such a contentious society already and I dont want a t-shirt worn at Mass to become a source of distraction or bad feelings in our parish, Needles added. When the word of God is proclaimed, nothing, including a slogan on a shirt, should distract listeners from the fruitful hearing of the scriptures.

Needles stressed that nobody in their right mind  disagrees with the idea that the lives of Black people matter and that they deserve respect and legal protection. However, Needles pointed out that many people have concerns about the Black Lives Matter 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization due to its agenda that is very controversial, to say the least.

Morris shared the letter with the SOMA Black Parents Workshops Facebook page. The Black Parents Workshop is an organization that advocates against racial discrimination in schools and the community.

BPW Director Walter Fields wrote in a Facebook post in which he shared Needles letter that Needles request rings of the same denial that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called out in his Letter From a Birmingham Jail to white pastors in that community.

Since when does taking a stand on justice offend the Scriptures or the teachings of the Church? Fields asked.

In response to the criticism, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark defended Needles request.

The archdiocese explained in a statement shared with The Christian Post that Needles was merely seeking to enforce the archdiocesan dress code for lectors.

Celebrants who serve in the role of Lector  who have volunteered to serve on the altar and read from the scriptures  are required to follow the archdiocesan dress code, which is communicated during their training, the statement reads.

The policy requires celebrants and lay ministers to refrain from wearing t-shirts as well as any clothing that draws attention to the individual and distracts from the word of God. This is to ensure that the assemblys attention is focused on scripture and not on the individual proclaiming it.

As for lay parishioners who would like to wear a Black Lives Matter T-shirt to mass, the archdiocese states that they are free to wear clothing that promotes causes and movements. However, the archdiocese encourages the faithful to use their discretion to ensure that their attire is appropriate for a house of worship.

The debate in the Catholic Church and across Christianity over whether to embrace or denounce the Black Lives Matter movement has become contentious in the weeks following the death of George Floyd on Memorial Day.

For example, earlier this summer, a Catholic priest was suspended for describing Black Lives Matter and Antifa protesters as maggots and parasites. Meanwhile, a Mississippi pastor was fired by his churchs board for endorsing the Black Lives Matter movement.

In an interview with The Village Green of Maplewood and South Orange, Morris made it clear that he would not comply with Needles request to refrain from wearing the T-shirt.

I wont stop. Im committed. I will not back down, Morris was quoted as saying.

The Village Green reported that since receiving the letter from Needles, Morris has elected to attend daily mass at St. Marys Catholic Church in Newark. The church is described by Morris as a more progressive parish.
No Slovak citizens among the August 4 blast confirmed so far.

People evacuate wounded after of a massive explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, on August 4, 2020. (Source: AP/TASR)

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Slovakia is ready to help Lebanons capital Beirut, which was hit by a massive explosion on August 4.

The Interior Ministry is able to send an 18-member rescue team, comprised of 12 members of the Fire and Rescue Corps, three dog handlers with three dogs from the Mountain Rescue Service and one technician from the Mountain Rescue Service. Two liaison officers should be ensured by the ministrys crisis management division.

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The ministry planned to publish the offer, together with the proposal of providing material assistance, in the Common Emergency Communication and Information System (CECIS), a web-based alert and notification application enabling real time exchange of information.

After it is accepted, we will dispatch the material assistance or the rescue team to Lebanon, the ministry said.

Several Slovan non-governmental organisations have meanwhile launched fund-raising campaigns to help.

No Slovaks among victims so far

Meanwhile, the Foreign Affairs Ministry reported that there are no Slovak citizens among the victims or the injured.

Were still in touch with local authorities, though, said Juraj Tomaga, head of the ministrys press department, as quoted by the TASR newswire.

The blast damaged a building where Slovakia rents spaces for its representative office.

There are material damages, but we cant evaluate their extent as the building is inaccessible due to security reasons and potentially disrupted stability, Tomaga added, as quoted by TASR.

Foreign Affairs Minister Ivan Korcok (SaS nominee) has sent condolences to his Lebanese counterpart Charbel Wehbe.

He also informed the Lebanese authorities about Slovakias readiness to provide necessary assistance.
Sputnik V can only be used on people within the age groups of 18-60 as more studies need to ensure the vaccine is safe for older people.

Editor's Note: This story was first published on 6 August 2020 and has been republished on 12 August due to the launch of the vaccine. This is an ongoing story and will be updated as and when new information comes in.

In a race to find a vaccine that will protect people from the novel coronavirus, six candidates from around the world are now in phase three of human trials. Recent reports from Russia claim that one of their candidates has completed safety and efficacy testing in human trials successfully. Russia will reportedly begin producing the vaccine soon and already has plans for a massive, country-wide vaccine drive.

Russia currently has two COVID-19 vaccine candidates in the race  one, a vaccine being developed by the Vektor State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology. The second is a vaccine being produced by the Gamaleya Scientific Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology along with the Russian Defence Ministry.

As of 1 August, TASS reported that Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials of the Gam-COVID-Vac Lyo  the vaccine candidate from the Gamaleya Scientific Research Institute  were complete.

Sputnik V uses the common cold-causing adenovirus  thats been modified to carry genes for the spike protein that coats the coronavirus, as a way to prime the body to recognize if a real COVID-19 infection comes along.

TASS reported the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev as saying that people who were injected with Gam-COVID-Vac Lyo developed immunity 21 days after receiving the first dose. Their immunity has doubled after they received the second injection, he added. The vaccine is supposed to help people develop immunity to the virus for at least two years.

"I can tell you, from the first and second phase we have a hundred percent of people developing immunity after day 21. It doubles after the second shot. Hundred percent of animals were also protected (against the novel coronavirus)," Dmitriev told TASS.

However, Sputnik reported that the vaccine can only be used on people within the age groups of 18-60. More studies need to be conducted to ensure the vaccine is safe for older people. This will be done in the post-registration clinical trials.

"In Russia, it is customary to certify [vaccines for] children from birth to 18 years old; adults from 18 to 60 years old; and older people  over 60 years old," said Vladimir Bondarev, the head of the Russian Health Ministry's Scientific Centre for Expert Evaluation of Medicinal Products. "Clinical studies have now been carried out on a group of volunteers aged from 18 to 60 years old. Thus, this vaccine is now indicated for use in people from 18 to 60 years old."

However, it was only on 13 July that the reports came out with Russia claiming that their two-part phase I trial was a success.

Russia has not publicly shared any findings from the vaccine trials. The World Health Organisation has been tracking over 160 leading COVID-19 vaccine candidates and hasn't reported the Gamaleya vaccine clearing the second or third phases of trials in humans. Health experts are worried that Russia is cutting corners and fast-tracking the process, putting people at risk. The WHO also stepped in and has urged the country to follow the established guidelines to produce a 'safe and effective vaccine'.

[Also read: WHO in close contact with Russian health ministry for 'rigorous review' of safety, efficacy data of 'Sputnik V' COVID-19 vaccine]

WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said at a press conference, "Sometimes individual researchers claim they have found something, which is of course, as such, great news. But between finding or having a clue of maybe having a vaccine that works, and having gone through all the stages, is a big difference."

Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the United States cautioned, I do hope that the Chinese and the Russians are actually testing the vaccine before they are administering the vaccine to anyone."

In a report by Bloomberg, Svetlana Zavidova the Executive Director of the Association of Clinical Trials Organizations said. Why are all corporations following the rules, but Russian ones arent? The rules for conducting clinical trials are written in blood. They cant be violated."

This is a Pandoras Box and we dont know what will happen to people injected with an unproven vaccine, she added.

"Vaccines that are not properly tested can cause harm in many ways  from a negative impact on health to creating a false sense of security or undermining trust in vaccinations," Thomas Bollyky, director of the global health program at the Council on Foreign Relations told The Associated Press.

On 2 August, Chief of Russias sanitary watchdog Anna Popova tried to reassure everyone in an interview on the Rossiya-1 television channel by saying, "I have no doubts that the vaccine (against the novel coronavirus) that is to reach people will be absolutely safe and, of course, efficient."

"I would like to hope that the (immunity) will be sustainable and lasting," she added.

The Russian Defence Ministry also stepped in to clarify that it "tests the vaccine on volunteers in full compliance with the acting legislation and scientific methodological regulations, in order to prevent further risks, without any attempt to reduce the duration of the research."

World's 'first' COVID-19 vaccine

On 12 August, Russia had approved Sputnik V (the official name of the vaccine) and registered it as the first Coronavirus vaccine, while the world looked on with concern since they had not completed the phase III of the clinical trial. Phase III is the only way to know with statistical certainty whether a vaccine can prevent an infection, and how effective it is. And because it tests a much larger group of people, a Phase 3 trial can also detect more subtle adverse effects of a vaccine that earlier trials could not.

The very next day, under 24 hours, the Health Minister Mikhail Murashko had announced that mass production of the vaccines have already begun. Within two weeks time, the vaccine will be delivered to Russian hospitals and will be given to people who volunteer for it including doctors.

The WHO has responded to Russia's claim and said that a rigorous review of the vaccine's safety data needs to be submitted if the country wants the WHO's stamp of approval.

"Pre-qualification of any vaccine includes the rigorous review and assessment of all the required safety and efficacy data," Tarik Jasarevic, spokesperson for WHO, said during an online press briefing.

"We are in close contact with the Russian health authorities and discussions are ongoing with respect to possible WHO pre-qualification of the vaccine."

Production of vaccine to begin

A Reuters report, citing an anonymous source, said that Russia's first potential vaccine will be approved by regulators this month. Production of this vaccine is all set to begin September.

Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov said in an interview with TASS said "The Gamaleya Institute is working on serial production with three enterprises with facilities in the Vladimir, Yaroslavl and Moscow regions, those are Generium, R-Pharm and Binnopharm... We very much hope that serial production will start as early as in September."

While no exact numbers were given, Manturov said that 'several thousands of doses' will be produced each month this year. By 2021, Russian companies will produce 'several million' doses of the Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology vaccine.

Dmitriev, in an interview with the Rossiya-24 TV channel, said that more than 20 countries from around the world have shown interest in producing the Russian vaccine.

"Our foreign partners express great interest in producing this vaccine in their countries. There is great interest from Brazil, from India, from many other countries that are very much looking forward to the Russian vaccine, the first vaccine in the world," Dmitriev told TASS.

"And more than five countries are now actively working with us to start producing the Russian vaccine," he added.

Mass vaccination by October

On 1 August, Murashko said that Russian plans on starting a mass vaccination campaign against the novel coronavirus in October. According to a report by Livemint, the vaccine will be first given to doctors and teachers.

"We plan wider [vaccination] for October because we need to launch a new system of treatment gradually," Murashko said according to a report by TASS.

The vaccine will also be 'free of charge' and the cost will be taken from the country's budget.

Vektor vaccine

The EpiVacCorona vaccine being produced by the Vektor State Research Center and the Biotechnology of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing recently announced that they will begin mass production of the vaccine in November.

They had begun their human trials on 24 July and as of 4 August 2020, only three volunteers out of five have been vaccinated with the fifth volunteer getting the first dose yesterday, 5 August. The age from 18-30 years. The EpiVacCorona doses will be administered again after 21 days.

According to the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing, Russia is developing 26 additional coronavirus vaccine candidates at 17 research institutions. Murashko said that in the next six to eight weeks, developers of two other vaccines will put in their permission request to start clinical trials on volunteers.

Also Read:

Cozy Bear: Everything we know about the hackers reportedly targeting COVID-19 vaccine research

Russia's COVID-19 vaccine successfully completes first phase of human clinical trials

Putin announces first 'registered' COVID-19 vaccine from Russia's Gamaleya Institute; his daughter among those inoculated
About 17,000 years ago, in the caves of Lascaux, France, ancestors drew on grotto walls, depicting equines, stags, bison, aurochs and felines. They wanted to convey to other humans a political reality crucial to their survival: They shared their environment with other beings that looked and behaved differently from them.

Those early artisans drew these creatures over and over, likely fascinated by their forms and their powers, but also intuiting that whatever happened to the animals would almost certainly be a harbinger of what would happen to humans. The presence of the bison and stags, their physical fitness and numbers, their mass migrations would have indicated the onset of plagues or cataclysmic weather systems. Containing some 15,000 paintings and engravings from the Upper Paleolithic era, the caves in Southwestern France were not simply an exhibition space for local talent. They essentially constituted a public square where a community shared critical knowledge.

These portraits and discrete stories are not very different from our contemporary forums: the street art adorning boarded-up storefronts in New York City. They tell us about our shared political realities, the people we coexist with in social space and the ways in which our stories and fates are tied together. If you walk the streets of SoHo, the alleys of the Lower East Side, and heavily trafficked avenues in Brooklyn, as I did over the last few weeks, you will see these symbols and signs and might wonder at their meanings. What became apparent to me is that in the intervening millenniums between those cave paintings and the killing of George Floyd, the messages we share, like the sociopolitical circumstances that impel them, have become more complex.
Moderna is the first pharmaceutical firm to conduct human clinical trials for its COVID-19 vaccine in the United States. The company just recently released the amount they charged for every dose of vaccine.

Pharmaceutical companies worldwide are now on the race to develop and produce a safe and effective vaccine. Moderna is the first pharmaceutical firm to conduct its human clinical trials for its COVID-19 vaccine.

According to a recently published article in CBS News, Moderna charges as much as $37 for every dose of the experimental vaccine. The said amount is three times higher compared to other firms and companies who are developing vaccines.

If Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine will be proven safe and effective to combat COVID-19, then a person needs more or less $74. Each person needs two doses of the vaccine to immunize from the infectious and deadly virus fully.

Even though there is no approved vaccine yet for COVID-19, it seems that Moderna's leads among the drugmakers and pharmaceutical companies. Moderna started its Phase III Trial on its vaccine in late July, and its initial trials show promising results.

Moreover, Moderna's executives are confident they can release the vaccine earlier this year once the result of their Phase III shows positive results. If its vaccine is proven safe and effective, it will be the world's first proven vaccine.

Meanwhile, European drugmakers like Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline signed a $2.1 billion deal with the U.S. federal government last week to produce 100 million vaccines that cost $10.50 each dose. The said calculation is from analyst Mani Foroohar of brokerage firm SVB Leerink.

On the other hand, the U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is also working on a COVID-19 vaccine and announced that the initial price would be $19.50 each dose. The amount is still lower compared to Moderna's price.

Moderna CEO Stephanie Basel said during a phone interview that they are now working with governments around the world, and they will make sure that the vaccine will be accessible to all. The company's CEO also added that they would be responsible for the price during the pandemic.

Moderna received a federal government funding nearly $1 billion to develop and produce its COVID-19 vaccine. Moderna did not give any comments and answers when asked how much the company will be earning for its treatment.

Moderna President Dr. Stephen Hodge said that they do not have any plans to sell the vaccine at cost during the hearing. This is during the congressional hearing last month while a number of their rivals, which are developing vaccines, forego profits.

Even though Moderna already said that they would produce millions of vaccines early this year, it is still unclear how many millions they can produce based on their capacity compared to giant pharmaceutical firms.

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The volatile chemical suspected of causing the deadly explosion that flattened Lebanons main port had been lying in storage there for six years despite warnings from customs officials about its hazards, documents show.

The ammonium nitrate  equivalent to 1,800 tons of TNT  was unloaded from the cargo ship Rhosus in 2014, according to two letters issued by the director general of Lebanese Customs. For reasons that are unclear, dockworkers unloaded the chemical, which can be used to make fertilizers and explosives, and put it into storage.

Workers welding a door on Tuesday started a fire that ignited the chemicals, Lebanese broadcaster LBCI said, citing people who attended a Supreme Council of Defense briefing after the blast. Authorities havent said what triggered the explosion that roared through Beirut, killing at least 100 people and wounding 4,000.

Customs officials asked judicial authorities at least twice to issue orders for the highly inflammable substance to be confiscated or re-exported, according to the letters from the customs authority. In one of the letters, dated May 3, 2016, the director general at that time, Shafik Merhe, warned of the extreme danger from storing the chemical in a warehouse in these unsuitable weather conditions, saying it posed a risk to the staff and port.

LBCI reported on Wednesday that the Rhosus had been scheduled to sail with its cargo from Beirut six years ago but stayed at the port due to a mechanical failure. Prime Minister Hassan Diab on Tuesday described the storage of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate at the port as unacceptable and vowed those responsible would be held accountable.

The widely used commercial chemical explosive is almost as powerful as dynamite. In 1995, Timothy McVeigh used about 2 tons of it to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma, killing 168 people.

As Lebanese army personnel and rescue workers sifted through the rubble, looking for dozens of missing people, the government placed all port officials under house arrest, Information Minister Manal Abdel-Samad told reporters after an emergency cabinet meeting. A two-week state of emergency has been imposed in the city, and a coronavirus-related lockdown was extended for the next two months.

Trumps View

In Washington, the Trump administration was in some discord over the likely cause of the explosion. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump told reporters that U.S. military officials seem to think it was an attack. It was a bomb of some kind.

On Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said without elaboration that most believe it was an accident as reported. Then Trump said hours later that you have some people that think it was an attack and some people that think it wasnt. He said the U.S. is working very closely with the government in Lebanon.

Outrage over the governments role in the calamity ran high in a country already groaning under the weight of its worst financial crisis and a resurgent coronavirus outbreak. Dozens of people gathered in downtown Beirut as former Prime Minister Saad Hariri inspected the damage, beating cars in his convoy and shouting They killed Beirut.

The explosion was so powerful that it was heard in Cyprus, and severely damaged buildings miles away. Massive shipping containers were flipped upside down as if they were toys, and cranes melted under the intense fire that still burned on Wednesday, and was being doused by helicopters whirring above.

Its like an apocalypse, lawmaker Yassine Jaber told Bloomberg. Pure negligence and thats the ultimate manifestation of how bad governance has been in Lebanon, with no accountability whatsoever, a manifestation of failure that should jolt us to wake up.

The blast came as Lebanon braced for the verdict of an international court trying four men linked to Syrian and Iranian-backed armed group Hezbollah over the 2005 killing of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. The court Wednesday postponed that ruling. Hariri spearheaded the rebuilding of Beirut after the 1975-1990 civil war and his assassination touched off a wave of protests that forced Syrian forces to withdraw from Lebanon but also deepened political divisions in the country and further paralysed decision-making.

Hezbollah, which has a political wing, denies involvement in Hariris killing. The verdict had been set to plunge Lebanon into a new round of internal tension at a time when it is struggling to cope with its deepest financial crisis in decaes.

Hospitals, already stretched to capacity by the virus emergency, were overwhelmed. The government appealed to other countries for emergency aid as concerns mounted over food supply in the import-dependent nation.

Wheat silos at the port were damaged, and their contents  equal to about six weeks of the countrys needs  were rendered unfit for consumption, Economy Minister Raoul Nehme said. He assured Lebanese there would be no flour or bread crisis.

France and various Arab states pledged medical aid, while Germany offered members of its armed forces to aid search operations. French President Emmanuel Macron plans to visit Lebanon on Thursday, Agence France Presse reported.

The damage is massive at the port and it will take a very long time to fix and build, Public Works Minister Michel Najjar told a local television station. The port at Lebanons second-largest city, Tripoli, will serve as the alternative, possibly backed up by facilities in Sidon and Tyre, Najjar said.

The Beirut port handles 6 million tons of shipments a year.

Before the blast, talks with the International Monetary Fund for a $10 billion loan had stalled over the governments failure to agree on a reform plan, and Gulf states deflected Lebanons request for a bailout, afraid money would fall into the hands of Hezbollah militants. Officials had been discussing ways to partially privatize the port.

With assistance from Verity Ratcliffe, Lin Noueihed, Yasna Haghdoost and Josh Wingrove.

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.
CALGARY, AB, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ZayZoon Inc, a leader in Earned Wage Access, has been selected by Choice Hotels International, Inc., hotel franchisor of 13 well-known brands including Comfort, Sleep Inn, Cambria Hotels and the Ascend Hotel Collection, to participate in its Qualified Vendor Program as a software vendor for its more than 5,900 franchised hotels across the United States.

Through this new relationship, Choice Hotels franchisees will now have the option to use ZayZoon's patent-pending technology to seamlessly administer earned wages to their employees in real-time[1], a capability enabled by Visa Direct, Visa's real-time push payments platform. This gives workers freedom over their paydays, which can help them to prevent late payments, pay for last-minute necessary expenses and avoid the use of loan-based products. Furthermore, ZayZoon's financial insight tools and education platform ensures employees of Choice Hotels' independently owned and operated properties can pro-actively work on bettering their financial health for the future.

"Today's hourly workforce wants and needs flexible tools to help them better manage their money and have more control over when they receive access to their funds," says Cecilia Frew, Senior Vice President, Visa Direct at Visa. "Visa is proud to be partnering with ZayZoon and its financial institution to help bring secure and seamless solutions to the employees of Choice Hotels franchisees and give them real-time access to their earned wages, especially during this critical time."

Tate Hackert, President of ZayZoon, commented on ZayZoon's existing relationship with Choice stating, "The Choice Hotels brand is quite familiar to ZayZoon as we've partnered with numerous franchisees over the years. Now with ZayZoon being a Qualified Vendor, franchisees can have even more comfort in knowing the right decision is being made by partnering with ZayZoon to improve the productivity, retention and overall financial health of their employees."

Prior to becoming a Qualified Vendor, dozens of Choice Hotels locations already implemented ZayZoon, with many franchisees experiencing more than 30% of their employee base signing up for the service. In general, staff appreciate the benefit of Earned Wage Access because it helps to decrease financial stress and assist in avoiding predatory products that historically might have been used to provide short term cash flow relief.

About ZayZoon

ZayZoon is on a mission to improve employee health through the use of responsible financial products. We partner and integrate with companies in the US, Canada and Australia to provide employees access to their wages on-demand, financial education and personal finance tools. This is important because workers around the world rely on predatory products such as payday loans and overdraft fees to bridge the paycheck-to-paycheck gap created by pre-determined payroll cycles. ZayZoon's on-demand access to wages gives employees control over their paycheck, reduces financial stress and prevents the debt spiral caused by predatory products.

Media Contact:

Chaz Somers

Email: [email protected]

[1] Actual fund availability depends on receiving financial institution and region.

SOURCE ZayZoon
Work is underway on a $1-million LCBO store in north Welland.

Part of the SmartCentres retail cluster along Woodlawn Road at Primeway Drive, it is being built next to Dollar Tree on the southeast end of the property, near Marks.

Also taking place is the construction of an additional 104 parking spots, said Grant Munday, Wellands manager of development approvals.

The build is part of a site plan agreement the developer has with the municipality. Permits allow for a 720-square-metre addition.

A spokesperson from LCBOs communication team could not be reached Wednesday to confirm its plans  and whether liquor stores at Rose City Plaza on Ontario Road and at Fitch Street Plaza are slated for closure.

Munday said it has been SmartCentres intention to build something on the land for a while.

Generally, SmartCentres dont build things unless they have it leased out, Munday said Wednesday.

Neither Munday nor Sandra Kaiser, vice-president of corporate affairs for SmartCentres, had information on when the project that started more than a month ago will be completed.

Munday suspects LCBO is moving into the area a result of new homes in that part of Welland, as well as in south Thorold, which is mostly served by Welland amenities.

Theres a lot of growth and development happening in the city.

The nearby Canadian Tire will soon be expanded, sitting in front of an 80-room Holiday Inn Express under construction.

Munday said another building is expected to go up in the near future.

Walmart and Rona are other major retailers in the same group of stores.
The Bon Appetit Test Kitchen team.

Conde Nast has named a new executive editor for food magazine Bon Appetit as three stars of its popular Test Kitchen say they will no longer produce videos for the channel.

In separate statements on social media, contributors Priya Krishna and Rick Martinez, as well as assistant editor Sohla El-Waylly, said they would leave Bon Appetit video amid concerns over lack of diversity and unequal pay.

In a statement on Twitter, Krishna said leaders of the magazine's video team pledged to improve diversity and offer her fair pay, but added the promises were all "lip service."

"These past few months have been disappointing and insulting," Krishna wrote. "I am constantly being told that I am an important part of the test kitchen, yet leadership refuses to acknowledge that in the form of compensation or opportunities."

I'm leaving Bon Appetit video. Here's what's been happening over the last few months, and some thoughts. pic.twitter.com/L59blcESLv  Priya Krishna (@priyakrishna) August 6, 2020

What's happening at 'Bon Appetit'?: Here's what's going on and why editor in chief Adam Rapoport resigned

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Martinez echoed similar experiences in a story published to his Instagram account confirming his departure, saying he had been told for almost two months about changes that never came to fruition.

"After 5 weeks of contract negotiations, it is clear that I will not get a fair pay rate nor will i get a comparable number of appearances to my colleagues in the test kitchen," Martinez wrote. "Nor would anyone share with me the specifics of the diversity and inclusivity initiatives in video that they claim to be working on."

Story continues

On Instagram, El-Waylly confirmed that she would no longer appear in Bon Appetit videos.

"No hate to the editors who've decided to stay, it's just not the right thing for me," she wrote.

The last video published on the Bon Appetit YouTube channel was from two months ago. In a statement obtained by USA TODAY, Conde Nast said it would announce new programming with new and returning talent as new leadership comes aboard.

"Over the last several weeks, the video team has worked individually with each Test Kitchen contributor to address all concerns and communicate equitable compensation structures, including standardized rate cards, in many ways exceeding SAG/AFTRA standards, for freelance and editorial staff who contribute to video," Conde Nast said.

The media company also announced Thursday that Sonia Chopra, who worked at Vox Media overseeing strategy and operations at Eater, would join Bon Appetit as executive editor. Chopra will start Aug. 24. She will report to Vogue U.S. editor in chief Anna Wintour until the search for an editor in chief for Bon Appetit has concluded.

The backlash against Bon Appetit began in June after the magazine's previous editor in chief Adam Rapoport resigned after he was criticized for using "brown face" in a costume shared in an Instagram post from 2013.

Reactions then shifted to allegations that Conde Nast paid white editors for video appearances, but not people of color.

"I've been pushed in front of video as a display of diversity," El-Waylly wrote in an Instagram post in June. "In reality, only white editors are paid for their video appearances. None of the people of color have been compensated."

The magazine's Test Kitchen videos on YouTube have become a huge success for Bon Appetit. As of Thursday, the channel boasts more than 6 million subscribers.

Josh Rivera contributed to this report. Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bon Appetit: Three 'Test Kitchen' stars depart, new exec editor named
"Why did the film speak to them? Because it opened them up to experience. The heart opens a different channel," says Wallworth, who has always projected a slightly other-worldly persona, as if accessing a parallel consciousness. Artist Lynette Wallworth won an Emmy Award for Collision in 2017. Growing up in suburban Kingsgrove in southern Sydney as the daughter of a bank manager and educated by what she describes as radical nuns, she credits this feeling of being "like an asteroid from another galaxy" partly to seizures she had during illness as a child: "I had an out-of-body, near-death experience, a sensation of other realities that has never left me." Since her first screening, Wallworth has seen the cultural program at the WEF expand to become a significant part of the program rather than a sideshow. Sessions are attended by heavy-hitters such as Christine Lagarde, former head of the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and now president of the European Central Bank. "Its a good fit," says Wallworth of her relationship with one of the worlds most influential groups of decision-makers.

"It has evolved organically, thanks to being championed by Nico Daswani, the head of [arts and culture for] the WEF. He gave me the chance to put my work in dialogue with those whose hands are on the levers of power. He opened the door. My films offer people proximity without discomfort. Lynette Wallworth "Nico realised that there are more ways of knowing and understanding things, through the body, the senses and the act of feeling something," says Wallworth. "My films offer people proximity without discomfort and give them the sensation that they are being addressed directly." As a result, the forum commissioned a short documentary from Wallworth. Collisions is a virtual reality (VR) film about the experience of an elder of the Martu people of the Pilbara in Western Australia witnessing the atomic tests of the 1950s. Loading

It not only screened at the forum in 2016 and won an Emmy in 2017 but was shown at the United Nations in a series to coincide with high-level talks on nuclear non-proliferation. "I was in the room doing mechanical things like helping weapons inspector Hans Blix put on the headgear," says Wallworth modestly. An image from 'Collisions' at the National Museum of Australia in 2017. Credit:Animation artwork by Jossie Malis / Spirit Cloud imagery Lynette Wallworth After seeing Collisions at the Skoll World Forum in Oxford (a gathering of social entrepreneurs committed to tackling the worlds most pressing problems), Tashka, the chief of the Yawanawa people, a remote Amazonian tribe, met fellow attendee Wallworth. He told her that the tribes 100-year-old shaman Tata, who was nearing death, had recently made the radical decision to secure the future of his community, whose culture was being eroded by centuries of colonial and industrial incursion, by appointing the first female shaman in the tribes history, Hushahu. Would Wallworth be interested in documenting her apprenticeship? "Very early in life I learned that fear should never stop you from doing something," she says. "Even as a child, I practised testing myself with feats of endurance. I understood the difference between bravery and courage and that while I might not be the former, I could learn the latter.

"I also understood how to manage pain. Im good at the unknown, so I often feel at home in places I have never been." Travelling with her state-of-the-art technology into the jungle by canoe, accompanied by her crew, producer, a scientist, her best friend and a nurse, Wallworth spent about 10 days in the community of Mutum at Acre in Brazil, filming the rituals and ceremonies of shamanistic practice. The film, Awavena, subsequently screened at the Sundance Film Festival, where Wallworth has been a pioneering VR presence since 2009 when she screened her installation Evolution of Fearlessness in its New Frontier program (and her mum was thrilled to meet founder Robert Redford). Last year, she was appointed to the board of trustees. The Mutum community where Awavena was shot. Awavena also had a brief season in 2018 at Sydney's Carriageworks, where visitors had to book in for individual sessions that involved wearing a headset and walking with a short version of a light sabre in one hand that acted like a magic wand, triggering dazzling effects to give viewers an experience of other dimensions of consciousness without the physical effects of taking ayahuasca, the psychotropic brew, which Wallworth tried at the end of the shoot. She describes the effect as "mild, but carrying a revelation".

Why did the tribe, its chief and shaman, trust Wallworth with their precious knowledge? "When I had seizures, I saw ultraviolet. They can see that in me. No explanation was necessary. That capacity, that channel was open," says Wallworth, matter-of-factly and without a trace of woo-woo pseudo-spirituality. Hushahu, the female sharman who stars in Awavena, at its Venice Film Festival premiere in 2018. Credit:Labotiv "Tashkas instincts were right: I did know how to convey a transcendent vision. That is my wheelhouse. I am comfortable there. "The thing about VR that is so powerful is that it leaves a different memory from conventional film. It feels closer to something that has happened to us, and it registers in the same part of the brain as dreams. It has a very powerful pathway to the subconscious." Wallworth freely admits that seeing the impact of these VIP, invitation-only screenings radically altered her conception of who her audiences were.

Loading "I had never contemplated that it might be world leaders and heads of industry. Suddenly I had access outside my art bubble. That realisation was a real lightbulb moment. "Although I had always contemplated the intended impact of my films first and not at the end of the process, I had to ask myself what my belief in art was to change minds and why I was not attempting to put my work in front of change makers. I had never met people with this kind of influence and I had stereotypical views about them. "I had to learn to navigate conversations with them, to be authentically myself and not second- guess their responses. I learned that powerful work works powerfully for anyone, no matter what their status is. It made me less reticent." An image from Lynette Wallworths Awavena.

It sure did. On the opening day of the 2020 WEF in January, Wallworth became only the second Australian recipient of the Crystal Award, which celebrates leadership and sustainable change. Her speech on receiving this singular honor (previously bestowed on David Attenborough, Margaret Atwood, Elton John and Cate Blanchett) was delivered as Australia was in the throes of a national catastrophe. "I am standing here," she began, "as a traveller from a new reality: a burning Australia." Always an eloquent speaker, she conveyed a message of unequivocal urgency in a measured, calm delivery that heightened the impact of every word, defusing her explicit political criticism (she called Scott Morrison a dinosaur and reminded him that the coal he had held up in parliament was a fossil) in a spellbinding performance that was more like that of a poet or a priestess. It went viral in moments. Now Wallworth is Artistic Director of a cultural leadership mentoring scheme called the New Narraitves Lab run by WEF and supported bythe Ford Foundation: "I started to imagine how to support other artists with the same goals of using their work as change makers." Lynette Wallworth, far right, at the Collisions' premiere, Eqyptian Theatre, Sundance Film Festival. Credit:Getty The mentors are performer Angelique Kidjo, photographer Platon and former male ballet dancer and army colonel-turned-female choreographer and media personality Jin Xing. The mentees are from South Africa, Azerbaijan and Kenya.

"Too often artists are treated like star-filled children removed from reality. We are entertaining but we are not invited to the grown-ups table or we are asked to speak about our work but rarely about anything else. Yet we are in the world; we are not from nowhere or somewhere else. "My work is not a distraction, it is a lens on the stuff of reality. Collisions presentation at Australian Centre for Moving Image in Melbourne. Credit:Renee Stamatis Photography Despite international prestige and the currently dire situation for the arts in Australia, Wallworth remains firmly committed to living here. "I dont do well in LA. The necessity for me is the landscape. I need space, and besides, I feel a loyalty to this place. I want to stay and try to shake the tree," she says, with a characteristic giggle.
Investigators said a stockpile of more than 2,500 tons of ammonium nitrate has been identified as the immediate cause of the blast that devastated a port area of the city. The volatile material, a component of fertilizer that is also often used to make bombs, had been stored in a warehouse since being seized by customs authorities six years ago, despite repeated warnings from port officials that it posed a risk.
Drug maker Zydus Cadila will start phase 2 clinical trials to establish the efficacy of its anti-coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccine candidate from Thursday, the company said on Wednesday.

its plasmid DNA vaccine to prevent Covid-19, ZyCoV-D, was found to be safe and well tolerated in the Phase I clinical trial. The company will now commence Phase II clinical trials from the 6th of August, 2020the doses of the vaccine administered to healthy volunteers in the Phase I clinical trial, which began on 15th July 2020, has been well tolerated, Zydus Cadila said in a statement.

The vaccine was found to be safe, immunogenic and well tolerated in the pre-clinical toxicity studies conducted on animals. The vaccine was able to elicit a high level of neutralizing antibodies in animal studies.

The company received the central drugs controllers approval for human trials on July 2

The Phase I dosing to establish the safety of ZyCoV-D is an important milestone, said Pankaj R Patel, chairman, Zydus Cadila.

All the subjects in Phase I clinical trial were closely monitored in a clinical pharmacological unit for 24 hours post dosing for safety and for 7 days thereafter and vaccine was found to be very safe. We now begin the Phase II clinical trials and look forward to evaluating the safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine in a larger population, he added.

The company has not made the trial results public yet.

The Phase II study of ZyCoV-D will be conducted in over 1,000 healthy adult volunteers.

The 7 day safety of the vaccine in all the subjects enrolled in the Phase I clinical trial has been endorsed by the independent Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB), which has been constituted to oversee the safety aspects of the clinical trial, the company said.

According to the company, the vaccine candidate is safer because of its DNA vaccine platform, which requires injecting genetically engineered plasmid (small DNA molecule) containing the DNA sequence encoding the antigen(s) against which an immune response is sought.

the platform provides ease of manufacturing the vaccine with minimal biosafety requirements (BSL-1). The platform is also known to show much improved vaccine stability and lower cold chain requirements, making it easy for transportation to remotest regions of the country. Furthermore, the platform can be rapidly used to modify the vaccine in couple of weeks in case the virus mutates to ensure that the vaccine still elicits protection, the company said.

The plasmid DNA, when introduced into the host cells. would be translated into the viral protein and will elicit a strong immune response mediated by the cellular and humoral arms of the human immune system, which play a vital role in protection from disease as well as viral clearance.

The vaccine candidate was developed indigenously at the companys Vaccine Technology Centre in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

Experts in the government have maintained that India will take the lead in manufacturing the Covid-19 vaccine when it is developed. There we will take the lead as we have the requisite manufacturing capacity, says Dr VK Paul, member, Niti Ayog, and also chairman of one of the national task forces on Covid-19.

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A Uighur prisoner has sent a message from inside a detention camp to claim Chinese authorities are instructing children as young as 13 to 'regret and surrender'.

Merdan Ghappar, who was once a model for online retailer Taobao, provided a chilling first-hand account of China's highly secure and secretive detention system.

The 31-year-old was able to send a series of text messages, as well as a video which appeared to show him handcuffed in a cell, directly from inside the camp.

It is thought that over the past few years more than one million Uighurs and other minorities have been forced into a network of highly secure camps in the country's far western region of Xinjiang.

Thousands of children have reportedly been separated from their parents and last month there were reports of women being forcibly sterilised, ordered to have abortions and their husbands taken away to gulags.

Mr Ghappar's account appears to contract that of Chinese authorities who recently insisted that most of the country's Muslim re-education camps had been shut down.

Merdan Ghappar, who was once a model for online retailer Taobao, provided a chilling first-hand account of China's highly secure and secretive detention system

Mr Ghappar was able to send a series of texts to his family, via Chinese social media app WeChat, from inside the detention camp including a snapshot of a document which he claimed to have found on the floor in the toilets at the facility.

The sheet of paper, which references a speech made by the Communist Party Secretary of Aksu Prefecture, was thought to be circulating in official circles in the city of Kucha around the time of Mr Ghappar's detention.

It called for children as young as 13 to be encouraged to 'repent for their mistakes and voluntarily surrender' in what appears to be new evidence of China's control and monitoring policies over the Uighurs and other minorities.

He was later able to send a four minute and thirty-eight second video which seemed to show him handcuffed in a cell with his phone apparently going unnoticed by authorities.

It has not been possible to independently verify the authenticity of the messages but experts say that the video footage appears to be genuine due to the propaganda messages that can be heard in the background, according to the BBC.

Mr Ghappar was able to send a series of texts including a snapshot of a document (pictured), which he claimed to have found on the floor in the toilets at the facility, that called for children as young as 13 to be encouraged to 'repent for their mistakes and voluntarily surrender'

'Xinjiang has never been an "East Turkistan", said an announcement in both Uighur and Chinese from a loudspeaker outside his window.

'Separatist forces at home and abroad have politicised this geographical term and called for those who speak Turkic languages and believe in Islam to unite,' it added.

In a series of text messages also sent earlier in the year, Mr Ghappar went into detail about the chilling details of the conditions in the camps.

Speaking about initially being held in a police jail in Kucha, he wrote: 'I saw 50 to 60 people detained in a small room no bigger than 50 square metres, men on the right, women on the left.

'Everyone was wearing a so-called "four-piece-suit", a black head sack, handcuffs, leg shackles and an iron chain connecting the cuffs to the shackles.'

It has not been possible to independently verify the authenticity of the messages but experts say that the video footage appears to be genuine due to the propaganda messages that can be heard in the background, according to the BBC

Mr Ghappar added that he had been made to join his fellow inmates in a caged-off area covering around two-thirds of the cell where there was no room to lie down to sleep.

He wrote: 'I lifted the sack on my head and told the police officer that the handcuffs were so tight they hurt my wrists.

'He shouted fiercely at me, saying "If you remove your hood again, I will beat you to death". And after that I dared not to talk.

'Dying here is the last thing I want.'

He also said he was bombarded with the constant sound of screaming coming from what he believed to be 'interrogation rooms' as well as the squalid and unsanitary conditions.

Mr Ghappar added that a short time later the prisoners had been loaded on to minibuses and taken to an unknown location.

In a series of text messages also sent earlier in the year, Mr Ghappar went into detail about the chilling details of the conditions in the camps

He claimed that it was there where he was handcuffed to a bed in an isolation cell after suffering with flu-like symptoms which sparked concern amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking about the conditions, he added: 'My whole body is covered in lice. Every day I catch them and pick them off from my body - it's so itchy.

'Of course, the environment here is better than the police station with all those people. Here I live alone, but there are two people guarding me.'

Mr Ghappar stopped communicating with his family around five months ago.

They have since decided to share his messages more widely despite the possibility that Mr Ghappar may face an increased punishment for leaking information.

His family said it was their last hope in highlighting his case as well as that of the Uighurs as a whole who have long been seen as an object of suspicion by Chinese rulers and faced discrimination in wider society.

The Chinese government has continuously denied that it is persecuting the Uighur population.
Television presenter Caroline Flack hanged herself at home after discovering she was definitely going to be prosecuted for assaulting her boyfriend and feared press intrusion, a coroner has ruled.

Coroner Mary Hassell said the fact the alleged assault case was played out in the national press was incredibly difficult for her, and she feared the loss of her hard-fought career.

The 40-year-old former Love Island and X Factor host was found hanged at her home in Stoke Newington, north-east London, on February 15 2020.

The previous day, she had discovered prosecutors were going to press ahead with the assault charge after she hit Lewis Burton with her phone while he slept over concerns he had been cheating on her. Friends said she was expecting it to be dropped after her lawyers applied for the case to be thrown out.

Returning a determination of suicide at Poplar Coroners Court on Thursday, the coroner said: Although her general fluctuating (mental) state was a background and important in her death, I find the reason for her taking her life was she now knew she was being prosecuted for certainty, and she knew she would face the media, press, publicity  it would all come down upon her.

To me thats it in essence.

Expand Close Caroline Flack was found hanged at her home on February 15 2020 (Matt Crossick/PA) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Caroline Flack was found hanged at her home on February 15 2020 (Matt Crossick/PA)

Weeping, Flacks mother Chris Flack told the coroner via videolink: I totally agree, I think you got it spot on.

In a statement after the hearing, Mrs Flack hit out at those who took advantage of her loyal daughter.

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She said: Many people loved and supported Caroline, they know who they are and I thank them all.

Many people pretended to love Caroline and took advantage of her kindness and they know who they are.

Caroline, you were loved. I love you.

Those that would have harmed you cant touch you now.

Expand Close Caroline Flack with dance partner Pasha Kovalev on their way to winning the 2014 Strictly glitterball (Guy Levy/BBC/PA) / Facebook

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Mrs Flack had accused the police and prosecutors of having it in for her daughter, accusing them of taking her to court due to her celebrity status.

She said her famous daughter killed herself as a consequence of Detective Inspector Lauren Batemans personal decision to appeal against the plan to give Flack a caution for assault.

Mrs Flack accused prosecutors of wanting to proceed with the case, despite concerns about the 40-year-olds mental health.

Mrs Flack told deputy chief Crown prosecutor Lisa Ramsarran on Thursday: After listening to you and the first lady (Ms Bateman), I feel even more that you had it in for Caroline.

Expand Close Poplar Coroners Court in London (Jonathan Brady/PA) / Facebook

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I now know how Caroline felt and it is not very nice.

Ms Ramsarran said the code for prosecutors was correctly applied, while both the police and the Crown Prosecution Service said they would not do anything differently.

Flack admitted hitting Mr Burton when officers were called to her home in London in December 2019, saying she did so because she found out he was cheating on her, the inquest heard.

Prosecutors decided to charge Flack with assault after Ms Bateman, the Metropolitan Police inspector on duty at the time, contested their initial decision.

The inquest heard prosecutor Kate Weiss reviewed the decision to charge Flack a week after the assault.

She cited various factors, such as the violence involved, that Mr Burton was sleeping, that a caution is rare for a domestic violence case, and that police said Flack showed no remorse in interview, when coming to the conclusion that a caution was not appropriate.

Ms Weiss wrote: In light of these factors, I believe a caution is not appropriate.

Coroner Ms Hassell said she understood if Flacks family saw the review document and thought it gives a flavour of wanting to find reasons to continue the prosecution rather than looking at this afresh.

The coroner said: It would be easy to gain an impression from this that for whatever reason Caroline isnt liked  Shes a celebrity and she must be dealt with severely.

I can understand why that impression could be gained by this document.

Expand Close Floral tributes placed outside Caroline Flacks former home (Dominic Lipinski/PA) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Floral tributes placed outside Caroline Flacks former home (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

Ms Ramsarran replied: I dont share your view that we are treating this defendant any different from anyone else.

The inquest heard Flacks mental health deteriorated and she killed herself in February 2020, weeks before she was due to stand trial.

In an impassioned examination of Ms Batemans evidence, Mrs Flack told Ms Bateman: If it had been an ordinary person, you wouldnt have prosecuted.

This girl killed herself because you put an appeal through.

Ms Bateman denied the coroners suggestion that she was motivated by Flacks celebrity status to charge her.

Ms Bateman said: I was not biased and I treat everyone the same.

The inquest heard Flack was found naked and covered in blood with a self-imposed cut to her wrist when police arrived on the scene of the alleged assault in December, and told officers: I hit him (Mr Burton), he was cheating on me.

On Wednesday, friends described how Flack had serious concerns about her trial in March, but had met with her lawyers on February 14 when she thought the case might be dropped.

However, it was then that her legal team outlined the CPSs decision, made the previous day, to go ahead with court action.

Expand Close Caroline Flack died in February (Ian West/PA) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Caroline Flack died in February (Ian West/PA)

Flack was found hanged at her home the following day.

Prosecutor Ms Ramsarran said the CPS looked at Flacks mental health when the case was first reviewed, including evidence that the television personality self-harmed at the crime scene when she allegedly assaulted Mr Burton.

However, it was decided it was in the public interest to authorise a charge of assault by beating, particularly considering the domestic violence allegation.

Flacks death prompted an outpouring of sorrow from celebrity friends, colleagues and fans, who referenced one of the former Strictly winners social media posts from December in which she urged people to be kind.

Her death was the latest connected to Love Island, following the deaths of contestants Mike Thalassitis, 26, in March 2019 and Sophie Gradon, 32, in June 2018.

Ms Gradons boyfriend Aaron Armstrong, 25, died three weeks after he found his girlfriend had died.

To contact the Samaritans, call 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org or visit https://www.samaritans.org/
Popular short-video app TikTok, owned by China's ByteDance, said on Thursday it plans to open its first European data center in Ireland with an investment of about 420 million euros.

Under fire from U.S. President Donald Trump over national security risks, TikTok is in talks with Microsoft about selling its U.S. operations. Trump said he will ban the service in the United States on Sept. 15 if there was no sale.

The data center in Ireland will create hundreds of new jobs, enable faster loading time and safely store European user data, Roland Cloutier, global chief information security officer of TikTok, wrote in a blog post.

"This data center signals our long-term commitment to Ireland and we expect the data center to open and be operational by early 2022," Cloutier said.

Ireland is one of Europe's biggest hubs for data centers and hosts operations for major technology companies such as Amazon , Facebook and Alphabet Inc's Google.

ByteDance said on Monday it was considering moving TikTok's headquarters overseas, following a British media report that the unit could relocate to London. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie
Virginia has rolled out a smartphone app to automatically notify people if they might have been exposed to the coronavirus, becoming the first US state to use new pandemic technology created by Apple and Google.

But hopes for a nationwide app that can work seamlessly across state borders remain unrealized, and there are no known federal plans to create one.

State officials say their new app will not work as well outside Virginia, at least until a group of coordinating public health agencies gets a national server up and running and other states join in.

State officials, who repeatedly emphasized its privacy-protection features, announced the launch of a statewide public information campaign encouraging people to download and use it.

Information on Virginia's public health department website says the app measures close contact as within six feet of someone for at least 15 minutes, using guidelines from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The signal strength would diminish if a wall separates two phones, though it's still possible someone would get alerted if a neighbor in an adjacent apartment or dorm room were infected.

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Virginia has rolled out a smartphone app to automatically notify people if they might have been exposed to the coronavirus, becoming the first US state to use new pandemic technology created by Apple and Google

Virginia's free Covidwise app is available in Apple and Android app stores as of Wednesday.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said at a news conference: 'Now, I want you all to listen to this very closely.'

'I want to be clear, this app, Covidwise, does not - I will repeat that - does not track or store your personal information. It does not track you at all.'

The technology arrives nearly four months after Apple and Google partnered to create the software for public health agencies trying to contain the spread of the pandemic.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (pictured) said at a news conference: 'Now, I want you all to listen to this very closely. I want to be clear, this app, Covidwise, does not - I will repeat that - does not track or store your personal information. It does not track you at all'

Canada and a number of countries in Europe and elsewhere have already rolled out apps using the tech companies' framework.

The app, developed by SpringML, based in Pleasanton, California, relies on Bluetooth wireless technology to detect when someone who downloaded the app has spent time near another app user who later tests positive for the virus.

Those who test positive can anonymously notify others to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

Instead of recording someones geographic location, the app tracks proximity - by keeping an encrypted record of when two phones send short-range signals to one other.

'It doesnt know where you are. It just knows the distance, it just knows how strong the proximity was,' said Suresh Soundararajan, the Virginia health departments chief information technology officer.

The department will verify positive test results and issue app users who want to report them a pin number tied to their lab records in order to prevent malicious actors from sharing false positives.

Canada and a number of countries in Europe and elsewhere have already rolled out apps using the tech companies' framework. Those who test positive can anonymously notify others to help stop the spread of COVID-19

People who receive a warning of possible exposure can seek advice from the health department or their doctor.

A number of states have expressed interest in the Apple-Google technology, including Alabama - which has begun pilot testing - South Carolina, North Dakota and Pennsylvania. Google said that as of Friday there were 20 states and territories exploring an app using the framework. Such apps have already launched in 16 countries and regions across Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America, the company said.

'Everyone is trying so hard and theres limited time, limited capacity,' said Sameer Halia, who is working to launch an app in Arizona using the Google and Apple software. 'Every state will look at what their needs are and what their population cares about and make a decision.'

Several states have introduced apps using other approaches, such as satellite-based GPS location tracking, but theres little evidence they have been successful.

Unlike the Apple-Google model, many of these apps make data available to public health officials so they can use it to trace the contacts of infected patients.

One of the first to launch, in Utah, has since disabled location-tracking features. Rhode Island's app uses GPS and has been downloaded by nearly 70,000 people, about 7 percent of the population, but health officials don't know how often it has led to someone being notified of an exposure.

Instead of an automatic notification, it is meant to jog someone's memory by showing them - or health workers - where they have been for the past two weeks.

'While we know that it has been very helpful in many cases, we cant say exactly how many,' said Rhode Island health department spokesman Joseph Wendelken.

Privacy advocates have largely favored the approach taken by Apple and Google, but app developers have struggled to explain to privacy-wary citizens why they should trust a model endorsed by giant corporations known for tracking people in other ways.

People who receive a warning of possible exposure can seek advice from the health department or their doctor

Concern arose in June when both companies made phone setting updates that make the pandemic apps possible, even though phones won't log peoples encounters unless they choose to download an app.

The Apple-Google model has also drawn criticism from some health experts who have questioned its effectiveness, especially if there are too many false alarms and if local health agencies don't have the capacity to test enough people.

It remains to be seen if apps from various states will eventually be able to work together effectively, enabling people to use just one as they travel across borders.

The Virginia health department website advises that because a positive diagnosis must be verified with the department through the issuance of a pin number, the app is currently 'much less effective outside of Virginia.'

State officials say they are working with the Association of Public Health Laboratories, which is leading an initiative to put together and host a 'national key server' where the randomly generated Bluetooth keys the app runs on can be stored.

If other states get their own apps up and running, the keys could then be shared, so someone who is exposed to the virus while in another state could still get a notification.

Another tech giant, Microsoft, plans to host the server, according to the health agency association.
SYDNEY  Australian retailer Richard Poulson is betting on China as a lifeline for Australias COVID-19-battered fashion sector.

On Friday, Perth-based Poulson, cofounder of the 10-unit Australian fashion chain Morrison, will hit the live button on his new Australian- and New Zealand-focused e-commerce startup Showroom-X, which he believes has the potential to generate 50 million Australian dollars, or $36 million, in sales within five years.

Aimed squarely at the Chinese market, showroom-X.com, which is in English and Mandarin, will be promoted via WeChat, Weibo, Chinese key opinion leaders and Western influencers, notably from Australias large Chinese community.

More than 1.2 million people living in Australia boast Chinese ancestry, or 5 percent of the population. They include a growing cohort of high-net-worth individuals. According to Australian government figures, in the eight years since the launch of the Significant Investor Visa  which offers a pathway to permanent residency for those investing 5 million Australian dollars, or $4 million, in Australian investments  mainland Chinese accounted for 85.2 percent of the total visas granted.

The strategy, from our discussions with our advisers is to engage our local Chinese communities and they will then seed back to mainland China and create the awareness for us. That is how were actually rolling it out, said Poulson, Showroom-X chief executive officer.

Its really about championing the Australian lifestyle and everything that goes with that, said Kelly Atkinson, Showroom-X creative director. Were using our research into what resonates with the Chinese consumer and weve built a web site that is still authentic to us, but speaks to them on the level of what our lifestyle is, our versatility in our clothing, our style in general. Australians have a very relaxed sense of style, it comes across in almost everything we do but I think fashion is a really good way to express that.

Story continues

At launch, the site will offer 35 brands, 80 percent of them fashion. They include Australias Ellery, Esse Studios, Ten Pieces, Lee Mathews, Aje, KitX, Bassike, Christopher Esber, Matteau, Romance Was Born, Dinosaur Designs, RM Williams and cult Melbourne brand Scanlan Theodore, for which Showroom-X will be the only global wholesale stockist. There is also New Zealands Paris Georgia, with more Kiwi brands to follow.

Beauty names include perfumes by Naomi Goodsir and Vahy; skin-care brands The Travelista, The Secret and Rohr Remedy, and The Kind Sunscreen.

The site will also sell the work of 20 Australian artists via an arrangement with Sydney gallery Saint Cloche.

The project has been in development for 18 months, with Poulson working with Shanghai-based Alan Peng, a former consultant to L Catterton on its Australian assets Seafolly and 2XU.

According to the International Post Corporation Cross-Border E-commerce Shopper Survey 2019, clothing and footwear and health and beauty were the two most popular categories for international shoppers buying from Australia, accounting for 37 percent and 30 percent of purchases, respectively. China is Australias third largest e-commerce market after New Zealand and India, accounting for 15 percent of online purchases.

Were not going to be fleshing it out to have 2,000 brands, said Poulson. This will be very much about the very best of Australia and the plan is that once we get the entry strategy and pipeline right, then we can do Showroom-X Scandinavia and bring the best of Scandinavian brands to China. This is the grand plan, to bring European brands [to China] that are not necessarily high street names, but the cool brands.

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DENVER - Five people were found dead Wednesday after an early morning fire destroyed a suburban Denver home  a blaze authorities said they suspect was intentionally set. Three people escaped the fire by jumping from the homes second floor.

Investigators believe the victims were a toddler, an older child and three adults, Denver Fire Department Capt. Greg Pixley said. Their bodies were discovered after firefighters extinguished the fire, which was first reported by a Denver police officer at 2:40 a.m., Pixley said.

The three survivors were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, Denver police spokesman Jay Casillas said.

Pixley spoke outside the charred house in the Green Valley Ranch neighbourhood, a relatively new development of tightly packed homes near Denver International Airport.

A police officer attempting to rescue people on the first floor was pushed back by the fires heat, and it appears that those who died were all on the first floor, he said.

Police are investigating the fire along with firefighters because there are indications that it was arson, said Joe Montoya, division chief of investigations for Denver police. He would not elaborate on the evidence because he said he did not want to compromise the investigation.

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was assisting the investigation, ATF spokesman Matthew Deasaro said. The ATF frequently assists agencies in arson investigations.

This is a devastating time for Denver and this community. Our heart and our prayers go out to this community, Pixley said.

Abou Djibril, who said he was a relative of the victims, told The Denver Post the people who died were members of a family that had immigrated from Senegal. Another friend, Ousmane Ndiaye, told the newspaper the father was an engineer with Kiewit, a construction and engineering firm. An email sent to Kiewit for comment wasnt immediately returned.

Amadou Ba, a friend of the father, stood outside the charred home with a group of other men from West Africa to bring my respect for the people who passed away and to support the family and the community.

He was a very good guy. ... He liked to help everybody, help the community and do a lot of things for everybody, Ba said of the father.

Ba said he is working with officials in Senegal and raising money to send the bodies back to the West African country.

Its tradition because everybody wants to see their family come back home, he said.

Neighbour Maria Mendoza said she was awakened by noise and someone screaming, Get the baby out! Get the baby out! at 2:40 a.m. She ran to a window and saw flames and plumes of smoke rising from the home just down the street.

I awoke my husband, and he ran outside to see if he could help but there was nothing he could do. The fire was too big, Mendoza said.

Firefighters arrived moments later.

It all happened so fast, less than 10 minutes. These are big houses but theyre all made of wood, Mendoza said, holding back tears. May God and the community help this family.

Mendoza said she didnt know the family but would wave or say Hi whenever she saw the children. She said the neighbourhood was built about two years ago.

Investigators erected a white tent outside the nearly destroyed home, its frame blackened in stark contrast to neighbouring beige houses with neatly manicured lawns.
The number of known coronavirus cases in the Washington region surpassed 200,000 Thursday, even as health experts noted signs of optimism that the region might be turning a corner after a recent surge of infections.

The seven-day average of new daily cases in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia more than doubled in July, starting the month below 1,000 and ending with more than 2,000. But daily caseloads have ticked downward in recent days as hot spots such as Virginia's Hampton Roads region and the Baltimore area notched slight dips from recent peaks.

Officials said the latest numbers are a positive sign after weeks of caseload increases that prompted local leaders to restore some economic and social restrictions. Daily caseloads in the region the past two days have been at their lowest levels since mid-July.

William Petri, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Virginia's medical school, said Virginia has made progress, with its number of new cases holding steady. The state's seven-day average stood at 995 on Thursday, down from 1,095 a week earlier.

"We may be leveling off in new case diagnoses each day," he said, noting that the daily caseload has hovered in a tight range since late July.

While cases have fallen, Petri said the average death toll - a lagging indicator that has more than tripled in 10 days, standing at 23 on Thursday - could continue to rise because of earlier spikes concentrated in Hampton Roads.

He said he is monitoring the state's reproduction number, which is the average number of infections generated by each infected person. Virginia's reproduction number is hovering near one, suggesting that the state is "in a steady period where we don't see exponential rises," but it's "not going up and it's not going down."

Petri said a rate much lower than one is unlikely without a coronavirus vaccine, but the current number shows that "everyone is paying attention to the really unsexy things of wearing masks, maintaining social distancing and washing hands."

In addition to Hampton Roads and Baltimore, another area of concern has been Prince George's County, Md., said Neil Sehgal, assistant professor of health policy and management at the University of Maryland's school of public health.

The county - which was hit hard during the regional height of the pandemic - has seen its average caseload more than double since early July, even though numbers are well below their May peak. Baltimore County, Baltimore City and Prince George's County account for about 57% of Maryland's new cases.

Sehgal said he's worried that as more people enter public spaces, there will be a continued disproportionate burden of cases among the Washington area's Black and Latino residents, who are heavily represented in service-industry jobs.

Because D.C. attracts visitors from across the country, he said, an increase in mobility could also result in increased case counts in the nation's capital.

Sehgal said many people are fatigued by restrictions and extended periods of staying home. He urged residents to think about their actions now if they want to travel for the holidays and see students return to school later this year.

"We have let this drag on far longer than any other developed country," Sehgal said. "We have lacked the political will to combat this."

Baltimore Mayor Jack Young, a Democrat, also voiced frustration with federal leaders Thursday as he lifted some restrictions that recently were added to combat a rise in infections.

Young signed an executive order to restore indoor dining at limited capacity. The decision comes about two weeks after he suspended dining inside bars and restaurants, becoming the first Maryland jurisdiction to restrict activities that previously were permitted under reopening plans.

Young said his order, which takes effect 5 p.m. Friday, was meant to boost the financial well-being of Baltimore residents struggling amid the pandemic. But the mayor said he remains concerned about community spread of the virus and criticized the "deeply disheartening" lack of congressional action to provide more financial relief to the public.

"Their inaction has forced my hand," he said in a statement. "This reopening does not mean that we are in the clear as it relates to the pandemic but rather that I want to support our residents facing extreme financial hardships as a result of working in the restaurant and service industry."

Under Young's order, restaurants can reopen for indoor dining at 25% capacity with social distancing measures in place and face coverings when patrons are not eating or drinking. It also limits outdoor gatherings to 25 people, while limiting capacity at indoor gatherings, houses of worship and retail establishments at 25 people or 25%, whichever is lower.

The Baltimore region's rate of infection began to increase in early July but has eased slightly in recent days. In Baltimore City, the seven-day average caseload peaked at 185 in late July, a number that stood at 153 daily cases on Thursday. Numbers in Baltimore County have followed a similar trend.

D.C. has also seen a slight decline in infections in recent days, with its daily average at 66 new cases. Montgomery County, Md., has seen a similar downward tick in cases, while that metric has changed little in northern Virginia since mid-June.

As caseloads plateau across the region, officials said there were other signs of encouragement.

Maryland on Thursday reported a record low of 4.03% in its seven-day positivity test rate. Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, urged residents to continue wearing masks and to maintain social distance.

"While we are encouraged by the decline and plateau of key metrics in recent days, this crisis is by no means behind us," he tweeted.

The number of coronavirus cases in D.C., Maryland and Virginia stood at 201,390 on Thursday as the death toll in the greater Washington region reached 6,437. The three jurisdictions reported 40 new deaths and 1,472 new cases.

D.C. reported 75 new cases and no deaths, Maryland reported 579 cases and 15 deaths, and Virginia reported 818 cases and 25 deaths.

The pandemic continued to take a toll on personal finances and the economy, with 37,842 people filing new unemployment claims in D.C., Maryland and Virginia for the week ending Aug. 1. That's down from 58,736 claims the week before.

D.C. residents filed 2,090 new claims, Maryland had 9,762 claims and Virginians filed 25,990 claims.

- - -

The Washington Post's Ovetta Wiggins contributed to this report.
Then-California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris at a news conference in 2015. (Los Angeles Times)

To the editor: It is hard to see Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris as truly hailing from California vis-a-vis the speculation of whether Joe Biden will pick her as the vice presidential nominee.

We elected Harris to be our senator. I am guessing that when she got to Washington and was sworn in, before she set up her office, she started running for president.

I read the L.A. Times daily and have yet to notice what our junior senator has done for California or for the country. The malicious machine working to reelect President Trump will have a field day with this.

If Harris treats being vice president as she has her current position, Biden will have a hard time finding her in town as she will be off campaigning for his job.

Phyllis Specht, Pasadena

..

To the editor: Republicans are blasting possible VP choice Rep. Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) for being too sympathetic to the late Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

These people will vote for Trump, who has lavished praise on such authoritarians as Vladimir Putin of Russia, Xi Jinping of China, Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines and Kim Jong Un of North Korea. Trump even allegedly encouraged Xi to build concentration camps for Uighurs in China.

Any Republican who rips Bass for kind words about Castro but supports Trump is a total hypocrite.

Bruce Janger, Santa Monica

..

To the editor: The brouhaha over Bass' remarks from 10 years ago concerning Scientology only serve to highlight her naivete when it comes to presidential politics.

Had she been thinking ahead, she would have arranged to have had a tryst with an adult-film actor and bragged about grabbing individuals by their crotch. She even failed to smear minorities as criminals and rapists.

Clearly, Bass is out of her element. The introduction of someone with values into this race would violently throw out of alignment the aggregate moral profile we've come to associate with presidential elections.

Ronald O. Richards, Los Angeles

Story continues

..

To the editor: Watching a 77-year-old white man from his chair on high casually biding his time while choosing from a group of auditioning woman is not a good look.

Time to make up your mind, Mr. Vice President.

Jim Abrahams, Santa Monica
A 44-year-old Hamilton police constable has been charged with assault following an off-duty incident in Quebec last month.

Const. Jeff Coleman, a 22-year member of Hamilton police, is charged with assault level one after police were called to a commercial property in Otter Lake, Que.

The Surete du Quebec were called to the business around 4 p.m. July 14, Hamilton police said. There had been an argument between two men over property that was allegedly damaged earlie, and one of the men returned.

The other man made an assault complaint and Quebec police arrested the off-duty officer. The other man is also facing charges related to the incident.

Coleman was released from custody on a promise to appear in court in Quebec on Oct. 13.

Assault level one is the least serious level of assault in the Criminal Code.

The Hamilton Police Service said it will also conduct an investigation under the Police Services Act.

Coleman has faced discipline before.

In 2003 he was charged in Ottawa with threatening a fellow cop. He was among a contingent of Hamilton officers in the city at an event honouring police killed in the line of duty.

This matter went to a Police Services Act hearing and he received a 40-hour pay loss penalty.

In 2006 he was accused of falsely identifying himself with the name of a former police officer while acting aggressively toward a woman. He faced a misconduct charge under the Police Services Act, but in 2007 that was withdrawn in exchange for his acceptance of informal discipline.

Nicole OReilly is a Hamilton-based reporter covering crime and justice for The Spectator. Reach her via email: noreilly@thespec.com

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An executive who led Best Buy's efforts to expand in health-care and connected devices is stepping down from his role, the retailer confirmed to CNBC on Thursday.

Asheesh Saksena, president of Best Buy Health, will leave that post but remain a strategic advisor to CEO Corie Barry, company spokeswoman Carly Charlson said in a statement. As Best Buy looks for a successor, Saksena's team will report to Barry in the interim, she said.

Best Buy, known for its tech products and its services such as Geek Squad, has acquired two health tech-related companies in recent years, and its CEO has spoken of bigger ambitions in the field. The two businesses are focused on making it easier and safer for aging adults to live independently in their homes.

"His time with the company brought us meaningfully closer to our strategic goal of helping millions of Americans stay healthy through consumer technology and related services," the company spokeswoman said. "Our strategy remains constant and we look forward to announcing a successor who will build on the progress made so far and help create an even more compelling future."

Best Buy declined to say if Saksena is leaving for a role at another company. Saksena could not be immediately reached for comment.

Two years ago, Best Buy acquired GreatCall in an $800 million deal. The company makes easy-to-use cell phones and connected health devices, along with providing emergency response services for aging adults. Last year, it acquired another senior-focused company, Critical Signal Technologies, or CST.

In his role, Saksena oversaw those acquired companies, as well as Best Buy's health-care initiatives and strategy.

Barry has said in recent months that the Covid-19 pandemic has made the company's health focus especially timely and relevant.

On a first-quarter earnings call in May, she said the company's agents  who answer calls from the more than 1 million seniors who use its health care-related devices  had spent above-average amounts of time on the phone with customers. Along with providing services for seniors, she said, the company wants to make it easier for people to manage chronic health conditions at home.

"You can imagine there's a great deal of interest around how at a much broader scale we can monitor people's health and take care of them in their homes," she told investors on the earnings call. "If this pandemic has highlighted anything, it is that keeping people at home as long as possible, but also tracking their vitals, tracking how they're feeling is incredibly important."

Walmart  another big-box retailer expanding in health care  confirmed its own leadership change earlier this week, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Sean Slovenski, senior vice president and president of health and wellness for Walmart U.S., will leave the company. Two years ago, Slovenski, a former top executive at insurer Humana, was tapped to spearhead the big-box retailer's health-care expansion efforts.

The retailer, which already has pharmacies at its stores, is opening a growing number of Walmart Health clinics with low-priced primary care, dental care and mental health services. It plans to open at least six additional clinics in the Atlanta area and to soon open its first clinics in the Chicago area and Florida.
Niagara Regional Police locked down a Welland neighbourhood east of First Avenue Wednesday afternoon as crisis negotiators worked to resolve a situation in the area.

The situation was resolved in the early evening, but police issued little information.

Emergency task unit (ETU) members and a canine unit responded to the area of Brant and Trent avenues sometime in the afternoon, and uniformed officers shut down Trent from Green Pointe Drive to just west of Brant Avenue.

Brant Avenue, which winds its way from Trent to First Avenue, was closed as well.

In a tweet at 3:09 p.m., police said there were no public safety issues but asked people to stay out of the area.

Niagaras armoured-rescue vehicle was in the driveway of a home on the east side of Brant Avenue with ETU members behind it and other police vehicles in the area.

One ETU member was in the hatch of the armoured-rescue vehicle.

Police had a command post set up in the parking lot of Wesley United Church, at the corner of Brant and First avenues.

Niagara Emergency Medical Services and Welland Fire and Emergency Services also staged in the parking lot with police in case their services were needed.
A new type of virus, which is likely to be passed to be infected after bite by ticks, is emerging in China, with more than 60 people infected and killed at least seven.

According to media reports, more than 37 people in East China's Jiangsu Province have contracted with the virus - SFTS Virus in the first half of the year; and later 23 people was found infected in East China's Anhui Province.

Wang, a woman in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu who suffered from the virus showed onset of symptoms such like fever, coughing and doctors found decline of leukocyte, blood platelet inside of her body.

After a month of treatment, Wang was discharged from hospital. But the virus has reported at least seven killed in Anhui and East China's Zhejiang Province.

SFTS Virus is not a new virus. China has isolated pathogene of the virus in 2011, and it belongs to Bunya virus category. Virologists believed it maybe passed to human being by ticks, and that the virus can be transmitted between humans.

Sheng Jifang, a doctor from the first affiliated hospital under Zhejiang University said that the possibility of human to human transmission could not be excluded; patients can pass the virus to other via blood or mucous.

Doctors warned that tick bites is the major transmission route, as long as people remain cautious, there's no need to over panic over such virus contagion.


Ryanair will increase flights to over 60% of its normal schedule throughout August following what it said on Thursday was a successful resumption of services at 40% of capacity last month following COVID-19 lockdowns.

Europe's biggest budget airline flew 4.4 million passengers in July, a broadly expected 70% year-on-year fall. It slashed its target for the financial year to March 2021 to 60 million passengers last month, from the 80 million forecast in May.

"Since the resumption of our schedule in late June, passenger numbers have continued to grow," Eddie Wilson, chief executive of Ryanair's main airline unit, said in a statement, saying traveller confidence was returning. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie
Washington: Twitter has hidden a tweet from US President Donald Trump of a Fox News interview clip, where he said children were "almost immune" to COVID-19, and briefly banned a Trump campaign account from tweeting until it deletes the video.

Twitter spokeswoman Liz Kelley told The Washington Post the tweet was in violation of the rules on COVID-19 misinformation. "The account owner will be required to remove the tweet before they can tweet again."

A video US President Donald Trump posted on Facebook has been removed after breaking the site's COVID-19 misinformation rules. Credit:AP

A tweet containing the video was posted by the Trump campaign's @TeamTrump account and then shared by the President.

Twitter said the @teamtrump account was prohibited from posting until the clip was removed. No action was taken on the President's own account. The account resumed posting on Wednesday evening, US time, and the video clip appeared to have been taken down.
Businesses have been in a kind of limbo since the economy began to open up over the summer. The relief felt by the likes of retailers, restaurateurs and hairdressers at finally re-opening has been temporary and a little unreal. It is now beginning to subside for many of them.

Winter is coming and the scale of the problems likely to come at us looms large. There are already plenty of warning signs.

Aviation: Aer Lingus is looking at around 500 redundancies and may not re-open regional bases in Shannon and Cork. The company which could end up availing of state intervention lost 316m in the first six months of this year. In the absence a large public appetite in the country to end 14-day self-isolation rules, politicians won't change course.

Elsewhere in the sector the Dublin Airport Authority is eyeing 750 to 1,000 job cuts, as Dublin and Cork Airports are losing 1m per day.

Commercial Property: We won't see the end of the office any time soon, but it is changing. Many CEOs see a hybrid model of working from home a few days a week as a likely future option. Eir chief executive Carolan Lennon is examining future hybrid options which would mean less floor space for a business with thousands of staff in five main buildings.

These moves won't be lost on property investors which could have knock-on effects on construction activity as early as next year,

Hotels: Tourist hotels around the country are getting a stay-cation bounce while hotels in Dublin continue to suffer badly. Dublin hotels have been a licence to print money in the last five years, but ironically are being hit even harder than their west coast equivalents.

No conferences, no business travel, no concerts and Irish people who don't want to holiday in a city with a population of one million, are all combining to make it a very tough summer for Dublin hotels. Not much will change in the winter without a massive reversal of government policy on social distancing and international travel.

Banks: First-half results from the banks are showing the scale of their expected loan losses this year caused by the coronavirus. Bank of Ireland yesterday reported a 669m loss and is looking to shed 1,400 staff.

Permanent TSB has taken an impairment charge of 75m in the first half, though its CEO Eamonn Crowley did say on Tuesday he could see small signs of recovery .

AIB will announce its figures today but they are expected to be on the higher end of guidance it gave, pushing total bad loan provisions well over 1bn for the main banks. PTSB expects its new lending to be down 40pc this year.

We all give out when they make too much money, but banks losing money isn't good for the economy.

SMEs: Small companies tend to let staff go quickly in a downturn because it is a cost they can control, unlike rent for example. Similarly, there is a strong tendency for small firms to collapse towards the end of a downturn as their under-capitalised balance sheets simply buckle from prolonged pressure. This is a ticking time bomb when it comes to jobs.

The challenges for government facing into this winter are significant. It must focus on the business sector and small firms in particular.

The political distractions of a bad start in power will have to end now as reality is about to bite hard.
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Linkedin Budi Sutrisno (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, August 6, 2020 20:02 530 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c22091 1 World Indonesia,Colombia,bilateral-cooperation,bilateral-relations,bilateral-meeting,visa-waiver Free

Indonesia and Colombia have expressed commitment to enhance bilateral ties as the two countries' representatives inked a visa exemption agreement for regular passport holders in an effort to improve the tourism sector after the coronavirus pandemic.

Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi signed the agreement with her Colombian counterpart Claudia Blum de Barberi during their first virtual meeting on Wednesday, which was held to commemorate the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries, which will fall on Sept. 15.

The visa-free agreement signed [on Wednesday] is expected to increase the number of tourists when the COVID-19 pandemic ends, the Indonesian Foreign Ministry said in a press statement on Thursday.

According to the ministry's data, a total of 6,304 Colombian citizens visited Indonesia last year, an increase of 15.7 percent from 2008.

Besides the agreement, Retno and Barberi also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on political consultation between the two countries foreign ministers.

The signing of the MoU complemented the Joint Commission Session, first held in Colombia's capital of Bogota in 2013. The ministers agreed on holding a Joint Political Consultation and Commission this year.

Read also: Indonesia, Colombia seek increased trade connectivity

Both foreign ministers also agreed to increase trade and investment between Indonesia and Colombia as part of cooperation for post-pandemic economic recovery.

Colombia was Indonesias sixth-largest trading partner and second-largest investment partner in South America last year.

The two countries' trade volume stood at US$152.8 million in 2019, according to the ministry. However, the number was still considered low when compared to other countries in the region.

Connectivity has served as a hindrance for the two nations to intensify economic interactions, but the repatriation of about 366 Colombian citizens from at least 19 countries on a special Garuda flight from Jakarta in May -- the first direct flight made by an Indonesian airline to Colombia -- has boosted optimism for improvement.

I would like to express my gratitude for our cooperation in the repatriation of Colombian citizens from various Asian countries via the humanitarian flight, Barberi said as quoted in the statement.

During the meeting, Retno and Barberi also discussed several efforts to further enhance regional and global cooperation.

Indonesia has requested Colombias support to become an associate member in the Pacific Alliance and Colombia asked for Indonesias support to accede to the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) and establish a closer cooperative relationship with the 10-member Southeast Asian grouping, the ministry said.
OTTAWA - The federal government is being urged to rethink Canada's employment insurance program as millions of workers are moved off of an emergency benefit while the country's job market is still recouping heavy losses due to COVID-19.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 6/8/2020 (530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau holds a press conference as he visits the Public Health Agency of Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ottawa on Friday, July 31, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

OTTAWA - The federal government is being urged to rethink Canada's employment insurance program as millions of workers are moved off of an emergency benefit while the country's job market is still recouping heavy losses due to COVID-19.

The government estimates four million people will be moved onto EI when the Canada Emergency Response Benefit starts winding down next month. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is promising a parallel benefit for gig and contract workers who don't qualify for payments through the decades-old system.

The Workers Action Centre, which advocates for low-wage workers and those in precarious employment, says many of the people it works with would get between $600 and $1,000 a month if they're pushed onto EI next month, with the way the safety-net program is currently structured.

That would be much less than the $500 per week paid out through the CERB to workers whose incomes crashed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Deena Ladd, the group's executive director, said an overhaul of EI itself is necessary to provide adequate benefits to stabilize an economy with sectors that won't fully open for months or may have to shut down again in response to outbreaks.

The shutdowns of March and April reduced by about three million the number of jobs in the country, and 2.5 million more workers had their hours and earnings slashed.

Statistics Canada reported last month that 3.1 million were still affected by the pandemic, including 1.4 million who weren't at work due to COVID-19, even as the country gained 953,000 jobs in June. The unemployment rate fell to 12.3 per cent after hitting a record high of 13.7 per cent in May.

David Macdonald, a senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, said the labour market still has a long way to go before reaching pre-pandemic levels, especially for low-wage workers, women and young people, who have disproportionately felt the economic sting.

"Some sectors  food, retail, airlines and hotels  simply won't be the same without a vaccine," he said. "And in those areas, we should continue to see no recovery, or certainly nowhere near a full recovery until we see a vaccine."

The pace of jobs recovery has been expected to slow after a striking rebound in May and June. The average economist estimate from data firm Refinitiv is for a gain of 400,000 jobs in July and an unemployment rate of 11 per cent.

Brendon Bernard, an economist at job-posting-site Indeed Canada, wrote this week that the results for July will rest on three sectors, which include accommodation and food services, personal-care services like salons and barbershops, as well as gyms and culture. As of June, those accounted for 38 per cent of net job losses since February.

Another sector that may not be back until next year at the earliest is theatre, which relies on in-person audiences made up mostly of strangers.

Toronto-based actor and musician Richard Lam said having a benefit with similar help to the CERB would help workers in the sector who are self-employed or do contract work, or work multiple jobs in other affected industries to pay their bills

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.

"Many artists in Canada and the people who support their work, they lost their Plan A and their Plan B at the same time, and they have no safety net to fall back on," he said. "The CERB provided a real light in the darkness for the theatre industry."

Since its launch, the CERB has paid $62.75 billion in benefits to 8.46 million people, according to the latest government figures.

The government has hinted at some of the changes likely to happen with the new benefit  including a provision for workers to keep a portion of the payments even while earning income, and access to skills-training programs  and to EI itself, such as a reduction in the hours required to qualify.

Macdonald said the government should consider raising EI's wage replacement rate, currently set at 55 per cent up to a weekly maximum, to around the same 75 per cent mark offered by the federal wage subsidy program employers have been offered in the pandemic.

He added that a floor on benefits similar to the weekly $500 on the CERB could help those set to receive far less on EI.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 6, 2020.
Manoj Sinha

New Delhi: Former union minister and senior BJP leader from Uttar Pradesh, Manoj Sinha, was on Thursday appointed as Lt Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, the Rashtrapati Bhawan spokesman said.

Manoj SinhaA communique issued by the President's secretariat said that the resignation of Girish Chandra Murmu as Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir has been accepted.

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The communique issued by the President's press secretary Ajay Kumar said that the President has been pleased to appoint Shri Manoj Sinha, to be the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir with effect from the date he assumes charge of his office in place of Murmu.

The 61-year-old Sinha was born on July 1, 1959 and his political career started when he was elected the president of Banaras Hindu University Students Union in 1982. He was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in 1996 and repeated the term in 1999.

GC Murmu and Manoj SinhaSinha has been a member of the BJP national council from 1989 to 1996. He was elected to the Lower House for a third term in national politics when the BJP swept the Lok Sabha elections in 2014.

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He was former Minister of State for Railways and later held an independent charge of Ministry of Communication.
A Bishop McDevitt student tested positive for COVID-19 days after attending the schools socially distant graduation ceremony, prompting the school to send a letter to alert parents to the situation.

The letter from Principal Vince Harper said the student did not start showing symptoms until the day after the July 30 ceremony.

Due to the symptoms, awareness, and sensitivity to the Coronavirus, the parent did take the student to be tested and the results were positive for Covid-19, Harper wrote.

Harper said the risk of spread during the ceremony is low, but recommended that parents and students be monitored for symptoms, just in case.

The letter went out to more than just the families with graduates as many of our students continue to interact with each other in social venues outside of our immediate school community, Harper said.

A parent of a Bishop McDevitt graduate confirmed to PennLive that they received the letter.

Bishop McDevitt High School quickly responded upon learning that a student who attended their graduation ceremony recently tested positive for Covid-19. The school administration followed Diocesan guidelines by quickly informing the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Diocese. The student displayed no symptoms prior to or during the graduation, said Rachel Bryson, spokeswoman for the Diocese of Harrisburg.

Bishop McDevitt followed all CDC and Pennsylvania Department of Health safety recommendations during the graduation, including requiring masks, observing social distance and holding the graduation outdoors. We join with the McDevitt school community in praying for the sick student and for all those impacted by this pandemic.

During the ceremony, the school equipped graduates with face masks and kept them 6 feet apart, Harper said in the letter. The graduates did not share objects, he said, and the ceremony followed CDC guidelines for gatherings and events, keeping the risk of transmission moderate to low, Harper wrote.

Heres the complete letter:

Dear Students and Families,

In our commitment to keep our students and community safe in our mitigation efforts of Covid-19, I must send out a message in regards to information provided by one of our parents yesterday concerning a positive Covid-19 test. The student did attend our Graduation ceremony last Thursday. Information provided stated that several students went on a trip together last week within Pennsylvania. No students or parents in attendance have reported they were outside of Pennsylvania or in a state the Governor has deemed a recommended quarantine/hotspot state for Coronavirus. The student had not shown symptoms of Coronavirus until Friday July 31st, 2020. Due to the symptoms, awareness, and sensitivity to the Coronavirus, the parent did take the student to be tested and the results were positive for Covid-19. I thank the parent for their forthright communication and immediate notification regarding this sensitive issue. These are the efforts we appreciate from our McDevitt family which make our community such a special place.

In the interest of safety and care for our community Bishop McDevitt is informing all graduates and families who attended the graduation ceremony, as well as those that did not, of the positive test result as many of our students continue to interact with each other in social venues outside of our immediate school community. We have contacted the Department of Health and reviewed the CDC guidelines regarding public gatherings. Our graduates were equipped with face masks, spaced 6 feet apart, did not share objects, and are from the same local area (CDC Guidelines for Gatherings and Events) which places our event at a moderate to low risk for transmission. Additionally, guidance indicates individuals who have had close contact of less than 6 feet or greater than 15 minutes within 48 hours of symptoms or positive test results may be at risk of exposure. Our Graduation Walk Procedures and set up mitigated the distance, duration and proximity of students to one another for the majority of the night, which based on this CDC guideline, still places our students, families, and staff in attendance in the moderate to low risk for transmission. However, as the CDC has indicated, no mitigation efforts can completely prevent the transmission of Covid-19. While our mitigation measures were of low to moderate risk, we would like to ensure parents and students are mindful to monitor for any symptoms of Covid-19 due to the positive test within our community. Symptoms of Covid-19 may appear 2-14 days after exposure to the virus which include:

Fever or chills

Cough

Shortness of Breath or difficulty breathing

Fatigue

Muscle or body aches

Headache

New loss of taste or smell

Sore throat

Nausea or vomiting

Diarrhea

Thank you, remain safe, and God Bless!!

Sincerely,

Vincent Harper '92

Principal
Myanmar-born preacher David Lah convicted for flouting ban on gatherings and sentenced to three months in prison.

A court in Myanmar has sentenced a Canadian pastor to three months in jail for holding church services in defiance of a ban on gatherings to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus.

David Lah, who is of Burmese origin, and his colleague, Myanmar national Wai Tun, were charged in April under a disaster management law over services they held in the city of Yangon.

Both men were convicted of breaking administrative rules and were given a three-month hard labour sentence, Maung Soe, a judge at Yangons Mayangone Township court, told reporters on Thursday.

The judge also took into consideration the time hes already spent in detention, so he could very well be released in the next few days or weeks even, Al Jazeeras Florence Looi said in her report from Malaysias capital, Kuala Lumpur.

Myanmar imposed a ban on mass gatherings in mid-March, but footage emerged in early April of Lah holding a service in Yangon.

If people hold the Bible and Jesus in their hearts, the disease will not come in, he proclaimed in one video to a roomful of faithful. The only person who can cure and give peace in this pandemic is Jesus.

Lah has ignited public outrage for making controversial statements in the online videos of his sermons [File: Video screengrab/Child of God YouTube channel/ Reuters]

Shortly afterwards, about 20 people who took part in Lahs gatherings in April, including Lah himself, tested positive for the coronavirus, an official said at the time.

This led to a cluster of 67 cases, according to Thar Tun Kyaw, a spokesman for the health ministry. The cluster was one of the largest in Myanmar, which has only reported 357 cases and six deaths related to the virus.

Controversial figure

The preacher was arrested after recovering from the illness in May and faced up to three years in jail for violating the Natural Disaster and Management Law.

On Thursday, the Yangon court went with the lesser sentence of three months. Outside the court, a waiting crowd of about 50 of the preachers followers erupted into cheers and celebrations at the news.

Toronto-based Lah, 43, was born in Myanmar and often returns to his motherland, where he has a large following, to preach.

Hes also known for making controversial comments, claiming that the teaching of Buddhist monks can make people sinful and hes made derogatory comments about Islam and the LGBTQ community as well, said Looi.

Religious gatherings across the world have at times been triggers for the spread of the virus, which has infected more than 18 million people globally and killed nearly 700,000.

Lahs scandal even touched Myanmars Christian Vice President Henry Van Thio and his family, who had attended an earlier service with Lah in February, although they later tested negative.

About 6 percent of Buddhist-majority Myanmars population identifies as one of the various Christian denominations in the country.
Atik Mohammed has castigated the Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi, over his insensitive comments about security forces in the country.



Sammy Gyamfi reportedly attacked the integrity of the security forces, particularly the Military, claiming the government is using them like a puppet.



He and leaders as well as members of the NDC have accused President Akufo-Addo and his government of deploying the Military to some Regions to intimidate the residents and prevent them from partaking in the new voter registration exercise.



Sammy Gyamfi said; This governments [New Patriotic Partys] hatred for Voltarians and other non-Akans is shameful and must stop now. We are all Ghanaians. Nobody is more Ghanaian or less Ghanaian than the other. And, the citizenship rights of all Ghanaians must be respected irrespective of their ethnicity or tribe.



Never in the history of Ghana, have we seen this obscene level of state-sponsored tribal bigotry and divisiveness like we are witnessing under the watch of President Akufo Addo today, as captured in the attached videos'', he added.



He is also quoted as saying the NDC will deal with the security forces when they come into power.



Reacting to Sammy Gyamfi's comments on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo', Atik Mohammed wondered why the NDC leadership hasn't condemned such comments or brought Sammy Gyamfi to order.



"It was the most irresponsible, infact it was a 'treasonale' comment to make . . . We don't have to send our stupidity to the security forces. We don't have to practice our political stupidity. To the extent that you have the audacity to threaten security agencies and tell them you'll deal with them when you come, Ghana looks miserable! And for me, to the extent that nobody from the party came to disavow that comment or express dissent to the comment, it tells me he was speaking the mindset of the political party from which he comes and it's a dangerous comment to have been made.



" . . When you begin attacking State institutions, what happens is that there is a tendency for a democratic relapse or what they call democratic decay . . . because you rendered those institutions weak. You rendered them useless and it emboldens whoever is attacking those institutions to move to the next," he warned.



Atik Mohammed described Sammy Gyamfi's statement as reckless saying ''he's (Sammy Gyamfi) trying to say that [meaning] in the Military, there are NDC soldiers and NPP soldiers; and nobody in the NDC felt this was an unfortunate and reckless comment that deserves some condemnation''.



"We can do our politics and still be civil about it. We can have our disagreements and still remain civil about that," Atik advised the young politician.







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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Upcoming political events in the Bay Area. Events take place online unless otherwise noted:

SATURDAY

Alcatraz and indigenous women: LaNada War Jack, member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, scholar and one of the occupiers of Alcatraz Island in 1969-71, moderates a discussion on the role of indigenous women during and after the occupation. Organized by the San Francisco Public Library. 11 a.m. More information is here.

Atomic bombings anniversary: An online event with survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, hosted by the Nihonmachi Outreach Committee of San Jose. 11 a.m. Registration required, space is limited. Registration and more information here.

SUNDAY

Atomic bombings anniversary: National live stream of events commemorating the 75th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hosted by #stillhere Coalition. 8 a.m. More information is here.

Nuclear-free future: Prospects for connecting the movement to abolish nuclear weapons with other efforts to lead to environmental change and social justice. Hosted by City Lights Booksellers and San Francisco Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility. 3 p.m. More information is here.

Virtual remembrance: Nichi Bei Foundation and Friends of Hibakusha host A Virtual Remembrance: 75 Years After the Atomic Bombings. 4 p.m. More information is here.

MONDAY

Rep. Mark DeSaulnier: Concord Democrat holds a town-hall meeting on the coronavirus pandemic and the economy with Jesse Rothstein, former Labor Department chief economist in the Obama administration. 3:30 p.m. RSVP and submit a question in advance here.

TUESDAY

Energy and communities: A discussion on how renewable-energy companies can offer diversity, equity and affordable energy. Panelists include Derrick Hollie, president of Reaching America, and Jacqueline Patterson, director of the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice program. Hosted by the Commonwealth Club. 9:30 a.m. More information is here.

Rep. Ro Khanna: Fremont Democrat holds a town hall meeting. Noon. Submit questions in advance here; join meeting here.

Paul Begala: Political consultant and former Bill Clinton adviser on how the Democrats can win in November. Hosted by the Commonwealth Club. 12:30 p.m. More information is here.

Shaun King: Civil rights activist and journalist in conversation with former San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim. Hosted by the Commonwealth Club. 6 p.m. More information is here.

WEDNESDAY

Dan Pfeiffer: Pod Save America co-host of Pod Save America on how Democrats can win the White House. Hosted by the Commonwealth Club. 6 p.m. More information is here.

History of protest: Marke Bieschke, 48 Hills publisher and arts editor and author of Into the Streets: A Young Person's Visual History of Protest in the United States, in a discussion hosted by the San Francisco Public Library. 7 p.m. More information is here.

THURSDAY

Jim Sciutto: CNN national security reporter on President Trumps foreign policy. Hosted by the Commonwealth Club. 3 p.m. More information is here.

AUG. 18

Dr. Anthony Fauci: Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in conversation with Gloria Duffy, president and CEO of the Commonwealth Club. 11 a.m. More information is here.

Local elections: The power of local elections  a discussion with AShanti Gholar, president of Emerge, and Eitan Hersh, associate professor of political science at Tufts University. Hosted by sf.citi. 5 p.m. More information is here.

AUG. 19

Social media and digital democracy: Alex Stamos, director of the Stanford Internet Observatory and former chief security officer of Facebook, on the rapid shift in media consumption and how it affects elections and other elements of democracy. Hosted by the Commowealth Club. 6:30 p.m. More information is here.

Unbreaking government: Can the U.S. fix its political and economic systems? A discussion with the authors of Presidents, Populism, and the Crisis of Democracy, University of Chicago political science department chair William Howell and Terry Moe, Stanford University political science professor and Hoover Institution fellow. Hosted by Keplers Books. 7 p.m. More information is here.

AUG. 20

Gen Z: How to ensure Generation Z is engaged in civic life during political upheaval and the pandemic. Speakers include Sara Guillermo, chief program officer of IGNITE National; Amanda Little, executive director of Kidizenship; Generation Citizen CEO Scott Warren; and Amber Coleman-Mortley, social engagement director at iCivics. Hosted by the Commonwealth Club. 10 a.m. More information is here.

S.F. D1 candidates: Candidates for San Francisco supervisor in District One  Andrew Majalya, Connie Chan, David Lee, Marjan Philhour and Veronica Shinzato  in a debate hosted by sf.citi. 5 p.m. More information is here.

AUG. 21

Shirley Chisholm documentary: A screening and discussion of Rep. Shirley Chisholms 1972 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, Chisholm 72: Unbought and Unbossed. Hosted by the Mechanics Institute. 6 p.m. More information is here.

AUG. 22

Pandemic response: A look at how the nations economic response to the coronavirus pandemic has skewed toward maximizing profits. Speakers include St. Marys College economics Professor Jack Rasmus. Hosted by Speak Out Now. 4 p.m. More information is here.

AUG. 25

Reagans legacy: Rick Perlstein, author of Reaganland, on how Ronald Reagan won the presidency and why the conservative strategy for gaining power works to this day. Hosted by the Commonwealth Club. Noon. More information is here.

Corruption in America: Sarah Chayes, former Paris reporter for NPR and author of On Corruption In America And What Is at Stake, in a conversation hosted by the Commonwealth Club. 3:30 p.m. More information is here.

AUG. 26

Womens suffrage centennial: Perspectives on how women can lead the country and further democratic values. Speakers include Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, Alameda County Supervisor Wilma Chan, She the People founder Aimee Allison, League of Women Voters of San Francisco president Alison Goh, suffrage historian Jennifer Helton and journalists Marisa Lagos of KQED and Elaine Elinson. Hosted by the League of Women Voters. 5 p.m. More information is here.

Katie Hill: Former congresswoman and author of the new book She Will Rise: Becoming a Warrior in the Battle for True Equality, on her story. Hosted by the Commonwealth Club. 6 p.m. More information is here.

SEPT. 9

S.F. D7 candidates: Candidates for San Francisco supervisor in District Seven  Emily Murase, Joel Engardio, Myrna Melgar and Vilaska Nguyen  in a debate hosted by sf.citi. 5 p.m. More information is here.

To list an event, please email Chronicle politics editor Trapper Byrne at tbyrne@sfchronicle.com
Pakistan unveils new map with all of disputed Kashmir as own territory

Iran Press TV

Wednesday, 05 August 2020 6:47 AM

Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan has approved a "new political map" of the country that marks the Indian-controlled part of the disputed Kashmir region as Pakistani territory.

Khan unveiled the map on Tuesday, ahead of the first anniversary of New Delhi's revocation of the autonomous status of Indian-administered Kashmir.

The map marks the Indian-administered part of the region as "Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir," unlike its former status as "disputed territory."

"Today is a historic day for Pakistan as the Cabinet, opposition, and Kashmiri leadership endorsed the new map," Khan said, unveiling the map. "Kashmir will become part of Pakistan and this map is the first step toward it."

The Himalayan region of Kashmir has been split between India and Pakistan since their partition in 1947. The countries have fought three wars over the territory.

The Indian-administered part of the region, known as Jammu and Kashmir, enjoyed autonomy until August 2019, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government revoked that status.

The Pakistani prime minister said separately that he would deliver a public speech in Muzaffarabad, the capital city of Azad Kashmir, on Wednesday.

India reacted by describing the map as "an exercise in political absurdity."

"We have seen a so-called political map of Pakistan that has been released by Prime Minister Imran Khan. This is an exercise in political absurdity These ridiculous assertions have neither legal validity nor international credibility. In fact, this new effort only confirms the reality of Pakistan's obsession with territorial aggrandizement supported by cross-border terrorism," the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said in an official statement on Tuesday.

India regularly accuses Pakistan of aiding militants to cross the border in Kashmir to conduct attacks. Islamabad denies that accusation.

Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir had ordered a two-day curfew in Srinagar, the summer capital of Kashmir, anticipating protests on the anniversary of the revocation of the region's autonomy.

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Former Jammu and Kashmir lieutenant governor GC Murmu has been appointed the new Comptroller Auditor General of India (CAG) by the President of India, announced a notification released by the finance ministry on Thursday night. Murmu will replace Rajiv Mehrishi, who is set to retire from the key constitutional post on August 8.

By virtue of the power vested in him by clause 1 of article 148 of the Constitution of India, the President has been pleased to appoint Shri Girish Chandra Murmu to be the Comptroller and Auditor General of India with effect from the date he assumes charge of his office, the finance ministry notification signed by joint secretary Rajiv Kumar Mishra said.

Rajiv Mehrshi was appointed Indias top public auditor in 2017 after his retirement from the civil services. Mehrishi - a former IAS officer of the 1978 batch  has previously been Indias finance secretary and home secretary.

Murmu had assumed the charge of Jammu and Kashmir lieutenant governor on 31 October, after the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir got official recognition as a Union Territory.

Murmu was the expenditure secretary in the Union finance ministry when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah decided to elevate him to the new Union Territorys Raj Bhawan. Murmu had then resigned from the IAS a month before his retirement in November-end 2019.

Murmu, who is said to have the trust of PM Modi and Shah, had worked with them in Gujarat when he was posted in the home department. After PM Modi came to Delhi in 2014, Murmu moved to the Gujarat chief ministers office as principal secretary to Anandiben Patel who had succeeded Modi in the state. He joined the central government less than a year later as a joint secretary in the finance ministry.
In the run-up to the grand ceremony, there was no acknowledgement of the destruction of lives of fellow citizens, neither by the constitutional Head of State, nor by the ruling party, nor the Opposition, not even by the media

It was on 6 August, 1998 that the Justice BN Srikrishna Commission Report of Inquiry into Mumbai's 1992-1993 riots was tabled. That too, like August 5, 2020, was a long-awaited day.

The ruling Shiv Sena had tried its best not to table the report, sensing that the sitting high court judge would indict them for the violence that had erupted following the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Forced to table it by the high court, the party waited till the very last day of the Assembly session to do so, and then printed only as many copies as were needed by the MLAs.

The report was tabled and rejected within an hour by then chief minister Manohar Joshi. In a corridor of the Assembly, when I asked the then Leader of the Opposition Chhagan Bhujbal if his party (the Congress) would lead an agitation for its implementation, he retorted, "What? And lose the Hindu vote?" The current paeans to Lord Ram by Priyanka Gandhi and some of her party leaders therefore come as no surprise to those who witnessed the Ayodhya campaign.

For Mumbaikars, Ayodhya has been a tangible presence since 6 December, 1992. The riots here started within hours of the Babri Masjid being demolished. The commission documented that the first stone of the riots was thrown at a masjid by a "victory" cycle rally taken out by the Shiv Sena in Dharavi at around 4 pm.

In fact, the entire report was a documentation of the savagery that took over this city after the demolition. The violent hate that characterised the campaign for building a Ram Mandir at the very spot where stood the Babri Masjid was perhaps felt most in Mumbai. That was why Mumbaikars were so restless about the Srikrishna Commission Report being tabled. While the Sena naturally didn't want its role exposed, there were many ordinary citizens who were loath to relive the darkness that had engulfed the city a mere six years ago.

But there was also a substantial number who were eager to read what the judge had concluded. Having been disbelieved by every authority till then, they wanted desperately to know whether their testimonies, made in open court in front of their tormentors, had been taken seriously.

Indeed they had.

It is this section that has been completely blacked out in the run-up to 5 August this year. Blacked out by the ruling party of course, who saw them as nothing but obstacles to be removed in its mission to destroy the Babri Masjid and build the Ram Temple in its place. Even the Police Commissioner of Bombay during the riots (it had not become Mumbai then), Shrikant Bapat, told the Srikrishna Commission that it was not LK Advani's rath yatra that had been the cause of communal riots. It was the Muslims who opposed the rath yatra by "unconstitutional" means, ie on the streets, who had created the tension.

Well, those obstacles were constitutionally removed by the Supreme Court last year. So the triumphalist tone of Wednesday's Ayodhya celebrations was only to be expected. Relishing the victory, every speaker at Ayodhya, including the prime minister, referred to the "balidaan aur sangharsh" that had led up to it. But whose balidaan? Only those who were shot in Ayodhya in the 1990s? Do we need to count the number of Hindu and Muslim lives lost in the Ayodhya campaign to conclude that the balidaan was unfairly borne, in fact extracted, from one community?

The prime minister compared this balidaan aur sangharsh to the sacrifices made during the freedom struggle. There is no comparison. In no way was every section of society united in the movement for the Ram Mandir and against the Babri Masjid  unless he meant every section of Hindu society alone.

From the Sangh Parivar  on Wednesday, the family relationship was on national television  a lens that wipes out Muslims from view is only to be expected. But what of the electronic media? Many popular channels had banner headings saying Jai Siyaram, sadiyon ka khatm intezaar, Prabhu Sri Ram ka khatm vanvaas, sapna ho raha saakaar, with bhajans as background music. Whose sapna and whose intezaar?

Isn't it the responsibility of the media to acknowledge both sides of a dispute that has finally been resolved? The shilas their cameras zoomed in on were bricks that had been carried throughout the country, from Mumbai's suburbs to villages hitherto untouched by communal violence, amid slogans directed against "Babar ki aulaad" and those "traitorous" Hindus who objected to the destruction of the Babri Masjid.

The Srikrishna Commission Report was never implemented, but a Hindu judge's acknowledgement of State apathy and police prejudice against Muslims, and his clear indictment of top police officers as well as the powerful Bal Thackeray at a time when he controlled Maharashtra, went a long way in restoring Muslims' lost faith in the system. Among the few who struggled with the riot victims to get the report implemented, were Hindus as well as Muslims. Maybe these two factors helped to some extent in Mumbai's riot victims  both Hindu and Muslim  retaining their personal bonds with the 'other' community, howsoever terrible their personal loss.

But in the run-up to Ayodhya's grand bhumi pujan, there is no acknowledgement of the destruction of lives of fellow citizens, neither by the constitutional Head of State, nor by the ruling party, nor the Opposition, not even by the media. The apex court had acknowledged this destruction, but its order nullified it and in fact, led to yesterday's spectacle.

What will this lead to? One has little hope from a State that blacks out the suffering of its largest minority. One does however, have immense hope from the ordinary people who make up the majority. You don't have to go far back. Only look at the way people have helped one another during the pandemic, even after Muslims as a community were demonised for spreading it.

Our version of secularism has survived despite the State, in the everyday dealings of people.
PERTH, Australia, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- An unsettled world means traveling safely is now of paramount importance and significant new services from AirlineRatings.com allow passengers to take the worry out of choosing an airline.

AirlineRatings.com answers the questions on everyone's lips: which airlines have implemented full COVID-19 protocols and which airlines' pilots have been trained correctly?

In two industry firsts, the world's only safety, and product rating website is giving passengers greater peace of mind with a refined safety rating system focused on passenger health during COVID-19 and an insight into crucial flight outcomes on hundreds of carriers.

For a COVID-19 compliance star, airlines must pass four of the six criteria: website information on COVID19 procedures; face masks for passengers; personal protection equipment for crew; modified meal service; deep clean of aircraft and social distancing on boarding.

Editor-in-Chief, Geoffrey Thomas, said that: "it was concerning to find that many airlines did not appear to comply with the COVID-19 agreed standards for protection of passengers and crew."

"That is changing and our team is reviewing compliance on a weekly basis," said Thomas.

While introducing the COVID-19 rating, AirlineRatings.com has refined its rating system to focus on serious incidents as a guide to an airline's operational performance and pilot training.

In an industry first Airline Ratings has examined over 11,000 serious incident reports since 2015 to arrive at an incident rating for airlines. Incidents and crashes account for five of its seven-star ratings.

Completion or compliance of audits  ICAO, IOSA, EU black list and FAA restricted list  make up an additional star.

Commenting Thomas said: "There is with growing concern industry wide at some pilot performance issues and we have evolved our rating system to put greater focus on outcomes."

"In some recent fatal crashes, the pilots have either shown total disregard for ATC instructions, ignored repeated aircraft warning systems or ignored company procedures  or, in one case, all three."

"The Pakistan fake pilot's license scandal has also brought into sharp focus that in some parts of the world getting a pilot's license can be subject to abuse."

About:

AirlineRatings.com (https://www.airlineratings.com/) rates the safety and in-flight product of 380 airlines. It is used by millions of passengers and is the industry standard for ratings.

For more:

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Tope Akinyode and Femi Adesina

The PUNCH reports that there was a mild drama on Channels Televisions Sunrise Daily programme on Thursday when the Presidents most senior spokesman, Femi Adesina; and the National President of Revolutionary Lawyers Forum, Mr Tope Akinyode, exchanged words over the #RevolutionNow protests that took place in various parts of the country on Wednesday.

Akinyode, who took part in the protests which were disrupted by security operatives, said the aim of the demonstrations was to demand good governance, poverty eradication, a stop to the insecurity and many other issues.

In his response, however, Adesina described the protests as an irritation and a childs play.

He said, Well, was it really a protest? By my estimation, it just seemed like a childs play because protests by their very nature are spontaneous things, mass things. These are just a sprinkle of people trying to be funny. As far as I am concerned, it is nothing to worry about.

A revolution is always a mass thing, not a sprinkle of young boys and girls you saw yesterday (Wednesday) in different parts of the country. I think it was just a funny thing to call it a revolution protest.

When asked if the government determines the seriousness of a protest only by its size, Adesina responded, Revolution is something that turns the normal order. What happened yesterday, would you call it a revolution?



It was just an irritation, just an irritation and some people want to cause irritation in the country and what I will say is when things boil over, they boil over because you continue to heat them.

However, Akinyode mocked Adesina for having a shallow understanding of the concept of revolution despite being a veteran journalist.

The lawyer said, We have to forgive Mr. Adesina and the Buhari government for all the things they speak. They dont understand these things. They are bereft of the fundamental workings of democracy and the rule of law. They dont know what protest means, they cant appreciate it

Buhari is a dictator. He doesnt obey court orders so he doesnt know that Nigerians or the people have the right to protest which is why Mr. Adesina was continuously talking down on Nigerians, saying it was a childs play and an irritation.

Akinyode said Buharis regime seemed to be dedicated to failure hence its aversion to criticism.

The lawyer wondered why unarmed protests would be attacked by soldiers and policemen for demanding good governance.

He said, I am disappointed by the myopic definition that Mr. Adesina gave the word revolution especially being a journalist who should have fundamental knowledge of the English Language. Revolution has many meanings to it. You cannot attach a single meaning to the word.

For those who have a deficiency in the use of English, revolution can also mean an improvement, an advancement in a system which has a positive long-lasting impact. The demands of the protester are well articulated. They are engaging the government in its failings  unemployment, insecurity, non-payment of minimum wage N30,000 and many other things.

And if the protesters are demanding the removal of the present government that is constituted, it is a constitutionally guaranteed right. The law allows for impeachment of any validly elected government and for a government that has woefully failed, is it not right for it to resign?

Adesina, who appeared irked by Akinyodes response, however, took issue with Channels Television for pairing him with such a character.

He said henceforth, the TV station must let him know who he is up against when next he is invited to a programme.

The Presidents spokesman said, Let me make this point. Channels TV should have been ethical and professional enough to tell me that I was appearing with somebody and then I could decide whether to appear or not to appear.

The way this young man is talking, if I had a chance, I wouldnt want to share a platform with him because he is irascible, he is irrational and he doesnt understand and I could have decided whether to appear with him or not.

Akinyode, however, stated that he was a lawyer and a learned individual.



It is not just the way Mr. Adesina sees it, that I am a young guy. I am a lawyer and I have an understanding of the law. It is a constitutionally guaranteed right of Nigerians to protest. It is the law, he replied.
SEDALIA, Mo.  Seven weeks had passed, and still there were no answers. So once again, a small cluster of friends and family gathered in the leafy courthouse square and marched for Hannah Fizer, an unarmed woman shot and killed by a rural Missouri sheriffs deputy during a traffic stop.

Say her name! Hannah!

Prosecute the police!

Their chants echoed protests over police killings in Minneapolis, Louisville, Atlanta and beyond. But this was no George Floyd moment for rural America.

Though people in rural areas are killed in police shootings at about the same rate as in cities, victims families and activists say they have struggled to get justice or even make themselves heard. They say extracting changes can be especially tough in small, conservative towns where residents and officials have abiding support for law enforcement and are leery of new calls to defund the police.

Its like pulling teeth, Ms. Fizers mother, Amy, said.

The deputy who shot Ms. Fizer has not been charged or disciplined, and Ms. Fizers parents say they have not received any updates about the investigation into her June 13 death. They said that investigators never interviewed them, and that the sheriff declined to tell them the name of the deputy who shot her.
MALFFBs EO Mr Alfred Bani outside the newly-created Yumi Go House about to be officially opened in March 2015
Heavy equipment is seen at a site where sections of the Dakota Access pipeline were being buried near the town of St. Anthony in Morton County, N.D., on Oct. 5, 2016. (Tom Stromme/The Bismarck Tribune via AP)

Federal Appeals Court Reverses Dakota Access Pipeline Shutdown Order

A federal appeals court on Aug. 5 reversed a judges order to shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline while the U.S. government conducts an in-depth environmental impact review.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Wednesday ruled in favor of Energy Transfer, parent company of the underground oil pipeline, saying a lower-court judge did not make the findings necessary for injunctive relief.

However, a motion filed by the company to block the full environmental review was declined by the appellate court. It said Energy Transfer had failed to make a strong showing of likely success.

The ruling follows a July 6 order from U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg to shut down and empty the Dakota Access Pipeline by Aug. 5 while the Army Corps of Engineers conduct a more extensive environmental review than the one that allowed the pipeline to start moving oil near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation three years ago. Such a review could take more than a year.

The court had previously ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers had violated federal environmental law when it granted a permit for an easement to construct a segment of the 1,172-mile pipeline beneath Lake Oahe, a large reservoir behind a dam on the Missouri River.

Following the order, the pipeline owners, Dakota Accesscontrolled by Energy Transferfiled an emergency motion to temporarily stay Boasbergs order as well as a notice to appeal the decision to the circuit court.

Appellants have failed to make a strong showing of likely success on their claims that the district court erred in directing the Corps to prepare an environmental impact statement, the judges said Wednesday.

EarthJustice attorney Jan Hasselman, representing Standing Rock and other tribes who have signed onto the lawsuit, said the appeals court ruling Thursday was not a setback.

There is more to like than dislike in this ruling, he said. There will be a review and a new permit during the next administration.

He added that the ruling however leaves the pipeline operating illegally since it is continuing to transport oil although its permit has been vacated.

Mike Faith, chairman of Standing Rock, which says the pipeline passes through its ancestral lands, said in a statement that the tribe is not giving up this fight.

It first brought a lawsuit against the federal government in 2016 in an attempt to block the construction. The tribe is worried that the construction and possible oil leaks would lead to the destruction of its sacred sites and pollute its land and water.

As the environmental review process gets underway in the months ahead, we look forward to showing why the Dakota Access Pipeline is too dangerous to operate.

The pipeline owners and its supporters argue that shutting the pipeline down would have serious repercussions for the North Dakota oil industry. They say there is currently no viable alternative method to transport 570,000 barrels of crude oil that the Dakota Access Pipeline is able to carry each day, and that this would drive up prices of the oil.

They also say the shutdown would also have a reverberating effect on North Dakotas economy, which heavily relies on oil and gas taxes.

Energy Transfer spokeswoman Vicki Granado said the ruling allows this important pipeline to continue to operate and that the company looks forward to continuing to work through the legal process to resolve all matters related to this pipeline.

Janita Kan and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Gov. Mark Gordon expressed cautious optimism Wednesday about the state of the coronavirus pandemic in Wyoming, a positive note after weeks of rising cases and record-setting days.

Just over the last couple of days Ive had compliments from Gov. (Pete) Ricketts of Nebraska and Gov. (Doug) Burgum (of North Dakota) both saying, Your numbers are looking just exceptional, you guys are doing the right thing, Gordon said at a Wednesday press conference.

General optimism isnt necessarily new for Gordon, who has largely urged calm and personal responsibility in dealing with the virus. Hes voiced frustration with the callousness some have expressed about the pandemics victims and has emotionally urged Wyomingites to wear masks, but he has largely avoided doom-and-gloom rhetoric, even dating back to the early days of the pandemic.

There remain some flies in the ointment Gordon is cautiously applying. Two of the states six metrics for gauging the severity of the pandemic remain in the worst of three categories, and the state continues to see cases rise in younger age group. Twenty-five percent of positive cases are between 19 and 29 years old, he said.

That is a likely a result of transmission at social events, gatherings, and as my friend (Gov.) Doug Ducey in Arizona puts it, one of our biggest concerns is bars, Gordon said.

Still, Gordon said the data is beginning to support his assertion that Wyomingites can handle the pandemic themselves, without stringent public health orders. While much of July saw multiple days with record-high numbers of confirmed cases, by the end of the month, the 10-day average of confirmed cases dipped. Its too early to assign a trend, but its positive growth, in any case.

The number of active cases  cases minus recoveries  has begun to improve, and hospitalizations, which rose in mid-July, have started to tick downward in recent days, though they remain higher now than at any point in June or May. Gordon repeatedly said that hed spoken with governors in other states, which opened up and then faced an onslaught of serious infection and viral spread, and noted that Wyoming continued to look good in comparison.

Even still, cases are continuing to rise at a steady clip each day. On the states coronavirus dashboard, two of the six metrics  new cases and total hospitalizations  are both rated red, for concerning. The other four are all the intermediate category of yellow, meaning stable. There had been flashes of green previously.

As of Wednesday afternoon, there have been 2,424 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in Wyoming, along with 499 probable cases. Of those confirmed patients, 1,937 have recovered, and 386 of the probable patients have also recovered. Sixteen people are hospitalized.

The current spate of health orders  which largely describe social distancing, masking and hygiene requirements in public businesses and schools  are all set to expire in 10 days; Dr. Alexia Harrist, the states health officer, has repeatedly extended these same orders, largely without changes, after a few waves of unraveling the tighter restrictions from May.

Of course, the looming unknown is the reopening of schools in the coming weeks. The state is set to open doors in all 48 school districts, albeit with restrictions.

Will there be cases among students? Harrist asked at Gordons press conference Wednesday. Yes. But following common-sense recommendations can keep the numbers lower and more manageable.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 23:38:23|Editor: huaxia

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HONG KONG, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- The national security law in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) will not affect the legitimate rights and freedom of Hong Kong residents, Tung Chee-hwa, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said Thursday.

Tung said at a meeting of the "Our Hong Kong Foundation" that the law will not impact the independent judicial power, including that of final adjudication, exercised by the judiciary in Hong Kong.

Only a tiny minority of criminals endangering national security will be targeted, Tung, who is also chairman of the foundation, said, adding that the law will effectively prevent foreign forces from turning Hong Kong into a base for splitting China.

He stressed that "one country" is the precondition of "two systems" according to the HKSAR Basic Law, and called for joint efforts to safeguard the constitutional foundation of the HKSAR and ensure the steady and sustained implementation of "one country, two systems."

When addressing the meeting, Jiang Wei, vice president of the Supreme People's Court of China, said rights and freedom are not unconditional.

Constitutions of more than 100 countries in the world and related international conventions stipulate clearly that anyone exercising rights and freedom must not endanger national security, Jiang said.

Jiang said the national security law in the HKSAR fully protects human rights and freedom of Hong Kong residents, as well as the rights of criminal suspects, defendants and other parties in judicial proceedings. Enditem
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Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers clashed with police in several parts of West Bengal over defying COVID-19 lockdown to celebrate the groundbreaking ceremony of Ram temple in Ayodhya on August 5, The Indian Express reported.

According to the report, clashes were reported in places such as Kharagpur in West Midnapore district, North 24 Parganas and Narayanpur among others.

A scuffle broke out between the police and the saffron party's workers in Kharagpur reportedly after the police stopped a procession being led by BJP workers.

"Nearly nine BJP workers have been arrested for violating lockdown norms. Some policemen were also injured," a senior police officer said.

The report states that BJP workers also alleged the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) supporters of firing shots at local residents while they were preparing for bhoomi poojan in the morning. A senior police officer told the newspaper that 10 people have been arrested in this connection.

"Some miscreants tried to disrupt the puja organised by local people. They said local TMC leader Tapas Chatterjee was behind it. We had been requesting the state government to change the date of the complete biweekly lockdown, but our pleas fell on deaf ears," West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said.

"When devotees of lord Ram wanted to celebrate the day in a small way in Bengal, they were stopped by police. The TMC government has deliberately disregarded the sentiments of the Hindus in the state," Ghosh added.

"Lord Ram belongs to all. The BJP is trying to show that it belongs only to them. This is not right. This occasion of bhoomi pujan definitely calls for celebration. But in the backdrop of the present crisis, people need to be cautious and take precautions," TMC Member of Parliament (MP) Sougata Roy said.

While workers of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the BJP celebrated in Kolkata with pujas, in Alipurduar, BJP workers were stopped since a complete lockdown was enforced in the town. Senior BJP leaders from the state also performed pujas in their houses to mark the occasion.
A new report from the University of Toronto and YWCA calls for Canada to support groups that have been disproportionately affected by coronavirus, including migrant workers.

Addressing inequities affecting immigrants key to economic recovery A new report from the University of Toronto and YWCA calls for Canada to support groups that have been disproportionately affected by coronavirus, including migrant workers.

Addressing inequities affecting immigrants key to economic recovery A new report from the University of Toronto and YWCA calls for Canada to support groups that have been disproportionately affected by coronavirus, including migrant workers.

Addressing inequities affecting immigrants key to economic recovery A new report from the University of Toronto and YWCA calls for Canada to support groups that have been disproportionately affected by coronavirus, including migrant workers. Shelby Thevenot Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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Canada will need to address inequalities that have been exemplified by the coronavirus outbreak in order to make a full economic recovery, a new report says.

Immigrants, racialized people, LGBTQ2S+ and women have bared the brunt of the pandemic, according to the YWCA and the University of Torontos paper: A Feminist Economic Recovery Plan for Canada. The report outlines how COVID-19 has affected these groups and makes recommendations for Canadian policymakers to ensure a fast and equitable post-pandemic economy.

There was the focus on migrants and immigrants in the report because they play such a central role in whats called the essential economy, these jobs that are so necessary to keep our society running and yet governments have not enacted policy that ensures they are protected, Carmina Ravanera, who co-authored the report, told CIC News.

Find out if you are eligible for any Canadian immigration programs

Previous economic downturns have primarily impacted goods-producing industrial sectors where men were more likely to be laid off, the report says. Coronavirus, however, has affected women more than men in the number of infections and the number of deaths. Women are the frontline workers of the pandemic. About 56 per cent of women workers are concentrated in occupations like care, cashiering, catering, cleaning and clerical functions.

The pandemic has also revealed how migrant workers are essential to the economy, yet those working in long-term care homes and on farms may be exposed to unsafe environments and unable to take sick days.

Supporting the care economy helps immigrants

Migrant workers make up a large portion of workers in long term care homes. A Quebec non-profit, Maison dHaiti, estimates about 1,000 asylum-seekers are working in the provinces health sector alone. So far there has been no further development on a pathway to permanent residence for these guardian angels.

The pandemic has shown how important migrant workers are to the care economy, the report said. It also discussed the importance of investing in social infrastructure and the care economy in supporting the economy overall.

Research from the U.K. predicts spending 1.9 per cent of GDP in care would create 2 million sustainable jobs, raise the employment rate by 5 per cent and reduce the gender employment gap by 4 per cent.

Other research has shown that investing in care services results in direct returns for the government. In 2008, each $100 invested that the Quebec government invested in childcare returned $104 to the provincial government and $43 to the federal government.

The report recommended that policymakers consult organizations that support migrant worker caregivers in decision-making for pandemic recovery. They also said to create an expedited path to permanent resident status for migrant care workers, provide personal protective equipment, conduct rigorous inspections on working conditions, and ensure they have access to income supports.

We are just trying to emphasize as much as possible how important it is to focus on inequity in Canada when were doing recovery policies, Ravanera said. If we dont focus on these inequities now then were not going to be able to have a resilient and robust economic recovery across the country.

Find out if you are eligible for any Canadian immigration programs

 2020 CIC News All Rights Reserved
Loud cheers of Jai Shri Ram, the chanting of Vedic hymns and the blowing of conches greeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi as stepped into the Ram Janmabhoomi site in Uttar Pradesh Ayodhya town at 12.07pm on Wednesday.

Inside, 175 guests waited patiently in chairs spaced two-feet apart under a waterproof canopy in shades of red, gold and yellow. Outside, in the temple town, people thronged shops with television sets to watch the event, and rooftops of houses near the temple site became vantage viewing points as people jostled to get a glimpse of the Prime Minister. Bhoomi pujan (the ground breaking ceremony) is a new beginning for us and end of a bitter past, said Sujeet Bahadur, 65, a local resident who is old enough to remember the movement for the Ram temple.

Dressed in a traditional silk dhoti and gold-coloured kurta, Modi offered prayers to the infant deity, Ram Lalla, at the makeshift temple and performed a circumambulation, before planting a sapling .He then participated in the ground breaking ceremony.

The Vedic ceremony, presided over by Senapati Shastri of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham in Tamil Nadu, began with prayers to Ganesha, the Hindu god of beginnings. Hymns dedicated to Lord Hanuman, Kaal Bhairav and Goddess Kali, the clan deity of Ram, were also recited. A 40kg silver brick donated by temple trust chief Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, was used for the ritual.

The main foundation-laying event began at 12.45pm, a pre-ordained time decided by astrologers and seers. The priests dug a pit in the sanctum sanctorum of the proposed temple, the silver brick was removed and nine other bricks, engraved with the words Jai Shri Ram [Hail Lord Ram], placed instead. All the bricks were donated by devotees around the world in 1989, when Hindu groups started mass mobilization to build the temple in what they believed is the birth place of Lord Ram.

A lotus and the PMs personal offering, a kalash (holy pitcher) made of five metals sacred in Hindu traditions (gold, silver, copper, iron and zinc) was placed on the bricks. A copper plaque donated by Shankaracharya of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham, one of Hinduisms holy seats, inscribed with Sanskrit hymns was also laid at temples foundation. As the PM offered prayers, Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat, Uttar Pradesh governor Anandiben Patel, chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Salil Singhal, nephew of late Vishwa Hindu Parishad chief Ashok Singhal, and his wife looked on. All were wearing masks.

Soil from at least 2,000 Hindu holy sites and water from at least 100 sacred rivers were used for purification and other rituals. The 175 guests included 135 seers from various spiritual traditions and eminent people from Ayodhya.

Nine bricks are kept here... these were sent by devotees of Lord Ram from around the world in 1989. There are 2,75,000 such bricks, out of which 100 bricks with Jai Shri Ram engraving have been taken, said a priest officiating the ceremony.

The ceremony lasted 40 minutes, after which the PM released a postage stamp on the Ram temple designed by the Ayodhya Shodh Sansthan, an organisation of the Uttar Pradesh governments culture department. Adityanath presented a three-feet high statue of Kodanda Ram carved from rosewood to PM Modi. Kodada (literally, with bow) Ram represents the deity from the period during which Ram was looking for Sita after her abduction in the epic Ramayana.

In the evening, fireworks lit up the sky and tens of thousands of earthen lamps glittered across the town as locals said they hoped the ceremony marked a new beginning.

Authorities said 100,000 lamps were lit along the banks of the Saryu river.

Lord Ram belongs to everyone. Ram temple will also bring overall development to Ayodhya, said Iqbal Ansari, son of the oldest litigant in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit decided by the Supreme Court last year.

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Samsungs true wireless earbuds have been a mixed bag. In 2019, the company debuted the Galaxy Buds: a well-designed set that failed at the basics. Earlier this year, Samsung rebounded with the Galaxy Buds+, which showed a lot of improvement. The Buds+ had better battery life, better sound quality and were still affordable at $150. Both of those models lacked one key feature: active noise cancellation (ANC). Alongside its Note 20 phones, the company is back with a true wireless model with ANC. However, the Galaxy Buds Live ($170) probably dont have the noise canceling abilities youre looking for.

Samsung Galaxy Buds Live review Samsungs latest true wireless earbuds have a unique open type design that will keep you from cramming them in your ears. While that does make them a bit more comfortable, you do have to sacrifice sound quality and the effectiveness of ANC. There are some attractive features here, but the companys Galaxy Buds+ are the better option at this point.

The Galaxy Buds Live have their own unique design. While the Galaxy Buds+ largely kept the same look at the original Galaxy Buds, this new model has an aesthetic thats all its own. The bean-shaped earbuds are slightly larger, but theyre not huge, and the case is compact enough to fit in most pockets. Because they sit on the outside of your ear rather than inside your ear canal, the added size is hardly noticeable. Theyre still tiny compared to something like the Sony WF-1000XM3. Instead of a tip that you insert in your ear, the Galaxy Buds Live have two speakers on each earbud beam sound in. This improves comfort, but, what Samsung calls its first open type design also impacts both sound quality and noise cancellation.

The buds are nestled in the parts of your outer ear, rather than with a tip that goes inside your ear canal. A small hump on the bottom side rests on the ridge of your ear, but its not really a replacement for a top fin like on the Buds+. Even still, the earbuds regularly feel like theyre about to fall out. They never did, but the sensation they might was constant. Eventually I got used to it, but Ill be honest: it wasnt my favorite. Whether it was forcefully shaking my head or wearing them during a workout, the Buds Live stayed put, despite feeling like they could come loose at any second.

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Samsung has made pairing with its own devices a breeze. Simply flip open the case and the Galaxy Buds Live appears in a notification (on the Note 10+ in my case). Once paired, that pop-up will display battery levels for both buds individually as well as the case. Its a lot like what Apple offers with AirPods. Any time I dont have to swipe and tap through a Bluetooth menu, Im thrilled. If youre a PC owner, the Galaxy Buds Live sync quickly with Windows 10 thanks to Swift Pair.

Billy Steele/Engadget

On the outside, touch controls up top give you basic functionality. A single tap for play/pause, double tap to skip forward and triple tap to go back to the previous song. These are mirrored on both sides. By default, a long press turns the ANC on and off. With the Galaxy Buds (iOS) or Galaxy Wear app (Android), you can reassign that action for volume controls (you can put one on each side), Spotify (Samsung devices) or your voice assistant. My gripe with the Buds+ remains true here: it's frustrating that you have to give up core features to get on-board volume controls. In an ideal world, the track controls wouldnt be mirrored and one of those actions could be used for volume.

The Galaxy Buds Live automatically pause when you take them off your ears, but there are some caveats. First, the pausing is delayed. The audio didnt stop until I had the earbuds on my desk for a couple seconds. And honestly, I hit the touch panel removing them more often than not, so I was pausing them manually on accident, before the automatic feature had a chance to work. They also resume your music or podcast when you put them back in place, but this was also hit or miss for me. I couldnt consistently get them to pick up where I left off once I had them back in place. And again, a lot of times I hit play/pause getting them into position, so it didnt matter.

Like previous Galaxy Buds models, the apps for both Android and iOS offer some customization. In addition to reassigning that long press function, you can also choose from a selection of six audio presets: Normal (default), Bass boost, Soft, Dynamic, Clear and Treble boost. Unlike Sonys Headphones app, you cant see the EQ curve, so you have just the name to go by. You can also disable ANC inside the app and block the touch controls entirely. Whats more, theres a Labs section that gives you experimental features like a Gaming Mode which minimizes latency and the ability to relieve pressure with ambient sound. The company says the latter option can prevent a feeling of stuffiness or compression when youre not using active noise canceling. Ive asked Samsung for more information on exactly what this does, but I had it active for several hours, and I honestly cant tell a difference. On Samsung devices, the software gives you yet another option: always-on Bixby.

Samsungs latest true wireless earbuds have a unique open type design that will keep you from cramming them in your ears. While that does make them a bit more comfortable, you do have to sacrifice sound quality and the effectiveness of ANC. There are some attractive features here, but the companys Galaxy Buds+ are the better option at this point.

Samsung Galaxy Wear app

Similar to what Apple does for AirPods and some Beats headphones, you can summon Samsungs voice assistant without touching the buds or your phone thanks to Bixby voice wake-up. Youll need to update the Bixby app first, but in a matter of minutes youll be able to just say, Hi Bixby and tell it to do something. Of course, this only works with Bixby, which is pretty limited. But, it works.

Samsung also offers a Buds Together feature for devices running One UI 2.5 or later. This allows you to pair two sets of earbuds to the same device so you and a friend can listen to music or watch a movie together. Unfortunately, I only have one set of Galaxy Buds Live, so I wasnt able to test this. But if were ever able to travel again, I can see the benefit. Especially since you have the ability to adjust volume individually for each pair of buds.

While the design of the Galaxy Buds Live is unique, it has a big impact on overall sound quality. Inside, the Galaxy Buds Live are equipped with 12mm speakers. Those are larger than what the Galaxy Buds+ have. Samsung says the sound chamber also includes a Bass Duct and Air Vents to harness the AKG-tuned sound. Across a range of genres, bass feels flat and lacks the energy that more capable earbuds showcase. At higher volumes, the treble overpowers to the point of becoming painfully unpleasant. I was able to combat this to a degree with the Bass boost and Dynamic audio presets, but those dont make a drastic difference. Even with those settings, bass almost entirely disappears when you crank these up all the way. There is solid detail and clarity, but the lackluster tuning cancels out any chance of depth or immersion.

Billy Steele/Engadget

Softer acoustic music sounds pretty good, but when you move into intense hip-hop or metal, the Lives shortcomings quickly become apparent. Without the dynamics that punchy bass can offer, the clarity alone isnt enough. And when you turn these up loud, its all abrasively bright guitars and cymbals. To me, the cheaper Galaxy Buds+ sounded a lot better.

Then theres the active noise cancellation. Samsung included ANC on the Galaxy Buds Live, but the companys open type design limits its usefulness. Samsung says the noise cancellation here will block out your surroundings when you need them to, but Ive found thats simply not the case. Even with ANC on, I could still easily hear the commotion around my house. I had to rely on more volume to truly drown out the noise, which isnt great for preserving my hearing. The addition of active noise cancellation is great, but I dont understand why Samsung chose to add it to a product that doesnt create a seal in or around your ear that would actually make it effective.

As you might expect, Samsung is also putting a big emphasis on call quality with the Galaxy Buds Live. Three microphones and a so-called Voice Pickup Unit work together to keep you sounding your best when you need to have a chat. The company says the Voice Pickup Unit senses jaw movement, and transfers that data into voice signals that improve how you sound to the person on the other end. A lot of companies make similar promises, but Samsung delivers. During calls, people I frequently test earbuds with noted I still sounded like I was on speakerphone, but the background noise was reduced to a low hum.

Billy Steele/Engadget

Samsung promises eight hours of battery life on a charge, with another 21 hours in the compact charging case. Thats with ANC and hands-free Bixby turned off though. With just the noise-canceling feature, the battery range sinks to six and half hours. Tack on the virtual assistant and it goes down to six hours. Thats a big drop, so youll have to consider how badly you want to use the Galaxy Budss flashier features. During my tests, I managed just over the rated time  almost seven hours  with just ANC on. I chose to keep Bixby disabled as I hopped from Note 10+ to MacBook and iPhone. If its any consolation, Samsung did include a quick charge feature that gives you an hour of listening time in five minutes. And you can charge the case wirelessly, including on the back of a compatible Samsung phone.

At $170, the Galaxy Buds Live are an affordable set of flagship true wireless earbuds. In that sub-$200 price range, the Jabra Elite 75t is the best option, but it costs $10 more. That being said, Jabras latest earbuds are small, comfy and feature-packed, so you get a lot for your money there. If you dont mind splurging, Sonys WF-SP900N has a lot of what makes the companys pricier WF-1000XM3 earbuds so good for $200. And if youre looking specifically for something to complement a Samsung device, the Galaxy Buds+ are your best bet. From top to bottom, I prefer them to the Galaxy Buds Live, and theyll save you some cash.

Samsung took some risks with its noise-canceling true wireless earbuds. Design-wise, the Galaxy Buds Live offer a more comfortable fit that sits outside of your ear canal. Of course, that means there are some sacrifices to sound quality and the effectiveness of the ANC. When you add in mediocre audio and the battery life caveats, these are hard to recommend. If Samsung can iron out a few of these issues, the Galaxy Buds Live could be a compelling option, but that may be hard to do because of the design.
(Natural News) The leaked footage of George Floyds arrest shared by The Daily Mail has racked up over 2 million views on YouTube in one day and the overwhelming majority of comments are slamming the media for deceiving the public.

(Article by Chris Menahan republished from InformationLiberation.com)

As I reported on Monday, the video  which has been hidden from the public by Minneapolis Attorney General Keith Ellison for over 2 months  shows Floyd:

 Relentlessly resisted arrest  Said he couldnt breathe while standing up breathing  Refused to go into the polices SUV squad vehicle because he claimed he was claustrophobic even though he was seen sitting comfortably in his own SUV just minutes earlier  Asked police to place him on the ground  Lied and told police he was not on drugs despite being high on fentanyl (enough to kill a man) and testing positive for methamphetamine  Lied and claimed his mother just died to try and avoid arrest even though she died two years earlier

WATCH:

I was afraid The Daily Mail would disable comments to preserve the bull***t narrative they pushed in their own article on the video but theyve been up for around 24 hours and more than 150,000 comments were posted as of Tuesday afternoon.

Commenters pointed out how the video is being blocked from appearing on YouTubes Trending page, praised whoever leaked the footage and called for the media to be defunded rather than police.

The media is not taking this well.

As I reported earlier today, the New York Times decided not to write a single article on the newly leaked video after hyping the case for over two months.

Meanwhile, outlets which did report on the case did so like this:

Leaked Video Shows George Floyd Pleaded for His Life, Cooperated with Police, Before He Was Killed https://t.co/27apVrakIQ  Democracy Now! (@democracynow) August 4, 2020

The Associated Press article on the case focused on how police are trying to hunt down whoever leaked the footage and ignored how the medias narrative was undermined.

CNN covered the tape but showed less than 30 seconds total of the video completely out of context to make it seem like Floyd was complying the entire time rather than resisting.

CNNs article quoted Floyd family attorney Benjamin Crumps saying: The police officers approached him with guns drawn, simply because he was a Black man.

CBS News similarly deceptively edited the video to make it seem like he was complying the entire time and also showed a clip of Crump claiming he was targeted just for being a black man:

[Update: CBS News deleted their deceptively edited propaganda report. Ive embedded a mirror below.]

Polling from Civiqs shows the Black Lives Matter movement over the past two months has been losing support  especially among whites  where the majority went from supporting the movement to opposing it.

This is especially significant considering the protests are absolutely dominated by liberal white women with college degrees.

Keep sharing the video far and wide!

Read more at: InformationLiberation.com
The government on Thursday appointed former Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Girish Chandra Murmu as the new Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India. He will take oath on Saturday at Rashtrapati Bhawan.

"...the President has been pleased to appoint Shri Girish Chandra Murmu to be the Comptroller and Auditor General of India with effect from the date he assumes charge of his office," a notification by the Department of Economic Affairs issued on Thursday night said.

Earlier in the day, President Ram Nath Kovind accepted Murmu's resignation from the post.

The appointment came a day after Murmu resigned abruptly as Jammu and Kashmir L-G -- the position has now been filled by Manoj Sinha who will be sworn in on Friday.

Murmu's resignation came on the day the Union Territory marked the first anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, which scrapped Jammu and Kashmir's special status.

The 60-year-old former IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre had on October 29 last year taken over as the first L-G of the union territory after the state of Jammu and Kashmir was downgraded and sliced into two UTs, the other one being Ladakh.

There was no official word on the reasons for the resignation of Murmu, a 1985-batch IAS officer, who has served as Principal Secretary to Narendra Modi during his tenure as Gujarat Chief Minister. He was a secretary in the ministry of finance at the time of his appointment as Lt Governor.

Meanwhile, Sinha, a former Union minister and senior BJP leader from Uttar Pradesh, was on Thursday appointed as the new Jammu and Kashmir L-G. He is the first political leader to take charge in that post.

The 61-year-old is known for his massive connect with the people of rural areas. Sinha will be administered the oath of office and secrecy on Friday by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Justice Gita Mittal at the Raj Bhavan.
By Maria Caspani NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City will put up COVID-19 quarantine checkpoints at key entry points to ensure that incoming travelers from 35 states with outbreaks comply with the state's 14-day quarantine mandate, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Wednesday. The measure underscores the determination of what was once the epicenter of the U.S

By Maria Caspani

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City will put up COVID-19 quarantine checkpoints at key entry points to ensure that incoming travelers from 35 states with outbreaks comply with the state's 14-day quarantine mandate, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Wednesday.

The measure underscores the determination of what was once the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak to prevent a resurgence of cases emerging elsewhere. While cases are down 5% nationally, they soared last week in Oklahoma, Montana, Missouri and 17 other states.

On average, 1,000 people die a day nationwide from COVID-19 with the death toll now over 157,000 with 4.8 million cases.(Open https://tmsnrt.rs/2WTOZDR in an external browser for a Reuters interactive graphic)

"Travelers coming in from those states will be given information about the quarantine and will be reminded that it is required, not optional," de Blasio told a news briefing. He added that, under certain circumstances, fines for not observing the quarantine order could be as high as $10,000.

The Sheriff's Office, in coordination with other law enforcement agencies, will begin deploying checkpoints at major bridge and tunnel crossings into New York City on Wednesday.

"This is serious stuff and it's time for everyone to realize that if we're going to hold at this level of health and safety in this city, and get better, we have to deal with the fact that the quarantine must be applied consistently to anyone who's traveled," de Blasio said.

A fifth of all new cases in New York City are from out-of-state travelers, said Dr. Ted Long, who oversees the city's contact tracing program.

Teams will be deployed at Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan on Thursday, he said, to ensure travelers stop to complete a travel form.

"We're going to offer you things like free food delivery, help with medications, direct connections to doctors by the phone, or even a hotel stay," Long added.

The city, which once had over 800 deaths in a single day, has reported no coronavirus fatalities for the past three days and the mayor said the city's infection rate had been under 3% for the past eight weeks.

In March, Rhode Island briefly stopped cars with New York license plates, drawing a rebuke from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

CHICAGO SCHOOLS GO ONLINE

In Illinois, where COVID-19 cases have risen for six weeks in a row, Chicago Public Schools will start the new academic year conducting all classes remotely, school officials said on Wednesday.

Teachers in the district, the country's third largest with 350,000 students, had resisted a plan by city leaders to launch a hybrid model in which parents could choose to have their children attend in-person instruction in pods of 15 pupils twice a week.

The Chicago Teachers Union threatened to strike over safety concerns if city leaders did not go to all-remote learning.

"Nothing about this crisis has been easy," Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said. "Every day has been another step into uncharted territory."

Governors, mayors and school district officials across the country have proposed a range of ideas for reopening schools in August and September.

Some districts are restarting with in-person instruction while others are going with online models or a hybrid. Teachers nationwide have protested, saying in-person instruction plans lack necessary safety protocols and remote-learning plans lack the technology required to teach students online.

The Los Angeles Unified School District and the teachers' union have reached a tentative deal to allow the resumption of remote learning in the fall. New York City hopes to have students in classrooms one to three days each week.

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Nashik-based Sula Vineyards will begin exporting to Singapore to expand its presence in the South-East Asian wine market.

"Singapore is a thriving wine hub. The Singaporean consumer now has the choice of experiencing robust flavours of our wines," Rajeev Samant, founder and CEO of Sula Vineyards, said, as quoted by Financial Express.

The winemaker has partnered with food distribution firm Sonnamera to enter the Singapore market.

Also read: Sula Vineyards reopens resorts with contactless options

"Over the past few months, with the outbreak of COVID-19, the off-premise consumption of wine has driven rapid growth in the category and we expect this trend to continue to be strong for several months as more meals are cooked at home and home entertaining takes precedence over dining out," Abhay Sharma, founder, Sonnamera said, as quoted by the publication.

Singapore's wine market registered 5.7 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for 2013-2018 and is forecast to increase to 7 percent by 2023, according to data and analytics company GlobalData.

Sula Vineyards, which has a share of over 60 percent in the domestic market, imports its products to over 30 countries. Sula Vineyards added Australia to its exports portfolio in March 2020 and had begun exporting to China in 2019.
Almost 100 people caught COVID-19 after one infected man went to church in Ohio causing the virus to 'spread like wildfire', according to the state's governor.

Gov. Mike DeWine said in a press briefing Tuesday that the worshiper attended a service at an undisclosed church in mid-June, triggering community spread to 91 others across five counties in the state.

'It spread like wildfire, wildfire. Very, very scary,' DeWine said.

'We know that our faith-based leaders want nothing more than to protect those who come to worship.'

This comes as the state grapples to bring the pandemic under control, with infections surging to almost 100,000 and more than 3,500 Ohioans so far killed by the virus.

Almost 100 people caught COVID-19 after one infected man went to church in Ohio causing the virus to 'spread like wildfire', Gov. Mike DeWine said in a press briefing Tuesday (pictured)

The community spread of coronavirus among the churchgoers can be traced back to one 56-year-old man who attended a service in an Ohio county on June 14, DeWine said.

The man infected 53 people at the church and 18 of those then spread the virus further onto at least one other person.

A graphic released by the state health department illustrated how the single man acted as a 'super-spreader' sparking 53 confirmed primary cases, 33 secondary cases and five third-level cases.

By July 4, at least 91 people had tested positive for the virus as a result, ranging from a one-year-old baby girl to a 67-year-old woman.

The worshiper's wife and two children were among those infected.

The severity of conditions of the 91 infected was not disclosed by the state.

DeWine urged people attending church and worship services to follow coronavirus safety precautions and wear masks.

A graphic released by the state health department illustrated how the single man acted as a 'super-spreader' sparking 53 confirmed primary cases, 33 secondary cases and five third-level cases

'Our religious faiths are at the core of our great state and country. We thank our faith-based leaders all they do to serve God and His people,' he tweeted.

'However, it is vital that to control the spread of the virus that any time people gather together, including for religious services, that everyone wear masks, practice social distancing, wash hands, and also while indoors, making sure there is good ventilation and airflow.'

The governor is sending a letter to churches, synagogues, mosques and members of the faith community to provide guidance on ways to better protect worshipers.

DeWine also warned that several other clusters of cases in the state can be traced back to 'informal gatherings' such as parties and weddings.

In one outbreak at a wedding, the groom's brother was showing COVID-19 symptoms but still attended the day.

DeWine urged people attending church and worship services to follow coronavirus safety precautions and wear masks. He issued a statewide mask mandate last month

The man then infected 15 people including the bride, groom and grandfather.

Another case involved a man who unintentionally spread the virus to at least eight family members when he assumed he had bronchitis and welcomed them into the home he shared with his dying father.

The man's father was in hospice care at home and the family members visited him the days leading up to his death.

The son had a cough but put it down to bronchitis, before unwittingly passing coronavirus onto five family members including a great-nephew.

The virus spread further to another person when a party was held at the great-nephew's house.

At least two others including a child have also tested positive for the virus and 17 other contacts are being monitored for illness.

DeWine also gave the example of an individual who infected at least six and impacted six households when they tested positive for the virus and attended a bridal shower.

DeWine warned residents that though 'it's easier to be scared of a stranger than a friend' the virus is 'lurking' in communities.

'We all have to remember that just because it is your family or your friends, they could still be carrying the virus and not know it,' he tweeted.

'None of us want to stay away from our families and of course, it's natural to want to show affection when you see them. But this virus (is) lurking.'

The state is grappling to bring the pandemic under control, with infections surging to almost 100,000 and more than 3,500 Ohioans so far killed by the virus

Cases continue to surge in the state, with 96,305 people testing positive for the deadly virus.

A total of 3,596 people have died and hospitalizations stand at 11,231.

White House health advisor Dr. Fauci last week warned that Ohio was among several states headed for a potential surge of positive cases and those 'that are not yet in trouble will likely get into trouble.'

'It's very important to get ahead of the curve because what we're seeing now is what actually took place a couple of weeks ago, and what we're going to see a couple of weeks from now is what we're doing now,' he warned.

DeWine finally bowed to pressure and issued a statewide mask mandate for people aged 10 and older back on July 22.

This was extended Wednesday to include children in schools.
Inside Hook

With TikToks future still uncertain, Facebook is doing what Facebook does best: trying to beat the competition by adopting nearly identical features for its own platforms. The company launched its TikTok copycat, Instagram Reels, on Wednesday, amid a threatened TikTok ban in the U.S. and talk of negotiations with Microsoft.

Instagram Reels will be embedded within the app, which is owned by Facebook, granting immediate access to Instagrams one billion-plus strong user base. Reels will allow users to create 15-second videos using editing tools like a countdown clock, a timer and a new align tool that will help users string together different video cuts. Reels will also feature music from a massive library of titles Instagram has already licensed. Unlike TikTok, Reels also boasts augmented reality effects that let users overlay filters and images onto videos.
By Associated Press

BEIRUT: French President Emmanuel Macron says an international fundraising conference for Lebanon will be held in the next few days after the deadly explosion that devastated Beirut.

On a visit to the gutted city, Macron said Thursday that France will organize a conference with European, American and Middle Eastern and other donors to raise money for food, medicine, housing and other urgent aid.

He promised a clear and transparent governance so that the aid goes directly to the populations and aid groups.

Beirut residents blame years of corruption and mismanagement by Lebanons leaders for Tuesdays explosion, which killed more than 130 people, wounded thousands and left tens of thousands homeless.

France once governed Lebanon as a protectorate and maintains close ties.
Investment Chief of CalPERS, Countrys Largest Pension Fund, Steps Down

Ben Meng, who managed Californias $400 billion pension fundthe nations largesthas resigned as chief investment officer at California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) after about a year and a half in the role.

CalPERS oversees benefits for more than 2 million of the states public employees.

Mengs China tiesfirst highlighted in a July 2019 Epoch Times reportdrew increasing scrutiny from U.S. officials.

Meng said through an Aug. 5 statement from CalPERS that he wishes to focus on my health and on my family and move on to the next chapter in my life. The fund didnt provide a reason for Mengs abrupt departure. Dan Bienvenue, the deputy chief investment officer, will serve as the interim CIO as CalPERS searches for a permanent successor.

Meng, who came to the United States at 25 and later became a U.S. citizen, first worked for CalPERS as an investment director from 2008 to 2015.

From 2015 until he was hired as CalPERS CIO in January 2019, he was deputy CIO at Chinas State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), an administrative agency under the State Council in charge of the countrys roughly $3 trillion in foreign reserves.

CalPERS reported a return of 4.7 percent for the year ending in June, missing its 7 percent target return necessary to fulfill its pension obligations, according to a recent statement. It lost about $70 billion in asset value in late February and March as global stock markets crashed amid the pandemic, although the fund said it was able to recuperate almost all of the losses by the end of June.

The California state executive agency credited Meng with helping the fund beat the benchmark of 4.3% during a time of extreme financial market volatility sparked by the coronavirus pandemic.

Cozy China Ties

Mengs stint at a Chinese state agency and the pension funds growing investments in Chinese companies had attracted attention amid the administrations hardening stance on the Chinese regimes influence.

Some of the CalPERS investment policies are incredibly concerning, U.S. national security adviser Robert OBrien said on March 11 during an appearance at the Washington-based think tank Heritage Foundation. He described it as an issue of security for American investors.

Weve got folks who are going to rely on their pension for their retirement, and putting those investments into companies that  dont have the same reporting requirements that American companies do, is scary.

Meng had been a participant in the Chinese governments headhunting program called the Thousand Talents Plan (TTP) until 2015, when he was recruited to SAFE, according to a 2017 report by official Chinese regime mouthpiece Peoples Daily.

Beijing has hired thousands of researchers and high-level professionals over the past decade through the program to boost its global tech ambitions. An FBI official, in 2018 testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, flagged the program as Chinas nontraditional espionage against the United States.

In a Feb. 13 letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) called for a thorough investigation into Mengs China links, citing his long and cozy relationship with the Chinese Communist Party.

When interviewed by Peoples Daily in 2017 about his return to China, Meng said that in a persons life, if there is an opportunity to contribute to the motherland, this responsibility and honor is unmatched by anything.

Chinese state media had largely showered praise over Mengs success at SAFE, and also wrote positive reports when he later decided to leave SAFE and return to CalPERS.

Banks said he would fire Mr. Meng immediately, if it was his call.

When contacted for comment on Mengs resignation and ties to China, CalPERS referred The Epoch Times to the public statement.

Chinese Investments in Question

The pension fund held 240 Chinese bonds as of June 30, 2019, marking a 40 percent jump from the 172 names in the previous year, according to CalPERSs annual report. The types of investments span corporate bonds, domestic and international securities, and private investments.

The pension fund held 63.1 million shares in China Unicom, a state-run telecommunications provider that built North Koreas internet network, and which the Federal Communications Commission threatened to bar from the United States over national security risks. Hikvision, a Chinese surveillance equipment manufacturer that CalPERS invested in, was recently placed on a federal trade blacklist over its role in human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

As of June 30, 2019, CalPERS also held 5.7 million shares in the state-owned China Communications Construction Co., which has built naval and military bases in the disputed South China Sea. The Chinese regime considers most of the waterway as part of its territory, despite a 2016 international court ruling against its claims.

Banks applauded Mengs departure on Aug. 6. Taxpayers shouldnt be forced to fund our adversarys military, he said in a statement. With Meng leaving, CalPERS now has the opportunity to correct its course and divest from companies within Chinas military-industrial complex.
France is facing new coronavirus testing troubles as dozens of labs close to allow staff a summer holiday despite signs that a second wave is building.

Doctors have warned that the vacation crunch is just part of a larger web of failures in France's testing strategy which was described earlier this week by the government's own virus advisory panel as disorganized and 'insufficient'.

'First, there is a lack of workers to do the testing. If we don't ask all the health workers to be available by mobilizing all of them, there are just not enough people,' emergency services doctor Christophe Prudhomme at a hospital in Bobigny, Paris.

'And then it's a matter of organization,' he said, urging regional health agencies 'to organize testing so that it's not the citizen who has to take his phone and try to call seven or eight labs in order to get an appointment that will take place only next week.'

It is worrying news for the country which saw its hospitals nearly drown with Covid-19 patients in the first wave - in part due to inadequate testing.

The country has already lost more than 30,300 lives to the pandemic and yesterday alone recorded 1,695 new infections.

A second wave also appears to be sweeping across the rest of Europe as countries such as Germany, Spain and Greece all see spikes in their infection rates with the global death toll yesterday topping 700,000.

France is facing new coronavirus testing troubles as dozens of labs close to allow staff a summer holiday despite signs that a second wave is building (biologist pictured earlier this week taking a swab sample from a man in Lille, northern France)

In France, doctor's offices and labs have joined dozens of other businesses in closing for staff to enjoy a summer vacation.

Those labs that have remained open have seen lengthy socially-distanced queues building up outside as people struggle to book a test appointment.

It is worrying news for the country which saw renowned hospitals nearly drown with Covid-19 patients in the first wave - in part due to inadequate testing - and has already lost more than 30,300 lives to the pandemic.

Two months of strict lockdown seemed to put the country on track in its fight against the pandemic.

But it is now once again recording around 1,219 new cases a day when, just two weeks ago, the seven-day rolling average was 719.

Yesterday, France recorded 1,695 new infections.

Two months of strict lockdown seemed to put the country on track in its fight against the pandemic - but it is now once again recording around 1,219 new cases a day (graphic showing growing number of daily coronavirus cases in France)

The country has already lost a total of more than 30,300 lives to the pandemic (graphic showing growing number of daily coronavirus deaths in France)

The number of patients in intensive care is also edging up for the first time in months.

The scientific committee recently said that the situation was 'under control, but precarious. We could at any moment tip into a scenario that is less under control.'

It added: 'The short term future of the pandemic mainly lies in the hands of the population. It is highly likely that we will experience a second epidemic wave this autumn or winter.'

The statement said the virus 'has recently been circulating more actively, with an increased loss of distancing and barrier measures' since France emerged from its strict two-month lockdown in May.

In France, doctor's offices and labs have joined dozens of other businesses in closing for staff to enjoy a summer vacation (poster pictured shows special summer opening hours at a medical laboratory in Ville D'array, France)

The government did not order anyone to skip vacation, which French workers see as a hard-won, fundamental right. Pictured: Two women wearing face masks leave a temporary testing centre for coronavirus in Ripollet earlier today

'The balance is fragile and we can change course at any time to a less controlled scenario like in Spain for example,' it said.

France is in better shape than last time to keep ahead of new infections but experts have warned that testing is key.

'The virus didn't disappear at all... The contamination is continuing, and amplifying in some regions,' said Francois Blanchecotte, president of the Union of Medical Biologists, who has been in the forefront of French testing efforts.

'We have to adapt the testing strategy to this evolution.'

France is not the only country which appears to be suffering a second wave as Covid-19 cases rise across Europe including in Germany, Greece and Spain

He is now pushing for a more targeted policy that takes into account lab capacities, such as organizing tests at beach resorts or tourist sites where young people are congregating.

Blanchecotte said he was particularly annoyed at a blanket government campaign to test 1.5 million Parisians to better understand how the virus is spreading.

The free test vouchers were distributed just as dozens of labs shut down for vacation which has worsened bottlenecks.

How Germany is tackling its second wave Germany will require people arriving from countries considered high-risk to take coronavirus tests starting this weekend, the health minister said earlier today. German officials have voiced alarm over a steady upward creep in the number of new infections over recent weeks. The national disease control centre, the Robert Koch Institute, said 1,045 cases were recorded on Wednesday  the first time since May 7 that it has counted more than 1,000 cases in a day. Pictured: Employees of an aid organisation at a newly established coronavirus testing station in Dortmund, western Germany, earlier this week Daily figures can be volatile or distorted by delays in reporting, and the number is still far short of the peak of more than 6,000 reached in early April. 'What we are seeing is a lot of small outbreaks,' Health Minister Jens Spahn told reporters. 'People are getting infected at family parties, at their place of work or at community facilities.' On top of that, school holidays  the dates of which are staggered across Germany's 16 states  are ending in some regions, increasing concerns that vacationers could bring home the virus. Last Saturday, the government started offering free tests for people returning to the country. People entering from countries deemed high-risk  currently most of the world outside Europe, as well as Luxembourg and parts of northern Spain  are required to quarantine for 14 days unless they can present a negative test result no more than two days old. Spahn said that, starting Saturday, people arriving from those countries will be required to take a test unless they bring a new test result with them. 'I am very well aware that this impinges on individual freedoms, but I believe that this is a justifiable intervention,' Spahn said. The minister dismissed arguments by some politicians that people who can afford a vacation should also have to pay for their tests. He said many returnees from high-risk and other countries 'have saved hard for this vacation, put a lot of money aside, don't have a lot in reserve  and nevertheless, I want to make it possible for them to get tested.' Travellers who refuse tests could face fines of up to 25,000 euros ($29,600), but the exact amount is up to local authorities, Spahn said. Germany's COVID-19 response has been widely regarded as relatively successful. The Robert Koch Institute has recorded 9,175 deaths from over 213,000 confirmed cases - a lower death rate than in many comparable countries. Advertisement

'We are at a crossroads. We've seen a situation of disorder in Paris, in which labs were not ready to face thousands of people at the same time. It's a nightmare to get an appointment,' Blanchecotte said.

The government did not order anyone to skip vacation, which French workers see as a hard-won, fundamental right.

But it issued a special decree late last month authorizing certain medical students, firefighters and rescue workers to administer coronavirus nasal swabs in their absence.

That was too late to stop an outbreak in the town of Quiberon in the western region of Brittany which was seemingly spurred by a night club party last month.

Authorities urged everyone in the area to get tested  a mammoth task on a peninsula where the population swells from 5,000 to 60,000 in the summer.

Some partygoers were foiled by long lines at a makeshift testing station and gave up, allowing the virus to continue spreading.

In Paris, City Hall is trying to relieve the summer strain on labs with a mobile testing site at a beach venue on the La Villette canal, where crowds lined up Wednesday even before it opened.

Some labs have adjusted their hours to stay open late into the evening, or open on Sundays - both unusual for France.

After coming under fire for its limited testing capacity in the first wave, the government now says it can test up to 700,000 people a week, and last week hit a record high of 457,000 tests.

But the number of new positive cases is growing twice as fast as the growth in test rates, according to data from the national health agency.

Blanchecotte is worried but defended the decision to let lab staff take holiday time.

'For months, they worked overtime to keep up with virus testing needs', he said with many staggering holiday departures or scaling back their vacation plans.

But he warned that autumn may be even worse: 'We know that September, October, November are difficult months. We need to be prepared.'

France is not the only country which appears to be suffering a second wave as Covid-19 cases rise across Europe with the global death toll yesterday topping 700,000.

The head of Germany's doctors' union declared on Tuesday that the country is already in the midst of 'a second, shallow upswing' because people have flouted social distancing rules.

Two weeks ago the average number of new daily infections was 460 but just yesterday the country recorded 1,024.

Ms Johna said there was a danger that a longing to return to normality and a suppression of containment measures would fritter away the success Germany had achieved so far, urging people to stick to social distancing and hygiene rules and wear masks.

Similarly, cases in Greece have spiked to a three-month high of 121 new infections on Tuesday with a further 119 recorded yesterday.

Greece's prime minister warned earlier this week that new restrictions may be needed if a worrying rise in daily cases does not abate.

'Any form of complacency is unjustified,' Kyriakos Mitsotakis said. 'We still don't know how... many months we will be forced to live with the virus.'

Spain, which is currently the worst-hit nation in Europe, saw 8,500 new cases over the weekend and recorded another 2,953 just yesterday.

An all-inclusive resort in Majorca was shutdown after ten staff fell sick with the virus and two towns north of Madrid have been put under strict lockdown.

Italy - once the sickman of Europe - has managed to avoid an uptick but two cruise ships are now quarantined in the Civitavecchia port in Rome.
A tie-up of TikTok with Microsoft could extend American dominance of the online and social media world. But it may have some unintended, negative consequences too for US firms and the open internet.

The deal being negotiated with the administration of President Donald Trump would carve out parts of the popular video app for Microsoft, which would gain a foothold in the fast-growing, youth-focused social media environment and join the ranks of rivals like Facebook.

Such a deal "would strengthen American preeminence in technology by moving a major consumer product from Chinese ownership," said Darrell West, director of the center for technology innovation at the Brookings Institution.

"But it also could encourage data nationalism by fueling calls in many nations for local control over internet platforms and data storage within their own national borders."

Other analysts said the deal could have far-reaching effects for the idea of an open internet, a longstanding position of Washington in contrast with that of China and other authoritarian regimes which restrict online content.

"It would cross a rubicon in terms of internet governance," said Graham Webster, editor of the DigiChina Project at the Stanford University Cyber Policy Center.

"This would result in the US appearing to support the longstanding Chinese position, which is that if they don't like the way another country's companies operate, they can ban or seize them. That would be a huge step."

- Microsoft entry -

Microsoft said it has been in talks with TikTok parent firm ByteDance to acquire TikTok's operations in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and address Washington's concerns about data security in light of claims that the social platform could become an espionage tool.

Trump said he is likely to approve such a deal, and set a mid-September deadline after which he would ban TikTok in the United States.

Any deal would give Microsoft a large chunk of the estimated billion-user TikTok base and technology which has helped make the app wildly popular with young smartphone users.

The talks come against a backdrop of growing dominance in much of the world of US-based Big Tech firms in social media, online search and advertising, cloud computing and other sectors which have become more important during the coronavirus pandemic.

Patrick Moorhead, analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy, said the US may be justified in its move because of China's limits on US firms operating in that country.

"China has been imposing these rules on us for the last 25 years," he said.

"If you are an American company setting up in China you need a 49 percent local owner and you need to give up intellectual property. A Chinese firm in US doesn't need a US owner sponsor, you just open up shop. The US wants symmetric trade rules."

- Fragmentation -

Susan Aaronson, a professor and head of the Digital Trade and Data Governance hub at George Washington University, said any effort to carve up TikTok could face major hurdles and lead to negative consequences.

"They can't divide up the app, no such thing has ever been done," Aaronson said, adding that there has been no carity on how a sale would affect TikTok in dozens of countries.

Aaronson said Trump's "bullying" of TikTok and ByteDance could encourage other countries to take similar actions, possibly against American firms which dominate the non-Chinese internet ecosystem.

"The whole thesis of the internet is data should flow freely across borders," Aaronson said. "If you're bullying and acting as a nationalist the internet gets more divided."

Webster said the large US tech firms could face consequences from what might be seen as an "expropriation" of TikTok.

"It could be extremely costly if one of these (US) firms is forced to spin off part of its operations," he said.

More fundamentally, Webster said a forced TikTok sale would represent a step away from globalization which has benefitted the Silicon Valley giants.

"The US position has been that companies should be able to do business across borders, and that openness is beneficial to US companies," he said.

The divesting of TikTok "might set in motion a pattern of localization of online services" which the US and its companies have opposed, he added.

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China to make cool-headed, sensible response to US impulsive moves, anxiety: FM

Global Times

Source: Xinhua Published: 2020/8/5 21:36:31 Last Updated: 2020/8/5 23:36:31

China is ready to make cool-headed and sensible response to the impulsive moves and anxiety of the US side, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Wednesday.

In international relations today, dialogue is the right way for settling issues and building trust, Wang said, adding that favoring dialogue over confrontation is not only China's position but also the consensus of the overwhelming majority of countries.

China and the United States are two major countries with different social systems, histories and cultures, and each has its own interests and concerns, which is natural, he noted.

"But what is important is that no one should unilaterally shut the door for dialogue at any time," Wang said. "Difference, misjudgment or confrontation should not be allowed to dominate the bilateral relations."

As a major and responsible country, China is open and above board, and is ready to enter into candid, effective consultation with the US side and make cool-headed and sensible response to the impulsive moves and anxiety of the US side, he noted.

"We are ready to restart the dialogue mechanisms with the US side at any level, in any area and at any time. All issues can be put on the table for discussion," Wang said.

The Chinese side has proposed that the two countries draw up three lists respectively on cooperation, dialogue and issues that need proper management, and draw up a road-map for future interactions, he added.

"We urge the United States to stop acting with arrogance and prejudice, but enter into constructive dialogue with us on an equal footing," Wang said.

"We hope that it will work with us to ease current tensions and put the relations back onto the right track of no conflict, no confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation," he said. "This serves the shared interests of the two peoples and meets the expectation of the international community."

Cooperation, not decoupling

"China and the United States should stop attempts at decoupling and advance the relationship through cooperation, and live up to their responsibility for the world," Wang said.

The cooperation between the two countries has never been a case of one party giving favor to the other, or one party taking advantage of the other, said Wang.

Wang said both countries have benefited much from the cooperation, and no one is being taken advantage of or being ripped off, as the mutually beneficial cooperation over the years has turned China and the United States into a community with shared interests.

He said that China has achieved rapid growth in part thanks to its opening-up to and cooperation with the rest of the world, including the United States, adding that China's continued growth has also created impetus for sustained growth and an enormous market for the United States and other countries.

"If China-US cooperation were unfair and not reciprocal, how could it have continued for several decades? How could China-US ties have come such a long way?" Wang asked.

Noting that the problems brought by globalization and free trade should be dealt with through internal reform, Wang said that acting like a sick person who forces others to take medicine for his own illness or even resorting to decoupling will not work.

The development of China and of the United States is not a zero sum game, and the two countries should not reject each other but draw on each other's strength to achieve common development, according to Wang.

As COVID-19 takes its toll on the global economy, China and the United States, the world's two largest economies, should work for mutual benefit on an equal footing, stop attempts at decoupling and advance the relationship through cooperation, and live up to their responsibility for the world, said Wang.

Pompeo's assertions reflect Cold War mentality

Wang denounced US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's assertion that the policy of engagement with China pursued by successive US administrations has failed.

"The assertion is just a rehash of the Cold War mentality," Wang said.

The assertion turns a blind eye to all that has been achieved in China-US relations over the past decades, and shows ignorance of the historical process and lack of respect for the Chinese and American peoples, Wang said.

This is a political virus which is understandably questioned and rebuked by people in the United States and the international community, he said.

Over four decades ago, leaders of China and the United States made the handshake across the vast Pacific Ocean, he added, noting that what made this possible was that both countries adhered to the principle of mutual respect and seeking common ground while putting aside differences.

Over the past 40 years and more since the two countries entered into diplomatic ties, several generations of Chinese and Americans have worked together to advance China-US relations, Wang said.

Wang added that as a result, bilateral ties have become one of the most deeply interwoven relationships in the world with broadest cooperation areas and most extensive common interests. "No one can deny these facts."

Forty years on, while China and the United States are quite different in social system and many other aspects, such differences have not affected the peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation between the two countries, and they should not affect their bilateral ties in the future, he said.

It is neither necessary nor possible for the two sides to change each other, Wang stressed. "Instead, we should respect the choice independently made by the people of the other side."

China's major achievements in the past decades show that the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics fits China and has also benefited the world, Wang said.

China will continue to pursue development and progress to meet the desire of its people and make new, even greater contributions to mankind, he said.

"Anyone who attempts to derail this process can only end in failure," said Wang.

China rejects New "new Cold War"

China rejects any attempt to create a so-called "new Cold War," Wang said.

Some American politicians who are biased against and hostile to China are using their power to smear China with fabrications and impede normal ties with China under various pretexts, Wang said.

What they want is to revive McCarthyism in an attempt to undermine US relations with China, stoke hostility between the two peoples, and erode trust between the two countries, Wang said.

"Ultimately, they want to drag China and the United States into renewed conflict and confrontation and plunge the world into chaos and division again," he added.

Noting China will not allow these people to get their way, Wang stressed that China rejects any attempt to create a so-called "new Cold War", because it contravenes the fundamental interests of the Chinese and American peoples and the global trend toward development and progress.

Anyone who tries to start a so-called "new Cold War" in the 21st century will be on the wrong side of history and will only be remembered as the one who has upended international cooperation, Wang said.

Today's China is not the former Soviet Union and China has no intention of becoming another United States, noted Wang.

As the world's largest developing country and a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China will stay committed to peaceful development and to pursuing an opening-up strategy of mutual benefit, Wang stressed.

"China will continue to promote global peace and development and uphold the international order," he added.

"Diplomatic war" exposes US lack of confidence

Starting a "diplomatic war" does not prove the strength of the United States, but exposes its increasing lack of confidence, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Wednesday.

The Chinese Consulate-General in Houston was the first consulate-general opened by China in the United States after the establishment of the diplomatic ties, and it was always an important symbol of China-US friendship, Wang said.

Closing such a consulate-general that bears both historical and current significance is closing a window for exchange and mutual understanding between the Chinese and Americans, Wang said.

This move has undermined the normal growth of China-US relations and the friendship between the two peoples, he noted.

All the excuses for closure claimed by the US side are nothing but fabrications designed to slander China, and none of the excuses is backed by any evidence or can stand up to scrutiny, Wang said.

China would not swallow the arbitrary and unscrupulous move, and China's countermeasure is legitimate, justified and lawful, which also fully conforms to diplomatic norms, Wang underscored.

China has no intention to fight a "diplomatic war" with the United States as it will only hurt the interests of the two peoples even more, Wang said.

If the United States is bent on going down the wrong path, China is ready to make due response, Wang added.

Gross interference in Hong Kong affairs undermines "one country, two systems"

Wang said that gross interference in Hong Kong affairs undermines "one country, two systems."

Hong Kong is part of China's territory and Hong Kong affairs fall within China's internal affairs, Wang stressed.

Non-interference in other countries' internal affairs is a basic norm governing international relations, and no country will allow other countries to flagrantly sabotage its sovereignty or territorial integrity, said Wang.

National security legislation underpins the very survival of any country, and it is a common legal practice of all countries, Wang said.

The legislation on safeguarding national security in Hong Kong has plugged the long-standing legal loopholes in Hong Kong, he said, adding that the legislation will "ensure both the long-term implementation of the policy of 'one country, two systems' on the basis of rule of law and durable security and stability of Hong Kong."

Several million residents of Hong Kong signed a petition in support of the legislation, which demonstrates their longing for peace and stability in Hong Kong and their strong support for the national security legislation, according to Wang.

China is committed to the policy of "one country, two systems," Wang reiterated, saying that with the strong support from the mainland, an improved legal environment, and the united efforts of the Hong Kong compatriots, China can surely uphold and better implement the policy of "one country, two systems."

The gross interference in Hong Kong affairs, be it in words or action, can only undermine the sound implementation of the policy of "one country, two systems" and will meet with the firm rejection from all the Chinese people, including the people of Hong Kong, he said.

US not qualified to build coalition of "clean countries"

The United States is not qualified to build a coalition of "clean countries" because the country itself is dirty all over, Wang said.

Wang said the United States has launched a global campaign against a private Chinese company without any solid evidence, calling the move a textbook example of bullying.

Everyone can see easily and clearly that the US goal is to keep its monopoly in science and technology and deny other countries the legitimate right to development, Wang said.

"The United States doesn't even bother to disguise its bullying," he said, adding that it not only violates the international rules of fair trade, but also hurts the free global market environment.

Noting that the United States conducts wire-tapping and mass surveillance around the globe, and that these wrongful acts are already an open secret, Wang said the United States is not qualified to build a coalition of "clean countries" because it is dirty all over.

China will continue to work with all countries to maintain a fair, just, open and non-discriminatory business environment, and ensure that safe, reliable and quality information technology will boost global economic recovery and help improve people's lives around the world, he said.

"We hope that the United States will give up its obsession with its narrow self-interest, and return to the right track of openness and cooperation," Wang said.

US should give up failed interventionism

Wang said the United States should give up its failed interventionism.

There have always been forces in the United States attempting to rebut the leadership role of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and China's path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, Wang said.

Their purpose is notably obvious, which is to contain and destabilize China, Wang said.

Wang noted that next year will mark the 100th anniversary of the CPC, stressing that the great endeavor of the Chinese people under the CPC leadership has been recorded in the history of modernization as an outstanding, epoch-making chapter.

Practice is the sole criterion of truth, Wang said. "Does China's system work for the country? The Chinese people know better than anyone else."

Wang also noted that many international polls in recent years show that at least 90 percent of the Chinese people trust their government.

The relationship between the CPC and the Chinese people is as close as between "fish and water" and between "seed and soil," Wang said, stressing that those who attempt to break this strong bond are making themselves enemies of the 1.4 billion Chinese people.

"We have great confidence in our path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. In the meantime, we also respect the development paths chosen by other nations," he said.

"We are not interested in rivalry of systems, or ideological confrontation with any country," Wang added. "Likewise, we hope that the United States will respect China's social system and the Chinese people's choice, and give up its failed interventionism."

Unilateralism, bullying pose real challenge to int'l order

Wang said the real challenge to the current international order and system is that the United States, the strongest country in the world, places its own interests above everything else, and takes this as its code of conduct.

"It has gone extreme to pursue unilateralism and bullying, even at the cost of international responsibilities and multilateral rules," Wang said.

At the height of COVID-19, the United States went so far as to groundlessly attack and withdraw from the World Health Organization. The current US administration has pulled out of more international treaties than any one before it, making itself the most damaging force of the current international order, he added.

China is always a firm defender of the international order and the international system. Since the founding of New China more than 70 years ago, the country has never started a war, or occupied an inch of land of others, Wang noted.

"We have enshrined in the Constitution our commitment to peaceful development, and we are the first country in the world to make such a solemn pledge. We will continue to adhere to the path of peaceful development, and will never seek hegemony or expansionism. We will always be a staunch force for peace," Wang stressed.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the victory in the World Anti-Fascist War and the founding of the United Nations. "We must not allow the international system to be undermined arbitrarily, or the world divided again," Wang said.

China was the first to put its signature on the UN Charter. China has joined almost all international treaties and agreements, and has been faithfully fulfilling its due international responsibilities and obligations.

At a time when the future of the world is at stake, China will continue to champion and pursue multilateralism, safeguard the UN-centered international system, and promote multipolarity and greater democracy in international relations, Wang added.

The South China Sea is the shared home for the countries in the region and should not be a wrestling ground for international politics, Wang said.

The United States has recently taken a number of provocative actions in the South China Sea, breaching its longstanding commitment of not taking sides, and blatantly interfering in the territorial disputes, Wang said.

Moreover, the United States keeps increasing and showing off its military presence in the South China Sea, he said. In the first half of this year alone, it sent military aircraft there more than 2,000 times.

The United States is also seeking to drive a wedge between China and countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and disrupt the consultation process of the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea, Wang added.

The US purpose is to destabilize the South China Sea, and hijack regional countries onto its chariot to serve US domestic politics and geopolitical agenda, Wang noted, urging all regional countries to be vigilant, and prevent this region's hard-won peace and development from being sabotaged by the United States.

Facts have proved that settling disputes through dialogue is the right way that best serves the interests of regional countries, and countries in the region have a shared responsibility to keep the South China Sea peaceful and stable, he said.

Under the current situation, China proposes removing all disturbances to restart as soon as possible the Code of Conduct consultation, and agreeing as early as possible on a set of rules for maintaining long-term peace and stability in the region, Wang said.

In the meantime, China is prepared to strengthen maritime cooperation with other littoral countries, deepen mutual security confidence, and advance joint development, so as to make the South China Sea a sea of peace, friendship and cooperation, he added.

Instigation of confrontation and division rejected by the people

Instigation for confrontation and division was not rare in history, but was all rebuked by the people, Wang said.

In the 21st century, it is inconceivable that some people intend to draw an iron curtain and stoke new division, Wang said, adding that this is a blatant contempt for the progress and wisdom of humanity and goes against the trend of the times and the will of most nations.

Such moves naturally gain little support, said Wang.

Noting that China achieved freedom from imperialism and colonialism, Wang said freedom, democracy and rule of law are codified in China's Constitution and form a key part of core socialist values.

"We also know that freedom has boundaries," he said. "Respect for science, reason, law and order as well as international rules are the basis of freedom."

China has valued peace and cooperation since ancient times, and always opposes dangerous acts to divide the world along ideological lines, said Wang.

President Xi Jinping had called for building a community with a shared future for mankind. Wang said the aim of this major initiative is to rise above differences in system, abandon the zero-sum mentality, and find a common goal for all countries, nationalities and civilizations.

China will work tirelessly for this lofty vision for mankind, he said.

China-US relations need for clear-cut framework

China's US policy is always consistent and stable, and in the meantime, China is also prepared for possible bumps and storms ahead, Wang said.

"The US move to turn China into an adversary is a fundamental, strategic miscalculation. It means that the United States is funneling its strategic resources in the wrong area," he said.

"We are always ready to develop a China-US relationship featuring no conflict, no confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation based on coordination, cooperation and stability," he added.

In the meantime, China will firmly defend its sovereignty, security and development interests, because this is a legitimate right inherent in China being an independent sovereign state, Wang stressed.

The United States should honor the principle of sovereign equality enshrined in the UN Charter, learn how to get along with different systems and civilizations and adapt itself to peaceful coexistence, and accept the reality that the world is moving toward multipolarity, said Wang.

Wang expounded on the clear-cut framework for the relationship.

First, steer clear of red lines and avoid confrontation. For China-US relations to develop soundly, the most critical thing is mutual respect, Wang noted.

China never intends to and will never interfere in US elections or other US internal affairs. Likewise, the United States must abandon its fantasy of remodeling China to US needs. It must stop its meddling in China's internal affairs, and stop its irrational cracking down on China's legitimate rights and interests, he said.

Second, keep the channels open for candid dialogue. Dialogue is the prerequisite for addressing problems, and without dialogue, problems will only pile up and even get out of control, he said.

"China's door to dialogue remains open. We are willing, in the spirit of equality and open-mindedness, to talk and interact with the United States, and resume dialogue mechanisms at all levels and in all fields," said Wang.

Third, reject decoupling and uphold cooperation. The interests of the two countries are deeply entwined. Forced decoupling will inflict a lasting impact on bilateral relations, and endanger the security of international industrial chains and interests of all countries, Wang said.

With COVID-19 still raging across the world, China is prepared to have mutually beneficial cooperation with the United States on epidemic control and economic recovery, learn from each other and share experience on containing COVID-19, and join together with the United States the global response and multilateral cooperation in fighting COVID-19, he said.

Fourth, abandon the zero-sum mentality and stand up to shared responsibilities. "Our world still faces many global challenges. Traditional and non-traditional security challenges are intertwined. Almost all regional and international hotspot issues require a coordinated response from China, the United States and other countries," he said.

China and the United States must always bear in mind the well-being of mankind, live up to their responsibilities as two major countries, coordinate and cooperate as needed in the UN and other multilateral institutions, and work together for world peace and stability, said Wang.

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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...
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife on Monday confirmed an outbreak of a disease affecting deer in several Northern California counties, including some in the Bay Area.

Cervid Adenovirus 1, also known as adenovirus hemorrhagic disease or CdAdV-1, is normally fatal for deer and spreads when they are in close contact with each other, according to CDFW officials.

The disease has been found in deer in Napa, Santa Clara, Sonoma, Tehama and Yolo counties. Residents in those areas are being asked to refrain from feeding wild animals and to report cases of the disease to the CDFW.

"Providing attractants for deer -- food, salt licks or even water -- is against the law for good reason," Senior Wildlife Veterinarian with CDFW's Wildlife Investigations Laboratory Dr. Brandon Munk said in a statement.

"Because these artificial attractants can congregate animals and promote the spread of disease, it's particularly imperative to leave wildlife alone during an outbreak. There is no cure or vaccine for this disease, so our best management strategies right now are to track it carefully, and to take preventative measures to limit the spread," he said.

Back in May, the CDFW first began receiving reports of dead deer, both wild deer and those at fawn rehabilitation centers. Through an investigation, CDFW officials were then able to confirm CdAdV-1 as the cause of the deaths.

The disease is not known to affect humans, pets or domestic livestock, according to CDFW officials.

Deer fawns are at greatest risk for the disease, suffering high mortality rates after becoming infected. Yearlings and adult deer have more chances of surviving the disease, but many times don't, CDFW officials said.

Infected deer suffer from drooling or foaming at the mouth, diarrhea, vomiting and seizures.

Because the disease can be widespread among deer, CDFW officials are asking residents to report sightings of sick or dead deer online at https://wildlife.ca.gov/conservation/laboratories/wildlife-investigations/monitoring/mortality-report.

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.
Washington, Aug 6 : US President Donald Trump has doubled down on his unsubstantiated claim that the deadly explosions in Lebanon's capital Beirut could be "an attack", while dismissing the Pentagon chief's assessment.

"I mean, somebody left some terrible explosive type of devices and things around, perhaps it was that, perhaps it was on attack. I don't think anybody can say right now," Xinhua news agency quoted Trump as saying at a press conference on Wednesday.

"You have some people think it was an attack and some people think it wasn't, "In any event, it was a terrible event and a lot of people were killed and a tremendous number of people were badly wounded, injured," the President added.

Following the explosions on Tuesday, Trump claimed that he had "met with some of our great generals and they just seem to feel that this was not some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of event".

His claim was contradicted by US defence officials, including Defence Secretary Mark Esper, who said on Wednesday that while the Pentagon was still gathering information about the explosions, "most believe that it was an accident as reported".

Two massive explosions rocked Beirut on Tuesday and primary information has revealed that they might have been caused by ammonium nitrate that was stored in warehouse No. 12 at Port of Beirut since 2014.

Lebanese Health Minister Hamad Hassan on Wednesday said the death toll increased to 135, while the number of injured people stood at 5,000.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
On Tuesday, a massive explosion tore through the Lebanese capital of Beirut, destroying everything in its path.

The horrific blast was caught on tape and the heartbreaking visuals that emerged on social media showed the aftermath of the deadly event that left as many as 100 persons killed and nearly 4,000 people injured.

The blast was the most powerful in years in Beirut, a city that is already reeling from an economic crisis and a surge in coronavirus infections.

Also Read: Ammonium Nitrate, Which Caused Beirut Blast, Has a Bloodied Past With Several Industrial Accidents

As photos and videos of the exact moment when the blast occurred went viral, support and solidarity for Lebanon poured in from across the world.

Also Read: Beirut Nurse Holding 3 Babies and Attending Calls amid Shattered Glass is What Resilience Looks Like

The iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris went dark for an hour on Wednesday to pay tribute to the victims of the warehouse explosion.

CORRECTION: The Eiffel Tower in Paris switched off its lights an hour earlier than usual to commemorate the victims of the warehouse explosion in Beirut https://t.co/2mtCm2vaoN We are deleting an earlier tweet that contained a typo pic.twitter.com/7VTj1xASNl Reuters (@Reuters) August 6, 2020

Earlier, Pyramids in Giza, Burj Khalifa in Dubai were lit up with a display of Lebanon's flag to show solidarity for the victims of the blast in Beirut.

"#BurjKhalifa lights up in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in #Lebanon", the building's official Twitter account tweeted.

#Egypt's Giza pyramids were illuminated on Tuesday night with colours of #Lebanon flag in solidarity with victims of #BeirutBlast pic.twitter.com/fBiw43k9v2 DNE Buzz (@Dnebuzz) August 4, 2020

    !     ..   ..      #BurjKhalifa lights up in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in #Lebanon pic.twitter.com/VRR00hXiUM Burj Khalifa (@BurjKhalifa) August 4, 2020

Pakistani actress Mehreen Syed shared a photo of a representation of the flag of Lebanon in solidarity. The hashtag #PrayForLebanon became viral on Twitter with several netizens tweeting their love and support for the Lebanese. Many shared artworks as well.
CALGARY, AB, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - RWE Renewables, the newest subsidiary of RWE Group, and Direct Energy Business, part of Direct Energy, one of North America's largest energy and energy-related services providers, and a subsidiary of Centrica plc, today announced they have signed a long-term agreement to purchase 25 MW of electrical output and associated capacity from RWE's Canadian Hull solar plant. The photovoltaic plant, located in Southern Alberta's Taber county, started commercial operation recently and will now provide an important part of the electricity that Direct Energy Business needs to supply its Canadian customers with renewable electricity.

"With increased customer demand for renewables, the addition of 25 MW of solar supply will help Direct Energy Business build renewable power options for our customers and affirms our commitment to provide products and services that lead to a lower carbon future," said David Brast, Senior Vice President, North America Gas and Power, Direct Energy Business.

Silvia Ortin Rios, Chief Operating Officer Wind Onshore and Solar Photovoltaics Americas of RWE Renewables says: "With this deal, we are demonstrating our extensive capabilities as a leading integrated renewables player ranging from project development, construction, operations to commercialization. The contract with Direct Energy illustrates our expertise in marketing green electricity on the basis of bilateral power purchase agreements. Solar energy is already competitive and decreasing prices for equipment will further drive this development in the long term."

"This PPA demonstrates Direct Energy's unique ability to create long-term 100 percent renewable energy solutions that combine the strengths of our customers, project developers and energy retailers alike," said Lance Henderson, Director, Western Origination, Direct Energy Business.

The long-term contract will start in August 2020. RWE's solar farm will supply an annual production of up to 50,000 MWh of carbon-free energy and environmental attributes to Direct Energy, enough green electricity to supply the equivalent of about 6,500 Canadian homes.

With nearly one million residential, business and wholesale customers in Alberta, Direct Energy and Direct Energy Business are deeply committed to delivering renewable energy solutions that meet our customers unique needs and playing an active role in the communities we serve.

About Direct Energy

Direct Energy is one of North America's largest energy and energy-related services companies. A subsidiary of Centrica plc (LSE: CNA), one of the world's leading integrated energy companies, Direct Energy operates in 50 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia and four provinces in Canada. In Alberta we have offices in Calgary and Edmonton serving nearly 1 million residential and commercial customers. Direct Energy provides customers with choice and support in managing their energy costs through a portfolio of innovative products and services. To learn more about Direct Energy and Direct Energy Regulated Services, please visit www.directenergy.ca or www.directenergyregulatedservices.com.

About RWE Renewables:

RWE Renewables, the newest subsidiary of the RWE Group, is one of the world's leading renewable energy companies. With around 3,500 employees, the company has onshore and offshore wind farms, photovoltaic plants and battery storage facilities with a combined capacity of approximately 9 gigawatts. RWE Renewables is driving the expansion of renewable energy in more than 15 countries on four continents. For further growth a net investment budget of 5 billion is available until 2022. When adding in possible partnerships, the medium term investment budget could reach up to 9 billion. The focus is on the Americas, the core markets in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

RWE Renewables GmbH Group Corporate Communications & Public Affairs | Kruppstrae 74 | 45128 Essen | Germany T +49 201 5179-5008 | [email protected] | www.rwe.com/press

SOURCE Direct Energy Business
Portland's Police Chief says his department's resources are strained after almost 70 straight nights of protests.

Portland Police Bureau Chief Chuck Lowell told reporters Wednesday that responding to violent protesters has taken officers away from other duties.

He praised the dedication of officers who have responded to the nightly protests.

"It really affects their wellness and their families, and they love this city so much that they keep coming back and they keep serving," he said.

Early Wednesday, a riot was declared during demonstrations after authorities said people set fires and barricaded public roadways.

Unruly protest have happened in Oregon's largest city every night for more than two months since George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis.

People gathered outside the Portland Police Association in North Portland.

KOIN reports a group of people breached the doors of the Portland Police Association building.

While inside, some set a fire and caused other damage  prompting the police to declare a riot around 1 a.m. Wednesday.

Police say several arrests were made overnight.
Relations between China and Canada have soured over the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, an executive and the daughter of the founder of Chinese tech giant Huawei, at Vancouvers airport in late 2018

Beijing: China has sentenced a third Canadian citizen to death on drug charges amid a steep decline in relations between the two countries.

The Guangzhou Municipal Intermediate Court announced Xu Weihongs penalty on Thursday and said an alleged accomplice, Wen Guanxiong, had been given a life sentence.

Death sentences are automatically referred to Chinas highest court for review.

The brief court statement gave no details but local media in the southern Chinese city at the heart of the countrys manufacturing industry said Xu and Wen had gathered ingredients and tools and began making the drug ketamine in October 2016, then stored the final product in Xus home in Guangzhous Haizhu district.

Police later confiscated more than 120 kilogrammes (266 pounds) of the drug from Xu's home and another address, the reports said. Ketamine is a powerful pain killer that has become popular among club goers in China and elsewhere.

Relations between China and Canada soured over the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, an executive and the daughter of the founder of Chinese tech giant Huawei, at Vancouvers airport in late 2018.

The US wants her extradited to face fraud charges over the company's dealings with Iran. Her arrest infuriated Beijing, which sees her case as a political move designed to prevent Chinas rise as a global technology power.

In apparent retaliation, China detained former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and Canadian entrepreneur Michael Spavor, accusing them of vague national security crimes.

Soon after, China handed a death sentence to convicted Canadian drug smuggler Robert Schellenberg in a sudden retrial, and in April 2019, gave the death penalty to a Canadian citizen identified as Fan Wei in a multinational drug smuggling case.

China has also placed restrictions on various Canadian exports to China, including canola seed oil, in an apparent attempt to pressure Ottawa into releasing Meng.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said there was no connection between Xu's sentencing and current China-Canada relations.

I would like to stress that Chinas judicial authorities handle the relevant case independently in strict accordance with Chinese law and legal procedures," Wang said at a daily briefing Thursday. This case should not inflict any impact on China-Canada relations."

Like many Asian nations, China deals out stiff penalties for manufacturing and selling illegal drugs, including the death penalty. In December 2009, Pakistani-British businessman Akmal Shaikh was executed after being convicted of smuggling heroin, despite allegations he was mentally disturbed.

Death sentences for drug-related crimes that are extremely dangerous will help deter and prevent such crimes," Wang said.

Chinas judicial authorities handle cases involving criminals of different nationalities in accordance with law."
TROY  Franklin Alley has been stripped down to its bones with the 16 huge commercial garbage dumpsters pulled out of the roadway between Broadway and River Street as work starts to transform the block-long thoroughfare into a pedestrian walkway.

Thursday marked the official start of the $330,000 job of turning the forbidding passageway into a brightly lit and invitingly decorated thoroughfare. It will feature new overhead lighting, newly commissioned murals to enliven the brick walls along Franklin alley and, eventually, performances and cafe seating.

The goal of the city, non-profits and businesses is to transform the Franklin Alley Pedestrian Path into a welcoming connection that will allow people to easily walk between Riverfront Park and the restaurants and shops around Monument Square, Broadway, and River, Second and Third streets.

That can only be good, said Meahgan Borowsky, owner of the Whistling Kettle Tea Shop and Cafe at 254 Broadway.

The Whistling Kettle is near where the southern end of Franklin Alley connects with Broadway. The Whistling Kettle also has restaurants in Ballston Spa and Schenectady.

Borowsky said a major improvement has already happened with the removal of the dumpsters and the stink that hung over the alleyway at times.

The citys alleys have always served as shortcuts in neighborhoods and where businesses and residents put out their garbage for pickup. The city has 43 miles of alleys. The plans for Franklin Alley estimate that public space downtown could be increased by 15 percent to 20 percent if the city reclaimed its alleys.

Troy's repositioning of the Franklin Alley Pedestrian Path is similar to what Seattle, Chicago and other cities have done in reimagining alleys into public spaces that have a life beyond serving as corridors for trash pickup, utilities, access to garages and traffic shortcuts.

This central downtown location is ready for improvements, and we look forward to the positive impact the change will have on our business community and hope to use this as a prototype for other alley enhancements in the future, Mayor Patrick Madden said.

The Troy Local Development Corp. has been leading the effort to reposition Franklin Alleys first block between River Street and Broadway. In June the Troy Capital Resource Corp. gave the TLDC a $100,000 grant to cover part of the construction costs. Five local property owners also are funding the construction work.

The vision of property owners and businesses to create a freshly paved, actively lit space, adorned with unique art installations is finally underway.., we can make infrastructure improvements necessary to activate this space for residents, customers and tourists, said Steven Strichman, the TLDC executive director and the city commissioner of planning and economic development.

The Arts Center of the Capital Region is coordinating the $100,000 portion of the project to install the murals and bring an artistic life to the alley.

Twenty years ago, when the Arts Center opened on River Street, our goal was to help spark the revitalization of downtown Troy, said Elizabeth Reiss, the Arts Center CEO. The Franklin Alley mural project is a signature anniversary project, as we continue to contribute to Troys growth.
On Sunday, August 2, the inaugural Middle Ground Book Fest presented Outsider-Insider: Finding Identity Between Assimilation and Heritage, a panel featuring Brandy Colbert (The Only Black Girls in Town, Little, Brown), Carlos Hernandez (Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe, Disney/Rick Riordan Presents), Jasmine Warga (Other Words for Home, HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray), and Rebecca Balcarcel (The Other Half of Happy, Chronicle).

After introducing their novels, the authors answered questions posed by moderator Kannan Cangro, an Indian American school librarian in northern Virginia, who kicked off the session by asking the authors to describe their own outsider-insider experiences and how that had shaped their respective works.

Hernandez began by describing how his brother Jesus assumed the name Jesse and began calling him Carl as the two rose through the Boy Scouts. He continued by describing their dual church experiences, one pan-Latinx and one American, and how the brothers felt conflicted about speaking Spanish in public spaces. My bifurcated childhood definitely influences everything that I do, and probably requires more therapy than I could have time for, Hernandez admitted with a smile.

Warga shared that her father is a Muslim Arab immigrant, while her mother has primarily Western European heritage. Growing up in the same small town her mother did, Warga was faced with an overwhelmingly white population. As the only child in her elementary school with an immigrant parent, Warga began to grow uncomfortable as she recognized the insidious nature of the questions aimed specifically toward her and not her white friends. When 9/11 happened, Warga, then in eighth grade, was bombarded with negative propaganda about Muslims and Arabs and did not witness any nuanced media depictions, which conditioned her to feel that mixed identity had to be either-or. So now, in lots of ways, the books that I write are about trying to push back against those ideas and blend these hyphenated parts of my identity together, Warga concluded.

For Balcarcel, one of the most difficult moments of her life was when she was 10 and her Guatemalan paternal grandparents flew to Texas for a visit. She soon realized she could not bridge the language barrier, which made each party unknowable to the other. Another influential experience was with stereotypes when someone told her, You people are so good with childrenthese moments, among others, made it into the book.

Colbert recalled her upbringing in the Missouri Ozarks with an about 3% Black population. She often felt pressured to assimilate and stand out for all the right reasons; though her parents offered a strong Black upbringing, being othered was common in their majority white community. When Colbert went into therapy in her mid-20s, her therapist observed that Colbert had something in common with her biracial clients: they all faced some of the same emotions and issues regarding exclusion and belonging.

Cangro next asked the authors how their characters navigate between assimilation and honoring their heritage.

Warga stated that in many ways, she wrote Other Words for Home to push back against this very question. Oftentimes, assimilation in the U.S. centers a Western European norm, without understanding that the entire fabric and culture of this country has been informed from the people who willingly immigrated here and those brought here against their will. Warga thus did not want her protagonist Jude to have to make the false choice between assimilation and her heritage.

Balcarcel agreed with Wargas assessment, saying that though her main character Quijana starts by striving toward assimilation, she later begins to decentralize that way of thinking and understand how her culture influences her identity: She wants the richness of both worlds.

Next, Colbert shared that, much like her own childhood, Alberta feels proud of being Black but doesnt have those validating experiences, trying to fit in while acknowledging her identity.

Hernandez established a bicultural Cuban-American place for protagonist Sal where the perception of his skin color changes depending on where he lands in the country. This was significant for Hernandez, who grew up in mostly white Sarasota, Florida, but visited family in the more Latinx-inclusive Miami.

The authors then detailed scenes in which their respective characters debated between their identities.

Finally, the panelists described the beneficial aspects of having a foot in two worlds, including developing cultural curiosity, understanding the nuances of different cultures, emphasizing observational skills, and increasing empathy.
The Alamo and River Walk are San Antonios most iconic attractions, but there are a host of reasons the city is Texas No. 1 tourist destination  including The Pearl, San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, Sea World San Antonio, Six Flags Fiesta Texas and downtowns La Villita art community. San Antonios colonial architecture and laid-back vibe are part of the charm.

River Walk: If you want to stroll along San Antonios 15-mile-long River Walk, the most interesting stretches are around the Pearl, La Villita and Blue Star Arts Complex. Or you can see it by boat via Go Rio River Cruises, offering narrated tours and brunch and cocktail cruises; goriocruises.com

Market Square: El Mercado is a three-block outdoor plaza lined with dozens of shops and home to the famous Mi Tierra Cafe and Panaderia. The restaurant is open 24 hours a day, and the bakery, selling Mexican pastries, is busy day and night. Market Square, 514 W. Commerce . Mi Tierra, 218 Produce Row, 210-225-1262, mitierracafe.com

The Pearl: Restaurant, retail shops and Hotel Emma inhabit the old Pearl Brewery. Its also home to a great weekend farmers market and the Culinary Institute of Americas Center for Foods of the Americas. Cured is one of San Antonios top-rated restaurants. Shops include Twig Book Shop, Melissa Guerra, home to Latin American cookware, and Dos Carolinas, makers of bespoke Guayabera shirts. 303 Pearl Parkway, 210-212-7260; atpearl.com

The McNay: Housed partly in a Spanish Colonial Revival mansion on the River Walk, the McNay Art Museum focuses on 19th- and 20th-century European and American works by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Georgia OKeeffe and Edward Hopper. A current show, Fashion Nirvana: Runway to Everyday, features 90s fashion from gowns to grunge in the museums sleek, modern addition, the Stieren Center. 6000 N. New Braunfels, 210-824-5368; mcnayart.org

Paramour: Rooftop bar with a great view. Check out the champagne vending machine and Sunday drag brunch. 102 Ninth St., 210-340-9880, ParamourBar.com

The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center: The center celebrates Latino visual artists, filmmakers, writers, dancers and musicians. It hosts workshops, public performances and readings, concerts, film festivals and gallery exhibitions. (Temporarily closed due to COVID-19.) 723 S. Brazos, 210-271-3151; guadalupeculturalarts.org

WHERE TO EAT

La Fonda on Main: This 1932 hacienda in the chic Monte Vista neighborhood has an oak-shaded patio with great people-watching. Try the upscale tacos, including duck, mushroom and surf-and-turf. 2415 N. Main Ave., 210-733-0621, lafondaonmain.com

Battalion: This converted firehouse serves upscale Italian fare. The decor? Chandeliers, a glass elevator and firepoles. Try the quartet of lamb chops, grilled and coated with herbs and Parmesan, served with fingerling potatoes and white wine cream sauce; square meatballs in tomato sauce; pasta in basil and pine-nut pesto; or the cool watermelon salad with fresh mint, feta, tomatoes and Fresno chile. (Open for takeout because of COVID-19.) 604 S. Alamo, 210-816-0088, battalionsa.com

Petes Tako House: Comfort tacos for breakfast. Try the machacado (shredded beef) and eggs, the chilaquiles or good ol huevos a la Mexicana (scrambled eggs, peppers, tomatoes and onions). 502 Brooklyn Ave., 210-338-8421, petestakohouse.com

Cured: Steve McHugh was nominated for a 2016 James Beard Award as Best Chef Southwest, which makes his charcuterie-specialty restaurant at the Pearl a must. The menu hits include beer-can mussels, pig-cheek poutine and pan-seared scallops with Texas strawberries, okra, eggplant and crawfish caramel. 306 Pearl Parkway, Suite 1010, 210-314-3929; curedatpearl.com

Blanco Cafe: The cheese enchiladas here are quintessential Tex-Mex: red-corn tortillas, processed cheese, smothered in chile con carne and served hot with rice, refried beans, a crispy taco and handmade flour tortillas for $8.29. Its nothing fancy, but Blancos has been serving them for 45 years. Careful, hot plate. 1720 Blanco Road, dine-in and takeout, 210-732-6480, facebook.com/BlancoCafeSA/

FAMILY FUN ITINERARY

San Antonio Missions National Historical Park: The park preserves four missions  San Jose, San Juan, Concepcion and Espada  representing 300 years of history and culture. The Visitors Center is at San Jose, 6701 San Jose. Check out all four on the 10-mile hike-and-bike trail; nps.gov/saan

SeaWorld and Six Flags Fiesta Texas: San Antonios family-friendly theme parks are ready for summer. At SeaWorld, check out the Pacific Point Preserve, a reimagining of the sea lion facilities. The preserve includes a new show and food-court-style restaurant serving four different types of cuisine. At Six Flags Fiesta Texas, Batman: The Ride is a daring and high-tech 4-D free-fly coaster with unexpected flips and twists. The park also has a zip line. Masks are required, and the parks will employ thermal imaging and an online reservation system because of COVID-19. 10500 SeaWorld Drive, 800-700-7786; seaworldparks.com. 17000 Interstate 10 W., 800-473-4378; sixflags.com/fiestatexas.com

Natural Bridge Caverns: Visit the largest known commercial caverns in the U.S. with a 60-foot natural limestone-slab bridge that spans the amphitheater setting of the caverns entrance. The span was left suspended when a sinkhole collapsed below it. The temperature inside the cave is about 70 degrees year-round, and the humidity is a constant 99 percent. Its just 29 miles north of San Antonio. 26495 Natural Bridge Caverns Road, 210-651-6101; naturalbridgecaverns.com

LEGO Land Discovery Center: This indoor fun land includes a 4D cinema, a LEGO replica of San Antonio, rides and a store, of course. 849 E. Commerce, 210-610-1150; sanantonio.legolanddiscoverycenter.com

WHERE TO STAY

Hotel Havana: This cool, cozy boutique hotel on historical property has 27 rooms and suites, and its pet friendly. Its beautiful Ocho bar, housed in the hotels glass conservatory, overlooks the river and serves food from morning until late night. (Temporarily closed because of COVID-19.) Rates from $185; 1015 Navarro, 210-222-2008, havanasanantonio.com

Hotel Emma: This luxury boutique hotel has 146 rooms and is perched on the River Walk in the old Pearl Brewery building. The bar and restaurant, Supper, are handsomely appointed, but the library is the crown jewel. The hotel acquired its 3,700 volumes from local author and doyenne Sherry Kafka Wagner; and only hotel guests get to curl up on the leather chairs with a good book. Rates from $300; 136 E Grayson, 210-448-8300, thehotelemma.com

Mokara Hotel & Spa: The 99-room Omni luxury property sits on the River Walk across from its elegant companion, the Omni La Mansion del Rio Hotel. The rooms feature marble baths and metal four-poster beds. It has fine dining at Ostra, a rooftop cafe and a destination spa. Rates from $259. 212 W. Crockett, 210-396-5800; mokarahotels.com
China will invest $10-15 billion to build a "smart city" in Armenia over the course of 15 years.

The corresponding agreement was signed Thursday between the representatives of the two countries.

As per the respective project, joint companies will be established in this Armenian-Chinese joint smart city with a population of about 15,000, and these companies will be engaged in scientific innovations, as well as the development of the latest technologiesin particular, artificial intelligence, "smart" agriculture, medicine, tourism, and banking.

The planning of this smart city will begin in 2021.
3 1 of 3 Frazer Harrison Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Jean Baptiste Lacroix Show More Show Less 3 of 3





In a typical year, when the thick summer heat descends, you might plot an escape from everyday life. But this is not a typical year, and whether you're trapped in your home office or on your couch, the urge to get away from it all is likely stronger than ever. A road trip  one way to take a cautious vacation  might be the answer to this malaise. But if you'll be staying put, these books offer the thrills of the open road, of driving fast into a new reality, far from the safety of your own home.

The title of Mona Simpson's first novel, "Anywhere But Here," might capture your current mood. But hopefully you have it better than Ann, the 12-year-old daughter of the charismatic yet impulsive Adele. The pair flee Wisconsin for California in the hopes of making Ann a child star, yet their path is littered with Adele's emotional detritus. The story's rich details, our reviewer wrote in 1987, are "generous irrelevances  the author taking time out from her characters and their battling to enjoy the world that contains them and us."
The opposition to the Ram Mandir visit by Owaisi is totally baseless. First, many legislators have engaged in the numerous religious-related rituals in the past and this wasn't the first time. He has inaugurated the mosque himself, as a Member of Parliament.

Shri Ram Janma bhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust has invited Prime Minister NarendraModi along with Chief Ministers of all other states in bhoomi poojan ceremony to be held on 5th August. PM Narendra Modi will attend the event and will lay stone of foundation for Ram temple at erstwhile disputed site.

Preparations for the welcome of PM and other leaders have been started in Ayodhya. Meanwhile, AsaduddinOwaisi has objected Modis visit to the ceremony and requested him to not to attend it. The constitution categorically says that secularism is the basic tenet of the country,Owaisi said.

Owaisis objection to the visit is completely void. First, in the past, several politicians took part in the various ceremonies related to religious places and this is not the first time. He himself, being Member of Parliament, has inaugurated the mosque. Delhis Akshardham temple was opened by then PM Manmohan Singh and President Abdul Kalam on 6th November 2015.

Before six years, Kerala CM Oommen Chandy inaugurated public meeting at St. Josephs church. More recently, in 2017, Arunachal Pradeshs deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein inaugurated the church and unveiled plaque at Namsai. These are just few examples to show that elected representatives have always been participating in such ceremonies.

Second, the secularism is not in the danger by just attending the bhoomi poojan. Temple is not going to be centre of power and governance there after. Also, government has not financially helped (barring donation of one rupee as atoken) trust in the construction of the temple. Plus, matter is also settled now and Supreme Court has given the judgement taking the all parties in the trust.

The time when Owaisi is pointing fingers toward others and advising them to follow secularism and pluralism, it also becomes important to analyse his own party. On various occasions, AIMIM, which stands for All India Majlis e Ittehadul Musalmeen, has done hate speech against Hindus. Party has its roots in the erstwhile MIM party which supported the Razakars and oppressive rule of Nizam in the Hyderabad.

In 1944, Qasim Razvi was elected as the president of MIM like AkbaruddinOwaisi is the present president of the AIMIM. His stand was clearly anti-Hindu and anti-Indian. In his rallies, he was openly provoking the Muslim residents of Hyderabad against Hindus. C. H. V. Pathy, for his article in Swatantra, quoted him saying, we dont want Brahmin or Baniya rule here.

Razvi was also asked with whom he would stand, to which, he had replied, Wherever Muslim interests are affected, our interest and sympathy will go out and even if Muslim interests are affected in the hell, our heart will go out in sympathy.Mohammad Hyder, collector of Osmanabad during 1948-49, has written a book which portrays the clearer ideology of Razvi.

Hyder had asked how Nizam would maintain the control over state which has vast majority of Hindus. Razvi had replied, It is a good arrangement and they [Hindus] know it and further added we Muslims rule, because we are more fit to rule.

Not only history, present of the party is also more or same communal. In infamous remove police for 15 minutes speech of 2013, AkbaruddinOwaisi tried to spread communalism like old president of the party. Similarly, during anti-CAA protests, partys general secretary Waris Pathan was repeating 15 crore will dominate 100 crore and Asaduddin Owaisi was silently listening it on the stage. Both are facing legal troubles for instigating public on the basis of religion.

Visiting the bhoomi poojan ceremony of the Ram Temple is not communal. It puts end on the centuries-old struggle of devout Hindus. Owaisi and his party should overcome from their typical anti-Hindu nature; and this can be started by stopping criticism of the visit.

Harshil Mehta is a columnist, political observer, and news analyst. He tweets @MehHarshil.

Views expressed are personal and do not represent the opinions of any entity whatsoever. Itv network claims no responsibility for the authors views
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.




Three hundred and forty-three billion dollars. Its not often you hear numbers like that associated with Canada. Even the countrys largest infrastructure project, the LNG colossus going up in Kitimat, B.C., is estimated to come in at $40 billion, and thats over a years-long timeline. But that $343 billion is all ours: Its now the estimated budget deficit for the Canadian government for 2020 alone, and thats not even counting the deficits being run at the provincial or municipal levels.

Propping up an economy while a pandemic tries to pull it down sector by sector is expensive work, particularly for a country with a tax base as small as Canadas. But the heavy lifting isnt over yet. Millions of Canadians are still out of work, tens of thousands of small businesses are expected to close, and a devastating second wave of COVID-19 infections is still very much in the cards for the fall, which, in case you havent looked at a calendar in a while, is only weeks away.

The government will inevitably need to keep spending, but without knowing the future, deciding how much aid Canadians still require, and what the feds can afford to keep doling out, is a complicated guessing game.
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Linkedin Editorial Board (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, August 6, 2020 08:18 531 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066be4232 1 Editorial #Editorial,graft-fight-in-Indonesia,graft-convict,Supreme-Court,corruption,corruption-eradication Free

Judges across the country should now have no qualms about handing down a life sentence on anyone found guilty of embezzling a huge sum of state money, thanks to a new guideline issued by the Supreme Court on July 24 but only made public on Sunday.

Supreme Court Regulation No. 1/2020 stipulates that corruption convicts inflicting at least Rp 100 billion (US$6.88 million) in losses to the state and playing a leading part in the crime can be sentenced to life. The court distinguishes between gross, heavy, moderate and mild corruption cases and prescribes prison sentences ranging from lifetime to one year, depending on the amount of state losses and the role a convict plays in a graft case.

The new regulation is hardly a milestone, as three different courts have pioneered the heavy punishment for graft convicts. The South Jakarta District Court sentenced businessman Adrian Waworuntu to life in March 2005 for stealing Rp 1.2 trillion from state-owned Bank BNI; the Jakarta Corruption Court sent former Constitutional Court chief Akil Mochtar to jail for the rest of his life in March 2014 for accepting bribes from regional heads who were in dispute over election results; and the Jakarta High Military Court handed down in November 2016 a life sentence to Defense Ministry high-ranking official Brig. Gen. Teddy Hernayadi for his role in the mark-up of the state budget to purchase F-16 jet fighters and Apache attack helicopters from the United States in 2014-2016.

Still, the guideline shows the Supreme Court has made a step forward in helping the country combat entrenched corruption. As some antigraft campaigners have said, the regulation will remove disparity of sentence in corruption cases.

For the public at large the guideline will serve as a practical tool to measure the commitment to anticorruption among the corps of judges, including Supreme Court justices, who recently sparked controversy for reducing prison sentences of graft convicts. The public now has a strong basis for filing reports with the Judicial Commission against judges who they think have defied a sense of justice in handling a graft case.

A life sentence can serve as a deterrence, in particular due to the worrying trend of judges handing down light sentences to graft convicts in the last few years. Indonesia Corruption Watch has found corruption convicts received average prison terms of 2 years and 7 months in 2019, slightly up from 2 years and 5 months in 2018. Some of them may have found freedom now, courtesy of generous remission they earn only because of good behavior while serving prison terms.

What is missing from the Supreme Court guideline probably is its failure to address bribery and gratuity, which have sent many politicians and prominent figures to justice. Those accepting bribes or gratuities may cause no state losses, but the impact of their compromised integrity is overarching.

Hopefully the new guideline is part of a big work in progress within the Supreme Court to make sure justice is served.
South Carolinians are split on how Gov. Henry McMaster is handling the COVID-19 outbreak after the state became a national hot spot, while mostly disapproving of President Donald Trump's efforts, according to a new poll released Thursday.

The Quinnipiac University Poll, one of the first to rate the Republican governor, found 46 percent of S.C. registered voters approved of how he has managed the crisis, while another 46 percent disapproved. The remaining 8 percent said they did not know or have an answer.

Trump, though, received a thumbs down for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic from most South Carolina voters  receiving 46 percent approval versus 51 percent disapproval.

The only voters in the majority GOP state who thought that Trump was doing a good job in managing the crisis were Republicans, White, without a college degree and living in the Upstate.

McMaster also received high approval marks from Republicans (73 percent) and voters without a college degree (57 percent), but he also won over women (50 percent), and older voters age 50 and up (more than 50 percent).

The governor's handling of the outbreak did not rate well among independent voters (37 percent), men (41 percent), college graduates (41 percent), younger voters ages 18 to 49 (below 40 percent), African Americans (29 percent) and Democrats (25 percent).

A slim majority of Upstate and Pee Dee voters approved of McMaster's work on the virus, while most in the Midlands and Lowcountry gave the governor's efforts a thumbs down.

McMaster's office declined comment on the poll on Thursday.

The governor won praise for taking steps in March and April to limit the spread of the virus by closing schools, dining at restaurants and closing nonessential businesses.

But South Carolina was the last state east of the Mississippi River to issue a stay-at-home order and has been criticized for reopening businesses too quickly as COVID-19 cases spiked after Memorial Day. Average daily cases are up more than five-fold since the start of the summer season.

South Carolina also remains one of 16 states without a mandatory mask order. McMaster has said such a statewide order is unenforceable and should be left to local governments. More than 80 cities and counties have passed mask ordinances, covering close to half of the state's 5.1 million population.

The state is among the nation's top spots for COVID-19 cases, with more than 96,000 stricken and close to 1,900 dead. The percent of South Carolinians tested who come back positive is nearly twice the average of acceptable infection levels cited by public health experts.

Overall, most South Carolina voters approved of how McMaster and Trump are doing in office.

McMaster stands at 45 percent approval and 40 percent disapproval, while Trump is at 49 percent approval and 47 percent disapproval.

The president is buoyed by voters without college degree and has 95 percent approval among Republicans.

McMaster has 68 percent support among GOP voters. But he also has approval from 30 percent of African Americans and 25 percent from Democrats versus 8 percent and 2 percent, respectively, for Trump.

The Quinnipiac poll taken from July 30-Aug. 3 surveyed 914 self-identified registered voters in South Carolina and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.
Eight patients were killed after a fire broke out at a private COVID-19 designated hospital in Ahmedabad on Thursday. The eight patients who died were admitted in the ICU ward of the hospital, fire officials said.

The fire was reported at the Shrey Hospital in Navrangpura area of Ahmedabad at around 3:30am on Thursday. The blaze was reportedly caused by an electrical short-circuit.

The victims include five men and three women. Around 35 patients at the facility were rescued and moved to a civic hospital in the city."Eight coronavirus patients admitted in the ICU ward of Shrey Hospital have died due to the fire, which has been doused," an official of the Ahmedabad Fire Department told PTI.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed grief over the deaths and said that the administration is providing all possible assistance. Modi has also spoken to Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and city mayor Bijal Patel regarding the situation.

Saddened by the tragic hospital fire in Ahmedabad. Condolences to the bereaved families. May the injured recover soon. Spoke to CM @vijayrupanibjp Ji and Mayor @ibijalpatel Ji regarding the situation. Administration is providing all possible assistance to the affected.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 6, 2020

"Saddened by the tragic hospital fire in Ahmedabad. Condolences to the bereaved families. May the injured recover soon. Spoke to CM @vijayrupanibjp Ji and Mayor @ibijalpatel Ji regarding the situation. Administration is providing all possible assistance to the affected," PM Modi tweeted. The prime minister also announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased from Prime Minister's National Relief Fund."Ex-gratia of Rs. 2 lakh each from PMNRF would be given to the next of kin of those who have lost their lives due to the hospital fire in Ahmedabad. Rs. 50,000 each would be given to those injured due to the hospital fire," the PMO said in a tweet.

Ex-gratia of Rs. 2 lakh each from PMNRF would be given to the next of kin of those who have lost their lives due to the hospital fire in Ahmedabad. Rs. 50,000 each would be given to those injured due to the hospital fire.  PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 6, 2020

Visuals from the site show authorities undertaking rescue operations while relatives waited outside the hospital. Principal Health Secretary Jayanti Ravi reached the hospital and said that a probe would be launched into the incident.

(Photo: ANI/Twitter)

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has ordered an investigation into the incident and Additional Chief Secretary (Home Department) Sangeeta Singh, will be leading the probe, said a statement released by the CMO. Assistant Commissioner of Police LB Zala told PTI that forensic experts have arrived at the site for a detailed investigation.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah said he was anguished by the incident and expressed his condolences to the families of the victims.

"Deeply anguished by the loss of lives due to a tragic fire accident at a hospital in Ahmedabad. My condolences and thoughts are with the affected families in this hour of grief. Praying for the speedy recovery of those injured," the home minister said in a tweet.

Deeply anguished by the loss of lives due to a tragic fire accident at a hospital in Ahmedabad. My condolences and thoughts are with the affected families in this hour of grief. Praying for the speedy recovery of those injured.  Amit Shah (@AmitShah) August 6, 2020

Gujarat is one of the states worst-hit by the coronavirus outbreak. On Wednesday the state reported 1,073 new Covid-19 cases, taking the tally past the 66,000-mark. The case count in the state is 66,777 now, the state health department said. With the death of 23 COVID-19 patients during the day, the number of fatalities went up to 2,557, the department said.

Meanwhile, the number of coronavirus cases in Ahmedabad district surged to 27,283 with 161 new patients coming to light on Wednesday. The COVID-19 death toll in the district rose to 1,617 with five new fatalities.
Chinese aggression along the contested Line of Actual Control (LAC) has been increasing and the current standoff is expected to be prolonged, a defence ministry document noted, with specific reference to the Galwan Valley where 20 Indian and an unspecified number of Chinese soldiers were killed in a brutal brawl on June 15.

In an official document listing out the major activities of the department of defence in June, the ministry said the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) transgressed into the Indian side in the areas of Kugrang Nala, Gogra and the north bank of Pangong Tso on May 17-18. It was uploaded on the ministrys website on August 4.

Also read: No compromise on territorial integrity, says India in 5th round of military talks with China

Consequent to this, ground level interactions were held between armed forces of both sides to defuse the situation. Corps Commander Level Flag Meeting was held on 6th June. 2020. However, a violent face-off incident took place between the two side s on 15the June resulting in casualties of both sides, it said.

The document, which refers to only the month of June, said subsequent military talks took place on June 22 to discuss modalities of the de-escalation process. While engagement and dialogue at military and diplomatic level is continuing to arrive at mutually acceptable consensus, the present standoff is likely to be prolonged, it said.

Also read: China moves PLA battalion across Indias Lipulekh Pass. Its a signal

The ministry said the situation in Eastern Ladakh arising from unilateral aggression by China was sensitive and required close monitoring and prompt action based on evolving situation.

Top Indian and Chinese military commanders on Sunday met in eastern Ladakh to discuss the next stage of disengagement along the LAC with negotiations entering a critical phase due to serious differences between the two armies in the Finger Area near Pangong Tso and the the PLAs reluctance to vacate positions held by it in what New Delhi claims to be Indian territory.

Also read: Army wont take eyes off Ladakh, preps to shop for Siachen-like gear for troops

The Finger Area --- a set of eight cliffs jutting out of the Sirijap range overlooking the Pangong Lake --- has emerged as the hardest part of the disengagement process with little hope of immediate resolution.
U.S. plans first Cabinet-level visit to Taiwan in 6 years (update)

ROC Central News Agency

08/05/2020 10:50 AM

Taipei, Aug. 5 (CNA) Alex Azar, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), will visit Taiwan in the coming days, the first trip to Taiwan by a Cabinet-level U.S. official in six years, the department said Tuesday.

Azar's visit is intended to "strengthen the U.S.-Taiwan partnership and enhance U.S.-Taiwan cooperation to combat the global COVID-19 pandemic," the department said in a statement.

"Taiwan's role in the international community is critical, as demonstrated by its remarkable success battling COVID-19 as a free and transparent democratic society," the statement said.

Azar was quoted as saying that he looked forward to "conveying President Trump's support for Taiwan's global health leadership," which he called "a model of transparency and cooperation."

While the exact dates and itinerary of the visit have not yet been made public, the department said Azar planned to meet with senior counterparts in Taiwan, as well as with COVID-19 responders and experts.

They will discuss issues related to the pandemic, the U.S.-Taiwan partnership and "Taiwan's role as a reliable global supplier of medical equipment and critical technology," the statement said.

Azar will also deliver a speech to public health graduate students and alumni of a U.S. Centers for Disease Control training program, the statement said.

The delegation from the U.S. will include: American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman James Moriarty; Mitchell Wolfe, chief medical officer of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; HHS Chief of Staff Brian Harrison; and Garrett Grigsby, director of the HHS Office of Global Affairs.

According to the department, Azar's visit to Taiwan will be the first by an HHS Secretary, as well as the first by a U.S. Cabinet official in six years.

The last visit by a U.S. Cabinet member to Taiwan occurred in 2014, when then U.S. President Barack Obama sent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy to the country.

It will also mark the first such trip since the U.S. Congress enacted legislation in March 2018 calling for the exchange of senior-level visits despite the lack of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Prior to McCarthy's visit, former U.S. President Bill Clinton sent then-Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater to Taiwan in 2000.

Azar, an attorney and former pharmaceutical industry lobbyist, has served as HHS Secretary since January 2018.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, he has strongly advocated for Taiwan to receive observer status in the World Health Organization (WHO) and on April 27 participated in a teleconference with Taiwan Health Minister Chen Shih-chung () on COVID-19 response efforts.

(By Chen Yun-yu, Christie Chen and Matthew Mazzetta)

Enditem/ls

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Technically, California law recognizes the right of self-defense, including the Castle Doctrine, which the right to defend oneself and ones family within the home. However, judging by California Attorney General Xavier Becerras decision to file misdemeanor charges against David Lacey, those laws dont mean squat to the leftists in charge of California.

Early one morning in March, a Black Lives Matter mob marched onto the front porch of Jackie Lacey, Los Angeless first black district attorney. They were angry because Lacey, taking her job seriously, prosecuted criminals. The march on her home came after Lacey had already been stalked and received death threats for doing her job.

Rightly terrified by having an inherently hostile mob on his porch, David Lacey, Jackies husband, greeted the mob with a gun and demanded that they leave his property immediately:

Im front of DA Jackie Laceys house for that community meeting she promised with the @BLMLA crew. Rang her bell to invite her.



Her husband pulled a gun, cocked it, pointed it at my chest and said Ill shoot you. I dont care who you are. @WP4BL @RealJusticePAC @shaunking pic.twitter.com/WtazUWSJIC  Melina Abdullah (@DocMellyMel) March 2, 2020

David Laceys conduct was completely consistent with a citizens and homeowners legal rights under California law. Calif. Penal Code 197(2) gives a person the right to defend himself when he believes he is facing one who manifestly intends and endeavors, in a violent, riotous, or tumultuous manner, to enter the habitation of another for the purpose of offering violence to any person therein. Under 197(3), a defense is justified, as well, if a person is acting on behalf of a spouse, child, or employee if there is reasonable ground to apprehend a design to commit a felony or to do some great bodily injury, and imminent danger of such design being accomplished.

California also has the Castle Doctrine (Calif. Penal Code 198.5), which holds that people in their home can use all necessary force, including deadly force, to defend against an intruder. The state should presumptively hold that a person is reasonable to fear imminent death or bodily harm, justifying a full defense, if an unwelcome intruder (or, worse, a mob) is trying to enter the home.

Most of us understand David Laceys viewpoint. He and his family have been stalked and received death threats, and suddenly a mob made up of the same crowd of people threatening him is standing on his doorstep demanding entry. There is only one word for that, and that word is terrifying. If you cannot use a weapon to order a mob to retreat from your doorstep, you may have a theoretical Second Amendment right but you do not have an actual one.

Despite the law and the circumstances, Californias Attorney General, the hard-left Xavier Becerra, has charged Lacey with three misdemeanors. The move is manifestly political insofar as Lacey is facing a stiff election for being too hard on criminals and too soft on police officers.

However, the charges are also political in the broader sense: Becerra is saying that, regardless of the law on the books, if youre a California homeowner, you had better think two, three, or four times before defending yourself against a threatening mob lest you find yourself in the dock. In other words, he is voiding Californias self-defense laws.

California has long warred against guns. Its gotten to the point at which you need to be a California resident and pass a background check just to buy ammunition. This is on top of limitations on so-called assault rifles, magazine capacity restrictions, and the requirement that hunters may not use bullets with any lead in them.

David Lacey did the right thing, which was to defend himself against a threatening mob that was standing on his porch. Every mob has within it the threat of unleashed power. If nothing else, the last two months have proven that. If Becerra prevails against Lacey, not only will that harm the candidacy of a law-and-order DA in LA, it also sends a signal to criminals throughout the state that it just got a lot safer to rob houses.

Image: Twitter screengrab
For many employees, one bright spot in the paper's results will be that the total amount of time scheduled for meetings was lower. That fell 11.5 per cent , or nearly 20 minutes per day, according to the data, and the average meeting duration was scheduled to be shorter. (It is unclear how long meetings actually lasted.) The number of emails also returned to pre-lockdown activity over time, the paper said.

The report found some differences between workers in America and Europe. In many European cities, for instance, the reduction in scheduled meeting length was stark, while the decrease in US cities was relatively minor. And while the span of the workday remained high in some cities, including New York, it returned to baseline in others during the post-lockdown period the researchers studied.

Having a longer workday span does not necessarily mean people worked more hours within that day, Polzer is careful to note. Examining the earliest and latest email and calendar data does not account for those who broke away to take care of elderly parents, managed multiple interruptions from schooling young children at home or simply chose to walk the dog for the third time that day.

But a day broken up into shorter meetings or one that bleeds longer into the evening - even if the total number of hours worked isn't more - can have downsides, too. "Is it working from home or living at work, or both?" Polzer said. "As we try to manage our work from home environment, it's very hard to turn off work. That's always been true since our phones have followed us home, but that phenomenon has grown."
U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, is launching an investigation into postal delays that could affect the delivery of absentee ballots in 2020 elections.

Peters, who serves as ranking member of a committee overseeing the Postal Service, previously pushed U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to explain new policies affecting mail delivery. The Michigan senator, who is seeking reelection in November, cited numerous reports of postal delays and other issues allegedly connected to major operational changes made in July.

Peters said the changes established by DeJoy, a Republican donor and businessman appointed by Trump earlier this year, could undermine delivery service during a pandemic and ahead of the general election.

Peters is asking people to report unexpected changes to their mail delivery to his office at peters.senate.gov/postal. He also wrote to his Senate colleagues this week asking them to share reports they receive from constituents.

According to a release, Peters will also collect reports from senior advocacy groups, state and local officials, local postmasters, postal workers and officials, small businesses and chambers of commerce.

For 245 years, the Postal Service has worked to provide reliable, consistent and on-time delivery that keeps Americans connected no matter where they live  especially in rural areas, Peters said in a statement. Unfortunately, in recent weeks, Ive heard firsthand from constituents, postal workers and local officials in Michigan who have encountered problems with the timely and dependable service they count on to conduct business, get prescription medications and critical supplies, and even exercise their right to vote.

Peters referenced several operational changes that prevent postal employees from working overtime and leaving mail undelivered during staff shortages. In a July 17 letter to DeJoy, Peters said rhetoric about cost-cutting compares the U.S. Postal Service to a private company instead of a public service.

Before the August primary, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson encouraged people to vote as soon as possible to avoid possible mail delays. Ballots received after 8 p.m. on Election Day are not counted.

A record-breaking 1.6 million votes were cast by mail in Michigans August primary election, and even more voters are expected to cast absentee ballots for the November presidential election.

Peters is seeking reelection to a second term representing Michigan in the U.S. Senate. He was unchallenged in Tuesdays Democratic primary and will face Republican businessman John James in November.

READ MORE ON MLIVE:

Trump campaign says Michigan voters deserve presidential debate before early voting starts

Turnout for Michigans August primary shatters records. What does the mean for November?

Bernie Sanders cheers Rashida Tlaib after Michigan Democratic primary win

Trump, Biden, TV ad dollars and get out the vote: MLive political reporter talks Michigan as a battleground state
The chief executive of AMP Australia, Alex Wade, has stepped down after less than a year in the role as the company battles a number of scandals and prepares to report its full-year earnings.

The wealth giant informed the market on Thursday morning Mr Wade would leave the company effective immediately, without explaining the circumstances around his departure. He will be replaced by Blair Vernon, chief executive of AMP's New Zealand wealth management business.

AMP Australia chief executive Alex Wade has left the company. Credit:Nick Moir

AMP chief executive Francesco De Ferrari said he was pleased to call on Mr Vernon to lead the team until a replacement for Mr Wade is found.

"We have a strong team in AMP Australia, who have been transforming the business, managing the successful separation of AMP Life, reshaping advice and increasing our focus on clients," Mr De Ferrari said in a statement.
A man walks over fallen trees limbs and downed power lines in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Isaias in the Sheepshead Bay Area of Brooklyn, New York, U.S (Photo : Reuters Connect)

Isaias now has a death toll of nine as it battered East Coast with heavy rains and strong winds, toppling power lines, trees, and flooding several streets. The National Hurricane Center said that Isaias had a wind speed of 105 km/hr 18 hours after coming onto land, but it lowered to 64 km/h max winds on Wednesday morning.



Here are some updates of the damages that Isaias has brought:

Nine people died from the storm, including a five-year-old girl with autism. Two people died in North Carolina when Isaias spun off a tornado that hit a mobile home park. In Pennsylvania, a person got killed when raging waters swept their vehicle. In Maryland, Connecticut, Delaware, and New York City, three people were killed by falling trees. Meanwhile, in New Hampshire, a woman was found dead inside her house on Tuesday evening. The 5-year old girl with autism died when she was swept away by floodwaters in the creek behind her house.

In Doylestown, Philadelphia, officials said four children were treated for minor injuries after winds tore a portion of a roof at a daycare center. Rescue workers in Delaware county searched for a young person who fell or jumped into raging water of a swollen creek.

READ: Isaias Leaves at Least 5 Dead in the US and is Now in Canada

In Rehoboth, Massachusetts, responders rescued a man from underneath a tree. He was taken to the hospital, and responders believe he will be just fine.

More than 2.7 million homes and businesses were without electric power on various states Wednesday after trees fell on power lines.

In New York, more than 2,000 trees fell across the train system and bus network. In Massachusetts, a large tree was uprooted in Waltham, and it completely blocked a street.





In Delaware, William Henry Middle School, a 68-year-old school was one of the severely damaged buildings by Tropical Storm Isaias. The school was one of the structures condemned by the Dover's Fire Marshal Office on Tuesday. School officials have not decided how they will approach the year, but they are expected to submit a revised school year calendar to the Board of Education for approval on Thursday. School officials declined to share the revised calendar details, but they must also decide where to send 1,000 fifth- and sixth-grade students.

Delaware Governor John Carney declared and signed a state of emergency for Delaware on Tuesday to provide coordinated assistance and recovery efforts to damage the storm. The declaration includes closing bridges and roads whenever necessary to protect the safety of Delawareans. The emergency order is valid as of 3 p.m. Tuesday and will be active until further notice.

READ ALSO: Beirut Explosion: How Does Ammonium Nitrate Affect the Environment?

Tornadoes ravaged Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and North Carolina. National Weather Service confirmed five tornadoes in North Carolina at the height of Isaias.

According to initial reports, damage in Delaware may cause more than $20 million. The cost would cover damages of dozens of homes in Dover and New Castle County, a severely damaged school that is now inhabitable, and utility structure damages such as fallen poles and wires.

New Jersey Transit Service is not yet in operation as crew repaired approximately 150 fallen trees, fixed signals, and overhead wires.

In Philadelphia, the regional rail service was also suspended after the water levels of the Schuykill River rose and sent an unsecured construction barge into the bridge. Interstate 676, which crosses the bridge, was closed in both directions as inspectors were checking for damage.

READ NEXT: EcoPlant and Atlas Machine Collaborate to Bring Green IoT Solutions to US Factories
Hyloris Reports Half-Year 2020 Financial Results and Business Highlights

Successfully raised 80 million through public listing on Euronext Brussels and private placement

Funding of all development portfolio secured up until launch

Funding available for business development opportunities

Management to host a conference call at 2:00pm CEST today

Liege, Belgium - 6 August 2020 - Hyloris Pharmaceuticals SA (Euronext Brussels: HYL) ("Hyloris" and/or the "Company"), an early-stage innovative specialty pharmaceutical company focused on adding value to the healthcare system by reformulating well-known pharmaceuticals, today provides a business update and its consolidated financial results for the first half of 2020, prepared in accordance with IFRS as adopted by the European Union, and an outlook for the second half of 2020. The full interim condensed financial report is available on the Company's website.

Stijn Van Rompay, Chief Executive Officer of Hyloris, commented: "Having successfully completed our public listing on Euronext Brussels, we are well positioned to deliver our goal to bring reformulated drugs with added value to the healthcare system to market as quickly as possible. We have a clear strategic vision to accomplish this and look forward to making progress through the development of our existing portfolio of product candidates, the establishment of a commercial team in the United States for our IV Cardiovascular portfolio and the potential organic or acquisition-driven expansion of our pipeline."

First half 2020 operational highlights and relevant post-period events

Hyloris continued to successfully develop its product portfolio over the first six months of 2020. The following elements were identified as key highlights:

IV1 Cardiovascular portfolio

In March, the US FDA approved a Sotalol IV label expansion to include rapid loading of patients starting on sotalol. The commercialization of this new label expansion in the United States will start in H2 2020. Oral Sotalol is a commonly used drug for the maintenance of sinus rhythm in patients with atrial fibrillation with a black box warning requiring patients to be continuously monitored for a period of days when initiating the therapy. This novel Sotalol IV loading indication can decrease the length of hospital admission and potentially significantly decrease overall cost of care, while improving patient satisfaction and safety.



Other Reformulation portfolio

Maxigesic IV 2 was launched in Australia, New Zealand and the UAE in June 2020 by Hyloris' partner AFT Pharmaceuticals ("AFT"). Hyloris will receive a part of the margin generated in all countries were Maxigesic IV will be commercialized except in Australia and New Zealand. Launch should support additional market approvals in the coming months.

was launched in Australia, New Zealand and the UAE in June 2020 by Hyloris' partner AFT Pharmaceuticals ("AFT"). June - AFT signed an exclusive distribution agreement for the commercialization of Maxigesic IV in four western European countries (Germany, France, Italy and Austria) with Austria's Ever Pharma. Commercialization could start in late 2020 in Germany and Austria.

July - Completion of the enrolment of the open-label, multiple-dose, single arm exposure clinical Phase III trial of Maxigesic IV in 232 patients with acute pain following orthopedic, general or plastic surgery. This second Phase III study was undertaken in New Zealand and the United States and aims at determining the tolerability of repeated doses of Maxigesic IV over an extended period of exposure. An earlier Phase III clinical trial conducted in 276 patients (for the treatment of acute postoperative pain after foot surgery (bunionectomy)) found that Maxigesic IV provided significantly better pain relief than either Paracetamol IV (acetaminophen) or Ibuprofen IV alone at the same doses.

July - AFT signed a license and supply agreement for the commercialization of Maxigesic for Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia with the Cyprus based multinational pharmaceutical company Medochemie. Commercialization in these countries is expected to start in 2021



Established Market portfolio

February - Hyloris sold all rights, titles and interest in the product HY-REF-038 in vial form to Alter Pharma 3 , while retaining all rights to the Prefilled Syringe, for a consideration (of the transferred intellectual property rights) of  1.4 million. The generic vial form is currently already commercially available in the United States.

, while retaining all rights to the Prefilled Syringe, for a consideration (of the transferred intellectual property rights) of  1.4 million. The generic vial form is currently already commercially available in the United States. During the first quarter the ANDA4 application for HY-EMP-016 was submitted by Hyloris' partner Perrigo at the FDA. Approval is expected in 2021.

Corporate highlights

Hyloris successfully raised 79.54 million gross proceeds. In March and April, the Company issued convertible bonds totaling 15.15 million. On June 29, the Company completed an Initial Public Offering on Euronext Brussels, raising a total of 61.81 million. All bonds were converted into equity on June 30, at a 30% discount of the IPO price. On July 30, the Company received an additional 2.58 million from the exercise of the over-allotment option, bringing the total gross proceeds of the IPO to 64.39 million.

Hyloris expanded its senior management team with the recruitment of an experienced Chief Legal Officer and Chief Financial Officer, who both bring extensive industry expertise in strategic legal, finance and business development planning and execution.

The Company also expanded its Board of directors with the addition of Leon Van Rompay and three independent directors, namely Carolyn Myers, James Gale and Marc Foidart.

Selected financial information

In  thousand June 30, 2020 June 30, 2019 December 31, 2019 Revenue 82 75 91 Research and development expenses (1,172) (819) (4,577) General and administration expenses (2,454) (316) (808) Other income/(expenses) 20 72 86 Operating loss (3,633) (1,026) (5,274) Loss of the period (3,742) (1,314) (5,768) Net cash used in operations 95 (911) (4,562) Net cash inflow/(outflow) of the period 66,578 (1,539) (2,482) Cash and cash equivalents 66,783 1,147 205

Revenue over the period corresponded to royalties due on the sales of Sotalol IV made in the US by Hyloris' distribution partner, AltaThera.

Research and development expenses amounted to 1.2 million for the first half of 2020, an increase of 0.3 million compared to the same period of 2019 resulting from additional outsourced product development, pre-clinical and clinical expenses on our product candidates.

General and administrative expenses amounted to 2.4 million, compared to 0.3 million in H1 2019. The 2.1 million increase was mainly driven by transaction costs associated to fund raises completed in H1 2020 and, to a lesser extent, to expenses associated to the ESOP warrants and to the strengthening of the management structure of the Company.

Net operating cash flow was marginally up for H1 2020 (0.1 million) compared to a cash burn of 0.9 million for H1 2019. Higher operating expenses incurred in H1 2020 were compensated by the proceeds of the sale of the rights of HY-REF-038 (in vial form) to Alter Pharma.

Cash and cash equivalents increased to 66.8 million on June 30, 2020 compared to 0.2 million on December 31, 2019, resulting mainly from the issuance of convertible bonds in March and April 2020 for respectively 10.8 million and 4.4 million, and from the IPO completed on June 29, 2020 for 61.8 million.

Outlook for the remainder of 2020

Management believes that Hyloris is well positioned for the remainder of 2020 and beyond. The successful financing transactions undertaken during the first half of 2020 provide the Company with the required funding for: Development of the existing product portfolio until market release, the establishment of a commercial infrastructure in the United States for the commercialization of the IV Cardiovascular Portfolio under development, and the further expansion of the pipeline, both internally and through business development opportunities.

Hyloris Management anticipates several upcoming key milestones in the near term including:

the commercial launch of Sotalol IV under the new extended label in the US

the first European regulatory approvals of Maxigesic IV

FDA submission for market approval of Maxigesic IV and Tranexamic Acid.

The Company's operations were not materially affected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Audit report

KPMG Reviseurs d'Entreprises represented by Olivier Declercq has reviewed the condensed consolidated interim financial statements of Hyloris SA as of and for the six-month period ended June 30, 2020. Their review was conducted in accordance with International Standard on Review Engagements 2410, "Review of Interim Financial Information Performed by the Independent Auditor of the Entity" and their unqualified review report dated August 5, 2020 is attached to the interim financial information.

Rapport du commissaire

KPMG Reviseurs d'Entreprises representee par Olivier Declercq a effectue l'examen limite des etats financiers intermediaires consolides resumes de Hyloris SA pour la periode de 6 mois arretee au 30 juin 2020. Leur examen a ete effectue selon la norme ISRE 2410  Examen limite d'informations financieres intermediaires effectue par l'auditeur independant de l'entite  et leur rapport d'examen sans reserve date du 5 aout 2020 est fourni en annexe aux informations financieres intermediaires.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION

ASSETS

(in  thousand) June 30, 2020 December 31, 2019 Non-current assets 2,757 2,245 Intangible assets 2,648 2,138 Property, plant and equipment 28 32 Right-of-use assets 73 66 Financial assets 9 9 Current assets 69,056 3,739 Trade and other receivables 427 333 Other financial assets 6 - Other current assets 1,839 3,200 Cash and cash equivalents 66,783 205 TOTAL ASSETS 71,813 5,983 EQUITY AND LIABILITIES

(in  thousand) June 30, 2020 December 31, 2019 Equity attributable to owners of the parent 59,666 (10,188) Share capital 128 89 Share premium 101,114 23,982 Retained earnings (39,823) (36,081) Other reserves (1,753) 1,822 Non-current liabilities 7,948 22 Borrowings 26 22 Other financial liabilities 7,922 - Current liabilities 4,198 16,149 Borrowings 47 44 Other financial liabilities 409 13,130 Trade and other liabilities 3,694 2,927 Current tax liabilities 47 47 Total liabilities 12,147 16,171 TOTAL EQUITY AND LIABILITIES 71,813 5,983

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF PROFIT OR LOSS AND OTHER COMPREHENSIVE INCOME FOR THE 6-MONTH PERIOD ENDED JUNE 30

in  thousand 2020 2019 Revenue 82 75 Cost of sales (109) (37) Gross profit (27) 38 Research and development expenses (1,172) (819) General and administrative expenses (2,454) (316) Other operating income 20 72 Operating profit/(loss) (3,633) (1,026) Financial income 620 91 Financial expenses (729) (380) Profit/(loss) before taxes (3,741) (1,314) Income taxes (1) - PROFIT/(LOSS) FOR THE PERIOD (3,742) (1,314) Other comprehensive income - - TOTAL COMPREHENSIVE INCOME OF THE PERIOD (3,742) (1,314) Profit/(loss) for the period attributable to the owners of the Company (3,742) (1,078) Profit/(loss) for the period attributable to the non-controlling interests - (237) Total comprehensive income for the period attributable to the owners of the Company (3,742) (1,078) Total comprehensive income for the period attributable to the non-controlling interests - (237) Basic and diluted earnings/(loss) per share (in ) (0.21) (0.07)











CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN EQUITY FOR THE 6-MONTH PERIOD ENDED JUNE 30, 2020

in  thousand Attributable to equity holders of the Company Equity attributable to owners of the parent Non-controlling interests Total Equity Share capital Share premium Other reserves Retained earnings Share-based payment reserve Cost of Capital Other reserves Balance at December 31, 2018 89 23,982 1,329 - 450 (28,097) (2,246) (2,216) (4,462) Issuance of shares - - - - - - - - - Contribution by shareholder - - - - 28 - 28 - 28 Total comprehensive income - - - - (1,078) (1,078) (237) (1,314) Balance at June 30, 2019 89 23,982 1,329 - 478 (29,175) (3,296) (2,453) (5,748) Balance at December 31, 2019 89 23,982 1,329 - 493 (36,081) (10,188) - (10,188) Initial Public Offering 29 61,784 - (3,656) - - 58,156 - 58,156 Issuance of convertible bonds 4,531 4,531 4,531 Conversion of convertible bonds 10 15,347 - (102) (4,585) - 10,671 - 10,671 Amortized costs on shareholders loans - - - - (5) - (5) - (5) Share-based payments - - 243 - - - 243 - 243 Total comprehensive income - - - - - (3,742) (3,742) - (3,742) Balance at June 30, 2020 128 101,113 1,572 (3,758) 434 (39,823) 59,666 - 59,666











CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS FOR THE 6-MONTH PERIOD ENDED JUNE 30

in  thousand 2020 2019 CASH FLOW FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES Net result for the period (3,742) (1,314) Adjustments for: Depreciation, amortization and impairments 52 51 Equity-settled share-based payment expense 243 - Interest expenses on Convertible Bonds 235 - Interest expenses on shareholders loans 317 193 Change in maturity of shareholders loans (381) - Change in fair value of derivative instruments (81) - Equity transaction costs 1,408 - Income taxes 1 - Other non-cash adjustments (59) 28 Changes in working capital: Trade and other receivables (94) 558 Other financial assets (6) 3 Other current assets 1,361 (1) Trade and Other Payables 723 (976) Other current liabilities - 1 Other financial liabilities 119 549 Cash generated from operations 96 (911) Taxes paid (1) - Net cash generated from operating activities 95 (911) CASH FLOW FROM INVESTING ACTIVITIES Purchases of property, plant and equipment - - Purchases of Intangible assets (487) (603) Proceeds from other financial assets - - Net cash provided by/(used in) investing activities (487) (603) CASH FLOW FROM FINANCING ACTIVITIES Reimbursements of shareholders loans (8,050) - Proceeds from shareholders loans 3,250 - Reimbursements of borrowings (26) (26) Net proceeds from the Initial Public Offering 56,803 - Net proceeds from the Convertible Bonds 14,994 - Interests paid (1) (1) Net cash provided by/(used in) financing activities 66,970 (26) NET INCREASE (DECREASE) IN CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS 66,578 (1,539) CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS at beginning of the period 205 2,687 CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS at end of the period 66,783 1,147







Conference Call Details

Hyloris will host a conference call on Thursday, 6 August at 2:00pm CEST accessible through the following numbers:

Event Plus Passcode:2533728

Belgium, Brussels 02 793 3847

Belgium 0800 48 471

United States, New York 1 646 741 3167

United States 1 877 870 9135

United Kingdom 08 444 819 752

France 08 0510 1465

Netherlands 0800 023 5015



To ensure a timely connection, it is recommended that users register at least 10 minutes prior the scheduled start timing.

-Ends-

For more information, please contact:

Hyloris Pharmaceuticals

Stijn Van Rompay, CEO

+32 (0)4 346 02 07

contact@hyloris.com





Consilium Strategic Communications

Amber Fennell, Chris Welsh, Ashley Tapp Lucy Featherstone, Taiana De Ruyck Soares

+44 20 3709 5700

hyloris@consilium-comms.com

About Hyloris Pharmaceuticals SA

Based in Liege, Belgium, Hyloris is an early-stage innovative specialty pharmaceutical company focused on adding value to the healthcare system by reformulating well-known pharmaceuticals. Hyloris develops proprietary products it believes offer significant advantages compared to currently available alternatives, with the aim to address the underserved medical needs of patients, hospitals, physicians, payors and other stakeholders in the healthcare system. Hyloris' portfolio spans three areas of focus: IV Cardiovascular, Other Reformulations and Established Market (high-barrier generics). Hyloris currently has two early commercial-stage products, Sotalol IV for the treatment of atrial fibrillation, commercialized through its partner AltaThera, and Maxigesic IV, a non-opioid analgesic product for the treatment of pain, developed with the Company's partner, AFT Pharmaceuticals. Additionally, Hyloris has 12 product candidates in various stages of development across the Company's wider portfolio. Read more at www.hyloris.com . Hyloris stands for "high yield, lower risk" and relates to the 505(b)(2) regulatory pathway for product approval on which the Issuer focuses, but in no way relates or applies to an investment in the Shares.







1 IV stands for intravenous

2 Maxigesic IV is a novel combination of paracetamol (also called acetaminophen in the United States) and ibuprofen in an intravenous form

3 Hyloris and Alter Pharma have some common shareholders which don't have a controlling interest in Alter Pharma

4 Abbreviated New drug Application; application for a US generic drug approval for an existing licensed medication or approved drug
The NRA is counter-suing the New York Attorney General, claiming her bombshell lawsuit on Thursday that seeks to dismantle the gun organization is a 'premeditated' political attack that has been deliberately timed to thwart Trump's reelection chances.

New York AG Letitia James filed her lawsuit on Thursday. She claims that Executive Vice-President Wayne LaPierre, former Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Wilson 'Woody' Phillips, former Chief of Staff and the Executive Director of General Operations Joshua Powell, and Corporate Secretary and General Counsel John Frazer used the NRA as a 'personal piggy bank' for years.

She claims in her lawsuit that they used NRA funds - built by donations from members - to pay for 'trips for them and their families to the Bahamas, private jets, and expensive meals'.

James claims the organization diverted millions of dollars away from the charitable mission of the organization.

At a press conference on Thursday morning, James declined to comment on speculation surrounding her subpoena to Deutsche Bank for Donald Trump's bank records, which many thought was going to be the subject of the press conference.

She also insisted the lawsuit was not politically motivated and not that she was trying to financially cripple the organization which is one of Trump's biggest donors.

The NRA responded angrily.

'This was a baseless, premeditated attack on our organization and the Second Amendment freedoms it fights to defend.

'You could have set your watch by it: the investigation was going to reach its crescendo as we move into the 2020 election cycle. It's a transparent attempt to score political points and attack the leading voice in opposition to the leftist agenda.

The NRA responded angrily with its own lawsuit, claiming James is unfairly targeting the organization because of its political affiliations

New York Attorney General Letitia James announced on Thursday that she was suing the NRA

President Trump with NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, the target of the lawsuit who she claims mismanaged funds for years to support his lavish lifestyle

NRA General Counsel John Frazer (L) and Director of Operations Joshua Powell (R) are also being sued

'This has been a power grab by a political opportunist - a desperate move that is part of a rank political vendetta.

'Our members won't be intimidated or bullied in their defense of political and constitutional freedom. As evidenced by the lawsuit filed by the NRA today against the NY AG, we not only will not shrink from this fight - we will confront it and prevail,' the organization tweeted.

Its counter-suit claims that James is in bed with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and that the pair have both been trying to destroy the organization for years because it furthers their political agendas.

'Democratic actors blamed the NRA for President Trumps 2016 election victory, and were brainstorming ways that New York State could weaken the NRA as a political force in 2020 The NRA counter suit

'Democratic actors blamed the NRA for President Trumps 2016 election victory, and were brainstorming ways that New York State could weaken the NRA as a political force in 2020,' it claimed.

The NRA claims that it has carried out lengthy investigations over the last few years to ensure its operations were all above board.

In 2016, the organization gave more than $30million to Trumps' campaign.

On Thursday, James said that an ongoing thread in her investigation was whether or not any mismanaged funds were used to donate to political campaigns. She is now aggressively seeking restitution from the NRA. She alleges that the fraud cost the organization $64million in losses.

Trump called James' lawsuit 'terrible' and told the NRA to 'move to Texas'. It is currently based in Virginia.

Trump, center, stands for photographs with Chris Cox, chief lobbyist of the National Rifle Association (NRA), left, and Wayne LaPierre, chief executive officer of the National Rifle Association (NRA) in April 2019

'That's a very terrible thing that just happened. I think the NRA should move to Texas and lead a very good and beautiful life.

'I've told them that for a long time. They should move to Texas or another state of their choosing but Texas would be a great place an an appropriate place for the NRA.

'They've been absolutely decimated by the cost of that lawsuit and it's very sad but I would suggest they move to Texas,' he said on the White House lawn before boarding Marine One.

He later tweeted: 'Just like Radical Left New York is trying to destroy the NRA, if Biden becomes President your GREAT SECOND AMENDMENT doesnt have a chance. Your guns will be taken away, immediately and without notice. No police, no guns!'

At her press conference, James said the organization had gone 'unchecked' for decades.

'The NRAs influence has been so powerful that the organization went unchecked for decades while top executives funneled millions into their own pockets,' she said.

'The NRA is fraught with fraud and abuse, which is why, today, we seek to dissolve the NRA, because no organization is above the law.'

NY Governor Andrew Cuomo was among Democrats who endorsed the move. The NRA claims it is an attempt by Democrats to dismantle the organization and squash political opposition

Trump said the 'radical left New York' was trying to destroy the NRA and that Biden becoming president would automatically take people's Second Amendment Right from them

'There is one set of laws. Today, we send a loud message that no one is above the law - not even the NRA, one of the most powerful organizations in this country,' she said.

James is insisting that the organization be dissolved and not restructured because, she claims, the alleged fraud is so 'broad'.

NRA CHIEF FIRES BACK 'The NYAGs actions are an affront to democracy and freedom. This is an unconstitutional, premeditated attack aiming to dismantle and destroy the NRA  the fiercest defender of Americas freedom at the ballot box for decades. 'The NRA is well governed, financially solvent, and committed to good governance. 'Were ready for the fight. 'Bring it on,' Wayne LaPierre said in a statement. Advertisement

The lawsuit claims that Wayne LaPierre hired his friends in the 1990s and then used NRA funds - which had been donated by supporters - to pay for a luxury lifestyle.

'Yacht trips in the Bahamas, private jets, gifts, black car services and lucrative consulting contracts for ex-employees and board members' are among the things she claims he spent the money on.

LaPierre approved private jet flights on the company dollar for his family members, including his niece's husband, the lawsuit claims.

Among them was a private flight for his niece and her husband from Dallas, Texas, to North Platte, Nebraska that cost $11,435.

Later, he authorized a flight for his niece and her daughter from Dallas to Orlando for $26,995.

In October 2016, he approved a flight for his wife to go alone from Wisconsin to Nebraska for $8,800 and in January 2017, he authorized a flight for his niece's husband from Nebraska to Las Vegas for a Safari Club convention.

The NRA gave $30million to Trump's 2016 campaign and is one of his most prolific supporters. Pictured, Executive Director Chris Cox and LaPierre (right) with Trump and Donald Trump Jr. in 2018

His reasons for them included that it was difficult to find commercial flights to parts of Nebraska, and that his niece sometimes had a young child with her, the lawsuit claims.

It also alleges that he himself spent company donations on yachting trips to the Bahamas.

'Since June 2015, LaPierre and his family took private flights to and from the Bahamas on at least eight occasions.

'On most of those trips, LaPierre stopped in Nebraska on each leg of the trip to pick up and drop off his niece and her family.

'The NRA paid over half a million dollars for these flights,' the lawsuit alleges.

LaPierre claimed he was going to the Bahamas for a 'celebrity retreat' that was run by 'an individual' who is the major stakeholder in Associated Television Inc, Membership Marketing Partners, Allegiance Creative Group, Concord Social and Public Relations.

The lawsuit claims the NRA gave $100million to those companies, and LaPierre worked with them to produce projects like Crime Strike, a TV show he was the host of. The lawsuit has inflamed partisan tensions.

Democrats say welcomed it, claiming it was high time the NRA be brought to action.

Among those who praised it was New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

He tweeted: 'The NRA has a long history of thwarting New Yorks not-for-profit rules. Today the NY AG took action to curb that abuse.'
In January, GM previewed a crossover that is expected to be Cadillac's first all-electric vehicle on the company' next-generation all-electric vehicle architecture. GM

A century ago, Cadillac was known as the "standard of the world." General Motors is hoping history repeats itself starting Thursday night with the unveiling of the Cadillac Lyriq crossover. The vehicle, which will debut at 7 p.m. ET, is the most pivotal new product for the quintessential American luxury brand since the debut of the Escalade SUV in 1998. It marks Cadillac's first all-electric vehicle as part of a multibillion plan to lead GM away from vehicles with internal combustion engines to battery-electric vehicles. The stakes are high, and the challenges are abundant for Lyriq, which will be one of the first vehicles to market with GM's next-generation batteries and EV architecture. GM executives believe the technologies will rival, if not outperform, anything else on the market today, including Tesla. "It marks a new beginning for the brand and a major pivot for the company," Cadillac President Steve Carlisle told CNBC. "It's meant to be a stake in the ground, a tent pole, an announcement of what the future looks like for Cadillac and for General Motors."

GM has said its next-generation of all-electric vehicles, including the GMC Hummer next year, will be capable of fast-charging, driving 400 miles or more on a single charge and, unlike today, will be profitable from the beginning of production on a per-unit basis. GM President Mark Reuss earlier this year described the company's electric vehicle plans as the "biggest opportunity any of us has ever seen for this company." The Detroit automaker, despite the coronavirus pandemic, has not wavered from a plan to invest $20 billion in all-electric and autonomous vehicles from 2020 through 2025.

Chasing Tesla

GM believes it has the engineering, brands and capital to compete against Tesla, the global leader in all-electric vehicle sales. The Silicon Valley automaker, led by its outspoken CEO Elon Musk, accounted for roughly four out of every five all-electric vehicles sold in the U.S. last year, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. But all-electric vehicles were less than 2% of the roughly 17.1 million vehicles sold last year in the U.S. The small volume of sales is one of the reasons GM believes it can compete.

As electric vehicle ownership is expected to grow in the coming years and decades, the market widens, costs reduce and more mainstream, diverse buyers enter the market rather than early adopters. "It's an enormous opening of the funnel in terms of opportunity," Carlisle said. "Today we think about it as 1.5% or 1%. We have to think about it when it's more normalized. More choice will promote more adoption." More choices from Audi, Porsche and others, including GM's Chevrolet brand, have helped boost sales. Tesla has easily maintained its leadership position in the segment thanks to its reputation as a tech-savvy, forward-thinking company  something Cadillac was known for in the early part of the 20th century. "We changed the world before and we're going to do it again," GM CEO Mary Barra said earlier this year when discussing the company's all-electric vehicle plans. Carlisle, who will become GM's president of North America in September, has said the company expects a majority, if not all, of its Cadillac cars and SUVs sold globally to be all-electric vehicles by 2030.

GM CEO and chairman Mary Barra speaks during an "EV Day" on March 4, 2020 at the company's tech and design campus in Warren, Mich., a suburb of Detroit GM

Lyriq

The Lyriq, a midsize crossover, will feature a new level of technology and design for GM. It is expected to include a massive 33-inch curved glass screen on the interior, advanced lighting technology on the exterior and GM's advanced Super Cruise driver-assist system. Teaser videos for the display car show an illuminated Cadillac crest at the front of the grill with vertical and horizontal lighting similar to headlamps of current Cadillac vehicles as well as dozens of illuminated lines that appear to form a "grille" around the brand's logo. A majority of the show car's attributes are expected to make to dealer lots. Show cars are typically production-intent vehicles than concept vehicles, which are meant to portray a "vision" for the company. Carlisle described the Lyriq as achieving a "a whole new level of attention to craftsmanship and detail" as well as technology, with the company's proprietary "Ultium" batteries and new electric drive motors and control systems. "Our goal is to lead. No excuses, no apologies," he said. "That's another reason Lyriq is so important to be a showcase for those things." The Lyriq is expected to first arrive in China, the world's largest electric vehicle market as early as 2021, followed by the U.S. GM has not announced where the vehicle will be produced, pricing and other details.
The last Phase of the voter registration exercise cruised to an end on Thursday with a characteristically low turnout compared to the previous phases, which saw a large troop of enthusiastic electorates in queues to register.



A Ghana News Agency monitoring team, which visited some of the registration centres in the Greater Accra Region, noticed a quiet atmosphere and idle registration officers.



Mr Christian Dzamshie, the Registration Officer for Nima Roman Catholic School centre (2) in the Ayawaso East Constituency, said 104 people had registered as at 1030 hours in the last phase of the exercise which started on August 1.



He said most people misunderstood the cluster process of registration adopted by the Electoral Commission and as a result, rushed to other centres during the first phase of the exercise which was outside their domain to register.



Mr Dzamshie said some of the applicants moved to other centres to register because they wanted to be among the first group of people to register.



Mr Dzamshie said generally the exercise was smooth and expressed the hope that the same success would characterize the general elections.



At the Nima Roman Catholic School centre; Mr Bashiru Hadi, the National Democratic Congress agent expressed satisfaction with the exercise, saying "so far so good".

Mr Sadat Dauda, the New Patriotic Party agent also commended the registrants for their comportment.



In the Ablekuma North constituency, there was a similar situation, with very little activity at polling centres in complete contrast with the enthusiasm that characterised the first phase exercise.



There were no queues at these centres, while registration officers were quite idle with almost no work to do.



Mr Ernest Dagbui, the Registration Officer for United Pentecostal Church, Ebenezer Temple Polling Centre, attributed the low attendance to the rush to register at other centres.

The Voters ID card is very important and a necessity for every Ghanaian. Without it, you cant vote in the country, said.



He said the exercise was generally a fruitful one and as the numbers kept reducing by each phase, the pressure on their machines equally reduced and prevented further technical hitches.



Maame Esi Agyiriba, the Registration Officer for the Macedonia Methodist Church, Kwashieman Polling Centre, also attributed the low turnout to the fact that citizens were doubtful that each Centre would have a team coming around to register.



The attendance has been very low; since Sunday, we have recorded only 63 people and for today, only 3 people, she said.



Mr Alex Antwi, a welder, who successfully registered at the United Pentecostal Church, Ebenezer Temple Polling Centre, said he waited until the last day because his job was a busy one and he couldnt bear the stress of joining a queue for long hours.



However, Mr Joseph Mawuli, a guarantor for Alex and also a colleague welder said it was a risky venture for anyone to wait till the last moment to register.



I had my registration during the first phase and even though I didnt take it easy, I knew it was the best. I wanted to get it done quickly and focus on other important things thereafter, he said.



The Nationwide Exercise which commenced on Tuesday, June 30, 2020 ends on Thursday, August 6, 2020.



It would be followed up by a two-day mop-up registration exercise on Saturday, August 8, 2020 and Sunday, August 9, 2020 at the various district offices of the EC across the country for eligible Ghanaians who were not able to register in the mass registration.

Source: GNA









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An office block across the street from the gates of Leinster House has been sold by Henderson Park from its core Green Reit portfolio to German investors, its second such sale in a week.

While terms were not publicly disclosed, it is understood that the Frankfurt-based real estate fund KanAm Grund paid approximately 60m to acquire 30-33 Molesworth Street.

The Georgian property includes as tenants the real estate advisors Savills Ireland, financial advisors Maples Group and Elkstone, and the Clerkin Lynch law firm.

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The deal follows last weeks 94m sale of 2 Burlington Road by Henderson Park to another German fund, KGAL Investment Management. That property houses the headquarters of EBS Building Society.

The 30-33 Molesworth Street property comprises 5,300 square metres of space spread across two Georgian buildings and two buildings redeveloped and refurbished by Green Reit in 2018.

The sale leaves three core Dublin properties still for sale from Henderson Parks 2019 takeover of Green Reit, known as the Capital Collection: 5 Harcourt Road, Fitzwilliam Hall and One Molesworth Street, home to the Banking Payments Federation of Ireland.

Henderson Park CEO Nick Weber said the sale to KanAm underscores international confidence in the Irish commercial property market and in Irelands long-term economic prospects.

Ireland remains a key investment market for Henderson Park and we now have a proven and experienced team and a permanent operating presence in Dublin, he said. We expect to generate further liquidity from the remaining assets within the Capital Collection and to use proceeds to invest in our Irish development pipeline.

London-based Henderson Park entered the Irish property market in July 2019 by acquiring Heuston South Quarter in Dublin. It bought Green Reit five months later for 1.34bn.

KanAm manages property worldwide worth more than 8bn and likewise entered the Irish market only in the past year.

In October it paid more than 20m for the newly built Wythe Building, a six-storey office block in Dublin 2 that already was fully leased.

In February, KanAm paid 35m for an eight-storey office block on Upper Hatch Street in Dublin city centre occupied by Deloitte and tax advisers H&R Block.
If the eyeball test means anything, the Prairie farmers could be in for a bumper crop.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 6/8/2020 (530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If the eyeball test means anything, the Prairie farmers could be in for a bumper crop.

Thats what a late July crop tour suggested to market analysts and advisers at FarmLink, a Prairie-wide agricultural marketing organization who fanned out across Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta counting fields and observing the state of the crops, albeit many weeks before harvest.

Neil Townsend, FarmLinks chief market analyst, said that in the majority of regions they saw better crops than last year.

"We were expecting to see a big crop and thats what we saw," he said.

While much of the extraordinary difference they observed this year compared to last year was in Alberta, which is emerging from a couple of years of drought, wheat fields across the Prairies are looking very good.

"We should start to prepare for the eventuality of a somewhat unprecedented wheat crop," he said. FarmLink is predicting the best wheat yields will come from Manitoba.

He said that will mean "all hands on deck" from the rail carriers to the international marketers and shippers.

Danielle Rands, FarmLinks grain marketing adviser in Western Manitoba, said that in general, Manitoba crops look fairly comparable to last year. And while she said there are still areas where you turn 360 and see nothing but canola in many areas, there is more variability.

For instance, she said there are peas being grown in areas that have never grown peas "and there are some outrageous yields out there."

She attributes at least some of that to the recent construction of two pea processing facilities in Portage la Prairie and Winnipeg.

"There are more processors to take the peas and producers have reacted," she said.

The FarmLink analysts acknowledged there are certainly some regions harder hit by excessive moisture and drought and that many crops will need more rain to finish them off, but overall Townsend said, "There is a high probability that a big harvest is coming."

But according to Bill Campbell, the president of Keystone Agricultural Producers, that sort of optimism is not something he can take to the bank.

Campbell, who farms south of Brandon, an area that was hit by a heavy rainstorm in early July, said farmers were quite a bit more reserved during a KAP meeting last week that included producers from most regions of the province.

"Most of them think there is a decent-looking crop out there," he said. "I have been looking at my own fields and we are certainly nowhere near where we were last year."

Campbell said he understands that predictions are based on observations and data but there are so many unpredictable weather events that can have a dramatic impact on the final production numbers.

"I have always said its better to have your expectations low and be surprised as opposed to expecting bumper crops and find out its not there," he said.

For instance, he pointed out there will be a mini heat wave this weekend in Manitoba, and there are rumours of disease problems for the wheat crop that wont be fully known until the fields are combined.

"I would suggest there are some areas in the province that have run out of water and how many acres has the excessive moisture taken out of production? You will have acres that wont have any yield whatsoever. Not just diminished they will be zero."

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But even if Campbell and other Manitoba farmers are expecting just average crops  as opposed to the Prairie-wide bin-buster Townsend is looking forward to  Campbell did say that if harvest is able to come off without a hitch, that would already be a big advantage over last year.

Despite his rosy predictions, Townsend was clear that there will be challenges ahead. For instance, no one is quite sure how the COVID-19 pandemic will affect harvesting activity.

As well, geopolitical tensions  Canada still does not have unfettered access to markets in China and Saudi Arabia  and macro-economic problems around the world will have an effect on the global grain markets.

But he said, "With heightened food security concerns around the world there should be demand for much of what we produce."

His advice to farmers: lock in profits early to reduce the exposure in what looks to be a turbulent marketing year.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca
Four out of five babies born in 2015 started out being breastfed. But by the time they were six months old, that number had dropped to under 58%, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While there are benefits to breastfeeding, theres nothing wrong with making a choice to stop if you find that it doesnt work for you or your family at any point. That said, its likely that at least some of the parents who gave it up between their childs first days on Earth and their sixth month wanted to keep going  but hit a roadblock along the way. And thats something a lactation consultant possibly could have helped with.

Even though breastfeeding is natural, that doesnt mean its automatic, says Linda Dahl, MD, founder of the Dahl Otolaryngology Center in New York City and author of the Clinical Guide to Breastfeeding. Its not something that youll just know how to do. You might, but getting help and getting guidance for it, for some moms, is absolutely essential.

Dr. Dahl knows what shes talking about. Seventeen years ago, she had trouble breastfeeding her own newborn. I experienced first-hand what mothers go through. Sadly its really not that different 17 years later, she tells Refinery29. Theres literally nothing in Western medicine about breastfeeding, she explains. No matter which residency you go through, you maybe get a lecture on breastfeeding. And its not even about breastfeeding, its about breast milk and how its made.

Today, Dr. Dahl helps infants with breastfeeding issues  in part by working closely with lactation consultants, whose job it is to offer guidance to parents who need it. This guide offers up everything you need to know about the practice, and how to figure out whether its the right fit for you.

What is a lactation consultant, exactly?

A lactation consultant helps you with breastfeeding. You can call one for just about any related issue: if youre having persistent pain while breastfeeding, if youre experiencing latching issues, if you feel your baby isnt getting enough milk, or if you worry theyre nursing for too long.

Story continues

Tip: Look for a consultant who has an IBCLC, or International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, certification, suggests Sarah Eichler, IBCLC, LCCE, a lactation consultant based in Brooklyn, NY. To become an IBCLC, you need to get clinical hands-on practice, she says. You can do it with a mentor, which is what I did. Then you have to have a minimum of 500 clinical hours. You can also get a bachelors degree in human lactation, she says, but in the U.S., there arent many programs available. Theres another route available for nurses and doctors who wish to become certified lactation consultants, Eichler adds.

There are other certifications a lactation consultant could have, such as Certified Breastfeeding Counselor or Certified Lactation Counselor  but IBCLC is the gold standard.

To find a consultant, start with your pediatrician; they might have one working in their office. If not, ask your healthcare provider for recommendations.

What can I expect at a lactation consultant appointment?

Heres what Eichlers appointments look like: After reviewing your medical history, she will ask you to nurse your baby on each breast. Shell assess the baby to make sure theyre latching properly and nursing comfortably, and weigh the baby before and after feeding to determine how much theyre eating. Eichler might show you different nursing positions, and youll have a chance to bring up any concerns you have. You can ask about how to pump or store breastmilk, for instance, or if a certain sensation is normal, or about supplementing with formula. Expect an appointment to last one or two hours.

Follow-up appointments are often not necessary, but theyre available if more help is needed. You might have a second appointment if your baby isnt gaining weight, if youre trying to switch from the bottle back to the breast, or if youre having issues with milk supply, Eichler says.

Can I see a lactation consultant during the pandemic?

Yes. Some are still offering in-person appointments. But these days, there are plenty of lactation consultants who offer virtual options too. Andrea Syms-Brown, IBCLC, RLC, a lactation consultant who owns her own private practice called Baby In The Family, has operated on a virtual-only basis since January  something that has come in handy since COVID-19 hit.

Syms-Browns virtual appointments look kind of like Eichlers: Shell review your medical history, then assesses your breast and, if necessary, the babys mouth. Shell answer any questions, and she always follows up. It just all happens via Zoom.

How much do lactation consultants cost?

A lactation consultant can charge over $300 for a visit, Dr. Dahl says, acknowledging that the price  often not covered by insurance  makes the service a privileged option: Its a very rich white woman thing. She encourages people who could use help breastfeeding to seek out a consultant who does accept insurance (like she does). It might take a little legwork, but it can be worth it for a parent who really wants to breastfeed, but is having trouble getting started.

It does [often] come down to finances, Eichler agrees. A lot of people dont get their session covered by insurance; that plays a huge part in getting support and how much support they will get. Its not so cheap, its an investment. But its worthwhile.

That said, there are plenty of free lactation groups and videos out there for reference if youre seeking help, and many new parents get the hang of breastfeeding without needing the extra support at all. There are options; its just a matter of trusting your intuition and finding the one thats the best fit for you.

Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?

A New Google AI Can Detect Breast Cancer

A Nursing Home Worker Opens Up About COVID-19

The Top Body Pillows (Rated By Sound Sleepers)
Regulatory News:

ESI Group (Paris:ESI) (FR0004110310 ESI), leader and pioneer in Virtual Prototyping solutions, hereby releases the total number of shares making up the company's capital and the total number of voting rights in July 31, 2020, in accordance with articles 223-16 and 221-3 of the General Regulations of the "Autorite des Marches Financiers".

Number of shares Number of theoretical voting

rights * Number of voting rights ** 6,024,842 8,309,069 7,933,150

* The number of theoretical voting rights is calculated based on all shares eligible for voting right (single or double), including shares temporarily deprived of voting rights (treasury shares).

** All Group shares have equal right to vote, except treasury shares, which are deprived of the right to vote, and registered shares held for more than four years that are eligible for double voting rights.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200806005741/en/

Contacts:

ESI Group
Actors from a local Jin opera troupe give a performance in Touquan Village, Jingxing County, Shijiazhuang City of north China's Hebei Province, Aug. 5, 2020. The Jingxing Jin opera troupe staged a performance on Wednesday in Touquan Village, the first of a series of over 60 touring performances in the rural areas of Shijiazhuang City during the summer holidays. (Photo by Liang Zidong/Xinhua)
Boris Johnson posed pumping iron today as he urged Britons to have the confidence to go back to workplaces.

The PM hailed 'signs of strength' in the UK economy as he said it was crucial for people to return to their normal duties.

Mr Johnson, who has been on a health kick since recovering from his own coronavirus scare, visited The Gym in his Uxbridge constituency encouraging the country to support businesses that are reopening.

The Bank of England has offered a glimmer of hope for the economy by predicting the downturn caused by lockdown might not be as bad as initially feared.

However, governor Andrew Bailey warned that unemployment is still set to go up by more than a million by the end of the year.

And he cautioned that some sectors of UK plc - such as many parts of the hospitality industry - might not be 'viable' as the country's way of life changes.

Boris Johnson (pictured on a visit to a gym in his Uxbridge constituency today) hailed 'signs of strength' in the UK economy as he said it was crucial for people to return to their normal duties

Mr Johnson visited The Gym in his Uxbridge constituency as he encouraged the country to support businesses that are reopening

During a visit to a housing development in Warrington this afternoon after his gym trip, the Prime Minister told reporters there were 'real signs of strength in the UK economy'.

'Unquestionably it will require people to have the confidence to go back to work in a Covid-secure way,' he continued.

'It's also very, very important that we get all the schools back in September, on September 1 get all the pupils back into their schools.

'That will be also very, very important for getting our economy overall moving again.'

The government has downgraded its advice for people to work from home where possible, amid concerns that town and city centres are being hollowed out by the lack of footfall.

Yesterday research by Morgan Stanley suggested that Britons are less likely to have been back in the office than European counterparts.

This morning Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick urged people to 'get out' and support local businesses in the cities if they want to prevent further job losses.

Asked whether he was concerned that London is being 'hollowed out' on LBC, he said: 'Well I am very concerned about London and city centres more generally.

'You are seeing people starting to go back into town centres and obviously using local shops in villages and rural areas, but many of our city centres are very quiet and we need to get back into them, using the Chancellor's Eat Out To Help Out scheme, going to visit the shops safely, it can be done.

'Shops and the hospitality industry are going to great lengths to make sure that they're following social distancing guidelines and those of us that can do so need to get out and support them now or else we will see, I'm afraid, further job losses and a loss of some of those fantastic businesses that we see in our cities.'

The Bank expects the economy to shrink by 9.5 per cent in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic - less than the previous estimate of 14 per cent
The latest data provided to Radio Farda by Kepler, an international data intelligence firm to Radio Farda, show that Iran's crude oil exports in July reached 101,000 barrels per day. Before the United States imposed sanctions in 2018, Iran used to export 2.5 million barrels per day.

Reuters has also reported that Iran's oil production dropped to 1.9 million BPD last July. That is half the volume before the U.S. sanctions and is used domestically or stored.

Iran has more than 120 million barrels of unsold crude stored on land and oil tankers anchored in the Persian Gulf.

Based on Kpler data, the average daily export of Iranian oil in the first seven months of 2020 was 223 thousand barrels per day.

Iran exports oil only to China and Syria. China's customs statistics show that it did not import oil from Iran in June, but Kpler data reveals that the Iranian tanker Giessel delivered its cargo to Chinese ports on June 13 with two million barrels.

An informed source, who did not want to be named, told Radio Farda that the cargo was delivered to China disguised as "Indonesian oil."

Kepler statistics also show that Iran shipped 60,000 barrels of oil per day to Malaysia in the first five months of the year, but Malaysian customs data show that these shipments did not enter the country. The is further evidence that the shipments might have been diverted to China as Malaysian oil.

Reuters had earlier reported that Venezuelan oil shipments were also going to China under "Malaysian" oil.

Kpler's new report shows that the total oil exports of OPEC members by sea reached 17 million 757 thousand barrels per day in July, which is an increase of 576 thousand barrels compared to June.

Reuters report also shows that Saudi oil production increased by 850,000 barrels last month compared to June.

OPEC's total oil production last month reached 23.32 million BPD.
Many creators have faced criticism for posting about these parties, let alone hosting them. After the YouTuber Tyler Oakley singled out the July 21 Hype House party on Twitter, Mr. Merritt issued a public apology for the birthday party held in his honor, admitting that it was a dumb thing to do. Ms. Mongeau and Mr. Charles also apologized for attending the event.

On Wednesday, Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles announced that in response to the recent spate of parties, he would authorize the city to shut off power and water to any houses or businesses hosting large parties or unauthorized gatherings beginning on Friday night.

Malik Earnest, a 25-year-old creator in Los Angeles, has attended several influencer parties in recent months. Its like Covid isnt a thing when were at them, he said. He said he tries to stay responsible, but said that showing face at events has helped his career.

Mr. Earnest said that the apologies some hosts and attendees have issued are placating and not a sign that behavior is changing. I see these tweets, Ive seen influencers get called out and apologize, then I see them at a party the next weekend, he said. Its just to save face. They say what they need to say on Twitter and Instagram then live their life.

These kids have been trying to be big on social media for such a long time, said Mai Linh Nguyen, a producer who has worked for several top YouTube stars. Now, they finally have it. Theyre the ones to invite kids to the cool party, instead of trying to get the invite. Literally everyone on the internet, even if they dont know who they are by name, is talking about them.
The University of Alabama has amended the language in an acknowledgement form required for students, faculty and staff to return to campus.

The students, faculty and staff took issue with the original version, saying it read more like a legal waiver that absolved the school of any responsibility should they become infected with COVID-19 on campus.

UA confirmed the language was revised and while not all concerns are alleviated from students and faculty/staff, the changes were viewed as a positive step by those interviewed by AL.com.

The original acknowledgement form required for campus return stated individuals voluntarily assume such risk associated with on-campus learning in a pandemic. The new version removes that language.

The old version of the acknowledgement required of University of Alabama students, faculty and staff.

I acknowledge that even if I and the University use all reasonable care in our actions, the updated version reads, there is still a risk that I may become exposed to or infected with COVID-19 while I am on University grounds or property, or while I am taking part in University activities or business.

Those who agreed to the original version can go back and agree to the new one which will supersede any previously completed acknowledgment, per the UA website.

RELATED: UA chancellor says its now on students, faculty to responsibly reenter campus

The changes were welcomed by second-year law student Haley Czarnek. When interviewed Tuesday, Czarnek said she understood the assumption of risk wording to be very specific legal language.

At the time, she did not click the I acknowledge box at the bottom of the statement. After the revision, she changed her mind and agreed to it.

The acknowledgement in question was part of the COVID-19 education each student, faculty and staff member must complete to return to campus. There were a series of videos to watch and the acknowledgement box appeared at the end. Clicking the I decline box would not give the user the certification to reenter campus with classes starting Aug. 19.

The new version of the UA acknowledgement form for students, faculty and staff.

UA System chancellor Finis St. John was asked about this process in a Monday interview with AL.com.

To my knowledge, theres not a waiver, St. John said. I havent looked at the language recently, but I might defer that question to our general counsel. But I dont think there is a waiver. At most, I think there is an acknowledgement but again, I might let our general counsel answer that question.

A UA System spokesperson later sent a statement on the matter.

The faculty and staff on our campuses were asked to acknowledge their understanding that rules, regulations and protocols (testing, social distancing requirements, use of PPE, etc.) have been implemented, the statement read. There is no language about liability in the Return to Campus Acknowledgement document.

Still, Czarnek said law students were uneasy with that original wording.

My concern is if I sign this, what is a judge going to think if a lawsuit is brought before the court, Czarnek said Tuesday. Not that Im intending to bring a lawsuit, thats not the goal, but I have a hard time seeing how it wouldnt have some legal effect. Its all up in the air so its hard to know but I would be interested to know why that phrase was included if there wasnt any intent to use it in a legal setting.

UA English instructor Garrett Bridger Gilmore was also taking a wait-and-see approach after seeing the original wording. By Thursday afternoon, Bridger Gilmore said he was leaning toward agreeing to the new version.

A UA spokesperson provided a statement Thursday about the agreement to which students, faculty and staff must agree.

An acknowledgment form, which was recently revised, is included as part of the COVID-19 training that all students, faculty and staff must complete, it read. This part of the training provides further notification about the risks associated with COVID-19 and asks members of the campus community to confirm their understanding of these risks and agreement to comply with the measures that have been put in place to mitigate those risks.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.
Infermedica's AI-driven platform helps insurance, telemedicine companies, and health systems increase efficiency through fast, digital symptom-checks

New investment, led by EBRD and Heal Capital, will be used for R&D and international expansion in the US and Germany

The platform has nearly 60 B2B partners across 30 countries, including Microsoft, Allianz, Global Excel, Sana Kliniken, and Medis, and has performed more than 6 million health checks globally

Infermedica, the AI-based platform for preliminary diagnosis and triage, announced it has raised $10.25 million in Series A funding. The round was led by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and digital health fund Heal Capital, with participation from existing investors Karma Ventures, Inovo Venture Partners, and Dreamit Ventures.

The investment will be used for platform R&D to further enhance patient triage and symptom checking features as well as clinical decision support analysis including intake collection, differential diagnostics and lab test interpretation and to expand operations in Germany and the US, where Infermedica currently has one office. The new capital places total funding to date at $15 million.

Founded in 2012 in Wroclaw, Poland, by Piotr Orzechowski (CEO), Infermedica is an AI-driven, customizable, multi-language platform that aids patient care and healthcare service delivery. Based on the expertise of doctors and mixed with the AI and machine learning algorithms, the solution delivers rapid symptom triage and instructions so patients can receive required healthcare quickly. The company operates in B2B model and helps insurance, telemedicine companies, and health systems increase efficiency through fast, digital symptom-checks. According to New England Healthcare Institute, 25% of cases can be self-treated or treated through teleconsultation and $38 billion can be saved per year when patients are led to proper care (in the US only).

Infermedica currently employs more than 100 specialists including doctors, data scientists, and engineers, and doubled their team size in the last year.

The platform's available interfaces include:

Symptom Checker a white-label, customizable application that provides fast digital symptom checking and analysis, suggesting a list of the most likely conditions. Symptom Checker is available as a chatbot and voice assistant.

Call Centre Triage a solution that aids telemedicine personnel to pre-diagnose patients and understand condition severity so they can provide relevant healthcare instructions. Call Center Triage prevents unnecessary urgent care visits, and detects urgent cases quickly.

Infermedica API direct access to the engine through a fully-customizable API that can be integrated directly onto clients' websites, apps or telehealth systems.

The company has nearly 60 B2B clients in the healthcare space, spanning 30 countries and has completed more than 6 million patient health checks. Notable partners and clients include Microsoft which uses the Infermedica platform within its Healthcare bot insurance giant Allianz, medical cost containment firm Global Excel, and leading German and Portuguese healthcare providers Sana Kliniken and Medis.

Infermedica also engages in non-profit projects during the pandemic, the company quickly established a 'COVID-19 Risk Assessment' protocol in three weeks to aid with SARS-CoV-2 symptom checking. The tool has been used by more than 500K patients and has been implemented by 300 organizations, including two national governments.

Commenting on the news, Piotr Orzechowski, CEO at Infermedica, said: "We're thrilled to welcome EBRD and Heal Capital as new investors on board of our venture. Our mission is to improve quality and access to primary care with the use of AI-powered, constantly improving technology. As we all know, the COVID-19 pandemic has placed great pressure on health systems globally and it's our obligation to help healthcare providers deliver safe and timely care. This additional funding will enable us to continue developing cutting-edge AI-triage technology and expand our commercial operations in the US and Germany."

Maria Barsuk, Venture Capital Investment Program at EBRD added: "Healthcare is vital, but there are limitations around availability and cost, which often result in patients worldwide not receiving the treatment they require. Now the world, facing the COVID-19 pandemic, is in greater need for remote healthcare than ever before. Therefore, adoption of digital healthcare solutions will only accelerate and become mainstream, as industry players look for new ways to deliver first-class service. We're glad to invest in Infermedica's team and support its future progress."

Dr. Christian Weiss, Managing Partner at Heal Capital, commented: "Technology has the capability to transform healthcare, but there needs to be real harmony between innovation and human expertise Infermedica has found it. The platform is streamlining healthcare delivery for doctors and patients, and its continuous high accuracy, alongside the company's dedication to innovative technology is very impressive. We're delighted to be onboard as Infermedica embarks on the next stage of its journey."

About Infermedica

Infermedica, Inc. is a leading digital health company specialized in AI-powered solutions for preliminary diagnosis and patient triage. Its pioneering technology is used by industry leaders including Microsoft, Allianz, Global Excel, Sana Kliniken and Unipol, and has performed over 6 million health checks globally.

About EBRD

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is a multilateral bank that promotes the development of the private sector and entrepreneurial initiative in 38 economies across three continents. The Bank is owned by 69 countries as well as the EU and the EIB. EBRD investments are aimed at making the economies in its regions competitive, inclusive, well-governed, green, resilient and integrated. Through its Venture Capital Investment Program, the Bank invests in early and growth stage innovative companies operating in technology sectors.

About Heal Capital

Heal Capital is a leading European venture capital fund with a target volume of 100 million euros. The fund invests in technology-enabled healthcare champions at series A stage, that are actively driving the innovation of healthcare. Heal Capital provides capital, know-how, and market access through leading private healthcare insurers as fund investors. Additionally, Heartbeat Labs and Flying Health are invested as anchor investors, complementing the Heal Capital team with expertise in building and scaling digital health companies.

The fund has been launched under the umbrella of the Association of the German private healthcare insurers in 2019 and is led by Eckhard Weber and Dr. Christian Wei as managing partners.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200806005063/en/

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Kylie Souder: Aspectus Group kylie.souder@aspectusgroup.com +1 513 304 5776
Poker Player Susie Zhao Bound, Sexually Assaulted Before Murder (UPDATED 8/13/20)

Police in White Lake, Michigan have made an arrest following the highly publicized murder of poker player Susie Zhao.

Jeffery Morris, 60, was arrested last week and then charged with first-degree murder on Tuesday, according to Fox 2 Detroit.

Zhao's body was found badly burned on July 13 in a state recreation area and identified a week later. The 33-year-old had reportedly moved back in with family in Michigan after spending previous years as a regular cash player in the L.A. area.

She was known in poker for a few deep World Series of Poker Main Event runs and occasional appearances on the livestreamed cash game "Live at the Bike."

"This is not the end of the investigation into Susie's death but the beginning of the pursuit of justice for her and her family," Detective Lt. Chris Hild said.

More Case Details Out

Jeffery Morris has been charged with murder.

In a Wednesday press conference, police said Zhao and Morris met the night before the murder at a motel at which Zhao sometimes stayed. Police said the investigation into any possible relationship between the two remains ongoing.

They also said Zhao's poker or other gambling activities aren't believed to be a factor in the case.

Morris was arrested on Friday after being pulled over by police. He has a lengthy list of priors including domestic violence, is a registered sex offender, and is currently on probation for fraud, according to Fox 2 Detroit.

Police called Morris a transient, with a last known address in Pontiac. His most recent landlord had evicted him several months ago, she said.

Arraigned from a hospital where he was bed-ridden for undisclosed reasons, Morris told a judge he'd be taking a state-appointed attorney. He's being held without bond due to the severe crime and his criminal history. He's due back in court Aug. 18, and PokerNews will continue to monitor the story as it develops further.

According to WXYZ Detroit, new details on Zhao's murder were released revealing that she had allegedly been bound with zip ties and sexually assaulted before she was "lit on fire until she died."

Morris, who has been charged with her murder, allegedly met Zhao in a motel the night before her badly charred body was discovered. She was identified by fingerprints.

Morris claimed that after spending time with Zhao at Sherwood Motel, where they consumed alcohol, that she left around midnight "and took all of her belongings including her cell phone with her." However, cell phone records indicated that it did not leave the property until around 5 a.m., which is when surveillance footage revealed Morris drove to the state park where Zhao's remains were found.

Potential evidence was also discovered in Morris' vehicle. Also discovered were duffle bags containing an apparently-bloodied bed sheet and a wooden baseball bat. Both items are being tested at a crime lab.

This is not the end of the investigation into Susies death but the beginning of the pursuit of justice for her and her family, said White Lake Township Detective Chris Hild. We can only hope that where we are today brings some level of comfort to the healing process.

A motive for the murder and the exact reason Zhao met Morris are still under investigation.
Short-form video app sensation TikTok is being set up to be the central feature in Washingtons economic warfare with Beijgin, but it wont be an easy sell like the Cold War was: Data shows that one out of every three Americans is already addicted to the app. So, banning TikTok becomes a rather toxic pre-election endeavor for the Trump Administration.

Last month, Trump threatened to ban the app from operating in the US citing national security concerns. However, he was reportedly urged by his advisors not to go down that path due to the apps popularity. But advisors come and go ...

Now, Microsoft has confirmed that it is in talks to buy TikTok's service in a deal that could be worth up to $30 billion, Trump revealed a new plan that would save face for everyone.

Trump set September 15 as the deadline for TikTok to find a US buyer, failing which he said he would shut down the app in the country.

Trump also said any deal would have to include a "substantial amount of money" coming to the US Treasury, but failed to offer up any details as to what that meant, exactly.

"But if you buy [TikTok], the United States, which is making it possible to buy, because without us they can't do anything, should be compensated. Properly compensated with a very big payment. So that money would go into the Treasury of the United States, Trump told "Fox & Friends.

For now, its unclear how that would work, or if its even legal. Even Trumps threat to ban the app is on shaky ground, since the federal authority has never been used before with a consumer app. This is all brand new territory.

Indeed, TikToks numbers are staggering.

Launched only in 2017, it is currently the number one app downloaded in the iOS store, and its estimated that in the first quarter of 2020, more than 315 million downloads occurred between Google Play and Apples iOS store in the US alone.

Globally, the app has been downloaded 2 billion times.

Some 60% of its US users are aged between 16 and 24.

The value of ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, is said to have surpassed $100 billion in May. It more than doubled its revenue from $7.4 billion in 2018 to $17 billion in 2019. The company made a net profit of $3 billion last year, Bloomberg reported.

Security concerns surrounding TikTok are not new.

Last year, the US Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS) launched a national security investigation into TikTok after lawmakers penned a letter to a US intelligence official demanding a security assessment.

Several US government agencies, including nearly all branches of the military, have barred employees from downloading or using the app.

Related: Indonesia Moves To Bolster Mining Sector

In the latest move, a U.S. Senate Committee voted two weeks ago to ban federal employees from using TikTok on government-issued devices.

Also, several lawmakers from both political parties have described TikTok as "a potential counterintelligence threat we cannot ignore.

The lawmakers expressed concern that China's 2017 internet law forced companies in the country to cooperate with the Communist Party. They also questioned the companys data collection practices, suggesting that the Chinese government has a certain amount of influence over what content Americans see on the app.

Besides selling TikTok to a US buyer, ByteDance has implemented several measures to further protect itself from becoming the bullseye in a US-China battle. For starters, it is setting up U.S. headquarters--like in California or New York, where it already has offices.

In mid-March, the company said it would stop using China-based moderators to monitor overseas content.

That same month, ByteDance said it would open a new facility in California, called the transparency center, which would allow outside observers to view how teams at the company moderate content.

Also, in May installed Kevin Mayer, Disneys head of streaming, as its new CEO hoping for a reputational boost.

By Michael Kern for Safehaven.com

More Top Reads From Safehaven.com:
High winds partially tore the roof off a day care center on the grounds of a suburban Philadelphia hospital, injuring four children, as heavy rains flooded rivers and streams, prompting water rescues, evacuation calls and a search for a young person swept away in one creek.

Bucks County government officials said in a Twitter post that high winds around Doylestown Hospital partially tore the roof off the day care center at Childrens Village, a private preschool on the hospital grounds. Officials said winds were strong enough to overturn vehicles in (the) parking lot.

Doylestown Health said four children and some staff members were treated for minor injuries, and all of the children were moved to a local middle school to reunite with family.

The citys fire commissioner, Adam Thiel, said members of the fire department were performing multiple water rescues across the city and police also warned of flooding and stalled cars. The city office of emergency management noted a Schuylkill River flood warning for small streams and low-lying areas. The suburban borough of Conshohocken urged residents and businesses in one section to evacuate due to flash flooding.

In Delaware County in the Philadelphia suburbs, searchers were looking for a young person who fell or jumped from a small bridge into Ridley Creek at the end of a state park shortly before 3 p.m. Tuesday and hadnt resurfaced in the fast-moving water.

County director of emergency services Timothy Boyce said searchers had been looking for the victim over a mile of the waterway for more than an hour, but trees and debris and water overflowing the creek banks was hampering the effort. Hopefully, theyre clinging to a tree, he said.

The Schuylkill River was projected to crest in Philadelphia overnight at 15.4 feet, second highest on record (the highest was 17 feet in 1869). The river was projected to crest at more than 20 feet in Norristown, the fifth-highest crest at that location.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Flood Pennsylvania
"We are really excited to bring SensiCare and Aloe Vesta into Medline's Skin Care portfolio. Our holistic skin health solution has a particularly strong focus on preventative care with our skin care products at the core," says Alyson Ovitt, vice president of Medline's Skin Health division. "We have built a highly consultative approach that helps healthcare providers optimize product utilization while also delivering specialized product solutions for specific patient populations. The SensiCare and Aloe Vesta product lines are a perfect fit."

Medline's Skin Health portfolio and solutions help frontline staff reliably follow best practices in skin care. Medline Skin Health Solutions is built around three pillars:

Best practice guidance

Caregiver Education

System of Products

The sale includes the Aloe Vesta and SensiCare skin care business in both the U.S. and Canada and gives Medline global rights to market outside North America.

For more information on Medline's portfolio of advanced skin care products, visit https://www.medline.com/pages/clinical-expertise/skin-health/skin-care/.

About Medline

Medline is a healthcare company: a manufacturer, distributor and solutions provider focused on improving the overall operating performance of healthcare. Medline works with both the country's largest healthcare systems and independent facilities across the continuum of care to provide the clinical and supply chain resources required for long-term financial viability in delivering high quality care. With the size of one of the country's largest companies and the agility of a family-owned business, Medline is able to invest in its customers for the long-term and rapidly respond with customized solutions. Headquartered in Northfield, Ill., Medline has 26,000+ employees worldwide, a fleet of nearly 1,000 trucks and does business in more than 90 countries. Learn more about Medline at www.medline.com.

About ConvaTec

ConvaTec is a global medical products and technologies company focused on therapies for the management of chronic conditions, with leading market positions in advanced wound care, ostomy care, continence and critical care, and infusion care. Our vision, which encompasses our purpose, is: Pioneering trusted medical solutions to improve the lives we touch. Our products provide a range of clinical and economic benefits including infection prevention, protection of at-risk skin, improved patient outcomes and reduced total cost of care. To learn more about ConvaTec, please visit www.convatecgroup.com

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Saudi Arabia has re-opened its land borders with UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain for commercial trucks as it eases covid-19 curbing measures.

The Saudi Customs issued a circular to all its land posts asking them to permit the movement of trucks coming from the GCC which have Saudi Arabia as their final destination, the state-run news agency SPA reports.

Drivers will however be subject to an assessment for any coronavirus symptoms at the entry border as per the permit.

The royal court has reportedly issued orders to ease Covid-19 precautionary measures. The Gulf country in March closed it borders including land entry points with its neighbors as part of efforts to curb imported contaminations.

The opening of land borders with the neighbors comes weeks after the Gulf country re-opened the King Fahd Causeway, connecting the country with Bahrain.

The health ministry has reported so far 282,824 cases including 3,020 deaths and 245,314 recoveries.
Social media allows us to connect with friends and loved ones in meaningful ways even when we arent together in person, which is wonderful. It also allows us to get to know and interact with people in other places, whether thats in the United States or around the world. That, too, is great
Applications are now being accepted for the new School of Medicine at the Magee campus of Ulster University in Derry.

This marks a significant development in the long-running process to make the medical school a reality.

It is now expected that an intake of 70 student doctors will take begin studying at the medical school in September 2021.

The acceptance of applications follows a successful progression through the next steps of the General Medical Councils (GMC) rigorous quality assurance process for new medical schools.

With support from the Northern Ireland Executive, ring-fenced funding was announced last month, combined with the GMCs recent review of the university's state of readiness, enables Ulster University to recruit staff and students for a September 2021 opening.

The medical school will select students who have already completed an undergraduate degree and provide them with four years of training.

The School will offer a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) medical degree programme that is unique in Northern Ireland.

In 2018, the Department of Health commissioned a Review of Medical School Places which recommended that Northern Ireland needs 100 more medical students a year to meet the increasing demand for doctors.

Currently, approximately 40% of medical graduates in Northern Ireland tend to stay and live within 10 miles of Queens University Belfast after graduation, according to the GMC.

Foundation Dean of the School of Medicine, Professor Louise Dubras, who will lead the Magee school.

She said: As a GP working in the city myself, I am continually reflecting on the role of the doctor and the doctor-patient journey. COVID-19 has emphasised that a career as a doctor requires a commitment to lifelong learning and adapting to lifes modern challenges.

The MBBS programme at Ulsters School of Medicine will provide students with the professional skills, knowledge and relevant clinical experience necessary to be a twenty first century doctor.

Working closely with our partner medical School St Georges University of London and alongside globally acclaimed visiting professors, our medical provision, rooted in the heart of Derry-Londonderry on our Magee campus, will provide the much-needed doctors required for the North West.

The School of Medicine on our Magee campus will attract students to study, work and live in the North West and will be a catalyst in the innovation corridor to be established as part of the City Deal. We look forward to taking the next steps and to welcoming our first medical students ready to embark upon such a rewarding and vital career path with us.

The Graduate Entry programme offered at Magee is open to anyone with a minimum of a 2:1 honours degree in any subject.
"As we have said all along, we will continue to do what is necessary to cushion the blow and help Australians get to the other side," Mr Frydenberg said. Loading The JobKeeper payment rate will fall as planned from $1500 to $1200 from the first week of October and the scheme will run as announced until the end of March, but the latest changes mean more companies and their staff will qualify. Treasury estimates the cost of the changes at $15.6 billion this financial year and expects $4.5 billion of this to come in the seven weeks to the end of September as companies seek help from the latest shutdowns. The new spending takes the total cost of the JobKeeper scheme to $101.3 billion.

A crucial change also updates the pool of employees who can receive the payment by changing the "reference point" for their employment. Loading Previously, an eligible employee must have been employed on March 1. This will be changed to July 1, so new staff would be able to receive the payments if business suffers. The expenditure review committee approved the changes on Thursday afternoon amid anger and confusion among companies rushing to comply with the Victorian economic closures to apply for at least the next six weeks. Business chiefs remain frustrated with the Victorian rules after a teleconference with Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas on Wednesday night, amid concerns food supplies will be at risk from rules that will cut staff by 33 per cent at warehouses and transport companies.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison will convene a national cabinet meeting with state and territory leaders on Friday with an agenda that covers freight issues, aged care policy, the Victorian outbreak, skills reforms and the federal review of hotel quarantine breaches. Loading JobKeeper will still drop from $1500 per fortnight today to $1200 from the first week of October and $1000 from the first week of January, before it stops at the end of March. The announcement does not change the earlier plan to cut the payment for anyone working fewer than 20 hours per week to $750 from October and $650 from January. Employers qualify for the scheme if they have annual turnover of up to $1 billion and they experience a 30 per cent fall in the quarter, while companies with higher turnover have to show a 50 per cent fall.

The rules announced on July 21 were especially strict for companies that wanted to receive JobKeeper from January through to March, requiring them to show a fall in turnover in the June, September and December quarters of this year. The new rules will simply ask them to show a fall again in the December quarter. A government background document says the changes mean employers will only be assessed on actual turnover in the previous quarter before the next phase of the payment. "As a result, organisations that are able to demonstrate the requisite decline in turnover in the September 2020 quarter will be able to access the JobKeeper extension in the December 2020 quarter," the document says. "Similarly, an organisation able to demonstrate the requisite decline in turnover in the December 2020 quarter would be able to access the JobKeeper extension in the March 2021 quarter."

Labor treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers called on the government on Tuesday to reconsider its JobKeeper changes, saying the deterioration in Victoria meant workers would need more help. The urgent changes appear unlikely to help big companies that have seen national revenue hold up but their Victorian operations shut down, with Wesfarmers chief executive Rob Scott warning this week that workers would have to be laid off. Not-for-profit organisations (excluding schools and universities) will continue to have to show a 15 per cent fall in turnover. Treasury has warned federal ministers that a further 530,000 Victorians are expected to qualify for Jobkeeper in the September quarter, an increase from 970,000 to 1.5 million workers across the state. The statewide total will fall to 1.36 million by the end of December but the proportion of Victorians receiving the wage subsidy will be much higher than the forecasts before the Stage 4 restrictions.
T he north London house rented by rock star banker Mark Carney while he was governor of the Bank of England is on the market for 5.5 million.

Carney paid 3,500 a week for the eight-bedroom property in South Hampstead, living there with his British-born economist wife Diana and their four daughters between 2015 and this year. He completed his term with the Bank in March, when Andrew Bailey became the new Governor.

The Arts & Crafts house boasts a wine cellar, a sunroom topped with a glass cupola, plus a separate studio with kitchenette for guests or staff.

The main bedroom suite is arranged over the first and second floors with a study area, walk-in dressing room, and an atrium with staircase leading up to the bedroom and bathroom.

Mark Pollack of selling agents Aston Chase said: Whilst it benefits from easy access to the West End, City and Canary Wharf the house, priced at just 924 per square foot, represents exceptionally good value for money, as in neighbouring Hampstead and St Johns Wood comparable properties routinely sell for anything from 1,250 per square foot [unmodernised] up to 3,000 per square foot.

Previously governor of the Bank of Canada, Carney, 55, relocated from Rockcliffe Park in Ottowa to London in 2013 when he was appointed to the UKs central bank by then-Chancellor George Osborne.

Known as the George Clooney of finance, Carney was understood to be one of the highest-paid central bankers in the world with a package amounting to 883,911.

This included a 250,000 annual housing allowance. When the family first arrived in London they moved into a 3,750-a-week five-bedroom house in nearby Parsifal Road in West Hampstead.

The former Goldman Sachs banker was praised for his down-to-earth choice of location over flashier spots such as Mayfair or Knightsbridge, and his West Hampstead neighbours described him as nice, natural and friendly. Carney took the Tube to his office in the City and had his hair cut by his local barber in Mill Lane.

However, the fanfare around his arrival in the street was blamed for pushing up local rents. Saying you lived in the same road as the Governor of the Bank of England obviously had a ring to it, Rosalie Miles, chair of the Parsifal Road Residents Association told the Ham & High at the time.

Carney is understood to have moved back to Canada where he is writing a book and is working as the United Nations special envoy for climate action and finance. He has an unpaid role advising the British Government ahead of the UN climate change conference, due to be hosted in Glasgow next year.
In a landmark judgment in February, the Supreme Court ruled that women army officers be granted permanent commission' that allow them to serve beyond 20 years, subject to being cleared by a selection board.

Before this, except for three branches, women have been granted only short service commission that restrict their service tenure to 14 years.

The controversial issue that remains is the Indian Army's bar on allowing women in combat roles.

While the Indian Air Force and the Indian Navy allow women to discharge combat roles, the army continues to keep them out of the four fighting arms -- the armoured corps, infantry, mechanised infantry and Special Forces -- and even the artillery, which is a combat support arm.

The Assam Rifles on August 5 said for the first time in Kashmir, 'Rifle Women' have been deployed on duty.

In a tweet, Assam Rifles said, 'Women soldiers of Assam Rifles deployed for the first time in Kashmir make a positive impact on the local populace in a matter of days. Smiling faces of locals is a testimony of professionalism of the Riflewomen of Assam Rifles.'

Dominic Xavier salutes the Assam Rifles's decision to deploy women soldiers in Kashmir.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
More than a third of the world's smartphone sales come from Chinese vendors Huawei, Xiaomi and Oppo. These manufacturers have thrived not only because they offer value-for-money handsets thanks to China's supply chains, but they also enjoy a relatively open mobile ecosystem, in which consumers in most countries can freely access the likes of Google, Instagram and WhatsApp.

That openness is under attack as the great U.S.-China tech divide inches closer to reality, which can cause harm on both sides.

The Trump administration's five-pronged Clean Network initiative aims to strip away Chinese phone makers' ability to pre-install and download U.S. apps. Under U.S. sanctions, Huawei already lost access to key Google services, which has dealt a blow to its overseas phone sales. Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi and other Chinese phone makers could suffer the same setback as Huawei, if the Clean Network applies to them.

For years, China has maintained a closed-up internet with the Great Firewall restricting a bevy of Western services, often without explicitly presenting the reasons for censorship. Now the U.S. has a plan that could potentially keep Chinese apps off the American internet.

The Clean Network program was first announced in April as part of the Trump administration's efforts in "guarding our citizens privacy and our companies most sensitive information from aggressive intrusions by malign actors, such as the Chinese Communist Party."

Beijing said Thursday it's firmly opposed to U.S. restrictions on Chinese tech firms and blasted that the U.S. uses such actions to preserve its technology hegemony.

Many on Chinese social media compare Trump's Clean Network proposal to routine cyberspace crackdowns in China, which regulators say are to purge pornography, violence, gambling and other "illegal" activities. Others that espouse a free internet lament its looming demise.

(1/2) A long, long time ago

I can still remember how that internet used to make me smile But August makes me shiver

With every app Id have delivered

Bad news on state dot government

I couldnt reach Pompeos statement   (@yitianshijieipn) August 6, 2020

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

It's unclear when the rules would be implemented and how they would be enforced. The program also aims to remove "untrusted" Chinese apps from U.S. app stores. A TikTok ban is looking less likely as Microsoft nears a buyout, but other Chinese apps also have a big presence in the U.S. Many, like WeChat and Weibo, target the diaspora community, while players like Likee and Zynn, owned by Chinese firms, are making waves among local users.

Story continues

Chinese firms are already hedging. Some. like TikTok . have set up overseas data centers. Others register their entities abroad and maintain U.S. offices, while still resorting to China for cheaper engineering talent. It's simply impractical to investigate -- and hard to determine -- every app's Chinese origin.

Under the program, carriers like China Mobile are not allowed to connect with U.S. telecoms networks, which could prevent these services from offering U.S. roaming to Chinese travelers.

The initiative also tells U.S. companies not to store information on Chinese cloud services like Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu. Chinese cloud providers don't find many clients in the U.S., perhaps except when they are hosting data for their own services, such as Tencent games serving American users.

Lastly, the framework wants to ensure U.S. undersea cables connecting to the world "are not subverted for intelligence gathering by the PRC at hyper-scale."

Such sweeping restrictions, if carried out, will almost certainly trigger retaliation from China. But what bargaining chips are left for Beijing? Apple and Tesla are the few American tech behemoths with significant business interest in China.
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Thursday, August 6, 2020

The Herman Trend Alert

August 5, 2020

Getting Kids Back to School Should Be our #1 Priority

In a previous Herman Trend Alert, I wrote extensively about a detailed plan for opening schools. Unfortunately, since then, reopening schools in the United States has become a major issue.

One of my daughters has a friend concerned about the schools not reopening. My daughter called me the other day with her friend's concerns and that phone call changed my life. It gave me a different perspective on virtual education that was truly eye-opening. I had been squarely in the camp of staying isolated and keeping schools virtual. After speaking with her, my thoughts are definitely more conflicted.

Intelligence is No Measure for Adaptability



Not surprisingly, with two brilliant parents, these three boys, 13, 11, and 7 are all extremely bright. However, for whatever reason, they did not thrive in the virtual version of education. In fact, when they heard that in-person school would not be happening in Marin County, due to a spike in COVID cases, they cried. They miss their friends; they miss their sports; they miss their teachers.

The Educational Cost to Children



There is a tremendous cost to not educating our kids. Most have fallen behind where they would be had they been in school; and with the current state of COVID cases in many areas, most schools will not restart in-person education in the Fall. Even the highly respected American Academy of Pediatrics has acknowledged the social and emotional costs and encouraged in-person education. Sadly, once COVID began spiking again in many states, they walked back that statement.

The Current Situation with COVID-19



While a few countries in the world have a very good handle on this crisis (notably Spain and France), sadly the United States is not among them. Right now, globally, the pandemic is raging. Many countries in the world, including Brazil and India have fast-increasing COVID-19 cases; however no other country in the world can approach the US for its increase in infections. As I write this Herman Trend Alert, 24 of the 50 United States are considered to be in the Red Zone, defined as those that are spiking or increasing in their numbers of COVID-19 cases. How can we possibly open up the schools there with cases increasing? Elsewhere, in states like Vermont and Maine, in the Green Zone, one would hope that they will be reopening schools---with the appropriate masking, ventilation, and PPE.

The Teachers' View



From the teachers' perspective, reopening elementary education is a nightmare waiting to happen. Veteran teachers imagine the first day of school when little kids exchange masks and exposure to COVID-19. Many teachers are in the twilight of their careers and often have underlying conditions. Without the additional retrofitting of buildings, hiring additional staff, adequate fast testing, and giving the teachers adequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), it would be unconscionable to open the schools at this time.

Re-Opening Schools Should Be a Top Priority



No one would dispute that having children safely back in schools is better for everyone. It would be helpful to the parents to be able to work; it would be better for the children's social and emotional development, and certainly, it would be better for the economy of the country. However absent the billions of dollars to make life safe for teachers and students, we simply must not return to in-person education---especially in spots around the globe where the virus is spiking. Even in the Green Zones, we must be willing to make the extra investments to make life safe for everyone.

One Possible Answer



In the US and abroad, schools confront huge financial challenges, including costs for additional staff, PPE, retrofitting buildings for proper ventilation, and supplementary support services for students. If we were to make the significant investments needed by giving teachers the PPE they need, invest in the facilities, and allocate money to give students what they need, we could send them back into the classroom. All that said, no plan can work without getting control of the virus and establishing a massive testing program. Right now, in the US, we have shortages of testing equipment and processing capability. Moreover, we would need the tracing talked about in a previous Herman Trend Alert,.

Great News on the Testing Horizon



So it turns out that we now know a very important piece of the puzzle we did not have before: we have been chasing tests that are unnecessarily sensitive. . . and, the less sensitive tests which are quite adequate to find people whose viral load puts others in danger, are inexpensive paper tests. And the best part is that the results are available in just 15 minutes.

Next Week: Solving the Testing Crisis and Acknowledging Vaccine Progress



In this Herman Trend Alert, we will cover the new tests, including the 15-minute paper tests and pool testing---two potential solutions. There is also more promising news on the vaccine front. See you next week.

Special thanks to subscriber Craig McDermott for new information about testing.

*********
Recently, Sushant Singh Rajputs sister, Shweta Singh Kirti, took to her social media account to share a heartwarming screenshot of their last conversation on WhatsApp, that has brought to the fore the positivity that the late actor used to spread. Sushant died by suicide on June 14 at his Mumbai residence. He was 34.

Shweta took to her Instagram account and wrote, You loved us so dearly. She also added the hashtags strength and unity, justice for Sushant Singh Rajput, and the strongest bond.

Check out the post here:

According to the screen grab, the sweet conversation between them took place on May 22, which is less than a month before Sushants sudden death. It shows the 34-year-old actor reacting to pictures and a video of his sisters. Love you too Gudiyadi. This looks so good, Sushant wrote in response to a picture of his sisters attending an online class together. He also added several heart emojis to the message. To a video of one of his sisters in the kitchen, he wrote, Wow such a beautiful and happening family. Please say my hi to Vishal and give my love to the lovely cuties.

 rhea chakraborty Instagram

Sushants family and friends are still in shock over his sudden and tragic death. Besides, in recent weeks, the actors family has ramped up its allegations against Sushants girlfriend, Rhea Chakraborty. Recently, Sushants father also filed an FIR against Rhea under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code stating extortion of money and abetment of suicide among others.



In the FIR against Rhea, it has been alleged that she took control of the actors finances, isolated him from his family, and got him hooked on prescription medication. However, Rhea has denied these allegations.

To add to that, as his fans across the globe were demanding, on Wednesday, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was given the go-ahead by the Centre to take over the investigation of Sushants death. The agency is likely to re-register the FIR filed by Bihar police under IPC sections related to abetment to suicide, criminal conspiracy, cheating among other charges on a complaint from the family against Rhea.

Now only time will bring out the truth. Tell us what you think about the CBI probe into Sushants case in the space below.
Biden campaign faith director talks Christian beliefs, outreach to evangelicals and systemic racism

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The newly appointed head of faith outreach for former Vice President Joe Bidens presidential campaign is working on getting evangelicals to support the Democratic nominee.

Josh Dickson, an evangelical Christian who has been active in the Democratic Party for nearly 10 years, was appointed National Faith Engagement director for the Biden campaign.

During the Obama administration, for a time, Dickson worked as the director of the Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Dickson believes some evangelicals are moving toward supporting Biden. An example of this, he said, is seeing evangelical leaders' embrace of the Black Lives Matter movement.

We have seen evangelicals marching in the streets, we have seen evangelicals talking about Black Lives Matter and speaking and praising Black Lives Matter, said Dickson. We've seen a tremendous response from individual pastors who have large followings who have marched in the streets. We've seen leaders, elected leaders who have marched in the streets from evangelical backgrounds.

This level of support leads Dickson to conclude that the real religious issue in this election is fighting systemic racism. Biden, he said, has an advantage in handling that issue.

We want to let people of faith know that in this moment that they are valued and they matter to the vice president and to this campaign and to the future direction of this country, continued Dickson.

The Christian Post interviewed Dickson on a variety of topics, including his faith journey, political views, and why he thinks evangelicals should support Biden for president despite certain ideological differences.

Staying Christian, changing parties

Born into a conservative family in which many attended Moody Bible Institute, Dickson had a Christian upbringing that involved attending church on Sundays and Wednesdays.

While enrolled at the University of Michigan, Dickson oversaw outreach efforts for the Campus Crusade for Christ chapter. After college, he became a teacher in the South Side of Chicago, Illinois.

Dickson explained to CP that it was his belief in the redemptive ministry and Gospel of Jesus that inspired him to take the teaching job instead of pursuing law school, noting that he was inspired by Luke 12:48, to whom much is given, much is required.

"Its the core of my values; its the first thing I identify with. It drives everything that I do  being a Christian, being a believer, said Dickson.

"My faith also led me into the public service arena after college, and it was the reason why I chose to be a teacher in the South Side of Chicago."

Dickson said that teaching in Chicago "really opened my eyes to the ministry of Jesus in a different way that I hadn't been as exposed to.

It really helped me see more of the example He set for us by how He lived His life and the ways that He showed His love, compassion, and commitment to the inherent and God-given dignity of other people through service, he said.

"In the Gospels, Jesus says 'the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.' I think I really found what that meant for me a lot more when I was teaching and working in the little village community on the South Side of Chicago and working with the students that I worked with. The families were all just incredible people who were still invested in our shared work, trying to ensure that their children had just as much opportunity, regardless of their zip code or the color of their skin."

Dickson initially self-identified as a Republican. In 2004, the first presidential election he voted in, Dickson said he supported incumbent George W. Bush.

Yet, it was amid his time teaching in Chicago that Dickson leaned more "toward working to loosen the chains of injustice and tearing down the walls of oppression."

It was really my first year as a teacher that I started to see a lot of systemic injustice in our country, and very much through the life experiences of my students and their parents and the community that I had the privilege to serve in, and that really pushed me to start looking more deeply in the Scriptures, explained Dickson.

It pushed me to reexamine my politics. I started to say, 'in what ways do I think that my current political beliefs align with that.'"

He explained that the shift was not "an immediate switch, but came through personal experiences and reading works on "the Christian calling to poverty," such as Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger by Ron Sider.

Dickson was also inspired to change his political affiliation after reading then Sen. Barack Obamas bestselling book, The Audacity of Hope.

"The way he wove together his political theory, his theology, and his public policy really spoke to me. That was the first time I really started to follow someone who identified as a different political party, he noted.

By 2008, Dickson said he was finally confident to call myself a Democrat, citing among other reasons the party's preferential treatment of the poor and emphasis on caring for the poor and vulnerable.

A new evangelical Outreach

In 2018, Matthew Bennett, a political strategist who worked in the Clinton administration, said Democrats should do a better job of reaching out to evangelicals in 2020 than they did in 2016 when Hillary Clinton was their nominee.

The Clinton campaign did do a miserable job of this and there will be a correction around that outreach to particularly white evangelical Democrats  [it] will be better in 2020 than it was before, Bennett said at the time.

Dickson showcased the effort to improve upon 2016, as he listed multiple outreach efforts to faith communities in general and evangelicals in particular.

"We have evangelical leaders who will be supporting the vice president publicly. We are doing listening sessions with evangelical leaders to hear from them, he added.

"We're hearing from people; we're engaging people, we're developing relationships. We are going to be including evangelical voices in our 'Believers for Biden' events, and we are also going to be launching 'Evangelicals for Biden.'"

We're asking people of faith for their votes; we're asking evangelicals for their support. That is not always the case, he added in an apparent reference to the Democrats purported God problem concerning reaching out to Christian voters. That is the case now, he insisted.

Dickson believes that Biden, a practicing Catholic, is an authentic man of faith whose faith and values inform his political participation, his long history of fighting for civil rights and fighting for the least of these.

Bidens beliefs will inform his presidency, Dickson told CP, citing as an example the former vice presidents recently released racial economic equity statement.

I think that it encapsulates how Joe Biden's faith is going to inform his vision for the country. It is very much rooted in those values that come from Catholic teaching and rooted in those values that are very much centered on the common good, he said.

A big tent party

Although Dickson has spoken about efforts to reach out to evangelicals, some have argued that Bidens liberal stances on issues like abortion and religious liberty are deal-breakers.

For example, in July, Biden released a statement promising to roll back federal exemptions for religious groups, such as the Little Sisters of the Poor that oppose providing coverage for birth control and abortion-inducing drugs.

Biden promised to overturn a religious exemption the Trump administration put in place in 2017, reverting to before the United States Supreme Court ruling in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, which provided an exemption for closely-held businesses.

If I am elected, I will restore the Obama-Biden policy that existed before the Hobby Lobby ruling: providing an exemption for houses of worship and an accommodation for nonprofit organizations with religious missions, stated Biden.

The accommodation will allow women at these organizations to access contraceptive coverage, not through their employer-provided plan, but instead through their insurance company or a third-party administrator.

CatholicVote President Brian Burch denounced Biden's comments, telling LifeNews that, if elected, Biden would approve policies that mistreat and marginalize Catholics.

From his support for taxpayer-funded pro-abortion extremism, to his pledge to continue to harass the Little Sisters of the Poor, Biden will be a wrecking ball against all things that Catholics hold dear, said Burch.

All Catholics in America must speak out forcefully against these threats, lest the Catholic Church in America be trampled.

Pastor Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Dallas, a longtime supporter of President Donald Trump, recently denounced evangelicals who plan to vote for Biden in November.

The only evangelicals who are going to vote for Joe Biden are those who have sold their soul to the devil and accepted the Democrats barbaric position on abortion, declared Jeffress in an interview with Lou Dobbs on Fox Business.

I mean, its so barbaric, Joe Biden believes in unrestricted abortion. He cant even get his own church, the Catholic Church, to stomach it. They have denied him communion because of that.

When asked by CP about concerns over Bidens stance on abortion, religious liberty, and similar issues, Dickson responded that theres room for disagreement on these matters.

"I know that not everyone is going to agree with him on everything. We're a big tent party as Democrats. Joe Biden is someone who is putting forward a vision that is inclusive," said Dickson. "We want to be working with as many people as possible."

"I see the values that Joe Biden lives by. I see the values that have been reflected in the history of his involvement in public life. And I see the ways in which he's going to lean into this moment right now where our country is hurting."

Dickson also reiterated his belief that the problem of "systemic racial injustices that our country has been perpetuating since its founding will be the issue of this election."
The president said many questions and problems arise in the process of preserving ceasefire.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said if everything depended only on the Ukrainian side, it would be a real ceasefire in Donbas.

"We are fighting to ensure that this regime is not violated... If everything depended only on our side, I am sure it would be real ceasefire. We would move on to the next steps, to the next stages of the war," he told journalists in Donetsk region, according to the president's press service.

Zelensky said the Ukrainian side is doing its best to maintain ceasefire and save the lives of Ukrainian servicemen.

At the same time, he said many questions and problems arise in the process of preserving ceasefire.

Read alsoDonbas truce: Ukraine reports enemy provocation on contact line

"We pray to God, and are grateful to our military. The most important thing we want is to maintain this ceasefire. It is very important for us just not to lose our servicemen every day. I can't guarantee anything, but I'll tell you  we do our best, we do a lot of things both in Ukraine and at meetings in the Minsk format, as well as during video conferences of the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG). We will continue to keep our fingers crossed," the president added.

Background
Chris' Jazz Cafe has begun streaming live performances from the empty club. Here, drummer Byron Landham performs with tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander on Aug. 1, 2020 Read more

In many ways, watching Eric Alexander take the stage at Chris Jazz Cafe felt reassuringly familiar as the Center City club came back to life Saturday night, after months of silence, to launch a new livestreamed series.

The great tenor saxophonist has long been a frequent visitor, while his rhythm section for the night  pianist Joseph Block, bassist Alex Claffy, and drummer Byron Landham  were all Philadelphians and regulars at the club. Tunes like Cole Porters Every Time We Say Goodbye, which the band played during its first set, have illuminated that room countless times over its 30-year history.

And then the reminders of our new reality began to settle in. Those regulars were less recognizable behind face masks, while Alexander was sequestered from his bandmates by an acrylic shield. The quiet smattering of applause between tunes spoke to the lack of an in-person audience for the livestreamed show.

On the upside, that also meant never having to shush the bar, where the nights selection of drinks was whatever the home audience hadnt yet depleted during the first four months of quarantine.

Even before the pandemic, Chris owner Mark DeNinno had already been planning to install streaming equipment at the iconic jazz haunt. The coronavirus simply accelerated those plans. When the writing was on the wall that we werent coming back, we switched gears, DeNinno said. This is going to be our only revenue until we can get back inside.

 READ MORE: Music under quarantine: How Adam Weiner of Phillys Low Cut Connie became a live streaming star

The shuttered club allowed DeNinno to renovate with streaming in mind. I started to watch some other peoples livestreams, and they used one static camera so it looked like surveillance video, he said. Chris high-quality broadcasts feature four remote-controlled HD cameras, operated by four engineers.

A new mural at the back of the stage lets viewers around the world know that theyre tuned into a Philadelphia jazz club.

The lineup for this week

The series continues this Saturday with enowned New York guitarist Peter Bernstein, who is celebrating the release of his new album, What Comes Next, which he managed to record with an all-star quartet during lockdown. Bernstein has played a handful of virtual shows at the Greenwich Village club Smalls, which he described as a welcome if disconcerting return.

It feels good to play, but its strange, he said. Smalls is a place where you always assume youll see lots of familiar faces, but there was nobody there. Its a bizarre feeling, and with no audience, you have nothing coming back at you, yet you know that theres way more people out there listening than could ever actually fit in the club. But hey, its the only chance we get to play.

At Chris Jazz Cafe, Bernstein will be joined by the local rhythm section of Claffy, Landham, and pianist Tim Brey. Its a fund-raiser for the legendary guitarist Pat Martino, who has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and has been unable to perform since November 2018. The livestream is free via the clubs website, chrisjazzcafe.com, which will direct visitors to a GoFundMe page for Martino.

Pat is one of the iconic figures of jazz guitar, said Bernstein.

Martino and club owner DeNinno go back 20 years, DeNinno said. Hes such a remarkable individual and such a kind and gentle man, and I felt that we needed to do something to give him a hand. Since we were going to launch worldwide and Pat is internationally known, we figured this would be a great shot to get that information out there and really raise some money. Last Saturdays show was also a fund-raiser for Martino.

And coming up 

Future shows, currently scheduled for weekends through September, will cost $5 for a single view within a 48-hour window of the live performance. A small audience of distanced friends and family will be in attendance, somewhat alleviating the dead silence between songs, and the bands will be limited to quintet and smaller  no big bands until a vaccine is found, DeNinno insisted.

The calendar so far includes shows by Chris regulars like vibraphonist Tony Miceli, drummer Rodney Green, and vocalists Joanna Pascale and Denise King, along with more high-profile headliners like sax great Chris Potter (in a stunning quartet with pianist Orrin Evans, bassist Buster Williams, and drummer Lenny White), and rising-star pianist Christian Sands.

 READ MORE: Live Nation concerts are coming soon to the Citizens Bank Park parking lot

People all over the world are thirsting for live music, especially live jazz, said DeNinno. Were hoping that our contribution can help quench that.

Peter Bernstein and his quartet play from Chris Jazz Cafe in a livestream at 8 p.m. Saturday; register free at chrisjazzcafe.com. Donations requested for a Pat Martino fund-raiser.
Mumbai, Aug 6 : Late actor Sushant Singh Rajput could not sleep at nights when he was accused of sexual harassment in October 2018, in the wake of the MeToo movement.

On Thursday, Kaushal Zaveri, one of the directors of the popular daily soap "Pavitra Rishta", took to Instagram and recalled the late actor's state of mind during that phase.

Zaveri, who stayed with Sushant back then, detailed how the late actor suffered when a section of the media made #metoo allegations against him, claiming he had misbehaved with his "Dil Bechara" co-star Sanjana Sanghi.

Sushant was so disturbed that he could not sleep for four nights till Sanjana came out and denied the allegations, revealed Zaveri's Instagram post.

"I stayed with Sushant from July 2018 to Feb 2019... the most vulnerable I have seen him was during the #metoo movement in Oct 2018... the electronic media was targeting him without any solid proof... We tried our best to contact Sanjana Sanghi but it seems she was in USA and was not available for any comment (strange coincidence). Sushant knew back of his mind who was targetting him but didn't have proof to call them out... I remember how Sushant couldn't sleep for 4 nights waiting for Sanjana to clear the allegations... Finally she cleared his name on the 5th day and it all seemed like a hard earned victory as if the battle was over," Zaveri shared on Instagram.

He added: "I am putting this here out not only for closure sake but to also find out if the people sushant thought were targetting him Were actually behind this. #justiceforsushantsinghrajput".

"Pavitra Rishta" was Sushant's second outing as an actor, and his role of Manav Deshmukh made him a household name on television, before Bollywood stardom beckoned.

Sushant, 34, was found hanging in Mumbai on June 14. The post mortem report stated that the actor committed suicide. Sanjana Sanghi was Sushant's co-star in "Dil Bechara", his last release, which premiered on OTT on July 24.

Latest updates on Sushant Singh Rajput Death Mystery

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Stock Photo

Plainview Police responded to 13 criminal mischief callouts regarding damaged property between 6 a.m. Tuesday and 3 a.m. Wednesday. Officers continued to receive calls and spot unreported damages through the rest of Wednesday morning.

Lt. William Bridgwater, a spokesperson for the Plainview PD, said the cases are still under investigation but theyre believed to be related. Suspects have been identified.
More Alabama schools are opting to delay their start dates.

Alexander City and Troy City are the most recent systems to announce a change in school calendars due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Alexander City Board of Education pushed the systems start date for traditional learning back to Sept. 8. Teachers are reporting Aug. 13 with virtual classes starting Aug. 13.

Traditional classes were originally set to start Aug. 20.

Troy City Schools have also changed their start date, moving it from Aug. 20 to Aug. 24.

Superintendent Cynthia Thomas said the extra time allows teacher to receive extra training on the Schoology platform that will be used for virtual education. About 30% of the systems K-8 students have opted for virtual learning for the first 9 weeks; roughly 20% of high school students have done the same.

Alabama requires at least 1,080 hours of instruction though calendars can be shortened to 170 days this year.

Here are other Alabama and national education headlines

Barriers around desks

Students in Dallas County will have barriers around their desks when they return to school.

Dallas County Safety Coordinator Dr. Tanya Miles told AlabamaNews.net that barriers are being placed around desks.

For our students when theyre in their desks weve ordered  its called the micro-barrier. And its a Plexi-glass tri-fold that go around our students to protect them, Miles said. So, it will offer them an opportunity when theyre working at their seats to relax their masks, so that they can be free and not have that mask tied to them all day long.

Dallas County students are set to return Sept. 8.

Tennessee schools reopen, report COVID cases

At least 14 coronavirus cases connected to schoosl have been reported in Tennessee.

Nearly 50 school districts have started the year in Tennessee, with the majority of them in class for traditional learning. Two school districts, Coffee County (Tenn) Schools and Blount County (Tenn) Schools have already closed their doors or altered schedules based on recent exposures to the virus.

Coffee County closed two schools for several days after an employee tested positive for the virus. Blount County, which reopened July 29, will switch to a staggered schedule for the next two weeks, after an individual at the school tested positive for the virus.

What teacher training looks like now

From Baldwin County Schools

WELCOME BACK. The teachers at Daphne Elementary School are ready to get back to class with the 2020-21 academic school year. #baldwinproud Posted by Baldwin County Public Schools on Wednesday, August 5, 2020

Vestavia changes schedule

Vestavia Hills City Schools is changing its back-to-school plans.

The system announced alternating schedules for grades 6-12. Under the terms of the plan, 6th  12th graders who opt for in-person learning, will go on alternating days based on their last names. Pre-K through 5th will attend school every day.

Vestavia Hills will start school Aug. 20.
HOLMDEL, N.J., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Hylan , a market leading provider of specialized communications engineering and construction services, announces today that the Best Electrician Awards judging panel of industry specialists has honored Hylan Datacom & Electrical with the 2020 Best Electrician Award for the Hylan Company's outstanding service and craftsmanship, notably in the Staten Island area. Partnering with only the best electrical contractors, the Best Electrician Awards works with one winner in each major city throughout the country. This winner is selected annually and receives various perks including an exclusive business listing on BestElectricianAwards.com, a website badge, award certificate, and more.

"The Best Electrician Awards group wishes the best for Hylan Datacom & Electrical in the 2020-2021 season and sincere congratulations on its winning of this prestigious award," comments Rich Shaffer, Awards Specialist for the Best Company Awards .

Founded in 1960 as a small Staten Island electrical contracting company by John DiLeo, Sr., Hylan Datacom & Electrical today is headquartered in Holmdel, NJ and maintains offices and facilities in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, including its Sanford Duskin Memorial Training Center, a 14,000 square foot state-of-the-art training facility in Long Island City, NY. Today, the company is led by President John DiLeo, Jr ; and Robert DiLeo, Chairman of the Board for Hylan. Hylan Datacom & Electrical specializes in Datacom/Splicing, Utility Construction, DAS and Small Cell, and Electrical Construction and Maintenance services.

"We are pleased to receive this acknowledgement of 2020 Best Staten Island Electrician Award for Hylan Datacom & Electrica l, particularly as we celebrate our 60-year anniversary proudly serving the telecommunications and construction industries," comments DiLeo. "Founded on the principles of a powerful work ethic and a strong customer-centric approach, and we are proud to carry this tradition of excellence into 2020 and promote our award of excellence. As with every accomplishment, we express our sincere gratitude to our customers, partners, stakeholders and our Hylan family, and will continue to work hard to serve their best interests."

For more information, visit https://hylandatacom.com/ .

About Hylan

Hylan is a leading provider of full-service turnkey communications solutions, electrical infrastructure design and construction services for wireline, wireless and smart city municipal services across the United States. Hylan is the parent company to four divisions that include Hylan Datacom & Electrical, Hylan West, Down Under Construction and Western Utility. Hylan Companies provide an array of comprehensive services, which include communications and electrical infrastructure design, DAS and small cell installations, engineering, construction and maintenance services, and more. Originally founded as Hylan Datacom & Electrical 60 years ago in New York City, Hylan now serves a wide variety of end-markets throughout the U.S., with current offices and facilities in New York, New Jersey, Arizona, California, Illinois, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Utah and Virginia. Supported by private equity firms Flexis Capital and TZP Capital Partners to accelerate its growth strategy, Hylan plans for additional expansions throughout the U.S. in 2020 and beyond. Visit https://hylan.com or more information.

SOURCE Hylan

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Have you heard of the Sealey Challenge? Started in 2017 by the poet Nicole Sealey, the exercise invites people to read more poetry by setting a specific goal: 31 books in 31 days throughout the month of August. If that sounds appealing, and you dont mind starting a few days late, you might jump in with Concordance, the latest collection by the estimable Susan Howe, which is one of nine new books we recommend this week.

Also on the list: the memoir Memorial Drive, by the former poet laureate Natasha Trethewey, and (leaving the realm of poetry altogether) new novels from Roddy Doyle and the screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, along with a story collection centered on a Massachusetts fraternity. In nonfiction we recommend James Hamblins fascinating survey of the latest dermatologic science, Anne Applebaums study of the people who enable authoritarian regimes, and two books about books: Wendy Lessers Scandinavian Noir: In Pursuit of a Mystery and Rachel Cohens Austen Years: A Memoir in Five Novels.

Gregory Cowles

Senior Editor, Books

Twitter: @GregoryCowles

MEMORIAL DRIVE: A Daughters Memoir, by Natasha Trethewey. (Ecco, $27.99.) This memoir by Trethewey, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, is about the murder of her mother, Gwendolyn, who was 40, by Gwendolyns second husband, a troubled Vietnam veteran. Trethewey has used autobiographical details in her poetry before, but, our critic Dwight Garner writes, Nothing she has written drills down into her past, and her familys, as powerfully as Memorial Drive. It is a controlled burn of chaos and intellection; it is a memoir that will really lay you out.

LOVE, by Roddy Doyle. (Viking, $27.) In Doyles new novel, about two 50-ish men talking well-oiled talk in a pub (youll say youve heard that one before; you havent), hilarity and seriousness work back to back to illuminate the secret, sacred world of male friendship that lies behind all the awkwardness and evasiveness. Maybe a theme hiding in this novel is that men are not as awful at communicating as we, and women, say we are, Roger Rosenblatt writes in his review. The message in the bottle may be that all the slurred words and mottled meanings have a definite if desperate outcry in them.
While many are giving their highest regards for John Lewis and his contributions to the freedom movement there is that emotional presence of sorrow. While our media emphasizes we are mourning our loss, my personal friendship and working relationship with Congressman John Lewis is more of a celebration for John Lewis. I realize this statement is difficult to imagine. Certainly, his departure from mortality to immortality gives many grief. However, John Lewis works gives all of us the moral playbook and advocacy to bring justice and equality to America.

For me, the beginning of the friendship with John Lewis begins in 1962 when I started as a field secretary with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee known as SNCC. We met in Atlanta. This beginning, along with other freedom fighters, I not only witnessed John Lewis leadership, but I experienced what he had been experiencing prior to my joining SNCC. John Lewis was a strong advocate of nonviolence. His basic principle was that of love as often spoke and taught by Dr. Martin L. King Jr. Often, I had conversation with John Lewis concerning Dr. King Jr. since my father (Dr. Andrew J. Brown) had often had Dr. King at our home in 1956 and 1957 and other times prior to the 60s. When I began in SNCC, I was assigned to Selma, Alabama. It was in 1963 that I came often in contact with John Lewis and the total SNCC team of organizers.

The media and the many who knew John Lewis since his passing, in my opinion, have done an excellent series of presentations on Congressman John Lewis. It is interesting to note that Congressman John Lewis was here in Indianapolis two years ago for the Kennedy/King event. We talked briefly and he was really in a hurry to get out of Indy that day because it was an unbelievably cold day.

And, his remark to me was, Tom, the next time, please pick a warm day for me to come. John was no great lover of cold weather.

My relationship and knowledge of John Lewis is vast. We of the SNCC movement of the 60s were fortunate to work together in unity and harmony. Johns leadership was impressionable and compassionate. Of course, when he became Congressman, he sowed seeds of love.
Los Angeles City Mayor Partners with Department of Water and Power to shut down Unsolicited Large Gatherings

Wednesday, August 5, the Los Angeles City Mayor Eric Garcetti disclosed recent records of the coronavirus outbreak. On Wednesday, the mayor reported the numbers were seeing a steady trend, Los Angeles remains in Level Orange of COVID-19 caution. There has been sightings of large gatherings and Garcetti shared his plans to keep the City away from any future sites.

The Mayor announced there has been over one-million tests administered across Los Angeles. The mayor stressed the concern in people gathering during the time of physical distancing. Gathering is in violation of the health orders put in place to stop the spread of COVID-19.

According to Mayor Garcetti there has been large parties in The Hills, he announced that he has partnered with Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to shut down all utility in warranted places that are holding these large gatherings. If police show up and report there is a unsolicited gathering, they will start with a notice following with the process of requesting the LADWP to shut off utility services.

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Multiple public officials stressed the importance of staying home, wear a face covering, an

d to be aware of the current environment. The City looks to be getting back on the recovery pathway and the mayor is looking to bring medical equity to underserved communities. The mayor shared the resources available for those unable to make it to a testing site.

The Fire Department redeveloped trailers that have walk up windows testing four people at a time. Through out this week, the mobile testing sites will be by 1st and Soto. This is in result from funding assistance, on July 7 the County announced a new commitment, to supply additional funding for testing sites. As previously mentioned, there was a $400,000 seed devoted to the support of staffing costs at COVID-19 testing sites operated by CORE. It helped current operations, fully fund nine sites, and prepared the launching testing centers.

Los Angeles City Mayor Eric Garcetti shared the latest updates regarding the coronavirus outbreak on Wednesday. Current county statistics reflect 2,347 new infections, bringing the total to 197,912. Mayor Garcetti disclosed 940 of those reports came directly from the city of Los Angeles. Hospitalizations are down by 20%, the County confirmed the transmission is steadily decreasing. The positivity rate in the city of Los Angeles is slightly over 7%.

Los Angeles data shows scaling increase in positive cases among the youth demographic. Younger individuals are contracting the virus in an increasing rate. The most common space for spread is through gatherings and extended outdoor leisure. The county stressed to avoid populated areas and to remain indoors as much as possible.

Its estimated that 1 out of 510 Angeleno are carriers of the virus. The mayor described this as positive news he explained that it reflects the efforts made by the community are working. Garcetti Stated, Even in this moment of trial, we have the capacity to achieve the extraordinary, to tap into the wonders of science, innovation, technology, and creativity.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 21:44:13|Editor: huaxia

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RABAT, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Morocco's total foreign trade dropped by 17.7 percent in the first half of 2020, the foreign exchange regulator said on Thursday.

According to the report, the total foreign trade decreased from 44.3 billion U.S. dollars in the first semester of 2019 to 36.46 billion U.S. dollars at the same period of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Morocco's exports decreased by 18.3 percent to reach over 13.5 billion dollars, while imports deceased by 17.5 percent to reach 22.9 billion dollars.

Trade deficit narrowed by 16.2 percent to more than 9.4 billion dollars.

The foreign direct investment in Morocco declined by 7.2 percent year on year to a total of 926 million U.S. dollars between January and June, the report added. Enditem
The Border Guard in the central province of Quang Tri worked with security forces in Laos Savannakhet province to arrest five Lao suspects as a result of an expanded investigation into a ring trafficking drugs from Laos to Vietnam.

The exhibits seized in the drug trafficking case

The forces caught five Lao nationals smuggling 60,000 synthetic pills in the afternoon of August 4.

The suspects are Khamdi Xaynhavong, 45, residing in Khammouane province, Dosa Mavongxay and Lu Lec Invanongsa, both 17, Phu, 35, and Kasy Xaynhavong, 20, all residing in Savanakhet province.

Also seized at the scene were one car, over 1 million Lao Kip, and other items.

In the first phase of the case, forces seized 419,000 synthetic pills and arrested four people./. VNA

Vietnamese, Scot jailed in Hanoi on drug offences The Hanoi City Peoples Court on August 3 handed down jail sentences to a Vietnamese and a Scot on charges of trafficking drugs.
KALAMAZOO, MI -- The day to celebrate graduation for Loy Norrix seniors finally arrived this week after an unprecedented end to their final year of high school.

The class of 2020 at Loy Norrix High School crossed the stage during an outdoor graduation ceremony Wednesday, Aug. 5. The seniors turned their tassels to celebrate the end of high school after spending their final few months of school at home during the coronavirus pandemic.

Related: Kalamazoo Public Schools graduation ceremonies moved outdoors following governors order

The graduation ceremonies for Kalamazoo Public Schools were moved outside after Gov. Gretchen Whitmers latest executive order amid the pandemic. Whitmers Executive Orders 2020-160 and 2020-161, issued on July 28, amending Michigans Safe Start Order, stated that beginning July 31, indoor gatherings must be limited to 10 people.

Please click here to view the full photo gallery.

KPS had already planned in-person graduation ceremonies for Loy Norrix, Kalamazoo Central and Phoenix high schools as well as the Kalamazoo Innovative Learning Program (KILP), but the district said those plans were amended as a result of the governors order.

Students at Phoenix High School celebrated their graduation Tuesday, Aug. 4. Kalamazoo Central High School seniors will graduate Thursday, Aug. 6.

Seniors were allowed to bring five guests to the ceremony. Everyone was required to wear a mask and social distancing was observed, the district said.

Weeks after school buildings has been and students switched to virtual instruction, the district in May announced plans to hold virtual ceremonies. After receiving community input pushing school leaders to consider in-person options, the district reversed course and created a plan to hold in-person graduation ceremonies.

Also on MLive:

Kalamazoo schools will start the year online-only

Reopening schools depends on how people behave, Michigans Dr. Khaldun says

Catholic schools in Kalamazoo plan return to in-person learning in August
PHILADELPHIA - A man accused of opening fire on FBI agents in a northwest Reading neighborhood earlier this year has been indicted by a federal grand jury.

The U.S. attorney's office announced Thursday that Rafael Vega-Rodriguez was charged with three counts of attempted murder of a federal law enforcement officer, three counts of assault on a federal officer with a deadly weapon, and related firearms charges.

FBI agents were armed with a warrant for Vega-Rodriguez's arrest when they spotted him walking in the 300 block of West Greenwich Street on the night of March 1. The suspect, authorities said, drew a handgun from under his sweatshirt and fired at the agents as he and another individual fled. None of the agents was hit.

"Shooting at FBI Agents is one of the absolute worst  and dumbest  things that an individual can do," said U.S. Attorney William McSwain. "Such alleged behavior is guaranteed to bring the full force of the federal government crashing down on your head. This case has my full attention and we will not rest until justice is served."

The shooting paralyzed the neighborhood, as it triggered an 18-hour standoff and an intense manhunt before Vega-Rodriguez was apprehended on March 3 in Leola, Lancaster County, approximately 30 miles southwest of Reading.

+15 PHOTOS: FBI, police swarm neighborhood in Reading Federal and local investigators closed off part of a neighborhood in Reading for hours Monday.

Authorities have said that Vega-Rodriguez was being sought by the FBI as a "person of interest" in multiple shootings in Reading. Officials said his criminal history includes felony convictions for crimes involving firearms.

"Anyone who tries to kill an FBI Agent, knowing the ramifications that would bring, is dangerous, desperate, and an extreme threat to public safety," said Michael J. Driscoll, special agent in charge of the FBI's Philadelphia division. "That's someone who needs to be taken off the street immediately, and we'll bring all available resources to bear to do just that."

If convicted, Vega-Rodriguez faces up to 140 years in prison, officials said.

"As alleged, Rafael Vega-Rodriguez was determined not to be apprehended and had no compunction about opening fire on our agents," Driscoll said. "We're now equally determined to see him brought to justice."
Seven New Greatness movement case defendants found guilty of extremism

 RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov

13:51 06/08/2020

MOSCOW, August 6 (RAPSI)  Moscows Lyublinsky District Court on Thursday found activists of the New Greatness (Novoe Velichie) movement guilty of organizing an extremist community, RAPSI reported from the courtroom.

The court found that Anna Pavlikova, Maria Dubovik, Dmitry Poletayev, Maxim Roshchin, Ruslan Kostylenkov, Vyacheslav Kryukov and Petr Karamzin created the community for a violent upheaval.

Prosecutors earlier asked the court to sentence alleged leader of the extremist movement Kostylenkov to 7.5 years in penal colony; Karamzin and Kryukov to 6.5 and 6 years behind bars respectively. Suspended terms were demanded for other defendants.

Alleged activists of the extremist movement were arrested in March 2018. Investigators stated that the defendants followed far-right ideas and that their leader claimed that he planned to establish a new order in Russia.

The New Greatness case became a subject of public controversy because the defense has information that the movement itself was organized by a law enforcement officer.
Twitter said it would start labeling accounts from "state-affiliated media" and take other steps to try to limit the spread of government-led influence campaigns.

The San Francisco-based social-media giant unveiled the new steps in a statement released August 6.

The company said it would add new labels to accounts and that it would also "no longer amplify" tweets from such accounts through its recommendation systems.

"Unlike independent media, state-affiliated media frequently use their news coverage as a means to advance a political agenda. We believe that people have the right to know when a media account is affiliated directly or indirectly with a state actor," Twitter said.

Twitter's announcement comes months after a similar move by Facebook, which began labeling content from media that are editorially controlled by governments.

Shortly after the announcement, Twitter accounts belonging to several Russian media organizations displayed the new labels. A label was affixed to the English-language Twitter account for RT, the Russian government-funded TV network formerly known as Russia Today, and a Russian-language label was affixed to the state-run news agency TASS.

The moves by two of the most prominent social-media companies in the world come amid concerns about campaigns by governments aimed at influencing elections and public sentiment in other countries through media outlets that allow them to disguise their origins or true ownership.

With reporting by AFP
Credit: Ethan Brooke/Pexels

The health of wallabies and kangaroos is being affected by the herbicide, atrazine, which is used widely in Australia on cereal crops and in forestation to prevent weeds, according to new research.

Atrazine, which has been banned in the European Union since 2003, may be impacting reproduction in marsupials, the University of Melbourne study found, published today in Reproduction, Fertility and Development.

"Exposures to atrazine is causing major abnormalities in the male reproductive system in many animals, triggering male sterility or even male-to-female sex reversal in frogs," Professor in Genetics Andrew Pask said.

"With the marsupial's unique mode of reproduction and the young completing their development in the pouch, mothers are unknowingly passing the toxins on in their breast milk, exposing their young to environmental toxins."

The study is the first time the impacts of pesticides have been investigated in any marsupial and show that they are able to affect reproductive development.

The research found that concentrations of atrazine have been recorded at disturbingly high levels in Victorian rivers and Tasmanian streams immediately after forestry spraying.

Kangaroos and wallabies are at high risk because they eat the sprayed crops and drink from contaminated water resources where chemicals such as atrazine accumulate from run off.

Atrazine affects a broad range of animals from mammals such as rats to amphibians, reptiles and even fish.

With marsupials already experiencing devastating population declines across Australia, and 21 percent of native mammals currently threatened with extinction, researchers say the potential impacts of environmental toxins are of major concern.

Researchers exposed five adult female tammar wallabies to atrazine contaminated water throughout pregnancy, birth and lactation to help establish the extent of harm being caused by the chemical.

They then examined the reproductive development of their young by assessing their growth and development.

Lead author on the research and Ph.D. student Laura Cook said the study number was kept small for ethical reasons, to initially examine 'proof of principle' of the effects of atrazine.

"It is even more significant we saw such an impact in just a tiny sample," Ms Cook said.

It is hoped the study will lead to more stringent guidelines around the use of atrazine in Australia.

"Endocrine-disrupting chemicals, such as atrazine, have the ability to impact development and increase disease susceptibility," she said.

"With increased habitat destruction, marsupials are being pushed onto farmland, attracted to the food resources and rare permanent water sources where they may be vulnerable to agricultural contaminants, such as pesticides."

Explore further Atrazine alters the sex ratio in Blanchard's cricket frogs

More information: Laura E. Cook et al. Long-term maternal exposure to atrazine in the drinking water reduces penis length in the tammar wallaby Macropus eugenii, Reproduction, Fertility and Development (2020). Laura E. Cook et al. Long-term maternal exposure to atrazine in the drinking water reduces penis length in the tammar wallaby Macropus eugenii,(2020). DOI: 10.1071/RD20158
French President Emmanuel Macron says an international fundraising conference for Lebanon will be held in the next few days after the deadly explosion that devastated Beirut.

On a visit to the gutted city, Macron said Thursday that France will organize a conference with European, American and Middle Eastern and other donors to raise money for food, medicine, housing and other urgent aid.

He promised a ''clear and transparent governance'' so that the aid goes directly to the populations and aid groups.

Beirut residents blame years of corruption and mismanagement by Lebanon's leaders for Tuesday's explosion, which killed more than 130 people, wounded thousands and left tens of thousands homeless.

France once governed Lebanon as a protectorate and maintains close ties.

Residents of Beirut vented their fury at Lebanon's leaders Thursday during a visit by French President Emmanuel Macron, blaming them for the deadly explosion that ravaged the capital. Shouting, ``Revolution!'' they crowded around the visiting leader who promised to press the politicians for reform.

For many Lebanese, Tuesday's giant blast was the last straw after years of corruption and mismanagement by a political elite that has ruled for decades.

The blast, which killed more than 130 people, wounded thousands and left tens of thousands homeless, is believed to have been caused when a fire touched off a stockpile of 2,750 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate that authorities left sitting in a warehouse for years _ despite a customs official's repeated warnings.

Macron visited the devastated port and toured a hard-hit neighborhood lined with heavily damaged buildings. A crowd gathered around him and shouted their anger, chanting, ``Revolution!'' and ``The people want to bring down the regime!'' _ slogans used at mass protests last year.

Macron told them he would speak to Lebanon's political leaders.

``I will propose to them a new political pact this afternoon,`` he said. ``I will be back on the first of September and if they can't do it, I will keep my responsibility toward you.''

He also promised that French aid would be given out with transparency and ``will not go into the hands of corruption.'' France once governed Lebanon as a protectorate and maintains close ties.

Elsewhere, he said his visit was ``an opportunity to have a frank and challenging dialogue with the Lebanese political powers and institutions.'' France will work to coordinate aid, he said, but warned that ``if reforms are not made, Lebanon will continue to sink.''

There have been widespread pledges of international aid to Lebanon, but the country has been mired in a severe economic crisis and faces a daunting challenge in rebuilding. It's unclear how much support the international community will offer the notoriously corrupt and dysfunctional government.

Losses from the blast were estimated by Beirut Gov. Marwan Abboud to be between $10 billion to $15 billion, who said nearly 300,000 people are homeless.

The disaster may also have accelerated the country's coronavirus outbreak, as thousands flooded into hospitals. Tens of thousands have had to move in with relatives and friends after their homes were damaged, further raising the risks of exposure.

The head of Lebanon's customs department, meanwhile, confirmed in an interview with LBC TV on Wednesday that officials had sent five or six letters over the years to the judiciary, asking that the ammonium nitrate be removed because of its dangers.

Badri Daher said all he could do was alert authorities to its presence, saying even that was ``extra work'' for him and his predecessor. He said the port authority was responsible for the material, while his job was to prevent smuggling and collect duties.

The judiciary and the port authority could not immediately be reached for comment. The government said Wednesday an investigation was underway and that port officials have been placed under house arrest.

The ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive chemical used in fertilizers, had been stored at the port since it was confiscated from a ship years earlier. Based on the timeline and the size of the cargo, that ship could be the MV Rhosus. The ship was initially seized in Beirut in 2013 when it entered the port due to technical problems, according to lawyers involved in the case. It came from the nation of Georgia, and had been bound for Mozambique.

The stockpile is believed to have detonated after a fire broke out nearby in what appeared to be a warehouse holding fireworks. Daher, the customs official, said he did not know if there were fireworks near the site.

Another theory is that the fire began when welders were trying to repair a broken gate and a hole in the wall of Warehouse 12, where the explosive material was stored. Local news reports say the repairs were ordered by security forces who were concerned about theft.

Security officials have declined to comment during the investigation. Port officials have rejected the welding theory in interviews with local media, saying the work had been completed long before the fire broke out.

Lebanon's various political factions, including the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group, have ruled the country since the 1975-1990 civil war. Almost all the country's public institutions are divided up among the factions, which use them as patronage generators for themselves and their supporters. Little actual development is put into the institutions and anything that requires joint action often becomes mired in bickering. As a result, even basic services like electricity and trash collection are in a shambles.

The tiny Mediterranean country is beset by soaring unemployment and a financial crisis that has wiped out people's life savings. Hospitals were already strained by the coronavirus, and one was so badly damaged by the blast it had to treat patients in a nearby field.

Dr. Firas Abiad, director general of Rafik Hariri University Hospital, the public hospital leading the coronavirus fight, said he expects an increase in cases in the next 10 to 15 days linked to crowding at hospitals and blood donation centers after the blast.

Authorities had largely contained the outbreak by imposing a sweeping lockdown in March and April, but case numbers have risen recently. A renewed lockdown was to take effect this week but was canceled after the explosion. The country has reported more than 5,400 coronavirus cases and 68 deaths since February.

``There is no doubt that our immunity in the country is less than before the explosion and this will affect us medium- to long-term,'' Abiad said. ``We desperately need aid, not only us but all hospitals in Lebanon.''

The explosion was the most powerful blast ever seen in the city, which has survived decades of war and conflict. Several city blocks were left littered with rubble, broken glass and damaged vehicles.

Authorities have cordoned off the port itself, where the blast left a crater 200 meters (yards) across and shredded a large grain silo, emptying its contents into the rubble. Estimates suggested about 85% of the import-reliant country's grain was stored there.

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Driving on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZM Bridge), where as far as the eyes can reach, the sea melt into the sky, I became sentimental about my parting from it, a construction that I had been working on for so long.

Im going to wave goodbye to the bridge after the settlement of relevant bills of the project at the end of this year. Every time I think about this, all the memories of my joy, anger, sorrow and happiness during the construction of the mega bridge over the past 15 years well up in my heart.

Chinese President Xi Jinping attended and addressed the opening ceremony of the HZM Bridge. He said that the bridge would help fulfill dreams, consolidate bonds between people, boost confidence, and promote rejuvenation of our nation.

Builders of the HZM Bridge demonstrated the Chinese nations spirit of striving to overcome any difficulties, the national strength, the innovative ability, and the aspiration to be the worlds best, Xi said. These remarks still ring in my head. They are not only Xis top marks to the builders of the bridge, but also his earnest expectations of all the Chinese builders in the new era.

The island and tunnel section is the key part of the 55-kilometer project. The undersea tunnel of the project is Chinas first offshore immersed tunnel and also the worlds only deep-immersed underwater tunnel so far.

After we were charged 150 million euros ($172 million) by a foreign firm as the consulting fee, we decided to do it on our own, with innovation.

The choice meant a bumpy road ahead for sure, and as a matter of fact, we encountered difficulties in all the four key techniques applied in the construction of the bridge, from the rapid building of artificial islands to the semi-rigid immersed tunnel structure, and from the composite foundation treatment to the installation of deep-immersed tube in deep water.

Rapid building of artificial islands was the first step of the island and tunnel section of the project. We needed to root 120 steel cylinders with a diameter of 22 meters into the seabed and make them form two closed circles, which was also the first technical problem we met in the whole project.

In our experiment in Bohai Bay area, we couldnt drive the steel cylinders into the seabed anyway. The head-on blow made everyone nervous. We didnt know if we would make it after all.

We checked the whole procedure and found that we failed because the old and new gears of the steam hammer didnt work properly. The experiment was successfully completed later after troubleshooting.

And when we finally finished the experiment, all the technicians who look serious and introverted at work burst into tears. At that moment, I had a better understanding of how much independent innovation mean to us.

The bridge recorded our endeavor to pursue independent innovation and witnessed painstaking efforts to overcome numerous difficulties.

The main body of the island and tunnel section of the project consists of 33 immersed tubes, with each weighing as much as 80,000 tons. Each of the tubes represents a different story.

During the installation of the 28th tube, we were confronted with ocean currents that were far more complex than we expected. The huge tube wobbled continuously in the sea. We had to make accurate adjustment constantly so as to ensure perfect connection.

The adjustment needed help from divers. Normally it took up to three times for them to adjust a tube before installation. But the 28th tube wasnt installed until more than 200 times of adjusting. Thanks to the unprecedented adjustment work, we realized perfect connection eventually.

Today, when we look at the Lingdingyang Bay, we see super-large maritime engineering equipment performing their functions in perfect order, and we know huge immersed tubes were lifted by floating cranes and placed precisely on the predetermined positions of the seabed. A world-class mega project was just finished by us like flow line production. I feel proud of it.

The construction and opening of the HZM Bridge gave me a great sense of happiness and achievement. I know we Chinese engineers in the new era are worthy of the ever-changing times.

At present, various tasks of the project are coming to an end, while the construction of many other major projects are in full swing.

On construction sites of various projects across our country, such as the 14-kilometer-long tunnel at the Pearl River estuary of the railway linking Guangdongs Shenzhen and Jiangmen, the undersea tunnel of Dalian Bay, and the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Bridge, numerous Chinese engineers are working hard and marching forward towards the realization of the Chinese dream with infinite passion.

Lin Ming is the chief engineer of the island and tunnel section of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge project
The UNs most powerful body did not take any action or issue a statement after the virtual meeting behind closed doors.

The UN Security Council discussed disputed Kashmir at Pakistans request on Wednesday for the third time since Indias Hindu nationalist government decided to end the Muslim-majority regions semi-autonomy a year ago.

The United Nationss most powerful body did not take any action or issue a statement after the virtual meeting held behind closed doors.

Nonetheless, Pakistans Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said afterwards holding the meeting signified that Jammu and Kashmir is an international dispute firmly on the agenda of the Security Council and has nullified, yet another time, the Indian self-serving claim that it is an internal matter.

China is seriously concerned about the current situation in Kashmir and the relevant military actions. China's mission to the UN

On August 5, 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modis government stripped Indian-administered Kashmirs statehood, scrapped its separate constitution and removed inherited protections on land and jobs.

The UNSC held its first closed consultations on Kashmir since 1971 following Indias surprise action in August 2019 to change the Himalayan regions status [File: Carlo Allegri/Reuters]

But the government said the change was necessary to develop the disputed region and integrate it with the rest of India, but it infuriated many Kashmiris as well as neighbouring Pakistan.

Qureshi said in remarks circulated by Pakistans UN mission the international community should exercise its moral, legal and political authority to call out India to reverse the tide of impunity and stop genocide of the Kashmiri people.

Unilateral actions

He urged India to reverse its unilateral actions, stop human rights and ceasefire violations, remove restrictions on communications, movement and peaceful assembly and immediately release Kashmirs leaders.

The Pakistani minister expressed gratitude to the 15 UNSC members, especially China, for their support in organising the meeting in the face of Indias desperate attempts to prevent this discussion. When it went ahead, Qureshi said India tried to minimise the importance and significance of the meeting.

China is seriously concerned about the current situation in Kashmir and the relevant military actions. We oppose unilateral actions that will complicate the situation, Chinas mission to the UN in New York said in a statement.

More than half a million Indian troops are deployed in Kashmir, making it one of the most militarised zones of the world [Tauseef Mustafa/AFP]

Indias new UN Ambassador TS Tirumurti tweeted after the meeting: Another attempt by Pakistan fails!

In todays meeting of UN Security Council which was closed, informal, not recorded and without any outcome, almost all countries underlined that J&K (Jammu and Kashmir) was bilateral issue & did not deserve time and attention of Council, he wrote.

Modis move last year was accompanied by a total communication blackout and mass detentions. Some rights groups have been critical of the governments handling of Kashmir, particularly continuing internet curbs.

This has been compounded by a censored media, continuing detention of political leaders, arbitrary restrictions due to the pandemic with little to no redressal, Amnesty International said in a statement on Wednesday.

Kashmir issue

Kashmir became an issue at the end of British colonial rule in 1947 when the Indian subcontinent was divided into predominantly Hindu India and mainly Muslim Pakistan and its future was left unresolved.

India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over control of Kashmir, which had been a Muslim-majority kingdom governed by a Hindu ruler.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi urged India to reverse its unilateral actions, stop human rights and ceasefire violations, remove restrictions on communications, movement and peaceful assembly and immediately release Kashmirs leaders [Farooq Naeem/AFP]

The first war ended in 1948 with a UN-brokered ceasefire that left Kashmir divided, with the promise of a UN-sponsored referendum on its final disposition that has never been held.

The UN sent military observers to supervise the ceasefire in January 1949 and, following renewed hostilities in 1971, the UN mission has remained in the area to observe and report to the secretary-general  not to the Security Council as other peacekeeping missions do.

The UNSC held its first closed consultations on Kashmir since 1971 following Indias surprise action in August 2019 to change the Himalayan regions status.

Self-determination

Speaking on the first anniversary of the revocation of Kashmirs special status, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan demanded Kashmiris right to self-determination be implemented.

Another attempt by Pakistan fails! TS Tirumurti, India's UN Ambassador

He reiterated the Pakistani governments support for the long-standing dispute to be settled via a UN-mandated plebiscite.

Today, [Indian Prime Minister] Narendra Modi is exposed in the world, said Khan. And the biggest thing to come from that is that the world is now looking at Kashmir.

On Wednesday, heavy troops were deployed and curbs on public movement were put in place as Indian authorities kept a tight lid on potential protests in Kashmir. More than half a million Indian troops are already deployed in the region to quell armed rebellion that erupted in 1989.

Local politicians were not permitted outside their homes, likely to prevent them from calling street demonstrations or even from holding meetings, in the strictest lockdown seen in months.

One year later the authorities are still too afraid to allow us to meet, much less carry out any normal political activity, former Chief Minister of Indian-administered Kashmir Omar Abdullah said on Twitter. This fear speaks volumes about the true situation on the ground in Kashmir.

India accuses Pakistan of arming and training rebels fighting for Kashmirs independence from India or its merger with Pakistan. Pakistan denies the charge and says it offers only diplomatic and moral support to the rebels.
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The global fiducial markers market size is estimated to reach USD 142.0 million by 2027 registering a CAGR of 4.2%, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Increasing prevalence of cancer and growing adoption of radiotherapy procedures are the factors expected to contribute to the market growth. Fiducial markers are widely used in external beam radiotherapy procedures. Therefore, increasing number of external beam radiotherapy procedures is also expected to boost the adoption of these markers. In addition, over most of the cancer patients receive radiation therapy, which in turn, is increasing the product demand.

Rising awareness about the safety and efficiency of advanced radiotherapy techniques, such as stereotactic radiosurgery, intensity-modulated radiotherapy, and image guide radiotherapy, in cancer treatment is expected to boost the market growth. Moreover, several initiatives undertaken by various governments for the development of new radiotherapy centers through direct funding or tax waive-off will aid in market growth.

On the other hand, availability of alternative treatment methods, such as chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, and surgery, is expected to have a negative impact on the product demand. Furthermore, with the advent of advanced imaging modalities, such as PET-based LINAC system, eliminates the need for fiducial markers hampering the market growth. However, high cost of PET-based LINAC systems is expected to contribute to the increased usage of fiducial markers for radiotherapy.

To request a sample copy or view summary of this report, click the link below:

https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/fiducial-markers-market

Further key findings from the study suggest:

Gold fiducial markers segment held the largest market share in 2019 and is expected to expand at a healthy CAGR over the forecast period owing to product advantages, such as biocompatibility and enhanced visibility across multiple imaging modalities including CT, MRI, ultrasound, and fluoroscopy.

Based on application, prostate cancer segment held the largest market share in 2019 and is expected to register a significant CAGR over the forecast period.

Based on end user, radiotherapy center segment is projected to register the fastest CAGR during the forecast period.

North America is estimated to be the largest regional fiducial markers market over the forecast period due to growing number of cancer cases and adoption of advanced technologies.

Some of the prominent companies in the global market are CIVCO Radiotherapy; IZI Medical Products, LLC; Naslund Medical AB; Medtronic PLC; QlRad, Inc.; QFIX; Boston Scientific Corp.; Nanovi A/S; Eckert & Ziegler; and IBA Dosimetry GmbH.

Grand View Research has segmented the global fiducial markers market on the basis of product, modality, application, end user, and region:

Fiducial Markers Product Outlook (Volume, Units; Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

Gold

Gold Combination

Polymer

Other Metal

Liquid

Fiducial Markers Modality Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

CT/CBCT

MRI

Ultrasound

X-Ray

Fiducial Markers Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

Breast Cancer

Lung Cancer

Prostate Cancer

Head and Neck Cancer

Other

Fiducial Markers End User Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

Hospitals

Radiotherapy Center

Academic and Research Center

Fiducial Markers Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

North America US. Canada

Europe UK. Germany France Italy Spain Russia Switzerland The Netherlands Sweden Belgium

Asia Pacific Japan China India South Korea Thailand Indonesia Philippines Taiwan Malaysia Singapore

Latin America Brazil Mexico Argentina Colombia Chile

Middle East & Africa South Africa Saudi Arabia UAE Kuwait Israel



About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.
Elephants lock horns as they greet each other at dawn in the Amboseli National Park in southern Kenya in 2013. (Dai Kurokaw / EPA)

To the editor: Trophy hunting in the modern world? Are you kidding me? It is absolutely unconscionable, cruel and unnecessary that beautiful and innocent wild animals worldwide are murdered purely to satisfy a hunter's desire to kill. ("This L.A. hunter killed an elephant. Now he's a PETA target in bid to end trophy hunting," Aug. 3)

I was absolutely sickened by Aaron Raby and his self-serving attitude that he "hunts not for the kill but for the experience and adventure of the hunt." If Raby really felt that way, then why kill? Why not shoot instead with just a camera? If he really knows and understands animals as he claims, then why kill them and instead donate the money he spends on hunting expeditions to conservation groups?

Elephants are sentient beings and deserve far better. I can only hope that Senate Bill 1175 is passed and signed into law by Gov. [Gavin] Newsom, and Raby never receives his trophy from Africa.

Suzanne E. Feighery, Fullerton

..

To the editor: In 1974, I had the experience of exploring East Africa for a month with a friend. We camped where we wanted and blended in with the environment and the animals. We had many experiences with elephants, as we observed them from a distance.

Now, I read of a hunter who not only killed an elephant and then proceeded to eat part of it, but now wants the head as his personal trophy.

This is taking place in 2020, when our knowledge of elephants has taught us that the giant creatures have "feelings" and console each other through trauma.

Put down your knife and fork, Mr. Raby.

Wendy Robinson, Santa Clarita

..

To the editor: While the state is overwhelmed responding to the pandemic, why does the Legislature find it necessary to ban the import and possession of parts of certain animal species?

The countries of origin and the U.S. federal government already have rules in place regulating this trade. Why is the state weighing in on the conservation policies of foreign countries? Are we so arrogant that we think we can manage these species from thousands of miles away?

Story continues

Former Gov. Jerry Brown got it right when he vetoed this legislation the first time around. Effective enforcement is next to impossible. The state doesn't regulate points of entry into the United States or even our own borders for that matter.

Our state agencies have better things to do than to track down hunting trophies.

Andrew Shore, Venice

..

To the editor: According to your article, Raby said he hunts "not for the kill, but for the experience and adventure of the hunt  living outdoors, cooking around a campfire, tracking an animal and immersing himself in the wild."

If Raby is so into the experience and adventure, maybe he should try using a camera instead of a gun. He would be living outdoors, cooking around a campfire and immersing himself in the wild.

The only thing missing would be a dead (possibly endangered) animal, shot and left to die a miserable death.

Debbie Cassettari, Chino Hills
Inner-city apartments are vastly overpriced with Sydney units typically selling for $355,000 above construction costs because of planning rules.

Units near central Sydney cost an average of $873,000 to buy but only cost $519,000 to build, a Reserve Bank of Australia study found.

While Sydney was the worst, Melbourne and Brisbane were also overpriced.

The gap in Sydney between building costs and real estate prices was particularly pronounced in the eastern suburbs, North Sydney and at Leichhardt in the inner-west where a shortage of properties mean units sell at a premium.

Apartments near the city are typically overpriced by up to $355,000 because of planning restrictions. Units a shortage distance from the centre of Sydney typically cost $873,000 but only cost $519,000 to build, a Reserve Bank of Australia analysis found. Pictured are more expensive apartments

The gap between building cost and sales prices was a remarkable $700,900 in the eastern suburbs where harbourside units at Watsons Bay have a median price of $1.3million going by CoreLogic data.

The poor value for money was blamed largely on local government height restrictions for buildings near the city, which prevent supply keeping up with demand.

'The large gaps are sustained by planning restrictions,' the paper by Keaton Jenner and Peter Tulip said.

'The shortage of apartments is most severe in the inner suburbs of Sydney, where height limits prevent more construction.'

Height restrictions in Sydney were small on the outskirts of the city, moderate in middle-ring suburbs and large near the city centre.

In Melbourne, apartments typically sell for $97,000 more than the supply cost while in Brisbane, buyers are paying $10,000 more than the construction expenses.

While Sydney's apartment prices were typically $355,000 above construction costs, that gap rose to $700,900 in the eastern suburbs where harbour units at Watsons Bay have a median price of $1.3million going by CoreLogic data

Unlike Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane have more high-rise apartments closer to the CBD.

'Apartment building in Brisbane and Melbourne has been concentrated in the centre, whereas most of Sydney's apartments have been built in middle-ring suburbs,' the paper said.

'A large location premium, as in inner Sydney, can only be sustained with supply restrictions.'

The Reserve Bank was critical of inner-city councils that failed to allow low-density unit blocks to be demolished and replaced with high-rise apartment towers.

In Melbourne, apartments are typically sell for $97,000 more than the supply cost

In Melbourne, the poorest value for money was found in apartments at Williamstown and Altona in the inner-west, and the eastern bayside suburbs from St Kilda to Beaumaris.

For Brisbane, the highest prices relative to construction cost were the inner suburbs from East Brisbane to Morningside and up to Bulimba.

'High-rise apartments are a much less costly means of supplying extra housing than the medium-density housing that some planners favour,' it said.

In Brisbane, buyers are paying $10,000 more than the construction expenses

Nonetheless, middle-distance suburbs in Sydney have been home to faulty apartment towers.

The 34-storey Opal Tower at Sydney Olympic Park was evacuated on Christmas Eve in 2018 after residents reported hearing cracking sounds, that were later revealed to be cracks the foundations.

Suburbs where renters are the majority of residents have also seen a fall in real estate values, even accounting for the boom times before the COVID-19 crisis and the 2017 downturn sparked by stricter lending rules for investor loans.

High-rise apartments in Sydney were more likely to be found in middle-ring suburbs like Sydney Olympic Park, the home of the cracking 34-storey Opal Tower

At Sydney Olympic Park, in the city's west, where 66 per cent of residents are renters, median unit prices have fallen from $721,192 in 2014 to $719,516.

A similar phenomenon occurred at Bowen Hills, in Brisbane's inner north, where 80 per cent of residents are renters, going by Census data.

Median unit prices there plunged 13 per cent in five years, have dropped from $504,666 in 2014 to $438,482.
Award-winning Zimbabwean journalist and government critic Hopewell Chin'ono failed in his second attempt at securing bail Thursday following his arrest on charges of inciting violence more than two weeks ago.

Chin'ono, who helped expose a multimillion-dollar corruption scandal involving the procurement of coronavirus supplies, was arrested at his house in Harare on July 20 by armed police.

He was charged with inciting the public to commit violence for his role in promoting opposition-organised protests against corruption which were slated for the end of July.

Last month a magistrate court rejected Chin'ono's initial application for bail. He appealed to the High Court, but was kept behind bars.

"I determine that the appellant has failed to demonstrate any misdirections of fact, law or both made by the learned magistrate in the court... as would justify interference with his judgement," said High Court judge Tawanda Chitapi.

"The appeal is hereby denied."

Chin'ono, who had been investigating reported corruption linked to government purchases of virus protection gear and test kits, encouraged the public to join the July 31 anti-government demonstrations via Twitter.

The protests were banned and police and soldiers sealed off the roads leading into the city centre.

Around 20 activists who held demonstrations in their neighbourhoods were arrested and have since been freed on bail.

They included internationally acclaimed writer and Booker Prize nominee Tsitsi Dangarembga.

Last month the UN's high commissioner for human rights warned Zimbabwe against using the coronavirus pandemic as a cover to curb political demonstrations.
The government has finally issued guidelines on how solar-powered irrigation system owners can be paid for exporting power back to the grid. However, for those who expect to have to use grid power to augment solar from time to time, there could be a sting in the tail.The government of Bangladesh has issued guidelines for the net metering and grid integration of solar-powered pumps but there are concerns the new rules could disincentivize adoption for farmers who may need to draw down grid power as well using the solar energy generated by the systems. Under the new system, the owners of solar pumps ...

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
A trade deal between Europe and Canada was last night under threat because of a row over halloumi cheese.

Cyprus, which invented the chewy cheese, has voted to block the deal until it is guaranteed protection from products imitating genuine halloumi.

The island, which is split between Greek and Turkish sectors, wants the semi-hard cheese to get the same protected status as champagne and Parma ham.

Cyprus, which invented the chewy cheese, has voted to block the deal until it is guaranteed protection from products imitating genuine halloumi (pictured, file image)

The island, which is split between Greek and Turkish sectors, wants the semi-hard cheese to get the same protected status as champagne and Parma ham. Pictured, a Champagne advert at the entrance to the village in Avize

It has become the first country to reject the EU-Canada agreement which has provisionally been in force since 2017. All EU states must back the deal for it to be ratified.

The cheese is a mixture of goat and sheep milk matured in brine. It is commonly used as a substitute for meat.

Cyprus is adamant the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement should protect its version from rivals and close the Canadian market to halloumi produced by the US and Britain.

Such a move would bring a financial boost to the island.

A spokesman for Cypruss Movement for Social Democracy, which voted against the deal, said it wanted protection as soon as possible.
CaLee McManus is the founder of Monarch Real Estate, and has sold more than 200 homes and influenced $200M+ in sales since 2006. Ive always prided myself on providing world-class service. Our partnership with Side ensures that Monarch Real Estate has the state-of-the-art marketing, technology, administrative, and legal services that will keep our clients competitive in this dynamic business.

Monarch Real Estate today announced its partnership with Side, the only real estate brokerage that exclusively partners with high-performing agents, teams, and independent brokerages to transform them into boutique brands and businesses. The alliance will ensure that Monarch Real Estate, known for its ability to increase ROI and shorten market times for its clients, is powered by the most advanced platform in the industry.

Monarch Real Estate specializes in residential real estate in Ladera Ranch, Rancho Mission Viejo, Coto de Caza, and Dana Point, but also serves all of South Orange County. Since 2006, founding member CaLee McManus has sold more than 200 homes and influenced $200M+ in sales. Her numerous awards include being named one of Americas Top 100 Real Estate Agents, a Market Leader by Forbes, a Women of Distinction, and a Five-Star Agent by Orange Coast Magazine for 11 years running. McManus is also regularly featured on the national television series American Dream.

Partnering with Side will ensure Monarch Real Estate remains at the cutting edge of the evolving real estate market while allowing its agents to continue offering unrivaled client services. Monarch Real Estate agents are fully supported by a one-of-a-kind premium brokerage platform, which provides transaction management, property marketing, lead generation, business growth opportunities, vendor management, and infrastructure solutions.

Of the decision to align with Side, McManus said, Ive always prided myself on providing world-class service. Our partnership with Side ensures that Monarch Real Estate has the state-of-the-art marketing, technology, administrative, and legal services that will keep our clients competitive in this dynamic business.

Side is led by experienced industry professionals and world-class engineers who develop technology designed to improve agent productivity and enhance the client experience. Based on its belief that homeownership is a fundamental human right, Side is on a mission to improve the public good by providing top-performing real estate agents, teams, and indie brokerages with the best system, support, service, experience, and results.

About Monarch Real Estate

Monarch Real Estate is a visionary real estate group created by CaLee McManus, a top-producing and multiple award-winning agent who knows South Orange County and Ladera Ranch like no other. The team is known for offering a high level of service that emphasizes compassionate communication, timely and professional execution, and effective marketing strategies. Monarch Real Estate has a proven track record for transforming real estate dreams into reality and achieving the highest ROI possible. To learn more, please visit http://www.monarchrealestateca.com.

About Side

Side transforms high-performing agents, teams, and independent brokerages into successful businesses and boutique brands that are 100% agent-owned. Side exclusively partners with the best agents, empowering them with proprietary technology and a premier support team so they can be more productive, grow their business, and focus on serving their clients. Side is headquartered in San Francisco. For more information, visit http://www.sideinc.com.
One day last week, I was reading the newspaper at the table minding my own business, when Kay said, Do you know that today is Underwear Day? There are a handful of comments that Kay makes each day that are void of any words good enough to register with me. That being said, Language Professors will tell you that underwear is one of the 916 words in the English language that command attention.

After asking Kay to repeat her statement about underwear, I said You mean that July 29 is Underwear Day? She said, No, you goober. Aug. 5 is Underwear Day. I thought on that for a couple of seconds before saying, Well, then what is today? This time she screamed, Underwear Day! To which I replied, I thought that was on July 29.

It was during Kays teeth grinding, that it hit me, BONK! Whoa! I said. You have a birthday this month, dont you? I figured Underwear Day was her way of suggesting I get her some underwear for her birthday. Hey, I had trouble believing it, too. The woman had apparently gone completely out of her mind. Before I could state my reluctance to buy ladies underwear, Kay, upon reading my expression, immediately said, And, no, Archie! Im not asking you to buy me underwear for my birthday. Kay has gotten good at impersonating Edith Bunker.

So, it finally hit me, Bonk! Aug. 5 must really be Underwear Day. When I asked Kay what youre supposed to do on Underwear Day, she said, I imagine you do what youve already done. Thats when I said, Oops. And jumped up and headed to my underwear drawer. - But, No, I actually headed to my study to research the history of Aug. 5s Special Day. I learned so much.

First of all, its called National Underwear Day and was conjured up by a company called Freshpair in 2003. They selected Aug. 5, because  uh, I suppose there was too much happening on Aug. 4. Anyway, to celebrate, were all supposed to strip down to our undies and parade downtown or in our neighborhood. In 2013, Fairpair hoped to break the Guinness Book record for the most people parading around in their underwear. The event took place at Times Square in New York. There were 800 participants and something like three million observers. -- A logical guess.

Unfortunately, Fairpair didnt even come close to the record set on Sept. 24, 2011, at the Utah Undie Run in Salt Lake City, Utah. On that day, 2,270 Mormons proudly marched across town in their skivvies. Actually, I dont know how many Mormons participated. Perhaps some Baptists were bussed in. - I joke!

The most fascinating piece of info I gathered from my research involved the reason for the invention of underwear. Originally, they were worn to keep people from sweating up their outer clothes. Over the years, I believe that reason has evolved somewhat.

I also found out that practically every day of the year is a Special Day. Anybody can establish one. Just put one or more of those 916 words and see how many people spread the news. Each day has more than one Special Day claimant. For example, Aug. 5 is also Oyster Day. Theyre best eaten live or, at the very least, raw. The only people who prefer them fried are people like me. The Fifth of August is also Work Like a Dog Day. On this day, bosses are supposed to thank their overworked, overstressed, and underpaid workers for their jobs well done. If your workers are paid well and dont have that much to do or to worry about, you dont have to thank them.

Aug. 6 is Rootbeer Float Day and Wiggle Toes Day. I neglected to get a rootbeer float, but I did wiggle my toes. I was supposed to also get a foot massage, but thats one step too far for Wiggle Toes Day. Aug. 7 is Light House Day. We celebrate our Monoliths of Light. Thats what youre supposed to call them on their special day. Aug. 7 is also a day celebrated by probably half the people in the country. Of course, they probably dont know it, but its called National Beer Day.

Aug. 8 is considered by some to be a sad celebratory time. Its International Cat Day. Not National. This thing is worldwide! According to the founders of Cat Day, cats are the oldest and most beloved pets. I wisely choose to make no comment on that.

But forget that. Today is Sunday for most of you. More precisely it is the second Sunday in August, which makes it International Melon Day and Rice Pudding Day. I kid you not. You really need to embrace one of those, because you missed all the other Special Days.

You may forget all of these celebratory occasions, but please celebrate Tommows special day. Aug. 10 is National Lazy Day. To celebrate, you can stay in bed as long as you want. Or, you can sprawl out on the couch and read or watch TV all day. Pretty much what some of us have been doing. The difference being, tomorrow its against the rules to feel guilty about it.

What do you think? I dont know about you, but Im going to stop this right now and prepare myself for tomorrow.

The summer of 76 is available in paperback or ebook at Amazon.com. Mark is available at hayter.mark@gmail.com
Netwalker ransomware operators breached the networks of Forsee Power, a well-known player in the electromobility market.

A new company has been added to the list of the victims of the Netwalker ransomware operators, it is Forsee Power, which provides advanced lithium-ion battery systems for any mobility application.

The industrial group is based in France and in the US USA, it is one of the market leaders in Europe, Asia, and North America with annual revenue of around $65 million and over 200 employees.

Recently Cyble threat research group came across another disclosure from the Netwalker group that announced to have stolen sensitive data from Forsee Power.

Netwalker ransomware operators announced the attack with a message posted on their online blog and shared a few screenshots as proof of the security breach.

One of the images shared by the group shows a directory containing folders such as Accounts Receivable, Finance, collection letters, Expenses, and Employees.

Below some tips on how to prevent ransomware attacks provided by Cyble:

Never click on unverified/unidentified links

Do not open untrusted email attachments

Only download from sites you trust

Never use unfamiliar USBs

Use security software and keep it updated

Backup your data periodically

Isolate the infected system from the network

Use mail server content scanning and filtering

Never pay the ransom.

Recently the FBI has issued a security alert about Netwalker ransomware attacks targeting U.S. and foreign government organizations.

The feds are recommending victims, not to pay the ransom and reporting incidents to their local FBI field offices.

The flash alert also includes indicators of compromise for the Netwalker ransomware along with mitigations.

The FBI warns of a new wave of Netwalker ransomware attacks that began in June, the list of victims includes the UCSF School of Medicine and the Australian logistics giant Toll Group.

The Netwalker ransomware operators have been very active since March and also took advantage of the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak to target organizations.

The threat actors initially leveraged phishing emails delivering a Visual Basic Scripting (VBS) loader, but since April 2020, Netwalker ransomware operators began exploiting vulnerable Virtual Private Network (VPN) appliances, user interface components in web apps, or weak passwords of Remote Desktop Protocol connections to gain access to their victims networks.

Recently the Netwalker ransomware operators were looking for new collaborators that can provide them with access to large enterprise networks.

Below the recommended mitigations provided by the FBI:

Back-up critical data offline.

Ensure copies of critical data are in the cloud or on an external hard drive or storage device.

Secure your back-ups and ensure data is not accessible for modification or deletion from the system where the data resides.

Install and regularly update anti-virus or anti-malware software on all hosts.

Only use secure networks and avoid using public Wi-Fi networks.

Consider installing and using a VPN.

Use two-factor authentication with strong passwords.

Keep computers, devices, and applications patched and up-to-date.

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs  Netwalker ransomware, Forsee Power)
Advertisement

By West Kentucky Star Staff

Aug. 06, 2020 | FRANKFORT

By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 06, 2020 | 05:20 PM | FRANKFORT

Governor Andy Beshear on Thursday extended the mandate requiring facial coverings for another 30 days, citing its success and continued importance in flattening the curve of COVID-19 cases in the commonwealth.



"By now, we all know someone that we care about, that we're close to who is fighting this virus or has fought this virus. And as things progress, we will all probably know somebody who we have lost to this virus. This is going to be a month where I hope we turn things around, but based on July, we're still going to see a lot of pain," said Gov. Beshear. "So let's make sure that we protect our mental and emotional health, stay as committed as we've always been to defeating this virus and step it up."



The governor said that on Monday he will have additional guidance for Kentucky's bars and restaurants.



"Expectations ought to be that capacity will increase again to 50% but there will be some changes. Especially in restaurants, we need people to still prioritize outdoor seating," said Beshear. "Bars and restaurants are both going to be expected to have their last item served at 10 p.m. Then there is going to be an hour to let people eat and drink and ultimately go home."



As of 4 p.m. Thursday, Beshear said there were at least 33,254 coronavirus cases in Kentucky, 516 of which were newly reported Thursday. Twelve of the newly reported cases were from children ages 5 and younger.



"We appear to not just be slowing, but we hope stopping any escalation that we've seen. It's further evidence that wearing that facial covering is truly helping Kentucky in so many different ways  our people, our economy, our kids," said Gov. Beshear. "So let's keep it up. I believe that if we continue to do this, we can see even better numbers than what we have now."



Beshear reported eight new deaths Thursday, raising the total to 760 Kentuckians lost to the virus. The new deaths include an 87-year-old man from Graves County.



The positivity rate currently stands at 5.51%, unchanged from yesterday. At least 8,523 Kentuckians have recovered from the virus.



You can see Beshear's full update below:




ST. JOHNS, N.L.Newfoundland and Labradors COVID-19 infection rate could be 20 times higher in the absence of a travel ban, the doctor leading a team running models on the contagion said Thursday in court.

Dr. Proton Rahman testified before the provinces Supreme Court during a legal challenge to the travel restrictions authorities imposed in May to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Newfoundland and Labradors chief medical officer of health, Dr. Janice Fitzgerald, is also set to take the stand as a witness in the proceedings scheduled this week in St. Johns. She ordered special measures this spring that banned anyone but permanent residents and workers deemed essential from entering the province.

In May, Halifax resident Kim Taylor and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association filed a claim alleging the restrictions fall outside the provinces jurisdiction and violate the charter.

Taylor was initially denied a request to travel to Newfoundland after her mother died. That decision was later reversed and she was granted an exemption, but she says it came too late.

Rahman, a clinical epidemiologist and professor of medicine at Memorial University of Newfoundland, testified Thursday about with his work with the modelling group.

His team helps the province and other institutions with predictive analysis on issues such as potential surges of COVID-19 cases. Rahman said his team was asked by the province to run modelling scenarios in June for the court case.

The results, he said, showed a 10-fold higher rate of cases in the province over a nine-week period without a travel restriction in place. A second scenario showed a case rate that was five-to-20-fold higher over 14 weeks without a travel restriction, he said.

Rahman also told the court about a paper he co-authored with Stanford University and Oxford University professors analyzing the impact of lifting the travel ban in the province.

The paper dated July 17 is not yet peer-reviewed. Researchers used machine learning and an epidemiological model to look at COVID-19 dynamics in various reopening scenarios. The results suggest that a full border reopening would see a new COVID-19 case in the province every other day.

The authors wrote that while relaxing travel restrictions is a highly contentious political decision, tight border measures are a clearly effective strategy to control cases.

From an outbreak dynamics perspective, the picture is quite clear: Without proper control, an influx of infected travellers can easily become the seed for a new exponential outbreak, the study read. Our study shows that especially for smaller provinces or states ... tight border control is often easier and more effective than quarantine.

The authors also noted local travel bubbles are a reasonable first step when relaxing travel restrictions. Newfoundland and Labrador joined the other Atlantic provinces in a regional bubble in July, allowing residents to travel within the region without self-isolating upon arrival.

The paper also cites health factors in the province that are critical to analyze when developing COVID-19 policies, noting Newfoundland and Labrador has high rates of smoking, obesity, metabolic disease and cancer.

Fitzgerald was set to appear as a witness Thursday, but the proceedings were cut short after a lawyer working on the case felt ill and was unable to return to the courtroom. Rahman is scheduled to resume his testimony in court Friday morning.
Reform activists blasted a budget proposal by San Antonio officials to spend $8 million more on the police department, calling the move a slap in the face after they implored leaders over the summer to cut law enforcement spending.

City officials countered that the increase is legally required because theyre raises included in the contract between the city and the police officers union.

That didnt satisfy the protesters.

This bloated police budget is unacceptable, activist Leah Wilson told the City Council during a virtual meeting Thursday. You say that youve heard our calls to defund the police. And yet instead youve done the opposite and expanded their budget another year.

Cries of defund the police rang out during Black Lives Matter protests here and across the country after the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed African American, by a white police officer in Minneapolis in May.

Protesters have pushed city leaders to pull money from the police budget to pay for health care, job training and other efforts to fight poverty and improve the quality of life in minority communities.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio eyes $120 million in cuts because of novel coronavirus, but activists must wait to defund the police

So it came as little surprise that activists balked when City Manager Erik Walsh unveiled the citys proposed $2.9 billion 2020-21 budget Thursday and saw that it included an $8 million increase in the Police Department budget  bringing the total for that department to $487 million.

The increase mostly stems from increases in pay and health care costs totaling nearly $13 million enshrined in the citys contract with the police union. The jump is smaller than in recent years, but its still an increase, they said.

Frankly, I cant help but feel as though this proposed budget is a slap in the face, not only to the hundreds of organizers but folks who engaged with the city of San Antonio in how we are addressing the public health crisis that we are dealing with right now, both COVID as well as racism, activist Celeste Brown told council members. This is not OK.

Walsh doesnt want to rush into making sweeping cuts to the police. Instead, hes proposed a months-long process to re-evaluate the Police Department, focusing on such issues as police accountability and discipline and figuring out what San Antonio residents want from the department. Walsh plans to deliver a reform package in April.

The budget will go through several public hearings before the council takes a final vote Sept. 7.

Walsh pointed out that his budget calls for investing in areas activists sought to have bolstered, including health care, housing and education. For example, the city has set aside $5.3 million in housing assistance.

Calls for police reform have brought a sharper focus to how equity and justice is reflected in our institutions, our values and our spending, Walsh said. I am proposing a deliberate process to set the future of police services.

Also wary of moving too fast is Mayor Ron Nirenberg, who has publicly backed pushes to reform police discipline and spending. Nirenberg said hes leery of making big promises now and possibly having to walk them back later.

I think it would be a disservice to the change that they (activists) are seeking to do it willy-nilly and just to try to check a box, Nirenberg said.

But activists chafed at the slower approach.

City Manager Erik Walsh has said that he wants San Antonio to be deliberate about this approach, organizer Marlon Davis told council members. But theres nothing deliberate about the same business-as-usual approach that made San Antonio the most economically-segregated city in the nation.

Walshs proposed budget makes some changes geared toward re-evaluating the role of police. The city plans to put all of its violence prevention programs under one roof at the Metropolitan Health District and move 20 civilian employees who work with domestic violence victims from SAPD to Metro Health.

Under the proposal, the city will assign 25 officers to focus on domestic violence prevention and intervention and plans to apply for the Justice Departments Community-Oriented Policing grant.

The plan would pump $1 million in new spending on homelessness and mental health outreach, often handled by police  though some who spoke Thursday found those investments paltry.

The city would cut police overtime by $3.4 million  which it can do because of an incoming cadet class, Walsh said.

The spending plan put forth Thursday drew mixed reactions from council members.

I dont see enough of a change here, said District 6 Councilwoman Melissa Cabello-Havrda, who chairs the council Public Safety Committee. I appreciate the economic reality that has to be considered. But this doesnt seem to be enough of a shift.

Earlier this year, the city instituted a hiring freeze to save money as the COVID-19 pandemic battered the citys economy and sapped its tax revenue.

District 2 Councilwoman Jada-Andrews Sullivan asked whether that freeze applies to the police and fire departments. Walsh said no.

Others saw the proposal as a good starting point.

This proposed budget doesnt make all of the changes that our community and the activists are asking for, District 7 Councilwoman Ana Sandoval said. But I think it does begin to set the stage for a transformation in how we deliver public safety.

Two North Side council members were unenthusiastic about the prospect of reducing the number of police officers. District 8 Councilman Manny Pelaez pointed out that officers often escort victims of domestic violence away from their abusers.

I dont support defunding police if it means that somehow were going to lessen the quality of services to folks who weve been able to help, Pelaez said.

District 10 Councilman Clayton Perry noted that council had sought for the past several years to fill police vacancies. If other council members want to trim the number of officers in their districts, Perry said, they can.

I dont want to do any backstepping or sliding back because people  they want more police officers in their neighborhoods, Perry said.

Uncertainty remains

Council members got a clearer picture of the citys finances Thursday, destabilized by the pandemic as retail and restaurant sales plummeted and hotels emptied. As a result, the city is dealing with a projected $127 million loss in revenue.

There still remains a fair amount of uncertainty going into next years budget, Walsh told council members.

When City Council adopted its current budget last September, the city expected to collect about $313 million in sales taxes. After the pandemic hit, that number stood at $292 million. And budget writers project itll only get slightly better next year: $295 million.

The city expects its take from property taxes to grow 5 percent to $398 million. But Walsh warned council members that the recession and homeowners contesting their property values could lead to fewer property tax dollars in the future.

The citys property tax rate would stay flat under the proposed budget.

Taxes from hotel room bookings likely wont recover for years. The city projects $78 million in hotel occupancy taxes and other money related to tourism over the next year  down significantly from the $129.3 million it expected to get in its current budget but more than it actually got, $69 million.

As a result of that expected low revenue, Walsh laid out more than $36 million in cuts to programs funded by tourism dollars including arts and culture and the citys agreement with Visit San Antonio, a private nonprofit that promotes the city to convention planners.

At the risk of sounding heretical or a monster for not supporting arts and culture, Pelaez said more cuts to arts funding may be necessary in light of the economic crisis.

Im going to have a really difficult time explaining to my constituents why were funding the Cactus Pear Music Festival or the Sociedad Herencia Puertorriquena or (the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center) or other organizations and programs that quite honestly dont make sense during a time of crisis, Pelaez said.

Separately, Walsh proposed the city recognize Juneteenth  a holiday that marks June 19, 1865, when slaves in Texas learned they were free  as one of the citys 13 paid holidays for its employees.

Joshua Fechter is a staff writer covering San Antonio government and politics. To read more from Joshua, become a subscriber. jfechter@express-news.net | Twitter: @JFReports
Afghanistans Health Ministry has estimated that nearly a third of the population -- or 10 million people -- has been infected with the coronavirus.

Health Minister Ahmad Jawad Osmani told reporters on August 5 that the survey was based on antibody tests carried out on around 9,500 people across the country with technical support from the World Health Organization (WHO).

The survey estimated that some 31.5 percent of the 32-million population has contracted the virus, with the highest infection rate in the capital Kabul where more than half of the city's five million population are believed to have been infected.

Afghanistan, which has poor health infrastructure and has been wracked by decades of war, only has limited testing capacity.

Officially, the country only has 36,829 positive cases and 1,294 deaths as of August 5, although the real numbers are believed to be much higher.

"A second wave of the infection is happening everywhere in the world and we cannot be an exception, said Osmani. We will use the findings of this survey to better prepare ourselves for a possible second wave.

More than 18 million people worldwide have been infected with the virus since it first emerged in China late last year.

The virus entered Afghanistan in February as thousands of migrants and refugees returned from neighboring Iran, one of the region's worst-hit countries.

Osmani said a survey on the mortality rate of the coronavirus in Afghanistan was under way.

Based on reporting by AFP and dpa
The United States and seven European countries marked Fridays 12th anniversary of the conflict between Russia and Georgia with a call to Moscow to withdraw forces from Abkhazia and South Ossetia and allow medical evacuations and aid deliveries especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The western nations said after a closed briefing to the UN Security Council on Wednesday by Assistant Secretary-General Miroslav Jenca that Russias continuing military presence in Abkhazia and South Ossetia and its recognition of the so-called independence of the regions violates Georgias territorial integrity and undermines its sovereignty.

Georgia made a botched attempt to regain control of its breakaway province of South Ossetia during the presidency of Mikhail Saakashvili, sparking the war with Russia that began on Aug. 7, 2008. Russia recognized the independence of South Ossetia as well as the breakaway province of Abkhazia and set up military bases there.

The US and European nations said in a joint statement that they are extremely concerned about Russias intensification of the so-called `borderization process over the past year, including during the global COVID-19 pandemic.

They said Russias actions further divide communities and put at risk the health and lives of the conflict-affected population.

Throughout this already challenging time, the de-facto authorities exercising effective control over the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia have continued the practice of arbitrary detentions along the administrative boundary lines, the statement said. De facto South Ossetian authorities have repeatedly denied emergency medical evacuations and incoming humanitarian aid.

The US, Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Norway and Ireland also expressed concern about the ongoing disinformation campaign by Russia about the pandemic and related health issues.

These acts prolong the conflict, threaten peace and stability, interfere with the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, and negatively impact the health and safety of people across Georgia, destabilizing the region as a whole, the eight nations said.

Russias deputy UN ambassador Dmitry Polyansky responded, tweeting that the joint statement is A beautiful fiction. But only a fiction.

He made no mention of the pandemic but said Georgias aggression which triggered all the problems for this country & the region was officially confirmed in 2009 by the report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the conflict.

As a result of former Georgian leaderships reckless policy unscrupulously encouraged by the US and some of its satellites 2 new independent states have emerged on the global map and this is the reality that cannot be ignored, Polyansky tweeted.

Politicians promoting selfish geopolitical interests managed so far to drive a wedge between our countries but they failed to do so between our 2 peoples, he added. Discussions like today attempt to undermine the ongoing process of reconciliation of Russia and Georgia.

The US and Europeans called again on Russia to fully implement agreements in August 2008 to withdraw its armed forces to positions before hostilities began, and to establish an international security mechanism.

Representatives of Georgia, Russia, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and the United States have held talks in Geneva since October 2008 to address the consequences of the Georgia conflict under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the European Union and the United Nations.

The US and Europeans expressed regret at Russias lack of commitment in the Geneva talks on the topic of refugees and Georgians internally displaced, and reiterated support for human rights, including for those forcibly displaced during the conflict to return safely to their homes.
A Northern Territory couple have revealed what could be the world's most dangerous drive after at least 12 crocodiles blocked their path while crossing a river.

Video footage captured the terrifying moment a couple were stuck in the middle of Cahills Crossing, a popular spot in Kakadu National Park, notorious for saltwater crocodiles.

The clip, filmed on Monday, showed Rachelle Wastle and her husband Peter's vehicle submerged in water as they tried to make their way to the other river bank.

But at least 12 crocodiles blocked the couple's path - and none of them seemed willing to move out of the way.

'Come on, move,' Mr Wastle could be heard saying in the clip.

Video footage captured the terrifying moment a couple were stuck in the middle of Cahills Crossing (pictured), a popular spot in Kakadu National Park, notorious for saltwater crocodiles

The couple sounded more frustrated than terrified at their circumstances - as a group of tourists watched on.

Mrs Wastle told Daily Mail Australia that she and her husband had been taking advantage of the Northern Territory's long weekend and had been camping in Cobourg Peninsula.

The couple were returning to their home in Darwin.

'We were fine with the crocodiles, we are used to them now,' she said.

'We had been camping in an area where you walk along the beach and a crocodile would appear two metres in front of you.'

Eventually, the crocodiles began to move out of the way of the vehicle in chase of some food.

'That one almost caught a barramundi,' Ms Wastle was heard saying in the clip.

'Don't run over his tail. He is still moving in front of you.'

The clip, filmed on Monday, showed Rachelle Wastle and her husband Peter's vehicle submerged in water as they tried to make their way to the other river bank

She revealed that she had never seen that many crocodiles sat on the crossing before.

'The tide was at a certain height and there were loads of barramundi jumping from one bank to the other so they were all sat there trying to get food,' Mrs Wastle said.'

'At one point - right next to my window - one of the fish jumped up and onto the other side of the croc's head but he just missed it.'

The scenic road is known to attract hundreds of tourists each year, including dozens of bold drivers who attempt to make the daring journey across.

However at least 12 crocodiles blocked the couple's path - and none of them seemed as though they were willing to move out of the way

In September 2019 one a tourist was left in a terrifying situation after their car became surrounded by more than 30 saltwater crocodiles.

The car was forced to come to a complete stop for more than two minutes and wait for the reptiles to move off the road.

Operations manager at Kimberley Off-Road Adventure Tours Lucy Periton told Daily Mail Australia at the time it's not unusual to see the reptiles sprawled all over the road.
Senior judges have raised concern after part of a High Court libel trial featuring a former British spy was wrongly live-streamed to people in the United States, Cyprus and Russia.

Christopher Steele, who set up an intelligence consultancy after leaving MI6, wrote a 2016 dossier about alleged links between Donald Trump and Russia.

Russian businessman Aleksej Gubarev sued him after BuzzFeed published the Steele Dossier in January 2017.

He said part of the dossier made seriously defamatory allegations.

Mr Steele disputed his claims.

A judge oversaw the trial in a court room at the Royal Courts of Justice in London in July.

Russian businessman Aleksej Gubarev (Aaron Chown/PA)

Mr Justice Warby, who has yet to deliver a ruling, made an order saying journalists and members of the public could not physically attend  because of the coronavirus crisis  but could watch proceedings screened to a nearby room via Zoom.

He subsequently discovered that a solicitor, at a law firm representing Mr Gubarev, had sent the Zoom link to seven people, who watched part of the trial from various locations around the world, without his permission.

The judge asked two other judges to examine issues relating to the professional conduct of McDermott Will and Emery, the law firm representing Mr Gubarev, who lives in Cyprus.

Dame Victoria Sharp and Mrs Justice Andrews, who heard evidence at a High Court hearing in London last week, have raised a number of concerns and said an order made by Mr Justice Warby had been disobeyed.

The two judges said, in a ruling published on Thursday, that McDermott Will and Emery, which has offices in London and abroad, had referred the matter to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).

They said the Zoom link had been sent to seven people connected to Mr Gubarev, including his wife and daughter in Cyprus, the mother of one of his business associates  who gave evidence at the trial  in Russia, and lawyers he used in the United States.

Story continues

Judges said for three days proceedings had been live-streamed outside the legal jurisdiction of England and Wales without Mr Justice Warbys permission.

The Royal Courts of Justice in London (Aaron Chown/PA)

This state of affairs is deeply worrying, said the two judges. As McDermott Will and Emery has already referred this matter to the SRA, it is unnecessary for us to do so.

We will nonetheless direct that a copy of this judgment is sent to the SRA so that this courts views of the seriousness of the breaches in this case can be made known to it.

Judges said the lawyer who had passed on the Zoom link had told of a memory fade, had accepted responsibility and made a full and unreserved apology.

They accepted that it was not a case of deliberate defiance of a court order.
by Pierre Balanian

The blasts, dubbed Beirutshima, have sparked acts of solidarity and brought help from the whole world. The Lebanese are donating blood, sheltering displaced people, and cleaning the debris and rubble from the streets. Russia, Italy, United Kingdom, China, Iran, Iraq, the Emirates, and many others are sending medical supplies and food. French President Emmanuel Macron arrived on a solidarity visit. The number of dead stands at 137, whilst the number of injured tops 5,000. The needs of Beirut residents remain huge. AsiaNews continues its Help devastated Beirut campaign.

Beirut (AsiaNews)  Tuesdays horrific explosions, which hit half of Lebanons capital, took place in a country hitherto under regional and global isolation with a government scorned by the international community, suffering from rampant corruption, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the effects of the embargo on Syria.

With the Port of Beirut, one of the most active and biggest in the Mediterranean since antiquity, knocked out, things are far worse. In Beirut, no one expected help from abroad. After the initial shock, the Lebanese pulled up their sleeves, almost in desperation, with few means but a lot of good will.

Hundreds of thousands of people flocked to clinics to donate blood. Families in the poorer northern and southern areas opened their homes to the 300,000 people left homeless. Young people of all backgrounds volunteered to help clear the debris, pick up broken glass and move the wrecked cars from the streets.

The blast, now called Beirutshima, which had about one tenth of the explosive power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, now seems to have broken Lebanons isolation.

International solidarity has come, including from Israel, the enemy. Hitherto, world opinion had seemed impervious to the fate of the people of Lebanon, wounded by the policies and wars of others. Now messages of solidarity and closeness have come from all over the world accompanied by actual offers of much needed help.

For the Lebanese, this is a relief; for humanity, this brings hope: Despite the world crisis, human beings continue to see themselves as one family. Since yesterday afternoon, Beirut airport has been very busy as aid pours in from all over the world.

Russia has already sent three planes full of medical supplies, plus a field lab for COVID-19 patients; a team of Russian SAR experts is scheduled to arrive today. Italy has sent a group of firefighters, whilst Great Britain has donated 5 million (US$ 6.6 million) to repair houses damaged by the explosions. China has offered to rebuild the port in record time.

The nightmare is providing a unique opportunity for the country to recover and save itself from taking geopolitical sides in todays highlight polarised world.

In solidarity with the people of Lebanon, French President Macron arrived at noon today (Beirut time) on an official visit, the first by a head of state of a friendly country, breaking an informal embargo that has been in place for almost a year now. Three planes full of aid also landed with the French president.

Meanwhile, digging continues for victims still under the rubble. The death toll reached 137 this morning whilst the number of the injured topped 5,000. The authorities have ordered three days of national mourning, and imposed a two-week state of emergency enforced by the Armed Forces.

Syria, already reeling from its own civil war, also sent aid, and its foreign minister said that it would not abandon Lebanon. The civil protection agency in Lebanons Palestinian refugee camps has also been busy, helping rescue a member of Lebanons own civil protection agency trapped in the rubble.

Planes carrying aid are a sign of unprecedented international solidarity with the Mideastern country.

The first aircraft landed at 6 pm yesterday, from Iran, followed by planes from Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar (two field hospitals), and Egypt. Tunisia evacuated about a hundred seriously injured people to be treated at a military hospital in Tunis. Eventually, a plane with aid arrived from the United Kingdom.

A cargo ship is on its way to Beirut from Algeria, with three Algerian planes bringing food set to land soon. Turkey has sent medicines; Iraq is providing fuel needed to provide electrical power to the whole country for several months.

After the first 24 hours, it is clear that Lebanon cannot cope with such a tragedy on its own, that the disasters scope far outstrips the capacity of a country already on its knees.

More aid is on the way, but the needs are huge. Beiruts central districts seem to have been hit by some cataclysm, a tsunami or a horrific earthquake. The air in the capital is laden with poison whose residue can be seen on cars.

In order to help the people of Beirut and Lebanon, as well as Caritas Lebanon, AsiaNews is launching a campaign to Help devastated Beirut. Those who want to contribute can make a donation to:

PIME Foundation:

- International Bank Account Number (IBAN): IT78C0306909606100000169898

- Bank Identifier Code (BIC): BCITITMM

- Reason for transfer: AN04  HELP DEVASTATED BEIRUT
Pool and Courtyard Area, Lone Star Court Hotel Our intention across all properties is that guests can enjoy the experiences they normally look for during their travels while still having the space they need to practice social distancing and enjoy the outdoors, says Amy Trench, corporate director of brand marketing and public relations.

Its no secret that old trends eventually come back into style and as social distancing and outdoor experiences continue to grow in popularity, Valencia Hotel Group is utilizing their court-style concept to put travelers minds at ease. The acclaimed hospitality group has an expansive Texas portfolio that includes Lone Star Court in Austin, TX , Cavalry Court in College Station, TX, Texican Court in Irving, TX and the upcoming Cotton Court opening in Lubbock, TX this fall.

Together with acclaimed international architecture and interior design firm, Rottet Studio, Valencia Hotel Group draws inspiration for their properties from the beloved court-style hotels that began popping up in the 1940s. Known for courtyard space, pools and exterior-facing rooms, Lone Star Court, Cavalry Court, Texican Court and Cotton Court couple the retro style with thoughtful touches and modern amenities.

Valencia Hotel Groups court properties embody a retro design that attract guests with thoughtful layouts that can easily accommodate for social distancing, says Lauren Rottet, founding principal and president of Rottet Studio. One of the key components we considered while designing each property was creating comfortable gathering spaces that provide guests with the room they need to unwind and relax at their own pace, which is especially important in the current climate.

Today, as the hospitality industry continues to evolve, many travelers are choosing to drive to their destinations and want to see safe wherever they stay. Upon arrival at any of Valencia Hotel Groups Court properties, guests are able to drive up to the hotel and park their own car, minimizing potential interaction in busy lobbies and avoid elevators entirely if they prefer. Each guest room also offers guests their own inward-facing exterior entrance, generous front porches and full size SMEG fridges with locally sourced food and beverage options.

Valencia Hotel Groups Court properties also allow ample opportunity to explore outdoor experiences through spacious, landscaped acreage, pool areas for lounging and swimming, outdoor games and dining at one of the on-property, Southern-inspired dining concepts. Fire pits are scattered throughout the properties for daily use and bike rentals are complimentary at each location. On weekends throughout the summer, guests can enjoy socially-distant, live outdoor concerts from local musicians.

Our intention across all properties is that guests can enjoy the experiences they normally look for during their travels while still having the space they need to practice social distancing and enjoy the outdoors, says Amy Trench, corporate director of brand marketing and public relations for the Valencia Hotel Group. Each of our properties especially cater to the current climate with beautiful courtyards, patio dining and outdoor activities for all to enjoy.

For more information on the Valencia Hotel Group, please visit https://www.valenciahotelgroup.com/.

About Valencia Hotel Groups Court Properties

The Valencia Hotel Group portfolio currently includes:



Lone Star Court  Conveniently located in Austin, Texas popular shopping complex, The Domain, Lone Star Court embodies the cultural appeal of Austin and the comfort of Texas Hill Country.

Cavalry Court  Located on four acres of land in College Station, Texas, Cavalry Court blends rich history and luxury touches to create an energetic atmosphere. Unique to the Cavalry Court, the hotel offers cabanas to enjoy poolside for additional outdoor recreation.

Texican Court  Combining modern amenities with timeless hospitality, Texican Court is located in the Las Colinas area in Irving, Texas. The hotel is steps away from popular destinations including the Irving Convention Center and Toyota Music Factory,

Cotton Court  Set to open this Fall, Cotton Court will offer 165 rooms in the heart of Lubbock, Texas. Ideal for business and leisure travelers alike, the property will include extensive event space and a relaxed luxury travel experience.

About Valencia Hotel Group

Houston-based Valencia Hotel Group is a fully integrated hospitality company that provides management, development, branding and repositioning services for independent, full-service hotels owned by the company, in addition to third parties. Exceptional service, style and location have become brand trademarks. Earning both national and international recognition for their distinctive designs, amenities and settings, Valencia Hotel Group properties are destinations and gathering places within their respective communities, some further benefitting from and enriching their space within the cultural heart of a city. The company continues to forge a niche with hotels that anchor and add value to urban, mixed-use environments, which further support or enhance the guest experience with superior residential, restaurant, retail and office components. The Valencia Hotel Group portfolio currently includes: Hotel Valencia Santana Row in San Jose, CA, Hotel Valencia Riverwalk in San Antonio, TX, The George in College Station, TX and Hotel Alessandra in Houston, TX. The Court concept brands include Lone Star Court in Austin, TX, Cavalry Court in College Station, TX, Texican Court in Irving, TX and coming soon Cotton Court in Lubbock, TX. For more information, please visit http://www.valenciahotelgroup.com
American tariffs costing the Irish dairy sector 40 million a year are likely to stay in place, despite actions by the governments of France and Spain, and by plane manufacturer Airbus, bringing the EU to full compliance in a transatlantic trade dispute.

Since October 2019, the USA has applied a punitive tariff on imports of Irish butter and cheddar, among other products, after the World Trade Organisation (WTO) awarded the USA the authority to claim $7.5 billion in annual compensation, in retaliation for EU subsidies paid to Airbus.

Ireland is one of the countries most affected, with the US having selected product categories which leave Ireland ranked first for tariffs as a percentage of GDP, and per capita, and sixth in terms of absolute value of tariffs.

EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan has said the EU and Airbus are now in full compliance with the ruling of the WTO, and there are no grounds for continuation of additional harmful tariffs applied by the US on EU exports. He called on the US to lift the tariffs immediately.

However, a swift conclusion to the dispute is not looking likely, said Alison Graham, European Affairs Executive at ICOS, which represents the dairy co-ops.

She said the EU may well need to wait until the autumn, when the US general election and another expected WTO ruling (this time in favour of the EU) could finally bring the USA to the negotiation table.

She said the US tariffs have compounded damage to the Irish dairy industry caused by Brexit, and shipping disruption and cost increases due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some fear that the tariffs may be increased.

In the long-running dispute over aircraft manufacturer subsidies in the EU to Airbus and in the US to Boeing, both sides took cases to the WTO, which found both were at fault, and allowed to levy tariffs on each others exports.

Read More Some farm tax reliefs may be changed in October

The US commenced applying tariffs to EU goods last October. The total value of Irish exports impacted, in 2018 figures, is 366m, attracting 91.6m of additional tariffs.

Commissioner Hogan said last week: Unjustified tariffs on European products are not acceptable and, arising from the compliance in the Airbus case, we insist that the United States lifts these unjustified tariffs immediately.

The EU has made specific proposals to reach a negotiated outcome to the long-running transatlantic civil aircraft disputes and remains open to work with the US to agree a fair and balanced outcome, as well as on future disciplines for subsidies in the aircraft sector.

If the US opts to maintain its duties on $7.5 billion worth of European exports, or decides to increase tariffs, or apply them to new products, the European Union will act to exercise its own sanction rights, as soon as the level of countermeasures is established by the WTO in the Boeing case. The EU already undertook a public consultation in April 2019 on a list of US products considered for countermeasures.

Commissioner Hogan said: In the absence of a settlement, the EU will be ready to fully avail itself of its own sanction rights. The WTO will soon issue its arbitration decision in the parallel case of the EU against the US on certain unlawful subsidies to Boeing, where the Appellate Body had found the US to be in breach of its WTO obligations.

However, a wider agenda is suspected, of the tariff dispute being designed to give the US leverage to get agriculture on the agenda for free trade negotiations with the EU, despite agriculture not being included in a 2018 agreement between Presidents Juncker and Trump.

Meanwhile, Ireland is one of the countries most affected by the American tariffs backlash against Airbus, despite the international aerospace and defence company having no business locations in Ireland.

Its European locations are mostly in France, but it also has bases in North America (including the US), Latin America, Asia, Oceania, Africa, and the Middle East.
Communication is very important, since everyones risk level and outside engagement can change over time, McLaren said. For example, if a 14-day quarantine was planned but someone accidentally had close contact with someone else during that period, then the vacation pod may need to be canceled or may need to take further precautions such as using masks, she said.
DIDCOT, UK / ACCESSWIRE / August 6, 2020 / Altus Strategies Plc (AIM:ALS)(TSXV:ALTS) ('Altus' or the 'Company'), announces high grade aircore ("AC") drilling results which extend by 600m the strike length of the FT prospect at the Company's Tabakorole gold project ("Tabakorole" or the "Project") in southern Mali. The drill programme was completed under the joint venture ("JV") between Graphex Mining Limited (ASX:GPX) ("Graphex") and Altus.

Highlights:

Significant aircore drill intercept of 6.2 g/t Au over 6m from 14m depth (not true width)

(not true width) Intersection extends strike potential of FT Prospect by 600m to approximately 3km

Programme has defined a 28m wide target coincident with the key magnetic anomaly

Historical drilling from FT Prospect of 9.31 g/t Au over 16m, 9.84 g/t Au over 14m and 2.91 g/t Au over 60m (not true widths)

Results pending from eight hole (1,544m) diamond drilling program completed by Graphex

Updated mineral resource estimate on Tabakorole to be completed by Graphex

Graphex are earning an initial 33% interest in the Project under the JV

Steven Poulton, Chief Executive of Altus, commented:

"We are delighted to report on these excellent results from the AC programme completed at Tabakorole by our JV partner Graphex. An intersection of 6.2 g/t Au over 6 metres from 14m depth is exceptional. Perhaps even more impressively, the AC programme has extended the potential strike length of the FT Prospect by a further 600m to approximately 3km in length".

"Tabakorole is shaping up to be a potentially significant gold deposit in southern Mali and we are looking forward to further news from the Project, with the results from the recently completed diamond drill programme expected shortly."

Northwest Extension

In March 2020, a high-resolution (520 line km) ground magnetics survey was completed over the northern part of the Tabakorole licence. This survey defined an apparent continuation of the magnetic anomaly which is coincident with the known gold mineralisation within the FT Prospect. A 2,042m AC drilling program was also conducted, which confirmed the presence of gold mineralisation coincident with this anomaly. The recently completed 92-hole (1,811m) AC drilling program has established that the FT Prospect extends further to the west, providing a significant target for follow-up and deeper drilling.

Resource drilling update

Graphex have completed an eight hole, 1,544m diamond drilling program at Tabakorole and the assay results are expected shortly. The program was designed to test the potential for high-grade plunge extensions, infill known gaps in the historic resource model and test the potential of the northwest strike extension. Graphex intends to incorporate these results into an updated mineral resource estimate on the Project in accordance with the 2012 JORC Code & National Instrument 43-101.

Illustrations

The following figures have been prepared and relate to the disclosures in this announcement and are visible in the version of this announcement on the Company's website (www.altus-strategies.com) or in PDF format by following this link: https://altus-strategies.com/site/assets/files/4890/altus_nr_-_tbk_ac_06_august_2020.pdf

Location of Tabakorole and Altus' other projects in Mali is shown in Figure 1.

Location of Tabakorole in southern Mali is shown in Figure 2.

A plan of the Northwest Extension AC drilling programmes is shown in Figure 3.

A plan of the recently completed diamond drilling at Tabakorole is shown in Figure 4.

Tabakorole Project: Location

The 100 km2 Tabakorole gold project is located in southern Mali, approximately 280 km south of the capital city of Bamako. The Project sits on the Massagui Belt which hosts the Morila gold mine (operated by Barrick NYSE:GOLD, TSX:ABX), located approximately 100 km to the north. The Project is 125 km southeast of the Yanfolila gold mine (operated by Hummingbird AIM:HUM) and 100 km east of the Kalana gold project (operated by Endeavour Mining TSX:EDV). Mineralisation hosted on these properties is not necessarily indicative of mineralisation hosted at Tabakorole.

Tabakorole Project: Geology

Tabakorole comprises a 2.7 km long shear zone which is up to 200m wide, hosted in the Archaean and Birimian aged Bougouni Basin of the Man Shield of southern Mali. The geology is dominated by clastic sediments, cut by northwest trending deformation zones which host gold mineralisation. At least two, possibly three, Eburnean deformation events are believed to have affected the geology of Tabakorole. The Project hosts the FT Prospect comprised of mylonites, sheared diorite, gabbro, mafic dykes and late stage felsic dykes, within a folded and deformed metasedimentary package of meta-siltstone, meta-wacke and meta-sandstone. Mineralisation is locally most favourably associated where structures cut gabbro and along lithological contacts with gabbro.

Tabakorole Project: Historical exploration

The Project was discovered by a regional soil sampling programme completed on a 500m x 100m grid by BHP in the early 1990s. Since 2003, a total of 28,912m of DD, 31,943m of RC, 6,577m of auger drilling and 62,718m of AC have been completed, in addition to 1,400 line km of airborne geophysics. A selection of drill intersects from Tabakorole is shown in Table 1.

In 2010 58 RC holes (5,492m) were completed within and along strike of the FT Prospect. Results included 6.05 g/t Au over 18.0m from 12.0m (10FLRC-12A) and 2.53 g/t Au over 24.0m from 48.0m (10FLRC-01A) (not true widths).

Table 1: Tabakorole selected historical drill intersections

Hole ID From (m) To (m) Intersection (m) Grade (g/t Au) 10FLRC-12A 12.00 30.00 18.00 6.05 05TKRC-18 24.00 68.00 44.00 3.29 10FLRC-07 4.00 42.00 38.00 2.63 10FLRC-01A 48.00 72.00 24.00 2.53 05FLRC-51 80.00 96.00 16.00 9.31 06TKDDH-008 179.00 190.00 11.00 5.64 05FLRC-11 14.00 74.00 60.00 2.91 05TKRC-52 2.00 18.00 16.00 2.33 05FLRC-12 2.00 12.00 10.00 3.36



Notes:

Intersections based on 0.5g/t Au cut off and  2m internal waste Intersections are down-the-hole and do not represent true widths of mineralisation No grade capping has been applied

Cautionary note regarding historic data

Readers are cautioned that the data on Tabakorole in this written disclosure is historical exploration data that has not been verified by a Qualified Person. Not all historical samples are available and Altus does not have complete information on the quality assurance or quality control measures taken in connection with the exploration results, or other exploration or testing details regarding these results. Intersections cited in this news release do not represent true widths of the mineralised intervals. The historical drilling was predominantly angled at -60 and -55 degrees and intersected steeply dipping mineralisation. True width determinations are estimated to be 50-57% of the cited intersection lengths. There has been insufficient exploration to define a current mineral resource and the Company cautions that there is a risk further exploration will not result in the delineation of a current mineral resource.

Qualified Person

The technical disclosure in this regulatory announcement has been read and approved by Steven Poulton, Chief Executive of Altus. A graduate of the University of Southampton in Geology (Hons), he also holds a Master's degree from the Camborne School of Mines (Exeter University) in Mining Geology. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and has over 20 years of experience in mineral exploration and is a Qualified Person under the AIM rules and National Instrument 43-101 "Standards of Disclosure of Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators".

For further information you are invited to visit the Company's website www.altus-strategies.com or contact:

Altus Strategies Plc Steven Poulton, Chief Executive Tel:+44 (0) 1235 511 767 E: info@altus-strategies.com SP Angel (Nominated Adviser) Richard Morrison / Soltan Tagiev Tel: +44 (0) 20 3470 0470 SP Angel (Broker) Abigail Wayne / Richard Parlons Tel: +44 (0) 20 3470 0471 Yellow Jersey PR (Financial PR & IR) Georgia Colkin / Charles Goodwin / Henry Wilkinson Tel: +44 (0) 20 3004 9512 E: altus@yellowjerseypr.com

About Altus Strategies Plc

Altus Strategies is a London (AIM: ALS) and Toronto (TSX-V: ALTS) listed mining royalty company generating a diversified and precious metal focused portfolio of assets. The Company's focus on Africa and differentiated approach, of generating royalties on its own discoveries as well as through financings and acquisitions with third parties, has attracted key institutional investor backing. The Company engages constructively with all stakeholders, working diligently to minimise its environmental impact and to promote positive economic and social outcomes in the communities where it operates. For further information, please visit www.altus-strategies.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information included in this announcement, including information relating to future financial or operating performance and other statements that express the expectations of the Directors or estimates of future performance constitute "forward-looking statements". These statements address future events and conditions and, as such, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the statements. Such factors include without limitation the completion of planned expenditures, the ability to complete exploration programmes on schedule and the success of exploration programmes. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking information, which speak only as of the date of this announcement and the forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.

Where the Company expresses or implies an expectation or belief as to future events or results, such expectation or belief is based on assumptions made in good faith and believed to have a reasonable basis. The forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are made as at the date hereof and the Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information or any forward-looking statements contained in any other announcements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable law or regulations.

TSX Venture Exchange Disclaimer

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organisation of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Market Abuse Regulation Disclosure

Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 ("MAR") until the release of this announcement.

Glossary of Terms

The following is a glossary of technical terms:

"AC" means Air Core drilling

"Au" means gold

"DD" means Diamond Drilling

"g" means grams

"g/t" means grams per tonne

"grade(s)" means the quantity of ore or metal in a specified quantity of rock

"JORC" means Joint Ore Reserves Committee

"JV" means Joint Venture

"km" means kilometres

"m" means metres

"NI 43-101" means National Instrument 43-101 "Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects" of the Canadian Securities Administrators

analysis of the potential viability of a project's mineral resources

"ppm" means parts per million

"Qualified Person" means a person that has the education, skills and professional credentials to act as a qualified person under NI 43-101

"RC" means Reverse Circulation Drilling

SOURCE: Altus Strategies PLC

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/600482/High-Grade-Gold-and-600m-Strike-Extension-at-Tabakorole-in-Southern-Mali
Back on the beat, after defeating COVID-19

Gboyega Akosile

Thank God I am back at my duty post! I returned to work today, Wednesday, August 5, 2020 after several weeks away, battling the monstrous Coronavirus.

It began with a feverish condition on Wednesday, July 1, 2020. I usually dont joke with my health so I stopped at a pharmacy on my way home, got an anti malaria drug with some paracetamol and I used it as recommended.

I must state here that I have never completed a full dose of any malaria treatment or drugs before getting back on my feet in my adult life, never! In fact, you would have to remind me sometimes before taking my drugs because I would have felt well after taking the second dose. This time, I completed the malaria medicine yet there was no improvement. By Thursday (July 2) evening and Friday (July 3) morning, my health condition had started to deteriorate. The feelings gradually moved from headaches to severe body pains and cold. Same day, I had a responsibility to organize a media briefing for my boss. I didnt raise the alarm just yet because everybody was wary of everyone else, especially if you showed any signs of illness. But the truth is I was sick, terribly sick.

I told my wife on Thursday evening that there was a need for us to get tested for COVID-19. I convinced her that we needed to clear all doubts. She understood clearly, knowing it may not be out of place that I had been exposed to the virus, especially now that Lagos was experiencing rise in community spread.

We drove straight to the Yaba Infectious Diseases Hospital on Friday morning and in less than an hour; the very efficient Lagos health workers in charge of sample collection and testing attended us to.

Although he was not ill and showed no signs of COVID-19, I encouraged my driver to join us for the test. We left for Marina to continue with the days official activities. While Mr. Governor was briefing and responding to questions from journalists, I stood there on the beautifully tendered State House lawn shaking from within. I could feel that my legs were wobbling from inside my bone marrow. Not even the beauty of the grass, which I usually admire, could calm the way I felt.

I remember how much I tried to keep more than two metres away from some colleagues who had come to me for some clarifications on issues or points raised by Mr. Governor. Since I was not sure of my status, I needed to take responsibility by ensuring that nothing was discharged into the atmosphere from my side.

I waited till the end of the press conference, managed to move towards my boss but ensured that I didnt move close to him. In that socially distanced position, I informed him of my state of health and his response was direct, have you gone for another test? He asked because he had mandated his entire close aides to go for COVID-19 test on two or three occasions. He has also done the test repeatedly, just for everyone to feel safe around the office. I answered him in the affirmative, yes sir, I just did this morning. Results should be out on Sunday. He then said I should go home for a couple of days. I thanked him and I left the State House.

No sooner had I left the State House than the real symptoms started in fearful proportion. To be honest, I was scared. I had never felt that way before in my entire life. Driving from Marina to Ikeja felt like travelling from Lagos to New York. The vibrations and other bodily pains I experienced that day cant be described here. I rolled from one end of the vehicle to another. All I remember was my drivers voice, saying epele sir (sorry sir). It was excruciating! By the time we got home, my eyes had turned red, with the retinal looking the other way. My wife took over immediately as the resident nurse. She was scared too but she summoned the courage and took charge. She insisted we went to the hospital. We did. I told the doctor that I had gone for COVID-19 test but he said he would place me on another round of malaria treatment.

I took some shots that evening, repeated them on Saturday morning and evening. I went again on Sunday morning but there was no remarkable improvement. By Sunday evening, our COVID-19 test results were sent to me via email. My worst fear stared at me in the face; we all tested positive for Coronavirus  my wife, driver and I. I immediately called my driver to inform him. Clearly he was asymptomatic because as at that time and up till the time of writing this piece, he had no symptoms. Life has been normal for him. Nonetheless, I insisted that he should self-isolate at home for 14 days and not go about infecting other people.

I duly informed my principal and then called my direct boss, Mr. Tayo Ayinde, the Chief of Staff to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who immediately made arrangements for my treatment. The doctors called in and asked that we isolate at home. They tutored me on all the protocols, most of them I was already familiar with, having been part of the communication team on Lagos State Governments response to COVID-19.

Case management started and in two days, I had lost my sense of smell, taste and every symptom that comes with COVID-19 had fully manifested in me. Trust me, it was not a particularly pleasant experience.

In eight to nine days of medication, the initial pains and discomfort started to disappear. I began to experience a new lease of life. My SPO2, which is a small device used in checking the flow of oxygen in a patients system was back to normal. BP was good and body temperature returned to normal. This time, I could attend to work related issues. I started working from home.

Recall that three of us tested positive and one was asymptomatic. My wife too showed some symptoms from Monday, July 5, so she was placed on same medication. While I improved, her condition took a downward turn; her oxygen level was below the acceptable limit of 95! At first, it fluctuated between 90 and 94; sometimes it would hit 95 so I was hopeful. Her Blood Pressure was also irregular. The value was inconsistent; sometimes good, at another time bad.

On Tuesday, July 14, her SPO2 went down to 88! That was when it dawned on everyone that she had to be evacuated to an isolation centre. She was taken to the Onikan centre, where she received some of the best treatment that COVID-19 patients in the United States of America are looking for. I dont get scared easily by anything or situation. This time, I was very scared. I thought the worst phase of my life had come when after three days of her admission, she had not responded well to the treatment. She neither called home nor picked her phone. Everyone was worried.

READ ALSO:

Thanks to the Lagos State Government, the Ministry of Health, the health workers; doctors, nurses and drivers, among others who ensured that my wife, like all the other patients that were brought in under very terrible conditions returned home with joy.

After spending five days, we started to connect again via video calls.

Since I was not in the isolation centre, the closest was when I took her birthday cake there for a symbolic celebration; I could only rely on her experience, which she described as wholesome.

I decided to touch on my wifes experience to draw attention to the fact that people do not necessarily die of COVID-19. You lose people to complications from underlining ailments. Unknown to us, my wife had a silent case of pneumonia and had some blood clot related issues. And since she had not fallen sick, these conditions never manifested in any form. Everyone in the house appeared healthy and truly so until the COVID-19 incident.

It is very important to conduct comprehensive medical checks, even if it is once in a year. If we had known this earlier, perhaps our experience would have been less traumatic when COVID-19 came calling.

Without sounding immodest, Lagos State Government is a model State on the COVID-19 response in Africa. Special thanks to Mr. Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu who built excess capacity in readiness for the pandemic. This has helped the State to manage the effects of the pandemic since it broke out.

COVID-19 is not a hoax, its very real. Use your face mask wash your hands regularly, use sanitizer and please keep to the social distance protocols.

Now I am back on the beat, what have I missed?

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Mr Akosile is the Chief Press Secretary to the Lagos State Governor. He first published this on his Facebook Page
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020.

Andrew Harnik/Reuters

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that mail-in voting will be such a "nightmare" that you won't know who the winner is, while also claiming he will be the winner.

"You'll never know who the winner is, but the winner is going to be me," Trump said during a meeting with Arizona's governor.

Trump has repeatedly made unfounded assertions regarding mail-in voting, claiming it will lead to widespread voter fraud. There is little to no evidence to back-up Trump's claims.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

President Donald Trump has made so many misleading claims on mail-in voting that he now appears to be confusing himself.

Trump on Wednesday described mail-in voting as a "nightmare" before going on to suggest (without evidence) that it would lead to widespread fraud, making it difficult to declare who won, before adding he would still be the winner.

"You'll never know who the winner is, but the winner is going to be me," Trump said during a meeting with Arizona's governor.

Voter fraud is extremely rare in the US, and there's really no evidence to back-up Trump's unsubstantiated assertions about mail-in voting.

Democrats have advocated for expanding access to mail-in voting as a means of mitigating the spread of COVID-19 by avoiding large crowds of voters congregating at polling places. Public health experts have strongly approved of these efforts.

Trump has repeatedly cited recent problems with mail-in voting in New York as purported evidence that it's a form of voting that opens the door for fraud.

While New York City has faced significant logistical problems after a massive number of mail-in ballots were distributed for the city's June 23 primary, there's no evidence that the integrity of the primary was impacted because of this. The recent issues in New York have largely been linked to the city's Board of Elections being understaffed amid the pandemic.

Story continues

In other words, Trump's claims regarding mail-in voting  in New York and beyond  are unfounded.

The president on Wednesday also once again painted a false distinction between mail-in and absentee voting, which are virtually identical in terms of process and security measures.

"Absentee voting: Great," Trump said. "But this mail-in voting where they mail, indiscriminately, millions and millions of ballots to people, you're never going to know who won the election. You can't have that."

Trump has voted by mail in the recent past, and will do so again (by voting absentee) in November.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, says his administration would retreive the states funds allegedly looted by officials of the administration of late Senator Abiola Ajimobi.

According to a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Taiwo Adisa, the governor said this on Wednesday at the commencement of the construction of the 21km Ajia-Airport-New Ife Expressway Road, in Ajia town.

The 21-kilometre road project was awarded at the cost of N8.5 billion.

Although the governor did not mention his predecessors name, he stated that the funds stolen in 96 months preceding his assumption of office would be retrieved.

Ajimobi ruled the state for eight years which is the same as 96 months before Makinde took over.

While addressing the criticisms trailing the announcement of N100 billion bond issuance by the state, the governor stated that the past administration stole N1 billion a month for 96 months.

Makinde said, I heard somebody criticising us on the radio concerning the N100 billion bond and was of the opinion that this administration wants to put the state in debt. I think our people need to start telling them that Governor Makinde is not like that.

For the period of eight years they spent in office, they were only preoccupied with how to corner N1 billion monthly into their private pockets every day they went to the office.

They spent 96 months in office, that means they have Oyo States N96 billion with them. We will retrieve every fund that belongs to Oyo people for the purpose of infrastructure development.

So, tell them that the EFCC of Oyo State is coming for them. I want to assure you that we will retrieve the stolen money of the state from them and use the funds to build infrastructure like this.

Makinde said his administration would drastically reduce the infrastructure deficit in the state within a very short time.

Follow Us on Facebook  @LadunLiadi; Instagram  @LadunLiadi; Twitter  @LadunLiadi; Youtube  @LadunLiadiTV for updates
The German Government is keeping an eye on the level of coronavirus infections at holiday destinations around the world, including the Balearic Islands, after a significant rise in outbreaks in recent weeks.

Berlin has already advised German citizens not to travel to Catalonia, Navarre and Aragon and the progressive growth in positive cases in the Balearic Islands in the last couple of weeks is generating alarm in issuing markets.

Since the end of July the number of positive cases in Spain has increased from 9.22% to 42.80%, with a 567.35% increase in Aragon in the last 14 days, a 152.7% increase in Catalonia and 140.9% in Navarre.

Concern

"Hotel reservations are paralysed in all European foreign source markets, including Germany, said Gabriel Llobera, President of the Association of Hotel Chains, or ACH. A message of tranquility must be transmitted to the markets, because the Balearic Islands are carrying out more PCR tests than ever and this should give peace of mind to the issuing tourist markets, because the controls carried out by the Government are helping to avoid more infections, he added.

Llobera is adamant that the Balearic Islands are a safe tourist destination for workers, residents and tourists and is demanding that the Government drive home that message in foreign markets.

He also commented on the letter that the President of the Government, Francina Armengol, addressed to British citizens on July 31 through the Majorca Daily Bulletin.

This has had a great transcendence in the British tourist market and I believe that she should do exactly the same in the German publications, Mallorca Magazin and Mallorca Zeitung, he said. We must give a calm, positive message at this time and make sure that Germany is informed about what we are doing here in the Balearic Islands because that's our main source market, said Llobera.

The Association acknowledges that many businesses are nervous about the tourist situation because 8 countries have already imposed quarantine on travellers arriving from Spain.

Switzerland has exempted the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands from its self-isolation rules, but Belgium included the Islands in its ruling and there are fears that more will follow.

"It is vital that the messages that come out of the Balearic Islands in terms of health security are positive," says Llobera.

UK Bookings

Bookings from the main British Tour Operators, such as TUI UK and Jet2Holidays, slumped by 76% last week compared to the week before, according to analysis by the Tourism Technology provider DataHotel Dingus.

The British Governments compulsory quarantine for travellers arriving in the UK from Spain is being blamed for the 50% drop in Hotel reservations in the Balearic Islands.
(Alliance News) - Imperial Brands PLC on Thursday announced the retirement of Chief Financial Officer Oliver Tant who will leave the company once a successor is found.

The Bristol-based tobacco company said Chief Executive Officer Stefan Bomhard and the board are progressing an external search for a successor to Tant.

Imperial Brands shares were down 1.1% at 1,275.50 pence each on Thursday morning in London.

By Greg Roxburgh; gregroxburgh@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
The office of NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet is in turmoil after his chief of staff resigned amid revelations the salaries of two of his personal ministerial staff were paid by the scandal-ridden insurance body icare.

The resignation followed a series of questions from The Sydney Morning Herald about the pay details of staff working in the Treasurer's office, including policy adviser Edward Yap, whose salary was funded by icare.

Under pressure: NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet. Credit:Peter Braig

Mr Perrottet on Thursday night accepted the resignation of his chief of staff Nigel Freitas, who took responsibility for what he said was an administrative error. Mr Freitas had worked with Mr Perrottet for four years. Icare is a workers' insurer funded by employers and is meant to be independent of the political process.

Secondments from government sector agencies such as icare are permitted and occur regularly. However, the Herald has been told the arrangements relating to Mr Yap and an administrative assistant were discovered on Thursday to have not been documented as required by regulations.
The offer was presented as a favor to Hong Kong, a city struggling with a surge in coronavirus infections: a team of 60 medical officials from mainland China who would help expand testing across the city.

But it is being viewed with skepticism by some residents, who worry about the growing reach of the Chinese Communist Party and the testing projects potential implications for their privacy.

Hong Kong could use the help. The largest wave of coronavirus infections to hit the semiautonomous city has overwhelmed its isolation wards and testing facilities in recent weeks.

To reopen schools and lift restrictions on public gatherings and businesses, the local government needs an effective system of coronavirus testing that can help contain the outbreak. The problem is, the city is short of workers who can conduct testing, and the governments labs are already running at maximum capacity.
New Delhi: A Thane registered fishing boat named Dev Sandesh with 16 fishermen on board was reported to be in distress about 70 km west of Arnala coast, Thane in Maharashtra. The boat was caught up in rough to very rough sea conditions and very high-speed winds prevailing at sea.

The distress message of the stranded and distressed fishing boat was relayed to Coast Guard Mumbai Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) by Yellow Gate Police Station on August 4 evening.

The MRCC, Mumbai swung into action and after ascertaining the exact location of the distressed fishing boat at sea, activated the International Safety Net and continuously relayed the message on the broadcast for all the ships in the area specially the transiting ships to render assistance to the boat in distress.

In the meantime, MRCC successfully identified an Offshore Supply Vessel Greatship Asmi in the vicinity of the distressed fishing boat while tracking the traffic at sea and diverted her for the rescue operation.

The distressed boat was taking water onboard due to flooding owing to long swell and rough weather. Since the situation at sea was worsening due to prevailing rough weather conditions and high-speed winds, OSV Greatship Asmi was directed to keep a strict vigil.

The Coast Guard coordinated with another offshore support vessel Colonel SP Wahi in the vicinity and directed her to pick up all the distressed fishermen from the stranded fishing boat and rescue them safely onboard the ship.

After six hours of continuous effort facing the rough sea, the 16 crew were rescued and taken on board. All the rescued fishermen are safe and will arrive at Mumbai around 1430 hrs today.


By Jung Da-min



The approval rating for the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) has continued on a downward spiral as a result of botched real estate policies and the autocratic passage of controversial bills, further narrowing the gap with the main opposition Untied Future Party (UFP) to below 1 percentage point, a survey showed, Thursday.



In the poll of 1,510 adults conducted by Realmeter from Monday to Wednesday, 35.6 percent said they support the DPK, while 34.8 percent expressed support for the UFP. The approval rating of the DPK fell 2.7 percentage points from the previous week, while that of the UFP rose 3.1 percentage points.



The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points with a 95 percent confidence level, which means the gap between approval ratings for the parties was only a third of the margin of error.






Alappuzha : , Aug 7 (IANS) Kerala's signature event - the annual Nehru boat race, scheduled for the second Saturday in August, has been postponed in view of the Covid pandemic, the organisers said.

The race this year would be the 68th edition of the hugely popular event, which has always been considered the curtain-raiser for a new tourist season in Kerala.

But things have not gone according to plans in the previous few years, with delays in in 2018 and then in 2019, on account of the worst-ever floods witnessed in the state.

The race was finally held in November in 2018 and on August 31 in 2019.

The history of the event dates to 1952 when then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru visited the area and a small flotilla of decorated boats accompanied him from Kottayam to Alappuzha on the famed backwaters.

An impromptu race was conducted in his honour. Thrilled by the performance of the oarsmen, Nehru, too, jumped into a snake boat.

On returning to Delhi, he donated a silver trophy, comprising a replica of a snake boat placed on a wooden abacus with an inscription and his signature.

This trophy is awarded to the winner of the snake boat category every year.

The snake boat race is the main tourist attraction because of the boat's length, spanning from 120 to 140 feet, and with about 120 oarsmen to propel it.
A cluster of coronavirus-related deaths among residents of St Basils Homes for the Aged in Fawkner is being investigated by police and the State Coroner.

Sources have told The Age a police taskforce would be formed to assist the coronial investigation which is expected to include members of the homicide squad and detectives from the crime department.

A resident is taken from St Basil's Homes for the Aged in Fawkner to hospital last week. Credit:Justin McManus

Five deaths from St Basil's have been referred to the coroner's office but that number could grow with 23 deaths at the facility so far connected with COVID-19.

Ninety-eight residents of aged care facilities across the state have died due to COVID-19 in recent weeks.
A San Antonio, Texas, man was arrested Saturday for threatening to shoot up Fort Hood in a Facebook post, according to an affidavit and jail records.

Mario Eloy Pena, 48, was arrested for making a terroristic threat and released later in the weekend on a $5,000 bond, according to county records. The district attorneys office declined to comment on the pending case when reached by Army Times.

San Antonio police officers arrested Pena at his home after authorities were alerted by one of Penas family members of the Facebook post, according to an affidavit reported by local news media.

Pena was allegedly upset and wanted to retaliate for Vanessa Guillens murder, the affidavit stated. Pena said he had no respect for the military and was close to becoming an active shooter, the affidavit added.
The coronavirus pandemic was at the center of all updates during Kingwood BizCom on Thursday. As schools aim to reopen for the fall semester safely and flood mitigation projects continue in the community, the pandemic remains an obstacle for all organizations and businesses.

The event, hosted by the Lake Houston Area Chamber of Commerce, was held virtually with several community leaders from across the area working as speakers.

FIGHTING TRAFFICKING: DOJ grants Humble nonprofit FamilyTime $500K

Mayor Pro Tem and District E Councilmember Dave Martin said the Houston City Council passed a $15 million economic relief program to help hundreds of Houston small businesses suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic on July 29. The program was funded in part by the CARES Act, a federal piece of legislation that aims to help residents and businesses cope with the the impacts of the coronavirus.

I think if you look back on it, a number of things hurt us, Martin said. May 1, the governor made a decision to open up the state. My personal feeling was it was just a little bit too early. Memorial Day the protests and some of the other things wrapped around that caused our numbers to really move up in the wrong direction, but since then people have gone back to wearing masks and doing social distancing and practicing proper hygiene. Our numbers are (starting) to come down, and we need a good trend line.

Flood relief

Martin also announced that things were moving along in negotiations with Perry Homes for the acquisition of Woodridge Village, a development that many feel exacerbated flooding in Kingwood neighborhood Elm Grove. The developer is in negotiations with Harris County and the City of Houston.

Meanwhile, Kingwood Service Association President Dee Price provided an update on River Grove Parks $550,000 sand removal dredging project. The park was damaged during Hurricane Harvey, during which time sand was deposited into the area. KSA authorized the removal of 364 truckloads from the park, Price said. The boat ramp that was closed in 2017 after Harvey was reopened in April of 2020.

Ultimately the project removed 10,000 cubic yards of sand, dewatered the sand on-site using a dewatering machine and then hauled off the sand to an approved location, Price said. The project took three months to complete, including working during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Schools prep for fall amid pandemic

LSC-Kingwood President Katherine Persson updated the attendees of their plans for the upcoming semester and informed them of their plans to mitigate risk during the coronavirus pandemic. As previously reported, there will be about 1,200 class sections planned for the fall semester, 54 percent of which will be completely online, 29 percent will be hybrid  meaning at least half the classes will be online with at least one class is in-person  and only 17 percent are face to face.

Top hits: Get Houston Chronicle stories sent directly to your inbox

Humble ISD Superintendent Elizabeth Fagen also spoke to the chamber, informing them a condensed set of information on how the school district is approaching the upcoming school year starting online on Aug. 11 during the coronavirus pandemic.

Humble ISD is a family, we really try to personalize the education for our students as well as the support for our staff, Fagen said. And sometimes those one size fits all, you know, beautiful glossy approaches, they might be pretty and all of that, but we really have put a commitment toward making sure that were meeting the needs of everyone.

To view the entire BizCom, visit the Lake Houston Chamber of Commerce Facebook page here.

savannah.mehrtens@chron.com
The vast tent city is home to tens of thousands of displaced people who suffer malnutrition and disease, aid groups say.

Three health workers in a displaced peoples camp in northeastern Syria have contracted the novel coronavirus, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Wednesday.

They were the first reported infections in the Al-Hol camp, a vast tent city that is home to tens of thousands of people, including the relatives of ISIL fighters.

It is run by the autonomous Kurdish administration that controls most of northeastern Syria and has reported 54 cases of COVID-19 in areas under its control.

On August 3, three health workers reportedly tested positive for COVID-19 at the Al-Hol IDP [internally displaced peoples] camp, said OCHA in a press release.

The contact tracing process is ongoing. As a precautionary measure, only critical staff, with personal protective equipment, are allowed to operate inside the camp, it added.

A health official at the camp said the three infected staff work with the Kurdish Red Crescent in Al-Hol.

We fear that the virus could have spread to camp residents visiting health clinics, he said, asking not to be identified because he is not authorised to speak to the media on the issue.

Critical situation

The latest infections raise to nine the number of Kurdish Red Crescent staff in northeastern Syria who have contracted the virus, a volunteer at the organisation told AFP news agency, asking not to be identified.

Nine years of war have battered healthcare provision across Syria, but the situation in the northeast is particularly critical, as the Kurdish authorities have been left to cope with the coronavirus pandemic largely unaided.

This has raised fears that any outbreak could swiftly escalate into an epidemic gripping the entire Kurdish region.

As of August 4, the Syrian government has confirmed 847 people have tested positive for COVID-19, including 46 people who died and 268 who recovered.
Dublin, Aug. 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Planned Liquids Storage Industry (Oil and Gas) Outlook to 2024 - Capacity and Capital Expenditure Outlook with Details of All Planned Terminals" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



Globally, 189 new-build (planned and announced) liquids storage terminals are expected to start operations between 2020 and 2024. Of these, 67 are being proposed in Asia, 49 in North America, and 73 in the rest of the regions. China, the US, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates, and Malaysia are the top five countries that are expected to contribute 65.9 percent to the global new-build liquids storage capacity by 2024.



Report Scope

Updated information on all planned and announced liquids storage terminals globally

Provides capacity data by commodity (crude oil, chemicals, and petroleum products) from 2020 to 2024

Provides key details such as terminal name, operator name, commodity type, terminal status for all planned and announced liquids storage terminals globally

Provides capital expenditure outlook at global as well as regional level by year and by key countries for planned and announced liquids storage terminals till 2024

Latest developments and contracts related to liquids storage terminals, wherever available

Reasons to Buy

Obtain the most up to date information available on planned and announced liquids storage terminals globally

Identify growth segments and opportunities in the industry

Facilitate decision making on the basis of strong historic and outlook of capacity data

Assess key liquids storage terminals data of your competitors

Key Topics Covered



1. Table of Contents



2. Introduction



3. Global Planned Liquids Storage Industry

3.1. Global Planned Liquids Storage Industry, Snapshot

3.1.1. Global Planned Liquids Storage Industry, Overview of Liquids Storage Terminals Data

3.1.2. Global Planned Liquids Storage Industry, Liquids Storage Capacity by Key Countries, 2020-2024

3.1.3. Global Planned Liquids Storage Industry, Crude Oil Storage Capacity by Key Countries, 2020-2024

3.1.4. Global Planned Liquids Storage Industry, Petroleum Products Storage Capacity by Key Countries, 2020-2024

3.1.5. Global Planned Liquids Storage Industry, Chemicals Storage Capacity by Key Countries, 2020-2024

3.2. Global Planned Liquids Storage Industry, Planned and Announced Liquids Storage Terminals

3.2.1. Global Planned Liquids Storage Industry, Top 10 Planned and Announced Liquids Storage Capacity, 2020-2024

3.2.2. Global Planned Liquids Storage Industry, Annual New-Build Capital Expenditure Outlook for Planned and Announced Liquids Storage Terminals

3.2.3. Global Planned Liquids Storage Industry, Annual New-Build Capital Expenditure Outlook for Planned and Announced Liquids Storage Terminals by Key Countries

3.3. Global Planned Liquids Storage Industry, Regional Comparisons

3.3.1. Global Planned Liquids Storage Industry, Regional Comparison based on Contribution to Global Planned Liquids Storage Capacity, 2020-2024

3.3.2. Global Planned Liquids Storage Industry, Capacity Additions Through New Storage Terminals by Region, 2020-2024

3.4. Global Planned Liquids Storage Industry, Country Comparisons

3.4.1. Global Planned Liquids Storage Industry, Country Comparison based on Contribution to Global Planned Liquids Storage Capacity, 2020-2024

3.4.2. Global Planned Liquids Storage Industry, Capacity Increase through New-Build Storage Terminals by Country, 2020-2024



4. Africa Planned Liquids Storage Industry



5. Asia Planned Liquids Storage Industry



6. Caribbean Planned Liquids Storage Industry



7. Europe Planned Liquids Storage Industry



8. Former Soviet Union Planned Liquids Storage Industry



9. Middle East Planned Liquids Storage Industry



10. North America Planned Liquids Storage Industry



11. Oceania Planned Liquids Storage Industry



12. South America Planned Liquids Storage Industry



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/namat4

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.
A fresh appeal has been issued for information on the disappearance of a 16-year-old girl on a shopping trip, as her desperate parents cling to hope that she may still be alive 25 years later.

Gordana Kotevski was last seen being forced into a ute near a shopping centre in Lake Macquarie in the New South Wales Hunter Region on November 24, 1994.

The 16-year-old was walking to her aunt's place on Powell Street in the suburb of Charleston at 9pm after buying a black dress to wear to a Boys II Men concert she was planning to attend with her cousins.

She was clutching a shopping bag and was just metres from her destination when witnesses claimed they saw a 4WD stop and two people got out. Moments later, Ms Kotevski was gone.

A number of suspects were investigated by police, including serial killer Ivan Milat who was active at that time.

Police have renewed their appeal for information on the now 42-year-old's disappearance as part of this year's Missing Persons Week - a campaign that strives to solve cold cases.

As part of the campaign to find her, the heartbroken family decided to release the last known photo they have of Ms Kotevski - when she was a bridesmaid in 1994 (pictured)

As part of the campaign to find her, the heartbroken family has released the last known photo they have of Ms Kotevski.

'She was a bridesmaid in 1994. Young, joyous, innocent, she had the world at her feet,' her aunt Julie Talevski said in a statement on Thursday.

'The impact of Gordana's disappearance has taken its toll on her parents and siblings, extended family and friends. The passage of time has not made acceptance of the situation any easier.'

Superintendent Danny Sullivan urged the public to look at the images of Ms Kotevski - as she was then and how she might appear now - and 'think about the person behind the photo'.

'Anyone who lived in or would visit the Lake Macquarie area in late 1994, please cast your mind back and recall if you noticed a light-coloured utility in and around the area.'

He said Ms Kotevski's family had gone through a quarter of a century of 'unknowns and heartache' and any information on her whereabouts could give them closure.

In an effort to gather new information on the case, Australian Federal Police detectives released an image of what they think now 42-year-old Gordana Kotevski would look like

Desperate to find their missing relative, the family paid for a private helicopter soon after her disappearance.

'We're just pleading for more people, the more people that we get the easier it's going to be to find her,' her sister Carolina said at the time.

'Sis, if you're watching we're not giving up hope, we're keeping strong and you keep strong and we're not giving up on you till we find you and we love you very much.'

Ms Kotevski's parents Branko and Peggy, 66, were barely able to cope following their daughter's abduction - their marriage did not survive the strain.

'There's no rhyme or reason to why they took her. And you think: 'how many monsters are out there?',' Peggy previously told The Daily Telegraph.

She still lives in the house her missing daughter grew up in - and her clothes are still folded in the cupboard.

Multiple leads have established and abandoned during the extensive investigations in the 25 years since Gordana Kotevski's disappearance.

A coronial inquest in 2003 found she had been murdered by an unknown killer, but the case was reopened in 2009 when investigators found a fingerprint on the torn shopping bag the teen was holding when she was abducted.

Peggy still lives in the house her missing daughter Gordana Kotevski (pictured) grew up in - her clothes are still folded in the cupboard

No match to the fingerprint has been found but, with 200 prints being added to police systems in NSW each day, there is a chance for new information to come to light.

One theory was that the teen fell into the hands of notorious backpacker killer Ivan Milat who was convicted of murdering seven people Belanglo State Forest in the 1990s, but is suspected of killing dozens more.

A strike force was set up last year to investigate the cold cases of three girls, including Ms Kotevski.

Two went missing within 10km of each other in the same two-week period, but Ms Kotevski was linked because her disappearance was under suspiciously similar circumstances.

Police tried on several occasions to elicit information from Milat, who was serving a life sentence in jail before his death in November last year, but the killer refused to cooperate.

'Please, if you know anything or can vaguely remember any information which could help detectives, call the police,' Ms Talevski said on Thursday.

Anyone with information about Gordana Kotevski's disappearance is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
A police e-fit has been mocked online after web users said the suspect's beard looked like it had been drawn 'by a toddler' with an Etch A Sketch.

Northamptonshire Police have released the image of a suspect in connection with the attempted abduction of a 15-year-old girl back in June.

The e-fit shows an Asian man with a bushy black beard covering up most of his face with a bizarre large black line running from his ear to his head.

Northamptonshire Police have released the image of a suspect, pictured, in connection with the attempted abduction of a 15-year-old girl back in June

But the picture also shows the suspect with dark bags under his eyes and wearing a black durag - a type of bandana worn to encourage dreadlocks to grow in the hair.

Social media users mocked the 'weird' image online after it was issued by the force on August 6 as part of a reappeal.

Many pointed out that it looked like a child had drawn the e-fit while others said it looked like 'somebody had slipped with the mouse on Microsoft Paint.'

Kevin Hopkins wrote on Facebook: 'My 3 yr old draws better beards so let me know next time u want one doing.'

The e-fit has been mocked online after web users said the suspect's beard looked like it had been drawn with an Etch A Sketch

Amanda Punter said: 'This is quite a serious post and the police have posted a picture that looks like a school child has drawn all over it, obviously they have used the app EFits for beginner.'

Carl Dickson wrote: 'I thought e-fits were getting more realistic? That beard looks like it was drawn by a toddler.'

Dan Bristow put: 'Cutting costs is all good, but using Microsoft Paint?!'

Peter Howells added: 'Look out for a fella with a weird felt tip beard. Can't be many of them about!'

Pete Smith said: 'Glad to see Etch A Sketch is still in use.'

The force are appealing for witnesses to come forward after a teenage girl was approached by a man at 1.30pm on June 7 in Lindsay Avenue, Northampton.

A police spokesperson said: 'A 15-year-old girl was approached by a man who attempted to grab her.

'The girl ran away and the man is believed to have got into a grey car which then sped away

Forces around the country have been mocked for the pictures they have released of suspects, with Northamptonshire Police getting laughs with their 'Lego man' e-fit (left) and Warwickshire Police releasing a hilarious image of a 'Cheshire Cat Burglar' (right)

'The offender is described as being an Asian man, of a stocky build with a big black beard and a ringlet of hair hanging down the left side of his face.

'He was wearing a durag on his head which was tied in a bow on the right hand side, a denim jacket and a cream t-shirt.'

Anyone with information or who may have witnessed this incident is asked to call Northamptonshire Police on 101 quoting reference number 20000288387.

South Yorkshire Police released the e-fit (left) of a suspect which was ridiculed online due to the orange beard, and Residents in Pontypool, South Wales, were left scratching their heads at this e-fit of a suspect (right) where only the nose and mouth can be seen

Or alternatively call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

This is certainly not the first time a police e-fit has been ridiculed, with police forces across the country all falling prey.

Warwickshire Police's picture of a 'Cheshire Cat Burglar' was retweeted over 2,200 times and Northamptonshire Police were mocked after releasing an image people compared to a Lego figure.
When the Supreme Court ruled last month that a president does not enjoy absolute immunity from a state prosecutors investigation while in office, it was widely believed that the specifics of the case in question concerned hush-money payments made to two women in advance of the 2016 presidential election at the behest of then-candidate Donald Trump. On Monday, a court filing revealed that there is likely a whole lot more than simply those payments being probed by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. In addition to the hush-money payments, which could constitute a violation of campaign finance law, Vances office is also investigating possible bank and insurance fraud by Trumps company.

If the potential violations of campaign finance laws were perhaps a bit esoteric and might not have fully captured the public's imagination, the fraud charges are something else again, as they are so much more straightforward and quite easily understood. The story, put plainly: Trump's real-estate business is said to have routinely inflated artificially the value of certain properties when that was in his interest, yet devalued real-estate holdings when doing so advantaged him. If this were true, it could obviously present the former reality TV star with serious legal problems.

Then, on the heels of the Monday report of Vances court filing came news that his office had also subpoenaed Deutsche Bank, Trumps primary lender since the 1990s. According to reports, prosecutors were seeking the financial records that Trump had provided to the bank. And the lender handed them over.

In legal circles, this is what's known as a big deal. In political terms, it's staggering.

Trump's financial records are apparently in the hands of prosecutors who are conducting a wide-ranging probe of his possible misdeeds. Those records would, it seems clear, include Trump's tax returns. You know, the "beautiful" ones he'd promised to release back when he was first running for president in the summer of 2015.

As the records request came as a part of grand jury proceedings, the documents are, and could well remain, secret. Unless and until criminal charges are brought.

This possibility, of course, is enticing, but it presents some thorny issues over both the near- and longer term. If Vance were to detail his case against the president on the eve of the presidential election, wouldn't that likely be seen as an effort to sway voters? But if he waits, when he's got what he needs to move forward, he could be viewed as bowing to political pressure.

Perhaps he could ask former FBI Director James Comey for some advice. It was Comey, of course, who misplayed his hand when it came to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's emails, most notably announcing just prior to the 2016 election that the bureau's on-again, off-again probe of her use of a private email server had been reopened, before quickly turning tail and effectively saying that all was well after all.

There are plenty who believe, with polling evidence to back up their assertions, that Comey's pre-election fumble damaged Clinton just enough to push Trump over the finish line in the all-important Electoral College. In the end, fewer than 80,000 votes in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin made Trump president.

On second thought, Vance probably shouldn't consult Comey. He's surely well aware of the details of that sorry tale.

But what if Vance, a Democrat, has been assembling what he sees as an iron-clad case against what he views as Trump's clearly illegal real-estate maneuverings, and feels it best to wait to proceed until after voters have decided, without his aid, to give the president the boot. Imagine further that he waits until just after Joe Biden is inaugurated as president and then indicts citizen Trump on a whole bunch of felony counts related to his real-estate doings.

Imagine the headlines:

"From the White House to the Big House?"

"Even Putin Can't Help Him Now."

"Will Melania Visit?"

It would surely provide fodder for the tabloids. And it would be enjoyable to watch the disgraced former president's sycophantic supporters in the once-Grand Old Party twisting themselves into knots as they endeavored to back away from the man they had for so long bowed down to.

But this is not how we do things in America. We don't look to toss our former leaders in jail once there's a new guy, from the other party, in town. It would set the worst kind of precedent. Even if Trump deserves to have the book thrown at him.

All of which leaves Vance in an untenable position.

It's entirely possible that the 45th president of the United States is a crook, and has been for much of his adult life. It's also possible that Vance's office could prove this beyond a reasonable doubt.

How then should he proceed? And when? These are questions that have got to be asked, and deeply considered, not only by the prosecutor himself, but also by the citizenry more generally.

And they are questions that are not easily answered.
Former Union minister Manoj Sinha, the newly appointed lieutenant governor (L-G) of Jammu & Kashmir, hit the ground running on Thursday, receiving a briefing on the situation in the Union Territory soon after reaching Srinagar.

Sinha, 61, a three-time Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parliamentarian, is expected to take his oath of office on Friday on the lawns of Raj Bhavan in the city. He is the second L-G of the Union Territory (UT), which was formed last year after the bifurcation of the erstwhile state of J&K.

The appointment of a political personality at the helm of the UT is being seen as an indication of the Centres will to initiate the political process in J&K, according to a person aware of the details.

Sinha takes over from Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Girish Chandra Murmu, who resigned on August 5, exactly a year after the government announced the nullification of Article 370, which conferred special status on Jammu & Kashmir, and bifurcated the state into two UTs  J&K with a legislative assembly and Ladakh without one  on August 5, 2019.

Murmu was appointed the Comptroller and Auditor General of India with effect from the date he assumes charge of his office, the government said.

In Srinagar, chief secretary BVR Subrahmanyam and director general of police Dilbagh Singh welcomed Sinha at the airport, where he landed at around 3pm on Thursday and received a guard of honour. He went straight to the Raj Bhavan and was briefed about the ground situation in the politically sensitive region.

The new lieutenant governor was given first-hand account of the situation by officials... He will be chairing a review meeting of officials only after the oath ceremony, said a senior J&K official privy to the details.

Senior BJP leaders welcomed Sinhas appointment and hoped that he will usher in economic development.

A gentle, erudite and experienced leader with loads of administrative experience as a minister to head J&K administration. J&K to progress on path of development with renewed vigour, BJP general secretary Ram Madhav tweeted.

Jitendra Singh, minister of state in the Prime Ministers Office, said: ...He [Sinha] carries with him a rich combination of both political as well as administrative experience.

Sinhas political career began when he was elected the president of Banaras Hindu University students union in 1982. He became a Lok Sabha member for the first time in 1996 from Ghazipur, and won election from the seat in 1999 as well.

Sinha was elected to the Lower House for a third time in 2014, when the BJP came to power at the Centre with a landslide win, and Narendra Modi became Prime Minister. Sinha held the portfolio of minister of state for railways between May 2014 and July 2016, and was later given the independent charge of the ministry of telecommunications.

Lets see how things will unfold once he takes over, said National Conference (NC) parliamentarian Hasnain Masoodi.

Earlier in the day, a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique said Murmus resignation had been accepted. Murmu, who held the post for just over nine months, left for Delhi from Jammu on a plane around 11am.

Murmus resignation came in the backdrop of his suggestions to allow 4G telecom services in the Valley and his comments about the timing of elections in the UT that prompted a terse note from the Election Commission of India reminding him to respect the poll bodys remit.

Former J&K chief minister and NC leader Omar Abdullah termed Murmus exit unceremonious. In a strange coincidence, both the last Governor of J&K state [Satyapal Malik] & the 1st Lt Governor of the Union Territory of J&K have been removed when they least expected it. They both had a full schedule of meetings planned when they got the order to pack & leave rather unceremoniously, he tweeted.

Noor Ahmad Baba, a political analyst, said the developments are another experiment by the Union government. They begun with a bureaucrat [Murmu], and after one year, when things did not change much on ground, they have experimented with a person with a political background who may try to create his own space and think independently.

He said only time will tell if Sinha is able to make a difference. Kashmir is not that simple...It is not going to be that easy, Baba said.
A Chinese city has locked down a neighbourhood and issued level-three epidemic warnings for plague after one of its residents died of the disease, according to a government notice.

The city of Baotou in northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region said the person had contracted the enteric plague, one of the four forms of plague which attacks a person's digestive system.

The unidentified individual died on Sunday after suffering circulatory system failure, the Baotou Health Committee said in a statement on Thursday.

The death occurred at the Suji Estate at the town of Shibao in Darhan Muminggan United Banner near the Chinese border with Mongolia, according to Baotou government (file photo)

The news comes as the northern Chinese region detected a case of bubonic plague last month.

A herdsman from Bayan Nur in Inner Mongolia was confirmed on July 4 to have the disease, known as the 'Black Death' in the Middle Ages.

The latest fatality occurred at the Suji Estate at the town of Shibao in Darhan Muminggan United Banner near the Chinese border with Mongolia, the statement announced.

Officials have ordered the city to enter a precautionary warning period, which is set to last from today till the end of the year.

The city of Baotou in China's Inner Mongolia said the person had contracted the enteric plague, one of the four forms of plague which attacks a person's digestive system

Authorities have isolated nine people who had had close contact with the deceased, as well as their respective close contacts which amounted to 26.

All of the 35 quarantined residents have been sent to isolation camps, given precautionary drugs and taken polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, which detect the bacterium that causes plague.

None of them had a fever, and all their test results were negative, the statement said.

Officials locked down Suji Estate to prevent the spread of the disease.

The government admitted that the city was facing a potential epidemic of plague among humans.

Officials have locked down the area where the deceased lived to prevent the spread of plague

Authorities said they had carried out door-to-door health checks for the locals and increased the intensity of anti-epidemic education.

They added that workers were thoroughly disinfecting the home of the deceased as well as the surrounding farmhouses daily. Officials have also launched a campaign to kill fleas and rodents.

None of the residents in Suji had a fever or tested positive for plague, the notice said.

Enteric plague, also known as the pharyngeal plague, can arise as a result of exposure to infectious aerosols or by ingestion of infected meat.

It is less common than the bubonic plague, one of the most devastating diseases in history, or the pneumonic plague, a severe lung infection.

The other type of plague, the septicemic plague, affects a person's blood systems.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has tested positive for the coronavirus.

He will no longer meet president Donald Trump on the tarmac at Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland this afternoon.

The president is on his way to Ohio to speak about economic prosperity, visit a Whirlpool plant, and attend a fundraising reception.

Mr DeWine has no symptoms and has returned to Columbus where he will quarantine for 14 days.

The Covid-19 test was administered as part of the standard protocol when meeting with the president.

Both the governor and first lady, Fran DeWine, who also has no symptoms, will be tested at home.

Ohio's lieutenant governor John Husted also took a test today, which was negative.

The Republican governor has received bipartisan praise for his response to the coronavirus pandemic in his state  Ohio was one of the first to close bars and restaurants and implement a stay-at-home order.

Mr DeWine also advocated face masks, condemning the partisan debate over their use.

This is not the first time a governor has tested positive for Covid-19. Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt announced that he had contracted the virus several weeks ago.

The president's visit to Ohio comes as polling suggests that the state, which he won in 2016, is now in play in November's general election.

Ohio has seen a surge in coronavirus cases since mid-June. There have been 96,305 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the state, and 3,596 deaths.

On 5 August 1,199 new cases were recorded, down from a peak of 1,733 on 30 July.
Authorities in the Mekong Delta are mobilising personnel and funds to provide relief and rehabilitation after houses, crops and dykes were damaged by the impact of tropical storm Sinlaku in the last few days.

An eroded section of Kien Giang Provinces western sea dyke in An Minh Districts Van Khanh Tay Commune.  VNA/VNS Photo Le Huy Hai

The countrys largest rice, fruit and seafood producer has seen thousands of houses and thousands of hectares of crops damaged by heavy rains and strong winds.

The storm weakened into a tropical depression after making landfall over the countrys north  central region on Sunday, according to authorities.

Bac Lieu Province received rains of 112  171mm between August 1 and 4, and many parts were inundated.

According to the local Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control, Search and Rescue, 87 houses were damaged as were standing crops.

Bac Lieu authorities have mobilised relief workers to help affected people repair their homes and stabilise their lives.

In Soc Trang Province, the roofs of 270 houses and three class rooms were blown off, one net house was flattened, 406ha of rice was destroyed and one person was injured between July 31 and August 4.

Ca Mau Province reported on Tuesday that 49 houses, 40 large trees and 130ha of banana were flattened and the roofs of 375 houses were blown away.

A river bank was eroded, damaging four houses and 20m of road.

In Kien Giang Province, 548 houses, office buildings and schools lost their roofs or were flattened or inundated.

Strong winds destroyed more than 1,340ha of banana in U Minh Thuong District, causing losses of around VND7 billion (US$302,000).

Some 200ha of summer  autumn rice in Kien Luong District have been inundated.

Nguyen Huynh Trung, head of the Kien Giang Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control, Search and Rescue, said local authorities have mobilised the military, police and local forces to help affected people.

The [personnel] have helped affected households build temporary shelters and move to safe areas.

Localities around the province have provided funds to help affected households.

The provinces Irrigation Sub-department is opening sluices between Rach Gia City and Kien Luong District to drain water from low-lying areas.

Strong winds and waves have eroded a 700-metre section of the provinces western sea dyke in An Minh Districts Van Khanh Tay Commune.

The province used cajuput tree stumps and soil to fill the eroded section, but strong winds and waves washed it away.

Trung said the province would fill the section using rocks in the next few days to prevent further erosion. The work is estimated to cost VND10 billion ($431,700).

In Tra Vinh Province, nearly 300 houses and thousands of hectares of rice and other crops were damaged, and hundreds of metres of dyke were eroded.

Local authorities, the military and other relief workers have helped affected households repair the damage to houses and move affected families to safety.

The provinces natural disaster support fund has provided VND2 million ($86) to each family whose house has been damaged.

The Can Tho Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control, Search and Rescue has granted VND200 million ($8,600) to Thoi Lai and O Mon districts to support affected people.

In the city, 12 houses have been destroyed and 88 others are damaged.

More bad weather in the city is forecast in the next few days, especially between August 6 and 8, by the citys Centre for Hydro-Meteorology Forecasting. VNS

Two die as storm Sinlaku sweeps through northern Vietnam Storm Sinlaku, the second of its kind to enter the East Sea since the beginning of this year, has caused two deaths, according to reports from the provinces at a meeting in Hanoi on August 3.
KITCHENER  Its never an easy decision for a parent to send their child to a group home.

For Trenny McGinnis, who has a 27-year-old daughter, Sydney Canning, living in a three-person home in Kitchener, she said it came down to quality of care, and knowing the staff could provide her with a more consistent routine.

But for five months, group home residents lives have been thrown upside down.

All the regular day activities and volunteer opportunities have been cancelled, family visits were originally postponed and are now socially distanced, and a weekend stay with parents requires a COVID-19 test and 14 days of self-isolation, alone, once they return.

Were talking about a group of people that have really been forgotten during this pandemic, said McGinnis. Their routines are gone, theyve been restricted on what they can do, and they dont understand why this is happening to them.

The protocols are designed to keep the most vulnerable populations safe, but maintaining the social aspects of daily life has posed different challenges in a sector that often gets lumped in with long-term care.

Not connected with health care

The COVID-19 pandemic required immediate action from the various regional group home management teams, forcing them to find different ways to mitigate the spread of the virus while also getting their hands on personal protective equipment.

The developmental services sector is not technically part of the health care umbrella, falling instead under the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services. That meant they werent a priority for masks and other protective equipment and had to largely rely on each other to find best practices and workarounds.

And when it comes to official protocols, group homes have largely just been roped in with long-term care facilities, leaving it up to operators to take the guidelines and implement them as best they can while understanding the unique nature of their clients.

While long-term care homes can house hundreds of residents in the same facility, a typical group home houses between three to five clients.

So, we get captured in that numbers game and the risk percentage of the larger facilities, said Elmira District Community Living executive director Greg Bechard. His agency supports 60 adults with developmental disabilities with one large facility and several smaller homes.

Using a set of guidelines that isnt tailor-made for the developmental services sector, he said its been at the operators discretion how they implement the protocols.

Its why Sunbeam Community and Developmental Services chief executive Brian Swainson said he is hopeful the provincial government will prioritize the sector moving forward.

I think theres an awful lot of interest in strengthening the relationship between our sector and health, and theres a lot of advocacy happening that way, he said. And Im certainly going to be one of the voices encouraging that.

Changing on the fly in a pandemic

Sunbeam has over 100 clients living in 19 different sites. Each house usually has between five to six clients, with each client having about 10 clinical diagnoses.

They have been one of the leading voices in the industry over the last five months, offering up their protocols to other agencies across the region to help navigate the unknown waters.

Restricting visitors was one of the key first steps in the early days of the pandemic, Swainson said, but it also required dealing with a workforce that often works in multiple sites. They quickly redirected staff so they would only be going to one location, and its a big reason why Swainson said they havent had any major outbreaks to date.

But there have been challenges.

Families have of course struggled, and many of our clients have struggled because theyve had to experience a separation that theyve never had before, he said.

Staff quickly organized window visits, which has now turned into outside, socially distanced visits with masks. It works for some clients, said Swainson, but its just not possible for others who dont quite understand the precautions.

It has also been extended to indoor visits as well, said Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services spokesperson Kristen Tedesco.

The congregate living settings visitor guidelines will continue to be regularly re-evaluated within the context of changing public health situation and advice, she said.

Agencies can also begin offering modified on-site services for clients. Tedesco said the government recently issued guidelines to support the restarting of day supports across ministry-funded adult services.

As for overnight stays with family members, public health officials have mandated that all overnight visits require a 14-day self-isolation period, and its not an area homes can be flexible on.

Swainson said they havent had anyone go home for a weekend yet.

That goes for McGinnis as well, whose daughter would usually have come to her house every other weekend. She would visit her father in Collingwood on alternating weekends.

I just dont think it would be fair to make her go through the self-isolation, she said. And then add the test on top of that, it just wouldnt make sense right now.

Outbreaks in group homes

But even with the precautions, not all group homes were able to stave off an outbreak.

Elmira District Community Living had close to 50 positive cases of COVID-19 in its homes, said executive director Bechard. That was split between three outbreaks, with about half coming in patients and the other half coming in staff.

Within a matter of weeks, they were down close to a third of their workforce, focusing all their efforts on containing the outbreak.

Its been close to a month now since theyve had a positive case, and all staff except for one have returned.

As the province registers its third straight day of less than 100 cases, attention is now on the fall and the possibility of a second wave.

After five months, Swainson said it will come down to continuing with the protocols theyve put in place.

But if the numbers start going back up, he said to expect homes to pull back on visitation rights.

And for McGinnis, that means it could be a long time until she can hug her daughter again.

I dont know what the answer is, she said. I dont know if its more funding or more direction from the government. I just know I miss my daughter and she misses me.
Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani has appointed veteran public administrator Mohamed Ould Bilal as prime minister, hours after the previous government resigned amid an investigation into alleged high-level corruption.

Bilals appointment was announced in a statement from the presidency following the resignation of his predecessor Ismail Ould Cheikh Sidiya and his entire government.

The political system in Mauritania has been rocked this year by a parliamentary investigation into alleged corruption in the government of former President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who stepped down last year after a decade in power.

His close ally Ghazouani won the election to succeed him, but Abdel Aziz quickly found his governments actions, including deals involving offshore oil projects, under scrutiny by parliament.

The investigators on Wednesday gave a report documenting their findings to the public prosecutor. Several current ministers were questioned about suspected corruption that occurred on their watch while serving in senior positions in Abdel Azizs government.

In brief remarks to reporters on Thursday morning, Cheikh Sidiya said he had submitted the governments resignation to Ghazouani but did not provide an explanation.

Hours later, the presidency announced the appointment of Bilal, who has served as the head of the countrys national water agency, a presidential aide and a cabinet minister.

Bilal was tasked with forming a government, an official at the presidency said.

Abdel Aziz came to power in a 2008 coup and was an important ally of Western powers in the fight against Islamist fighters in the Sahel region.

The inauguration last August of Ghazouani, a former general and defence minister, marked the mostly desert nations first peaceful transfer of power since independence from France in 1960.
UNLV to implement new tools for racial equity, inclusion

A University of Nevada, Las Vegas task force has responded to racial unrest following the death of a man in police custody in Minnesota with recommendations to address safety, equity and inclusion among Black students and employees.

Acting UNLV President Marta Meana and Chris Heavey, interim executive vice president and provost, released a July 7 email calling the weeks after the May 25 death of George Floyd profoundly painful for our university, our community, and our nation, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported .

The long history and recent string of killings of unarmed African Americans have finally brought about a moment of reckoning that needs to persist past the immediate reflection and protests. Black Lives Matter. Now and forever, the administrators wrote.

Floyds death sparked weeks of protests across the nation and calls for social justice after video showed a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee against Floyds neck for several minutes as Floyd lay face down on the ground. The officer has been fired and faces second-degree murder and manslaughter charges.

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The UNLV administrators pledged efforts to increase access and opportunity for individuals of color and others traditionally underrepresented in higher education, and to support every member of our UNLV family and help everyone attain their educational goals and professional objectives.

In the email, Meana and Heavey gave an overview of recommendations that they said they plan to implement from the 12-member Anti-Black Racism Task Force created in June.

Those include denouncing racism and Black racism during UNLV student orientation; creating a website for the task force; sponsoring an on-campus workshop to provide employees with intercultural training; expanding mental health services for the Black community; and implementing university police changes.

Academic recommendations include developing support initiatives for Black faculty; implementing a search advocate program to attract more faculty of color; hiring a cluster of scholars once a hiring freeze is lifted whose research, teaching, and service is dedicated to combating racism and increasing social justice; and expanding the universitys African American and African Diaspora Studies program.

UNLV also is considering the future of its mascot after removing a bronze statue of Hey Reb! from campus in mid-June following outcry from student groups.

Critics and advocates call the mascot racist and rooted in Confederate mythology.

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University officials had characterized it as a symbol of rebellion dating to the creation of UNLV in the 1950s as an offshoot of the University of Nevada, Reno.

Javon Johnson, chairman of the task force faculty subcommittee, is assistant professor of African American studies and director of African American and African diaspora studies.

He told the Review-Journal that he had previously emailed the president and provost and expressed frustrations with how universities typically go about addressing racial issues.

He said that in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, university administrators turned to education and health experts for guidance. But he said that in response to racial strife, UNLV did not equally turn to Interdisciplinary, Gender, and Ethnic Studies faculty.

Johnson has been at UNLV for three years, and said the university failed in the past to adequately respond to racial incidents.

They include an October 2019 shooting threat found in a bathroom stall directed toward Black students and Bernie Sanders supporters. Students protested after it took more than five days for the university to issue a campus notification. Officials said the threat was determined to be unsubstantiated.

In 2018, an anonymous sticky note with the message kill the blacks was found in UNLVs Lied Library, and a separate report said someone made gun-pointing movements toward Black students.

Johnson acknowledged the university faces budgetary issues spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, but said UNLV needs to put more money and hire additional faculty in its African American and African Diaspora Studies programs.

Budgetary crises cant be the response, he said. We have to find solutions. Anti-Black racism and antagonisms are killing Black people at a high (rate) and we cant turn a blind eye to that.

UNLV will have a new president Aug. 24, following the hiring by university regents of Keith Whitfield, a provost, administrator and psychology professor at Wayne State University in Detroit.

Meana has been acting president since June 2018, and announced in February that she would not seek the position permanently.

Other local colleges also have responded to the national protests.

The College of Southern Nevada held forums in June titled A Space to Breathe: A Conversation about Injustices Against Blacks in America and Standing in Solidarity: Whats Going On?

College President Federico Zaragoza also issued a June 1 statement in response to Floyds death.

At Nevada State College in Henderson, school administrators released a letter July 7 about steps including a push for leadership team diversity  going from no Black administrators in 2016 to 16% now.

It said the number of Black first-year students has nearly doubled over the past five years and retention rates have improved, the letter said. The percentage of Black faculty remains at 6% and the percentage of Black administrative faculty and classified staff was 12% this year.

The college said the diversity push includes recruiting more Black students and helping them graduate; increasing diversity among faculty and staff; launching a new academic program to support Black students; and working to create a social justice lab on campus.
Philanthropist Warner Henry supported numerous arts organizations, including the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Opera, the Colburn School, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Camerata Pacifica and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. (Mike Mancillas/LACO)

Warner Henry, a philanthropist who with his wife, Carol, championed classical music in L.A., died Saturday at 82 of natural causes.

A central figure in the rise of classical music in the city, Henry supported numerous arts organizations including the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Opera, the Colburn School, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Camerata Pacifica and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

The Henrys were key donors to LACO for more than 40 years, giving more than $3 million to the ensemble. They gave more than $10 million to L.A. Opera, helping to pioneer the company created in 1986.

It is simply impossible to think of classical music in Los Angeles without thinking of Warner Henry, wrote Adrian Spence, the artistic director of the roving chamber music group Camerata Pacifica, in a statement. "Warner and his wife, Carol, have been pillars of support for music across the city."

Born in Los Angeles in 1938, Henry discovered a love for classical music as an undergraduate studying economics at Stanford. After a brief stint in the Navy, he returned to Stanford to get an MBA.

He met Carol, who also graduated from Stanford, after returning to L.A. to work for his fathers roofing product manufacturing company. In the 1980s, he founded the Henry Wine Group, an importer, distributor and broker.

Henry was passionate about classical music  particularly Baroque  and was an avid concertgoer, attending multiple shows a week. He and his wife opened their Pasadena home for fundraisers and gatherings for the arts, and in 2002 they hosted a Polish pianist competing in the first Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition and Festival in Pasadena.

Philanthropists Carol and Warner Henry attend a Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra event in 2019. (Ben Gibbs)

The philanthropist began his relationship with LACO in the early 1970s. LACO concertmaster Margaret Batjer called his impact on the ensemble, where he served in different roles including emeritus board member, "indelible."

In 2017 the Henrys gave the organization $1.5 million  the largest single gift in the orchestras history. The gift supported the principal oboe chair, named after former LACO principal oboist Allan Vogel, who retired in 2016 after 44 years with the orchestra.

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I never tired of seeing [Warner] at the end of performances backstage," Batjer said. "Hed smile and open his arms and with that deep voice of his say, Ooh la la. That was always his expression when you knew you had really reached Warner.

Following his wife's lead, Henry joined the L.A. Opera board in 1987. He served on nearly every committee in almost every capacity including vice chairman, treasurer and managing director, the company said.

The Henrys underwrote numerous L.A. Opera productions including The Coronation of Poppea in 2006, Don Giovanni in 2012 and The Clemency of Titus" in 2019. Many of those productions were supported through the Carol and Warner Henry Production Fund for Mozart Operas, which was created to honor his love of the composer.

Henry served on the board of directors for Camerata Pacifica and "was instrumental in our surviving the Great Recession," Spence wrote.

Typically arts patron leaders in L.A. are consistent with their giving: "They pick an organization, and they support it, Batjer said.

Henry was more universal with his support. It didnt matter to him which organization, what mattered to him was the music being made, good quality music.

He is survived by his wife; children Will, Katie and Mike; and nine grandchildren.
State Police Bust $3M Illegal Pot Growing Operation in Savoy



Troopers say they confiscated nearly 3,600 marijuana plants with a street value of more than $3 million. The grow operation was using $10,000 a month in electricity. SAVOY, Mass.  State Police say they have busted an illegal pot operation in the small hilltown and seized more than $3 million worth of plants.

According to troopers with Cheshire barracks, an investigation into suspicious activity on Jackson Road resulted in the discovery of the growing operation and resulted in the arrest of two New York State men: Yebin Mai, 28, of Staten Island and Bin Huang, 32, of Brooklyn.

Troopers were assisted by members of the Berkshire State Police Detective Unit, the State Police Narcotics Inspection Unit and a narcotics task force and a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent.

State Police reported that the investigation began on the night of July 29, when an Eversource crew responded to a pole outside 72 Jackson Road to address an electrical problem. Investigation by the linemen indicated that wires had been overloaded and damaged by excessive electricity use from the house, and they approached the residence to speak to the occupant. A man exited the home, later identified as Mai, and, claiming he did not speak much English and communicating mostly through gestures, refused to let the workers inspect the home's electrical hookups.

When the lineman explained that the power had to be shut off to conduct a safety check, Mai became agitated and gestured repeatedly that they could not turn off the power, according to State Police. The linemen made several attempts to explain the situation and told troopers that at one point Mai had placed an envelope with $100 bills in the pocket of the lineman's vest. The Eversource employee attempted to give the money back to Mai, who pushed the lineman's hand away. At that point the crew decided to leave the power on, leave the property, and request police presence as they felt there was a potential conflict with the resident.

Cheshire troopers responded and, while they were speaking to the Eversource crew, said a white 2019 Ford pickup with a New York registration drove down the home's driveway attempting to leave the property. Troopers stopped the vehicle to allow Eversource employees to again attempt to explain the safety hazard at the home. The driver, identified as Mai by his New York driver's license, kept repeating that he did not speak or understand English. When Trooper Glenn Lagerwall requested that he turn the truck off he immediately did so, indicating that he did understand some English. There were two other men in the truck.

An inspection of the home's four outdoor electric meters revealed that metal and wiring in and around the meters was melted from the excessive power being drawn through them. Eversource records indicated the home was using $10,000 in electricity every month. Fresh burn marks on the wood that encased the meters indicated that there had been a small fire at one point. Determining the situation unsafe, the company cut power to the home and ordered it would remain off until repairs were made and inspected by the town.

Troopers said they made the following observations outside the house:

There was a slight smell for fresh grown marijuana near the house.

While there were no visible ventilation outlets, there were the distinct sounds of multiple fans running in the residence. After the power was shut off and the fans inside had stopped running, the smell of fresh marijuana became much stronger around the residence.

All windows were covered with closed curtains and what appeared to be plywood on the interior of the windows.

The back yard was covered with debris from what appeared to be extensive renovations in the house. Mixed in with the debris were large green pots used for planting and some large florescent light fixtures.

Each entrance had a door camera tracking the entrance and exit of anyone using that doorway.

A worn path led from the back of the house into the woods. At the end of the path was a very large pile of used potting soil, all in the shape of large pots apparently from which they had been dumped. There were roots and stalks in the soil where plants had been harvested. Troopers, through training and experience, said they knew these to be discarded marijuana roots.

Upon questioning with aid of an online translation app, Mai stated he did not own the house, did not know who owned the house, and did not know why he, a New York resident, was at the house.

Upon consultation with a narcotics detective from the State Police Detective Unit for Berkshire County, troopers allowed the three occupants of the truck to leave pending further investigation. The envelope containing the money that Mai had tried to give to the lineman was returned to the suspect, according to troopers.

Utilizing online property records, Lagerwall determined that the house had been purchased on Nov. 2, 2017, by a Bin Huang for $200,000 cash.

Believing  from the observations of the property and the excessive electrical use at the address  that probable cause existed that the home was being used as a marijuana cultivation facility, and after determining it was not licensed as such, Trooper Jacob Eugin applied for, and was granted by a Berkshire County court, a search warrant for the home.

On the afternoon of Friday July 31, troopers from the barracks, the State Police Detective Unit, a State Police regional drug task force, and a DEA agent executed the search warrant and found no one inside the home. Immediately upon approaching the cellar, troopers said they detected an overwhelming odor of fresh marijuana. In the cellar they found a room full of marijuana plants organized in rows with lights above them.

Each plant was in an individual pot. In the room was a network of lights, chemicals, a sophisticated hydro system and an advanced ventilation system. The team then found five more rooms on the cellar, all with almost every square foot covered with growing marijuana plants. Also located in the cellar was a long shelf stacked with hydroponic chemicals and cultivation tools.

The team moved to the first floor and found more rooms containing marijuana plants and other rooms contained supplies needed for growing marijuana.

Troopers located, in the house, bills and mail addressed to Huang at that address.

The Massachusetts State Police Air Wing deployed to conduct an overhead area search of the building and the surrounding 14 acres of the property. Upon arrival, the helicopter conducted several passes over the area but did not find any further evidence of marijuana cultivation.

A total of 3,598 marijuana plants, with a total weight of 560 pounds, were seized from the building and secured by the State Police Narcotics Inspection Unit. The estimated street value of the seized plants is more than $3 million.

Over the next several days, troopers checked the residence repeatedly but observed no signs that the suspects had returned. But on Wednesday, troopers learned that people were inside the house. Trooper William Munch drove past the residence and confirmed that the white pickup and another vehicle were in the driveway. Troopers Anthony Martone and Joseph Pescitelli a short time later observed a white Ford F150 pickup with a New York registration pull out of Jackson Road and head south on Route 8A. Both troopers noted the driver matched the description and picture of Mai.

Based on the probable cause that Mai had been trafficking marijuana, they stopped the pickup, positively identified Mai, and placed him under arrest. The passenger was then identified as Huang, the owner of the residence. Huang was then also placed under arrest based on the same probable cause. (Huang was not one of the men in the pickup on the first day.)

Both men were transported to the Cheshire barracks for booking.

According to State Police, Huang indicated he understood his Miranda rights. Mai claimed to not understand English, even though he had previously complied with Pescitelli's orders stated in English earlier in the stop. Pescitelli called Interpreter Services Information and was able to get a translator to explain Miranda rights to Mai in Mandarin, and Mai stated that he understood his rights. A bail clerk set bail for $100,000 each for both men and set a court date for both to appear before Northern Berkshire District Court on Friday, Aug. 7.

The investigation into the whereabouts of the other two men who were in the pickup truck with Mai on the first day is ongoing. Their identities are known to the State Police.
Vanessa Hudgens, like many Los Angeles residents, is currently dealing with lockdown orders and mask mandates as a result of COVID-19.

And the 31-year-old High School Musical alum was clearly longing for her pre-pandemic life, when she uploaded a slew of stunning portraits taken during a past trip to Turks and Caicos on Wednesday.

In the photos shared with her 38.6million followers on Instagram, Hudgens showed off her taut tummy in a white tie-front bikini top and a pair silk, striped lounge pants.

Glamour: Vanessa Hudgens was clearly longing for her pre-pandemic world, when she uploaded a slew of stunning portraits taken during a past trip to Turks and Caicos on Wednesday

She had an oversized button down shirt that matched her pants draped over her like a shall and she had the sleeves neatly rolled up.

Vanessa's brunette hair was parted down the middle and styled into a chic low bun.

She had a white flower tucked over her ear, while a pair of white shell earrings flowed down to her shoulders from her earlobes.

Hudgens had a plethora of chains fastened around her neck and she appeared to be wearing a dainty, gold body chain that hung past her hips.

Ethereal: In the photos shared with her 38.6million followers on Instagram, Hudgens showed off her taut tummy in a white tie-front bikini top and a pair silk, striped lounge pants

Flower gal: She had a white flower tucked over her ear, while a pair of white, dangling earrings flowed down to her shoulders from her earlobes

Her wrists were decked out in bracelets and her diamond belly button ring glistened in the setting sunlight.

The actress looked to be wearing little to no makeup as she gazed into the camera and posed with one hand behind her neck.

In the second shot shared to her Instagram, Vanessa looked as if she were dancing on the beach.

The finale photo showed Hudgens with her arms in the arm and her eyes closed as the breeze swept her oversized blouse behind her.

Girl gang: Hudgens was clearly missing her pre-pandemic life in the series of throwback snapshots

Fire: Once it got dark, Hudgens and her vacation crew lit up a fire pit, as indicated by a hilarious picture of her pretending to summon the flames

'Such a lovely evening,' captioned the Princess Switch star, who also uploaded images of the incredible view from her and her pals' vacation abode.

Vanessa also gave fans a peak at the delectable dinner she was served during the trip, which included fresh sushi rolls, large glasses of wine, and other forms of seafood.

Once it got dark, Hudgens and her vacation crew lit up a fire pit, as indicated by a hilarious picture of her pretending to summon the flames.

Prior to her ethereal beach shoot on Wednesday, the actress showed off her enviable tan in a light pink bikini on Tuesday in more throwback snapshots taken during the trip.

Yum: Vanessa also gave fans a peak at the delectable dinner she was served, which included fresh sushi rolls, large glasses of wine, and other forms of seafood

Views: 'Such a lovely evening,' captioned the Princess Switch star, who also uploaded images of the incredible view from her and her pals' resort

Stunner: Prior to her ethereal beach shoot on Wednesday, the actress showed off her enviable tan in a light pink bikini on Tuesday in more throwback snapshots taken during the trip.

Vanessa covered up the bottoms of her bikini with an opulent peach and lavender sarong that was covered in delicate floral designs and featured golden fringe.

It remains unclear when Hudgens' trip to Turks and Caicos took place, but she was very much in West Hollywood on Wednesday as she grabbed take out from a local restaurant.

For her food run, Vanessa donned a white blouse and a pair of black shorts that coordinated with her face mask.

Her hair was tied up into a ponytail and she slipped her feet into a pair of black Birkenstock sandals.

Los Angeles life: It remains unclear when Hudgens' trip to Turks and Caicos took place, but she was very much in West Hollywood on Wednesday as she grabbed take out from a local restaurant
Health Minister Park Neung-hoo delivers a message on Thursday, Seoul, addressing to doctors who vowed to go on strike on Friday. Yonhap



By Kim Se-jeong





Health Minister Park Neung-hoo vowed Thursday to maintain basic medical services as the nation's intern and resident doctors are scheduled to go on strike on Friday.



"The government is working to maintain basic medical services so that people will not suffer any damage as a result of the strike," Park said. Friday's strike is expected to affect patients in big medical centers and Emergency Rooms. It will be followed by another strike on Aug. 14, held by other doctors, including those in local clinics.



Later Thursday, the minister pleaded for the doctors to understand the situation and cooperate with the government's move to increase the number of doctors.



"Dear doctors, the government's decision to increase the quota was inevitable for the public and the country. We still have many details to work on, and the government will work on them with open communication with doctors," said Park during an address.



Korea is feeling the shortage of doctors during the COVID-19 pandemic.






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Anger is mounting against Lebanon's government following the massive blast in Beirut which has killed at least 137 people and wounded more than 5,000 as activists vowed to take to the streets as soon as the clean-up is over.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab has vowed that those responsible for the explosion - triggered when 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate being stored at the port caught fire - would 'pay the price', but the blame is increasingly being turned against the political class.

Lina Daoud, 45, a resident of the Mar Mikhail which was all-but destroyed in the explosion, described politicians as 'enemies of the state', saying: 'They killed our dreams, our future. Lebanon was a heaven, they have made it hell.'

Politicians were viewed as corrupt and incompetent even before the explosion, with tens of thousands taking to the streets in demonstrations that started in October last year - and now threaten to return with fresh intensity.

But marches will have to wait, at least for now, since many activists are busy cleaning up their city, rehousing the homeless and repairing damaged buildings amid a near-total absence of state support.

A massive cleanup operation is underway in Beirut after a massive explosion at the port levelled the surrounding neighbourhoods and left half of city's buildings with damage

An army of volunteers have taken to the streets to sweep up glass, clear away rubble, rehouse the homeless and repair buildings amid a near-total absence of state support

Activists have vowed to restart anti-government protests which have been ongoing since last year, once they have finished cleaning up a city that was once known as the Paris of the Middle East

People donate items of clothing, water and food in Martyrs Square in Beirut in an attempt to help those who were injured and left homeless following the huge explosion

Youth volunteers inspect damage to buildings in neighbourhoods close to the site of the blast, triggered when a warehouse filled with 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate caught fire

'What state?' scoffed 42-year-old Melissa Fadlallah, a volunteer cleaning up the hard-hit Mar Mikhail district of the Lebanese capital.

The explosion, which hit just a few hundred metres (yards) away at Beirut's port, blew all the windows and doors off Mar Mikhail's pubs, restaurants and apartment homes on Tuesday.

By Wednesday, a spontaneous cleanup operation was underway there, a glimmer of youthful solidarity and hope after a devastating night.

Wearing plastic gloves and a mask, Fadlallah tossed a shard of glass as long as her arm at the door of the state electricity company's administrative building that looms over the district.

'For me, this state is a dump - and on behalf of yesterday's victims, the dump that killed them is going to stay a dump,' she told AFP.

The blast killed more than 110 people, wounded thousands and compounded public anger that erupted in protests last year against a government seen as corrupt and inefficient.

'We're trying to fix this country. We've been trying to fix it for nine months but now we're going to do it our way,' said Fadlallah.

'If we had a real state, it would have been in the street since last night cleaning and working. Where are they?'

A few civil defence workers could be seen examining building structures but they were vastly outnumbered by young volunteers flooding the streets to help.

In small groups, they energetically swept up glass beneath blown-out buildings, dragging them into plastic bags.

Others clambered up debris-strewn stairwells to offer their homes to residents who had spent the previous night in the open air.

'We're sending people into the damaged homes of the elderly and handicapped to help them find a home for tonight,' said Husam Abu Nasr, a 30-year-old volunteer.

The explosion - which carried the force of a small nuke - destroyed Lebanon's main port along with grain silos that were opposite the burning warehouse, one of the country's main food stores

Destroyed warehouses are seen near the site of the explosion, which took place late Tuesday following a warehouse fire that is thought to have been sparked by a welder

The cost of the explosion is thought to have topped $3billion, with 300,000 people left homeless, at least 137 dead, and more than 5,000 people injured

A view through a blown-out window shows a destroyed grain silo that is located opposite the burning warehouse - which is now no more than a hole in the ground

'We don't have a state to take these steps, so we took matters into our own hands,' he said.

Towns across the country have offered to host Beirut families with damaged homes and the Maronite Catholic patriarchate announced it would open its monasteries and religious schools to those needing shelter.

Food was quickly taken care of, too: plastic tables loaded with donated water bottles, sandwiches and snacks were set up within hours.

'I can't help by carrying things, so we brought food, water, chocolate and moral support,' said Rita Ferzli, 26.

'I think everyone should be here helping, especially young people. No one should be sitting at home - even a smile is helping right now.'

Business owners swiftly took to social media, posting offers to repair doors, paint damaged walls or replace shattered windows for free.

Abdo Amer, who owns window company Curtain Glass, said he was moved to make such an offer after narrowly surviving the blast.

'I had driven by the port just three minutes earlier,' the 37-year-old said.

He offered to replace windows for half the price, but said he was fixing some for free given the devastating situation for many families following the Lebanese currency's staggering devaluation in recent months.

'I've gotten more than 7,000 phone calls today and I can't keep up,' said the father of four.

'You think the state will take up this work? Actually, let them step down and leave.'

A man picks through the ruins of blown-out buildings in central Beirut following a massive explosion at the city's port

Volunteers help remove fridges from a destroyed store as a massive cleanup operation gets underway in Beirut

A young man armed with a broom and a rake walks down a destroyed street in Beirut, amid a massive cleanup operation

A Lebanese soldier stands in the middle of a ruined street as the city attempts to repair the damage from a massive blast

Outrage at the government was palpable among volunteers, many of whom blamed government officials for failing to remove explosive materials left at the port for years.

'They're all sitting in their chairs in the AC while people are wearing themselves out in the street,' said Mohammad Suyur, 30, as he helped sweep on Wednesday.

'The last thing in the world they care about is this country and the people who live in it.'

He said activists were preparing to reignite the protest movement that launched in October.

'We can't bear more than this. This is it. The whole system has got to go,' he said.

An initial explosion and fire at the port had sent many people to balconies and rooftops where they were filming when the fertiliser exploded, sending out a massive shockwave across the city.

In an instant, the blast left destruction likened to that caused by the country's 1975-1990 civil war, levelling buildings several hundred metres (yards) away.

Livia Caruso, 30, an Italian national who grew up in Britain, described scenes of blood everywhere 'gaping wounds' and people 'screaming and crying' as the explosion hit, with her husband fainting.

Her apartment and her husbands bar, Riwaq Beirut, were destroyed in the blast.

She said she was with her Lebanese husband, Hussein Farran, at the bar about 2km from the port when they felt a bomb had dropped on them.

Glass exploded everywhere and we lunged for the stairs to make our way to safety downstairs but it was complete mayhem, blood everywhere, people screaming, crying and panicking,' she said.

I was in shock, I could barely move or say anything.

She added: My husband was covered in blood and fainted momentarily before we helped him come to with the smell of alcohol.

There was a girl with a gaping wound in her leg, and others with all kinds of non-critical injuries, including myself.

She said the emotional trauma had not set in yet as she explained how she was desperately trying to raise funds to rebuild their bar and home.

City mayor Abboud said the devastation may have left 300,000 people temporarily homeless, adding to the cash-strapped country's economic misery with an estimated $3 billion in damages.

'Even in the worst years of the civil war, we didn't see so much damage over such a large area,' said analyst Kamal Tarabey.

The disaster came with Lebanon already on its knees with a months-long economic crisis and currency devaluation sparking spiralling poverty even before the coronavirus pandemic hit.

The embattled government of Prime Minister Hassan Diab vowed that 'those responsible for this catastrophe will pay the price'.

The ammonium nitrate had been stored in a rundown port warehouse with cracks in its walls, officials told AFP.

Security forces launched an investigation in 2019 after the warehouse started to exude a strange odour, concluding the 'dangerous' chemicals needed to be removed, but action was not taken.

Analyst and Georgetown University professor Faysal Itani was not optimistic that anybody would be held accountable.

Military personnel stand amid debris from nearby structures, caused by an explosion at Beirut's port late on Tuesday

'There is a pervasive culture of negligence, petty corruption and blame-shifting endemic to the Lebanese bureaucracy, all overseen by a political class defined by its incompetence and contempt for the public good,' he wrote in a New York Times op-ed.

'These politicians are well practiced in shifting the blame.'

Messages of support poured in from around the world, including Britain's Queen Elizabeth who said she was 'deeply saddened' by the disaster.

France said it would send three planes of aid, followed by a visit Thursday by President Emmanuel Macron.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo offered assistance, while Defense Secretary Mark Esper played down President Donald Trump's earlier suggestion that a bomb had been responsible.

'Most believe that it was an accident as reported,' Esper told the Aspen Security Forum.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization warned Wednesday that the destruction of the port and grain silos would cause critical severe flour shortages, in a country heavily reliant on imports.

Social media user voiced outrage at the government, saying such a disaster could only strike because of the ineptitude and corruption riddling Lebanon's institutions.

Hospitals already stretched to the brink by a spike in coronavirus cases were pushed to new limits by the influx of wounded and were forced to turn many away.

Lebanon has recorded 5,417 cases of COVID-19, including 68 deaths.

'We've had some dark days in Lebanon over the years but this is something else,' said Rami Rifai, a 38-year-old engineer.

He spoke to AFP from a hospital where his two daughters were receiving treatment after sustaining cuts despite being half a kilometre from the seat of the blast.

'We already had the economic crisis, a government of thieves and coronavirus. I didn't think it could get worse but now I don't know if this country can get up again,' he said.

In the Netherlands, a UN-backed tribunal said it had suspended a verdict on the 2005 murder in a huge Beirut bomb blast of former Lebanese premier Rafic Hariri, scheduled for Friday, following the latest carnage.
Technavio has been monitoring the connected home security system market and it is poised to grow by USD 11.09 bn during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of over 17% 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/20200806005419/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Connected Home Security System Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire)

Although the COVID-19 pandemic continues to transform the growth of various industries, the immediate impact of the outbreak is varied. While a few industries will register a drop in demand, numerous others will continue to remain unscathed and show promising growth opportunities. Technavio's in-depth research has all your needs covered as our research reports include all foreseeable market scenarios, including pre- post-COVID-19 analysis. Download a Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impacts

Frequently Asked Questions:

What is the major trend in the market?

Increase number of homes using broadband is a major trend driving the market growth.

Increase number of homes using broadband is a major trend driving the market growth. At what rate is the market projected to grow?

The year-over-year growth for 2020 is estimated at 13.47% and the incremental growth of the market is anticipated to be 11.09 bn

The year-over-year growth for 2020 is estimated at 13.47% and the incremental growth of the market is anticipated to be 11.09 bn Who are the top players in the market?

ADT Inc., Alarm.com Holdings Inc., Alphabet Inc., AT&T Inc., Comcast Corp., Honeywell International Inc., Ooma Inc., Panasonic Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., and Verizon Communications Inc, are some of the major market participants

ADT Inc., Alarm.com Holdings Inc., Alphabet Inc., AT&T Inc., Comcast Corp., Honeywell International Inc., Ooma Inc., Panasonic Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., and Verizon Communications Inc, are some of the major market participants What is the key market driver?

Cost savings due to effective monitoring technology is driving the growth of the market is the major factor driving the market

Cost savings due to effective monitoring technology is driving the growth of the market is the major factor driving the market How big is the North America market?

The North America region will contribute 34% of the market share

The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. ADT Inc., Alarm.com Holdings Inc., Alphabet Inc., AT&T Inc., Comcast Corp., Honeywell International Inc., Ooma Inc., Panasonic Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., and Verizon Communications Inc. 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.

Buy 1 Technavio report and get the second for 50% off. Buy 2 Technavio reports and get the third for free.

View market snapshot before purchasing

Cost savings due to effective monitoring technology has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market.

Technavio's custom research reports offer detailed insights on the impact of COVID-19 at an industry level, a regional level, and subsequent supply chain operations. This customized report will also help clients keep up with new product launches in direct indirect COVID-19 related markets, upcoming vaccines and pipeline analysis, and significant developments in vendor operations and government regulations.

Connected Home Security System Market 2020-2024: Segmentation

Connected Home Security System Market is segmented as below:

Product Alarms Cameras And Monitoring Systems Locks And Sensors Detectors

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=IRTNTR43123

Connected Home Security 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. The connected home security system market report covers the following areas:

Connected Home Security System Market Size

Connected Home Security System Market Trends

Connected Home Security System Market Industry Analysis

This study identifies an increase in the number of homes using broadband as one of the prime reasons driving the connected home security system market growth during the next few years.

Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Technavio's in-depth research has direct and indirect COVID-19 impacted market research reports.

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Connected Home Security System Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist connected home security system market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the connected home security system market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the connected home security system market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of connected home security system market, vendors

Table of Contents:

Executive Summary

Market Landscape

Market ecosystem

Market characteristics

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 Product

Market segments

Comparison by Product

Alarms Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Cameras and monitoring systems Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Locks and sensors Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Detectors Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by Product

Market Segmentation by Service

Market segments

Comparison by Service

Professional installation Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Self-installation Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by Service

Customer Landscape

Overview

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

Overview

Landscape disruption

Vendor Analysis

Vendors covered

Market positioning of vendors

ADT Inc.

Alarm.com Holdings Inc.

Alphabet Inc.

AT&T Inc.

Comcast Corp.

Honeywell International Inc.

Ooma Inc.

Panasonic Corp.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.

Verizon Communications Inc.

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 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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Saudi authorities remain on maximum alert for possible health emergencies. It is "reassuring" that no cases have emerged, Ministry of Health said. Participants were provided with masks, accommodation and medical coverage. Allah fulfilled my desire to do the Hajj without any financial cost, says Chinese Muslim.

Riyadh (AsiaNews/Agencies)  No health problems have emerged so far among pilgrims performing the Hajj, the major pilgrimage to Islams main holy sites, one of the five pillars of the religion, Ministry of Health spokesman Mohammed Al-Abd Al-Ali said on Thursday.

It is reassuring  that no cases of coronavirus or any other diseases that affect public health have been reported, he said during his daily Hajj briefing in Makkah.

This years pilgrimage has been cut back and only a few, no more than 10,000 people (70 per cent foreigners, 30 per cent Saudis) were able to participate compared to the 2.5 million, which represents the average of the last few years.

Saudi authorities noted that the health services are fully prepared and remain on high alert to respond to any problems with 1,456 hospital beds available, including 272 for intensive care, 331 for isolation, and more than 200 in emergency departments.

Whilst the attention of the authorities is focused on the health situation, the few pilgrims enjoy the peace and serenity of the holy places, a privilege almost impossible in the past.

"I couldn't stop myself from crying after Allah fulfilled my desire to do the Hajj without any financial cost," said Ni Haoyu, a 43-year-old Chinese Muslim.

In the midst of the pandemic, people from China consider it a privilege to be able to attend the event.

This year Saudi authorities decided to cover all expenses, providing food, accommodation and full health protection, to make this edition of Hajj safer than past ones, which saw epidemic outbreaks and incidents kill hundreds of people.

"I can perform my rituals away from crowds, which creates an atmosphere of spirituality and tranquillity," said Wajdan Ali, a 25-year-old Saudi nurse, who was selected after she recovered from COVID-19.

Pilgrims have received electronic bracelets to track movements and must comply with strict protocols, including wearing masks, physical distancing and periodic body temperature checks.

"I was chosen [. . .] I don't know why," said Cai Haobi, a 31-year-old Chinese student at Umm Al-Qura University in Makkah.

For As-Shammar, a restaurant employee, how he was chosen does not matter, because what count is being present.

"I came to Saudi Arabia one year ago, said the young Filipino. I intended to perform the Hajj after two years after I save[d] up enough (money). But the coronavirus and the selection process helped me do Hajj this year instead."
Cori Bush, a onetime homeless woman who led protests following a white police officers fatal shooting of a Black 18-year-old in Ferguson, ousted longtime Rep. William Lacy Clay Tuesday in Missouris Democratic primary, ending a political dynasty that has spanned more than a half-century.

Bushs victory came in a rematch of 2018, when she failed to capitalize on a national Democratic wave that favored political newcomers such as Bushs friend, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

But this time around, Bushs supporters said protests over the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis and outrage over racial injustice finally pushed her over the edge.

An emotional Bush, speaking to supporters while wearing a mask, said few people expected her to win.

They counted us out, she said. They called me  Im just the protester, Im just the activist with no name, no title and no real money. Thats all they said that I was. But St. Louis showed up today.

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Bushs campaign spokeswoman, Keenan Korth, said voters in the district were galvanized.

Theyre ready to turn the page on decades of failed leadership, Korth said.

Bush, 44, also had backing from political action committee Justice Democrats and Fight Corporate Monopolies this election. She campaigned for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders during his presidential bid.

Bushs primary win essentially guarantees her a seat in Congress representing the heavily Democratic St. Louis area. Missouris 1st Congressional District, which encompasses Ferguson, has been represented by Clay or his father for a half-century. Bill Clay served 32 years before retiring in 2000. William Lacy Clay, 64, was elected that year.

Clay didnt face a serious challenger until Bush. This year, he ran on his decades-long record in Congress.

This election is a simple choice, Clay said in a Monday statement. Cori Bushs Empty Rhetoric, or my record of real results and real reforms for the people.

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Both Clay and Bush are Black, and Black residents slightly outnumber whites in the district that includes St. Louis and north St. Louis County.

Bush became ill while pregnant with her second child in 2001 and had to quit her job at a preschool. When she and her then-husband were evicted from a rental home, the couple, their newborn and 14-month-old son lived out of a Ford Explorer for several months.

Eventually, the couple divorced. Bush earned a nursing degree. She also became a pastor.

Michael Browns death in 2014 in Ferguson vaulted her into another role: activist. She became a leader of some of the many protests that followed the fatal police shooting of the Black, unarmed 18-year-old. She was back on the streets in 2017 after a white St. Louis officer was acquitted in the shooting death of a Black suspect.

She continues to lead protests.

Shes being buoyed by this movement, and the movements origin is in Ferguson, Justice Democrats spokesman Waleed Shahid said.

Associated Press writer Sara Burnett contributed to this report from Chicago. Reporter Jim Salter contributed from OFallon, Mo.
NEW HAVEN, Conn., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Building on its effective advocacy on behalf of persecuted Christians and other religious minorities, the Knights of Columbus will launch a new initiative to report on religious persecution in Nigeria.

"The effort is similar to what we have done in Iraq and is based in the hope that greater attention by American diplomacy and humanitarian aid can make a difference there," said Knights of Columbus Supreme Knight Carl Anderson, who announced the effort at the Knights' 138th annual convention this week.

Last year, the British Government reported that the persecution of Christians around the world is "near genocide levels."

It is estimated that some 60,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria in the past two decades. According to the Global Terrorism Index, Nigeria is now so dominated by terrorism that only Afghanistan and Iraq are worse.

"The European Union and the Catholic bishops of Europe recently condemned the violence against Christians in Nigeria," said Anderson. "Yet much more needs to be done to bring attention to this jihadist attempt at a new genocide."

Since 2014, the Knights of Columbus has spent more than $25 million on behalf of persecuted Christians and other religious minorities targeted for elimination in the Middle East. The support has funded rebuilding  and saving  the town of Karamles, Iraq, after its liberation from ISIS; feeding tens of thousands of displaced people; providing short-term and long-term housing for the displaced; supporting educational, medical and other programs for those targeted by ISIS.

Anderson and the Knights began a public advocacy campaign on behalf of victims in 2016. Anderson testified numerous times before Congress and asked the U.S. State Department to declare that a genocide was taking place in Iraq and Syria.

"When the State Department replied that it did not have sufficient evidence, we sent researchers to Iraq and compiled a 300-page report that included the names of Christians murdered and churches destroyed," said Anderson. "It also included an official ISIS price list for Christian women and girls to be sold as slaves."

"Based on the overwhelming evidence and legal analysis we submitted, Secretary of State John Kerry declared that a genocide was occurring," said Anderson. "Our efforts made a tremendous difference."

The K of C has since worked closely with the U.S. Agency for International Development to help humanitarian assistance more effectively reach devastated Christian communities.

Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil, Iraq, and other Christian leaders in the region have been quick to appreciate the help. Without the support of the Knights of Columbus, said Archbishop Warda, "Christianity would disappear in our region."

About the Knights of Columbus

The Knights of Columbus is one of the world's leading fraternal and service organizations with 2 million members in more than 16,000 parish-based councils. During the past year, Knights around the world donated more than 77 million service hours and $187 million for worthy causes in their communities. The organization also provides financial services to groups and individuals, resulting in more than $112 billion of life insurance in force, and through its money management firm, Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors, it invests in accord with Catholic social teachings. From helping children in need, to providing wheelchairs for the disabled, to helping stock food banks, to offering top-rated and affordable insurance products to its members, the Knights of Columbus has supported families and communities for more than 138 years.

SOURCE Knights of Columbus

Related Links

www.kofc.org


YEREVAN.  The Special Investigation Service (SIS) has provided details as to why Robert Nazaryan, former mayor of Yerevan and ex-chairman of the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) of Armenia, was detained.

Accordingly, Robert Nazaryan, who chaired the PSRC from 2003-2018, was detained on suspicion of committing a crime as part of a criminal investigation being conducted by the SIS, which found evidence that in 2011, Nazaryan had abused his official power in the interests of establishing privileges for a particular company.

In particular, Nazaryan, had received the government's decision under the pretext of encouraging the development of hydropower in Armenia, but actually to establish privileges for a company owned by people affiliated with former President Serzh Sargsyan's son-in-law and Armenias former ambassador to the Holy See Mikayel Minasyan, and set a draft decision on the maximum capacity of up to 30 MW for small hydropower plants built on water pipelines, instead of the previously installed capacity of 10 MW.

Then, Nazaryan had participated in the adoption of the above-mentioned decision at the sitting of the PSRC.

According to the information obtained during the investigation, due to the above-mentioned actions of Robert Nazaryan and other members of the PSRC, the said company received an additional 7,052,065,099 drams from individuals and legal entities consuming electricity in Armenia.

The investigation of this criminal case continues.
Former J&K Governor Girish Chandra Murmu appointed as new CAG

India

pti-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Aug 06: The government on Thursday appointed Girish Chandra Murmu as the new Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, a day after he resigned as the Lt Governor of Jammu and Kashmir. Murmu will succeed Rajiv Mehrishi, a 1978-batch IAS officer of the Rajasthan cadre, who completes his term on August 7.

"...the President has been pleased to appoint Shri Girish Chandra Murmu to be the Comptroller and Auditor General of India with effect from the date he assumes charge of his office," a notification by the Department of Economic Affairs said.

Girish Murmu resigns as LG of Jammu and Kashmir, likely to get fresh Central posting

Earlier in the day, President Ram Nath Kovind accepted Murmu's resignation as the first Lieutenant Governor of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Former union minister and senior BJP leader from Uttar Pradesh Manoj Sinha was appointed in his place.

Sushant death probe: CBI registers FIR against Rhea, others | Oneindia News

Murmu, a 1985-batch IAS officer, had abruptly submitted his resignation on Wednesday -- the day the union territory marked the first anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir. The 60-year-old former IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre had on October 29 last year taken over as the Lieutenant Governor after the state was split into two UTs -- Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

Who is Girish Murmu? The next LG of Jammu and Kashmir

Murmu was Expenditure Secretary in the Ministry of Finance when he was appointed as the Lt Governor of Jammu and Kashmir. He also served as Principal Secretary to Narendra Modi during his tenure as Gujarat Chief Minister.

The CAG is appointed for a term of six years or till the incumbent attains the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier. As a constitutional functionary, the CAG is primarily entrusted with the responsibility of auditing the accounts of the central and state governments. CAG reports are laid before Parliament and legislatures of the states.
MANISTEE COUNTY  Manistee County has seen 33 confirmed cases and four probable cases of COVID-19 as of Thursday.

Manistee County has recorded no COVID-19 deaths and the District Health Department #10 shows that the county has 22 cases listed as recovered.

The last new cases in the county were declared over the weekend with one on Saturday and two on Sunday.

State data shows 17 of the countys cases were females and 16 were males with most being in the 50 to 59 age bracket.

A STATEWIDE LOOK

Here are some quick facts from the latest Michigan Department of Health and Human Services report.

 There were 85,429 cases and 6,247 deaths statewide during the pandemic.

 This is an increase of 722 cases and 26 deaths since the previous update. The state noted that 17 of the 26 deaths were identified during a vital records review.

 Case counts are cumulative and are not reduced due to recoveries.

NEIGHBORS AND THE REGION

 Manistees neighboring Grand Traverse County reported 178 cases and five deaths.

 Wexford County reported 60 cases and four deaths.

 Benzie County has seen 26 cases and one death.

 Lake County has seen 18 cases.

 Mason County has seen 88 cases.

 All counties in the state have reported cases of COVID-19.

 Most cases in the northern Lower Peninsula could be found in Grand Traverse County. However, Alpena County leads northern Michigan with deaths at 13.

According to the latest data from the states tracking of personal protective equipment and hospital beds, the Munson Health System, which Munson Healthcare Manistee Hospital is a part of, lists two COVID-19 patients, two in the intensive care unit and a 59% bed occupancy. While it is the most updated information, it is dated to Monday.

According to Munson Healthcares COVID-19 data, the Manistee hospital has tested 1,248 people with 22 showing positive. Its important to note that positive cases are reported for the county that a person resides in.

There were 18 pending tests.

Manistee County is considered part of region 7 for tracking by the state.

Region 7 includes: Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Benzie, Leelanau, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, Crawford, Oscoda, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Emmet and Charlevoix counties.

The region has three COVID-19 patients in critical care and two on ventilators.

The region continues to be the only in the state to not have any elastomeric respirators or the accompanying filters.

According to the state, there have been 60,022 recoveries from COVID-19. This information was published by the state on July 31 and is updated weekly.

Recovery numbers show that a person is alive after 30 days from the onset of testing or onset of symptoms.

CONTACT TRACING

Contact tracing is being conducted in the state to track where cases are, how the spread can be slowed and who may be affected.

In the case of a confirmed or suspected infection, public health staff reach out and ask about close contacts a person has had during the time they may have been infectious.

The calls are considered confidential and tracers are expected to protect the privacy of patients and contacts.

They dont give the name of the patient, only that they may have been exposed to someone with the infection, reads part of the states description of contact tracing. If you have been exposed to coronavirus, youll be asked to stay safe at home and keep a social distance from others (at least 6 feet) for 14 days after your last exposure. If you have symptoms of infection, youll likely be asked to get tested. A contact tracer will check in during your self-quarantine.

THE U.S. AND GLOBAL PICTURE

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the first confirmed case in the U.S. was reported Jan. 22.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.S. leads the globe by far in number of cases total and deaths.

The latest numbers from the CDC as of press time Thursday show the U.S. reported 4.8 million cases and 157,631 deaths from COVID-19.

The U.S. is followed by Brazil for the number of cases and deaths for the highest counts globally.

According to reporting by the Associated Press, most people with COVID-19 have mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. Older adults and people with existing health problems are among those particularly susceptible to more severe illness, including pneumonia.
India on Thursday asked China for the second day in a row not to interfere in the countrys internal affairs after Beijing backed a move on behalf of its close ally Islamabad to discuss the Kashmir issue at the UN Security Council.

China pushed for the closed-door discussion at the Security Council to coincide with the first anniversary on Wednesday of Indias decision to scrap the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and to split it into two union territories. Pakistan too pulled out all stops to rake up the Kashmir issue and observed Wednesday as a day of exploitation.

Noting that China initiated the discussion in the Security Council on the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, the external affairs ministry said in a statement: We firmly reject Chinas interference in our internal affairs and urge it to draw proper conclusions from such infructuous attempts.

On Wednesday, India tersely asked China to keep out of the internal affairs of other countries after Beijing contended that New Delhis unilateral changes to the status of Jammu and Kashmir were illegal and invalid. India also said the Chinese side has no locus standi whatsoever on this matter.

This was the third time in a year that China raised the Kashmir issue at the UN Security Council using what is known as the any other business (AOB) item of the agenda, people familiar with developments said on condition of anonymity. China brought up the issue in August last year and again in January. Prior to this, the last time the Kashmir issue was on the Security Councils agenda was in 1971.

The external affairs ministry noted this was not the first time that China has sought to raise a subject that is solely an internal matter of India. It added, As on such previous occasions, this attempt too met with little support from the international community.

AOB items are taken up during informal, closed-door consultations of the Security Council and there are no records of discussions or formal outcomes, the people cited above said. Moreover, similar moves by China in the past were opposed by France, the US and other permanent members of the Security Council, who have said Kashmir is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan and should be settled by the two countries.

Indias permanent representative to the UN, TS Tirumurti, tweeted: Another attempt by Pakistan fails! In todays meeting of UN Security Council which was closed, informal, not recorded and without any outcome, almost all countries underlined that J&K was bilateral issue & did not deserve time and attention of Council.

The people cited above said Security Council members usually dont oppose AOB items as they produce no outcomes. This was the route adopted by Security Council members to discuss the situation in Hong Kong in May.

Pakistan recently sent a letter to the Security Council seeking a discussion on Kashmir but four of the five permanent members  the US, the UK, France and Russia  and Germany sided firmly with India, the people said. Russia even sought the resolution of the issue in line with the Simla Agreement and Lahore Declaration.

They chose the date carefully but it proved to be a short-sighted move as everyone else came to Indias support, said a UN diplomat who monitored the meeting. Most members felt this needs to be resolved bilaterally and it doesnt deserve to come to the Security Council, and there was a sense that this was a waste of the bodys time.

Pakistan also reached out to Indonesia, which holds the Security Councils rotational chair for August, with foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi speaking on phone to his Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi on Wednesday about the need to look into the situation in Kashmir and ceasefire violations along the Line of Control (LoC).

Indonesia, which has strong trade ties with India, has been traditionally reluctant to get embroiled in such issues, the people said. Indonesia agreed with others in the Security Council that the Kashmir issue needs to be resolved bilaterally.

Tirumurti told the media: Pakistan has once again been singularly unsuccessful in making inroads into the UN on Jammu and Kashmir and their narrative has lost steam with the [Security] Council members.

Experts believe Chinese support for these efforts by Pakistan have to be seen as part of the pressure being built up by Beijing on New Delhi amid the standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), especially since very little can be done to stymie such actions.

Former ambassador Rajiv Bhatia, distinguished fellow for foreign policy studies at Gateway House, said: This is further evidence of the rising diplomatic pressure and the coordination between Beijing and Islamabad amid the continuing impasse in negotiations between India and China.

India will have to continue to engage with the Chinese to find a way out. There are also meetings coming up with the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and Brics. We will have to see how to correlate bilateral developments with such plurilateral events.
The Manhattan district attorney's office, which has been seeking President Donald Trump's tax records, subpoenaed his longtime lender Deutsche Bank last year, suggesting its criminal investigation into Trump's business practices is more wide-ranging than previously known, the New York Times said on Wednesday. The prosecutors issued the subpoena last year, seeking financial records that the Republican president and his company had provided to the bank, the Times said, citing four unnamed people. The office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance declined to confirm or ...
Higgins death six days after his 21st birthday came at a time when his music career was shooting upward. But critics pointed out his fatalistic view, particularly in his song Legends with the line, Whats the 27 Club? We aint making it past 21, a reference to the pantheon of legendary musicians who died from drug use at age 27.
By Bio-IT World Staff

August 5, 2020 | Sema4 gets $121M to build dynamic models of human health and define optimal, individualized health trajectories. Glioblastoma, hematology, and acute pancreatitis all see new funding for therapy development. And AI-powered models net cash.

$257M: Series B for Liquid Biopsy for Multiple Cancers

Thrive Earlier Detection, Cambridge, Mass., closed $257 million in Series B financing. Funds will help advance CancerSEEK, a liquid biopsy test designed to detect multiple cancers at earlier stages of disease, into registrational trial. The round was led by Casdin Capital and Section 32, with participation from new investors Bain Capital Life Sciences, Brown Advisory, Driehaus Capital Management, Intermountain Ventures, Janus Henderson Investors, Lux Capital, and more.

$121M: Series C for Data-Driven Health Intelligence

Sema4, Stamford, Conn., closed a Series C round led by BlackRock with additional new investors including Deerfield Management Company and Moore Strategic Ventures. Sema4 is dedicated to transforming healthcare by building dynamic models of human health and defining optimal, individualized health trajectories. The company began with an emphasis on reproductive health and recently launched Sema4 Signal, a family of products and services providing data-driven precision oncology solutions. Over the last several months, Sema4 has also joined the fight against COVID-19. Sema4 has integrated its premier clinical and scientific expertise with its cutting-edge digital capabilities to deliver a holistic testing program that enables organizations to make fast, informed decisions as they navigate COVID-19. The company has also launched Centrellis, an innovative health intelligence platform designed to provide a more complete understanding of disease and wellness and to offer physicians deeper insight into the patient populations they serve.

$112M: Series C for Phase 2 for Glioblastoma Treatment

Imvax, Philadelphia, raised $112 million in series C financing from existing investors HP WILD Holding AG, Ziff Capital Partners, Magnetar Capital, and TLP Investment Partners, and new institutional investor, Invus. The funds will to support Phase 2 Clinical Development of IGV-001 for treatment of Glioblastoma multiforme, Phase 1 research into additional solid tumor indications, and will help build out corporate and manufacturing capabilities.

$97M: Series C for Hematology, Oncology Therapies

Antengene Corporation, Shanghai, has closed $97 million in Series C financing led by Fidelity Management & Research Company with additional support from new investors including GL Ventures (an affiliate of Hillhouse Capital) and GIC. Existing investors including Qiming Venture Partners and Boyu Capital also participated. Proceeds from the Series C financing will be primarily used to fund the continuing clinical development of Antengene's robust pipeline of hematology and oncology therapies, expanding in-house research and development capabilities and strengthening the commercial infrastructures in APAC markets.

$71M: Accelerate Finger-Prick Blood Analyzer

Sight Diagnostics, Tel Aviv, has raised $71 million from Koch Disruptive Technologies, Longliv Ventures, a member of the CK Hutchison Holdings and OurCrowd. The investment is meant to fuel Sights R&D into the automated identification and detection of diseases through its FDA-cleared direct-from-fingerstick Complete Blood Count (CBC) analyzer. The new investment will enable Sight to substantially expand its U.S. footprint.

$50M: Series B Extension for Enzymatic DNA Synthesis

DNA Script, Paris, announced a $50 million extension to its Series B financing, bringing the total investment of this round to $89 million. This oversubscribed round is led by Casdin Capital and joined by Danaher Life Sciences, Agilent Technologies, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, through its corporate venture arm, M Ventures three of the world's leaders in oligo synthesis LSP, the Bpifrance Large Venture Fund and Illumina Ventures. Funding from this investment round will enable DNA Script to accelerate the development of its suite of enzymatic DNA synthesis (EDS) technologies in particular, to support the commercial launch of the company's SYNTAX DNA benchtop printer.

$25M: Series A for Targeted Exosome Vehicles

Mantra Bio, San Francisco, has raised $25 million in a Series A financing to advance development of next generation, precision therapeutics based on its proprietary platform for engineering Targeted Exosome Vehicles (TEVs). 8VC and Viking Global Investors led the round, which also included Box Group and Allen & Company LLC. Mantra Bios REVEAL is an automated high throughput platform that rapidly designs, tests and optimizes TEVs for specific therapeutic applications. The platform integrates computational approaches, wet biology, and robotics, to leverage the diversity of exosomes and enable the rational design of therapeutics directed at a wide range of tissue and cellular targets.

$23.7M: Shared Grant for Biologically Based Polymers

The National Science Foundation has named the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of California, Santa Barbara, partners in a collaboration called BioPACIFIC MIPfor BioPolymers, Automated Cellular Infrastructure, Flow, and Integrated Chemistry: Materials Innovation Platformand has funded the effort with a five-year, $23.7 million grant. The initiative is part of the NSF Materials Innovation Platforms program, and its scientific methodology reflects the broad goals of the federal governments Materials Genome Initiative, which aims to develop new materials twice as fast at a fraction of the cost. The collaboration aims to advance the use of microbes for sustainable production of new plastics.

$17M: Series A to Scale At-Home Blood Collection

Tasso, Seattle, secured a $17 million Series A financing round led by Hambrecht Ducera Growth Ventures and included Foresite Capital, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, Vertical Venture Partners, Techstars, and Cedars-Sinai. The company will use the proceeds to scale manufacturing and operations to meet the increased demand for its line of innovative Tasso OnDemand devices, which enable people to collect their own blood using a virtually painless process from anywhere at any time. These fast and easy-to-use products are being adopted by leading academic medical institutions, government agencies, comprehensive cancer centers, and pharmaceutical organizations around the world.

$12M: Molecular Data, AI Build Therapeutic Models

Endpoint Health, Palo Alto, Calif., emerged from stealth mode in mid-July with $12 million in debt and equity financing led by Mayfield to make targeted therapies for patients with critical illnesses including sepsis and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Endpoint Health is led by an experienced executive team including the co-founders of GeneWEAVE, an infection detection and therapy guidance company that was acquired by Roche in 2015. Endpoint Healths approach combines molecular and digital patient data with AI to create comprehensive therapeutic modelstools that identify distinct patient subgroups and treatment patterns in order to highlight unmet therapeutic needs. These models are used to identify late-stage and on-market therapies, often created for other indications, that Endpoint can develop into targeted therapies, which will include the required tests and software to guide their use.

$12M: Start of an NIH Contract For COVID-19 Microfluidics

Fluidigm Corporation, South San Francisco, Calif., announced execution of a letter contract with the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, for a proposed project under the agencys Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) program. The project, with a total proposed budget of up to $37 million, contemplates expanding production capacity and throughput capabilities for COVID-19 testing with Fluidigm microfluidics technology. The letter contract provides Fluidigm with access to up to $12 million of initial funding based on completion and delivery of certain validation milestones prior to execution of the definitive contract. A goal of the RADx initiative is to enable approximately 6 million daily tests in the United States by December 2020.

$6.5M: Series A for AI-Powered Precision Oncology

Nucleai, Tel Aviv, a computational biology company providing an AI-powered precision oncology platform for research and treatment decisions, secured $6.5M Series A initial closing. Debiopharms strategic corporate venture capital fund led the round joined by existing investors: Vertex Ventures and Grove Ventures. Nucleais core technology analyzes large and unique datasets of tissue images using computer vision and machine learning methods to model the spatial characteristics of both the tumor and the patients immune system, creating unique signatures that are predictive of patient response.

$5M: Pharma Grant for Rural Lung Cancer

Stand Up To Cancer, New York, received a new $5 million grant from Bristol Myers Squibb to fund research and education efforts aimed at achieving health equity for underserved lung cancer patients, including Black people and people living in rural communities. The research efforts funded by the three-year grant will consist of supplemental grants to current Stand Up To Cancer research teams. The supplemental grants will focus on identifying new and innovative diagnostic and treatment methods for lung cancer patients in need. These supplemental grants will be designed to jumpstart pilot projects at the intersection of lung cancers, health disparities and rural healthcare, for instance increasing clinical trial enrollment among historically under-represented groups. Since 2014, Bristol Myers Squibb has provided funding for important Stand Up To Cancer research initiatives.

$2.5M: Cloud-Based XR Platform

Grid Raster, Mountain View, Calif., secured $2.5 million led by Blackhorn Ventures with participation from other existing investors MaC Venture Capital and Exfinity Venture Partners. This infusion of additional capital enables Grid Raster to continue developing its XR solutions, powered by cloud-based remote rendering and 3D vision-based AI, in key customer markets that include Aerospace, Defense, Automotive and Telecommunications.

$1.5M: SBIR for Acute Pancreatitis

Lamassu Pharma has received $1.5 million in Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This will be used for further development of its lead therapeutic compound, RABI-767, a novel small molecule lipase inhibitor licensed from the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Lamassu is developing RABI-767 to fill a critical, unmet clinical need for a treatment for acute pancreatitis (AP). Lamassu's proposed treatment is designed to mitigate the systemic toxicity and organ failure associated with acute pancreatitis that causes lengthy hospitalization, organ failure, and death, thus saving both lives and healthcare system resources. Funding from the NIH will enable Lamassu to further its translational research, to bring RABI-767 to human trials, and to partner with clinical and commercial development partners.

$800K: Protein Interaction Platform

A-Alpha Bio, Seattle, has been awarded an $800,000 grant to optimize therapeutics for infectious diseases. Awarded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the grant work will be carried out by A-Alpha Bio in partnership with Lumen Bioscience using machine learning models built from data generated by A-Alpha Bios proprietary AlphaSeq platform. A-Alpha Bio has already completed a pilot study in partnership with Lumen Biosciences and supported by the Gates Foundation. This pilot study successfully demonstrated the AlphaSeq platforms ability to characterize binding of therapeutic antibodies against multiple pathogen strains simultaneously. With the latest grant, the companies will use AlphaSeq data to train machine learning models for the development of potent and cross-reactive therapeutics against intestinal and respiratory pathogens.

$620K: Grant for Gas-Sensing Ingestible
Nine states have nuclear weapons  the United States, Russia, Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea. Irans nuclear program has been the focus of intense concern for years, and Saudi Arabia has vowed that if Iran develops a nuclear weapon, it will follow suit. Consider also that two men have the power to unleash a nuclear barrage entirely on their own  President Trump and Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, who are both working assiduously on modernizing their arsenals.

Mr. Trump has said he is working on a new arms control agreement with Russia and is seeking to include China in the talks. But his administration has always found it easier to tear up treaties than to sign them, especially if the result in any way restrains the United States. As the special envoy for arms control, Marshall Billingslea, boasted in May, We know how to win these races, and we know how to spend the adversary into oblivion.

Before the coronavirus pandemic put millions of Americans out of work, spending so much money on new doomsday weapons was profligate. Now, it seems morally indefensible. This week, the Government Accountability Office said that, without changes, the Pentagons nuclear weapons modernization effort is on track to surpass its $1.2 trillion price tag over the next three decades. It seems as though the United States is plunging into a new nuclear arms race with Russia and China without having learned the lessons of the last one.

When briefed by the military in 2017 on the levels to which American and Russian nuclear arsenals had been reduced through arms treaties, Mr. Trump reportedly demanded that the United States increase its nuclear stockpile tenfold. According to some reports, this was what prompted the secretary of state at the time, Rex Tillerson, to call the president a moron.

Mr. Trump withdrew the United States from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and the Iran nuclear deal, and he has not yet extended the New START accord, the only agreement still in place limiting American and Russian nuclear forces, which was signed by President Barack Obama and expires in early February. In addition, the Trump administration was recently reported to be thinking of breaking the 28-year-old moratorium on nuclear testing.
SINGAPORE - Media OutReach - 6 August 2020 - Local insurer Etiqa announced its support for healthcare personnel in Singapore amid Phase Two of the city state's reopening. All staff working in the local healthcare sector are eligible for a complimentary 3-month Special COVID-19 Benefit of up to S$52,000 in case of diagnosis of COVID-19 and Personal Accident cover.

With more activities resumed in Phase Two, Singapore faces the risk of a second COVID-19 wave. This support initiative is launched timely to acknowledge the continued efforts of healthcare personnel, and reaffirms Etiqa's commitment to stand united in the nation's fight against coronavirus.

"Healthcare staff and support workers face a higher risk as they stay at the forefront to help others at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. With this Special COVID-19 Benefit with Personal Accident cover, we hope to reduce any anxiety or mental stress that our healthcare personnel or their families may feel as our nation continues in our fight against the coronavirus," said Yip Kim Chee, interim CEO of Etiqa Insurance Singapore.

Mr Yip added, "This is Etiqa's way of showing gratitude and support to our healthcare personnel in a tangible way."

Besides the Financial Assistance Benefit, the complimentary Personal Accident cover offers S$50,000 in case of accidental death and permanent disability, and a cash payout of S$100 per day of hospitalisation, up to 10 days in Singapore.

Interested healthcare personnel can easily apply for the Special COVID-19 Benefit with Personal Accident cover at Etiqa's website or via the Lions of Healthcare initiative. For more information, please visit https://bit.ly/3ftmx2R

Terms apply. Protected up to specified limits by SDIC.





About Etiqa Insurance Pte. Ltd. (Etiqa Singapore)

A Singapore Insurance Company with Asian and International Expertise





Protecting customers since 1961, Etiqa is a licensed life and general insurance company registered in the Republic of Singapore. We are regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and governed by the Insurance Act.

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At the conclusion of Thursdays NCUA Board Meeting, Board Member McWatters offered his final comments as his term has come to an end and his successor has been nominated and scheduled for a confirmation vote on Aug. 5.

The end of McWatters term offers an opportunity to reflect on the time that he spent at NCUA, from the early days as a board member with Ms. Matz as Chair, through his days working with Rick Metsger as a Board Member and Chairman, and finally during his recent days working with new Chairman Hood.

I remember the first time that I met Mark McWatters. He was a very new Board Member and he came to Boston to address a group of credit union CEOs from MA, NH and RI. He stood in front of our group with his trademark yellow legal pad and red pen. After some brief introductory comments, he stated that he was there not to speak to us but to listen to us. He went on to say that we were the experts in running credit unions and that although he knew quite a bit about business and especially the legal aspects thereof, he was a novice in our business. This approach guided McWatters throughout his tenure at the agency and in my opinion makes him a model for future NCUA Board members to follow.

The industry will look back on the McWatters years, especially those during which he was Chairman with gratitude. While he clearly understood his responsibility for the soundness of credit unions and the protection of the insurance fund, he always looked for ways to improve the operating environment for credit unions and to provide us with any competitive advantage that he could.

I would be remiss if I were to omit Rick Metsger from these comments. While coming from different political affiliations, different parts of the country and very different personal backgrounds, Rick and Mark found a way to work together for the common good. In a time when democrats and republicans in Washington have a hard time agreeing on anything, McWatters and Metsger and their respective teams found common ground and operated under the mantra of the best idea will win. This collaboration brought us changes in FOM, a dividend from the share insurance fund at a time when we could easily have been looking at a premium, a streamlined agency with two fewer offices, a commitment to examination flexibility and investment in IT infrastructure that will pay significant future dividends.

In his parting statements, McWatters offered advice regarding bipartisan collaboration, showing respect for differences and being willing to compromise in the interest of the greater good. These words mean more in our current world than ever before. They can serve to guide future NCUA Board Members but can also serve to guide all of us and certainly our elected leaders. Mark McWatters came to a meeting in Boston six years ago and asked us to teach him. As we bid him farewell and wish him health and happiness, we realize that over the past six years he has taught us a great deal. Thank you J. Mark McWatters, it has been a great run.
Sisters Candice Russaw, left, Chanel Evans and Brandy Russaw remember their brother, 20-year-old Jacob Russaw, in the framed photo, who died by suicide in 2018. Candice wears Jacob's T-shirt, and Brandy holds his skateboard and wears one of his shirts. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

He was a talented skateboarder on the verge of landing a company sponsorship. Dressed in loud Hawaiian shirts or tracksuits, his shock of hair untamed, skater style, Jacob Glory Russaw practiced ollies and kick flips for hours at the Venice and North Hollywood skate parks or in the streets of East Hollywood. Then he made up his own tricks.

Skating is my life, the 20-year-old wrote on his Instagram page. "It's like breathing it makes me feel like I can do something [in] life."

But Russaw was also struggling. He was young and Black and living at a homeless housing agency, working his way out of a fractured upbringing. And he had lost his room there, something that even some of his skater friends didnt realize.

They learned only after he had died by hanging.

Candles, a statue of an angel and flowers fill a memorial for Robert Fuller, whose body was found hanging from a tree in Poncitlan Square in Palmdale on June 10. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

When two other Black men  Robert Fuller, 24, and Malcolm Harsch, 38  were found hanging from trees in two Southern California cities this spring, their families disputed suicide findings. Black people are far less likely to end their lives than white people, and the hangings, in the midst of protests against police violence, conjured up Americas ugly legacy of lynchings of Black men, which authorities sometimes labeled suicides to cover up for white police and mobs.

But further investigation turned up no foul play. Both men had a history of homelessness: Fuller, who had a previous suicide attempt, had lived on and off at a youth shelter in Las Vegas and was homeless in Reno before moving to Palmdale, where he died. Harsch had been living in a homeless encampment near Victorville.

And their deaths, like that of Russaw in 2018, fit into a surprising pattern. Increasingly, homeless people in Los Angeles and its environs are dying by hanging.

Patricia Hillier, a 35-year-old homeless woman, died by hanging near the Gaffey Street offramp of the 110 Freeway in San Pedro in May of this year. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

Over 4 years ending in mid-June, 196 people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles County took their lives. In 2016, 40% of the suicides were by hanging; so far this year, it's 55%, according to a Times analysis of coroner's reports.

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Many homeless people hanged themselves in public  on a freeway off-ramp or sidewalk, in an alley, field or vacant lot  but their deaths went largely unremarked.

"Homeless suicides have not been an issue," said Mike Neely, former Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority commissioner. "Im not sure people want to have that discussion; it goes to the heart of the neglect of people."

No one knows why someone else takes his life, but for many homeless people, a history of trauma is exacerbated by the miseries of homelessness. Authorities struggle to get mental health services into the streets, and culturally competent suicide prevention for homeless people is lacking. A firearm is the leading suicide method for men in the U.S, but homeless people don't typically have guns.

After Harsch died, his family initially suspected he had been lynched but eventually came around to believing it was a suicide. But they also expressed disappointment in the lack of services that could have prevented his death. The [Harsch] family is gratified to have a sense of closure that he wasnt the victim of a lynching, said activist Najee Ali, a family spokesman, but the big question is why his death wasnt investigated properly to begin with. In retrospect, we all wish there had been more homeless outreach services, especially mental health.

Russaw's family, too, said he should have received mental health care.

Only 19 of the homeless people in Los Angeles County who have taken their lives since 2016 were Black, and just a handful of them died by hanging. But suicides are rising among Black youths  from 2.55 per 100,000 in 2007 to 4.82 per 100,000 in 2017, according to a Congressional Black Caucus task force report on Black youth suicide released in December.

The face of suicide has been older white men, because of the sheer numbers of more white men dying of suicide, but that's something of a misnomer, said Michael A. Lindsey, executive director of the McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research at New York University and the congressional task force chairman.

Several weeks before Russaw's death, Covenant House, a youth homeless agency in Hollywood, kicked him out of its housing program. Chief Executive Bill Bedrossian said he couldn't discuss the reason; family and friends said it was for violating program rules, including breaking curfew.

Mike Stommel, a spokesman for Covenant House said Thursday that Russaw had been temporarily "restricted" from housing but could have appealed to be allowed to come back to the organization. Stommel also said that not sleeping at the house, bullying or threatening residents or assaulting them or staff were violations that could result in a housing restriction.

Bedrossian said mental health services were available to Russaw, before and after he left housing. One of Russaw's sisters, Candice, 33, said they should have been mandatory.

Brandy Russaw cries as she remembers her brother, 20-year-old Jacob Russaw, who took his own life in 2018. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

If you don't have mental health issues already, try being homeless, she said.

Brayan Vargas, an employee at L.A. Skate Co. on Santa Monica Boulevard, said Russaw told him Covenant House had bagged his things, stuffed them in a closet and told him they'd given his bed to someone else.

I found it very foul, said Conner Nico, another L.A. Skate Co. employee who lived at Covenant House for a time. Its a good program in many ways, but you dont do that to a kid whos already down and wanted to do good.

We dont see restrictions as the worst things in the world; theyre part of a process to learn you have to be accountable in life, said Bedrossian, adding that he and the rest of the staff were especially fond of Russaw.

"Jacob was adored here, frankly," he said.

Russaw did not broadcast his distress, said friends, who described him as fun-loving and joyful. Anything to not have a moment of silence, a friend said. He masked it well.

Russaw grew up in Watts and Lancaster with his aunt and cousins, whom he considered his mother and sisters (and are described that way here). He was a daredevil who taught himself to ride a unicycle and a ripstick, jump on a pogo stick, launch back flips on the concrete and leap off a roof into a pool. He learned to walk up a wall like a ninja warrior and tried to prank his sister Brandy Russaw, 34, into believing that he was a space alien. It almost worked, she said.

After a family fight, their mother reported Russaw to juvenile authorities, who placed him in detention, followed by foster care. At age 18, he entered Covenant House, where he earned his high school diploma  the first in his family to do so, Bedrossian said.

At a traffic light on Hollywood Boulevard, he met Hikaru Lee, 33, a foreign student from Japan who taught yoga. They snowboarded, hiked and went to the beach, and Russaw posted that he was going vegan. "Jacob was a real hippie," said his sister Chanel Mookie Evans, 28.

Russaw enrolled at Santa Monica College but quit to work a restaurant job. His real calling was skateboarding.

Dave White, owner of L.A. Skate Co. on Santa Monica Boulevard, remembers talented skateboarder Jacob Glory Russaw. "He could skate anything with wheels. ... He was on his way. The companies were waiting to see what he could do." (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

He wore a skateboard bearing as a ring and sometimes practiced far into the night. At L.A. Skate Co., Russaw traded clothes he had thrifted for grip tape and skateboards to replace the ones he split grinding stair rails or performing tre flips.

I never saw anyone do that before, said the skate shop owner, Dave White, who videotaped him repeating the trick so he could show potential sponsors. White shot another video of Russaw skating up to the shop with the pieces of a busted board strapped to his feet with turquoise shoelaces.

He could skate anything with wheels, White said. Some of the company people who came in here said, 'Whos that kid with the bushy hair? Hes killing it. He was on his way. The companies were waiting to see what he could do.

After his ouster from Covenant House, Russaw slept at the North Hollywood skate park, a small park in Hollywood or under the lights at a Metro station, Vargas said. "The streets here are not the best," Vargas said.

L.A. Skate Co. employee Carter Nico, 25, stands near a memorial for Jacob Russaw featuring his photo, upper left, and his broken skateboard, upper right, that still hang inside L.A. Skate Co. in Los Angeles. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

Lee had roommates and didn't always let him stay. They argued; she said she didn't understand what he was going through until after he died.

I dont know about homeless, but it affected him really bad, she said. He told me its not easy being a Black man. He felt it was not comfortable looking for a job because of his color. Russaw hanged himself in Lee's apartment in March 2018.

Covenant House paid for a memorial and his funeral at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City. Friends covered the slate-blue casket with his favorite skate shop stickers.

Russaws skateboard  painted with the insignia Shred in Paradise Brother"  hangs on L.A. Skate Co.'s wall. At a get-together in Lancaster this summer, Candice and Brandy wore Jacob's shirts and Evans brought one of his skateboards.

In foreign countries, they don't let old people and young people be homeless," Candice said. "Especially with Black people, the village is broken. Why isn't our government doing something?"

He was just a kid, Brandy said.

If you or someone you know is exhibiting warning signs of suicide, seek help from a professional by calling the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at (800) 273-TALK (8255).

Times staff writer Maloy Moore contributed to this report.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Courts should resume physical hearings at the earliest, the Bar Council of India and Delhi High Court Bar association on Wednesday told a parliamentary panel, noting that ministries and all government departments have already opened, sources said.

Representatives of Bar Council of India (BCI) and Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) appeared before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice headed by senior BJP leader Bhupender Yadav to brief him about the 'functioning of courts through video conferencing/virtual courts'.

Underlining that virtual courts are not feasible in many districts as there is a lack of infrastructure and technology, both bodies of lawyers emphasised on resuming physical hearings at the earliest, saying the judicial system in districts is impacted in the wake of absence of physical hearings, the sources said.

Both BCI and DHCBA said if ministries and government organisations can resume operations with social distancing norms, courts can also do it and they should resume physical operations, they said.

Representatives of both bodies of lawyers also requested the parliamentary panel to share their concerns about virtual courts with the authorities and suggest them to do the needful, the sources said, adding that the members of the panel were sympathetic to their demands.

BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra and DHCBA president Mohit Mathur were among those who appeared before the panel on Wednesday.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 4)  The head of a security task force in Quezon City was reprimanded for threatening to down quarantine violators, but a lawmaker said she will make sure he will be held accountable.

Quezon City's Task Force Disiplina Head Rannie Ludovica on Monday threatened to "shoot-to-kill" those who will violate modified enhanced community quarantine restrictions as the region reverts to a stricter two-week lockdown the next day.

"Mula bukas shoot to kill na ang lalabag sa MECQ," the public official wrote in a Facebook post.

Ludovica deleted the post hours later after receiving backlash. Without an apology, he issued a clarification that it was a personal opinion due to his frustration that Metro Manila is reverting from general community quarantine to modified enhanced community quarantine.

He emphasized that there is no city-wide policy to kill MECQ violators.

The Department of Interior and Local Government described Ludovica's threat as "improper and illegal." It advised him against issuing similar statements that may be mistaken as official policy as he is a public offical.

Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte, meanwhile, condemned the actions of her appointed security officer.

"Ito po ay mali (This is wrong). It is inappropriate, it is irresponsible," she said in a media briefing.

For Senator Risa Hontiveros, a scolding is not enough. She said she will work to make sure Ludovica is held responsible for his actions.

"As a QC resident for the last 35 years, I will personally work to hold this public official accountable for inciting violence vs civilians. Sino ngayon ang terorista?" she said.

Meanwhile, PNP Chief Archie Gamboa dismissed Ludovica's violent remark, saying that policy does not exist.

"Wala naman, baka lang to emphasize things," he said.

One of Ludovica's personnel was suspended in April after using excessive force on an alleged quarantine violator.

RELATED: QC enforcer suspended amid probe after hitting quarantine violator
Tamil Nadu to make, Cyber Swachhta Kendra, a mass movement as it readies to launch its own Cert Tamil Nadu, a portal, in partnership with Cert India. As a leading state in IT, the states also readies, to have its own cyber security policy as shared by Mr Hans Raj Verma, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Dept of IT , Government of Tamil Nadu.

Odisha invite young startups, entrepreneurs, private companies to collaborate with state agencies as state prepares for new IT Policy to be launched in November 2020 , said Honble Minister Mr Tusharkanti Behara, for IT & Youth Affairs, Govt of Odisha

Addressing the program of ASSOCHAM as Partner state, on behalf of Government of Tamil Nadu, Department IT, Mr Hans Raj Verma, Additional Chief Secretary said Tamil Nadu is a developed state technologically in terms of Technology intervention at Govt level as well as in terms of engagement with industry , in terms of export from the state and employment its offering. Government has been among the fast few to adopt the technology systems across its various functions . Laying emphasis on the need of Cyber Swachhta Kendras he said there is a need that these Kendras become mass movement like swatch abhiyan of Government of India. Citing exemplary work of the state he said, the state has formed high level review committee and has a cyber security officer present in each government department. With increased work from home trend cyber hygiene need to be adopted en mass and to be the second nature of each individual. Laying emphasis on cyber hygiene and cyber security he said state is all set to form its own cyber security policy and shortly the state will launch Cert Tamil Nadu , a portal in partnership with Cert In.

Honble Minister Mr Tusharkanti Behara, for IT & Youth Affairs, Govt of Odisha, invited participation of private industry and said state is fast developing necessary support mechanism and shall soon have new IT policy and is committed towards technology sector development. Appreciating the timely program organised by ASSOCHAM, he said Covid 19 has been a huge challenge and the state has worked hand in hand with Govt of India for taking the necessary measures. He shared, Odisha state online application developed way back in 2009 has become a key enabler of service during Covid times. State is continuing upgrading its IT infrastructure to support the need of its people and is focusing on developing centre of excellence. Work from home, issue of migrant labours are all new challenges that have emerged in recent times ; cyber hygiene and awareness among people on cyber attacks and threats is very critical during this time and cyber security policy is most important and state is committed to work towards the same.

Program had presence of Dr Sanjay Bahl DG Cert India, MEITY, Govt of India, he said DNS is the basis of all internet related activities today, Domain Name System(DNS) was initially not designed with security features and hence the complications that are existing today. Covid times has seen exponential rise in registration of domain names by malicious actors, spreading misinformation or running frauds. There has been 657% increase in corona virus related domain registration. There has been rise in 569 % increase in activities such as malware, ransomware There has been rise in 788% increase in scam and other such activities. He stressed on need for coordination between agencies both national and international to ensure legitimate Domain name registration process can be setup. DNS policing at enterprise level is the need. He said creating user awareness on securing self and own IoT devices is important and Cert In has taken several initiatives in this regard. Cyber crime reporting portal and cyber swachhta Kendras are here to help people and are citizen centric one of its the kind global initiative by Govt of India with an agenda of maintaining hygienic cyber space.

Kerala has shown the path in crime prevention by opting for coordinated effort in cyber realm and has gone for PPP model, Kerala Cyber Dome. Three years in working, the project engages banks, ethical hackers, students, IT companies with focus on research to meet new challenges, prevent, cyber crime, reach to public for Cyber Hygiene, said Mr Manoj Abraham, Additional Director General of Police, Kerala Police. Sharing his thoughts from law enforcement agency perspective, he said the digitally enable world we live in offers its own set of challenges and during Covid time there has been increase in cyber crime; crime against women children have gone up by 200%. He said the cyber crimes these days borderless as the actor need not be present in the state and this becomes a challenge for any law enforcement agency as these malicious actors may just be sitting outside of the state. Prevention therefore is very critical and state of Kerala is very actively using social media to connect with people and spread cyber hygiene.

The program began with a learning session on Domain Name System Abuse, conducted by Ashwin Rangan, CIIO ICANN as he shared information on various cyber attacks and possible solutions. He was joined in by Mr Samiran Gupta, India Head ICANN who presented his thoughts on recent trends in cyber crime especially during Covid times. A panel discussion was organized with Cyber experts Mr Prashanthkunar B V from United Kingdom sharing UK Cyber Security perspective, as he shared the dais to discuss the challenges being faced by corporate and some of the solutions that can considered , with Col Inderjeet Singh, Dr Lopa Mudraa Basuu as the legal aspect was brought in by Ms N S Nappinai, Advocate, Supreme Court of India. Program had presence of Industry members along Mr Surojit Samanta and Mr Taranjit Singh Chair and Co Chair of ASSOCHAM ER.Ms Perminder Kaur Director ASSOCHAM in her opening remark said in the new normal as India readies for transition to Digital India and Industry 4.0 its important a systematic approach towards cyber hygiene is adopted.
Vice President Mike Pence delivers a keynote address during Access Intelligence's Satellite 2019 Conference and Exhibition at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center May 06, 2019 in Washington. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Pence Calls Chief Justice Roberts a Disappointment to Conservatives

Vice President Mike Pence criticized the jurisprudence of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts in an interview, calling him a disappointment to conservatives.

Pence made the remarks in an interview on the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) that was scheduled to air in full on Aug. 6.

Look, we have great respect for the institution of the Supreme Court of the United States, Pence told the Christian Broadcasting Networks David Brody on Aug 5. But Chief Justice John Roberts has been a disappointment to conservativeswhether it be the Obamacare decision, or whether it be a spate of recent decisions all the way through Calvary Chapel.

Roberts, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, has sided with the Supreme Courts Democratic appointees on several issues, drawing the ire of conservatives.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said in an interview in June that religious conservatives are very depressed following the high courts recent run of left-leaning rulings, including on immigration, abortion, and expanding workplace discrimination protections beyond biologically determined sex to also cover sexual orientation and gender identity.

Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, told The Epoch Times in an interview that he believes Roberts is eager to portray the Supreme Court as an impartial institution.

I continue to believe that the Chief Justice is animated by a desire to avoid a public perception that the court is split along ideological lines, producing in the public mind predictable outcomes along rigid 54 majorities in politically controversial cases, Stein said.

He is doing this, in his mind, to protect the integrity of the court as an impartial and unpredictable interpreter of the law, especially if he believes that a rigid polarization will eventually produce an effort by Democrats to expand the size of the court, he added.

Pence told CBN that he thinks the future of the Supreme Court will be shaped by the outcome of the November election.

I think its been a wake-up call for pro-life voters around the country who understand, in a very real sense, the destiny of the Supreme Court is on the ballot in 2020, Pence said.

The question is not whether our country will be Republican or Democrat or blue or red, but whether America will still be America, Pence said, adding that President Donald Trumps second term, if he wins, would feature a strong pro-life agenda.

Under this president, I promise you were going to continue to work every day to put the right to life back at the center of law, he said.

Pence also called for presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden to engage in public debates with Trump, an issue that has increasingly come to the fore amid reports questioning whether the former vice president has lost some of his intellectual spark. Questions about the cognitive abilities of both Biden and Trump have swirled for years, with little concrete evidence to support them.

Biden, in a recent interview, scoffed at questions about whether he had taken a cognitive test and accused the reporter of trying to goad him.

I know youre trying to goad me, but I mean, Im so forward-looking to have an opportunity to sit with the president, or stand with the president, in debates. Therell be plenty of time.

Referring to questions about Bidens mental fitness, Pence said he cant speak to some of whats being discussed about him today. But the antidote is to be on that stage, to square up and be willing to debate President Donald Trump, the American people deserve nothing less.

The first presidential debate is scheduled for Sept. 29.

Matthew Vadum contributed to this report.
JENNINGS  The start of school is still weeks away in many urban and suburban districts, but children in rural Oklahoma have already begun their return.

They are the first public school students back in classrooms since state education officials ordered every school closed in March when the COVID-19 pandemic struck  and at least one rural district has already had to contend with a confirmed employee case.

To be able to see their smiles  and the excitement on their faces  it definitely put a smile on our faces, said Derrick Meador, superintendent of Jennings Public Schools, about 40 miles west of Tulsa and 10 miles west of Keystone Lake.

We have worked really hard since March  harder than Ive ever worked  to prepare for today.

That districts academic year began without a hitch on Wednesday.

Only about 20% of its 215 prekindergarten through eighth-grade students enrolled for a traditional school setting, but another 60% elected for a blended learning model.

That allows them to attend in-person classes and, if or when public health concerns arise, to transition to computer-based distance learning at home.
Its phony rationale for rebuffing all questions is that an investigation into Ghaisars death, by state prosecutors in Fairfax County, is ongoing. In fact, as the senators noted in their letter to Mr. Vela, federal law enforcement agencies have regularly briefed Congress about their own ongoing investigations, including, in the case of the FBI, the 2018 rampage by a gunman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, and the 2019 mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio. In the Ghaisar case, the FBI and Justice Department have already closed their two-year investigation, without charging the officers.
And I am not thinking only of the career, he said. It hurts me to be described in this way. I have read even heavy insults lodged against me. Those who write underestimate the hurt they can do. They speak of me as if I have been tried in a court on precise charges, but it is not the case. This ambiguity is not acceptable. I will never stop saying the truth.'
LIMA, Peru (AP)  Peru was left with no government ministers Tuesday after Congress refused to approve President Martin Vizcarra's recently appointed Cabinet.

The no confidence vote led to the resignation of all 19 Cabinet ministers and could hamper the government's efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

The Andean nation has the third highest death toll from COVID-19 in Latin America, with more than 19,000 dead. The World Bank has forecast a 12% drop this year in Peru's economy, which has seen a plunge in tourism earnings during the pandemic and damage to thousands of businesses during a three-month national lockdown.

Under Peruvian law, Vizcarra has 72 hours following the vote to present a new Cabinet to Congress, which is made up of 130 legislators who represent 10 political parties.

The president, who is starting the final year of his term in office, said in nationally televised address that he failed to get congressional approval for the new Cabinet because some lawmakers put their own interests above national interests.

Its the first time in more than 20 years that Congress has rejected" a new Cabinet, he said. Despite the health and economic crisis we are going through, Congress has decided to add another political crisis to this country.

Peru's legislature and executive branch have been at loggerheads since 2018, when a congressional majority led by opposition leader Keiko Fujimori forced then President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski to resign over corruption allegations. Kuczynski was replaced by Vizcarra, who was the vice president,

Vizcarra dissolved Congress the following year, as both sides bickered over court appointments and measures aimed at tackling corruption.

Three former Peruvians presidents are currently under investigation for alleged corruption schemes involving the giant Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, which has admitted handing out $800 million in bribes to win public works contracts across Latin America. Fujimori is also under investigation for allegedly taking money from Odebrecht for her political campaigns.

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A new Congress was elected in special elections in January and will serve until next year. But none of the parties represent Vizcarra, who has continued to pursue an anti-corruption agenda.

Vizcarra cited several factors in the rejection of the Cabinet, including opposition to an education minister who tried to reform Perus higher education system. The families of several legislators own or manage private universities that would be affected by the proposed reforms.

Analysts speculated that some lawmakers from leftist parties voted against the Cabinet over Prime Minister Pedro Caterianos plans to promote large mining projects that have met fierce resistance from peasants worried about the contamination of water resources.
WATERBURY  A city man authorities linked to a drug trafficking organization was sentenced to just over three years in federal prison earlier this week.

Jean Carlos Fabal-Gonzalez, 26, was sentenced to serve 40 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, according to a news release for the office of U.S. Attorney for Connecticut John Durham.

His arrest stemmed from an investigation into a heroin and cocaine trafficking operation being led by Waterbury resident Keith Jordan, authorities said. Investigators learned that Jordan was getting large quantities of heroin and cocaine from various supplies and selling drugs to other distributors and street-level customers, according to federal officials.

During the investigation, authorities said, Fabal-Gonzalez supplied cocaine to Waterbury resident Carlos Morais, who then supplied cocaine to Jordan.

A grand jury in Hartford returned an indictment on March 13, 2019, charging Fabal-Gonzalez, Jordan, Morais and 26 others with various federal offenses linked to the sale of heroin, fentanyl, cocaine and crack cocaine.

Fabal-Gonzalez was arrested March 20, 2019. During a search of his home, authorities said, investigators found a gun and more than $31,000 in cash.

He has been detained since his March 2019 arrest. He is a citizen of the Dominican Republic and may face immigration proceedings when he finishes his prison term.

Fabal-Gonzalez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute, and to possess with intent to distribute, cocaine on Jan. 21.

Jordan and Morais previously pleaded guilty to their charges. Jordan awaits sentencing. On Feb. 20, Morais was sentenced to 60 months in prison.
Moscow Threatens 'Sad Consequences' After Belarus Arrests Russian Mercenaries Near Minsk

By RFE/RL August 05, 2020

Russia has issued a thinly veiled threat against Belarus over the detention of 33 Russian mercenaries who were arrested at gunpoint near the capital, Minsk, last week.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia's Security Council, said the incident could have grave consequences for bilateral relations.

His remarks came just days before Belarus holds a crucial presidential election in which longtime President Alyaksandr Lukashenka is seeking to extend his 26 years in office.

Medvedev said the Belarusian leadership had turned bilateral ties into "small change in the election campaign."

"It's not only offensive, it's very sad," said Medvedev, who previously served as Russian president and prime minister. "And it will entail sad consequences, too."

The mercenaries' arrest, and the circumstances of their presence in Belarus, has ratcheted up tensions in the run-up to the August 9 presidential vote.

Lukashenka is facing one of the most serious challenges to his tenure, with masses of Belarusians attending campaign rallies organized by his challengers.

Belarusian authorities have charged the arrested Russians with plotting to stage riots. Russia has demanded their release, saying they were only in Belarus because they missed a connecting flight to another country.

In a speech on August 4, Lukashenka lashed out at the Russian mercenaries, suggesting they were plotting a "colored revolution" in Belarus -- a reference to the popular upheavals that have rocked Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan over the past two decades.

The Russians were reportedly employed by a private military firm owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Kremlin-connected businessman who has been indicted in the United States for meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

With reporting by Interfax

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/moscow-threatens- sad-consequences-after-belarus-arrests-russian- mercenaries-near-minsk/30768299.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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Supervisor Ridley-Thomas Hosts Virtual Meeting to Discuss Anti-Racist Policy in L.A. County

The public forum follows the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors recent passing of the motion.

Supervisor Ridley-Thomas hosted an hour-long Facebook Live event to discuss the recently passed motion to combat systemic racism in L.A. County.

The measure was passed by the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors on July 21, in a unanimous vote, 5-0. The motion comes following nationwide protests in response to the deaths of Black men and women like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

It is with a profound sense of urgency and more that we are here today to discuss these issues. Our institutions reflect society and our society is a sum of our collective history, Ridley-Thomas said during the virtual forum. The vestiges of this history, slavery, our countrys original sin, continued to run deep [in] healthcare, education, public safety, employment, housing, and technology. No sector has gone untouched.

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The discussion featured representatives from the University of Southern California, University of California, Los Angeles and the chief executive officer of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, to provide insight on how the county could improve racial inequities in L.A.

Organizer and Frontline Wellness Network founder Mark-Anthony Clayton-Johnson defined an anti-racist position as Taking an orientation, fighting for the dignity, the safety [and] the well-being of Brown and Black people.

Its super-crucial to simply acknowledge that race matters in this society, in the allocation of resources, opportunities, education and even the air that we breathe, said Director of USCs Equity Research Institute Dr. Manuel Pastor.

Ridley-Thomass motion emphasizes addressing long-standing biases in all sectors of how L.A. County functions, including policies and programs and to Declare that racism is a matter of public health, according to Ridley-Thomass website.

The approval of the measure follows other local governments in California addressing racism including San Bernardino County, Goleta and Santa Barabara.

UCLA professor Paul Ong said during the live meeting that a web of inequality is of various barriers that are implemented into fields of life that aid in oppressing Black communities.

We need to understand in a very detailed, fundamental way about how this mechanism interlocks today but also as mentioned; how it interlocks over time, over generations, Ong said.

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CEO of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors Fesia Davenport said that the motion is important because it impacts not only the community but also the people employed by L.A. County, many who are people of color.

[The measure] requires us to look at our processes, look at those processes using an equity lens and then to do something different, to do it better and to do it more intently, Davenport said.

Ridley-Thomas hopes that other cities follow in Los Angeles path to combat inequality in different sectors of daily life.

Right now, in Los Angeles, we have an opportunityand responsibilityto dismantle the systemic inequities and racist structures that have long plagued us. We can do this and set the national standard as a leader on racial equity and anti-racism, Ridley-Thomas said in an email. Just as racism can be learned, it can be unlearned and replaced with the beliefs, and policies to oppose it. My hope over the next few months is that these discussions serve as a baseline for progress for what inevitably will be a focused and determined implementation of the directives from this motion.

The entire Facebook Live video is available on Supervisor Ridley-Thomass Facebook and more information about the anti-racist agenda can be found at ceo.lacounty.gov/antiracism/
In a unique symbolic protest, villagers in Goas Melaulim opposed the setting up of an IIT campus in a thickly forested stretch of land and tied rakhis to the trees that are earmarked to make way for the project.

The protest against the IIT campus has been gaining momentum since February after it became clear that the government was planning to finalise 10-lakh square metres of land in Melaulim village for the IIT campus.

Located in Goas eastern corner at the foothills of the Western Ghats, the land chosen is thickly forested, interspersed with cashew trees that the villagers claim to have sustained them for generations. The locals have been demanding a new proposed site for the IIT campus, one which will come at less of an environmental cost.

Around 300 villagers in batches tied rakhis to the trees that have been marked or enumerated by the government for felling for the proposed IIT Goa project. Its not that we dont want the IIT in Goa, we want it but just not at this location, Shubham Shivolkar, one among many who have been opposing the move, said.

Also read: Goa launches online ITI admissions, student data management system

The IIT Goa, which was allocated to the state in 2014, has been functioning from a temporary campus at the Goa Engineering College. Two sites previously identified by the state government, in Canacona and Sanguem sub-districts, for the setting up of a permanent campus but were scrapped on account of protests from local residents and pressure from the Opposition. The Opposition had alleged a land scam in shortlisting of sites for the top technology institute.

The local communities of Melaulim village are totally dependent on the economic and environmental resources provided by the lands. The lives and livelihoods of the 2,500 local people is directly dependent on their agricultural, grazing and forest lands as well as local water resources, the villagers stated in their letter marked to various representatives. A copy was also sent to the President of India.

Goas Melaulim village falls in an eco-sensitive zone but hasnt been formally declared so. The land on which the IIT campus is scheduled to come up is a revenue land belonging to the government but the villagers have said that the situation has persisted only because they did not have the required documentation to prove that they have rights over it.

The indigenous local communities of Sattari taluka are the most oppressed in Goa. Most of the people of the villages surrounding Melaulim dont have any documentation of their rights over the lands on which they live and cultivate. Most of the lands in this region are wrongly recorded in government records as occupied by the ruling class families or by the Government of Goa, though the indigenous communities have lived on these lands, cultivated them and occupied them continuously and without any interruption for thousands of years, Shashikant Sawardekar who leads the opposition said in a letter addressed to MLAs in Goa.

The villagers further added that besides helping them sustain their families, the area is rich in biodiversity with populations of bison, leopards, pangolins, slender loris, species of deer civets, giant squirrel, flying squirrel all kinds of rare birds and other fauna endemic to the Western Ghats.

Villagers have been drumming up support for their cause with the vruksha bandhan protest being the latest in a series of protests. Previously, the villagers had organised a mandd, or a traditional gathering of villages, in an open space to denounce the project.

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Announcement of Periodic Review: Moody's announces completion of a periodic review of ratings of Mongolian Mortgage Corporation HFC LLC

Global Credit Research - 05 Aug 2020

Hong Kong, August 05, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") has completed a periodic review of the ratings of Mongolian Mortgage Corporation HFC LLC 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.

Mongolian Mortgage Corporation's B3 Corporate Family Rating reflects its strong asset quality, moderate capitalization and stable profitability as the sole mortgage servicer for the government's affordable housing finance program. The company's key credit weaknesses are its elevated counterparty risks due to its exposure to commercial banks in Mongolia and the Bank of Mongolia, its credit concentration to the Mongolian residential property sector and its weak liquidity.

Mongolian Mortgage Corporation's B3 rating does not incorporate any uplift for government support because the company's standalone assessment of b3 is at the same level as the Mongolian government's B3 issuer rating. Nevertheless, Moody's expects a high level of support from the government of Mongolia in times of stress. Moody's assumption of support is based on Mongolian Mortgage Corporation's close linkages with the central bank and the government, direct and indirect government ownership; and high systemic importance to Mongolia's financial sector.

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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 Finance Companies Methodology published in November 2019. 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.

Tae Jong Ok Asst Vice President - Analyst Financial Institutions Group Moody's Investors Service Hong Kong Ltd. 24/F One Pacific Place 88 Queensway Hong Kong China (Hong Kong S.A.R.) JOURNALISTS: 852 3758 1350 Client Service: 852 3551 3077 Sophia Lee, CFA Associate Managing Director Financial Institutions Group JOURNALISTS: 852 3758 1350 Client Service: 852 3551 3077 Releasing Office: Moody's Investors Service Hong Kong Ltd. 24/F One Pacific Place 88 Queensway Hong Kong China (Hong Kong S.A.R.) JOURNALISTS: 852 3758 1350 Client Service: 852 3551 3077

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Kevin has been a tremendous leader for our Claims teams since joining Amerisure, said Becky Kenyon, Vice President of Field Claims at Amerisure. I am confident that in his new role, he will enhance Amerisures Claims service delivery in the South and Central Regions.

Amerisure is pleased to announce Kevin Korte has been promoted to Regional Vice President of Field Claims for Amerisures Central and South Regions.

In his new role, Korte will provide leadership to the Central and South Claims Regions and will support the Amerisures Field Marketing & Underwriting business partners in both regions. Kevin will have ongoing responsibility for the field claims staff in the companys Tampa, Atlanta, Charlotte, Richmond and Memphis Core Service Centers (CSC).

Kevin has been a tremendous leader for our Claims teams since joining Amerisure, said Becky Kenyon, Vice President of Field Claims at Amerisure. I am confident that in his new role, he will enhance Amerisures Claims service delivery in the South and Central Regions.

Korte joined Amerisure in 2002 as a Workers Compensation Supervisor in Amerisures St. Louis CSC, and has worked in various leadership roles in the Florida, Memphis, and Farmington Hills CSCs. He relocated to Atlanta in 2014 as the Field Assistant Vice President for the Central Region. In December 2019, Korte assumed responsibility for managing the South Field Claims operation in addition to his role in the Central Region.

Korte began his insurance career as a Workers Compensation Adjuster and has more than 25 years of claims-related industry experience. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from St. Louis University.

About Amerisure Insurance

Amerisure is an insurance organization charged with creating exceptional value for its Partners For Success agencies and policyholders. As an A rated (Excellent) property and casualty insurance company licensed in 50 states, Amerisure provides a comprehensive line of insurance products to protect businesses focused in construction, manufacturing and healthcare through strategically located Core Service Centers. For more information, visit amerisure.com
ATLANTA, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- AARP Georgia launched "Protect Voters 50+," a comprehensive voter engagement campaign to support and protect Georgians age 50 and up, as they vote in the 2020 elections. The campaign will provide information on where candidates stand on issues that matter to Georgians 50-plus and help them cast their votes safely by mail or in-person.

A centerpiece of the campaign will focus on providing information about voting options in Georgia this fall at https://states.aarp.org/georgia/election-voting-guide, the AARP Bulletin, direct mail, digital communications and paid media. The campaign will also advocate for enhanced absentee ballot access and pursue litigation when needed.

"AARP is demanding action to make sure that Americans 50-plus  whether they are working parents, family caregivers, or seniors in nursing homes  can vote and make their voices heard," said Debra Tyler-Horton, AARP Georgia State Director. "Politicians need to protect the health and financial security of voters 50+, especially during this pandemic."

The "Protect Voters 50+" campaign will provide people with the information they need about this year's elections, including:

Video voters' guides

Polling

Issue briefings

Direct mail, text messaging, social media and paid media

AARP Georgia will track key races, sponsor debates, and host tele-townhall events. Election information will be provided through a full-scale digital effort, including, aarp.org/election2020, AARP Now app, social media, and news alerts.

AARP has a proud 34-year history of non-partisan voter engagement and does not endorse or oppose candidates, nor does AARP make contributions to political campaigns or candidates. We encourage all Georgians to ask questions, so they understand where the candidates stand on important issues and make their own decisions on Election Day.

About AARP

AARP is the nation's largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering people 50 and older to choose how they live as they age. With a nationwide presence and nearly 38 million members, AARP strengthens communities and advocates for what matters most to families: health security, financial stability and personal fulfillment. AARP also produces the nation's largest circulation publications: AARP The Magazine and AARP Bulletin. To learn more, visit www.aarp.org or follow @AARP and @AARPadvocates on social media.

SOURCE AARP Georgia

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06.08.2020 LISTEN

The Citizens Quest for Truth Initiative, an accountability advocacy group, having participated actively in the investigative public hearing on the alleged financial malfeasance in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), organized by the two chambers of the National Assembly, The Senate and the House of Representatives, has expressed dissatisfaction with the entire process and come to the conclusion that the outcome of the exercise is premeditated and obvious from the onset. Some of the premises from which the Citizens Quest drew this conclusion stem from concerns they expressed, ab initio, as to how the probe will turn out. The bias of the National Assembly was so obvious, they couldn't successfully hide it, in as much as they pretending and still pretend to be objective and fighting for the beleaguered Niger Delta people.

The advocacy in a report with the caption, Anticipatory Probe Report on NDDC: Matters Arising recalled that the National Assembly, sequel to a motion, simultaneously deliberated upon, in the Senate and the House of Representatives, on 5th of May, 2020, proceeded to hold a Public hearing on the Need to Investigate the Alleged Financial Malfeasance and other Activities in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). This public hearing, held in the Senate from Thursday, 9th to Friday, 10th of July, 2020, and in the House of Representatives from Wednesday, 15th to Thursday, 16th July, 2020. Though, that of the House of Representatives eventually stretched to 20th of July, at obviously unimaginable costs!

This move, ordinarily, should get due applause from the Niger Delta people and Nigerians at large, but alas, it has been greeted with mixed feelings due to the allegations of culpability in the sleaze, also leveled against the Lawmakers by the present Management of the NDDC and its supervising Minister said the duo of Chief Obiaruko Christie Ndukwe; President and Francis Udoka Ndimkoha Publicity Secretary of Citizens Quest for Truth Initiative in a statement circulated to newshounds.

Text of the statement reads: A cross section of Nigerians, particularly outside the Niger Delta, has hailed this move, because it adorns a garb of a good intent to serve the people. Many others, mostly, leaders cum stakeholders in the Niger Delta region, have seen through the exercise and to them, it looms, every inch, a charade, or better still, a perfect smokescreen to shield the real culprits from being unveiled, considering that the main bulk of the contracts were awarded to those who should oversight the Commission for over 19 years. This fact has been proved beyond rhetorics, through documented evidence and is traceable through inter-bank cash movements between the "contractors" or paper and the legislators who happen to be the real contractors.

It is funny how the cabal that has held down the NDDC for two decades are now the same set of people posturing with a holier than thou disposition and suffocating the media space with tales of how the 5 months old Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the NDDC suddenly became the reason the Commission failed to achieve its core mandate, in the past 20 years!

How so easy it seems to blame the two decades of decadence and woes of the NDDC on the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, who has, so far, not put in one year in office, as the Supervising Minister. This allegeation can only seek to serve the intent of those who want to discredit and scuttle the process of the Forensic Audit authorized by the President of the Federal Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari.

The Citizens Quest expected that since the Budget of the NDDC is usually passed by a joint Committee of the National Assembly, that the probe of the Budget Expenditure should rightly be done by the same joint Committee that approved Budget. But by holding different public hearings on the same matter, the Senate and House of Representatives mainly aimed at media trial, to set the people against the Management of the Commission and by extension, the Minister of the Niger Delta Affairs.

Furthermore, the figures being bandied by both chambers were at the same time divergent and consistently inconsistent. The earliest notice and invitation to the public hearing which greeted the media space, and was published in the National dailies was hinged on alleged misappropriation of Forty Billion Naira and the supposed sacking of Civil Servants in the Commission without due process, among other issues. It is surprising how the issue of disengagement of workers later took a back seat, when it became obvious that the fable could not be substantiated, given that a sack letter must be tendered as proof of disengagement from civil service. The truth didnt take long to emerge that some Civil Servants who were long overdue for retirement were illegally allowed to remain in Service, because they were the Chief enablers of the rot in the NDDC. Of course, it is common knowledge that nothing can go wrong in the Commission without the active cooperation of the Civil Servants, who will tinker the records. Indeed, some were caught in the act of stealing files in a bid to obstruct the Forensic Audit by tampering with valid documents and probably distorting the information therein.

Again, the National Assembly members surprisingly frowned at routine transfers made by the Interim Management Committee which saw some staff at the headquarters of the Commission being redeployed to other State Offices. Transfer of Civil Servants is well known to be purely administrative and requires no legislative concurrence, but the fact that it caught the angst of the Lawmakers leaves much to be desired. It was even bad enough that the Committee Members of the National Assembly were concerned about the fact that some Civil Servants in the Commission who had not gone on leave for a so many years, were made to proceed on leave. So much for oversight functions!

The fact that some of this much-needed information were not in public domain made the National Assembly members appear like they were truly fighting for the people. And when it was time for the public hearing, they sifted and sieved through the Memoranda submitted and chose those to invite. Most of those who were allowed to attend were obviously pro-National Assembly and anti-Interim Management Committee of NDDC but posing as concerned Niger Deltans. Indeed, only pro-NASS participants were given all the needed time to make their presentation, including pouring invectives on the person and office of the Minister for Niger Delta Affairs. In fact, it was obvious from the word go that most of those presenters never made submissions to the Secretariat as they were allowed to make public appearance even after the two days originally slated for the public hearing. Yet, they were clearly allowed to speak, first, and make submissions later. This calls to question, the process of admittance of the presenters. How were they invited, and where did the National Assembly address their invitation letters to, since they never submitted a memo? Anyone who gave the slightest sign of speaking in favour of the IMC would be dealt a good deal of brow-beating. Such persons will be made to speak to their documents or practically ordered to "off your Mic". By so doing, the presentations are never allowed a free flow, but severally punctuated with interjections that suggest an attempt to create anxiety disorder in the mind of the presenter, who in most cases, would be forced to retreat, out of frustration.

The Citizens Quest for Truth Initiative, despite being aware of this stark oddity, braved the odds and graced the two Chambers of the National Assembly, to defend the Memo already sent it, to both Secretariats of the Committees in The Senate and The House of Representatives. Against all attempts at silencing the group, we made sure that our support for the Forensic Audit was made known to the world.

Sadly, what transpired in both chambers seemed like a rehearsed pattern of attempts at hushing and muffling of voices that were not in agreement with the position of the National Assembly.

The Senate Adhoc Committee on the Investigation of the Alleged Financial Recklessness in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) seemed more concerned about absolving their colleague, Sen. Peter Nwaoboshi of all allegations consistently leveled against him by members of the IMC. This was made manifest in their final report where they saw nothing wrong in a certain 'Nelson Agbamuche', an alleged front of Sen. Nwaoboshi, signing off on some documents, on behalf of the Senate, to the effect that contracts awarded to some companies would be distributed among the Legislators.

Our insistence, both in writing and on the National Televison programmes, that the House Committee Chairman on NDDC, Hon. Olubumni Tunji-Ojo cannot sit in judgment over a matter in which he is an interested party was swept under the carpet, till the NDDC management led by Prof. Kemebradikumo Daniel Pondei staged a walk out from the public hearing, proved right.

The fact that Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo eventually excused himself from the Committee after four days into the public hearing lends credence to the view held in many quarters that he was ineligible to sit on that committee ab initio and the fact that he already did, invalidates the entire exercise.

One wonders why the House of Representatives, under the leadership of Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila did not deem it fit to commit the allegations leveled against Hon. Tunji-Ojo to the House Committee on ethics and Privileges to look into the matter while a different Committee, maybe, an Adhoc Committee would have been charged to sit on the matter. And even at that, members of the NDDC Committee who were mentioned in relation to the Contract scam, both in the Senate and House of Representatives should not have been part of the Committee, in the first place.

As an accountability advocacy group, the Citizens Quest for Truth Initiative insists that the public hearing was never in the best interest of the people of Niger Delta and at such amounted not just to a waste of precious time and resources but an attempt to derail or scuttle the Forensic Audit owing to the way and manner in which they went about seeking for ways to nullify the contract for the procurement of the Forensic Auditors.
More than half of Jersey Citys parents will not send their kids back to school this September for in-person instruction, according to a survey conducted by the Jersey City school district.

Deputy Superintendent Norma Fernandez said 8,000 parents responded to the survey used to gauge how the district would handle reopening the schools for the first time since March because of the coronavirus pandemic. Some 52 percent said they would have their children participate in virtual classrooms when school resumes Sept. 10, she said.

The district, which educates more than 30,000 students, will unveil its full re-opening plan to the public on Thursday at a Board of Education special meeting at 6 p.m.

This guided our practice in terms of our reopening plan, Fernandez said. If in September, we see that we have very few children  or whenever classes resume in-person, we could move on to the next phase, which has 50 percent of students.

While the survey is not a commitment to the decision, parents will have to keep their child home for remote learning for a full marking period if they chose to do so, Fernandez said. Next week parents will be able to submit there choice officially in the districts student management system, Infinite Campus, she said.

The first marking period starts in September and ends mid-November, Fernandez added.

Schools were closed by Gov. Phil Murphy on March 18 in an effort to stem the rising number of coronavirus cases.

Superintendent Franklin Walker announced earlier this month the district would implement a hybrid learning plan that includes both in-school instruction and remote learning.

Fernandez said the return of students to the classroom will be done in phases. Phase 1 was full remote learning, while Phase 2 is 33% in-person learning, she said.

Phase 3 will allow 50% of students to return to in-person instruction, while Phase 4 is 75% capacity and the final phase will allow all students to return. A move to the next phase will be based on coronavirus statistics, particularly in Jersey City.

Each parent needs to make a decision based on their child because no one knows their child better than a parent, Fernandez said. We are here. We are planning to be open, but things can change.
Innovative Medical Technology Visionary Selected for Prestigious Orange County Award

IRVINE, Calif., Aug. 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ocutrx Vision Technologies, LLC , a California-based technology company developing state-of-the-art augmented reality (AR) headset devices, announced today that it has been named a finalist for Outstanding Small Technology Company in the 27th annual High Tech Awards presented by OCTANe .

The recognition is a prestigious honor among Orange Countys technology and medical companies that seek to transform industries through innovation. Each finalist is evaluated based on sustainability, community engagement, positive revenue trend, profit growth, diversity and inclusion.

We have put sustainability, inclusion, and excellence at the forefront of our mission behind transforming medical visualization technology since our origin. This local recognition is a welcome testament to the innovation we put into creating state-of-the art medical devices here in Orange County, said Michael Freeman, CEO of Ocutrx Vision Technologies.

This years High Tech Award ceremony will be virtual. A ticket this year includes lunch delivered (Orange County only), networking before and after the luncheon and a cocktail celebration in 2021.

About the High Tech Awards

The High Tech Awards (HTA) seek to celebrate and recognize those individuals and companies who make Orange County a center of technology and medical technology innovation. In its 27th year, the High Tech Awards has recognized and more than 100 innovative companies in Orange County. This is a great time to celebrate innovation and leadership in Orange County as we emerge from a global healthcare crisis.

About OCTANe

OCTANe convenes and enables the Southern California technology and medical technology business ecosystem by connecting people, resources and capital. Its goal is to create 55,000+ high-value technology jobs in Southern California by 2030.

About Ocutrx

With corporate headquarters in Irvine, Calif., an Innovation Center in Laguna Beach, and research and development labs in Colorado Springs, CO and Tulsa, OK, and a new office in London, England, Ocutrx is a new breed of Augmented/Extended Reality manufacturing company focusing on the best-connected, lightest-weight, highest-resolution headset, housing the largest field-of-vision and the highest resolution in the market.

Story continues

Ocutrx makes AR/XR headsets for both the patient and healthcare provider. For patients, the Oculenz AMD provides ground-breaking technology to offer a solution for advanced macular degeneration and other central visual deficits in patients with retinal disease. The Oculenz RMP Remote Medical Presence model is for remote telemedicine and contains various patient vital sensors including visual-field test, blood pressure, heart rate and blood oxygenation. The Oculenz LVP is for low-vision patients to maneuver around in their environment using simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) supported by the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Platform and the AT&T 5G network. The Oculenz EyAlinz is a device which can help diagnose and treat younger patients with amblyopia (lazy eye) and provide a binocular recovery solution.

For the surgeon, Ocutrx has developed the ORLenz for surgery visualization, providing a surgery video feed with virtual information superimposed in the view of a surgeon, assistant or students/fellows. There is also an ORLenz version for those who practice interactive radiology and laparoscopy to see both the body and a probe at the same time in an AR/XR overlay. These surgery AR/XR headsets are also featured in the Ocutrx OR-Bot Surgery Visualization Theatre, which spotlight three fully 4k viewing methods for surgeons to see ophthalmic, spinal, EMT, vascular, neural, or coronary surgeries.

Ocutrx is creating impactful, revolutionary ARWear for the medical sector. To learn more about Ocutrx and its ground-breaking technology, please visit the company website at www.oculenz.com .

Media Contact:

Brenlyn DAmore

Bastion Elevate (for Ocutrx Vision Technologies)

brenlyn@bastionelevate.com

949-899-3135




When Suzette Ruggiero finished throwing out all her food in the refrigerator and freezer, she tried once again to reach Jersey Central Power & Light Co. to find out when her electricity would be restored.

She left a message, but was unable to talk to anyone. No one answered her call.

Im in the air conditioning  in the car, she said. Heading out to buy ice.

Like many customers still without power Thursday, Ruggiero, 65, was miserable and asking what was taking so long to get the lights back on in her complex in Manchester Township in Ocean County, where all the service lines are underground.

The mayonnaise, the pickles, the bacon, the 30 meals I prepared and chili for five nights. All gone. Gone, she complained. I had stocked up because of COVID to avoid the stores.

Some 48 hours after the passing of Tropical Storm Isaias, more than 488,000 customers in New Jersey still remained without power.

Most of them like Ruggiero are served by JCP&L, which had 289,000 people in the dark at 4 p.m. on Thursday  a significant decline since the more than half a million customers who had no electricity a day earlier, but still a major headache for those yet waiting for the utility to respond.

@JCP_L I love how I get a text that repairs have been complete but my whole block is still out.  The spoiler (@Captain_Spoiler) August 6, 2020

For a time, some were getting notifications that they might not expect restoration of their service until as late as Aug. 19, infuriating many. That was an internal computer glitch, according to JCP&L spokesman Cliff Cole, who said they expect to restore 85% of affected customers by the end of the day Friday.

The majority of remaining customers in both the Northern and Central Regions are expected to be restored by Tuesday, August 11 at 11:30 p.m., he said.

JCP&L, which is owned by FirstEnergy Corp. of Ohio and has come under sharp criticism in the past over the pace of its restoration work after major storms in recent years, said nearly 6,000 utility personnel and line crews from JCP&L, other FirstEnergy companies, and partner utilities providing mutual assistance in the hardest hit areas in JCP&L.

Were making progress, but there was significant damage, Cole said. Were seeing damage levels similar to Sandy.

So-called Superstorm Sandy in October 2012 which left millions across the state without electricity  some for a week or more.

@JCP_L Any reason why the senior communities don't have priority on power restoration? The ACP community has 600+ residents in their late 70's, 80's and 90's with no power which means no cooking etc. This is madness!  Dovid Bender (@Dovid) August 6, 2020

Public Service Electric & Gas Co., the largest utility in the state, said 100,000 of its customers on Thursday afternoon were without power. A spokeswoman said crews working 16-hour shifts or more, and hoped to have at least 85% of customers without power restored by Friday.

The utility said Isaias was the fifth most severe storm in history and the second most severe, to Superstorm Sandy, in the past eight years.

But Stefanie Brand, director of the states Division of Rate Counsel, which represents utility consumers in New Jersey, said she is concerned about how long it typically takes to get power back customers after major storm.

Since Sandy, she noted that utilities have spent billions to enhance and improve their resilience.

Im not seeing much of an improvement, she said, calling for an investigation and analysis by the state Board of Public Utilities.

Have we gotten what we paid for? she wondered.

A spokesman for the BPU said they are in constant contact with all utilities.

The aftermath of Isaias was particularly severe with damage to both transmission systems as well as poles and wires, said Peter Peretzman. It will take some time due to the severity of the damage ,with many downed trees which impact the most isolated outages.

He said some of the outages, especially in the areas serviced by JCP&L are extremely difficult to address given the location of those customers.

Brand acknowledged that Isaias set some records and it would be expected that there would be a lot of outages.

The thing for me is how long, she said of the delays in getting customers back in service. Its hard to tell whats realistic, but it seems like every storm results in multi-day outages. I dont think every storm should result in multi-day outages.

Much of the damage from the tropical storm came from high winds which knocked down thousands of trees, taking down power lines up and down the stateleaving well over a million people without power.

It was a similar story last year, when a series of powerful thunderstorms that ripped the state also pulled down tree limbs and lines, again causing days-long outages up and down the state. And the previous year, tens of thousands more went though another series of storms, and took utilities days to recover.

JCP&L frequently bears much of the brunt of such weather-related events, Brand observed, noting it has a lot more trees in its service territory.

@JCP_L this is on my block in colts neck, Monmouth county NJ . Been 30 hours, no crew. I realize this was a bad storm. pic.twitter.com/bsDklRZ5Ej  james m (@jmangold1969) August 6, 2020

As for its ownership by an out-of-state company, JCP&L is not alone in that regard, she said. Both Atlantic City Electric Co. and Rockland Electric Co. also are part of multi-state systems.

But she said until there is a better understanding over the problem, Brand said the state needs to drill down and get a sense as to what it has done has brought any better results.

Ruggiero, meanwhile, said she has no idea when she will get the lights back on.

This is the seventh outage weve had since I moved here last year, she said. Were in the dark, literally.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL.
Role will build on existing Humanigen Asia-Pacific activities and focus on regional clinical development, commercialization, business and corporate development

BURLINGAME, CA / ACCESSWIRE / August 6, 2020 / Humanigen, Inc. (OTCQB:HGEN) ("Humanigen"), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on preventing and treating cytokine release syndrome (CRS) with lenzilumab, the company's proprietary Humaneered anti-human granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) monoclonal antibody, today announced the appointment of Bob Atwill, MBA, to the newly created role of Head of Asia-Pacific, effective immediately. Mr. Atwill will report to Dr. Cameron Durrant, Chief Executive Officer of Humanigen, and will initially serve on a consultancy basis.

Mr. Atwill has more than 30 years of experience in the global healthcare industry across the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and cellular therapy sectors. He began his career at GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi-Synthelabo prior to holding senior executive and consulting roles at Mesoblast, Benitec Biopharma and a number of other US, European and Australian-listed biotechnology companies. He currently serves as Principal at Eaton Square, a cross-border M&A and capital service provider, in its biotechnology practice, based in the Melbourne office. Mr. Atwill received his MBA from Ashridge Management College in the UK and has participated in Executive/President programs at Yale University and UCLA.

"We have several partner-funded clinical trials either underway or in late-stage planning in Australia. Bob's business development and clinical trial expertise, coupled with his deep industry network and relationships with multiple leading hospitals, make him ideally suited to build on our existing work and to help us evaluate and pursue potential strategic partnerships in the region," said Dr. Durrant. "Bob has worked in COVID-19 and other virology areas, graft-versus-host disease, immuno-oncology and cell and gene therapy with leading companies, and we believe his scientific and market understanding will be valuable to Humanigen's strategic long-term and global growth."

Mr. Atwill said, "There has never been a more important time to rapidly commercialize valuable technologies in the healthcare and biotechnology industry, especially those that will have the potential to play a critical role in mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. I am honoured to assist in progressing lenzilumab and the Humanigen pipeline in Australia and more broadly across the Asia-Pacific Region."

About Humanigen, Inc.

Humanigen, Inc. is developing its portfolio of clinical and pre-clinical therapies for the treatment of cancers and infectious diseases via its novel, cutting-edge GM-CSF neutralization and gene-knockout platforms. We believe that our GM-CSF neutralization and gene-editing platform technologies have the potential to reduce the inflammatory cascade associated with coronavirus infection. The company's immediate focus is to prevent or minimize the cytokine release syndrome that precedes severe lung dysfunction and ARDS in serious cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The company is also focused on creating next-generation combinatory gene-edited CAR-T therapies using strategies to improve efficacy while employing GM-CSF gene knockout technologies to control toxicity. In addition, the company is developing its own portfolio of proprietary first-in-class EphA3-CAR-T for various solid cancers and EMR1-CAR-T for various eosinophilic disorders. The company is also exploring the effectiveness of its GM-CSF neutralization technologies (either through the use of lenzilumab as a neutralizing antibody or through GM-CSF gene knockout) in combination with other CAR-T, bispecific or natural killer (NK) T cell engaging immunotherapy treatments to break the efficacy/toxicity linkage, including to prevent and/or treat graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) in patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Additionally, Humanigen and Kite, a Gilead Company, are evaluating lenzilumab in combination with Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel) in patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma in a clinical collaboration. For more information, visit www.humanigen.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements reflect management's current knowledge, assumptions, judgment and expectations regarding future performance or events. Although management believes that the expectations reflected in such statements are reasonable, they give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct and you should be aware that actual events or results may differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Words such as "will," "expect," "intend," "plan," "potential," "possible," "goals," "accelerate," "continue," and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding our expectations surrounding our operational, research, development or commercialization activities in the Asia Pacific region, and our ability to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 via any of the technologies in our current pipeline. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, the risks inherent in our lack of profitability and need for additional capital to conduct the Phase III study and grow our business; our dependence on partners to further the development of our product candidates; the uncertainties inherent in the development and launch of any new pharmaceutical product; the outcome of pending or future litigation; and the various risks and uncertainties described in the "Risk Factors" sections and elsewhere in the Company's periodic and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary notice. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. We undertake no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements made in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law.

CONTACT:

Media

Darcie Robinson

Westwicke, an ICR company

darcie.robinson@icrinc.com

203-919-7905

Investors

Victoria Meissner, MD

Westwicke, an ICR company

victoria.meissner@westwicke.com

646-677-1837

SOURCE: Humanigen, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/600512/Humanigen-Appoints-Bob-Atwill-as-Head-of-Asia-Pacific-Region
The Duchess of Cambridge has been praised for 'nailing the mask makeup look' during appearances this week as she donned face coverings in public for the first time.

Kate Middleton, 38, has appeared effortlessly glamorous while sporting the 15 reusable cotton floral face mask from London-based label Amaia on visits in Sheffield and Wales over the last few days.

And now a makeup artist has revealed how the Duchess has remained 'fresh faced and flawless' while wearing the face mask.

Expert Lisa Little told FEMAIL the Duchess has been highlighting her eyes with a strong brow and smokey eyeshadow, while keeping contouring soft and wearing a light lipstick, revealing: 'Kate nailed the mask makeup by keeping her skin makeup soft and subtle, whilst playing up to one of her best features, her eyes.'

Kate Middleton, 38, appeared effortlessly elegant as she donned a face covering during a visit to Sheffield yesterday, with a makeup artist saying she had 'nailed' the mask makeup

Makeup artist Lisa Little told FEMAIL the Duchess had opted for a classic smokey eye, bold brow to highlight her eyes, while she also kept her base light to avoid 'mishaps' from removing the mask

The Duchess was first seen wearing the cotton face covering in Sheffield earlier this week.

The royal, who cut a stylish figure in an elegant white 1850 dress by Suzannah, was talking on a visit to a Baby Basics UK, to launch a new initiative she has spearheaded, getting 19 major UK retailers and brands to donate more than 10,000 new items to more than 40 baby banks across the UK.

The mother-of-three opted to wear the liberty-print mask while visiting the centre and chatting with families while helping to pack some of the boxes for the initiative.

Kate went on to don the same mask as she joined Prince William during a visit to Cardiff and Barry Island yesterday.

The Duchess has stepped out in the 15 Amaia face covering twice this week, wowing on-lookers with her radiant look (pictured during a visit to a baby bank in Sheffield)

The makeup artist revealed how Kate had opted for a bold brow and dark smokey eye to highlight her 'best feature' to look 'flawless' in the face covering

However, her make-up look stunned onlookers, with Kate remaining as effortlessly elegant as ever, despite the covering.

Lisa revealed how Kate has been opting for a lighter foundation cover on recent visits, and adding a 'staple pop' of blush to her cheeks.

Meanwhile she added that the Duchess has also been keeping her contouring 'soft' so that the base would remain flawless even when the face covering was removed.

She explained: 'Kate kept her staple pop of colour on her checks with a soft powdered contour for when the mask was able to be removed.

The Duchess of Cambridge is renowned for her love of minimal and subtle make-up (pictured in Ireland in March)

'This allowed her to still look fresh faced and flawless.'

Lisa went on to reveal how the Duchess had highlighted her 'best feature' with a darker smokey eye and a dark brow.

She said: 'The focus was definitely on her eyes, with a bolder brow than usual teamed with the classic chic smokey eye. She rocked this look perfectly.'

Lisa explained: 'The mask makeup definitely makes us focus on the eyes more. It's a subtle look but it sure does make an impact.'

The makeup artist revealed how the Duchess had selected a subtle, barely-there lipstick in order to avoid smudges on her mask

Meanwhile Lisa explained how the Duchess had also opted for a light base covering and added a 'a soft powdered contour' for when the mask was able to be removed

Meanwhile Lisa also revealed how Kate had opted for a nude lipstick because it is the 'safest option' for avoiding any mishaps upon mask removal.

She went on: 'The safest option when wearing mask makeup is to opt for a light, nice lipstick. This will avoid any mishaps and smudging once the mask is removed.'

Although not compulsary, the UK government has advised people in England to wear masks in situations where social distancing is not possible, such as public transport.

The Duchess of Cornwall led the way for the royal family last week as she donned a bespoke 38 face mask while visiting the National Gallery in London.
LAS VEGAS  A U.S. appeals court refused Thursday to resurrect the criminal case against states rights figure Cliven Bundy, family members and others stemming from a 2014 armed standoff with federal agents trying to round up Bundy cattle near the family ranch in Nevada.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal in San Francisco denied prosecutors efforts to overturn U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarros decision to stop a months-long trial in January 2018 for flagrant prosecutorial misconduct and her dismissal of the criminal indictment so it could not be re-filed.

The judgment is affirmed, Judge Jay Bybee wrote for the three-judge panel that heard oral arguments May 29. The judges found Navarro properly identified violations of recognized statutory or constitutional rights, and she had the authority to punish the government to deter future illegal conduct. Bundy, his sons Ryan and Ammon Bundy, and Montana militia leader Ryan Payne had faced life in prison. But they were set free after nearly two years of detention ahead of trial on charges including conspiracy and assaulting federal officers.

Their arrests, with a total of 19 co-defendants in the Nevada case, came in early 2016 after the Bundy brothers and Payne took part in a 41-day anti-government protest occupation at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon.

The Nevada case stemmed from a years-long dispute between Bundy and the federal Bureau of Land Management over years of unpaid grazing fees. It grew to involve self-described personal militia members from 11 other states who answered a Bundy family plea for help in March 2014. It became a symbol for advocates of states rights, anti-federal policies and the sovereign citizen movement.

They still say Im trespassing, Bundy, 74, said Thursday. He maintains the federal government has no authority and U.S. courts have no jurisdiction over state lands. He acknowledged he continues to refuse to pay fees for his cows grazing in the scrub desert of what is now Gold Butte National Monument.

These feds came in here and overreached on my land and my ranch, he said. Were willing to go through what weve had to to defend our rights and the constitution and freedom. I have no contract with the federal government.

U.S. Attorney Nicholas Trutanich in Las Vegas said he respected the decision; noted the appeals court called it a difficult and trying case; and pointed to a footnote in which the appeals court judges said misjudgments by prosecutors did not rise to professional misconduct.

The judges said they found a serious constitutional violation based on choices made by the government.

Ammon Bundys attorney, Daniel Hill, dubbed the ruling the Republic in action.

We have courts so that someone can tell the government when its done wrong. Judge Navarros order dismissing the case was righteous, and the 9th Circuit agreed, Hill said.

Navarro found deliberate attempts by the FBI and prosecutors to mislead and distort the truth. She blamed FBI agents for reckless disregard of requirements to turn over evidence relating to government snipers and cameras that monitored the Bundy homestead.

The appeals court said pre-standoff threat assessment reports prepared by government agents should have been turned over from the FBI to federal prosecutors to defense attorneys.

These documents could have helped bolster the defenses claim that the government had engaged in an overmilitarized impound operation that the Bundys claim fueled their fears of being surrounded by snipers, the court said.

Someone in the government made a conscious choice to withhold these documents. It may not have been a malicious choice, but it also was not a matter of simple oversight.

Cliven Bundys attorney, conservative activist Larry Klayman, said evidence showed government agents threatened the Bundys lives, killed their cattle, assaulted family members and perpetrated tyrannical executive power over them.

Prosecutors failed to gain full convictions in two earlier trials against six other defendants who acknowledged carrying assault-style weapons during the April 2014 confrontation outside Bunkerville, 80 miles (129 kilometers) northeast of Las Vegas.

None was found guilty of a key conspiracy charge.

Navarro separately dismissed charges against four remaining co-defendants who had been awaiting trial later in 2018.

Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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Marine heatwaves can shift suitable habitat for sea turtles, whales and other wildlife by thousands of miles in the world's oceans, research suggests.

A US study found abnormally high temperatures in ocean waters cause many species to pack up and move  an effect known as thermal displacement.

If a heatwave warms an area of sea, species may have to move great distances to find a more suitable habitat, depending on the rate of the temperature change.

The changes may have implications if commercial fish species shift, as fishermen would have to travel hundreds of miles further to reach them.

High-profile impacts of marine heatwaves include the closure of fisheries, large-scale population declines and unusual sightings of species thousands of miles from their natural range.

Five years ago, for example, a major marine heatwave known as The Blob affected the northeast Pacific Ocean and shifted sharks north as much 1,700 miles.

The range of smooth hammerhead sharks shifted north as much 2,800 kilometers, more than 1,700 miles, during a major marine heatwave that affected the northeast Pacific Ocean from 2013 into 2015. The heatwave was known as 'The Blob'

'When the environment changes, many species move,' said research scientist Michael Jacox at NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center in the US.

'This research helps us understand and measure the degree of change they may be responding to.'

Scientists have typically defined marine heatwaves based on how much they increase sea surface temperatures, and for how long.

Such local warming particularly affects stationary organisms such as corals, which are becoming increasingly stressed due to rising water temperatures.

In contrast, the new metric, thermal displacement, measures how far mobile species must move to find their preferred conditions.

Researchers define thermal displacement during marine heatwaves as the minimum distance from a given position that is the same temperature as or cooler than the normal historical temperature at that position. In (a), the normal temperature at the black circle in the Gulf of Alaska is 9.0 C, but the marine heatwave temperature is 10.3 C. The minimum distance to a region at 9.0 C or less (darkest blue regions) is 521 kilometres. White regions indicate areas covered by sea ice. (b) shows examples of thermal displacements (red and blue circles) from two starting points (white circles) during different heatwaves

During marine heatwaves, thermal displacement is defined as the minimum distance from a given position that is the same temperature as or cooler than the normal historical temperature at that position.

Thermal displacement poses the same question that bothers an overheating fish, according to an accompanying article, published in Nature by Mark R Payne, a researcher a Denmark's National Institute of Aquatic Resources.

That question is How far do I have to go to find conditions that are at or cooler than normal temperatures?'

'In other words, this metric quantifies the availability (or lack) of cooler temperatures in the waters surrounding a given point,' Payne says.

Some regions can therefore be expected to show reductions in thermal displacement due to marine heatwaves in the future, whereas others will see increases.

'It may give us an idea how the ecosystem may change in the future,' said study co-author Michael Alexander, research meteorologist at NOAA.

Researchers used a global sea surface temperature dataset to calculate thermal displacements for all marine heatwaves from 1982 to 2019.

Sea lion mothers struggled to feed their pups as a marine heatwave known as 'The Blob' shifted their most favoured prey north, far from rookeries in Southern California

They say thermal displacements during marine heatwaves vary from tens to thousands of miles across the worlds oceans and do not correlate spatially with marine heatwave intensity.

That means a higher increase in temperature does not necessarily equate to longer distances travelled.

Short-term thermal displacements during marine heatwaves are of comparable magnitude to century-scale shifts inferred from global warming trends, they add.

In other words, marine heatwaves can shift ocean temperatures at similar scales to what is anticipated over the long term for sea warming caused by climate change.

This could spell major impacts for wildlife and natural systems, as well as for human activities such as fishing.

Across the world's oceans, the average long-term temperature shift associated with ocean warming has been estimated at about 13 miles per decade.

By comparison, marine heatwaves have displaced temperatures an average of approximately 120 miles in a matter of months.

In effect, marine heatwaves are shifting ocean temperatures at similar scales to what is anticipated with climate change but in much shorter time frames.

'While these temperature shifts do not solely dictate species distributions, they do convey the scale of potential habitat disruption,' the study authors say in their research paper, published in Nature.

Skinny California sea lion pups were stranded in record numbers on Southern California beaches

One high profile impact of marine heatwaves was in 2012 in the north-west Atlantic, when a heatwave pushed commercial seafood species such as squid and flounder hundreds of miles north.

At the same time it contributed to a lobster boom that led to record landings and a collapse in price.

'Given the complex political geography of the United States' Eastern Seaboard, this event highlighted management questions introduced by marine heatwave-driven shifts across state and national lines,' the scientists wrote.

The Pacific marine heatwave known as 'the Blob' shifted surface temperatures more than 400 miles (700km) along the west coast of the US between 2014 and 2015.

This pushed the prey of California sea lions further from their breeding rookeries and left hundreds of starving pups to strand on beaches.
Additionally, the Company has appointed John Leong as an independent director, effective October 1, 2020. Mr. Leong will stand for election to the Board at the 2021 annual meeting of shareholders. With the addition of Mr. Leong, six of the Board's seven members will be considered independent.

Eric Yeaman stated: "I am honored to be named Chairman of Alexander & Baldwin and, on behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Stan for his 28 years of leadership. I would also like to welcome John Leong to the Board. John brings with him a track record of strong leadership, diverse civic and business experience, and deep ties to our community here in Hawai'i that we believe will serve us well as we seek to continue to drive long-term growth."

Stan Kuriyama stated: "It has been my privilege to serve this Company for nearly three decades and I could not be more pleased with the execution of our succession plan. Eric's 20 years of experience as both a senior executive and Board member of some of Hawaii's largest companies make him ideally suited to assume the Company's chairmanship."

Chris Benjamin, A&B president & chief executive officer stated: "On behalf of the Company and its employees, I would like to express our gratitude to Stan for his longstanding service and major contributions to A&B. As we look ahead, the make-up of our Board reinforces our strong commitment to best practices in governance as well as environmental and social stewardship. Having known and worked alongside Eric for many years, I am very pleased with his appointment as an independent Chairman, which we consider a best practice. And John's background provides significant expertise in environmental and social stewardship, as well as valuable representation from the non-profit community. With a continued combination of deep real estate expertise and strong local relationships, our Board is positioned to create long-term shareholder value and serve our Hawaii communities."

John Leong is founder and CEO of both Pono Pacific and Kupu. Pono Pacific, founded in 2000, provides cost-effective natural resource management services to aid conservation agencies and landowners in their efforts to preserve, protect, and restore Hawai'i's precious ecosystems. Kupu, founded in 2007, is a non-profit organization that provides hands-on, service-learning-based programs to engage and equip young adults in environmental and related fields. Kupu provides roughly 250,000 hours of community support and roughly $20 million in socio-economic benefits to Hawaii each year. Mr. Leong has been widely recognized for his leadership in the business and non-profit communities, including appointments as an Obama Foundation Fellow, an Omidyar Fellow and a Pacific Century Fellow, and awards from the Hawaii Community Foundation, the Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs, Hawaii Business 20 for the Next 20, Hawaii Conservation Alliance, Bank of Hawaii Community Leader of the Year, PBN's 40 under 40 and the Hawaii Audubon Society. Mr. Leong earned a bachelor's degree in Environmental Policy & Management and Entrepreneurial Management from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Alexander & Baldwin, Inc. ("A&B") is one of Hawai'i's premier commercial real estate companies and the largest owner of grocery-anchored, neighborhood shopping centers in the state. A&B owns, operates and manages approximately 3.9 million square feet of commercial space in Hawai'i, including 22 retail centers, ten industrial assets and four office properties, as well as 154 acres of ground leases. These core assets comprise nearly 72% of A&B's total assets. A&B's non-core assets include renewable energy generation facilities, 27,000 acres of agricultural and conservation land and a vertically integrated paving business. A&B is achieving its strategic objective of becoming a Hawai'i-focused commercial real estate company by expanding and strengthening its Hawai'i CRE portfolio and monetizing non-core assets. Over its 150-year history, A&B has evolved with the state's economy and played a leadership role in the development of the agricultural, transportation, tourism, construction, residential and commercial real estate industries. Learn more about A&B at www.alexanderbaldwin.com.

Statements in this release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by the relevant forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements speak only as of the date the statements were made and are not guarantees of future performance. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that could cause actual results and the timing of certain events to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by the forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, prevailing market conditions and other factors related to the Company's REIT status and the Company business generally discussed in the Company's most recent Form 10-K, Form 10-Q and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The information in this release should be evaluated in light of these important risk factors. We do not undertake any obligation to update the Company's forward-looking statements.

Contact:

A&B Investor Relations

(808) 525-8475

[email protected]

SOURCE Alexander & Baldwin

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Le Havre: A gunman who took six people hostage in a bank in northern France on Thursday surrendered to elite police after a six-hour operation to free his captives.

The hostage-taker, a 34-year-old with a history of mental illness, emerged slowly from the building wearing a balaclava and with his hands turned palms-up, before officers with their weapons raised moved in and handcuffed him.

There was a hostage situation at a bank in Le Havre, France on Thursday. Credit:AP

All the hostages were unharmed, though in shock, said Denis Jacob of the Alternative police trade union.

Bomb squad officers acted after the man told officers there were explosives in a bag. He had been armed with a handgun, a national police representative told Reuters.
The MSME Technology Centre, Bhopal, has called for applications in prescribed format from qualified and experienced candidates for filling vacancies to the post of Managers (Maintenance, Design, Electronics), Senior Engineers (Training, Production), Engineer (Marketing), Accounts Officer, Store Officer and Senior Technician on contract through direct selection on a fulltime basis to be posted at Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, India. The offline application process towards the same started on August 1, 2020 and closes on August 30, 2020.

CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Managers (Maintenance, Design, Electronics), Senior Engineers (Training, Production), Engineer (Marketing), Accounts Officer, Store Officer and Senior Technician Organisation MSME Technology Centre, Bhopal Educational Qualification B.E/B.Tech/Degree in relevant engineering disciplines; Degree/Post-Graduation Degree in Commerce; Diploma in relevant trade/field Experience Two to five years in a relevant domain Job Responsibilities null Skills Required Desirable Job Location Bhopal Salary Scale In the range of Rs. 29,200 to Rs. 2,08,700 per month as per the post Industry MSME Technology Application Start Date August 1, 2020 Application End Date August 30, 2020

MSME Bhopal Recruitment 2020: Age And Fee

Candidates interested in applying for various posts through MSME Bhopal Recruitment 2020 must fall in the age group between 30 to 40 years of age, with relaxation (upper age limit) up to 3 years (OBC) and 5 years (SC/ST) respectively.

For details regarding fee for various posts through MSME Bhopal Recruitment 2020, refer to the official advertisement given at the end of the article.

Latest Govt Jobs: Apply Offline For Sub-Divisional Engineer/Asst. Director And Jr. Telecom Officers

MSME Bhopal Recruitment 2020 Vacancy Details

MSME Bhopal Recruitment 2020: Educational Criteria

Desirous candidates applying for various posts through MSME Bhopal Recruitment 2020 must possess a B.E/B.Tech/Degree in relevant engineering disciplines; Degree/Post-Graduation Degree in Commerce; Diploma in relevant trade/field from a recognised University/Institution with two to five years' work experience in the concerned area as detailed in the notification.

MSME Bhopal Recruitment 2020: Selection And Pay

The selection of candidates to various posts through MSME Bhopal Recruitment 2020 will be done through Shortlisting, Test/Interview and Document Verification.

Candidates selected to various posts through MSME Bhopal Recruitment 2020 will be paid emolument in the range of Rs. 29,200 to Rs. 2,08,700 per month as per the post.

NTRO Recruitment For Aviator, Senior Aviator And Engineer Posts, Apply Offline Before August 31

MSME Bhopal Recruitment 2020: How To Apply

Candidates applying for various posts through MSME Bhopal Recruitment 2020 must send their Bio Data form in a prescribed format, and send the same along with self-attested copies of relevant documents to "The Deputy General Manager (DGM), MSME Technology Centre Bhopal, MPLUN Building, 35, Sultaniya Road, Imami Gate, Bhopal - 462001 (Madhya Pradesh) India" on or before August 30, 2020 through a proper channel.

Read the detailed notification about MSME Bhopal Recruitment 2020 for various posts here
A cultural Organisation, Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently intervene by stopping the on-going gruesome massacre of Christians in Southern Kaduna by Fulani herdsmen.

The organisation also urged the Federal Government to address the allegation that the security forces have taken sides with the Fulani militants to wipe out the Christian communities in Southern Kaduna, with the sole aim of taking over their ancestral lands.

In a press statement signed by the Spokesman of the group, Mr Abia Onyike said ADF condemns in its entirety the mindless massacre of innocent citizens, brought about by the brazen impunity of Fulani hegemonists and their armed militia organizations.

Chief Onyike wondered how long Nigerian citizens would continue to be subjected to such a punitive culture of pestilence, mass killings, bestiality and unmitigated violence.

He announced that ADF sympathises with the plight of the Southern KADUNA People's Union(SKPU) who were currently facing one of the worst forms of genocide perpetrated by anihilationist forces

The Spokesmam lamented that the crisis of Nigerian federalism has reached its crescendo as over 32,000 Christians have been massacred in the last decade by FULANI terrorists in the Middle Belt of Nigeria, namely Kaduna, Plateau, Venue, Taraba(Mambilla) and Nasarawa states.

He however suggested that the best way to resolve the lingering crises of the monolithic federation in Nigeria is to have the autonomy of the various nationalities restored.

He added that those who genuinely wish to live together under one common nation-state should do so based on the fundamental right to self-determination as no nationality should be forced to belong to any political association rejected by her citizens.

"That the on-going gruesome massacre of Christians in Southern KADUNA by Fulani militants/ terrorists/ Herdsmen is a continued manifestation of the unresolved crisis of Nigerian federalism.

" The ADF unequivocally condemns this mindless massacre of innocent citizens, brought about by the brazen impunity of Fulani hegemonists and their armed militia organizations.

"The ADF believes that genuine development will continue to elude Nigeria unless the Nigerian federation is reconstituted into autonomous regions, where the Ethnic Nationalities (both majority and minority) are empowered to assert their right to self-determination.

"The Government should address the allegation that the security forces have taken sides with the Fulani militants to wipe out the the Christian communities in Southern Kaduna, with the sole aim of taking over their ancestral lands.

"The crisis of Nigerian federalism has reached its crescendo. Over 32,000 Christians have been massacred in the last decade by FULANI terrorists in the Middle Belt of Nigeria, namely Kaduna, Plateau, Venue, Taraba(Mambilla) and Nasarawa states.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 19:26:18|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese-produced opera film "The Dawns Here Are Quiet" will be shown at the National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA) on Aug. 15.

Based on renowned Russian writer Boris Vasilyev's novel of the same title, the 4K-resolution production is adapted from a namesake opera produced by the NCPA.

In the production, a group of women soldiers, led by a sergeant in the Soviet Red Army, guard important railway facilities, courageously fighting off invading German troops during World War II.

The NCPA-commissioned opera was first staged in 2015 to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 20:48:21|Editor: huaxia

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DAMASCUS, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian Health Ministry on Thursday pledged to facilitate help for the return of Syrian nationals from Lebanon in the wake of the massive explosion that rocked the capital Beirut.

In a statement, the ministry pledged to offer facilitations to receive the Syrians affected by the Beirut explosions. It added that receiving the Syrians and their families will be under preventive measures due to the COVID-19.

Among the measures is conducting the PCR tests.

Earlier in the day, the pro-government al-Watan electronic newspaper cited a Lebanese report as saying that 27 Syrians have been killed in the Beirut port explosion. Enditem
Helping protect medical professionals

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A media comprised of a sandwich of materials, tested by Sandia National Laboratories, is being manufactured into N95-like respirators that could be used in local medical facilities. The project originated from the urgent need for personal protective equipment when the COVID-19 outbreak began.

"I can almost assure you that no one else in the country is making respirators the way we're making them," said Dave Mayberry, technical lead for Marpac, Sierra Peaks and Sew-EZ, the companies that worked with Sandia on materials testing. "We didn't want to research the same materials already used in the typical N95 supply chain due to availability issues, so we looked into other materials we could get ahold of that seemed most likely to meet the filtration requirements."

Marpac, Sierra Peaks and Sew-EZ were matched with Sandia scientists through the New Mexico Small Business Assistance program that pairs Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories with companies seeking help to solve technical problems. Sandia worked on a project with each company.

"It's been very satisfying to see NMSBA, a state program, help New Mexico businesses address COVID-19 issues," said Jackie Kerby Moore, manager of technology and economic development at Sandia. "It was also rewarding to see the Sandia team jump on the opportunity to help these three businesses with their respirators."

Adapting to meet a need

Marpac specializes in manufacturing medical tube securement devices and works closely with engineering and manufacturing companies Sierra Peaks and Sew-EZ.

Mayberry reached out to Sandia after receiving an inquiry from a local hospital to see if the company could help address the potential shortage of N95 respirators. Certified N95 respirators are worn like masks and protect users from 95% of airborne particles and liquid contamination.

Sandia has the equipment and expertise to help, and within a few days after Marpac reached out, a team of scientists began working on the challenging task of modifying systems to make sure samples were tested properly.

Sandia principal investigator Michael Omana said the team modified aerosol and filtration systems typically used for nuclear nonproliferation work. They had to reduce the systems' airflow significantly to mimic the rate that humans breathe. They also modified existing test boxes to quickly mount and seal the samples inside prior to running them through the testbed.

"We were tapped about the first project with Marpac on a Thursday and drafted the scope of work and contract by Friday," Omana said. "By Monday or Tuesday, we had finished all system modifications. Initial testing of the first set of materials was completed by the end of the week, and data was provided to Marpac."

Initial test materials underperformed, with the best sample coming within 10% of the desired filtration levels. Within a couple of weeks, the researchers started seeing promising results from new material compositions. Creativity in combining materials resulted in samples with protection levels comparable to N95 respirators.

Marpac manufactured 500 N95-like respirators using the materials Sandia tested, and Mayberry said they passed fit tests at a local hospital. They're also looking into additional medical facilities that could use the product.

"We feel fortunate that the local hospital provider came to us after seeing our capabilities," Mayberry said. "This definitely stretched us out of our comfort zone, and certainly without the technical support from Sandia Labs, this would have been hard to validate all the types of materials that would be likely constructed into a respirator."

Jumpstarting a solution

Working quickly was critical for the projects, Sandia distinguished technologist Dora Wiemann said, and the team put in long hours -- including on weekends.

The projects with each company built upon each other. For the first project with Marpac, researchers tested sheets of composite materials provided by the company in the large, modified filtration system.

For the second project with Sierra Peaks, additional test-box modifications enabled the scientists to mount and seal samples cut in respirator geometries, and to complete comparison studies against certified N95 respirators.

The third project with Sew-EZ, which is ongoing, involves further sample testing using the filtration system and an additional commercial-off-the-shelf system, which is typically used by industry to certify products like N95 respirators.

"Sandia is not a certification lab, but the joint use of the systems enabled us to provide data that may be compared against products which have been certified through traditional avenues," Omana said. "This data will help the company if it chooses to seek certification of its product through the proper organizations."

Omana and a couple of other researchers test the materials in the lab, then forward data to be processed into quantitative results. The timeline on all projects has been tight, but the researchers said promising tests have been rewarding, especially because the result has the potential to help people during a time of crisis.

"I'm glad to be in the position I am so that I can help with this really big issue with characterizing materials that can be used for N95 replacements," Wiemann said. "By the end of the initial modifications and testing, we were a very close-knit team, solving an important problem. It was exhausting and exhilarating."

###

This story has been published on: 2020-08-05. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
MOSCOW, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A total of 2,715 people used the EMG express diagnostic service for coronavirus at Sheremetyevo International Airport between July 20 and August 5, 2020. The service has been especially in demand among passengers departing and arriving on international flights.

From August 1 through August 5, Sheremetyevo's total international passenger traffic was 14,316 people, 5,796 on arriving flights and 8,520 on departing flights. Of these, 4,168 passengers were on scheduled flights to Turkey and Great Britain and 5,284 passengers were on flights arriving from Turkey and Great Britain. International service resumed at Terminal D on August 1.

The express testing service for coronavirus was launched at Sheremetyevo on July 20. Diagnostics are carried out using test systems manufactured by EMG (Evotech-Mirai Genomics), created with the financial support of the Russian Direct Investment Fund.

Passengers and guests of Sheremetyevo can get an express test for coronavirus and obtain a reliable result in 60 minutes at the health centers of Terminals B (domestic flights) and D (domestic and international flights).

Sheremetyevo International Airport is one of the TOP-10 hub airports in Europe and the largest Russian airport in terms of passenger and cargo traffic. The route network comprises more than 230 destinations.

In 2019, the airport served 49 million 933 thousand passengers, which is 8.9% more than in 2018.

Sheremetyevo is the best airport in terms of the quality of services in Europe, the absolute world leader in punctuality of flights, and owner of the highest 5-star Skytrax rating. You can find additional information at http://www.svo.aero.

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Viral Acharya, former deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has been a vocal proponent of central bank autonomy and the need for financial sector reforms.

Acharya, who quit six months ahead of his term following major differences with the government on a range of issues including fiscal encroachment on RBIs autonomy, recently released his book Quest for Restoring Financial Stability in India published by Sage publications. Acharya spoke to Moneycontrol in an exclusive interview.

Edited excerpts:

The book has many references to the importance of RBI autonomy. How critical is RBI autonomy in the current context?

I would say the central theme of the book is a little bit step forward. It is trying to diagnose why this is happening. As Dr Reddy (former RBI governor Y V Reddy) points out in the foreword of my book, the RBI Act itself is very weak. It doesnt grant much autonomy to the central bank. There is a tendency to put the blame on recent frictions on individual personalities. But I think the problem is deeper. In my assessment, the government falls back on the central bank as its expenditure pressure rises. This is what we call "fiscal dominance".

Also Read: View | Can another rate cut help boost credit growth?





The issues at that juncture required me to take a stand.

Time and again you have reiterated the need for institutional reforms on the fiscal side. Could you explain?

There are a few suggestions I have made in the book. A fiscal consolidation path to reasonable targets, reorientation of expenditure towards items that have economically meaningful long-term multiplier effects, objective monitoring of consolidated debt and deficit numbers, independent fiscal council, improved disclosure standards for government expenditure and deficit that preclude the obfuscation of numbers by accounting jugaad (tricks), and significant economically meaningful divestment drive.

What is the solution for the NPA problem of Indian banks?

Ultimately, the solution to the NPA problem lies in capital and institutional reforms. As the RBIs recent Financial Stability Report anticipates double-digit Gross NPA ratios in COVID-related stress scenario, both private banks and public banks have to beef up their capital in the context of Covid-19 and prepare for the shock ahead. Also, it is important that government reduces stake in public sector banks below 51 per cent to free them from fiscal dominance. The system is not willing to embrace the problem and solve it, but due to imminent fiscal pressures, there is hope for reform.

Can you be a bit more specific?

For instance, once you recognize losses, public sector banks immediately require capital as they do not have high capital buffers. Capital has to come from the government unless the government pares majority stake in these banks. The government doesnt do that (reduce its stake), simultaneously it wont put timely capital either. Because if it does that, the government will have to find money from some other fiscal adjustment. So ultimately, this is the root cause of the problem. Banks have to recognize the defaulters and find capital. Divestment of majority stake in public sector banks can relieve fiscal pressures.

Six month moratorium and IBC holiday for 12 monthsare these right steps?

Im always okay with some temporary relief measures to help the stressed borrowers. But if there is a belief that the shock is going to vanish with moratorium, its being overly optimistic. Already, some senior bankers are complaining that moratorium is used to delay payment by some borrowers who can repay. Hence, in my opinion, there can be a sunset clause that says the moratorium should not be extended beyond six months.

As far as the IBC is concerned, this is the only effective way we have to address stressed loans. We do not have an alternative private mechanism of "prepackaged bankruptcy" that other countries like the US have. While temporary measures are necessary, one should anticipate that these issues may lead to loan losses down the line. You need to prepare the banking system for that with capital, on a war footing given the benign equity market conditions. Public sector banks, private sector banks and NBFCs should raise equity capital to prepare themselves for bad times, and not just take on more and more debt financing. The regulators should be proactive in asking for such equity capital raising rather than acting after the event.

Government is not in a position to give capital to PSBs

Some public sector banks should be considered for re-privatisation. They can get more financial capital from the market and modernize with better technology, human capital and risk management. In the other ones also, government can cut stake below majority mark like several of the committees in the past have recommended. The other important problem is that we keep justifying the presence of public sector banks saying they are good for developmental function and financial inclusion in the economy. But, then, the weaker public sector bankswhich are very hard to recapitalise in the current form-why not get them in shape by making their business model focused like small finance banks or microcredit oranizations?

Whats your view on the Rs 20 lakh crore economic package?

The package was announced at a time when the health curve was not as adverse as it is now. This has to be kept in mind. Now it is very clear that the curve is not flattening swiftly. I read recently that it is spreading in rural areas also. Going forward, there may be a need for direct transfers to address the problem. So my view is that rather than the government finding itself in a difficult situationthat it wants to spend but cant spend because of sovereign rating downgrade risk, it should instead create space by undertaking institutional reforms on the fiscal side which I highlighted above. Otherwise, the banking system will end up bearing the burden, and other than large private banks, we are not yet seeing signs of it being prepared with capital for that.

Where will the money come from?

Temporarily they (government) may have no choice but to slip further on fiscal deficit. As I said earlier, they can reorient some expenditure towards infrastructure, health and education along with other reform measures. In other words, we need a fiscal institutional reform package to build credibility of medium-term debt sustainability.

What is the solution to NPAs?

Resolution of the bad assets has to take place trough IBC (Insolvency and bankruptcy Code). Putting these stressed assets to a bad bank and resolving through the IBC may also work fine. But, then we need to have a blue print for the bad bank. Who is going to run this bad bank? Will it be managed by a private office or government office? What is the initial funding required? The devil is in these details.

Is it time to revive the debate on super regulator?

We are becoming more and more of a market based economy. We should ensure that systemically important pockets of the financial sector are regulated well for adequate capital and there are no grey areas. We have the FSDC but primarily it is a discussion body between regulators and the government. A body with greater powers like the FSOC in the US or the PRA in the UK will be helpful to identify and control system-wide risks.

Are rate cuts alone enough to revive growth?

Financial stability is a prerequisite for transmission of monetary policy. If banks are not healthy, that is, they are under-capitalised, then monetary transmission is difficult from banks to the real economy, because banks remain risk-averse or simply evergreen bad loans. One cannot push monetary policy on a string and expect significant sustained growth revival without fixing the financial sector health. Financial stability is not just surplus liquidity conditions that lower the cost of leverage in the financial system. It is about adequate loss-absorption capacity in the form of equity capital. That is one key message I would like to convey.
- Ammonium nitrate is an odourless crystalline substance commonly used as a fertilizer

- It has been the cause of numerous industrial explosions over the decades

- These include a Texas fertilizer plant in 2013 that killed 15 and a chemical plant in Toulouse, France, in 2001 that killed 31

- In agriculture, ammonium nitrate fertilizer is applied in granule form and quickly dissolves under moisture

- This allows nitrogen which is key to plant growth to be released into the soil

- Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in

Lebanese authorities said the Beirut blast on Tuesday, August 4 was fueled by a stockpile of over 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate, confiscated and stored for approximately six years at the port.

This is an odourless crystalline substance commonly used as a fertilizer that has been the cause of numerous industrial explosions over the decades.

READ ALSO: Michelle Obama sends hubby Barack Obama sweet birthday message "My favourite guy"

This is an odourless crystalline substance commonly used as a fertilizer. Photo: Sky News.

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Lady graduates with 1st class after dad denied her varsity education because she's female

These include notably at a Texas fertilizer plant in 2013 that killed 15 and was ruled deliberate, and another at a chemical plant in Toulouse, France, in 2001 that killed 31 people but was accidental.

The explosive potential of ammonium nitrate is well understood and has also been used in numerous terrorist attacks including the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995.

So what is ammonium nitrate, why is it explosive and why do we use it?

Under normal storage conditions and without very high heat, it is difficult to ignite ammonium nitrate, said Jimmie Oxley, a chemistry professor at the University of Rhode Island.

If you look at the video (of the Beirut explosion), you saw the black smoke, you saw the red smoke, that was an incomplete reaction, she was quoted by The Telegraph.

I am assuming that there was a small explosion that instigated the reaction of the ammonium nitrate  whether that small explosion was an accident or something on purpose I have not heard yet," she added.

When combined with fuel oils, ammonium nitrate creates a potent explosive widely used by the construction industry, but also by insurgent groups like the Taliban for improvised explosives.

That is because ammonium nitrate is an oxidizer  it intensifies combustion and allows other substances to ignite more readily, but is not itself very combustible.

READ ALSO: Beirut: Dozens killed, several injured following massive explosion

In agriculture, ammonium nitrate fertilizer is applied in granule form and quickly dissolves under moisture, allowing nitrogen  which is key to plant growth  to be released into the soil.

Plants rely on photosynthesis, converting sunlight to energy using chlorophyll.

Nitrogen is an essential element for this process and ammonium nitrate is particularly good, compared with other fertilizers, at delivering plants nutrients.

The chemical is also an explosive compound and is used around the world in mining and construction operations requiring detonations.

Under normal conditions, the chemical is highly stable. It can explode after exposure to contaminants or fuel oil and then heated, which sets off a cascade of reactions.

When heated to above 170 degrees Fahrenheit, ammonium nitrate begins to undergo decomposition.

But with rapid heating or detonation, a chemical reaction can occur that converts ammonium nitrate to nitrogen and oxygen gas and water vapour.

The products of the reaction are harmless - they are found in our atmosphere - but the process releases huge amounts of energy.

READ ALSO: Donald Trump says he will ban TikTok in the US over security concerns

Ian Rae, a professor at the University of Melbourne also said in the explosion, not all of the ammonium nitrate is used up and exploded.

According to him, some of it decomposes slowly creating toxic gases like nitrogen oxides.

It is these gases that are responsible for the red-brown plume of smoke seen in the aftermath of the Beirut explosion, Rae said.

For these reasons, there are generally very strict rules about where it can be stored: For example, it must be kept away from fuels and sources of heat.

READ ALSO:

In fact, many countries in the European Union require that calcium carbonate to be added to ammonium nitrate to create calcium ammonium nitrate, which is safer.

In the United States, regulations were tightened significantly after the Oklahoma City attack.

Under the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards, for example, facilities that store more than 2,000 pounds (900 kilograms) of ammonium nitrate are subject to inspections.

Despite its dangers, Oxley said legitimate uses of ammonium nitrate in agriculture and construction have made it indispensable.

READ ALSO: Doctor Dapper: Young man who lost parents within 3 years now top shoe designer

We would not have this modern world without explosives, and we would not feed the population we have today without ammonium nitrate fertilizer, she said.

We need ammonium nitrate, we just need to pay good attention to what were doing with it," she added.

In 2015, explosions partly caused by the detonation of around 800 tons of ammonium nitrate rocked the Beijing port of Tianjin, killing 173 people.

An explosion of ammonium nitrate was responsible for the worst industrial accident in US history in 1947.

A ship in the harbour of Texas City, carrying approximately 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate caught fire, supposedly via a discarded cigarette, causing a series of explosions that killed 581 people.

Source: YEN.com.gh
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-05 22:00:15|Editor: huaxia

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Commuters wearing face masks take a passenger ship in Yangon, Myanmar, Aug. 6, 2020. Myanmar reported two more imported cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing the number of infections to 357 in total, according to a release from the Ministry of Health and Sports. (Xinhua/U Aung)

YANGON, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar reported two more imported cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing the number of infections to 357 in total, according to a release from the Ministry of Health and Sports.

According to the release, the newly confirmed cases are returnees who were under quarantine in Yangon region and Chin state after their recent arrivals from abroad.

A total of 120,292 tests were conducted for COVID-19 so far and 6,856 patients are under investigation at present, the ministry's figures said.

According to the ministry's figures, 305 patients have recovered from the disease so far.

Myanmar reported its first two positive cases of COVID-19 on March 23 and six deaths have been reported so far.
On Thursday morning, a massive fire broke out in a Covid-19 hospital in Ahmedabad. 45 patients were admitted at the time of fire breakout in the 50-bed hospital. 8 people out of 45 have been dead and rest have been moved to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Institute of Medical Sciences and Research.

Eight people lost their lives in a fire that broke out at Shrey Hospital at Ahmedabad in Gujarat on Thursday morning, the Fire Officer said. It was a 50-bed hospital for Covid-19 patients and 45 patients were inside at the time of the fire. Five men and three women who were severely injured in the fire were admitted to the ICU of a hospital but all 8 of them died.

The fire broke out at around 3 am, 10 ambulances from the fire department and 8 fire engines immediately arrived at the hospital. Reports say that there were 45 patients in the hospital when the hospital caught fire, 8 of the 45 patients have died. The remaining ones have been moved to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Institute of Medical Sciences and Research.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday expressed condolences over the death of eight people who died in the fire which broke out at Shrey Hospital in Ahmedabad, Gujarat today morning. Prime Minister Modi further said that the administration is providing all possible assistance to those affected due to the fire.

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He tweeted that he is saddened by the tragic hospital fire in Ahmedabad. He expressed condolences to the bereaved families. He wished for the injured patients to recover soon. He also said that he spoke to CM Vijay Rupani and Mayor Bijal Patel regarding the situation. He said that the administration is providing all possible assistance to the affected.

Saddened by the tragic hospital fire in Ahmedabad. Condolences to the bereaved families. May the injured recover soon. Spoke to CM @vijayrupanibjp Ji and Mayor @ibijalpatel Ji regarding the situation. Administration is providing all possible assistance to the affected.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 6, 2020

Office of Prime Minister tweeted that ex-gratia of Rs. 2 lakh each from PMNRF would be given to the next of kin of those who have lost their lives due to the hospital fire in Ahmedabad. The tweet further read that Rs. 50,000 each would be given to those injured due to the hospital fire.

CM Vijay Rupani has ordered a probe in the incident of fire at Shrey Hospital in Ahmedabad. Sangeeta Singh, Additional Chief Secretary (Home Department) will be leading the probe. The CM has ordered for a report within 3 days.

Also read: ISB becomes the Knowledge Partner for Andhra Pradesh with GoAP-ISB Policy Lab

Ex-gratia of Rs. 2 lakh each from PMNRF would be given to the next of kin of those who have lost their lives due to the hospital fire in Ahmedabad. Rs. 50,000 each would be given to those injured due to the hospital fire.  PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 6, 2020

Union Home Minister Amit Shah also expressed anguish over the death of eight people in the fire which broke out at Shrey Hospital in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, today morning. He expressed his condolences to the affected families and wished for the speedy recovery of those injured. Deeply anguished by the loss of lives due to a tragic fire accident at a hospital in Ahmedabad. My condolences and thoughts are with the affected families in this hour of grief. Praying for the speedy recovery of those injured, the Minister tweeted.
Two brothers who are living homeless in the Carrick-on-Shannon area for a number of months appeared in court on two occasions in the past two weeks in relation to various public order, trespass and criminal damage charges which led the judge to comment about the plight they now find themselves in.

Bernard McDonagh and his brother Thomas McDonagh, no fixed abode, are charged with trespassing at The Barrelstore apartments, Bridge St, Carrick-on-Shannon on June 27, 2020.

Bernard is further charged with damage to a parking ticket machine at Mercantile Plaza, Carrick-on-Shannon on July 13, 2020, and possession of a claw hammer and crowbar with intention to use in the course of a theft. He is further charged with breaking the front door window of The Nature Trail shop, Hyde St, Mohill on June 17, 2020, as well as public order offences at Townparks, Carrick-on-Shannon on April 8, 2020.

The brothers had been housed by Leitrim County Council in a house in Kiltyclogher but left that accommodation to return to south Leitrim.

Since then, they have lived in a caravan, most recently at the old N4 slip road near the Masonite factory. They say the caravan was impounded by the local authority and they have since been squatting in a derelict building and in a shed in the Carrick-on-Shannon and Mohill areas.

At the sitting of Carrick-on-Shannon District Court on Tuesday, July 28, Thomas McDonagh took the stand and told Judge Kevin Kilrane that they are still homeless and they slept in a shed about a mile from Mohill the previous night.

Everything is upside down, my life is ruined to be honest with you, he told the judge.

He said they have been trying to buy a caravan.

Bernard McDonagh said there is a caravan but they don't have anyone with a tow hitch to move it.

He said they have been in with local estate agents looking to see if there is any accommodation available.

Judge Kilrane told Bernard McDonagh, Despite all your offending and past record I have considerable sympathy for you but it is a consequence of what you have done in the past and what you have failed to do, he said.

He said the Council had provided them with a house in Kiltyclogher and while it was isolated it was fit for human habitation. He said the brothers decided to leave it as they were bored. They got a caravan and put it on the old N4 road last winter.

He said it had no light and no heat and how they lived in it with temperatures as low as -5, he did not know.

He agreed with Bernard McDonagh that the caravan was not obstructing anyone and said he had driven to the site to see for himself.

Judge Kilrane said that it was a very small caravan but it sufficed and was a roof over their heads.

It reminded me of 60 years ago of Travellers living on the side of the road in appalling conditions, he said.

Judge Kilrane said the local authority decided to move them and took it away.

It's an appalling situation in this day and age with millions and billions being spent left, right and centre that two people are left homeless. It's a terrible situation reverting back to what was a regular sight in rural Ireland when I was a youngster, he said.

Judge Kilrane said to Bernard that he has numerous convictions for robbing churches and robbing this, that and the other.

In regard to Thomas, he described him as a pitiable sight and was satisfied he had some intoxicant taken to ease the pain.

He said he was going to endeavour to give them every chance to be accommodated. As for them getting private accommodation from an estate agent, Judge Kilrane said he didn't think that was going to happen.

He suggested they approach the services through the offices of Leitrim County Council and also said it may be appropriate for an intervention by the High Court.

Your present situation is a disaster, no human being could live in those present conditions, he said and remarked that something had to give, either physically or mentally.

He remanded both men on continuing bail to September 7.

Addressing Bernard, Judge Kilrane said the parking meters in Carrick-on-Shannon are not in use and are taped up since March 1. He said there is not a penny in them and told him he was destroying his own case.

He told Bernard, Alcohol is also not going to solve this problem, it's only going to drive you into further homelessness.

Addressing Thomas, he said, You followed your brother Bernard and he has led you to this situation. You abandoned your house in north Leitrim and the rest is history.

Judge Kilrane said an intervention by the High Court might embarrass someone into doing something about their situation.
Old allies and public health experts have expressed disgust at her accommodations to Mr. Trump and, more so, at the performance of the federal response she is supposed to be leading against the most devastating public health crisis in a century. Ms. Pelosi said she had lost confidence in Dr. Birx, while Mr. Trump called her pathetic after she suggested the obvious: The coronavirus is in a new phase and is spreading rampantly.

Her credibility, particularly in the H.I.V.-AIDS community, has taken an enormous hit in the last five months, said Mitchell Warren, the executive director of AVAC, a global advocacy group fighting to end H.I.V./AIDS, who has worked closely with Dr. Birx. She is absolutely data driven, so it is incredibly disappointing to see her coordinating a national response which has not at all been best in class, but has been a disaster on many levels.

But beyond the cameras and outside the Washington media bubble, governors say she deserves praise for persistence and presence. Gov. Tate Reeves of Mississippi, a Republican, said she prodded him for weeks to institute a statewide mask order; this week he relented.

She would have been more aggressive. I was a little less aggressive, he said.

Dr. Carlos del Rio, an infectious disease specialist at Emory University who leads the scientific advisory board for a State Department AIDS program run by Dr. Birx, said, I know that she told the vice president, Enough is enough; youre putting a mask on and appearing with a mask, adding that Mr. Pence followed the order. It requires a lot of guts to do that.

Dr. Birx declined to be interviewed for this article. Her defenders, and even her critics, say she is in a difficult spot, serving a mercurial president who has shown little regard for science.
"The extent to which COVID-19 has impacted student achievement, though uncertain, is likely significant. Teachers now, more than ever, need a consistent, convenient and customizable toolset to help document time on task and individual student progress through key learning objectives  all to help close those gaps," said Sean Ryan, President of McGraw Hill's School Group. "The use of data to make informed and personalized decisions is critical in determining where students are during and after a period of school disruption. Rise adapts and targets to each student's needs helping educators create a comprehensive, individualized plan."

For more information about Rise, visit: mheonline.com/rise

Curated from McGraw Hill's proven content, Rise will be available through McGraw Hill's single sign-on, and is powered by the McGraw Hill SmartBook 2.0 adaptive learning engine. Based on extensive research by McGraw-Hill's learning scientists and technologists, SmartBook 2.0's enhanced algorithms are built based upon advanced learning science principles that enable it to adapt to each individual learner's needs, pinpoint and resolve knowledge gaps, and increase learning efficiency by moving knowledge into long-term memory more quickly.

Preliminary "COVID-19 Slide" learning loss projections from NWEA suggests that students could begin the school year with roughly 70% of the previous year learning gains in reading and less than 50% learning gains in math. Existing research shows that students experience an average of one-third to a full year of learning loss during a time of crisis or collective trauma. Many students will have gaps in their knowledge and skills at some point in their educational journey, but long-term learning loss doesn't have to be one of the consequences.

With Rise, teachers will have access to customized student reporting dashboards and real-time feedback on student content mastery. Additionally, Rise's recharge feature allows for asynchronous reinforcement of topics, allowing students to reach mastery of core ELA and math learning objectives at their own pace. This easy-to-use and flexible learning tool is expected to have an immediate impact on closing learning gaps in schools across the U.S. this fall.

McGraw Hill

McGraw Hill is a learning science company that delivers personalized learning experiences that drive results for students, parents, educators and professionals. We focus on educational equity, affordability and learning success to help learners build better lives. Headquartered in New York City, McGraw Hill has offices across North America, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and South America, and makes its learning solutions for PreK-12, higher education, professionals and others available in more than 75 languages. Visit us at mheducation.com or find us on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn or Twitter .

Contact:

Tyler Reed

McGraw Hill

(704) 408-6969

[email protected]

SOURCE McGraw Hill

Related Links

http://www.mheducation.com


Uber has announced that it is buying Autocab, a British supplier of booking services for the taxi industry and creator of a homegrown Uber rival. The move will enable Uber to incorporate the drivers who work as part of the iGo network inside the Uber app. Not to mention greatly expanding the footprint of its operations in the UK, which right now are limited to 14 major cities.

Most UK towns and cities not called London are served by a handful of small, often independent private hire taxi firms. Until recently, booking a cab required a phone call, because these businesses lacked the resources to create anything else. Autocab, which started out supplying radios and other equipment, built Ghost, a cloud-based booking platform, and an Uber-esque app. This service was then sold to these small taxi firms, enabling them to offer an online booking system without any additional effort.

But Autocab, aware of both the existential threat that Uber provided and the distaste most taxi drivers have for the app, went one further. It started opening talks between taxi businesses to create the iGo Everywhere network, creating a patchwork rival to Uber. If your local cab company was based in Nottingham and you traveled to, say, Cardiff, youd be able to schedule a trip in your Nottingham-based app. And, crucially, keeping you away from installing Ubers app and using that to look for a ride.

Every month, thousands of people open the Uber app in places the company doesnt operate to try to get a trip, said the company in a statement. Through Autocabs iGo marketplace, Uber will be able to connect these riders with local operators who choose to take their booking, it added. In turn, operators should be able to expand their operations and offer more earnings opportunities to local drivers, as well as plugging in local taxi firms to Ubers broader platforms, like Delivery and Eats.

Autocab says that iGo is the biggest network in the UK, with access to 75,000 cars, and the companys platform has gone global, with operations in the US, Europe, Africa and Asia. Naturally, Uber will be able to fill in many gaps in its UK operations, slotting in to the pre-created networks in several towns and cities. Uber says that Autocab will remain independent with its own board focused exclusively on providing technology to the taxi and private hire industry around the world.

Of course, itll be interesting to see how taxi drivers in the UK, who have historically not been fans of Uber, take this new development. After all, Autocabs effort was widely embraced, in part, because it allowed a degree of independence while providing a shield against, uh, Uber. It remains to be seen how cabbies feel about being part of the broader Uber family, especially given the latters interesting attitude toward its drivers and their wellbeing.

Not to mention the whole issue of Uber simply buying up one of its most meaningful British rivals to absorb into its network. That may be something that the countrys competition authorities might be interested in examining before letting the sale go through.

Update Aug 7th, 4:32am ET: An Uber spokesperson contacted Engadget to say Uber and Autocab are not competitors.
Photo provided

Ameren workers across Illinois and Missouri left for the East Coast on Thursday to assist in repairing damage and restoring power outages in the aftermath of Hurricane Isaias.

About 50 Ameren Illinois personnel and 70 contract personnel  including linemen, fleet, logistics and safety crews  are assisting Eversource Energy workers in Connecticut.
Manufacturers, distributors and other businesses have misruns, trial runs, canceled orders and surplus goods of which they need to dispose.

Nonprofits serve members of the community who need those products.

GiveNKind is partnering with Serve the City-Carlisle to connect the two.

Carla Maranto-Arnold, director of GiveNKinds Carlisle-Bethlehem chapter, said she first heard about the organization through a random post on her Facebook newsfeed.

I had no affiliation with them whatsoever, she said.

GiveNKind, which is based in the Chicago area, takes new items that were often destined for the trash from businesses and gives them to nonprofits. Items are placed in virtual hubs across the country wherever GiveNKind can find a distributor willing to work with them.

Were doing the distributors a favor. Their warehouse space is money for them. They dont want the stuff there either, Maranto-Arnold said. If we have volunteers that come in and move it quickly, were saving them time and money.

Maranto-Arnold reached out to GiveNKind to propose replicating the idea in the Carlisle area.

Carlisle has a ton of distributors. Why cant we do that here? she asked.

GiveNKind already had a virtual hub in Bethlehem so Maranto-Arnold became the coordinator of the Carlisle-Bethlehem chapter, the first in the country outside of Chicago.

The Carlisle center is located in warehouse space along Morris Avenue, the alley between Union Fire Company and Sadler Health Center. Cumberland County Housing and Redevelopment Authority owns the space and is allowing the group to use it.

The goal of the center is to handle both large corporate donations and smaller, individual donations. GiveNKind will accept donations of new and gently used items from 1 to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the center.

Items that will be accepted include new underwear and socks; shoes and belts; kitchenware, plate sets, utensils, small appliances, bakeware, pots and pans, small appliances; backpacks, duffel bags and suitcases; outerwear; toiletries and feminine hygiene products; cleaning supplies; paper products (paper towels, tissues, toilet paper); linens (blankets, comforters, sheets, towels, curtains); clothing; new or gently used bras; office, school, crafting supplies and childrens books.

Those wishing to donate may sign up online, but drop-offs may also be made without an appointment. Items donated are quarantined for 72 hours, and volunteers will follow all guidelines for social distancing and masking.

GiveNKind partnered with Serve the City-Carlisle whose mission is to connect people with meaningful opportunities to get involved. Serve the City will help coordinate GiveNKind Center volunteers to retrieve pallets of goods from local distributors, sort items in the GiveNKind Center or assist nonprofits that come to the center to select donations.

Tanis Monroy, executive director of Serve the City, is confident that people will donate to the organization even during the restrictions imposed by the pandemic.

I still see people collecting stuff and helping one another, so theres been a silver lining in all of this, Monroy said.

Maranto-Arnold said having a physical location allows the group to store donated items, then allow nonprofits to come in to shop on their own.

That makes it a lot easier because we do intake very large lots and not every nonprofit needs 1,500 of one item, she said.

GiveNKind works only with the nonprofits, not with the individuals they serve.

Our goal is not to duplicate what those nonprofits are already doing and doing very well, Maranto-Arnold said. We call ourselves the nonprofit to the nonprofits.

Monroy believes this is just the beginning for GiveNKind and Serve the City, with potential to expand into other centers as the program grows.

We do think that having the center is going to expand things pretty rapidly, Maranto-Arnold said.

Email Tammie at tgitt@cumberlink.com. Follow her on Twitter @TammieGitt.

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New claims for unemployment benefits in Texas fell for the fourth consecutive week, indicating that layoffs across the state are slowing.

About 62,000 people in Texas applied for unemployment benefits last week, down nearly 20 percent from 77,000 a week prior.

Initial jobless claims in Texas have fallen after a midsummer spike driven by a surge in COVID-19 cases. While jobless claims in Texas are the lowest levels since shutdown orders began in March, claims are still running four times higher than pre-pandemic levels; typically, about 14,000 people apply for unemployment benefits each week in Texas.

Nationally, initial jobless claims fell last week to 1.2 million from 1.4 million the previous week. Its well below the nearly 7 million per week in late March. Before the pandemic, around 218,000 claims were filed in the United States each week.

While declines in initial jobless claims are a welcome sign, the figures still show a labor market in distress, experts said. Continuing claims remain elevated, meaning that those receiving benefits are not finding work or getting called back to their previous job.

While we are moving in the right direction, I think well need to see this downward trajectory (in claims) sustained over the coming weeks and months, said Christopher Slijk, a Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas associate economist. Were far from a firm footing.

Dallas Fed economists expect employment growth to slow significantly in the second half of the year, according to a forecast published Thursday. After a rebound when pandemic-related business shutdowns were lifted in May, economists said, the resurgence of COVID-19 cases this summer has reversed some economic gains in Texas.

By the end of 2020, economists expect the state to have lost nearly 5 percent of jobs, or more than 600,000. Typically, employment in Texas grows about 2 percent a year.

That would bring employment in Texas to 12.3 million, the November 2017 number, according to the Dallas Feds projections. In other words, COVID-19 will have destroyed three years of job gains in Texas by December.

Its quite steep, Slijk said of the projected employment decline. Going from (2 percent growth) to down almost 5 percent is pretty stark.

Debate over benefits

Congress is still debating extending expanded unemployment benefits, programs that economists largely credit for helping keep household incomes afloat during the pandemic. One of those programs was an extra $600 per week in unemployment benefits added to state benefits and authorized by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.

The program, which accounted for almost 5 percent of household income in June, according to a JPMorgan Chase analysis, expired at the end of July. For Texans, due to a quirk in the calendar, the week ended July 25 was the last week claimants received the additional $600.

The $600 benefit, on top of state benefits, was intended to bring most claimants total relief to close to what they were making at their job before coronavirus-driven shutdown orders.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Recovering or relapsing? Texas economy showing mixed signals after COVID surge

Since the expanded benefits were enacted, Senate Republicans have argued that they are too generous and could reduce the incentive to work.

A recent report from economists at Yale University found no evidence that the expanded benefits have reduced employment.

That aligns with surveys of employers conducted with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. While employers seeking to hire new workers  among them grocery stores and other front-line businesses  have complained of difficulties in hiring while unemployment benefits remain high, employers seeking to bring their employees back to work cite COVID-19 infections, not unemployment benefits, as preventing a recovery in economic activity.

Lawmakers are trying to reach agreement on a new stimulus package that may include an extension of extra unemployment benefits, but the benefit level remains to be seen. On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would be prepared to support a stimulus package that contains the expanded $600 benefits if the president and Democrats came to an agreement on it.

Other provisions of the CARES Act related to unemployment benefits, including expanded benefits to independent contractors and self employed workers, expire Dec. 26.

TWC criteria

In Texas, employees arent allowed to refuse returning to their former job without losing unemployment benefits, except in very limited situations related to COVID-19. Reasonable reasons to refuse work, the Texas Workforce Commission has said, include being 65 or older, being diagnosed with COVID-19, living with someone who was diagnosed with COVID-19, being quarantined because of close contact with a person who tested positive for COVID-19, living in a household with a high-risk person, such as an elderly parent, or caring for a child if no other child care options are available.

erin.douglas@chron.com

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An Albuquerque man who was running a sex trafficking ring out of hotel rooms around the city was sentenced to 17 years in prison on Wednesday.

Cornelius Chip Galloway pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking in March. He had been arrested and charged with the crime in May of 2017 after authorities say the sex trafficking operation was tied to two homicides.

Galloway admitted to participating in the ring from October 2016 to February 2017, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Attorneys Office for New Mexico.

Galloway and other members of the ring operated a prostitution service in which they used force, threats, fraud and coercion to compel women to engage in sex for money, spokesman Scott Howell wrote in a news release. Galloway admitted the members of the ring advertised prostitutes online, rented hotel rooms for prostitution and arranged appointments with clients by phone. They did not allow the victims any say about hours, fees or locations, and forced them to turn over all the money they received from customers.

Galloways wife, Danielle Galloway, and another defendant, Marcus Taylor, have also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking. A fourth defendant, Matthew Woods, is scheduled to start trial next week.
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - August 5, 2020) - Pasofino Gold Limited (TSXV: VEIN) ("Pasofino" the "Company") is pleased to announce the delivery of updated Mineral Resource estimates for the Tuzon deposit ('Tuzon') and the Dugbe F deposit ('Dugbe F') located on the Dugbe Gold Project ('the Project') in Liberia. The project is owned by Hummingbird Resources Limited (Hummingbird). Pasofino, through its recently announced proposed acquisition of ARX Resources Limited (the "Acquisition"), will upon completion of such acquisition, have an option to earn a 49% economic interest (net of the Government of Liberia's carried interest) in the Project. The updated Mineral Resource estimates are a key step for the Company towards the target of delivering a multi-million ounce gold producing operation.

HIGHLIGHTS

Total Indicated Mineral Resource has increased by 13% to 2.3 million ounces (Moz), hosted by the Tuzon and Dugbe F deposits, with an average grade of 1.51 g/t Au; and an increase in grade of the Inferred Mineral Resource from 1.29 g/t Au to 1.47 g/t Au for 1.3 Moz.

The Dugbe F deposit now has an Indicated Mineral Resource of 5.8 Mt at 1.46 g/t Au, this deposit was previously all Inferred. This was achieved by incorporating additional drilling data.

Potential to increase the gold resources at both deposits- at Tuzon the last drill holes testing 'zone B' were encouraging leaving it open on strike. Dugbe F is open on strike at its southern end.

The updated Mineral Resources are based pit shells using conceptual costs and a gold price of US$1700/oz, providing a firm basis for the planned feasibility study ('DFS').

The two deposits are less than 4 km apart and partially outcrop at surface over most of their length.

Planned DFS objective to investigate the potential to produce between 200 and 250 thousand ounces of gold per annum.

US$70M spent to date on the project providing a wealth of exploration data: 100+ exploration targets recognised on the 2,355 km2 property including Sackor and other priority targets, providing significant growth potential beyond the existing deposits.

Story continues

Ian Stalker ARX's CEO, and post completion of the Acquisition, the Company's CEO of Africa Operations commented, "A very positive start to the work on our Liberian gold project. We have closed in on the required scale of Indicated resources to potentially support production of up to 250,000 ounces per year for our planned DFS, and we have identified where additional ounces are expected to be found. Tuzon and Dugbe F are both 'open' on strike and there are a wealth of targets that require drilling. Our task is now to implement the exploration programme which will be conducted concurrently with a feasibility study which is planned to be completed during the second half 2021."

Table 1. Updated Mineral Resource estimate for the Dugbe Gold Project using a 0.5 g/t Au cut-off grade

Category Tonnes (million) Au Grade (g/t) Contained Gold (thousand ounces) Tuzon Deposit Indicated 41.9 1.51 2,032 Inferred 10.4 1.31 439 Dugbe F Deposit Indicated 5.8 1.46 273 Inferred 16.3 1.57 823 Totals TOTAL INDICATED 47.7 1.51 2,304 TOTAL INFERRED 26.7 1.47 1,262

Rounding errors may be evident when combining totals in the table but are immaterial.

The Mineral Resources have been classified according to the CIM Definition Standards for Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves and are reported under NI 43-101 requirements.

Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and have no demonstrated economic viability. The estimate of Mineral Resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, marketing, or other relevant issues.

Both Mineral Resource estimates are stated within conceptual pit shells that have been used to define Reasonable Prospects for Eventual Economic Extraction (RPEEE).

The Tuzon estimate was completed by SRK Consulting (UK) Limited with effective date of 30 July 2020. The Independent and Qualified Person responsible for the Mineral Resource Estimate is Mr. Martin Pittuck (CEng, MIMMM). The pit shell used the following main parameters: (i) Au price of US$1700/ounce (ii) plant recovery of 90% (iii) mean specific gravity of 2.78 t/m 3 for fresh rock and 1.56 t/m 3 for oxide material. The estimate is stated using a 0.5 g/t cut-off grade.

The Dugbe F estimate was completed by CSA Global (South Africa) Pty Limited, with effective date of 15 July 2020. The Independent and Qualified Person responsible for the Mineral Resource Estimate is Mr. Anton Geldenhuys (MEng, Pr. Sci. Nat.) The pit shell used the following main parameters: (i) Au price of US$1700/ounce (ii) plant recovery of 90%; and (iv) mean specific gravity of 2.73 t/m3. The estimate is stated using a 0.5 g/t cut-off grade.

Tuzon Mineral Resource Estimate

SRK Consulting (UK) Limited ('SRK') have updated the estimate for the Tuzon deposit by applying a USD$1700 pit shell to define an Indicated Mineral Resource of 41.9 Mt with an average grade of 1.51 g/t Au. The previous estimate (dated 5 March 2014) used US$1500 gold price for the pit shell, but the increase in gold price is balanced by the increase in operating costs; as a result the resources are not materially changed from the 2014 estimate (a difference of only 5 thousand Oz). No additional exploration data was acquired since the previous estimate. The deposit is hosted by an overturned fold which results in thick and repeated mineralized layers (as illustrated in figure 1) with good continuity of grade above 1 g/t. The northern two-thirds of the deposit (approximately 900 m) 'crops-out' at surface.



Figure 1. Typical cross-section through the Tuzon deposit showing the block model



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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Dugbe F Mineral Resource Estimate

The updated Mineral Resource estimate was completed by CSA Global (South Africa) Pty Limited ('CSA') and was also constrained by a pit shell based on a gold price of US$1700. The pit shell is required for determination of 'reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction' (RPEEE), based on conceptual mining and cost inputs.

The previous estimate by Wardell Armstrong International was 43 Mt grading 1.28 g/t Au all within the Inferred category and reported without application of a pit shell. The updated estimate is an improvement on this in terms of classification and grade. The increased grade compared to the previous estimate reflects more constrained modelling of the mineralized envelope. The new estimate is based on 333 drillholes completed by Hummingbird between 2009 and 2014, of which 53 holes were drilled after the previous estimate[1]. CSA used ordinary kriging to estimate grade into blocks of 40 x 40 x 5 m. A 5% loss was applied to the estimate to reflect the expected occurrence of barren pegmatite dykes.

The Inferred Mineral resource at Dugbe F has an average grade of 1.57 g/t. It is reasonably expected that the majority of this could be upgraded to Indicated Mineral Resources with continued exploration. The Company aims to infill drill this during the coming dry season. Between 80 and 100 holes are planned.



Figure 2. Plan view of the Dugbe F block model showing the approximate RPEEE pit-shell outline and surface outcrop of mineralisation. Line of section refers to figure 3.



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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Figure 3. Typical cross-section through Dugbe F along line of section marked on figure 2.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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Potential for additional ounces

Both deposits are 'open'

Potential to Expand Tuzon: The southern end of 'zone B' at Tuzon is open on strike/plunge (figure 4). The last and southern-most holes drilled into this zone were TDC082 and TDC084 which intersected 131 m grading 1.2 g/t Au and 50 m grading 2.0 g/t respectively[2]. The Company has developed a drilling programme to test the extension of the deposit, along with drilling to infill on the existing resource.



Figure 4. Long section through Tuzon showing zone B open on strike and the position of holes TDC082 and TDC084 referenced in text.



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Potential to Expand Dugbe F: At the southern end of the deposit drilling has not adequately 'closed-off' an area of relatively high grade and thickness as intersected by DFDC169 (16.5 m grading 1.53 g/t Au) and DFDC163 (15.8 m grading 1.64 g/t Au) both within 70 m of surface as shown in figure 3. Holes will be drilled to test this area in addition to an infill drilling programme.

Other Targets

The Company plans to test a 'pipeline' of new drilling targets. The project area is large, being up to 90 km wide and with an area of 2,355 km2 (figure 5). Much of the project area appears to be prospective for gold mineralisation; small scale artisanal gold production is widespread. Between 2006 and 2014 Hummingbird collected approximately 1,400 stream sediment samples, 25,000 soil samples and completed 33,600 m of trenching. In addition, 13,274 km of airborne magnetic and radiometric data was acquired. This data reveals a large number of targets yet only Tuzon, Dugbe F and the Sackor target were drill-tested by Hummingbird; other areas were left without being drill-tested by the time Hummingbird ceased work in the area in early 2014. The Company is planning an exploration programme to test these targets beginning with those with existing anomalous gold in trench samples. An initial 4,000 m of drilling has been allocated to this.



Figure 5. Map of the Project Area showing deposits Hummingbird sampling and some of the targets identified to date over a background of airborne magnetic data. The cross-hatched area central to the area is not part of the project.



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At the Sackor target, 15 of the 20 holes drilled intersected gold mineralisation[3]; a selection based on minimum grade and thickness criteria are provided below. Further drilling is required to follow-up on these results.

Table 2. All intersections from the 20 holes drilled at Sackor which meet the criteria: intersections of at least 10 metres of mineralisation with a minimum average grade of 0.5 g/t and with maximum internal waste of 2 metres. While attempts were made to orient holes orthogonally to the mineralized layer, the intersections may not reflect the true width of the mineralisation.

Drillhole ID mFrom mTo Interval Width (m) Grade (Au g/t) SKDC002 97.3 111.4 14.1 0.95 SKDC007 8.0 21.0 13.0 1.33 SKDC004 1.0 14.0 13.0 0.84 SKDC008 61.2 74.0 12.8 1.90 SKDC003 12.0 24.0 12.0 1.08 SKDC007 38.8 50.0 11.2 1.05 SKDC003 72.0 83.0 11.0 3.21 SKDC006 38.8 49.0 10.2 0.81

Feasibility Study

The Company is finalizing the selection of the lead engineers to complete a feasibility study on the project. This newly announced Mineral Resource estimate for the Tuzon and Dugbe F deposits forms a firm inventory which the Company aims to expand further, to support a study focused on a low operating cost mine producing over 200,000 ounces per annum. The Company plans to complete the study during the second half of 2021.

Qualified Persons Statements

The independent Qualified Person for the issuer, responsible for the estimation of Mineral Resources at the Dugbe deposit, is Mr Anton Geldenhuys (MGSSA, MGASA, Pr.Sci.Nat) who is Principal Mineral Resource Consultant at CSA Global South Africa Pty Ltd. Mr Geldenhuys declares that he has read this press release and that the scientific and technical information relating to the Dugbe Mineral Resource estimate is factually correct. Mr Geldenhuys, by virtue of his education and experience, is a Qualified Person for the purpose of NI 43-101.

The Tuzon Mineral Resource estimate has been completed by Mr. Martin Pittuck, CEng, MIMMM, FGS who is a full-time employee with SRK Consulting (UK) Ltd and is fully independent of Pasofino, ARX and Hummingbird. Mr. Pittuck is the Qualitied Person for the Tuzon Mineral Resource Estimate and has approved the relevant content of this press release relating to the Tuzon Mineral Resource Estimate. Mr. Pittuck, by virtue of his education and experience, is a Qualified Person for the purpose of NI 43-101.

Mr. Andrew Pedley (MGSSA, Pr.Sci.Nat)is the Qualified Person relating to the exploration results and information that relates to the exploration targets outside of the Tuzon and Dugbe F deposits and has approved the relevant content of this press release that relates to the exploration related content. Mr. Pedley, by virtue of his education and experience, is a Qualified Person for the purpose of NI 43-101. Mr. Pedley is a full-time employee of ARX Resources Limited and is not independent of the issuer.

About the Dugbe Gold Project

The Dugbe Project is located in southern Liberia and situated within 'Birimian' aged rocks which are host to the majority of West African gold deposits. To date two gold deposits have been identified; Dugbe F and Tuzon. The deposits are located within 4 km of the Dugbe Shear Zone which is thought to have played a role in large scale gold mineralisation in the area. The Project comprises an area of 2,355 km2. A large amount of exploration in the area was conducted by Hummingbird between 2006 and 2014 including 74,497 m of diamond coring. 70,700 m of this was at the Dugbe F and Tuzon deposits, discovered by Hummingbird in 2009 and 2011 respectively. To date over $70 million has been spent by Hummingbird on the Project. In 2014 Hummingbird stopped work on the Project focusing instead on their smaller new (at that time) Yanfolila acquisition. No exploration has been carried out since March 2014. Hummingbird have a 100% interest in a Mineral Development Agreement (MDA) which is a Class A mining license and is valid for 25 years thereafter renewable for a further 25 years. The MDA was signed on the 10th of January 2019.

About Pasofino Gold Ltd.

Pasofino Gold Ltd. is a Canadian-based mineral exploration company listed on the TSX-V (VEIN). Pasofino is earning a 50% interest in the advanced-stage Roger Gold-Copper Project located in Quebec's prolific Abitibi Greenstone Belt.

Through its recently announced proposed acquisition of ARX Resources Limited Pasofino will upon completion of such acquisition, have an option to earn a 49% economic interest (net of the Government of Liberia's carried interest) in the Dugbe Gold Project.

For further information, please visit www.pasofinogold.com.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" that are based on expectations, estimates, projections and interpretations as at the date of this news release. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "seek", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "suggest", "indicate" and other similar words or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur, and include, without limitation, statements regarding the Company's plans with respect to the proposed transaction with ARX, completion of the transactions described herein, the ability to raise the funds to finance its ongoing business activities including the acquisition of mineral projects and the exploration and development of its projects. Such 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 future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and other factors may include, but are not limited to, the results of exploration activities; the ability of the Company to complete further exploration activities; the ability of the Company to complete transactions on terms announced; timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms and those risk factors outlined in the Company's Management Discussion and Analysis as filed on SEDAR. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION OR DISSEMINATION DIRECTLY, OR INDIRECTLY, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES.

[1] Hummingbird Resources plc. First Quarter Operational Update (2014). 8 April 2014

[2] Hummingbird Resources plc. Further Positive Results from Infill Drilling Campaign at Tuzon. 3 February 2014

[3] Hummingbird Resources plc. Hummingbird Resources Q2 Exploration Update

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/61098
The decision to build a monument honoring poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou was supposed to jump-start San Franciscos planned diversification of city sculptures; instead, an opaque selection process has opened new wounds between public officials and local artists.

In 2019, the San Francisco Arts Commission announced that artist Lava Thomas had been chosen to design the monument, but officials soon rescinded the offer after City Supervisor Catherine Stefani  the legislative sponsor behind the project  quickly rejected the design because she disliked its nonfigurative elements. Thomas design featured a 9-foot-tall bronze book with Angelous portrait on one side and her words on the other. Stefani then requested that the commission restart the selection process, focusing on artist proposals that included traditional statues of Angelou.

That reversal came as a shock to Thomas, who said she had spent the last year seeking answers from the commission, which did not respond to her questions and requests for information through the citys freedom of information laws. And when she tried to address the controversy in a public hearing with the commission last month, she was abruptly muted toward the end of her speech and refused extra time.

Uproar ensued, Thomas, 61, said in an interview. The commission broke trust with the public and stonewalled me from asking questions.

At a time when classical bronze statues of men are falling out of favor across the country, some artists see the scrapped Angelou monument, which was intended for a spot outside the citys central library, as an example of politicians thwarting visions of a more diverse future.

Supporters of Thomas are demanding that the citys arts commission enact reforms to prevent another controversy. Lavas monument is a challenge to conventional representations of Black women,  said Angela Hennessy, an artist who helped found the collective See Black Womxn, which has been an advocate of Thomas over the last year. Its quite subversive in a poetic way. That monument would be in production right now in the context of all these other colonial monuments being reconsidered and removed.

Acknowledging the problem, the commission president, Roberto Ordenana, apologized to Thomas on Monday. I want to remind us all that when there are systems failures, the individuals and communities that end up experiencing the most harm as a result of said failures are those of us who experience oppression and marginalization, he said during a public meeting. Due to our failures, we have caused significant harm to an incredibly talented Black woman artist, and we have caused deep pain to members of the Black artist community.

For Thomas and her supporters, it was a step in the right direction. But the group is demanding additional measures, including the resignations of the art commissions visual arts committee chair, Dorka Keehn, and Stefani; a meeting with Mayor London Breed; and the suspension of the reissued call for proposals.

The commission complied with the latter request, voting unanimously to pause the selection process to engage stakeholders and promote clarity and transparency moving forward. Officials have yet to determine a new timeline for the project, which started with a $180,000 budget and has risen to $250,000.

Until the city can prove that it truly cares about the ideals and principles of Maya Angelou, San Francisco doesnt deserve her monument, said Thomas, who is now planning to bring her dedication to the author elsewhere. But its not yet time.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
SHENZHEN, China, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Informa Markets Creative decided to reschedule the physical event 2020 IECIE Shenzhen eCig expo to 20-22 August 2020, alongside with their new iconic virtual expo IECIE international eCig Virtual Expo also held at the same time. This virtual expo is estimated to attract 10,000 vape users across the world, bringing more than 2500 vape exhibitors to go virtually to engage business online through any devices. (PC, App, Wechat miniprogram). It's especially designed to allow private business video/text chatting, business arrangement with vape brands and new product live showcases and multiple features to audiences. Visitors can login the virtual expo from 20 July to August 20 to review all the vape brands profiles and product catalogs. Meanwhile exhibiting products preview and business meeting arrangements between visitors and exhibitors are also available at this period and all the private business meetings can be directly carried out inside the virtual expo in 3 days during 20-22 August.

IECIE Shenzhen eCig Expo is the largest e-cigarette exhibition in Asia, bringing together upstream industries, battery and power management Chips and Solutions, Battery and Power Management, Heating System, E-juice Flavors and Related Products while mainly displaying some finished products: Disposable pods, atomizer, mods kits, e-liquid (letter nicotine salt e-liquid), heating non-combustion equipment, OEM / ODM / brand , etc.

This year, visitors don't need to travel around the world to attend this event but to surf the internet to IECIE virtual expo to connect your business with more than 2500 global vape brands.

2020 IECIE Virtual Expo Features:

AI buyer recommendation system

Adopting AI EXPO artificial intelligence platform to collect key information from visitor registration form and clicks, recommend products of corresponding exhibitor company to visitors. Once visitors enter the virtual expo, they will be asked to choose their range of interests from product like Mods, Pods system to fields like vape business, vape magazine. With these tags, visitors can filter all the exhibitors in the Hall to locate their most wanted targets by clicking recommend button on the upside of the floorplan and making their way to the targeted exhibitor.

Show Room

Multi-platform live broadcasting ensuring smooth and clear video during the exhibition. With the cloud system support, IECIE virtual expo enables visitors to video chat, text chat, voice chat, and even watch the on-site broadcasting from IECIE physical event.

Business matching system

Business matching system(Calendar), making appointments for business negotiations in advance, multimedia communication with buyers (video, Voice chatting etc.) and efficiently arrange private product demonstration for visitors.

Demands Release (Note):

Demands and Products description post releases, AI recommended to find your suppliers and buyers in no time. In the section of Note,visitors can review all the notes posted by exhibitors. Post will mention products description, or discounts that exhibitors offer. Visitors can even write down their own product demands and waiting for exhibitors to reach out to them.

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Cellphone App,Wechat, Miniprogram , Web page. Social Media sharing. It allows visitors to get access to the platform with multiple devices. This time, there will be no limit to connect exhibitors' business with IECIE International eCig Virtual Expo.

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Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1224826/0Z1B0460_367.jpg

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Pakistan has adopted a new technique of sending arms and ammunition to Jammu and Kashmir using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and several such incidents have been detected in the recent past, Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police Dilbag Singh said on Thursday.

He also said less than 200 militants are currently active in Jammu and Kashmir, and just 26 terrorists could enter the Union Territory from across the border so far this year.

Pakistan has been trying to send arms and ammunition to militants through drones (UAVs). We have detected several such incidents in the past, Singh told PTI here.

The police chief said such incidents of Pakistani UAVs carrying weapons were detected in Kupwara, Heera Nagar, Kathua and Rajouri.

Another modus operandi of Pakistan to dispatch weapons through trucks to Jammu and Kashmir was unearthed in Punjab in the past, he said.

There has been a huge shortage of weapons for the militants operating here, the police chief said.

The DGP said Pakistan has intensified cross-border firing this year so that terrorists could be pushed into Jammu and Kashmir.

There has been 75 per cent more firing from across the border in the first seven months of 2020. There were 487 incidents of firing from Pakistan till July this year in comparison to 267 such incidents in the same period in 2019. The firings are cover to infiltrate militants. So far, just 26 militants could infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir, he said.

Singh said due to sustained anti-militancy operations, the security forces have been able to curtail the number of active militants in Jammu and Kashmir to less than 200 now from 300 to 350 terrorists a few years ago.

Referring to local youths joining militancy, the DGP said 80 such youths have joined different terror groups this year of which 20 are now active and the self-life of such militant is now a maximum of 90 days.

Eighty local youths have joined militancy this year so far of which 38 were killed and 22 arrested. Just 20 of those who have joined militancy are active now, he said.

The police chief said as many as 150 militants were killed in 2020 so far, of which 30 are foreigners and another 39 are top commanders. The terrorist groups are leaderless and facing a huge shortage of weapons, he said.

Claiming success of the anti-militancy operations in last two years, the DGP said it has happened as the security forces have gone against the terrorist support structure -- the Jamaat-e-Islami (JK), Hurriyat and their members and the Over Ground Workers (OGWs).

Most of the leaders of the Jamaat and Hurriyat and OGWs are under custody and their funding has been halted, he said.

Singh said a Terror Monitoring Group (TMG) has been set up with representatives from the Jammu and Kashmir Police, Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax Department and a few other organisations, and the body is continuously working to curb funding of terrorists and their supporters.

Almost all links of sending money through hawala, western union money transfer and in tiffin boxes of couriers were shut, he said.

The police chief said security grade has been improved along the International Border and the Line of Control and as a result, six encounters have taken place along the borders so far this year.

He said there were 76 casualties and 107 injuries in the security forces in first seven months of 2019 in Jammu and Kashmir, while there were just 36 casualties and 102 injuries in the security forces in the same period in 2020.

Terror incidents were also down by 70 per cent -- from 198 in first seven months of 2019 to 124 in the same period in 2020, the DGP said.
(Seidel) was the carillons strongest supporter and kept in touch every couple of weeks even after he retired and moved to Florida, Sleep said in the release. The concert will feature some of his favorite music, including All Through The Night, Somewhere Over The Rainbow and pieces by Bach, Strauss and Joplin.
York Region Childrens Aid Society is a toxic workplace where people routinely cry at their desks, where there is a culture of hopelessness, racism and the best decisions to keep children safe are not being made, according to a staff survey conducted by their union just before the pandemic shut the agencys offices.

On Friday, the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services launched a third-party review of the child welfare agency in response to what it called troubling allegations of racism, bullying and harassment within the organization.

But employees within the agency and community members say York CAS has been in a negative spiral for the past few years, with things getting worse under the current leadership.

We kept hearing from our members that many were deteriorating emotionally and physically at an alarming level, said Andrew Harrigan, president of OPSEU Local 304 and a front-line worker.

What was most shocking to us is how many members have chosen to remain silent and not rock the boat when faced with bullying and harassment within the workplace, said Harrigan. These members fear being targeted, micro-managed, intimidated, and potentially passed over for permanent positions.

The union conducted the survey  filled out by 57 per cent of the nearly 300 unionized staff  in March to pinpoint the root of the problem in an agency that is responsible for child welfare in York Region.

Among the findings:

87 per cent would not recommend YRCAS as a place to work.

72 per cent of respondents felt that unethical behaviour was either common or occurring nearly all the time at YRCAS.

44 per cent of respondents felt that they had been bullied at work.

66 per cent felt they had poor experiences with management when requesting accommodations.

Most of those surveyed felt management did not care about them.

When asked about the results of the survey, before the province announced the third-party review, CEO Nancy French said she was taking the findings seriously.

We are concerned and saddened by the issues that have been raised in the survey, but we also appreciate and value the transparency of our employees in sharing their experiences. We know we need to do more, and we want to assure our team members that we are taking the findings incredibly seriously.

In a similar email to staff, obtained by the Star, she told them to bring specific concerns or allegations forward to Human Resources and they will be supported.

A ministry spokesperson told the Star they were made aware of the problems in May, and reached out to the agencys board of directors to give them a chance to address them.

On Friday, the ministry announced it was launching a third-party review.

This review was prompted by a lack of sufficient progress being made by the York Region Childrens Aid Society board of directors, said Alex Spence, communications adviser| for Jill Dunlop, the associate minister of children and womens issues.

Spence said that the government had provided the board with a number of opportunities and suggestions to develop a community-based plan that would address these concerns.

After considering the Boards approach, the Ministry is moving forward with an external third-party review to ensure the health and well-being of staff who provide the children and youth of York Region with the culturally appropriate and effective services they need, said Spence. The review is expected to take two months.

The provincial review will include an assessment of workplace culture, including leadership, alleged bullying of harassment and staff, and the diversity and inclusivity of the workplace environment, assessment of human resources policies and procedures, and accommodation policies, and will be made public.

French did not respond to questions about the provinces review.

Instead, the Star received an email from her assistant on Tuesday, forwarding an emailed statement from board chair Tahir Shafiq.

The York Region Childrens Aid Society (YRCAS) Board of Directors welcomes the directive for an operational reviewand offers its full support and cooperation, Shafiq wrote. We take this matter very seriously.

Child welfare can be difficult work at the best of times. But over the past year, Harrigan said the level of burnout among workers at the agency was alarming. Numerous staff were on stress leave, and at least 10 staff had left the organization, including directors, supervisors and front-line staff, some silenced by publicly funded exit packages that include do not disclose agreements, he added.

Among those who left was the communications director, who resigned in March. The agency used public funds to hire a communications firm two months later. In its directive Friday, the ministry ordered the agency to immediately terminate the contract with the firm and provide all documentation regarding the procurement process.

Anonymous testimonials from the survey and conversations with employees who the Star has agreed to not name because they feared for their jobs, paint a picture of a workplace where every decision was micro-managed by management, where workers were left in tears after meetings, and where people were afraid to speak up.

There is far too much time wasted by COO & CEO correcting peoples written work (including typos and spacing). If they have time to pass reports/documents back and forth up to 20 times, they clearly arent busy enough, one testimonial states.

One account said management decisions often clashed with those on the front lines: As a front line staff, I dont feel heard when case decisions are running up against management decisions about the direction that the agency is taking. Bad decisions are being made for children and families and are increasing the levels of frustration that workers are facing from our children and families in our day to day work with them.

The word toxic was used 46 times to describe workplace culture in the survey, and as another worker said bluntly: Racism is awful here.

Another account said: I have been approached by community stakeholders who are very worried about the decisions that YRCAS is making for families in their communities and that children/families are not being supported as they used to be.

Shernett Martin, executive director with the Vaughan African Canadian Association, said she was the one constantly looking to build relationships with the agency.

There really wasnt a push to create policies that would support Black youth in care, said Martin. And anything that did happen was initiated by us.

So when parents come to us if they have been approached by CAS, there is fear about how their case will be handled, she added.

Martin said the relationship between the Black community and York CAS got off to a rocky start at a community event in 2019 intended to build bridges and publicly commit the agency to implement race equity principles set out in a project called One Vision One Voice.

One Vision was conceived in 2015 to help address all childrens aid agencies in the province address the over-representation and experiences of disparities faced by Black families and children who come in contact with the child welfare system.

At the event, one of the York agencys board members made an anti-Black racist comment that was loud enough to be heard by people around her, said Martin.

The board member was fired as a result of the community demanding action, but the relationship never healed after that, said Martin.

Kearie Daniel, a founding member of Parents of Black Children, said York CASs failure to implement One Vision came down to a one thing.

York could not be in a better position. They literally have a road map that tells them what to do. They have a community of united Black community groups who are invested, willing and ready to help support. They had amazing staff, said Daniel. What it came down to is a lack of will from the leadership.

The former supervisor of diversity and outreach for York CAS quit in March, following years of limitations placed on his work, said Daniel.

The ministry has now mandated that York CAS provide it with a workplan to implement the One Vision protocols within the next two weeks.

In an email to the Star two weeks ago, French said We have been implementing strategies that include connecting Black youth with culturally appropriate supports and activities, holding ongoing meetings with community partners, implementing the agencys initiative supporting families in the community as well as returning children to their families.

Daniel said she has seen no evidence of this happening: If the work was being done, we would know.

Harrigan said management also ignored pleas from Black employees who asked the agency in 2018 to implement policies to address discrimination and racism on the job, such as being subjected to racial slurs by families out in the field. No such policies were ever implemented, sources told the Star.

French told the Star management had finalized an equity action plan for the CAS last year, as well as implementing a workplace code of conduct and discrimination and harassment policy.

Thus emotions were high in June, in the weeks following the brutal death of George Floyd, when York CAS held a virtual staff meeting for Black staff to share their experiences with anti-Black racism at work and beyond.

But the meeting began with French in tears apologizing for her failureto continue the conversations, to continue the work that needed to be done that we started a while back, she said at the meeting, her voice breaking.

Harrigan said the union implored management to conduct a third-party independent review into the surveys findings. But the board ignored the calls, saying it would be open to a special committee composed of members from the board, management and union.

In a statement on Tuesday, Shafiq said the mandate of the special committee was to look into these allegations with YRCAS stakeholders and make a recommendation regarding a third-party review.

The Ministrys directive will help to accelerate the process toward a resolution.

Shafiq also said the board stood behind the leadership of French, who has been there since 1985 and worked her way up to the top.

The sector is also facing significant challenges and we believe Nancy is best suited to guide the agency through these challenging times, he said of French, who earned $194,850 in 2019.

Harrigan said with the ministry review in place, he hopes the board will take the workplace survey findings seriously.

The worst thing would be that nothing comes from the review, he said. We need new leadership that cares, inspires and motivates our staff while ensuring that our workplace is free from harassment and toxicity.
In April, the Public Theater suspended its Shakespeare in the Park season for the first time, a move as disheartening as it was responsible. One production has since re-emerged in a new form, a Richard II starring Andre Holland and adapted for radio by the director Saheem Ali. But if youre missing the Delacortes visual pleasures, PBS, through its Great Performances series, has made last summers exuberant Much Ado About Nothing available on its website into September (it will also air the play on Aug. 14; check local listings).

Directed by Kenny Leon and starring a radiant Danielle Brooks (Orange Is the New Black), the production moves the setting from Sicily to an Atlanta suburb and situates the tragedy-flecked romance within the Black Lives Matter movement. The comedy takes big swings and only sometimes connects, but Brookss Beatrice outshines any light rig, and her co-star, Grantham Coleman, makes a dynamic, teasing Benedick.

The PBS recording captures the play in perfect weather, but Brooks, in a recent email, recalled a night when it rained so hard she was sure everyone would leave. To then witness over 1,000 people who stayed to watch us perform only increased my love for the theater and its community, she wrote. It truly reminded me of how magical the theater is. Stream Much Ado and remind yourself, too.

ALEXIS SOLOSKI
For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL  August 6, 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: DaVita Inc. DVA, PayPal Holdings, Inc. PYPL, Century Communities, Inc. CCS, Berry Global Group, Inc. BERY and Turning Point Brands, Inc. TPB.

Here are highlights from Wednesdays Analyst Blog:

Buy These 5 Stocks Before It's Too Late

Earnings season is a great time to dive into stocks because theres a certain amount of certainty that comes from all the related discussions.

This is when our expectations about the just-concluded quarter are met, exceeded or missed. Its also when we get a somewhat clearer picture about the next quarter and at times, also the year. So jumping into stocks that have announced resounding beats and encouraging outlooks are a no-brainer.

It also pays to hang around a couple of days to see what impression brokers have come away with. And the best way that is captured is in the estimate revisions. So if management has good things to say about the company and its future and brokers come back with higher estimates, you know for sure that good things are going on.

But since youve waited for the broker reports, some of the good news is likely to be factored into the price already. So its better to check the valuations as well. Remember that shares move around a lot on sentiments and people often have their own reasons to buy or sell. So they could be above, below or at their reasonable valuations.

The following stocks were selected because in addition to the above, they are among the few that are still expected to grow in both the current year and the next-

DaVita

DaVita is a leading provider of dialysis services in the U.S. to patients suffering from chronic kidney failure, also known as end stage renal disease (ESRD). The company operates kidney dialysis centers and provides related medical services primarily in dialysis centers and in contracted hospitals across the U.S. Its services include outpatient dialysis services, hospital inpatient dialysis services and ancillary services such as ESRD laboratory services and disease management services.

Story continues

Zacks Rank #1

VGM Score A

Industry: Medical - Outpatient and Home Healthcare (top 37%)

June quarter earnings beat by 51.2% (reported 1.95 compared to the estimated $1.29)

Estimate revision trend: 2020 estimate up 22 cents (3.6%) in the last 7 days, 2021 estimate up 8 cents (1.2%)

Revenue is expected to grow 2.0% this year and 2.7% in the next. Earnings are expected to grow 17.6% this year and 3.1% in the next.

Valuation: The 0.87X P/S multiple is close to the median value of 0.83 and significantly lower than the annual high of 1.00X. Its current P/E of 12.85X is close to the median value of 12.65, suggesting upside from these levels. Thats particularly true because the S&P 500 is trading at its annual high on both counts.

PayPal

PayPal has emerged as one of the largest online payment solutions providers on the back of its strong product portfolio that helps it facilitate smooth and secure transactions for both customers and merchants. The primary driver of revenues at this point is its peer-to-peer payment services unit Venmo, a business it acquired a few years back.

Zacks Rank #1

VGM Score B

Industry: Internet  Software (top 42%)

June quarter earnings beat by 27.4% (reported $1.07 instead of the estimated 84 cents)

Estimate revision trend: 2020 estimate up 33 cents (9.9%) and 2021 estimate up 34 cents (8.3%) in the last 7 days

Revenue is expected to grow 20.2% this year and 18.0% in the next. Earnings are expected to grow 18.1% this year and 21.6% in the next.

Valuation: The current P/E multiple of 51.22X is closer to the median value of 41.36X than the annual high of 67.85X. Its closer to the annual high on the basis of forward sales. But since the S&P is trading at its annual high on both counts, additional upside seems likely.

Century Communities

Century Communities is a home building and construction company involved in land acquisition, development and entitlements as well as the acquisition, development, construction, marketing and sale of single-family detached and attached residential home projects. The Company operates in major metropolitan markets in Colorado, Texas and Nevada.

Zacks Rank #1

VGM Score A

Industry: Building Products - Home Builders (top 1%)

June quarter earnings beat by 65.8% (reported $1.21 instead of the estimated 73 cents)

Estimate revision trend: 2020 estimate up 87 cents (24.5%) in the last 7 days, 2021 estimate up $1.03 (26.1%)

Revenue is expected to grow 15.8% in 2020 and 9.0% in 2021. Earnings are expected to grow 9.1% in 2020 and 12.6% in 2021.

Valuation: The 0.41X P/S multiple is between its median value of 0.36X and annual high of 0.48X while the current P/E multiple of 8.75X is closer to its median value of 7.02X than its annual high of 10.10X. The S&P 500 trading at its annual high indicates upside potential.

Berry Global Group

Berry Global Group manufactures and distributes nonwoven specialty materials, engineered materials and consumer packaging products to personal care, healthcare, and food and beverage customers in North and South America, Asia and Europe.

Zacks Rank #1

VGM Score A

Industry: Containers - Paper and Packaging (top 18%)

June quarter earnings beat by 28.8% (reported $1.52 compared to $1.18 estimate)

Estimate revision trend: Both 2020 and 2021 estimates have increased by a respective 10 cents in the last 7 days.

Revenue is expected to grow 31.6% this year and 0.9% in the next. Earnings are expected to grow 22.6% this year and 14.5% in the next.

Valuation: The 0.59X P/S multiple is above the median value of 0.49X, but still below its annual high of 0.63X, so there is upside potential.

Turning Point Brands

Turning Point Brands provides tobacco products including moist snuff, loose leaf chewing tobacco, cigarette papers, make-your-own cigar wraps and cigar smoking tobacco, cigars and liquid and tobacco vapour. Its portfolio of brands includes Zig-Zag, Beech-Nut and Stoker's.

Zacks Rank #1

VGM Score B

Industry: Tobacco (top 14%)

June quarter earnings beat by 31.5% (reported 71 cents compared to estimated 54 cents)

Estimate revision trend: 2020 estimate up 41 cents (up 19.7%) in the last 7 days, 2021 estimate up 38 cents (17.9%).

Revenue is expected to grow 3.8% this year and 4.4% in the next. Earnings are expected to grow 33.9% this year and 0.4% in the next.

Valuation: The 1.63X P/S multiple is between the median value of 1.37 and the high of 1.92X. Its current P/E of 15.13X is also between the median value of 12.70X and 17.11X. This is not too bad considering the S&P 500 is trading at its annual high. So upside potential exists.

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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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#PrimeroMiSalud ?? | Ministerio de Agricultura y Riego, en coordinacion con @Minsa_Peru , traslada mas de 4 toneladas de material medico para reforzar combate del COVID-19 en la region Piura. ?? Mas informacion aqui: https://t.co/wjpErjEmEf pic.twitter.com/r3eDHeM2HE
This is the hilarious moment a puppy stared longingly at its owner's popcorn, hoping to get a share of the tasty snack.

Kristen Kato, from Las Vegas, Nevada, filmed her cheeky dog spying on her as she watched TV and ate her popcorn.

In the footage, the beagle-corgi mix lodges its nose in the comforter, refusing to break its intense stare with the popcorn bowl.

Kristen Kato, from Las Vegas, Nevada, filmed her adorable dog intensely staring at her while she ate popcorn, desperately hoping to get a share in the delicious treat

Each time Kristen puts her hand towards the bowl, her puppy follows the movement with its eyes, not shifting its head a single inch when doing so.

The pooch puts on its best puppy-dog eyes as her owner enjoys her tasty treat, desperately hoping to get a share of the popcorn.

But much to the dog's disappointment, Kristen continues enjoying the snack for herself, keeping the adorable puppy in suspense as the popcorn pile decreases.

Kristen even taunts her greedy dog, moving a single piece of popcorn in front of its face to watch her pet's hilarious eye-contact.

The puppy's eyes trail back and forth to keep track of the popcorn, refusing to break its stare in case Kristen decides to share a bite of the delicious snack.

In the footage, taken on July 31, Kristen taunts the beagle-corgi mix, moving a single piece of popcorn in front of it, to watch the pooch hilariously trail the snack with its puppy-dog eyes

Plain, air-popped popcorn is safe for dogs to eat in small quantities, proving itself to be a relatively healthy snack for both humans and animals.

But popcorn that is buttered or has other toppings on is not safe for dogs to eat on a regular basis.

Owners must be careful to remove any un-popped kernels also, as they can provide a choking hazard, or get stuck in the animal's teeth and gums.

The hilarious footage was captured by Kristen on July 31.
SAN LEANDRO, CA  The U.S. Census Bureau this week announced it will suspend counting efforts in California and other states a month earlier than originally planned.

The move, an attempt by the bureau to accelerate the decennial count amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, was confirmed in a statement by bureau director Steven Dillingham. On Sept. 30, the bureau will cease critical door-knocking efforts and will stop collecting responses online, over the phone, and by mail.

As of Aug. 6, roughly 4 out of 10 U.S. households have yet to be counted. The national response rate is 63 percent, a minimal increase from mid-June, when the response rate was 61.5 percent.

In California, response rates are higher than the national average. To date, 64.5 percent of households in our state have responded to the census.

San Lesndro is ahead of both the state and national averages at 72.3 percent.

The last-minute timeline change leaves the bureau with less than two months to try to reach people of color, children, senior citizens, undocumented immigrants, renters, the homeless and low-income people  all of whom are among the least likely to be counted accurately in the census and are also among the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

Should these households not respond, cities, counties, and states could lose out on billions of dollars that fund crucial services needed before, during and after the pandemic. This includes hospitals, Head Start programs, school lunch programs, Medicaid, food stamps and more.

The announcement also comes after NPR first reported that the agency decided to cut short door-knocking efforts for the census.

Before the pandemic hit, census counts were originally supposed to be finished by the end of July. With support from President Donald Trump, the timeline to complete the federally-mandated count was extended.

However, the pandemic continued to plague the bureau with outreach challenges.

In March, census officials suspended field operations, pulling workers off the streets to protect them from the virus. This included efforts to drop off census forms at households in rural areas with no traditional addresses.

Story continues

Workers didnt return until May 4 as part of a phased restart.

Organizations throughout the country also put in-person outreach on hold. Plans to set up booths at farmers markets and work with child care centers have been abandoned, replaced by digital advertising, social media, and telephone calls.

Last week, bureau chief Dillingham signaled a shift in plans by telling members of Congress "the Census Bureau and others really want us to proceed as rapidly as possible."

Dillinghams comments came as the bureau quietly removed references to Oct. 31  the previously announced end date for all counting efforts  from its website, NPR reported.

If your household is among those who have not responded to this years census, its not too late.

In a move designed to cut costs and keep up with digital lifestyles, the census questionnaire is available at my2020census.gov. Americans can access the online questionnaire by using a 12-digit ID code included with their census invitation sent by mail.

The 2020 census counts everyone living in the United States and its five territories.

Learn more about how to respond to the 2020 census.

 Written by Patch editor Megan VerHelst with additional reporting by Bea Karnes



This article originally appeared on the San Leandro Patch
She quit radio in December last year, but Kate Langbroek could already be looking to make a comeback.

According to a report by The Daily Telegraph on Thursday, the 54-year-old media personality is looking to reunite with her longtime collaborator, Dave Hughes.

Kate left radio after almost 20 years hosting alongside Dave, 49, with the star and her family now based in Italy.

Rumour has it: She quit radio in December last year, but Kate Langbroek could already be looking to make a comeback

Meanwhile, Dave has since teamed up with comedian Ed Kavalee to host Hit FM's Drive show.

Dave and Kate first began working together at Nova FM in 2001, before moving across to KIIS FM, and there are reports they could return to KIIS next year.

'The Hughesy and Kate brand is very strong nationally. It is a national show with broad appeal that networks would be keen to have on air,' a source told The Daily Telegraph.

Back together: According to a report by The Daily Telegraph on Thursday, the 54-year-old media personality is looking to reunite with her longtime collaborator, Dave Hughes

In a statement to the publication, Kate's manager Dean Buchanan said it was still 'too early' for her to consider a return to radio.

'Kate loves radio and she is extraordinary at it,' he added.

In an interview with Sunrise in August last year, Dave said Kate simply couldn't be bothered with radio anymore.

The good life: Kate left radio after almost 20 years hosting alongside Dave, 49, with the star and her family now based in Italy

'She's over there [in Italy] and we followed her and set up a little studio there in Bologna, so she can broadcast the show from there, and she was doing that for the first six months of the year,' he explained, as reported by Who.

'And then she just texted me a couple of weeks ago and said, "Nup, can't be bothered for the rest of the year."'

He laughed: 'It was just a text message. I hadn't heard from her in a couple of weeks and then just a text message!'
Art curators could face competition as researchers have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) that can spot 'hidden connections' between paintings.

Parallels in styles, themes and motifs can link artworks painted in vastly different points in time and space  and shine new light on both works.

However, even the most knowledgeable of art critics could never take in the millions of paintings from across the centuries to be able to make all such connections.

The image retrieval software created by researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Microsoft, however, has no such constraints.

In tests, the AI returned successfully revealed hidden connections between works held by New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and Amsterdams Rijksmuseum.

Art curators could face competition as researchers have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) that can spot 'hidden connections' between paintings. Pictured, the pairing of Francisco de Zurbarans 'The Martyrdom of Saint Serapion' and Jan Asselijns 'The Threatened Swan' in the Rijksmuseum that inspired the researchers to develop the art-comparing AI

'Image retrieval systems let users find images that are semantically similar to a query image, serving as the backbone of reverse image search engines and many product recommendation engines,' said paper author and computer scientist Mark Hamilton.

'Restricting an image retrieval system to particular subsets of images can yield new insights into relationships in the visual world,' the MIT expert added.

'We aim to encourage a new level of engagement with creative artefacts.'

The team reportedly took inspiration from the Rijksmuseum's special 'RembrandtVelazquez' exhibit, which featured works from both Dutch and Spanish masters.

The collection included one unlikely, but similar, pair: Francisco de Zurbarans 'The Martyrdom of Saint Serapion' and Jan Asselijns 'The Threatened Swan', which bear visual similarities while portraying scenes of profound altruism, the researchers said.

'These two artists did not have a correspondence or meet each other during their lives, yet their paintings hinted at a rich, latent structure that underlies both of their works,' explained Mr Hamilton.

The researchers' so-called 'MosAIc' system is capable of identifying similar analogous works from across different periods, artists and cultures by finding the closest matching artwork to a given painting.

For example, when given a query such as 'which glassware is closest to this painting of a blue crane', MosAIc returns an image of a slender blue Persian sprinkler.

The AI works by creating 'trees' that show the similarities between artworks  and from this allow it to pick out those images that are the most similar.

The researchers' so-called 'MosAIc' system is capable of identifying similar analogous works from across different periods, artists and cultures by finding the closest matching artwork to a given painting. For example, when given a query such as 'which glassware is closest to this painting of a blue crane', MosAIc returns an image of a slender blue Persian sprinkler, pictured

'We hope this work inspires others to think about how tools from information retrieval can help other fields like the arts, humanities, social science, and medicine,' Mr Hamilton added.

'These fields are rich with information that has never been processed with these techniques and can be a source for great inspiration for both computer scientists and domain experts.'

'This work can be expanded in terms of new datasets, new types of queries, and new ways to understand the connections between works.'

'As interesting as it is for algorithms to find connections, if you want to know why the connection exists, or what it means, you need an art historian or curator,' Victoria & Albert Museum exhibition project curator Rosalind McKever told the Times.

'One of our roles is researching, questioning and communicating the stories behind the connections.'

'We are always looking at the bigger picture, beyond the collections of even the largest museums.'

A pre-print of the researchers' article, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, can be read on the arXiv repository.
The second wave of the COVID-19 epidemic to hit Vietnam has continued to deal a devastating blow to small businesses, travel agencies, and tourist accommodations in the Old Quarter of Hanoi due to the suspension of operations.

A series of shops located on some of the busiest streets in the Old Quarter such as Hang Gai, Hang Be, Hang Bac, and Dinh Liet have been forced to close their doors while notices can be seen on the shutters of many stores

The negative impact of the COVID-19 epidemic has also forced a series of souvenir shops for foreigners to halt business.

At present only a few fashion shops remain open.

During busy times like rush hour, only a few people can be spotted in the streets around Hanois Old Quarter

Pham Thi Dinh, a merchant operating on Dinh Liet street, says the majority of renters have been unable to survive the COVID-19 crisis.

Plenty of businesses throughout Hang Gai street seal their doors

For-rent and franchise notices can be spotted on several streets such as Hang Ngang, Hang Dao, and Hang Ma.

The impact of the second wave of the COVID-19 epidemic has become a nightmare for both local and tourist accommodations

Restaurants have offered a variety of incentives to lure visitors, but few can be seen

Hoan Kiem district, that houses major tourist destinations in the capital, has seen six-month tourism revenue decrease by 65%, with 390 businesses and nearly 1,200 trading establishments being forced to halt operations

VOV
YEREVAN, AUGUST 6, ARMENPRESS. The attack aircrafts of the Armenian Air Force are holding training flights, Defense Ministry spokesperson Shushan Stepanyan said on social media, posting a video of the maneuvers of the Su-25 close air support jets.

Within the framework of the snap inspections, the Armenian Air Forces attack aircraft are carrying on the drills, she said.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
The Armenian government said on Thursday that it hopes to further curb the spread of the coronavirus in the country through more targeted and proactive testing.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Health Minister Arsen Torosian noted that new coronavirus cases have decreased considerably in recent weeks not only in absolute terms but also as a proportion of nationwide coronavirus tests.

Pashinian said around 15 percent of daily tests carried out over the past week came back positive, compared with 25-30 percent registered in June and the first half of July.

While the influx [of infected people] was previously strong and we basically waited for people to apply [to hospitals and policlinics,] we are changing our tactic and the Ministry of Health will now be more proactive and we will carry out testing in some high-risk places at our own initiative, he told a weekly cabinet meeting.

Torosian specified that the health authorities will target people working in the same government agencies, supermarkets, factories, banks or other businesses as well as patients of various medical and elderly care institutions.

That is, if one of them tests positive we no longer wait for others to show symptoms. We test everyone and quickly detect [infections,] explained the minister. He said this should help the health authorities to cut the proportion of positive test results to below 10 percent.

The authorities have carried out roughly 2,000 tests a day since the end of May. Critics have for months urged them to significantly expand COVID-19 testing, saying that is vital for tackling the pandemic in the virtual absence of lockdown restrictions in the country of about 3 million.

Pashinians government has put the emphasis of getting Armenians to practice social distancing, wear face masks in public and follow other anti-epidemic rules. Government officials say that this strategy is working. They point to the significant drop in daily infections registered by the Ministry of Health.

The ministry reported in the morning that 233 more people have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, down from 288 cases confirmed the day before and an average of 550-600 cases a day registered in the first half of July.

The ministry also reported two more deaths caused by COVID-19. They brought the official death toll to 772.

Pashinian cautioned on Thursday that Armenias infection rates are still high. He said that peoples and businesses continued compliance with the safety rules will be critical for reducing them further. The premier again stressed the importance of wearing face masks in all public and enclosed spaces.
A woman who smashed her car into a fence has pleaded guilty to drink driving while six times over the legal limit.

Sydney woman Natalie Jane Kaglatzis, 48, of Frenchs Forest, was at the Belrose Hotel on July 7 when she reversed her Mazda 3 sedan into a fence while trying to leave.

After police arrived, Kaglatzis repeatedly asked them if they 'wanted to play' before she returned a blood alcohol reading of 0.306 and officers took her into custody.

Sydney woman Natalie Jane Kaglatzis, 48, (pictured) has pleaded guilty to drink driving after crashing her car as a local tavern while six times over the legal limit

Kaglatzis has visited the Belrose Hotel (pictured) after her grandmother's funeral on July 7 when she reversed her car 20 metres before smashing into a fence

Her solicitor, Fiona Hadlington, told the Manly Local Court on Tuesday her client has battled alcohol issues and had been at her grandmother's funeral the day of the crash.

Kaglatzis told the court she had been committed to her alcohol rehabilitation but the death of her grandmother caused her to 'relapse', The Daily Telegraph reported.

'I don't ever drink and drive,' she said.

Ms Hadlington was seeking an at home detention order for her client but police prosecutor Sergeant Adrian Walsh urged the court to sentence her to a 'full-time jail term'.

Sgt Walsh said not jailing the northern beaches woman would put other people at risk because she has made 'poor and rash decisions'.

Magistrate Michelle Goodwin said she was 'surprised' Kaglatzis was conscious at the time, given her level of intoxication.

Ms Goodwin said it was pure luck an innocent bystander wasn't injured after saying a car in the hands of an intoxicated driver was a 'weapon'.

Ms Goodwin adjourned the matter until August 19 when sentencing will commence.

Kaglatzis' application for home detention will be assessed in that time.

She remains in custody on remand and no bail was applied for.
For Vlad Friedman, chief technology officer of DataBank, todays digital revolution is not an abstract idea. Its part of daily life.

Whether youre using a mobile app or taking advantage of self-driving features as you wade through the morning commute, there are numerous pieces of infrastructure that must work together reliably to enable the digital revolution, says Friedman. DataBank is part of a portfolio of companies unified in their vision of creating a platform to make it a reality, including data centers, fiber connectivity, and cellular towers. We are creating a stable foundation for tomorrows mission-critical infrastructure at the utmost edge of the Internet.

Dallas-based DataBank operates a growing network of 20 state-of-the-art data centers throughout the U.S., enabling enterprises to deploy applications across a diverse range of technologies and platforms.

We recently spoke with Friedman to learn about DataBanks significant work to provide critical cloud infrastructure and the importance of being VMware Cloud Verified. He also touched on the importance of latency, the evolving edge of the network, and what he sees as the next big thing in hybrid cloud.

While everyone talks about the importance of hybrid cloud, Friedman insists that DataBanks approach is unique.

Our vision is to become the most complete data center platform in the hybrid cloud marketplace. Weve realized that there is no one-size-fits-all solution, he says. Computationally intensive workloads like AI/ML are best suited for colocation, enterprise applications and databases are going to perform best within a private cloud, and applications with highly variable demand need the scalability the public cloud brings to the table. Our differentiation lies within our ecosystem of platforms, managed security, and compliance solutions, by enabling the deployment of applications across multiple geographies and data centers in proximity to end-users with the connectivity, visibility and managed services required to ensure their performance, health, and security.

The Right Cloud Infrastructure in the Right Place

Friedman notes that DataBanks goal to empower customers to set up their infrastructure to be as close as possible to end-users  including those in Tier 2 metropolitan areas like Atlanta, Baltimore, Cleveland, Dallas, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, and Salt Lake City that we once only served by the large data hubs of Ashburn, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York  reflects a simple reality: Latency is a real issue.

Todays end users expect a great experience, but theres no escaping that the farther you get away from compute, power and content, the more latency plays a role, he says. Thats when you begin to see the usual suspects like the slowing of applications, streaming technologies, jitter, or pixelization. But its really about more. Not only do applications slow when latency increases, but battery life suffers as well. If the app on your cell phone spends 50% less time communicating with the cloud, then it uses half as much battery. As the world transitions to 5G and our workforces are less centralized, applications must be distributed and intentionally placed closer to the intended audience.

Thats not to say that Friedman believes critical cloud infrastructure needs to be right next door. Rather, he believes it should be within a geographic area that delivers the latency required for todays increasingly data-intensive applications. DataBanks data centers are strategically located with this in mind.

If you look at applications that require vast amounts of bandwidth and computational power  such as gaming, telemedicine, or automotive  you might not see a tremendous difference 100 miles away, but you will see issues if youre connecting to a data center 1,000 miles away, he says. Some cars, for example, already generate a terabyte of data per day. Imagine trying to move all of that data long distances around the country. But its not just those industries. All organizations benefit from low-latency workloads nationally distributed within strategically located, mission-critical facilities. And all organizations want to know their infrastructure is safe and secure.

The underlying technology is also crucial. Friedman notes that being VMware Cloud Verified resonates with customers.

Its critical that our infrastructure be resilient, and our partnership and the toolsets provided by VMware are the foundational layers of our cloud enablement platform used to deliver scalability and reliability. The VMware Cloud Verified program is reserved for a small handful of organizations that have demonstrated a deep understanding of how to implement VMware at scale, and it has been an important differentiator to demonstrate the maturity of our platforms. It helps reassure prospective new customers that they are putting their trust into a provider that can support them. We plan to continue to expand VMware to every part of our infrastructure from the data center to the edge allowing customers to utilize a single homogeneous platform no matter where they place their workloads.

Notably, DataBank is also VMware FedRAMP-certified hosting provider.

What our customers are ultimately looking for is uptime, Friedman says. Im a big believer that we need to do everything possible to ensure infrastructure just works. VMware, with its high availability and resilience, achieves that. And the ways that VMware makes it easier to consume complex applications produce the outcomes our customers have come to expect. Ultimately we chose VMware because they make the best product. VMware helps us make our infrastructure boring so that we can focus on other ways to add value.

And the next big thing in hybrid cloud?

Containerization, as shown in VMware vSphere 7 with support for Kubernetes, marks a fundamental shift in how we will code applications, Friedman says. Its going to drive the future of how infrastructure is rolled out.

Learn more about DataBank and its partnership with VMware here.
Syrian Muslim Refugees Converting to Christianity After Fleeing War Zone: 'Jesus Saved Us'

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Numerous Syrian Muslims who fled their war-torn country and found refuge in Lebanon have converted to Christianity despite threats and incidents of attacks on new converts, according to a report.

George Saliba, Bishop of Syrian Orthodox Church in Lebanon, said he has baptized around 100 Muslim Syrian refugees since the start of the civil war in Syria in 2011, according to USA Today.

Abu Radwan, who fled the city of Homs in Syria and was baptized by Bishop Saliba in Beirut, was quoted as saying that Jesus appeared to him in a dream two years ago. "I started going to the church. I believed that Jesus was coming to help us, to save us."

Bishop Saliba said the church accepts converts only after confirming that their faith is genuine.

Muslim refugees are turning to Jesus despite it being extremely risky. Radwan was once stabbed while he was coming home from the church. The attackers were Syrians from his own tribe. His wife still wears a hijab outside of church for her safety.

An evangelical church in Beirut, which was not identified due to safety concerns, also has several Syrian converts, according to the report.

"When I see a person wishes to be Christian, I don't stop him, but we try to test him," the pastor was quoted as saying.

The Constitution of Lebanon provides for religious freedom. However, thousands are coming to Christ across the Middle East, Voice Of the Martyrs Canada, which runs radio shows in the region, said in January.

"We are in regular contact with our FM stations in Iraq and have talked with many people who have family in the Middle East. Some of our Middle Eastern broadcasters have shared testimonies [about many turning to Christ] with us, which they hear directly from listeners when visiting there "

Muslim refugees in Europe have also converted to Christianity.

A June 2016 article from The Guardian noted anecdotal data of rising Christian church attendance in Europe by Muslims.

Trinity church in the Berlin suburb of Steglitz, for instance, saw its congregation rise from 150 to 700 due to new Muslim converts, while the Austrian Catholic Church saw its applications for adult baptism swell by nearly 70 percent in the first three months of 2016.

"I found that the history of Islam was completely different from what we were taught at school. Maybe, I thought, it was a religion that began with violence," an Iranian convert, 32-year-old Johannes, was quoted as saying. "A religion that began with violence cannot lead people to freedom and love. Jesus Christ said 'those who use the sword will die by the sword.' This really changed my mind."

More churches in Germany reported this growing phenomena in December 2016, with The Independent noting that Muslims, especially Iranians, are seeing Christianity as a new chance at freedom.

"A lot of them come to Germany and think, here I can choose my religion and I want to choose a religion of freedom," Matthias Linke, a priest from the Evangelical-Freikirchlichen Gemeinde in Berlin, was quoted as saying. "For many Iranians that I've baptized, Christianity is the religion of freedom."

Last year, the founder and CEO of SAT-7, a Christian satellite network that reaches out to refugees fleeing war-torn Syria and Iraq, said many Muslim families are turning to Christianity, where they encounter a message of peace and love.

"It's surprising just how much damage the Muslim world has done to itself due to this schism between Sunni and Shiites," SAT-7's Terence Ascott said, according to Mission Network News. "It raises serious questions. People were really losing trust in organized religion."
Safeguarding our customers information is essential to our role as a financial institution, the bank said in a statement. The controls we put in place before last years incident enabled us to secure our data before any customer information could be used or disseminated and helped authorities quickly arrest the hacker. In the year since the incident, we have invested significant additional resources into further strengthening our cyber defenses, and have made substantial progress in addressing the requirements of these orders.
The Delhi high court Thursday directed the Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA) to conduct specialised module training for jail superintendents, deputy superintendents and assistant superintendents with a focus on their duties and obligations and rights of prisoners. The direction came after a prisoner was illegally detained in jail even after being granted bail.

A bench of justice Hima Kohli and justice Subramonium Prasad said the training was necessary so that such incidents do not happen again. The court was hearing a plea by a prisoner who was detained for 10 days even after being granted bail.

The person was granted bail by the trial court on May 18 in a cheque bounce case but was released only on June 25. The jail authorities had earlier told the court that the petitioner was not able to secure the sureties required to be submitted along with the bail bond. It said that the accused could give the sureties only on June 15 and hence the delay in releasing him.

On the last date of hearing, the court had pulled up Tihar authorities for their failure to release the man. It had asked the jail authorities to furnish the data of prisoners released during the past three years.

On Thursday, a status report was filed by advocate Rahul Mehra, standing counsel of the Delhi government and advocate Chaitanya Gosain on behalf of the director general (prisons) Sandeep Goel tendering an unconditional apology for the inappropriate explanation given by the superintendent, Central Jail-I, Tihar jail, for unlawfully detaining the petitioner between June 20 to June 25 .

The report further submitted that at least 1.5 lakh prisoners have been released during the past three years and the direction of the court to compile the data relating to such prisoners would be a stupendous exercise and need a lot of time.

Goel, who was present during the video conferencing hearing, apologised to the court. He submitted that in order to prevent any such mistake in future, the prison (headquarters) has constituted a committee to randomly inspect jails concerning detention of prisoners and their release.

Further, a circular has been issued informing all concerned that no person must be detained without any valid reason and that the official concerned will be held responsible in case of a lapse, the status report said.

He assured the court that after a lot of introspection, it has been decided that course correction is warranted within the department. He said that 14 law officers are also being appointed on a contractual basis soon and they will be available in each of the jails t advise and guide officials and prisoners.

Following this, the court said officers posted in the jails would attend online workshops arranged by DSLSA, tailor-made for making them aware of the rights of prisoners and their duties with respect to inmates. The matter would be now heard on September 14.
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The unification of eight major cadres of the Indian Railways into one single service the Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS) has been set a target of being completed by November this year, according to officials aware of the development.

Union railway minister Piyush Goyal and railway board chairman VK Yadav on Wednesday held a consultation with railway unions and representatives from some of the railway services.

The Union cabinet in December 2019 approved the restructuring -- trimming the Railway Boards strength to half (from 8 to 4) and unifying its eight railways services into a central service in a bid to reform the 150-year-old Railway Board of the Indian Railways.

We met with the minister to discuss the issue of IRMSThe official side mentioned that they were contemplating uniform promotion for all services till HAG based on best performing service in the grade for Senior Administrative Grade (SAG)/ Higher Administrative Grade (HAG)Future recruitment of IRMS through a CSE while technical specialists will be recruited through RDSO (The Research Designs & Standards Organisation (RDSO), said one of the officials who attended the meeting.

RDSO is the national transporters research and development organisation.

Three of the existing railway services are recruited through the civil service exam while the rest five are technical services which are recruited through the Engineering Services Exam.

The merger is targeted to be completed before November. All the posts of merged cadre will be open for all members of IRMS. Fresh recruitment to IRMS will be done from the UPSC Civil service exam. Posts requiring technical expertise like those in RDSO will be filled up by different process like the way it is done in ISRO/DRDO, another official said requesting anonymity.

Formula for integrated seniority is still under discussion and it is expected that the scheme suggested by the Debroy committee will be adoptedHowever CRB clearly mentioned that seniority will not be that significant for deciding key positions and some element of merit is being introduced, the official added.

The unification of services had earlier been proposed by various committees that studied ways of reforming the Indian Railways including the Prakash Tandon Committee (1994), Rakesh Mohan Committee (2001), Sam Pitroda Committee (2012) the and Bibek Debroy Committee (2015).

In the meeting several services raised concerns over career growth and promotions. According to officials present in the meeting the railway board chairman communicated that seniority will not be that significant for deciding key positions and some element of merit will be introduced adding that career growth will be liked with the organisations growth.

The Railways have also hired consultancy firm, McKinsey, to finalise the modalities of the cadre merger.

The modalities and unification of the services will be worked out by the rail ministry in consultation with the Department of Personnel and Training. The process was scheduled to be completed within a year.

The proposals will be finalised by an eight-member committee constituted last month by the railway board for looking into re-skilling of the staff. Separately, the Centre had also formed a group of secretaries headed by the cabinet secretary for implementing the exercise of restructuring the board; this committee includes the Chairman, Railway Board, the DOPT secretary and the secretary of the department of expenditure. This committee will assist the group of ministers constituted by the government for formalizing the restructured railway board. The GOM will be formed after the recommendations of the committee.

The chairman said that there is a need to change organisational structure and work culture as well as work profile at senior levels. It was pointed out that service specialisation has not been very effective as even with specialists in the railway board and RDSO; we are nowhere near Korean or Japanese Technology. Supervisory cadre needs to be strengthened, while the focus should be on bringing down manpower cost of maintenance, the official quoted above said.

The proposed organizational reforms were aimed at ending the division of the mammoth organisation into different departments. The Indian Railways employs nearly 1.3 million people and its trains carried 2.3 million passengers every day before the lockdown. The government has said the move was aimed at ending a legacy marked by inefficiency in work, infighting over control of assets and resources, and delays in decision-making.

Indian Railways is also mulling merging several junior and mid-level posts as part of its plans to rationalize the organisation and making it leaner, following the Union Cabinets nod for merging its eight major cadres into a central service-- Indian Railway Management Service, Hindustan Times had reported on June 10.

The rail ministry has drafted a proposal based on recommendations from all railway zones for merging key posts in the accounts, commercial, electrical, mechanical, engineering, medical, personnel, operating, stores, and signal & telecommunication departments, and also other miscellaneous posts.
CHI Memorial Hospital Georgia has joined #MaskUpGA, a campaign to encourage all Georgians to make the choice to wear face coverings when in public settings and to social distance when possible to slow or stop the spread of COVID-19 in the state.



The purpose of the campaign is to encourage organizations, businesses and individuals to post on social media pictures or videos of themselves wearing masks and to accompany these posts with #MaskUpGA and a message about why they mask up.



This campaign is about Georgians coming together for the greater good, said Angie Stiggins, administrator, CHI Memorial Hospital Georgia. We, along with Governor Brian Kemp, urge everyone to make the choice to wear a mask as part of collective efforts to stop the spread of this virus. Together, we can help keep our state healthy and well.



Officials said research and data show that wearing face coverings helps reduce the spread of COVID-19. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, wearing masks is a critical tool in the fight against COVID-19 that could reduce the spread of disease, particularly when used universally within communities. The CDC further states that wearing masks potentially slows the spread of the virus from one person to another.

"As CHI Memorial ensures its ability to treat all patients who come through its doors and prepares for potential surges, it is more important now than ever that Georgians remain healthy and do their part to stop the spread of COVID-19," officials said.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA  The U.S. Census Bureau this week announced it will suspend counting efforts in California and other states a month earlier than originally planned.

The move, an attempt by the bureau to accelerate the decennial count amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, was confirmed in a statement by bureau director Steven Dillingham. On Sept. 30, the bureau will cease critical door-knocking efforts and will stop collecting responses online, over the phone, and by mail.

As of Aug. 6, roughly 4 out of 10 U.S. households have yet to be counted. The national response rate is 63 percent, a minimal increase from mid-June, when the response rate was 61.5 percent.

In California, response rates are higher than the national average. To date, 64.5 percent of households in our state have responded to the census.

San Francisco has fallen behind both the state and national averages at just 61.3.

The last-minute timeline change leaves the bureau with less than two months to try to reach people of color, children, senior citizens, undocumented immigrants, renters, the homeless and low-income people  all of whom are among the least likely to be counted accurately in the census and are also among the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

Should these households not respond, cities, counties, and states could lose out on billions of dollars that fund crucial services needed before, during and after the pandemic. This includes hospitals, Head Start programs, school lunch programs, Medicaid, food stamps and more.

The announcement also comes after NPR first reported that the agency decided to cut short door-knocking efforts for the census.

Before the pandemic hit, census counts were originally supposed to be finished by the end of July. With support from President Donald Trump, the timeline to complete the federally-mandated count was extended.

However, the pandemic continued to plague the bureau with outreach challenges.

In March, census officials suspended field operations, pulling workers off the streets to protect them from the virus. This included efforts to drop off census forms at households in rural areas with no traditional addresses.

Story continues

Workers didnt return until May 4 as part of a phased restart.

Organizations throughout the country also put in-person outreach on hold. Plans to set up booths at farmers markets and work with child care centers have been abandoned, replaced by digital advertising, social media, and telephone calls.

Last week, bureau chief Dillingham signaled a shift in plans by telling members of Congress "the Census Bureau and others really want us to proceed as rapidly as possible."

Dillinghams comments came as the bureau quietly removed references to Oct. 31  the previously announced end date for all counting efforts  from its website, NPR reported.

If your household is among those who have not responded to this years census, its not too late.

In a move designed to cut costs and keep up with digital lifestyles, the census questionnaire is available at my2020census.gov. Americans can access the online questionnaire by using a 12-digit ID code included with their census invitation sent by mail.

The 2020 census counts everyone living in the United States and its five territories.

Learn more about how to respond to the 2020 census.

 Written by Patch editor Megan VerHelst with additional reporting by Bea Karnes



This article originally appeared on the San Francisco Patch
Derry Township-based Troegs Independent Brewing has collaborated with Harris Family Brewery on a limited release of Black is Beautiful beer.

The beer is available beginning Thursday for a limited time at Troegs at 200 Hersheypark Drive in Derry Township, both companies announced on their Facebook pages. The beer is available on tap and to go. Troegs is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.

This American Brown Lager was inspired by a well-guarded cornbread recipe from the family of Harris Family Brewerys Shaun Harris, Troegs said on its Facebook page. Corn notes come from Pennsylvania blue corn grown at Dancing Star Farm and malted locally by Deer Creek Malthouse. Roasty notes  meant to be reminiscent of the brown char near the edge of the skillet  are coming from chocolate and caramel malts, and lemondrop hops add a hint of citrusy lemon.

Proceeds will benefit Amiracle4sure, a nonprofit organization that provides education, mentoring and advocacy for people as they transform their lives after incarceration.

Last month, Harris Family Brewery also collaborated with Ever Grain Brewing Company in Hampden Township with a limited release of Black is Beer with banana nut bread inspired ingredients.

Harris Family Brewery plans to open a brewery and tasting room at 300 S. 18th St. in Harrisburg later this year.

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The Partnership Will Bring a Customized Banking and Payment Processing Services to the CBD and Cannabis Business Owner

THOUSAND OAKS, CA / ACCESSWIRE / August 6, 2020 / Monarch Technologies, Inc. (Fintech), a fully licensed Money Transmittal Service Provider, announced today that it has partnered with industry leader and pioneer Sami Spiezio, Founder/President of Canna Group Consulting LLC Merchant Group, a consulting group that represents independently owned acquisitions and payments offices across the country.

Currently, Monarch Technologies is a Fintech Banking Platform, serving businesses as well as City and Governmental Agencies/Regulatory compliance entities. Monarch was built after years of industry research from state, city and governmental agencies that were frustrated with lack of compliance and thousands of past due tax payments.

"We are proud to add Canna Group Consulting LLC to our network as a trusted and valued business partner," said Christian Fea, Fintech CEO.

"Their top-tier group of consultants and support team pairs perfectly with Monarch Technologies' desire to provide cutting-edge, strategic marketing solutions in an industry that has been under served."

The intention of both Monarch and Canna Group is to reduce the risks involved for Hemp/CBD/THC/MMJ Medical Physicians and medical marijuana business owners. The Monarch platform is also fitted for financial institutions to successfully underwrite, on-board and provide continued compliance and taxation services to farmers, growers, supply chain, distribution, wholesale, manufacturing and dispensary initiatives.

CBD, Hemp and Cannabis Banking Solution

According to Mr. Fea, a growth explosion has erupted in the Cannabis space to provide business owners with a safe and cost-effective banking solution that Cannabis business owners can legally and consistently transport, deposit and transfer their cash from bank to bank. A high degree of opportunity exists in this industry. In addition, he said, the banking system is extremely slow to adapt. The Monarch platform will assist these banks in building deposits by allowing fully licensed THC/CBD farmers, hemp growers, supply chain, distribution, wholesale, manufacturing and dispensary initiatives to open DDA accounts for legitimate business and cash management services.

Multi-State Compliance

Many state and federally chartered financial institutions are now just starting to put process and policy in place for boarding certain sectors of the THC industry. After talking to over a 40 banks and credit unions in multiple states, Mr. Fea said it is clear that the need for a central underwriting, compliance and on-boarding platform is welcomed. Currently these banks and credit unions don't have the required platform in place to handle the needs of the THC industry. The Monarch platform seeks to provide the needed solutions for these banks to be able to board these merchants in an easy to use, compliant and scalable fashion.

Cannabis Banking Products

Currently, these products include:

?Business Checking Accounts

?Online Banking

?Business Invoicing

?Escrow services

?Money Transfer

?Taxation Transmittal

?Shopping Cart Integration

?Patient/consumer retail

?Full Cash Management services

?Track N Trace

?Inventory Management

?360 closed loop risk/compliance management

To connect with Canna Group and the Monarch team and learn more about their services, please complete this form and someone will be in contact within 24 business hours: https://gethighrisk.wufoo.com/forms/wdbttty0ji621p/.

About Canna Group LLC:

At Canna Group LLC, merchants will find a committed team of experts ready to help their business succeed by giving them the ability to accept credit cards - no matter what business they are in. They are leaders in the field and have been helping merchants improve sales and customer satisfaction since 1992.

Contact:

Sami Spiezio

sami@cannagroupllc.com

6144005909

SOURCE: Canna Group LLC

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/600590/Monarch-Technologies-Inc-Announces-New-Partnership-with-Canna-Group-Consulting-LLC
A British backpacker had the shock of her life when she gave birth to a tiny newborn baby while travelling on a motorway.

Abi was on a bus from Brisbane to Fraser Island when she stopped to get painkillers in Noosa for what she thought was period pain.

The pain escalated quickly and paramedics realised she was about to give birth, despite showing no signs of pregnancy.

On the way to the Sunshine Coast University Hospital, a critical care paramedic with emergency labour experience joined the team and helped deliver the 1.7kg baby in the ambulance.

Abi (left) was on holidays in Queensland with a friend when she started to experience strong pains and didn't realise she was going into labour with Harry (middle), her partner Sam (right) was in Sydney at the time

Pictured: Harry was born weighing 1.7 kg and due to his position and low weight he remained a secret

Advanced Care Paramedic Joanna Cairns said the whole thing was one constant surprise for the team as Harry was born in his amniotic sack.

'Luckily my partner had already seen one of those births as she had a lot of experience, but because Abi didn't know she was pregnant we didn't know if Harry was a full-term baby.'

The father Sam was travelling with his brother in Sydney and was able to get a flight to be with his new bub within five hours.

Over the next few weeks, hospital staff were able to determine Harry was close to full term due to his feeding habits and other milestones.

Ms Cairns said the new parents were able to stay with a family friend in Brisbane who was a midwife which 'was absolutely amazing,' they also received help finding baby supplies.

Harry received an Australian birth certificate but had to wait for his visa and passport before the family could travel home. They arrived back in the U.K. in August.

Ms Cairns described the experience as a once in a lifetime opportunity and 'one of the best days of my lives that we were absolutely blessed to be a part of.'

One of the paramedics praised the young parents on Facebook on Thursday (pictured) and called the new parents 'absolute champions' for all of the challenges they have faced

Some people were shocked Abi was able to carry the baby without knowing she was pregnant, but other mothers quickly defended her by sharing their own stories

A Queensland Ambulance Service Facebook post over the delivery sparked some debate online about the surprise pregnancy.

Ms Cairns explained that when she first saw Abi she wasn't showing and there were no normal signs of pregnancy.

'Harry's spine was in line with Abis so that changes the position, and he was tiny. In hindsight Abi said she was more fatigued than normal but that was it.'

Facebook users were very supportive of the couple's experience: 'What a wonderful souvenir to bring home' and 'Aww, just a beautiful story, Harry was meant to be Xx.'
American Made Organic Colored Cotton Bedding Dye Free Made with Foxfibre Being a fundamental part in the breeding, growing and designing of the yarns for the domestic weaving and manufacturing of American Blossom Linens sheets leaves me feeling proud to be part of a greater whole. By the way you can follow my breeding crop growing on Instagram @vreseis.

American Blossom Linens, a direct to consumer brand of bedding made by family owned Thomaston Mills, introduced a new color called Latte Linen to their line of organic cotton percale sheets and duvets last year. It was so popular it sold out in less than 4 weeks. Latte Linen is made from a blend of West Texas organic cotton and Foxfibre naturally grown colored cotton. After a long wait Latte Linen is back in stock.

During the past four months manufacturers have faced supply and production issues due to the Covid19 virus pandemic. Thomaston put in place new procedures at both of their plants to insure that all personnel were protected. Due to an increased need for hospital supplies, Thomaston increased its production of hospital bedding which did cause slight delays in delivery of other product lines. Thomaston who supports the reshoring of PPE to the USA, has also developed a PPE Fabric for hospital gowns which they are selling to hospital gown manufacturers.

Since the start of the Coronavirus and the issue with lack of PPE supplies, many people are looking more closely where the products they purchase are made. Per a study by Coresight Research, about half of consumers said they agree or strongly agree that U.S. retailers should cut back on sourcing from China. While nearly all textile manufacturing and production moved overseas, decimating factories and jobs, Thomaston Mills stood resolute and kept manufacturing here in the USA. Thomaston Mills has been making bedding for over 115 years in the town of Thomaston, Georgia.

What makes Latte Linen different from any other bedding product on the market is that it is made from a base fiber of natural West Texas organic cotton combined with Foxfibre Coyote Brown heirloom cotton. Foxfibre is organically grown in a rich color which is integral to the fiber itself. These linens are completely dye-free, not even a drop of dye is needed to give these sheets their beautiful shade. Dyed fabrics start to fade after a few washings, but the color of Foxfibre will bloom deeper and richer over time. Natural variations in the fiber cause each set of bedding to be as unique as the plants it comes from. This creates a fabric that has the look of linen and the performance of the most luxurious, percale bedding. The more the linens are used and washed, the softer they will feel.

Foxfibre cotton was created by Sally Fox, a cotton pioneer for her efforts regarding organic, colored cotton. In the 1980s she was the first to develop the systems to grow and promote organic cotton in the USA, which helped start the conversation about organic textiles. She hand breeds ancient, naturally pest resistant varieties that can be grown using organic and biodynamic farming methods. She was able to develop longer staple lengths that allowed the cotton fiber to be spun into high quality yarn. Naturally colored heirloom organic cotton is also more vigorous, drought tolerant, pest and disease resistant and requires less water. Toxic chemicals are often used to dye cloth in developing regions with little environmental regulations or worker safety protections. When Foxfibre cotton is used there is no need to dye fabric in order to obtain a rich color.

The Latte Linen collection, available now on the American Blossom Linens website, includes sheet sets, duvet sets and pillowcase sets. The linens are generously sized with extra deep pockets to provide an excellent fit on almost any height mattress. Top or Bottom labels act as visual cues to help placement of the fitted sheet correctly on the mattress.

Creator Sally Fox who has been working diligently on her farm during the pandemic to continuously improve her cotton says, Being a fundamental part in the breeding, growing and designing of the yarns for the domestic weaving and manufacturing of American Blossom Linens sheets leaves me feeling proud to be part of a greater whole. By the way you can follow my breeding crop growing on Instagram @vreseis.

American Blossom Linens are 100% made in the USA using traceable organic cotton grown by family farmers. All the components of American Blossom Linens bedding are grown, processed, finished and sewn in the USA, supporting American workers.

To learn more about American Blossom Linens, or to shop the collection, visit

http://www.americanblossomlinens.com.

About Thomaston Mills

Thomaston Mills prides itself on crafting quality linens that have always been sourced and manufactured

sustainability and ethically, with a focus on its customers. A leading manufacturer of quality linens since 1899, they know how to keep you comfortable. American Blossom Linens is a collection of environmentally responsible, luxuriously soft, 100% Made in USA organic cotton bedding.


When asked why he chose to dedicate his life to the fight for civil rights and racial equality, the late Congressman John Lewis once said, Brother, each of us has the opportunity and the responsibility.

He was right, of course. We all have the duty to stand up for what we believe in.

Born in 1940 in Troy, Alabama, John Lewis experienced discrimination from a young age. The third of ten children, his parents were sharecroppers, and he grew up poor. On the family farm, he was responsible for taking care of the chickens. He did this well, but this young boy had higher aspirations: He wanted to be a preacher.

And so at the age of five, he began to preach to his chickens. He preached his first public sermon a decade later, when he was just 15.

This talent for public speaking proved useful a few years later during the 1963 March on Washington. Though he was only 23 years old at the time, he was chosen to be one of the marchs six main organizers.
Donavan La Bella, the man hit in the face with an impact munition while demonstrating outside the federal courthouse, recently underwent two surgeries to help address a cerebral fluid leak, his mother said Thursday.

La Bella, 26, remains in a Portland hospital but is expected to be released soon, his mother said.
By ANI

PATNA: Over 30 teams, including those of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and SDRF have been deployed to tackle the floods which have affected multiple districts in Bihar, according to the Disaster Management department of the state government.

According to the data released by the department on Wednesday, 16 districts in the state have been affected by the rising waters.

This has resulted in the loss of 19 human lives and affected a combined population of 66,60,655. A total of 12,202 people have been shifted to relief camps as of Wednesday.

Earlier Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had expressed his condolences over the loss of lives of people in three different incidents of capsizing of boats in flood-hit districts of Khagaria, Saharsa and Darbhanga in the state and instructed the district administration to provide ex-gratia amount to the kin of the deceased.

"Incidents of boat sinking in Khagaria, Saharsa and Darbhanga are sad. I have instructed the district administration to provide the ex-gratia amount to the dependents of the deceased," the Chief Minister said in a tweet roughly translated from Hindi.

Kumar also put a press release of the Bihar government dated August 5 with his tweet. The press release reiterated about incidents of boat sinking in Khagaria, Saharsa and Darbhanga. According to the statement, the chief minister directed the district administration to provide the ex-gratia amount to the dependents of the deceased.

The chief minister also conducted an aerial survey of flood-affected areas of the State on Wednesday. Kumar also visited a flood relief camp and a community kitchen for flood victims in Darbhanga, one of the districts worst affected by floods.
US President Donald Trump answers question during a press conference in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on August 5, 2020. Olivie Douliery | AFP | Getty Images

That's because while the tax code allows the Treasury Secretary to delay tax deadlines for up to a year during a federal disaster, a mere deferral of the taxes may prompt employers to simply retain the employees' share of levies rather than giving the money to workers. "If you're an employer and [Treasury Secretary] Steven Mnuchin says, 'I don't need to see that money for a year,' what do you do?" asked Daniel Hemel, a law professor at the University of Chicago. "You could give it to the employee, but then a year from now you might be on the hook for the money," he said.

Employers' cold feet

kate_sept2004

The issue with a deferral via executive order is that there's no guarantee of forgiveness. Stephen Moore, a member of the president's economic recovery task force, and Phil Kerpen, president of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, touched on the issue in an Aug. 2 op-ed in The Wall Street Journal. "Mr. Trump could also pledge to sign a bill  now or after the new Congress takes office on Jan. 3 to forgive those repayments," they wrote. That's a big "if" for employers. "Maybe people won't want to do it," said Pete Isberg, vice president for government relations at ADP. "There's a possibility that Congress won't follow up with legislation that's consistent with the executive order and forgive the taxes that are deferred." In that case, employers' attorneys will likely advise them that they are still liable for those payroll taxes, he said.

Lingering financial pain

Distributing those taxes to employees could be a costly mistake for employers if the levies are only deferred. They may have to come up with the money at a time when their own finances are still precarious. "It's a significant obligation that in today's environment would be difficult for employers to assume," said Michael Trabold, director of compliance risk at Paychex. Uncertainty over forgiveness might deter companies from participating in the payroll tax cut altogether  executive order notwithstanding. "One thing we talked about internally was, 'Would all employers buy into it?'' Trabold said. "One of the fundamental credos from the IRS is that the employer is always responsible for paying the payroll tax."

An acrimonious environment

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., make their way to a news conference on coronavirus aid in the Capitol Visitor Center on Thursday, August 6, 2020. Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
A farmer has highlighted his 'grave concerns' that members of the farming community are not taking the Covid-19 crisis seriously enough.

Writing anonymously for NFU Scotland's website, the farmer shared his own familys experience of the coronavirus, urging others to remain vigilant.

He said some farmers were paying little heed to social distancing and other rules - with anecdotal reports of reasonable sized gatherings and little concern for the health of each other.

"Farmers are not immune to this and the risks are still high," the anonymous farmer wrote.

"I would suggest that we, as an industry, escaped the worst of the virus purely due to the time of year when we were pretty much self-isolating anyway - being busy with sowing, calving and lambing."

As a 'relatively fit' farmer, he said he came down with 'absolutely horrendous flu', which rendered him unable to do anything for days - "even getting out of bed was a real effort."

"If this had happened a month later when we would have been flat out lambing, not being able to help would have been a potential disaster," the farmer wrote.

"Even by lambing time, I would still get very breathless and would say it took two months to get back to normal.

"Other symptoms at the time were loss of taste and smell, which are now a significant indicator for Covid-19."

The farmer added that others in the industry were 'very protective' of livestock health, but not their own.

"No pig or poultry farmer would allow other farmers on to their pig or poultry unit - let alone bring in another pig or hen of unknown health status and mix it with their stock," he said.

"I would encourage everyone to think about the possible consequences of bringing Covid-19 into your household."

The anonymous farmer concluded: "So please think before you shake a neighbours hand, go out without a mask or go on that social visit - have I done everything I can to protect the health of myself and my family?

"Most importantly stay safe and do not get complacent."

The government has released specific advice to farming businesses on how to operate safely during the Covid-19 crisis.
KEY FACTS 11:30 a.m. More than half of Canadians are afraid to go back to their workplaces, new research shows.

10:30 a.m. For the fourth consecutive day, Ontario is reporting fewer than 100 cases, with 95 cases today.

9:25 a.m. The House of Commons committee probing the governments ill-fated deal with WE Charity will hear this morning from a charity watchdog organization.

The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Thursday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.

6:25 p.m.: Albertas chief medical officer of health says the province is seeing a downward trend of COVID-19 cases, with fewer than 100 reported each day over the last week.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw said Thursday that there were 56 new coronavirus cases and two new deaths.

She says one of the deaths was at the Good Samaritan Society Southgate Care Centre in Edmonton, where 25 people have died.

A COVID-19 outbreak began in the facility on July 17 and is now considered the deadliest one in the province.

The centre says on its site that there are 36 active cases among residents and 20 active cases in employees.

Hinshaw says there are 76 people in hospital with the virus in Alberta, with 19 in intensive care.

Since the beginning of the pandemic in early March, 205 people have died in Alberta.

5:30 p.m.: As of 5 p.m. Thursday, Ontarios regional health units are reporting a total of 41,845 confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19, including 2,821 deaths, up 85 new infections and deaths in 24 hours.

The province continues to be at its lowest rate of new infections since well before the pandemic first peaked in Ontario in the spring. Ontario has averaged 94 cases per day over the last seven days, down from a peak of nearly 600 daily, seen in mid-April.

On Thursday, just three health reported more than 10 new cases: Toronto with 21, Ottawa at 19, and Peel Region at 13. All three have seen among the most new infections in the province since late July.

Meanwhile, 22 of Ontarios other 31 health units reported no new cases Thursday.

Chatham-Kent remains the only area of the province thats currently experiencing its worst rate of infection since the beginning of the pandemic  a still-relatively low 9.3 cases per day over the last week.

The vast majority of the provinces COVID-19 patients have since recovered; the province lists fewer than 4,000 active cases of the disease.

Earlier Thursday, the province reported that 71 Ontarians are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, including 29 in intensive care, of whom 13 are on a ventilator.

The Stars count includes some patients reported as probable COVID-19 cases, meaning they have symptoms and contacts or travel history that indicate they very likely have the disease, but have not yet received a positive lab test.

The province cautions its separate data, published daily at 10:30 a.m., may be incomplete or out of date due to delays in the reporting system, saying that in the event of a discrepancy, data reported by (the health units) should be considered the most up to date.

5:20 p.m.: Almost everyone boarding a bus, train or Seabus in Metro Vancouver will soon have to wear a mask to protect against the spread of COVID-19.

TransLink has announced that starting Aug. 24 customers will be required to wear non-medical masks or face coverings while on board its vehicles.

TransLink CEO Kevin Desmond says physical distancing isnt always possible on transit, especially as more riders return to the system.

Exceptions to the mandatory policy include those with medical conditions, people unable to remove a mask without help, children under five and police, employees or first responders in an emergency.

Desmond says customer confidence is key to rebuilding ridership during the pandemic and this step is important to bring riders back.

4:35 p.m.: Saskatchewan is reporting another death due to COVID-19.

The latest fatality, of a person in their 70s in the Regina region, brings the death toll in the province to 19. There are also 11 new cases.

The government says 13 infected people are in hospital, and six of those are in intensive care.

Premier Scott Moe says Saskatchewan is continuing to see significant recoveries each day  278 in the past 10 days.

Of a total 1,387 infections, 204 are considered active.

4:20 p.m.: Toronto is reporting 21 new cases today, for a total of 15,472. The number of people in hospital stays the same at 77, and there were no new deaths so the total remains at 1,161. The city is reporting 28 more people have recovered for a total of 14,043. The numbers are as of 3 p.m. Wednesday.

3:20 p.m.: New Brunswick is reporting two new cases of COVID-19 involving temporary foreign workers who went into self-isolation after arriving in Moncton.

They are in addition to four cases reported Wednesday, also involving temporary foreign workers in self-isolation in Moncton.

Chief medical officer of health Dr. Jennifer Russell has said the fact that the cases are self-isolating shows COVID-19 protocols in the province are working.

One of the people newly diagnosed is in their 40s and the other is in their 50s.

New Brunswick now has a total of 176 cases, with just the six most recent still active.

There have been two deaths from COVID-19 in the province, and 53,999 tests have been conducted.

2:50 pm. Ontario Premier Doug Ford is promising to introduce measures to help improve conditions for the provinces personal support workers.

Ford says the PSWs, who have played a major in the struggle against the COVID-19 pandemic, are underpaid and overworked.

He says he plans to ask the provincial Health Ministry to come up with a plan to bolster salaries and take other steps to ensure the workers are properly compensated for their efforts.

Ford says his determination to address PSWs needs came after a recent visit to a Toronto-area long-term care facility where his mother-in-law currently lives.

Ontarios congregate-care settings have been particularly hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting measures earlier this year that prevented PSWs from working in more than one facility at a time.

Ford did not offer an estimate as to when any new measures may be introduced.

2:44 p.m. House of Commons committee probing the governments ill-fated deal with WE Charity dove deeper into the organization itself with partisan swords being drawn around a watchdog group that testified on Thursday.

Charity Intelligence Canada has been cited multiple times during finance committee hearings about the WE affair, but had yet to testify in the committees probe of the Canada Student Service Grant program.

Charity Intelligence has previously raised red flags about WEs practices, which garnered rebukes from WE and its co-founders, Craig and Marc Kielburger, who testified before the committee last week.

The premier made the comments in Surrey where he announced a new regional cancer centre for the city to be included in the construction of the new Surrey hospital.

The Stars Alex Ballingall has the story.

2:12 p.m. Sending students back to class in September in British Columbia will be an unprecedented challenge during a pandemic but Premier John Horgan says hes confident children will be safe.

Some parents and teachers have expressed concern about the resumption of school next month, but Horgan says the government would not put children at risk if the danger was overwhelming.

He says the province has done very well slowing the spread of COVID-19 by following scientific advice but, despite that, he understands that parents, students and teachers are anxious.

Horgan says its time to start opening schools so plans can be made and adjusted and hes confident that every effort is being made to get it right.

The BC Teachers Federation has said that governments plan to fully reopen schools needs more time and a lot more work if it is going to keep everyone safe.

The premier made the comments in Surrey where he announced a new regional cancer centre for the city to be included in the construction of the new Surrey hospital.

1:57 p.m. Hamiltons Catholic school board says its looking into reducing class sizes in elementary schools amid growing concerns from parents and teachers about reopening from the pandemic, but acknowledged that space and lack of funding may be an obstacle.

Were looking at all our options, said Pat Daly, chair of the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board (HWCDSB), on Wednesday.

There are obviously a number of significant factors, mostly concerning space in classrooms and funding. But were looking into it for sure.

In the time since the Ontario government released its school reopening plans last week, parents and teachers unions have sounded the alarm over the decision to allow elementary schools to host full-sized classrooms, which in some schools can amount to over 30 students in one class.

Some health experts and educators have warned that less physical distancing among students could heighten the risk of transmitting COVID-19 and prompt an outbreak that could shut down schools.

Ontarios Ministry of Education has said that the decision is based on the advice of medical experts and that children under the age of 10 are less likely to spread COVID-19.

1:50 p.m. Major League Baseball, in the aftermath of the COVID-19 outbreaks on the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals, sent severe, revised protocol measures to all clubs Wednesday, threatening to suspend a player or staff member for the remainder of the season for repeated or flagrant violations.

MLB, which is dealing with scheduling havoc caused by 33 members of Marlins and Cardinals testing positive for COVID-19, is hiring officials to monitor clubhouses and team hotels to assure there are no violations.

MLB made it clear in the memo it will not tolerate reckless activity, or there will be severe punishment.

Any covered individuals  whether players or club staff  who are found to have repeatedly or flagrantly violated the protocols, including refusing to wear a face covering when required and reminded to do so, the memo reads, risks being prohibited from further participation in the 2020 season and postseason (in the case of players, subject to the just cause provisions in the Basic Agreement). The Commissioners Office will send written warnings prior to any such action being taken.

In the new protocols, MLB is requiring everyone to always wear masks when not on the field, while also severely limiting all interaction among players, coaches and staff members.

Read the full list of protocols: MLB gets serious with protocol measures after COVID-19 outbreaks on Marlins, Cardinals

1:49 p.m. A teacher with a Medicine Hat-area school division is speaking out after a Tweet of his regarding masks and the provinces back-to-school plan went viral on Tuesday.

Scott Raible, who teaches under the Prairie Rose School Division, says his tweet was taken the wrong way by fellow Twitter users.

Raibles Tweet read, Just bought some non medical masks as teachers are being forced to wear them now. They should arrive before school starts. Cant wait to wear them in front of my students. This semester looking forward to teaching my students the novel 1984. Very timely. #abed #1984 #medhat.

Attached to the Tweet was a photo, with four handmade masks on it. Each mask had a different message. They read, So you think this mask works? This mask does nothing. Only wearing to make you feel better. Pointless placebo.

He says it was intended as a joke, but quickly got out of hand.

It was meant as tongue in cheek, he said. Raible says his Tweet stems from disappointment in the provincial governments mask announcement.

Read the full story: Alberta teachers mask tweet taken wrong way, meant as jab for back-to-school-plan

1:48 p.m. Dr. Anthony Fauci says even if the coronavirus is around for decades, public health safeguards and an eventual vaccine will allow the world to successfully adapt.

The governments leading infectious disease expert was asked about whether the coronavirus could become a fact of life for generations.

Fauci says the combination of public health measures  masks, hand washing, social distancing  and vaccines should mean that you can very well control and essentially eliminate (the coronavirus) from any given country.

He added: Remember, theres only been one virus in the history of the planet thats been eradicated and thats smallpox.

Vaccines are under development and its unknown how effective they will be. But Fauci says he hopes it will be in the range of 70% to 80% effectiveness. A vaccine should be available in 2021, he says.

1:48 p.m. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rescinded an order requiring people travelling from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to quarantine for 14 days.

Early in the national outbreak, the Republican ordered travellers arriving in Florida from then-epicenter New York City and its suburbs to quarantine for two weeks. New Yorks statewide daily infection-rate has plummeted since late April and is currently about one-tenth Floridas.

Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued his own order in June, requiring residents in several states, including Florida, to quarantine upon arriving in New York.

On Thursday, Florida reported 7,650 new coronavirus cases and 120 deaths. The state has a total of 510,389 confirmed cases, second only to California. There have been at least 7,781 deaths, sixth in the nation.

1:48 p.m. A widely cited University of Washington model predicts U.S. deaths from COVID-19 will reach nearly 300,000 by Dec. 1.

The forecast of 295,011 deaths is 137,000 more than the roughly 158,000 U.S. deaths reported so far. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation model assumes that many states will impose new stay-at-home orders as deaths climb.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention monitors the model along with forecasts from about 30 other modeling groups. Combined, the models predict from 168,000 to 182,000 total COVID-19 deaths by Aug. 22.

Dr. Proton Rahman testified before the provinces Supreme Court during a legal challenge to the travel ban that authorities imposed in May to slow the spread of COVID-19.

The health authority says the possible exposure occurred on July 26, 27, 29, 30 and 31.

A statement from Vancouver Coastal Health says the exposure is believed to be low risk, but anyone who was at the park on those days needs to self-monitor for symptoms.

Fraser Health is also warning of a public exposure at the Hookah Lounge on King George Boulevard.

It says in a statement that the potential exposure was over two early mornings, between midnight and 5 a.m. on Aug. 1 and 2.

B.C. recorded 47 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday with no new deaths.

The forecast of 295,011 deaths is 137,000 more than the roughly 158,000 U.S. deaths reported so far. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation model assumes that many states will impose new stay-at-home orders as deaths climb.

Dr. Proton Rahman testified before the provinces Supreme Court during a legal challenge to the travel ban that authorities imposed in May to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Rahman, a clinical epidemiologist and professor of medicine at Memorial University of Newfoundland, testified Thursday about with his work with the modelling group.

The head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases says hes been asked by teachers worried about infection risks from kids in the classroom whether they should wear plastic face shields. They are now commonly used in hospital emergency departments, as well as dental and medical offices. Occasionally, supermarket shoppers also sport them.

The results, he said, showed a 10-fold higher rate of cases in the province over a nine-week period without a travel restriction in place. A second scenario showed a case rate that was five-to-20-fold higher over 14 weeks without a travel restriction, he said.

Rahman also told the court about a paper he co-authored with Stanford University and Oxford University professors analyzing the impact of lifting the travel ban in the province.

1:03 p.m. A widely cited University of Washington model predicts U.S. deaths from COVID-19 will reach nearly 300,000 by Dec. 1.

The forecast of 295,011 deaths is 137,000 more than the roughly 158,000 U.S. deaths reported so far. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation model assumes that many states will impose new stay-at-home orders as deaths climb.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention monitors the model along with forecasts from about 30 other modeling groups. Combined, the models predict from 168,000 to 182,000 total COVID-19 deaths by Aug. 22.

1:03 p.m. Dr. Anthony Fauci says If you can wear a face shield to protect yourself and others from the coronavirus, you might as well do it.

The head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases says hes been asked by teachers worried about infection risks from kids in the classroom whether they should wear plastic face shields. They are now commonly used in hospital emergency departments, as well as dental and medical offices. Occasionally, supermarket shoppers also sport them.

It certainly cant hurt, says Fauci, who has also promoted the use of cloth masks to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Fauci took questions from the media at a session sponsored by the non-profit Alliance for Health Policy.

Theres no formal recommendation yet to wear face shields because the science isnt clear, Fauci said, but there is a certain logic to it: so the virus does enter the body through the mouth, nose and eyes.

1:02 p.m. Florida reported some encouraging news on the COVID-19 front Thursday, with the lowest percentage of positive tests in more than six weeks.

The state Department of Health reported 7,650 new cases of the disease in its latest coronavirus pandemic report. That pushes the overall total to 510,329 confirmed infections.

But officials reported a testing positivity rate of 8.3% among people who tested positive for the first time in the most recent statewide results. Thats the lowest daily mark since June 21, when it was 7.7%.

It happened as Florida counted 104,144 test results for the previous day, after three consecutive days of fewer than 61,000 tests. That was due to the temporary closure of testing sites because of Tropical Storm Isaias.

The test results reported on a single day typically reflect tests taken over several days.

Also Thursday, Florida reported another 120 coronavirus fatalities. Thats down from 225 deaths lists on Wednesdays report. At least 7,871 people have died from COVID-19 complications since the start of the pandemic.

The latest daily total is not reflective of deaths in the past 24 hours, but rather recent weeks. The most deaths on a daily report 257 last Friday.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the U.S. was well recognized both for its generosity and support of global health projects in the past.

The Republican governors office said Thursday that he took the test as part of standard protocol before meeting Trump at an airport in Cleveland. He had planned to join the president on a visit to the Whirlpool Corp. plant in northwest Ohio.

His office said the 73-year-old DeWine had no symptoms, but was returning to Columbus. His office said he and his wife, Fran DeWine, will both be tested there. DeWine then plans to quarantine at his home in Cedarville for 14 days.

12:40 p.m. A town of 32,000 people in northwestern Spain will begin lockdown Friday amid a local surge in coronavirus cases.

The senior health official in the Basque country reported 338 news cases in the region on Thursday. Authorities in the northwestern Castile and Leon region are quarantining Aranda de Duero after 103 new COVID-19 cases emerged there. Contact tracers have reported five active clusters.

New cases have risen steadily in Spain since a more than three-month lockdown ended on June 21, reaching 1,772 new infections reported on Wednesday. A total of more than 28,000 people in Spain have died since the pandemic began, the eighth highest total in the world.

12:40 p.m. The head of the World Health Organization hopes the United States leadership will reconsider its departure from the U.N. health agency.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the U.S. was well recognized both for its generosity and support of global health projects in the past.

You cannot defeat this virus in a divided world, Tedros said of a country that contributes more than $450 million to the agency every year.

When I was a minister in Ethiopia, when HIV/AIDS was ravaging the whole continent of Africa...its the U.S. generosity and leadership that gave hope to individuals, gave hope to families and gave hope to nations, Tedros said.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly accused WHO of botching its response to the coronavirus and said it colluded with China in the pandemics early stages to cover up the extent of the outbreak.

WHO had denied that and recently start a probe into the global response to the pandemic.

12:40 p.m. More than 90 staff members in one Georgia school district have been quarantined due to coronavirus exposure or infection, prompting the district to start the year entirely online.

Barrow County Schools officials say the district about 50 miles northeast of Atlanta will begin with distance learning on Aug. 17.

Superintendent Dr. Chris McMichael says the district took every precaution and staff members were required to wear masks during preplanning before students returned to buildings. But dozens of employees were still infected or in quarantine due to a suspected case or direct contact with a confirmed case.

Also this week, about 260 employees for Gwinnett County Public Schools, the states largest public school district, reported testing positive for the virus.

12:40 p.m. Poland is reintroducing restrictions to some central and southern counties with the highest rates of coronavirus cases after the daily rate recently reached 726 new cases.

Starting Saturday, cinemas and gyms will be reclosed and no more than 50 people allowed to attend wedding parties or funerals in some among the 19 counties. People must wear protective masks in all public spaces.

Poland, a nation of 38 million, has registered nearly 50,000 confirmed cases and more than 1,770 deaths.

12 p.m. A boating trip involving multiple families is behind a spike COVID-19 in southwestern Ontario as the Ministry of Health reports a fourth day in a row with fewer than 100 new cases across the province.

The health unit in Chatham-Kent said 12 of its 24 new cases in the last two days are from a trip of several days duration outside the region and suggested the number of infections from the highly contagious novel coronavirus could spread further.

Chatham-Kent Public Health is isolating these cases and tracing their contacts, of which there is a large number, the unit said in a statement Thursday. Officials did not provide details or dates of the boat trip.

The local medical officer of health told residents that a loosening of restrictions under Stage 3 does not mean precautions can be abandoned.

Read the full story from the Stars Rob Ferguson: Boat trip with multiple families blamed for surge in COVID-19 in Chatham area

11:55 a.m. A new paper suggests a federal program meant to buffer provinces against economic shocks is not up to the task  especially in the COVID-19 era.

University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe is urging Ottawa to review and reform the federal stabilization program so it can help provincial economies weather the effects of the pandemic.

He estimates provinces could be on track for a collective $35-billion revenue decline this fiscal year  equivalent to $1,000 per person.

But he notes that figure is offset by up to $23 billion thanks to taxable federal emergency benefits for individuals and employers.

Tombe says theres still a big gap that cant be adequately addressed by the fiscal stabilization, which has not been meaningfully reformed since its inception in 1967.

He says the $60 per person cap on stabilization payments to provinces hasnt been updated since 1986 and should be at least double that, just adjusting for inflation.

Tombes paper was published by the Canada West Foundation think-tank. He and other independent academics and policy experts have started the new Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations Commission, which aims to improve the fiscal relationship between Ottawa, the provinces and cities.

11:50 a.m. The union representing employees at a pork processing plant in Manitoba is calling for Maple Leaf to cease production after three more workers tested positive for COVID-19.

While the employment gains will be welcome, economists have warned it could still take years before the labour market returns to pre-pandemic levels. Nor are labour outcomes evenly spread.

It says time is needed to get outstanding test results from other employees.

The union says Maple Leaf has informed members that the plant will remain open and production will continue as usual.

One worker at the plant tested positive over the weekend, and the union says the three new cases are of non-production staff.

COVID-19 cases in Manitoba have remained relatively low, with a current total of 444, but there has recently been an increase in infections.

11:34 a.m. Canadas labour market likely continued its comeback last month, but gains are slowing on the long road to full recovery.

Statistics Canada is expected to report that 365,000 jobs were added in July, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists. That would bring total jobs recovered to 1.6 million in the past three months, or just over 50 per cent of the three million lost in March and April.

While the employment gains will be welcome, economists have warned it could still take years before the labour market returns to pre-pandemic levels. Nor are labour outcomes evenly spread.

Women, low-income earners, youth and immigrants have been hit harder and will take even longer to recuperate. On Friday, Statistics Canada will release jobs data by race for the first time that are expected to show minorities have been disproportionately hurt by the recession.

11:30 a.m. More than half of Canadians are afraid to go back to their workplaces and 77 per cent are worried their colleagues might show up infected with the coronavirus, according to research from consulting firm KPMG.

About six in 10 say theyll will refuse to go back if they believe their place of work is not safe enough and 57 per cent are concerned about sharing meeting rooms and other common areas. The survey polled more than 1,000 Canadians online and was conducted July 22 to 24.

Major Canadian employers including Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Nova Scotia and Telus Corp. have told many employees to continue working from home for the rest of the year. One potential issue for workers in Torontos financial district is its often-crowded subway system. The city has one of the busiest transit networks in North America, trailing only New York City and Mexico City.

In the KPMG survey, 71 per cent said they were worried about using public transportation for their commute. In Ontario, the figure was 78 per cent.

Ontario also had the highest percentage of people who said they were afraid of returning to the workplace, at 64 per cent. Nationally, the number was 54 per cent.

The province has now recorded a total of 60,133 infections and 5,687 deaths from the disease.

The government estimates four million people will be moved onto EI when the Canada Emergency Response Benefit starts winding down, and is promising a parallel benefit for gig and contract workers who dont qualify for payments through the decades-old system.

The Workers Action Centre says many of the people it works with would get between $600 and $1,000 a month if theyre pushed onto EI next month, with the way the safety program is currently structured.

That would be less than the $500 per week paid out through the Canada Emergency Response Benefit, or CERB, to workers whose incomes crashed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Deena Ladd, the groups executive director, says an overhaul of EI itself is necessary to provide adequate benefits to stabilize an economy with sectors that wont fully open for months or may have to shut down in response to outbreaks.

A few of the workers involved with the centre shared their stories and concerns for the coming months during a virtual press conference this morning.

11:24 a.m. Quebec is reporting 133 new cases of COVID-19 and no new deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus.

The province has now recorded a total of 60,133 infections and 5,687 deaths from the disease.

Health authorities said today the number of hospitalizations decreased by two in the past 24 hours, for a total of 165.

There are 19 patients in intensive care, the same number as Wednesday.

The province says it conducted 17,042 COVID-19 tests Aug. 4, the last day for which testing data is available.

On Wednesday, Quebecs blood collection agency published a study indicating about 125,000 people aged 18-69 in the province contracted COVID-19  more than three times the official number reported by health authorities.

11:21 a.m. The Canadian Junior Football League has cancelled its 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The league made the announcement Thursday on its Twitter page.

But amid the outside skepticism and a stream of North Korean propaganda glorifying its virus efforts, an exchange between the country and the United Nations is providing new clarity  and actual numbers  about what might be happening in North Korea, which has closed its borders and cut travel  never a free-flowing stream  by outsider monitors and journalists.

Commissioner Jim Pankovich said safety remains the leagues top priority.

10:51 a.m. A Thai restaurant near Adelaide Street West and John Street is shutting its doors after one of its kitchen workers tested positive for COVID-19.

In an Instagram post on Wednesday, PAI Northern Thai Toronto said that the workers last shift was on Monday. The worker is currently quarantining, the restaurant said.

We have immediately closed our restaurant until further notice for deep sanitation and the full team at Pai is being tested and in self-isolation, although no other team members are experiencing symptoms, reads the post.

We will only reopen when we feel it is safe to do so and only with team members who have tested negative... we look forward to welcoming you back at Pai very soon.

10:50 a.m. North Korea is quarantining thousands of people and shipping food and other aid to a southern city locked down over coronavirus worries, officials said, as the countrys response to a suspected case reinforces doubt about its long-standing claim to be virus-free.

But amid the outside skepticism and a stream of North Korean propaganda glorifying its virus efforts, an exchange between the country and the United Nations is providing new clarity  and actual numbers  about what might be happening in North Korea, which has closed its borders and cut travel  never a free-flowing stream  by outsider monitors and journalists.

In late July, North Korea said it had imposed its maximum emergency system to guard against the virus spreading after finding a person with COVID-19 symptoms in Kaesong city, near the border with rival South Korea.

State media reported that leader Kim Jong Un then ordered a total lockdown of Kaesong, and said the suspected case was a North Korean who had earlier fled to South Korea before slipping back into Kaesong last month.

10:30 a.m. For the fourth consecutive day, Ontario is reporting fewer than 100 cases, with 95 cases today, a 0.2 per cent increase, Health Minister Christine Elliott said on Twitter. With 159 more resolved, Ontario continues to see a persistent decline in the number of active cases. Yesterday, the province processed over 26,000 tests. Locally, 29 of Ontarios 34 public health units are reporting five or fewer cases, with 15 of them reporting no new cases.

10:27 a.m. St. Louis County in northeastern Minnesota this week has added new coronavirus cases faster than any other county in the state.

Of the 475 cases in St. Louis County as of Wednesday, more than half were confirmed in July. The virus has been detected throughout the states geographically largest county, but about three-fourths of the cases came from Duluth, according to health officials.

While nursing homes were hit hard by the coronavirus in the spring and early summer, now nearly one-third of those infected in the county are in their 20s.

About 40 per cent of people who tested positive say theyd attended restaurants or bars during the period they were likely exposed to the virus, the countys public health director Amy Westbrook says.

10:27 a.m. Gov. Kristi Noem is using coronavirus restrictions in other states to lure businesses to relocate to South Dakota.

In an online ad, Noem tells business owners to grow their company in South Dakota where government will stay out of their way.

When it comes to supporting growth and eliminating government heavy-handed interference, South Dakota means business, Noem said in the ad from the Governors Office of Economic Development.

The Republican governor says Minnesotas COVID-19-related restrictions, including a mandate to wear face masks in public buildings, has created an opportunity for businesses there to cross the border to South Dakota.

Noem says in South Dakota, businesses wont be shut down.

Noem has taken a relaxed approach to the pandemic. Even as Republican governors in states such as Texas have moved to require people to wear masks, Noem didnt require physical distancing or masks at the July 3 celebration at Mount Rushmore, which President Donald Trump attended.

10:27 a.m. Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz says the country will begin human trials on a coronavirus vaccine in the fall.

Gantz made the announcement Thursday after a visit to the Israel Institute for Biological Research, a research centre under the Defence Ministry.

Gantz says the human trials would begin after the upcoming Jewish new year holidays, which take place in September and early October.

All of the successful preliminary trials offer very significant news and a great deal of hope, Gantz said. The next phase, as weve determined, is to start trials in humans after the autumn holidays.

More than two dozen experimental vaccines are in various stages of human testing worldwide.

9:25 a.m. The House of Commons committee probing the governments ill-fated deal with WE Charity will hear this morning from a charity watchdog organization.

Charity Intelligence Canada has been referenced multiple times during finance committee hearings about the WE affair, but has yet to testify in the committees probe of the Canada Student Service Grant program.

Charity Intelligence has previously raised red flags about WEs practices, which has garnered rebukes from WE and its co-founders, Craig and Marc Kielburger, who testified before the committee last week.

The controversy around the grant program has raised questions about WEs complex structure and accounting mechanisms, its use of high-profile corporate sponsors and celebrity endorsements and its work culture.

Meanwhile, opposition parties are hoping the imminent release of government documents will shed some light on how an organization with close ties to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was awarded a deal to administer the $912-million student program.

The government has until Saturday to table with the finance committee all memos, briefing notes, correspondence and other documents related to the now-cancelled agreement.

8:46 a.m. A northern Norway university hospital says two more crewmembers who worked on a Norwegian cruise ship have tested positive for the coronavirus, bring the total to 55.

Following the outbreak on the MS Roald Amundsen, the ships owner halted all cruises on Monday and Norway closed its ports to cruise ships for two weeks.

The University Hospital of North Norway in Tromsoe, north of the Arctic Circle, where the ship currently is docked, said the two were admitted Thursday. They were described as foreign nationals working on the MS Roald Amundsen.

Earlier, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health said during the ships two journeys last month, a total of 37 crew members and 16 passengers tested positive. The passengers all registered as living in Norway.

The cruise liner often acts like a local ferry, travelling from port to port along Norways west coast. Some passengers disembarked along the route and authorities fear they may have spread the virus to local communities.

8 a.m. The British government says it wont be using 50 million face masks it bought during a scramble to secure protective equipment for medics at the height of the coronavirus outbreak because of safety concerns.

The masks were part of a 252 million pound ($332 million) contract the government signed with investment firm Ayanda Capital in April. Papers filed in a court case reveal that the masks will not be distributed because they have ear loops rather than head loops and may not fit tightly enough.

The government says another 150 million masks supplied by Ayanda are unaffected but are still being tested.

The papers are part of a lawsuit against the Conservative government by campaigning groups the Good Law Project and EveryDoctor.

As the coronavirus outbreak accelerated across the U.K. in March, it became clear that the country lacked sufficient stockpiles of masks, gloves, gowns and other protective gear for health care workers and nursing home staff. That sparked a race to buy billions of pieces of equipment from suppliers in the U.K. and abroad.

Opposition parties are calling for an urgent investigation into the way personal protective equipment was acquired.

8 a.m. As Africas confirmed coronavirus cases near 1 million, the director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that we cannot at all exercise fatigue in the pandemic response.

John Nkengasong spoke to reporters as the continents cases are now at more than 992,000. More than half are in South Africa.

Africa has seen an 11 per cent increase in cases in the past week, lower than in recent weeks, but Nkengasong says that while its tempting to see a decrease, the numbers must be observed over several weeks to determine the real trend of infections on the continent of 1.3 billion people.

Five countries account for 75 per cent of cases: South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Ghana and Algeria.

The low rate of testing remains a concern, but Nkengasong says that if countries do the right things we have a good chance of beating back this pandemic. He says the CDC is closely watching countries including Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan as cases climb.

8 a.m. The Philippines reported 3,561 new coronavirus cases Thursday, overtaking Indonesia with the most infections in Southeast Asia, as Manila plunged into a recession.

The latest jump brings confirmed cases to 119,460, including 2,150 deaths. Indonesia reported a total of 118,753 confirmed infections as of Thursday, with 5,521 deaths.

The economy slumped by 16.5% in the second quarter in the worst contraction on record in decades that caused the Philippines to slip into a recession.

The stagnant economy has begun to rebound slightly after President Rodrigo Duterte eased a three-month lockdown in June. But he put the capital and outlying provinces of more than 25 million people back under a two-week moderate lockdown Tuesday, after medical groups warned the health care system was being overwhelmed and could collapse.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque says, Ill be honest with you, the economy can no longer withstand a much longer lockdown.

8 a.m. Nepal has reimposed some restrictions, shutting down hotels and restaurants and restricting travel because of the increasing number of coronavirus cases.

The Home Ministry statement says all gatherings are prohibited and movement of people and vehicles only allowed during the night.

In the districts with high numbers of cases, vehicles will be allowed on the streets on alternating days by even-odd license plates.

Nepals lockdown imposed in March lasted for 120 days. The country has had 21,390 cases and 60 deaths, including 81 infections and two fatalities on Wednesday.

8 a.m. A health official says Vietnams COVID-19 outbreak could peak in the coming 10 days as the country reported another death and scores of new infections.

Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Truong Son, who is in hot spot Da Nang to oversee the fight against the virus, says new infections have been found every day and therefore, we have to continue keeping guard up.

To cope with an increase in virus patients, Da Nang completed a 700-bed makeshift hospital on Wednesday. The hospital, converted from a sports auditorium, has a maximum capacity of 3,000 beds.

A 67-year-old woman became Vietnams ninth fatality. She had suffered from other health complications.

Since the outbreak returned to Vietnam two weeks ago after more than three months, 270 local infections have been confirmed, most of them traced to a cluster of hospitals in Da Nang. Among the new cases are six in a high-tech industrial park in the city.

The virus has since spread to 11 provinces and municipalities, including the largest cities of Ho Chi Minh with eight cases and Hanoi with three.

Among measures to curb the outbreak, the government is encouraging the use of a smart phone app that alerts clients if they had come into contact with a person who tested positive.

8 a.m. Germanys national disease control centre has registered the highest number of new coronavirus infections in a day for three months.

The Robert Koch Institute says 1,045 cases were recorded on Wednesday. It was the first time since May 7 that it has counted more than 1,000 cases in a day. Its still far short of early Aprils peak of more than 6,000.

While daily numbers are volatile, the figure fits into a pattern of new cases edging higher over recent weeks as authorities deal with a number of small outbreaks in different parts of the country.

The disease control centres daily report repeated its assessment that this development is very disturbing. Officials last week pleaded with Germans to respect mask-wearing and social distancing rules.

Germanys COVID-19 response so far is widely regarded as relatively successful. The Robert Koch Institute has recorded 9,175 deaths from over 213,000 confirmed cases  a lower death rate than in many comparable countries.

8 a.m. India has recorded the biggest single-day fatalities of 904 in the past 24 hours as fresh coronavirus infections surged by another 56,282 cases to reach nearly 2 million.

The Health Ministry says the total fatalities touched 40,699. India has recorded 20,000 deaths in the past 30 days.

The ministry also said the recovery rate has improved to 67% from 63% over the last 14 days. Nearly 600,000 patients are still undergoing treatment.

The case fatality rate stands at 2.09%.

Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh are the worst-hit Indian states.

8 a.m.The premier of Australias hot spot Victoria state has urged residents not to panic-buy as he announced reductions in meat productions.

The state capital Melbourne began its first full day of tough lockdown restrictions on Thursday as Victoria posted 471 new COVID-19 infections and eight deaths.

Premier Daniel Andrews says beef, lamb and pork production will be reduced by one third from late Friday because of the virus transmission risks in abattoirs and meat processing plants.

Poultry production will be reduced by 20%.

He says the measures are designed to drive down to the lowest possible numbers of workers to without at the same time delivering a shortage of products.

Andrews says there was no need for shoppers to stockpile, as has occurred spasmodically and to various extents during Melbournes first and second lockdowns.

He says, You may not necessarily be able to get exactly the cut of meat that you want, but you will get what you need and you will get all the products that are, basically, fundamentally important to you.

8 a.m. The governor of Japans Aichi Prefecture has announced a regional state of emergency seeking to curb the coronavirus.

Gov. Hideaki Ohmura on Thursday asked businesses to close altogether or close early and urged people to stay home at night.

The measures continue through Aug. 24, a period that coincides with the Obon holidays, when schools and many companies close. Aichi includes Nagoya, which is home to Toyota Motor Corp.s headquarters.

The governor says confirmed coronavirus cases have been rising in Aichi since mid-July at 100 or more a day. Before that, daily cases had been zero for extended periods.

Japans national government in April called for social distancing and business closings, though those measures were gradually lifted. Japan has had nearly 42,700 confirmed coronavirus cases and about 1,000 deaths.

8 a.m. New COVID-19 cases in Chinas northwestern city of Urumqi have shown a slight rise, with 27 reported Thursday, five more than the day before.

The uptick in the Xinjiang region shows authorities are still battling to end countrys latest major outbreak that appeared around three weeks ago. Officials have responded with stiff control measures, including locking down some residential neighbourhoods, limiting public transport and restricting travel outside the city.

Urumqi is the capital and biggest city in Xinjiang, which has reported more than 600 coronavirus cases but no deaths.

With no new deaths, Chinas total remains at 4,634, among 84,528 confirmed cases recorded since the coronavirus was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.

8 a.m. Mexico is nearing 50,000 confirmed deaths from COVID-19.

The federal Health Department reported 829 newly confirmed deaths Wednesday, giving the country a total of 49,698 such deaths. That is the third highest number of pandemic deaths in the world.

Officials said Mexicos number of confirmed infections rose by 6,139 to 449,961.

Authorities acknowledge Mexicos real number of deaths could be much higher, in part because it has done so little testing. Only about 1 million tests have been performed in the country of almost 130 million people since the pandemic began.

8 a.m. Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb is defending school reopenings in the face of mounting reports of students and education staff testing positive for the coronavirus since returning to classes.

Box said Wednesday that she continue(s) to believe that our schools can safely reopen. She says improved testing and hospital capacity are added safeguards for returning students for in-person learning.

The governor adds that her biggest recommendation to students and families is to know when to stay at home.

8 a.m. The Arkansas state government is requiring public schools to stay open five days a week when classes resume this month, complicating efforts by some districts to limit on-site instruction because of the coronavirus.

Education Secretary Johnny Key issued the guidance to schools Wednesday as the state reported 912 new confirmed virus cases and 18 more deaths.

The states guidance says schools must be open all five weekdays to comply with the state constitution. Some districts had planned to limit on-site instruction and use remote learning on the days that schools werent open.

Arkansas public schools are set to reopen the week of Aug. 24.

8 a.m. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee says schools in the much of the state should strongly consider online-only learning for students this fall due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Inslee also urged Wednesday that they cancel or postpone sports and all other in-person extracurricular activities.

Health experts say the virus is still spreading too extensively in the state, which saw the nations first confirmed virus case in late January. Since then, Washington has recorded more than 59,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 1,600 deaths.

8 a.m. Vermont officials say nearly 150 Vermont inmates housed in a Mississippi prison have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Vermont houses 219 inmates at the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Tutwiler, Mississippi, because of a lack of capacity in its own prisons.

Late in July, six inmates who were returned to Vermont from the private Mississippi prison tested positive when they arrived at the Rutland correctional facility. That prompted Vermonts Corrections Department to order that the remaining Vermont inmates in Mississippi be tested.

Interim Vermont Corrections Commissioner James Baker says there were 147 positive tests, 62 negative ones, two tests that are pending and eight inmates refused to be tested.

Bombardier continues to take the right actions to manage the impact of the ongoing public health crisis while protecting the business for the long-term, stated CEO Eric Martel.

The eight countries said after a closed U.N. Security Council session Wednesday that Russias presence further divides communities and puts at risk the health and lives of the conflict-affected population during the pandemic.

Deputy Russian Ambassador U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky tweeted that the statement is only a fiction.

Georgia made a botched attempt to regain control of its breakaway province of South Ossetia in 2008, setting off a short war with Russia. Moscow then recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and set up military bases there.

7:45 a.m. Bombardier Inc. says its net loss surged to $223 million (U.S.) in the second quarter on a big drop in revenues due to pandemic related disruptions.

6 a.m. The NHL says the laboratories hired to conduct daily COVID-19 tests on players in Edmonton and Toronto keep their supply chains separate from the publics to ensure never the twain shall meet.

The company, which will focus on business aircraft after the sale of its railway operations to Alstom are completed, says early trends are encouraging from new interest in private air travel.

Bombardier continues to take the right actions to manage the impact of the ongoing public health crisis while protecting the business for the long-term, stated CEO Eric Martel.

6:44 a.m. The Bank of England predicted Thursday that the economic downturn in the U.K. economy might be less severe than it thought at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic  even as it warned it would take a longer time to heal the scars.

The central bank opened the door to providing more monetary stimulus as Britain reopens after the pandemic lockdowns and said the economy probably wont return to pre-pandemic levels until the end of 2021 as spending by consumers and businesses remains weak.

It also expressed concern about rising rates of unemployment  particularly at a time in which no one knows what will happen next.

The outlook for the U.K. and global economies remains unusually uncertain, the bank said in a statement. It will depend critically on the evolution of the pandemic, measures taken to protect public health, and how governments, households and businesses respond to these.

6 a.m. The NHL says the laboratories hired to conduct daily COVID-19 tests on players in Edmonton and Toronto keep their supply chains separate from the publics to ensure never the twain shall meet.

Roughly 1,500 samples are collected and analysed daily in each city not only from players, team and NHL personnel, but from restaurant and hotel workers supporting the post-season tournament in each hub.

Prior to the NHLs restart this summer, deputy commissioner Bill Daly estimated between 25,000 and 30,000 tests will be administered through the end of the Stanley Cup final.

Aware that even a perceived conflict with public testing could sour each citys population on hosting a dozen NHL teams, the league and labs insist there isnt one.

The chief executive officer of DynaLife in Edmonton says the lab sources chemicals and machinery from manufacturers that dont supply Alberta Health Services.

A very simple analogy would be public health has chosen to run a fleet of Chevrolets and Fords as their vehicles, Jason Pincock told The Canadian Press.

5:52 a.m. Germany will require people arriving from countries considered high-risk to take coronavirus tests starting this weekend, the health minister said Thursday, as the country recorded its highest daily tally of new infections in three months.

German officials have voiced alarm over a steady upward creep in the number of new infections over recent weeks. The national disease control centre, the Robert Koch Institute, said 1,045 cases were recorded on Wednesday  the first time since May 7 that it has counted more than 1,000 cases in a day.

Daily figures can be volatile or distorted by delays in reporting, and the number is still far short of the peak of more than 6,000 reached in early April.

What we are seeing is a lot of small outbreaks, Health Minister Jens Spahn told reporters. People are getting infected at family parties, at their place of work or at community facilities.

On top of that, school holidays  the dates of which are staggered across Germanys 16 states  are ending in some regions, increasing concerns that vacationers could bring home the virus.

4 a.m. Opposition parties are hoping the imminent release of government documents related to the WE Charity affair will shed some light on how an organization with close ties to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was awarded a deal to administer a federal student grant program.

The government has until Saturday to table with the House of Commons finance committee all memos, briefing notes, correspondence and other documents related to the now-cancelled agreement.

In the meantime, however, the committees efforts to delve deeper into the controversy could be stymied due to the unavailability of key witnesses.

Dr. Proton Rahman, who is leading the team preparing models on COVID-19 in the province, will also appear as a witness Thursday.

But committee chair Wayne Easter says it could be cancelled because, as of late Wednesday, none of the invited witnesses had yet confirmed their appearance.

Thursday 5 a.m. Newfoundland and Labradors chief medical officer of health is set to take the stand Thursday in a legal challenge of a travel ban limiting entry to the province she ordered in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Janice Fitzgerald will appear as a witness at the case being heard in provincial supreme court in St. Johns this week.

The special measures order from Fitzgerald came into effect in May, banning anyone but permanent residents and workers deemed essential from entering the province.

Halifax resident Kim Taylor and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association filed a claim in May alleging the restrictions violate the charter and fall outside the provinces jurisdiction.

Taylors request to travel to Newfoundland after her mother died was initially denied and though the decision was later reversed and she was granted an exemption, she said it came too late.

Dr. Proton Rahman, who is leading the team preparing models on COVID-19 in the province, will also appear as a witness Thursday.

Thursday 2:11 a.m. A court in Myanmar on Thursday sentenced the Canadian pastor of an evangelical church to three months imprisonment after finding him guilty of violating a law intended to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

Myanmar-born David Lah was charged with flouting a ban on large gatherings by holding a religious meeting in Yangon on April 7.

Lahs lawyer, Aung Kyi Win, said the court had found his client guilty of violating an article in the Natural Disaster Management Law because he failed to comply with a directive against gatherings.

In a report, the CDC said more than a dozen adults have landed in hospitals in Arizona and New Mexico since May 1 after drinking disinfectants.

A Myanmar colleague of Lah, Wai Tun, received the same sentence.

Thursday 12:06 a.m. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that hed support an extension of payroll support for airlines as the coronavirus pandemic continues to eat away at their business.

Trumps support comes after 16 senators signed a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., asking for the extension to spare potentially tens of thousands of airline jobs that are at risk after current funding is exhausted at the end of September.

We dont want to lose our airlines, Trump told reporters at a White House briefing on Wednesday. If theyre looking at that, whether theyre Republican or Democrat, Id certainly be in favor.

Unions representing airline employees and more than 200 members of the House of Representatives have supported an extension of CARES Act funding for airlines, which received $25 billion from Congress when it passed the law in March.

10:30 p.m. Wednesday At least four people have died after swallowing hand sanitizer during the coronavirus pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday.

In a report, the CDC said more than a dozen adults have landed in hospitals in Arizona and New Mexico since May 1 after drinking disinfectants.

Alcohol-based hand sanitizer products should never be ingested, the CDC said in the report.

In addition to the four fatalities, which included a trio of people in their 30s, another three patients suffered visual impairment after swallowing sanitizer, according to health authorities.

The cases involved methanol, a toxic substance, the CDC said. The Federal Drug Administration has issued warnings about sanitizers containing methanol and has piled up a list of more than 100 types of cleaners that it advises Americans to avoid.

Wednesday 8:15 p.m.: As COVID-19 remains in the community, B.C. health officials say so does the anxiety and stress that comes with the uncertainly and increased isolation.

A joint statement from Health Minister Adrian Dix and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says younger people may not understand why activities they enjoyed have been restricted, and they urged family members and friends to offer mental health support.

The government announced 47 new positive tests of COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing the total number of cases to 3,834.

There are 351 active cases of COVID-19, with nine people hospitalized and six of those are in intensive care.

There have been no new deaths since the provinces last update and the toll stands at 195.

Dix and Henry asked B.C. residents to treat the summer of 2020 as a time of consideration and care for others.

Wednesday 6:05 p.m.: As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, Ontarios regional health units are reporting a total of 41,760 confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19, including 2,821 deaths, up 78 new infections in 24 hours.

The province continues to be at its lowest rate of new infections since well before the pandemic first peaked in Ontario in the spring. Ontario has averaged 96 cases per day over the last seven days, down from a peak of nearly 600 daily, seen in mid-April.

On Wednesday, 20 of Ontario 34 health units reported no new cases; none reported more than 20 cases.

Meanwhile, one fatal case was reported Wednesday in the province, in Chatham-Kent. The southwestern Ontario health unit is the only area of the province thats currently experiencing its worst rate of infection since the beginning of the pandemic  a still-relatively low 8.3 cases per day over the last week.

Earlier Wednesday, the province reported that 66 Ontarians are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, including 30 in intensive care, of whom 15 are on a ventilator.

The Stars count includes some patients reported as probable COVID-19 cases, meaning they have symptoms and contacts or travel history that indicate they very likely have the disease, but have not yet received a positive lab test.

The province cautions its separate data, published daily at 10:30 a.m., may be incomplete or out of date due to delays in the reporting system, saying that in the event of a discrepancy, data reported by (the health units) should be considered the most up to date.

Read Wednesday rolling file
FLAGSTAFF  An Arizona court has set bond for an Air Force airman charged in the fatal shooting of a Sunday school teacher who was living in northwestern New Mexico at $2 million cash only.

Mark Gooch became eligible for bond after the deadline passed for prosecutors to pursue the death penalty in the case. Gooch is facing life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder and other charges in the death of Sasha Krause.

The 27-year-old Mennonite woman disappeared from her church community outside Farmington in January as she was gathering materials for a Sunday school class. Her body was found more than a month later in a forest clearing near Flagstaff with her hands bound with duct tape.

Coconino County Superior Court Judge Cathleen Brown Nichols weighed more than a dozen factors in setting the bail amount Thursday during a hearing in the case. Those included the wishes of the victims, Goochs history and the evidence already presented in the case.

The court does believe that if the defendant is released, he poses a risk to other members of the community if he, in fact, committed this offense, she said.

Gooch, a 21-year-old who was stationed at Luke Air Force base near Phoenix, is being held at the Coconino County jail in Flagstaff.

Authorities used cellphone records to tie him to Krause, but they have not said what led him to her. Testing of a bullet that was taken from her skull determined it was fired from a rifle owned by Gooch, authorities said.

Goochs attorney, Matthew Springer, pointed to Goochs lack of criminal history in arguing for bail. He didnt advocate for a certain amount, but said whatever concerns prosecutors and Krauses family might have could be addressed in the conditions of release.

Regardless of the evidence in this case, he still has the presumption of innocence, Springer said. I know the state seems confident in the evidence they have in this case  but we have our defenses, certainly, in this case, as well.

Prosecutor Ammon Barker requested at least a $2 million cash-only bond, saying Gooch has exhibited a pattern of animosity against the Mennonite community that he grew up in.

The victims in this case do not want this defendant released for obvious reasons, he said. He killed their daughter and they expressed they would only feel safe if he remains in jail.

Barker said prosecutors intend to take the case to trial, but would consider a plea offer made by the defense.

The next hearing in the case is set for late September.
BOSTON, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE: IRM), the storage and information management services company, announces financial and operating results for the second quarter of 2020. The conference call / webcast details, earnings call presentation and supplemental financial information, which includes definitions of certain capitalized terms used in this release, are available on Iron Mountain's Investor Relations website. Reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the appropriate GAAP measures are included herein.

"I am proud of the way our organization quickly adapted to the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic and is navigating the environment ever since," said William L. Meaney, president and CEO of Iron Mountain. "A crisis such as COVID tests us on many levels and we are pleased that from the beginning of this crisis, we have taken decisive, yet thoughtful, action to help keep our Mountaineers, their families, and our customers safe all whilst meeting our customers' business needs around the world. At the same time, we took purposeful steps to further strengthen our financial position and liquidity, enhancing our flexibility to continue to invest in our business for the long term, and reward our shareholders with a sustainable dividend. On a less positive front, we found through reflection after the murder of George Floyd, that whilst we have made progress living up to our stated value around building diverse and inclusive teams, we have fallen well short of our intended - and necessary - objectives. For Iron Mountain, Diversity and Inclusion is about social justice as well as a business imperative. It is only by achieving a truly diverse and inclusive workplace, that we will be assured to have both the best talent as well as the level of creativity to continue to serve our customers in the best possible ways. We have recommitted ourselves to this value and are making the necessary changes to make better and faster progress in this area."

Meaney commented on the second-quarter results, "Although our business faced unprecedented challenges and added complexity as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, our team performed very well during the second quarter, and our results demonstrated the durability and resiliency of our core Storage business. In our Service business, we experienced improvements in our activity levels in June as compared to April and May, across our various product lines.

The early benefits of Project Summit are evident in our results, with $65 million of Adjusted EBITDA benefits realized in the first half from our transformation initiatives. We delivered constant currency Adjusted EBITDA in line with the year-ago level, despite a $58 million revenue decline, resulting in 200 basis points of margin expansion. Our Global Data Center business continues to perform exceptionally well, with strong commercial successes and a growing pipeline. Whilst a high degree of uncertainty remains as we look to the back half of the year, we are confident that the value of Iron Mountain's new, as well as existing offerings, are even more relevant to our customers today. We remain committed to delivering solutions which address our customers' needs both today and well into the future."

Financial Performance Highlights for the Second Quarter and Year-to-Date 2020

Total reported Revenues for the second quarter were $982.2 million , compared with $1.1 billion in the second quarter of 2019, a decline of 7.9%. Excluding the impact of foreign exchange (FX), total reported Revenues declined 5.6% compared to the prior year, driven by a 21.3% decline in Service revenue, partially offset by a 3.7% increase in Storage revenue. Year to date, total reported Revenues decreased 3.3%, or 1.2%, excluding the impact of FX.

, compared with in the second quarter of 2019, a decline of 7.9%. Excluding the impact of foreign exchange (FX), total reported Revenues declined 5.6% compared to the prior year, driven by a 21.3% decline in Service revenue, partially offset by a 3.7% increase in Storage revenue. Year to date, total reported Revenues decreased 3.3%, or 1.2%, excluding the impact of FX. Loss from Continuing Operations for the second quarter was $7.1 million , compared with Income from Continuing Operations of $92.3 million in the second quarter of 2019. Loss from Continuing Operations in the second quarter of 2020 included Restructuring Charges of $39.3 million associated with Project Summit and a debt extinguishment charge of $17.0 million related to the early extinguishment of the Company's 4 3/8 % Senior Notes due 2021 and the 6% Senior Notes due 2023. Income from Continuing Operations in the second quarter of 2019 included $1.9 million of Significant Acquisition Costs. Year to date, Income from Continuing Operations was $57.8 million , compared with $122.8 million in 2019. Income from Continuing Operations in 2020 included Restructuring Charges of $80.3 million and Income from Continuing Operations in 2019 included Significant Acquisition Costs of $4.6 million .

, compared with Income from Continuing Operations of in the second quarter of 2019. Loss from Continuing Operations in the second quarter of 2020 included Restructuring Charges of associated with Project Summit and a debt extinguishment charge of related to the early extinguishment of the Company's 4 % Senior Notes due 2021 and the 6% Senior Notes due 2023. Income from Continuing Operations in the second quarter of 2019 included of Significant Acquisition Costs. Year to date, Income from Continuing Operations was , compared with in 2019. Income from Continuing Operations in 2020 included Restructuring Charges of and Income from Continuing Operations in 2019 included Significant Acquisition Costs of . Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter was $342.9 million , compared with $350.9 million in the second quarter of 2019. On a constant currency basis, Adjusted EBITDA decreased by 0.1%, driven in part by the aforementioned decline in Service revenue, partially offset by the benefits of Project Summit and the flow through from revenue management, leading to 200 basis points of Adjusted EBITDA margin expansion compared to the second quarter of 2019. Year to date, Adjusted EBITDA was $706.0 million , compared with $675.4 million in 2019, and increased 6.6%, excluding the impact of FX.

, compared with in the second quarter of 2019. On a constant currency basis, Adjusted EBITDA decreased by 0.1%, driven in part by the aforementioned decline in Service revenue, partially offset by the benefits of Project Summit and the flow through from revenue management, leading to 200 basis points of Adjusted EBITDA margin expansion compared to the second quarter of 2019. Year to date, Adjusted EBITDA was , compared with in 2019, and increased 6.6%, excluding the impact of FX. Reported EPS - Fully Diluted from Continuing Operations for the second quarter was $(0.02) , compared with $0.32 in the second quarter of 2019. Year to date, Reported EPS - Fully Diluted from Continuing Operations was $0.20 , compared with $0.42 in 2019.

, compared with in the second quarter of 2019. Year to date, Reported EPS - Fully Diluted from Continuing Operations was , compared with in 2019. Adjusted EPS for the second quarter was $0.22 , compared with $0.23 in the second quarter of 2019. Year to date, Adjusted EPS was $0.49 , compared with $0.40 in 2019. The structural tax rate was 17.1% in the second quarter of 2020, compared with 17.7% in the second quarter of 2019.

, compared with in the second quarter of 2019. Year to date, Adjusted EPS was , compared with in 2019. The structural tax rate was 17.1% in the second quarter of 2020, compared with 17.7% in the second quarter of 2019. Net Loss for the second quarter was $7.1 million compared with Net Income of $92.5 million in the second quarter of 2019. Net Loss in the second quarter of 2020 included the aforementioned Restructuring Charges related to Project Summit and debt extinguishment charge. Year to date, Net Income was $57.8 million compared with $122.9 million in 2019.

compared with Net Income of in the second quarter of 2019. Net Loss in the second quarter of 2020 included the aforementioned Restructuring Charges related to Project Summit and debt extinguishment charge. Year to date, Net Income was compared with in 2019. FFO (Normalized) per share was $0.53 for the second quarter, compared with $0.54 in the second quarter of 2019, or a decrease of 1.9%. Year to date, FFO (Normalized) per share was $1.12 , compared with $1.02 in 2019.

for the second quarter, compared with in the second quarter of 2019, or a decrease of 1.9%. Year to date, FFO (Normalized) per share was , compared with in 2019. AFFO was $249.5 million for the second quarter, compared with $209.6 million in the second quarter of 2019, an increase of 19.0%. As compared to Adjusted EBITDA, the increase in AFFO was primarily driven by a tax refund. Year to date, AFFO was $480.7 million , compared with $403.0 million in 2019.

Dividend

On August 5, 2020, Iron Mountain's board of directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.6185 per share for the third quarter. The third-quarter 2020 dividend is payable on October 2, 2020, for shareholders of record on September 15, 2020.

About Iron Mountain

Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE: IRM), founded in 1951, is the global leader for storage and information management services. Trusted by more than 225,000 organizations around the world, and with a real estate network of more than 90 million square feet across more than 1,480 facilities in approximately 50 countries, Iron Mountain stores and protects billions of valued assets, including critical business information, highly sensitive data, and cultural and historical artifacts. Providing solutions that include secure records storage, information management, digital transformation, secure destruction, as well as data centers, cloud services and art storage and logistics, Iron Mountain helps customers lower cost and risk, comply with regulations, recover from disaster, and enable a more digital way of working. Visit www.ironmountain.com for more information.

Investor Relations Contacts:



Greer Aviv

Nathan McCurren Senior Vice President, Investor Relations

Director, Investor Relations [email protected]

[email protected] (617) 535-2887

(617) 535-2997

Forward Looking Statements

Safe Harbor Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other securities laws and is subject to the safe-harbor created by such Act. Forward-looking statements include, but are not, limited to statements concerning our operations, economic performance, financial condition, goals, beliefs, future growth strategies, plans and current expectations, such as statements about: (i) expectations for the remainder of 2020, (ii) the expected impact of COVID-19 on our operations and financial conditions, (iii) new service offerings, (iv) expected benefits, costs and actions related to Project Summit; (v) planned 2020 capital expenditures, M&A and other investments; (vi) stabilization of our data center developments and expectation as to data center leasing activity for 2020; (vii) expectations with respect to change in volume of records stored with us; (viii) expectations related to our revenue management programs and continuous improvement initiatives, (ix) the durability of our core storage business, (x) our expected leverage; (xi) our dividend policy and targeted dividend payments; and (xii) longer term capital allocation, strategy and other goals. When we use words such as "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "estimates" or similar expressions, we are making forward-looking statements. Although we believe that our forward looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, our expected results may not be achieved, and actual results may differ materially from our expectations.

These forward-looking statements are subject to various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ from expectations include the (i) impact of COVID-19 on our operations, (ii) our ability to remain qualified for taxation as a real estate investment trust for U.S. federal income tax purposes; (iii) the adoption of alternative technologies and shifts by our customers to storage of data through non-paper based technologies; (iv) changes in customer preferences and demand for our storage and information management services; (v) the cost and our ability to comply with laws, regulations and customer demands relating to data security and privacy issues, as well as fire and safety standards; (vi) our ability or inability to execute our strategic growth plan, expand internationally, complete acquisitions on satisfactory terms, and to integrate acquired companies efficiently; (vii) changes in the amount of our growth and recurring capital expenditures and our ability to raise capital and invest according to plan; (viii) the impact of litigation or disputes that may arise in connection with incidents in which we fail to protect our customers' information or our internal records or IT systems and the impact of such incidents on our reputation and ability to compete; (ix) our ability to execute on Project Summit and the potential impacts of Project Summit on our ability to retain and recruit employees and execute on our strategy (x) changes in the price for our storage and information management services relative to the cost of providing such storage and information management services; (xi) changes in the political and economic environments in the countries in which our international subsidiaries operate and changes in the global political climate; (xii) the impact of executing on our growth strategy through joint ventures; (xiii) our ability to comply with our existing debt obligations and restrictions in our debt instruments or to obtain additional financing to meet our working capital needs; (xiv) the impact of service interruptions or equipment damage and the cost of power on our data center operations; (xv) changes in the cost of our debt; (xvi) the impact of alternative, more attractive investments on dividends; (xvii) the cost or potential liabilities associated with real estate necessary for our business; (xviii) the performance of business partners upon whom we depend for technical assistance or management expertise; (xix) other trends in competitive or economic conditions affecting our financial condition or results of operations not presently contemplated; and (xx) other risks described more fully in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including under the caption "Risk Factors" in our periodic reports or incorporated therein. You should not rely upon forward-looking statements except as statements of our present intentions and of our present expectations, which may or may not occur. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to release publicly the result of any revision to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Measures:

Throughout this release, Iron Mountain discusses (1) Adjusted EBITDA, (2) Adjusted Earnings per Share ("Adjusted EPS"), (3) Funds from Operations ("FFO Nareit"), (4) FFO (Normalized) and (5) Adjusted Funds from Operations ("AFFO"). These measures do not conform to accounting principles generally accepted in the United States ("GAAP"). These non-GAAP measures are supplemental metrics designed to enhance our disclosure and to provide additional information that we believe to be important for investors to consider in addition to, but not as a substitute for, other measures of financial performance reported in accordance with GAAP, such as operating income, income (loss) from continuing operations, net income (loss) attributable to Iron Mountain Incorporated or cash flows from operating activities from continuing operations (as determined in accordance with GAAP). The reconciliation of these measures to the appropriate GAAP measure, as required by Regulation G under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and their definitions are included later in this release.

Consolidated Balance Sheets

(Unaudited; dollars in thousands)





6/30/2020

12/31/2019 ASSETS







Current Assets:







Cash and Cash Equivalents

$907,180



$193,555

Accounts Receivable, Net

805,901



850,701

Other Current Assets

184,292



192,083

Total Current Assets

$1,897,373



$1,236,339

Property, Plant and Equipment:







Property, Plant and Equipment

$8,074,520



$8,048,906

Less: Accumulated Depreciation

(3,538,792)



(3,425,869)

Property, Plant and Equipment, Net

$4,535,728



$4,623,037

Other Assets, Net:







Goodwill

$4,421,062



$4,485,209

Customer Relationships, Customer Inducements and Data Center Lease-Based Intangibles

1,346,282



1,393,183

Operating Lease Right-of-use Assets

1,947,665



1,869,101

Other

219,443



209,947

Total Other Assets, Net

$7,934,452



$7,957,440

Total Assets

$14,367,553



$13,816,816











LIABILITIES AND EQUITY







Current Liabilities:







Current Portion of Long-term Debt

$880,212



$389,013

Accounts Payable

296,629



324,708

Accrued Expenses and Other Current Liabilities

954,396



961,752

Deferred Revenue

252,034



274,036

Total Current Liabilities

$2,383,271



$1,949,509

Long-term Debt, Net of Current Portion

8,750,116



8,275,566

Long-term Operating Lease Liabilities

1,802,494



1,728,686

Other Long-term Liabilities (1)

407,341



398,828

Total Long-term Liabilities

$10,959,951



$10,403,080

Total Liabilities

$13,343,222



$12,352,589

Equity







Total Stockholders' Equity

$1,024,300



$1,463,962

Noncontrolling Interests

31



265

Total Equity

$1,024,331



$1,464,227

Total Liabilities and Equity

$14,367,553



$13,816,816





(1) Includes redeemable noncontrolling interests of $63.5M and $67.7M as of June 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019, respectively.

Consolidated Statements of Operations

(Unaudited; dollars in thousands, except per-share data)



Q2 2020

Q2 2019

% Change



YTD 2020

YTD 2019

% Change Revenues:























Storage Rental $676,956

$669,288

1.1 %



$1,360,503

$1,332,262

2.1 % Service 305,283

397,619

(23.2) %



690,467

788,508

(12.4) % Total Revenues $982,239

$1,066,907

(7.9) %



$2,050,970

$2,120,770

(3.3) %

























Operating Expenses:























Cost of Sales (excluding Depreciation and Amortization) (1) $406,693

$463,809

(12.3) %



$873,614

$924,455

(5.5) % Selling, General and Administrative (2) 241,947

252,156

(4.0) %



480,680

520,867

(7.7) % Depreciation and Amortization 163,850

164,331

(0.3) %



326,434

326,814

(0.1) % Significant Acquisition Costs 

1,901

n/a







4,647

n/a

Restructuring Charges 39,298



n/a





80,344



n/a

Intangible Impairments 



n/a





23,000



n/a

(Gain) Loss on Disposal/Write-Down of PP&E, Net (1,275)

(8,405)

(84.8) %



(2,330)

(7,803)

(70.1) % Total Operating Expenses $850,513

$873,792

(2.7) %



$1,781,742

$1,768,980

0.7 %

























Operating Income (Loss) $131,726

$193,115

(31.8) %



$269,228

$351,790

(23.5) % Interest Expense, Net 103,456

105,314

(1.8) %



209,105

207,750

0.7 % Foreign Currency Transaction Loss / (Gain) 1,471

(19,331)

n/a





(35,928)

(1,634)

n/a

Debt Extinguishment Expense 17,040



n/a





17,040



n/a

Other Expense (Income), Net 7,189

4,139

73.7 %



1,862

1,652

12.7 % Income (Loss) before Provision (Benefit) for Income Taxes $2,570

$102,993

(97.5) %



$77,149

$144,022

(46.4) % Provision (Benefit) for Income Taxes 9,683

10,646

(9.0) %



19,370

21,199

(8.6) % (Loss) Income from Continuing Operations $(7,113)

$92,347

(107.7) %



$57,779

$122,823

(53.0) % (Loss) Income from Discontinued Operations, Net of Tax 

128

n/a







104

n/a

Net (Loss) Income $(7,113)

$92,475

(107.7) %



$57,779

$122,927

(53.0) % Less: Net (Loss) Income Attributable to Noncontrolling Interests (27)

34

n/a





890

925

(3.7) % Net (Loss) Income Attributable to Iron Mountain Incorporated $(7,086)

$92,441

(107.7) %



$56,889

$122,002

(53.4) %

























(Losses) Earnings per Share - Basic:























(Loss) Income from Continuing Operations $(0.02)

$0.32

(106.3) %



$0.20

$0.43

(53.5) % Total Income (Loss) from Discontinued Operations 



n/a









n/a

Net (Loss) Income Attributable to Iron Mountain Incorporated $(0.02)

$0.32

(106.3) %



$0.20

$0.43

(53.5) %

























(Losses) Earnings per Share - Diluted:























(Loss) Income from Continuing Operations $(0.02)

$0.32

(106.3) %



$0.20

$0.42

(52.4) % Total Income (Loss) from Discontinued Operations 



n/a









n/a

Net (Loss) Income Attributable to Iron Mountain Incorporated $(0.02)

$0.32

(106.3) %



$0.20

$0.42

(52.4) %

























Weighted Average Common Shares Outstanding - Basic 288,071

286,925

0.4 %



287,955

286,727

0.4 % Weighted Average Common Shares Outstanding - Diluted 288,071

287,481

0.2 %



288,301

287,487

0.3 %



(1) Includes $7.6M of direct and incremental costs related to COVID-19 in Q2 and YTD 2020. (2) Includes $1.6M of direct and incremental costs related to COVID-19 in Q2 and YTD 2020.

Reconciliation of Income from Continuing Operations to Adjusted EBITDA

(Dollars in thousands)



Q2 2020

Q2 2019

% Change



YTD 2020

YTD 2019

% Change

























(Loss) Income from Continuing Operations $(7,113)

$92,347

(107.7) %



$57,779

$122,823

(53.0) %

























Add / (Deduct):























Intangible Impairments 



n/a





23,000



n/a

Provision (Benefit) for Income Taxes 9,683

10,646

(9.0) %



19,370

21,199

(8.6) % Foreign Currency Transaction Loss / (Gain) 1,471

(19,331)

n/a





(35,928)

(1,634)

n/a

Other Expense (Income), Net 7,189

4,139

73.7 %



1,862

1,652

12.7 % Debt Extinguishment Expense 17,040



n/a





17,040



n/a

Interest Expense, Net 103,456

105,314

(1.8) %



209,105

207,750

0.7 % (Gain) Loss on Disposal/Write-Down of PP&E, Net (1,275)

(8,405)

(84.8) %



(2,330)

(7,803)

(70.1) % Depreciation and Amortization 163,850

164,331

(0.3) %



326,434

326,814

(0.1) % Significant Acquisition Costs 

1,901

n/a







4,647

n/a

Restructuring Charges 39,298



n/a





80,344



n/a

COVID-19 Costs 9,285



n/a





9,285



n/a

Adjusted EBITDA $342,884

$350,942

(2.3) %



$705,961

$675,448

4.5 %

Adjusted EBITDA

Adjusted EBITDA is defined as (loss) income from continuing operations before interest expense, net, provision (benefit) for income taxes, depreciation and amortization, and also excludes certain items that we believe are not indicative of our core operating results, specifically: (i) (gain) loss on disposal/write-down of property, plant and equipment, net (including real estate); (ii) intangible impairments; (iii) other expense (income), net (which includes foreign currency transaction (gains) losses, net, and debt extinguishment expense); (iv) Significant Acquisition Costs; (v) Restructuring Charges; and (vi) COVID-19 Costs. Adjusted EBITDA Margin is calculated by dividing Adjusted EBITDA by total revenues. We use multiples of current or projected Adjusted EBITDA in conjunction with our discounted cash flow models to determine our estimated overall enterprise valuation and to evaluate acquisition targets. We believe Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin provide our current and potential investors with relevant and useful information regarding our ability to generate cash flows to support business investment. These measures are an integral part of the internal reporting system we use to assess and evaluate the operating performance of our business.

Adjusted EBITDA excludes both interest expense, net and the provision (benefit) for income taxes. These expenses are associated with our capitalization and tax structures, which we do not consider when evaluating the operating profitability of our core operations. Finally, Adjusted EBITDA does not include depreciation and amortization expenses, in order to eliminate the impact of capital investments, which we evaluate by comparing capital expenditures to incremental revenue generated and as a percentage of total revenues. Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin should be considered in addition to, but not as a substitute for, other measures of financial performance reported in accordance with GAAP, such as operating income, (loss) income from continuing operations, net (loss) income or cash flows from operating activities from continuing operations (as determined in accordance with GAAP).

Reconciliation of Reported Earnings per Share to Adjusted Earnings per Share



Q2 2020

Q2 2019

% Change



YTD 2020

YTD 2019

% Change

























Reported EPS - Fully Diluted from Continuing Operations $(0.02)



$0.32



(106.3) %



$0.20



$0.42



(52.4) %

























Add / (Deduct):























Intangible Impairments 













0.08









Other Expense (Income), Net 0.09



(0.05)









(0.06)









(Gain) Loss on Disposal/Write-Down of PP&E, Net 



(0.03)









(0.01)



(0.03)





Significant Acquisition Costs 



0.01













0.02





Restructuring Charges 0.14













0.28









COVID-19 Costs 0.03













0.03









Tax Impact of Reconciling Items and Discrete Tax Items (1) (0.01)



(0.01)









(0.03)



(0.01)





Adjusted EPS - Fully Diluted from Continuing Operations $0.22



$0.23



(4.3) %



$0.49



$0.40



22.5 %



(1) The difference between our effective tax rates and our structural tax rate (or adjusted effective tax rates) for the quarters ended June 30, 2020 and 2019, is primarily due to (i) the reconciling items above, which impact our reported income (loss) from continuing operations before provision (benefit) for income taxes but have an insignificant impact on our reported provision (benefit) for income taxes and (ii) other discrete tax items. Our structural tax rate for purposes of the calculation of Adjusted EPS for the three and six months ended June 30 2020 and 2019 was 17.1% and 17.7%, respectively. The Tax Impact of Reconciling Items and Discrete Tax Items is calculated using the current quarter's estimate of the annual structural tax rate for the full year. This may result in the current period adjustment plus prior reported quarterly adjustments to not sum to the full year adjustment.

Adjusted Earnings Per Share, or Adjusted EPS

Adjusted EPS is defined as reported earnings per share fully diluted from continuing operations excluding: (i) (gain) loss on disposal/write-down of property, plant and equipment, net (including real estate); (ii) intangible impairments; (iii) other expense (income), net (which includes foreign currency transaction (gains) losses, net, and debt extinguishment expense); (iv) Significant Acquisition Costs; (v) Restructuring Charges; (vi) COVID-19 Costs; and (vii) the tax impact of reconciling items and discrete tax items. Adjusted EPS includes income (loss) attributable to noncontrolling interests. We do not believe these excluded items to be indicative of our ongoing operating results, and they are not considered when we are forecasting our future results. We believe Adjusted EPS is of value to our current and potential investors when comparing our results from past, present and future periods.

Reconciliation of Net Income Attributable to IRM to FFO and AFFO

(Dollars in thousands, except per-share data)



Q2 2020

Q2 2019

% Change



YTD 2020

YTD 2019

% Change

























Net Income $(7,113)

$92,475

(107.7) %



$57,779

$122,927

(53.0) % Add / (Deduct):























Real Estate Depreciation (1) 75,719

74,161

2.1 %



152,306

147,240

3.4 % (Gain) Loss on Sale of Real Estate, Net of Tax (1,089)

(30,512)

(96.4) %



(1,581)

(30,512)

(94.8) % Data Center Lease-Based Intangible Asset Amortization (2) 10,379

11,372

(8.7) %



21,732

23,981

(9.4) %

























FFO (NAREIT) $77,896

$147,496

(47.2) %



$230,236

$263,636

(12.7) % Add / (Deduct):























(Gain) Loss on Disposal/Write-Down of PP&E, Net (155)

27,587

n/a





(399)

28,189

n/a

Foreign Currency Transaction Loss / (Gain) 1,471

(19,331)

n/a





(35,928)

(1,634)

n/a

Debt Extinguishment Expense 17,040









17,040





Other Expense (Income) , Net 7,189

4,139

73.7 %



1,862

1,652

12.7 % Intangible Impairments 









(10,144)

(15,008)



Tax Impact of Reconciling Items and Discrete Tax Items (3) (3,241)

(10,168)

(68.1) %



(10,053)

(10,144)

(0.9) % (Income) Loss from Discontinued Operations, Net of Tax 

(128)

n/a







(104)

n/a

Real Estate Financing Lease Depreciation 3,431

3,113

10.2 %



6,594

6,617

(0.3) % Significant Acquisition Costs 

1,901

n/a







4,647

n/a

Restructuring Charges 39,298



n/a





80,344



n/a

COVID-19 Costs 9,285



n/a





9,285



n/a

FFO (Normalized) $152,214

$154,609

(1.5) %



$321,981

$292,859

9.9 %

























Per Share Amounts (Fully Diluted Shares)























FFO (Nareit) $0.27

$0.51

(47.1) %



$0.80

$0.92

(13.0) % FFO (Normalized) $0.53

$0.54

(1.9) %



$1.12

$1.02

9.8 %

























Weighted Average Common Shares Outstanding - Basic 288,071

286,925

0.4 %



287,955

286,727

0.4 % Weighted Average Common Shares Outstanding - Diluted 288,071

287,481

0.2 %



288,301

287,487

0.3 %



(1) Includes depreciation expense related to owned real estate assets (land improvements, buildings, building improvements, leasehold improvements and racking), excluding depreciation related to financing leases. (2) Includes amortization expense for Data Center In-Place Lease Intangible Assets and Data Center Tenant Relationship Intangible Assets. (3) Represents the tax impact of (i) the reconciling items above, which impact our reported income (loss) from continuing operations before provision (benefit) for income taxes but have an insignificant impact on our reported provision (benefit) from income taxes and (ii) other discrete tax items.

Funds From Operations, or FFO (Nareit), and FFO (Normalized)

Funds from operations ("FFO") is defined by the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts ("Nareit") and us as net (loss) income excluding depreciation on real estate assets, gains on sale of real estate, net of tax and amortization of data center leased-based intangibles ("FFO (Nareit)"). FFO (Nareit) does not give effect to real estate depreciation because these amounts are computed, under GAAP, to allocate the cost of a property over its useful life. Because values for well-maintained real estate assets have historically increased or decreased based upon prevailing market conditions, we believe that FFO (Nareit) provides investors with a clearer view of our operating performance. Our most directly comparable GAAP measure to FFO (Nareit) is net (loss) income. Although Nareit has published a definition of FFO, modifications to FFO (Nareit) are common among REITs as companies seek to provide financial measures that most meaningfully reflect their particular business. Our definition of FFO (Normalized) excludes certain items included in FFO (Nareit) that we believe are not indicative of our core operating results, specifically: (i) (gain) loss on disposal/write-down of property, plant and equipment (excluding real estate), net; (ii) intangible impairments; (iii) other expense (income), net (which includes foreign currency transaction (gains) losses, net, and debt extinguishment expense); (iv) real estate financing lease depreciation; (v) Significant Acquisition Costs; (vi) Restructuring Charges; (vii) COVID-19 Costs; (viii) the tax impact of reconciling items and discrete tax items; (ix) loss (income) from discontinued operations, net of tax; and (x) loss (gain) on sale of discontinued operations, net of tax.

FFO (Normalized) per share

FFO (Normalized) divided by weighted average fully-diluted shares outstanding.

Reconciliation of Net Income Attributable to IRM to FFO and AFFO (continued)

(Dollars in thousands)



Q2 2020

Q2 2019

% Change

YTD 2020

YTD 2019

% Change























FFO (Normalized) $152,214

$154,609

(1.5) %

$321,981

$292,859

9.9 % Add / (Deduct):





















Non-Real Estate Depreciation 33,779

36,447

(7.3) %

67,728

74,475

(9.1) % Amortization Expense (1) 34,526

33,303

3.7 %

66,433

64,620

2.8 % Amortization of Deferred Financing Costs 4,488

4,100

9.5 %

9,001

8,208

9.7 % Revenue Reduction Associated with Amortization of Permanent Withdrawal Fees and Above - and Below-Market Leases 2,566

3,534

(27.4) %

5,248

7,179

(26.9) % Non-Cash Rent Expense (Income) 2,952

2,632

12.2 %

5,497

2,015

n/a

Stock-based Compensation Expense 18,857

12,501

50.8 %

23,943

21,020

13.9 % Reconciliation to Normalized Cash Taxes 27,050

(6,252)

n/a



29,226

(10,864)

n/a

Less:





















Non-Real Estate Growth Investment (2) 11,764

3,687

n/a



20,142

13,094

53.8 % Real Estate, Data Center and Non-Real Estate Recurring CapEx 15,203

27,563

(44.8) %

28,207

43,397

(35.0) % AFFO $249,465

$209,624

19.0 %

$480,708

$403,022

19.3 %



(1) Includes Customer Relationship Value, intake costs, acquisition of customer relationships, and other intangibles. Excludes amortization of capitalized commissions of $6.0M and $5.9M in Q2 2020 and Q2 2019, respectively, and $11.6M and $9.9M in YTD 2020 and YTD 2019, respectively. (2) Non-Real Estate Growth Investment CapEx excludes CapEx associated with Project Summit of $2.0M and $2.0M in Q2 2020 and YTD 2020, respectively.

Adjusted Funds From Operations, or AFFO

AFFO is defined as FFO (Normalized) excluding non-cash rent expense or income plus depreciation on non-real estate assets, amortization expense associated with customer relationship value (CRV), intake costs, acquisitions of customer relationships and other intangibles, and excluding amortization expense associated with capitalized internal commissions, amortization of deferred financing costs, revenue reduction associated with amortization of permanent withdrawal fees and above-and below-market data center leases, stock-based compensation expense and the impact of reconciling to normalized cash taxes, less recurring capital expenditures and non-real estate growth investments, excluding Significant Acquisition Capital Expenditures. We believe AFFO is a useful measure in determining our ability to generate excess cash that may be used for reinvestment in the business, discretionary deployment in investments such as real estate or acquisition opportunities, returning capital to our stockholders and voluntary prepayments of indebtedness. Additionally AFFO is reconciled to cash flow from operations to adjust for real estate and REIT tax adjustments, Significant Acquisition Costs, Restructuring Charges, and other non-cash expenses. AFFO does not include adjustments for customer inducements, acquisition of customer relationships and investment in innovation as we consider these expenditures to be growth related.

SOURCE Iron Mountain Incorporated

Related Links

http://www.ironmountain.com


The spokesperson to President Muhammadu Buhari, Femi Adesina, has berated efforts of young Nigerians who came out on Wednesday to protest against the unchecked level of insecurity and corruption in the country.

Using the #RevolutionNow tag, scores of protesters, especially the youth, in at least five states across the country, took to the streets to call out the Buhari-led administration on the countrys growing debt profile, insurgency, unemployment and other anomalies that are gradually becoming norms in the country.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how scores of these young protesters were manhandled, arrested, and detained by the countrys security agencies in different states.

However, Mr Adesina, in a rather mockery manner, described the event as an irritation because it was not in conformity with the current administrations acceptable definition of what a revolution protest should be.

Revolutions by their nature are points well known. Revolutions are something that turn the normal order, will you call what happened yesterday a revolution? It was just an irritation, he said on Thursday morning on Channel TV breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily.

Protests by any nature are spontaneous things, they are mass things, but those are just a sprinkle of people trying to be funny.

As far as I am concerned, it is nothing to worry about, because when you talk of a revolution, a revolution is always a mass thing, not those sprinkle of young boys and girls you saw in different parts of the country. I think it was just a funny thing to call such a revolution protest, Mr Adesina.

In his argument, the presidents spokesperson dismissed the protest on the ground that it was carried out by a smaller percentage of Nigerias teaming population.

When challenged by the programme presenters to have talked down on the protesters, Mr Adesina insisted that he is standing by it.

I stand by it. In a country of over 200 million people, if you see that sprinkle of people saying they are doing a revolution march, it is like a childs play, he added.
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Soon we will no longer integrate with Facebook for story comments. The commenting option is not going away, however, readers will need to register for a FREE site account to continue sharing their thoughts and feedback on stories. If you already have an account (i.e. current subscribers, posting in obituary guestbooks, for submitting community events), you may use that login, otherwise, you will be prompted to create a new account.
Rivertrace joins forces with Prevention at Sea

Market leading developers of smart water quality monitoring technology, Rivertrace Limited have integrated the multi Lloyds List awarded e-ORB (PAS electronic Oil Record Book) software application developed by maritime technology and marine risk prevention firm, Prevention at Sea Ltd into their SMARTSAFE ORB bilge overboard security system monitoring equipment.

The bringing together of the two systems through an API created by digital technology provider Intellore, will allow data collected by Rivertraces SMARTSAFE ORB to be automatically entered into the certified Electronic Oil Record Book, the Prevention at Sea ?-ORB, removing the need for manual entries.



The SMARTSAFE -ORB has been developed under a newly formed joint venture SENS?AS, in which both companies are exclusively working together to develop sensor technology with maritime software to provide the industry with a smarter, simpler way to improve processes and recording data.



Rivertrace originally developed SMARTSAFE ORB as a complete interlocked system that enables the electronic recording of discharges, to prevent the use of Magic Pipes, illegal discharges and to minimise discrepancies in a ships oil record book. In its simplest form, SMARTSAFE ?-ORB utilises GPS and records each event of the bilge water discharge process.



Recent updates to SMARTSAFE ORB have made the system smaller and lighter with installation requirements simplified. The system now features a camera that is integrated into the separator interface to capture tampering for increased security.



The integration of Prevention at Seas -ORB software application will now allow users to replace traditional paper oil record books (ORB) (Part I and Part II) and facilitate accurate ORB entries into an efficient electronic format. This prevents the input of vague entries, incorrect ORB format and code mismatches and supports automatic and secured transmission of records between the fleet and their operator offices by using the existing communication systems on board. Prevention at Seas -ORB system was the first ORB to be approved by a major flag state (Liberian Registry). Since then it has achieved certification from 3 IACS members and several approvals from most major flag states.



Together the combined SMARTSAFE -ORB promotes transparency, credibility, and traceability in accordance with the MARPOL, IMO Circ. 736/Circ. 2 and MEPC 312(74) requirements.



Martin Saunders, Operations Director at Rivertrace says: We believe that the collaboration between Rivertrace and Prevention at Sea will be very beneficial for the customer bases of both companies. Digital technology is changing the landscape of our industry and through this strategic technology integration, we are supporting our customers in their quest for simplified, continuous monitoring and efficient operations.



Petros Achtypis, CEO, at Prevention at Sea says: We are proud that Rivertrace have integrated our -ORB software application into the SMARTSAFE ORB discharge monitoring system. The joint project SENSAS reflects our commitment to innovation and environment protection. This sharing of expertise between our two companies will allow users of the system to achieve greater efficiencies in record keeping and prevent discrepancies in the ships ORB. We will continue working towards delivering more smart products in the future. This is a huge step forward for the industry which we are delighted to support with our technology.




Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 05:59:16|Editor: huaxia

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CAIRO, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Egypt confirmed on Wednesday 18 deaths from COVID-19, the lowest daily fatalities in the country since May 27, raising the death toll to 4,930, said the Egyptian Health Ministry.

Egypt also saw the highest daily recoveries, as 1,613 patients were cured and discharged from hospitals, increasing the total recoveries to 47,182, the ministry's spokesman Khaled Megahed said in a statement.

Egypt also reported 123 new infections on Wednesday, bringing the total cases registered in Egypt since the outbreak of the pandemic to 94,875, according to the statement.

It is the fourth consecutive day for COVID-19 daily infections in Egypt to fall below 200, after they started to surpass 200 on April 22 until they hit a record 1,774 cases on June 19.

But from the first week of July, coronavirus daily fatalities and infections in Egypt started to gradually decline along with highly increasing daily recoveries.

Egypt announced its first confirmed COVID-19 case on Feb. 14 and the first death from the highly infectious virus on March 8.

Egypt resumed international flights in early July, after it lifted a partial nighttime curfew it has been imposing since late March, and reopened restaurants, cafes, theaters and cinemas, as well as hotels, museums and archeological sites, all with limited capacity.

Easing restrictions is part of a coexistence plan adopted by the government over the past weeks to maintain anti-coronavirus precautionary measures while resuming economic activities.

Egypt and China have been working together on fighting the pandemic through exchanging medical aid and expertise.

In early February, Egypt provided aid to China to help with its fight against COVID-19 and China later sent three batches of medical aid to the North African country, the latest of which was in mid-May. Enditem
The 2020 harness racing season at Leamington Raceway kicks off on Sunday (Aug. 9) with a handicapping showdown featuring two of the industry's youngest media participants.

The Canadian Chapter of the United States Harness Writers Association (USHWA) and online horse sales company Hoofbid are teaming up to sponsor a Leamington Raceway handicapping showdown between USHWA Youth members Nathan Bain and Nicholas Barnsdale.

The handicapping contest pits Bain, 18, who writes a tip sheet for Leamington and is taking over the tracks announcing duties starting with the first day of racing this Sunday, against 19-year-old Barnsdale, who will provide full-card analysis for Ontario Racings website in the Picks From the Pros section.

The winner will take home a $300 cash prize and the runner-up $200, intended to assist with their post-secondary educations. Both students said they are eager to get started.

I am very excited about participating in this handicapping contest as it provides us youth more experience handicapping the races, said Bain, who is starting a three-year advertising and communications program at St. Clair College this fall. Doing this at a smaller track like Leamington is a great place to start as its easy to learn the drivers and horses.

Barnsdale, who is entering his third year in the Humber College School of Journalism this fall, concedes nothing to Bain, who is more familiar with Leamingtons horses and drivers.

"I can't wait to get started, he said. Leamington's a great track, and I'm going to be bringing my 'A' game to the contest. I know Nathan has the edge, being the main guy at Leamington, but I think I'll be up to the challenge. It should be a good battle!

Scoring for the contest will be based on Bain and Barnsdales top picks, with 10 points awarded for a win, 5 points for second, and 3 points for third each race. There will be a bonus of 5 points awarded for each handicappers winning Best Bet.

Leamington Raceway kicks off its season this Sunday (Aug. 9) at 1:30 p.m. (Eastern). Follow @LeamingtonRace on Twitter and visit lakeshorehorseraceway.com for updates.

To view the entries for Sunday's season opener at Leamington, click the following link: Sunday Entries - Leamington Raceway.

(USHWA Canada Chapter)
Kanye West Trump white house

Calla Kessler/The Washington Post/Getty Images

Kanye West is apparently getting help from a well-connected GOP lawyer in his bid for the presidency.

Lane Ruhland, who represented the Trump campaign in court last week, was seen on Tuesday dropping off ballot signatures in Wisconsin on West's behalf.

Questions have been raised as to how serious West is about running for president as those close to him have raised concerns about his mental health.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

A well-connected Republican lawyer is helping Kanye West get on the ballot in Wisconsin, the New York Times reported.

Lane Ruhland, who has done work for the Republican Natioal Committee and represented the Trump campaign in court just last week, was seen by a local reporter heading in to drop off ballot signatures for the rapper on Tuesday.

A spokesman for Ruhland's law firm told the Times she was unavailable for comment.

But Alesha Guenther, a spokeswoman for the Wisconsin state Republican Party, told the Times: "It appears that the Kanye West campaign made a smart decision by hiring an experienced election attorney. We welcome Kanye West and all other candidates who qualified for ballot access to the race."

Overall, at least four people with connections to the GOP, including Ruhland, have become involved in West's apparent effort to get on the presidential ballot in 2020, according to the Times.

It's unclear why Republicans have evidently taken an interest in West's 2020 ambitions, and this all comes as people close to the rapper, including his wife, have raised concerns about his mental health.

After West gave an emotional antiabortion speech at his first political rally last month his wife, Kim Kardashian West, released a statement on Instagram: "As many of you know, Kanye has bi-polar disorder. Anyone who has this or has a loved one in their life who does, knows how incredibly complicated and painful it is to understand."

Story continues

West has already missed filing deadlines in a number of states. On Tuesday, he withdrew his petition to appear as a presidential candidate on New Jersey's ballot, the Associated Press reported.

The rapper previously expressed support for President Donald Trump, but last month said he no longer backs Trump after announcing he's running for president.

"It looks like one big mess to me," West said in an interview with Forbes. "I don't like that I caught wind that he hid in the bunker."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Armenia announced the extension of the country's state of emergency for another month.



Armenia's Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan said at a briefing in Yerevan that the state of emergency will be prolonged by another month in Armenia.



However, he noted that some of the restrictions will be eased.



"Especially the issue of entry of foreigners to Armenia, restrictions on exporting goods, holding rallies and public events will be reviewed," he said.



This will most likely be the last extension of the state of emergency in Armenia, he added.



Armenia on July 13 announced that the country's state of emergency, originally declared on March 16, would be extended to Aug. 12.



The number of COVID-19 cases in the country reached 39,586 on Wednesday, according to the Armenian government, Xinhua reported.
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SIOUX CITY -- Students at Catholic schools in the Sioux City diocese most likely will be wearing face masks when they return to classes later this month.

The diocese's Office of Education recently released guidelines to school administrators in the midst of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The guidelines include "highly recommending" facial coverings for arrival, dismissal, passing class periods and other times when adequate social distancing is not possible.

Other main points in the diocesan guidelines include:

-- Health screening at home and staying home if ill.

-- Frequent handwashing during school day and enhanced sanitizing protocols for buildings.

-- Limiting visitors and volunteers in school buildings.

-- Keeping groups of students together and not mixing with other students.

Patty Lansink, superintendent of Catholic schools for the diocese, said schools will take a unified approach to help keep students, teachers and staff safe as they start regular full-time schedules.

Most of the diocesan schools start class the week of Aug. 24.

Each of our schools has a plan for educating onsite, for educating online  should the need arise  and a hybrid model, but the hybrid for most includes onsite instruction and providing online options for those who want or need it for underlying health conditions, Lansink said in a news release Thursday.

Since COVID is essentially everywhere, we went with the same general guidelines for all schools in our diocese, she said.

There are 23 Catholic schools in the Northwest Iowa diocese -- seven high schools, nine parish-based elementary schools and seven system-based schools. In the 2019-20 academic year, 5,946 students of Catholic and non-Catholic faith backgrounds were enrolled in the schools.

Lansink noted many educators had hoped for some general guidelines from the state but since they received none they had more work to do on our own  in collaboration with local health professionals and school teams  to determine best safety practices for our staff and students.

The superintendent said they developed the guidelines with input from public health officials, administrators and the diocesan COVID task force.

Measures to keep children and staff safe will expand beyond the efforts of school officials.

We are relying on everyone to do their part to keep our staff and students safe so folks must keep their children home if they are not feeling well, Lansink said.

Limiting visitors and volunteers flows out the concept of limiting outside exposure as much as possible. It also means changes in how deliveries are made to the buildings and other adjustments.

With the use of student cohorts, teachers will move to classrooms for art, music and similar classes, rather than having groups of students move throughout buildings.

Schools are determining what personal protective equipment they need for staff and students and how best to ensure physical distancing in their classrooms and school buildings, Lansink said.
NOIDA, India, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- UnivDatos Market Insights released a report titled, "Child Presence Detection System Market by Sensor Type (Pressure Sensor, Ultrasonic Sensor, Others), Sales Channel (OEM, Aftermarket), Vehicle Type (Sedan, SUV, Hatchback, Other) and Region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of World) - Current Analysis and Forecast (2019-2025)." The Child Presence Detection System Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 34.2% from 2019-2025 to reach US$ 390.3 million by 2025.

Market Drivers and Opportunities

Injury and death associated with vehicles remain an overwhelming challenge to society's general health. In recent years, design safety improvements in the automotive sector have grown significantly, and yet little has been accomplished for safety in stationary vehicles. Once a car is turned off and parked under hot and humid condition, keeping its window glasses closed, the temperature inside the car increases rapidly. In the recent time, the hot air deaths of children's have increased drastically, especially in the developed nations such as US and European countries. As the thermoregulatory system of the child is not well developed, this condition may lead to hyperthermia or heat stroke which can be fatal. Growing awareness regarding heatstroke deaths in cars is expected to fuel the growth of the child's presence detection system market.

For a detailed analysis of the Child Presence Detection System Market browse through

https://univdatos.com/report/child-presence-detection-system-market-current-analysis-and-forecast-2019-2025

Reasons for the Increasing Demand for Child Presence Detection System

Across the world, too many children have been unintentionally left in vehicles or have got stuck into a vehicle on their own. Even the best of parents or carers can leave a child in a car unknowingly; and the result can cause serious injury or sometime death of the children's left alone in the closed car. Vehicular hyperthermia misfortunes change the lives of parents, families, and communities forever. Based on safety organization Kids and Cars reporting, approximately 39 children die on average each year due to vehicle trapping worldwide. The data shows the severity of the problem and need to develop a system for the same. Automobile manufacturers and technology providers have joined hand to develop a system that senses the presence of a child and alert the parents of the child left along in the car. If no one attends the child, the system will make a call to parents and emergency personnel. Regulatory authorities around the world have acknowledged the need for technological solutions that can help avoid these kinds of incidents by offering child presence identification.

For a detailed analysis of the overall development in the Child Presence Detection System Market browse through

https://univdatos.com/report/child-presence-detection-system-market-current-analysis-and-forecast-2019-2025

Government and Stakeholder Initiatives

Each year, an undisclosed number of young children die of hyperthermia from being trapped in parked motor vehicles worldwide. European and US safety regulators are considering mandating child presence detection systems to avoid the deaths of unattended children in hot cars. Safety regulators and lawmakers have warned of the dangers of leaving children and infants in hot cars, further heighten awareness about the danger's children face in and around motor vehicles. Stakeholders believe the solution to these preventable tragedies is a combination of awareness and technology. They want all cars to come fitted with a device that warns a driver if a child is left in the car. The Hot Cars Act was recently implemented in the United States that would help to prevent children from being needlessly injured or killed when left alone in vehicles.

For a detailed analysis of the government initiatives in the Child Presence Detection System Market browse through

https://univdatos.com/report/child-presence-detection-system-market-current-analysis-and-forecast-2019-2025

Global Child Presence Detection System Market report is studied thoroughly with several aspects that would help stakeholders in making their decisions more curated.

Based on sensor type, the market is primarily bifurcated into

Pressure Sensor

Ultrasonic Sensor

Others

Ultrasonic Sensor accounted for 87% market share in 2019 and will keep dominating the market by the end of the year 2025. Ultrasonic sensors discover obstacles by emitting ultrasounds and analysing their reflections and so ultrasonic sensors are being used for child presence detection due to its high sensitivity and ability to detect child in a vehicle.

Based on the sales channel, the market is primarily segmented into

OEM

After Market

Of the two, OEMs accounted for a revenue share of nearly 63% in 2019 and is anticipated to remain dominant during the analysed period. The primary reason driving the OEMs sales is the European (Euro NCAP) and the US (NHTSA) like safety regulators that are forcing automakers to equipped cars with child presence detection or such safety monitoring system to avoid vehicle heatstroke deaths. For instance; by the 2025 model year, almost all new vehicles sold in the United States will come with electronic warnings that warn people not to leave children in the back seats, to stop heatstroke deaths.

Based on vehicle type, the market is primarily fragmented into

Sedan

SUV

Hatchback

Others

In 2019, the SUVs segment nearly contributed to 57% of the market revenue for the Child Presence Detection System. The primary reason is the increasing demand for SUVs across the world. For instance: According to SIAM, SUVs sales were 9.2 lakhs in 2017-18 against 7.6 lakhs unit in the previous year.

Child Presence Detection Market Geographical Segmentation Includes:

North America

Europe

Asia-Pacific

Rest of World

Based on the estimation, North America leads the Child Presence Detection System Market in 2019 and was followed by Europe. This is attributed to the increased awareness regarding such systems, adequate government interventions, stakeholders' support, and establishment of key market players in the regions. Since 1990, in the United States, a total of 940 children have lost their lives in hot cars. At the same time, the Asia-Pacific region would witness significant growth in the child presence detection system market as countries like China, Japan, and India also focusing to mandate such safety monitoring systems for vehicles in the recent future.

Request for the sample of the Report browse through

https://univdatos.com/report/child-presence-detection-system-market-current-analysis-and-forecast-2019-2025

The major players targeting the market includes

General Motors

Ford Motor Company

Volkswagen AG

Toyota Motor Company Ltd.

Hyundai Motors

Nissan Motors

Honda Motors

Robert Bosch

Autoliv Inc.

Delphi Automotive

Continental AG

Kia Motors

The in-detailed view of the competitive landscape includes key mergers & acquisitions, future capacities, financial overview, new product launches, new product developments, partnerships, collaborations, and other developments with company key facts.

Contact:

UnivDatos Market Insights Pvt. Ltd.

4th & 5th Floor,

C80B, Sector 8, Noida,

Pin code- 201301, UP, India

Ph: +91-7838604911 Email: [email protected]

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1225049/UnivDatos_Logo.jpg

SOURCE UnivDatos Market Insights
A furious Priti Patel last night backed sending Royal Navy patrols into the English Channel after a record number of migrants reached Britain.

Officials have been ordered to draw up plans in which, for the first time, the Navy could turn back boats.

Yesterday 235 migrants in 17 vessels made the perilous crossing  the highest daily total since the crisis began, surpassing the previous record of 202 set on Thursday last week.

The number who have reached Britain so far this year is now already double the total who arrived in the whole of 2019.

On Thursday up to 235 migrants crossed the channel  the highest daily total since the crisis began, surpassing the previous record of 202 set on Thursday last week

A furious Priti Patel backed sending Royal Navy patrols into the English Channel on Thursday night after the record number of migrants reached Britain

The number who have reached Britain so far this year is now already double the total who arrived in the whole of 2019

Nearly 3,950 migrants made the crossing in small boats in the first 219 days of 2020  compared with 1,850 last year.

The crisis is a personal blow for the Home Secretary, who made a pledge last October that crossings would be virtually eliminated by now.

A Home Office source said: The final straw was this record number, which led the Home Secretary to demand this new initiative. The real solution must come from the French  we want the French to take them back.

Last night sources said Navy vessels could now begin turning migrant boats back to France in a major escalation of tactics.

Immigration still too high  poll More than half of Britons think immigration is still too high despite years of Tory promises to bring it down, a study said yesterday. It warned Boris Johnson that if his points-based immigration system allows a wave of mass immigration, then voters will turn against him. The study from the Migration Watch UK think-tank said most recent polling found that 54 per cent think immigration has been too high over the past decade. Only 5 per cent think it has been too low. And more than six in ten said they believe the Government has been mishandling immigration policies. The analysis found that fears over the effects of large-scale immigration became a major concern after Tony Blair opened the doors to millions from both inside and outside the European Union. Worries declined after David Cameron came to power in 2010 promising to cut immigration back to 1990s levels and subsided further after the 2016 Brexit referendum. The report said: Most continue to have strong views about a perceived lack of effective immigration control. Advertisement

Mrs Patel has told MPs she has obtained legal advice that such a move would be legal under international maritime law.

But the tactic would be highly controversial and risk alienating the French government, which has told Britain it believes it to be illegal.

Other emergency measures being considered by the Home Office include using Navy vessels to block the path of migrant boats.

It is understood smaller military craft would be used, rather than larger vessels such as frigates or destroyers. The Royal Marines could play a key role, sources said.

British forces could also use nets to entangle propellers or floating booms to block the way for migrants dinghies.

Both methods were tested in secret trials in May and June involving Navy ships and Border Force boats.

A Government source said: These are all options that are being considered. The Home Secretary is furious about this daily total, which we think is as high as 250.'

It is now understood the figure is 235, according to the BBC.

The source added: She has instructed her officials to speak to the Ministry of Defence about how we can proceed. She has also requested a discussion with the French interior minister, Gerald Darmanin.

Civil servants from both departments have conducted initial talks and the Home Secretary may follow these up with a formal request for assistance from the Ministry of Defence.

Yesterdays arrivals included at least ten young children and a heavily-pregnant woman, who were aboard a boat which landed on Dungeness beach in Kent.

One of the children, a boy aged around four, looked exhausted as he lay back on the pebble beach with his arms spread out. The heavily-pregnant woman was wearing a black dress and face mask as she held the hand of a child.

She looked weary and had her head in her hand at one point, after being picked up by a lifeboat.

Amateur photographer Susan Pilcher, who saw the group on the beach, said: I could hear the Border Force workers asking the woman how many months pregnant she was, and she replied eight.

Mrs Pilcher added: When you think shes doing such a risky crossing over the Channel when shes heavily pregnant, that says how much theyve been through.

A British patrol boat also towed a kayak into the Port of Dover yesterday.

A group of around 16 migrants including 10 kids and an eight-month pregnant woman landed on Dungeness beach, Kent, today

Nigel Farage took to his Twitter feed to share an exclusive video of migrants arriving in the UK, including several children

The Home Secretary has said she wants stronger enforcement on the other side of the Channel and has been trying to persuade the French government to allow migrant boats to be turned back.

She said last year that a previous deal with the French would make crossings an infrequent phenomenon by this spring.

It came as an inquiry was launched into the crisis by the Commons all-party home affairs committee.

MPs will begin their investigation when Parliament returns at the start of September.

A committee spokesman said: The inquiry will look at the role of criminal gangs in facilitating the growth of this form of illegal immigration and the response of UK and French authorities to combat illegal migration and support legal routes to asylum.

Three migrants are rescued from sinking 300 inflatable kayak by builder on his way back to Britain after he swam from Dover to Calais for charity

Three migrants were rescued from their sinking inflatable kayak by a builder on his way home to Britain after swimming from Dover to Calais for charity today.

Justin Legge, 49, started the 21-mile journey at 1.30am, raising almost 24,000 in memory of a friend who died of leukaemia.

He was on his way back across the Channel in a small passenger boat when he spotted three young men stuffed on to a tiny inflatable blue and white two-person Sevylor Wabash canoe-kayak which was sinking around 3.30pm.

The migrants' inflatable kayak, which sells for 299.99 on Decathlon's website, was brought in by the Border Force vessel Hunter.

It comes after it was reported authorities were involved in the rescue of more than 120 migrants in small boats that took the dangerous crossing this morning.

Justin Legge, 49, was on his way back across the Channel in a small passenger boat when he spotted three young men stuffed on to a tiny inflatable blue and white two-person Sevylor Wabash canoe-kayak which was sinking around 3.30pm

The boys were taken on board the small passenger vessel after their inflatable kayak started sinking in the English Channel

A baby, a heavily-pregnant woman and young children were among the migrants to land on Kent beach earlier today as smugglers tell them to make dangerous Channel crossing before Brexit 'closes the door'.

The migrants spotted by Justin were using their T-shirts to wave for help and were rapidly sinking around 10 miles off Dover.

The pilot of Justin's boat gave them water and face masks before taking them in.

A crowd of family and friends waving Union Jack flags were eagerly waiting for the boat, but it was first diverted to hand the three men over to Border Force officials at the marina shortly before 4pm.

Father-of-two Justin, from the village of Bridge near Canterbury, Kent, said: 'I've just swam the Channel and I'm absolutely knackered.

'Then we saw this dodgy cheap-looking little kayak and they were really sinking.

'We approached them and the pilot was really good. He gave them some water and decided to take them on board because if he left them, they would have drowned.

A crowd of family and friends waving Union Jack flags were eagerly waiting for the boat, but it was first diverted to hand the three men over to Border Force officials at the marina shortly before 4pm

The pilot of Justin's boat gave them water and face masks before taking them in to save them from drowning

The migrants spotted by Justin were using their T-shirts to wave for help and were rapidly sinking around 10 miles off Dover

It comes after it was reported authorities were involved in the rescue of more than 120 migrants in small boats that took the dangerous crossing this morning

The migrants' inflatable kayak, which sells for 299.99 on Decathlon's website, was brought in by the Border Force vessel Hunter

'They were a really long way out - around 10 miles. So he phoned the authorities and brought them back in. They're lucky to still be alive.

'The three of them sat on the edge of the boat for the rest of the ride back.

'One of the guys was watching them but they just sat there quietly and looked a bit embarrassed.

'It was very strange. I know these sorts of crossings are a daily occurrence now but I never thought I'd see something like that first hand.'

His wedding planner wife Charlotte, 35, was also on the boat.

She said: 'We were halfway across the Channel and our pilot spotted them.

'They're constantly looking for migrants and he noticed they were waving the flag of distress.

Father-of-two Justin, says: 'We saw this dodgy cheap-looking little kayak and they were really sinking. We approached them and the pilot was really good. He gave them some water and decided to take them on board because if he left them, they would have drowned'

The migrants used their T-shirts to wave for help and were rapidly sinking around 10 miles off Dover

'He rang the Coastguard and they said he had a duty of care to stay by them until they were rescued.

'But while we were giving them water, we noticed they were going down.

'The Coastguard were nowhere to be seen so the pilot put them on the end of the boat, gave them masks and gloves, and towed their boat back to shore.

'The pilot was quite concerned because they kept trying to get back into their boat but they had what looked like brand new trainers in there so maybe they just wanted to save them.

'All three of them just sat there quietly and looked quite tired. They all looked really young. Probably aged between 18 and 21.'

Justin said: 'It was very strange. I know these sorts of crossings are a daily occurrence now but I never thought I'd see something like that first hand'

A crowd of family and friends waving Union Jack flags were eagerly waiting for Justin's boat (pictured), but it was first diverted to hand the three men over to Border Force officials at the marina shortly before 4pm

The pilot of Justin's boat gave the migrants (pictured) water and face masks before taking them in

A newborn baby is brought into Dover harbour amid the rush of migrants crossing the Channel today

A different groups of migrants, also including young children, was picked up by officials today at Dover

Earlier today, a group of around 16 refugees including 10 young children landed on Dungeness beach in Kent at around 8.30am, and a further cluster of migrants were pictured being rescued at nearby Dover.

A further three were later brought into the town's marina by a small white passenger boat carrying a charity swimmer at 4pm.

In total, 3,643 migrants have made the life-risking Channel crossing this year, nearly double the 1,850-odd who arrived in the whole of last year.

Last Thursday, a single-day record of 202 people in 20 boats landed.
Independent rights experts call on India to remedy 'alarming' situation in Jammu and Kashmir

5 August 2020 - UN-appointed independent human rights experts have called for urgent action in India's Jammu and Kashmir, amid concerns of ongoing abuses against civilians there.

The appeal comes a year after the Indian Parliament revoked the special status of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, which provided partial autonomy and specific protections to its mainly-Muslim citizens.

In a statement, the group of 17 experts said that the human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir has been in "free fall".

International community urged to 'step up'

"Urgent action is needed", they said. "If India will not take any genuine and immediate steps to resolve the situation, meet their obligations to investigate historic and recent cases of human rights violations and prevent future violations, then the international community should step up."

Twelve months ago, they wrote to the Indian authorities to end what they called "the crackdown" on freedom of expression, access to information and peaceful protests over the decision to end the state's special status.

The experts also expressed concern about alleged arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment, to which the Government recently replied, as well as the criminalization of journalists covering the situation and the detention and deteriorating health, of a high-profile human rights lawyer.

"We have yet to receive any reply to three of the four letters," the experts said.

COVID compounding detentions, restrictions

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the experts also said it was concerning that "many" protesters are still in detention, and that internet restrictions remain.

They added that the closure of the Jammu and Kashmir State Human Rights Commission last October, was equally disturbing, as it removed one of the few ways that victims of rights violations could seek remedy.

No information had been provided about what would happen to the ongoing cases the commission had been investigating.

These include hundreds of suspected enforced disappearances dating from as far back as 1989, they said, while allegations regarding thousands of unmarked and some mass graves sites, have also not been properly investigated.

Pending visits

In 2011, India also extended an open invitation to Special Rapporteurs to visit, but has several requests pending. "We call on India to schedule pending visits as a matter of urgency, particularly of the experts dealing with torture and disappearances," they said.

The Special Rapporteurs and Working Groups are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. The experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.

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Lacey

Misty Copeland is speaking out about racial injustice and inequality in ballet.

In a new candid interview with Yahoo Finance, the famed dancer said that the ballet world is "extremely behind" on issues of racism and inequality. She discussed her own experiences dealing with these problems as a Black female dancer, witnessing a lack of diversity in her companies or blackface in productions.

"It's something that the ballet world has been very easily able to just kind of get away with. It's something that I've talked about very openly and freely in trying to be the most respectful as I can, because I know the deep rooted traditions and history in classical dance," she explained.

RELATED: Misty Copeland Calls Out Russian Ballet Company for Blackface: 'The Reality of the Ballet World'

"Being a European art form and the fact that we still perform those ballets that were created in that time in Europe to this day, just says a lot about where we are in the ballet world when it comes to racism," Copeland added.

However, Copeland said she is optimistic for change that is being brought out by the recent social reckoning following the death of George Floyd and subsequent protests over racial injustice and police brutality.

"This has been my life's work as a dancer, speaking about racism in the world and in ballet speaking about the lack of diversity, and to have my company  to have the ballet world  listening and to have different panels to speak about this in a way that I have before but again, for the first time, people are really seeing it," she said to Yahoo Finance.

Photographed by Albert Watson/ 2019 Pirelli Calendar Misty Copeland

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In 2015, Copeland became the first Black principal dancer at the American Ballet Theater. This June, the company released a statement announcing their support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

Story continues

"American Ballet Theatre mourns together with and for the families of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and the countless others who have lost loved ones because of racism," it read. "In the fight for justice and equality, we stand with these fellow Americans and the communities of black and brown people all over this country who endure. While we stand in solidarity, we will not just stand by in the face of hate and violence."

The statement continued: "We must devote ourselves to doing better. Doing more.We must pursue justice, with the determination that dancers embody and the empathy that is the hallmark of the ABT community. Black lives do matter."

RELATED: Misty Copeland on Why She's Highlighting the 'Harsh' Reality for Unemployed Dancers During COVID-19

In December, Copeland spoke out against the famed Russian ballet company, Russias Bolshoi Theatre, for blackface while producing the ballet La Bayadere, which is set in India.

And this is the reality of the ballet world . Copeland wrote on Instagram at the time.

Misty Copeland/Instagram. Inset: Mat Hayward/Getty

Im tired of giving the oppressors the benefit of the doubt, she added. They need to be exposed, called out, educated and more. I have lived in the ballet world for 25 years. I have silenced myself around them, and made them feel comfortable and suffered in silence. At 37 I feel ready and free to stop.

Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Copeland explained why some companies in other countries continue to disregard the racial insensitivity of blackface in performances, but added that there needs to be a movement away from it.

"Companies in other countries, their reasoning is that that's not their history, so it doesn't have the same meaning to them," she said.

"Its like, well, this ballet is all over the world. You can go on YouTube, and you can watch the Bolshoi Ballet and see that, so it's not solely isolated, like maybe it once was. And if you want to keep the art form, alive and relevant and growing, you're gonna have to open your doors," she added, explaining that the use of blackface drives members of the Black community away from ballet.

"Why would they want to pay for a ticket and come into the theater when they're going to be disrespected on the stage?" Copeland said.

To help combat systemic racism, consider learning from or donating to these organizations:
Concrete Admixture Market Research Report by Product (Chemical Admixture and Mineral Admixture), by Function (Corrosion-inhibiting Admixtures, Retarding Admixtures, Superplasticizers, and Water-reducing Admixtures), by Application - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19

New York, Aug. 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Concrete Admixture Market Research Report by Product, by Function, by Application - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913928/?utm_source=GNW



The Global Concrete Admixture Market is expected to grow from USD 14,830.54 Million in 2019 to USD 23,820.37 Million by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 8.21%.



Market Segmentation & Coverage:

This research report categorizes the Concrete Admixture to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets:



Based on Product, the Concrete Admixture Market studied across Chemical Admixture and Mineral Admixture.



Based on Function, the Concrete Admixture Market studied across Corrosion-inhibiting Admixtures, Retarding Admixtures, Superplasticizers, and Water-reducing Admixtures.



Based on Application, the Concrete Admixture Market studied across Commercial and Residential.



Based on Geography, the Concrete Admixture Market studied across Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The Americas region surveyed across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and United States. The Asia-Pacific region surveyed across Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand. The Europe, Middle East & Africa region surveyed 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 Concrete Admixture Market including Alumichem A/S, Anhui Conch, BASF SE, Cementaid International Group of Companies, CEMEX S.A.B. de C.V., CHRYSO SAS, CICO Group, Fosroc, Inc., GCP Applied Technologies, MAPEI S.p.A., Master Builders Solutions, Nevada Ready Mix, RPM International Inc., and SIKA AG.



FPNV Positioning Matrix:

The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Concrete Admixture 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 the market 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 Concrete Admixture Market?

2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Concrete Admixture Market during the forecast period?

3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Concrete Admixture Market?

4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Concrete Admixture Market?

5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Concrete Admixture Market?

6. What are the modes and strategic moves considered suitable for entering the Global Concrete Admixture Market?

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913928/?utm_source=GNW



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A political row erupted on Thursday over a defence ministry statement on Chinese aggression in eastern Ladakh --- uploaded on the ministrys official website but later removed --- in which the government acknowledged that the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) had transgressed into multiple areas in the sensitive sector, with the Congress accusing the Prime Minister of lying on the Chinese intrusions.

The statement, posted online on August 4 but removed two days later without any explanation, said Chinese aggression along the contested Line of Actual Control (LAC) had gone up and the ongoing border standoff was expected to be prolonged.

It described the situation in the Ladakh sector as sensitive.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi mounted an attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the statement, which summed up the major activities of the department of defence in June, was unexpectedly removed from the website.

Also read: Upset at Indias big review of Confucius institutes tomorrow, China says be fair

Forget standing up to China, Indias PM lacks the courage even to name them. Denying China is in our territory and removing documents from websites wont change the facts, Gandhi tweeted.

The defence ministry refused to comment on the statement or why it was removed, although it was widely seen as a belated move to skirt controversy.

In a previous tweet and later addressing a virtual meeting of party workers from Bihar, Gandhi accused the PM of lying on Chinese intrusions. At an all-party meeting to discuss the situation along the India-China border on June 19, the PM said there was no intrusion into Indian territory.

Our soldiers have sacrificed their lives and the PM is saying that China has not entered our territory. Who will tell the family members of the soldiers how they were martyred? If Chinese forces had not intruded into our territory does that mean our soldiers had crossed over to China? a senior Congress leader quoted Gandhi as saying during the virtual meeting.

Gandhi was referring to the brutal Galwan Valley skirmish on June 15 in which 20 Indian and an unspecified number of Chinese soldiers were killed.

Gandhi paid tributes to the Bihar Regiment soldiers killed in the violent brawl. Our PM did not stand with our soldiers by saying that Chinese forces did not intrude into our territory. The fact is that China is still occupying our land in Ladakh, the leader cited above, who requested anonymity, quoted Gandhi as saying.

My blood boiled and I was very angry when I came to know that China had captured a part of our territory and our soldiers were killed, another Congress leader quoted Gandhi as having said.

Meanwhile, BJP spokespersons declined to comment.

The statement said the Chinese PLA transgressed into the Indian side in the areas of Kugrang Nala (near Hot Springs), Gogra and the north bank of Pangong Tso on May 17-18.

Also read: India-China expand border talks, to revisit patrolling protocol to avoid skirmishes

A transgression along the disputed border is of a fleeting nature and takes place when rival soldiers patrol grey areas on the LAC that both sides stake claim to, while an intrusion refers to the PLA troops encroaching into Indian territory and holding ground there. Both sides report hundreds of transgressions every year, but intrusions leading to standoffs are few and far between.

In any crisis, it is important that our communications are absolutely clear and convey our intent. Any kind of flip-flop only heightens confusion and should be avoided, said former Northern Army commander Lieutenant General DS Hooda (retd), on the statement and its subsequent removal.

While the scope of the statement was confined to older developments, it came at a time when military talks on disengagement have hit a roadblock due to serious differences between the two armies related to the Finger Area near Pangong Tso and the PLAs reluctance to vacate positions held by it in what New Delhi claims to be Indian territory.

The statement said Chinese aggression was increasing along the LAC, with specific reference to Galwan Valley where it (aggression) has gone up since May 5.

Consequent to this (the developments on May 17-18), ground level interactions were held between armed forces of both sides to defuse the situation. Corps commander level flag meeting was held on June 6. However, a violent faceoff incident took place between the two sides on June 15, resulting in casualties of both sides, it said.

The June 6 meeting was the first one between the corps commander-ranked officers after border tensions erupted in early May. The senior military commanders have so far met five times, with the last round of talks held on August 2.

Limited military disengagement was initiated in Galwan Valley, Hot Springs and Gogra after the June 6 meeting between the senior commanders. However, the June 15 clash dashed disengagement hopes.

The document, which only refers to developments in June, said subsequent military talks took place on June 22 to discuss modalities of the de-escalation process. While engagement and dialogue at military and diplomatic level is continuing to arrive at mutually acceptable consensus, the present standoff is likely to be prolonged, it said.

The ministry said the situation in eastern Ladakh arising from unilateral aggression by China was sensitive and required close monitoring and prompt action based on the evolving scenario.

The Finger Area --- a set of eight cliffs jutting out of the Sirijap range overlooking the Pangong Lake --- has emerged as the hardest part of the disengagement process with little hope of immediate resolution, people familiar with the developments said. The next stage of disengagement has become highly complicated with the PLA proposing a mutual and equal withdrawal of soldiers from Pangong Tso, a proposal that has been rejected by India, they said, requesting anonymity.

Before the PLA grabbed positions on Finger Four overlooking Indian deployments, the Indian Army would patrol right up to Finger Eight that New Delhi considers is within Indian territory. The new positions held by the PLA have curtailed the scope of Indian patrols. Fingers Four and Eight are 8 km apart.

The external affairs ministry on Thursday made it clear once again that the disengagement and de-escalation process along the LAC had not made progress because of the lack of cooperation from the Chinese side.

Responding to several questions on the troubled disengagement process during a weekly news briefing, external affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said: India remains committed to this objective. We also expect that the Chinese side will work with us sincerely for complete disengagement and de-escalation and full restoration of peace and tranquillity in the border areas.

Though China has sought to give the impression that the disengagement had been completed at most locations along the LAC, the Indian side said last month there had been some progress but the process has as yet not been completed.

Srivastava also referred to the July 5 phone conversation between the Special Representatives of India and China on the border issue  National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and foreign minister Wang Yi  and reiterated that the two officials had agreed that early and complete disengagement and de-escalation in border areas in line with bilateral agreements and protocols and full restoration of peace and tranquillity were essential for the smooth overall development of bilateral relations.
A Union minister in the first term of the Narendra Modi government, Manoj Sinha, who is also a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader from Uttar Pradesh, was on August 6 appointed as the new Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir.

The appointment was announced after Girish Chandra Murmu resigned from the post on August 5. There was no official word on the reasons behind Murmu's resignation. Murmu, a 1985-batch IAS officer, had served as Principal Secretary to Modi during his tenure as Gujarat Chief Minister.

Sources told Moneycontrol that Murmu was likely to be given a new assignment at the Centre.

Known as 'vikas purush' (leader involved in development), Sinha, a three-time Lok Sabha MP, was tasked with the charge of the Communication Ministry as Minister of State in 2016 when the telecom industry was engaged in the sale of spectrum.

Sinha, a B.Tech in civil engineering, has been credited with overcoming the menace of call drop.

Elected to Lok Sabha in 1996 for the first time, Sinha, an agriculturist, is the first politician to be elected as LG of the Union territory.

Earlier the Centre had appointed Satya Pal Malik, a politician, as governor of the erstwhile state before it was bifurcated into two Union Territories -- Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir -- on August 5 last year.

Sinha was elected to Lok Sabha in 1999 and 2014, and was a front-runner for the post of Uttar Pradesh chief minister after the party walked away with 265 seats in the 403-member assembly.

He began his political career after being elected President of the Banaras Hindu University Students Union in 1982 and has been actively involved in working for backward villages.

Sinha's appointment, experts noted, is a political one and could signal a change in the Centre's strategy with regard to the Valley.

According to a report by The Hindu, Sinha's quiet and down-to-earth nature will help in reaching out to the people in the state. In fact, with Sinha's appointment, the government hopes to reach out to the people of J&K with a soft political touch, Hindustan Times reported.

"The Centre realised that a bureaucrat as L-G was not working well. There was a political vacuum that was created last year with the bifurcation of the state into two Union Territories and the abrogation of Article 370," a source told ThePrint.

"Murmu with a bureaucratic mindset could not fill that. Hence, it was felt that someone with political acumen, who can really go out and meet with various sections of society in a more amenable manner, is the need of the hour. And hence Sinha, who enjoys the trust of the top leadership in New Delhi, was selected," the source added.

Apart from these reasons, reports have also stated that Murmu's replacement could also be due to his comments on 4G restoration in the Union Territory, wherein he had said that the J&K administration has been making representations for the restoration of 4G, suspended for a year in the Valley. Reports also suggest that there has been some dysfunction within the civic administration.
Let's face it  Texas students, teachers and parents have enough to worry about when it comes to in-person school reopenings slated for this fall. Now, there's another potential wrinkle in the plan  a possible COVID-19 superspreader could be the air-conditioning systems in U.S. schools.

According to a report published by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, 41 percent of schools districts across the U.S. need to to replace heating, ventilation and air condition (HVAC) systems in more half of their schools. This potentially impacts around 36,000 schools around the United States.
Armenian News - NEWS.am presents a daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 06.08.2020:

At least 157 people were killed and 5,000 wounded in a huge blast that shook Beirut on Tuesday, Lebanon's health minister noted.

Hundreds have been reported missing. Over 300,000 people have been displaced from their homes.

Beirut is declared a "disaster city" and a two-week state of emergency has been imposed.

It is still unclear what exactly caused the blast. According to Lebanon's PM, an investigation would focus on an estimated 2,750 metric tons of the explosive ammonium nitrate stored at a warehouse.

There are also missing Armenians.

Beirut blast has also destroyed workshop of world-famous designer Krikor Jabotian.

He has shared the consequences of a powerful explosion in Beirut.

According to him, the scale of the damage is appallingly devastating as Lebanese people are going through an unprecedented financial crisis caused by COVID-19.

Armenia will render an assistance to Beirut.

Armenian PM Nikol Pashinayn noted: "We will assist the Lebanese government and the local Armenian community as much as possible."

PM also said that Armenias commissioner for diaspora affairs will soon leave for Beirut to get acquainted with the needs of the local Armenian community on the spot and to inform about it to the Armenian government.

As of 11 am on Thursday, 233 COVID-19 new cases were reported in Armenia, and two more people have died of this disease.

A total of 39,819 cases of novel coronavirus have been confirmed as of Thursday morning, 7,263 people are receiving treatment, 171,600 tests have been conducted, and 31,556 patients have recovered.

A total of 772 deaths from the coronavirus have been reported so far.

The former mayor of Yerevan and ex-chair of the Public Services Regulatory Commission of Armenia Robert Nazaryan has been detained within a criminal case under investigation by the Special Investigation Service (SIS); this information was confirmed by the SIS.

According to press reports, as per sources in the law enforcement system, before being detained, Nazaryan was asked to testify against the third president, Serzh Sargsyan, along the lines of a criminal case, promising to stop the criminal prosecution against him.

According to the same source, Robert Nazaryan, however, rejected, claiming that the testimony did not correspond to reality and he could not sign it.

The Corruption Prevention Commission of Armenia has initiated proceedings against the Minister of Health, Arsen Torosyan, based on an apparent conflict of interest.

A post of data.hetq.am was the basis for these proceedings.

The Ministry of Health had signed service contracts with a company whose director is Vardanush Tevanyan, the wife of Minister Torosyan. Under these contracts, the company was obligated to provide hospital services, e-health spending reimbursement, and computed tomography.

In its decision to launch proceedings, the commission cited two points from the Law on Public Service. Aside from the Ministry of Health, the said company had signed deal also with the Yerevan City Hall for providing medical services, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging. The Ministry of Health and the Yerevan Municipality had signed contracts with this company for a total of 176 million drams.

The Ministry of Health had not announced a tender for any of the purchases made from the company of the minister's wife.

The Chamber of Deputies of Italy Wednesday voted (414-0) to ratify the Armenian-EU deal.

It will soon be submitted to the President.
News and commentary on organized crime, street crime, white collar crime, cyber crime, sex crime, crime fiction, crime prevention, espionage and terrorism.


COLOGNE (dpa-AFX) - Shares of Deutsche Lufthansa AG were losing around 3 percent in German trading after the airline reported Thursday a loss in its second quarter, compared to prior year's profit with collapse in demand for air travel due to the Corona pandemic. Going ahead, the airline projects a clearly negative adjusted EBIT in the second half of 2020 and a further significant decline in adjusted EBIT for the full year.



Carsten Spohr, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO, said, 'We are experiencing a caesura in global air traffic. We do not expect demand to return to pre-crisis levels before 2024. Especially for long-haul routes there will be no quick recovery.'



Citing the expected slow recovery in air travel, Lufthansa also announced steep cost cutting measures under its 'ReNew' restructuring program, including the reduction of 22,000 full-time jobs, to ensure global competitiveness after the crisis.



With its cost cutting efforts, the company hopes to refinance the funds of the stabilization package of around 9 billion euros as quickly as possible. The company also projects positive cash flows will be generated again in the course of 2021.



For the third quarter, capacity offered would increase to an average of around 40 percent of the prior year capacity on short- and medium-haul routes and to around 20 percent on long-haul routes. By the end of the year, the company plans to return to 95 percent of the short- and medium-haul and 70 percent of the long-haul destinations.



Under its 'ReNew' restructuring programme, Lufthansa would permanently reduce its fleet by at least 100 aircraft. Nevertheless, the capacity offered in 2024 is to correspond to that of 2019. The program also includes the restructuring program already underway at the airlines and service companies.



The company expects to increase productivity by 15 percent by 2023, among other things, by reducing the number of the flight operations or AOCs to a maximum of ten in future.



As part of the planned job cuts, the size of the Executive and Management Boards of the Group companies will be reduced and the number of executives will be lowered by 20 percent. In the administration, 1,000 jobs will be cut.



As of June 30, Lufthansa Group has 129,400 employees, about 8,300 fewer than at the same time last year.



Regarding redundancies, the company said its objective was to avoid them as far as possible, but the goal is no longer realistically within reach for Germany either.



For the second quarter, consolidated net loss was 1.5 billion euros, compared to previous year's profit of 226 million euros.



Adjusted EBIT was a loss of 1.7 billion euros, compared to prior year's profit of 754 million euros, despite extensive cost reductions. Operating expenses were reduced by 59 percent.



Meanwhile, the logistics division benefited from stable demand, and Lufthansa Cargo's Adjusted EBIT was 299 million euros, compared to previous year's loss of 9 million euros.



Revenues plunged 80 percent to 1.9 billion euros from last year's 9.6 billion euros due to the collapse in demand for air travel amid the Corona pandemic. Most of the revenue, of 1.5 billion euros, was generated by Lufthansa Cargo and Lufthansa Technik.



In the second quarter, Lufthansa airlines carried 1.7 million passengers, 96 percent fewer than in the previous year. Capacity fell 95 percent. The seat load factor was 56 percent, 27 percentage points below the previous year.



In Germany, Lufthansa shares were trading at 7.97 euros, down 3.29 percent.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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New York State Attorney General Letitia James has announced a lawsuit to dissolve the National Rifle Association.

The NY AG made a major national announcement Thursday accusing the NRA of self-dealing and illegal conduct. Wayne LaPierre, who has led the NRA for 39 years, and his top lieutenants allegedly funneled millions from the gun rights group to line their own pockets in a decades-long pattern of fraud.

The NRA is fraught with fraud and abuse, she said in a statement. No organization is above the law.

Our lawsuit charges the NRA as a whole and four senior leaders, including Wayne LaPierre, with failing to manage the NRAs funds and failing to follow numerous state and federal laws. These actions contributed to the loss of more than $64 million in just three years for the NRA.

The lawsuit, filed in state court in Manhattan after an 18-month investigation, says LaPierre, 70, used NRA funds from hair and makeup for his wife to a $17 million post-employment contract for himself. He also spent millions on travel consultants, including luxury black car services, and hundreds of thousands of dollars on private jet flights for himself and his family, including more than $500,000 on eight trips to the Bahamas over a three-year span.

The organization went from a nearly $28 million surplus in 2015 to a $36 million deficit in 2018, according to James.

The lawsuit also names three other current and former executives as defendants: corporate secretary and general counsel John Frazer, retired treasurer and chief financial officer Wilson Phillips, and LaPierres former chief of staff Joshua Powell. All are accused of wrongdoing, but none of them have been charged with a crime.

James said Wednesday she would be making a major announcement, shortly after reports that Deutsche Bank turned over President Donald Trumps financial records. Both James and the Manhattan District Attorneys office subpoenaed the German bank last year amid investigations over hush money payments made to women who said they had affairs with Trump and testimony from the presidents former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, that Trump inflated his net worth by about $4 billion in a loan application for a 2014 bid on the Buffalo Bills.

James declined to comment on the Trump investigations Thursday when asked by a reporter.

According to the Associated Press, James is taking aim at the NRA after her office dismantled Trumps charitable foundation last year and fined him $2 million to settle allegations he used donations meant for worthy causes to further his own business and political interests. Though its headquarters is in Virginia, the NRA was chartered as a non-profit in New York in 1871 and continues to be incorporated in the state.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Kent and Ottawa counties saw massive voter turnouts in the Tuesday, Aug. 5, primary election.

While voter turnouts in Kent County for even-year August primary elections have averaged about 21.75 percent between 2004 and 2018, nearly 31 percent, or 148,904 of 480,558 of eligible voters, turned out Tuesday.

The Tuesday turnout is a sliver more than the August 2018 primary but only surpassed by the August 2004 primary, which had a 33.15 percent turnout.

The Tuesday primary featured a number of contested primaries for state House and county leadership, as well as several tax proposals. The biggest race of the night was the Republican primary in the U.S. 3rd Congressional District, currently held by U.S. Rep. Justin Amash, L-Cascade Township.

Voters in Ottawa County, which saw a 34.2 percent turnout Tuesday, shattered August primary turnout records going back at least 20 years, according to Ottawa County Clerk Justin Roebuck.

The majority of ballots tallied Tuesday -- 49,172 of 72,208, or 68 percent of them -- were absentee ballots, according to Roebuck. That percentage of absentee ballots cast in the county broke all previous records.

For comparison, absentee ballots accounted for 28.5 percent of the vote in the August 2018 primary.

Related: Turnout for Michigans August primary shatters records. What does that mean for November?

Tuesday was a really good day, Roebuck said. I think it proved that even in the face of a lot of challenges  the democratic process went smoothly. I think people should be encouraged to see that. Its great to see a record turnout in an environment where it is more challenging and difficult both for workers and clerks and voters.

Similar data on the number of absentee ballots cast in Kent County was not immediately available.

Related: Election results for Grand Rapids-area races Aug. 4, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic, a push by state election officials to vote absentee and the 2018 passed ballot initiative allowing no-reason absentee voting all played a role in the record absentee turnout, Roebuck said.

The influx of absentee ballots -- which can only be verified and tallied the day of the election -- delayed results for some counties across the state. In Ottawa County, final results werent had until 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, the day after the election.

With a much-larger swell of absentee ballots expected in the November general election, Roebuck said hes working to bolster the ranks of election workers who verify and count absentee ballots so that results arent delayed longer.

Roebuck called the Michigan Legislature a critical factor in allowing election workers time ahead of the election to verify absentee ballots.

For us, timeliness is secondary to accuracy, Roebuck said. But we also recognize that, frankly, people do expect timely results, and I think its a factor in their trust of the system: to know that were working really hard to get those. So I think we either need time or resources.

Earlier this year, Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clark Lake, shot down proposed legislation that wouldve allowed absentee ballot voter verification a day before an election. The legislation wouldve barred the ballots from tabulation or removal from their secrecy sleeve until the normal time.

Even without movement from lawmakers, Roebuck said that, with more election workers and tabulation machines in place, he remains optimistic that results in the November general election could come again by 1:30 a.m. the following day.

Read more:

Republican Peter Meijer feeling very strong heading into November congressional election

Victors emerge for 6 contested state House primaries in Kent, Ottawa counties

Some Kent County races too close to call with absentee ballots yet to be counted
Gallup has a new poll out today with the headline Black Americans Want Police to Retain Local Presence. This headline understates the findings a bit, as the summary says most [blacks] (81%) want police to spend same amount of or more time in their area. (The actual numbers are 61% same; 20 percent more time.)

The Gallup report, part of its new initiative called the Gallup Center on Black Voices, goes out of its way to obscure the meaning of these findings, spending a lot of time dwelling on large gaps in the answers between white and black sentiments about policing. Only 19 percent of black respondents want less policing in their neighborhood, despite high rates of mistrust of the police, and only 22 percent of blacks say they favor abolishing the police.

This finding is also curious: Asian Americans are the most likely to want less police presence where they live, with 28% saying this. That contrasts with 12% of White Americans, 17% of Hispanic Americans and 19% of Black Americans. Asians reported negative attitudes toward police not far different from blacks, which casts doubt on a simple income hypothesis, since Asians are among the highest income groups in the country.

More evidence that the Defund the Police movement is mostly an enthusiasm of white progressives.

Bonus: You know what institution fares much much worse than police on their worst day? The media. Yesterday Gallup and the Knight Foundation published survey results showing that the public overwhelmingly thinks the news media is biased. Key takeaways:

A majority of Americans currently see a great deal (49%) or a fair amount (37%) of political bias in news coverage.
Mindy Kaling is stocking up on children's clothes.

The 41-year-old star of The Office stepped out on Wednesday for a trip to the designer store Couture Kids On Robertson in Los Angeles, California.

The Mindy Project actress is mother to her two-year-old daughter Katherine Swati Kaling, and appeared to be on a mission to spoil her little one.

Mom's day out: Mindy Kaling, 41, stocks up on designer kids clothes as she steps out shopping in LA on Wednesday

Kaling has previously explained why she hasn't publicly revealed who the father is of her child, telling The New York Times last year: 'My feeling is that until I speak to my daughter about that, I'm not going to talk to anyone else about it.'

There had been rumors the father was her former co-star and ex-boyfriend B.J. Novak, though she revealed last year that he is actually Godfather to her child.

In February this year, both Kaling and Novak hit the Vanity Fair Oscars after-party together, though they did not pose with each other on the red carpet on their way in.

Stepping out: The Office star headed straight to the children's store in Los Angeles

Dedicated: The Mindy Project star is a mother to her two-year-old daughter Katherine Swati Kaling

Stocking up: The star headed into a store to pick up some bits

On a mission: The comic actress held up her handbag as she entered the store

Her daughter's middle name honors Kaling's mother, who passed away in 2012.

Earlier this month in May, Kaling posted a sweet Mother's Day snap on Instagram, showing her daughter running towards her.

'Sending a little extra love today to all of the moms, and to anyone who may be missing theirs right now,' Kaling captioned the post.

Big shop! The star later exited the shop laden down with bags

Supermarket sweep: The star appeared to be shopping for kids clothes as she took several bags away from the Couture Kids store in LA

Goods: Mindy seemed to be really stocking up on clothes for her daughter

Precious cargo: Mindy fills up her car with shopping bags for the trip out

'It's nice how through my daughter, I am able to experience memories with my own mom. If you have a favorite memory about your mom or mother figure, I'd love to hear! #MothersDay.'

Speaking about motherhood in an interview last year, Kaling confessed: 'I did not think I had a big maternal instinct,' adding: 'I'm very impatient, and having a baby requires an amount of patience that I was worried about.'

'But they don't tell you that the thing will look so much like you, and do things that are so sweet and adorable, that you'll naturally not have the same impatience that you would have with a stranger or someone who works for you.'

Baby: Kaling has shared rare snaps of her daughter on Instagram
NEWS FLASH

The Serbian government has announced it will finance the construction of a new commercial airport near Trebinje in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Assistant Minister for Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, Zoran Ilic, said, We have selected two locations for the airport, which will now be examined further. We will prepare all the necessary technical documentation for the airports development, which will be completed in the next ten days. Construction could start in some six months to a year. This airport will be of use not only for Bosnia and Herzegovina but also parts of coastal Croatia and Montenegro. The airport would likely be managed by the Serbian state through a long-term concession.

Local authorities in Trebinje announced their intention to resume plans for the construction of the infamous airport in 2018. The government forked out 820.000 euros between 2009 and 2011 for project documentation for a 2.6 kilometre runway and a terminal capable of handling 260.000 passengers per year, only to give up on the idea two years later after naming the airport's General Manager and contracting an Austrian consultant to identify potential routes. The government has since said the study conducted by the Austrian consultant was incomplete. A subsequent tender for the drafting of a new development strategy was cancelled.




New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday (August 6) spoke to his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa and congratulated him as early results of recently held parliamentary elections indicate an impressive electoral performance by Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party.

Mahinda Rajapaksa thanked PM Modi through social media and tweeted, "Thank you PM @narendramodi for your congratulatory phone call. With the strong support of the people of #SriLanka, I look forward to working with you closely to further enhance the long-standing cooperation between our two countries. Sri Lanka & India are friends & relations."

Thank you PM @narendramodi for your congratulatory phone call. With the strong support of the people of #SriLanka, I look forward to working with you closely to further enhance the long-standing cooperation between our two countries. Sri Lanka & India are friends & relations. pic.twitter.com/9YPLAQuVlE  Mahinda Rajapaksa (@PresRajapaksa) August 6, 2020

Both the leaders have reportedly agreed to remain in close touch as both countries address the challenges posed by COVID 19 pandemic and resolved to take bilateral relations to newer heights in the coming days.

A PMO release said that the Prime Minister commended the government and the electoral institutions of Sri Lanka for effectively organising elections despite the constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic.

PM Modi also appreciated Sri Lankan people for their enthusiastic participation in the elections and said that this reflected the strong democratic values shared by both countries.

"Prime Minister Modi noted that the incoming results of the elections indicate an impressive electoral performance by the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party and conveyed his congratulations and best wishes to Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa in this regard," the release said.

Notably, the preliminary results of Wednesday`s parliamentary election show that the SLPP appeared to be heading for a landslide win in the country.

"The leaders agreed to remain in close touch as both countries address the challenges posed by COVID 19 pandemic and resolved to take bilateral relations to newer heights in the coming days," the release added.

Rajapaksa clan heading for landslide win

Sri Lanka's strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa was poised to stage a political comeback on Thursday as his party took an unassailable lead and was set for a landslide victory in the twice-postponed general elections, according to results announced so far.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the first world leaders to congratulate Rajapaksa on the outcome of the elections.

The SLPP has polled more votes than its rivals, scoring over 60 per cent of the total votes in the 16 seats officially declared so far from the South, dominated by the Sinhala majority community. The party won 13 out of 16 seats.

Unofficial results indicate that the SLPP would comfortably win at least 17 out of the 22 districts on offer. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in a tweet described the results as a "magnificent victory" for the ruling party.

The nearest rival is the new party formed by former presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa who has relegated his mother party, the United National Party (UNP), of former premier Ranil Wickremesinghe to the fourth place even below the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). The SJB has won only three seats from both districts.

Wickremesinghe's party is struggling to reach the five per cent mark needed to qualify for any seat in the entire island. He is facing the danger of losing his parliamentary seat for the first time since July 1977.

In the polling division results from other districts where counting is in progress, the SLPP has taken unassailable leads, sources told PTI.

In the Tamil minority dominated north, the main Tamil party - Tamil National Alliance (TNA) - despite bagging a few polling divisions had also suffered unexpected reversals at the hands of SLPP's Tamil allies - the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP).

Meanwhile, President Gotabaya hopes for a two-thirds majority for the SLPP so that he can amend the Constitution to restore presidential powers curbed by a 2015 constitutional change.
SANTA CRUZ, Calif., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In June 2020, Sandbar Solar & Electric was selected as a pre-qualified vendor for the Monterey Bay Community Power (MBCP) Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) funding program.

The goal of the MBCP UPS program is to provide reduced cost financing to support backup power for public and private entities operating critical facilities that are impacted by Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) events. With $20 million allocated to support public sector organizations, those who qualify can acquire available technologies, such as solar PV, battery energy storage systems (BESS), and more.

Sandbar Solar & Electric President, Scott Laskey, shares his enthusiasm for the program: "MBCP's UPS program makes energy resiliency more financially attainable for critical facilities in our community. We are honored to be chosen as a pre-qualified vendor for this generous MBCP program. Our company has extensive experience with energy resiliency projects for large-scale commercial operations, and our knowledgeable team is ready to help organizations prepare for public safety power shutoff events, which are happening with increasing frequency."

In order to be included as a pre-qualified vendor, Sandbar Solar & Electric underwent a Request for Qualifications process that included an interview and extensive examination of the company's history, experience, and references. Of all the companies that underwent this qualification process, Sandbar Solar & Electric is the only local company to be selected for the program. With its 11,500 square foot headquarters facility operating solely with power supplied by a microgrid -- a combination of PV panels, energy storage system, and a natural gas generator -- Sandbar Solar & Electric understands the importance of energy resiliency.

Scott summarizes: "We are looking forward to helping organizations that select us as their trusted vendor for their energy resiliency project through this funding program."

To find out if you qualify for the MBCP Uninterruptible Power Supply funding program, visit www.mbcommunitypower.org/ups-fund-public-sector/

For more information about Sandbar Solar & Electric's sustainable energy resiliency projects, please call 831-469-8888 or email [email protected]

SOURCE Sandbar Solar & Electric

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Tropical Storm Isaias killed at least nine people, including a five-year-old autistic girl, as it made its way up the US Atlantic Coast.

The five-year-old girl had gone missing from her Philadelphia-area home during the height of the storm Tuesday and was found dead yesterday. Authorities said they believed she was swept away by floodwaters in the creek behind her house.

Two people died when Isaias spun off a tornado that struck a North Carolina mobile home park.

Another person died in Pennsylvania when their vehicle was overtaken by water and swept downstream.

And a man in the New York City borough of Queens died when a tree crushed a car he was inside.

The storm knocked out power to three million homes and businesses from New York to North Carolina, according to local electric companies.

Isaias, which was briefly a Category 1 hurricane when it made landfall in North Carolina late on Monday, reduced the mobile home park in the north of the state to rubble hours later, leaving two people dead.

"It doesn't look real. It looks like something on TV. There's nothing there," Bertie County Sheriff, John Holley, told local reporters.

"Vehicles are turned over. Vehicles are piled on top of each other. It's just very sad."

A mother and her two children who were missing for hours after the storm ripped through the area were found safe later on Tuesday.

In Mechanicsville, North Carolina, a large tree fell on a car, killing the driver.

Elsewhere, strong winds from the storm knocked down trees and power lines across Massachusetts, leaving more than 220,000 customers without power, CBS reported.

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said he had spoken with US President Donald Trump, who pledged aid.

Social media images showed tornadoes in Cape May, Marmora and Long Beach Island along New Jersey's southern shore, and tornado damage in Dover, Delaware. In Bear, Delaware, Tammy Trelford Campos said she was terrified to hear a tornado destroy her backyard.

"The damage is crazy. No power, almost all my trees are split or uprooted, water is coming in all windows," she said on Facebook.

New York City, much of New Jersey, all of Massachusetts and other parts of New England went under a tornado watch. New York temporarily shut down coronavirus testing centres as a precaution.
Days before Joe Biden makes a final decision on his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris is making her case for the job by issuing a series of environmental justice bills.

The California Democrat put out her second bill tackling the racial injustices of pollution in as many weeks as she is being considered by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee to join the party's 2020 ticket.

During the primary, Harris positioned herself to the left of Biden on climate change. But she and Biden want to tackle climate change and other environmental issues in a similar way - with a focus on racial injustice.

"She checks a lot of boxes that might not be immediately apparent on climate," said Paul Bledsoe, a Biden backer and environmental adviser in President Bill Clinton's White House.

One Thursday, Harris and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., introduced legislation meant to protect disadvantaged communities. Their proposal, called the Climate Equity Act, would require relevant bills in Congress to be scored on how much they may harm poor and minority communities, which often bear the brunt of pollution and other environmental damage.

"COVID-19 has laid bare the realities of systemic racial, health, economic, and environmental injustices that persist in our country," Harris said in a statement. "The environment we live in cannot be disentangled from the rest of our lives."

The equity score would be akin to the economic scores given out by the Congressional Budget Office on legislation.

Kerene Tayloe, director of federal legislative affairs at WE ACT for Environmental Justice, a New York-based environmental justice group, said the idea of creating such a scoring system "is a really big deal."

"Nothing like that has ever existed," said Tayloe, whose group advised Harris and Ocasio-Cortez on the legislation.

The bill would require regulations from the executive branch to undergo similar scrutiny.

Last week, Harris worked with Sens. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., to introduce another measure reversing a Supreme Court decision making it harder for African Americans and other groups to sue under the Civil Rights Act for being disproportionately affected by pollution.

Harris positioned herself as a liberal on climate change when she faced off against Biden during the presidential primary.

In early 2019, the California Democrat backed the Green New Deal, a sweeping plan led by Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., to aggressively cut carbon emissions over the next decade.

And she pledged $10 trillion in investment over 10 years to cut emissions - a goal more in line with the $16.3 trillion climate plan of Sen. Bernie Sanders I-Vt., than it was with Biden's initial $1.7 trillion climate proposal.

Harris said during a CNN town hall in September that "there's no question I'm in favor of banning fracking." But she did not embrace a ban on the practice in her climate plan, also released that month.

Biden has declined to endorse a ban on fracking, conscious of the jobs the natural gas extraction technique supports in the swing state of Pennsylvania.

At the same, Biden has made environmental justice a tenet of his own updated climate proposal released last month, which calls for 40% of clean-energy money to go to disadvantaged communities.

Bolstering Harris's credentials is her effort to form a team to focus on environmental crimes in 2005, when district attorney of San Francisco.

But her resume as a prosecutor in California is likely to make liberals more leery of her possible inclusion on the ticket, given the reckoning the country is going through on police violence after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Still, Bledsoe, an energy adviser at the Progressive Policy Institute, notes that Harris's California roots may be an asset when it comes to climate change. Her state, he notes, has been able to grow its economy while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"Harris has real credibility as a Californian on climate," he said.

- - -

The Washington Post's Paulina Firozi contributed to this report.
New York:

Three drunk white men allegedly assaulted a Muslim student on a US subway train who repeatedly screamed "Donald Trump!" and hurled anti-Islam slurs.

Further, the student also claimed they also tried to tear her hijab off.

The attack is the latest in a slew of incidents in which headscarf clad women have been targeted.

Three men attempted to rip off Yasmin Seweid's hijab, calling the 18-year-old student a "terrorist" and shouting President-elect Trump's name as she rode the subway through Manhattan.

Also Read: Muslim women take self defence classes after spike in Hijab grab attacks in US

Straphangers stood by and watched as the three drunk white men repeatedly screamed "Donald Trump!" and hurled anti-Islam slurs at the Muslim Baruch College student before trying to rip her hijab off on an East Side subway, the woman told the New York Daily News.

The incident that took place on Thursday is being investigated by the NYPD's Hate Crimes Task Force.

Police are reviewing surveillance video to identify the men involved.Seweid said she was stunned by the assault and the fact that no one in the subway car came to her aid.

"I heard them say something very loudly, something about Donald Trump...I also heard them say the word terrorist and I sort of got a little scared," Seweid was quoted as saying. They kept screaming Trump's name at her, and then said, "Oh look, a (expletive) terrorist," according to Seweid."Get the hell out of the country!" they yelled during the train ride.

"You don't belong here!"Seweid, who was born in the US to Egyptian parents, was shocked. "I born and raised in this country. I'm an American, you know?" she said.

Also Read: Hijab clad Muslim women assaulted, called ISIS in US

When Seweid ignored them, they pulled on her bag to get her attention and the strap broke.

"That's when I turned around and said 'can you please leave me alone', and they started laughing," Seweid said.

She walked to the other end of the train, and they followed her and tried to pull off her hijab.

"I put my hand on top of my head to hold it. Then I turned around and screamed," she said.

Seweid got off the train and reported the terrifying incident to police.

The incident comes amid a slew of intimidation and assault cases that have been reported across the country against hijab-clad women following Trump's win.

Earlier this month, a Hijab-clad Muslim student was allegedly struck in the face with a glass bottle in broad daylight at the University of Washington campus in Seattle.

In another incident, a hijab-clad woman was allegedly accosted at a US store by another customer who called her a "terrorist" and told her to "get out" of the country.

Also, a Muslim student's hijab was allegedly ripped off and her hair pulled down by a classmate at a school in Minnesota.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
We need good relationships between the police and the community, Thrapp said. What an ideal place to do it and teach our kids not to be afraid of them.

Alderman Judith Lee, 8th Ward, said she was not for or against the SROs, but they must have defined tasks.

Lee said she was not going to give a blanket agreement to sign intergovernmental agreements on the issue without some data. Lee said she wanted to know, among other things, why there were SROs in the schools, the proportion of time on what types of activities, the kind of practice and training they had in de-escalation skills and justice for children, the arrests for each school by gender, race and disability, and the types of charges that are brought against the children as well as how many lead to expulsion.

Alderman Pat Peacock, 7th Ward, said the question was should SROs be the in the schools. If we dont have the necessary data, how can we make an informed decision as a council.

Peacock said hed heard all about how wonderful the officers were and that they build relationships with the students. But, he added, its not the police officers defined duty to build relationships. Their job is not public relations.
Stephen Lecce is sworn in as Ontarios minister of education by Lieutenant Governor of Ontario Elizabeth Dowdeswell at Queens Park in Toronto on June 20, 2019. (The Canadian Press/ Tijana Martin)

Ontario Canceling WE Charity Contract

TORONTOIn the wake of the ongoing scandal involving the Trudeau government and the WE Charity, Ontarios Ministry of Education is cancelling its contract with the charity.

On June 18th, the Ministry of Education had awarded $250,000 to WE Charity for providing student engagement programming for social justice issues.

This was part of a multi-million dollar enhanced student mental health program from the ministry as part of its COVID-19 response.

Alexandria Adamo, spokesperson for education minister Stephen Lecce, told the Canadian Press that the Ontario government is deeply concerned and troubled by the allegations that have been made against WE.

The ministry will not renew its contract with the charity and is going to investigate any expenditures to date.

The charity, founded by brothers Craig and Marc Kielburger, has been the subject of intense scrutiny following a sole-sourced contract awarded by the federal government to operate its $900 million summer student grant program.

WE Charity opted out of the contract that would have seen it earn up to $47 million in management and operational fees.

The ministry may be ending a formal relationship with WE, but school boards and individual schools are not banned from participating in activities and programming from the charity, including its popular Me to We program.

April Scott-Clarke with the Upper Canada District School Board said there was no board-wide activity or program with the charity.

Currently, activities that support WE Charity are initiated and acted on at the school level, with schools choosing what makes sense for their community, Scott-Clarke said.

We do have many schools that have WE clubs, however we also have many schools that do other types of fundraising and create their own independent groups that promote change in their schools and communities.

No comment was received from the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario about its activities with WE by deadline.

Morrisburg-based St. Mary-St. Cecilia Catholic School did have a Me-to-We Club active in that school.

By Phillip Blancher, local journalism initiative reporter, The Leader
While leaving work, 26-year-old nurse Merin Joy Mathew was stabbed and run over by a man who was violent and murderous.

Merin Joy works at the Broward Health Coral Springs where she was starting anew, after recently separating from her husband who was very guilty of abusing her. She told Sun-Sentinel that he will kill her.

The fatal attack in the parking lot

Her killer was waiting for her at the parking lot where she was stabbed and fell on the ground. However, the murderer was not done. He went over her several times like a road bump and drove off thinking she was dead.

Witnesses saw the car going over the victim. One person said that she was like a speed bump. When they approached her, the victim said she was pregnant.

The authorities arrived on time for the nurse to tell them it was her abusive husband Philip Mathew, 34 who committed the crime. People saw how her husband brutally killed her.

He was trying to come up with an edgy plan to kill his wife but failed to get away from it. He was later apprehended and charged for first-degree murder.

Also read: Jennifer Dulos Murder: American Writer Died of Violent Assault As Blood Were Found in Zip Ties, Garage

Problems in the house and suspected abuse

A source shed light on the deterioration of the couple's marriage. An old classmate and friend of Philip's, Joice John Madasseril, said that the couple tid the knot in India. They had a child, a two-year-old girl named Norah.

The couple was already having problems. That was when Coral Springs police got a call for domestic violence. This incident in 2018 happened at Mathew's residence when he threatened to kill himself and his wife. It was later noted in the police records that he wasn't in the right mind at this episode.

Empowered by the Baker Act, police had the power to take possible domestic abusers and mentally deranged husbands that are a danger not only to themselves but to others. They took the future wife-killer from the residence to protect Merin.

News of his abuse towards his wife reached her parents. His friend recalled that he claimed it is a lie.

After visiting India, the abuser returned alone to South Florid abecause the victim left him. He was taking odd jobs and staying solo when Merin Joy separated from him.

Joy decided to deposit their daughter with her mum to be safe. Getting back to the states, she planned to stay in Tampa Florida away from Philip.

On July 19, she reported to the police that her physically abusive husband wanted to be with her. The divorce was in process, but the her husband did not agree.

In another occasion, the police were told that he was leaving scary messages and pictures. He was taking drastic measures because of the ongoing divorce procedure.

By the time he murdered her, their child was in India and Merin Joy wanted a new life. However, she didn't get that chance because she was stabbed, and run over by her ex-husband.

Related article: Man Charged After Woman's Remains Discovered Stuffed in Suitcase

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Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has pleaded for people to stop putting lives at risk by lying on coronavirus forms.

Mr Hunt responded to reports that one in ten patrons in New South Wales give fake details when signing in to a restaurant or cafe.

'The simple act of providing your details is the least we can do, it's about keeping ourselves safe but also all of our family and friends,' he told Sunrise on Thursday.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has issued a plea for people to stop lying on coronavirus forms at cafes and restaurants (A woman at the entrance of The Bavarian in Manly pictured)

Hospitality venues must note people's names and phone numbers in a COVID Safe register when they attend the premises.

These details are crucial in assisting with contact tracing in the event of a coronavirus outbreak.

Mr Hunt said providing fake details was 'obviously illegal' and made contact tracing 'incredibly difficult'.

'Right now each of us has this extraordinary gift, our actions can help save lives and protect lives or inadvertently risk the lives of others,' he explained.

The Health Minister urged any wrongdoers to consider the safety of their family and friends.

'I want to appeal to not just the fear of prosecution, but the highest instincts about saving lives and protecting lives,' he said.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian also slammed the rule-breakers on Wednesday and said providing fake details was 'the worst thing you can do.'

The Health Minister responded to reports one-in-ten patrons in New South Wales provide false details on a COVID Safe register (Two men pictured checking in to a venue on Saturday)

'If you don't want to hand over your details that's fine, stay home,' Ms Berejiklian said.

NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant has encouraged people limit their visits to restaurants, bars and cafes.

'We're advising people to really think about their gatherings, think about their social life over the next couple of weeks.

'Just some small changes in their life, which really means the number of interactions people are having is decreased,' Dr Chant said.

NSW recorded a total of 12 new coronavirus cases on Thursday which were all linked to community transmission.

Ten were locally acquired linked to known cases including one who had attended the Apollo Restaurant in Potts Point.

One had attended the Mounties club in Mount Pritchard and eight are household contacts of known cases.

Two cases are still under investigation, one is a man in his 20s from Sydney and the other is a teenager from Newcastle.

The state is currently battling at least 104 active cases of coronavirus.
The destroyed silo sits in rubble and debris after an explosion at the seaport of Beirut, Lebanon, on Aug. 5, 2020. (Hussein Malla/AP Photo)

Canada Promises Immediate Help to Lebanon, Looks for Long-Term Political Reforms

OTTAWACanada is joining France and other countries in emphasizing the need for economic and political reform in Lebanon over the long term as it looks at immediate ways to help the country following this weeks deadly explosion in Beirut.

Canada has so far pledged $5 million in emergency aid after Tuesdays blast in Lebanons capital, and International Development Minister Karina Gould said the federal government will continue to help the country when it begins to rebuild.

Yet Gould also repeated long-standing calls from the international community for economic and political change to address the underlying problems that have left Lebanon heavily indebtedand which some have blamed for the explosion.

For many Lebanese, Tuesdays giant blast was the last straw after years of corruption and mismanagement by a political elite that has ruled for decades.

The blast is believed to have happened when a fire touched off a stockpile of 2,750 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate that authorities left sitting in a warehouse for yearsdespite a customs officials repeated warnings.

We are ready to provide assistance to Lebanon, Gould said during a news conference Thursday in Ottawa when asked about concerns with corruption and poor governance in the country.

However, we recognize that that has to come with significant fiscal and political reforms to ensure that that assistance goes to benefiting the lives of the Lebanese people, and that is something that we have been very firm in.

Canada isnt alone in highlighting those concerns following the explosion, which killed more than 130 people and injured thousands more. It also destroyed Lebanons main port and caused damage to much of its capital, leaving many residents homeless.

There have been widespread pledges of international aid to Lebanon, which was already mired in a severe economic crisis that has crippled its ability to rebuild from the blast.

However, the global community has been reluctant to offer direct support to the notoriously corrupt and dysfunctional government.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced during a visit to Beirut Thursday that France will organize a conference with European, American, Middle Eastern and other donors to raise money for food, medicine, housing and other urgent aid.

But he warned Lebanons political leadership that he wouldnt give blank cheques to a system that no longer has the trust of its people. He called on them to create a new political order.

Macron, whose country was once the colonial ruler of Lebanon, also promised a clear and transparent governance so that the aid goes directly to the population and aid groups.

Lebanons various political factions, including the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group, have ruled the country since the 19751990 civil war.

Almost all the countrys public institutions are divided up among the factions, which use them as patronage generators for themselves and their supporters.

Little actual development is put into the institutions and anything that requires joint action often becomes mired in bickering. As a result, even basic services like electricity and trash collection are in a shambles.

The first $1.5 million in emergency assistance from Canada is flowing through the Canadian Red Cross to its Lebanese counterpart. Gould said officials are now assessing the situation in coordination with other countries for the rest.

However, she did indicate that the money would not be given to the Lebanese government.

Meanwhile, Gould said Canadas embassy in Beirut managed to escape the explosion relatively unscathed and will reopen on Monday to begin offering consular assistance to Canadians in need.

While the federal government previously evacuated thousands of Canadians from Lebanon in 2006 during a war between Hezbollah and Israel, Gould could not say whether the government expected a massive influx of people from Lebanon this time around.

We are still assessing the situation, she said. We havent received a huge number of requests for assistance, about 64 at this point in time, and those people are being assisted through our consular support services here in Canada.

Gould referred questions about whether Lebanese-Canadians will be able to bring relatives in crisis to Canada to Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino.

By Lee Berthiaume
An Accra Circuit Court on Thursday granted a GH200,000.00 bail with two sureties to be justified to one Ebenezer Hayford, a driver for allegedly defrauding a businessman of GH200,000.00 under the pretext of selling to him a tipper truck.



Hayford has denied conspiring with two others to defraud Mr Joseph Akwesi Adu with his accomplices, only named as Twumasi and Patrick, who are currently on the run.

He will make his next appearance on September 2.



Prosecuting, Police Chief Inspector Christine Bansah told the Court presided over by Mrs Susanna Eduful that, the complainant deals in vehicles and spare parts and resides at Mallam in the Greater Accra Region whilst Hayford lives at Ejisu in the Ashanti Region.



She said on July 13, 2020, Hayford approached the complainant and told him he had a Howo Tipper Truck on sale at a vehicle garage and after showing it to him, the complainant became interested.



Chief Inspector Bansah said Hayford took the complainant to a hotel on the Spintex Road, and introduced Twumasi and Patrick as owners of the truck.



The prosecution said the two men then gave the price of the truck as GH200,000.00 and the complainant paid for it, but after the payment, they pretended that they were going to get him the car keys from their vehicle at the hotels car park, but escaped with the money leaving behind Hayford.



Chief Inspector Bansah said after sometime when the two were not coming, Hayford also informed the complainant and a witness in the case that he wanted to use the washroom but the complainant became suspicious and therefore asked the witness to escort the accused.



Prosecution said based on fact that Twumasi and Patrick were yet to returned, increased the height of suspicion of the complainant, who then handed Hayford over to the police for investigations, when he eventually returned with the complainants escort from the washroom.

Source: GNA









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Featured Video
By Trend

Azerbaijan's ADY Container LLC company transported 18,980 containers (24,891 TEU) in 1H2020, ADY Container LLC told Trend.

In 1H2020, cargo traffic increased by 50 percent compared to the same period in 2019, of which 33 percent accounted for transit.

"Cargo transportation amounted to only 12,647 containers (15,741 TEU) in 1H2019," the company noted.

ADY Container LLC has started expanding cooperation mainly with the countries of the Far East - China, Japan, South Korea, and also with Ukraine, Turkey, Russia, Iran and India, along East-West, North-South international transport corridors and TRANS-Caspian international transport route in order to increase the volume of cargo transportation.

ADY Container LLC is subsidiary of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC. The company is engaged in the centralization, storage, maintenance and transportation of containers in accordance with international standards.

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Renovation

6 August 2020

Purdue University is ushering in a new era in hospitality to campus with the reopening today (Aug. 5) of the historic Union Club Hotel. The 182-room hotel recently completed a comprehensive $35 million, yearlong renovation where snapshots of Purdue's legacy can be found everywhere, including in the names of its three new dining concepts.

The Union Club Hotel renovation involved a complete overhaul of all guest rooms and public spaces, including a significant transformation of the lobby to create a grand entrance with a modern loft-like feel. Throughout the renovation, original Purdue architecture and academic-inspired design are preserved in carpet patterns, upholstery, room fixtures and countless other elements in the hotel.

The hotel will also be used as a hands-on learning laboratory for students in Purdue's School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, a program expected to roll out in 2021.

Owned by Purdue University, the iconic property was built in phases and first opened in 1929 as an addition to the Purdue Memorial Union. In 1939 a second wing was added to the hotel, and in 1955 the five-story 130-room north wing was added. Parts of the hotel underwent renovations in the mid-1980s and at the turn of the century.

The hotel is managed by White Lodging, one of the largest hotel development and management companies in the United States with more than 90 premium-brand hotels across the country. The company is based northern Indiana and was founded by Purdue alumnus, Bruce White.

New dining concepts in West Lafayette

The Union Club Hotel brings with it three new dining outlets for guests and the public.

8Eleven Bistro is a full-service modern restaurant serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. The name is inspired by two of NASA's most daring missions: Gemini 8 and Apollo 11 - both commanded by Purdue alumnus Neil Armstrong. The bistro's menu features approachable American classic dishes with a few signatures, including a Grilled Tuna Nicoise Salad and a Croque Madame. A unique open kitchen allows guests to observe culinary craftsmanship firsthand.

Boiler Up Bar, a refined cocktail lounge, honors the school's treasured traditions and iconic personalities. In this refined and sophisticated gathering spot, farm-inspired cocktails will be enhanced with fresh garnishes provided by the College of Agriculture while a fine selection of bourbons and whiskeys tells the story of Indiana's best small-batch distilleries. Boiler Up Bar will feature a streamlined 8Eleven menu for lunch and a dinner menu, including small plates that cater to the cocktail environment.

Leaps Coffee & Artisan Pastries is an energetic hub for grab 'n' go goodness. Featuring a coffee and pastry counter with coffee and artisan teas from regional purveyor Hubbard & Cravens, and made-in-house pastries, this outlet pays homage to the generations of Purdue innovators who make the world better by leaps and bounds.

StayConfident: Union Club Hotel's enhanced health and safety measures

As part of Purdue's and White Lodging's commitment to health and safety, the Union Club Hotel's StayConfident cleaning program goes above and beyond to ensure an even more confident stay. StayConfident was developed in line with the Protect Purdue Plan, guidelines by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, national hotel associations and experience from top hotel brands.

StayConfident includes a rigorous five-point guest room protocol, which takes extra safety and cleaning measures to disinfect all high-touch surfaces using hospital-grade disinfectants. The program also guides additional measures throughout the hotel and restaurants - focused on three areas - and supported by ongoing associate training and certification:

Contactless operations wherever possible.

Advanced cleaning and disinfection procedures.

Individualized - and social distanced - services.

Opportunities to learn more and book a stay are at www.PurdueUnionClubHotel.com.
Kollywood actress and politician Khushbu Sundar exposed a person who gave her rape threats. She recently posted a tweet in which she named the person and complained against him to Kolkata Police and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

In the tweet, she mentioned that she has been receiving rape threats from the cyberbully. Khushbu Sundar wrote, "I have been getting calls threatening for rape from this number. #SanjaySharma name reflects. This call is made from Kolkata. I request @KolkataPolice to kindly look into this immediately."In another tweet, she also asked West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee to look into the matter. Notably, Khushbu also revealed the person's phone number who threaten her. "Humbly urge H'ble CM of Kolkata @MamataOfficial Didi to look into it. If it can happen to me, imagine the plight of other women..," Khushbu tweeted.Khushbu Sundar's tweet was indeed a bold move. It indicates that women should come out and take action against the harasser. However, the actress' tweet didn't go down well with one user and he asked her, "Why u posting this in public ."

After being questioned for her action, Khushbu Sundar got furious and slammed the netizen. She replied to him by tweeting, "What do you mean by why posting this public?? I am sure the one who made calls has a family. Such bastards should be shamed in public." (sic)

Now, fans are waiting for Mamata Banerjee's action over the issue. On a related note, Khushbu Sundar was last seen in Tamil/Telugu film Lakshmi Stores. She was also featured in shows like Namma Kudumbam, Kalki and Nandini.

Also Read : Khushbu Apologises To Media Over Her Leaked Audio Clip Against Journalists!

Also Read : Happy Birthday Khushbu Sundar: Stars Wish The Talented Actress On Her Special Day
GLADSTONE, Mo. - Once again, Steve West has won the GOP primary for Missouri's District 15 State House seat despite the opposition of another candidate, GOP leaders in Jefferson City and, incredibly, his own family members. The same scenario played out in the Clay County district in 2018, which kicked off international attention due to [...]
Sri Lanka's strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa was poised to stage a political comeback on Thursday as his party took an unassailable lead and was set for a landslide victory in the twice-postponed general elections, according to results announced so far.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the first world leaders to congratulate Rajapaksa on the outcome of the elections and said the two sides will work together to further advance all areas of bilateral cooperation and to take their special ties to ever newer heights.

"Thank you PM @narendramodi for your congratulatory phone call. With the strong support of the people of #SriLanka, I look forward to working with you closely to further enhance the long-standing cooperation between our two countries. Sri Lanka & India are friends & relations," 74-year-old Rajapaksa tweeted.

The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna has polled more votes than its rivals, scoring over 60 per cent of the total votes in the 16 seats officially declared so far from the South, dominated by the Sinhala majority community. The party won 13 out of 16 seats.

Unofficial results indicate that the SLPP would comfortably win at least 17 out of the 22 districts on offer.

Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in a tweet described the results as a "magnificent victory" for the ruling party.

"The SLPP has recorded a magnificent victory according to the official results declared so far. I firmly believe that by tomorrow I would be able to form the parliament which is needed to implement my election manifesto," he said in a statement.

Rajapaksa's party is expected to win control of the 225-member assembly by a comfortable margin, according to analysts.

In Galle district, the SLPP won seven out of nine seats on offer while in the neighbouring Matara district they won six out of seven seats on offer.

The nearest rival is the new party formed by former presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa who has relegated his mother party, the United National Party, of former premier Ranil Wickremesinghe to the fourth place even below the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna.

The SJB has won only three seats from both districts.

Wickremesinghe's party is struggling to reach the five per cent mark needed to qualify for any seat in the entire island. He is facing the danger of losing his parliamentary seat for the first time since July 1977.

In the polling division results from other districts where counting is in progress, the SLPP has taken unassailable leads, sources said.

In the Tamil minority dominated north, the main Tamil party -- Tamil National Alliance -- despite bagging a few polling divisions had also suffered unexpected reversals at the hands of SLPP's Tamil allies -- the Eelam People's Democratic Party.

The counting began in the morning after the polls were closed on Wednesday.

As the counting of votes began, SLPP founder and its National Organiser Basil Rajapaksa -- who is the younger brother of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa with the eldest being Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa -- said that the party is all set to form a new government.

Lankan President Gotabaya hopes for a two-thirds majority for the SLPP so that he can amend the Constitution to restore presidential powers curbed by a 2015 constitutional change.

The president is not a candidate while care-taker prime minister Mahinda is running from the north western capital district of Kurunegala.

PM Modi congratulates Sri Lankan counterpart

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday congratulated his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa on his party's performance in the parliamentary elections, with early trends showing that it was headed for a landslide win.



Modi also commended the government and the electoral institutions of Sri Lanka for effectively organising the elections despite the constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic, a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office said.

He also appreciated the Sri Lankan people for their enthusiastic participation in the elections, and said this reflected the strong democratic values shared by both countries.

Sri Lanka's powerful Rajapaksa family-run Sri Lanka People's Party appeared to be heading for a landslide win in the country's twice-postponed parliamentary election, according to early results announced on Thursday.

Modi noted that the incoming results of the elections indicate an impressive electoral performance by the SLPP, and conveyed his congratulations and best wishes to Rajapaksa, the statement said.

In a tweet, Modi said: "It was a pleasure to speak to you. Once again, many congratulations. We will work together to further advance all areas of bilateral cooperation and to take our special ties to ever newer heights."

Rajapaksa also thanked Modi on Twitter for the congratulatory phone call.

"With the strong support of the people of Sri Lanka, I look forward to working with you closely to further enhance the long-standing cooperation between our two countries," Rajapaksa said.

"Sri Lanka and India are friends and relations," he said.

Recalling their cordial and fruitful previous interactions, the two leaders reiterated their shared commitment to strengthen the age-old and multi-dimensional India-Sri Lanka relationship, the statement said.

They stressed the significance of early progress in all spheres of bilateral cooperation.

Modi informed Rajapaksa about the establishment of an international airport in the Buddhist pilgrimage city of Kushinagar in India, and said the city looked forward to welcoming visitors from Sri Lanka at an early date.

The leaders also agreed to remain in close touch as both countries address the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and resolved to take bilateral relations to newer heights in the coming days.
Greece has recorded its biggest spike in COVID-19 infections since emerging from a nationwide lockdown three months ago. The country's virus-free status -- relative to others in Europe -- has largely faded since allowing tourists to visit again. But now authorities are largely blaming young Greeks for the dramatic rise in infections, accusing them of socializing recklessly and not acting responsibly. Officials fear Greece is just weeks away from living a nightmarish contagion much like that already seen in Italy earlier this year.

For a country that until recently had only about 3,000 COVID-19 infections, Tuesday's single-day count of 121 new cases set off alarm bells. It also forced Sotiris Tsiodras, an infectious diseases expert and the head of the Greek government's medical response team, to return to the public podium, issuing a stark warning 70 days after Greece claimed it had successfully flattened its coronavirus curve.

The situation now, he said, is dangerous and Greeks have to understand the severity of it because the fate of this flare-up ultimately hinges on them. If people behave as they should, Tsiodras said, then they can once again quash the curve. But if they do not, then this can easily and quickly turn into what he described as an Italy-like calamity.

COVID-19 infections have been climbing since tourists began trickling back into this sun-drenched country in early June. But as Greeks too have started seeking summer retreat, they also have been loosening up in their compliance with social distancing rules, refusing to wear masks at beach bars, restaurants and social gatherings.


VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Apollo Gold Corp. TSX.V: APGO (Apollo or the "Company") is pleased to announce that, further to its news release dated June 23, 2020, it has closed a non-brokered private placement of 10,000,000 units of the Company (the Units) at $0.50 per Unit for gross proceeds of $5,000,000 (the Offering).



Each Unit consists of one common share in the capital of the Company (a Share) and one-half of one common share purchase warrant (each whole warrant a Warrant). Each Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one additional common share in the capital of the Company (a Warrant Share) at a price of $0.75 per Warrant Share for a period of two years from the date of issuance of the Warrants.

All securities issued in connection with the Offering are subject to a statutory hold period ending on December 5, 2020 in accordance with the policies of TSX Venture Exchange and applicable securities legislation. The Company paid aggregate cash finders' fees totalling $241,385 and issued 498,470 finders warrants to certain eligible finders. Each finders warrant entitles the holder to purchase one Share at an exercise price of $0.75 per Share for a period of two years from the date of issuance of the finders warrants.

Andrew Bowering, Director and Chairman of the Company participated in the private placement and acquired 80,000 Units. The purchase constitutes a related party transaction within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101  Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions (MI 61-101). The issuance is exempt from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 as it was a distribution of securities for cash and the fair market value of the Units issued to or the consideration paid by such insider did not exceed 25% of the Companys market capitalization.

The Company did not file a material change report more than 21 days before the expected closing of the offering because the details of the participation therein by the related party of the Company were not settled until shortly prior to the closing of the offering and the Company wished to close on an expedited basis for business reasons.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the Offering to finance payments and costs related to its projects in Chile and Mexico, including the associated work programs currently anticipated for Q4 2020 / Q1 2021 in both jurisdictions. Net proceeds of the financing will also be used for working capital and general corporate purposes.

Simon Clarke, CEO of Apollo Gold stated, we are pleased to close this over-subscribed Offering at this key time in the commodity cycle and to strengthen our balance sheet as we finalize arrangements in both Chile and Mexico relating to the acquisition of highly prospective gold assets and ahead of launching initial work programs in both countries. We continue to pursue our strategy of looking to secure and develop assets in Tier 1 mining jurisdictions which we believe have the potential to develop into world-class gold projects.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

APOLLO GOLD CORP.



Simon Clarke

Simon Clarke, Chief Executive Officer

About Apollo Gold Corp. (TSX.V: APGO)

Apollo Gold has assembled a team that is exploring for world class gold deposits in tier-one jurisdictions. Positioned for a prolonged gold cycle, the Companys initial 5,329-hectare project lies in the heart of the Republic of Chiles prolific El Indio Gold Belt surrounded by some of the largest gold companies/mines in the world. The Company is also focused on acquiring quality assets in Mexico and recently announced a letter of intent to enter into an option to acquire 5,240 hectares in a district with a history of gold and silver mining and with a number of deposits nearby. Apollos team offers global resource sector experience focused on exploration and development with a track-record in advancing projects and creating shareholder value.

For further information, please contact

Apollo Gold Corp.

Simon Clarke

Tel: +1 (604) 551-9665

simonpclarke65@gmail.com

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Statements in this news release that are forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties concerning the specific factors disclosed here and elsewhere in the Companys periodic filings with Canadian securities regulators. When used in this news release, words such as will, could, plan, estimate, expect, intend, may, potential, appear, should, and similar expressions, are forward-looking statements.

Although Apollo Gold Corp. has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, there can be other factors that cause results, performance or achievements not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate or that management's expectations or estimates of future developments, circumstances or results will materialize. As a result of these risks and uncertainties, the results or events predicted in these forward-looking statements may differ materially from actual results or events.

Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this news release are made as of the date of this news release, and the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise such information, except as required by applicable law.


By Mark Leonard





BERLIN  Is Turkey the new Russia? That question is increasingly being asked in European capitals as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan adopts a more aggressive foreign policy.



In addition to using migration to threaten and finagle the European Union, Erdogan has also been deploying military power to expand Turkey's sphere of influence across the wider region.



Since the end of the Cold War, Europeans have viewed regional security through a unipolar Western lens. While NATO guaranteed military security, the EU  with its 80,000-page rule-book for everything from LGBTQ rights to lawnmower sound ordinances  provided legal order. Back in the 1990s, it was widely assumed that the two big non-Western regional players, Russia and Turkey, would gradually be accommodated to this arrangement.



But over the last 15 years, the dream of European unipolarity has given way to a multipolar reality. Both Russia and Turkey have had a long, tortured love-hate relationship with Europe, and both have grown more assertive under national leaders who share a disdain for EU norms and values.



The breakdown of the EU-Russia relationship is well documented; the Turkish story less so. The Iraq War in 2003 complicated Turkey's relationship with NATO, and its relationship with the EU took a turn for the worse in 2007, when France blocked a key part of its EU accession negotiations. Turkey has since been forging its own path in Syria, the Balkans, and Libya, as well as pursuing new ties with Russia and China.



Of course, the Turkey-Russia relationship is no less complicated, not least because Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin backed different sides in Syria's civil war. The low point came when Turkey shot down a Russian military plane in 2015. In response, Putin imposed sanctions, which sowed chaos in the Turkish economy and prompted an uncharacteristic apology from Erdogan.



Despite being a NATO ally, Turkey has since decided to purchase a Russian-made S-400 missile-defense system over the objections of the United States. And while tensions over the Syria conflict remain, Erdogan clearly admires how Russia has re-established itself  at relatively little cost  as an important player in the Middle East and North Africa.



After becoming mired in an unwinnable war in eastern Ukraine, Putin's largely successful campaign in Syria seemed to restore some of his domestic authority. The West had spent five years insisting that there was no military solution to the conflict, and that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had to go.



But while United Nations-sponsored talks in Geneva went nowhere, Russia-sponsored talks in Astana seemed to make some headway. By including Turkey and Iran while excluding Western powers, the Kremlin created the impression that Russia had risen from the ashes, a born-again superpower.



Facing growing opposition at home, Erdogan has adopted the Putin playbook. With the West unwilling to intervene militarily (again) in Libya, Erdogan saw an opportunity to strut Turkey's stuff. Following Russia's approach in Syria, he secured a formal invitation from the Libyan government to intervene.



In one fell swoop late last year, he not only boosted Turkey's image as a regional power, but also clinched a maritime border deal with Libya, thereby disrupting a plan by Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, and Israel to develop underwater oil and gas fields in the vicinity.



Since then, the EU- and U.N.-led "Berlin" peace process has sought to end the war in Libya, but Turkey's military intervention has fundamentally changed the balance of power on the ground. Once again, Russia and Turkey will determine the future of a country that is essential to European interests, only this time it is Turkey that is in charge.



Erdogan also seems to have been inspired by the Kremlin's divide-and-conquer strategy in Europe, where it often squeezes those EU member states that are most reliant on Russian hydrocarbons or markets.



Just as Putin has long weaponized the supply of energy, Erdogan has tried to weaponize the flow of migrants and refugees fleeing conflicts in the Middle East. When the EU announced a new naval mission to block the flow of weapons into Libya, Turkey dangled the migrant threat in front of Malta, which then signaled that it would veto the mission's funding.



For years, Europeans told themselves that Russia was a kind of prodigal son, and that the European unipolar order remained sound. Yet that made Europe an easy target for the Kremlin's divide-and-conquer strategy.



Only relatively recently did the bloc devise new policies and a robust sanctions regime to deter Russian aggression. And even now  despite the best efforts of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron  the EU still has not created effective channels of communication with Russia for addressing shared problems.



Turkey is not yet a new Russia, but it could become one if the situation is mishandled. For now, most Europeans still regard Turkey as a complicated partner rather than as a "systemic rival."



But Europeans should heed the hard-won lessons of dealing with Russia over the past 15 years. The EU-Turkey relationship needs a new, mutually agreed set of principles, as well as clear red lines to deter further destabilization in the region.



To that end, Europeans should make clear that the EU accession process can be either rolled back or pushed forward, and that a more transactional relationship will involve the use of both carrots and sticks.



The challenge will be to ensure that there is still room for political engagement on issues concerning shared security in a region influenced not just by Europe and Turkey, but also by Russia, the U.S., and a rising China.





Mark Leonard is director of the European Council on Foreign Relations. His article was distributed by Project Syndicate (www.project-syndicate.org).




The move set off a wave of criticism from many Democratic and some Republican lawmakers, who said the decision undermined the pact. By ignoring a part of the agreement it finds inconvenient, they say, the Trump administration is encouraging other nations to do the same. And the sale of advanced armed drones could lead to the proliferation of the technology across the globe.
The Air Force must accelerate change to take on future challenges, the service's new chief of staff said during a historic ceremony in which he became the first African American to lead a military branch.

Gen. Charles "CQ" Brown became the 22nd Air Force chief of staff at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, replacing Gen. David Goldfein, who's retiring after 37 years. Members of Congress and Pentagon leaders, including Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett, were in attendance. Brown's wife, Sharene, and their two sons looked on.

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The event was done on a much smaller scale than normal due to the coronavirus pandemic. Guests and some Air Force musicians wore masks, and chairs for the smaller-than-normal crowd were spaced apart.

Brown not only credited his family's support for contributing to his success, but other Black military leaders such as the Tuskegee Airmen, who broke barriers and paved the way for officers like him.

"This is a very historic day for our nation, and I do not take this moment lightly," he said.

Brown took the helm after most recently leading Pacific Air Forces, where he oversaw more than 46,000 airmen operating out of Japan, Korea, Hawaii, Alaska and Guam. He also led the air campaign against the Islamic State as head of Air Forces Central Command.

The general is an F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot with nearly 3,000 flight hours, of which 130 were in combat.

He said he'll continue to build on the three focus areas Goldfein set during his four-year tenure as chief of staff: revitalizing squadrons, strengthening joint leaders and teams, and advancing multi-domain command and control. Brown also pledged to develop and empower leaders and prioritize quality-of-life initiatives for airmen and their families.

"No doubt, there are challenges ahead that will be difficult but not impossible," he said.

Brown also said he'd provide the Joint Chiefs with his best military advice on the challenges the U.S. military faces today and in the future. He is the first Black member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff since retired Army Gen. Colin Powell served as chairman from 1989 and 1993.

He's stepping into the role as protests continue across the country following the May death of a Black man, George Floyd, while in police custody. He addressed the incident in a video message just days after Floyd's death, sharing how race played a role in his own career -- experiences, he said, "that didn't always sing of liberty and equality."

Esper said Brown is exceptionally qualified to serve as the next Air Force chief of staff.

"I'm confident that you will take the Air Force to even greater heights, and I'm excited to watch you lead," he said.

Goldfein's Legacy

Goldfein led the service during the fight against ISIS, the creation of the new Space Force, and the start of a global pandemic.

"His leadership was crucial at laying the foundation for what is now our sixth and newest military service, the United States Space Force," Esper said. "Gen. Goldfein was at the right place at a very important time as the department laid out the national defense strategy in 2018 -- the first revision of its kind in a decade."

Goldfein led the development of the B-21 Raider, the super-secret future bomber, and pushed to boost the number of Air Force squadrons to 386, up from 312. He also led efforts to ready the force for a future fight against near-peer threats after decades of operations in the Middle East.

Goldfein survived being shot down in an F-16 while flying over Serbia in 1999, an experience that shaped his leadership style for decades to come.

"We don't know, especially as officers, when some young airman is going to risk everything to pull us out of bad-guy land or a burning truck or an aircraft or you name it, and risk everything to save us," he said in a July interview with Military.com. "All we know is, on that day, we better be worthy of their risk."

Esper presented Goldfein with the Defense Distinguished Service Medal on Thursday. Goldfein was a bold advocate for empowering airmen, the citation states, and his dynamic leadership led to outstanding achievements during both war and peace.

"Because of Gen. Goldfein, the core fighting units of the Air Force are much stronger, and airmen are better prepared to lead in a joint environment," Esper said.

Goldfein said the Air Force and airmen will flourish under Brown's leadership.

"I could not be prouder that a true warrior, leader and personal friend will be taking his first 'walk of the chief' [in the Pentagon] tomorrow," he said. "... The future of our Air Force has never looked brighter."

Goldfein was once thought to be next in line to serve as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, but President Donald Trump ultimately picked Army Gen. Mark Milley for the job. Goldfein told Military.com he didn't take the decision personally.

"I've never looked back on that," he said. "The president has the absolute right and responsibility to pick the ... military adviser that he wants. And he picked the right guy."

Goldfein on Thursday said he hopes Americans are inspired by the selflessness of troops and their families, and remain hopeful for the country's future.

Though his speech was apolitical, in keeping with military tradition, Goldfein stressed that service members swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution. It's the same message Milley relayed in a recent speech after he was photographed in uniform near the White House, where federal police officers used force on peaceful protesters ahead of a presidential photo opportunity.

The image raised concerns about the military's involvement in nationwide protests in the wake of Floyd's death, as well as domestic politics. Milley later apologized and said he shouldn't have been there.

Goldfein on Thursday referenced Milley's speech, reminding troops that "the principle of an apolitical military "is so deeply rooted in the very essence of our republic." Civilian and military leaders must work as a team, he added.

"Neither one can bring lasting change alone," Goldfein said. "It's the ultimate team contact sport and a relationship that both must work equally hard to establish that level of trust and confidence that the institution and the nation deserve."

-- Oriana Pawlyk contributed to this report.

-- Gina Harkins can be reached at gina.harkins@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @ginaaharkins.

Related: 'Only African American in the Room:' Next Air Force Chief of Staff Speaks Out on Racism in Ranks
Urban Outfitters, Inc. has selected the Kansas City region for its new 880,000-square-foot omni-channel distribution center, projected to be operational in early 2022. Urban Outfitters selection of Kansas City is significant, and our regions central location, robust infrastructure and access to a skilled workforce position the company for continued growth, said Tim Cowden, president and CEO, KCADC.

Urban Outfitters, Inc. has selected the Kansas City region for its new 880,000-square-foot omni-channel distribution center, the Kansas City Area Development Council (KCADC) and its partners announced today. The facility will be located on ancillary land at the Kansas Speedway in Wyandotte County, Kan. The Philadelphia-based Urban Outfitters will create up to 2,000 new jobs and approximately $350 million in capital investment in Kansas City, Kan., over the next several years.

The retail leader, founded in 1970, plans to begin construction on the facility this fall, and expects to be operational in early 2022. Urban Outfitters selects the locations of its distribution centers based on a combination of factors that include location, available workforce and transportation infrastructure. The company cited Kansas Citys central location as critical to its distribution network.

Our priorities in identifying the home for our new omni-channel distribution center focused on people, and it was the quality of the local workforce and the commitment of their representatives in the state that convinced us this is the right place to be, said Dave Ziel, chief development officer, Urban Outfitters. This facility will be at the heart of our distribution network, enabling us to support continued digital growth at all our brands and reach our digital customers faster and more efficiently than ever before.

Im excited to announce our new partnership with URBN and to welcome them to Kansas, said Kansas Governor Laura Kelly. This is a transformational project for our state, bringing a new, high-profile corporate partner and as many as 2,000 good-paying jobs. This was a true collaboration to generate an economic development success story that will deliver benefits in Wyandotte County and beyond in our state.

KCADC reiterated its ongoing focus on new economic development efforts to accelerate the regions growth and recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Urban Outfitters selection of Kansas City is significant, and our regions central location, robust infrastructure and access to a skilled workforce position the company for continued growth, said Tim Cowden, president and CEO, Kansas City Area Development Council. As a company that is socially conscious and has a mission to do better every day, the presence of Urban Outfitters will be a strong addition to our business community as we all continue to ensure KC is a welcoming, equitable and collaborative place to live and work.

In Kansas City, which was just recognized as a Top Midsize City for Future Projects by the Site Selectors Guild (June 2020), distribution projects are up 25% and manufacturing projects are up 21% since 2019. This comes as global supply chains have been rattled by COVID-19.

We are thrilled that Urban Outfitters has selected Kansas City as the location for this sizable Midwest distribution center, said Chris Gutierrez, president of KC SmartPort, a nonprofit economic development organization focused on recruiting freight-based companies to the 18-county, two-state region. SmartPort is an affiliate of KCADC. Our regions available real estate, competitive workforce and ability to deliver speed-to-market makes KC an ideal location for Urban Outfitters and other leading retailers.

In the past three years, KC SmartPort has helped locate supply chain-related deals surpassing $1.1 billion in capital investment, 4,343 jobs, $174 million in payroll and more than 8.8 million square feet of industrial space. Since the outbreak of the virus, several prominent employers have chosen Kansas City for their next facility, including Dots Pretzels, Tuthill Corporation and Chewy, Inc., among others.

About Greater Kansas City

Home to 2.5 million people, Kansas City is a vibrant metro in the heart of the U.S., known as KC Heartland. KC is a center for leading industries including eCommerce, technology, animal health, entrepreneurship, and is home to a renowned arts community. Visit KC.org and follow @KCHeartland for more details.

About KCADC

The Kansas City Area Development Council serves the 18-county, two-state Kansas City area by marketing the region's business and lifestyle assets to companies around the world. Working closely with its two states, and 50-plus county and community partners, the region has attracted more than 60,000 new jobs over its 40-year history. KCADC also leads the efforts behind the KC Animal Health Corridor, KC SmartPort and TeamKC. thinkKC.com.
The Defence Headquarters has replied the Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, on the accusation that soldiers were responsible for the attack on his convoy last week Wednesday in Baga, a town in Kukawa Local Government Area of the state.

This newspaper reported how Mr Zulum survived an ambush by gunmen while on a trip to Monguno and Baga towns to distribute food to internally displaced persons (IDPs).

In his first reaction, the governor wondered why the army has not been able to secure Baga despite the number of troops deployed for over a year.

A day after the attack, in a Channels Television video seen by PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Zulum said what happened to him was a complete sabotage from the military.

It is a complete sabotage I cannot end my interview without clearly stating what happened yesterday. As far as I am concerned, there was no Boko Haram yesterday (Wednesday). It was a serious shooting by the Nigerian armed forces while residing in Baga. The situation is very embarrassing, he said.

Many Nigerians including Borno residents have accused the army of using Baga to control the multi-million naira fish business along the Lake Chad area, an allegation the army had denied saying soldiers found engaged in such would be disciplined.

Last week, the army had said it was investigating the attack on the Borno governors convoy.

On Wednesday while speaking on Channels TV Politics Today programme, the Coordinator, Defence Headquarters Media Operations, John Enenche, said findings from the footage of the attack show that it was Boko Haram that attacked Mr Zulums convoy.

It is an allegation which needed to be probed and also, I must say for such an allegation, it calls for worry on our part as the high command of which we went into action immediately, Mr Enenche, a major-general, said.

We investigated it immediately and the strategic level is cleared of that; operational level cleared of that, tactical level, cleared of that. We analysed the video: you will discover from the sound of the gunshots, it is not the professional weapons that we use.

And of course, if you have operated with an enemy for some time, we call it enemy habit. From the analysis, it was purely that of the enemies, Boko Haram, in that area. From the tactics, and from the search conducted, it was the insurgents.

So, our fears were allayed within 48 hours. It is not anything sabotage from the tactical, operational and strategic level, that is if you want to rate it from rank down to the person on the frontline.

Borno is the state most affected by the Boko Haram insurgency in Northern Nigeria.

The insurgency has claimed over 30,000 lives and displaced millions of others.
- The LREB COVID-19 resource mobilisation team was selected based on the member's influence in society

- The team comprises of prominent businessmen, philanthropists, industrialists and professionals

- Among them are former vice president Moody Awori, renowned athlete Eliud Kipchoge and Sanjay Patel of Butali Sugar Company

- The teams inauguration is slated for August 14, 2020, while official launch is expected to be graced by Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe on August 19

Musician Esther Akoth popularly known as Akothee is part of the 17-member team picked to spearhead resource mobilisation for COVID-19 response in the Lake region.

Other members of the committee include former vice president Moody Awori, renowned athlete Eliud Kipchoge Sanjay Patel of Butali Sugar Company, Sylvia Ojoo and Alie Eleveldt, among others.

READ ALSO: Tanzanian father of 30 who became overnight millionaire finds another gemstone worth KSh 216M

Vice President Moody Awori is among the 17 members LREB COVID-19 resource mobilisation team, Photo: Citizen TV.

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: COVID-19: Man wakes up from 3-week coma to find disease wiped out his family

Speaking to TUKO.co.ke, the spokesperson at the Office of Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya said the team would be tasked with providing advice on the COVID-19 pandemic.

The committee will provide relevant advice and recommendations on interventions for control and mitigation of the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic across member counties, said the spokesperson.

The governor further said the partial reopening of the economy and cross-border movement of people caused increased infections and it required more commitment to help fight the virus.

READ ALSO: COVID-19 tests: Step by step process of how samples are tested for the virus

Renowned athlete Eliud Kipchoge is also part of the team. Photo: Citizen TV.

Source: Getty Images

Mobilisation of critical actors in both public and private sectors is of utmost importance towards mounting an effective regional COVID-19 control plan, he stated.

This was part of a new fundraising approach being taken by 14 counties under the Lake Region Economic Bloc (LREB) in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The LREB comprises Kakamega, Kisumu, Bungoma, Homa Bay, Busia, Bomet, Siaya, Nyamira, Migori, Kisii and Vihiga counties.

READ ALSO: Man turns truck into a house, builds 3 bedroom flat from it

Akothee is among the committee members who were selected based on their influence in society. Photo: Akothee

Source: UGC

Under the strategy, LREB counties will assist each other to achieve various targets set by the Ministry of Health for COVID-19 emergency response and management.

It will also respond to deficiencies in their health systems.

The 17-member LREB COVID-19 resource mobilisation team was selected based on the member's influence in society.

It comprises of prominent businessmen, philanthropists, industrialists and professionals.

READ ALSO: WHO dispatches team of experts to South Africa as country's COVID-19 cases hit 530k

Oparanya said the team will start with an analysis of the extent of COVID-19's impact on households. Photo: Daily Nation.

Source: Facebook

The teams inauguration is slated for August 14, 2020, while the official launch is expected to be graced by the Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe on August 19.

Oparanya who is the LREB Chairman said the team will start with an analysis of the extent of COVID-19's impact on households and businesses in the Lake Region.

The strategy comes even as some counties struggle to mobilise funding to purchase equipment, especially isolation beds, in readiness for a spike in cases.

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
Mumbai University first merit list 2020: After months of delay, admissions to undergraduate degree courses are set to begin. University of Mumbai has released the first merit list today. Students can check the cut-offs at different colleges by logging on to the websites of respective colleges that they applied to and checking for their names on the allotment lists.

Once again this year, colleges are expecting a spike in cut-offs, especially after most of the education boards managed to release good results for their class 12 board exams this year. Competition keeps getting tougher and students these days are very clear about their choice of course and institute, so getting what they want will be a tough task this year because more and more students seem to have scored exceptionally well in class 12 exams this time round, said Marie Fernandes principal St Andrews College, Bandra.

As per the schedule, students whose names appear on this list will be allowed to confirm their seats by August 11.

Keeping in mind the current situation, the university has asked students to submit a declaration form along with their pre-admission registration form to the allotted college in order to confirm their admissions. The colleges, in turn, have been asked to give provisional admission to the certificate and confirm the same after the student submits a hard copy of the marksheet and all other necessary documents later.

Announcement of the first merit list for undergraduate degree courses was delayed by two days this time, after MU on Tuesday decided to revise the schedule. The first merit list which was originally scheduled to be released at 7pm on August 4 and is now being released at 11am today.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Shreya Bhandary Shreya Bhandary is a Special Correspondent covering higher education for Hindustan Times, Mumbai. Her work revolves around finding loopholes in the current education system and highlighting the good and the bad in higher education institutes in and around Mumbai. ...view detail
Prakash Jha tackles the issue of education for the underprivileged in Pareeksha: The Final Test, that releases today on 6 August on ZEE5.

National Award-winning filmmaker Prakash Jha, in his career spanning almost four decades has often brought political and socio-political issues to celluloid, be it bonded labour in Damul, gender injustice in Mrityudand, the abduction industry in Apaharan, India's corrupt police force in Gangaajal, caste-based reservation in Aarakshan or Naxalism in Chakravyuh. Jhas upcoming film, Pareeksha  The Final Test, deals with education. More specifically, it is the story of a poor man, a rickshaw wallahs desire to provide his son with education and opportunities on a par with the children from affluent families he is acquainted with.

This is the story of one rickshaw wallah who ferries children every single day to the door-steps of the school where his child can never get admission. He thinks that all the opportunities for surging ahead in life are taken away by the privileged and our children never get anything. He aspires of getting his child admitted to the same school. He tries everything to do that, and further, to sustain the child in that school is a nightmare for him. The forces, the class difference, the system is such that they deny the child rightful position," says Jha. "It's a personal story of a dream and struggle. The film has gone to festivals and people have really liked it. It has a lot of messages and emotions. It should work well, he adds.

Pareeksha had its premiere at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Goa in 2019, and is set to stream on ZEE5 from 6 August.

Pareeksha is based on a real story the filmmaker learnt of through a former top cop, a DGP (Director General of Police), in his home State, Bihar. When Mr Abhyanand, an IPS officer and an educationist, told me about him going to the Naxal villages in Jahanabad, where he was posted as SP (Superintendent of Police), and while in search of the Naxals, he would come across their children. As he spoke to these children, he found that they had tremendous native talent, so much so that he was inspired to teach those children. This was the story where supposedly children of criminals were even given the opportunity to succeed in life. This was one hook and thread which eventually developed into the story, says Jha.

But the core of the story has been with me since childhood. I also used to travel to a convent school in a rickshaw, and I would always wonder about the kid of that rickshaw-puller.

I have always said that education is the most important aspect of development. It is important to everyone and to people who are striving hard to achieve something. I have seen to what lengths people go to be able to put their children in school, says Jha.

He shot the film in Ranchi, where he filmed his debut Hip Hip Hurray, in 1982. It was exciting to go back there after 35 to 36 years, he said.

Adil Hussain plays the rickshaw-puller, Bucchi Paswan, while Priyanka Bose and Sanjay Suri play supporting roles. I knew Adil from before. I was convinced that he was the right guy to play Bucchi by the time I was done narrating the story to him. He is a brilliant actor. He is very honest, as a person and as an actor as well, says Jha.

Hussain says he got attracted to the subject because of the truthfulness of the story." When Mr Jha narrated, he never told me that it is a true story. After he finished with the narration over a lunch in a restaurant in Assam, the first question I asked him was if it was a true story. When a story touches you, and it has the strength of truth, it rings truer to the audience, to the actors when it is told well. So that was my love at first sight with the script. Education is very close to all of us in our family. When I read the script, I felt how we are not only depriving children from the economically marginalised society, with enormous talent, but most importantly, we are depriving the nation of gaining from this high-end quality talent, says the actor, who was delighted to work with Jha.

Mr Jha also operates the camera, and that is another advantage to work with him because he visualises the film. But the best part of him is that he let the actor be. He doesnt tell you how to act. He makes you understand the scene, and gives you a rough area to move, and then he captures the scene, which is fantastic, said Hussain.

When asked how different was the experience releasing the film on an OTT platform, Jha said, OTT has its own advantages but every filmmakers wish is to have their film release in cinema because cinema gives you that kind of appointed time, captive audience, and it gives you the real-life experience. OTT will not give that real-life experience.

And since Pareeksha talks about the haves and the have nots, the privileged and the underprivileged, it was important to raise the widely discussed topic of the 'Bollywood Privilege Club,' to which Jha shot back saying, But in which industry we dont have this? I cant specifically talk about the film industry. It is everywhere  in family, society, politics, education. It has not been very easy or difficult for me to survive. Everybody gets to work here but at the same time, there is only a certain number of people who get a certain kind of work. And of course, there are people who are known, are more famous, or have families in business. It is human nature the way things happen. It is part of everyones struggle, he concludes.
Oppression of religious communities by the Russian Federation continues in the temporarily occupied Crimea, says Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

"The oppression of religious communities in the occupied Crimea continues. Yesterday the Foreign Ministry issued an official statement on this matter, but I want to clearly emphasize that the actions of the occupying state on the temporarily occupied peninsula against religious groups are absolutely unacceptable, a gross violation of human rights and reflect the policy of systemic persecution of religious communities, in particular the Ukrainian Orthodox community in the temporarily occupied Crimea," Kuleba said at a briefing in Kyiv on Thursday.

The minister condemned the actions of the Crimean occupation authorities to evict the community of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) from their cathedral in Simferopol and to continue the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses.

"We condemn the eviction of the community of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine from the Cathedral of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Princes Volodymyr and Olha in Simferopol. We categorically do not accept the spread of Russian legislation to the Ukrainian Crimea, which outlawed about 8 thousand believers of the Church of Jehovah's Witnesses. Let me remind you that two members of this community were imprisoned by the occupation authorities for their religious beliefs, which is a gross violation of humanitarian law," the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.

According to Kuleba, not only Orthodox Church of Ukraine believers and Jehovah's Witnesses, but also Jews and Muslims are subjected to harassment in Crimea: "Also, administrative fines were imposed on the rabbi of the Messianic Jewish community, on the imam of Alushta Muslim community. We certainly record the pressure on Crimean Tatars, on members of the Muslim community who suffer from fabricated cases against them."
Mukesh Ambani-led oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries has been ranked the second biggest brand after Apple on the FutureBrand Index 2020. FutureBrand said that its highest entrant "excels on every attribute". It said that the Ambani-helmed company is "very well respected" and "seen as behaving ethically", adding that it has been associated with "growth", "great customer service" and "innovative products".

The index looks at PwC's Global Top 100 Companies by Market Cap and reorders them according to global perception strength rather than on financial strength. Reliance ranked 91 on PwC's 2020 list.

FutureBrand stated that in the six years that it first published the FutureBrand Index, the world has changed dramatically and priorities have changed. "While the FutureBrand Index 2020 has uncovered a number of seismic shifts in the way companies work and how they present themselves to the outside world, one key theme has stood out: individuality," it said.

Ranked ahead of Reliance Industries is Apple. On the third spot is Samsung, followed by Nvidia, Moutai, Nike, Microsoft, ASML, Paypal, and Netflix.

The global brand transformation company said that part of Reliance's success can be attributed to Mukesh Ambani's recasting of the firm as one-stop-shop for Indians. "The chairman built on the existing petrochemicals business, transforming it into a digital behemoth designed to meet every customer need. Today, this company is engaged in a number of sectors including energy, petrochemicals, textiles, natural resources, retail, and telecommunications. Now that Google and Facebook are taking equity stakes in the firm, we may see Reliance jostling for the top spot in the next Index," it said.

FutureBrand said that a number of new entrants were included in their index including ASML Holdings, PayPal, Danaher, Saudi Aramco, and American Tower Corporation. There are 15 new entrants out of which seven have made to the top 20, including Reliance.

The FutureBrand Index is not based on consumer research. Unlike most other rankings, the Index offers a rigorous assessment of how prominent companies are doing and are likely to do over the next few years. "We are living in unprecedented times," it said, adding the world is living through the worst healthcare crisis in a century.

"But out of this will emerge a reimagined world, and it will be up to leading companies and the people who work for them to respond to new demands and new expectations," it said. The FutureBrand Index 2020 examines the world's leading firms and determine how they have fared over the past year.

"Our unique perspective shines a light on the innovators as well as the brands which have successfully navigated sector-specific rough waters. As we discovered, it can be premature to write off a company in difficulty and risky to extol the virtues of a seemingly unbreakable brand," it added.

(With PTI inputs)

Also read: RIL-Future deal: Mukesh Ambani to retain brand names Big Bazaar, FBB and others

Also read: Mukesh Ambani-led RIL may acquire Future Group's retail business for Rs 27,000 crore
The California insurance commissioners office settled a case with drugmaker AbbVie it brought almost two years ago over allegations the company gave perks and payments to health care providers so they would prescribe the arthritis drug Humira, resulting in health insurers paying $1.2 billion in fraudulent insurance claims.

AbbVie will pay $24 million to settle the claims and agreed to a range of reforms but continues to deny the allegations, the office of state Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said Thursday. The company has locations in San Francisco, Redwood City and Sunnyvale.

The lawsuit brought in Alameda County Superior Court under the California Insurance Frauds Prevention Act alleges AbbVie illegally used money, food and patient referrals to ply doctors across the state, persuading them to continue prescribing Humira, which is used to treat Crohns disease and rheumatoid arthritis.

The complaint also alleges that AbbVie sent registered nurses as ambassadors to the homes of patients using Humira, with the understanding the nurses were to assist with patient care, but were in fact instructed by the company not to communicate patients concerns about the drugs side effects to their physicians.

We are pleased that this resolution lets patients continue to benefit from the high levels of engagement and support offered by the Nurse Ambassador program, with no significant changes to that program, AbbVie spokeswoman Katharine Nichols wrote in an emailed statement.

Patient support programs, such as AbbVies Humira Complete Nurse Ambassador program, are important for helping patients access and adhere to the life-changing treatments their doctors have prescribed, she added. Although federal courts have considered the issues raised in this proceeding and have dismissed parallel cases, this resolution allows us to proceed with our important programs and focus our efforts on enhancing the lives of the patients we serve.

AbbVie is headquartered in Illinois. Laras office noted there is a separate case pending in federal court there alleging violations of the Federal False Claims Act and various state laws.

AbbVies prior practices in marketing Humira egregiously put profits ahead of transparency in patient care and violated California law, Lara said in a statement. This settlement delivers important reforms to AbbVies business practices and a substantial monetary recovery that will be used to continue to combat insurance fraud.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

The reforms the company agreed to include ambassadors disclosing to patients that they have been sent by AbbVie and are not directed by the patients health care provider. Patients will also be furnished with a government-approved medication guide concerning Humiras side effects and safety risks.

AbbVie employees and ambassadors will also be barred from actively taking part in talks between patients and their insurance companies, and company employees will be prohibited from describing ambassadors to health care companies as extensions of their offices.

The company also agreed to train ambassadors to not discuss patients with medical providers prescribing Humira.

The company reported worldwide revenue of $10.4 billion in its recent second-quarter results, with Humira accounting for $4.8 billion in sales.

Chase DiFeliciantonio is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: chase.difeliciantonio@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ChaseDiFelice
On Thursday, Gupteshwar Pandey who is the Director General of Police (DGP), Bihar accused Mumbai police of being unprofessional on their action of quarantining Patna Superintendent of Police (SP), Vinay Tiwari.

Bihar Director General of Police (DGP) Gupteshwar Pandey on Thursday accused Mumbai police of being unprofessional on their action of quarantining Patna Superintendent of Police (SP), Vinay Tiwari. Tiwari is in Mumbai to probe a case related to the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

He was quarantined by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) after he travelled via a flight to Mumbai to investigate the case. Speaking to ANI, Pandey said that Mumbai polices move of quarantining Bihar Police officer is unprofessional. The Supreme Court has given its observation in the matter.

Pandey said that there is no positive response from the Mumbai police and Vinay Tiwari has not been released yet. It is like, they are keeping him in a house arrest. Pandey further said that they would wait for another day, after which they would be taking action against them (Mumbai Police). He said that they were taking advice from the Bihar government and might even pursue court in this regard.

Also read: Bollywood goes OTT: Sadak 2, Kargil Girl, Class of 83 and others films releasing in August

Also read: Aparajita Ayodhya: Kangana opens up about her next film, says will capture journey of Ram Mandir

The Central government gave a nod to the Central Bureau Of Investigation (CBI) to probe the death case of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput. An FIR was filed by the Patna Police against Rhea Chakraborty on a complaint filed by KK Singh, father of the late actor, under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) including abetment of suicide.

A team of Bihar Police is in Mumbai to probe the case. Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead at his Mumbai residence on June 14, after which Mumbai had registered a case and is investigating the matter.

Also read: SSR death probe: Centre accepts Bihar govts demand for CBI intervention, informs SC
Journalists look at Pakistan's new political map on a screen at the Daily Metro Watch newspaper offices in Islamabad on Aug. 4, 2020. (AAMIR QURESHI/AFP via Getty Images)

Pakistan Releases New Political Map to Appease China, Counter India: Experts

By erasing a dotted line on a new map, Pakistan has introduced new controversy into a region that has been the site of four wars between it and India as well as a recent bloody clash between India and China, contested Indias federalization of two provinces a year ago, and supported Chinas efforts to exert greater influence.

The dotted line had marked the line of control between Gilgit, occupied by Pakistan but claimed by India, and Jammu and Kashmir, occupied by India but claimed by Pakistan.

While Gilgit had formerly been part of the Kingdom of Jammu and Kashmir, in 1947, a rebellion unseated the ruler of Gilgit, and Pakistan took control of the area from India; in 1974, it was renamed as Pakistans Federally Administered Northern Area or Gilgit-Baltistan.

This high altitude area is of strategic importance, sharing a border with Chinas Xinjiang Autonomous Region to the north and Afghanistan to the west. It figures into Chinas efforts to expand into areas in Indias north. In addition, China is building the ChinaPakistan economic corridor (CPEC), a part of the Belt and Road Initiative, through Gilgit.

By erasing the line between Gilgit and Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan laid claim to all of Jammu and Kashmir. Text written across the new map states: India illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Below this text, in parentheses, is written, Disputed TerritoryFinal status will be decided in line with the relevant UNSC resolutions.

Upon unveiling the new map on Aug. 4, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said it represents the ambition of the people of Pakistan.

Ganesh Malhotra, a political analyst from Jammu, a city in the Indian-administered region, told The Epoch Times over the phone that its propaganda.

Its not anything concrete. It is just an emotional outburst, Malhotra says.

In a statement, India criticized the so-called political map released by Khan and called it an exercise in political absurdity.

In this photograph taken on Sept. 29, 2015, a loaded truck travels through a newly built tunnel in northern Pakistans Gojal Valley. (AAMIR QURESHI/AFP via Getty Images)

Pakistans Message to India

A year ago, India split the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two federally governed territoriesone, Jammu and Kashmir, borders Pakistan, and the other, Ladakh, borders China.

India did so by abolishing Article 370 of the Constitution. Since 1947, under Article 370, Jammu and Kashmir had its own constitution, and only those holding its citizenship, called a state subject, could buy property in the state. They also held Indian citizenship and could enjoy all privileges that other Indian citizens did.

Pakistan opposed the abolition of Article 370, and the Chinese regime has opposed the new federal identity of Ladakh, calling it unacceptable because it claims the territory, The Hindustan Times reported.

At the press conference for the release of the new map, Khan called the abolition of Article 370 illegal.

Today, we are introducing the new map of Pakistan before the world. This new map has been endorsed by Pakistans cabinet, opposition, and the Kashmiri leadership. This map is as per the aspirations of the entire nation as well as the people of Kashmir, said Khan.

This map nullifies the illegal step that India took on Aug. 5 last year with regards to Kashmir. Starting today, this will be the official map of Pakistan, he added.

Pakistans effort to remove the line that previously demarcated Gilgit from the rest of Jammu and Kashmir comes across as an effort to restore the original shape of Jammu and Kashmir as existed on Aug. 15, 1947, Senge Sering, a Washington-based activist who originally comes from Gilgit-Baltistan, told The Epoch Times in a telephone interview.

This way, Pakistan is trying to reject Indias constitutional decision to bifurcate Kashmir, which gave birth to the Union Territory of Ladakh, Sering said.

Since the abolition of Article 370, India has repeatedly told China and Pakistan about its claims to Gilgit-Baltistan, where China and Pakistan are building a dam.

Our position is clear. The entire territory of Jammu and Kashmir is part of India, Anurag Srivastava, the spokesperson of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, said in early May. Several incidents between India and China troops escalated on June 15 into the killing of 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese soldiers, The Hindu, an Indian daily, reported.

Khans government-revised map is to counter Indias stance on Gilgit-Baltistan, Sering said.

This is to discourage India from making overtures towards Gilgit, he said.

By releasing a new map, Pakistan is trying to bring the Jammu and Kashmir issue into the limelight, but it has failed miserably to do that, Harsh Pant, a strategic analyst with the Observer Research Foundation, told The Epoch Times over a chat platform.

What India did last year on Aug. 5 has failed to generate the kind of backlash Pakistan has hoped it would. So to try to wrest the initiative, Pakistan is now making these rather absurd claims, which, as India has rightfully claimed, have no legal or political validity, said Pant, who is the author of several books on Indias foreign policy.

Chinese laborers work on the Karakoram highway, in Gulmit village of Hunza valley in Gilgit-Baltistan, in this photograph taken on Sept. 29, 2015. (AAMIR QURESHI/AFP via Getty Images)

Pakistans Message to China

CPEC was announced in 2015, and its one of the most expensive projects of Chinas Belt and Road Initiative, with 122 total projects and $87 billion in funding, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. This project passes through the disputed territory of Gilgit-Baltistan, and experts say Pakistans new map has a message of support for China.

Malhotra pointed at the recent developments in Chabahar, a strategic port in Iran from where Iran and India were jointly building a rail line to Afghanistan through the Wakhan corridor. Iran decided recently to drop India from the project, citing a funding delay, in preference for Chinese support.

The Wakhan corridor in Afghanistan directly connects to China, and Iran is Chinas close ally. Pakistan knows that if CPEC meets with problems, China has an alternate route to the Middle East through Wakhan. Its frustrated that China may abandon CPEC, Malhotra said, adding that by integrating Gilgit-Baltistan with the rest of Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan is trying to appease China.

Sering said that China has emerged as an important player in the Kashmir fiasco. China is trying to establish a working relationship with Pakistan-sponsored Kashmiri separatists.

There are reports of China training terrorist groups that could intensify the proxy war in Kashmir. China already occupies the trans-Karakoram tract and large parts of Ladakh. It has a historical claim on some regions, and now it is trying to claim new regions, Sering said.

According to Sering, China is building large dams in Gilgit-Baltistan that will enable its military to expand its territory. The most recent is the Diamer-Bhasha dam that is being jointly built by Power Construction Corp. of China and the Frontier Works Organization of Pakistan, according to the Lowy Institute.

A failing Pakistan has no option but to share space with China in Jammu and Kashmir and accept Chinese claim on the northern territories. Pakistan showing the Aksai Chin-Tibet border as frontier undefined is a step in that direction, he said.

Aksai Chin is a part of the original Jammu and Kashmir that China occupied in 1950, and its currently administered by the Chinese under the Xinjiang autonomous region.

Pant said he wouldnt be surprised if China is found to be involved behind Pakistan releasing the new map with the inscription that says India illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

In any case, theres a high degree of coordination between Chinese and Pakistani forces when it comes to the border with India. Pakistan will do everything possible to help China in Ladakh and to challenge India, he said.

Malhotra doesnt think its a coincidence that Galwan, the site of the bloody clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers, is roughly 50 miles from the CPEC.

In 2016-17, China aggressively tried to force India to join its Belt and Road Initiative. But India didnt agree. China is fearing for the safety of CPEC, Malhotra said.
Japan's powerful business lobby, the Keidanren, is dominated by energy-intensive sectors that represent less than 10 percent of the economy, resulting in national policies that favour coal and hindering attempts to combat climate change, a new study said.

The influence of the country's electricity, steel, cement, car and fossil fuel sectors undermines Japan's attempts to meet its Paris Agreement commitments, according to the report by London-based data analysis company InfluenceMap.

The Keidanren, also known as the Japan Business Federation and which has close ties with the trade and industry ministry, as well as other government bodies, sits on expert panels and other forums where government policies are debated. It has acted as a "central negotiating point" on climate policy for two decades, the report said.

While it claims to represent all of Japanese business, the claim "clearly should be questioned on climate/energy policy", InfluenceMap said. It added the most powerful industries within Keidanren only employ about 2.7 million people, while those with little influence employ 10 times that number.

Lobbying and consultation by business groups will be critical next year when the government reviews its strategic energy plan.

The Keidanren's influence was seen last year when it argued that a target proposed by the government to reduce emissions by 80 percent by 2050 was "extremely ambitious" and pushed for any new target to be a "vision", InfluenceMap said.

Japan later adopted a goal of achieving carbon neutrality as soon as possible in the latter half of this century, rather than an explicit 2050 emissions target.

The Keidanren said in a statement to Reuters that it could not comment on the study as it had yet to formally receive a copy. But it added it had made policy commitments towards creating a low-carbon society and the government's climate goals were consistent with Paris Agreement goals.

The United Nations-backed Paris Agreement entered into force on November 4, 2016, and aims to keep "a global temperature rise this century well below two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees F)."
South Korea's first military communications satellite, the ANASIS-II, sits atop SpaceX's Falcon-9 rocket as it is readied for launch at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, July 20 (local time). Courtesy of Defense Acquisition Program Administration



Lack of infrastructure and low demand cited as lingering problems



By Jung Da-min



South Korea's recent announcement of a deal on new missile guidelines with the United States lifted a decades-long restriction on South Korea's use of solid fuels for its space launch vehicles. Expectations have since risen that South Korea will be able to launch its own low-Earth orbit military spy satellites atop rockets produced by domestic manufacturers.



The presidential office said the lift of the ban would help advance the South Korean military's intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities by enabling launch of low-Earth orbit satellites atop solid propellants. It said such satellites would provide around-the-clock military surveillance, dubbed the "unblinking eye."



Cheong Wa Dae said the lifting of the ban would also help businesses and individuals in the country's private sector, especially talented young experts, to actively jump into space projects, as it secures an institutional foundation that supports construction of space industry infrastructure.



Such a rosy picture for South Korea's space industry, however, is not likely to be realized in the near future as there are many hurdles ahead for South Korea to develop its own rockets and establish them in the market, according to defense industry watchers.



First of all, they said South Korea would have difficulty in competing with other countries which could provide more advanced technologies and services at lower prices with their already established space industry infrastructure.



"The South Korean government should consider if it is worth it to develop the country's own solid propellants when it could use those developed by foreign manufacturers like SpaceX, which would cost far less," Shin Jong-woo, a senior researcher at the Korea Defense and Security Forum, told The Korea Times, referring to the U.S. space giant. SpaceX's Falcon9 rocket recently carried South Korea's first military communications satellite, ANASIS-II, into space.



"And the thing is that even if South Korea develops its own rockets, they would not be able to excel more than aerospace giants like SpaceX in terms of technology," Shin said.



So far, the South Korean government has a 3 trillion won ($25.2 billion) budget for the development of space rockets, spending 1 trillion won for the Naro-1, South Korea's first carrier rocket, and 2 trillion won for Nuri, the country's second carrier rocket. The KARI developed both rockets.



"The costs spent by the South Korean government to develop the two rockets were 10 times higher than those spent by SpaceX," Kim Seung-jo, former president of KARI, said in a recent interview with ChosunBiz. "But the South Korean government's outcomes in its rocket projects were far behind the Falcon9 rocket produced by SpaceX."



Kim said the government-led industry structure was the reason for the high costs and the low speed of the space rocket developments. He pointed out that when the government leads space development projects, they receive more criticism for failures such as unsuccessful launches  especially since the projects are funded by taxpayers  but more failures in the early stages of development could save more in the long run, as researchers learn a great deal through each challenge.





South Korea's first military communications satellite, the ANASIS-II, sits atop SpaceX's Falcon-9 rocket as it is readied for launch at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, July 20 (local time). Courtesy of Defense Acquisition Program Administration



A lack of infrastructure is also one of the hurdles.



South Korea now has the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jolla Province, operated by the state-run Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI). But the spaceport could only be used for low-Earth orbit satellites that reach altitudes of between 500 kilometers to 1,500 kilometers, not for those that reach geostationary orbit of around 36,000 kilometers.



When launching a satellite into geostationary orbit to rotate along with the Earth, launching it from a spaceport that is close to the equator could save a lot of energy used for propulsion. For the ANASIS-II, which reached geostationary orbit 10 days after launch, it had been launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida  which is close to the equator  to gain a propulsion advantage from the speed of the Earth's rotation.



For South Korea, there is a need to build a sea-based spaceport near the equator or conduct launches at spaceports in other countries that are close enough to the equator  like the U.S.'s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.



There is also an issue of low demand for rockets manufactured in the private sector. For space manufacturers based in the U.S., for example, they receive a lot of requests to launch their rockets including those from the country's space forces and from other businesses.



But the situation is different in South Korea especially when it has yet to build its own satellite-based radio-navigation system such as the U.S. government's Global Positioning System. The KARI is currently designing plans to develop the Korean Positioning System but industry watchers say it wouldn't be developed until at least 2035.



Under such circumstances, operating liquid propellants and solid propellants at the same time could be a waste of money, when both sectors require many rounds of test launches to be established in the market.





Kim Hyun-chong, the second deputy director of the National Security Office, gives explanations about revisions on missile guidelines with the United States during a press briefing on at Cheong Wa Dae, July 28. Korea Times photo by Wang Tae-seok
David Adrian posted passionately about American politics, sharing adulatory memes on Facebook about President Donald Trump and recirculating material from his reelection campaign.

The user even invoked the Obama family, suggesting the nation's first Black president and his wife had endorsed Trump in an apparent bid to drum up support for the Republican incumbent among African American voters. An associated Twitter account indicated that Adrian lived in "Montana, USA."

Facebook on Thursday said Adrian's accounts were part of a coordinated network of accounts and pages originating in Romania and posing as conservative Americans supportive of the president's reelection. In addition to African American support for Trump, the material focused on members of the president's inner circle, conservative media and Christianity. It also invoked themes associated with the QAnon conspiracy theory, whose adherents believe Trump is battling a cabal of deep-state saboteurs who worship Satan and traffic children for sex.

The network was relatively small, composed of 35 accounts and three pages, as well as 88 accounts on Instagram. The pages had racked up about 1,600 followers, while about 7,200 users were following the accounts on Instagram.

The motive of those behind the deceptive material could not be determined, said Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook's head of security policy. It was not clear whether the intent was genuinely to promote Trump, he said, or whether there were financial incentives.

The disclosure came three months before the November election, and amid heightened concern about efforts to manipulate public opinion and discredit the vote. Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, last month cited intelligence briefings in a warning about Russian and Chinese efforts to sow doubt about the American electoral system. Facebook, which regularly reports actions against foreign and domestic influence campaigns that make use of its platform, last fall identified a network of Russian-backed accounts praising Trump and attacking Biden.

The announcement on Thursday served as notice of the range of foreign actors that stand prepared to pollute online discourse about American politics, for a whole host of reasons - or for no apparent reason at all.

The Romanian network, while small, appeared intended to reach pro-Trump conservatives, according to analysis by experts at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab who examined data provided by Facebook.

The persona of David Adrian was at the center of the network, with multiple accounts going by that name - or variations of it - across Facebook and Instagram. The figure maintains an account on Parler, a social network embraced by conservatives who claim to be censored on mainstream platforms. An associated Twitter account, which had already been suspended, identified the user's location as Montana, the DFR Lab noted, while some of the linked Facebook accounts listed Romania as the user's location.

The Facebook pages in the network were set up as Trump fan pages, mostly sharing content from the president. Two were active only in July 2018, while the third appeared last month, along with a parallel Instagram account with more than 3,000 followers, according to the DFR Lab's report.

Most of the Instagram accounts in the network did not have public posts. Of those that had posted, some of the material was about QAnon. One account that went by the name "blackpeoplevotefortrump" featured two images ostensibly showing Black voters sympathetic to Trump.

Facebook also disabled a larger network - active in many parts of the world, from the United States to Europe to Hong Kong - targeting English- as well as Chinese-language audiences with messaging critical of the Chinese government. The content, boosted by authentic as well as fake accounts, addressed U.S.-China relations, the coronavirus pandemic and recent protests in Hong Kong, among other themes.

Facebook tied the people behind the network, which was also active on YouTube and Twitter, to Truth Media, a digital outlet that Gleicher said had been banned from the social network. A request for comment sent to an email address associated with the outlet, which claims to "spread the light of truth," went unanswered.

Among the tactics deployed by the Truth Media was to direct users to external websites and petitions critical of the Chinese Communist Party, according to a report by Graphika, a social media analysis firm. That included a White House petition urging, "Let's start calling the novel coronavirus the CCP virus."

The network often boosted content from Epoch Times, a pro-Trump publication previously penalized by Facebook and other Silicon Valley giants.
In issuing the sweeping order recently to suspend visas for foreign workers, the Trump administration has put our state and country in a vulnerable position and affected our ability to compete in an increasingly challenging global economy. Unfortunately, President Donald Trumps new executive order is focused on being tough on immigration to the detriment of our economy.

One of the visa types covered by the executive order is the H-1B visa, which allows U.S. companies to employ graduate level workers in specialty occupations. It is an important tool that allows us to recruit and retain the best talent from around the world. Workers who apply for the H-1B visa program are sponsored by an employer and must undergo stringent application processes that demonstrate the need for workers in their field. Most important, employers hold the burden to prove that hiring a foreign worker wont displace an American worker.

For Texas, the suspension of H-1B visas will have an immediate economic impact, delivering a blow to critical industries such as health care, finance and IT that are already reeling from the effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Pew Research Center issued a report in 2018 that found Texas is one of the top states in the country in its reliance on highly skilled temporary guest workers to fill specialized roles. The same study listed the Dallas-Fort Worth area as having the highest number of H-1B visa awards in the country outside of New York City, followed by Houston, Austin and Bryan-College Station in the top 20 metro areas.

The economic impact of this decision will be immediate. According to a New American Economy study, H-1B visa awards from 2010 to 2013 were estimated to produce more than 700,000 jobs for U.S.-born workers by 2020. Of those 700,000 new jobs created, over 80,000 were expected to be generated in Texas.

Placing a halt on the H-1B visa program will frustrate ongoing efforts to jump-start our economy. Economists project a one-year freeze on the already capped 85,000 H-1B visas awarded annually will result in a reduction of 155,550 jobs. Meanwhile, a study cited by the American Immigration Council highlights that an expansion of H-1B visas would generate approximately 1.3 million jobs and increase GDP by more than $158 billion by 2045.

The administrations executive order also suspends H-2B visas for seasonal, nonagricultural workers. This will hurt businesses across Texas that rely on thousands of H-2B visa holders to perform housekeeping, landscaping and other jobs that most native-born Americans wont take.

The executive order comes on top of the ongoing suspension of routine visa services by the State Department due to COVID-19, which has created an unprecedented backlog on visa renewals. Visa renewals will be critical to small businesses along the border and across Texas that rely on foreign visitors and must be addressed to mitigate additional economic adversity.

Restricting immigrants coming to the United States is misguided and shortsighted in these uncertain times. As the economy is reopened and companies revamp their operations, there will be a need for both high-skilled and low-skilled workers.

In a talent-based economy, countries that have the workers they need will thrive while the rest will fall behind. A 2020 study by the National Foundation for American Policy, cited by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, estimated the average annual U.S. labor force growth  a key component of economic growth  will decline 35 percent to 59 percent as a result of Trump administration immigration policies. A declining birth rate and shortage of skilled workers pose a long-term risk to our economy.

More than ever, we must not close the door on immigrants, especially those who can help jump-start our economy. Immigration reform that includes permanent relief for DACA recipients to stay in the United States and become part of our national workforce will be critical to strengthen the economy for the future. Immigration has always been a cornerstone of American innovation and our economic prosperity.

The benefits immigrants add to our economy are profound and will be critical to our recovery. Immigration policy should be approached with common sense, balancing sensible enforcement tools with a streamlined immigration and visa system. We need an immigration and visa system that will serve the best interests of Texas and the nation to continue to grow U.S. businesses and create more jobs and greater prosperity for all Americans.

Dennis E. Nixon is CEO of International Bank of Commerce in Laredo and chairman of the board of International Bancshares Corp.
Rescue efforts began almost immediately after Tuesdays massive explosion rocked Beirut and its surrounding area, in total affecting over 2 million people, in a crisis that has flooded already overworked hospital staff.

On Wednesday, residents began clearing glass and rubble strewn across the city, sweeping popular streets and neighborhoods in places such as Gemayzeh and Mar Mikhael. They helped clear the path for rescue workers to begin searching for missing people.

At least 149 people were reported killed and about 5,000 injured by the blast, and officials expect the death toll to rise. The destruction has left hundreds of thousands homeless and many people are missing.

The explosion occurred after a warehouse fire at the Beirut Port spread to a warehouse holding 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate. According to reports, the stockpile had been there over six years without proper safety measures in place, amid failed efforts by port officials to have the chemicals removed.

In one instance of the rescue efforts, a civil defense worker, buried in the rubble of a collapsed building for over 16 hours, was met with cheers as he was pulled from the carnage and placed on a stretcher by emergency workers.

The necessity of these efforts have promoted international action. On Wednesday, Germanys Federal Agency for Technical Relief sent 50 officials and a group of canines to Beirut for efforts to recover individuals buried under the rubble. And Mehmet Gulluoglu, the director of the Turkish Interior Ministry's Disaster and Emergency Management department, arrived in Lebanon today to offer assistance.

Those saved from the rubble will join a flood of residents to the citys hospitals, which were already reeling from a surge in coronavirus cases and a crumbling economic situation. As one man from the district of Achrafieh told Al-Monitor, to find the nearest hospital you only needed to follow the trail of blood.

Mourad Achkar, an information technology manager who was working a few blocks away from the port when the blast occurred, suffered injuries under an eye and to his hands. At the hospital Wednesday, he described the scene as chaos, with many, many people covered in blood and with serious injuries waiting in line for hours. After waiting for over two hours, he forfeited his spot in line to those with more serious injuries. He planned to return to the hospital the next day.

Listen to Achkar's account below:

Many Beirut residents are still searching for friends and family. Social media accounts, such as Instagrams Locate Victims Beirut page, have posted images and descriptions of individuals who are yet to be found.

And hospitals continue to brace for a wave of new patients. These sites were already stretched to take care of a sharp increase in coronavirus patients. As of today, the country had counted 5,672 cases of the virus and 70 deaths, according to the Health Ministry.

To complicate the situation, the explosion destroyed three hospitals and damaged two more, according to the World Health Organization, and some patients had to be turned away. The St. George Hospital, located less than a mile from the explosion, treated patients in the street.

On Tuesday, the country initiated a two-week state of emergency. Lebanese President Michel Aoun convened an emergency Cabinet meeting Wednesday and called the unchecked storage of ammonium nitrate at the port for six years unacceptable and pledged the harshest punishments.

Efforts to hold those responsible have already begun, as a number of Beirut port officials were ordered placed under house arrest pending an investigation into the explosion, the Lebanese government said.
KYODO NEWS - Aug 6, 2020 - 19:25 | World, All, Coronavirus

North Korea will provide special support for the border city of Kaesong that has been locked down since the country's first suspected case of the novel coronavirus was detected there late last month, state-run media reported Thursday.

The decision was made Wednesday at a gathering of the Executive Policy Council of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, presided over by the nation's leader Kim Jong Un, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

The meeting "discussed and decided on the Party Central Committee's special supply of food and funds to the city to stabilize the living of its citizens," KCNA said.

On July 26, the news agency said a person, who defected to South Korea three years ago, is "suspected to have been infected with the vicious virus" after "illegally" returning to Kaesong, which is on the border with South Korea, prompting Kim to block the city.

But state-run media has yet to report whether the person has been definitely diagnosed as a COVID-19 patient.

A World Health Organization official has said North Korea has quarantined 4,380 people, including those who have contacted with the person. The first and secondary contacts of the suspected case are expected to be isolated in government facilities for 40 days.

Meanwhile, the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of North Korea's ruling party, maintains that nobody has been infected with the virus so far in the country, saying measures will be stepped up to prevent the pandemic from spreading there.

At Wednesday's gathering of the Executive Policy Council of the Central Committee, senior officials also talked about how to improve the personnel affairs system of the party, KCNA said.

Radiopress Inc., a Tokyo-based news agency that monitors and analyzes North Korea's news, said it is the first time at least since the 1990s that the nation's state-run media reported the holding of such a meeting.

Since earlier this year, North Korea has cut off traffic to and from its neighbors, China and Russia, amid fears of the virus that was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

North Korea is believed to be vulnerable to infectious diseases against a backdrop of chronic shortages of food and medical supplies triggered by international economic sanctions aimed at thwarting Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile ambitions.

In the past, North Korea barred foreigners from entering the country during the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, and the Ebola epidemic in West Africa in 2014.

Related coverage:

North Korea again claims no novel coronavirus infection cases

Kim stresses North Korea has become "nuclear power" to safeguard nation

Suspected case of new coronavirus detected in North Korea: KCNA
Ellen Pompeo says her salary is the main reason she has remained on Greys Anatomy.

The actor spoke to journalist Jemele Hill in the latest episode of Hills podcast, Jemele Hill Is Unbothered.

Pompeo has portrayed Dr Meredith Grey on the ABC show for 16 seasons, starting in 2005.

She told Hill that over the years, she made a deliberate choice to prioritise financial stability and, by extension, her home life, over chasing more creative opportunities.

For me, personally, a healthy home life was so important to me  more important than a career, Pompeo said.

I didnt grow up with a particularly happy childhood, so the idea that I have this great husband and these three beautiful children  to have a happy home life was really something I needed to close the hole in my heart.

She added: And so I made a decision to make money and not chase creative acting roles.

Pompeo said she doesnt like chasing anything, ever, and acting involves a lot of chasing in her experience.

She does chase projects as a producer, but pointed out that she gets to do so knowing that shes financially set.

Pompeo has been open about her pay. In 2018, she disclosed that she was set to earn more than $20m a year under a new agreement.

Im 48 now, so Ive finally gotten to the place where Im OK asking for what I deserve, which is something that comes only with age, she told The Hollywood Reporter at the time.
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Tokyo, Japan  Thu, August 6, 2020 13:45 530 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c03cfc 2 World atomic-bomb,World-War-II,Japan,Hiroshima,Hiroshima-atomic-bombing,Nagasaki Free

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki capped six years of top-secret work by scientists from Europe and North America. Here is an overview of how that process unfolded.

Einstein warning

In 1939, Albert Einstein signs a letter warning US president Franklin D. Roosevelt of the destructive potential of nuclear fission, which was discovered by the German chemist Otto Hahn. The letter says the process could result in "extremely powerful bombs of a new type". Roosevelt creates the Advisory Body on Uranium.

Pearl Harbor

On December 7, 1941, Japanese warplanes destroy much of the US Pacific fleet based at Pearl Harbor. The next day, the United States enters World War II.

The Manhattan Project

In August 1942, the US officially launches a top-secret program to develop an atomic bomb. The project, which had been approved the previous year, comes to be known as the "Manhattan Project". Approximately two billion dollars are spent to achieve its goal.

In 1943, Robert Oppenheimer is named scientific director of a secret lab at Los Alamos, New Mexico that is to build the bomb. The project includes top physicists from the US, Britain and Canada, in addition to several who fled the Nazi occupation of their homelands in Europe.

Potential targets

Around spring 1945, possible targets are evaluated and a list drawn up of Japanese cities that could be hit with an atomic bomb. At the top of the list is Japan's seventh-largest city, Hiroshima. Kyoto is rejected as a target owing largely to its historic and cultural importance.

Conventional bombs

On March 9-10, 1945, US warplanes carry out massive firebombing attacks on Tokyo and other major Japanese cities. Around 100,000 people die in the capital alone.

Battle of Okinawa

On March 26, the battle of Okinawa begins. More than 100,000 Japanese soldiers and a similar number of civilians die over the next three months, while 12,000 US soldiers are also killed. The battle is used by US officials to justify using atomic bombs, since an invasion of mainland Japan is forecast to result in an even higher cost.

On April 12, Roosevelt dies and Harry Truman becomes president of the United States and learns of the "Manhattan Project".

German surrender

On May 8, Germany surrenders, but fighting continues in Asia and the Pacific.

First American test

Between May and July, components of the atomic bombs are shipped to Tinian, an island in the Marianas chain from where B-29 bombers are able to reach Japan.

On July 16, at 5:30 am, the "Trinity" test takes place near Alamogordo, New Mexico, demonstrating the awesome power of an atomic bomb and marking the dawn of the nuclear age.

On July 25, Truman agrees to a mission to drop an atomic bomb on Japan. It included approval to drop additional bombs as soon as they became available.

Allied ultimatum

On July 26, in the Potsdam Declaration, Britain, China and the United States warn Japan that it must surrender or face "prompt and utter destruction".

Japan decides to "ignore" the ultimatum, although the word used - -- mokusatsu -- also translates as "no comment".

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

On August 6 the US B-29 bomber "Enola Gay" drops a 9,000-pound atomic bomb over Hiroshima at 8:15 am, killing 140,000 people by the end of December, according to a widely accepted toll. Truman tells Japanese leaders that if they do not surrender "they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this Earth".

On August 8, the Soviet Union declares war on Japan.

On August 9, a second atomic bomb explodes over Nagasaki at 11:02 am, killing 74,000 people.

On August 15, Japanese Emperor Hirohito tells his nation it has lost the war. He remains on the throne during post-war reconstruction of the country.

First Soviet bomb

On August 29, 1949, four years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki are destroyed, the Soviet Union successfully tests its own atomic bomb in Kazakhstan and becomes the world's second nuclear power.
Throwing their weight behind the India-US relationship which enjoys the bipartisan support, two top American lawmakers have said that close partnership between the two countries assumes significance in view of the "aggression" that New Delhi faces from Beijing.

Writing jointly to demonstrate the strong bipartisan support for the US-India relationship, the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in a letter to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said members of both the parties recognise the impact that a strong US-India partnership will have on the trajectory of the 21st century.

"As Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi said in February of this year, our ties 'are no longer just another partnership. It is a far greater and closer relationship'", said the letter signed by Eliot Engel, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Michael T McCaul, its Ranking Member.

"This closer relationship is all the more important as India faces aggression from China along your shared border, which is part of the Chinese government's consistent pattern of unlawful and belligerent territorial aggression across the Indo-Pacific," the two powerful Congressmen said. Their remarks came amid the border face-off between India and China in eastern Ladakh.

Twenty Indian army personnel were killed during the clashes with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley on June 15. The Chinese side also suffered casualties in the clashes but it is yet to give out details. The number of casualties on the Chinese side was 35, according to a US intelligence report.

The United States will remain steadfast in support of India's efforts to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity, said the letter dated August 5 and was tweeted by the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

"As champions of the US-India relationship, we have been delighted to see our countries' close cooperation on issues from defense to climate change. It is because of our support for the bilateral relationship that we note with concern that conditions in Jammu and Kashmir have not normalised one year after India's repeal of Article 370 and the establishment of Jammu and Kashmir as a Union Territory," they wrote.

"We acknowledge the ongoing serious security and counterterrorism concerns in the region and look forward to working with your government to address these concerns while upholding our shared commitments to the democratic values and freedoms on which our countries' bond was built," the lawmakers wrote.

"As Prime Minister Modi said earlier this year, 'Unity in diversity and unity's vibrancy is the key to a strong relationship between India and America'. We look forward to working with you to continue to strengthen and advance this vibrant and consequential relationship," Engel and McCaul wrote.
Former education department bigwig Nino Napoli will be sentenced for rorting a fraction of the millions of dollars of school funds he was originally linked to by Victoria's anti-corruption commission.

Napoli was in 2016 accused of mishandling more than $6 million in Department of Education and Training funds following an extensive probe by the Independent Broad-Based Anti-Corruption Commission. IBAC also alleged he personally benefited by $1.9 million as the main player in a corruption ring that profited through fake invoices and suspicious contracts.

Nino Napoli outside the Melbourne Magistrates Court in 2017. Credit:Darrian Traynor

But in a plea deal with prosecutors that was finalised this year, Napoli admitted an involvement in 72 invoices worth more than $500,000 that between 2007 and 2014 were paid to companies run by his relatives and that his personal benefit was $95,000.

But a payment for his signature toupee was among the money misappropriated, the County Court heard on Thursday, as a woman was paid $2000 to help Napoli regularly maintain his hairpiece.
More than 2,000 complaints have been investigated this year by the Erie County Health Department concerning bars and restaurants violating the states guidelines on social distancing and capacity limits. The county ordered three of them closed in July for being in violation, eight this year.

The statistics do not suggest a power-hungry county government intent on rolling over small businesses and taking away their livelihoods. But thats the picture that Joseph Lorigo, minority leader of the Erie County Legislature, is trying to paint.

Lorigo and his Republican-supported colleagues are pushing for a new law that would add red tape to the job of county health inspectors. The proposal would require the Health Department to provide a detailed report to the Legislature within 48 hours for any bar or restaurant that is shut down for violating Gov. Andrew M. Cuomos orders. The report must include details on why the closure is appropriate and any and all evidence pertaining to the case.
'He couldn't hold himself from chanting 'Jai Siya Ram'.'

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi performs the bhoomi puja in Ayodhya. Photograph: PIB/PTI Photo

Ayodhya MLA Ved Prakash Gupta, who was one of the 175 invitees at the bhoomi puja ceremony in the temple town reveals to Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com why Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi used 'Siyavar Ramvchandra ki Jai' instead of 'Jai Shri Ram' associated with the Ram Janambhoomi movement since the times of Lal Kishenchand Advani.

Bhoomi puja in the times of Corona

Every attendee and invitee had strict instructions to be seated in places allotted to them by the state and district administration. Everybody had to strictly maintain social distancing and chairs were arranged keeping this in mind.

It was Ayodhya's fortune that the prime minister came to the town to do the bhoomi puja for constructing a grand temple here.

Given the late Ashok Singhal's (the former international president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad) huge contribution towards the Ram Janmabhoomi agitation, his nephew Lalit Singhal and his wife performed the role of yajman (hosts).

Senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leaders including Sarkaryawah (General Secretary) Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi, UP Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dr Dinesh Sharma were also present at the bhoomi puja.

The gathered dignitaries included over 55 chief sadhus and mahants from across India, 40 of which were from different akhadas (affiliated temples) in Ayodhya.

Champat Raiji, who is the secretary of the Shri Ramjanmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust, anchored the event.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanathji, Governor Anandiben Patel, RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwatji and Swami Nritya Gopal Das (president of the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas, a trust formed by the VHP after demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992 to oversee the construction of the Ram temple in its place) shared the dais with the PM.

Out of the 175 people who attended the function in Ayodhya there were officials from the Union and state governments and also SPG commandos and top level police officers.

The highlight of the PM's speech

When the PM announced the construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya and constitution of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust members in the Lok Sabha, he had also outlined that with the construction of the Ram temple, Ayodhya too will develop and prosper. He had promised to make Ayodhya a global tourist place and you will see that becoming a reality in the next three years.

You will see the importance of Ayodhya growing manifold not only in India, but around the world.

The most important thing the PM said was that 'Ayodhya main Ram mandir ke saath saath rashtra mandir bhi banega (that the Ram mandir in Ayodhya will not only symbolise national integrity, but will also be considered the national temple).

On the PM chanting 'Jai Siya Ram (All hail Sita and Ram)'

Jai Shri Ram has been the war cry of all leaders like Lal Kishenchand Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti etc who began the Ram Janambhoomi agitation in 1987.

Sitaji ke bina to prabhu Shri Ram adhoore hai (Without Sitaji, Shri Ram is incomplete). Definitely, he (Modi) is so steeped in Ram bhakti (devotion) that he chanted 'Jai Siya Ram'. Sitaji is entire India's mother and is equally revered by Indians, irrespective of their religion.

WATCH: A grand temple will now be built for our Ram: Modi

The PM was so emotional that he couldn't hold himself from chanting 'Jai Siya Ram.'

Making Ayodhya a global city

It was the most important day in the life of a person who happens to be the representative of the people of Ayodhya at a time when the prime minister of India laid the foundation stone for building a grand temple in the town fulfilling the centuries' old dream of a nation that had felt humiliated for hundreds of years.

I have been a part of this agitation for 25 years. I would consider it as prabhu Ram's blessings that he gave me an opportunity to represent the people of the town and the time has come for the construction of a grand and magnificent temple in Ayodhya.

My dream now is to see the construction of temple in Ayodhya and converting the town into a clean, modern and global centre without compromising on its religious and spiritual connect with the people of India.

I have been working hard for it and will work harder now to ensure Prime Minister Modi's dream of making Ayodhya a tourist hotspot becomes a reality in the next three years.

We would be making Ayodhya a place that seeps in tradition and spiritualism and which at the same time welcomes Indian and global tourists to a place which is clean and healthy.

Under the leadership of Yogi Adityanathji, every Ayodhya-wasi will work hard to ensure that Ayodhya becomes a dream town for every person that visits it. He has been the first chief minister to visit Ayodhya 21 times after becoming the CM of the state.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the chief minister for giving top-most priority for the construction of the Ram temple and putting in his sincere efforts to make Ayodhya a truly global city.

The grandest and most magnificent Ram temple will become a reality in the next two-and-a-half to three years.

As the local MLA I will ensure that the entire MLA's development fund of Rs 2 crore that I get from next year will be spent on beautifying and in cleanliness of the town. All the MLAs of UP have contributed their MLAs development funds for this year to fight COVID-19.

The atmosphere in Ayodhya today

IMAGE: Devotees celebrate Deepotsav at Ramghat on the eve of the bhoomi puja in Ayodhya, August 4, 2020. Photograph: Nand Kumar/PTI Photo

The atmosphere in Ram's janambhoomi (birthplace) after the bhoomi puja is extraordinary indeed. Ayodhya-wasi aaj Diwali mana rahe hai (It's a festive atmosphere like Diwali).

I am sure the people of Ayodhya must have celebrated Ram's return to Ayodhya after 14 years in exile the same way the people here are celebrating by lighting lamps, decorating their houses with saffron confetti.

Everybody is chanting Shri Ram's name and singing bhajans.

The city looks so beautiful and clean today and it's all because of the efforts of the people of Ayodhya.

If we did it for the last three days, we can do it forever and forever and make Ayodhya the cleanest and healthiest of all the cities in India.
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said President Donald Trump is considering signing an executive order that would unilaterally impose a stimulus plan and include an eviction moratorium and an extension of unemployment benefits if Congress cannot close a deal on the new coronavirus relief bill by Friday.

The first round of the stimulus payment under the CARES Act has already expired last week. Until today, stimulus negotiations are not yet over in Congress. As the days progressed, many Americans are waiting for the final details.

Trump announced this week that he will release an executive order if Congress will not act on the new coronavirus relief bill that would include the second round of stimulus payment.

According to a published report in CNN News, Meadows noted that Trump would sign the executive order if Congress cannot close a deal by Friday.

Meadows issued the statement after Republican senators raised concerns over the present situation on stimulus negotiation. If the HEALS Act or the next stimulus package will not be signed into law, many Americans will be evicted from their homes.

Two of the main provisions in the executive order that might be released by Trump will focus on eviction protection and enhanced unemployment payments, according to Meadows. These are the top priorities of Trump as the Americans struggle amid the global pandemic.

For his part, Republican Senator David Perdue said there is little progress in the talks, and it is not very encouraging for him. He further noted that not doing something to make the second round of stimulus payment be on the hands of Americans is irresponsible.

Another Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri said the status of stimulus payment worries him. He also said they do not have any idea what the final bill would be passed to the Senate or what is going on. He added that many of the Senators have the same sentiments.

Meanwhile, the top negotiators between the Republicans and Democrats have agreed on the next stimulus. However, they continue to struggle in deciding with the weekly unemployment claims.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is pushing for $600 a week, but Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin called it ridiculous.

The main purpose of the HEALS Act is to give aid to Americans who lost their jobs and put them back to work. Part of the HEALS Act is to provide an additional amount to Americans going back to work since this would also help the country's economy.

Republican senators are now showing frustrations on the progress and development of the stimulus negotiation, just like Trump.

The president wanted the Democrats and Congress to act on it so that millions of Americans would not get evicted from their homes and still have food on their table through the enhanced unemployment benefits.

As Meadows said, if Congress does not act on the next stimulus, Trump will release an executive order to ensure that Americans get the help they need during this time of the global pandemic.

This time, the top two priorities of Trump are to make sure that Americans will not get evicted from their homes because once they become homeless, the bigger the chance for them to get infected, which means another turmoil for the country.

The second priority of the president is to have an unemployment benefit for each qualified out-of-work American to help them get their daily basic needs like food.

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Sky News

Scientists have said the reason some people lose their sense of smell after contracting COVID could be down to genetics. Loss of smell was added to the UK government's official list of symptoms for COVID-19 in May 2020. The precise cause of this sensory loss related to coronavirus is not known, but scientists believe it is caused by damage to infected cells in part of the nose called the olfactory epithelium - which is found in the nasal cavity.
Fujirebio Diagnostics, Inc., a consolidated subsidiary of H.U. Group Holdings, Inc, announced today the initiation of clinical testing needed for the submission of its new SARS-CoV-2 Antigen assay for EUA (Emergency Use Authorization) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

As a leading provider of immunoassays to the diagnostic industry, Fujirebio, as a global team, is joining the fight to combat the COVID-19 pandemic with the goal of providing the first fully automated antigen test.

The Lumipulse SARS-CoV-2 Antigen assay will be available for use on the LUMIPULSE G1200 instrument. The LUMIPULSE G1200 is a robust, fully automated CLEIA (chemiluminescent enzyme immunoassay) immunoassay instrument. The LUMIPULSE G1200 has a throughput of 120 tests per hour and allows laboratory personnel to randomly load samples as needed. CLEIA technology and automated testing provides increased sensitivity, reproducibility and throughput over single-use point-of-care tests.

On June 19, Fujirebio Inc. (Tokyo) received Japanese regulatory approval of the SARS-CoV-2 Antigen assay for use with nasopharyngeal and saliva samples. The assay is available in Japan as a stand-alone detection tool for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The initial submission to the FDA is expected to be made in early September for nasopharyngeal swab in universal viral transport media. Submissions to expand sample types are expected to follow.
Pagadian City (CNN Philippines, August 6)  The family of a Filipina worker who died in the massive explosion that rocked Beirut, Lebanon is calling on the government to make sure her remains are sent home.

Ardel Bustamante Maglangit, 43, worked as a household worker in the Middle East country for eight years. Shes from the town of Molave in Zamboanga del Sur.

Authorities said Maglangit was in her employers home when the blast ripped through Beiruts port, killing more than a hundred others and wounding thousands. Among the fatalities is another Filipino domestic worker.

Maglangits husband Rogelio said his wifes tragic death was painful to accept, noting that on the eve of the explosion, they even had a good chat about her plans of coming home.

Terrible news struck the family after waking up Tuesday morning. Maglangits daughter, Jehan, waited for the Department of Foreign Affairs phone call for confirmation before she told her father about it.

I saw my daughter crying in our kitchen early morning. I asked her what happened, Rogelio said in Cebuano.

She let me watch a video of her mother who was already dead because of the incident, the husband said. I couldnt believe it.

The blast sent a shockwave that caused massive destruction to property and buildings across a radius of several kilometers. The incident is under investigation, as authorities link it to the large supply of potentially unsecured explosive material that is stored in a warehouse at the city's port.

READ: Shock turns to anger in Beirut over warnings before deadly explosion

Rogelio appealed to President Rodrigo Duterte and the provincial government to facilitate the return of his wifes remains, something that the Department of Foreign Affairs plans to do over the weekend.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Sarah Arriola said they are also working to evacuate other Filipinos who wish to come home. There are over 31,000 Filipinos in the war-torn country, mostly undocumented workers.

The Department of Labor and Employment promised to provide the necessary assistance to the victims' families.

Pagadian City-based stringer Leah Agonoy contributed to this report.
Many Americans are hurting now that the $600 weekly boost to jobless benefits has ended. There were about 30 million Americans collecting on that extra money to supplement their state unemployment benefits, until that federal program expired at the end of last month. While negotiations between the White House and Democrats could lead to a partial or full reinstatement of the benefit, the situation on Capitol Hill remains in flux and the additional benefits have expired, at least for now. Unemployed workers who have been furloughed or laid off during the Covid-19 crisis and their families are wondering what to do in the interim. Rethinking how to pay household bills and replenish what may be your greatest financial asset  your income  are likely top priorities. Yet experts say there are a few other moves you should consider making right away.

Apply for unemployment benefits and other relief programs

The state you live in and the amount of money you made over the past year will determine how much you get in unemployment benefits. The amount of severance you may have received and other sources of income could be factors as well. Without the extra $600 a week in federal unemployment benefits, the average American will see a 65% drop in unemployment benefits to about $321 a week on average, according to a CNBC analysis of U.S. Labor Department data. State minimum and maximum amounts without the additional $600 a week, under the CARES Act, range from a low of $5 a week in Hawaii to $1,234 in Massachusetts. Even if it's not as much as it would have been before July 31, every bit helps. Also, keep in mind, "there will likely be a lag time until you receive your first check, so it's best to file immediately," said author and certified financial planner Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz, president of the Charles Schwab Foundation. CareerOneStop.org is a good resource for unemployment updates and has links to state unemployment insurance websites.

Contact lenders and creditors about payment assistance

Reach out to your lenders and creditors to find out what kind of Covid-19 relief programs they are offering. Under the CARES Act, a mortgage forbearance program may allow you to delay your mortgage payments for at three months and potentially up to a year. You can delay your monthly payments on federally-insured mortgages for up to one year and stop federal student loan payments, and pay no interest, until September 30, 2020. Many auto lenders and credit card companies will let you extend or defer payments for one month or more without incurring late fees. But you have to ask.

If you're in a position to pay, you should. If not, then focus on paying your most vital expenses, like food and health care. Bruce McClary National Foundation for Credit Counseling

"Be clear with lenders and creditors about whether you will continue to accrue interest during deferment," said Bruce McClary of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. "If you're in a position to pay, you should. If not, then focus on paying your most vital expenses, like food and health care."

Make sure you have health insurance

If you are furloughed, your employer generally keeps up with your health benefits while you're not working, although the extent can vary depending on the rules in your state. You are also eligible to file for unemployment without it affecting your health benefits. "If you will still be covered, confirm how you will pay your share since this usually comes out of your paycheck but you won't be receiving one," said certified financial planner Roger Ma, founder of lifelaidout.com. In most cases, benefits consultants say, you'll have to pay as you go. Some employers may allow the employee to catch up with their contributions once the furlough ends. Either way, you will still be responsible for your out-of-pocket costs if you need medical care.

If you were laid off and lost your job, you've likely lost your health insurance too. You can still keep your employer-sponsored coverage through a federal program called COBRA. COBRA lets you keep that coverage for up to 18 months. Also, your spouse and dependents in some cases can stay covered for up to three years. The catch is that you have to pay for COBRA yourself, which can cost considerably more than you were paying as an employee. "Contact the benefits department at your previous employer and get the facts regarding the cost of COBRA and the process for making the switch," said Schwab-Pomerantz. "Then do some comparison-shopping." You may be able to find a lower-cost high-deductible health insurance policy through your state or the federal Affordable Care Act exchange at healthcare.gov. If your spouse or partner has a workplace health plan, you may consider switching to that insurance. This year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the IRS will permit employers to let employees drop their health insurance if they have another option, without waiting until the usual fall enrollment period. Workers can also add family members to their current plan or switch to a different health insurance plan. However, employees can only take advantage of these options if their employer allows it. Bottom line: "Don't be tempted to go without insurance," Schwab-Pomerantz said. "You don't want an illness or injury to completely ruin your financial planning."

Compile your financial report card

Ma, who is also author of the new book "Work Your Money, Not Your Life," says compiling your "financial report card" entails figuring out your net worth, monthly living expenses and credit score. He offers free money templates on his book website to help you get started. "With a reduction in income, it's more important than ever to get a handle on your expenses," Schwab-Pomerantz said. "You can't determine how much you need to survive until you know how much you have, what you owe and how much you spend." Group your living expenses into two buckets  "need to have" and "nice to have," Ma said, and "temporarily stop as many of the 'nice to have' expenses as possible." You may be able to lower some of those "need to have" expenses, too. "Focus particularly on essentials  your mortgage, utilities, phone, internet, groceries, health insurance premiums, car payments  anything you need to cover to stay afloat and move forward," Schwab-Pomerantz said. You may be able to negotiate your rent, internet and phone plans, downgrade cable plans and cancel some subscriptions.

EmirMemedovski

Your financial report card also should include a snapshot of your savings. Continue to save a little, if you can, said certified financial planner Lee Baker of Apex Financial Services. "If you find yourself in a situation to take some of these forbearances (delaying mortgage payments, etc.) but never got around to creating that 'rainy day' fund, skip a payment and use those dollars for savings or to eliminate other (higher-interest) debt," said Baker, who is also a member of the CNBC Advisor Council.

Avoid raiding your 401(k) retirement account

Furloughed workers can retain their employer-sponsored 401(k) accounts, although they won't be able to contribute to them while they are not being paid. Laid-off workers have several choices about what to do with their workplace retirement account. When you leave a company you can keep the 401(k) with your employer plan; roll the old 401(k) over to a new employer; roll over the 401(k) to an Individual Retirement Account (IRA); or, withdraw or cash out the 401(k). Ideally, this is long-term savings, not for emergencies, so you really don't want to tap it or cash out completely. You may want to dip into taxable accounts first. To figure out your "financial runway," Ma says, you should "look at the value of your cash and taxable investments and divide that by your monthly living expenses. That's your runway  how many months you'd be able to fund your life without a salary.
There have been few reports on the reality of our elderly citizens, and even fewer on the impact of COVID-19 on a population that the state apparatus has rendered useless. Senior citizens are often thought of as liabilities considering they can no longer contribute to economic progress and scientific development.

However, they remain living bodies and minds who deal with this reality every day. Its only during a crisis that the true inadequacies of a society become clearer. Mobility for the elderly outside their houses is crucial in terms of physical exercise as ...
SALT LAKE CITY - Some Black Lives Matter protesters in Salt Lake City could face up to life in prison if theyre convicted of splashing red paint and smashing windows during a protest, a potential punishment that stands out among demonstrators arrested around the country and one that critics say doesnt fit the alleged crime.

The felony criminal mischief charges are more serious because they carry a gang enhancement. Prosecutors said Wednesday thats justified because the protesters worked together to cause thousands of dollars in damage, but watchdogs called the use of the 1990s-era law troubling, especially in the context of criminal justice reform and minority communities.

This is so far beyond just the enforcement of the law, it feels retaliatory, said Madalena McNeil, who is facing a potential life sentence over felony criminal mischief and riot charges. Charging documents say she bought red paint at a Home Depot before the July 9 demonstration sparked by a fatal police shooting ruling. She later yelled at and shifted her weight as if to slam into police during the demonstration, charges state. Its really frustrating and scary ... I just feel so much concern for what this means for the right to protest in general.

The charges have Democratic leaders at odds in Salt Lake City, the liberal-leaning capital of conservative Utah, with the top county prosecutor arguing vandalism crossed a line and the mayor calling the charges too extreme.

The potential life sentence stands out as harsh punishment even among other people facing felony charges stemming from protests around the country. In Portland, Oregon, for instance, a 32-year-old man is facing up to 20 years on an arson charge alleging he broke into a building that houses the police headquarters and set an office on fire.

The Utah demonstrators are unlikely to serve prison time, said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill. Though theyd get at least five years if convicted as charged, criminal cases often end with a plea to lesser counts.

I dont think anyone is going to be going to prison on this, he said. Gill is a generally reform-minded Democrat who said he has participated in Black Lives Matter protests himself and declined to charge dozens of protesters accused of curfew violations.

Still, he argued theres some people who want to engage in protest, but they want to be absolved of absolved of any behaviour, he said. This is not about protest, this is about people who are engaging in criminal conduct.

But for the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah, invoking a law aimed at street gangs in troubling, especially against demonstrators of colour. You are calling participants in a protest gang members, said attorney Jason Groth.

And there are other side effects to criminal charges, he said. McNeil tweeted Thursday she was asked resign from her job in the non-profit sector and all the defendants have to post $50,000 bail to get out of jail.

This is the highest degree felony. This is usually reserved for murders and rapists, said attorney Brent Huff, who represents co-defendant Madison Alleman.

Another defence attorney Jesse Nix, who represents protester Viviane Turman, questioned whether Gill should have filed charges involving his own office. No one should get life in prison for putting paint on a building, he said.

Gill countered that short staffing during the coronavirus pandemic necessitated that but others will handle the case going forward.

More than 30 people have been charged with various crimes in Salt Lake County since the national wave of protests over George Floyds death began in late May. Similar first-degree felony counts have also been filed against people accused of flipping and burning a police car May 30.

We have to have some agreement of what constitutes protected First Amendment speech, Gill said. When you cross that threshold, should you be held accountable or not?

___

Associated Press writer Jake Bleiberg in Dallas contributed to this report.
A lottery advert has been pulled from TV after a complaint made to the industry watchdog said it mocked social distancing guidelines.

The advertisement for a $25million jackpot first aired in November 2019 and showed a man exiting a bathroom stall after winning the lotto before he hugs a stranger without washing his hands.

A new version of the advert aired between July 5 and 7 and featured a re-done voiceover that said: 'There's Frank. Little does he know he's about to be hugged by a stranger in the toilet.

'There he is, enter stranger. He's won Oz Lotto. Forget the elbow taps, he's gone all in. Oz Lotto. Tuesday.'

A complaint made to Ad Standards said the advert mocked social distancing and hygiene regulations.

The advert aired between July 5 and 7 and featured a man man exiting a toilet stall and screaming after he won the lotto before he hugs a stranger (pictured)

The watchdog found it to be in breach of the AANA's Code of Ethics which forced Lotterywest to pull it down.

Ad Standards released a case report which included a sample of comments made by the complainant.

'Never mind this man did not wash his hands and the voiceover laughed at the COVID-19 safe distancing as if, if you win the lotto all rules go out the window,' the complaint said.

'And what men screams out of a toilet and embraces a stranger? This should be taken off the air. I'm disgusted on a few levels.'

The watchdog considered the Western Australian COVID-19 guidelines and said it was 'unlikely' that most people would believe the advert was against health and safety regulations.

But the panel decided the advert breached the Code of Ethics because the voiceover mentioned elbow taps and how the men behaved in the bathroom.

'(It was a) direct reference to current health recommendations and a portrayal of behaviour which would be against these recommendations,' Ad Standards said.

A complaint made to Ad Standards said the advert mocked social distancing and hygiene regulations (pictured, the offending ad)

Jermaine D'Vauz (pictured), who played the lotto winner in the advert, took to his Instagram where he pretended to host a press conference and mocked the complaint

Lotterywest said they pulled the advertisement as soon as they learned it was in breach of the AANA Code of Ethics.

A spokeswoman said they edited the advert to adhere to the panel's recommendations and the original version may return once social distancing was no longer required in WA.

Presenter of Nova 93.7, Jermaine D'Vauz, who played the lotto winner in the advert, took to his Instagram where he pretended to host a press conference and mocked the complaint.

'I'd like to take a moment this moment to sincerely apologise to anyone who contracted coronavirus from a man throwing toilet paper in a public bathroom and then hugging with their hands unwashed,' he said.

'It was very silly of me, I won't do it again and please don't cancel me. Thank you.'
Jonathan Tsai, 40, pastor of Abundant Life Ministries, was arrested July 21. (Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department)

The pastor of a Hacienda Heights church has been charged with sexual assault after he molested multiple girls in incidents dating back to 2000, authorities said.

Jonathan Tsai, 40, pastor of Abundant Life Ministries, was arrested July 21 after a six-month investigation, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department said.

Tsai's accusers are now grown. One woman told authorities that Tsai repeatedly assaulted her from ages 12 to 18. He was her youth pastor at the time.

Three other women reported similar sexual assaults while they were minors, and sheriff's investigators said there might be others.

"It's an ongoing investigation," said Lt. Michael Burse, of the Special Victims Bureau. "We feel there are probably more victims because these are crimes that occurred over a long period of time."

Tsai faces four charges of lewd acts on a child younger than 14, one count of oral copulation of a minor under 16, and one count of sexual penetration of a minor younger than 16, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office. The incidents he's being charged in occurred beginning in 2000, prosecutors said.

Tsai was released on $1.4-million bond three days after his arrest and was scheduled to return to court Aug. 26.

West Covina police are also investigating Tsai in connection with multiple sexual assault cases.

The Sheriff's Department is requesting that anyone with information contact the Special Victims Bureau tip line at (877) 710-5273.
French President Emmanuel Macron pledged his countrys support during a tour of the damage in Beirut, stressing that French aid would not fall into corrupt hands.

"Beyond the blast, we know the crisis here is serious, it involves the historic responsibility of leaders in place," Macron told reporters Thursday.

"We can't do without telling each other some home truths," he added. "If reforms are not carried out, Lebanon will continue to sink."

Lebanon was in the midst of an unprecedented economic crisis well before the Beirut blast or even the coronavirus pandemic. Unemployment hovered around 25% and a collapsing currency had left nearly a third of the population living below the poverty line.

The accidental explosion is seen as emblematic of the governments chronic mismanagement. Despite repeated warnings, authorities improperly stored a stockpile of ammonium nitrate at Lebanons most vital port for six years. The highly explosive chemical ignited Tuesday, setting off an explosion that killed at least 157 people and injured more than 5,000 others.

Macron told the crowds swarming around him Thursday that he would ensure a new political pact for the former French colony.

"I will propose a new political pact in Lebanon, and I will be back in September, and if they can't do it, I'll take my political responsibility," he said.

The International Monetary Fund and donor governments have demanded Beirut undertake painful reforms before receiving any of the bailout money needed to claw out of its $90 billion in public debt.

Macrons visit to the rubble  the first of any foreign leader  comes on the heels of French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian's trip to the small Mediterranean country last month during which he derided Lebanons political elite for their passive approach to the economic crisis.
New Delhi, Aug 6 : There is "status quo" in the ongoing political crisis in Rajasthan as there have been no talks with the rebel MLAs belonging to the Sachin Pilot camp to get them back to the Congress party fold. However, the party said that it has "majority" numbers and can prove the same on the floor of the House.

Senior spokesperson of the Congress and special observer to Rajasthan, Ajay Maken said that "status quo" would not be a wrong word at all. Maken was responding to questions as he held a virtual press conference from Jaisalmer where the Congress MLAs belonging to the Gehlot camp are holed up.

The Congress leader said that the party has the numbers and is ready to prove majority, adding that even the opposition had not moved a no-confidence motion.

Former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot along with his supporting MLAs have rebelled against Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, however the Congress has appealed to them several times to return to the party fold.

Congress top sources said that, "if Pilot wants to return there should be no preconditions as this will set a wrong precedent." While the Congress claims that it has a comfortable majority, the party is wary of the numbers since the Rajasthan High Court issued a notice to Assembly Speaker C.P. Joshi on Wednesday on petitions filed by BSP national Secretary Satish Mishra and BJP MLA Madan Dilawar challenging the merger of 6 BSP MLAs with the Congress.

However in a bid to pacify the rebel MLAs the Rajasthan Special Operation Group (SOG) has scrapped the sedition charges clamped on Congress MLAs accused of alleged horse-trading to topple the state government. The SOG of Rajasthan Police on Tuesday transferred the case to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had said in Jaisalmer on August 1 that if those who were engaged in the conspiracy to destabilise the government in the state confess to the party high command and are forgiven, he would also embrace them.
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The German economy is rebounding and may well continue to do so in the second half of the year, supported by the government's fiscal stimulus measures taken in response to the coronavirus outbreak, the Bundesbank said on Monday.

"In the second half of the year, the economic recovery could continue," the German central bank said in its monthly report. "The recent stimulus package will also contribute to that."

The German central bank also said it expected the pandemic-related global slowdown in trade to bring down the country's oversized current account surplus.

This has been the target of criticism both within the European Union and by Donald Trump's U.S. administration for causing macro-economic imbalances.

The Bundesbank now sees Germany's current account surplus at less than 5% of the country's gross domestic product each year until 2022, down from more than 7% last year.

(Reporting by Francesco Canepa, editing by Ed Osmond)
The US House of Representatives committee that oversees foreign relations on Wednesday expressed bipartisan concern over the situation in Kashmir in a letter to external affairs minister S Jaishankar by its top Democratic and Republican leaders, worded carefully so as to not sound a discordant note.

We note with concern that conditions in Jammu and Kashmir have not normalised one year after Indias repeal of Article 370 and the establishment of Jammu and Kashmir as a Union Territory, Eliot Engel, the Democratic chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, and Michael T McCaul, the top Republican called the ranking member, wrote in the letter.

It was a rare instance of bipartisan criticism of the Kashmir changes. Democrats have condemned it before, and in many public forums such as congressional and semi-congressional hearings and on social media, headlined most prominently by Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, an Indian American.

Republicans had been mostly supportive thus far through their silence, taking the lead from the Trump administrations carefully calibrated response that it was an internal matter for India but it wanted the restrictions in place in the immediate aftermath be removed at the earliest.

Cognizant perhaps of the significance of the bipartisan nature of their criticism, the two lawmakers sought to soft-land it by averring themselves as champions of the relationship, which they have been indeed over the years, and added they were delighted at the two countries close cooperation on issues from defense to climate change.

They also offered full-throated support for India in its ongoing border tensions with China. This closer relationship is all the more important as India faces aggression from China along your shared border, which is part of the Chinese governments consistent pattern of unlawful and belligerent territorial aggression across the Indo-Pacific. The United States will remain steadfast in support of Indias efforts to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

They also acknowledged the ongoing serious security and counterterrorism concerns in the region, in a barely veiled reference to threat emanating from across border in Pakistan.

The House Foreign Relations Committee controls the state departments budget, and uses that power to influence the countrys foreign relations. Its Senate counterpart  the Senate Foreign Relations Committee  wields similar influence through its power to confirm or reject the appointment of ambassadors and senior officials.

Engel had joined the top Democrat on the senate foreign relations committee, Senator Bob Menendez, to call on India to protect the constitutional rights of all it citizens in reference to the Kashmir restrictions. As the worlds largest democracy, India has an opportunity to demonstrate for all its citizens the importance of protecting and promoting equal rights, including freedom of assembly, access to information, and equal protections under the law, they had said then in a joint statement. But it was not a bipartisan action like Wednesday.

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Beirut Blast: Middle East Christian TV Broadcaster Launches Special Programming

Satellite network SAT-7 offers reassurance, prayers with live program 'Lebanon: The Pain and Hope'





HEALING AFTER BEIRUT BLAST: A major Christian Arabic language broadcaster in Lebanon is airing special live programming, reassuring shell-shocked viewers after a huge explosion in the capital Beirut killed at least 113 people and injured more than 4,000 yesterday. Satellite network SAT-7 (www.sat7usa.org) broadcast a special Arabic-language program Lebanon: The Pain and Hope.



NEWS PROVIDED BY

SAT-7

Aug. 5, 2020



EASTON, Md., Aug. 5, 2020 /Standard Newswire/ -- A major Christian Arabic language broadcaster in Lebanon is airing special live programming, reassuring shell-shocked viewers after a huge explosion in the capital Beirut killed at least 113 people and injured more than 4,000 yesterday.



Satellite network SAT-7 (www.sat7usa.org) reported minor damage to its Beirut studios a few miles from the blast epicenter, but continued broadcasting live Wednesday with a special Arabic-language program Lebanon: The Pain and Hope.



Local Christian leaders Rev. Dr. Hikmat Kashouh and Dr. Nabil Costa offered reassurance to viewers, and prayed live on air for the families of those killed in the explosion, for those who are missing, and for the injured.



"Everyone is in shock and devastated by what has happened," said Maroun Bou Rached, the network's director in Lebanon, as live programming continues.



The massive blast in Beirut's port area -- reportedly caused by 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse -- shook the entire city and was heard by SAT-7 headquarters staff on the island of Cyprus, more than 100 miles away. The cause is still under investigation.



'Hearts Go Out to Everyone'

"We didn't know what was happening," said Rita El-Mounayer, the network's International CEO based in Cyprus, who heard the explosion. "Our hearts go out to everyone in the country."



SAT-7's live programs will continue to provide a platform for grieving and traumatized viewers in Lebanon to find comfort and seek prayer in the aftermath of the disaster, El-Mounayer said. Since March, SAT-7 has aired more than 40 programs addressing COVID-19, and the network continues to minister to a country beset by economic collapse, hunger, and social unrest.



As thousands across Lebanon -- roughly the size of Connecticut -- turn to television for news and updates, SAT-7's interactive live broadcasts have a unique role as the disaster unfolds, according to Rex Rogers, its SAT-7 USA president.



"People across Lebanon are looking to us in America and in the Middle East to stand with them in grief and in prayer in the wake of this catastrophe," Rogers said. "Many people, including Christians, are asking: 'Where is God? Why is he allowing this? What is happening to my country?'



"People are saying: 'Lebanon needs a miracle,'" said Rogers. "As Christians, we offer genuine hope."



About SAT-7

Launched in 1996, SAT-7 (www.sat7usa.org) -- with its international headquarters in Cyprus -- broadcasts Christian and educational satellite television programs to more than 30 million people in the Middle East and North Africa. Its mission is to make the gospel available to everyone, and support the church in its life, work and witness for Jesus Christ. SAT-7 broadcasts 24/7 in Arabic, Farsi (Persian) and Turkish, using multiple satellite channels and online services.



SOURCE SAT-7



CONTACT: Matti Stevenson, 719-360-0586, mstevenson@inchristcommunications.com



Related Links



www.sat7usa.org


MADISON, Wis. - An oversight board demoted Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales after questioning how he handled multiple incidents, including ordering officers to fire tear gas and pepper spray at protesters demonstrating over George Floyds death.

The citys Fire and Police Commission unanimously voted Thursday evening to demote Morales to captain after two-and-a-half years on the job.

The chiefs attorney, Franklyn Gimbel, says Morales relationship with the commission has been deteriorating since he refused the chairmans demand to fire an officer involved in the arrest of Milwaukee Bucks player Sterling Brown in January 2018. Most recently the commission criticized Morales for authorizing tear gas to disperse protesters. The board has also raised questions over how the department has policed Black communities.

Morales joined the Milwaukee department in 1993 and was appointed chief in February 2018.

His conduct is unbecoming, filled with ethical lapses and flawed decisions, making it inconsistent with someone who has the privilege of leading the Milwaukee Police Department, Commissioner Raymond Robakowski said.

The board named Assistant Police Chief Michael J. Brunson Sr. as acting chief.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said Thursday night he was angered by the commissions action and that Morales should have been given a chance to respond to directives the panel had issued.

The discussion surrounding this decision tonight was completely lacking in transparency. The action taken by the commission tonight was not good government, Barrett said.

The decision comes as Wisconsins largest police department grapples with a surge in gun violence and plans security for a scaled-down Democratic National Convention.

A number of police chiefs across the country have left their jobs as pressure mounts to rethink American policing following Floyds death, including Erika Shields in Atlanta, Jami Resch in Portland, Oregon, and William Smith in Richmond, Virginia.

Milwaukees mayor had urged the commission to slow down, but Morales attorney, Franklyn Gimbel, said the odds appeared to be stacked against the chief.

Im unaware of him having any supporters (on the commission), Gimbel, said. There seems like a cumulative sense that they want to dump the guy.

Gimbel declined comment to The Associated Press after the meeting.

Morales is Latino and the majority of the commissioners are Black. His relationship with the board has deteriorated since it named him to the post in February 2018.

Gimbel said problems began when officers arrested Brown for parking illegally in January 2018. Officers swarmed the Bucks guard and used a stun gun on him when he didnt remove his hands from his pockets. The commissions chairman, Steven DeVougas, who is Black, told Morales to fire one of the officers involved but Morales refused, the attorney said.

From there it got stressful, Gimbel said. DeVougas viewed him as not being a team player.

In February, the Milwaukee Police Association, which represents rank-and-file officers, filed an ethics complaint against DeVougas alleging he accompanied a real estate developer during an interview with police who suspected the developer of sexual assault. DeVougas practices real estate law for the developers business. The police association argued DeVougas presence during the interview was a misuse of his position as commission chairman. A city ethics board is investigating.

Fast forward to May and June, when Milwaukee police used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse protesters demonstrating over Floyds death. Floyd, who was Black, died on Memorial Day in Minneapolis after a white police officer pressed his knee into his neck for nearly eight minutes.

The decision to use tear gas and pepper spray drew criticism from Democratic Mayor Tom Barrett. The commission in July banned the police department from using tear gas, prompting a number of departments from across the state slated to help with convention security to rescind their support.

The commission on July 20 ordered Morales to produce reams of records related to multiple incidents, including the decision to tear gas and pepper spray protesters, Browns arrest and the June arrest of a Black activist on suspicion of burglary. The panel also demanded Morales draft community policing standards, develop a discipline matrix to clarify how officers are disciplined and draft a policy requiring officers to wear face masks during the pandemic.

We are in the midst of an urgent overdue reckoning on race and policing in this country, the commission said in a statement Monday. Only with transparency, accountability and truth will we move on as a society. This discussion may make some uncomfortable, and may bluntly scare others.

None of the commissioners, including DeVougas, returned messages Thursday.

The commission gave Morales a week to respond to some of the requests and threatened to discipline or fire him if he didnt comply. Gimbel has said those expectations are ridiculous; he noted the commission gave Morales predecessor, Ed Flynn, 50 days to respond to a similar request for information on the departments pursuit policy.

The police department Wednesday blasted the orders as vague, invalid and possibly illegal. The department noted the orders werent approved during an open meeting and the requests seek information from still-open criminal and internal investigations.

The orders also could violate a 2018 settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union over stop-and-frisk policies because the department would have to release confidential information it has been sharing with a consultant group monitoring compliance with the settlement, the department said.

The (orders) attempt to paint a picture that MPD has been non-compliant or outright insubordinate with the FPC, the department said in a statement. The manner in which business is being conducted at the FPC causes alarm.

Barrett, the mayor, dove into the fray on Wednesday, sending a letter to the commission calling for an orderly review of the orders and the commission to remove DeVougas as chairman since hes under investigation.

___

Follow Todd Richmond on Twitter: https://twitter.com/trichmond1

___

This story was first published Aug. 6, 2020. It was updated Aug. 7, 2020, to correct that Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales had served in the job for 2 1/2 years, not 3 1/2 years.
A Massachusetts hotel hosted back-to-back events last weekend that far exceeded the states 100-person capacity limit on outdoor events during the pandemic, despite multiple warnings from government officials tipped off to the plans, according to complaints received by state and local officials.

The hotel was the site of a wedding on Saturday that had 240 guests and 70 staff members, according to a summary of allegations against the venue provided by the Massachusetts Department of Labor Standards. The Business Journal obtained the summary through a public records request.

One of the people who got married on Aug. 1 is a family member of Nicole Moorshead, the general manager of the wedding venue, the Colonial Hotel in Gardner, according to Lauren Saunders, Gardners director of public health.

Then on the following day, the hotel hosted a second event, which had 190 guests, according to a summary of allegations against the Colonial. Complaints identified the event as a wedding reception for unrelated guests, according to Saunders.

Moorshead did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment this week on the events last weekend. Another Colonial employee directed all questions to Moorshead.

According to the summary of the complaints, both events featured dancing and the use of a bar, as well as at least some guests not wearing masks.

The Baker administrations Covid-19 restrictions prohibit outdoor events of more than 100 people, in an attempt to limit the spread of the coronavirus. That includes staffers working the outdoor event. A venues maximum allowable capacity may be even less than 100 people, depending on its size and permitting. Dance floors are also prohibited, as are bars at event venues.

If the Colonial is found to have flouted state regulations, officials have limited options for punishing the hotel: Under the Baker administrations enforcement guidelines for Covid-19 violations, the next steps would be one or more $300 fines.

Warnings ahead of the big day

The Colonial had been on notice not to run afoul of virus-related restrictions. Both the state Department of Labor Standards and Gardner health officials had received complaints about the expected size of the Saturday wedding before it happened. The Gardner Board of Health verbally warned hotel management against hosting large weddings on July 15, according to state records. A written warning followed on July 24 that explicitly pointed out that weddings of more than 100 people, including staff, are forbidden.

The hotel then provided the city with written acknowledgment of the guidelines and an assurance that they would adhere to the best of their ability, according to a statement from Gardner Assistant Director of Public Health Rick Rossi.

Gardner Mayor Michael Nicholson told the Business Journal that prior to these latest allegations, Gardner officials had absolutely no issue with the hotel. The Colonial is a popular wedding destination in central Massachusetts, scoring high ratings at wedding websites like The Knot.

But after the Saturday wedding, Gardner health officials were notified that there had been more than 100 people at the event and that a second event had taken place on Sunday, according to Rossi. He told the Business Journal a lot of people have complained about the hotels actions.

Next steps

The allegations come with coronavirus cases on the rise in Massachusetts. The increases have occurred since the Baker administration kicked off the third phase of its reopening plan exactly one month ago. Phase 3 has included the reopening of gyms, movie theaters and museums  as well as a greenlight for moderately sized outdoor weddings. There have been calls for Baker to roll back the reopening, in part because people are gathering in large groups in violation of state regulations.

Both the Department of Labor Standards and the city of Gardner are considering how to respond to the allegations, according to officials.

If the high attendance numbers are proven true, Gardner could hit Colonial with a fine of up to $300 per event, Rossi said. He noted that at this point it has not received a formal, written complaint about the alleged bar, dance floor and mask violations.

If we receive other complaints, we will certainly investigate those as they come in, Rossi said.

The Department of Labor Standards could also impose $300 fines, including a separate fine for each alleged violation  one for hosting a wedding of more than 100 people, one for allowing dancing in the dance floor area, one for having a bar, and so on.

Still, its unlikely such fines would add up to more than a few thousand dollars.

The Department of Labor Standards summary of the allegations against the Colonial mentions that the Gardner Board of Health could revoke the hotels licenses if they break the rules again.

Rossi described such a move as an option we have, but said authorities need to review the evidence first.

This article originally appeared on the Boston Business Journals website.
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greeks must stick to rules aimed at containing the coronavirus more closely than ever, the country's prime minister said on Wednesday, warning of new restrictions if a worrying rise in daily cases does not abate.

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greeks must stick to rules aimed at containing the coronavirus more closely than ever, the country's prime minister said on Wednesday, warning of new restrictions if a worrying rise in daily cases does not abate.

Greece reported 124 new cases on Wednesday, part of a surge of what appears to be mainly domestic infections.

"Any form of complacency is unjustified," Kyriakos Mitsotakis said. "We still don't know how ...many months we will be forced to live with the virus."

In spring, Greece fared better than other countries in controlling the spread of COVID 19 mainly due to targeted lockdowns followed by nationwide curbs imposed during March.

Mitsotakis described the registered rise in infections, three months after restrictions were eased, as "worrying".

Total infections have reached 4,973 with data showing the virus affecting more younger people than before. Experts say that could be due either to an increase in tests or because more visitors have been tested during Greece's peak tourism season.

Tourism is the main driver of Greece's economy, which is expected to contract by up to 10% this year.

"Strict adherence to the rules is demanded even more at this crucial turn, to prevent a new significant rise in cases in August and the adoption of possible new restrictive measures which will hurt the economy and society," Mitsotakis said.

(Reporting by Renee Maltezou and Angeliki Koutantou; editing by John Stonestreet)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Hooghly:

A state government employee who was returning home in Kolkata from his place of posting died while standing in a queue in front of an ATM counter near Bandel station in Hooghly district on Saturday.

The employee, Kallol Roychoudhury (56), was returning to his Behala home in South Kolkata from Cooch Behar in North Bengal where he was posted.

He got down at Bandel station from Paharia Express this morning with his colleague and was supposed to catch another train to come to Kolkata.

But then, he decided to withdraw some money from an ATM counter at Station Road near the station.

He stood in the queue at 7.35 am, became unwell after 20 minutes and fell down.

The police said nobody extended a helping hand and he remained unattended for 30 minutes.

Later, the security personnel of the ATM called a doctor who pronounced him dead and advised the security man to take Roychowdhuryas body to a hospital.

Some vendors took Roychoudhuryas body to Chinsurah Imambara Hospital where doctors pronounced him brought dead.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee described the incident as aunfortunatea and asked whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi was taking note of it.

aUnfortunate death toll continues... This morning Kallol Roy Chowdhury collapsed and died in front of SBI ATM at Bandel station. My condolences to the bereaved family. Is Modi babu listening?a she said in a tweet.

My condolences to the bereaved family. Is Modi babu listening? 2/2 a Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) December 3, 2016

Two elderly persons had died on Friday in South 24 Parganas district of the state while standing in a queue to withdraw money.
Minor Memorial Library in Roxbury is presenting an exhibit, Seeking Serenity: A Tribute to Healing and Change, through Sept. 5.

The show features works by Dr. Ruth Jaffe, a neuroscientist/psychoanalyst practicing in Washington Depot who has shown her work in several venues throughout Connecticut and New York.
100 Years Ago  1920: Chester is to have a public swimming pool, that is, if present proposals bear fruit. It will be located in the West End. At a spirited meeting held in their headquarters last night, members of the Felton Fire Company, Third and Morton streets, appointed a committee to collect data concerning the probable cost of building a two-story brick and cement addition to the engine house, the first floor of the proposed structure to be fitted as a swimming pool.

75 Years Ago  1945: Cigarettes, on the way back, just passed sugar on the way out! And the shortage of sugar promises to become far more acute than the smoke drought at its peak. Candy, cakes, pastries, soft drinks and ice cream top the casualty list. At Daltons bakery, the oldest in the city, it was learned that Danish pastry, crullers and coffee buns have disappeared altogether, while cinnamon buns are being baked in very limited numbers, as are cupcakes. For some time the bakery has been delivering only every other day.

50 Years Ago  1970: A New Jersey wholesaler of fireworks apparatus was in direct violation of federal laws by mailing explosive powder to a Chester youth two years ago, a postal inspector said Wednesday. This week, the 16-year-old told Chester juvenile authorities that the powder was the substance that exploded July 6 in a street adjacent to Memorial Park. Six children were burned in the explosion. Two of the children have since died.

25 Years Ago  1995: The Gen. Smedley D. Butler Detachment of the Marine Corps League was the big winner at last months department convention in Lancaster, garnering first place honors for Americanism, Veteran Association Volunteer Services, and its newsletter edited by John Moyse. Moyse, of Marple Township, also received the Distinguished Service Medal  Bronze. The Distinguished Service Medal  Silver was presented to Commandant Tom Tanner, of Newtown Square.

10 Years Ago  2010: Facebook postings led police to raid a township beer distributor that allegedly sold booze to 18 customers under the legal drinking age, Upper Darby officials said. Police took the two owners and 18 individuals, ages 15 to 20, into custody. Five cars and 10 packaged cases of beer, two 12-packs and numerous loose cans of beer and malt liquor were confiscated by authorities. After receiving a tip, Capt. Anthony Paparo reviewed a Facebook page depicting teenagers drinking beer at a party. Paparo was able to check the ages of the kids on Facebook and the beer distributor surveillance was set up by police.

 COLIN AINSWORTH
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal to inspect the handling of hazardous materials in Ukraine and take measures to prevent emergency situations.

The head of state sent a respective letter to the premier in view of explosions that rocked the Lebanese capital of Beirut on August 4, the presidential press service reported.

"I ask you to urgently ensure that an assessment is made of the handling of hazardous and fire-extinguishing substances, explosives, products, waste, and fertilizers. Due to their properties and due to certain factors and circumstances, they may pose a threat to human life and health and the environment. Based on the results of the work done, I ask you to take proper response measures," the document reads.

Zelensky also said it was important to draw up and adopt the necessary regulations that would help implement a set of urgent and effective measures to prevent man-made disasters.

The head of government must personally inform the president of the relevant results, the report said.

On August 6, Shmyhal instructed the State Emergency Service, the National Police, the Ministry of Infrastructure, the State Labor Service and the heads of the regional state administrations and Kyiv City State Administration to conduct thorough inspections of how ammonium nitrate is stored and used at various enterprises in Ukraine.

At least 157 people were killed and about 5,000 were injured in powerful explosions that rocked the Lebanese capital on the evening of August 4. In addition, rescuers are searching for more than a hundred people who went missing after the explosions.

According to tentative reports, 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate that had been stored in a Beirut portside warehouse for years blew up, killing dozens of people and causing unprecedented damage to the Lebanese capital.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that three Ukrainian families in Beirut had informed Ukraine's Embassy in Lebanon about significant damage done to their homes and that 30 more Ukrainians had applied for small-scale financial assistance.

op
The Ministry for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine says that Russia's infringement of religious citizens of Ukraine in Crimea is a reason for toughening sanctions and requires the resumption of the Crimean community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in its rights.

"The decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on the refusal to review decisions on the eviction of the community of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine from the Orthodox Church of Ukraine from the Cathedral of the Holy Apostolic Princes Volodymyr and Olga in Simferopol temporarily occupied by Russia testifies to the infringement of the religious rights of Ukrainian citizens by the occupation 'authorities' of the peninsula. The Ministry for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine condemns such actions of the Russian Federation and demands to resume the Crimean community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in its rights," the ministry said in a statement.

Thus, the Reintegration Ministry said that the expulsion of the Ukrainian church from the Crimean peninsula temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation is a manifestation of the weakness of the occupying state and will receive a proper response from Ukraine.

"Ukraine, in cooperation with international partners, to consider the issue of strengthening sanctions against persons involved in the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on the territory of the temporarily occupied Crimea," the ministry said in the statement.
(Natural News) The whole covid dilemma is more about control than safety, if youve noticed. If you pay attention to all the contradicting laws, rules and regulations regarding covid, you can see it in plain sight. Nobody is allowed to gather at church or temple anymore, but if you carry a terrorist sign that says BLM or Antifa, you can gather all you want, with as many people as you want, as close as you want, and without masks. Heres another one. Everybody is supposed to wear a mask everywhere they go for safety and unity (fake herd theory too), but all the avid mask pushing politicians (Democrats mostly) are being spotted everywhere without a mask. They dont care and they laugh behind our backs.

One more to make the 100 percent valid point: Every small-to-medium-sized business had to close down, but all the corporations stayed open. Even if the businesses could provide social distancing, it didnt matter, they were all called non-essential. Now were supposed to believe that the police and prisons are non-essential also. These new-age Demoncrats have lost their collective minds. Most Democrats today are actual demons that hate humanity.

The Communism formula is being shoved down your throat right now

Theres a formula for communism, and about 100 million Americans have no clue that the playbook is getting played out, right now, right here in America, step by step, by the Democrats. So whether you know about it, wonder about it, dont know about it, or simply dont believe it, none of that matters. The trees are still falling in the forest whether you see them or hear them. Its real. The Democrats want America to be a communist country, and that effort is in full gear right now, its just being called Socialism first.

Serendipitous for the Democrats, covid is the perfect virus outbreak to help with the installation of Communism, a sort of litmus test, thats getting everyone conditioned to be told what you can do, cant do, where, when, why and how. Its all about having no hope, no faith, no bonding with people, no business of your own to run, no weapons, no freedom of speech, and no chance at getting rich, unless you run for office as a Democrat.

Every Democrat in America is all in for no police, no prisons, no borders, no rights

Thats why every single Democrat in America, whether they like it or not, is currently voting for no police, no laws, no jails or prisons, no borders, no privacy, no right to own a home or land, no guns, and of course, forced vaccination and medication (including chipped covid vaccines and chemotherapy).

Thats why you better wake up, or youll be run over by an angry mob of losers who are armed like Neanderthals and ready to take what youve worked your whole life to create, protect and enjoy. The Democrat platform is to starve and kill off the middle class and create a massive race war to distract everyone from their own demise.

Here are the top 8 ways to stop the spread of communism in the USA, so everybody hop aboard the freedom train, or pay the ultimate price. Heres what you do:

#1. Ignore all lame-stream media, especially CNN (Counterfeit News Network), NYT (Shill Factory) and WaPo (The D.C. Rag).

#2. Realize there is NO race war, just paid-for rioting thats called peaceful protesting.

#3. Keep believing in God (or a higher power).

#4. Keep purchasing guns and ammunition to protect your property, family and rights.

#5. Do not vote for any Democrats at any level, local, state or national, as theyre all extreme communists now functioning under the guise of socialism.

#6. Do not get the covid vaccine as it will be used as a biological weapon to weaken the masses, track them, and ultimately reduce the population by hundreds of millions.

#7. Try to buy local and avoid giving your money to huge corporations, that fund domestic terrorist groups BLM and Antifa, who want only the destruction of America.

#8. Stay friendly, positive and keep working hard for a living  do not believe these government handouts dont come with a steep price  the end of your freedom.

Theres a new NWO (New World Order) and its at your front door. Its funded chaos. What will you do? Do you want your neighborhood to look like Seattle and Portland? Biden does. Bill Gates does. George Soros does. Obama does. Hitlery does. Dont let it happen. We can stop it with intelligence, communication and the second amendment.

Tune your internet dial to Pandemic.news for updates on the Gestapo Mask Police arresting people in America for not having their mask and their vaccine papers.

Heres the Democrat Future, should they get their way in November, with Mao Ze-Biden:

Stay informed. Read Communism.news

Sources for this article include:

Pandemic.news

NaturalNews.com

Breitbart.com
LONDON, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Skyscanner are the first global travel site to give holidaymakers the option to search for and choose airlines based on directly sourced airline safety ratings, showing at-a-glance health and safety measures being taken by the provider as well as what is expected from travelers.

The ratings score airlines based on their health and safety policies in the wake of COVID-19. Travelers will be able to see individual airline scores for each of the following measures:

Face masks mandatory

Plane deep cleaned daily

Flight crew wearing PPE

Passenger sanitation packs provided

Changes to food service

Skyscanner launched the ratings based on in-depth customer insights relating to flight safety concerns in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A recent survey* of over 2200 indicated that 44% of travelers now prioritise superior hygiene and cleanliness levels when considering travel.

Jon Thorne, Traveler Expert for Skyscanner commented: "The airline ratings mean that travelers searching on Skyscanner can easily get a sense of what the flying and travel experience will be like when they are planning and booking on our site. Health and safety are obviously high on the priority list for those looking to get away and these ratings provide an extra layer of clarity and peace of mind for Skyscanner customers, as well as enabling airlines to explain their on-board procedures in a straightforward way."

The ratings are exclusively provided and verified by AirlineRatings.com, and founder Geoffrey Thomas commented: "We applaud Skyscanner for its proactive approach to passenger confidence at this challenging time. The new COVID-19 ratings have already resulted in a number of airlines upgrading their safety measures to comply."

This is the latest addition that Skyscanner is making to its product to give travellers peace of mind when booking and travelling. Other recently added product features include hotel cleanliness ratings and flexible policy filters.

Notes to editors

Safety criteria include airline cleaning measures, face mask wearing rules, food service changes and crew PPE policies

Integration is result of exclusive partnership with AirlineRatings.com

Ratings sourced directly from more than 400 airlines globally, with data regularly being refreshed as airlines update their information. Ratings are live across all global markets for Skyscanner users on desktop platforms

*Survey conducted by Skyscanner on web platforms on 22nd April - 5th May 2020 , 2274 participants across 3 markets (UK n=1463, US n=594, Australia n=217)

, 2274 participants across 3 markets (UK n=1463, US n=594, n=217) Initiative is part of Skyscanner's commitment to support the travel industry's recovery and empower travelers to make travel decisions with confidence

Releases and imagery can be found here: https://bit.ly/2PnKbU2

About Skyscanner

Founded in 2003, Skyscanner is a leading travel company dedicated to putting travelers first by making booking trips as simple as possible. Skyscanner helps more than 100 million people in 52 countries and over 30 languages find the best travel options for flights, hotels and car hire every month. Skyscanner is available on desktop, mobile web and its highly rated app has over 110 million downloads. Working with 1200 travel partners, Skyscanner's mission is to lead the global transformation to modern and sustainable travel.

For more information, visit: https://www.skyscanner.com/about-us

SOURCE Skyscanner

Related Links

http://skyscanner.net


OTTAWA - Canada is "profoundly concerned" about a Canadian citizen sentenced to death Thursday on drug charges in China, a spokesman for the federal government says.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 6/8/2020 (530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A security officer wearing a face mask to help protect against the coronavirus gestures outside the Canadian Embassy in Beijing, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2020. China has sentenced a Canadian citizen to death on charges of manufacturing the drug ketamine amid heightened tension between the two countries. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

OTTAWA - Canada is "profoundly concerned" about a Canadian citizen sentenced to death Thursday on drug charges in China, a spokesman for the federal government says.

The Guangzhou Municipal Intermediate Court announced Xu Weihong's penalty on Thursday and said an alleged accomplice, Wen Guanxiong, had been given a life sentence.

The brief court statement gave no details but media in the southern Chinese city at the heart of the country's manufacturing industry said Xu and Wen had gathered ingredients and tools to make the drug ketamine in October 2016, then stored the final product in Xu's home in Guangzhou's Haizhu district.

Police later confiscated more than 120 kilograms of the drug from Xu's home and another address, the reports said. Ketamine is a powerful pain-killer that has become popular among club-goers in China and elsewhere.

"Canada opposes the use of the death penalty in all cases, everywhere," said Global Affairs Canada spokesman John Babcock. "Canada has consistently raised our firm opposition to the death penalty with China and will continue to do so."

He said Canadian diplomats have given Xu consular assistance and were present for the sentencing. Canada is seeking clemency.

Death sentences are automatically referred to Chinas highest court for review.

Relations between China and Canada soured over the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, an executive and the daughter of the founder of Chinese tech giant Huawei, at Vancouver's airport in late 2018. The U.S. wants her extradited to face fraud charges over the company's dealings with Iran. Her arrest infuriated Beijing, which sees her case as a political move designed to prevent China's rise as a global technology power.

In apparent retaliation, China detained former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and Canadian entrepreneur Michael Spavor, accusing them of vague national security crimes.

Xu was arrested two years before Canada detained Meng and relations deteriorated. Death sentences when cases involve large amounts of drugs are not rare in China.

In April 2019, China gave the death penalty to a Canadian citizen identified as Fan Wei in a multinational drug smuggling case.

But China did hand a death sentence to convicted Canadian drug smuggler Robert Schellenberg in a sudden retrial following Meng's arrest, after he had already been sentenced.

China has also placed restrictions on various Canadian exports to China, including canola seed, in an apparent attempt to pressure Ottawa into releasing Meng.

These tensions, and how the Liberal government has handled them was the subject of a hearing by the House of Commons Canada-China relations committee later Thursday.

David Mulroney, a former Canadian ambassador to Beijing, told the committee that he had hoped the federal government would use the period of increased tensions to rethink Canada's relationship with China and more realistically assess the Chinese government's strategy to suppress human rights domestically and exert economic and diplomatic blackmail to expand its influence on global affairs.

"But old approaches die hard," he said.

"It's not clear that the government has completely given up the fiction that China is our friend. Nor has it consistently summoned the courage to speak and act with integrity."

Referring to a letter signed in June by former federal ministers, diplomats and academics urging the government to release Meng in exchange for freedom for the two Michaels, Mulroney added: "Powerfully placed Canadians continue to argue that if we appease China just one more time, all will be well."

He said "dangerous myopia" about China is also evident among provincial and municipal governments, noting the Ontario city of Markham's decision last year to raise the Chinese flag on that country's national day.

"Something's wrong here and it has to change. People need to remember that the ultimate objective of foreign policy is not to flatter, not to obscure inconvenient truths, but to advance and protect Canadian interests and values."

Mulroney said he's not suggesting Canada should provoke or insult China. But he said Canada should reduce its dependence on Chinese trade by working with allies to establish new supply chains in vulnerable sectors and launching trade diversification efforts.

Canada should also take steps to combat Chinese interference in this country, adopting something like Australia's Foreign Influence Transparency Act, he said. The act requires any citizen who chooses to work for a foreign entity and former politicians and diplomats who do anything to share their expertise with a foreign country to publicly report their activities.

Two other former ambassadors to China, John McCallum and Robert Wright, declined the committee's invitation to appear. Committee members voted unanimously Thursday to summon both men at a later date.

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Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said there was no connection between Xu's sentencing and current China-Canada relations.

"I would like to stress that China's judicial authorities handle the relevant case independently in strict accordance with Chinese law and legal procedures," Wang said at a daily briefing Thursday.

"This case should not inflict any impact on China-Canada relations."

Wang added that "death sentences for drug-related crimes that are extremely dangerous will help deter and prevent such crimes."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 6, 2020.

 With files from The Associated Press
Can animals catch Covid-19?

The chance of your dog catching Covid-19 strain is very slim, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Professor James Wood, head of veterinary medicine at the University of Cambridge, said: 'Despite millions of people having had Covid-19, the numbers of pets found to be ill or infected is still tiny.

'Put simply, our pet dogs and cats can catch Covid-19 from us, when they are living with us, but only do on very rare occasions.'

Scientists say pets don't appear to get very sick with Covid-19, and various pet organisations and charities say there is no need to be worried.

The first dog in the world to catch coronavirus died after it was declared disease-free and returned home to its owner in Hong Kong.

The owner of the 17-year-old Pomeranian, whose also had Covid-19, did not allow the dog to be autopsied, so the exact cause of death remains unknown.

How do animals get infected?

Animals are likely to catch the virus the same way a human would  when respiratory droplets enter the pets' nose or mouth.

Professor Wood said: 'Cats may become infected by the high doses of virus transmitted by their infected owners in some settings.

'The relative size of a cat versus a human means that there is far less exhaled breath from one cat in a house, compared to the exhaled breath volumes from a human patient.

'Further, the grooming behaviour of cats means that they are more likely to catch infection from an owner than vice versa.'

When pets have been reported to have the virus, they have signs that indicate a respiratory illness.

Downing Street said the cat in England with the virus had symptoms of a respiratory infection with a nasal discharge and some shortness of breath.

Scientists have shown that cats, ferrets and hamsters are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2. But ducks, chickens and pigs don't appear to be.

Professor William Weir, of the University of Glasgow's School of Veterinary Medicine, said 'the significance of SARS-CoV-2 as a feline or canine pathogen is unknown'.

He added that there have been no reports of cats passing the virus to dogs or vice versa.

Can humans catch Covid-19 from animals?

There is no evidence that a human could catch the coronavirus from an animal in the same way as it would from another human.

Covid-19 is mainly spread through droplets produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or speaks.

Jonathan Ball, professor of molecular virology at Nottingham University, said pets produce 'very low levels of the virus' compared to humans.

Professor James Wood, head of department of veterinary medicine, University of Cambridge, added that pets would exhale far less breath  which may have virus droplets inside  than humans.

In any case where a pet has tested positive for the virus, the owner reportedly had it first.

The WHO says: 'While there has been one instance of a dog being infected in Hong Kong, to date, there is no evidence that a dog, cat or any pet can transmit Covid-19.'

Professor Weir said: 'At present, there is no evidence that cats, dogs or other domestic animals play any role in the epidemiology of human infections with SARS-CoV-2.'

An official report by the UK's top vet said household pets may carry the virus on their fur, which risks spreading the disease from person to person.

It said: 'Close contact such as cuddling, grooming, feeding and allowing animals to share food could all allow the transfer of virus.'

The document, prepared by the UK's Chief Veterinary Officer, was considered on April 30 at a meeting of the Government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE).

The report warned that the virus could survive on pet fur, meaning 'there is a plausible pathway that the animal may act as a fomite [infectious object] for at least a few hours and transfer virus to others in the household.'

It added that pet owners who have symptoms to prevent their dog or cat from coming into contact with 'susceptible humans'.

How many pets have had the infection?

A very small number of pets have been reported to have the coronavirus in other countries in Europe, North America and Asia.

The first dog in the world to catch coronavirus in Hong Kong, a 17-year-old Pomeranian, died on March 16.

It was declared disease-free and returned home to its owner, a 60-year-old woman who was hospitalised with Covid-19 the month prior, after being quarantined at a government facility.

The dog was never autopsied, and so the exact cause of death was not determined.

What precautions should I take when dealing with animals?

If you are sick with Covid-19, it is recommended you restrict contact with your dog and see if other people can look after them.

The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention says: 'It is still recommended that people sick with Covid-19 limit contact with animals until more information is known about the virus. This can help ensure both you and your animals stay healthy.'

How to you stay safe around your pet:
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Thursday asked the Maharashtra government to apprise it of the inquiry and action taken against the errant police personnel in the alleged lynching of three people, including two seers, in Palghar district in April.

A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan and R Subhash Reddy asked the state government to also file the charge sheet before it, saying it would like to examine the report.

Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said media reports suggest that the Charge sheets filed in the case comprised more than 10,000 pages.

He said whether there was any policemen involved in the offence or was there any dereliction of duty calling for disciplinary action, that has to be considered by the court.

The bench posted the matter after three weeks.

On June 11, the top court had sought a response from the state government on two petitions seeking separate probes by the CBI and the NIA into the alleged lynching.

The bench was hearing petitions including the one filed by sadhus of 'Shri Panch Dashban Juna Akhara' and relatives of the deceased seers.

Their plea alleged the investigation by the state police was being conducted in a biased manner.

The other plea, seeking an NIA probe into the incident, has been filed by Ghanshyam Upadhyay.

Besides the Maharashtra government, one of the petitions has arrayed the Centre, CBI and the director general of police of Maharashtra as respondents in the matter.

The three victims from Kandivali in Mumbai were travelling in a car to attend a funeral at Surat in Gujarat amid the COVID-19 nationwide lockdown when their vehicle was stopped and they were attacked and killed by a mob in Gadchinchile village on the night of April 16 in the presence of police.

The victims were identified as Chikne Maharaj Kalpavrukshagiri, 70, Sushil Giri Maharaj, 35, and Nilesh Telgade, 30, who was driving the vehicle.

While hearing a separate plea seeking a CBI probe in the case, the top court had on May 1 directed the Maharashtra government to submit a status report on the investigation in the matter.

The plea filed by 'sadhus' of 'Shri Panch Dashban Juna Akhara' has sought transfer of the probe to the CBI, claiming that there is "reasonable apprehension of bias" if Maharashtra police proceeds with the investigation.

"Several video clippings have emerged on social media and news reports which very clearly demonstrate the active involvement of the police present, who can be seen handing over the three persons to the unlawful assembly of persons gathered," the plea has claimed.

The police has arrested over 100 people in connection with the case.
Jensen also said federal officials were changing tactics by charging people involved in conspiracies earlier to get them off the street, rather than waiting to see if the investigation would lead to others. The problem is, if we wait, people are dying on the street, he said.

As an example of that change in focus, Jensen said charges were filed Wednesday against 20 people and authorities seized about 2 kilograms of cocaine, 350 grams of crack cocaine, 3 kilos of methamphetamine and 12 guns.

After the news conference, about two dozen to three dozen protesters gathered at both the east and west parking garage entrances to police headquarters, where the conference was held. They chanted, Resign Lyda, take the feds with you, and Lyda and Trump go hand in hand, resign Lyda, thats our demand, referring to Mayor Lyda Krewson, who was there.

Occupy City Hall STL organizer Khalea Edwards held a sign she drew up on the curb that read How do you sleep at night? Edwards said activists felt that Krewson and other leaders were not listening to their incredibly clear demands that the city defund the police and invest in the community. Allowing federal agents into the city was just a continuation of the citys over-policing, she said.
New Delhi:

A Russian cargo spaceship heading to the International Space busted up in the sky over Siberia on Thursday due to an unknown defect, told the Russian Space agency. The cargo was unmanned.

The Progress MS-04 cargo craft busted at an altitude of 190 kilometers from remote Tuva region in Siberia that borders Mongolia, Roscosmos told in a statement. It also told that most of spaceships debris burnt up as soon as it entered the atmosphere while some part fell to Earth on an uninhabited area.

Local people reported that they saw a flash of light and heard a loud thump west of the regional capital of Kyzyl, more than 3600 kilometers east of Moscow, the Tuva government told.

The cargo ship had moved up at 8:51 p.m. from Russia's space launch complex in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The aim was to deliver 2.5 metric tons of fuel, water, food and other supplies. It would have been a landing pier to the space station on Saturday.

Roscosmos told that the craft was functioning normally. But things took a different turn when it stopped transmitting data just after 6 and half minutes of launch. The Russian space agency told that the experts were looking into for the malfunction and so could not describe it immediately.

This is the third botched launch of a Russian spacecraft in two years. A Progress cargo ship plunged into the Pacific Ocean in May 2015, and a Proton-M rocket carrying an advanced satellite broke up in the atmosphere in May 2014.

But both Roscosmos and NASA have affirmed that the crash of the ship would not affect the operations of orbiting space lab. The lab is currently home to a six-member crew including three cosmonauts from Russia, two NASA astronauts and one from the European Union.

Orbital ATK, NASA's other shipper, successfully sent up supplies to the space station in October, and a Japanese cargo spaceship is scheduled to launch a full load in mid-December.

NASA supplier SpaceX, meanwhile, has been grounded since a rocket explosion in September on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The company hopes that the launches will be resumed by December to deliver communication satellites.

For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State said on Thursday that the state would resist any attempt by anybody to forcefully take over the state House of Assembly.

Addressing journalists at the assembly complex in Benin, Mr Obaseki said he would do everything within his constitutional powers to protect the sovereignty of the house and the state.

The governors statement was not unconnected with media reports credited to the Speaker of the house, Francis Okiye.

Mr Okiye had alleged that Governor Hope Uzodinmm of Imo State and the impeached Deputy Speaker of the house, Yekini Idiaye, had planned to import a fake mace to violently take over control of the assembly.

Nigeria is governed by the constitution and President Muhammadu Buhari has always said we must follow the rules of law and do things according to the law.

For us as the executive, we will use the instrument available to us constitutionally to protect the house and the state, Mr Obaseki said.

The governor, however, urged the house to go about its normal duties as a parliament as prescribed by the constitution.

Also, the Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibu, said the state government would not allow other members of the assembly whose seat had been declared vacant to take over the house.

He said the affected elected legislators have yet to be constitutionally inaugurated.

He also called on the president to intervene in the alleged plot to destabilise the state assembly.

Meanwhile, the entrance and exit gates of the assembly complex have been barricaded with sand and gravel, while some people have seen removing the roof of the building.

The speaker said the house was currently under renovation and the presence of security operatives at the entrance of the complex, scared the contractor and workers away.

We are going to keep vigil here to forestall the alleged illegal invasion of the house by anybody, Mr Okiye said.

(NAN)
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A man who suspected his wife of having an illicit affair shot her at their home in US Nagar district of Uttarakhand on Wednesday night before fleeing, police said Thursday.

The woman who was injured in the shooting, is now undergoing treatment in district hospital Rudrapur, police said.

The husband fled from the house after committing the alleged crime. The woman has been admitted to the district government hospital. We are yet to receive a complaint of the case, said Yogesh Kumar, senior sub-inspector police station, Kichha of US Nagar district.

Police said according to the relatives of the couple, the man, a resident of Kichha had a fight with his 30-year-old wife on Wednesday night. As their fight continued, the husband shot his wife with a country-made weapon. When she fell down, he fled from the spot, said Kumar.

The relatives of the couple informed the police and she was rushed to the government hospital in Kichha. There the doctors referred her to district hospital Rudrapur after giving her first aid.

Kumar said, according to relatives of the couple, the accused is a drug addict and suspected that his wife was having an illicit relation with someone. The couple would often fight over this issue.

Kumar said the police have started a search for the accused.
American Family Insurance has renamed the Ameriprise Auto & Home business that it paid almost $1 billion for in a deal that closed last October.

The new name is CONNECT, which is accompanied by the slogan: Powered by American Family Insurance.

American Family said the CONNECT rebrand furthers its goal of transforming from a regional insurance company that sold products through exclusive agency owners to a national multi-line multi-distribution channel insurance group.

State regulators recently approved the name change, according to an Aug. 4 American Family announcement. The CONNECT brand will cover products underwritten by American Family Connect Property and Casualty Insurance Co. and American Family Connect Insurance Co. A third American Family entity  The American Family Connect Insurance Agency, Inc.  places policies with affiliated and unaffiliated insurers.

Ameriprise Financial sold its Ameriprise Auto & Home division to American Family in April 2019. According to American Family, the $1.05 billion cash deal dipped to $950 million after a payment to an affinity partner. The insurer, based in De Pere, Wisconsin has 1,700-plus employees and produced $1.1 billion in annual direct premium written in 2019.

CONNECT sells auto, homeowners, renters, umbrella and some specialty insurance lines in 44 states and the District of Columbia, mostly through strategic partnerships. Those partnerships include wholesaler retailer Costco and Ameriprise Financial, the company said.

Jessie Stauffacher, chief operating officer at American Family Insurance since 2017, has been named CONNECT president and CEO, succeeding Tom Ealy, who retired. Stauffacher said in prepared remarks that the transition has been seamless to our partners and customers, and exciting for our employees.

Source: American Family
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 19:01:10|Editor: huaxia

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--The soaring new cases have sounded alarm bells over a second wave of COVID-19 infections, and pose a dilemma for countries over how to strike the fragile balance between reopening the economy and preventing a further spread of the pandemic.



-- As for Europe, Spain, Belgium, Italy, France and Britain, which are among the continent's worst-hit countries, are suffering increases of cluster cases, though not as seriously as in March and April.

-- Failure to strictly follow preventive measures, eagerness to reopen economies and lack of government efforts have led to a new resurgence of infections, forcing several regions toward lockdown and curfew.



BEIJING, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Many countries across the globe have witnessed a resurgence of COVID-19 infections over recent weeks.

According to the latest tally by Johns Hopkins University, global cases of COVID-19 reached 18.7 million as of Wednesday, only about 40 days after crossing the grim 10 million mark.

The soaring new cases have sounded alarm bells over a second wave of COVID-19 infections, and pose a dilemma for countries over how to strike the fragile balance between reopening the economy and preventing a further spread of the pandemic.

People wearing face masks are seen at a shopping mall in Frankfurt, Germany, July 7, 2020. (Xinhua/Lu Yang)

CASELOAD FLARE-UP

The United States has recorded more than 4.8 million cases with 158,171 deaths as of Wednesday, making it by far the worst-hit country in the world, according to data from the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

The coronavirus pandemic has seen a resurgence in many U.S. states since June, particularly in the south and west of the country.

California, the hardest-hit state, has recorded 527,074 cases, followed by Florida with 502,739 cases, Texas with 466,032 cases and New York with 418,225 cases.

States with over 180,000 cases also include Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey and Arizona, CSSE data showed.

Brazil recorded on Wednesday a total of more than 2.8 million cases and 97,256 deaths.

The state of Sao Paulo, Brazil's most populous state, is the epicenter of the national outbreak, with 585,265 infections and 24,109 deaths.

Total coronavirus cases continued to leap in India on Wednesday, which surpassed the 1.9 million mark with 52,509 new COVID-19 cases detected in the past 24 hours and the total death toll of 39,795.

As for Europe, Spain, Belgium, Italy, France and Britain, which are among the continent's worst-hit countries, are suffering increases of cluster cases, though not as seriously as in March and April. Countries in southeastern Europe, such as Albania, Bulgaria and Romania, are seeing higher case numbers in July than those seen earlier in the year.

People wearing face masks are seen on a tram in Dublin, Ireland, July 13, 2020. (Xinhua)

TOO EARLY TO PUSH PREMATURE REOPENING

U.S. top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said at the end of July that an incomplete shutdown is among the factors contributing to surging COVID-19 cases in the country.

"If you look at what happened in Europe, when they shut down or locked down or went to shelter in place ... they really did it to the tune of about 95 percent plus of the country," the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said.

A police officer asks people who enter the Old Town to wear masks in Bucharest, Romania, Aug 5, 2020. (Photo by Gabriel Petrescu/Xinhua)

"When you actually look at what we did ... we really functionally shut down only about 50 percent in the sense of the totality of the country," he said.

He also noted that some states had better success at following reopening guidelines than others. "Some were followed very carefully and some were not."

In some situations, states did not abide strictly by the guidelines that the task force and the White House had put out and others that did abide by it, the people in the state actually were congregating in crowds and not wearing masks, Fauci said.

Gina Tambini, representative in Colombia of the Pan American Health Organization, stressed the need to take into account the diverse environments of each city in each country, and recommended lockdown measures not be relaxed until the speed of transmission is brought under control.

"Local and national governments must allow the dynamics of transmission to dictate their timeline for establishing measures and reopening. The goal is to flatten the curve and then significantly reduce it before relaxing any restrictions," she said.

Customers wearing face masks shop at a supermarket in Vienna, Austria, July 24, 2020.(Photo by Georges Schneider/Xinhua)

FAILURE TO FOLLOW PREVENTIVE MEASURES

Outside the U.S., failure to strictly follow preventive measures, eagerness to reopen economies and lack of government efforts have led to a new resurgence of infections, forcing several regions toward lockdown and curfew.

The British government has paused the further easement of lockdown measures in Blackburn with Darwen and Luton, while local government in India's southern state of Tamil Nadu has announced an extension of its partial lockdown through Aug. 31.

Visitors wearing face masks are seen during the press viewing of the National Gallery post lockdown in London, Britain, July 4, 2020. (Xinhua/Han Yan)

On July 26, Iraq's Higher Committee for Health and National Safety decided to extend the weekly full curfew from July 30 to Aug. 9, while the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on July 28 that due to the rapid spread of the virus, 34 African countries are under full border closure, 13 are under national lockdown, 22 are under partial lockdown, and 34 are under night-time curfew.

Last week, French Health Minister Olivier Veran called on people to strictly comply with barrier gestures and social-distancing rules after the country saw a spike of daily coronavirus infections.

"Some people do not respect the rules. We must not relax now," Veran told LCI television.

People wearing face masks walk on the street in central Nice, southern France,(Photo by Serge Haouzi/Xinhua)

In an alarming report published on Tuesday, the country's scientific council said that a second wave was "highly likely" to arrive this autumn or winter, urging people to avoid social gatherings and respect barrier measures.

"The virus is circulating actively with an increased absence of distancing and barrier measures," the council said, recommending better access to tests to rapidly trace and isolate cases and stricter control on travelers from countries "at risk."

Spain is also struggling to control a series of new outbreaks of COVID-19 following the easing of lockdown restrictions on June 21, with cases mostly detected in patrons of bars and nightclubs, as well as in seasonal crop pickers.

In late July, the Catalan regional government ordered a curfew on all bars and nightclubs in the region, but youngsters continue to gather in large groups on the streets.

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa (L, front) and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa (R, front) visit the Volkswagen Autoeuropa car factory in Palmela, Portugal, May 13, 2020.(Photo by Pedro Fiuza/Xinhua)

Sweden, with a population of over 10 million, has so far reported 81,181 infections and 5,747 deaths; however, the country has neither imposed a lockdown, even during the peak of the pandemic, nor asked people to wear face masks in public.

Anders Tegnell, Sweden's state epidemiologist at the Public Health Agency, told Swedish Radio on Tuesday that Sweden would not recommend the use of face masks, as the agency was still waiting for more research results supporting their effectiveness in reducing the spread of COVID-19.

(Xinhua reporters Yang Xiaohong in Prague, Liu Fang in Paris, Wen Xinnian in Lisbon, Zhang Qi in Dublin, Shi Zhongyu in Belgrade, Chen Jin in Bucharest, Pan Geping in Brussels, Dai Lei in London, Zhao Feifei in Vienna, Tian Ying in Berlin, Zhang Zhang in Warsaw, Guo Mingfang in Vilnius, Yuan Liang in Budapest, Fu Yiming in Stockholm, Tan Jingjing, Yang Shilong in Washington, Cui Yuanlei in Mexico City, Zhang Jiawei in London, Wang Shoubao in Addis Ababa and Feng Junwei in Madrid contributed to the story.)

(Video reporters Zhao Yuchao, Han Chong,Yang Xiaohong)

(Video editor Zhao Xiaoqing)
Although Kenneth G. Spencer didnt see combat in World War II or realize his hopes of becoming a fighter pilot, he was on the cutting edge of the new age in aerial warfare.

He worked on jet engines in the latter years of the war and for a year after the war.

Spencer enlisted in November 1943 when he was a senior in high school, following his older brother, who was already in the service.

At the time he entered the military, Spencer had enough credits to graduate. Since her son couldnt attend graduation, Spencers mother walked across the stage to receive his diploma.

He became a jet engine mechanic after finishing his military schooling at three different schools.

I was in basic training at Amarillo (Texas), Spencer said. After basic training I went to B-17 G bomber school for service and repair of planes. After finishing the school, I transferred to Douglas Aircraft School in Santa Monica, Calif., to work on twin engine night fighters A-20s and A-26s.

He was then assigned to service and repair jet engines at Chanute Field, Ill. Although Spencer did receive orders to go overseas, the war ended before he shipped out. He spent his entire his enlistment stateside and was discharged in 1946 having achieved the rank of corporal. I am very pleased to have served for three years in the Army Air Corps, said Spencer. It taught me to be a responsible man for work, community and family.

After he was discharged Spencer began a lifelong career in sales.

One of my first jobs was with Armour Leather Company, said Spencer. While living in Pennsylvania, I sold leather to show manufacturers throughout the northeast states.

During his time at Armour Leather, Spencer met his wife, Ruth, in Sheboygan. She nominated her 94-year-old Army Air Corps veteran husband for the Stories of Honor series.

We married on Sept. 10, 1955, said Spencer. We have three children, five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

The family moved to western Wisconsin where Spencer opened Independent Spencer Insurance Agency in Holmen. Through the career, he became active in the insurance business as well as in Holmen, where he still resides.

We built the Professional Plaza office building in Holmen and rented space to six other businesses, said Spencer. I was on the Board of Directors of Home Savings and Loan Association for 17 years. I was active in Holmen Lions Club. I am a lifelong member of Holmen American Legion. I was active in Holmen Area Civic and Commerce Association and was recognized for his work with the organizations Man of the Year award.

While working in the insurance field, Spencer became the CEO of Western Wisconsin Mutual Insurance Company and served on a committee with the Wisconsin Mutual Insurance Association for two years. The committee undertook re-wording the associations policies. Spencer was recognized with the first presidents award ever given out by that association.

The couple has been camping and traveling for more than 50 years starting with tents in 1965 and graduating to motorhomes.

Theyve visited all but three states and spent 20 winters in Fort Clark Springs, Texas.

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The idea on an ASEAN Community was mentioned very early one, when ASEAN leaders adopted an ASEAN Vision to 2020 in 1997. In 2003, ASEAN leaders made the officially decision on building the ASEAN Community by 2020. Four years later, the leaders agreed to strive to realize the goal in 2015, five years ahead of the initial target.



Towards this goal, in January 2009, ASEAN leaders adopted a roadmap for 2009-2015 and blueprints to build the communitys three pillars  politics-security, economy, and culture-society, with more than 800 specific action lines. An ASEAN Charter was signed in November 2007 and took effect in December 2008, laying the legal foundation and institutional framework for the ASEAN Community.



Illustrative image (Photo: Internet)



Along with the building of the ASEAN Community, ASEAN also works toward deepening its relations with partners and maintaining its centrality in the region through cooperation frameworks integrated into the operation of each pillar of the ASEAN Community.



The bloc has become an important partner of many countries and regional and international organisations. All partners attach importance to their relations with ASEAN, promote their all-round cooperation with the bloc both multilaterally and bilaterally, assist the grouping in building the community and support its centrality in the region.



So far 93 countries have assigned their ambassadors to the ASEAN, while the grouping has established 54 ASEAN Committees in third countries and international organisations to promote joint work in issues of ASEAN interest and the blocs image.



The ASEAN has played the role as the main driver of cooperation and connectivity in East Asia, especially in economy-trade. Along with building the ASEAN Economic Community, the bloc has led the formation of a network of free trade areas (FTAs) with each important partner such as China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand, as well as pushing ahead with diverse economic-trade cooperation programmes with major partners like the US, Canada, the EU and Russia. ASEAN is conducting negotiations on a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).



In the context of uncertainties in the world situation and rising competition among powers, ASEAN, with its geo-strategic position at the centre of the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean regions, is facing new opportunities and challenges.



The rise of protectionism and trade frictions among powerful countries is affecting economic and trade development in the world. Besides, the difference in development levels among ASEAN members, as well as increasing demands for deeper integration, requires member countries to have suitable economic policies. ASEAN is facing the question of how to maximize opportunities, well handle challenges and avoid the risk of lagging behind so as to continue with sustainable development.



Ambassador Kamsiah, head of the permanent Malaysian delegation to ASEAN, stressed that one of the major characteristics of ASEAN is consensus, which makes it different from other regional organisations.



ASEAN is considered a model of success of regional cooperation. Forums initiated by ASEAN have gathered many countries and appreciated by world powers.



The formation of the ASEAN Community at the end of 2015 was the culmination of ASEAN cooperation over the past five decades, turning the bloc into a more closely knitted organization with important role in the region.



A historic milestone, the establishment of the ASEAN Community bears specially importance to the bloc and the region as well as to each member nation. ASEAN has, and will always be an important factor to peace, stability and cooperation for development in the region, bringing practical benefits to each member nation, particularly in creating favourable environment and conditions for their socio-economic development and international integration.



From a region with divisions and differences, ASEAN has grown to become a growing united community of independent countries. With total population of nearly 650 million, ASEAN is a dynamic economy with GDP reaching 2,950 billion USD in 2018. The bloc has established its central position in regional structures with respect and cooperation with world powers and many partners in the world./.
LEHI, Utah, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- This is an exciting time for New U Life corporation as it continues to grow exponentially by opening into new international markets.

New U Life excitedly announced a new market and brand new presence into Taiwan, building onto their Greater China market. The opening of the Taiwan market allows the people of Taiwan to enjoy the benefits of New U Life's top-selling hormone gel, SomaDerm, and in addition, supporting more Chinese-speaking distributors in Asia. The new market opening is significant as Taiwan is one of the biggest countries in the direct sales industry. According to Taiwan FTC, 12.13% of Taiwan populations have joined in the direct sales business, the third-highest in the world.

New U Life's VP of International, Pat Berry, said, "Taiwan will become a regional hub for us, for Greater China and will provide support for not only Taiwan, but other Mandarin-speaking markets." This will be beneficial in regards to New U Life distributors to not only use the products for themselves, but to expand their business into Greater China.

This international market opening has been in the works for several months and has seen success delivered in such a short timeline, even amidst nationwide changes and unprecedented times. In the past four months, New U Life has secured registration of an official Taiwan branch, registration of products in Taiwan to be customs and FDA-approved, along with the renovation of a new office in Taipei and the hiring of experienced staff.

Thus far, New U Life Corporation has already seen large success internationally with the opening of the Hong Kong market, and on the operational side, developing a Hong Kong office and hiring new staff there.

Thomas Ma, General Manager of Greater China shared that he is excited about the growth of Taiwan and Greater China as a whole.

"Each market plays an important role in its region, just like different runners in a relay race. The rapid growth of Greater China means the product and company's culture has penetrated into our market successfully," Ma says. "We believe 'a relay athlete can only win when the team wins,' therefore, it's our pleasure to be one of the competent runners in this relay team."

This is the second area this year where New U Life has opened its doors internationally. In May, New U Life announced its pre-launch into Canada, introducing all of the company's natural whole-body health products to the people in that market.

The New U Life team is anticipating further growth and becoming a global company as they are looking forward to future market openings this year and beyond.

About New U Life

New U Life was founded to set a new standard in product innovation and quality while changing lives for the better. New U Life's marquee product, SOMADERM Gel, is a transdermal gel with a proprietary blend of ingredients that safely and noninvasively elevate growth hormone levels. To learn more about New U Life, visit www.newulife.com.

SOURCE New U Life

Related Links

https://newulife.com


NPC to help LegCo avoid 'vacuum period'

Global Times

By Cao Siqi, Chen Qingqing and Bai Yunyi Source: Global Times Published: 2020/8/5 21:28:40

Disqualified HK lawmaker candidates 'questionable' to reenter legislature

China's top lawmakers are expected to soon make a legitimate and reasonable arrangement in accordance with the Constitution over the outgoing Legislative Council (LegCo) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) to avoid a potential "vacuum period" resulting from the postponed LegCo election.

The National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee will hold a meeting from Saturday to next Wednesday.

Issues that need to be determined concerning Hong Kong include whether LegCo candidates who have been disqualified from the election should be allowed to return to the council, and if it is necessary to establish a provisional LegCo to avoid a vacuum period.

Many legislators and experts suggested that disqualified legislators should be barred from the LegCo. Supporting the Basic Law and being loyal to the HKSAR government is the bottom line, and legislators believe that the NPC Standing Committee will finally make a legal and reasonable solution.

For the vacuum period, some suggested extending the term of the current LegCo for one year while some proposed a caretaker council. Authorized by the central government, the caretaker council could consist of members appointed by the HKSAR government. Based on the current members, the council could add or reduce the number of members.

Zhang Xiaoming, deputy director of the State Council's Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, reportedly met several legislators in Hong Kong on Monday and Tuesday at the Central Government Liaison Office and heard their opinions about the council issues.

Junius Ho Kwan-yiu, one of the legislators at the meeting, told the Global Times on Wednesday that he supports the Standing Committee of the NPC to make decisions on the postponement of the LegCo election, vacancies in the council and by-elections.

According to the Constitution and the Basic Law, such decisions have the highest effect in the Hong Kong legal system and are not subject to any challenge. This can prevent others from making unnecessary judicial reviews, Ho said.

Ho proposed extending the duration of the current term of the LegCo in Hong Kong as it has precedents. Many countries including the UK and the US had adopted the method of extending or renewing the original institutions to deal with the special circumstances of a postponed election.

However, he said four types of legislators - those disqualified for the next election, who had committed serious crimes, who colluded with overseas forces to subvert the country and who participated in secessionist protests - should be deprived from the extension.

Similar to Ho, Tam Yiu-chung, a member of the NPC Standing Committee, suggested the duration should be extended by one year.

"The NPC Standing Committee can announce the arrangement in a decision, not in an interpretation, because it will not change the policy that requires a four-year term for the LegCo," Tam told the Global Times on Wednesday.

However, as to whether the disqualified candidates could return to the council, Tam said it remains in dispute and they are awaiting the decision of the NPC Standing Committee. But he stressed that the decision will conform to the Constitution, the Basic Law and other provisions in Hong Kong.

"It will not be complex," Tam said, noting that the council issues are supposed to be discussed and resolved during the upcoming meeting to "reassure the public."

HKSAR Chief Executive Carrie Lam said earlier that in her personal opinion, the most pragmatic approach would be to extend the current term of LegCo for another year, Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao reported on Saturday.

Tian Feilong, a legal expert on Hong Kong affairs at Beihang University in Beijing, also supports the extension, saying that in that way the overall operations of the LegCo can be maintained at the lowest cost.

Lau Siu-kai, vice president of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies, suggested that it is more feasible to establish a provisional LegCo.

"The procedures are not complicated and can be done quickly. It only requires the NPC to make a decision and then authorize the provisional LegCo to exercise the powers of the legislature. The key is whether to transfer all or part of the current members to the provisional council," Lau told the Global Times.

The central government has made the bottom line very clear: Hong Kong should be governed by patriotic people. In this case, it is questionable if disqualified members become eligible to enter the provisional legislature, Lau said.

In the coming year, Hong Kong needs to deal with many crises, including economic, livelihood, and employment issues brought about by the epidemic, as well as various problems caused by the continuous pressure and sanctions imposed by the US.

The central government will definitely hope that the provisional LegCo can operate efficiently and cooperate with the HKSAR government, Lau said.

Analysts said the possibility that the opposition camp in Hong Kong would bring about a new round of speculation could not be ruled out. Some opposition legislators may refuse to enter the provisional LegCo or renew their terms to oppose the delayed election and continue to stymie the legislative work.

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YouTube has deleted more than 2,500 channels linked to China that were engaging in "coordinated influence operations," Google has revealed.

The accounts were taken down between April and June as part of a campaign to clear the video sharing platform of disinformation.

"These channels mostly uploaded spammy, non-political content, but a small subset posted political content primarily in Chinese," Google posted in its Threat Analysis Group bulletin for Q2 on Wednesday.

It included content "related to racial justice protests in the US" and "content related to the US response to Covid-19".

On top of the 2,596 channels linked to China, Google also deleted 19 channels with links to Iran and 86 channels linked to Russia.

Google did not provide further details about which accounts were removed. The Independent has reached out for further comment.

The Iran-linked channels were part of a state-sponsored campaign by the International Union of Virtual Media (IUVM) network, which posted content in Arabic critical of the US response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Channels linked to Russian operations posted content in English, Russian, German and Farsi about the US's coronavirus response, as well as about the EU, Ukraine, US and Syrian politics.

11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Show all 11 1 /11 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Play in the background One of the YouTube apps most frustrating shortcomings is the inability to play music videos in the background or when youre phones locked. There is a way around this, but only on iOS. Open the YouTube website in Safari, play a video and then press your iPhones home button. After that, launch the Control Centre by sliding up from the bottom of the screen and tap play. 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Loop videos YouTubes looping option on desktop is really useful, but nowhere near as easy to find as it should be. To loop a video, right-click it while its playing and select Loop. Even if you have Autoplay enabled, your video will replay itself as soon as it finishes. 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Enable Dark Theme YouTube recently introduced a black-and-red Dark Theme on the desktop, which is much easier on your eyes than the regular version of the site. Enable it by clicking the account symbol, selecting Dark Theme and turning Activate Dark Theme on. 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Simplify YouTube Another alternative YouTube user interface is available to access at youtube.com/tv. Its a really simple, no-frills UI thats incredibly easy to navigate. 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Try out new features You can test upcoming and experimental features early by signing up to YouTube TestTube. 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Read When you want to watch a YouTube video but dont have your headphones and dont want to disturb anyone around you, turn on Captions. Theyre also really handy if youre trying to watch a video in a foreign language. Transcriptions, meanwhile, break down exactly when certain things take place, so you can skip to the part you want to watch accurately and easily. In the More tab under the video title, launch the dropdown menu and select Transcript. 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Use shortcuts You can lean back in your seat and control YouTube videos with your keyboard if you want to. J and L let you rewind and fast-forward 10 seconds, K is pause/play, M is mute/unmute and the 0-9 keys let you jump through various stages of the video, from 0 per cent to 90 per cent. On the app, you can fast forward or rewind 10 seconds by double-tapping the right or left side of a video. 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Limit data use If youre on a limited mobile data plan, there are easy ways to save yourself some money. In Settings on the YouTube app, hit General and enable Limit Mobile Data Usage and disable Autoplay. 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Keep things private Unless you make them private, other people can see your Liked videos, your saved playlists and subscriptions. If you want to hide them, go to Settings and Privacy. You can also clear or pause your History. On either desktop or the mobile app, go to History and select Clear All Watch History or Pause Watch History. 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Make sharing clearer Sometimes you want to share a video with a friend, but want them to watch a specific part, rather than the whole thing. Instead of sending the timestamp through as a separate message, make the video automatically play from the right place. Just pause it at the right moment, click the Share button, tick the Start At box and copy the URL. 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Get nerdy Stats for Nerds shows you technical data for YouTube videos, including video format, audio format and bandwidth. On desktop, you can find the info simply by right-clicking the video player and selecting Stats for Nerds. On mobile, you have to enable it first in General Settings. Once thats done, open a video, hit the menu button in the top-right corner and tap the Stats for Nerds option.

The report linked to similar campaigns across Facebook and Twitter, which were uncovered in an investigation by social media analytics firm Graphika in April.

Disinformation campaigns plagued social media platforms in the build up to the 2016 US presidential elections, most notably from Russian state-linked actors.

With less than three months to go until the 2020 elections, Facebook, Google and Twitter are attempting to avoid past mistakes by cracking down on foreign interference.

Speaking at a 2018 Congressional hearing, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said: "We found ourselves unprepared and ill-equipped for the immensity of the problems we've acknowledged."

Both Facebook and Twitter have also deleted accounts linked to malicious actors in response to Graphika's April report.

Privacy advocates called for greater oversight to ensure that any content being removed is genuinely harmful.

"The chances that Google could be influenced by the US government in order to take down content it doesnt agree with is concerning, and it is important to consider who gets to decide what is taken down and why," Ray Walsh, digital privacy expert at ProPrivacy told The Independent.

"That said, China is known to employ an army of online spammers whose job it is to help spread disinformation and seed confusion and doubt online. With that in mind, it seems clear that there is some legitimate interest in seeking out and preventing the abuse of social media platforms."
A 242 million-year-old reptile with a neck three times the length of its torso lived in the ocean, a 3D skull reconstruction reveals.

Scientists describe the weird creature and its incredible giraffe-like neck as a 'paleontological absurdity'.

Fossils of the creature, belonging to the Tanystropheus genus, were discovered back in 1852 and have been puzzling scientists ever since.

Experts couldn't tell how the creature would have been able to support its ludicrously long neck if it had been roaming on land during the middle Triassic period.

But a new study led by the University of Zurich in Switzerland has now shown that the creature, which was nearly 20 feet long, lived in water and was 'surprisingly adaptable'.

Nostrils located on the top of the snout and curved teeth were perfectly adapted for catching slippery prey such as fish and squid.

The Tanystropheus genus also evolved into two different species, one larger than the other, the new research concludes.

The neck of Tanystropheus was three times as long as its torso, but had only thirteen extremely elongated vertebrae

'I've been studying Tanystropheus for over thirty years, so it's extremely satisfying to see these creatures demystified,' said study author Olivier Rieppel, a paleontologist at the Field Museum in Chicago.

'Tanystropheus looked like a stubby crocodile with a very, very long neck.

'That neck doesn't make sense in a terrestrial environment  it's just an awkward structure to carry around.

'To clarify its taxonomy is an important first step to understanding that group and its evolution.'

242 million years ago, when dinosaurs were just starting to emerge on land, the sea was ruled by giant reptiles.

Nostrils located on the top of the snout and curved teeth, perfectly adapted for catching slippery prey

The digitially reconstructed skull of Tanystropheus, using CT scans of the crushed skull pieces

The bigger Tanystropheus species measured just over 16 feet in length in total  its neck would have made up 7.5 feet, the body 2.2 feet and the tail 6.5 feet.

At one point, paleontologists thought Tanystropheus was a flying pterosaur, like a pterodactyl, and that its long, hollow bones were phalanges in the finger that supported the wing, before working out that those were elongated neck bones.

In the same region where many of the Tanystropheus fossils were found in modern-day Switzerland, there were also fossils from similar-looking animals that were only about four feet long.

Reconstructions of the skeletons of Tanystropheus hydroides (large species, newly named) and Tanystropheus longobardicus (small species). The outline of a 5.5-foot-tall diver serves as the scale

Close-up of the specimen, including the cortex of the femur (thigh bone) in (a) and (b) and complete cross-section and close-up of the cortex of the lower limb

Scientists were unsure if these were land-dwellers or marine animals, whether the smaller specimens were juveniles, or if they were a separate species.

Oddly for animals with such long necks, they only had 13 highly elongated neck vertebrae.

Again, Tanystropheus are a bit like giraffes in this sense, which have only seven neck bones, just like humans.

And Tanystropheus necks were rather inflexible, reinforced with extra bones called cervical ribs.

Scientists still weren't sure if it lived on land or in the water, and they didn't know if smaller specimens were juveniles or a completely different species.

Reconstruction drawings of the skull and lower jaw of the larger specimen (Tanystropheus hydroides) in (A) left lateral, (B) upper side and (C) under side, and smaller specimen (Tanystropheus longobardicus) (D) left lateral, (E) upper side and (F) under side

The large Tanystropheus fossils' skulls had been crushed, but researchers took computed tomography (CT) scans of the fossil slabs and generated 3D images of the bone fragments inside.

WHAT IS A CT SCAN? CT (Computerised tomography) scan uses X-rays and a computer to create detailed images. They are several single X-rays that create a 2-dimensional images of a 'slice' or section of the specimen/individual. Although an X-ray creates a flat image, several can be combined to construct complex 3D images. A CT scanner emits a series of narrow beams as it moves through an arc. This is different from an X-ray machine, which sends just one radiation beam. The CT scan produces a more detailed final picture than an X-ray image. This data is transmitted to a computer, which builds up a 3-D cross-sectional picture of the part of the body and displays it on the screen. Advertisement

The skull was reconstructed in unprecedented detail using synchrotron radiation micro-computed tomography (SRCT)  an extremely powerful form of CT scanning.

'The power of CT scanning allows us to see details that are otherwise impossible to observe in fossils,' said study lead author Stephan Spiekman at the University of Zurich.

'From a strongly crushed skull we have been able to reconstruct an almost complete 3D skull, revealing crucial morphological details.'

By digitally reassembling the scans them, researchers found evidence that the animals were water-dwelling.

The skulls had key features, including nostrils on top of the snout like a crocodile's, suggesting Tanystropheus lived in the water.

The slender beast probably lay in wait, waiting for fish and squid-like animals to swim by, and then snagged them with its long, curved teeth.

Researchers suggest that Tanystropheus may have come to land to lay eggs but mostly stayed in the ocean.

To learn whether the small specimens were juveniles or a separate species, the researchers examined the bones for signs of growth and ageing.

Growth rings in bones helped them determine that the big and little Tanystropheus were separate species that could live alongside each other without competing because they hunted different prey.

The different sizes, along with cone-shaped teeth in the big species and crown-shaped teeth in the little species, meant they probably weren't competing for the same types of food.

'These two closely related species had evolved to use different food sources in the same environment,' said Spiekman.

'The small species likely fed on small shelled animals, like shrimp, in contrast to the fish and squid the large species ate.

'This is really remarkable, because we expected the bizarre neck of Tanystropheus to be specialised for a single task, like the neck of a giraffe, but actually, it allowed for several lifestyles.

'This completely changes the way we look at this animal.'

The researchers named the larger one Tanystropheus hydroides, after the long-necked hydras in Greek mythology, while the smaller one bears the original name, Tanystropheus longobardicus, used by researchers in previous studies.

'For many years now we have had our suspicions that there were two species of Tanystropheus, but until we were able to CT scan the larger specimens we had no definitive evidence. Now we do,' said study co-author Nick Fraser at National Museums Scotland.

The study has been published in Current Biology.
This wasnt the summer Geri Crroj had planned.

The 20-year-old Niagara College computer programming student was going to complete his co-op placement in the information technology department of the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services and then head back home to Albania for a much-needed break.

Its been three years already since I have been home, said Crroj. My plan was after the co-op I would just go back home and visit my home country and also my parents as well.

The COVID-19 pandemic changed Crrojs co-op, his summer plans and his fall classes. His co-op went remote and, along with many other college students, hell be studying online this fall.

About 60 per cent of programs will be 100 per cent online and then about 40 per cent will be (a) hybrid model of some kind, said Dorita Pentesco, acting director of international student services for Niagara College.

For those students in hybrid programs, there will be limited campus access for essential lab components.

Niagara College expects 1,800 first-year international students for the fall term. Of those, Pentesco said some will already be in the country, but many will be starting their classes online from their home countries because of COVID-19 travel restrictions.

Crroj said the abrupt move to online classes during the winter semester was challenging as the administration, teachers and students scrambled to adapt to the pandemic.

His class was in the middle of a final app development project and it required a lot of work time in the college computer labs as well as in-person meetings with their client.

We were working after hours at the school after class, said Crroj. We had labs reserved only for us, we were doing really good. But everything happened really fast, so we had to cut off and start working from home.

While accessing the lessons online was straightforward, and his teachers were helpful and available for students, Crroj said the transition was still challenging because not all the members of his project group had access to a computer at first, which delayed some of their work. But they managed to figure out communication and how to work together virtually to successfully complete their assignment.

Pentesco said access to computers was not a widespread issue, and Niagara College has spent the spring and summer refining its online learning and student services for the fall term.

International continues to offer all of our student services support for international students, said Pentesco. Online housing support, immigration support, mental health and wellness (and) student engagement and activities are happening across the college in a virtual format.

One of the unique challenges Crroj said international students could face is developing their English language skills without the opportunity to participate in the on- and off-campus events the international services department typically holds during the school year.

I was able to learn more English when I was at the campus rather than actually learning on my own, he said. Its so hard to do something for an international (student) because you dont even know where to start.

Many international students dont have access to a car, Crroj said, so they are limited to either staying in their homes or using public transit. Without international student events on campus, he said it could be harder to experience the social aspect of college and the benefits it brings to language learning.

Pentesco said the college has been working hard to provide that support for its international students. The international department holds weekly Zoom sessions with prospective students. International students can participate in the PAL mentor program and be paired with a Niagara College student who will connect with them virtually to mentor them for the school year. And there is an app for international students, Be NC Ready, that has teaching modules about school in Canada and a chat feature to help students connect with one another.

It is very important to us that these students are prepared, that theyre supported, she said. We dont want them to feel isolated. We want them to feel connected to Niagara College.

Heading into the final year of his program, Crroj has some concerns about online classes, particularly how he will manage without in-person instruction from his teachers.

Computer programmings all about having another eye looking at your code, he said. I know we used to do that a lot, and even our professor used to go behind our back while we were working.

This is particularly important for Crroj because he said he still needs help with the English in programming languages and he worries his grades will drop if he doesnt have in-person support.

Pentesco said while every student situation is different, faculty at Niagara College are extremely dedicated.

They do reach out, they respond to students one on one, they do help them through challenges and work with them as much as possible.

The opportunity for success, and the supports, will be there, she said. Niagara College is as committed as ever to supporting our students.
On the subject of police accountability, Congress is a missing-persons case. Despite nationwide protests sparked by the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, the Democratic House and Republican Senate were unable to agree on any of the relatively modest law enforcement reforms they considered.

California lawmakers still have a chance to clear this low bar. While potentially important legislation to enable statewide disqualification of wayward officers appears to have been bottled up, other worthwhile reforms remain under consideration in Sacramento.

A bill by state Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, would require disclosure of law enforcement records related to use of force, wrongful arrests and searches, sexual misconduct, and racial and other forms of bias and discrimination. The bill would build on a 2018 police transparency law also championed by Skinner, which began to correct Californias backward, officially enforced code of silence about bad cops.

Another pertinent reform expected to be considered Friday by a Senate committee would require the state Department of Justice to investigate questionable police shootings upon request by a local district attorney or police department. As bill author Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, has noted, Attorney General Xavier Becerra has been loath to take on such cases. In June, the attorney general declined the Solano County district attorneys plea to investigate a Vallejo police officers dubious killing of a 22-year-old San Francisco man, Sean Monterrosa, although he subsequently opened a probe into the departments destruction of evidence in the case.

Also up for consideration in the Senate this week is a bill by Assemblyman Mike Gipson, D-Carson (Los Angeles County), to ban carotid and choke holds, among other techniques with a significant risk of suffocation. In the wake of the recorded police asphyxiation of Floyd, among others, proscribing such tactics might seem like the least policymakers can do.

The U.S. Senate, on the other hand, has already proven otherwise by failing to take up a House measure that would have outlawed choke holds. On that and other needed police reforms, the Legislature has to do better.

This commentary is from The Chronicles editorial board. We invite you to express your views in a letter to the editor. Please submit your letter via our online form: SFChronicle.com/letters.
With more than 500,000 Connecticut residents still without power from Tropical Storm Isaias, fire departments are issuing warnings about the potential dangers of running a generator indoors  or inadvertently setting one on fire.

Generators should be shut off and allowed to cool before homeowners try to refuel them, according to the National Fire Prevention Association.

Never refuel a generator while it is hot, the association said in an infographic shared by the Danbury Fire Department on Facebook.

Generators should be run outside, several feet away from a home  at least 5 feet from any doors, windows, or other openings potentially dangerous exhaust fumes could make their way into living quarters.

That means never running a generator in an attached garage, even if the sliding door is left open, officials said.

Were seeing a huge uptick in carbon monoxide-related incidents related to generators, Brookfield Fire Chief Andrew Ellis said Thursday.

He said crews have responded to at least a dozen incidents of carbon monoxide alarms being triggered by generator fumes. One was set up so the exhaust was drawn into a central air conditioning intake, according to Ellis.

A small amount of carbon monoxide  an exhaust gas produced by an internal-combustion engine  can poison a person over a long period.

Carbon monoxide is a poisonous gas, and will kill you. It cannot be smelled. it can only be detected with special equipment. You need working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors that are less than 10 years old, Redding Fire and EMS Co. 1 said in a Facebook post Wednesday.

Generators used to power household appliances should be hooked up to the homes electrical system by an electrician  otherwise residents risk backfeeding electricity into the grid, which can pose problems for anyone handling electrical wires.

Its another reason to avoid touching downed electrical wires.

The only people that can do this are power line crews, and they're on their way. Even if there is a 0.0000000001 percent chance of a line being live, there is a 100 percent chance of it killing you if it's live, the Redding fire post said.
Nurses took more than 200 active demonstrations inside and outside U.S. hospital facilities in at least 16 states and the District of Columbia on Wednesday to demand full personal protective equipment and federal government action.

Driving the news: National Nurses United (NNU) members are demanding that the Senate pass the HEROES Act, House Democrats' $3 trillion pandemic recovery package, which they said would protect health care workers by ensuring domestic production of PPE through the Defense Production Act.

They argue it would mandate that the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration establish an emergency temporary standard on infectious diseases and provide "desperately needed economic help in the form of cash payments, extended unemployment benefits, and daycare subsidies through the end of 2020 to families on the brink," per an NNU statement.

A union spokesperson told Axios that while the nurses did not hold an official strike, they did walk out during their shifts as part of the protests.

Why it matters, via Axios' Bob Herman: Health care workers need this equipment to protect themselves and to avoid spreading infection. Supplies are already stretched thin, and will likely get thinner as the coronavirus and flu season converge in the fall.

What they're saying: Intensive care unit registered nurse Mary Turner, president of the Minnesota Nurses Association whose members took part in the protests, said in a statement that nurses were at risk during the pandemic.

"We still reuse PPE that was meant to be discarded. We still care for COVID-19 patients and non-COVID patients at the same time," Turner said.

"And we still struggle to protect ourselves so we can protect our patients."

Go deeper: Nurses place shoes at Capitol to honor colleagues killed by coronavirus
H undreds of Met police officers refused exemption from the newly extended Congestion Charge are paying up to 300-a-month to drive their cars to work.

Police are among emergency services being made to pay the higher 15 seven-day central London levy introduced in June by Mayor Sadiq Khan.

A survey of 4,000 rank-and-file officers found 93 per cent believe driving is the safest way to prevent catching and spreading Covid-19 on public transport.

But while NHS and care home staff are entitled to a C-charge refund, other emergency workers only qualify when driving operational vehicles.

Ken Marsh, chairman of the Met Police Federation, said that the fact officers had to pay the C-charge when other key workers did not was a slap in the face to our brave colleagues.

Officers should not be financially penalised for travelling to their shifts to keep the public safe, he said.

Since the beginning of this pandemic, police officers in London have worked tirelessly to keep the public safe at no small risk to themselves.

To be told that they now have to pay the congestion charge when other key workers retain an exemption is a slap in the face to our brave colleagues.

The Met Police Federation described the move as a "slap in the face to our brave colleagues"

Some 439 officers said the change cost them between an extra 75 and 150 each month, 253 officers said between 150 to 225 and 185 stated 225 and 300. About 139 said it cost over 300.

A Transport for London spokesman said: The police are doing a phenomenal job responding to the impact of coronavirus on London.

All operational emergency service vehicles are exempt from the Congestion Charge. Some services such as the London Fire Brigade have chosen to cover the cost of other vehicles themselves.

The Government required TfL to bring forward proposals to widen the scope and level of the Congestion Charge as part of the recent funding deal.

Free travel on public transport is made available to the police in London.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo came in second-most-awful last time around. Can he make the big leap? He got a boost recently from my colleague Tom Friedman, who hinted at his opinion in a piece called Mike Pompeo Is the Worst Secretary of State Ever.

Nothing like the tried-and-true Trump veterans when it comes to top-notch terrible. But theres new talent, too, thanks to all the shuffling that keeps going on. Chad Wolf, the acting head of homeland security, is the fifth person to lead the department in the current administration. If he can hang on until after the election, hell have racked up more than a year on the job  a Trump administration achievement that is no doubt due to all the prior experience Wolf had as a travel industry lobbyist.

The postmaster general is no longer officially in the cabinet, for reasons way too dense to explain. But were going to leave Louis DeJoy in the mix because of his vigorous efforts to wreck the postal system  a goal that were sure has nothing to do with the presidents hatred of voting by mail. DeJoys top qualification for the job appears to be more than $2 million in donations to Republican causes during the Trump regime.

Did we mention his wife has been nominated to be ambassador to Canada?

The Worst contenders keep on coming: Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross Jr., another previous winner, has been relatively quiet recently. Literally, since he reportedly keeps dozing off at meetings. The man is 82  what do you expect? But hes still plugging away at the administrations priorities, like shutting down the census count four weeks early.

Interior Secretary David Bernhardt is a former lobbyist for the oil and gas industries, a resume you will notice crops up frequently. This has given him the in-depth understanding that allowed him to take a lead in the administrations massive financial relief package for oil and gas companies.
(CNN) - As Africa approaches one million confirmed COVID-19 cases, representing 5% of global cases, testing in many African countries remains a "constant and concerning challenge," the World Health Organization Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, said in a news conference on Thursday.

"At the same time, some countries have increased their testing per capita while maintaining a low positivity rate. Countries such as Mauritius, Rwanda, Cape Verde and Botswana," Dr. Moeti added.

WHO reported that July has seen a 40% increase in the total number of tests performed on the continent compared to the previous month.

Meanwhile, 10 countries accounted for 89% of new cases within the past two weeks, WHO said.

Testing assistance: WHO will send technical experts to 11 countries that are experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths to assist in "beefing up community engagement and health education and providing direct material support to strengthen testing capacity," according to a Thursday press release.

More than 40 regional experts will be deployed to South Africa, which remains the worst-hit country on the continent and the fifth-worst affected country globally.

The experts will deploy to several of the most severely affected provinces to support the management in areas of epidemiology, surveillance, and rapid data analysis due to a "need for better capacity at the local level, at the district level and in provinces," Dr. Moeti said.

WHO stressed the need for communication surrounding COVID-19 guidelines in African countries to be less centralized and more localized to ensure the messages reach more people in order to contain the outbreak.

16 countries in the region have seen an increase in new cases by more than 20% in the past two weeks compared to the previous two weeks. However, a number of African countries have seen a recent decline in daily cases, with about 20% fewer reported last week than the week before, Dr. Moeti said.

The countries experiencing a decline include: South Africa, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Republic of Congo, Mauritania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Botswana, Liberia and Benin.

"We do have countries where despite the fact that the governments did a relaxation of the measures, there was an initial increase in cases and several of these countries now we are starting to see a decline," she added, "The take-home is that we need to monitor this and ensure this decline continues and it's sustained."

Latest figures: So far, 41 countries in the region have reported infections of healthcare workers, indicating about 35,000 have been infected, with the majority in South Africa where about 24,000 healthcare workers have been infected, according to Dr. Moeti.

With 992,710 reported cases and 21,617 deaths, according to Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the continent is expected to reach the 1 million mark for confirmed cases this week.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "WHO warns of lack of testing in Africa as continent approaches 1 million cases"
Victims of Suspected Boko Haram Attack on Cameroon IDP Camp Need Urgent Help

By Lisa Schlein August 05, 2020

The United Nations refugee agency says victims of a suspected Boko Haram terror attack on an IDP camp in Cameroon's Far North region remain unprotected and in need of urgent help. At least 18 people were killed and 11 others injured.

The camp housing 800 internally displaced people was attacked early Sunday. Militant jihadists reportedly threw a grenade into the compound while people were sleeping.

The U.N. refugee agency says it is outraged by this brutal, unprovoked attack and condemns it in the strongest terms. UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch tells VOA that Nigeria-based terror group Boko Haram is suspected of being behind the attack.

"In Cameroon, since early this year, more than 87 attacks have been recorded, which are attributed to Boko Haram. It has affected millions of people in the region and only in this area of Cameroon, there are more than 320,000 people displaced," he said.

This latest attack near the village of Nguetchewe follows an upsurge of violence in Cameroon's Far North Region, including looting and kidnapping. Civilians in this area, which covers Chad and north-east Nigeria, have been at the mercy of Boko Haram and other armed groups for years.

Baloch says the attack on the IDP camp has caused some 1,500 people, including terrified residents of the hosting village, to flee to a nearby town for safety. He says the UNHCR is sending an emergency mission to assess the situation and evaluate the protection and health needs of those affected.

"Against the backdrop of growing insecurity, UNHCR anticipates enhanced protection, shelter, water and sanitation will be needed as the country responds to the COVID-19 pandemic Access a uge issue for humanitarians in this region in terms of providing humanitarian support," said Baloch.

The U.N. says Boko Haram violence in the Lake Chad Basin region has cost the lives of 30,000 people, displaced more than three million and forced nearly 300,000 Nigerians to seek refuge in neighboring countries.

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Events at the Maelor are now well under control says First Minister, with all staff at the hospital being tested

This article is old - Published: Thursday, Aug 6th, 2020

The First Minister has said the coronavirus outbreak at the Wrexham Maelor Hospital is well under control, and has revealed all staff will be tested.

The details emerged as Paul Davies MS, Leader of the Welsh Conservatives and others, quizzed the First Minister Mark Drakeford over local issues in yesterdays Plenary session in the Senedd after a statement on coronavirus in Wales.

Mr Davies asked: Wrexham Maelor Hospital has recently seen a spike in cases and has the highest recorded number of cases per 100,000 population in Wales.

First Minister, clearly theres an issue with infection control in north Wales, and that is under a health board in your Governments direct control. Can you therefore tell us why the infection rates in Wrexham Maelor Hospital have increased recently?

Can you also tell us what immediate actions you are taking to address the increase in infection rates in Wrexham Maelor Hospital, given that you say you are taking some actions?

Can you reassure the people of north Wales that these outbreaks will now be contained, given that you are directly responsible for the delivery of health services in that area?

The First Minister replied:I want to be clear that actions have already been taken at the Wrexham Maelor Hospital.

The position has stabilised, as I said in my statement. There were 76 cases in the previous seven days, and that had fallen to 27 in the last seven daysa 64 per cent fall.

Across Wrexham, the incidence rate, which on the 26th July was 61.8 per 100,000, has fallen to 19.9 in the last seven days, and continues to fall.

So, the position in Wrexham has been significantly brought under control, and continues to improve, and that is because of the actions that the hospital itself has takenmandating use of face masks, new physical screening installed, a single point of entry for the public, and testing of all patients on arrival, by whatever route they arrive at the hospital.

When those patients are screened, those who are suspected of having coronavirus are transferred to a side room on a COVID-positive ward and are nursed by a separate nursing team.

Those with no symptoms are cohorted until swab results are available. Patients with a positive result are placed on a COVID-positive ward, and patients with a negative result are transferred to general bed use.

As far as staff are concerned, all staff at the Maelor hospital are being tested. Six hundred of those tests are already booked.

Staff are restricted in movements across the hospital, agency staff are restricted to particular wards, and thousands of additional items of PPE have been provided at the hospitala comprehensive suite of measures, with more measures being added every day, and as I said, the success of those measures is already evident.

Andrew Davies MS, the former leader of the Welsh Conservatives also referenced Wrexham in the session regarding masks, saying: In your statement, you touch on the point about Wrexham Maelor, and the outbreak in Wrexham Maelor, and that has been a focus of considerable energy.

Why hasnt the Government assisted the health board and Public Health Wales in making it mandatory for people to wear face masks in settings such as hospitals and care homes, where the evidence clearly shows that that will be of assistance?

Public Health Wales and the health board have made that request, but the Government does not seem to have backed that request with firm action. Can you explain why is that the case, please?

The First Minister said: To be clear, face masks are compulsory in the Wrexham Maelor, and have been since the outbreak was declared, and the view of the Welsh Government is that face masks should be used where there is a clinical case for doing so.

There isnt a clinical case for wearing them in places where the virus is in such suppressed circulation that they do not add anything material to peoples protection, but where there is a case, a clinical case, for them being used, of course they should be used, and they are in the Maelor because of the situation there.

Labours Alyn and Deeside MS Jack Sargeant also mentioned the situation in North Wales.

He said: Ive been contacted by residents with family members who have contracted coronavirus whilst in hospital. As you can imagine, they are quite rightly scared and angry.

Now, First Minister, this has happened more in North Wales than anywhere else, and people need to know that they are safe when they do go to hospital.

Can you ask your officials to speak to the health board to ask them to review the procedures in north Wales, with an aim to making sure that this never happens in the future?

The First Minister stated: I understand and sympathise with those people who have relatives in hospital and who are afraid of contracting coronavirus when they are there.

The facts of the matter are, actually, that that has been more a feature of south Wales, and south-east Wales in particular, than any other part of Wales, including the north. I give Jack Sargeant an absolute assurance that my officials are in daily contact with the outbreak control team at the Wrexham Maelor.

I have met them myself twice with the health Minister in the last five days, to hear of the work that they are doing to make sure theyve got all the help and advice that they need.

I think the encouraging news is that the position at the hospital has stabilised, that the number of new infections has been low in recent days, and with all the actions that have already been taken, I think that patients can have growing confidence that the events at the Maelor are now well under control.
A travel nurses mission to help care for COVID-19 patients in San Antonio ended abruptly last week when he arrived at his rental home to discover his belongings were stolen.

On July 28, Jeremy Arvelo completed his fourth consecutive night shift at Southwest General Hospital and headed to the Airbnb home he was renting in the 100 block of Oakcrest Avenue. He arrived at 7:20 a.m. and found the residence had been burglarized.

Everything was taken, including sensitive information like his passport, laptop and a book of passwords. His cameras, used for his passion of studying wildlife, also were gone, along with hard drives containing memories of trips, weddings, and other events.

Even his clothes and food were stolen. All the 31-year-old was left with were a few of his scrubs and cleaning supplies.

I felt violated, I had everything with me, Arvelo said. Its not even the possessions, the camera or the laptop. Its more about the memories and time I put into the work.

A police detective told Arvelo the thieves entered a window on the side of the house. The same window had been used to enter the home in a previous burglary, a police report states.

Read Also: Texans waiting 4 days on average for COVID results, study says

Arvelo said there are security cameras at the home, but one did not record the intruders because a switch inside the house was in the off position. He said he did not know the camera was wired to the switch.

Police told Arvelo theres nothing they can do without camera footage catching a suspect in the act of breaking and entering.

Having lost all sense of security, Arvelo started his 18-hour trek back to New Jersey just after filing a police report the day of the burglary.

The night after Arvelo left, a review of security camera footage showed a man running up to the rental and using a t-shirt to try the doorknob. On the next night, the same man is joined by a woman, and the two are seen checking doors and windows.

On Monday, Arvelo still was dealing with the fallout of the theft. He acquired a new laptop, and he was going through the process of regaining access to his various social media accounts.

He also was trying to cancel his rental with Airbnb, but as of Monday he had been charged $1,100 for time he wasnt going to spend there.

It doesnt sound hopeful, he said. Hes reached out to Airbnb several times about the incident. I havent heard from anybody. Its just kind of a disheartening.

An Airbnb spokesman said via email Monday evening, We strive to provide world class customer support and apologize that in this instance our support fell beneath the high standards we set for ourselves. We are urgently investigating this incident and are in contact with the guest to offer our support.

An employee also told Arvelo that they only are able to offer up to $500 for any stolen property.

On Express-News.com: H-E-B: More than 100 San Antonio employees tested positive for the coronavirus in July

When the pandemic began, Arvelo was four months into what he had planned to be a yearlong trip through South America and East Asia. He was using the equipment that was taken from him to document every step until his trip was cut short.

Once I came back, I had to kind of transition back into the work life and completely let go, he said.

Before taking his trip, Arvelo was a cardiac nurse in Newark, N.J. He decided to jump back into the medical field after seeing the toll the coronavirus was taking on hospitals.

He took the rest of the time he had set aside for his trip and enlisted with a nursing agency, his first time working as a travel nurse.

Arvelo was a day shy of two weeks on a two-month contract with Southwest General Hospital when the theft occurred.

Thats why I told my recruiter I feel awful that I left so abruptly. I felt guilty that Im not there to help, but I was in such a shock and panic and exhausted from the past four nights of working at the hospital, Arvelo said. The only thing else in mind was I need to get out of there and be around people I knew.

Back in New Jersey, Arvelo was quarantining out of caution with his girlfriend, whos also a travel nurse, until he could get tested after caring for COVID-19 patients.

Arvelo, who has a bachelors degree in wildlife biology, was hoping to get a close look at Texas wildlife after he arrived in San Antonio. He spent some time photographing the bats at the Camden Street bridge, but those photos are gone, as well as years of photography saved on the hard drives.

He felt a glimmer of hope for the first time when he logged on to Adobe Lightroom, a photo editing program, after getting his laptop. Photos he edited in the past month still were saved in the programs online storage.

It gave me some kind of brief measure of happiness, Arvelo said.

Now, hes focused on getting his passport, buying clothes, and gathering documents to land a job in New Jersey.

I just want my life back, so Im slowly doing what I can to get there, he said.

Jacob Beltran is a reporter covering San Antonio and Bexar County. To read more from Jacob, become a subscriber. jbeltran@express-news.net | Twitter: @JBfromSA
Toronto, Aug 6 : A Punjabi councillor from the Indian-dominated city of Brampton on the outskirts of Toronto has been suspended following allegations of sexual assault by a woman.

The city council has suspended two-time councillor Gurpreet Dhillion for 90 days and passed a unanimous motion seeking his resignation.

With a population of about 700,000, Brampton is dubbed as an `Indian city' in Canada as it has the biggest concentration of the Indian community that makes up about 25 per cent of the city's population.

The action against Dhillon follows after a local salon owner accused him of sexually assaulting her when the two were visiting Turkey as part of a Canada Turkish Business Council delegation in November 2019.

In her complaint to the city mayor, the woman said that Dhillon forced himself on her while she was in her hotel room.

The woman met the mayor to play the recording of her encounter with the councillor in her room and show text messages to support her claim.

The mayor asked the city's integrity commissioner -- which is the watchdog for city councillors -- to investigate the allegations.

The investigation found the allegations of sexual assault against Dhillon to be true.

But since the integrity commissioner can only recommend disciplinary action, not removal, it asked the city council to suspend Dhillon, without pay for 90 days.

However, the city council has not only suspended him but also unanimously asked him to resign.

Denying the allegations, Dhillon, who is a baptized Sikh, said he won't resign.

He said, "I am deeply troubled by city council's politically motivated decisions today in response to the integrity commissioner's flawed report. I have and continue to vehemently deny all allegations against me and have commenced legal action."
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 22:29:16|Editor: huaxia

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BAGHDAD, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- An Iraqi health official on Thursday warned of downplaying the risks of COVID-19, as the Health Ministry said the total nationwide infections climbed to 140,603.

"We call on the citizens to abide by the preventive measures and not to downplay the risk of the coronavirus because applying these measures would decrease the infections and the deaths," Riyadh Abdul-Amir, head of the ministry's public health department, said in a press release.

"The epidemiological situation is still unstable and we cannot predict the future," he added.

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry reported 3,047 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total nationwide infections to 140,603.

The new cases included 659 in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, 290 in Najaf, 273 in Basra, 244 in Karbala, 218 in Erbil, and 211 in Kirkuk, the ministry said in a statement.

It also reported 67 fatalities during the day, raising the total number of deaths to 5,161.

The ministry said that 2,583 more patients recovered, bringing the total number of recoveries to 101,025.

The new cases were recorded after 16,591 testing kits were used across the country during the day, and a total of 1,092,741 tests have been carried out since the outbreak of the disease, according to the statement.

Earlier, the Health Ministry frequently said the increase of COVID-19 infections was caused by lack of public compliance to the health instructions and stronger testing capacity with the increase of labs in Baghdad and other provinces.

Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, Iraq has been taking measures to contain the pandemic.

On July 26, Iraq's Higher Committee for Health and National Safety decided to extend the weekly full curfew from July 30 to Aug. 9.

China has been helping Iraq fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

From March 7 to April 26, a Chinese team of seven medical experts spent 50 days in Iraq to help contain the disease, during which they helped build a PCR lab and install an advanced CT scanner in Baghdad.

Since March 7, China has also sent three batches of medical aid to Iraq. Enditem
It has already become crystal clear to analysts and the oil industry that global oil demand will not recover to pre-pandemic levels next year.

Some forecasters and top executives at the worlds largest oil companies are not confident that oil demand will return to the pre-crisis levels, ever.

Even OPEC is said to be quietly preparing to face lower demand growth than previously expected. 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, OPEC officials and sources close to OPEC told Reuters last month.

While the camp of those arguing that oil demand is set for a strategic structural shift downward is growing, theres still the school of thought that maintains that demand will continue to be a function of the economy and prices. And low oil prices will help oil demand growth when the world puts the pandemic behind it, Michael Lynch, an expert on petroleum economics and energy policy, writes in Forbes. In many of the previous bust cycles in oil, oil demand growth has accelerated after major collapses in prices, Lynch has estimated.

Economic growth has always been a driver of oil demand, but this time around, the economies wont return to growth until next year, according to current projections, and thats only if a massive second coronavirus wave doesnt further hit economies and employment in major oil-consuming nations.

Related: Why We Wont See An Oil War In The South China Sea



Low oil prices will be a boon to consumers to drive more, who will be paying less to fill up their tanks. Consumers also have markedly moved away from using public transportation, preferring instead the safety of their own vehicles.

Yet, the pandemic this year poses the question: will low gasoline prices will be enough to incentivize overall oil demand, considering the fact that jet fuel demand is expected to continue to be a drag on oil demand for at least another two years?

Analysts have already largely ruled out a V-shaped recovery in oil demand. The current uncertainty in the pandemic that is still far from being under control in many parts of the world makes any current estimates about longer-term demand unreliable.

And everybody who can tell you certain things with certainty, I think you have to take with a great pinch of salt. And of course, we dont know how this pandemic is going to work out. I hope it will work out well, Shells chief executive Ben van Beurden said on the supermajors Q2 earnings call last week.

Demand will take a long time to recover if it recovers at all, van Beurden said, noting that aviation fuel demand will continue to stay down for some time to come.

Even with low oil prices, consumers preferring their personal vehicles to public transportation may not be enough to save long-term demand.

The COVID-19 pandemic has served as a wake-up call to many governments, especially in Europe, to pledge greener recovery from the crisis by investing more in renewable energy and electric vehicles (EVs) use. Increased government support of green technologies could displace higher volumes of oil consumption more quickly than previously expected.

In one of three future scenarios for long-term oil demand, Wood Mackenzie estimates that the Greener growth scenario could lead to oil demand plateauing in the 2020s, before starting to fall steeply in the 2030s. In reality, the future of oil demand will likely be a mix of three scenarios, the full recovery scenario, the go it alone scenario with a deeper downturn and slower trend growth thereafter, and the greener growth scenario.

Reality is likely to mix and match different elements from these scenarios. Some regions will push hard on the accelerator for the energy transition, while others focus more on developing domestic manufacturing industries and protecting existing energy producers. But most of the likely changes work in the same direction: towards weaker oil demand growth, WoodMac says.

The world hasnt seen peak oil demand yet, Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said in May, expecting that sooner or later, oil consumption would return to the pre-crisis levels and rise above that.

Some oil majors, including Shell and BP, are not so sure about demand recovering to pre-pandemic levels. And those two majors saw COVID-19 as a wake-up call and an opportunity to fast-track positioning themselves for business in the energy transition and start calling themselves energy  instead of oil  companies.

As far as long-term oil demand is concerned, uncertainty clouds any current projections. As Shells van Beurden said on the call last week:

And it may well take 2021, of course, to get back to where we were. What happens after that is, I think, much more difficult to predict.



By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Prosecutor and former television anchor Paul Junge is the Republican Partys nominee to challenge U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly, for control of Michigans 8th Congressional District.

Junge claimed victory in the four-way GOP primary Wednesday afternoon before final results were posted, but unofficial vote totals proved him right a few hours later. Junge held a 6 percentage point lead over the closest challenger, gathering 35% of the vote.

Junge earned 29,701 votes, according to unofficial election night results, putting him at the top of the ticket in Tuesdays Republican primary race. Slotkin did not face a Democratic challenger and seeks to reelection to a second two-year term after flipping the traditionally red district two years ago.

Voters in Michigans 8th Congressional District selected Junge from a field of four candidates. Howell real estate agent Mike Detmer closely trailed Junge as results came in, followed by East Lansing attorney Kristina Lyke and U.S. Marine Corps veteran and businessman Alan Hoover.

Detmer held 26% of the vote, followed by Lyke (25%) and Hoover (11%).

The 8th District covers Livingston, Ingham and portions of Oakland County. Junge collected more votes in Ingham and Oakland counties, while Detmer picked up the most votes in Livingston County, a Republican stronghold in the district.

Though Detmer won Livingston County by 2,269 votes, he fell to third place in the 8th Districts more populated counties. Lyke finished second behind Junge in Oakland County and in Ingham County, according to incomplete results.

In the 2018 mid-term elections, Slotkin defeated a Republican incumbent who had sailed to reelection just two years earlier when Trump won Michigan. Trump won the 8th District by 7 percentage points and will be on the ballot with Junge on Nov. 3.

The four GOP candidates are all first-time politicians who have touted their commitment to the presidents agenda. Republican candidates said Slotkin abandoned campaign promises to govern as a moderate, pointing to her voting records close alignment with House Democrats and support for impeaching Trump.

Candidate Elissa Slotkin won in 2018 because she promised to be independent-minded, reasonable, and bipartisan, but Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin votes 96% of the time with liberal House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Junge Campaign Manager Rob Wagener said in a statement. She pledged to be a Midwestern Democrat, but Elissa Slotkin votes like a San Francisco liberal and millions of dollars in left-wing money cannot hide that fact.

Slotkin released a statement before the Republican primary results were in, inviting her opponent to a series of three debates held in each county included in the 8th District. The freshmen congresswoman has pledged to seek bipartisan solutions to lower the cost of prescription drugs.

It is my sincere hope that my opponent will join me in approaching this competition with decency and respect for each other, and for the democratic process, Slotkin said.

Slotkin is the first Democrat to represent the 8th District since now-U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow vacated the seat in 2001. However, the configuration of Michigans 8th District has changed since Stabenow represented it.

The district was pushed further into Oakland County after being redrawn for the 2012 election, and Slotkin has benefitted from the support of a growing contingent of Democratic-voting suburbanites.

A majority of voters in the district supported Republican presidential candidates in 2016, 2012, 2004 and 2000, but voters also sided with Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2018 and supported President Barack Obama in 2008.

Slotkin is a prolific fundraiser and vastly outraised the GOP field. Slotkin amassed $6.1 million in her bid for a second two-year term before the primary, putting her on track to surpass the record-breaking $7.4 million war chest she put together in 2018.

Junge easily outraised his Republican opponents, but its yet to be seen whether he can match Slotkins fundraising machine. Junge gathered $780,147 throughout the campaign and had $445,852 left to spend on the race as of July 15.

Two-thirds of Junges donations came from personal loans and contributions Junge made himself. Ten of Junges family members kicked in the maximum individual contribution, donating a total of $56,000.

Hoover raised the second-most among the primary candidates; $62,264 overall, including $51,213 from individual donors. Hoover invested $5,098 of his own money into the campaign.

Detmer raised $37,924 throughout the campaign. Lyke raised $230,044.
DARAG Group Ltd., the Malta-based legacy acquirer, announced the acquisition of Arisa Assurances SA, an automobile and travel insurance company based in Luxembourg.

The transaction will be conducted through DARAGs German risk carrier, DARAG Deutsche Versicherungs-und Ruckversicherungs-AG, and is subject to regulatory approvals.

Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Arisa is a subsidiary of ADAC Versicherung AG, belonging to ADAC SE, a public company that offers mobility-oriented services and products. Motor third party liability business forms the majority of Arisas existing portfolio, which has been in run-off since 2018.

The transaction will provide ADAC Versicherung AG with legal, operational and economic finality, with regards to Arisa, as it focuses on its core business. It will be DARAGs first company acquisition in Luxembourg.

DARAGs presence and expertise in the German-speaking markets is already unrivalled and we have been growing our business here significantly in the past few years. Arisa will be our first acquisition in Luxembourg and demonstrates our firm commitment to clients in the region, commented Tom Booth, CEO of DARAG, in a statement.

About DARAG

DARAG specializes in the assumption of discontinued re/insurance business and the provision of capital relief solutions. The group has completed 34 run-off transactions in 18 countries with a value in excess of 1.1 billion.

About ADAC SE

Headquartered in Munich, Germany, ADAC SE is a public company that offers mobility-oriented services and products to ADAC members, non-members and B2B customers. It is comprised of 28 affiliated companies and private equity firms including ADAC Versicherung AG (insurance), ADAC Finanzdienste GmbH (financial services), ADAC Autovermietung GmbH (car rental) and ADAC Service GmbH. In the 2018 business year, ADAC SE had a staff of approx. 3,500 and a turnover of 1.142 billion and after-tax earnings of 108 million.

Topics Mergers Carriers Auto Germany
Political journalists, commentators, pundits, and flacks often engage in their work in a year like this with a world-weary, if not depressed, attitude. And given the oddly low metabolism of our presidential campaign, who could blame them? Donald Trump isnt able to do the rallies that energized him and his supporters four years ago. Joe Biden is mostly locked in his basement, emerging occasionally to shoot an ad in a Corvette. The race is shuffling along at the pace of an early-bird dinner. In a way theres a kind of convergence. Both candidates are thin-skinned and set in their ways, and have trouble staying on topic. Neither talks coherently about a plan for dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

The result is a faintly metallic taste in their air. On the left and the right, political resentments are heating up as if in a pressure cooker, with the pandemic lockdowns serving as the lid. Not all of these complaints match the evidence, but that doesnt stop them from being widely shared and motivating. If youll allow me, Id like to take a moment to channel each sides grievances.

Left: There was enough evidence to know President Trump was a buffoon when you elected him, and this is what happens when you elect a buffoon! MAGA? America has a higher COVID-fatality rate than most modern nations. There are outbreaks across important Trump-friendly states like Texas, Arizona, and Florida, all of which are run by governors trying to impress the president! Arent Christians supposed to protect the vulnerable? Stop going to these renegade church services! Because we cant act like a first-world nation, my kids cant go back to school. This idiot knows hes losing, so hes trying to suppress the vote and make people distrust the mail-in results. And well have to mail in our ballots, because instead of doing what every other credible leader did, he told us the virus would magically disappear and started prescribing drugs during White House press briefings.

Story continues

All you do is whine about being the real victims of cancel culture. I remember your trying to shut down plays in high schools. I remember your running bulldozers over country-music albums after 9/11. You canceled Ellen when she came out. You care more about mean tweets than mass shootings. Youre supposed to be conservatives, but you wont defend our elections, our democratic norms, or even our Constitution if they get in Trumps way. Go to hell.

Right: Its really one rule for you, and one for us, huh? Trump questions the mail-in ballots and you lose your mind? Who withdrew his concession in 2000? Al Gore? Who spent the 2004 election crying that Diebold would steal it? Democrats. Then Democratic reporters reacted to Trumps win by dropping a fake dossier. If theyd actually looked into it, theyd have discovered that the source was a do-nothing, know-nothing junior staffer at a liberal think tank. But instead, we spent three years trying to impeach the president based on a lie.

You blame us for every gun crime in liberal big cities. You pin political violence on us. You blamed Oklahoma City on Rush Limbaugh and the shooting of Gabby Giffords on Sarah Palin. Hell, you even blamed the city of Dallas for JFKs assassination to avoid blaming that Commie Oswald. But when a Bernie Sanders supporter tries to shoot up congressional Republicans, that just gets memory-holed.

Churches? I havent been to one in months. Masks? I wear them all the time. I cant go grocery shopping without this stupid thing pulling on my ears until theyre sore. My grandfather was buried with just ten people at his funeral. We couldnt even use a church. Meanwhile, John Lewis gets a massive funeral in a church. The Democratic mayor exempts the politicians in attendance from quarantine orders. You claim red-state governors have botched their response to the pandemic, but never mention that Democratic governors in New York and California have done as badly or worse.

And dont even get me started on the protests. Apparently, state social-distancing and mask mandates are a matter of life and death right up until the moment that liberals want to take to the streets to bash cops, when they cease to be mandates at all. Your politicians forbid contact tracers from even asking about the protests, yet you claim to believe in science. Liberal journalists are trying to get liberal lawyers off for throwing Molotov cocktails, for heavens sake! Seattles Democratic mayor tolerated protestors autonomous zone and two kids were murdered in it, yet you seemed more bothered by a kid in a MAGA hat smirking at a Native American. You complain about Trump, but the Biden campaign just leaked a war-game scenario in which he tries to take office by stealing Electoral College votes as states threaten to secede. How is that following the norms and rules?

A heady, toxic brew, isnt it? And while it does its work on millions of American partisans, the nation is conducting an election in which neither candidate has made a forceful public case for his agenda, and neither candidate has demonstrated much energy or vision. The absolute vacuum in American politics is being filled by anger and scabrous resentment. One shudders to think what comes after November.

More from National Review
Eldorado Scioto Downs has increased purses 25 per cent across the board starting with the races on Friday (Aug. 7).

We are happy to announce this purse increase due to great numbers, both on our export signal and on the gaming floor, explained Joe Morris, senior vice president of racing for Eldorado Resorts. Our property has been outperforming projections since reopening on June 19, and with Scioto being the first harness track in the country to host live racing after the shutdown, our 22 $1 million-plus handle nights have added funds to the purse account.

The purse increase will be noticeable at all racing levels, from the $6,000 claimers increasing from $4,000 to $5,000, all the way up to the Opens going from $18,000 to a range of $20,000-$25,000.

This increase puts our purses back on par with our purse structure from 2019, said race secretary Jason Roth. We are glad to work with our horsemen to bring purse levels back to pre-COVID-19 levels.

Scioto Downs has used innovative and alternative means to increasing handle  and therefore purses  for 2020, including switching from Tuesday afternoons to Tuesday evenings, taking advantage of some early season Sunday evening race cards, as well as a robust new wagering menu.

Racing at Scioto is held Tuesday through Saturday with a first post time of 6:15 p.m. Closing night is Saturday (Sept. 5), when Scioto will host Ohio Super Night with the $300,000 Ohio Sire Stakes finals for all eight divisions of two- and three-year-olds.

(Eldorado Scioto Downs)
The world has seen China become 'more aggressive' during the COVID-19 pandemic, United States Defence Secretary Mark Esper has said, asserting that the country has deployed troops along the Line of Actual Control with India and is acting out in a way that is 'inconsistent' with international norms.

Esper said Beijing was trying to use the coronavirus tragedy to their advantage for 'propaganda purposes'.

"What we have seen with regard to what happened in the last seven months coming as part of COVID, if you will, we've seen China become more aggressive, trying to use the tragedy, of COVID-19 to their advantage for propaganda purposes.

"They have really overplayed their hand and we've seen them continue to try and exercise this muscle in the South China Sea," he said on Wednesday.

Beijing claims almost all of the 1.3 million square mile South China Sea as its sovereign territory.

China has been building military bases on artificial islands in the region also claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Beijing has impeded commercial activity like fishing or mineral exploration by countries like Vietnam and the Philippines, claiming that the ownership of territory belonged to China for hundreds of years.

Responding to a question during Aspen Security Forum discussion, Esper said that the Chinese sank a Vietnamese fishing vessel a few months ago.

"They continue to twist the arms of others. They've deployed troops along the line of actual control in India. We see them acting out in a way that is inconsistent with, you know, international norms, rules of behaviour, if you will, and many of our allies and partners are reacting as well," he said.

His remarks came amid the border face-off between India and China in eastern Ladakh.

20 Indian army personnel were killed during the clashes with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley on June 15.

The Chinese side also suffered casualties in the clashes but it is yet to give out details.

The number of casualties on the Chinese side was 35, according to a US intelligence report.

The Defence Secretary praised Australia and the UK for pushing Huawei out of their systems or lauded the Australians for a brand-new defense strategy that has long-term commitment to funding.

According to Esper, the best way to take on the Chinese aggression is to multilateralise efforts against Beijing.

"...The US being unable to travel, we found new ways to communicate and to do it in a multilateral way. We need to continue to advance that. We need to multilateralise those. Maybe not officially, right? But in terms of knitting things up so we talk more as a group," he said.

"That's the best way to push back against China and its bad behaviour in the Pacific. And I see that as another positive outcome, if you will, of us being unable to travel.

"We found new ways to communicate and to do it in a multilateral way, and I think we need to continue to advance that," Esper said.

The threat posed by China is not region, but global, he said.

"The China competition, by the way, is not limited to Indo PACOM, it is a global competition so we see them in all parts of the world. So it's multifaceted and it requires tough decisions and look, we are making those tough decisions as best we can," Esper said.

Responding to another question, Esper said that he did not see China right now as an inevitable threat that the US is going to have a fight with.

"But we do have to compete, and we have to be much more vigorous in all domains if you will whether it's again diplomatic, informational, military, political," he said.
- The 43-year-old man had taken his mother to the hospital after she fell and could not regain her footing

- While at the hospital, she contacted COVID-19 and was admitted but while receiving treatment the man also contracted the virus

- He was admitted to the ICU and was placed in a medically induced coma to help save his life

- Unfortunately, his mother succumbed to the disease and a week a later, her partner succumbed to it also

- The man woke three weeks later only to learn of the heartbreaking news

A 43-year-old man who was in a three-week coma as he battled COVID-19 woke to discover the disease had killed both his mother and her partner.

The man identified as Scott Miller was struck by COVID-19 on March 21, 2020, after his 76-year-old mother Norma tested positive for the disease.

READ ALSO: Former NTV journalist Yassin Juma released from Ethiopian jail

Scott Miller was struck by COVID-19 on March 21, 2020. Photo: The Sun.

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Man turns truck into a house, builds 3 bedroom flat from it

According to a report by The BBC, Miller's mother contracted the disease when she was being treated at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary for a fall and was unable to regain her footing.

It was while Norma, who suffered from dementia, was in the hospital that Miller also tested positive and became seriously ill.

The self-employed locksmith was rushed to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the same hospital and was placed in a medically induced coma to help save his life.

READ ALSO: COVID-19 tests: Step by step process of how samples are tested for the virus

Just downstairs, his mother was dying. And then tragically, a week after that, his mother's partner died as well.

Recalling how he discovered the tragic news, Miller said he was in disbelief

"On the Sunday morning we got a call to say Norma had passed away, and we got a call from the consultant to say that Scott was very ill as well," said Miller's sister-in-law, Sharlene Miller.

READ ALSO: WHO dispatches team of experts to South Africa as country's COVID-19 cases hit 530k

Miller's mother contracted the disease when she was being treated at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary for a fall. Photo: The Sun.

Source: UGC

"Then Norma's partner passed away the following Sunday," she added.

The 43-year-old was grateful to the staff of the health facility including three nurses who had treated him and were also with his mum when she passed away.

Miller, who also lost weight during his battle against COVID-19, is now warning people not to grow complacent to the dangers of the illness.

READ ALSO: Tanzanian father of 30 who became overnight millionaire finds another gemstone worth KSh 216M

People need to understand it is a real killer, I do not think people are really taking it seriously," he said.

""People need to know we are not out of it yet. They need to know, just be safe and secure and watch out," he added.

According to Sharlene, Scott's kidneys began to fail and he had pneumonia and blood clots - leaving doctors doubtful that he would make it.

READ ALSO: Reading from home: Book publishers gain, retailers lose as schools remain closed until 2021

In the week between Norma's funeral and her partner's funeral, each day Scott seemed to deteriorate and they were running out of options, Sharlene said.

"We were at the point where we were maybe going to have to make a decision about turning off his life support," she told BBC..

"On April 15, they nearly lost him. We got a phone call and we thought that was them saying that Scott had passed away, but they had managed to stabilise him again," she added.

READ ALSO: Chelsea news: Antonio Rudiger says he will be sad to see Willian leave Blues

Sharlene, whose own parents had COVID-19 but survived, said there was a sense of relief because they did not know how they would have coped with losing Scott as well.

"When we were able to speak to him and see him, we were elated with that. It was lovely," she said.

After three desperate weeks spent in intensive care, Scott began to recover and doctors eventually judged it safe to bring him out of a coma.

When they thought it was safe to do so, a nurse told him his mother had died.

Do you have an inspirational story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Tuko news.

Source: TUKO.co.ke
Michael 'Wippa' Wipfli has entered the history books.

This week, the Nova FM personality broke the Guinness World Record for the longest ever Hot Wheels track at an impressive 751.130 meters.

He explained his surprising victory during a lengthy segment on Nova's Fitzy & Wippa on Thursday morning.

Victory: Michael 'Wippa' Wipfli broke the Guinness World Record for the longest ever Hot Wheels track at an impressive 751.130 meters

'What a dream its been, what a journey its been,' he told co-host Ryan 'Fitzy' Fitzgerald.

'I thought, "how can we bring some inspiration to 2020?" We break a world record, we pinch it from the States and we celebrate as a nation, the Prime Minister is behind it. Its the story of a team with a dream.

'Well done everybody, we have worked our bum off for this award! For too long, Pennsylvania, a small town called Forster has celebrated and felt safe in their world record until we turned up today! Australia, its a brand new world record!'

Wippa had previously attempted the record twice before.

Family: The 40-year-old was inspired by his children to tackle the record

Earlier this week, he revealed that his furious wife Lisa had asked him to 'move out' over the weekend, after he posted a very unflattering picture of her to Instagram.

Speaking on his Nova FM breakfast show on Monday, the 40-year-old radio host said he was 'in the doghouse' after sharing the photo of Lisa looking eerily like late pop star Michael Jackson while they were enjoying a day out in Sydney's Rose Bay.

'When I took this photo with Lisa, I looked at it and I thought, "Oh my god, if I zoom in a little bit... that's Michael Jackson!"' he chuckled.

In the doghouse! Meanwhile, Wippa (right) has revealed that his wife, Lisa (left), asked him to 'move out' over the weekend after he posted a very unflattering picture of her to Instagram

His co-host Sarah McGilvray couldn't get over the likeness, saying: 'It's phenomenal!'

But Wippa admitted the trouble really started when they got home.

He said: 'It was just when I posted it yesterday afternoon, she was upstairs trying to settle Francesca [their daughter] and then I hear a head poking out the door, "Michael!" I thought, "Got her a beauty; I reckon I know why she's yelling!"'

Spooky! Speaking on his Nova FM breakfast show on Monday, the 40-year-old radio host said he was 'in the doghouse' after sharing the photo of Lisa (left) looking eerily like late pop star Michael Jackson (right) while they were enjoying a day out in Sydney's Rose Bay

Uncanny: 'When I took this photo with Lisa, I looked at it and I thought, "Oh my god, if I zoom in a little bit... that's Michael Jackson!"' Wippa chuckled on air

Wippa continued: 'I've had 100 messages of people saying, "You're dead! You're getting a divorce!" One bloke wrote, "There's only 10 people at your funeral, sorry mate, put your list together now!"'

He admitted that he knew he was going to be in trouble before he posted the image, but thought it was too good an opportunity to let slip by.

'Normally I would've had to get it approved [by Lisa],' he said.

Worth it! Wippa (pictured) admitted that he knew he was going to be in trouble before he posted the image, but thought it was too good an opportunity to let slip by

'I thought I was never gonna get that past the gate! I had to go for forgiveness over approval because I was never going to get approval!'

Wippa then joked that he might be needing a place to crash for a while.

'Anyway, I've had to move out. I was wondering if I could come and stay at your place?' he asked his co-host Ryan 'Fitzy' Fitzgerald.

Loved up: Despite their recent hiccup, Wippa and Lisa have been happily married for almost seven years

Wippa shared the image with his 54,000 Instagram followers on Sunday, and captioned it: 'He's alive! Michael Jackson spotted in Rose Bay, Sydney.'

Despite their recent hiccup, Wippa and Lisa have been happily married for almost seven years.

The couple share three children, sons Theodore, four, and Jack, three, and daughter Francesca, three months.
Disha Salian

Mumbai: The father of Disha Salian, former manager of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, has said he does not suspect any foul play in her death and he is "completely satisfied" with the probe being conducted by Mumbai Police in the case, an official said.

In a letter sent to assistant commissioner of police (ACP), Malvani, Satish Salian alleged that media persons were harassing his family by repeatedly questioning their faith in Mumbai Police and their way of inquiry into her death, the official said.

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Disha Salian and Sushant Singh RajputAn accidental death report (ADR) was registered in connection with Disha Salian's death at Malvani police station.

Her father in his letter to police said his family does not suspect any foul play in her death and they are satisfied with the investigation conducted by the Mumbai Police and have faith in them, a senior official said.

He alleged that his family was being harassed by journalists and media by repeatedly questioning their faith in the Mumbai Police, the official said.

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Satish Salian said that he had already submitted a written complaint at the Malvani police station and the ACP's office on July 13 against "derogatory" posts and forwards being shared by people that defamed his deceased daughter and his family.

Disha Salian and Sushant Singh RajputAccording to the official, in his letter he alleged that "news about her (Disha's) involvement with any politician or attending parties with big names of the film fraternity, rape and murder are all stories cooked up by media people just to sell it to channels and these stories hold no truth."

He also requested the police to take action against the journalists, influencers, politicians and media concerned for their insensitive act towards his family, the official said.
Pompeo's Warning Against Closer China-Iran Ties Highlights Dilemma for Beijing

By Michael Lipin August 05, 2020

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's latest warning that China would destabilize the Middle East by deepening ties with U.S. foe Iran is raising questions about how far Beijing will go to boost its partner Tehran in an emerging deal that would heighten U.S.-China tensions.

"China's entry into Iran will destabilize the Middle East. It'll put Israel at risk. It'll put the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates at risk as well," Pompeo told U.S. TV network Fox News in a Sunday interview, as he urged the three U.S. allies and other regional countries to beware of Beijing, one of Washington's main international rivals.

"Iran remains the world's largest state sponsor of terror, and to have access to weapons systems and commerce and money flowing from the Chinese Communist Party only compounds that risk for that region," Pompeo added. Tehran, which has armed Islamist militant groups blamed for terrorist attacks in the Middle East and beyond for decades, describes itself as a terror victim rather than sponsor.

The top U.S. diplomat was speaking in reference to Western media reports, published last month, suggesting China and Iran were close to finalizing a 25-year trade and military agreement known as a "comprehensive strategic partnership." Chinese and Iranian leaders first agreed to work toward such a deal  the highest level of bilateral relations that Beijing grants to a partner  in 2016.

In recent weeks, Iranian officials have said talks with China on a deal were continuing but gave no indication of when they will conclude. Beijing has not shared any details of the negotiations.

The two regional powers have been economic and military allies for decades. China is Iran's top trading partner and supplied weapons to Tehran as long ago as the 1980s. International arms sales to Iran have been banned by the U.N. Security Council since 2010, but the embargo is due to expire on October 18 and China has signaled that it will veto a U.S. draft resolution to have it extended.

China also participated in a first-ever three-way naval exercise with Iran and their mutual partner Russia last December in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Oman.

Some analysts say Beijing has a strong interest in reaching an Iran deal that resumes arms sales to Tehran and injects billions of dollars into its struggling economy in return for discounts on Iranian oil exports and other concessions.

Iran has been in recession since 2018, when the United States began tightening sanctions aimed at pressuring Tehran to stop perceived malign behaviors. The unilateral U.S. sanctions have forced most nations besides China to cut off their purchases of Iranian oil, the main source of revenue for Tehran.

In an August 2 article on the U.S. news site Tablet, analysts Michael Doran and Peter Rough of the Washington-based Hudson Institute said the benefits to China of fueling what they called the "destabilizing activities" of Iran and Russia are "many and substantial."

Doran and Rough said such a Chinese strategy would "exhaust" U.S. leaders dedicated to reducing commitments to the Middle East, "damage American prestige" by enabling Iran to prop up allied forces fighting U.S. influence in the region, and "pin down" U.S. naval resources in the Persian Gulf to deal with threatening Iranian behavior rather than in the Western Pacific that China seeks to dominate.

The Hudson analysts said another benefit to China would be sowing further division between the United States and Washington's European allies over how to handle Iran's nuclear program and involvement in regional conflicts. They said U.S. allies who doubt Washington's commitment to the region also could be forced to cultivate better ties with Beijing.

Other analysts told VOA Persian that they see several factors influencing China against enabling Iran to further destabilize the Middle East.

"The Chinese have done pretty well under the status quo," said Guy Burton, an international affairs professor at Belgium's Vesalius College. He said the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and continued U.S. military presence in the country have made it stable enough for China to win lucrative contracts to develop Iraq's oil and gas industry. Such stability could be jeopardized if Iran-backed Iraqi Shiite militias step up attacks on the U.S. forces there.

Burton said another factor is China's interest in not escalating tensions with Washington by aggressively defying U.S. sanctions on Iran. While Beijing remains the top purchaser of Iranian oil, he said it has "very quietly been pulling back" from such oil imports and other investments in Iran over the past year.

Howard Shatz, a senior economist at the RAND Corporation in Arlington, Virginia, said China also may not be able to persuade Iran to accept as strong a partnership as Beijing would like.

"Iran's population is not necessarily totally receptive to large scale Chinese involvement in the country," Shatz said. "China is providing an economic lifeline for Iran right now, but some Iranians fear a lot of Chinese involvement could limit Iran's power in the region."

An additional restraint on Beijing's pursuit of closer ties with Iran, the analysts told VOA, is the Chinese government's existing strong economic and military ties with U.S. allies Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Israel.

China has "comprehensive strategic partnerships" with both Saudi Arabia and the UAE, relying on them as two of its main sources of oil imports while also selling arms to both nations. Beijing also has a lower-level partnership with Israel involving investments in the Jewish state's high-tech sector.

Robert Mogielnicki, an analyst at the Washington-based Arab Gulf States Institute, said such relationships are a "safer bet" for China than closer ties with Iran.

"I see a lot more stability and potential for China to build its economic relations and strategic partnerships that already exist in the region, rather than reinventing the wheel with a risky partner like Iran," Mogielnicki said.

This article originated in VOA's Persian Service.

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(Newser)  Daisy Coleman, whose devastating rape in 2012 and the horror that ensued were explored in a 2016 Netflix documentary, is dead at age 23. Coleman, who was just 14 when she was raped by a popular boy she considered a friend at a party in Maryville, Missouri, was one of the two subjects of Audrie and Daisy. The other, Audrie Pott, committed suicide days after she was raped at age 15 in California in 2012. In the years after Coleman was raped, after she endured bullying, threats, harassment, and worse, she became a sexual assault victim advocate, the BBC reports. Charges against her alleged assailant were dropped, which her family claimed was because his family was politically connected. He ultimately pleaded guilty to child endangerment, claiming the sex was consensual. Coleman previously attempted suicide at age 16, Rolling Stone reports.

story continues below

"She never recovered from what those boys did to her and its just not fair. My baby girl is gone," Coleman's mom, Melinda, posted on Facebook. "I wish I could have taken the pain from her!" Daisy Coleman's father died when the girl was 9; one of her brothers, Tristan, was killed in a car crash in 2018 at age 19. After the rape case ostracized the family, their home was burned down. Daisy, who died Saturday night, "had many coping demons and had been facing and overcoming them all, but as many of you know, healing is not a straight path or any easy one. She fought longer and harder than we will ever know," says a statement from SafeBae (Before Anyone Else), the nonprofit Coleman started. It adds that Coleman would want young sexual assault survivors "to know they are heard, they matter, they are loved, and there are places for them to get the help they need." (Read more Daisy Coleman stories.)
Poker Player Susie Zhao Bound, Sexually Assaulted Before Murder (UPDATED 8/13/20)

August 06 2020 Mo Nuwwarah

Police in White Lake, Michigan have made an arrest following the highly publicized murder of poker player Susie Zhao.

Jeffery Morris, 60, was arrested last week and then charged with first-degree murder on Tuesday, according to Fox 2 Detroit.

Zhao's body was found badly burned on July 13 in a state recreation area and identified a week later. The 33-year-old had reportedly moved back in with family in Michigan after spending previous years as a regular cash player in the L.A. area.

She was known in poker for a few deep World Series of Poker Main Event runs and occasional appearances on the livestreamed cash game "Live at the Bike."

"This is not the end of the investigation into Susie's death but the beginning of the pursuit of justice for her and her family," Detective Lt. Chris Hild said.

More Case Details Out

Jeffery Morris has been charged with murder.

In a Wednesday press conference, police said Zhao and Morris met the night before the murder at a motel at which Zhao sometimes stayed. Police said the investigation into any possible relationship between the two remains ongoing.

They also said Zhao's poker or other gambling activities aren't believed to be a factor in the case.

Morris was arrested on Friday after being pulled over by police. He has a lengthy list of priors including domestic violence, is a registered sex offender, and is currently on probation for fraud, according to Fox 2 Detroit.

Police called Morris a transient, with a last known address in Pontiac. His most recent landlord had evicted him several months ago, she said.

Arraigned from a hospital where he was bed-ridden for undisclosed reasons, Morris told a judge he'd be taking a state-appointed attorney. He's being held without bond due to the severe crime and his criminal history. He's due back in court Aug. 18, and PokerNews will continue to monitor the story as it develops further.
Amritsar:

The parents of Indian citizen Hamid Ansari, who is lodged in a Pakistani jail, will seek to meet Nawaz Sharif's foreign affairs advisor Sartaj Aziz during the Heart of Asia conference in Amritsar.

Mumbai-based Fauzia Ansari and her husband Nihal arrived in the holy city carrying several placards with the hope of getting back their son, who has already completed his jail term, from the neighbouring country.

Fauzia said she had written a letter to Aziz seeking an appointment to request for the release of her 32-year-old son.

She said as there was no reply from Aziz's office, she will now stand near the venue of the conference and display placards.

Hamid, an IT engineer and an MBA degree holder, had gone to Kabul on November 4, 2012 from where he wanted to reach Pakistan allegedly to meet a Pakistani girl he had been in touch with through e-mails.

There was no whereabouts of him after November 10. The deputy attorney general of Pakistan had informed the court that Hamid was in the custody of Pakistani army and had been awarded three years' imprisonment.

Fauzia had filed a writ petition in the Peshawar high court seeking release of her son after the completion of his jail term.

The petition was dismissed as the court had observed that army would decide on his release since he was in its custody.

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PLA 1st amphibious assault ship appears on maiden voyage, photos show

Global Times

By Liu Xuanzun Source: Global Times Published: 2020/8/5 15:50:53

China's first Type 075 amphibious assault ship appears to have embarked on its first sea trial on Wednesday, judging from online videos, pictures, and a sea trial notice in relevant waters by the Maritime Safety Administration.

The presumed maiden voyage will likely test the amphibious assault ship's main systems, including propulsion, navigation and communication, military experts said.

China's first domestically built Type 075 amphibious assault ship was spotted leaving the Hudong Zhonghua Shipyard along the Huangpu river in Shanghai on Wednesday, according to unverified videos and photos posted on Chinese social media on the day.

A navigation restriction notice released by the Maritime Safety Administration of China, also heightened assumptions the ship was heading to sea. The notice, published on Tuesday, said a ship would leave the Hudong Zhonghua Shipyard on Wednesday afternoon for a sea trial, and traffic control would be in force in related waters and other ships should pay attention.

The navigation restriction notice did not specify which ship was to be involved in the sea trial, but military observers said it was very likely the Type 075, and military enthusiasts claimed that they have seen the Type 075 leaving the shipyard on Wednesday and posted related photos on Chinese social media.

Li Jie, a Beijing-based naval expert, told the Global Times that a first sea trial would likely test the Type 075's propulsion system among other major systems including navigation and communication systems.

The ship was launched on September 25, 2019 in Shanghai with a grand ceremony, the Xinhua News Agency reported at that time.

If the ship is heading to sea, it would be less than a year between its launch and maiden voyage, which could indicate the outfitting work of the first Type 075 has been progressing smoothly, Li said, noting that in the past few months, the ship was likely outfitted with electromechanical devices, power units, communication systems, radars, circuits, and pipes.

In early April, the ship reportedly caught on fire, which was quickly extinguished. Sources told the Global Times then that the fire was very minor and would not impact further construction.

Li said that a sea trial would show that the fire did not delay the ship's construction.

It usually takes a new warship a year or two to formally join military service after its first sea trial, military analysts said. This means the first Type 075 will likely be commissioned into the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy in 2021 or 2022, they said.

On April 22, China launched its second Type 075 amphibious assault ship also in Shanghai, a little more than six months after the launch of the first. Experts said that China has mastered mature technologies, prepared related aviation equipment and needs the ships in safeguarding sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The Type 075 is comparable to the US' Wasp-class amphibious assault ship. This type of Chinese warship is widely expected to play a major role around the Taiwan Straits and the South China Sea.

The fast progress of the Type 075's construction is also an indication of China's urgent need of this type of ships, observers said.

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China Gezhouba Group Corporation (CGGC), the Chinese company specializing in the construction of hydropower facilities, has shown substantial investment interests in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Embassy in China said following a meeting of Ambassador Serhiy Kamyshev and CGGC Chairman Lyu Zexiang.

"In order to successfully implement mutual interests, the CGGC leadership was provided with the embassy's recommendations on interaction with interested authorities in Ukraine, and expressed readiness to provide diplomatic support to relevant investment projects," the embassy said on its Facebook page.

The embassy said that the Chinese state-owned company has been operating since 1970, specializing in the construction of hydropower facilities in China and outside the country. Its calling card is the construction of the world's biggest Three Gorges Dam in Hubei province. Today, the company is a participant in similar projects all over the world, carrying out their construction and co-financing. The Ukrainian office of the company operates in Kyiv.
Actor Akshay Kumar on Wednesday shared a news item on the digital billboard of the Ram Mandir, displayed prominently at New Yorks iconic Times Square. He said Diwali had arrived early this year.

The actor wrote: Diwali came early this year. Historical day indeed! Jai Siya Ram. The picture displays the final shape the temple will take after the construction is complete.

Diwali came early this year. Historical day indeed! Jai Siya Ram https://t.co/whrIXK8yhn  Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) August 5, 2020

Pictures and videos of the digital billboard were shared by many Twitter users as well. One user wrote: Shree Ram Mandir digital billboard in New Yorks Times Square, USA #JaiShriRam. Another user wrote: I was so proud to see our Ram Mandir and Ramji in Times Square today. Lets celebrate this once in a lifetime event tonight at 7:30 pm. The ceremony for the construction of the temple took place on Wednesday in Ayodhya with Prime Minister Narendra Modi performing the bhoomi pujan of the temple.

Meanwhile, Akshay has resumed work. The actor shot seven ads within 10 days and will reportedly fly to the UK to begin work on his next film, Bellbottom. Speaking about it, he mentioned how it was not possible to live with fear. Of course, I was, but for how long can you live in fear? Initially, when the pandemic started, very little was known about the virus  the way it affects a person. So, there was a lot of fear. Now, with time, we know more and also that its possible to beat it if weve a good immune system. Hence, I decided to get back to work taking all the precautions, not just for me but the entire unit.

Also read: Sushant Singh Rajputs sister shares positive WhatsApp chat from less than a month before his death: You loved us so dearly

The actor has a busy calendar going forward -- on the occasion of rakhi festival, he announced a film called Raksha Bandhan. In October, he will resume shooting for his film Atrangi Re, which also stars Sara Ali Khan and Dhanush. He is also slated to start shooting for his debut web series in 2021. His next release will be Rohit Shettys cop drama, Sooryavanshi.

(With PTI inputs)

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Sri Lankas ruling Rajapaksa alliance has won a two-thirds majority in the parliamentary election, according to official results released on Friday, August 7.

As per international media reports, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksas party secured 146 seats. On the other hand, his allies won at least five seats to give him and his brother Gotabaya, who is also Sri Lankas President, the supermajority required for constitutional changes in the 225-member legislature.

Sri Lanka successfully conducted the parliamentary elections on Wednesday. More than 16 million people were eligible to vote to elect 196 lawmakers, with the rest being named from a national list according to the number of votes received by each party or independent group.

READ: PM Modi Congratulates Sri Lanka's Mahinda Rajapaksa Over Successful Conduct Of Polls

READ: Sri Lankans Vote In Elections Amid Virus Measures

SLPP set to form new government

While at least four members of the Rajapaksa family were running in the election, PM Mahinda Rajapaksa was poised to stage a political comeback as his party took an early lead. Meanwhile, before the counting of votes began, Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party founder and its National Organiser Basil Rajapaksa expressed confidence in the party's victory.

According to reports, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa plans to amend the Constitution to restore presidential powers curbed by a 2015 constitutional change. While the president is not a candidate, care-taker PM Mahinda Rajapaksa was running from the northwestern capital district of Kurunegala.

PM Modi Congratulates Mahinda Rajapaksa

Prime Minister Narendra Modi dialed his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa late on Thursday and congratulated him on the successful conduct of parliamentary elections a day earlier. PM Modi commended the government and electoral institutions of Sri Lanka for effectively organising elections despite constraints of the Coronavirus pandemic.

PM Modi appreciated the Sri Lankan people for their enthusiastic participation in the elections, and said that this reflected the strong democratic values shared by both countries, a statement from the MEA said.

(Image Credits: PTI)

READ: Sri Lanka Elections Pass Without Glitch Amid Virus

READ: Sri Lanka: Voters Assemble In Long Queues Wearing Masks As Poll Begins
BRANDON  Three more workers at the Maple Leaf Foods pork-processing plant in Brandon have tested positive for COVID-19, the union representing workers said Thursday morning.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 6/8/2020 (530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON  Three more workers at the Maple Leaf Foods pork-processing plant in Brandon have tested positive for COVID-19, the union representing workers said Thursday morning.

The UFCW local 832 said in a news release it was made aware of the three additional cases late Wednesday night. They are union employees who don't work on the production line, the release said.

Maple Leaf and the union said Wednesday that there was a confirmed case of COVID-19 at the plant dating back to last week. Seventy workers were said to be self-isolating as they wait for test results to come back.

"UFCW 832 is now calling for Maple Leaf to cease production until Monday, August 10, at the earliest, until we have more results from the outstanding tests among our members at Maple Leaf," UFCW local 832 president Jeff Traeger said in the release.

In a letter to provincial Health Minister Cameron Friesen sent today, the union said, "It is our understanding that numerous test results are expected back shortly. We fully expect to hear that many more of those are positive, and we strongly believe that the most prudent action is to cease production until more test results come back and we have a better sense of the trend."

Maple Leaf says it's taking precautions, has no plan to cease production and that the workers appear to have contracted the virus in the community.

"We will continue to operate our Brandon plant as long as we believe we can provide an environment that will protect the safety of our people while working," the company said in an email to the Free Press this morning. "Given our daily health screening, temperature monitoring, social distancing and the personal protective equipment all team members wear while at work, we feel confident that our plant environment is safe."

When it learned of the positive test results, it implemented a COVID-19 response plan and asked several other "team members" to self-quarantine. It notified employees, the Canada Food Inspection Agency and the union, the company said. The cases among the plant workers correspond with a recent increase in Brandon, it said.

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"After a careful and detailed review of the circumstances around the cases, it appears very likely that the team members contracted COVID-19 in the community," the company said. The Maple Leaf spokesperson said they're in contact with the four infected employees, who are all recovering at home now.

The welfare of its people "is paramount," the company said. "Every day, we seek ways to strengthen our protective measures even further. Our plants and people have transformed how they operate through social distancing, plexiglass separators on production lines where possible, marks on floors to control movement in certain directions and efforts to decrease density, like staggered shifts and additional break space. These changes can be seen in a video about our efforts."

In other cases where one or more workers tested positive for COVID-19 at food-processing plants  such as at Cargills beef processing plant in High River, Alta.  positive cases led to shutdowns. The Calgary Herald reported that two workers at that plant died of COVID-19 and nearly 1,000 more were infected.

Some families of workers at that Cargill plant have since filed a class-action lawsuit against the company, alleging it did not take appropriate measures to keep employees and their loved ones.

Another Maple Leaf plant in Montreal had an outbreak earlier this year that led to the death of at least one employee.

 Brandon Sun/Winnipeg Free Press
WSU Hosts 2020 Commencement, Aug. 29

August 6, 2020

OGDEN, Utah  Weber State University will host its spring 2020 commencement ceremony Aug. 29 at 8 p.m. in Stewart Stadium.

The event will carefully follow health department recommendations for social distancing. In compliance with the states phased guidelines, everyone in attendance must bring and wear a face covering. Each graduate will be allowed one graduate ticket and up to four guest tickets. In order to have their names read, graduates should register for tickets by Aug 24. Guests can register for tickets until Aug. 26. Only those with tickets will be allowed in the stadium. To register for tickets, visit commencement at weberstatetickets.com.

WSU faculty and staff will be able to register for any remaining tickets beginning Aug. 27 at 10 a.m.

Ticket holders will be socially distanced into groups of two. Section G will be set aside for individuals at higher risk for COVID-19.

Graduates and their guests are encouraged to arrive early to allow time for parking and seating. Gates will open at 6:30 p.m. Everyone should be in their places by 7:50 p.m. Graduates will be seated on the field and guests in the east and west stands.

For those who cannot attend, the program will be streamed live at weber.edu/commencement.

"The graduating class of 2020 will always be remembered as those who had the determination to complete their college education during a time of historic tumult, said WSU President Brad Mortensen. I applaud their grit and tenacity and know they will use these strengths to continue to lead and succeed."

This years graduation speaker is Crystal Call Maggelet, CEO of FJ Management Inc. Maggelet is currently one of 18 people appointed by the governor to serve on the Utah Board of Higher Education.

Maggelet will be awarded an honorary degree along with James C. Hurst, who passed away in May 2020 after a lifetime as a university administrator and philanthropist; Joe McQueen, an Ogden Jazz legend, who died December 2019 at age 100; and Sam Zeveloff, WSU Presidential Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Zoology.

The 2020 Brady Distinguished Professors, history professor Sara Dant and zoology professor Christopher Hoagstrom, will also be honored during the program.

Business administration major Clarissa McEuen will represent graduates as this years student speaker.

In the 2019-20 academic year, which includes three semesters: summer, fall and spring, Weber State awarded 5,792 degrees. Of those, 2,930 were awarded degrees in spring 2020 and will be honored during the event. Because of this years delayed commencement, summer 2020 graduation applicants are also eligible to participate.

Graduates of the class of 2020 earned a combined 333 masters degrees; 2,607 bachelors; 2,684 associates; and 168 certificates, including graduate certificates.

Of the graduates, 3,426 are females and 2,366 males.

In addition to the ceremony, WSU will light the W on the hillside east of campus to honor the achievements of the class of 2020.

Visit weber.edu/wsutoday for more news about Weber State University.
Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said 807 new coronavirus cases were reported Thursday, continuing the dip in new cases over the past week.

Levine reported the new numbers at a press conference with Gov. Tom Wolf on efforts to expand testing capacity across the state. Since the emergence of the pandemic, 116,521 Pennsylvanians have contracted the coronavirus, Levine said.

Over the past week, the state has averaged less than 800 new cases per day. In the previous seven-day period, the state was averaging almost 1,000 new cases per day. The state hasnt registered 1,000 new infections in a day since July 28.

Across Pennsylvania, 7,282 deaths have been tied to COVID-19, Levine said Thursday. Based on that number, the state is reporting 38 new fatalities over the past day. More than two-thirds of the states coronavirus deaths have occurred in long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes, according to the health department.

Levine noted the state has boosted its testing capacity and is administering, on average, about 22,000 tests per day. At the peak of the virus in April, the state was performing about 8,000 tests per day.

The state is partnering with Walmart and Quest Laboratories to offer more locations for people to get tested. Walmart launched nine new testing sites Wednesday, in addition to some testing sites already in operation at some of the retailers locations in Pennsylvania.

The governor said such efforts are critical to stem the spread of COVID-19. He said its not enough to get tests; people have to be able to have access to them.

Were going to continue to build up our testing and contact tracing, Wolf said.

In the news conference, Wolf said just under 5 percent of the states tests are positive, which is just below the benchmark health professionals have cited as a level of concern.

Wolf and Levine acknowledged the delay in getting test results thats been seen nationally, as laboratories have been overwhelmed with cases and also been confronted with a shortage of supplies. Some of those tested have waited as long as 14 days to get results, which Levine said is too long.

Levine said the state is trying to obtain re-agents, which are necessary to conduct COVID-19 tests, from sources across the world.

After a steady rise in coronavirus cases since late June, the number of new cases has dropped a bit in recent days.

Heres a look at new cases over the past five weeks.

July 3-9: 4,793 new cases, an average of 684 per day

July 10-16: 5,579 new cases, an average of 797 per day

July 17-23: 5,912 new cases, an average of 844 per day

July 24-30: 6,720 new cases, an average of 960 per day

July 31-Aug. 6: 5,443 new cases, an average of 777 per day

There are 1,183,730 people who have tested negative to date, according to the health department.

Wolf and Levine continue to stress the importance of social distancing and wearing masks to slow the spread of COVID-19. They said its particularly important to keep cases from spiking as schools and colleges prepare to open their doors to students later this month.

Across Pennsylvania, 4,943 coronavirus deaths have occurred in nursing homes and personal care homes, according to the health department.

The department said 19,799 residents in long-term care facilities have contracted COVID-19, along with 4,071 employees. A total of 23,870 people have contracted the virus in long-term care facilities.

Cases have been found at 870 long-term care facilities in 61 counties.

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A royal biographer has claimed that Prince Harry has become a shadow of his former self and lost some of his charismatic, mischievous charm over the past few years as a result of only focusing on negativity.

Angela Levin, the author of Harry: Conversations with the Prince, made the claims during an appearance on ITVs Royal Rota.

Harrys changed enormously since I met him, Levin said. I found that he was charismatic, he had royal stardust about him.

He was brilliant with people, especially if they were physically, emotionally or psychologically damaged, hes got a mischievous side.

However, in the years since she wrote her 2018 biography of the Duke of Sussex, Levin said he has become a shadow of his former self.

According to the author, the change is especially noticeable when reading excerpts from Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of A Modern Family, the upcoming biography written about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex by royal reporters Carolyn Durrand and Omid Scobie.

When you read even just the extracts, you realise that actually the pile of grievance they hold going back a few years now is absolutely extraordinary, Levin said of the duke and duchess, adding that most of the grievances are incredibly petty.

But when you add them up its like a great big sand castle of tiny little bits and pieces that you feel is not right, she continued. They ignore all of the wonderful things they have had, the prerogatives and chances to meet great people and do charity work they want to do. And theyre focused, it seems to me, entirely on the negative.

The London-based author also suggested Prince Harry may be struggling to adapt to his new, more-private life in the United States with Meghan, as he previously loved being part of a team from his military experience.

The Queen is the captain, isnt she? Levin said, adding that Prince Harry had said being part of a team was very important to him and he loved it.

He felt you couldnt really achieve anything without being a team, she said.

Levins remarks follow excerpts released from the upcoming biography in which the authors claim there were numerous instances when the royal couple felt frustrated with their treatment as members of the royal family.

In addition to reports of tension between Prince William and Prince Harry, the book also alleges that the couple grew frustrated that they often took a back seat to other family members.

While they both respected the hierarchy of the institution, it was difficult when they wanted to focus on a project and were told that a more senior ranking family member, be it Prince William or Prince Charles, had an initiative or tour being announced at the same time  so they would just have to wait, the book reads.

Finding Freedom will be released on 11 August.
COVID-19 has severely impacted communities of color, making the decision especially difficult for African American and Latino parents on whether to send their kids back to school that may be ill-equipped to manage a pandemic.

African American and Latino communities have the highest incidents of COVID-19 cases, including large numbers of hospitalizations and death, the result of health disparities and lack of access to quality medical care.

Harrisburg University professors Geoffrey Roche and Nancy Mimm are guests at 2 p.m. Thursday on Live On with Joyce Davis to discuss the health disparities that make COVID-19 especially dangerous for communities of color, and that are causing many parents to question whether their kids will be safe returning to the classroom.

Roche is Director of Strategic Healthcare Initiatives at Harrisburg University and has just been selected to serve on the Health Equity Task Force of the National Infrastructure for Mitigating the Impact of COVID-19 within Racial and Ethnic Minority Communities (NIMIC) initiative.

Mimm is Assistant Professor in the Nursing Program who specializes in Population Health at Harrisburg University.

Bring your comments and questions to the Facebook Live discussion today to continue the conversation on back-to-school issues and COVID-19.

Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. You deserve the best. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work.

And please subscribe to Battleground PA to stay abreast of the issues in the 2020 elections!
Samsung Electronics hosted its first-ever Galaxy Unpacked virtual event livestreamed from Korea to introduce a new suite of power devices that seamlessly integrate to empower consumers navigating a rapidly changing world

These include Galaxy Note20 and Galaxy Note20 Ultra, the most powerful Note series yet; Tab S7 and S7+, versatile tablets for productivity and creativity; Galaxy Watch3, a premium smartwatch along with advanced health features; Galaxy Buds Live, stylish and ergonomic earbuds with amazing sound quality; and Galaxy Z Fold2, the next generation foldable smartphone with enhanced refinements.

Never before have we relied on technology like we are today. Its how we are staying connected as we navigate the extraordinary challenges faced around the world," said Dr. TM Roh, President and Head of Mobile Communications Business, Samsung Electronics.

"Technology must make life easier, not more complex. Thats why we have introduced five new power devices. Alone, these devices are powerful tools to help you maximize work and play. Together, as part of the Galaxy ecosystem, they work together seamlessly so you can spend your time focused on what matters most," he added.

On the Galaxy Note20 series, Samsung said it is a productivity powerhouse that works like a computer and lets you game like a pro.

The series comes in two versions: Galaxy Note20 Ultra, designed for Note fans who demand the ultimate in power and productivity, and Galaxy Note20, for broader Note users looking to maximize their time for work and play. Both are built for efficiency, so you have more time to stay connected with the people you love.

Now, on the Galaxy Note20 series, new S Pen and Samsung Notes features provide an even more powerful experience and extend to Galaxy Tab S7 and Tab S7+ for flexibility and convenience. Plus, a deeper relationship with Samsungs long-standing partner, Microsoft, makes the Galaxy Note20 series and your Windows PC seamlessly work together.

On its new tablets series, Galaxy Tab S7 and S7+ are two versatile tablets that combine the power of a PC, the flexibility of a tablet, and the connectivity of a smartphone.

Building on Samsungs legacy of Galaxy 5G leadership, Galaxy Tab S7 and S7+ will be unlocking seamless videoconferencing, fast downloads, and virtually lag-free streaming.

Experience PC-level productivity on Galaxy Tab S7 and S7+ thanks to a powerful processor, an improved keyboard experience (keyboard sold separately as Book Cover Keyboard), and an improved S Pen with similar capabilities as the Galaxy Note20 seriesall empowering you to get more done in less time.

For users who want even more space to work, play, and create, Galaxy Tab S7+ offers an extra-large 12.4 Super AMOLED display.

Galaxy Watch3 is a next-generation companion for managing your routines, smashing your fitness goals, and taking ownership over your health.

Built with premium materials and a slimmed-down version of the popular rotating bezel, Galaxy Watch3 features the craftsmanship of a luxury timepiece, while still being comfortable enough to wear all day and all night.

With the Blood oxygen feature, you can measure and track oxygen saturation over time, for fitness and wellness purposes.

According to Samsung, Galaxy Buds Live is the most stylish and ergonomic earbuds with amazing sound quality and a truly iconic design and comfortable fit.

Combining AKGs sound expertise with a bigger, 12mm speaker compared to Galaxy Buds+, along with a bass duct, audio sounds deep and rich so you can enjoy music the way the artist intended, it stated.

"Galaxy Buds Live come with three microphones and Voice Pickup Unit so you can feel like youre in the same room as your loved ones, even when youre apart. These earbuds feature Active Noise Cancellation for open type bringing the best of both: live and spacious sound quality, with the ability for you to tune in (or out) of the world around you. Get lost in an audiobook without missing the train conductors announcement, explained Roh.

According to him, Samsung continues to pioneer an entirely new category of mobile devices by introducing the next generation of foldables Galaxy Z Fold2.

After releasing two foldable devices and listening to user feedback on the most requested upgrades and new features, we have rolled out the Galaxy Z Fold2 with meaningful innovations that offer users enhanced refinements and unique foldable user experiences, he explained.

Galaxy Z Fold2 combines the portability and flexibility of a smartphone with the power and screen size of a tablet for ultimate productivity.

"Whether folded or unfolded, you can enjoy a luxury mobile experience with Galaxy Z Fold2s premium design. The Galaxy Z Fold2 comes packed with two edge-to-edge, nearly bezel-less Infinity-O Displays. The Cover Screen is 6.2-inches and the massive Main Screen is 7.6-inches , making them both larger than the Galaxy Fold," he stated.

"With its sleek design and refined engineering, Galaxy Z Fold2 comes in two equally stunning colors: Mystic Black and Mystic Bronze. For users who seek a unique premium design, Samsung is again partnering with iconic New York fashion house Thom Browne to deliver a limited Galaxy Z Fold2 Thom Browne Edition. With Galaxy Z Fold2, Samsung will continue to inspire all new possibilities for the entire foldable category," he added.

The Galaxy Note20 series and Tab S7 series will be available in select markets starting August 21, 2020.
ST. LOUIS, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ameren workers across Illinois and Missouri are heading to the East Coast this morning to assist in repairing damage and restoring power outages in the aftermath of Hurricane Isaias.

Approximately 50 Ameren Illinois personnel and 70 contractor personnel, including linemen, fleet, logistics and safety will assist crews from Eversource Energy in Connecticut. Ameren Missouri is sending more than 125 co-worker and contractor resources from across the state to assist Eversource and Public Service Enterprise Group in New Jersey.

"We have extensive experience in restoration efforts in Illinois. We will rely on that experience to answer the call for people in the greater Connecticut area," said Richard Mark, chairman and president, Ameren Illinois. "My thoughts and prayers are with those in the aftermath of the hurricane and for all personnel traveling to respond to this event."

"When a major weather event affects the United States, Ameren Missouri stands ready to lend a hand," said Marty Lyons, chairman and president of Ameren Missouri. "Ameren customers in both Missouri and Illinois have benefited many times from mutual aid from sister utilities following storms here in the Midwest, and we are glad that the expertise, skill and dedication of our co-workers and contractors will be there for other Americans in need, now and through the remainder of hurricane season."

Ameren response personnel and crew are taking extra precautions to mitigate the risks associated with COVID-19. Preventive actions, such as social distancing and use of protective eyewear and gloves, are being implemented.



Hurricane Isaias made landfall on the evening of Aug. 3 near Myrtle Beach, N.C., as a Category 1 hurricane bringing with it sustained winds of 90 miles per hour. Millions of people are without power along the East Coast.

Ameren Illinois and Ameren Missouri are voluntary members of the electric power industry's mutual assistance network through the Edison Electric Institute. When called upon, a company will send either company employees, contractors or both, along with specialized equipment to help with the restoration efforts of a fellow company. In essence, it allows a utility hit by a major or catastrophic storm to expand its workforce by borrowing field personnel from other companies in unaffected areas. Ameren has helped with catastrophic events such as Hurricane Irma and Maria in Puerto Rico in 2017, Superstorm Sandy in 2012 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

About Ameren

St. Louis-based Ameren Corporation powers the quality of life for 2.4 million electric customers and more than 900,000 natural gas customers in a 64,000-square-mile area through its Ameren Missouri and Ameren Illinois rate-regulated utility subsidiaries. Ameren Illinois provides electric transmission and distribution service and natural gas distribution service. Ameren Missouri provides electric generation, transmission and distribution service, as well as natural gas distribution service. Ameren Transmission Company of Illinois develops, owns and operates rate-regulated regional electric transmission projects. For more information, visit Ameren.com, or follow us on Twitter at @AmerenCorp, Facebook.com/AmerenCorp, or LinkedIn/company/Ameren.

SOURCE Ameren Corporation

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For months, physicians around the world worried that the rise in COVID-19 cases would cause an international ventilator shortage as patients relied on machines to help them breathe.

Health care administrators looked to stopgap measures from reserving the ventilators for the sickest to taking patients who are near death off the ventilators to hand-pumping air into a persons lungs.

Now, a group of Rice University researchers and a Houston manufacturing company are introducing an automated version of one type of ventilator known as a bag valve mask that could be an inexpensive solution to global shortages. Bag valve mask ventilators are traditionally hand pumped by doctors, nurses and emergency medical technicians to help patients breathe.

The manufactured version of the Rice ventilator, called the ApolloABVM, replaces human power with machine power by using electric motors and tiny, portable computers programmed to squeeze the bag at regular intervals. It offers a solution to medical professionals who would otherwise squeeze the bag for minutes, even hours, to help patients breathe while waiting for an advanced ventilator.

What this can do is provide a kind of bridge ventilation, said Maria Oden, director of Rices Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen, an engineering projects lab.

MORE SUPPLY: NASA-developed ventilator receives FDA authorization for emergency use

Student engineers at the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen on Rices campus developed the ApolloABVM, which was in the works long before the pandemic.

In 2018, Dr. Rohith Malya, an assistant professor of bioengineering at Rice, brought the idea to student engineers at the lab after watching doctors and the families of dying patients spend hours pumping air into lungs by hand.

Two years later, engineers have developed a machine that squeezes the bag automatically and provides a small screen that shows the respiratory rate. The manufacturer, Stewart & Stevenson Healthcare Technologies, a subsidiary of Houston barge tank operator Kirby Corp., recently won emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates medical devices.

Each device costs less than $300 in materials to produce, a far cry from ventilators that can cost thousands of dollars. Bag valve masks are usually used in emergency situations when a ventilator may not be readily available.

Medical professionals prefer the more expensive and sophisticated machines when a patient needs long-term ventilation. While a version of the mask in the lab has run for roughly three weeks, ApolloABVM is best used in settings where ventilation is needed for just a few hours.

We can now commence manufacturing and distribution of this low-cost device to the front lines, providing healthcare professionals with a sturdy and portable ventilation device for patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Joe Reniers in a statement. Reniers is president of Kirby Distribution and Services, a Kirby Corp. subsidiary that sells industrial equipment.

Companies around the globe have rushed to fill shortages of equipment used to fight COVID-19, from developing personal protective equipment such as masks and face shields to ventilators. The demand for medical equipment skyrocketed at the beginning of the pandemic and remains high in burdened health care systems.

Full-fledged ventilators require many components, some of which are custom made, and highly skilled workers to assemble them. This caused demand to quickly outstrip supply, said Margaret Kidd, a professor who studies supply chain and logistics at the University of Houston. That led to fights to buy what equipment was available.

Texas Inc.: Get the best of business news sent directly to your inbox

Everyone was trying to game the system and buy ventilators wherever they were, and they were bidding against each other, Kidd said.

More than 6,500 ventilators were available and not in use in the state as of Wednesday, and most hospitals in the United States have an adequate number of ventilators for their COVID-19 patients. But some rural areas and hospitals overseas, particularly in countries where there arent many ventilators, could benefit from the automated pumping devices. They could also be used in ambulances when transporting patients to other medical facilities.

If theyre not needed here in the United States, I have every belief that they will fill a niche worldwide that is very, very needed, Oden said.

Filling the niche is also made possible by federal officials who have granted emergency use authorizations (EUAs) for the duration of the pandemic to make up for shortages of medical supplies.

Under an EUA, manufacturers usually dont have to provide years of data to prove the efficacy of a device, said Christina Talley, an adjunct professor at the University of St. Thomass clinical translation management program, which studies the business of biosciences and regulatory affairs. But, she said, they are still required to prove that the product is safe and would relieve medical professionals in an overburdened system.

The main purpose of the EUA function is to address a public health crisis, Talley said, allowing a route for a product that isn't approved through a normal channel to have an express route.

Part of the draw of the ventilator product is that Stewart & Stevensons manufacturers, located in Texas and Oklahoma, wont be the only ones making the devices. The Rice engineers posted plans for the device online, and it requires less than $300 in materials to produce. The plans have been downloaded by nearly 3,000 people worldwide.

The decision by Rice researchers to make it open-source, rather than patenting it, is a good sign for health care costs, experts said. It means that product prices will remain low if people have access to the plans to produce the devices.

Normally high tech is patented and protected, Kidd said. Youre seeing the best in humanity come out.

gwendolyn.wu@chron.com

twitter.com/gwendolynawu
Saad al-Jabri alleges in a lawsuit that MBS sent a Saudi hit squad to kill him soon after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.

A former top Saudi intelligence officer claims that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) sent a hit squad to kill him in Canada 13 days after the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to documents filed in the United States federal court.

In a 106-page lawsuit (PDF) filed with the US District Court in Washington, DC on Thursday, Saad al-Jabri, a permanent resident of Canada, alleged that Prince Mohammed dispatched a group of hitmen, known as the Tiger Squad, to assassinate him.

He claims that his close ties with the US intelligence community and deep knowledge of the young princes activities have rendered him one of the aspiring monarchs key targets.

Few places hold more sensitive, humiliating and damning information about Defendant bin-Salman than the mind and memory of Dr. Saad  except perhaps the recordings Dr. Saad made in anticipation of his killing, reads the lawsuit.

That is why Defendant bin Salman wants him dead  and why Defendant bin Salman has worked to achieve that objective over the past three years, the lawsuit alleges.

Members of what the documents call bin Salmans personal mercenary group, the Tiger Squad arrived at Toronto Pearson Airport on tourist visas in mid-October 2018, roughly two weeks after Khashoggis killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Carrying two bags of forensic tools, and complete with forensic personnel experienced with the clean-up of crime scenes  including an instructor in the exact same criminal evidence department as the forensic specialist who dismembered Khashoggi with a bone saw  the Tiger Squad Defendants attempted to enter Canada covertly, traveling on tourist visas and seeking to avert the detection of Canadian border security by entering through separate kiosks, the lawsuit alleges.

Several intelligence agencies, including the CIA, have concluded that MBS ordered Khashoggis killing  accusations that Riyadh has denied.





According to the lawsuit, al-Jabris targeting is part and parcel of MBSs campaign to stifle dissent.

The lawsuit further alleges that Bader Alasaker, the head of his private office and executive director of the Prince Mohammed Bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Foundation (also known as the MiSK Foundation), cultivated a network of covert agents whom he has deployed to target individuals who undermine Defendant bin Salman in the United States.

MiSK is Prince Mohammeds charitable organisation that aims to develop Saudi youth to contribute to the countrys future economy through education, creative and digital media, technology, culture and arts initiatives.

MiSK is known for sending Saudi students to prestigious universities in the US through fellowships.

Regarding covert operations, the lawsuit alleges that an unidentified defendant, John Doe 1, conducted physical surveillance of a family apartment of Dr. Saad at the Mandarin Oriental in Boston, Massachusetts n or around September 2017, and attempted to access Dr. Saads residence there, as part of the plot.

The lawsuit says the plan to kill al-Jabri, a dual citizen of Saudi Arabia and Malta, was thwarted after members of the Tiger Squad group, despite attempting to enter Canada through different kiosks, failed to convince agents with the Canadian Border Agency that they did not know each other.

The suit asserts that MBS had ordered the detention of two of al-Jabris children who have gone missing in mid-March and that other relatives have also been arrested and tortured all in an effort to bait Dr. Saad back to Saudi Arabia to be killed.

The claims in the lawsuit are allegations which have not been proven.
Curtis Sittenfeld's "Rodham" Introduces Readers To A Brand-New Hillary Clinton

Rodham: A Novel

By Curtis Sittenfeld

(Random House)

Last year, Hillary Clinton said that the gutsiest thing she had ever done was stay married to Bill Clinton. But what if she hadnt? Scratch thatwhat if she hadnt married him in the first place? Rodham begins as a fictionalized biography. Hillary graduates from Wellesley, heads to law school, and finds herself in a passionate relationship with charismatic Bill Clinton, who then brings her to Arkansas post-graduation. Almost halfway through the novel, however, author Curtis Sittenfeld steers Hillary Rodham onto a very different path: she leaves Bill, drives back to Chicago, and begins her political career eight years before Hillary Clinton would.

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In a word, Rodham is ambitious. Spanning decades, the narrative questions how Americas political landscape might have looked if Hillary and Bill had been adversaries with a past. While delving into the mindset of one of Americas most complicated public figures, Sittenfeld also tackles questions about love, power, and double standards. Her take on Bills sexual misconduct allegationsyep, that part doesnt changeis particularly interesting, and ultimately, her spot-on characterizations of Hillary, Bill, and minor characters like Donald Trump, ground the novel even when it veers towards the outlandish. (4/5)

By Lydia Wang

This article originally appeared in the Summer 2020 print edition of BUST Magazine. Subscribe today!

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The suit was filed in New York county in the New York State Supreme Court. At a press conference announcing the suit, James said the NRA was "a breeding ground for greed, abuse, and brazen illegality."

According to the lawsuit, the senior leadership of the NRA squandered millions in donations on personal trips, private jets and expensive meals. The failure to lawfully manage the organization's funds contributed to losses of $64 million over three years, the suit says.

New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday announced that the state is seeking to dissolve the National Rifle Association in a lawsuit that accuses the leadership of the flagging nonprofit of diverting millions of dollars for their own personal use.

New York State Attorney General, Letitia James, speaks during a news conference, to announce a suit to dissolve the National Rifle Association, In New York, U.S., August 6, 2020.

James is asking the court to dissolve the NRA and require each of the current and former executives named in the suit to pay full restitution. The suit argues that the four executives, including CEO Wayne LaPierre, shouldn't be permitted to ever again serve on the board of a New York charity.

"The NRA's influence has been so powerful that the organization went unchecked for decades while top executives funneled millions into their own pockets," James said. "The NRA is fraught with fraud and abuse, which is why, today, we seek to dissolve the NRA, because no organization is above the law."

The New York lawsuit involves allegations of civil, not criminal, violations. But James said that the investigation was ongoing and "if we uncover any criminal activity, we will refer it to the Manhattan district attorney."

D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine announced nearly simultaneously on Thursday that the district was suing the NRA Foundation, alleging that the foundation allowed its funds "to be diverted from charitable purposes and wasted to prop up the NRA in impermissible ways."

NRA president Carolyn Meadows said in a statement that the suit is "a baseless, premeditated attack on our organization and the Second Amendment freedoms it fights to defend."

"You could have set your watch by it: the investigation was going to reach its crescendo as we move into the 2020 election cycle," Meadows said. "It's a transparent attempt to score political points and attack the leading voice in opposition to the leftist agenda."

The suit continues a long-running battle between the state and the gun-rights group, which has been chartered in New York since 1871.

James, who is a Democrat, threatened to investigate the NRA's nonprofit status during her campaign for attorney general and likened the group in 2018 to a "terrorist organization."

James said on Thursday that the suit was unrelated to her personal views on gun violence, but Meadows countered that it was a "a power grab by a political opportunist  a desperate move that is part of a rank political vendetta." The NRA cited James's comments about the NRA being a terrorist organization in a countersuit seeking to end the AG's case.

New York's lawsuit comes as the NRA, which boasts 5 million members and exerts tremendous political pressure around the country, suffers from financial hardship that predates the coronavirus pandemic but which was exacerbated by the economic downturn.

The group, which spent tens of millions of dollars boosting President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, has reportedly laid off 200 staffers in 2020 citing declines in revenue. It also announced pay cuts and four-day work weeks in April.

The lawsuit claims that the group had a $27.8 million surplus in 2015, which declined by about $64 million by 2018, putting the group $36 million under water.

The group's financial situation was in part driven by lavish personal spending by the group's leaders, according to the lawsuit, in violation of their fiduciary duties and New York and federal laws.
(Newser)  A police dog on his very first shift managed to find a missing mother and infant in under two hours, despite their remote location on the edge of a Welsh mountain. The rookie, a 2-year-old German shepherd cross named Max, jumped into action before noon on Saturday, when Dyfed-Powys police received a report that the woman hadn't been seen or heard from in two days. This was "out of character, and her phone wasn't working, so naturally concern for her safety was high," inspector Jonathan Rees-Jones tells the Guardian. The woman's car was soon located on a mountain road, but that left "a vast area to cover," says Rees-Jones. Luckily, Max "immediately commenced an open-area search," leading his handler over a significant distance to reach the mother and child near the edge of a steep ravine by 1:30pm.

story continues below

The woman was waving for help when the handler spotted her with her 1-year-old. They were safe but cold after a night spent outdoors and needed help getting down the mountain, Rees-Jones says. "This was a fantastic coordinated and determined team effort," involving a mountain rescue team and police helicopter, "which no doubt ensured the safety of the mum and baby, who were at significant risk of harm." But "I must give a special mention to PC Pete Lloyd and Max, who on their very first day since completing their training together covered a significant amount of mileage ... eventually locating [the pair]," Rees-Jones adds, per the BBC. Lloyd, who trained with Max upon joining the police dog section in February, is clearly proud of his companion. "Max remained focused" and "proved invaluable," he says. (Read more police dog stories.)
THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON (2019) Stream on Amazon and Hulu. This heartwarming movie tells the story of Zak (Zack Gottsagen), a young man with Down syndrome who lives in a retirement home in North Carolina. One night, he runs away to pursue his dream of attending wrestling school, much to the dismay of his caretaker, Eleanor (Dakota Johnson). Along the way, Zak enlists the help and friendship of Tyler (Shia LaBeouf), a lone fisherman making his way down the Southern Atlantic coast. Though supported by a star-studded cast, The Peanut Butter Falcon truly features Gottsagen  who also has Down syndrome  in a breakout role, Glenn Kenny wrote in his review for The New York Times. Kenny credits Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz  both of whom wrote and directed the film  with giving Gottsagen room to shine as an actor. They make his character a little guy with a big heart, and big dreams, Kenny wrote, and let him have his heros journey.

THE RAIN Stream on Netflix. When this apocalyptic Danish sci-fi series debuted in 2018, The Times critic Mike Hale wrote that it was engineered for current TV trends, and specifically for what appear to be Netflixs appetites. Three seasons later, The Rain is still tense and action-packed in the aftermath of a deadly virus that, transported by rain, wiped out much of the Scandinavian population. This season, Simone (Alba August) learns she must stop her brother, Rasmus (Lucas Lynggaard Tonnesen), from using his newly found powers for potentially malicious purposes.
The U.S. sent in June its first crude oil shipment to Saudi Arabia since the ban on crude export was lifted in 2015, which was also the first shipment since one very small shipment back in 2002, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau reported by Reuters.

The data showed that the United States shipped in June a total of 550,000 barrels of crude oil to Saudi Arabia, the worlds largest crude oil exporter, which is also one of the main suppliers of crude to the U.S.

During the 40-year ban on U.S. crude oil exports, the United States once shipped 1,000 barrels of oil to Saudi Arabia back in 2002, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

The cargo to Saudi Arabia in June may have been part of a bigger shipment headed for another export destination, traders told Reuters.

As of May 2020, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has never recorded any volumes of American crude oil exports to Saudi Arabia in its data series.

Saudi Arabia, for its part, has been one of the largest suppliers of crude oil to the United States, and the third-largest supplier of petroleum in 2019 behind Canada and Mexico.

In May 2020, U.S. imports of Saudi crude oil jumped to a three-year high of 1.151 million barrels per day (bpd) after the Kingdom made good on its promise to flood the market with oil following the collapse of the previous OPEC+ pact in early March. In the previous months of 2020, U.S. imports of Saudi crude had averaged around 400,000 bpd.

In April, when Saudi Arabia and Russia struck a new OPEC+ deal to withhold a record volume of supply from the market during the demand collapse, Saudi oil tankers had already loaded significant volumes of crude and were already traveling to the United States.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Fire has destroyed three stores around the Tarkwa Railway Station, destroying goods and properties running into thousands of Ghana cedis.

The affected structures included a mobile phone shop, saloon, and a boutique.

The blaze was alleged to have started in the early hours on Wednesday, August 5, 2020, from the boutique and spread to the others.

Although the cause of the fire is yet to be established, some eyewitnesses attributed the fire outbreak to an electrical fault in the area where the fire started.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), the Divisional Officer Grade III, Mr Alex Assiem, the Acting Municipal Officer of Ghana National Fire Service, Tarkwa, said his officers had a hard time putting off the fire as they had to struggle through the crowd to bring the situation under control.

He stated that no one was injured and investigations had already begun to ascertain the cause of the fire.

Meanwhile, Mr Francis Amoah, the Municipal National Disaster Management Organization, (NADMO) Coordinator for Tarkwa-Nsuaem, had also visited the scene to access the impact and damage caused.

---GNA
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday filed a case into the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput naming his ex-girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik Chakraborty and four other family members or known associates apart from unknown persons as accused, officials said.

The Mumbai police have been probing the death since Rajputs body was found at his apartment on June 14 but are yet to register a case.

The case was handed over to CBI by the Bihar government after Rajputs father KK Singh and the Bihar police alleged a cover-up by the Mumbai police. They have accused the Mumbai police of destroying evidence and deliberately ignoring leads in the case in an attempt to derail it. The Maharashtra police have questioned the jurisdiction of the Bihar police in the matter. A final call on this matter -- whether Bihar police have the jurisdiction to transfer a case to CBI -- will be taken by the Supreme Court later this week . One school of thought is that it has -- because Rajputs father is based in the state. Another is that it doesnt -- that while it can register a case, it has to transfer it to Mumbai police.

CBI has handed over the investigation to its Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is currently investigating the high-profile AgustaWestland chopper case and the bank fraud case against fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya.

The SIT, also known as Anti-Corruption-6 and headed by Gujarat cadre IPS officer Manoj Shashidhar, was formed in June 2016 under then Special Director Rakesh Asthana to expedite probe against Mallya and in the chopper case. It has successfully secured Mallyas extradition in a UK court and filed a charge sheet against former Air Chief SP Tyagi.

A team from the SIT will station itself in Mumbai to begin questioning people connected with the late actor including his girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty, Bollywood producers and others who gave statements after his death or know about the circumstances related to his death, officials familiar with development said.

The decision to hand over the probe to the SIT was taken as CBIs Special Crimes unit, which usually investigates such cases, has its hands full. The Special Crimes unit is currently probing high-profile cases related to the custodial death of the father-son duo of P Jayaraj and J Bennicks in Tamil Nadu in June as well as the suicide of SHO, Vishnudutt Vishnoi in Churu, Rajasthan, on May 23. In the SHO case, CBI had last month questioned Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlots OSD  Devaram Saini, an official at the agency said requesting anonymity.

Around eight officials of CBIs special crimes unit who had gone to investigate Tamil Nadus custodial deaths are in quarantine after some of them contracted Covid-19.

CBI is likely to take the help of medical experts from reputed institutions to study the postmortem report of Sushant Singh Rajput, another official at the agency said. If it believes at any stage that Rhea Chakraborty or others are misleading it, the agency may even consider conducting lie-detection tests on them, this officer added, asking not to be named.

KK Singh has alleged that Rhea Chakraborty and his family drove his son to suicide and appropriated his (Rajputs) assets.

Apart from Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik Chakraborty, CBI has named her family members and the manager of Rajputs house, Samuel Miranda, as accused . The charges are criminal conspiracy, cheating and abetment to suicide.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is separately investigating the case as it suspects there has been money laundering by some suspects. The ED questioned Samuel Miranda on Thursday while Singhs chartered accountant Sandeep Sridhar was examined on Tuesday.

Rhea Chakraborty has been asked by the ED to appear before it on Friday. Her lawyer Satish Maneshinde said, The Bihar government transferred a case with which it had no jurisdiction to investigate to CBI instead of the Mumbai Police, which is the legal position. The Supreme Court is seized of the issue pursuant to the transfer petition filed by Rhea Chakraborty. The SC has directed all parties to file their replies and Mumbai Police are directed to place the report of investigations.

Pending the said proceedings, the CBI has registered and continued the illegality which was perpetrated at the hands of Bihar Police. CBI being a premier investigative agency in the country should desist from taking any further steps pending the SC proceedings. Apart from the same unless the Maharashtra Government consents to CBI investigating the case... it would be totally illegal and beyond any known legal principles, affecting the federal structure of the nation.

Rajputs death, believed to be a suicide by Mumbai police, initially led to theories about how outsiders have it difficult in Bollywood and the role of nepotism in driving him to desperation, but soon moved on to darker conspiracy theories.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday that he could support an extension of the now-lapsed $600 federal unemployment insurance boost  if President Donald Trump ends up backing it.

At his weekly Senate Republican leadership press conference, McConnell was asked about Speaker Nancy Pelosi's appearing to draw a red line on the weekly federal supplement and whether he could support a negotiated spending package containing it.

"Wherever this thing settles between the president of the United States and his team, who has to sign it into law, and the Democrat, not insignificant minority in the Senate and majority in the House, is something I'm prepared to support," McConnell told reporters. "Even if I have some problems with certain parts of it."

The Kentucky senator added many Republicans would likely not vote for the final stimulus legislation if it restored the measure. It has drawn fierce GOP criticism for months.

"We know this is going to be a negotiated settlement," McConnell said. "It's not going to produce a kumbaya moment like we had back in March and April where everybody voted aye. But the American people in the end need help."

The comments from McConnell signal he could be willing to reverse his position toward the $600 benefit, despite his staunch opposition to extending it in the past. In May, he called it "a crazy policy" and pledged to scrap it during a call with House Republicans first reported by Politico.

Trump, though, does not support renewing the initiative and it's unclear if his position will change as talks on a fifth economic-relief package stretch into their second week with few signs of progress.

Federal unemployment insurance forms one of the biggest rifts in ongoing stimulus negotiations between top congressional Democrats and the White House.

Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are spearheading the discussions on the Democratic side. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows are taking the lead for the administration. McConnell hasn't been a part of the negotiations up to now.

Story continues

Republicans have repeatedly lobbed criticisms at the program, saying it allows many workers to earn more from the government and incentivize people to stay on unemployment. They rolled out a plan last week to cut the benefit to $200 for two months and transition state agencies onto a 70 percent wage-replacement plan starting in October.

The $600 federal supplement onto state unemployment checks was enacted in March, and many economists credit it with boosting the economy during a massive wave of job losses.

But the bulked-up payments expired July 31, and Congress has intensely debated the amount that it should be replaced with. Senate Republicans are still deeply divided on their proposal, which they unveiled four days before the enhanced payments ended.

Democrats are pushing to revive the $600 payouts through January, arguing the economy remains weak with scarce jobs available for unemployed people. Over 30 million people are drawing unemployment benefits.

With negotiations stalling, the Trump administration is weighing a raft of executive actions dealing with enhanced unemployment, an eviction moratorium and a payroll tax cut, The Washington Post reported. But the approach could run into significant legal obstacles.
The National Youth Authority has condemned acts of violence at the Tweneboa Kodua Senior High School at Kumawu in the Ashanti region after students went on a rampage following their first WASSCE paper.



According to the students, their Headmaster was too strict during the invigilation; an act they believe is to make them fail the WASSCE after being in school for three years.



The students, according to reports, vandalized school property and it took the intervention of the District Chief Executive of the area, Samuel Addai Agyekum to get the students to write the other papers.



But a statement signed by the Chief Executive Officer, Sylvester Tetteh, condemns unequivocally, the acts of indiscipline exhibited by these candidates and wishes to admonish all candidates to be appreciative of the noble gestures of government to afford them a brighter future.



The NYA is urging all students, particularly perceived aggrieved ones to continually use legitimate and appropriate means to seek redress and to desist from engaging in any form of destructive behavior.





STATEMENT ON CONDUCT OF WASSCE CANDIDATES



With the 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in progress, management of the National Youth Authority (NYA) has taken note of some videos gone viral on certain social media platforms of some students demonstrating and putting up uncomplimentary behavior which is not only in bad taste, but is also contrary to expectations of students who government has made considerable investments in aid of furthering their education.



The Authority hereby condemns, unequivocally, the acts of indiscipline exhibited by these candidates and wishes to admonish all candidates to be appreciative of the noble gestures of government to afford them a brighter future and remain focused on their studies, be committed to the values of humility, patience, discipline and soberness and to eschew all manner of negative conduct that does not inure to their wellbeing and development.



They shouldnt be intimidated but be assured of the fact that as they stay committed to their studies, theyll surely come out with flying colours.



In this regard, the NYA is urging all students, particularly perceived aggrieved ones to continually use legitimate and appropriate means to seek redress and to desist from engaging in any form of destructive behavior.



Finally, the Authority entreats the youth of Ghana, to nurture and develop selfless and patriotic traits that will go a long way at advancing the progress of their communities whilst equipping them to assume the roles of productive citizenship and as custodians of our nations rich cultural heritage.



Best of luck to you all and may your efforts be crowned with success!



SIGNED:



Mr. Sylvester Tetteh



CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER













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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More evidence has emerged about the dangers of asymptomatic patients with the novel coronavirus.

Researchers found that the viral load of those without symptoms is just as high as infected people who cough and run fevers.

What's more, because asymptomatic patients contained as much of the virus, known as SARS-CoV-2, in their noses and and throats, they were just as likely to spread the disease.

The team, from Soonchunhyang University Seoul Hospital in South Korea, says the findings further suggest the importance of ramping up testing and contact tracing so that people without symptoms can quickly isolate and decrease the risk of transmission.

A new study found that the viral loads of asymptomatic coronavirus patients were very similar to those seen in patients with symptoms (above)

For the study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, the team looked at 303 patients infected with the virus between March 6 and March 26.

All of the participants were isolated at a community treatment center in Cheonan, South Korea - a city south of capital of Seoul.

Of that total, 63.7 percent were symptomatic when they entered isolation. Of the 36.3 percent of asymptomatic patients, 21 developed symptoms during isolation.

The most common signs of infection include fever, coughing and shortness of breath, but also include repeated shaking with chills and new loss of taste or smell.

Researchers then looked at cycle threshold (Ct) values during testing, which refers to the detection of the virus and a person's viral load.

Ct values among asymptomatic patients were very similar to those seen in patients with symptoms.

The team also looked at negative conversion tests, which were performed by collecting specimens from the upper respiratory tract and lower respiratory tract and defined as negative when both came back negative.

Results showed that the viral loads of symptomatic patients tended to decrease a bit more slowly over time that asymptomatic patients.

At day 14 of isolation, 33.7 percent of those without symptoms received a negative coronavirus test compared to 29.6 percent of symptomatic patients.

By day 21, 75.2 percent of asymptomatic patients received negative test results compared to 69.9 percent of those with symptoms.

The median tine from diagnosis to the first negative conversion was 17 days for asymptomatic patients and 19.5 days for symptomatic patients.

Additionally, the team found no significant differences in the amount of viral RNA between those with and without symptoms.

'Many individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection remained asymptomatic for a prolonged period and viral load was similar to that in symptomatic patients,' the authors wrote.

'Therefore, isolation of infected persons should be performed regardless of symptoms.

'Because transmission by asymptomatic patients with SARS-CoV-2 may be a key factor in community spread, population-based surveillance and isolation of asymptomatic patients may be required.'
US Lawmakers Ask 6 Top Universities to Hand Over Records of Foreign Donations

By Fang Bing August 05, 2020

Three members of the U.S. Congress are asking six of the nation's top universities to hand over records of donations they have accepted from certain foreign nations, including China and Russia, citing concerns that these multimillion-dollar donations present a growing national security threat.

Letters aimed at helping the members to "further understand the effects of adversarial foreign direct investments in the U.S. higher education system" were sent to the presidents of Harvard, New York University, Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, University of Chicago and University of Delaware. The letters sent this week ask the presidents to provide all records of gifts from China, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Russia since January 2015.

The letters say the federal Department of Education (DOE) "has uncovered over $6.5 billion of previously unreported foreign donations to U.S. Institutes of Higher Education," and note that Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 requires colleges to disclose to DOE all contracts with and gifts from foreign sources of more than $250,000.

The letters were signed by the most senior Republican members of three House of Representatives committees  James Comer (Oversight and Reform), Jim Jordan (Judiciary) and Virginia Foxx (Education and Labor).

The letters ask for the documents to be provided no later than Aug. 10. However, as members of the minority party in the House, the congressmen cannot compel the universities to comply.

According to the letters, Harvard University has declared 31 gifts or contracts totaling $101 million from China, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Russia since 2015. During the same period, the University of Pennsylvania allegedly collected $62 million, New York University $40 million, while Yale and the universities of Chicago and Delaware each were said to have received less than $30 million.

DOE investigation

In May, Department of Education General Counsel Reed Rubinstein told lawmakers in a memo that lawyers from several top-tier universities were being overly aggressive in labeling documents "confidential" and were refusing to hand over emails detailing their business relationships with China, Russia and countries in the Middle East.

"The evidence suggests massive investments of foreign money have bred dependency and distorted the decision-making, mission and values of too many institutions," Rubinstein wrote in the memo.

In February, an Education Department investigation found that two of America's top universities, Harvard and Yale, failed to report a total of at least $375 million in foreign gifts and contracts.

At the same time, the department started to probe whether other universities, including Texas A&M, Cornell, MIT, Rutgers and the University of Maryland, had failed to report gifts and contracts with foreign nations.

Foreign influence at U.S. universities was already an issue. Earlier this year, Dr. Charles Lieber, a top chemistry professor at Harvard, was indicted for lying about his involvement with the Chinese government's Thousand Talents Plan.

The University of Pennsylvania has also been criticized for its failure to explain a $3 million donation from a Hong Kong shell company owned by a Shanghai businesswoman with close ties to Chinese government officials.

Yu Ping, a Chinese law expert, told VOA there should be no valid reason for UPenn not to report the donation. "If you didn't file a report, then there's a problem. That means the donation probably involves some suspected programs," he said.

Influence by CCP

The U.S. administration has become increasingly concerned with foreign governments' influence buying and espionage operations at American universities, and the chief concern seems to be China.

In their letter to the university chiefs, the three congressmen said their greatest concern is that "some recipients alter their decision-making based on the donation received."

Xia Ming, a professor of political science at the City University of New York, told VOA that Chinese officials need the branding from top-tier schools on their resumes, and Western universities are dependent on the donations and tuitions from foreign nationals, making these campuses vulnerable to foreign influence.

He cited a recent report by Harvard as an example.

The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard published a report July 9 saying that Chinese citizen satisfaction with government has increased virtually across the board since 2003, when the study began.

In the latest survey conducted in 2016, "95.5% of respondents were either 'relatively satisfied' or 'highly satisfied' with Beijing," said The Harvard Gazette, the official news outlet of Harvard University. The report noted that the satisfaction rates with local governments were lower.

"Many Harvard researchers are visiting scholars from China. They bring China's propaganda into Western campuses and publish reports together with their American counterparts in the name of top-tier American universities," Xia told VOA.

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Combine Harvesters Market Research Report by Type (PTO-powered Combine, Self-propelled, and Tractor-pulled Combine), by Horse Power (268-322 HP, 323-374 HP, 375-410 HP, More than 462 HP, and Up to 267 HP), by Movement - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19

New York, Aug. 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Combine Harvesters Market Research Report by Type, by Horse Power, by Movement - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913896/?utm_source=GNW



The Global Combine Harvesters Market is expected to grow from USD 10,395.17 Million in 2019 to USD 20,662.79 Million by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 12.13%.



Market Segmentation & Coverage:

This research report categorizes the Combine Harvesters to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets:



Based on Type, the Combine Harvesters Market studied across PTO-powered Combine, Self-propelled, and Tractor-pulled Combine.



Based on Horse Power, the Combine Harvesters Market studied across 268-322 HP, 323-374 HP, 375-410 HP, More than 462 HP, and Up to 267 HP.



Based on Movement, the Combine Harvesters Market studied across Crawler Type and Wheel Type.



Based on Geography, the Combine Harvesters Market studied across Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The Americas region surveyed across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and United States. The Asia-Pacific region surveyed across Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand. The Europe, Middle East & Africa region surveyed 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 Combine Harvesters Market including Agco Corporation, Claas Kgaa Mbh, Deere & Company, Kartar Agro Industries Private Limited, KS GROUP, Kubota Agricultural Machinery, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (M&M Ltd.), Preet Group, Sdf S.P.A. and Iseki & Co., Ltd., and Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited.



FPNV Positioning Matrix:

The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Combine Harvesters 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 the market 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 Combine Harvesters Market?

2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Combine Harvesters Market during the forecast period?

3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Combine Harvesters Market?

4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Combine Harvesters Market?

5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Combine Harvesters Market?

6. What are the modes and strategic moves considered suitable for entering the Global Combine Harvesters Market?

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913896/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



__________________________

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CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001




BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug.6

Trend:

Armenias recent actions and statements clearly damage the established negotiation format and undermine any realistic prospects for the peace process over Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijani Ambassador to the US Elin Suleymanov wrote in his article published by the authoritative US media outlet Newsmax, Trend reports on August 6.

The ambassador stressed that the latest flare of hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan in July came at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in the region with health and safety of citizens at the top of most governments agenda.

However, Armenias own COVID-19 crisis did not prevent its military from launching an attack against Azerbaijan in the direction of Tovuz district across the international border between the two nations, the article said.

The ambassador points to the fact that Armenias attack took place hundreds of miles north from the line of contact in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and that it clearly speaks about the intentions behind this latest act of aggression,

"The protracted Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict remains a major threat to peace and security in greater Eurasia. Armenias illegal occupation and ethnic cleansing campaign of about 20 percent of Azerbaijans internationally-recognized territory has caused a significant humanitarian challenge by displacing a million people," said the article. "Now, 30 years later, the internally displaced persons still live in exile unable to return to their homes."

Suleymanov noted that in spite of the four UN Security Council resolutions and numerous other international documents calling for immediate withdrawal of Armenian troops, Armenia continues to defy basic principles of international law and negotiation efforts by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by France, Russia and the US.

"Although formally independent, Armenia has never really acquired full sovereignty due to its constant conflicts with neighbors and external dependencies," the ambassador said adding that its borders are guarded by Russian border guards, it has a foreign military base on its territory and it has minimal control over its own economy.

"Today, Armenia remains one of the last relics of the Soviet past in the region offering little strategic value and unable to move forward towards integration and growth," Suleymanov stated. "Similarly, Armenian society continues to be plagued by its poor record on anti-Semitism and its uneasy relationship with Nazi collaborators and Middle Eastern terrorist groups. With a high ratio of emigration, Armenia was recently ranked as the angriest nation globally. Some of this anger spills outside Armenias borders."

Touching upon recent violent attack of Armenian radicals on small group of Azerbaijanis during a protest in front of the Azerbaijani Consulate General in the US Los Angeles, he noted that the local police department has launched its investigation.

"A quick look at the map would reveal that Armenias reckless militarism has much wider ramifications." he wrote. "The South Caucasus region includes Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia and is a key strategic area of the world. For instance, Azerbaijan, which is the only nation in the world that borders both Russia and Iran, is also an important partner and friend of Israel."

"Moreover, Azerbaijan provides the unique connection between Europe and Asia across the energy-rich Caspian Sea and its capital city of Baku is the origination point of the strategic Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which provides some 40 percent of Israels annual oil supply and was once featured in the James Bond film, "The World is Not Enough," said the ambassador.

Suleymanov also reminded that the Southern Gas Corridor pipeline, beginning in Azerbaijan, spans such countries as Georgia, Turkey, Greece, Albania and Italy.

"These pipelines along with the railways connecting Asia to Europe and the critical overflight corridor for NATO aircraft transiting to and from Afghanistan all pass in the vicinity of the area attacked by Armenia."

"Unable to add any value to development and cooperation, Armenia chose to reassert its relevance by threatening regional security and energy infrastructure of global significance," the article reads. "Just months before the Southern Gas Corridor is fully operational, Armenian military attacks some 15 miles from its route."

As the ambassador pointed out, Armenia attacked the area along the border, where Azerbaijan has been de-escalating by replacing its Army units with lighter armed border guards, and shelled residential houses causing casualties and damage.

"By striking across the international border far away from the line of contact of the two militaries, Armenia hoped to trigger support from its treaty allies under the auspices of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO)," he wrote.

However, this attempt to enlarge the scope of the conflict failed and the CSTO rejected Armenias request for support since it was obvious who initiated the hostilities, the ambassador stressed.

"Armenias leaders could have heeded Secretary Pompeos call for substantive peace talks and engage in meaningful negotiations with Azerbaijan to ensure a brighter future for the Armenian people and a lasting peace for the entire South Caucasus. Instead, Armenia once again acted as a rogue player and a proxy by attacking the key elements of prosperity and security architecture for the region and beyond," Suleymanov emphasized.

"The international community should help people of Armenia by explaining to their leaders that the dividends of peace are abundant and the costs of aggression continue to rise," the ambassador concluded.

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.
State officials on Thursday touted their successful expansion of COVID-19 testing sites, but also said they still face challenges in how long it takes for those tests to come back to residents.

Gov. Tom Wolf said partnerships with companies, such as Walmart, has helped grow the number of testing sites in the state, especially in more rural areas where there may not be hospitals to offer testing. Walmart opened nine new, drive-thru test sites on Wednesday, though none of those locations are in Cumberland County.

With the growth of locations where residents can get tested for the coronavirus, Wolf said the state is now averaging more than 22,000 test results per day, compared to about 8,000 tests per day at the height of the first wave of the virus in April.

Pennsylvania is considered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to be the ninth highest state for the total number of COVID-19 tests conducted, but officials said the tests mean nothing if residents cant get the results in a timely fashion.

Jamie Reilly, Walmarts regional health and wellness director, estimated that, on average, it takes about seven days for a resident to get results from a test at the companys drive-thru site, which sends samples to Quest Diagnostics. However, some residents may not get a test back for 14 days if they live in a geographic area where there is an outbreak of COVID-19, he said.

Testing locations The Wolf administration has been working to expand COVID-19 testing, especially in rural areas. Though no testing sites are yet available in Perry County, here is a look at where testing is available in Cumberland County: UPMC Carlisle on Alexander Spring Road in South Middleton Township. Appointment is required.

Sadler Health Center on North Hanover Street in Carlisle. Those seeking a test should call ahead.

CVS on the Carlisle Pike in Silver Spring Township. Appointments are required.

Patient First on South Sporting Hill Road in Hampden Township. Appointments are required.

Geisinger Holy Spirit Urgent Care in East Pennsboro Township. Only symptomatic patients are tested by appointment scheduled through physician. For a map of testing locations in Pennsylvania, check out the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency's website.

The delay in results at Quest and other national laboratories is due to outbreaks in other states, which Wolf and Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said may be given priority by the federal government to get their results more quickly to stem the spread of the coronavirus. Because of this, Wolf said states like Pennsylvania that had longer or more widespread shutdowns are still hurt because of what other states did or did not do to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

It emphasizes how [important] it is to have a national strategy, Wolf said.

Due to the backlog in testing at national laboratories, Levine said the state is prepared to help test samples that they consider to be a priority, with its labs testing results available within 24 to 48 hours. She said the state laboratory in Exton may test samples from nursing homes or eventually schools should an outbreak occur when they reopen in the fall. Levine said Thursday that officials are working on safety guidance for schools that opt to reopen in the fall.

Levine also said the Wolf administration is working on helping hospitals, especially those in more rural areas, acquire more reagent chemicals that are needed in COVID-19 testing kits. She said there is a shortage, and that while the Exton lab has enough reagents for its own testing, hospitals use a different reagent that the state does not have in stock to provide.

COVID-19 tests There are three different types of tests that are being conducted to gauge the presence of or immunity to COVID-19: PCR diagnostic test. The polymerase chain reaction test is the most common test being conducted and takes a nasopharyngeal (nasal) sample. The test has evolved in the last few months to be less physically intrusive, but it remains the most accurate. Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine estimated the tests are about 90 to 92% accurate, and they are the only tests in Pennsylvania to be used as "confirmed" positives.

Antibody tests. The antibody tests are meant to test for an immune response to the coronavirus, with the assumption that antibodies indicate the body at one point was fighting COVID-19. Levine said the clinical use for such tests is not clear since the level of immune response and longevity of the antibodies is not known. Any positive antibody test reported in Pennsylvania is included only as a "probable" positive.

Antigen tests. Antigen tests are the newest ones to enter the fold and are meant to test for COVID-19 more quickly. However, like the antibody tests, Levine said it is not clear what the level of sensitivity (rate of false negatives) and specificity (rate of false positives) is for the test. She said the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is working to send such tests to nursing homes. Currently any positive antigen test is included only as a "probable" case.

Even with the challenges, Wolf said the state is testing about 4% of the state population in a month, and they hope to continue to increase that number.

Of the testing from Wednesdays collection of data, the state Department of Health reported Thursday that there were 807 new cases of COVID-19 detected in the state, with 100 coming from Allegheny County and 112 coming from Philadelphia County.

In the Midstate, the number of new cases were down slightly in most areas except for York and Franklin counties. York County saw its highest spike of the week with 44 new cases and three new deaths, while Franklin County saw 18 new cases.

According to the states early warning system dashboard, Franklin County has 7.2% of all diagnostic tests coming back positive, the highest in the region and a metric of concern since the state wants that number below 5%. York County continually reports the highest number of new cases, but its percent of positive tests is only at 4.4% in the last seven days.

Cumberland County has seen 4.2% of its diagnostic tests come back positive, one of the few counties in the Midstate to see an increase in that metric, though it did see a drop in the number of new cases. In Thursdays report from the state, the county saw 11 new cases of COVID-19 and one death associated with the disease.

Email Naomi Creason at ncreason@cumberlink.com or follow her on Twitter @SentinelCreason

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Mumbai, Aug 6 : Actor Sidharth Malhotra has shared a glimpse of his work-from-home setup, and it is all about good old jugaad.

The actor took to Instagram to share a picture where he is seen using a pile of books as his phone stand to get the perfect shot in front of his dressing table, which comes with lots of light bulbs.

"My work from home setup #Jugaad," he wrote with the picture.

His "Shershaah" co-star Kiara Advani commented: "Have you read any of these books?" Sidharth will soon play Kargil hero Captain Vikram Batra on the big screen, in the film "Shershaah". The film chronicles the story of Captain Batra, who sacrificed his life for the country in 1999.

The project is special to Sidharth. "If I had the means then the Vikram Batra film would have been produced by me but because it is made on such a massive scale and I am not well equipped (he is not producing it). Maybe in the future (he will produce films)," the "Student Of The Year" actor had earlier told IANS.
The Bhoomi Pujan for the Ram Temple in Ayodhya was concluded amid grand celebrations yesterday. Now, with the successful foundation laying for Lord Rams temple and the images of the temples model going viral on social media, many people are curious about the finer details related to the construction of the Ram Mandir.

Here are 15 facts about the Ayodhya Ram Mandir and its construction which officially began yesterday.

1. Expected To Be The Largest Temple In India

 Twitter/ShriRamTeerth

According to Ashish Sompura, son of Chandrakant Sompura, the architect who designed the Ram Mandir 30 years ago, the Ram Mandir is set to become the largest temple to be built in India. The height will be about 161 feet while the area of the structure will be 28,000 square feet.



2. Holy Soil From 2,587 Places To Be Used As Foundation

 BCCL

It is said that holy soil from places of numerous religious-cultural significance was collected for the occasion of foundation laying. Reportedly, holy soil from 2,587 places across India has been collected for the same.



Holy soil from places such as Yamunotri, Haldighati, Jhansi Fort, Massacre Ghat in Kanpur, Chittorgarh, Shivaji's Fort, Brahmaji's peg in Bithoor, Prayarag where Chandrashekhar was martyred, Golden Temple, Nana Rao Peshwa Fort, Bengal, Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri, Syntu Ksiar, Jowai and Nartiang in Meghalaya, Kamakhya temple, Agni Theertham in Rameshwaram as well as soil from former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee's ancestral home in Bateshwar village in Agra was all collected.

3. Holy Water From 150 Rivers

Reportedly, the foundation laying ceremony made use of holy water from 150 river which were collected by two brothers Radhey Shyam Pandey and Shabd Vaigyanik Mahakavi Triphala. In the collection was holy water from eight rivers, three seas, and soils from sixteen places of Sri Lanka. Additionally, holy water from Mansarovar was also brought in. Water was also collected from two rivers in Medhalayas Jaintia Hills  Myntdu and Myntang. A 600-year-old Durga Temple located in the West Jaintia Hills makes it a holy site.

4. Time Capsule To Be Placed 2,000 Feet Below The Temple

It is also being reported that a time capsule shall be placed 2,000 feet under the temple structure to protect the temples history even thousand years from now. The capsule will contain facts related to the Ram Janmabhoomi, Ayodhya and Lord Ram and shall be written on a copper plate.

5. Donation of Gold & Silver Bricks From All Over India

 BCCL

It is no hidden fact that donations in the form of gold and silver bricks have been made to the Ram Mandir Trust to support the cause of temple construction. From celebrities to politicians, there has been a contribution from everyone.



So far the Uttar Pradesh Bullion Association has donated silver bricks weighing more than 33 kg, self-proclaimed descendent of Mughals Prince Yakub Habeebuddin Tucy has offered a gold brick weighing one kg, Hyderabad-based jeweller named K Srinivas has also donated a one kg gold brick and a five kg silver brick

Reportedly, Hyderabad volunteer organization Pawan Kumar Foundation will donate 34 silver and gold bricks to the temple trust for the construction of Ram temple. Even saints from Tamil Nadu donated two gold and silver bricks with 'Shri Ram' inscribed on them in Tamil. The gold brick weighs 5 kg and the silver one weighs 20 kg.

It is also reported that the Jain community of Ahmedabad has also donated 24 kg of silver bricks for the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. Even Congress leader Kamal Nath announced the donation of 11 silver bricks on behalf of MP Congress. Reportedly, trust chairman Mahant Nritya Gopal Das got the silver brick weighing 40 kg made that was used during the Bhoomi Pujan ceremony.

6. Monetary Donations In Crores Have Been Made

Not just gold and silver bricks, even monetary donations are also being made in huge numbers by important people for the construction of the Ram Temple. Spiritual guru Morari Bapu announced a donation of Rs 5 crore, UP Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya donated Rs 6.60 lakh, while UP CM Yogi Adityanath had donated Rs 11 lakh.

Mahavir Mandir Trust of Patna has also announced a donation of Rs 10 crore while Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray also offered to donate Rs 1 crore to the Trust in March.

7. Rs 500 Crore Funds To Revamp Ayodhya Temple Town

 BCCL

Not just a grand temple, but even the temple town of Ayodhya is all set to undergo a grand makeover. To support this cause, PM Modi will reportedly launch development projects worth Rs 500 crore for Ayodhya. The projects include expansion to four-lane of the 36.7 km National Highway 30 between Azamgarh and Bahraich via Ayodhya, modernised bus station, police barrack having a capacity of 200 people and the likes.



8. Special Shri Ram Inscribed Bricks For The Temple

Special name inscribed bricks, some of which have been lying in wait for the last 30 years will be used for the temple construction. These bricks, often called Ram Shilas were collected from devotees from all over the country in 1989 before the shilanyas took place in Ayodhya. Thousands of those will be put to use now to build the temples foundation.

In addition to those, 51,000 bricks will be donated by a UP brick kiln owner who is making a special batch of bricks using Domath soil with Lord Rams name on them. Each brick is expected to weigh around 3 kg.

9. No Use Of Iron Or Steel In Temple Construction

 BCCL

ANI has reported that the temple would be constructed using stones only and no iron and steel will be used to build it. The supervisor of the temple construction workshop Anu Bhai Sompura also said that the construction would be done without the use of iron, while wood, white cement and copper would be used.



10. Stones From Lord Hanumans Birthplace To Be Used

Stones from Karnatakas Anjanadri Hill, which is said to be Lord Hanumans birthplace, will be used in the construction of the Ram Temple.

11. Silver & Gold Bricks Will Be Encashed For Money

 BCCL

Mahant Kamal Nayas Das has said that the donated gold and silver bricks will not be used in the construction of the temple, but will instead be put in bank lockers to be encashed in need as and when required.



12. The Temple Has Been Designed By The Sompura Architects

Ahmedabad-based 15th generation architect family, the Sompuras, who have constructed over 200 temples in India and abroad will be creating the Ram temple in Ayodhya. Chandrakant Sompura had designed the first temple sketch 30 years ago, which is now being modified and reused. The Sompuras designed the Somnath temple and Akshardham in Gujarat, as well as Swaminarayan mandir in Mumbai and Birla Mandir in Calcutta amongst many others.

13. L&T Will Be Involved In Temple Construction

 BCCL

Construction giant Larsen and Toubro (L&T) will spearhead the Ram Mandir construction in Ayodhya which is expected to be completed in the next 3-3.5 years.



14. Sculptors Work Started In 2013 To Be Displayed In The Temple

Assam-based sculptor Ranjit Mandal who has been making statues depicting Lord Ram's journey from childhood till coronation since 2013, will be displayed in the courtyard of the Ram Mandir. It will be called the Ram Katha Kunj and shall exhibit 125 scripts from Lord Ram's life.

15. Salient Features Of The Grand Temple

 BCCL

The two-storeyed temple will reportedly be 268ft in length, 140ft in width and 128 ft in height. The ground floor will portray the story of Lord Rams birth and his childhood, while the first floor will have a layout of the Ram Darbar.



The temple will be constructed using pink sandstone called Bansi Paharpur, which will be brought in from Bharatpur in Rajasthan.

The Ram Mandir will be built on 10 acres of land and the remaining 57 acres will be developed as the temple complex. The structure is set to have five mandaps - kudu, rang, nritya, kirtan and prarthana.

Reportedly, the main structure will have 360 pillars, and shall be designed keeping the Vastu Shastra in mind. To be created in the iconic Nagar style, Shilpa Shastra specifications will be included in the temples creation.

Stones from Banshi mountains will be used for the construction and four smaller temples will surround the main structure.

Fascinating, right? What are your thoughts on everything related to the Ram Mandir construction. Let us know below.
Nolato has signed an agreement to acquire US-based GW Plastics. The company, which was founded in 1955, has annual sales of approximately SEK 1.8 billion and an EBITA margin of around 7%. The acquisition price, including contingent consideration, is estimated at approximately SEK 2 billion. The acquisition provides significant volumes and a strong position in North America for the Medical Solutions business area, offering additional opportunities for growth and underpinning existing core customer relationships. The acquisition means Nolato has a solid global position on the three key continents of Asia, Europe and North America.

"Acquisitions are, and have long been, an important part of our growth strategy, and we are continually looking to generate shareholder value by identifying high-quality companies that will strategically enhance Nolato's existing business. We have been interested in GW Plastics for some time, and it's really pleasing to be completing this deal."

"This acquisition provides us with significant volumes and a strong position on the key North American continent. It supports relationships with existing customers, while also creating additional opportunities for growth and expanding our customer base," said Nolato President and CEO Christer Wahlquist.

GW Plastics was founded in 1955 and has established a position as an industry leader specialising in complex injection-moulded thermoplastic and silicone solutions with a significant degree of innovation and a high-tech standardised global manufacturing platform. The company's products are mainly used in medical devices and, to a lesser extent, in vehicle systems. The business has annual sales of approximately SEK 1.8 billion with an EBITA margin of around 7%. The acquisition price, including contingent consideration, is estimated to be approximately SEK 2 billion, around SEK 1.8 billion of which is to be paid upon transfer of ownership. Just over four-fifths of GW Plastics business will be reported under the Medical Solutions business area, with the remainder reported under Industrial Solutions.

GW Plastics, which is headquartered in Bethel, Vermont, has around 1,100 employees at its seven manufacturing plants in the US, Mexico, China and Ireland. The company has been under the same ownership since 1983 and the current management will remain with the business. The company has a broad base of customers, the largest of which accounts for just over 20% of sales. GW Plastics has strong, longstanding customer relationships with a raft of market leaders across the globe, especially in the pharmaceutical, healthcare and automotive industries.

"GW Plastics is a well-managed, well-invested company that is a great fit with our corporate culture. The business, which has historically demonstrated healthy organic growth, has extensive know-how in engineering and technology. Together with its size and geographic presence, this provides an ideal strategic combination with Nolato and enables significant market synergies over time," said Nolato President and CEO Christer Wahlquist.

Following the requisite US regulatory approvals, the transaction is expected to be completed in September, when the business will be consolidated into the Group, resulting in a marginal boost to Nolato's earnings per share for the current year. The interim report for the third quarter will provide a full acquisition analysis. The acquisition is being funded using own cash funds and new credit agreements.
CHICAGO, August 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated (NYSE: JLL) today reported operating performance for the second quarter of 2020 with diluted earnings per share of $0.29 and adjusted diluted earnings per share1 of $0.71.

Consolidated revenue was $3.7 billion and fee revenue 1 was $1.2 billion , decreases of 13% and 22%, respectively

and fee revenue was , decreases of 13% and 22%, respectively Transaction-based service lines heavily impacted by pandemic



Resilience of Property & Facility Management, led by Corporate Solutions, demonstrated the strength of globally-diversified platform



LaSalle delivered stable advisory fees

delivered stable advisory fees Significant debt reduction continued to underscore strong balance sheet and liquidity

Receivables collection efforts in all segments drove impressive quarterly operating cash inflows

"Our second quarter top-line performance demonstrated the benefit of a globally diversified and integrated platform amidst unprecedented operating conditions. Next to the safety of our employees, we have focused our complete attention toward serving our clients during these challenging times, and maximizing the generation and preservation of cash," said Christian Ulbrich, JLL CEO. "Driving a $450 million reduction to net debt this quarter reinforced our financial strength and liquidity. We are well-positioned to withstand the impact of the pandemic and then resume our growth journey."

Summary Financial Results

($ in millions, except per share data, "LC" = local currency) Three months ended June 30,

Six months ended June 30, 2020

2019 % Change

in USD % Change

in LC

2020

2019 % Change

in USD % Change

in LC























Revenue $ 3,670.4



$ 4,266.5

(14) % (13) %

$ 7,766.4



$ 8,087.1

(4) % (3) % Revenue before reimbursements 1,828.5



2,348.2

(22)

(21)



4,061.5



4,309.8

(6)

(4)

Fee revenue1 1,244.9



1,630.0

(24)

(22)



2,750.1



2,949.1

(7)

(5)

























Net income attributable to common shareholders $ 15.2



$ 110.5

(86) % (93) %

$ 20.5



$ 131.8

(84) % (88) % Adjusted net income attributable to common shareholders1 36.8



135.5

(73)

(74)



62.6



176.6

(65)

(64)

























Diluted earnings per share $ 0.29



$ 2.40

(88) % (89) %

$ 0.39



$ 2.86

(86) % (89) % Adjusted diluted earnings per share1 0.71



2.94

(76)

(77)



1.20



3.84

(69)

(68)

























Adjusted EBITDA1 $ 103.3



$ 226.7

(54) % (55) %

$ 198.9



$ 322.1

(38) % (38) % Adjusted EBITDA, Real Estate Services 76.4



185.3

(59)

(59)



196.5



262.4

(25)

(25)

Adjusted EBITDA, LaSalle 26.8



41.6

(36)

(36)



2.4



59.9

(96)

(96)

























Operating cash flows $ 501.4



$ 68.4

n.m.

n.m.



$ (44.7)



$ (483.1)

n.m.

n.m.



(1) For discussion of non-GAAP financial measures, see Note 1 following the Financial Statements in this news release.

Consolidated



($ in millions, "LC" = local currency) Three Months Ended June 30,

% Change in USD

% Change in LC

Six Months Ended June 30,

% Change in USD

% Change in LC 2020

2019





2020

2019



Leasing $ 358.6



$ 623.9



(43) %

(42) %

$ 851.0



$ 1,101.8



(23) %

(22) % Capital Markets 214.8



256.5



(16)



(15)



557.1



450.0



24



25

Property & Facility Management 2,275.2



2,304.9



(1)







4,641.0



4,574.0



1



3

Project & Development Services 536.8



733.3



(27)



(25)



1,141.2



1,333.4



(14)



(13)

Advisory, Consulting and Other 185.1



218.5



(15)



(13)



371.3



400.1



(7)



(5)

Real Estate Services ("RES") revenue $ 3,570.5



$ 4,137.1



(14) %

(12) %

$ 7,561.6



$ 7,859.3



(4) %

(2) % LaSalle 99.9



129.4



(23)



(22)



204.8



227.8



(10)



(9)

Total revenue $ 3,670.4



$ 4,266.5



(14) %

(13) %

$ 7,766.4



$ 8,087.1



(4) %

(3) % Reimbursements (1,841.9)



(1,918.3)



(4)



(3)



(3,704.9)



(3,777.3)



(2)



(1)

Revenue before reimbursements $ 1,828.5



$ 2,348.2



(22) %

(21) %

$ 4,061.5



$ 4,309.8



(6) %

(4) % Gross contract costs1 (575.0)



(713.4)



(19)



(17)



(1,304.4)



(1,356.0)



(4)



(2)

Net non-cash MSR and mortgage banking

derivative activity (8.6)



(4.8)



79



79



(7.0)



(4.7)



49



49

Total fee revenue1 $ 1,244.9



$ 1,630.0



(24) %

(22) %

$ 2,750.1



$ 2,949.1



(7) %

(5) % Leasing 343.8



605.8



(43)



(43)



819.0



1,067.2



(23)



(23)

Capital Markets 199.4



241.3



(17)



(16)



533.5



426.1



25



26

Property & Facility Management 287.9



290.8



(1)



1



567.8



571.5



(1)



1

Project & Development Services 178.6



210.0



(15)



(13)



366.9



383.4



(4)



(3)

Advisory, Consulting and Other 140.2



158.8



(12)



(9)



269.3



283.9



(5)



(3)

RES fee revenue 1,149.9



1,506.7



(24)



(22)



2,556.5



2,732.1



(6)



(5)

LaSalle 95.0



123.3



(23)



(22)



193.6



217.0



(11)



(10)

Operating income $ 10.8



$ 150.1



(93) %

(94) %

$ 75.4



$ 175.5



(57) %

(57) % Equity earnings (losses) $ 14.7



$ 10.2



44 %

44 %

$ (13.6)



$ 15.2



n.m.



n.m.

Adjusted EBITDA1 $ 103.3



$ 226.7



(54) %

(55) %

$ 198.9



$ 322.1



(38) %

(38) % (1) For discussion of non-GAAP financial measures, see Note 1 following the Financial Statements in this news release. Percentage variances in the Consolidated Performance Highlights below are calculated and presented on a local currency basis, unless otherwise noted.

Consolidated Second-Quarter 2020 Performance Highlights:

The COVID-19 pandemic (the "pandemic") continued to disrupt JLL's operations this quarter as lock-downs and building closures remained in place across the globe. Transaction-based service lines were most impacted as a result of delays to leasing and capital markets transactions. At the same time, professionals across the globe, notably in Corporate Solutions and other annuity businesses, have expanded work with clients to ensure continuity of critical operations, facilitate the rapid deployment of temporary medical facilities, and develop and implement safe return-to-work measures. In response to the pandemic's ongoing disruptions to revenue and business operations, the company expanded cost mitigation efforts initiated in the first quarter across most operating expense categories. In addition, various government relief programs around the world provided both grants/subsidies (approximately $28 million net benefit this quarter, focused in EMEA and Asia Pacific) as well as payment deferral opportunities for cash obligations such as payroll taxes and other social charges. These actions enhanced job retention and financial flexibility, positioning JLL to emerge from the pandemic with strength to capture significant market share.

RES revenue and fee revenue declined across all three geographic segments and in all service lines except Property & Facility Management, which was driven by Corporate Solutions. Capital Markets included $70.8 million of incremental revenue from HFF ($73.3 million of fee revenue), which partially offset the decline in market volumes across the globe.

LaSalle delivered another quarter of solid advisory fees, with an overall decline in revenue primarily due to expected lower incentive fees.

Net income attributable to common shareholders was $15.2 million, compared with $110.5 million last year, and adjusted EBITDA was $198.9 million, compared with $226.7 million in 2019. Diluted earnings per share were $0.29, down from $2.40 in 2019; adjusted diluted earnings per share were $1.20, compared with $2.94 last year.

Adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter, calculated on a fee-revenue basis, was 8.3% in USD (8.1% in local currency), compared with 13.9% in the prior-year quarter. The margin contraction was primarily due to the decline in fee revenue, especially within transaction-based service lines, partially offset by the cost reduction initiatives and government relief programs noted above. Refer to the following segment performance highlights for additional details.

Cash Flows and Balance Sheet:

Cash used by operating activities was $44.7 million for the first half of 2020, compared with $483.1 million used in the prior year. The substantial decrease in cash used was the result of strong cash collection on trade receivables in the second quarter and participation in government relief programs (including deferral of cash payments as noted above). These items were partially offset by lower 2020 net income as well as increased incentive compensation paid in the first quarter of 2020 compared with 2019.

Total net debt was $1.1 billion as of June 30, 2020, representing a decrease of nearly $450 million from March 31, 2020, and an increase of approximately $180 million from June 30, 2019. The significant decrease from the first quarter reflects the operating cash flow drivers noted above. The increase in net debt compared with June 30, 2019, was driven by the residual borrowings on the company's credit facility in conjunction with the Q3 2019 HFF acquisition.

Americas Second-Quarter 2020 Performance Highlights:





































Americas Real Estate Services

Three Months Ended June 30,

%



%





Six Months Ended June 30,

%



%

($ in millions, "LC" = local currency)

2020



2019

Change in USD



Change in LC





2020



2019

Change in USD



Change in LC

Revenue $ 2,229.0

$ 2,463.6

(10) %

(9) %

$ 4,752.1

$ 4,713.7

1 %

1 % Reimbursements

(1,345.0)



(1,403.1)

(4)



(4)





(2,738.5)



(2,754.5)

(1)





Revenue before reimbursements $ 884.0

$ 1,060.5

(17) %

(16) %

$ 2,013.6

$ 1,959.2

3 %

4 % Gross contract costs1

(192.3)



(191.8)





2





(405.1)



(379.5)

7



9

Net non-cash MSR and mortgage banking

derivative activity

(8.6)



(4.8)

79



80





(7.0)



(4.7)

49



49

Fee revenue1 $ 683.1

$ 863.9

(21) %

(20) %

$ 1,601.5

$ 1,575.0

2 %

2 % Leasing

267.0



479.5

(44)



(44)





672.6



857.1

(22)



(21)

Capital Markets

131.5



124.5

6



6





378.1



224.2

69



69

Property & Facility Management

147.3



115.8

27



29





276.0



227.2

21



23

Project & Development Services

91.1



99.7

(9)



(7)





184.5



180.4

2



3

Advisory, Consulting and Other

46.2



44.4

4



5





90.3



86.1

5



6

Segment operating income $ 39.6

$ 120.5

(67) %

(67) %

$ 121.5

$ 181.1

(33) %

(33) % Equity earnings $ 2.9

$ 0.4

n.m.



n.m.



$ 15.6

$ 0.1

n.m.



n.m.

Adjusted EBITDA1 $ 74.0

$ 142.1

(48) %

(48) %

$ 195.3

$ 230.1

(15) %

(15) %

(1) For discussion of non-GAAP financial measures, see Note 1 following the Financial Statements in this news release. Percentage variances in the Americas Performance Highlights below are calculated and presented on a local currency basis, unless otherwise noted.

The pandemic acutely affected the Americas transaction-based service lines. U.S. Leasing revenue reflected substantial declines in office, however; JLL outperformed market declines in gross absorption. Strong growth in industrial partially offset the lower office leasing activity. Notably reduced investment sales and debt placement activity impacted Capital Markets revenue, which included $70.6 million of incremental revenue contributions from HFF ($73.2 million of fee revenue). Property & Facility Management achieved significant fee revenue growth driven by new client wins, Corporate Solutions client expansions and pandemic-response facility management projects.

Adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter, calculated on a fee-revenue basis, was 10.8% in USD and local currency, compared with 16.5% in 2019. The decline in profitability was primarily attributable to transaction-based service lines and the timing of incentive compensation expense accruals, partially offset by Property & Facility Management fee revenue growth. The current-quarter margin also reflected a strategic focus on job retention, positioning JLL to emerge from the pandemic with strength.

EMEA Second-Quarter 2020 Performance Highlights:

EMEA Real Estate Services



($ in millions, "LC" = local currency) Three Months Ended June 30,

% Change in USD

% Change in LC

Six Months Ended June 30,

% Change in USD

% Change in LC 2020

2019





2020

2019



Revenue $ 626.2



$ 818.3



(23) %

(21) %

$ 1,382.1



$ 1,541.7



(10) %

(8) % Reimbursements (168.8)



(153.7)



10



13



(351.6)



(318.3)



10



13

Revenue before reimbursements $ 457.4



$ 664.6



(31) %

(29) %

$ 1,030.5



$ 1,223.4



(16) %

(14) % Gross contract costs1 (189.4)



(284.7)



(33)



(31)



(452.0)



(527.4)



(14)



(12)

Fee revenue1 $ 268.0



$ 379.9



(29)



(27) %

$ 578.5



$ 696.0



(17) %

(15) % Leasing 45.5



64.0



(29)



(27)



92.5



114.5



(19)



(17)

Capital Markets 46.3



73.4



(37)



(35)



115.1



133.0



(13)



(11)

Property & Facility Management 66.2



101.3



(35)



(33)



144.1



196.3



(27)



(25)

Project & Development Services 58.8



73.4



(20)



(18)



124.9



132.9



(6)



(4)

Advisory, Consulting and Other 51.2



67.8



(24)



(22)



101.9



119.3



(15)



(12)

Segment operating loss $ (33.4)



$ (1.3)



n.m.



n.m.



$ (53.9)



$ (30.7)



(76) %

(76) % Equity losses $ 



$ (1.1)



n.m.



n.m.



$ 



$ (1.0)



n.m.



n.m.

Adjusted EBITDA1 $ (23.7)



$ 9.6



n.m.



n.m.



$ (34.3)



$ (8.6)



n.m.



n.m.

(1) For discussion of non-GAAP financial measures, see Note 1 following the Financial Statements in this news release. Percentage variances in the EMEA Performance Highlights below are calculated and presented on a local currency basis, unless otherwise noted.

EMEA's revenue and fee revenue for the quarter were meaningfully impacted by pandemic-related mandatory country shut-downs. Transaction-based revenues were significantly lower, especially in the UK and France. The decline in Property & Facility Management fee revenue was primarily due to (i) approximately $20 million of lower fee revenue in the UK mobile engineering business, largely a result of work delays from client office closures, and (ii) the absence of approximately $9 million of prior-year fee revenue relating to property management businesses in continental Europe that were sold in late 2019. Pandemic-driven work stoppages across EMEA more than offset continued growth in MENA within Project & Development Services fee revenue.

Adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter, calculated on a fee-revenue basis, was negative 8.8% in USD (negative 8.9% in local currency), compared with 2.5% last year. The decline in profitability resulted primarily from transaction-based revenue declines and losses recognized on three discrete contracts nearing completion or termination, partially offset by the impact of government relief programs (nearly $14 million). These relief programs, many of which involved temporary furloughs that reduced costs while preserving jobs, helped JLL retain its ability to efficiently restore operations to pre-pandemic levels.

Asia Pacific Second-Quarter 2020 Performance Highlights:

Asia Pacific Real Estate Services



($ in millions, "LC" = local currency) Three Months Ended June 30,

% Change in USD

% Change in LC

Six Months Ended June 30,

% Change in USD

% Change in LC 2020

2019





2020

2019



Revenue $ 715.3



$ 855.2



(16) %

(13) %

$ 1,427.4



$ 1,603.9



(11) %

(8) % Reimbursements (327.0)



(359.6)



(9)



(6)



(611.9)



(700.7)



(13)



(9)

Revenue before reimbursements $ 388.3



$ 495.6



(22) %

(19) %

$ 815.5



$ 903.2



(10) %

(7) % Gross contract costs1 (189.5)



(232.7)



(19)



(16)



(439.0)



(442.1)



(1)



2

Fee revenue1 $ 198.8



$ 262.9



(24) %

(22) %

$ 376.5



$ 461.1



(18) %

(16) % Leasing 31.3



62.3



(50)



(49)



53.9



95.6



(44)



(42)

Capital Markets 21.6



43.4



(50)



(50)



40.3



68.9



(42)



(40)

Property & Facility Management 74.4



73.7



1



5



147.7



148.0







3

Project & Development Services 28.7



36.9



(22)



(19)



57.5



70.1



(18)



(15)

Advisory, Consulting and Other 42.8



46.6



(8)



(4)



77.1



78.5



(2)



2

Segment operating income $ 18.7



$ 26.6



(30) %

(31) %

$ 21.8



$ 27.3



(20) %

(22) % Equity earnings (losses) $ 0.5



$ 0.4



25 %

31 %

$ (0.2)



$ 0.7



n.m.



n.m.

Adjusted EBITDA1 $ 26.1



$ 33.6



(22) %

(23) %

$ 35.5



$ 40.9



(13) %

(13) % (1) For discussion of non-GAAP financial measures, see Note 1 following the Financial Statements in this news release. Percentage variances in the Asia Pacific Performance Highlights below are calculated and presented on a local currency basis, unless otherwise noted.

Asia Pacific's transaction-based revenue was substantially impacted by the pandemic. In particular, office leasing revenue was significantly lower, most notably in India, Australia and Greater China. Capital Markets revenue declines were primarily realized in Australia and Singapore, reflecting the pause on deal activity, especially large transactions. Resiliency in Property & Facility Management fee revenue was driven by new client wins and expansion of existing mandates for Corporate Solutions as the business continued to deliver services to clients. Delays in project activity within Project & Development Services continued from the first quarter as a result of pandemic-driven office closures and work stoppages.

Adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter, calculated on a fee-revenue basis, was 13.1% in USD (12.6% in local currency), compared with 12.8% in 2019. The decline in transaction-based revenue was more than offset by lower operating expenses, which included nearly $14 million of net benefit from government relief programs. These programs required or supported the retention of employees which helped position JLL to emerge from the pandemic with strength.

LaSalle Second-Quarter 2020 Performance Highlights:

LaSalle

($ in millions, "LC" = local currency) Three Months Ended June 30,

% Change in USD

% Change in LC

Six Months Ended June 30,

% Change in USD

% Change in LC 2020

2019





2020

2019



Revenue $ 99.9



$ 129.4



(23) %

(22) %

$ 204.8



$ 227.8



(10) %

(9) % Reimbursements(a) (1.1)



(1.9)



(42)



(43)



(2.9)



(3.8)



(24)



(21)

Revenue before reimbursements $ 98.8



$ 127.5



(23) %

(22) %

$ 201.9



$ 224.0



(10) %

(9) % Gross contract costs(a) (3.8)



(4.2)



(10)



(10)



(8.3)



(7.0)



19



18

Fee revenue1 $ 95.0



$ 123.3



(23) %

(22) %

$ 193.6



$ 217.0



(11) %

(10) % Advisory fees(a) 76.5



76.8







1



158.5



150.6



5



6

Transaction fees & other(a) 4.3



12.8



(66)



(66)



15.2



25.2



(40)



(39)

Incentive fees 14.2



33.7



(58)



(58)



19.9



41.2



(52)



(52)

Segment operating income $ 14.1



$ 30.0



(53) %

(54) %

$ 28.3



$ 42.1



(33) %

(33) % Equity earnings (losses) $ 11.3



$ 10.5



8 %

6 %

$ (29.0)



$ 15.4



n.m.



n.m.

Adjusted EBITDA1 $ 26.8



$ 41.6



(36) %

(36) %

$ 2.4



$ 59.9



(96) %

(96) % (a) Gross contract costs are primarily within Advisory fees and Reimbursements are primarily within Other. (1) For discussion of non-GAAP financial measures, see Note 1 following the Financial Statements in this news release. Percentage variances in the LaSalle Performance Highlights below are calculated and presented on a local currency basis, unless otherwise noted.

LaSalle's solid advisory fees reflected strong private equity capital raising over the trailing twelve months offset by recent valuation declines in assets under management. An outsized 2019 performance drove the expected decline in incentive fees.

Equity earnings in the current quarter were substantially attributable to an increased share price of a co-investment in a LaSalle-managed publicly traded REIT in Japan.

Adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter, calculated on a fee-revenue basis, was 28.2% in USD (27.9% in local currency), compared with 33.7% last year. The margin decline was largely attributable to the lower incentive fees.

About JLL

JLL (NYSE: JLL) is a leading professional services firm that specializes in real estate and investment management. JLL shapes the future of real estate for a better world by using the most advanced technology to create rewarding opportunities, amazing spaces and sustainable real estate solutions for our clients, our people and our communities. JLL is a Fortune 500 company with annual revenue of $18.0 billion in 2019, operations in over 80 countries and a global workforce of nearly 93,000 as of June 30, 2020. JLL is the brand name, and a registered trademark, of Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated. For further information, visit ir.jll.com.

Connect with us

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https://twitter.com/jll

Live Webcast

Conference Call Management will offer a live webcast for shareholders, analysts and investment professionals on Thursday, August 6, 2020, at 9:00 a.m. Eastern. Following the live broadcast, an audio replay will be available for download or stream. The link to the live webcast and audio replay can be accessed at the Investor Relations website: ir.jll.com .

Refer to ir.jll.com for a registration link to receive unique credentials to access the presentation of earnings via phone. Conference ID: 9493909







Supplemental Information

Contact Supplemental information regarding the second quarter 2020 earnings call has been posted to the Investor Relations section of JLL's website: ir.jll.com .

If you have any questions, please contact Chris Stent, Executive Managing Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Finance:

Phone: +1 312 252 8943

E-mail: [email protected]











Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this news release regarding, among other things, future financial results and performance, achievements, plans, objectives and dividend payments may be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, including but not limited to, the material adverse effect that the pandemic is having on our business, which may cause the company's actual results, performance, achievements, plans, objectives and dividend payments to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. For additional information concerning risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements, and risks to the company's business in general, please refer to those factors discussed under "Business," "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations," "Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk," and elsewhere in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2020, and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Any forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this release, and except to the extent required by applicable securities laws, management expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in expectations or results, or any change in events.

JONES LANG LASALLE INCORPORATED Consolidated Statements of Operations (Unaudited)



Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30, (in millions, except share and per share data) 2020

2019

2020

2019















Revenue before reimbursements $ 1,828.5



$ 2,348.2



$ 4,061.5



$ 4,309.8

Reimbursements 1,841.9



1,918.3



3,704.9



3,777.3

Total Revenue $ 3,670.4



$ 4,266.5



$ 7,766.4



$ 8,087.1

















Operating expenses:













Compensation and benefits $ 1,175.3



$ 1,354.8



$ 2,499.8



$ 2,518.6

Operating, administrative and other 557.3



772.1



1,332.1



1,479.4

Reimbursed expenses 1,841.9



1,918.3



3,704.9



3,777.3

Depreciation and amortization 56.9



45.5



111.9



92.0

Restructuring and acquisition charges4 28.2



25.7



42.3



44.3

Total operating expenses 3,659.6



4,116.4



7,691.0



7,911.6

















Operating income 10.8



150.1



75.4



175.5

















Interest expense, net of interest income 14.9



13.6



29.5



23.2

Equity earnings (losses) 14.7



10.2



(13.6)



15.2

Other income 5.2



0.8



6.1



0.5

















Income before income taxes and noncontrolling interest 15.8



147.5



38.4



168.0

Income tax provision 1.5



36.2



6.5



35.5

Net income 14.3



111.3



31.9



132.5

















Net (losses) income attributable to noncontrolling interest (0.9)



0.6



11.4



0.5

Net income attributable to the company $ 15.2



$ 110.7



$ 20.5



$ 132.0

















Dividends on unvested common stock, net of tax benefit 



0.2







0.2

Net income attributable to common shareholders $ 15.2



$ 110.5



$ 20.5



$ 131.8

















Basic earnings per common share $ 0.29



$ 2.42



$ 0.40



$ 2.88

Basic weighted average shares outstanding (in 000's) 51,635



45,749



51,623



45,712

















Diluted earnings per common share $ 0.29



$ 2.40



$ 0.39



$ 2.86

Diluted weighted average shares outstanding (in 000's) 52,173



46,040



52,305



46,029

















Please reference accompanying financial statement notes.

JONES LANG LASALLE INCORPORATED Segment Operating Results (Unaudited)



Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30, (in millions) 2020

2019

2020

2019 AMERICAS - REAL ESTATE SERVICES













Revenue $ 2,229.0



$ 2,463.6



$ 4,752.1



$ 4,713.7

Reimbursements (1,345.0)



(1,403.1)



(2,738.5)



(2,754.5)

Revenue before reimbursements 884.0



1,060.5



2,013.6



1,959.2

Gross contract costs1 (192.3)



(191.8)



(405.1)



(379.5)

Net non-cash MSR and mortgage banking derivative activity1 (8.6)



(4.8)



(7.0)



(4.7)

Fee revenue1 683.1



863.9



1,601.5



1,575.0

















Compensation, operating and administrative expenses 805.3



913.7



1,815.6



1,724.5

Depreciation and amortization 39.1



26.3



76.5



53.6

Total segment operating expenses, excluding reimbursed 844.4



940.0



1,892.1



1,778.1

Gross contract costs1 (192.3)



(191.8)



(405.1)



(379.5)

Total fee-based segment operating expenses 652.1



748.2



1,487.0



1,398.6

















Segment operating income $ 39.6



$ 120.5



$ 121.5



$ 181.1

Equity earnings 2.9



0.4



15.6



0.1

Total segment income $ 42.5



$ 120.9



$ 137.1



$ 181.2

















Adjusted EBITDA1 $ 74.0



$ 142.1



$ 195.3



$ 230.1

















EMEA - REAL ESTATE SERVICES













Revenue $ 626.2



$ 818.3



$ 1,382.1



$ 1,541.7

Reimbursements (168.8)



(153.7)



(351.6)



(318.3)

Revenue before reimbursements 457.4



664.6



1,030.5



1,223.4

Gross contract costs1 (189.4)



(284.7)



(452.0)



(527.4)

Fee revenue1 268.0



379.9



578.5



696.0

















Compensation, operating and administrative expenses 481.8



654.6



1,066.2



1,231.5

Depreciation and amortization 9.0



11.3



18.2



22.6

Total segment operating expenses, excluding reimbursed 490.8



665.9



1,084.4



1,254.1

Gross contract costs1 (189.4)



(284.7)



(452.0)



(527.4)

Total fee-based segment operating expenses 301.4



381.2



632.4



726.7

















Segment operating loss $ (33.4)



$ (1.3)



$ (53.9)



$ (30.7)

Equity losses 



(1.1)







(1.0)

Total segment loss $ (33.4)



$ (2.4)



$ (53.9)



$ (31.7)

















Adjusted EBITDA1 $ (23.7)



$ 9.6



$ (34.3)



$ (8.6)



JONES LANG LASALLE INCORPORATED Segment Operating Results (Unaudited) Continued









Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30, (in millions) 2020

2019

2020

2019 ASIA PACIFIC - REAL ESTATE SERVICES













Revenue $ 715.3



$ 855.2



$ 1,427.4



$ 1,603.9

Reimbursements (327.0)



(359.6)



(611.9)



(700.7)

Revenue before reimbursements 388.3



495.6



815.5



903.2

Gross contract costs1 (189.5)



(232.7)



(439.0)



(442.1)

Fee revenue1 198.8



262.9



376.5



461.1

















Compensation, operating and administrative expenses 362.6



462.6



780.1



863.1

Depreciation and amortization 7.0



6.4



13.6



12.8

Total segment operating expenses, excluding reimbursed 369.6



469.0



793.7



875.9

Gross contract costs1 (189.5)



(232.7)



(439.0)



(442.1)

Total fee-based segment operating expenses 180.1



236.3



354.7



433.8

















Segment operating income $ 18.7



$ 26.6



$ 21.8



$ 27.3

Equity earnings (losses) 0.5



0.4



(0.2)



0.7

Total segment income $ 19.2



$ 27.0



$ 21.6



$ 28.0

















Adjusted EBITDA1 $ 26.1



$ 33.6



$ 35.5



$ 40.9

















LASALLE













Revenue $ 99.9



$ 129.4



$ 204.8



$ 227.8

Reimbursements (1.1)



(1.9)



(2.9)



(3.8)

Revenue before reimbursements 98.8



127.5



201.9



224.0

Gross contract costs1 (3.8)



(4.2)



(8.3)



(7.0)

Fee revenue1 95.0



123.3



193.6



217.0

















Segment operating expenses, excluding reimbursed expenses 84.7



97.5



173.6



181.9

Gross contract costs1 (3.8)



(4.2)



(8.3)



(7.0)

Total fee-based segment operating expenses 80.9



93.3



165.3



174.9

















Segment operating income $ 14.1



$ 30.0



$ 28.3



$ 42.1

Equity earnings (losses) 11.3



10.5



(29.0)



15.4

Total segment income (loss) $ 25.4



$ 40.5



$ (0.7)



$ 57.5

















Adjusted EBITDA1 $ 26.8



$ 41.6



$ 2.4



$ 59.9

































JONES LANG LASALLE INCORPORATED Segment Operating Results (Unaudited) Continued

















Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30, (in millions) 2020

2019

2020

2019 SEGMENT RECONCILING ITEMS













Fee revenue $ 1,244.9



$ 1,630.0



$ 2,750.1



$ 2,949.1

Gross contracts costs1 575.0



713.4



1,304.4



1,356.0

Net non-cash MSR and mortgage banking derivative activity1 8.6



4.8



7.0



4.7

Revenue before reimbursements $ 1,828.5



$ 2,348.2



$ 4,061.5



$ 4,309.8

Reimbursements 1,841.9



1,918.3



3,704.9



3,777.3

Revenue $ 3,670.4



$ 4,266.5



$ 7,766.4



$ 8,087.1

Segment operating expenses excluding restructuring and acquisition charges 3,631.4



4,090.7



7,648.7



7,867.3

Segment operating income $ 39.0



$ 175.8



$ 117.7



$ 219.8

Restructuring and acquisition charges4 28.2



25.7



42.3



44.3

Operating income $ 10.8



$ 150.1



$ 75.4



$ 175.5

Please reference accompanying financial statement notes.

JONES LANG LASALLE INCORPORATED Segment Operating Results (Unaudited) Continued

















Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30, (in millions) 2020

2019

2020

2019 SEGMENT RECONCILING ITEMS













Fee revenue $ 1,244.9



$ 1,630.0



$ 2,750.1



$ 2,949.1

Gross contracts costs1 575.0



713.4



1,304.4



1,356.0

Net non-cash MSR and mortgage banking derivative activity1 8.6



4.8



7.0



4.7

Revenue before reimbursements $ 1,828.5



$ 2,348.2



$ 4,061.5



$ 4,309.8

Reimbursements 1,841.9



1,918.3



3,704.9



3,777.3

Revenue $ 3,670.4



$ 4,266.5



$ 7,766.4



$ 8,087.1

Segment operating expenses excluding restructuring and acquisition charges 3,631.4



4,090.7



7,648.7



7,867.3

Segment operating income $ 39.0



$ 175.8



$ 117.7



$ 219.8

Restructuring and acquisition charges4 28.2



25.7



42.3



44.3

Operating income $ 10.8



$ 150.1



$ 75.4



$ 175.5

Please reference accompanying financial statement notes.

JONES LANG LASALLE INCORPORATED Summarized Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (Unaudited)



Six Months Ended June 30, (in millions) 2020

2019 Cash used in operating activities $ (44.7)

$ (483.1)







Cash used in investing activities (109.4

(141.7







Cash provided by financing activities 114.1

547.5







Effect of currency exchange rate changes on cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash (15.1

1.9







Net change in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash $ (55.1)

$ (75.4)







Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, beginning of year 652.1

634.2







Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, end of period $ 597.0

$ 558.8







Please reference accompanying financial statement notes.

JONES LANG LASALLE INCORPORATED Consolidated Balance Sheets







June 30,

December 31,







June 30,

December 31, (in millions, except share and per share data) 2020

2019







2020

2019 ASSETS (Unaudited)





LIABILITIES AND EQUITY (Unaudited)



Current assets:







Current liabilities:







Cash and cash equivalents $ 413.5



$ 451.9





Accounts payable and accrued liabilities $ 1,044.8



$ 1,289.4



Trade receivables, net of allowance 1,367.1



2,034.3





Reimbursable payables 967.9



1,245.8



Notes and other receivables 430.5



472.8





Accrued compensation & benefits 977.3



1,729.2



Reimbursable receivables 1,340.9



1,671.2





Short-term borrowings 115.1



120.1



Warehouse receivables 819.2



527.1





Short-term contract liability and deferred income 155.8



158.8



Short-term contract assets, net of allowance 315.2



333.4





Short-term acquisition-related obligations 97.8



74.4



Prepaid and other 422.5



377.9





Warehouse facilities 789.1



515.9





Total current assets 5,108.9



5,868.6





Short-term operating lease liability 159.9



153.4

Property and equipment, net of accumulated depreciation 675.7



701.9





Other 298.8



203.2

Operating lease right-of-use asset 800.2



804.4







Total current liabilities 4,606.5



5,490.2

Goodwill 4,120.9



4,168.2



Noncurrent liabilities:





Identified intangibles, net of accumulated amortization 652.9



682.6





Credit facility, net of debt issuance costs 689.5



512.7

Investments in real estate ventures 393.6



404.2





Long-term debt, net of debt issuance costs 665.4



664.6

Long-term receivables 250.6



250.2





Long-term deferred tax liabilities, net 71.5



106.0

Deferred tax assets, net 229.2



245.4





Deferred compensation 367.5



374.3

Deferred compensation plans 372.4



349.9





Long-term acquisition-related obligations 44.7



124.1

Other 206.1



197.2





Long-term operating lease liability 734.2



751.2





Total assets $ 12,810.5



$ 13,672.6





Other 513.7



436.2



















Total liabilities $ 7,693.0



$ 8,459.3



































Redeemable noncontrolling interest $ 8.1



$ 8.6





























Company shareholders' equity:















Common stock 0.5



0.5

















Additional paid-in capital 1,999.3



1,962.8













Retained earnings 3,593.9



3,588.3

















Treasury stock (24.4)









Shares held in trust (5.7)



(5.7)















Accumulated other comprehensive loss (537.4)



(427.8)















Total company shareholders' equity 5,026.2



5,118.1











Noncontrolling interest 83.2



86.6













Total equity 5,109.4



5,204.7

















Total liabilities and equity $ 12,810.5



$ 13,672.6



























Please reference accompanying financial statement notes.

JONES LANG LASALLE INCORPORATED

Financial Statement Notes

1. Management uses certain non-GAAP financial measures to develop budgets and forecasts, measure and reward performance against those budgets and forecasts, and enhance comparability to prior periods. These measures are believed to be useful to investors and other external stakeholders as supplemental measures of core operating performance and include the following:

(i) Fee revenue and Fee-based operating expenses,

(ii) Adjusted EBITDA attributable to common shareholders ("Adjusted EBITDA") and Adjusted EBITDA margin,

(iii) Adjusted net income attributable to common shareholders and Adjusted diluted earnings per share, and

(iv) Percentage changes against prior periods, presented on a local currency basis.

However, non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered alternatives to measures determined in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP"). Any measure that eliminates components of a company's capital structure, cost of operations or investments, or other results has limitations as a performance measure. In light of these limitations, management also considers GAAP financial measures and does not rely solely on non-GAAP financial measures. Because the company's non-GAAP financial measures are not calculated in accordance with GAAP, they may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies.

Adjustments to GAAP Financial Measures Used to Calculate non-GAAP Financial Measures

Gross Contract Costs represent certain costs associated with client-dedicated employees and third-party vendors and subcontractors and are indirectly reimbursed through the fees we receive. These costs are presented on a gross basis in Operating expenses with the corresponding fees in Revenue before reimbursements. However, as we generally earn little to no margin on such costs, excluding gross contract costs from both Fee revenue and Fee-based operating expenses more accurately reflects how the company manages its expense base and operating margins and also enables a more consistent performance assessment across a portfolio of contracts with varying payment terms and structures, including those with direct versus indirect reimbursement of such costs.

Net Non-Cash Mortgage Servicing Rights ("MSR") and Mortgage Banking Derivative Activity consists of the balances presented within Revenue composed of (i) derivative gains/losses resulting from mortgage banking loan commitment and warehousing activity and (ii) gains recognized from the retention of MSR upon origination and sale of mortgage loans, offset by (iii) amortization of MSR intangible assets over the period that net servicing income is projected to be received. Non-cash derivative gains/losses resulting from mortgage banking loan commitment and warehousing activity are calculated as the estimated fair value of loan commitments and subsequent changes thereof, primarily represented by the estimated net cash flows associated with future servicing rights. MSR gains and corresponding MSR intangible assets are calculated as the present value of estimated cash flows over the estimated mortgage servicing periods. The above activity is reported entirely within Revenue of the Capital Markets service line of the Americas segment. Excluding net non-cash MSR and mortgage banking derivative activity reflects how the company manages and evaluates performance because the excluded activity is non-cash in nature.

Restructuring and Acquisition Charges primarily consist of: (i) severance and employment-related charges, including those related to external service providers, incurred in conjunction with a structural business shift, which can be represented by a notable change in headcount, change in leadership or transformation of business processes; (ii) acquisition, transaction and integration-related charges, including fair value adjustments, which are generally non-cash in the periods such adjustments are made, to assets and liabilities recorded in purchase accounting such as earn-out liabilities and intangible assets; and (iii) lease exit charges. Such activity is excluded as the amounts are generally either non-cash in nature or the anticipated benefits from the expenditures would not likely be fully realized until future periods. Restructuring and acquisition charges are excluded from segment operating results and therefore not a line item in the segments' reconciliation to Adjusted EBITDA.

Amortization of Acquisition-Related Intangibles, primarily composed of the estimated fair value ascribed at closing of an acquisition to assets such as acquired management contracts, customer backlog and relationships, and trade name, is more notable following the company's increase in acquisition activity in recent years. Such non-cash activity is excluded as the change in period-over-period activity is generally the result of longer-term strategic decisions and therefore not necessarily indicative of core operating results.

Gain on Disposition reflects the net gain recognized on the sale of property management businesses in continental Europe. Given the low frequency of business disposals by the company historically, the gain directly associated with such activity is excluded as it is not considered indicative of core operating performance.

Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Below are reconciliations of (i) Revenue to Fee revenue and (ii) Operating expenses to Fee-based operating expenses:



Three months ended June 30,

Six months ended June 30, ($ in millions) 2020

2019

2020

2019















Revenue $ 3,670.4



$ 4,266.5



$ 7,766.4



$ 8,087.1

Reimbursements (1,841.9)



(1,918.3)



(3,704.9)



(3,777.3)

Revenue before reimbursements 1,828.5



2,348.2



4,061.5



4,309.8

Gross contract costs (575.0)



(713.4)



(1,304.4)



(1,356.0)

Net non-cash MSR and mortgage banking derivative activity (8.6)



(4.8)



(7.0)



(4.7)

Fee revenue $ 1,244.9



$ 1,630.0



$ 2,750.1



$ 2,949.1

















Operating expenses $ 3,659.6



$ 4,116.4



$ 7,691.0



$ 7,911.6

Reimbursed expenses (1,841.9)



(1,918.3)



(3,704.9)



(3,777.3)

Gross contract costs (575.0)



(713.4)



(1,304.4)



(1,356.0)

Fee-based operating expenses $ 1,242.7



$ 1,484.7



$ 2,681.7



$ 2,778.3



Below is (i) a reconciliation of Net income attributable to common shareholders to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA, (ii) the Net income margin attributable to common shareholders (against Revenue before reimbursements), and (iii) the Adjusted EBITDA margin (presented on a local currency and on a fee-revenue basis). Following this is the (i) reconciliation to adjusted net income and (ii) components of adjusted diluted earnings per share.



Three months ended June 30,

Six months ended June 30, ($ in millions) 2020

2019

2020

2019















Net income attributable to common shareholders $ 15.2



$ 110.5



$ 20.5



$ 131.8

Add:













Interest expense, net of interest income 14.9



13.6



29.5



23.2

Provision for income taxes 1.5



36.2



6.5



35.5

Depreciation and amortization 56.9



45.5



111.9



92.0

EBITDA $ 88.5



$ 205.8



$ 168.4



$ 282.5

Adjustments:













Restructuring and acquisition charges4 28.2



25.7



42.3



44.3

Gain on disposition (4.8)







(4.8)





Net non-cash MSR and mortgage banking derivative activity (8.6)



(4.8)



(7.0)



(4.7)

Adjusted EBITDA $ 103.3



$ 226.7



$ 198.9



$ 322.1

Net income margin attributable to common shareholders 0.8 %

4.7 %

0.5 %

3.1 % Adjusted EBITDA margin 8.1 %

13.9 %

7.2 %

10.9 %



Three months ended June 30,

Six months ended June 30, (In millions, except share and per share data) 2020

2019

2020

2019















Net income attributable to common shareholders $ 15.2



$ 110.5



$ 20.5



$ 131.8

Diluted shares (in thousands) 52,173



46,040



52,305



46,029

Diluted earnings per share $ 0.29



$ 2.40



$ 0.39



$ 2.86

















Net income attributable to common shareholders $ 15.2



$ 110.5



$ 20.5



$ 131.8

Adjustments:













Restructuring and acquisition charges4 28.2



25.7



42.3



44.3

Net non-cash MSR and mortgage banking derivative activity (8.6)



(4.8)



(7.0)



(4.7)

Amortization of acquisition-related intangibles 14.4



7.4



28.9



15.0

Gain on disposition (4.8)







(4.8)





Tax impact of adjusted items(a) (7.6)



(3.3)



(17.3)



(9.8)

Adjusted net income attributable to common shareholders $ 36.8



$ 135.5



$ 62.6



$ 176.6

Diluted shares (in thousands) 52,173



46,040



52,305



46,029

Adjusted diluted earnings per share $ 0.71



$ 2.94



$ 1.20



$ 3.84





(a) In the first and second quarter of 2020 and the second quarter of 2019, the tax impact of adjusted items was calculated using the applicable statutory rates by tax jurisdiction. The tax impact of adjusted items for the first quarter of 2019 was calculated using the consolidated effective tax rate as this was deemed to approximate the tax impact of adjusted items calculated using applicable statutory tax rates.

Operating Results - Local Currency

In discussing operating results, the company reports Adjusted EBITDA margins and refers to percentage changes in local currency, unless otherwise noted. Amounts presented on a local currency basis are calculated by translating the current period results of foreign operations to U.S. dollars using the foreign currency exchange rates from the comparative period. Management believes this methodology provides a framework for assessing performance and operations excluding the effect of foreign currency fluctuations.

The following table reflects the reconciliation to local currency amounts for consolidated (i) revenue, (ii) fee revenue, (iii) operating income and (iv) Adjusted EBITDA.



Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30, ($ in millions) 2020

% Change

2020

% Change Revenue:













At current period exchange rates $ 3,670.4



(14) %

$ 7,766.4



(4) % Impact of change in exchange rates 60.2



n/a



109.9



n/a

At comparative period exchange rates $ 3,730.6



(13) %

$ 7,876.3



(3) %















Fee revenue:













At current period exchange rates $ 1,244.9



(24) %

$ 2,750.1



(7) % Impact of change in exchange rates 19.7



n/a



37.7



n/a

At comparative period exchange rates $ 1,264.6



(22) %

$ 2,787.8



(5) %















Operating income:













At current period exchange rates $ 10.8



(93) %

$ 75.4



(57) % Impact of change in exchange rates (1.8)



n/a



(0.3)



n/a

At comparative period exchange rates $ 9.0



(94) %

$ 75.1



(57) %















Adjusted EBITDA:













At current period exchange rates $ 103.3



(54) %

$ 198.9



(38) % Impact of change in exchange rates (1.2)



n/a



0.5



n/a

At comparative period exchange rates $ 102.1



(55) %

$ 199.4



(38) %

2. The company considers "annuity revenue" to be (i) 100% of Property & Facility Management, (ii) 50% of Leasing, (iii) 50% of Project & Development Services, (iv) 50% of Advisory, Consulting and Other Revenue, and (v) 100% of LaSalle Advisory and Transaction fees. For purposes of distinguishing organic from acquisition-related contributions, the population of acquisitions includes those completed in the trailing four quarters inclusive of the current reported quarter.

3. Each geographic segment offers the company's full range of RES businesses consisting primarily of (i) tenant representation and agency leasing, (ii) capital markets, (iii) property management and facilities management, (iv) project and development services, and (v) advisory, consulting and valuations services. LaSalle provides investment management services to institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals.

4. Restructuring and acquisition charges are excluded from the company's measure of segment operating results, although they are included within consolidated Operating income calculated in accordance with GAAP. For purposes of segment operating results, the allocation of restructuring and acquisition charges to the segments is not a component of management's assessment of segment performance.

The table below shows restructuring and acquisition charges. Included in the following table was $20.1 million and $41.4 million, respectively, for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020 compared to $3.2 million and $9.7 million, respectively, for the three and six months ended June 30, 2019 of charges relating to the acquisition and integration of HFF (including transaction/deal costs, retention and severance expense, early lease termination costs, and other integration expenses).



Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30, (in millions) 2020

2019

2020

2019 Severance and other employment-related charges $ 7.0

$ 5.4

$ 8.3

$ 10.4 Restructuring, pre-acquisition and post-acquisition charges 20.6

6.0

41.6

13.9 Fair value adjustments that resulted in a net increase (decrease) to earn-out liabilities

from prior-period acquisition activity 0.6

14.3

(7.6

20.0 Total restructuring & acquisition charges $ 28.2

$ 25.7

$ 42.3

$ 44.3

5. The consolidated statements of cash flows are presented in summarized form. For complete consolidated statements of cash flows, please refer to the company's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2020, to be filed with the SEC in the near future.

6. As of June 30, 2020, LaSalle had $65.0 billion of real estate assets under management (AUM), composed of $30.9 billion invested in separate accounts, $30.4 billion invested in fund management vehicles and $3.7 billion invested in public securities. The geographic distribution of separate accounts and fund management investments was $20.9 billion in North America, $15.0 billion in the UK, $10.6 billion in Asia Pacific and $8.4 billion in continental Europe. The remaining $6.4 billion relates to Global Partner Solutions which is a global business line.

AUM decreased 6% in USD (decreased 4% in local currency) from $69.5 billion as of March 31, 2020. The decrease in AUM resulted from (i)$3.1 billion of dispositions and withdrawals, (ii) $1.9 billion of net valuation decreases, and (iii) $1.6 billion of foreign currency decreases, partially offset by (iv) $2.1 billion of acquisitions.

Assets under management data for separate accounts and fund management amounts are reported on a one-quarter lag. In addition, LaSalle raised $1.7 billion in private equity capital for the quarter ended June 30, 2020.

7. EMEA: Europe, Middle East and Africa. MENA: Middle East and North Africa. Greater China: China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

8. n/m: not meaningful, represented by a percentage change of greater than 100%, favorably or unfavorably.



Appendix: Revenue, Revenue before Reimbursements and Fee Revenue by Service Line

Three months ended June 30, 2020

Three months ended June 30, 2019 (in millions) Americas

EMEA

Asia Pacific

Total

Americas

EMEA

Asia Pacific

Total Revenue































Leasing $ 278.1

46.7

33.8

$ 358.6

$ 491.8

65.9

66.2

$ 623.9 Capital Markets 140.8

50.0

24.0

214.8

129.8

78.5

48.2

256.5 Property & Facility Management 1,439.5

320.5

515.2

2,275.2

1,370.9

380.6

553.4

2,304.9 Project & Development Services 275.3

164.3

97.2

536.8

376.8

219.2

137.3

733.3 Advisory, Consulting and Other 95.3

44.7

45.1

185.1

94.3

74.1

50.1

218.5 RES revenue $ 2,229.0

626.2

715.3

$ 3,570.5

$ 2,463.6

818.3

855.2

$ 4,137.1 LaSalle







99.9











129.4 Consolidated revenue





$ 3,670.4













$ 4,266.5















Revenue before reimbursements













Leasing $ 275.0

46.6

33.7

$ 355.3

$ 488.1

65.8

65.6

$ 619.5 Capital Markets 140.4

50.0

23.2

213.6

129.6

78.4

46.7

254.7 Property & Facility Management 272.9

154.6

217.8

645.3

237.6

228.3

236.6

702.5 Project & Development Services 116.4

150.6

68.9

335.9

129.4

218.3

95.5

443.2 Advisory, Consulting and Other 79.3

55.5

44.7

179.5

75.8

73.8

51.2

200.8 RES revenue before reimbursements $ 884.0

457.3

388.3

$ 1,729.6

$ 1,060.5



664.6

495.6

$ 2,220.7 LaSalle







98.9











127.5 Consolidated revenue before reimbursements





$ 1,828.5













$ 2,348.2 Fee revenue















































































































Leasing $ 267.0

45.5

31.3

$ 343.8

$ 479.5

64.0

62.3

$ 605.8 Capital Markets 131.5

46.3

21.6

199.4

124.5

73.4

43.4

241.3 Property & Facility Management 147.3

66.2

74.4

287.9

115.8

101.3

73.7

290.8 Project & Development Services 91.1

58.8

28.7

178.6

99.7

73.4

36.9

210.0 Advisory, Consulting and Other 46.2

51.2

42.8

140.2

44.4

67.8

46.6

158.8 RES fee revenue $ 683.1

268.0

198.8

$ 1,149.9

$ 863.9

379.9

262.9

$ 1,506.7 LaSalle







95.0





123.3 Consolidated fee revenue





$ 1,244.9











$ 1,630.0

Appendix: Revenue, Revenue before Reimbursements and Fee Revenue by Service Line (continued)



Six months ended June 30, 2020

Six months ended June 30, 2019 (in millions) Americas EMEA Asia Pacific

Total

Americas EMEA Asia Pacific

Total Revenue





















Leasing $ 697.0

94.8

59.2



$ 851.0



$ 881.6

118.1

102.1



$ 1,101.8

Capital Markets 388.2

123.2

45.7



557.1



229.9

142.5

77.6



450.0

Property & Facility Management 2,898.3

695.5

1,047.2



4,641.0



2,732.9

749.9

1,091.2



4,574.0

Project & Development Services 581.7

367.5

192.0



1,141.2



685.5

399.7

248.2



1,333.4

Advisory, Consulting and Other 186.9

101.1

83.3



371.3



183.8

131.5

84.8



400.1

RES revenue $ 4,752.1

1,382.1

1,427.4



$ 7,561.6



$ 4,713.7

1,541.7

1,603.9



$ 7,859.3

LaSalle







204.8











227.8

Consolidated revenue







$ 7,766.4











$ 8,087.1

























Revenue before reimbursements





















Leasing $ 689.9

94.6

59.1



$ 843.6



$ 874.7

118.0

101.4



$ 1,094.1

Capital Markets 386.4

123.1

43.7



553.2



229.2

142.2

74.6



446.0

Property & Facility Management 540.8

365.2

483.9



1,389.9



470.2

449.9

468.3



1,388.4

Project & Development Services 237.7

336.6

146.2



720.5



236.9

383.1

173.4



793.4

Advisory, Consulting and Other 158.8

111.0

82.6



352.4



148.2

130.2

85.5



363.9

RES revenue before reimbursements $ 2,013.6

1,030.5

815.5



$ 3,859.6



$ 1,959.2

1,223.4

903.2



$ 4,085.8

LaSalle







201.9











224.0

Consolidated revenue before reimbursements







$ 4,061.5











$ 4,309.8

























Fee revenue





















Leasing $ 672.6

92.5

53.9



$ 819.0



$ 857.1

114.5

95.6



$ 1,067.2

Capital Markets 378.1

115.1

40.3



533.5



224.2

133.0

68.9



426.1

Property & Facility Management 276.0

144.1

147.7



567.8



227.2

196.3

148.0



571.5

Project & Development Services 184.5

124.9

57.5



366.9



180.4

132.9

70.1



383.4

Advisory, Consulting and Other 90.3

101.9

77.1



269.3



86.1

119.3

78.5



283.9

RES fee revenue $ 1,601.5

578.5

376.5



$ 2,556.5



$ 1,575.0

696.0

461.1



$ 2,732.1

LaSalle







193.6











217.0

Consolidated fee revenue







$ 2,750.1











$ 2,949.1



SOURCE JLL-IR
Controversial radio host, Blakk Rasta has alleged that some of the misfortune that his boss, Nana Appiah Mensah is facing is politically motivated.



According to the former Hitz FM presenter, there are some powerful forces and persons who have vowed to ensure that the CEO of defunct gold dealership firm, Menzgold, Nana Appiah Mensah never gets back on his feet again.



Speaking on Accra-based Happy FM, Blakk Rasta revealed that some of the impediments that have been put in the way of the Menzgold boss by people in high office confirm the notion that his struggles are politically orchestrated.



I will tell you something that I shouldnt be telling you but I will tell you. When NAM1 went outside, to Dubia, he won his case. $42m or so, but now if he tries to get a visa to the country (Dubia) to get his money they refuse him. He was bounced two times just last month.



When the presenter of the show indicated to Blakk Rasta that Dubia only issues visa on arrival to visitors, he said: but they have refused him (entry). They dont want him to go there at all. So what he has done is to reach out to lawyers out there to discount that money. So instead of $42m, he will now get $30m or so because he is not there and somebody else has to stand and fight for him.



Blakk Rasta also revealed that NAM 1 had no presidential ambition as was widely speculated in the media and thus there was no need for some political forces to be so hard on him.



He has always said that he has no Presidential ambitions but I think he was moving too fast. Young man, how old is NAM 1, thirty-something. Im older than NAM 1 almost fifteen years so hes my kid brother but God blessed him to get something small and when he got the money as a young man the exuberance pushed him so he was sharing money, driving the cars and throwing money, he thought he could solve the problems in Ghana in just one day.



Currently, NAM 1 is facing 63 counts of money laundering, stealing, taking deposits without authority with other family members now at large.







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.

Featured Video
Mobility Airmen transport humanitarian aid to Nicaragua

By Airman 1st Class Cameron Otte, 60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs / Published August 05, 2020

TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AFNS) -- Airmen assigned to the 22nd Airlift Squadron delivered equipment and supplies to Managua, Nicaragua, July 26 during a Denton Program mission.

The Denton Program is an unfunded government program that allows non-government organizations to donate humanitarian aid for movement by the U.S. Air Force on training missions.

"We delivered a range of items to help the people of Nicaragua develop their communities," said Tech. Sgt. Ryan Padgett, 22nd AS C-5M Super Galaxy loadmaster. "The equipment we delivered included firefighting equipment, a fire truck, ambulances, furniture, sewing material, agricultural supplies and education material."

The program provides organizations with a cost-effective way to transport goods and help people, Padgett said.

During the mission, the crew landed in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Niagara Falls, New York, where they picked up equipment for Nicaragua. The mission would not have been successful without the help of U.S. Air Force Reserve aerial porters at these locations.

"During this mission, the 30th Aerial Port Squadron and the 27th Aerial Port Squadron played a crucial role because without them, we would have lacked the manpower to load all of this equipment or the plan to fit it all," Padgett said. "None of these missions happen without the aerial porters. They were so motivated and proud to be part of this mission and the service they provided was beyond exceptional."

Participating in the humanitarian mission had quite an impact on him as well, Padgett said.

"Delivering this equipment was a great opportunity for us to help the people of Nicaragua develop their country," he said. "By providing them with these resources, they are more likely to thrive, their economy will receive a boost which has the potential to lead to better health care, education and an overall higher standard of living."

Amy Wiza, an executive director with Wisconsin-Nicaragua Partners of Americas, Inc., coordinated the distribution of the equipment and supplies after their arrival in Nicaragua.

"The beneficiaries of this shipment are the people of Nicaragua," she said. "The equipment will be used to support over 1.5 million residents in various communities."

Some of the materials Travis Air Force Base delivered could help save lives, Wiza added.

"Because we are still dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, the fabrics we received will be prioritized for making masks and personal protective items to prevent the spread of the virus," she said.

The Denton Program allows the Air Force to enhance training, build relationships with civilian organizations and cultivate goodwill among nations, Padgett said.

"Everyone wins," he added.

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The US have announced their intention to impose more sanctions on Syria, while some doubt their effectiveness reports Al-Masdar.

In an article on Wednesday, The New York Times said Washington intends to tighten sanctions against Syria to change power there, but many experts question the effectiveness of this US measure.

According to the article, officials in the administration of US President Donald Trump are determined to impose new restrictions based on the Caesar Act.

This was reportedly included in the American military budget for the fiscal year 2020, and it gives the US administration the right to impose sanctions against institutions and individuals providing direct and indirect assistance to Damascus, as well as the various groups operating in the country.

The article quoted the words of Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Middle East Affairs Joel Rayburn, who stressed that sanctions will not end until the Syrian regime and its allies agree to a change of power in the country.

As the newspaper notes, many experts have expressed doubts that such an approach would allow the United States to achieve the desired goals, without making active efforts in the diplomatic field.

The sanctions alone cannot solve the problem, John Smith, the former Director of the US Treasury Departments Foreign Assets Control Office, was quoted as saying.

He added, It is difficult to understand what the US can do, other than putting a group of Syrian regime officials on a list that only provokes indifference on their part.

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.
JOHANNESBURG South African mobile operator MTN Group will exit the Middle East in the medium term, it said on Thursday, starting with the sale of its 75% stake in MTN Syria, as part of plans to focus on Africa.

MTN is in advanced talks to sell the stake in MTN Syria to TeleInvest, which holds the other 25% of the business, Group President and Chief Executive Officer Rob Shuter told media on a conference call as the firm reported its half-year results.

As part of the review of our portfolio, we believe the group is best served to focus on its pan-African strategy and to simplify its portfolio by exiting the Middle East region in an orderly manner," Shuter said.

MTNs entry into the region has been marred by allegations, which it has denied, that it used bribes to win a 15 year operating licence in Iran and also that it aided militant groups in Afghanistan.

U.S. sanctions have made it harder to repatriate cash from its Iran joint venture, while prolonged wars and geopolitical challenges have also not made it easier to operate there.

The companys Middle East assets contributed less than 4% to group earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization in the first-half ended June 30.

Shuter said the initial focus will be on exiting its operations in Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen, and on plans to divest its 49% minority holding in Irancell.

Headline earnings per share (HEPS) more than doubled in the first half to 430 cents, beating analyst estimates of 271 cents.

Service revenue rose 9.4%, buoyed by strong demand for data and financial services in Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa during the coronavirus lockdown.

Overall data traffic increased by 91.5% year-on-year.

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 major diplomatic victory for India, two top US lawmakers on Wednesday (August 5) said that Washington will always support its ties with India, adding that the strong ties between New Delhi and Washington assume significance in view of the "aggression" shown against India by China.

The Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in a letter to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that both the US and India understand this fact that a strong US-India partnership will have an important influence in the 21st century.

"As Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi said in February of this year, our ties ''are no longer just another partnership. It is a far greater and closer relationship''", said the letter signed by Eliot Engel, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Michael T McCaul, its Ranking Member.

Chairman @RepEliotEngel and Ranking Member @RepMcCaul express bipartisan support for the U.S.-India relationship while noting their concern that one year after the revocation of article 370, things have yet to normalize in Jammu and Kashmir.https://t.co/mTa0ReXS2b pic.twitter.com/lrYkTWkQo1  House Foreign Affairs Committee (@HouseForeign) August 6, 2020

"This closer relationship is all the more important as India faces aggression from China along your shared border, which is part of the Chinese government's consistent pattern of unlawful and belligerent territorial aggression across the Indo-Pacific," remarked the two US Congressmen.

The letter tweeted by the House Foreign Affairs Committee asserted that the US will always support India's efforts to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

"As champions of the US-India relationship, we have been delighted to see our countries'' close cooperation on issues from defense to climate change. It is because of our support for the bilateral relationship that we note with concern that conditions in Jammu and Kashmir have not normalised one year after India''s repeal of Article 370 and the establishment of Jammu and Kashmir as a Union Territory," wrote Engel and McCaul.
A Mid Ulster MLA has called for measures to be implemented to improve road safety at the Bellshill, Gracefield and Aughrim Road junction.

Patsy McGlone has written to Minister for Infrastructure and party colleague Nichola Mallon following a number of accidents at the junction.

The junction of Bellshill, Gracefield and Aughrim Road has seen an increasing number of accidents recently, he said.

I have, therefore, written to the Minister for Infrastructure to ask her officials to examine the site and advise on road safety improvements to alleviate the problems at the junction.

Traffic has steadily intensified along the Aughrim Road with the ongoing A6 roadworks. It brings increased danger at this already dangerous junction.

Since the Magherafelt Bypass was built it has been used as a through route from the M2 to Magherafelt, Moneymore, and Cookstown and this is likely to continue when the A6 opens fully.

There have already been a number of accidents at the junction and the need for measures to be implemented to improve road safety is evident.

I will continue to lobby the Minister for investment in improved road safety across our rural road network.
70m windfall: Hastings insurance boss Neil Utley

Insurance tycoon Neil Utley is set to rake more than 70million as investors prepare to buy Hastings.

Finnish financial conglomerate Sampo and South African investment firm Rand Merchant Investment Holdings have launched a 1.7billion bid for the motor insurer, which has the board's approval.

Former DJ Utley, who is worth 194million according to the Sunday Times Rich List, stands to bag 73.3million if he sells his 29.3m shares in Hastings for the offer price of 250p per share.

The 58-year-old helped to revive Hastings in 2009, when he took a major stake through a management buyout and became its chairman.

He has already made millions, pocketing 135million after 50 per cent was sold to Goldman Sachs in 2013.

He put the money to work, buying David and Victoria Beckham's 'Beckingham Palace' mansion in 2014 for 11.5million.

And when Hastings listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2015, Utley raked in another 2.8million. Since then he has gradually sold down his shares.

Gary Hoffman, the chairman of the Premier League and digital bank Monzo, will land a payday of around 15million from the deal.

He became chief executive in 2012 to see it through its stock market float, later becoming chairman, then stepping down this year.

His fellow shareholders  David Saville, Richard Brewster, Thomas Duggan and Ian Donald  who also backed the management buyout, stand to scoop millions.

For other investors, the opportunity to sell shares for 250p may come as a relief.

The shares were around 182p before the deal was announced  barely higher than the 170p they floated at in 2015.

Hastings was founded in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, by David Gundlach and Andrew Bowen.

In its half-year results yesterday, profits rose during the pandemic, as lockdown meant cars were parked on driveways leading to fewer accidents.

It made a profit before tax of 63.5million in the first six months of 2020, compared to 46.1million over the same time last year.

Sampo and Rand's swoop on Hastings is the latest involving big-name private investors snapping up beleaguered British firms.

This week, roadside breakdown firm the AA said three sets of US private equity firms were circling it.

And Casual Dining Group, the owner of Bella Italia and Cafe Rouge, has been bought by private equity firm Epiris.

One investment banker told the Mail that he was seeing a flurry of activity as foreign investors hunt post-lockdown bargains.
Facing a mountain of grievances and a federal lawsuit, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice put in place inadequate measures to combat COVID-19 as geriatric inmates in the Wallace Pack Unit died of the virus, said an attorney representing the prisoners.

No guards at the prison outside Houston were disciplined, lawyers said in the federal bench trial that closed Thursday, even while the lockup as of May had received 872 COVID-related complaints. In those, inmates detailed instances of guards failing to appropriately wear masks and gloves or provide the proper amount of cleaning supplies. Social distancing was impossible, they said, and they feared employees and transferred inmates brought the disease into the unit.

Too many men at the Pack Unit died while grievances were pending, while (TDCJ) fought to not put in the protections that this court had ordered, said attorney John Keville, who represents the inmates in the federal class-action suit.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice admitted some standalone incidents but argued that prison officials actively fought the threat of the virus inside the Pack Unit, which houses 1,1000 vulnerable inmates who are elderly, medically compromised or mobility impaired. The states lawyers argued that the inmates didnt meet the burden needed to win the case by proving that the prison system showed deliberate indifference to the plight of the inmates, and that the inmates did not exhaust all administrative remedies before seeking legal action.

The evidence presented during the course of this trial shows at the most isolated incidents of noncompliance with a policy, said Christin Vasquez, representing TDCJ as an attorney with the state Attorney Generals office. There is no evidence to support the policy itself is unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison, who is presiding over the case, questioned the assertion that conditions described in the lawsuit failed to meet the definition of deliberate indifference. He noted the number of deaths in the prison. And the Pack Unit was disproportionately affected, making up 20 percent of the deaths out of all 104 prisons in the state.

It doesnt matter how many people are dying? Ellison said.

Your honor, thats the law, Vasquez said.

Keville disagreed that the men at the prison hadnt seen the grievance process through, especially because that procedure comes with an 80- to 160-day waiting policy. The grievance system is available to inmates, but that doesnt mean it actually provides relief, he said.

Ellison is familiar with the Pack Unit, having overseen a lengthy lawsuit by inmates there over exposure to deadly indoor heat. The case ended in a historic settlement: The facility is now air conditioned in the hot months, but inmates say officials are again disregarding their health during the pandemic, violating their constitutional rights to due process and equal protection.

Throughout the trial, held over video hearings, plaintiffs attorneys told the judge that prison officials failed to follow their own guidelines or make special provisions to protect vulnerable inmates from the virus. They havent provided hand sanitizer, sufficient testing, contact tracing, or social distancing to prevent the spread of the disease, lawyers said.

Inmate Laddy Valentine, 69, testified that guards sort sack lunches without masks or gloves on, and inmates arrive at showers to find Band-Aids, razors and socks discarded on the floor. They wash their hands with soap but arent allowed hand sanitizer after theyve rolled themselves around in wheelchairs.

Some inmates did get relief, Vasquez countered, and TDCJ began responding to COVID-19 before the governor declared a state of disaster. The agency restricted visitation, prioritized mask distribution to employees and then elderly people at the unit, updated policy throughout the pandemic and disseminated informational videos about healthy practices.

Hand sanitizer was considered but ultimately decided against because it presents security concerns due to its flammability, Vasquez said.

Just like in the free world, she said, inmates have a personal responsibility to reduce the spread of the virus, which is met with varying degrees of compliance. They also have a personal duty to report symptoms, which Valentine himself admitted he didnt do, she said.

That, your honor, is why COVID-19 spreads, Vasquez said.

Plaintiffs have argued that TDCJs efforts were not enough. Valentine said during the trial that sinks had not been working at a point, and another medically impaired inmate found it difficult to walk to the sinks because of a tumor. In response to an inmates complaint that his hands get contaminated by the wheels on his wheelchair, someone at TDCJ said they could eat with toilet paper, Keville said.

Keville also questioned the opposing sides testimony, alleging contradicting information given by witnesses and repeated failure to turn over data and information.

The defendants knew the Pack unit was more vulnerable but they made a one-size-fits-all policy and when that was clearly not working, they used the numbers, played with the numbers, did no analysis, provided no documentation and did nothing different until just before trial.

The closing arguments Thursday wrapped up more than four weeks of trial in what was supposed to be a two-week-long proceeding. Both parties will now submit their final findings of fact in the case and will await a judgment from Ellison.

samantha.ketterer@chron.com
[August 06, 2020] Fuze Broadens Network Connectivity to Enhance Enterprise UCaaS Deployments Fuze, the leading cloud-based communications provider for the modern global enterprise, today announced an expanded portfolio of network connectivity options. These new offerings provide more flexibility for customers connecting to Fuze's global architecture by leveraging customizable solutions based on their organizational requirements and existing network infrastructure. This flexibility also extends to voice carrier connectivity with Fuze's new Bring Your Own Carrier (BYOC) service, which allows customers to leverage existing carrier relationships when necessary. "We are committed to providing our customers with superior quality of service that meets each enterprise's specific requirements, regardless of existing carrier relationships or how complex its network environment may be," said Rob Scudiere, president and COO at Fuze. "Our new connectivity offerings empower our enterprise customers, through a variety of flexible solutions, including private network hosting-a unique solution in the UCaaS industry that enables enterprises to extend their network's edge to Fuze's global data centers." Fuze's newest connectivity options include the following. SD-WAN Certification Fuze has certified four SD-WAN providers, including Aryaka, Cato Networks, Silver Peak, and 128 Technology, to ensure the highest quality connectivity to the Fuze network. By certifying these partners, Fuze customers benefit from the advantages of SD-WAN-reduced costs, increased agility, and enhanced support for cloud-based applications-all while ensuring the network is properly configured for a successful UCaaS deployment. Fuze will work with customers to determine the best SD-WAN solution for their business or quickly certify and onboard new partners for customers with alternate SD-WAN solutions.

Private Network Hosting For mission critical deployments, the network edge should extend as close to the application as possible. Fuze private network hosting allows enterprises to deploy Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) and network services directly in Fuze data centers, extending the customer's network edge to Fuze's, with no third party in between. It also provides an alternative for SD-WAN deployments by allowing customers to host appliances in Fuze data centers, eliminating the distance between a customer's SD-WAN network and Fuze. Fuze's private network hosting enables enterprises to transition seamlessly to Fuze, while maintaining their own private network for flexibility and superior performance. Peering & SDN Interconnections Fuze offers a large variety of public, private, and dedicated peering opportunities across the globe. For private peerings, Fuze participates on the Equinix (News - Alert) ECX and EpsilonTel Infiny SDN fabrics, allowing customers to connect on-demand to Fuze from over 40 co-location facilities spanning all regions. For public peerings, Fuze participates in 10 of the largest Internet Exchanges (IX) in the world. Customers already managing their own presence at an enterprise co-location facility can peer with Fuze's edge within the building or campus. Customers looking for dedicated peering can deliver cross-connects in Fuze's facilities. Fuze Bring Your Own Carrier With Fuze's Bring Your Own Carrier (BYOC) solution, enterprise customers can maintain existing carrier relationships and contracts, whether they wish to utilize their carrier for all voice services or a hybrid approach that combines their carrier and the Fuze Global Calling Network. From redirecting existing session border controllers (SBCs) from different locations to Fuze's points of presence, to bridging directly with carriers in the cloud, Fuze supports a model that fits each customer's unique requirements. Fuze's network connectivity offerings are currently available. More information can be found here. About Fuze Fuze is a global cloud communications provider for the enterprise. Our intuitive unified communications and contact center platform enables seamless transition between calling, meeting, chatting, and sharing powered by the industry-leading intelligent cloud architecture. Fuze empowers the digital and distributed workforce to communicate anywhere, anytime, and across any device. Founded in 2006, Fuze is headquartered in Boston, MA with offices around the world. For more information, visit fuze.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200806005341/en/

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Julian Assange speaks to the media from the balcony of the Embassy of Ecuador in London on May 19, 2017. (Jack Taylor/Getty Images)

US Judge Requests Assange Testimony in Case Brought by Parents of Slain DNC Staffer

A federal magistrate judge in New York requested assistance from a UK court on Aug. 5 in obtaining testimony from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for a U.S. civil lawsuit brought against Fox News and others by the parents of slain Democratic National Committee voter data director Seth Rich.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn requested the international assistance in accordance with the Hague Convention.

In the proper exercise of its authority, this court has determined that the evidence cannot be secured except by the intervention of the English courts and that assistance from the English courts would serve to further the international interests of justice and judicial cooperation, the judge wrote in a memorandum for the senior master of the Royal Courts of Justice.

Joel and Mary Rich, Seth Richs parents, sued Fox News in March 2018, nearly a year after the news network published and retracted an article titled Seth Rich, slain DNC staffer, had contact with WikiLeaks, say multiple sources. The Riches claimed the network inflicted intentional emotional distress on them by slandering their son. The case was dismissed in August 2018, but the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the dismissal more than a year later.

The case has since entered the discovery phase and the judge determined that Assanges testimony is crucial for determining the central dispute between the partieswhether the article was a sham as the Riches claim, or substantially true as maintained by Fox News.

Mr. Assange, as founder of WikiLeaks, is exceptionally suited to provide testimony that will be highly relevant to these issues. Therefore, Fox News, by and through this letter of request issued by the District Court, is formally requesting the testimony of Mr. Assange for use at trial, the request to the UK court states.

The attorneys for the Riches didnt reply to a request for comment.

Buildings are reflected in the window as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is taken from court, where he appeared on charges of jumping British bail, in London on May 1, 2019. (Matt Dunham/AP)

Seth Rich was killed in Washington on July 10, 2016, less than two weeks before WikiLeaks released a collection of thousands of internal emails and documents taken from the DNC servers, the U.S. court request states. One month after Richs murder, Assange referenced the DNC staffer in an interview with a Dutch television reporter when discussing the dangers faced by WikiLeaks sources. On Aug. 9, 2016, WikiLeaks offered $20,000 for information about Richs murder. The website increased the reward to $130,000 in January 2017.

The Fox News articleauthored by Malia Zimmerman, one of the named defendantscited an anonymous federal investigator who claimed to have reviewed the FBI forensic file on Rich and read emails between the slain staffer and WikiLeaks. Two days after the article was published, Joel Rich wrote to Zimmerman asking that the article be retracted. Fox News retracted the article on May 23, stating that the article was not initially subject to the high degree of editorial scrutiny we require for all our reporting.

The magistrate judges request for assistance includes a list of 20 specific questions for Assange, including how, when, and from whom WikiLeaks obtained the stolen DNC emails and whether Seth Rich played any role in obtaining the emails or providing them to WikiLeaks.

WikiLeaks didnt respond to a request for comment.

The judge asked for a response from the UK counterparts by Sept. 1. Should the royal court oblige, the interview of Assange would proceed via video conference, according to Netburns request.

Assange is in a UK jail for failing to appear in court. He faces possible extradition to the United States, where he has been charged with espionage and hacking conspiracy for his work with Chelsea Manning, who was convicted in 2013 for illegally disclosing nearly 750,000 classified U.S. government files through WikiLeaks.

Even if Assange provides no information about Rich, the WikiLeaks founders testimony could have consequences reaching far beyond the civil lawsuit. While U.S. authorities blamed Russia for stealing the DNC emails, the claim remains an allegation with no conclusive evidence in the public realm.

After discovering hackers on its network in March 2016, the DNC hired cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike in early May 2016 to protect its system and oust the intruders. Special counsel Robert Mueller alleged that the DNC email server was breached more than three weeks later. CrowdStrike told The Epoch Times that there is no indication that any DNC system protected by its technology was ever breached. Shawn Henry, who led the CrowdStrike team, told Congress that his company had no evidence that emails were stolen from the DNC.

Assange has said that the source of DNC emails is not the Russian government.
As some readers may know, my first career was as a scholar of Japan. I earned three advanced degrees related to the subject at Harvard, taught it at Harvard and Columbia Universities, and have been a visiting professor at Japans preeminent anthropology institution. Inevitably, the subject of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima has been of deep interest, and I have visited that city many times starting in 1967.

I have no doubt at all that despite the horrors inflicted on innocent citizens of Japan in Hiroshima (and not forgetting thousands of Koreans imported as virtual slave laborers in the factories of that city), President Harry Truman made the correct decision, after prayer, in deciding to launch the nuclear attack. It was horrible, horrible, horrible, unquestionably. But it averted horrors that would have been much worse, had the United States been forced to invade Mainland Japan, after the bloody conquest of Okinawa.

Mushroom cloud over Hiroshma photographed from the Enola Gay (via Wikipedia)

I wont go in depth on the details of the argument on the tradeoff, though this article published yesterday in Human Events does a good job for those who wish to familiarize themselves with the argument.

.because the Allied military planners assumed that operations in this area will be opposed not only by the available organized military forces of the Empire [of Japan], but also by a fanatically hostile population, astronomical casualties were thought to be inevitable. The losses between February and June 1945, just from the Allied invasions of the Japanese-held islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, were staggering: 18,000 dead and 78,000 wounded. That harrowing experience was accounted for while planning for the final invasion. (snip) A study performed by physicist (and future Nobel Laureate) William Shockley for the War Department in 1945 estimated that the invasion of Japan would have cost 1.7-4 million American casualties, including 400,000-800,000 fatalities, and five to ten million Japanese deaths. These fatality estimates were, of course, in addition to the members of the military who had already perished during almost four long years of war; American deaths were already about 292,000. The implications of those numbers are staggering: the invasion of Japan could have resulted in the death of more than twice as many Americans as had already been killed in the European and Pacific theaters of WWII up to that time!

Instead, I want to recount an anecdote told to me by an old friend who was an 8-year-old boy living in Kyushu, the Mainland island closest to Okinawa and considered the likely first site for the invasion. My friend is very glad that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were A-bombed, causing Japan to finally give up surrender. The reason is that he was trained to dig a hole, crouch in it with an explosive device as it was covered up with vegetation, and wait for an American soldier, or better yet a truck or a tank, arrive over him, at which point he was to act as a suicide bomber IED.

Because of the suffering of innocents in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, my friend and millions more other Japanese people and Americans were spared.

Harry Truman famously had a sign on his desk reading The buck stops here. Thank God we had a man of his courage in place to make the fateful decision 75 years ago and bear the burden of it.
Clarke and Her Friends Cannot Be Fooled So Easily in The 100 Sneak Peek

Everything is not as it seems on The 100.

This week's episode of the CW drama returns to the stone room, where Clarke, Raven, Jordan, and Niylah are still reeling from learning that Octavia, Diyoza, and Echo have all joined the cult of the Disciples. E! News has a sneak peek of the moment, and you'll be happy to know that while they are shocked, they also quickly realize that something is up. Why does Bill Cadogan still think Clarke has the Flame, which she only did for "one day, over a hundred years ago?"

Gabriel explains that everything they know was taken from Octavia's memories, which apparently showed Clarke getting the Flame but none of the many, many things that came after.

"If they still think it's in Clarke's head, then Echo, Octavia, and Diyoza never told them it isn't," Jordan points out. "Meaning..."

"They're not with them," finishes Niylah.

Renewed and Canceled TV Shows 2020 Guide

Clarke immediately jumps into action. She instructs Niylah, Gabriel, and Jordan to stay behind and "watch Cadogan," while she has another mission.

"Hold this room. If things go south we're gonna need another way out," she says. "Let's go find out what the three most dangerous women on this or any planet are up to."

We'll all have to wait to watch the episode to find out what she does next, and to see how long it takes for us all to find out just how deceptive Octavia's memories have really been. Maybe she really didn't see Bellamy die after all...

Elsewhere in tonight's episode, Sheidheda finally makes his move, and one Disciple goes rogue.

The 100 airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on The CW.
The last active drilling rig in Wyoming was idled yesterday, leaving the state with no operating rigs for only the second time in its oil and gas history.

The AP reports that the gas rig was located near the border with Colorado and quotes the executive director of the states Petroleum Association, Pete Obermueller, as saying, It is historic, but not in a great way. There are so many jobs attached to these rigs, and now, people are painfully learning so much revenue is attached too. Its mind boggling and hard to capture the impact.

A year ago, there were 37 active drilling rigs in the Cowboy State, which is one of the oldest legacy oil-producing regions, if not one of the largest. For the whole of 2019, companies operating in Wyoming pumped 102.1 million barrels of crude, which was substantially higher than the 2018 output, which stood at 87.9 million barrels.

Now, with the crisis bringing drilling to zero, the state has plans to stimulate the industry with new tax incentives. The Wyoming legislatures Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee has sponsored a bill proposing tax relief for oil and gas companies in a bid to stimulate an increase in production.

The bill calls for a tax exemption once the price of West Texas Intermediate reaches $45 per barrel for light sweet crude and $38 per barrel for sour grades produced in the state.

The incentive, if approved, would only be in effect for 12 months after the benchmark oil price reaches the desired level, but according to the bills sponsors, it could go a long way towards providing the local oil and gas industry with the motivation to bring back the drilling rigs.

Were recognizing that if [the] price is too low, companies are not going to come back anyway. So, were gonna set it at maybe a break-even to get a company over the hump to choose Wyoming over North Dakota, to choose Wyoming over New Mexico, the Petroleum Associations Obermueller said at the time in comments on the news.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
LOUISVILLE, Ky.  As negotiations on another coronavirus relief package continued in Washington, D.C., Kentucky workers drove through Louisville on Thursday to call on congressional leaders, namely Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, to extend the $600 supplement to unemployment benefits that expired July 31.

About two dozen workers blared their horns as they circled the downtown federal courthouse, home to McConnell's office, before driving past the Republican senator's Louisville home.

Signs reading "Save the $600" and "Mitch better have my money" were taped to many of the cars' windows.

Katie Adams, of Bowling Green, said she is unemployed, having lost her job as a sales account manager.

"We are in an unprecedented and global pandemic, and we need help," she said. "We did not ask for this to happen. I want to be able to work."

She heard about the caravan on the Facebook page of Unemployment Action, a national campaign by the progressive Center for Popular Democracy, which organized the event.

2020 campaign: Donald Trump claims Joe Biden is 'against God'

A caravan, organized by Unemployment Action in conjunction with the Kentucky State AFL-CIO, drove past the Louisville home of Sen. Mitch McConnell to demand reinstatement of unemployment benefits to people who have not been able to work because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The $600 weekly supplement to state unemployment benefits was a product of the coronavirus relief bill that Congress passed in March.

Those weekly payments ended July 31, leaving unemployed workers with only their regular jobless benefits, which vary by state and make up a fraction of their usual income.

"Regular unemployment benefits are not going to cut it," Adams said. "We're all looking for jobs. We're not lazy like people claim. Believe me, I want to get back to work in my field doing what I love."

The lapsing of enhanced benefits comes as some states, including Kentucky, have seen a rise in COVID-19 cases, leading to a pausing or rolling back of reopening plans.

New federal data on Thursday showed that just shy of 21,000 people in Kentucky filed new jobless claims during the week ending Aug. 1, marking the 20th consecutive week that claims remained above 20,000.

Story continues

In remarks on the U.S. Senate floor on Thursday, McConnell blamed Democrats for the delay in extending benefits, pointing to their "leisurely negotiating pace," "political theater" and refusal to compromise.

Democratic leadership, meanwhile, did not spare criticism of Republicans.

"People will become homeless because Republicans are nickeling and diming," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters at a Thursday press conference.

As of Thursday afternoon, Democrats, Republicans and White House officials were at a stalemate over what form the benefit extension would take.

More: Trump weighs executive action as negotiations progress on next coronavirus stimulus package

Democrats are seeking to extend the $600 payments until January.

But some Republicans argue the $600 figure is so high that it disincentivizes workers from returning to their jobs.

Last week, McConnell unveiled the Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools Act, which proposes lowering the supplement to $200 through September, then moving to a benefit of 70% of workers pay when combined with state-level benefits.

Caravan participant Latrice Wilson of Louisville said the $200 would not even cover the cost of her monthly medication.

Wilson said she was laid off from her part-time job in April and furloughed in May from her full-time job as a payroll supervisor in the health care industry.

She said her last $600 federal bonus hit her bank account Wednesday.

"Thank God I was able to save a little bit," she said. "But now I have to dip into my savings because we don't have the extra $600."

A car caravan drove past the federal courthouse to demand that Sen. Mitch McConnell reinstate unemployment benefits.

Bill Londrigan, president of the Kentucky State AFL-CIO, which also helped organize the caravan, said the $600 has been an important lifeline for workers and has helped inject money into the economy.

"It goes to buy the necessities they need to put food on their table," he said. "And in an economy that's in such desperate shape with millions of people unemployed and the lack of jobs, those folks need that money."

Follow Matthew Glowicki on Twitter @mattglo

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville caravan calls on McConnell to extend unemployment aid
Getting back to some sense of business as usual is probably the best thing for the business of the genre. Cordens program, for example, generates revenue from more than just the usual TV elements, Late Late Show executive producer Ben Winston told Variety in June. " Ultimately, the way we are making the show right now doesnt fully give the network the amount of revenue we usually do, he said. Its not just the commercials that run at 12:37 that allow us to get to a profit. Its about the spinoffs we have from our segments, or the billions of hits on YouTube, or the product placements in our show at the bar or within a sketch.
DETROIT, Aug. 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Detroit-based Rocket Companies, Inc. ("Rocket Companies" or the "Company") today announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 100,000,000 shares of its Class A common stock at a price of $18.00 per share. 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.

The shares are expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on August 6, 2020, under the ticker symbol "RKT," and the offering is expected to close on August 10, 2020, subject to customary closing conditions.

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan and RBC Capital Markets are acting as the lead bookrunners for the offering. Allen & Company LLC, BofA Securities, Barclays, Citigroup and UBS Investment Bank are acting as bookrunners. CastleOak Securities, L.P., Drexel Hamilton, Fifth Third Securities, Huntington Capital Markets, Loop Capital Markets, Mischler Financial Group, Inc., Nomura, Ramirez & Co., Inc., Siebert Williams Shank and Zelman Partners LLC are acting as co-managers for the offering.

A registration statement relating to this offering was declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 5, 2020. The offering is being made only by means of a prospectus, copies of which 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] ;

10282, telephone: 1-212-902-1171, facsimile: 212-902-9316 or by emailing ; Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, 180 Varick Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10014;

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 LLC, 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] .

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, 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.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release includes "forward looking information," including with respect to the initial public offering. These statements are made through the use of words or phrases such as "will" or "expect" and similar words and expressions of the future. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including the risks outlined under "Risk Factors" in the preliminary prospectus and elsewhere in the Company's filings with the SEC, which may cause actual results to differ materially from any results expressed or implied by any forward-looking statement. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in its forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee future results. The Company has no obligation, and does not undertake any obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking statement made in this press release to reflect changes since the date of this press release, except as required by law.

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

Investor Contact:

[email protected]

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
Were so grateful to Bandmix for their support, theyve built an amazing community and we cant thank them enough for their generosity. Bandmix is stepping up to help the music community and were honored to be their charity partner for this campaign. -Aric Steinberg, EVP Development & Artist Rela

Due to massive cancellations at bars and live venues, artists are struggling to find the means to make ends meet during these unprecedented times.

The solution? In part, a recently created COVID-19 relief fund, managed by Sweet Relief, a non-profit dedicated to providing assistance to career musicians and music industry workers struggling while facing illness.

Were so grateful to Bandmix for their support, theyve built an amazing community and we cant thank them enough for their generosity. Bandmix is stepping up to help the music community and were honored to be their charity partner for this campaign. -Aric Steinberg, EVP Development & Artist Relations.

Who better to help fill the fund than musicians that are all too aware of the challenges the industry faces. Those who are able, of the 1.2 million musicians in the US and Canada, now have the chance to support Sweet Relief and their fellow musicians through BandMix, the largest musician classified online.

"At Bandmix, we care deeply about the musician community. We strive to provide the best network for connecting artists. During these challenging months, we also want to provide some direct assistance to our fellow musicians  Sweet Relief and their mission is a perfect fit." -David Sales, Founder.

How will that work? Any musician using the code SWTRELIEF at checkout earmarks 100% of their purchase to Sweet Relief. Not only will the purchase amount be donated, but Echo Media will match the donation, allowing customers to do twice as much good during this strange time we all find ourselves in.

More about Sweet Relief

Sweet Relief Musicians Fund provides financial assistance to all types of career musicians and music industry professionals who are struggling to make ends meet while facing illness, disability, or age-related problems. In other words, Healing Musicians in Need. We all have received so much out of music, it' s time to give a little back!

Learn more about Sweet Relief here: https://www.sweetrelief.org/

More about BandMix

Formed by musicians in 2003, BandMix is the largest musician classified service online with over 2 million members worldwide. The company estimates BandMix is responsible for matching hundreds of thousands of musicians with each other, continuing its mission to make live music more prominent around the world.

Learn more about BandMix: https://www.bandmix.com

Contact:

Robert Hart

robert@echomedia.net

865-599-0123

Echo Media, Inc.

120 Suburban Road

Suite 201

Knoxville, TN 37923
Join the essential workers and enjoy not only diverse and rewarding career opportunities, but also job stability  thats the message to school students from Paul OBrien, director of Apata Suppliers Entity Limited.

Hes talking about the horticultural industry, declared essential during the recent COVID-19 lockdown because it produces fresh food for Kiwis and the world.

There are already amazing careers in horticulture and in future, there will be jobs we havent even imagined yet, says Paul.

He and fellow growers who supply fruit to Apata Group Ltd and Western Orchards Limited, have donated $16,800 to Katikati Innovative Horticulture Trust to construct a purpose-built facility in Katikati to train and educate people of all ages seeking employment in the horticultural industry.

When the proposal to make the donation was put to the Apata Suppliers Entity Limited board, there was no hesitation  we all agreed such a facility is needed to ensure our industry has trained people to meet its growing future needs.

The decision has been welcomed by two Apata staff members, Erin Atkinson, Manager Apata GROW, and Kate Trufitt, Compliance and Avocado General Manager, who both recognise the importance of encouraging more people, especially school leavers, to consider careers in horticulture.

Erin, the first woman to win the national title of Young Fruit Grower of the Year, is now a member of Apatas management team.

I love my job and many of my friends are envious of the opportunities it offers, including work life balance. I work hard and love doing so, but horticulture also gives me the chance to enjoy time out for other interests, says Erin, who thoroughly recommends horticulture as a career.

Kate, who joined Apata Group in 2015, has experience in marketing citrus, pip fruit, feijoas and avocados.

She has also held a number of roles in operations and logistics before turning her skills to human resources, compliance, health and safety and sustainability.

There is so much more to horticulture than picking and packing fruit or vegetables. There are jobs for all interests and skills including in human resources, compliance, finance, research and development, IT, laboratory work and much more, she says.

Paul is inviting other postharvest companies, and businesses involved in the industrys service sectors from beekeeping, to transport, to IT to irrigation and fertiliser supplies to make donations to the Katikati Innovative Horticultural Trust.

We all know one of the biggest challenges facing our industrys future is a shortage of labour, which makes this project so important.

Katikati Innovative Horticulture Trust needs to raise around $430,000 to build the facility, on land at Katikati College, and a further $125,000 for operational expenses.

The public can help too, by making donations through the Givealittle page.

We're asking for everybody's support. The Katikati Community can do this, and every little bit helps, says Hilary Johnson, Innovative Horticulture Manager, Katikati College.

Thanks to recent donations, the trusts bank balance stands at $130,000. Money has come from private donations, kiwifruit and avocado growers, Zespri and the Department of Internal Affairs Lottery Community Fund.

The New Zealand Fruitgrowers Charitable Trust has approved a grant of $25,000 subject to sufficient funding within the next 12 months to ensure the project succeeds.

The Katikati Innovative Horticulture Trust has been established to create a centre of excellence, based at Katikati College, bringing together educational skills and training providers under one umbrella to offer pathways into horticulture.

To make a donation go to: https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/innovative-horticulture-is-the-future

Visit the Innovative Horticulture website here.
President Emmanuel Macron will seek to rally urgent aid for Lebanon but is also expected to press for overdue reform in France's ex-colony on the first visit by a world leader to Beirut after the deadly port blast. His trip on Thursday comes just two days after the blast -- blamed on an unsecured store of ammonium nitrate at the Beirut port -- killed over 100 people and destroyed entire neighbourhoods. It was the latest blow to a country already reeling from an unprecedented economic crisis and political turbulence. But the apparent negligence that led to the blast has only amplified exasperation with the political elite across Lebanon's different confessional communities. "I will go to Beirut tomorrow (Thursday) to bring the Lebanese people a message of fraternity and solidarity from the French," Macron wrote on Twitter. "We will discuss the situation with the political authorities," he added. The president's Elysee Palace office said Macron will "meet all political actors", including President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Hassan Diab. "The fact that Emmanuel Macron has so rapidly taken the bull by the horns and is coming to Beirut is being warmly welcomed in Lebanon," said Karim Emile Bitar, professor of international relations at Saint Joseph University in Beirut. He said the visit recalled that of the trip made by former president Jacques Chirac in the wake of the assassination of tycoon and former premier Rafiq Hariri in Beirut in 2005. Both sides will be hoping it goes more smoothly than a trip last month by France's top diplomat Jean-Yves Le Drian, who scolded Lebanon's political elite for being too "passive" in the face of an economic crisis compounded by the coronavirus pandemic. In the aftermath of that visit, Foreign Minister Nassif Hitti resigned in protest at his government's lack of crisis management. - 'No lifeline' - Le Drian had reaffirmed the message from his own Beirut trip that reforms were essential for Lebanon to move on. "The country has the necessary strength to recover -- what is needed is that a certain number of reforms are put in place," he said. Bitar said the visit should not in anyway serve as a "lifeline" for Lebanon's political class but continue the pressure for reform from unprecedented protests last year. "Aid needs to be made conditional on structural reform and reform of the Lebanese political system so that a new political class emerges," he told AFP. Analysts say the sheer fact that 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate were left unsecured in a warehouse close to the city centre demands immediate answers from those ruling Lebanon. Valerie Levallois, vice president of the Institute of Research on the Mediterranean and Middle East (IREMMO), said France knew that Lebanon's political system was "running out of breath". But she expressed concern Macron would not give a "clear message" on the visit and instead "continue this fiction that there is a Lebanese state when there is not one. "If there was a functioning state, this explosion would never have happened," she added. - 'Food needed' - Even beyond the present humanitarian emergency, Lebanon's needs are massive: Beirut governor Marwan Aboud told AFP the estimated cost of the damage from the explosion was between $3.0 billion and $5.0 billion. Two military planes were to leave from Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris with 55 search and rescue personnel on board and 25 tonnes of medical supplies. A third plane, provided by the chief executive of shipping giant CMA-CGM Rodolphe Saade who is of Lebanese origin, took off from Marseille with medical equipment and a nine-strong medical team. Le Drian said the destruction of silos holding grain in the blast was a particular concern. "There will also be a food need that is indispensable because the grain silos themselves exploded." The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization expressed fear Wednesday that the destruction of the silos would result in critical flour shortages. Paris prosecutor Remy Heitz meanwhile said at least 21 French citizens were injured in the blast and prosecutors had opened a probe into "negligent injury" using their jurisdiction to investigate acts committed abroad.
The Director of Protocol (DOP), to the Edo Government House, Mr Osayande Aisagbon has been redeployed following the embarrassment suffered by Governor Godwin Obaseki and his guests during the campaign flag up of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Benin penultimate Saturday.

The Governor, accompanied by the partys National Campaign Chairman of the PDP, Mr Nyesom Wike, were left embarrassed when protocol team of Obaseki failed to present kolanut and Gin to the Benin monarch to receive royal blessing.

The visitors to the Palace, including Governor Obaseki were left embarrassed when Kola Nut to offer prayers for the Governor and his entourage could not be provided.

It is always customary of visitors to the Palace to provide Kola Nut and Gin for prayers.

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A source in government house who pleaded anonymity said: The governor and his visitors were embarrassed over the development and such matters ought to be handled by the protocol department so somebody has to take responsibility

 What happened was unfortunate. Is not as if the kola was not bought. The kola was brought late when the Oba was already seated with his guest and you know with that nobody comes in when the Oba is seated.

In a memo obtained by our correspondent, the governor ordered for the redeployment of the DoP over the embarrassment.

In the same memo, the redeployed DoP was replaced with Mr Moses Obakpolor also a staff of the State Ministry of Culture and Diaspora Affairs.

It would recalled that on the entourage of PDP campaign train were Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State and his counterpart in Sokoto State, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal.

Other governors that came for the flag up were Duoye Diri of Bayelsa state, Seyi Makinde of Oyo state and Senator Bala Muhammed of Bauchi State.

Other guests at the event include Deputy Governor of Ondo State, Agboola Ajayi; National Chairman of tje PDP, Uche Secondus; Chairman of DAAR Communications, Raymond Dokpesi; Chief Tom Ikimi; Sen. Clifford Ordia and Mr Ken Imasuagbon, among others.
Following the devastating explosions in the Port of Beirut, Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday promised Germany's help to Lebanon.

"With great dismay, I learned of the severe explosion in Beirut, which has claimed many victims," Merkel wrote on Wednesday in a letter of condolence to Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab.

"In this difficult time, you can count on the help and support of the German government," said Merkel.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas was also "moved by the shocking pictures from Beirut." Employees of the German embassy were among the many injured.

"My thoughts are with the relatives of the victims," Maas wrote on Twitter. "Germany stands by Lebanon in this difficult hour."

Maas told the German newspaper Bild that he had been in contact with his Lebanese counterpart to discuss how Germany could offer quick help. A rescue team from the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief would aim to leave for Beirut on Wednesday.

"Together with the German Armed Forces and our humanitarian workers, we are looking at how we can provide further help for clearing up and supplying the civilian population," said Maas.

Two huge explosions hit the Port of Beirut on Tuesday, shaking buildings all over the city. Health Minister Hamad Hassan announced on Wednesday that the explosions have left 135 people dead and 5,000 others injured.

The causes of the blasts remain unknown, but local officials said highly explosive material stored at the port might have led to the explosions.

(CGTN)
My boss was fuming. Not at me personally, but at my department and in particular at one of my staff members who had made a serious error of judgement.

It was my bosss right to direct his anger at me as I was responsible for the overall running of the department.

I felt terrible that I had let my boss down. He was someone whom I truly respected.

And I knew it was my job to see that this issue was dealt to and prevented from happening again, that afternoon.

I wondered if the good relationship I had built up with my boss over a decade would ever be the same.

The next day and after a sleepless night I was about to find out.

Early the next morning I met my boss unexpectantly in the lift. He smiled and wished me a good day.

It was as if nothing had happened. The problem that occurred yesterday was forgotten and did not define our today or tomorrow.

Perhaps the reputation I had built up over the past ten years had protected me?

I was convicted but not condemned. I was free to move on. This was

quiet grace.

Northern Ireland

My protestant family hail from Northern Ireland and we have been at war with the Catholics. One of my family members was shot dead in cold blood by the IRA and this festered within my family for many years.

He was a University lecturer. It was believed the Catholics wanted to take control of the places of learning and replacing him with a Catholic lecturer fulfilled their objectives.

Amazing grace

But, after decades of fighting and many killings, one act of grace changed everything.

In 1987 an IRA bomb went off in a small town west of Belfast amongst a group of protestants who had gathered to honour the war dead on veterans day.

Eleven people died and sixty three were wounded. What made this act of terrorism stand out from so many others was the response of one of the wounded, Gordon Wilson, a devout Methodist.

The bomb buried Wilson and his twenty year old daughter under five feet of concrete and rubble.

Daddy I love you very much were the last words Marie spoke, grasping her fathers hand as they waited for the rescuers.

She suffered severe spinal and brain injuries and died a few hours later in the hospital.

A newspaper later proclaimed  No one remembers what the politicians had to say at the time.

No one who heard Gordon Wilson will ever forget what he confessed. His grace towered over the miserable justifications of the bombers.

Speaking from his hospital bed, Wilson said:

 I have lost my daughter, but I bear no grudge. BITTER talk is not going to bring Marie Wilson back to life. I shall pray, tonight and every night that God will forgive them.

His daughters last words were words of love and Gordon Wilson was determined to live out his life on that plane of love.

The World wept, said one report as Wilson gave a similar interview on BBC radio that week.

A world of increasing division

Today, we live in a world displaying little grace.

A world that is becoming increasingly divided and people are being pigeon holed into groups of like-minded people.

Which group do you belong to?

Right wing or left wing? In favour of abortion or pro-life? For gender fluidity or are you homophobic? Do you believe Black Lives Matter or All Lives Matter?

Your choice determines the box you are put into.

Unfortunately within this heavy labelling there is a complete lack of grace. Everything is black or white when in reality there are various shades of grey.

There is little room for listening, compassion, understanding and love.

How long must it go on like this?

As Christians, how can we melt the ice of division?

I believe we need to be anchored in a different world. One full of compassion, understanding and grace.

The Devil wants to sow division and confusion. We are called to be peace-makers.

In Matthew 8: 23-27 Jesus is sitting in a boat with his disciples sleeping when a furious storm came up on the lake. The disciples were afraid they were going to drown but Jesus rebuked the winds and waves, and it was completely calm.

Jesus was able to calm the storm because the peace within him was greater than the storms around him.

May we as Christians know the peace and grace of God so deeply that we are able to calm the storms around us and bring peace and hope to a troubled world.

It could be quite simple. When someone is expressing their views to us, we could just listen more, talk less, build empathy and express love in a way that does not compromise our beliefs.
New Delhi: In a departure from the past, Malaysia has refrained from making any comments on Kashmir even as China and Turkey continue with their anti-India policy and remarks on the first anniversary of the removal of special status and scrapping of Article 370 from the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Under the leadership of former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir bin Mohamad, Kaula Lumpur had taken an anti-India stance, making remarks on Kashmir. Malaysia under Mahathir was among the three countries - the other two being Turkey and China to raise Kashmir at UNGA meet in 2019.

Under the new Malaysian government led by PM Muhyiddin Yassin, both sides have been engaging with each other. India's External Affairs Minister Jaishankar spoke to new Malaysian foreign minister Hishammuddin Hussein immediately after new government took charge in Kuala Lumpur.

Indian High Commissioner to Malaysia Mridul Kumar has also met Malaysian foreign minister Hishammuddin several times. In fact, the Indian High Commissioner was the first envoy received by the Malaysian Foreign Minister on March 18, the day he took charge.

Both sides are also strengthening commercial ties, with trade deficit reducing from $4.3 bn to $3.4 bn in 2019-20 compared to 2018-19. Rice, sugar and high-speed diesel imports by India have risen. Under India's mega repatriation plan-- Vande Bharat Mission, 42 flights have taken from Malaysia bringing back 7000 Indians from mid-March till now.

New Delhi and Kuala Lumpur have also been cooperating under the current coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic with India allowing the export of HCQ and paracetamol to Malaysia.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 6

By Jeila Aliyeva - Trend:

Various types of instruments weighing over six tons were exported from Russia to Turkmenistan from January through May 2020, Trend reports, citing statistics from the Eurasian Economic Commission.

Russia was the only exporter from the country members of Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) to Turkmenistan of hand tools used in agriculture in the amount of 250 kilograms, for a total of $175.

In addition, 75 kilograms of rasp-file, broaching file, and similar hand tools in the amount of $9,135, as well as 599 kilograms of spanners and replacement heads for them in the total amount of $15,017 were exported from Russia to Turkmenistan.

During the reporting period, the replacement working tools were exported from Russia to Turkmenistan in the total volume of 5,5 tons for a total of $287,097.

Russia also was the only exporter of lead products totaling 408 kilograms in the amount of $2,515, cobalt products totaling three kilograms worth $1,429, and two kilograms of titanium products worth $70 to Turkmenistan among the EAEU countries.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @JeilaAliyeva
Dulquer Salmaan has been busy spending some quality time with his family in Kochi, amidst lockdown. The actor, who is one of the most sought-after stars of the South Indian film industry, has some promising projects in the pipeline. Reportedly, Dulquer Salmaan is planning to kickstart the Rosshan Andrrews project, once the lockdown comes to an end.

According to the latest updates, the much-awaited Dulquer Salmaan-Rosshan Andrrews project, which is said to be a cop drama, is expected to start rolling once the lockdown restrictions are lifted. In that case, this untitled project will be the actor's next outing in Malayalam to go on floors.

To the uninitiated, Dulquer Salmaan is all set to play a full-fledged cop role for the first time in his career, in the Rosshan Andrrews project. The actor has earlier made a brief appearance as a police officer in Lal Jose's Vikramadithyan. The project is penned by the National award-winning scriptwriter duo Bobby and Sanjay. If the reports are to be believed, Kerala's capital city Thiruvananthapuram will be the main location of the project.

Dulquer Salmaan is teaming up with both Rosshan Andrrews and scriptwriter duo Bobby and Sanjay for the first time in his career, with the untitled project. The yet to be titled film is produced by the actor himself, under his home banner Wayfarer Films. The makers are yet to finalise the star cast and technical crew of the movie, which is expected to hit the theaters in 2021, if world comes back to normalcy.

Coming to Dulquer Salmaan's career, the actor will be next seen in the upcoming period thriller Kurup, which is based on the life of the notorious criminal Sukumara Kurup. The actor is said to be playing the first out and out negative character of his career in the movie, which is directed by Srinath Rajendran.

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Mammootty Is Trying To Establish Personal Record Of Staying At Home, Reveals Son Dulquer Salmaan



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Nearly a third of Afghanistan's population -- or 10 million people -- has been infected with the coronavirus, according to health ministry estimates published Wednesday. The figure comes from a survey based on antibody tests on around 9,500 people across the country, with technical support from the World Health Organization, health minister Ahmad Jawad Osmani said at a press briefing. The survey estimated that 31.5 percent of the population had contracted the virus, with the highest infection rate in Kabul where more than half of the city's five million population were thought to have been infected. But the country of around 32 million people has only limited testing capacity and has officially declared just 36,000 cases and more than 1,200 deaths. "A second wave of the infection is happening everywhere in the world and we cannot be an exception. We will use the findings of this survey to better prepare ourselves for a possible second wave," Osmani said. More than 18 million people worldwide have been infected with the virus since it first emerged in China late last year. The virus entered Afghanistan in February as thousands of migrants returned from neighbouring Iran, which at the time was the region's worst-hit nation for the virus. Since then Afghanistan, already wracked by decades of war, has been ravaged by COVID-19. A survey on the mortality rate of coronavirus Afghanistan is under way.
MILWAUKEE  Vice President Joe Biden will not attend the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee later this month, dealing another COVID-19-related blow to the delayed and downsized convention.

In addition, President Donald Trump said Wednesday hell likely deliver his Republican convention acceptance speech from the White House after coronavirus concerns and restrictions canceled events planned in North Carolina and Florida.

The Democratic National Convention Committee on Wednesday announced that Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, will accept the partys nomination from Delaware, the former vice presidents home state. Other speakers who had been planning to attend the convention will no longer be traveling to Milwaukee, as the event shifts to an almost entirely online format.

While we wish we could move forward with welcoming the world to beautiful Milwaukee in two weeks, we recognize protecting the health of our host community and everyone involved with this convention must be paramount, said Joe Solmonese, CEO of the 2020 Democratic National Convention. He described 2020 as a year of once-in-a-lifetime challenges and changes.

Frustration, understanding

Wednesdays announcement drew a range of frustration to understanding from Wisconsin Democrats, while state Republicans compared Bidens decision to 2016, when then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton famously did not visit the state. She ultimately lost to President Donald Trump by about 23,000 votes.

Now that Joe Biden is formally abandoning the City of Milwaukee and the State of Wisconsin, its becoming clear that Democrats have not learned from their mistakes in 2016 and are poised to repeat them again in 2020, Andrew Hitt, chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, said in a statement.

Trump Victory spokeswoman Anna Kelly also said Biden is repeating the mistakes of the 2016 campaign.

Biden and his campaign have held online events in Wisconsin, but he has not yet visited the state. Trump and members of his administration, including Vice President Mike Pence, have made multiple trips to Wisconsin this year.

I think that provides a stark contrast and shows how committed President Trump and Republicans are to the Midwest and how the Democrats seem to be leaving us behind, Alesha Guenther, spokeswoman for the Republican Party of Wisconsin, said Wednesday. President Trump and Vice President Pence have made it increasingly clear that theyre committed to doing everything they can to win this state, so I would certainly expect that were going to continue to see them visit.

Republican National Convention

However, questions also have lingered surrounding the Republican National Convention, which was originally slated for Charlotte, North Carolina until Trump clashed with the states Democratic governor over COVID-19-related restrictions. Trump moved the convention to Jacksonville, Florida, but later canceled that plan following a surge of positive coronavirus cases.

During a Wednesday interview with Fox News Channels Fox and Friends, Trump said he is considering delivering the GOP conventions acceptance speech from the White House.

Such a move would mark an unprecedented use of public property for partisan political purposes, and congressional leaders in both parties publicly doubted Trump could go ahead with the plan. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said flatly that he cant do that.

I think its a beautiful setting, and we are thinking about that, Trump said on Fox & Friends. Its certainly one of the alternatives.

He said the convention will be a mix of virtual events and live speeches, including his remarks and a speech by first lady Melania Trump.

The Republican National Convention is scheduled for Aug. 24-27. Trump is to be formally nominated on Aug. 24 in Charlotte, but the venue for his speech accepting the nomination has been up in the air.

Pelosi, D-Calif., said overtly political events arent held at the Capitol or the White House and accused Trump of trying to divert attention from his handling of the coronavirus.

He cant do that. You cant do that, she said on MSNBC.

Unconventional convention

Milwaukee was announced more than a year ago as the host city of the 2020 DNC, with Democrats anticipating that Wisconsin  a longstanding battle ground state  could play a deciding role in the presidential race.

However, a convention that once anticipated more than 50,000 visitors and hundreds of millions in tourism dollars has been repeatedly downsized as positive cases of COVID-19 continue to mount in Wisconsin and the nation. The convention was postponed from July to August and has shifted to what is anticipated to be an entirely online format in efforts to avoid further spread of the virus.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who officially endorsed Biden earlier this week, said the upcoming convention is different than wed imagined, but said in a statement Wednesday that Democrats remain committed to putting health and safety first.

It has never been more important for elected officials to lead by examplethats the kind of leader Joe is, and thats the kind of president we need, Evers said. I know he will continue to have a presence in Wisconsin, virtually or otherwise, and I look forward to doing everything we can to win Wisconsin.

Wisconsin COVID numbers

Wisconsins seven-day average of daily positive COVID-19 cases has dipped in recent days, down from 930 on July 26 to 840 on Tuesday. The virus has killed 961 Wisconsinites and infected more than 56,000 people across the state.

From the very beginning of this pandemic, we put the health and safety of the American people first, DNC Chair Tom Perez said in a statement. We followed the science, listened to doctors and public health experts, and we continued making adjustments to our plans in order to protect lives.

Wednesdays announcement was described by the DNC as a small adjustment to the overall plan. The majority of speeches were already planned to take place in different locations across the country. The four-day event will include both pre-recorded segments and live broadcasts.

Last month, DNC officials announced everyone attending the convention would have to wear a face mask, consent to daily testing for COVID-19, fill out questionnaires and maintain physical distance from other attendees. Visitors also will have to self-isolate for at least 72 hours before entering the convention.
You may love smoking weed, but it does not love your heart, according to the American Heart Association's new scientific statement on marijuana.

"The American Heart Association recommends that people not smoke or vape any substance, including cannabis products, because of the potential harm to the heart, lungs and blood vessels," said Dr. Rose Marie Robertson, the deputy chief science and medical officer for the American Heart Association, in a statement.

The new scientific statement, published Wednesday in the AHA journal Circulation, examined existing research on the connection between cannabis and the heart.

The statement found using weed has "the potential to interfere with prescribed medications" as well as "trigger cardiovascular conditions or events, such as heart attacks and strokes," said clinical pharmacologist Robert Page II, who chaired the medical writing group for the statement.

Anyone planning to use marijuana should discuss possible risks with their health professional first, said Page, who is a professor in the department of clinical pharmacy and physical medicine/rehabilitation at the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Aurora, Colorado.

"If people choose to use cannabis for its medicinal or recreational effects, the oral and topical forms, for which doses can be measured, may reduce some of the potential harms," Page said in a statement.

"It is also vitally important that people only use legal cannabis products because there are no controls on the quality or the contents of cannabis products sold on the street," he added.

Heart complications

Some of the studies analyzed by the medical group found heart rhythm abnormalities, such as tachycardia and atrial fibrillation, could occur within the hour after weed containing THC is smoked. THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is the psychoactive substance within marijuana that creates a "high."

Tetrahydrocannabinol can also cause a faster heart rate, increase the heart's need for oxygen, disrupt the walls of arteries and contribute to higher blood pressure while prone, according to other studies.

"Cannabis smoke contains components similar to tobacco smoke," Page said, and studies show tobacco-like increases in carbon monoxide and tar in a weed smoker's blood after smoking marijuana, regardless of the THC content.

Chest pain, heart attacks, heart rhythm disturbances and other serious heart conditions are associated with both tobacco and marijuana carbon monoxide intoxication, the statement said.

For anyone with existing heart disease, risks go up. Smoking weed has triggered heart attacks, a higher risk of strokes and heart failure in people with underlying heart disease, studies show.

In comparison, CBD, or cannabidiol, one of the other 80 chemicals in cannabis, does not give the "high" typically associated with THC. Nor does it appear to cause harm to the heart.

In fact, studies reviewed by the medical group showed possible links to lower blood pressure, reduced heart rate and less inflammation, which is an underlying culprit of the narrowing of the arteries that can lead to heart disease and strokes.

However, despite the hundreds of products currently being sold over the counter and online, there is only one CBD-derived product approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, the group wrote.

'Urgent' need for in-depth research

There is one caveat to all these research findings: Existing studies on marijuana and the heart are "short-term, observational and retrospective studies, which identify trends but do not prove cause and effect," Page said.

There is an "urgent" need for "carefully designed, prospective short- and long-term studies regarding cannabis use and cardiovascular safety," Page added.

But that's tough to do in today's climate, because marijuana is classified as a Schedule I controlled substance by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. That limits research dramatically, and the DEA should remove those restrictions so that scientists can better study marijuana's effects, the group advised.

In addition, the medical group recommended cannabis to be part of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's tobacco control and prevention efforts, which may mean that there would be age restrictions on who can purchase weed, retailer regulations and even excise taxes.

The American Heart Association is looking over the scientific statement and will be releasing new policy updates in coming weeks, according to Michelle Kirkwood, an AHA spokesperson.

"The public needs fact-based, valid scientific information about cannabis's effect on the heart and blood vessels," Page said.

"Research funding at federal and state levels must be increased to match the expansion of cannabis use  to clarify the potential therapeutic properties and to help us better understand the cardiovascular and public health implications of frequent cannabis use."
<! Takeoff of Migos >

By Taiwo Okanlawon

A Los Angeles has dragged Migos rapper, Kirshnik Khari Ball, popularly known as Takeoff, to court accusing him of raping her at a June party.

The woman, who filed the lawsuit as a Jane Doe on Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, claims the incident occurred June 22 at a party in Encino, California.

Doe says she was invited there by DJ Daryl Durel McPherson, who occasionally spins for Migos.

She claims Takeoff offered her marijuana at one point, though she declined. Later on, she says she was going to McPhersons bedroom with him when they passed the Migos rapper on the hallway. He became angry and started arguing with McPherson.

She left the pair and waited for McPherson in his bedroom, instead, she says the Walk It Talk It rapper came in and began touching her. After she attempted to stop him, the suit says he forcefully raped her. The woman went to a hospital the same day, and staff observed physical evidence of forceful rape and notified the LAPD.

Our client is terrified, the womans attorney, Neama Rahmani, said in a statement. She has already been victimized because of the incident, and continues to be victimized because Takeoff is a free man and has yet to be arrested. We hope that law enforcement pursues its investigation more aggressively, so she can receive the criminal justice she deserves.

The woman is suing Takeoff for sexual battery, battery, assault, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent infliction of emotional distress, among other causes of action.

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BAY CITY, MI - Rural communities across the state are getting a financial boost to improve their infrastructure from the federal government, three of which are located in Mid-Michigan.

The funding comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) as a part of a $462 million investment project in the from of grants and loans and will benefit 161 projects. The project was announced on Aug. 3 by the Trump Administration.

Now more than ever, Michigan families are depending on consistent access to clean water and reliable utilities, said U.S. Senator Gary Peters.

Hampton Charter Township in Bay County will receive $2,225,000 in federal funding plus a $2,768,000 loan to bolster water and wastewater infrastructure to modernize critical drinking water and wastewater infrastructure.

Hampton Charter Townships aging infrastructure is in need of repairs to protect homes from property damage and keep our beaches in the Saginaw Bay safe for families, said U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow. These investments are critically important to prevent backups that could result in basements flooding, and to avoid the kind of crises in recent years that have closed beaches across the state.

The Hampton Township project involves the rehabilitation of 15 lift stations and approximately five miles of cure-in-place sewer main and installation of emergency generators. According to the USDA, project will reduce the amount of inflow and infiltration thus reducing the amount of water being treated by the wastewater treatment plant.

Meanwhile, Beaverton in Gladwin County will use a $726,000 grant alongside a $999,000 loan to make water and sewer system improvements to the citys aging and undersized system. Approximately one-half mile of water main, valves, fire hydrants and service leads will be replaced on Saginaw St.

The Beaverton project is also being done to help mitigate increased E. coli levels in Ross Lake by replacing half a mile of sanitary sewer main and manholes, according to the USDA.

Beaverton will also receive a $41,000 loan and $125,000 grant for upgrades to three pump stations and new sewer force main.

In Tusola County, the Village of Cass City will use a $1,237,000 loan to replace approximately two miles of water main, which will be done in conjunction with a sanitary sewer replacement at four intersections and also a street paving project.

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ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - Newfoundland and Labrador's COVID-19 infection rate could be 20 times higher in the absence of a travel ban, the doctor leading a team running models on the contagion said Thursday in court.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 6/8/2020 (530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Newfoundland and Labrador's provincial flag flies on a flag pole in Ottawa, Friday July 3, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - Newfoundland and Labrador's COVID-19 infection rate could be 20 times higher in the absence of a travel ban, the doctor leading a team running models on the contagion said Thursday in court.

Dr. Proton Rahman testified before the province's Supreme Court during a legal challenge to the travel restrictions authorities imposed in May to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Newfoundland and Labrador's chief medical officer of health, Dr. Janice Fitzgerald, is also set to take the stand as a witness in the proceedings scheduled this week in St. John's. She ordered special measures this spring that banned anyone but permanent residents and workers deemed essential from entering the province.

In May, Halifax resident Kim Taylor and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association filed a claim alleging the restrictions fall outside the province's jurisdiction and violate the charter.

Taylor was initially denied a request to travel to Newfoundland after her mother died. That decision was later reversed and she was granted an exemption, but she says it came too late.

Rahman, a clinical epidemiologist and professor of medicine at Memorial University of Newfoundland, testified Thursday about with his work with the modelling group.

His team helps the province and other institutions with predictive analysis on issues such as potential surges of COVID-19 cases. Rahman said his team was asked by the province to run modelling scenarios in June for the court case.

The results, he said, showed a "10-fold higher rate of cases in the province" over a nine-week period without a travel restriction in place. A second scenario showed a case rate that was five-to-20-fold higher over 14 weeks without a travel restriction, he said.

Rahman also told the court about a paper he co-authored with Stanford University and Oxford University professors analyzing the impact of lifting the travel ban in the province.

The paper dated July 17 is not yet peer-reviewed. Researchers used machine learning and an epidemiological model to look at COVID-19 dynamics in various reopening scenarios. The results suggest that a full border reopening would see a new COVID-19 case in the province "every other day."

The authors wrote that while relaxing travel restrictions is "a highly contentious political decision," tight border measures are a clearly effective strategy to control cases.

"From an outbreak dynamics perspective, the picture is quite clear: Without proper control, an influx of infected travellers can easily become the seed for a new exponential outbreak," the study read. "Our study shows that especially for smaller provinces or states ... tight border control is often easier and more effective than quarantine."

The authors also noted "local travel bubbles" are a reasonable first step when relaxing travel restrictions. Newfoundland and Labrador joined the other Atlantic provinces in a regional "bubble" in July, allowing residents to travel within the region without self-isolating upon arrival.

The paper also cites health factors in the province that are "critical" to analyze when developing COVID-19 policies, noting Newfoundland and Labrador has high rates of smoking, obesity, metabolic disease and cancer.

Fitzgerald was set to appear as a witness Thursday, but the proceedings were cut short after a lawyer working on the case felt ill and was unable to return to the courtroom. Rahman is scheduled to resume his testimony in court Friday morning.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published August 6, 2020.
Here are some of the major musicals that we look forward to seeing return to the stage in 2021. We've split it into two categories  shows getting completely new and exciting productions, alongside existing productions that are returning for a second (or third!) outing.









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Regent's Park Open Air Theatre

 Regent's Park Open Air Theatre

The Open Air Theatre's track record of reviving musicals has been spotless lately  Jesus Christ Superstar, Little Shop and Evita all being absolutely incredible and revisionist takes on old classics. We hope this will continue with Carousel, directed by the artistic head of the venue Timothy Sheader. Carousel is running at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre from 30 July to 18 September





Sister Act

Whoopi Goldberg and Jennifer Saunders

 Matthew Murphy and Oliver Rosser

Oh boy, Sister Act was met with a chorus of praise when first announced earlier last year. But here's the kicker  with a cast featuring Whoopi Goldberg and Jennifer Saunders, the show's script is being rejigged to reflect the different actor ages. Not too shabby! Sister Act is running at the Eventim Apollo from 20 July to 29 August and then touring





Singin' in the Rain

Singin in the Rain

 Singin in the Rain

Adam Cooper gave a spell-binding central turn in the WhatsOnStage Award-winning revival of Singin' in the Rain, and we're very excited to see it on the beautiful Sadler's Wells stage for what is sure to be a luscious return, alongside an extensive tour. Singin' in the Rain is running at Sadler's Wells from 30 July to 5 September 2021, with tour dates across the year





It's "pop"-ping back on tour! The iconic musical by Kander and Ebb is a crowd favourite, and is visiting a variety of venues across the UK. Find out more here.





Hairspray

The Ball is back! Iconic musical Hairspray is returning in the new year with the award-winning performer reprising his role as Edna Turnblad, alongside the likes of Lizzie Bea and Marisha Wallace. Running with Michael Ball at the Coliseum from 22 April to 29 August





Musical theatre's most maniacal family is back for a brand new tour, which has moved its opening to January 2021. Find out more here.





Dreamgirls

The West End cast of Dreamgirls

 Matt Crockett

Another show getting an eagerly anticipated tour is Dreamgirls, which bagged all manner of awards recognition when it ran in the West End from December 2016. Featuring iconic tunes and dazzling set pieces, this is a classy one to have back on our stages. Tour dates being rescheduled on a rolling basis where necessary.





Stick this one to the man  the hit West End musical based on the Jack Black-led film is heading out on its first ever tour. Find out more here.





Heathers the Musical



Get the chainsaws ready  one of the biggest news stories of 2019 was the revelation that Heathers will go out on its first-ever tour in the new year. Based on the cult classic film, the WhatsOnStage Award-winnng musical was a major hit with fans of all ages, and it'll be exciting to see it head out to venues across the UK. Tour dates being rescheduled on a rolling basis where necessary.





The Wizard of Oz

Curve Leicester has moved its new take on Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's ruby-slippered masterpiece. Christmas 2021 is destined to be spectacular! Find out more here.





Dates to be confirmed





Sunday in the Park With George

Jake Gyllenhaal

 Matthew Murphy

Jake Gyllenhaal and Annaleigh Ashford are coming to the West End! In a musical! By Stephen Sondheim! It might well be one of the starriest evenings of the year when it finally arrives  two of the biggest Broadway names lighting up the West End in a majestic piece by one of the greats. Date and venue to be revealed.





City of Angels

Hadley Fraser in City of Angels

 Johan Persson

This one has been a long time coming  Josie Rourke's revival of City of Angels, which was an absolute blast at the Donmar Warehouse, gets a well-deserved West End transfer with a cast of all-round legends. While disrupted by the pandemic, Rourke has said the production team is doing everything it can to make sure the show is back and wowing audiences in London soon. So fingers crossed!





Honorable mentions

A number of shows seen recently in the West End or on tour are also returning, including Rock of Ages, Bat out of Hell, Waitress and Grease, while Joseph will be back at the Palladium.

A new version of Strictly Ballroom is also going out on tour from autumn 2021, with Kevin Clifton.
With a couple of months under their belt trying to adapt to online learning, some students were naturally successful while others struggled. Lone Star College-University Park associate professor of education Melissa Dawn Gatlin is a veteran of online learning with her specialty focused on educating students who are on the path to becoming teachers themselves. She has a passion for educating students and her calling has led to the success of hundreds of students who have taken her classes.

College system preps for new semester: Lone Star College System fares well in pandemic

The Indiana native as a little girl used to line up her stuffed animals and pretend to be their teacher.

In the back of my mind, I always knew Id teach, she said.

Growing up in a home where there wasnt a lot of money, her dream was almost derailed the second day of class at Stephen F. Austin University.

They told us that the average teacher made $12,240 per year. I left that class and went to the business office and changed my major, she smiled. I just said I wasnt going to do it. I wasnt going to be poor.

She was able to grow a lucrative sales career instead but couldnt avoid the passion she had for teaching.

After returning to school to earn a masters degree in early education, she found herself fulfilling her dream of teaching, first in early grades and now as a full-time faculty member at Lone Star College.

Gatlin has some advice shes sharing to ease the transition to virtual instruction for students on all levels, and some ideas for parents and teachers. Heres her take on online learning.

In your years of experience, do you have some tips for online learning?

Online learning can be challenging, especially for the young students, but by the time they reach college, you hope theyve developed that agency to know what motivates you and take initiative, organize your time. But for younger students, its important for parents to step in and daily communicate with the kids and find out what they need help with and connect to teachers.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Houston families split on whether or not kids should go back to school this fall

Should they find a specific time for their learning and homework?

They need structure with a special place and time so they know this is school and it should start and begin that way every day. Even as adults working from home online, we have too many distractions with the TV, internet, the pets, each other; and children have the same distractions as we do except theyre not equipped to handle them as easily as we are. We need to be their support system and keep them in a place thats suitable for study. High school and college students have grown up in the technology era and know how to use the internet for their benefit. They just need to be kept on track. A critical component of academic success is a good study environment. The location should match the age and ability of the student. It also can depend on the personality of the student and what the student is learning. Having one or two places set aside in the home for school is a good idea. Some children study well in their room away from the noise of the house. However, some younger children need the guidance of an adult as they work, so a kitchen or dining room table would work best.

What are some of the tools of the trade?

We all need the same toolsquiet time, focus, support, and someone who can help us. Textbooks, supplies, computer and internet access are key. Most students have a cell phone and what weve found is that a lot of them try to do their work on their phone. Its possible, but its not the optimal situation. Students should reach out to their professor or teacher for help. Most students have internet, but it may be slow or sluggish and makes easy work more difficult. Or they may not be able to afford it in their family. All those issues should be brought up to their professor or teacher so that they can help them get assistance and monitor their situation. There are so many resources out there with Wi-Fi in the parking lot of different businesses that they can use if necessary.

If theyre not understanding something, how do they approach help?

Call or email your teachers or professors when you need their help. A lot of them think that when they contact me, theyre bothering me. Dont ever think that! Its my job and my passion. As teachers and parents, we need to recognize that they are uncomfortable asking questions. Support them and encourage them with their questions. Ask! Ask! Ask! Theres a lot of people out there who are willing to help in this environment. Its easier for them to ask questions in a face-to-face environment because youre right there. When were virtual, they dont know our schedules and dont want to interrupt us. I think they feel like they may be a burden to us and theyre not. Instructors should be clear on when theyre available and tell their students never to apologize for reaching out for help. Once they know you care about their progress, it helps with their success and you begin to create a bond with that student. Then youll find that they will work harder to please you because you took the time with them.

When we invest time and we care about students, even virtually, they give us back effort because if we invest, theyll invest. They want to make us proud and show us that what were doing is meaningful and its working.

How do you keep them consistent?

The scariest part of this whole thing is how to stay engaged when theres no instructor in front of me, no students around me, and what seems like no help. Thats the constant challenge for teaching online. How do I let them know that I care about them? How do they let me know theyre in trouble? When (we) figure that out, well all be better. We have to give them a reason to care about coming to class every day. When they feel like they belong to a group, that becomes important to them. As professors and teachers, we need to stay passionate and excited about our reason for being there and sharing information to help them reach their goal. We cant just take our hands off the wheel and just let them go, we have to stay engaged with them. They look like adults, and in college some are, but they still need our support and guidance.

Some students are having a hard time adapting to teachers and professors online. How can you help?

Its important to know your learning styles. Learn your strengths and weaknesses. There are seven basic learning styles: Visual (spatial): You prefer using pictures, images, and spatial understanding; Aural (auditory-musical): You prefer using sound and music; Verbal (linguistic): You prefer using words, both in speech and writing; Physical (kinesthetic): You prefer using your body, hands and sense of touch; Logical (mathematical): You prefer using logic, reasoning and systems; Social (interpersonal): You prefer to learn in groups or with other people; Solitary (intrapersonal): You prefer to work alone and use self-study. Once you know which one, thats one more tool in your chest to help you accomplish your goals. That may be one or several of those styles combined. Find out which one you are best at and use it to your advantage.

How about study time? Any advice to stay focused?

I have college-aged children and I tell them to give themselves some small goals. Study for 30 minutes and reward yourself with something small, maybe a quick look at your phone or a trip to the kitchen. Never underestimate achieving small goals. Read that entire chapter without interruption and then take a short break. Those small achievements will help you reach the final goal with your degree. Each one of us needs to tap into that grit that will help us get the job done. When you feel your focus leaving, get up and walk around outside for a few minutes, take in some fresh air, do some jumping jacks, or pushups, or something that will help you refocus. For college students, I would tell them to not let this overwhelm them. Stick to the goal. You still have your five-year or 10-year plan. Dont let whats going on around you circumvent that. Find a routine and stick to it.

What about advice for parents?

I would tell parents to be patient and keep a positive attitude. Children look to adults to gauge how they are supposed react to new situations. Stay calm and your child will be less anxious about learning in a new way. I would ask parents to remember two things, first try to be patient with your childs teachers. Many of them have never taught online and they are being asked to do their job in a completely different way. Second is to relax. Do not feel like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders. Children are resilient. They can rise above struggles and continue to learn.

dtaylor@hcnonline.com
US Health Secretary to Visit Taiwan in First Top-Level Visit For Years

2020-08-05 -- U.S. health secretary Alex Azar is to make the first cabinet-level visit of a U.S. official to Taiwan in six years, as Washington vows to take more steps to boost the democratic island, which China has threatened to invade.

Alez Azar, secretary of health and human services, said the administration of President Donald Trump wanted to convey its support to Taiwan, which he said had had "remarkable success" in managing the coronavirus pandemic.

"Taiwan has been a model of transparency and cooperation in global health during the COVID-19 pandemic and long before it," Azar said in a statement announcing the trip.

"I look forward to conveying President Trump's support for Taiwan's global health leadership and underscoring our shared belief that free and democratic societies are the best model for protecting and promoting health," he said, adding that the trip would likely strengthen economic and public health cooperation with Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and president Tsai Ing-wen.

Azar's historic visit will strengthen the U.S.-Taiwan partnership and enhance U.S-Taiwan cooperation to combat the global COVID-19 pandemic, the statement said, adding that Taiwan had played a "critical" role in the international response to the pandemic.

Azar's visit comes after Trump signed into law the Taiwan Travel Act in 2018, as part of a policy of allowing high-level officials to visit the country, a sovereign state formed in 1911 with the fall of China's Qing Dynasty and based on the island since the Kuomintang since the founding of the People's Republic in China in 1949.

While Taiwan has never been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party, nor formed part of the People's Republic, Beijing has put intense diplomatic pressure on the international community for decades not to recognize its sovereign status, and has refused to rule out a military invasion in the name of "unification."

Azar will meet President Tsai during his trip, which will also seek out fresh sources of medical equipment manufactured in Taiwan.

Support for membership in WHO

Kolas Yotaka, spokeswoman for Taiwan's administration, the Executive Yuan, said Azar is also a staunch supporter of the island's bid to participate in the WHO, something that has been blocked by diplomatic pressure from Beijing in recent years.

"Taiwan ... looks forward to the continued improvement of Taiwan-US global partnership on an already sound foundation, and their joint defense of democracy, freedom, and human rights," she said.

Taiwan foreign ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou said Azar would be visiting Taiwan's Central Epidemic Control Center and talking with health experts.

"This visit by Azar will be the first ministerial-level visit from a U.S. official since 2014," Ou said. "He will be the highest-ranking U.S. cabinet official to visit Taiwan since 1979."

Taiwan health minister Chen Shih-chung said Azar's delegation would be kept in a "bubble" during their visit, suggesting that they won't be asked to go into a 14-day quarantine like other arrivals.

"It takes quite a lot of manpower to achieve this, although the visit will only be short, and they'll be gone again in three days," Chen said.

"Our community has been completely isolated [from the rest of the world], and this is so valuable, and not every country has been able to do this," he said. "But we will [manage it] if the visitors are important enough."

'A diplomatic coup'

Lee Ta-chung, associate professor of international affairs and strategy at Taiwan's Tamkang University, said Azar's visit is something of a diplomatic coup for Tsai's administration.

"No ministerial-level officials came to Taiwan during the first term of Tsai's presidency," Lee said, apparently referring to a shift in policy in Washington, which has announced an end to decades of engagement with China. "I think the Taiwan Travel Act had a very important impact."

Professor Tung Li-wen of the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association said the trip could pave the way for higher-level exchanges in future.

"Obviously, there may be higher-level and more important positions in the future, who will continue to promote exchanges between Taiwan and the United States."

He said a visit by President Tsai to the U.S. wasn't out of the question under a Trump administration.

"It depends on the outcome of the U.S. presidential election [in November]," Tung said. "A visit by Tsai to the U.S. would definitely be a substantive possibility, given Trump's support for U.S.-Taiwan relations."

Reported by Chung Kuang-cheng for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Hwang Chun-mei for the Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

Copyright  1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. For any commercial use of RFA content please send an email to: mahajanr@rfa.org. RFA content August not be used in a manner which would give the appearance of any endorsement of any product or support of any issue or political position. Please read the full text of our Terms of Use.

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Lebanese social media users have responded to a solidarity gesture from Israel with hostility.

In a show of solidarity with the citizens of Beirut, whose city was destroyed yesterday by a bomb blast which killed 137 and wounded thousands, Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai decided to light up the city's municipality building with the colours of the Lebanese flag.

Lebanon is one of 31 UN member states that does not recognise Israel's existence and the two sworn enemies are still technically at war.

The spectacle drew ire from both Israelis and Lebanese, but Huldai responded on Twitter saying 'humanity comes before any conflict' and declared that 'our hearts are with the Lebanese people'.

Many Lebanese social media users expressed their opinion on the move, with one writing in Arabic, in a tweet that has since been deleted, 'We do not want you to light up the Lebanese flag', before switching to Hebrew to say: 'We will light up Tel Aviv with our missiles'.

Israelis take a stroll past the city hall in the coastal city of Tel Aviv, lit up in the colours of the Lebanese national flag in solidarity, on August 5, 2020, a day after a devastating blast at the port of Lebanese capital, in Israel's latest gesture towards a country with which it is technically at war

'What? They killed a hundred times more Lebanese than those who died in this explosion,' another user wrote.

One user, apparently unaware that Israel had offered Lebanon humanitarian aid hours after the disaster, wrote: 'Are buildings illuminated with the Lebanese flag?

'Are humanitarian aid being offered to Lebanon [sic]?

'Speaking of humanity, let's not forget the Israeli aggression in '78, the invasion in '82, the The Sabra and Shatila massacre, the Kfar Kanna massacre and finally the July 2006 war, when the Zionists wrote about missiles 'from the children of Israel to the children of Lebanon'.'

'We do not want your help from filthy b******s.' Another tweet read: 'What the hell? They killed a hundred times more Lebanese than those who died in this explosion.'

Meanwhile, in Israel, the display was met with similar condemnation.

Jerusalem Minister Rabbi Rafi Peretz said Huldai's spectacle was like 'raising [an] enemy state's flag in the heart of Tel Aviv', Haredi daily Hamodia reported.

This lighting up of the municipality building came hours after Israel offered another olive branch to its bitter rival.

Smoke rises after an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon August 4, 2020, in this picture obtained from a social media video.

'Israel has approached Lebanon through international security and diplomatic channels and has offered the Lebanese government medical and humanitarian assistance,' a written statement from Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi said.

In the two weeks before the bomb blast, tensions between the two sworn enemies had risen, with Israeli Defence Forces deployed to the country's northern border following a series of missile strikes.

Earlier this month, Israel accused Hezbollah of trying to send gunmen across the UN-demarcated Blue Line and said it held the Lebanese government responsible for what it termed an attempted 'terrorist' attack.

There have been numerous similar border spats in recent years but the most recent full-scale conflict broke out between the two sides in 2006 after Hezbollah killed eight Israeli soldiers and kidnapped two, sparking the 34-day Israel-Lebanon war.

Hezbollah launched rockets at its southern neighbour and Israel returned fire, bombing Lebanese towns, villages and key infrastructure targets.

The conflict ended inconclusively and the two sides are still, technically, at war. .
Chinas recent changes to maritime terms regarding the Paracel Islands violate Vietnams sovereignty and hold no value, Vietnam has asserted.

"We consider China bringing Vietnams Paracel Islands into the 2020 Technical Rules for the Statutory Testing of Seagoing Vessels on Domestic Voyages as a violation of Vietnams sovereignty over the Hoang Sa (Paracel) Islands and not beneficial for the maintenance of peace, stability and cooperation in the East Sea," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said Thursday.

The East Sea is referred to internationally as the South China Sea.

China has established what it called the "Hainan-Xisha Navigation Area" in a recently changed document, the South China Morning Post reported July 31. The area is bound by two points on Chinas Hainan Island and three in Vietnams Hoang Sa Islands, which China calls the Xisha Islands, the paper added.

China also changed its wording, calling the so-called navigation area "coastal" instead of "offshore." It said the new changes would take effect starting August 1.

Hang said: "Vietnams consistent stance is that all activities concerning Vietnams Paracel Islands without Vietnams permission is a violation of Vietnams sovereignty and holds no value."

China had seized the Paracel Islands from South Vietnam by force in 1974, and has been illegally occupying it since. The country has also been ramping up its aggressive behavior in the South China Sea since the start of this year while other countries have had to focus on combating the Covid-19 outbreak, including announcing the establishment of the so-called "governed" administrative districts over Vietnams Truong Sa (Spratly) and Paracel Islands, sinking Vietnamese fishing vessels and unilaterally ordering a ban on fishing in Vietnamese sea territory.

Vietnam has repeatedly protested these acts and urged China to desist from further provocative, illegal actions.
Apprenticeship Boost, a subsidy of up to $12,000 per annum for first year apprentices and $6,000 per annum for second year apprentices for employers of new and existing apprentices was made available from August 5.

An extra $30.3 million in funding for an expanded Mana in Mahi  a programme to help people into long-term work with recognised industry qualifications  has also been made available.

"This government recognises the challenges people and firms are facing with this 1-in-100 year shock. We need to do everything we can to keep New Zealanders working, keep them training and help people to find work particularly in areas where there are skills shortages, Minister of Education Chris Hipkins says.

Without initiatives like Apprenticeship Boost, we risk losing our apprentices and facing a massive skills shortage on the other side of the pandemic, like we did after the Global Financial Crisis.

"Investing in our people is the focus of the Governments five-point plan for the economy as New Zealand rebuilds.

Employment Minister Willie Jackson says there is clearly a demand for the Mana in Mahi Programme so its pleasing to be able to extend Mana in Mahi as it celebrates two years this month of supporting people with a holistic transition into work.

The changes we have made to Mana in Mahi will also better support a wider range of people, including workers of all ages who may have to retrain due to the economic impacts of COVID-19, he says.

Investing in employment support

Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni saiys MSD has received more funding to help both current clients and new job seekers get back into work.

An additional $54 million has been allocated to MSD to assist people get back into work. This funding will be allocated to a number of MSD programmes that help support people retain work, retrain or move into different industries where there are good job opportunities.

We know that these challenging times require us to ensure our employment support response remains fit for purpose. It will support MSD to be better able to both place and keep people in work  and be a critical part of our broader economic recovery, Sepuloni says.

This funding builds upon the initial $150 million for the Employment Service Response to COVID-19 initiative announced as part of the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund foundational package.
Gwyneth Paltrow has said that the term conscious uncoupling, which she used to describe her separation from ex-husband Chris Martin, sounded a bit full of itself.

The US actress and the musician issued a joint statement containing the phrase when they announced their split.

She told the British Vogue magazine that they were introduced to the phrase by their therapist who helped us architect our new future.

Frankly, the term sounded a bit full of itself, painfully progressive and hard to swallow, Paltrow said.

She added: I was intrigued, less by the phrase, but by the sentiment.

Was there a world where we could break up and not lose everything?

Could we be a family, even though we were not a couple?

She added that the publics surprise gave way quickly to ire and derision.

A strange combination of mockery and anger that I have never seen, she said.

Video of the Day

I was already pretty tattered from what had been a tough year.

Frankly, the intensity of the response saw me bury my head in the sand deeper than I ever had in my very public life.

Paltrow said the pair, who separated in 2014, tried everything to make their situation work.

We didnt want to let anyone down. We desperately didnt want to hurt our children. We didnt want to lose our family, she said.

Despite their best efforts Paltrow said she realised they had diverged, adding: Wed never find ourselves together in that way again.

She said that her and Martin were close and shared the same sense of humour and taste in music but never fully settled into being a couple.

We just didnt quite fit together, she said.

There was always a bit of unease and unrest. But man, did we love our children.

Paltrow, who is now married to TV producer Brad Falchuk, has two children with Coldplay frontman Martin.
The first day of school is always a hard time for parents. But this year is different. Now, on top of the usual concerns about your child getting used to new teachers and classmates, there is COVID-19.

Rachel Adamus was feeling those emotions Monday morning as she got her 7-year-old son Paul ready for his first day of second grade. The same day she was preparing his 5-year-old sister Neva for the start of kindergarten.

Rachel Adamus struggled to balance her concerns about the coronavirus with her belief that her children need the socialization and in-person training that school provides.

COVID-19 has killed about 155,000 people in the United States. Adamus herself has lost two family members to the disease: an aunt in Alabama and her husbands great uncle in New Jersey.

In many parts of the country, new daily case numbers are rising.

Adamus said of her children, We have kept them protected for so long...They havent been to restaurants. We only go to parks if no one else is there...And now theyre going to be in the classroom with however many kids for an entire day with a teacher.

The Adamus children are among tens of thousands of U.S. students who began in-person classes Monday for the first time since March. Parents in Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee are also among those dealing with the start of the new school year this week.

Many schools that offer in-person classes are also giving parents a stay-at-home online education choice. Adamus, like many other parents, decided against that. Other schools are planning a mix of the two methods, with children going between in-person classes and online learning programs.

But a rise in COVID-19 cases in many states has led some areas to cancel in-person classes at least for the start of the school year.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos have urged schools to reopen.

However, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nations top infectious-disease expert, warned Monday that, in some places, bringing children back to school would not be prudent. In other words, it would not be a wise move. That is because many cities and states are still dealing with rising case numbers.

Schools also reopened this week in the state of Indiana. One student at Greenfield-Central Junior High tested positive for COVID-19 on the first day back to class. The student was separated from others in the schools medical office.

This really does not change our plans, said Harold Olin, who supervises the areas schools. We knew that we would have a positive case at some point in the fall. We simply did not think it would happen on day one.

In Newton County, Mississippi, fourth grader Avery Mangum returned to school for the first time in months to find many things changed. She had to wear a face mask, sit in an assigned seat, and eat in her classroom instead of in the schools cafeteria. When students in her class moved around the school, they followed their teacher in a straight line with one arm held out in front of them. This is to make sure they stayed at least an arms length away from other children.

The playground at Averys school was divided in two parts. Some students could play on half of the equipment, and others on the other half.

It was really hard to socially distance while we were playing, Avery said. Everyone wants to play with their friends and do all these things but we cant.

In Georgias Paulding County, both of Adamus children wore face masks. But school officials there have not made that a requirement.

Many teachers in Paulding are uneasy about the return to school. Some are shocked that the school district has refused to require face coverings or delay the start date for in-person classes, as nearby districts have done. But the labor unions representing Georgias teachers are weak, so there has been little organized opposition.

I desperately want to return to face-to-face teaching, Paulding teacher Steven Hanf told a school board meeting last month. But not until it is safe, he said.

One student who did not start school in Paulding County this week was Aliyah Williams. Her mother, Erica Williams, decided to keep her 14-year-old daughter at home; two of her younger sons have a medical condition that puts them at risk.

Williams does not believe her daughter will fall behind in school if she continues her online studies. But she is worried about Aliyahs inability to see her friends.

Shes a social butterfly, Williams said. Thats a big part of her personality.

Im Ashley Thompson.

And Im John Russell.

The Associated Press reported this story. Ashley Thompson adapted it for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor. ________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

grade - n. a level of study that is completed by a student during one year

kindergarten - n. a school or class for very young children, usually age 5 or 6

park - n. a piece of public land in or near a city that is kept free of houses and other buildings and can be used for pleasure and exercise

kid - n. a young person

positive - adj. showing the presence of a particular germ, condition, or substance

assign - v. to provide someone with something

cafeteria - n. a place (such as a restaurant or a room in a school) where people get food at a counter and carry it to a table for eating

(school) district - n. an area or region containing the schools that a school board is in charge of

desperately - adv. having a strong need or desire for something or to do something

(school) board - n. a group of people who are in charge of local schools

social butterfly - n. a person who loves to talk to and be with other people
New Delhi, Aug 7 : Industry body, the Solvent Extractor's Association of India (SEA) has estimated the country's total production of oilseed crops, grown during kharif and rabi seasons in the 2019-20 (November-October) season, at 251.49 lakh tonnes, nearly 3 percent higher from last year.

As per the estimates of SEA, the area under kharif and rabi oilseeds crop for 2019-20 has marginally increased to 260.07 lakh hectares (ha) from 258.45 lakh hectares last year.

The industry body has pegged the output of oilseeds in 2019-20 at 251.49 lakh tonnes against 244.08 lakh tonnes last year, up by 2.94 percent due to higher yield in groundnut and castorseed.

Groundnut crop has been pegged at 62.55 lakh tonnes against 46.85 lakh tonnes last year, due to increase in yield from 1,009 kg per hectare to 1,419 kg per hectare.

SEA has estimated rapeseed-mustard, including toria and taramira crop, at 74 lakh tonnes in 2019-20 against 75 lakh tonnes last year.

Sunflowerseed crop has been pegged at 1.40 lakh tonnes against 1.72 lakh tonnes previous year.

According to the industry body, sesame seed crop production increased to 5.50 lakh tonnes from 4.86 lakh tonnes last year.

Similarly, castorseed crop has sharply increased to 19.61 lakh tonnes from 10.82 lakh tonnes. The crop area also increased to 9.92 lakh ha from 7.27 lakh ha of previous year.

The total production including cottonseed and copra is estimated at 364.64 lakh tonnes, compared to 344.10 lakh tonnes in 2018-19.

The industry body said that import and export of oilseeds has also increased during 2019-20. India imported about 520,000 tonnes of oilseeds, including 360,000 tonnes of soybean and 147,000 tonnes of sesame seed.

During the same period, India exported about 10.62 lakh tonnes of oilseeds, mainly groundnut (648,000 tonnes), sesame seed (282,000 tonnes) and soybean (75,000 tonnes).

The total vegetable oil availability from kharif and rabi oilseeds crops, including import of oil seeds for the year 2019-20 (Nov-Oct), increased to 85.38 lakh tonnes from 76.87 lakh tonnes last year.

Import of edible oil during 2019-20 (Nov-Oct) likely to decrease and estimated at 133.0 lakh tonnes. Import of non-edible oil is likely to be around 2.50 lakh tonnes only, said the industry body.

Total import of vegetable oils (edible + non-edible) is estimated at 135.50 lakh tonnes during 2019-20 (Nov-Oct) against 155.49 lakh tonnes in 2018-19, due to demand destruction by Covid-19, mainly from HoReCa segment and higher domestic availability, the SEA said.
Using stem cells to restore lost functions due to spinal cord injury (SCI) has long been an ambition of scientists and doctors. Nearly 18,000 people in the United States suffer SCIs each year, with another 294,000 persons living with an SCI, usually involving some degree of permanent paralysis or diminished physical function, such as bladder control or difficulty breathing.

In a new study, published August 5, 2020 in Cell Stem Cell, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine report successfully implanting highly specialized grafts of neural stem cells directly into spinal cord injuries in mice, then documenting how the grafts grew and filled the injury sites, integrating with and mimicking the animals' existing neuronal network.

Until this study, said the study's first author Steven Ceto, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Mark H. Tuszynski, MD, PhD, professor of neurosciences and director of the Translational Neuroscience Institute at UC San Diego School of Medicine, neural stem cell grafts being developed in the lab were sort of a black box.

Although previous research, including published work by Tuszynski and colleagues, had shown improved functioning in SCI animal models after neural stem cell grafts, scientists did not know exactly what was happening.

"We knew that damaged host axons grew extensively into (injury sites), and that graft neurons in turn extended large numbers of axons into the spinal cord, but we had no idea what kind of activity was actually occurring inside the graft itself," said Ceto. "We didn't know if host and graft axons were actually making functional connections, or if they just looked like they could be."

Ceto, Tuszynski and colleagues took advantage of recent technological advances that allow researchers to both stimulate and record the activity of genetically and anatomically defined neuron populations with light rather than electricity. This ensured they knew exactly which host and graft neurons were in play, without having to worry about electric currents spreading through tissue and giving potentially misleading results.

They discovered that even in the absence of a specific stimulus, graft neurons fired spontaneously in distinct clusters of neurons with highly correlated activity, much like in the neural networks of the normal spinal cord.

When researchers stimulated regenerating axons coming from the animals' brain, they found that some of the same spontaneously active clusters of graft neurons responded robustly, indicating that these networks receive functional synaptic connections from inputs that typically drive movement. Sensory stimuli, such as a light touch and pinch, also activated graft neurons.

We showed that we could turn on spinal cord neurons below the injury site by stimulating graft axons extending into these areas." Steven Ceto, Study First Author and Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California - San Diego

"Putting all these results together, it turns out that neural stem cell grafts have a remarkable ability to self-assemble into spinal cord-like neural networks that functionally integrate with the host nervous system. After years of speculation and inference, we showed directly that each of the building blocks of a neuronal relay across spinal cord injury are in fact functional."

Tuszynski said his team is now working on several avenues to enhance the functional connectivity of stem cell grafts, such as organizing the topology of grafts to mimic that of the normal spinal cord with scaffolds and using electrical stimulation to strengthen the synapses between host and graft neurons.

"While the perfect combination of stem cells, stimulation, rehabilitation and other interventions may be years off, patients are living with spinal cord injury right now," Tuszynski said.

"Therefore, we are currently working with regulatory authorities to move our stem cell graft approach into clinical trials as soon as possible. If everything goes well, we could have a therapy within the decade."
Former union minister and Congress Jharkhand in-charge RPN Singh says younger leaders have always been given good opportunities in his party as compared to other political parties. He says the ongoing old versus young debate in the Congress is uncalled for. In an interview with Aurangzeb Naqshbandi, he says the Congress needs to have a rejuvenated party organization and a narrative that resonates with the people of the country for its revival.

Q: The seniors versus young leaders debate has reignited in the Congress. Are young leaders apprehensive of their future in the party with Rahul Gandhi apparently unwilling to assume the leadership role in the immediate future?

A: I disagree with this whole debate of young and old. It is uncalled for. If you read the history of the Congress party right from 1920s, there have always been younger people trying to occupy positions and that is true of any organisation. I would definitely like to say that a lot of young people have got great opportunity in the Congress and it is a continuing process. But I find it strange when a section of the media says that old people should be replaced by the young. Life is about competence and experience. Would you say Mahatma Gandhiji or Sardar Patel should have been removed from the freedom struggle because they were too old? Young people necessarily dont attract young people. Ideas and narratives do.

Q: We saw the exit of Jyotiraditya Scindia and now the rebellion by Sachin Pilot. There seems to be a sense of despair in the party?

A: I would not like to comment on individuals. But there are many instances of younger people having got opportunity in the Congress party. As far as Ashok Gehlot government is concerned, it had majority yesterday, has it today and will prove it whenever asked to. There is absolutely no problem.

Q: Do you think time has come for senior leaders to make way for the young generation?

A: Age is just a number. Definitely younger people should be given opportunity and Rahulji has given opportunity to many many people across the country but everybody has to wait their turn. People do have ambitions but everybodys ambitions cannot be fulfilled. And always remember one thing that time waits for nobody. If you are old and have become irrelevant, you will get pushed out on your own or people will push you out. People have their own capabilities and experience and age is just a factor. In the Congress party, younger people have been given opportunities across the spectrum even in the Rajya Sabha, which is the House of Elders. No other political party has done that. So, I cant understand this debate.

Q: In the last CWC meeting, you suggested that instead of launching personal attacks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his policies should be criticised. Do you think that the move to attack Modi has backfired on the Congress?

A: Well, what I said in the CWC is something I would not like to discuss in the media. CWC is a forum where every member has full freedom to express his or her opinion in a most democratic manner. It finally takes the call and whatever the CWC decides, every member of the Congress party has to follow that.

Q: But what about the personal attacks on Modi? Do you think the Congress needs to change its strategy?

A: I personally feel whatever attack has to be launched on the government or its policies and its leaders should be formulated by the CWC and collectively endorsed by the party and every member should follow that and stick to those lines.

Q: But many Congress leaders say Rahul Gandhi is the only opposition leader who takes on Modi and Amit Shah and if he doesnt who will?

A: I would like to say that as far as I am concerned I have taken on the Prime Minister, his policies and those of his government and the BJP at various forums  be as a party spokesperson or as in-charge of Jharkhand. In my capacity, I have done that and many others in the Congress are also doing that.

Q: You were a part of the UPA government in its second term. One of your party colleagues, Rajeev Satav, recently blamed the UPA 2 for the declining electoral fortunes of the Congress. We then saw a full blown war on the social media. What do you have to say?

A: I think he has already clarified that. He might have said something in his over exuberance and he has made amends by clarifying his remarks. Lets end it there only. But the kind of dignity Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh brought to politics is something that needs to be learned by all.

Q: NCP chief Sharad Pawar has suggested that Rahul Gandhi should have conversation with his party leaders and also start touring the country. Is there a lack of conversation in the Congress?

A: I would not like to comment on what Pawarji has said. He is an extremely knowledgeable, experienced and has great understanding of politics. His party is our alliance partner in Maharashtra. All I would to like say that we dont need to look elsewhere. We have the greatest example of how to conduct oneself as a leader with propriety, dignity and taking along everybodys views. We have our Congress president Sonia Gandhi who has been the epitome of what a politician should be  dignified, calm, taking all views on board and reaching out to the poorest of the poor and her sacrifice is known to all. Also, the kind of progress we made under the leadership of Dr Manmohan Singh in his 10-years rule is something the entire country is proud of and his economic policies have been praised world over.

Q: But what about the suggestion of going on a nationwide yatra to reconnect with the masses? Also, do you think that hitting the streets is the only way for the partys revival?

A: Every member of the Congress party wants Rahul Gandhi as its president. There is no doubt in anybodys mind. In fact, nobody had asked him to step down when he took the moral responsibility for the 2019 election loss. He did that on his own. He is the leader of the Congress party. As far as the touring is concerned, it has to be done by all members of the Congress party but we need to have a rejuvenated organisation and a narrative that resonates with the people of the country. Unfortunately, all the travel plans have come to a standstill due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Q: Coming to your home state UP, do you see the revival of the Congress with other opposition parties ceding their space?

A: In Uttar Pradesh, new entrants have been given opportunities. There is definitely some plan and strategy. We have been in the party for many years and we are there for them. We will be helping and guiding them wherever needed.

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ITHACA, N.Y. - How contagious is COVID-19, and how severe is the virus for those who've caught it?

Everyone wants firm numbers as schools make decisions about in-person versus remote learning, as local and state governments grapple with reopening, and as families care for sick loved ones.

But firm data is missing, said Francesca Molinari, the H.T. Warshow and Robert Irving Warshow Professor in the Department of Economics, in the College of Arts and Sciences. The best way to find out the share of the population that has been exposed to the virus is to either test everyone or to test a random sample of people. But currently not everyone gets tested, and testing is not random; moreover, tests are not perfect. These data challenges have led to wildly divergent predictions in recent months about how many people get infected and how many infected people die.

In research published in the Journal of Econometrics, Molinari and Charles F. Manski, the Board of Trustees Professor at Northwestern University, wrote that actual cumulative rates of COVID-19 infection are higher than reported rates of infection, and therefore actual infection fatality rates are lower than reported rates. The researchers reached these conclusions using a technique called "partial identification," which Molinari uses often in her econometrics research.

"You are interested in some quantity, but you cannot learn it exactly," she said. "In this particular instance, we are interested in the infection rate, and we recognize that because we don't have a random sample, we can't learn the exact infection rate from the data."

She and Manski made weak but logical assumptions about COVID-19 data from Illinois, New York and Italy from March 16 to April 24, thereby putting some limits around the incomplete data.

They assumed that the infection rate among those who are tested is higher than the rate among those who are not - a logical assumption because people showing symptoms are most likely to be tested. The researchers also allowed for the possibility that many negative test results were false - i.e., that the person tested was actually positive but not counted.

These two assumptions drive the actual cumulative infection rates up and push the actual fatality rates down, Molinari said. Cumulative infection rates in New York state as of April 24, according to the researchers, were between 1.7% and 61% of the state's 19.45 million residents (or between 330,650 and 12,020,100 people), with an upper infection fatality rate of 4.9%. That is substantially lower than the death rate among confirmed infected individuals, which on April 24 was 5.9%.

Infection rates for the same date in Illinois were between 0.04% and 52%; in Italy, they were between 0.06% and 47%.

"The bounds you get are wide," Molinari said, "but they are substantially tighter compared to the bounds you obtain if you assume nothing about the missing data."

Making key assumptions and narrowing the bounds helps policymakers and leaders better understand fatality rates as they try to limit spread of the virus and plan reactivations. Molinari hopes this research will contribute to serious analysis of policies.

Molinari and Manski are working on a follow-up analysis of a longer time period that adds data from California, Florida and Texas to the study.

###
A female bus attendant in Ho Chi Minh City was attacked on Tuesday after asking a passenger to turn down the music on his mobile phone.

Police in Ward 5 of Tan Binh District received a report from the 51-year-old victim, Luong Thi Ngoc Oanh, a resident of District 12.

Oanh works on bus route No. 65, a 16-kilometer route which runs between Ben Thanh Market in District 1 and An Suong Bus Station in outlying Hoc Mon District.

According to Oanh, her attacker boarded the bus at around 8:15 am near the Eye Hospital of Ho Chi Minh City in District 3 and took a seat next to the driver.

The man then cranked up the volume on his mobile phone and began blasting music through the devices speaker.

Oanh, the bus attendant for the route, asked the passenger to turn down the volume but the man got angry and began assaulting her, leaving her with a black eye.

Other passengers attempted to intervene, she said.

Oanh asked the bus driver to keep the doors closed so her attacker would be trapped inside while she reported him to police, but the bus driver refused and the man fled.

She wound up reporting the incident to the chief of her bus route once she reached An Suong Bus Station.

She also returned with her husband later that day to Ward 5 in Tan Binh District, the neighborhood where the assault took place, to report it to police officers.

Le Hoan, deputy director of the municipal Management Center for Public Transport, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that his agency had tasked Transport Cooperative 19/5, the organization which manages the bus route, with handling the case.

The cooperative was also told to check the bus surveillance camera to identify the attacker and work with law enforcement to trace the person.

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O-I Glass Inc, a glass manufacturer, is trying to seize a Venezuelan oil tanker as part of efforts to secure the $500 million in arbitration compensation granted it by a court after Venezuela expropriated two plants, Reuters reports, citing documents filed at a Singapore court.

This is the latest in a series of attempts by various companies to collect compensation that courts had granted them after the sweeping nationalization of private businesses undertaken by late Hugo Chavez. And with options few, oil tankers are among the first ones to attract attention.

If the court grants O-I Glass its request, it would spell more trouble for already struggling PDVSA, Venezuelas state oil firm. The company has been the main target of U.S. sanctions, the latest round focusing on tankers. The sanctions were reportedly to cover all vessels that have called at Venezuelan ports over the 12 months to end-May, prompting many shipping firms to divert vessels that were already en route to Venezuela.

The targeting of vessels naturally includes oil tankers, so PDVSA has had to rely on its own fleet of vessels to continue shipping crude oil abroad for vitally needed cash. Even so, exports have collapsed from 1.5 million bpd before the start of sanctions to just 400,000 bpd, according to Reuters. This is the lowest level of oil exports in more than 70 years.

Meanwhile, drilling rigs have been removed from Venezuelan oil fields as well. According to the Baker Hughes rig count report, as of June, there was one active drilling rig in the country. However, after Chevron folded up and left, pressured by the sanctions, its contractor Nabors Industries followed, leaving it with zero active rigs.

PDVSA saw its June production plunge by 32 percent, with output in the country holding the worlds largest oil reserves plummeting to its lowest level in 75 years in early June when it was just 374,000 bpd.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Anyone with such experiences could have been expected to turn fundamentalist. But Shaheen Kadri is anything but that.

Jyoti Punwani reports.

* Photograph: PTI Photo

As the bhoomi puja for the Ram temple finally took place on the site where once stood the Babri Masjid, it is difficult not to recall the demolition of the masjid on December 6, 1992 and the traumatic incidents that followed.

Mumbai faced the brunt, and those directly affected haven't forgotten what happened to them.

Shaheen Kadri is one of them.

The visual of her ransacked room in Kalachowkie's Abhyudaya Nagar (south central Mumbai) on January 9, 1993 is imprinted in her brain; as also the scenes of the mob tearing her Quran and stamping on it.

They were outsiders, searching for her mother, who was referred to as 'Indira Gandhi' because she always wore a white saree. Shaheen and her mother managed to escape to the fourth floor from where she watched the mob loot their belongings.

Abhyudaya Nagar's 44 buildings housed government servants from all departments, and as a government employee, Shaheen didn't hesitate before ringing up the Mumbai police commissioner's office for help.

The response wasn't what she expected: Instead of sending help, they asked her to flee to the nearest police station. When she reached there at night with her mother, Shaheen found others of her community sheltering there, including a pregnant woman with a toddler.

After the terrifying night had passed, these Muslims requested the police to escort them back to their homes.

Here's what the police, duty-bound to protect citizens from rioters, told them: 'We give you a finger and you people grab the entire hand! All of you leave this area right away.'

Shaheen and her mother managed to catch a train to what was then VT station. "There was no one else in the compartment, we could hear stones being thrown on the train," recalls the 64 year old.

From VT, her relatives took them to their home in Cuffe Parade, south Mumbai, where she stayed till March, walking to her Mantralaya office. Her two-wheeler, she learnt later, had been burnt; her furniture had been made part of the collective bonfire comprising belongings of the few Muslims who lived in Abhyudaya Nagar.

On March 13, a day after a series of bomb blasts tore through Mumbai, Shaheen decided she needed to recover her life, despite the pleadings of her relatives.

Before going home though, she stopped at the Kalachowkie police station to give them her sister's phone number. In case anything happened to her, they should inform her sister, she told them.

"The policemen were stunned," recalls Shaheen. "They told me they had rounded up some boys for having rioted in January, and asked me to identify them. I refused. I plan to live in my old home, I told them, I don't want any enemies. One of them reminded me of the day when I had come to him to release youngsters from Abhyudaya Nagar who had been picked up for some misdemeanour."

Shaheen had lived in Abhyudaya Nagar for two decades, having come there as a 16 year old with her three sisters and parents. The family was respected for their refinement and education; their Hindu neighbours would come to them for advice on jobs and even for approval on marriage proposals.

It was not these neighbours who attacked her home, yet, after the mob had left, they had asked her and her mother to leave the place. Now as Shaheen surveyed the ruins of her room, they stood sullenly, one of them even asking in Marathi: 'Why have you come back? Now all the trouble may start again.'

But Shaheen wasn't one to give up so easily. She told them how she had refused to identify the boys the police had arrested. 'Meri muthi band hai, band hi rehney do,' she advised them.

And even as she reeled at the sight of her room -- the door had been removed, the little jewellery she'd bought from her earnings was gone, and even her collection of Reader's Digest issues had been vandalised -- she right away started rebuilding it.

In the months that followed, Shaheen made sure her neighbours never sensed her trauma.

Shaheen and her mother would go on to live among the same neighbours for another seven years. Their relationship went back to what it had been in happier days: The neighbours' children resumed touching her and her mother's feet before every exam. Shaheen continued recommending jobs for them and performing the Bakri Eid qurbani inside her home, out of respect for their sensitivities.

Even after they shifted to Byculla, south central Mumbai, she and her mother would take sheer korma to their old neighbours for Eid.

Why were they not consumed by bitterness?

"I was angry, very angry with my neighbours, more than I was at the party that went about systematically destroying Muslims during the riots," says Shaheen. "But I let the anger go. Judging others only ends up harming you."

Shaheen's story would have been remarkable on its own. What makes it more so is what she achieved after the riots.

Despite having to start life again from scratch in 1993, at the age of 38, Shaheen shone in her career, retiring as Joint Secretary in the Maharashtra Minorities Department.

IMAGE: Shaheen Kadri IMAGE: Shaheen Kadri

After the riots, Shaheen received Rs 10,000 as compensation for property damage. Seven years later, the Collector's office called her to return half of it, saying she ought to have been paid only Rs 5,000. "The man who conveyed this to me was himself embarrassed. I told him: I won't return your Rs 5,000, I'll return the entire amount with interest. Now I can afford to do so."

Shaheen never heard from them again.

Anyone with such experiences could have been expected to turn fundamentalist. But Shaheen is anything but that.

Living in a Muslim-dominated building, Shaheen stopped doing the Bakri Eid qurbani some years ago, put off by the flashy ritual it had become. Instead, she donates an equivalent amount to a masjid.

IMAGE: Mumtaz Begum, Shaheen Kadri's mother. IMAGE: Mumtaz Begum, Shaheen Kadri's mother.

As if that wasn't enough, last year she started trying to get her neighbours to observe Bakri Eid in a restrained fashion, keeping in mind the sensitivities of the non-Muslims in their building. This year, she succeeded-- from 48 goats sacrificed in her building last year, this year the number came down to just 17. Additionally, the goats were allowed to be brought into the premises only on the eve of the festival.

After retirement, Shaheen has started organising funds for the education of needy girls - including Hindus.

Though she was targeted after the demolition of the Babri Masjid just for being Muslim, Shaheen prefers not to say much about the bhoomi puja of a temple on the very spot where the Babri Masjid stood.

"After last year's Supreme Court verdict, this was the next logical step," is all she says, adding, "I wish we would be allowed to move on with our lives and put all that happened then behind us. But the electronic media doesn't allow us to do that."

*Kindly note the main image has been published only for representational purposes.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
Experts on visa issues from the ECOWAS member states have met on the deployment of the regional visa (ECOVISA) aimed at facilitating the seamless movement of citizens of West African states within the region.

The Directorate of Communications in the ECOWAS Commission disclosed this in a statement on Thursday.

The experts held a virtual meeting on August 4, to present and discuss security features for the ECOVISA document.

They also discussed the necessary accompanying measures for the implementation of the decision of the heads of state and government of ECOWAS on the matter.

According to the ECOWAS Commission, besides consolidating the proposed road map for the roll-out and deployment of the ECOVISA, the experts are also examining data exchange/registration platforms.

This platform, it explains, takes cognisance of migrants amongst member states consular services, host country immigration services, and ECOWAS itself.

It stated that Tei Konzi, ECOWAS Commissions Commissioner for Trade, Customs, and Free Movement, said it was important for delegates to make concrete recommendations for future validation by regional ministers in charge of security and migration.

Mr Konzi, who declared the meeting open, noted that the regional visa should help facilitate mobility in the ECOWAS area.

He stressed that in working out modalities for the proper implementation of ECOVISA, member states are to be engaged in developing a regional visa roadmap for the emergence of a Schengen-type visa for the region.

He added that this should be done while reassessing and updating the consideration of the evolution of migration in the ECOWAS region especially during the COVID-19 period.

Commissioner Konzi particularly took note of the need for a consolidation of the roadmap proposed for the deployment of ECOVISA, the data exchange and registration platform for migrants.

At the level of consular services of ECOWAS member states and immigration from host countries and ECOWAS, he said.

Mr Konzi also disclosed that the commissions expectations are for the regional visa to be made a powerful tool for tourism, a source of foreign exchange, and to create a regional environment conducive for the free movement of investors and foreign workers.

He thanked stakeholders, representatives of the technical and financial partners of ECOWAS for their support in the strengthening of regional integration, peace, cohesion, and socio-economic development.

The commission said that Hassane Ismail, Chair of the meeting and Commissioner of Police of Niger, underscored the importance of the meetings agenda while looking forward to the progress to be made.

READ ALSO:

It noted that amid presentations, the delegates also ascertained the status of information requests for citizens domiciled in the ECOWAS host nation to immigration offices.

They also considered the increased understanding by member states delegates of the shared regional opportunities and challenges presented by the harmonised visa.

The adopted recommendations of the meeting are expected to be submitted to the ECOWAS Ministerial Meeting for further consideration.

(NAN)
The first-period bell did not ring at 7:20 a.m. on the first day of school at Alief ISDs Hastings High School. Nor did it for second period, or the third.

There were no students for Principal Lynette Miller to greet at the bus ramp, no stragglers to usher into classrooms. It was just her, two secretaries, a registrar and the silence.

You could almost hear the building sort of settle, and the creaks and cracks that happen, while school was going on, Miller said.

While campuses across the southwest Houston district were practically empty Thursday morning, many of Alief ISDs roughly 45,300 students began powering up their computers and logging into Zoom video calls that served as virtual classrooms. They and their teachers were the first in the greater Houston region to begin their school year; the vast majority of other local school districts will join them online in the coming weeks.

It took months of planning to get to Day One of Aliefs 2020-2021 school year. Schools handed out more than 14,000 laptops and 5,500 internet hot spots to families who lacked the technology. Teachers spent months reworking curricula for lessons, including science labs that typically require hands-on participation. Principals and school staff called thousands of families across the district to make sure they knew that the school year was starting at their homes Thursday instead of their childrens campuses. Food workers handed out about 1,700 cold breakfasts and 1,700 cold lunches Wednesday evening so students would have meals ready to go on their first day of classes.

Some parents had worried about what returning to virtual school would look like after many struggled to help their students make the transition in mid-March, when schools were ordered closed to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.

For 13-year-old Jema Dietzel and her father, Jeff, Thursday went better than expected.

Now Playing: Teachers and staff greet students and hand out school supplies during a drive-thru meet-and-greet Thursday, Aug. 6, 2020, at the Raul Yzaguirre Schools for Success in Houston. The school used the opportunity to not just greet their students but also distribute supplies at their location at the Tejano Center for Community Concerns in east Houston. Video: Mark Mulligan/Houston Chronicle

She woke up around 8, ate a bowl of Frosted Flakes, brushed her hair and logged on to Schoology, the districts online learning platform. First period was U.S. history at 8:40 a.m., so she clicked into a Zoom meeting with her teacher and classmates.

Like most first days of school, not much happened aside from introductions and a review of expectations. After about 45 minutes, the class ended, and Jema had a few minutes before second period began  following the bell schedule she normally would have at Albright Middle School.

It was a far cry from what she saw in spring, when her father said Jema would spend only about two hours a day doing school work.

It was more organized, Jema said. They put things together a lot better. In spring they just assigned assignments and expected you to do it until 11:59. We didnt have Zoom meetings every day.

It took a tremendous effort to get there, said Superintendent HD Chambers, who said he was awed by the work that staff put in over the summer to prepare for the first day of online classes.

On most first days of school, Chambers said he texts transportation supervisors to see if the buses are running on schedule.

This year, Im asking, Do we have any outages with Schoology? Is the help desk being bombarded with questions? he said. When you start 100 percent virtual, theres this extra nervousness. Are we ready?

On the surface, it appeared the district was. No widespread outages were reported, although individual students and teachers may have experienced issues. Jema said Zoom froze on her a few times  a frustration now well known to students and workers across the country.

At Hastings High, Miller said she arrived on campus at 5:20 a.m., earlier than normal, thanks to nerves. It ended up being fortuitous  Schoology apparently had reset the night before, and a handful of co-teachers and substitutes were unable to log on.

Only about three of the schools 3,200 students showed up to campus before first period. She thought that might happen, so she waited out front to make sure their parents did not speed off only to realize school was starting online. Although it was quiet inside, Miller kept busy.

She helped answer teachers technical questions and popped into Zoom classes throughout the day. It was bittersweet watching the virtual instruction, she said.

Its great to see them in Zoom talking and engaging, but it is challenging, Miller said. Its hard not just for students, but teachers love engaging with their kiddos, and we havent seen them since before spring break.

There still are issues to work out, Chambers said. Employees have not been able to reach all of the families they think still have school-age children within the districts boundaries, something that happens every year but is made more difficult by the remote start.

Kids and teachers also are more distracted at home, especially if other family members are around or pets start making noise while they are on a Zoom call. He said he hopes staff can make headway on those issues in the coming weeks.

Back at the Dietzel home, Jema said she just hopes to make good grades this year. She and her father elected to keep her online even when Alief ISD campuses reopen for in-person instruction. They and other families have the option to switch to in-person or virtual instruction every nine weeks, and Jema longs for the day she can return.

I want COVID to be over so in the last nine weeks I could go to school and at least see some people, she said.

shelby.webb@chron.com
As New Orleans students prepare for a school year that will start with lessons conducted over the internet instead of in a classroom, city officials said Wednesday they are pursuing a plan that could eventually provide wireless internet service across the city.

Mayor LaToya Cantrell's administration is planning to roll out a pilot program in the next 90 days that would offer WiFi service in a park or recreation facility, according to Jonathan Rhodes, director of Mayor LaToya Cantrells Office of Utilities, as part of a test aimed at evaluating the feasibility of a citywide network.

Even if successful, the city's plan won't be in place in time for students this year. But the pilot could serve as a template for a program that could be in place a year later, Rhodes said.

The most important thing is how can we bridge the digital divide, said Rhodes on Wednesday. We know that more than 30% of the city of New Orleans doesnt have access at home.

The coronavirus pandemic and measures aimed at stopping its spread have demonstrated the stark divides among city residents when it comes to internet connectivity. After schools closed in March, students without access to the internet were left at a disadvantage against those who can learn from home, officials said. The same has been true for workers without access to technology that could allow them to keep working from their homes.

+15 What's a 'pandemic pod?' The new education craze pops up in New Orleans as schools start remotely When New Orleans public school mom Louise Fenton thinks about the end of the school year last spring, the anxiety comes flooding back.

Studies have estimated that somewhere between 22% and 33% of New Orleans households lack a broadband internet connection, according to the city, and New Orleans has regularly ranked as one of the worst cities for internet access. The city was rated the 14th worst-connected large city in the country in a 2017 report from the National Digital Inclusion Alliance.

The Cantrell administration has been discussing the idea of a citywide network for years, according to Rhodes, after earlier attempts to create such a program never got off the ground. Former Mayor Ray Nagin pitched a free citywide WiFi system in the months after Katrina, though that effort fizzled.

Municipally owned internet programs have had a mixed record of success, Rhodes said, but changing technology and cheaper equipment could change that.

While many of the details are still being worked out, the current plan is to piggyback off city-owned fiber-optic cables, which are already used to connect the citys crime cameras and provide connections to other city services. If a full WiFi network were in place, it might also allow the city to expand its use of internet-connected equipment that could, for example, send information about traffic patterns or streets that are flooded.

Rhodes estimated it would cost between $2 million to $5 million to add the access points needed to allow residents to connect.

+3 Brace for 'severe disruptions', internet issues as New Orleans schools start new year, officials warn As some New Orleans schools prepare to open their virtual doors this week, one thing is abundantly clear: There's a lot of worry about how the

Exactly how the system would operate is still being worked out and its not clear whether an eventual network would require monthly bills, be ad-supported or use some other model, Rhodes said.

The City Council is expected to vote on a resolution Thursday that would have its own utility staff come up with a citywide WiFi plan.

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I dont expect that itll be something that can be all rolled out all at once but I feel that there are pieces of it that could come together quickly, said Councilmember Helena Moreno, who brought the idea up at a hearing on the school district's response to the coronavirus pandemic on Monday. There are several groups, whether its cell phone companies or non-profits and lets see how much we can start piecing together now and eventually have it sooner or later.

'Distance learning options here to stay': Orleans, Jefferson charters chart coronavirus return Orleans and Jefferson Parish public school districts have not released final school plans for the 2020-2021 year, but among some charter schoo

For the coming school year, the Orleans Parish school district has purchased 6,000 WiFi hotspots to give to students, in addition to the 8,000 it has already distributed, to help those without internet access at home. The district has also been distributing low-cost laptops to students without computers, an effort aimed at making sure every student is able to access remote classes.

Superintendent Henderson Lewis, however, acknowledged that the district would have to do more to ensure those from disadvantaged households had the resources they needed.

We are getting closer to closing the digital divide, Lewis said at a press conference on Wednesday. We know that there is more work to be done as our students return to school and as they prepare and come back, we have to continue to close that gap that still exists.

+2 MaCCNO director Ethan Ellestad on the cultural community's needs during the pandemic In April, The Music & Culture Coalition of New Orleans (MaCCNO) began to distribute relief grants to musicians, artists and culture bearer

Its relatively rare for large cities to get involved in providing internet access directly and only three municipalities in the U.S. with more than 100,000 people  including Lafayette  currently run their own broadband systems. All of those use fiber-optic connections to homes rather than WiFi, said Christopher Mitchell, director of the Community Broadband Networks Initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, an advocacy organization that pushes for local control of utilities.

Larger communities, including New York City and Boston, have been rolling out more targeted programs aimed at highly trafficked areas or neighborhoods where internet access is low, he said.

Many other cities have toyed with providing internet access through WiFi only to abandon those efforts. In large part, the problem with wireless connections is that while good for outdoor areas, they dont provide strong enough penetration in homes to provide a fast enough connection.

A pure wireless approach can give you a more rapid deployment but it will come at a cost of quality, Mitchell said.

The Cantrell administration is looking to provide connection speeds of 5 to 25 megabits per second. That translates to a speed that's only 10% to 50% of what Cox offers through its basic internet service plan. The high end of the proposed range would be roughly in line with Coxs Connect2Compete plan, an option the company rolled out to provide low-cost internet during the coronavirus pandemic.

Under that plan, residents receiving governmental nutritional assistance, housing assistance or live in public housing, have school-age children and are not a current Cox customer may qualify for free internet through September.

Both Cox and AT&T, the two major broadband providers in the city, responded to questions about New Orleanss plan with statements about their low-cost options for students or the investments theyve made in city infrastructure.

Were not trying to develop a luxury service, but trying to develop an essential utility that serves the public, Rhodes said.

Staff writer Jessica Williams contributed to this report.
Seizure of assets owned by eight former executives of Vneshprombank upheld

 RAPSI

14:56 06/08/2020

MOSCOW, August 6 (RAPSI) - The Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals has dismissed appeals against seizure of immovable assets belonging to eight former top managers of Vneshprombank, according to court records.

In late January, the Moscow Commercial Court granted a motion to seize assets lodged by the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA). The motion was filed as part of a claim to recover about 219 billion rubles from the banks former executives.

The DIA found that from March 1, 2014 to March 14, 2016, the bank controlling persons granted loans to technical legal entities not engaged in economic activities and not having own property and incomes for servicing debts. Moreover, the deposit insurer revealed illegal funds debiting from the bank clients accounts. The banks execs also failed to take steps to prevent bankruptcy that caused damage to the financial organization.

According to the applicant, these circumstances should be considered as a reason for bringing the defendants to subsidiary liability.

In November 2018, the Moscow Commercial Court extended asset realization procedure against ex-Vneshprombank president Larisa Markus, who was declared bankrupt in May 2017 on the application of VTB24 bank. Later, the court prolonged bankruptcy proceedings against her husband Lazar Markus.

In March 2016, the Moscow Commercial Court declared Vneshprombank bankrupt. Vneshprombank was one of the top 40 by assets before it lost license in January of the same year.

Criminal cases against former top managers of Vneshprombank

In May 2017, Markus was sentenced to 9 years in prison for embezzlement. Later, her sentence was reduced by 6 months.

Investigators believe that ex-Vneshprombank president Larisa Markus along with her brother Georgy Bedzhamov, who once co-owned the bank, created an organized crime group to siphon money from the bank. The group including former vice-president of the bank Yekaterina Glushakova allegedly granted loans to sub-companies and did not refund money to Vneshprombank. Allegedly, from May 2009 to December 2015, conspirators managed to embezzle about 114 billion rubles.

Bedzhamov has been put on the international wanted list.
Two State Grid technicians check power transmission facilities in Chuzhou, Anhui province. [Photo by Song Weixing/For China Daily]

The latest list of 500 most valuable brands in China was released on Wednesday, with the total value of top 500 brands reaching 24.69 trillion yuan ($3.86 trillion) in 2020, a 12.9 percent increase year-on-year, according to consulting and research firm World Brand Lab.

Robert Mundell, chairman of the World Brand Lab and Nobel Prize laureate in economics in 1999, said China's manufacturing output value ($4 trillion) is nearly equal to the US ($2.3 trillion), Japan ($1 trillion) and Germany ($800 billion). Although the growth of Chinese brands has not kept pace with Chinese manufacturing, the success of Chinese brands has been widely recognized.

The value of Chinese brands saw a robust growth since the first list released 17 years ago, with threshold of the top 500 rising from 500 million yuan in 2004 to 2.72 billion yuan in 2020 as well as the average value surging from 4.94 billion yuan to 49.38 billion yuan, a 899.07 percent jump.

World Brand Lab said 55 of the top 500 Chinese brands have global influence, accounting for 11 percent of the total brands.

Beijing has 93 brands among the top 500, taking the first spot, followed by Guangdong and Shandong provinces with 90 and 44, respectively.

State Grid Corporation of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Haier are the top three Chinese brands with highest value, at 503.69 billion yuan, 450.58 billion yuan and 428.65 billion yuan, respectively.

Moreover, 53 Chinese brands' value surpassed 100 billion yuan this year.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Five Indians suffered minor injuries in the deadly explosion that ravaged the Lebanese capital of Beirut earlier this week, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday.

Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava also said India has sought from the Lebanese government an assessment of damage caused by the blast, based on which it will decide on the nature of assistance it will extend to the West Asian country.

"There was a tweet from our embassy. There have been no reported casualties amongst the Indian community there. There have been five minor injuries which have been reported," Srivastava said.

ALSO READ | TN in touch with Customs for safe disposal of tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored near Chennai

"Our embassy is in touch with the community associations and it is extending all necessary assistance," he said.

Tuesday's blast, which killed more than 130 people, wounded thousands and left tens of thousands homeless, is believed to have been caused when a fire touched off a stockpile of 2,750 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate that authorities left sitting in a warehouse for years, according to reports.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday expressed shock at the whole incident and said India's thoughts and prayers are with the bereaved families and the injured.

"Shocked and saddened by the large explosion in Beirut city leading to loss of life and property. Our thoughts and prayers are with the bereaved families and the injured," the Prime Minister's Office said in a tweet quoting Modi.
State-run banks are hiring specialists to study the feasibility of an expected debt restructuring, fearing a pile-up of bad loans once the loan moratorium ends on August 31. The external consultants will conduct so-called techno-economic viability (TEV) studies to ascertain how a loan account will perform after a potential debt recast.

Punjab National Bank, UCO Bank and Bank of Maharashtra have already advertised for such TEC consultants, even though the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is yet to make up its mind on debt restructuring.

Tacit government support for such a recast, with finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman stating her ministry is in conversation with RBI on the issue, has raised hopes among banks and borrowers. The focus is on restructuring. The finance ministry is actively engaged with RBI. In principle, the idea that there may be a restructuring required is well-taken, she said on July 31.

The Indian Banks Association has written to RBI seeking a one-time loan recast on the basis of the central banks June 7, 2019 circular on stressed assets. Despite considerable relaxations since the lockdown was lifted on June 1, continuing restrictions and the looming fear of infections have crippled sectors, leading to a higher risk of defaults in bank loans.

Experts say its the right time to allow a one-time debt recast, which would give banks some headroom in a year plagued by the pandemic. Considering, RBIs projections of an at least 400 basis points (bps) rise in bad loans in FY21, the ensuing provisions will eat up capital.

Banks were given a special debt restructuring dispensation after the 2008 crisis as well. However, there were instances of lenders misusing the recast provisions, and an environment of mistrust was created, leading to the regulator thinking twice before approving it this time, said Nirmal Gangwal, founder and chairman of Brescon and Allied Partners LLP, a debt restructuring advisory firm.
By Darren Hughes

Britains ability to speak up for democracy abroad has just taken a major self-inflicted hit.

Corruption in England deepens: Johnson has promoted his brotherand the son of a KGB agent to aristocratic status, one Czech newspaper story ran, on the news of 36 new peers being packed in to the Lords.

Le Figaro in France: With these newcomers, the House of Lords is expected to exceed 800 members, appointed for life. Agenzia in Italia: The 36 new investitures include many loyalists and expand the already abnormal number of members of the Upper House, who sometimes do not even go there.

There were dozens more headlines like this internationally and at home. All with one clear message: Britains unelected chamber is turning the mother of parliaments into a laughing stock.

The new peers come at a likely cost to taxpayers of 1.1m a year in expenses, according to Electoral Reform Society (ERS) analysis of average claims. Peers can usually claim 323 a day tax-free  for the rest of their lives  for signing into the Lords.

Any claim to the Lords independence is being shattered as we speak, after the government over-rode a decision of the Lords themselves to reduce their numbers to 600 through a one-in-two-out system.

Even the Lord Speaker, Lord Fowler, condemned the move over the weekend, saying that some of the new peers will be merely passengers. Lord Fowler told the BBCs Today Programme on Saturday: I do think the prime minister has got to stop these kinds of mass appointments because I think the public are unimpressed with it it is not necessary  we dont need a House of Lords of 830. Make no mistake. This is a brazen batch of cronyistic appointments.

At over 800 members, this bloated chamber is becoming a cruel joke on the public. But if the Lords are to have any credibility, they must now put their apparent anger into action and propose legislation to finally introduce some accountability into the unelected house.

Story continues

The appointments  which seem dominated by party loyalists in London and the South East  exacerbate a worrying trend.

Last week the ERS found that nearly a quarter of peers are based in London, compared to just 13% of the UK public. Over half  55% of peers  live in the capital, or the East and South East of England, while peers in the East and West Midlands make up just six per cent between them

Peers in London, South East and East of England are over-represented by almost 20 percentage points more than the population share for these regions (36%). The North West and East and West Midlands are the most underrepresented regions in the House of Lords when compared with their population share.

The unelected House of Lords is looking increasingly like a Westminster private members club, with voices outside of London and the South East locked out. This totally undermines the governments stated intention to level up the regions, when we have a Chamber that is skewed towards one patch of England.

Its no surprise that the Chamber is unrepresentative when its totally unelected: this is a home for prime ministers pals, special advisers and donors. It is a glaring inequity in the heart of our politics, and it means the expertise and skills of huge parts of the UK go ignored.

The anger is palpable. Its no wonder nearly 200,000 people have signed an ERS petition calling for the House of Lords to be scrapped and replaced. The petition which was started at the beginning of the year has seen a major surge in recent days.

The ERS want to see a far smaller Senate of the Nations and Regions, elected by proportional representation, to replace the Lords. We cannot continue to allow our parliament to be the joke of modern democracies.

Its time for it to join the 21st Century. This oversized, expenses free-for-all must be overhauled at last.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has agreed to acquire Ellie Mae, a cloud-based platform provider for the mortgage finance industry, from Thoma Bravo. Through its Digital Lending Platform, Ellie Mae provides technology services to all participants in the mortgage supply chain. The deal values Ellie Mae at approximately $11 billion. The consideration is in the form of a mix of cash (84% of EV) and newly issued shares of ICE common stock (16%). Intercontinental Exchange expects the acquisition of Ellie Mae will be accretive to adjusted earnings per share in the first full year of ownership. The transaction is expected to realize run-rate cost synergies of $50 million to $65 million by the end of year three. 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 Project has been slammed for airing a controversial segment in which Israel was blamed for the deadly Beirut explosion.

Host Waleed Aly interviewed photographer Joao Sousa, who is based a kilometre from where the explosion detonated in Lebanon's capital, on Wednesday.

Aly asked Mr Sousa whether locals were accepting of the blast being blamed on 'poorly stored ammonium nitrate' in the area.

'No. I would say 99 per cent of the people Ive spoken with  they all feel that thats not necessarily the correct explanation,' Mr Sousa responded.

'People are more likely to believe that this was an attack, a military attack, possibly by Israel than an accident.'

A photojournalist on The Project blamed Israel for the deadly Beirut blast (pictured) on Wednesday

When Aly asked if that was due to a general culture of suspicion of government or the geopolitics of the region Mr Sousa said there was a 'historical aspect here that cannot be ignored'.

'Lebanon and Israel are never on good terms, so theres always this tension going on, and people are always expecting something like this to happen,' he said.

The Project has been criticised on social media after the segment aired, with the program deleting the segment from their social media channels after backlash.

Several tweets accused the program of allowing 'anti-semitism' in the report.

'So you ask an uninformed photographer for his verdict and he spouts an anti-semitic response with absolutely no evidence and you accept it - is that good journalism Waleed?' one post reads.

'Wow! Waleed Aly just let their guest blame Israel for the Beirut blast without rejecting, questioning or denouncing his Jew-hating narrative,' another tweet reads.

Photographer Joao Sousa (pictured right) told Walled Aly (pictured left) people are 'likely to believe' the explosion was a 'military attack' by Israel

A collection of tweets after the segment aired on Wednesday, with viewers accusing the program of allowing 'anti-semitism' in the report

'Showing your true colours, habibi.'

'I'm a big admirer of Waleed Aly and it's beyond disappointing that he failed to use his formidable skills to question why Israel is being blamed for this,' another comment reads.

'This is yet another example of baseless anti-semitic conspiracy theories that have very real consequences.'

'Really Waleed? You bring someone on the show that then blames Israel for the blast and carnage and suffering and lose of life today? You knew this is what he would say...that is facilitating anti-semitism Waleed,' another response reads.

However not everyone agreed with the claims the comments made on the show were anti-semetic.

One social media user said: 'Still not anti-semitic. He was explaining what people that lived there thought.

'If you lived there you would think exactly the same if there was an explosion like that. Maybe you just want to believe it is anti-semitic because it fits in with you narrative.'

Another said: 'Here's a tip: Saying something bad about Israel isn't anti-semitic.'

The Project deleted the segment from their social media channels on Thursday morning.

Chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission Dr Dvir Abramovich told Daily Mail Australia he spoke with co-executive producer of The Project Chris Bendall with concerns about the segment.

The death toll from the Beirut blast (pictured) has reached 135 people, with as many as 5,000 people injured in the explosion

'In my conversation with Mr Bendall this morning I communicated my profound concerns and disappointment that the photojournalist interviewed yesterday was given a free ride by Waleed Aly to claim, without a shred of evidence, sources, facts or confirmation that Israel might have been responsible for the explosion and the heartbreaking loss of life,' he said.

'Allowing such wild and unfounded accusations that defame Israel to go unchallenged by the interviewer, and then to post it online was highly irresponsible.

'That is how malicious conspiracy theories are born, given life and then spread, and such vicious accusation as levelled by Joao Sousa, will surely be seized on by those looking for every opportunity to bash and defame Israel.

'Such false charges should have never been given a platform on a mainstream current affairs show and should have been rejected and refuted immediately.'

'And I while I welcome the removal of the video, I urge the senior management at The Project to apologise for this lapse in judgement.'

An aerial view of the damaged port area after the devastating explosion in Beirut on Wednesday

Dr Abramovich's sentiment was followed by Victorian Liberal MP David Southwick.

'This story is irresponsible as it casts unsubstantiated blame on Israel for the tragedy in Lebanon,' he told Australian Jewish News.

'Instead of running stories like this maybe show how Israel was one of the first to respond with medical assistance.'

A spokesperson for The Project rejected claims the Beirut explosion was a military attack.

'As our report last night clearly stated, this is a tragic accident resulting from the mishandling of dangerous chemicals,' the spokesperson said.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Aly and Channel Ten for further comment.

The death toll from the Beirut blast has reached 135 people, with as many as 5,000 people injured in the explosion.
A 24-year-old from Philadelphia is accused of breaking into York City Hall Wednesday night and damaging computers and offices to the point the building had to be temporarily shut down, officials said.

York City police said they found Kevin I. Waller among the disarray when they arrived to the building at 101 S George St. around 9 p.m. Police said Waller broke into city hall and damaged doors, offices, computers and servers.

In addition to shutting City Hall down, the damage prevented access to all city landline phones and limited access to city files and services, officials said. Some web services were expected to be down while they repaired the damage.

According to the affidavit, Waller was found in a basement hallway with a large fire extinguisher and several laptop bags.

He was not wearing a shirt, but was wearing a face covering, police said. The person who called 911 had reported seeing a man matching Wallers description, in both clothing and face covering, use a fire extinguisher to break into the City Hall.

Police estimated damage at more than $350,000, according to the affidavit. Doors, offices, computers, servers and other property were damaged through methods such as smashing, flooding and pouring chemicals on, police wrote.

The citys computer network, which includes York City Police, is inoperable and city officers have had to use assistance from the computer system used by the County Detectives that are a part of the District Attorneys Office.

Police said Waller was arrested by Northeastern Regional Police earlier in the day for criminal trespass and was transported to central booking. When he was released just before 3 p.m., he would have only been a few blocks from city hall.

Waller was taken to the York County Prison on burglary, trespassing and criminal mischief charges. He was unable to make bail and remains at the prison, court records show.

The 24-year-olds preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 17 in front of Magisterial District Judge Ronald J. Haskell Jr.

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SPRINGFIELD  The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) now are accepting applications for grants through the Boat Access Area Development grant program. The deadline to apply is Oct. 2.

The state-financed boat access grant program provides funding assistance to local government agencies for acquisition and/or development of land for public boat and canoe access areas in Illinois. The program can provide up to 100% reimbursement funding assistance on approved development project costs and 90% reimbursement on land acquisition costs.
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Linkedin Steve Gorman (Reuters) Los Angeles, United States  Thu, August 6, 2020 10:30 531 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066bf20be 2 People Jake-Paul,YouTube,YouTubers,united-states,celebrity,FBI Free

FBI agents in tactical gear on Wednesday raided the Los Angeles-area mansion home of YouTube star and social media influencer Jake Paul in an investigation stemming from a looting spree at an upscale shopping mall in Scottsdale, Arizona, officials said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation also searched two locations in Las Vegas, but no one was taken into custody during the raids and no arrest warrant has been issued for Paul, the agency said.

Paul, 23, was not present when his home was searched, according to Laura Eimiller, an FBI spokeswoman in Los Angeles.

Paul's lawyer, Richard Schonfeld, in a statement acknowledged that his client's home was searched and promised cooperation with the investigation.

Paul, whose viral YouTube video postings of provocative pranks have won him millions of followers, had no comment on his Twitter and Instagram accounts.

An FBI spokeswoman in Phoenix, Brooke Brennan, said agents were "investigating allegations of criminal acts surrounding the incident at Scottsdale Fashion Square in May." She declined further comment because the search warrant was under court seal.

Local news video footage from the raid showed officers removing several rifles from Paul's mansion in Calabasas, about 30 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

Scottsdale police said separately that misdemeanor charges filed in June accusing Paul of criminal trespass and unlawful assembly in connection with the Fashion Square "riots" were dismissed on Wednesday in conjunction with the federal probe.

Misdemeanor charges from that incident were likewise dropped against two men police described as Paul's associates, one of them a Las Vegas nightclub promoter.

Police said dismissal of those charges was tied to completing the federal investigation, adding that prosecutors could refile the case if warranted.

Civil disturbances in Scottsdale on May 30 grew out of demonstrations triggered by the George Floyd killing that week. Police said Paul took part in the unrest and was present after the protest was declared an unlawful assembly. He also was accused of illegally entering the shopping mall and remaining inside after it was closed.

Paul denied that he or anyone with him took part in looting or vandalism, and said he was "documenting, not engaging" in, lawlessness.
Key indices are trading with modest gains in early trade. At 9:27 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 165.13 points or 0.44% at 37,828.46. The Nifty 50 index was up 44.15 points or 0.4% at 11,145.80. Investors are awaiting outcome of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.56%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.51%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, is strong. On the BSE, 1067 shares rose and 549 shares fell. A total of 81 shares were unchanged.

RBI policy outcome:

Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting outcome will be watched. The Reserve Bank of India's three-day monetary policy meeting commenced on 4 August 2020. RBI will announce its policy stance today, 6 August 2020. Investors will keep an eye on whether RBI extends moratorium beyond August 2020.

Meanwhile, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Chairman Ajay Tyagi's term of appointment was extended by 18 months. The current SEBI Chairman's term was due to end on August 31, 2020.

Stocks in news:

HDFC rose 0.78%. HDFC on Wednesday said that its board had approved the launch of qualified institutional placement (QIP) offering to raise up to Rs 14,000 crore by selling equity shares and warrants. HDFC had fixed a floor price of Rs 1,838.94 per share for the QIP offering. The lender added that it's board has also approved raising up to Rs 9,000 crore through issuance of secured redeemable non convertible debentures.

Canara Bank gained 0.97% after the bank reported 23.45% rise in net profit to Rs 406.24 crore on 47.1% rise in total income to Rs 20,685.91 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019.

DLF surged 3.23%. DLF reported consolidated net loss of Rs 70.65 crore in Q1 June 2020 as compared to net profit of Rs 414.72 crore in Q1 June 2019. Total income fell 64.79% to Rs 646.98 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019.

JK Lakshmi Cement lost 4.25% after the company reported 1.79% fall in consolidated net profit to Rs 48.92 crore on 19.56% fall in total income to Rs 918.54 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019.

Hawkins Cooker rose 2.03%. The company reported 52.85% fall in net profit to Rs 6.45 crore on 28.88% fall in total income to Rs 101.61 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019.

Apollo Tyres dropped 3.41% after the company reported consolidated net loss of Rs 134.58 crore in Q1 June 2020 as compared to net profit of Rs 141.60 crore in Q1 June 2019. Total income fell 33.46% to Rs 2,900.28 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019.

Inox Leisure shed 0.23%. The company reported consolidated net loss of Rs 73.64 crore in Q1 June 2020 as compared to net profit of Rs 27.01 crore in Q1 June 2019. Total income fell 99.4% to Rs 2.97 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019.

Global Markets:

Overseas, Asian stocks were mixed Thursday as investors continued to watch tensions between the U.S. and China.

On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that President Donald Trump's administration wants to ban untrusted Chinese apps such as TikTok and WeChat from U.S. app stores. That development followed tensions between Washington and Beijing heating up in recent weeks.

In US, Wall Street's main indexes rose on August 5 after Disney delivered a surprise quarterly profit, with sentiment aided by signs that a coronavirus fiscal relief package was imminent.

US services industry activity gained momentum in July as new orders jumped to a record high, but hiring declined, supporting views that the labor market recovery was faltering amid a resurgence in new COVID-19 infections across the country. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said on August 5 its non-manufacturing activity index increased to a reading of 58.1 last month, the highest since March 2019, from 57.1 in June. The index slumped to 41.8 in April, which was the lowest reading since March 2009.

Reports suggested that Trump administration officials and congressional Democratic leaders are working to reach a coronavirus aid bill deal by the end of the week even if the parties still remain far apart on the issues.

In economic news, the final monthly reading of the closely-watched ISM service sector purchasing managers index jumped to a reading of 58.1 in July, signalling stronger economic growth.

Back home, key benchmark indices ended near flat line after a volatile session on Wednesday. Weak domestic macroeconomic data spoiled investors sentiment. Investors were also cautious ahead of the outcome of the RBI's monetary policy meeting on Thursday, 6 August 2020. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex fell 24.58 points or 0.07% at 37,663.33. The Nifty 50 index rose 6.40 points or 0.06% at 11,101.65.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 60.18 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net sellers to the tune of Rs 425.98 crore in the Indian equity market on 5 August, 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.)
ATECA Holding Signs an Agreement with AHLEI to Offer Certification and Diploma Programs for Hospitality Industry in Uzbekistan



(TRAVPR.COM) UAE - August 6th, 2020 - ATECA Holding, developed by UAE hotel experts, in collaboration with the Tourism Development Institute under The State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan for Tourism Development, has entered into an agreement with The American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute (AHLEI), to provide its world-class training programs in Uzbekistan.

Making the announcement Mr. Michel Noblet, Executive Chairman of ATECA Holding, said, The hospitality sector is emerging as one of the most diverse, competitive and fast-paced industries in Uzbekistan developing at an unprecedented pace to meet the growing demand for quality accommodations from domestic and international travellers. At ATECA Holding we are proud to be the first and only organisation in Uzbekistan to offer AHLEIs prestigious training programs at the ATECA Hotel Academy Hub in partnership with the Tourism Development Institute under The State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan for Tourism Development. Drawing on our outstanding industry experience, we are committed to help students master their area of interest with a focus on real-world practices to expand their perspective and expertise which in turn will enable them to grow in their respective careers.

The demand for trained hotel professionals is high in the Republic and is expected to grow drastically with the increasing number of hotels. However, currently, only a fraction of hotel industry staff have formal education or training leaving a huge gap in skills at the start of the career. To meet the need for continuous learning and professional development in Uzbekistans hospitality industry, ATECA Hotel Academy Hub, offers a variety of certification, executive diploma and customised programs for both experienced professionals as well as beginners.

Ed Kastli, MBA, CHMS, CGSP  Channel Vice President, International Sales, American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute stated, We are very excited to enter Uzbekistan and support the advancement of the hospitality sector in the country with strong partners such as ATECA Holding and the Tourism Development Institute under The State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan for Tourism Development. Our shared goal is to train a dynamic workforce who can make a difference to the hospitality and tourism industry in Uzbekistan. AHLEIs well-defined and globally recognised courses are for all segments of the hospitality sector. Our training workshops are tailored to address complex, multi-dimensional business that demand a new managerial mindset.

In todays competitive world, everyone looking for a career in hospitality needs to have extensive hospitality know-how and a broad set of strategic skills to enter the industry and reach the desired positions. AHLEI offers the worlds top-notch certification programs supported by a global network of 25,000 hotel members, and endorsed by the American Hotel & Lodging Association.

Mr. Karimov Kamoladdin, Chief Executive Officer and General Manager for ATECA Holding, said, The ATECA Hotel Academy Hub is dedicated to prepare students for a flourishing career in the regional and global hospitality industry through AHLEIs world-class education, workshops and training programs. The award-winning team at ATECA Hotel Academy Hub comprises of the very best faculty members including executives from leading hotels  all of whom have top degrees from prestigious universities.

For more information call +998 9003 63 11 or email info@atecahotelacademy.com

Connect with us on @atecahotelacademyhub

###
Five young men walk up to a police barricade while fires  stoked with tires and old wooden skids  burn across Argyle Street in Caledonia in the background. They were protesting the arrest of a group that was occupying a development site earlier in the day.

















Dave Anderson watched the fires burning on Argyle Street on Wednesday and sighed.

This is starting all over again, said Anderson, who moved to Caledonia on the very day in 2006 that Six Nations protesters set up an encampment on the former Douglas Creek Estates (DCE) property, sparking a bitter land claims dispute that divided the community for years.

The cops were in the same position they are right now, Anderson said, pointing to police cruisers blocking the road near the Canadian Tire parking lot.

Using tires, wooden skids and other materials, protesters set several fires a stones throw from the DCE lands, sending black smoke wafting over town. They gathered in response to Haldimand OPP raiding a construction site on the south end of town that morning to forcibly evict Six Nations members who had been occupying the site since July 19.

Officers were enforcing a Superior Court injunction handed down Friday ordering the protesters to leave the McKenzie Meadows site, which the Six Nations group renamed as 1492 Land Back Lane in reference to their claim of Haudenosaunee sovereignty.

The protesters didnt budge, prompting police to move in Wednesday morning, where they encountered resistance.

Several demonstrators who failed to comply with the court injunction were subsequently arrested, said OPP Const. Rod LeClair.

In response, protests sprang up on Argyle, the Highway 6 bypass and Sixth Line.

This is like deja vu all over again. Incredible, said Anderson, who spotted the smoke from his backyard and walked over to investigate.

Theres no warning. Just one day, bang, its there. And from there, wheres this going to go? Theyre not moving. Theyre going to be here for a while.

Anderson was among many residents who expressed their frustration at the blockade, with memories of the Douglas Creek Estates protests, which ignited years of acrimony in the community and beyond, fresh in their minds.

Here we go again, one man said as he turned his car around at the roadblock to join the traffic inching back along Argyle.

Cecilia Roman said residents who grumble at the inconvenience caused by the protest are missing the point.

I understand theyre irritated, but I dont think a lot of people are understanding why the Natives are doing this, said Roman, who lives in Caledonia and works on Six Nations.

That is the Natives land. I think the government of Canada should be more open to having the Natives land not being built on.

Her memories of the 2006 protest are of police officers using pepper spray on demonstrators, and of racist attitudes toward Six Nations members that she still sees in the community today.

I think there is a lot of racism here that people dont really put a lot of light on, Roman said.

A dose of empathy and education about Indigenous issues, including the legacy of residential schools and the reserve system, would go a long way to explaining why the protesters, who describe themselves as land defenders, take action, Roman said.

I think that what theyre doing isnt wrong. Theyre standing up for their land, and they want to be respected. They want their voices to be heard, she said. If the roles were reversed, wed be fighting for our land.

Witnesses say the police came out in force to clear the construction site, where developers plan to build 219 detached homes and townhouses. A police helicopter flew overhead as the protest then expanded throughout Caledonia.

McKenzie Road remained closed throughout the day as officers monitored the area. Representatives from Losani Homes, one of the developers involved in the project, were on hand to check if any of the construction materials that protesters had used to barricade the entrance were damaged.

As of mid-afternoon, Six Nations and Mohawk Warrior flags still flew at the site.

Six Nations elected band council has distanced itself from the protesters because the developers previously compensated the reserve with cash and land at a different site.

In an interview on Friday, the day the injunction was issued, protester Skyler Williams said the Canadian government and band council alike need to consult more widely before further development can happen on disputed territory.

Six Nations is a whole other country. Youve got to understand that, Williams said.

So if youre not going to come to the table for meaningful discussion, to make it a real process where everybody in our community feels heard and accommodated and consulted with, then youre going to continue to have these flashpoints in time where youre met with resistance.
Remember the housing crisis? You know - the biggest social and economic issue in Ireland, affecting almost everyone in some way, that sparked a voters' revolt?

The pandemic forced a pause on it, with a rent freeze and a ban on evictions: the root causes of housing emergencies.

It didn't change anything for anyone trapped in a rental property and handing half their earnings over to the landlord. But it stopped it getting worse. Ironically, coronavirus allowed renters to breathe. Covid did what the Government refused to do: give tenants a break.

Well, the housing crisis is officially back, thanks to new Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien, who would make you wonder what was the point in getting rid of his predecessor, Eoghan Murphy.

His maiden piece of legislation was sneakily anti-renter: it looked good, but it just shafted us.

It led to the Green Party's Neasa Hourigan resigning her role as chief whip to stand against it. She said it was: "Very worrying a very serious bill that will affect families who need a home."

Campaigners described it as "cruel" and "piecemeal". TD Richard Boyd-Barrett criticised it as a "shameful betrayal of tenants". Opposition housing spokesman Eoin O Broin was right when he called it "an attack on renters".

Darragh O'Brien's new laws just mean Ireland's renters go from an acute crisis back to a chronic one.

The Residential Tenancies and Valuation Bill, which takes effect this week, is a two-tier system, that only protects tenants directly hit by Covid-19. As if the rest of us were grand amid the worst human crisis of a lifetime.

Only those who can prove the economic impact of it left them unable to pay will continue to benefit from the rent freeze.

Everyone else can go back to living under the constant threat of eviction for renovations or because a relative is moving in, and the 4pc rent cap, which in effect is an annual government- sanctioned rent rise.

Those who built up rent arrears during the virus crisis will be protected from imminent tenancy terminations - which is great for that cohort.

But it means that others who may have worked night and day in order to meet the rent - for example, nurses, gardai and shopworkers - will be effectively penalised for doing so.

It does not take into account that renters were already in an emergency when Covid hit. There aren't two distinct groups of renters, those deserving of basic protections and those undeserving of them.

In reality, this Bill does sweet FA. If anything, it's a law of inaction. It removes protections from the vast majority of tenants.

It has brought us back to the future - the situation has returned to exactly how it was under Fine Gael in January. Except now it will be worse because we're dealing with both a pandemic and a recession.

After previously promising protections through to October, the minister has now rushed through this legislation that purports to extend protections to tenants but, in practicality, does the opposite.

Why not extend it to everyone? Does Mr O'Brien not realise that we voted to solve the housing crisis, not maintain it?

Maybe he thinks the virus has brought clarity and we should all now be happy to pay an average of 2,000 a month for accommodation, topping the world table for income spent on rent, at 40pc.

Or that it's now acceptable for adults to be still living with their parents into their 30s and beyond.

Or for kids to grow up sleeping on couches. Or for 44pc of 20-year-olds to say their biggest worry for the future is housing. Or for rents to have gone up by 40pc in the past few years, while wages did not.

Or that it's OK to continue a system that harks back to feudalism, where tenants are stuck paying more than a mortgage to landlords, because the high rates mean they can't save for a deposit?

That somehow, we've all moved on - nothing to see here?

The crisis is still there. Many of us were naively hoping that the new minister would make positive steps to alleviate it, as soon as practically possible, once the worst of the pandemic passed. Aside from addressing the social inequality of it, it makes political and economic sense.

He should read his own party's 1991 policy document, 'A Plan For Housing', which states: "Ensuring every household has a dwelling suitable to its needs, located in an acceptable environment, at a price or rent it can afford."

Instead, the new Government trotted out how the Attorney General believed it was unconstitutional and it made the decision to accept that, not to let the courts test it, which would have bought time. Legal experts say they'd take a punt on it being accepted in the courts due to the public health emergency.

Honestly, would it have killed them to not pander to landlords' needs for the one year of the pandemic?

Ask anyone who is renting: this is bad news. This bill - in line with policy of the past six years - once again protects landlords at the expense of families. It's a hindrance, not a help. I'd classify it in the category 'worse than useless'.

But at least it has revealed one illuminating fact: Darragh O'Brien is not on the side of those caught in the rental trap.

And if he genuinely believes this bunkum bill is of any benefit to Ireland's one million citizens in rental accommodation, then he fundamentally misunderstands this crisis.
NEW YORK/MEXICO CITY U.S. glass manufacturer O-I Glass Inc is seeking to seize an oil tanker owned by Venezuela to collect part of a $500 million arbitration award it won after the 2010 expropriation of two manufacturing plants, according to a summons filed with a Singapore court seen by Reuters.

The attempt is a new threat against Venezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuelas fleet of tankers at a time when U.S. sanctions on the firm are making it difficult for the company known as PDVSA to book ships to transport its crude.

The lack of available tankers has contributed to a collapse in Venezuelas oil exports to below 400,000 barrels per day (bpd), down from around 1.5 million bpd before Washington imposed the sanctions in an effort to oust socialist President Nicolas Maduro. Exports are at the lowest level in over seven decades for the crisis-stricken OPEC nation.

With Washington ramping up pressure, the use of its own in-house fleet of tankers is one of the few options left to PDVSA for exporting its crude, and a loss of any of those vessels would make that more difficult.

The Singapore suit brought by O-I Glass, formerly known as Owens-Illinois Inc, also highlights the risks to PDVSAs assets around the world from creditors seeking to collect on unpaid debt or arbitral awards, which have mounted as Venezuelas economy has collapsed under Maduro.

In the summons to the Singapore court, dated June 4, O-I Glass asserted it was entitled to shares in Ayacucho Shipping Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based company that was the vehicle through which PDVSAs maritime subsidiary, PDV Marina, and Chinas PetroChina co-owned the vessel named Ayacucho.

The vessel was one of four that the two companies jointly owned through their Singapore joint venture CV Shipping. CV Shipping began a court-administered liquidation process in February, according to an entry in Singapores government gazette.

Venezuelas state-run maritime authority INEA became the owner of Ayacucho in May and changed the vessels name to Maximo Gorki, according to shipping database Equasis and Refinitiv Eikon.

It was unclear if the transfer of the tankers ownership to INEA would affect O-I Glasss attempts to take control of the vessel.

A hearing in the case is scheduled for Aug. 7, according to the Singapore Supreme Courts website.

Neither O-I nor PDVSA responded to requests for comment. PetroChina could not be reached for comment outside normal business hours.

DIMINISHED FLEET

Except for short trips to Cuba, most of PDVSAs tanker fleet has stayed in Venezuelan waters in recent years as piling debts and U.S. sanctions have left many vessels without operators, insurance or the classification needed to navigate international waters.

The Maximo Gorki has been in Venezuelan waters since 2018, and PDVSA has this year used it as floating storage, according to Refinitiv Eikon shipping data.

In July, the vessel topped up with Venezuelan crude to reach full capacity, according to PDVSAs loading schedules, seen by Reuters.

The company now plans to send it to a Chinese shipyard for maintenance and to discharge the 2 million barrels of heavy crude it has, though it is yet to line a customer up, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The ship is worth around $24 million, according to market valuations of similar vessels built the same year, one of the sources said. Reuters was unable to confirm the valuation.

O-I Glass won the award in 2015 from the World Banks International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in relation to the 2010 seizure and nationalization of two of its plants in Venezuela under late former President Hugo Chavez, Maduros predecessor and mentor.

The award includes $372.5 million of principal, plus interest. Both the ICSID case and the lawsuit in Singapore were introduced by O-I Glass subsidiary OI European Group BV.

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
- Zari's son Nillan was on Wednesday, August 5, selected as the most stylish kid celebrity boy of the year in the 2020 EAFA awards

- The proud mother went on her Instagram to celebrate the fete saying she appreciated the honour

- Size 8 and DJ Mo's daughter Ladasha was crowned as the most stylish young lady

Ugandan socialite Zari Hassan has celebrated her son, Prince Nillan's, victory after he was crowned East Africa's most stylish young boy.

Nillan was on Wednesday, August 5, selected as the Most Stylish Kid Celebrity boy of the year in the East Africa Fashion Awards show held virtually.

READ ALSO: Kenyans stunned after spotting man with striking resemblance to president Uhuru

Zari Hassan and her handsome son Nillan during his past birthday celebration Photo: Princenillan

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Chasing cows, not skirts: Man shows off the cool car he uses on his farm

The proud mother went on her Instagram to celebrate the fete saying she appreciated the honour.

"Thank you so much @eastafricafashionawards for my baby's award as Most Stylish East African Celebrity boy kid of the year. Much appreciated," she wrote.

Nillan is definitely living the good life and his celeb parents Diamond Platnumz and Zari have ensured that he gets the best that the world has to give.

READ ALSO: Help me God: TV anchor Zubeidah Koome shows off her investment in Kajiado

READ ALSO: Kate Actress' hubby Phil warns scammers are using his name to make money through fake auditions

In the same category, opposite gender, Size 8 and DJ Mo's daughter Ladasha Wambui was crowded East Africa's most stylish young lady.

Wambui who is the couple's eldest child placed Kenya at the top in the awards show.

READ ALSO: Mamake msanii Nandy amkanya kuingia katika ndoa ya mapema

READ ALSO: Man United vs LASK: Lingard, Martial score as Man United reach Europa League quarters

EAFA announced the good news through their official Instagram page where they also revealed other winners.

"Congratulations @ladashabelle.wambo our Winner East Africa's most stylish kid celebrity girl of the year. #eafanow," read the post.

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.

Kenyans build a house for 75-year-old Mzee Ambani and family | Tuko TV

Source: TUKO.co.ke
NEW YORK, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for GDI Systems estimated at US$5.9 Billion in the year 2020, is projected to reach a revised size of US$10.5 Billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 8.5% over the analysis period 2020-2027. Hatchback, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to record a 9.4% CAGR and reach US$3.8 Billion by the end of the analysis period. After an early analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the Sedan segment is readjusted to a revised 8.1% CAGR for the next 7-year period.





Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05899568/?utm_source=PRN





The U.S. Market is Estimated at $1.6 Billion, While China is Forecast to Grow at 11.4% CAGR



The GDI Systems market in the U.S. is estimated at US$1.6 Billion in the year 2020. China, the world`s second largest economy, is forecast to reach a projected market size of US$2.2 Billion by the year 2027 trailing a CAGR of 11.5% over the analysis period 2020 to 2027. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 5.7% and 7.2% respectively over the 2020-2027 period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 6.6% CAGR.



SUV/MPV Segment to Record 8.6% CAGR



In the global SUV/MPV segment, USA, Canada, Japan, China and Europe will drive the 8% CAGR estimated for this segment. These regional markets accounting for a combined market size of US$803.7 Million in the year 2020 will reach a projected size of US$1.4 Billion by the close of the analysis period. China will remain among the fastest growing in this cluster of regional markets. Led by countries such as Australia, India, and South Korea, the market in Asia-Pacific is forecast to reach US$1.5 Billion by the year 2027, while Latin America will expand at a 10% CAGR through the analysis period. We bring years of research experience to this 5th edition of our report. The 375-page report presents concise insights into how the pandemic has impacted production and the buy side for 2020 and 2021. A short-term phased recovery by key geography is also addressed.



Competitors identified in this market include, among others,

Continental AG

Delphi Automotive PLC

Denso Corporation

Hitachi Ltd.

Keihin Corporation

Magneti Marelli SpA

Park-Ohio Holdings Corp.

Renesas Electronics Corporation

Robert Bosch GmbH

Stanadyne



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05899568/?utm_source=PRN



I. INTRODUCTION, METHODOLOGY & REPORT SCOPE



II. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY



1. MARKET OVERVIEW

Global Competitor Market Shares

GDI System Competitor Market Share Scenario Worldwide (in %):

2019 & 2025

Impact of Covid-19 and a Looming Global Recession



2. FOCUS ON SELECT PLAYERS



3. MARKET TRENDS & DRIVERS



4. GLOBAL MARKET PERSPECTIVE

Table 1: GDI Systems Global Market Estimates and Forecasts in

US$ Million by Region/Country: 2020-2027



Table 2: GDI Systems Global Retrospective Market Scenario in

US$ Million by Region/Country: 2012-2019



Table 3: GDI Systems Market Share Shift across Key Geographies

Worldwide: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 4: Hatchback (ICE) World Market by Region/Country in US$

Million: 2020 to 2027



Table 5: Hatchback (ICE) Historic Market Analysis by

Region/Country in US$ Million: 2012 to 2019



Table 6: Hatchback (ICE) Market Share Breakdown of Worldwide

Sales by Region/Country: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 7: Sedan (ICE) Potential Growth Markets Worldwide in US$

Million: 2020 to 2027



Table 8: Sedan (ICE) Historic Market Perspective by

Region/Country in US$ Million: 2012 to 2019



Table 9: Sedan (ICE) Market Sales Breakdown by Region/Country

in Percentage: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 10: SUV/MPV (ICE) Geographic Market Spread Worldwide in

US$ Million: 2020 to 2027



Table 11: SUV/MPV (ICE) Region Wise Breakdown of Global

Historic Demand in US$ Million: 2012 to 2019



Table 12: SUV/MPV (ICE) Market Share Distribution in Percentage

by Region/Country: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 13: Pick-up Truck (ICE) World Market Estimates and

Forecasts by Region/Country in US$ Million: 2020 to 2027



Table 14: Pick-up Truck (ICE) Market Historic Review by

Region/Country in US$ Million: 2012 to 2019



Table 15: Pick-up Truck (ICE) Market Share Breakdown by

Region/Country: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 16: Coupe (ICE) World Market by Region/Country in US$

Million: 2020 to 2027



Table 17: Coupe (ICE) Historic Market Analysis by

Region/Country in US$ Million: 2012 to 2019



Table 18: Coupe (ICE) Market Share Distribution in Percentage

by Region/Country: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 19: HEV (Hybrid) World Market Estimates and Forecasts in

US$ Million by Region/Country: 2020 to 2027



Table 20: HEV (Hybrid) Market Worldwide Historic Review by

Region/Country in US$ Million: 2012 to 2019



Table 21: HEV (Hybrid) Market Percentage Share Distribution by

Region/Country: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 22: PHEV (Hybrid) Market Opportunity Analysis Worldwide

in US$ Million by Region/Country: 2020 to 2027



Table 23: PHEV (Hybrid) Global Historic Demand in US$ Million

by Region/Country: 2012 to 2019



Table 24: PHEV (Hybrid) Market Share Distribution in Percentage

by Region/Country: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 25: Gasoline Turbocharger (Support Technology) World

Market by Region/Country in US$ Million: 2020 to 2027



Table 26: Gasoline Turbocharger (Support Technology) Historic

Market Analysis by Region/Country in US$ Million: 2012 to 2019



Table 27: Gasoline Turbocharger (Support Technology) Market

Share Breakdown of Worldwide Sales by Region/Country: 2012 VS

2020 VS 2027



Table 28: Gasoline Particulate Filter (Support Technology)

Potential Growth Markets Worldwide in US$ Million: 2020 to 2027



Table 29: Gasoline Particulate Filter (Support Technology)

Historic Market Perspective by Region/Country in US$ Million:

2012 to 2019



Table 30: Gasoline Particulate Filter (Support Technology)

Market Sales Breakdown by Region/Country in Percentage: 2012 VS

2020 VS 2027



III. MARKET ANALYSIS



GEOGRAPHIC MARKET ANALYSIS



UNITED STATES

Market Facts & Figures

US GDI System Market Share (in %) by Company: 2019 & 2025

Market Analytics

Table 31: United States GDI Systems Market Estimates and

Projections in US$ Million by ICE: 2020 to 2027



Table 32: GDI Systems Market in the United States by ICE:

A Historic Review in US$ Million for 2012-2019



Table 33: United States GDI Systems Market Share Breakdown by

ICE: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 34: United States GDI Systems Market Estimates and

Projections in US$ Million by Hybrid: 2020 to 2027



Table 35: GDI Systems Market in the United States by Hybrid:

A Historic Review in US$ Million for 2012-2019



Table 36: United States GDI Systems Market Share Breakdown by

Hybrid: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 37: United States GDI Systems Market Estimates and

Projections in US$ Million by Support Technology: 2020 to 2027



Table 38: GDI Systems Market in the United States by Support

Technology: A Historic Review in US$ Million for 2012-2019



Table 39: United States GDI Systems Market Share Breakdown by

Support Technology: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



CANADA

Table 40: Canadian GDI Systems Market Estimates and Forecasts

in US$ Million by ICE: 2020 to 2027



Table 41: Canadian GDI Systems Historic Market Review by ICE in

US$ Million: 2012-2019



Table 42: GDI Systems Market in Canada: Percentage Share

Breakdown of Sales by ICE for 2012, 2020, and 2027



Table 43: Canadian GDI Systems Market Estimates and Forecasts

in US$ Million by Hybrid: 2020 to 2027



Table 44: Canadian GDI Systems Historic Market Review by Hybrid

in US$ Million: 2012-2019



Table 45: GDI Systems Market in Canada: Percentage Share

Breakdown of Sales by Hybrid for 2012, 2020, and 2027



Table 46: Canadian GDI Systems Market Estimates and Forecasts

in US$ Million by Support Technology: 2020 to 2027



Table 47: Canadian GDI Systems Historic Market Review by

Support Technology in US$ Million: 2012-2019



Table 48: GDI Systems Market in Canada: Percentage Share

Breakdown of Sales by Support Technology for 2012, 2020, and

2027



JAPAN

Table 49: Japanese Market for GDI Systems: Annual Sales

Estimates and Projections in US$ Million by ICE for the Period

2020-2027



Table 50: GDI Systems Market in Japan: Historic Sales Analysis

in US$ Million by ICE for the Period 2012-2019



Table 51: Japanese GDI Systems Market Share Analysis by ICE:

2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 52: Japanese Market for GDI Systems: Annual Sales

Estimates and Projections in US$ Million by Hybrid for the

Period 2020-2027



Table 53: GDI Systems Market in Japan: Historic Sales Analysis

in US$ Million by Hybrid for the Period 2012-2019



Table 54: Japanese GDI Systems Market Share Analysis by Hybrid:

2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 55: Japanese Market for GDI Systems: Annual Sales

Estimates and Projections in US$ Million by Support Technology

for the Period 2020-2027



Table 56: GDI Systems Market in Japan: Historic Sales Analysis

in US$ Million by Support Technology for the Period 2012-2019



Table 57: Japanese GDI Systems Market Share Analysis by Support

Technology: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



CHINA

Table 58: Chinese GDI Systems Market Growth Prospects in US$

Million by ICE for the Period 2020-2027



Table 59: GDI Systems Historic Market Analysis in China in US$

Million by ICE: 2012-2019



Table 60: Chinese GDI Systems Market by ICE: Percentage

Breakdown of Sales for 2012, 2020, and 2027



Table 61: Chinese GDI Systems Market Growth Prospects in US$

Million by Hybrid for the Period 2020-2027



Table 62: GDI Systems Historic Market Analysis in China in US$

Million by Hybrid: 2012-2019



Table 63: Chinese GDI Systems Market by Hybrid: Percentage

Breakdown of Sales for 2012, 2020, and 2027



Table 64: Chinese GDI Systems Market Growth Prospects in US$

Million by Support Technology for the Period 2020-2027



Table 65: GDI Systems Historic Market Analysis in China in US$

Million by Support Technology: 2012-2019



Table 66: Chinese GDI Systems Market by Support Technology:

Percentage Breakdown of Sales for 2012, 2020, and 2027



EUROPE

Market Facts & Figures

European GDI System Market: Competitor Market Share Scenario:

( in %) for 2019 & 2025

Market Analytics

Table 67: European GDI Systems Market Demand Scenario in US$

Million by Region/Country: 2020-2027



Table 68: GDI Systems Market in Europe: A Historic Market

Perspective in US$ Million by Region/Country for the Period

2012-2019



Table 69: European GDI Systems Market Share Shift by

Region/Country: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 70: European GDI Systems Market Estimates and Forecasts

in US$ Million by ICE: 2020-2027



Table 71: GDI Systems Market in Europe in US$ Million by ICE:

A Historic Review for the Period 2012-2019



Table 72: European GDI Systems Market Share Breakdown by ICE:

2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 73: European GDI Systems Market Estimates and Forecasts

in US$ Million by Hybrid: 2020-2027



Table 74: GDI Systems Market in Europe in US$ Million by

Hybrid: A Historic Review for the Period 2012-2019



Table 75: European GDI Systems Market Share Breakdown by

Hybrid: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 76: European GDI Systems Market Estimates and Forecasts

in US$ Million by Support Technology: 2020-2027



Table 77: GDI Systems Market in Europe in US$ Million by

Support Technology: A Historic Review for the Period 2012-2019



Table 78: European GDI Systems Market Share Breakdown by

Support Technology: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



FRANCE

Table 79: GDI Systems Market in France by ICE: Estimates and

Projections in US$ Million for the Period 2020-2027



Table 80: French GDI Systems Historic Market Scenario in US$

Million by ICE: 2012-2019



Table 81: French GDI Systems Market Share Analysis by ICE: 2012

VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 82: GDI Systems Market in France by Hybrid: Estimates and

Projections in US$ Million for the Period 2020-2027



Table 83: French GDI Systems Historic Market Scenario in US$

Million by Hybrid: 2012-2019



Table 84: French GDI Systems Market Share Analysis by Hybrid:

2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 85: GDI Systems Market in France by Support Technology:

Estimates and Projections in US$ Million for the Period

2020-2027



Table 86: French GDI Systems Historic Market Scenario in US$

Million by Support Technology: 2012-2019



Table 87: French GDI Systems Market Share Analysis by Support

Technology: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



GERMANY

Table 88: GDI Systems Market in Germany: Recent Past, Current

and Future Analysis in US$ Million by ICE for the Period

2020-2027



Table 89: German GDI Systems Historic Market Analysis in US$

Million by ICE: 2012-2019



Table 90: German GDI Systems Market Share Breakdown by ICE:

2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 91: GDI Systems Market in Germany: Recent Past, Current

and Future Analysis in US$ Million by Hybrid for the Period

2020-2027



Table 92: German GDI Systems Historic Market Analysis in US$

Million by Hybrid: 2012-2019



Table 93: German GDI Systems Market Share Breakdown by Hybrid:

2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 94: GDI Systems Market in Germany: Recent Past, Current

and Future Analysis in US$ Million by Support Technology for

the Period 2020-2027



Table 95: German GDI Systems Historic Market Analysis in US$

Million by Support Technology: 2012-2019



Table 96: German GDI Systems Market Share Breakdown by Support

Technology: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



ITALY

Table 97: Italian GDI Systems Market Growth Prospects in US$

Million by ICE for the Period 2020-2027



Table 98: GDI Systems Historic Market Analysis in Italy in US$

Million by ICE: 2012-2019



Table 99: Italian GDI Systems Market by ICE: Percentage

Breakdown of Sales for 2012, 2020, and 2027



Table 100: Italian GDI Systems Market Growth Prospects in US$

Million by Hybrid for the Period 2020-2027



Table 101: GDI Systems Historic Market Analysis in Italy in US$

Million by Hybrid: 2012-2019



Table 102: Italian GDI Systems Market by Hybrid: Percentage

Breakdown of Sales for 2012, 2020, and 2027



Table 103: Italian GDI Systems Market Growth Prospects in US$

Million by Support Technology for the Period 2020-2027



Table 104: GDI Systems Historic Market Analysis in Italy in US$

Million by Support Technology: 2012-2019



Table 105: Italian GDI Systems Market by Support Technology:

Percentage Breakdown of Sales for 2012, 2020, and 2027



UNITED KINGDOM

Table 106: United Kingdom Market for GDI Systems: Annual Sales

Estimates and Projections in US$ Million by ICE for the Period

2020-2027



Table 107: GDI Systems Market in the United Kingdom: Historic

Sales Analysis in US$ Million by ICE for the Period 2012-2019



Table 108: United Kingdom GDI Systems Market Share Analysis by

ICE: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 109: United Kingdom Market for GDI Systems: Annual Sales

Estimates and Projections in US$ Million by Hybrid for the

Period 2020-2027



Table 110: GDI Systems Market in the United Kingdom: Historic

Sales Analysis in US$ Million by Hybrid for the Period

2012-2019



Table 111: United Kingdom GDI Systems Market Share Analysis by

Hybrid: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 112: United Kingdom Market for GDI Systems: Annual Sales

Estimates and Projections in US$ Million by Support Technology

for the Period 2020-2027



Table 113: GDI Systems Market in the United Kingdom: Historic

Sales Analysis in US$ Million by Support Technology for the

Period 2012-2019



Table 114: United Kingdom GDI Systems Market Share Analysis by

Support Technology: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



SPAIN

Table 115: Spanish GDI Systems Market Estimates and Forecasts

in US$ Million by ICE: 2020 to 2027



Table 116: Spanish GDI Systems Historic Market Review by ICE in

US$ Million: 2012-2019



Table 117: GDI Systems Market in Spain: Percentage Share

Breakdown of Sales by ICE for 2012, 2020, and 2027



Table 118: Spanish GDI Systems Market Estimates and Forecasts

in US$ Million by Hybrid: 2020 to 2027



Table 119: Spanish GDI Systems Historic Market Review by Hybrid

in US$ Million: 2012-2019



Table 120: GDI Systems Market in Spain: Percentage Share

Breakdown of Sales by Hybrid for 2012, 2020, and 2027



Table 121: Spanish GDI Systems Market Estimates and Forecasts

in US$ Million by Support Technology: 2020 to 2027



Table 122: Spanish GDI Systems Historic Market Review by

Support Technology in US$ Million: 2012-2019



Table 123: GDI Systems Market in Spain: Percentage Share

Breakdown of Sales by Support Technology for 2012, 2020, and

2027



RUSSIA

Table 124: Russian GDI Systems Market Estimates and Projections

in US$ Million by ICE: 2020 to 2027



Table 125: GDI Systems Market in Russia by ICE: A Historic

Review in US$ Million for 2012-2019



Table 126: Russian GDI Systems Market Share Breakdown by ICE:

2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 127: Russian GDI Systems Market Estimates and Projections

in US$ Million by Hybrid: 2020 to 2027



Table 128: GDI Systems Market in Russia by Hybrid: A Historic

Review in US$ Million for 2012-2019



Table 129: Russian GDI Systems Market Share Breakdown by

Hybrid: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 130: Russian GDI Systems Market Estimates and Projections

in US$ Million by Support Technology: 2020 to 2027



Table 131: GDI Systems Market in Russia by Support Technology:

A Historic Review in US$ Million for 2012-2019



Table 132: Russian GDI Systems Market Share Breakdown by

Support Technology: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



REST OF EUROPE

Table 133: Rest of Europe GDI Systems Market Estimates and

Forecasts in US$ Million by ICE: 2020-2027



Table 134: GDI Systems Market in Rest of Europe in US$ Million

by ICE: A Historic Review for the Period 2012-2019



Table 135: Rest of Europe GDI Systems Market Share Breakdown by

ICE: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 136: Rest of Europe GDI Systems Market Estimates and

Forecasts in US$ Million by Hybrid: 2020-2027



Table 137: GDI Systems Market in Rest of Europe in US$ Million

by Hybrid: A Historic Review for the Period 2012-2019



Table 138: Rest of Europe GDI Systems Market Share Breakdown by

Hybrid: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 139: Rest of Europe GDI Systems Market Estimates and

Forecasts in US$ Million by Support Technology: 2020-2027



Table 140: GDI Systems Market in Rest of Europe in US$ Million

by Support Technology: A Historic Review for the Period

2012-2019



Table 141: Rest of Europe GDI Systems Market Share Breakdown by

Support Technology: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



ASIA-PACIFIC

Table 142: Asia-Pacific GDI Systems Market Estimates and

Forecasts in US$ Million by Region/Country: 2020-2027



Table 143: GDI Systems Market in Asia-Pacific: Historic Market

Analysis in US$ Million by Region/Country for the Period

2012-2019



Table 144: Asia-Pacific GDI Systems Market Share Analysis by

Region/Country: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 145: GDI Systems Market in Asia-Pacific by ICE: Estimates

and Projections in US$ Million for the Period 2020-2027



Table 146: Asia-Pacific GDI Systems Historic Market Scenario in

US$ Million by ICE: 2012-2019



Table 147: Asia-Pacific GDI Systems Market Share Analysis by

ICE: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 148: GDI Systems Market in Asia-Pacific by Hybrid:

Estimates and Projections in US$ Million for the Period

2020-2027



Table 149: Asia-Pacific GDI Systems Historic Market Scenario in

US$ Million by Hybrid: 2012-2019



Table 150: Asia-Pacific GDI Systems Market Share Analysis by

Hybrid: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 151: GDI Systems Market in Asia-Pacific by Support

Technology: Estimates and Projections in US$ Million for the

Period 2020-2027



Table 152: Asia-Pacific GDI Systems Historic Market Scenario in

US$ Million by Support Technology: 2012-2019



Table 153: Asia-Pacific GDI Systems Market Share Analysis by

Support Technology: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



AUSTRALIA

Table 154: GDI Systems Market in Australia: Recent Past,

Current and Future Analysis in US$ Million by ICE for the

Period 2020-2027



Table 155: Australian GDI Systems Historic Market Analysis in

US$ Million by ICE: 2012-2019



Table 156: Australian GDI Systems Market Share Breakdown by

ICE: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 157: GDI Systems Market in Australia: Recent Past,

Current and Future Analysis in US$ Million by Hybrid for the

Period 2020-2027



Table 158: Australian GDI Systems Historic Market Analysis in

US$ Million by Hybrid: 2012-2019



Table 159: Australian GDI Systems Market Share Breakdown by

Hybrid: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 160: GDI Systems Market in Australia: Recent Past,

Current and Future Analysis in US$ Million by Support

Technology for the Period 2020-2027



Table 161: Australian GDI Systems Historic Market Analysis in

US$ Million by Support Technology: 2012-2019



Table 162: Australian GDI Systems Market Share Breakdown by

Support Technology: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



INDIA

Table 163: Indian GDI Systems Market Estimates and Forecasts in

US$ Million by ICE: 2020 to 2027



Table 164: Indian GDI Systems Historic Market Review by ICE in

US$ Million: 2012-2019



Table 165: GDI Systems Market in India: Percentage Share

Breakdown of Sales by ICE for 2012, 2020, and 2027



Table 166: Indian GDI Systems Market Estimates and Forecasts in

US$ Million by Hybrid: 2020 to 2027



Table 167: Indian GDI Systems Historic Market Review by Hybrid

in US$ Million: 2012-2019



Table 168: GDI Systems Market in India: Percentage Share

Breakdown of Sales by Hybrid for 2012, 2020, and 2027



Table 169: Indian GDI Systems Market Estimates and Forecasts in

US$ Million by Support Technology: 2020 to 2027



Table 170: Indian GDI Systems Historic Market Review by Support

Technology in US$ Million: 2012-2019



Table 171: GDI Systems Market in India: Percentage Share

Breakdown of Sales by Support Technology for 2012, 2020, and

2027



SOUTH KOREA

Table 172: GDI Systems Market in South Korea: Recent Past,

Current and Future Analysis in US$ Million by ICE for the

Period 2020-2027



Table 173: South Korean GDI Systems Historic Market Analysis in

US$ Million by ICE: 2012-2019



Table 174: GDI Systems Market Share Distribution in South Korea

by ICE: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 175: GDI Systems Market in South Korea: Recent Past,

Current and Future Analysis in US$ Million by Hybrid for the

Period 2020-2027



Table 176: South Korean GDI Systems Historic Market Analysis in

US$ Million by Hybrid: 2012-2019



Table 177: GDI Systems Market Share Distribution in South Korea

by Hybrid: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 178: GDI Systems Market in South Korea: Recent Past,

Current and Future Analysis in US$ Million by Support

Technology for the Period 2020-2027



Table 179: South Korean GDI Systems Historic Market Analysis in

US$ Million by Support Technology: 2012-2019



Table 180: GDI Systems Market Share Distribution in South Korea

by Support Technology: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



REST OF ASIA-PACIFIC

Table 181: Rest of Asia-Pacific Market for GDI Systems: Annual

Sales Estimates and Projections in US$ Million by ICE for the

Period 2020-2027



Table 182: GDI Systems Market in Rest of Asia-Pacific: Historic

Sales Analysis in US$ Million by ICE for the Period 2012-2019



Table 183: Rest of Asia-Pacific GDI Systems Market Share

Analysis by ICE: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 184: Rest of Asia-Pacific Market for GDI Systems: Annual

Sales Estimates and Projections in US$ Million by Hybrid for

the Period 2020-2027



Table 185: GDI Systems Market in Rest of Asia-Pacific: Historic

Sales Analysis in US$ Million by Hybrid for the Period

2012-2019



Table 186: Rest of Asia-Pacific GDI Systems Market Share

Analysis by Hybrid: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 187: Rest of Asia-Pacific Market for GDI Systems: Annual

Sales Estimates and Projections in US$ Million by Support

Technology for the Period 2020-2027



Table 188: GDI Systems Market in Rest of Asia-Pacific: Historic

Sales Analysis in US$ Million by Support Technology for the

Period 2012-2019



Table 189: Rest of Asia-Pacific GDI Systems Market Share

Analysis by Support Technology: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



LATIN AMERICA

Table 190: Latin American GDI Systems Market Trends by

Region/Country in US$ Million: 2020-2027



Table 191: GDI Systems Market in Latin America in US$ Million

by Region/Country: A Historic Perspective for the Period

2012-2019



Table 192: Latin American GDI Systems Market Percentage

Breakdown of Sales by Region/Country: 2012, 2020, and 2027



Table 193: Latin American GDI Systems Market Growth Prospects

in US$ Million by ICE for the Period 2020-2027



Table 194: GDI Systems Historic Market Analysis in Latin

America in US$ Million by ICE: 2012-2019



Table 195: Latin American GDI Systems Market by ICE: Percentage

Breakdown of Sales for 2012, 2020, and 2027



Table 196: Latin American GDI Systems Market Growth Prospects

in US$ Million by Hybrid for the Period 2020-2027



Table 197: GDI Systems Historic Market Analysis in Latin

America in US$ Million by Hybrid: 2012-2019



Table 198: Latin American GDI Systems Market by Hybrid:

Percentage Breakdown of Sales for 2012, 2020, and 2027



Table 199: Latin American GDI Systems Market Growth Prospects

in US$ Million by Support Technology for the Period 2020-2027



Table 200: GDI Systems Historic Market Analysis in Latin

America in US$ Million by Support Technology: 2012-2019



Table 201: Latin American GDI Systems Market by Support

Technology: Percentage Breakdown of Sales for 2012, 2020, and

2027



ARGENTINA

Table 202: Argentinean GDI Systems Market Estimates and

Forecasts in US$ Million by ICE: 2020-2027



Table 203: GDI Systems Market in Argentina in US$ Million by

ICE: A Historic Review for the Period 2012-2019



Table 204: Argentinean GDI Systems Market Share Breakdown by

ICE: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 205: Argentinean GDI Systems Market Estimates and

Forecasts in US$ Million by Hybrid: 2020-2027



Table 206: GDI Systems Market in Argentina in US$ Million by

Hybrid: A Historic Review for the Period 2012-2019



Table 207: Argentinean GDI Systems Market Share Breakdown by

Hybrid: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 208: Argentinean GDI Systems Market Estimates and

Forecasts in US$ Million by Support Technology: 2020-2027



Table 209: GDI Systems Market in Argentina in US$ Million by

Support Technology: A Historic Review for the Period 2012-2019



Table 210: Argentinean GDI Systems Market Share Breakdown by

Support Technology: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



BRAZIL

Table 211: GDI Systems Market in Brazil by ICE: Estimates and

Projections in US$ Million for the Period 2020-2027



Table 212: Brazilian GDI Systems Historic Market Scenario in

US$ Million by ICE: 2012-2019



Table 213: Brazilian GDI Systems Market Share Analysis by ICE:

2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 214: GDI Systems Market in Brazil by Hybrid: Estimates

and Projections in US$ Million for the Period 2020-2027



Table 215: Brazilian GDI Systems Historic Market Scenario in

US$ Million by Hybrid: 2012-2019



Table 216: Brazilian GDI Systems Market Share Analysis by

Hybrid: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 217: GDI Systems Market in Brazil by Support Technology:

Estimates and Projections in US$ Million for the Period

2020-2027



Table 218: Brazilian GDI Systems Historic Market Scenario in

US$ Million by Support Technology: 2012-2019



Table 219: Brazilian GDI Systems Market Share Analysis by

Support Technology: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



MEXICO

Table 220: GDI Systems Market in Mexico: Recent Past, Current

and Future Analysis in US$ Million by ICE for the Period

2020-2027



Table 221: Mexican GDI Systems Historic Market Analysis in US$

Million by ICE: 2012-2019



Table 222: Mexican GDI Systems Market Share Breakdown by ICE:

2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 223: GDI Systems Market in Mexico: Recent Past, Current

and Future Analysis in US$ Million by Hybrid for the Period

2020-2027



Table 224: Mexican GDI Systems Historic Market Analysis in US$

Million by Hybrid: 2012-2019



Table 225: Mexican GDI Systems Market Share Breakdown by

Hybrid: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 226: GDI Systems Market in Mexico: Recent Past, Current

and Future Analysis in US$ Million by Support Technology for

the Period 2020-2027



Table 227: Mexican GDI Systems Historic Market Analysis in US$

Million by Support Technology: 2012-2019



Table 228: Mexican GDI Systems Market Share Breakdown by

Support Technology: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



REST OF LATIN AMERICA

Table 229: Rest of Latin America GDI Systems Market Estimates

and Projections in US$ Million by ICE: 2020 to 2027



Table 230: GDI Systems Market in Rest of Latin America by ICE:

A Historic Review in US$ Million for 2012-2019



Table 231: Rest of Latin America GDI Systems Market Share

Breakdown by ICE: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 232: Rest of Latin America GDI Systems Market Estimates

and Projections in US$ Million by Hybrid: 2020 to 2027



Table 233: GDI Systems Market in Rest of Latin America by

Hybrid: A Historic Review in US$ Million for 2012-2019



Table 234: Rest of Latin America GDI Systems Market Share

Breakdown by Hybrid: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 235: Rest of Latin America GDI Systems Market Estimates

and Projections in US$ Million by Support Technology: 2020 to

2027



Table 236: GDI Systems Market in Rest of Latin America by

Support Technology: A Historic Review in US$ Million for

2012-2019



Table 237: Rest of Latin America GDI Systems Market Share

Breakdown by Support Technology: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



MIDDLE EAST

Table 238: The Middle East GDI Systems Market Estimates and

Forecasts in US$ Million by Region/Country: 2020-2027



Table 239: GDI Systems Market in the Middle East by

Region/Country in US$ Million: 2012-2019



Table 240: The Middle East GDI Systems Market Share Breakdown

by Region/Country: 2012, 2020, and 2027



Table 241: The Middle East GDI Systems Market Estimates and

Forecasts in US$ Million by ICE: 2020 to 2027



Table 242: The Middle East GDI Systems Historic Market by ICE

in US$ Million: 2012-2019



Table 243: GDI Systems Market in the Middle East: Percentage

Share Breakdown of Sales by ICE for 2012,2020, and 2027



Table 244: The Middle East GDI Systems Market Estimates and

Forecasts in US$ Million by Hybrid: 2020 to 2027



Table 245: The Middle East GDI Systems Historic Market by

Hybrid in US$ Million: 2012-2019



Table 246: GDI Systems Market in the Middle East: Percentage

Share Breakdown of Sales by Hybrid for 2012,2020, and 2027



Table 247: The Middle East GDI Systems Market Estimates and

Forecasts in US$ Million by Support Technology: 2020 to 2027



Table 248: The Middle East GDI Systems Historic Market by

Support Technology in US$ Million: 2012-2019



Table 249: GDI Systems Market in the Middle East: Percentage

Share Breakdown of Sales by Support Technology for 2012,2020,

and 2027



IRAN

Table 250: Iranian Market for GDI Systems: Annual Sales

Estimates and Projections in US$ Million by ICE for the Period

2020-2027



Table 251: GDI Systems Market in Iran: Historic Sales Analysis

in US$ Million by ICE for the Period 2012-2019



Table 252: Iranian GDI Systems Market Share Analysis by ICE:

2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 253: Iranian Market for GDI Systems: Annual Sales

Estimates and Projections in US$ Million by Hybrid for the

Period 2020-2027



Table 254: GDI Systems Market in Iran: Historic Sales Analysis

in US$ Million by Hybrid for the Period 2012-2019



Table 255: Iranian GDI Systems Market Share Analysis by Hybrid:

2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 256: Iranian Market for GDI Systems: Annual Sales

Estimates and Projections in US$ Million by Support Technology

for the Period 2020-2027



Table 257: GDI Systems Market in Iran: Historic Sales Analysis

in US$ Million by Support Technology for the Period 2012-2019



Table 258: Iranian GDI Systems Market Share Analysis by Support

Technology: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



ISRAEL

Table 259: Israeli GDI Systems Market Estimates and Forecasts

in US$ Million by ICE: 2020-2027



Table 260: GDI Systems Market in Israel in US$ Million by ICE:

A Historic Review for the Period 2012-2019



Table 261: Israeli GDI Systems Market Share Breakdown by ICE:

2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 262: Israeli GDI Systems Market Estimates and Forecasts

in US$ Million by Hybrid: 2020-2027



Table 263: GDI Systems Market in Israel in US$ Million by

Hybrid: A Historic Review for the Period 2012-2019



Table 264: Israeli GDI Systems Market Share Breakdown by

Hybrid: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



Table 265: Israeli GDI Systems Market Estimates and Forecasts

in US$ Million by Support Technology: 2020-2027



Table 266: GDI Systems Market in Israel in US$ Million by

Support Technology: A Historic Review for the Period 2012-2019



Table 267: Israeli GDI Systems Market Share Breakdown by

Support Technology: 2012 VS 2020 VS 2027



SAUDI ARABIA

Table 268: Saudi Arabian GDI Systems Market Growth Prospects in

US$ Million by ICE for the Period 2020-2027



Table 269: GDI Systems Historic Market Analysis in Saudi Arabia

in US$ Million by ICE: 2012-2019



Table 270: Saudi Arabian GDI Systems Market by ICE: Percentage

Breakdown of Sales for 2012, 2020, and 2027



Table 271: Saudi Arabian GDI Systems Market Growth Prospects in

US$ Million by Hybrid for the Period 2020-2027



Table 272: GDI Systems Historic Market Analysis in Saudi Arabia

in US$ Million by Hybrid: 2012-2019



Table 273: Saudi Arabian GDI Systems Market by Hybrid:

Percentage Breakdown of Sales for 2012, 2020, and 2027



Table 274: Saudi Arabian GDI Systems Market Growth Prospects in

US$ Million by Support Technology for the Period 2020-2027



Table 275: GDI Systems Historic Market Analysis in Saudi Arabia

in US$ Million by Support Technology: 2012-2019



Table 276: Saudi Arabian GDI Systems Market by Support

Technology: Percentage Breakdown of Sales for 2012, 2020, and

2027



UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Table 277: GDI Systems Market in the United Arab Emirates:



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Republican veterans who are voting against Donald Trump in Novembers election have released a scathing new attack ad against the president.

The advert, released by Republican Voters Against Trump, complies clips from a number of US veterans detailing why they refuse to vote for Mr Trump.

The group is a political initiative that brings together Republicans, former Republicans, conservatives, and former Trump voters who cant support Trump this fall.

The advert opens with veterans detailing their previous roles in the US military and their political beliefs, saying they are life long Republicans.

At least I was until Donald Trump came into the picture, says Mark, an Air Force veteran from Virginia.

The veterans then berate the president, saying he does not care about you, he does not care about this country or the constitution.

They make reference to Mr Trumps deferments from military service during the Vietnam war, calling him a coward and a lying draft dodger.

Mr Trump has previously received scrutiny over his deferral from the Vietnam War, with claims he suffered bone spurs at the time never having been held up by verifiable facts or evidence.

One speaker also hits out at claims over alleged Russian bounties on US troops in Afghanistan, for which Mr Trump has drawn intense scrutiny.

My friends are still out there and theyre still being targeted by the Russian federation with paid bounties, says Will, an Army veteran from Texas.

Mr Trump and the White House have continually denied that the president was briefed on the bounty intelligence.

Concluding the video, the veterans endorse Joe Biden for president in the 2020 election, saying that country comes above party.

I would not consider myself liberal but Biden is the only choice, one says.

Erin Perrine, Director of Press Communications for the Trump campaign, told The Independent that the video is the swamp  yet again  trying to take down the duly elected President of the United States.

President Trump is the leader of a united Republican Party where he has earned 94 per cent of Republican votes during the primaries  something any former president of any party could only dream of, she said.

Other political groups against Trump have released similar adverts criticising the his alleged briefing of the bounties.

VoteVets published the video to Twitter on 3 July, comparing the president to Benedict Arnold, who infamously defected from the US Continental Army to the British side in the Revolutionary War.

The Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump republican Political Action Committee that has been campaigning against the president in the run-up to the election also published a video slamming the presidents relationship with Russia and Vladimir Putin.
It was the hardest day I ever lived, Mr. Tobar said. He remembers vividly hearing gunshots as he headed to an uncles house, followed by the horror of learning that his father and uncle had been gunned down.

At first, the siblings stayed in Guatemala with relatives. But it became too difficult, so their mother brought them to join her.

In the United States, Mr. Tobar said school was a top priority, but when their mother had to stop working for health reasons, it was up to them to keep the family afloat.

For Mr. Tobar, that meant working at a carwash and an elder care home while finishing high school and, more recently, attending community college.

[Read the first part of this series.]

There wasnt much time to hang out with friends or for extracurricular activities.
By Express News Service

KOCHI: It seems there is no end to the woes of Chellanam residents.The surging tidal waves that started lashing the area following the onset of the Southwest Monsoon continued to batter the coastal village on Thursday inundating houses, damaging buildings and sweeping away peoples belongings.

The waves entered 250m into the village and people were seen shifting their belongings to safer places while wading through waist-deep water .Five wards in the panchayat have been inundated and sea water has entered every house in areas like Bazaar, Companypady, Alungal, Vachakkal and Velankanni church area. The sea is turbulent and if this situation continues, we will have to shift everyone, said Chellanam panchayat vice-president K D Prasad.

He said though the panchayat authorities had opened relief camps at Chellanam St Marys School and Kandakkadavu St Xaviers School, people were reluctant to shift to the camps due to fear of Covid infection

With rivers breaching banks, the district administration has sounded an alert in Kothamangalam taluk. Relief camps have been set up at Kadavoor village in Paingottur panchayat and Neriamangalam and Jawahar Colony in Kothamangalam town. However, people are refusing to shift to the camps fearing Covid.

The camps have been divided into four sections. People in the general category, elderly, people under quarantine and people with Covid symptoms will be accommodated separately, said additional tahsildar Sunil Mathew. Meanwhile, strong winds damaged around 20 houses at Kottappady, Plamudy, Kuttamangalam and Pindimana areas on Thursday morning.

Tribal settlement areas inside the Kuttampuzha forest have been cut off from other parts of the district as water from the Pooyamkutty dam breached the banks, submerging Manikandanchal bridge.

People have been advised not to cross the river in country boats as the flow is strong.
The car paused at a traffic light, its rooftop megaphone pumping out a message that the city government of Addis Ababa has been hammering for months.

"Yes, we can and you can!" the recording began.

It then ticked off basic coronavirus prevention, such as hand-washing, physical distancing and avoiding the handshake-plus-shoulder-bump greeting that is normally a fixture of street life in the Ethiopian capital.

But the message was drowned out by the din of rush hour and seemed barely to register with customers crammed around tables in roadside cafes.

Inside the car, the health workers themselves questioned what effect they were having.

"We teach people to apply these precautions, but some people put their masks in their pocket and wear it only when our teams are around," said Wondimu Taye, a city health communications officer.

Officials worry this lax approach could hobble Ethiopia's pandemic response just as the surge in cases they have been warning about for months finally arrives.

To date, Ethiopia has recorded just over 16,600 infections and 260 deaths -- modest figures given its population of 110 million.

Yet the numbers have been trending sharply upward and have doubled in less than three weeks -- and the World Health Organization (WHO) frets that unrest sparked by the killing of a pop star from the Oromo ethnic group could further accelerate transmission.

To officials' dismay, the upward spiral is coinciding with mounting signs of virus fatigue.

Once-ubiquitous hand-washing stations are becoming scarcer. Once-empty restaurants are filling up. And even some health workers say they are struggling to maintain the same vigilance they had in March.

"People's fear about COVID-19 has been eroding over time," Benyam Worku, an assistant professor at Addis Ababa University's School of Medicine, told AFP.

"But it doesn't seem likely that we have escaped COVID. Most probably it has been a long wait, and now the wait is over."

- A promising start -

Africa's second most populous country earned high marks early on in the pandemic.

At the international airport in Addis Ababa, which has remained open, officials used temperature checks and quarantine policies to slow COVID-19's arrival.

After the first case was confirmed in mid-March, the government closed land borders and schools, freed thousands of prisoners to ease overcrowding, introduced compulsory mask-wearing and discouraged large gatherings.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed also declared a state of emergency in early April, though he stopped short of imposing a lockdown out of concern for those who must "make ends meet daily".

Despite those measures, community transmission was in full swing well before the shooting death in late June of Hachalu Hundessa, a politically active pop star who was a hero to many Oromos, Ethiopia's largest ethnic group.

Hachalu's murder kicked off days of protests and inter-ethnic attacks in Addis Ababa and the surrounding Oromia region, temporarily overshadowing the pandemic for many Ethiopians.

This unrest hindered health officials' work during a critical period and may be partly to blame for rising cases, said Dr Boureima Hama Sambo, the WHO's Ethiopia representative.

"We've seen mass gatherings with little or no protective measures in a context of already established community transmission," Boureima said.

"One is to expect a spike in numbers."

- 'We will be fine' -

Around three-quarters of all COVID-19 cases in Ethiopia are in Addis Ababa.

The hardest-hit district of the city is Addis Ketema, home to Mercato, a jam-packed collection of shops and stalls that is sometimes described as Africa's largest open-air market.

Ethiopia /  AFP

Many thousands flock to Mercato every day, which is why officials worry clusters there could drive up numbers across Addis Ababa and beyond.

"The lifestyle of the people in this area depends on mobility," said Mola Teshome Ambaye, a nurse who does house calls and temperature checks for the city in Mercato.

Standing on a cobblestone road near stalls selling construction materials, Mercato resident Biruk Awoke told AFP that concern about the virus had plummeted recently.

"Before the first case people were horrified. A lot of people closed their shops down and used to stay at their homes," he said. "But now people have gotten more used to the prevention methods."

He noted that he, too, was less worried about the virus, pointing to the 6,000 people in Ethiopia who have recovered.

"I even had two brothers who had COVID-19, we used to eat together and do everything else together," he said.

"But they were the only ones who got sick and they recovered, so now I think we will be fine."

- 'Becoming negligent' -

This type of thinking alarms doctors and nurses at St Peter's Specialized Hospital, which has treated 245 COVID-19 patients since March.

Driving into work each day, nurse Addisu Adane shakes his head at crowds packed tightly outside churches and at bus stops.

A nurse dons protective gear before entering a coronavirus isolation ward in the Saint Petros Hospital in Addis /  AFP

"It's no different than before," he said.

Yet Addisu acknowledged that even he and his colleagues have become more relaxed about wearing masks and maintaining distance when they're outside the hospital.

"We know the virus is a killer. We know it's bad," he said. "But we are still becoming negligent."

Hama Sambo, the WHO representative, stressed that prevention measures will only become more important as community transmission becomes more sustained.

"Sometimes people may think that it happens only to others," he said.

"But the virus is still circulating. We are all at risk."
You are here: World

 Flash

A hand grenade attack at a rally on Wednesday evening in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi left five people injured, police and local media said.

Local police told media that unknown motorcyclists hurled a hand grenade at the rally near a mosque in Gulshan-e-Iqbal town of Karachi.

The rally was arranged to express solidarity with the people of Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Rescue teams, who were accompanying the rally, shifted the injured to a hospital where all of them were reportedly in stable condition.

Police and paramilitary forces cordoned off the site and stopped the rally to march ahead.

No group or individual has claimed the attack yet.
The courts vote was 5 to 4, with the courts liberals in dissent. It follows a pattern of the court staying out of the way of local and state officials who are dealing with the pandemic, and most often Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. holds the controlling vote.
06.08.2020 LISTEN

Mr. Kennedy Morgan, a farmer in Amenfi East in the Western Region is accusing the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of his area, Madam Helen Appiah of conniving with a former chief to cause destruction to farm plantation for illegal mining.

The chief farmer is one of many whose farms have been subject to devastation for use of illegal mining by the ex-Chief of Abreshia, Mr Kumi.

It is also believed that there have been several attempts by Mr Kumi the ex Wassa Abreshia Odikro to eliminate Mr Kennedy Morgan which the Wassa Akropong police command is fully aware of.

The farm owner Mr Kennedy Morgan has revealed that the MCE Hon Helena Appiah and Mr Kumi, the illegal miner have conspired in the illegality.

According to him, he has written a petition to the minister of interior and copied other concerned institutions including the MCE for re-dress on the above subject but to no avail.

He said one cat excavator undergoing repairs works with several dredging machines on the site belongs to Mr Kumi, the illegal miner.

The devastation of the farmland is a matter in court currently of which Mr Kumi has served some months in remand before being released.

Find the copies of his petitions below:
The chiefs of four of the biggest tech companies in the world -- Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google -- faced lawmakers Wednesday for a hearing on digital competition that could have cataclysmic impact on an industry largely unhindered by regulators.

The grilling of tech titans Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai (the companies' respective CEOs), was done by the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee as part of its ongoing, yearlong investigation into competition in the digital market.

The approximately 5-hour hearing's line of questioning was sharply divided down party lines. GOP congress members mostly took the CEOs to task for what most of them perceived as an effort to silence conservative voices online. Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla. accused Google's CEO of supressing conservative sites because he could not Google a right-leaning article he was searcing for and because he no longer received email after he was elected to Congress.

Rep. Jim Jordan accused Google of "helping" Hilary Clinton in 2016 and demanded that each CEO make a commitment "to not help Joe Biden" in 2020.

Meanwhile most Democrat members of the commitee pummeled the CEOs with questions about monopolizing their markets, concerns over data privacy and other antitrust issues.

PHOTO: The logos of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google are seen in a combination photo from Reuters files. (Reuters, File)

Here is a rundown on the hearing. All times Eastern.

6:16 p.m: Did Amazon use pandemic to sell more of its own products?, congresswoman asks Bezos

Rep. Mary Scanlon says, when the pandemic hit, "Amazon said it was going to delay shipment of nonessential products." She accused the e-commerce giant of applying that policy selectively and asked why "Amazon devices like Fire TV, Echo speakers and Ring doorbells" were deemed essential during the pandemic.

"There was no playbook for this; demand went through the roof," Bezos responded. "Our goal was to limit to essential supplies but I am sure we did not do that perfectly," he said.

Story continues

6:05 p.m.: Jim Jordan asks tech CEOs about 'cancel culture'

Rep. Jim Jordan said the "cancel culture mob is dangerous." He went on to ask each CEO what their thoughts were on "cancel culture,."

Tim Cook: "I think it's good for people to hear different people, different points of view."

Zuckerberg: "I believe strongly in free expression. I'm very worried about some forces in this country that I see pushing against free expression.

Bezos: "I am concerned in general about that." Bezosa called social media a "destruction machine."

5:56: Democrat congressman calls out GOP peers on their line of questioning, doesn't understand 'the whining'

Taking a brief respite from questioning the tech CEOs, Rep. Raskin, D-Md., took some of his Republican colleagues to task for their questions during the hearing. "Top performing links/posts on Facebook ... are right-wing sites," Raskin said. "If Facebook is trying to repress conservative speecs they are doing a terrible job. I don't understand the whining." Raskin said the recent removal by Twitter of Trump's tweets was about spreading false information about public health and that he didn't understand his colleagues' line of questioning.

5:15 p.m.: Cook questioned over App Store

Rep. Lucy Kay McBath, D-Ga. came out swinging at Cook over Apple's App Store, asking him directly if Apple has "the power to exclude apps from the App Store."

"If you look at the history of this, congresswoman, weve increased the number of apps from 500 to 1.7 million so there is a very wide gate for the App Store," Cook responded. "And there is fierce competition for developers and we want every app we can on the platform."

McBath countered by saying, "Apple can exclude apps from the App Store in fact it has."

She cited a 2016 incident when Apple introduced its own ScreenTime app, and simultaneously removed other parental control apps that monitored children's screen time.

Cook said the other apps were removed for privacy concerns, but McBath noted that they came right back to the store approximately six months later after multiple complaints and were asked to make almost no changes to their privacy settings.

"The timing of the removal seems very coincidental," McBath said.

5:00 p.m.: Rep. Scanlon questions Pichai over YouTube

Rep. Scanlon pushed Pichai over Google's acquisition of YouTube, which Pichai said was before his time and he could not offer an explanation for why the company paid "30 times its original bid."

"Google is now by far the top online site where Americans watch videos including childrens videos and as Im sure you're aware federal law prevents companies from collecting data on children under 13," Scanlon said. Yet last year, she added, the FTC found Google spent years knowingly collecting data on children under 13 on YouTube.

Pichai said that as a parent, they take these concerns "very seriously" and have invested heavily to make sure they are following all regulations.

"Im more concerned that youre investing rigorously in luring in advertisers like toymakers Mattel and Hasbro by telling them that Youtube is the No. 1 website regularly visited by kids, that sounds like you are targeting the kids, targeting advertisers to bring them on board," she said.

Pichai said he wasn't familiar with the reports she was referencing, but that his office would follow up with hers.

4:00 p.m.: Rep. Nadler presses Facebook and Google over journalism dominance

"The news and journalism industry in this country are in economic free fall," Nadler said. "Tens of thousands of journalists have been laid off in recent years."

The reason journalism is in free fall is because Google and Facebook now capture the vast majority of digital ad revenue," he added. "Although news publishers produce valuable content, it is Google and Facebook that increasingly profit off their content."

Nadler brought up an incident when Facebook reported high and quickly growing rates of video viewership, and "based on these metrics, news publishers fired hundreds of journalists choosing to boost their video." It was later revealed that Facebook inflated these numbers.

Zuckerberg said he did not know the numbers were inflated, "and we regret that mistake."

"I certainly know how important it that the metrics we report are accurate," he added.

Nadler asked Zuckerberg what he would say to the journalists who have "lost their jobs because of Facebook's deception."

"I disagree with that characterization," the tech CEO said.

Nadler concluded by calling it a "very dangerous situation."

3:50 p.m.: 'We have adapted features,' Zuckerberg replies when asked about copying competitors

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-W.A., accused the social media CEO of "copying other apps that could prevent our competitors from gaining other footholds," citing what she said was a plan disclosed by Facebook executives as per a Wall Street Journal report.

She said that Facebook threatened the Snapchat CEO that it was building a clone of the Snapchat app. Jayapal asked point blank: "Do you copy your competitors?"

Zuckerberg answered, "We have adapted features" but said that he did not agree with the premise that they copied competitors.

3:30 p.m.: Rep. Cicilline calls Amazon's dealing with third-party sellers 'fundamentally anti-competitive'

Rep. Cicilline took aim at Amazon's marketplace and allegations from a Wall Street Journal report that the company rips off products from third-party sellers.

Cicilline also noted that "Amazon controls as much as 75% of all online marketplace sales," asking Bezos, "Isnt it true that small businesses have no real option but to rely on Amazon to connect with customers and make online sales?"

Bezos argued that "I believe there are a lot of options," but "Amazon is the best one."

Cicilline then pressed Bezos as to whether Amazon refers to third-party sellers as "internal competitors."

"In some ways we are competing, and theyre also competing with each other," Bezos said.

The congressman said that during their yearlong investigation, "We have heard so many heartbreaking stories of small businesses who sunk significant time and resources into building a business and selling on amazon only to have amazon poach their best items and drive them out of business."

"Isnt it an inherent conflict of interest for Amazon to produce and sell products on its platform that compete directly with third-party sellers particularly [when] you, Amazon, set the rules of the game?" he added.

Bezos argued that it is best for the customers, and "consumers are the ones ultimately making the decision." He said they have a policy against using "individual seller data to compete with our private label products" and they are looking into whether that is being upheld as a result of the Wall Street Journal article.

Cicilline concluded by saying their evidence shows "Amazon is only interested in exploiting its monopoly power over the commerce market place to further expand and protect this power."

"This investigation makes clear that Amazons dual role as a platform operator and competing seller on that platform is fundamentally anti-competitive and Congress must take action," he said.

3:15 p.m.: Rep. Jordan demands Google not help Joe Biden in 2020

In a fiery tirade, Rep. Jordan accused Google of trying to "help Clinton" in 2016 and asked the company's CEO to not help Joe Biden in 2020.

"According to your multicultural marketing executive" the company "tried to help Clinton, Jordan said, and asked for assurance that Google "would not try and help Joe Biden in 2020."

Pinchai told Jordan "you have my commitment" that Google will act in a non-partisan manner.

The exchange took a heated turn with Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-P.A., said Id like to redirect your attention to antitrust laws rather than fringe conspiracy theories.

Jordan was then admonished by other members of the committee for running over his allotted time and refusing to put back on his mask at one point after his questioning.

3:04 p.m.: Congressman presses Pichai over why he could not find a conservative article via Google

In a bizarre exchange gaining traction online, Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla. asked Pinchai why he was unable to Google to find a conservative article he had wanted to read and instead had to type the website's address.

Steube also mentioned that since he was elected to Congress, his emails have been going into his spam folder. He asked Pinchai if there was some effort to silence conservative voices, a common theme among questioning by Republicans during the hearing.

Pinchai said that Google approaches its work in a "non-partisan way" and that "on our platform there are more conservative voices than ever before. He also told Steube he would have to look into this specific issue to see what had happened when he tried to Google his article and asked that Pichai follow up with his office.

2:15 p.m.: Zuckerberg questioned over Facebook's acquisition of Instagram

Zuckerberg faced tough questioning from Nadler over Facebook's acquisition of Instagram in 2012, which Nadler says was part of Facebook's attempt to suppress competition.

"I've always been clear that we viewed Instagram both as a competitor and as a compliment to our services," Zuckerberg said.

Nadler questioned Zuckerberg on reports that he previously viewed Instagram as a "threat" to Facebook prior to the acquisition, and that he purchased Instagram to neutralize a competitor.

"I've been clear that Instagram was a competitor in the space of mobile photo sharing, there were a lot of others at the time," he said. "It was a subset of the overall space of connecting that we exist in and by having them join us they certainly went from being a competitor in the space of being a mobile camera to an app that we could help grow."

Nadler pressed Zuckerberg as to why Instagram should not be broken off into a separate company if it was acquired to suppress a threat of competition. Zuckerberg argued that the FTC reviewed the documents and voted not to challenge the acquisition at the time.

"With hindsight it probably looks obvious that Instagram would reach the scale it has today, but at the time it was far from obvious," Zuckerberg said, saying there was no guarantee Instagram would succeed.

Nadler concludes by doubling down, saying Facebook "saw Instagram as a threat that could potentially siphon business away from Facebook, so rather than compete with it Facebook bought it."

"This is exactly the type of anticompetitive acquisition that the antitrust laws were designed to prevent," "This should never have happened in the first place ... and it cannot happen again."

2:05 p.m.: Zuckerberg pressed over hydroxychloroquine incident on Twitter

Jim Sensenbrenner, R-W.I., used his time to question Zuckerberg over separate controversy, involving Twitter, Donald Trump Jr. and hydroxychloroquine. While Twitter's CEO was not present at the hearing, Zuckerberg defended his competitor's action and said social media companies should not be the "arbiters of truth."

"It was reported that Donald Trump Jr. got taken down for a period of time because he put something up -- the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine," Sensenbrenner said. "Now, I wouldn't take it myself, but there still is a debate on whether it is effective either in treating or preventing COVID-19 and I think that this is a legitimate matter of discussion, and it would be up to a patient and their doctor to determine whether hydroxychloroquine was the correct medication, you know, given the circumstances."

Zuckerberg noted that, "I think what you might be referring to happened on Twitter, so it's hard for me to speak to that, but I can talk to our policies about this."

We do prohibit content that will lead to imminent risk of harm, and stating that there's a proven cure for COVID, when there is in fact none, might encourage someone to go take something that could have some adverse effects so we do take that down, Zuckerberg said.

Sensenbrenner argued that "wouldnt that be up to somebody else, you know, to say okay what somebody posted on this really isn't true and here's what the facts are. Rather than having Twitter or Facebook take it down?"

Zuckerberg said he agreed with Sensenbrenner that, "we do not want to become the arbiters of truth. I think that that would be a bad position for us to be in and not, not what we should be doing."

Finally, Zuckerberg argued, however that if something could cause harm they think it should be taken down.

"But on specific claims, if someone is going to go out and say that, that hydroxychloroquine has proven to cure COVID when in fact it has not been proven to cure COVID and that that statement could lead people to take a drug, that in some cases, some of the data suggests that might be harmful to people, we think that we should take that down," he said. "That could cause imminent risk of harm."

1:55 p.m.: Zuckerberg says 'we compete hard'

PHOTO: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law on 'Online Platforms and Market Power' on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on July 29, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

"The tech industry is an American success story," Zuckerberg said in his opening remarks. "Our industry is one of the ways that America shares its values with the world and one of its greatest economic and cultural exports."

He says Facebook has helped many small businesses stay afloat amid the COVID-19 crisis.

"Our services are about connection and our business model is advertising, we face intense competition in both," he said, adding that for every dollar spent on advertising in the U.S., "less than 10 cents is spent with us."

"New companies are created all the time all over the world and history shows that if we don't keep innovating someone will replace every company here today. That change can often happen faster than you expect," Zuckerberg said. "We compete hard. We compete fairly. We try to be the best. That's what I was taught matters in this country. And when we succeed, it's because we deliver great experiences that people love."

Ultimately, Zuckerberg said he doesn't believe "private companies should be making so many decisions about these issues by themselves" and argued for new regulation for the internet.

1:50 p.m.: Tim Cook says Apple faces fierce competition

PHOTO: Apple CEO Tim Cook testifies before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law on 'Online Platforms and Market Power' in the Rayburn House office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on July 29, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

In his prepared remarks, Cook described Apple's origin and said the company's success "is only possible in this country."

He also argued that the "smartphone market is fiercely competitive, and companies like Samsung, LG, Huawei and Google have built very successful smartphone businesses offering different approaches."

Cook said Apple does not have a dominant market share in any market where "we do business," including iPhone or "any product" category.

He also defended the App Store, saying for a vast majority of apps on the App Store, developers keep 100% of the money they make.

He also said that they have never raised the commission or added a single fee to the App Store since it debuted more than a decade ago.

Cook concluded by saying that he supports competition as a great virtue that promotes innovation.

"I'm here today because scrutiny is reasonable and appropriate. We approach this process with respect and humility, but we make no concession on the facts," Cook said. "If Apple is the gatekeeper, what we've done is open the gate wider. We want to get every app we can on the store, not keep them off."

1:45: Pichai defends Google Ads, and says other tools have helped small business

PHOTO: Google CEO Sundar Pichai testifies before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law on 'Online Platforms and Market Power' in Washington, DC on July 29, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Pichai defended how Google Ads and other tools have helped small businesses in his opening statement.

"Online has been a lifeline for so many businesses, especially during the global pandemic," Pichai said in his prepared remarks. "Nearly one-third of small business owners say that without digital tools they would have had to close all or part of their business during COVID."

Pichai also noted Google's massive investments in research and development. He added that competition drives their innovation.

"New competitors emerge every day and today users have more access to information than ever before," he said. "Competition drives us to innovate and it also leads to better products, lower choices and more choice for everyone."

He concluded that they are committed to working with lawmakers to "protect consumers, maintain America's competitive technological edge in the world, and ensure that every American has access to the incredible opportunities that technology creates."

1:40 p.m.: Bezos delivers opening remarks, says Amazon 'should be scrutinized'

PHOTO: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos testifies before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law on 'Online Platforms and Market Power' in the Rayburn House office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on July 29, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Bezos delivered his prepared remarks, which were released ahead of time by Amazon.

Bezos described Amazon's early days and its rise to success. He also defends the company's place in the e-commerce world and its impact on the economy.

He said there are 1.7 million small and medium-sized businesses around the world selling in Amazon's stores, and more than 200,000 entrepreneurs worldwide surpassed $100,000 in sales in Amazon stores in 2019.

According to his estimates, third-party businesses selling in Amazon's stores have created over 2.2 million new jobs around the world.

MORE: House Republicans call on Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to join hearing with Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google chiefs

Bezos said he "walked away from a steady job on Wall Street into a Seattle garage" to found Amazon, fully "understanding that it might not work."

"It feels like just yesterday I was driving the packages to the post office myself dreaming that one day we might afford a forklift. Customer obsession has driven our success, and I take it as an article of faith the customers notice when you do the right thing," Bezos added. "You earn trust slowly over time by doing hard things well, delivering on time, offering everyday low prices, making promises and keeping them."

Finally, the CEO expressed confidence in his business, saying, "I believe Amazon should be scrutinized."

"We should scrutinize all large institutions, whether they're companies, government agencies, or nonprofits," Bezos said. "Our responsibility is to make sure we pass such scrutiny with flying colors."

1:35 p.m.: Bezos, Cook, Zuckerberg and Pichai are sworn-in virtually

PHOTO: Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, and Tim Cook are sworn-in before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on July 29, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Via a WebEx video software, the four big tech CEOs virtually swore-in for their testimonies. Then, Bezos kicked off with his remarks.

1:30 p.m.: Jordan says 'Big tech is out to get conservatives'

"I'll just cut to the chase, big tech is out to get conservatives," Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said in his opening remarks. "That's not a suspicion, that's not a hunch, that's a fact."

Jordan cited a litany of what he considered as examples from over the years, ranging from Google not promoting and Facebook "suppressing" conservative views.

"We love the fact that these are American companies," he added. "What's not great is censoring conservatives and trying to win elections, and if it doesn't end, there has to be consequences."

1:20 p.m.: Nadler slams 'concentration of power'

"Today it is effectively impossible to use the internet without using in one way or another the service of these four companies," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said in his opening remarks.

"I have long believed with Thomas Jefferson and Louis Brandeis that concentration of power in any form, especially concentration of economic or political power is dangerous to a democratic society," he added.

Nadler said their concentration of power is why these companies, and the existing U.S. antitrust laws, must be further scrutinized.

1:10 p.m.: Cicillin kicks off hearing with opening remarks

Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline, D-R.I., kicked off the hearing with opening remarks, saying the "purpose of today's hearing is to examine the dominance of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google."

"Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, these corporations already stood out as titans in our economy, in the wake of COVID-19, however they're likely to emerge stronger and more powerful than ever before," he added.

"As American families shift more of their work shopping and communication online, these giants stand to profit. Locally owned business, meanwhile, Mom and Pop stores on Main Street face an economic crisis unlike any in recent history," Cicilline said. "As hard as it is to believe it is possible that our economy will emerge form this crisis even more concentrated and consolidated than before."

He argued that the dominance of the four tech giants is thus hurting the U.S. economy as a whole.

12:25 p.m.: Hearing delayed slightly as room is being cleaned

The highly anticipated hearing, which was scheduled to start at noon, is off to a delayed start Wednesday as the room is being cleaned.

Wednesday's hearing is taking place in the same room where Attorney General William Barr testified for five hours Tuesday. Tuesday's hearing was attended by Congressman Louie Gohmert, a Texas Republican who has tested positive for the coronavirus, a source told ABC News Wednesday.

Despite the delay, a few masked-up lawmakers have already taken their positions on the dais including Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La.

12:07 p.m.: Trump calls for action from Congress on Twitter ahead of the hearing

President Donald Trump shared some thoughts via Twitter ahead of the hearing, writing, "If Congress doesn't bring fairness to Big Tech, which they should have done years ago, I will do it myself with Executive Orders."

He continued: "In Washington, it has been ALL TALK and NO ACTION for years, and the people of our Country are sick and tired of it!"

If Congress doesn't bring fairness to Big Tech, which they should have done years ago, I will do it myself with Executive Orders. In Washington, it has been ALL TALK and NO ACTION for years, and the people of our Country are sick and tired of it!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2020

5 a.m.: CEOs release their opening remarks, here is what is expected today

Lawmakers have said Wednesday's hearing will be a part of the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee's ongoing, year-long investigation into competition in the digital market.

"Given the central role these corporations play in the lives of the American people, it is critical that their CEOs are forthcoming," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., and Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline, D-R.I., said in a joint statement earlier this month announcing the hearing.

"As we have said from the start, their testimony is essential for us to complete this investigation," the statement added.

MORE: NAACP president calls Facebook a 'threat to democracy,' says ad boycott isn't dying down soon

The subcommittee has been investigating the industry dominance of a small number of digital platforms and the "adequacy of existing antitrust laws and enforcement" since last June, Nadler and Cicilline said.

Notably, this will be the first time Amazon's CEO Bezos -- the richest man in the world according to Forbes' realtime data on billionaires -- will be in the hot seat testifying before Congress. Amazon has also been at the fore of the subcommittee's investigation. Lawmakers are expected to ask about, among other things, reports that Amazon used sensitive business information from third-party sellers on its platforms, according to a statement.

Apple's App Store has also been the subject of antitrust scrutiny, and last month officials in the European Union officially launched an investigation on whether the distribution of apps on its store potentially violate EU competition rules.

PHOTO: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais Evan Vu/AP)

MORE: Maxine Waters, AOC slam Zuckerberg during Libra testimony for ads that give 'license to lie'

Facebook's power and reach has been the subject of multiple past congressional hearings, and many of the key points raised in the past will likely come up again especially as the 2020 presidential election nears and the social media giant has pledged it won't make the same mistakes it did in 2016.

PHOTO: In this file photograph taken on Sept. 28, 2017, shows a smartphone being operated in front of GAFA logos (acronym for Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon web giants) as background in Hede-Bazouges, western France. (Damien Meyer/AFP via Getty Images, File)

Google's dominance in the online advertising world is also expected to come up, amid mounting media reports that a Department of Justice antitrust suit against Google over its ad businesses could be forthcoming.

The hearing, which will be livestreamed, is scheduled to start at noon and the guests are expected to appear virtually as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Congress grills tech CEOs in wide-ranging hearing on monopoly, political bias, China and more originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
The on Thursday asked the Maharashtra government to apprise it about the status of inquiry and action taken against the errant police personnel for their alleged role in the incident in April.

A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and R Subhash Reddy asked the state government to place before it the charge sheet, which has been filed before the trial court concerned, saying it would like to examine the final report.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said media reports suggest that charge sheets filed in the case comprises of more than 10,000 pages.

He said whether any policemen was involved in the offence or there was any dereliction of duty calling for disciplinary action has to be considered by the court.

The bench posted the matter for hearing after three weeks.

Three people were killed in the incident.

The three victims, who hailed from Kandivali in Mumbai, were travelling in a car to attend a funeral in Surat in Gujarat amid the nationwide lockdown when their vehicle was stopped and they were attacked and killed by a mob in Gadchinchile village on the night of April 16 in the presence of police.

(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.)
(Natural News) The Trump administration has agreed to pay Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline up to $2.1 billion to develop and deliver 100 million doses of their experimental COVID-19 vaccine. In a statement, the companies said that more than half of the $1.5 billion would be used to develop the vaccine, which will include clinical trials. The rest will be for the manufacturing and delivery of the 100 million doses.

The majority of the funding will go to Sanofi as the group developed the vaccine candidate. The vaccine will then be paired with GSKs adjuvant to improve its effectiveness. Under the agreement, the U.S. will have the option to order an additional 500 million doses.

The agreement is the administrations latest undertaking under Operation Warp Speed, an initiative to deliver a certified COVID-19 vaccine by January 2021. The deal also brings total pledged to over $8.3 billion, the highest for any country or government, to date. Its worth noting that pharmaceutical companies often work with government support, allowing them to get paid even if the vaccine fails.

The portfolio of vaccines being assembled for Operation Warp Speed increases the odds that we will have at least one safe, effective vaccine as soon as the end of this year, added Secretary Alex Azar of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Clinical trials for the vaccine developed by Sanofi and GSK is expected to start in September.

Aside from Sanofi and GSK, other companies that have secured U.S. funding for vaccine development include Moderna, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Novovax. The World Health Organization reports that 25 vaccines are already in clinical development, and 139 are in earlier-stage research. (Related: We have a winner: Trump administration inks $1.95-billion coronavirus vaccine deal, forcing taxpayers to enrich evil pharma giants.)

More countries join rush for vaccines

The U.K. has also signed a similar deal with the two drugmakers last week, buying 60 million doses of the vaccine for an unspecified sum. The European Commission, meanwhile, is also in talks to purchase 300 million doses of the vaccine, which it plans to stockpile for its member states. The coordinated move is a first for Brussels since healthcare matters are often left to individual member states.

Todays step with Sanofi is a first important cornerstone of a much broader European vaccines strategy, said President Ursula von der Leyen in a statement. She also added that the EU was in advanced discussion with other vaccine makers.

Public health experts, however, are concerned that the rush to secure vaccines can mean a longer wait for poorer countries, some of which are among the areas hit hardest by the pandemic. In addition, the efficacy of the vaccines have yet to be proven in clinical trials, and telescoping testing times may even make the pandemic worse.

Theres also the concern that a fast-tracked vaccine means that it gets delivered to hundreds, even thousands, of people without a clear understanding of its side effects. For instance, a vaccine with serious adverse event risk of one in 10,000 may look insignificant, but when administered to a billion people, it means that 100,000 are affected. In May, the results of Modernas phase 1 vaccine trial revealed that four out of 45 people experienced medically significant adverse events.

We wont know about rare events until after the vaccine is licensed, explains Dr. Gregory Poland, director of vaccines research at the Mayo Clinic.

An adverse event thats particularly concerning is antibody-dependent enhancement, wherein the vaccine makes the virus much more dangerous. The condition has been seen in animal models infected with the original SARS virus. The antibodies produced after vaccination arent enough to neutralize the virus, so later exposure to the virus makes the infection worse.

There are now over 18 million coronavirus cases worldwide, and over 694,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Pandemic.news has more stories on the ongoing Wuhan coronavirus outbreaks.

Sources include:

FT.com

HHS.gov

CNBC.com

ChemistryWorld.com
A new way to treat acid mine drainage (AMD) could help transform the environmental pollution problem into an important domestic source of the critical rare earth elements needed to produce technology ranging from smart phones to fighter jets, according to Penn State scientists.

"Acid mine drainage has been a significant environmental concern for many decades," said Mohammad Rezaee, assistant professor of mining engineering in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Penn State. "This research shows we can modify existing treatment processes in a way that not only addresses environmental concerns, but at the same time recovers valuable elements and actually decreases the cost of treatment."

A team of Penn State scientists developed a two-stage treatment process that enabled them to recover higher concentrations of rare earth elements using smaller amounts of chemicals than previously possible, the scientists said.

"This technique represents an efficient, low-cost and environmentally friendly method to extract these valuable minerals that are used in a wide variety of consumer and industrial products," said Sarma Pisupati, professor of energy and mineral engineering and director of the Center for Critical Minerals at Penn State.

Rare earth elements are a group of 17 minerals widely used in advanced technologies and designated by the U.S. as critical to the country's economic and national security. The U.S. currently imports nearly 100% of these materials, with China producing about 85% of the world supply.

AMD from coal mining operations in Appalachia represents a promising domestic source of rare earth elements because it often contains high concentrations of the minerals, and because it is already being collected and treated due to environmental concerns, the scientists said.

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"We are currently incurring costs just to treat the water, and in many cases, we are not even collecting all these minerals," Pisupati said. "Now we are able to turn what had been considered a waste product into a valuable resource."

AMD occurs when pyrite rock -- iron sulfide -- unearthed by mining activity interacts with water and air and then oxidizes, creating sulfuric acid. The acid then breaks down surrounding rocks, causing toxic metals to dissolve into the water, the scientists said.

Traditional treatment methods involve collecting the AMD in retention ponds and adding chemicals to neutralize the pH -- an indicator of how acidic or basic a substance is. This causes the dissolved metals to precipitate, or form into solids, and settle out of the water. Up to 70% of rare earth elements can be extracted as a sludge using this process, and the rest are released along with the treated water, according to researchers.

The scientists found they could extract a higher concentration of rare earth elements and other critical minerals by adding carbon dioxide to the AMD and then bringing it to a neutral pH of 7, the target for environmental remediation, in two separate steps.

Using this method, 90% of aluminum was recovered at a pH of 5 and 85% of rare earth elements were recovered by pH 7, the scientists reported in Chemical Engineering Journal.

Adding carbon dioxide to AMD produces chemical reactions that result in the formation of solid minerals called carbonites, the scientists said. The rare earth elements bond with the extra carbonites and precipitate out of the water at lower pH values.

The process, called carbon dioxide mineralization, is an emerging technology being used to remove excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This study represents the first time it has been used to recover large concentrations of rare earth elements from AMD, the scientists said.

Recovering the same concentration of rare earth elements from AMD using traditional treatment methods would require adding additional chemicals to increase the pH beyond 7. The scientists said by lowering recovery costs, the new treatment method could make the domestic rare-earth-element market more competitive.

"With a simple modification of existing treatment processes, industry could use less chemicals and get more value out of AMD waste," Rezaee said. "This is the beauty of this research."
"This is an opportunity for the African diaspora to be part of the solutions, especially in parts of the world that don't look to us for the solutions." Dr. Latanya Mapp Frett, CEO and President, Global Fund for Women

African Diaspora Network (ADN) harnesses and engages the intellectual, financial, philanthropic and entrepreneurial capacity of Africans and friends of Africa in support of economic and social development across Africa. This historic COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the trajectory of the decade and remarkably shaped the priorities of the global community. ADNS Founder and Executive Director Almaz Negash says, "We foresee acceleration across four areas: connectivity, education, health care, and finance. ADN, now a ten-year-old organization, intends to be at the forefront of this momentum."

The #ADIS21: Leapfrogging Africa: Health Care, Technology, Education and Finance Virtual Forum launched on July 29 with a Fireside Chat on the Global Response: To Organizations Across Africa and the USA that featured Dr. Latanya Mapp Frett CEO and President, Global Fund for Women; Peter Laugharn President and CEO, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation; and Dr. James Mwangi Group Managing Director & Group CEO, Equity Group Holdings Limited, Kenya, who said, "The narrative of Africa needs to be re-thought. While safety nets are triggered, a helping hand at a household level is important because it goes a long way to relieve human suffering."

In its 6th year, ADIS, usually held at the Computer Museum in Silicon Valley, has convened over 1350 Africa-focused high-level leaders and professionals from across the world for insightful dialogue around investment and innovation in Africa. This year, #ADIS21 will be held as a free of charge with 6 more monthly sessions from August 2020 through January 2021 that will allow for even greater collective action.

"This is an opportunity for the African diaspora to be part of the solutions, especially in parts of the world that don't look to us for the solutions," stated Dr. Latanya Mapp Frett, CEO and President, Global Fund for Women. As nations rise to meet the challenges and effects of COVID-19, Africa stands at a unique inflection point in its history to accelerate changes that were already underway. Decades of development are anticipated to be concentrated in the next few years.

The next #ADIS21 session on August 26 will delve deeper into healthcare with a discussion on Human Capital Development: From Health Care Access to Delivery, which will address the following questions:



What role do Africans, diasporans, and friends of Africa play as collaborators and global citizens in the fight against infectious disease?

What programs and projects are combatting COVID-19 and infectious disease broadly that are led by Africans or diasporans?

How do we most effectively channel our resources to support both the communities we live in and the African continent?

Download the #ADIS21 agenda and virtual sessions schedule, follow African Diaspora Network on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn and visit http://adis21.africandiasporanetwork.org/ for more information.
The other dropping shoe comes courtesy of the consulting firm Horizon Advisory, which reviewed PPP data and discovered that among the non-mom-and-pop businesses enriched by the taxpayers were more than 125 Chinese companies that own or heavily invest in entities that got some of the money. In all, those companies  which, by the nature of Chinas authoritarian system, are often connected to the government  got between $192 million and $419 million. Fully $180 million of it went to at least 32 Chinese companies that got $1 million or more.

Just as big U.S. chains with local outlets were able to cash in, the relief legislation allowed American subsidiaries of foreign companies to apply for the forgivable loans. The difference is that, in the case of China, some of that money inevitably benefits an economic rival with which the U.S. has engaged in an expensive and counterproductive trade war.

The reports authors say that without appropriate policy guardrails, U.S. tax dollars intended for relief, recovery and growth of the U.S. economy  and small businesses in particular  risk supporting foreign competitors, namely China.

This should be a cautionary tale as Congress builds the next relief package. With Chinese-owned subsidiaries, as with American franchises, the case can be made that the protection of U.S. jobs is the point, and that who is ultimately providing those jobs doesnt matter. But that argument only makes sense if regulators know ahead of time that large and/or foreign entities are behind the applications. Regulators can then structure the loans so the money is strictly saving ground-level jobs and not siphoned off by Wall Street  or Beijing.
CLARA based councillor, Frank Moran has described the exclusion of Clara bog in the RTE Nationwide programme as ''unbelievable''.

The 30-minute programme which aired on Tuesday, July 28, was dedicated solely to Offaly and its many tourist attractions.

Cllr Moran says the programme ''featured great opportunities for people to visit Offaly which I welcome, but it really annoys me that Clara Bog was not featured. Ive raised this issue on numerous occasions regarding Offalys promotional material. We are branded Irelands Hidden Gem well Clara has an interpretive centre with a wealth of information regarding Clara bog. Offaly County Council get up and promote it now before its too late, urges Cllr Moran.

He continued: Clara Bog is the finest remaining example of a raised bog in Ireland today and it forms over half of the remaining area of uncut raised bog in North West Europe.

Clara Bog Nature Reserve is home to many protected wildlife species and has incorporated within its confines a 1km looped timber boardwalk with interpretive panels evidencing its importance and this has provided an excellent recreational and tourist facility for many.

The Fianna Fail councillor explained, The award-winning Clara Bog Visitor Centre offers a fascinating insight into the bog. The interactive interpretive area covers themes such as the development of peatlands, biodiversity of raised bogs, the history and archaeology associated with raised bogs and some unique facts. The multi-purpose audiovisual room adjacent to Clara Library can accommodate groups of up to 50 people and is available for meetings, talks, workshops and courses to local/environmental groups.

''Offaly County Council and in particular Tullamore Municipal District have invested a lot of resources over the last number of years to provide a footpath to the boardwalk which gives visitors a safe route from the Interpretive centre right out to the bog which is 1.5km in total.

Concluding Cllr. Moran stated Id like to welcome any opportunity for Offaly to showcase our beautiful county, however on this occasion I believe this treasure of a facility/tourist attraction that is Clara bog has been let down. Clara Heritage Group are continuously working with OCC and NPWS to promote Clara and I will continue to advocate for them as is my job.

Responding, Offaly county council Tourism Officer, Olive Farrelly said, she had ''put through a schedule'' to Nationwide of all the attractions Offaly has to offer. However, she commented, that they had the editorial right to choose what they wanted to feature in the programme.

Ms Farrelly pointed out that one of the ''big six'' attractions in the county the Tullamore DEW visitor centre was not included and neither was Birr castle.

She said perhaps it was because the Clara bog visitor centre is closed that Nationwide chose to exclude it from the programme.
20 tons of UN supplies to treat people injured by the massive blast in Beirut have reached the Lebanese capital, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.

An aircraft delivered the WHO shipment that covers 1,000 trauma interventions and 1,000 surgeries.

The UN health agency said in a statement that it would distribute the supplies to hospitals across Lebanon that have been receiving patients from Beirut, as three hospitals in the city are no longer functional and two were partially damaged by the explosion.

The legendary resilience of the Lebanese people has rarely been so severely tested, the organisation said.

It noted that Tuesdays chemical accident came on top of civil unrest, an economic crisis, the coronavirus pandemic, and the countrys burden of hosting nearly 900,000 Syrian refugees.

(dpa/NAN)
In October 2014, the suspicion arose that the parasite worm Polydora websteri had found its way to the Wadden Sea. Following years of research, that suspicion has now been confirmed: the worm, that likely originates from the Asian Pacific, has arrived in European waters. Researchers from the German Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) and the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), confirm in a publication in Marine Biodiversity, that they have found the shell-borer in oysters near Sylt and Texel and speculate that it is likely to have spread much further.

'Trouble maker' leaves oyster unsellable

The worm Polydora websteri is a known 'trouble maker' that causes mud blisters as it bores its way through an oyster's shell, leaving the oyster vulnerable for predators in the wild, and unsellable on the market. Thieltges: 'The worm manoeuvres between the inner and outer world of the oyster. It isn't strictly speaking a parasite as it leaves the oyster's body in peace, but by attacking its shell, it drains the energy of the oyster that now needs to focus on its repair.' Wild populations of Pacific oysters, exotic species that were themselves introduced to the Wadden Sea ecosystem in the 1970s and '80s, have till now been rather safe from predators. The worm might change this. The oysters might be weakened and their shell softened, making them easier prey for crabs and birds. On the long-term, this could mean a shift in the ecosystem.

While the worm might form a big threat to aquaculture farming, it is also likely that aquaculture itself acted as the primary vector of introduction. NIOZ researcher and co-author David Thieltges: 'A large part of the invasive species in the marine ecosystem arrive with the import of commercial species and the transfer of farmed specimens between aquaculture sites.' The worm's favourite host, the Pacific oyster, is traded and cultured globally. By moving the oyster, the worm, though not -intended, becomes an international traveller as well. The researchers, including Thieltges and AWI-scientist Andreas Waser, found the first Polydora websteri in the direct vicinity of an oyster farm that imports juvenile oysters from a nursery in southern Ireland. Their travel path illustrates the global character of the trade. Thieltges and Waser: 'This site of the first record was also the site with the highest infestation. We suspect that the arrival of the worm in the northern Wadden Sea may be related to the oyster imports.'

Here to stay and to be reckoned with

Once introduced, the further spread of invasive species can continue either via dispersal of larval stages or human-aided secondary vectors such as fouling on ship hulls. This may explain that the worm was also found during sampling at the Mokbaai on Texel, an island without oyster farms. Thieltges underlines, that it is unlikely that the worms found near Texel came from Sylt. 'That they made their way from Sylt to Texel, along almost 500 kilometres of coastline, seems rather unlikely. We think there might be a different origin.'

An option would be that larval stages of the worms found in the Dutch Wadden Sea came from Zeeland where there is commercial oyster aquaculture. However, the team still needs to investigate whether the worm is already present in Zeeland as well.' Thieltges: 'Sampling at other places in the Netherlands and in Europe together with genetic research is now needed to establish the origin and distribution of the worm. We don't know its exact origins yet, but we know that it's here and that it is very likely to keep extending its range.'

###
The Department of Health Services will Lease Medical Space to Respond to Health Issues in South East Los Angeles

The Los Angeles County Officials disclosed recent news surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak. L.A. has remained at Level Orange in relation to COVID-19 severity for the past few weeks; Los Angeles Director of Public Health Dr. Barbara Ferrer shared the latest statistics that track the movement of coronavirus. The county announced an approved that responds to the medically underserved areas in Los Angeles.

There has been a climbing increase in positive cases among people who are under the age of 50. Younger individuals are contracting the virus in an increasing rate. The most common space for spread is through gatherings and extended outdoor leisure. The county stressed to avoid populated areas and to remain indoors as much as possible.

Current statistics for coronavirus were revealed on Wednesday, August 5, there were 68 additional deaths. 23 of these individuals were over the age of 80, 17 of them with underlining health conditions. 24 people who died were between the ages of 65-79, 20 victims had preexisting health concerns. 17 individuals were between the ages of 50-64, 13 of them had underlining health conditions. Three people who passed were between the ages of 30-49, with 2 of them having previous medical conditions. Three victims were between the ages of 18-29, with two of them having preexisting health issues. This brings the total COVID-19 related deaths in L.A. County to 4,825.

The relationship between COVID-19 infection and ethnicity was also updated. The racial background collected from 4,520 fatal cases showed 11% were African American, 15% were Asian, slightly less than 1% were Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 49% were LatinX, 25% were White, and 1% identified as a different race or ethnicity. 92% of those who died due to COVID-19 had preexisting health concerns.

Ferrer disclosed on Wednesday, there were 2,347 new COVID-19 reports, it may be an undercount due to a state delay in tests. In summary, there is a total amount of 197,912 coronavirus cases in the Los Angeles region. 8,362 incidents were reported in the city of Long Beach and 2,023 cases in the city of Pasadena. Amid the unsheltered, there were 1,178 positive cases.

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Current hospitalization numbers reflect a decrease in admission, Supervisor Hilda Solis explained that adjustment is sign that are efforts are working. She stressed that we should continue this path to eventually see significant recovery. COVID-19 highlighted areas that are in dire need of health care investments in those communities, Solis acknowledge that those are in high risk generally live in an area where they are medically underserved.

Solis introduced a motion that passed on Tuesday; the Department of Health Services will lease medical space to respond to health issues in south east Los Angeles. At this new health center there will be primary care providers, nurses, case managers, case navigators, and other caring personnel to provide health services during COVID-19 and after the pandemic. Solis stated, Equitable healthcare access means getting treatment and care in ones community, I look forward to opening this exciting clinic with the hardworking staff of the Department of Health.
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Restaurant space is advertised as available in Santa Ana, Calif., on July 10, 2020. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

OC Small Businesses Grab New Round of COVID-19 Relief Funds

Small businesses in Orange County, California, have lost no time in applying for a second round of local relief funding for commercial enterprises impacted by COVID-19.

The application period for the second round of the countys Layoff Aversion Support Fund Program opened Aug. 3 and was scheduled to run through Aug. 6but the window slammed shut early when the number of applications hit the limit, according to the Orange County Workforce Development Board (OCWDB).

The Orange County One-Stop Center application website crashed from an overwhelming amount of traffic. It was a repeat of the first round of relief funding in May, when applications shut down within an hour.

The funding is designed to help small businesses prevent layoffs, Carma Lacy, OCWDB director of workforce and economic development, told The Epoch Times in an email.

The funding may be used to purchase items such as personal protection equipment that will allow companies to keep their employees working and businesses open.

The COVID-19 Layoff Aversion Support Program offered up to $10,000 in grant funds for eligible businesses with 500 or fewer employees. In order to qualify, businesses had to be able to demonstrate a need for support due to the impact of COVID-19, pay employees minimum wage or more, and be in good standing with the State of California and up to date with their state Unemployment Insurance taxes (UI).

The newly released funds are expected to be awarded beginning August 31, the OCWDB told The Epoch Times. About $256,000 remained available to support small businesses, after $444,000 out of the original $700,000 Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act funds received from the California Employment Development Division (EDD) had been awarded in May.

According to the OCWDB, 69 businesses were awarded funding in the first round of economic relief benefits. The OCWDB anticipates between 25 to 50 businesses receiving benefits in the second round. The money can be used to address COVID-19-related effects on a business and its employees, the website states, but cannot be used to pay rent or employee wages.

The website stated applications would be considered on a first-come, first-served basis. The process was scheduled to remain open until 50 applications had been received, and another 80 had been placed on the waiting list.

This funding is intended to help local small businesses mitigate layoffs and adhere to social distancing provisions established by state and federal public health entities, Orange County officials said in a July 31 press release.

The local Layoff Aversion Support Program mirrors the Small Business Grant Relief Program launched on June 22, which provided up to $10,000 grants through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act fund, a $2 trillion federal economic relief package released on March 27.

Supervisor Lisa Bartlett, who represents south Orange Countys Fifth District, announced in a July 31 statement that her district had awarded its allotted $14.5 million in CARES Act support to nonprofit organizations and small businesses in the region.

Bartlett said the allotment helped support more than 1,400 businesses in south Orange County.

So many small businesses that serve as the backbone of our economy have suffered significant financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bartlett said. My goal was to develop a program that would provide financial support to those businesses and get funds into their hands as quickly as possible.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - August 5, 2020) - Crest Resources Inc. (CSE: CRES) ("Crest" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that further to its news release of July 31, 2020, the Company and its co-vendors (together, the "Vendors") have completed the sale of a 100% interest, subject to a retained royalty reserved by underlying vendors, in the True Grit and Middle Ridge North gold properties (the "Properties") located in Central Newfoundland to Mariner Resources Corp. ("Mariner") for consideration of 7,000,000 common shares of Mariner. The shares are subject to a hold period expiring December 5, 2020.

The Company's interest in the transaction as a Vendor is 85% and it has received 5,822,500 common shares of Mariner as consideration. The Company currently owns and controls 8,602,500 common shares of Mariner representing 42.38% of the issued and outstanding common shares based on a total of 20,300,000 common shares outstanding.

About Crest Resources Inc.

Crest Resources Inc. is a British Columbia company listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the symbol "CRES". The Company's principal business activity is the acquisition, exploration and evaluation of mineral property assets in Canada, Australia and Peru and the investment in mineral exploration companies and related mining technologies of merit.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Michael Collins

President and CEO

Crest Resources Inc.

Telephone: 604-681-3170

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as the term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy of accuracy of this news release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/61167
New Jerseys top court suspended a one-time judge Thursday, seven years after she was accused of harboring her fugitive ex-boyfriend.

But the state Supreme Court stopped short of firing former state Superior Court Judge Carlia Brady, the punishment recommended by an ethics panel, and the decision was largely symbolic since her term ended in April. The three-month suspension was for violating the judicial code of conduct.

Brady, who was a judge in Middlesex County, was arrested in 2013 when Woodbridge cops said she hindered their ability to track down her then live-in boyfriend, Jason Prontnicki. Prontnicki was later convicted of robbery and weapons charges and wont be released from prison until 2022, according to state records

While charges against Brady were later dropped, the court said she was not as forthcoming with police as she should have been, and her actions fell short of the standard judges must live up to.

The judge did not prioritize law enforcements urgent need to locate and arrest the man she was in love with, the court wrote, but instead strategized to preserve their relationship while maintaining her judicial career.

The opinion was backed by four of seven justices, one of whom thought she should have been fired outright.

Two didnt believe any punishment was necessary.

Judges can be deceived in their personal relationships; judges can suffer psychological stress and trauma; and even judges are not immune from the abuses of the criminal justice system, Justice Barry Albin wrote. I view Judge Brady as a victim, more deserving of an apology than a suspension.

Justice Walter Timpone, who represented Brady before he joined the court, did not participate in the decision.

I am thankful this ordeal is over, Brady said in a statement, and she thanked Albin for concluding shed been caught up in a misguided criminal prosecution.

One of Bradys lawyers, Robert Flanagan, wrote in an email that the decision essentially vindicated the former judge.

Brady was one of New Jerseys first Filipino-American Superior Court judges, and she previously defended herself during an hour-and-a-half video hearing April 30.

She had called police about her boyfriend more than once, but she said she did not have any duty to partner with police to catch a fugitive.

While she asked for forgiveness for any lapse in judgement, she said any mistakes were personal, not professional, and no punishment was necessary because the incident had already left her with a permanent stigma  and the court previously suspended her for 57 months without pay after her arrest, she said.

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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Tip line

The Seattle Division of the FBI is seeking assistance in solving the disappearance of Josiah Jo Hilderbrand and Jon Cleary last year. Those with information about the men may call the FBIs Yakima field office at 509-453-4859 or 1-800-248-9980. Tips may also be submitted at tips.fbi.gov.
Pastor John MacArthur may face fine, arrest for holding indoor services: 'We will obey God rather than men'

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County officials have allegedly threatened Grace Community Church in California with fines and possible arrest for reopening his church in defiance of lockdown orders from Gov. Gavin Newsom during the pandemic. Still, Pastor John MacArthur has vowed to continue in-person services.

"We will obey God rather than men," MacArthur said in a video statement Friday. "We're going to be faithful to the Lord and we're going to leave the results to Him. Whatever happens is going to be what He allows to happen. But He will be on our side because we will be obedient and faithful to His word."

We will not bow to Caesar, he added. "The Lord Jesus Christ is our king."

Officials from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health have threatened MacArthur with repercussions such as fines and even possible arrest if his church doesnt comply with state orders, the Rev. Franklin Graham, president of Samaritans Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, wrote on Facebook.

The departments Environmental Health division "is investigating and will be reaching out to the church leaders to let them know they need to comply with the Health Officer Order, Religion News Service reported.

MacArthur noted that this wouldn't be the first time that they find themselves "in a trial" or "end up in a court setting." In 1980, Grace Community Church was sued for clergy malpractice by the parents of a 24-year-old, who was part of the church, after he committed suicide. Nearly a decade later, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case, allowing California Supreme Court's decision to dismiss the lawsuit to stand.

While he said he doesn't know "what the Lord has for us" this time around, they will continue meeting for worship every Sunday.

"We will meet as the church of Jesus Christ because we're commanded to do that. We will sing, we will pray, we will fellowship, we will proclaim the Word of God far and wide and even around the world through this livestream opportunity that we have," the pastor stressed.

Commenting on churches, including megachurches, that have chosen to shut down until January, MacArthur said, "I dont have any way to understand that other than they dont know what a church is and they dont shepherd their people but thats sad.

"And you have a lot of people in Christianity, who seem to be significant leaders, who arent giving any strength and courage to the church, theyre not standing up and rising up and calling on Christians to be the church in the world as I said on Sunday."

The pastor also addressed "misinformation" about his church and ministry regarding the Paycheck Protection Program.

He clarified that the federal government did send us money; we did not receive that money. We sent it back  We did not receive a dime from the federal government.

California continues to see a surge in coronavirus cases. It had a record high of 215 COVID-19 deaths on Friday. Total confirmed cases so far are 516,000 and over 9,000 deaths have been recorded in the state. Amid the surge, Newsom indefinitely closed churches and other businesses in more than 30 of the states 58 counties.

Some churches, including Destiny Christian Church in Rocklin, said they would still gather for worship.

In an earlier statement, MacArthur and elders of the church said they "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."

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. "Compliance would be disobedience to our Lords clear commands."

Grace Community Church is making efforts to accommodate all persons as they take various precautions during the pandemic.

About a thousand extra seats will be kept outside the church building for those who may want to sit in the open. The church will also provide sanitizers and masks for those who want them.

MacArthur noted that they want to be as "gracious as we can be to as many people as possible" and be welcoming to all  whether people want to remain at home and watch online, attend in person but prefer outside seating, or wear masks or not wear masks.

"We don't want anybody to feel unwelcome. We don't want anybody to feel like an outsider because they sit outside or because they decide to wear a mask ... That's all fine. That's all temporary. That's all superficial kinds of things," he said.
FP Trending

It's been just a week since the launch of NASAs Perseverance Mars rover aboard the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. While it will take another 7 months to reach Mars, a weather satellite and a robotic telescope have captured interesting glimpses of its launch.

The satellite GOES 16 spotted the smoke plume released after the rover's launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida on 30 July.

On its alternate water vapour channel, the launch appeared as a red streak. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which operates the mission along with NASA, shared both the white plume image and the red streak via its Twitter account soon after the launch.

The post said that the satellite had used its visible band to zoom in on Cape Canaveral to capture the smoke plume.

SATELLITE SPOTLIGHT: @NOAA's #GOES16 used its visible band to zoom in on #CapeCanaveral, FL and catch the smoke plume from today's launch of NASA's #Perseverance rover to #Mars. #NASA expects the voyage to take about 7 months. #CountdownToMars pic.twitter.com/XZQqVACIA2  NOAA Satellites - Public Affairs (@NOAASatellitePA) July 30, 2020

The other post wished Perseverance safe travel and mentioned that the short lasting red streak is in fact the rover.

The weather satellite GOES 16 is positioned above the United States in order to monitor the terrestrial and space weather from geosynchronous orbit, reported Space.com. It is often referred to as GOES East because of its geostationary positioning.

As the Atlas V rocket was used to launch the car-sized rover, scientists had built two stages for successful lift off. But the first stage was designed to fall back to Earth after spending its fuel and burn upon its re-entry.

The whole sequence took place correctly and was captured by the Virtual Telescope Project. The robotic telescope is managed by Gianluca Masi in Italy.
AUSTIN, TX / ACCESSWIRE / August 6, 2020 / Thermon Group Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:THR) (the "Company," "Thermon," "we" or "our") today announced consolidated financial results for the first quarter ("Q1 2021") of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021 ("Fiscal 2021").

Q1 2021 highlights, as compared to the three months ended June 30, 2019 ("Q1 2020"), include:

Revenue of $56.8 million, a decrease of 38% compared to $91.7 million

Backlog of $109.9 million, with the second consecutive quarter of a positive book to bill ratio

Fully diluted GAAP loss per fully diluted common share ("EPS") of $(0.18), a decrease of $0.22 compared to $0.04

Non-GAAP Adjusted EPS of $(0.11), a decrease of $0.26 compared to $0.15

Net loss of $(6.1) million as compared to net income of $1.5 million

Generated $3.4 million of cash provided by operating activities, consistent with Q1 2020

Preserving the strength of our balance sheet, with $48.2 million of cash and cash equivalents and a net debt to Adjusted EBITDA ratio of 2.5x

Bruce Thames, Thermon's President and Chief Executive Officer said, "During a challenging quarter, I am proud of the team's resilience and execution to plan. While we experienced lower demand in our end markets, we remained focused on our customer relationships, the health and safety of our global employees, developing world-class technology and continuing to generate positive cash from operations. We took decisive action to reduce run-rate costs by $17 million and will continue to manage our cost structure in line with the level of incoming business going forward. We continue to prioritize cash management and maintaining our strong balance sheet, and while we expect the impact from both COVID-19 and volatility in energy related markets to continue, we are positioning our business for success as the global economy recovers."

During Q1 2021, the Company generated revenue of $56.8 million versus $91.7 million in Q1 2020, a decrease of $34.9 million or 38%. During Q1 2021, new facility construction (or "Greenfield") and facility maintenance, repair and operations and upgrade or expansion (or "MRO/UE") activity from our legacy heat tracing business accounted for 32% and 68% of revenue, respectively, which compares to 49% and 51% in Q1 2020. Gross margin during Q1 2021 was 42.4%, as compared to 40.5% in Q1 2020.

Q1 2021 total orders were $60.6 million versus $82.8 million in Q1 2020, a decrease of $22.2 million or 27%. Q1 2021 backlog of $109.9 million represents a $1.6 million decrease, or 1%, as compared to Q1 2020 backlog of $111.5 million.

Q1 2021 net loss attributable to Thermon and GAAP EPS were $(6.1) million and $(0.18), respectively, compared to net income and GAAP EPS of $1.5 million and $0.04, respectively, in Q1 2020. After taking into account the impact of the cost of a workforce reduction in the Western Hemisphere, the benefit from the Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy and intangible amortization related to prior acquisition activities (see table, Reconciliation of Net (Loss) Income attributable to Thermon to Adjusted Net (Loss) Income and Adjusted EPS), the Company generated an Adjusted Net Loss in Q1 2021 of $(3.5) million and Adjusted EPS of $(0.11) compared to Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted EPS of $4.8 million and $0.15, respectively, in Q1 2020.

Adjusted EBITDA was $1.4 million in Q1 2021 as compared to $13.1 million in Q1 2020, a decrease of $11.8 million or 90% (see table, Reconciliation of Net Income attributable to Thermon to Adjusted EBITDA).

As of June 30, 2020, the Company had $179.0 million of gross outstanding debt and $48.2 million of cash and cash equivalents representing net debt of $130.8 million. During the quarter we amended our existing credit agreement whereby the debt within the leverage ratio may be reduced by cash in excess of $20.0 million. Based on the trailing twelve month Adjusted EBITDA of the Company, our net debt to trailing twelve month Adjusted EBITDA ratio was 2.5x as of June 30, 2020.

Conference Call and Webcast Information

Thermon's senior management team, including Bruce Thames, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Jay Peterson, Chief Financial Officer, will discuss Q1 2021 results during a conference call today at 10:00 a.m. (Central Time), which will be simultaneously webcast on Thermon's investor relations website located at http://ir.thermon.com . Investment community professionals interested in participating in the question-and-answer session may access the call by dialing (877) 407-5976 from within the United States/Canada and (412) 902-0031 from outside of the United States/Canada. A replay of the webcast will be available on Thermon's investor relations website after the conclusion of the call.

About Thermon

Through its global network, Thermon provides safe, reliable and mission critical industrial process heating solutions. Thermon specializes in providing complete flow assurance, process heating, temperature maintenance, freeze protection and environmental monitoring solutions. Thermon is headquartered in Austin, Texas. For more information, please visit www.thermon.com .

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Disclosure in this release of "Adjusted EPS," "Adjusted EBITDA," "Adjusted Net Income" and "Free Cash Flow" which are "non-GAAP financial measures" as defined under the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), are intended as supplemental measures of our financial performance that are not required by, or presented in accordance with, U.S. generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP"). "Adjusted Net Income" and "Adjusted EPS" (or "Adjusted fully diluted earnings per share") represent net income attributable to Thermon before costs related to the western hemisphere reduction in force, the benefit from the Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy ("CEWS"), costs related to the consolidation of our operating footprint in Canada, amortization of intangible assets, and the income tax effect on any non-tax adjustments, per fully-diluted common share in the case of Adjusted EPS. "Adjusted EBITDA" represents net income attributable to Thermon before interest expense (net of interest income), income tax expense, depreciation and amortization expense, stock-based compensation expense, income attributable to non-controlling interests, costs related to the western hemisphere reduction in force, the benefit from the CEWS and costs related to the consolidation of our operating footprint in Canada. "Free Cash Flow" represents cash provided by operating activities less cash used for the purchase of property, plant and equipment, net of sales of rental equipment and proceeds from sales of land and buildings.

We believe these non-GAAP financial measures are meaningful to our investors to enhance their understanding of our financial performance and are frequently used by securities analysts, investors and other interested parties to compare our performance with the performance of other companies that report Adjusted EPS, Adjusted EBITDA, or Adjusted Net Income. Adjusted EPS, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Net Income should be considered in addition to, not as substitutes for, income from operations, net income, net income per share and other measures of financial performance reported in accordance with GAAP. We provide Free Cash Flow as a measure of our liquidity. Our calculation of Adjusted EPS, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Net Income and Free Cash Flow may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies. For a description of how Adjusted EPS, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Net Income, and Free Cash Flow are calculated and reconciliations to the corresponding GAAP measures, see the sections of this release titled "Reconciliation of Net Income attributable to Thermon to Adjusted EBITDA," "Reconciliation of Net Income attributable to Thermon to Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted EPS" and "Reconciliation of Cash Provided by Operating Activities to Free Cash Flow."

Forward-Looking Statements

This release may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. federal securities laws in addition to historical information. These forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding our industry, business strategy, plans, goals and expectations concerning our market position, future operations, margins, profitability, capital expenditures, liquidity and capital resources and other financial and operating information. When used herein, the words "anticipate," "assume," "believe," "budget," "continue," "contemplate," "could," "should" "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "possible," "potential," "predict," "project," "will," "would," "future," and similar terms and phrases are intended to identify forward-looking statements in this release. Forward-looking statements reflect our current expectations regarding future events, results or outcomes. These expectations may or may not be realized. Some of these expectations may be based upon assumptions, data or judgments that prove to be incorrect. In addition, our business and operations involve numerous risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, which could result in our expectations not being realized or otherwise materially affect our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

Actual events, results and outcomes may differ materially from our expectations due to a variety of factors. Although it is not possible to identify all of these factors, they include, among others, (i) the outbreak of the novel strain of coronavirus (COVID-19); (ii) general economic conditions and cyclicality in the markets we serve; (iii) future growth of energy, chemical processing and power generation capital investments; (iv) our ability to operate successfully in foreign countries; (v) our ability to deliver existing orders within our backlog; (vi) our ability to effectively integrate Thermon Heating Systems product lines into our existing sales and market channels; (vii) the imposition of certain operating and financial restrictions contained in our debt agreements; (viii) tax liabilities and changes to tax policy; (ix) our ability to bid and win new contracts; (x) our ability to successfully develop and improve our products and successfully implement new technologies; (xi) competition from various other sources providing similar heat tracing and process heating products and services, or alternative technologies, to customers; (xii) our revenue mix; (xiii) our ability to acquire smaller value added companies; (xiv) changes in relevant currency exchange rates; (xv) impairment of goodwill and other intangible assets; (xvi) our ability to attract and retain qualified management and employees, particularly in our overseas markets; (xvii) our ability to protect our trade secrets; (xviii) our ability to protect our intellectual property; (xix) our ability to protect data and thwart potential cyber-attacks; (xx) a material disruption at any of our manufacturing facilities; (xxi) our dependence on subcontractors and third-party suppliers; (xxii) our ability to profit on fixed-price contracts; (xxiii) our ability to achieve our operational initiatives; (xxiv) potential liability related to our products as well as the delivery of products and services; (xxv) our ability to comply with foreign anti-corruption laws; (xxvi) export control regulations or sanctions; (xxvii) changes in U.S. and foreign government administrative policy; (xxviii) geopolitical instability in Russia and Ukraine and related sanctions by the U.S. government; (xxix) our ability to comply with the complex and dynamic system of laws and regulations applicable to domestic and international operations, including U.S. government tariffs; (xxx) environmental and health and safety laws and regulations as well as environmental liabilities; and (xxxi) climate change and related regulation of greenhouse gases. See also Item 1A, "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on June 1, 2020 and in any subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q that we have filed or may file with the SEC for information regarding the additional factors that have impacted or may impact our business and operations. Any one or a combination of these factors could materially affect our future results of operations and could influence whether any forward-looking statements contained in this release ultimately prove to be accurate.

Our forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results and future performance may differ materially from those suggested in any forward-looking statements. We do not intend to update these statements unless we are required to do so under applicable securities laws.

CONTACT:

Kevin Fox (512) 690-0600

Investor.Relations@thermon.com

Thermon Group Holdings, Inc. and Subsidiaries

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations and Selected Balance Sheet Data

(Unaudited, in Thousands except per share amounts)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-07 01:49:08|Editor: huaxia

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WASHINGTON, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Governor Mike DeWine of U.S. midwestern state of Ohio, a key swing state in the 2020 U.S. elections, announced on Thursday that he has tested positive for coronavirus, just ahead of President Donald Trump's planned visit.

"As part of the standard protocol to greet President Trump on the tarmac in Cleveland, I took a COVID test. I tested positive," DeWine tweeted.

"I have no symptoms at this time. I'm following protocol and will quarantine at home for the next 14 days," the 73-year-old Republican said. Local media said he was returning to Columbus, the state's capital city.

"The President wishes Governor DeWine a speedy and full recovery and commends the job he's doing for the great state of Ohio," White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement.

Latest data from the Ohio Department of Health showed there were 96,305 coronavirus cases in the state. Enditem
MUMBAI: The Maharashtra Police on Thursday (August 6, 2020) said that a total of 137 new coronavirus COVID-19 cases and two deaths were reported in the last 24 hours. With this, the total COVID-19 count in the state police force stands at 10,163.

With two more fatalities, the total deaths in the state police force have reached 109, the Maharashtra Police said. Out of the total number of police personnel infected with coronavirus, 8,189 have recovered and 1,865 cases are active, the Maharashtra Police informed on Thursday.

Maharashtra with 1,46,268 active cases and 3,05,521 cured and discharged patients continues to be the worst affected. The state has also reported 16,476 deaths due to the infection, as per the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

India saw a single-day increase of 56,282 COVID-19 cases on Thursday taking the country's virus tally to 19,64,536, while the recoveries have surged to 13,28,336, according to the Union Health Ministry data.

The death toll due to COVID-19 climbed to 40,699 with 904 new fatalities being reported in 24-hours, the data updated at 8 AM showed. There are 5,95,501 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country presently which contribute to 30.31 per cent of the total cases.

The fatality rate has further dropped to 2.07 per cent, the data stated. This is the eighth consecutive day that COVID-19 cases have increased by more than 50,000.

According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 2,21,49,351 samples have been tested up to August 5 with 6,64,949 samples being tested on Wednesday.

Of the 904 fresh deaths reported, 334 are from Maharashtra, 112 from Tamil Nadu, 100 from Karnataka, 77 from Andhra Pradesh, 61 from West Bengal, 40 from Uttar Pradesh, 29 from Punjab, 23 from Gujarat, 17 from Madhya Pradesh, 13 each from Rajasthan and Telangana, 11 from Delhi and Nine each from Jammu and Kashmir and Odisha.

Eight fatalities each have been reported from Bihar and Jharkhand, seven each from Haryana, Kerala and Puducherry, six from Assam, four from Goa, three from Uttarakhand, two each from Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Chhattisgarh, while Nagaland and Tripura have registered one fatality each.

Of the total 40,699 deaths, Maharashtra has reported the maximum at 16,476 followed by 4,461 in Tamil Nadu, 4,044 in Delhi, 2,804 in Karnataka, 2,556 in Gujarat, 1,857 in Uttar Pradesh, 1,846 in West Bengal, 1,681 in Andhra Pradesh and 929 in Madhya Pradesh.

So far, 745 people have died of COVID-19 in Rajasthan, 589 in Telangana, 491 in Punjab, 455 in Haryana, 426 in Jammu and Kashmir, 355 in Bihar, 225 in Odisha, 136 in Jharkhand, 121 in Assam, 98 in Uttarakhand, 94 in Kerala.

Chhattisgarh has registered 71 deaths, Puducherry 65, Goa 64, Tripura 31, Chandigarh 20, Himachal Pradesh and Andaman and Nicobar Islands 14 each, Ladakh and Manipur seven each, Nagaland six, Meghalaya five, Arunachal Pradesh three, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu two and Sikkim one.

The Health Ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.
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As long as Christians identify primarily with a worldly identity such as a job role, a denomination, or political persuasion to derive self worth or identity they remain operating in the flesh in the world as opposed to operating in the spirit in God's Kingdom.

Identity in the world is synonymous with "doing." A person's occupation through the eyes of the world and what they "do" is incorrectly substituted instead of with "who" a person is.

When a person stops or loses the activity associated with their "doing" identity, they often experience confusion or mental health problems because they don't know "who" they are anymore without it.

This has been made especially evident during COVID with professional athletes revealing their struggles with mental health during the forced shutdown.

For Christians, knowing who they are in God through Jesus and the Kingdom is synonymous with the treasure in heaven where:

Moths and vermin do not destroy, and the thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matthew 6. 20-21).

Self worth derived from identity rooted in doing as opposed to innate identity in God is often indicative of the social status of a particular activity or occupation. A person who has an occupation or role with prestigious social status is far less likely to seek out their true identity in God because they love the social status or esteem which it provides them.

Jesus only knew this too well, which was revealed in his conversation to the rich man in the book of Matthew.

Jesus answered, If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.

When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God (Matthew 19. 21-24).

Jesus knew that the rich man's social status symbolized by wealth and possessions (bondage) had to go in order for him to know his true spiritual identity in God and the Kingdom.

What people caught in "doing" identity don't see is that the social status they have aligned their identity with is actually bondage. It is served up as a counterfeit identity from the enemy to prevent them from realizing who they are in Christ and the kingdom with the ability to operate in the spirit  a huge threat.

Workaholism is often indicative of people who have no idea who they are outside their role and where they derive their main source of self validation.

When a person identifies primarily with their identity in Christ, they walk in freedom, power, and truth.

God wants every Christian to experience and know who they are innately in Him and to have a relationship that is incredibly intimate and child-like, just how Jesus said it had to be.

Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18. 3).

If Christians are not prepared to give up things of the world in order to receive things of the Kingdom, they risk not entering God's Kingdom. Serious stuff. If they don't know their true identity in God made possible by Jesus they just have to ask God to reveal it to them.

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened (Matthew 7. 7-8).
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-07 03:13:42|Editor: huaxia

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A mother helps her daughter put on a face mask in Ankara, Turkey, on Aug. 6, 2020. Turkey reported 1,153 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, raising the total confirmed infections to 237,265, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said. (Photo by Mustafa Kaya/Xinhua)

ANKARA, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Turkish government does not consider re-imposing curfews, the country's Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said on Thursday, while the number of COVID-19 cases in the country has recorded a rapid increase in the last week.

"It is not on our agenda. That's out of question," Soylu told reporters.

Turkey reported 1,153 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, raising the total diagnosed cases to 237,265, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said.

Meanwhile, 14 people died in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 5,798, Koca tweeted.

Turkish health professionals conducted 54,494 tests in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall number of tests to 5,081,802, he said.

A total of 1,040 patients recovered in the last 24 hours, raising the total recoveries to 220,546 in Turkey since the outbreak, Koca added.

The rate of pneumonia in COVID-19 patients is 8.3 percent and the number of seriously ill patients is 580, he stated.

Turkey reported the first COVID-19 case on March 1.

Turkey and China have supported each other in the fight against COVID-19.

Chinese doctors and medical experts held video conferences with Turkish counterparts to share China's experience in treating coronavirus patients, protecting medical workers, and controlling the spread of the virus. Enditem
Qantas has a margin advantage over Virgin as a result of its hold on the corporate market which recent history suggests is structural. That also suggests that an attempt to take share from it via a price-driven strategy would be futile, and very costly. Bain is a private equity business. It could be expected to be  as Virgin Blues original management were and Scurrah appears to be - pragmatic and profit-driven, not seduced by the peculiar allure of the industry into an ego-driven ambition to displace Qantas dominance of the pointy end of planes. Whatever strategy Virgin adopts, the next two or three years are going to be tough, and bloody, for both it and Qantas. If it were to pursue the wrong strategy, they could be tougher, and a lot bloodier. While Scurrah made it clear that Virgin wasnt going to retreat to its roots as a low-cost carrier, that was also never a realistic option. Theres not sufficient room, or profit, for Virgin to compete directly with Jetstar  a formidable low-cost carrier  for low-margin leisure volumes. Whether you call it a "hybrid" or not, the obvious positioning for Virgin was, and is, in the space between Qantas and Jetstar, using its newly-reduced cost base to offer better value than Qantas and a better experience, at a slightly higher cost, than Jetstar.

That wouldnt be a return to the original Virgin Blue positioning but would be very similar to the "New World Carrier" strategy Virgin adopted after Qantas launch of Jetstar and which led to a very profitable period  before Virgin decided to try to challenge Qantas directly. That strategy was built on Virgins cost advantage over the Qantas brand and no material disadvantage relative to Jetstar. Scurrah said Bain had "walked back" from plans to make Virgin a "hybrid" airline. Credit:James Alcock It was a value-based, not price-driven, shift into a better mix of margins and profitability that carefully targeted small and medium-sized businesses, along with price-conscious full-fare passengers, rather than Qantas corporate heartland. Retaining a two-class service and business lounges is important to not just preserving Virgins appal to SME customers but also to maximising the value of its most valuable asset, the Velocity loyalty program.

The administration will enable Scurrah to do what he might have wanted to when he was appointed CEO last year but was constrained by the existing agreements with employees and suppliers. Until the creditors meeting to vote on the sale of the airline to Bain next month, however, he needs the support of the employees and unions, who will provide the largest number of votes at that meeting. He might also want to renegotiate Virgins enterprise bargaining agreements with the unions. That might explain why he has backed away from references to a hybrid model, talked about aspirations for adding back 2000 employees in a more normal environment, floated the eventual resumption of long-haul international operations, didnt discard the possibility of reviving the Tiger brand and was vague about the fate of its version of the chairmans lounge. By keeping open the prospect that Virgin might return to something akin to a pre-pandemic normal if and when the industry returns to a pre-pandemic normal, Scurrah can offer his unions and employees a more optimistic view of the airlines future and their job prospects. In any event, even if genuinely held those are long term aspirations and in the near term  more likely the medium term  there is a pandemic to deal with and the lockdown in Victoria, the cases cropping up elsewhere in Australia, the dire situation in the US and the second wave appearing elsewhere are pushing back the prospect of any return to something resembling industry normality.

The International Air Transport Association is now saying that a return to last years pre-pandemic passenger volumes probably wont occur until 2024 and a recent survey of airline executives found that nearly 70 per cent of them believed the industry would be fundamentally changed by the pandemic experience. There are plenty of analysts and executives who believe the pandemic will lead to less travel for face-to-face meetings and more virtual communication even if an effective vaccine is developed and widely distributed. Loading The Australian domestic market has only token capacity flying at the moment and the likelihood that it will somehow gradually resume business-as-usual and be back to normal by 2021-22 is receding as the virus keeps spreading in the two most critical legs  Melbourne and Sydney  of the "golden triangle" routes of Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane that make the domestic market one of the most profitable in the world. Whatever strategy Virgin adopts, the next two or three years are going to be tough, and bloody, for both it and Qantas. If it were to pursue the wrong strategy, they could be tougher, and a lot bloodier.
Isle of Man and Guernsey agree reciprocal health agreement

The Manx Government has confirmed travellers from the Isle of Man to Guernsey will not have to pay for emergency medical treatment.

A new temporary health agreement has been reached and will only last for the duration of the air corridor between the islands.

Subsequent care and any air ambulance transfers from the islands to the UK will also be covered by the agreement.

Health Minister David Ashford says the agreement is a "progressive step for the mutual benefit of our people".

Both islands have been free of confirmed cases of COVID-19 for a prolonged period.

Travellers will still need travel and medical insurance to meet the cost of health services which are not covered by the reciprocal health agreement, including repatriation, ambulance services, GP appointments and dental care, which remain chargeable if they are required by an individual.
There's nothing Michelle Underhill hates more than being told to "move on" with her life nearly five years after her four-year-old daughter Elle died in a head-on crash and her other daughter, Elaina, was seriously injured.

"People say you move on, but you don't. Elle's death is not a limited event. It continues for us," said Ms Underhill, of Casino, in northern NSW.

Michelle Underhill at the roadside memorial where her daughter, Elle, 4, was killed in a head-on crash near Casino in December 2015. Credit:Elise Derwin

With two-thirds of the nation's 1182 fatalities in 2019 occurring on country roads, Ms Underhill said she was campaigning during Rural Road Safety Month for drivers to pay attention and stop thinking: "She'll be right".

Newly published research has found the risk of having a serious injury in a head-on crash occurs at a much lower speed than previously found.
(Natural News) Its becoming more than obvious that China has used its rising economic and geopolitical status to infiltrate one American institution after another, including universities where Beijings operatives work to steal vital information.

Another connection was uncovered just last week as a researcher at Stanford University who was having a problem with her visa was revealed as an officer in the Chinese military.

Federal authorities have charged Song Chen, 38, with visa fraud after discovering she failed to disclose her ties to Chinas Peoples Liberation Army, the Justice Department said.

Song entered the U.S. in December 2018 using a J-1 nonimmigrant visa, which is given to foreigners who are participating in work-and-study-based visitor exchange programs.

The Epoch Times notes:

In her visa application submitted in November 2018, she described herself as a neurologist who was coming to Stanford University to conduct research related to brain disease. She disclosed that she served in the Chinese military from September 2000 to June 2011, and that her current employer was a Beijing hospital named Xi Diaoyutai.

Open source research showed Songs continued affiliation with the PLA Air Force in a variety of capacities well past her stated termination date of June 2011, said FBI agent Joyce Blalock in a July 17 affidavit.

The open source intelligence used to verify Songs background include five scientific research papers she helped co-author between 2012 and 2018. In two of the research papers, Song noted that she was aligned with the Fourth Military Medical University in Xian, which is the capital of northwestern Chinas Shaanxi Province.

The FMMUs website said that the institution changed its name to Air Force Military Medical University in 2017 and that the university is a part of the Air Force branch of the PLA.

In addition, the other three papers showed Songs affiliation with the Air Force General Hospital in Beijing, which has the exact address as the Beijing hospital she listed in her visa application.

The news site continues:

The research also found a photo of Song dressed in a Chinese military uniform with insignia, on her profile page that appears on the Chinese health site cnkang.com. The link to her page, which was included on the affidavit, is no longer accessible.

According to the affidavit, the insignia on her uniform represented civilian cadres of the PLA, who are active military personnel who have been appointed to junior professional technical positions or clerical ranks and above, citing Chinas Ministry of National Defense.

I believe that Song was intentionally misleading when she claimed no association with the PLA Air Force and could not provide articulable reasons to explain her continued affiliation with elements of the Chinese military, Blalock said. (Related: AG Bill Barr criticizes Hollywoods coddling of Communist China.)

The FBI and DoJ noted that Song hid other aspects of her espionage, noting at one point in a letter to the Chinese consulate in New York she couldnt send military approval documents via the Internet because they were classified.

The discovery comes as the Trump administration ordered the Chinese to close a consulate in Houston amid discoveries that Beijing has been continuing its practice of stealing intellectual property from the United States and from countries and companies abroad.

Fox News Asia analyst Gordon Chang said that the closure was also tied to Beijings continued attempts to undermine the U.S. government during these times of unrest, using our own freedoms against us.

Also, there are stories that this consulate had links with protest groups in the United States providing financial and logistical support. Thats unconfirmed, he said.

But, what is confirmed is that the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the Communist Partys global ties have been engaged in a malicious disinformation campaign, deliberately stoking racial tensions in the U.S., he added.

As for Song, if she is convicted, she faces a $250,000 fine and as much as 10 years in prison.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

FoxNews.com

NewsTarget.com
US President Donald Trump arrives to speak to the press in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on August 4, 2020.

Prosecutors in New York have subpoenaed President Donald Trump's financial records from his longtime lender Deutsche Bank in a criminal probe, according to a report.

The Manhattan District Attorney's office last year issued the subpoena for the records, The New York Times reported Wednesday, citing four people familiar with the inquiry. The move suggests the inquiry into Trump's business practices is broader than previously known, the Times said.

Deutsche Bank complied with the subpoena, supplying the DA Cyrus Vance Jr.'s office with financial statements and other records Trump and the Trump Organization had given the bank when he was seeking loans, two people familiar with the inquiry told the Times.

Deutsche Bank declined CNBC's request for comment. The DA's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Vance himself revealed as recently as this week that his office could be investigating Trump and the Trump Organization for possible insurance and bank fraud.

Vance's office is also seeking Trump's financial records from the accounting firm Mazars USA as part of a probe into how the Trump Organization accounted for a hush-money payment to porn star,Stormy Daniels, who says she had sex with Trump years ago. Trump has denied having sex with Daniels.

Late last month, Trump's lawyers filed a new effort to block the Manhattan DA from obtaining his tax records. The lawsuit came after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Trump as president did not have unqualified immunity, as his lawyers had argued, against a state prosecutor seeking his records as part of a criminal probe.
Every year in August, my existence boils down to lying on the floor under the fan. That's it.

It's that time of the summer where we all remember why summer is actually the worst and then start trying to one-up each other on how hot it is in our respective states. And Texans take a unique pride in yelling about our particular brand of hellish heat.

CHILL OUT: Ice Cream shops to pick up cool treats during Houston's heat

So when The Sun newspaper decided to prove how hot it is in the U.K. by completely melting an ice cream bar outside in approximately 21 minutes, I thought the power of Houston's Texas temperatures could do better than that.

In the name of science, I picked up some Haagen-Dazs Soft Dipped Vanilla ice cream bars from H-E-B and proceeded to completely waste one sitting outside my apartment in the hot sun.
A document on the ministry of defence website that admitted to Chinese intrusion into Indian territory in eastern Ladakh three months after the standoff started has vanished on Thursday afternoon, two days after it was uploaded.

Clicking on the document, which was on the news section of the MoD website since Tuesday, now shows the URL cannot be found.

The document was the first official acknowledgment from the central government of intrusion into Indian territory by the Peoples Liberation Army amid the deadlock over troop disengagement at faceoff sites near Pangong lake and Gogra despite five rounds of commander-level talks.

The defence ministry officially used the word 'transgressed' as a euphemism for 'intrusion' across the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

"Chinese aggression has been increasing along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and more particularly in Galwan valley since May 5, 2020. The Chinese side has transgressed in the areas of Kungrang Nala, Gogra and north bank of Pangong Tso Lake on May 17-18," the ministry had stated in the "What's New" section under the title "Chinese Aggression on LAC".

A screengrab of the document that was posted on the MoD website two days ago.

The document said the stand-off could be prolonged and the evolving situation may need prompt action. The government had till now not admitted to the intrusion in any statement or document ever since the first military clash on the north bank of Pangong Tso on May 5-6.

However, the link on the website is not working anymore. A defence ministry spokesperson told the NDTV that the document "did not go through him".

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who has been severely critical of the governments handling of the border standoff with China, had also cited a report on the now-deleted document and asked in a tweet: "Why is the PM lying?"

Earlier, defence minister Rajnath Singh, had in an interview with News18 in end-May, said a sizeable number of Chinese soldiers had "come a little further than they used to earlier". But it was officially clarified that it should not be "misinterpreted as if Chinese troops entered the Indian side of the LAC", the report said.

After five rounds of commander-level talks for disengament, several reports have indicated that Beijing is unwilling to return to the previous status quo and remains in possession of land that Indian troops used to patrol.

News18 had on Tuesday reported that Chinese troops remain entrenched at Finger 4, near a location called Green Top, which offers a view of the Indian Armys logistics hub around the Pangong lake. Chinese troops are also preventing Indian soldiers from accessing a number of their patrolling points in the strategically important Depsang Plains, by blocking off the bottleneck or Y-junction in the area.
Sumi Sukanya Dutta By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The Centre has released Rs 890.32 crore as the second instalment of the Covid-19 relief package to 22 states and Union Territories, and said that the aid has been provided based on the Covid-19 situation in the states.

The second instalment has been sanctioned nearly 4 months after providing Rs 3,000 crore in the first tranche which was distributed among all the states.

The states that have been given the aid include Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Sikkim.

Maharashtra, which has the highest Covid-19 case load in India since the beginning of the pandemic, however, does not feature in the list, nor does Bihar--which has seen a near explosion of infection over the last few weeks.

Another state witnessing a rapid surge in cases that has not made the cut is Uttar Pradesh.

As part of the Whole of Government approach where the Centre is leading the Covid-19 response and management, and supporting the states through technical and financial resources, the Covid-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package was announced by the Prime Minister, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in a statement on Thursday.

The financial aid as part of the second instalment is slated to be used for strengthening of public health facilities infrastructure for testing including procurement and installation of RTPCR machines, RNA extraction kits, TRUNAT & CBNAAT machines, strengthening of public health facilities infrastructure for treatment and development of ICU beds.

It will also be used for the installation of oxygen generators, cryogenic oxygen tanks and medical gas pipelines in public health facilities and procurement of bedside oxygen concentrators and engagement, training and capacity building of necessary Human Resources and incentives to healthcare workforce and volunteers, including ASHA on Covid duties.

The first instalment of Rs 3000 crore was released in April to all states and enabled them to ramp up testing facilities, augment hospital infrastructure, conduct surveillance activities along with procurement of essential equipment, drugs and other supplies.

The health ministry stressed that as part of this package, states have been strengthened with 5,80,342 isolation beds, 1,36,068 oxygen supported beds and 31,255 ICU beds.

Also, 86,88,357 testing kits and 79,88,366 Vial Transport Media have been procured by them.

As many as 96,557 human resources have been added in the states and incentive has been given to 6,65,799 personnel, said the government.
By AzerNews

By Akbar Mammadov

President Ilham Aliyev has said that there are positive dynamics in the countrys fight against COVID-19 and situation around the pandemic is under control.

Aliyev made this remark at the government session held via video conference on measures to combat COVID-19 and the socio-economic situation in the country.

There is positive dynamics in the fight against coronavirus. The positive trend observed since 16 July gives us a reason to say that all measures taken were quite timely. As a result of these measures, the situation is under control to this day. Since July 16, the number of new infection cases is far lower than the number of people recovering from the disease. This positive trend suggests that we will continue to keep the coronavirus disease under control, Aliyev said.

The president noted that presently, 46 hospitals across the country treat only coronavirus patients. Of these 46 hospitals, 41 were built or overhauled and provided with state-of-the-art equipment in the past 17 years. If we had not taken these steps on time, we would be faced with great problems and a tragic situation today, the president said.

Aliyev stressed that Azerbaijan is one of the leading countries in the world in terms of the number of tests per capita.

We have increased five-fold the number of laboratories in a short period of time. The new laboratories to be acquired in the near future will enable even more tests. We must increase the total number of laboratories to 45, the president said.

Aliyev reminded that 40 new ambulances were brought to the country recently and that their number will reach 100.

The president also touched upon the construction of new hospitals.

Nine modular hospitals have been commissioned to date. Four of them started operating in one day  on 29 July. These hospitals were opened with my participation in Gobustan, Ismayilli, Gabala and Shaki. In the near future, the total number of modular hospitals will reach 16. A total of 3,200 coronavirus patients will be treated in these hospitals alone, he said.

Aliyev underlined that an 800-bed hospital has already been commissioned through the Ministry of Emergency Situations, and a 1,300-bed hospital will be commissioned by the end of August, which amounts to additional 2,100 beds.

He reminded that Azerbaijan recently turned two Olympic Sports Complexes into hospitals in a short period of time. Each of these complexes has a capacity to treaty about 300 patients.

There is no need for that yet, but if there is a need, we can, of course, use these opportunities, Aliyev said.

Commenting on the number of doctors treating COVID-19 patients, Aliyev said that presently, doctors from several countries have been invited to the country. Medical teams from Turkey, Russia, Cuba, Italy and China have arrived in Azerbaijan and have already started working. This, of course, gives us additional opportunities.

Social aid

The president reiterated his earlier statement that COVID-19 will not affect the social project carried out in the country.

Our extensive social package has covered around 5 million people. The vast majority of the 900,000 people working in the public sector are unemployed, but are paid by the state. 760,000 people were provided with the necessary financial support and their jobs were protected. Otherwise, 760,000 people could have lost their jobs as sectors they are employed in are the ones that have suffered most as a result of the pandemic, Aliyev said.

The president highlighted the fact that 600,000 unemployed people have received 190 manats in allowance for several months now. The aid package also covers unofficially employed people and people who have temporarily lost their jobs, as well as those of low-income families.

Aliyev said that social support program must be continued in the 13 cities and regions where the strict quarantine regime is applied.

The president stressed that in 2020, the volume of social projects reached a record level, adding that not a single social project has been remained unfinished or reduced.

This year a record number of IDP families will be provided with houses and apartments. Over 7,000 IDP families will benefit from this opportunity. A record number of 1,500 families of martyrs and disabled people of the Karabakh war will be provided with housing this year. More than 400 servicemen who impeccably served in the army will be provided with free housing by the state. This means, at least 9,000 families will be provided with housing by the state this year, Aliyev said.

Support to businesses

The president reiterated the importance of business support programs amid COVID-19.

Business support programs must be further implemented. I believe the projects planned at the beginning of the year, the provision of loans and subsidies to entrepreneurs on favorable terms, the stimulation of agriculture, as well as the works done in connection with the pandemic, fully reflect our policy, Aliyev said.

Furthermore, the president said that Azerbaijans solid economic foundation allows the government to tackle any economic crisis and fluctuations in oil prices.

Even if the oil price is at $35, Azerbaijan will fulfill all social obligations, implement infrastructure projects and create additional funds to strengthen its military potential, Aliyev said.

The government session was participated by Prime Minister Ali Asadov, Economy Minister Mikayil Jabbarov and Sahil Babayev, Minister of Social Protection of Population and Labor.








OTTAWABritish Columbias transport minister made an official plea to her federal counterpart Wednesday to quickly make airlines provide more details on travellers to aid contact tracing efforts that could help slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Concerns about the level of detail airlines provide have been greatest in B.C., where the provincial health officer has lamented a lack of movement from federal officials.

In a letter to Transport Minister Marc Garneau, the B.C. government noted the information the province has received from airlines is not necessarily complete and is sometimes unusable.

B.C. Transport Minister Claire Trevena said the data often includes the names of travel agencies that booked flights, a frequent flyer number, or the person who booked the ticket but not necessarily the name and contact information of the person who actually flew on the plane.

She urged the government to ensure the data gathered is usable and traces back to the individual traveller directly, rather than simply listing flights with a positive COVID-19 case.

We have come so far together as a country with much success to curb the spread of COVID-19, reads the letter. A copy was provided to The Canadian Press.

As we restart our economy, however, we want to ensure all passengers and communities remain safe and that nobody is put at risk due to any oversight.

Garneau and Trevena spoke on Wednesday afternoon, his spokesperson said. Livia Belcea said in an email that Garneau committed to create a way for airlines to share passenger data to trace individuals who may have been exposed to COVID-19 while on a domestic flight.

The Public Health Agency of Canada already requires airlines to provide information on travellers arriving on international flights, who are subject to strict quarantine rules, but its domestic flights where issues have arisen.

The divide in talks between Ottawa and the airlines appears to fall along whether phone numbers or email addresses are enough, or if residential addresses, for instance, should also be part of any handover.

Mike McNaney, president of the National Airlines Council of Canada, said in a statement that flight information is provided when requested, per established procedures for communicable diseases and usually in less than 24 hours.

Our members are fully committed to protecting public safety, the statement said.

Public health officials tried to trace contacts for every person early on in the pandemic, but those efforts slowed as people were ordered to stay home or quarantine, and as travel dropped.

Dr. Theresa Tam, Canadas chief public health officer, said Tuesday there could be improvements to the data that airlines provide, noting flight manifests lack all sorts of details that make it difficult to reach people in certain seats.

Tam also said there hasnt been a confirmed case of in-flight transmission.

Very few of our cases actually come from travellers at the moment, she said. But now that our case numbers have gone down, theres been more interest in why dont we follow some of these planes and see if theres been any contact at all thats been exposed or transmitted.

The federal health agency she leads referred further questions to Transport Canada, which had previously referred questions to the health agency.

Air operators have to record the names of everyone on board an aircraft, but there is no federal requirement that they submit passenger manifests to Transport Canada, said Belcea.

NDP transport critic Niki Ashton said the federal government needs to take a harder line on carriers to provide the necessary information for contact tracing.

Airlines should be making sure that accurate information is being shared as soon as possible and it shouldnt be up to them to pick and choose how they do it, she said.

It should be the federal government mandating them.

Read more about:
The High Court has declared that Meghan Markle's five friends who defended her on "People" magazine would not yet be identified in court.

The Duchess of Sussex has secured the right to keep furtive the identities of the five friends who anonymously gave their account to ''People'' magazine to protect her name from what she supposed as bullying.

The duchess was able to put a stop to Associated Newspapers that owned "Daily Mail'' and the ''Mail on Sunday,'' from publishing the names of five of her friends.

The judge deliberated that the insiders' identities would remain in secrecy "for the time being.'' Her court battle against the "Mail on Sunday'' continued on Wednesday, reported ET Canada.

The ruling is the most recent phase of Markle's legal action. She brought the legal action over an article that published portions of her handwritten letter directed to her father, Thomas Markle in August 2018, indicated ''Evening Standard.''

Markle deemed the letter as "private and confidential." Associated Newspapers claimed that it included the handwritten letter in five articles -- two in The Mail On Sunday and three on MailOnline -- as referenced by Meghan's friends in the aforementioned interview, reported Sky News.

Justice Warby cautioned that the identities of Meghan Markle's friends could be made public in the future as a necessity. The identities of the friends were addressed as A, B, C, D, and E and are known to the judge. They are not to be divulged "for the time being."

Also Read: Prince William Not Allowed to Use Twitter?

According to lawyers for "The Mail," the five friends disclosed the existence of the letter meaning Thomas Markle had a right to respond.

In the US celebrity magazine's article, Markle's friends described her relationship with the estranged father.

According to Justice Warby, "I have concluded that for the time being at least the Court should grant the claimant the orders she seeks, the effect of which will be to confer protection on the sources' identities."

"That is confidential information, the protection of which at this stage is necessary in the interests of the administration of justice. This is an interim decision," he added.

Markle's legal team released a statement, "The Duchess felt it was necessary to take this step to try and protect her friends-as any of us would-and we're glad this was clear. We are happy that the Judge has agreed to protect these five individuals."

The private letter was sent three months after Markle's wedding ceremony with Prince Harry.

Associated Newspapers contended that the letter was first cited in the "People" cover narrative and her friends can be regarded as witnesses and therefore specified, they stated during a pre-trial hearing a week ago.

Markle said her five friends spoke to the magazine without her knowledge and denied allegations made by Associated Newspapers that she authorized the article which condemned the bullying she has experienced to be published.

A spokesperson for Meghan Markle stated that her intentions regarded the interests of her five friends.

Related Article: Prince Harry Felt Like a 'Spare Wheel' With Prince William, Kate Middleton

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YEREVAN.  When we say "house," we should not think of four walls, one roof; when we say "park," we should not think of four benches; Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said this at Thursdays Cabinet meeting of the governmentand referring to national construction in Armenia.

According to him, a new building culture, color, and philosophy should enter those small spaces. "What we are doing, what we are talking about, must be expressed in that work," he said.

Pashinyan addressed the issue of shelters, too. "Now what we are building, creating, it shall be the new Armenia, the physical expression and change of the New Armenia," he said.

"We have to get out of the logic of 'getting by,' and we have to develop," Pashinyan added.
ANN ARBOR, Michigan -- When COVID-19 struck, health care pivoted hard. Any unnecessary procedures or appointments were postponed. For people with cancer, that pivot was particularly shattering.

"COVID-19 changed the face of health care in the United States virtually overnight. Oncologists were discussing with their patients whether the benefit of coming in for treatment outweighed the risk of being exposed to the virus in the health care setting," says Laila A. Gharzai, M.D., LLM, a radiation oncology resident at Michigan Medicine.

"It was a challenging shift for physicians, and we personally wanted some help navigating these conversations," she says.

In response, Gharzai and colleagues interviewed eight physicians to identify specific communication challenges related to COVID-19 and surveyed 48 patients to get their perspective.

They identified three core communication strategies and applied them to eight specific scenarios impacting patients, including concerns around risk of COVID-19, delays in testing or treatment, changes to treatment and follow-up care. Informed by the communication strategies, the team created examples of language that oncologists could use to respond to patients empathetically. Their results are published in JAMA Oncology.

"What impacted me most was hearing just how tough these conversations were. As oncologists, we are used to having tough conversations with our patients. COVID-related conversations took this to a whole other level, by incorporating a new challenge of having to view all of our decisions with a public health lens. This guide was important to give providers a quick resource when they needed it most," Gharzai says.

Patients' concerns ranged from their risk of getting coronavirus to fears that a delayed test could miss a growing cancer. Many patients felt they were being punished or ignored, as if their health needs were less important. And while the decisions were all made with a view toward keeping patients safe from the greater threat of COVID-19, cancer is not used to taking a backseat.

"Patients are understandably emotional when they receive a cancer diagnosis, even under normal circumstances. This emotional response was amplified by the stress of changes due to the pandemic," says Reshma Jagsi, M.D., D.Phil, Newman Family Professor and deputy chair of radiation oncology at Michigan Medicine and senior author on the paper.

"The practical language in the guide really helped me to reassure patients that I recognized their very appropriate emotions, that I care deeply about them, and that I was going to try to help," she says.

The team published their guidelines online in April, when COVID-19 was peaking in Michigan. It remains available to providers.

###

Additional authors: Kenneth Resnicow, Lawrence C. An

Funding: None

Disclosure: None

Reference: JAMA Oncology, doi: 10.1001/jamaoncol.2020.2980, published Aug. 6, 2020

Resources:

University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center, http://www.rogelcancercenter.org

Michigan Health Lab, http://www.MichiganHealthLab.org

Michigan Medicine Cancer AnswerLine, 800-865-1125
A German neo-Nazi on trial over the murder of pro-refugee politician Walter Luebcke admitted Wednesday to the killing that has shocked the nation and highlighted the growing threat of right-wing extremism. "I fired the shot," Stephan Ernst, 46, told the court of the killing in a statement read out by his defence. Federal prosecutors have said Ernst was motivated by "racism and xenophobia" when he allegedly shot Luebcke in the head on June 1, 2019. Luebcke's killing is believed to be Germany's first far-right political assassination since World War II. Apologising to the victim's family, Ernst said he had carried out a "cowardly and cruel" act. He insisted that he did not act alone but along with co-defendant Markus Hartmann, who stands accused of helping him train with firearms -- including the murder weapon. "I know that what I and Hartmann did to you will always be inexcusable. What we did was wrong," he told the family in the statement. "No one should die because he has another view," said Ernst, adding that he had been "misled by wrong ideas". - 'Hatred of foreigners' - Luebcke belonged to Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative CDU party and headed the Kassel regional council in the western state of Hesse. He supported Merkel's 2015 decision to open the country's borders to refugees, with more than one million arriving since then, and spoke in favour of hosting asylum seekers in a local town. Prosecutors say Ernst and his accomplice attended a speech by Luebcke in October 2015 when the politician defended helping refugees, adding that anyone who did not agree with those values was "free to leave the country". The remark was widely shared online and turned Luebcke into a hate figure for the far right. After the speech, Ernst "increasingly projected his hatred of foreigners" on to Luebcke, according to the indictment. Angered by mass sexual assaults by migrants against women in Cologne on New Year's Eve 2015 and the 2016 terror attack in the French city of Nice, Ernst "began planning the murder in earnest" and started tracking Luebcke's movements, the indictment said. Between 2016 and 2018, prosecutors say Ernst worked with Hartmann to improve his skill with firearms, and the two attended right-wing demonstrations together. In the course of their investigations, prosecutors separately charged Ernst with attempted murder for allegedly stabbing an Iraqi asylum seeker in the back in 2016. - Long criminal history - Ernst has a long criminal history and was known to police as a neo-Nazi sympathiser. He was convicted of an attempted bomb attack on an asylum home in 1993. In 2009, German media say he took part in clashes between neo-Nazis and union members at a demonstration. But Ernst then slipped off the security services' radar, leading to criticism that the authorities were not taking the far-right threat seriously enough. German law enforcers have been under fire for overlooking racist crimes after it emerged that a neo-Nazi terror cell, the National Socialist Underground, had killed 10 people, mostly immigrants, between 2000 and 2007. The country has also been hit by a string of far-right attacks over the last year. In October 2019, just months after Luebcke's death, Germany was rocked by a shooting at a synagogue in the eastern city of Halle that left two dead. The suspect later admitted to anti-Semitic and far-right motives. In February this year, another gunman shot dead nine people of migrant origin in the central town of Hanau. Interior Minister Horst Seehofer recently declared far-right extremism the "biggest security threat facing Germany". He has promised tougher security measures, including a crackdown on online hate speech.
If I had been asked to write a how I spent my summer vacation essay in 1977 it would have been a story about a small town boy, thrown into a city of power-hungry strangers, who got caught in a nasty political vortex, was legally harassed and almost wound up in jail.

I was only 17.

What happened to me that summer of 77 might have been concerning if it also wasnt thrilling, insightful and, in many ways, comical.

That was the summer I attended Boys State Arizona, a program sponsored by the American Legion and organized as an immersive, intensely participatory experience in how government works. One of five boys from Casa Grande Union High School (Casa Grande, Ariz., is a farming town halfway between Phoenix and Tucson), I had no idea what to expect from this exercise in mock government. I only knew I had to do well: Boys State was a big deal for overachieving juniors headed into their senior year.

On PreviewHouston.com: Meet Katy teen Steven Garza, star of the hit documentary at Sundance, Boys State

On the yellow school bus headed up to Flagstaff, Ariz., where our week-long event was set on the campus of Northern Arizona University, I wondered how best to assert myself into the Boys State mechanism. We were expected to vigorously participate in this civics lesson where we formed city, county and state government that required mayors, state house and senate seats, even a judicial system, as we worked our way to electing a governor. Split into two parties  Federalist and Nationalists  once we arrived, we had to dive into the multi-faceted scenario of what it means to be an active, politically minded American citizen.

Running for offices and giving speeches was key to wooing this teenage electorate of hormones and hubris. And I was good at that. After all, I was elected to student government in my high school and I was a speech team champ in debate, oratory and extemporaneous speaking. I had the chops to ascend to the highest tiers of Boys State.

But within hours of arriving, I was singled out as a newspaperman. Boys State advisors knew I worked for both my high school newspaper and yearbook, so I was tapped to be on the staff of the Boys State Record, the daily newspaper covering the machinations of our make-believe state. By the end of the day I was named editor-in-chief.

And then the fun began. Our newspaper was organized much like a real newsgathering operation  reporters, editors and even an advertising staff that solicited political ads that were paid for using Boys State money. Yes, we even had fake money.

The Record covered all aspects of the evolving political process leading up to the grand convention to elect the highest office, governor. And, like a real newsroom, our hours were long. I dont recall attending any of the mandatory meetings for establishing local government or any of my partys caucuses. In what was to become a practice that became my entire adult working life, I was glued to a newsroom day and night, oblivious to a real world that wasnt directly tied to putting out a daily newspaper.

That real world crashed into my newsroom one day when I was served with a lawsuit. An ad that misrepresented the political platform of one of the parties made its way into the paper. We later discerned it was paid for by a rogue group seeking to discredit that party.

The ad, which obviously wasnt vetted by the crackerjack advertising department, was a hoax. But we printed it, and the newspaper had to answer for it. A stain on the Record, we issued an apology and explanation the next day. But I was legally still on the hook.

With my court date set, and the threat of spending the rest of the week in the Boys State slammer, I turned to my advisor. What do I do? Hire a Boys State attorney, he said. So I did, paying him with the cash pile of Monopoly money the newspaper had collected from ad sales.

With my attorney at my side, I walked into Boys State Court nervous and apprehensive. I had no idea what my attorneys legal defense would be, except to explain that we were the victim of a hoax. But my lawyer read the lawsuit well and his opening statement was succinct. He asked that the action  I was accused of slander  be immediately dismissed.

Why? The judge asked.

Because, my attorney said with a knowing smile on his face, slander is the spoken word; libel is written.

Boom! I was out the courthouse doors in a flash and back to my office to put out the last issue of the Boys State Record.

Not only did the lawsuit teach me and anyone in that courtroom a journalism fundamental, it proved that the system of government we had set up worked. Justice prevailed. Boys State never felt so real as in that moment.

I dont know where my brilliant attorney wound up, but I hope hes raking in the dough in a successful legal practice. But in college, I happened to meet that Boys State judge. He had no recollection of that day in court. His whole Boys State experience was a judicial blur, he said.

But for me it was a sweet spot  an indelible memory of civics at its best. Forty years later, Im still in the newspaper business. And while Ive never been sued as a real-life journalist, that crazy mock government taught me a lesson Ill never forget.

And thats how I spent my summer of 1977. Boys State proud. And free.

greg.morago@chron.com
For school districts in Texas, the choice for how - or if- to reopen amid the COVID-19 pandemic is fairly simple. In order to receive government funding, public schools must follow mandates from the Texas Education Agency, the state agency that oversees primary and secondary public education.

Private schools, however, do not have to follow orders from the TEA or any local authorities, including county judges and the governor. As a result, local private schools have the autonomy to create their own learning plan to navigate the pandemic.

BACK TO SCHOOL? Abbott: Texas school districts should decide for themselves when to reopen

Some schools, like Faith West Academy, have chosen to follow the same general plan outlined by the TEA. Faith West Academy will offer the option of either on-campus instruction or remote instruction for all students.

Mary Strickland, principal of Faith West Academy, said that modeling their instruction after the TEA enabled them to streamline their decision-making process. The TEA has been an absolute wealth of information for us, Strickland said. They take what the (Centers for Disease Control) says and really break it down into what is meaningful for a school setting.

Randy Einem, executive director of Westlake Preparatory, said that his school modeled the TEAs reopening guidelines, but added other considerations as well. We were able to really have conversations with our parents about what they think is best, and we took that into account as well.

Other schools like Epiphany Catholic School took an entirely different approach to returning to school. Epiphany moved the start date back by three weeks rather than attempt to juggle the shift from online learning to in-class learning three weeks into the year. The school year will end three weeks later to accommodate the later start.

ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Alief ISD students become Houston's 1st to log in for school year

We discussed starting virtually on our original start date, as some other schools have chosen, but after reflecting on the spring semester and the logistical struggles to get everyone online and moving in the right direction, we felt going virtually for two to three weeks and then moving to in-person was not beneficial for students or faculty, said Dr. Nicholas Morgan, Epiphany Catholic School principal. By the time we get everyone online and moving forward, we would be looking to transition to in-person - so it does not seem worthwhile.

Epiphany Catholic School is offering parents an online-only option, but it will be separate from in-school learning. Parents may choose whether to send their children to the classroom or to continue distance learning, but the school itself will not transition back and forth.

The smaller student body and class sizes in private school, too, have proven advantageous in reopening safely during the pandemic, the principals said.

Strickland said that the school sent a survey to parents and found that around 75 percent favored in-school learning. The teachers, too, overwhelmingly favored returning to in-school learning. The school was able to weigh their opinions heavily when deciding what course of action to take.

We knew the parents were in favor of (returning to class), and we had heard from a lot of our teachers also that this was what they really wanted, so we were able to look at reopening our campus with their choices in mind, Strickland said.

Einem too, stated that between 75 and 80 percent of the Westlake Preparatory parents supported returning to class.

MORE FROM CLAIRE GOODMAN: What happens if divorced parents dont agree on COVID-19 learning?

Morgan noted that smaller class sizes makes social distancing easier at Epiphany, and the staff can more easily check temperatures and observe the safety practices of the students.

Without government oversight, Strickland added, her administrative staff is able to manipulate the students schedules to maximize social distancing. We looked at each classroom and how many students it could accommodate, and if we felt a class was too full, we moved the schedule around so there would be fewer students at any given time, she explained.

Much like their public school counterparts, however, private schools are still uncertain how the school year will unfold.

Theres no way for anyone to know what the best course of action is, so during this time, were going to encourage and comfort and work together as a team and do our best, Einem said. Our faith comes through here, and we know God is with us and will bless our efforts.

claire.goodman@chron.com
A new drama played out in the Edo State House of Assembly on Thursday with the reported impeachment of the speaker, Frank Okiye, by 17 lawmakers.

Thursdays drama started with a spokesperson of Governor Godwin Obaseki announcing that some police officers brought into the state from Abuja had taken over the assembly complex which is being renovated.

Crusoe Osagie suggested that the police officers were there to do the bidding of ex-governor Adams Oshiomhole who enjoys the support of the 17 members in his bid to ensure Mr Obaseki is not re-elected.

However, Mr Okiye, who now enjoys the support of only six other members of the 24-member assembly, said he and the other lawmakers had unrestricted access to the assembly complex.

Hours after the announcement by Mr Osagie, Punch newspaper reported that the opposition 17 lawmakers met at an undisclosed location where they impeached Mr Okiye.

Fourteen of those lawmakers where those who were not inaugurated as lawmakers and whose seats were controversially declared vacant by the minority 10 lawmakers led by Mr Okiye.

However, three of Mr Okiyes nine supporters, including the deputy speaker of the assembly, Yekini Idiaye, later joined the 14 lawmakers to make a total 17 against Mr Obasekis re-election plan.

READ ALSO:

Mr Idiaye, after his defection, was controversially impeached by the remaining six lawmakers and Mr Okiye.

The embattled speaker was among the seven pro-Obaseki lawmakers who controversially impeached Mr Idiaye on Wednesday, two days after he declared his support for the APC governorship candidate, Osagie Ize-Iyamu.

Mr Okiye, in a phone interview with PREMIUM TIMES earlier on Thursday, accused Mr Oshiomhole and some governors of the party of queuing behind Mr Idiaye to commit an illegal act.

However, according to the Punch newspaper report, Mr Okiye has now been impeached by the 17 lawmakers and replaced with Victor Edoror, a representative of Central constituency, while Emmanuel Agbaje of Akoko Edo Constituency II was announced as the new deputy speaker of the assembly.

Before the impeachment, the 14 lawmakers who were not inaugurated since last year were inaugurated by their three colleagues.

It is yet uncertain how this impeachment will play out as it was done outside the assembly complex and without the assemblys mace, the symbol of authority of the parliament.

Efforts to contact Vincent Uwaidia and Christopher Okaeben, two of the newly inaugurated lawmakers, were unsuccessful as they did not return calls to their phones.
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REDMOND  The nonprofit Together Center announced this week that it has secured approximately $63.1 million in tax credit and bond financing from the Washington State Housing Finance Commission. That, plus another $6.8 million from Microsoft, will go toward the redevelopment of its old 1980s complex at 16225 N.E. 87th St. in downtown Redmond.

As the DJC first reported in June, the plan, with partner Inland Group, is for two six-story buildings with 280 permanently affordable units. Horizon Housing Alliance will manage the 80 units reserved for the formerly homeless. The other 200 will be for tenants earning between 50 to 60% of area median income.





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The actor made arrangements for 100 Indian students from Chennai and 1 from Delhi, who were stuck in Russia to get back home. The young students who returned to Chennai on Wednesday, earlier this week, are now quarantined in different parts of the city. A news portal got in touch with a student who arrived from Russia. He said, The flight had a seating capacity for 200 passengers. We were only 101 students, including one student from Delhi. We were not sure if the private airlines would operate chartered flights for our strength. But, we learned actor Sonu Sood paid the remaining money to book the entire flight and facilitated our travel.

Ever since the lockdown came into action, the actor has constantly been a part of acts of kindness and looks like hes done it again.

As the entire country struggles to deal with the pandemic, Sonu Sood has proved to be a hero for those in need. After helping thousands from different corners of the country, the actor has now begun to help Indians stuck up abroad.
Technavio has been monitoring the metal powders market and it is poised to grow by USD 765.61 million during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of over 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/20200806005623/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Metal Powders Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire)

Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please Request Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impact

Frequently Asked Questions

What was the value of the metal powders market in 2019?

Technavio says that the value of the market was at USD 4,202.46 million in 2019 and is projected to reach USD 4,968.07 million by 2024.

At what rate is the market projected to grow during the forecast period 2020-2024?

Growing at a CAGR of over 3%, the market growth will accelerate in the forecast period.

What is the key factor driving the market?

Demand from additive manufacturing (AM) is one of the key factors driving the market growth.

Who are the top players in the market?

Alcoa Corp., Allegheny Technologies Inc., AMETEK Inc., BASF SE, GKN Sinter Metals Engineering GmbH, Hitachi Chemical Co. Ltd., Hoganas AB, Praxair Inc., Rio Tinto Ltd., and Sandvik AB are some of the major market participants.

Which region is expected to hold the highest market share?

North America

What is the year-over-year growth rate of the global market?

The year-over-year growth rate for 2020 is estimated at 3.20%.

The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. Alcoa Corp., Allegheny Technologies Inc., AMETEK Inc., BASF SE, GKN Sinter Metals Engineering GmbH, Hitachi Chemical Co. Ltd., Hoganas AB, Praxair Inc., Rio Tinto Ltd., and Sandvik AB 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.

Demand from additive manufacturing (AM) has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market.

Metal Powders Market 2020-2024: Segmentation

Metal Powders Market is segmented as below:

Type Ferrous Metal Powder Non-ferrous Metal Powder Others

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=IRTNTR43439

Metal Powders 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 metal powders market report covers the following areas:

Metal Powders Market size

Metal Powders Market trends

Metal Powders Market analysis

This study identifies increased use of powder metallurgy (PM) technology as one of the prime reasons driving the metal powders market growth during the next few years.

Metal Powders Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of vendors operating in the metal powders market, including some of the vendors such as Alcoa Corp., Allegheny Technologies Inc., AMETEK Inc., BASF SE, GKN Sinter Metals Engineering GmbH, Hitachi Chemical Co. Ltd., Hoganas AB, Praxair Inc., Rio Tinto Ltd., and Sandvik AB. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the metal powders market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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Metal Powders Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist metal powders market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the metal powders market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the metal powders market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of metal powders market vendors

Table of Contents:

Executive Summary

Market Landscape

Market ecosystem

Market characteristics

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

Ferrous metal powder Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Non-ferrous metal powder Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Others 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

Market Drivers

Market Challenges

Market Trends

Vendor Landscape

Overview

Vendor landscape

Landscape disruption

Vendor Analysis

Vendors covered

Market positioning of vendors

Alcoa Corp.

Allegheny Technologies Inc.

AMETEK Inc.

BASF SE

GKN Sinter Metals Engineering GmbH

Hitachi Chemical Co. Ltd.

Hoganas AB

Praxair Inc.

Rio Tinto Ltd.

Sandvik AB

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 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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Jesse Maida

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Across the country, many of the public schools that are scheduled to open their doors within the next few weeks are still in limbo as to whether they should open on time and how they should operate  with full-scale in-person classroom instruction, with online learning only, or with some hybrid of the two. But the right call is becoming clearer by the day: It's too soon to bring students and teachers back into the classroom.Most communities are not ready to reopen their schools for traditional classes because neither government leaders nor the public have done nearly enough to curb the spread of the coronavirus or make the necessary preparations that would be required to operate schools safely.Tens of thousands of new cases of COVID-19 are being reported every day and the death toll is averaging more than a thousand daily, with Sun Belt states seeing most of the biggest surges. It's becoming ever clearer that this grim tally will continue until an effective vaccine is available. Until then, the possibility that students, their parents, teachers and school staff could become infected with the coronavirus and spread it widely to their communities should gravely concern every public official. The danger is hardly speculative: Schools that are among the earliest to reopen are already seeing positive cases The arguments that students learn better in a classroom setting, that they are suffering psychologically from social isolation, and that school closures have been particularly hard on working families are all legitimate. But are we really prepared to further risk the health of our children and of our communities by putting them in an environment where most of the practices to curb the virus will be difficult, if not impossible, to consistently follow?And the danger to school staff members if they are forced to return to work should not be underestimated. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 25 percent of teachers are at risk of serious illness if they become infected with COVID-19, either because of their age  65 or older  or their underlying health conditions.The rush to reopen fully for in-person instruction has been driven in part by President Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, whose demands have been accompanied with threats of losing federal funds. Those demands appear to run afoul of guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention a few weeks ago: Among other things, the CDC counseled going with small, socially distanced class sizes, emphasizing hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette, and requiring cloth face coverings  common-sense precautions the president said were too strict and many school officials say will be difficult to implement.The political pressure has been so intense that the CDC issued a new set of "resources and tools" for school reopening , with CDC Director Robert Redfield saying that "the goal line is to get the majority of these students back to face-to-face learning," a stance that was seen by many as a capitulation after the president criticized the earlier guidelines. Clearly this is not what most Americans expect of our top health officials. The public must feel confident that decisions to reopen schools are based on the best scientific evidence available and the professional advice of educators.Despite the threats and pressure, many school officials are still doing the right thing by listening to local health experts and deciding for themselves when and how best to reopen. I see this in my own state of Georgia, where, according to a recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution article on how Georgia schools plan to start the school year, most school official are delaying opening and say that when they do open they plan to implement a hybrid approach to instruction. "Teachers will check in virtually  via some video conferencing software allowing them to see the dozens of children they would normally engage with through rows or groups of desks," the newspaper reported.The larger school districts in metropolitan Atlanta recently reversed themselves from offering parents an option to send their children to school traditionally or attend virtually, opting to go all-virtual because of the spikes in the virus. Other schools in the state plan to meet on campus a few days a week and do virtual learning on other days. Then there are superintendents who plan to prioritize on-campus learning but restrict it to students with special learning needs, such as those who have autism. Many of these options are complex and carry with them implications difficult to foresee, but they all prioritize the health of students.The ultimate decider of when schools will fully reopen will undoubtedly be parents, at least those who have the freedom and budgets to stay home and monitor their children's academic progress and assist with their homework. As a caring society, we must ensure that the option to telework is given to as many parents as possible, so that the decision to send one's children to school and possibly expose them to the coronavirus is not based on family income and social status.We are still in an existential fight with the coronavirus, and we do not know precisely how or when this battle will end. We do know the virus is apolitical and knows no local or state boundaries. There are no quick or easy solutions. One can only pray that public officials learned something from reopening our economy too soon. We do not want this to happen again by prematurely reopening schools. Much of what our children lose in a semester or two of distance learning can be made up in time, but a lost life is forever.GoverningGoverning
Kyiv Court of Appeal overturned the judgment of Pechersky District Court of Kyiv on seizure of 42 paintings of fifth President of Ukraine, Leader of the European Solidarity Party Petro Poroshenko, under the investigation into the alleged illegal movement of art treasures across the state border.

The Register of Judgments states that the decision to cancel the seizure was issued on July 27, 2020.

"The appeal of lawyer Holovan must be redressed. The decision of the investigating judge of Pechersky District Court of Kyiv dated May 27, 2020, who seized property of 42 paintings and one lithograph, which are material evidence in criminal proceedings has to be cancelled and new decision, which to refuse in sustaining the prosecutor's motion for the seizure of property has to be made," Kyiv Court of Appeal said in its decision.

As reported, on May 26 The Ukrainian State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) has summoned fifth president of Ukraine and MP Petro Poroshenko for questioning as a witness in two criminal cases (illegal transfer of the collection of paintings across the state border and illegal use of the technical means of obtaining the information).
Thousands of holidays could be at risk as France is 'highly likely' to be added to the 14-day quarantine list following a dramatic rise in coronavirus infections, according to travel experts.

Tourists returning to the UK could soon be facing a 14 days in self-isolation amid speculation that France will be added to the Foreign Office's quarantine list.

The number of daily coronavirus cases in the country has soared in recent days, with 1,695 new infections being recorded just yesterday, as it battles a second wave of Covid-19.

It is thought that if the decision goes ahead holidaymakers may be forced to cancel their trips in order to avoid the two-week quarantine on their return.

Paul Charles, CEO of travel consultancy The PC Agency, said: 'Unless France takes further significant steps to reduce its case numbers, then it's highly likely to be added later next week as the increase must be causing worries in Westminster.

'There are several hundred thousand British tourists in France at the moment so the government must give plenty of warning if it does change its advice later next week.'

Meanwhile, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced on Thursday evening that the Bahamas, Andorra and Belgium will be taken off the UK's quarantine-exemption list

Travellers from France could soon face a 14 days of self-isolation on their return to the UK following a dramatic rise in coronavirus cases. Pictured: Tourists wearing face masks in Brittany earlier this week

Two months of strict lockdown seemed to put the country on track in its fight against the pandemic - but it is now once again recording around 1,219 new cases a day (graphic showing growing number of daily coronavirus cases in France)

The country has already lost a total of more than 30,300 lives to the pandemic (graphic showing growing number of daily coronavirus deaths in France)

The developments in France come after its scientific committee stated earlier this week that the situation was 'under control, but precarious. We could at any moment tip into a scenario that is less under control.'

It added: 'The short term future of the pandemic mainly lies in the hands of the population. It is highly likely that we will experience a second epidemic wave this autumn or winter.'

The statement said the virus 'has recently been circulating more actively, with an increased loss of distancing and barrier measures' since France emerged from its strict two-month lockdown in May.

'The balance is fragile and we can change course at any time to a less controlled scenario like in Spain for example,' it said.

The uptick in infections in France has been bolstered by fresh coronavirus testing troubles as dozens of labs closed to allow staff a summer holiday despite signs that a second wave is building.

Doctors have warned that the vacation crunch is just part of a larger web of failures in France's testing strategy which was described earlier this week by the government's own virus advisory panel as disorganized and 'insufficient'.

'First, there is a lack of workers to do the testing. If we don't ask all the health workers to be available by mobilizing all of them, there are just not enough people,' emergency services doctor Christophe Prudhomme at a hospital in Bobigny, Paris.

'And then it's a matter of organization,' he said, urging regional health agencies 'to organize testing so that it's not the citizen who has to take his phone and try to call seven or eight labs in order to get an appointment that will take place only next week.'

It is worrying news for the country which saw its hospitals nearly drown with Covid-19 patients in the first wave - in part due to inadequate testing.

The country has already lost more than 30,300 lives to the pandemic and yesterday alone recorded 1,695 new infections.

A decision by the Government is expected to be announced within the next 24 hours after ministers consider the latest data as part of their weekly review of quarantine.

Meanwhile, the Bahamas, Andorra and Belgium will be taken off the UK's quarantine-exemption list.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said people arriving in Britain from the three nations will have to quarantine from 4am on Saturday.

It is thought that if the decision is made to add France to the list, thousands of British holidaymakers may cancel their trips in order to avoid the two-week quarantine. Pictured: Beach-goers in Saint Jean de Luz, southwestern France, yesterday

In a tweet he said: 'Data shows we need to remove Andorra, Belgium and The Bahamas from our list of coronavirus Travel Corridors in order to keep infection rates DOWN.

'If you arrive in the UK after 0400 Saturday from these destinations, you will need to self-isolate for 14 days.'

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has designated all Belgium as a 'code orange' for the new coronavirus, meaning the number of cases per 100,000 inhabitants is 20 or above for two weeks.

Separately, Malaysia and Brunei have been added to the UK's safe list

It comes after travellers from Belgium were also told they could face quarantine for 14 days following a dramatic rise in coronavirus infections there. Pictured: People wearing face masks walk through the shopping district of Brussels earlier this week

In Wales, the restrictions come into force from midnight tonight August 6.

At the same time, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has updated its travel advice to warn against all but essential trips to Andorra, Belgium and The Bahamas.

** Are you a British tourist concerned about an upcoming holiday to France? Please email: mark.duell@mailonline.co.uk ** Advertisement

Brunei and Malaysia have been added to the Government's travel corridor list, following a decrease in confirmed cases of coronavirus, meaning arrivals from these countries no longer need to quarantine.

Figures released on Thursday show Belgium has suffered a consistent increase in cases in recent weeks, rising to 27.8 new cases per 100,000 people.

This towers over the UK's latest rate of 8.4 per 100,000, and is higher than Spain's 27.4 level around the time when the UK introduced travel restrictions there.

Belgium's prime minister, Sophie Wilmes, was last week forced to put a halt to the nation's Covid-19 exit plan by introducing drastic new social distancing measures in the hope of avoiding a new national lockdown.

Contacts outside every household were limited to the same five people for a month, in an effort to curb the spread of the virus.

In Andorra, new cases per week have increased five-fold since mid-July, while in The Bahamas the weekly case rate peaked at 78.6 last week, up from 3.1 in the middle of last month.

The countries follow Spain  which was put on the quarantine list a fortnight ago, wrecking the holiday plans of millions  and Luxembourg, which was added last week.

The number of new cases in Belgium doubled in a week following earlier success in bringing the virus under control in the country

The decision will cause problems for thousands of people who travel each day on the Eurostar between Brussels and London, as well as those on flights connecting the two countries.

It comes after the number of new cases in Belgium doubled in a week following earlier success in bringing the virus under control in the country.

Some 9,852 people have died of the disease, giving Belgium the highest mortality rate, per capita, in the world.

It has had 85 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Britain with 68, Spain 61, Peru 61, and Italy 58.

Men walk through the entrance of meat processing plant Westvlees, in Westrozebeke, part of Staden, Belgium, on Wednesday after several employees of the plant were tested positive for coronavirus

How Covid-19 cases have changed in Spain, Belgium, Finland, Greece, France, Ireland, Germany, Italy, the UK, Luxembourg and Europe overall. The biweekly growth rate on any given date measures the percentage change in the number of new confirmed cases over the last 14 days relative to the number in the previous 14 days

The biweekly map shows how most countries in Europe have reported between a 25 and 200 per cent increase in cases in the past two weeks

New confirmed infections there rose to an average of 448.1 per day in the last week of July, which was a 104 per cent increase on the previous seven days.

As many as half of the new cases have been in Antwerp, where a night-time curfew has been imposed and restrictions on where residents can meet have been brought back in.

Ministers are also monitoring spikes in other countries, including Croatia, Romania, Hong Kong amid fears of a second wave.

Belgium follows Spain  which was put on the quarantine list a fortnight ago, wrecking the holiday plans of millions  and Luxembourg, which was added last week. Pictured: People wearing face masks walk through the centre of Brussels

The British Government has been under pressure to introduce airport coronavirus tests for arrivals.

Ministers are looking at whether people coming to the UK from at-risk countries such as the US and Spain could be given tests to reduce the number of days they have to quarantine for.

And the boss of Heathrow airport has proposed a double-testing regime that would see passengers tested at their point of entry to the country, and again five to eight days later.

If given the all clear in both tests, they would no longer be required to stay at home for 14 days and could go back to normal life.

France's covid testing teams down tools  for summer holidays: Laboratory staff head off on vacation just as signs of a second wave strike leaving country struggling with demands for tests

France is facing new coronavirus testing troubles as dozens of labs close to allow staff a summer holiday despite signs that a second wave is building.

Doctors have warned that the vacation crunch is just part of a larger web of failures in France's testing strategy which was described earlier this week by the government's own virus advisory panel as disorganized and 'insufficient'.

'First, there is a lack of workers to do the testing. If we don't ask all the health workers to be available by mobilizing all of them, there are just not enough people,' emergency services doctor Christophe Prudhomme at a hospital in Bobigny, Paris.

'And then it's a matter of organization,' he said, urging regional health agencies 'to organize testing so that it's not the citizen who has to take his phone and try to call seven or eight labs in order to get an appointment that will take place only next week.'

It is worrying news for the country which saw its hospitals nearly drown with Covid-19 patients in the first wave - in part due to inadequate testing.

The country has already lost more than 30,300 lives to the pandemic and yesterday alone recorded 1,695 new infections.

A second wave also appears to be sweeping across the rest of Europe as countries such as Germany, Spain and Greece all see spikes in their infection rates with the global death toll yesterday topping 700,000.

France is facing new coronavirus testing troubles as dozens of labs close to allow staff a summer holiday despite signs that a second wave is building (biologist pictured earlier this week taking a swab sample from a man in Lille, northern France)

In France, doctor's offices and labs have joined dozens of other businesses in closing for staff to enjoy a summer vacation.

Those labs that have remained open have seen lengthy socially-distanced queues building up outside as people struggle to book a test appointment.

It is worrying news for the country which saw renowned hospitals nearly drown with Covid-19 patients in the first wave - in part due to inadequate testing - and has already lost more than 30,300 lives to the pandemic.

Two months of strict lockdown seemed to put the country on track in its fight against the pandemic.

But it is now once again recording around 1,219 new cases a day when, just two weeks ago, the seven-day rolling average was 719.

Yesterday, France recorded 1,695 new infections.

The number of patients in intensive care is also edging up for the first time in months.

In France, doctor's offices and labs have joined dozens of other businesses in closing for staff to enjoy a summer vacation (poster pictured shows special summer opening hours at a medical laboratory in Ville D'array, France)

The government did not order anyone to skip vacation, which French workers see as a hard-won, fundamental right. Pictured: Two women wearing face masks leave a temporary testing centre for coronavirus in Ripollet earlier today

The nation's scientific committee recently said that the situation was 'under control, but precarious. We could at any moment tip into a scenario that is less under control.'

It added: 'The short term future of the pandemic mainly lies in the hands of the population. It is highly likely that we will experience a second epidemic wave this autumn or winter.'

The statement said the virus 'has recently been circulating more actively, with an increased loss of distancing and barrier measures' since France emerged from its strict two-month lockdown in May.

'The balance is fragile and we can change course at any time to a less controlled scenario like in Spain for example,' it said.

France is in better shape than last time to keep ahead of new infections but experts have warned that testing is key.

'The virus didn't disappear at all... The contamination is continuing, and amplifying in some regions,' said Francois Blanchecotte, president of the Union of Medical Biologists, who has been in the forefront of French testing efforts.

'We have to adapt the testing strategy to this evolution.'

France is not the only country which appears to be suffering a second wave as Covid-19 cases rise across Europe including in Germany, Greece and Spain

He is now pushing for a more targeted policy that takes into account lab capacities, such as organizing tests at beach resorts or tourist sites where young people are congregating.

Blanchecotte said he was particularly annoyed at a blanket government campaign to test 1.5 million Parisians to better understand how the virus is spreading.

The free test vouchers were distributed just as dozens of labs shut down for vacation which has worsened bottlenecks.

How Germany is tackling its second wave Germany will require people arriving from countries considered high-risk to take coronavirus tests starting this weekend, the health minister said earlier today. German officials have voiced alarm over a steady upward creep in the number of new infections over recent weeks. The national disease control centre, the Robert Koch Institute, said 1,045 cases were recorded on Wednesday  the first time since May 7 that it has counted more than 1,000 cases in a day. Pictured: Employees of an aid organisation at a newly established coronavirus testing station in Dortmund, western Germany, earlier this week Daily figures can be volatile or distorted by delays in reporting, and the number is still far short of the peak of more than 6,000 reached in early April. 'What we are seeing is a lot of small outbreaks,' Health Minister Jens Spahn told reporters. 'People are getting infected at family parties, at their place of work or at community facilities.' On top of that, school holidays  the dates of which are staggered across Germany's 16 states  are ending in some regions, increasing concerns that vacationers could bring home the virus. Last Saturday, the government started offering free tests for people returning to the country. People entering from countries deemed high-risk  currently most of the world outside Europe, as well as Luxembourg and parts of northern Spain  are required to quarantine for 14 days unless they can present a negative test result no more than two days old. Spahn said that, starting Saturday, people arriving from those countries will be required to take a test unless they bring a new test result with them. 'I am very well aware that this impinges on individual freedoms, but I believe that this is a justifiable intervention,' Spahn said. The minister dismissed arguments by some politicians that people who can afford a vacation should also have to pay for their tests. He said many returnees from high-risk and other countries 'have saved hard for this vacation, put a lot of money aside, don't have a lot in reserve  and nevertheless, I want to make it possible for them to get tested.' Travellers who refuse tests could face fines of up to 25,000 euros ($29,600), but the exact amount is up to local authorities, Spahn said. Germany's COVID-19 response has been widely regarded as relatively successful. The Robert Koch Institute has recorded 9,175 deaths from over 213,000 confirmed cases - a lower death rate than in many comparable countries. Advertisement

'We are at a crossroads. We've seen a situation of disorder in Paris, in which labs were not ready to face thousands of people at the same time. It's a nightmare to get an appointment,' Blanchecotte said.

The government did not order anyone to skip vacation, which French workers see as a hard-won, fundamental right.

But it issued a special decree late last month authorizing certain medical students, firefighters and rescue workers to administer coronavirus nasal swabs in their absence.

That was too late to stop an outbreak in the town of Quiberon in the western region of Brittany which was seemingly spurred by a night club party last month.

Authorities urged everyone in the area to get tested  a mammoth task on a peninsula where the population swells from 5,000 to 60,000 in the summer.

Some partygoers were foiled by long lines at a makeshift testing station and gave up, allowing the virus to continue spreading.

In Paris, City Hall is trying to relieve the summer strain on labs with a mobile testing site at a beach venue on the La Villette canal, where crowds lined up Wednesday even before it opened.

Some labs have adjusted their hours to stay open late into the evening, or open on Sundays - both unusual for France.

After coming under fire for its limited testing capacity in the first wave, the government now says it can test up to 700,000 people a week, and last week hit a record high of 457,000 tests.

But the number of new positive cases is growing twice as fast as the growth in test rates, according to data from the national health agency.

Blanchecotte is worried but defended the decision to let lab staff take holiday time.

'For months, they worked overtime to keep up with virus testing needs', he said with many staggering holiday departures or scaling back their vacation plans.

But he warned that autumn may be even worse: 'We know that September, October, November are difficult months. We need to be prepared.'

France is not the only country which appears to be suffering a second wave as Covid-19 cases rise across Europe with the global death toll yesterday topping 700,000.

The head of Germany's doctors' union declared on Tuesday that the country is already in the midst of 'a second, shallow upswing' because people have flouted social distancing rules.

Two weeks ago the average number of new daily infections was 460 but just yesterday the country recorded 1,024.

Ms Johna said there was a danger that a longing to return to normality and a suppression of containment measures would fritter away the success Germany had achieved so far, urging people to stick to social distancing and hygiene rules and wear masks.

Similarly, cases in Greece have spiked to a three-month high of 121 new infections on Tuesday with a further 119 recorded yesterday.

Greece's prime minister warned earlier this week that new restrictions may be needed if a worrying rise in daily cases does not abate.

'Any form of complacency is unjustified,' Kyriakos Mitsotakis said. 'We still don't know how... many months we will be forced to live with the virus.'

Spain, which is currently the worst-hit nation in Europe, saw 8,500 new cases over the weekend and recorded another 2,953 just yesterday.

An all-inclusive resort in Majorca was shutdown after ten staff fell sick with the virus and two towns north of Madrid have been put under strict lockdown.

Italy - once the sickman of Europe - has managed to avoid an uptick but two cruise ships are now quarantined in the Civitavecchia port in Rome.

** Are you a British tourist concerned about an upcoming holiday to France? Please email us your story and picture to: mark.duell@mailonline.co.uk **
Ever since Nithiin announced Telugu remake of Hindi blockbuster Andhadhun, fans have been keeping an eye on the updates about the much-awaited film. The original version stars Ayushmann Khurrana, Tabu and Radhika Apte in the lead roles. Directed by Sriram Raghavan, the film was applauded for its intriguing plot and performances of stars like Ayushmann Khurrana and Tabu as blind pianist and villain respectively.

For the Telugu version, makers are searching for an actress to play the bold role played by Tabu in the original film. Actresses like Ramya Krishnan and Shilpa Shetty were considered to play Tabu's part in the Telugu remake of Andhadhun. But now, a report published in a leading portal suggests that South Siren Nayanthara is likely to play Tabu's part.

Nayanthara is known for getting into the skin of the character. However, the main problem for the makers is her remuneration. The report states that Nayanthara is demanding Rs 4 crore for Andhadhun remake, to play Tabu's role. Well, the actress used to charge Rs 2 crore to act in superstar's film. But when it comes to playing a role in the heroine-oriented film, she takes around Rs 4 crore. However, there is no official confirmation about the same. Earlier, Ileana D'Cruz was approached for the role but she declined it.

Also Read : Nayanthara To Play Keerthy Suresh's Mother In Rajinikanth's Annaatthe?

Nithiin's Andhadhun remake will be directed by Merlapaka Gandhi. The shooting has already started in February. The remake rights of Andhadhun were bought for Rs 3.5 crore by Nithiin's production house, Shresth Movies. On the other hand, Nayanthara will next be seen in Vignesh Shivan's directorial venture, Kaathuvaakula Rendu Kadhal, alongside Vijay Sethupathi and Samantha Akkineni.

Also Read : Nayanthara And Vignesh Shivan To Announce Their Wedding After Visiting Lord Rahu's Temple?
Bengaluru, Aug 6 : Karnataka Minister of Cooperation S.T. Somashekar and two Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) legislators -- G.T. Devegowda and Naganagouda Kandkur tested positive for coronavirus and are under treatment, an official said on Thursday.

"Though Somashekar tested positive for COVID-19, he is asymptomatic and quarantined at home in the city. His office has also been sealed after his personal assistant too tested positive for the virus," the department official told IANS here.

Somashekar, who defected from the opposition Congress and joined the ruling BJP in November, got re-elected from the Yeshwantpur Assembly in the city's northern suburb during the December 5 bypolls.

Devegowda, a legislator from Chamundeshwari Assembly in Mysuru district, took a Covid test and the result came out to be positive.

"As Devegowda is asymptomatic, he has been home quarantined in Mysuru," a JD-S official said.

Mysuru is about 150km southwest of Bengaluru in the southern state.

Kandkur, a lawmaker from Gurmatkal assembly in the state's northern region, has been admitted to the state-run hospital in Yadgir along with his brother Mallikarjun Reddy as both tested positive for COVID-19.

"Though both brothers are asymptomatic, they are under treatment at the district hospital in Yadgir," Kandkur's son Sharanagouda told IANS on phone.

Yadgir is about 500km north of Bengaluru in the state.

Meanwhile, the condition of Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa and opposition Congress leader Siddaramaiah is stable at a private hospital in the city's eastern suburb.

"Chief Minister Yediyurappa and Siddaramaiah are responding well to the treatment. Their vital parameters are within normal limits and they are feeling comfortable," an official of Manipal hospital said in a statement here.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 6)  Humanitarian groups called for the ratification of the nuclear weapons ban treaty to protect future generations from long-term and irreversible adverse effects of such weapons.

The Philippine Red Cross and the International Committee of the Red Cross said this in a joint statement that came with the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings in Japan.

The use of even a fraction of these weapons would cause long-term and irreversible effects on human health, the environment, the climate and food-production  that is, everything that life depends on  threatening future generations and the very survival of humanity, the groups said.

They noted that the bombings in these two Japanese cities 75 years ago are still haunting its victims, and causing illnesses like cancer to those who go near the vicinities.

In the Philippines, the Senate adopted Resolution 47 in 2017 in support of the advocacy.

In the same year, the country along with 122 others adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which prohibits participating in nuclear weapons activities like developing, testing, producing, using, and threatening to use them.

This needs 10 more ratification from other states to be implemented, especially now that there about 14,000 nuclear weapons in the world, including those awaiting their launch at any moment, the groups said.

They said no government or organization is able to respond to the consequences these weapons will cause, and the only thing that can be done is to prevent these from happening.

Last years 70th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions, the foundation of international humanitarian laws, also reiterated that wars have limits, and nothing can justify the use of these dangerous weapons.

By signing the treaty in 2017, the Philippines became one of the flagbearers for this important convention, the groups said. The Philippines can increase the chances of the treaty coming into force, thereby honoring the memory of the hundreds of thousands of victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively, wiped out the cities, killed tens of thousands of people, and left many others with lifetime injuries.
Did you know every year local businesses help fund thousands of Pennsylvania students education  all through a state program you may never have heard of? And, that program is about to become even more critical as the effects of COVID-19 continue to impact our communities.

Since 2001, Pennsylvanias Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program has served as a valuable means for businesses to invest in the education of Pennsylvanias youth. It authorizes tax credits for businesses that make contributions to scholarship organizations or educational improvement organizations (EIO), which are non-profits that support innovative and meaningful programming in public schools. That funding provides opportunities to expand school choice and important learning initiatives, which not only creates greater educational opportunities for children but also has a positive ripple effect across communities.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, schools and non-profits face a mounting need for financial support to successfully resume their valued public services safely and effectively, making the EITC program all the more important today. Businesses can support organizations that enhance the lives of children in their immediate communities by directing dollars to local schools and non-profits. Companies can then build on that support by introducing corporate volunteerism programs, aligned with those same community organizations, to give employees the opportunity to more deeply connect to their companys giving efforts and make a greater local change.

Research has shown that employers with meaningful volunteerism programs can successfully recruit new employees and boost moralea Unilever study found that employee turnover dropped by 57 percent in the employee groups most involved with their companies giving and volunteering efforts. Moreover, 74 percent of employees find their job more fulfilling when they are provided with opportunities to make a positive impact. Since the introduction of COVID-19, more people are looking to their employers to do more for their communities  to make more of an impact in helping vulnerable populations, including children and families  and the EITC program allows for that increased support.

AmerisourceBergen, the largest revenue company in Pennsylvania, is a strong proponent of the EITC program. As a pharmaceutical services company, AmerisourceBergen has a responsibility to help build healthier futures, and that includes supporting quality education. We know that improved educational outcomes contribute to the overall health and wellness of communitiesin fact, the International Journal of Health Services reports that educational programs successfully promote health equity within low-income communities. In pursuit of a shared goal to better communities, AmerisourceBergen is proud to work with Big Brothers Big Sisters Independence (BBBSI), a nonprofit that facilitates one-to-one mentoring relationships in Greater Philadelphia and Southern NJ, through the EITC program.

Since 2016, the partnership between AmerisourceBergen and BBBSI has provided a total of $70,000 in contributions towards Mentor 2.0, a technology-enhanced mentoring program for high school students, and Beyond School Walls, a program where local students meet with mentors at their workplace.

During the 2019-2020 school year, AmerisourceBergens support for Mentor 2.0 enabled BBBSI to match 25 freshman students from Parkway Center City High School with a mentor, who served as a personal champion for their college aspirations. Students in the program take courses at the Community College of Philadelphia during their junior and senior years, and graduate from high school with an associate degree. The Beyond School Walls program is perfect for organizations seeking to help their local community while also improving employee engagement. Through this program, students are exposed to opportunities and careers they might never have imagined for themselves, which is an important factor in leveling the playing field for disadvantaged youth.

Over the past three years, across all outcomes, BBBSIs Mentor 2.0 students have outperformed comparable national college enrollment, persistence, and completion averages. Additionally, 99 percent of students in the Beyond School Walls program advance to the next grade and 95 percent showed a positive academic impact. These educational enrichment programs can truly change students lives by providing them with valuable learning experiences and ensuring they see themselves as important, capable and worthy of a successful future.

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania offers one of the most expansive EITC programs in the United States. We, at AmerisourceBergen and BBBSI, are proud of our states commitment to increasing educational opportunities for students. As we continue to grapple with the long-term implications of the COVID-19 pandemic, schools and non-profits will need support from the government and private businesses as they navigate how to adapt to a new world.

Partnerships like those formed through the EITC program will be essential in helping these organizations resume their services when the time is right. Corporations across Pennsylvania should assess how they can take part in the EITC program for the benefit of local students and their employees. To learn more about the EITC program and to apply on behalf of your business, visit the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Developments website.

For more information, contact Kate McCloud, Vice President of Advancement, at kmccloud@independencebigs.org.

Gina Clark is Executive Vice President and Chief Communications & Administration officer, AmerisourceBergen; and Gregory Burton is a member of the Executive Leadership Team of Big Brothers Big Sisters Independence.
What The Study Did: SARS-CoV-2 molecular viral shedding in asymptomatic and symptomatic patients who were isolated in a community treatment center in South Korea is quantitatively described in this observational study.

Authors: Eunjung Lee, M.D., of the Soonchunhyang University Seoul Hospital in Seoul, South Korea, is the corresponding author.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

(doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.3862)

Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflicts of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

###

The full study and commentary are linked to this news release.

Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article This link will be live at the embargo time https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.3862?guestAccessKey=dccb637d-4f65-443e-82af-abde015966be&utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=080620
Police in Poland sought their extraditions for a number of offences including attempted murder, fraud, extortion, assault and theft.

Other various offences include sexual assault, kidnap and armed robbery.

Speaking today, Detective Superintendent Michael J. Mullen of the Garda Extradition Unit said the international cooperation his unit receives is underlined by successful extraditions.

Detective Mullen said: "This successful operation highlights strong international cooperation enjoyed by the Garda Extradition Unit.

"This operation also highlights the continued commitment of domestic stakeholders including the Department of Justice, The Defence Forces and the Irish Prison Service all of whom work in tandem to ensure wanted fugitives are brought to justice."

The PSNI in Northern Ireland also surrendered one person to the police in Poland today.
Abuja, Nigeria (PANA)  The Nigerian Armed Forces on Thursday said that the 601 repentant Boko Haram terrorists released after undergoing a de-radicalization, rehabilitation and reintegration programme were low risk repentants who were ascertained to be innocent and forcefully conscripted to join the sects and are categorized as victims
The company's newest location in Southwest Florida expands direct access to the state's widest-ranging medical cannabis inventory for patients

ENGLEWOOD, Fla., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Trulieve Cannabis Corp. (CSE: TRUL) (OTCQX: TCNNF) ("Trulieve" or "the Company"), a leading and top-performing cannabis company based in the United States, announced today the opening of its latest storefront. Englewood will be home to the Company's 56th dispensary nationwide and 54th in its home state of Florida.

Situated in Englewood, which stretches into both Sarasota and Charlotte counties, the dispensary supports Trulieve's goal of expanding and ensuring direct, reliable patient access to medical cannabis throughout the state. It also joins the Company's 53 other Florida dispensaries, including those in nearby Port Charlotte, Venice, and North Fort Myers.

"While this year has definitely seen its challenges, we've worked hard to maintain our company's mission of providing innovative cannabis products and an authentic, high-quality customer experience, with our dedicated Trulievers supporting us every step of the way. Expanding our reach and providing safe, reliable access to the high-quality medications patients rely on is one of the best ways we can connect with patients directly, and we're grateful to have the opportunity to offer direct access to patients in both Sarasota and Charlotte counties," said Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers. "As with all of our openings recently, we've taken precautions and measured steps to best ensure the health and safety of our staff and patients. We're excited for the opportunity to serve the Englewood community, and look forward to doing so for years to come."

To commemorate the brand-new dispensary, all patients  from those new to Trulieve to our strong Truliever community  will be eligible for a 25% in-store discount at the Englewood location on opening day. In line with policies that have been adopted statewide, all visitors will be required to wear masks inside the dispensary. At this time, only patients and their state-approved caregivers will be allowed inside the waiting room and dispensary.

ANNOUNCING: Trulieve Englewood Opening

WHERE: 1720 South McCall Road, Englewood, Florida 34223

WHEN: Friday, August 7, 2020, at 9:00 AM

To assist patients with ordering, Trulieve has made our entire catalog of products available for online ordering, with in-store pickup, curbside pickup (at select locations), or statewide home delivery options available. Furthermore, to assist with CDC recommendations for social distancing and in compliance with additional company-enforced safety guidelines, several measures have been taken to ensure the health and well-being of employees and patients, including modifying the store layout, installation of plexiglass partitions and HEPA air filtration scrubbers in the dispensaries, increasing access to masks and sanitizer throughout the store for staff and visitors, utilizing visual aids to direct traffic throughout the store, and increasing the frequency of deep cleanings for all dispensaries. Trulieve is closely monitoring the coronavirus situation and will update store policies as needed to ensure the safety of patients and staff; all updates will be shared directly on Trulieve's website as they are enacted.

As the state's leading medical cannabis provider, Trulieve's employees are experienced, knowledgeable, and eager to help patients. Trulieve encourages potential patients, as well as patients who are new to cannabis and to our wide array of products, to connect with the staff in-store or through the online chat feature to learn more.

In stores and online, patients will find Florida's largest selection of THC and CBD products, available in a variety of delivery methods, including smokable cannabis, concentrates, tinctures, topical creams, vaporizers, and more. Trulieve also offers home delivery statewide for patients, and convenient in-store pick-up at its 54 dispensaries in locations across the state from Pensacola to Key West.

The Office of Medical Marijuana Use recently announced the registry was quickly approaching 385,000 registered medical marijuana patients with an active ID card, with Trulieve consistently selling approximately half of the state's overall volume, per the Florida Department of Health. There are more than 2,500 registered ordering physicians in the State of Florida as well.

For more information, please visit www.Trulieve.com.

About Trulieve

Trulieve is a vertically integrated "seed-to-sale" company and is the first and largest fully licensed medical cannabis company in the State of Florida. Trulieve cultivates and produces all of its products in-house and distributes those products to Trulieve-branded stores (dispensaries) throughout the State of Florida, as well as directly to patients via home delivery. Trulieve also operates in California, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Trulieve is listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the symbol TRUL and trades on the OTCQX market under the symbol TCNNF.

To learn more about Trulieve, visit www.Trulieve.com.

SOURCE Trulieve Cannabis Corp.
Indian Railways has decided to end the colonial-era practice of posting bungalow peons known as Telephone Attendant-cum-Dak Khalasis (TADKs) at the residences of senior officials of the 167-year-old national transporter.

The announcement was made in an order issued by the railway board on Thursday amid a review of the British-era legacy following allegations that railway officers tended to misuse the services of TADKs. No new appointment to the post will be processed starting with immediate effect, said the order, a copy of which was reviewed by Hindustan Times.

The issue regarding appointment of TADK is under review in Railway Board. It has, therefore, been decided that any appointment of fresh face substitutes as TADK should not either be processed or made with immediate effect. Further, all cases approved for such appointments since 1st July 2020 may be reviewed and position advised to Board. This may be complied with strictly in all Railway establishments, the order said.

Also read: Railways to create over 1.1mn man-days work for migrants in 6 states

A TADK is treated as a temporary employee of Indian Railways in the Group D category after the initial 120 days of service. The posting becomes a permanent one after a screening test on completion of three years of service.

Indian Railways is on a fast transformational path of all-round progress. Many practices and management tools are being reviewed in view of changes in technology and working conditions. The measures taken are to be seen in such a context, a spokesperson for the ministry of railways said.

Indian Railways last month issued an order to end the British-era practice of using Dak Messengers, or personal messengers, for official communications and move towards video conferencing in a bid to save costs.

Bungalow peons have been posted at the residences of railway officers to perform duties such as attending to telephone calls and carrying files from their offices to homes. Over the years, concerns have been raised that TADKs were being used by officers to perform their household chores.

There is little sense in continuing with the practice in this era of mobile phones given what their initial primary tasks were. Most of the times they end up getting deployed for domestic work by the officers, a railway official explained, requesting anonymity.

In a 2018 verdict on a case filed by a former TADK, Anup Kumar, in the Central Administrative Tribunal that he had been discharged from services by an officer of North Central Railwayi in an arbitrary and illegal manner, the tribunal ruled in favour of the officer.

Also read: Vital railway infrastructure projects to continue amid Covid-19 pandemic

According to the applicant, there is rampant misuse of the services of Bungalow Khalasis by many of the Railway Officers. Even though they are engaged mainly to perform the duties such as attending telephone calls at the residence of the officer concerned, carrying files from office to the residence of the concerned officer and back etc., in actual practice, they are treated as domestic servants to do the work of cleaning, washing, cooking etc. and they are thrown out even for the slightest mistake on their part, the order said, quoting the applicant.

Railway minister Piyush Goyal, after taking charge of the ministry of railways in 2017, urged senior officials to discontinue the colonial- era practice of having railway employees work at their homes. Around 10,000 railway employees were then relieved of their duties as TADKs until 2018.
CHICAGO, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the new market research report "Automotive Glazing Market By Application (Sidelite, Backlite, Sunroof, Lighting, Rear Quarter Glass), Vehicle Type (Passenger Car, Light and Heavy Commercial, Off-Highway, Electric), and Region - Global Forecast To 2025", published by MarketsandMarkets, the global Automotive Glazing Market size is estimated to be USD 1.0 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach USD 1.7 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 9.9%.

The market will be driven primarily because of the increase in demand for vehicle weight reduction owing to stringent emission norms. Polycarbonate weighs 50% less than glass and provides 20 times more strength which is estimated to drive the Automotive Glazing Market for polycarbonate.

Browse in-depth TOC on "Automotive Glazing Market"

198 - Tables

63 - Figures

251- Pages

Download PDF Brochure:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=133207870

"Passenger car to be the largest market for automotive glazing, by vehicle type"

Passenger cars include vehicles such as hatchback, SUVs, and sedans. According to OICA, the production of passenger cars accounted for the maximum share of the total global vehicle production for all the regions including in 2020 and is expected to dominate during the forecast period. Due to the better adaptability to complex design and glass-like transparency, nearly all vehicles are equipped with polycarbonate front and rear lightings. Applications such as sunroof and rear quarter glass, which are used mainly in passenger cars, are estimated to have high potential for polycarbonate installation. With the increasing installation of sunroof and rear quarter glass applications in passenger cars and usage of polycarbonate for these applications, passenger car is estimated to be the largest segment by vehicle type.

"BEV is projected to be the fastest-growing Automotive Glazing Market for electric vehicle"

Vehicle weight reduction is the predominant criteria in BEVs. As polycarbonate usage in glazing will reduce the vehicle weight by 20-25 kg, it will have a huge impact on the BEV range. Additionally, a majority of BEVs such as Tesla Model X, Model S, Model 3, and BMW i3 fall under the premium vehicle category Premium vehicles are equipped with sunroof and rear quarter glass. These applications are estimated to garner high potential for polycarbonate glazing. Increasing sales of BEVs coupled with the increasing penetration of polycarbonate glazing applications will result in BEV being the fastest-growing segment.

Request FREE Sample Report:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsampleNew.asp?id=133207870

"Asia Oceania expected to be the largest Automotive Glazing Market"

Asia Oceania is the largest Automotive Glazing Market and is expected to retain its position during the forecast period. Asia Oceania has emerged as a hub for automotive production in recent years owing to increasing population and urbanization. According to OICA, Asia Oceania accounted for ~46% of the global vehicle production in 2018 because of the presence of OEMs such as SAIC, Hyundai, Toyota, Suzuki, Tata, and Honda. Manufacturers in this region are focused on developing specific solutions that address fuel efficiency mandates. As consumers in the region are showing an increased inclination toward convenience and safety, the region has witnessed higher growth than the matured markets of Europe and North America. Because of high vehicle production, the total market size is greater than North American and Europe because of which Asia Oceania is estimated to be the largest Automotive Glazing Market.

Some of the key players in the Automotive Glazing Market are SABIC (Suadi Arabia), Covestro AG (Germany), Teijin (Japan), Webasto SE (Germany), Trinseo (US), Mitsubishi (Japan), Chi Mei Corporation (Taiwan), Freeglass (Germany), KRD Sicherheitstechnik (Germany), and Idemitsu (Japan). SABIC and Covestro adopted the strategies of expansion, and new product development, to retain its leading position in the Automotive Glazing Market.

Browse Related Reports:

Automotive Glass Market by Type (Laminated, Tempered), Application (Windshield, Sidelite, Backlite, Rear Quarter Glass, Side & Rear-View Mirrors), Material (IR-PVB, Metal Coated, Tinted), ICE & EV, Aftermarket, and Region - Global Forecast to 2025

Automotive Windshield Market by Glass Type (Laminated and Tempered), Material Type (Thermoset and Thermoplastic), Position (Front and Rear), Vehicle Type (PCs, LCVs, and HCVs), Electric Vehicle Type (HEVs, BEVs, and PHEVs), and Region - Global Forecast to 2025

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DUSHANBE -- A villager in Tajikistan has been killed in a shooting incident across the Tajik-Kyrgyz border.



Both Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan report that an officer from Kyrgyzstan's Border Guard Service also was wounded by the cross-border gunfire early on August 6.

The main directorate of Tajikistan's border guards said 65-year-old Tajik villager Vohid Vahhobov was killed early on August 6 by gunfire that came from the Kyrgyz side of the border.



The Tajik directorate also said a Kyrgyz border guard officer, Lieutenant Sher Kabirov, was wounded by gunfire from Tajikistans side of the border.

The Kyrgyz Border Guard Service confirmed that one of its officers was wounded early on August 6 by gunfire from "unknown individuals" on the Tajik side of the border.



Officials from both countries said later that a tense situation in the area had been brought under control.



There have been border tensions between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan for years, with each nation accusing the other of escalating the situation.



In late May, cross-border clashes left several people on both sides wounded.



Many sections of the borders between former Soviet republics in Central Asia have been disputed since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.



Clashes involving border guards and local villagers frequently take place in such border areas.
- Awinja described Papa Shirandula as a friend and part of her family

- She was still in shock after bidding the icon farewell but at peace that she told him how much she loved him

- The actress and Papa cracked ribs while on TV and made an awesome team whenever they appeared on their show

When Charles Bukeko better known as Papa Shirandula died, his friends, family and nearly the whole country were left in disbelief.

But his closest confidants who starred in his show alongside the fallen hero were hit harder than they expected by the star's demise.

One particular thespian who could not come to terms with Papa's death was Jacky Vike aka Awinja who fondly referred to him as anko.

READ ALSO: Maria star Yasmin Said transforms into beauty queen after undergoing makeover

1. The pair met when Awinja went for auditions and they transformed from friends to family.

The super duo who left their audience on stitches every time had a father-daughter kind of love both on and off screen.

When Awinja lost Papa, she felt like she lost her rock.

READ ALSO: Nairobi woman says magic gave her powers to sleep with rich men, eat their money

2. They worked on other projects together after their stint on Papa Shirandula.

The actress said in a previous post that she always told Papa how much he had changed her life and taught her so much about the art of acting.

READ ALSO: Papa Shirandula's Njoro introduces gorgeous daughter in cute daddy-daughter photoshoot

READ ALSO: Alexis Sanchez: Solskjaer confirms Chilean's Inter move

3. Awinja added that she had first developed cold feet when she was called to audition for her role on TV.

Papa assured the beauty that she was good enough and had the talent the show needed. That is how the thespian's character and second persona was born.

READ ALSO: Coronavirus: Watu 538 wanasa COVID-19

4. The lovely partners in crime during a past meetup.

5. When writing a dedication for the actor Kenya will never forget, the mother of one said she always made sure Papa knew how much she loved him.

She even urged her followers to give flowers to their loved ones while they are still alive.

6. Some friendships never disappear or break, they live forever.

Awinja and a friend she will never forget. Photo: Jacky Vike

Source: Instagram

Papa died in July 2020 after contracting COVID-19.

He had travelled to Kakamega and when he returned to Nairobi, the actor started feeling unwell.

After visiting the doctor, the icon agreed to isolate from home but things took a turn for the worst a week after.

Papa developed breathing problems and passed away at the parking lot of The Karen Hospital.

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.

Kenyans build a house for 75 year old Mzee Ambani and family | Tuko TV

Source: TUKO.co.ke
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By Marc Herbermann





Germany is officially a non-nuclear-weapon state. Every German government has so far renounced the nuclear armament of the Federal Armed Forces. The country acceded to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) on May 2, 1975. Since then, however, Germany has not fully complied with this treaty.







Article 2 prohibits non-nuclear-weapon states to receive the transfer of nuclear weapons and their direct or indirect control. The Peace Research Institute Frankfurt assumes that in the small town of Buchel in Rhineland-Palatinate, there are about 20 B61 hydrogen bombs of different variants.







In a severe military situation, Americans would activate these bombs and the Germans would fly them to their targets. In NATO jargon this is called "nuclear sharing."







But the American cold war nuclear weapons stationed in Germany have become outdated. They are supposed to be replaced by the B61-12 in the next few years. Whereas the currently bunkered bombs are simply dropped from a plane, the B61-12 has a tail kit, which can guide it once released.







According to Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project in Washington, its yield ranges from 0.3 to 50 kilotons, which is much lower compared to the yield of its early predecessors. This lowers their operating threshold. Citizens' initiatives are currently organizing demonstrations, peace camps and blockades against the existence of the nuclear weapons in Buchel until August.







In July 2020, the Kantar Opinion Research Institute, on behalf of Greenpeace, surveyed 1,008 people on their opinions on nuclear weapons.







Eighty-three percent of those questioned believe that all American nuclear bombs should be withdrawn from Germany. Ninety-two percent are of the opinion that Germany should sign the U.N. Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.







These results are very close to the results of previous surveys. The German Bundestag passed a resolution March 26, 2010, which declared across all parliamentary parties: "The German Parliament calls on the Federal Government ... to take a decisive stand for the withdrawal of U.S. nuclear weapons from Germany."







Why are there still nuclear weapons of a foreign state stationed in Germany today? Why do German pilots of Tornado fighter bombers participate in maneuvers in which they practice the use of nuclear weapons? Does Russia pose a threat?







Russia has indeed been involved in wars since the disintegration of the Soviet Union. But these are like skirmishes against the questionable wars under international law that NATO states have waged since then. Does the deterrent power of these weapons reduce the risk of a Russian attack?







The comparatively few nuclear weapons for which no modern carrier systems are currently available certainly do not. On the contrary, they are inviting targets in a military crisis.







An attack by Russia, Germany's most important energy supplier, is absurd. However, one could imagine a decisive Russian reaction to a large-scale, provocative maneuver on its borders.







Adhering to "nuclear sharing" is more political and symbolic. The German government believes itself to be considered a reliable ally and thus secures a say in decisions within NATO. Consequently it also rejects an American troop withdrawal.







But the reasons for the deployment of nuclear weapons in Germany may lie somewhere else: Germany, 75 years after the end of World War II and 30 years after the Two Plus Four Agreement, still cannot, may not or does not want to be a sovereign state.







The government is willingly embracing the political concept of denationalization in the age of globalization. The country's political leadership shows openness to the world in all directions, but it has an ambivalent relationship with its own state and people.







The chancellor, who finds it difficult to stand upright at the national anthem, distributes multibillion euro gifts to EU states in times of crisis and makes politics for all people who have a say in Germany.







Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, like Foreign Minister Heiko Josef Maas, travels the world. On all occasions they show that they represent their country, its people and its history only with mixed feelings.







Yet the government in a democratic republic does not represent the whole world, it is there for a certain nation. Governments should carry out the will of their citizens, and not the people the will of the rulers.







Should Germany continue to participate in the preparation of a nuclear war in a misunderstood solidarity with the alliance? Would it not be high time to let the German people decide for themselves about their nuclear future? Should the government not take the resolution of the Bundestag or at least Article 2 of the NPT seriously?













Marc Herbermann ( marc.herbermann@gmail ) is an assistant professor at the Division of Global Language and Literature at Kyonggi University in Suwon. He was a conscript in Germany in 1983 and 1984, when NATO began to deploy medium-range nuclear missiles in Germany as a consequence of its Double-Track Decision.
Construction Plastic Market Research Report by Plastic Type (Expanded Polystyrene, Polyethylene, Polypropylene, and Polyvinyl Chloride), by End User (Non-Residential and Residential), by Application - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19

New York, Aug. 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Construction Plastic Market Research Report by Plastic Type, by End User, by Application - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913948/?utm_source=GNW



The Global Construction Plastic Market is expected to grow from USD 75,826.67 Million in 2019 to USD 112,220.39 Million by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.75%.



Market Segmentation & Coverage:

This research report categorizes the Construction Plastic to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets:



Based on Plastic Type, the Construction Plastic Market studied across Expanded Polystyrene, Polyethylene, Polypropylene, and Polyvinyl Chloride.



Based on End User, the Construction Plastic Market studied across Non-Residential and Residential.



Based on Application, the Construction Plastic Market studied across Insulation Materials, Pipes, and Windows & Doors.



Based on Geography, the Construction Plastic Market studied across Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The Americas region surveyed across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and United States. The Asia-Pacific region surveyed across Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand. The Europe, Middle East & Africa region surveyed 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 Construction Plastic Market including ACH Foam Technologies, Asahi Kasei Corporation, BASF SE, Berry Plastics Corporation, Borealis AG, Dowdupont Inc, Excelite, Formosa Plastics Corporation, Ineos Olefins & Polymers USA, JM Eagle, Lyondellbasell Industries Holdings B.V., Plazit Polygal Group, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), Solvay S.A., and Total S.A..



FPNV Positioning Matrix:

The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Construction Plastic 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 the market 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 Construction Plastic Market?

2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Construction Plastic Market during the forecast period?

3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Construction Plastic Market?

4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Construction Plastic Market?

5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Construction Plastic Market?

6. What are the modes and strategic moves considered suitable for entering the Global Construction Plastic Market?

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913948/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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Linkedin Norman Harsono (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, August 6, 2020 11:19 530 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066bf7c39 1 Business IEA,renewable-energy,economic-recovery,energy-and-mineral-resources-ministry Free

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has urged the government to boost Indonesias use of renewable energy and to increase its electrification capacity through pro-investment regulatory reform as the country pursues economic recovery.

In a recent report, the IEA argued that certain key regulatory reforms would open access to private renewable energy investment and would improve the financial standing of state-owned electricity distribution firm PLN.

The IEA, a Paris-based organization, said President Joko Jokowi Widodo should issue a Presidential Regulation on green energy pricing to enable more privately owned renewable energy companies to enter the domestic market.

The existing fiscal space needs to be used wisely, while an improved policy, regulatory and investment framework can help mobilize a more diverse pool of sources of funding, especially from new investors and private-sector industry players, the July 17 report reads.

There is a huge opportunity to boost sustainable investment as part of the recovery.

Investment in renewables has been held back by an uncertain regulatory environment, IEA report stated, amid government renewable energy targets dominated by hydropower and geothermal energy.

Indonesia has committed to obtain 23 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2025. Regulations stipulate that Indonesia should have reached a 17.5 percent renewable energy mix by 2019, yet the country only hit 12.36 percent that year.

Read also: Indonesia to mend contract scheme to boost green energy projects

By the end of 2019, the country had about 10 GW of installed renewable power capacity, a third of its installed coal-fired capacity and a sixth of its fossil fuel capacity, IEA data shows.

The IEA report brings an intergovernmental voice to domestic renewable energy players calls for the Indonesian government to invest in green energy as Indonesia sets aside a Rp 695.2 trillion (US$47.9 billion) COVID-19 response fund to boost the economy and fund the healthcare system during the pandemic.

The government has not announced any commitment to allocating funds to develop renewable energy, but the Energy Ministry has said it is exploring a solar power recovery plan.

Read also: Indonesia working on $1b solar-driven green economic recovery scheme

Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry electrification director general Rida Mulyana announced in February a proposed regulatory reform in the green energy sector to introduce feed-in-tariff (FIT) pricing and allow arrangements other than build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) contract schemes.

The former guarantees fixed electricity rates for small renewable power plants, seeking to ensure predictable financial returns. The second proposal eliminates a scheme that has been criticized as an impediment to financing renewable energy.

This report shows the IEAs commitment to supporting the recovery of Indonesias energy sector from global dynamics and the COVID-19 pandemic, said Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry spokesman Agung Pribadi on Monday.

The ministry plans to meet the IEA and French business associations in September to promote investment in renewable energy in Indonesia.
That's because many governments are supporting the economy through measures such as allowing businesses and households to delay loan repayments, he explained. Once such support ends, the bank could experience an uptick in bad loans, said Gupta.

DBS Chief Executive Piyush Gupta told CNBC that while some of the bank's income streams are improving as countries ease lockdown measures, earnings in the coming quarters could still be hit.

The bank said on Thursday that net profit fell to 1.25 billion Singapore dollars ($912.9 million) in the April-to-June quarter  down from 1.6 billion Singapore dollars a year ago. It beat Refinitiv estimates of around 1.19 billion Singapore dollars.

DBS Group Holdings , the largest bank in Singapore and Southeast Asia, reported a 22% fall in second-quarter net profit compared to a year ago as it set aside more money for loan losses that could arise from the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

In addition, low interest rates globally would continue to suppress margins, he said.

"I think nobody knows how deep or wide the size of this hit can be, nobody knows where the pandemic itself is going. And then in several countries, because you have moratoriums which are government backed, you really don't get a good sense of the underlying shape of the ... economy," he told CNBC's "Capital Connection" after the earnings release.

"Like most of the players, we're just trying to buffer up ahead of time," the CEO added.

Here are the other financial indicators that DBS reported:

Total allowances for loan losses amounted to 849 million Singapore dollars ($620 million) in the second quarter, up from 251 million Singapore dollars a year ago;

Total income was roughly steady at 3.73 billion Singapore dollars;

Net interest margin, a measure of lending profitability, dipped to 1.62% from 1.91% in the prior year;

Ratio of non-performing loans was at 1.5%, unchanged from the previous year.

The bank also provided an outlook for business. It said it expects its loans portfolio to grow by 5% for the full year, led by non-trade corporate loans; while net interest margins could inch lower to 1.6%.

Separately, smaller rival United Overseas Bank reported a 40% year-over-year decline in second-quarter net profit at 703 million Singapore dollars ($513.4 million)  below estimates by Refinitiv.

UOB also put aside additional allowances of 379 million Singapore dollars ($276.8 million) in the quarter "in view of COVID-19 impact."

Shares of DBS and UOB jumped after their second-quarter results were announced. DBS shares were up by around 2.5% from the previous close, while UOB climbed around 1.5%. Both banks outperformed the benchmark Straits Times Index, which inched up by around 1%.

Pramod Shenoi, head of Asia-Pacific research for financial institutions at CreditSights, said the two banks are "prudent" in taking provisions as they anticipate a potential deterioration in their loans portfolios.

"Everybody's aware that the environment is getting worse, it isn't showing up as yet in specific assets turning bad," he told CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia" after their earnings release.

"That turn in the cycle when asset quality actually starts going bad is something that we're going to see over (the) coming quarters, potentially a peak in the second half of next year," he added. "But till that point in time, the banks have to be prudent, set aside money via provisions and that's what both the Singapore banks are doing."
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Following an explosion that tore through the Lebanese capital, Nasr al-Hariri has sent his condolences and messages of support to the Lebanese Foreign Minister writes Etilaf.

The President of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces, Dr. Nasr al-Hariri, sent a message of condolences to the Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates regarding the huge explosion that shook the Beirut Port, leaving tens of people dead and thousands wounded.

Hariri expressed his sincere condolences to the people and government of the sister country of Lebanon, and to the families of the deceased.

He said, We ask God Almighty to show the deceased mercy and forgiveness. We pray that they cope well with their bereavement, and that all the injured have a speedy recovery.

He affirmed the keenness of the National Coalition to continue coordination and fraternal cooperation with the Lebanese Republic in order to make decisions that serve both the Syrian and Lebanese peoples.

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.
A former U.S. official reiterated allegations that Woody Johnson, owner of the New York Jets and current American ambassador to the United Kingdom, pushed the British government to steer the British Open to President Donald Trumps resort in Scotland.

During an interview with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC on Wednesday night, Lewis Lukens, the former Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in London, was asked about the allegations made against Johnson in a New York Times report in July.

The reporting has been very accurate on this. The New York Times story really got it right, Lukens said. The ambassador came back from a meeting at the White House, the very next morning he came and talked to me, said the President wants me to do this. Who should I talk to, how should I go about doing it? I said, You cant, you shouldnt do it. This is unethical, probably illegal. A couple weeks later, he asked again, I gave him the same answer. And then he went and had a meeting with a British minister responsible for Scotland and made the request, or made the suggestion at least.

Lukens, who wasnt in the meeting, said he was informed about the request shortly after it occurred by an officer from the embassy, who did attend. Lukens said he reported it to Washington and continued to keep detailed notes about the situation.

Buy coronavirus face coverings: MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, NCAA

Lukens said a team from the Inspector General was in London for a few weeks in October of 2019, when it was informed about the allegations against Johnson making the request about the British Open, plus other accusations of racist and sexist comments, as reported by CNN. Lukens said the team went back to Washington, where the report screeched to a halt.

A report about the incident has not been released by the State Department, which Lukens said is unusual, since one would typically have been released by now under the normal timeframe.

Lukens didnt provide any comments on the allegations of racist and sexist comments, which Johnson vehemently denied, but Lukens said Johnsons attempt to secure the British Open for Trump violated the sanctity of the ambassador position.

Its a clear example of trying to use U.S. government resources and the position of the U.S. ambassador to the Court of St. James to line the Presidents pocket, to promote his personal business and support his personal financial interests, Lukens said. So you dont have to take a three-hour course in ethics to understand that thats a violation of the oath of the constitution that we take as diplomats and the ambassador took before he came to London, to protect and serve the American people and the American Constitution, not the Presidents personal financial interests.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription.

Chris Ryan may be reached at cryan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisRyan_NJ. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
Marsha Hendler is a rarity in the oil and gas industry  shes the founder and CEO of an oil production company.

Less than 1 percent of CEOs in the oil and gas industry were women, S&P Global Market Intelligence reported in 2019. At the executive level overall, less than 17 percent were women.

Hendlers career path to the oil fields was a circuitous one.

She graduated from the University of Houston in 1972 with a degree in hotel and restaurant management. Hendler specialized in sales and marketing for hotels in Houston, New Orleans and Austin before moving to San Antonio to work for La Mansion Hotels.

On ExpressNews.com: Eagle Ford Shale discovery upended South Texas 10 years ago

She served as vice president of marketing from 1986 to 1989, when it still operated La Mansion del Norte, La Mansion, Austin and the historic La Mansion del Rio.

In 1995, after other hotel jobs, she started a marketing firm, Marketing+. The firm initially worked with the hospitality market exclusively. But as its reputation grew, it began serving clients in a variety of other sectors.

The oil connection was made in 2008 when a oil field services company based in Carrizo Springs hired Marketing+. It was the first of a number of energy clients.

In 2011, Hendler took the plunge herself and started buying oil wells. TerraFina Energy was born.

The company currently operates 36 wells in Zavala, Frio, McMullen and LaSalle counties in the Eagle Ford Shale play.

Q: How did you take the leap from marketing to starting your own oil and gas company?

A: I was at lunch with a group of South Texas oilmen, and my friend and mentor leaned over and said, You know, little girl, I have been watching you. You get this business, you ought to be an operator. I was intrigued by his comments. The more I was exposed to the oil industry, the more I wanted to know and be a part of it. What intrigued me is the challenge, the gamble. Its been a part of Texas since the discovery of Spindletop in 1901. Technology has certainly improved, but its part of Texas history, and that intrigued me as well. Its just part of who we are as Texans. The whole idea of working with geologists and engineers, poking a hole in the ground and then finding fossil fuels, it just intrigued me.

Q: What is the biggest challenge today running a smaller oil and gas company, especially in an environment in which oil prices have dropped?

A: Supply and demand are in a state of flux. In June 2014, oil was trading at $114.01, and in six months, it dropped to $53.21. We were a young company, and we successfully rode it through the downturn. And at the time, I thought I would never experience that again. That was until April 20 of this year when the price per barrel of oil dropped to a negative $37.63. So here we are dealing with it again. In a down market, you need to manage your production, store (it) or tank what you can and sell only enough to cover your expenses.

SA Inc.: Get the best of business news sent directly to your inbox

Q: How does being a woman in the business impact things?

A: I feel very fortunate. I dont see it as negative; for me, it has been a positive.

I had applied for a drilling permit with the Railroad Commission of Texas. There was an issue. I asked my geologist to join me on the phone call with the commission so we could resolve the issue, and we did in that one conversation.

After we hung up the phone, my geologist, Jim, made the comment, Ive worked with the commission for years, and they have never been that cooperative or helpful on anything. I answered, Some days its just good to be the girl. Its certainly worked for me.

When oil went negative, oil gatherers were no longer able to pick up (the oil that was produced) as there was no storage space. Gatherers that we had never done business with began calling to see if they could help us. Thats been the attitude of most of the guys I associate with.

I am very fortunate to have a large network of operators and oil field processionals that have patiently answered questions and shared what theyve learned over the years. Ive got a group that I lovingly refer to as my Bubbas, and if I have a problem that I cant figure out what to do, Ill call them, and they will patiently walk me through my options. I believe they really want to see me succeed.

Q: Going forward, will there be a recovery in oil prices?

A: There was an article on an industry website just a few weeks ago that shared J.P.Morgans prediction of $100 oil. Its not going to happen overnight, but they predicted we would see it by 2025.

This is a cyclical business. We are going to see $100 oil again; its just a matter of when. Its a world market, and right now, the Russians and Saudis are playing games. And that is part of what brought us to where we are. The pandemic didnt help. You may have noticed gas prices at the pump have been creeping up. The oil glut is slowly working its way down.

On ExpressNews.com: As oil prices plummet, producers to cut jobs, spending in Eagle Ford Shale

Q: Are you making money right now?

A: We are a small operation, and we arent carrying debt like other larger companies. We can actually make money with $40 oil, but things are tight. Unfortunately, there are some large operators that are carrying large debt that are having a difficult time working through this soft market.

Q: What other big changes are occurring in the oil business besides ones related to the pandemic?

A: That would be politics. President (Donald) Trump just made his first visit to an oil rig, and he wants to see U.S. oil dominant. It will be interesting to see what he proposes and his plan to make that happen. In March, Saudi Arabia triggered an oil price war with Russia after Russia refused to reduce their oil production. Saudi Arabia was attempting to hold oil prices at a moderate level, but this conflict, combined with the COVID-19 outbreak, resulted in the deep drop in oil prices in April. These are matters that are difficult to predict or anticipate.

Q: Do you have any concerns that the oil and gas industry affects the environment in a negative way?

A: I do consider myself somewhat of an environmentalist, and I take care to maintain a clean operation. There has been much written about flaring (the burning of natural gas that is a byproduct of oil production). TerraFina is not flaring any gas, but there is a larger issue that must be addressed. There are areas with limited pipeline capacity, leaving operators with only one option, and that is to flare their natural gas while producing oil. Additional pipelines will allow operators to sell their natural gas, ending the need for flaring.

Q: Is the U.S. running out of oil?

A: The so-called demise of the oil industry has been going on for a very long time. I remember back in the 70s, I had a girlfriend who grew up in East Texas and her daddy was an oilman. She was worried her daddy was going to run out of product and theyd be out of business. That was 50 years ago. The most recent data shows proven reserves of crude in the U.S. rose 12 percent in 2018 to 43.8 billion barrels from their 2017 level of 39.2 billion barrels. With improved completion technology, this number can continue to increase.

Q: What is the future of your company?

A: Last year, we were in the process of purchasing 100,000 acreages in the Eagle Ford. Unfortunately, before we were able to close on the transaction, the seller was forced into bankruptcy. We are again reviewing projects, and I am hopeful we will be expanding our operation before the end of 2020.

Randy Diamond covers aviation, energy tourism and the travel industry. He also writes the Wary Traveler Column. To read more from Randy, become a subscriber. randy.diamond@express-news.net
NORTHAMPTON, Mass., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- CheckWriters, Inc.  a leading developer of Payroll and Human Capital Management technology  today announced the launch of their Mobile COVID-19 Health Declaration, a new and proprietary add-on to the CheckWriters Employee Self Service (ESS) App. The tool is designed to make it easier for employers to manage the employee self-screening process by issuing a daily health declaration.

NEWS FACTS

 Many states and municipalities are now requiring employers in various sectors to screen employees for potential COVID-19 symptoms and/or possible exposure prior to the beginning of employee shifts.

 Employers need a simple and reliable way to issue and manage these employee screenings that maintains COVID-19 workplace safety standards and protocols, ideally through a mobile-accessible tool to ensure the self-screen can occur off-site.

 The CheckWriters Mobile COVID-19 Health Declaration allows employees to conveniently complete a self-screen relative to potential COVID-19 symptoms and exposure using a smartphone or mobile device.

 Employers can manage the results of the daily employee health declarations by accessing their secure administrative portal, and take any further administrative steps necessitated by negative responses to the health declaration.

 Compliance considerations dictate the results of self-screening declarations should be housed in a secure, encrypted environment separate from employee personnel files and accessible only to designated administrative contacts (i.e. Human Resources). A Human Resources platform like CheckWriters has been designed to maintain such compliance considerations using security protocols like data encryption, multi-factor authentication, etc.

SUPPORTING QUOTES

James Hebert, Chief Executive Officer, CheckWriters, Inc.

"Our company is fortunate to have a talented team of software developers with years of experience in recognizing critical human capital business needs, and meeting those needs with customized software solutions. Over the last month, we have noticed a significant uptick in client requests for a feature that would allow employees to self-screen for COVID-19 using a mobile device. Through collaboration with our Product and Compliance Teams, we determined that a simple electronic Health Declaration accessible through our existing Employee App, and managed through an Administrator-only dashboard, would help employers launch this process immediately while ensuring adherence to compliance and safety protocols."

ABOUT CHECKWRITERS, INC.

CheckWriters, Inc. is a Payroll and Human Capital Management (HCM) technology company that designs and services online software solutions for small and mid-size businesses. Checkwriters has 30-years industry experience and approximately 4,000 business clients across the country. The company is headquartered in Northampton, Massachusetts. More information about the products and services offered by CheckWriters can be found at www.checkwriters.com.

Media Contact:

Dakota Hebert

Phone: 888.243.2555

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE CheckWriters

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THE ADECCO GROUP PUBLISHES 2020 HALF YEAR REPORT

Zurich, Switzerland, August 6, 2020: The Adecco Group, the world's leading HR solutions company, today publishes its 2020 Half Year Report

The 2020 Half Year Report can be accessed here.

About the Adecco Group

The Adecco Group is the world's leading HR solutions company. We believe in making the future work for everyone, and every day enable more than 3.5 million careers. We skill, develop, and hire talent in 60 countries, enabling organisations to embrace the future of work. As a Fortune Global 500 company, we lead by example, creating shared value that fuels economies and builds better societies. Our culture of inclusivity, entrepreneurship and teamwork empowers our 35,000 employees. We are proud to have been consistently ranked one of the 'World's Best Workplaces' by Great Place to Work.

The Adecco Group AG is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland (ISIN: CH0012138605) and listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (ADEN) and powered by nine global brands: Adecco, Adia, Badenoch + Clark, General Assembly, Lee Hecht Harrison, Modis, Pontoon, Spring Professional and Vettery.
NEW YORK, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Chubb announced today that Gina Rebollar has been named Deputy General Counsel, Global Corporate Affairs. Ms. Rebollar will lead the company's global corporate affairs team with responsibility for legal matters related to global corporate, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, asset management and intellectual property. She will work closely with Chubb Limited's Board of Directors and advise the company's Corporate Development, Treasury, Human Resources and Global Communications functions as well as other members of senior management on various matters.

Ms. Rebollar rejoins Chubb from Clever Leaves, where she served as general counsel for the past year. From 2011 to 2019, Ms. Rebollar served as Senior Vice President and Managing Counsel, Global Corporate Affairs at Chubb. Ms. Rebollar is based in New York and reports to Joe Wayland, Executive Vice President, Chubb Group and General Counsel. The appointment is effective immediately.

Ms. Rebollar succeeds Chris Kearns, who is relocating to the West Coast to pursue other interests. Mr. Kearns will serve as a consultant to Chubb through the end of 2020.

"We are delighted to welcome Gina back to Chubb, particularly in this important role where she will be engaged on a broad range of significant matters across the company," said Mr. Wayland. "For eight years, she was a key member of our Global Corporate Affairs team, working closely with Chris. We are fortunate to again benefit from her experience, skills, perspective and insights. With her deep knowledge of Chubb, we expect a seamless transition as Gina assumes her new role.

Mr. Wayland continued: "We thank Chris for his 13 years with the company. He has been a trusted and valued advisor to senior management, to the Board and to all of the functional team members with whom he worked. Chris served in this role during a period of tremendous growth and change, and we benefitted from his judgment, commitment and experience. We wish the best to Chris in his future adventures."

Ms. Rebollar has nearly 15 years of experience in corporate affairs matters. Prior to her experience at Chubb and Clever Leaves, she was a Corporate Associate at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP in New York. Ms. Rebollar holds a JD degree from New York University School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Duke University.

About Chubb

With operations in 54 countries and territories, Chubb provides commercial and personal property and casualty insurance, personal accident and supplemental health insurance, reinsurance and life insurance to a diverse group of clients. As an underwriting company, we assess, assume and manage risk with insight and discipline. We service and pay our claims fairly. The company is also defined by its extensive product and service offerings, broad distribution capabilities, exceptional financial strength and local operations globally. Parent company Chubb Limited is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CB) and is a component of the S&P 500 index. Chubb maintains executive offices in Zurich, New York, London, Paris and other locations, and employs approximately 33,000 people worldwide. Additional information can be found at: www.chubb.com

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A Hamilton man faces a litany of charges  including possession of prohibited firearms and cruelty to animals  after he allegedly kicked a dog in the face and damaged property during a domestic dispute early Monday morning.

Police responded to a home on Mohawk Road West at about 5:30 a.m. for reports of an argument between a man and a woman.

The man allegedly kicked the womans dog in the face and damaged her window when she asked him to leave, police say.

Police said they negotiated the mans surrender.

Police later searched the mans downtown apartment on Charlton Avenue West, where they found a shotgun, ammo, three pellet guns and a Taser.

The 41-year-old is charged with one count of mischief under $5,000, cruelty to animals, possession under $5,000, possession of a prohibited weapon, careless use, carry and transport of a firearm, as well as 12 counts of possession contrary to order.
Thiruvananthapuram, August 06 : A programme organised by the Thiruvananthapuram district leadership of the CPI(M) to welcome BJP renegades into the CPI(M) fold has kicked up a controversy for flouting covid-19 regulations.

A mobile video footage of the programme held at Chenkal in Neyyattinkara taluk on Thursday went viral on social media. The video showed the attendees flouting covid-19 safety regulations such as physical distancing, mask wearing, and the restriction on gatherings.

The programme was held under the leadership of CPI(M) district secretary Anavoor Nagappan and Neyyattinkara MLA K Ansalan. In the video, both CPI(M) leaders can be seen welcoming former BJP workers into the CPI(M) fold by garlanding them.

A report in Manorama News said that no less than 100 people took part in the programme in violation of covid-19 safety protocol. The attendees were seen gathered close together without maintaining physical distancing. Most of them werent even wearing masks properly.

The report also said that the wards adjacent to Chenkal were containment zones, adding to the gravity of the transgression on the part of the CPI(M) district leadership.

The flagrant violation of covid-19 regulations by the CPI(M) leaders come even as chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan had the other day come down on the opposition for weakening covid-19 containment measures by staging mass strikes during the pandemic.

The police reportedly had yet to register a case against the CPI(M) leaders for violating covid-19 regulations despite former Neyyanttinkara MLA and congress leader R Selvaraj lodging a complaint.

Talking to Manorama News channel, Anavoor Nagappan refuted the charge that the programme was held in violation of covid-19 safety protocol.

He claimed that the people seen crowding in large numbers in violation of regulations in the video were actually BJP workers who had come to attend a BJP function that was to start shortly after the CPI(M) programme at the same venue.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Burma Myanmar Govt Says Arakan Army Not Invited to Union Peace Conference

Brigadier General Nyo Tun Aung of the AA attends the third session of the Union Peace Conference in Naypyitaw in July 2018. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

NAYPYITAWThe Myanmar government will not invite the Arakan Army (AA), which it has designated as a terrorist organization, to the Union Peace Conference-21st-Century Panglong, though it will invite the seven other ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) that have opted out of signing the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) with the government.

The Myanmar government will invite two leaders each from the seven NCA non-signatory groups, but not from the AA, which is engaged in active fighting with government troops, government spokesman U Zaw Htay told reporters in Naypyitaw on Wednesday.

We will invite seven non-signatories. But there are legal restrictions against inviting certain organizations, and we will not be able to invite them, said U Zaw Htay, who is also the director-general of the State Counselors Office.

The seven non-signatories invited to the peace conference are the United Wa State Army (UWSA), Kachin Independence Army (KIA), Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), Shan State Progress Party/Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA), Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA), National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA).

The TNLA, MNDAA and AA have formed a military alliance known as the Brotherhood Alliance. According to TNLA spokesman Major Mai Aik Kyaw, the TNLA and MNDAA will not attend the peace conference if the AA is not invited.

If the government is to invite us to the 21st-Century Panglong peace conference, we want to attend together. If we are to attend, all three of us must be allowed to attend. This is the stance of all three groups, he told The Irrawaddy.

Analysts of the Rakhine conflict and Myanmars peace process urged the government to invite the AA to the conference.

The AA should be invited. The government says the reason it would not invite the AA is because it has declared it a terrorist organization. But without negotiating with the AA, the Rakhine issue cant be resolved. So, I think the AA should be invited and negotiations held to ease military tensions, said political analyst and writer U Than Soe Naing.

Rakhine affairs analyst U Maung Maung Soe said the AA should not be left behind if all the EAOs based in northern Myanmar are to be invited to the peace talks. Other groups are unlikely to attend the talks if the AA is not invited, he said.

The government always says it keeps the door open to negotiations with the Northern Alliance, including the AA. If it is keeping the door open, it should invite [the AA], even though NCA non-signatories cannot participate in discussions. The invitation will pave the way for negotiations with the Northern Alliance, he said.

The Northern Alliance is a four-member military alliance that consists of the KIA, the MNDAA, the TNLA and the AA.

The Irrawaddy was unable to contact KIA and AA spokesmen for comment.

The government decided not to invite the AA to the peace conference because it has been designated as a terrorist organization, said Myanmar military spokesman Major-General Zaw Min Tun.

The government will also not invite the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang (NSCN-K) to the peace talks. The armed group attended the third session of the Panglong Peace Conference in July 2018.

We will invite two leaders each from signatory and non-signatory groups. They are not allowed to send representatives. Only the invited leaders will be allowed to attend, U Zaw Htay said.

Nai Ong MaNge, a spokesman for the NCA signatories, said the signatories officially asked government officials to invite the non-signatories to the talks, and the government responded that it would do so, except in the case of the AA.

Eight EAOsthe Karen National Union, the Karen National Liberation Army-Peace Council (KNLA-PC), the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA), the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA), the All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF), the Arakan Liberation Party (ALP), the Chin National Front (CNF) and the Pa-O National Liberation Organization (PNLO)signed the NCA with former President U Thein Seins administration in 2015.

Two othersthe New Mon State Party (NMSP) and the Lahu Democratic Union (LDU)signed the NCA with the National League for Democracy-led government in February of 2018.

The government will also invite five representatives from a civil society organizations forum, but observers will not be invited due to COVID-19, U Zaw Htay said.

The government and NCA signatories met on Tuesday and Wednesday in Naypyitaw, with talks focusing on the framework for NCA implementation, future tasks after 2020, and basic principles.

The fourth session of the Union Peace Conference will last for three days starting on Aug. 19. At the conference, the Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee will meet and agreements reached will be signed under the third part of the Union Accord.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko

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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka Sri Lankas powerful and popular Rajapaksa brothers were heading to a landslide victory in the countrys Parliamentary election, according to results released by the elections commission Friday.

The vote could enable them to change the constitution and strengthen dynastic rule.

The Rajapaksas Sri Lanka Peoples Front had won resoundingly in 16 out of the 17 district results released past midnight. Results of five more districts were yet to be released. Out of the 225 seats in Parliament, the Peoples Front had secured 112.

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa is most likely to be sworn in the same position by his younger brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Sri Lanka Peoples Front has secured a resounding victory according to official results released so far, Gotabaya said in a Twitter message. It is by belief that that the expectation to have a Parliament that will enable the implementation of my vision for prosperity policy will be reality tomorrow. he said.

The brothers need 150 seats or a control of two-thirds of seats in Parliament to be able to change the constitution. However, analysts say any attempt by Gotabaya to push for changes that will strengthen presidential power at the expense of those of the prime minister may trigger sibling rivalry.

Sri Lanka had been ruled by powerful executive presidents since 1978. But a 2015 constitutional amendment strengthened Parliament and the prime minister and put independent commissions in charge of judiciary appointments, police, public services and the conduct of elections.

Gotabaya was elected president last November after projecting himself as the only leader who could secure the country after the Islamic State-inspired bombings of churches and hotels on Easter Sunday that killed 269 people. Since being elected, he has said he had to function under many restrictions because of the constitutional changes.

However, Mahinda is unlikely to give away any of his powers that might result in his influence shrinking in promoting his son Namal as his heir. Namal and three other members of the Rajapaksa family contested the election and are likely to control key functions in the new administration.

The victory also raises fears of weakening government institutions such as independent commissions for elections, police and public service.

The election was held in Wednesday. But the counting of votes started Thursday as the election commission laid much emphasis on following health guidelines to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

More than 70 percent of the over 16 million people cast their votes to elect 196 lawmakers, with the rest being named from a national list according to the number of votes received by each party or independent group.

The election was originally scheduled for April, but it was twice postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sri Lanka has largely contained the spread of the virus with 2,839 confirmed cases, including 11 deaths.

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
So, youre a single parent or a working couple and you need to go to work.

Normally, your kids would be in school for much of the day, so those hours would be covered.

But now, with COVID-19 still killing across the country, many school districts are going to virtual only or hybrid learning plans.

You cant leave your kindergartener at home in front of a computer screen.

But, with schools uncertain if its safe to learn in a classroom, how can it be safe to learn in another room, with other children, somewhere else?

Two of the regions largest and oldest child care providers -- The Greater Valley YMCA is teaming with Lehigh Valley Childrens Centers -- say they have a plan to host and help children from kindergarten through 13 years old through the virtual education part of their day.

And they want to enlist other local providers in a the Valley-wide Edu-Childcare Program, according to a news release. It not only supports the basic educational process, but would help with socialization, physical education, art, STEM and literacy, the organizations said.

The first -- and initially only -- question was how to do that safely.

The YMCAs in Easton, Bethlehem, Allentown, Catasauqua, Nazareth and Pen Argyl got a head start on that question, Greater Valley YMCA President and CEO David Fagerstrom said Thursday. They provided care to the children of essential workers while Pennsylvania was still in the red phase, he said. As more people returned to work in the yellow and green phases, the YMCAs expanded that service during the summer day camp season.

So far, no one has tested positive for the coronavirus and no buildings have had to shut, he said.

If we couldnt do it right and couldnt do it safely, we werent going to do it, he said.

Now the Ys and the Lehigh Valley Childrens Centers -- and hopefully others, the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley says -- want to grow these efforts even further for a simple reason.

You have to have somewhere to send the kids, Fagerstrom told lehighvalleylive.com. ... If we didnt believe it was safe, we wouldnt offer it. There is no option not to meet this need. People are going to need to work.

By this point, staff -- which along the way have suggested best practices -- has the basic safety drill down pat, he said. Temperature checks, hand washing, small groups that dont interact with the same staff leaders through the day. No guest speakers. No water fountain use. If youve traveled to one of the many places after which Pennsylvania requires you to quarantine, you wont be coming to a YMCA facility until that time is served, he said.

Considering how many kids have been in YMCA child care this summer across the country, Fagerstrom said, YMCAs have a pretty good track record of keeping things as safe as possible.

The program will cost $166 a week, but the local Ys just last year offered $1 million in scholarships to help families that couldnt afford to pay the full amount for child care, Fagerstrom said. The state likely will provide financial assistance to help these families meet this need as well, he added.

The school districts will have to provide the computers, but the staff at both organizations has been helping local children with homework for years, so this isnt a huge leap, they said.

A challenge of this magnitude requires a community-wide response, Lehigh Valley Childrens Centers President and CEO Charles Dinofrio said in a news release, Both LVCC and GVY have decades of experience providing school-age children with homework support and recreation. Whats new in this plan is our intention to facilitate childrens remote learning, and our desire to enlist other organizations in safely meeting the needs of every Lehigh Valley child and family.

The United Way of the Lehigh Valley will bring together local child care providers -- Fagerstrom says there are about 500 in the Valley -- for a virtual meeting at 6 p.m. Aug. 13.

Creating a larger organization of child care providers would make it easier for school districts to communicate changes that students learning virtually in a day care setting might need, Fagerstrom said.

And with the United Way overseeing the effort, it might help break through competitive boundaries among various providers, Fegerstrom said.

Partnering in new ways for the good of the community is paramount to successfully stabilizing our kids and families, local United Way Vice President for Education and Impact Jill Pereira said in the news release. Our United Way is excited about the possibilities that exist with this blossoming collaboration to further support working families with school-age children.

Staff will be added to meet the new needs, Fagerstrom said, and current employees that are not comfortable with the program dont have to participate.

Staff has helped drive our safety protocols, he said. They are mission driven.

Providers interested in joining the virtual meeting can email Madeline Falcone at madelinef@unitedwayglv.org.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting lehighvalleylive.com with a voluntary subscription.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com.
BANGALORE, India, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Factors such as increased government funding and growth in the number of genomics initiatives, decreased sequencing costs, expanded genomics application areas, and the entry of new players and start-ups into the genomics sector drive market growth.

The global Genomics market size was valued at USD 13.4 Billion in 2019 and is projected to reach USD 27.8 Billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 11%.

This study predicts revenue growth at the global, regional, and national levels and analyses the emerging market developments and opportunities in each sub-segments. Furthermore,this study profiles leading industry players in the market and extensively analyses their tactics, which helps recognize the competitive landscape of the global genomics sector.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Othe-4C280/genomics

TRENDS INFLUENCING THE GENOMICS MARKET SIZE

The rise in preference for modified medicine and the popularization of alliances between research institutes and companies are expected to drive the growth of genomics market size during the forecast period.

Liquid biopsy solutions identify cancer-causing DNA mutations that enable early cancer detection. Several companies have begun to use genomics to develop DNA liquid biopsy tests to detect cancer early on. This, in turn, is expected to increase the genomics market size during the forecast period.

The continuous developments in genomics have drawn interest from military organizations, resulting in a dramatic rise in the use of genetic engineering in their healthcare systems. This growing adoption of genomics from the various sector is expected to fuel the growth of Genomics Market size during the forecast period.

Medicine and biomedical sciences are now witnessing a radical shift driven by the breakthrough in genomics. Increasing demand for customized medicines will push the growth for genomics market size during the forecast period.

Furthermore, rising investments from both government and private entities towards genetic research on personalized medicines are expected to increase the genomics market size.

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GENOMICS MARKET SHARE ANALYSIS

Based on the Type, the Consumables segment accounted for the largest market share in 2018, while the services segment is expected to show the highest growth over the forecast period. The strong growth in the services segment is due to the growing number of start-ups in genomic services.

Based on the region, North America is expected to hold the largest genomics market share in 2018. The dominance of North America is attributed to the growing funding for research and government initiatives.

Asia Pacific is expected to witness the highest growth rate during the forecast period. The significant growth in this area is due to an increased understanding of genomics and the the government increased emphasis on promoting genomics research.

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GENOMICS MARKET SEGMENTATION

Genomics Breakdown Data by Type

Instruments

Consumables

Services.

Genomics Breakdown Data by Application

Hospitals

Research Institutes

Others.

Key Companies

Illumina Inc

Agilent Technologies

Roche Diagnostics

Cancer Genetics Inc

Bio-Rad Laboratories

Sigma Aldrich

Qiagen

Perkin Elmer

Affymetrix

GE Healthcare

Others.

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SIMILAR REPORTS

NGS Informatics and Clinical Genomics Market Report

The major factors expected to increase the NGS Informatics and Clinical Genomics Market size are the growing number of genomic trials carried out worldwide, the plummeting expense of genome sequencing, and the intensified emphasis on lowering cancer care costs through allowing the use of genomic profiling for each person.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Othe-4O281/ngs-informatics-and-clinical-genomics

Single Cell Sequencing Market Report

Advances in the area of single-cell research are projected to the growth during the forecast period.

Furthermore, strong industry player engagement and commitment to product upgrades play a significant role in business development. Increasing levels of corporate partnerships and mutual alliances are encouraging the creation of a collective portfolio within the network.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Othe-2C328/single-cell-sequencing

Single Cell Genomics Market Report

North America is the dominating region in the single-cell genomics market owing to the advancing biopharmaceutical and biotechnology and genomics fields.

The Single Cell, Genomics Market report, includes a country-wise and region-wise market size for 2015-2026. It also includes market size and forecast by each application segment in revenue for the period 2015-2026.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Othe-088/global-single-cell-genomics-market

Genomics In Cancer Care Market Report

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Auto-9Z2480/global-genomics-in-cancer-care

Genomics Personalized Health Market Report

The global Genomics Personalized Health market size is projected to reach USD 9517.9 Million by 2026, from USD 8721.3 Million in 2020.

Genomics Personalized Health market is growing because of rising competition in the biopharmaceutical and healthcare industries. Rising the prevalence of cancer, rising the geriatric population, increasing exposure to health in developing economies are the other drivers for genomics personalized health the sector.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Othe-2E329/genomics-personalized-health

Metagenomics Market Report

The global metagenomics market was valued at USD 176 million in 2017 and is expected to reach USD 523 million by 2024 at a CAGR of 16.8% during the forecast period.

Metagenomic technologies have allowed a better understanding of the microbial ecology and microbiology through functional metagenomics in the global geochemical cycles.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/ALLI-Auto-0V276/metagenomics

Agrigenomics Market Report

Agrigenomics is widely used in Crops and Livestock. The most proportion of Agrigenomics is used in Crops, and the proportion was about 75.6% in 2016.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Auto-29Y525/global-agrigenomics

Genomics Biomarkers Market Report

Growing instances of low-cost clinical trials in developing countries will drive the growth of Genomics Biomarkers Market size during the forecast period.

This globalization of clinical trials has been attributed to multiple components, including coordinated trials, participants willingness to promote participation, accessibility of trained local investigators, expanded incentives in various Tier 2 and Tier 3 countries, and lower clinical trial expenses in developing countries.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Othe-4V164/genomics-biomarkers

Nutrigenomics Market Report

In 2019, the global Nutrigenomics market size was USD 10070 Million and it is expected to reach USD 19170 Million by the end of 2026.

This study focuses on the global status of Nutrigenomics, future outlook, opportunities for growth, key market, and key actors. The objective of this study is to present the progress of Nutrigenomics in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India, and Central and South America.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Othe-3S289/nutrigenomics

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Our team of market analysts can help you select the best report covering your industry. We understand your niche region-specific requirements and that's why we offer customization of reports. With our customization in place, you can request for any particular information from a report that meets your market analysis needs.

To achieve a consistent view of the market, data is gathered from various primary and secondary sources, at each step, data triangulation methodologies are applied to reduce deviance and find a consistent view of the market. Each sample we share contains a detailed research methodology employed to generate the report. Please also reach our sales team to get the complete list of our data source.

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India on Thursday lashed out at China after its failed attempt to raise Kashmir at the United Nations Security Council on behalf of Pakistan, rejecting the attempted by Beijing to interfere in Indias internal affairs.

China had backed Pakistans request to the UNSC to discuss Kashmir on Wednesday to coincide with the first anniversary of the revocation of the special status extended to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. But four of the five permanent members  the US, UK, France and Russia  sided with India.

In a statement, the external affairs ministry underlined that this wasnt a first for China.

This was not the first time that China has sought to raise a subject that is solely an internal matter of India. We firmly reject Chinas interference in our internal affairs and urge it to draw proper conclusions from such infructuous attempts, the ministry statement said.

TS Tirumurti, Indias permanent representative to the UN, said almost all countries at the UNSC underlined that J&K was a bilateral issue and did not deserve time and attention of Council.

Another attempt by Pakistan fails! he tweeted after a high-profile joint effort by Pakistan and China - their third over the last one year - to discuss the Kashmir issue at UNSC was blocked.

Back home in Islamabad, Pakistan got down to celebrating its third attempt to raise Kashmir at the UNSC as a huge achievement. This 3rd meeting in a year by the UN Security Council serves as a stark repudiation to the Indian claim that Jammu and Kashmir is an internal matter, tweeted Pakistans foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the message directed at its domestic audience.

Prime Minister Imran Khan and Qureshis narrative in Pakistan around its campaign on Kashmir is that Islamabad has globally suceeded in isolating New Delhi over the Kashmir issue. At a recent sitting of its parliament during the budget session, PM Khan told lawmakers that he considered Pakistans foreign policy its biggest achievement.

At the UNSC meeting, China and Pakistan did initially appear to have the support of Indonesia, which holds UNSCs rotational chair for August. In the end, however, Indonesia came through for India and agreed with others that the dispute needed to resolved bilaterally between India and Pakistan, people familiar with the development said.

This was an informal consultation that was held behind closed doors and no records were kept of who said what, which would have happened in a formal and open meeting. Pakistan has sought open and formal meetings of the council to grandstand its Kashmir case, but has had to settle for these closed-door versions.
Beijing: A Chinese court has sentenced a Canadian man to death for making drugs, the third Canadian to be sentenced to death for drugs in China since Canada detained a top executive of a Chinese company in 2018.

The Canadian, identified as Xu Weihong, was sentenced after a trial in the southern city of Guangzhou, the Guangzhou Intermediate Court said in a notice on its website on Thursday.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said China's authorities handled the case according to law. Credit:AP

It did not say what drugs he had been convicted of making, nor give any other details about his crime. The court ordered his property to be confiscated.

Reuters was not able to determine if Xu has a lawyer.
Mr Cain turned to his deputy, Mrs Joan Kirner, and spoke conspiratorially. Mrs Kirner started to weep. Then Mr Cain stood up before his peers for the last time as Premier. "I have something to say, he announced.

John Cain was the stern school-master with his colleagues to the bitter end. As the Labor Party's caucus secretary, Mr Eddie Micallef, read out the minutes at yesterday's regular caucus meeting, Mr Cain, as chairman, insisted that MPs pay attention and stop talking.

Few who were there can remember the exact wording of the rest of it. Mr Cain said he had told the Governor he would be resigning. As the stunned members lapsed into silence he told them, his voice breaking, that his plea for unity at the ALP conference in June had failed. As some backbenchers called, "No! Think about it, Mr Cain left the meeting to prepare for a news conference. It was 10.50am.

Mrs Kirner took over the chair, saying the caucus had two issues to deal with, a vote of thanks to the Premier, and when the party would meet to anoint a new leader. The motion was seconded by the chairman of the Labor Unity faction, Mr Robert Fordham, who told the caucus that Mr Cain had resigned for the sake of the party, not himself.

As the MPs sat there convincing each other that what had just happened was real, Mr Jim Kennan, until early this year the man most likely to succeed Mr Cain as leader, walked into the meeting. He was late and wanted to know why everyone looked so stunned.

The Queen is welcomed by the Premier, John Cain, at Tullamarine. Credit:The Age Archives

The question continued to be asked last night: how did this happen? Yesterday's drama was part of an unbroken line of events going back to June that ensured that Mr Cain would go. It began with increasing speculation about his leadership, intensified in early June by articles in 'The Age' that described the depth and detail of factional manoeuvrings on the Premier's job. It continued with his failed plea for unity two weeks later at the state conference.
On May 29, four days after George Floyd was killed by the Minneapolis police, Theresa Ruth Howard posted a call to action on Instagram:

Demonstrate your outrage Demonstrate your allyship Demonstrate your authenticity We dont need shadow heroes, step into the light 

Ms. Howard, a former ballet dancer who founded the digital platform Memoirs of Blacks in Ballet (or MoBBallet), was addressing the institutions she has worked with for the past few years, in a role she sums up as diversity strategist and consultant. Those institutions, which include some of the worlds most prestigious ballet companies and schools, are predominantly white, onstage and behind the scenes. They know they need to evolve, and she is helping them.

So when protests against systemic racism and police brutality began sweeping the country, she found their silence disconcerting. You cant say you want us, and when we are in peril, not be there for us, Ms. Howard, 49, said in an interview.

Over the next few days, companies answered her call, or tried, posting statements of support with a hashtag she had started: #balletrelevesforblacklives. (Releve, a ballet term, is a way of saying rise up.) Their messages drew both appreciation and criticism, with many commenters demanding action, not merely words. In an opinion piece for Dance Magazine, Ms. Howard expanded on her thoughts about what leadership should look like in this moment, under the headline Where Is Your Outrage? Where Is Your Support?

On Aug. 14, leaders from more than a dozen ballet companies and schools will convene for an online discussion titled #balletrelevesforblacklives  Or Does It?, a chance to reflect, beyond social media, on the Black Lives Matter movement and its impact on their institutions. The public event is part of Ms. Howards second annual MoBBallet symposium, a series of conversations and lectures that, in her words, centers Blackness but welcomes all.
(Newser)  Gwyneth Paltrow is in the celeb headlines on two fronts: She interviews friend Cameron Diaz, who talks about her retirement from acting, and she writes an essay in British Vogue about her famous, or maybe infamous, use of the phrase "conscious uncoupling." The BBC has the Diaz details, in which she tells Paltrow that the decision to stop acting in 2014 has given her "peace in my soul." She adds: "It's a strange thing to say, I know a lot of people won't understand it, I know you understand it, but it's so intense to work at that level and be that public and put yourself out there." Diaz, who isn't ruling out a possible return to acting someday, had her first child, Raddix, in 2019 with husband Benji Madden of the group Good Charlotte.

story continues below

As for "conscious uncoupling," Paltrow reveals in her essay that it was introduced to her and then husband Chris Martin by their therapist. "Frankly, the term sounded a bit full of itself, painfully progressive and hard to swallow," she writes. "I was intrigued, less by the phrase, but by the sentiment. Was there a world where we could break up and not lose everything?" Six years later, Paltrow still recalls the "mockery" that ensued, but she writes that "conscious uncoupling/separation/divorce, whatever you want to call it, has now permeated the break-up culture." These days, people frequently ask her how to achieve it, and she writes that the phrase means different things to different couples. (Read more Cameron Diaz stories.)
PLA Army's attack helicopters conduct sea-crossing assault drills on Navy warship

Global Times

By Liu Xuanzun Source: Global Times Published: 2020/8/5 18:10:41

Z-10 attack helicopters attached to the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Army recently conducted a series of sea-crossing assault drills on a Navy warship. The combination of Army helicopters and Navy warships can significantly boost the PLA's amphibious, vertical landing capability and will play a vital role in potential military operations on the island of Taiwan, military analysts said on Wednesday.

An aviation brigade under the 73rd Group Army and a Navy vessel squadron recently held an exercise on cross-service integration between helicopters and warships, in which Army helicopters including the Z-10, Z-9 and Mi-171 landed on a Navy warship and conducted coordinated command and sea-crossing assault drills in a southern sea area off East China's Fujian Province, China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Tuesday.

During the drills, the Army helicopters took off from a land base, approached the sea area where the Navy's Type 071 amphibious landing ship was located, and landed on the flight deck of the warship, the report said.

After soldiers boarded the aircraft, transport helicopters took off again and headed toward the mission area at low altitude under the cover of attack helicopters. On arriving at the designated areas, the soldiers aboard the helicopters rappelled down the helicopters and initiated the attack, CCTV reported.

At least one Z-10 attack helicopter featured in the drills is the latest, upgraded variant with upward-facing exhaust openings, which are expected to reduce the chopper's infrared signals and make it harder to target, CCTV's military program Weihutang pointed out.

This type of exercise is very significant for the PLA's amphibious, vertical landing capability, as the Army Aviation Force can be trained to become capable of integrating with the Navy Aviation Force and Marines in a large-scale landing operation, a military expert who asked not to be named told the Global Times on Wednesday.

The Navy Aviation Force does not have attack helicopters like the Z-10, and the strong fire support from this kind of helicopter will be vital in suppressing hostile ground forces, the expert said.

China is developing the Type 075 amphibious assault ship, which will be able to host more helicopters than the Type 071 in amphibious assault missions. Two Type 075s have been launched since 2019.

Zhang Keqiang, a flight commander of the Army aviation brigade, said on CCTV that the drills accumulated data and experience for future helicopter-warship integrated combat.

Amphibious assault and landing ships, as well as the helicopters carried by them, are key instruments in potential military operations on the island of Taiwan, the anonymous expert said.

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MEXICO CITY, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste, S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE: ASR; BMV: ASUR) ASUR, a leading international airport group with operations in Mexico, the U.S. and Colombia, today announced that total passenger traffic for July 2020 decreased 77.6% when compared to July 2019. Passenger traffic decreased 74.7% in Mexico, 62.4% in Puerto Rico and 99.8% in Colombia, impacted by severe downturns in business and leisure travel stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.

This announcement reflects comparisons between July 1 through July 31, 2020 and from July 1 through July 31, 2019. Transit and general aviation passengers are excluded for Mexico and Colombia.

Passenger Traffic Summary













July % Chg

Year to date % Chg 2019 2020

2019 2020 Mexico 3,198,194 809,306 (74.7)

20,648,828 9,334,186 (54.8) Domestic Traffic 1,634,446 574,574 (64.8)

9,532,322 4,549,044 (52.3) International Traffic 1,563,748 234,732 (85.0)

11,116,506 4,785,142 (57.0) San Juan, Puerto Rico 968,319 363,935 (62.4)

5,686,127 2,906,051 (48.9) Domestic Traffic 851,865 351,932 (58.7)

5,068,032 2,684,660 (47.0) International Traffic 116,454 12,003 (89.7)

618,095 221,391 (64.2) Colombia 1,078,246 2,369 (99.8)

5,836,076 2,276,841 (61.0) Domestic Traffic 903,812 1,654 (99.8)

5,661,642 2,276,126 (59.8) International Traffic 174,434 715 (99.6)

174,434 715 (99.6) Total Traffic 5,244,759 1,175,610 (77.6)

32,171,031 14,517,078 (54.9) Domestic Traffic 3,390,123 928,160 (72.6)

20,261,996 9,509,830 (53.1) International Traffic 1,854,636 247,450 (86.7)

11,909,035 5,007,248 (58.0)



















Since March 16, 2020, various governments have issued flight restrictions for different regions of the world to limit the breakout of the COVID-19 virus. With respect to the airports ASUR operates:

As announced on March 23, 2020, neither Mexico nor Puerto Rico have issued flight bans, to date. In Puerto Rico, the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) has accepted a request from the Governor of Puerto Rico that all flights bound to Puerto Rico land at LMM Airport, which is operated by ASUR's subsidiary Aerostar, and that all arriving passengers be screened by representatives of the Puerto Rico Health Department. On March 30, 2020, the Governor of Puerto Rico, through an executive order of indefinite term, imposed a two-week quarantine on all passengers arriving at the LMM Airport. Therefore, LMM Airport remains open and operating, albeit with substantially reduced flight and passenger volumes.

To further strengthen health controls on arrival, starting July 15, the Governor of Puerto Rico began implementing the following additional measures. All passengers must wear a mask, complete a mandatory flight declaration form from the Puerto Rico Health Department, and submit negative results of a PCR molecular COVID-19 test taken 72 hours prior to arrival to avoid having to undergo the two-week quarantine. Passengers can also opt to take the COVID-19 test in Puerto Rico (not necessarily at the airport), in order to be released from quarantine (estimated to take between 24-48 hours).

In Colombia, all incoming international flights, including connecting flights in Colombia, were suspended by the Colombian government starting March 23, 2020. This suspension has been extended through August 31, 2020, with exceptions for humanitarian emergencies, transportation of cargo and goods, and fortuitous events or force majeure. Recently, the Colombian government announced that Colombia's airports will reopen to international flights on September 1, 2020. Similarly, domestic air travel in Colombia was suspended starting March 25, 2020. Consequently, ASUR's commercial aviation operations at the Enrique Olaya Herrera de Medellin, Jose Maria Cordova de Rionegro, Los Garzones de Monteria, Antonio Roldan Betancourt de Carepa, El Carano de Quibdo and Las Brujas de Corozal airports were suspended starting as of such dates.

The Colombian government allowed domestic flights to resume on July 1, 2020, starting with pilot tests for domestic routes between cities with low levels of contagion. The Colombian government has delegated to municipal administrations the power to request approval from the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Transport and Aerocivil (the aeronautical authority in Colombia) to resume domestic flights from or to their municipalities. As a result, both municipalities involved would be required to agree in order to restart such domestic flights. As of today, ASUR's airports in Colombia have not yet resumed domestic flights.

Mexico Passenger Traffic

July % Chg

Year to date % Chg 2019 2020

2019 2020 Domestic Traffic 1,634,446 574,574 (64.8)

9,532,322 4,549,044 (52.3) CUN Cancun 914,987 395,958 (56.7)

5,134,037 2,429,042 (52.7) CZM Cozumel 20,523 2,114 (89.7)

118,752 40,401 (66.0) HUX Huatulco 78,728 15,779 (80.0)

448,436 166,991 (62.8) MID Merida 237,223 55,578 (76.6)

1,465,713 702,560 (52.1) MTT Minatitlan 12,145 3,192 (73.7)

82,764 36,876 (55.4) OAX Oaxaca 100,386 21,908 (78.2)

567,630 310,872 (45.2) TAP Tapachula 30,959 14,745 (52.4)

211,879 135,549 (36.0) VER Veracruz 129,467 36,051 (72.2)

801,448 384,277 (52.1) VSA Villahermosa 110,028 29,249 (73.4)

701,663 342,476 (51.2)



Mexico Passenger Traffic (continued)













July % Chg

Year to date % Chg

2019 2020

2019 2020

International Traffic 1,563,748 234,732 (85.0)

11,116,506 4,785,142 (57.0)

CUN Cancun 1,484,897 221,074 (85.1)

10,480,240 4,430,974 (57.7)

CZM Cozumel 27,621 8,675 (68.6)

256,807 139,276 (45.8)

HUX Huatulco 3,251 313 (90.4)

104,319 77,710 (25.5)

MID Merida 19,463 1,874 (90.4)

126,135 64,628 (48.8)

MTT Minatitlan 891 92 (89.7)

4,616 2,047 (55.7)

OAX Oaxaca 16,449 520 (96.8)

84,606 40,953 (51.6)

TAP Tapachula 1,581 515 (67.4)

7,951 4,195 (47.2)

VER Veracruz 7,275 519 (92.9)

39,681 16,484 (58.5)

VSA Villahermosa 2,320 1,150 (50.4)

12,151 8,875 (27.0)

Traffic Total Mexico 3,198,194 809,306 (74.7)

20,648,828 9,334,186 (54.8)

CUN Cancun 2,399,884 617,032 (74.3)

15,614,277 6,860,016 (56.1)

CZM Cozumel 48,144 10,789 (77.6)

375,559 179,677 (52.2)

HUX Huatulco 81,979 16,092 (80.4)

552,755 244,701 (55.7)

MID Merida 256,686 57,452 (77.6)

1,591,848 767,188 (51.8)

MTT Minatitlan 13,036 3,284 (74.8)

87,380 38,923 (55.5)

OAX Oaxaca 116,835 22,428 (80.8)

652,236 351,825 (46.1)

TAP Tapachula 32,540 15,260 (53.1)

219,830 139,744 (36.4)

VER Veracruz 136,742 36,570 (73.3)

841,129 400,761 (52.4)

VSA Villahermosa 112,348 30,399 (72.9)

713,814 351,351 (50.8)



































US Passenger Traffic, San Juan Airport (LMM)









July % Chg

Year to date % Chg 2019 2020

2019 2020 SJU Total 968,319 363,935 (62.4)

5,686,127 2,906,051 (48.9) Domestic Traffic 851,865 351,932 (58.7)

5,068,032 2,684,660 (47.0) International Traffic 116,454 12,003 (89.7)

618,095 221,391 (64.2)



















Colombia Passenger Traffic Airplan











July % Chg

Year to date % Chg 2019 2020

2019 2020 Domestic Traffic 903,812 1,654 (99.8)

5,661,642 2,276,126 (59.8) MDE Rionegro 655,875 49 (100.0)

4,101,100 1,623,708 (60.4) EOH Medellin 98,190 1,002 (99.0)

607,858 244,650 (59.8) MTR Monteria 87,586 138 (99.8)

560,353 259,772 (53.6) APO Carepa 19,456 81 (99.6)

123,813 50,574 (59.2) UIB Quibdo 34,114 341 (99.0)

214,193 84,104 (60.7) CZU Corozal 8,591 43 (99.5)

54,325 13,318 (75.5) International Traffic 174,434 715 (99.6)

174,434 715 (99.6) MDE Rionegro 174,434 715 (99.6)

174,434 715 (99.6) EOH Medellin













MTR Monteria - -



- -

APO Carepa - -



- -

UIB Quibdo - -



- -

CZU Corozal - -



- -

Traffic Total Colombia 1,078,246 2,369 (99.8)

5,836,076 2,276,841 (61.0) MDE Rionegro 830,309 764 (99.9)

4,275,534 1,624,423 (62.0) EOH Medellin 98,190 1,002 (99.0)

607,858 244,650 (59.8) MTR Monteria 87,586 138 (99.8)

560,353 259,772 (53.6) APO Carepa 19,456 81 (99.6)

123,813 50,574 (59.2) UIB Quibdo 34,114 341 (99.0)

214,193 84,104 (60.7) CZU Corozal 8,591 43 (99.5)

54,325 13,318 (75.5)

About ASUR

Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste, S.A.B. de C.V. (ASUR) is a leading international airport operator with a portfolio of concessions to operate, maintain and develop 16 airports in the Americas. This comprises nine airports in southeast Mexico, including Cancun Airport, the most important tourist destination in Mexico, the Caribbean and Latin America, and six airports in northern Colombia, including Medellin international airport (Rio Negro), the second busiest in Colombia. ASUR is also a 60% JV partner in Aerostar Airport Holdings, LLC, operator of the Luis Munoz Marin International Airport serving the capital of Puerto Rico, San Juan. San Juan's Airport is the island's primary gateway for international and mainland-US destinations and was the first, and currently the only major airport in the US to have successfully completed a publicprivate partnership under the FAA Pilot Program. Headquartered in Mexico, ASUR is listed both on the Mexican Bolsa, where it trades under the symbol ASUR, and on the NYSE in the U.S., where it trades under the symbol ASR. One ADS represents ten (10) series B shares. For more information, visit www.asur.com.mx

SOURCE Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste, S.A.B. de C.V.

Related Links

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A Popeyes fast food chain restaurant is seen on August 30, 2019 on a street of Washington D.C.

Restaurant Brands International on Thursday reported that its quarterly revenue plunged 25% as the coronavirus pandemic weighed on same-store sales at Burger King and Tim Hortons.

But Popeyes, which has become the gem of Restaurant Brands' portfolio, reported same-store sales growth of 24.8%, powered by its popular chicken sandwich.

Shares of the company fell 2% in morning trading. The stock, which has a market value of $26 billion, has fallen 11% so far this year.

Here's what the company reported for the quarter ended June 30 compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by Refinitiv:

Earnings per share: 33 cents, adjusted, vs. 31 cents expected

Revenue: $1.05 billion vs. $1.05 billion expected

The Burger King parent reported second-quarter net income of $163 million, or 35 cents per share, down from $257 million, or 55 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, Restaurant Brands earned 33 cents per share, beating the 31 cents per share expected by analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.

Net sales dropped 25% to $1.05 billion, meeting expectations. Digital sales soared 120%, more than double from the year-ago period.

Tim Hortons, which typically contributes about 60% of Restaurant Brands' total revenue, saw its same-store sales plunge 29.3%. Even before the pandemic, the Canadian coffee chain struggled as sales growth in its domestic market slowed down. Now as the virus changes consumer behavior, chains from Starbucks to Taco Bell are reporting that fewer customers are stopping by for breakfast or their early morning java. Tims' same-store sales were still down by the mid teens by the end of July.
Drs. Marianne Urbanski and Gregory Toback, Periodontists in New London, CT, Host Shoreline Periodontics Hygiene Study Club The two-part CE course presented by Dr. Levi is designed to help dental hygienists determine the origin of dental pain, whether stemming from a periodontal issue or pulpal disease, to ultimately improve accuracy in diagnosis and treatment.

Drs. Gregory Toback and Marianne Urbanski, skilled periodontists practicing in New London, CT and Westerly, RI look forward to hosting Dr. Paul Levi for their latest Shoreline Periodontics Hygiene Study Club course. This continuing education (CE) course, Diagnosis of Acute & Chronic Dental Pain will be held virtually on August 27, 2020. Drs. Toback and Urbanski regularly host CE courses for hygienists and doctors as well as offer cutting-edge periodontal and dental implant treatment at their state-of-the-art practices in New London, CT and Westerly, RI.

The two-part CE course presented by Dr. Levi is designed to help dental hygienists determine the origin of dental pain, whether stemming from a periodontal issue or pulpal disease, to ultimately improve accuracy in diagnosis and treatment. During the first part of the course, participants will learn distinctions between gingival abscesses, periodontal abscesses, periapical abscesses, chronic and acute dental pain, cracked teeth, and problems caused by parafunctional trauma and sinusitis. They will also be presented with varying dental issues that have similar symptoms and gain the knowledge to make informed decisions about the cause of each problem. The presentation will additionally include the proper diagnosis and treatment of these specific dental problems.

The second part of the course will involve interactive training where dental hygienists will determine the etiology of dental issues of several patients. Participants will have the chance to vote, followed by the correct answers and proper course of treatment, including long-term follow-up. Upon conclusion of the course, dental hygienists will have a greater knowledge base and refined skills needed to provide an accurate diagnosis for varying dental problems.

The course hosts, Drs. Toback and Urbanski, regularly teach through their Shoreline Periodontics Hygiene Study Club and their Shoreline Periodontics Synergy Study Club, providing personalized and hands-on courses to improve the skills of their participants. As long-standing periodontists and leaders in their field, they provide minimally invasive solutions for their patients, including teeth-in-a-day full mouth dental implants, LANAP laser gum therapy, and the Pinhole Surgical Technique for gum recession. They take from their decades of clinical experience in diagnosing and treating oral health problems, including acute and chronic dental pain, to offer specialized CE courses for hygienists and doctors. Participants can receive knowledgeable training from the periodontists as well as other leading specialists like Dr. Levi at their many lectures hosted throughout the year.

Those interested in participating in the virtual CE course can contact Shoreline Periodontics and Dental Implants for more information and to register. Patients interested in receiving specialized treatment from the experienced periodontists in New London, CT and Westerly, RI can visit http://www.shorelineperio.com or call 860-443-2428 for the New London, CT location, or 401-596-0000 for the Westerly, RI office to schedule a consultation.

About the Practice

Shoreline Periodontics is a periodontal practice offering personalized dental care for patients since 1998 and is located in New London, CT and Westerly, RI. Leading board-certified periodontist, Dr. Gregory A. Toback, received his B.A. from St. Johns University and his Doctorate of Dental Medicine from the University of Connecticut. He also received advanced training in periodontics and dental implants at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. Dr. Marianne Urbanski has been voted one of Connecticuts top dentists for more than seven years by Connecticut Magazine. Dr. Urbanski graduated cum laude from the College of Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts where she earned a Bachelors degree in Biology. She also received her Doctor of Dental Medicine degree and her Masters of Dental Science degree from the University of Connecticut Dental School. Dr. Urbanski and Dr. Toback pride themselves on offering caring, professional treatment to each patient. Dr. Toback and Dr. Urbanski focus on minimally invasive surgeries including LANAP laser gum surgery and are certified to offer the Chao Pinhole Surgical Technique for treatment of gum recession. To learn more about Shoreline Periodontics and their dental services visit their website at http://www.shorelineperio.com or call 860-443-2428 for the New London, CT location, or 401-596-0000 for the Westerly, RI office.
LIMERICK people have been urged to remain vigilant in the fight against Covid-19 as fears intensify of a second wave of the deadly virus.

Limerick TD Niall Collins has urged parents and youngsters to be careful, after a public outcry following an incident in Kilkee where teens partied at the bandstand on the beach front, leading to an unprecedented appeal from Clare council boss Pat Dowling.

I saw the footage of the gathering in Kilkee. I think the public is very concerned about this and similar incidents. Again, this is where personal responsibility has to be exercised, particularly I would ask our younger people to be mindful of the sacrifices that have been made to date and to play their part, said Mr Collins, who is a Minister of State at the Department of Higher Education.

While Limerick has avoided the worst of Covid-19 in Ireland with 25 deaths since late February, there are fears of a reoccurrance.

This is because the number of cases has grown by 17 over the last number of days, with an HSE spokesperson revealing a cluster of cases locally.

The location of the cluster In Limerick has not been made public.

Mr Collins said: Thankfully, there has been no increase in deaths but worryingly we are seeing an increase in the number of people presenting and testing positive.

I would urge people to adhere to public health guidelines and adhere to best practice. I would also say to people that there is an onus on us all to exercise personal responsibility.

He said there is a real danger of complacency and its important Limerick and Ireland guards against this.

Asked how worried he is of a second wave, Mr Collins added: When we look at Australia, when we look at other jurisdictions, they have and are experiencing a second wave. It's a real life event. A second wave is a real life possibility, an event. That's why we need to be super-cautious and not allow complacency to take over.

Mr Collinss Fianna Fail colleague in Clare, Cathal Crowe, went further and slammed teenagers claiming they flagrantly ignored social distancing guidelines.

Their actions have now put the people of West Clare, a part of the country that has had a very low incidence of Covid cases so far, at heightened risk, he said.

 The responsibility lies with the teenagers and their parents and there simply cannot be a repeat of this down the line, he added.

Most of those involved are understood to be from Limerick.

After a number of weeks where the number of Covid-19 cases remained static in Limerick, theyve grown in recent days to now stand at more than 600 as of this Tuesday night.

Nationally, the number of deaths linked to the condition remains at 1,763. And as of Monday night, there were a total of 26,208 confirmed cases of the condition in Ireland.

For more Limerick news click here
AGOURA HILLS, Calif., Aug. 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE: AMH) (the "Company"), a leading provider of high-quality single-family homes for rent, today announced that the Board of Trustees declared a dividend of $0.05 per share on the Company's common shares for the third quarter of 2020. The distribution will be payable in cash on September 30, 2020 to shareholders of record on September 15, 2020.

The Board of Trustees also declared a per share quarterly distribution on the Company's cumulative redeemable perpetual preferred shares of $0.40625 per share on the 6.5% Series D shares, $0.39688 per share on the 6.35% Series E shares, $0.36719 per share on the 5.875% Series F shares, $0.36719 per share on the 5.875% Series G shares and $0.39063 per share on the 6.25% Series H shares payable in cash on September 30, 2020 to shareholders of record on September 15, 2020.

About American Homes 4 Rent

American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE: AMH) is a leader in the single-family home rental industry and "American Homes 4 Rent" is fast becoming a nationally recognized brand for rental homes, known for high-quality, good value and tenant satisfaction. We are an internally managed Maryland real estate investment trust, or REIT, focused on acquiring, developing, renovating, leasing, and operating attractive, single-family homes as rental properties. As of March 31, 2020, we owned 52,776 single-family properties in selected submarkets in 22 states.

Additional information about American Homes 4 Rent is available on our website at www.americanhomes4rent.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" that relate to beliefs, expectations or intentions and similar statements concerning matters that are not of historical fact and are generally accompanied by words such as "believe," "expect," "will," "intend," "anticipate" or other words that convey the uncertainty of future events or outcomes. These forward-looking statements include the payment and anticipated timing of the payment of distributions of the Company's common and preferred shares. The Company has based these forward-looking statements on its current expectations and assumptions about future events. While the Company's management considers these expectations to be reasonable, they are inherently subject to risks, contingencies and uncertainties, most of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the Company's control and could adversely affect our cash flows and ability to pay distributions. Additional information about these and other important factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from anticipated results expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements is available in the Company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to conform to actual results or changes in expectations, except as required by applicable law.

Investor Relations:

Phone: (855) 794-2447

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE American Homes 4 Rent

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President Muhammadu Buhari has said his administration remains committed to the fight against corruption.

The president spoke at the graduation of the National Defence College Course 28 on Thursday in Abuja.

Represented by the Minister of Defence, Bashir Magashi, he said there is still work to be done in terms of the economic impact on the citizens such as employment generation, poverty eradication and the general conditions of living.

On corruption, we are more determined than ever before to stay on the path we have chosen in the interest of our dear nation to fight corruption without fear no matter who is involved, Mr Buhari added.

The president urged heads of security and defence services to promote and implement comprehensive security philosophies of joint efforts and synergy through interagency cooperation to address the nations security challenge.

He said this would help to create an enabling environment to overcome the security challenge in the country.

Mr Buhari said that in spite of various challenges in the country which included insecurity, unemployment, COVID-19 pandemic among others, the nation had remained strong and vibrant in all forms.

In spite of all of these, our faith in the nation is unshaken. Our resolve and will to take the nation to greater heights is strong, he said.

He said that there was a need to work together and get back on track as a way forward.

According to him, this will require a fundamental philosophy of deliberative, continuous and consolidated improvement in all aspects of our national life.

We must continuously harness the strengths of our national diversities; we must promote Nigeria first in all our doings; we must bridge political divides and engage in political re-engineering based on equity and mutual trust, the president said.

According to him, there is a need to create enabling security environment for the country to achieve its desired goals.

`This is the path for all the armed forces, the Nigeria police, intelligence and security agencies and other significant state and non-state actors engaged in the provision of security.

Moving forward, the armed forces and all the security agencies must promote and implement comprehensive security philosophies and measures driven by long-established principles of synergies.

This should be through interagency cooperation, defence transformation and reorganisation, expansion and modernisation of the military to make it fit for purpose; as well as a high morale of the men and women of the services and security agencies.

I call on the heads of security and defence services to make these aspirations to fully come to fruition quickly, he said.

He commended the National Defence College for sustaining the finest traditions of strategic grooming of selected senior military officers, senior police officers and senior officers from key ministries department and agencies.

Clearly the college has kept its reputation as the highest level research and scholarship as well as national security and defence policy analysis.

Government will continue to support the college in the discharge of its mandate. Let me state that your efforts fit with the vision of government to continuously build national institutions to overcome contemporary challenges and promote nation-building, security and development, he said.

He also said the country had put in place measures to address the challenge of COVID-19, by launching sustainable plans including stimulus package.

This is an immediate intervention to ameliorate the impact of COVID-19 so that our economic recovery and growth are not irreparably derailed, he said.

Also speaking, Markson Kadiri, Commandant, National Defence College, said the college since inception, had trained strategic leaders within the country and from friendly nations in Africa and beyond.

According to him, the college in the last 28 years, has trained 2,340 participants in line with best global practices.

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Mr Kadiri, a rear-admiral, said the college in collaboration with the African Union and ECOWAS had also made an impact on the continent.

He said that the 107 graduants including 18 foreigners were fully trained and prepared for the task ahead of them.

(NAN)
Trump Says Arizona Is Model for Reducing COVID-19 Cases, Avoiding Punishing Lockdown

President Donald Trump on Wednesday praised Arizona as a model for the nation in handling the CCP virus while avoiding a prolonged lockdown, which he called punishing.

Arizona has been able to protect high risk populations and quickly bring its outbreak under control without the need to impose overly punitive measures, Trump told reporters at a press conference at the White House. The president called Arizona a model for applying a science-based approach to the decreasing cases and hospitalizations without imposing a punishing lockdown.

Arizona has a record and a record really to be proud of. Its reduced the number of daily new cases by over 75 percent, cut the positivity rate in half and reduced ER visits by two-thirds, all the while keeping the economy functioning and functioning really well, Trump told reporters.

The state experienced a severe increase in cases of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, also known as the novel coronavirus, starting around the end of May.

The number of daily confirmed cases is now on a downward trajectory after having reached a peak around late June to early July, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services. Arizona now has more than 182,200 confirmed CCP virus cases and 3,932 deaths recorded as of early Thursday.

At a meeting with Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey at the White House earlier in the day, Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said that Arizona has set an example of how to get the reproduction rate of the CCP virus to below 1, which means the outbreak is subsiding. The replication rate is the number of new infections generated by each case.

President Donald Trump makes remarks as he meets with Arizonas Gov. Doug Ducey in the Oval Office in Washington on Aug. 5, 2020. (Doug Mills/The New York Times via Getty Images)

Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus response coordinator (L) and White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany (R) look on as President Donald Trump makes remarks as he meets with Arizonas Gov. Doug Ducey in the Oval Office at the White House, on Aug. 5, 2020. (Doug Mills/The New York Times via Getty Images)

Weve demonstrated now that you can keep a state open and retail open if you do these five commonsense pieces. And its created a safesaved the hospitals and saved a lot of Arizonans, Birx said.

Ducey told Trump that Arizona has implemented a number of mitigation steps such as encouraging the wearing of masks, social distancing, personal hygiene, and staying home if one feels sick.

Weve got masks in over 90 percent of our states right now  And we did take some further steps, Ducey said. We were in the unhappy but responsible position of dispersing large crowds. So bars and nightclubs and gyms all closed temporarily. But upon putting those steps out there, weve seen improvement every week, week over week, for 4 weeks.

The Trump administration is pursuing similar actions to Arizona for other states. Members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force have visited more than 15 states to encourage a similar course of action, including Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, Indiana, and Ohio.

President Donald Trump meets with Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, on Aug. 5, 2020. (Andrew Harnik/AP Photo)

The federal government has provided Arizona with ample help and resources in its efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19, Trump said. Such efforts include the provision of nearly 70,000 vials of the antiviral drug remdesivirenough to treat more than 11,000 patientsand the deployment of more than 1,000 national guard and medical personnel to Arizona.

Trump noted at the press conference that the goal for states is to protect the most vulnerable, increase recovery rates  and prevent hospitals overcrowding, all the while preventing the kind of stringent lockdowns that would inflict substantial suffering in this phase of the battle.

He noted that at its peak, Arizona still had 15 percent of beds available across the state, with about 20 percent of all occupied beds assigned to patients with the CCP virus. The state continued to allow other operations, including elective surgeries, to be performed.

Today only 6 percent of the current hospitalizations in the state are related to the China virus, Trump said.

A sign warns against COVID-19 near Tuba City, Ariz., on May 24, 2020. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)

He added: Arizona has also demonstrated success in protecting the states African American population. Only 5 percent of patients hospitalized were African American, and African Americans represent just 2 percent of all deaths from the virus.

Trump also said that the administration has supported the Navajo Nation with rapid testing systems and provided tribal governments in Arizona with relief funds. Ducey noted that the resources provided for the Navajo Nation and tribal nations are in excess of $1.1 billion.

The president acknowledged the potential negative effects that a prolonged mass lockdown has on society.

Any proper analysis of infection control measures must take into account the short-term and long-term public health harms, including death caused by a far-reaching shutdown, he said. When you shut down, you have many many things that happen, from suicides to depression, to drinking, alcohol problems, to drug problems, to problems with marriages. You have people confined to their house, their apartment for a long period of time, you cause a lot of problems with that also.

Trump said that prolonged lockdowns impose a wide range of serious public health threats including higher levels of suicide, drug overdoses and other significant health harms, resulting from the depression that we talked about.

Social isolation, economic hardship, its been very tough for those people that are put in a lockdown position for too long. Really has been a very tough and harmful situation for many people, he added. The fact that these harms are not measured daily here or abroad it makes them really a very serious threat because people dont know exactly what they are and how bad they are, but I think theyre very bad.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Federal Government has begin negotiations with prospective distributors of COVID-19 vaccines to Nigeria ahead of their availability.

Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo kick-started the negotiations yesterday on behalf of Nigeria at a virtual meeting with representatives of the BNT162 COVID-19 vaccine candidate on the progress of vaccine development across the world, including Africa.

The meeting was attended by the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, and the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, with representatives of Pfizer and Biotech, the international pharmaceutical firms promoting the BNT162 vaccine candidate.

During the meeting, the vice-president told his co-discussants that Nigeria must be given priority when COVID-19 vaccine is ready for distribution because the health and safety of Nigerians is the priority of the federal government.

A statement issued by his spokesperson, Laolu Akande, on Wednesday, quoted Mr Osinbajo saying that the federal government will explore every possible option in the development and distribution of a vaccine against COVID-19 pandemic.

Osinbajo said interaction between the FG and promoters of the vaccine candidate is an important conversation and it is important for us that we are prioritized-as the largest country in Africa-in the distribution of the best COVID-19 vaccine when its eventually ready.

He added: Our priority is the health of the Nigerian citizens. We continue to engage and intend to look at every possible option -from all manufacturers- of a good vaccine. We want to do the very best for our people in this regard.

Akande said during the meeting, the vice-president asked several questions about COVID-19 vaccine candidate including how quickly Nigeria can get the vaccine once its safely ready.

He said Pfizer Country Manager and Representative in Africa, Mr. Subair Olayinka, who spoke on behalf of promoters of the vaccine, assured the vice-president that Nigeria will be a priority, for the vaccine supply to Africa.

Akande said although COVID-19 vaccine trials are not going on in Nigeria at present, the trials are nonetheless ongoing in some parts of Africa and will be entering the third phase, having concluded the first two phases successfully.

He said Ehanire in his remarks, disclosed that the FG would consider quality, appropriate volume and how well and quick a vaccine could be delivered to Nigeria as the deciders of the choice of manufacturers to make the supply to Nigeria.

KanyiDaily recalls a few weeks ago, Russia became the first nation to complete clinical trials of Covid-19 vaccine on humans, and the results have proven the medications effectiveness.
Belgium and Andorra have become the latest European countries to be added to the UK governments no-go list because of a sharp increase in coronavirus cases.

Travellers arriving in England from either nation after 4am on Saturday will be required to self-isolate for 14 days, transport secretary Grant Shapps has announced. The Bahamas has also been added to the list of countries subject to the quarantine order.

The UK government has given people looking to leave the three countries for England 32 hours notice  far more warning than they did for Spain, which was abruptly removed from the travel exemption list on 25 July with less than five hours notice.

The Welsh government was first to announce the move. Vaughan Gething, Waless health minister, said ministers from all four UK countries had met on Wednesday to consider the public health risk posed by an increasing prevalence of Covid-19 in Andorra, the Bahamas and Belgium.

Travellers returning to Wales were given only until midnight on Thursday to do so, which was a near-impossible proposition.

Almost 10,000 people have died from the virus in Belgium, a per-capita rate higher than any other major country.

The country was exempted from the Foreign Offices general advice against non-essential international travel on 4 July, and quarantine for arrivals from the country ended on 10 July.

But according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the 14-day cumulative number of new cases per 100,000 is almost 50  three times higher than in the UK.

Cases in Belgium have quadrupled since mid-July, while Andorra has seen a five-fold rise over the same time span.

In the Bahamas the weekly case rate peaked at 78.6 last week, up from 3.1 in mid-July.

A government statement said: Data from the Joint Biosecurity Centre and Public Health England has indicated a significant change in both the level and pace of confirmed cases of coronavirus in all three destinations, leading to ministers removing these from the current list of travel corridors.

The inclusion of Andorra and the Bahamas on the no-go list is unlikely to affect many UK travellers, but the Foreign Office office says that in a normal year 1.8 million British citizens travel to Belgium.

Anyone who visits Belgium will now find that standard travel insurance policies are invalidated, and travellers returning from the country  whether direct or via France or the Netherlands  will be required to self-isolate for two weeks.

The tiny co-principality of Andorra, wedged high in the Pyrenees between France and Spain, is traditionally a winter destination favoured by British skiers keen on low prices and uncrowded slopes.

The Bahamas is also largely a winter attraction, with Nassau featuring on many cruise itineraries.

The archipelago has reintroduced lockdown restrictions, including a ban on inter-island travel, and imposed a 14-day quarantine for all arriving airline passengers.

Two countries, however, have been moved on to the exempt list: Malaysia and the small, oil-rich state of Brunei on the island of Borneo. Anyone in either nation can now travel to the UK without the need to quarantine.
Even though she had left her kindergarten teaching job to care for her newborn in February, anxious parents would not stop calling Stephanie Briles after schools closed in mid-March.

They asked if she could help teach their kids or help them navigate online learning. When she said she could not, they asked if she knew any other teachers who could, or if she had any ideas about how to help students learn while their parents were at work.

In an effort to help, Briles created a Facebook group called QuaranTEACH Houston to help connect parents looking for childcare and teaching arrangements this fall. More than 1,000 people joined within the first 24 hours.

It blew up, Briles said. There was obviously a need, but didnt expect it to get so big so quickly.

With every school district in greater Houston starting their school years remotely this month and next, and some parents eager to keep their kids away from campuses as COVID-19 continues to spread, families are trying to hammer out arrangements for learning and childcare this fall.

Some are paying top dollar for private teachers to help their kids. Others are pooling their resources with other families, splitting the costs of tutors to teach small groups of children. Some churches and community centers are opening their doors for families that cannot afford private nannies or tutors, while other parents are making childcare co-ops to watch each others kids throughout the week.

The desperation of some is palpable in messages posted on Facebook and sent to tutors and teachers promoting their services.

Toni Philips-Tees got about 50 of those messages within a week after posting about teaching services she offered on QuaranTEACH Houston. The 57-year-old has been semi-retired and lives in a senior independent living facility, but her 25 years of classroom experience has drawn considerable interest.

At least a dozen parents have asked if she could teach a pod of four to six children, mostly elementary schoolers. Others asked if she could do one-on-one lessons and tutoring with their older children.

The basic message is, we got thrown into this last semester, we had a six-month summer, we have to go back to work, Philips-Tees said. And we cant handle teaching our kids while were going back to work and doing everything we need to do.

She still is figuring out how to charge for her time. Her husband was furloughed from his job in oil and gas for three months, and the couple lost their insurance as a result.

Widening achievement gaps

Students whose families that can hire teachers like Philips-Tees will be at a distinct advantage compared to those who cannot, said Matt Giani, an assistant professor of education at the University of Texas at Austin who directs research into K-12 engagement. He said the pandemic already has widened the gap between lower-income students, many of whom are Black and Latino, and their more affluent, often white peers.

Texas Education Agency data shows that while 93.4 percent of white students and 95.8 percent of Asian students were fully engaged once schools shifted to remote learning in spring, only about 83.1 percent of Black and 86.7 percent of Hispanic students were. Similarly, about 84.5 percent of economically disadvantaged students were fully engaged, versus 95.2 percent of wealthier students.

Giani said those numbers could improve this fall now that districts have spent millions purchasing laptops and mobile wifi hotspots for families in need. Fort Bend ISD, for example, will open learning centers on some of its campuses for families who have to work or do not have technology at home, where students will be monitored by adult staff as they do their work.

Lauran Kerr-Herlay, a Houston Community College professor and member of the Westbury United Methodist Church, said her parish will open its doors to help children with virtual learning once schools start.

Still, Giani said, those students will not have the same access to one-on-one instruction and individualized learning as students whose parents hire tutors or teachers.

The history of inequality and segregation and stratification in schooling is being magnified many times over by wealthier families having teachers come to their homes, Giani said. Given the kind of segregation thats so common across education, those pods will probably be segregated themselves, and wealthier families will have more access to resources, to hire private tutors, to subscribe to more supports the district doesnt provide.

Making it work

Stephanie Durango knew she would not be able to afford a private tutor or spend the roughly $300 a week some pod groups are charging to split the cost of a teacher. She figured her rising ninth-grade son would be OK to work on his own, but worried what she would do with her fourth-grade daughter during the three days she works each week.

She started reaching out to parents in her Katy neighborhood, Grand Lakes, and found 10 other families in the same boat. They split off into two groups  one for four fourth-grade girls and one for five fourth-grade boys. None of the parents want to send their kids back to their Katy ISD campuses while infections of COVID-19 remain widespread, so they all agreed to a set of social distancing rules they and their kids would follow for the first six weeks. They can only use curbside service for grocery shopping. No in-person church services. They are not allowed to let their kids play with anyone outside the pod. Parents are to limit interactions outside of those necessary for their jobs.

Once schools in Katy ISD start Aug. 19, Durango and the three other moms helping with her pod will each take a turn watching the girls once a week. Kids will show up to the designated house with their laptops, lunches and snacks packed. Aside from her childcare needs, Durango said she thought it was important that her daughter be able to socialize with other kids her age.

Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

It helps that theyre with each other, Durango said. Its the same thing as a pod, were just not paying for a teacher. I am a teacher, another mom is also a teacher, and the other three moms arent teachers but theyre professionals. Because we can handle the workload, not paying someone to come in makes more sense.

The idea of interacting with even a small group of people is too daunting for Teresa Sluiter. So was the prospect of trying to help her kindergartner and second grader with virtual school. It proved so difficult to help them in the spring that Sluiter and her husband abandoned their sons prekindergarten work and instead had him watch and learn along with their daughter, who was in first grade at the time.

Both the Sluiters are working from home but will not be able to help their kids with the 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. virtual instruction their Houston ISD school says they must attend. She has been looking for a tutor, but every post advertising services on QuaranTEACH Houston has 20 parents asking for help.

Sluiter said she is not looking for a certified teacher, just someone who can help her kids log on to the learning apps and turn in their work. Even finding a college student or a babysitter to help her kids for several hours each day has been a challenge.

Everybodys looking for help with virtual learning because people have to work, Sluiter said. Its not like one parent can just take off and be a teacher.

shelby.webb@chron.com
[He] was among that select breed of scholar who moves easily between academic and public spheres. His criticism found its way into classroom syllabuses and general-interest magazines. And more than dissecting others plays, he also wrote his own and had some success as a director. He adapted work by many of the European playwrights he prized, especially Bertolt Brecht, whom he first met in Los Angeles in 1942.  The New York Times
ImmVira's MVR-T3011 oncolytic virus program has innovated with a genetically engineered oncolytic herpes simplex virus-1 (oHSV-1) to enhance the known oncolytic effects of oHSV-1. Through gene recombinant technologies, PD-1 antibody and interleukin-12 immune modulators are expressed within the virus. Oncolysis is achieved with additional immune response stimulation while keeping the boosted immune activity limited to the locality of MVR-T3011 to achieve a potentially favorable safety profile. The MVR-T3011 intratumoral program aims to target most solid malignant tumors with both remission rate improvement and safety improvement over immune modulator monotherapies. As part of the agreement, Shanghai Pharma will receive an exclusive license and gain access to ImmVira's MVR-T3011 virus for clinical development, manufacturing and commercialization within certain fields of use in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan (the Greater China region). ImmVira and Shanghai Pharma will collaborate on clinical trials in China with exclusive commercial rights for intratumoral therapies developed under the agreement assigned to Shanghai Pharma for the Greater China region. ImmVira retains full development and commercialization rights for regions outside of Greater China.

Under the terms of the agreement, ImmVira will receive from Shanghai Pharma an upfront payment and contingent milestone payments that would in the aggregate amount to RMB1.15 billion, as well as royalty payments of up to 12% of net revenues should Shanghai Pharma successfully commercialize a therapy from the collaboration.

"As we continue to lead in oncolytic virus research and development, we are delighted to collaborate with Shanghai Pharma on our first product pipeline," said Grace Zhou, chairman and chief executive officer of ImmVira. "This partnership represents an exceptional opportunity to leverage Shanghai Pharma's leadership in immunotherapy research, clinical stage expertise, manufacture and countrywide distribution network. With a strong partner like Shanghai Pharma, we are more confident in the commercial success of MVR-T3011 and achieve our goal in engineering more effective yet safer remedies for cancer patients."

"ImmVira is a leader in providing best-in-class oncolytic virotherapy treatments for patients in need. We are pleased to collaborate with ImmVira and have MVR-T3011 intratumoral program join our market leading commercial pipeline. The MVR-T3011 design is a breakthrough novel approach to cancer treatment over monotherapies," said Zuo Min, Executive Director and President of Shanghai Pharma. "In-line with our dedication to providing innovative, safe and effective drugs against serious and chronic diseases, MVR-T3011 represents a sound scientific approach to cancer treatment. We are confident in its eventual commercial success not only as a first-in-class product but also a best-in-class product."

About Immvira

Immvira is a biotechnology company focused on the development of oncolytic viruses as potential cancer therapeutics, which not only improves the replicating ability of the virus, but also further improves the oncolytic activity of the virus and promotes the immune response. Immvira's independently developed oncolytic virus product T3 has launched clinical studies in Australia, China and the United States simultaneously to explore the treatment of multiple solid tumors. At the same time, Immvira is also developing a number of oncolytic virus products, which will form a series of powerful pipelines to meet the needs of different tumor therapies, including the development of targeting specific therapeutic oncolytic virus.

For more information please visit: www.immvira-theravir.com/

Immvira Co., Ltd. was founded on May 18, 2015 by six scientists in the field of "tumor's oncolytic immunity" from the United States. The company develops innovative drugs for immunotherapy and targeted treatment of herpes oncolytic virus (oHSV), including five product lines, covering all tumors. They are:

1) Intratumoral injection of oHSVT3011, mono-therapy or combined of treatment with other oncology medications of various tumors;

2) Intravenous oHSVfor extensive metastatic tumors;

3) oHSV for malignant brain tumors;

4) oHSV for oncolytic virus resistant tumors

5Targeted oHSV for hematological malignancies.

About Shanghai Pharma

Shanghai Pharmaceuticals Holding Co. Ltd. ("SPH") is a vertically-integrated and diversified pharmaceutical group. The company has dual listings on the stock exchanges in Shanghai (601607) and Hong Kong (02067) respectively. The company provides leading healthcare services in: Research & Development, Manufacturing, Distribution and Retail.

In 2019, SPH reported revenues of US$26.5bn, making the company one of the country's major forces in the industry. SPH is one of the few listed pharmaceutical companies with a leading position in both manufacturing and distribution in China. It is included in the constituent stocks of the SSE 180, CSI 300 indices and MSCI.

SOURCE Immvira Group Company

Related Links

www.immvira-theravir.com


Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 20:30:51|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- China has noted that Australia welcomes China's development and hopes that Australia can turn its words into concrete actions, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday.

Spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the remarks at a routine press briefing after Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison delivered a speech at the Aspen Security Forum on Wednesday, saying that Australia welcomes China's rise, and expects China to play a role in regional and global stability. He also said Australia has found no evidence showing it should restrict the popular short-video app TikTok.

China is committed to peaceful development and will never seek hegemony or engage in confrontation. China always believes that peace, cooperation, development, and mutual benefit are the irresistible trend of the times and the common aspiration of people around the world, Wang said.

Any idea for regional cooperation should be in line with the general trend, and conform to the people's will. Otherwise, it will not win the support of regional countries, the spokesperson added.

"We have noted that Australia said it welcomes China's development and hope that Australia will turn its words into concrete actions, act in line with the spirit of the China-Australia comprehensive strategic partnership and contribute to regional peace and stability," Wang said. Enditem
The D-backs announced Thursday that theyve designated infielder Ildemaro Vargas for assignment. The club also optioned righty Yoan Lopez to its alternate training site at Salt River Fields. The pair of moves drops Arizonas roster from 30 to the newly requisite 28.

Vargas, 29, has a strong Triple-A track record at the plate and plenty of versatility, given that hes a switch-hitter with more than 1000 innings of experience at each of shortstop, second base and third base. Vargas has also seen time at all three outfield spots and first base, though only a few games worth of innings at each slot.

However, despite that versatility, Vargas production from Triple-A hasnt really carried over to the Majors. Hes a career .326/.371/.464 hitter at the top minor league level but has mustered just a .257/.287/.357 slash in the Majors. Its true that hes only had 137 plate appearances and never really gotten consistent playing time, but the D-backs clearly feel their other bench options to be superior.

Vargas case was surely hurt by the fact that his versatility isnt exactly unique on a D-backs roster that is rife with Swiss army knives. Newly promoted Andy Young can play all over the infield, just as Vargas can, and top catching prospect Daulton Varsho is somewhat of an anomaly given his ability to capably handle catcher, center field and multiple infield positions. D-backs star Ketel Marte is quite obviously comfortable at second base or in the outfield, and third baseman Eduardo Escobar is no stranger to playing other infield spots as well.

Vargas, meanwhile, was out of minor league options and has only seen eight plate appearances this season in the Majors. Arizona hasnt been able to find playing time for him, and carrying him as a seldom-used, out-of-options bench piece wouldve effectively reduced their roster size to 27 players. Arizona will have a week to trade Vargas, release him or place him on outright waivers. His Triple-A track record and versatility could get him a look in another organization.
PHILADELPHIA and NEWARK, N.J., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A team of researchers from New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have developed an algorithm through machine learning that helps predict sites of DNA methylation  a process that can change the activity of DNA without changing its overall structure  and could identify disease-causing mechanisms that would otherwise be missed by conventional screening methods.

The paper was published online this week by the journal Nature Machine Intelligence.

DNA methylation is involved in many key cellular processes and an important component in gene expression. Likewise, errors in methylation can be linked to a variety of human diseases. While genomic sequencing tools are effective at pinpointing polymorphisms that may cause a disease, those same methods are unable to capture the effects of methylation because the individual genes still look the same. Specifically, there has been considerable effort to study DNA methylation on N6-adenine (6mA) in eukaryotic cells, which include human cells, but while genomic data is available, the role of methylation in these cells remains elusive.

"Previously, methods that had been developed to identify these methylation sites in the genome were very conservative and could only look at certain nucleotide lengths at a given time, so a large number of methylation sites were missed," said Hakon Hakonarson, MD, PhD, Director of the Center for Applied Genomics (CAG) at CHOP and one of the senior co-authors of the study. "We needed to develop a better way of identifying and predicting methylation sites with a tool that could identify these motifs throughout the genome that may have a robust functional impact and are potentially disease causing."

In order to address this issue plaguing the research community, CAG and its partners at NJIT turned to deep learning. Zhi Wei, PhD, a professor of computer science at NJIT and a senior co-author of the study, worked with Hakonarson and his team to develop a deep learning algorithm that could predict where these sites of methylation happened, which would then help researchers determine the effect they might have on certain nearby genes.

Wei calls his software Deep6mA. To predict where these methylation sites might be found, Wei led the development of a neural network, which is a machine learning model that attempts to learn in similar ways to a brain. Neural networks have been utilized in cellular research before, but this is its first application to studyDNA methylation sites on natural multicellular organisms.

Wei cited four advantages of the new method: automation of the sequence feature representation of different levels of detail; integration of a broad spectrum of methylation sequences flanking genes of interest; enabling of the potential visualization of inherent sequence motifs for interpretation; and facilitation of model development and prediction in large-scale genomic data.

The study team applied this algorithm to three different types of representative organisms: A. thaliana, D. melanogaster, and E.coli, the first two being eukaryotic. Deep6mA was able to identify 6mA methylation sites down to the resolution of a single nucleotide, or basic unit of DNA. Even in this initial confirmation study, the researchers were able to visualize regulatory patterns that they had been unable to observe using previously existing methods.

"One limitation is that our proposed prediction is purely based on sequence information," Wei said in his discussion statement of the study. "Whether a candidate is a 6mA site or not will also depend on many other factors. Methylation, including 6mA, is a dynamic process, which will change with cellular context. In the future, we would like to take other factors into consideration [such as] gene expression. We hope to predict 6mA across cellular context by integrating other data."

"We already know that a number of genes have a disease-causing mechanism brought about by methylation, and while this study was not done in human cells, the eukaryotic cell models were very comparable," Hakonarson said. "Genomic scientists looking to translate their findings into clinical applications would find this tool very useful, and the level of precision could eventually lead to the discovery of specific cells or targets that are candidates for therapeutic intervention."

This study was supported by the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Endowed Chair in Genomic Research and an Institutional Development Award to the Center for Applied Genomics

from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. This work was supported by Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) through allocation CIE160021 and CIE170034 supported by National Science Foundation grant ACI-1548562. The open-source software used to assist in this research included Keras v2+, Tensorflow 1.12 and the Python3 programming language.

Tan et al, "Elucidation of DNA methylation on N6-adenine with deep learning." Nat Mach Intell, online August 3, 2020. DOI: 10.1038/s42256-020-0211-4.

About Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was founded in 1855 as the nation's first pediatric hospital. Through its long-standing commitment to providing exceptional patient care, training new generations of pediatric healthcare professionals, and pioneering major research initiatives, Children's Hospital has fostered many discoveries that have benefited children worldwide. Its pediatric research program is among the largest in the country. In addition, its unique family-centered care and public service programs have brought the 564-bed hospital recognition as a leading advocate for children and adolescents. For more information, visit http://www.chop.edu.

About New Jersey Institute of Technology: One of only 32 polytechnic universities in the United States, New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) prepares students to become leaders in the technology-dependent economy of the 21st century. NJIT's multidisciplinary curriculum and computing-intensive approach to education provide technological proficiency, business acumen and leadership skills. NJIT is rated an "R1" research university by the Carnegie Classification, which indicates the highest level of research activity. NJIT conducts approximately $161 million in research activity each year and has a $2.8 billion annual economic impact on the State of New Jersey. NJIT is ranked #1 nationally by Forbes for the upward economic mobility of its lowest-income students and is among the top 2 percent of public colleges and universities in return on educational investment, according to PayScale.com. NJIT also is ranked by U.S. News and World Report as one of the top 50 public national universities.

Contact:

Ben Leach

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

(609) 634-7906

[email protected]

SOURCE Children's Hospital of Philadelphia; New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT)

Related Links

http://www.chop.edu


What began as a shout-out to personal support workers at his mother-in-laws nursing home ended up as a promise from Premier Doug Ford to give PSWs a raise.

I know I might open a can of worms but they are grossly underpaid in my opinion, Ford said Thursday, one week after a report on staffing levels in long-term care recommended his government urgently hire new nurses and front-line workers to give nursing-home residents four hours of care daily.

The report said a staff shortage was made worse by poor working conditions during COVID-19, with almost 2,600 nursing home workers contracting the virus, leaving remaining colleagues to pick up the slack. About 5,900 residents caught the illness and more than 1,800 died in addition to eight people who cared for them, mostly PSWs.

Ford was mum on how big a raise personal support workers will get, telling reporters I cant put a figure on thatjust stay tuned. The workers typically earn about $20 hourly, depending on whether theyre in home care, a nursing home or hospital.

I know the next question from the media is what are you going to do about it? Well, well sit down, were going to come up with a solution to support these people, the premier added, naming about two dozen PSWs at the west-end nursing home where his mother-in-law tested positive for COVID-19 at the peak of the pandemic.

Theyre underpaid, as far as Im concerned theyre overworked, and I just want to tell you how grateful I amits personal.

The New Democrats accused Ford of feigning surprise over how hard PSWs work given that concerns about their plight have been well documented.

Staff are paid barely above minimum wage and theyre often stuck trying to put together part-time jobs without benefits at several homes just to make ends meet, said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.

Ford has acknowledged the shortage of workers in long-term care but not committed to the four-hour standard, which would cost an extra $1.6 billion a year to increase hands-on care such as bathing, toileting, diaper changes, dressing, and grooming done by PSWs.

Care levels now average about 2.7 hours daily and the staffing report said new hiring is needed before a second wave of COVID-19 hits. At the height of the rapid spread of the virus through nursing homes, some were down to 20 per cent of typical staffing levels and required help from military medical teams.

A union representing personal support workers said Fords promise of a raise is welcome news but more than bigger paycheques are needed.

What we need now are historic investments in human resources with more front-line staff, more full-time employment, and increased universal wages, benefits and pensions for all PSWs, said Sharleen Stewart, president of SEIU Healthcare.

Many nursing-home workers can only get part-time hours and have to work at more than one home to make a living  but the practice was eventually limited by emergency order over concerns workers were spreading the virus from one facility to another.

The staffing report noted turnover and attrition of personal support workers is high, with the pipeline of future PSWs in training getting smaller and industry sources pointing to pay and working conditions. PSWs account for 58 per cent of nursing-home staff.

Just this week we saw costs jump the most in 46 years, Stewart added. While PSWs fight COVID-19, they shouldnt also expect to be fighting to put food on the table and a roof over their head. Its not right, especially when for-profit long-term-care operators continue to pay shareholders millions of dollars in dividends.

Home Care Ontario said PSWs in providing care for people in their own homes are paid considerably less than counterparts in nursing homes and this disparity must also be addressed, or else personal support workers will flee home care for higher wages in long-term care and hospitals.

The consequences of supporting PSWs in one sector and not the other could be dire for our seniors, said Sue VanderBent, chief executive of the organization. Ontarios home-care system delivers more care to seniors than any other part of the health-care system.

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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Ottawa, Canada  Thu, August 6, 2020 10:16 531 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066bef2f5 2 World Canada,pfizer,Moderna,coronavirus,COVID-19,COVID-19-vaccines,deal,pandemic,SARS-CoV-2,virus-corona,novel-coronavirus Free

Canada announced Wednesday it has signed two agreements with American pharmaceutical firms Pfizer and Moderna for the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines in 2021.

Millions of doses will be supplied, but the vaccines are still in development while negotiations continue with other potential suppliers, Procurement Minister Anita Anand told a news conference.

They will also still need to obtain Health Canada regulatory approvals before being distributed to Canadians, she said.

The agreement with the American giant Pfizer concerns a vaccine candidate developed in partnership with Germany's BioNTech.

BioNTech and Pfizer reported the first conclusive trials of the BNT162 mRNA-based vaccine candidate in early July, after testing 45 people. They started large-scale clinical trials at the end of July, with 30,000 volunteers aged 18 to 35.

Moderna is to provide its mRNA-1273 vaccine candidate, which has started to be tested in thousands of Phase 3 clinical trial human participants.

On Tuesday, Canada's chief public health officer, Theresa Tam, warned that a vaccine will be a "very important aspect of the response," but will not bring a swift end to the coronavirus outbreak.

"We're planning, as a public health community, that we're going to have to manage this pandemic certainly over the next year, but certainly it may be planning for the longer term on the next two to three years during which the vaccine may play a role. But we don't know yet," Tam said.

"People might think that if we get a vaccine then everything goes back to normal the way it was before. That's not the case," added her deputy, Howard Njoo.

Canada had more than 118,000 cases of coronavirus and 8,996 patients have died, as of Wednesday.
WASHINGTON  Top Democrats and White House officials on Wednesday remained nowhere close to an agreement for a new rescue package to address the coronaviruss toll on the economy, growing increasingly pessimistic that they could meet a self-imposed Friday deadline as President Trump again threatened to act on his own to provide relief.

Even as they vowed to continue talks, negotiators remained dug in on crucial points of any potential deal, jeopardizing additional relief for small businesses and laid-off workers  and all but guaranteeing that senators who had planned to go home for a scheduled recess next week would instead stay in Washington awaiting a deal.

Given the number of outstanding policy issues, including the revival of expanded unemployment benefits and Mr. Trumps rejection of a key Democratic demand for nearly $1 trillion for struggling state and local governments, the prospect of votes on such a package next week appeared remote.

I feel optimistic that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said after hosting another round of talks in her Capitol Hill office with Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, and Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader. But how long that tunnel is remains to be seen.
Santee Cooper agreed to pay its former top attorney $495,000 after he was fired by the state-run utility earlier this year.

Mike Baxley, who served as general counsel for Santee Cooper from 2014 to April, was awarded that settlement amount as a part of separation and severance agreement with the 86-year-old public utility.

Santee Cooper's agreement with Baxley was finalized and signed in early June. It was released as part of a sprawling monthly report that Santee Cooper sends to the Office of Regulatory Staff, the state's utility watchdog agency.

The first $388,800 of that settlement was paid out to Baxley as a severance, which settled any dispute he may have made over lost wages. The remaining $156,200 was provided to Baxley to avoid any further litigation over his departure, according to the agreement.

Mollie Gore, Santee Cooper's spokeswoman, said Baxley's exit was part of a larger restructuring of the utility's executive team, and that holding down overall staffing levels in the coming years at Santee Cooper is expected to save $8 million annually.

There are now six people reporting to the CEO of Santee Cooper, she said, down from eight members of the executive team in 2017. And Santee Cooper's larger management team shrank to 35 positions.

"President and CEO Mark Bonsall has restructured his executive team and the managers who report to them, believing the efficiency in staffing must start at the top," she said.

Baxley's severance agreement, Gore said, pays for itself because the rest of the staff absorbed his responsibilities as part of the reorganization.

The settlement agreement shows that Baxley and Santee Cooper waived any rights to sue one another in the future.

That included Baxley giving up any right he may have had to claim money out of Santee Cooper's executive incentive plan. He will, however, remain eligible for the state health plan and the utility's defined benefit and contribution plans.

"Santee Cooper desires to recognize his valuable service with payment of separation benefits, to preserve the goodwill between the Parties, and to dispose of all claims which Baxley may have, or may ever have had, against Santee Cooper," the agreement says.

Baxley, who previously served as a state lawmaker and circuit judge in South Carolina, said he was glad he and the utility's leadership were able to come to a resolution.

I am quite satisfied with the settlement, and glad that we are all moving forward amicably, Baxley told The Post and Courier this week.

Baxley said he believes Santee Cooper, which is under political pressure for its handling of a failed nuclear project, is still a valuable asset for the state.

But he couldn't criticize Santee Cooper even if he actually wanted to. The settlement he signed with the utility includes a non disparagement agreement that bars him from saying anything negative about Santee Cooper.

For his part, Baxley is ready to move on to the next leg of his career. He recently announced that he joined the Douglas Jennings Law Firm, a plaintiff's firm in Bennettsville.

Baxley will be starting up a new office for the practice in Charleston, where he will work on complex civil litigation. He has a significant amount of experience with those types of cases.

During his time on the bench, Baxley was appointed by the state Supreme Court to lead the state's complex litigation. And during his final years at Santee Cooper, he helped defend the utility against several class-action lawsuits filed against the utility by its electric customers.

I just look forward to get back into the active practice of law, Baxley said.

An earlier version of this story misstated how Santee Cooper was saving $8 million annually. The savings were made through holding down the overall employment at the utility.
The Riga International Film Festival in Latvia is set to host Magnetic Series, a Nordic industry platform dedicated to drama series and streamers for the Nordic region, Russia, Germany and Greenland.

Magnetic Series, which will be running Oct 16 only, will have a hybrid format allowing Baltic and Nordic producers to pitch their episodic content in person or online. The lineup of selected episodic projects will be unveiled by National Film Centre of Latvia in August.

Aside from pitching sessions, the platform will also host four panels headlined by top producers and streamers who will discuss the future of drama and digital platforms, with focus on Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Russia, Poland, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and Greenland.

Next years edition of Magnetic Series will be expanded with a wider program and more face-to-face networking opportunities. Magnetic Series was created by the Riga festival and the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA) to boost economic trade.

The Latvian government recently ramped up the budget allocated to the film production industry by 2 million ($2.3 million) to 8.3 million (9.8 million) to off-set the damage caused by the pandemic and to boost the production of drama series.

As the countrys main national export body, we made it our priority to help the Latvian industry make crucial connections on a global level, said LIAA director Kaspars Rozkalns.

Now that the film industry is undergoing rapid changes, we want to be ahead of the curve and create an industry platform to discuss this new situation and identify ways to move forward, said Rozkalns.

In recent years, international co-productions for various formats were shot in Latvia and we want to continue what we have started, said Rozkalns.

Th executive said Latvia was one of Europes countries that is best positioned to create a safe environment for filmmakers due to the fact that it had very low number of COVID cases. The country also has a 99% coverage of high-speed mobile internet, said Rozkalns.

Story continues

Latvia Festival will take place Oct. 15-25.

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Katy Perrys fans got a surprise when her live-streamed video was gatecrashed by her topless fiance Orlando Bloom.

The Pirates of the Caribbean star wandered into the frame while the Roar singer was addressing fans on the video.

Bloom, 43, picked up Perry's teacup poodle Nugget and gave his pregnant partner a kiss on the lips as he said: "Hello, live stream."

Read more: Katy Perry was clinically depressed after performance of last album

Perry went on to explain that she and her boyfriend had felt "a little bit blue" following the death of Bloom's dog Mighty.

Orlando Bloom and Katy Perry attend the Gala for the Global Ocean hosted by H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco at Opera of Monte-Carlo on September 26, 2018 in Monte-Carlo, Monaco. (Photo by Daniele Venturelli/Daniele Venturelli/ Getty Images)

She said: "This weekend, Orlando and I have felt a little bit blue. I think it's because of Mighty. And because Orlando was watching six episodes of Ozark in a row, it's pretty dark."

The pup had gone missing from their home in July with the actor telling fans a week later that they had found the dog's collar during their search, with the evidence leading him to believe Mighty had died.

He wrote in a heartfelt Instagram post: "I feel so grateful to have learned from my little Mighty man that love is eternal and the true meaning of devotion.

I feel sure he was looking down on me whistling in every back yard and knowing that I was doing all I possibly could to respect our bond.

He was more than a companion. It was a soul connection for sure.

Perry is expecting the couple's first child together, a baby girl. It is the second child for Bloom who shares nine-year-old son Flynn with model Miranda Kerr.

Read more: Katy Perry learning to be a mum fast in lockdown

Meanwhile, the pop star is due to release her sixth studio album at the end of August, Smile.

The record was originally set for release on 14 August, however, it had to be pushed back due to production delays.
ANN ARBOR, Mich., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Clixie Media is pleased to announce the extension of its waived fee policy through the Fall 2020-2021 semester due to increased demand. This enables educators to utilize Clixie Media's interactive tools for enhancing the online learning experience, including in-video quizzes and interactive bookmarks. The ability to create interactive videos, and now interactive audio files, makes virtual learning both more effective for educators and engaging for students.

As an extension of the video interactivity features, Clixie Media's tools can now add interactivity to audio files. This new functionality allows educators to leverage the fastest-growing segment of online learning. All of the existing capabilities for enhancing video are now available for audio files - including podcasts, voice recordings and more.

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An ampoule containing Interferon Alfa 2b is displayed during a press conference in Havana, Cuba, March 13, 2020. Photo by Reuters/File.

Cuba has sent to Vietnam a team of medical experts and thousands of vials of an antiviral drug to assist in the fight against Covid-19.

The drug, Interferon alfa-2b, which induces the human body to produce antibodies against the novel coronavirus, were handed over at a ceremony held by the Ministry of National Defenses department of foreign relations in Hanoi on Wednesday.

The drug could play a vital role in treating severely ill Covid-19 patients, Lianys Torres Rivera, the Cuban ambassador to Vietnam, said at the event.

It has been used to successfully treat Covid-19 cases in Cuba, with the death rate among patients so treated being only 0.9 percent as of the end of April, she said.

"Over 80 countries have expressed their desire to buy this drug from Cuba."

Interferon alfa-2b, which was created by Cuban scientists in the 1980s, has also proven effective in treating other diseases like hepatitis B, hepatitis C and shingles, she said.

Her countrys gesture represents a desire to further enhance bilateral cooperation in medicine, which would contribute to their comprehensive partnership, she added.

The Cuban medical experts, following their mandatory quarantine upon entry, will travel to Da Nang City and Quang Nam Province, now Vietnams Covid-19 hotspots, to help fight the disease.

Deputy Minister of Defense Nguyen Chi Vinh said as the current ASEAN chair and a non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, Vietnam is fulfilling its responsibilities in sharing experiences and boosting the global cooperation in fighting Covid-19.

Last month Vietnam had donated to Cuba around three tons of medical equipment to fight Covid-19, including rapid test kits, masks and protective suits.

Vietnam has had 717 Covid-19 cases so far, 327 of them active, and nine deaths.

Cuba meanwhile has had 2,700 cases and 88 deaths.
An investigation is underway after a man was shot to death in Clay County.

Sheriffs officials on Thursday identified the victim as Randall Bradford. His age was not immediately available.

Deputies were dispatched Wednesday to Clay County Hospital on a report that a gunshot victim had been brought there by a family member. Ashland police and deputies both responded to the hospital, where Bradford was later pronounced dead.

Investigators said it was determined the shooting had happened on Lauderdale Road in the Millerville area. Deputies and the Center of Applied Forensics arrived and processed the scene. ALEAs State Bureau of Investigation is assisting.

Additional details are not being released to not jeopardize the probe, authorities said. Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriffs office at 256-354-2176.
China said any American ban on Chinese apps would be "ridiculous".

"Many Chinese companies currently unilaterally sanctioned by the US are innocent, and their technology and products are safe," said Wang Wenbin, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, at a regular press briefing in Beijing on Thursday.

He went on to praise Australian prime minister Scott Morrison's announcement that he would not ban Tiktok

On Sunday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo alleged that some of China's technology companies were "feeding data directly to the Chinese Communist Party," most notably mentioning social media sites TikTok and WeChat.

Wang also criticized the first visit since 1979 of a top American official to Taiwan and urged the US to adhere to the 'One China' principle.

Wang also announced that a Chinese medical team would be dispatched to Beirut after a massive explosion hit the Lebanese capital on Tuesday.

(Representative Image)
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Activists burned a stack of Bibles in front of the federal courthouse in Portland Friday night. A statue of Jesus was beheaded recently at a Miami church.

A recent faculty survey at Harvard University found that 79.7 percent consider themselves very liberal or liberal; 18.9 percent say they are moderate; only 1.46 percent call themselves conservative or very conservative.

Unsurprisingly, 67 percent of white evangelical Protestants believe Christianitys influence on American life is decreasing. Two-thirds say their beliefs are in conflict with mainstream American culture.

We have no enemies, only opponents

And yet, this is a time when the evangelical message that we can have a personal relationship with a personal Savior is more urgently needed than ever.

How can we make Gods offer of redemption in response to our repentance more available and attractive to those who need it? Consider two sentences I believe every American needs to hear.

Last Thursday, President George W. Bush spoke at the funeral of Rep. John Lewis. In his brief but emotional eulogy for one of our greatest civil rights heroes, the former president made this statement: John and I had our disagreements, of course. But in the America John Lewis fought for and in the America I believe in, differences of opinion are inevitable elements and evidence of democracy in action.

When we view those with whom we disagree as our enemies, our sentiment usually becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. When we view them as members of the same human family and citizens of the same great nation, we can engage with them in the spirit of democracy in action.

Ronald Reagan used to tell those who served in his administration, Remember, we have no enemies, only opponents.

Consider three biblical principles.

One: God can use anyone, whether we think so or not

Joshua 24 records the Lords address to his people at the end of Joshuas life. It begins with Gods reminder that your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates . . . and they served other gods (v. 2). And yet, he took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and made his offspring many (v. 3).

You and I might not have chosen a childless idolater to begin a nation, but God did. We might not have believed that a prisoner in Egypt would one day become prime minister, or that a fugitive would lead the Jewish people out of Egyptian slavery, or that a disciple who denied Jesus three times would preach the Pentecost sermon.

If God could redeem and use an enemy of his people like Saul of Tarsus, what could he do with someone who burns a Bible or beheads a statue of Jesus? Continue to pray for your nation and proclaim Gods word with grace, knowing that its always too soon to give up on God.

Two: All we have is ours by grace

The Lord concluded his address with this statement: I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant (v. 13).

I did not earn the right to be born in America rather than North Korea. I did not earn the right to hear the gospel from Christians who knocked on my door and invited me to ride their bus to church. If you know more about your Lord than those who oppose your faith, you have an obligation to pay forward to them the grace you have received.

Three: We need the power of God to live as the people of God

Joshua followed Gods message with his own: Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord (v. 15). The people promised in response: The Lord our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey (v. 24).

However, after Joshua and his generation died, the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt (Judges 2:1112). They could not live as the people of God without the power of God.

Nor can we.

We cannot ask Americans to do what we are not doing. If we would challenge them to repent of self-reliance and live in dependence on Jesus, we must do the same. If we would call them to biblical morality, we must exhibit biblical morality.

Otherwise, our words are only words.

As for me and my house

Joshua modeled the commitment God is calling us to emulate when he told the nation, As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord (Joshua 24:15).

I remember vividly my first visit to Janets home in Houston after we began dating in college. Her parents displayed Joshuas declaration on a plaque in their dining room where everyone entering their home could see it. As I soon learned, they lived the truth of these words every day.

Could you display their plaque in your home today?

Originally posted at denisonforum.org
AURORA, IL  Chicago businessman Willie Wilson recently donated 500,000 face masks to Aurora to support the citys new campaign to promote and encourage mask-wearing during the coronavirus pandemic.

Wilson, a candidate for the U.S. Senate, joined Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin and other officials over the weekend at Sage Crest Apartments on the citys west side. Residents received masks for themselves and all immediate family members, while 20,000 masks were given to the Fox Valley Ministerial Alliance to be distributed at local churches, according to a news release.

Brewer Living His Dream After Opening Taproom During Pandemic

Free masks are available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at the Aurora Customer Service Center, located at 3770 McCoy Dr., the release states. Senior citizens and residents who cannot reach the facility can call (630) 256-4636 to provide information for masks to be mailed.

City officials will also be sending large quantities of the free masks to organizations in Aurora next week, the release states. Those organizations include nursing homes and senior living centers, places of worship, nonprofits and first responders, Irvin said.

Kane County Coronavirus Cases Reach Highest Levels In 2 Months

The city will set aside a portion of the masks for schools to use when they return to in-person instruction, Irvin said.

Illinois Coronavirus Update Aug. 6  Don't miss updates in Illinois as they are announced  Sign up for Patch news alerts and newsletters.

The donation of a half-million masks will support Irvins new Mask Up Aurora campaign, which urges all residents in the states second-largest city to wear masks while in public places, and to continue practicing social distancing and washing their hands regularly.



Garage Fire On Auroras Far East Side Causes $20K In Damage

This unprecedented donation will go a long way in providing masks to Aurorans as we work together to combat COVID-19, Irvin said.

Story continues

The Dr. Willie Wilson Foundation is aiming to distribute 20 million throughout Illinois this week. Wilson pledged to donate 100,000 masks to Aurora in May, which included a drive-thru distribution event where 16,000 masks were handed out to residents, the release states.

Wilson is running as an independent for U.S. senator against incumbent Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin and Republican challenger Mark Curran, who served as Lake Countys sheriff from 2006 to 2018.

This article originally appeared on the Aurora Patch
In April, when large swaths of the economy were shut down because of COVID-19 and commuters stayed put, their car radios off, WHYYs radio audience plummeted 39% from March. That led to a steep revenue drop from corporate underwriting and other sources.

But unlike some of its peers around the country facing the same evaporation of listeners and advertisers, WHYY, the Philadelphia regions largest public media organization, has not cut staff or instituted furloughs and doesnt expect to in the foreseeable future.

That doesnt mean the nonprofit has an easy road ahead, given continued uncertainty over how corporate sponsorships and individual giving will fare as the pandemics economic disruption continues. WHYY is expected to report a net loss for the year ended June 30, its first since 2009.

While we feel good about where we are, we are hardly without financial challenges. We got a boatload of them, but they wont trigger some of the more arbitrary or unfortunate cuts in staff or cuts in benefits or cuts in wages, at least not for the foreseeable future, chief executive William J. Marrazzo said.

To save money, WHYY has frozen wages this year and will consider a reduction in its matching contribution to employees retirement accounts, if necessary, a spokesperson said.

WHYY, which has expanded in the last decade through the acquisitions of news sites PlanPhilly and Billy Penn and of radio licenses at the Jersey Shore, still has plans to hire, including a mid-day radio host. It is something of an outlier in an industry that has seen peers in some other big cities, including Boston, Chicago, and Houston, cut jobs and institute furloughs, according to a tally by the Poynter Institute.

National Public Radio, which supplies a substantial amount of news to local affiliates such as WHYY, is among those instituting furloughs.

That last fiscal quarter, April, May, June, was just a major wipeout  theres no other word, really, to use  in terms of corporate sponsorships for public television and public radio. That just collapsed for most stations, said Tom Thomas, co-CEO of Station Resource Group, an alliance of public media organizations. I think we still have a very rough patch ahead in this quarter that were now in.

At WHYY, corporate and nonprofit sponsorships  elsewhere in media known as advertising  fell by $1 million in fiscal 2020, to $4.4 million. Two-thirds of that decline came in the three months ended June 30. The station is budgeting for even lower numbers in the current fiscal year.

This years final total revenue figure was not yet available. In 2019, WHYY had total revenue of $42.7 million, which means that advertising accounted for 13%. The organizations biggest revenue source are memberships and contributions, comprising $18 million last year.

Thomas  his organizations board includes Kyra McGrath, WHYYs chief operating officer  said organizations such as WHYY, which operate both a public television outlet and a public radio station and have been managed in a financially disciplined way through the years, are better equipped than some others to withstand the current turmoil.

He named Oregon Public Broadcasting and KERA, in Dallas, as other examples.

Last year, WHYY journalists and other employees voted 70-1 to unionize with the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, citing untenable working conditions that they say have led to high turnover at one of the only growing local media outlets in the region.

Were glad that WHYYs financial health remains strong, the union said in a statement Wednesday. We look forward to resuming negotiations on a first contract that values the content creators at WHYY.

As the economy gradually reopens, WHYY radio has seen its audience recover from a low of 262,700 average weekly listeners in April to 336,000 last month, which was 1.5% more than in July 2019, according to data provided by WHYY. The July figure remains under the January peak of 453,600 listeners.

Digital news has also seen strong recent gains, as measured by unique visitors to WHYY News and Billy Penn. From March through June, the two sites had a combined average of 2.65 million monthly visitors, double the average in the four months before the pandemic, according to Google Analytics data provided by WHYY. The figures do not include users of the stations FM livestream.

WHYYs TV audience climbed 3% in fiscal 2020. Officials attributed the gain in part to added educational content for students who were stuck at home while schools were closed. That focus on education, which Marrazzo said would not generate immediate revenue but might attract large gifts from wealthy individuals and foundation, will expand in the coming school year.

Marrazzos long view is that the pandemic-induced media turmoil might have a different flavor, but its not new. He said hes been working for years to ensure that WHYY survives the ongoing shakeout.

You cant have a civilized community, particularly when stressed by COVID and social justice issues, without a dependable multimedia news and information source, he said. We need to be left standing.
Florian Mehler last saw his girlfriend in late January, when she left Germany for her native Brazil. His plans to join Renata Alves in late March were scuttled when the borders slammed shut as the coronavirus pandemic spread worldwide.

We talk via FaceTime every day. But thats just virtual, Mehler, 41, said in an interview at home in Wiesloch near Frankfurt.

We cant hug each other. We cant kiss. We cant wake up together, have coffee together, go into town together.

After meeting online a year ago, Alves visited Mehler in Germany twice, and he flew to see her in Brazil once. She has the necessary documents to move to Germany and look for a job.

Brazil last week reopened international air travel to all foreign tourists with health insurance for the duration of their trip, even as the countrys coronavirus outbreak ranks as the worlds second worst.

Germany has a travel warning in place for most countries, including Brazil, which may mean health and cancellation insurance are invalid for trips there.

Florian Mehler poses for a picture during an interview with Reuters looking at the issues of binational couples separated by coronavirus measures who are trying to get regulations changed so they can meet again in person, in Wiesloch, Germany, August 3, 2020. Picture taken August 3, 2020. (REUTERS)

And most European Union borders are closed to non-EU travellers, unless they are essential workers or married to an EU resident.

So Alves blows Mehler kisses on her tablet screen, and he tells her how much he misses her. On Sundays, they sometimes take virtual walks outdoors together.

The worst thing is that we dont know when we will see each other because the borders are still closed, Mehler said.

On social media, separated couples have been lobbying under the hashtags #LoveIsEssential and #LoveIsNotTourism for governments to allow them to reunite.

A few European countries including Austria, Norway and Denmark, have heeded the call, introducing sweetheart visas that exempt couples from the travel ban.

Mehler joined a Frankfurt rally on Aug. 1, organised by the association of binational families and partnerships, urging Germany to issue such visas.

However, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer prefers a common European solution, given that Germany just assumed the EU presidency last month, a ministry spokesman said on Monday.

Alves, 40, said it was unfair that Germans can travel abroad for fun at the risk of catching COVID-19, while she is barred from entering Germany when she has more compelling reasons.

Im totally healthy, my family is totally healthy, she said in Recife, Brazil, noting that she would take a coronavirus test and undergo quarantine for love.

(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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Donald Trump's campaign lawyer has suggested the 'low level depression' Michelle Obama admitted to in her podcast Wednesday is down to her 'liberalism'.

Jenna Ellis was responding to comments made by the former first lady in which she admitted that she is 'dealing with some form of low-grade depression' because of the pandemic, racial strife  and the 'hypocrisy' of the Trump administration.

Speaking to Fox News Thursday Ellis said: 'I think that this is more of an issue of Michelle Obamas liberalism, because the Family Institute for Studies has shown that actually conservatives tend to be more joyful and more happy overall with their lives because we still believe in the pillars of society, which is the church and the family.

'So I would encourage Michelle Obama to go to church and to find meaning in the Lord Jesus Christ as her own personal savior.'

Donald Trump's campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis has suggested the 'low level depression' Michelle Obama admitted to in her podcast Wednesday is down to her 'liberalism'

enna Ellis was responding to comments made by the former first lady in which she admitted that she is 'dealing with some form of low-grade depression' because of the pandemic, racial strife  and the 'hypocrisy' of the Trump administration

Conservatives tend to be more joyful overall because we still believe in the pillars of society, including the church and the family.



I would encourage @MichelleObama to go to church and find joy and meaning in the Lord Jesus Christ as her own personal Savior. pic.twitter.com/7GCWnkrgbX  Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) August 6, 2020

The former first lady uploaded episode two of 'The Michelle Obama Podcast' on Spotify Wednesday, featuring a discussion with NPR's Michele Norris.

During the conversation, Michelle spoke candidly about her 'emotional highs and lows,' specifically calling out how 'exhausting' and 'dispiriting' it is to watch how Trump responds to 'yet another story' of a black man or person being hurt or killed.

Former DC Democratic Party leader A. Scott Bolden sympathized with the former first lady during the segment on Fox Thursday.

He said: 'I certainly agree with her. 30 percent plus, according to the census bureau, all of us are feeling some form of anxiety or depression, low-level  she didnt say clinical  because of this pandemic, the lack of leadership, and the numbers keep going up.

'Of the racial strife that this president will not address to bring this country together, and the economy.'

But Ellis, ho also advised Trump during impeachment, hit back: 'Id really like to know what Scott is referring to when hes talking about this president with all of the coronavirus response, its been absolutely excellent, and when youre talking about his ability to serve the Black community, are you talking about the First Step Act?

'Are you talking about the fact that he is so pro-life and has reduced as much as possible Planned Parenthood?'

Ellis, a legal advisor to the Trump 2020 campaign, previously ran a policy center at the James Dobson Institute and taught legal studies at Colorado Christian University. In books, columns, and on TV she has regularly gone after liberal judges and LGBT rights.

Trump brought her on as an advisor after watching her on Fox News, Axios reported.

Obama had said: 'Spiritually, these are not fulfilling times.'

She said she is battling some form of depression 'not just because of the quarantine, but because of the racial strife, and just seeing this administration, watching the hypocrisy of it, day in and day out, is dispiriting.

Ellis, a legal advisor to the Trump 2020 campaign, previously ran a policy center at the James Dobson Institute and taught legal studies at Colorado Christian University. In books, columns, and on TV she has regularly gone after liberal judges and LGBT rights

Trump reportedly brought her on as an advisor after watching her on Fox News

'I don't think I'm unusual, in that,' she added. 'But I'd be remiss to say that part of this depression is also a result of what we're seeing in terms of the protests, the continued racial unrest, that has plagued this country since its birth.

'I have to say that waking up to the news, waking up to how this administration has or has not responded, waking up to yet another story of a black man or a black person somehow being dehumanized, or hurt or killed, or falsely accused of something, it is exhausting.

'And it has led to a weight that I haven't felt in my life, in a while.'

After Ellis suggested Obama 'go to church' Bolden hit back: 'Well African-Americans believe in God a lot, and I gotta tell you, its a real anxious, unsteady period of time, not just now but over 400 years of being Black in this country.

'Donald Trump needs to do something to bring all of us together, and you cant tell me about racism or what its like to be Black in this country or to be brutalized by the police.'

Michelle Obama, 56, spoke to NPR journalist Michele Noris about her 'emotional highs and lows,' admitting that she is 'dealing with some form of low-grade depression'

Ellis replied: 'Well then Scott, why are you talking about Michelle Obama? Shes a female, so if youre going to say I cant speak on Black issues, you cant speak on womens issues and you cant respond to Michelle Obama as a woman.

'Thats an invalid argument.'

Bolden told Ellis: 'I can agree with her that I am depressed too, and this president is a big part of that depression that at least 30 percent of America is feeling because of Americas instability. Its depressing.

'This president has no answers and were in the middle of a pandemic, and thats why his numbers are in the negative about reelection.'
OKLAHOMA CITY  Gov. Kevin Stitt contracted COVID-19 after hugging some friends from Tulsa who were visiting him, the governor said Thursday.

Some of my buddies from  some older gentlemen from Tulsa came down to see me," Stitt told the Oklahoman in a brief interview at the state Health Department's new contact tracing center in Oklahoma City.

"I hadnt seen them in a long time and broke my own rule, gave them all hugs. Ive known them for years. And they ended up having it. So thats how I got it.

Gallery: COVID-19 basics everyone needs to know as the pandemic continues
The Museum of Osteology in Oklahoma says the skull, which is in its collection, is reported to have been that of a man who was injured during battle before having some of the earliest forms of surgery to implant a piece of metal in his head to repair the fracture. Experts told the Daily Star that the man was believed to have survived the wound and the surgery, with the skill now a key piece of evidence in proving that ancient peoples were capable of performing complex surgeries. The skull in question is an example of a Peruvian elongated skull, which is an ancient form of body modification where tribe members intentionally deformed the skulls of young children by binding them with cloth or even binding the head between two pieces of wood for prolonged periods of time.
WASHINGTON, DC - AUGUST 06: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) speaks during her weekly news conference at the U.S. Capitol on August 6, 2020 in Washington, DC. Negotiations between Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY), U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows are expected to continue today, as they look to find a compromise between McConnell's $1 trillion stimulus package and the $3 trillion package passed by the House in May. (Photo by Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images)

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has sharply criticised Donald Trump for suggesting he will "probably" accept the Republican presidential nomination in a speech at the White House, an unprecedented move that could open Trump administration aides up to an array of federal ethics crimes.

"You don't have political events at the White House," Ms Pelosi, the longtime California Democrat, said in an interview with MSNBC on Wednesday. "You can't do it."

The federal Hatch Act typically prevents a political candidate from using government employees and property for campaign purposes, although the president and vice president are exempt.

But Mr Trump's government aides cannot engage in campaign-related activity.

"For the president of the United States to degrade once again the White House as he has done over and over again by saying he's going to completely politicize it, is something that should be rejected right out of hand," Ms Pelosi said.

The speaker suggested Mr Trump was publicly floating such a controversial event to distract from his administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic, which Democrats have criticised as wholly insufficient and reckless.

"It's notion-mongering, not serious thinking," Ms Pelosi said.

Several legal and political ethics experts aired their frustrations about Republicans' plans to use White House grounds for the acceptance speech, saying it puts Mr Trump's advisers in legal jeopardy.

"Here we go .... again. A staged political event at the White House. Every White House staff member who participates in this violates the Hatch Act," tweeted Richard W Painter, the former chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W Bush.

Mr Trump was initially slated to deliver his keynote speech in Charlotte, North Carolina, the original site of this year's convention, but the president nixed those plans after publicly sparring with Democratic Governor Roy Cooper, who said they only way Republicans could hold the convention in his state was if they did so in compliance with social distancing guidelines.

Story continues

Speaking events for the convention were subsequently moved to Jacksonville, Florida. But Mr Trump scrapped those plans in July after Covid-19 cases resurged in the Sunshine State.

Mr Trump has emphasised the security and low cost of delivering his nomination acceptance speech at the White House compared to an outside venue, for which Secret Service agents would have to set up travel and safety plans for the president and several of his support staff.

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told reporters on Wednesday that while it would be "appropriate" for the president to accept the nomination from the residential East Wing of the White House, he doubts Mr Trump will actually deliver his speech there.

Mr Trump  whose romp across US stages in 2016 at his signature raucous rallies put his penchant for controversy and showmanship on full display  has been largely confined to the White House this election cycle.

His most-publicised campaign rally, a 20 June event in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was widely panned as a flop and has been linked to a local surge of coronavirus cases in the city.

Some 6,200 people attended Mr Trumps event at the 19,000-seat BOK Center arena in June  with Covid-19 concerns an apparent deterrent for some.

The rally is also where Tea Party favourite Herman Cain, a staunch Trump supporter, is believed to have contracted Covid-19, which ultimately killed him.

Read more

Rudi Giuliani claims BLM are a 'domestic terror group'

LA mayor authorises cutting off electricity to stop Covid-19 parties

President claims coronavirus vaccine possible near election time

Series of progressive candidates oust Democrat establishment figures

Trump likely to accept Republican nomination at White House
The National Identification Authority (NIA) has begun a mob-up exercise in the Ashanti Region to enable qualified Ghanaians who were not able to register to do so to get their Ghana card.



The exercise which started in the Region on August 02, would end on August 16, this year.



Those who registered but were not able to receive their cards would also get the opportunity to collect their cards at the registration centres.



A visit by the Ghana News Agency to some of the registration centres in Kumasi indicated that a lot of people in the metropolis had still not registered and had formed long queues to register.



Mr. Kwadwo Adom, a supervisor at the Kronom registration centre, told the Ghana News Agency that the exercise had been going on smoothly and peacefully as was expected.



He said NIA had put in place stringent measures to ensure that all the COVID-19 protocols were observed in all the registration centres.



Mr Adom said citizens who were not able to register during the main exercise were now trooping into the centres to go through the process to receive their cards.



He said all the materials and other equipment needed for the registration exercise were in place and things were going on smoothly.



Mr Adom appealed to all those who were yet to register to take advantage of the opportunity to register to get their Ghana cards.

Source: GNA









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On Wednesday, inspectors examined the Vine St expressway bridge over the Schuylkill River after a barge floated into during heavy rain from tropical storm Isaias on Tuesday. Read more

A 100-ton barge and two sister vessels were torn loose from their moorings in the fast-rising Schuylkill late Tuesday afternoon and drifted downstream to hit a bridge that funnels cars off the Vine Street Expressway.

Yet despite sustaining what a Drexel University engineering professor called the impact of phenomenal forces, the bridge seemed sound during inspections Wednesday and was to be reopened Thursday, PennDot and city officials said.

Torrential rain swelled the rivers volume to more than 60 times what it had been less than two days earlier, speeding the current to about 4.5 mph, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The rising water dislodged the C.B. Lehigh along with two hopper barges, which contractor Atlantic Subsea Inc. of Bridgeton, N.J., was using to dredge years of silty buildup from the river in front of Boathouse Row and along the regatta racecourse further upstream.

The Lehigh and its sister vessels drifted for several hundred feet before hitting the bridge  an impact that could have caused structural damage, said Drexels Joseph Martin.

Im pretty sure there were some phenomenal forces, he said.

Yet when inspectors descended in a bright yellow crane to peer at the bridges massive steel beams and concrete piers up close, they deemed all to be well, said PennDot District 6 executive Kenneth M. McClain.

A metal stiffener bracket sustained minor damage but can easily be repaired and will not prevent the structure from reopening safely, he said at a news conference with Mayor Jim Kenney and other government officials Wednesday.

There were some minor structural issues that were discovered with the bridge, but nothing that compromises the structural integrity of the bridge itself, McClain said.

The dredging began in early June, with the goal of removing 60,000 cubic yards of sediment that has created hazards for rowers and threatened famed regattas such as the Dad Vail. In preparation, docks along Boathouse Row were removed for the first time in a century.

The Schuylkill Navy, an association of amateur rowing clubs, raised funds to help pay for the dredging to avoid having regattas canceled because of sediment buildup. Though the effort began years ago, it ran into a roadblock this spring with the coronavirus pandemic shutdown.

The contract was awarded to Atlantic Subsea by the Army Corps of Engineers. The company was dredging roughly three miles of the Schuylkill in stages, including in front of Boathouse Row, a separate rowing lagoon, and the national racecourse near the Strawberry Mansion Bridge. The sediment was being pumped via pipe downstream to the barges, which in turn carried it for disposal at Fort Mifflin.

The barges were not in use when they came loose Tuesday. They were moored with stout spuds  metal posts anchored to the river bottom.

Army Corps officials said there was no indication the contractor had moored the barges improperly, saying the rising waters were too much for them to stay put. The boathouses had damage as well, said Bonnie Mueller, vice commodore of the Schuylkill Navy. Water entered the buildings, and docks had to be disassembled and moored at the Playing Angels statue, a little more than a mile upstream, and above the Girard Avenue Bridge.

The rivers average flow is less than 2,000 cubic feet per second where the barges were moored, yet by the time they came loose late Tuesday afternoon, volume had reached 60,000 cubic feet per second and would exceed 70,000 before days end, according to the Geological Survey.

That equates to a river velocity of about 4.5 mph, said A. Thomas Ruby III, acting associate director for data programs at the agencys Pennsylvania Water Science Center.

Tugboats will be used to free the barges when high water subsides, said Lt. Col. David C. Park, commander of the Army Corps Philadelphia district. And if all goes well, cars will be allowed back on top Thursday.
Teton County Sheriff Matt Carr and Investigative Sgt. Clay Platt examine one of three balloons that crashed Monday morning during a flight near Teton Village, injuring more than a dozen people. One person was seriously injured and was flown to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, and five others were driven by ambulance to St. John's Health.

JACKSON - Three hot air balloons carrying dozens of people lost control Monday morning and came to a crashing halt in a field near Teton Village.

The multi-balloon incident is under investigation by federal authorities.

More than 16 passengers were hurt. Some of them described the incident as "terrifying."

"We were descending so fast," Clinton Phillips told the Jackson Hole Daily. "It was lifting us up and slamming us back down again. We were desperately trying not to fall out."

Phillips said the balloon he was in was carrying about 20 people, including him, his wife Jade and their three ch...
DENVER, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Denver Commercial Property Services (DCPS), the leading provider of integrated commercial property services across Colorado, announced today the appointment of Daniel Leuenberger to join as General Manager of the landscaping division.

With extensive operational and management experience, Leuenberger brings valuable leadership needed to our team experiencing rapid growth. Leuenberger will be focusing on increasing operational efficiencies, company culture, quality controls and customer experiences in our landscaping and snow divisions.

"Leuenberger will be a great addition to our Team," says John Helm, COO of DCPS, "He brings a 15-year customer-centric background and shares our same dedication to quality, team building and superior customer service. His past track record of improving processes and leveraging employee talent to more efficiently deliver services will help us continue our rapid growth."

Prior to joining DCPS, Leuenberger was the Director of Operations at Arrowhead Landscape Services. During his time there he was instrumental in helping them grow their business.

Leuenberger commented, "When I meet John and Dale I could see and feel the culture at DCPS and knew it was going to be a great place to work. I am eager to work with the extraordinary individuals in the landscaping division as we become the innovators of the industry and the true stewards of our living spaces"

About Denver Commercial Property Services

Denver Commercial Property Services (DCPS) provides commercial property services to over 1,100 clients across Colorado. DCPS leverages unparalleled customer service to be the dominant, one-stop provider of commercial property services in Colorado.

CONTACT: Natalie Clark, [email protected]

SOURCE Denver Commercial Property Services
06.08.2020 LISTEN

Background

First, to members of our legal profession who have contributed in diverse ways to help shape our legal framework and also contributing to safeguarding the independence of our constitution a big cachet to you all even as we await the final verdict from the apex court of the land.

A letter dated Monday, June 9 from the Presidential outfit signed by the Director of communication in the person of Mr Eugene Arhin directing the Auditor General to proceed on his accumulated annual leave-taking effect from July 2020 has over the past weeks caused a great pandemonium within some members of legal faculty of our country. Upon receipt of the said letter, some masters of the act of law in the field of practice, as well as academia, have expressed varied concerns, questioning the constitutionality of the executive directive from the President, some contending such directives to be a violation of Article 187(7) of the 1992 constitution of our republic which protects the office of the AG and, as such, apart from the compulsory retirement age of 60 years the AG tenure cannot be disturbed by the Presidents directive couched as accumulated leave.

Also, following a suit at the apex court by Prof Asare were a declaration that the Presidents appointment of Mr Asiedu to act as AG is inconsistent with or is in contravention with the letters and spirit of Article 187(1), 187(7)(a) and further called for an interlocutory injunction from the court to set aside the 167 accumulated leave days of Mr Domelevo which took effect on July 1, 2020. Even though the suit by Prof Asare was stricken out by the court on grounds that, the Attorney General by law happens to be the principal legal advisor to government and as of right represents the government in all civil actions against the state per Article 88 of the constitution hence attaching the Auditor General and Acting Auditor General as a defendant to the suit as filed by the applicant could be referred to as improper parties to the suit.

Big Issues

As a matter of fact and for good consumption by the Ghanaian reader, the big issue is streamed into 3 segments; First, the office of the Auditor-General and the composition of the Audit Service (Audit Service Act 584), Chain of Command of the Audit Service and Independence of the Auditor General.

For probity and accountability Section 10 of the Audit Service Act (584)reads; there shall be an AG who shall be appointed by the President acting in consultation with the council of state. The AG notwithstanding is a member of the Audit Service with a chairman and four other members appointed by the President, acting in consultation with the Council of State and Head of the Civil Service or his representative.

Chain of Command

Even though the constitution, as well as the Audit Service Act (584), happens to be silent on the chain of command in the absence of the AG in the daily discharge of duty, Article 189 (3) states the Audit Service Board shall, acting in consultation with the Public Services Commission -

(a) determine the terms and conditions of service of officers and other employees in the Audit Service; and

(b) by constitutional instrument, make regulations for the effective and efficient administration of the Audit Service.

It is certain by this constitutional provision that the audit service board which includes the AG shall be the sole regulators of the Office of the Auditor Generals department to ensure the efficient run of the audit service. This also could imply that the audit service board has for its purpose a superior mandate to manage the affairs of the audit service with the inclusion or omission of the AG.

Independence of the AG

Accessing the independence of the AG at the birth of a Presidential directive asking the AG to take its constitutionally mandated leave of 167 days has been an exceptional area of concern due to its powers conferred by the constitution. Over the past few weeks, questions such as; whether or not the AG is total independence has caused an overwhelming stir in the public domain. Generally, social commentators, as well as some members of the Ghana Bar, have questioned the limits to the independence of the AG.  Questions such as whether or not there is a limit to the independence of the AG, If yes to what extent, If No Why not; Is there any form of checks and balance in the daily discharge of duty by the AG, If Yes, who is responsible for such duty, If No why not; and lastly, the Office of the AG for one reason or the other might incur some form of regular or irregular expenses in the discharge of duty hence the question who audits the office of the Auditor-General.

Generally, the office of the Auditor-General is believed to be an important body in our governance structure and should not be toyed with. Again, according to the Audit service Act (584) section 10(5) reads; the salary and allowances payable, and the facilities and privileges available to the Auditor-General shall be determined by the President on the recommendations of a committee of not more than five persons appointed by the President, acting in accordance with the advice of the Council of State.

This could imply that, even though the AG is noted to be independent, there is a limit to this effect on grounds that the salaries and other social benefits payable to the AG as of right is regulated by the President or a committee appointed by the President acting in accordance with the advice of the council of state.

Again, Section 10(9) of Act 584 reads; the Auditor-General may at any time resign his office in writing addressed to the President, which in effect implies or presuppose a higher authority to which the AG responds to regardless of its level of independence. Lastly, the AGs report submitted to Parliament under Article 187(6) at the end of every financial year is subject to debate on the floor of Parliament.

This could also imply that the report following its reading in Parliament is not regarded as the final working document of the AG until such report undergoes scrutiny and finally certified by Parliament hence a limitation to the independence of the AG.

Article by; Emmanuel Abu Ampong (Law Student  WIUC)
Peter Dutton is preparing to punt hundreds of foreign criminals facing deportation to a detention centre on Christmas Island.

Australia's onshore immigration detention centres are struggling to cope with 'unlawful non-citizens' who can't be expelled during the coronavirus pandemic.

The home affairs minister will send 250 to Christmas Island within the next couple of weeks, with staff going into quarantine before being deployed to the facility.

Peter Dutton is preparing to punt hundreds of foreign criminals facing deportation to a detention centre on Christmas Island

'The vast majority, now, of people within our detention network are ... bikies, drug dealers and pedophiles,' Mr Dutton told Sydney radio 2GB on Thursday.

'What we're going to do is take 250 of those people - the criminals - out of our detention centres on the mainland and I'm going to put them into a high security facility on Christmas Island.'

Mr Dutton said the reshuffle would free up some space.

Priya and Nades Murugappan and their Australian-born daughters Kopika and Tharunicaa are fighting deportation

Peter Dutton

'We've got people who are coming out of jail, they need to be deported but we can't deport them at the moment because of COVID,' he said.

'We'll work closely with the Christmas Island community to make sure it works well.'

Christmas Island has previously housed asylum seekers and, more recently, people evacuated from the Chinese city of Wuhan in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic.

The centre is currently holding a Tamil family fighting deportation to Sri Lanka, after being taken from the Queensland town of Biloela.
They have been isolating in Los Angeles as the coronavirus pandemic has halted Hollywood productions.

And Henry Golding joined his wife Liv Lo to grab a cold drink on Wednesday.

The Crazy Rich Asians actor, 33, looked casual in a plain black tee, blue shorts and white sneakers.

Casual outing: Henry Golding joined his wife Liv Lo to grab a cold drink on Wednesday

He had his hands busy with a purple smoothie in one hand and a blue reusable water bottle in the other.

The Malaysian actor was sure cover his nose and mouth with a grey reusable face mask as guidelines continue to recover coverings in public amid the pandemic, to limit the spread.

LA remains a hotspot for the virus, as California tops 530k cases and over 9,700 deaths, the county has over 197k of the cases and 4,700 deaths.

Covered: The Malaysian actor was sure cover his nose and mouth with a grey reusable face mask as guidelines continue to recover coverings in public amid the pandemic, to limit the spread

His wife Liv looked chic in a grey knit midi skirt with a thigh-high slit, and matched her husband in white sneakers.

She teamed her look with a pink tee, dark sunglasses and a colorful face mask.

Henry recently took to Instagram with a throwback of himself and Liv enjoying some pizza, while vacationing in Japan.

The Simple Favor actor wrote: 'Man I miss travelling... Throwback to one of our favourite pizza joints in Tokyo. Savoy pizza in Azabu-juban.'

Throwback vibes: Henry took to Instagram with a throwback of himself and Liv enjoying some pizza, while vacationing in Japan

Postponed: The Hollywood Reporter recently announced that the movie is still being delayed from its October 23 premiere to a TBD date in 2021

He previously wrapped production on the GI Joe spin-off Snake Eyes back in February, before Hollywood went into lockdown.

The Hollywood Reporter recently announced that the movie is still being delayed from its October 23 premiere to a TBD date in 2021.

Henry stars as the samurai-wielding soldier in the character's origin story, which is a followup to the 2009 and 2013 GI Joe films.
Pakistan said this was the third time in the past one year when the matter was raised at the UN and thanked China especially for the move

Hours after China raised the Kashmir issue for deliberations in the 15-nation UN Security Council (UNSC) at the behest of all-weather friend Pakistan, India on Thursday said it rejected Chinas interference in Indias internal affairs, adding that the Chinese attempt once again met with little support from the international community.

New Delhi also urged Beijing to draw proper conclusions from such infructuous attempts. This is the second time in two days that India has criticised China for its comments and actions on the Kashmir issue.

Making no secret of the close collaboration on the matter between China and Pakistan, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi tweeted late on Wednesday night that this was the third time in the past one year when the matter was raised at the UN and thanked China especially for the move, adding that Pakistan welcomed the meeting.

The Chinese move in collaboration with Pakistan was obviously planned at the UN due to the first anniversary on Wednesday of Indias revoking of Article 370, a Constitutional provision that had granted special status to the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).

India had also split the erstwhile State of J&K into the two union territories of J&K and Ladakh last year. China first began raising the Kashmir issue last year at the UNSC for informal deliberations soon after India revoked Article 370.

On Thursday, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said, We have noted that China initiated a discussion in the UN Security Council on issues pertaining to the Indian Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir. This was not the first time that China has sought to raise a subject that is solely an internal matter of India. As on such previous occasions, this attempt too met with little support from the international community. We firmly reject Chinas interference in our internal affairs and urge it to draw proper conclusions from such infructuous attempts.

India had on Wednesday too snubbed China and asked it to refrain from interference in Indias internal affairs, just hours after Beijing termed the revoking of Article 370 a year ago by New Delhi as illegal and invalid.

India added that China had no locus standi on the issue. We have noted the comments of the Chinese MFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) spokesperson on the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Chinese side has no locus standi whatsoever on this matter and is advised not to comment on the internal affairs of other nations, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava had said on Wednesday evening.

Chinese MFA Spokesperson Wang Wenbin was quoted by media reports as saying at the regular ministry briefing on Wednesday in Beijing, China follows closely the situation in the Kashmir region. Chinas position on the Kashmir issue is clear and consistent.

This issue is a dispute leftover from history between Pakistan and India. That is an objective fact as laid out by the UN Charter, UN Security Council resolutions and the bilateral agreements between Pakistan and India. Any unilateral change to the status quo is illegal and invalid. This issue should be properly resolved peacefully through dialogue and consultations between the parties concerned.
The FBI has joined the search for a missing mother whose two-year-old son was found wandering alone in a Florida parking lot 10 days ago.

Leila Cavett has not been heard from since little Kamdyn Cavett was found wearing only a t-shirt and a diaper in Miramar on July 26 by a concerned member of the public.

Cavett lives in Atlanta with her young son, while the rest of the family lives in Jasper, Alabama. The family said Cavett does not have any known ties to South Florida and they are desperate for answers.

She was last seen on July 25 driving a mid-to-late 90s white Chevy 3500, with a red tailgate and a 'Baby on Board' sign on the passenger window. Police say that vehicle was later found on July 28, abandoned in Hollywood, Florida.

Miramar Police Department had said 'they are 'concerned for her [Leila's] safety and well-being.' The family's attorney said: 'Police have stated she was possibly in the Fort Lauderdale beach area before her disappearance in the company of a Black male.'

Cavett's sister, Gina Lewis, said in a Facebook post: 'Please help me find my sister my heart is breaking. I cannot breathe.'

Leila Cavett, right, has not been heard from since little Kamdyn Cavett, left, was found wearing only a T-shirt and a diaper in Miramar on July 26 by a concerned member of the public

Leila was last seen on July 25 driving this mid-to-late 90s white Chevy 3500, with a red tailgate and a 'Baby on Board' sign on the passenger window. Police say that vehicle was later found on July 28, abandoned in Hollywood, Florida

Another sister, Tyuania Cavett, added: 'Every day that goes passes she could be in more and more danger and we just don't even know it. We have no answers. We cannot get a hold of her in the slightest.'

Her father Curtis Cavett told CBS: 'He's everything to her. Kamdyn is her life. That's the love of her life. She's never going to leave him, never.' On Monday Curtis said his daughter may have been in Florida to meet a man she met online. He added: 'Its on her Facebook.'

During a news conference last week, 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 'Where's 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 Leila's family saw them.

During a news conference last week, 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

Cavett's sister, Gina Lewis, said in a Facebook post: 'Please help me find my sister my heart is breaking. I cannot breathe'

Lewis told WPLG the family has no connections to South Florida.

'We're in the middle of a pandemic,' Lewis said. 'So it's not like they were taking a vacation out of the blue with the baby. There's no way.'

The child was turned over to the Florida Department of Children and Families.

'If you are OK, please let someone know,' Lewis said. 'She would have never just left him like that.'

Cavett's family told reporters they last spoke to her about two weeks ago.

'I FaceTimed her on July 17. We were on the phone for about an hour and she was fine,' one of the sisters said. 'She didn't have any plans to come to Florida, so we're very confused right now.'
The name Skyllful [pronounced skill-ful] represents our new focus on providing mobile app training  delivering the skills to use apps efficiently and effectively  directly to frontline workers devices." - Justin Lake, co-founder and CEO, Skyllful

Venado Technologies announced today the official renaming of its company to Skyllful. The new name reflects the companys focus on the critical role of training in successful strategies for workforce adoption of mobile technology. The company, founded in 2009, is assuming the name of its flagship product, a mobile digital adoption platform (MDAP) that uses simulation training to help frontline workers use enterprise mobile apps more efficiently and effectively.

As Venado Technologies, we designed and deployed mobile technology to frontline workers. But, we identified a major sticking point to adoption and ongoing engagement  a lack of training in mobile workers apps and devices, said Justin Lake, co-founder and CEO of Skyllful. With low engagement, we saw many, many companies investing millions of dollars in field technology but not realizing the R in ROI [return on investment] in increased productivity. We recognized that what the market needed most was a better way to improve mobile technology engagement by its frontline workers.

The name Skyllful [pronounced skill-ful] represents our new focus on providing mobile app training  delivering the skills to use apps efficiently and effectively  directly to frontline workers devices, said Lake. Whether a company is deploying a new solution or trying to improve engagement with its existing apps, our mobile digital adoption platform provides hands-on training for hands-on workers.

With deep expertise in leading mobile technology and best practices in field deployments as well as a leadership team with decades of experience working with large frontline mobile workforces and applications, Skyllful is the only mobile digital adoption platform built expressly for training frontline mobile workers.

Skyllfuls comprehensive, SaaS-based MDAP helps field operations leaders and professionals in change management and training & development drive faster adoption of mobile technology by its frontline workers. It provides scenario-based simulation training, ongoing education and real-time support that helps mobile workers retain knowledge better. By supporting new digital deployments and onboarding new hires, Skyllfuls MDAP runs natively on mobile devices, including industrial-grade and ruggedized handhelds and tablets. It can access native device peripherals and sensors, such as barcode scanners and printers, that are part of an enterprises digital solution.

As a company, Skyllful is governed by the principle that mobile app training should never be a one-time event, said Lake. Instead of providing training only during new employee onboarding or when a new app is first deployed, Skyllful believes mobile app training should be highly valued as a key and ongoing component of professional development.

For more information about Skyllful, visit https://www.skyllful.com/.

About Skyllful

Skyllful (formerly Venado Technologies) is a leading provider of a mobile digital adoption platform (MDAP) that helps frontline workers use enterprise mobile apps more efficiently and effectively in their delivery of essential products and services. With deep expertise in leading mobile technology and best practice field deployments as well as a leadership team with decades of experience working with large frontline mobile workforces and applications, Skyllful provides on-device, on-demand training through scenario-based simulations. Whether a company is deploying a new mission-critical workforce app or seeking to improve its workforce engagement with existing apps, the Skyllful platform is easy to use, intuitively designed and proven to increase productivity and deliver greater returns on investment in technology. Skyllful is headquartered in Denver, Colo., and maintains a customer experience center in the greater Dallas/Ft. Worth area of Texas. For more information, visit https://www.skyllful.com and follow on Twitter @Skyllfulco.


By Fang Xiaozhi

The US and Australia recently announced to establish a defense cooperation framework targeting China with Darwin, a port city in northern Australia, at the core, in a bid to strengthen and deepen the joint military training between the two countries, with principals committed to pursue increased and regularized maritime cooperation in the region, as well as the Indian Ocean. While the global COVID-19 pandemic is still at height, the suppression and containment of China by the US and Australia, which still cling to the mindset of confrontation, is bound to largely increase the destabilizing factors in regional security and give rise to a more confrontational geo-strategic structure.

The US has been eager to find more suitable military bases in recent years as it reinforce its Indo-Pacific strategy, and Darwin in Australia has been a favored position for its unique geographical advantages. Washington and Canberra signed a military cooperation agreement on the use of Darwin Port in 2014, which allowed Americas marines and air force to train and station there. In 2016, Washington announced to dispatch long-range heavy bombers and air force refueling planes to station at the air force bases in Darwin and Tyndall. According to a joint statement of the 2020 AUSMIN, the US and Australia ministers said they discussed expanding operations in Darwin, where the US will establish a military fuel reserve and consider exercises with allies.

This is the most substantial progress on the bilateral defense cooperation since the US marines have been stationed in the city. The framework allows the US to carry out larger-scale military training and deploy more sophisticated equipment such as stealth fighter jets, large surface vessels, and nuclear submarines in the region, turning it into an important point of troops stationing, arms storage and logistics replenishment in the Indo-Pacific region.

These moves will make the US military deployments in and around Australia less vulnerable and enhance its military presence and power projection capability in the South Pacific Ocean, thus largely changing the power balance in the region. It is predictable that as the top-secret cooperation framework is established and put into operation on schedule, the Darwin base will see its strategic position further elevated, becoming a new growth point in the US-Australia military cooperation.

However, Canberra has no small doubts about the development of its alliance with Washington due to the America first policy and unilateral stance the Trump administration has been exercising over recent years. Therefore, it has kept a certain vigilance against and distance from Washington while actively developing their bilateral defense partnership. During the recent two plus two meeting, Canberra refused Washingtons request for it to carry out freedom of navigation exercises in disputed waters of the South China Sea.

Australia doesnt see eye to eye with the US on all issues despite their close alliance. Australias Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne said that every decision or judgment made by Canberra must comply with its national interests and security. Her remarks demonstrated that Australia has maintained some reason and restraint when handling its relation with China, and wont blindly jump on the US bandwagon and become Washingtons paw in containing China in total disregard of the relation between Beijing and Canberra.

(The author Fang Xiaozhi is a researcher at the Institute of Strategic Studies and International Security under Fudan Institute of Belt and Road & Global Governance. All the contents in the article represent the author's opinions and dont necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.)
Some unidentified terrorists shot dead a BJP sarpanch outside his residence at Vessu in Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday (August 6). The sarpanch has been identified as Sajjad Ahmed Khandey.

Khandey was rushed to hospital with bullet wounds where he succumbed to his injuries. No terror group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far. Khandey was staying in secured migrant camp along with several sarpanchs. He left the camp on Wednesday morning to vist his home at Veesu when the terrorists fired upon him. It is learnt that Khandey was just 20 metres away from his house when he was attacked.

This is the second attack of its kind in less than 48 hours as a BJP Panch Arif Ahmad was critically wounded after terrorists fired upon him at Akhran Qazigund on the evening of August 4. He is still under treatment in hospital.

Ahmad was shifted to the emergency hospital at Qazigund with firearm injury in the neck. Top police official confirming the incident had said, "Terrorists fired on one Arif Ahmad at Akhran (sarpanch). He is being shifted to the emergency hospital at Qazigund. Firearm injury in the neck. Condition critical."
on Thursday announced appointment of Hardayal Prasad, the former SBI Card head who left the card issuer company last month, as its new managing director and chief executive.

The housing finance company promoted by country's second largest state-owned Punjab Bank (PNB) currently has Neeraj Vyas as its interim chief. Prasad will assume charge on August 10, said in a statement.

"Following an extensive executive search that considered internal and external candidates, its board of directors has appointed Hardayal Prasad as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Ltd," PNB Housing Finance said.

Vyas, the current interim managing director and chief executive officer of the company, will step down from the position on August 10, it added.

Prasad -- a seasoned professional with over three decades of experience in banking, international operations at SBI and later with SBI Card -- had last month resigned as the managing director and chief executive of SBI Card pursuant to voluntary retirement from SBI, the promoter of the company.

"The company has a strong parentage and trusted brand, which resonates with its stakeholders. The company with its pan-India presence, robust operating platforms and excellent customer service is well-positioned to take on the emerging challenges in the mortgage industry," Prasad said while thanking the board of PNB Housing Finance.

He holds master's degree in chemistry and is a certified associate of Indian Institute of Bankers.

He is also credited with spearheading the IPO of SBI Cards and Payment Services Ltd (SBI Card) and also led to the transformational journey of the company by repositioning it as a pure play credit card company, with leadership position in the market.

"On behalf of the board, I would like to thank Neeraj Vyas for taking charge as interim MD and CEO of PNB Housing Finance over the last three months and successfully steering the company through these unprecedented times, said S S Mallikarjuna Rao, Chairman of the Board, PNB Housing Finance.

Rao, who is also the MD & CEO of Punjab Bank, said Prasad's illustrious track record combined with exceptional leadership qualities and values make him the right choice to lead PNB Housing Finance in its journey to becoming the leading housing finance company in India.

Prasad takes over the reins of PNB Housing at a challenging time as the company registered 48 per cent fall in its disbursements to Rs 18,626 crore in 2019-20.

While acknowledging in its annual report that 2019-20 was a challenging year for the sector as well as the sector, PNB Housing Finance said the company was focused on strengthening its balance sheet.

Going ahead, PNB Housing expects higher demand from mass housing segment and thus would focus on its retail loan portfolio and sell down its corporate loan portfolio.

Company's capital adequacy ratio had fallen to 13.98 per cent in March 2019, which had prompted the decision to reduce corporate finance book.

"We were very close to breaching the regulatory capital requirement at that point of time (March 2019). So from that time, we have taken a call that till we will raise our capital adequacy and until we are not comfortable in our corporate finance business, we will not do corporate finance," Vyas had told PTI last month.

Punjab Bank, the promoter of PNB Housing Finance has reiterated its ongoing support and commitment to ensure the long-term growth of the company, the statement said.

"The bank has decided to infuse capital of up to Rs 600 crore in PNB Housing Finance Ltd, subject to regulatory approvals. Looking ahead, the company is in a strong position to deliver on its strategy and is well placed to capture future opportunities, it added.

Outgoing Vyas expressed confidence that Prasad's diverse and comprehensive experience as a career banker will provide strong confidence to all stakeholders including employees, customers and investors of PNB Housing.

PNB Housing Finance stock closed at Rs 213.50 apiece on the BSE, up 1.84 per cent from the previous close.

(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.)
Kansas mother goes missing while seeking mental health treatment Police in Kansas are searching for a mother of three who went missing as she traveled to Alabama in search of mental health treatment. Marilane Carter, 36, was last seen leaving her Overland Park home late Saturday. She was driving in a gray 2011 GMC Acadia SUV en route to visit family in Birmingham, Alabama, police said in a statement issued Wednesday.

This scary situation and police request for help is making news across the nation. And whilst some might justifiably criticize over, hopefully that concern can be addressedthe lady is found safe . . . Read more:
OTTAWA - A House of Commons committee examining the government's ill-fated deal with WE Charity probed deeper into the organization itself Thursday, but with partisan clashes over witnesses from a charity watchdog.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 6/8/2020 (530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appears as a witness via videoconference during a House of Commons finance committee in the Wellington Building on Thursday, July 30, 2020. The committee is looking into Government Spending, WE Charity and the Canada Student Service Grant. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

OTTAWA - A House of Commons committee examining the government's ill-fated deal with WE Charity probed deeper into the organization itself Thursday, but with partisan clashes over witnesses from a charity watchdog.

Charity Intelligence has previously raised alerts about WE's practices and drew rebukes from WE and its co-founders, Craig and Marc Kielburger, who testified before the committee last week.

The controversy around the grant program has raised questions over WE's complex structure and accounting mechanisms, its use of high-profile corporate sponsors and celebrity endorsements and its workplace culture.

The managing director of Charity Intelligence, which is a small charity itself, told MPs she found concerns in two days of reviewing WE's financial data that prompted her to call its management with questions.

"I would really hope that if someone were making an investment of this size, that the government would have felt confident to ask questions and pick up the phone and seek clarification on anything that they were unclear about," Kate Bahen said.

She spoke off the top of the meeting about the need to help cash-strapped charities suffering from a general decline in giving due to the pandemic, including increasing the amount of money foundations have to disburse to charitable causes.

She then said her group has no partisan affiliation and outlined her disdain for partisanship itself  just before it took over the committee.

Liberal MPs questioned her group's findings about WE, and wondered why Charity Intelligence was even at the committee if it couldn't offer insight into the timeline of events surrounding WE and the student-volunteer program the Liberal government selected it to manage.

"I have nothing against you or the organization," Liberal Peter Fragiskatos told Bahen.

But, he want on: "It's hard for me to understand how an organization of four people can judge 250 organizations on a range of criteria, delve in and offer an enormous set of judgments, and for us to look at that as MPs is a challenge."

Opposition MPs argued the group's conclusions, made from poring over public reports, raise new questions about how the Trudeau government decided to hand WE Charity the reins of the student-volunteer program.

"Absolutely no due diligence has been identified in terms of all of the myriad problems, things that should have been a red flag and things that for any other charity in the country would have meant that there was absolutely no possibility of them being considered for funding," said New Democrat Peter Julian.

The agreement with WE was to pay one of its foundations up to $43.5 million to administer a grant program designed to encourage students to sign up for volunteer work related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ottawa budgeted $912 million for the program and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau billed it that way, but the deal with WE was for $543 million. WE itself expected it would cost perhaps half that, the Kielburgers testified, emphasizing they only expected to dispense the money and have their administration costs covered.

In a statement issued after the meeting, WE said its multi-entity structure is partly because of its operations in numerous countries, partly because of "a small number of sub-entities to fulfill donor wishes or operational ease for allocating funds," and partly to manage liability risks.

WE had a foundation with no other activities sign the agreement with the government "to fulfill the government of Canadas request to assume the liability for up to 40,000 youth participants and not-for-profits during a global health pandemic," the statement said.

A controversy has simmered since late June over the sole-sourced nature of the deal and the charity's ties to Trudeau and his family.

Trudeau has been a featured speaker at six WE Day events since becoming prime minister, and his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau hosts a podcast for the group, for which they and WE say they have not been paid. However, Trudeau's mother and brother have been paid almost $300,000 for appearing at numerous WE event over the years and been reimbursed for some $200,000 in expenses.

Trudeau's wife has also had expenses covered.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau has also been embroiled in the affair for his familial ties to the group, and his acknowledgment last month that he repaid WE about $41,000 in sponsored travel for him and his family to view the charity's humanitarian projects in Ecuador and Kenya in 2017.

Both Trudeau and Morneau have apologized for not recusing themselves from the cabinet decision to have WE Charity administer the student grants.

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.

Opposition parties are hoping the imminent release of government documents will shed some new light on how the deal was awarded. The government has until Saturday to table with the committee all memos, briefing notes, correspondence and other documents related to the now-cancelled agreement.

"There's been so many contradictions through this that I think it's fair to say that the documents, hopefully, will start giving us some answers," Julian said in an interview Wednesday.

"I think in terms of the next witnesses to get answers, the documents will help point us in the right direction."

The committee is also looking to hear from WE Charity's chief financial officer, Victor Li, and Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough.

Another motion adopted by the committee seeks witnesses with knowledge of WE's operations and offers parliamentary privilege as a shield against potential lawsuits.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 6, 2020.
Canadas public and private sectors are getting a failing grade when it comes to how the diversity of this country is reflected in the boardrooms where power is held and big decisions are made, a new report says.

Overall, women occupied 40.8 per cent of board positions across the country, but few women of colour share the standing, according to a first-of-its kind Canadian snapshot of the gender and racial diversity in such positions of power.

In particular, Black leaders were deeply under-represented in these leadership roles, outnumbered even by other racialized groups, highlighting a need to continue tracking this population as a distinct group, says the study by Ryerson Universitys Diversity Institute.

Diversity in leadership not only signals who belongs, but it is also linked to organizational performance on multiple levels, said the 115-page report, DiversityLeads 2020.

Progress in advancing women and other diverse groups on boards has been slow. This has contributed to economic and social exclusion.

Racialized people on boards 13.1% Municipal governments 8.6% Provincial governments 4.5% Corporate sector 11.6% Voluntary sector 12.5% Hospitals 14.6% Universities and colleges 8.4% School boards 10.4% Overall 22.3% Visible minority population in Canada Source: DiversityLeads 2020, Ryerson Universitys Diversity Institute; Statistics Canada

The extensive study reviewed the gender and racial backgrounds of 9,843 individuals who sat on the boards of directors of large corporations; government agencies, boards and commissions; hospitals; the voluntary sector; and educational institutions.

It covered organizations in eight Canadian cities: Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Halifax, Hamilton, London and Ottawa.

In addition to the data-mining, researchers also interviewed 36 individuals who identified as Indigenous, LGBTQ2S and persons with disabilities  the most unrepresented minority groups  to explore their experiences serving on these boards.

Under new laws passed by Ottawa, federally incorporated companies  about 55 per cent of Canadian companies  have been required to report the representation of women, racialized people, Indigenous peoples and persons with disabilities since January.

Its quite discouraging to be working on this for years and to see how slowly things are moving forward. But Im optimistic of the impact of this bill, said Prof. Wendy Cukier, founder of the Diversity Institute.

Im optimistic with the formation of organizations like BlackNorth and the number of private companies stepping up to (make) a commitment around increasing the representation of racialized people in much the way they previously signed on to the 30% Club aimed at advancing women.

We have seen a real massive shift in the focus on gender to now a focus on racialized people. Thats encouraging.

Across Canada, women made up 40.8 per cent or 4,027 of the board positions, while racialized people accounted for 10.4 per cent or 1,027 of those jobs.

The Black community accounted for 1.2 million people or 3.5 per cent of the population in 2016. However, few have made it into the countrys boardrooms and they only made up 0.3 per cent of corporate boards overall.

In Greater Toronto, Blacks represented 7.5 per cent of the population but they only held 3.6 per cent of board positions in the region.

The structural barriers to representation and discrimination that Black people face throughout their lives are unique from those faced by other racialized people, said the report. Tracking representation of the Black community is a crucial first step towards addressing the barriers to representation that they face.

Different minority groups also fare differently across cities and sectors.

Women held the highest percentage of board positions in Halifax (46.6 per cent) but lowest in Calgary (33.7 per cent). They made up almost half of school board directors in the education sector and provincial agencies, boards and commissions.

Women on boards 43.6% Municipal governments 47% Provincial governments 25.3% Corporate sector 43.1% Voluntary sector 39.6% Hospitals 43.1% Universities and colleges 47.3% School boards 40.8% Overall 50.4% Female population in Canada Source: DiversityLeads 2020, Ryerson Universitys Diversity Institute; Statistics Canada

They even held the majority of board roles in the university and college sector in London (69.2 per cent) and Ottawa (58.3 per cent). Yet, only 19.9 per cent of corporate leadership roles in Calgary were held by women, and just 28.6 per cent in Toronto.

While racialized people represented 28.4 per cent of the population in the eight cities examined in the study, they occupied only 10.4 per cent of board positions overall.

In Toronto and Vancouver, where half the population are visible minorities, the highest proportions of board positions held by racialized people were 15.5 per cent and 12.3 per cent, respectively, the highest in the country. In Montreal, racialized people represented a quarter of the population, but held only 6.2 per cent of board positions.

While universities and colleges had the highest level of representation of racialized people in board roles (14.6 per cent) overall, their representation in the corporate sector was at a dismal 4.5 per cent.

When taking both gender and race into consideration, researchers found white women outnumbered racialized women in board representation by a substantial margin. In Toronto, for example, for every 12 white women serving on a board, theres just one woman of colour in that position.

Black people made up 6.8 per cent of Greater Montreals population but only 1.9 per cent of boardrooms had their representation. In fact, the study found no Black board members at all in the corporate sector, the voluntary sector, the hospital sector or the education sector in the city region.

The report said that as a society, Canada must combat stereotypes and promote policies and legislation that advance inclusion while individual organizations must make it a priority in governance through setting targets, embedding diversity and inclusion in corporate strategies tied to measurable outcomes.

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Technavio has been monitoring the heparin market and it is poised to grow by USD 941.2 million during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of almost 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/20200806005655/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Heparin Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire)

Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please Request Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impact

Frequently Asked Questions-

At what rate is the market projected to grow during the forecast period 2020-2024?

Growing at a CAGR of almost 3%, the market growth will accelerate during the forecast period.

What is the key factor driving the market?

Increasing prevalence of chronic conditions is one of the key factors driving the market growth.

Who are the top players in the market?

Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd., Baxter International Inc., Eisai Co. Ltd., Fresenius SE Co. KGaA, Hikma Pharmaceuticals Plc, Laboratorios Farmaceuticos Rovi SA, Mylan NV, Nanjing King-Friend Biochemical Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Pfizer Inc., and Sanofi are some of the major market participants.

Which region is expected to hold the highest market share?

Europe

What is the year-over-year growth rate of the global market?

The year-over year growth rate for 2020 is estimated at 2.72%.

The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd., Baxter International Inc., Eisai Co. Ltd., Fresenius SE Co. KGaA, Hikma Pharmaceuticals Plc, Laboratorios Farmaceuticos Rovi SA, Mylan NV, Nanjing King-Friend Biochemical Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Pfizer Inc., and Sanofi. are some of the major market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments.

Increasing prevalence of chronic conditions has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market.

Heparin Market 2020-2024: Segmentation

Heparin Market is segmented as below:

Product Low Molecular Weight Heparin Others

Geographic Landscape Asia Europe North America ROW

Route of Administration Subcutaneous Injection Intravenous/infusion



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=IRTNTR40831

Heparin 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 heparin market report covers the following areas:

Heparin Market size

Heparin Market trends

Heparin Market analysis

This study identifies the increase in R&D activities and new therapeutic applications of heparin as the prime reasons driving the heparin market growth during the next few years.

Heparin Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of vendors operating in the heparin market, including some of the vendors such as Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd., Baxter International Inc., Eisai Co. Ltd., Fresenius SE Co. KGaA, Hikma Pharmaceuticals Plc, Laboratorios Farmaceuticos Rovi SA, Mylan NV, Nanjing King-Friend Biochemical Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Pfizer Inc., and Sanofi. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the heparin market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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Heparin Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist heparin market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the heparin market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the heparin market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of heparin 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

Parent market

Market characteristics

Market segmentation analysis

Value chain analysis

PART 04: MARKET SIZING

Market definition

Market sizing 2019

Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market outlook

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

Low-molecular-weight heparin Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Others Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by product

PART 07: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY ROUTE OF ADMINISTRATION

Market segmentation by route of administration

Comparison by route of administration

Subcutaneous injection Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Intravenous/infusion Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by route of administration

PART 08: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE

PART 09: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

Europe Market size and forecast 2019-2024

North America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Asia Market size and forecast 2019-2024

ROW 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 R&D activities and new therapeutic applications of heparin

Advent of biosimilar low-molecular-weight heparin

Development of drugs to remove heparin after surgery

PART 13: VENDOR LANDSCAPE

Overview

Landscape disruption

Competitive scenario

PART 14: VENDOR ANALYSIS

Vendors covered

Vendor classification

Market positioning of vendors

Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd.

Baxter International Inc.

Eisai Co. Ltd.

Fresenius SE Co. KGaA

Hikma Pharmaceuticals Plc

Laboratorios Farmaceuticos Rovi SA

Mylan NV

Nanjing King-Friend Biochemical Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.

Pfizer Inc.

Sanofi

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.

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A senior official of the ruling African National Congress in South Africa says President Cyril Ramaphosa is engaging President Emmerson Mnangagwa on alleged human rights violations in Zimbabwe where over 60 people have been arrested and some of them brutalized by suspected state security agents following the July 31 foiled anti-corruption protests.

ANC secretary general Ace Magashule told eNCA that they are closely monitoring the situation in Zimbabwe, noting that what is happening its uncalled for.

Magashule said they will discuss the issue at party level and advise Ramaphosa and government in a manner that would assist in tackling the political crisis in Zimbabwe.

At the same time, the presidents office noted that Ramaphosa is expected to take action only if the country is called to intervene.

In Botswana, President Mokgweetsi Masisi told reporters in Gaborone that the Zimbabwean situation can only be handled by the chairperson of the Southern African Development Community and not the Troika Organ on Politics and Security.

United Nations secretary general Antonio Guterres also added his voice to the Zimbabwe crisis, saying he is concerned about what is happening in the country.

In a statement, his spokesperson said, The Secretary-General has been following with concern recent developments in Zimbabwe. He urges the Government of Zimbabwe to ensure the protection of all fundamental human rights, notably the freedom of opinion and expression and the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, in accordance with Zimbabwes human rights obligations. He also calls on all political actors and civil society to resolve issues peacefully through inclusive dialogue.

Opposition Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema, former Democratic Alliance president Mmusi Maimane, several top people in South Africa, started a campaign recently dubbed #ZimbabweLivesMatter following the alleged brutalization of civillians by the Mnangagwa government.

The campaign has gone viral on social media with many people worldwide calling for an end of suspected state-sponsored violence in Zimbabwe.

But Information Secretary Nick Mangwana dismissed claims of a crackdown on dissent as a well-orchestrated regime change agenda being peddled by locals and the West for their own political purposes.

In a statement, Mangwana said, To set the record straight, there is no crisis or implosion in Zimbabwe. Neither has there been any abduction or war on citizens. Like any other country in the world, Zimbabwe has been enforcing Covid-19 regulations intended to safeguard and protect the lives of all citizens. Where necessary, the law has been fairly applied.

He further claimed that Zimbabwe today, is peaceful and all citizens are free to go about their business as usual, within boundaries set by the lockdown regulations. His Excellency President Emmerson Mnangagwas Second Republic believes in upholding the rule of law and freedom of speech. Indeed, it is the freedom of speech that is being unfortunately abused by those who seek to push a sinister political agenda.

Zimbabweans planned to stage an anti-corruption protest on July 31, which was stopped by state security forces.
The pandemic is accelerating a divide between European and American oil companies over climate change and clean energy.

Why it matters: Bottom lines and investor returns will be vastly different across the corporate spectrum depending on how aggressively the world tackles climate change in the coming decades.

Driving the news: BP announced this week what experts are calling the most aggressive oil-company strategy to evolve away from oil and gas to cleaner energy sources. The move, originally planned for September, came alongside a dividend cut and a $6.7 billion loss in the company's second-quarter earnings.

This shift, which started before the pandemic but is now accentuated by it, stands in stark contrast to American companies. These firms are so far not making sizable moves toward renewables and away from oil and gas, regardless of the coronavirus.

In modern times, theres never been a bigger strategic spread among the major companies as exists today, said Dan Yergin, a longtime energy expert and vice chairman of consultancy IHS Markit. Theyre all looking at the same evidence, but how they define their role is quite different. And it does seem that the great differentiator is the Atlantic Ocean.

The big picture: Economic shutdowns around the world in response to the coronavirus choked off oil demand at a time when the industry was already awash in too much of the fuel and struggling financially. Now, the world may be changing in permanent ways that tilt society away from what has been a steadily growing demand for oil despite rising concerns about its impact on the planet.

The coronavirus crisis has, all of a sudden, accelerated at least the potential that oil demand will plateau, said Martijn Rats, global oil strategist at Morgan Stanley.

Persistently low oil prices are making other sources more intriguing investments. The profitability of investing in renewables versus oil and gas is an awful lot closer now.

How it works: Europes more progressive governments and investors are major reasons why its oil companies are looking to evolve compared to their U.S. counterparts.

If youre a European company, youre looking at much more aggressive government policies, said Yergin, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author who is about to publish another book  "The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations"  next month.

If Democrats presumptive nominee Joe Biden wins and the party takes control of Congress, American companies could be in a similar boat.

The intrigue: Rats says theres two competing schools of thought about the future and oil companies roles in it.

If you think that there is a more important role for oil and gas and you should simply stick to your knitting, then you end up aligned with the views of U.S. majors. If you take the view that climate change is a disruptor effect and energy companies need to change with the times, then you end up doing what European majors are doing.

The bottom line: BPs stock rose 6% after unveiling its plan Tuesday morning, indicating investors liked it, but its too soon to tell which school of thought will be closer to the future reality decades from now.

Its not ordained that one strategy is right and one strategy is wrong, Yergin said.

Go deeper: Charts illustrating the transatlantic divide
EDWARDSVILLE  A Granite City man was sentenced to 12 years for an aggravated driving under the influence resulting in death last October.

On Nov. 1, 2019, Frank L. Hollenback IV, 30, was charged with three counts of aggravated driving under the influence resulting in death, a class 2 felony. Lab tests came back confirming Hollenback had fentanyl, alprazolam, amphetamine, methamphetamine and tramadol in his system when he struck the victim, Dora E. Greer, 71.

Greer was driving to the store last Oct. 14, in the evening, when her vehicle was struck by the defendants car. Greer was airlifted to St. Louis University Hospital where she died in the early morning hours Oct. 15 from the injuries caused by the reckless decisions the defendant made when getting behind the wheel of his vehicle.

Hollenback pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated driving under the influence resulting in death. The sentencing range for this count is three to 14 years. Hollenback was sentenced to 12 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections served at 85%.

My heartfelt condolences go out to the family and loved ones of Dora Greer, stated First Assistant States Attorney Crystal Uhe in a news release. While no amount of time could ever make up for the loss of Doras life, hopefully this lengthy sentence will offer some comfort in knowing that her killer is being held accountable. I want to commend the Granite City Police Department and Assistant States Attorney Morgan Hudson for their cooperative work on this case ensuring that justice was achieved.

The Greer family attended the sentencing hearing to give their victim impact statements. Greers four daughters spoke on behalf of their mother. Her husband also made a statement.

I remember back in 1962 I had met a young lady named Dora, he said. I found one of the greatest gifts a person could receive in life. It was an honor and a blessing to have fifty-seven years with this lady.

States Attorney Tom Gibbons commended the disposition of Hudson, whose collaboration with the GCPD led to the plea and sentencing of the defendant.

This was a senseless and tragic reminder of the dangers of driving under the influence and the terrible harm it can cause, Gibbons said. An innocent victim lost her life due to the selfish, unforgivable decisions of the defendant. We will never be able to replace her or fully heal the pain and loss felt by everyone around her, but with this tough sentence handed down today, we can ensure this defendant remains locked up and unable to hurt anyone else for a very long time.
By Akbar Mammadov

The agreement between Azerbaijan and Turkey on mutual visa exemption will come into force on August 13, the State Migration Service said on August 6.

According to the agreement, citizens of Azerbaijan and Turkey are exempted from visa requirements for 90 (ninety) days for entry, transit, departure and temporary stay.

Furthermore, persons wishing to stay in the relevant country for more than 90 (ninety) days must apply in advance for a temporary residence permit. Passports of citizens of both countries must be valid for at least 6 (six) months from the date of entry into the territory of the country.

The State Migration Service noted that citizens of both countries must follow the rules and procedures arising from national legislation. Based on the agreement, Turkish citizens temporarily staying in Azerbaijan for more than 15 days must be registered at their place of residence.

However, visa exemption does not entitle citizens of both countries to work or engage in any vocational activity.

Turkish citizens wishing to engage in paid employment in Azerbaijan must obtain a work permit from their employer in accordance with existing regulations, except in cases where a work permit is not required, said the State Migration Service.

It should be noted that the agreement between Azerbaijan and Turkey on mutual visa exemption was signed in Baku, on 25 February 2020.

---

Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
The family moved to California, and Thompson worked at the University of California at Los Angeles and Scripps College before she got a job in 1975 with the federal government in Washington. She stayed with the government for 33 years, retiring in 2009.
A huge mushroom cloud after the port explosion that reduced much of the city to rubble

A Wicklow man was among the 5,000 people injured in the horrific explosion that killed at least 135 people in Beirut on Tuesday.

Rescue teams pulled out bodies from the wreckage yesterday, as investigators blamed negligence for the warehouse explosion that sent a devastating shock wave across Beirut.

More than 5,000 people were injured in the explosion and up to 250,000 were left without homes fit to live in.

The Wicklow man told Kathryn Thomas on RTE Radio One's The Ray D'Arcy Show yesterday how he and his bride - who were only just married last week - were in their apartment a kilometre away from the port when he heard a loud blast and thought: "Oh my God, is a war starting?"

Smashed

Despite suffering cuts to his head from shards of glass, he said he and his wife miraculously escaped the blast that blew out a wall in their apartment.

"Of all the people in the radius, we were the luckiest," he said.

Shock waves from the blast smashed building facades, sucked furniture out into streets and shattered windows miles inland.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab has declared three days of mourning from today.

The death toll was expected to rise from the blast, which officials blamed on a huge stockpile of highly explosive material stored for years in unsafe conditions at the port.

The explosion was the most powerful ever to rip through a city scarred by a civil war that ended three decades ago and has been reeling from an economic meltdown and a surge in coronavirus infections.

The blast rattled buildings on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, about 100 miles (160 km) away.

President Michel Aoun said 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, used in fertilisers and bombs, had been stored for six years at the port without safety measures, after it was seized.

In an address to the nation during an emergency cabinet session, Aoun said: "No words can describe the horror that has hit Beirut last night, turning it into a disaster-stricken city".

He said the government was "determined to investigate and expose what happened as soon as possible, to hold the responsible and the negligent accountable".

The cabinet announced a two-week state of emergency in Beirut and ordered port officials involved in storing or guarding the material since 2014 to be put under house arrest.

Ordinary Lebanese citizens blamed politicians who have overseen decades of state corruption and bad governance.

"This explosion seals the collapse of Lebanon. I really blame the ruling class," said Hassan Zaiter, a manager at the heavily damaged Le Gray Hotel in downtown Beirut.

Relatives gathered at the cordon to Beirut port seeking information on those still missing.

The Red Cross was coordinating with the Health Ministry to set up morgues as hospitals were overwhelmed.

Beirut's Clemenceau Medical Center was "like a slaughterhouse, blood covering the corridors and the lifts," said Sara, one of its nurses.

Beirut Governor Marwan Abboud said the blast had caused damage worth up to $5 billion, and possibly more, and left up to 250,000 people without homes.

Supplies

Offers of international support have poured in. Gulf Arab states sent planes with medical equipment and other supplies, while Iran offered food and a field hospital.

The US, Britain and France, which have been demanding political and economic change in Lebanon, also offered help. Germany, the Netherlands and Cyprus offered specialised search and rescue teams.
Donald Trump, who has been courting religious voters ahead of the 2020 election, said on Thursday that Catholic rival Joe Biden is "against the Bible".

During a wide-ranging radio interview with Geraldo Rivera, Mr Trump honed in on Mr Biden's religion even as the president himself has faced criticism for using the Bible as a prop in the St John's Church photo opp.

"He's against the Bible," Mr Trump said during the exchange, which was first brought to wider attention by CNN reporter Daniel Dale.

The comments came when Mr Rivera asked if Mr Trump would admit that he's trailing in the polls.

"I mean when you think of it, how about Texas? One of the polls said Trump is leading by one [point] in Texas. OK, I'm in favour of oil and gas. I'm in favour of the Bible. I'm in favor of Second Amendment. Biden is against all of those things. He's against oil, he's against the Bible -- essentially against religion -- but against the Bible, and he's against the Second Amendment," Mr Trump said.

When Mr Rivera said it may be a little harsh to say Mr Biden was against the Bible, the president pivoted to the people around the candidate.

"Well, the people who control him totally are. It may be a little harsh for him, but he's going to have no control," Mr Trump said.

The Biden campaign responded on Thursday afternoon, saying Donald Trump is the only president to have tear-gassed Americans, thrown out a priest, and profane a Bible, for his own "cynical optics".

"Joe Biden's faith is at the core of who he is; he's lived it with dignity his entire life, and it's been a source of strength and comfort in times of extreme hardship," the statement said.

"And this comes just one day after Trump's campaign abused a photo of Joe Biden praying in church to demean him, in one of the starkest expressions of weakness throughout this whole campaign," it continued.

Mr Trump, however, doubled down soon after, saying that Mr Biden was also "against God".

"No religion, no anything, hurt the Bible, hurt God, he's against God, he's against guns, he's against energy, our kind of energy," he said.

Mr Biden is only the fourth Catholic to run for president following John F Kennedy, John Kerry, and Al Smith, but the religion is not an issue for most Americans, according to a Gallup poll that found only 4 per cent would not vote for a Catholic compared to 18 per cent that would not vote for an evangelical Christian.

The Trump campaign has courted religious voters with initiatives like Catholics for Trump and the White House made the reopening of Church services a key focus in its lifting of coronavirus lockdown restrictions.

Mr Trump, meanwhile, has a polarising relationship with his faith. Prior to the incident at St John's Church, he famously dodged questions on his favourite verse in the Bible, while claiming that it beats only The Art of the Deal as his favourite book.

When asked to name one or two of his most favourite Bible verses during an interview with Bloomberg's "With All Due Respect" program during his presidential campaign in 2015, he said he "wouldn't want to get into it".

"Because to me, that's very personal. You know, when I talk about the Bible, it's very personal, so I don't want to get into verses," he said, adding, "The Bible means a lot to me, but I don't want to get into specifics." When asked if he was an Old Testament guy or a New Testament guy, Trump said "Probably equal".

Asked again about his favourite verse during a radio interview the following year with WHAM-1180 in Rochester, New York, Mr Trump mentioned an "eye for an eye".

"That's not a particularly nice thing. But you know, if you look at what's happening to our country, I mean, when you see what's going on with our country, how people are taking advantage of us ... we have to be firm and have to be very strong. And we can learn a lot from the Bible, that I can tell you," he said.

 Trump appears to admit he doesn't know the Bible 'very well at all'

While it is referenced in several books, an "eye for an eye" is most well known as the Mosaic Law that Jesus singled out during his Sermon on the Mount as something to overcome by turning the other cheek.

"You have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you not to resist evil: but if one strike thee on thy right cheek, turn to him also the other," Jesus says in Matthew 5.
Kodak TV India launched its new range of TV series that completely runs on the Android TV platform system. The company launched seven variants of TV series under its XPro and C series and the Kodak TV new series ranges from Rs 10,999 up to Rs 99,999.

Kodak launched its first range of Android TV-powered TVs with screen sizes ranging from 43-inch to 65-inch. There is a 75-inch 4K HDR TV running on the Android TV platform and it is priced at Rs 99,999. All the Kodak TVs are made in India.

Starting at under Rs 10,999, 7XPRO Android TVs will be available in seven variants32-inch (HD), 40-inch (Full HD), 43-inch (Full HD & Ultra HD), 50-inch (Ultra HD) and 55-inch (Ultra HD); while the new 75 inch CA series will be available for Rs 99,999. These will be available on Amazon and Flipkart from Aug 6, 2020

Avneet Singh Marwah, Director and CEO, Super Plastronics Pvt Ltd said, We are proud to be recognised as Googles official partner for Android TVs. These new variants are an outcome of investments that we made in technology research within India. With the 75-inch CA series model, we will be a tough competitor in the premium affordable Smart TV segment. Content consumption patterns have changed due to COVID-19 and Kodak 7XPRO is a certified Google Android TV that optimises data usage across 5,00,000 movies, shows, games and music available on the Google Play Store.

Features:

Android TV runs on the Android TV platform. Voice-Enabled Bluetooth remote, powerful hardware, home automation along with thousands of apps and shows to watch. User-friendly UI experience for easy navigation and use.

Google Assistant: TV comes with your Google Assistant built-in. Just say Ok Google or press the mic button on your remote to quickly find the latest blockbuster, check the score of the big game or dim the lights  all without leaving what youre watching.

Chrome-Cast: Now socialize, watch the world over the internet, connect with your loved ones, all through Android TV. Control your TV with your smartphone (airplay)/tablet at your ease with just one touch. Use your TV as a working desktop to enjoy your Work-from-home experience. Choose from 1,000+ Cast-enabled apps, like prime, YouTube, Facebook, Hotstar, and Spotify.

Connectivity: Plug in your Tv with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, HDMI and USB.

Content: Choose from over 500,000 movies and TV episodes. Watch from YouTube, Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar, Sony Liv, MX player, Zee5 and others. Stream live news, sports, and must-see shows, plus thousands of titles in 4K Ultra HD, HDR.

Gaming: TV comes with 8GB ROM + 1GB RAM providing enhanced performance and experience for your gaming experience. The Quad-core processor and Amlogic Chipset give fast performance.

Processor: Cortex A53 Quad Core Processor and Mali450 GPU help TV run at a fast speed to make your experience smooth and enjoyable.

Sound: Inbuilt 24W output speakers give better sound output

Kodak 7X Pro lineup has HD, FHD and 4K HDR TVs in its portfolio with sizes ranging from 32-inch all the way up to 75-inches.

Kodak Android Tv Launch Price & Available On -

7X PRO SERIES

HD/FHD Android Tv

- 32 HD Android Tv  10,999.00 Flipkart/Amazon

- 40FHD Android Tv  16,499.00 Amazon

- 43 FHD Android tv  18,999.00 Flipkart



4K Android tv

- 43 4k Android tv  21,999.00 Amazon

- 50 4k Android tv  25,999.00 Amazon

55 4k Android tv  29,999.00 Amazon

CA Series

75 4k Android tv  99,999.00 Amazon
MEXICO CITY - A leaked recording apparently showing Mexicos environment minister criticizing the administration of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has again revealed internal turmoil as the president tries to confront dual health and economic crises.

Lopez Obrador said Thursday that he had not spoken with Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Victor Manuel Toledo since the recording emerged a day earlier.

Speaking from the northwestern city of Ciudad Obregon, he said Toledo had not presented his resignation, but said high Cabinet turnover isnt necessarily a bad thing.

In an audio recording circulating on social media, a person who appears to be Toledo complained that other Cabinet secretaries have blocked efforts to protect the environment and were promoting the interests of farming and mining industries.

He was especially crticial of Lopez Obradors chief of staff, Alfonso Romo, who he said had accumulated vast power and was the primary obstacle to any sort of environmental agenda, including a transition to renewable energy.

Were trying at Semarnat (the name of his agency), but we are not in a government that is totally on our side, he said, adding that the administration is a government of brutal contradictions.

Neither Toledo nor Semarnat have commented on the recording.

Asked by reporters Thursday, the president said, In our Cabinet there is freedom and there is disagreement and there isnt a single mindset. He said its his job to hear everyone out and make the best decision.

Environmental groups have been critical of numerous policies pursued by the administration, including a massive new oil refinery and a tourist-oriented train that will run through Mexicos most biologically diverse jungle. His administration has also ruled against renewable energy projects as it struggles to revive the state-run oil industry.

On Wednesday, the president dedicated a new dam in Sonora state that is flooding thousand-year-old Indigenous sites containing rock carvings and the remains of pre-Hispanic dwellings.

If Toledo were to resign, he would join a growing list of Cabinet members to exit. Two weeks ago, Transportation Secretary Javier Jimenez Espriu resigned after Lopez Obrador decided to put the navy in charge of Mexicos seaports.

Toledos predecessor resigned after a scandal about trying to delay a commercial flight. In 2019, Treasury Secretary Carlos Urzua resigned over disagreements about staffing decisions.

But on Thursday, Lopez Obrador turned to history, referencing the Cabinet of Benito Juarez, the 19th century leader who is Mexicos most revered president.

There hasnt been a better Cabinet and they resigned constantly, Lopez Obrador said.

Read more about:
JERUSALEM, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Chevron's entry into Israel's Leviathan natural gas field will help deliver the technical and marketing nous to turn the project into a global supplier, said the CEO of Delek Drilling, the energy giant's new regional partner.

Chevron became the first energy major to enter the Israeli market when it agreed last month to buy Texas-based Noble Energy , which has stakes in Israeli offshore gas fields.

The deal was also the first big energy deal since the coronavirus crisis, which has crushed fuel demand and added to doubts about the fossil fuel industry's future as pressure mounts on energy companies to shift to renewable sources.

Chevron has said the acquisition strengthens its regional position and, over the long term, it expects population growth to drive demand for natural gas, which is less carbon intensive than some fossil fuels.

Leviathan, Israel's largest field, began production late last year and exports to Jordan and Egypt, as well as supplying the local market.

Noble and Delek, the majority partners, had been keen on tapping into the liquefied natural gas (LNG) market at a second stage, although Israel has no infrastructure for it. Two options being studied are connecting to LNG terminals in Egypt or building a floating LNG terminal (FLNG).

"We don't have in our group the LNG capabilities," Delek Drilling CEO Yossi Abu told Reuters. "Chevron brings a significant LNG capability into the Leviathan project, and I'm sure that they will enhance our capabilities to take Leviathan from local and regional to a global supplier of gas."

The idea of a multi-billion dollar FLNG terminal, that would float in the eastern Mediterranean and allow exports to more distant markets, has been discussed for years.

Chevron, Abu said, will help from "a commercial perspective and marketing perspective, but for sure from a technical perspective to evaluate with us the capability to develop the FLNG project". (Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; editing by Barbara Lewis)
O'Reilly fire Community Meeting Flyer Aug 6 2020 View Photo

Angels Camp. CA  The public is invited to de-brief and hear about OReilly Fire firefighting and other community response efforts at a special community meeting at Utica Park

The ten-acre blaze that broke out last Friday evening behind OReilly Auto Parts off Main Street-Highway 49 near downtown Angels Camp remains under investigation, as earlier this week we reported here.

Angels Camp and Altaville-Melones Fire Chief John Rohrabaugh described the incident as a close call for the city. He tells Clarke Broadcasting that he and other city officials decided that a community meeting was important in order to provide an open forum for discussion with the fire and police chiefs, city administrator, mayor, and council.

The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at Utica Park, located off Main Street adjacent to the visitors center in downtown Angels Camp. Plans are to cover what happened, address related topics, have a question and answer period, and give thanks to the mutual aid agencies and community members who jumped in to help with evacuations and home protection.

Chief Rohrabaugh shares, We have had a lot of questions and people calling to praise our agency and CAL FireI think every fire department in the Calaveras County had at least one engine involved [across the incident] along with CAL Fire and their aircraft, and we needed that assistance. He continues, We rely on other resources when something large like this happens and want the community to understand it was not just our department doing the job. We basically work like one county even though we have ten different fire departments in the county. We want to make sure everyone understands that and knows they were there.

Asked how the City was able to schedule a community meeting during the COVID-19 crisis, the chief says it was vetted through Calaveras County Public Health. We consider this an essential meeting and are going to do everything we can to keep people safe. To that end, masks are required to attend, and citizens will be advised to maintain a distance of six feet apart from those not in your own household. There will also be handwashing stations on site.

Opting For Masks, Distancing Vs. Online Session

We do want to get participation and we thought of the idea of a Zoom meeting but that some people would not be able to do thatI think it is essential in my opinion to do it while its fresh in everybodys mind and allow that open forum, and keep it as safe as we can.

Thinking part through the years, Chief Rohrabaugh confides, I know in the time I have been in this area  since 1995  I think this is probably the most significant [fire incident] that we had that had the most potential for major impact.

While the downtown area was close to the fire area, the chief says, I was extremely concerned for all the homes on the west side of Highway 49. We had the fire running up the canyon going towards all the homes moving upgrade  and that was a severe threatif we had many more homes catch on fire or it had spotted over the initial street where the homes were impacted it could have been a complete tragedy.

Focusing on the ridge area as an immediate concern and having CAL Fire air resources arrive when they did and drop retardant on the street near Crystal and Echo, where the fire was moving, helped save the day, he says. All the homes on the ridge are so close together  all the streets are extremely smallit could have been completely horrific if people couldnt get out and we couldnt get in, he recounts. Obviously that area was built years and years agomany of the homes are over a hundred years old and conditions, buildings, streets were different back then.

As for discussion topics relating to future responses, the chief acknowledges along with emergency plans, there are ideas formulating for which officials want to have the communitys input and feedback. I think we want to entertain the ideas that maybe some streets should just be one-way, maybe there shouldnt be parking on certain streetsand to work forward with [the community] to assure we have a way to get them out of the area in the event of an emergency  and to be able to get us in at the same time.

He maintains that city officials are in full listening mode. We want to make this the safest small city around here to live in. We have such a small area and community I think if we work with our community we can make some strides.
A 23-year-old man accused of murdering his partner told police she died during an erotic sex act, a court has heard.

Dawid Lukasz Mietus, of Drumalane Park in Newry, was charged with murdering 20-year-old Patrycja Wyrebek.

Ms Wyrebeks body was found in her home on Sunday in Newry.

Mietus, who is from Poland, was arrested on suspicion of the murder of his partner hours later.

The accused told police that he and Ms Wyrebek, who had been partners for seven or eight months, had a shared interest in erotic asphyxiation.

Jonathan Browne, a barrister for the accused, told Newry Magistrates Court that Mietus claimed his partner had introduced him to that form of sexual intercourse.

He said that on that night they both drank a large amount of alcohol, a bottle of wine each and vodka after, Mr Browne added.

He said the deceased became unresponsive during consensual sexual intercourse and that was at a time they were practising consensual erotic asphyxiation.

The normal agreement between the two of them was that if there was any threat or danger to either of them, they would use a physical signal to stop the intercourse.

He said on the morning of question, she never gave him such signal to actually stop.

This particular case being made is that this is entirely an accidental death in which there was no intention to kill or cause serious harm. This is without doubt an extremely tragic death.

A police sergeant objected to bail citing concerns over a risk of flight as Mietus has ties outside of Northern Ireland.

The court heard that the accused was in contact with a family member regarding a flight to Poland.

A prosecutor told the court that he asked a family member to print a ticket in his mothers name on Tuesday.

Sgt Brannigan said he had concerns about the seriousness of the alleged offence and the risk of interference with witnesses.

He told the court that relatives made statements that he told a relative on the morning of the alleged murder that he killed Ms Wyrebek.

He also said there are concerns that if he is released, he will be a danger to the community.

Mr Browne argued that the accused has firm ties to the community and has been working in Northern Ireland for a number of years.

He added that the defendant lives close to the border with the Republic and had every opportunity to flee.

Mr Browne said: The death occurred around half-past midnight and he was arrested the following afternoon. He was arrested in a very distressed state. He made comments to the effect, I killed her.

He was standing holding a knife when he was about to be arrested and was threatening self-harm such was the extent of his emotional distress.

However, the judge expressed real concern over the seriousness of the alleged offence and refused him bail.

The case will be heard on September 2.
As part of global expansion, Mediaocean also finalizes acquisition of 4C and merger of senior executive teams

NEW YORK, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Mediaocean, the modern system of record for omnichannel advertising, announced today that it has expanded its European operations with the acquisition of Symsys, the leading Dutch media management software provider.

Symsys is the leading media management software provider in the Netherlands handling campaign execution, including buying, invoicing, and reporting. The Netherlands is a major advertising market for global marketers, expected to represent 4 billion in advertising spend this year per eMarketer and home to many premium global brands. This acquisition expands Mediaocean's global presence and will integrate media planning and digital media buy management to its existing production, creative, and bill-pay applications in the Dutch market.

"The acquisition of Symsys is another key step in Mediaocean's continued expansion in Europe and worldwide, servicing global marketers, agencies, sellers and the wider advertising community." said Bill Wise, CEO, Mediaocean. "Incorporating the Symsys team and platform will helps Mediaocean deliver our modern system of record for omnichannel advertising across geographies."

"We are thrilled to join the Mediaocean team, which shares our dedication to building global solutions that drive efficiency and operational excellence for our agency customers and their brand clients," said Gerard Taams, CEO Symsys. "Now more than ever, it is critical to deliver media solutions that drive accountability, productivity, and collaboration. Mediaocean's existing scale, global presence, and cross-media end-to-end solutions will expand our capability set and will bring Dutch media management closer into the fold of agency and brand global operations."

The acquisition of Sysmys is the eleventh acquisition by Mediaocean in the past five years. Most recently, Mediaocean announced that it had acquired 4C and that deal has now closed. This week the company merged the Mediaocean and 4C senior executive teams with these direct reports under Mediaocean CEO Bill Wise:

Dr. Alok Choudhary has been named Chief Scientist and will join the board of directors. Alok previously served as Founder, Chairman, and Chief Scientist at 4C.

has been named Chief Scientist and will join the board of directors. Alok previously served as Founder, Chairman, and Chief Scientist at 4C. Lance Neuhauser has been named President. Lance previously served as Co-Founder and CEO of 4C.

has been named President. Lance previously served as Co-Founder and CEO of 4C. Karan Khanna has been named Chief Technology Officer. Karan previously served as Co-Founder and CTO at 4C.

has been named Chief Technology Officer. Karan previously served as Co-Founder and CTO at 4C. Anupam Gupta has been named Chief Product Officer. Anupam previously served as CPO at 4C.

has been named Chief Product Officer. Anupam previously served as CPO at 4C. Nick Galassi will continue in his role as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer.

will continue in his role as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer. Jessica Ramirez will continue in her role as Chief of Staff.

Wise added, "The combination of 4C and Mediaocean has created a dream team that will deliver innovation at a pace unmatched in the industry. Our product and engineering teams represent more than half of the combined company and I'm confident that Anupam and Karan will activate our full potential as we build a consolidated platform. With continued leadership from Alok, Lance, and Nick and the steady hand of Jess, I've never been more excited about how Mediaocean will operate."

About Mediaocean

Mediaocean is the modern system of record for omnichannel advertising, bringing together brands, agencies, media owners, technology, and data partners. A platform to control critical data related to marketing investments, Mediaocean enables end-to-end management of campaigns from planning, buying, and selling to analyzing, optimizing, invoicing, and payments. Mediaocean processes $150 billion in annual media spend, employs 1200 people across 20 global offices, and is part of the Vista Equity Partners portfolio of software companies. Visit www.mediaocean.com for more information.

Contact

Mona Khaldi

Press@mediaocean.com

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1224785/Mediaocean_acquires_Symsys_Logo.jpg
Another COVID-19-related death at a Pottawattamie County long-term care facility on Thursday upped the countys total to 25.

Matt Wyant of the Pottawattamie County Public Health Department told the Nonpareil that the deceased was a man 81 or older.

The man was a resident of Oakland Manor and was the second death attributed to the facility since Sunday. On Wednesday, a man in the 61 to 80-year-old range from Risen Son Christian Village died from coronavirus complications.

This was the fifth COVID-19 death at Oakland Manor, and Risen Sons total is seven. The facilities are classified as two of Iowas 25 long-term care facility outbreaks, according to information from coronavirus.iowa.gov.

Statewide on Thursday, there were 856 positive tests attributed to long-term care facilities and 487 deaths. Additional data from the state website shows that Pottawattamie County has had 14,938 resident tested, resulting in 1,274 positives.

As of Thursday, there were 886 coronavirus recoveries in the county.

Information about COVID-19

Symptoms in people who have been exposed to coronavirus can include fever, cough and shortness of breath, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health.

The symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as long as 14 days after exposure. Most people experience mild or moderate symptoms that clear up in two to three weeks.

Older adults and people with existing health problems are among those particularly susceptible to more severe illness, including pneumonia.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend the use of masks when out in public. Make sure it covers the mouth and nose. Face shields are an option as well, as they cover the eyes.

Public health officials recommend:

 Stay home as much as possible.

 Self-monitor for symptoms.

 Call your physician if symptoms appear.

 Cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue or your upper arm/elbow.

 Wash hands frequently with soap and water.

 Clean and disinfect frequently-touched objects and surfaces.

COVID-19 testing is available in Pottawattamie County via two TestIowa locations: All Care Health Center, 902 S. Sixth St., and Western Historic Trails Center, 3434 Richard Downing Ave.

To get tested, residents must complete the online assessment at testiowa.com to schedule an appointment.

For those struggling with mental health during the pandemic, yourlifeiowa.org has several resources, including a hotline at 855-581-8111 and a text-friendly line at 855-895-8398.

The University of Nebraska Medical Center has a COVID-19 screening app  1-Check COVID.
Democrats and Republicans continue to disagree over whether to fully reinstate the enhanced unemployment benefits that expired at the end of last month, and over how much aid to send to state and local governments.

These are the largest  but certainly not the only  disagreements standing in the way of a deal on a new coronavirus relief package.

And heres another: Democrats are insisting that the stimulus bill must include additional funding for the Postal Service, which has been experiencing delays across the country after its Trump-appointed director, Louis DeJoy, instituted cutbacks amid the virus crisis.

Democrats and voting advocates have expressed concern that President Trump could be trying to undermine the mail system to complicate mail-in voting, which will be crucial to a safe election in November.

Democrats have called for $3.6 billion in the aid package to ensure a secure and safe election, which would include broader mail balloting, but Republicans are opposing such funding.

Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, said yesterday that the government must resolve the recent delays in mail delivery in a way that allows mail to be delivered on time for the election and for the necessities that people need.

If Democrats and Republicans cant agree on something soon, Trump is considering using executive orders to give Americans additional relief even without a bill, he told reporters yesterday evening.

He floated the possibility of issuing a term-limited suspension of the payroll tax, as well as executive actions to provide protections against eviction and some extension of the additional unemployment relief.

In a presidential campaign, nothing says climactic like a party convention. So maybe nothing spells anticlimactic quite like moving your party gala onto Zoom.

But thats what the Democratic Party did yesterday, announcing that no national officials would attend the quadrennial festivities in Milwaukee this month. Not Barack Obama, not Nancy Pelosi, not even the expected nominee, Joe Biden. Even national voting delegates have been instructed to attend virtually.

Tom Perez, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, will be there, as will some Wisconsin Democratic officials, who will speak at the Milwaukee convention center. But otherwise, speeches will be delivered by video address.

From the very beginning of this pandemic, we put the health and safety of the American people first, Perez said. Thats the kind of steady and responsible leadership America deserves.

Historically, party conventions tend to result in a multiple-percentage-point bounce for a candidates poll numbers, so switching to a scaled-down, mostly virtual gathering would seem like a liability for Democrats.

But so far, with the public holding a broadly unfavorable view of Trump and of his handling of the coronavirus crisis, Biden hasnt needed to grab the spotlight in order to maintain a sizable polling lead.

When it comes to the Republican convention, officials havent committed to keeping national figures away. The G.O.P.s gathering is still scheduled to take place in Charlotte, N.C., this month, and the planning of the convention has been subject to plenty of virus-related complications too.

Late last month, Trump abruptly called off plans to move some events to Florida, saying, We wont do a big, crowded convention, per se  its not the right time for that. He and his advisers are working up ideas on how to deliver a forceful speech despite the mitigating circumstances  possibly from a remote location.

Trumps campaign announced yesterday that it had raked in $165 million in July in conjunction with the Republican National Committee, regaining its fund-raising lead after two months in which the Biden campaign and the D.N.C. came out on top. Bidens team said it had pulled in $140 million in July.

In both cases, the totals were far greater than for the campaigns four years ago, when neither Trump nor Hillary Clinton broke $90 million in July, reflecting the ballooning costs of campaigns in a Citizens United-era political world and the unusual energy surrounding the 2020 race.

Bidens camp also announced yesterday that it had bought a whopping $280 million in ads across TV and digital platforms, by far the biggest single purchase of the year by either campaign.
A mother was brutally murdered by her boyfriend just weeks after she gave birth to her second baby boy because he thought she was stealing his clients and trying to ruin his career as she worked from home.

The New South Wales mum worked for the couple's joint business, providing financial advice to clients at any time of the day.

The woman, who hasn't been named for legal reasons, would often take calls in the family's home office, in the kitchen or while she was breastfeeding her newborn baby.

But her partner became paranoid and believed she was conspiring to steal clients to ruin his career and was spying on him for financial regulators.

The mother was working from home for the joint business she shared with her partner, providing financial advice to clients at any time of the day (stock)

The mother was working while breastfeeding her newborn son (stock)

He also believed he wasn't the father of the baby and ordered her to take a lie detector test.

Now, ten years after her death, the NSW Court of Appeal has upheld the decision that the woman's death was at her workplace and her family should be awarded $450,000 in worker's compensation, ABC reported.

Family and domestic violence support services 1800 Respect counselling service: 1800 737 732 Men's Referral Service: 1300 766 491 Kids Help Line: 1800 551 800 Aboriginal Family Domestic Violence Hotline: 1800 019 123 Lifeline (24 hour crisis line): 131 114 Relationships Australia: 1300 364 277 Advertisement

Her eldest son, who was 14-years-old at the time of her tragic death, said his mother would answer phone calls no matter where she was in the house.

Lawyer John Ryan is representing the two brothers and said their claim had some 'fairly unique circumstances' and would have to meet two criteria.

'It has to be in the course of your employment, and work has to be a substantial contributing factor to the injury,' he said.

He said it remains difficult to know the outcome of the case due to the different circumstances.

Mr Ryan also warned employers should be aware of the risks as millions of Australians work from home due to COVID-19.

'It's obviously, however, going to become more difficult for an employer to do that analysis of the workplace  despite the fact that it is that employer's obligation,' he says.

'Where the employer is asking questions of the employee, particularly in situations of ''are there any people in your orbit at home that could pose a danger to you or expose you to some risk?''

'I don't know how comfortable some people will be in disclosing such things to their employer.'
The EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, at its core, aims to liberalise both tariff and non-tariff barriers on key exports of both sides over a period of 10 years.

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For Vietnam, tariff eliminations will benefit key export industries, including agricultural products such as rice, seafood, and coffee, among others. Localities with key export items are now confident of tapping into the opportunities.

This is one of the five material zones in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang that meet Global GAP standards.

This plantation is among the material zones in Tien Giang that meet standards and are certified to enter demanding markets such as the EU, the US, and Japan.

Localities have also been preparing to make use of the opportunities from the EVFTA. Large fruit granaries in Tien Giang, Ben Tre, Dong Thap, and Soc Trang in the Delta were first formed five to 10 years ago.

Tens of thousands of hectares of fruit granaries in the four provinces now meet standards.

Analysts have said that the EU has the most stringent technical barriers in the world, especially for agricultural products. Vietnams farm produce, however, is able to overcome the challenges in entering the market, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development maintains.

Vietnam is the EUs largest exporter in ASEAN. The EVFTA coming into effect will create the conditions necessary for the countrys agro-fishery-aquaculture exports to access the 500-million strong market./. VNA
Googles Pixel 5 is the next phone that Google will announce following the Pixel 4a, but theres still no confirmation on a launch date.

At least it didnt seem that way. Following Googles announcement on the Google Blog for the Pixel 4a, the official blog of Google France (along with Googles other regional blogs) posted about the same announcement.

In the Google Blog France post, which can now only be found through Google Cache at the time of writing (this may be removed as well), the Pixel 5 launch date is listed. Its unclear if this was a mistake or intentional. But considering the original live post was taken down, it was probably a mistake.

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The Pixel 5 launch date is likely set for October 8

Its no secret that Google was going to announce another new Pixel phone this Fall. Like clockwork Google has been announcing and releasing new Pixel phones for the past few years, usually in the Fall.

While Google had not made any announcements officially about the Pixel 5 until the Pixel 4a blog post, there have been plenty of leaks about it. Including Googles now apparently accidental leak of the release time frame. Which appears to be October 8.

That being said, it might be more accurate to refer to October 8 as the pre-order window. The cached version of the Google Blog France post when translated says that this date is when the phone will go up for pre-order (you can view a screenshot of the blog post below).

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So technically the launch wont be until after the pre-order phase is over. Regardless, it looks like early October is when consumers can expect to put money down for this new device.

This also means that this Google is probably going to officially announce the phone the same day as pre-orders. Or within that first week of October.

The Pixel 4a (5G) should be available the same day

The October 8 date which was first spotted by 9to5Google, also references the Pixel 4a (5G). No prices are mentioned, however.

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What is mentioned is where Google plans to release both of these upcoming phones in its Pixel lineup. The launch regions include the US, the UK, Japan, Germany, Canada, Australia, France, Ireland, the UK, and Taiwan.

Naturally prices for each of those regions will probably individually announced. Google says it will reveal more information about these two new Pixel phones in the coming months.

So anything else there is to know from an official standpoint may be drip-fed to consumers leading up to the October announcement and release. Assuming of course, that these dates are actually accurate.
OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma -- Republican Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt quarantined at home for 14 days and conducted business meetings through Zoom from his home after he tested positive for coronavirus in July.

Stitt, 47, became the first U.S. governor to test positive for the coronavirus July 13. He announced his diagnosis at a press conference two days later. Stitt returned to the office July 27 feeling great, his assistant Steve Hjelm told cleveland.com.

Hjelm said Stitt was not severely affected by COVID-19 and had been feeling achy. He had received periodic tests for COVID-19 throughout the pandemic and was shocked to learn that he was the first governor to get back a positive test, he told The Oklahoman.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Thursday became the second governor to test positive. The diagnosis came just before DeWine was scheduled to welcome President Donald Trump at Burke Lakefront Airport ahead of a private fundraiser at the Shoreby Club in nearby Bratenahl.

Less than 10 hours after his initial announcement, DeWine announced he tested negative for coronavirus. The second round of testing was performed through a more sensitive test called a polymerase chain reaction, or PCR test, which detects genetic material from the new coronavirus, the governors office said. The earlier test delivers rapid results by testing the blood for antigens, but is a relatively unproven technology.

Stitt and DeWine, both members of the same political party, had markedly different approaches to addressing the deadly pandemic that has killed more than 150,000 Americans.

DeWine received national attention for his aggressive orders to close bars and schools and even canceled the spring primary election. By contrast, Stitt drew sharp criticism in March after he posted a picture of himself and his children inside a crowded restaurant.

Oklahoma was one of the first states to lift restrictions on non-essential businesses, beginning in late April. Stitt continued to reject a statewide mask order, even in the wake of his positive diagnosis, telling reporters on his July 16 Zoom conference call that, I am just hesitant to mandate something that is problematic to enforce.

DeWine, in contrast, played a mask evangelist, beginning each of his televised coronavirus press briefings by methodically removing his mask and encouraging people to wear them, even in social settings among friends and family. On July 23, DeWine issued a statewide mask mandate after infection rates climbed in the wake of opening bars, salons and other non-essential businesses.

As of Thursday, Oklahoma reported 41,395 total coronavirus cases -- or 1,046 cases per 100,000 residents. Ohio reported 97,471, positive cases -- or 834 per 100,000 residents.

Read more coronavirus coverage on cleveland.com:

Ohio coronavirus cases climb 1,166 -- Thursday update

Older adults, including Gov. Mike DeWine, are at high risk for severe illness from COVID-19

Case Western Reserve University limits on-campus housing during pandemic

Donald Trump says hes done fantastic job on coronavirus in interview with Cleveland radio show

Coronavirus death toll at Ohio nursing homes reaches 2,429
The government double-dealing that most upset Koreans over the last seven months is the issue of multiple homes owned by top presidential aides. Cheong Wa Dae Chief of Staff Noh Young-min told high-ranking presidential aides last December to sell their homes and keep just one. Since then, those words have resurfaced practically every month to bite the presidential office where it hurts most. After public criticism mounted, Cheong Wa Dae officials lashed out at the news media, accusing them of casting a bad light on presidential aides who had already promised to sell their high-end properties. Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Yoon Do-han told reporters last week that he had not bothered to correct each media report even though "many were inaccurate." So how come no fewer than eight senior Cheong Wa Dae secretaries still own multiple homes?

This farce was predicted back in December. The instruction to sell multiple homes was timed with the government's first spate of measures on Dec. 16 to tame soaring real estate prices. Cheong Wa Dae then set a six-month deadline for senior presidential secretaries to sell their multiple homes, but the standard for exceptions -- "circumstances beyond control" -- was vague, to say the least, and most of them did not sell their spare homes before the deadline. Some expressed discontent at the chief of staff's orders or refused to be interviewed by reporters.

Cheong Wa Dae's response was also a mess. It said on July 2 that Noh himself would sell his apartment in the affluent Banpo neighborhood of southern Seoul, only to correct itself 45 minutes later to say he intended instead to sell another apartment he owns somewhere else, which is worth a lot less. Noh had to apologize to the public on July 6 and vowed to sell the Banpo apartment after all, and the Cheong Wa Dae spokesman even offered to quit due to the faux pas.

All the while the presidential office kept a keen eye on public sentiment. When it described Noh's expensive Banpo apartment, it went to great lengths to underscore how small it is. Last month, it also excluded from its list of multiple homes any studio flats in the capital that are not strictly counted as apartments but still fetch a handsome profit due to soaring property values in the capital. A month later, a Cheong Wa Dae official flatly denied that this had taken place.

The public became increasingly furious as they watched this farce. They after all had never asked for the officials to sell their apartment, merely for the presidential office to be as good as its word. Cheong Wa Dae held its own staff to an impossibly high standard to "set an example" and predictably had to row backwards. The government and ruling party have labeled multiple home owners not merely real-estate speculators but criminals. Yet Cheong Wa Dae is filled with such people, and the public's patience is running out. Before pointing fingers at the news media, it must take a long hard look in the mirror.


Though scientists and health authorities say that masks reduce the spread of the coronavirus, even adults cant agree on wearing them. Even as more than half the states have issued mask requirements in recent weeks, there remains resistance from some people, including some conservatives and Republican leaders who cast the requirements as a threat to personal liberty.

Many children have been wearing masks since the spring, when the outbreak in the United States was intensifying, but usually at their parents direction. Now, as they prepare to return to the classroom, they will be beyond their families control but may be required to wear masks at school.

In terms of fit and acceptance, its important that masks be designed for children, Dr. Adesman said. Masks, he said, are a tangible reminder that life right now is different from before the pandemic, but they are also one important step toward trying to approach some semblance of normalcy.

Shannon Dorsey, a psychology professor at the University of Washington, said the key to getting children to wear masks in school was to make them fun.

As a clinical psychologist and as a parent, we know our children are more likely to wear masks if they think theyre a fun print that they like, if theyre engaging, she said.

Rich Wuerthele, Crayolas president and chief executive, said the company had designed its masks to help children adapt to the new normal and feel comfortable in school. The masks are being marketed to parents, rather than their children, he said, and are meant to continue Crayolas corporate mission to let kids colorfully express themselves and to support a smooth transition back to school for those who are returning to the classroom.

Sandy Goldberg, a spokeswoman for Gap Inc., which owns Old Navy and several other brands, said the company had started making face coverings for families at the outset of the pandemic. This is about meeting a customer need and providing a necessary item for the whole family, Ms. Goldberg said in a statement, adding that the company hoped the child-oriented patterns would encourage children to feel comfortable and excited to wear their masks when needed.
An arrest operation targeting a 31-year-old man over alleged child abuse material unexpectedly uncovered an alleged supply of cocaine and $12,000 cash at a south-west Sydney home on Thursday.

Dylan Terence Khqustiaan, until recently a NSW state government employee, was arrested at his home in Bankstown after the Australian Federal Police received a tip-off from an international law enforcement agency last month.

Dylan Terence Khqustiaan, a former state government employee, was arrested and charged with sending child abuse material. Credit:Facebook

The tip-off to the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation alleged Mr Khqustiaan had been using social media to send child abuse material online.

It prompted an investigation by the federal police on July 1, which culminated in a search warrant at Mr Khqustiaan's home on Thursday.
Perched on the 19th floor of the InterContinental Mark Hopkins San Francisco, youll find the stylish Top of the Mark bar. Its large windows offer sweeping views of the city in an elegant setting, but these days, no one is around to enjoy it.

Since March, the classic 80-year-old cocktail lounge has remained inaccessible after the hotel closed its doors to the public, save for a group of first responders it currently hosts. With fewer guests to tend to, things have been much quieter.

It doesnt feel the same, said Michael Pace, general manager of the InterContinental Mark Hopkins San Francisco. It feels like that energy is missing.

After the shutdown, the hotel was allowed to host first responders that needed a place to stay between their shifts. But with fewer visitors on site, several hotel personnel were laid off. Pace said that about 25% of nearly 265 team members remain on site.

Employees at Top of the Mark werent as lucky.

ALSO: Toronado, the popular San Francisco beer bar, is (almost) ready to reopen

Everyone at Top of the Mark is no longer working [and] havent been since March, Pace said. For me as a general manager it causes great concern. Until the city allows us to reopen, our hands are tied.

Top of the Mark has a unique challenge in that its an indoor rooftop bar. When other rooftop bars around the city opened for patio service in mid-June, the historic bar in Nob Hill was left at a disadvantage given it's an enclosed establishment.

The challenge right now is that we cant [reopen], and its understandable because the city has said no indoor dining, Pace said.

Manolo

Just a short drive down the hill, popular rooftop bar Charmaines, located on the sixth floor of San Francisco Proper, has welcomed guests back. Kalai Akana, director of outlets and training for food and beverage at San Francisco Proper, said that the bar opened shortly after the city permitted outdoor dining.

Staff at Charmaines have since been trained on new COVID-19 operating procedures. Now, employees and guests have mandatory temperature checks, guests sit at tables spaced six feet apart and, unlike pre-pandemic days, reservations are now required.

Weve moved to reservations to have better control and not have a long line [by the entrance], Akana said.

When guests arrive at the McAllister Street entry, a hostess shares what they can expect and then directs them to the service elevator. Only a single party can ride the lift without the company of the hostess.

When it comes to sanitizing the elevator, Akana said it is done hourly by a houseman who also wipes and disinfect buttons, doorknobs and stairwells. Akana said that so far guests have felt safe with the new implementations. If a guest doesnt want to ride the elevator to Charmaines, stairs are always an option.

ALSO: Reopened brewery goes totally contactless with new 'Beer-O-Mat'

Reopening Charmaines has moved without a hitch, but Akana admits that some of the new protocols might take adjustment.

What we miss most is the smile, Akana said. In lineups, we talk to colleagues about intonation, body language, and to smile with your eyes.

Pace said that the Mark Hopkins hotel has made changes since March so that once it can safety open there wont be any setbacks. Likewise, sanitization protocols have been established, including regular cleaning of the elevators.

When asked if guests could take the stairwell to reach Top of the Mark once it reopens, Pace said they can, though he doesnt advise it.

I wouldnt recommend taking 19 floors to Top of the Mark, but I would tell people not to worry about it, Pace said. Weve reduced the volume for everyones safety.

Pace looks forward to some time this month when the city will supposedly clear hotels for reopening, though he knows it wont include Top of the Mark  at least not yet.

Were telling people that the plan is to reopen by the holidays, but we dont know how that would look like right now, Pace said.

Pace is confident in the safety measures the hotel has made and is just waiting for the green light to welcome guests again.

I think when the city tells us were ready to open up, well be ready to go, Pace said. Weve been ready for two months.

Charmaines is located inside San Francisco Proper at 1100 Market St. Top of the Mark is located inside InterContinental Mark Hopkins San Francisco at 999 California St.

Susana Guerrero is an SFGATE digital reporter. Email: Susana.Guerrero@sfgate.com | Twitter: @SusyGuerrero3
An aerial view of Cote d'Ivoire's economic capital city of Abidjan / Courtesy of Embassy of Cote d'Ivoire



The Embassy of Cote d'Ivoire in Korea contributed the below article on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the country's independence.  ED.



I. General view



The strategic location of Cote d'Ivoire in the heart of West Africa is an asset to the country which constitutes the gateway to this region.



After gaining independence on Aug. 7, 1960 under President Felix Houphouet-Boigny, this country of a population of 26.4 million inhabitants, on an area of 322,463 square kilometers, has traveled many roads since then.





Cote d'Ivoire Ambassador to Korea Sylvestre Kouassi Bile

II. Domestic policy

Elected on Nov. 27, 1960, President Houphouet-Boigny led the country until his passing on Dec. 7, 1993 at 88.



His successor, President Henri Konan Bedie, speaker of the National Assembly, completed President Houphouet-Boigny's last term before being elected in October 1995.



He lost power to a military coup on Dec 24, 1999. At the end of a one-year military transition, led by General Robert Guei, Laurent Gbagbo was elected as president of the republic in October 2000.



In September 2002, the country entered the most serious political crisis in its history. The 2010 presidential election, supposed to put a definitive end to this crisis, led to post-electoral violence which officially resulted in 3,000 deaths, according to the United Nations, which was responsible for supervising the election. President Alassane Ouattara, the winner of this election, was sworn in on May 21, 2011 and was re-elected in 2015. Since he took office, the country has regained political and economic stability.



III. International policy



On the international scene, Cote d'Ivoire has remained faithful to the diplomatic line advocated by President Houphouet-Boigny, based on peace and openness. Since then, Cote d'Ivoire has remained "everyone's friend and nobody's enemy."



The country is a member of all sub-regional, regional and international organizations.





A night view of Cote d'Ivoire's economic capital city of Abidjan / Courtesy of Embassy of Cote d'Ivoire
Since retiring from the NBA, Dwyane Wade has been honing his broadcast chops as a member of TNTs NBA studio team.

Now the future Hall of Famer has a new TV gig  game show host.

Wade is slated to host an American version of British game show hit The Cube set to premiere on  well, thats not clear.

Deadline broke the news on Wednesday while reporting that parent company Warner Media will deliver the show to the Turner network, where it will air either on TNT, TBS or truTV. Wade will also executive produce.

According to the report, the show is slated to debut in 2021. The report makes no mention of COVID-19 and the obvious impact the pandemic would have on shooting a close-quarters game show. It appears that producers are optimistic the show will be able to move forward sometime next year.

Dwyane Wade is slated to host and produce a British game show import. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

How exactly does this game work?

So what is The Cube? Its a show that places contestants in a plastic box to complete mental and physical challenges for money.

Weve admittedly never seen an episode and are assuming theres more to the actual cube than just a gimmick to give the show a name. Or maybe theres not. Heres a clip of the original version where the cube plays zero role in the task at hand.

Thats just a woman throwing balls into baskets for money  a task Wade is intimately familiar with.

Apparently, Brits eat this up. In all honestly, Americans probably will too if the stakes are high enough.

More from Yahoo Sports:
Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara said Thursday he will contest tense presidential polls in October, which come after years of political turbulence and civil war in the worlds top cocoa grower.

The presidential race was transformed after prime minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly  seen as Ouattaras anointed successor  died of a heart attack on July 8 at the age of 61.

I am a candidate in the presidential election of October 31, Ouattara told public broadcaster RTI.

I have decided to respond favourably to the call of my fellow citizens, he said.

Ouattaras decision will likely spark accusations of abuse of democracy under the countrys two-term presidential limits.

He has previously argued that a constitutional change has reset the clock, enabling him to potentially run again.

The election comes after a low-level civil war and then political turmoil that erupted in 2011 when former strongman Laurent Gbagbo refused to cede power to Ouattara after losing elections.

The ensuing unrest claimed some 3,000 lives.

The polls are also being contested by Gbagbos former prime minister Pascal Affi NGuessan, former president and Ouattaras arch-foe Henri Konan Bedie and former foreign minister Marcel Amon-Tanoh.

Gbagbo, freed conditionally by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity, has applied for a passport so that he can return home for the election.

Gbagbo and his deputy Charles Ble Goude were acquitted of four counts of crimes against humanity over the 2010-2011 bloodshed following a disputed vote in Ivory Coast: murder, rape, persecution and other inhumane acts. They had always maintained their innocence.
India has ceased to be a major vote catching device in Sri Lanka elections, particularly after the defeat of the LTTE in May 2009. The August 5 election is no exception to this norm. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-the Rajapaksas equation seem to have been strengthened after President Gotabayas election.





by Col R Hariharan





Sri Lanka is one of the few countries going to polls in the midst of the Covid pandemic. The date for the parliamentary election was reset twice due to the legal complications of holding it during the pandemic threat. However, successful management of the pandemic with the Covid accounting for only 11 deaths, out of just short of 3000 cases, apparently gave the government confidence to go ahead with it.









India has ceased to be a major vote catching device in Sri Lanka elections, particularly after the defeat of the LTTE in May 2009. The August 5 election is no exception to this norm. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-the Rajapaksas equation seem to have been strengthened after President Gotabayas election. Despite hiccups in executing Indian projects, the Rajapaksas know India can lend a helping hand when Sri Lankas dire economic situation particularly when it is negotiating for $906 million loan.





A total of 7,452 candidates are in the fray for a seat in the 225-member parliament. Members to the parliament are elected by proportional representation for five-year term. Out of the 225 members, 196 will be elected from 22 multi-member electoral districts, while the remaining 29 MPs will be elected from National Lists of their political parties and independent groups based on the proportion of their share in the national vote.





There are over 16.263 million voters eligible to participate in the election as against 15.04 million eligible voters in the 2015 parliamentary election. In the 2015 election 77.6 percent voters participated. However, strict public health restrictions in place both during the campaign period and the conduct of elections could adversely affect the voter percentage.





There are three major alliances of national parties, apart from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) led by the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK), which are reckonable in the election scene.





Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa leads the National Freedom Alliance, formed by his Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and former President Sirisena-led Sri Lanka Freedom Party, has 15 other smaller parties as partners. The Alliance has adopted President Rajapaksas vision statement Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour as its manifesto. Its vision for a prosperous nation aims at a productive citizen, a happy family, a disciplined society and a prosperous nation. Its ten key policies include priority to national security; friendly, non-aligned, foreign policy; administration free from corruption; a new constitution that fulfills peoples wishes; productive citizenry and a vibrant human resource; people centric economic development; technology based society; development of physical resources; sustainable environmental management; disciplined, law abiding and value based society.





The SLPP hopes to retain the support of Sinhala majority, who overwhelmingly voted for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to power in the last presidential election. Without hate mongering, President Rajapaksa in his speeches and actions has managed to seamlessly weave Theravada Buddhism in his narrative to preserve national identity and unity of Sri Lanka. He has strongly come out in favour of abolishing 19th Amendment to the Constitution to restore full powers free the executive presidency; he does not favour with 13th Amendment which created the provincial councils to give level of autonomy to minorities. The SLPP alliance hopes to win two thirds majority of the seats, so that a new constitution can be drafted keeping these aspects in view.





The Samagi Jana Baalawegaya (SJB), formed by deputy leader of the United National Party (UNP) Sajith Premadasa, has emerged as the main challenger to the Rajapaksas. Its manifesto focuses on efficient governance by establishing people-oriented system and promises to formulate a new economic policy. It supports a unitary state with 13th amendment, with dilution of power within the state. Importantly, it calls for de-politicisation of the army and the police. It also proposes a monthly stipend of Rs 20,000 to families affected by the Covid.





The Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)-led National Peoples Power (NPP) alliance consists of 28 leftist organisations. It hopes to transform the socio-economic structure, abolish executive presidency and hopes to wean away the people from communal politics. Its presidential candidate Anura Dissanayake had said his first priority would be to bring a law which would make it mandatory for the President to implement his election manifesto!





The United National Party (UNP), debilitated by the breakaway SJB, focuses mainly on upgrading the economy affected by Covid pandemic in its manifesto. It promises to raise $6 billion with the assistance of the IMF, to build an economic revival plan by setting the basis to build a competitive platform similar to Japanese model. It also promises to pay Rs 10,000 a month for those who became unemployed due to Covid crisis. SME support scheme, moratorium on enterprise loans below Rs 50 million, free computer tabs to schools and introducing a Public Health Emergency Act.





With strident Sinhala nationalism trying to grab power to draft a unitary constitution, the TNA manifesto has focused the need for international community continuing to have a role to ensure Tamil speaking people achieve permanent peace through genuine reconciliation to enable everyone to live as equal citizens. The manifesto said We stand with the progressive forces in the country to prevent a totalitarian regime emerging and to preserve and foster democratic ideals. Independent institutions set up by the 19th amendment must be preserved and further strengthened. Powers of the Executive Presidency must be further reduced and the Parliament strengthened. Though it hinted at the fears of President Rajapaksas rule ushering in authoritarianism, the TNA leaders have indicated their readiness to work with the Rajapaksas. TNA supremo R Sampanthans congratulatory message to Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on his completion of 50 years in active politics, also struck a conciliatory note. Describing Mahinda as a Man of the People, the octogenarian Tamil leader urged him to spearhead the move for drafting a new constitution and assured him fullest support in this matter.





Former Northern Province chief minister CV Wigneswarans Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) with strong emphasis on Tamil nationalism, has sidelined itself into irrelevance. Overall, in spite of internal dissensions, the TNA is likely to do well as alternate options for Tamils are few.





The Rajapaksas hope to win at least 130 seats, a clear majority but 20 seats short of two-thirds votes they need to push through their constitutional agenda. Even if they do not reach that figure, they will probably win close to the majority. If we go by past experience, PM Mahinda Rajapaksa can probably attract members of other parties to crossover to his coalition; so it seems the Rajapakshas are calling the shots in this election!





[Col R Hariharan, a retired MI specialist on South Asia, served as the head of Intelligence of the Indian Peacekeeping Force in Sri Lanka from 1987 to 90. E-mail. haridirect@gmail.com Blog: https://col.hariharan.info ]
(CNN)  As Lebanon's investigation into the devastating blast in Beirut continues, officials have pointed to a possible cause: A massive shipment of agricultural fertilizer that authorities say was stored in the port of Beirut without safety precautions for years -- despite warnings by local officials.

Documents newly reviewed by CNN reveal that a shipment of 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate arrived in Beirut on a Russian-owned vessel in 2013. The ship, named the MV Rhosus, was destined for Mozambique  but stopped in Beirut due to financial difficulties that also created unrest with the ship's Russian and Ukrainian crew.

Once it arrived, the ship never left Beirut's port, according Lebanon's Director of Customs, Badri Daher, despite repeated warnings by him and others that the cargo was the equivalent of "a floating bomb."

"Due to the extreme danger posed by this stored items in unsuitable climate conditions, we reiterate our request to the Port Authorities to re-export the goods immediately to maintain the safety of the port and those working in it," Daher's predecessor, Chafic Merhi, wrote in a 2016 letter addressed to a judge involved in the case.

Lebanese authorities have not named the MV Rhosus as the source of the substance that ultimately exploded in Beirut(https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2020/08/05/ammonium-nitrate-beirut-lebanon-explosion-sam-kiley-pkg-vpx.cnn) on Tuesday, but Prime Minister Hassan Diab said the devastating blast was caused by 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate. He added that the substance had been stored for six years at the port warehouse without safety measures, "endangering the safety of citizens."

Lebanon's general security chief also said a "highly explosive material" had been confiscated years earlier and stored in the warehouse, which is just a few minutes' walk from Beirut's shopping and nightlife districts. Tuesday's massive explosion, which rocked the capital, left at least 135 dead and 5,000 injured.

On Wednesday, Lebanese Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad Najd said there are papers and documents dating back to 2014 proving the existence of an exchange of information about the "material" confiscated by Lebanese authorities. She told Jordan's state-owned channel Al Mamlaka that the exchange is being considered in relation to the potential cause of the deadly Beirut blast.

Asked in a telephone interview if there are any early findings in the investigations related to the cause of the explosion, she said, "There are no preliminary results or clarification."

'Floating bomb'

In 2013, the MV Rhosus set off from Batumi, Georgia, destined for Mozambique, according to the vessel's path and the account of its captain Boris Prokoshev.

It was carrying 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate, an industrial chemical commonly used around the world as a fertilizer -- and in explosives for mining.

The Moldovan-flagged ship stopped in Greece to refuel. That's when the ship's owner told the Russian and Ukrainian sailors that he had run out of money and they would have to pick up additional cargo to cover the travel costs  which led them on a detour to Beirut.

The vessel was owned by a company called Teto Shipping which members of the crew said was owned by Igor Grechushkin, a Khabarovsk businessman who resided in Cyprus.

Once in Beirut, the MV Rhosus was detained by local port authorities due to "gross violations in operating a vessel," unpaid fees to the port, and complaints filed by the Russian and Ukrainian crew, according to the Seafarers' Union of Russia (affiliated with the International Transport Workers' Federation, or ITF), which represented the Russian sailors, told CNN.

It never resumed its journey.

The sailors had been on the ship for 11 months with few supplies, according to Prokoshev. "I wrote to Putin everyday... Eventually we had to sell the fuel and use the money to hire a lawyer because there was not help, the owner did not even provide us with food or water," Prokoshev said in a radio interview with Echo Moscow on Wednesday.

They would eventually abandon the ship. "According to our information, the Russian crew was later repatriated to their homeland... the salaries were not paid," the union told CNN.

"At the time, on board of the dry cargo ship there were particularly dangerous goods  ammonium nitrate, which the port authorities of Beirut did not allow to unload or transfer to another ship," it added.

In 2014, Mikhail Voytenko, who runs an online publication tracking maritime activity, described the ship as a "floating bomb."

CNN made several unsuccessful attempts to reach Grechushkin on a Cyprus telephone number.

Unheard warnings

According to emails exchanged by Prokoshev and a Beirut-based lawyer Charbel Dagher, who represented the crew in Lebanon, the ammonium nitrate was unloaded in Beirut's port by November 2014 and stored in a hangar.

It was then kept in that hangar for six years, despite repeated warnings from the Director of Lebanese Customs, Badri Daher, of the "extreme danger" that the cargo posed.

But public court documents CNN obtained through the prominent Lebanese human rights activist, Wadih Al-Asmar, reveal that Daher and his predecessor, Merhi, turned to Beirut's courts to help dispose of the dangerous goods multiple times from 2014 onwards.

"In our memos 19320/2014 dated 5/12/2014 and 5/6/2015 [...] we requested that your honor order the responsible Port Authorities to re-export Ammonium Nitrate that was taken off the Rhosus ship and placed in Customs hangar number 12 in Beirut port," Daher wrote in 2017.

At points, he even offered to sell the dangerous cargo to the Lebanese army, according to the court documents, but to no avail.

Daher confirmed to CNN earlier on Wednesday that his office sent "a total of six letters to the legal authorities" but that the authorities never responded to any of their letters.

"The Port Authority should not have allowed the ship to offload the chemicals into the port," he said. "The chemicals were originally going to Mozambique, not Lebanon."

On Wednesday, the Director General of Beirut Port Hassan Kraytem told local television channel OTV: "We stored the material in warehouse number 12 at Beirut port in accordance with a court order. We knew that they were dangerous materials, but not to that extent."

Kraytem too said that the issue of removing the explosive material had been brought up by State Security and Customs -- but that the issue had not been "resolved."

"Customs and State Security sent letters [to the authorities] asking to remove or re-export the explosive materials six years ago, and we have been waiting since then for this issue to be resolved, but to no avail," Kraytem said.

Maintenance was conducted on the warehouse door just hours before the blast on Tuesday, he added. "We were asked to fix a door of the warehouse by State Security and we did that at noon, but what occurred in the afternoon I have no idea," he said.

Ammonium nitrate

Ammonium nitrate has been implicated in deadly industrial explosions in the past, and is known to require careful handling.

"Poorly stored ammonium nitrate is notorious for explosions  for example in Oppau, Germany; in Galveston Bay, Texas; and more recently at West in Waco, Texas; and Tianjin in China," Andrea Sella, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at University College London, told the Science Media Centre.

"This is a catastrophic regulatory failure because regulations on the storage of ammonium nitrate are typically very clear. The idea that such a quantity would have been left unattended for six years beggars belief and was an accident waiting to happen."

Perhaps the closest comparison to Beirut's explosion, in terms of scale, is a blast in Texas City in 1947, which was caused by 2,300 US tons (about 2,087 metric tons) of ammonium nitrate. The resulting fire caused an explosion and additional fires that damaged more than 1,000 buildings and killed nearly 400 people, according to the website of the Texas Historical Association.

Previous disasters linked to the chemical have led to improved regulations for its safe storage, Associate Professor Stewart Walker, from the school of Forensic, Environmental and Analytical Chemistry at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, told CNN said; such rules mean it tends to be kept away from population centers.

"Both of these things will be questioned in the investigation into the Beirut explosion, because they had such a large amount of ammonium nitrate, which may not have been stored appropriately, and in an area where there is a large number of people," he added.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "A Russian ship's cargo of dangerous ammonium nitrate was stranded in Beirut port for years."
It was almost business as usual for Sarah Jessica Parker, who was busy working at her shoe boutique amid the pandemic on Wednesday.

The actress, 55, was spotted wearing a face mask as she assisted customers shopping at her flagship store, SJP by Sarah Jessica Parker, in Manhattan.

Sarah observed a safe distance while helping buyers browsing the store for some new designer kicks.

She means business: Sarah Jessica Parker was spotted wearing a face mask as she assisted customers shopping at SJP by Sarah Jessica Parker in Manhattan on Wednesday

Clad in a grey top, jeans, and heels, Sarah was the epitome of low-key style as she helped customers find the perfect fit.

Sarah was quite proactive about helping out around the store, chatting with customers while keeping at least six feet of distance.

She even helped deliver shoes around town.

Taking to Instagram, Sarah posted a photo of herself leaving her store with two SJP shopping bags in hand.

How can I help you? Clad in a grey top, jeans, and heels, Sarah was the epitome of low-key style as she helped customers find the perfect fit

If the shoe fits! Parker only recently opened up her shoe boutique a month ago

'It was a lovely day. So nice to be in the shop with our customers (safely, 6 feet apart and with a mask!) and to speak to all those who called the boutique with questions and orders,' she wrote in the caption.

'I'm headed downtown to our customer in the West Village, dropping off her purchase.

'We will continue to offer same day Manhattan delivery, as well as offering virtual sales appointments for anyone who isn't in New York or may not yet feel safe visiting us in store.'

Special delivery! Sarah posted a photo of herself delivering SJP shoes to a customer

Hands-on: Parker has been active in running her thriving shoe empire

Sarah has not let coronavirus completely stop her from expanding her shoe empire.

The actress actually opened her flagship boutique last month, and was on hand once again to meet customers on the very first day.

Precautions were taken to keep everyone safe, with only three shoppers allowed in at a time and hand sanitizer available.

The SJP Collection was first launched in 2014, and not only includes footwear but handbags and fragrances.
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Linkedin Brett Wilkins (The Jakarta Post) San Francisco, California  Thu, August 6, 2020 09:23 531 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066beb3e7 3 Opinion Nagasaki,Hiroshima,united-states,Hiroshima-atomic-bombing,Japan,atomic-bomb,nuclear-arsenal,World-War-II,history Free

Seventy-five years ago, the United States waged the only nuclear war in history. Among the truths held self-evident by millions of Americans is the notion that the atomic destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved lives, both American and Japanese.

The choice, Americans are told starting as school children and throughout their lives by largely uncritical media, was between nuclear war and an even bloodier protracted invasion of Japan, whose fanatical people would have fought to the death defending their homeland and their divine emperor.

As with so many other dark chapters in US history, the official narrative of the decision to unleash the most destructive weapon humanity has ever known upon an utterly defeated people is deeply flawed.

The Japanese had in fact been trying to find a way to surrender with honor for months before the atomic bombs were dropped, and US leaders knew it.

After years of war and privation, Japans people had had enough, and so had many of its leaders. The Allies, through a secret cryptanalysis project codenamed Magic, had intercepted and decoded secret transmissions from Shigenori Togo, the Japanese foreign minister, to Naotaki Sato, the ambassador in Moscow, stating a desire to end the war.

His Majesty is extremely anxious to terminate the war as soon as possible, Sato cabled on July 12. However, saving face was imperative to the Japanese, which meant retaining their sacred emperor. Unconditional surrender was, for the time being, out of the question.

In a secret memo dated June 28, Undersecretary of the Navy Ralph A. Bard wrote that the Japanese government may be searching for some opportunity which they could use as a medium of surrender. In a 1960 interview, Bard reiterated that the Japanese were ready for peace and had already approached the Russians about capitulating.

On July 26, 1945, the leaders of the US, Britain and China issued the Potsdam Declaration, demanding unconditional Japanese surrender and vowing prompt and utter destruction  the US had successfully tested the first atomic bomb in New Mexico 10 days earlier  if Japan refused. The declaration was originally written so that Emperor Hirohito would not be removed from the Chrysanthemum Throne, with Japan to be ruled as a constitutional monarchy after the war.

However, Secretary of State James Byrnes removed that language from the final declaration. It would be unconditional surrender or total annihilation.

President Harry S. Truman, who only learned about the Manhattan Project after being sworn in following Franklin D. Roosevelts death on April 12, approved a plan to drop two atomic bombs on Japan. Planners sought undamaged cities where military facilities were located near civilians, and the decision was made to detonate the bombs hundreds of meters in the air for maximum destructive effect.

Tokyo, which in early March suffered firebombing that killed more people than either of the atomic bombs, was off the table as a target. Kyoto was spared due to its cultural significance. Kyotos good fortune would mean the Nagasakis destruction. Hiroshima, Japans largest untouched target, would die first.

Seven of the eight five-star US generals and admirals in 1945 opposed using the atomic bomb against Japan. One of them, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, later said that the Japanese were ready to surrender and it wasnt necessary to hit them with that awful thing.

Despite so much high-level misgiving, the US did hit them with that awful thing. The idea of giving Japanese officials a live demonstration of an atomic bomb on a remote island, proposed by Strategic Bombing Survey vice chairman Paul Nitze and supported by Navy Secretary James Forrestal, was rejected. The US was already destroying multiple Japanese cities every week; it was believed that such a demonstration would likely not have moved the Japanese any more than the ongoing destruction of their actual cities.

The Japanese could not fight a two-front war, and were more anti-communist than the Americans were, Martin Sherwin, an historian awarded the Pulitzer Prize for co-authoring a biography of Manhattan Project leader Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, said a recent webinar sponsored by over two dozen international peace organizations. The idea of a Soviet occupation of Japan was their worst nightmare.

Historian and professor Peter Kuznick, who with Oliver Stone co-authored the bestselling The Untold History of the United States, also spoke at the webinar, adding that the Joint Chiefs of Staff repeatedly reported that if the USSR should enter the war then Japan would realize that defeat is inevitable. Kuznick also noted that General George Marshall, the only five-star US officer to approve of using the atomic bomb, said that a Soviet invasion would likely lead to Japans swift surrender.

Not only were Hiroshima and Nagasaki the last battles of World War II, they were also the first battles of the Cold War. American leaders knew very well that the Soviet Union would feature prominently in the postwar world order. The US wanted to maximize its own position as the dominant world power, and what better way to do this than to show the Russians that the US had the cold resolve necessary to unilaterally wage nuclear war, even when it enjoyed an atomic monopoly and dropping the bomb wasn't even necessary?

According to Manhattan Project scientist Leo Szilard, Secretary Byrnes believed that Russia might be more manageable if impressed by American military might, and that a demonstration of the bomb might impress Russia.

But instead of managing Russia, some US officials admitted that waging nuclear war actually empowered it, encouraging Moscow to rush to develop its own nuclear arsenal, which it did in 1949.

The official US narrative blames the Soviet Union for starting the Cold War and the nuclear arms race, which on numerous occasions over the following decades brought the world within reach, and once to the brink, of thermonuclear annihilation. But it was the US that fired the first fiery salvo, forcing the Soviets to scramble to develop their own deterrent and launching an arms race in which there are now thousands of nuclear warheads in the arsenals of a record number of countries, with the risk of nuclear Armageddon as real as it has ever been.

Americans must admit that the nuclear war against Japan was one of the greatest atrocities in human history. For the first time ever, we humans now have the power to bring about our own extinction. There is absolutely nothing necessary about this evil.

***

The writer is a journalist, regular contributor to Common Dreams and Counterpunch and member of Collective 20, a new anti-war collective with Noam Chomsky, Medea Benjamin and others.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
One Year Later, Human Rights Violations Continue in Indian Kashmir

By Ayesha Tanzeem August 05, 2020

One year after India revoked partial independence for a territory under its control, residents and human rights groups say the situation in Indian-controlled Kashmir remains deeply disturbing.

"(H)undreds of people remain detained without charge, critics are threatened with arrest, and access to the internet is limited," wrote Human Rights Watch, an international rights monitoring group, in a press release Tuesday.

Local authorities enacted a curfew Tuesday and Wednesday in anticipation of protests marking the one-year anniversary of a change in the Indian constitution that revoked article 370, which granted the Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir state special status.

While the decision was later reversed, Sheikh Akeel, a university student in Srinagar, said locals felt like they were imprisoned.

"Since August 5 last year we are living under a fascist regime like prisoners in an open-air cage, he said. "Killings, arrests, detentions under draconian laws, destruction of property while the world has turned a blind eye toward us."

Kashmiri journalist Muheet ul Islam described security barricades and bunkers on roads. "Government forces are seen deployed everywhere," he said.

Indian Kashmir Curfew Imposed Ahead of Revocation Anniversary

A year on, there is little semblance of normalcy in restive Himalayan valley, say analysts and rights groups

The scenic territory in the foothills of the Himalayas, has been in dispute between India and its neighbor, Pakistan, since both declared independence from the British in 1947. Both countries claim the territory in its entirety and have fought several wars over it. Cross-border shelling along the Line of Control, the de-facto border dividing the region into Indian and Pakistani controlled areas, is common.

Pakistan declared India's actions of August last year illegal and in violation of bi-lateral agreements and United Nations resolutions that call for a plebiscite to allow the local population to decide its fate.

India rejected the criticism, saying the action was an internal matter designed to better integrate the region with the rest of the country and usher in an era of economic development.

On the anniversary of the revocation, Indian officials said the move has panned out well.

"Many districts in J&K (Jammu and Kashmir) are now terror-free. Anti-terror operations are being executed in a coordinated manner and are receiving support from local residents. Residents of J&K and Ladakh can now aspire for the same opportunities that residents in other states have," wrote G. Kishan Reddy, an Indian government minister, in his column Wednesday in the English-language newspaper The Hindu.

He also said Indian government's actions had received "overwhelming support from all sections of society and the international community."

In Pakistan, the day was marked with nationwide protest rallies and high-profile events involving the senior leadership of the country.

Prime Minister Imran Khan travelled to Pakistan-controlled Kashmir to address its constituent assembly.

"The conditions in (Indian-controlled) Kashmir are so bad that it can only result in the region's independence," Khan said, reiterating his comparison of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ideology to Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany.

The prime minister of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, Raja Farooq Haider, warned of what he called Indian efforts to change the demography of the region through a new law introduced in May.

The law allows non-Kashmiris who have worked or studied in the state for a certain period to claim a residency status and access to government jobs. Previously, outsiders were barred from buying land or enjoying benefits reserved for residents.

Kashmiri journalist Islam said the local population was apprehensive but staying quiet due to fear.

"Right now, no one is speaking against the newly introduced laws because people fear that they might be imprisoned for months, the way several mainstream Indian politicians, pro-freedom leaders, businessmen, lawyers were detained a few days before August 5 last year," Islam said.

Unlike Pakistan, authorities and mainstream media in India seemed to have mostly ignored the day.

"The issue has been discussed with concern in some editorials, and the usual suspects, the left and the liberals. But by and large, the nation's focus is elsewhere on the foundation stone laying ceremony in Ayodhya. Even if that was not the case, Modi's decision to abrogate article 370 has popular support in India," said Delhi-based journalist Javed Mustafa Ansari.

The Ayodhya ceremony, led by Modi, marked the beginning of construction of a Hindu temple at the site of a mosque demolished by a Hindu mob in 1992. Many Hindus, particularly those belonging to Modi's Bhartiya Janata Party, believe the site was the birthplace of Ram, one of Hinduism's most extolled deities.

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DANBURY  An Osborne Street man is facing six felony and three misdemeanor charges after police say he sexually abused a teenager.

Ernesto Oliveira, 46, was arrested Monday on a warrant stemming from an investigation into a sexual assault complaint made by a 14-year-old, according to authorities.

The victim told police Oliveira had sent her messages that were sexual in nature through Instagram.

The teen showed officers the messages, in which Oliveira asked that she engage in sexual acts with him, according to the warrant for his arrest.

According to police, the victim also showed them a photo of a note allegedly written by Oliveira that read like a contract, stating that if the teen allowed him to perform sexual acts on her until the end of the year and every week, then he would let her have her cellphone.

The paper stated the teen would have to act like nothing happened and ... keep the secrets until death, and included a line for her to sign her name in agreement, according to the warrant for Oliveiras arrest.

The victim told police Oliveira had been touching her inappropriately and taking nude photos of her for the past year.

One time, according to the police warrant, Oliveira threatened to tell the victims mother about a photo she had posted of herself in a one-piece bathing suit.

Ernesto saw the picture and threatened me that if my mother saw the picture, I would not be allowed to have my phone, according to the victims statement to police.

The teen said Oliveira came to take her phone away and, when she begged him to let her keep it, said she had to let him take naked pictures of her if she didnt want him telling her mother, according to the police warrant.

The girl said Oliveira took her to a basement, undressed her and took photos with his cellphone, the warrant stated.

Police obtained a warrant for Oliveiras arrest July 31, and took him into custody three days later.

Oliveira has been charged with promoting a minor in obscene performance, two counts of illegal sexual contact, three counts of impairing the morals of a child, two counts of fourth-degree sexual assault and one count of second-degree harassment.

He was arraigned earlier this week at state Superior Court in Danbury and remains held on $200,000 bond. His next court date is scheduled for Sept. 22.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Republican President Donald Trump in a Thursday interview with a Cleveland radio station shirked responsibility for the current status of the coronavirus pandemic, instead blaming China and the governors across the country.

During a roughly 40-minute interview on Geraldo in Cleveland hosted by Geraldo Rivera on WTAM, Trump assessed the job he was doing as fantastic, saying that if he is re-elected, things will go back to normal quickly. Thats as coronavirus cases and deaths remain elevated in states across the country, including Ohio.

Trump didnt say if he would do anything differently, but said governors run their states, blamed China for letting the virus escape its borders and assessed his performance as fantastic.

We shouldnt have lost one person. This should have been stopped by China, Trump said. They stopped it from going into China and they didnt stop it from going into Europe and the rest of the world. Its one of those things thats just terrible. They should have never let it come out of China. They stopped it going into China but they didnt stop it from going out into the world.

Trump didnt address Ohio specifically throughout the interview except to briefly say Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, was doing a good job as governor. But the disease has surged across the state starting at the beginning of July.

In all likelihood, the state will hit 100,000 cases easily within the next week. More than 3,500 Ohioans have died at a clip of 25 daily over the last three weeks.

The country as a whole is approaching 5 million cases. More than 159,000 people have died from coronavirus complications. The United States accounts for more than 20% of the reported deaths worldwide, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.

Trump said other countries were lying about their coronavirus figures.

We see whats happening by satellite, Trump said. They dont report.

Trump said he expected things to rapidly get better by the Nov. 3 election, including the possibility of a vaccine. Trump said he wasnt rushing a vaccine to help his re-election prospects.

Trump is visiting Ohio today. The president is flying into Cleveland where he will be greeted by DeWine, who canceled his Thursday coronavirus briefing to make the trip to Cleveland. Trump will then head to Clyde to visit the Whirlpool factory and give remarks. Later this evening, Trump will be in Bratenahl for a fundraiser.
New Delhi:

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Saturday addressed BJP's "Vijay Sankalp" rally at Bicholim in which he spoke about development in Goa. Parrikar said those who protest against developmental projects for environmental reasons should start using bicycles instead of cars.

We (BJP) performed well in the social sector and also built the infrastructure in the state. But there is one thing still left to be achieved. I had a dream of infrastructure development, social development but the ultimate target is to increase the happiness index of the state, he said.

The former Goa Chief Minister spoke at length about development, environment and challenges to the country at present.

Goa is the best place to become a cashless society. That does not mean there will be no cash, it means less-cash society. We can make payments using cards and mobile, he said.

Money (alone) does not give you satisfaction. Happiness index is now being discussed worldwide. I had mentioned it in my (state) budget presented in 2001. Until people are satisfied and contented, we cannot claim we have done enough for the state, he added. To do this (increase happiness index), I require your support. Last time (during 2012 polls) 21 BJP legislators were elected and this time we want at least 25-26 BJP legislators.

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Germany will require people arriving from countries considered high-risk to take coronavirus tests starting this weekend, the health minister said Thursday, as the country recorded its highest daily tally of new infections in three months.

German officials have voiced alarm over a steady upward creep in the number of new infections over recent weeks.

The national disease control center, the Robert Koch Institute, said 1,045 cases were recorded on Wednesday  the first time since May 7 that it has counted more than 1,000 cases in a day.

"What we are seeing is a lot of small outbreaks," Health Minister Jens Spahn told reporters.

"People are getting infected at family parties, at their place of work or at community facilities."

On top of that, school holidays  the dates of which are staggered across Germany's 16 states  are ending in some regions, increasing concerns that vacationers could bring home the virus.

Last Saturday, the government started offering free tests for people returning to the country.

People entering from countries deemed high-risk - currently most of the world outside Europe, as well as Luxembourg and parts of northern Spain - are required to quarantine for 14 days unless they can present a negative test result no more than two days old.

Spahn said that, starting Saturday, people arriving from those countries will be required to take a test unless they bring a new test result with them.

The Robert Koch Institute has recorded 9,175 deaths from over 213,000 confirmed cases - a lower death rate than in many comparable countries.
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 6/8/2020 (530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Co-founders Craig (left) and Marc Kielburger introduce Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau as they appear at the WE Day celebrations in Ottawa, Tuesday November 10, 2015. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

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: 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.

WE's youth entrepreneurship program proposal is included in annex nine of a briefing package about a student aid program that goes to the Prime Minister's Office, chief of staff Katie Telford later tells the finance committee. The proposal is declined.

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. Neither Morneau nor Trudeau is at the meeting.

The same day, a member of the Prime Minister's Office policy team speaks with WE as part of stakeholder consultation, but then directs the organization to ESDC.

WE begins incurring eligible expenses.

May 8: Trudeau finds out that WE is being recommended to run the student-volunteer program hours before a cabinet meeting. He later tells the finance committee that he pulled the item from the agenda and sent it back to the public service for more due diligence because of how the deal could be perceived.

May 21: The public service comes back to Trudeau, he tells the finance committee. The recommendation to go with WE doesn't change.

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 Prime Minister's Office.

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 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 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.

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.

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.

July 29: The Conservatives call on the federal ethics czar to widen his probe of Trudeau to include travel expenses WE covered in addition to speaking fees for his mother, wife and brother. Dion sends letters to the Tories and NDP saying he is expanding his probe of Morneau to look into the $41,000 in WE-sponsored travel.

July 30: In a rare event, Trudeau testifies before the House of Commons finance committee and lays out when he first learned about WE's involvement in the Canada Student Service Grant program. He says WE Charity didn't receive any preferential treatment in the process. He also says it is now unlikely the grants will be rolled out.

July 31: Speaking to reporters, Trudeau says he believed there was no conflict of interest because his family would not benefit from WE running the student volunteer program.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 6, 2020.
PNC Infratech spurted 4.85% to Rs 134 after the company executed agreements with National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on 5 August 2020 for three HAM and two EPC projects aggregating to Rs 6731.8 crore.

PNC Infratech has signed concession agreements for three Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM) projects (amounting Rs 5,184 crore) and contract agreements for two EPC highway projects (amounting Rs 1,547.80 crore) with NHAI on 5 August 2020. The announcement was made during market hours today, 6 August 2020.

On a consolidated basis, PNC Infratech's net profit jumped 47.1% to Rs 88.82 crore on a 6% rise in the net sales to Rs 1,346.70 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019.

PNC Infratech and its subsidiaries is engaged in infrastructure development through the construction of highways including BOT (built, operate and transfer projects), airport runways, bridges, flyovers and power transmission projects among others.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Jonathan Green had been tracking a whale shark named Hope across the eastern Pacific for 280 days when the satellite transmissions from a GPS tag on her dorsal fin abruptly stopped.

It was not unusual for the GPS signal to go silent, even for weeks at a time, said Green, a scientist who has been studying the worlds largest fish for three decades in the unique marine ecosystem around the Galapagos Islands.

But then he looked at satellite images in the area where Hope was last tracked  more than a thousand nautical miles west of the islands  and noticed the ocean was being patrolled by hundreds of Chinese fishing boats.

Video: Gordon Chang says COVID-19 is a case of mass murder, perpetrated by China

I began to look into it and found that at the very end of her track she began to speed up, said Green, co-founder and director of the Galapagos Whale Shark Project.

It went from one knot to six or seven knots for the last 32 minutes  which is, of course, the speed of a fishing boat, he said.

The fishing vessels that Green saw on the satellite images are believed to belong to an enormous Chinese-flagged fleet which Ecuadorian authorities last week warned was just outside the Galapagos Islands territorial waters.

Related: Alarm over discovery of hundreds of Chinese fishing vessels near Galapagos Islands

I dont have proof but my hypothesis is that she was caught by vessels from the same fleet which is now situated to the south of the islands, Green told the Guardian. She is the third GPS-tracked whale shark to have gone missing in the last decade, he added.

The Chinese fleet, numbering more than 200 vessels, is in international waters just outside a maritime border around the Galapagos Islands and also Ecuadors coastal waters, said Norman Wray, the islands governor.

Chinese fishing vessels come every year to the seas around the Galapagos, which were declared a Unesco world heritage site in 1978, but this years fleet is one of the largest seen in recent years. Of the 248 vessels, 243 are flagged to China including to companies with suspected records of illegal, unreported and unregulated, or IUU, fishing, according to research by C4ADS, a data analysis NGO.

Story continues

The fleet includes fishing boats and refrigerated container  or reefer  ships to store enormous catches.

Transferring cargo between vessels is prohibited under international maritime law yet the Chinese flotilla has supply and storage ships along with longline and squid fishing boats.

There are some fleets which dont seem to abide by any regulations, said Wray.

One captain of an Ecuadorian tuna boat saw the Chinese fishing boats up close in early July, before the end of the tuna season.



They just pull up everything! said the captain, who asked not to be named. We are obliged to take a biologist aboard who checks our haul; if we catch a shark we have to put it back, but who controls them?

He recalled navigating through the fleet at night, constantly changing course to avoid boats, as their lights illuminated the sea to attract squid to the surface.

It was like looking at a city at night, he said.

The longline fishing boats had up to 500 lines, each with thousands of fishhooks, he estimated, and claimed that some of the vessels would turn off their automatic tracking systems to avoid detection, particularly when operating in protected areas.

Chinese fishing practices first caught the attention of Ecuador in 2017 when its navy seized the Chinese reefer Fu Yuan Yu Leng 999 within the Galapagos marine reserve. Inside its containers were 6,000 frozen sharks  including the endangered hammerhead shark and whale shark.

It was a slaughterhouse, said Green, describing the images of the cargo hold. This kind of slaughter is going on on a massive scale in international waters and nobody is witnessing it.

The seizure prompted protests outside the Chinese embassy in Quito; Ecuador fined the vessel $6m and the 20 Chinese crew-members were later jailed for up to four years for illegal fishing.

The arrival of the latest fleet has also stirred public outrage and a formal complaint by Ecuador as its navy is on alert for any incursion into Ecuadorian waters.

The Chinese embassy in Quito said that China was a responsible fishing nation with a zero-tolerance attitude towards illegal fishing. It had confirmed with Ecuadors navy that all the Chinese fishing vessels were operating legally and dont represent a threat to anyone, it said in a statement last month. On Thursday China announced a three-month fishing ban in the high seas west of the marine reserve, but it will not come into force until September.

Roque Sevilla, a former mayor of Quito, who is leading a team in charge of designing a protection strategy for the islands, said the fleet practices indiscriminate fishing  regardless of species or age  which is causing a serious deterioration of the quality of fauna that we will have in our seas.

Ecuador would establish a corridor of marine reserves with Pacific-facing neighbours Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia to seal off important areas of marine diversity, Sevilla told the Guardian.

Related: Shark finning: why the ocean's most barbaric practice continues to boom

Protecting the Cocos Ridge, an underwater mountain range which connects the Galapagos Islands to mainland Costa Rica, and the Carnegie Ridge which links the archipelago to Ecuador and continental South America, could close off more than 200,000 sq nautical miles of ocean otherwise vulnerable to industrial fishing, he said.

He added Ecuador had called for a diplomatic meeting with Chile, Peru, Colombia and Panama to present a formal protest against China.

When the Galapagoss protected area was first created it was cutting edge, said Matt Rand, director of the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy, but compared to other newer marine protected areas Galapagos is now potentially lacking in size to protect the biodiversity.

Milton Castillo, the Galapagos Islands representative for Ecuadors human rights ombudsmans office, said he had asked the prosecutors office to inspect the cargo holds of the Chinese ships based on the legal principle of the universal and extraterritorial protection of endangered species.

Chinas distant-water fishing fleet is the biggest in the world, with nearly 17,000 vessels  1,000 of which use flags of convenience and are registered in other countries, according to research by the Overseas Development Institute.

The fleet often fishes in the territorial waters of low-income countries, the report said, having depleted fish stocks in domestic waters.

Green said the explosion of life created by the confluence of cold and warm ocean currents around the Galapagos Islands is exactly why the Chinese armada is hovering around the archipelagos waters.

The Galapagos marine reserve is a place of very great productivity, high biomass but also biodiversity, he said. The longline fishing technique used by the fleet catch big fish like tuna, but also sharks, rays, turtles and marine mammals like sea lions and dolphins, he added.

This is not fishing any more, it is simply destroying the resources of our oceans, Green said. We should ask whether any nation on this planet has the right to destroy what is common ground.
By Natalia Zinets

CHASIV YAR, Ukraine (Reuters) - Ukraine expects to exchange around 100 prisoners on each side with Russian-backed separatists within weeks, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's chief of staff told Reuters on Thursday on a visit to eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine has pushed prisoner exchanges in a series of confidence-building measures to break the deadlock over a conflict in the eastern Donbass region that has killed more than 13,000 people since 2014.

The swap would be second this year and the fourth since Zelenskiy became president in 2019.

Andriy Yermak, the head of the president's office and a key Ukrainian negotiator, told Reuters that Kyiv had submitted a list of about 100 people to mediators at the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

He said the separatists submitted around the same number. While there was no date for the exchange, he said "I hope that it will be soon. I think it's within weeks."

Relations between Ukraine and Russia collapsed after Moscow's annexation of the Crimea peninsula in 2014 and support for fighters in the Donbass.

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.

The latest attempt to get the ceasefire to stick in July broke down within hours.

But on Thursday, OSCE monitors recorded no ceasefire violations within a daily reporting period for the first time since they began systematically collecting such data, an OSCE statement said.

Yermak was accompanying Zelenskiy on a visit to the frontline where he met soldiers and civilians in the area.

He also said Ukraine and the separatists would agree at least three new areas of troop disengagement in selected hotspots - another confidence-building measure pushed under Zelenskiy's presidency.

"Today we are very close to agreeing on three and maybe five new sections," he said.

Story continues

Zelenskiy also pressed Russian President Vladimir Putin to release prisoners during a recent bilateral phone call.

"It was agreed that a list would be provided, it has already been handed over - these are mainly Crimean Tatars who are illegally detained in Crimea. We are waiting for an answer," he said.

(Writing by Matthias Williams; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
Last fall, Adelaida Romans month-long contract as a waitress at Malagas Holiday Inn was extended due to her impeccable work ethic, not to mention a profitable tourist season. She was on a salary of 750 a month for a reduced schedule, but for this 34 year old, the money was a godsend. At last, she had some stability in her life and the chance to feel optimistic about the future. The hours also made it easy for me to take my three children to school, she explains.

But with the coronavirus crisis, she was back to square one. The pandemic devastated the Spanish tourism industry, and she, like thousands of others, lost her job. My husband is sick and cant work, so it was the only income we had, she says, adding that she wasnt able to get on the ERTE furlough scheme because she hadnt paid enough social security. Now, when she thinks of the future, she feels anxious and concerned, especially for her children who are four, eight and 12 years old.

On a psychological level, everything falls apart Psychologist Isabel Aranda

Spains gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 18.5% in the last quarter and, according to the latest workforce survey (EPA), the number of Spanish households with all their active members out of work rose in the second quarter of the year to 1.14 million, up from 992,000 in the same period in 2019. The report also indicates that there are 670,000 families with no income, the highest figure since the second quarter of 2016 and barely 100,000 less than the record set at the end of 2013, when the 2008 economic crisis had its biggest impact on employment.

The statistics are startlingly negative, despite the support provided by the government for the self-employed and the ERTE furlough scheme, which has given thousands of workers an income while their jobs have been suspended. The data also includes as inactive the unemployed who were unable to seek work during the lockdown, says Luis Ayala, professor of applied economics at the National University of Distance Education (UNED) and a specialist in redistribution, social policy and markets. This means the total number unemployment figure is likely to be much higher. The data for the next quarter will probably be bad  very bad, although it will also reflect the economys revival.

Ayala says that the health crisis has strengthened informal community support networks  between neighbors, relatives and associations  as well as more formal ones, particularly with the introduction of the guaranteed minimum income scheme. But despite these improvements, he believes regional authorities and city councils need to do more.

The economist explains that Spains labor market was already suffering from precarious conditions, with the rise of temporary contracts and reduced hours  a situation that has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 crisis. Ayala warns that the rise in the number of households with all members unemployed, and worse, without an income, will lead to greater extreme poverty and a significant increase in inequality. Around 2.2 million people in Spain currently live in extreme poverty, according to a survey published in July by the National Statistic Institute (INE).

Roman, the waitress from Malaga, receives just 190 as a guaranteed minimum income as it takes into account her salary in 2019. But now is when I need it the most, she says. Because there is also the difficulty of finding work. She can hardly bear to recall the coronavirus lockdown, which forced her in the end to accept food from different private and public entities operating in her neighborhood, Los Asperones.

Los Asperones neighborhood in Malaga. Garcia-Santos (El Pais)

Uncertainty and fear

It was a very difficult time, says Meritxell Monino, who, like her husband, lost her job. You see that you have no income, and you feel an enormous amount of uncertainty and a lot of fear. Bringing up their two daughters, aged seven and 13, in La Algaba, north of Seville, the couple also had to resort to food donations  in their case from Save the Children, which offered ongoing support both economically and psychologically.

Before the state of alarm was declared, Monino, 33, was working as a cleaner and her husband, Pedro Perez, as a handyman. Neither was given a contract and during the lockdown, they were left without any income. The families were afraid of the virus; of people coming into their homes and from one day to the next, I was out of a job, she says, referring to the houses she cleaned. The same thing happened to her husband.

We are very worried about the future now because people are still afraid of the disease and the economy is getting worse, she says, adding that she hope people will act responsibly to prevent new coronavirus outbreaks, like the one detected in her area.

Cristina Alvarez, 53, doesnt have it easy either. She arrived in Malaga from Colombia in May 2019 to look for a job and send money back home to her family. She had a work permit and it didnt take her long to find a job. On August 1 last year, she began to look after an 89-year-old woman with Alzheimers disease. The state of alarm meant that they went into lockdown together and the womans family, who had employed Alvarez without a contract, did not allow her to go out or do the shopping. This meant she had no downtime and ended up looking after the woman 24/7. Alvarez says she was not allowed to make video calls and that security cameras were installed in the house. I left. I couldnt let them violate my rights, not only as a worker, but also as a human being, she says.

We are very worried about the future now because people are still afraid of the disease and the economy is getting worse Meritxell Monino, who lost her job as a cleaner during the lockdown

With her savings spent, Alvarez now lives with a Spanish friend who has given her a room in his house. On July 16, she found a job taking care of another woman, who died shortly afterwards. And I havent been paid yet, she says. It is a complicated time with the whole issue of the funeral, so, you know, its not the time to ask for the money. At times I get desperate, but things are difficult just now. We just have to keep looking for opportunities.

Hope is the word that psychologist Isabel Aranda uses most often to talk about the current situation of Spains labor market. She knows that the situation is complicated, but says that people must look to the future. The expert, who is the spokesperson of the Madrid Psychology Association, says the number of private and public consultations increased dramatically during the pandemic, which has been a heavy blow for many people.

Aranda says that when all the members of a family lose their jobs, particularly if it happens simultaneously, they lose their sense of security. On a psychological level, everything falls apart, she explains.

The feeling of failure is acute, generating stress, anxiety, despair and a loss of hope, something that is also transmitted to their children. The worst thing that can happen is that resignation sets in since this generates a learned state of helplessness  a state where the feeling there is no way out ends up affecting the person not only psychologically but also physically, she says.

To avoid this, Aranda recommends sharing what you feel, asking for help and looking towards the future. We have to be realistic, but we also have to think that there is a lot of social support now and that, sooner or later, the situation will change, she says.

English version by Heather Galloway.
A worker of a factory inside Hoa Khanh Industrial Park in Da Nang has her body temperature checked, August 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Hoang Phuong.

Factories in Da Nang are struggling amid the fresh Covid-19 outbreak to both keep production going and ensure employees safety.

On July 16 a woman working at the Hoa Khanh Industrial Park in Da Nangs Lien Chieu District started going to Da Nang Hospital, the biggest Covid-19 hotspot in Vietnam so far, to take care of her ill mother.

In the daytime she continued to work at a Japanese factory inside the industrial park, around 10 kilometers from the hospital.

Ten days later she developed fever and throat pain but continued to work. On July 29 the 39-year-old woman was diagnosed with Covid-19, becoming "patient 446", four days after the first infection was reported in Da Nang.

Her factory was locked down the next day and more than 300 workers were quarantined.

A week later five workers at three other industrial parks in the central city were found infected with the novel coronavirus. Within a week the new Covid-19 outbreak has spread to at least four factories in the city.

The factory where "patient 446" works halted operations from July 30, said vice chairwoman of Da Nangs labor union Dinh Thi Thanh Ha. A number of other factories at industrial parks were put on red alert for a lockdown to contain the disease.

As Da Nang, the country's third most important city after Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, becomes the Covid-19 epicenter with 192 cases of infection, factories and businesses have the task of both remaining open and ensuring the safety of 77,000 workers.

The gate to Hoa Khanh Industrial Park in Da Nang City. Photo by VnExpress/Hoang Phuong.

Around two kilometers from the suspended factory, a paper roll producing plant where Thanh Luan works as a manager operates normally with 30 people working on two production lines.

Luan tells workers to go straight home after work to limit the risk of infection. Since August 3 the management has decided to provide lunch and dinner for all workers to prevent them from going out and reduce the risk of infection.

The city of 1.1 million people, from where at least 80,000 have left for other parts of the country since July 1, began a semi-lockdown on July 28, and all eateries are closed, including those that sell online or offer takeout.

"The cost will increase but the safety of workers is top priority," Luan said.

"Just one infected worker or someone coming into contact with an infected person, and the factory will be locked down."

All workers have to wear face masks inside the plant, have their body temperature screened daily and sit two meters apart as required under the social distancing measures.

But with the travel restrictions, Luans factory also faces difficulties with materials supply and rising transport costs.

Raw materials for making paper and firewood can only be bought in the city since supply from neighboring provinces has stopped. With shops and restaurants closed, the availability of scrap paper has fallen to less than three tons a day compared to the normal 10 tons.

Luan does not know what the future holds. "If the raw material runs out, production lines might have to stop running," he said.

After the country went three months without local transmission, production orders had recovered to 90 percent before the new outbreak changed everything.

An Thanh Company on Au Co Street, three kilometers outside the industrial park, supplies more than 6,000 meals a day to workers in the Hoa Khanh and Hoa Cam industrial parks.

After the pandemic returned, the company's cooks and other catering workers come to work and go straight home afterward without coming into contact with other employees.

The company, which has been in business for 14 years has been supplying food to quarantine facilities, somewhat making up for the reducing factory orders.

Cao Thi Hoai Thu, head of quality management, said the company managed to survive despite the pandemic and otherwise its workers would have been in an even harder situation.

The Da Nang economy shrank by 3.61 percent in the first half, its first contraction in the 23 years since it became a centrally administered city.

A survey of nearly 7,200 businesses in the city found that 90 percent had been affected by the outbreak, suspending operations, struggling to pay salaries and having difficulty sourcing materials.

Luan hoped the country could quickly bring the new outbreak under control and lift social distancing.
A Ukrainian oligarch who played a key role in the events that spurred President Trumps impeachment last year has been accused by the Justice Department of stealing billions of dollars from a bank he once owned and laundering the cash in the US.

According to the DOJ, Ihor Kolomoisky and his business partner, Gennadiy Boholyubov, stole so much money from PrivatBank that Ukraines national bank had to give the institution a $5.5 billion bail out to to stave off economic crisis for the whole country.

The two men were majority owners of PrivatBank before it was nationalized in 2016 in response to the fraud. The men used the bank as their own personal account to build a business and property empire in the US, the Justice Department said.

The allegation was made in a civil forfeiture complaint seeking to seize commercial properties from the men in Kentucky and Texas.

Ihor Kolomoisky (above) and his business partner, Gennadiy Boholyubov, stole so much money from PrivatBank that Ukraines national bank had to give the institution a $5.5 billion bail out to to stave off economic crisis for the whole country'

The two men were majority owners of PrivateBank before it was nationalized in 2016 in response to the fraud. The men used the bank as a personal account to build an illicit business empire in the US, the Justice Department said

Kolomoisky and Boholyubov reportedly used their status as owners to repeatedly request money from the bank, which they would then move through a vast network of shell companies to thoroughly disguise their nature, source, ownership, and control.

Gennadiy Boholyubov, Ko was also accused in the scheme. He is the longtime business partner of Kolomoisky, and previously owned Privatbank with him

Among their purchases were more than five million square feet of commercial real estate in Ohio, steel plants in Kentucky, West Virginia and Michigan, a cellphone manufacturing plant in Illinois and commercial real estate in Texas.

The forfeiture complaints sought to seize a near-20 acre office park in Dallas and the PNC Plaza building in Louisville.

Kolomoisky, who is one of Ukraines richest men, emphatically denied the allegations made in the Justice Departments complaint, in a statement issued through his attorney to the Washington Post.

He made a fortune in the wake of the Soviet Unions collapse, amassing assets from airlines to financial institutions. Known by the nickname 'Benya', he also crafted a a larger-than-life image for himself, even keeping a shark aquarium in his office.

Despite his pleas of innocence, he has long been facing a criminal probe by the US Attorneys Office in Cleveland for potential money laundering. In relation to that case, the FBI raided the office of his Optima Management Group in the city on Tuesday, in addition to another Optima office in Miami.

The forfeiture complaints sought to seize a near-20 acre office park in Dallas (left) and the PNC Plaza building in Louisville (right).

In court documents released Thursday, the DOJ claimed that two Miami-based associates of Kolomoisky and Boholyubov, Mordechai Korf and Uriel Laber, helped to acquire and manage the oligarchs capital in the US  which often bear a variation of the name Optima.

At one stage, Optima Ventures became the largest holder of commercial real estate in Cleveland, having used stolen funds to acquire major downtown office buildings and a hotel, the DOJ said.

Kolomoisky and Boholyubov were ousted from Privatbank after Ukrainians last president, Petro Poroshenko, nationalized the bank. Poroshenko accused Kolomoisky and his partners of defrauding the bank out of billions of dollars.

Kolomoisky insisted he was innocent, but absconded from Kyiv to Israel amid the fallout. He retained political power in Ukraine through his various business holdings, which include a major television network.

He also has close ties to Ukraines current president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and played a role in the events that led to President Trumps impeachment in 2019.

Kolomoisky is considered an ally of Zelensky, who was an actor before his presidency and starred in a comedy series that aired on Kolomoiskys network.

Kolomoisky (right) and Boholyubov were ousted from Privatbank after Ukrainians last president, Petro Poroshenko (left), nationalized the bank. Poroshenko accused Kolomoisky and his partners of defrauding the bank out of billions of dollars.

Zelenskys election was considered a huge advantage for Kolomoisky, particularly after he made the oligarchs personal layer the head of his administration, the Washington Post reported.

Their relationship was viewed with suspicion back in the US, as their apparent connection came as a contradiction to Zelenskys pledge of anti-corruption reform.

However, Zelensky has not voiced support of surrendering PrivatBank back to Kolomoiskys control and has since fired his lawyer as his top aide.

Kolomoisky, meanwhile, has returned from his self-imposed exile in Israel and is back in Kyiv where he maintains relations with members of Zelenskys administration.

The oligarch also found himself caught up in a political crossfire in the US in spring last year, when Trumps attorney Rudy Guiliani pressed on with a mission to pressure Zelensky to open an investigation into former vice president Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.

Associates of Guiliani, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, met with Kolomoisky in April 2019 to request a meeting between the former New York mayor and Zelensky.

The meeting, it seems, did not go well. In the days that followed, Parnas and Fruman accused Kolomoisky of physically threatening them, and pressed charges against him in Ukraine.

Guiliani said he provided legal counsel to his two associates in their suit against Kolomoisky. He also tweeted a number of times about his dislike of the oligarch in May 2019, just as he was pressuring Zelensky to investigate the Bidens at the behest of Trump.

Kolomoisky is considered an ally of Zelensky (above), who was an actor before his presidency and starred in a comedy series that aired on Kolomoiskys network

Associates of Guiliani, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman (right), met with Kolomoisky in April 2019 to request a meeting between the former New York mayor and Zelensky

Kolomoisky, however, said that during the meeting Parnas and Fruman claimed they could get top US officials to attend Zelenskys inauguration  including Vice President Mike Pence  if he paid them several hundred thousand dollars.

He said he refused to pay the money and kicked them out of his office, his lawyer Bruce Marks told the Post.

According to Marks, Kolomoisky predicted to friends at the time This is going to end up in a bad scandal.

Trump was later impeached after a formal House inquiry alleged that he had solicited foreign interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election to help his re-election bid, and then obstructed the inquiry itself by telling his administration officials to ignore subpoenas for documents and testimony.

The inquiry reported that Trump withheld military aid and an invitation to the White House to Zelensky to pressure him into launching the Biden probe.

Parnas and Fruman, meanwhile, were charged with campaign finance violations last year. They have denied any wrongdoing.
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Coronavirus cases rose to a six-week high in the UK today as officials announced another 950 people had tested positive for the life-threatening disease.

Department of Health statistics show 835 Britons are now getting diagnosed each day  with the rolling seven-day average having consistently risen since it dropped to a four-month low on July 8 (546).

The daily number of cases is the highest since 1,006 were recorded on June 26. Some 938 more infections were confirmed on August 3 and 892 were declared yesterday.

The figures add to mounting fears of a second wave. Nicola Sturgeon today admitted the coronavirus R rate in Scotland has gone up and could be as high as the dreaded level of one, where an outbreak could start to spiral out of control again.

Despite the UK's cases curve starting to rise again, deaths have yet to follow suit. Health chiefs today announced 45 more Covid-19 fatalities  taking the official number of victims to 46,413.

Around 59 patients are succumbing to the illness each day, on average. It's slightly higher than yesterday's figure of 58 but remains lower than the daily mean of 64 last Thursday.

And the number of patients being admitted to hospital has yet to spike, bolstering claims from top scientists that the outbreak is not getting worse and cases are only rising because more patients are being tested.

Just 85 coronavirus patients were admitted for NHS care across the UK on August 4  a figure which has barely changed throughout July. During the darkest days of Britain's crisis in April, around 3,500 patients were needing hospital treatment every day.

It comes as it was reported today that thousands of coronavirus deaths are set to be wiped from the government's official count following an urgent review into how they are counted. A 'flaw' meant all survivors in England would eventually be counted as a victim  even if they were hit by a bus months after beating the infection.

In other developments today:

NHS Test and Trace is getting worse at tracking down contacts of infected Covid-19 patients, the government admitted amid mounting pressure to improve the system before the winter;

Nicola Sturgeon admitted Scotland's R rate has gone up to as high as one and warned infection numbers are expected to keep rising despite a lockdown in Aberdeen;

The Bank of England warned that unemployment is set to rise by a million within months as coronavirus wreaks havoc on the economy - but admitted the downturn might not be as apocalyptic as feared;

Coronavirus cases continued to fall after some lockdown measures were eased and infections halved from May to July, according to the results of a major study;

Ministers spent more than 150milllion buying millions of face masks from a small investment company that cannot be used by NHS medics, court documents revealed;

Homebuyers living in major cities are planning their escape to the countryside as a property website reported a 125 per cent increase in people looking to move to villages after the coronavirus lockdown.

Thousands of coronavirus deaths 'will be wiped off the government's official toll' Thousands of coronavirus deaths are set to be wiped from the government's official count, it was claimed today. Health Secretary Matt Hancock last month ordered an urgent review into how daily death counts are calculated in England because of a 'statistical flaw'. Academics found Public Health England's methods meant ministers count victims as anyone who died after ever testing positive for Covid-19  even if they were hit by a bus after beating the disease months later. It would've meant that, technically, no-one could ever recover from the virus and all 265,000 of England's confirmed patients would eventually have had their deaths attributed to the disease. The blunder could see up to 4,000 deaths removed from England's official toll of 41,749, according to reports. One of the leading experts who uncovered the flaw told MailOnline his 'best guess' was that more than 1,000 people have had their deaths wrongly recorded as caused by Covid-19. Advertisement

Department of Health chiefs yesterday announced that another 892 people tested positive for the virus, taking the rolling seven-day average to 820.

For comparison, the rate was 802 the day before  which was the first time it had topped 800 in more than a month. The rate has been on the up for over a fortnight amid growing fears of a resurgence.

Government statistics show the official size of the UK's outbreak now stands at 307,184. But the actual size of the outbreak is estimated to be in the millions, based on antibody testing data.

Professor Carl Heneghan, director of Oxford University's Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, this week claimed Covid-19 cases aren't actually rising  despite government figures showing an upwards trend.

He said the rising infection rates are down to more people being tested, pointing to data showing the number of pillar two tests carried out each day rose by 80 per cent over the course of July to around 80,000.

The deaths 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.

And the figure 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 and Northern Ireland are out of sync.

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'.

But the fatality curve is no longer flattening as quickly as it was, with the rolling seven-day average number of daily deaths having been in the sixties since July 18.

Some 123 Britons were diagnosed with the infection out of a sample size of nearly 160,000 people between June 9 and July 8  an incidence rate of 0.07 per cent. This was down by almost half from May, when 159 people out of 120,620 tested positive (0.13 per cent)

Nicola Sturgeon admits Scotland's R rate has gone UP to as high as one Scotland's coronavirus infection rate has risen in the wake of an outbreak in Aberdeen, Nicola Sturgeon admitted today. The First Minister said the R-rate for the county had risen to between 0.6 and one, up from between 0.6 and 0.9 and new cases have also been found in Glasgow and the Clyde. A total of 79 cases have been confirmed in Aberdeen in relation to the cluster which prompted the city to be put in lockdown, with a further 30 under investigation. Ms Sturgeon said she expects to be reporting a rise in the number of people infected in Aberdeen on Friday, despite putting pubs, restaurants and other businesses back into mothballs. 'I know that this is a real blow to the city and all of us regret that we've had to take this position, but I do believe that people understand why it is necessary,' she said. 'There are just too many uncertainties about this outbreak right now so we are not yet confident that we can keep it under control without these additional measures.' Advertisement

It can take infected patients several weeks to die, meaning any spike in deaths won't be immediately apparent in government figures.

NHS England today declared five victims in hospitals across the country. Wales recorded three in all settings. No fatalities were registered in Scotland or Northern Ireland.

It comes after it was reported today that thousands of coronavirus deaths are set to be wiped from the government's official count.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock last month ordered an urgent review into how daily death counts are calculated in England because of a 'statistical flaw'.

Academics found Public Health England's methods meant ministers count victims as anyone who died after ever testing positive for Covid-19  even if they were hit by a bus after beating the disease months later.

It would've meant that, technically, no-one could ever recover from the virus and all 265,000 of England's confirmed patients would eventually have had their deaths attributed to the disease.

The blunder could see up to 4,000 deaths removed from England's official toll of 41,749, according to reports.

One of the leading experts who uncovered the flaw told MailOnline his 'best guess' was that more than 1,000 people have had their deaths wrongly recorded as caused by Covid-19.

Mr Hancock is set to bring the figures in line with Scotland and Northern Ireland, which only attribute deaths to Covid-19 if it occurs within a month of their diagnosis.

The Health Secretary is expected to announce the new measurement by the end of the week following the two-week review into the counting fiasco.

The statistical flaw was uncovered by Oxford University's Professor Carl Heneghan and Dr Yoon Loke, from the University of East Anglia.

Professor Heneghan, director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at the prestigious university, told the Sun: 'It is a sensible decision. There is no point attributing deaths to Covid 28 days after infection.

Coronavirus cases continued to fall after some lockdown measures were eased Coronavirus cases continued to fall after some lockdown measures were eased, a major study revealed today. Some 123 Britons were diagnosed with the infection out of a sample size of nearly 160,000 people between June 9 and July 8  an incidence rate of 0.07 per cent. This was down by almost half from May, when 159 people out of 120,620 tested positive (0.13 per cent). Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the research showed 'we were able to keep rates of infection low as some restrictions were lifted'. Non-essential shops were allowed to reopen on June 15, and ministers allowed single-person households to mix with other homes for the first time since the lockdown was introduced on March 23. But the effect of the changes on July 4  when the two-metre social distancing rule was halved and pubs, restaurants and cinemas reopened  won't be felt until the Imperial College London team's next report. Cases appear to have slowly crept up since 'Super Saturday', according to the Government's official statistics. Around 800 people are catching the virus a day  up from a four-month low of 546 on July 8. The same study also found more than eight in 10 people who tested positive for coronavirus in June and July had no symptoms. Advertisement

It comes as Nicola Sturgeon today admitted that Scotland's coronavirus infection rate has risen in the wake of an outbreak in Aberdeen.

The First Minister said the R-rate for the county had risen to between 0.6 and one, up from between 0.6 and 0.9 and new cases have also been found in Glasgow and the Clyde.

A total of 79 cases have been confirmed in Aberdeen in relation to the cluster which prompted the city to be put in lockdown, with a further 30 under investigation.

Ms Sturgeon said she expects to be reporting a rise in the number of people infected in Aberdeen on Friday, despite putting pubs, restaurants and other businesses back into mothballs.

'I know that this is a real blow to the city and all of us regret that we've had to take this position, but I do believe that people understand why it is necessary,' she said.

'There are just too many uncertainties about this outbreak right now so we are not yet confident that we can keep it under control without these additional measures.'

Ms Sturgeons warning came hours after a major study revealed coronavirus cases continued to fall after some lockdown measures were eased.

Some 123 Britons were diagnosed with the infection out of a sample size of nearly 160,000 people between June 9 and July 8  an incidence rate of 0.07 per cent.

This was down by almost half from May, when 159 people out of 120,620 tested positive (0.13 per cent).

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the research showed 'we were able to keep rates of infection low as some restrictions were lifted'.

Non-essential shops were allowed to reopen on June 15, and ministers allowed single-person households to mix with other homes for the first time since the lockdown was introduced on March 23.

But the effect of the changes on July 4  when the two-metre social distancing rule was halved and pubs, restaurants and cinemas reopened  won't be felt until the Imperial College London team's next report.

The same study also found more than eight in 10 people who tested positive for coronavirus in June and July had no symptoms.
Flowers are brought to St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry for the funeral of John Hume. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Patricia Hume arrives at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry for the funeral of her husband John Hume. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Patricia Hume (second left), the widow of John Hume, speaks to mourners outside St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry ahead of the funeral of John Hume. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Patricia Hume (centre) arrives at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry for the funeral of her husband John Hume. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne arrives at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry for the funeral of John Hume. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Patricia Hume arrives at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry for the funeral of her husband John Hume. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia.

Patricia Hume speaks to mourners outside St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry ahead of the funeral of her husband John Hume. PA Photo.

Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill speaking to Tommy Gallagher ahead of the funeral of John Hume at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill outside St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry ahead of the funeral of John Hume. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill outside St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry ahead of the funeral of John Hume. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

(left to right) The Bishop of Derry, Donal McKeown, First Minister Arlene Foster and former DUP MLA Tommy Gallagher outside St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry ahead of the funeral of John Hume. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

First Minister Arlene Foster arrives at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry for the funeral of John Hume. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

The President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins arrives at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry for the funeral of John Hume. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Taoiseach Micheal Martin (second left) arrives at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry for the funeral of John Hume. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Taoiseach Micheal Martin arrives at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry for the funeral of John Hume. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Northern Ireland Secretary of State Brandon Lewis arrives at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry for the funeral of John Hume. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Taoiseach Micheal Martin (left) is greeted by the Bishop of Derry, Donal McKeown as he arrives at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry for the funeral of John Hume. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

The President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins arrives at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry for the funeral of John Hume. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Taoiseach Micheal Martin arrives at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry for the funeral of John Hume. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Taoiseach Micheal Martin (right) alongside leader of the SDLP Colum Eastwood as they arrive at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry for the funeral of John Hume. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Patricia Hume (second right) arrives at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry for the funeral of her husband John Hume. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

First Minister of Northern Ireland Arlene Foster arrives at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry, ahead of the funeral of John Hume. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

People stand outside St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry during the funeral of John Hume. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Patricia Hume (second right) arrives at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry for the funeral of her husband John Hume. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Widow Patricia Hume (left) arrives for the funeral of her husband John Hume at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Stephen Latimer/PA Wire

St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry ahead of the funeral of John Hume. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Stephen Latimer/PA Wire

Taoiseach Micheal Martin arrives for the funeral of John Hume at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Stephen Latimer/PA Wire

Richard Moore (centre), the founder of Children in Crossfire, arrives for the funeral of John Hume at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Stephen Latimer/PA Wire

PACEMAKER BELFAST 05/08/20 Chief Constable Simon Byrne during the Funeral for John Hume at St EugeneOs Cathedral in Derry on Wednesday. John Hume will be remembered as one of the highest-profile and most influential politicians in Northern Ireland. He was a founding member of the SDLP and went on to lead the party from 1979 until 2001. Mr Hume played a significant role in driving forward the peace process and following the 1998 Good Friday agreement, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Mr Hume also served as a member of the European Parliament (MEP) for more than 25 years and held a seat in Westminster as an MP for nearly 22 years. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

PACEMAKER BELFAST 05/08/20 The Funeral for John Hume at St EugeneOs Cathedral in Derry on Wednesday. John Hume will be remembered as one of the highest-profile and most influential politicians in Northern Ireland. He was a founding member of the SDLP and went on to lead the party from 1979 until 2001. Mr Hume played a significant role in driving forward the peace process and following the 1998 Good Friday agreement, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Mr Hume also served as a member of the European Parliament (MEP) for more than 25 years and held a seat in Westminster as an MP for nearly 22 years. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

PACEMAKER BELFAST 05/08/20 Dr Joe Hendron, a former SDLP politician and Alban Maginness during the Funeral for John Hume at St EugeneOs Cathedral in Derry on Wednesday. John Hume will be remembered as one of the highest-profile and most influential politicians in Northern Ireland. He was a founding member of the SDLP and went on to lead the party from 1979 until 2001. Mr Hume played a significant role in driving forward the peace process and following the 1998 Good Friday agreement, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Mr Hume also served as a member of the European Parliament (MEP) for more than 25 years and held a seat in Westminster as an MP for nearly 22 years. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

PACEMAKER BELFAST 05/08/20 Margaret Richie during the Funeral for John Hume at St EugeneOs Cathedral in Derry on Wednesday. John Hume will be remembered as one of the highest-profile and most influential politicians in Northern Ireland. He was a founding member of the SDLP and went on to lead the party from 1979 until 2001. Mr Hume played a significant role in driving forward the peace process and following the 1998 Good Friday agreement, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Mr Hume also served as a member of the European Parliament (MEP) for more than 25 years and held a seat in Westminster as an MP for nearly 22 years. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 5th August 2020 - Photo by Lorcan Doherty / Press Eye The Funeral of the late John Hume at St. EugeneOs Cathedral, Derry. Dr. Aine Abbott (Hume) and husband Kevin Abbott.

The President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins (second left) arrives at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry for the funeral of John Hume. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill (right) puts on a face covering as she arrives at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry ahead of the funeral of John Hume. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

PACEMAKER BELFAST 05/08/20 Bishop Donal McKeown and First Minister Arlene Foster during the Funeral for John Hume at St EugeneOs Cathedral in Derry on Wednesday. John Hume will be remembered as one of the highest-profile and most influential politicians in Northern Ireland. He was a founding member of the SDLP and went on to lead the party from 1979 until 2001. Mr Hume played a significant role in driving forward the peace process and following the 1998 Good Friday agreement, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Mr Hume also served as a member of the European Parliament (MEP) for more than 25 years and held a seat in Westminster as an MP for nearly 22 years. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press

The President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins (second left) arrives at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry for the funeral of John Hume. Pic: Niall Carson/PA Wire

The hearse carrying the body of John Hume arrives at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry for his funeral. Pic: Niall Carson/PA Wire

President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins (left) and Social Democratic and Labour Party Colum Eastwood attend the funeral of John Hume at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Stephen Latimer/PA Wire

The funeral of John Hume at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Stephen Latimer/PA Wire

The funeral of John Hume at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Stephen Latimer/PA Wire

The funeral of John Hume at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Stephen Latimer/PA Wire

John Hume Junior speaks at the funeral of his father John Hume at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry. PA Photo.

First of all I would like to say a word to my brother Aidan who unfortunately cannot be with us today due to Coronavirus restrictions.

Aidan, Gail and their five kids are watching us from Marshfield. Massachusetts.

I would also like to mention Aine and Kevins daughter, Roisin, Johns granddaughter, in Vancouver where she is watching in the middle of the night.

You may not be with us in person, but we know you are here, as does dad.

Summing up our dads life in a few minutes is not an easy task.

For a man who supposedly had only one single transferable speech, dad did a lot of different things in his life.

He also made us laugh, dream, think, and sometimes look at him and scratch our heads in amazement (and on rare occasions, bewilderment).

He also kept the Irish chocolate industry in healthy profits for many years. Yorkies, Crunchies, creme eggs, Double Deckers, Wispas, you name it, he loved them all.

We often found it odd, how a man with the intelligence to win a Nobel Prize could seriously believe that Crunchies were less fattening because they are full of air.

On Fathers day, a few weeks ago, as we couldnt be with him, all his grandchildren posted him his favourite chocolate bars. I hear they had a feast in Owen Mor.

If dad were here today in the fullness of his health, witnessing the current tensions in the world, he wouldnt waste the opportunity to say a few words.

Hed talk about our common humanity, the need to respect diversity and difference, to protect and deepen democracy, to value education, and to place nonviolence at the absolute centre.

He might also stress the right to a living wage and a roof over your head, to decent healthcare and education.

If he were here now, he might quote his friend, Congressman John Lewis, who sadly passed away a few weeks ago, appealing to the goodness of every human being and never giving up.

Dad was a Derryman to his core, and those deep roots of neighbourhood and community served to nourish him through the difficult years.

From the beginning, the European Union was like a homecoming to him, bringing together diverse cultures in an interdependent relationship, allowing for unique identities while also holding a bigger picture of unified kinship.

At this time of planetary fragility, more than ever, he would be urging that we move beyond our flag-based identities, and recognise the need to protect our common home.

Central to dads work was his deep appreciation of human interdependency. We all need one another, we all have a role to play, and all our roles are of equal importance.

In the last years of dads life, his physical and mental health became more visibly vulnerable.

And yet in those recent years, more than ever, we as a family witnessed the absolute importance of dads core ethos, of building community based on respect and love.

The kindness shown to him by the people of Derry and Donegal, who stopped to talk to him in the street every day, guided him to protect his independence, and received him with gentleness if he was agitated, was a profound gift to all of us.

We are eternally grateful to all those that helped over the years.

In these last two years, when hed lost his mobility and eyesight, he moved to Owen Mor nursing home.

In this, his last home, and it was a home, all of us as a family were made welcome, and became part of a new community of families and carers.

The deep attention and love shown to dad and to the many friends he made among carers, residents and their families, will remain a lesson to us for the rest of our lives.

During the long weeks of lockdown when we as a family were unable to be with him, we knew that, despite the major difficulties of infection management and bereavement, the Care and Nursing staff in Unit One were doing their absolute best, to care deeply for him, and for all his fellow residents.

We know that he continued to sing songs every day, to teach them all a wee bit of French, to tell his jokes, to demand more buns, and to question everyone daily about where they came from, their origins and their families.

He remained deeply interested in every individual, even if he remembered little of it, until the end of his days.

Dad was also a father, a husband and a man who loved and cared for his family at all times.

Marrying Pat, our mother, was without a doubt dads greatest achievement and she enabled him to reach his full potential.

Mum and dad met at a dance in Borderland in Donegal, the starting point for many a Derry family.

Romance was followed by a wedding, and a December honeymoon in a freezing B&B in Gardiner Street in Dublin.

Thankfully for mum, the quality of the accommodation got better as the marriage went on.

Our mum, who loved, supported and guided him throughout his tireless work for peace, and later in his frailty, was his greatest blessing.

None of us remember him changing nappies, or indeed putting many (any?) dinners on the table.

What we do remember are endless coffee cups and overflowing ashtrays, newspapers everywhere, and constant stream of callers night and day to our home in West End Park.

But he was there for all of us throughout his life. There were times when we felt that he was absent, but he wasnt, he was just with us from somewhere else.

Along with mum, he taught us all our values and gave us all our moral compass. And for that we will be forever in their debt.

As a family we will remember the man who was rooted in his community, a man who was most comfortable sittng in front of the TV, with half a dozen Crunchie bars to keep him company, and his family around him. Or the odd time holding court around the corner in the Park Bar.

A man who ordered the same dinner in the same restaurants in Strasbourg and Greencastle for 25 years.

Im sure hes up there now ordering his creme brulee and that awful sweet wine he loved.

A man who loved Derry at its best, be that promoting the Candystripes across the world or the many choirs that he brought from here to Europe to sing in Brussels and Strasbourg.

A man who didnt need to be invited twice to lift a mic himself, and give us a blast of the Town I love so well or Matt Hyland, and many, many, many, more besides.

A man who truly believed in Derry and the talents of our people, and became our greatest Ambassador to the world.

A man who loved Donegal and spent much of his downtime in Bunbeg and Greencastle/Moville where he was able to switch off and relax & finally get that peace and quiet he deserved.

The care dad received in the last years of his life allowed him to retain his dignity, individuality and his magnificent strength of character, despite his overwhelming disabilities.

It allowed him to overcome.

If he were here, he would urge us to look at those young carers and the incredible and heroic daily work they do as a model for future leadership - their ethos of deep respect, a respect for everyone regardless of where they come from or stage of life.

These are the foundation stones that are critical to all communities.

The Reverend ML King might describe it as the politics of love.

Dad would urge us to listen, so that in spite of it all; we shall overcome.

Thank you dad for a life well lived.
Lawsuit cites claims of corruption, alleging the NRA diverted millions of dollars to senior leaders for personal use.

New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a bombshell lawsuit in a state court seeking to dissolve the National Rifle Association and alleging millions in donor funds were diverted under the leadership of NRA president Wayne LaPierre.

The NRA operated as a breeding ground for greed, abuse and brazen illegality, James said in a news conference. For these years of fraud and misconduct we are seeking an order to dissolve the NRA in its entirety.

New Yorks lawsuit, filed in state court in Manhattan, is a civil complaint, but James said the investigation was continuing and she expected criminal referrals would be made if warranted by evidence.

The NRA is the largest organisation of gun owners and for decades has been a powerful supporter of Republican politicians and an effective opponent in the US Congress of Democrat-backed gun control proposals.

The association responded in a series of tweets calling the suit a transparent attempt to score political points and attack the leading voice in opposition to the leftist agenda.

(1/3) NRA PRESIDENT RESPONDS TO NY AG: This was a baseless, premeditated attack on our organization and the Second Amendment freedoms it fights to defend. You could have set your watch by it: the investigation was going to reach its crescendo as  NRA (@NRA) August 6, 2020

With headquarters in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC, the NRA is a non-profit organisation incorporated in New York state. Attorney General James began investigating the NRA more than a year ago when accusations surfaced about the misuse of donor funds by NRA president LaPierre.

The lawsuit, filed in state court in Manhattan after an 18-month investigation, highlighted misspending and self-dealing allegations that have roiled the NRA and its longtime leader LaPierre, in recent years  from hair and makeup for his wife to a $17m post-employment contract for himself.

Wayne LaPierre, the NRA chief executive officer, is accused of the misuse of millions of dollars in donor funds [File: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg]

Simultaneously, the Washington, DC, attorney general sued the NRA Foundation, a charitable arm of the organisation designed to provide programmes for firearm safety, marksmanship and hunting safety, accusing it of diverting funds to the NRA to help pay for lavish spending by its top executives.

The troubles, which James said were long cloaked by loyal lieutenants and a pass-through payment arrangement with a vendor, started to come to light as the NRAs deficit piled up and it struggled to find its footing after a spate of mass shootings in the US eroded support for its pro-gun agenda. The organisation went from a nearly $28m surplus in 2015 to a $36m deficit in 2018.

On hearing of the lawsuit President Donald Trump said on Thursday, Its a very terrible thing that just happened. I think the NRA should move to Texas and lead a very good and beautiful life. This has been going on for a long time. Theyve been absolutely decimated by the cost of that lawsuit. And its very sad.

James, a Democrat, argued that the organisations prominence and cosy political relationships had lulled it into a sense of invincibility and enabled a culture where nonprofit rules were routinely flouted and state and federal laws were violated.

Even the NRAs bylaws and employee handbook were ignored, she said.

The NRAs influence has been so powerful that the organisation went unchecked for decades while top executives funnelled millions into their own pockets, James said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.

The NRA is fraught with fraud and abuse, which is why, today, we seek to dissolve the NRA, because no organisation is above the law.

A spokesman for the NRAs legal team had no immediate comment, according to the Reuters news agency.

In addition to LaPierre, the New York lawsuit names NRA executives chief of staff Wilson Phillips, general counsel John Frazer and operations director Joshua Powell as defendants.

James is taking aim at the NRA after her office last year dismantled President Donald Trumps charitable foundation and fined him $2m to settle allegations he used donations meant for worthy causes to further his own business and political interests.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 20:25:19|Editor: huaxia

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ROME, Aug.6 (Xinhua) -- Alexis Sanchez has completed his free move from Manchester United to Inter Milan, the Serie A side confirmed on Thursday.

Sanchez moved to Inter last summer on a loan deal without an option to buy, and the Chilean provided four goals and nine assists in 30 appearances.

The 31-year-old terminated his original contract with Manchester United with mutual consent, meaning it will save the transfer fee for Inter.

"FC Internazionale Milano announce that Alexis Sanchez has joined the Nerazzurri on a free transfer. The Chilean forward has signed a permanent contract with the Club until 30 June 2023," read Inter Milan's statement. Enditem
The Kremlin assists authoritarian regimes which suppress own populations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is making Africa a priority, massively expanding military presence says German intelligence ageny's classified report, seen by Bild.

In particular, Russians intend to set up military bases in six regions. They seek to put their bases in the Central African Republic (CAR), Madagascar, Eritrea, Mozambique, Egypt, and Sudan, reads the intel report, Bild wrote.

In 2015, Russia signed the relevant agreements were the said countries, the report reads.

The document says the Russian Federation is already semi-officially training the African military. To this end, 180 instructors deployed to the CAR and other parts of Africa, while about 20 Mali soldiers undergo training in Russia annually, wrote Defense Express, a Ukrainian outlet reporting on military issues.

Read alsoBloody trail of Russian military in Libya  media

Also, the Kremlin assists authoritarian regimes which suppress own populations. Moscow provides them with manpower  mercenaries who are part of private military companies, including Wagner PMC.

As UNIAN reported on July 24, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) has received new evidence that the Russian Federation continues positioning military equipment in Libya and supplying weapons to the front line through Private Military Company (PMC) Wagner Group.
WINDSOR, N.C. - At least nine people, including a 5-year-old girl with autism, were killed as Tropical Storm Isaias battered the U.S. East Coast with rain and fierce winds after making landfall as a hurricane in North Carolina. Millions of people were without power on Wednesday after felled trees downed power lines.

The sound of generators and chainsaws punctuated the sunrise in New Jersey, where more than 1 million homes and businesses were without electricity. NJ Transit train service remained suspended while crews cleared about 150 trees and repair signals and overhead wires.

Regional rail service was also suspended in Philadelphia after Isaias raised the Schuylkill River and sent an unsecured construction barge into a bridge. Inspectors were checking for damage. Interstate 676, which crosses the bridge, was also closed in both directions.

Patrick Foye, chairman of New Yorks Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said more than 2,000 trees fell across the systems train and bus network.

This storm caused severe damage, Foye said Wednesday. Not since Superstorm Sandy has our system experienced this type of wind.

Two people died when Isaias spun off a tornado that struck a North Carolina mobile home park. Another person died in Pennsylvania when their vehicle was overtaken by water and swept downstream. The 5-year-old girl had gone missing from her Philadelphia-area home during the height of the storm Tuesday and was found dead Wednesday. Authorities said they believed she was swept away by floodwaters in the creek behind her house.

Three others were killed by falling trees toppled by the storm in Maryland, Connecticut and New York City, and another person died in Delaware when a tree branch fell on them, authorities said. A woman was found dead inside a New Hampshire house Tuesday evening.

Isaias sustained top winds of up to 65 mph (105 kph) more than 18 hours after coming ashore, but it was down to 40 mph max winds as of early Wednesday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Isaias toggled between hurricane and tropical storm strength as it churned toward the East Coast. Fueled by warm ocean waters, the storm got a late burst of strength as a rejuvenated hurricane with top sustained winds of 85 mph (136 km/h) before coming ashore late Monday near Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina. Its tropical storm status was sustained, but weakened, as it headed north into Canada on Tuesday night.

Before making landfall late Monday, Isaias killed two people in the Caribbean and battered the Bahamas before brushing past Florida.

Tornadoes were confirmed by the National Weather Service in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey. Power outages also spread as trees fell, with more than 2.1 million customers without electricity across multiple states as of Wednesday night, according to PowerOutage.US, which tracks utility reports.

With many people facing several days in the dark, New York and Connecticuts governors called for investigations into how utilities responded to the storm. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo blasted the companies for showing reckless disregard for storm planning and said it cant happen again.

Con Ed, the New York City power utility that saw more outages from Isaias than from any storm except Superstorm Sandy in 2012, set up stations Wednesday to hand out ice to people who were still without power.

In Doylestown, Pennsylvania, officials said four children were treated for minor injuries after high winds partially tore the roof off a day care centre. Also in the Philadelphia suburbs, rescue workers in Delaware County were searching for a young person who fell or jumped into the fast-moving water of a swollen creek, said Timothy Boyce, the county emergency services director.

Some of the worst damage seemed to be east and north of where the hurricanes eye struck land in North Carolina.

Fortunately, this storm was fast-moving and has already left our state, Gov. Roy Cooper said Tuesday.

______

Morgan reported from North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Associated Press contributors include science writer Seth Borenstein in Kensington, Maryland; Gerry Broome in Southport, North Carolina; Jonathan Drew in Durham, North Carolina; Michelle Liu in Columbia, South Carolina; Michael Kunzelman in College Park, Maryland; Bruce Shipkowski in Toms River, New Jersey; Shawn Marsh in Trenton, New Jersey; and Michael Sisak in New York.

___

Bryan Anderson is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a non-profit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
BEIJING, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping sent on Wednesday a message of condolence to his Lebanese counterpart, Michel Aoun, over the huge explosions in the Lebanese capital Beirut.

In his message, Xi said he was shocked to learn about the huge explosions in Beirut, which caused heavy casualties.

On behalf of the Chinese government and people and in his own name, Xi extended profound condolences to the victims, conveyed heartfelt sympathies to the bereaved families and the injured, and wished the injured a quick recovery. Enditem




TriggerPhoto/iStockBy ALLISON PECORIN and TRISH TURNER, ABC News



(WASHINGTON) -- White House officials told Senate Republicans on Wednesday that if a deal is not reached with Democrats on coronavirus relief by Friday, negotiations will likely stop.



"I think at this point we're either going to get serious about negotiating and get an agreement in principle," Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told reporters Wednesday. "I've become extremely doubtful that we'll be able to make a deal if it goes well beyond Friday."



Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer snapped back at Meadows' remark, following another day of negotiations between the parties, saying that Democrats would not be the ones to leave negotiations.



"We are not walking away," Schumer said. "We will stay here as long as it takes to get an agreement and we urge Mr. Meadows to sit down and continue to work with us and to do it as long as it takes."



Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin tried to walked back the deadline set by Meadows as he departed the Capitol following negotiations on Wednesday adding that he does not "want to describe this an an end of the week deadline," but Meadows held firm.



He said Friday is not necessarily a "drop date" but then added, "my optimism continues to diminish the closer we get to Friday and certainly falls off the cliff exponentially after Friday."



Meadows continued to hold out the possibility of executive actions by President Donald Trump on student loans, unemployment insurance and evictions but declined to say what the timeline for action would be.



"We've got those proposals before him and he'll make decisions on those in the coming days," Meadows said.



At a White House press conference Wednesday, Trump also highlighted some of those possibilities.



"My administration is exploring executive actions to provide protections against eviction," he said. "As well as additional relief to those who are unemployed as a result of the virus. Very importantly, I am also looking at a term-limited suspension of the payroll tax."



He also complained about an effort by Democrats to help state and local governments.



"The Democrats are primarily interested in a $1 trillion bailout of the poorly run states," Trump said. "We have some states and cities -- you know them all -- we don't have to go through names, but they've been very poorly run over the years, and we can't go along with the bailout money. Were not going to go along with that, especially since it's not COVID related."

Were not going along with the bailout money, Trump says about Democratic proposal for a $1 trillion relief package.



Trump adds he is considering executive action to prevent evictions and is looking at a term-limited suspension of the payroll tax. https://t.co/vOcIjLI6ER pic.twitter.com/52wHaEIHf7  ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) August 5, 2020

Entering negotiations on Wednesday, Schumer was asked about the possibility of a deal being reached by Friday and said that there are still divides between the parties.



"Well, we're working very hard but we got a lot of issues," Schumer said. "We see the problem as bigger, bolder and requiring more action than they do."



Multiple senators leaving the GOP conference policy lunch Wednesday said that Meadows had conveyed that Friday was a firm stopping point.



Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said that the negotiators relayed a similar message to the full GOP conference during their policy lunch.



"If there is not a deal by Friday, there won't be a deal," Blunt said. "At some point you have to set a deadline or just continue this Kabuki dance every day and nobody wants to."



This follows Tuesday's announcement that the negotiators had agreed to reach an agreement, if one is possible, by Friday.



But that seems to be about where agreement between Meadows, Mnuchin, Schumer and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi stops.



Senators who met with administration officials said the negotiations on Wednesday seemed almost identical to days prior.



"I still basically heard the same thing," Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., said. "There's a wide gulf between White House negotiators and Democrats."



The Senate is approaching what would be the start of its August recess at the end of the week.



Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday that the Senate will delay its recess and remain in session next week, though it is not clear what sort of action would take place during that time if negotiations on a package break down.



As tensions begin to boil over, Republicans are expected to begin offering piecemeal portions of their coronavirus relief proposal, the HEALS act, on the Senate floor.



Up first will likely be an effort to extend the paycheck protection program, whose application window closes at the end of the week.



Republicans have already attempted an extension of the unemployment benefits on the Senate floor -- an effort which was quashed by Democrats.



Democrats have flatly rejected the idea of a piecemeal series of bills. They've argued that a "big," "bold" and "comprehensive" bill is necessary to combat the ongoing health and economic crisis.



The Democratic proposal, which has already passed the House of Representatives, costs nearly $3 trillion. The Republican proposal is around $1 trillion.



ABC News' Libby Cathey contributed to this report.



Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
ALBANY - Mental health and substance abuse service providers have joined the chorus of calls to federal lawmakers to provide financial relief to state and local governments in light of millions of dollars in state payments being withheld.

Service providers were alerted in late June that their third-quarter payments from the state would be reduced by 20 percent as New York grapples with a multi-billion-dollar deficit caused by the response and ramifications of the coronavirus pandemic. They argued the community-based programs provide stable housing and support for individuals at a lower cost than other options, thus funding them adequately saves money in the long run.

U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko joined industry leaders Thursday for a virtual news conference calling for more federal assistance, which service providers say are necessary to ensure the withholdings do not become permanent resulting in layoffs of essential workers, service cuts and the evictions of hundreds of vulnerable New Yorkers.

The Democratic congressman championed the Heroes Act, passed by the House in May, as the stimulus package that provides a wholesome response to the devastation brought upon localities from COVID-19 while ensuring dignity to those who rely on the essential services facing cuts.

I find this so fundamentally flawed that they are rejecting this assistance, this rescue package that we have offered that will bring assistance and sensitivity to our state and local governments, he said of some U.S. senators who have sought to block any relief package from including financial assistance to state and local governments. Since we passed the Heroes Act, 70,000 people have died. I dont know what more expression of crisis is required to get these people to move.

The Heroes Act proposes a $3 trillion stimulus package, which includes a second round of $1,200 checks for individuals, hazard pay for essential workers, more funding for COVID-19 testing, contact tracing and other funds for state and local governments.

Senate Republican leaders have been steadfast in their refusal to offer state and local assistance, suggesting it amounts to a bailout for Democratic-led states, and recently released their stimulus package void of additional funding for state and local governments.

The $1.1 trillion HEALS Act, or Help, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools Act, would also provide another round of $1,200 stimulus checks for individuals plus over $100 billion to help schools and child care facilities reopen, and more financial support for hospitals, health centers and coronavirus research. It also extends liability protections to businesses, schools and health care providers, offers another round of funds for businesses through the Paycheck Protection Program and cuts the federal unemployment insurance to $200.

More for you Mental health advocates fear $5.5M withholding could mean cuts to services

Bill DeVita, executive director of Rehabilitation Support Services - which provides supportive services and housing to adults with severe mental illnesses, said if the cuts turn permanent, it could result in nearly 300 people being evicted among his organization's clients. Thousands more could be in similar predicaments through other programs.

The money withheld is the money that goes to pay those rental stipends, he said. Should the withholds become a cut, then we estimate that there will be hundreds of people who will eventually be evicted from their apartments.
In the midst of the coronavirus crisis, Madagascar's President Andry Rajoelina has emerged as one of biggest cheerleaders for a herbal tea called Covid-Organics, touted as an African cure for Covid-19. The race to cultivate the medicinal artemisia plant used in the tea has revealed a complex web of international commercial interests with much at stake.

Covid-Organics herbal tea was based on work by the Malagasy Institute of Applied Research (IMRA) which developed this traditional remedy using the Artemisia annua plant and other undisclosed ingredients.

This played to Madagascar's burgeoning artemisia industry, which started in 2005 with a company called Bionexx set up by Frenchman Charles Giblain.

Giblain has been based in Madagascar for some time, where he had worked as managing director for Malagasy textile firm Cotona, and learnt about artemisia's medicinal properties during a chance encounter. The plant was becoming more important as a source of artemisinin in the pharmaceutical industry.

Artemisia annua has long been used for the treatment of malaria and research was carried out to identify the exact compound exhibiting antimalarial effects. Researchers identified the molecular structure of artemisinin, found within the plant, and this eventually led to the first artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) for malaria, known as Coartem.

We've become one of the most significant actors in this sector, Giblain, originally from La Fleche in France's north west Sarthe department, told RFI during an interview with Antananarivo correspondent Laetitia Bezain.

Could Madagascar be a leader in artemisinin?

The World Health Organisation recommended the use of artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACT) for the treatment of malaria since April 2001, prompting demand by pharmaceutical companies for this derivative compound of the artemisia plant, which requires further processing after harvest.

Bionexx sees its main competition as producers of artemisinin in China, with most of their product destined to be used in the manufacture of ACT drugs.

Faced with the coronavirus pandemic, some of the company's artemisia cultivation is being diverted into the production of Covid-Organics.

The firm has its headquarters in the capital Antananarivo and a factory in Fianarantsoa, in the south-central part of the country, and is generally focused on selling artemisinin to big pharmaceutical companies such as Paris-based Sanofi for use in malaria ACT treatments.

Giblain is well connected within Madagascar and married to Lamia Barday, whose family runs Groupe Basan, a long-standing company involved in leather production, agriculture and food. A well-known expat, Giblain's connections are vital to his company's work with local landowners.

Land is particularly sensitive in Madagascar and foreigners cannot easily control agricultural production. He also maintains connections with French government officials, regularly meeting visiting senators on trips to Madagascar supporting French expats and business interests.

Dominating the market for artemisia

The company contracts the cultivation of the artemisia plant with local Malagasy farmers and acquired a local natural products extraction unit, renamed Innovexx, that carries out the extraction and purification to produce the artemisinin compound from the raw plant.

During its 15-year history, Bionexx has developed a network of 16,000 smallholder farmers who grow the Artemisia annua plant, producing between 2,000 to 2,500 tonnes of dried artemisia leaf per year, according to Giblain, with the aim of ramping up the harvest to 4,000 to 5,000 tonnes per year.

It takes approximately 100 kilograms of artemisia, which takes six months to harvest, to produce one kilogram of artemisinin. The artemisinin produced by Bionexx is sold as a commodity on a spot market rather than sold under contract.

Prices for artemisinin have dropped to a historic low in recent years, said 60-year-old Giblain, with the cost of malaria treatments falling in line with the cost of the combination therapy's most important ingredient.

At the start of the industry, we had prices of $2.40 per treatment, and now we're around $0.60 - a drastic fall, a price that's been made possible by the fall in price of artemisinin, said Giblain, who received an MBA at Wharton Business School, Pennsylvania, United States.

International connections

Bionexx originally received support from the French Development Agency in 2006. The company took part in a project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation run by the Centre for Novel Agricultural Products (CNAP) at the University of York in the UK.

Bill Gates himself has received some considerable flak on social media, with conspiracies about his alleged responsibility for the Covid-19 outbreak, or his supposed ulterior motive in helping to develop a vaccine.

Ironically, artemisia or the idea of a herbal cure is generally seen in a positive light by some of those same conspiracy theorists who smear Bill Gates, yet promote the use of a natural, medicinal plant like artemisia, and the Covid-Organics herbal tea pushed by Madagascar's Rajoelina.

Bionexx received support through Gates' Foundation and CNAP, which is focused on using science to develop plant-derived products - highlighting a considerable contradiction. A herbal cure for Covid-19 that was created using a strain of Artemisia annua that Gates' Foundation helped develop, while, at the same time, Bill Gates is supposedly in cahoots with the pharmaceutical industry to profit from the coronavirus pandemic.

The CNAP Artemisia Research Project worked with Bionexx on field trials to increase the yield of artemisinin from artemisia plants through breeding the best varieties, with the aim of making malaria drugs more affordable.

Who owns Bionexx?

Bionexx has a variety of shareholders who have provided capital to the company with the promise of a cut of the profits in the future, demonstrating that such a product based on medicinal plants produced on a large-scale will need regular cash injections to get started. Those involved also demonstrate the international nature of the enterprise  artemisia is not just a home-grown African remedy.

Mauritius Commercial Bank took an equity stake worth $2.5m in 2012 via its MCB Equity Fund. The artemisia producer also received $3.4m in debt financing through the Common Fund for Commodities, a financial institution established within a UN framework.

Investment has been made by Berlin-based HERi Africa, run by Dutchman Junte Wasman, described as an impact venture fund. Wasman, who is involved in solar energy company Devergy, has a seat on Bionexx's board of directors.

Fabrice Boulle, managing partner of Compass Venture Capital, is also listed on the board of directors, according to the company's incorporation in Madagascar as BioAgri. Mauritius-based Compass provides venture capital funding as part of ENL group, a business involved in several different areas including agro-industry.

How Rajoelina got involved

Bionexx became involved in the production of Covid-Organics following the intervention of Madagascar's President Andry Rajoelina, according to Giblain.

Rajoelina was solicited by Lucile Cornet-Verder, an orthodontist based in Paris, who runs a French association called La Maison de l'Artemisia, promoting the use of artemisia for treating malaria in herbal tea form, a so-called monotherapy that is not recommended by the World Health Organisation.

Cornet-Verder's association, established in 2012, developed a network of affiliates across the African continent, promoting local cultivation of the medicinal plant for inexpensive treatment of malaria and other parasites.

With the onset of Covid-19, the Frenchwoman saw the potential for a treatment based on artemisia and sent a letter to the Malagasy president, whose office then got in touch with Bionexx, according to Giblain.

Artemisia had previously shown some promise in research exploring its use against other viruses. Chinese researchers in 2005 published a study looking at Artemisia annua and its antiviral properties in treatment of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), a respiratory illness caused by a coronavirus.

Le Monde newspaper, in a profile of Cornet-Verder, described how President Rajoelina immediately seized the opportunity, launching the production of Covid-Organics products, which he characterised as an African remedy to the coronavirus.

There was no question of contributing to the fight against Covid-19, Giblain told Madagascar correspondent Bezain. He did not say specifically how much artemisia Bionexx earmarked for use in Covid-Organics, but that the company set a price accordingly.

We made an effort on the price  we established a price that didn't penalise us too much, indeed we were aware of the fact that the raw materials were going to be used to produce herbal tea and be freely distributed by the Malagasy state, said Giblain.

Bottling and packaging Covid-Organics

Bionexx was not the only company involved in bringing Covid-Organics to market. TAF, a company specialising in food, in particular coffee, helped produce Covid-Organics tea bags, while the herbal tea was bottled by Groupe Vidzar, known for their Dzama rum.

TAF is run by successful businessman and landowner Panayiotis Taloumis, who also acts as an honorary consul of Cyprus to Madagascar. Pana, as he is known to his friends, arrived in Madagascar from Greece at a young age with not a penny to his name, but worked hard, trading agricultural produce, according to a source who knows him, but spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Taloumis developed a number of interests across Madagascar - packaging, adding value and exporting commodities. He revived a number of ailing businesses, becoming very successful, thanks in part to his energy and dynamism, according to the source. And by navigating Madagascar's changing political landscape over the years, he managed to manoeuvre amongst the country's powerful families and business interests.

Groupe Vidzar was created in 1981 by Lucien Fohine, half-Chinese, half Malagasy, who passed on management of the family firm to his son Franck Fohine. The company owns Dzama, a brand of several varieties of rum produced in Madagascar and exported abroad.

Franck Fohine has been part of Madagascar trade missions to the UK alongside top-ranking members of the government, moving in high-level political circles. He is also a keen rally driver and his company has sponsored motorsport events in Madagascar.

RFI was in contact with Groupe Vidzar about its involvement in Covid-Organics, but the company did not wish to comment.

Business and politics hand in hand

The business interests behind Covid-Organics are in many ways emblematic of the way things are done in Madagascar, with established business leaders who have strong connections to powerful families on the island. President Rajoelina had already developed a number of contacts with private interests during his time as mayor of Antananarivo, and in Madagascar, business and politics go hand in hand.

Rajoelina's opportunism in seizing the chance to use Covid-Organics to promote Madagascar in a positive light is typical of way he operates, said a source who followed his career. The country also prides itself on its knowledge of endemic species and protection of its flora and fauna.

Yet Covid-Organics is an unproven treatment for the coronavirus, despite demonstrating some promise in recent lab tests by the Max Planck Institute. The World Health Organisation had erred on the side of caution, saying they were yet to receive any evidence on the herbal tea's effectiveness, as Rajoelina promotes Covid-Organics to several African countries.

He's just a populist to the tips of his fingers, that's what really drives him, Madagascar is an incredibly nationalist place, a former foreign diplomat, who spent several years in Madagascar, told RFI, speaking on the condition of anonymity. I don't think he's too concerned about facts.

Use of Covid funds in question

Regardless of Rajoelina's fervent promotion of Covid-Organics and initiatives promoting the consumption of the artemisia herbal tea, the number of cases in Madagascar has reached 12,222, according to statistics from the health ministry published on 5 August. The authorities were forced to put a lockdown on the capital back in place in early July, over concerns about a spike of infections.

Malagasy civil society groups have questioned the government's management of funds destined for the fight against the coronavirus pandemic and what money was being spent on. And the defence ministry has put out a call for volunteer doctors and nurses to help fight the pandemic.

The reality of Covid-19 did not seem to deter Rajoelina as the outbreak progressed, especially if he could he gain some political capital through the promotion of artemisia herbal tea, according to the diplomat.

He's a very slick operator, he's attractive, well spoken - so to have him out there on the world stage, saying that Madagascar has created this product that the world needs...it doesn't matter if it's true or not, but it will certainly resonate with the Malagasy, said the former foreign diplomat.
After having been criticised for reacting slowly to the Covid-19 pandemic resulting in a shortage of personal protective equipment like masks at the outset of the crisis, the Canadian Government is taking steps to ensure an early supply of a vaccine, when available. The Government announced that it has entered into agreements with two companies to secure millions of doses of the vaccine.

Canadas Minister of Public Services and Procurement Anita Anand said that after review by the Covid-19 Vaccine Task Force the government had signed agreements with the companies Pfizer and Moderna for the vaccine candidates.

Anand said that if all goes well Canada could get deliveries in 2021 while adding that the government are in talks with other vaccine candidates.

The Government is negotiating and signing agreements with a number of leading pharmaceutical companies to establish a guaranteed supply base of potential vaccine candidates, a statement said.

Anand, an Indo-Canadian Minister, pointed out that vaccination may not be made mandatory for Canadians, echoing the stand of the countrys public health authorities.

We are now squarely focused on preparing Canada for an eventual vaccine. Given intense global competition, we are taking an aggressive approach to secure access to the most promising candidates so that we will be ready to vaccinate all Canadians as quickly as possible, Anand said. She highlighted that the initial efforts earlier had been directed at procuring PPE and supplies

The formation of a Covid-19 Vaccine Task Force was announced at the same time, by Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Navdeep Bains.

At a media interaction, Anand said, Canadians are at the front of the line when a vaccine becomes available. Whenever the vaccine does become available, Health Canada will review its safety, efficacy and manufacturing quality before it is approved for use in the country.

Bains noted in a statement that the government was working hard on all possible fronts to deliver safe and effective treatments and vaccines against Covid-19 for Canadians as fast as possible.

Anand did not disclose the exact number of doses that have been ordered in advanced other than to put that figure in millions. She also would not divulge the names of other pharmaceutical or biotech companies with which the Government is also negotiating for potential vaccine procurement.

Canada has so far logged 118,140 confirmed cases of coronavirus infections, and recorded 8962 deaths. The number of fatalities has declined significantly from the peak in April, with only four being reported on Wednesday.
Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, the Running Mate of the Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the December 7 General Election, has successfully registered as a voter



A statement issued by the NDC Campaign Team, which was copied to the Ghana News Agency, on Wednesday stated: "May I implore all those who are yet to register to kindly do so, particularly, as we approach the end point of the voters registration exercise." Prof Opoku-Agyemang is quoted as saying.



"I still believe it is possible to register eligible Ghanaians without the violence, intimidation and blatant discrimination that has characterized the current exercise. We are better than this."

Source: GNA









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One of Indias biggest credit bureaus has informed the central bank about delays in receiving information from Ltd., the countrys second-largest lender by assets, according to people familiar with the matter.

The local unit of Experian Plc told the in July that has been late in providing details of its loans, including the repayment status of its millions of retail borrowers, the people added, asking not to be identified because the information is confidential. Such tardiness has been an issue for about two years, the people said, without giving further details, including on the length or extent of these delays.

Indian seeking to assess the credit worthiness of borrowers depend on data from credit bureaus like Experian, particularly at a time when soured debt is expected to surge due to the coronavirus pandemic. Lenders are obliged by the RBI to provide information on their borrowers to Experian and three other credit bureaus on a monthly basis. has in recent weeks brought its information up to date, the people said.





ALSO READ: HDFC launches Rs 14,000 crore QIP at floor price of Rs 1,838; stock up 1.5%

A spokesperson for HDFC Bank denied any delays in supplying the information. HDFC Bank has always been sharing information with the credit bureaus on time both as a matter of policy and regulatory compliance, the spokesperson said in an email. We are totally compliant in this regard.

Any information with regard to the RBI, the and the credit bureau is strictly confidential, a spokeswoman for Experian said in an email, when asked if HDFC Bank delayed submissions of the data. Experian operates within a framework laid down by the RBI and in accordance with the Credit Information Companies (Regulation) Act of 2005, the spokeswoman said.

The central bank did not respond to an email seeking comment.

The credit bureaus act as a central point for Indias to share details on the repayment status of their on a confidential basis. For example, if a particular corporate or individual borrower falls into arrears with one bank, information from the bureaus can prevent another lender from increasing its exposure.

A 2014 committee report on the bureaus activities said that an adequate amount of quality information on counterparties is a critical component of Indias financial infrastructure.

The countrys banks face the prospect of more debts souring after a loan repayment freeze ends later this month. The RBI has warned that the bad loan ratio might swell to a two-decade high of 12.5 per cent by March from 8.5 per cent a year earlier.

HDFC Bank has a total loan book of Rs 10 trillion ($134 billion) and more than 56 million customers, filings show.

Representatives for the three other credit bureaus  TransUnion CIBIL Ltd., the local unit of Equifax Inc. and CRIF High Mark Credit Information Services  didnt respond to requests for comment.
Demand for coronavirus testing has been huge, according to Tapestry Health. In just two hours after posting online, the non-profit had filled all its allotted reservations at sites in Agawam and Springfield.

We know that theres a high demand for testing in the state and as part of this stop the spread initiatives, said Tapestry CEO Cheryl Zoll. The goal is to test as many people as we can symptomatic or not symptomatic to really contain the spread of COVID[-19] as much as possible. So, the busier we are the happier we are because it shows that were doing what were charged to do.

The majority of people being tested on Wednesday had come ad hoc, to see if they could be tested without a reservation. On their first day, 93 tests were done with only 25 having made a reservation.

When coming for testing at the site, people will be asked a series of questions; name, date of birth, where they were born, race and ethnicity. The person's email address and phone number are also taken and will have the results within 48 hours. Some have had outcomes posted to them within 24 hours.

The way the test is being done is slightly different than the long stick that has been used to swab the very back of the nose. The cotton bud used at the testing site is much shorter.

The people who are coming do their own swabbing, said Kimberly Dion, clinical associate professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Nursing. So, we are observing. We instruct them on how to do it and we observe that they do it correctly.

Kimberly Dion provides the test to one of the people at the Agawam testing site at the Junior High School. (Douglas Hook / MassLive)

Each person at the drive-thru is handed a swab by a registered nurse, told to spin it in the nostril three times and hold it in place for 15 seconds. This process is repeated in the opposite nostril.

Better to be safe than sorry, said Agawam resident Susan Meunier who came to the testing center with her 91-year-old mother Patricia Borgatti. Shes needed extra care and weve given her everything she needs. We keep her home; we keep her safe. I do the groceries for her.

Pre-pandemic, Borgatti has always been active in the Agawam community and told MassLive that she only hopes that no one else will contract the deadly virus. When asked how she has been coping during the pandemic so far and she replied that there is always someone worse off.

Im stuck inside, said Borgatti. But Im on my feet and I can go on the porch at least.

Agawam resident 91-year-old Patricia Borgatti comes to get tested at the Junior High School in Agawam with her daughter, Susan Meunier, who is caring for her mother. She is a teacher and is working from home giving virtual lessons to her class. She has brought her mother to the testing center so as to be "better safe than sorry." (Douglas Hook / MassLive)

In partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard is supporting the Bay States Stop the Spread testing initiative. The COVID-19 testing center at the Broad is providing the tests, training and supplies.

Stop the Spread testing initiative has been applauded as a way to take some pressure off healthcare systems, but some feel it hasnt gone far enough, particularly in Western Massachusetts.

Gov. Charlie Baker said at a press conference on June 8 that the number of tests taken in Western Massachusetts communities tends to be higher and the COVID-19 rates tend to be lower.

If we start to see movement in any of these places, he said when asked if he would expand testing in the west. Well make adjustments.

Sen. Eric Lesser felt that the governor dismissed the question at the press conference and feels that many people that have limited access to transportation would suffer as a result.

Thats just totally unacceptable and we made clear that was unacceptable, said Lesser. They did open those sites in Springfield and Agawam but again, theyre very limited sites.

The site in Springfield is available for three days from Aug. 7, between the hours of 3 p.m. through 6 p.m. Agawam is available for four days for three hours also.

Today we might beat yesterdays record, said Amy Davis, spokesperson for Tapestry Health on Thursday.

Tapestry Health will provide free COVID-19 testing in Springfield and Agawam as part of the Stop the Spread testing initiative. The free testing will be done through a drive-through and is available for both asymptomatic and symptomatic people. (Douglas Hook / MassLive)

Theres more demand for testing than there are testing sites, said Zoll. When we opened up the phones for appointments they were filled within hours and you know so much more could be done.

Two hours after Tapestry released the locations for free testing, both testing sites were fully booked. Davis advised those that dont have a reservation to come down anyway. Zoll and Davis added that no one will be turned away before the courier arrives for the tests.

We already know the demand has far outstripped the access and you still have a huge area that it does not have to access to the free testing including the Berkshires, Franklin County, Hampshire County and large portions of Worcester County, said Lesser.

Baystate President and CEO Mark A. Keroack said Wednesday that it was only the second time since June that the patient count had been greater than 30 at Baystate Health Center.

Baystate Health had 34 in-patients Wednesday with coronavirus, 32 of them at its flagship Baystate Medical Center in Springfield.

"It worries me a lot that we might be starting to see a resurgence of cases in our area," said Keroack. "Which is quite alarming."

Dr. Mark A. Keroack at Springfield City Hall press briefing. (Douglas Hook / MassLive)

Testing has fallen off from 1,000 a day to more like 800 a day, the positive test rate has climbed from 1.7% to 2.2%, mirroring similar trends statewide. The number of positive patients is still low comparatively, to the early stages of the pandemic. In April, Baystate reported some days more than 100 coronavirus cases.

Tapestry has always stepped up in a Health crisis. It was one of the first organizations that did confidential HIV testing in the 80s. We had one of the first needle exchanges in the state in the 90s, said Zoll. So, its natural for us to step up in this case where theres a deep public health need and were on the ground and able to do it.

Zoll told MassLive that if they were asked to expand their services to other areas in the state or Western Massachusetts where they work extensively anyway, they would be ready and able really to serve the community in whatever way we are needed during this crisis.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health did not reply to a request for comment.

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Showa Denko K.K., IR Office, Finance & Accounting Department, Tel: 81-3-5470-3323

TOKYO, Aug 6, 2020 - (JCN Newswire) - Showa Denko (SDK; TSE:4004) announces that it will record expenses of 21.6 billion yen, consisting of 4.3 billion yen operating expenses and 17.3 billion yen non-operating expenses, in the first half of 2020 with regard to its acquisition of shares in Hitachi Chemical Company, Ltd. (Hitachi Chemical). SDK will also record an extraordinary loss of 4.7 billion yen as it adjusts graphite electrode production capacity.Furthermore, SDK has decided to revise its forecast of consolidated performance for the first half of 2020 as described below. (In our earlier news release of May 15, 2020, performance forecast was left "undecided."). In the graphite electrode business, where demand is sluggish, SDK has decided to record a 21.7 billion yen loss on valuation of inventory in accordance with the "lower of cost or market" accounting method. In addition, SDK has reviewed the influence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and the sharp decline in crude oil prices, on SDK's financial results. Forecast of dividend payment is revised accordingly.SDK is now examining its forecast of consolidated performance for full-year 2020, as business results after integration with Hitachi Chemical. Explanations will be provided at the time of announcement of the second quarter, 2020 business results on August 12, 2020.1. Recording of expenses for acquisition of shares in Hitachi ChemicalSDK will record expenses of 21.6 billion yen, consisting of 4.3 billion yen operating expenses and 17.3 billion yen non-operating expenses, in the first half of 2020 with regard to its acquisition of shares in Hitachi Chemical. "Advisory fee, attorney's fee, post-merger integration (PMI) expenses, expenses related to fund-raising, and registration and license tax" are temporary expenses."Interest on borrowing related to share acquisition" represents expenses corresponding to the first half of 2020.(1) Advisory fee, attorney's fee, etc. 3.5 billion yen (Operating expenses)(2) Post-merger integration (PMI) expenses 0.8 billion yen (Operating expenses)(3) Expenses related to fund-raising, registration tax, etc. 16.1 billion yen (Non-operating expenses)(4) Interest on borrowing related to share acquisition, etc. 1.2 billion yen (Non-operating expenses)----------Total 21.6 billion yen2. Recording of extraordinary loss(1) Provision for closure of Meitingen Plant, Germany, in the graphite electrode businessWe are facing prolonged graphite-electrode-inventory adjustments by electric steelmakers. In the European market, in particular, where economic slowdown is serious, our operating rates are low. After discussions with the labor union, we reached agreement on the closure of a production site in Meitingen, Germany, belonging to SHOWA DENKO CARBON Products Germany GmbH & Co. KG and SHOWA DENKO CARBON Germany GmbH. Thus, to cover expenses relating to the closure, we will record 4.7 billion yen expenses for business structure improvement as extraordinary loss during the first half of 2020.3. Revised forecast of consolidated business results(1) For the first half of 2020 (Jan. 1 - June 30, 2020)*See http://acnnewswire.com/topimg/Low_SDK202008061.jpg(2) Reasons for the revisionSales in the Inorganics segment will decline sharply. This is because demand for graphite electrodes (used in electric steelmaking) has fallen considerably due to the spread of slowdown in steel production from Europe to the rest of the world, resulting in a sharp decline in sales volumes and market price. Sales in the Petrochemicals segment will also fall sharply due to the fall in product market price, reflecting the rapid decline in naphtha prices. The impact of COVID-19 includes lower shipment volumes of basic chemicals and industrial gases due to the shrink of domestic demand; lower shipment volumes of aluminum fabricated products due to the slowdown in the world's automobile production; and lower shipment volumes of aluminum cans, reflecting production cuts by beer producers in Vietnam in April and May. Thus, sales in the Chemicals and Aluminum segments will decline.The Inorganics segment will record a large amount of operating loss. This is due to the fall in sales volumes and market prices in the graphite electrode business, as well as the recording of the 21.7 billion yen loss on valuation of inventory in accordance with the "lower of cost or market" accounting method. The Petrochemicals segment expects a fall in operating income due mainly to the negative influence of the difference between the receipts and disbursements of raw materials, reflecting the sharp decline in naphtha prices. The Chemicals and Aluminum segments expect a fall in operating income due to lower shipment volumes under COVID-19.Ordinary income reflects non-operating expenses for the acquisition of shares in Hitachi Chemical as described in 1 above. Net income attributable to owners of the parent reflects the extraordinary loss as described in 2 above.4. Revised forecast of dividend payment(1) Revised forecast*See http://acnnewswire.com/topimg/Low_SDK202008062.jpg(2) Reasons for the revisionBased on the forecast of the performance for the first half of 2020, we have revised our forecast of dividend payment. In view of the severe business environment, we will not pay dividends at the end of the second quarter.Note: The forecast in this document has been worked out based on information available as of today, and assumptions as of today about uncertain factors that can affect our future performance. Actual business results may differ materially from the above forecast due to a variety of risk factors, including, but not limited to, the impact of COVID-19 on the world economy, economic conditions, costs of naphtha and other raw materials, demand and market prices for graphite electrodes and other products, and foreign exchange rates.About Showa Denko K.K.Showa Denko K.K. (SDK; TSE:4004, ADR:SHWDY) is a major manufacturer of chemical products serving from heavy industry to computers and electronics. The Petrochemicals Sector provides cracker products such as ethylene and propylene, the Chemicals Sector provides industrial, high-performance and high-purity gases and chemicals for semicon and other industries, the Inorganics Sector provides ceramic products, such as alumina, abrasives, refractory/graphite electrodes and fine carbon products. The Aluminum Sector provides aluminum materials and high-value-added fabricated aluminum, the Electronics Sector provides HD media, compound semiconductors such as ultra high bright LEDs, and rare earth magnetic alloys, and the Advanced Battery Materials Department (ABM) provides lithium-ion battery components. For more information, please visit www.sdk.co.jp/english/.Source: Showa Denko K.K.Contact:Copyright 2020 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved.
(Natural News) If you thought that the worst thing China has done recently is unleash COVID-19 on the world, youd be closebut wrong.

In reality, the ChiComs in Beijing have already become a global threat to America and the West in general after years worth of maneuvering so they could come to dominate illicit drug trafficking as a means of attacking our countries from within.

As reported by The Epoch Times, criminal networks based in China or run by Chinese operatives push out tons of drug-making chemicals while helping to launder billions of dollars annually for the increasingly powerful Mexico-based cartels, even as most of the attention has been focused on violence south of the U.S. border.

Clearly the Chinese are way more dangerous, way more sophisticated, way more complex, and way more of a national security threat to America  its not even a comparison [with Mexican cartels], said Derek Maltz, the former chief of the Drug Enforcement Administrations special ops division, in an interview with the news outlet.

He says that cartel leaders have struck up agreements with Chinese money-laundering bosses based in Mexico that have led to lasting, mutually advantageous and profitable relationships while laying the groundwork for rapid growth.

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 spokesman told the outlet.

The Epoch Times adds:

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.

Another Chinese man was convicted in March for coordinating drug money collection in Chicago for Mexico-based cartels and then transferring it into bank accounts located in China, the Justice Department added.

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, the news outlet reported.

Maltz notes that traditionally, money laundering operations charge about 8 percent for laundering bulk amounts of cash. However, the Chinese networks took over the industry by dramatically cutting their commissions to as low as 1 percent or, sometimes, for nothing at all.

That makes perfect sense if the objective of the ChiComs isnt to earn income (Chinas economy is the second-largest in the world) but to undermine the United States and Western powers with a flood of powerful, deadly drugs. (Related: Mexican drug cartels using illegal immigration flood as cover to smuggle operatives and hard drugs into the U.S.)

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, he added.

Chinese citizens living in the U.S. also operate another popular scheme called the Chinese Underground Banking System. Not only do such operations launder money, they also assist Chinese nationals living in America in accessing huge amounts of money, the DEA said.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the DEA began targeting precursor chemicals used in the manufacture of meth.

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 Mexico  specifically to produce methamphetamine, Maltz said, resulting in the establishment of massive meth labs in the country.

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 added. People dont realize that ethnic Chinese are down there in the trenches organizing large-scale cocaine shipments as well.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

NaturalNews.com

Justice.gov
WASHINGTON The United States on Thursday began delivering aid to Lebanon in the aftermath of a massive deadly explosion, amid longstanding concerns about how officials can ensure that supplies get to those in need, and not to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

The first C-17 transport aircraft with 11 pallets of food, water and medical supplies from the U.S. militarys Central Command arrived from Qatar and two more were expected in the next 24 hours.

U.S. officials said the administration also plans to provide at least $15 million in disaster assistance. The officials were not authorized to discuss the matter ahead of a formal announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity. But the provision of assistance is complicated by the outsized role that Hezbollah plays in both the Lebanese government and in the fabric of Lebanons society.

A stockpile of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate set off a massive blast that rocked the capital city. The chemical had been left sitting in a warehouse ever since it was confiscated from an impounded cargo ship in 2013.

The explosion, powerful enough to be felt in Cyprus across the Eastern Mediterranean, killed more than 130 people, wounded thousands and blasted buildings for miles around. Two days later, some 300,000 people more than 12% of Beiruts population cant return to their homes, officials estimate. Damaged hospitals are still struggling to deal with the wounded and officials have estimated losses at $10 billion to $15 billion.

Hezbollah is recognized as a legitimate political party in Lebanon but deemed a terrorist organization by the State Department because of its anti-Israel stance and attacks on the Jewish state. As such, it is subject to significant American sanctions and since it has been part of the Lebanese government, successive U.S. administrations have wrestled with how to continue to provide aid to the country that does not benefit the group.

Although pro-Israel lawmakers and anti-Iran hawks have long demanded that the U.S. halt all assistance to the Lebanese Armed Forces, the Trump administration and its predecessors have resisted such a cut-off, arguing that the army is the only legitimate entity in Lebanon capable of countering Hezbollahs influence and ensuring security.

Currently, non-military U.S. aid to Lebanon is funneled in such a way as to avoid or reduce the chances of it making its way to any part of Hezbollah, a task which has become more difficult and is particularly sensitive in the current circumstance of providing disaster assistance since the group took control of the Health Ministry earlier this year.

Were well aware of some of the concerns with whom the aid would go to and ensuring that the aid gets to the people of Lebanon that need it most, said Jonathan Hoffman, chief spokesman for the Pentagon, during a press conference Thursday. He said the department is working with the State Department and taking its guidance on where to deliver the aid.

Gen. Frank McKenzie, the top U.S. commander for the Middle East and head of Central Command, said in a statement that, We are closely coordinating with the Lebanon Armed Forces, and expect that we will continue to provide additional assistance throughout Lebanons recovery effort.

Navy Capt. Bill Urban, spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said the Lebanese Armed Forces will receive the aid and distribute it to the people, and that the effort is being coordinated with the U.S. embassy in Beirut and USAID.

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
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) on Wednesday signed an executive order ending the state's lifetime voting ban for residents who have a felony conviction, giving them the ability to vote after they complete their sentences.

The move comes after activists spent months protesting outside the state capitol. The nonprofit Sentencing Project estimated in 2016 that about 52,000 Iowans weren't able to vote because of their felony convictions, with almost 24,000 finished with their criminal sentences.

"Today we take a significant step forward in acknowledging the importance of redemption, second chances, and the need to address inequalities in our justice system," Reynolds said in a statement. "The right to vote is the cornerstone of society and the free republic in which we live. When someone serves their sentence, they should have their right to vote restored automatically."

Robert Pate runs a mentorship and support group in Des Moines called Image 4 Lives, and as someone with a felony conviction, he is "thankful" for the executive order. "People will feel more accepted coming out of prison," Pate told The Guardian. "People will get more involved with voting."

Those convicted of murder, manslaughter, and abortion after the second trimester, which is a felony in the state, will not see their voting rights automatically restored, The Guardian reports. Because this is an executive order and not a constitutional amendment, the change could be rescinded by a future governor, but Reynolds said she will push the Republican-led legislature to pass an amendment making her new policy permanent.

More stories from theweek.com

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Pelosi doubts Republicans will pass generous coronavirus bill: 'Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn'

Security forces fire tear gas at anti-government protesters in Beirut


A lot of Latino voters arent excited about Joe Biden. Some still associate the ex-vice president with former President Barack Obama, who is derisively remembered by some immigration rights advocates as the deporter-in-chief because 3 million people were removed from the U.S. during his eight years in office.

But Biden is signaling a different approach to immigration, a path he explained in his Latino agenda unveiled this week.

One big change: Dont wait for Republicans to help.

Biden doesnt plan to waste months trying to woo a handful of Republicans to join Democrats in supporting a comprehensive immigration bill. Instead, hell focus on individual pieces of legislation, including one to provide a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented people in the U.S. who register, are up-to-date on their taxes, and have passed a background check.

And unlike Obama, Biden plans to try to pass an immigration bill at the start of his administration, when the Democrats could have control of both the House and Senate. Obama prioritized passing a health care reform law. By the time he got around to immigration, Democrats had lost their congressional majority.

Bidens change is a huge positive for immigration advocates like Marielena Hincapie, executive director of the National Immigration Law Centers Immigrant Justice Fund.

I think that thats one of the biggest lessons learned from the Obama administration and from the current dysfunction of Congress, Hincapie told The Chronicles Its All Political podcast.

Yet Biden didnt abandon the philosophy of pushing for comprehensive immigration reform even after he was out of office. Hincapie said he changed when his and Sen. Bernie Sanders supporters met to craft policy solutions that could unite Democrats after Biden clinched the Democratic presidential nomination.

Joe Biden probably started off feeling that comprehensive immigration reform was the silver bullet that solves all the immigration problems. Thats the default of most Democrats, said Hincapie, who co-chaired the teams immigration group after being appointed by Sanders. She supports his Latino agenda, noting that it mirrors much of what the panel suggested. Joe Biden has shown that he can listen to the community. This is a different political moment.

Of course, Bidens ditch-the-Republicans approach requires a big if: It will work only if the Democrats not only hold the House but gain at least three seats to take back the Senate. The latest polls show Democrats flipping GOP-held Senate seats in Arizona and Colorado, losing a Democratic-held seat in Alabama and running close against Republican incumbents in Maine, North Carolina, Iowa and Montana.

Biden has more immediate problems with Latinos. For starters, hes polling well behind where Hillary Clinton was among Latino voters four years ago in six states that could decide the election, according to a June survey conducted jointly by Latino Decisions, Voto Latino and the Voter Participation Center.

At this time in 2016, according to the groups, Clinton was winning 73% of the Latino electorates support in the six states  Arizona, Florida, Texas, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Biden is at 60%, the new poll found.

The survey shows a low enthusiasm about the candidacy of Vice President Joe Biden, Maria Teresa Kumar of the nonpartisan Voto Latino wrote Wednesday in an opinion piece for CNBC.

Latinos are one of the largest-growing demographics in the country, and their support is essential to ensuring a win that cannot be challenged or litigated  especially in key battleground states, Kumar wrote.

Kumar said most Latinos havent heard from Bidens campaign or the Democratic Party. Only 48% of the respondents said the party is doing a good job reaching out to them. Four years ago, 66% felt that way.

Bidens problems with Latino voters arent new. Sanders beat him in California, Nevada and Colorado during the primary season largely because the Vermont senators campaign was organizing Latino voters there for nearly a year before election day. Biden was seldom heard from.

A survey last month by Hincapies organization found that undecided voters in eight battleground states would respond positively if Biden crafted a more pro-immigrant message. What works best, the survey found, are messages that appeal to issues beyond immigration and stress economic fairness, such as, We need to build an economy that creates good-paying jobs and gives everyone, including immigrants, a fair shot to succeed.

It hasnt helped Bidens standing with Latinos that it took him until February  nine months after he launched his presidential campaign and three years after he left office  to say it was a big mistake for the Obama administration to have deported people without criminal records. He has since promised to call for a 100-day moratorium on deportations if he is elected.

Hincapie is among the activists who want Biden to go further.

Some of us would want the moratorium to be not just for 100 days, but frankly, it should be until there is some kind of legalization program, she said. But well have to see how that actually gets implemented under a Biden administration.

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli
The spokesperson of China's Permanent Mission to the United Nations said Wednesday that the Chinese ambassador has called on parties concerned to exercise restraint in Kashmir.

Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, expounded on China's principled position on Kashmir during the Security Council's closed-door discussions on Wednesday, said the spokesperson.

Zhang said that India unilaterally changed the status quo of Kashmir through constitutional amendments in August 2019, stoking tensions in the region. A year later, there is no fundamental improvement but a risk of further escalation in the situation of Kashmir, according to the spokesperson.

He said China is seriously concerned about the current situation in Kashmir and the relevant military actions. China opposes unilateral actions that will complicate the situation, and calls on relevant parties to exercise restraint and act prudently. In particular, they should refrain from taking actions that will escalate tensions, according to the spokesperson.

Zhang Jun (C), China's permanent representative to the UN and the UN Security Council's president this month, speaks during a briefing at the UN headquarters in New York, the United States, March 2, 2020. /Xinhua

The Chinese amabassador to the UN underlined that the Kashmir issue is a dispute left over from the past and should be peacefully and properly addressed in accordance with the UN Charter, Security Council resolutions and bilateral agreement. It is the responsibility of the Security Council to help ease the tensions and properly resolve relevant issues. The international community remains highly concerned about the Kashmir situation, with the expectation that the Security Council should perform its own duties, according to the spokesperson.

Zhang also said that both India and Pakistan are friendly neighbors of China and big developing countries at a critical stage of development. China is committed to growing friendly relations with both countries and calls on the two countries to focus on national development, set store by safeguarding peace and stability in South Asia, properly handle historical grievances, abandon zero-sum thinking, avoid unilateral actions, resolve disputes peacefully through dialogue and consultation, and jointly uphold peace and stability of the region, according to the spokesperson.

The Security Council on Wednesday heard briefings from the UN Secretariat on the current situation in Kashmir and the work of the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan, said the spokesperson.

Security Council members expressed concern over the current situation in Kashmir and expressed the hope that relevant parties would exercise restraint and properly resolve relevant issues through dialogue to jointly maintain regional peace and stability, said the spokesperson.
Bay Area nuclear war protesters held their annual rally at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory virtually on Thursday, the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima to call for an end to nuclear weapons.

The rally started at 8 a.m. Pacific time at https://www.hiroshimanagasaki75.org/events and was part of a national event called "From Hiroshima to a Healthy Tomorrow: Embracing Our Common Humanity," organized by more than 160 groups.

Virtual programming will also occur on Sunday, the anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki 75 years ago.

Estimates of the number of people killed in the two explosions range from 110,000 to 210,000, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a non-profit organization that sets the hands of the Doomsday Clock, a measure of how close humanity is to destroying itself.

The clock is now set at 100 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been to annihilation.

"Every time I get sick, I say maybe this is the end," said Nagasaki survivor Rev. Nobuaki Hanaoka, who was an infant when the bomb hit and whose mother and sister died in the attack.

He said he's been saying that for 75 years and says he's lucky to still be alive.

Historian Gar Alperovitz, a former special assistant in the U.S. State Department, said the decision to drop the bombs was not made to end the war but rather for diplomacy.

Alperovitz said military officials knew that using the bombs were not necessary. Japan was ready to surrender in two weeks, he said.

Daniel Ellsberg, best known for releasing the Pentagon Papers to quicken the end to the Vietnam War, said American officials may have used the bomb to prompt Russia to pull back in Eastern Europe.

Demonstrators say President Donald Trump's administration is pouring gasoline onto the flames of new global arms race. In the 1960s, Russia imitated the American buildup of nuclear arms, Ellsberg said.

He said for more than half a century, there have been two doomsday machines, the U.S. and Russia, on hair-trigger alert.

Demonstrators say the Livermore Lab is central to the increasing nuclear danger.

This year, they say that 80 percent of the funding for the lab is slated for nuclear weapons activity while less than 2 percent is for civilian science.

A spokesperson for the lab couldn't be reached immediately for a comment.

The Berkeley City Council last week adopted a resolution calling for President Trump and Congress to lead an effort to avoid nuclear war by giving up the option to do so, taking the weapons off hair-trigger alert, ending the president's sole authority to launch an attack, canceling plans to create enhanced weapons in the place of the current arsenal, and pursuing an agreement to eliminate the weapons among countries with nuclear war capability.

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.
California State Capitol Building View Photo

Sacramento, CA  State lawmakers are debating whether businesses should be required to notify all workers anytime one of the fellow employees has been exposed to COVID-19.

If approved, California would be the first in the nation to mandate the practice. Companies would have to notify workers within 24 hours of learning about exposure, and violators could be fined up to $10,000. The information would also have to be relayed by the business to the state. Currently, it is only recommended that the businesses report the information, as opposed to a legal requirement.

The bill is authored by Democratic Assemblywoman Eloise Gomez Reyes, who argues that a stricter reporting framework will help the state get the pandemic under control quicker.

The California Chamber of Commerce has come out against the bill, arguing that it will be nearly impossible for businesses to comply with it.

The bill passed the Senate Labor, Public Employment and Retirement Committee yesterday by a 4-1 vote.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A New Zealand man found guilty of murdering a British backpacker appealed his conviction and punishment on Thursday, with his new lawyer arguing he didnt get a fair trial and his sentence was too harsh.

A jury had earlier determined that tourist Grace Millane was strangled to death on her 22nd birthday in December 2018 by a man she had met through the dating app Tinder.

She went out for drinks with him before returning to his hotel apartment in central Auckland, where he killed her. He stuffed her body into a suitcase, drove to a forest and buried it in a shallow grave, where police found it a week later.

Prosecutors argued in the trial that the man deliberately strangled Millane to death, while defence lawyers claimed the death was accidental after the pair engaged in consensual erotic choking that went too far.

The jury found the man guilty and a judge sentenced him to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years.

Lawyer Rachael Reed told the Court of Appeal judges that she wasnt seeking to excuse the mans abhorent actions after Millanes death, according to news organization Stuff. But she said the judge placed too much weight on those actions in determining the mans sentence.

Reed also said the conviction had problems, including questions around the issue of consent, some of the expert evidence, and negative evidence given by other women about the mans character.

The name of the 28-year-old man convicted of murder is being kept secret for now by court order, a restriction that is sometimes imposed in the New Zealand judicial system for reasons such as another pending trial.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to the world to renounce nuclear weapons.

His remarks came in a video message delivered to a Peace Memorial Ceremony in Japan on Thursday.

Seventy-five years ago, a single nuclear weapon visited unspeakable death and destruction upon this city, he said. The effects linger to this day.

According to him, Hiroshima and its people have chosen not to be characterized by calamity, but instead by resilience, reconciliation and hope.

As unmatched advocates for nuclear disarmament, the survivors, known as hibakusha, have turned their tragedy into a rallying voice for the safety and well-being of all humanity, he added.

Since its earliest days and resolutions, the Organization has recognized the need to totally eliminate nuclear weapons, Mr. Guterres said. Yet, that goal remains elusive.
CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - China will on Friday release July numbers for imports, exports and trade balance, highlighting a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. Imports are expected to rise 1.0 percent on year after gaining 2.7 percent in June. Exports are called lower by an annual 0.2 percent after rising 0.5 percent in the previous month. The trade surplus is pegged at $42.0 billion, down from $46.42 billion a month earlier. Japan will see June numbers for household spending and for its leading and coincident indexes. In May, their scores were 78.4 and 73.4, respectively. Household spending is tipped to sink 7.5 percent on year after tumbling 16.2 percent in May. Australia will see July results for the Performance of Services Index from AiG; in June, the index score was 31.5. Taiwan will release July numbers for imports, exports and trade balance. Imports are tipped to decline 3.1 percent on year after sinking 8.6 percent in June. Exports are called lower by an annual 0.22 percent after sliding 3.8 percent in the previous month. The trade surplus is pegged at $4.277 billion, down from $4.84 billion. 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.
Accusations of Corruption and Tax Evasion Incinerate Bulgaria's Regulation Model

Published August 6, 2020 by Lee R

Industry iniquities have brought about dissolution of the Bulgaria regulation model.

Bulgaria's gambling agency has been canceled by Parliamentary vote.

The Decision

Oversight of gambling has been handed over piecemeal to Bulgarian tax authorities after the vote.

The second reading by the Bulgarias National Assembly of amendments to the Law on Gambling was intended to establish more control over the country's gambling landscape, with the handover to the tax authority the most extreme outcome.

The Formal Conclusion

The bill concludes the operations and existence of Bulgaria's State Gambling Commission (SGC), which was imploding with accusations that senior SGC members were involved organized crime.

Bad Apple

These charges arise from a Bulgaria government conflict with private businessman Vasil Bozhkov, former owner of Bulgaria's largest gambling operations. Bozkhov currently sits in United Arab Emirates, fighting extradition to Bulgaria where charges of extortion and bribery await.

Other Compromises

Less extreme outcomes visible in earlier drafts of the amendments proposed compromise folding gambling regulation into a body under the Council of Ministers.

Overseeing the Breakup

The voting decision passes oversight to the National Revenue Agency, while winding down the SCH over the next three months under the watchful eye of a so-called liquidation commission to eliminate the destruction of potentially incriminating files.

New Stringent Operators Requirements

As for operators, they can look forward to more stringent financial and capital requirements: now, those looking to open a slots hall will for example need to demonstrate reserves of at least BGN500k (US$297k), up quite substantially from the old BGN7,500 cost of the permit. Operators seeking to open full casinos now will be required to show reserves of BGN1.5m.

Ironic Relief

Amazingly, these figures are actually a discount! The amounts are actually half of what was originally proposed. The Assembly further rejected a proposal to limit gaming venues to five-star hotels.

Workers Not Happy

The vote was vehemently protested by casino workers who were concerned about losing their jobs with the new measures, certain that many casinos would indeed shutter up and thousands of jobs would be lost.

Outlook

The $402m Bozhkov is accused of evading is enough to put the matter of gambling oversight directly into the hands of the collector, where the majority of the jurisdiction's revenues--and debts--now lie.
The federal government could be on the hook for millions of dollars in refunds to users of online court records after an appeals court ruled Thursday that court administrators illegally included a wide range of expenses that were never authorized to be recovered from the public.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a district court judges ruling in 2018 that court officials inflated fees for the Public Access to Court Electronic Records or PACER system by including costs for flat-screen courtroom televisions, electronic alerts to victims and police, as well as computer systems to manage jurors.

The three-judge appeals court panel unanimously ruled that Congress gave the federal courts permission to charge for systems that improve public access to court files, but did not create a technology slush fund that could be used to subsidize almost any purchase of electronics by the federal judiciary.

Using [PACER] fees to fund E-Juror services and most of the Courtroom Technology category was impermissible, Judge Todd Hughes wrote in a 32-page opinion. They do not provide access to electronic docketing information. Courtroom Technology funds largely go toward improving the courtroom experienceproviding electronic presentations of evidence on flat-screen TVs, for instancein ways unrelated to providing access to electronic information stored in courts [electronic] docketing system.

Critics of the system the federal government uses to collect about $145 million in electronic access fees each year filed suit in 2016, claiming the federal courts were essentially padding the bills paid by attorneys, media organizations, for-profit legal databases, nonprofit legal advocacy groups and members of the public.

Some judges also alleged that the fees were being used to subsidize the courts overall information technology budget.

However, the Justice Department, representing court administrators, argued that Congress had given the courts broad authority to select expenses used to justify PACER fees. Government lawyers also claimed the suit was flawed for technical reasons.

Story continues

U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle ruled in 2018 that the courts had included impermissible expenses when calculating how much to charge in PACER fees. But she suggested a large swath of the costs of the docketing system the courts have used for more than two decades could be passed on to the public through the fees.

Hughes said in his ruling Thursday that Huvelle got it just right.

A wide range of First Amendment advocates, press associations and news outletsincluding POLITICOurged the appeals court to rein in the fees. Many lawyers and transparency activists have encouraged Congress to eliminate the access fees altogether and create unfettered access to federal court records via the internet.

In his opinion Thursday, Hughes said it was important to preserve access to the courts records, but that Huvelles opinion did enough to protect that.

We agree with plaintiffs and amici that the First Amendment stakes here are high, Hughes wrote, joined by Judges Alan Lourie and Raymond Clevenger. If large swaths of the public cannot afford the fees required to access court records, it will diminish the publics ability to participate in and serve as a check upon the judicial processan essential component in our structure of self-government   But we do not foresee the district courts middle-ground interpretation  as resulting in a level of user fees that will significantly impede public access to courts.

The suit covers PACER fees paid from 2010 to 2016. Its unclear how much could be refunded. While the Federal Circuit opinion blessed Huvelles approach, the judges also left the door open for her to take a closer look at some of the courts expenses if she agrees to do so.

The Justice Department and the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts declined to comment on it. The government could ask the full bench of the appeals court to take up the case or could petition the Supreme Court for review.

Deepak Gupta, the attorney who argued for PACER users at the appeals court, said Thursday he was thrilled with the decision.

The judiciary's antiquated paywall inhibits ordinary people's access to the courts, prevents journalists from covering what the courts are up to, and makes important academic research difficult or impossible. The next step should be to make access completely free, Gupta said.

The appellate litigator also said it was refreshing to score a win in the case, even though the conduct of the courts themselves is at the heart of the dispute.

"It's also a testament to the integrity of our federal courts that it's even possible for private litigants to prevail in a case like this  a class action in the federal courts, challenging the federal court system itself for overcharging people, Gupta added.

The Federal Circuit hears appeals in an eclectic set of cases, including patents and trademarks, federal employment disputes and certain money claims against the government. While located in Washington, it is a separate court from the better known U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which handles most appeals from rulings issued by federal district court judges in the nations capital.
The Dow and the S&P 500 have been up for four straight days, advancing 1.39% and 0.64%, respectively, on Wednesday. The Nasdaq, which traded above 11,000 for the first time on Wednesday, has amassed a six-day win streak. All this comes ahead of Friday's key July jobs report. * Treasury yields fall ahead of unemployment data (CNBC)

Dow futures are indicating a drop of about 140 points at the open today, following Wednesday's session in which the Nasdaq set yet another record high and the S&P 500 inched within 2% of its February record high. S&P 500 and Nasdaq were also lower as Wall Street awaited weekly jobless claims. Futures had been trading marginally higher in the morning before their negative turn. (CNBC) * European stocks slightly lower after Bank of England holds rates (CNBC)

President Donald Trump threatened executive action if Democrats and Republicans cannot soon come to an agreement on another coronavirus relief bill, saying he would act to extend the federal eviction moratorium, suspend the collection of payroll taxes and re-institute a federal supplement to unemployment insurance. It is unclear how he could specifically act  but Trump's comments at the White House on Wednesday come as administration officials and Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill continue to fail to reach a broader agreement. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters Wednesday she felt "optimistic that there is a light at the end of the tunnel." But, she added, "how long the tunnel is remains to be seen." (The Washington Post)



* Vulnerable GOP senators offer more generous unemployment plan than their party proposed (CNBC)

Sixteen Republican senators indicated they would support another $25 billion in aid for the airline industry as it continues to reel with a coronavirus-induced slowdown in travel. Trump also expressed support for the federal aid later Wednesday, a boost to the likelihood it is included in a broader relief Covid-19 package. More than 200 lawmakers in the House had earlier called for the industry to receive additional support, which would be on top of the $25 billion in aid, mostly in grants, that was included in March's CARES Act and preserved jobs through Sept. 30. The proposed round would restrict layoffs through March 2021. (CNBC)

Facebook (FB) took down an interview posted on Trump's page in which he claimed children are "almost immune" to the coronavirus. Twitter later Wednesday took action by blocking Trump's re-election campaign account from posting again until it removed the tweet containing the video of the Fox News interview. It marks one of the few times Facebook has moderated content from Trump, telling NBC News the post violated its rules around false information on Covid-19. Similarly, Twitter said the re-election account's tweet violated rules around coronavirus misinformation. (CNBC)

Rocket Companies will start trading on the New York Stock Exchange later today after pricing its IPO at $18 per share and selling 100 million shares. The Quicken Loans parent, the largest mortgage lender in the U.S., had aimed to sell 150 million shares in a target range of $20-22. The size and price of the deal may be an indication that the Detroit-based firm had difficulties in convincing investors that it should be valued as a technology company, due to its mortgage lending platform, instead of a financial services company. The IPO is the third-largest in the U.S. this year. (Reuters)



* Tech IPOs brush aside election concerns and power through coronavirus as investors seek growth (CNBC)

Scientists have been assured by regulators that the timeline to approve for a potential coronavirus vaccine will not be influenced by politics, Dr. Anthony Fauci told Reuters in an interview, as the development process proceeds at rapid pace ahead of a November presidential election. "We've spoken explicitly about that, because the subject obviously comes up, and the people in charge of the regulatory process assure us that safety and efficacy is going to be the prime consideration," said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. Fauci said he was "certain" of what the White House wants to see for vaccine approval, but added there has been no pressure to "to do anything different than what we're doing." (Reuters)



* The U.S. has the worst coronavirus outbreak in the world: 'The numbers don't lie,' Dr. Fauci says (CNBC)

Uber announced it is acquiring British taxi software company Autocab as the ride-hailing company looks to grow its operations in the country. Although Uber does have a presence in the U.K., particularly in London, the acquisition of Autocab would help the company to expand operations from about 40 cities and towns into 170 regions. The move comes as Uber is appealing the decision by London's transport regulators to not renew its license to operate in the city, citing passenger safety risks. (CNBC)



* Jeff Bezos sells more than $3 billion in Amazon shares (CNBC)
Banjul, Gambia (PANA) - Dominic Mendy, interim leader of Gambias newly formed opposition party, Citizens Alliance, Thursday swiftly reacted to governments decision to extend the curfew period, an official source said here
(Kitco News) - George Gero, managing director of RBC Wealth Management, warns investors that more volatility will hit the markets.

Were getting volatility for a lot of reasons. I think, the most important reason, is that we have a lot of people not really fully understanding the value of owning gold over the long term. Gold actually has a 5,000 year history of being a store of value in maintaining purchasing power, Gero told Kitco News. However, in its many forms, gold has many purposes, and many traders use gold as a hedge against stock fluctuations, bond fluctuations. Other people think that gold is a haven against political problems.

Gero cited rising geopolitical tensions around the world, like with China and the U.S., as one of the risks that investors need to be hedged against.

Geros history with gold dates back to his youth, when as a political refugee in Europe in 1945 he was able to escape with the help of gold coins.

As a young child, at the age of two, in Hungary I was an enemy of the state for having been born in England and having a background of Jewish parents. Later on, the Jesuits saved my life, I was in a Jesuits boys home for some time. My father had been in Portugal, he was a banker, and gold coins and gold bars helped save our lives because my mother and my sister and I were able to get out of Hungary in 1945 with gold coins at the border, Gero said.

Gero added that gold serves as a benchmark of macroeconomic performance.

The price of gold, to a lot of investors, is a barometer of our economic and political well-being, he said.
It also comes at a time when the Trump administration is aggressively taking on China on numerous fronts, like its handling of the novel coronavirus and its efforts to crack down on freedoms in Hong Kong. So far, the White House has said nothing about Chinas array of nuclear deals with the Saudis.

Spokespeople for the National Security Council and the C.I.A. declined to comment. A spokesman for the Saudi Embassy in Washington did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Late Wednesday, the State Department said in a statement to The New York Times that while it would not comment on intelligence findings, we routinely warn all our partners about the dangers of engagement with the P.R.C.s civil nuclear business, referring to the Peoples Republic of China, including the threats it presents of strategic manipulation and coercion, as well as technology theft. We strongly encourage all partners to work only with trusted suppliers who have strong nonproliferation standards.

The statement also said that we oppose the spread of enrichment and reprocessing, and that the United States would attach great importance to continued compliance by the Saudis to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. It urged Saudi Arabia to conclude an agreement with the United States with strong nonproliferation protections that will enable Saudi and U.S. nuclear industries to cooperate.

From the beginning of his administration, Mr. Trump has conducted negotiations with the Saudis over an agreement, which would require congressional approval, enabling the United States to help Saudi Arabia build a civilian nuclear program.

But the Saudis would not agree to the kinds of restrictions that the United Arab Emirates signed onto several years ago, committing the country never to build its own fuel-production ability, which could be diverted to bomb production. Administration officials say the negotiations have been essentially stalled for the past year.

Saudi Arabias work with the Chinese suggests that the Saudis may have now given up on the United States and turned to China instead to begin building the multibillion dollar infrastructure needed to produce nuclear fuel. China has traditionally not insisted on such strict nonproliferation safeguards, and is eager to lock in Saudi oil supplies.
Lopach said the center wants to help voters secure mail-in ballots in hopes of keeping voter participation high in November amid worries about the coronavirus pandemic. So far, he said, 800,000 voters nationwide have applied for absentee ballots through the effort. The error in Virginia happened because the software used to send the applications to registered voters did not know to distinguish between counties and cities with the same name.
Washington: Drugmakers will likely have tens of millions of doses of coronavirus vaccines in the early part of next year, with production ramping up to a billion doses by the end of 2021, Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious diseases official, said in a Reuters interview on Wednesday.

Fauci said he is hopeful the world could get past the pandemic that has claimed more than 700,000 lives worldwide by the end of next year with the help of a vaccine.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Credit:Bloomberg

"Do I think we're going to have a much much better control one full year from this winter? I think so."

"Historically, if you get a vaccine that has a moderate to high degree of efficacy, and you combine with that prudent public health measures, we can put this behind us."
Merck registered the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic in all business sectors in the second quarter. Healthcare and Performance Materials were affected most strongly. In comparison with the year-earlier quarter, Group sales increased by 3.7% to  4.1 billion. EBITDA pre, the Groups most important earnings indicator, fell by -5.7% to  1.1 billion in the second quarter. Irrespective of this, the company specified its sales forecast for fiscal 2020 and now expects Group sales of between  16.9 billion and  17.7 billion. In addition, Merck has raised the lower end of the range for expected EBITDA pre and now forecasts a value between  4.45 billion and  4.85 billion. Merck also specified its forecast for earnings per share pre, which it now expects in a corridor between  5.60 and  6.25.

Despite considerable pandemic-related obstacles in some businesses, overall we did well in the second quarter. In recent months, we again proved the strengths of our diversified business model with three strong, innovation-driven business sectors, explained Stefan Oschmann, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of Merck. Especially in view of the pandemic, it is apparent that our strategic focus on science and technology is the right one. We are developing tomorrows therapies, paving new avenues for scientists and driving the digital transformation. All of this is more important today than ever before.

Merck is supporting the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic in multiple ways

As a science and technology company, Merck also helped to meet the global challenges posed by Covid-19 in many different ways in the second quarter. The company is collaborating with more than 45 vaccine developers worldwide, including Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, among others. In June, the company announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the investigational new drug application (IND) for the investigational compound M5049 for the treatment of patients with Covid-19 pneumonia. In this context, a Phase II randomized, controlled clinical study evaluating the safety and efficacy of M5049 in this patient population was started at the end of July. In addition, the company donated larger amounts of disinfectant and two million FFP2 protective face masks. In the battle against Covid-19, we will continue to closely support our customers and partners in the science space. Collaboration across borders and sectors is key in effectively fighting the pandemic, said Oschmann.

Merck Group posts acquisition-related growth in the second quarter

The 3.7% year-on-year increase in Group sales in the second quarter primarily reflects acquisition-related growth in the Performance Materials business sector and organic growth in Life Science. Group-wide, net sales decreased organically by -2.5%, mainly due to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. Negative foreign exchange effects lowered Group sales by -0.9%. Group sales rose by 7.1% due to portfolio changes. EBITDA pre declined by -5.7% to  1.1 billion in the second quarter. The organic decline amounted to -11.5%, among other things attributable to income from milestone payments in Healthcare in the year-earlier quarter. The impact of negative foreign exchange effects on EBITDA pre was -3.1%. By contrast, acquisitions were responsible for an increase of 8.8%. The operating result EBIT declined by -20.6% to  491 million. Net income fell by -38.5% to  290 million. At  1.30, earnings per share pre were -15.6% lower than in the year-earlier quarter. Net financial debt amounted to  12.6 billion on June 30, 2020. Rapidly reducing debt remains a high priority for the company.

Merck generated growth in all business sectors in the first half of 2020

In the first six months of 2020, net sales of Merck soared by 10.0% to  8.5 billion. All business sectors contributed to this. Organically, Group sales rose by 2.4%, foreign exchange effects softened the increase by -0.2%, and portfolio effects from acquisitions supported sales by 7.7%. EBITDA pre grew by 9.1% to  2.3 billion, earnings per share pre rose by 4.9% to  2.80.

Healthcare: Covid-19 adversely affects the Fertility business

Healthcare sales declined by -10.6% to  1.5 billion in the second quarter. Organically, the decrease amounted to -7.4% in comparison with the year-earlier quarter. Additionally, there were negative foreign exchange effects of -2.3% and a portfolio effect of -0.9% from the divestment of the Allergopharma business. As expected, the Fertility business was hit hardest by the Covid-19 pandemic since many practices and clinics closed temporarily or reduced their treatment activities. The corresponding sales fell organically by -38.9%. Sales of the Neurology & Immunology franchise declined organically by -5.1%. The medicine Rebif, which is used to treat relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis, saw an organic decline of -12.7%. By contrast, sales of Mavenclad, for the oral short-course treatment of highly active relapsing multiple sclerosis, grew organically by 35.8%. The prescription rates for this treatment declined as expected in a market environment adversely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, signs of a recovery already emerged in June. Net sales of the Oncology franchise rose organically by 6.3%, driven mainly by the immuno-oncology medicine Bavencio. Sales of the General Medicine & Endocrinology franchise rose organically by 3.9%. At  374 million, EBITDA pre of Healthcare decreased by -29.1%, particularly owing to income from milestone payments in the year-earlier quarter.

Life Science: Process Solutions remains the driver of growth

Life Science sales rose by 5.9% to  1.8 billion in the second quarter. Organically, sales increased by 6.3%; foreign exchange had a slightly negative impact of -0.4%. The Process Solutions business unit, which markets products and services for the entire pharmaceutical production value chain, was the key growth driver. Its sales grew organically by 19.8%, first and foremost due to continued high demand in the underlying business, but also as a result of increased orders in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic. By contrast, Research Solutions saw an organic sales decline of -7.1%, mainly caused by the temporary closure of academic laboratories in connection with the pandemic. Applied Solutions recorded flat organic sales growth in the second quarter, also owing to pandemic-related access restrictions of numerous customer laboratories. However, in June both Research Solutions and Applied Solutions showed signs of a business recovery. In the second quarter, EBITDA pre of Life Science rose by 6.7% over the year-earlier quarter to  569 million.

Performance Materials: Semiconductor business grows further

Performance Materials generated a 38.1% increase in sales to  814 million in the second quarter. The key factor behind this growth was the net sales contribution of 50.1% from the acquisitions of Versum Materials and Intermolecular. Organically, sales declined by -13.7%. Foreign exchange effects had a positive effect of 1.8% on net sales. Apart from the continued price pressure in the Liquid Crystals business and the strong comparative basis of the previous year, weaker end-user demand triggered by the pandemic led to an organic sales decline of -20.8% in Display Solutions. Net sales of Surface Solutions dropped organically by -29.6%, mainly as a result of declining demand from the automotive and cosmetic markets in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic. By contrast, sales of Semiconductor Solutions grew organically by 12.1%, meaning excluding the effects from the acquisitions of Versum Materials and Intermolecular. A favorable change in market conditions versus the challenging environment of 2019 was a key factor as was the strong performance of the business. Both the business performance of the legacy Versum business and the integration are on track. EBITDA pre amounted to  238 million, improving by 25.2% over the year-earlier quarter.

Forecast: Slight to moderate organic growth of sales and EBITDA pre in 2020

Merck confirms the assumptions made in the context of the global outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic as published in the Outlook as of March 31, 2020. The company continues to assume that its businesses will be impacted to varying degrees. Merck expects adverse effects particularly in Healthcare and Performance Materials, whereas no negative effects are anticipated in Life Science. Due to the high level of uncertainty with respect to the further development of the Covid-19 pandemic, this outlook is being made with a considerably higher degree of uncertainty.

Merck presumes varying dynamics with respect to the outbreak in the different regions of the world. For China, Merck assumes that the Covid-19 pandemic reached its peak at the end of the first quarter and that the economic recovery began in the second quarter. For Europe and the United States, the company expects an economic recovery in the second half of the year, even if the situation following the initial outbreak of the pandemic has not yet normalized throughout these regions by the beginning of the third quarter. Moreover, the latest forecast assumes that there will be no widespread lockdowns owing to further disease waves in any of the named regions leading to considerably negative consequences for the economic recovery.

For the full year 2020, Merck expects slight to moderate organic net sales growth compared with the previous year. The company continues to expect that Life Science will be a major driver of this organic growth. Against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, Merck forecasts that the Healthcare business sector will see a slight organic increase in net sales, whereas the Performance Materials business will see a moderate to strong organic decline in net sales in 2020. In the first three quarters, the effect of the acquisition of Versum Materials will be reported as a portfolio effect, which the company still forecasts in the mid single-digit percentage range at Group level. In addition, Merck expects a foreign exchange effect of -2% to 0%. Overall, the company forecasts Group net sales of  16.9 billion to  17.7 billion in 2020.

For 2020, Group EBITDA pre is expected to be in a range of between  4.45 billion and  4.85 billion. Contrary to the expectations in the first quarter, Merck now expects slight to moderate organic growth. For the full year, the company expects strong organic growth in Life Science and a stable development in Healthcare, whereas it forecasts an organic decline in the low teens percentage range in Performance Materials. The portfolio effect from the acquisition of Versum Materials is still expected to be in the mid single-digit percentage range and should have a slightly positive effect on the margin of the Group. The expected foreign exchange development is forecast to have a negative effect of between -4% and -2% on Group EBITDA pre; it will be seen particularly in the Healthcare and Life Science businesses. The company forecasts earnings per share pre in a range between  5.60 and  6.25.
WATERLOO REGION  A widespread outage left thousands across the province without access to the internet on Thursday afternoon.

Shortly after noon, outages were reported. Some users also reported no cell service.

According to downdetector.ca and istheservicedowncanada.com, customers of Bell, Rogers, Telus and other carriers were impacted.

At 12:37, Telus Support announced on Twitter it was investigating a wireless issue impacting several carriers in Eastern Canada.

At 1:41 p.m., Bell Support announced on Twitter that Some customers in parts of Eastern Ontario and Quebec experienced brief service disruptions earlier today. Service has now been restored. Our team is continuing to investigate the cause.

By 2:30, many customers were reporting on social media they were back online.

Customers that lost internet connectivity at home say reseting their router allowed them to get back online once the connection was restored by their service provider.

Read more about:
At least six policemen of the Sakara police station in Bihars Muzaffarpur district were injured in a violent clash with the local residents affected by floods, late on Wednesday night .

The injured cops who were first rushed to the Sakara referral hospital, were later taken to Muzaffarpurs Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH). The condition of the station house officer, admitted at the ICU is stated to be critical while three others are being treated for broken legs and hands. Two other jawans were released after first aid.

The incident took place at around 10 PM when some residents of Bishunpur Baghnagari village blocked the NH 28, demanding immediate relief and ready- to- eat food stuff amid heavy flood situation.

When we reached there to clear the blockade, the locals attacked us with bamboo batons, iron rods and other weapons. My left hand has been broken in the scuffle, while three other jawans legs have been broken. The SHO received severe head injuries. We all are being treated at the SKMCH, said Ramji Singh, a SAP jawan.

Confirming the incident, the SSP of Muzaffarpur Jayant Kant said that he himself reached the spot on Thursday morning to control the situation.

When I reached the spot, the locals were in no mood to listen to the officials. They were agitated over the mismanagement at the relief camps for flood victims and demanded to talk to senior district officials, said the SSP, adding that he managed to bring the situation under control with great difficulty.

Fifteen people have been taken into custody in connection with the incident.

Later, we took 15 persons into custody. They are being quizzed at the Maniyari police station. Legal action will be initiated against those people after their involvement is ascertained, said SSP Kant.

Wednesday nights clash isnt the first such incident between the flood-affected locals and the district officials or police personnel in the last few days.

Earlier, agitated over the breach in Tirhut canal left flank, the locals attacked them in the presence of the DM Chandra Shekhar Singh and the SSP Jayant Kant. In another incident, flood victims taking shelters along the NH 77 on Muzaffarpur Sitamarhi section, had a heated argument with officials on Thursday morning, when the officials reached to clear a road blockade.

The flood situation in Bihar has affected over 66 lakh people in 16 districts. According to the state disaster management department, 19 people have died so far in flood-related incidents.
A BMW driver escaped death yesterday after somehow walking away from a horror motorway smash in which their car was crushed between two lorries.

Shocking pictures show the crumpled remains of the damaged vehicle following the collision on the northbound slip road of the M1 at 3.30pm.

Emergency services rushed to the scene near junction 24 for Loughborough, Leicestershire, to free the motorist, the gender of whom ambulance crews would not confirm due to 'patient confidentiality', and who unbelievably escaped with just minor injuries.

A seven-year-old girl was also among the four people to be treated after the crash but she too emerged without being seriously hurt.

A BMW driver had a miracle escape after their car was left a mangled wreck when it was crushed between two lorries in a horror motorway smash

Shocking pictures show the crumpled remains of the damaged vehicle following the collision on the northbound slip road of the M1 at 3.30pm yesterday

The casualty was taken to hospital as a precaution but was not seriously hurt despite the vehicle being almost completely crushed.

Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service posted the dramatic images on social media and shared details of the incident.

They wrote: 'Today our crew attended a road traffic collision the incident involved two heavy goods vehicles and a car.

'It was a complicated extraction but the casualty was freed and taken to hospital with only minor injuries.

'Please remember to check your vehicle, before long journeys.'

Three other people in the same car were also taken to hospital, though East Midlands Ambulance Service said it was unable to confirm if the driver was a man or woman, or if children were among the four casualties, due to 'patient confidentiality'.

A spokesperson said: 'We received a call at 3.31pm on 5 August to the slip road at Junction 24 on the M1 Northbound.

Emergency services rushed to the scene near junction 24 for Loughborough, Leicestershire, to free the motorist, who unbelievably escaped with just minor injuries

'The caller reported that there had been a road traffic collision between two lorries and a car. We sent our Hazardous Area Response Team, a doctor in a car, two paramedics in cars and two crewed ambulances.

'The air ambulance was also in attendance. Four patients with minor injuries were taken by land ambulance to Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham for treatment.'

A Leicestershire Police spokesman said: 'A seven-year-old girl was injured in the incident and was taken to the Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham. Her injuries are not believed to be life-threatening or life-changing.

'Enquiries are ongoing into the incident.'

The collision involving the car and two HGVs caused long delays on the A453 and A50 for almost six hours.
A. Origami paper cranes can be seen throughout the city. They became a symbol of peace because of a 12-year-old bomb survivor, Sadako Sasaki, who, while battling leukemia, folded paper cranes using medicine wrappers after hearing an old Japanese story that those who fold a thousand cranes are granted one wish. Sadako developed leukemia 10 years after her exposure to radiation at age 2, and died three months after she started the project. Former U.S. President Barack Obama brought four paper cranes that he folded himself when he visited Hiroshima in May 2016, becoming the first serving American leader to visit. Obamas cranes are now displayed at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
We saw the devastation that was caused in Beirut by a large confiscated shipment of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate. This chemical is otherwise known to be an important ingredient in fertilizers as well as explosives.

In fact, it is also regarded as a high-order explosive that can cause massive blast waves, when it explodes, something that we saw in Beirut.

AP

Beirut explosion blast wave at 9000 kmph

The cause for the Lebanon explosion remains unknown as of now, however, the catastrophe Beirut blast caused is clearly evident. Reports highlight that the Beirut blast wave crossed over 1.6 kilometres, shattering windows in its way, and that damage was witnessed up to at least 10 kilometre away from the Beirut blast epicentre. The explosion was even heard nearly 200 kilometres away in the city of Cyprus.

And if you look at the ammonium nitrate detonation velocity, it's pegged at 2,500 metre per second. So at least momentarily, the Beirut blast wave travelled as fast as 2.5 km per second or 9000 kmph at the time of detonation.

Beirut explosion = small earthquake

According to the data collected by the United States Geological Survey the Beirut explosion was powerful enough to create seismic waves equivalent to a magnitude 3.3 earthquake. However, this isnt the same as an earthquake of a similar magnitude.

Don Blakeman, a geophysicist at the National Earthquake Information Centre in a conversation with CNN reveals that not much of the energy went underground, but instead, it travelled to the air and the buildings, causing devastation. Had this Beirut explosion occurred underground, however, the magnitude would have been even higher.

Beirut explosion vs Hiroshima atom bomb

When the videos showed the mushroom cloud of the Lebanon explosion, the first thing that came on all of our minds was that this was a nuclear explosion. And while they do look similar, and many people are even trying to compare it with the Hiroshima explosion, the Beirut explosion wasnt one.

According to David Dearborn, a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, told Scientific American in 1999 (highlighted by Forbes), "Contrary to a common misconception, the shape of the mushroom cloud does not depend on the nuclear or thermonuclear component; as you note, a massive detonation of chemical explosives would produce the same effect.

Reuters

He further explained, "A mushroom cloud forms when an explosion creates a very hot bubble of gas. In the case of a nuclear detonation, the bomb emits a blast of x-rays, which ionize and heat the surrounding air; that hot bubble of gas is known as a fireball. The hot air is buoyant, so it quickly rises and expands. The rising cloud creates a powerful updraft which picks up dust, forming the stem of the mushroom cloud.

While official numbers arent out yet, experts have speculated that the Beirut explosion was a three kiloton blast. When comparing the Beirut blast to the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, the nuclear explosion was approximately 13 to 18 kiloton making the Beirut explosion one-fifth of the Hiroshima nuclear attack that shook Japan and the world in World War II.



Japan Government

Comparable to the Halifax explosion

In the middle of World War I in the year 1917, two ships collided -- one a relief ship while the other had ammunition, and resulted in the largest explosion known to man at that time, releasing the equivalent energy of roughly 2.9 kilotons of TNT. It wiped off buildings in a 500-metre radius of the epicentre while killing over 1900, and injuring over 9,000.
India on Thursday asked Pakistan to address several basic issues, including unconditional consular access, so that former naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav could seek a review of the death sentence given to him for alleged involvement in spying.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said no communication has been received so far from the Pakistan government regarding the order by the Islamabad high court to inform India about appointing a lawyer for Jadhav so that a review petition can be filed against his conviction.

Pakistan needs to address the basic issues which pertain to an effective review in implementation of the ICJ [International Court of Justice] judgement, and these basic issues pertain to making relevant documentation available to us, as well as providing unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav, Srivastava told a weekly news briefing.

A two-judge bench of the Islamabad high court directed the Pakistan government this week to again inform Jadhav, 50, of his rights under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and the ICJ order of 2019, which stayed his execution and called for a review of his conviction.

The judges also ordered the formation of a larger bench to hear the case when it is taken up again on September 3.

India had said last month that Pakistan has blocked all its efforts to seek legal remedies for Jadhav, who was arrested by Pakistani security agencies in Balochistan in March 2016 and charged with involvement in spying. It has also accused Pakistan of violating the ICJs judgement.

New Delhi has rejected all allegations levelled against Jadhav and said he was kidnapped by Pakistani operatives from the Iranian port of Chabahar, where he was running a business.
WASHINGTON  Warning that the United States should not rely on other countries to supply needed medicines, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday requiring the federal government to purchase certain drugs from American manufacturers rather than from overseas companies.

"We cannot rely on China and other nations across the globe that could one day deny us products at a time of need," Trump said. "We can't do it. We have to be smart."

The order, which Trump signed while visiting a Whirlpool manufacturing plant in Clyde, Ohio, instructs the government to develop a list of "essential" medicines, then buy them and other medical supplies from U.S. manufacturers instead of from companies around the world.

The order removes regulatory barriers that the Trump administration said give pharmaceutical manufacturers in other countries an unfair competitive advantage over U.S. companies.

Trumps trip to Ohio is the latest in a series of visits to states likely to be pivotal in Novembers election. He faces criticism over his response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 159,000 Americans.

Trump carried Ohio in the 2016 election by 8 percentage points, but polls show presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden with a slight edge in the Buckeye State heading into the fall election.

Absent during Trump's visit was Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who had planned to accompany the president but stayed away after he tested positive for coronavirus Thursday.

DeWine took a COVID-19 test as part of the protocol to meet Trump on the tarmac at Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland. The governor has no symptoms but plans to quarantine at his home in Cedarville for the next 14 days.

"We cannot rely on China and other nations across the globe that could one day deny us products at a time of need," President Donald Trump says at a Whirlpool plant Aug. 6 in Clyde, Ohio.

During his visit to northern Ohio, Trump toured the Whirlpool factory and highlighted his efforts to boost the nations manufacturers, including trade agreements that he said drive job creation and manufacturing across the country.

Story continues

In remarks that at times sounded like a campaign speech, Trump accused his predecessors, President Barack Obama and Vice President Biden, of allowing the dumping of low-cost, foreign-made products into the American market at the expense of U.S. companies.

"They didn't act," he said. "They didn't care, and they never will."

COVID-19 relief: Dems, White House inch closer on coronavirus relief deal, hoping for agreement by end of week

Trump said his decision to impose a 50% tariff on foreign-made washing machines two years ago helped turn Whirlpool around in the face of unfair competition. Whirlpool, which employs roughly 3,400 people at its northern Ohio factory, credited the tariffs with leveling the playing field and enabling it to add 200 jobs at the plant.

On the issue of pharmaceuticals, Trump said his new executive order will protect the nations drug supply and ensure Americans have access to essential drugs and other medical supplies.

Critics have charged that the administration was woefully unprepared for the coronavirus and that a breakdown in supply chains left the United States without enough tests and protective equipment to fight the disease early in the pandemic.

Trump said he wants to prepare for future pandemics by replenishing the national stockpile and bringing manufacturing of critical supplies and equipment back to the USA.

About 72% of manufacturers that supply pharmaceutical ingredients to the USA are overseas, and 13% of them are in China, Janet Woodcock, director of the FDAs Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, told a congressional panel last October. Tensions between the United States and China are at a peak, not only over the coronavirus but also trade and territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

"President Trump understands Ohioans and Americans across the country must have access to lifesaving medications, particularly as we fight this battle against the invisible enemy from China," said Peter Navarro, assistant to the president and director of the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy.

Navarro said the order "establishes Buy American rules for our government agencies, strips away regulatory barriers to domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing" and serves as a catalyst for manufacturing technologies needed to keep drug prices low and medicine production onshore.

"We're dangerously over-dependent on foreign nations for essential medicines, for medical supplies like masks, gloves, goggles and medical equipment like ventilators," Navarro said.

President Donald Trump wears a face mask as he speaks to employees on a tour of the Whirlpool manufacturing plant in Clyde, Ohio.

Last week, Trump announced a deal with Eastman Kodak to manufacture pharmaceuticals. The administration plans to give the camera company a $765 million loan to launch a pharmaceuticals division.

The loan from the U.S. International Development Finance Corp. is the first of its kind under the Defense Production Act, a Korean War-era law that allows the government to direct private industry to produce weapons, vehicles and other materiel for war and emergencies.

The order that Trump signed Thursday directs the Department of Health and Human Services to use the Defense Production Act to procure essential medicines and other equipment from the USA, but it does not stipulate precisely which drugs would fall under the requirements.

What is it? Trump invokes wartime authority of Defense Production Act to speed coronavirus aid.

The World Health Organization maintains a list of essential medicines that includes more than 400 drugs. Because of its location, the United States won't need to declare some of them essential, such as anti-malaria drugs, Navarro said.

The order aims to speed up the permitting process for domestic manufacturers of pharmaceutical ingredients and essential medicines by directing the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency to give them priority during the regulatory review process.

Navarro said the order would remove some of the regulatory barriers that put U.S. manufacturers of drugs and medical supplies at a competitive disadvantage.

For example, "the FDA can walk into any pharmaceutical manufacturer in the U.S. unannounced and inspect," Navarro said. "If they try to do that in China or India, these governments will tell them come back in six months and maybe we'll let you in. And we let them get away with that. That's not going to happen anymore."

The White House said the order will help prevent the trafficking of counterfeit medicines from third-party online sellers involved in the government procurement process.

Trump is scheduled to attend a campaign fundraiser in the Cleveland area while he's in Ohio.

Contributing: Jackie Borchardt of The Cincinnati Enquirer

Michael Collins covers the White House. Reach him on Twitter @mcollinsNEWS.

Debating debates: Trump campaign requests presidential debate in early September to address early voting

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump in Ohio: President orders 'essential' drugs be made in USA
Christian women detail racism they face in workplace

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Racism goes beyond the black and white narrative seen on television, said a group of minority Christian women.

When Jenny Yang, who is Asian American and vice president of Policy & Advocacy on Refugee Resettlement at World Relief, attended a Congress briefing recently, a man began using hand sanitizer. At that moment, a woman behind her made a joke, saying, He needs it, hes the one next to an Asian.

Yang said she knows colleagues who have experienced other harmful words and stereotypes. Asian Americans have been facing increased racism due to the coronavirus origin in the Wuhan Province in China.

She and other women spoke about racial issues they face in the workplace and abroad during COVID-19 as part of Women at Work's online event this week.

The racist biases and tendencies are exposed because of the pandemic. A lot of my friends who are Asian American had personal issues of racism because of COVID, Yang said. It goes to show that even at the highest levels of government, racism doesnt hide its head.

At the Congress briefing, Yang said she had a friend who spoke up to the woman who made the joke. Once the woman realized how hurtful the words were, she apologized. The ignorance of a persons bias was a key issue highlighted during the Women at Work discussion because racism can infect culture through comments as simple as a joke, according to Yang.

She said she was thankful that her friend was able to speak up in her defense because if he was not there, Yang would be forced to respond herself. Witnesses also play a role in curbing racism, she noted.

It starts at a personal level, when racial stereotypes go unchecked, if casual comments go unchecked, it creates a culture of dehumanization and leads to greater issues that go unchecked, Yang stated. We cant continue to let them go.

Sunni Harris, a litigation and law expert, addressed workplace discrimination that black women have faced.

Harris said that 67% of black women are left out of networking opportunities in the legal field. While the exclusion is personally hurtful, it can make socially-active jobs very difficult.

It hurts to be excluded but more importantly you need relationships to do your job, Harris said. If Im not invited, then it hinders my ability to do my job well.

Karen Ellis, a black woman and director of the Center for the Study of the Bible and Ethnicity in Atlanta, said that division and stereotyping have been in human nature since creation. Genesis 1-3 makes it clear though that God is deeply saddened when humans practice division, she noted.

In agreement, Trillia Newbell, a black woman and Ellis colleague, stressed that the Bible makes it clear that division is wrong.

But, she said, Scripture can oftentimes be manipulated or taken out of context to be used in support of racism. She experienced this while speaking about human dignity at a program in Jackson, Tennessee.

This man was taught that black women were a curse, they were subhuman and tried to use pieces of Scripture to support it, Newbell recalled. People whove engaged with me have been taught similarly.

Thats why we need to look at all of Scripture and not just pick it apart. Thats what causes misapplication.

While the panel agreed that racism is noticeable during the pandemic, the U.S. is moving in the right direction in some cases. One example provided by Harris is that seven states no longer have hair laws for workplaces, a rule that would often force black women to change their appearance just to be employed.

Too often these conversations are had without hope, Newbell said. But thats the whole reason Im here. There is hope. We can continue to persevere because every woman has hope. That hope has a name and that name is Jesus.
Red Sox slugger Michael Chavis entered Wednesday in a slump. He was batting just .143 with a .286 slugging percentage and one extra-base hit in 22 plate appearances.

But his 3-for-4, one-homer performance in a 5-0 victory over the Rays at Tropicana Field on Wednesday quickly raised his average 97 points to .240 and his slugging percentage 194 points to .480.

Chavis connected on a 78.5 mph changeup from Tampa Bay Rays left-handed starter Ryan Yarbrough and sent it 421 feet to left-center with a 102.1 mph exit velocity. In the process, he took out a cardboard cutout fan.

Its kind of a weird situation, Chavis said. I know the numbers showed up today and the results were there. But Ive felt a lot better than the results and the numbers have been lately. When I pinch hit the other night, I had two groundouts. But I felt like I put good swings on them. I hit barrel. So just trying to stay positive and stay focused on the process. I feel good about how things are going.

Chavis knows during a 60-game season every slump is amplified.

It sucks. It definitely sucked, Chavis said. But Im not really sure if I felt any pressure or more so because of the 60-game season. Obviously its important to get going because if you go through a long slump or anything like that, its going to be amplified because of the short season. But it isnt really something I keyed in on. I felt pretty good, and I felt like I was having decent at-bats. So like everything, I try to stay positive and try to stay focused on the process. And it showed up tonight.

Chavis, a right-handed hitter, has been known for reverse splits. He hit better against right-handed pitchers (.266/.347/.427/.774 line, 271 plate appearances) than he did vs. left-handed pitchers (.226/.261/.481/.742 line, 111 plate appearances) last year. Chavis batting average also was 27 points higher against righties than lefties in Double A and Triple A combined.

All three hits Wednesday came against Yarbrough, a left-hander. Chavis is 5 for 16 (.313) with both his home runs against lefties this year.

I feel good against lefties, and I try to do too much, Chavis said back in February. I really like the idea of breaking balls coming in to me and all that. I really think its just within myself that I get excited and I try to do too much with it just because you dont see lefties as often.

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Out of all 535 members of Congress, only about 10 percent can be classified as solidly pro-American worker. Their immigration voting records prove their inexplicable indifference to American workers fates.

Whether the immigration category is lawful permanent residents who arrive at the rate of more than 1 million annually, refugees, asylees and employment-based visa holders, all receive work authorization. Illegal immigrants caught and released at the border receive parole, a federal pardon that qualifies them for work permits which in turn allows them to remain in the U.S. and to be legally hired. Finally, illegal immigrants that successfully get past the border often enter the black-market economy, and are hired off the books.

While some in Congress vote to slow certain immigration categories, only about 50, at most, are behind a broad-based immigration slowdown. Proof: in 2017, senators Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.) introduced the RAISE Act that would have eliminated the unnecessary diversity visa, slowed refugee intake, limited chain migration to a petitioners nuclear family, and slowed legal immigration over the next decade by about 50 percent. The bills sole two co-sponsors were Cotton and Purdue, a pathetic testimonial to Congress cynical attitude toward U.S. workers.

Congress has at least a half-dozen ethnic caucuses that defend special interests. But nowhere in Congress is there a caucus that defends American workers. And because no such caucus exists, over decades, millions of U.S. jobs have been outsourced, and millions of U.S. workers have been displaced.

During the last week in July  in a brazen effort to promote the welfare of Indian nationals but to the detriment of U.S. tech workers futures  Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) made another in a series of attempts to pass an outsourcing bill that would eliminate the cap restricting the number of Green Cards awarded to each country to 25,000.

If Lee were to prevail, for the foreseeable future, Green Cards would be issued almost exclusively to Indians. In its analysis of the bill, the Congressional Research Service concluded that passage of legislation would benefit Indians, and to a lesser extent Chinese nationals, but at the expense of other overseas citizens hoping to migrate to the U.S. and work here. Lee, by the way, is routinely identified as a conservative, and was rumored to be on President Trumps short list to replace Justice Anton Scalia on the Supreme Court.

The House of Representatives and the Senate have powerful, influential India caucuses that speak with one voice on India-related issues.

The Senate caucus dates back to 2004, and todays House caucus on India and Indian Americans was established in 1933, and is the largest congressional House country-specific caucus.

Yet, to repeat, no single congressional caucus exists to defend Americans against what is a decades-long pattern of importing foreign labor and outsourcing U.S. jobs to overseas nations.

Consistent with Capitol Hills disregard for the fate of U.S. workers, insiders report that nearly every Republican senator and the Department of Homeland Security support Lees proposal. And should Lees proposed legislation reach President Trumps desk, the same insiders predict that, because so many corporations that benefit from cheap labor also donate to the chief executives campaign, hell sign it into law. This is a complete disgrace for the candidate who promised to reform legal immigration to serve American workers and bring our jobs back home. Now that 30 million Americans are unemployed, the nation could sure use those jobs President Trump pledged to deliver.

Trump has also joined with Congress in their mutual abandonment of E-Verify, the free, easy-to-use online system that confirms in a matter of seconds whether an employee is legally authorized to work in the U.S.

Congress has kicked around E-Verify without mandating the program since 1996 when it was named the Basic Pilot program. Since 1997, E-Verify has been available to corporations nationwide. Yet the pro-donor, pro-cheap labor Congress refuses to implement E-Verify which would protect U.S. workers from the illegal hiring scourge.

For a quarter of a century Congress has been vigorous in its support of the cheap labor lobby. Imagine instead if Congress had battled as steadfastly on Americans behalf.

Then U.S. workers adjusted-for-inflation wages wouldnt have been flat for the same 25 years.

Joe Guzzardi is a Progressives for Immigration Reform analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.

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(Natural News) An MSNBC news producer recently resigned from the network with an open letter accusing the organization of blocking the diversity of thought.

Ariana Pekary, who served as a producer for MSNBCs #2 program, The Last Word with Lawrence ODonnell, wrote on her website that while shes not sure what shell do next, she could no longer stay at the network. Although she believes that some of her colleagues have good intentions, the job forces skilled journalists to make bad decisions on a daily basis.

She said that it is taboo to discuss how the ratings influence content and that the problem is not unique to MSNBC. In facts, she says that the commercial broadcast news industry as a whole all operates the same way. Talking about coverage by the network of recent racial unrest and the coronavirus outbreak, she said the model blocks diversity of thought and content because the networks have incentive to amplify fringe voices and events, at the expense of others. All because it pumps up the ratings.

She said that while network producers occasionally select stories without considering how they well rate, thats the exception rather than the rule. The industry, she claims, is structured on the desire to charge higher fees for commercials and the ratings bonuses given to top executives stop the network from going after stories that she feels audiences need to know about.

Pekary was with MSNBC for seven years. She originally joined the cable news network for the launch of a weekly program featuring actor Alec Baldwin, which lasted for only five weeks. Before that, she worked for NPR.

In a follow-up post on her website, Pekary said that she was overwhelmed by the responses she received and welcomed the moral support. She indicated that lots of people shared her concerns, writing: You all are hungrier to address this problem than I thought.

Similar stories at other newsrooms across America

Her resignation calls to mind another recent resignation, this one involving former New York Times columnist Bari Weiss, who wrote a scathing resignation letter to the Times publisher on her website claiming that her centrist views led to a hostile work environment. She said she was the subject of constant bullying from colleagues who considered her views wrongthink. Weiss also alleged that her editors were hesitant to publish pieces that might spur a social media backlash.

In fact, Weiss said in the letter that Twitter is becoming the liberal newspapers ultimate editor. Speaking on Real Time with Bill Maher, she expanded on that opinion, saying that in order to do our job well, writers and editors, we need to have a level of bravery and thick skin and fearlessness. And when youre living in fear of an online mob, you know, all it takes is a dozen people to repeat a lie about you  that youre a racist, that youre a transphobe, that youre a bigot  for that lie to become true and thats extremely dangerous.

She also discussed how Times editorial page editor James Bennet resigned after running a controversial op-ed by U.S. Senator Tom Cotton. She said that regardless of how people feel about the senator, she fears that we are headed for a world where the views of half of our country cannot be shared in the paper of record.

In a similar move, British conservative columnist Andrew Sullivan left New York Magazine recently on the grounds that the publication and parent organization Vox Media do not welcome diversity of opinion.

Unfortunately, mainstream media bias is nothing new, and the truth is that outlets like MSNBC and The New York Times actually need more people like Pekary and Weiss in their ranks as they try to hold on to what little credibility they have left. Is it any surprise that people are increasingly turning to independent news these days when the mainstream offerings are doing such a poor job?

Sources for this article include:

NewsBusters.org

TheHill.com

FoxNews.com
Islamabad, Aug 7 : A bellicose and rather desperate Pakistan wanting to ratchet up the volume over Kashmir tried a spanking new manoeuvre on Thursday. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation wary of Pakistan's antics is refusing to hold a foreign ministers meeting on Kashmir. A troubled Pakistan however, is unwilling to listen and is looking to appeal to the Islamic Umma and hold a confabulation of its own.

A panicky Pakistan realising that it is losing the momentum on Kashmir has been literally pushing the 57-member organisation, which is the second largest intergovernmental body after the UN, for the foreign ministers' meeting since India revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir last August.

In a television interview foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that if OIC cannot call for such a meeting then he would ask PM Imran Khan to give a clarion call to the Islamic conclave. OIC bloc heavy hitter Saudi Arabia has been remaining steadfast on not going ahead with a meeting specifically on Kashmir.

In a virtual meeting of the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir held as recently on the request of Pakistan on June 22, Qureshi had asked the Islamic bloc to expedite its efforts to resolve the Kashmir issue.
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday (August 6) attached immovable properties worth Rs 7 crores of a Chennai based bullion trader and jewellery merchant Anantha Padmanaban, under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), in a bogus import case, according to an official statement. The bogus import case involved Afroz Fatta and M/s RA Distributors Pvt. Ltd.

The attached assets comprise 9600 square feet of land along with commercial building including Basement, Stilt, Ground and 4 floors totalling to 20,292 Square feet situated at Thyagarayanagar, Chennai which is held in the name of M/s NAC Jewellers (P) Ltd of Anantha Padmanaban.

The ED has now attached properties of Anantha Padmanaban comprising immovable property measuring 20,292 sqft worth Rs 7 crores located at North Usman Road, Thyagarayanagar, Chennai held in the name and possession of his company.

The probe under the PMLA was initiated on the basis of a complaint received by the Crime Branch, Surat from ICICI bank against RA Distributors and others alleging that the companies had prepared fake bills of entry and presented the same before ICICI Bank for illegal outward remittance in the guise of import.

The ED investigation revealed that 9 companies having accounts in ICICI Bank, Surat remitted a huge amount of money on the basis of forged bills of entry to 3 companies in UAE and 15 companies in Hong Kong. The main sources of credits in these accounts were from 8 entities including M/s. Vandana & Co., M/s. Natural Trading Co., M/s. Maruti Tading, etc. having accounts in Axis bank along with 469 other entities.

These 8 entities, having accounts in Axis Bank, had received funds through various cheque discounters and a web of around 2700 companies.

Afroz Mohamed Hasanfatta, Madanlal Jain, Bilal Haroon Gilani, Jayesh Desai, Rakesh Kothari were involved in this racket. These accused created shell companies using dummy persons as directors/partners.

The investigation further revealed Madanlal Jain, the main conspirator had earned commission for his role in the illegal transactions of foreign remittances made on the strength of fake bills of entry. Part of the said commission so earned was routed to the bank account of M/s NAC Jewellers (P) Ltd, company controlled by Anantha Padmanaban to the tune of Rs 7 Crores.

The probe also established that this transaction has been carried out by N Anantha Padmanaban with full knowledge that the money so received was tainted and further said the money was utilized in business furtherance of M/s NAC Jewellers (P) Ltd by him.

In order to cover up these transactions, Madanlal Jain prepared bogus invoices of sale/purchase of diamonds between M/s NAC Jewellers and M/s Natural Trading Company to show as if diamonds were purchased from M/s NAC Jewellers by M/s Natural Trading Co, company controlled by Madanlal Jain.

Earlier, ED had arrested Afroz Mohamed Hasanfatta, Madanlal Jain, Manish Shah, Rakesh Kothari and Jayesh Desai and attached their properties worth Rs 34.29 Crores and filed five prosecution complaints before designated Special court.

Meanwhile, the ED investigation is in progress.
The Centre has not yet finalised the draft Environment Impact Assessment Notification 2020 (EIA), Union environment minister said Thursday.

In a letter to Congress MP Jairam Ramesh who heads the Parliamentary standing committee on science and technology, environment, forest and climate change, Javedekar wrote, It has not been finalised yet as public consultation is underway.

Earlier in the day, Ramesh had written to the minister saying, The Parliamentary Standing Committee has been inundated with requests from various stakeholders to give them an opportunity for presenting their views. I am sure you will agree that this is both desirable and necessary. Further meetings of the committee will call non-official witnesses. The Notification may, therefore, be kept in abeyance till the committee completes its deliberations.

Last month, Javadekar had termed Rameshs suggestions as unfounded and based on misinterpretation after the Congress leader raised strong objections to the draft EIA notification.

On Thursday, Javadekar maintained that there is no danger that public hearing will be excluded.

Draft environment impact assessment notification does not relax the process of public hearing, but makes it more meaningful, the minister wrote.

He also said that the provision of ex-post facto approval in draft EIA will bring violators under regulatory regime by imposing heavy penalties.

Every project expansion will require submission of an environmental management plan, Javadekar said in his reply to Ramesh.

The Union environment ministry plans to do away with conditions for environmental clearances that cannot be monitored and make the approval time for projects as short as possible.

Government documents show that the current auction of coal mines across the country would open up pristine and contiguous forests for mining in parts of central India.

In June, the Chhattisgarh government asked the Centre not to allow auction of coal blocks which fall under Hasdeo Arand, Lemru elephant reserve and the Mand river catchment area which are biodiversity-rich forests.

Five of the nine coal blocks that will be up for auction for commercial mining fall under this area which includes Morga -2, Morga (South), Madanpur north, Shyang and Fathehpur (east).
Care and Feeding is Slates parenting advice column. In addition to our traditional advice, every Thursday we feature an assortment of teachers from across the country answering your education questions. Have a question for our teachers? Email askateacher@slate.com or post it in the Slate Parenting Facebook group.

Click here to read Open Book, a Slate series about the new school year.

My daughter will be entering third grade in the fall. We live in a Northeast town where the virus ran rampant in the spring but numbers are lower now. Weve been told school will probably open in person, but there will be some kind of online option for those who dont want to attend. Like many, were not so comfortable with the risk, but we have a different problem than mostour daughter loved virtual school!

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Somehow, Zoom seemed to bring out the best in hershe was engaged, independent, and was even more social with her classmates on virtual playdates than she had been in person. She is a very worried child in general, and particularly worried about the virus. We dont think masks and distancing will be great for her anxiety. She has said she wishes school would stay virtual. But we also imagine shed adjust to the new normal, and we feel silly keeping her home just because were worried she cant handle it. None of our friends are considering keeping their kids homeand we understand things online were more challenging for them, so we get it. Wed like to think the school will be responsible about keeping kids safe. We dont think online school is ideal if there are safe in-person options. But we also dont want to take unnecessary risks, and we feel like her ability to thrive in the online environment makes the calculation different for us than for others. Were not sure if were overthinking thisadvice?

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Zoom Forever

Dear Zoom Forever,

Keep her home.

First, in my inexpert opinion, schoolsif they openare going to close again. Look at the patterns. Areas that didnt lock things down or reopened too soon have growing numbers of cases. And while your area may be through its first wave, many places are not. All it takes is one traveler from a hot spot to reignite yours, especially if your restrictions have loosened. Also, look at the private sector. Google, for example, recently extended its work-from-home plans until summer 2021. Why would they do that if they were expecting things to go back to normal soon?

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Second, you said youre not so comfortable with the risk. If you have the means, why take it?

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Lastly, your daughter thrives in the online format. So, let her! You said you dont think online school is ideal, but she was engaged, independent, and happy (not to mention safe) doing it in the springhow is that not ideal? Are you worried youre sheltering her from an environment she may have to face in the future? Because its possible she wont. Lots of people do online school all the time. College (if she chooses) and a career are down the road quite a bit, but those too can be done online.

Maybe shell change her mind at some point and want to be with her peers in person, or youll decide it really is important that she have face-to-face interactions, but you can make that choice together  after the pandemic is over.

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Ms. Scott (eighth grade teacher, North Carolina)

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Our rising fourth grader attends a public school that pivoted to distance learning in mid-March and never went back to in-person instruction. Our daughter has some learning disabilities, so she has a 504 plan with accommodations that seem to help her in the classroom environment, but are largely focused on that context (chunking assignments, frequent check-ins/redirection by teachers, etc.). Online/distance learning was a complete and unmitigated disaster. She hated the virtual live instruction and would tune out or do something else. She couldnt stay focused on any of her assigned activities, all of which were online work, which meant that for her to get any work completed, my husband or I had to sit next to her, cajoling and redirecting her every five minutes. We are both working full time from home. Needless to say, this was an untenable situation.

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We are now facing the very real possibility that school will be online again in the fall. I am filled with dread at the thought of having to spend three to four hours a day prodding my reluctant child through online lessons, especially when Im not confident she is really retaining any information. If we are going to have to make that kind of time investment, Id rather have control over how she is learning, i.e., just home-school her until in-person class resumes. I recognize that comes with downsides tooshe would potentially be behind when rejoining school and electing to home-school would reduce the districts headcount for funding purposes. But our family priority is to maintain everyones mental health during this stressful time, and trying to follow the school curriculum this spring almost put us over the edge. Is it possible that distance learning at the elementary school level will be better in the fall? Is there another solution Im not thinking of?

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Trying to Stay Sane During Distance Learning

Dear Trying to Stay Sane,

As the parent of two childrena rising third grader and a rising seventh graderI understand your pain. I spent the spring trying to teach 20 students online while simultaneously trying to keep my own children engaged in their learning. Our results were mixed at best.

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But the good news is yes, I think that distance learning will be more effective in the fall. Remember that school districts were asked to launch distance learning a week or two after the lockdown, which amounted to building the airplane while it was already flying. Some school districts did better than others. Some teachers did better than others. And certainly, some students did better than others, and those variances will continue in the fall. But given the time to plan for distance learning and a better understanding of the tools available to teachers, I think that school districts will be far better prepared in September than we were in March.

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But let me offer you a hybrid solution of sorts.

Why not keep your daughter enrolled in school, but take control of what she will learn, and when she will learn it. In other words, treat your school districts learning plan as a buffet, where you can pick and choose what you think is appropriate for your daughter and supplement with whatever you know will engage her at home.

This would be more difficult if your daughter was in high school or even middle school, where the grades she earns can dictate important aspects of her academic future, but as an elementary school student, her grades are fairly irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, so if your daughter doesnt learn about the mechanics of the water cycle or how exponents work this year, it wont result in an F on her high school transcript.

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I had parents who used this buffet strategy in the spring. Their particular circumstances prevented their child from engaging in the learning plan fully, so they did as much as possible, and I supported them however I could. In fact, my wife and I also took this approach with our own childrens learning plans.

The physical education teacher would assign calisthenics on a given day, but my son would ask, Cant I just ride my bike instead? Yes, Charlie. Of course, I said. Were in the middle of a global pandemic. Be happy.

There were also times when my daughter would battle through six math problems over the course of 45 minutes, and with six more problems to go, Id tell her that she was done and simply send an email to her teacher telling her that Clara was spent.

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Teachers modify all the time in the classroom: We make adjustments to instruction, practice, and expectations based upon a multitude of factors. So why not take the same approach this year to your childs learning? Youre at least 50 percent of the learning equation, so you should apply your own common sense to the plan. Its hard to imagine a teacher would not support you in this mission.

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This will also allow your child to remain connected to her peers by presumably seeing them in some small group and whole class lessons, which will be important given the limited access that children have to their peers already. It will also afford you access to all of the learning tools that your district provides and any social and emotional support that your child may need during the year, including services from the social worker or school psychologist.

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If my children end up in distance learning again in September, this is the approach my wife and I plan to take, doing what we think is best for the well-being of our kids while remaining connected to the school, teachers, resources, and supports that they have to offer. I suggest you do the same.

Mr. Dicks (fifth grade teacher, Connecticut)

I am a high school teacher with many seniors who graduated this May. As lockdown requirements are easing up, I have received several email invitations to graduation parties for August. As of right now, coronavirus cases have not gone up in my state, but they havent gone down either. If this were a normal year, I would attend these parties, but I just dont feel comfortable doing that this summer. I also dont want to pick one or two to attend because I dont want to appear to play favorites. Do you have advice for how to politely decline these invitations?

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Thanks but No Thanks

Dear Thanks but No Thanks,

I know this particular stress well. I live in a region where the COVID-19 case rate has been stable and minimal, and reopening has been proceeding steadily since May. The anxiety and decision fatigue of navigating the turbulent waters of what you are allowed to do, what you feel comfortable doing, and what the people around you are doing is exhausting. I would never say I miss the shock, total isolation, and upheaval of the early monthsbut making choices was simpler.

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For what its worth, I think all your choices are the right ones. As I said, my area has been pretty stable, but weve also seen how hard-won and fragile that stability is. In the past two weeks, our cases have shot up to numbers unseen for two months, and contact tracers identified July Fourth parties and other summer gatherings as the cause. Not attending any of the parties is the safe and responsible choiceboth because it only takes one to prompt widespread transmission and because maintaining some internal logic and consistency will help your peace of mind. Plus, as schools reopen and community stress and fear grow, my strong hunch is that a lot of those feelings will be projected onto individual teachers, including scrutinizing their behavior and personal lives. I, personally, would not want to invite any more of that than what Im already bound to receive.

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All that said, I think how to decline the invitations is actually the easy part. Do it kindly and honestly: Thank you so much for the invitation, but Im not feeling ready to attend group gatherings yet. I am so proud of everything Student has accomplished and Im wishing them the very best on this exciting next chapter of life. Congratulations! Ive declined a few invitations to various things in this way and have not felt any pushback or judgment (or, at least, nothing more substantial than that seems paranoid, but OK!). If you sense youd meet resistance, I think you could scrap the honesty and go with kind but vagueThank you so much for the invitation, but unfortunately I cant make itthough I think the sooner we normalize naming our boundaries, the better.

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This is hard. I hope it goes well. I think most people, including me, have felt challenged to develop a new set of social skills for engaging with others face to face and communicating our comfort (or discomfort) as we do so. Sadly, this appears to be the reality well be living for the foreseeable future, so new social norms will be necessary too.

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Ms. Bauer (middle and high school, New York)

Im a high school student whos going to be a senior this year. I recently moved from Canada to the U.S., leaving a lot of my friends and teachers behind. Because of this, I often have to email my former teachers, and my current ones, about things like math contest results, volunteer hours, etc. But theyre busy people and they often dont reply. My question is this: Is it rude to email a teacher again? It could very well be that after a period of not checking their inbox due to summer vacation or other circumstances, my message was buried under a mound of emails about meetings and due dates. Should I email them again? If so, how many times, and how should I phrase it?

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Dont Want to Be a Nuisance

Dear DWtBaN,

It is certainly not rude to send a follow-up email! If you sent emails over the summer, the teachers may have missed your requests. As a general rule, give a teacher at least 48 hours before you follow up with them. And if possible, you might want to wait until the week before their school is in sessionteachers will be checking email regularly then.

In terms of phrasing, be both direct and polite. Make sure you begin with a greeting (Dear Ms. Garcia) and use words like please and thank you. In a follow-up email, you can say something like, I am following up on the request I sent in July for a letter of recommendation. Could you please respond and let me know if you are able to write one for me? I also appreciate it when a student tells me their deadline. If your need is simple, like a signed form, that is relatively quick to turn around. But if its more involved, like a letter of recommendation, give the teacher at least a week to get it done. I prefer two weeks.

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If youve sent three emails with no response, you may need to figure out a different way to get what you need. Sometimes teachers retire or otherwise leave a school over the summer. Call the schools main office and ask for advice on who can help you.

Finally, congratulations, senior! I know it will be a strange year (in a new country!), but I hope it is also a good one.

Ms. Holbrook (high school teacher, Texas)

More Advice From Slate

My oldest child is in third grade. Hes in an established gifted program at our public elementary school and gets perfect grades, but he seems to have way too much free time at school. Should I talk to his teacher?
NOIDA and BENGALURU, India, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Truechip, the Verification IP Specialist, today announced that it has shipped early adoption version of USB4 Verification IP along with eUSB.

On this occasion, Nitin Kishore, CEO, Truechip, said, "We are very excited with the release of USB4 Verification IP. This release is a major milestone as USB4 enhances the data speed to 40 Gbps and also combines DisplayPort, PCIe, USB 3.2, USB Type C & PD and Thunderbolt to work under one umbrella. USB4 makes USB really universal having applications in almost all devices!"

"This customer shipment of USB 4 & eUSB is reflective of the importance of USB standards in the ever-evolving communication industry," said Nitin. He further added, "We are one of the pioneers for USB Verification IP who caters to all wired USB standards including HUB and Re-Timers. By delivering USB4 Verification IP and test suites including early support for the latest standard, Truechip enables designers to efficiently design the latest devices and subsystems and accelerate verification closure."

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Saurabh Agarwal, Head, Marketing & Sales, Truechip said, "At Truechip, we believe that constant innovation and expansion is the key to success and the USB 4 VIP shipment is one such illustration. Today we are known in the industry for providing aggressive support, Flexible licensing models, customizations of VIPs, ease of integration to our customers to augment their VIP usage."

USB4 VIP Major Features Supports:

USB4 Gen2 (10Gbps per lane) and Gen3 (20Gbps per lane) mode of operations

Thunderbolt (TBT3) interoperability

USB3.2, PCIe and DP native tunneling over USB4 fabric

Power Delivery v3.0 and USB Type-C v2.0 support with enter USB message

Reed Solomon-Forward Error Correction (RS-FEC) Encoding/Decoding

Bandwidth arbitration and prioritization of traffic in a Domain

USB4 Sideband and Configuration spaces

eUSB VIP Major Features Supports:

eUSB2 PHY and eUSB2 is fully compliant to the USB2.0 Revision 2.0 that supports high-speed, full-speed, and low-speed operation.

Any eUSB device in native mode and USB2.0 operation based on repeater architecture

Register access protocol (RAP) for eUSB2 device or repeater configurations

About Truechip:

Truechip is a leading provider of Verification IP solutions. We also provide verification, DFT and Physical design services. We aid to accelerate IP/ SOC design thus lowering the cost and the risks associated with the development of ASIC, FPGA and SOC. A privately held company with a solid and seasoned leadership, having global footprints and coverage across North America, Europe and Asia. Truechip offers Industry's first 24 x 7 technical support.

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For more information:

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SOURCE Truechip

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Vietnam and Singapore are witnessing their heyday in bilateral and multifaceted cooperation.

Singaporean Ambassador to Vietnam Catherine Wong Siow Ping talked about the two nations sharpened ties in the context of the ASEAN enhancing its role in the international arena.

Singaporean Ambassador to Vietnam Catherine Wong Siow Ping

COVID-19 continues to cause headaches globally and regionally. How has Singapore dealt with the pandemic, how have Vietnam and Singapore worked together on this issue, and how important is regional cooperation within the ASEAN in controlling the crisis?

This once-in-a-generation crisis has changed the way we live, work, and play. Following a circuit breaker from April 7 to June 1 with stringent restrictions on social interactions, Singapore has controlled the spread of COVID-19.

We are gradually reopening our economy and society: retail stores and restaurants have reopened while international passengers can transit through Changi Airport. At the same time, safety remains a top priority, with safe distancing requirements and restrictions on large-scale social gatherings.

A key pillar of our COVID-19 strategy is taking an active and rigorous testing approach. We are increasing our testing capacity from around 13,000 tests per day currently to 40,000 tests per day by the end of 2020. We are proactively testing population groups that are deemed vulnerable or have a higher risk of exposure to COVID-19.

While this means more cases are being detected, this enables us to identify and ringfence new cases early, thus preventing further transmission. We are also strengthening our contact tracing capabilities by leveraging on technology.

Consequently, the number of new cases in the community has declined. Most importantly, we have kept the mortality rate lower than 0.1 per cent  amongst the lowest worldwide. Through these efforts, Singapore remains a safe hub for business, investment, and trade.

We are committed to keeping our seaports and airports open and to continuing our critical role in facilitating global trade in essential goods and services. We are also looking to progressively reopen our borders with the necessary health safeguards in place.

Singapore has cooperated closely with Vietnam since the early stages of the pandemic, both bilaterally and within the ASEAN. We greatly appreciate the donations of medical equipment from Vietnamese government agencies and private organisations. To facilitate our growing trade and business links, both countries are discussing how to safely reopen borders for essential business travel in due course.

In the ASEAN, Singapore has strongly supported Vietnams chair role, with the aim of coordinating a regional response to the pandemic and developing an economic recovery plan. Vietnam successfully organised high-level physical and virtual meetings, such as the Special ASEAN and ASEAN+3 summits on COVID-19 and the 36th ASEAN Summit, which produced actionable plans on managing and moving forward from the crisis.

More needs to be done, and Vietnam can count on Singapores support.

What are the most significant points in Vietnam-Singapore economic ties since the ASEAN Community was established in 2015?

The realisation of the ASEAN Economic Community was a major milestone in the blocs efforts to create a highly integrated and cohesive economy. We need to continue these integration efforts for ASEAN to be an attractive partner and bring benefits to our people.

In line with this, Vietnam-Singapore economic ties have grown steadily over the years, with bilateral trade reaching $22.7 billion in 2019. Singapore is also Vietnams third-largest foreign investor, with cumulative investment of over $47 billion in more than 2,000 projects.

Singapore companies are increasingly interested to expand into Vietnam, with our business community recently identifying Vietnam as their top market of interest. Prior to the pandemic outbreak, tourism was also growing, with over 590,000 Vietnamese visitors to Singapore in 2019. Building on our Strategic Partnership, we will continue strengthening cooperation in traditional economic sectors while exploring new sectors.

Singaporean companies are deepening their presence in Vietnam, with UOB Vietnam opening its first branch in Hanoi last year

Could you elaborate on these new sectors of investment?

Vietnams rapid development has provided new opportunities for Singaporean companies, particularly in the following sectors: firstly, infrastructure and urban solutions. Our companies are looking to partner with Vietnam to develop sustainable, smart townships.

For example, video analytics company XRVision has embarked on projects with Vietnamese companies Viettel and AIC. Singaporean companies like Sembcorp, Sunseap, and The Blue Circle are also interested in working with Vietnam to explore new energy sources, such as renewables and liquefied natural gas. For instance, Sunseap completed a 168MW solar farm project in the south-central province of Ninh Thuan in 2019, and is investing in new projects of over 350MW in Vietnam.

Secondly, innovation and startups. Singapores Global Innovation Alliance (GIA), which seeks to create overseas collaboration opportunities for Singapore enterprises, was launched in Ho Chi Minh City last year. The first GIA Acceleration Programme, comprising mentorship and business matching activities for Singapore and Vietnamese tech startups and small- and medium-sized enterprises, was launched in July.

Separately, NUS Enterprise, the entrepreneurial arm of the National University of Singapore, is partnering Becamex IDC Corporation to establish BLOCK71 in Ho Chi Minh City to encourage Vietnam-Singapore startup exchanges.

Beyond these initiatives, Singapore startups have shown keen interest to expand into Vietnam. For example, edutech company Aculearns online training platform has gained promising traction in Vietnam through successful partnerships with Vietnamese companies.

Third is e-commerce. Due to COVID-19, many businesses have moved online to supplement their sales and services. Furthermore, in May Vietnam launched the National Masterplan for E-Commerce Development, which targets e-commerce revenue to reach $35 billion and comprise 10 per cent of national retail and services earnings by 2025.

These developments have created exciting opportunities for Singapores companies in areas like food, retail, and leisure services. Singaporean brands are interested to tap into Vietnams e-commerce market to promote their products, and our fintech and logistics companies are keen to explore investment opportunities to support the growing online retail space.

And fourth is high-tech manufacturing. As Vietnam develops its national Industry 4.0 Strategy, Singaporean companies can offer local manufacturers solutions in areas like automation, robotics, additive manufacturing, and the industrial Internet of Things.

The ASEAN Smart Cities Network (ASCN), established during Singapores 2018 ASEAN chairmanship, has presented new opportunities for Singapore to share its Smart Nation experiences with Vietnam. How has and will the city-state work with Vietnam in this area?

The ASCN aims to facilitate cooperation in developing smart cities through sharing best practices and developing action plans, catalysing bankable projects with the private sector, and securing support from the ASEANs external partners. Indeed, external partners have shown growing interest to form partnerships, with countries like the United States, Australia, Japan, and South Korea establishing initiatives to engage the ASCN.

Last year, Singapore was appointed ASCN Shepherd for two years. We will work with Vietnam (as ASCN chair) to strengthen the ASCN and further develop interoperability. We support Vietnams ASCN priorities, such as promoting green and sustainable growth and using international investment to implement the smart city action plans, and are confident that Vietnam will make good progress in these areas.

Vietnam, as ASEAN chair, is aiming to help the region boost intra-connectivity and cooperation, especially in terms of trade and investment. What is your assessment of Vietnams role in this regard, and how has and will Singapore combine with Vietnam and other member states to drive the bloc forwards?

Under Vietnams leadership, the ASEAN has collaborated to chart the course ahead, especially in view of the pandemic. In June, the ASEAN adopted the Hanoi Plan of Action on Strengthening ASEAN Economic Co-operation and Supply Chain Connectivity in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. This reflects ASEAN countries commitment to work closely to enable the free flow of essential goods, and keep critical infrastructure and trading routes open.

Singapore and Vietnam share a commitment to upholding free trade, supply chain connectivity and the rules-based multilateral trading system. This gives us the best chance of accelerating the regional economic recovery from the crisis.

It is important for the ASEAN to show the world that we are open for business, with a stable and integrated economy conducive for foreign investment. We therefore hope that the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership will be signed this year.

Singapore will continue working closely with participating countries to make it a reality. This will send a resounding message of ASEAN unity and centrality, while boosting confidence in the stability and integration of the regional economy. VIR

Thanh Tung

Singapore becomes biggest investor in Vietnam during Jan-April Singapore rose to become the biggest foreign investor in Vietnam in the first four months of 2020 with 5.07 billion USD, accounting for 41 percent of the total.
The Japanese city was the target of the first atomic attack in history. The commemoration was scaled back due to the coronavirus emergency. For Archbishop Takami, the path to true peace requires the world to abolish nuclear weapons. For Pope Francis, the use of atomic weapons is immoral.

Hiroshima (AsiaNews)  Japan today commemorates the 75th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The Japanese city was the target of the first nuclear attack in history, carried out by a US B-29 Superfortress bomber Enola Gay at 8.15 am on 6 August 1945.

Three days later, the United States Air Force dropped a second nuclear bomb on Nagasaki. The double attack pushed the Japanese Empire to surrender, bringing an end to the Second World War.

This year the commemoration was scaled back because of the coronavirus outbreak. Aside from government officials and local authorities, only bombing survivors (Hibakusha), their families and a handful of foreign dignitaries took part in the public ceremony.

For Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui, the catastrophe must serve as a warning to humanity. He called on people across the world to work towards peace.

At least 140,000 people died from the nuclear raid on Hiroshima, many of them instantly. Tens of thousands later perished as a result of devastating burns and radiation sickness.

The attack on Nagasaki caused 74,000 victims. Of the 12,000 parishioners [who lived in the city], about 8,500 died from the bombing, said Archbishop Joseph Mitsuaki Takami of Nagasaki. He too is a Hibakusha since he was in his mothers womb at the time.

In marking the Hiroshima bombing, inspired by the words of Pope Francis, Mgr Mitsuaki said that the path to true peace required the world to abolish nuclear weapons.

During his visit to Japan last year, the pontiff lashed out against the use of atomic weapons, which he considers immoral.

The Pope also launched an initiative in support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Approved by the United Nations Assembly in 2017, many states  especially the nuclear powers  have yet to ratify it.
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Palo Alto's MacArthur Park restaurant has been around since 1981, and the building  a historical landmark  has been around even longer. But now, the restaurant will close temporarily, just two weeks after finally reopening outdoor dining, the Mercury News reported.

"In considering the current environment, and following great effort to reimagine the social dining experience  this difficult decision was made," read an email announcing the closure. "The safety of our staff and patrons has always been an utmost concern and combined with the challenging economics, we decided it best to pause our operations till next year."
While Dublin saw an increase in funding raised, the number of investment rounds dropped by 27% compared to last year, according to the TechIreland report (Stock image)

One in ten small business owners now plans to give themselves a pay raise this year, while nearly a third will cut their wages amid Covid-19 losses, according to the Irish SME Association.

Ismes survey of 237 members published today identifies a modest recovery in faith that small firms will rebound from Covid-19  a change reflected in their own shifting wage plans.

Just three months ago, in the first weeks of lockdown, Ismes quarterly survey found that only 4pc of SME owners planned to hike their own wages this year. That has risen to 10pc, including 2pc who plan at least a 5pc raise for themselves.

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While 30pc still plan to take reduced pay this year, that has fallen from 47pc who foresaw this sacrifice three months ago.

Nearly three in five SME owners now plan to maintain their own pay on 2019 levels, up from 49pc.

Some SME owners and managers plan to spread their gains to staff. The survey found that nearly 23pc of surveyed firms plan to raise employees wages, half by at least 2.5pc.

But two-thirds have ruled out any pay hikes, and 11pc still intend to cut wages, mostly by more than 5pc.

The Irish SME Association also found that most members so far had not resorted to any exceptional finance beyond the States payroll supports.

While nearly seven in 10 were supported by the Wage Subsidy Scheme, and nearly a quarter had availed of Revenue forbearance on taxes due, most had not sought support from their own primary bank.

Those receiving payment breaks on business mortgages and business loans totalled 10pc and 16.5pc respectively. Less than 8pc had tapped the SBCIs Working Capital Scheme  and barely 1pc the State-backed Credit Guarantee Scheme.

Nearly three in five said they had not contacted their bank for additional finance or payment breaks, while a quarter said they were receiving flexibility and forbearance from their bank. One in 20 said their bank was being unhelpful or refusing my request for help.

The survey chiefly involved firms employing fewer than 50 staff, more than half of them outside Dublin.
The Metropolitan Police appealed the Crown Prosecution Services decision to hand television star Caroline Flack a caution for assaulting her boyfriend because a senior officer believed the Love Island host had not clearly admitted responsibility, her inquest heard.

Police attended Flacks home in December when her boyfriend Lewis Burton, said to be bleeding profusely from a cut to his head, phoned emergency services saying Flack was trying to kill him.

The CPS reviewed its original decision following the Mets interference and subsequently pressed ahead with an assault charge.

The inquest heard Flack was found naked and covered in blood with a self-imposed cut to her wrist when police arrived on the scene, and told officers: I hit him (Mr Burton), he was cheating on me.

Expand Close The inquest is taking place at Poplar Coroners Court in London (PA) / Facebook

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Whatsapp The inquest is taking place at Poplar Coroners Court in London (PA)

Giving evidence at her inquest in Poplar, east London, Detective Inspector Lauren Bateman said Flack had not made it clear in her police interview later what she was admitting to.

She told the hearing on Thursday: Unfortunately when she was interviewed at the police station it was slightly different.

In my opinion it was unclear what Caroline was alluding to.

Although she made some admissions at the scene, things were said differently (in interview).

In my view it wasnt clear what she was admitting to.

The inquest heard that in her police interview, Flack said she flicked Mr Burton to wake him up, and that she did not believe she caused his injury.

The coroner, Mary Hassell, suggested DI Bateman was splitting hairs in what she considered to be Flacks admission of guilt.

DI Bateman replied: In my view, it wasnt a clear admission of what had happened.

A lack of admission meant the case could not be dealt with through a caution, the inquest was told.

DI Bateman said she would not do anything differently if faced with the same circumstances again.

On Wednesday, friends described how Flack had serious concerns about her trial in March, but had met with her lawyers on February 14 when she thought the case might be dropped.

However, it was then that her legal team outlined the CPSs decision  made the previous day  to go ahead with court action.

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Whatsapp Caroline Flack died in February (PA)

The former Love Island hosts family and close friends told the inquest on Wednesday how the 40-year-old feared losing her cherished career, and her mental health worsened after she was arrested.

Flacks mother Chris Flack wiped away tears on video link on Wednesday when her statement was read, criticising the CPS.

She said: I believe Caroline was seriously let down by the authorities and in particular the CPS for pursuing the case.

I believe this was a show trial.

Being well-known should not allow special treatment, but it should not allow making an example of someone.

Expand Close Lewis Burton, Caroline Flacks former boyfriend (Joe Giddens/PA) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Lewis Burton, Caroline Flacks former boyfriend (Joe Giddens/PA)

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Dr Jonathan Garabette, a consultant psychiatrist who treated Flack, described how she suffered a deterioration of her mental state in December 2019 and said he had concerns regarding the likely impact of the ongoing court case.

Prosecutor Lisa Ramsarran said the CPS looked at Flacks mental health when the case was first reviewed, including evidence that the television personality self-harmed at the crime scene when she allegedly assaulted Mr Burton.

However, it was decided to be in the public interest to authorise a charge of assault by beating, particularly considering the domestic violence allegation.

Boyfriend Mr Burton said he did not support the charge, and said Flack was not in a good place emotionally.

The inquest also heard an allegation from Flacks mother that a photograph from the scene which had upset Flack when it was published in the press was passed by Mr Burton to a former partner, who subsequently leaked it.

No members of Flacks friends and family were present for the two-day hearing. Flacks mother, twin sister, and two close friends joined the hearing via video link, although Mr Burton was absent.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article please contact Samaritans helpline 116 123 or Aware helpline 1800 80 48 48 or Pieta House on 1800 247 247
City Cyber police arrested a 38-year-old woman for allegedly abusing chief minister (CM) Uddhav Thackeray and his son and state minister Aaditya Thackeray on social media. The woman also shared a morphed photo of the CM. The police booked her for promoting enmity between different groups and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony, defamation and other charges under the Indian Penal Code (IPC). A local court granted her bail on Thursday.

The Navi Mumbai resident was arrested on Thursday, said Rashmi Karandikar, deputy commissioner of police (Cyber), Mumbai Police crime branch.

The woman was arrested based on a complaint filed by advocate Dharmendra Mishra, who is also associated with Shiv Sena, as the partys legal consultant.

In the first information report, a copy of which is with HT, Mishra alleged that the woman, through several of her tweets, on July 25 and July 28 hurled abuses on the CM and Aaditya Thackeray. She also made objectionable comments on them.

The woman in her Twitter bio describes herself as core committee member of @Bharat_niti which is linked to BJPs [Bharatiya Janata Party] IT [information technology] cell. Her abusive and objectionable posts on Twitter not only undermines the diginity of chief ministers post, but also promotes enmity in religious groups. This is a perfect example of blatant misuse of freedom of speech, Mishra tweeted.

Last month, the VP Road police booked Nagpur businessman for allegedly abusing CM and defaming Aaditya Thackeray.
Wednesday, the state stood at 152.6 new cases per million people per day. Douglas Countys number was 218 cases per million per day.

Last week, Douglas County has its second-worst week for new cases since the pandemic began, with 945 new cases.

The positivity rate for the week in Douglas County was about 11%, up from about 7% in July.

Douglas County has reported 135 deaths from COVID-19. Since reporting six COVID-19 deaths last Friday, the county has reported one additional death. The official count can lag from the actual number, however, because it sometimes takes weeks for health officials to receive confirmation of a COVID-19 death.

Birx pointed to four additional cities that are doing relatively well  Boston, Chicago, Detroit and Washington, D.C.  and yet are seeing small increases in the percentage of positive COVID-19 tests, according to White House data. Those areas need to get on top of it, she said.
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Linkedin Kelly Macnamara (Agence France-Presse) Paris, France  Thu, August 6, 2020 20:05 530 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c22bf8 2 Environment environment,Antarctica,penguin,satellite,animals,climate Free

Satellite imagery has uncovered 11 new colonies of Emperor penguins in Antarctica, according to new research Wednesday that suggests the global population is up to 10 percent bigger than previously thought.

Emperor penguins, which are particularly vulnerable to climate change, are difficult to study because their habitat in Antarctica is extremely remote and temperatures can drop to 50 degrees Celsius.

Since the flightless birds themselves are too small to be seen from satellites, the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) used images from the Copernicus Sentinel-2 observation program to track penguin guano -- their poo.

These revealed the additional 11 colonies, bringing the total colony count on the whole continent to 61, according to the study published in Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation.

Lead author Peter Fretwell, a geographer at BAS, described the discovery as "exciting".

But he cautioned that since the colonies are small they only increase the global population by between 5 and 10 percent, or around 265,500 to 278,500 breeding pairs.

Read also: Researchers go 'cuckoo' over Antarctic penguin poop

Shrinking habitat

Warming ocean waters are melting the sea ice where Emperor penguins live and breed.

The researchers said that most of the newly found colonies are in locations that could disappear as a result of climate change.

"Birds in these sites are therefore probably the 'canaries in the coalmine' -- we need to watch these sites carefully as climate change will affect this region," said Philip Trathan, head of conservation biology at BAS.

Last year another survey from BAS discovered that the second largest Emperor penguin colony on Earth had suffered a "catastrophic" breeding failure as their habitat dwindles.

The Halley Bay colony in the Weddell Sea due south of Cape Hope, normally sees up to 25,000 penguin pairs mate each year.

But in 2016, when abnormally warm and stormy weather broke up the sea-ice on which the penguins normally raise their young, almost all the chicks died. This pattern was repeated in 2017 and 2018.

A nearby penguin colony had increased in size, however, indicating that many of the Halley Bay birds had migrated to safer breeding conditions.

Emperors, the world's largest penguin species, came to global fame with a 2005 documentary, March of the Penguins, portraying their annual trek across the icy wastes, and the 2006 cartoon movie Happy Feet.

But their population, centred around Earth's extreme south, is set to decline up to 70 percent by the end of the century as the planet continues to warm.

A study in 2015 recommended the birds be added to an international "Red List" of endangered species.

Topics : environment Antarctica penguin satellite animals climate
RACINE  The citys Safer Racine ordinance that allows the public health administrator to put restrictions and health orders in place has been extended to the end of year.

At the same time, the city is now going into phase three of the ordinance and loosening restrictions on certain activities now that the state mask mandate is in place.

Phase three of the Safer Racine ordinance loosens restrictions on large gatherings, at swimming pools, indoor arts and culture spaces and at schools.

Under this phase, in-person instruction at schools is permitted following review of the reopening plan with the City of Racine Public Health Department. Public Health Administrator Dottie-Kay Bowersox said the Health Department has been working closely with schools for weeks and would continue to do so as they enter the 2020-21 school year.

However, K-12 schools are strongly recommended to implement distance or virtual learning.

At Wednesdays City Council meeting, Bowersox presented Phase three of Safer Racine which loosens restrictions in six areas, which were based on data on recommendations from various health organizations.

The City Council passed the extended and updated Safer Racine regulations with the consent agenda. The council also voted 11-2 to extend the emergency declaration through the end of the year. Aldermen Mollie Jones, John Tate II, Edwin Santiago, Jen Levie, Jeffrey Peterson, Maurice Horton, Trevor Jung, Mary Land, Natalia Taft, Jason Meekma and Melissa Lemke voted in favor and Aldermen Carrie Glenn and Henry Perez voted in opposition. Aldermen Jeff Coe and Marcus West were not present.

What changed?

When the City Council approved the ordinance requiring face coverings in most situations, which was before the state mandate went into effect, Council President John Tate II asked Health Department Administrator Dottie-Kay Bowersox if, we could dial back some of (the Safer Racine) regulations.

In her presentation on the masking ordinance on July 21, Bowersox had mentioned that her department had decided to pursue masks instead of ratcheting up Safer Racine restrictions out of economic considerations, but as far as loosening them, she would wait until the meeting on Aug. 5 to make a decision.

Under the new Safer Racine regulations, in addition to the K-12 changes:

Post-secondary education institutions, such as Gateway Technical College, are open following Center for Disease Control guidelines.

Licensed swimming pools are allowed to go from the previous regulation of 25% to 50% of total premises capacity if social distancing could be maintained.

Indoor places of art and culture are allowed to go from the current 50% to 75% indoor capacity if social distancing can be maintained.

Indoor and outdoor mass gatherings in public venues are open but limited in capacity. Gatherings are limited to 50% indoor capacity or 100 persons on the premises, whichever is less, if social distancing can be maintained. Employees are not included in capacity counts.

Why now?

Before presenting the updated Safer Racine, health department officials presented a COVID-19 update that was a mixed bag of positive and negatives developments.

Wisconsin only has the 19th highest COVID-19 activity out of the states, but neighboring Illinois has climbed to number ten, though Chicago added Wisconsin to its 14-day quarantine recommendation. Bowersox said she is a concerned about the growing outbreak in Illinois due to the shared border and the amount of cross-state travel.

Based on 5-day rolling averages, Racine has seen an increase in the percentage of positive cases compared to last month. Epidemiologist Cody Pearce, said that while they would like to see a lower percentage, such as 2%, it appears to be holding steady at 7-8%.

Racine County still has the second-highest case rate per capita and the City of Racine still encompasses the majority of cases county-wide. But the citys share of total cases in Racine County had gone from over 70% down to 58%.

A chart shared with the council showed that unlike the peak in late May and early June where the citys rate of new infections was significantly higher than the countys, there is now not much of a gap between the citys and countys new infection rate over 14 days.

Furthermore, Bowersox said she was reassured with the widespread adoption of the mask ordinance, though she believed it would be some time before they could measure its effects. The City Council also approved a contract to hire temporary contact tracers, paid for with a COVID-19 grant from the state. Area hospitals had reduced the number of beds in their COVID-19 wards and, are doing very well with the patients that they have.

Thus far weve been very fortunate at multiple levels, said Bowersox. But I believe that it is due to our activities and actions up until this point.

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The Krewe of Patronius planned to celebrate its 60th year with its typically over-the-top costume ball at the Frederick Sigur Center in St. Bernard Parish on Feb. 6. But with no end in sight to the coronavirus crisis, New Orleans oldest gay Carnival organization has decided to postpone the party until 2022.

The ball, which includes a pageant of members wearing enormous sculpted headdresses and long trains, inevitably brings the costumers and attendees into close quarters, explained krewe captain Mina Hernandez. It would be impossible to avoid the risk of spreading COVID-19, so after a great deal of discussion, thought and care, the krewe decided to skip the 2021 celebration.

Hernandez said that for her, the decision had a personal angle: Her 83-year-old mother attends annually.

To put her in that position would be unacceptable, Hernandez said.

And that concern extends to the rest of the audience and members as well.

The Krewe of Petronious got its start in 1961, long before mainstream acceptance of LGBTQ culture was even dreamt of, at a time when attending gay gatherings could lead to arrest and deliberate public humiliation.

The krewe, which does not stage a parade, has only canceled a few balls since its founding. Hurricane Katrina accounted for one cancellation, and the krewe was unable to conduct balls in 2004 and 2015 for lack of sufficient finances, according to Hernandez.

+6 For Pride month, a fascinating look at the art and history of gay Carnival This June marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, recognized as the main catalyst of the contemporary LGBTQ equality movement.

The theme of the 2021 ball, "The Night at the Museum!," will be held over until next time, Hernandez said, as will the 2021 royalty. Hernandez said the election of captain will take place during the hiatus, but if she is replaced, she will continue as a consultant to ensure continuity between the balls.

+7 Nyx former members join forces with Krewe of Freret Mardi Gras parading organization The 600-member Krewe of Freret Carnival parading organization just got a lot bigger, with the addition of hundreds of riders who once belonged
Migrants: New rescue ship for Sea Watch-MSF mission Sea-Watch 4 to set sail in coming weeks

(ANSAmed) - ROME, AUGUST 6 - A new migrant-rescue ship run by Sea Watch and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) will return over the coming weeks to the central Mediterranean, the organizations said on Thursday. The Sea Watch 4 was bought thanks to the over 500 organizations that are part of the coalition 'United4Rescue'. The ship will be managed by Sea Watch while MSF will provide the medical team of four and the clinic on board. Nearly all NGO-run ships are docked in ports after being seized by authorities. ''At a time during which the obstacles against rescue operations at sea continue and the Covid-19 pandemic is used as a pretext to limit them further'', MSF and Sea Watch said, the new ship represents ''a further response of European civil society to the EU's migration policies that prefer to perpetuate violence in Libya and expose people to the risk of drowning provided they don't reach European coasts''. The medical team on board will include a doctor and an obstetrician to provide medical assistance and manage the clinic on board with specific attention to be paid to measures required by the Covid-19 pandemic. (ANSAmed) (ANSA).




Returned travellers confined to their rooms in coronavirus quarantine hotels say their alcohol is being rationed and their beer has been confiscated.

An couple said they placed a significant order to get them through the government mandated, self-funded isolation at a Brisbane complex.

The pair said when staff brought it to their room they were told they were only allowed six beers per night, rather than the two cases and bottle of rum they ordered.

The couple paid $3,710 out of their own pocket to stay at the hotel for 14 days as required by the Queensland government.

They had returned to the state on Monday after working in Melbourne.

Hotel guests trapped in coronavirus quarantine say authorities are 'Un-Australian' for withholding their private alcohol deliveries. Pictured: Returning travellers are checked into hotel quarantine in Brisbane for 14 day mandatory isolation

'If I was a paying customer  and I walked through reception with a carton of beer, would they pull us up and say that we can't take that up to our room,' the guest told The Courier Mail.

They were told by staff the decision was made to 'limit the ramifications of hooliganism'.

The couple said it was 'Un-Australian' to punish them for doing the right thing by waiting out the 14 days in quarantine, unlike those who have tried to sneak across state borders.

'How do they have the right to confiscate my alcohol when I haven't done anything wrong  I wasn't drunk and disorderly, I wasn't drinking in the street,' they said.

The couple claimed they were being punished for doing the right thing by waiting out the 14 days in quarantine (stock image)

'They're holding back our alcohol deliveries that we've paid for, that we own.'

A manager at the hotel the guests are staying at declined a request for comment from Daily Mail Australia on Thursday night.

Daily Mail Australia understands the alcohol rationing in the hotel was the result of strict liquor licensing regulations under the Responsible Service of Alcohol.

Allowing guests a six pack of beer or a bottle of wine is standard procedure.

An industry insider told Daily Mail Australia it was likely the hotel had a 'no party policy' - being a licensed venue with a duty of care.

The hotel employee said it would be a 'recipe for disaster' for staff to provide excessive amounts of alcohol to clients.

Australian Defence Force Personnel patrol outside the a hotel in Brisbane

According to information on Queensland Health's website the quarantine fee including accommodation and daily meals is $2,800 for a single adult over the 14 days.

This translates to $3,710 for two adults, and $4,620 for 2 adults and 2 children.

At the end of your quarantine, an invoice is issued which needs to be paid within 30 days.

Payment plans are available for those who can't pay by the due date.
President Trump arrives for a signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House on Tuesday. (Alex Brandon / Associated Press)

To the editor: The Los Angeles Times' hatred of President Trump is far from subtle, and I will vote for him again even though I am well aware that this bright blue state's electoral votes will go to former Vice President Joe Biden. ("Trump's base starting to erode, new poll shows," Aug. 4)

Trump is far from ideal, but I do not judge him by what he says. I judge him by what he does. His record is one of "promises made, promises kept."

His reduction of red tape and regulations that strangle business growth was effective until COVID-19 hit. He said he'd move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, and he did. He at least met with the North Korean dictator rather than continue President Obama's ineffective policy of "strategic patience."

My strident objection to a Biden administration is that the former vice president probably will not call the shots. He will be 78 years old on inauguration day, and the so-called progressives will force a leftist agenda on him.

Have rational, thinking voters reviewed the Democratic Party's platform and Biden's proposals on taxes, energy, healthcare and, worst of all, the "Green New Deal"? I will take life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness over obsessions about race, gender and class any day.

Kevin S. Avery, Tarzana

..

To the editor: House on fire? Democrats want the guy who would have prevented their house from catching fire.

Republicans, in contrast, want the guy who ignored the smoke, said the flames were a hoax, insulted the firemen who insisted there was a problem and cut the water pressure to a trickle while ridiculing the fleeing occupants.

He stands among the smoldering embers, telling Americans they should reelect him as fire chief  because he's heard that people are saying he did an amazing job.

Stephen C. Lee, La Habra
The head of the Belfast Health Trust has expressed profound regret at failings in the leadership at Muckamore Abbey Hospital.

A raft of allegations of physical abuse and mental cruelty to patients at the Co Antrim facility are being investigated by police.

An independent review into the running of the hospital by the trust has found that while appropriate governance structures were in place, these systems were not implemented effectively and senior staff did not use their discretion to escalate matters.

Trust chief executive Dr Cathy Jack issued a public apology to patients and their families who have been failed by this trust.

It is clear there were serious failings in leadership and ineffective escalation of serious matters at Muckamore, despite appropriate governance structures, she said.

This contributed to an environment which enabled the serious maltreatment of vulnerable people to go unnoticed for so long.

This is a matter of profound regret and for that I am deeply sorry.

I also fully accept that they want much more than apologies. They need and deserve answers as to why this happened and to be confident that this scandal will not be repeated Robin Swann, Health Minister

In a statement, the trust said the review was the latest in a series in recent years, adding that following significant improvements, it is confident that Muckamore Abbey Hospital is much safer today.

Health Minister Robin Swann confirmed his intention to establish an inquiry into the appalling failings at Muckamore as he paid tribute to Glynn Brown, the father of a patient, for his determination in exposing the truth.

The review was ordered by the Department of Health last year and follows a Serious Adverse Incident (SAI) Review.

It is three years since allegations around the hospital, which provides facilities for adults with severe learning disabilities and mental health needs, emerged.

Families of patients met with officials on Wednesday evening to be briefed on the findings.

These included that the health trust and the executive team at the facility rarely discussed Muckamore and the focus of the trust leadership was on delivering resettlement targets.

The report also concludes that the annual Discharge of Statutory Functions reports by the trust did not provide sufficient reassurance and were not sufficiently challenged at trust, health and social care board, or departmental levels.

The review team confirmed the conclusions of the previous SAI Report that Muckamore was viewed as a place apart which operated outside the sightlines and under the radar of the trust.

Since the maltreatment of patients has come to light, significant lessons have already been learned and many improvements have been put in place to protect against this happening again Belfast Health Trust statement

Mr Swann said he intends to consider the report in detail before consulting with families, patients and former patients about the most appropriate terms and format for an inquiry.

Patients and families have been let down and I want to apologise to them on behalf of the health and social care system, he said.

I also fully accept that they want much more than apologies. They need and deserve answers as to why this happened and to be confident that this scandal will not be repeated.

I also want to apologise publicly to Mr Glynn Brown and pay tribute to his perseverance and devotion to his son. Mr Browns determination was central in exposing the truth about Muckamore. It shouldnt have been left to him to do this but we should all be very grateful that he did.

The trust described the review as the latest in a series in recent years to better understand how such a culture and an environment could have existed and to ensure it can never again be perpetuated.

In a statement, the trust said: We acknowledge this is a very painful and lengthy process for patients, families, and carers, past and present. But we are committed to ensuring that the outcomes will lead to better and safer care.

Since the maltreatment of patients has come to light, significant lessons have already been learned and many improvements have been put in place to protect against this happening again.

We now have rigorous processes to ensure the safe care of patients and we actively encourage a culture of greater openness amongst our staff and our families.

Additionally, there have been many significant improvements that are now embedded and we are confident that Muckamore Abbey Hospital is much safer today.

A major police investigation is ongoing into the allegations, which includes the examination of 300,000 hours of CCTV footage.

Belfast Health Trust said 59 members of staff have been suspended from the hospital.

Police have made seven arrests, but no one has been charged.
A five-year-old girl who wandered out from her family home in Pennsylvania on Tuesday during the height of Tropical Storm Isaias has been found dead, police announced Wednesday.

The lifeless body of little Eliza Talal, who was autistic and nonverbal, was tragically found by police in Fischers Park at 10:40am Wednesday morning, around two miles from her home.

Eliza had last been seen alive nearly 24 hours earlier around noon on Tuesday, when she reportedly walked out of her home on Spring Valley Road in Lansdale as Storm Isaias wreaked havoc across the east coast.

Her parents reported her missing 30 minutes later and a frantic hours-long ground and air search of the surrounding area was launched by law enforcement to find the missing girl.

The lifeless body of little Eliza Talal, who was autistic and nonverbal, was tragically found on Wednesday, nearly 24 hours after she went missing in the midst of the storm

Her body was found in Fischers Park at around 10:40am Wednesday morning, around two miles from her home

The Towamencin Township Police Department said they believe the young girl was likely swept up in a flood after the creek behind her home swelled.

A volunteer searcher from the community found her body among foliage on Wednesday morning next to a creek in the park, after the water had receded.

Police Chief Tim Dickinson said it was apparent the area was extremely flooded at one time.

An emotional Dickinson recounted the tragic discovery of Elizas body, insisting to reporters that it was not the result that we were certainly hoping for.

Dickinson said the search involved hundreds of personnel including officers from his department, the FBI, neighbouring police departments and countless civilian volunteers.

We have met with the family. Obviously they are very upset, theyve gone through a terrible loss. But they are very strong people and we are keeping in contact with them to help them through this as best as we can, Dickinson said, fighting back tears.

I can tell you that these police officers here and first responders and community members searched tirelessly for Eliza. Its amazing when you see people come together what they can do, he continued.

The police chief said the search for Eliza was extremely difficult, exacerbated by dangerous weather conditions caused by Isaias that caused widespread flooding in the area and at least five confirmed tornadoes across Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey.

Eliza had last been seen alive nearly 24 hours earlier around noon on Tuesday, when shes believed to have wandered out of her home on Spring Valley Road in Lansdale as Storm Isaias wreaked havoc across the east coast

A volunteer searcher from the community found her body among foliage next to the creek, after the water had receded

The Towamencin Township Police Department said they believe the young girl was likely swept up in a flood after the creek behind her home swelled

Towamencin police said they were overwhelmed with emergency calls and had to perform 11 water rescues throughout Tuesday.

Ive been police chief here for 15 years and I have never seen that level of flooding in Towamencin Township throughout the township in my 15 years here, and that includes Hurricane Sandy, Dickinson said, as reported by NBC10.

Dickinson says he has no reason to suspect foul play, but Elizas death will be fully investigated.

Our prayers go out to her family, who have suffered a terrible loss, Dickinson said.

Elsewhere in the state, at least two women also died as a result of the storm.

A 44-year-old died in Lehigh County when her vehicle was swept away by floodwaters on the 6300 block of North Main Street in Upper Saucon Township.

A second woman, who has also not yet been publicly named, was found dead in her home in Milford, Delaware, at 11:45am. Police havent yet revealed details about her death but said they believe it was storm-related.

Two people were also killed when Isaias spun off a tornado that struck a North Carolina mobile home park.

Bertie County Sheriff John Holley told local reporters: It doesn't look real. It looks like something on TV. There's nothing there.

Vehicles are turned over. Vehicles are piled on top of each other. It's just very sad.

Three others were killed by falling trees toppled by the storm in Maryland, Connecticut, and New York City, and a seventh person died in Delaware when a tree branch fell on them, authorities said.
ALLETE (NYSE:ALE)

Q2 2020 Earnings Call

, 10:00 a.m. ET

Contents:

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good day, and welcome to ALLETE second-quarter 2020 financial results call. Today's call is being recorded. Certain statements contained in this conference call that are not descriptions of historical facts are forward-looking statements such as terms defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Because such statements can include risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

Factors that could cause results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those discussed in filings made by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Many of the factors that will determine the company's future results are beyond the ability of management to control or predict. Listeners should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which reflect management's views only as the date hereof. The company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements or to make any other forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

I would like to turn the conference over to one of your speakers today, Bethany Owen, president and chief executive officer. Ma'am, please go ahead.

Bethany Owen -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, and good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. With me are ALLETE's senior vice president and chief financial officer, Bob Adams; and vice president, controller, and chief accounting officer, Steve Morris. Also with us this morning is Frank Frederickson, Minnesota Power's vice president of Customer Experience. Corresponding slides for this morning's call can be found on our website at allete.com in the Investors section.

We'll call out each slide number as we go through today's presentation. This morning, ALLETE reported second-quarter 2020 earnings of $0.39 per share on net income of $20.1 million. I'd like to highlight that these results reflect a $0.16 per share or $8.3 million after-tax charge for the recent Minnesota Power rate case resolution. I believe the positive outcome of this rate case balance the interest of many stakeholders, including a much needed refund to customers, especially when considering the economic challenges caused by COVID-19.

I'm grateful for the Minnesota Power team's close work with many diverse stakeholders to develop a proposal that was positive for our customers and our company. And I appreciate the support of those stakeholders and the timely approval of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. Before we get into additional details of the second-quarter financial results and our positioning for the remainder of 2020, I want to update you on the state of ALLETE as we continue to successfully navigate the current economic challenges. Please see Slide No.

2, which we shared with you last quarter, summarizing the principles and priorities guiding our COVID-19 strategy. 2020 has already been a year of challenges for so many with potentially more on the horizon as COVID-19 cases are increasing in many locations throughout our country. I first want to thank all of our incredibly talented, resilient and dedicated employees who worked safely and tirelessly in the field, in our plants, in our offices and remotely to provide essential energy services throughout this global pandemic. Even more remarkable is that they've done all of this while caring for their own families and facing other personal challenges.

Although not without sacrifice and resolve, we at ALLETE have accomplished so much, all to the credit of our employees who demonstrate their adaptability, commitment and indomitable spirit every single day. Already in this challenging year, our team has delivered the successful resolution of Minnesota Power's rate case, energization of the Great Northern Transmission Line; continued safe operations and progress on renewable energy construction projects without COVID-19 related interruption; new renewable energy power sales agreement; secure and effective technology, enabling the transition of 50% of our employees into remote workspaces to help keep them and our other employees safe; and our first virtual annual shareholders' meeting. These are just a few of our team's many accomplishments, all while delivering safe and reliable services to our customers. Our No.

1 priority from the very beginning of COVID-19 has been to protect the safety and health of our employees, our families, our customers and our communities throughout ALLETE's operation. And to that end, we took actions early and often to help ensure safety across all of our businesses. As in other uncertain economic times, we also took steps to ensure ALLETE's financial health remains strong, preserving our ability to execute our strategy over the long term. We've shored up liquidity and structured longer-term financing to address potential capital market challenges, all while maintaining ALLETE's long-term value proposition for our investors.

As part of our efforts to address the many impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, we're pleased that just last week, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission granted Minnesota Power a filing extension for its integrated resource plan. The additional four months will help ensure there is sufficient opportunity for us to safely engage with our customers, our communities and other stakeholders so that they can weigh in on the plan as it's being developed. This extension also gives our team much needed additional time for the thoughtful hard work that's required to propose a long-term plan that is best for our customers, our communities, our employees and our company. Now for an update on Minnesota Power's industrial customer front.

At the time of our last conference call, several of Minnesota Power's largest industrial customers had announced the idling of production at their operations. Because Minnesota Power had previously received demand nominations approximating full production levels through August, we did not experience a material financial impact from the idling of those customers' operations. Just a few days ago, we received power demand nominations from these customers for the last four months of this year, and we're very pleased to report that the nominations reflect significant improvement in planned production levels extending to the end of 2020. With the exception of Keewatin Taconite plant and the Verso paper making facility that remain indefinitely idled, the majority of large power customers, including Minnesota Power's three largest taconite customers, have nominated full production levels for the remainder of this year.

These solid nominations, in addition to the recent resolution of the Minnesota Power rate case, provide important visibility into the remainder of the year, enabling us to reinstate our 2020 earnings guidance. Bob will provide additional details on this earnings guidance and our 2020 outlook in a few minutes. In the meantime, our thoughts are with all of our customers and communities that are continuing to face challenges, including the employees and families of Keetac and Verso. We're hopeful that these businesses that are so important to our region will be able to restart operations in the future.

And we'll continue to work closely with them and stand ready to provide services when they resume production. Finally, from our company's roots in renewable hydroelectric energy to the significant strides we've made to advance other renewables such as wind and solar to our best practice governance, ALLETE sustainability journey is an important and integral part of who we are, and we're excited to be sharing that journey in new and more transparent ways. In May of this year, ALLETE released its EEI ESG report, highlighting many sustainability metrics at ALLETE. As we look to the future, we are also exploring the use of other reporting frameworks such as TCFD and SASB to more clearly share the progress we're making to advance sustainability in all of its dimension.

Now I'll turn it over to Steve and Bob for details on our financial results and 2020 guidance. Steve?

Steve Morris -- Vice President, Controller, and Chief Accounting Officer

Thanks, Bethany, and good morning, everyone. I would like to remind you that we filed our 10-Q this morning and encourage you to refer to it for more details. Please refer to Slides 3 and 4 for details regarding earnings per share on a quarterly and year-over-year basis for items impacting results, including the Minnesota Power rate case resolution and the 2019 sale of U.S. Water Services.

ALLETE reported second-quarter 2020 earnings of $0.39 per share on net income of $20.1 million. Last year's results were $0.66 per share on net income of $34.2 million. Results in the second quarter of 2020 included a $0.16 per share charge for the recent Minnesota Power rate case resolution for reserves that were recorded for interim rates collected through April 30, 2020. Results in the second quarter of 2019 included a $0.02 per share benefit for an adjustment on the gain on the sale of U.S.

Water Services. Excluding the Minnesota Power rate case resolution impact, year-to-date financial results were in line with our expectations. A few details from our business segments. ALLETE's regulated operations segment, which includes Minnesota Power, Superior Water, Light and Power and the company's investment in the American Transmission Company, included net income of $11.1 million compared to $30.3 million in the second quarter of 2019.

Second-quarter earnings reflected lower net income at Minnesota Power primarily due to the rate case settlement charge of $8.3 million after tax, much of which was for revenue collected in the first quarter, lower kilowatt hour sales due to COVID-19 related impact, lower sales to municipal customers and other power suppliers due to the expiration of related contracts and timing of fuel adjustment clause recoveries due to a method change this year. These decreases were partially offset by lower operating and maintenance expense, higher sales to residential customers and higher equity earnings in the American Transmission Company. As noted, in the second quarter, we did experience some negative impacts on kilowatt hour sales to commercial, other industrial and municipal customers related to COVID-19, resulting in lower kilowatt hour sales of approximately 15% as compared to 2019. Residential sales were higher by approximately 7%.

Overall, we estimate that the COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted earnings by approximately $0.06 to $0.08 per share for the quarter, which was mostly offset by expense mitigation efforts. Regarding the fuel adjustment clause method change, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission adopted a program to implement certain procedural reforms to Minnesota utilities automatic fuel adjustment clause for fuel and purchase power. Effective January 1, 2020, the method of accounting changed to a monthly budgeted forward-looking fuel adjustment with an actual true-up to actual allowed costs. The prior recovery method was based on a 3-month average in which revenues lagged fuel costs.

As a result, there were revenue recovery timing differences of $0.09 per share that negatively impacted the second quarter of this year as compared to last year's second quarter. Back to quarterly results for the rest of our business segments. ALLETE Clean Energy recorded second-quarter 2020 net income of $4 million compared to $1.9 million in 2019. Net income in 2020 reflects additional production tax credits and earnings from the new Glen Ullin and South Peak wind energy facilities partially offset by higher depreciation expense.

Our corporate and other businesses, which includes BNI Energy and ALLETE Properties, recorded net income of $5 million in 2020 compared to net income of $2 million in 2019. Net income in 2020 included higher earnings from marketable equity securities and additional income tax benefits, which varies quarter-to-quarter based on an estimated annual effective tax rate. Net income in 2019 included a $1.2 million after-tax benefit for an adjustment on a gain on the sale of U.S. Water Services.

Year-to-date results may not be indicative of results that can be expected for the remainder of the year as we now know that Keewatin Taconite and Verso operations will continue to be indefinitely idled and estimate some ongoing negative impact from our commercial, other industrial and municipal customers for the rest of the year. I'll now turn it over to Bob to discuss more details on our 2020 guidance and outlook for the rest of the year. Bob?

Bob Adams -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Steve, and good morning, everyone. I share Bethany's gratitude to the whole ALLETE team for their collective efforts and solid execution of pre-emptive COVID-related measures, enabling us to continue to provide essential services to our customers while maintaining the financial health of our business. There has been a tremendous amount of accomplishments and positioning for what has not only played out so far this year, but also to safeguard in the event the pandemic continues to have lasting impacts on the economy, our customers and the health, welfare of our employees into 2021. Despite the near-term challenges, we remain highly confident that, first, ALLETE's core strategy remains intact and right on target in terms of its focus on sustainability and clean energy across our business, leveraging our talents, capabilities and spirit while providing an attractive long-term value proposition for our investors.

Second, ACE will continue to be a significant growth engine in coming years as the size, diversity of operations, reputation and overall demand for renewable energy generation continue to expand. Third, Minnesota Power's regulatory compact is as constructive as it has been in years as evidenced by the recent rate case settlement. And finally, ALLETE is well positioned to weather COVID-19 and continues to plan for a multitude of scenarios going forward. As Bethany and Steve highlighted, the combination of our early mitigation actions taken to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic as well as large power nominations for the first eight months contributed to our performance being on track through Q2.

I will provide an update on 2020 guidance and outlook in a moment. But first, I would like to share some details of ALLETE's finances and liquidity positioning. Please refer to Slide 5. As you can see, our finances remain well positioned with a strong balance sheet and sufficient liquidity, bolstered by decisive financing actions taken already this year.

As of June 30, we had approximately $540 million in cash, credit facilities and other outstanding lending available. Regarding the tax equity financing for our renewable projects, we are in the process of finalizing $350 million in tax equity arrangements for investments in Nobles 2 and ALLETE Clean Energy's Diamond Spring wind project. This represents a critical last piece of financing for these projects and is another indication of the quality of our renewable projects being recognized in the marketplace. A few comments on our 2020 growth investments.

A number of our large renewable energy projects are well advanced toward completion, with over $600 million in total spend expected this year. The Nobles 2 project and energy forward initiative is currently under construction and on plan for completion later this year. As you know, an ALLETE subsidiary is partnering with Tenaska and will have an investment in this 250-megawatt wind facility located in Southwestern Minnesota. This facility will provide carbon-free wind generation to Minnesota Power under a long-term power sales agreement.

The construction of ALLETE Clean Energy's Diamond Spring project located in Oklahoma is advancing right on plan as well. Along with the already completed substation during the quarter, the installation of all 112 turbines has also been completed. This 300-megawatt wind generation project with a total cost of approximately $450 million is expected to be operational in Q4 of this year. ALLETE Clean Energy continues to advance on the newest wind project, the 300-megawatt Caddo facility, which is also located in Oklahoma.

This facility is targeted to serve large corporate customers and provide a significant additional expansion into the SPP market. When completed in 2021, this wind project will be similar in size and scale to Diamond Spring, with revenue secured by long-term power sales agreements. Despite the challenges COVID-19 has created for the broader company, corporate customers are focusing on their sustainability commitments, and we continue to pursue and receive ongoing interest in new projects. With its unique investment in PTC qualified wind turbines, ALLETE Clean Energy has capacity to add approximately 600 megawatts in new PTC qualified projects, utilizing a mix of 100%, 80% and 60% qualified turbines.

I would now refer you to Slide 6 regarding our 2020 guidance update. Because of the broad economic uncertainties related to COVID-19 and the potential financial impact, especially on our regulated business segment, at the time of our first quarter conference call, we were unable to provide a sufficiently reliable update to our 2020 earnings guidance. As I foreshadowed in ALLETE's first quarter conference call, we indicated that with August nomination cycle and the Minnesota Power rate case settlement, we anticipate being better able to provide reliable 2020 earnings guidance, and I'm very pleased to be able to deliver on this expectation. As Bethany mentioned, just this week, we received full demand nominations to support taconite production levels for the last four months of the year, with the exception of Keetac and Verso customers, which remain indefinitely idled.

With constructive indications of improving production from Minnesota Power's industrial customers and the rate case behind us, as noted on Slide 6, ALLETE's 2020 annual adjusted earnings guidance on a non-GAAP basis is now expected to be in the range of $3.25 to $3.45 per share, which excludes the $0.16 per share charge related to the Minnesota Power rate case resolution, net of tax. This guidance reflects year-to-date results, along with several assumptions into the end of the year. These assumptions include primarily lower power demands related to Keetac and Verso that remain indefinitely idled and lower kilowatt hour sales to commercial, other industrial and municipal customers for the second half of the year due to expected continued negative impacts of COVID. These decreases will be partially offset by the early actions we have taken, including power marketing sales and expense mitigation efforts that are more temporary in nature.

From a capex standpoint, we will continue to monitor the economic trends impacted by COVID and are evaluating possible deferrals but expect any actions on this front to be immaterial at this time. Now for some thoughts on our long-term outlook as highlighted in Slide 7. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, which may present challenges into early '21 and beyond, we believe the long-term fundamentals of our business remain intact. ALLETE's business model revenues are regulated or highly recurring in nature.

The industries we serve are critical to the economy and to the country. We continue to believe that ALLETE's primary growth positioning in the renewables and cleaner energy markets will see substantial demand as ESG trends continue beyond economic weakness. Importantly, we remain committed to our growth initiatives and confidence in ALLETE's long-term 5% to 7% growth objective over a five-year period primarily driven by cleaner energy expansion and transformation. I'll now hand it back to Bethany.

Bethany?

Bethany Owen -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Steve and Bob. Throughout our long history, ALLETE has been a values-based company. Integrity is the foundation of everything we do, and we're focused on serving our customers with excellence. All of that has served us very well during these unprecedented times.

We're proud of the resourcefulness demonstrated in ALLETE's ability to provide essential services while delivering a fair level of financial results even against the challenging backdrop of a global pandemic. Like so many, we acknowledge that COVID-19 will likely continue to create challenges into the foreseeable future. That being said, I believe the actions we've taken to date and our careful positioning and thoughtful planning for an uncertain future will ensure ALLETE's continued success. We remain confident in our ability to execute our strategy over the longer term and to fulfill our commitment to a cleaner energy future.

We also believe we have a great responsibility to make the regions we serve even better places to live and to work for everyone. Thank you for your interest and your investment in ALLETE. At this time, I'll ask the operator to open the line for your questions.

Questions & Answers:

Operator

Thank you. [Operator instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Brian Russo with Sidoti. Please go ahead.

Brian Russo -- Sidoti and Company -- Analyst

Just can you give us more insight, how many tons of taconite does Keetac do in a given year?

Bethany Owen -- President and Chief Executive Officer

I'll ask Frank to take that question. Thanks, Brian.

Frank Frederickson -- Vice President of Customer Experience -- Analyst

Thanks, Brian, for the question. So Keetac is one of the smaller taconite facilities on the range. They produce approximately five million tons capacity for taconite production annually.

Brian Russo -- Sidoti and Company -- Analyst

OK. So when you say full production for the remainder of  for the last four months, except Keetac and Verso, assuming 40 million of full production, this Keetac facility represents about 12% of that full production? Is that the way to look at it?

Frank Frederickson -- Vice President of Customer Experience -- Analyst

That is correct. That is a good way to look at it.

Brian Russo -- Sidoti and Company -- Analyst

OK. And then on Verso paper mill shutdown, how many megawatts is that on an annual basis?

Frank Frederickson -- Vice President of Customer Experience -- Analyst

Yes. Thanks for that. Paper overall is a smaller segment for us than our mining segment. And Verso is a little bit smaller than our Keetac operation, you can think of it about plus or minus in the 50-megawatt range.

Brian Russo -- Sidoti and Company -- Analyst

OK. And Verso is also  they also would nominate their demands, correct?

Frank Frederickson -- Vice President of Customer Experience -- Analyst

That is correct. And we have contractual arrangements with each of these customers that specify what they can nominate at levels, whether they're operating or in an idled status as well.

Brian Russo -- Sidoti and Company -- Analyst

OK. And then just back on Keetac. I know they "idled" indefinitely, the last time we saw some steel industry issues. I think it was during the time of the China steel dumping.

How long did it take them to actually move back up into production?

Frank Frederickson -- Vice President of Customer Experience -- Analyst

Thanks for that question. So you're right. Back in the 2015, '16 period, when we had some Chinese steel dumping, and since then, the federal administration has taken some actions to appropriately protect and make for a fair and level playing field for America steel industry. So we're seeing import levels now back off of that high 30%, down at the 20% range, which is a more healthy level on that end.

And in terms of these customers coming back and starting up, when demand is there, they're ready to start it up. And we've seen that this summer with all of these customers that as they've paced demand for their end products as automotive production has restarted, we've seen a number of customers fine-tune their restart plans and even accelerate them so that in a matter of weeks, they can call staff back and bring it back up online.

Brian Russo -- Sidoti and Company -- Analyst

Got it. Because I guess what I'm trying to kind of get a sense of is Verso seems as if it's shutting down indefinitely, Keetac may or may not come online. I'm just trying to get a picture of what 2021 might look like versus what the demands were for August to December that you aren't technically disclosing.

Frank Frederickson -- Vice President of Customer Experience -- Analyst

Thanks, Brian. I'll just kind of lay the landscape, and then Steve might have some follow-ups on 2021. But as we're looking at the landscape, we are pleased with how the steel industry has resumed. As I mentioned, there's consumer demand for vehicles, recreational vehicles, and that's restarted a lot of automotive production and a number of blast furnaces come back online.

And five out of our six taconite facilities are now running at production. And what we'll be watching in terms of the steel industry is still a low-priced oil and gas segment right now. So there's a lot of drilling rigs on the sidelines, which is suppressing steel demand. And so we'll be watching a lot of those trends in terms of when the steel industry that's operating at about a 60% capacity utilization today, which is up from 50% at the bottom, but not up at that 70% to 80% level that is typical of a healthy industry.

In terms of our forest products industry and looking at Verso, we are engaged with them, and I know they are actively pursuing future utilization of that mill. The team there has done a wonderful job at converting partially already from a shrinking advertising paper production market into a growing packaging market, and they have a pretty nice package together for that facility, which has seen several owners over its 30-year life. And we'll be pacing very closely with them and support of them as they're looking for potential new owner of that facility.

Bob Adams -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yes. Brian, this is Bob Adams. The way I look at this, and I think I would encourage you to maybe think the same way is that, obviously, there's a lot  I think what Frank is describing is a market that we're pleased is coming back. But there's a lot that's going to play out, I think, here over the next couple of quarters yet.

And the Keetac facility historically has been a swing facility. And as Frank indicated, there's been a lot of fine-tuning from these customers in terms of their ability to bring these facilities back quicker than ever. So we're not  I'm personally not ruling out that Keetac could come back, but I think there's more to come. And so when we get together and we talk about when we get together at the end of the year and we've got December nominations, obviously, as we're getting into guidance, we'll have a lot more to share there as it relates to, again, where is COVID going? Where is the consumption on the steel side? And how might that affect Keetac.

Brian Russo -- Sidoti and Company -- Analyst

OK. Great. And then just on the utility guidance of $2.65 to $2.75, that compares to the initial utility guidance prior to suspending it last quarter of $2.75 to $2.95. So that's a $0.15 reduction at the original midpoint versus the current midpoint.

Any insight into the drivers there? If I heard you correctly, it looks like the COVID expenses are being offset by temporary cost management initiatives. So should we assume that, that $0.15 delta is just related to sales, both the decreased nominations from August to December but also, obviously, the decrease in commercial and other industrial sales partially offset by higher residential sales?

Steve Morris -- Vice President, Controller, and Chief Accounting Officer

Yes. Brian, this is Steve Morris. Good morning. I can chime in on that.

You're exactly right. So that $0.15 is lower sales. It's Keetac and Verso. As you know, we've had demand nomination through August, and we do not expect those the rest of the year for that period of time as well as, as you mentioned, commercial, other industrial and municipal.

You add that all, it's probably $0.30, offset with our expense mitigation efforts as we've talked about in the past and power marketing sales.

Brian Russo -- Sidoti and Company -- Analyst

OK. Great. That's very helpful. And just on your general rate case strategy as it stands now.

I know you're going to file in November for the Manitoba hydro contract approval. But it also seems that if the industrial sales profile stays the same, you will also have lost at least 50 megawatts of demand. Would you consider filing sooner? Or are you trying to avoid back-to-back rate cases? And then would that lead  if you don't file, should we assume incremental ROE lag in 2021 versus 2020?

Steve Morris -- Vice President, Controller, and Chief Accounting Officer

Yes. Brian, I'll take that. Steve Morris. Bob can chime in, too, later.

But we're still evaluating our 2021 budget. And as Bob just mentioned, Keetac, we don't have visibility into '21 on that. So that's kind of a wildcard that we're watching as well as Verso. We could file as early as March 1, as you know.

It's likely we're going to file November 1. But we could file with Keetac and Verso down on March 1. Interim rates wouldn't go into effect on until May 1 at the earliest. And then we would have to do a back-to-back rate case, as you just mentioned, or a multiyear rate case.

So more to play out on that right now. It's too early to tell when we would file exactly as we do our budget and we get more clarity into Keetac and Verso into 2021.

Bob Adams -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yes. And Brian, this is Bob again. I would just add that  and I think Bethany said this really well with her introductory comments. As you know, we're balancing a variety of stakeholders here.

And measures, of course, our investors and earning appropriate rates of return, which we need to do, but our customers as well. And so to the extent that this COVID pandemic continues to gain traction and have significant impacts on these customers, that's going to affect the timing and our posture for this for sure, just as it did with this settlement.

Brian Russo -- Sidoti and Company -- Analyst

OK. Great. Thank you very much.

Operator

Thank you. [Operator instructions] I'm showing no further questions at this time. And I would like to turn the conference back over to Ms. Bethany Owen for any closing remarks.

Bethany Owen -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you. Steve, Bob, Frank and I thank you for being with us this morning and for your investment and interest in ALLETE. Take care, and we wish you all the best.

Operator

[Operator signoff]

Duration: 36 minutes

Call participants:

Bethany Owen -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Steve Morris -- Vice President, Controller, and Chief Accounting Officer

Bob Adams -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Brian Russo -- Sidoti and Company -- Analyst

Frank Frederickson -- Vice President of Customer Experience -- Analyst

More ALE analysis

All earnings call transcripts
Tropical Storm Isaias has transitioned into a post-tropical storm as it moved out of the U.S. and into eastern Canada on Aug. 5 and 6. NASA created an animation of nighttime satellite imagery that shows Isaias' track up the U.S. East Coast. In addition, NASA's Aqua satellite provided a view of Isaias' powerful storms over New York and New England.

What is a Post-Tropical Storm?

A Post-Tropical Storm is a generic term for a former tropical cyclone that no longer possesses sufficient tropical characteristics to be considered a tropical cyclone. Former tropical cyclones that have become fully extratropical, subtropical, or remnant lows, make up three classes of post-tropical cyclones. In any case, they no longer possesses sufficient tropical characteristics to be considered a tropical cyclone. However, post-tropical cyclones can continue carrying heavy rains and high winds.

NASA Tracks Isaias at Night

Infrared instruments enable satellites to gather imagery on storms at night because they read temperature. At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. an animation of imagery from the VIIRS instrument aboard NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite imagery showed the positions of Tropical Storm Isaias from Aug. 2 to Aug. 5 at night as it moved north along the U.S. East Coast.

NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Worldview application provides the capability to interactively browse over 700 global, full-resolution satellite imagery layers and then download the underlying data. Many of the available imagery layers are updated within three hours of observation, essentially showing the entire Earth as it looks "right now."

Isaias' Rain Potential Over New York and New England

On Aug. 4 at 1:53 p.m. EDT (1753 UTC) NASA's Aqua satellite analyzed cloud top temperatures in Tropical Storm Isaias using the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument. Isaias was centered near Albany, New York at the time of the over pass.

about where the strongest storms are located within a tropical cyclone. The stronger the storms, the higher they extend into the troposphere, and the colder the cloud temperatures. AIRS found coldest cloud top temperatures as cold as or colder than minus 63 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 53 degrees Celsius). NASA research has shown that cloud top temperatures that cold indicate strong storms that have the capability to create heavy rain.

That heavy rain potential was included in the National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecast at 5 p.m. EDT, "Heavy rainfall near the path of Isaias, through the Hudson River Valley, is likely to result in flash flooding, particularly through urban areas and the surrounding terrain of the Catskills, Adirondack and Green Mountain Ranges through Tuesday night. Scattered minor to moderate river flooding is likely across portions of the Mid-Atlantic."

Status of Isaias on Aug. 6

At 5 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC) on Aug. 6, the center of Post-Tropical Cyclone Isaias was located near latitude 47.5 degrees north and longitude 71.8 degrees west. That is about 55 miles (90 km) north-northwest of Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The post-tropical cyclone is moving toward the north-northeast near 28 mph (44 kph), and this general motion is expected with a decrease in forward speed through tonight.

Maximum sustained winds are near 40 mph (65 kph) with higher gusts. Weakening is expected, and the winds are expected to drop below tropical-storm force this morning. Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 140 miles (220 km) to the northeast and east of the center primarily over and near the St. Lawrence River. The estimated minimum central pressure is 1000 millibars.

NHC Forecast for Isaias

The NHC said, "Gale-force winds will continue over and near the St. Lawrence River this morning. Gale-force wind gusts are possible elsewhere over southeastern Quebec today. Rainfall accumulations of 1 to 3 inches are expected along and near the track of Isaias across southern Quebec. The post-tropical cyclone is expected to dissipate over southeastern Canada on Thursday, Aug. 7."

NASA Researches Tropical Cyclones

Hurricanes/tropical cyclones are the most powerful weather events on Earth. NASA's expertise in space and scientific exploration contributes to essential services provided to the American people by other federal agencies, such as hurricane weather forecasting.

For more than five decades, NASA has used the vantage point of space to understand and explore our home planet, improve lives and safeguard our future. NASA brings together technology, science, and unique global Earth observations to provide societal benefits and strengthen our nation. Advancing knowledge of our home planet contributes directly to America's leadership in space and scientific exploration.

For updated forecasts, visit: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov

###
President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday appointed former Union minister Manoj Sinha as the next Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir. He will replace Girish Chandra Murmu who resigned on Wednesday.

In a release confirming the same, the President house said, The President has been pleased to appoint Shri Manoj Sinha, to be the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir with effect from the date he assumes charge of his office vice Shri Girish Chandra Murmu.

President Kovind accepted Murmus resignation on Thursday. There is buzz that he is going to be the next Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India.

The move to appoint Sinha as the next Lieutenant Governor is aimed at reaching out to the people of the union territory with a soft political touch, something that Murmu, a former bureaucrat, could not achieve during his nine-month tenure.

After Satyapal Malik, who was governor of erstwhile J&K state, Sinha is the new political touch to the Valley - both Malik and Sinha are grassroot politicians with the latter an alma mater of IIT-BHU, Varanasi. He lost the last Lok Sabha election to strongman and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate Afzal Ansari.

Sinha has represented the parliamentary constituency of Ghazipur in eastern Uttar Pradesh thrice in the Lok Sabha. He has also served as minister of communications and minister of state for Railways.

After the stunning victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh in 2017, Sinhas name was among the contenders for the post of chief minister. He eventually lost the post to Yogi Adityanath, a five-time MP from Gorakhpur.

He was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in 1999. During his student days, Sinha was the students union president in the Banaras Hindu University.

As minister of state for Railways, Sinha handled key assignments including the task to connect several cities in eastern Uttar Pradesh.
CM K Chandrasekhar Rao expressed shock over Reddy's sudden demise and recalled his association with the leader as a fellow activist from his native region

Hyderabad: Ruling TRS MLA in Telangana Solipeta Ramalinga Reddy died in Hyderabad on Thursday while undergoing treatment at a private hospital. He was 59.

Reddy, MLA from Dubbak in Siddipet district, died this morning due to a heart attack while undergoing treatment for an infection in the leg, TRS said on twitter.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, several of his Cabinet colleagues, state Congress president N Uttam Kumar Reddy and other leaders condoled the death of Ramalinga Reddy.

Rao expressed shock over the demise of Ramalinga Reddy and recalled his association with the departed leader as a fellow activist from his native region, an official release said.

Rao conveyed his condolences to members of the bereaved family, it said.

In a statement, the PCC president and Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader M Bhatti Vikramarka said Ramalinga Reddy had a deep understanding of people's problems.

Ramalinga Reddy played an active role in public life as a legislator and as a journalist, they said.

Born in 1961, Ramalinga Reddy had worked as a journalist before joining politics.

He was elected to the Assembly in 2004 (in undivided Andhra Pradesh), 2014 and 2018.

TRS Working President and state minister KT Rama Rao would attend the funeral of Ramalinga Reddy at the latter's native village Chittapur near Dubbak, TRS sources said.
Angry relatives of coronavirus patients admitted to a private hospital in Ahmedabad where a fire claimed eight lives on Thursday alleged they were not informed about the incident.

IMAGE: Police personnel stop kin of the victims to enter Shrey hospital after a major fire broke out in the wee hours, in Ahmedabad. Photograph: PTI Photo

As the hospital was sealed for investigation, some of them were still clueless about how their ailing relatives were doing after being shifted out.

Five male and three female coronavirus patients died after a fire broke out on the fourth floor of Shrey Hospital around 3.30 am. Preliminary probe revealed that it was caused by a short circuit, officials said.

"My grandfather was admitted four days ago. The hospital had our contact numbers, but nobody called us to inform that he died in the fire," said a man.

They learnt about the fire from news channels, he said.

A relative of two COVID-19 patients who were shifted to a civic-run hospital after the fire said he was still clueless about their condition.

"My mother and elder brother were admitted to Shrey Hospital three days ago. It was only after my colleague called me up in the morning that I learnt about the fire," he said.

By the time he reached the hospital, the two had been shifted.

"I called up my brother but he is not answering his phone. I do not know how they are doing, because my mother has breathing problem," the man said.

Another man whose 70-year-old grandmother was shifted to government-run SVP Hospital said he was still trying to find out how she was doing.

Agitated relatives were seen arguing with the police outside the sealed premises, as they sought information about the patients.



"They are not giving us any information and not letting us know how our family members are doing. They did not call us at all. They would call us only when they had to collect money," said an angry relative.
M ore than eight in 10 people who tested positive for coronavirus in England had no symptoms of the illness at the time, the latest monthly study for the Government revealed today.

The research, by Imperial College London, its sister NHS trust and Ipsos MORI, found that infection rates fell between June 19 and July 8 but there was an increased infection intensity in and near London.

The REACT-1 study is the largest in the country, with almost 160,000 people agreeing to undertake a random nasal and throat test sent to them at home, to check for antigens showing the presence of Covid-19.

A total of 123 positive samples were found from 159,199 tests, a rate of 0.077 per cent. This is down from 0.13 per cent in May, when 120,620 tests detected 159 cases.

But 81 per cent of positive tests in the latest period were in people who had reported no symptoms, such as a new, continuous cough, high temperature or change in taste or smell, either on the day of the test or in the previous week.

This compares with 69 per cent of asymptomatic cases in the studys first period, from May 1 to June 1.

In London, the latest prevalence rate was 0.15 per cent, with 23 positive tests from 15,750 samples.

The lack of symptoms is a concern as it means people will have the ability to spread the virus without realising they are infectious. The report said asymptomatic people were a potential source of ongoing transmission.

However they may have developed symptoms subsequently. The swab test does not show how infectious they were.

Shops reopen during Coronavirus lockdown ease 1 /45 Shops reopen during Coronavirus lockdown ease Primark in Oxford Street Jeremy Selwyn A member of staff prepares to open a branch of H&M in Canterbury, Kent, PA Primark in Birmingham PA NikeTown Oxford Street Jeremy Selwyn Primark in Oxford Street Jeremy Selwyn Shop staff in face masks give a round of applause to the first customers through the doors at the Fenwick store in Newcastle PA Oxford Street Jeremy Selwyn Oxford Street Jeremy Selwyn A doorman in a face mask waits to welcome back customers to the Fenwick store in Northumberland Street, Newcastle PA People queue for outside shops in Canterbury, Ken PA People queue for outside shops in Canterbury, Kent PA Primark in Oxford Street Jeremy Selwyn A customer dressed in personal protective equipment (PPE) in line to shop at Primark, Birmingham PA Primark in Birmingham PA Primark in Birmingham PA NikeTown Oxford Street Jeremy Selwyn Selfridges Matt Writtle/Selfridges Selfridges Matt Writtle/Selfridges A Harrod's 'Green Man' welcomes customers back to Harrods store in Knightsbridge, London PA Customers wait outside Harrods store in Knightsbridge, London PA Primark in Birmingham PA Primark in Oxford Street Jeremy Selwyn Kathryn Stanczyszyn Kathryn Stanczyszyn/BBC People queue ahead of the opening of Primark in Leeds PA Selfridges Matt Writtle/Selfridges A customer dressed in personal protective equipment (PPE) in line to shop at Primark, Birmingham PA A customer carrying bags of shopping leaves Primark in Birmingham PA Primark Oxford Street Jeremy Selwyn Primark Oxford Street Jeremy Selwyn Shoppers in line outside John Lewis in Kingston PA Shops and businesses in Chelsea, West London prepare to re-open to customers Daniel Hambury REUTERS REUTERS REUTERS

The second report covered a period when lockdown was eased, with more interactions outside the home and the reopening of non-essential shops.

The study said the prevalence of the virus halved every eight to nine days during this period, with an overall reproduction number of 0.58, compared with 0.57 in May.

At any point in the second study period, it is estimated there were 39,000 people in England with Covid-19, compared with 74,000 in May.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the research showed we were able to keep rates of infection low as some restrictions were lifted.

The first study raised concerns about higher infection rates in the 18-24 age group. The second study found a five-fold decrease in infection rates in this group but said people of BAME heritage were more likely to test positive.

Initial concerns about higher infection rates in health and social care workers were not detected for a second month, suggesting measures to curb transmission of the virus in hospitals and care homes were working.
Beirut is a 'devastated city;' the Church has a 'duty' to help, Cardinal declares

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A cardinal serving in Lebanon said churches have a duty to help Beirut, which he described as a devastated city after a massive explosion at its port killed at least 145 people and injured 5,000.

Beirut is a devastated city. A catastrophe struck there because of the mysterious explosion which occurred in its port, Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai, Maronite Patriarch of Antioch, said Wednesday in a statement released by the Catholic Telegraph.

The Church, which has set up a relief network throughout Lebanese territory, today finds itself faced with a new great duty which it is unable to assume on its own, he added.

Rai called the devastation of the explosion a war scene without war, adding that there was desolation in all its streets, neighborhoods, and houses.

From sea to mountain: How a massive explosion left a trail of destruction across Beirut and beyond. https://t.co/yIQq4LcTDbpic.twitter.com/3K8DfjzmMD  CNN International (@cnni) August 6, 2020

[The Church stands] in solidarity with the afflicted, the families of the victims, the wounded, and the displaced that it is ready to welcome in its institutions, he continued.

The Maronite Church is an Eastern rite denomination that has canonical ties to the Roman Catholic Church, tracing their origins to an early church Syrian hermit named St. Maron.

On Tuesday, an explosion caused by an estimate of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, used in fertilizers and bombs, that had been stockpiled for years in a port warehouse. The explosion left 460 feet wide crater at the site of the blast which is now filled with water from the sea.

The result was a massive explosion that leveled homes and smashed windows, resulting in thousands of casualties; the noise of the blast could be heard as far away as the island of Cyprus.

New footage of the explosion in Beirut pic.twitter.com/Zo4Hs25sUK  Faytuks News ???? (@Faytuks) August 6, 2020

French President Emmanuel Macron toured the city Thursday, where crowds pleaded with him for help.

As he walked the streets of the hardest-hit neighborhoods, Christians shouted: "Mr. Macron, free us from Hezbollah," The Epoch Times reported, adding that they were referring to the Iran-backed Shi'ite Muslim terrorist organization.

Another person in the crowd told Macron ... youre on General Gouraud Street, he freed us from the Ottomans. Free us from the current authorities." The French president assured residents he would send medical aid to Lebanon and said he would discuss "home truths" with the government about reforms Western countries have been seeking regarding its economy and politics.

Others in the crowd chanted Revolution and The people want to bring down the regime," France 24 reported, adding that those were the same slogans chanted last year during mass protests.

The Lebanese government is investigating the cause of the Beirut explosion, having already put multiple port officials under house arrest.

"Those responsible will be held accountable whomever and wherever he is," said Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi at a press conference on Wednesday, NBC News reported.

The Rev. Scott Parker, who resides in Beirut and works for the Presbyterian Church (USA) Presbyterian Mission, reported on social media that they were under lockdown.

Weve got stay-at-home orders because of the spread of chemicals through the air, Parker said, according to the Presbyterian News Service.

Please pray for the vulnerable, and the hospital and rescue workers and all who are helping those in need."
The Armenian government approved on Thursday 277 million drams ($570,000) in additional financial aid to four villages in Tavush province damaged during last months deadly fighting at a nearby section ofArmenias border with Azerbaijan.

According to the provincial administration, 89 village houses there were hit by cross-border shelling from the Azerbaijani side. The central government pledged to repair all of them immediately after the weeklong hostilities which left at least 12 Azerbaijani servicemen and 5 Armenian soldiers dead. It initially allocated 25 million drams for that purpose.

Minister for Local Government and Infrastructures Suren Papikian said more than 110 million drams of the extra government funding will be channeled into ongoing house repairs in three of those border villages: Aygepar, Nerkin Karmiraghbyur and Chinari.

Papikian said another 84.3 million drams will be spent on refurbishing schools and bomb shelters located in these and another border village, Movses. He noted that the schools were not damaged by the Azerbaijani shelling.

The rest of the funding will go to pay for the construction of a small park in Nerkin Karmiraghbyur and a housing complex in Chinari, Papikian added during a cabinet meeting in Yerevan.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian told Papikian to ensure that the government-funded construction is carried out thoroughly and as rapidly as possible.

Villages located on the Azerbaijani side of the heavily militarized border also reportedly suffered extensive damage during the clashes that broke out on July 12 and prompted serious concern from the international community. Yerevan and Baku have blamed each other for what was the worst flare-up of violence in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone since 2016.
Two groups of international tobacco companies have filed a notice to Ukraine on defending their rights as foreign investors in international arbitration, and two more companies also consider filing such a notice shortly, the European Business Association (EBA) has reported.

According to the report on the association's website, international tobacco companies consider the imposition of fines by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) for allegedly anti-competitive concerted actions of international companies as unjustified (AMCU decision  697-r dated 10.10.2019 in case No. 126-26.13 / 18-17).

Currently, the EBA member companies are appealing the decision of the AMCU in court. However, the companies did not have full access to the evidence on which the AMCU based their allegations.

"Besides, according to the business, the arguments of tobacco companies were not given enough attention during the trial. Thus, the court ignored the independent economic analyzes and assessments provided by the companies and conducted by reputable international consultants in the field of economy and competition. Also, the court did not pay due attention to the conclusions of leading Ukrainian experts and recognized jurists in the field of antitrust regulation and EU law who unanimously supported the legal position of companies and found the accusations of the AMCU illegal," the EBA said.

According to the EBA, if a quick solution cannot be reached through negotiations with the state authorities of Ukraine, then the case will be examined by international institutions for the settlement of investment disputes. In this case, the State of Ukraine will be the party to the dispute instead of the AMCU.

The association said that such high-profile disputes usually attract a lot of attention from the international community and will have extremely negative consequences for Ukraine's investment climate.

"Therefore, the business calls on the Government of Ukraine to respond appropriately to the notice of the investment dispute with the state of Ukraine initiated by international investors from the USA, Great Britain, Switzerland and the Netherlands regarding the AMCU decision and to impartially consider the issue in compliance with Ukrainian legislation and international agreements," the EBA said.
Queen Sofia indulged in some retail therapy in Palma on Wednesday afternoon. Its the first time shes been seen since her husband, Don Juan Carlos left the country.

Dona Sofia and her sister Irene shopped at El Corte Ingles in Avenida Jaume III with a discreet Security Guard in tow.

They were in the store for about an hour looking at perfume, watches and shoes, much to the delight of customers who had their mobile phones at the ready.

Queen Sofia and her sister Princess Irene of Greece have been on holiday at Marivent Palace since July 27 and King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia and their daughters will join them on Friday.

Queen Sofias life will not be affected by her husband leaving the country and plans to maintain her residence in the Zarzuela Palace in Madrid and continue with institutional activity as before.

She has been left out of the controversy surrounding former King Juan Carlos because she has no connection with his businesses.

The Royal couple have been separated for several years, but continued to live at Zarzuela Palace with the rest of the Royal Family after the abdication.

Princess Irene of Greece, who lives with Dona Sofia in Madrid for part of the year, is a steady source of moral support for her sister and usually accompanies her to public events.
Today, the American Lung Association is launching its first monthly podcast series, called Lungcast. The pulmonary podcast, hosted by American Lung Association Chief Medical Officer Albert Rizzo, M.D., in partnership with HCPLive, will spotlight 30- to 45-minute conversations with researchers, physicians, patients and advocates about various hot topics impacting lung health.

The first episode features David Ho, M.D., to discuss the latest in COVID-19 research. Named TIME magazines Man of the Year in 1996, Ho is credited with making significant scientific contributions to improve the understanding and treatment of HIV infection. As the founder of Antimicrobe, a database for infectious disease and antimicrobial agents, he has more recently turned his attention to helping to solve the coronavirus pandemic.

The goal of Lungcast is to keep our medical colleagues informed on the latest developments in lung health, while still remaining accessible enough for anyone to listen and learn. The American Lung Association has long been a go-to resource for trusted lung health science, and the podcast makes it even easier for everyone to access that information, especially in the era of COVID. Albert Rizzo, American Lung Association Chief Medical Officer

Lungcast will cover a broad range of topics, including how to help patients quit smoking and vaping, addressing lung health disparities and how telemedicine and reimbursements are changing healthcare. The podcasts second episode, which airs in September, will feature Dr. Ankit Bharat of Northwestern Medicine to delve into the details of his headline-making double-lung transplant on a young COVID-19 patient and what it means for the future of lung transplants.

You can subscribe and listen to Lungcast via Apple, Spotify and Audioboom.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 08:37:46|Editor: huaxia

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LONDON, August 5 (Xinhua) -- English Premier League side Manchester City announced on Wednesday that Dutch international Nathan Ake has signed a five-year deal with the club to the summer of 2025.

The 25-year-old defender, departing from relegated Bournemouth, became City's second signing of this summer after the club completed the signing with Spaniard Ferran Torres from Valencia on Tuesday.

"City have been the best side in England over the course of the last decade," Ake said. "Coming here is a dream for me."

Joining Chelsea at the age of 16, Ake has made 146 Premier League appearances for Chelsea, Watford and Bournemouth. He has also won 13 caps for the Dutch senior team, scoring two goals.

According to British media, the deal is valued at 41 million pounds.

City failed to defend the Premier League title last season as they trailed winners Liverpool in second place with a gap of 18 points. Enditem
Britain will provide a 5 million pound aid package to Beirut, including search and rescue help and expert medical support, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said after speaking with the Lebanese prime minister.



"We are going to stand by the Lebanese people in their time of need; we are going to provide immediate response and an aid package - an assistance package - search and rescue, humanitarian assistance up to 5 million pounds, as well as expert medical support," he said.

"Whats crucial at this time is that our support is tailored to the very specific needs that Ive just talked through with the Lebanese prime minister," Reuters cited Raab as saying.\

Raab said the precise number of UK nationals who had possibly been killed or injured in the explosion had yet to be ascertained.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 20:50:17|Editor: huaxia

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TOKYO, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Toyota Motor Corp. said Thursday it expects its net profit to drop 64.1 percent to 730 billion yen (6.92 billion U.S. dollars) in the current business year starting in April, as the global COVID-19 pandemic continues to stifle demand.

Toyota said its net profit fell 74.3 percent year-on-year to 158.84 billion yen (1.50 billion U.S. dollars) in the first quarter ended in June, although the decline was less than industry experts' predictions.

In the same period, the Aichi Prefecture-based automaker said its operating profit plummeted 98.1 percent to 13.92 billion yen (131.98 million U.S. dollars).

This was based on sales of 4.60 trillion yen (43.61 billion U.S. dollars), which marked a 40.4-percent decline, Toyota said.

The maker of the popular Prius hybrid and Corolla models saw global sales retreat 31.8 percent in the reporting period, although sales in its Chinese market have seen an uptick, the automaker said.

Amid such signs of demand improving, Toyota, as well as maintaining its full-year forecasts made in May for a 500-billion-yen (4.74-billion-U.S. dollar) operating profit and sales amounting 24 trillion yen (227.55 billion U.S. dollars), also raised its annual sales target from 8.9 million to 9.1 million vehicles. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 14:54:54|Editor: huaxia

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SEOUL, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's tech behemoth Samsung Electronics unveiled new devices in the company's first online rollout event amid the lingering worry about the COVID-19 pandemic, the company said Thursday.

Samsung held the online Galaxy Unpacked event at 11:00 p.m. local time Wednesday, introducing five new devices of the tech firm.

The newly unveiled products included the Galaxy Watch 3 smartwatch, the Galaxy Buds Live wireless earbuds, the Galaxy Tab S7 tablet, the Galaxy Note 20 phablet and the Galaxy Z Fold 2 foldable smartphone.

"Galaxy Watch3 and Galaxy Buds Live are convenient tools for maintaining your lifestyle and daily routines, especially in the current climate," Samsung said.

"Both devices are seamlessly integrated into the wider Galaxy ecosystem to help you live healthier, communicate better and get the most out of your technology," the company said. Enditem
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A new study concludes that opening clinics dedicated specifically to treating influenza can limit the number of people infected and help to "flatten the curve," or reduce the peak prevalence rate. While the work focused on influenza, the findings are relevant for policymakers seeking ways to reduce impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

"Dedicated clinics would have less of an impact than interventions such as vaccination, but at the statewide level, we're talking about cutting the overall number of infections by six figures," says Julie Swann, corresponding author of a paper on the work. Swann is the department head and A. Doug Allison Distinguished Professor of the Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at North Carolina State University.

"And while our work here focused on the H1N1 strain of influenza, the findings are useful as we grapple with how best to respond to COVID-19," Swann says. "COVID-19 is more infectious than H1N1, and has a higher mortality rate. So I would expect the effect of using dedicated clinics to be larger for COVID-19."

Swann and her collaborators were inspired to do the study by the fact that some hospitals opened dedicated H1N1 clinics during the H1N1 influenza pandemic in 2009-2010. These clinics focused exclusively on treating patients who were exhibiting symptoms of H1N1. There was some question at the time as to whether these clinics were a good use of limited resources. It was also unclear as to whether the clinics may have had unintended consequences, such as spreading H1N1 to patients who showed up at the dedicated clinic with flu-like symptoms, but didn't actually have the disease.

For this study, Swann and her collaborators at Purdue University, Georgia Tech and Emory University used a simulation model to address questions related to the ultimate impact of dedicated clinics during an H1N1 pandemic.

The researchers found that opening dedicated clinics reduced disease spread and hospitalizations, particularly when open during the periods of peak prevalencewhen the most people are sick. Specifically, the researchers found that if dedicated clinics were open for the entire duration of the pandemic, the clinics would have reduced the overall number of infections by 0.4-1.5%; reduced peak prevalence (or "flattened the curve") by 0.07-0.32%; and reduced hospitalizations by 0.02-0.09%.

"For a state that has a population of 10 million, the difference in the baseline clinic case would be about 100,000 cases, with about 6,000 hospitalizations averted," Swann says. "In other words, dedicated clinics certainly don't make things worse, and can make things at least a little better. And these are benefits that come on top of any benefits we'd see from other, behavioral changessuch as wearing maskswhich may be more difficult to implement."

North Carolina's population is approximately 10.5 million.

The study on dedicated clinics is part of a larger research initiative that has already published work examining issues related to vaccine distribution for adults and children; the role of mass gatherings and travel in spreading influenza; and the impact of seasons and mutation in the spread of the disease.

The paper, "The impact of opening dedicated clinics on disease transmission during an influenza pandemic," will be published Aug. 6 in the journal PLOS ONE.
"Its not empty, It's rather full of the Royal pride.

You have bestowed yourself, oh King, not the God of this world."

The above lines are a loose translation of India's first Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore's poem 'Deeno Daan.' The title of the poem, which can be assumed to mean, 'Donating to the destitute,' has been making the rounds on social media since August 5.

August 5th marked a historic day in India when Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid down the first bricks of the much-contested Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. The ceremony was marked with much fanfare and celebrations. The celebrations were in the middle of a pandemic that has gripped the world. On the same day, deaths from Covid-19 in India crossed the 40,000 mark, the fifth highest in the world, even as the country recorded its biggest single-day surge in fatalities at 918 on Wednesday, with the count crossing 900 for the first time.

Meanwhile, many on social media found parallels between Tagore's poem and the Ram Mandir ceremony.

Posted first on Facebook by Banojyotsna Lahiri, an alumna of Presidency University and JNU, she explained how the poem was written exactly 120 years ago, according to the Bengali calendar.

Tagore's original date mark is at 20th of Shravan, 1307, which happened to fall on August 5th of this year.

The poem talks about a sage, who tells a king that the temple he has built with "two million gold coins," does not have god inside. The king is enraged, calls the sage an atheist, and asks if such a grand temple could be empty. The sage replies that it isn't empty - it's filled with the king's pride.

The sage then reminds the king it was the wrong time to have spent his riches in building a temple in the same year that the people of his land were struck by a calamity, and came begging at his door, only to be turned away by the king.

The sage also talked about how God communicated his disbelief at the situation, wondering how the same king who "could not provide shelter to his own homeless subjects/Does he really fancy of giving me a home?"

A loose translation of the poem from the original Facebook post is below.

Following this, the poem went viral on social media, with many finding similarities between our times of coronavirus. Many lauded Tagore and pointed out that reading the poem at this time will 'send shivers down your spine'.

"There is no God in that temple." Deeno Daan by Rabindranath Tagore pic.twitter.com/snrYjbd6lq  Shivam (@imrozed) August 6, 2020

120 years ago, on this very day Rabindranath Tagore wrote a poem, titled "Deeno Daan". It was about a temple. Read the loose translation of its excerpts. It will send a shiver down your spine.#RamMandirAyodhya pic.twitter.com/Ip0VwqrX1b  banojyotsna (@banojyotsna) August 5, 2020

Is this a coincidence that exactly 120 years ago, on this very day, Rabindranath Tagore wrote a poem "Deeno Daan". It was about a temple. ---------------------------------------------- There is no god in that temple, said the Saint.  Bindu (@soulonatraipse) August 5, 2020

You have bestowed yourself,oh King,not the God of this world. ~Deeno Daan  Aman Kumar Ray~  ~   (@AMANKUMARRAY) August 6, 2020

You have bestowed yourself,oh King,not the God of this world. ~Deeno Daan  Aman Kumar Ray~  ~   (@AMANKUMARRAY) August 6, 2020

Excerpts from a prose poem written on August 5th some 120 years back - via @roycherian Deeno Daan by Rabrinath Tagore. Translation by Banojyotsna Lahiri It is about a temple. There is no god in that temple, said the Saint. The King was enraged;  Arvind Jha (@jalajboy) August 6, 2020

'Deeno Daan' is part of Kahini, an anthology of poems by Tagore written in 1900 (Bengali year 1307), according to The Telegraph. The date for the poem, however, cannot be exactly determined, as the Bengali calendar date recorded may be different from the present date, and sometimes the date at the bottom of Tagore's poems isn't accurate.

The poem has gone viral over a century later and that just means one thing: Tagore never gets old.
The protest near the site of Armenias Amulsar gold mine project is over.

The protesters went home, but promising to gather again and continue their protest on Thursday.

Prior to this, the protesters were holding a sit-in, and a large number of police were monitoring the peaceful protest.

To note, the new security service hired by Lydian Armenia companyoperating the gold mine projectremoved the Amulsar defenders' cabins and replaced them with their own.

The situation at Amulsar was tense, some people were apprehended by the police during the protest, and clashes took place between the police and the protesters. The protesters were trying to move the cabins placed in the Amulsar area leased by the security group of Lydian Armenia.

In 2018, a criminal case was initiated on hiding information on the damage caused to nature as a result of the future operation of the Amulsar gold mine.

Within the framework of the same criminal case, a comprehensive expertise on the expected operation of the mine was later ordered.

After the change of power in Armenia, this expertise was stopped, and a criminal case was initiated on charges of abuses and violations of the environmental law.

At the invitation of the government, an international environmental expertise was carried out in the gold mine area. And Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had announced that the Amulsar gold mine would not be operated unless the aforesaid expertise gave a positive conclusion.


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LONDON, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- With the COVID-19 pandemic preventing face-to-face meetings, it has meant the annual International Cannabinoid Research Society (ICRS) symposium was moved online. The 2020 event saw CiiTECH Labs, a new venture from prominent cannabis research company CiiTECH and the Hebrew University, sponsoring the event. The virtual symposium provided a fantastic platform for the new partnership to showcase the brand and its products to key scientists.

For the first time in its thirty-year history, the annual International Cannabinoid Research Society symposium has been forced online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Eager to continue to connect some of the most significant scientists in the industry, the 2020 conference has been made virtual, with key speakers recording video updates. CiiTECH Labs, a new joint venture between CiiTECH and the Hebrew University, is one of the major sponsors of the virtual symposium.

CiiTECH Labs is the new venture from leading cannabis research company CiiTECH, leading metabolic researcher Dr. Yossi Tam and the tech transfer arm of the Hebrew University. The partnership has been created to explore how medical cannabis can help to target various obesity and metabolic complications.

With the International Cannabinoid Research Society symposium designed to bring industry experts and scientists together to share ideas, it marks a fantastic opportunity for CiiTECH Labs. The ICRS has been in operation since 1970, and in 1992 it was formally incorporated as a scientific research society in 1992. From its initial 50 members, the organisation now enjoys over 650 members from across the globe.

CiiTECH Labs, Dr. Yossi Tam, is currently focusing on the study of how the endocannabinoid system and therapeutic treatments can be used to treat obesity and metabolism. In further synergy with the symposium, Dr. Tam has also just been announced as the president of the ICRS. Dr. Tam will hold this rotating Presidency role with ICRS until next year when the 2021 ICRS Symposium will be held in Jerusalem.

Clifton Flack, CiiTECH Labs CEO and Founder added, "This is a very exciting opportunity for CiiTECH Labs. The International Cannabinoid Research Society symposium is one of the most respected and well-known events within the industry, so we are incredibly honoured to be associated with both the event and the society.

"CiiTECH Labs has been established to explore how specific cannabinoids interact with the endocannabinoid system and how it can be used to develop more precise CBD therapies for things such as liver disease, obesity and other metabolic disorders. The symposium is for scientists, so sponsoring it provides us with a fantastic opportunity to showcase CiiTECH Labs and the work that we are completing."

For more information on CiiTECH Labs, visit https://ciitechlabs.co.il/ whilst more information on the ICRS can be found at https://icrs.co/index.html .

Contacts:

Paul Gladstone, [email protected]

SOURCE CiiTECH
A provincial government initiative Premier Brian Pallister once said could bring tens of thousands of Manitobans back to work has received only 4,459 applications.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 5/8/2020 (531 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A provincial government initiative Premier Brian Pallister once said could bring "tens of thousands" of Manitobans back to work has received only 4,459 applications.

The premier announced the Manitoba Job Restart Program in late June to wean Manitobans off federal emergency benefits, which he said acted as a disincentive to persons returning to their pre-pandemic jobs.

Applications for the provincial program closed at the end of July. It paid $2,000 to each Manitoban transitioning out of the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) or the Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB).

"Its time to kick the CERB to the curb," Pallister remarked as he rolled out the restart program, which was to be funded from unused funds from two other provincial COVID-19 programs.

The province revealed Wednesday it expects to pay out $8.9 million under the program  but it had been prepared to spend a lot more.

Jonathan Alward, director of provincial affairs for the Manitoba branch of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said hes not surprised by the limited program take-up, given shaky consumer confidence due in part to the recent uptick in COVID-19 cases in Manitoba.

"The intent of the program was good and it addressed certainly a problem that wed heard from small-business owners," Alward said Wednesday.

However, NDP Leader Wab Kinew said the lukewarm response to the program showed the Progressive Conservative government failed to understand the importance of CERB. He said Manitoba Job Restart was part of a "continuing trend of poorly designed programs" by the PCs in response to COVID-19.

"Essentially, the government is giving out free money here and they were unable to attract people to access it," Kinew said. "So that lets you know that theres something wrong with the programs design."

Instead of trying to "shame" workers into ceasing to collect benefits from federal programs, the Opposition leader said, Pallister should have done more to help small businesses.

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 government had said it would fund the job restart program from the unspent balances of a pair of $120 million programs, the Manitoba Gap Protection Plan (MGPP) and the Manitoba Summer Student Recovery Jobs Program. The premier said further funding would be made available if there was significant uptake in the program.

As of July 10, Manitoba had paid out $44.6 million from the MGGP; $20 million had been committed under the summer student jobs program.

Alward said its important the province direct any unspent funds to help small businesses cover rent costs, as well as additional operating costs due to the pandemic. The latter includes the costs of personal protective equipment, new signage, hand sanitizer and stations, and the cost of redesigning a businesss footprint to better accommodate customers.

A spokeswoman for Pallister said the government is pleased close to 4,500 Manitobans were able to take advantage of the program to "safely return to work full-time."

"Throughout this pandemic we have created the right programs at the right time to help Manitobans navigate and bounce back from this unprecedented time," she said.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca
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Misty Copeland became the first Black principal dancer for American Ballet Theatre in 2015, and through her professional career that has spanned two decades, she's been fighting for change. "Initially, I got into ballet because it's a silent art form," she said on Yahoo Finance's Influencers with Andy Serwer. "I didn't want to speak, I wanted to express myself through movement." The first decade of her career, she was the only Black woman in American Ballet Theatre, and she described feeling a sense of panic where she questioned if she was ever going to see another Black woman in her company or in her lifetime, even.

This realization prompted Copeland to start using her voice when it came to the racial insensitivity and inequality in the ballet world, with the hopes that she could make change for generations to come. "Black ballet dancers, our histories are so often just erased and lost, and that's also one of my missions: to tell so many of those stories," she said, adding later on that she aims to do this by highlighting Black and brown artists through Life in Motion Productions, a multimedia company promoting diversity in dance that she founded.

Copeland, 37, said she finally feels like she's being heard during this time, crediting the racial-justice protests across the globe that have made people listen. "This has been my life's work as a dancer, speaking about racism in the world and in ballet, speaking about the lack of diversity," she stated.

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What's different about using her voice today, Copeland said, is she feels "we have true allies in people from other communities and races that we have not had before." She wants to take this opportunity to address the fact that the ballet industry has gotten away with racism in the past - and has done so "easily."

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Racism in the ballet world, she said, is something she tries to speak about in "the most respectful [way] I can because I know the deep rooted traditions and history in classical dance." However, Copeland continued, "especially it being a European art form . . . the fact that we still perform those ballets that were created in that time in Europe to this day also just says a lot about where we are in the ballet world when it comes to racism."

"If you want to keep the art form alive and relevant and growing, you're gonna have to open your doors to everyone."

Copeland thinks that the ballet industry is "extremely behind." For example, blackface is still used in performances today. There are ballet companies in other countries, like the Bolshoi Ballet in Russia, that justify the use of blackface because "their reasoning is that's not their history, so it doesn't have the same meaning to them," she said. Copeland added that being able to watch ballet online makes the use of blackface even more visible - and regardless, it isn't OK.

"If you want to keep the art form alive and relevant and growing, you're gonna have to open your doors to everyone," Copeland said. "All I can do is point it out and say that these things need to change because you are neglecting an entire community, or hurting an entire community. Why would they want to pay for a ticket and come into the theater when they're going to be disrespected on the stage?"

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Copeland said that in her 20 years as a professional dancer, she's been in a position of "representing people that are voiceless" not just because she's Black, but also because she's a woman and "because dancers are often not even given a voice. We're told to shut up and dance." She also said that in terms of ballet, a lot of people, especially in the Black community, "haven't often felt like it was their world."

But in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, performing arts have a chance to help change that by experimenting with different platforms. Having outdoor and digital performances, whatever that may look like moving forward, is one suggestion from Copeland. This would bring ballet to people - especially to those who might not have access to it - and she stated that now is the time to think of every solution to make that happen.
BEIRUT  Residents of Beirut vented their fury at Lebanons leaders Thursday during a visit by French President Emmanuel Macron, blaming them for the deadly explosion that ravaged the capital. Shouting Revolution! they crowded around the visiting leader who promised to press the politicians for reform.

A military judge leading the investigation into Tuesdays blast said 16 employees of Beiruts port, where the explosion took place, had been detained. He said 18 had been questioned, including port and customs officials, according to the state news agency.

But while investigators focus on port officials, many Lebanese put the blame squarely on the political elite and the corruption and mismanagement that even before the disaster had pushed the country to the brink of economic collapse.

The Cabinet was previously warned by a security agency that a stockpile of explosive chemicals stored at the port was dangerous, Lebanons customs chief told the Associated Press  a report that could raise questions of high-level neglect.

That stockpile of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate set off the massive blast, apparently when touched off by a fire at the port. The chemical had been left sitting in a warehouse ever since it was confiscated from an impounded cargo ship in 2013.

The explosion, powerful enough to be felt in Cyprus across the Eastern Mediterranean, killed more than 130 people, wounded thousands and blasted buildings for miles around. Two days later, some 300,000 people  more than 12% of Beiruts population  cant return to their homes, officials estimate. Damaged hospitals are still struggling to deal with the wounded. Dozens are still missing. Officials have estimated losses at $10 billion to $15 billion.

Furthermore, the disaster struck at a time when peoples savings have melted away, and unemployment and poverty have mounted in the financial crisis. Few have capacity to rebuild homes and businesses, and the government is scraping for dollars.

After talks with Lebanese leaders, Frances Macron announced his country will organize a conference in the next few days with European, American, Middle Eastern and other donors to raise money for food, medicine, housing and other urgent aid.

But he warned Lebanons political elite that he wouldnt give blank checks to a system that no longer has the trust of its people. He called on them to create a new political order.

He promised a clear and transparent governance so that the aid goes directly to the population and aid groups.

In startling scenes, Macron  whose country once was Lebanons colonial ruler  presented himself as a champion for the Lebanese to push change on their leadership.

After visiting the devastated port, Macron walked through one of the worst-hit neighborhoods, Gemmayzeh, down a street lined with wrecked buildings.

On the narrow street, a crowd gathered around him and shouted their anger, chanting, Revolution! and The people want to bring down the regime!  slogans used at mass protests last year.

Macron told them he would propose a new political pact when he met the government later. Then, he added, I will be back on the first of September and if they cant do it, I will keep my responsibility toward you. He also promised that French aid would be given out with transparency and will not go into the hands of corruption.

One woman shouted at Macron, You are sitting with warlords. They have been manipulating us for the past year. He replied, Im not here to help them. Im here to help you. They then hugged.

Notably, none of Lebanons top politicians have toured residential areas damaged by the blast, though President Michel Aoun and others did visit the port. Hours after Macron left Gemmayzeh, Justice Minister Marie-Claude Najm tried to visit, only to be driven out by protesters.

Resign, you criminal! Would you accept anything less if your sister were among those killed? one protester shouted at her. As she was about to respond, another sprayed her with a water hose. She left as protesters chanted, Revolution! and Resign.

By Thursday evening, after Macron left Lebanon, dozens of protesters held an angry rally in central Beirut, on the roads leading to the government building and the parliament  pelting security forces with stones, setting tires on fire and shouting against the political elite. The security forces pushed them back, eventually firing a few rounds of tear gas to disperse the crowd.

Beiruts hospitals remained overwhelmed by the wounded, and there were fears of a spike in coronavirus cases.

In one hospital, 4-month-old Sophie Ajoury, perhaps the smallest survivor of Tuedsays blast, was fighting for her life. She suffered head injuries while breastfeeding from her mother near a window with the shock wave hit.

Her nurse said external bleeding had stopped, and the baby girl was awake and eating, and they were monitoring her condition for internal bleeding.

Emergency aid was starting to come into Lebanon, with European, Arab and Asian countries sending doctors, medical supplies or field hospitals. The United Nations said Thursday it was releasing $9 million from its emergency fund for Lebanon to strengthen hospitals and intensive care units.

However, the international community has been reluctant in past years to offer support to the notoriously dysfunctional government.

The same factions  and in most cases the same figures  have ruled Lebanon since the 1975-1990 civil war, including Iranian-backed Hezbollah. Almost all public institutions are divided up among the factions, which use them as patronage generators for themselves and their supporters. That means they tend to turn a blind eye to corruption, petty or major, and little actual development is put into the institutions. Even basic services like electricity and trash collection are a shambles.

For more than a decade, officials, watchdog groups and Lebanons media have reported on widespread corruption at the Port of Beirut, including bribery and hiding of merchandise from custom duties or taxes. One former finance minister has said corruption at the port cost the state more than $1 billion a year in revenues.

The investigation into the blast is focusing on how the chemical stockpile came to be stored in the ports Warehouse 12 and why it was never dealt with. Authorities have promised to issue results within days, and President Michel Aoun promised whoever was responsible would be punished.

Lead investigator, military judge Fadi Akki, said 16 port employees have been detained and 18 people have been questioned so far, all port and customs officials as well as those in charge of maintenance at the warehouse where the ammonium nitrate was stored.

The investigators on Friday will interview the ports general manager, Hassan Koraytem, and Ghazi Aridi, who was public works and transport minister in 2013, when the ship was impounded, a person familiar with the investigation said. The Central Bank also froze the bank accounts of several figures, including Koraytem and the head of the customs department, Badri Daher.

Daher told the AP that State Security, one of Lebanons main security agencies, had been investigating the stockpile over the past year. During that investigation, State Security sent reports to the Cabinet, state prosecutor and other state institutions about the danger of the material.

Security officials were not immediately available for comment. But if correct, it would be the first evidence that top level officials were notified of the danger so close to residential areas.

Daher confirmed to the AP that he had sent a letter in 2017 to a judge warning of the danger from the ammonium nitrate and asking for guidance on what to do with the material. He said he and his predecessor sent six letters but never got a response.

I dont know who they answered but we did not get any answers, he said, adding that it wasnt his job to deal with the stockpile but that he sent the letters out of safety concerns.

He said the port is run by an agency known as the Management and Investment of Port of Beirut. Asked if it took any measures, he said, No, because had they done anything the problem would have had been solved.

Associated Press writers Thomas Adamson in Paris and Joseph Krauss in Jerusalem contributed.
SALT LAKE CITY  Some Black Lives Matter protesters in Salt Lake City could face up to life in prison if theyre convicted of splashing red paint and smashing windows during a protest, a potential punishment that stands out among demonstrators arrested around the country and one that critics say doesnt fit the alleged crime.

The felony criminal mischief charges are more serious because they carry a gang enhancement penalty. Prosecutors said Wednesday thats justified because the protesters worked together to cause thousands of dollars in damage, but watchdogs called the use of the 1990s-era law troubling, especially in the context of criminal justice reform and minority communities.

This is so far beyond just the enforcement of the law, it feels retaliatory, said Madalena McNeil, who is facing a potential life sentence over felony criminal mischief and riot charges. Charging documents say she bought red paint at a Home Depot before the July 9 demonstration sparked by a fatal police shooting ruling. She later yelled at and shifted her weight as if to slam into police during the demonstration, charges state. Its really frustrating and scary ... I just feel so much concern for what this means for the right to protest in general.

The charges have Democratic leaders at odds in Salt Lake City, the liberal-leaning capital of conservative Utah, with the top county prosecutor arguing vandalism crossed a line and the mayor calling the charges too extreme.

The potential life sentence stands out as harsh punishment even among other people facing felony charges stemming from protests around the country. In Portland, for instance, a 32-year-old man is facing up to 20 years on an arson charge alleging he broke into a building that houses the police headquarters and set an office on fire.

The Utah demonstrators are unlikely to serve prison time, said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill. Though theyd get at least five years if convicted as charged, criminal cases often end with a plea to lesser counts.

I dont think anyone is going to be going to prison on this, he said. Gill is a generally reform-minded Democrat who said he has participated in Black Lives Matter protests himself and declined to charge dozens of protesters accused of curfew violations.

Still, he argued theres some people who want to engage in protest, but they want to be absolved of absolved of any behavior, he said. This is not about protest, this is about people who are engaging in criminal conduct.

But for the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah, invoking a law aimed at street gangs in troubling, especially against demonstrators of color. You are calling participants in a protest gang members, said attorney Jason Groth.

And there are other side effects to criminal charges, he said. McNeil tweeted Thursday she was asked resign from her job in the nonprofit sector and all the defendants have to post $50,000 bail to get out of jail.

This is the highest degree felony. This is usually reserved for murders and rapists, said attorney Brent Huff, who represents co-defendant Madison Alleman.

Another defense attorney Jesse Nix, who represents protester Viviane Turman, questioned whether Gill should have filed charges involving his own office. No one should get life in prison for putting paint on a building, he said.

Gill countered that short staffing during the coronavirus pandemic necessitated that but others will handle the case going forward.

More than 30 people have been charged with various crimes in Salt Lake County since the national wave of protests over George Floyds death began in late May. Similar first-degree felony counts have also been filed against people accused of flipping and burning a police car May 30.

We have to have some agreement of what constitutes protected First Amendment speech, Gill said. When you cross that threshold, should you be held accountable or not?

--The Associated Press

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The beginning of the school year when you got to show off your new duds, new cars, new looks!

Sports! Playing, cheering, watching high school athletics.

The arts: Dramatic arts, musical groups and shows, graphic arts groups, debate, etc.

The prom! No dancing the night away or punch bowl antics.

The daily interactions. Just being with the group, hanging with friends and classmates.

Access to college recruiters and advisors  its harder to line up higher education.

Walking onstage to get a diploma while all the family is watching with everyone elses family.

Vote

View Results
Steak n Shake will auction off 15 of its locations this month, including three in Michigan.

The company closed the restaurants at the available properties in the past 12 months, according to a news release announcing the auction.

Keen-Summit Capital Partners and NAI Global were hired to run the sale with a bid deadline of Aug. 31 and auction date of Sept. 4. Additional properties are expected to come available in another auction in September.

Many of these locations are virtually turn-key with much of the restaurant equipment available within the building, said Harold Bordwin, principal and managing director at Keen-Summit.

All the buildings are free-standing with a drive-thru. The minimum bid is $367,000 per property.

The properties are in Alabama, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas, and range between 3,734-7,041 square feet.

The Michigan properties are as follows:

1917 Pipestone Road, Benton Harbor; 7,041 square feet on 1.45 acres

17200 Middlebelt Road, Livonia; 3,856 square feet on 3.89 acres

32751 Concord Ave., Madison Heights; 4,348 square feet on 1.35 acres

For more information on the Benton Harbor location, contact Josh Jacobs, NAI Wisinski of West Michigan, at 269-459-0430 or joshuaj@naiwwm.com.

For more information on the Livonia and Madison Heights properties, contact Alis Manoogian, NAI Farbman, at 248-351-4370 or manoogian@farbman.com.

The bid procedures and full offering details are available at www.steaknshakepropertyauction.com.

READ MORE:

Turnout for Michigans August primary shatters records. What does the mean for November?

4 Michigan breweries win medals at international beer competition in New York

Michigan boy, 15, accidentally shoots 14-year-old brother

Motorcyclist thrown in fatal hit-and-run crash
FOX 9 is our local FOX station. FOX 9 investigative reporter Tom Lyden has done an excellent job covering the war between Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey as revealed in recently disclosed text messages in the days following the death of George Floyd.

Who is responsible for the great harm that has befallen the Twin Cities? That is the question. However, this is not a binary choice. Both Walz and Frey are abject failures whose errors and omissions have been felt across the United States.

Below is the first of the three reports posted in Tom Lydens story Thrown under the bus: Text messages detail Minneapolis frustration. After the advertisements that precede them. There is a lot to chew on in these reports.

Below is the second of the three FOX 9 reports. Conveying Freys perspective on the night they burned the Third Precinct headquarters down, this was originally reported two weeks ago. This is the video posted on YouTube.

Below is the third FOX 9 report, this one reported by Theo Keith with Governor Walzs response. Walz dances in his accustomed fashion. John comments in his update here.
In response to the July 31 letter (Protests are devolving into something else): Speak for yourself concerning Vietnam. I have friends and comrades who died in that war. We did not choose to fight because we wanted to lose.

I remember the protests. I watched the march on Washington from my base in California, where I was preparing to be deployed to Vietnam.

If you remember, that march was because of four students who were shot dead at Kent State  not by protesters but by the National Guard.

Today is no different. People are dying (especially Black and brown ones) at the hands of police. Are you saying that they do not have a right to speak up and, in this case, protest?

There will always be a small segment of protesters who are violent. I do not condone violence. But, if you look back on this countrys history, you will see this is nothing new.

Remember, protest, and sometimes violent protest, is what has caused change in this country since before it was a country. Americans may not be perfect, but I have seen from my limited foreign travels that you and all the rest of Americans have it good.

Jim Rientjes

Greensboro
French President Emmanuel Macron left Paris for Lebanon on Thursday on a first visit by a world leader to Beirut after the deadly port blast, the Elysee Palace said.

Macron's plane took off just before 0600 GMT and was scheduled to land in the devastated city at around 0900 GMT where the French president was to meet "all political actors" including President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Hassan Diab.

Macron will seek to rally urgent aid for Lebanon but is also expected to press for overdue reform in France's ex-colony, just two days after the blast -- blamed on an unsecured store of ammonium nitrate at the Beirut port -- killed 137 people, injured 5,000 more and destroyed entire neighbourhoods.

"For the president, it's a matter of showing that France is there -- that is its role -- and that he believes in Lebanon," the presidential palace said.

He is scheduled to hold a news conference at 1530 GMT.

"The visit is also an opportunity to lay down the foundations for a pact for the reconstruction of Lebanon, binding for all, that will limit conflicts, offer immediate aid and open up a long-term perspective," the Elysee said.

On Wednesday, France sent three planes to Beirut loaded with rescuers, medical equipment and a mobile clinic.

Two military planes left Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris with 55 search and rescue personnel on board and 25 tonnes of medical supplies.

A third plane, provided by the chief executive of shipping giant CMA-CGM Rodolphe Saade who is of Lebanese origin, took off from Marseille with medical equipment and a nine-strong medical team.
A federal judge ordered immigration officials Thursday to test all detainees for the coronavirus at a Bakersfield facility where COVID-19 has broken out and to report the test results quickly, saying the governments inaction is endangering inmates, staff and the public.

The evidence suggests that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has shown deliberate indifference to the risk of an outbreak at the Mesa Verde Detention Center and has lost the right to be trusted that it will take safety measures without a court order, said U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria of San Francisco.

Mesa Verde, owned and managed by the private firm GEO Group under contract with ICE, houses 121 adult men who are awaiting or challenging their deportation proceedings. Several federal judges have ordered ICE to release medically vulnerable detainees from Mesa Verde and other facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Chhabria has issued some bail orders since April after finding that the agency was doing little to protect their health.

Since late June, 14 staff members have tested positive for the virus, said attorney Bree Bernwanger of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights in San Francisco. She said a detainee tested positive last week and ICE then tested everyone in his dormitory, rejecting rapid-results procedures in favor of laboratory review that took several days to report.

Five more detainees in the dorm tested positive, and the total has now reached eight, Bernwanger said. She said one detainee in another dorm, a man in his 60s, was hospitalized with COVID-19 over the weekend, but ICE did not tell his family where he was and took two or three more days to test others in his dorm.

Emails between ICE and GEO, obtained by the detainees lawyers, showed that the agency refused universal testing because of fears that it could not adequately house or separate all those who tested positive.

Due to constraints that the (ICE housing) guidelines would put on our housing resources we will be limiting the scope of testing as much as possible, Alexander Pham, an ICE assistant field office director in San Francisco, said in a May 21 message.

When the agencys national office suggested Mesa Verde as one of four sites to begin a pilot project of universal testing, David Jennings, director of the San Francisco office, said he had some concerns about being a test place  in short we have no place to cohort anyone who refuses, is positive, etc. Cohort is a type of quarantine.

Chhabria said the evidence shows that officials have avoided widespread testing of staff and detainees at the facility, not for lack of tests, but for fear that positive test results would require them to implement safety measures that they apparently felt were not worth the trouble.

He issued a temporary restraining order requiring Mesa Verde to conduct weekly tests of all detainees, using methods that provide rapid results. He also required ICE to maintain a separate dorm for detainees who tested positive, banned any new admissions to Mesa Verde and ordered its managers to file daily reports on conditions at the facility and their management of the outbreak.

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.

Chhabria scheduled a hearing for Aug. 21 to decide whether to extend his order into a longer-lasting preliminary injunction.

In the face of ICEs callous disregard for detainees in its custody, todays court order provides essential safeguards necessary to protect the health and safety of detainees housed at Mesa Verde and residents of the surrounding community, said Martin Schenker, another lawyer for the immigrants.

San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju, whose office also represents the detainees, said ICE continues to demonstrate its failure to act to prevent a COVID crisis, which has devastating consequences to those in its custody.

ICE did not respond to a request for comment.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko
The man appeared in court in Belfast.

Gun attacks on a Co Tyrone home are allegedly linked to a 250,000 euro drug debt owed to Dublin-based criminals, a court was told.

Police claimed the house in Coalisland was targeted twice amid phone warnings to "cause damage" to a family living there if the money was not paid.

Details emerged as Dublin man Robert Redmond, 32, appeared at Belfast Magistrates' Court charged with threats to kill on dates between February 1 and July 2, 2019.

Redmond, of Woodview Close in the Donaghmede area, was arrested at a hotel on Tuesday after apparently travelling north for a night out.

A detective said the case is connected to separate gun attacks on the Coalisland property in March and July last year.

In the first incident a number of shots were fired through the windows of the house.

Police believe the attack was carried out because a member of the family living there was under threat from Dublin criminals.

The alleged victim claims he had developed a friendship with Redmond after they met in Lanzarote, the court heard.

But according to the detective their relationship deteriorated when Redmond held him responsible for a 250,000 euro drug debt.

Threats to kill were allegedly made in WhatsApp messages, with one telling the man he had two weeks to pay and signed off "tick tock, tick tock".

It was claimed that another message warned: "I'm going to cause damage to your family."

After shots were fired at the house for a second time the man allegedly received further telephone communication informing him he would be getting "five or six in the face".

Defence solicitor Hamill Clawson insisted Redmond is only charged threats to kill, which are denied.

"He was released unconditionally in relation to the alleged shooting that occurred a year ago at the home address of the complainant," the lawyer said.

Asked why his client was in Northern Ireland this week, Mr Clawson explained: "There's still a lockdown in the south, he came up to Belfast for a night out."

Redmond was refused bail due to concerns he may not comply with any release conditions.

District Judge Mark Hamill remanded him in custody to appear again next month.
GREELEY, Colo. - When local health officials moved to close one of the country's biggest meatpacking plants amid a major coronavirus outbreak in April, Vice President Mike Pence and one of the nation's leading health officials pushed to keep the plant operating, against the advice of top local and state health officials, according to records and interviews.

The JBS Greeley plant, which employs more than 3,000 people, closed and reopened eight days later. Since then, three plant workers have died of covid-19, bringing the total number of employee deaths from the virus to six, according to state health officials. All told, about 300 employees have tested positive, making the plant the site of Colorado's third-largest outbreak.

Among the sick JBS employees was Bienvenue Chengangu, 34, a refugee from the Congo. He fears he brought the virus home to his mother, causing her death.

"The decision to keep the company open was a bad decision, and it means the government is also contributing to the damage that's been done," Chengangu, who cut brisket for the plant until the outbreak, told The Washington Post through an interpreter. "They knew how hard it was for people to work safe, yet we continued."

In a statement, JBS said the plant reopened only after it implemented recommendations from local, state and federal health officials, including screening all workers for symptoms before entering the plant. JBS said federal officials helped the plant by providing protective gear for workers and "expert guidance." JBS also said it had not had a worker from the Greeley plant test positive since June 9.

"We remain committed to the safety of our team, our families and the millions who depend on the food we produce every day," said Tim Schellpeper, president of JBS USA Fed Beef.

The nation's meat-processing plants have been at the center of a politically fraught debate on when and how to keep major sectors of the economy functioning during the pandemic. Among the issues is whether employers should be shielded from liability for operating during covid-19.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said limiting corporate liability is a top priority in the GOP's $1 trillion relief package and must be included for the bill to pass. The GOP provisions in the Safe to Work Act would protect employers from a number of workplace laws and lawsuits, and help businesses defend themselves against complaints of exposing workers to the coronavirus.

The nature of work in the plants presents clear risks for workers, many of whom are immigrants, and their advocates complain that JBS and other companies have sacrificed employee health and safety for profits. Those same advocates argue that the low-income workers on whom meat plants rely often lack a basic understanding of their rights as employees, making them vulnerable to abuse.

Worker advocacy groups have filed a civil rights complaint against JBS and Tyson Foods with the U.S. Agriculture Department, alleging the companies' failure to prevent coronavirus outbreaks among largely Black and Latino workers amounted to racial discrimination.

JBS said it offered a diverse culture "including refugee, immigrant, native-born and asylee. Anyone is welcome to join our team, and we are proud to offer well-paying jobs to many first generation Americans seeking to build a better future for themselves and their families."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said recently that based on reports from 23 states, more than 16,200 U.S. meat and poultry plant workers tested positive for the virus through May, and 86 died. Of those who died and whose race was known, 87% were minorities.

The six JBS Greeley plant employees who died of covid-19 were minorities. A racial or ethnic breakdown of those who tested positive is not available, although more than 70% of the workforce are minorities, the union said.

"Many of them don't speak English and can't read or write in English and feel that they have no other place to go," said Kim Cordova, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 7, which represents JBS employees. "So they just feel compelled to stay in these really dangerous jobs because they don't have a choice."

- - -

Chengangu was already feeling ill on March 26 when workers on his night shift were told the plant had its first confirmed coronavirus case. Chengangu's manager wouldn't identify the person, or the person's role, or the shift he or she worked.

"They just told us everyone to get back to their positions," Chengangu said.

Chengangu pulled his supervisor aside to complain. The work was shoulder-to-shoulder, he said, and the company hadn't yet provided face coverings. A JBS policy mandating face masks went into effect March 19, but a JBS spokesperson said the company encountered difficulty supplying masks for all employees due to "global demand and supply chain issues."

Chengangu speaks fluent Swahili, serviceable French and broken English, but he's confident the message delivered in his third-best language got across.

The manager said they weren't going to close, Chengangu said. They were going to wait for the government to do something. A JBS spokesperson said employees were not given this guidance.

At about the same time Chengangu was protesting to his manager, Weld County Health Director Mark Wallace was beginning a contentious back and forth with Chris Gaddis, head of human resources for JBS.

In an April 4 letter to JBS, Wallace chastised the company for having a "work while sick" culture and said the county's analysis showed that 64% of workers who tested positive for the coronavirus had "worked while symptomatic and therefore were contagious to others."

Days later, as infection rates continued to climb, Wallace told JBS he was dissatisfied with its response to the crisis, according to emails and interviews. On April 10, a closure order was sent to the company, listing a variety of steps it would have to take before it could reopen. The letter was co-signed by Jill Hunsaker Ryan, director of the state's health agency.

Gaddis immediately pushed back, sending an email to Ryan that said it was his understanding that "the Governor did not want this letter sent." Ryan stood behind the order, and in an email the following day thanked JBS CEO Andre Nogueira for "voluntarily" agreeing to close the plant.

Meanwhile, JBS had reached out to the White House, seeking its help and intervention, records and interviews show. On the day the closure order was sent, Pence and President Donald Trump both mentioned the Greeley plant at the day's White House coronavirus briefing, promising testing resources to the plant.

An hour later, Nogueira publicly thanked Pence in a news release. Pence spokesman Devin O'Malley said other meat plants were also helped and that the vice president's "efforts were instrumental in ensuring that Americans did not experience food shortages during the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak."

The day after the closure order, Ryan wrote in an email to Wallace that she'd received a call from CDC Director Robert Redfield regarding the Greeley plant.

"JBS was in touch with the VP who had Director Redfield call me," she wrote in an April 11 email. Redfield wanted the local and state health authorities to send "asymptomatic people back to work even if we suspect exposure but they have no symptoms," Ryan wrote. She said she was OK with that if Wallace was.

In a statement, a CDC spokesman said Redfield "simply suggested" to local officials that they follow CDC guidelines that were being finalized at that time "which allowed for plants to remain open if they followed certain steps to control spread of COVID-19."

A state health department employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of fears of retribution from the federal government, said there was "heavy involvement from high levels within the federal government."

"I was worried we would not get the equipment, supplies or other support that we needed to mitigate the outbreak at JBS if we didn't partner with the CDC," the state employee said, adding that this meant the plant was reopened based on CDC guidelines, not local or state guidelines.

JBS USA, the owner of the plant, is the American subsidiary of a Brazilian company whose owners entered a plea deal in Brazil in 2017 in which they admitted bribing bank and government officials to get low-interest loans. JBS is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for using the loans to buy all or some of the plants it owns in the United States. With the acquisitions, JBS became the biggest meatpacker in the world. JBS declined to comment on the pending federal investigation.

During the outbreak, the company enticed employees to show up for work, even as the virus spread in the Colorado plant in March and April. It gave $600 bonuses to its line employees with good attendance records while many worked inches apart on slaughter and processing lines without the recommended protective equipment and social distancing.

The plant conditions contributed to an infection rate so high that the company abandoned plans to test the entire 3,200-plus workforce after about half of 200 managers tested positive for the virus in April, health officials confirmed. The company shut down testing - which federal officials had promised to make available to all JBS employees - and cranked up efforts with local, state and federal politicians to keep the plant operating, records and interviews show.

- - -

As Chengangu's shift inched toward midnight on the day employees were notified of the first virus infection, he began to feel overheated in the cold warehouse. He later developed a cough and ached all over, he said. He then checked himself into the Banner Health emergency room and took a coronavirus test.

"I barely finished my shift," he said, "but going home early is not an option."

Hospital staff checked his vitals and sent him home later that day with instructions to quarantine for 14 days. They later notified Chengangu he'd tested positive, a diagnosis confirmed by the union.

More than 30 languages are spoken in the JBS plant. The multicultural group includes men and women from dozens of countries, including a community of African and Middle Eastern refugees who settled in Weld in the last decade.

The company has insisted it enlists interpreters to bridge language chasms in its communication with the staff. Yet the accounts of a nurse and a medical assistant, both temporary workers who performed health screenings in May and June at JBS, suggest the company is failing in that effort.

When workers told them they were experiencing covid-19 symptoms, the two women handed them documents on where to get tested and how to self quarantine. However, that information was only provided in English, the two health-care professionals said.

They said they asked two supervisors if the materials could be translated so the sick workers could read the materials.

"I was told, 'No. If we do it for one, we have to do it for all of the languages,'" said Sarah-Jean Buck, a medical assistant. Erica Villegas, a licensed registered nurse, said she was told the same thing.

County records show that one of the conditions for reopening the plant was that reading materials related to covid-19 be provided to workers in their native language.

JBS acknowledged that the testing information is available only in English. The company said the quarantine materials, which are produced by the CDC, were originally provided to workers in English only. JBS now says it is giving workers translated versions, which the CDC offers in 25 languages.

The day after Chengangu visited the hospital, his 73-year-old mother, who lived nearby and babysat for his family, felt ill. She suffered from high blood pressure.

She'd been in the country almost two years, following her son to the United States. He made the decision to pack up his family and aim for refugee status after a brush with death amid the Congo's ongoing civil war.

He and his mother and sisters spent two years in Ugandan refugee camps before they eventually were granted asylum in the United States and relocated to Greeley, a community that has embraced refugee relocation.

Chengangu was frustrated when Banner Health, after several hours of evaluation, released his mother. The hospital told The Post it would not share medical records without written consent of the family; Chengangu said hospital officials have not responded to multiple requests to confirm his mother had covid-19, and he believes they are ignoring him.

He took her back to the hospital the next day, and again she was discharged and told to quarantine, he said. When her symptoms worsened still, the hospital admitted her a third time on April 6. The moment they dropped her off would be the last time she looked upon her son.

- - -

Under pressure from county commissioners and federal officials, county health officials allowed JBS to operate for nearly a week after the April 10 closure order, records show. Two weeks after the plant reopened, Wallace, the county health director, retired, telling friends and colleagues that he believed the plant was not ready to reopen and that his integrity was at stake.

"My concern was that testing of employees and their families for covid-19 hadn't been as robust as hoped for or as was needed," Wallace said in an interview.

Since reopening, workers continue to complain that they do not have proper protection gear and cannot socially distance in some areas of the plant.

Buck and Villegas also said the thermometers they used to take the temperatures of JBS employees routinely malfunctioned, sometimes giving the same reading for dozens of workers in a row. When they told their supervisors, they said they were told to wave the employees into the plant.

The company said it would be against its protocols to allow sick employees into the workplace, adding that it is "extremely unlikely that our occupational health professionals would provide this direction."

JBS also said that after a recent tour of the plant, the state "offered no suggested changes or opportunities for improvement to our COVID-19 preventive measures."

On the second night of his mother's third hospital visit, a doctor from the hospital called Chengangu and told him they believed she had covid-19, and she was having serious difficulty breathing. "They said, 'We don't think your mom is going to make it,' " Chengangu said.

Family members were able to speak to her by phone during her hospitalization, but they weren't allowed to visit her. Much was lost in translation in phone calls between health officials and a family with no fluent English speakers.

On the third day, Chengangu got the call he dreaded most: A doctor told him one family member should come to the hospital to be with her before she died. He drove to the emergency room where a protective suit, mask, face shield and gloves were waiting.

She died three days after her third trip to the hospital, as her son watched. Her death certificate lists "covid-19 syndrome" as the cause. The union said it is aware of two other refugee JBS employees who had family members in their household die of the virus.

Chengangu said he still hasn't been informed whether his mother tested positive for the virus, an uncertainty that nags at him. He went back to work on April 27, 18 days after her death, as cases continued to mount at the plant. Chengangu now works in a packaging section at room temperature.

In May, his family gathered around his mother's grave in a traditional ceremony marking the Ascension of Jesus 40 days after his resurrection in the Bible. It was an especially painful moment for the family; already confused and dubious about the circumstances of her death, they weren't allowed to open the casket and confirm it was her.

The entire episode has damaged his confidence in his decisions. Chengangu, inspired to seek a better life in the United States after being attacked by paramilitary groups in the Congo, said he left the country and its ongoing civil strife to escape cruelty and greed.

Yet, he said, "It's the same thing here. I'm realizing America isn't the paradise we believed it to be."
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- DoorDash, the nation's leading last-mile logistics platform, today announced that it will be hosting its first-ever merchant conference, The Main Street Strong Restaurant Conference, in partnership with the National Restaurant Association. Designed for local business owners, the event aims to bring together a community of restaurant leaders to collaborate with, learn from and inspire one another during the most challenging time in the restaurant industry's history.

The National Restaurant Association will partner with DoorDash to create the event, bringing decades of experience working directly with local restaurants and advancing the causes of restaurateurs at a local and national level.

"The restaurant industry has suffered the most significant sales and job losses since the COVID-19 outbreak began. Events like these are important for restauranteurs to know that they are not alone, and we've found that engagement at this level can help inspire other businesses to change course, pivot and adapt in new ways while fostering a deeper sense of community," said Perry Quinn, Senior Vice President, Business Innovation Development at the National Restaurant Association.

The event will feature a conversation with Stephanie Izard, Executive Chef/Partner of four Chicago restaurants: Girl & the Goat, Little Goat, Duck Duck Goat, and Cabra, James Beard "Best Chef: Great Lakes" recipient 2013, and the first woman to win Top Chef. Bringing nearly two decades of restaurant leadership experience, Chef Izard has first hand experience helping her six businesses adapt to the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The full impact of coronavirus on local restaurants has yet to be realized. Every day, restaurants face uncertainty as they continue to tirelessly serve their customers. In addition to ensuring we are providing the best tools and technologies for restaurants to accelerate into this new reality, we want to provide a sense of community for our restaurant partners and to do that we want to host a forum where restaurant owners can learn directly from each other about adapting during this time," said Tom Pickett, Chief Revenue Officer at DoorDash. "We haven't stopped asking ourselves what more we can be doing to help restaurants survive and this event aims to not only inspire restaurants during a critical time but to inspire us to better help one another navigate through this time together."

The all-day, virtual event will feature keynotes, multiple tracks with breakout sessions, and round table discussions all designed to set up restaurants for success during an unprecedented time:

Stephanie Izard , Executive Chef/Partner, Girl & the Goat, Little Goat, Duck Duck Goat, and Cabra

, Executive Chef/Partner, Girl & the Goat, Little Goat, Duck Duck Goat, and Cabra Tanya Holland , Chef & Restaurateur, Brown Sugar Kitchen

, Chef & Restaurateur, Brown Sugar Kitchen Chef David Nayfeld , Che Fico

, Tony Xu , Chief Executive Officer of DoorDash

, Chief Executive Officer of DoorDash .and more to come!

At the height of the pandemic, DoorDash helped restaurants save $120 million through relief programs and marketing initiatives. Restaurants on DoorDash are four times more likely to have remained open during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to U.S. restaurants as a whole*. More recently, DoorDash unveiled its Main Street Strong campaign, dedicated to helping restaurants navigate the recovery phase of coronavirus with all new policies, programs and initiatives to help restaurants get back on their feet such as DoorDash Storefront. And last week, DoorDash announced its support for the RESTAURANTS ACT, a bipartisan proposal to establish a $120 billion Revitalization Fund for independent restaurants across the U.S.

The virtual conference will take place October 8, 2020. To learn more, receive updates and join our waitlist visit get.doordash.com/conference, we'll be updating regularly with event updates, speakers and more.

*Source: Internal DoorDash data; National Restaurant Association Industry Survey (April 2020); Facebook State of Small Business Report.

About DoorDash

DoorDash is a technology company that connects customers with their favorite local and national businesses in more than 4,000 cities and all 50 states across the United States, Canada, and Australia. Founded in 2013, DoorDash empowers merchants to grow their businesses by helping to solve mission-critical challenges, such as customer acquisition, on-demand delivery, insights and analytics, merchandising, payment processing, and customer support. By building the last-mile delivery logistics platform for local cities, DoorDash is bringing communities closer, one doorstep at a time. Read more on the DoorDash blog or at www.doordash.com.

SOURCE DoorDash

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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- While it's long been said "you are what you eat," a team of animal scientists in the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture is taking an in-depth look at how what you are is influenced by your ability to eat, at least in cattle.

Phillip Myer, an assistant professor and microbiologist in the Department of Animal Science, is leading a new study to determine how the rumen, the largest compartment of the cattle stomach, and the microbes that inhabit it affect the conversion of low-quality feedstuffs into usable energy for ruminants. Funded by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the $500,000 study seeks to identify whether the genetics of a particular cow influences the rumen microbiome and whether that influence can be passed on to future generations. "The overarching hypothesis of this project," says Myer, "is that host beef cattle genetics are associated with the variation of microbes in the rumen, producing an individualized rumen microbiota among animals."

Myer believes that if certain microbes are significant for feed efficiency, disease resistance, and other desirable production traits in cattle, then ruminal microbes represent the greatest opportunity to rapidly improve beef cattle nutrition and influence growth to help producers meet future global protein demands.

Specifically, the three-year project seeks to determine the microbes and microbial interactions in the rumen of Angus cattle as well as the microbes' relation to feed efficiency. The scientists--including Jonathan Beever, director of the UTIA Genomics Center for Advancement of Agriculture; Brynn Voy, also a professor in the UT Department of Animal Science; and Larry Kuehn and James Wells, both with the USDA U.S. Meat Animal Research Center--also seek to estimate the heritability of the rumen microbes and microbial features and to identify host genomic markers that ensure heritability.

The goal is microbiome manipulation to enhance agricultural production. Says Myer, "This project will ultimately provide a means to increase food availability while lowering environmental impacts, develop more sustainable cow-calf production systems, and enhance Angus breeding programs."

The project will dramatically advance the field of beef production agriculture to sustainably meet the protein requirements of an ever-increasing global population.

The award is one of 23 that NIFA announced last month that should lead to better management strategies for animal production systems, enhance production efficiency, and further develop high quality animal products for human use. Each of the grants is part of NIFA's Agriculture and Food Research Initiative.

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.

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There is usually a backup in any Chick-Fil-A restaurant drive-thru and jammed parking lots during the lunchtime hour. But, according to Big 2/Fox 24 Odessa, the crowd on Sunday at the Chick-Fil-A in the Odessa Town Center, Texas, wasnt lined up for chicken sandwiches and the famous waffle potato fries.

They were there for Ms. Ann.

Ann Mefford has worked at the Odessa Town Center Chick-Fil-A for eight years, during which time she has become very popular in the community, says Big 2/Fox 24. Prior to working at Chick-fil-A, Mefford was a librarian and worked at a church daycare, and she has never forgotten a face.

Im 90 years old, said Mefford. I will be on Tuesday. And when Mefford became worried about her 90th birthday passing by without any celebrations due to the ongoing pandemic, her co-workers decided to use the restaurants drive-thru for a birthday parade.

"[T]he sweetest, friendliest person you will ever meet." Posted by NTD Television on Wednesday, August 5, 2020

Mefford was sent home in mid-June for a precautionary 6-week long, self-isolation due to COVID-19. This absence from work worried her. She didnt think her usual birthday celebrations would happen.

She was very concerned. She started getting a little depressed because she didnt think we would be able to do anything. Courtney Ashley, Chick-Fil-A marketing director, said. So we talked with Odessa Police, Odessa Fire Department, and we thought lets do a big, fun drive-by, with a little party before.

Ashley said throwing a socially-distanced party was a no brainer. She explained that everyone that works there and the regular customers adore Mefford. Ms. Ann is just the sweetest, friendliest person you will ever meet, Ashley said. She talks to every single person that enters our dining room, she treats them like they are the only people she has seen that day.

Fellow employee Ashley Aianda expressed that she thought its been hard for Mefford, because shes used to hugs and that direct contact. She loves to talk and be around others.

They brought Mefford back to the restaurant two days before her 6-week isolation was over for the special event. From a story on The Epoch Times, from footage shared by CBS-affiliate KOSA-TV, an awning was set up and decorated for Mefford to sit under while a succession of vehicles drove by  some with colorful messages on their windows. The fire and police departments even turned on their sirens. And Mefford even wore a Chick-fil-A, cow-print face mask.

Im so glad to see them all, Mefford said. " It makes me feel really loved.

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Linkedin Editorial board (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, August 7 2020

It comes as no surprise that Indonesias economy contracted in the second quarter of this year, although at minus 5.32 percent the rate is deeper than the government and economists had estimated and the weakest since the aftermath of the 1998 financial crisis.

Countries around the world from the United States and European countries to China and others in Asia are also seeing negative growth in gross domestic product (GDP). The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects the global economy to contract 4.9 percent this year.

It is very disappointing, however, to see little contribution from government spending to at least soften the hard blow from the pandemic to the nations economy. Government spending may be the only part of the economy we can expect to contribute during this tough time.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-05 22:44:21|Editor: huaxia

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People gather at an attack site in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi, on Aug. 5, 2020. A hand grenade attack at a rally on Wednesday evening in Karachi left five people injured, police and local media said. (Str/Xinhua)

ISLAMABAD, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- A hand grenade attack at a rally on Wednesday evening in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi left five people injured, police and local media said.

Local police told media that unknown motorcyclists hurled a hand grenade at the rally near a mosque in Gulshan-e-Iqbal town of Karachi.

The rally was arranged to express solidarity with the people of Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Rescue teams, who were accompanying the rally, shifted the injured to a hospital where all of them were reportedly in stable condition.

Police and paramilitary forces cordoned off the site and stopped the rally to march ahead.

No group or individual has claimed the attack yet.
Chef Jamie Oliver has lost a battle to stop new homes being built next to his London headquarters despite after claiming it would risk privacy and raise noise levels.

Last month Islington Council approved plans to build a two-storey extension on a building near Oliver's HQ, which is also home to the Naked Chef's cookery school.

Raising a complaint on the 45-year-old's behalf, Rob Harrington, facilities manager at the headquarters in Islington, said: 'You can imagine (privacy) is not something Jamie has much of outside of his home and workspace.'

Councillor Gulcin Ozdemir said the celebrity chef's needs should not be prioritised over new homes in the North London borough, which currently has 14,000 people waiting for social housing.

Essex-born Oliver had complained the extension would raise noise levels during construction and block lighting to his base, which he uses for filming.

Councillor Jenny Kay told a planning committee last month: 'Construction noise and nuisance isnt something that can stop development.'

Jamie Oliver raised concerns that six extra homes being built next to his North London HQ could disrupt him filming due to light restrictions and loud noise during development

Jamie Oliver Group occupies about 1,845sq.m of floor space at the building, having moved there in 2017.

There are eight years left to run on the lease on the building.

Mr Harrington told Islington Council's Zoom planning conference call: 'The proposal will impact our business greatly through the construction phase and subsequently if the development is approved.

'A key driver for us moving to the area in 2017 was the fantastic space with its privacy and natural light the building offered.'

Mr Harrington added: 'This will not only commercially hit our capacity to work effectively but it will also impact Jamie and our staff's privacy, which as you can imagine is not something Jamie has much of outside of his home and workspace.'

He also said the new homes could impact on filming and photography work at Jamie Oliver's offices, by blocking out natural light.

Other businesses - including a film studio - based in the building have also opposed the scheme saying it would cause too much noise and disruption.

But Islington Council planners approved the scheme after finding it was in line with minimum distance rules from the celeb chef's office.

According to the Islington Tribune, Committee chairwoman Councillor Jenny Kay told the meeting on July 14: 'I think that all of us want to protect independent business in the area especially at a time like this, but we know that construction noise and nuisance isnt something that can stop development.'

Speaking for the applicant, Clearwell Creek Properties Ltd, Greg Dowden said the developers had worked 'very hard' with adjoining occupants to make sure they had the best possible scheme.

Islington Council approved plans to add a two-storey extension to this building last July, despite concerns from Jamie Oliver over noise, privacy and it blocking light to his headquarters

After the meeting, Islington Labour councillor Gulcin Ozdemir tweeted: 'Do I support individual business? Yes.

'Do I think a celebrity chef's needs should be prioritised over providing six new homes that is not even going to make a dent to the 14,000 on Islington's waiting list?

'I don't!'

Mr Oliver's business woes have continued with much of his once robust empire now crumbling.

His Jamie's Italian brand went bust alongside restaurants Fifteen and Barbecoa.

He was forced to close all but three of his 25 UK restaurants last year after the business called in administrators, with 1,000 people losing their jobs.
A zoo in the Austrian capital of Vienna has bred a great purple emperor butterfly, Omurasaki in Japanese, from an egg after receiving caterpillars from a conservation group in Japan.

The species known as Japan's national symbol is found in the forests of Tamba City in the western prefecture of Hyogo. The group in Tamba donated the caterpillars to the Schonbrunn Zoo four years ago.

The zoo uses leaves from imported enoki, or Chinese hackberry trees, to feed the caterpillars. The humidity and temperature levels match those of the insect's native habitat.

The butterfly recently developed from a pupa. The egg had been laid at the zoo.

The person in charge of breeding the butterflies says they are delighted that one has emerged from its chrysalis after much difficulty.

He says he wants to visit Tamba someday to learn more about breeding this species.

The great purple emperor butterfly has become a symbol of the exchanges between Japan and Austria.

The head of the Japanese conservation group in Tamba praised the zoo's achievement, noting that the butterflies are acting as a bridge between the two countries.
A special CBI court here rejected the bail plea of Indrani Mukerjea, the prime accused in the Sheena Bora murder case, noting that the possibility of the accused influencing prosecution witnesses cannot be ruled out.

After failing to secure bail multiple times on medical grounds, Mukerjea in December last year filed another plea, seeking bail on merits of the case.

Special CBI court judge JC Jagdale rejected the plea on Wednesday. The court observed thatsome important case witnesses like Rahul Mukerjea, son of accused Peter Mukerjea, and Vidhi, daughter of Indrani Mukerjea and her former husband and co- accused Sanjeev Khanna, were yet to be examined.

There is no doubt that the accused is an influential and wealthyperson. Therefore, the possibility of influencing prosecution witnesses cannot be ruled out, the judge said.

While arguing for bail, Indrani Mukerjea told court that the prosecutions case was false and baseless and she had nearly 120 documents to prove it.

She submitted that there is no scientific evidence to prove that the crime happened.

She pointed out inconsistencies in the evidence put forth by the prosecution to prove her role as a conspirator and one of the killers of her daughter Sheena Bora.

She also raised doubt about the credibility and legality of the probe.

Indrani Mukerjea claimed there are numerous contradictions in the testimonies of prosecution witnesses, including accused-turned-approver Shayamwar Rai.

They have either contradicted their own statements, or the statements of other witnesses, or the prosecutions story itself, she had submitted.

However, the judge in his order observed that in the middle of trial, the court cannot declare that the part evidence is either wholly reliable, or partly reliable, or totally unreliable.

At the present juncture, the court cannot conclude that the evidence led by Shyamvar Rai (approver) has falsified or suffered from fatal infirmities due to cross-examination of the said witness, the court noted.

The judge further observed that at this stage, the trial court cannot pass a final conclusion about the evidentiary value of the witnesses.

In my opinion, the accused and the advocate concerned should co-operate with the trial court to finish the said trial, the judge added.

Indrani Mukerjea is currently lodged at the Byculla womens jail in Mumbai.

Last month, the court rejected her another bail plea, citing the risk of contracting coronavirus in the wake of the disease outbreak in the jail.

Sheena Bora (24) was allegedly strangled in a car by Indrani Mukerjea, her then driver Shyamvar Rai and Sanjeev Khanna in April 2012.

Her body was burnt in a forest in neighbouring Raigad district.

Indrani Mukerjea was arrested in August 2015.

Former media baron Peter Mukerjea was also later arrested for allegedly being part of the conspiracy. He is currently out on bail, which was granted by the Bombay High Court earlier this year.

His 17-year-old marriage to Indrani Mukerjea ended during the period of incarceration as the two got divorced in October last year.
For the past five days, the COVID-19 incidence dynamics in these areas has been on the rise.

In Ukraine, Rivne, Khmelnytsky, Chernihiv, and Kharkiv regions may see a strengthening of COVID-19 quarantine restrictions as early as next week, from August 11, that's per Tymofiy Mylovanov, head of the Kyiv School of Economics, which has been helping the health ministry on coronavirus analytics.

At the moment, these regions are in the "green zone", Mylovanov wrote on Facebook.

These regions could be pulled from the "green zone" due to the fact that the number of COVID-19 cases has been growing for the past five consecutive days.

"Since Monday, four new regions may cease to be 'green' ... We are talking about Rivne, Khmelnytsky, Chernihiv, and Kharkiv regions, where for five days in a row at least one of the indicators set by government has been on the rise  the new cases rate or growth dynamics," Mylovanov wrote.

Read alsoUkraine reports record daily rise in COVID-19 cases

The expert says the National Commission on Technogenic and Environmental Safety and Emergencies is set to convene on August 7 to decide on whether to pursue with the move.

Background
Pakistan's attempt to internationalise the Kashmir issue through the United Nations has again "come to naught", after a UN Security Council meeting, convened by China to discuss the matter, ended without any outcome, a top Indian diplomat said on Thursday.

India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T S Tirumurti said that many other members of the Security Council underlined that Jammu and Kashmir was a bilateral matter between India and Pakistan and also stressed on the importance of the Simla Agreement. "The attempt of Pakistan to internationalise this issue through the United Nations has again come to naught," Tirumurti told PTI.

"Another attempt by Pakistan fails! In today's meeting of UN Security Council (UNSC) which was closed, informal, not recorded, and without any outcome, almost all countries underlined that J&K was bilateral issue & did not deserve time and attention of Council," Tirumurti tweeted. China, Pakistan's 'all-weather ally', called for a discussion on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir in the Security Council under 'Any Other Business' on Wednesday, when India marked the first anniversary of ending special status to Jammu and Kashmir and its bifurcation into two union territoriesJammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

Sources told PTI that the US took the lead, and many other council members also joined and made it clear that the Kashmir issue was not a matter for the UN body to discuss and is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan. Pakistan has been unsuccessfully trying to drum up international support against India for withdrawing Jammu and Kashmir's special status and bifurcating it into two Union territories.

India has categorically told the international community that the scrapping of Article 370 was its internal matter. It also advised Pakistan to accept reality and stop all anti-India propaganda. In January this year, China, on behalf of Pakistan, had made a similar attempt to raise the Kashmir issue under "other matters" during closed consultations in the Security Council Consultations Room. Then too, China stood alone in the Pakistani corner to get the Security Council to focus on the Kashmir issue.

The January attempt had failed as other member countries felt that Kashmir was a bilateral matter between India and Pakistan. Earlier on Wednesday, Tirumurti told PTI that contrary to what Pakistan may claim, Islamabad has not been successful in trying to put Jammu and Kashmir on the UN agenda.

"Frankly, the attempt by Pakistan to try and internationalise, what is a bilateral issue, is nothing new. A lie repeated a hundred times will not become truth," he said. He said that contrary to what Foreign Minister of Pakistan Shah Mahmood Qureshi has asserted, there has been "no formal meeting of the Security Council on the India-Pakistan issue even once for the past 55 years, let alone three times!"

Tirumurti said what had come up earlier was in a closed-door completely informal meeting under what is called 'Any Other Business'. "This is a category where literally any item could be brought for discussion by anyone. Even China, being a permanent member, had to face discussion on Hong Kong in the Security Council under AOB earlier this May. These meetings have no records, and there is no outcome," he said.

India had on Wednesday slammed China for describing the reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019 as "illegal and invalid", and advised Beijing not to comment on the internal affairs of other nations. In a sharp reaction to China's comments on the first anniversary of India's decision on Jammu and Kashmir, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said China has no locus standi on the matter.

"We have noted the comments of the Chinese MFA spokesperson on the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The Chinese side has no locus standi whatsoever on this matter and is advised not to comment on the internal affairs of other nations," Srivastava said, replying to a question on China's comments that any unilateral change to the status quo of Jammu and Kashmir was illegal and invalid. In New York on Wednesday, the spokesperson of China's Permanent Mission to the United Nations said on the Security Council's discussion on Kashmir that Chinese Ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun pointed out that "India and Pakistan are both China's friendly neighbours and big developing countries at a critical stage of development".

"China is committed to growing friendly relations with both countries and calls on the two countries to focus on national development, set store by peace and stability in South Asia, properly handle historical grievances, abandon the zero-sum thinking, avoid unilateral actions, resolve disputes peacefully through dialogue and consultation, and jointly uphold peace and stability of the region," the official said.
Three more workers at Maple Leaf Foods' pork processing plant in Brandon have tested positive for COVID-19, according to a post on the website of the union representing workers.

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Three more workers at Maple Leaf Foods' pork processing plant in Brandon have tested positive for COVID-19, according to a post on the website of the union representing workers.

The three new cases follow one during the long weekend, which The Brandon Sun learned about after an internal union memo was leaked to the newspaper on Tuesday, which was verified on Wednesday.

UFCW local 832 said they were made aware of the three additional cases late Wednesday night. Maple Leaf and the union said on Wednesday that there was a confirmed case of COVID-19 at the plant dating back to last week. 70 workers were said to be self-isolating as they wait for test results to come back.

"UFCW 832 is now calling for Maple Leaf to cease production until Monday, August 10, at the earliest," union president Jeff Traeger said in the post. "Until we have more results from the outstanding tests among our members at Maple Leaf."

In the post, the union said that Maple Leaf disagrees with its call for a temporary shutdown. As reported in Thursday's edition of the Sun, the union called for a shutdown if any employee who is actively working tests positive.

Health Minister Cameron Friesen and provincial chief public health officer Brent Roussin, who was said to be on vacation earlier this week, were set to give a COVID-19 briefing at 1 p.m. Last week, the pair announced that the province would only be holding one briefing per week unless the circumstances warranted more.

The province already held a briefing this week on Tuesday.

Traeger sent a letter to Friesen on Thursday morning asking the government to complete a thorough, in-person health inspection of the plant. A copy of that letter was sent to the Sun.

"While we appreciate the employers' work on containment, and on instituting public health protocols for this workplace, we are very concerned that four confirmed positive cases within five days and more anticipated positive cases is showing a dangerous trend," the letter reads. "It is our understanding that numerous test results are expected back shortly.

"We fully expect to hear that many more of those are positive and we strongly believe that the most prudent action is to cease production until more test results come back and we have a better sense of the trend."

Maple Leaf vice-president of communication Janet Riley told the Sun via email that "several other" employees have now been asked to self-isolate as a precautionary measure. She also confirmed that the company does not feel a shutdown is necessary.

"Given our daily health screening, temperature monitoring, social distancing and the personal protective equipment all team members wear while at work, we feel confident that our plant environment is safe," Riley wrote.

In other cases where one or more workers tested positive for COVID-19 at food processing plants, such as at Cargills beef processing plant in High River, Alta., positive cases led to shutdowns. According to the Calgary Herald, two workers at that plant died of COVID-19 and nearly 1,000 more were infected.

Some families of workers at that Cargill plant have since filed a class-action lawsuit against the company, alleging it did not take appropriate measures to keep employees and their loved ones safe.

Another Maple Leaf plant in Montreal had an outbreak earlier this year that led to the death of at least one employee.

 cslark@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @ColinSlark
In mid-2020, "business casual" now means a presentable shirt and either shorts or sweatpants for your next Zoom call. But walk back your cultural mores a few months, and "business casual" meant smart clothes that were both comfortable and stylishthe kind you'd find from a retailer like Bonobos.

Who knows if or when most of America will ever be back in a proper office, but Bonobos has an offer that's tough to refuse: An extra 60% off all final sale items. That includes all sorts of stuff, and it's 60% off the sale price you see on the site by using the code CANNONBALL. Feel free to shout it every time you add an item to your cartyou're probably at home, after all.
New York City is the only major U.S. school system still considering in-person classes this fall, after Chicago rebuffed President Donald Trump's calls to reopen to avoid further strain on the U.S. economy.

Chicago Public Schools will begin the academic year with all-virtual learning, the nation's third-largest district announced Wednesday, after administrators bowed to pressure from nervous staff and parents. New York City officials say they are still on track to open in September with a hybrid of in-class and remote instruction, though they need approval from Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has said he will make a final decision this week.

The national rush to all-remote learning will keep parents struggling to work and teach their children simultaneously, businesses navigating those conflicts, and the virus-wracked country that much further away from normality.

"It's a huge blow to the economy, and to the long-term potential for growth," said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton in Chicago. "Unfortunately we've put ourselves in a position where it's getting harder to see how we're going to sustain a rebound in the third quarter."

In Chicago alone, the decision affects 355,000 students -- kids whose parents had expected them to be in classrooms starting Sept. 8. Other major school districts that have already opted for virtual instruction for at least the start of the year include Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Miami, Atlanta and Houston. If New York City joins in, that would affect the families of another 1.1 million students.

The cities are taking these steps as Covid-19 infections spike across the U.S., choosing to be cautious amid conflicting data about how susceptible kids are to contract or spread the disease.

Coronavirus cases in the U.S. increased 1.1% Wednesday compared to the day before, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg News. The virus, which has infected 4.79 million Americans and killed more then 158,000, is surging in many parts of the South and West, as the Midwest and Northeast try to rein in flare-ups.

California reported its second-biggest day of new cases on Wednesday and the positive-test rate in Texas climbed for a fourth-straight day. In New York City, one of the earliest parts of the U.S. to be hit hard, Mayor Bill De Blasio stepped up enforcement of quarantines for out-of-state visitors with checkpoints at airports and train stations.

North Carolina paused its reopening for five weeks, keeping businesses including bars, movie theaters and bowling alleys closed, and limiting the size of gatherings.

"Other states that lifted restrictions quickly have had to go backward as their hospital capacity ran dangerously low and their cases jumped higher," said Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat. "We won't make that mistake in North Carolina."

The decisions about travel, business and education are being made against unrelenting pressure from Trump, whose theories on the topic aren't always supported by his own health experts.

"This thing's going away -- it will go away like things go away and my view is that schools should be open," Trump said Wednesday on Fox News. Children "are virtually immune from this problem. And we have to open our schools."

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has rejected this claim. There are parts of the country where schools shouldn't open to in-person teaching, the doctor told Bloomberg Television on Wednesday, and testing for the disease needs to improve, especially in the speed to obtain results.

There is conflicting data about how covid-19 is transmitted to and from children,

A study published in JAMA last month -- based on work in a Chicago pediatric hospital -- suggests infected kids with even just mild symptoms can still have 10 to 100 times the concentration of SARS-CoV-2 in their noses and throats as older kids or adults, making them more likely to spread it. An earlier Chinese study, however, found that most children with covid-19 admitted to a hospital lived in households with previously infected adults, indicating the child caught the virus from the adult rather than transmitting it.

A small number of kids have died or required intensive care as a result of either the respiratory failure commonly associated with the virus or an inflammatory condition sometimes described as similar to Kawasaki disease that causes heart or circulatory problems.

That leaves school officials largely at the mercy of their local health officials for guidance. In Chicago, the district will work with the city Department of Public Health to assess if it is safe to open with hybrid learning in the second quarter on Nov. 9.

The economic effects of keeping children out of school go beyond matters of convenience and pocketbook. They also expose imbalances in the economy, with some children unable to access the internet as easily as others.

"The first-order short-term economic impacts will be likely centered around what this does to families needing childcare; loss of school meals for the kids making hunger worse; and whatever furloughing the district is doing," said Diane Schanzenbach, professor at the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. "Long term, the costs of all of this lost learning will be with us for decades."

Senate Republicans have proposed a bill that would provide $70 billion to K-12 schools, but that may not be enough to safely reopen, or even to go remote and provide needed tech to low-income families. More than $116 billion will be needed to safely reopen the nation's public schools, according to an estimate from the American Federation of Teachers union.

The teacher's unions have been lobbying heavily against in-person school, citing budget restraints and health risks for staff and pupils. In Chicago, educators already went on strike last year to demand more nurses, librarians and counselors. The Chicago Teachers Union estimated last month that it would cost between $450 million and $1.7 billion to reopen the city's public schools safely, depending on the model.

New York City's hybrid plan, which includes schools getting cleaned daily and mandatory masks, has been criticized by state officials, who have described it as more of an outlier. De Blasio says they will shut down if the city's infection rate exceeds 3% over seven days.

"We are trying to maximize in-person learning for the good of our kids because we know it makes a world of difference," de Blasio said during an Aug. 3 news briefing. "Online is a tool we will use when we need to use it, but it's inherently imperfect.
It was 7 a.m. when Omar Busaidy realized he drove 30 minutes for nothing. He didnt notice that the ACT was canceled the night before. Now, the test has been canceled four more times and Busaidy is considering taking the test in a rural area where COVID-19 wont interrupt it.

Cancellations of the ACT and SAT are one of the many upheavals upcoming high school seniors are facing before returning to school this fall as they prepare to tackle the ups and downs of their new virtual reality.

MORE FROM RYAN NICKERSON: Bellaire High School grads persevere amid chaos

Busaidy, Jeffery Chuong, and Bryce Liu made a point to help others in need during the COVID-19 crisis. They are the founders of Food For Heroes, a nonprofit that delivers food to essential workers and supports local businesses.

The three long-time high school friends all have parents who are frontline workers and have seen the strain the pandemic has caused to hospital staff. They raise money through GoFundMe and pay restaurants to make and deliver the food to hospitals, so restaurants dont have to pay delivery fees.

Since March weve been able to deliver about 550 meals, said Chuong.

Donations have slowed down for Food For Heroes, which Chuong accounts for the national economic downturn. So they are seeking donations from corporate sponsorships.

ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Alief ISD students become Houston's 1st to log in for school year

But now that summer break is about to be over, Chuong and the Food For Heroes team are about to embark on their senior year with feelings of hope and frustration.

Liu and Busaidy are starting their virtual senior years at Bellaire High School on Sept. 8.

I think the pandemic has taught us to be realistic and take what opportunities we have and not take them for granted, said Busaidy. I dont expect everything to open up, and Im hesitant on relying on the fact that we could still possibly have prom or graduation and things like that.

Busaidy and Liu are on the schools debate team and were looking forward to an initiative to get diverse and lower-income students to join. With the school year starting virtually and plans for in-person learning still up in the air, theyre not sure how they can still do that.

Chuong is starting his virtual senior year at the Texas Academy of Math and Science, based in Denton. Its a residential program so normally students live in Denton away from their parents for an entire school year. This upcoming semester they are not allowing any students to live on campus .

I feel like Im missing out on a whole year of my TAMS experience, said Chuong. Its like since everything is online, what is the point of leaving Houston if you cant live at the college? So it sucks, but I guess you just have to accept it.

The friends also must apply to higher education institutions, but colleges are either limiting campus tours or are conducting them entirely online. For the seniors, the virtual tours are nothing in comparison to the real thing.

Of course, the college virtual tours are going to do what they can to promote their college so its definitely a lot harder to find the nuances of the college, said Busaidy, and trying to find the specific idiosyncrasies that may deter you or finding the things that are particularly interesting to you is just a little harder to find.

ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: 'Im just so, so tired': COVID taking emotional, physical toll on Houston health care workers

But the Food For Heroes team remains optimistic about their senior year, recognizing the free time remote learning warrants an opportunity for them to do as much as they can. Remote learning, in their opinion, is their responsibility as the connections between them and their teachers can be non-existent.

Its harder for teachers to understand how well we are doing because they dont see body language, said Busaidy. For many students in my classes they turn their cameras and microphones off, so getting them engaged and seeing if they understand the concept is hard. Its hard for teachers to make that connection.

But its also what we make of it because theres a lot of opportunities we can take advantage of now that we have all this time, and were online, said Busaidy.

One of the biggest aspects of senior year the three students will miss is hanging out. Since having to stay at home, the students have missed opportunities to hang out during birthdays, Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, and other holidays.

They call each other frequently and have game nights with their families, but they are still going to have to sacrifice building relationships with new people, at least for the foreseeable future.

RENEW HOUSTON: Get the latest wellness news delivered to your inbox

It definitely gets lonely in these quarantine days, said Liu. Its sad because of the circumstances but its just necessary. I think the only interaction Ive had with a friend was when Omar and I went on a walk to the park and just talked. Thats about it.

As soon as we open up again you can guarantee we are going to see each other, said Busaidy.

For the teenagers, its not just another moment. The Bellaire High School students have been through a tumultuous amount of chaos through their high school careers, whether it be hurricanes and flooding or the 2019 school shooting. But the quarantine feels different.

Quarantine has really forced everybody to stop and think about how the world works, how minorities are being treated, how there is an income inequality divide in our country, said Busaidy. Its forced everybody to think about how things work but also gives them time to educate themselves.

ryan.nickerson@hcnonline.com
ALBANY, N.Y.  Albany County Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Elizabeth Whalen reemphasized the importance of residents to wear masks in an effort to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

Whalen referenced the science-based evidence that masks serve as a vital instrument to help keep the virus infection rate down.

Our numbers are down and I would say that I believe this is a reflection of adaptation of appropriate infection control practices in New York State, she said. As weve spoken about theres a lot going on these two weeks and important considerations and decisions are being made about going back to school etc.

We do not live in a risk free environment and its very important when we have these discussions to know that all of our discussions have to be based on risk.

To that end, Whalen reiterated the need to wear masks to help in that effort.

I respectfully will argue wearing masks is appropriate. It is one of the cornerstones to the strategies going forward that will help keep the infection rate low in New York State and across the country, Whalen stated. These are strategies that are adapted in countries where not just the United States but other people that have managed to reopen the economy and one of the most important things is to wear masks because this lowers the infection rate.

This is something that I say based on evidence.

Touching more on schools, Albany County Executive Dan McCoy was joined by Gail Darrigo, who serves as the Clinical Director of the Children with Special Needs and Mental Health Divisions of Albany Countys Department for Children, Youth and Families.

While the delivery of some Albany County programs and services changed to adapt to the health and safety regulations during the pandemic, our passionate workforce never slowed down on behalf of residents McCoy said. That is certainly true for our Department for Children, Youth and Families who support children with special needs and others, especially at a time when they are increasingly falling behind with schools being closed.

Our Early Intervention Program has remained open and our Evaluation Team has continued doing assessments remotely, while our pre-school center based programs have been open since July 13 providing speech and physical therapies to 75 kids between the ages of 3 and 5 he added. These are the types of initiatives that improve lives and Im proud to support. And I strongly encourage women and teen girls to utilize our Single Point of Entry, which can make it easy to find help with health care, addiction support, counseling and more.

Darrigo discussed how Albany Countys Early Intervention Program serves 397 infants to three-year-olds, helping them get connected with services that they qualify for, including speech, occupational and physical therapies; social work and special education. Most of these services have been provided via Skype or Zoom, save a small percentage of those that continued in-person meetings.

The countys Evaluation Team has conducted 143 different assessments this year, 49 of which have happened since May.

In breaking down the latest numbers regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, the County Executive confirmed six new positive cases Thursday.

Encompassed within the new cases are one healthcare worker or those who live in congregate settings, four with close contacts to positive cases and one who did not have a clear source of transmission.

There have been 2,328 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 in Albany County to date. Additionally, the number of people under mandatory quarantine has dropped to 557. The five-day average for new daily positives has decreased to 7.8. Currently, there are 42 active cases. Thus far, 7,728 people have completed quarantine.

Of those who completed quarantine, 2,286 of them had tested positive and recovered, an increase of one.

There was one new hospitalization overnight and there are now three people hospitalized The hospitalization rate has ticked up to 0.12% from 0.08%.
FREDERICKSBURG, Va., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Radiologic Associates of Fredericksburg (RAF) welcomes three new radiologists to the practice: Drs. Paul Mathew, Jacqueline Alvarez, and Alex Skidmore. All three are board eligible in diagnostic radiology.

Dr. Mathew completed his fellowship at the University of Virginia Health System. He will be serving patients at Medical Imaging of Fredericksburg and hospital locations.

Dr. Alvarez completed her fellowship at the Moffitt Cancer Center. She will continue her dedicated service to women's imaging at the Imaging Center for Women.

Dr. Skidmore completed his fellowship at the University of North Carolina Health System. He is an interventional radiologist who will be serving patients at Medical Imaging of Fredericksburg, Virginia Interventional & Vascular Associates, and hospital locations.

"Drs. Mathew, Alvarez, and Skidmore are exceptional physicians and it is my pleasure to welcome them to the RAF team. RAF is committed to providing the highest level of medical care to those we serve, and this includes ensuring our staffing levels continue to meet the needs of our referring clinicians and community," said Dr. Chris Meyer, RAF president.

Radiologic Associates of Fredericksburg is the largest provider of radiologic and vascular surgery services in the Fredericksburg, Virginia region. RAF is ranked among the "Exemplary 80" groups in the nation by the Radiology Business Journal. Their board certified, fellowship trained radiologists serve the community in five counties in Virginia, providing convenient access to the highest level of care for the greatest value in the region. Locations include: Mary Washington and Stafford Hospitals, Medical Imaging of Fredericksburg, the Imaging Center for Women, Medical Imaging at Lee's Hill, and Medical Imaging of North Stafford, as well as at RAF's interventional radiology and vascular surgery practice, Virginia Interventional & Vascular Associates (VIVA) in Fredericksburg, Stafford, and Richmond, Cosmetic Center by VIVA in Fredericksburg and Virginia Women's Center in Richmond. For more information, visit rafimaging.com or call (540) 361-1000.

SOURCE Radiologic Associates of Fredericksburg
FBG Duck

26-year-old fast-rising rapper FBG Duck was reportedly killed in a drive-by shooting in Chicago.

The Chicago police confirmed the shooting saying that three people were injured in the attack.

According to the Chicago Police Department spokesperson Tom Ahern, two people, a male and a female are receiving treatment at a hospital while the third victim died from his injuries.

Medical examiners spokeswoman Natalia Derevyanny said in a statement that he was pronounced dead about 5 p.m. at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Civil rights activist and former Chicago mayoral candidate JaMal Green identified Carlton Weekly who performed as FBG Duck and rapped about gun violence as the murdered victim.

The triple shooting left the 28-year-old female victim with a shot in the hand but remains in stable condition.

The 36-year-old surviving male victim is reportedly in critical condition, after sustaining shots to the back, side, and flank.

Speaking about the shooting, Deputy Chief Daniel OShea told reporters that at 4:37 p.m., two vehicles pulled up on Oak Street as people were shopping.

Four individualstwo from each cargot out of the vehicles and opened fire outside the stores. The cars, which are believed to be a black Ford Taurus and a silver Chrysler 300M, fled the scene shortly after.

No arrests have been made.

FBG Duck has released music on Sony imprint Columbia. In an interview with popular YouTube personality Vladislav Lyubovny in 2018, he said he had a recording deal with Sony was worth more than $1.7 million.
Wearing face masks in retail shops and enclosed spaces will become mandatory from Monday, First Minister Arlene Foster has said.

Following an extensive Executive meeting, Stormont ministers also agreed to pause the reopening of pubs in Northern Ireland until next month.

The First Minister said the decision was taken because of the concern around the level of community transmission and the prioritisation of the reopening of schools.

We have set a new indicative date of September 1, she said.

I want to acknowledge that the hospitality sector have been working very hard with us, they have been in partnership with us right throughout this issue and this is not a reflection on the hospitality sector, rather its a reflection on the fact that the R rate has risen, there is a rise in community transmission and we always said there is a need to work together to try and push that down.

We have decided to make face masks mandatory in enclosed spaces where you cant social distance, from Monday.

Retail workers will not have to wear masks, its those people coming in to the shops that we are asking to wear masks.

Its about trying to give confidence to people who feel vulnerable and maybe have been shielding and we are asking the public to work with us and listen to what we are asking them to do.

Forty-three more positive cases of coronavirus have been detected in Northern Ireland, the Department of Health said. The total number of people who have been infected is now 6,049.

No new deaths were recorded, leaving the total in the region at 556, according to official figures.

Addressing the decision not to open wet pubs, Ms ONeil said the decision was made given the rise in community transmission and the R rate for Northern Ireland.

There would be a sequential impact on opening pubs and then the knock-on impact on schools, she said.

Today we prioritised schools but we are also very alert to the fact that those people who were planning for the opening of their pubs on Monday will be anxious about what it means for them.

Theyve also invested, so we are going to engage in the sector to see what we can do there in terms of supporting what is their new indicative date.

Minister of Education Peter Weir said that all children will return to school by next month.

This includes pupils in special schools.

This is a strategic prioritisation that the Executive has given to education, Mr Weir said.

It is positive news for our parents, teachers and society as a whole, particularly for our young people that they will be able to fully access education.

For years one to 10, they will be returning on the basis of protected bubbles of whole classes, and for years 11 to 14 try to minimise movement between classes.

All the other protective measures that we have put in place and suggested to schools previously remain in place so we are looking after the health and safety of our young people.

Full guidance will be issued to schools next week. The idea is to try and have the maximum level of social distancing, but the overriding issue is to ensure we have full classes.
New York: New Yorks Attorney-General is suing the National Rifle Association, seeking to put the gun advocacy organisation out of business over allegations that executives engaged in a decades-long pattern of fraud.

Attorney-General Letitia James lawsuit, filed in state court in Manhattan on Thursday after an 18-month investigation, highlights allegations that have roiled the NRA and its longtime leader, Wayne LaPierre.

Wayne LaPierre, executive vice-president of the National Rifle Association. Credit:AP

Allegations of financial misuse range from hair and makeup for LaPierre's wife to a $17 million ($23.6 million) post-employment contract for himself.

Simultaneously, the Washington, DC, Attorney-General sued the NRA Foundation, a charitable arm of the organisation designed to provide programs for firearm safety, marksmanship and hunting safety, accusing it of diverting funds to the NRA to help pay for lavish spending by its top executives.
The blaze broke out at the Shrey Hospital in Ahmedabad's Navrangpura during the early hours of Thursday.

Eight patients in the ICU ward of a private COVID-19 designated hospital in Ahmedabad died after a fire broke out on Thursday, a fire official said.

The blaze broke out around 3.30 am at the private hospital, Shrey Hospital in Navrangpura area of Ahmedabad during the early hours of Thursday, the official told PTI.

Around 40 other COVID-19 patients at the facility were rescued and shifted to a civic hospital in the city, he said.

The cause of the fire is not known yet, he said.

As per ANI, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has ordered a probe into the incident and asked that the report be submitted within three days. Sangeeta Singh, Additional Chief Secretary (Home Department) has been directed to be lead the probe.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to offer his condolences to the bereaved: "Saddened by the tragic hospital fire in Ahmedabad. Condolences to the bereaved families. May the injured recover soon."

Saddened by the tragic hospital fire in Ahmedabad. Condolences to the bereaved families. May the injured recover soon. Spoke to CM @vijayrupanibjp Ji and Mayor @ibijalpatel Ji regarding the situation. Administration is providing all possible assistance to the affected.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 6, 2020

Modi also spoke with Vijay Rupani and city mayor Bijal Patel regarding the situation. "Administration is providing all possible assistance to the affected," he said.

An ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each from the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund would be given to the next of kin of those who have lost their lives due to the hospital fire in Ahmedabad, the PMO said in a tweet.

The Prime Minister's Office also said Rs 50,000 each would be given to those injured in the fire.

With 1,073 new coronavirus positive cases, Gujarat's COVID-19 tally crossed the 66,000 mark as of Wednesday. The case count in the state is 66,777 now, according to the state's latest bulletin.

With the death of 23 COVID-19 patients during the day, the number of deceased went up to 2,557, the state health department said. As many as 1,046 patients were discharged on Wednesday, which took the tally of recovered cases to 49,405.

With inputs from PTI
SALT LAKE CITY, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Forum Health LLC has welcomed a new family nurse practitioner, and addition to the Forum Health team, Kurtis Hinderman, FNP-BC.

With an extensive background in medical aesthetics and Lyme disease, Hinderman treats the whole patient spectrum  from health optimization to chronic illness recovery. Hinderman also brings a holistic and empathetic mindset to the team. "Patients deserve to be listened to and understood. Only then, can we figure out what lifestyle factors are driving their disease state to correct and get patients on a path to better health," according to Hinderman.

Hinderman is a native Utahn and graduate of Brigham Young University-Idaho, where he received his Bachelor's degree in Nursing. He then went on to Maryville University's Graduate Nursing Program in St. Louis, Missouri; and received his Board Certification from the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP).

"Kurtis brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the team," said Forum Health COO, Adam Puttkammer. "His advanced training in nutrition, alternative pain management, and medical aesthetics make him an asset to Forum Health, and we are very excited to have him on board."

Hinderman's specialties include: lifestyle medicine, dermal fillers, Botox cosmetics, ozone therapy, prolozone join injections, IV therapy, and more.

"I'm thrilled that Kurtis Hinderman joined me in my practice at Forum Health," said Dr. Andrew Petersen, Co-Chief Medical Officer of Forum Health. "I had tried for nearly a year to get him to join me, so to have him come on board was a real win for me and my patients."

Having worked in both primary care and plastic surgery, Hinderman's experience helps him understand the interconnectedness of people and the effects of restorative healing. His interactions with patients suffering from diverse symptoms and conditions motivated him to join a practice that seeks to understand and treat the root cause.

About Forum Health

Forum Health LLC is a nationwide provider of personalized healthcare. Steeped in the powerful principles of functional and integrative medicine, Forum Health providers take a root-cause approach to care. They listen and dig deep  exploring lifestyle, environment, and genetics to help each patient achieve their health goals. Members have access to advanced medical treatments and technology, with care plans informed by data analytics and collaborative relationships. To learn more, visit forumhealth.com .

SOURCE Forum Health LLC

Related Links

https://www.forumhealth.com


JBS USA, the owner of the plant, is the American subsidiary of a Brazilian company whose owners entered a plea deal in Brazil in 2017 in which they admitted bribing bank and government officials to get low-interest loans. JBS is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for using the loans to buy all or some of the plants it owns in the United States. With the acquisitions, JBS became the biggest meatpacker in the world. JBS declined to comment on the pending federal investigation.
(Photo : Unsplash)

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) currently monitors an 'Asteroid Tsunami' that simulation shows its capability of causing a destructive 400-foot wave into the U.S. coast if it lands into the Atlantic Ocean.

NASA watches Asteroid (29075) 1950 DA carefully as the colossal one-kilometer wide, near-earth object (NEO) draws closer to the planet. The asteroid is estimated to be a 3,600 feet wide Potential Hazardous Asteroid (PHA) and is listed in the Sentry Risk Table. This table monitors possible impact and assesses risks that these cosmic objects bring.

Express states that, according to the researchers, this humongous asteroid is currently the highest in the Palermo Rating in terms of risk and capability to destroy.

NASA calculated a one to 300 possibilities (0.33 percent probability) of the devastating impact in the future, in 2002. This pushed experts to simulate and calculate the risk of this possibility. The asteroid is expected by scientists to arrive near the planet and already cause problems and harm on March 16, 2880.

Although having a small probability of a direct impact, the planet has experienced devastating damages in asteroids having the same size as this or larger.

ALSO READ: NASA to Rename Cosmic Objects, Replace Racial and Insensitive Names on List

Asteroid Tsunami

Asteroids, such as this one, make their impacts on oceans, mostly because the Earth is covered mainly of water bodies.

However, a computer simulation done by the University of California Santa Cruz (UCCS) shows that an ocean impact, particularly in the Atlantic Ocean in this scenario, would most probably cause a massive 400-foot wave tsunami that will impact the United States' coast.

This finding by scientists Steven Ward, a researcher at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, and Erik Asphaug, associate professor of Earth sciences at UCSC in 2003, proved a great deal today.

Ward noted that these types of occurrences have happened in the past; still, Asteroid 29750 will prove to be destructive. This study by Ward and Asphaug is done in order to inform the public of the general assessment risk of the asteroid.

According to them, this study's importance is directly related to the planet's preparedness and well-being.

NASA's Asteroid 29075 (1950 DA)

NASA's compilation of reports for information about Asteroid 29075 details what the asteroid is. This asteroid is a discovery on February 21, 1950, and is again the topic of study during its publication last April 5, 2002, by Giorgini, et. al.

The asteroid's full potential could bring forth a 50 percent greater risk than the average background hazard that NASA studies. Asteroids from the present times until 2880 do not pose this big of harm than this particular asteroid. Its Palermo Technical Scale value scores a +0.17 (PTS value = +0.17) and is the only known asteroid up to date with a rating of above background level.

NASA's study on this asteroid will help future generations on what to do and hope to accomplish to reduce the damage this asteroid brings. Eight hundred and more years will undoubtedly create a rippling impact that will enable future people to protect themselves from these cosmic occurrences.

ALSO READ: NASA Discovers Jupiter Has Ammonia-Water Solution Leading to 'Shallow Lightning' and 'Mushballs'

This article is owned by Tech Times





Written by Isaiah Alonzo

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The Facebook Inc. Instagram logo is displayed on an Apple Inc. iPhone in an arranged photograph taken in the Brooklyn Borough of New York.

(Bloomberg)  Facebook Inc.s Instagram photo-sharing app is launching its clone of TikTok in more than 50 countries, a week after CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended the companys copycat strategies to U.S. lawmakers at an antitrust hearing.

The product, called Reels, lets people edit 15-second clips of videos together alongside music, just like on TikTok. It will be embedded into Instagram in the U.S. and elsewhere, the company said Wednesday in blog post. Reels is the second major Instagram feature that follows an almost identical one popularized by a competitor. Instagram Stories, the tool for posting videos and photos that disappear, was inspired by Snapchat.

Reels isnt Facebooks first attempt at challenging TikTok. Facebooks Lasso, a separate application with similar features that was tested in limited markets, was shut down last month after it failed to win over an audience. Reels may have better luck: its launching just as TikToks existence in the U.S. is being challenged by President Donald Trump.

TikTok, owned by China-based ByteDance Ltd., faces either a ban in the U.S. or a potential spinoff and sale to a U.S. owner, possibly Microsoft Corp. Trump and other officials say TikTok is a threat to national security because the Chinese government may have access to data from Americans. TikTok has repeatedly denied the allegations.

The timing happens to be coincidental in some ways, Vishal Shah, the head of product at Instagram, said in an interview with reporters. Facebook has already released Reels in other countries  including India, after TikToks government ban there. We had the sense that the product had a lot of potential and we learned really quickly that that was resonating with people, Shah said.

The pressure from Trump has prompted some TikTok creators to redirect their audiences to Instagram, hoping for a more stable future in case TikTok is banned. Facebook benefits from the uncertainty even as regulators probe the company for possible violations of antitrust law  particularly its practice of buying and copying competitors. According to documents released by Congress, Zuckerberg in 2012 became more interested in the practice after observing Chinese competitors move quickly to introduce new products with already-proven uses.

Reels videos will show up in the Instagram Explore tab, where people can see content from accounts they arent already following. The benefit of building Reels within Instagram, Shah said, is the existing network of more than 1 billion users. Its more difficult to get people to download a new app than use one they already own, he said. Reels will also give Instagram users a new opportunity to get famous, beyond the following they already have.

We have not historically been very good at helping new creators find an audience, Shah said.

ByteDance has said Facebooks copying, as well as its claims that Chinese-owned apps may not be as committed to data security or free speech, amount to plagiarism and defamation. But Bytedance also didnt invent the short edited video format. It was popularized by Vine, the app owned by Twitter Inc., which launched in 2013 and shut down before TikToks rise.

Contact editor Yang Ge (geyang@caixin.com)

Support quality journalism in China. Subscribe to Caixin Global starting at $0.99.
A historic sculpture in Italy is now missing some of its toes, thanks to an overeager tourist. The man damaged the 200-year-old sculpture last week while posing for a photo, the museum said.

The tourist, who is from Austria, broke several toes off of the original plaster of, "Paolina Borghese Bonaparte as Venus Victrix," at the Museo Antonio Canova in Possagno on Friday. The museum said the visitor was leaning on the sculpture, trying to mimic its pose for a photo op.

Footage obtained by Reuters confirms that the man was sitting directly on the sculpture as another person appears to take a photo. The man stands up, turns around to view the apparent damage, before quickly walking away.

The visitor left the museum without notifying anyone of the damage, the museum said in a Facebook post on Saturday. A museum official noticed the damage a few minutes after the incident occurred and declared an emergency situation.

CCTV footage released by Italian Carabinieri military police shows a tourist posing for a photograph while leaning on a 19th-century plaster model of

The sculpture was commissioned in 1804 by Prince Camillo Borghese and cast by Antonio Canova, one of Italy's most prominent neoclassical sculptors. The one displayed in Northern Italy is the original plaster cast for the iconic marble version, which is in Rome's Galleria Borghese.

The artwork is part of the museum's "gypsoteca"  a collection of plasters used to cast bronze, marble and terracotta statues  which, by definition, are extremely fragile. The museum was able to recover the missing fragments and said there will be discussions in the next few weeks about restoring the work.

The museum emphasized that its "heritage must be protected." It encouraged visitors to behave responsibly and respect the artwork so that it can be "handed down with pride to future generations."

In a Facebook post following the incident, President of the Canova Foundation Vittorio Sgarbi called on police to take the tourist into custody and not allow him to return home. "The scar in Canova is unacceptable," he said.

Story continues

A photo released by Italian Carabinieri military police shows damage to a 19th-century plaster model of

According to Artnet News, new legislation in Italy could increase the maximum sentence for art vandalization to eight years in prison and a $117,000 fine.

The museum said that it has identified the tourist responsible for the damage based on surveillance footage and a new log of visitors required since the country reopened from its coronavirus lockdowns. It also wrote on Facebook on Wednesday that he has since "turned himself in" and written a letter to Sgarbi after reading about the incident in Austrian newspapers.

The tourist, who remains anonymous but hails from Aistersheim, said his behavior was "irresponsible" and he was not aware of the "consequences." He also apologized "in every way" and asked if he could help rectify the situation. Sgarbi said he appreciates the apology.

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Increase in demand for the Pure Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) products is influencing the growth of Pure Nicotine market. Market Research Future, a firm which specializes in market reports related to the Food, Beverages & Nutrition sector among others, recently forecasted in its report on Europe Pure Nicotine Powder Market Research Report- Forecast to 2022 that the market will demonstrate an exceptional CAGR of 5.83% during the forecast period.

Pure nicotine is a colorless liquid with a characteristic acrimonious odor. It is a colorless liquid that turns brown and smells like tobacco when exposed to air. It is the purest and freshest nicotine solution available in the market that is derived from the finest, pesticide-free tobacco leaves. It is naturally sourced, filtrated, extracted, separated and distilled to amass a true and clean nicotine produce.

The Europe pure nicotine market has witnessed continued demand during the last few years and is projected to reach 5.521 Kilo tons at a CAGR of 5.83% by 2022. Increase in demand for the nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) products will drive the higher demand for the pure nicotine in the coming years. Increase in demand across various applications including e-liquid, smoking cessation products, bio pesticides and other industrial purposes is driving higher demand for pure nicotine.

Europe pure nicotine market, based on application, is segmented into e-liquid, smoking cessation products, pharmaceuticals, bio-pesticide and others E-liquid dominated and having more than 50% market share in the year 2017 and is projected to grow at the highest CAGR at 5.85% during the forecast period followed by smoking cessation products with market share more than 25% and growing at CAGR of 5.8% for the corresponding period. The innovations in pure nicotine products and process prime objectives include achieving reductions in cigarette consumption by providing various product forms, flavors, and packaging styles is supporting the market growth.

Europe Pure Nicotine Market Updates:

Dec 2017 Biohit Oyj and R-kioski Oy have signed an agreement for the distribution of the smoking cessation product, Acetium lozenge in Finland. The contract is a non-exclusive distribution agreement. The new Acetium lozenge is an effective and safe product that helps quit smoking without nicotine.

Nov 2017 The Food and Drug Administration is taking new steps to encourage the development of innovative nicotine-replacement therapies to wean smokers off conventional cigarettes.

March 2015 MOLIQ launched 20 delicious liquids available in 10ml plastic bottles and five nicotine strengths including 0mg, 6mg, 9mg, 12mg and 18mg.

Nov 2014 Chemnovatic launched new website where one can find all VAPY and VAPY Complex flavors as well as Nic Shot nicotine shots.

Browse Full Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/europe-pure-nicotine-market-2476

Europe Pure Nicotine Market Competitive Analysis:

With the entry of industry players in the Pure Nicotine segment, a trend of solid, volume-driven growth has been observed in the market with the development of different varieties of product types. With companies aiming to capture a considerable share of the market segment as early as possible, they are competing and experimenting with various advantage points. Acquisitions and partnership with small companies are other strategic movements made by the key players. The best long-term growth opportunities for this sector can be captured by ensuring ongoing process improvements and financial flexibility to invest in the optimal strategies.

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Equipped with naloxone and a smartphone app, community members can save lives in the fight against America's opioid crisis, according to a paper from researchers at Drexel University's Dornsife School of Public Health and colleagues published this week in The Lancet journal EClinicalMedicine.

During a pilot study, researchers found that enrolled participants were able to signal and respond to opioid overdoses using a smartphone app, called UnityPhilly, developed by the study team.

During 22 overdose emergencies, a participant received an overdose alert on the UnityPhilly app, traveled to the location and then administered naloxone to the overdose victim at the scene.

In an additional 52 overdose emergencies, the participant who witnessed the overdose signaled an alert with the app and then administered naloxone themselves.

A successful reversal was reported in 95.9% (71/74) of cases. In over half of these events (59.5%), study participants administered naloxone more than five minutes faster than Emergency Medical Services (EMS) were able to arrive on scene.

During the year-long observational study, that concluded in February 2020, 112 adult Philadelphians, 57 of whom use opioids, reported 291 suspected overdoses and alerted nearby volunteers using the UnityPhilly app.

All study participants were trained in how to administer naloxone, use the app and give rescue breathing, and then they were provided with two doses of naloxone. Every time an alert was signaled by pressing an "SOS" button in the app, it also alerted EMS via 911 which allowed them to follow up with their protocol, regardless of whether a layperson responded.

We know that the lay public is effective at administering naloxone, but now we know that an app can help laypersons provide naloxone faster when every second counts." Stephen Lankenau, PhD,Study Senior Author and Professor, Drexel University

Associate Dean for research at the Dornsife School of Public Health who co-led the study with David Schwartz of Bar-Ilan University, Israel.

"By empowering community members with these tools, we strengthen the 'chain of survival,' and keep people alive until EMS or other medical personal administer further aid."

Unless it's reversed in time, an overdose from opioids, such as heroin, or pain relievers, like oxycodone or fentanyl, can cause breathing to slow or stop.

Naloxone works as an antagonist that connects to opioid receptors to prevent the effects of other opioids in the body. Signs of an overdose include skin feeling cold, blue nails and lips, slow heartbeat and vomiting, among other symptoms.

In 2018, U.S. overdose deaths decreased for the first time in 25 years with 67,367 drug deaths, roughly seven out of 10 involving opioids, but that rate rose nearly 5% to an estimated 72,000 in 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The coronavirus pandemic is also suspected of raising overdose deaths and other "deaths of despair." As of July 15, drug deaths are up 13% this year compared to last year, according to government data compiled by The New York Times.

Philadelphia has the highest per capita overdose mortality rate among large U.S. cities, with 1,150 deaths in 2019, a number up 3% from 2018.

The study focused on four Philadelphia zip codes, with participants recruited in the Kensington neighborhood, which experiences higher drug use and availability of naloxone than other areas of the city. The authors will next look at a city-wide study to test if the app can be scaled for all of Philadelphia.
Sol Flower house cannabis concentrates

Sol Flower, a mixed-use dispensary brand, received third place honors in the nonsolvent category at the 5th Annual 710 Degree Cup. This is the first award for the brands Jenny Kush house concentrate. In addition to non-solvents, Sol Flower also carries house batter, wax, and shatter products.

Sol Flower, a mixed-use dispensary brand, received third place honors in the nonsolvent category at the 5th Annual 710 Degree Cup. This is the first award for the brands Jenny Kush house concentrate. In addition to non-solvents, Sol Flower also carries house batter, wax, and shatter products.

PHOENIX, Aug. 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sol Flower, a mixed-use dispensary brand, today announced its Sol Flower Jenny Kush received third place honors in the nonsolvent category at the 5th Annual 710 Degree Cup.



Sol Flower has two Arizona locations including a public-facing cafe and wellness classroom in Sun City and a dispensary-only location in Tempe. This is the first award for the brands Jenny Kush house concentrate. In addition to nonsolvents, Sol Flower also carries house batter, wax, and shatter products.

The 710 Degree Cup is part of the annual ERRL Cup awards and festival series created to help patients receive safe access to clean and consistent medicine in Arizona. The ERRL Cup recognized dispensaries across 31 different categories.

Sol Flower was established in 2019 by Copperstate Farms Management, LLC, a vertically integrated cannabis company based in Arizona. Copperstate Farms is home to the largest indoor cannabis facility in the U.S. with 40 acres under glass and currently has 50 medical cannabis strains in development and 50 in production.

Its a testament to our growers, processors and entire greenhouse team that we were recognized this year for the newly launched Jenny Kush nonsolvent. This accolade affirms our commitment to providing top-quality medicine to Arizona patients, stated Copperstate Farms CEO Pankaj Talwar.

For more information on Sol Flower and its award-winning medical cannabis products, visit LivewithSol.com. For more information on Copperstate Farms, visit CopperstateFarms.com.



* Copperstate Farms has implemented social distancing and enhanced safety measures at its cultivation facility and Sol Flower dispensaries during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

Story continues

About Sol Flower:

Sol Flower is a mixed-use dispensary concept established in 2019 by Copperstate Farms Management, LLC, a vertically integrated cannabis company. Dedicated to building an inclusive community by empowering wellness for all, Sol Flower is a resource for both medical cannabis patients and the canna-curious. Sol Flower includes a public-facing classroom, cafe and lounge, and hosts educational courses with trusted, wellness experts. Sol Flower has locations in Tempe and Sun City, Arizona. For more information, visit LivewithSol.com.

About Copperstate Farms Management, LLC:

Established in 2016, Copperstate Farms Management, LLC, is a vertically integrated cannabis company headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. The company is a licensed producer and distributor of medical cannabis in the U.S. and operates a 1.7-million-square-foot facility and 40-acre greenhouse grow in Snowflake, Arizona. Copperstate Farms is the parent company of multiple product suites including Good Things Coming and dispensary retail concept Sol Flower, which includes a public-facing cafe and wellness classroom. The multi-use dispensary brand has locations in Tempe and Sun City, Arizona.

Copperstate Farms is dedicated to bringing growth to the local and state economy through the hiring of local laborers, material suppliers, and contractors. For more information, visit CopperstateFarms.com.

Media Contact:

Neko Catanzaro

Proven Media

Neko@provenmediaservices.com

(401) 484-4980

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e247be33-0f08-4cff-ad2b-15c0b1e3bb74




Amy Kaplan, 66, a longtime professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, an author, and a scholar of American studies, died Thursday, July 30, of glioblastoma at her home in Philadelphia.

Known for her kindness as well as her intellect, her love of travel and education, and her prowess in the kitchen as well as the classroom, Professor Kaplan left a mark on the lives of her students, friends, and family that none say they can forget.

She made everyone feel at home, said her longtime partner, Paul Statt. She wore her intellect very lightly, but she was deep and profound. She married her intellect and emotional life so well that people reacted to her. She was a real mensch.

Professor Kaplan was born in New York City and grew up in New Rochelle, N.Y. She graduated from Brandeis University and got a Ph.D. in English at Johns Hopkins University.

She taught first at Yale University and then at Mount Holyoke College. She was president of the American Studies Association from 2003 to 2004.

She lived in Amherst, Mass., for 20 years and raised her daughter, Rose, with her former husband, Harvey Weiss. She had been the Edward Kane Professor of English at Penn for the last 14 years, and was department chair from 2013 to 2016. She was a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton in 2011-12.

Professor Kaplan edited and wrote several books and essays, and according to her biography on the Penn website, was interested in many social and political topics.

Amy Kaplan focused in her teaching and scholarship on the culture of imperialism, comparative perspectives on the Americas, prison writing, the American novel, and mourning, memory, and war, the biography reads. She was a wide-ranging critic of contemporary American culture and policy.

Her friends and colleagues also remember her warm and humble personality; memorable trips around the world, and just around the corner; her love of fresh flowers, jigsaw puzzles, and her dog Milo; and her skill at both winning at Scrabble and thoughtfully advising friends on problems that had them vexed.

She was a fierce presence with a delighted laugh, Judith Frank, a friend and professor of English at Amherst College, wrote in a tribute. Amy was ... an extraordinary thinker and writer whose work on the culture of U.S. imperialism transformed the field and will resonate for generations of scholars to come.

Professor Kaplan met Statt in 2002 in Amherst while she was teaching at Mount Holyoke. They had seen each other at a yoga class but didnt connect until they were introduced by a friend. Statt was looking for more of a summer fling than a lifelong bond, but couldnt help himself.

On one of their early outings, looking to impress her with his sophistication, Statt took Professor Kaplan to the Cummington, Mass., boyhood home of William Cullen Bryant, a famous poet and newspaper editor in the 1800s.

She knew a lot more about him than I did, Statt said. I was the one impressed. She loved to travel, but she was never a tourist. Whenever she went places, she wanted to meet people, see things. She always wanted to explore."

In addition to her daughter, partner, and former husband, Professor Kaplan is survived by her mother, Eunice Kaplan; stepdaughter Molly Statt; a sister; a brother; nieces and nephews; and great-nephews.

Services were private. Donations may be made to the National Brain Tumor Societys Race for Hope Philadelphia, and to the Middle East Childrens Alliance.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday took stock of the state administrations preparedness in the wake of the incessant heavy rains in Mumbai and other parts of the state, including Kolhapur where the Panchganga river was flowing close to the danger mark.

A statement issued by the Chief Ministers Office (CMO) said Thackeray asked the authorities to remain alert and ensure citizens do not face hardships.

He spoke to the authorities concerned and officials of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), it said.

Mumbai city received 331.08 mm rainfall while the suburbs received 162.3 mm downpour from Wednesday till 8.30 am on Thursday. The city witnessed strong winds at a speed of 106 km per hour while elsewhere it was 70 to 80 kmph, it said.

The chief minister asked the officials concerned to take up clearing of the uprooted trees ona war-footing.

He also praised the railway police and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel for their efforts in rescuing 290 passengers from two local trains stranded on flooded tracks near Masjid Bunder in south Mumbai on Wednesday.

The statement said a railway employee was killed due to electrocution from a motor pump in Masjib Bunder while one person was injuredwhen a tree fell on him in Kurla.

Water-logging in different parts of the city was cleared fast by the civic staff, it said.

There were 361 incidents of uprooting of trees and branches and 15 incidents of wall collapse in Mumbai, it said.

Thackeray asked Konkan and Pune divisional commissioners to focus on shifting to safer places those living near the rivers, whose water levels were rising due to heavy rains, in Kolhapur, Raigad and Ratnagiri districts.

There are 16 NDRF teams deployed in rain-hit areas of the state out of which four have been sent to Kolhapur.

Thackeray asked the authorities concernedto remain alert in view of the water level in the Panchganga (Kolhapur), Kodavali (Ratnagiri) and Kundalika (Raigad) rivers flowing close to the danger mark.

State Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Vijay Wadettiwar visited the control room at the secretariat here on Wednesday night to take stock of the rain situation and arrangements being made to evacuate citizens stranded in the flood-prone areas.
Trump hasnt personally squared off against the ACLU from the witness stand, but the ACLU has challenged him repeatedly.

The day after United States President Donald Trumps election in November 2016, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) posted a message to him on its website: See you in court.

As president, Trump has not personally squared off against the ACLU from the witness stand, but the broader warning has been borne out. As of this week, the ACLU has filed nearly 400 lawsuits and other legal actions against the Trump administration, some meeting with setbacks but many resulting in important victories.

The century-old organisation works to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone, according to its website.

Among other successes for the ACLU, it prevailed in a US Supreme Court case blocking the administration from placing a citizenship question on the 2020 census. It also spearheaded legal efforts that curtailed the policy of separating many migrant children from their parents.

The assault on civil liberties and civil rights is greater under this administration than any other in modern history, said the ACLUs president, Anthony Romero. Its meant weve been living with a three-alarm fire in every part of our house.

Since the day Trump took office, the ACLU  according to a breakdown it provided to The Associated Press  has filed 237 lawsuits against the administration and about 160 other legal actions, including Freedom of Information Act requests, ethics complaints and administrative complaints.

Of the lawsuits, 174 have dealt with immigrant rights, targeting the family separation policy, detention and deportation practices and the administrations repeated attempts to make it harder to seek asylum at the US-Mexico border.

The other lawsuits address an array of issues high on the ACLUs agenda: voting rights, LGBTQ rights, racial justice and others. In one long-running case, the ACLU succeeded in blocking the administrations policy of barring young immigrant women in government custody from getting abortions.





Donald Trump has provided a full-employment programme for ACLU lawyers on all of our issues, Romero said.

Lawsuit barrage

By comparison, the ACLU says it filed 13 lawsuits and other legal actions against President George W Bushs administration in his first term, mostly alleging encroachments on civil liberties related to counterterrorism policies.

Many of the ACLUs recent lawsuits remain unresolved. Of those that have been decided, Romero said, the ACLU has won far more often than it has lost, though a precise breakdown was unavailable.

Among the setbacks, ACLU national legal director David Cole said, one of the most disappointing involved Trumps efforts to ban foreign nationals from several predominantly Muslim countries. Lawsuits by the ACLU and its allies successfully blocked implementation of the first two versions of the ban, but the Supreme Court allowed a third version to go into effect in 2018.

By a similar 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court also allowed the implementation of the Trump administration policy barring transgender people from enlisting in the military. Lower courts had supported efforts by the ACLU and other groups to scrap the ban.

Another LGBTQ rights case recently ended in a significant victory for the ACLU and its allies when the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in June that gays, lesbians and transgender people were protected from employment discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

One of the ACLUs clients, Aimee Stephens, was fired from her job at a Michigan funeral home because she was transgender; she died just a few weeks before the high court ruled in her favour.

There is no question the ACLU has caught the attention of Trump and his administration.

The Republican president, at an Evangelicals for Trump rally in January, derided the ACLU as a group of beauties who had filed a lawsuit accusing public schools in Smith County, Tennessee, of improperly promoting Christian religious beliefs.

We will not allow faithful Americans to be bullied by the hard left, Trump said.

Criticism, benefits

In a May 2018 speech, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions assailed the ACLU for a lawsuit that led to a drop in stop-and-frisk arrests by Chicago police.

If you want crime to go up, let the ACLU run the police department, Sessions said.

The Supreme Court has been a mixed bag of victory and defeat for Trump, even after placing two judges on the bench [Joshua Roberts/Reuters]

Recently, the ACLU has drawn criticism from a longtime supporter, George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley. He worries that the organisation is aligning too closely with the Democratic Party and is now less willing to take on unpopular causes.

In an email, Turley questioned the wisdom of the torrent of lawsuits against the Trump administration.

The result was less of a sniper strategy and more of a saturated bombing strategy, he wrote.

Even as it spars with the administration, the ACLU notes that Trumps presidency has been beneficial in some respects  fuelling huge increases in donations and membership.

Romero says the ACLU national office and its state affiliates received about $175m in donations in the three months after Trumps election. It says it has increased its headquarters staff from 386 to 605 and now has 122 lawyers, up from 84 in November 2016.

Membership has soared from about 400,000 to more than 1.8 million. Romero says many of the newcomers have been asking how they can help as volunteers in bolstering voting rights, immigrants rights and other causes.

Demonstrating its increased interest in electoral politics, the ACLU had directed $28m of its national funds to its affiliates in battleground states such as Florida, Arizona and Texas. Since 2016, Romero said, the ACLU of Texas has been able to double its budget to $8.5m and its staff to 65 employees.
From welcoming visitors into their homes in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to lecturing on cruise ships, survivors have shared their message of peace with audiences at home and abroad, including with the worlds political and religious leaders

Tokyo: The hibakusha, as the survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are known in Japan, have achieved a powerful feat of alchemy, transforming their nightmarish memories of the blasts and their aftermath into a visceral force for promoting a world free of nuclear arms.

Each year for more than half a century, many of them have gathered in the early hours of 6 August at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park to mourn the citys destruction by the US military during the Second World War and to serve as a living testament to the abiding dangers of the bomb.

But Thursday, as Hiroshima marks the 75th anniversary of the nuclear assault, the hibakusha will be a diminished presence, a victim of the twin forces of the coronavirus pandemic and advancing age.

There were people who questioned whether it was okay for hibakusha to participate in the ceremony in the midst of the pandemic, said Kunihiko Sakuma, chair of the Hiroshima branch of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organisations.

Despite the health risks, a relatively small number of survivors will attend this year, Sakuma said. They believe that theyve come this far and cant quit, he said, adding that sending this message from Hiroshima is extremely important.

City officials and peace activists had envisioned a series of grand events to commemorate what will most likely be the last major anniversary of the bombing for almost all of the hibakusha still living.

But the coronavirus has forced them to curtail the events, moving conferences on nuclear disarmament online, cancelling or postponing related meetings and reducing the number of attendees to around 800, one-tenth of the turnout during a normal year.

Cognisant of the declining population of survivors of the two atomic bombings, which now stands at about 136,000, the Hiroshima government decided to focus this years remembrance on mourning the dead and honoring the experience of those who remain.

The memories of the hibakusha, who now average 83 in age, are an increasingly precious resource. As their numbers fall, they and their supporters are being forced to envision what the disarmament movement will look like without the people who have put a human face on the cost of nuclear war.

Sakuma said he hoped that the survivors children and their childrens children would carry on the fight as long as it took.

The hibakusha cant avoid the fact that our numbers are decreasing, he said. Each year a few thousand more disappear. Who knows how many years we have left?

Scarred physically and mentally by the tremendous power unleashed by the splitting of atoms over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the hibakusha have become a rallying point for peace activists the world over, as well as the moral ballast of Japans postwar pacifism.

Survivors have spent measureless time and energy campaigning for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons. From welcoming visitors into their homes in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to lecturing on cruise ships, they have shared their message of peace with audiences at home and abroad, including with the worlds political and religious leaders.

For both policymakers and the public, hearing survivors firsthand experiences of bombings that killed more than 200,000 people has been really important on a personal level, said Sharon Squassoni, director of the global security program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. Its really easy for these issues to become abstract because these weapons havent been used in 75 years.

When survivors organisations first began to be politically active in the 1950s, they had two goals: To demand compensation and financial support from the Japanese government and to push for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

They have been largely successful on the first front, although some compensation claims are still wending their way through the countrys courts.

But after years of optimism fed by signs of progress, most survivors now say that a world free of nuclear weapons is a distant dream. That bleak outlook reflects a general feeling in the arms-control community that the world is giving up hard-won gains.

The number of nuclear warheads has dropped from a peak of around 70,000 in the mid-1980s to about 13,000 today. But in the past 25 years, India, Pakistan and North Korea have established themselves as nuclear states; China has expanded its modest arsenal; and most important, the United States and Russia  far and away the largest nuclear powers  have begun extricating themselves from treaties that have bound them since the end of the Cold War.

Those trends, however, have only steeled the survivors resolve to fight. In 2017, their efforts were rewarded with passage in the United Nations General Assembly of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

The treatys future is uncertain. It has only 40 of the 50 signatures it needs before it can come into effect. And it is unlikely to ever gain support from the nuclear-armed states or from countries, like Japan itself, that are under the aegis of the US arsenal.

For the hibakusha, though, the treaty is a validation. The survivors had long believed that no one was listening to them, said Kazumi Mizumoto, an expert on security studies and nuclear disarmament at Hiroshima City University. But the treatys passage reaffirmed their existence, he said.

Still, that existence is facing the inevitable toll of time. As the ranks of hibakusha shrink, their lobbying groups have begun to fall on hard times. One disbanded in June 2019, citing the difficulties of continuing with an aging leadership.

Were coming to the point where we have to think about how our organisations can continue forward. The situation is tough, said Koichiro Maeda, 71, a former director of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and current head of the secretariat of one of the survivors groups.

It is more important than ever to ensure that the survivors legacy is carried on, said Maika Nakao, a professor of history at Nagasaki University who studies Japans relationship with nuclear weapons.

In addition to their role on the international stage, the survivors  and their stories  are an integral part of Japans national identity, serving as the countrys conscience in an era when the reasons for adhering to principles of peace have become more and more abstract.

We have to think about how to acknowledge the history, how to memorialise it and how to pass it down to the future generations, Nakao said. We have a lot of testimonies, but its not enough. There is no perfect condition. No matter how much you ask, no matter how much you collect, its never enough. Its important to document everything.

Ben Dooley and Hisako Ueno c.2020 The New York Times Company
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) RS 2 Command, Lagos, says it will commence a Special Operation tagged Operation Scorpion II  on unlatched containers on trucks between Aug. 10 and Aug. 16 in Ogun and Lagos States.

Imoh Etuk, Zonal Commanding Officer in charge of both states, disclosed this in a statement through Ijeoma Ajuzie, the Zonal Public Education Officer in Lagos on Thursday.

Mr Etuk, an Assistant Corps Marshal, said the operation was aimed at tackling the menace of road traffic crashes caused by unlatched containers on trucks and trailers.

According to him, some of the traffic offences in focus include, driving without valid drivers licence, expired or worn-out tyres, dangerous driving, driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs and speed limit violations.

With regard to Regulation 151 of the National Road Traffic Regulations (NRTR 2012), articulated vehicles carrying containers should be properly latched.

Thus we demand that all vehicles carrying containers and/or goods must be adequately secured/latched, he said.

Imoh Etuk, Zonal Commanding Officer

Mr Etuk urged logistic companies to ensure that their drivers were well trained and that the vehicles were in good condition to avoid undue waste of lives and property.

In the course of enforcement, errant drivers shall be prosecuted accordingly. The FRSC, Zone 2 Lagos wishes all road users safer roads and fuller lives, Mr Etuk said.

(NAN)
Drop in demand is a major challenge for German companies in Slovakia.

The autimotive industry is one of main pillars of the Slovak economy. (Source: Courtesy of VW SK)

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When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Slovakia in early March, it closed not only schools, borders and restaurants, but also brought car factories production lines, their suppliers and other factories to a standstill. After a weeks-long lockdown, most of them have resumed operation to a certain extent, but they will need months, if not years, to fully recover from the impacts of the coronavirus. Nevertheless, even the corona cloud has a silver lining; the pandemic may instigate a new wave of foreign investments.

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From an increasing number of inquiries from Germany, we know that interest in Slovakia as a business destination has in fact increased, Peter Kompalla, executive director at the German-Slovak Chamber of Commerce (AHK Slowakei), told The Slovak Spectator.

This has been confirmed by a recent survey it conducted in cooperation with Advantage Austria in late June, in which 30 percent of the companies surveyed noted that they put the shift of their supply chains closer to Slovakia and Europe on their agenda.

German investments in Slovakia (end of 2018) Total investments: 8.1 billion

Number of majority-owned companies: 454

Including minority-owned companies, the number of German companies active in Slovakia exceeds 600

Number of employees: 146,000

Annual turnover: 34.7 billion Source: Deutsche Bundesbank and AHK Slowakei

If the new government continues its pro-European course and its efforts to improve the countrys competitiveness, we are optimistic that the success story of German-Slovak business relations will continue in the long run, said Kompalla. This partnership has been highly beneficial for both countries and there is untapped potential in many fields like Industry 4.0 or dual vocational training.

Hard hit automotive

The automotive industry is one of the hardest hit sectors of the European industry. While industrial production decreased by 20.5 percent y/y in May in the EU, car production shrank to almost half. As the car industry is one of the most important sectors of Slovakias industry, it is obvious that its decline was significantly reflected in the total industrial production. As a consequence, Slovakia not only reported the biggest drop in industrial production in May, down 33.5 y/y, but its car production decreased by as much as 56.9 percent y/y, again the biggest decline within the EU.

The Slovak Automotive Industry Association (ZAP) estimates that car production in Slovakia shrank between 25-30 percent y/y during the first half of 2020. Given that the four carmakers in Slovakia produced more than 1.1 million cars in 2019, this means that they produced between 137,500-165,000 less vehicles.

New models for VW Slovakia

Bratislava-based Volkswagen Slovakia was the first out of four carmakers in Slovakia to suspend production due to the pandemic. It did so on March 17, citing not only health concerns but also a decline of the car market and risks related to supplying components as reasons behind its decision. It gradually resumed its production as of April 20.

But while the biggest and oldest carmaker in Slovakia would count all the impacts the coronavirus crisis would have on it only later, the crisis has also brought some good news for the plant.
China is considering loosening planned regulations for how commercial banks must classify their nonperforming assets.

Chinas banking watchdog may loosen proposed regulations for how commercial banks classify their nonperforming assets, Caixin has learned, marking a victory for lenders who complained that draft rules published last year would be difficult to follow given their growing financial stress amid the countrys slowing economy.

The 2019 draft regulations covered a wide range of elements, including extending the scope of financial assets subject to a standard five-category classification system.

The system, which previously only applied to banks loans in China, would include nonloan assets such as bonds and receivables  payments a company expects to receive from another, according to the draft rules. They also specified that banks should classify all financial assets more than 90 days overdue as nonperforming.

Some banks have already begun to implement the draft rules, according to people familiar with the matter. The new rules were drafted in an attempt to force banks to come clean about their asset quality to curb financial risks. Even though theyve not officially come into force, theyve already contributed to a spike in banks nonperforming assets, which has hit some lenders profits.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, commercial banks nonperforming assets would surge 60% if the 2019 draft rules were applied to the entire sector, with small and midsize banks reporting greater growth, sources with knowledge of the matter said, citing the banking regulators estimate. However, the figure would likely exceed 60% due to the pandemics negative impact on banks asset quality.

Official data showed (link in Chinese) that by the end of March, Chinese commercial banks outstanding nonperforming loans rose to 2.6 trillion yuan ($372.3 million), up 198.6 billion yuan from the end of last year.

To cover potential losses from nonperforming assets, commercial banks are required to set aside an amount of cash, which is called loan-loss provisions. However, some banks, especially small and midsized ones, have limited capability to replenish loan-loss provisions in response to rising bad debts amid the pandemic, a spokesperson with the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) said last month. The sector as a whole has a 350 billion yuan loan-loss provision shortfall, the spokesperson said.

Looser requirements

Before the coronavirus outbreak, regulators already considered loosening the requirements for bad-asset classification in the final version of the draft rules, the sources said.

The 2019 draft classifies banks assets into five grades from low- to high-risk  normal, concerning, secondary, suspicious and loss. The last three grades are regarded as nonperforming assets.

The draft defines financial assets that have lost over 40% of their original book value as suspicious, and the assets that have lost over 80% as a loss.

The sources said regulators will likely increase the ceilings for assets classified as suspicious and as a loss to 50% and 90% of original book value lost, respectively, given the pressure on banks amid the economic slowdown.

Also, the 2019 draft said that if 5% of a nonretail clients debts to a bank were nonperforming, the bank was required to classify the other 95% of the borrowers debts as nonperforming as well, even if those debts did not incur any losses or were not overdue. The rule is similar to the international banking requirements laid out by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, a global standard-setter for prudential regulation of banks.

The sources said the final rules will likely raise the ceiling to 10%. Besides, some creditworthy small and micro enterprises may be exempted from the rule when taking out bank loans, they said. It is obvious that regulators are encouraging lenders to boost liquidity for the small businesses in particular, said Ren Tao, a researcher with Xiamen International Bank Co. Ltd.

However, it is necessary for banks to distinguish companies that experience short-term difficulties amid the pandemic from those problematic ones who have high operational risks, said the CBIRC spokesperson.

In addition, the 2019 draft said banks should classify financial assets more than 270 days overdue as suspicious and those more than 360 days overdue as a loss. Regulators will likely to raise the thresholds for assets recognized as suspicious and as a loss to 360 days and 720 days, respectively, as some banks complained it is hard to recover bad loans within 360 days.

Hidden risks

Before regulators released the 2019 draft, banks usually hid the scale of their bad debts through various means, industry insiders said. Some lenders disguised bad loans as nonloan assets to evade regulatory oversight.

Some hidden loan risks are yet to be fully exposed thanks to macroeconomic policies rolled out in recent months in response to the pandemics impact, the CBIRC spokesperson said, warning of a potential significant rebound of nonperforming loans.

Read more

In Depth: The Billion-Dollar Plan to Replenish Smaller Chinese Banks Capital

An accurate classification of banks nonperforming loans would help regulators grasp the reality of the financial landscape and roll out targeted measures to curb bad loans, Xiao Yuanqi, chief risk officer of the CBIRC, said at a meeting last month.

As rising bad debts have put pressure on lenders financial status, regulators are encouraging banks to replenish their capital by issuing new shares or bonds.

Meanwhile, local governments began supporting troubled lenders. Last month, China allowed 18 provincial-level governments to recapitalize some small and midsize banks with money raised from the sale of government bonds.

Lin Jinbing and Han Wei contributed to this report.

Contact reporter Tang Ziyi (ziyitang@caixin.com) and editor Joshua Dummer (joshuadummer@caixin.com)

Download our app to receive breaking news alerts and read the news on the go.
HM Customs Seize Cigarettes in Vehicle Tyres

HM Customs Flexible Anti-Smuggling Team have arrested two Spanish Nationals and seized a vehicle with approximately 57 cartons of cigarettes.

The incident took place yesterday afternoon at around 4pm when the occupants of a vehicle were seen to be acting suspiciously in the area of Flat Bastion Road.

Minutes later, the Officers carried out a stop and search on Line Wall Road and then conveyed the vehicle to Four Corners Station. A systematic search was then conducted, revealing 14 cartons and 4 packets of cigarettes in the front left tyre. The defendants then admitted that all four tyres were loaded with the same amount of cigarettes.

In total, Officers seized 57 cartons and 6 packets of cigarettes. HM Customs have said investigations continue.
Supporting the expansion of Reddy Bikeshare access to better serve diverse communities, particularly on the East and West sides of Buffalo, is an important part of our overall efforts to create opportunities for all Western New Yorkers to have a fair and equal chance to lead the healthiest lifestyle possible, Independent Health President and CEO Michael W. Cropp said.

The health insurer has bolstered efforts of the bike-sharing organization, which included offering lower-cost memberships for more than 500 essential workers in the spring.

Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus Inc., a planning agency, helped Reddy Bikeshare offer free memberships to those who work on the sprawling campus and live in the surrounding Fruit Belt neighborhood.

M&T Bank is among companies that provide free memberships as part of health and wellness packages for their workers. M&T workers have logged 13,000 miles on Reddy bikes during the last three years.

We believe that community engagement and partnership and collaboration when promoting bike-sharing is important so that we can help reduce barriers to access these bikes  and promote healthy behavior change, White said of the four-year-old company.
Fulani militias have been identified to be the most dreaded terror group in Nigeria. A study report highlighted that Fulani militias in three years slaughtered over 2,539 persons, injured 393, kidnapped 253 people, raped 16 victims, burnt 7, 582 houses and destroyed 24 churches. They were also disclosed to have struck in 654 attacks within three years.

National Daily gathered that the study was conducted by Dr. Jose Luis Bazan, an Independent Researcher and Analyst in Brussels, Belgium, with the title: Fulani Militias Terror: Compilation of News (2017-2020).

The study identified major terror groups involved in wild and systematic violent attacks in Nigeria. These include the Boko Haram, the ISIL in alliance with Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP), the Fulani militias and Ansaru

The study indicated that the Global Terrorist Index 2019 published by the Institute for Economics and Peace, identified that the surge in terrorist uprising in Nigeria to be carried out not mainly by the Boko Haram, ISWAP or Ansaru, but the Fulani extremists, adding that this was the basic cause of the increase in terrorism in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The report further highlighted: In 2018, Fulani extremists were responsible for the majority of terror-related deaths in Nigeria (1,158 fatalities), with an increase by 261 and 308 per cent, respectively, from the prior year.

Most of Fulani attacks were armed assaults (200 out of 297 attacks) against civilians (84 per cent of the attacks). Bandits and criminal gangs attacks are also part of the unfortunate reality that Nigerians have to face in their lives.

The study further indicated: Most of the victims are farmers  predominantly, Christians, but Fulani (predominantly, Muslim) have also attacked policemen, soldiers, etc.

In some cases, media identify the religious denomination of the victims (for example, when the attacks took place during or after religious ceremonies), in particular Christian media, that have a better knowledge about the affiliation of their own faithful.

The study was said to be solely conducted on the attacks in Nigeria linked presumably to Fulani by militia by the media, NGOs and, in few cases, private sources.

The study also indicated that listed attacks were detected through date of occurrence  or if not possible to date it precisely, date of the report; from 2017 to May 7, 2020.

According to the study, the breakdown of the attacks carried out by Fulani militias between 2017 and 2020 revealed that in 2017, 99 attacks took place, 202 people killed, more than 33 wounded, 12 kidnapped, four raped and 6,500 houses burnt.

In 2018; 245 attacks took place, 1,478 killed, 230 wounded, 29 kidnaped, seven raped, 300 houses burnt.

In 2019; 169 attacks took place, 524 killed, 84 wounded, 75 kidnapped, 606 houses burnt.

In 2020 (January-May), 141 attacks took place, 335 killed, 137 kidnapped, two raped, 176 houses burnt.

It was summarized thus: In the period researched, 654 attacks took place, with more than 2,539 people killed, 393 wounded, 253 kidnapped, 16 raped, more than 7.582 homes and 24 churches destroyed.
With so much about school reopenings around the nation still unknown, one thing seems certain: If schools do reopen for in-person learning, many of those same schools will require children to wear masks.

Even if your child has become accustomed to wearing a mask to enter a store or play on the playground, chances are even the most compliant best mask-wearers have yet to wear one for seven hours a day, as they may be expected to in school.

"Parents have asked me this question a lot in recent weeks; their main concern has been, 'Will it cause breathing problems?' And the answer is no," Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez, a pediatrician in New York City, told "Good Morning America."

MORE: Dr. Anthony Fauci says schools should 'try as best as possible' to return to in-person learning

She has, however, been asking families in her practice to educate the children on not touching their faces while wearing the mask.

"I've suggested they make it a game, pointing out in a playful way when they've touched their face," Bracho-Sanchez said. "I've been saying this because while we absolutely need them to wear their masks, if they're constantly touching their face with dirty hands, they may catch a number of things more easily, not only COVID-19."

"GMA" consulted with child development experts to get their top tips for what parents can do now -- prior to school resuming -- to best teach their kids about mask-wearing best practices.

Get the right fit

Danielle LoVecchio, executive director of Bridge Kids New York and a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, said you may need to try multiple options before finding the right fit.

If your child has sensory issues, LoVecchio recommends parents "rub the material on the child's hands and then face to ensure comfortability and acclimate to the new texture before requiring them to wear the mask on their face."

And don't forget to get them used to the feeling of pulling on the ears, she said: "This is an uncommon feeling and may seem uncomfortable. You can do this by practicing hanging the mask on the ears before pulling it over their mouth."

Story continues

Set clear expectations

"It's only fair to your child to set them up for success by communicating clearly what you expect from them in relation to wearing their mask," said Megan Elizabeth Sedlacek, early childhood expert and Head of Product at Batelle Remote Sleep School, adding that predictability and consistency creates a sense of security.

"Just as you would help kids to visualize their day, sit them down and help them to visualize the expectations around mask wearing," she said. "Use a day planner with visuals, or make a custom book, for example, 'Hazel Wears Her Mask' to help them familiarize themselves with how it may look and feel."

MORE: 'There is no right decision about school this year' says mom in viral post

Model what you want your kids to imitate

LoVecchio said when you are asking your child to wear a mask, you should wear it along with them.

"Model wearing a mask frequently around the child and wear the mask around the house, " she suggested.

Another idea is to arrange socially distancing playdates to practice wearing the mask and have peer models.

Make it fun

Sedlacek suggested a remote of small-group mask decorating party. Kids can make masks for their stuffed animals or display it in their rooms.

LoVecchio told "GMA" to have kids help in picking out their own mask so they are more motivated to wear it. Matching with a friend or family, having a favorite character on a mask, using different masks for days of the week and doing other activities are all ways kids will get onboard more quickly.

And photos go a long way: while Sedlacek suggested taking lots of photos of the mask decorating party, LoVecchio said to let kids take selfies with fun filters while wearing the mask.

Start small and stay positive

"Start by having the child wear the mask for short periods of time throughout the day, for example, 1-3 minutes, 10 times a day," LoVecchio told "GMA." "Slowly increase the length of time that they keep the mask on for as the child becomes more acclimated."

Increase the time by having sibling contests on who can wear it longer or have them color in a chart for all the minutes they wore the mask all day to earn something special, she also suggested.

"While the child is wearing the mask, pair having the mask on with positive activities. If you only have the child wear the mask during non-preferred activities the mask will become unpreferred as well," LoVecchio said.

Watching TV or an iPad or playing games are all activities that can easily be paired with mask wearing.

"Reinforce the small steps they are taking towards putting the mask on by giving social praise," she said. "Never punish your child for refusing to put a mask on, or for taking the mask off before you tell them to. Keep it positive and try again."

The bottom line

"I think it's hard for parents to imagine their kids doing this right now, but many forget that kids take cues from their friends and their teachers," said Bracho-Sanchez. "I am very hopeful that when they get back to school and look around and see everyone else is wearing masks, they'll go, 'Oh, OK!' and keep it on."

And keep the conversation going.

"Bring [mask wearing] up every now and then, saying things like, 'School is going to be a little different this fall, how are you feeling about that?' I'm finding some kids are scared and anxious, and what scares them is not always what adults think is scaring them," said Bracho-Sanchez.

Sedlacek said patience is key.

"Remember it may not happen overnight: Kids will process the change at varying degrees," she said. "Some may take a month! So don't wait, start sooner rather than later. Even if your child is starting school remotely, ask your teacher at school to have a mask wearing day or an expectation that the kids all wear their masks during the morning meeting or circle time for example. This way, they can get used to the remote version of this process where there is more room for error before they get to school."

Masks for 7 hours a day? How we can start prepping kids now originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com
OTTAWA  Manitoba fishers will get their fair share of federal COVID-19 funding once it is doled out, the federal government said Wednesday as it rejected criticism from two opposition Manitoba MPs who fear coastal fishers are the government's priority.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 5/8/2020 (531 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA  Manitoba fishers will get their fair share of federal COVID-19 funding once it is doled out, the federal government said Wednesday as it rejected criticism from two opposition Manitoba MPs who fear coastal fishers are the government's priority.

"We've been working diligently since Day 1 to get it out the door," federal Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan told the Free Press.

"I think three months for a program is actually pretty good, when you consider we had to start from scratch."

On Wednesday, Ottawa announced the programs will start taking applications on Aug. 24  14 weeks after they were announced  and provide cash within five days.

On May 14, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveiled two programs worth $469.4 million for fishers. The Fish Harvester Benefit gives self-employed or co-op fishers up to $10,164 for lost revenue, while the Fish Harvester Grant pays up to $40,000 for business costs.

A short time later, two Manitoba MPs whose ridings have a large number of fishers, said they had been inundated with calls. NDP MP Niki Ashton, who represents northern Manitoba, and Conservative MP James Bezan, who represents the Interlake, said constituents asked how they could access the funding, which targets people who dont qualify for federal pandemic programs such as the wage subsidy or business loans. They crossed partisan lines to hold a joint press conference on July 10 and issue public letters demanding support for Manitoba.

The pickerel fishery, which has sustained many First Nations and Metis communities, has taken a huge hit because U.S. restaurants have dramatically cut back under COVID-19.

The two MPs accused Ottawa of stalling, and said they worried the government would disproportionately channel cash to coastal communities that had voted Liberal.

Asked to explain the 14-week delay, Jordan said officials had to work with provinces, such as Manitoba, that license fishers to assess the need, and then get Service Canada to figure out how the program will be delivered.

Jordan stressed that Indigenous fishers on Lake Winnipeg will have as fair a shot as coastal Canadians.

"There has never been any qualms about making sure the freshwater fishery is included," she said.

The Freshwater Fish Marketing Corp. collects fish from remote communities, processes it and sells it almost entirely to food-service industries across North America and abroad. It recently started to buy species customers confirmed they would pay for. (Ken Gigliotti / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Jordan criticized the approach taken by Ashton and Bezan. She said their tone was unhelpful, after exchanging letters with Bezan and particularly after a call with Ashton.

"It was unfortunate she felt that she had to use this for political gain," Jordan said, insisting Indigenous fishers will receive payments.

Jordan said she is reluctant to intervene in the operations of the federal agency based in Winnipeg that facilitates much of Manitobas catch.

The Freshwater Fish Marketing Corp. collects fish from remote communities, processes it and sells it almost entirely to food-service industries across North America and abroad. It stopped buying fish on March 21 because the lack of revenue from pickerel made it too costly to process other species. The agency started to buy fish this spring, but only species that customers had confirmed they would pay for.

Meanwhile, an internal briefing note prepared for Jordan warns that a drop in the price of pickerel could hurt Manitoba in the long run.

"Prior to this season, (pickerel) has been the primary source of returns both to the (marketing corporation) and the fish harvesters that it serves. However, recent increases in supply of the species from Lake Erie has depressed prices," reads the May 13 note, obtained through an access-to-information request.

Ashton and Bezan have asked Jordan to push the corporation to aggressively market fish abroad and give some supply to food banks, in order to buy more product. Jordan insisted the arm's-length corporation acts on its own accord, but said shell monitor the "very important" role it plays during the pandemic.

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She noted Ottawa has a marketing campaign that tries to convince more Canadians to buy domestic fish, to make up for the collapse in global demand.

Jordan also declined a request by the two MPs to have a Manitoba liaison ensure that the provinces fishers apply for their fair share of the program, saying the online process is simple and the department will help those who have difficulty.

The two opposition MPs reiterated that demand Wednesday, and called again for a beefed-up role for the marketing corporation.

"The longer Manitobas freshwater fishing industry has to wait for support, the harder it gets for fishing families and businesses to recover," Bezan and Ashton wrote in a joint statement.

"For many northern, remote and Indigenous communities, fishing is the economic backbone and without it, the community and tertiary businesses will be economically devastated."

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
RALEIGH  As if the COVID crisis and economic recession werent bad enough, heres some more bad news to process: Homicide rates are spiking in many North Carolina communities.

Through the end of July, 32 people in Greensboro have been the victims of homicide so far this year, up 52% from the count during the first seven months of 2019. Charlottes 68 homicides are up more than 11% from last year and more than double the comparable count for 2018. In Winston-Salem, homicides are up 17% over 2019. In Durham, homicides have tripled.

These developments are part of a national trend. Homicides are up 14% so far this year in Los Angeles, 24% in New York, 27% in Houston, 32% in Phoenix, and 52% in Chicago.

I know what youre thinking. Youve probably already seen or heard the argument that the anti-police protests that erupted a couple of months ago, after the highly publicized death of George Floyd, explain the recent increase in homicides  that as embattled law enforcement officers withdraw from urban centers, violence is surging.

Advocates of police reform resist this explanation, however.
Chico, California's Sierra Nevada has announced plans for a new charitable beer called Dankful IPA that will raise funds for a variety of causes. Sierra Nevada has committed to at least $1 million in donations through the program over the next year.

More from a press release:

Dankful is brewed in honor of the nonprofits who are dedicated to the important work of supporting our communities. A hoppy West Coast-style IPA, Dankful will be on shelves in cans nationwide starting in mid-September. The beer is 7.4% ABV with 55 IBU and has a resinous flavor with notes of pine and tropical fruit.

Rather than making donations contingent upon Dankful sales success, Sierra Nevada has committed to at least $1 million in donations over the next year, which will be supported in part by Dankful sales. Sierra Nevada will partner with new nonprofits each quarter, allowing the brewery to be nimble and immediate in its efforts.

With ongoing fundraising through Dankful, we can immediately support those nonprofits doing critical work in our communities by getting them what they need when they need it, explained Sierra Nevada Vice President Sierra Grossman. Dankful allows us to focus on what we do best: supporting the causes we believe in and brewing great beer.

To kick off the effort, the brewery will donate $250,000 to World Central Kitchen for COVID-19 relief. Through its #ChefsForAmerica program, World Central Kitchen has provided 25 million meals for families facing food insecurity during the COVID crisis. The program also creates jobs for restaurant workers, providing support to one of the hardest-hit industries.

Philanthropy has long been an integral part of Sierra Nevadas DNA. During the start of the COVID-19 crisis, the brewery worked with Enloe Medical Center to produce VTMa necessary tool for COVID testing. In 2018, the brewery organized Resilience Butte County Proud IPA, a crowdsourced fundraising effort that raised nearly $10 million for the local community after the deadly Camp Fire.

###

About Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. Inspired by frequent trips to the Sierra Nevada mountain range, Ken Grossman founded Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. in 1980. Highly regarded for using only the finest quality ingredients, Sierra Nevada has set the standard for craft brewers worldwide with innovations in the brewhouse and in its sustainability efforts. The pioneering spirit that launched Sierra Nevada now spans both coasts with breweries in Chico, California and Mills River, North Carolina. Sierra Nevada is famous for its extensive line of beers including Pale Ale, Hazy Little Thing, Torpedo and a host of seasonal, specialty and limited release beers. Learn more at www.sierranevada.com.


A COVID-19 outbreak has sent infected staff and residents of the Houston Area Womens Center shelter into quarantine and forced the organization to place clients in hotel rooms and other facilities.

Eleven staff members who have tested positive for COVID-19 are self-quarantined at home and nine survivors of domestic violence -- three adults and six children over age 10  who have also contracted the virus are quarantined in the shelter. Also quarantined are clients who came into contact with those who are infected but have not tested positive; as of Thursday, there were 23 residents in that category, including 13 children, seven mothers and three single women.

All 41 of the clients who tested negative for COVID-19 were moved into a nearby hotel, officials said. There are eight mothers, 13 children and 20 single people in the emergency hotel shelter provided by HAWC. The organization is also helping place survivors through subcontracts with five new agencies that began sheltering clients recently.

The shelter is working to help the women and children in their isolation  quarantined mothers and and their children are confined to a one-room quad with four twin bunk beds, said Chau Nguyen, spokesperson for HAWC. Staff members known as advocates are checking in with the women and families with regular phone calls and in-person visits through the doorways of their shelter quarters. Meals and snacks have been delivered to their doors and an ice cream and toy cart makes the rounds for kids.

Advocates are visiting the clients staying in hotels in person, still taking precautions like wearing face shields and PPE. While most meetings are being conducted over the phone, services like therapy, help with housing applications and case management are still being done in-person when its possible to physically distance in a large meeting room, said Nguyen.

The Houston shelter isnt alone in dealing with COVID-19 cases. Multiple advocacy groups that offer emergency temporary housing across the state are also reporting outbreaks, according to Gloria Terry, CEO of the Texas Council on Family Violence, which has 100 local agency partners.

Every organization that I talk to, their biggest fear is how to maintain peoples safety -- not just from violence, but how can we keep them healthy? said Terry.

The challenge has played out differently for shelters, depending on location and available resources, Terry said. Smaller agencies in rural towns, she said, have needed more funding and support to meet changing needs. Larger agencies with more space have had more success because they are able to spread clients out more effectively.

Up until three weeks ago, HAWCs shelter, which is a lifeline for many escaping life-threatening violence, hadnt seen any confirmed positive cases.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, officials at the shelter understood the vulnerabilities of staff and residents to the virus, because its an environment in which large groups of people used to gather.

Knowing that, staff have taken precautions like extra sanitizing and limiting the capacity of its onsite shelter to spread families out, said HAWC President and CEO Emilee Dawn Whitehurst.

Since the outbreak, the Houston Health Department has assisted the shelter in containing it. Another round of testing was planned for Thursday.

Its an ever-moving target, said Whitehurst. Were doing our best to make sure clients feel cared for and supported.

Whitehurst said it is likely the person who first contracted the virus did not contract it at the shelter.

Were just in the epicenter here in Harris County, said Whithurst of the pandemic.

The outbreak also comes at a time when demand for emergency shelter is higher than HAWC has ever experienced, due to increasing rates of domestic violence during the pandemic.

Since this disaster has no end in sight, we cant afford to wait until its over to make resources available to people who are hurting, said Whitehurst. We are still serving people in crisis right here, right now.

hannah.dellinger@chron.com
CHICAGO, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Screencastify, a video-focused SaaS startup, is excited to announce their newest product that allows teachers to securely request videos from their students. Submit, which has been in beta testing throughout the last half of the 2019-2020 school year, allows teachers to send students an assignment link. From there, students can record their ideas without the need for any additional software or extensions.

When schools first closed in response to Coronavirus, Screencastify immediately accelerated a solution for teachers and students to create and share videos in a safe and controlled environment. Screencastify initially began beta testing Submit to a small group and recognized the urgent need for the feature in these distance learning times, quickly inviting thousands of educators to participate in the beta program as they navigated the new distance learning model. Finding the best solution to helping teachers during this challenging time was of the utmost importance.

A number of improvements were made to Submit to better serve the needs of educators and students, including mobile compatibility for webcam assignments, improved video and assignment privacy options, a more user-friendly interface and reduced video submission wait times.

Submit is offered in two versions, Submit Free and Submit Unlimited. The free version allows teachers to create one active assignment and the unlimited version allows teachers to create multiple active assignments. Unlimited versions are available for individual educators, school districts and individual schools to purchase.

"We're grateful to all the educators who participated in our beta program and provided invaluable feedback to help us create this product and further transform online learning," said Screencastify CEO James Francis. "Submit simplifies distance learning, making it easier for teachers and students, especially during this challenging time. It's so important that we assist teachers as they navigate through the changes they're facing."

With 12 million users per week adopting the technology, Screencastify has seen exponential growth and adoption the past couple of years, but significantly more in the past four months, much due to the differentiators and advantages it offers including safety, privacy and ease of use. The company is currently adding 30 employees to its team.

For more information about Screencastify visit www.screencastify.com.

About Screencastify

Screencastify creates video-creation tools that make it easy for teachers to create, edit, and share videos. Screencastify is used by almost every district in the nation and also has a presence in nearly every country worldwide. Classroom resources, certification courses, system status alerts and the company blog are all available through the Screencastify website (www.screencastify.com) to assist teachers and students on how to use the technology.

Contact:

Tassi Herrick

(949) 777-2439

[email protected]

SOURCE Screencastify

Related Links

http://www.screencastify.com


DEAR ABBY: About 40 years ago, I did someone an injustice, and I have felt guilty ever since. I worked for a consulting firm in Washington, D.C., that fired an accounting clerk who was in my small office. I didn't know why she was fired, and I never heard a cross word exchanged between her and her supervisor. She seemed to be capable and friendly.

A prospective employer called me for a reference, and because my company told me that it did not respond to requests for references, I didn't give her one. Ever since, I have wished I had shared what I knew about her. If I was allowed a do-over, I would have told the employer about my positive experience with her and my belief that she was capable and friendly. Her being Black and not having my reference may have increased her difficulty in finding a job. I am sharing this with your readers so they may avoid making a similar mistake.

 Guilt-ridden in Texas

DEAR GUILT-RIDDEN: Some companies, on the advice of their legal counsel, strictly adhere to a policy of disclosing only dates of hire and discharge of employees. This has nothing to do with race or ethnicity. It was not a mistake to do as your employers instructed, and you should not feel guilty for having done so.

DEAR ABBY: My heart is heavy as I write this. Since the pandemic started, my father-in-law has called us every couple of weeks to ask if we are safe and OK. I have heard nothing from my own father.

I finally called him, mentioning that I thought he would call to check on us. His response was, "I'm the adult; you should be checking on me." (I have two grown children and two grandchildren, so I was taken aback by the thought that I was not an "adult.") I mentioned that because he is not in a nursing home, in jail or has to go to work, I figured he was much safer than my husband and me, who still must go out to work every day and be in contact with hundreds of people.

I feel like my father doesn't care about us like my father-in-law does. What do you think?

 Disappointed in Florida

DEAR DISAPPOINTED: I agree that your father doesn't care about you the same way your father-in-law does. He appears to be so centered upon himself that there's little room to worry about his children's welfare.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

What do I think? I think that if you love your father, you should give him an occasional call, but when you do, expect nothing in return. And you should thank your lucky stars you have a darling father-in-law who takes up the slack.

DEAR ABBY: I have two close, dear friends. They're my inner circle. Both are extroverts and quite talkative. I'm an introvert and quieter. My problem is, I can't get a word in edgewise when we're together. I'm not sure how to tactfully address this subject with them. Any ideas?

 Introvert in the Southwest

DEAR INTROVERT: Yes. Speak up and say exactly what you told me  "Hey, folks, I can't get a word in edgewise!" If you say it with a smile, it shouldn't be regarded as insulting because it's the truth.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Earlier this year, Stephen (Papi) Ojo worked at the Staten Island Amazon fulfillment center in Bloomfield, packing orders overnight.

Now, hes dancing alongside Beyonce in her new visual album, Black is King.

Ojo, 22, recently told TIME he is a self-taught Nigerian-born performer who has been in the dance game since 2014. The entertainer is commonly recognized for his dancing in Rihannas 2018 Grammy performance of Wild Thoughts, which included a South African dance move called Gwara Gwara.

He also reportedly taught Janet Jackson the kupe -- from Ghana -- for her music video, Made For Now.

Now, his role in Black is King is once again showing the world his expertise in African dance.

I have to make sure my people are properly represented, Ojo told TIME. The fact that we have a legend like Beyonce doing these moves will make people generations from now want to research them and think, If Beyonce is doing it, it must be important! It must have some kind of meaning.

Ojo plays the blue man in Black is King. The performer said he first got the call for a Beyonce project last summer when he was told he had to fly to Los Angeles for a big job, according to the report.

He was originally cast as one of the many dancers in Beyonces music video for Spirit off her album, Lion King: The Gift. Ojo reportedly helped choreograph parts of the dance and showed Beyonces team different movements  like the network from Ghana and the kpakujemu from Nigeria.

Shortly after, he was told to fly to South Africa to film solo shots, TIME reported. Thats when he realized he was about to be more than just a backup dancer.

The significance of Ojos blue man has been up for debate since Black is King dropped. The album is meant to pay homage to The Lion King, with a plot centered on a prince who must overcome adversity and find his way home.

Ojo told TIME he sees his character as guiding Simba, with culturally-rooted afro-dance moves, throughout his stages of life.

After filming with Beyonce, Ojo said he returned to Brooklyn, where he and his family live. Due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, his live performances were put on hold, so he took a job for a short time at Staten Islands Amazon fulfillment center to make money, he told TIME.

Of his role in Black is King, Ojo tweeted, Dreams do come through.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: India on Thursday strongly rejected Pakistan's criticism of the launch of construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya and asked the neighbouring country to refrain from "communal incitement".

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava also asked Pakistan to desist from interfering in India's internal affairs.

"We have seen the press statement by the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on a matter internal to India. It should desist from interfering in India's affairs and refrain from communal incitement," Srivastava said.

"While this is not a surprising stance from a nation that practices cross border terrorism and denies its own minorities their religious rights, such comments are nevertheless deeply regrettable," he added.

He was responding to a question on Pakistan's criticism of the laying of foundation stone of the Ram temple in Ayodhya on the site of the Babri Masjid.

READ EDITORIAL | Time to rise above religious lines for true Ram Rajya

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday laid the foundation of the Ram temple in Ayodhya at a grand ceremony.

Last November, the Supreme Court paved the way for the construction of the Ram temple at the site where the 16th century Babri mosque was demolished in December 1992.

While allotting the Ram Janmabhoomi site for a temple to be built by a trust, it ordered that a five-acre site should be found elsewhere in Ayodhya for a new mosque.

Separately at a media briefing, Srivastava hit out at Pakistan for coming out with a new political map of the country incorporating Jammu and Kashmir and parts of Gujarat as its territories.

ALSO WATCH:

He said this type of absurd claims showed that Pakistan wants to take control of more areas by using cross border terrorism.

On Tuesday, he had described the Pakistani move as "political absurdity" and said these "ridiculous assertions" have neither legal validity nor international credibility.

"We have seen a so-called 'political map' of Pakistan that has been released by Prime Minister Imran Khan. This is an exercise in political absurdity, laying untenable claims to territories in the Indian state of Gujarat and our Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and of Ladakh," he had said.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Terming the first anniversary of the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A a black day, scores of Kashmiri students from the University of Hyderabad (UoH) organised online protests and events, and started a 10-day campaign against the abrogation.

As a mark of protest against the government-sponsored oppression in Jammu and Kashmir, members of different organisations, including Jammu and Kashmir Students' Association (JKSA) and Stand With Kashmir held online protests on Wednesday. More than 3,000 students from Hyderabad and other parts of the country participated in the protest. Many from the city also took to Twitter with the hashtag #KashmiriLivesMatter.

Since last year our lives have just gotten worse. While the rest of India was put under lockdown since March, our lockdown precedes theirs and has lasted for a year now, said Hadif Nisar, president of JKSA. He said that last year, their organisation had led several protests in Hyderabad. This year, due to Covid, we could not organise protests, which is why many of us came together on online platforms, added Nisar, who has now gone back to Kashmir.
Zoe Saldana. Photo: David Crotty/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

Zoe Saldana has released a tearful apology for accepting the role of Nina Simone in the 2016 Nina biopic, a role for which the Afro-Latina actress darkened her skin and wore a prosthetic nose. Previously, Saldana defended her portrayal of Simone, telling Allure in 2017, The script probably would still be lying around, going from office to office, agency to agency, and nobody would have done it. Female stories arent relevant enough, especially a Black female story [] I made a choice. Do I continue passing on the script and hope that the right Black person will do it, or do I say, You know what? Whatever consequences this may bring about, my casting is nothing in comparison to the fact that this story must be told.

On Monday, August 3, Saldana chatted with Pose executive producer Steven Canals about Afro-Latinidad, colorism in the Latinx community, Nina Simone, and more in an hourlong video on the official Instagram account of Bese, the Saldana-founded new media platform that focuses on topics of identity and culture. About 41 minutes into the conversation, Canals asks Saldana: A few years back, there was a lot of controversy around the decision that you made to play Nina Simone. And at the time, there were a lot of questions around blackface, and darkening skin, and prosthetics. And I wonder, what is your relationship with that choice now? How has the process and evolution for you in loving yourself changed, not only for the roles youre taking today, but how it makes you reflect on that decision? Saldana responds with a long and passionate apology:

I should have never played Nina. I should have done everything in my power, with the leverage that I had ten years ago, which was a different leverage but it was leverage nonetheless, I should have tried everything in my power to cast a Black woman to play an exceptionally perfect Black woman. Its growing. Its painful. I thought back then that I had the permission, because I was a Black woman. And I am. But it was Nina Simone. And Nina had a life and she had a journey that should have been, and should be, honored to the most specific detail. Because she was a specifically detailed individual. About her voice, her views, her music, her opinions, and her art. And she was so honest. So she deserved better. And with that said, so Im sorry, Im so sorry, because I love her music. Shes one of our giants. Somebody else should step up. Somebody else should tell her story because shes one of those people that  Nina Simone! Her story hasnt been, like, a global fucking impact. When were taking her music and were using it in car commercials, or Im taking her story and her image and I think that Im okay to tell it, weve been appropriating ourselves with someone like Nina Simone for a very long time. And I just want her story to be told, and I want it to be right, because she deserves it. And America deserves it. Because the Americans that inhabit todays America deserve her story to be told. And I know better today, and Im never going to do that again. Never. Im learning. Im still processing it. Ive been processing it for ten years, and I think its a conversation that I wanna have. Im not gonna allow people to violate me, to make me feel less than. But I am going to be open to this conversation, so we can grow from it, and we can give back to ourselves and to each other our identity. For fucks sake, its about time.

Somebody else should tell her story, you say? Weve got some ideas.
A 66-year-old farmer, Kwabena Naaba Asanu is in the grips of the Yeji Police in the Bono East Region for shooting and killing his friend, Elijah Nankuasi over GHS50.

The incident occurred at Zabrama in the Pru West District.

Brother of the deceased, Joseph Dipaaba who disclosed this to Citi News narrated what led to the shooting of his brother: Kwabena Naaba Asanu owes my brother GHS100 which he paid GHS50. My brother later demanded the rest of the GHS50 which resulted in a fight. Asanu rushed to his room picked a gun and shot my brother at a close-range killing him instantly.

The Pru East District Police Commander, Superintendent Thomas Owoahene Acheampong confirmed the incident and said it is under investigation.

Also, the alleged killer is receiving treatment at the St Mathias Catholic Hospital at Yeji after he was beaten by residents.

The remains of the deceased is also at the same hospital morgue pending autopsy.

---citinewsroom
The Public-Private Partnership will commit more than $100 million to improve nutrition in low- and middle-income countries

WASHINGTON, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Eleanor Crook Foundation, in partnership with the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, announced today the GlobalNutrition Financing Alliance to improve nutrition outcomes in low- and middle- income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The two organizations signed a memorandum of understanding to mobilize $100 million in private sector investment to address the effects of COVID-19 on malnutrition and food insecurity, tackle the root causes of malnutrition, and leverage private sector solutions to reduce malnutrition globally.

Globally, more than 820 million people are estimated to be chronically undernourished and malnutrition is the underlying cause of nearly half of all deaths among children under the age of five, killing approximately 3.1 million children each year. For those who survive, malnutrition plays an insidious role in undermining a child's future. Malnutrition stunts brain development and robs individuals and societies of their ability to grow into their full potential. Children who are undernourished are likely to learn less at school and earn less as adults, which, at the country level, translates to slow economic growth and perpetuates the cycle of poverty.

Now, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken the long-standing global emergency of malnutrition and raised it to unconscionable levels, with experts projecting up to a 20 percent increase in global malnutrition over the next 12 months.

The scale of the problem is immense, but fortunately, proven interventions to prevent and treat malnutrition are considered some of the most cost effective in global health and development. Scale-up of proven nutrition interventions save lives and provide significant economic return. In fact, reducing stunting, a permanent consequence of malnutrition early in life, can increase a country's overall economic productivity, as measured by GDP per capita, by 11 percent in Africa and Asia. This partnership will leverage the power of the DFC and the Eleanor Crook Foundation to advance the development of nutritious value chains as a key contributor to the fight against global malnutrition.

The DFC will bring its full array of financing tools to the partnership, including direct loans, debt and equity financing, and targeted technical assistance. The Eleanor Crook Foundation will contribute its expertise in global malnutrition and its global network of nutrition partners, as well as provide flexible technical assistance to support new investments. Together, the DFC and ECF will work with partners to develop new investment pipelines. They will leverage the ingenuity of the private sector to develop and bring to scale business operations that advance nutrition outcomes among vulnerable populations.

"We believe in the power of multi-stakeholder financing partnerships to accelerate healthy, prosperous futures for the world's most vulnerable," saidWilliam Moore, Chief Executive Officer of the Eleanor Crook Foundation. "We are thrilled to be working with the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation to catalyze smart investments in nutritious food supply chains, food fortification, and healthcare - all with the goal of saving lives, and building stronger communities and economies."

"Malnutrition and food security are critical issues facing developing countries. COVID-19 has only exacerbated them," said DFC CEO Adam Boehler. "As part of this new alliance, DFC looks forward to working with the Eleanor Crook Foundation to combat global malnutrition using strategic investments with the private sector."

About The Eleanor Crook Foundation

The Eleanor Crook Foundation is a growing U.S. philanthropy fighting to end global malnutrition through research, policy analysis, and advocacy. The Foundation works to scale improved solutions to child malnutrition with the ultimate goal of saving children's lives and enabling them to excel in school, work, and beyond.

About DFC

U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) is America's development bank. DFC partners with the private sector to finance solutions to the most critical challenges facing the developing world today. We invest across sectors including energy, healthcare, critical infrastructure, and technology. DFC also provides financing for small businesses and women entrepreneurs in order to create jobs in emerging markets. DFC investments adhere to high standards and respect the environment, human rights, and worker rights.
New Delhi, Aug 6 : Manoj Sinha - an Uttar Pradesh BJP leader who enjoys the trust of both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah - is the new Lieutenant Governor of Jammu & Kashmir.

Among the many things he is known for, this Bhumihar face of the BJP was speculated to be an almost certain choice of the BJP as UP Chief Minister before the party sprang a surprise with Yogi Adityanath. But Sinha never complained and that, many believe, has weighed in.

A day after current J&K L-G, G.C. Murmu, in a surprise development, resigned from the post exactly a year after the nullification of Article 370 in the erstwhile state and barely nine months after he took over the reins of the newly created Union territory, Sinha was appointed as his successor.

Sinha wore many hats - a former Minister of State for Railways, an IIT graduate, a man who transformed Ghazipur with his developmental initiatives. Sinha climbed the organisational ladder from the ABVP during his student days at Benaras Hindu University to the man in 2017 who was followed vigorously by TV cameras, almost certain to be UP Chief Minister. In fact, his journey from being a member of the BJP's National Council in 1989 to J&K Lieutenant Governor has been a fascinating ride.

Many believe that very few lawmakers in the Hindi heartland took Modi's 'Vikas' call as seriously as Sinha. This is why, after winning three times from Ghazipur and confident of a comeback banking high on his reputation as 'Mr Development', it stunned many when he lost to Afzal Ansari, the brother of don-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, by a margin of 1.19 lakh votes. It is believed that caste equations contributed to his defeat, despite his admirable track record.

But what made the cut this time for the former BHU student leader and IIT alumnus was his perceived clean image. The ex-civil engineer hardly courted controversy nor made any statements to the media that embarrassed his party or the government. But mostly, the man with a mass base is seen as non-corrupt which played a key role in him being picked as J&K L-G at a time when the Centre is keen to flush out corrupt 'babus'.

A UP man, an IIT alumnus, seen as 'Mr Development' and a leader close to both Modi and Shah - Manoj Sinha had everything going for him.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi remembered senior BJP leader and former Union minister Sushma Swaraj on her first death anniversary on Thursday, saying she served India selflessly and was an articulate voice for the country at the world stage.

Former external affairs minister Swaraj died of cardiac arrest last year at the age of 67.

Hours before she died, Swaraj had tweeted praising the decision of the Modi government to abrogate Article 370, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

Remembering Sushma Ji on her first Punya Tithi (death anniversary). Her untimely and unfortunate demise left many saddened, the prime minister tweeted.

She served India selflessly and was an articulate voice for India at the world stage, Modi recalled.

He also shared a video of the remarks he had made at a prayer meeting organised in Swarajs memory last year.

Referring to Swarajs prompt response to Indians facing problems abroad, he had said she transformed the Ministry of External Affairs.

It used to be bound to protocol but she transformed it and made it oriented to peoples call, he said.

Various Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, led by party chief JP Nadda, also paid tributes to Swaraj.
Pubs are where you meet people and its well documented that at least 90% of all relationships start by getting drunk - usually where alcohol is readily available in unlimited amounts.

Was it a smart move by Boris Johnson to reopen pubs and bars as the weather warmed up and the holiday season (at least what used to be the holiday season) kicked off? It was a sop to keep us happy - but at what cost?

This week, one of the governments scientific advisors described the official testing and tracing system as clunky and slow.

Latest figures show the scheme is only reaching 50% of those who have come into contact with an infected person.

People have been allowed to go out and get drunk and hang about outside bars and pubs. Pictured, revellers drinking in Soho, London

Was it a smart move by Boris Johnson to reopen pubs and bars as the weather warmed up and the holiday season (at least what used to be the holiday season) kicked off? It was a sop to keep us happy - but at what cost? Pictured, a waitress at a pub in Aberdeen

Hardly world-beating, more like third rate. The Mayor of Manchester called it not fit for purpose.

And yet, Boris has pinned all his hopes on testing as the key way to allow us some fun, to return to work and get kids back into school.

A combination of inadequate testing and readily available booze is a toxic mix. But the government - perhaps because they are always under the thumbs of the liquor industry - seems to have abandoned joined-up thinking.

Boris has pinned all his hopes on testing as the key way to allow us some fun. Pictured, Janet Street-Porter

Any secondary school teacher could have told them that placing teenagers and young people under house arrest with their families for months could only end one way: the moment restrictions were eased, the young would congregate in large numbers to celebrate.

They are in parks, loafing on beaches and hanging around in clusters around every boozer in towns and cities all over the UK, cosying up without a care in the world.

Last weeks lockdown in Manchester brought absolutely no difference to the numbers swanning about on Friday night, hoping to get hammered and maybe hook up.

Now, were seeing the results. In Scotland, theres been a huge spike in new Covid cases - 64 and rising - the vast majority linked to patrons of 28 bars in the city of Aberdeen.

Nicola Sturgeon swiftly imposed a local lockdown from 5pm last Wednesday, closing all bars, cafes, pub and restaurants in the city and told people not to travel there.

The same story has been happening in Melbourne and in the USA. So is this a pattern that will be repeated?

Is Nicola Sturgeon guilty of over-reacting, given that Scotland has now gone 20 days without anyone dying who had tested positive?

Everything depends on sensible behaviour - there will always be people who manage to enter a pub on a Friday night, have a couple of drinks, and then call it a night.

Matt Hancock (pictured yesterday) rudely posted the ban on entering other people's homes on Twitter just hours before Eid

Sadly, that is a small minority. Most of us only lose our inhibitions (and our virginity) and natural reserve as the amount of units consumed increases.

After a few drinks, maintaining the correct distance from each other becomes harder, not to mention less desirable.

We can hardly unlearn years of behaviour overnight. Even so, young people do seem utterly fearless. Or is it stupidity?

One Aberdeen city councillor said theres confusion about face masks and the correct distance to stand apart.

Honestly, its not exactly rocket science, people arent being asked to answer an algebraic equation, but have the months of confinement turned our brains into mush?

A lot of Muslims might agree there should be a blanket ban on pubs after Eid celebrations in Manchester and the surrounding areas were cancelled without warning. Pictured, worshippers at the Bradford Central Mosque on July 31

In one Glasgow bar, The Swinton, a single customer tested positive for the virus after he had returned from holiday abroad and refused to quarantine.

Its selfish behaviour like that which has brought about the current lockdown.

Another theory is that customers went from bar to bar on pub crawls, taking the virus with them.

Now pubs have become a flashpoint as people fear being sent back into house arrest.

As the restaurant business takes the first steps back towards profitability, will the loutish behaviour of drinkers wreck it for the entire hospitality industry? If the number of local outbreaks continues to rise, will it affect the re-opening of schools?

If young people in particular have little interest in social distancing, should there be a blanket closure of pubs?

A lot of Muslims might agree after Eid celebrations in Manchester and the surrounding areas were cancelled without warning (rudely posted on Twitter by our hapless Health Secretary Matt Hancock), while another section of the citys population was allowed to go out and get drunk and hang about outside bars and pubs.

The Childrens Commissioner for England, Anne Longfield is adamant that the re-opening of schools must be a priority.

There are fears that as offices return to work and schools reopen at the start of September, there will be another rise in Covid cases.

A study by University College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine says a rebound affecting twice as many people as the first wave can only be avoided with an effective test track and trace system. If only we had one!

In fact, Scotlands tracing system is better than that in England. Local tracing systems are proving more effective than the national scheme trumpeted by Mr Hancock.

Manchester, Blackburn, Bradford and Calderdale are all going to implement local door-to-door tracing.

Pubs cannot be closed in a blanket ban. That is punishing the sensible, the elderly and the lonely because kids are selfish

Local GPs have been saying for months that neighbourhood health centres have better information where people socialise and are the best way to trace potential cases.

These local initiatives may be an improvement on the government scheme, but tracing all contacts will never be an exact science.

When we return to work, how will we know who stood behind us on public transport? And who barged into us outside a pub when we were standing on a pavement? At the moment, theres no way of finding out.

In spite of the risks, I would not close rural pubs. They are vital to small communities, so it seems sensible to create one set of rules for cities and another for rural areas.

The damage to mental health caused by the extended lockdown (especially for the elderly and those who were shielding) is unknown, but pubs arent just places to get drunk.

They are where you meet the neighbours and socialise. Pubs cannot be closed in a blanket ban. That is punishing the sensible, the elderly and the lonely because kids are selfish.

Shut down city pubs if theres an outbreak. Outside rural areas, there must be strict rules governing admittance to a pub in a built-up area - tag all drinkers outside and in so you know who they are, and they must produce photo ID, as in the USA.

Enforce compulsory testing on entry. Yes, the schools must re-open but rural pubs must not be closed - unless the NHS want to cope with a mental health crisis of epic proportions.
The Pope and Dalai Lama today sent messages of sympathy to the funeral of John Hume.

During the service at St Eugene's Cathedral, Bishop of Derry, Donal McKeown, read out a message from the Vaticans Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, on behalf of Pope Francis.

The message read: His Holiness Pope Francis was saddened to learn of the death of Mr. John Hume, and sends the assurance of his prayers to his family and to all who mourn his loss.

Mindful of the Christian faith that inspired John Hume's untiring efforts to promote dialogue, reconciliation and peace among the people of 1Vorthern Ireland, His Holiness commends his noble soul to the loving mercy of Almighty God.

To those who mourn his passing in the sure hope of the Resurrection, the Holy Father cordially imparts his Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of consolation and strength in Christ the Lord.

Bishop McKeown also read out a message of sympathy from the Dalai Lama.

The message said: "I was pleased to be able to meet John during one of my several visits to Northern Ireland. Indeed, his deep conviction in the power of dialogue and negotiations in resolving the problem in his homeland has been an example of non-violent resolution of issues.

"It was his leadership and his faith in the power of negotiations that enabled the 1998 Good Friday Agreement to be reached. His steady persistence set an example for all of us to follow.

"Although my fellow Nobel laureate is no longer with us, his message about peace and nonviolence in the resolution of conflict, no matter how protracted or difficult it may seem to be, will long survive him. He lived a truly meaningful life."
It was a selfie by Virginia Del. Mark Cole that first caught Sookyung Oh's eye.

Cole, R-Fredericksburg, tweeted an image showing off a bright red face mask he said he'd purchased from the congressional campaign of Del. Nick Freitas, R-Culpeper.

"COVID-19, 'MADE IN CHINA," it read.

Oh, who is Virginia director of the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium Action Fund, said that she and other Asian American community leaders were "shocked" to find the masks for sale as campaign merchandise.

"He's literally financing his campaign with a tactic that has been shown to exacerbate anti-Asian racism," Oh said of Freitas, a libertarian-leaning Republican who is running against first-term Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger in central Virginia's largely rural 7th district.

In an open letter issued this week, the NAKASEC Action Fund called on Freitas's campaign to stop selling the "Made in China" face masks, saying the merchandise is another example of anti-China political rhetoric that has put Asian Americans at risk of discrimination during the coronavirus pandemic.

Some of the rhetoric has come from President Donald Trump, who routinely refers to the deadly virus as the "China virus" and has also outraged his critics by calling it the "Kung flu."

A number of Asian American community organizers and two Asian American lawmakers from Virginia, Dels. Sam Rasoul, D-Roanoke, and Kathy Tran, D-Springfield, signed onto the statement.

"Blaming China for the COVID-19 crisis in the United States has led to a sharp increase of racially motivated attacks and discrimination against people of Chinese descent and others perceived to be of Chinese descent," the statement said, citing incidents in which Asian Americans have been spit on, cursed at or assaulted.

"Nick Freitas' campaign, and the implied support from Del. Mark Cole, exacerbates anti-Asian racism and endangers our lives."

Freitas campaign manager Joe Desilets defended the masks in a statement, saying they are intended to target the "communist regime in China" that "lied to the world and enabled a deadly virus to spread, leading to a global pandemic."

"This is the same regime that violently suppresses its own people, press, and scientific community. Nick will not hesitate to hold such a regime accountable," Desilets said.

The "Made in China" masks are on sale on Freitas's campaign website as part of a $15 trio of face coverings. One says, "Don't sneeze on me," a variation of the libertarian "Don't tread on me" Gadsden flag, and another pairs the Texas battlecry "Come and Take It" with a picture of a hand-sanitizer bottle.

Cole, who has made the selfie his Twitter profile picture, said he got the masks after donating to Freitas's campaign. He said it was "silly" for groups to suggest the "Made in China" quip could encourage racial discrimination against Asian Americans, saying that the mask is "basically just stating a fact - the virus originated in China."

"I think there's nothing wrong with it, and I think it's a good way to encourage people to wear masks," Cole said.

Republican strategists have been expressly encouraging campaigns to focus attention on China rather than defend the president's handling of the virus, according to one memo to GOP Senate campaigns that The Washington Post obtained in April.

Academics and Asian American advocates however, have drawn a straight line between anti-China political rhetoric and anti-Asian discrimination during the pandemic, accusing the president of contributing to the problem.

The FBI warned in March that hate crimes against Asian Americans were likely to rise due to perceptions that people of Asian descent were spreading the virus, citing cases in which Asian Americans have been assaulted in cases linked to virus fears. Even Asian American doctors and frontline health care workers fighting coronavirus have reported enduring racist tirades.

A spokeswoman for Spanberger's campaign, Bettina Weiss, said Spanberger had "no comment on her opponent's choice to sell novelty merchandise trivializing a global pandemic."
Before the blast, corruption and financial mismanagement had caused shortages of critical imports like food and medicine, and a failed government policy led banks to limit withdrawals, costing many Lebanese their savings.

Destroyed homes and businesses cant get fixed if the banks wont let people access their deposits, Ben Hubbard, The Timess Beirut bureau chief, told us. And the lack of dollars will make it that much harder for the country to import all that it needs to bounce back, from glass and cement to medical equipment.

What the videos show: Times reporters reviewed more than 70 videos of the incident and satellite images of its aftermath to better understand the blast and the devastation it left behind.

If youre looking to help: Groups like the Lebanese Red Cross and Baytna Baytak, which is working to shelter those displaced by the blast, have mobilized in the country.

3. U.S. eyes Saudi nuclear program

American intelligence agencies are scrutinizing efforts by Saudi Arabia, working with China, to build up its ability to produce nuclear fuel. A classified analysis has raised alarms that doing so could be a cover to process uranium and move toward development of a weapon, U.S. officials told The Times.

American officials have searched for decades for evidence that the Saudis are moving toward a nuclear weapon, and the kingdom has made no secret of its determination to keep pace with Iran. But the spy agencies have been reluctant to warn of progress, for fear of repeating the colossal intelligence mistake that led to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday doubled down on his unsubstantiated claim that he thinks the deadly explosions in the Lebanese capital of Beirut could be "an attack," dismissing his own Pentagon chief's assessment.

"I mean, somebody left some terrible explosive type of devices and things around, perhaps it was that, perhaps it was on attack. I don't think anybody can say right now," Trump said at a press conference. "You have some people think it was an attack and some people think it wasn't."

Trump previously claimed at the White House on Tuesday that he had "met with some of our great generals and they just seem to feel that this was not some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of event."

His claim was contradicted by U.S. defense officials, including U.S. Defence Secretary Mark Esper, who said on Wednesday that while the Pentagon was still gathering information about the explosions, "most believe that it was an accident as reported."

Two massive explosions rocked Beirut on Tuesday. Primary information reveals that they might have been caused by ammonium nitrate stored since 2014 in warehouse No. 12 at Port of Beirut.

Lebanese Health Minister Hamad Hassan said on Wednesday that the explosions had left at least 135 people dead and 5,000 others injured.
TORONTO, Aug. 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Montero Mining and Exploration Ltd. (TSX-V: MON) (Montero or the Company) has signed a Binding Purchase and Sale Agreement (Agreement) to acquire a 100% interest in a private Chilean company (ChileCo) which holds various mineral rights to exploration claims that make up the Isabella Gold Silver Project (Project) in Chile. Isabellas exploration claims cover an area of 67km2. The Agreement is subject to corporate and legal process in Chile and regulatory approval.



Dr. Tony Harwood, President and Chief Executive Officer of Montero commented, Montero has secured the highly prospective Isabella Gold Silver Project in Chile where the Company can utilize its gold silver exploration, discovery and development expertise in a tier one mining jurisdiction. The Company is assessing previous exploration data with a view to carrying out a drill program in the fall of 2020. 

The Isabella Gold Silver Project is located in the Southern Coastal Range of Chile approximately 200 km south of Santiago and has excellent year-round access. The Coastal Range contains numerous gold and copper occurrences hosted within a package of intermediate intrusives, sediments and volcanics of Mesozoic age.

The Isabella Gold Silver Project is located regionally south of Yamanas Minera Florida gold mine and north of an extensive regional gold area being explored by Fresnillo. However, these operations do not confirm the mineral potential of the Isabella properties. The Isabella region has seen little modern exploration and most occurrences remain undrilled.

The Isabella Gold Silver Project area hosts numerous structurally controlled quartz veins that have been mapped over an area of approximately 12 km long and 4 km wide. A review of field reports on mapping and sampling prepared by the previous owner indicate high gold - silver concentrations within quartz veins with values of up to 48 g/t gold and 629 g/t silver.

The samples collected where grab samples of exposed vein material and are not considered representative of the overall concentration of mineralization in any particular vein. Samples were collected in accordance with industry best practices and analyzed by ALS Chile under the supervision of a qualified person. No independent sampling has been completed by Montero.

The veins form part of an extensive regional polymetallic Au-Ag vein and breccia system occurring in dilational fractures in the granite and along contacts with older sediments. Prior exploration at Isabella by the previous operator includes surface mapping, rock sampling, trenching, and airborne magnetics. No drilling in the Isabella district has been carried out to date.

Under the terms of the Agreement, Montero has acquired a 100% interest in ChileCo which holds all the mineral interests to the Isabella Gold Silver Project. ChileCo was purchased for a nominal amount and by taking over the earn-in obligations of cash payments totaling US$ 450,000 to be made by August 2022. ChileCo directly holds 100% of the mineral rights to 18 km2 of mineral claims and has two subsidiaries with 49 km2 under option agreements. In Subsidiary 1 Montero has an 85% interest in Isabella West mineral claims while in Subsidiary 2 Montero is earning an 85% interest in Isabella East mineral claims. The mineral claims held by both subsidiaries are subject to joint venture and mining option agreements with local parties. Montero is reviewing several drill target areas that have been identified and permitted for drilling by the previous owners in order to commence a drill program.

Qualified Person's Statement

This press release was reviewed and approved by Mr. Mike Evans, M.Sc. Pr.Sci.Nat., who is a qualified person for the purpose of National Instrument 43-101 and a Consulting Geologist to Montero. A review was also undertaken by Ing. Marcial Vergara B.Sc. and Mr. Michael Corey P.Geo. both of whom are qualified persons as defined by NI 43-101 and have extensive experience in gold exploration in Chile.

About Montero

Montero is a junior exploration company focused on finding, exploring and advancing globally significant gold deposits in Latin America. The Company is in the process of relinquishing its portfolio of battery metal projects in Africa to focus on gold opportunities in Latin America. Monteros board of directors and management have an impressive track record of successfully discovering and advancing precious metal projects. Montero trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol MON and has 21,880,818 shares outstanding.

For more information, contact:

Montero Mining and Exploration Ltd.

Dr. Tony Harwood, President and Chief Executive Officer

E-mail: ir@monteromining.com

Tel: +1 416 840 9197 | Fax: +1 866 688 4671

www.monteromining.com

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ISPCC Childline has welcomed the announcement of plans for childrens return to school later this month in County Leitrim and across the country.

The organisation has outlined details of support for parents, carers, children and young people preparing for the transition back to the classroom.

ISPCC Childline provides a range of services directly to children, young people and families in Ireland, including the Childline listening service. It experienced a surge in demand for support when schools across the country first closed in March as a result of restrictions associated with the Covid-19 pandemic.

ISPCC Childline Director of Services Caroline OSullivan said: Children and young peoples lives in Donegal and across the world have been turned upside down this year as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. School is a sanctuary to many  it is not only where they learn, but also often the place where they make and meet friends and access support. When they return later this month, however, it will be over five months since they will have been in classrooms. This years back-to-school experience will be like no other.

Children, young people, parents and carers will face challenges over the months ahead as Ireland emerges from this difficult time. Enhancing our capacity to cope with change and strengthening our resilience  often referred to as the ability to bounce back  will be important for us all. ISPCC Childline works to support, empower and strengthen children and young peoples resilience to enable them to live their best possible lives and to cope with any challenges which come their way.

Childline answered over 72,000 online contacts, calls and texts from children and young people in Donegal and across Ireland between the week in which schools closed in March and the last week in June. Many of those who contacted the service did so to talk about how they were anxious to return to school, missed their friends and daily routines and worried about exams and related issues.

According to Childline, themes which will be of key importance to families preparing for the return to primary school include building resilience, communicating clearly, seeking and accepting support and enhancing capacity to cope.

The development of these personal resources will be central to free Transition Back to School webinars. ISPCC Childline will deliver this service to parents, carers, children and young people on Monday, August 17 and Tuesday, August 18.

Ms OSullivan said: We will share our services insight into strengthening children and young peoples resilience to help them cope with change  and, in this case, with the transition back to the school environment following over five months of closure.

Parents and carers are invited to attend a free one-hour webinar event on Monday evening, August 17, from 7.30pm. They can then attend a follow-up session with their child, if they are an incoming 5th or 6th class pupil, on Tuesday evening, August 18, from 7.30pm.

Places are limited and early registration is advised. Anyone who wishes to take part can register at ispcc.ie

The organisation will also extend the hours of its Support Line service for three weeks from Monday, August 17 to Friday September 4, making the service available to parents, carers and members of the public from 9am to 5pm each day. The ISPCC Childline Support Line provides information, advice and emotional support in relation to childrens welfare and wellbeing. Details of the service are updated daily and can be accessed at ispcc.ie/ispcc-support-line.

Support and information content to assist with the transition back to school will also be made available to parents and carers online at ispcc.ie and to children and young people at Childline.ie

Always there for children and young people

Childline will be here for every child and young person in Ireland, by phone, online chat and text, every day and night, as they prepare for the return to school and always, said Ms OSullivan.

Any child or young person can reach Childline by calling 1800 66 66 66, chatting online at Childline.ie or texting to 50101. Further support and information content, around returning to school and other issues, is also available at Childline.ie
State leaders slammed Eversource Energy on Wednesday as Tropical Storm Isaias left an estimated 800,000 of the companys customers without power in Connecticut, with little indication of when most would be restored.

Gov. Ned Lamont declared a civil preparedness emergency and called on the states Public Utilities Regulatory Authority to investigate the two main Connecticut power companies respondes to the storm.

Lamont, following a 40-minute meeting with Eversource CEO James Judge on Wednesday afternoon, ripped the company for insufficient urgency in restoring power to Connecticut residents. Lamont has also asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency for a presidential emergency declaration in response to the storm.

Several years ago, Connecticut experienced large scale outages that took days to recover from, and we were told that the utilities were improving their resources so that they can be prepared for the next time Mother Nature inevitably hits again, Lamont said. And now here we are, with a wholly inadequate response to another storm.

Eversource said it had restored more than 200,000 customers by late Wednesday afternoon. But state records show the company far underestimated the damage in documents filed Monday.

The smaller United Illuminating Co. had at one point more than 100,000 customers without power, a number that dipped just below 90,000 by early Wednesday evening. UI serves Bridgeport and New Haven among other communities.

The governor said he was requesting the PURA probe so that we can determine whether the companies are meeting their legal obligations and whether any penalties need to be applied. The people of Connecticut deserve better than the service they are receiving.

Eversource said Wednesday that crews have worked around the clock since Tuesday to restore power while adhering to strict COVID-19 health and safety protocols. The company anticipates full restoration will take multiple days.

By Wednesday morning, Isaias power outages exceeded those of the 2012 Superstorm Sandy, at more than 800,000 statewide among Eversource customers  although the company did not give an exact figure. That dipped to about 612,000 by early evening, amounting to close to one of every two Eversource customers in Connecticut.

Anger over the large number of outages is especially acute since most people remember the devastating storms of 2011 and 2012  Tropical Storm Irene, the October 2011 snowstorm, and Superstorm Sandy. After those storms, Eversource and United Illuminating spent hundreds of millions of dollars of ratepayer money making the states electric system more resilient against weather.

The impact from this storm, in terms of power outages, is greater than Superstorm Sandy, said Michael Hayhurst, Eversource Vice President of Electric Operations in Connecticut. We recognize how difficult it is to be without electricity, especially while many people continue working from home during the pandemic. Our crews will continue working until every customer has power back while also complying with stringent pandemic protocols.

Isaias toppled trees Tuesday, wiping out power lines and leaving more than 90 percent of homes without power in many towns, particularly along the shoreline. But wind speeds were relatively low compared to other storms that have reached Connecticut in the past, calling into question the vulnerability of Connecticuts power grid.

This was barely a tropical storm and we have a nightmarish outage. What would have happened if we had a 100 mph storm? said state Sen. Norm Needleman, D-Essex, chairman of the legislature's Energy and Technology Committee.

Eversource missed the mark

A top company official defended the Eversource performance at a briefing at Eversources Berlin operations center late Wednesday. Theres no utility in the country that would staff to handle this magnitude of storm, said Craig Hallstrom, president of electric operations.

Asked whether Eversource had an estimate of the number of outages that would result from the storm, Hallstrom said, We did not.

But the company did, in fact, file an estimate with state regulators Monday. Both companies filed a pre-staging briefing sheet with the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, said Marissa Gillett, the agency chair. United Illuminating estimated correctly.

UI projected a level 3 event, corresponding to 30 percent to 50 percent outages, Gillett said, and outperformed that level.

Eversource filed an estimation of a level 4 event, with outages for between 10 percent and 29 percent of customers  a maximum of 380,000 customers, far lower than what happened. Obviously they grossly missed the mark, Gillett said.

A group of town leaders from Killingworth, Chester and Deep River said their towns all had more than 98 percent of homes still without power as of Wednesday afternoon. Deep River First Selectman Angus McDonald and Killingworth First Selectwoman Cathy Iino both said they had not seen an Eversource truck in their towns at all, despite several reports of dead end roads blocked by trees with people trapped on the other side.

We seem to be on a repeat pattern with our public utilities where we have a storm, we talk about lessons learned, we decide what were going to do next time and then, next time, its as bad or worse, said Chester First Selectwoman Lauren Gister. When we have a situation like this we need to sit down and find out what went wrong and whats required to fix it. Then, we need to actually fix it. This is not fair to the citizens and residents of my town or the state of Connecticut.

Almost zero communication

Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton said Eversource has had almost zero communication with him over when people should expect their power back. Midway through the afternoon, Danbury had the highest number of outages with about 17,775 homes and businesses blacked out. The company was supposed to come Wednesday to assess damage, but by around 4:15 p.m. Boughton had not seen any crews.

This is by far the worst response that Ive ever seen from this organization ever, he said. Given the way peoples electric bills skyrocketed in July, these people ought to be ashamed of themselves.

Eversource has been under fire in recent days over skyrocketing bills, which the company said were largely the result of higher usage by homebound families in a hot summer. Generation rates, the largest portion of a typical customers bill, fell on July 1 but some other charges increased.

A bipartisan coalition of legislators persuaded PURA to suspend the rate increases associated with the Eversource delivery charge that went into effect on July 1 and launch an investigation.

Wednesdays request for regulators to launch an investigation came as the governor said he was dissatisfied with the companys response. I want to hear a lot more urgency, he said.

Judge, the Eversource CEO, did not emerge from the Eversource office to join Lamont and Hallstrom, the electric operations chief.

United Illuminating reported having about 116,000 reported outages Tuesday night in its territories in the New Haven and Bridgeport areas, with Fairfield and Shelton hit hardest with 13,000 and 11,000 outages respectively.

Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim said UI told him they not be providing estimated time of restorations, for the city of Bridgeport, where there are more than 7,000 outages, and that the company does not prioritize our restorations based on health.

Tracking the money

State Sen. Paul Formica, a ranking Republican on the Energy and Technology Committee, was still without power and cleaning up fallen shingles from his home in East Lyme almost 24 hours after the storm hit. He said there appeared to be more outages than were caused by the storms in 2011 and 2012, with slower response times.

They certainly spent millions of dollars of ratepayer money on weekly maintenance of tree cutting and pruning, Formica said. They were out week after week, year after year doing that and certainly it doesnt seem they were effective in that effort.

Coming on the heels of the attempted large rate hike that they asked for a few weeks ago, I think people are rightfully disappointed in their response, Formica said of Eversource. They seem to care more about their profits than things theyre doing on the street here. But it is a difficult job, theres a lot of power outages because of trees and you try to give people the benefit of the doubt but in this case its getting harder and harder.

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy criticized Eversource on Twitter: Right now hundreds of thousands of people in Connecticut don't have power and the response from Eversource has been wholly insufficient. Please stay safe, report all outages and treat all downed wires as live and dangerous, he wrote.

Needleman, who is also the first selectman in Essex where the manufacturing business he owns uses more than $1 million in energy annually, introduced legislation during his first term as a senator that would have required Eversource to increase the size of its work crews  particularly linemen  rather than rely on out-of-state contractors, and Needleman has long been critical of Eversources rate hikes.

My question is, where has all that money gone? What did customers get for their investment in Eversource? Why isnt Eversource investing in and hiring new linemen? We've got nearly three-quarters of a million people without power in Connecticut today  including nearly all of Essex  which is about the same number of people who lost power during that devastating ice storm in April 2011, Needleman said. It seems very little has changed with Eversource over the past decade, now matter how much money consumers throw at them.

State Rep. Holly Cheeseman, R-East Lyme, who also serves on the Energy and Technology Committee, criticized Eversources reporting infrastructure for outages, which was down shortly after the storm swept through Connecticut.

At the end of the day what everybody wants is a reliable, affordable electricity infrastructure and we need to do what it takes to make sure that it is the case, Cheeseman said. And if we continue to see both rate increases and perhaps not the best response to storms, I think everyone is entitled to real answers. Especially the ratepayers.

The money spent on girding the system, much of it accelerated tree trimming and protecting substations against flooding, has improved regular operations of the utilities, said the acting chief of the state agency that represents ratepayers.

They adopted a lot of what people initially proposed back in 2012 [and] 2013, said Rich Sobolewski, acting head of the Office of Consumer Counsel. No ones saying, you should be doing this instead of that. So much of it was changing the wire, getting rid of old poles. Youve also had the flip side of that where people have said, Youre doing too much tree trimming.

Staff writers Alex Soule, Julia Perkins and Josh LaBella contributed to this story. kkrasselt@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2563; @kaitlynkrasselt
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 23:19:21|Editor: huaxia

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NOUAKCHOTT, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Mauritanian president Mohamed Ould Ghazouani nominated this Thursday by presidential decree Mohamed Ould Bilal as new Prime minister to replace Ismail Ould Cheikh Sidiya who resigned earlier.

Ismail Ould Cheikh Sidiya presented earlier this Thursday the resignation of his government to the president.

"I had the honor of being received in audience by His Excellency the President of the Republic to whom I handed over the resignation of the government," Sidiya said after meeting the president.

"It was an occasion where I thanked him for the trust he placed in me during this period," he added. Enditem
(CNN) - Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, said on Thursday that he hopes the US will reconsider its decision to withdraw from WHO  and that the problem the withdrawal creates is not financial, but the lack of solidarity between global leaders.

US President Donald Trump announced at the end of May that the US will end its relationship with WHO, the worlds preeminent health organization.

Now, its time to work together. Now, its time to focus on fighting the virus. So I hope the US will reconsider its position, Tedros said during a panel event at the Aspen Security Forum.

When the US decided to withdraw, the problem is not about the money. Its not the financing issue, he said. Its actually the relationship with the US which is more important, and its leadership role.

Tedros said he has said many times that you cannot defeat this dangerous enemy in a divided world. We need a united world.

A united world needs cooperation and solidarity among major powers, he said.

Multi-lateral organizations can only support, like WHO, the leaders always have been countries, and especially the major ones, who can bring the whole world together, Tedros said. So that is more important for WHO, the void, not the financial.

He said there is still communication between WHO and the US, and that they are working together  but he hopes that the relationship will return to normal, and a stronger relationship than ever before.

Tedros said the US has always been known for its generosity, support and leadership in global health. He detailed how during his time as a minister in Ethiopia, while HIV/AIDS was ravaging the continent and the rest of the world, US leadership and generosity gave hope to many.

He also said that if there were problems or issues with WHO or the UN system at large, they would be very open to any evaluations or assessments.

The truth can be known, and this can be done from inside, without leaving the organization, he said. Knowing the truth is very important for the whole world.

Lessons need to be learned from what is happening and what has happened, Tedros said, and the future needs to be built together.

If there is any problem, we will find out and we will learn from it, Tedros said.

Later in the session, Dr. Mike Ryan, director of WHOs health emergencies program, thanked the United States and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for their continued contribution to global public health.

The politics of these things will never shake the bonds that scientists have around the world, and the urge and the desire we have to work together to save lives, he said.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "WHO director-general hopes the US will reconsider its withdrawal from the organization"
Uber Technologies Inc said demand for its food-delivery service more than doubled in the second quarter as many users remained largely homebound, while demand for ride-hailing trips was only marginally recovering from pandemic rock-bottom.

The company said that despite those larger challenges it is sticking to its goal of being profitable on an adjusted basis before the end of 2021 thanks to stringent cost-cutting measures and a strong balance sheet. Uber recorded an adjusted loss in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $837 million (636 million pounds) in the second quarter.

Shares were down 2.9% at $33.72 in after-hours trading. The stock had risen 4.5% in the regular session.

Ride-hailing trips, in the past responsible for nearly two-thirds of Ubers revenue, increased 5 percentage points from their low in April, but gross bookings remained down 75% from last year.

Ubers chief executive officer, Dara Khosrowshahi, told analysts on a conference call on Thursday that rides recovery depended on the ability of different countries to contain the virus, with the recovery so far led by Asia, excluding India.

In Hong Kong and New Zealand, rides bookings at times exceeded pre-COVID-19 levels, while trip requests in Germany, France and Spain have improved to just a 35% decline from a year ago.

Our global geographic footprint remains a huge advantage," Khosrowshahi said.

Uber Chief Financial Officer Nelson Chai said the companys profitability timeline in 2021 depended on the ability to combat the virus, with the situation in the United States becoming murkier, not clearer" over the past few weeks.

The company on Thursday posted a $1.8 billion net loss in the months from April to June, including charges related to the laying off of 23% of its global workforce during a period when infections of the novel coronavirus continued to spread in the United States, Ubers largest market.

The number of active platform users across the 69 countries in which Uber operates nearly halved year-over-year, from 99 million to 55 million.

Ubers second-quarter revenue fell 29% to $2.24 billion from the year prior, beating analysts average estimate of $2.18 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Revenue at Uber Eats doubled to $1.2 billion, boosted by greater demand for delivery as Americans largely continue to stay home. Uber last month expanded its delivery reach by announcing the acquisition of Postmates Inc for $2.65 billion to expand the business of supplying everyday goods.

Ubers ride-hailing segment remained battered by the coronavirus crisis, with revenue from the United States and Canada, its largest market, declining $1.25 billion. Nevertheless, ride-hailing was the only segment generating an adjusted EBITDA profit, of $50 million.

Uber Eats, whose gross bookings more than doubled, continued its loss-making streak but narrowed losses, recording a $232 million adjusted EBITDA loss in the second quarter. CFO Chai said Uber expected losses in the third quarter to be roughly the same.

He also told analysts that Ubers food-delivery business would be profitable in the vast majority of countries in which it operates within a couple years.

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
Portland police declared a riot Wednesday for the second night in a row and used tear gas to disperse protesters gathered outside a Southeast Portland police precinct.

The demonstration reiterated the growing divide among Portlanders who have protested police violence every night since late May. Confrontations between police and protesters have shifted from downtown  the historic heart of the demonstrations  to police buildings across the city, where a faction of protesters now gather every night.

Downtown protests have not drawn a large-scale police response since July 29, the final day federal officers commanded security of the federal courthouse. Calls for calm gained momentum downtown at the same time state police took over. Protesters planned to show Black-made films after nightfall Wednesday for the crowds gathered there.

Many protesters have shifted from downtown to police buildings elsewhere. In recent nights, demonstrators have converged in front of a second eastside precinct and the police union building, where protesters and Portland police clashed Tuesday.

The gathering spot Wednesday was the Portland Police East Precinct on Southeast 106th Avenue, more than six miles from downtown. The precinct is in a residential area, surrounded by apartments.

About 100 people arrived there shortly after 9 p.m., after marching a short distance from Floyd Light Park. The crowd chanted, No good cops in a racist system!

Within 15 minutes of the crowds arrival, Portland police used a loudspeaker just after 9:30 p.m. to tell peaceful people to leave because of criminal activity.

An Oregonian/OregonLive journalist saw someone point green lasers at a security camera. People also spray painted the cameras and a glass door at the front of the building. Police said one person was seen trying to tear down a camera. Most of the windows had been covered with plywood, and demonstrators tore down some of the boards.

People did not leave after police issued the warning. The size of the crowd increased to around 200 people. Most people chanted as a few people started taking down plywood from the building, exposing glass windows and a door. Some people pushed dumpsters to form barricades in the street.

Police called the gathering unlawful at 9:45 p.m., and told people to leave immediately. Several people wearing yellow t-shirts formed a line and linked arms at the south end of the street. The yellow t-shirts are a uniform of protesters who identify as mothers. They repeated, Black lives matter!

Near the entrance of the building, someone used a metal tool to repeatedly hit the glass window. Police said demonstrators cracked glass doors at the precinct. Someone soon started a fire in a trash can next to the entrance.

About 9:55 p.m., police declared the gathering a riot. Police warned that if people did not leave, they would be subject to arrest or dispersal by impact munitions or tear gas.

Police arrived 10 minutes later and forced the crowd to move. Officers in riot gear set off stun grenades as they pressed people north past the fire and precinct. They also used CS gas, which is a type of tear gas, citing life safety issues created by members in the group.

The city was sued in June and July over local officers use of tear gas and a federal court order issued in early June temporarily bars Portland police from using the gas unless officers believe someones life or safety is in danger.

Wednesday marked the first time police have used tear gas to disperse Portland protesters since federal authorities relinquished control of downtown federal courthouse security to the state police last week.

Police detained at least four people during the dispersal.

After police pressed most people away, charred traces of the fire remained near the entrance of the building. An officer approached an Oregonian/OregonLive journalist who walked past and said he had to move.

Police believed there might have been an explosive device placed in front of the building. They said two hours later that they recovered the device and it was not explosive.

Police have not disclosed any more details or explained what led them to initially believe the item might have been an explosive.

As police pressed the crowd away from the precinct Wednesday night, dozens of officers and protesters formed dual lines near 108th Avenue and Washington Street, and faced off for several minutes.

Some of the officers were state troopers, identified by patches on the back of their uniforms. An Oregon State Police spokesman said the agencys role in policing Portland protests hasnt changed and that troopers are still supporting city police.

At 10:20 p.m., the police line advanced on protesters, forcing them to move east. At some points, they ran toward the crowd. Some officers picked up debris, such as homemade shields, left behind in the frenzy and placed them in a police van.

Police began to retreat just before 10:30 p.m.

Most people stayed in the area. One altercation occurred between a person who lived nearby and several protesters, after the woman walked out of her apartment wearing a swastika. Both sides shouted insults at each other for a few minutes.

She shouted at people to leave, and a group of five or six protesters told her to go inside or take her jacket off. At one point, one person grabbed her coat, and the woman pulled her sleeve away.

Ultimately, she went back inside, and people walked away. One person picked up a piece of stone, and threw the object that broke a hole in the window.

Neighbors were mixed in their reaction to the crowd. At least other two bystanders got into shouting matches with protesters after screaming all lives matter at the crowd. One man who claimed to live in the neighborhood walked toward police, held out his arms and shouted, I live here. You need to leave!

The main group of protesters started making its way back to the precinct around 10:45 p.m. A line of officers approached the crowd and ordered people again to leave. Police pressed toward the crowd as one officer repeated orders on a loudspeaker, telling people to get out of the street and leave the area. A group of state troopers followed the front line of officers.

Jason Schell, 35, pulled his families two cars from the street and into the front yard when police pushed protesters to 113th Avenue and Washington Street.

At first, he was afraid demonstrators would break his windows. But he rushed inside to tell his wife to close the windows after police announced they may use tear gas to disperse the crowd.

Schell has lived in the neighborhood since January and doesnt keep up with news of the protests, but he did see a smaller demonstration walk past his house last week. That march lasted for about five minutes, he said.

I never thought this would happen here, he said.

Police retreated from the area around 11 p.m. Many protesters remained.

Police and state troopers again moved in on the crowd near 108th Avenue and Washington Street just before 11:20 p.m. Officers forced people east to 113th Avenue for the second time. Police then forced people to move south on 113th, a residential street.

Officers often advanced toward the crowd by running. But unlike the first time they moved in on protesters, police did not set off sound or other types of devices to break up the crowd.

Protesters broke into much smaller groups. Most people left, though several dozen remained in the area by midnight. Police said most of the crowd had left by 1:30 a.m. Thursday.

Eight people were arrested and jailed in connection with the protest. Police said officers were hit by items including rocks and commercial-grade fireworks during the demonstration.

Portland police also declared Tuesdays demonstration outside the police union building a riot after some people broke into the building and caused damage inside. Officers shot impact munitions toward the crowd to try and clear the area.

The gathering escalated to several tense moments. A driver in a pickup truck raced through the crowd on North Lombard Street. The driver kept going even after the truck struck a motorcycle, pushing it on the concrete street as sparks flew.

The driver was interviewed and released without charges, according to police, who did not provide information in response to questions about the circumstances of the incident and why the driver was released.

Police said they separately responded to two reports of shots fired in the area.

Three people were arrested and jailed in connection with the hours-long demonstration, police said.

Beth Nakamura, Brooke Herbert, Dave Killen, Fedor Zarkhin and K. Rambo of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this report.

--Eder Campuzano | 503-221-4344 | @edercampuzano | Eder on Facebook

-- Jim Ryan; jryan@oregonian.com; 503-221-8005; @Jimryan015

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
A disturbance at a house in Carrigallen led to two people from Cavan Town being before Carrick-on-Shannon District Court on Tuesday, June 21.

David Murray, aged 28, from 49 John Paul Avenue, Cavan and Simone Galligan, aged 23, from 3 St Martin's Estate, Cavan, both pleaded guilty to trespass on a building at 27 Cluain Alainn, Carrigallen, failing to comply with the directions of a garda, and failing to comply with Covid-19 regulations on May 3, 2020

Mr Murray pleaded guilty to further charges of being intoxicated in public and engaging in threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour on the same date and at the same address.

Sgt Michael Gallagher outlined the facts to the court. In response to a call, Gardai attended 27 Cluain Alainn, Carrigallen at 6am on May 3 last.

Two people were in the premises and refused to leave. They both had Cavan addresses.

Gardai entered the premises and sought their cooperation to leave and cautioned them as well that they were well outside the 2km Covid regulations radius that was in place at that time. Both refused to leave but then 20 minutes after the original complaint they said they would.

The gardai left, however, they had to be called again a short time later as there was some altercation. Both defendants were confrontational and uncooperative and were arrested.

Simone Galligan has no previous convictions. David Murray has a total of 41 convictions including a prison sentence for assault, as well as burglary, theft and public order offences.

Brian Galligan, the complainant, lives with his girlfriend in rented accommodation in Carrigallen. He had agreed to let the defendants stay overnight but there had been a falling out between the parties.

He said it was a family matter that got out of hand and he thinks it was his girlfriend who called the guards. He said a row broke out between his girlfriend and his sister. He admitted there was roaring and shouting.

He said alcohol was involved but denied there were any other substances taken.

Judge Kilrane told Mr Galligan he was lucky not to be charged with aiding and abetting people who were using his house during the Covid regulations in place.

He said there was a special sitting of the district court that night as a result of this incident and he was very, very concerned by the defiance shown by Mr Murray that night.

He was in a state of absolute defiance that night in what he would and wouldn't do, the judge said.

David Murray told the court he couldn't really remember the night, he had been drinking and blacked out. He said he has been trying to turn over a new leaf.

He told Sgt Gallagher he only remembered bits and pieces of it but he remembered the Gardai coming up to the bedroom.

Sgt Gallagher put it to him if he remembered saying, I will blow your f***ing knee caps off, I run Cavan, I'm the hardest man in Cavan.

Judge Kilrane questioned why Mr Murray should not go back to prison.

"None of them gave two hoots about the regulations, Mr Galligan, his girlfriend, Mr Murray or Ms Galligan," he said.

Judge Kilrane told the entire family to come up with 1,000 in court on Tuesday, July 28, or Mr Murray would be sent off to prison.

I don't care where you find it, get it, he said and adjourned the matter until July 28.

When the case was recalled on July 28, their solicitor, Martin Burke, said they had managed to come up with 400.

Judge Kilrane put the case back to September 15 with a final warning for the full amount or prison is staring those people in the face; certainly it's staring Mr Murray in the face.
Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia should find an inclusive and durable agreement, said the AU chair

South Africa, the current chair of the African Union, called on Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia to work towards an "amicable solution" for the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) following Addis Ababa's recent proposal that was slammed by Cairo and Khartoum for backtracking on previous agreements.

South Africa commends the parties to the GERD for their commitment to finding an inclusive and durable agreement through dialogue and negotiation, South Africa's official news agency reported a message by its international relations and cooperation minister Naledi Pandor on Thursday.

South Africa urged the three parties to continue to be guided by the spirit of Pan-African solidarity and fraternity, which has characterised the AU-led negotiations on the GERD, Pandor added.

In this regard, it is important that the parties should display magnanimity and understanding of each others interests so as to move the process forward, the agency wrote.

It is expected that a report of the ongoing negotiations on outstanding technical and legal issues will be presented to President Ramaphosa in the next two weeks.

A new round of talks was launched on Monday under the auspices of the African Union in the attendance of EU, US and AU observers. The negotiations hit a dead end on Tuesday when both Egypt and Sudan rejected an Ethiopian proposal.

Ethiopia sent a "guideline" for the filling of the dam and it was slammed by both downstream countries for backtracking on previous agreements.

Cairo said the draft of the guidelines and rules did not include the regulations of operating the dam nor any element that indicates that the agreement is legally binding, and that it lacked the legal mechanism to settle disputes.

Khartoum threatened to quit the talks as Ethiopia ignored the previous agreements and said this agreement should only focus on the filling of the dam and that the operating of the GERD in the long-term should be tied to reaching a convention on the water of the Blue Nile.

Last month, Addis Ababa said it had completed the first-years filling of the dams reservoir.

The first round of AU-sponsored talks over the project ended in July without reaching an accord. Both Egypt and Sudan have repeatedly reitirated their rejection of Ethiopia's unilateral action.

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Bihar Director General of Police (DGP) Gupteshwar Pandey on Thursday accused of being unprofessional on their action of quarantining Patna Superintendent of Police (SP), Vinay Tiwari.

Tiwari is in Mumbai to probe a case related to the death of actor He was quarantined by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) after he travelled via a flight to Mumbai to investigate the case.

Speaking to ANI, Pandey said, "Mumbai police's move of quarantining officer is unprofessional. The Supreme Court has given its observation in the matter."

"There is no positive response from the and he (Vinay Tiwari) has not been released yet. It is like, they are keeping him in a house arrest," Pandey said.

Pandey further said, "We will wait for one more day, after which we will be taking action against them (Mumbai Police). We are taking advice from the Bihar government and might even pursue court in this regard."

The Central government gave a nod to the Central Bureau Of Investigation (CBI) to probe the death case of Bollywood actor

An FIR was filed by the Patna Police against Rhea Chakraborty on a complaint filed by KK Singh, father of the late actor, under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) including abetment of suicide. A team of is in Mumbai to probe the case.

Rajput was found dead at his Mumbai residence on June 14, after which Mumbai had registered a case and is investigating the matter.

(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.)
Rating Action: Moody's assigns Baa1 rating to ServiceNow's senior notes

Global Credit Research - 06 Aug 2020

New York, August 06, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") assigned a Baa1 rating to ServiceNow, Inc's ("ServiceNow") proposed senior unsecured notes. ServiceNow plans to use net proceeds from the notes offering to repurchase up to $500 million of the outstanding convertible notes due in 2022 and augment its cash position.

Assignments:

..Issuer: ServiceNow, Inc.

....Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture, Assigned Baa1

RATINGS RATIONALE

The Baa1 senior unsecured rating reflects ServiceNow's track record of solid organic growth driven by product innovation and its position as the market leader in the IT Service Management (ITSM) segment of the enterprise software market. Moody's expects subscription revenue growth in the low to mid 20% range over the next 2 to 3 years driven by the company's high customer renewal rates and a growing penetration of a broader portfolio of IT, customer and employee workflow automation software products that address a large market.

The rating is additionally supported by ServiceNow's strong liquidity with $3.1 billion in cash and investments (before the financing transactions) and Moody's expectation for growth in free cash flow to about $1.5 billion over the next 12 to 18 months. The increasing mix of new software bookings outside of ServiceNow's core IT workflows will lead to a greater revenue diversification and demonstrates the company's success in growing sales from its more recent products. ServiceNow's growing base of recurring subscription revenues and operating leverage position the company well for sustained increases in operating margins. Its growing backlog of contracted revenues ($7 billion of remaining performance obligations) provides good visibility into revenues and operating cash flow in the intermediate term.

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The Baa1 rating incorporates Moody's expectation that ServiceNow will maintain a conservative financial strategy, including a strong cash position relative to debt and total debt to EBTIDA at or below 2x (incorporating Moody's standard analytical adjustments and growth in deferred revenues). Moody's does not expect the company to initiate a dividend or repurchase shares over the next several years, and expects it to reinvest its free cash flow into its business and make targeted, "tuck-in acquisitions" toward its goal of growing revenues to $10 billion.

The key risks to the rating include potential execution challenges in sustaining high growth rates amid increasing competition. Moody's expects a significant portion of ServiceNow's growth to come from software products outside of its core ITSM market that will have an increasing overlap with the products offered by the cloud platform and enterprise applications software vendors. ServiceNow has primarily grown through innovation and "tuck-in" acquisitions and management believes it can achieve its $10 billion long term revenue goal with its existing product portfolio and innovation capability. However, as a growth-oriented company with large addressable markets, Moody's believes that there is the potential for event risk over time from debt-financed acquisitions that result in elevated integration risks and increased debt levels. At the same time, ServiceNow's strong operating cash flow growth provides increasing flexibility to finance acquisitions with internal cash resources.

The stable outlook reflects Moody's expectations that the company will maintain strong liquidity and a modestly leveraged capital structure. Moody's expects ServiceNow to generate strong revenue and operating profit growth, and maintain or strengthen its market positions in its key product categories.

FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OR DOWNGRADE OF THE RATINGS

The ratings could be upgraded if ServiceNow continues to diversify its revenues, generates strong revenue and operating profit growth, develops a longer track record of conservative financial strategies and commits to sustaining a highly conservative credit profile. Conversely, the rating could be downgraded if revenue growth rates decelerate meaningfully below expectations or operating margins face sustained pressure. In addition, a shift toward an aggressive financial policy that favors shareholders or debt-funded acquisitions that result in free cash flow to debt (Moody's adjusted) sustained below 20% or the failure to maintain a robust liquidity position could trigger a downgrade.

ServiceNow is a leading provider of software solutions to manage IT, customer and employee workflows that are delivered via its NOW cloud platform.

The principal methodology used in this rating was Software Industry published in August 2018 and available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1130740. 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.

At least one ESG consideration was material to the credit rating action(s) announced and described above.

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.

Raj Joshi VP - Senior Credit Officer 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 Lenny J. Ajzenman 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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This school will be a light in the dark, says Sara Varga, Head of School for Phoenix Recovery Academy.

For two years; organizers, advocates, and supporters have been tirelessly working towards opening a high school for young people who need an alternative learning environment that supports their recovery from substance use disorder. On that foundation and mission, the Phoenix Recovery Academy (operating as a program under Phoenix Foundation of Maryland) is now officially opening enrollment for the 2020-2021 academic year.

This school will be a light in the dark, says Sara Varga, Head of School for Phoenix Recovery Academy. Seeing the culmination of the hard work and dedication of the community volunteers, including our board members, means lives will change, and hope will be afforded to so many families worried right now, concludes Varga.

Phoenix Recovery Academy will be accepting rolling admissions with an inaugural first day scheduled for August 31. This non-public high school will service adolescents grades 9 through 12, is tuition-based with scholarships available, and is open to students who are as serious about their education as they are about their recovery from substance use disorder.

Applications can be filled out online at http://www.phoenixrecoveryacademy.org or e-mail svarga@phoenixrecoveryacademy.org .

More on Phoenix Recovery Academy:

Founded in 2020, Phoenix Recovery Academy serves central Maryland and beyond. Located at 117 E. Church St. in Frederick, Maryland, the Phoenix Recovery Academy is the first recovery high school to serve Maryland in 20 years. The Phoenix Recovery Academy models itself as a place of education while being a critical support structure for adolescents to

succeed in their recovery from substance use disorder. Phoenix Recovery Academy and similar schools allow students an alternative to a traditional high school setting; a setting where they work towards their personal goals in recovery, while continuing their education.

Find more information online at http://www.phoenixrecoveryacademy.org.
US president Trump has been admonished by social media sites over coronavirus claims: AP

US president Donald Trump travelled to Ohio on Thursday ostensibly to announce an executive order to ensure essential medicines are made in America, in what largely felt and sounded like a campaign event. As the president left DC, Ohio governor Mike DeWine tested positive for coronavirus and was therefore unable to meet Air Force One on the tarmac in Cleveland.

In a speech at the Whirlpool factory in Clyde, Ohio, the president veered on and off script lauding his purported achievements in trade for the American worker and promising more, while waxing lyrical about lightbulbs and water pressure, and going after his political opponents.

Earlier in the day, Trump suggested that Americans would have a coronavirus vaccine in November, and possibly before the presidential election. Meanwhile, three US social media sites censured president Donald Trump's claims on Wednesday that children were "virtually immune" to Covid-19, with Facebook calling the president's post "harmful Covid misinformation".

The US State Department announced it has lifted its global 'do not travel' order, in place since March, but there are still only a very small number of countries that welcome Americans.

The day couldn't go by without Trump taking a few swipes at his election opponent Joe Biden, who the president said is against religion, against the Bible, against God and against guns. He also took aim at Biden for insulting the black community after the former vice president asked an African American journalist if he was a "junkie".

Meanwhile, New York district attorney Letitia James, who has launched an investigation into the Trump Organisation, announced a lawsuit against the National Rifle Association that seeks to disband the gun-rights group.
On August 4 2020, the Taiwanese Navy held a launching ceremony for Taiwans first indigenously-built fast mine-laying boat as well as a keel-laying ceremony for the second of four minelayers that are part of the Taiwanese governments indigenous shipbuilding project.

On August 4 2020, the Taiwanese Navy held a launching ceremony for Taiwans first indigenously-built fast mine-laying boat as well as a keel-laying ceremony for the second of four minelayers that are part of the Taiwanese governments indigenous shipbuilding project.

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The fast mine-laying boat is expected to be delivered at the end of the year. (Picture source: ROC Military News Agency)

Navy Admiral Liu Chih-pin and Lung Teh Shipbuilding Co. Chairman Huang Shou-chen jointly hosted the event at Lung Teh shipyard in Yilan County.

The vessel received the pennant number FMLB-1 (likely for Fast Mine Laying Boat).

The minelayer project was developed based on the enemy threat and combat needs after integrating the militarys mine-laying combat plans, the officials of the Taiwanese Navy stated. It will make it easier to prevent enemy vessels from sailing near Taiwan, the statement said.

Delivery of the third and fourth mine-laying ships is scheduled to be made by the end of 2021. These ships will greatly enhance Taiwans offensive mine fighting capacity.

Min Jiang-class mine-laying ship design. (Picture source: ROC Navy)

About Taiwans mine-laying ship:

According to Lungteh Shipbuilding, the vessels have a full load displacement of 347 tons, a length of 41 meters, a width of 8.8 meters and a draft of 1.7 meters. The vessels can reach a maximum speed of 14 knots.

In addition to the sea mines (carrying capacity is unknown), the vessel is fitted with a 20mm T75 gun mount (as main gun) and two T74 machine guns (manned 7.6251 mounts).

The vessel comes with an automatic mine-laying system and propulsion equipment that allows it to lay mines rapidly and with high accuracy.

The minelayers will also have a newly developed automatic mine-laying system and propulsion equipment that allows them to lay mines speedily and precisely.
She was my best friend and amazing daughter, Coleman wrote. I think she had to make it seem like I could live without her. I cant. I wish I could have taken the pain from her! She never recovered from what those boys did to her and its just not fair. My baby girl is gone.
By Akbar Mammadov

Azerbaijan will send financial aid worth $1 million to Lebanon over the massive explosion that rocked Beirut on August 4.

Prime Minister Ali Asadov signed a relevant decree on August 5.

According to the order, the funds in the amount of the manat equivalent of $1 million from the reserve fund envisaged in the 2020 state budget will be allocated to send humanitarian aid to Lebanon to help eliminate the consequences of the tragedy in that country.

Earlier, on August 5, President Ilham Aliyev expressed his condolences to Lebanese counterpart Michel Aoun over the explosion in Beirut.

The huge explosion in Beirut on Tuesday killed at least 135 people and injured more than 4,000 others. A two-week state of emergency has begun in Lebanon over the blast. President Michel Aoun said the blast was caused by 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored unsafely in a warehouse.

---

Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

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NEW YORK, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Global creative technology company Splash Worldwide announced today Rob Smith as its first US CEO. Rob comes to Splash with deep marketing and leadership experience, having run global businesses and produced award winning advertising work for multiple clients, including winning numerous Cannes Cyber Lions. Rob started his career on the agency side at Ogilvy WorldWide before joining Goodby Silverstein and Partners, San Francisco. Prior to joining Splash, he led and built several technology-based start-ups in the role of CMO, hiring and working with world-leading agency partners.

"We knew that Rob was the right leader for Splash based on his understanding of the marketing landscape today and the shared vision that brands today need to communicate globally, at speed and scale" said Global CEO and founder of Splash, Paul Stonebridge. "Splash was founded with the vision of harnessing technology to deliver marketing communications for the modern, connected world. Today we work with some of the world's highest performing brands to deliver global, regional and local campaigns and content. We're excited to see Rob at the helm in the US to help us grow our North American and global client base".

"The Splash business model is designed to help clients respond to profound consumer changes in a matter of hours rather than days" said Rob Smith. "It's exciting to join a team that is able to deliver hugely complex global campaign and performance marketing content, across platforms and geographies. Our ability to deliver all this remotely, at speed, is testament to the outstanding team we have and the world class systems, capabilities and processes that Splash brings to the market."

Three core services allow client's external messaging go faster, further and be better, tied together by the proprietary technology platform Vivid.

Splash's Global Production capabilities enable clients to react faster. We originate, adapt and augment content through Splash Studio's which include an 11,000 sq. ft Studio, Creative & Design, Motion & CGI, and Photo & Retouching capabilities for content creation and campaign adaptation.

Splash can take creative further with Global Localization. We use a highly qualified network of 3,000 in-market linguists, providing best-in-class localization and transcreation to ensure campaigns are consistent and locally and culturally relevant.

Splash offers better Marketing Performance. Dynamic systems and market insight are used to build and deploy campaign assets that, in combination with a media partner, maximizes our clients' Return On Investment.

As US CEO, Smith is building a distributed, global company, connected through technology and with offices around the world. "The COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated the change towards more agile, tech-enhanced and performance-based, lower cost delivery models, as the worlds of performance, programmatic and brand advertising converge" said Smith. "To succeed with modern, global brands, you cannot have performance without localization, and you need to produce high quality, on brand and culturally relevant assets. With our three complementary service strands Splash is perfectly placed to deliver brand consistent, culturally relevant performance-based content on a global scale at the speed today's business world requires. This brings competitive advantage to our clients with unparalleled results around efficiency and effectiveness".

About Splash Worldwide

Splash Worldwide is a global creative technology company that unleashes creativity for everyone, everywhere. We make communications go faster, further and be better, delivering maximum ROI for client's marketing investments. Splash deploys assets across video, digital, social, outdoor and print to over 100 markets around the world each year. Splash has offices in Portland, New York, London, Amsterdam and Singapore and works with brands including Google, Nike, Sonos, PVH, Clif Bar, Newell Brands, and Seagate.

For more information visit www.splashworldwide.com

SOURCE Splash Worldwide

Related Links

https://www.splashworldwide.com


Wyoming County Fairs Faring Well Through Coronavirus Cautions

Emma Benson, left, and Jazlynn Gonzalez compete at the recent Platte County Fair. (Katie Shockley Photo)

The wave of county fairs spreading across summer calendars met the wave of coronavirus cases weaving through Wyoming -- and fairs seemed to have won, at least according to early reports.

Most county fairs are wrapping up this week, with Teton, Park, Platte and Converse counties completing their fairs more than a week ago, and Natronas fair finished by mid-July.

COVID-19 considerations forced changes to normal routines. One 4-H educator said he was humbled by the combined efforts in his county to meet the new requirements. Another said the circumstances of those going beyond to hold the fair were too many to name.

University of Wyoming Extension Educator Joddee Jacobsen, of Natrona County, notes instances of many 4-Hers helping one another and the good spirits of 4-H families, friends and volunteers who took the challenge and ran with it.

The incredible part is that we were able to step back, evaluate and identify the difficulty, and then look for, figure out and find a solution, Jacobsen says. We relied on our positive outlook and American ingenuity. And it got the job done.

Many fairs required masks for 4-Hers and social distancing, and hand sanitizers were available. The social distancing eventually meant the same for livestock, too.

Livestock judging that usually took place inside arenas moved outside.

Nearly all 4-H fair events changed to some degree in either location, duration or method, says UW 4-H Extension Educator Glenn Owings, of Teton County, where judging events were moved to various parts of the fairgrounds to minimize contact and reduce the number of people indoors.

He also developed a staggered feeding/animal care schedule to reduce the number of people inside the livestock barn at a given time. The decision whether to house livestock inside occurred only about two weeks before the fair. Once there was a decision, a frantic dash ensued to make things happen.

These challenges created an outstanding number of logistical challenges to work through with the fair office, leaders, staff and the fair board, he says.

Owings says the fair had a more community-oriented feel. There was no carnival, so kids and parents spent more time together in their family groups.

Todd Paisley, a senior 4-Her in Platte County, also felt a bigger sense of community at that fair.

It went way better because it showed the ag community can still come together and do the right thing and put on a fair, says Paisley, who exhibited two market steers and won reserve champion in Platte County. It provided a sense of community.

Paisley says he was worried that, when school let out in March, there might not be a fair. He had already put in the money to buy the animals and followed through.

Its not just about showing them, he adds. Its about doing the right thing for the animal.

Owings says many noted the traditional aspects of fair were once again highly valued -- livestock projects, animal care, family time and hands-on static exhibitions.

Many went beyond to make the fair happen. When one sewing leader was unable to continue meeting for health reasons, another met several extra full days to make sure the kids could finish their projects. Livestock leaders helped haul shavings, organize paperwork and wrangle a loose steer in the middle of the night.

I was humbled by their efforts and support, Owings says.

Park County featured only livestock shows, notes UW 4-H Extension Educator Tycee Mohler. 4-Hers brought in their animals just for the show, left and then brought them back for the animal sale.

Families were thrilled to have the opportunity, and 4-Hers were excited to show and put their best efforts forward, she says. The entire community showed up in support of one another.

Mohler notes numerous instances of 4-Hers helping one another without being asked. The 2020 Park County junior livestock sale was a record-breaker, showing the communitys support of its youth, she adds.

Hannah Swanbom, interim UW 4-H extension educator in Converse County, notes the livestock sale was up 35 percent from last year.

Even though we had to make some changes, it seemed like the experience for the kids and families was similar to previous years, she says. We did have fewer numbers in the various project areas but, overall, it was a good fair.

Jacobsen notes that the obstacles had a positive aspect in one area.

I think it was a great experience because, despite having to think of new ways to get the job done, we found there were many aspects we liked better and want to incorporate into future fairs, she says.

Those include how static exhibitions, and fashion and fabric exhibitions are judged.

The point, she says, was having a good attitude going in and people happy the fair would proceed. The experience was well worth the planning, coordinating and worry, Jacobsen says.

I also hope everyone will continue to foster the feeling of gratitude, she adds. We have it good in Natrona County, and this was an excellent reminder of how privileged we are to have the amenities and resources we enjoy here.

The Wyoming State Fair is Aug. 11-15 in Douglas. More information is available at https://wystatefair.com.
As climate change brings hotter weather to Southern California, coastal populations from San Diego to Santa Barbara may face an increased risk of contracting West Nile virus and other mosquito-borne diseases, suggests a new study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley.

West Nile virus is America's deadliest mosquito-borne disease and has been a threat to the Los Angeles metropolitan area since it arrived in 2003. The virus is harbored by mosquitos and birds and is most commonly spread to humans through the bite of an infected mosquito.

The study team analyzed data on nearly 2 million mosquitoes that had been captured and tested for West Nile in Los Angeles between 2006 and 2016. They then used machine learning to identify the landscape and climate conditions that influenced mosquito infection in different neighborhoods.

They found that infection among captured mosquitoes was strongly associated with the average temperature in the neighborhood.

Our data revealed a sharp transition, where -- as temperatures shift between 70 to around 73 degrees Fahrenheit -- the likelihood of capturing infected mosquitoes in L.A. neighborhoods increases dramatically. Above this range, conditions become consistently favorable for transmission, and below this range, conditions are consistently unfavorable." Nicholas Skaff, lead author of the study and former postdoctoral scholar in environmental health sciences at UC Berkeley's School of Public Health

The results, published today (Wednesday, Aug. 5) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, help explain why coastal L.A. communities -- where typical summer conditions hover right at the boundary between favorable and inhibitory temperatures --- seem to be protected some years, yet vulnerable in others.

With significant warming expected over the coming decades, a greater number of West Nile cases may be expected along the Southern California coast, said Justin Remais, associate professor of environmental health sciences at UC Berkeley.

"Coastal L.A. appears to be vulnerable to the expected warming of California's climate by mid-century, which will push coastal climates more consistently into the favorable zone," Remais said. "Inland L.A. may not be as susceptible to these shifts, as the climate is already favorable. Yet, as climate warming progresses towards the century's end, it is possible that temperatures become too hot in these areas."

The researchers emphasize that one or a few particularly hot days do not appear to increase transmission risk significantly. Rather, it is sustained warm temperatures over the course of weeks that give mosquitoes time to acquire the infection and pass it on to bird host species like the house finch.

"Our research suggests that, rather than focusing on daily weather reports, it's important to examine temperatures over the long haul," Skaff said. "If coastal Los Angeles experiences a month or two of warm temperatures during the summer or early fall, it's probably a good time to be extra careful to avoid mosquito bites. Inland parts of L.A. are almost always sufficiently hot during the summer, so other factors end up determining whether intense transmission occurs there."

And while the data indicate that temperature plays a very important role, the researchers emphasize that many factors ultimately determine whether a West Nile outbreak will occur.

"You can think of the favorable temperature range we identified as a prerequisite -- if other things don't go right for the vector or the virus, transmission may still not occur, even when temperatures are favorable," Skaff said. "For example, if most of the susceptible birds in the region were infected during the previous year or two because a large outbreak occurred, herd immunity will be high, and the risk to people will be limited."

"Predicting the transmission of infectious diseases carried by animal hosts and vectors represents a complex puzzle," added Remais, "and machine learning can pick up patterns in vast epidemiological and ecological datasets that help us understand why certain people and neighborhoods are at the highest risk, as well as what the future holds."
Identity and access management in 2022 - what will the future look like?

As we enter into 2022, there is still a level of uncertainty in place. Its unclear what the future holds, as companies around the world still contend with the COVID-19 pandemic. Remote working has been encouraged by most organisations and the move to a hybrid working system has become business as usual, for the majority of businesses. Some have reduced their office space or done away with their locations altogether. Following best security practices With all this change in place, there are problems to deal with. According to research, 32.7% of IT admins say they are concerned about employees using unsecured networks to carry out that work. Alongside this, 74% of IT admins thought that remote work makes it harder for employees to follow best security practices. This need to manage security around remote work is no longer temporary. Instead, companies have to build permanent strategies around remote work and security. The coming year will also create a different landscape for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs). Here are some key predictions for next year and what to start preparing for in 2022: The reality of SMB spending around security will hit home SMBs had to undertake significant investments to adapt to remote working SMBs had to undertake significant investments to adapt to remote working, especially in comparison to their size. They had to undertake significant digital transformation projects that made it possible to deliver services remotely, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Weve seen a shift in mindset for these companies, which are now more tech-focused in their approach to problem solving. According to our research, 45% of SMBs plan to increase their spending towards IT services in 2022. Around half of all organisations think their IT budgets are adequate for their needs, while 14.5% of those surveyed believe they will need more, to cover all that needs to be done. Identity management spending to support remote work For others, the COVID-19 pandemic led to over-spending, just to get ahead of things and they will spend in 2022, looking at what they should keep and what they can reduce their spending on. Areas like identity management will stay in place, as companies struggle to support remote work and security, without this in place. However, on-premise IT spending will be reduced or cut, as those solutions are not relevant for the new work model. Services that rely on on-premise IT will be cut or replaced. The device will lead the way for security We rely on our phones to work and to communicate. In 2022, they will become central to how we manage access, to all our assets and locations, IT and physical. When employees can use company devices and their own phones for work, security is more difficult. IT teams have to ensure that theyre prepared for this, by making sure that these devices can be trusted. Wide use of digital certificates and strong MFA factors Rather than requiring a separate smart card or fingerprint reader, devices can be used for access using push authentication There are multiple ways that companies can achieve this, for example - By using digital certificates to identify company devices as trusted, an agent, or strong MFA factors, like a FIDO security key or mobile push authentication. Whichever approach you choose, this can prevent unauthorised access to IT assets and applications, and these same devices can be used for authentication into physical locations too. Rather than requiring a separate smart card or fingerprint reader, devices can be used for access using push authentication. Understanding human behaviour Alongside this, it is important to understand human behaviour. Anything that introduces an extra step for authentication can lead to employees taking workarounds. To stop this, it is important to put an employee education process in place, in order to emphasize on the importance of security. The next step is to think about adopting passwordless security, to further reduce friction and increase adoption. Lastly, as devices become the starting point for security and trust, remote device management will be needed too. More companies will need to manage devices remotely, from wiping an asset remotely if it gets lost or stolen, through to de-provisioning users easily and removing their access rights, when they leave the company. Identity will be a layer cake Zero Trust approaches to security Identity management relies on being able to trust that someone is who they say they are. Zero Trust approaches to security can support this effectively, particularly when aligned with least privilege access models. In order to turn theory into practical easy-to-deploy steps, companies need to use contextual access, as part of their identity management strategy. This involves looking at the context that employees will work in and putting together the right management approach for those circumstances. For typical employee behaviour, using two factor authentication might be enough to help them work, without security getting in the way. How enterprises manage, access and store identity data There will also be a shift in how enterprises manage, access, and store that identity data over time For areas where security is more important, additional security policies can be put over the top, to ensure that only the right people have access. A step-up in authentication can be added, based on the sensitivity of resources or risk-based adaptive authentication policies might be needed. There will also be a shift in how enterprises manage, access, and store that identity data over time, so that it aligns more closely with those use cases. Identity management critical to secure assets in 2022 There are bigger conversations taking place around digital identity for citizenship, as more services move online as well. Any moves that take place in this arena will affect how businesses think about their identity management processes too, encouraging them to look at their requirements in more detail. Overall, 2022 will be the year when identity will be critical to how companies keep their assets secure and their employees productive. With employees working remotely and businesses becoming decentralised, identity strategies will have to take the same approach. This will put the emphasis on strong identity management as the starting point for all security planning.
IFC Films

If Tom Hanks has officially come to own the title of Americas Dad, Liam Neeson is more like the Irish uncle who took you to your first bar: rugged, rowdy, a little bit of a scamp.

Having found his late-career calling as a sort of one-man suicide squad in silver-haired thrillers like Taken, The Commuter, and Cold Pursuit, the 68-year-old star of Schindler's and Star Wars seems almost too muscular a presence for a wan romantic dramedy like Made in Italy.

And he is almost criminally underused in it, though the bigger disappointment, maybe, is the movies lack of vicarious travelogue thrills in lockdown: This is Italy? Give me villas and rolling hills! Dappled sunlight falling on cypress trees! Olive oil running like a river of dreams!

Writer-director James DArcy does deliver Tuscan sun, nominally, but its a weak beam. Michael Richardson (Vox Lux) is Jack, a twentysomething London gallerist whose job is about to disappear along with his divorce papers; his soon-to-be exs parents own the place, and they're as done with him as his daughter is.

And so he rouses his own semi-estranged father, Robert (played by Neeson, who is Richardson's real-life dad), a lapsed painter and part-time Lothario, to return to the family vacation home in Italy  a place neither has gone back to since the loss of Jacks mother some 15 years before.

If Jack can fix it up quick and sell it, he may be able to buy his life back. If not, at least theyll get a few good mildly entertaining montages out of it  and maybe romance, too. (Is there a beautiful chef at the local trattoria ready and waiting to fill Jacks soul with risotto? Could the chilly local estate agent possibly warm up to Roberts shenanigans? You get two guesses.)

This is the directing debut for DArcy, a gifted British actor with a long-ranging career across both movies (Dunkirk, Cloud Atlas) and television (Broadchurch, Homeland). Maybe thats why his identity as a filmmaker seems so vaguely unformed here.

Story continues

The concept is diverting enough, but so familiar it borders on deja vu, and he cloaks it all in a sort of cable-TV sensibility that serves neither its gorgeous locations nor the pat machinations of the script. The soundtrack leans heavy on generically jangly indie rock and songs straight from some erzatz Italian Cooking playlist on Spotify; the script lists and dawdles where it should be shrewd or funny or poignant (though there is one great line about a bread-sized rodent).

It feels almost churlish to fault the film for its weightlessness, when light is exactly what movies like this are meant to provide: a fizzy, sun-drenched escape from the pale monotony of our own lives. Except that it so often fails to fizz  or even feel like its made, in fact, in Italy and not some remote sound stage stocked with linguine and carefully patina'd stucco. Made has the passport; it just doesnt take you there. C+

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The travel guides, maps and reference books that force my bookshelves to slump and moan with discontent are cracked and seasoned by years of adventure, like well-used tarot cards. They're outdated to the point of inaccuracy and contain almost nothing worth knowing that can't be easily found on the Internet. They take up a shocking amount of space, are so obsolete it would be irresponsible to donate them anywhere and, as any organizational expert would agree, should be thrown out by dark tonight. So why can't I part with them?

Pre-Internet, these books inspired me to see the world and, in an age before GPS and location tracking, often felt like the only lifeline between myself and planet Earth. They helped me feel as if I were traveling before I could, and now, in these strange, restrictive times, they're helping me do the same while I can't. Throwing them away feels almost like a moral dilemma, as if I might be dismissing an old, trusted friend for the company of a newer, cooler prospect.

If William Blake saw a world in a grain of sand, I've forever seen it in travel guides, any of which seems to me to hold endless possibilities between its covers. Aside from the requisite hotel/restaurant/attraction information, I, especially as a young traveler, was fascinated by the insider knowledge they contained, details I hoped desperately I would one day need. Things like electricity conversion charts, embassy information, telephone dialing instructions, traveler's check advice, international television channel breakdowns, menu translations, cultural etiquette tips, foldout maps and clothing size charts. This is common, easily obtainable, largely outdated intel today, but back then, beyond the few travel shows on television and a handful of magazines, these books were one of the rare places one could even find this magical lexicon. They felt like handbooks to some incredibly exclusive club.

Before the Internet allowed us to see every street, practically taste every meal and all but take the trip before we even stepped foot on a plane, these books doled out just enough detail to help us plan yet still believe it was possible to discover something once there - wherever "there" was. Some didn't even include photographs, just comically unhelpful sketches barely above the skill level of a bad courtroom artist. Others contained no graphics whatsoever, a fact that only served to ramp up my curiosity.

It was not until I left for Paris to study French at age 22 that these books shifted from curiosities to necessities. Following the advice of a well-traveled family friend, I purchased a "Plan de Paris par Arrondissement" on my first morning there, and had I been carrying around the Rosetta stone itself, I could not have been more exhilarated by the thought of what it would unlock. A small, stout book slightly bigger than a deck of cards and seemingly 3,000 times the weight of one, it outlined every single street in the city and its suburbs; streets that I had dreamed about since childhood and that, thanks to this dense little book, I spent the entire trip exploring.

I carried it everywhere for that and many, many subsequent trips, and it has become a victim of both my enthusiasm and my neglect. It's oily and puckered with literal blood, sweat, tears, wine, sunscreen, cheese, ink, cocktails and even rain. Ancient crumbs from macarons and baguettes prevent it from closing fully. The pages long ago liberated themselves from the spine (I inevitably spend a good part of my Paris escapades retrieving them from wherever they've flown and shoving them back between the jacket until they escape again), its plastic cover split sometime in the late '90s, and the glue that held the metro map to the back inside cover simply dissolved at some point. (Inexplicably, that map has been lost countless times, but like some kind of homing pigeon always finds its way back into the folds of the book.) Eventually, my "Plan de Paris" became so disordered that I began taking only the pages of the arrondissements I anticipated visiting, a strategy that I soon realized, after absent-mindedly wandering into different districts, is like wearing only the shoe of the foot on which you think you'll take the most steps.

A few years after that first trip, I found an enormous collection of guidebooks in a neighborhood thrift shop while walking to work. Unable to resist (Fodor's! Frommer's! Insight! Steves!), I bought them and lugged them for what felt like miles in two enormous shopping bags. Feeling as if I were carrying bags full of dreams, I arrived at work, crimson with exhaustion but beaming with excitement. As I showed my colleagues the guides to Sweden and India and Bangkok and everywhere else, they looked at me as if I'd picked up a 747 and wanted to store it in the break room. It was clear they were wondering why a 25-year-old living paycheck to paycheck had just purchased multiple travel guides for places to which she had no immediate plans to travel.

Eventually, as I knew we would, these books and I found ourselves in the countries they documented. Many, like the Paris map book, were used so much that they are no longer books as much as stacks of mixed-up sheets held together by memory. The guides that have yet to be used, on the other hand, sit fully intact, bound together by potential.

I'm fully aware of all the apps, sites and media tools I can use to replace all my books in a single swoop. But when I hold my crumbling copy of "Plan de Paris par Arrondissement," I can feel the heat of the summer day I bought it, see the lines on the face of the grumpy tobacco shop owner who sold it to me and feel all the aspirations I had not only for that trip, but for all the trips I would ever take. Addresses and phone numbers of dorms and friends and banks and train stations and people met on buses are etched throughout. Pulling this and other guides down from the shelf - as I have done almost obsessively during the lockdown - often yields a flutter of ephemera accumulated in the frenzy of travel: metro tickets, sugar wrappers, itineraries, business cards, boarding passes, stamps, coasters, receipts, room keys and even coins that have moored themselves there, both purposely and accidentally.

Sometimes, when I look at these shelves, all I can see are the titles of the places I still haven't been, and I think in many ways, that's the point. Guidebooks show us that no matter how well traveled we are, we are all novices in some way. There is always something more to see: one more street, one more restaurant, one more store, one more museum, one more city, one more country. And so, more than likely, my guidebooks will not be a part of the Great Pandemic Clearance of 2020. In a time when we are literally confined to four walls, they remain proof that the world is - or, at least, will be again - there for the taking.

- - -

Lichterman is a writer based in Los Angeles. Find her on Instagram @restlesslegssyndrometravel and Twitter @CLRestless.
KALAMAZOO, MI  Julie Rogers has been declared the winner of the Democratic primary for the 60th District in the Michigan House of Representatives, according to unofficial vote totals from Kalamazoo County.

Stephanie Moore, who trailed Rogers by 423 votes once all precincts were in and absentee ballots were included in the count, said she is looking into the possibility of a recount because of questions about the processing of ballots and technical difficulties overnight.

Rogers picked up more than 51% of the vote with 7,108 cast in her favor. Moore received 6,685 votes, more than 48% of the total, according to unofficial results. Another 35 votes were cast for write-in candidates.

The Associated Press declared Rogers the winner based on the unofficial vote counts on Wednesday morning. The Kalamazoo County Clerks Office did not immediately respond to questions about the possibility of a recount in the race.

Related: Rogers leads in Democratic primary race for District 60 state House seat

Rogers, 44, is a member of the Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners and the former board chairperson. Moore is also a former chairperson of the county board, and also currently serving as a county commissioner.

Rogers posted on her campaign Facebook page that she was cautiously saying she is thrilled with the results. Rogers acknowledged the results are not official until certified by the Board of Canvassers.

Thank you to the voters of Kalamazoo and my campaign team! Rogers said online. We stayed positive through a sea of negativity and focused on ideas and solutions to bring to Lansing. In this race, health and healthcare was on the line.

I will continue to work hard onto the November election and will help Democrats up and down the ticket to get elected. Now is the time for unity  we all need to come together to elect Democrats with progressive values

Related: Commissioner outspends colleague in race for Kalamazoo-area state House seat

Rogers, who works as a physical therapist at Ascension Borgess, said she heard a lot about peoples concerns related to COVID-19, and healthcare, while campaigning. She said she believes she has expertise in the healthcare field that is needed in Lansing.

When youre elected all of a sudden youre supposed to be an expert in like 200 topics and there, frankly, are not very many elected officials with healthcare background, Rogers said, adding, I think we need diversity of all types, you know, Black, white, men, women, but also diversity of background, because theres so much to cover and be an expert on.

Rogers aid she was up past 3 a.m. Wednesday waiting for the results to come in.

The delay in reporting of election night results was attributed, in part, to the higher number of absentee votes to be counted Tuesday. More people voted absentee this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic and Proposal 3, passed by voters in 2018, which allows anyone to vote absentee without providing a reason.

Related: Election results slowed in Kalamazoo with increased absentee voting amid pandemic

Moore, 48, said she has questions about ballots that were sent out incorrectly and reissued before Tuesdays election.

Did all those people vote and were all those votes counted? Moore said.

Moore called the race extremely close, and said she was looking into the possibility of an audit of the results.

We just want to make sure this was a fair, clean election and the voters were not disenfranchised, Moore said.

Moore held an outdoor watch party with a big screen showing the results as they came in Tuesday night. She said she planned to go live on Facebook later on Wednesday to talk to people about the race.

Stephanie Moore checks Kalamazoo County election results during her primary election party in Kalamazoo, Michigan on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2020. Stephanie Moore is running for State Representative 60th District in the Democratic primary against Julie Rogers.Joel Bissell | MLive.com

The Democratic nominee will ultimately face off with the lone Republican candidate, Gary Mitchell, in Novembers general election. The winner of that contest will be elected to the District 60 seat currently held by state Rep. Jon Hoadley, D-Kalamazoo. Hoadley cannot run for reelection due to term limits, and is instead challenging U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, for his seat representing Michigans 6th congressional district.

Click here for more of MLives Election Day coverage from across the state, or here for full coverage of Kalamazoo-area elections.

Read more:

Election results for Kalamazoo-area races Aug. 4, 2020

County commissioner wins primary in race to replace retiring Kalamazoo County clerk

Your guide to local elections in Michigan on Tuesday, Aug. 4

Kalamazoos 9 homicides in 2020 approaches 2019 total: Where, when and how they happened
Powerball was not struck on Wednesday night, meaning there is now $38 million up for grabs on Saturday night.

$38 million is life-changing! If a single player is lucky enough to win the Powerball jackpot on Saturday, it will be the second largest prize ever won in New Zealand, says Marie Winfield, Head of Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility at Lotto NZ.

Winning Powerball has a huge ripple effect  so many people benefit from that one little yellow ticket, the win is felt right throughout the winners community, says Marie.

Meanwhile, six lucky Lotto players from around the country will be jumping for joy after each winning $166,667 with Lotto First Division in tonights live Lotto draw.

The winning tickets were sold at the following stores:

Store Location Oratia Superette Auckland The Bookshop and Lotto Huntly Papamoa Beach Superette Papamoa Countdown Fairy Springs Rotorua Temuka New World Temuka Roxburgh Supervalue Roxburgh

Strike Four was also won tonight by a player from Mosgiel, who took home $400,000. The winning Strike ticket was sold at Mosgiel New World.

Anyone who bought their ticket from any of the above winning stores should write their name on the back of their ticket and check it immediately in-store at any Lotto shop, online at MyLotto.co.nz or through the Lotto NZ App.

The winning numbers for tonights draw are: 22, 20, 5, 9, 19 and 24. Bonus ball 6. Powerball 4.

Lotto players can buy a ticket for Saturdays $38 million Powerball draw from any Lotto retailer, online at MyLotto.co.nz or through the Lotto NZ App.

Lotto games are based on a lot of people, spending a little bit of money in the hope of winning big. At all times Lotto NZ encourages our customers to play smart  this means being informed, having fun and knowing your limits. Find out more here.

Largest Powerball wins of all time
General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA) has introduced the "Dubai e-Documents System," a digital encyclopedia of all travel documents for different countries, supported by samples of original documents.

Major General Obaid Muhair bin Suroor, Deputy Director of the GDRFA, said the project aims to enhance the countrys security and achieve the Dubai governments digital transformation.

Bin Suroor pointed out that the e-system was independent of the GDRFA and similar to systems such as EdisonTD, which includes the membership of the UAE, the Netherlands, Canada, the US and Australia.

The system is a smart mechanism for confirming travel documents and detecting fraudulent documents, he stated.

According to him, the new system will improve the countrys security and digital infrastructure, and also strengthen the local and international reputation of the UAE.

The GDRFA is continuing its efforts to adopt the best innovative solutions to improve its work and reinforce the countrys position, he added.
New York, Aug 6 : Global healthcare company Johnson & Johnson has reached a $1 billion deal with the US government for manufacturing and delivery of 100 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine that is being tested.

The US government may also purchase an additional 200 million doses of the vaccine, Ad26.COV2.S, under a subsequent agreement, the company said on Wednesday.

"We greatly appreciate the US government's confidence in, and support for, our R&D platform and efforts and the scalability of our vaccine technology," Paul Stoffels, Chief Scientific Officer at Johnson & Johnson, said in a statement.

"We are scaling up production in the US and worldwide to deliver a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine for emergency use," Stoffels said.

Based on the positive preclinical data recently published in the peer reviewed journal Nature, early stage clinical trial of the vaccine candidate, Ad26.COV2.S, is underway in healthy volunteers in the US and Belgium.

The company is evaluating one- and two-dose regimens, in its clinical programme.

Johnson & Johnson said it aims to meet its goal to supply more than one billion doses globally through the course of 2021, provided the vaccine is safe and effective.

J&J's Covid-19 vaccine programme is leveraging Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies' (Janssen) adenovector technology that provides the ability to rapidly develop new vaccine candidates.

It is planning to start a Phase-3 clinical trial of its Covid-19 vaccine ahead of its original schedule, potentially in late September.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)

-- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed
FLUSHING, MI  A special election held during the Michigan primary election has filled the Flushing City Council seats left vacant after a string of resignations in the beginning of the year.

The resignations of former councilmembers Richard Bade, Patrick Scanlon and Lynn Black in March and Karianne Martus in January led to a loss of quorum that left the council unable to conduct business, even to refill the seats or extend the citys state of emergency declaration at the start of the pandemic.

Flushing City Council loses quorum after 4 resignations

3 Flushing council members didnt participate in coronavirus planning, later resign, mayor says

Resigned Flushing council members explain resignations, special election set

The special election was called by resolution as a result of over half the Flushing City Council resigning due to disagreements. Seven candidates ran for the four open seats to serve partial terms beginning immediately and ending Nov. 8, 2021.

Several run in election for Flushing City Council to fill seats following string of resignations

Dane Miller won District 2 over Seth Neblock with 34.22% of the vote. Danielle Smith won District 3 over Brad Barrett with 46.62% of the vote. Eric Johnson won District 4 over Patrick Jones with 38.14% of the vote. Dan Fralick won at-large in an uncontested race.

Im humbled and honored to get the opportunity to serve the community, Miller said. Im looking forward to everyone being able to work together to make the city a better place.

Miller also thanked his opponent for running a positive campaign, as he is someone who is new to politics. Johnson also complemented his opponents candidacy and said he expected the results to be closer to 50/50.

Im looking forward to working with the council with being able to have a full quorum, an elected quorum at that, Johnson said. Ive already been told we have a pretty full agenda for Mondays meeting, and Im just looking forward to everybody thats going be on the council  the current ones and the new ones. Its a great group of people.

Fralick also said the Flushing City Council has gained a great team for the partial term.

Im just looking forward to serving the next 17 months with this group of people, Fralick said. First time in politics, and Im very excited about being there.

Read More on MLive

August 2020 primary election results in Genesee, Saginaw, Bay and Midland counties

8 takeaways from the 2020 primary election in mid-Michigan

High number of absentee voters may have fueled thousands of spoiled Genesee County ballots
Mr Benedict Samuel Nugblega, the Director of Human Resource at the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG), has commended the people in the area for tolerance and comportment in the ongoing voter registration exercise.



He said the peace and the sense of patriotism displayed by the registrants at the centres were commendable and urged them to continue until the end of the exercise.



Mr Nugblega, also the former Akatsi South Parliamentary aspirant of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) after a tour of some registration centres in the District, said he was impressed with the behaviour of the people in the District at the registrations centres.



"I must say emphatically that the smooth and peaceful exercise in my constituency during all the phases of the registration exercise ought to be applauded."



"This is my constituency so I've come to register and also to help my people for a successful exercise," he said.



Mr Nugblega commended the various political party agents for following the laid down procedures in addressing challenges at the centres.



He appealed to those who are yet to register to do so before the end of the exercise.



Mr Nugblega also expressed appreciation to the chiefs of the area for encouraging residents to register.



He presented hand sanitizers, face masks, and liquid soaps to workers of the EC and all party agents.



He also presented some Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to the Akatsi South NDC.

Source: GNA









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Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin's Regular Press Conference on August 5, 2020

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the People's Republic of China

CCTV: Joerg Wuttke, President of European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, told a press conference yesterday that despite the fallout of coronavirus, there have been effective measures taken by the Chinese side. European companies remain fully confident in doing business in China and hope to be part of the story of China's development. According to a survey by the European Chamber in June shows that China remains in the top three investment destinations for over 60 percent of respondents. Do you have any comment?

Wang Wenbin: We noted the remarks by the head of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China.

As a champion and promoter for an open world economy, China has always kept it door wide open and committed to provide a market-based, legal and international business environment for companies from Europe and other parts of the world. By 2019, the European Union has been China's top trade partner for 16 consecutive years, with a total trade volume hitting a record high of $700 billion.

I want to stress that be it companies from Europe or other parts of the world, they are optimistic about China's economic prospect and improving business environment. As a major developing country with a 1.4 billion population, 900 billion-strong workforce and 120 million market players, China will as always welcome European investors and companies from other countries, continue to firmly deepen reform and expand opening-up, and provide more cooperation opportunities and development dividends for their operations in China. Foreign companies, including those European ones, were part of the story of China's development, and we believe they will continue to be part of the successful story of China's development and win-win cooperation.

Al Jazeera: A massive explosion shook Lebanon's capital Beirut on August 4. At least 100 people were killed and over 4,000 wounded. What is China's comment? Is China planning to offer assistance to Lebanon?

Wang Wenbin: China is deeply shocked and saddened by the massive explosion in Lebanon which has caused great casualties. We deeply mourn the victims and express sincere condolences to the injured and the bereaved families and wish a speedy recovery to those injured.

China stands ready to provide assistance to help Lebanon properly handle the incident and achieve national development to the best of its capacity.

AFP: According to the Wall Street Journal, the US and China have agreed to high-level trade talks on August 15. Can you confirm that?

Wang Wenbin: I'd like to refer you to the competent authority for the specifics concerning the trade deal.

Phoenix TV: The American Institute in Taiwan said on August 5 that Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar is going to lead a delegation to visit Taiwan in the coming days. Do you have any comment?

Wang Wenbin: China firmly opposes any official interactions between the US and Taiwan. This position is consistent and clear. China has made stern representatives with the US side both in Beijing and in Washington.

For the China-US relationship, the Taiwan question is one of the utmost importance with the highest level of sensitivity, and the one-China principle is the political foundation. We urge the US to adhere to the one-China principle and the three joint communiques, stop making official interactions of any kind with Taiwan, handle Taiwan-related issues prudently and properly, and keep from letting out any wrong signals to "Taiwan independence" elements to avoid severe damage to China-US relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. I want to stress that the one-China principle is universally recognized by the international community. Any attempt to ignore, deny or challenge that principle is doomed to fail.

Associated Press of Pakistan: Today marks one year completion of India's unilateral measures to change demography of occupied Kashmir and its continuing massive atrocities on the innocent Kashmiris. This Indian attempt and its escalating ceasefire violations and rhetoric against Pakistan pose a threat to regional and international peace and security. Since then, China in its principled stance, has been calling for resolving the Kashmir issue under the UN charter and through peaceful means. What is China's position now?

Wang Wenbin: China follows closely the situation in the Kashmir region. Our position on the Kashmir issue is consistent and clear. First, the Kashmir issue is a dispute left over from history between Pakistan and India, which is an objective fact established by the UN Charter, relevant Security Council resolutions and bilateral agreements between Pakistan and India. Second, any unilateral change to the status quo in the Kashmir region is illegal and invalid. Third, the Kashmir region issue should be properly and peacefully resolved through dialogue and consultation between the parties concerned.

Pakistan and India are neighbors that cannot be moved away. Harmony between the two countries serves the fundamental interests of both sides and the common aspiration of the international community. China sincerely hopes that the two sides can properly handle differences through dialogue, improve relations and jointly safeguard peace, stability and development of the two countries and the region.

Shenzhen TV: According to Japanese media reports, by August 3 alone, a total of 270 US troops stationed in Okinawa have tested positive for coronavirus. Some commented that US troops in Japan have failed to follow quarantine regulations on entry and become a big loophole in Japan's anti-epidemic system. Do you have any comment?

Wang Wenbin: We noted relevant reports. The US abuse of extraterritorial jurisdiction has added to the risk of the spreading of epidemic worldwide. A major country should behave in a way commensurate to its status. The US should take special responsibility as a major country, earnestly strengthen the discipline of its troops overseas and cooperate with local authorities in epidemic control.

China Daily: Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Monday said that President Rodrigo Duterte has a standing order to the military and the Philippines would not join navies of other countries in maritime drills in the South China Sea for fear of raising tension in the area. The Philippines stays committed to resolving relevant disputes through peaceful and legal means and hopes to develop friendly relations with China. China and the Philippines have conducted exchanges in epidemic control, people-to-people exchange and military. It is believed that the two countries will gradually resume exchanges in various fields after the pandemic is overcomed. Do you have any comment?

Wang Wenbin: This statement once again reflects the independent foreign policy of the Philippines and the common aspiration of countries in the region to pursue peace and development. This fully demonstrates that certain non-regional countries' attempt to stir up trouble and create tension in the South China Sea goes against the will of regional countries and is unpopular.

At present, China and ASEAN countries, including the Philippines, are focusing on fighting the epidemic and restoring economic growth. What we need is solidarity, coordination, peace and stability. I'm pleased to tell you that, thanks to the joint efforts of China and ASEAN countries, two-way trade and investment grew in the first half of this year, showing a strong momentum of development. The two sides have opened a fast-track for personnel exchanges and a green channel for flow of goods, which has boosted the resumption of work and production and smooth operation of industrial and supply chains. China is confident in working with countries in the region to overcome the challenge of the epidemic, maintain the sound momentum of development and safeguard the common well-being of the people in the region.

NHK: US Secretary of State Pompeo said in a statement that Chinese authorities have reportedly issued arrest warrants for six residents outside of China, including a US citizen, which is the long arm of Beijing's authoritarianism. Do you have any response to that?

Wang Wenbin: Peompeo has made so many wrong remarks and groundless accusations on Hong Kong-related issues and on China's rightful decision to uphold national security in accordance with law. His politically-motivated lies have no facts in them at all. Our solemn position has been made clear many times.

Issuing arrest warrants for crime suspects is part of legitimate law enforcement and what police in every country do to bring offenders to justice. No external forces have any right to comment otherwise.

We urge Pompeo and his likes to abide by international law and basic norms governing international relations, immediately stop making irresponsible remarks, and stop interfering in China's internal affairs, including Hong Kong affairs, in any way.

AFP: The BBC published a video today showing someone that appears to be a Uighur man. The video apparently was shot in a training facility in Xinjiang and this man was filming himself. What's your comment?

Wang Wenbin: I'm not aware of what you said. Since you mentioned it was a video clip released by BBC, it reminds me of another BBC video cut claiming that the Chinese government forced sterilization on Uighur women. But it turns out that the video has no facts in it at all and is entirely a fabricated lie.

As a principle, China is a rule-of-law country where the citizens' legal rights and interests are protected and crimes cracked down on in accordance with law. All are equal before the law.

Xinjiang is enjoying sustained economic development, social stability, better living standards, unprecedented cultural vivacity and a harmonious coexistence of religions. Xinjiang-related issues are never about human rights, ethnicity or religion, but about counter-terrorism, anti-separatism and de-radicalization. The government of Xinjiang Autonomous Region lawfully has fought violent and terrorist crimes while addressing the root causes and advancing de-radicalization. These measures have proven effective. Over the past three years and more, there has not been a single violent terrorist case in Xinjiang. They have safeguarded to the greatest extent possible the fundamental rights of the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang, including their rights to life, health and development, thus fully supported and endorsed by people in Xinjiang.

As to the vocational education and training centers in Xinjiang you mentioned, I would like to say that the rights and freedoms of all trainees were fully and truly safeguarded during their training.

The Global Times: According to ABC News, the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations, a body meant to strengthen engagement between the two countries has been plagued by a scandal recently. Among the advisory board members appointed by the foreign minister, two have been funded by the US Department of State and one is even a member of the anti-China cult Fa Lungong. How do you comment on that?

Wang Wenbin: I noted relevant reports. If the Australian side does hope this institution will play a positive role in enhancing mutual trust and expanding exchange and cooperation with China, it shouldn't allow anti-China elements to be part of it. Such arrangement runs contrary to the original purpose and mission of the Foundation and sends gravely wrong message to the outside world. We hope the Australian side will immediately rectify its wrongdoing, demonstrate sincerity and contribute more to mutual trust and cooperation between the two sides, rather than doing the opposite.

We also noted that a flurry of media reports recently revealed that those Australian institutions and individuals taking the lead in fueling hostility towards China have received funding from the US government. We hope the Australian side will face up to these facts, discard double stands and ideological bias when talking about "counter foreign influence" and "foreign influence transparency" and refrain from political manipulation and acting in a selective and discriminatory way.

South China Morning Post: Pakistani President yesterday showed a new map which identifies the Pakistan-occupied part of Kashmir as a disputed territory. Do you have any comment?

Wang Wenbin: I just stated China's position on the Kashmir issue and am not going to repeat that.

AFP: Pompeo said yesterday that he will protect all Hong Kong activists that are currently outside China, including the Hong Kong activists who are wanted by the Chinese authorities. Did China protest to the US side after these Pompeo's comments?

Wang Wenbin: Peompeo has made so many wrong remarks on Hong Kong-related issues. We urge Pompeo and his likes to abide by international law and basic norms governing international relations, immediately stop immediately making irresponsible remarks, and stop interfering in China's internal affairs, including Hong Kong affairs, in any way.

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Kim Kardashian West and Kanye West are not discussing politics on their make-or-break holiday.

The couple recently jetted off on a family vacation with their four children, North, seven, Saint, four, Chicago, two, and Psalm, 14 months, following a tumultuous period in their marriage in which Kanye publicly claimed he wanted a divorce before later issuing an apology, and the pair are working hard to get back on track.

As a result, the couple - who are believed to be in a remote Caribbean location - have decided not to discuss any politics, including Kanye's bid to run in the US Presidential election in November, TMZ reports.

Although Kim, 39, is reportedly unhappy that Kanye, 43, is going ahead with his presidential campaign, insiders told the website "it's a non-negotiable issue".

During Kim's recently visit to their Wyoming ranch, where Kanye has been staying during the Covid-19 pandemic, the couple decided to take a family trip with their children after their marriage issues went public.

Amid a series of now-deleted tweets, Kanye previously claimed he tried to end his marriage after learning that his wife had met fellow rapper Meek Mill at a hotel to discuss prison reform.

He wrote: "I been trying to get divorced since Kim met with Meek at the Warldolf for 'prison reform'.

"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??? (sic)"

Kim and Meek both spoke at the Criminal Justice Reform Summit in Los Angeles in 2018.

Kanye later tweeted an apology to Kim, writing: "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. (sic)"

And she is said to be determined to "make it work" with her husband after flying to Wyoming to visit him last month.

A source told Us Weekly magazine: "There is a desire to make it work. She wouldn't have flown to Wyoming if she wasn't invested."

Although she wants to patch up her romance with Kanye, Kim is believed to be "devastated" by her husband's Twitter rants, which also saw him claim she has been "trying to lock him up", as well as compare her mother Kris Jenner to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.


Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Juliana Yuiah has said the best way to facilitate the prevention of domestic violence is to stop the practice.



Addressing a sensitisation workshop for women and opinion leaders in Fodome Helu in the Hohoe Municipality, ASP Yuiah said it was important to prevent the occurrence of domestic violence because it constituted a problem for public health and safety.



The sensitisation workshop was organised by Victory to Mankind, a non-governmental organisation (NGO).



ASP Yuiah, who is in charge of the Hohoe Divisional Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service, said there was the need to publicly speak up against domestic violence and call in the police over incidences of domestic violence.



Domestic violence prevention should become a mass course and it is important to sensitise others. You can tell a friend that makes a joke about beating your spouse that it is unacceptable as a humorous subject, she added



She said a crucial domestic violence prevention tip was for married women to educate their children on healthy lifestyles, respect for all, and demonstrating a love relationship with their spouses.



She said DOVVSUs focus was on ensuring justice and support for victims of domestic violence, especially women and children, who are in the majority.



ASP Yuiah noted that domestic violence occurred in cultures, countries, and transcended boundaries of age, race, education and sexual orientation which could affect anyone.



She said domestic violence also affected children and created an unsafe and fearful environment, resulting in depression, anger and self-harm.



Mr Godwin Grant Oyintey, the Executive Director of Victory to Mankind, said the Organisation aimed to alleviate rural poverty by promoting social interventions, such as human rights education on widowhood, children rights and social justice.



He said the engagements were to enable traditional rulers to understand the laws prohibiting outmoded customs and traditions in society.



Anyone found perpetrating this wicked and dehumanizing behaviour to a colleague will face the full rigours of the law, he said.



Mr Oyintey said the Santrokofi, Lolobi, Likpe, Akpafu and Hohoe-Zongo communities were sensitised on widowhood rights, childrens rights and domestic violence to help them know their rights under the 1992 Republican Constitution.



Mr Ernest Amedior, the Hohoe Municipal Director of National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), encouraged widows to report people who took them through inhumane treatments, especially when undergoing widowhood rites.



He said the laws were enacted to prevent and punish offenders who violated the rights of widows to serve as a deterrent to others.



The Director said torture, stripping of women naked, shaving womens hair, denial of food, shelter, education and health were abuses still being practised on the Africa continent, which should be eliminated.

Source: GNA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
The Ohio Harness Horsemens Association will provide live coverage of the final day of racing from the Greene County Fairgrounds in Xenia, Ohio, on Thursday (Aug. 6).

Post time for the seven-race card is 2 p.m. The races will be streamed live on the Ohio Harness Horsemens Associations Facebook page and YouTube channel.

Replays of the races will be available on the Trot and Pace Marketing website, trotandpacemarketing.com, following the completion of racing.

The race program for racing from the Greene County Fairgrounds is available on the OHHA website.

The Ohio Horsemens Association will continue its live fair racing coverage on Saturday (Aug. 8), when coverage will be of the races originally scheduled to be held at the Athens County Fairgrounds. Due to the cancellation of the Athens County Fair, the races have been moved to McConnelsville, Ohio. On Sunday (Aug. 9), the OHHA crew heads to the Ross County Fairgrounds in Chillicothe, Ohio for race coverage. Monday's (Aug. 10) coverage will be from Mansfield, Ohio, and the Richland County Fairgrounds.

The Ohio Harness Horsemens Association will be live streaming Ohio fair races throughout the summer. For a complete schedule, go to OHHA.com.

(Ohio Harness Horsemen's Association)
There were some big performances put forth at Batavia Downs on Wednesday afternoon (Aug. 5), as Gias Surreal muscled her way to victory in the top distaff pace and Jim Morrill Jr. won five races on the card to extend his driving lead for the meet.

After coming up short from a tough spot last week, Gias Surreal put an exclamation point on her performance in the $9,000 fillies and mares Open I pacing feature.

Gias Surreal (John Cummings Jr.) settled in fifth off the gate but only until the eighth pole, where Cummings pulled her and flew to the lead by the quarter in :28.1. She didnt get much of a breather from there, as HP Sissy (Denny Bucceri) pulled before the half and was on the attack.

HP Sissy fully engaged Gias Surreal and kept the fractions honest going up the backside, but after the 1:25 third panel on the rim, she tired while Gias Surreal accelerated. Cummings commenced bouncing in the bike around the far turn and opened up 2-1/4 lengths by the top of the stretch. From there, the race was history as Gias Surreal extended her lead to 3-1/2 at the finish line, where she won in 1:54.4.

It was the fourth score of the year for Gias Surreal ($4.50), who is owned by Edward Peron, Lee Winters, Thomas Mariano and Jim Graham, who also trains the winner.

The top trot of the night was the $8,000 Open II event, where Noble Legend (Billy Davis Jr.) took a new seasonal mark of 1:58.2 after leading unchallenged at every station to score his second win of the year. It was the 35th lifetime win for the eight-year-old son of Kadabra and Lovin It, and the purse pushed his total earnings to $302,519 for owners Vogel & Wags Nags, Team Rice and Adelphi Bloodstock. Maria Rice trains Noble Legend.

Morrill turned heads once again on the strength of his five win outing on Wednesday. He was a frequent visitor of the Purple Haze winners enclosure as he made his way back there with Lyra (1:55.3, $12.40), Littlebitaclass (1:57.3, $3.80), Mighty Nicky (1:59.2, $7.80), All Music (1:59, $3.00) and The Bay Front (1:56.3, $2.30). He ended the night with a .535 Universal Driver Rating.

Racing resumes at Batavia Downs on Saturday (Aug. 8) with post time at 6 p.m.

(Batavia Downs)
WATERLOO REGION  It was a devastating blow to a country all too familiar with devastating blows.

The massive explosion that rocked Beirut on Tuesday, killing at least 135 people and damaging buildings miles away, was a jarring shock to a country mired in an economic crisis made even worse by the global pandemic.

Although the cause of the blast is still being determined, many residents and expatriates believe rampant government corruption and mismanagement will at least play some role. The explosion shook a city that has suffered through years of civil war and other attacks. Now, some Waterloo Region residents wonder if their homeland can ever recover.

The situation before the explosion was dire, said Majdi Bou-Matar, a freelance theatre artist and founder of MT Space and the Impact theatre festival. Bou-Matar came to Canada from Lebanon in 2003. I cannot imagine it recovers for years.

In a country beset by poverty and food shortages, Tuesdays explosion destroyed massive grain silos. The country now has no resources, Bou-Matar said, adding he fears the majority of foreign aid will be pocketed by the ruling class, leaving little for reconstruction.

I doubt theyre going to recover soon, said Taissir Sefyan, owner of Phillips Shawarma in Waterloo. Even emotionally, its very tough.

Although his family originally hails from Palestine, Sefyan was born and raised in Lebanon and has relatives there. The blast caused some damage to a family members home in Beirut, he said.

Its not only whats happened (Tuesday), Sefyan said. I dont know how this situation in Lebanon is going to be cured.

Initial signs point to a fire that ignited a huge quantity of ammonium nitrate that had apparently been stored for years at the port despite multiple warnings about the risk it posed.

Its just so frustrating, said Bou-Matar, who has many friends and distant relatives in Beirut, and aunts and uncles who live elsewhere in Lebanon; one friend suffered minor injuries. Its absolute carelessness and inadequacy and incompetency.
Anatoliy Sizov/iStockBy MATTHEW VANN, ABC News



(WASHINGTON) -- The fight for TikTok's future intensified this week when President Donald Trump insisted that the U.S. government receive payment if Microsoft, or another American company, acquires the Chinese social media giant.



Trump said on Saturday that he would ban the app in the United States over security concerns. Days later he set a Sept. 15 deadline for action on TikTok, a social platform that allows users to share short videos, to allow it to avoid a ban.



"A very substantial portion of that price is going to have to come into the treasury of the United States because we are making it possible for this deal to happen," Trump said Monday. "Right now, they don't have any rights unless we give it to them."



The Treasury Department did not respond to inquiries from ABC News about how it could receive payment in the event of a successful deal.



But through the little-known Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which is based at the Treasury Department and evaluates the national security risks of foreign investments, the president does have the authority to either compel a sale or order the company to cease its operations.



The force of a sale is not without modern precedent.



In 2019, the U.S. government demanded the owners of Grindr, a gay social networking app, surrender ownership of their company. CFIUS determined that Grindr's ownership -- Beijing Kunlun Tech Co., a Chinese gaming company -- posed a risk to national security.



The CFIUS has focused its efforts recently on investigating Chinese investment deals into companies with significant U.S. influence.



Of the 552 transactions that CFIUS reviewed between 2015 and 2017, more than 25% were Chinese investments, according to a report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies.



ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, did not seek authorization from CFIUS when it purchased Musical.ly in 2018, which is one of the reasons TikTok is now under investigation by the committee. As TikTok increased in popularity, worries grew over the possibility that the Chinese government could also use the app to gain information on U.S. citizens.



Additionally, before COVID-19 put the country in crisis-response mode, lawmakers called for a national security probe into TikTok, sounding the alarm that it could be censoring politically sensitive information and potentially be a tool for Chinese national intelligence agencies.



"Security experts have voiced concerns that China's vague patchwork of intelligence, national security, and cybersecurity laws compel Chinese companies to support and cooperate with intelligence work controlled by the Chinese Communist Party," wrote Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., in a 2019 letter to then-acting Director of National Intelligence Joe Maguire.



"Without an independent judiciary to review requests made by the Chinese government for data or other actions, there is no legal mechanism for Chinese companies to appeal if they disagree with a request," the letter added.



On Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blasted TikTok, WeChat and other social media apps as "significant threats to personal data of American citizens, not to mention tools for CCP (Chinese Communist Party) content censorship."



He did not announce any new action against TikTok or others, but said the administration wants "to see untrusted Chinese apps removed from US app stores." Action against TikTok remains "pending," he said.



Trump has compared payment for the sale of TikTok to a landlord-tenant relationship.



"I use the expression its like the landlord and the tenant, and without the lease the tenant doesn't have the value," Trump said at a briefing Monday evening. "Well we are sort of in a certain way the lease. We make it possible to have this great success. TikTok is a tremendous success, but a big portion of it is in this country."



But experts say the demand of payment from the deal is without precedent and would be considered illegal.



"My first instinct is that this is not a real policy; this is Trump making something up as he is speaking," said Geoffrey Gertz, a fellow with the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution. "There's nothing in CFIUS that would give the authority to expect a payment. It's not clear how it would work."



Microsoft, however, confirmed both its interest in the potential purchase of TikTok, and in offering up government compensation.



The company said in a blog post, "it is committed to acquiring TikTok subject to a complete security review and providing proper economic benefits to the United States, including the United States Treasury."



Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
Confused messaging and contending facts feed division over mask requirements

A fierce public debate about face masks is just one more bizarre feature of 2020. One side sees masks as a personal responsibility necessary to stop, or at least slow, a deadly contagion, and anyone who dares to go without is endangering lives. The opposing side sees mask requirements as an empty gesture and annoying charade that only serves to amplify panic.

The problem is that both sides can find supporting statements from the same sources.

Contradictory messaging from public health authorities planted seeds of discord in the early days of the pandemic. On March 8, infectious disease expert and a familiar face in the U.S. governments COVID-19 response, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told 60 Minutes, Theres no reason to be walking around with a mask.

Dr. Theresa Tam, Canadas chief public health officer, also advised against wearing masks for those who are healthy. What we worry about is actually the potential negative aspects of wearing a mask, where people are not protecting their eyes or other aspects of where the virus could enter your body, and that gives you a false sense of confidence, Tam said at a press conference in March.

Similarly, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), stated that masks were to be worn exclusively by the sick and their caregivers, and the World Health Organization (WHO) stated: There is no specific evidence to suggest that the wearing of masks by the mass population has any potential benefit. In fact, theres some evidence to suggest the opposite in the misuse of wearing a mask properly or fitting it properly.

In April, experts abruptly changed course, emphasizing that everyone should now wear face masks in public. Health officials clarified that previous statements were made in an effort to save the masks for medical personnel working in close proximity to infected patients.

According to Morton Tavel, MD, clinical professor emeritus at Indiana University School of Medicine, the top-down conversation around masks has become a case study in how not to communicate with the public.

The message became counterproductive and may have encouraged even more hoarding because it seemed as though authorities were shaping the message around managing the scarcity rather than confronting the reality of the situation, Tavel said.

Another way some experts botched the mask messaging, Tavel said, is by informing the public that only well-fitted, medical grade respirator masks (such as the N95) could effectively protect against a virus.

Many people also wash their hands wrong, but we dont respond to that by telling them not to bother, he said.

U.S. states allow virtually anything that covers the mouth and nosefrom high-grade medical masks to bandanas and scarvesto satisfy mask requirements. Tavel says that while some masks may be better than others, they all provide some barrier of protection against respiratory droplets that potentially carry the virus.

The change in mask messaging came with an evolving understanding of COVID-19. Health experts began seeing signs of so-called asymptomatic carriers who could inadvertently spread coronavirus. This meant that even someone who appeared to be well carried a threat of infection wherever they happened to breathe.

But this key justification for public mask requirements also suffers from shaky messaging. In a WHO news brief on June 8, infectious disease epidemiologist Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove stated that the spread of the virus by asymptomatic carriers appears to be rare.

We have a number of reports from countries who are doing very detailed contact tracing. They are following asymptomatic cases, they are following contacts and they are not finding secondary transmission onward, its very rare, Kerkhove said.

A few days later on a Facebook Live video, Van Kerkhove clarified that there were misunderstandings attached to her previous statement. She explained that asymptomatic people can in fact spread the virus, though the degree to which they can is unknown.

No Scientific Consensus

These days, Dr. Fauci is an unwavering proponent for everyone wearing a mask in public. In an interview with CBS News, Fauci blamed most of the recent burst of infections across the nation on Americans failure to follow recommended health guidelines.

Clearly, we have not succeeded in getting the public as a whole, uniformly to respond in a way that is a sound scientific [response to a] public health and medical situation, Fauci said.

Those on the pro-mask side say that science guides their judgment, and they have the research to prove it. In May, preliminary results from a study on hamsters in Hong Kong determined that wearing a mask dramatically reduces viral spread.

Researchers found that the coronavirus transmission rate via respiratory droplets or airborne particles dropped by as much as 75 percent when surgical masks were used.

But the scientific case for masks is hardly a consensus. In an article titled Universal Masking In Hospitals in the COVID-19 Era a group of physicians wrote in the May edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection.

Public health authorities define a significant exposure to COVID-19 as face-to-face contact within 6 feet with a patient with symptomatic COVID-19 that is sustained for at least a few minutes (and some say more than 10 minutes or even 30 minutes). The chance of catching COVID-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal. In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic, doctors wrote.

On July 16, an article in the Journal of Pediatrics and Child Health asking the question Do facemasks protect against COVID-19 found that masks may cause more problems than protection. Researchers concluded that there was no good evidence that face masks protect the public against infection with respiratory viruses. In fact, masks may only offer the illusion of protection, and many mask wearers may simply be spreading disease because of how they use them.

Surgical facemasks are designed to be discarded after single use. As they become moist they become porous and no longer protect. Indeed, experiments have shown that surgical and cotton masks do not trap the SARSCoV2 (COVID19) virus, which can be detected on the outer surface of the masks for up to seven days. Thus, a presymptomatic or mildly infected person wearing a facemask for hours without changing it and without washing hands every time they touched the mask could paradoxically increase the risk of infecting others, researchers wrote.

When the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons looked at mask efficacy they concluded that the wide use of masks by healthy people in the community setting is not supported by current evidence and carries uncertainties and critical risks.

Headaches, respiratory acidosis, dizziness, anxiety, and a decrease in oxygen saturation are some of the risks that doctors and researchers have associated with prolonged mask wearing.

One problem is that, the more effective the mask, the more risk associated with prolonged use. This means that the masks that work best at blocking microscopic particles also make respiration more difficult.

This is why orthopedic spinal deformity surgeon Dr. David Hanscom has very mixed feelings on which masks the public should wear.

The size of the virus is much smaller than cloth masks and it does pass through it, but the more robust masks are not tolerable, Hanscom said.

However, Hanscom does support wearing any face covering indoors in public spaces, even if the protection it provides is minimal. He says at the very least, it keeps people mindful of the pandemic.

It does change behavior and reminds people to practice social distancing, which does seem helpful, he said.

Common Sense

In the middle of a crisis, with so many lives at stake and unpredictable factors to consider, its understandable that the official response may not always be smooth. But when it comes to this pandemic, some advice defies logic.

In early June, for example, more than 1200 health professionals submitted an open letter in support of the gatherings protesting the killing of George Floyd by police. The letter spoke in support of demonstrators ability to gather and demand change, but stated that it should not be confused with a permissive stance on all gatherings, particularly protests against stay-home orders.

Another point of public divisiveness is a patchwork of differing regulations and requirements. In some jurisdictions, masks are mandatory in public indoor spaces, while in others theyre merely recommended. In states where masks are optional, stores can choose to either have a relaxed policy and risk criticism from customers who may spy maskless shoppers, or make masks mandatory and risk discriminating against customers who cant medically tolerate a mask or lose customers who choose to go maskless.

Numbers play a big role in our understanding of how to deal with this virus, and what measures each state takes as the pandemic unfolds. And yet even with something as solid as figures, this is another aspect of the crisis where the message is murky.

Dr. Dana Cohen, an integrative physician practicing in Manhattan, says she has a hard time seeing a clear picture, even as a doctor.

I dont know what numbers to believe, Cohen said. There are people who are getting tested three times a week. If theyre positive, theyll be positive multiple times. And all are counted as separate positives.

Cohen mentions aspects of the virus itself that defy models and previous patterns of infection. For example, were now seeing case surges that werent expected until this fall. But she adds that even though the truth is hard to see doesnt mean we should abandon basic common sense.

I dont think people should be going to concerts, or be close together marching and shouting. Thats not common sense. Its not cool, she said.

Like much of the public, Cohen says she has also been puzzled by the official response. For example, while masks get all the attention, hand washing and physical distancing are much higher priorities in the effort to stop viral spread. Cohen also advocates for other measures that receive hardly any attention, like employing daily strategies that can help strengthen our immune systems.

Nutrition is the most important thing, she said. I wish that our government was more concerned about giving kids better food and vitamin D, especially for the kids that cant afford it. That should be more mandatory than masks. Its proven that the people with the poorest immunity have the least resilience. Its turned out to be a disease of lifestyle, and weve known this for months now.

To its credit, the CDC did make a statement on July 12 that good nutrition plays a role in the pandemic, as certain vitamins and minerals may have effects on how the immune system works to fight off infections and inflammation.

Health Canada has not made a similar statement.

Think of Others, Dont Antagonize

In jurisdictions where the lockdown is lifting, there are signs of life returning to normalcy. More public spaces are opening up, but new mask requirements have come along for the ride. Cohen advises always erring on the side of caution, but adds that we should also evaluate each situation individually.

I would not exercise in a mask, because I think thats a little dangerous. But I would also not exercise in a gym full of people. So you have to find whats going to work for you. Maybe exercise in your home, Cohen said.

Even in the strictest jurisdictions in the United States, not everyone is required to wear a mask. The CDC states that face coverings should NOT be worn by children under the age of two or anyone who has trouble breathing, is unconscious, incapacitated, or otherwise unable to remove the mask without assistance.

Health Canada advises wearing a non-medical mask or face covering when indoors in public spaces where you cant keep a physical distance of 2 metres from others.

But how do you tell among the maskless faces you might encounter in the local hardware store who genuinely cant tolerate a face covering, and who just doesnt want to be bothered?

Cohens advice: Dont worry about it. Instead, avoid confrontation, regardless of how strong your stance on masks might be. She says those who shout at or try to publicly shame the maskless for failing to follow the rules are only hurting the situation.

People need to stop being the mask police. Dont scream at somebody across the street to put your mask on. Mind your own business. Let people make their own decisions. If you are that worried about yourself, wear better face masks and a shield. This is not something to lose friendships over. Nobody is purposely trying to hurt anybody here, she said.

By the same token, Cohen says that those who oppose masks should also show some compassion for the pro-mask crowd, particularly if they find themselves in close proximity. Give them space. Dont antagonize. Consider that these people may be terrified because of what theyve read, and struggle with underlying conditions.

Be a little neighborly, Cohen said.

Dr. Bonnie Henry, British Columbias Provincial Health Officer, has garnered international praise for her handling of the crisis. Her mantra, repeated frequently, has become more relevant as public tensions have risen over issues like mask wearing.

Be kind. Be calm. Be safe, she advises.
Allentown, PA (18103)

Today

Partly sunny, brisk, and chilly. Winds should ease up later in the day..

Tonight

Partly to mostly cloudy and cold.
Asaba International Airport in Delta is set to resume flight operations several months after it was shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic which paralysed business and socio-economic activities across the globe.

The Secretary to Delta State Government, Chiedu Ebie, who gave the hint while inspecting the airport on Thursday ahead of the resumption of aviation operations expected to begin in a few days, said that the airport was ready.

Mr Ebie said that the state government had put necessary protocols in place at the airport for passenger compliance with COVID-19 injunctions given by Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) for aviation activities.

He explained that the inspection was to ascertain the level of preparation on the part of the management of the airport for full resumption of flight operations in the airport.

Mr Ebie said that he was impressed with the level of compliance with guidelines by Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the NCDC against the spread of COVID-19.

He stated that personnel of the airport were currently undergoing training to enable them to function optimally in line with the new normal.

The SSG said that when flight operations would resume, no fewer than six airlines, including Ibom Air, Azman and Arik Air, would be on the Asaba route.He assured that the state government would work out modalities to ensure that physical-distancing and the wearing of face masks were maintained in the airport operation.

On the fares to be collected by the airlines, Mr Ebie said that the state government had no right to regulate the fare as the airlines were in business, adding that the government would continue to do its best to ensure that the airport remained one of the best in the country.

READ ALSO:

Earlier, the Special Project Director of the airport, Austin Ayemidejor, had said steps have been taken to ensure that there is physical-distancing, compulsory wearing of face masks, washing of hands at the point of entry and temperature check.

Mr Ayemidejor who conducted the inspection team comprising the SSG, Commissioner for Information, Charles Aniagwu, his counterpart in the Ministry of Finance, Fidelis Tilije and the Chief of Staff, Government House, David Edevbie; said the airport was fully set to host full flight operations.

Areas inspected at the airport were the ticketing hall, departure and arrival halls as well as other sections of the airport where a lot of facilities were already fixed in compliance with the fight against COVID-19.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 5, ARMENPRESS. President Armen Sarkissian sent a letter to the Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia Aram I on August 6.



As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Presidents Office, the letter runs as follows,

I am shocked and feel great sorrow for this huge disaster that Lebanon, the friendly people of Lebanon and our Lebanese-Armenian compatriots faced. This is not the first time Beirut faces an emergency situation and this great challenge will be also overcome, reads the Presidents letter.

The consolidation and united actions of the Armenian national organizations will also be a powerful assistance for overcoming this human and state crisis, reads the letter.

President Sarkissian expressed solidarity with His Holiness, all the religious representatives and the Lebanese-Armenians.

The President discussed the situation in Beirut and the problems facing the Lebanese-Armenians with President of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) Berge Setrakian and the ARF Bureau member Hakob Ter-Khachatryan.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan
Edinburgh Zoo has named a monkey from a vulnerable species which was born during lockdown after his native home.

The three-month-old LHoests monkey was born in May to mother Sheli and father Jamal.

He has been named Butembo, in tribute to the species native home in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Kirsty McFaul, senior primate keeper at Edinburgh Zoo, said: We decided to call our new arrival Butembo, which is a city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where the vulnerable species is found in the wild.

Hes doing well and is extremely playful. He has been spotted exploring his enclosure by many of our visitors, but never too far from mum Sheli.

Were all really excited about Butembos arrival and it is fantastic to be able to welcome visitors to meet him too.

LHoests monkeys are classed as vulnerable, with deforestation classed as one of the main threats to the population.

Edinburgh Zoo was reopened on June 29 but officials say the facility is still facing a difficult time.

Miss McFaul added: We would like to thank everyone for their amazing support so far and for helping us reopen.

People can help care for our animals and protect threatened species in Scotland and around the world by donating on our website.
In the days before coronavirus cases spiralled upward and Melbourne sank into strict stage four lockdown restrictions, a "Christmas rush" descended upon scores of trucking depots across the east coast.

Local manufacturers were desperate to move stock, bound for other parts of Australia, out of Victoria before restrictions came into place, while thousands of tonnes of supplies were being trucked into the state to meet an expected surge in demand.

Forklifts load goods onto trucks at the Glen Cameron Group distribution centre. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

Through the peaks and troughs of coronavirus and subsequent border closures, the freight industry has remained one of the few constants in the country's economy, with thousands of trucks threading their way across Australia's east coast relatively immune to local restrictions.

More than 1000 of them are from Cameron Group, with many rolling through the company's 10,000 square metre Glendenning depot each day.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 6)  House lawmakers are convinced that the Department of Education (DepEd) is not yet ready to resume classes in August despite the efforts of sleepless and overworked teachers.

At a House committee hearing on Basic Education and Culture on Thursday, several lawmakers expressed doubts on the quality of DepEds blended learning as classes resume on August 24.

They raised concerns about the lack of funds and equipment for public schools in their respective districts.

Deputy Speaker Evelina Escudero said that teachers in the first district of Sorsogon rely heavily on modular learning since internet connection is not in place in the area. She added that teachers have been asking for support and donations from the private sector when it comes to the printing of the modules.

Education Undersecretary Tonisito Umali responded by saying that more funding can be expected.

If hindi naman ready, baka we can move it until January, Escudero said.

[Translation: If we are not ready, maybe we can move it until January.]

House committee chairman and Pasig Rep. Roman Romulo acknowledged the hard work and efforts of DepEd, but pointed out that more time will help them prepare better.

Nakikita natin na nagtatrabaho talaga ang DepEd," he said. "Kaso kahit minsan na nagtatrabaho tayo, talagang kulang pa rin ang panahon.

[Translation: We see that DepEd is really working hard. But sometimes even if we are working, time is really not enough.]

Romulo suggested DepEd to consider House Bill 6895 or the "act to lengthen the school calendar from 200 days to not more than 220 class days," which was passed in June, to allow school opening beyond August.
MINSK -- A Minsk rally for Belarusian opposition presidential candidate Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya has been canceled, just hours after the candidate's campaign chief was detained and "warned" by authorities not to stage what they called "unsanctioned" gatherings.

The rally had been scheduled for the evening of August 6 at the People's Friendship Park in Minsk.

But the candidate's press secretary, Hanna Krasulina, announced shortly before the rally was due to begin that the campaign was informed by e-mail that an event celebrating Belarusian railroad workers had been scheduled at the same location.

"They're not allowing us to hold a rally at a single venue in Minsk, same as in Slutsk and Soligorsk," Krasulina said.

"These actions by the authorities are completely unlawful," Krasulina said. "We have appealed this decision with the Prosecutor-General's Office, the Central Election Commission, and the Minsk City Executive Committee. But we won't provoke people."

Earlier on August 6, Tsikhanouskaya's campaign chief Maryya Maroz was briefly detained by authorities in Minsk and "warned" of possible repercussions for staging "unsanctioned" rallies.

Krasulina told RFE/RL that Maroz was stopped and detained by several men near the entrance of the Lithuanian Embassy in Minsk.

Maroz said the men were officers from the Interior Ministry's Directorate on the Fight Against Organized Crime and Extremism.

She said the men transported her to the Interior Ministry's directorate where they "warned" her about "responsibility" for organizing "unsanctioned public events" before they released her.

Meanwhile, Belarusian authorities on August 6 continued to detain other members of Tsikhanouskaya's campaign team and her supporters in towns and cities across Belarus.

They include campaign event coordinator Andrey Khilchyk, who was arrested by police in the southeastern city of Homel, and Dzmitry Tsit, a campaign representative in the western city of Hrodna.Khilchyk was coordinating Tsikhanouskaya rallies scheduled for August 7 and August 8.

Tsikhanouskaya has managed to gather tens of thousands of supporters at rallies in Minsk and in other towns and cities across Belarus in recent weeks.

Belarus Votes For President Read our ongoing coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election, widely seen as fraudulent.



Incumbent President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's 26 years of authoritarian rule in Belarus look increasingly vulnerable ahead of the August 9 election.



But many analysts say he is likely win through a combination of fraud and the repression of an energized opposition.



Early voting started on August 4.



Opposition politicians, rights activists, and critics of Lukashenka have called on citizens to refrain from early voting, charging that it gives Lukashenka loyalists more opportunities to rig the election results.



The Belarusian Central Election Commission said on August 5 that turnout during the first two days of early voting was 12.75 percent of the country's 6.8 million eligible voters.

With reporting by tut.by
New Delhi: The Special Cell of Delhi Police has arrested gangster Ankit Gujjar and his accomplice Anil from Jhajjar in Haryana. The gangster is wanted by the police in eight murder cases.

Pramod Singh Kushwaha, DCP, Special Cell of Delhi Police, told Zee News that they had received an information that Ankit Gujjar was going to Jhajjar in Haryana.

The police reached Jhajjar and after chasing Ankit and his accomplice on car for several kilometers, they finally arrested the duo. Two pistols and cartridges were recovered from the accused.

In 2019, Ankit murdered a man named Vinod who was contesting against him in the elections for the village headman. They were both residents of Khaila village at Baghpat.

He had even put up a poster saying that to win the village headman election unopposed he would kill those who dared to contest against him.

There was a reward of Rs 1.25 lakhs on Ankit whereas a reward of Rs 1 lakh was declared for Anil.
A carer has been arrested and charged with manslaughter following the tragic death of a disabled woman who was neglected for a year prior to her death.

Ann Marie Smith, who had cerebral palsy, died in the Royal Hospital, Adelaide, on April 6 from septic shock, multiple organ failure, severe pressure sores and malnourishment.

On Thursday, 69-year-old Rosemary Maione was arrested at her Hectorville home and charged with manslaughter.

She is expected to appear in Adelaide Magistrates Court later on Thursday.

Maione was employed by provider Integrity Care until May 18, days after a police investigation into Ms Smith's death was launched.

On Thursday, 69-year-old Rosemary Maione was arrested at her Hectorville home and charged with manslaughter

Ann Marie Smith, who had cerebral palsy, died in the Royal Hospital, Adelaide, on April 6 from septic shock, multiple organ failure, severe pressure sores and malnourishment

The 54-year-old Ms Smith lived alone in her Adelaide home and relied on carers under the National Disability Insurance Scheme to care for her.

Maione had been employed as Ms Smith's primary carer for seven years, The Advertiser reported.

It is alleged that she didn't hold a disability services employment clearance - which is required under South Australian legislation - The Advertiser reported.

She was paid under the National Disability Insurance Scheme to feed, bathe and care for Ms Smith for six hours a day, seven days a week.

Ms Smith allegedly spent the year leading up to her death in her chair, rotting away in horrific living conditions in the living room of her home.

The chair she was sat on, and the carpet underneath, was soaked with urine and faeces. When the carpet was eventually removed, even the concrete slab beneath was stained.

Police allege Maione was Ms Smith's only regular visitor, but her son and his wife could have also helped with her care despite having no professional experience in the industry, the publication reported.

Maione called an ambulance to Ms Smith's Kensington Park home on April 5 after she found her in a semi-conscious state.

On Thursday, 69-year-old Rosa Maione was arrested at her Hectorville home and charged with manslaughter. She is expected to appear in Adelaide Magistrates Court later on Thursday. Pictured: Covering her face

The 54-year-old lived alone in her Adelaide home and relied on carers under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)

The 54-year-old was rushed into major surgery, but later given palliative care and died the next day.

After her death, police launched an investigation into her neglect and uncovered a devastating reality for Ms Smith.

Ms Smith allegedly had no food of nutritional value in her home at the time of her death - and some of the food that was in the house had expiry dates dating back to 2014. There also was not a fridge in the home.

She did not have equipment to assist in moving or hoisting her, which would have been necessary for a carer to clean her or change her clothing.

Police allege neither were done frequently.

Her dental hygiene was allegedly lacking at the time of her death, and a barely used tube of toothpaste in her dusty bathroom had an expiry date of 2017 on it.

Detectives also believe she hadn't received any medical care in the years prior to her death.

South Australian police released photos from inside of Ms Smith's home where she sat in her final days in a public appeal for information on Monday

Major Crime detectives have also started inspecting Ms Smith's finances to assess how she spent her money, and have found a number of irregularities.

Ms Smith was left an inheritance by her dead parents in 2009.

Police allege two loans from small lending companies were taken out in Ms Smith's name over the past six years, which were supposedly obtained for the purpose of travel and to buy a new car totalling $70,000.

But the funds were not used for either of those purposes.

Major Crime investigating officer, Detective Senior Sergeant Phil Neagle, said it was 'most unlikely' Ms Smith would have obtained the loans without assistance from another person due to her physical disability.

'They were significant loans. We know she did not travel or buy a new car after they were taken out, but the money is now gone,' he said.

Police believe the amount of money taken from the inheritance is disproportionate to Ms Smith's lifestyle.

'It is a large amount, a lot of money. That line of inquiry is in its infancy, but an excessive amount of money seems to have been withdrawn in recent years,' Senior Sergeant Neagle said.

'Ann may well have spent some of the money herself, but we are now trying to ascertain how much and if any has been removed unlawfully from her account and where it went.'

The pictures paint a bleak picture of Ms Smith's life before she died, confined to a chair in a neglected home with minimal furniture as she rotted in her excrement
Despite our broad understanding of the different brain regions activated during rapid-eye-movement sleep, little is known about what this activity serves for. Researchers at the University of Bern and the Inselspital have now discovered that the activation of neurons in the hypothalamus during REM sleep regulates eating behaviour: suppressing this activity in mice decreases appetite.

While we are asleep, we transition between different phases of sleep each of which may contribute differently to us feeling rested. During (rapid eye movement) REM sleep, a peculiar sleep stage also called paradoxical sleep during which most dreaming occurs, specific brain circuits show very high electrical activity, yet the function of this sleep-specific activity remains unclear.

Among the brain regions that show strong activation during REM sleep are areas that regulate memory functions or emotion, for instance. The lateral hypothalamus, a tiny, evolutionarily well conserved brain structure in all mammals also shows high activity during REM sleep. In the awake animals, neurons from this brain region orchestrate appetite and the consumption of food and they are involved in the regulation of motivated behaviours and addiction.

In a new study, researchers headed by Prof. Dr. Antoine Adamantidis at the University of Bern set out to investigate the function of the activity of hypothalamic neurons in mice during REM sleep. They aimed at better understanding how neural activation during REM sleep influences our day-to-day behaviour. They discovered that suppressing the activity of these neurons decreases the amount of food the mice consume. "This suggests that REM sleep is necessary to stabilize food intake", says Adamantidis. The results of this study have been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Long-lasting effect on neuronal activity and feeding behavior

The researcher discovered that specific activity patterns of neurons in the lateral hypothalamus that usually signal eating in the awake mouse are also present when the animals were in the stage of REM sleep. To assess the importance of these activity patterns during REM sleep the research group used a technique called optogenetics, with which they used light pulses to precisely shut down the activity of hypothalamic neurons during REM sleep. As a result, the researchers found that the activity patterns for eating were modified and that the animals consumed less food.

"We were surprised how strongly and persistently our intervention affected the neural activity in the lateral hypothalamus and the behaviour of the mice", says Lukas Oesch, the first author of the study. He adds: "The modification in the activity patterns was still measurable after four days of regular sleep." These findings suggest that electrical activity in hypothalamic circuits during REM sleep are highly plastic and essential to maintain a stable feeding behaviour in mammals.

It is a question of quality

These findings point out that sleep quantity alone is not solely required for our well-being, but that sleep quality plays a major role in particular to maintain appropriate eating behaviour. "This is of particular relevance in our society where not only sleep quantity decreases but where sleep quality is dramatically affected by shift work, late night screen exposure or social jet-lag in adolescents", explains Adamantidis.

The discovered link between the activity of the neurons during REM sleep and eating behaviour may help developing new therapeutical approaches to treat eating disorders. It might also be relevant for motivation and addiction. "However, this relationship might depend on the precise circuitry, the sleep stage and other factors yet to be uncovered", adds Adamantidis.

###

This study was carried out in partnership with the IRC "Sleep and Health" at the University of Bern. It was supported by the University of Bern, the Inselspital University Hospital Bern, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the European Research Council (ERC), the Human Frontiers Science Program and the German Research Society.

Interfaculty Research Cooperation (IRC) "Decoding Sleep"

The Interfaculty Research Cooperation, "Decoding Sleep: From Neurons to Health & Mind", is an interdisciplinary project funded by the University of Bern, which started on the 1st of March 2018. It is comprised of 13 research groups from the Faculty of Science, Medicine and Human Sciences and bridges several domains including Medicine, Psychology, Psychiatry and Computer Science.

The project aims to gain new and in-depth understanding of the function and regulation of sleep-wake-rhythms and to develop strategies for early and personalized therapies of sleep-wake and neuropsychiatric disorders.
Ashley Mason, 31, has been charged with principal to first-degree murder for allegedly giving her husband the gun cops said he used to kill fast-food worker Desmond Joshua Jr

Authorities in Florida have arrested a woman who they say complained to her husband about a delay in her $40 fast-food order, leading to the killing of a Burger King employee.

Ashley Mason, 31, from Orlando, was booked into the Orange County Jail on Wednesday on felony counts of principal to first-degree murder and aggravated assault with a firearm.

According to an arrest affidavit obtained by DailyMail.com, an 'irate' Mason handed her husband, Kelvis Rodriguez Tormes, 37, the gun that he used to fatally shoot 27-year-old Desmond Armond Joshua Jr during a physical altercation on Saturday evening.

The incident began unfolding at around 7.30pm at a Burger King on the 7000 block of E. Colonial Drive.

Joshua, who had just started working at the eatery, had gotten into a confrontation with a woman, later identified as Mason, who was angry over the length of time it took for her drive-through food order to be completed.

Mason's 13-year-old daughter, who was with her in the car and witnessed the argument, later told deputies that Joshua was 'disrespectful' to them, and that she thought he was 'talking mad trash' about them behind the drive-through window.

Kelvis Rodriguez Tormes, 37, left, allegedly shot and killed Burger King employee Desmond Armond Joshua Jr, 22, right, after his wife complained to him about a delay in her $40 order

While waiting for her order, Mason grew increasingly irate, got out of her car and confronted the Burger King staff, threatening to bring her 'man' to the restaurant.

The manager of the fast-food eatery refunded Mason $40 and told her to leave, which she did.

Mason said she complained to her husband on the phone that workers at the eatery were 'disrespectful and unprofessional,' and he said he was coming over to 'talk to them.'

Several minutes later, Rodriguez Tormes arrived in his work truck, where he kept a handgun, and challenged Joshua to a fight, according to the affidavit.

Surveillance video captured Joshua removing all of the items from his pockets, including his phone and headphones, and following Rodriguez Tormes into the parking lot.

Cellphone video recorded by a witness, which has been reviewed by investigators but not released to the public, reportedly showed Rodriguez Tormes placing Joshua in a headlock and attempting to choke him out during the scuffle.

According to the affidavit, the shift manager pulled Rodriguez Tormes off of Joshua and broke up the fight.

The suspect then allegedly told his wife, 'give me the fire,' apparently referring to his gun, which she had removed from his truck and hid inside her sedan.

Rodriguez Tormes then got back in his truck and closed the door.

Under questioning, the 37-year-old said he saw Joshua jump over his wife's car and advance toward his truck. According to the affidavit, Rodriguez Tormes told the fast-food worker to back away, warning him: 'You got two seconds before I shoot you.'

The unidentified woman later came back with Rodriguez Tormes, authorities said. Rodriguez Tormes demanded that Joshua (pictured) fight him before putting the employee in a chokehold and later shooting him, authorities said

'He said Desmond Joshua Jr moved toward him and he fired one shot,' according to the court document.

The 27-year-old man was struck in the chest and pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

Mason said she took off and headed home after seeing Joshua collapse to the ground.

Her husband arrived a short time later and told her, 'I messed up,' the affidavit stated.

Rodriguez Tormes has been charged with first-degree murder with a firearm, destruction of evidence and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The incident occurred at this Burger King location

Mason has a history of arrests involving domestic violence charges as recent as May 2020 (left). The mugshot on the right was taken in 2015

Instead of calling 911 to report the incident, the couple called Mason's mother and asked her to come over.

The court document stated that Rodriguez Tormes then erased his phone and left in his mother-in-law's car.

When he returned home later, he was met by deputies and told them he had 'destroyed' the gun used in the shooting.

Rodriguez Tormes has been charged with first-degree murder with a firearm, destruction of evidence and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Records indicate that Mason also has a history of arrests on charges of domestic violence.
David Partenheimer, a spokesman for the Postal Service, declined to comment on DeJoys meeting with Democrats. But he said the agency is using all available resources to match the workload created by the impacts of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The Postal Service has a liberal leave policy and is aggressively trying to hire qualified candidates to replace tens of thousands of workers who have gotten sick or opted not to work because of the pandemic, he said.
Indian Army Chief General MM Naravane on Thursday arrived in Assam's Tezpur as he is on a two-day visit to the eastern sector. He will review the security situation and operational preparedness in the forward areas along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Arunachal Pradesh.

At the Gajraj Corps HQ in Tezpur, Lieutenant General Anil Chauhan, the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Command briefed the COAS on various operational and administrative aspects.

The COAS was appreciative of the efforts by the soldiers in safeguarding the territorial integrity of the nation and encouraged all ranks to keep up the high state of alertness and professionalism displayed by them.

On August 7, the COAS is scheduled to arrive at Lucknow to visit the HQ Central Command.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

With Brazil poised to register 100,000 coronavirus deaths, AFP spoke to medical statistician Domingos Alves about what went wrong in the giant South American country and where its outbreak is headed.

Alves, coordinator of the Health Intelligence Lab at the University of Sao Paulo's Ribeirao Preto medical school, was scathing in his criticism of President Jair Bolsonaro's government, which he accused of "sacrificing the Brazilian people" in the name of keeping the economy afloat.

Q: When do you calculate Brazil's death toll will hit 200,000?

"If current trends continue, we should reach (200,000 deaths) on October 15 or 16....

"But I'm afraid it could be even earlier, because the infection and fatality curves are likely to accelerate in the coming weeks....

"If things go on like this, we'll have a high level of daily deaths until there's a vaccine."

Q: How do you see the pandemic evolving from here in Brazil?

"Infection rates are accelerating in the interior, even as they slow in the state capitals. At the regional level, the situation is getting worse in the states that hadn't been hit hard yet, such as the southern and west-central regions.

"The number of confirmed cases is still much lower than the real figuresix to seven times lower, according to our calculations. At the beginning of the pandemic, it was up to 16 times lower. But that doesn't mean we've gotten anything under control. Testing has increased, but Brazil remains one of the countries that is testing least worldwide."

Q: How did Brazil get here?

"In large part due to our leaders. The federal government continues to consider it a 'little flu,' and there is no national policy to fight COVID-19.

"Governors and mayors have started going in the same direction, mainly because local elections are coming up in November. Places started coming out of lockdown in June, but that was too soon given the high number of new infections.

"We're still seeing record numbers of cases and deaths, but the authorities are trying to make people believe we can just increase the number of intensive care beds. Their only goal is to have an acceptable occupancy rate (in intensive care units) so they can let businesses reopen. The plan is to sacrifice the Brazilian people to achieve an economic pseudo-recovery.

"Brazil has systematically rejected lockdown measures recommended by the World Health Organization that worked in Europe. There is zero political will, and science was sidelined in our country a long time ago."

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

 2020 AFP
Two teenagers in Floridaa 16-year-old female from Miami-Dade County and a 17-year-old male from Manatee Countywere added to Floridas COVID-19 death toll on Monday, according to the Florida Department of Health.

The deaths come a month after a 9-year-old, Kimora Lynum, from Putman County became the youngest child to die from COVID-19 in Florida.

As of Monday, 38,171 people under 18 had tested positive for the virus in the state, making Florida one of the states with the largest percentage of child infections. As of this writing, 394 children are currently hospitalized from the virus.

Health records of the two teens indicate that neither was considered a travel-related case. Both children were hospitalized during their battle with the illness. The 17-year-old boy died on Sunday at Johns Hopkins All Childrens hospital in St. Petersburg. He is the first person under the age of 18 to have died from COVID-19 in Manatee County.

The 16-year-old girl died on July 29 at Nicklaus Childrens Hospital in Miami, according to the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner Department. The young girl had two preexisting conditions, spina bifida and hydrocephalus. She died of pneumonia brought on by COVID-19, according to official reports.

The deaths of these young people come as public schools and universities in Florida and across the country are moving ahead with plans to resume in-person learning. The rise in COVID-19 fatalities and cases over the past several weeks point to the disaster that awaits millions of teachers, students and families if the back-to-school measures are allowed to be pushed through.

In an interview on CNN on Monday, Florida Education Association President Fedrick Ingram spoke about the harmful psychological effects that will undoubtedly affect children if they are permitted to enter schools where sickness and death become commonplace. He called the deaths of the two minors tragic and something that would be part of what we are going to have to deal with as well when you talk about student and childrens mental health.

Americas ruling class would like the population to believe that schools can be transformed into safe spaces for regular classroom learning in order to facilitate their homicidal back-to-work drive and force working-class parents who cant afford to leave their children at home back to work in unsafe conditions. The official notion is that younger people are largely excluded from the virus and arent likely to transmit it, let alone become infected. However, a mountain of evidence dealing with the nature of coronavirus transmission reveals that this is a blatant lie.

Health experts noted back in the early stages of the pandemic that younger demographics were accounting for a sizable portion of hospitalizations.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, chief of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor of medicine at Harvard, told reporters as far back as early April that even young patients without underlying health conditions were getting sick as the pandemic raged on. She noted that it was impossible to determine whose health would or would not deteriorate after contracting the virus. One day theyre okay, the next day they require intubation, she said.

One nurse at Elmhurst Hospital in New York City spoke to the WSWS in April on the conditions within the hospital. At a time when the pandemic was spiraling out of control in the state of New York, with around 30,000 daily infections being reported at its peak, observers were particularly struck by the number of young people who were checking into the hospital infected with COVID-19 and dying. Speaking of her patients, the nurse said: Ive never seen so many young people die. Its terrible. Were totally unprepared for this.

Recent data has pointed to a drastic surge of infections among small children and adolescents throughout the course of the pandemic. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Childrens Hospital Association released a report Monday documenting an extensive compilation of data from states on child COVID-19 cases. They found that while children represented only 8.8 percent of all cases in states reporting cases by age, over 338,982 have tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic. The overall rate for COVID-19 among children is 447 cases per 100,000 in the population. Moreover, 97,078 new child cases were reported from July 16 to July 30, a staggering 40 percent increase from the previous period.

Young people are increasingly catching the virus in states that are witnessing an immense surge in the pandemic. Alongside tens of thousands of child infections, Florida passed the 500,000 confirmed case mark earlier this week and saw 245 new deaths on Wednesday.

The Florida Department of Health issued a sobering data analysis last week on pediatric cases.

The data showed that from July 16 to July 24, nearly 8,000 more children have contracted the virus, which represents a 34 percent increase from the previous week. This came after another recent report showed that more children in Florida are requiring hospitalizations than ever before. Over the course of eight days, hospitalizations have increased by 23 percent, bringing the total number of children hospitalized to over 300. The percent positive rate for children also increased by 1 percentage point from the week before to 14.4 percent, while the states overall positivity rate is 12.6 percent.

Despite these alarming developments which are showcasing the danger of sending children back into schools, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has continued to push a reckless reopening campaign. In a press conference with Vice President Mike Pence last Monday, he reiterated platitudes on the importance of in-person learning. I really believe that the teachers and the administrators that are there, they serve so many functions in the lives of our kids, particularly those who come from disadvantageous backgrounds.

DeSantis and other proponents of the back-to-school drive have consistently touted the low transmission rate among children as an excuse to send them back into classrooms. However, a study in South Korea last month has poured cold water over such claims. Researchers found that children aged between 10 and 19 can transmit COVID-19 within a household just as much as adults.

Additionally, the researchers noted that the highest COVID-19 rate for household contacts of school-age children and the lowest rates for children younger than 9 was in the middle of school closures. They highlight the fact that early school closures, which were a part of broader lockdown procedures, greatly reduced the rate of transmission among younger children. Although the detection rate for contacts of preschool-aged children was lower, young children may show higher attack rates when the school closure ends, contributing to community transmission of Covid-19, the study said.

For all counties suffering the most severe outbreaks of the virus in Florida, child infection rates were much higher. The test positivity rate for children in Martin County was 25.3 percent while further south in Miami-Dade County the rate was 19.6 percent.

The rise in infections among children has been evident in other states that have become hotspots for COVID-19 as well. In Texas, for example, there has been an astronomical rise in COVID-19 infections and deaths ever since it lifted lockdown measures and resumed non-essential production. Small children have not been spared from the surge and, in some cases, have tested positive at rates even higher than the elderly.

In early July, Texas Health and Human Services unveiled data showing that around 592 children at child daycare centers across the state had tested positive for COVID-19. More than 1,200 staff members in these daycare facilities have also tested positive, bringing the total to nearly 1,800 across 1,131 facilities. For the child cases, this amounts to a 759 percent increase since early June.

The evidence is overwhelmingly clear: Children are equally susceptible to catching COVID-19, have viral loads equal to or greater than adults, are more likely to be asymptomatic carriers, and transmit the virus at the highest rates of any age group. Any school that reopens will quickly become a major vector for the spread of the virus throughout that community.

The effort to reopen schools, in other words, means that we will see more and more preventable and harrowing deaths of youth, students, teachers, parents and other workers.

The past seven months have demonstrated that the fight against the pandemic depends upon the independent intervention of the working class. The Socialist Equality Party and its youth and student wing, the International Youth and Students for Social Equality, call on young people to join their teachers in opposing the homicidal back to work campaign. We urge teachers to contact us for assistance in organizing your struggle. We call on students and youth to support this struggle and join the IYSSE.
THOMASVILLE, Ga., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE: FLO), producer of Nature's Own, Dave's Killer Bread, Wonder, Tastykake, and other bakery foods, today reported financial results for the company's 12-week second quarter ended July 11, 2020.

Second Quarter Summary:

Compared to the prior year second quarter where applicable

Sales increased 5.1% to $1.026 billion , reflecting the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

, reflecting the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Diluted EPS increased by $0.02 to $0.27 .

to . Adjusted diluted EPS(1) increased by $0.08 to $0.33 .

(1) Adjusted for items affecting comparability. See reconciliations of non-GAAP measures in the financial statements following this release.

CEO's Remarks:

"I am pleased to report a record quarter in which we executed well and capitalized on the strong demand for our leading brands," said Ryals McMullian, Flowers Foods' president and CEO. "Our team continued to perform admirably in challenging circumstances, and I am grateful for their dedication and commitment. Their hard work combined with the flexibility of our bakery network have enabled us to continue serving our markets uninterrupted throughout the COVID-19 pandemic."

McMullian added, "A key driver of our strong performance was the mix shift to branded retail products, which allowed us to leverage costs and increase margins. The COVID-19 pandemic was a significant driver of that shift this quarter, and we are actively working to maintain and expand that favorable mix going forward through our portfolio optimization initiatives."

McMullian continued, "Looking to the second half of 2020, we are balancing the higher demand and positive mix shift with the increased costs and uncertainty caused by this new environment. We remain committed to our portfolio and supply chain optimization initiatives and our expectation to deliver approximately $10 million to $20 million of savings this year. As part of our ongoing efforts to streamline operations, and to ensure we have the right resources in place to sustain long-term growth, we announced an organizational restructuring in July to further reduce the complexity of our business, improve margins, and ultimately unleash the full potential of our brands and innovation efforts. By continuing to strengthen our powerful brands, we expect to expand their market leading share positions and better-utilize our supply chain network with the goal of driving strong shareholder returns over the long-term."

Revised Guidance:

For the 53-week fiscal 2020 the company expects:

Sales in the range of approximately $4.290 billion to $4.330 billion , representing growth of approximately 4.0% to 5.0%.

to , representing growth of approximately 4.0% to 5.0%. Diluted EPS in the range of approximately $0.66 to $0.76 .

to . Adjusted diluted EPS in the range of approximately $1.15 to $1.25 , adjusted for items affecting comparability, representing growth of approximately 19.8% to 30.2%.

The company's outlook includes the following assumptions:

Portfolio and supply chain optimization benefit of $10 million to $20 million

to Depreciation and amortization in the range of $145 million to $150 million

to Net interest expense of approximately $11 million

An effective tax rate of approximately 24.0% to 24.5%

Weighted average diluted share count for the year of approximately 212.5 million shares

Capital expenditures for the year in the range of $85 million to $95 million

Matters Affecting Comparability:

Reconciliation of Earnings per Share to Adjusted Earnings per Share









For the 12 Weeks Ended

Jul. 11, 2020

Jul. 13, 2019







Net income per diluted common share $ 0.27

$ 0.25 Restructuring and related impairment charges 0.04

0.01 Project Centennial consulting costs 0.02

- Legal settlements (recovery) -

(0.01) Executive retirement agreement -

NM Adjusted net income per diluted common share $ 0.33

$ 0.25







NM - Not Meaningful Certain amounts may not compute due to rounding.

Consolidated Second Quarter 2020 Results

Compared to the prior year second quarter where applicable

Sales increased 5.1% to $1.026 billion .

. Percentage point change in sales attributed to:

Pricing/mix: 8.4%



Volume: -3.3%

Branded retail sales increased $103.6 million , or 17.7%, to $689.5 million , store branded retail sales decreased $17.7 million , or 10.9%, to $145.2 million , while non-retail and other sales decreased $35.8 million , or 15.8%, to $191.2 million .

, or 17.7%, to , store branded retail sales decreased , or 10.9%, to , while non-retail and other sales decreased , or 15.8%, to . Branded retail sales increased due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, new product introductions, reduced promotional activity, and a reduction in product returns.

Store branded retail sales decreased primarily due to lost breakfast bread business and volume declines for other store branded products as consumer purchasing shifted to more branded retail products.

Non-retail and other sales declined primarily due to the impact of the pandemic on foodservice customers.

Net income increased 9.1% to $57.9 million . Adjusted net income increased 31.5% to $70.0 million .

. Adjusted net income increased 31.5% to . Adjusted EBITDA increased 21.4% to $128.5 million , representing 12.5% of sales, a 170-basis point increase.

, representing 12.5% of sales, a 170-basis point increase. Materials, supplies, labor and other production costs (exclusive of depreciation and amortization) were 49.3% of sales, a 280-basis point decrease. These costs were lower as a percentage of sales due to positive shifts in mix from non-retail and store branded retail products to branded retail products. Ingredient and packaging costs declined due to the mix shift and lower product returns. Partially offsetting the lower costs were $1.5 million of start-up costs incurred with the ongoing conversion of our Lynchburg, Virginia facility to an organic bakery, which were largely workforce related.

of start-up costs incurred with the ongoing conversion of our facility to an organic bakery, which were largely workforce related. Selling, distribution and administrative (SD&A) expenses were 38.7% of sales, a 190-basis point increase. Excluding matters affecting comparability, adjusted SD&A expenses were 38.1% of sales, a 110-basis point increase. Higher employee incentive costs, an increase in distributor distribution fees due to a shift in product mix, and consulting costs related to Project Centennial were the primary drivers of the increased costs. Partially offsetting the higher costs were lower logistics expenses related to the product mix shift.

Depreciation and amortization (D&A) expenses were $33.2 million , 3.2% of sales, a 20-basis point decrease.

Cash Flow, Capital Allocation, and Capital Return

Year-to-date through the second quarter of fiscal 2020, cash flow from operating activities increased by $67.7 million to $275.8 million, capital expenditures decreased by $0.8 million to $46.6 million, and dividends paid increased by $3.0 million to $82.6 million. To ensure liquidity, out of an abundance of caution, total indebtedness increased by $142.5 million year-to-date through the second quarter.

There remain 6.2 million shares authorized for repurchase under the company's current share repurchase plan. The company expects to continue to make opportunistic share repurchases from time to time under this plan.

Investor Webcast

Flowers Foods will hold an investor update webcast to discuss its second quarter results, strategic priorities, and long-term targets at 8:00 a.m. (ET) on August 7, 2020. The call can be accessed by following the webcast link on flowersfoods.com. The call also will be archived on the company's website.

About Flowers Foods

Headquartered in Thomasville, Ga., Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE: FLO) is one of the largest producers of packaged bakery foods in the United States with 2019 sales of $4.1 billion. Flowers operates bakeries across the country that produce a wide range of bakery products. Among the company's top brands are Nature's Own, Dave's Killer Bread, Wonder, and Tastykake. Learn more at www.flowersfoods.com.

FLO-IR FLO-CORP

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements contained in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements relate to current expectations regarding our future financial condition, performance and results of operations and the ultimate impact of the novel strain of coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on our business, results of operations and financial condition, planned capital expenditures, long-term objectives of management, supply and demand, pricing trends and market forces, and integration plans and expected benefits of transactions and are often identified by the use of words and phrases such as "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "predict," "project," "should," "will," "would," "is likely to," "is expected to" or "will continue," or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. All forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those projected. Other factors that may cause actual results to differ from the forward-looking statements contained in this release and that may affect the company's prospects in general include, but are not limited to, (a) the ultimate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and measures taken in response thereto, including, among other things, temporary or ongoing bakery closures, on our business, results of operations and financial condition, which are highly uncertain and are difficult to predict, (b) general economic and business conditions and the competitive conditions in the baked foods industry, including promotional and price competition, (c) changes in consumer demand for our products, including changes in consumer behavior, trends and preferences, including health and whole grain trends, and the movement toward more inexpensive store-branded products, (d) the success of productivity improvements and new product introductions, (e) a significant reduction in business with any of our major customers including a reduction from adverse developments in any of our customer's business, (f) fluctuations in commodity pricing, (g) energy and raw material costs and availability and hedging and counterparty risk, (h) our ability to fully integrate recent acquisitions into our business, (i) our ability to achieve cash flow from capital expenditures and acquisitions and the availability of new acquisitions that build shareholder value, (j) our ability to successfully implement our business strategies, including those strategies the company has initiated under Project Centennial, which may involve, among other things, the integration of recent acquisitions or the acquisition or disposition of assets at presently targeted values, the deployment of new systems and technology and an enhanced organizational structure, (k) consolidation within the baking industry and related industries, (l) disruptions in our direct-store delivery system, including litigation or an adverse ruling from a court or regulatory or government body that could affect the independent contractor classification of our independent distributors, (m) increasing legal complexity and legal proceedings that we are or may become subject to, (n) product recalls or safety concerns related to our products, and (o) the failure of our information technology systems to perform adequately, including any interruptions, intrusions or security breaches of such systems. The foregoing list of important factors does not include all such factors, nor necessarily present them in order of importance. In addition, you should consult other public disclosures made by the company, including the risk factors included in our most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and disclosures made in other filings with the SEC and company press releases, for other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected by the company. We caution you not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as they speak only as of the date made and are inherently uncertain. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly revise or update such statements, except as required by law.

Information Regarding Non-GAAP Financial Measures

The company prepares its consolidated financial statements in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). However, from time to time, the company may present in its public statements, press releases and SEC filings, non-GAAP financial measures such as, EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBIT, EBITDA margin, adjusted EBITDA margin, adjusted net income, adjusted operating income, adjusted EPS, adjusted income tax expense, adjusted selling, distribution and administrative expenses (SD&A), gross margin excluding depreciation and amortization, free cash flow, and the ratio of net debt to adjusted EBITDA. The reconciliations attached provide reconciliations of the non-GAAP measures used in this presentation or release to the most comparable GAAP financial measure. The company's definitions of these non-GAAP measures may differ from similarly titled measures used by others. These non-GAAP measures should be considered supplemental to, and not a substitute for, financial information prepared in accordance with GAAP.

The company defines EBITDA earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The company defines free cash flow as operating cash flow minus capital expenditures. The company believes that free cash flow provides investors a better understanding of the company's liquidity position. The company believes that EBITDA is a useful tool for managing the operations of its business and is an indicator of the company's ability to incur and service indebtedness and generate free cash flow. EBITDA is used as the primary performance measure in the company's 2014 Omnibus Equity and Incentive Compensation Plan. Furthermore, pursuant to the terms of our credit facility, EBITDA is used to determine the company's compliance with certain financial covenants. The company also believes that EBITDA measures are commonly reported and widely used by investors and other interested parties as measures of a company's operating performance and debt servicing ability because EBITDA measures assist in comparing performance on a consistent basis without regard to depreciation or amortization, which can vary significantly depending upon accounting methods and non-operating factors (such as historical cost). EBITDA is also a widely-accepted financial indicator of a company's ability to incur and service indebtedness.

EBITDA should not be considered an alternative to (a) income from operations or net income (loss) as a measure of operating performance; (b) cash flows provided by operating, investing and financing activities (as determined in accordance with GAAP) as a measure of the company's ability to meet its cash needs; or (c) any other indicator of performance or liquidity that has been determined in accordance with GAAP.

The company defines adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBIT, EBITDA margin, adjusted EBITDA margin, adjusted net income, adjusted operating income, adjusted EPS, adjusted income tax expense, adjusted SD&A, respectively, excluding the impact of asset impairment charges, Project Centennial consulting costs, lease terminations and legal settlements, acquisition-related costs, and pension plan settlements. Adjusted income tax expense also excludes the impact of tax reform. The company believes that these measures, when considered together with its GAAP financial results, provides management and investors with a more complete understanding of its business operating results, including underlying trends, by excluding the effects of certain charges.

The company defines net debt as total debt less cash and cash equivalents. Net debt to EBITDA is used as a measure of financial leverage employed by the company. Gross margin excluding depreciation and amortization is used as a performance measure to provide additional transparent information regarding our results of operations on a consolidated and segment basis. Changes in depreciation and amortization are separately discussed and include depreciation and amortization for materials, supplies, labor and other production costs and operating activities.

Presentation of gross margin includes depreciation and amortization in the materials, supplies, labor and other production costs according to GAAP. Our method of presenting gross margin excludes the depreciation and amortization components, as discussed above.

The reconciliations attached provide reconciliations of the non-GAAP measures used in this presentation or release to the most comparable GAAP financial measure.

Flowers Foods, Inc. Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (000's omitted)







































July 11, 2020



December 28, 2019 Assets









Cash and Cash Equivalents $ 299,562

$ 11,044











Other Current Assets

521,699



515,165











Property, Plant & Equipment, net

697,127



717,822











Right-of-Use Leases, net

374,723



399,302











Distributor Notes Receivable (1)

215,751



226,348











Other Assets

14,565



12,644











Cost in Excess of Net Tangible Assets, net

1,275,367



1,295,451











Total Assets $ 3,398,794

$ 3,177,776











Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity









Current Liabilities $ 478,375

$ 463,431











Long-term Debt (2)

1,009,596



866,508











Right-of-Use Lease Liabilities (3)

384,226



404,503











Other Liabilities

190,109



179,904











Stockholders' Equity

1,336,488



1,263,430











Total Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity $ 3,398,794

$ 3,177,776



(1) Includes current portion of $28,211 and $27,709, respectively. (2) Includes current portion of $0 and $3,730, respectively. (3) Includes current portion of $59,701 and $60,982, respectively.

Flowers Foods, Inc. Consolidated Statement of Operations (000's omitted, except per share data)











































For the 12 Week

Period Ended

For the 12 Week Period

Ended



For the 28 Week

Period Ended

For the 28 Week Period

Ended



July 11, 2020

July 13, 2019



July 11, 2020

July 13, 2019 Sales $ 1,025,861 $ 975,759

$ 2,375,305 $ 2,239,654 Materials, supplies, labor and other production costs (exclusive of depreciation and amortization shown separately below)

506,033

508,552



1,176,906

1,160,693 Selling, distribution and administrative expenses

396,904

359,497



918,939

835,546 Recovery on inferior ingredients

-

-



-

(413) Restructuring and related impairment charges

10,535

2,047



10,535

2,765 Depreciation and amortization expense

33,180

33,329



77,843

78,148 Income from operations

79,209

72,334



191,082

162,915 Other pension (benefit) cost

(72)

519



71

1,211 Pension plan settlement and curtailment loss

-

-



116,207

- Interest expense, net

2,869

2,769



6,183

6,593 Income before income taxes

76,412

69,046



68,621

155,111 Income tax expense

18,493

15,951



16,474

36,150 Net income $ 57,919 $ 53,095

$ 52,147 $ 118,961



















Net income per diluted common share $ 0.27 $ 0.25

$ 0.25 $ 0.56



















Diluted weighted average shares outstanding

212,284

211,957



212,192

211,924

Flowers Foods, Inc. Condensed Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows (000's omitted)

















































For the 12 Week

Period Ended

For the 12 Week

Period Ended



For the 28 Week

Period Ended

For the 28 Week

Period Ended





July 11, 2020

July 13, 2019



July 11, 2020

July 13, 2019 Cash flows from operating activities:

















Net income $ 57,919 $ 53,095

$ 52,147 $ 118,961 Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash from operating activities:



















Total non-cash adjustments

49,862

42,792



193,513

97,569

Changes in assets and liabilities and pension contributions

61,828

15,992



30,134

(8,473) Net cash provided by operating activities

169,609

111,879



275,794

208,057 Cash flows from investing activities:



















Purchase of property, plant and equipment

(24,894)

(26,651)



(46,594)

(47,412)

Proceeds from sale of property, plant and equipment

590

308



1,452

543

Other

5,342

989



9,363

1,125 Net cash disbursed for investing activities

(18,962)

(25,354)



(35,779)

(45,744) Cash flows from financing activities:



















Dividends paid

(42,342)

(40,314)



(82,628)

(79,610)

Payment of contingent consideration

-

-



(4,700)

-

Stock repurchases

-

-



(783)

(7,054)

Net change in debt borrowings

(61,250)

(46,250)



142,500

(86,750)

Payments on financing leases

(1,720)

(1,431)



(3,900)

(3,303)

Other

1,544

(345)



(1,986)

(1,133) Net cash provided by (disbursed for) financing activities

(103,768)

(88,340)



48,503

(177,850) Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents

46,879

(1,815)



288,518

(15,537) Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period

252,683

11,584



11,044

25,306 Cash and cash equivalents at end of period $ 299,562 $ 9,769

$ 299,562 $ 9,769

Flowers Foods, Inc. Sales by Sales Class and Sales Bridge (000's omitted)









Sales by Sales Class For the 12 Week

Period Ended For the 12 Week Period

Ended





July 11, 2020 July 13, 2019 $ Change % Change









Branded Retail $ 689,481 $ 585,886 $ 103,595 17.7% Store Branded Retail 145,160 162,843 (17,683) -10.9% Non-Retail and Other 191,220 227,030 (35,810) -15.8% Total Sales $ 1,025,861 $ 975,759 $ 50,102 5.1%



















Sales by Sales Class For the 28 Week

Period Ended For the 28 Week Period

Ended





July 11, 2020 July 13, 2019 $ Change % Change









Branded Retail $ 1,579,811 $ 1,343,338 $ 236,473 17.6% Store Branded Retail 335,352 353,896 (18,544) -5.2% Non-Retail and Other 460,142 542,420 (82,278) -15.2% Total Sales $ 2,375,305 $ 2,239,654 $ 135,651 6.1%



















Sales Bridge











Net Total

For the 12 Week Period Ended July 11, 2020 Volume Price/Mix Sales Change











Flowers Foods -3.3% 8.4% 5.1%





















Sales Bridge











Net Total

For the 28 Week Period Ended July 11, 2020 Volume Price/Mix Sales Change











Flowers Foods -1.1% 7.2% 6.1%













Flowers Foods, Inc. Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Measures (000's omitted, except per share data)

















Reconciliation of Earnings per Share to Adjusted Earnings per Share

For the 12 Week

Period Ended

For the 12 Week

Period Ended

For the 28 Week

Period Ended

For the 28 Week

Period Ended

July 11, 2020

July 13, 2019

July 11, 2020

July 13, 2019















Net income per diluted common share $ 0.27

$ 0.25

$ 0.25

$ 0.56 Recovery on inferior ingredients -

-

-

NM Restructuring and related impairment charges 0.04

0.01

0.04

0.01 Project Centennial consulting costs 0.02

-

0.03

- Legal settlements -

(0.01)

0.01

NM Executive retirement agreement -

NM

-

NM Canyon acquisition costs -

-

-

NM Pension plan settlement and curtailment loss -

-

0.41

- Other pension plan termination costs -

-

NM

- Adjusted net income per diluted common share $ 0.33

$ 0.25

$ 0.74

$ 0.57 NM - not meaningful. Certain amounts may not add due to rounding.

















Reconciliation of Gross Margin

For the 12 Week

Period Ended

For the 12 Week

Period Ended

For the 28 Week

Period Ended

For the 28 Week

Period Ended

July 11, 2020

July 13, 2019

July 11, 2020

July 13, 2019 Sales $ 1,025,861

$ 975,759

$ 2,375,305

$ 2,239,654 Materials, supplies, labor and other production costs (exclusive of depreciation and amortization) 506,033

508,552

1,176,906

1,160,693 Gross Margin excluding depreciation and amortization 519,828

467,207

1,198,399

1,078,961 Less depreciation and amortization for production activities 18,113

18,590

42,371

43,568 Gross Margin $ 501,715

$ 448,617

$ 1,156,028

$ 1,035,393















Depreciation and amortization for production activities $ 18,113

$ 18,590

$ 42,371

$ 43,568 Depreciation and amortization for selling, distribution and administrative activities 15,067

14,739

35,472

34,580 Total depreciation and amortization $ 33,180

$ 33,329

$ 77,843

$ 78,148

















Reconciliation of Selling, Distribution and Administrative Expenses to Adjusted SD&A

For the 12 Week

Period Ended

For the 12 Week

Period Ended

For the 28 Week

Period Ended

For the 28 Week

Period Ended

July 11, 2020

July 13, 2019

July 11, 2020

July 13, 2019 Selling, distribution and administrative expenses (SD&A) $ 396,904

$ 359,497

$ 918,939

$ 835,546 Project Centennial consulting costs (5,584)

-

(8,976)

- Legal (settlements) recovery -

1,286

(3,220)

1,136 Executive retirement agreement -

568

-

(763) Canyon acquisition costs -

-

-

(22) Other pension plan termination costs -

-

(133)

- Adjusted SD&A $ 391,320

$ 361,351

$ 906,610

$ 835,897

















Reconciliation of Net Income to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA

For the 12 Week

Period Ended

For the 12 Week

Period Ended

For the 28 Week

Period Ended

For the 28 Week

Period Ended

July 11, 2020

July 13, 2019

July 11, 2020

July 13, 2019















Net income $ 57,919

$ 53,095

$ 52,147

$ 118,961 Income tax expense 18,493

15,951

16,474

36,150 Interest expense, net 2,869

2,769

6,183

6,593 Depreciation and amortization 33,180

33,329

77,843

78,148 EBITDA 112,461

105,144

152,647

239,852 Other pension cost (72)

519

71

1,211 Pension plan settlement and curtailment loss -

-

116,207

- Other pension plan termination costs -

-

133

- Recovery on inferior ingredients -

-

-

(413) Restructuring and related impairment charges 10,535

2,047

10,535

2,765 Project Centennial consulting costs 5,584

-

8,976

- Legal settlements (recovery) -

(1,286)

3,220

(1,136) Executive retirement agreement -

(568)

-

763 Canyon acquisition costs -

-

-

22 Adjusted EBITDA $ 128,508

$ 105,856

$ 291,789

$ 243,064















Sales $ 1,025,861

$ 975,759

$ 2,375,305

$ 2,239,654 Adjusted EBITDA margin 12.5%

10.8%

12.3%

10.9%

Flowers Foods, Inc. Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Measures (000's omitted, except per share data)







































Reconciliation of Income Tax Expense to Adjusted Income Tax Expense



For the 12 Week

Period Ended

For the 12 Week

Period Ended

For the 28 Week

Period Ended

For the 28 Week

Period Ended



July 11, 2020

July 13, 2019

July 11, 2020

July 13, 2019

















Income tax expense $ 18,493

$ 15,951

$ 16,474

$ 36,150 Tax impact of:















Recovery on inferior ingredients -

-

-

(104)

Restructuring and related impairment charges 2,634

517

2,634

698

Project Centennial consulting costs 1,396

-

2,244

-

Legal (recovery) settlements -

(325)

805

(287)

Executive retirement agreement -

(143)

-

193

Canyon acquisition costs -

-

-

6

Pension plan settlement and curtailment loss -

-

29,052

-

Other pension plan termination costs -

-

33

- Adjusted income tax expense $ 22,523

$ 16,000

$ 51,242

$ 36,656





















Reconciliation of Net Income to Adjusted Net Income



For the 12 Week

Period Ended

For the 12 Week

Period Ended

For the 28 Week

Period Ended

For the 28 Week

Period Ended



July 11, 2020

July 13, 2019

July 11, 2020

July 13, 2019

















Net income $ 57,919

$ 53,095

$ 52,147

$ 118,961 Recovery on inferior ingredients -

-

-

(309) Restructuring and related impairment charges 7,901

1,530

7,901

2,067 Project Centennial consulting costs 4,188

-

6,732

- Legal (recovery) settlements -

(961)

2,415

(849) Executive retirement agreement -

(425)

-

570 Canyon acquisition costs -

-

-

16 Pension plan settlement and curtailment loss -

-

87,155

- Other pension plan termination costs -

-

100

- Adjusted net income $ 70,008

$ 53,239

$ 156,450

$ 120,456





















Reconciliation of Earnings per Share - Full Year

Fiscal 2020 Guidance







Range Estimate

















Net income per diluted common share $ 0.66 to $ 0.76



Restructuring and related impairment charges 0.04

0.04







Project Centennial consulting costs 0.03

0.03



Legal settlements 0.01

0.01



Pension plan settlement and curtailment loss 0.41

0.41



Other pension plan termination costs NM

NM



Adjusted net income per diluted common share $ 1.15 to $ 1.25



Certain amounts may not add due to rounding.

SOURCE Flowers Foods, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.flowersfoods.com


And how is the president going to certify who is and isnt undocumented? Does Mr. Trump intend to just guesstimate a percentage of people who should not be counted? Thats illegal thanks to a 1999 Supreme Court ruling forbidding the use of statistical sampling for purposes of apportioning Congressional seats.

Mr. Trump is warping a constitutional directive for partisan gain, but what else is new? He is trailing in national polls and is trying to energize his base ahead of the 2020 election. Talking tough about undocumented immigrants and dressing up a toothless memo as a presidential directive certainly looks impressive if his supporters dont look too closely. But its an empty gesture that is impossible to enforce.

Even if this latest stunt is tied up in court and eventually defeated, it can still cause real harm to states with large immigrant communities. The fear brought about by the Trump administrations latest action could result in immigrant-friendly states losing out on federal funds and congressional representation, which is ultimately the goal of this administration.

If immigrants, undocumented or not, or anyone married to an undocumented immigrant, fail to fill out a census form out of fear, they will not be counted and that could mean that children and adults who are U.S. citizens in that household would likely also not be accounted for. And like votes, every person counts.

Ending all efforts to count the countrys population a month sooner than previously announced is one more way to exclude minorities, who are more likely to be counted by in-person census workers. Not to mention the lasting consequences of having fewer seats in Congress when it comes time to apportioning representatives, which means less power.
New Delhi: In an exclusive interview with Zee Media, Sushant Singh Rajput's assistant Ankit Acharya made some startling revelations. He said of three years that he worked with Sushant, the actor never really locked his room while sleeping. Ankit said, "I was shocked to know that the actor's room was locked from inside when the unfortunate incident happened."

Ankit further claimed, "In October 2018, Sushant had Rs 30 crore in his bank account and I am sure of it as I saw it myself."

"In the last week of July 2019, I took a leave for personal reasons and when I returned I was not taken back to work. I later got to know that Rhea Chakraborty had replaced the entire old staff, therefore even I was asked to leave", he said.

Further, Ankit alleged that it was after Rhea came into Sushant's life that the actor looked stressed. "I am happy that now the case has gone to the CBI for the probe. I am hopeful that soon the real culprit will be arrested."

While talking to Zee Media, Ankit said that Sushant was a gem of a human being. At times he used to cook rotis (Chappatis) all by himself. Having closely worked with him for three long years, Ankit feels 'Sushant can never commit suicide'.

Ankit said, "He never took depression medicines while I was there. He used to drink a protein shake and took calcium tablets only while gymming. I did not go back to work since August 2019 as I had taken leave but because I got late in coming back, Sushant used to call me also. I received his calls for about one month but after that, the calls stopped."

"In October 2019 when I met Sushant, he looked depressed. He had dark circles under his eyes, looked stressed. He used to check his mobile constantly and then throw it aside. It was only after Rhea came into his life. She alleged that Sushant's previous house was haunted and puja (prayers and rituals) was organised there."

"Sushant used to hear Mahamrityunjaya Mantra every morning after getting up and was a staunch Lord Shiva devotee. Then, he used to watch planets from his favourite telescope," revealed Sushant's assistant Ankit Acharya.
Jaipur, Aug 6 : Amid the ongoing political crisis in the state, the Rajasthan High Court on Thursday gave some relief to the Ashok Gehlot government in the case challenging the merger of six BSP legislators with the ruling Congress and seeking a stay on it.

Disposing of a petition filed by Bahujan Samaj Party national Secretary Satish Mishra and Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Madan Dilawar, a division bench of Chief Justice Inderjit Mahanti and Justice Prakash Gupta said that notice, issued earlier by a single judge bench, should be delivered to all six former BSP MLAs, by August 8.

As the ruling party MLAs are camping in a Jaisalmer hotel, it said that the Jaisalmer District Judge should ensure timely delivery of the notice, taking the help of the local Superintendent of Police.

The notice should also be published in Jaisalmer newspapers, said the court.

The BSP and the BJP leaders had approached the division bench on Tuesday, challenging the order of a single judge bench that refused to stay the functioning of the six as Congress legislators.

Contending that the single judge bench has not given them interim relief, and that the notice it had issued to the MLAs concerned had not reached them as they are in Jaisalmer, they demanded that the court should, therefore, stay the merger order.

The single judge bench earlier issued notice to the Speaker, the Assembly Secretary and six MLAs on July 30 and slated the next hearing on August 11.
Human rights body member to apply to Sri Lankan envoy over Russians arrested on island

 RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov

15:43 06/08/2020

MOSCOW, August 6 (RAPSI) - Member of the Russian Presidential Human Rights Council Standing Commission on International Cooperation in Human Rights Alexander Brod is going to send an application to a Sri Lankan envoy in defense of the rights of Russians arrested on the island on the insect collection allegations.

Earlier, the islands polie arrested zoologist Alexander Ignatenko and his two friends Artem Ryabov and Nikola Kilafyan for collection of bugs and reptiles. Authorities brought 277 flora and fauna collection ban violation charges against them. They could face up to 40 years behind bars if convicted.

Russian citizens insist they did not catch insects but only collected the dead ones to study them.

Brod is going to monitor the case and involve certain specialists in it.

A court in Sri Lankan town Nuwara Eliya has already began hearing the case against Russian nationals. The next hearing is set for August 27.
People carry signs during a "Defund the Police" march from King County Youth Jail to City Hall in Seattle on Aug. 5, 2020. (Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images)

Seattle City Council Approves Slashing Millions From Police Department

But members rejected proposals to cut funding by 50 percent

The Seattle City Councils Budget Committee on Aug. 5 approved cutting millions in funding to the Seattle Police Department, but rejected a pair of proposals that would have slashed $75 million from the departments budget.

Council members approved an amendment to dismantle the 14-member Navigation Team, a group that works to connect homeless people to housing and other resources. In a 54 vote, they also approved defunding the team altogether, cutting $2.9 million and redirecting some of it to homeless services outside the department.

The vote was to disband the team, Councilwoman Tammy Morales said during the committee hearing.

This would allow us to give hope to so many of our neighbors who lost faith in a city that has used public dollars to repeatedly mistreat and push people out of sites, said Morales, a Democrat, referring to homeless people as unhoused people.

Councilwoman Kshama Sawant said the team was euphemistically named.

The sweeps of homeless encampments the team carries out are inhumane and ineffective, she said. They just move people from one corner to the next, and they do nothing to increase available shelter space or affordable housing.

In a statement to the Seattle Times, Mayor Jenny Durkans office said the Democrat opposes the cut.

Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant speaks as demonstrators hold a rally outside of the Seattle Police Departments abandoned East Precinct, in Seattle on June 8, 2020. (David Ryder/Getty Images)

Durkan is concerned that the council has voted to eliminate this entire unit without a plan to bridge the gap with outreach services to address the impacts of unmanaged encampments, the statement reads.

Mike Stewart, executive director of the Ballard Alliance of businesses, told the paper in an email that cutting the team was irresponsible, pointing to a hepatitis A outbreak in an encampment in Ballard Commons Park earlier this year that was removed by the team.

If not for the Navigation Team, the consequences for both sheltered and unsheltered residents of North Seattle would have been dire, he said.

Council members adopted another amendment that limits the pay of top-level police staff. The measure will cut funding to the department by $500,000, according to Sawant, a socialist. Other approved amendments included redirecting $36,000 from the departments implicit bias training budget and $800,000 from the departments recruitment and retention efforts.

In all, the budget committee approved a reduction in the size of the police force of dozens of officers. The department currently has approximately 14,000 officers.

But they rejected two proposals from the councilwoman that would have slashed the police departments funding by 50 percent.

Despite a majority of the council committing last month to defunding the department by 50 percent, every member voted no on the proposal except for Council President M. Lorena Gonzalez, who abstained. No one seconded the other amendment, which meant there was no vote on it.

Police block a road during protests near the Seattle Police East Precinct in Seattle on July 26, 2020. (David Ryder/Getty Images)

Sawant blasted her colleagues in a statement after the meeting.

Our movement has every right to be disappointed and angry at the Democratic Party majority on the City Council for falling so dramatically short of the promises they made just last month to honor the community demand to defund SPD by 50 percent, she wrote.

Some council members are already eyeing next years police budget for deep cuts. Councilwoman Teresa Mosqueda, a Democrat, told KOMO News that she projects the department could be defunded by 41 to 42 percent in 2021.

In an email to supporters, the Seattle Police Officers Guild, a police union, said, City Council Rejects Key Proposals!

Were making an impact but the fight is not over! We need everyones full support now more than ever, the guild said.

People were encouraged to sign a petition against defunding police thats received over 125,000 signatures, and attend a rally on Aug. 9 at Seattles City Hall.

The councils Budget Committee met last week to formally introduce a series of proposals for cutting funding to the police. The total of the cuts approved on Aug. 5 isnt clear. A final vote on spending is scheduled for Aug. 10.
Shawn Thew/Pool/Getty ImagesBy QUINN SCANLAN, ABC News



(WASHINGTON) -- What's sure to be one of the most expensive and most watched Senate campaigns this cycle is already off to the races, with incumbent Republican Martha McSally challenging Democrat Mark Kelly on Wednesday to seven debates in both the state's major cities and rural areas, and another one to be held by a national news network.



"Voters deserve to know where he stands on positions. He's been hiding in a bunker and we need to make sure that they understand it's about who do you trust to get the economy going again, it's about who do you trust to keep your family safe and keep our country safe. And the radical left agenda that we've seen come out of his party is so extreme and out of step with Arizonans, and Arizonans deserve to know the implications of this very important choice," McSally told ABC's Phoenix affiliate, KNXV, in an interview Wednesday.



Kelly was asked in a later interview with KNXV on Wednesday about the debate challenge, and didn't seem to agree to all seven.



"I think it's very important that we have a robust debate about the issues, and we will do that," Kelly said, noting that he'd like to debate issues like affordable and accessible health care, including for persons with pre-existing conditions and the cost of prescription drugs. "These are things that Sen. McSally has a clear record on -- voting to take away the protection from pre-existing conditions, not supporting a reduction in prescription drug costs, especially for seniors under Medicare, so I'm looking forward to debating these issues with her."



Asked for clarity on whether Kelly agreed to seven debates, Campaign Manager Jen Cox blasted McSally for not debating her primary opponent this cycle, and said Kelly "looks forward to debating" McSally.



"The campaign has accepted an invitation to a debate hosted by the Arizona Republic and Arizona public media outlets, and plans to participate in an additional debate with Univision to ensure that all Arizonans hear from Mark about what is at stake this election and his plans to be an independent Senator for Arizona," Cox said in a statement provided to ABC News.



Despite their political differences, McSally and Kelly are similar candidates in at least one major way -- both boast an impressive military background.



The sitting senator served in the U.S. Air Force, deploying six times to the Middle East and Afghanistan. She became the first woman in history to fly a fighter jet in combat. Kelly is a retired U.S. Navy combat pilot, who deployed during the first Gulf War and flew nearly 40 combat missions during Operation Desert Storm.



He's also a former NASA astronaut and co-founded GIFFORDS, an organization fighting for more stringent gun control measures, with his wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords. In 2011, a man attempted to assassinate her in a mass shooting in the Tucson, Arizona, area. Six people died and 13, including the congresswoman, were wounded.



Arizona's special Senate election is a top target for both Republicans and Democrats this November.



As it stands now, the race looks to be more promising for Democrats, as the party tries flip control of Congress' upper chamber. All three major race raters -- Cook Political Report, Sabato's Crystal Ball and Inside Elections -- have the match-up favoring Kelly. Two polls released on July 26 showed Kelly with an edge over the sitting senator. In an NBC News/Marist College poll, 53% of Arizona registered voters supported Kelly while 41% supported McSally. In a CNN/SSRS poll, Kelly was leading over McSally by seven points, 50% to 43%, among registered voters.



"In Arizona, I suppose out of habit, you tend to lean things to the Republicans because they normally win, but we didn't do that in 2018," said Larry Sabato, the head of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia and editor-in-chief of Sabato's Crystal Ball. "If McSally loses this seat, she'll be in select company of people who have lost both of their state Senate seats -- not a happy-camping group."



In the fall of 2018, Sabato moved Arizona's Senate race between McSally and Democrat Kyrsten Sinema towards favoring Sinema, and that was ultimately what happened, with Sinema eeking out a win in traditionally red Arizona by a margin of just 55,900 votes -- fewer votes than the total number of ballots cast for the Green Party candidate.



After her loss to Sinema, though, McSally got a second chance at joining the Senate. When Sen. Jon Kyl, who the governor appointed to the Senate following the late Sen. John McCain's death, resigned at the end of 2018, Republican Gov. Doug Ducey appointed McSally to the seat, meaning voters have yet to send her to the Senate.



Even though polls look stronger for Kelly now, polls today don't necessarily reflect how voters will feel next month, or in the weeks leading up to Election Day when the majority of Arizona voters will be casting their ballots by mail. A lot can happen in three months to change the course of this race -- especially in the midst of a global pandemic.



"It's gonna be a very competitive race -- lots of spending, not only by the candidates, but by outside groups. We've already seen some of that. And I think all of the races are going to be tied into the presidential race this year," said Barbara Norrander, a professor at the University of Arizona who specializes in elections, public opinion and political parties.



The competitiveness of this race is evident by how much money both candidates have raised. Since the start of the campaign through July 15, McSally had raised $28.7 million, and had $11 million cash-on-hand, according to Federal Election Commission filings. It would be a more impressive haul if Kelly hadn't outdone her by more than $15 million. Through July 15, the Democrat has raised nearly $45 million since launching his campaign in February 2019, and he has a more than $20 million war chest going into the final three months of the campaign.



McSally said in a statement Wednesday that Kelly "would be another Trojan horse for the most radical Left policies," but Sabato and Norrander had different takes on his political persona.



"He's certainly not a liberal Democrat. I'd say moderate to moderate-liberal depending on how you classify these people. You know, he kind of fits Arizona," Sabato said, noting that the state has changed demographically, with many more Hispanic voters casting ballots. He said Kelly would "naturally appeal" to these voters: "He's got that star quality, that moderate star quality that Hispanics often look for."



"Kelly is portraying himself as a moderate and someone who would be more in tune with Arizona than Washington -- so kind of a typical outsider. So he has that advantage," Norrander told ABC News.



But even though the state is a definite battleground this cycle, it's still Republican, Norrander said, and that gives McSally an advantage. Despite her being an atypical incumbent, given how she got her seat, this being the second time she's ran for statewide office in less than three years has upped her name recognition. Before running for Senate, McSally represented Arizona's 2nd Congressional District in the House.



While in the Senate, McSally has been a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump. According to FiveThirtyEight's analysis of how often members of Congress vote in line with Trump's position, McSally has done so 95% of the time. Only six current members vote in line with the president's views more than her, and Georgia Sen. David Perdue has the same score.



McSally has been focusing on a message around standing up to China -- a country the president has repeatedly blamed for the current coronavirus pandemic situation in the United States -- and has attempted to tie Kelly to the communist country.



But sticking close to the president could be perilous for Republicans facing voters in November. He's down against former Vice President Joe Biden in national and battleground state polls. In the two recent Arizona polls, Biden was up by four points in one and by five points in the other among registered voters.



Sabato said McSally doesn't have a choice, but to stay close to Trump.



"You dance with the one that brung you and she has to hope that Trump recovers and wins Arizona -- and almost every Republican should running for president," he said. "That's not out of the question at all. It could easily happen. She's gonna stick with that strategy ... she's already lost the moderates. They aren't coming back to her. And if Trump people get alienated, then who's she got left? Nobody."



Norrander added, "Being tied to Trump may not be, at this point in time, a big advantage, but of course, things can change."



Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
Warsaw, Aug 6 : Dutch rider Fabio Jakobsen from Deceuninck-Quickstep is in critical condition after dramatic crash on the first stage of Tour de Pologne in Katowice, Poland.

The Wednesday race was preceded by the minute of silence to commemorate Belgian cyclist Bjorg Lambrecht, who died in an accident in the previous edition. The race started on the Stadion Slaski in Chorzow, while the finish line was situated in Katowice, which is called "the temple of sprint", as the riders are able to reach the speed even of 80 kilometers per hour, reports Xinhua news agency.

The first stage of Tour de Pologne was disrupted by a high-speed crash just before the finish line. Jakobsen hit into the barriers after he clashed elbow-to-elbow with Belgian Dylan Groenewegen. The barriers flew across the road which contributed to the crash of several other cyclists.

Groenewegen crossed the finish line first but he was disqualified as he caused the collision and the organisers announced that Jakobsen is the winner of the first stage. The Dutchman was transported to the hospital in a critical condition after over half an hour of resuscitation. According to Polish media, the rider was put into a pharmacological coma.

"Fabio's condition is very serious. We did everything we could, but it's a hard situation due to the fact that it is a very severe craniocerebral trauma. He has a broken palate. We gave him oxygen and we maintained the level of saturation and vitals," said Tour de Pologne doctor, Barbara Jerschina.

"It is a very serious injury. He lost a lot of blood, but he is alive and we hope to win this fight," added the doctor.

After the crash Groenewegen's team Jumbo-Visma made an official statement.

"Our thoughts go out to Fabio Jakobsen and other people involved in today's terrible crash. We offer our sincere apologies and we will discuss internally what has happened before we may make any further statement," they wrote, while Deceuninck-Quickstep's manager Patrick Lefevere announced that the team will take a legal action against Groenewegen.
<! Basketmouth and his daughter Janelle >

Popular Nigerian comedian, Basketmouth is an happy man as his beautiful daughter Janelle clocks 9 today, August 6.

The comedian, whose real name is Bright Okpocha, took to his Instagram page to praise and pray for his second daughter Janelle.

He also seized the opportunity to scare men who planned to distract his beautiful daughter from achieving her goals.

He asked the guys to stay away from her also stating that he has loaded guns for anyone who attempts to trespass.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JANELLE!!!

To my beautiful, lovely, charming daughterAGE IN GRACE.

DADDY  YOU.

Please tell your SONS to STAY AWAY!

I HAVE A LOADED BIG GUN.

Ohoooooo!!!! I don talk finish. ????

Below are some of the photos shared by the proud dad;

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Commenting on the investment climate, Prof Ncube said Zimbabwe was open for business and remained as one of the best investment destination where one would get returns for his money. He said the country had a lot of potential, particularly in the mining sector. Herald
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-07 04:42:15|Editor: huaxia

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UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy said on Thursday that it is imperative to enhance actions and synergy at international and regional levels to fight terrorism and organized crime more effectively.

"As international terrorism, transnational organized crime and other global security issues grow increasingly connected and diversified, no country can stay immune from the scourge of these common threats," Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, told the Security Council high-level open debate on addressing the issue of linkages between terrorism and organized crime.

"It is of utmost importance to further promote multilateralism and international cooperation to tackle the new and evolving challenges of terrorism, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic," said the ambassador.

"The international community must actively support regional and sub-regional organizations in playing their important roles and conducting effective regional cooperation, in the field of counter-terrorism and fight against organized crime," he added.

China supports closer coordination between UN agencies such as the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism, the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and Interpol, among others, in accordance with their respective mandates, and regional organizations, to bring forward their respective strengths and expertise, Zhang said.

Talking about how counter-terrorism should be conducted, the envoy said that it must be carried out by upholding the purposes and principles of the UN Charter while respecting the central coordinating role of the United Nations and adhering to unified standards.

"Member states have the primary responsibility in countering terrorist acts. The sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of the countries concerned should be fully respected," he said.

Countries must strictly implement the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and the resolutions of the Security Council and the General Assembly in this regard, including Security Council Resolution 2482, while abiding by and implementing international laws on combating organized crime, said Zhang.

"Tangible and comprehensive measures must be taken to counter the linkages between terrorist organizations and organized crime in areas such as trafficking in arms, persons, drugs, artefacts, cultural property, the illicit trade in natural resources and wildlife, the abuse of legitimate commercial enterprise, non-profit organizations, among others," the ambassador added.

Referring to capacity building, Zhang said that it is important to support domestic efforts of member states and build up their capacities to address the most prominent challenges.

The international community must provide tangible assistance to member states, especially developing countries and African countries, considering the different security situations and their distinctive culture and history, in their capacity-building efforts in areas such as border control, customs, drug enforcement and judiciary matters, said Zhang.

"We should effectively combat terrorism financing, stop internet-based terrorism and illegal activities by terrorist and organized crime groups, so as to sever the linkages between terrorism and organized crime," he said.

"We must follow international law and relevant UN resolutions, support member states to take measures of de-radicalization, enhance prevention and keep organized crime groups from resorting to extremist and terrorist means," the ambassador added.

On the importance of solidarity and cooperation in counter-terrorism, Zhang said that facing the threat of terrorism, "we must stand united with solidarity."

"Terrorism is our common enemy, and there is no such a difference between so-called good or bad terrorists. Double standard and politicization must be avoided," he said.

"China will always side with multilateralism and international justice," the ambassador said. "China has been rigorously implementing all UN counter-terrorism resolutions and actively engaging in counter-terrorism cooperation at the global and regional levels."

As a state party to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, China has been actively fulfilling its obligations under the Convention with an all-fronts approach across legislation, law enforcement and judiciary sectors, he added.

"We will continue to conduct bilateral and multilateral exchanges and cooperation of capacity building with all member states, developing countries in particular, including African countries, on issues related to counter-terrorism and combating organized crime," he said.

The ambassador noted that "we will also continue to support the UN efforts of counter-terrorism, politically and financially, in a joint endeavor to maintain international peace and stability." Enditem
Elon Musk admits he prayed about SpaceX project: 'Im not very religious, but I prayed for this one'

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Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk is not a religiously observant person, but he admitted earlier this week that he prayed about his Space X project.

In remarks after the Dragon Capsule completed a splash landing in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday, bringing home two U.S. astronauts, the chief engineer and CEO of SpaceX, said at one point during his speech: You know, Im not very religious, but I prayed for this one.

Musk has long planned to make living on Mars a viable option.

Were going to go to the moon, were going to have a base on the moon, were going to send people to Mars and make life multi-planetary, he said.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine believes space travel is going to become increasingly common in part because of private-sector innovation.

We are entering a new era of human spaceflight, where NASA is no longer the purchaser, owner and operator of all the hardware. We are going to be a customer, Bridenstine said.

One customer of many customers, in a very robust commercial marketplace for human spaceflight to low-Earth orbit.

He added: We also want to have numerous providers that are competing against each other on cost, and innovation, and safety, driving down costs and increasing access to space in a way thats never been seen before.

Musk believes the recent space accomplishments represent an "achievement of humanity."

I think this is something that the whole world can take some pleasure in," he said. "These are difficult times when  you know, theres not that much good news  and I think this is one of those things that is universally good no matter where you are on planet Earth, this is a good thing, and I hope it brightens your day.

Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken splashed into the ocean just before 3 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday, concluding their approximately two-month stint at the International Space Station.

Were both super, super proud to have been just a small part of the team that accomplished bringing those spaceflights back to the Florida coast and bringing that capability back to America, Behnken said after landing.

The Dragon Capsule was launched from a Falcon 9 rocket owned by SpaceX in May and was both the first private launch of NASA astronauts and the first launch of NASA astronauts from U.S. soil since 2011.

What is known as space tourism, traveling into space for recreational purposes, is sometimes referred to as citizen space exploration, personal spaceflight, or commercial human spaceflight, covering spaceflights which are suborbital, orbital, and even beyond Earth's orbit. Several companies have emerged in recent years for those wealthy enough to travel to space.
The partnership is supported by Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) and IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, on August 6 signed a Memorandum of Understanding on joint efforts to accelerate financial inclusion in the country by expanding access to credit and promoting electronic payments for Ukrainians and small businesses.

The Memorandum of Understanding between the National Bank of Ukraine and IFC was signed by Kyrylo Shevchenko, NBU Governor, and Jason Pellmar, IFC Regional Manager for Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova, the NBU said on its website.

Read alsoWorld Bank appoints new Country Director for Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine

"This cooperation agreement is part of IFC's four-year Ukraine Financial Inclusion for Growth Program, implemented in partnership with the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO and the UK Government's Good Governance Fund," the NBU said.

According to the World Bank Group's Global Findex database, around 40% of Ukraine's adult population lacks an account at a financial institution, while most account holders still use their bank cards to withdraw cash. The new partnership aims to:

Introduce new financial products for Ukrainians and small businesses;

Expand access to savings accounts and secure loans;

Make financial services more accessible, higher quality and broadly used by Ukrainians; and

Develop a comprehensive regulatory framework to protect consumer rights.

The partnership within the Memorandum will also facilitate the creation of competitive market conditions for financial service providers aiming to decrease transaction costs for customers and to open new opportunities for business growth in digital financial services.

"My main goal as NBU Governor is to increase the welfare of Ukrainians. The NBU will welcome and support the efforts of our international partners in this direction," said Kyrylo Shevchenko, NBU Governor. "The Memorandum of Understanding is an important step forward. Involvement of citizens into the financial system, access to financial services, protection of clients of financial institutions are the priorities of our joint work."

IFC will also provide technical assistance to the National Bank of Ukraine, helping it develop a national financial inclusion strategy. "Responsible finance solutions can lead to breakthrough opportunities for Ukraine, enabling individuals and businesses to access much-needed financial services. It is also crucial to open the market for investors, fueling the country with sustainable growth," said Jason Pellmar, IFC Regional Manager for Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova. "Building on our global experience, IFC will help Ukraine to expand access to finance to underserved segments by improving and promoting the use of digital financial services, introducing principles of consumer protection and supporting the transformation of a credit reporting system."

Supporting responsible and inclusive financial services is an important part of IFC's strategy in Europe and Central Asia. To date, the World Bank Group has helped over 65 institutions worldwide to implement responsible finance solutions across microfinance, insurance, housing finance, sustainable energy finance, mobile banking, agri-finance, and credit reporting.
06.08.2020 LISTEN

In early 1817, the British government sent a diplomatic delegation led by Thomas E. Bodwich to the Asante capital Kumase, to begin formal relations between the two nations, Asante and Britain. Bowdich negotiated and signed the Anglo-Asante Treaty of 1817 with the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Bonsu aka Osei Tutu Kwame. Bowdich spent about five months traveling through Asante under escort, and he experienced Asante jurisprudence, trials and appeals, which ended with the final appeal before Otumfuo Asantehene at Manhyia

Bowdich records that during discussions with Otumfuo Osei Bonsu, he brought up the claims of human sacrifice. This was part of the propaganda that the British and other Europeans consistently levelled against Asante. According to Bowdichs account in his book "Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee: With a Descriptive Account of that Kingdom," the Asantehene calmly explained to him that Asante operated under laws from antiquity.

Asante law had the death penalty. without that law, much of Bowdichs belongings would have been stolen on his trip by thieves. Yet from Cape Coast Castle to Kumasi, his belongings were safe, because from the coast to Kumasi, everyone understood the consequences of flouting Asante law.

Otumfuo Osei Bonsu, then reminded Bowdich that he had been informed that your King kills people in his country, and in India as well.. Bowdich had met some Indians in Kumase and he reasoned that they had apprised the Asantehene of the British colonial policy in India.

I bring this up to underscore that theres always been law and order, leadership, and accountability in Asante. Therefore, the sight of the powerful Baafuo Bantomahene and his Bantoma sub-Chiefs kneeling before Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, begging for reprieve is not uncommon.

Nor does it diminish Baafuos immense standing and his reputation an iota. Also, in Akan customary law, it is usual for a defendant to seek total discharge or reduction of punishment by kneeling in supplication and guilt. It is also an affirmation that in Asante even the powerful must respect the law or face the consequences. Three of our Asantehene: Osei Kwame (Kwame Panin); Kofi Kaakari Okumkom/Osape; and Mensa Bonsu (Bonsu Ketewa) were tried before a court of Nana Asantehemaa; Amanhene; and Kumase Abrempon, found guilty and then destooled.

In Asante governance, our Chiefs are advised to follow the law, an avoid getting swollen-headed by the trappings of power. Our Adikrofuo; Abrempon; Amanhene; Otumfuo Asantehene, are aware of that; and are conversant of the consequences. At their enstoolment therefore, they are cautioned against thinking they are above the law. Nor can it be said that Otumfuo Asantehene acted capriciously.

To the contrary, Otumfio is not a dictator, neither is he autocratic. As he has mentioned before, our Asante trials are fair, thorough and exhaustive, so much so that, when a decision is finally rendered, the guilty party shows his satisfaction with the process by giving thanks, and presenting unsolicited gifts beyond what is required.

A finial atop an Okyeame Poma or Linguist Staff captures the strength and power of the Law succinctly. Whatever you are, whoever you are, theres a Power (Law) for you to answer to. The finial depicts a powerful Leopard who was intoxicated with his own sense of power. It learns quickly and rather poignantly, that theres a power above him represented by the Lion.

Looking rather pitiful, and chastened, the leopard prostrates before the mighty Lion, head bent, and submissively allows the Lion to drink from a pot on his head. To add insult to injury, an antelope, a prey of the leopard looks on at the humiliation of the otherwise fearful leopard. The intoxication of power has its limit; and it does not end well for the one who becomes power drunk.

Osi Gyata. srmu Si Gyata. Osi ara na ysuro no. But even He understands the limits of power. The lesson to learn is that only the lion drinks from the pot of the leopard, carried by the leopard, and witnessed by the subjects for emphasis. When you run afoul of Asante law and custom, you become like a pitiful leopard before authority. Our ancestors were very intelligent. Compare and contrast with our national political dispensation.
The pizza boxes were missing, and so was the chatter, at Amazons World Trade Centre office in Bengaluru even as the e-commerce major started the Prime Day salesone of the biggest in the online universeWednesday midnight.

Unlike other years when employees stayed back in office and slept there as well for days to prepare for mega sale events, this time the action had to shift to the virtual space. While theres been no dinner on the house in the run up to the D-Day, the typical war room or the command centre has silently moved to the laptop and mobile screens of ...
What just happened? Another large company has apparently been hit with a ransomware attack. Following a similar incident aimed at wearables maker Garmin, Japanese tech giant Canon is reportedly suffering at the hands of hackers who have brought down systems and stolen data.

Last month's attack on Garmin forced it to close call centers, websites, and some other online services. It eventually had to pay a million-dollar ransom via ransomware negotiation business Arete IR to recover its encrypted data.

Bleeping Computer reports that Canon has also been targeted by ransomware. The attack has impacted a number of its services, including the company's US website, which still shows an "undergoing maintenance" message, as well as its email, Microsoft Teams, and dozens of its domains.

The publication obtained an internal email from Canon IT advising that the company is experiencing widespread system issues. It also published a partial screenshot of the alleged ransom note that identifies the ransomware as Maze.

The ransomware operators said they stole "10 terabytes of data, private databases etc." Maze spreads through a network and exfiltrates files before encrypting everything, making its effects potentially worse than the WastedLocker ransomware used in the Garmin attack, which is encryption-only.

If Canon does not pay the ransom, Maze will publish the stolen data on leak sites. The company says it is "currently investigating the situation."

Maze has been used in previous attacks on LG, Xerox, the Florida city of Pensacola, and many more. Back in March, the operators behind the ransomware promised not to target medical organizations during the Covid-19 pandemic. But the group published details of thousands of former patients' from Hammersmith Medicines Research (HMR)a company that performs early clinical trials of drugs and vaccinesdays after the pledge because HMR had refused to pay a ransom.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the American Primary Aluminum Association (APAA) is praising the Trump Administration following the reinstatement of Section 232 aluminum tariffs on Canadian imports of primary aluminum. Over the past year, Canadian aluminum imports have surged by over 95% in violation of Canada's commitments to the United States. This surge accelerated in June, hitting 190,798 metric tons, a new high since Canada was granted an exemption to the Section 232 program. Today's action stops this surge from threatening more American jobs.

"The decisive action taken today by the Trump Administration will help save America's primary aluminum industry which has been decimated by an unprecedented surge of Canadian primary aluminum imports," said Mark Duffy, Chief Executive Officer, APAA. "The APAA and our member companies resoundingly applaud President Trump for his bold leadership to protect America's national and economic security, save the U.S. primary aluminum industry, and put thousands of American aluminum workers first."

Today's decision by the Trump Administration levels the playing field for American workers and ensures the continued domestic production of a material essential to U.S. national and economic security interests. Mr. Duffy continued, "As current events have shown, domestic production of essential raw materials is vital in times of crisis. Today's action helps ensure that the U.S. aluminum supply chain that provides armor plating for our military vehicles, skins for our fighter jets and the backbone of our electrical grid will remain resilient for years to come."

About the American Primary Aluminum Association (APAA): The American Primary Aluminum Association will advocate to advance the interests of America's primary aluminum industry and its workers through the Aluminum Now campaign. The APAA is registered and incorporated in Washington, DC and operates as a non-profit trade association. For more, please visit: www.aluminumnow.org.

SOURCE American Primary Aluminum Association

Related Links

http://www.aluminumnow.org


Taiwanese businessman charged over work with Chinese intelligence

ROC Central News Agency

08/05/2020 08:52 PM

Taipei, Aug. 5 (CNA) Taipei District Prosecutors Office on Wednesday charged a Taiwanese businessman with violating the National Security Act, for his alleged work on behalf of Chinese intelligence, specifically arranging meetings with officials from Taiwan's government and military.

The suspect, surnamed Huang (), moved to Ningbo, China in 2000, and befriended local government officials there in the hope of advancing his business career, the office said in a press release.

Prosecutors alleged that Huang was recruited to arrange meetings with Taiwanese government and military personnel, with the goal of helping collect information on Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party and the Falun Gong religious movement.

In 2011 and 2012, he invited two Taiwanese acquaintances -- a retired Ministry of Justice investigator, surnamed Lee (), and a retired Major General, surnamed Yen (), respectively -- to visit him in Ningbo on the pretext of touring the area.

During their visits, he allegedly brought them to meals with three officials from the Chinese Ministry of State Security, as well as a representative from the local Taiwan Affairs Office.

According to prosecutors, the Chinese officials made overtures that were interpreted as invitations to act as informers, which were rebuffed by both men.

Huang was also accused of attempting to recruit a Taiwanese National Security Bureau official, surnamed Lee (), whom he met at a banquet while visiting Taiwan in 2012.

In that instance, Huang allegedly said he was working for China to gather intelligence on the Falun Gong movement, but Lee refused to assist him.

The prosecutors' office said it had charged Huang under Taiwan's National Security Act for attempting to "develop an organization" for the official use of a foreign government.

In the statement, prosecutors said Huang had been cooperative during the investigation.

They also emphasized that Huang's actions had not resulted in the transfer of any actual intelligence to Chinese authorities, and that his efforts to recruit Taiwanese public officials were unsuccessful. (Hsiao Po-wen and Matthew Mazzetta)

Enditem/AW

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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday sounded the bugle in poll-bound Bihar by asking the cadre to work for effecting a decisive change in Bihar. He also asked senior leaders to identify the constituencies the party will contest.

Assembly elections in the state are due later this year though the Election Commission has not taken a final call on the poll dates and sought suggestions from political parties.

Addressing party workers through video conferencing, the former Congress president made it clear that every effort should be made to strengthen the party and the Grand Alliance, without compromising respect and dignity.

History is witness to the fact that every change has begun from Bihar. Mahatma Gandhi started his freedom struggle from Champaran. In the present context, Bihar Congress will do this change, said Gandhi.

He also asked the state unit to highlight the Nitish Kumar governments failure to effectively tackle Covid-19 and the flood situation.

Highlight the failure of the state government on the front of education, health and employment. Take them to people. The state government has failed to tackle Covid and flood situations effectively.

The Nitish Kumar government was reluctant to take back the migrants. The state government was boasting on the front of corruption; now the CM doesnt talk on these issues, said Gandhi.

BPCC president Madan Mohan Jha said that Rahul Gandhi had assured the state unit that he was willing to come to state as and when required. Rahulji also spoke on the need of strengthening the alliance with respect to one and all, said Premchandra Mishra, Congress MLC.

Though he avoided the contentious issue of leadership in the Grand Alliance (GA), Gandhi said Congress will form the next government with everyones help.

The next government will be ours. We will form the government with the help of all, he said.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) is said to be keen that party president Lalu Yadavs son Tejashwi Yadav be declared as the GAs chief ministerial candidate. However, the Congress has all along maintained that this decision will be taken at a later stage.

Rahul Gandhi also asked partys Bihar in-charge Shaktisinh Gohil and Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee president Madan Mohan Jha to identify the number of seats and the constituencies it will contest.

A senior leader of Congress said that party wants to contest at least two seats every district, which puts the total seats to 76. The JD (U) had contested on 100 seats when it was part of the Grand Alliance, so we would definitely like to get a majority share of its seat plus would like to retain our winning seats, said the leader.

In the 2015 assembly elections, the Congress had contested on 41 seats and won 21 with a vote share of 6.7% while the RJD had contested on 101 seats and won 80 seats with a vote share of 16.8%.

With Bihar continuing to reel under floods and battling the surge in Covid-19 cases, Tejwashwi Yadav and NDA ally Lok Janshakti Party have voiced concern over holding assembly polls in the state. However, the ruling JD(U)-BJP coalition wants the polls to be held as scheduled.

The term of the present Assembly expires on November 29.
President Donald Trump speaks during a briefing with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020, in Washington. Read more

Facebook and Twitter on Wednesday took extraordinary action against President Donald Trump for spreading coronavirus misinformation after his official and campaign accounts broke their rules, respectively.

Facebook removed from Trump's official account the post of a video clip from a Fox News interview in which he said that children are "almost immune" from covid-19. Twitter required his Team Trump campaign account to delete a tweet with the same video, blocking it from tweeting in the interim.

In the removed video, president Trump can be heard in a phone interview saying schools should open. He goes on to say, "If you look at children, children are almost - and I would almost say definitely - but almost immune from this disease," and that they have stronger immune systems.

The twin actions came three months before the elections in which Trump's performance on coronavirus is a key issue, and the social media companies have made it clear in recent months that they will not tolerate misinformation on the global pandemic.

The decision represents something of an about face for Facebook, whose chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has long been a proponent of free speech on his site. Zuckerberg under pressure in late June said the company will remove posts that incite violence or attempt to suppress voting - even from political leaders - and that the company will affix labels on posts that violate hate speech or other policies.

Twitter, meanwhile, has taken a more aggressive stance, flagging several of Trump's tweets for misinformation and even blocking his son, Donald Trump Jr., from tweeting for 12 hours for breaking its coronavirus misinformation rules.

Twitter said it hid the campaign's post and said the account wouldn't be able to tweet again until it's deleted, although it can appeal the decision. The Trump campaign account was active again late Wednesday night. Trump's personal account also reshared the video originally posted by Team Trump, but it was removed after the original tweet was blocked.

Twitter spokeswoman Liz Kelley said the tweet "is in violation of the Twitter Rules on covid-19 misinformation. The account owner will be required to remove the Tweet before they can Tweet again."

Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said, "This video includes false claims that a group of people is immune from covid-19 which is a violation of our policies around harmful COVID misinformation."

A Trump campaign spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

While many children have had milder symptoms from the virus, researchers have found they are still able to catch and spread it to other people, including adults at home and in school settings, such as teachers.

"They get it and can transmit it, but they get it less and transmit it less than adults," said Dr. Theodore Ruel, chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Global Health at UCSF. He says the word "immunity" is incorrect in this context but that children, especially younger ones, are less of a risk than adults.

More than 240,000 children in the U.S. have been documented to have Covid-19, according to the CDC. Around 300 children have contracted a rare inflammatory diseases due to Covid called multi-system inflammatory syndrome, and six have died.

Ruel says that with proper protocols, including masking and social distancing, and a working testing and contact tracing program, schools for younger children could be safe enough to reopen.

"A well run school is going to be just as safe if not safer than a grocery store," said Ruel. "But we have to make it safe for both [teachers and kids], and we have to recognize it is a risk for both if we want to reopen schools."

As the start of the school year rolls around, school districts across the country have been torn on how to proceed. With rising covid-19 case numbers across the country, many large districts have decided to start the year virtually, with online classes. Other's have opted to go ahead with in-person classes, like in Georgia. Gwinnett County Public Schools, the state's largest school district, reported 260 district employees had tested positive for the virus or been exposed to someone who had.

Facebook previously deactivated dozens of ads placed by President Trump's reelection campaign that included a symbol once used by the Nazis to designate political prisoners in concentration camps.

Facebook has faced increasing pressure to better moderate its site. More than 1,000 advertisers have joined a boycott regarding its civil rights record, including Disney and Verizon. And nearly two dozen state attorneys general sent a letter criticizing the company earlier Wednesday.

The shifts are at least a partial retreat from the company's traditional deference to speech it deems "newsworthy." That includes Facebook's decision to not label or remove a post by Trump that said, "when the looting starts, the shooting starts."

Twitter, which affixed a warning label on a similar post, has been more forceful at responding to what they deemed to be policy violations, including from politicians.

Twitter has labeled several tweets from the president for being misleading, including on fraudulent mail-in ballots. Twitter late last month ordered the president's son to delete a misleading tweet with hydroxychloroquine misinformation and limited the account for 12 hours.

Zuckerberg faced tough questions from lawmakers a week ago while testifying on Capitol Hill along with other big tech CEOs on antitrust issues. Several Republicans asked him pointed questions regarding whether the company censors conservative voices.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., asked Zuckerberg about specific incidents in which the lawmaker alleged that Facebook executives may have used the service to downplay disadvantage conservative viewpoints.

Zuckerberg said that the company aims "to be a platform for all ideas" and that he does not want Facebook to be ideologically biased.

The Washington Posts Faiz Siddiqui contributed to this report.
In findings published Aug. 6 in the journal Current Biology, researchers from New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), Chinese Academy of Sciences and University of Rennes in France have unveiled a stunning 99-million-year-old fossil pristinely preserving an enigmatic insect predator from the Cretaceous Period -- a 'hell ant' (haidomyrmecine) -- as it embraced its unsuspecting final victim, an extinct relative of the cockroach known as Caputoraptor elegans.

The ancient encounter, locked in amber recovered from Myanmar, offers a detailed glimpse at a newly identified prehistoric ant species Ceratomyrmex ellenbergeri, and presents some of the first direct evidence showing how it and other hell ants once used their killer features -- snapping their bizarre, but deadly, scythe-like mandibles in a vertical motion to pin prey against their horn-like appendages.

Researchers say the rare fossil demonstrating the hell ant's feeding mode offers a possible evolutionary explanation for its unusual morphology and highlights a key difference between some of the earliest ant relatives and their modern counterparts, which today uniformly feature mouthparts that grasp by moving together laterally. The hell ant lineage, along with their striking predatory traits, are suspected to have vanished along with many other early ant groups during periods of ecological change around the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event 65 million years ago.

"Fossilized behavior is exceedingly rare, predation especially so. As paleontologists, we speculate about the function of ancient adaptations using available evidence, but to see an extinct predator caught in the act of capturing its prey is invaluable," said Phillip Barden, assistant professor at NJIT's Department of Biological Sciences and lead author of the study. "This fossilized predation confirms our hypothesis for how hell ant mouthparts worked ... The only way for prey to be captured in such an arrangement is for the ant mouthparts to move up and downward in a direction unlike that of all living ants and nearly all insects."

"Since the first hell ant was unearthed about a hundred years ago, it's been a mystery as to why these extinct animals are so distinct from the ants we have today," Barden added. "This fossil reveals the mechanism behind what we might call an 'evolutionary experiment,' and although we see numerous such experiments in the fossil record, we often don't have a clear picture of the evolutionary pathway that led to them."

Driving Diversity of Hell Ants & Their Headgear

Barden's team suggests that adaptations for prey-capture likely explain the rich diversity of mandibles and horns observed in the 16 species of hell ants identified to date. Some taxa with unarmed, elongate horns such as Ceratomyrmex apparently grasped prey externally, while other hell ants such as Linguamyrmex vladi, or "Vlad the Impaler" discovered by Barden and colleagues in 2017, was thought to have used a metal-reinforced horn on its head to impale prey -- a trait potentially used to feed on the internal liquid (hemolymph) of insects.

Barden says the earliest hell ant ancestors would have first gained the ability to move their mouthparts vertically. This, in turn, would functionally integrate the mouthparts and head in a way that was unique to this extinct lineage.

"Integration is a powerful shaping force in evolutionary biology ... when anatomical parts function together for the first time, this opens up new evolutionary trajectories as the two features evolve in concert," explained Barden. "The consequences of this innovation in mouthpart movement with the hell ants are remarkable. While no modern ants have horns of any kind, some species of hell ant possess horns coated with serrated teeth, and others like Vlad are suspected to have reinforced its horn with metal to prevent its own bite from impaling itself."

To explore further, the researchers compared the head and mouthpart morphology of Ceratomyrmex and several other hell ant species (such as head, horn and mandible size) with similar datasets of living and fossil ant species. The team also conducted a phylogenetic analysis to reconstruct evolutionary relationships among both Cretaceous and modern ants. The team's analyses confirmed that hell ants belong to one of the earliest branches of the ant evolutionary tree and are each other's closest relatives. Moreover, the relationship between mandible and head morphology is unique in hell ants compared to living lineages as a result of their specialized prey-capture behavior. The analyses also demonstrated that elongated horns evolved twice in hell ants.

While the fossil has finally provided Barden's lab with firmer answers as to how this long-lost class of ant predators functioned and found success for nearly 20 million years, questions persist such as what led these and other lineages to go extinct while modern ants flourished into the ubiquitous insects we know today. Barden's team is now seeking to describe species from new fossil deposits to learn more about how extinction impacts groups differentially.

"Over 99% of all species that have ever lived have gone extinct," said Barden. "As our planet undergoes its sixth mass extinction event, it's important that we work to understand extinct diversity and what might allow certain lineages to persist while others drop out. I think fossil insects are a reminder that even something as ubiquitous and familiar as ants have undergone extinction."

###

Barden et al., Specialized Predation Drives Aberrant Morphological Integration and Diversity in the Earliest Ants, Current Biology (2020), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.06.106
The left-behind children of Xishanping Village can feel the love and care they miss from their own parents during their summer vacation at a local companion home.

Several children sit in a circle inside the house drawing and doing homework. Around them, there are shelves full of books, and their artwork can be seen hanging on the walls. Outside, there are slides, swings and even a small stage.

Xiao Yue (pseudonym) is a seventh-grader who lost her mother when she was little and has lived with her grandmother since then. She has been guided by the care of Ma Xuemei, the "substitute mother" of 54 left-behind children in the village.

Ma, 29, could empathize with Xiao Yue since she was once a left-behind child herself and had also spent a lot of time away from her own child.

"Poor thing. My granddaughter lost her mom and has short stature," said Xiao Yue's grandma, who could not help wiping away her tears as she spoke. The 13-year-old girl was diagnosed with growth hormone deficiency and needs long-term medication.

Ma frequently visited Xiao Yue's place and talked with her, enlightening and encouraging the girl with heroic stories, and also invited her to play with other children at the companion home.

Xiao Yue, who used to feel inferior and afraid of having contact with others, gradually opened her heart and became more outgoing. Her condition improved, and so did her grades.

"Look at your painting. How nice it is!" said Ma, who enfolded Xiao Yue in an affectionate embrace, telling the girl that she could think of her as a mom.

Xishanping is located in the city of Shehong in southwest China's Sichuan Province, where most locals migrate to cities in search of work to support their families.

To care about the children whose parents are not around, the local Communist Youth League organizations have set up "children companion homes" in rural areas, hiring and training educated, caring women as "substitute mothers."

The local Communist Youth League Committee bears all the expenses for purchasing books and other activities, according to Tang Yuwen, Party secretary of Xishanping. Police officers and firefighters are also invited to companion homes to give traffic and fire safety education.

The substitute mothers also communicate with the parents of the left-behind children, sharing videos of the kids doing homework and playing.

In March 2017, Ma signed a service contract and started working as a caregiver at the companion home. The first thing she did was to make home visits and records of more than 100 households with underage children. The job took her two months.

She found that some children had deficiencies in developing their habits and learning abilities since they were usually taken care of by aged grandparents due to the generational gap.

In addition to tutoring, Ma also organized activities according to the children's interests, such as drawing, handicraft making, watching movies and museum visits.

"I wanted to make the children feel like they were with their own mothers," Ma said.
WH Smith yesterday culled 1,500 jobs and shut 14 stores as commuters and shoppers stayed at home.

Bosses cited the impact of coronavirus on passenger numbers at stations and airports and fewer shoppers on UK high streets as they cut headcount to slash costs.

At the same time Scottish fashion chain M&Co shed 380 jobs and William Hill closed 119 bookmakers.

Deserted: There are fears that footfall on Britain's high streets will never return to pre-Covid levels

It followed announcements earlier this week from Pizza Express, Currys PC World, Hays Travel and DW Sports, who are slashing up to 4,470 jobs between them.

More than 40,000 staff in the UK have been laid off in hospitality and retail since the start of the pandemic, according to a Mail audit.

In total, large British firms have laid off 230,000 employees, with around 130,000 of these from the UK, the analysis found.

Experts fear this is just the tip of the iceberg and that a tsunami of job losses will come as the furlough scheme tapered off.

WH Smith has suffered a double whammy from the collapse in custom at train stations and its stores at airports such as London Heathrow and Gatwick.

Revenue was down 73 per cent in travel locations and 57 per cent overall in July due to a slow recovery, and it believes it will make a loss of between 70million and 75million in the year to the end of August.

Yesterday, it announced it would close 14 small kiosk-style stores but most job cuts will come at existing stores.

New data from researchers Springboard yesterday showed the number of shoppers fell 47 per cent in July compared to the same period last year.

The opening of the hospitality industry on July 4 boosted footfall by a fifth over the month, but fears over a second coronavirus wave are still leading many to stay at home.

The Government has been criticised for failing to get office staff back to their place of work and support local businesses.

On Monday, as few as one in six office employees of major British firms commuted to work.

London commuters alone would have spent 2.3billion in retailers, pubs and eateries close to the centre between March and June if they had not been at home, according to the CEBR economic thinktank.

Many firms are not expected to ask staff to return until well into the autumn, and Facebook, RBS and Google are allowing home working until 2021.

Thousands of jobs have already been axed at firms including sandwich specialists Upper Crust and Pret A Manger, along with restaurant chains Byron, Chiquito and Carluccios.

As the recession bites and unemployment rises sharply, consumers are less likely to spend, exacerbating the downturn.

The Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts that joblessness will rise to 3.6m, or 12 per cent, by the end of the year.

Retail analyst Andrew Busby said: This is now the perfect storm. Despite Government help businesses have got all these costs and no revenue.

Were still only seeing the tip of the iceberg  if we think this is bad we havent seen anything yet. Weve got 8m furloughed but in reality theyve been made redundant. Nobody is immune.

M&Co, founded in Glasgow in 1961, hit trouble almost as soon as the lockdown came into force, going into administration in April. It reopened stores in June, but remained under severe pressure from Covid-19.

It said it would shut 47 stores and shed 380 jobs. It said a smaller network of high street stores leaves it in a strong position with the outbreak reducing appetites to travel longer distances on public transport.

William Hill said that retail footfall will not return to pre-Covid levels.
Despite government posturing that tenants affected by the COVID-19 crisis could receive a rental reduction, a new survey has found those renters are still getting a raw deal.

The report by Better Renting revealed that fewer than 10 per cent of tenants who had asked for rental relief actually received a satisfactory discount from their landlords.

It was a meagre outcome given that 63 per cent of the 1,000 tenants surveyed reported losing household income during the pandemic due to job losses and reduced hours.

Despite government posturing that tenants affected by the COVID-19 crisis could receive a rent reduction, a new survey has found renters are still getting a raw deal

Back in March, Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the national cabinet introduced a six-month moratorium on rental evictions, which was rolled out by the states.

There was no binding legislation which required landlords to reduce prices if their tenant was impacted by the COVID-19 downturn.

But Mr Morrison urged renters and property owners to engage in 'good faith' negotiations to solve the problem.

'There was a naive hope on the part of government that landlords would play their part in helping tenants through the COVID-19 crisis,' executive director of Better Renting Joel Dignam told Daily Mail Australia on Thursday.

'But what we found was that renters were very reluctant to ask and renters who did ask, it did not go very well.'

In Queensland and Victoria, tenants could apply to an arbitration tribunal for a rent reduction if both parties could not reach an agreement.

A report by Better Renting revealed that fewer than 10 per cent of tenants who asked for rental relief actually received a satisfactory result from their landlords

'Generally, the guideline was that tenants had to have lost 30 percent of their income,' Mr Dignam said.

'But we found that two thirds of renters had suffered an impact on their income and of those only nine percent ended up being granted a rent reduction.'

The report also found 20 percent had their rental relief request denied, 7.5 per cent had their rent deferred and would be made to pay money back at a later date, and 4.5 per cent were given a 'trivial reduction'.

Rental advocates now fear that when the ban on evictions comes to an end in October, landlords will move to remove tenants who were not paying the full rent.

Two thirds of the 1000 tenants surveyed reported losing household income during the COVID-19 lockdown

Mr Dignam urged the government to take measures to avoid this 'rent bomb'.

'State and federal governments are wary of the risks of letting a large number of tenants get evicted,' he said.

'We see a need to expand these protections against evictions because at the moment renters have been getting into debt and they simply can't keep paying.

'That's a bad thing at any time, it is particularly bad in light of the ongoing economic impact, not to mention the health issues around the spread of coronavirus.'
As August 5, 2020, is etched in Indian political history as the day when the politics of mandir (temple) reached its climax after three decades of political mobilisation, August 7, 2020, marks an equally important, and related, anniversary. It was 30 years ago, on this day, that the VP Singh government implemented the Mandal Commission report, which gave 27% reservations in government jobs for Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

As the votaries of the politics of kamandal (an oblong water pot used by sadhus), a term often used to describe the Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJP) Hindutva politics, celebrate, the advocates of the politics of Mandal confront their most serious challenge.

The two political streams had a fundamental tension  and in fact, many attribute the rise of each as a response to the other. The Ram temple at Ayodhya was one of the main tenets of kamandal politics, through which the BJP sought to consolidate Hindus across castes. Mandal sought to emphasise caste identities, and construct a political imagination based on an alliance of the socially marginalised with religious minorities, particularly Muslims.

But 30 years later, the line between mandir and Mandal have blurred  and the advocates of the former have won over a significant segment of the natural constituency of the latter.

How did this happen?

For one, the BJP tapped into the heterogeneity within OBCs, and leveraged the resentment against dominant OBC groups who are seen as having cornered the benefits that came with reservation and political power. Data shows that intra-OBC inequality is real. In Uttar Pradesh for instance, it is by consolidating the non-Yadav communities that the BJP has scored three consecutive electoral triumphs  in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls and the 2017 assembly polls. The most tangible manifestation of the BJP seeking to leverage this faultline is the formation of the Commission to Examine Sub-categorisation of Other Backward Classes for OBCs.

But it is not just social engineering. A mix of aggressive welfare delivery to members of these communities, substantive legislative positions to portray the partys commitment to the subaltern, and the co-option of historical figures integral to identity of specific backward groups into a larger Hindutva pantheon  note Prime Minister Narendra Modis reference to Suheldev in his speech at Ayodhya  has helped BJP cement its base among this section.

It is not clear if the politics of mandir has decisively prevailed over the politics of Mandal, for social equations can change, inter-caste contradictions can grow, the ability to reconcile these contradictions may not last, and issues of political representation may once again emerge more sharply.

But what is clear is that 30 years later, the politics of mandir and the politics of Mandal have come a full circle in India.

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The Rajasthan High Court, on Thursday, ruled disposing a petition seeking an immediate stay on the merger of six Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) lawmakers with the Congress Party. Earlier, the court had sought replies from Speaker Joshi, and six other lawmakers.

The Rajasthan High Court on Thursday disposed of a petition against the merger of six BSP MLAs in the state with the Congress party and directed that the single-judge bench hearing the stay application decide the matter on the next date of hearing.



Legislative Assembly Speaker CP Joshis lawyer Prateek Kalsiwal said, The High Court has directed a single-judge bench hearing the stay application in the matter to decide on it on the next date of hearing  August 11. Directions have also been issued to Jaisalmer DJ (district judge) to effectuate service of the notice to the six BSP MLAs and take the help of the Superintendent of Police for the same if needed, Kalsiwal said.



The High Court was hearing two petitions filed by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and BJP leader Madan Dilawar against the merger, which had helped the ruling party in retaining a majority in the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly.The single-judge bench court had, on July 30, heard the application seeking a stay on the order announcing the merger and issued notices to the Speaker, Secretary of the Legislative Assembly and six BSP MLAs in the state asking them to file their reply by August 11.



Also Read: Rams spirit of humanity resides in depth of our hearts: Rahul Gandhi

Also Read: Temple complex to be symbol of modern India based on ideals of Ram Rajya: President Kovind

The High Court, in a relief for Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot-led government, had earlier dismissed Dilawars previous plea seeking directions to quash the merger. The development comes as the Rajasthan Congress is reeling in a political crisis after simmering differences between Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his deputy Sachin Pilot came out in the open. Pilot, along with 18 other MLAs supporting him, is reportedly staying at a Haryana hotel.



The Congress has accused the BJP of attempting to topple the Gehlot-led government in Rajasthan. The BJP has denied the charge.

Also Read: ISB becomes the Knowledge Partner for Andhra Pradesh with GoAP-ISB Policy Lab
Two Egyptian pilots died on Thursday when a small light-sport aircraft crashed in the Red Sea town of El Gouna, Egypts civil aviation ministry said.

The two-seater Apollo Fox aircraft, of Airman Sky Sports, crash-landed at El Gouna Airport after a test flight earlier on Thursday, ministry media advisor Bassem Abdel Kerim said in a statement.

The victims are Mohamed Saeed, 61, and Akram Al-Hosary, 63  both died in hospital.

The civil aviation ministry has formed a special committee to investigate the accident and identify the causes of the crash.

The countrys public prosecutor has ordered a probe and sent investigators to the scene of the crash.



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Stakeholders in the media landscape and corporate institutions have been advised to embrace the concept of e-learning and take advantage of the many opportunities they present for the enhancement of professional competencies amongst employees.



Mr Charles Nii Ayiku Ayiku, Technical Advisor at the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) said continuous developments in journalism meant staying up-to-date and remaining relevant even as many skills and knowledge were quickly fading out.



He made this call on Wednesday when the GJA launched its Virtual Learning Platform in Accra.

The ceremony was also held to award certificates to participants who have successfully completed the maiden course on Journalism, Fake News, and Disinformation on the E-Learning Platform.



In all, thirty-two journalists comprising News Editors, Senior Journalists, Media managers and Regional Correspondents from state and private media organizations across the country went through a week-long training on Journalism, Fake News, and Disinformation.



The training was organized in partnership with Media Response, a non for profit organisiation that works actively in partnership with both state and non-state actors.



The course provided participants with strategies for evaluating the quality of information and understanding differences in the ways that high and low-quality information emerges in the digital era.



Key topics treated under the course were:  News Literacy, What is Fake News, Key Terminologies, Technology that makes fake news possible, Evaluating fake news, and what you can do to fight fake news.



Mr Ayiku, who is also the Course Administrator for the Learning Platform explained that the robust Learning Management System could be assessed via www.gjamediaresponse.org and one could benefit from about sixteen (16) courses currently available.

He said the system offered a flexible and friendly learning environment which would enable participants to study at their own pace without necessarily interrupting their busy work schedule or missing out on lessons.



Mr Ayiku hinted that some local and international instructors and educational institutions have been identified and talks have begun towards a possible training partnership for the award of certificates. The second batch of trainees for the Journalism, Fake News, and Disinformation course would soon start.



Beyond the current courses available, customized and tailor-made courses designed to take account of particular institutional characteristics or requirements can also be arranged with GJA by companies and other institutions, he added.



Madam Mavis Kitcher, Director, News at the Graphic Communications Group Limited and President of the Association of Women in the Media (ASWIN) said citizens largely depended on traditional media outlets to verify the genuineness of information they read on various digital platforms, as such, journalists needed to add a touch of professionalism in their reportage.



She lauded the GJA and Media Response for the avenue created for its members to enhance their skills and competence and called on the media not to take the opportunity lightly.



Madam Kitcher said amidst the growing practice of citizen journalism, where untrained people had taken up the duty of capturing anything they witnessed all to share for likes and recognition, it was necessary that journalists up their game and bring their professionalism to bare.



This is what would divide us from those who are not professionals. Let us ensure that we apply our skills to determine what is fake and what is not. Our profession teaches us to be balanced, check, and recheck information before we publish anything. When you are doing your reports, ask yourself if you can always defend it.



If you cant defend anything you write ten to twenty years later, then you are not being professional enough. Abide by the ethics of the profession and fake news would not be part of what you represent. People depend on us; we should not let them down, she added.



She called on technology companies to develop means by which fake news could be detected on digital platforms and make it unprofitable for people to disseminate such falsehood.



When they do not make any money or get attention from such acts, it would make the peddling of falsehood unattractive and deal with it drastically.

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 office of Malawis president has responded angrily to a Twitter account pretending to be him and went on to take a stand on Zimbabwean politics in a series of tweets.



It is the illegal work of charlatans and impostors with no connection to his Excellency, a statement from the presidents office says.



l would like to express my deep concern to the people of Zimbabwe, you deserve to be listened to, one of the tweets read.



Some online users mistook it for the official account, praising the president for his stand.



One of those times the account was changed to @LAZARUSCHAKWARA  which spells President Lazarus Chakweras last name incorrectly.



The presidents real account is @LAZARUSCHAKWERA and was created two years ago.



The government is in the process of ensuring the presidents account is verified by Twitter, spokesperson Sean Kampondeni told the BBC.



Verified accounts have a blue badge  with a tick  appearing next to the name on an accounts profile and next to the account name in search results. This lets people know that an account is authentic.

Source: BBC









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Future king Prince Charles is leading by example and has carried out the more duties since the start of lockdown than any other royal family member, research shows.

Charles, 71, had 69 commitments including phone calls, video conferences and in-person engagements from March 23 until July 31, according to the analysis by online firm Resume.io.

He was followed in the rankings by his son Prince William with 65. Despite being 94 years old, the Queen also remains active and had 54 official duties.

Prince Charles, 71, had 69 official engagements from the start of lockdown on March 23 until July 31, according to the analysis by the team at online firm Resume.io. He was followed in the rankings by his son Prince William, who carried out 65 engagements. Pictured, Prince Charles last month on a visit to Cornwall (left) and Prince William at a care home in Cardiff yesterday

Who's the hardest working royal? The figures are based on the engagements listed in the Court Circular, the official record of work carried out by the royal family, from March 23-July 31. Both in-person and virtual engagements were included in the final totals. 1. Prince Charles 2. Prince William 3. The Queen 4. Princess Anne 5. Countess of Wessex 6. Prince Edward 7. Duchess of Cambridge 8. Duke of Gloucester 9. Duchess of Cornwall 10. Duchess of Gloucester 11. Duke of Kent 12. The Honourable Lady Ogilvy 13. Duke of Edinburgh 69 65 54 47 36 35 34 34 31 19 10 6 1 Source: Resume.io Advertisement

The figures are based on the responsibilities listed in the Court Circular, the official record of work carried out by the royal family. Both in-person and virtual engagements were included in the final totals, as well as phone calls and video meetings.

Princess Anne, who turns 70 next week, has spent most of the last four months at Gatcombe Park, her country estate in Gloucestershire. But she has clearly mastered working from home and has carried out 47 engagements in 41 days.

In a show of their growing profile within the royal family following the departure of Prince Andrew and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, the Countess of Wessex and Prince Edward are the next most prolific royals, racking up 36 and 35 engagements, respectively.

In seventh place is the Duchess of Cambridge, who is living at Anmer Hall, Norfolk, with Prince William and their children Prince George, seven, Princess Charlotte, five, and Prince Louis, two.

Despite being 94 years old, the Queen also remains active in her official duties and has had 54 engagements. Pictured, the Queen presents Captain Sir Tom Moore with his knighthood in July

However the Duchess has carried out engagements in the last week that could impact her standing in the royal family.

Perhaps surprisingly, the Duchess of Cornwall, 72, comes in eighth place with 31 engagements, behind the Queen's cousin the Duke of Gloucester.

The Duke of Edinburgh also made the list, thanks to his single engagement at Windsor Castle last month.

The Royal Family were able to honour their royal duties during lockdown thanks to phone calls and video conferences.

In seventh place is the Duchess of Cambridge. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge yesterday paid a visit to Barry Island, in South Wales, where they played games at an amusement arcade made famous by sitcom Gavin and Stacey. Pictured, the couple at a care home in Cardiff

In more recent weeks senior royals have returned to in-person engagements.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge yesterday paid a visit to Barry Island, in South Wales, where they played games at an amusement arcade made famous by sitcom Gavin and Stacey.

The Queen and Prince Philip, who have been in isolation at Windsor Castle since the start of lockdown, this week travelled to Balmoral, in Aberdeenshire, to start their summer holiday. They are expected to remain in Scotland until early October.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appears as a witness via videoconference during a House of Commons finance committee in the Wellington Building on July 30, 2020. (The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick)

Opposition Looking for Answers in Government Documents Relating to WE Charity

Efforts to delve deeper into controversy could be stymied by lack of key witnesses

OTTAWAOpposition parties are hoping the imminent release of government documents related to the We Charity affair will shed some light on how an organization with close ties to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was awarded a deal to administer a federal student grant program.

The government has until Saturday to table with the House of Commons finance committee all memos, briefing notes, correspondence, and other documents related to the now-cancelled agreement.

In the meantime, however, the committees efforts to delve deeper into the controversy could be stymied due to the unavailability of key witnesses.

The committee, which heard last week from Trudeau and WE Charity founders Craig and Marc Kielburger, is scheduled to hold another video conference meeting today.

But committee chair Wayne Easter says it could be cancelled because, as of late Wednesday, none of the invited witnesses had yet confirmed their appearance.

Conservative members of the committee had submitted a list of witnesses they want to hear from, including WE Charitys chief financial officer, Victor Li, and Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough.

Easter said Qualtrough has indicated she wont be available until next week and Li isnt available until sometime next month.

NDP committee member Peter Julian said hes not yet concerned that witnesses are not making themselves available for questioning about the affair, which has mired the government in allegations of unethical conduct.

Indeed, he is hoping that the documents will clarify some facts and give the committee a better sense of who should be called as witnesses and what questions should be asked.

Theres been so many contradictions through this that I think its fair to say that the documents, hopefully, will start giving us some answers, Julian said in an interview.

I think in terms of the next witnesses to get answers, the documents will help point us in the right direction.

Julian moved the motion, adopted by the opposition-dominated committee a month ago, to demand the government produce all documents related to the affair.

He is hoping that another one of his motions, passed by the committee earlier this week, will help encourage other witnessesthose with knowledge of WE Charitys operations but afraid of repercussions if they speak outto come forward. The motion extended parliamentary privilege to protect witnesses against potential law suits.

The controversy has dogged the government since late June, when it announced an agreement to pay WE Charity up to $43.5 million to administer a $912-million grant program designed to encourage students to sign up for volunteer work related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The agreement stipulated that the charity could not make money on the deal.

Trudeau has been a featured speaker at numerous WE Day events and his wife hosts a podcast for the group, for which they have not been paid. However, it has since transpired that Trudeaus mother and brother have been paid almost $300,000 for speaking at numerous WE event over the years and reimbursed for some $200,000 in expenses.

One of Morneaus daughters works for the organization, another has spoken at its events and his wife has donated $100,000 to it. Morneau also revealed last week that WE Charity covered $41,000 in expenses for him and his family in 2107 for trips to view two of its humanitarian projects in Ecuador and Kenya.

Morneau wrote a cheque to reimburse the organization for those expenses shortly before testifying at committee last week.

Both Trudeau and Morneau have apologized for not recusing themselves from the cabinet decision to have WE Charity administer the student grants. However, theyve insisted that the recommendation to outsource the program to the charity came from public servants and that they did not personally try to influence the decision.

Indeed, Trudeau testified that he delayed cabinet consideration of the plan on May 8, when he says he first learned of WE Charitys involvement, so that bureaucrats could do further due diligence.

At no point did either Trudeau or Morneau consult the ethics commissioner on the matter.

The controversy has also raised questions about WE Charitys complex organizational structure and accounting mechanisms, its use of high-profile corporate sponsors and celebrity endorsements and its work culture, which some former employees have described as toxic.

Conservative MP Greg McLean wrote National Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier on Wednesday, requesting that she commission an audit of the consolidated financial statements of WE Charity and all its many connected entities, including the WE Charity Foundation which was set up to administer the student grant program.

Surely, as minister of national revenue, you and your officials must be curious as to the fluidity of expenses allocated between various WE entities, he wrote, suggesting that expenses of tax-exempt charitable events may have been improperly allocated to taxable WE entities.

The organization has also faced allegations of lobbying the federal government in April, without registering as legally required, about a youth program similar to the eventual student grant program.

The controversy prompted WE Charity early last month to pull out of the deal to administer the student grants.

By Joan Bryden
The world has seen China become more aggressive during the Covid-19 pandemic, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper has said, asserting that the country has deployed troops along the Line of Actual Control with India and is acting out in a way that is inconsistent with international norms.

Esper said Beijing was trying to use the coronavirus tragedy to their advantage for propaganda purposes.

What we have seen with regard to what happened in the last seven months coming as part of Covid, if you will, weve seen China become more aggressive, trying to use the tragedy, of Covid-19 to their advantage for propaganda purposes. They have really overplayed their hand and weve seen them continue to try and exercise this muscle in the South China Sea, he said on Wednesday.

Beijing claims almost all of the 1.3 million square mile South China Sea as its sovereign territory. China has been building military bases on artificial islands in the region also claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Beijing has impeded commercial activity like fishing or mineral exploration by countries like Vietnam and the Philippines, claiming that the ownership of territory belonged to China for hundreds of years.

Responding to a question during Aspen Security Forum discussion, Esper said that the Chinese sank a Vietnamese fishing vessel a few months ago.

They continue to twist the arms of others. Theyve deployed troops along the line of actual control in India. We see them acting out in a way that is inconsistent with, you know, international norms, rules of behaviour, if you will, and many of our allies and partners are reacting as well, he said.

His remarks came amid the border face-off between India and China in eastern Ladakh.

Twenty Indian army personnel were killed during the clashes with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakhs Galwan Valley on June 15. The Chinese side also suffered casualties in the clashes but it is yet to give out details.

The number of casualties on the Chinese side was 35, according to a US intelligence report.

The Defense Secretary praised Australia and the UK for pushing Huawei out of their systems or lauded the Australians for a brand-new defense strategy that has long-term commitment to funding.

According to Esper, the best way to take on the Chinese aggression is to multilateralise efforts against Beijing.

...The US being unable to travel, we found new ways to communicate and to do it in a multilateral way. We need to continue to advance that. We need to multilateralise those. Maybe not officially, right? But in terms of knitting things up so we talk more as a group, he said.

Thats the best way to push back against China and its bad behaviour in the Pacific. And I see that as another positive outcome, if you will, of us being unable to travel. We found new ways to communicate and to do it in a multilateral way, and I think we need to continue to advance that, Esper said.

The threat posed by China is not region, but global, he said.

The China competition, by the way, is not limited to Indo PACOM, it is a global competition so we see them in all parts of the world. So its multifaceted and it requires tough decisions and look, we are making those tough decisions as best we can, Esper said.

Responding to another question, Esper said that he did not see China right now as an inevitable threat that the US is going to have a fight with.

But we do have to compete, and we have to be much more vigorous in all domains if you will whether its again diplomatic, informational, military, political, he said.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex during a visit to Robert Clack School in Dagenham ahead of International Womens Day. (Getty Images)

Meghan Markle has announced her next speaking engagement as she interviews the founder of a news agency which reports on women underserved and underrepresented by the American media.

Meghan, 39, is said to have contacted Emily Ramshaw, the co-founder and chief executive officer of The 19th*, a new non-profit news agency, to say she was keen to work with them.

The Duchess of Sussex will now be interviewing Ramshaw for The 19ths virtual summit next Friday, closing a week of interviews from people like Hillary Clinton, Melinda Gates and actor Zoe Saldana.

The summit is being held to mark 100 years since voting became a right in the US regardless of gender.

But The 19th* says there is unfinished business,

In a statement to Glamour, Meghan said: The 19th*s commitment to reporting and storytelling that lifts up those who are too often underrepresented in the media has never been more important.

Im looking forward to asking the co-founder what it means to build a media outlet with gender equity, diversity, and community at its core.

We have a new addition to The #19thRepresents virtual summit  Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex.



The Duchess will join us on our final day of programming, Friday, Aug. 14, for a conversation with our co-founder and CEO, @eramshaw.



Register to attend: https://t.co/tgg6yu2YTX pic.twitter.com/6IVGl4IUJM  19thnews (@19thnews) August 6, 2020

Meghans work with The 19th* comes soon after she and her husband Harry announced they would stop working with several of the UKs tabloid newspapers and websites, and as she sues the Mail On Sunday and the MailOnline for breaching copyright.

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Its understood she will not be paid for the engagement.

Since leaving royal life, Harry and Meghan have had to delay their original plan to launch Archewell, a non-profit organisation, but have still found ways to lend their voices and support to causes which are important to them.

Meghan spoke at a UN virtual summit called Girl Up, in which she encouraged young attendees to chase their convictions with action.

She also spoke to the graduating class of her former High School in Los Angeles in the wake of the murder of George Floyd.

Her first interview billed as taking place post-royal life, for Disney+, was actually filmed when she was a working royal.

But this is a first for the former actress, as she holds the cards and interviews someone else.

Meghan is not usually the one doing the interviews. (Getty Images)

Read more: The 360: Were Harry and Meghan right to ban Britain's tabloids?

Ramshaw told Glamour: I would call it a surreal experience for me.

She tweeted: In the department of the surreal: The Duchess reached out to us; she said @19thnews' vision of building a diverse and representative newsroom that covers women and other underserved people with nuance + empathy spoke to her immediately.

She asked if she could interview me on storytelling that lifts up those who are too often underrepresented in the media, and what it means to build a media outlet with gender equity, diversity and community at its core.

Ramshaw also revealed that her four-year-old daughter nearly spilled the beans on the secret booking, but no one believed her when she announced My mommy is going to talk to a princess!.

The summits page explains: The 19th was founded to shine a light on the unfinished business of the 19th Amendment and empower women  particularly those underserved by and underrepresented in American media  with the information, community and tools they need to be equal participants in our democracy.

The Duchess of Sussex will speak to Ramshaw on Friday, 14 August, from 7pm BST.
Thanks to early details in a Walmart listing back in June, we knew the debut for Sonys latest flagship headphones was imminent. Today, the company is making things official. As expected, the WH-1000XM4 is the follow-up to the stellar WH-1000XM3 that arrived in 2018  and was due for an upgrade. With the M4, Sony is introducing some subtle tweaks to the design alongside several new features to make further improvements to the highly-rated 1000X noise-canceling headphones line.

For the most part, the M4 looks nearly identical to the M3. Sony opted for a soft-touch matte finish this time around, in addition to making changes to the headband cushion, headband curve and the size of the earpads. All of those tweaks make the M4 more comfortable than its predecessor, especially during longer listening sessions. Touch controls still reside on the right side, giving you the ability to play/pause, skip tracks and more with a swipe or tap. The Custom button on the edge of the left earcup offers access to active noise canceling (ANC) settings by default, but you can reassign it to summon Google Assistant or Alexa quickly.

Sony WH-1000XM4

In addition to improvements to both digital audio upscaling and the effectiveness of ANC, Sony has added multi-device connectivity. You can finally connect to multiple devices at once, automatically hoping back and forth between your phone and computer when you receive a call. It also means you can make changes in the Headphones app while youre working without having to connect to your phone exclusively. The company also added the ability for the M4 to automatically adjust the noise canceling levels based on your location. This feature debuted on the WF-SP800N earbuds back in the spring, and it allows you to manually set locations (like Home and Office) or give the Sony Headphones app permission to learn the spots you visit most. Of course, it requires you to give the software access to your movements, which not everyone will be comfortable with. The M4 will still detect movement (Staying, Walking, Running and Transport) and adjust the ANC based on those customizable presets as well, just like the M3.

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Another handy new feature is Speak-to-Chat. This tool detects your voice when you start talking, automatically pauses the audio and activates ambient sound. Its handy for todays work-from-home environment as youre not scrambling for the pause button when someone walks up to you for a chat. Yes, it will resume your music on its own 30 seconds after youre done speaking, or you can double tap the play/pause control to kick it back on faster. And with wear detection, the M4 automatically pauses when you take it off, too.

Sony is promising 30 hours of battery life again on the M4. Thats the same estimate as the M3, and its plenty of time to get you through several work days. With Sonys quick-charge feature, youll get five hours of listening time in 10 minutes. Like its predecessor, the M4 also supports 360 Reality Audio for more immersive sound. If youre willing to pay for a pricier high-res streaming subscription, of course.

The WH-1000XM4 will arrive in mid-August for $350, but pre-sales start today. The headphones will be available in either black or light grey color options. You wont have to wait for hour detailed impressions though: you can read our full review right here.
PC Andrew Harper's mother has today spoken of her pain at watching her son's killers 'laughing' and joking' in court as she talks about her new 'Andrew's Law' campaign on Good Morning Britain.

Henry Long, 19, and 18-year-olds Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers were sentenced at the Old Bailey on Friday for manslaughter after PC Harper was killed last year.

PC Harper, died horrifically on August 15 last year after he tried to stop the trio fleeing after they stole a quad bike in Stanford Dingley, Berkshire but his ankle got caught in a strap dangling from the back of a Seat Toledo and he was dragged to his death.

Long was sentenced to 16 years, while Cole and Bowers were each handed 13-year terms. The family said they were let down by the 'unduly lenient' sentences'.

PC Harper's bereaved mother, Debbie Adlam, 53, has launched a new 'Andrew's Law' campaign for a mandatory 20 year sentence for those convicted of killing police officers.

Appearing by video link from her home in Oxfordshire on Good Morning Britain she slammed the killers for 'laughing and joking' in court and said if her son was alive he would 'fully support' the campaign.

PC Harper, died horrifically on August 15 last year after he tried to stop the trio fleeing after they stole a quad bike in Stanford Dingley, Berkshire but his ankle got caught in a strap dangling from the back of a Seat Toledo and he was dragged to his death.

Henry Long (left), 19, and 18-year-olds Jessie Cole (centre) and Albert Bowers (right) were sentenced at the Old Bailey on Friday for manslaughter

Asked if she would have felt different if the accused showed some remorse during the trial, she told Good Morning Britain: 'I think I would, we've watched them laughing, joking.

'Because of the situation with Covid things were laid out separately to the normal situation in a court room so we were sat for quite a long time sat with them on a video screen opposite where we were sat and they were joking and laughing and talking to each other and their microphones weren't even switched on.

'Which I don't really understand how that's appropriate. If you are in a murder trial how the suspects don't have to sit there and listen to at least what there saying and doing while we are sat listening to their hideous crimes. I didn't see any remorse. '

This week the Attorney General's Office confirmed they have been asked to consider if the jail terms handed down are too lenient.

Mrs Adlam welcomed the decision this week, and this morning said she couldn't understand why reductions were taken off the sentences for her sons killers.

Appearing by video link from her home in Oxfordshire on Good Morning Britain she slammed the killers for 'laughing and joking' in court and said if her son was alive he would 'fully support' the campaign

She said: 'I think personally speaking the initial sentence was not so much my issue. When I saw the reductions coming off of these sentences it was then becoming unbelievable how much was taken off.

'It just didn't make any sense to me because an early plea for something when you're really in a position where you've got no choice other than to admit you've done it because its been proven to you thats one thing and then the age issue is a big problem for me.

'And this is part of the reason that we are launching Andrew's Law and we are blown away with the response so far.'

PC Harper's widow Lissie had expressed bitter disappointment her husband's killers were cleared of murder and instead found guilty of manslaughter.

She branded the sentence 'atrociously below board' and suggested jurors may have been intimidated by the defendants' families or friends.

Mrs Adlam said that today the family were still overcome by waves of grief and emotion after the loss of their beloved Andrew.

She said: 'We can go through all the emotions within a day or two you can just be in the pits of desperation out of the blue we get these waves of grief that come along.

Andrew Harper and Lissie should have been spending the end of summer 2019 on honeymoon in the Maldives

'It's very hard to actually focus on getting anything done if you're positive about going forward.

'This is hopefully an added benefit in putting some focus onto what we are doing now.

'Because this is all to be done in Andrew's name but for the benefit of others. Andrew's not lucky enough to benefit from it but I know for a fact the type of person he is that this is something he would fully support.

'Going forward we don't want to have these long drawn out trials where you have manslaughter or murder debates.

'He put himself in harms way for out benefit and the general public, and that's what the blue light services do they go out while we are sat in bed or watching TV or going to the pub, they are out there putting themselves in harms way and thats why the blue light services and police deserve a bit of extra protection.

'Looking at a minimum of twenty years plus with no reductions for age.
AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Harte Hanks (OTCQX: HRTH), a leading data-driven multi-channel marketing solutions firm, announced today that the company will release financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2020 on Thursday, August 13, 2020 after the close of the market.

Management will host a conference call and live webcast to discuss these results on the same day at 4:30 p.m. ET. To access the live call, please dial (800) 289-0438 (toll free) or (323) 794-2423 and reference conference ID 7300320. The conference call will also be webcast live in the Investors Events section of the Harte Hanks website and can be accessed from the link here.

Following the conclusion of the live call, a telephonic replay will be available for 48 hours by dialing (844) 512-2921 or (412) 317-6671 and using the pin number 7300320. The replay will also be available for at least 90 days in the Investors Events section of the Harte Hanks website.

About Harte Hanks:

Harte Hanks is a global marketing services firm specializing in multi-channel marketing solutions that connect our clients with their customers in powerful ways. Experts in defining, executing and optimizing the customer journey, Harte Hanks offers end-to-end marketing services including consulting, strategic assessment, data, analytics, digital, social, mobile, print, direct mail and contact center. From visionary thinking to tactical execution, Harte Hanks delivers smarter customer interactions for some of the world's leading brands. Harte Hanks has approximately 3,200 employees located in North America, Asia-Pacific and Europe. For more information, visit Harte Hanks at www.hartehanks.com , call 800-456-9748, or email us at [email protected] .

Investor Relations Contact:

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Abernathy MacGregor

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[email protected]

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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Milan, Italy  Thu, August 6, 2020 12:04 530 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066bfa739 2 Business Italy,Ryanair,COVID-19,health-protocol Free

Italy's national civil aviation authority ENAC threatened on Wednesday to suspend Ryanair's permit to fly in the country over alleged non-compliance with coronavirus safety rules, but the low-cost carrier denied flouting them.

The authority accused the Irish airline of "repeated violations of the COVID-19 health regulations currently in force and imposed by the Italian government to protect the health of passengers".

"Not only is the obligation to distance passengers not respected, but the conditions for making an exception to that rule are also being ignored", it said in a statement.

If Ryanair continued to break the rules ENAC would "suspend all air transport activities at national airports, requiring the carrier to re-route all passengers already in possession of tickets," it said.

"The claims made in ENACs press release today are factually incorrect," Ryanair responded.

"Ryanair complies fully with the measures set out by the Italian government and our customers can rest assured that we are doing everything to reduce interaction on both our aircraft and at airports to protect the health of our passengers."

Italy was the first European Union country to be seriously affected by the pandemic, which has officially killed over 35,000, but its contagion rate is currently far below levels seen in other parts of the bloc.
Facing devastation, help is arriving in Lebanon.

These Emergency aid flights from Italy and Russia touching down in Beirut carrying medical personnel and supplies, less than two days after a catastrophic explosion leveled the citys port area and destroyed large sections of the Lebanese capital.

French President Emmanuel Macron also arrived Thursday, promising to help organize international efforts while warning Lebanon's authorities that they need to address the corruption within.

The first victim (of this crisis) is the Lebanese people. It requires an extremely quick reaction. So for me, this visit is also an opportunity for frank dialogue, a demanding one, with political leaders and Lebanese institutions."

The death toll reached at least 145 by Thursday but dozens are still missing.

Up to a quarter of a million people have been left without habitable homes.

Preliminary investigations blame the explosion on "inaction and negligence", saying "nothing was done" to remove tons of ammonium nitrate from the port.

Local officials have denied the incident was the result of an attack.

Many Beirut citizens are still processing what happened, not least Israa Seblani, the Lebanese bride whose wedding photo shoot was so shockingly interrupted.

A day later, she and her husband told Reuters about their unimaginable experience on what should have been such a happy occasion.

I feel so sad. Trust me what you are seeing now the smile and everything, wasn't there totally yesterday. I was shocked, I was wondering what happened, am I going to die. How I'm going to die."

Lebanons hospitals are overwhelmed by thousands of injured people, while other care facilities were themselves put out of action by the explosion.

At Saint George Hospital the ceiling caved in, killing four nurses.

The people of Lebanon are used to suffering, through decades of war and civil unrest.

After this latest tragedy, among the material and personal loss, came a song.

Beirut resident Hoda Melki captured a touching video of her mother playing the piano surrounded by the debris of her damaged apartment.
(CNN)  A massive explosion ripped through central Beirut on Tuesday, killing dozens of people, injuring thousands and blowing out windows in buildings across the city.

The blast near Beirut's port sent up a huge mushroom cloud-shaped shockwave, flipping cars and damaging distant buildings. It was felt as far as Cyprus, hundreds of miles away, and registered as a 3.3 magnitude earthquake in the Lebanese capital.

Lebanon's Prime Minister, Hassan Diab, said that 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive material used in fertilizers and bombs, had been stored for six years at a port warehouse without safety measures, "endangering the safety of citizens," according to a statement.

The Prime Minister called the storage of the material "unacceptable" and called for an investigation into the cause of the blast, with the results released within five days, the statement said.

Lebanon's General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim said the "highly explosive material" had been confiscated years earlier and stored in the warehouse, just minutes' walk from Beirut's shopping and nightlife districts.

Initial reports blamed the explosion on a major fire at a warehouse for firecrackers near the port, according to Lebanese state news agency NNA.

The death toll from the blast is likely to continue to climb as more bodies are pulled from the wreckage. At least 78 people are known to have died and a further 4,000 wounded, Hamad Hasan, the country's health minister said, according to Reuters.

"There are many people missing until now," Hasan said. "People are asking the emergency department about their loved ones and it is difficult to search at night because there is no electricity. We are facing a real catastrophe and need time to assess the extent of damages."

A red cloud hung over the city in the wake of the explosion, which took place just after 6 p.m. local time (11 a.m. ET), as firefighting teams rushed to the scene to try to put out the initial fire. Footage from the scene captured the injured staggering through streets in the capital, and ambulances, cars and military vehicles packed with the wounded. One resident said the scenes looked "like an apocalypse."

At least 10 firefighters are missing, according to the city's governor Marwan Abboud, who said the scene reminded him of "Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

"In my life I haven't seen destruction on this scale," Abboud said. "This is a national catastrophe."

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said at least one Australian was killed in the blast and the Australian Embassy building has been "significantly compromised."

The blast comes at a tense time in Lebanon. On Friday, a United Nations-backed panel is expected to issue a verdict on the 2005 assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, a move many fear will stoke sectarian tensions. The country is also in the midst of an economic meltdown, with ballooning unemployment, a tanking currency and poverty rates soaring above 50%.

Hospitals inundated

Beirut's hospitals Tuesday reflected the chaos in the city as doctors conducted triage on dozens of wounded people. Some had broken limbs, others had been showered with shards of glass. Some patients were unconscious.

Emergency wards are inundated with the injured, while the Lebanese Red Cross implored the public on Twitter for blood donations to help the wounded. One of Beirut's major hospitals, Hotel Dieu, received around 400 injured patients, an employee told CNN.

The Secretary-General of the Kataeb political Party, Nazar Najarian, died after being injured in the explosion, NNA reported. He was in his office when the explosion happened.

The US Embassy in Beirut urged those in the area of the explosion to "stay indoors and wear masks if available" due to reports of toxic gases released from the blast.

The explosion damaged buildings across the city, including the official residence of Lebanon's president, the headquarters of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, and CNN's bureau in downtown Beirut. Homes as far as 10 kilometers away were damaged, according to witnesses, and even people on the distant island of Cyprus felt the blast, according to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC).

One Beirut resident who was several kilometers away from the site of the blast said her windows had been shattered by the explosion. "What I felt was that it was an earthquake," Rania Masri told CNN.

"The apartment shook horizontally and all of a sudden it felt like an explosion and the windows and doors burst open. The glass just broke. So many homes were damaged or destroyed."

"You can see injured people all over the streets in Beirut, glass all over the place, cars are damaged, it is like an apocalypse," said Bachar Ghattas, another resident.

"It is very, very frightening what is happening right now, and people are freaking out. The emergency services are overwhelmed," Ghattas told CNN. "Beirut port is totally destroyed."

The port is the primary entry point for most of Lebanon's imports, CNN's Wedeman said.

The US response

United States President Donald Trump offered sympathy and assistance to the people of Lebanon, referring to the incident as a "terrible attack." Lebanese officials have not called the explosion an attack.

Asked if he was confident if the explosion was an attack, the President said it "seems like" it was, based on what US military officials have told him.

"This was a -- seems to be according to them, they would know better than I would, but they seem to think it was an attack. It was a bomb of some kind," he told reporters at the White House.

But three US Defense Department officials told CNN that as of Tuesday night there was no indication the explosion was an attack. The officials, who declined to be identified so they could speak freely, said they don't know what the President is talking about.

One official pointed out that if there were indications an attack of this scale had occurred, it would trigger automatic increases in force protection for US troops and assets in the region.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo extended condolences and said, "We are closely monitoring and stand ready to assist the people of Lebanon as they recover from this tragedy."

The United States Ambassador in Lebanon, Dorothy Shea, expressed "heartfelt sympathies" to the victims and their families after "having witnessed the horrific explosions at the Port," she said in a statement shared on Twitter.

"We mourn each loss from this terrible tragedy alongside the Lebanese people," the US Ambassador added.

World mourns

Prime Minister Diab described the explosion as a "catastrophe" in his televised statement. He concluded by making "an emergency call to all those countries who love this country to stand by us and to help us heal our deep wounds." World leaders have expressed their condolences amid the unfolding tragedy.

Israel offered humanitarian medical assistance to Lebanon -- a significant gesture as Lebanon is one of a small number of countries that Israel regards as an enemy state. There have been no diplomatic relations since a ceasefire signed between the two countries in 1949.

A spokesman at the Ziv Medical Center in Safed, Israel, not far from the border with Lebanon, told CNN that they had been contacted by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and told to prepare for the possible arrival overnight of UN personnel wounded in the blast.

The UK, Turkey, Qatar and Spain were also among the countries that offered their support to Lebanon.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi called his Lebanese counterpart Charbel Wahbeh to say that"Jordanians stand in support with Lebanon and its Lebanese brothers and are ready to offer any help they need," he said in a tweet.

French President Emmanuel Macron said "rescue and aid" were on the way to Lebanon, while expressing solidarity with the "Lebanese people after the explosion that caused so many casualties and so much damage tonight in Beirut."

Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted that his country was ready to help Lebanon "in any way necessary."

"My thoughts are with the people of #Lebanon and with the families of the victims of the tragic #BeirutBlast," President of the European Council Charles Michel said in a tweet. "The EU stands ready to provide assistance and support."

Lebanese militant and political group Hezbollah said the explosion will require the unity of all Lebanese to overcome the catastrophe.

"We are putting all our capabilities in serving our honorable people and dear citizens as needed," Hezbollah said in a statement.
(HealthDay)Americans are faring much worse mentally and financially during the COVID-19 pandemic than citizens of other high-income countries around the world, according to an international analysis.

One-third of U.S. adults say they've experienced unbearable stress, anxiety and sadness during the pandemic and more than 30% have faced economic hardships, the Commonwealth Fund report revealed.

"Data from our research demonstrates that U.S. adults, when compared to people in eight other high-income countries, face greater mental health and financial consequences from the COVID-19 pandemic," said Reginald Williams II, a vice president at Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that studies health care issues. "It is also notable that few U.S. adults believe that national leadership has done a good job of managing the pandemic when compared to other countries."

Only one-third of Americans said President Donald Trump has done a "very good" or "good" job in handling COVID-19a lack of faith in government not shared by most people in other developed nations, the survey found.

"It's no secret that at a time when countries around the world are reopening, ours is still struggling to return to work and daily life," said Dr. David Blumenthal, president of the Commonwealth Fund.

"As the number of confirmed COVID cases and deaths in the U.S. continue to climb, we need to start implementing public health measures that we know work, like mask-wearing, social distancing, and robust testing and tracing that can help us stop the spread of COVID-19 as so many others have effectively accomplished," he said.

The Commonwealth Fund has been comparing health systems around the world for decades, but the COVID-19 pandemic presents a rare instance in which every nation surveyed is facing the same crisis at the same time, Blumenthal said.

Between March and May, the organization interviewed more than 8,200 adults in nationally representative samples from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The results were not flattering to the United States, which has lost quite a bit of international stature due to its COVID-19 response:



33% of Americans reported emotional problems related to the pandemic, compared with between 10% in Norway and 26% in the United Kingdom and Canada.

31% of U.S. adults said they were able to get the mental health care they needed, compared with 47% in Canada and 54% in Australia.

31% of Americans said they were unable to pay for basic necessities and were either draining their savings or borrowing money to get by, compared with between 6% in Germany and 24% in Canada.

Americans are the least pleased with their government's response to COVID-19, with only 33% saying Trump is meeting the challenge and 51% praising their state or local government leaders. In all other countries, at least half of people are happy with their nation's response.

The crisis has revealed weaknesses in the United States' approach to health care compared with other industrialized nations, said Dr. Eric Schneider, senior vice president for policy and research.

"The COVID-19 pandemic is revealing and amplifying the health challenges related to low income and poverty," he said. "In light of this, we see five general features of the other countries' health systems that may be blunting the mental health and economic challenges experienced by people of other countries and may be useful to the U.S. as it responds to the pandemic and looks to improve its resilience for future health disasters."

Schneider said these features include:



Universal insurance coverage, including the elimination of underinsurance that exposes Americans to high out-of-pocket costs.

Providing everyone access to a reliable primary care physician.

Guaranteeing social support systems that will help people through rough times, including paid sick leave, unemployment insurance and child care assistance.

Avoiding politicization of public health crises by basing decisions on science and expertise.

"As the pandemic continues to challenge all of our nations at different times, we will, for better or worse, have a chance to learn more from other countries about ways to strengthen our U.S. health system," Schneider said.

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

More information: The Commonwealth Fund has more about The Commonwealth Fund has more about its new international survey

Copyright  2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Parliament's 2008 class of tech leave the House

New Zealand politicians who take on tech issues are a small but determined breed, and somewhat endangered. Clare Curran (Labour), Nikki Kaye (National) and Gareth Hughes (Greens) were in the class of 2008 (well almost, Hughes joined in 2010), and they were three of a very select group of MPs who make ICT part of their parliamentary legacy.

When all three were backbenchers it seemed like they were at every tech event (and there were a lot of tech events), sitting alongside each other (Tracey Martin from NZ First joined them in 2011) on stage, debating tech issues. They actually did OK when you consider that tech issues are tricky, and tech people can be quite critical when non-tech people get stuff wrong.

Hughes, Kaye and Curran are leaving parliament and have just delivered their valedictory statements. What did they say about ICT?

Thinkstock The Beehive is the executive wing of New Zealand Parliament.

Hughes noted that together with Kaye and Curran he worked on getting select committees live-streamed. "I'm glad that it's just business as usual now. People no longer have to fly to Wellington to attend hearings. The public can see MPs working outside the theatre of the Chamber."

Kaye pointed out that she had helped ensure uncapped fast internet broadband connectivity to all New Zealand schools. "This was about unlimited learning. This was about ensuring that young people were not disadvantaged by geography in this country." She also signed off the Digital Technologies curriculum in all schools when she was Minister of Education.

Curran had the most to say about tech, and that is probably because she was, for a time, Minister for ICT-related portfolios: Communications, Digital Media for Government Digital Services, and Associate Minister of State Services (Open Government).

"Access to technology is a social necessity as well as a social good yet tech and digital is still seen as a portfolio on the edges. Worth around $10 billion to the economy with $2 billion in exports in 2019," Curran said. "There are some one-off successes  the massive replacement of the IRD system, ordering a new passport online, registering a business, but where are the initiatives that grow innovation within government? We have burgeoning agtech, biotech, and fintech sectors  where's our govtech? The methodologies and applications that enable fast, agile, adaptive solutions to our most pressing social and economic issues. Why aren't we building scale from our own IT talent through leveraging our $4 billion government IT spend locally and embedding better practices within and across government?"

Minister of Finance Grant Robertson was sitting next to Curran during her statement so maybe he was taking note should Labour return after the General Election in September.

In the meantime, Fry Up wishes Kaye, Hughes and Curran all the best with their second act.

NZ TikTok users subject of sale to Microsoft

The latest twist in the China vs US trade war/digital divide is that Microsoft is going to buy TikTok, or at least negotiations for a possible sale have until 15 September to come to fruition. President Trump has approved it, Microsoft has blogged it.

Microsoft isn't looking for ALL of TikTok, just the business in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. I'm sure it's fine company to keep, but why are we lumped in with these three? Why single out this team of five million'?

An obvious answer could be the Five Eyes' intelligence alliance. Given the fear that TikTok users' data has/might end up in the hands of the Chinese Communist party and Microsoft has vowed to bring all American users' data back to the US if the deal is successful.

What about that other member of the Five Eyes? Why not include the UK?

It may have something to do with the UK being in some way still bound to the European Union (don't ask us to unravel the intricacies of Brexit, this TikTok saga is convoluted enough). Europe takes a much more hands-on approach to regulating the internet, it isn't overtly scrapping with China and no one in charge over there wants to personally broker tech deals like the US President does. So, maybe TikTok's current owners can keep it in that region for now, and with it our Five Eyes' friend, the UK.

Delivery services no great shakes

Once tech had upended the taxis it went after the food delivery business. Uber is the most famous example - launching Uber Eats and making the point that pizza isn't the only meal you can get sent to your door. Local micro-mobility company Flamingo got in on the act, when it emerged from Lockdown with a food delivery business and has now signed up 200 restaurants. (By all means, check out the Flamingo story here).

But what about the other side of the equation? Seems that not all fast food joints are that keen on the move. In Burger Fuel's annual report to the NZX, the chairman and CEO's report notes the following: "At this stage Burger Fuel NZ will continue with our policy of not undertaking third-party, home delivery as over time we believe this will negatively affect both the brand and individual store profitability."

With 62 outlets in the country, BurgerFuel would be a good get for Flamingo, Uber and anyone else with an app to deliver food. But not now, maybe not ever.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Just days after federal agents raided a Cleveland office building linked to a Ukrainian oligarch, prosecutors Thursday sought to seize $70 million in property in Texas and Kentucky tied to the oligarch and his associates.

Prosecutors filed two civil forfeiture cases in U.S. District Court in Miami, Florida, that allege that office buildings in Dallas and Louisville bought with laundered money by Ukrainian billionaire Igor Kolomoisky and others.

The filings came two days after FBI and IRS agents in Cleveland seized boxloads of evidence at the offices of Optima Management Group in One Cleveland Center at East 9th Street and St. Clair Avenue. Investigators also searched a business in Miami.

Agents and federal prosecutors in Cleveland are leading the criminal investigation into the scheme, with help from the FBIs international corruption unit.

The forfeiture cases and the investigation involve a large-scale money laundering operation involving Kolomoisky and others. The civil cases allege that Kolomoisky helped siphon $5 billion from PrivatBank, a Ukrainian bank that he and Gennadiy Boholiubov opened in 1992.

They fleeced the bank out of loans from about 2008 to 2016, repaid the loans with other loans and then funneled some of the money they received into U.S. real estate, according to the documents filed Thursday.

Over the course of more than a decade, Igor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Boholiubov used their control of PrivatBank to steal billions of dollars of the banks funds, the lawsuits said.

The magnitude of the fraud and theft was so great that [the National Bank of Ukraine] was forced to bail out the bank by providing $5.5 billion in order to stave off economic crisis for the whole country.

The documents said that Kolomoisky and Boholiubov, with the help of associates in Miami, bought land across the country, including more than 5 million square feet of commercial real estate in Ohio. They also bought the 19.5-acre CompuCom Campus, an office park in Dallas, and the PNC Plaza, an office tower in Louisville. The government is seeking to seize both of those through forfeiture.

The basic idea was simple: Kolomoisky and Boholiubov requested money from PrivatBank, which, based on their control and ownership, they always received and rarely paid it back, except through new loans, federal prosecutors said in the lawsuits.

Once the men obtained the loans, they or their associates laundered the funds through a vast network of companies, the lawsuits said. They then shipped the money throughout the world.

Kolomoisky is a leader of the Privat Group, a large Ukrainian business that the lawsuit says controls businesses in many sectors of the Ukrainian economy, including metals, energy and media, under the umbrella of the Privat Group. "

Some of Kolomoisky and Boholiubovs associates formed Optima, which was used for real estate, according to the lawsuits.

In Cleveland, Optima Management Group had a large presence in Clevelands real estate a few years ago. Today, the company has One Cleveland Center, where the raid took place, 55 Public Square, an office building, and a stake in the Westin Cleveland Downtown. It also had a steel mill in Warren, which has since closed.

Kolomoisky has gained attention in the United States for other reasons than his role in the money-laundering investigation.

Last year, The New York Times reported that Kolomoisky refused to set up a meeting with President Trumps ally, Rudy Giuliani, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in an attempt to find political dirt against Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

Kolomoiskys attorney, Michael Sullivan, said his client denies the allegations in Thursdays filings.
A Richmond Hill woman who celebrated drunk driving in social media posts before killing a cyclist with her car in 2015 has been sentenced to 18 months in jail after pleading guilty to new charges of impaired driving  her third such conviction in five years.

Darya Selinevich, 27, was arrested in June when she was pulled over after swerving erratically on Highway 400 south of Barrie with twice the legal alcohol limit in her blood. Police found 12 empty beer containers and two passengers in the car.

Appearing remotely in a Newmarket court due to the COVID-19 pandemic on Thursday, Selinevich pleaded guilty to the criminal charges of impaired driving and driving while disqualified. She had initially also been charged with additional driving offences and cocaine possession, but those counts were dropped.

Three years ago, Selinevich received jail time and a 10-year driving ban for killing Zhi Yong Kang as he rode his bike on Finch Avenue West on June 11, 2015. Selinevich had been drinking heavily before she slammed a BMW into Kang, a 44-year-old father of one, while going almost twice the speed limit. She fled the scene and led police on a chase through a residential neighbourhood.

At the time of that arrest, her social media accounts glorified drinking and driving with photos of a wine bottle in a car, a speedometer at 202.5 km/h and a RIDE poster with her added joke that options to get home after drinking included option 5, my car.

One month before killing Kang, Selinevich received a one-year driving ban for speeding with double the legal limit of alcohol in her system.

Selinevichs seven-year sentence for Kangs death was reduced to 4 1/2 years for time served. But in January 2018, she was granted day parole after telling parole board members she would never drink alcohol again and hoped to prevent future tragedies by sharing her story through Mothers Against Drunk Driving. She was later granted full parole with conditions, including no alcohol or driving.

Those conditions were still in place when she committed her most recent offence. According to an agreed statement of facts, another driver called the police after 8 p.m. on Sunday, June 21, when Selinevich almost hit his car on Highway 400. The witness reported she was swerving from side to side in heavy cottage country traffic, and almost struck the median on multiple locations, according to the statement.

When OPP officers caught up with Selinevich she initially denied she had been drinking, despite the dozen empty beer cans in the car, an odour of alcohol emanating from the vehicle, and two passengers who appeared to be intoxicated. A breathalyzer test determined her blood alcohol level was more than 160 milligrams per 100 millilitres.

On Thursday, Crown attorney Robert De Chellis asked Justice Amit Anil Ghosh to impose a jail sentence of two years less a day, arguing Selinevich poses a real danger.

Shes already killed somebody when driving drunk, and was actually on that sentence when she committed this offence, he said. She just does not seem to get it.

Selinevichs lawyer, Jeffrey Stone, countered that she had taken responsibility for her crime by pleading guilty, and asked the judge to sentence her to no more than 15 months.

She wants to accept her responsibility and move on to the difficult task of acknowledging that she is an alcoholic and acknowledging that she has to deal with that, Stone said, adding that since being re-arrested she has lost her job at a North York law firm.

Ghosh said that while he could empathize with Selinevichs struggles with alcohol, there is no question she must be removed from society for a significant period of time.

The risk to other vehicles and their occupants was not an abstract risk, it was a real one that could have resulted in catastrophic consequences, he said of her most recent offence.

Selinevich said little during the proceeding. Asked by the judge whether she had anything to say before he sentenced her, she responded Not right now.

Selinevichs parole was revoked when she was arrested two months ago and she has been detained at the Central East Correctional Centre in Kawartha Lakes. She will serve her new jail time after completing her sentence for the Kang case.

In addition to jail time, the judge also ordered Selinevich to undergo counselling for alcohol addiction, serve three years probation, and be prohibited from driving for 10 years. Ghosh acknowledged it was likely the ministry of transportation would revoke her licence for life as a result of her third impaired driving conviction.

Andrew Murie, chief executive officer of MADD Canada, said the sentence was just about adequate, but predicted that families who have been impacted by impaired driving will think this is outrageous and too low.

He described Selinevichs promise to the parole board that she would work with MADD as a clear attempt to use his organization to secure leniency. He said her behaviour, particularly her celebration of impaired driving on social media, was deplorable, and theres not a chance in a million years we would work with anyone like this.

With files from David Rider.
Nurses at Tongji Hospital follow the request and recite an oath in Wuhan, China on May 12, 2020. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Wuhan Nurse Dies From Falling off Building, Weibo Hints at the Cause

A Wuhan Union Hospital nurse died after falling off the hospital building on July 29. Staff have confirmed the incident but didnt provide further details.

According to online information, the deceased, surnamed Zhang, was the mother of a young child under the age of two. She was a nurse in the cardiology department and had worked at the hospital for nearly five years. When Zhangs parents sought the facts about her death, the hospital claimed that the surveillance camera was broken and so it couldnt provide any evidence.

However, there were many posts on Weibo detailing how Zhang complained about the working conditions when treating coronavirus patients before her death.

According to a private Weibo message dated Jan. 26, Zhang had sent a message to the nurses in the hospital demanding replacement of head nurse Liu Yilan at least a day before the posting. Liu was said to have provided almost no training to the nurses about how to take a sample for nucleic acid test, using the excuse of extreme scarcity of personal protective equipment (PPE).

She suggested that all nurses resign unless a responsive director of the nursing department was in place.

According to the message, Zhang worked in the isolation ward and Liu had only provided a training video to the nurses who were told to simply copy the sampling procedure directly on their own.

A nurse surnamed Zhang from the cardiology department of Wuhan Union Hospital fell to her death in Wuhan, China on July 29, 2020. This photo shows the scene of the incident. (Twitter)

Zhang wrote, [When battling the coronavirus] the doctors are said to be the greatest we have. I want to tell everyone that no doctor goes in the isolation ward. They have nurses conduct the regular rounds using an intercom to receive orders from the physicians, who stay in the relatively clean offices. The nurses in our quarantine area work three shifts. We are here for at least eight hours a day, are not allowed to leave the area, and have no time to eat, drink, or take a break.

She further explained, I am not making excuses to escape this war. I am willing to be a fighter and have always tried to stand in the forefront. But I want to be a fighter with body armor and bullets in the gun! Be a warrior and not a human shield!

Another Weibo post shows the day Zhang submitted her resignation, indicating that she wasnt holding back in fighting the pandemic, but wasnt willing to die for such leadership. She felt sad for the hospital staff and was willing to speak out for all the frontline nurses on her last day at work.

Another Weibo screenshot provided other details: During the pandemic, many nurses were infected but didnt receive treatment. The nurse (Zhang) had reported her head nurses inaction and identified her by name. Not only was the issue not resolved, but upper level management talked to Zhang every day. She couldnt stand the pressure and jumped off the building. The hospital hasnt provided any surveillance video to the family of the deceased. The truth (about how Zhang died) is not known.

Social media followers of the incident showed great concern in their Weibo posts.

One wrote, The surveillance camera is broken when theres an incident. Do they think we are three-year-old kids?

Another wrote, As a hospital employee, I have never known the surveillance camera to be broken. In the past, I always brought patients to retrieve the surveillance recording, which would require a signature by the superior. There must be something fishy!

Someone also commented, You survived the pandemic, but not the director of the nursing department.
Is Sonia Gandhi set for another extension? Destiny had a hand in her return as Congress interim president last year, much like her debut in politics. She entered politics, to use her words, when she saw the party built by Indira and Rajiv Gandhi slide into disarray. She ended up becoming the longest-serving party president and a successful one too as she got the UPA into power twice.

When Rahul Gandhi resigned after the 2019 Lok Sabha poll results, it was destiny once again that brought her back to take over from her son as interim president. The departure of Rahul was bitter. In his resignation letter, he wrote, "I personally fought the Prime Minister, the RSS and the institutions they have captured with all my being. I fought because I love India. And I fought to defend the ideals India was built upon. At times, I stood completely alone and am extremely proud of it." It was clear that he was upset with many in his party for not backing him convincingly on the Rafale issue.

Sonia was elected interim president under Article 18(h) of the Congress constitution, which says, "In the event of any emergency by reason of any cause such as the death or resignation of the President elected as above, the senior most General Secretary will discharge the routine functions of the President until the Working Committee appoints a provisional President pending the election of a regular President by the AICC. (i) The President shall preside over the Session of the Congress held after his election and during his term of Office and he shall exercise all the powers of the Working Committee when it is not in session."

But here is the thing. As per the same constitution and article 13(B)d, "The AICC shall meet as often as required by the Working Committee, but at least once a year, or on a joint requisition addressed to the Working Committee by not less than 20% of the total number of AICC members having full voting rights." The last plenary session of the Congress or the AICC was held in March 2018 in New Delhi when Rahul Gandhi was president.

As per this constitution, there should have been one, but none have been held or planned so far. Party sources say the plan to decide on a full-time president had to be postponed because of Covid-19. Many in the party, like Shashi Tharoor, have, in fact, been pushing for an election to the top job and also that Rahul Gandhi must now take charge.

But this is where the problem begins. Rahul, so far, remains reluctant. His grudge against many seniors continues and this manifested in a recent meeting with Sonia when Rahul's protege Rajeev Satav made the point that some seniors and ministers were responsible for the downfall of the Congress in 2019. He had to issue a clarification later.

Its clear that if Rahul Gandhi decides to come back, it will be completely on his own terms and there is little chance he would want to accommodate any of Sonia's people.

It's an issue which may take time to sort out. What worries some seniors in the party is the fact that the constitution of the AICC is not being followed on this.

The constitution has no mention of an 'interim president'. However, it allows a temporary appointment in case of an emergency like death or sudden resignation. But it's clear that the constitution mentions the need for an AICC session to be called once a year. This too hasn't happened. What's worse according to veterans is that constant changes in the constitution make it obvious that there is an attempt to give unbridled power to the Congress president.

One of the miscellaneous provisions is, "In the case of any difficulty in implementing any of the provisions made in the Constitution, the Congress President shall have the authority to issue instructions and to frame necessary rules to overcome the difficulty."

This makes the president supreme, who may or may not even follow the resolutions and decisions of the Congress Working Committee. The other worry is that often decisions are taken by a handful and few matters of urgent importance are referred to the CWC. Article 19 of the Congress constitution says, "The Working Committee shall be the highest executive authority of the Congress and shall have the power to carry out the policies and programmes laid down by the Congress and by the AICC and shall be responsible to the AICC. It shall be the final authority in all matters regarding interpretation and application of the provisions of the Constitution."

As a member of the CWC tells News18.com, "Now the CWC is reduced to passing resolutions on Covid, china or obituaries. There was a time when the CWC would have heated discussions, decide the party line, even at times deviating from what the president wanted. But now, a powerful coterie outside the CWC decides."

In all the recent crises faced by the Congress, like in Madhya Pradesh or Rajasthan, the matters weren't discussed by calling special CWC meetings. While in the end there are observers appointed or a small group firefights, when there is a trend, and the CWC has a variety of leaders both with experience and versatility, it's expected that such critical maters would be discussed. The relevance of the CWC, which has been made sacrosanct in the party constitution, has been compromised over time.

The Congress has hit out at the BJP repeatedly for "flouting constitutional norms". But now, it itself is vulnerable to this charge. There are grey areas in the party constitution which helps it interpret the rules the way it wants to.
Under different circumstances, farmers and food firms across Northern Ireland would be in the final stages of getting ready for this years Balmoral Show. Animals would be well groomed, plans would be made, and the anticipation would be building.

As it turns out, the show wont be happening this year, neither during its original dates in May nor its rearranged dates in August, as a result of COVID-19. Like other shows of its kind, including the Royal Highland and the Royal Welsh, it has been postponed for this year.

But Cormac McKervey, senior agriculture manager at Ulster Bank, says that, despite some clear challenges in recent months and having no Balmoral Show to look forward to this year, farming is generally in reasonable shape.

Balmoral Show is always an exciting time of year for farmers and a time of positivity, so the fact there is no show in 2020 will of course be disappointing. But farmers are pragmatic and are getting on with business; and theyll enjoy the show all the more when its back, he points out.

Currently, farmers are getting reasonable returns from the market with some sectors, such as beef, more profitable than others. But generally the sector is in good shape, particularly when compared to other parts of the economy.There was no doubt great concern whenever COVID-19 began to spread and social distancing restrictions were brought in. In particular, farmers saw a significant impact from the shutdown of the food service sector with hotels, restaurants, cafes and bars not operating. But thankfully that area of business has come back in recent weeks, which can be seen in the prices some farmers are now achieving for their produce, he continues.

Cormac was speaking during an episode of Ulster Banks Thrive in the New World podcast, presented by Sarah Travers. The episode is being published on Wednesday 5th August 2020. The podcast series is available on Ulster Banks Content Live platform and through popular podcast platforms.

Cormac was joined in the episode by Michele Shirlow, CEO of Food NI, who spoke about the challenges and opportunities facing the wider food sector in Northern Ireland. She highlighted how food and drink firms have adapted extremely quickly in the face of COVID-19.

It has been really impressive how food producers have found alternative routes to market. Whether its home delivery services, selling more online, adapting their products, or diversifying. Retailers have also fed back how impressed they are that local producers have been able to deliver throughout the pandemic, reliably and on time. They have really stepped up and made sure there was food and drink in the supermarkets for us to buy. This speaks volumes about the sector, Michele says.

It has no doubt been very tough for those supplying the hospitality industry in particular, but even they have adapted. There has been a huge amount of innovation across the food and drink sectors.

We also have a lot of innovation going on in the area of health, with companies coming up with ways of producing products that are better for us. This includes the likes of Finnebrogue with their nitrate free bacon. And this is an issue that is coming more and more to the fore. I think the pandemic is making people even more conscious of eating food that is healthier and Northern Irelands food producers will continue to respond to this, Michele adds.

Cormac McKervey says one thing that has changed as a result of the current pandemic is the enhanced perception of farmers and the appreciation of where food comes. He says recent months have made consumers think more about the food supply chain and have come to view farmers as front-line workers

The role of farmers in keeping food supplied throughout the worst of the pandemic has rightly been well recognised. The consumer is now better engaged with locally sourced food and the one million plus signatures of the NFU campaign calling for imported food to meet UK food production standards demonstrates that people do care about how food is grown and produced. The need for sustainable and robust food production systems has been clearly demonstrated, he continues.

Rhonda Geary, Director of Operations of the RUAS which organises Balmoral Show, says that this is a real positive for the agri food sector and something the show will aim to build on.

Promoting fantastic, locally-produced food is always at the heart of Balmoral Show. So too is engaging the wider public in agriculture and its vital role in society. One of the positives during pandemic is the increased awareness of and appreciation for the local food supply chain is one of them, and thats something that we look forward to building on in the show in 2021, she adds.
High on the Lefts agenda is mandating 100% green generation of electricityif not 100% of energy, period. I believe Joe Biden, among others, has now come out for 100% green energy, meaning wind and solar. But for now, lets stick with energy generation. Would it be feasible to get 100% of our electricity from wind and solar?

Basic problems with these energy sources include inefficiency and intermittency. Wind turbines produce energy around 40% of the time, and solar panels do much worse than that in many parts of the country. So how does a utility ensure that the lights will go on, even at night when the wind isnt blowing?

The liberals favorite answer is batteries. Produce electricity when the wind is blowing and the sun is shining, and store the energy in batteries for use when electricity is not being generated. Batteries exist, of course; we use them all the time. But where is the battery that can store the entire output of a power plant or a wind farm? That battery does not exist. Further, battery storage is ruinously expensive. The cost of storing the entire electricity needs of the U.S. for even a day would be prohibitive.

But that isnt the worst of it. Wind and solar are low-intensity energy sources. It takes many acres of wind turbines to produce, on a best-case scenario, what a single power plant can produce. And solar panels are even worse. A single 3 mw wind turbine uses 335 tons of steel, 4.7 tons of copper, 3 tons of aluminum, 2 tons of rare earth elements, and 1,200 tons (2.4 million pounds!) of concrete. If we take seriously the idea of getting all of our electricity from wind and solar, where will all of those materials come from?

My colleague Isaac Orr has done the math. Isaacs analysis is directed specifically to Minnesota, but we can extrapolate to U.S. and global electricity consumption.

Under the No Fossil scenario, [Energy+Environment Economics] estimated [for Xcel Energy that] Xcel would need 15,000 MW of wind, 21,000 MW of solar, and 24,000 MW of batteries that can last for five hours. We then doubled these estimates because Xcel Energy accounts for about half of Minnesotas electricity generation, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. This gives us a rough estimate of the amount of wind, solar, and storage needed to provide for nearly all of Minnesotas electricity generation under a Minnesota Green New Deal.

***

For metal content for each of these technologies, we use this analysis produced by the World Bank, which shows how much metal is needed for each MW of wind, solar, and battery storage. Using these two sources, we can approximate how much metal would be needed to achieve the Walz administrations goal of generating all of Minnesotas electricity from carbon free energy sources while excluding large hydro and refusing to legalize new nuclear power plants in the state.

The World Bank numbers are low because they do not include the materials needed for transmission lines, substations, and distribution systems, which is where much of the copper goes. But we will ignore that problem.

If you add up all the metals that would be needed to build the [Minnesota] grid solely on wind, solar and storage, it would require 5.8 million tons of processed metals.

***

When it comes to some of the more-familiar metals, it would take more than 182,533 metric tons of copper, 116,000 metric tons of nickel, 60,000 metric tons of cobalt, 1.02 million metric tons of iron, 3.45 million metric tons of steel, and 15,000 metric tons of lead to build the required solar panels, wind turbines, and battery packs.

These numbers are large in relation to the global supply of these materials.

According to the United States Geological Survey, global copper production is around 20 million metric tons, meaning building these wind turbines and solar panels would account for about 1 percent of global copper consumption.

But that is only Minnesota, whose electricity needs would consume 14% of domestic copper.

Then there is nickel:

[A] Minnesota Green New Deal would require 4.75 percent of the global total of nickel mined in 2019. If this nickel were to be mined domestically, it would take more than 9 years of Minnesota consuming the entire U.S. output to build the wind turbines and battery packs laid out in the Xcel presentation.

Also cobalt:

Cobalt is another ingredient in lithium ion batteries, and a Minnesota Green New Deal would require 60,000 metric tons of it. This may not sound like a lot, but world cobalt production was only 140,000 metric tons in 2019, meaning Minnesota would require 43 percent of global cobalt output to build the batteries needed to store electricity produced by wind turbines and solar panels.

Further, Minnesotas Green New Deal (again, limited only to electricity production) would consume around 5 percent of U.S. iron production, and 4 percent of U.S. steel output.

These numbers are sobering, obviously. But Minnesota consumes only 1/71 of the electricity in the U.S. If we extrapolate Minnesotas numbers to the U.S. as a whole, a rough conclusion is that getting all of our electricity from wind, solar and batteries would consume around 70% of all of the copper currently mined in the world, 337% of global nickel production, 3,053% of the worlds total cobalt production, 355% of the U.S.s iron output, and 284% of U.S. steel production. Along with unfathomable quantities of concretewhich, by the way, off-gases CO2.

Thus, at a minimum, implementing just this one part of the Democratic Partys Green New Deal would require an expansion of mining, world-wide, that would dwarf anything in human history. Whether the world contains enough of these metals to support a transition to solar, wind and batteries in the U.S.and if so, for how longI have no idea. And that mining, along with the infrastructure needed to support it and the transportation of vast quantities of metals around the world, would itself have inevitable environmental impacts.

Further, if the goal of this whole exercise is to combat global warming, there is little point in talking about American electricity production. If one accepts the calculations of the global warming alarmists, the impact of anything we do on global temperatures is risibly small. To have perceptible effect, China, India, Brazil and the rest of the developing world would have to get all of their electricity from wind and solar, too. That would increase the above demand for materials by something like 15 to 20 times.

Obviously, none of this is going to happen. And the environmentalists know it isnt going to happen. How do we know this? Because, at the same time they tell us that global warming is an existential threat that must be combatted by getting all of our energy from wind and solar installations, they bitterly oppose, and successfully frustrate, the very mining projects that would be needed to produce the materials for the turbines and solar panels they say are essential to the continued existence of the human race.

Here in Minnesota, we have some of the worlds largest undeveloped reserves of copper, nickel and cobalt. Why are they still undeveloped? Solely because of rabid opposition by the same environmentalists who tell us the world is coming to an end on account of global warming.

The Democrats green agenda does not represent a set of meaningful policy proposals. Taken seriously, and objectively evaluated, they immediately crumble. It is literally true that the Democrats could propose to harness the energy of unicorns running on treadmills, and it would make as much sense as reliance on wind, solar and batteries. Green energy is driven by two closely related things: 1) politics, and 2) enormous quantities of money being made by politically-connected wind and solar entrepreneurs.
Wests ties to Trump go back at least four years, though the president has said the two have been good friends for a long time. West was part of a parade of boldfaced names who met with the then president-elect right after the 2016 election. West took to Twitter to say the two discussed violence in Chicago, where West spent part of his childhood. In 2018, West traveled to the White House, and during a photo op with the president donned a red cap with Trumps campaign slogan Make America Great Again.
With three candidates contesting the coveted job of next Director General and chief executive of the World Trade Organization, the highly influential Pan African Business Forum, PABF, has publicly declared its support for the candidature of Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala the widely respected former Nigerian Finance Minister and Managing Director of the World Bank in charge of Africa, South and Central Asia and parts of Europe.

PABFs support will prove useful to her cause; although not a household name among Africas general public this grouping of like-minded high tier public and private sector officials, both serving and retired, has proved very influential in the continents corridors of power. For example its lobbying contributed significantly to the appointment of former South African presidential candidate, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma as chief executive of the African Union Commission during the previous decade.

But even with PABFs support, Dr Okonjo-Iweala faces a very competitive contest for the top job in the multilateral organization that regulates global international trade. Nevertheless, the Forum is fully convinced that she is the best option for a job that itself will be an extremely tough one amid global supply chain disruptions instigated by the COVID 19 pandemic and trade tensions between the United States, China and Western Europe, as well as BREXIT, all of which are encouraging a retreat from multilateralism in trade by several countries around the globe.

But Dr Okonjo-Iweala is already the front runner in the contest because of her huge accomplishments both the World Bank and in Nigeria which have earned her deep respect and renown globally. Indeed, in the recent past, she has been a leading candidate for the job of managing director of the International Monetary Fund, getting closer to that job than any citizen from a developing country before, or since.

This is a unique opportunity now unfolding, to win the trust and confidence of all its members around the world points out Dr Ladislas Agbesi, the Beninoise and Ghanaian President of PABF, who is domiciled in South Africa, where the Forum is also headquartered. The big, rich economies that are currently embroiled in trade disputes with each other need someone who they see as a neutral arbitrator and the smaller, relatively poor economies need someone who they can trust not to simply support the interests of the rich ones at their expense, which has been their thinking up till now.

Dr Okonjo-Iweala herself acutely realizes this and indeed bases her campaign for the job largely on her suitability in this regard.

I see the ability for developing countries, especially the least developed countries, to benefit, whilst not taking away from developed countries, she proposes. This is why trade is so interesting, is that you can actually have win-win outcomes for the participants and not a zero-sum game.

To get to these issues, you need an honest broker, an objective head, someone with the right skills, someone who knows the subject but with strong political and negotiating skills, the managerial skills to move things and also be someone who can listen well, who is very solutionsoriented.

Her educational background, her working experience and her track record of accomplishment all support her suitability.

Dr. Okonjo-Iweala was educated at Harvard and has a Ph.D. in Regional Economics and Development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including Honorary Doctorates from Trinity College, Dublin, Brown University and Amherst College, among others. She is the recipient of Time magazines European Hero of the Year Award, 2004, for her work on economic reform in Nigeria, Euromoney magazine Global Finance Minister of the year, 2005, Financial Times/The Banker African Finance Minister of the year 2005, This Day (one of Nigerias premier newspapers) Minister of the Year award 2004 and 2005. In 2006, she was named by Forbes magazine as one of 100 most powerful women in the world. Portfolio, the Conde Nast International Business Intelligence magazine, called her one of 73 Brilliant business influencers in the world of business and public service.

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is former Minister of Finance for the Federal Republic of Nigeria, appointed in July 2011. She previously served as a Managing Director of the World Bank where she had oversight responsibility for the World Banks operational portfolio in Africa, South Asia and Europe and Central Asia. Dr. Okonjo-Iweala spearheaded several World Bank initiatives to assist low-income countries during both the food and later financial crisis. She is chaired the replenishment of over $40 billion for the International Development Association (IDA), the grant and soft credit arm of the World Bank.

From September 2006 to November 2007, she was Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Brookings Institution. From June to August 2006, she was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria, overseeing Nigerias External Relations; and from July 2003 to June 2006 she served a prior term as Minister of Finance and Economy of Nigeria and head of Nigerias much acclaimed Presidential Economic team responsible for implementing a comprehensive home-grown economic reform program that stabilized the macro-economy and tripled the growth rate to an average 6% per annum over three years.

Her achievements as Finance Minister garnered international recognition for improving Nigerias financial stability and fostering greater fiscal transparency to combat corruption. In October 2005, she led the Nigerian team that negotiated the cancellation of 60% of Nigerias external debt ($18 billion) with the Paris Club. The debt deal also included an innovative buy-back mechanism that wiped out Nigerias Paris Club debt and reduced the countrys external indebtedness from $35 billion to $5 billion. Dr. Okonjo-Iweala oversaw Nigerias first Sovereign credit rating of BBfrom Fitch and Standard and Poorsa rating that grouped Nigeria with other emerging market countries such as Vietnam, Venezuela and the Philippines.

Previously, she pursued a 21-year career as a development economist at the World Bank, where she held the post of Vice President and Corporate Secretary. This included two tours of duty (1997-2000) working in the East Asia Region during the East Asian financial crisis; two duty tours in the Middle East Region, the last (2000-2003) as Director, Operations (deputy vice-president) of the region. Dr Okonjo-Iweala also served as Director of Institutional Change and Strategy (1995-1997). From 1989 to 1991, she was Special Assistant to the Senior Vice President, Operations.

Adding to his explanation as to why PABF has chosen to actively support her candidature, Dr Ladislas Agbesi further asserts that Her vision for the WTO is spot on. The direction she wants for the organization is precisely what it needs.

One very critical issue is going back to the fundamental principles on which trade was founded she espouses. This multilateral trade system delivered, because it was delivering for all. The principles of stability, predictability, non-discrimination, fairness, transparency  these are all the important principles on which the WTO and the world trading system was founded. It delivered, it stopped all the trade wars and it can deliver again

Oscar Ugoh, PABFs vice president, a highly regarded Nigerian media entrepreneur and corporate publicist who is domiciled in Ghana, adds his voice to the Forums stance.

Her education as a thoroughbred financial economist provides the deep technical skills required for the job, he asserts.

Her track record of achievement as Nigerias finance minister evidences her excellent negotiating skills. Her experience at the highest level in the World Bank has given her complete insights into the workings of economic multilaterism in practical form. Her nearly successful candidacy for the post of managing director of the IMF illustrates the global respect she has deservedly earned from member countries of the WTO. Combined this makes her perfectly suited to lead the WTO through these trying times.

Indeed it is instructive that the WTO has not conducted any comprehensive multilateral trade negotiations since the Doha round back in 1995. Dr Okonjo-Iweala acknowledges this as a failure but insists that she has the solutions.

So does the PABF.
While the Canadian government claims to support nuclear disarmament, its actions speak louder than words.

Seventy-five years ago, on Aug. 6, the U.S. military dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima resulting in an estimated 140,000 deaths. Three days later they dropped a different type of nuclear weapon on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 70,000 people.

Those who justify the use of atomic weapons on human populations continue to frame what took place 75 years ago as having saved American lives by quickly ending the war with Japan. This ignores the reality that Tokyo had already been largely destroyed and had delivered multiple pleas for a surrender agreement. War historians note that the nuclear bombings served in part as a warning to the Soviet Union about U.S. military capacities amidst post-Second World War negotiations.

Canada was not an innocent bystander in this military action, devoting significant resources to researching atomic weapons. Uranium from the Northwest Territories was also used in these nuclear arms. When the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Canadas Minister of Munitions and Supply, C. D. Howe, immediately praised the military action. It is a distinct pleasure for me to announce that Canadian scientists have played an intimate part, and have been associated in an effective way with this great scientific development, he told the press.

After developing the nuclear technology, the U.S. submitted its proposal to bomb Japan to the Combined Policy Committee, which included Howe. While there is no record of Howes comments at the July 4, 1945, Combined Policy Committee meeting, the powerful Canadian minister likely supported the U.S. proposal. Reflecting his racism, Prime Minister Mackenzie King wrote in his (uncensored) diary, it is fortunate that the use of the bomb should have been upon the Japanese rather than upon the white races of Europe.

The Combined Policy Committee grew out of the Quebec Agreement that merged U.S. and U.K. nuclear weapons programs. Signed in Quebec City in August 1943, the agreement constrained atomic weapon use and information sharing. While Ottawa didnt formally sign the secret accord, Canada was represented on the Combined Policy Committee because of its significant contribution to atomic weapons research.

Canadas contribution to nuclear weapons didnt end with the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For years, Canadian fighter jets stationed in Europe were loaded with atomic bombs. Nuclear-tipped U.S. Bomarc missiles were also based in Canada. In 1954, Ottawa supported NATOs adoption of nuclear weapons. According to NATOs current doctrine, nuclear weapons are a core component of the Alliances overall capabilities.

While Justin Trudeaus government claims to support nuclear disarmament, the current governments track record tells another story. Canada refused to join 122 countries represented at the July 2017 UN Conference to Negotiate a Legally Binding Instrument to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons, Leading Towards their Total Elimination. Its also declined to sign the resulting treaty. Canada also voted against a 2018 UN General Assembly resolution for Strengthening Russian-United States Compliance with Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and has contributed the bare minimum to Swedish efforts to reinvigorate nuclear disarmament commitments.

The Liberals 2017 defence policy ignores the threat nuclear weapons pose to human survival (North Korean nuclear weapons are mentioned once). But, Canadas defence policy, Strong, Secure, Engaged (SSE) makes two dozen references to Canadas commitment to the nuclear-armed NATO alliance.

Setsuko Thurlow, a survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and recipient of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, launched a petition to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the destruction of her city of birth. The appeal calls on the government to acknowledge Canadas contribution to building the first atom bombs, express regret for the deaths and suffering they caused, and sign the United Nations Nuclear Ban Treaty.

If the Trudeau government is serious about promoting nuclear disarmament, this is the least it can do.
The "Loyalists Against Democracy" social media platforms disappeared last week.

An Ulster Unionist Party councillor has called on the PSNI to investigate the Loyalists Against Democracy (LAD) social media parody account.

Newry, Mourne and Down councillor Alan Lewis stated that police know who was responsible for the social media pages.

On Monday night, a cafe in Co Antrim, which is linked to the founder of LAD, was attacked.

Arden's of Whitehead owner Barbara Whearty shared images of a broken front window and the premises also had green paint thrown over it.

Her husband John-Paul created the controversial LAD account but says he parted ways with it four years ago. Belfast comedian Paddy Raff admitted earlier this week that he had a role in producing content for the controversial social media account.

However, he disputed claims that he was involved in its creation or ever taking charge of the account.

LAD, which was accused by critics of mocking the loyalist community in Northern Ireland, was suddenly shut down last week following calls from Mr Whearty to close it.

Mr Lewis stated that the people behind the LAD accounts must be held accountable if any laws were broken.

"I myself have been the victim of online trolling, my young family targeted and abused, vile comments posted under pictures of my kids," Mr Lewis said.

"I know only too well the feeling of being victimised.

"The group LAD, which had profiles on both Facebook and Twitter, was rarely satirical, rarely funny, regularly nasty and vindictive.

"Without question some of the posts went too far, the screen shots are widely available, the videos still online.

"Police must now conduct a full, open and transparent investigation.

"This was systematic, orchestrated and sustained abuse of one section of the community, drawn out over many years."

A Police Service spokesperson said: "We are aware of a statement from an elected representative in relation to a social media account."
The Austrian tourist who got a bit too close to Napoleons younger sister has apologized.

But there still may be consequences.

The tourist, on a trip to celebrate his 50th birthday, was visiting an art museum in northern Italy last week when he posed with the statue of a reclining Pauline Bonaparte. Her husband had commissioned the seminude sculpture by the Italian artist Antonio Canova in the early 19th century. It is known as Pauline Bonaparte as Venus Victrix.

What happened next might be attributable to the reckless exuberance that big birthdays often bring. The tourist, as captured on security camera footage, sat down at her feet, with his neon sneakers still affixed to the floor, and mimicked Bonapartes luxurious sprawl in repose.

Someone snapped a photo.

By the time he got up, Ms. Bonaparte had lost some of her toes.

The local authorities tracked the man down using visitor logs at the Gypsotheca in Possagno. They are currently required in Italy to assist in contact tracing during the pandemic, CNN reported. By Tuesday, the man  whom the museum did not identify by name  wrote apologetically to the president of the foundation that oversees the museum.
Documentary Final Rendezvous next week on ABC looks back on a female double agent at the centre of Australias greatest spy mystery.

British-born, divorcee Kay Marshall had no ambition to become a spy, but in the early 1960s she found herself centre-stage of one of the most important and intriguing Australian espionage cases of the Cold War. For two years, Australias intelligence agency, ASIO, filmed covert meetings in Sydney between Kay and Ivan Skripov, a high-ranking KGB officer. Unknown to Skripov, Kay was a double agent working for ASIO, codenamed Sylvia.

The case reached a climax in late December 1962 when Skripov dispatched Sylvia to Adelaide, where she was to rendezvous with an unknown KGB operative and deliver a package containing a sophisticated, miniature message sender that could communicate with Moscow undetected.

By the time Sylvia arrived at the rendezvous point, ASIO had it staked out with surveillance officers, undercover Commonwealth Police and a photographic team. ASIOs aim was to detain the mystery man, interrogate him and crack the spy ring. But the KGBs man failed to appear. The collapse of the case haunted ASIO for the rest of the Cold War. Were there too many surveillance men on the ground? Was there a mole inside ASIO? And who was the mystery KGB operative?

Six decades on, investigative filmmaker Peter Butt accessed dozens of reels of ASIOs surveillance footage taken during the Skripov case. The footage revealed a remarkable story from beginning to end of a brave female agent at the front line of the Cold War. But in one of the reels taken at Adelaide, Peter noticed something odd playing out within metres of the rendezvous point  something that ASIO had clearly failed to investigate

Production details: A Blackwattle Films Production. Filmmaker: Peter Butt.

Tuesday 11 August 9.30pm on ABC.
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Linkedin Sebastian Smith (Agence France-Presse) Washington, United States  Thu, August 6, 2020 10:56 531 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066bf4065 2 World Joe-Biden,Donald-Trump,nominations,US-presidential-election,US-presidential-race Free

The US election plunged deeper into unprecedented territory Wednesday when challenger Joe Biden announced he would accept his nomination virtually and President Donald Trump suggested breaking tradition by holding his own ceremony at the White House.

Citing coronavirus health risks, the Biden campaign said he would make his speech -- the high point of a candidate's race -- from his Delaware home where he has spent most of the last months.

He had planned to attend the August 17-20 Democratic convention in Milwaukee, which was already heavily scaled-down from the massive event typical before US elections.

But the party said the risk was still too high, and switched to a fully virtual affair.

"From the very beginning of this pandemic, we put the health and safety of the American people first," said Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez.

"That's the kind of steady and responsible leadership America deserves."

Trump, whose reelection bid is struggling with a badly wounded economy and surging COVID-19 pandemic, signaled he may also accept his nomination from home -- in his case, the White House.

"I love the building. I'm there right now. I spend a lot of time here," he told Fox News.

Trump's August 27 acceptance speech was originally planned for North Carolina, but that was scrapped due to the coronavirus, as was the back-up location, leaving the Republican scrambling for alternatives.

However, presidents are required to separate their campaigning from taxpayer-funded governing. If he goes ahead, Trump would be breaking at the very least with presidential decorum by turning the South Lawn of the iconic building into his personal campaign stage.

Trump defended the idea as "by far the least expensive" and said that logistically it would require far less movement of staff and guests.

He said he would rethink "if for some reason someone had difficulty with it."

In the interview with Fox News the president acknowledged that his reelection had got harder.

"The election was going to be a walk, a walk in the park," he said.

With characteristic optimism, he cited polls that have not been made public and insisted that "we're doing well."

'This thing's going away'

The president railed, as he does almost every day now, against increased use of mail-in ballots, which states are rolling out so that people don't have to go in person to polling stations.

Trump says this would lead to a fraudulent election.

There is no evidence that this would happen and several states already rely heavily on the mail-in method, without any significant problem.

Democrats say Trump fears more mail-in voting because this will increase turnout and would hurt his chances.

According to Trump, a big increase in mail-ins will swamp the system, meaning no clear winner can be announced for possibly "months or years. They will never be able to tabulate their votes."

He also insisted that schools should reopen in September -- a major step in reinforcing Trump's message that the country has to move on from the pandemic, but many health experts and teachers says it would be too dangerous.

Trump again said the virus would soon vanish, repeating his numerous sunny predictions about a health crisis that has so far killed 156,000 people in the US.

"This thing's going away. It will go away like things go away and my view is that schools should be open," he said.

Election oracle's message

Despite Trump's claims to have internal polling showing him ready to repeat his 2016 surprise victory over Hillary Clinton, a professor who has become known as something of a US election oracle says otherwise.

Allan Lichtman, who teaches history professor at American University and has correctly predicted every presidential election since 1984, said in a New York Times op-ed that Biden will prevail.

Lichtman uses an analytical process that he calls the 13 "keys to the White House," focusing less on the actual candidates as the broader political standing of the two competing parties.

Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh told CNBC that Lichtman shouldn't be believed.

"This is an election like no other in history," he said. "American voters will decide this election, not academics or professors."
LONDON, United Kingdom, Aug. 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- Argentum 47, Inc. ( www.arg47.com ) (OTC: ARGQ) and its fully-owned foreign subsidiaries, a specialist in both Retail and Corporate Financial Services and Corporate Consultancy, with offices located the United Kingdom, today would like to announce the addition of two new Independent Financial Advisers that have been employed by its fully owned subsidiary, Cheshire Trafford UK Limited ( www.ctifa.com ).



These two new members of the Cheshire Trafford Team are Mr. Andrew Luckhurst in the role of Sales Director and Mrs. Kerry Swann in the role of Senior Independent Financial Adviser.

Mr. Andrew Luckhurst has worked in the banking sector for over 30 years and all of this time was spent with NatWest Bank in the United Kingdom. Andrew rapidly progressed within the Retail Banking sector and has been working within a Regulated Banking environment since the early 1990s. Initially, as a Senior Financial Adviser, he managed various successful teams within the Kent and South East London Area (United Kingdom) and ended up running the biggest mainstream Bank regulated sales team at a Director level. National success and recognition followed resulting in secondment to National Projects at an executive level and targeted regulatory work within the financial sector. As a result of his previous close working relationship with Mr. Nick Tuke (CEO of Argentum 47, Inc. and Managing Director of Cheshire Trafford UK Limited), Andrew has decided to undertake the opportunity of joining Cheshire Trafford UK Limited where he will be responsible for recruiting and training new Independent Financial Advisers whilst working with Mr. Nick Tuke to increase the revenues of the business by way of managing the sales team and via organic growth.

Mrs. Kerry Swann is a fully qualified Independent Financial Adviser and is Mr. Andrew Luckhursts first recruit. Kerry was employed primarily to service the existing Cheshire Trafford client base and generate new business from these clients. Kerry is a top-performing individual with a proven track record with over 30 years of experience in the Banking sector. She progressed within the Retail Banking arena, moving on to the Regulated Banking environment providing holistic financial planning advice to both Retail and Commercial clients. Kerry obtained her Level 4 Diploma status in 2012 and has also carried out regular project work within the Banking sector whilst all the time keeping up to date with all obligatory regulatory requirements. As an Independent Financial Adviser, Kerry has regularly produced new business fees of in excess of 250,000 GBP (approximately $325,000) per annum.

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Mr. Nick Tuke, CEO of Argentum 47, Inc., said: The recruitment and the calibre of Andrew Luckhurst and Kerry Swann is a real coup for Cheshire Trafford UK Limited. It puts the firm on its strongest footing in its 40-year history. I have known Andrew personally and professionally for almost 20 years and his experience and network of contacts within the UK Financial Services Industry will prove invaluable to the business moving forward. The first example of this is the recruitment of Kerry Swann. When Andrew and I first entered into discussions regarding Cheshire Trafford, we both agreed that the key to the firms success will be an experienced sales team, particularly as we enter the post-COVID world and what we all now call the new normality. We drew up a wish list of successful advisers that we both knew based on past levels of success and geographical location and Kerry Swann was at the top of this list. Kerry brings with her a wealth of experience as an Independent Financial Adviser, having worked in both the Retail and Commercial Sectors of the IFA market and her levels of knowledge will provide our clients with a level of service and peace of mind that they deserve. Andrew and I are also in continued discussions with other Independent Financial Advisers that we wish to recruit as we look to grow the business. During the COVID-19 lockdown period, Cheshire Trafford streamlined all of its processes on the sales side of the business by way of acquiring state of the art software systems, including research tools, a completely new back-office system and a new system which will allow our advisers to carry out the required Anti-Money-Laundering (AML) checks remotely and immediately whilst with clients, all of which will expedite our sales process dramatically. These new systems, along with Andrew and Kerry joining the team are just the first pieces of the jigsaw, and I am confident that Cheshire Trafford UK is now entering the most successful period in its long history.

About Argentum 47, Inc. and Subsidiaries.

Argentum 47, Inc. (Argentum) is a full service Financial Intermediary, Corporate Consultancy, Retail and Corporate Financial Services Company. Through its wholly-owned foreign subsidiaries, it advises both business and retail customers with their most critical decisions and opportunities pertaining to growth, capital needs, structure and the development of their financial plans. With offices in the United Kingdom, Argentum has developed significant relationships in the U.S., U.K., Central Europe, the Middle East and South East Asia to assist clients in realizing their full value and potential. Bringing business to external capital and resources, and retail customers to a suite of secure effective financial solutions.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements related to anticipated revenues, expenses, earnings, operating cash flows, the outlook for markets and the demand for products. Forward-looking statements are no guarantees of future performance and are inherently subject to uncertainties and other factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Such statements are based upon, among other things, assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management, including managements own knowledge and assessment of the Companys industry and competition. The Company refers interested persons to its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and its other SEC filings for a description of additional uncertainties and factors, which may affect forward-looking statements. The company assumes no duty to update its forward-looking statements.

Contact details:

Mr. Nicholas P. Tuke

CEO of Argentum 47, Inc. & Managing Director of Cheshire Trafford (UK) Limited

Tel. + (44) 1482 289 591

Email: nick@arg47.com

Web: www.ctifa.com

Web: www.arg47.com




A high-risk sex offender, whos been to prison four times for crimes against women and girls, has told a judge he is finally ready to change.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 6/8/2020 (530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A high-risk sex offender, whos been to prison four times for crimes against women and girls, has told a judge he is finally ready to change.

On the eve of his latest release from custody, Brett Russell Pilch, 55, told the judge Thursday that he knows he can do it.

The Manitoba Integrated High Risk Offender Unit released this photo of Brett Russell Pilch in 2012, calling him a high risk to reoffend at the time. (Handout / files)

"Im going to be putting my best foot forward and making these healthy changes in my life and ensuring public safety," he told provincial court Judge Robert Heinrichs.

Pilch agreed to be placed on what is commonly referred to as an 810 peace bond, a preventative recognizance imposed on offenders who have served their full sentence in custody and are deemed a high risk to reoffend.

Pilchs criminal record, which dates back to 1992, includes a conviction for sexual assault, five convictions for criminal harassment, 23 convictions for indecent or harassing phone calls, and seven convictions for uttering threats. The targets of Pilchs crimes are often women he does not know.

Pilch is set to be released from Stony Mountain Institution on Friday after serving a 30-month sentence for breaching a probation order. He had just started serving a 15-month sentence in June 2017 at Headingley Correctional Centre when, over the course of one month, he placed 87 phone calls to an Ontario woman and engaged in sexually graphic conversations. The phone calls violated conditions of Pilchs probation that require pre-authorization of phone calls and that he notify his probation officer of any relationships with a woman.

Pilchs victims include a woman he tracked down after seeing her in a newspaper, a woman he met in a shopping mall, and several women across Western Canada that he randomly found in the phone book.

In 1999, Pilch was sentenced to two years in prison for stalking a woman while he was serving a 35-month prison sentence for criminal harassment.

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In 2010, Pilch was sentenced to five months in jail after admitting to making sexually charged remarks to a 16-year-old girl who crossed his path in a downtown grocery store. Pilch told the girl she was "cute" and "sexy" and followed her when she left the store.

Details of Pilchs criminal history were included in a booklet prepared by Manitoba's integrated high-risk sex-offender unit, which was provided to the court for Thursdays hearing.

"I realize there are bad things in that book that have been said about you, but my belief is that it is never too late for a person to change and I wish you well," Heinrichs told Pilch.

Pilch was placed on an 810 peace bond in 2005, but later breached it. He has been on probation eight times since 1992, and breached his conditions every time.

Under terms of the current peace bond, Pilch is bound by a nightly curfew and required to notify his probation officer of any relationship with a woman, comply with orders he undergo treatment or counselling, and have no contact with his victims.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca
Nick Cordero passed away on July 5, 2020 at age 41 due to COVID-19 complications.

And his friend Zach Braff, 45, honored him and his memory with a touching tattoo - an inking of the late star in a three pieces suit dancing.

The tat was revealed on the one month anniversary of Nick's passing, which his wife Amanda Kloots marked with a sweet snap of heartfelt caption.

Wow: Nick Cordero's friend Zach Braff honored him and his memory with a touching tattoo - an inking of the late star in a three pieces suit dancing

The tattoo artist Dr. Woo shared the image on Wednesday night, adding the caption: 'In loving memory of the greatest [star emoji] @nickcordero1 on his friend @zachbraff.'

The tattoo is a sketch of Nick wearing a suit and hat in the midst of singing and dancing - similar to a suit he wore during his time in the Broadway musical Bullets Over Broadway with Zach in 2014.

Amanda commented: 'Need to come see you for one,' to which Zach responded with a star emoji.

She shared a touching note on the one month anniversary of his passing to her Instagram.

Pals: The tat was revealed on the one month anniversary of Nick's passing, which his wife Amanda Kloots marked with a sweet snap of them and a honest caption; pictured April 15, 2019 at the Broadway Opening Night Arrivals for Burn This at Hudson Theater in New York City

Amanda, who shares son Elvis, one, with Nick wrote: 'Dear Nick, it's been one month since you've been gone. I wish I could say it has got easier, but with each passing day I miss you more and more.'

She continued: 'I wish I could see you, hold you, kiss you, talk to you, hear your voice, get a hug, see you with Elvis. I love you forever and always.'

Amanda shared a sweet snap of her and Nick with big smiles on their faces.

The duo married in 2017 and welcomed their son in June 2019.

Honoring his memory: Amanda commented: 'Need to come see you for one,' to which Zach responded with a star emoji

Bittersweet: The tat was revealed on the one month anniversary of Nick's passing, which his wife Amanda Kloots marked with a sweet snap of them and a honest caption

Cordero entered the hospital due to his coronavirus infection on March 31st.

Nick was unconscious when he was first hospitalized, and he was initially mis-diagnosed with pneumonia.

The Waitress star later tested positive for the novel coronavirus, on April 1st.

From there Nick's battle went from one complication to the next, as he was placed on a ventilator and experienced blood clot issues which eventually led to the amputation of his right leg.

He also received a temporary pacemaker, and entered a medically-induced coma.

Over the last few months, Nick was able to come off the ventilator and wake up from his coma, but the infection left his body and lungs so weak that he was never fully able to bounce back.

Memories: Amanda, who shares son Elvis, one, with Nick wrote: 'Dear Nick, it's been one month since you've been gone. I wish I could say it has got easier, but with each passing day I miss you more and more;' pictured August 27, 2019 in New York City at the Beyond Yoga X Amanda Kloots Collaboration Launch Event

Cordero's death was announced by his wife in a heartbreaking post on Instagram on Sunday, July 5.

'God has another angel in heaven now. My darling husband passed away this morning. He was surrounded in love by his family, singing and praying as he gently left this earth,' she wrote.

'I am in disbelief and hurting everywhere. My heart is broken as I cannot imagine our lives without him. Nick was such a bright light.'

Amanda explained that Nick was 'was everyones friend, loved to listen, help and especially talk' and that he was 'an incredible actor and musician.'

'He loved his family and loved being a father and husband. Elvis and I will miss him in everything we do, everyday,' said Kloots.

She went on to thank the medical team that aided her husband in his tumultuous months-long health battle.

Zach spoke about Nick during his podcast Fake Doctors, Real Friends with Zach + Donald with his co-host Donald Faison.

He talked about the last text message from Nick he received: 'The last thing Nick texted me before he went unconscious was, I said, "Is there anything I can do?" And he said, "Please look out for Amanda and Elvis."'

Zach continued: 'And I promised that I'm going to do that for the rest of my life. And I want to make him proud.'
TikTok is setting up a data centre in Ireland (AP)

TikTok is to establish its first European data centre in Ireland.

IDA Ireland, the government agency responsible for attracting foreign investment, immediately welcomed the news.

However, it puts Ireland at the centre of a geo-political row over the company's use of data and its possible links to the Chinese government.

Read More

On Wednesday TikTok said the 420m investment will create hundreds of jobs here.

It added that the facility will play a key role in further strengthening the safeguarding and protection of TikTok user data.

Its European user data will be stored in the Irish location.

What data does it collect?

TikTok collects a huge volume of information including users photographs and videos.

In addition, it collects information on a users location, the rhythm of their typing, and information users share with it from third-party social network providers.

It also collects data contained in the messages users send through its platform.

In addition, it collects information from users phone book, if users grant it access to the phone book on their mobile device.

TikTok also says it automatically collects browsing and search history (including content users have viewed in the platform).

Why is the company controversial?

In June European Union data protection authorities announced an intention to take a closer look at TikTok's privacy practices following a Dutch regulatory decision to open an investigation into the company's policies around protecting children's data.

Authorities in the United States have expressed concern over TikTok's relationship with the Chinese government, as it is owned by Beijing-based company ByteDance.

There is currently a race to sell the companys US operations before it is banned there, with Microsoft among those tipped to buy it.

President Trump has given the two firms 45 days to come to a deal.

Elsewhere, India has banned TikTok along with a number of other apps that are made in China amid security concerns.

However, the social media site has rejected accusations of interference from Chinese government authorities.

Current presence in Ireland

TikTok set up its EMEA Trust and Safety hub in Dublin at the start of the year.

In June the company announced plans to base all of its European privacy operations in Ireland. Ireland is increasingly seen as the European country for tech giants to base their privacy governance operations due to the presence of other tech behemoths here, primarily Google, Facebook,Twitter and Apple.

This puts Ireland's Data Commissioner, Helen Dixon, and her office under even more pressure.

And now the company is also establishing its first European data centre here.

As part of a blog post from the social media company regarding the data centre, IDA Ireland CEO Martin Shanahan said: TikToks decision to establish its first European data centre in Ireland, representing a substantial investment here by the company, is very welcome and, following on from the establishment of its EMEA Trust & Safety Hub in Dublin earlier in the year, positions Ireland as an important location in the companys global operations.

However, IDA today said nobody was available for comment on the controversial companys expansion here.

TikTok has been contacted for comment.
GETTY

The average cost of data breaches in Canada rose 6.7 per cent since 2019 totalling $6.35 million, but a cybersecurity expert says the increase is in line with previous years, and that Canada has been proactive in safeguarding information.

IBMs Cost of Data Breach Report 2020 which was released on July 29, said 42 per cent of Canadian data breaches were caused by malicious attacks, 35 per cent from a system glitch, and 23 per cent from human error.

Sumit Bhatia, director of communications and knowledge mobilization with Ryersons Cybersecure Catalyst, said in an interview that despite an increase, the average cost of data breaches in 2020 is not far off from what was reported in 2016 ($6.03 million) and 2018 ($6.11 million).

The fact that weve actually managed to contain [breaches] despite the sophistication of attacks, I think is a positive trajectory, he said. Those numbers are not surprising nor is it dismal at this point, but its pretty much in line with the trend that weve seen over the last few years.

Image credit: IBM

The chart above shows the total cost of data breaches from 2015 to 2020. In 2015 it totalled to $5.32,

2016 to $6.03 million, in 2017 to $5.78 million, 2018 to $6.11 million, in 2019 to $5.95 million, and in 2020 to $6.35 million.

Bhatia also said that the increase in data breaches is correlated with COVID-19 forcing many people to work from home, where security on laptops might not be as effective.

A lot of these attackers, their point of entry is compromised employee accounts and cloud computing. And those are a result of, as I see, a rapid digital transformation initiative thats happening both right now and has been taking place in the last few years, he said.

The report noted that the average time to identify a data breach decreased from 176 days to 168 days and that the average time to contain a data breach improved from 65 to 58 days.

Bhatia said this is a reflection of companies starting to look at fully deploying security automation.

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In the past five years, Bhatia said Canadian companies have seen a shift in ensuring there is better cybersecurity protection.

It has a lot to do with a combination of the investment in the technology infrastructure, plus the advancement in security technologies that have allowed companies to deal with some of these issues going forward, he said.

Ray Boisvert, IBM Canadas security expert, said in the report that Canadian businesses need to make cyber resiliency a top priority; to mitigate not just the financial impact but the impact on customer and employee privacy as well.

The onus isnt just on government and businesses, however, we all have a role to play in protecting and safeguarding our information, Boisvert said, who is also a former assistant director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).

Bhatia agreed that Canada needs to ensure any policy that helps safeguard privacy should incorporate different industries, as one policy might not fit all industries.

There are certain industries that demonstrate different types of the root cause for the attack. We saw the root cause of attacks was malicious attacks. But we know this isnt the case for all industries.

When we look at industries like the public sector and consumer industries, we saw human error as being the largest percentage of data breaches. Thats an important distinction to make. Policies can really help certain sectors. There need to be policies that support small-and-medium-sized businesses in creating a place for them to go through this digital transformation process, he said.

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The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, has intervened in the industrial action by the National Association of Air Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) which paralysed activities at Bristow Helicopters.

Abednego Galadinma, NAAPE president, confirmed the development in a message issued in Lagos on Thursday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the pilots body had on Wednesday threatened to ground the industry for two weeks should the company management refuse to recall the sacked pilots and engineers.

The management of Bristow Helicopters Limited on Tuesday said the decision to lay off about 100 pilots and engineers was because of plans to restructure the sector amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr Galadinma, however, in a message said the minister had pleaded with the unions to sheathe their swords, pending determination of a meeting at the instance of the Ministry of Labour in Lagos today.

NAN reports that Bristows sack of its workers, came barely 24 hours after another airline, Air Peace, sacked over 75 pilots due to the Coronavirus pandemic.(NAN)
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday announced assistance of Rs 10 lakh for the 12-year-old girl, who was sexually assaulted and brutally attacked at her home earlier this week and is battling for her life at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

Kejriwal, along with Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal, also met the family of the victim at the hospital.

Ahead of his visit to AIIMS, Kejriwal had, in a Hindi tweet, said that learning about the incident had shaken him, and that the perpetrators of such a crime should not be allowed to walk around freely.

He later said that he had talked to doctors who said that the next 48 hours are crucial for the girl.

Meanwhile, Congress' Delhi unit chief, Chaudhary Anil Kumar, too visited the AIIMS to meet the victim's family and assured them of all assistance.

He further announced that a protest would also be organised outside the house of Lt Governor Anil Baijal.

Meanwhile, Maliwal has issued summons to the DCP in-charge asking as to why an arrest has not been made in this case so far.

Talking to reporters after her visit, Maliwal said: "The victim was raped brutally and was hurt so badly that there is no organ which is not affected. Even after such a brutal crime has occurred, no arrest has been made."

"I am issuing fresh summons to the DCP in-charge in order to know why an arrest has not been made so far, what kind of investigation are they conducting," she said, adding that a law has been prepared for punishment for rapists of minors in a period of six months, it has still not been enacted.

Maliwal further assured all possible assistance to the victim and her family.

The minor was sexually assaulted and brutally attacked at her home in Outer Delhi's Paschim Vihar West on Tuesday evening, when she was alone there.

According to police, the girl, found critically injured and bleeding profusely, was first taken to the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital and doctors there referred her to AIIMS.

Police said that there were injury marks of a sharp weapon on back of her head and body.

An FIR has been registered against unknown accused under relevant sections of the IPC and the POCSO Act, and further investigation is under progress, a senior police officer had said.

On Wednesday, the DCW, taking suo motu cognizance of the incident, issued notice to the Delhi Police.

Through the notice addressed to the Station House Officer of Paschim Vihar, the Commission sought a copy of FIR registered in the matter, and detailed action taken report in the case.
President Donald Trump listens to a question from a reporter during a CCP virus briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington on Aug. 3, 2020. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Trump Says Administration Will Issue Executive Order on Unemployment, Evictions

As Republicans and Democrats in Congress debate over the provisions of the next COVID-19 relief bill, President Donald Trump said that his administration is drafting an executive order to extend certain safeguards.

Upon departing the Oval Office for Ohio, Ive notified my staff to continue working on an Executive Order with respect to Payroll Tax Cut, Eviction Protections, Unemployment Extensions, and Student Loan Repayment Options, Trump wrote on Twitter.

Upon departing the Oval Office for Ohio, Ive notified my staff to continue working on an Executive Order with respect to Payroll Tax Cut, Eviction Protections, Unemployment Extensions, and Student Loan Repayment Options.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 6, 2020

Previously, the president said that he may have to take direct action to re-enable a federal moratorium on evictions that was passed in the CARES Act several months ago, suspend payroll taxes for Medicare and Social Security, and extend unemployment benefits that expired on July 31.

Eviction is a big problem that is very unfair to a lot of people, Trump said at a news briefing on Aug. 5.

Trump also suggested that he will extend the $600-per-month unemployment benefits for an unspecified period of time. Those were also included in the CARES Act.

President Donald Trump answers questions from the press in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington on Aug. 4, 2020. (Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images)

Regarding the suspension of the payroll tax, Trump said that many economists on our side support the measure, although it doesnt have much support from Republicans or Democrats in Congress.

Trump appeared to take issue with a provision in the House-passed HEROES Act that would grant $1 trillion in funds to state and municipal governments.

The president described it as a $1 trillion bailout for poorly run states  and cities. He said that theyve been poorly run for a number of years, saying that it isnt COVID-related.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) have been meeting on a daily basis since last week. Pelosi and Schumer have said that the talks have been positive, although Meadows told reporters on Aug. 6 that a deal isnt likely to be made in the near future.

But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he believes there will be a deal at some point in the near future, but isnt sure exactly when.

The argument is over how much [aid] is appropriate at this particular juncture, he said in an interview on Aug. 6, noting that he will have to rely on Senate Democrats and some Republican senators to advance any proposals because some GOP lawmakers are far from agreement on their partys own $1 trillion coronavirus relief measure.
WASHINGTON - Now that the memorial Frank Gehry designed to honor Dwight D. Eisenhower is finished, the acclaimed architect isn't dwelling on the turmoil and rancor stirred up by those who opposed his design. He sounds like a happy man.

"What an adventure," Gehry said in a recent phone interview from his office in Los Angeles. "I wouldn't have missed it for anything."

A memorial to the nation's 34th president was authorized by Congress in 1999, when Bill Clinton was president. Gehry's design, which featured a giant metal tapestry hung from huge masonary-clad columns, was selected by the memorial commission in 2010, and it quickly became a lightning rod for criticism.

Over the past decade, and at almost every step - from the design competition to the groundbreaking in 2017 - the project was dogged by controversy, subject to congressional hearings and, at one point, effectively defunded by the government. For years, it seemed that the entire Eisenhower family, including the president's son John Eisenhower (who died in 2013) and his granddaughter Susan Eisenhower, opposed Gehry's unorthodox vision for a contemporary memorial that reflected the full arc of Eisenhower's life rather than his monumental accomplishments.

But Gehry, 91, stuck with the project, made substantial changes to the design - removing some of the tapestries, changing the image depicted on the remaining one, moving statues and tweaking sight lines - and eventually earned the family's support.

"I am not a quitter by nature," says Gehry, for whom the project was deeply personal. The architect, who is Jewish and whose mother was born in Poland, lost family in the Holocaust. He also served in the Third Army, where, in the early 1940s, Eisenhower was chief of staff to the commander. Gehry says he admires Eisenhower deeply, for his modesty, competency and his accomplishments, which the architect believes aren't sufficiently appreciated. Eisenhower, who was president from 1953 to 1961, seems to represent to the Canadian-born Gehry an ideal of America, as he does to many Americans now appalled by the degradation of our political leadership.

"I am very proud of it, but what makes me even prouder is that the family and the people who knew him are pleased with it," Gehry says. Susan Eisenhower, who worried that the giant columns could be misconstrued as missile silos and that the tapestries might remind people of Communist-era memorials to Marx, Engels and Lenin, confirmed in an email: "Frank Gehry is right. My family and I support this design."

The memorial was scheduled to open May 8, the 75th anniversary of the day Allied forces accepted Germany's surrender in World War II, but the pandemic pushed that date to Sept. 17. Yet with the exception of some trees that need to be replaced, the memorial is essentially finished, and although the public can't wander through it now, it is easily seen through and above the surrounding fence.

It is unlike any other memorial in Washington, or the world. The design was largely dictated by the awkward site, a four-acre patch of land just south of Independence Avenue, opposite the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. The south side of the square is occupied by the U.S. Education Department's Lyndon Baines Johnson Building, an oblong modernist box with few lovable features. The site is also bisected by Maryland Avenue, which offers a particularly fine view of the U.S. Capitol, a view that preservationists and oversight groups felt had to be protected.

Gehry's response to the site was deft and daring. He proposed a giant screen, dubbed a tapestry, along the south edge, effectively veiling the Education Department. The idea of a metal tapestry with a representational image on it was both a reference to an earlier memorial tradition - woven-cloth tapestries were used for centuries to glorify emperors, kings, the victors in battle - and a radical departure from the tradition of using solid stone as the essential medium for monuments. But the tapestry also allowed Gehry to create a parklike space in front of it, a little green oasis in a part of the city that is famous mainly for its dispiriting bureaucratic architecture.

The tapestry, unfortunately, isn't entirely successful. By day, its sketchy, almost abstract rendering of the Normandy coast at Pointe du Hoc (site of a critical engagement during the American landing) isn't easily legible. The design is better seen from the backside, where the welded metal overlay on the tapestry's support mesh is visible in sharper relief. From the front, on a sunny day, the grid of windows from the Johnson building overwhelms the image.

But at night, with the lights on, it is magical. The Education Department disappears, and the trees, not yet substantial enough to offer shade by day, become pleasantly ornamental, defining an allee that leads to the Capitol. The grasses that mark the old Maryland Avenue footprint are inviting, and the yellow stone of the paving and pedestals that support the larger-than-life-size statues - one group devoted to Eisenhower's military career, another to his time as president - glows a soft yellow. The bronze statues, and the bas-reliefs behind them, project a more theatrical ambiance under artificial light than in the glare of the midday sun.

And at night, one can still detect some of the melancholy that was subtly woven into Gehry's original plan. This centers on a small, life-size statue of Eisenhower as a boy that the architect had planned to mediate between the two statue groupings. Critics of that idea felt it trivialized Eisenhower's accomplishments, and the statue was eventually moved to the far, western edge of the memorial site. But the idea of mortality, and the frailty of any one particular life, remains, and now it seems that Eisenhower the boy is a memory of Eisenhower the man, a memory pushed far from the presence of daily consciousness, but a memory that cannot be erased.

No effort was spared to get the tapestry right. It needed to be weatherproof and sturdy enough to last for decades at least, yet also transparent enough not to block light and views from the Johnson building. Mock-ups were created and different techniques pursued, until finally a metal design was welded rather than woven onto a supporting mesh, as Gehry initially had imagined.

Changing the design, which had first represented the landscape of Eisenhower's boyhood in Abilene, Kan., was crucial to convincing the family to support the memorial. In the end, Gehry sketched the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc freehand, in his characteristic drawing style - a herd of frenetic squiggles, like a jazzy, elongated Rorschach blot. For years, critics of Gehry have singled out his supposed egotism, repeating the canard that he wants to be an artist rather than an architect and that his buildings are too subjective and driven by creative whim to be useful. And yet, in the end, after a long process of revising the tapestry, it ended up looking more like a giant abstract painting than a traditional, representational rendering of the landscape. In her email, Susan Eisenhower singled out "the change of theme to 'The Beaches of Normandy in Peacetime,' " as key to her support.

The abstraction of the design renders its daytime illegibility a little less disappointing. By day, it's best not to think of it as a tapestry, but rather a metal scrim, and it serves that function perfectly well, defining the space rather than rendering a visible image. And by day, there is a nice surprise: The architecture of the surrounding buildings, including the Air and Space Museum and the National Museum of the American Indian, has an appealing unity. The stone color is similar, and there are common elements in some of the design vocabulary. The benches and planter boxes, hard-edge and scrupulously modern, could easily wander off-site and live happily at either of the two museums that face the memorial.

The opening of the memorial will now happen as the current political season enters its final chapter before the Nov. 3 election, which means it could prompt some anguish and soul-searching about the Republican Party. Eisenhower may have been a Republican, but he was a very different politician than his party now supports. It is difficult to imagine him tolerating a Republican president who avoided military service, mocked the war record of the late senator John McCain, and successfully embroiled the military in crushing a peaceful political demonstration outside the White House.

Eisenhower's career, especially as president, was far from unblemished. He cozied up to the brutal dictator of Spain - Francisco Franco - toppled the elected leader of Iran and signed Executive Order 10450, which barred gay and lesbian people from government service and led to the purge of thousands of LGBT federal employees, a milestone in the annals of bigotry.

But his talent, his service and his temperament were exceptional by contemporary standards, and they dwarf the man to whom he will inevitably be compared. This won't be the last memorial erected in Washington, but it feels a bit like the last memorial of a passing age. The idea of great men is necessarily more complicated and fraught than it was when this memorial was conceived. The country that Eisenhower led to victory three-quarters of a century ago is now a pathetic object, mocked and pitied around the world, unable to keep its people safe from a virus that other countries have contained.

None of this was in the air when Gehry started thinking about his design. But we can be thankful that, for all the design concessions that led to a more traditional, more conventionally heroic memorial, the architect's generous feelings to Ike are what remained consistent, and they soften the edges of this monument. My guess is that in a few years, its connection to Eisenhower will seem a secondary feature of the design, which will be primarily regarded with affection as a green island of old-fashioned geniality in a failing city that was once the capital of the free world.
Sen. Ed Markey received a notable endorsement this week from a well-known feminist icon and Western Massachusetts college graduate.

Gloria Steinem, a renowned author, journalist and leader of the American feminist movement in the 1970s, offered her support for Markeys reelection bid Thursday.

Markey has served in the Senate since 2013 and is in the midst of a tough Democratic primary fight against Rep. Joe Kennedy III ahead of the Sept. 1 election.

Kennedy is only 4 percentage points behind Markey, according to a recent survey conducted by JMC Analytics, an independent polling organization, and nearly a quarter of the July polls 500 respondents said they are still undecided.

The race has become particularly heated in recent months, with the two candidates squabbling over a variety of issues, including the amount of time Markey spends in Massachusetts and how progressive of a Democrat Kennedy is.

With minimal policy differences separating the candidates, the legislators have pointed to several big-name endorsements they have garnered this summer.

Rep. Adam Schiff, a Massachusetts native and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, put his support behind Kennedy on Sunday, calling the congressman a shrewd legislator and tactician.

On Wednesday, award-winning documentarian Ken Burns, a graduate of Hampshire College in Amherst, endorsed Markey, saying the senator is a champion for social justice, for universal health care, for combating global warming with the Green New Deal [and] for preventing nuclear proliferation.

The Massachusetts senator was also recently endorsed by 100 former government officials, advocates and educators, while Kennedy was given the endorsement of the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts in May.

Steinem, who graduated from Smith College in Northampton in 1956, emerged as the leader of the national feminist movement and has since authored 11 books, focusing on topics of gender, race and class discrimination.

She also founded both New York and Ms. magazines as well as the National Womens Political Caucus, the Free to Be Foundation and the Womens Center for Media in the U.S.

In 1993, Steinem was inducted into the National Womens Hall of Fame, and in 2013, former President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The 86-year-old New York resident remains an active political organizer and has traveled widely in recent years as a lecturer and media spokesperson on issues of equality.

In her endorsement of Markey, Steinem called the senator a champion of equal rights, racial justice, universal health care and climate action.

Never has the United States Senate been more crucial to our survival, and never have we needed the bold and innovative leadership of Ed Markey more, Steinem said. Im proud to support Ed Markey as a leader who can strengthen our democracy and lead us into a just and kinder future.

In 2016, Steinem returned to her alma matter as part of Smiths Presidential Colloquium Series. During her roughly hourlong speech, she urged young women and people of color to continue their fight for equal rights.

The feminist icon also worked with the Sophia Smith Collection at the college to document the origins of the U.S. womens movement and helped the school create a tribute to the activism of Wilma Mankiller, the first woman to be elected chief of a major American Indian nation.

I am so grateful to have Glorias support, Markey said in a statement. She understands the need for bold, progressive vision in the face of inequity and injustice. Her activism and leadership helped transform our country into a more equitable place and I am tremendously thankful to have her as a partner as we continue this fight.

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About two-thirds through his 90-minute speech before a hall packed with the Belarusian political elite, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka turned his attention away from the candidates challenging him in the August 9 election and focused on another player with a stake in the vote.

"Russia is afraid of losing us," he said. "After all, apart from us, it has no truly close allies left."

Then he addressed the mysterious appearance of 33 Russian mercenaries who were arrested at gunpoint at a health resort near Minsk and accused of plotting terrorist acts. Foreign forces, Lukashenka claimed, were trying to destabilize the country. "It's a very dangerous and strong signal," he said. "These people were specifically sent to Belarus and given the command to wait."

"They've decided to try out new forms of 'color revolutions' against us," he said, referring to anti-government protests that pushed presidents from power in Georgia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia over the past two decades. "It won't work."

The election is shaping up to be the biggest challenge to Lukashenka's rule in his 26 years at the helm of the country of 9.5 million.

A series of rallies in support of opposition candidate Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya have drawn unprecedented crowds in recent weeks. Moreover, the sizable rallies are taking place in regions far from Minsk, where the population tends to be older, poorer, and often supportive of Lukashenka's command-economy policies and Soviet-tinged nostalgia.

Lukashenka's staying power has been due in no small part to Russian subsidies and trade policies that have helped buoy the Belarusian economy. But Moscow has scaled back that support in recent years and Lukashenka has pushed back against the Kremlin's efforts to secure closer integration, sometimes accusing Moscow of seeking to swallow his much smaller country up.

What Does Moscow Want?

So, does Moscow want Lukashenka to win the election and stay in power? Or does the Kremlin want a new hand on the Belarusian tiller? What does in fact Russia want from the Belarusian election?

Belarus Votes For President Read our ongoing coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election, widely seen as fraudulent.

"The geography, the significance, the symbolism of Belarus means that what happens there means a lot more for those in charge in the Kremlin" than other places, said Nigel Gould-Davies, a former British ambassador to Belarus. "Belarus hasn't seen this sort of moment since the mid-90s."

"What does it look like to Moscow if a long-serving authoritarian leader in a Slavic state, whose economy is in decline, gets into trouble, and faces an opposition movement? And a free and fair election?" he said. "That sets a bad example" for Putin.

Lukashenka's August 4 speech was the latest gauntlet to be thrown, said Dmitry Trenin, a longtime Moscow analyst and director of the Carnegie Moscow Center.

The speech "formally marks an end to special relations between Minsk and Moscow," he said on Twitter. "Rather than humoring its disloyal former ally, the Kremlin will now look beyond him. With or without Lukashenko, Belarus is becoming a tug of war."

Push For Integration

A Soviet-era state-farm boss, Lukashenka was first elected in 1994 and managed to steer the country through the shoals of the post-Soviet collapse. His success came in part by spurning the deeper liberal economic reforms that Russia embraced while at the same time benefiting from Moscow's subsidies.

He has also authorized brutally repressive police and security tactics that have marginalized opposition groups, wiped out civil-society organizations, and shut out independent media.

In recent years, he's allowed small-scale entrepreneurship, particularly the IT sector in the capital. One of his would-be challengers in the election, who was barred from running on grounds supporters say were fabricated, helped build a software and technology park in Minsk.

But the economy is heavily reliant on agricultural exports to Russia, and, more importantly, cheap imports of oil from its eastern neighbor, which Belarusian refineries then process and resell at a significant markup to European markets.

Moscow has wanted Minsk to integrate with Russia, pushing for tighter ties under a union state that was created in the 1990s but exists largely on paper. Lukashenka showed little enthusiasm for the effort, mainly because of expectations he would lose his job, or worse.

Like other ex-Soviet leaders, Lukashenka was spooked in 2014 when Russia seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and stoked a still-ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 13,000 people and displaced more than 1 million.

Last year, the Kremlin made a new push for integration, and in December, Lukashenka and Putin met in St. Petersburg to sign documents to that effect.

It didn't happen, and since then, Russia has turned up the pressure, turning off oil exports on New Year's Eve, then partly restarting them five days later. Minsk then turned to Norway for oil. Lukashenka embraced visits by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and then-White House national-security adviser John Bolton.

"It's obvious that they don't support Lukashenka; he is standing in their way," said Yury Tsarik, a Minsk-based political analyst. "But they also don't support civic opposition candidates."

"A strong candidate who gets a strong win in the election -- assuming Lukashenka concedes -- would possibly become the next Lukashenka," he said, suggesting the election could produce a leader with a firmer mandate to defy Moscow, not unlike Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

"If he or she is legitimate, gets wide support, like Zelenskiy, there would be strong temptation to become an authentic state, and to cut ties with Russia," he told RFE/RL.

Overall, what the Kremlin wants from Minsk is pretty much what it has always wanted, said Artyom Shraibman, a Belarusian political commentator: to keep it squarely in its sphere of influence, as a security buffer with NATO and a transit conduit for goods to the European Union.

"On a more tactical level, I don't think that there is a detailed, either/or list of bullet points of what the Kremlin wants from Belarus each and every day," Shraibman told RFE/RL. "I think the less noise Belarus makes the better, and the less problems are created, because Kremlin has a lot to worry about besides this usually troublemaking ally."

Tourists At A Sanatorium

As if the economic pinch from Russia cutting subsidies and oil supplies wasn't bad enough, Lukashenka has also struggled with the country's response to the coronavirus. He's repeatedly belittled the dangers of the virus, even as he announced recently that he himself had become ill but was now recovering.

At least some part of the large turnout at rallies for opposition challengers has been motivated by Belarusians' unhappiness with the government's response to the coronavirus, with the case count mounting to more than 68,000 as of August 6 -- only a few thousand fewer infections than neighboring Ukraine, whose population is four times larger. The official death toll of 577 is widely seen as a major undercount.

In his August 4 speech, Lukashenka tried to put a positive spin on relations with Moscow, even as he sent clear signals that things weren't what they used to be.

"Russia has always been, is, and will be our closest ally, no matter who is in power in Belarus or in Russia," he said. "This is an insurmountable factor, it is deep within our peoples. Even in spite of the fact that brotherly relations with us have been changed to become a 'partnership'," he said.

Over the past year, Belarusian authorities have made clear moves targeting Russian interests in the country, kicking out the Russian ambassador, for example, and arresting a crew from Russian state TV.

And then there are the 33 Russians who turned up at a sanatorium outside of Minsk last month. Belarusian security agents raided the sanatorium, arrested the group at gunpoint, and broadcast evidence of the arrests on state TV on July 29.

Lukashenka and top security officials said the men were from the Kremlin-linked private military company Vagner, and suggested they were on a mission to destabilize Belarus and possibly undertake sabotage, depending on the election's outcome.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied the allegations, and insisted that Moscow was not interfering "in the domestic affairs of a sovereign state." Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova demanded that the Russians be released from detention. The deputy head of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, threatened "sad consequences" if they weren't released.

Gould-Davies, now a senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, placed blame for the deteriorating relations on Moscow. "It's Russia's great-power demands that have damaged this relationship," he said. "It's a mark of incompetence, though that may be too strong a word -- a mark of how difficult Russia makes it for its neighbors, that it manages to have a bad relationship even with someone like Lukashenka."

Ken Yalowitz, a former U.S. ambassador to Minsk, said Russia did not want chaos or uncertainty. But, he said, Moscow also didn't want a reformer who would present a dangerous contrast with Putin, who has held power for over 20 years and now has the option of seeking to remain president until 2036.

"I think they would prefer Lukashenka to win, using a heavy hand, and as long as Lukashenka confines his criticism of Moscow to just rhetoric, to get himself through the election, they would turn the other cheek at this point," he said.

Shraibman agreed. "Russia wants a win for Lukashenka but one that weakens him and a win that is also marked by protests, crackdown, and deterioration of relations with the West," he said.

"Russia is not really keen on having the neighbors revolting, having revolutions around its borders because it's the kind of chaos Russia cannot actually master and manage with any degree of certainty," he said.
Oregon alcohol regulators found that 14 out of every 15 bars and restaurants visited in the past month are complying with mask and social distancing requirements, Gov. Kate Brown announced Wednesday.

Inspectors for the Oregon Liquor Control Commission conducted spot checks of 3,654 businesses, records show, identifying problems at 244, or 7% of locations.

Officials issued verbal guidance to those businesses and referred issues from 35 businesses to the states business-safety agency, Oregon Occupational Safety and Health.

Brown praised businesses that complied with the rules but reprimanded those that wont comply. The state this week suspended the liquor license of a Rogue River-area bar that violated social distancing rules.

Let me be clear: businesses that do not follow the health and safety guidance established by the Oregon Health Authority are putting their employees, their customers, and their communities at risk, risking community-wide closures for other businesses as well if a COVID-19 outbreak starts to spread out of control, Brown said in a statement.

Liquor control inspectors have been visiting bars, restaurants and other businesses that serve alcohol on weekends since July 4. The frequency of visits has varied, with inspectors recording 1,428 visits July 10-12 but just 143 the following weekend.

-- Brad Schmidt; bschmidt@oregonian.com; 503-294-7628; @_brad_schmidt

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
More localities report Covid-19 cases

The new Covid-19 outbreak in Vietnam has spread to two more localities including Lang Son and Bac Giang provinces.







Acting Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long





During a meeting on August 5, Acting Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said the new Covid-19 outbreak in Vietnam had become complicated. A total of 10 localities outside Danang city have reported positive cases after a new patient was detected on July 25 in the city, after 99 days without local transmission.



The new wave has spread much faster than the first one and has been detected in 10 provinces and cities outside Danang including Quang Nam, Hanoi, HCM City, Quang Ngai, Thai Binh, Dak Lak, Ha Nam, Dong Nai, Lang Son and Bac Giang.



"As of August 5, Lang Son and Bac Giang provinces have reported new cases," Long said.



Also on the same day, 500 ventilators were donated to the ministry. Long said the Ministry of Health has implemented all preventive measures and the ventilators were a very meaningful donation. The ventilators will be sent to all localities in need.



The Eliciae MV20 ventilators are worth a total of VND120bn (USD5.1m). This is part of the MV20 Project to provide 2,000 ventilators to Vietnam to fight against Covid-19. Since February, local firms have worked with Japanese manufacturers to design, test and make the ventilators.



As of August 5 morning, Vietnam has 627 cases, 224 of which are related to Danang outbreak.
The exoneration grabbed the attention of Chinese social media and many newspapers featured it on the top of their websites, an indication that the story had not run afoul of the countrys strict propaganda rules. The Jiangxi court, which overturned the conviction, cited it as an example of efforts Chinas leader, Xi Jinping, has spearheaded to undo false convictions and strengthen the legal system.

But critics point out such high-profile cases hint at deeper flaws in the system, such as its politicization and pressures on the police and courts to convict criminals in major cases. In recent years, Mr. Xis policies have strengthened the sway of the Chinese Communist Party over the police and also empowered domestic security forces, in part to carry out crackdowns on everything from online political speech to lawyers who defend dissidents.

A key government argument for the more assertive policing has been to keep the country safer. Critics, though, argue that Chinas criminal courts rarely release suspects and have done little to penalize ferocious questioning tactics used by police officers.

In 2019 the conviction rate for Chinese courts stood at 99.9 percent. Government statistics showed the courts overturned 1,774 cases the same year, down slightly from 1,821 in 2018  and a tiny fraction of the more than one million criminal convictions carried out by courts each year in China.

Mr. Zhangs case was reminiscent of that of Nie Shubin, a man who was exonerated in 2016 of murdering a woman, 20 years after he was executed for the crime. Mr. Zhang was also initially sentenced to death, though the punishment was commuted to life imprisonment.
For a few nights in late 1991, a 74-year-old army veteran, newly arrived in Los Angeles and looking for family members, needed to sleep outside. Pastor Amarillento was a recently naturalized Filipino American, based on a 1990 law granting citizenship to Philippine Army soldiers from World War II. Amarillento had fought at Bataan. But after being naturalized in San Francisco, his money had been stolen on the bus down to Los Angeles.

Thus Amarillento had "marched under General Douglas MacArthur, only to find himself, 50 years later, sleeping in MacArthur Park," writes MIT historian Christopher Capozzola in a new book about the unique relationship between the Philippines and the United States.

Amarillento soon found relatives in Orange County, thanks to help from a shelter in the Filipinotown neighborhood, near downtown Los Angeles. Still, this episode symbolizes some contours of the larger Filipino American experience. Filipinos have long been staunch U.S. military soldiers, sailors, and servicemembers while receiving modest, belated rewards for their efforts. The countries' ties have led to extensive immigration -- there are 4 million Filipino-Americans in the U.S. -- but even for decorated veterans, entry into U.S. society has not always been easy.

Capozzola's new book, "Bound by War: How the United States and Philippines Built America's First Pacific Century," published by Basic Books, details both the military relationship between the countries, from the U.S. conquest of the Philippines in 1898 onward, and the way that military engagement shaped social connections between the nations.

"This is not a book about foreign policy, but foreign relations," Capozzola says. "Not just what generals and presidents were doing, but what ordinary soldiers and immigrants were doing."

New beginnings

After winning the Spanish-American War in 1898, the U.S. was granted control of the Philippines, a long-time Spanish possession. Then it squelched a Philippine independence movement, in what Capozzola calls a "very intense and brutal war." It was a huge imperial leap across the Pacific for the U.S., which eventually installed over 20 military bases in the Philippines and ruled the land as a colony until 1946.

"This is really the heart of the relationship between these two countries," Capozzola says.

Before long, Filipinos started enlisting in the U.S. army and navy, and Filipinos soon had new immigration opportunities as well. For a spell after 1924, the Philippines was the only country in Asia from which the U.S. allowed immigration. The number of Filipinos in the U.S. swelled from 5,600 in 1920 to about 56,000 in 1930, with substantial Filipino-American communities springing up near San Diego, in the Bay Area, and around Norfolk and Virginia Beach -- close to Navy bases.

But while many Filipinos had come to the U.S. hoping to acquire more education and better work, they often landed on farms, in fisheries, or in service jobs, as Capozzola documents.

"When Filipinos migrated to the United States in the early 20th century, they faced the same forms of discrimination that most Asian immigrants did: restrictions on housing and education and the professions, [while] being relegated to low-status, low-paying jobs," Capozzola says. "It could have been otherwise. And that's a running theme throughout the book as well. There is a series of broken promises."

Still, as Capozzola writes, the military service of many Filipino men gave their familes "a language of patriotism and sacrifice -- and therefore of equality." That sense of belonging helped spur battles for civic justice. It was Filipino grape pickers who initiated what became famous as the United Farm Workers strike of the 1960s.

In the sphere of veteran's rights, 64,000 of the 76,000 prisoners on the Bataan Death March had been Filipinos, fighting for the U.S. -- yet they did not receive equitable military benefits. Only after a concerted effort, including a year-long vigil in MacArthur Park in the 1990s, was compensation folded into the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Only about 12,400 Filipino veterans realized those payments, leading one advocate for Filipino veterans to call the settlement "yet another beginning" in the battle for Filipino-American rights and benefits. There may be similar fights for inclusion in the future: In the Iraq War, about 31,000 U.S. troops were not citizens, and 20 percent of those were Filipino.

"The book is a way to think about who serves in and with and for our armed forces, [and] to ask what we owe them in return," Capozzola says. "If we really want to understand big forces like war and globalization, we need to look at that full frame."

With or without the U.S.?

While it explores immigration and social integration, "Bound by War" also examines politics in both countries after 1946, when the Philippines gained independence but remained in the U.S. sphere of influence.

"In many ways the Philippines enters the community of nations on the back foot," Capozzola observes. "It's devastated by the war, its economy is destroyed, and there is an emerging Cold War threat. This requires Philippine politicians to maintain ties to the U.S. in order to protect their country."

But many voices have criticized that arrangement, Capozzola notes: "If there's one central question in Philippine foreign policy that's consistent from 1946 to the present, it is this: Are we better off with the Americans, or without them?"

President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in the Philippines in 1972 and ruled over a police state until the "People Power" movement ousted him in 1986 -- with the U.S. only belatedly grasping the strength of opposition leader Corazon Aquino. Yet despite solid U.S. backing, Marcos actually made rhetorical overtures to China in the 1970s, perhaps trying to play off the two powers against each other. In 2016, President Rodrigo Duterte surprised the U.S. by announcing the Philippines would "realign" with China, but has not followed through on the idea.

On the ground, the U.S.-Philippines relationship evolved again in 1965 when U.S. immigration law allowed Asians back into the country -- especially white-collar workers. In the 1970s, Filipinos were the second-largest group immigrating to the U.S., behind only Mexicans.

Today Filipino emigration is worldwide, with workers settling in the Gulf States, elsewhere in Asia, and some parts of Europe. Overall, Filipino immigrants sent an estimated $10 billion in remittances back home in 2005.

"The core aspects of the U.S.-Philippine military relationship are remarkably unchanged from the early 20th century to today," Capozzola says. "What has changed is the power of Filipinos themselves. The economy is substantially different and not as tied to the United States. Filipino migrations are global, and the United States is not by any means the largest recipient country. Through their everyday choices, the relationship is being remade. And I think ultimately that will shift the U.S.-Philippine military relationship."

So while it is important to know formal military history, Capozzola thinks, it is also vital to regard military history as something more than wars and strategies.

"To understand 20th-century America, you need to understand the U.S. military," Capozzola says. "Not only as a [fighting] force, although of course that's what it was designed for, but also a generative force that transforms social relationships, immigration patterns, ideas about race and culture. This book is a way to bring that to the center of the story."

###

Written by Peter Dizikes, MIT News

Additional background

Book: "Bound by War: How the United States and Philippines Built America's First Pacific Century" https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/christopher-capozzola/bound-by-war/9781541618268/ Christopher Capozzola https://history.mit.edu/people/christopher-capozzola
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday paid a visit to the minor girl who was sexually assaulted two days at her home in the Paschim Vihar area and is undergoing treatment at the AIIMS.

The 12-year-old girl was also hit her on face and head with a sharp object and was found lying in a pool of blood by her neighbours at her home on Tuesday evening, police said. A surgery has been conducted on the child and her condition is stated to be stable.

Describing it as a barbaric crime, Kejriwal said he had spoken to the police chief and a hunt was on for the attacker.

"The child is in a serious state, unconscious. A surgery has been done. She will be under observation for 24 to 48 hours," said the chief minister, who also met the girl's father.

"I have spoken to the Police Commissioner. Police are trying to nab the accused. The govt will ensure strict punishment for them and will provide Rs 10 lakh to her family members," he said.

Before going to the hospital, Kejriwal wrote on Twitter that the savage assault "has shaken me to the core", adding that "such predators roaming free cannot be tolerated".

"The brutal rape of a 12-yr-old child is absolutely horrific! Those animals deserve nothing less than death. All of us are praying for her and I urge @DelhiPolice to bring the perpetrators to justice at the earliest," he tweeted.

 13                                        AIIMS     Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) August 6, 2020

"She has suffered severe injuries but her condition is stable now. She was operated upon late on Tuesday night. She is in the ward and on oxygen support," a doctor at AIIMS said.

Earlier in the day, Delhi Commission For Women Chairperson Swati Maliwal hit out at the police over the delay in the arrest of the accused. Maliwal visited the girl at the AIIMS on Thursday.

She said the girl''s condition was quite serious and doctors were saying that they were not sure whether she would survive or not.

"The girl has multiple head fractures and bite marks all over her body," Maliwal said. "She has been brutally assaulted to the extent that every body part has injury marks." Despite the brutal nature of the assault, Maliwal said it had been over two days and the police had not arrested the accused yet.

"I'm summoning the DCP and going to ask him about the investigation," the DCW chairperson said. "What CCTV footage has been scanned? How many statements have been recorded so far? How is it possible that the accused is still at large?" she asked.

Maliwal demanded that the accused be immediately arrested and sentenced to death. She said her team had been assisting the victim.

(With inputs from PTI)
Construction on the $709 million Broadbeach to Burleigh section of the Gold Coast light rail project could begin before Christmas.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk confirmed the successful tender was about to be announced, as she announced business case funding for the next leg, linking Burleigh to the Gold Coast Airport, on Thursday.

Announcing $2.5 million for a business case for a future case of the successful Gold Coast light rail project is Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk with Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate. Credit: Facebook.

More than 50 million passengers have ridden the G:link since the first leg opened in July 2014.

Stage three, between Broadbeach and Burleigh, is funded by all three levels of government and the Queenland government has kicked in $2.5 million towards the $5 million business case for stage four.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 6)  A group of lawyers including former Vice President Jejomar Binay urged the Supreme Court to junk the Anti-Terrorism Act, which they denounced as a violation to due process even similar to a dreaded practice of Japanese military police during World War II.

The Concerned Lawyers for Civil Liberties filed the 24th petition challenging the constitutionality of the anti-terrorism law on Thursday. This is the same group that protested against then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyos policies, and reconvened last year to fight alleged human rights violations under the Duterte administration.

Republic Act 11479 or the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, signed into law on July 3, fails miserably to protect and preserve the guaranties of human rights and civil liberties enshrined in the Constitution and therefore must be struck down, the lawyers said in their 66-page petition.

It is the most challenged law with a total of 25 petitions asking the Supreme Court to declare it unconstitutional and stop its implementation. It's not fully enforced yet as officials admit it will be "open to question" without the implementing rules and regulations.

Kempetai-like practices?

Petitioners hit the power granted to the Anti-Terrorism Council, an executive body composed of presidential appointees, to authorize law enforcement agents and military personnel who can arrest suspected terrorists. It will also "designate" individuals and groups as terrorists, prompting the Anti-Money Laundering Council to freeze their assets.

READ: PH should effectively implement anti-terrorism law to avoid global sanctions  AMLC

Lawmakers who authored and sponsored the measure said the council would merely choose the law enforcers who would carry out the surveillance, arrest, and detention which have to be approved by the Court of Appeals.

However, Section 29 allows the authorized officers to arrest suspects and detain them for up to 24 days without a warrant.

In that sense it is no different from the Japanese-era practice of kempetai of rounding up suspects fingered by informants, where the only difference now is that they do so not under any hood over the head but in the payroll of the ATC, the petitioners said.

It short-circuits the right to due process under the Bill of Rights and must be impugned as a repugnant violation of fundamental rights, they added.

Police, military have to live with Bill of Rights

Petitioners reminded authorities that a warrantless arrest can only be made when the suspect has committed, is actually committing, or is attempting to commit an offense in the presence of the arrester, or if the arrester has personal knowledge that the person has just committed the crime.

Given these rules, authorities should not need a "prolonged investigation" of up to 24 days, from the constitutionally required three-day period, to build a case against the suspects.

It may well be that the constitutional rule against warrantless arrests makes the counter terrorism work of police and military agencies more difficult to carry out, the petitioners said. Police and military agents must simply learn to live with the requirements of the Bill of Rights.

The law is unnecessarily and unjustifiably carving out the crime of terrorism as outside the realm of the criminal justice system when theres not even an indication of a public emergency due to rebellion or insurgency, the petitioners said.

President Rodrigo Duterte and Congress have been criticized for prioritizing the controversial measure amid the coronavirus pandemic, but they argued that the terrorists would not stop their attacks because of the crisis. Officials also maintained that the law has enough safeguards against abuse and law-abiding citizens have no reason to fear.

CNN Philippines' Anjo Alimario contributed to this report.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / August 6, 2020 / Margaret Lake Diamonds Inc. ("MLD" or the "Company") (TSX.V:DIA) (FKT:M85) (OTC:DDIAF) is pleased to announce it has entered into an option agreement dated August 1, 2020 (the "Agreement") to acquire a 100% right, title and interest free of all encumbrances in the Morrison Copper-Gold Deposit (MINFILE 093M007) located 65km North East of Smithers, B.C. (the "Project"). In order exercise its option to acquire an undivided eighty percent right, title and interest in and to the Project (the "80% Interest"), subject to a net smelter returns royalty described below, the Company has agreed to pay cash consideration and issue share consideration to 1240089 B.C. Ltd. and 1258713 B.C. Ltd. (collectively the "Vendors") and incur exploration expenditures ("Exploration Expenditures") on the Project on the following basis:

Cash payments totaling $12,150,000 (the "Cash Payment") under the following schedule:

$150,000 upon execution of the Agreement;

$2,000,000 upon receipt of TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV") acceptance to the Agreement;

$4,000,000 prior to August 1, 2021;

$3,000,000 prior to August 1, 2022;

$3,000,000 prior to August 1, 2023.

The Company has further agreed to issue, subject to TSXV acceptance, 19,000,000 common shares of the Company to the Vendors (the "Consideration Share Payment", and together with the Cash Payment, the "Purchase Price") for the 80% Interest. For greater clarity 9,500,000 shares will be issued to each of 1240089 B.C. Ltd. and 1258713 B.C. Ltd. under the following schedule:

4,000,000 common shares upon receipt of TSXV acceptance of the Agreement;

5,000,000 common shares prior to August 1, 2021;

5,000,000 common shares prior to August 1, 2022;

5,000,000 common shares prior to August 1, 2023;

For greater clarity, the Purchase Price shall be payable in equal portions to each of the Vendors, the Vendors do not intend to act in concert in respect of forming a "Control Person" of the Company and the transaction is an "Arm's length" transaction as defined in the policies of the TSXV.

Exploration Expenditures:

On or before July 1, 2023, the Company shall expend an aggregate amount of $1,050,000 of Expenditures (as defined in the Agreement) in respect of the Project as follows:

$50,000 shall be expended by the Company prior to August 1, 2021;

$500,000 shall be expended by the Company prior to August 1, 2022;

$500,000 shall be expended by the Company prior to August 1, 2023;

Carried Interest:

In the event the Company pays the Vendors the Purchase Price and completes the Exploration Expenditure requirements, it will have acquired the 80% Interest, leaving the Vendors with an undivided 20% carried interest in the Project (the "Carried Interest"). Under the terms of the Agreement, the Company may acquire the Carried Interest from the Vendors for a one time cash payment of $4,000,000, therefore bringing the total interest in the Project after payment of the Purchase Price, incurring Exploration Expenditures of not less than $1,050,000 and acquisition of the 20% Carried Interest to a 100% ownership of the Project.

Net Smelter Return

The Company has agreed to a Net Smelter Return ("NSR") of 2.5% to the Vendors of which 1.5% of the NSR may be bought back from the Vendors for $5,000,000, leaving the Vendor with a 1% NSR.

The Company advises that the Vendors have represented that they own a 100% right, title and interest in and to the Project free and clear of all encumbrances, but are aware that the previous owner has requested that the Gold Commissioner of British Columbia reinstates their previous mining lease covering the Project.

The Agreement is subject to the acceptance of the TSXV and all securities issued under same shall be subject to resale restrictions of not less than four (4) months and one (1) day from their date of issue. All dollar amounts are denominated in Canadian currency.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

Jared Lazerson, Chief Executive Officer and Director

Contact Information:

Jared Lazerson

Chief Executive Officer

jared@margaretlakediamonds.com

Web: www.margaretlakediamonds.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange 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 release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking information or forward-looking statements (collectively "forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information is typically identified by words such as: "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "intend", "estimate", "potentially" 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 is not a guarantee of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking information as a result of various factors. The reader is referred to the Company's public filings for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects which may be accessed through the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

SOURCE: Margaret Lake Diamonds Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/600639/Margaret-Lake-Diamonds-Announces-Option-of-Morrison-Copper-Gold-Project-Located-in-Omineca-Region-of-British-Columbia
August 06 : Sushant Singh Rajputs death case is becoming mysterious by the day. As per the latest development, the Bihar Police will reportedly investigate if the late actors death is connected to the death of his 28-year-old former manager Disha Salian, who died a few days before the actors death.

Times Now has reported some negligence by the police in Disha Salians death case. The channel revealed that the Malvani police did autopsy on Disha Salian after two days of her death. Times Now also reported that Disha Salians death case was not video graphed and no examination of the crime scene was done. Recently, the police requested people via a press note to come forward with any evidences they have with regards to Disha Salian's death case.

Meanwhile, it is reported that the CBI is likely to re-register the FIR that was filed by the Bihar Police against Rhea Chakraborty. Reportedly, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned Rhea for questioning on Friday as it has tracked two major property investments made by the actress in Mumbai. ED has also initiated a money laundering investigation.

Sushant Singh Rajputs case is still being carried out by Mumbai police even after the case was handed over to the CBI on Wednesday. Reportedly, the CBI will first collect all documents from Mumbai and Patna police before they start their investigation into the case.

Latest updates on Sushant Singh Rajput Death Mystery
We believe the quality data collected will be invaluable for organisations to understand what the industry and its people are experiencing as a result of the radical changes caused by COVID-19, asserted ANZIIFs general manager for industry engagement Damian Falkingham.

The poll can be accessed at surveygizmo.com/s3/5739843/Deep-Dive-Research-2020.

Commenting on the collaboration, SURA managing director Angie Zissis said they are pleased to once again support the Dive In Festival, 2020 being the second year that SURA is sponsoring the production of a diversity and inclusion survey.

We see this as an important initiative which adds greatly to the understanding of the industrys people and their daily challenges, noted Zissis. We encourage you to participate in the survey and look forward to sharing the results.

Also happy to be backing the initiative again is Wotton + Kearney, with chief executive partner David Kearney pointing to how Dr Whelans research helps shine a light on the industry-wide inclusion issue.
A three-year-old girl in Vietnams Mekong Delta was hospitalized after accidentally eating rice mixed with rodenticide left out by her grandmother to kill rats in her home.

The toddler was first taken to a hospital in her hometown in Dong Thap Province before being transferred to City Childrens Hospital in the outlying district of Binh Chanh in Ho Chi Minh City.

Doctors gave the patient a gastric lavage and activated charcoal to absorb the toxins.

They also conducted multiple tests to make sure her muscle, heart, liver, kidney, and brain functions were stable.

Thanks to her early hospitalization, the poison was not able to cause any serious damage, though the girl was in panic and spent most of her first days in treatment showing signs of discomfort.

She is now mentally and physically stable, said the doctors who treated her.

According to the girls family, her grandmother had mixed a bowl of rice with rat poison as a trap to kill off rats in their house.

The girl was never meant to have access to the bowl.

Her family members acted quickly to help her vomit the poisoned food before rushing her to the hospital.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
The Overland Park Police Department said that 36-year-old Marilane Carter was last seen leaving her Overland Park, Kansas, home at around 8.15 on August 1

Kansas authorities are searching for a mother-of-three and pastor's wife who went missing while travelling to Alabama to seek mental health help.

The Overland Park Police Department said that 36-year-old Marilane Carter was last seen leaving her Overland Park, Kansas, home at around 8.15 on August 1.

She had been traveling to Birmingham, Alabama, to visit family and to seek help for her mental health. The mother also has family in Fairhope, Alabama.

Police deduced that the mother-of-three last spoke with her family on the phone in the Memphis, Tennessee, area.

Authorities share that Carter, married to Rev. Adam Carter of the Leawood Baptist Church in Kansas, has made concerning statements to her family and has not been heard from since August 2.

Authorities share that Carter, a mother-of-three and married to Rev. Adam Carter of the Leawood Baptist Church in Kansas, has made concerning statements to her family

She had been traveling to Birmingham, Alabama, to seek mental health help

She is said to be driving a gray 2011 GMC Acadia.

Carter is described as being 5'8" and approximately 130lbs. She was last seen wearing green t-shirt and black yoga pants.

A Facebook page called Find Marilane has been created to help keep up to date with tips and information pertaining to her disappearance.

The page shared that the Crittenden County Sheriff's Department is using four-wheelers and drones to to look over the area where Carter's phone last pinged.

They also shared that the Leawood Baptist Church is holding a special prayer gathering on Thursday at 6pm.

It will be held in the parking lot to allow for the practicing of social distancing.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal visited All India Institute of Medical Sciences on Thursday to enquire about the health conditions of a 12-year-old girl, who was allegedly sexually assaulted, and said his government will provide a financial compensation of Rs 10 lakh to her family.

IMAGE: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal leaves after visiting a 12-year-old survivor of rape and assault at AIIMS Hospital, in New Delhi. Photograph: Kamal Singh/PTI Photo

Earlier, in a tweet, the chief minister said the incident has shaken him to the core, adding that such criminals roaming free cannot be tolerated.

Talking to reporters after his visit to the AIIMS, Kejriwal said the condition of the girl is serious, adding that he spoke to Police Commissioner S N Srivastava, who told him that the police are trying to nab the accused.

He said the Aam Aadmi Party government will ensure strict punishment for the accused by engaging the best lawyers in the case.

The girl was also hit with a sharp object on her face and head by the accused at her Paschim Vihar home on Tuesday evening, the police had said.

Kejriwal said the girl has suffered serious internal injuries.

IMAGE: Congress workers stage a protest demanding justice for a 12-year-old girl, who was allegedly sexually assaulted and brutally injured in Peeragarhi area, during Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's visit to AIIMS hospital to meet the survivor's family, in New Delhi. Photograph: Kamal Singh/PTI Photo

"She has undergone a surgery and the doctors are trying their best to save her. It would take around 24-48 hours to assess whether she will be out of danger.

"We hope that she recuperates and gets discharged from the hospital.... The government will provide a Rs 10-lakh compensation to the girl's family," he said.

Earlier in the day, Delhi Commission For Women Chairperson Swati Maliwal visited the girl at AIIMS and accused the police of delay in arresting the accused.

She said the girl's condition is serious and doctors are not sure whether she would survive.

"The girl has multiple head fractures and bite marks all over her body. She has been brutally assaulted to the extent that every body part has injury marks," Maliwal said.

Despite the brutal nature of the assault, two days have passed since the incident and the police have not arrested the accused yet, she pointed out.

"I am summoning the DCP. I am going to ask him about the investigation," Maliwal said.
We are committed to ensuring that clean water is a right, not a privilege.

Quartz Water Source, a company committed to expanding global access to clean water, is launching today. Founded by natives of Flint, Michigan and inspired by the ongoing water crisis, Quartz brings clean water to those who need it most by offering cutting-edge Atmospheric Water Generation (AWG) technology solutions.

Quartz has partnered with Watergen, a global leader in Atmospheric Water Generator technology, to provide plug-and-drink clean water technology, requiring no infrastructure other than electricity, This technology is designed to meet the needs of cities, villages, factories, hospitals, and other areas where water is difficult to access, or current water sources are contaminated, as it generates water at near-industrial scale. As a second line clean water solution, supplementing, not replacing, municipal water supply, AWG technology uses the planets biggest source of water, the air. The technology also allows for fast and easy deployment in most weather conditions, remote areas and difficult to access locations.

We are committed to ensuring that clean water is a right, not a privilege, says Jonathan Quarles, Founder and CEO. As a Flint-native, Ive seen, first-hand, what life without access to clean water looks like. Knowing that one in every three people around the world doesnt have access to clean drinking water inspired me to roll up my sleeves and launch Quartz Water Source.

Quartz will be focusing on municipalities, hospitals, and prisons in the near-term, with potential expansion into other verticals in the future. The technology behind Quartz can also act as a national disaster solution for government entities, agencies and disaster response organizations with an efficient, mobile, and reliable clean water source for the moment disaster strikes.

To further help those without access to clean water, Quartz is committed to donating a portion of proceeds to water-related causes in marginalized communities throughout the U.S.

###

About Quartz Water Source

Quartz Water Source provides cutting-edge atmospheric water generation (AWG) technology through its partnership with Watergen as a means of uplifting and empowering communities around the world. Founded by natives of Flint, Michigan and inspired by the ongoing water crisis, Quartz is committed to ensuring that clean water is a right, not a privilege. The technology solution creates water from air in an energy-efficient, cost effective way. As a second line clean water solution, Quartz meaningfully supplements the municipal drinking water supply at scale.
(Steven Banks Los Angeles Times / Getty)

Youre flying. Youre hungry. You just may be out of luck.

Airlines, which made Scrooge look generous during last decades Great Recession, have reverted to their miserly ways, but this time, the culprit is COVID-19.

Concerned about exposing travelers and flight crew to the vitriolic virus, airlines are limiting  and sometimes eliminating  service.

Heres what various airlines are doing. But before you crush your granola bar in annoyance, we also share some of the unintended consequences the coronavirus has foisted on carriers.

Most of this information pertains to domestic routes because international travel is significantly slimmer than it was this time last year. In fact, many airlines are finding what strength they have in domestic flights. If your airline isnt listed here, consult its website.

Of note to those who fly economy but might want an alcoholic beverage: Thats probably not happening right now. Many airlines have cut out or curtailed alcoholic beverages. And if youre thinking of bring your own stash, remember, it would have to be 3.4 ounces or less to get through security. Even if you get it on board, it is against Federal Aviation Administration regulations to drink your own alcohol.

When youre thinking about snacks to pack to supplement the slim or nonexistent offerings, consider whether your food will pass the sniff test  literally. Were talking about you, durian and Limburger cheese, among other offenders.

Heres the new food- and drinkscape on various airlines.

Alaska Airlines





Flights of less than 350 miles (think Oakland-LAX):

All cabins: BYOD&F  bring your own drink and food. Nothing is served.

Flights of more than 350 miles:

Main cabin: Soft drinks, juice, coffee, tea and bottled water

First class: All of the above plus beer, wine and snack boxes.

American Airlines

Flights of less than 900 miles (think slightly beyond Denver):

Story continues

Main cabin: Beverages (water, canned drinks) by request only; no alcohol or snacks.

First class: You may ask for an alcoholic drink, but not before departure.

Flights of 900 to 2,200 miles (think Orlando, Fla., or Pittsburgh) or less than 4 hours:

Main cabin: Bottled water, pretzels or Biscoff cookies at boarding; no alcohol or food for purchase.

First, business: No drinks before departure; alcohol on request. Biscoff or pretzels; maybe a fruit and cheese plate

Flights of 4 hours or longer or more than 2,200 miles; long-haul flights (think Hawaii or New York City):



Main cabin: Water, canned drinks or juice, plus pretzels or Biscoff. No snacks for sale; forget alcohol (except on international flights)

Business, first class: You can get drinks but not before departure. Besides the same offerings you get in the main cabin, you may get a fruit and cheese plate and a meal.

Unintended coronavirus effect: Nuts that once were served to elite fliers are no longer in demand, the Wall Street Journal reported. GreatNuts.com is selling its excess for $12.95 for 1 pound. Thats about 64 cents a pound  34 cents more per pound than Planters nuts cost on Amazon.

Delta





Flights 350 to 900 miles:

Main cabin: Bottled water. Choice of Cheez-Its or Biscoff.

First: Snack selection and free beer and wine on flights of more than 500 miles (think Salt Lake City).

Flights of more than 900 miles:

Main cabin: Same as above

First class: Snacks and a flight fuel box, plus beer and wine

Southwest

Southwest is not known for its food service. During this period of coronavirus, its serving snacks and bottled water on flights of more than 250 miles. Only one cabin.

United

Flights of less than an hour:

Sealed beverages on all flights; you must request it if the flight is less than an hour.

Flights before 9:45 a.m.

Coffee and tea on domestic and international flights.

Flights longer than two hours, 20 minutes

Main cabin: Snack bag (Stroopwaffel, bag of pretzels) and bottled water

Premium cabins: Snack box (chips, dips, etc.) with bottled water; free alcoholic beverages.

Unintended coronavirus effect: United has donated more than half a million pounds of food from its lounges, clubs and catering kitchens to food banks and charities, a spokesman said.

Singapore Airlines

If it seems odd to include Singapore in this mix, it is. But its worth noting that although Singapore is not doing a lot of flying, it is doing a lot with fresh food.

More than a year ago, Singapore Airlines announced that its aeroponic farm was producing greens for consumption on its long-haul flights. Aeroponics, unlike the better-known hydroponics, has no growing medium; the crops are grown in vertical racks in a former steel mill about five miles from its catering kitchens serving Newark, N.J.

AeroFarms keeps an eye on light, temperature and nutrients and can produce a crop in less than two weeks. The crops require 95% less water and no pesticides, said Marc Oshima, cofounder and chief marketing officer at AeroFarms.

Although it is not currently providing its crops for Singapore, it is still providing produce to stores. The company was able to pivot quickly, Oshima said. It continues to work on developing its product for Singapore but also is offering its products in supermarkets, including Whole Foods.

The company also is providing its fresh foods to organizations serving food deserts in New Jersey.

Have a travel question, problem or dilemma? Write to catharine@catharinehamm.com.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
To the editor:

Whose lives really matter? What about all of the people, children, and police officers, Black and white, who have been shot during these riots by peaceful protesters? Where is the outrage for these deaths? You know the answer to that. It only counts if it is the police who are doing the shooting  justified or not. Because those victims were all saints and were shot just because they were Black. Murder rate is up in New York, Chicago and all major cities over last year. And they want to defund the police departments. Insanity. They also want to enforce wearing masks. So, who is going to enforce wearing masks if there are no police? It will be the Democrats. The Black Lives Matter mob has no idea what they are doing. They are tearing down statues of people who were liberating the Blacks, and destroying cities and government buildings. And the Democrat leadership, Nancy Pelosi, sits idly by and says nothing  I dont care about statues or, our history apparently, people will do what they will do." When are government officials going to take back the country from these mobs and thugs? If any of them agree with defunding the police, they should not be allowed to have their own security  private or public  either. Live by your own rules and see how that works for you. Welcome to Venezuela.

Just consider our wonderful country under the control of Pelosi, Bernie, AOC, Ilhan Omar  are you kidding me  and their ilk. Because they are who will be in charge if poor Joe gets elected. God forbid. Open borders, open jails a tanked economy, abolish the police and the Electoral College. So the fringes  California and New York  would run our world. And forget free speech unless you agree with them. They are already blacklisting companies who stand up for Trump. What country are we living in? Just think about all of the beautiful young people who have died for this country in countless wars to fight fascism. And here we are losing our freedoms.

I cant understand how anyone with even a modicum of intelligence could think of voting Democrat. We live in the best country on earth and should the democrats take over, I am afraid we will not be able to recognize the U.S. Think people, please. President Trump may have some rough edges, but there is no question that he loves this country and its people and is trying to do the best he can under the worst circumstances. He has gotten no help from the Democrats and they have done nothing but obstruct, investigate and fabricate lies since he was elected. I wonder which of the Democrats could withstand the scrutiny he has put up with  not one I would bet. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. All lives matter.

God Bless President Trump and the United States. Dont let them win  we will all suffer.

Nancy Swatek,

Lake Geneva
A security officer wearing a face mask to help protect against the coronavirus gestures outside the Canadian Embassy in Beijing. (AP)

Beijing: A Chinese court sentenced a Canadian national to death on Thursday in a ruling that could further inflame tensions between China and Canada.

The Guangzhou Intermediate Court said in a statement it had handed Xu Weihong the sentence for manufacturing drugs, and all his personal property would be confiscated.

The ruling comes after China sentenced two other Canadians to death on drug trafficking charges last year, as a diplomatic row escalated with Canada over the arrest of top Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.

Canadian pleas for clemency for its citizens Robert Lloyd Schellenberg and Fan Wei have so far not been successful.

Beijing has also detained two Canadian nationals, including a former diplomat, on spying charges, in a move widely considered retaliation for Meng's arrest.

In June, China formally charged that pair -- ex-diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor -- after they were detained in the country in December 2018.
BEIJING Authorities in a city in the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia have quarantined a village after a resident there who had caught an intestinal type of plague died, the health commission of the city said on Thursday.

Cases of plague are not uncommon in China, although outbreaks have become increasingly rare. From 2009 to 2018, China reported 26 cases and 11 deaths.

Baotou city has sealed off the village where the dead patient lived and quarantined the patients close contacts, who have tested negative for the disease so far and taken preventive medicines, the health commission said in a statement on its website.

The city has also put the district where the village is located on the second-lowest alert level on its four-level system for plague response until the end of the year.

The Baotou city health commission said the patient, who died of circulatory system failure, was confirmed to have intestinal-type plague", referring to a category diagnosed from symptoms including diarrhoea, severe abdominal pain and high fever, according to guidelines issued by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

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
The families of the Stardust victims say they are "elated" at the news that inquests into the deaths of 48 people in the nightclub fire almost 40 years ago are to finally begin early next year.

The venue will be Dublin Castle where some preliminary hearings are expected to be held in the coming months in preparation for the full sittings in 2021.

Senior coroner for Dublin, Dr Myra Cullinane, will be in charge of the proceedings, which will be held in public although the likelihood that precautions will still have to be taken because of Covid-19 means attendances will be restricted.

Families of the victims last night welcomed the news. Among them was Antoinette Keegan, whose sisters Mary and Martina died in the blaze.

She said the family was "elated" that the inquests will finally go ahead.

Her 84-year-old mother Christine, who was a long time campaigner for justice for the Stardust victims, died just last month on July 14.

Antoinette Keegan paid an emotional tribute to her last night.

"It is after coming three weeks after my Mam passed away. We know that my Mam's up there. We all feel that she had a push on this. She has done it from heaven with my Da," she said.

"They never gave up the fight for justice. We feel that when she passed away, she was going to help us down here.

"The whole family now has a great input into it. They are not going to let it go."

She said her family down to the grandchildren will keep fighting for justice.

"It is my Mam and Da's 60th anniversary on August 27, so she will celebrate that with my Da up in heaven. She was so determined.

"We all promised 'we won't let you down.'"

Maurice Frazer whose sister Thelma also lost her life in the tragedy, said: "At long last some movement on the inquests of my sister Thelma, her boyfriend Michael and 46 others.

"Hopefully some of my late Dad's questions will be at the very least acknowledged," he wrote on social media.

A dedicated website developed by the Dublin Coroner's Office with information on the inquests has gone live at www.stardustfireinquests.ie

Senator Lynn Boylan, who has worked with the families to campaign for the inquests, welcomed the confirmation that arrangements were being finalised after fears that lockdown restrictions would delay proceedings.

"I am also pleased to see that Dublin Castle has been confirmed as the location for the inquest," she said.

"The Stardust inquest will be the largest inquest in the history of the State and the families of those who died wanted a location that would be accessible and appropriate for such a significant undertaking."

The Stardust fire happened during a Valentine's Night disco in the Artane premises in 1981. As well as the 48 people who died, more than 200 were injured.

Brief inquests were held into the deaths at the time but were mainly concerned with establishing the medical cause of death of the victims.

Coroners' courts have powers to investigate the wider circumstances that lead to deaths.

The families of the Stardust victims have for years asked for these powers to be utilised. Their campaign was boosted by the Hillsborough families in the UK succeeding in their battle to have fresh inquests.
The Pixel 4 and 4 XL will soon be hard to come by. A Google spokesperson told The Verge that the Google Store has "sold through its inventory" and "completed sales of Pixel 4 [and] Pixel 4 XL." At the time of writing, though, it's still possible to buy the regular Pixel 4 from Google's Store, provided you're willing to use the company's Fi network. That option, however, will presumably vanish in the very near future. It also sounds like both phones will be disappearing from store shelves elsewhere. "For people who are still interested in buying Pixel 4 [and] 4 XL, the product is available from some partners while supplies last, the spokesperson added.

As The Verge reports, that means the Pixel 4 and 4 XL are technically discontinued. The timing of the phase-out is a little unclear, though. Various Pixel 4 and 4 XL models are still being sold through the Google Store in other markets such as the UK and Spain. Others, like France, have discontinued all models already. Still, the message is clear: Google is done selling both devices. It's a surprising and sudden end to the fourth-generation flagship, which tried to innovate with features like Soli. Both models were introduced less than a year ago and their successor -- the announced but yet-to-be-revealed Pixel 5 -- isn't ready to be sold just yet. For now, Google's smartphone lineup starts and stops with the Pixel 4a.
CHICAGO  A coalition of 19 attorneys general is calling on Facebook to take additional steps to prevent the popular social media website from being used to spread hate and disinformation.

The coalition, led by Attorney General Kwame Raoul, along with New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal and District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine, also urged Facebook to provide stronger support for users who fall victim to online intimidation and harassment on its platforms.

As one of the most visited websites in the world, Facebook has a duty to ensure its platform is not used to spread hate and false information, Raoul said. Facebook should take the necessary steps to protect its users and stop hate groups from using its platform to recruit new members and intimidate others.

In a letter to Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg and Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, Raoul and the attorneys general assert that despite its stated commitment to working to keep its user community safe, Facebook has fallen short in keeping hate content off its platforms and protecting users from online harassment.

The letter follows the release of a Civil Rights Audit of Facebooks practices  commissioned by the company and completed last month  that faults Facebook for refusing to enforce its own policies against dangerous organizations and individuals, including white supremacists and other extremists.

Recent surveys suggest more than 40% of Americans have experienced some form of online harassment. Of those victims, more than 75% have reported being harassed on Facebook.

The letter urges Facebook to implement several reforms recommended in the Civil Rights Audit to strengthen its commitment to civil rights and fighting disinformation and discrimination. It further recommends steps designed to improve Facebooks supportive services for victims.

Much of the harassment reported by Facebook users focuses on characteristics protected by civil rights laws. Such harassment includes conduct, like, cyberstalking, maliciously publishing someones personal information and filing false police reports to prompt law enforcement response targeting the victim.

Raoul and the coalition acknowledged that Facebook has taken some action to address violations of its terms of service, but note that many Facebook users continue to find the redress process slow, frustrating, and ineffective.

The reforms recommended in the letter, many of which are highlighted in the recent Civil Rights Audit, include calls for Facebook to:

 aggressively enforce its policies against hate speech and organized hate organizations;

 allow public, third-party audits of hate content and enforcement;

 commit to an ongoing, independent analysis of Facebooks content population scheme and the prompt development of best practices guidance;

 expand policies limiting inflammatory advertisements that vilify minority groups;

 offer live real-time assistance to victims of intimidation and harassment;

 make information about unlawful harassment and intimidation more readily available; and

 strengthen filtering, reporting and blocking tools.

Joining Raoul in sending the letter are the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont and Wisconsin.
An instructor wears a face mask while directing a new hire on how to drive a delivery van at the U.S. Postal Service distribution facility, Friday, May 22, 2020, in east Denver. Read more

When, in 1914, the designers of the New York General Post Office inscribed in stone the words that became the United States Postal Services motto  Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds  they clearly didnt envision the presidency of Donald Trump.

For months, President Trump has been relentlessly attempting to delegitimize and discourage vote-by-mail  a critical tool for election participation in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic that requires social distancing. Trump has been spreading unsupported conspiracy theories that allege that vote-by-mail will lead to a rigged election, despite no evidence of widespread voter fraud associated with vote-by-mail.

The vote-by-mail drama is the just most recent chapter in a history of Trump and Conservatives belittling and marginalizing the postal service as part of a push to privatize the service. Trump recently called it a joke.  But the USPS is no joke. It wasnt when it was enshrined by the framers of the Constitution, and it isnt today, certainly not among citizens who rank it high in popularity  and even higher in necessity.

Thats not to say the agency isnt in real peril. A recent report from the Government Accountability Office referenced its deteriorating financial condition, with the service registering billions of losses over the past decade; $3.9 billion in 2018 alone. In May, the USPS board of governors  all Trump appointees  selected Louis DeJoy, a top GOP and Trump campaign donor, as Postmaster General. DeJoy prohibited overtime and other measures that are used to deliver mail on time and instructed workers to leave mail behind  elevating the crisis and delaying the mail, sometimes for weeks.

Mail delays could prove detrimental for voting in the General Election. A gutted Postal Service will disenfranchise voters and could unnecessarily crowd polling locations, putting voters and elected officials at risk on Election Day. But voting is just one of many basic rights that are facilitated through mail.

 READ MORE: Mail delays are frustrating Philly residents, and a short-staffed Postal Service is struggling to keep up

In the era of iPhones, email, and Tik Tok, snail mail might seem quaint. However, physical mail still plays a critical function in peoples lives  and particularly in peoples interaction with the government.

 READ MORE: Totally blindsided: Tenants and attorneys say evictions come as a surprise | Editorial

Following an Inquirer report about the impact of mail delays on Philadelphians, members of Congress representing the city, election officials, and local leaders of postal unions met on Wednesday to advocate for funding. The issues of USPS funding is among the sticking points in the negotiations in Congress about the next round of coronavirus relief. The Democratic proposal includes $25 billion to help USPS, while the Republican plan includes no such assistance.

A reliable Postal Service is always critical for a functioning society and democracy, but it is that much more important during a pandemic that forces social distancing. Trumps attack on USPS, abided by Republicans in Congress, is an attack on many aspects of American life  to say nothing of basic human and constitutional rights. For centuries the postal service survived the elements. Now it needs assistance to survive this administration.
By David Shepardson and Eric M. Johnson

WASHINGTON/SEATTLE (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday said it was proposing to fine Boeing Co <BA.N> $1.25 million after the agency alleged Boeing managers at its South Carolina plant exerted undue pressure on workers who handle safety oversight work on behalf of the agency.

The FAA said Boeing managers pressured workers to perform inspections on an aircraft that was not eligible for inspection because of various issues; harassed people to make them perform inspections more quickly; threatened to replace workers; and retaliated against a unit manger for filing an undue pressure report by declining to interview the "highly qualified manager for a promotional position.

The long-standing practice of delegating some FAA tasks to airplane manufacturers has come under criticism after two fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes raised questions about the program. The FAA in two civil penalty notices alleged Boeing failed to ensure administrators were in a position to effectively represent the FAAs interests and that some Boeing managers "exerted undue pressure or interfered" with people performing FAA tasks.

Boeing said the proposed fines "are a clear and strong reminder of our obligations" under the Organization Designation Authorization program, or ODA. "Undue pressure of any type is inconsistent with our values and will not be tolerated," the company said.

Boeing employees tasked with handling certification work on behalf of the FAA - so-called ODA unit members - at Boeing's South Carolina factory were subjected to undue pressure or interference from at least four Boeing managers between September 2018 and May 2019.

The FAA said the pressure came from executives including the factorys vice president of 787 operations, a senior quality manager and the director of jet deliveries, according to a 5-page letter from the FAAs enforcement division in Washington state to Boeing veteran Beth Pasztor, an executive in charge of Product and Services Safety.

The FAA also said Boeing, from roughly November 2017 through July 2019, implemented an organizational structure that did not conform to ODA procedures, with managers in unapproved roles.

Story continues

The letter says the FAA will take no further action for 30 days to allow Boeing to pay the fines or furnish additional information.

Boeing said in both instances "allegations were appropriately reported, investigated, and disclosed to the FAA" and added it took "corrective action in response."

A 2016 Boeing survey released by a congressional panel found nearly 40% of 523 employees handling safety-certification work perceived "potential undue pressure" from managers, such as bullying or coercion.

Evidence of undue pressure was also pinpointed by a group of international regulators reviewing the 737 Max certification.

(Reporting by David Shepardson and Eric M. Johnson; editing by Diane Craft)
A Scio woman has been accused of stealing at least $281,000 from a Harrisburg business owner.

Amber Wulff, 42, was indicted by a grand jury on eight counts of aggravated first-degree theft and one count each of laundering a monetary instrument, first-degree theft and identity theft. She is scheduled to be arraigned in Linn County Circuit Court on Aug. 17, according to Oregons online court database.

The crimes were allegedly committed between 2016 and May of this year, according to the charging document.

The accuser listed on court paperwork is Steven Carothers, who has owned RELCO Truss in Harrisburg since 1984. Carothers son is in the process of taking over the business, which provides wooden roof truss packages for commercial, agricultural and residential customers. Carothers declined comment about the case.

Wulff was arrested by the Linn County Sheriffs Office in connection with the case on July 13, but later that day she paid 10 percent of her $100,000 bail and was released from the Linn County Jail, according to court paperwork.

She declined to comment on the matter, but her attorney Mark C. Cogan made a brief statement when contacted by a reporter on Wednesday.

Like anybody accused of a crime, Ms. Wulff is presumed innocent and she has not been convicted of anything yet, Cogan said.

We would ask that people not rush to judgment prematurely. When a grand jury indicts someone for a crime, they do not hear both sides, he added.

In 2010, Wulff was convicted of financial crimes in Wallowa County Circuit Court.

She pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree theft and two counts of first-degree forgery, according to Oregons online court database. The victim in that case was the Enterprise Education Board.

In an apology letter, Wulff said she wrote checks to herself and forged signatures to deposit money into her personal account, taking money from donors seeking to support the Enterprise School District, its programs and students.

In a separate case, she pleaded guilty to three counts of misapplication of entrusted property. The victim in that case was the Wallowa Valley Little League Association. In an apology letter, Wulff said she wrote checks from the leagues concession stand to herself and to others for her own benefit, reported funds that didnt exist, pocketed proceeds from a baseball tournament and neglected to turn over bookwork for years that she served on the board of the organization.

Kyle Odegard can be contacted at 541-812-6077 or kyle.odegard@lee.net.

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After months of uncertainty, parents and caregivers in Ontario now know their children will return to school full-time in the fall, but many questions remain.

Queens Park reporter Kristin Rushowy, who has covered COVID-19s impact on Ontarios education system, including details on what a return could look like, what Sick Kids experts say about the return to school, and the concerns from some parents and educators, joined Star readers for a live chat on Monday to answer some questions.

Shell also be on of Mondays This Matters podcast talking about everything you need to know before the kids head back to school. Check it out here, or listen to the embed below.

Read our full Q&A below:

Question from Lisa: How can kindergarten teachers keep 30 students apart and who is going to constantly disinfect everything they touch?

A: Last week, the premier spoke about keeping kindergarten kids in cohorts of 15 within the classroom (given most kindergarten classes have a teacher and an early childhood educator, or ECE). But that was the first Id heard of that, and not sure how it would work, and it still means 30 kids in the same room. Some toys etc. (especially cloth) will have to be removed, other items not shared (and really not sure how that will work ...).

Boards are looking at frequent cleaning throughout the day. But the play-based nature of the kindergarten program means the kids arent sitting at desks all day and poses some unique challenges.

Question from Colleen: The only question I really have is how can there be rules for limited capacity in other places but not schools and classrooms.

A: The province has set class sizes for high schools in large urban areas  at 15, and students will be in class part-time and at home the rest. Otherwise, class sizes are as is. The government has said it has small class sizes and schools should be able to manage those with physical distancing, but teachers and parents are raising concerns about this for sure.

Question from Meagan: If we choose the remote learning option will we have the ability to rejoin our home class in face-to-face learning throughout the year? If so, will we be given specific times that we can merge? (TDSB board).

A: You will have the choice to switch, but boards have warned that if families choose remote, their kids may be wait-listed to return to in-class if the classes are full. For high schoolers, switches can be done between quadmesters.

Question from Selena: Occasional teachers will be in high demand as teachers will need to take additional days when they have symptoms and are waiting for test results. How are they going to limit transmission across larger regions if supply teachers move from school to school and board to board?

A: That is an issue that is being asked about now, with some speculating that supply teachers might have to be limited to certain schools. etc. Its also an issue for itinerant teachers (music, etc.) who travel from school to school. Those classes could be held virtually?

Like we saw with personal support workers in long-term-care homes, its not ideal to have people moving between locations.

Question from Account: Do you feel the plans currently in place for elementary students, in particular, those in JK are enough to keep them safe?

A: Parents were relieved to see school resuming full-time, and the requirement of masks for students, starting in Grade 4 (Ontario is the only jurisdiction to mandate masks all day for kids). That said, the teacher and staff unions prefer all students to be wearing masks. And the other major concern is class size  especially in kindergarten (where there can be 30 kids plus two adults in a room) and also Grades 4-8, where class average 24 to 25 students, but can be much bigger. Physical distancing will be difficult. The report out of Sick Kids called smaller classes critical to any school start up. While they didnt specify a size, they did talk about 10 to 15 students, but said would depend on the size of the classroom. I think thats where you are seeing most of the worry from teachers, and parents. Is there enough space to keep kids one to two metres apart if there are 30 of them in a room? For many classrooms, I dont think thats possible.

Question from JJ: My husband works in health care. If there is an outbreak in my childs school does he have to isolated? How about his patients? Do they need to be notified?

A: Boards are working out protocols right now. Kids who are in the same cohort or who have had close contact with a classmate who is confirmed to have COVID will have to isolate. Whether whole classes have to quarantine would depend on the situation, and experts have said entire school shutdowns should be avoided. But if your husband is in health care, he should be guided by whatever rules are in place there.

Question from Anne: What is the protocol for a teacher/student feeling ill (COVID-19 or not)? How will re-entry work when a student/teacher feels ill?

A: The advice right now is for any student or staff to self-screen and not come to school if they feel ill. And there is expected to be additional screening once they get to school. Re-entry will differ if COVID or not.

Question from Marilena: Many classrooms in Ontario are simply not air-conditioned and are stiflingly hot especially through September and a good part of October? Will the government and school boards address the poor ventilation? Even pre-COVID-19 days it has always been very challenging for students to learn in that environment but after COVID with poor ventilation and having to wear masks 5 to 6 hours a day it will be close to impossible?

A: Proper ventilation has been identified as one of the key things schools need to help limit the spread of covid. In older schools, the ventilation can be poor, and opening windows isnt always an option as some dont allow that, or have limiters that only allow them to be opened a small amount. The Toronto board has said it cant  financially or timewise  improve ventilation in all schools, it would take months to get that work tendered and completed and would cost about $750,000 to $1 million per school. The situation will depend on the school  I heard from a colleague today who noted that classrooms in his childrens elementary school, each one has a door outside. So those could be opened and help with air flow.

Question from Murray: Pre-pandemic, students would congregate in the groups of 50 and above around fast food establishments, strip malls, and indoor malls during their lunch break and after school. Free of the rules of school and home, the raucous behaviour meant many establishments had to employ security guards. Opening the schools, particularly middle and high school, will see a return to these gatherings with kids preferring the freedom to socialize unencumbered instead of going directly home to online instruction. The province and the school boards are addressing in school, bussing, and online, protocols but no one is addressing the trek to and from school. These gatherings will be a public health nightmare with masks and social distancing the last thought: Why is no one talking about this?

A: Kids behaviour outside of school isnt something the schools have much, if any, control over. But there may be solutions such as staggered entry or exit times, which boards have talked about. There will also be synchronous learning for teens  specific times they have to log online and be present for class  so they will have a place to be, and not just hanging around. That said, its something I worry about with my own teens. They are longing to see all their friends again and I am sure will be gathering once the bell rings.

Question from LV: I havent seen any specifics about what 100% remote learning will look like for high school students if they choose not to return to in person learning.

A: The province is requiring that any remote learning  full-time or part-time  have a synchronous aspect to it. Live video conferencing, Google hangouts, etc. Parents have to let boards know starting this week whether they will send their children to school or intend for them to learn at home.

Question from Fran: We are very angry about the lack of a cohesive plan that addresses the health recommendations put out by Sick Kids and other leading experts in epidemiology. We feel like our children are to be used as guinea pigs because the Ford government doesnt want to take responsibility for a disastrous out break or spend the money needed to keep our kids, their teachers and all school staff safe.

1. Will Doug Ford take the blame when children, teachers and others get sick and perhaps die, which is likely to happen with no adjustment to class sizes to allow for social distancing or adequate ventilation in classrooms where ventilation is notoriously poor.

2. Why are the various school boards not standing up to Ford and refusing to open unless safety measures are funded and in place?

A: Boards, parents and unions have called on the government to provide additional funding for staff, to decrease class sizes, for example. There is a petition as well that is gaining a lot of traction. The premier and education minister have both said they will be flexible, suggesting more funding could be on the way.

Question from Maaja: How will school libraries be used in the fall? As a teacher, I know that libraries are the catch-all space for meetings, clubs, book exchange, visiting nurses, and all kinds of special events. Librarians often teach every primary student in a school while the classroom teacher is marking and preparing lessons. Will libraries be turned into classrooms? Will books be borrowed and shelved and, if so, by whom? (Teacher librarians are busy teaching a full schedule so, normally, books are shelved by students and parent volunteers during lunch/recess breaks.) Would this be desirable while we are trying to prevent school outbreaks of COVID-19?

A: The return to school is not a return to normal. Visitors to schools will be limited (or even prohibited) as a safety measure. Things like book exchanges  any extracurricular activities  will only be allowed if physical distancing can be maintained. Libraries are also being looked at as extra space for schools if they need it to ensure smaller classes.

Question from Richard: 1. If we chose the remote option, does our home school keep the per student government funding or does this money go elsewhere within the board (eg. a remote school department?) 2. There has been almost no attention paid to middle schools. They are Grade 7 or 8 so treated by the government and boards as elementary, meaning they will be full classes and full days and are supposed to be one cohort with one teacher. But middle schools follow a high school-like timetable, with kids moving from class to class with different teachers for different subjects. Wouldnt it make more sense to put middle schools on the quadmester system? Im hearing that middle school teachers used to teaching one subject will now be required to teach almost all the subjects?

A: The funding is allocated by the school boards, and it will be used for both in-class and remote learning. (Im wondering if you are worried that a school will lose funding if a student is remote?). Also, the quadmester system will be in place in high schools, for all students. For middle schools, may be trickier. I am not aware any boards considering it for middle schools (but if anyone does know, please chime in!)

Question from Alison: Why was it not considered to wait until January 2021 to start back to elementary classes and this would enable all concerned to track the virus throughout the winter months when classes were usually filled with many students with the common cold, coughs, and influenza. Adding in the spread of the coronavirus just makes it even more difficult to control any outbreaks. Class size for elementary students is an absolute necessity to protect students and teachers. More serious thought and action has to be considered for our elementary schools  already mostly very crowded, no air circulation, and no means to socially distance.

A: The thing is, experts have urged that schools to reopen fully this fall because of the toll it is taking on kids  on their learning, on their development and their mental health. Also, as the economy reopens, school reopening is critical for working parents. Thats why you saw the push for full-time return from many corners. And it has been done in other jurisdictions.

That said  there have definitely been calls for the start-up to be phased in, especially now that the province is in Stage 3 (with just Windsor-Essex, although it was announced today that it will soon join the rest of Ontario.) The argument is that schools are starting up just as everything else does, and there could be a resurgence.

Question from Lisa: Why are we sending students out for recess to infect each other?

A: With regards to recess  in general, outdoor time is encouraged, given transmission rates are thought to be lower compared to indoors. Thats why youve seen discussion about moving classes outdoors, weather permitting.

Question from Pamela: What about grade 4 to 8 core french teachers who move from class to class, and often teach in multiple schools, how will that be managed? And prep time teachers who teach in kindergarten to grade 3 classes (No masks) and also teach in grade 4-8 classes?

A: Right now, its the teachers who will move from class to class, not students. The federal government recently put out guidelines that recommend not only masks but also face shields for teachers. My colleague Tess Kalinowski wrote about it on the weekend.

Question from Selena: What does the government mean when they say the elementary students will be in groups of no more than 50 and secondary students in groups of no more than 100. Is that a physical bubble or is that theoretical bubble including students who they might not be in direct contact with? What PPE will educators be provided with. So far there are no specific details? Finally, for teachers to interact with students, desks will need to be spaced approximately two and a half metres away from each other to allow teachers to walk in the middle so that they can have closer proximity to individual students. Presently, most class sizes will not accommodate the spacing with a full student roster.

A: That is the number of contacts ... not cohorts or groupings. Kids are expected to cohort within their class.

Also, masks are essential. (And the federal government is also urging face shields, though no provinces have really talked about that as yet.)

If you look at photos from other countries and jurisdictions where kids have returned with physical distancing, class sizes are small (15 or fewer). Not classes of 25 or 30. For high schools in urban boards, class sizes have been set at 15 to ensure physical distancing of two metres. (The Sick Kids report said one metre in elementary schools, but that would still require smaller class sizes.)

Question from Danielle: Will private schools be following the same health guidelines as public schools, such as mask wearing?

A: They are urged to (and I am assuming they would, parents would demand it.) But the province cant mandate.

Question from Alyson: If children are to remain with one teacher all day, how is Prep Time to be delivered? Prep Teachers move between many classes daily. How does this effect contact tracing?

A: The Toronto board has proposed prep time for all teachers at the end of the day. Thats one solution.

Question from John: With the Ontario Conservative Government refusing to fully implement all of the safety recommendations for Ontarios safe return to school, how likely is a province-wide, all union (ETFO, OECTA, OSSTF, AEFO, CUPE, et. al.) work refusal from Ontarios Education workers? Do you foresee legal action?

A: Unions have said they want a safe return to school. And when the Toronto Catholic board voted for a return to normal class sizes, certainly the union talked about the possibility of legal avenues, including grievances.

In the states, there are court challenges, or unions approving strikes if safety measures arent boosted.

Kristin Rushowy is a Toronto-based reporter covering Ontario politics for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @krushowy

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WASHINGTON, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In America's fragile communities, residents face numerous barriers to opportunity that hinder their ability to lead fulfilling and prosperous lives. Today the Center for Advancing Opportunity and Gallup released their third study on the lived experiences of residents of these communities -- geographic areas with concentrated poverty and limited access to educational and economic opportunities.

The study was conducted at the national and local level in the 11 largest urban areas in the US  Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, DC metropolitan area, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco  and Appalachia.

Among key findings from the State of Opportunity in America, 2020 report:

60% of Black fragile community residents know "some" or "a lot" of people who were treated unfairly by the police, while 49% said they know some or a lot who were unfairly sent to jail.

52% of Black fragile community residents and 59% of Hispanic fragile community residents would like the police to spend more time in their area, compared with 46% of White fragile community residents. In urban fragile communities, 53% of residents would like to see a greater police presence, compared with 41% of rural fragile community residents.

While almost half of Americans overall (47%) said in 2019 they were "living comfortably" on their current income, just one in five (20%) among fragile community residents responded this way.

28% of fragile community residents "strongly agree" or "agree" all people in their area have access to an affordable college education. This contrasts with views on the importance of a college education today, particularly among minority groups: 89% of Hispanic fragile community residents, 87% of Black fragile community residents and 68% of White fragile community residents say it is very important or important.

58% of fragile community residents said they were satisfied with the availability of quality healthcare in their area, vs. 74% of Americans overall.

Criminal justice

At the time of the survey, just under one-fourth (24%) of Black fragile community residents said they were "very confident" local police would treat them with courtesy and respect, compared with one-third (33%) of Hispanic residents and almost half (47%) of White residents.

This disparity is magnified in the treatment fragile community residents have witnessed. Sixty percent of Black fragile community residents said they knew "some" or "a lot" of people who were treated unfairly by the police, compared with 31% of White residents and 39% of Hispanic residents in fragile communities. Further, close to half of Black fragile community residents (49%) said they know "some" or "a lot" of people who were unfairly sent to jail, compared with less than a quarter of White (19%) or Hispanic (23%) residents.

Despite these negative experiences, a majority of Black and Hispanic fragile community residents would like the police to spend more time in their area  52% and 59%, respectively. In urban areas, 53% of fragile community residents would like to see an increased police presence. Meanwhile, 46% of White fragile community residents and 41% of rural fragile community residents would like to see the same.

Economic status and opportunity

While almost half of Americans overall (47%) said in 2019 they were "living comfortably" on their current income, just one in five (20%) of fragile community residents responded this way, with 35% saying they were finding it "difficult" or "very difficult" to live on their current income.

When asked what barriers to opportunity exist in their lives, fragile community residents most commonly identified a lack of enough jobs that offer career advancement (39%) and drug or alcohol addiction (35%). However, these results differed by city and region.

Education

Fragile community residents widely agree a college education is important today, especially Black and Hispanic residents. Fully 89% of Hispanic residents and 87% of Black residents say a college education is very important or important today, compared with 68% of White fragile community residents who say the same.

Still, the importance fragile community residents place on higher education is met by dissatisfaction with access -- 28% of residents said they "strongly agree" or "agree" that all people in their area have access to an affordable college education if they want it.

Similarly, just 40% of fragile community residents were "extremely satisfied" or "satisfied" with the quality of K-12 schools in their area.

Mindset

Seventy percent of fragile community residents overall said they are "very confident" or "confident" they can improve their own lives, with Black (75%) and Hispanic (72%) residents somewhat more likely than White (65%) residents to feel this way.

Among the demographic and attitudinal factors that best predicted fragile community residents' confidence in their ability to improve their own lives, self-reported health status was the most important.

"This latest update provides a powerful set of tools for anyone interested in uplifting the residents of America's fragile communities," said Dr. Harry L. Williams, president and CEO of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, one of the key partner organizations in the Center for Advancing Opportunity.

"The lives of residents of America's fragile communities are critical to understand at this time, but they are not understood well enough," said Camille Lloyd, director of Gallup's Center on Black Voices. "The third year of our research on fragile communities with the Center for Advancing Opportunity reveals new opportunities as well as persistent ones that demand attention from leaders."

To learn more about the findings and the methodology of this project, read the full report here. To explore the data further, including the local results, visit the Opportunity Dashboard. To listen to a webinar discussing the report findings, register here.

This study was conducted with support from Koch Industries (KII) and the Charles Koch Foundation (CKF), an organization that partners with other nonprofits and educational institutions that seeks to remove barriers to opportunity that prevent Americans from reaching their full potential. KII and CKF have been proud partners of CAO since 2017.

About the Center for Advancing Opportunity

The Center for Advancing Opportunity (CAO) is a research and education initiative affiliated with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. CAO supports students and faculty at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and other institutions in developing research-based solutions to the most pressing issues in fragile communities: education, entrepreneurship, criminal justice and overall economic conditions.

About Gallup

Gallup delivers analytics and advice to help leaders and organizations solve their most pressing problems. Combining more than 80 years of experience with its global reach, Gallup knows more about the attitudes and behaviors of employees, customers, students and citizens than any other organization in the world.

MEDIA CONTACTS

Gallup

Riley Brands

[email protected]

202-715-3106

Thurgood Marshall College Fund/Center for Advancing Opportunity

Jamal Watson

[email protected]

202-888-0039

SOURCE Gallup, Inc.

Related Links

https://www.gallup.com


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The West Champaran districts officials in Bihar said that the Nepal government has started construction of a helipad at a disputed location on the Indo-Nepal border near Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR) in West Champaran district.

At the same time, Indian officials in Rudraprayag district of Uttarakhand objected to Nepal authorities installing 360 degree CCTV cameras in no-mans land between the borders of the country countries.

The discontent, simmering on the border, has been growing since Nepal decided to include certain parts of Uttarakhand in its new map inviting strong objections from India with New Delhi dismissing Kathmandus fresh territorial claims as untenable and without any historical evidence.

To the best of our knowledge, construction of the helipad meant for small choppers started a few days back on the disputed area, said Commandant Rajendra Bhardwaj of 21st SSB Battalion.

Also Read: Nepal starts construction of helipad on disputed border area in Bihar

The helipad is near completion at Narsahi village, a short distance from Thari border outpost of Sashatra Seema Bal (SSB) near VTR, 80 km from Bettiah, headquarters of West Champaran district, he said, adding that he would send a report to the headquarters soon.

In the western part of India-Nepal border in Uttarakhands Champawat district, the authorities on Thursday raised objection to the installation of omni-directional CCTV cameras by Nepalese personnel near the disputed land and asked Nepal officials to remove them, said Indian officials aware of the development.

District magistrate Champawat, Surendra Narayan Pandey, who attended the meet with Nepal officials on Tuesday, said, The Nepalese side had installed CCTV cameras a few days ago at the border. When the meeting was held, the SSB from our side raised the issue before Nepal since omni-directional CCTV cameras pose an obvious risk of monitoring of Indian security agencies.

Also Read: China became more aggressive during Covid-19; deployed troops along LAC: US defence chief

The Nepalese authorities reasoned that the cameras were meant to keep an eye on activities on their side of the border but we asked them to replace the 360 degrees cameras with uni-directional CCTV cameras, placed away from the Indian side of the border. They said they will consider the request, said Pandey.

RK Tripathi, SSB Commandant near the Indo-Nepal border confirmed the development and said, We raised several issues in the meeting but didnt get any assurance from their side. They just said that they will try to solve them by dialogues.

The informal meeting was attended by district magistrate of Champawat, superintendent of police (SP), Champawat and commandant of Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) from the Indian side. The Nepalese side comprised chief district officer (equivalent to DM in India) of Kanchanpur district adjoining the border in Nepal, SP Kanchanpur and SP Armed Police Force (SSBs counterpart).

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Linkedin Ardila Syakriah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, August 6, 2020 19:48 530 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c21449 1 National #COVID19,COVID-19,pandemic,#pandemic,vaccines,#vaccines Free

The possible development of a vaccine has brought as much hope to Indonesia as it has to any other country battered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said in late July that he expected that next year the Indonesian economy would be able to recover and that a vaccine would be discovered and mass vaccination for "all the people in the country" would be rolled out.

Indonesia saw its GDP contract 5.32 percent in the second quarter of this year, the worst contraction since the 1998 Asian financial crisis, and unemployment haunts around 10 million people.

COVID-19 cases and deaths, meanwhile, continue to soar. The government reported 1,882 new cases and 69 new deaths on Thursday, pushing the national tally to 118,753 confirmed cases -- including 43,108 active cases -- and 5,521 fatalities.

Government officials have nevertheless echoed Jokowi's sentiment. State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Erick Thohir, who also helms the national economic and COVID-19 recovery committee, has claimed that state pharmaceutical holding company Bio Farma is ready to produce 250 million doses of a vaccine, although no vaccine has yet been approved for commercial use.

Experts firmly believe that vaccines will be effective in arming the people to better fight the coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 disease, and thus help to contain the pandemic sooner, as they have done with many other diseases.

However, many also believe that vaccines should not be seen as the only way out and that trials under way might fail. Even if they do succeed, experts say that the vaccines' efficacy may vary and immunity developed by vaccines may not last forever, while it might also take some time to leverage the vaccination drive in Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago of some 271 million people.

"We're working hard on developing the Merah Putih vaccine, but we hope all layers of society won't expect too much -- thinking that we already have the vaccines so we can loosen [health protocols] and that all the problem will end with a vaccine," said Amin Soebandrio from the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology.

Indonesia's Merah Putih candidate vaccine, named after the colors of the national flag, has yet to enter the pre-clinical phase and is not expected for mass production by Bio Farma until 2022.

Read also: What you need to know about Indonesia's vaccine development

Amin said that even with vaccines ready for public use, it did not mean the "virus would be gone" because the process to build immunity among those vaccinated, who in turn will protect those yet to be or not vaccinated, would be gradual rather than instant.

"We want to achieve the so-called true herd immunity, which is developed through vaccination," he said. "Indonesia has a large population. If [the threshold of vaccination coverage was to reach] 70 percent, then we'd have to vaccinate some [189] million people; and we couldn't possibly get to everyone in a week or two."

Achieving herd immunity would not only protect those vaccinated, but also immunocompromised individuals and those not yet vaccinated, hence preventing outbreaks.

Bio Farma's research and development project integration manager Neni Nurainy said that how far vaccines could protect the people would depend on their eventual efficacy, and whether people could possibly go back to their normal pre-pandemic life would also depend on the vaccination coverage to achieve the desired herd immunity.

According to the World Health Organization, no vaccine is 100 percent effective -- most routine childhood vaccines are effective for 85 to 95 percent of recipients and not all vaccinated persons develop immunity for a variety of individual reasons.

In another vaccine-making scheme, Bio Farma has partnered with China's Sinovac Biotech to roll out the last phase of clinical trials on humans for Sinovac's potential vaccine, and if it proves effective, it expects to produce 40 million doses in the first stage.

"In order for people to remain productive, people in the seven hardest-hit regions will be vaccinated first; Jakarta, Surabaya, Semarang, Yogyakarta, Bandung; big cities where the case numbers are high. So not all provinces will be given [the vaccine at first]," clinical trial research team leader and Padjadjaran University professor Kusnandi Rusmil said.

Read also: Wanted: Volunteers for first human trial of COVID-19 vaccine in Indonesia

The high hopes for vaccines are justified, epidemiologist at Airlangga University Laura Navika Yamani said, but there was always the possibility of candidate vaccines failing, such as with HIV, or not working as well as expected.

A working vaccine, she said, typically also needed further studies to find out whether the antibodies formed would remain strong enough or wane as time passed, and, therefore, require booster doses.

"Vaccines do bring hope, but it shouldn't be the only hope. Don't be too transfixed on vaccines so that if they fail, we'll be too disappointed [...] There are many other efforts we can make to contain COVID-19," she said.

Another concern was the vaccination coverage rate needed to reach herd immunity, which varied according to viruses' characteristics, such as their reproduction number, Laura said.

She said that even with existing vaccines, Indonesia faced difficulties reaching the threshold, for several reasons, such as the vast geographical distances between regions, poor logistics, misinformation and antivaccine stances fueled by religious concerns over the vaccines' ingredients.

Production capacity of COVID-19 vaccines to meet the needs of all Indonesians is also a concern, hence authorities should communicate early to the public about any prioritized target groups, such as younger people who could produce antibodies better than the elderly, to prevent social jealousy, Laura said.

"What we want is to develop immunity through vaccination, not through natural infection. One of the ways to end the pandemic is to have people infected naturally, but if we let this go on now there'll be victimized groups. Susceptible groups will die, she said. With the COVID-19 mortality rate in Indonesia and globally now at around 4 percent, are we ready for that?"
GREENSBORO, N.C., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Three people are finalists in the annual #RootedinAg Contest, hosted by Syngenta. The competition invites members of the ag community to share the inspiring stories of their mentors. Each 2020 finalist embodies a different aspect of the industry:

Hannah Borg, Stephon Fitzpatrick and DeLeon Pope are finalists in the annual #RootedinAg Contest, hosted by Syngenta. Read their stories and vote for a grand prizewinner.

Hannah Borg , a young farmer from Wayne, Nebraska , who pays tribute to the 86-year-old matriarch of her sixth-generation farming family;

, a young farmer from , who pays tribute to the 86-year-old matriarch of her sixth-generation farming family; Stephon Fitzpatrick , a doctoral student at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and community leader whose high school FFA adviser set in motion an incredible ag journey; and

, a doctoral student at the and community leader whose high school FFA adviser set in motion an incredible ag journey; and DeLeon Pope , an independent certified crop adviser in Clinton, North Carolina , who used the lessons his farmer father taught him to create a successful business built on respect, hard work and perseverance.

Each finalist receives a mini touch-screen tablet. The grand prizewinner receives $500, a $1,000 donation to a local charity or civic organization and a professional photo shoot. Additionally, Syngenta will feature the winning story in an upcoming issue of Thrive magazine. Visitors to the Thrive magazine website can vote for their favorite finalist through Sept. 15. Online voting, along with judges' scores, decides who wins the grand prize, which Syngenta will announce this fall.

"At the core of each individual's story is the larger, overarching narrative that encompasses the heart of agriculture  it's one of grit and determination and of generations that continue to move farming in America forward," said Pam Caraway, communications lead at Syngenta. "Thank you to everybody who shared their stories. When we amplify the voices and experiences through projects such as #RootedinAg, we elevate our industry. Telling ag's incredible story through #RootedinAg shines a light for those outside of our industry, so they can understand that agriculture, at its heart, moves to the beat of our families and friends."

For more information and to vote for your favorite finalist, go to the #RootedinAg Contest page at www.SyngentaThrive.com/Contest. Join the conversation online  connect with Syngenta at Syngenta-us.com/social.

About Syngenta

Syngenta is one of the world's leading agriculture companies. Our ambition is to help safely feed the world while taking care of the planet. We aim to improve the sustainability, quality and safety of agriculture with world class science and innovative crop solutions. Our technologies enable millions of farmers around the world to make better use of limited agricultural resources. With 28,000 people in more than 90 countries we are working to transform how crops are grown. Through partnerships, collaboration and The Good Growth Plan we are committed to improving farm productivity, rescuing land from degradation, enhancing biodiversity and revitalizing rural communities. To learn more visit www.syngenta.com and www.goodgrowthplan.com. Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Syngenta and www.twitter.com/SyngentaUS.

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Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This document may contain forward-looking statements, which can be identified by terminology such as 'expect', 'would', 'will', 'potential', 'plans', 'prospects', 'estimated', 'aiming', 'on track' and similar expressions. Such statements may be subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from these statements. For Syngenta, such risks and uncertainties include risks relating to legal proceedings, regulatory approvals, new product development, increasing competition, customer credit risk, general economic and market conditions, compliance and remediation, intellectual property rights, implementation of organizational changes, impairment of intangible assets, consumer perceptions of genetically modified crops and organisms or crop protection chemicals, climatic variations, fluctuations in exchange rates and/or commodity prices, single source supply arrangements, political uncertainty, natural disasters, and breaches of data security or other disruptions of information technology. Syngenta assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, changed assumptions or other factors.

2020 Syngenta, 410 Swing Road, Greensboro, N.C. 27409. Thrive and the Syngenta logo are registered trademarks of a Syngenta Group Company. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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China's economic growth indicators are lopsided, pointing to possible downside risks for the country in the second half of 2020 as it tries to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, an analyst said Thursday.

"On Covid, the Chinese deserve a lot of credit. They certainly locked down much of the country," said Andrew Collier, managing director at Orient Capital Research, a Hong Kong-based research firm.

"Even though they may have launched the virus, they were pretty good at quelling it. That's the advantage of an authoritarian regime," he told CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia."

The coronavirus was first reported in China late last year, prompting the government to shut down more than half of the country as part of its efforts to contain the virus. China has since been trying to bolster its soft power by trying to take the lead in a global response to the public health crisis as U.S. infections soar and those in the Asian country fall.

Recent data showed China's June retail sales fell 1.8% from a year ago, much worse than the 0.3% growth analysts forecast in a Reuters poll. That came after a 2.8% drop in May.

But that was still better than sharp drops in the rest of the world, said Collier.

"The problem with the stimulus measures and the economic indicators is that it's very lopsided  it's very focused on online sales and also on infrastructure build," he said.

Steel and iron ore production have been strong in China, "but nobody can quite figure out where all these metals are going," he said, as auto sales have been rather weak even if the raw materials are going to the construction of infrastructure and property.

"There is some suspicion there's a lot of stockpiling," said Collier.

He said tensions between the U.S. and China are "worrisome" with President Donald Trump seeming to use Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as a way to reignite hostilities toward Beijing as the president falls behind in the polls. But, investors will likely shrug this off, Collier said.

"It is quite true that Trump is a bit of a paper tiger at this point  A lot of what he does is more flash than actual changes and it doesn't look like they are going to rewrite the script on the U.S.-China trade relation, so there probably is going to be more noise than it is actual reality," said Collier.

Senior U.S. and Chinese officials are reportedly expected to review the implementation of their phase one trade deal next week.

Collier said he would keep his eyes on actual supply and demand.

"The bigger issue is whether the stockpiling of oil and the stockpiling of steel and iron ore is related to actual demand or whether this is just priming the pump to keep the economy going," he said.

Should there be less demand than supply for such commodities, what could happen in the rest of 2020 is that demand for commodities will drop off. But there is also an upside if the retail sector continues to do better than the rest of the world, he said.

"There is likely to be some downside risk in the second half, but on the other hand, China is doing better than the rest of the world in terms of Covid," said Collier.
LINCOLN  Gov. Pete Ricketts joined the American Red Cross on Wednesday in calling for donations of blood plasma from those who have recovered from COVID-19.

The demand for blood plasma with COVID-19 antibodies has doubled in the past month with the recent rise in cases, according to Weysan Dun of the Red Cross, and one plasma donation can help up to three seriously ill patients.

Were all in this together, Dun said. We need to help each other out.

He said that using antibodies is a time-tested method to treat people when a vaccine is unavailable and a treatment has yet to be developed. Recent clinical use has shown that such antibodies have helped seriously ill patients recover from the virus, Dun said at the governors press conference on Wednesday.

To set up an appointment for giving plasma, access the website: redcrossblood.org/plasma4covid

The Nebraska Community Blood Bank also is seeking plasma from recovered patients.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 12:35:15|Editor: huaxia

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CHENGDU, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- The left-behind children of Xishanping Village can feel the love and care they miss from their own parents during their summer vacation at a local companion home.

Several children sit in a circle inside the house drawing and doing homework. Around them, there are shelves full of books, and their artwork can be seen hanging on the walls. Outside, there are slides, swings and even a small stage.

Xiao Yue (pseudonym) is a seventh-grader who lost her mother when she was little and has lived with her grandmother since then. She has been guided by the care of Ma Xuemei, the "substitute mother" of 54 left-behind children in the village.

Ma, 29, could empathize with Xiao Yue since she was once a left-behind child herself and had also spent a lot of time away from her own child.

"Poor thing. My granddaughter lost her mom and has short stature," said Xiao Yue's grandma, who could not help wiping away her tears as she spoke. The 13-year-old girl was diagnosed with growth hormone deficiency and needs long-term medication.

Ma frequently visited Xiao Yue's place and talked with her, enlightening and encouraging the girl with heroic stories, and also invited her to play with other children at the companion home.

Xiao Yue, who used to feel inferior and afraid of having contact with others, gradually opened her heart and became more outgoing. Her condition improved, and so did her grades.

"Look at your painting. How nice it is!" said Ma, who enfolded Xiao Yue in an affectionate embrace, telling the girl that she could think of her as a mom.

Xishanping is located in the city of Shehong in southwest China's Sichuan Province, where most locals migrate to cities in search of work to support their families.

To care about the children whose parents are not around, the local Communist Youth League organizations have set up "children companion homes" in rural areas, hiring and training educated, caring women as "substitute mothers."

The local Communist Youth League Committee bears all the expenses for purchasing books and other activities, according to Tang Yuwen, Party secretary of Xishanping. Police officers and firefighters are also invited to companion homes to give traffic and fire safety education.

The substitute mothers also communicate with the parents of the left-behind children, sharing videos of the kids doing homework and playing.

In March 2017, Ma signed a service contract and started working as a caregiver at the companion home. The first thing she did was to make home visits and records of more than 100 households with underage children. The job took her two months.

She found that some children had deficiencies in developing their habits and learning abilities since they were usually taken care of by aged grandparents due to the generational gap.

In addition to tutoring, Ma also organized activities according to the children's interests, such as drawing, handicraft making, watching movies and museum visits.

"I wanted to make the children feel like they were with their own mothers," Ma said. Enditem
Dennis Hof, the flamboyant pimp, reality television star and Republican nominee who was expected to win a seat in the Nevada Assembly next month, was found dead at his Nye County, Nev., brothel Tuesday morning by a male porn star, authorities said.

He was 72.

It was a startling turn of events coming less than one month before the November election. Hof was poised to be the first brothel owner elected to the Nevada Legislature in the modern era and begin another chapter in his colorful, high-profile life.

I was really looking forward to seeing what he would stir up in the capital, campaign manager Chuck Muth said. It wouldve really been something.

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Hof had celebrated his birthday over the weekend  a two-day affair at his brothel in northern Nevada before heading to Pahrump on Monday for a campaign event. Two controversial figures from the right  former Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist  spoke at the event.

Arpaio, who had just arrived in Phoenix on Tuesday afternoon, said he was shocked to find out Hof was dead.

After I spoke, I said good night to him at his table and went up to my room. That was the last time I saw him, he said in an interview. Ive done thousands of speaking engagements and never had anything like this happen before. Its very sad.

Nye County spokesman Arnold Knightly said Hofs death was announced during the County Commission meeting by Chairman John Koenig, who told the room that Hof went to sleep last night and didnt wake up this morning.

Muth said Hof was found by Ron Jeremy, the porn star who was a close friend of the brothel owner and had earned an entire chapter in Hofs book, The Art of the Pimp.

Hofs eyes were not full and his skin felt cold, Jeremy told the Associated Press. He was totally stiff. And Im saying, Honey, we really have a problem here.

The two had a such a close rapport that Hof jokingly referred to Jeremy as she and the porn star called Hof daddy, according to the book.

Detectives and deputies were at the Love Ranch brothel in Crystal, outside Pahrump, on Tuesday investigating the death. Clark County Coroner John Fudenberg said Nye County had requested an autopsy.

Its the owner of the Lakers JOHNNY BUSS and my birthday party! It is Misty Matrix To its a private party get your invitation from your bunny or @MadamSuzette pic.twitter.com/WPQYwnoHbm  Dennis Hof (@DennisHof) August 30, 2018

Hof garnered national attention in June by unseating a three-term incumbent in his overwhelmingly Republican rural district. He billed himself as the Trump of Pahrump.

Even though Hof was the favorite to win in November, some establishment Republicans refused to campaign with him. Neither Nevada Atty. Gen. Adam Laxalt, the GOP nominee for governor, nor Republican Sen. Dean Heller would endorse him.

But Hof refused to let that bother him and began running ads featuring the names of Laxalt, Heller and Hof on mobile billboards.

He also faced scrutiny over allegations of sexual assault, including an ongoing state investigation of a claim that was made against him by a woman over Labor Day weekend.

Hof never appeared bothered by controversy, and often seemed to embrace it. He referred to himself as a pimp, showed up at events with women from his brothel and would often hand out merchandise  including coffee mugs with dollar bills that featured his face on them.

He scrapped with county government officials, who twice shut down his Love Ranch brothel  one of several he owned  over violations ranging from improper construction on the site to paying his license fees late. But Hof prevailed in both instances and the Love Ranch reopened.

He also was known to host celebrities at his properties, often going to lengths to protect their identities. Sometimes, however, things got away from him.

In 2015, former Lakers player Lamar Odom was found unconscious at the Love Ranch after ingesting cocaine and numerous doses of a medication for erectile dysfunction. He recovered.

The reality television show Cathouse, which debuted on HBO in 2005, was a no-holds-barred romp that featured Hof partying with his girls and making sure customers were getting their moneys worth.

But eventually, politics beckoned.

In 2016, he ran as a Libertarian candidate for the state Assembly seat that spans three rural counties  Nye, Lincoln and a small piece of Clark  and lost to the Republican, James Oscarson.

This year, he took on Oscarson directly  challenging the GOP incumbent while hewing closely to President Trump in tone, style and substance. On the night of the primary, Hof sat mostly in the back of the Nye County Republican headquarters as returns came in. He was accompanied by former madam Heidi Fleiss.

He won handily.

Oscarson said Tuesday he was shocked by the news of Hofs death.

My condolences and thoughts go out to his family, he said. I want to give his family time to grieve.

Fleiss, who was at the Love Ranch on Tuesday, seemed shaken by his death. Outside the brothel, a small group of news trucks was parked in the dirt and gravel lot. Muth stood outside and spoke with reporters. He said several of the working girls were grieving. The brothel was closed Tuesday, and because its licenses were issued specifically to Hof, its unclear when or if it can reopen.

Christina Parreira, a sex worker who met Hof five years ago, choked up as she talked about him. She said she came from Connecticut to study sex workers as part of a sociology degree and wanted to interview women who worked at brothels.

Hof was the only brothel owner who would meet with her, she said.

I had seen his television show and Ill admit at first I was a little starstruck, she said. He puts on this image, but as a person, he was one of the kindest, sweetest gentlemen Ive ever met.

In a statement, Gov. Brian Sandoval offered condolences.

Wayne Thorley, a spokesman for the Nevada secretary of state, said Hofs name would remain on the ballot and, if he were to win, the three county commissions that make up the Assembly seat would convene and select someone to fill the vacancy.

He said this happened in Nevada just a few weeks ago, when a candidate for the Independent American Party running for a state Senate seat died.

But Hof was much bigger, with name recognition that went well beyond Nevada.

Hof, who was born in Arizona to parents who immigrated from Germany and Italy, seemed to always know he wanted to be a businessman. In his book, he reflected on his childhood and how it led him to where he was in Nevada.

At age 10, I started working at the local Dairy Queen, sweeping the parking lot, and the manager told me I was the best parking lot sweeper hed ever seen, Hof wrote. I put most of my money into pinball machines and thats when I first became aware of the connection between money and pleasure: If you had money, you had a good time. If not, you didnt.

UPDATES:

8:15 p.m.: The article was updated extensively with reaction to Hofs death and details about the circumstances.

1:50 p.m.: The article was updated with additional information about Hof.

12:44 p.m.: The article was updated with Los Angeles Times staff reporting.

The article was originally published at 12:10 p.m.
NBC and the "American Ninja Warrior" are facing a massive scandal after its former winner, Andrew Drechsel, was charged with child-sex offenses..

Earlier this week, the US Attorney's Office of New Jersey charged Drechsel for manufacturing and producing child pornography and enticement of a minor to travel for illicit sexual conduct.

The 31-year-old champ got arrested on Tuesday. He was also charged of traveling with the intent to "engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor and use of interstate commerce to entice a minor."

A day later, a spokeswoman from the Camden County Prosecutor's Office told NJ Advance Media that the Cherry Hill police department filed additional charges against Drechsel.

According to the federal criminal complaint, the 2019 "American Ninja Warrior" champion has been additionally charged with second-degree sexual assault, second-degree luring, and third-degree endangering the welfare of a child.

The new allegations were rooted back in 2014 when Dreschel dated a 15-year-old Cherry Hill girl soon after an "American Ninja Warrior" event.

Per the document, the two exchanged phone numbers after the event. Drechsel began messaging the teenager and invited her to his Connecticut gym, wherein they first had sex.

Drechsel continued to communicate with the girl and allegedly had a sexual encounter with her on multiple occasions in New Jersey when she was 15 to 17 years old. In August 2016, Drechsel reportedly sent a message to the girl, saying that they needed to find a "safe way to talk."

The two then started talking on Skype, where the 31-year-old allegedly commanded her to be nude and perform lascivious acts for him.

To prove the authenticity of the claims, authorities scrolled through Dreschel's phone and found a Skype video that he recorded without the girl's knowledge. The phone also has sexually explicit photos of the same teen on his phone.

The victim first made a complaint to the Cherry Hill police in June 2020. Per the girl's mother, she even confronted Drechsel multiple times and he allegedly did not deny it happened. Instead, he said that he did not know her age at all at that time.

Meanwhile, Drechsel's attorney Frank J. Riccio II wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that he is representing Drechsel and that his client "is presumed innocent of the charges and that presumption will remain throughout the pendency of his case."

However, Riccio II mentioned that he was unaware of the new charges.

After his appearance in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Drechsel is now being transferred to New Jersey where further investigations will be made

A spokesperson for NBC, the network that airs "American Ninja Warrior," said that the show "will sever all ties with Mr. Drechsel, including his appearance on future seasons of the show."

"We are shocked and disturbed to learn about the charges alleged against Drew Drechsel," NBC's spokesperson said. "American Ninja Warrior is a family show that has inspired countless people, and we will not let the actions of one contestant tarnish the hard work and amazing stories of so many."

READ MORE: The Real Reason Why Jake Paul's Home Was Raided By The FBI -- REVEALED!
The Canada-wide COVID-19 contact tracing app, which launched Aug. 3, has been downloaded 1.3 million times so far, or by about 3.42 per cent of the countrys population.

Experts have previously said at least 60 per cent of a given population needs to be running the app for it to be effective against the spread of the pandemic. But Teresa Scassa, the Canada research chair in information law and policy at the University of Ottawa, said governments are moving away from specific targets and are treating contact tracing apps as just one tool in a suite of tools to combat COVID-19, catching any number of COVID-19 transmissions that might not otherwise be caught.

I think theyre placing fewer expectations on the app as being in and of itself a free standing solution, she said.

The COVID Alert app is only active in Ontario right now, but the app is available for download across the country. While the downloads cant be divided by geographic location, a spokesperson for the president of the treasury board said it expects that the overwhelming majority of the downloads would be in Ontario.

If, for example, one million of the downloads are in Ontario, that would mean 6.78 of the provinces population have the app.

Albertas contact tracing app, ABTraceTogether, launched in May. As of June 22, it had been downloaded 207,000 times, which means 4.75 per cent of the provinces population had the app. Now, it has 234,000 registered users, a spokesperson for Alberta Health said, which is closer to 5.3 per cent.

The COVID Alert app, like Albertas app, uses Bluetooth rather than GPS, which means it doesnt track users locations.

Phones with the app exchange anonymized codes using Bluetooth when they come within a certain distance of each other. These codes are used to notify users if someone they came in contact with over the previous two weeks has reported getting COVID-19.

COVID Alert does not collect personal information. It uses the new Google-Apple system, which launched May 20. It is considered fully decentralized because all data is stored locally, on the users phones, Scassa said.

There are a few barriers to widespread access of the app, however. It doesnt work on iPhones running IOS versions below 13.5 or Android phones running versions older than 6, and not everyone has a smartphone. In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for the president of the treasury board said an estimated 90 per cent of Ontarians have access to a smartphone, and the vast majority of Ontarians are able to download the app, though they did not have a specific number available.

Scassa said if the COVID Alert app was being treated as the be-all, end-all of COVID-19 spread prevention tactics, this would be more of an issue, but the app is just one of many tools being used to prevent the pandemics spread.

But that doesnt mean its not a problem. Scassa said overall, the pandemic has illustrated the digital divide faced by Canadians who dont have access to the same technologies as others.

I think that this is a really important public policy issue for Canada and the provinces.

Scassa said the app is much more important for situations when the user will be in contact with strangers as opposed to friends or family, since regular contact tracing usually catches the latter. But in situations such as taking public transit or going to a bar, it could be the only way youll find out you were exposed to COVID-19.

Scassa added its important people dont treat the app as a protection that will allow them to do high-risk activities without other precautions.

Toronto resident Jose Vera has been following contact tracing apps in other countries to see how they work. The fact that people with COVID-19 can be asymptomatic at first prompted him to download the app.

In theory, it works, he said.

But he knows it may take some time and tweaks for it to be as effective as possible.

Scassa said the COVID Alert app is quite privacy-protective compared to many smartphone apps many Canadians use every day, such as Facebook, Twitter or Uber.

It doesnt track location with GPS, like many of these apps can do, or access your contact list, for example, she said.

Some of these apps just have vast, vast quantities of data, she said. COVID Alert is not even remotely on the same scale.

So why are so many people quick to download the Facebook app, but nervous about contact tracing apps?

Theres one key reason: contact tracing apps like COVID Alert are from the government, said Scassa.

People seem to be far more willing to trust their data to the private sector than to government.

Scassa said the federal government has chosen the most privacy-protective model available, where all data is stored on each individuals phones.

Pierre and Patricia Ferland of Mississauga both downloaded the app. Pierre Ferland said he felt it was a no-brainer.

He considers himself fairly privacy aware, to the extent that he doesnt have apps like Facebook on his phone because of the data it collects.

We want to make sure that we do our part, he said.

Ontario resident Ayesha Minhas agreed  as someone who regularly uses social media, the app didnt worry her. She hopes some good comes out of it.

The app needs buy-in from provincial health authorities in order to fully function, which is why its currently only fully active in Ontario. The health authority provides the code users must input to report a positive test.

But Scassa said while users in other provinces cant currently upload COVID-19 test results to the app, they can exchange those anonymized codes, which could still result in contact notifications. For example, if someone in Gatineau, Que., crossed the bridge to Ottawa, Ont., and had the app running, they would still be notified if someone they encountered in Ontario tested positive for COVID-19.

Steven Megannety of Niagara said after doing some research, he felt comfortable downloading the app, though hes not confident that 60 per cent of Canadians will do the same.

But Scassa said even if just a few people are notified of COVID-19 contact who wouldnt have been before, thats a success.

As well, she expects the app will be studied and tweaked as the months go by. Right now, the app considers another user a contact if they are within two metres of each other for at least 15 minutes. These parameters could change based on the apps effectiveness and as knowledge of the virus improves, she said.

It may become progressively more important, she said.
Researchers have identified a pattern of longer-term symptoms likely to be experienced by people who were hospitalised with the COVID-19 infection.

They include fatigue, breathlessness, psychological distress - including problems with concentration and memory - and a general decline in quality of life.

Some patients, particularly those who had been in intensive care, had symptoms associated with cases of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).

The findings provide the first detailed insight into problems facing patients recovering from COVID-19 in the UK.

Dr Manoj Sivan, Associate Clinical Professor at the University of Leeds and a Consultant in Rehabilitation Medicine at Leeds General Infirmary, supervised the research project. He said: "COVID-19 is a new illness and we have very little information on longer term problems in individuals after discharge from hospital."

"The emerging evidence is that for some, the road to recovery may take months and it is vital specialist rehabilitation is on hand to support them. This research gives an important insight into patient needs, and that will help shape services in the community."

The findings - Post-discharge symptoms and rehabilitation needs in survivors of COVID-19 infection: a cross-sectional evaluation - have been published in the Journal of Medical Virology.

Dr Stephen Halpin, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Leeds and Consultant with Leeds Teachings Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "This research follows our previous work of predicting COVID-19 patients' long-term needs based on previous coronavirus outbreaks of SARS in 2002 and MERS in 2012. The health problems are similar but on a larger scale given the number of people affected."

The research team - involving multidisciplinary specialists from the University of Leeds, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust and Leeds Beckett University - followed 100 people recovering from COVID-19, four-to-eight weeks after being discharged from hospital in Leeds.

The COVID-19 survivors were divided into two groups: those who had become critically ill and needed intensive care - 32 people were in this category; and those who were treated on a ward without needing intensive care - 68 people were in this category.

Patients were contacted by a member of the hospital's rehabilitation team and asked a series of questions about their recovery and symptoms they were still experiencing.

Results

The most prevalent symptom was fatigue. More than 60 percent of people who had been treated on a ward reported fatigue, and one-third of them described it as moderate or severe. For patients who had been in intensive care, 72 percent reported fatigue. Of those, more than half said it was moderate or severe.

The second most common symptom was breathlessness. People in both groups said they had feelings of breathlessness which had not existed before they contracted COVID-19. This was higher in the group that had been the most ill, the intensive care group versus those who had been treated in a ward - 65.6 percent versus 42.6 percent.

The third most prevalent symptoms were neuropsychological. The research survey found that almost one quarter of the people who had been on a ward and just under a half of the people who had been in intensive care had some of the symptoms of PTSD.

Writing in the paper, the researchers said: "PTSD symptoms are a well-recognised component of post- intensive care unit syndrome caused by a variety of factors including fear of dying, invasive treatment, pain, delirium, inability to communicate, weakness, immobility, and sensory problems and sleep deprivation."

More than two-thirds (68.8 percent) of patients in the intensive care group and just under half (45.6 percent) of the other group said their overall quality of life had deteriorated.

The researchers say the rehabilitation needs of patients who did not require hospital care need to be further investigated and they are working on understanding this in future research.

###

Notes to editors

For further information or to interview one of the researchers, please contact David Lewis in the University press office: d.lewis@leeds.ac.uk

University of Leeds

The University of Leeds is one of the largest higher education institutions in the UK, with more than 38,000 students from more than 150 different countries, and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. The University plays a significant role in the Turing, Rosalind Franklin and Royce Institutes.??

We are a top ten university for research and impact power in the UK, according to the 2014 Research Excellence Framework, and are in the top 100 of the QS World University Rankings 2020.??

The University was awarded a Gold rating by the Government's Teaching Excellence Framework in 2017,?recognising?its 'consistently outstanding' teaching and learning provision. Twenty-six of our academics have been awarded National Teaching Fellowships - more than any other institution in England, Northern Ireland and Wales - reflecting the excellence of our teaching.??http://www.leeds.ac.uk??

###

Cross-sectional survey + Peer Review
Customers wait outside a Woolworths supermarket on in Sydney, Australia, March 17, 2020. (Jenny Evans/Getty Images)

Victoria Premier Plays Down Food Shortage Fears During Stage 4 Lockdowns

The Morrison government has raised fears the reduction in warehouse and distribution capacity could sap supply in other parts of Australia.

But Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is adamant he has struck a delicate balance as the state enters the countrys harshest lockdown designed to squash a deadly coronavirus outbreak.

A lot of work has gone into driving down staff levels but, at the same time, protecting the amount of product that will be on supermarket shelves, he told reporters in Melbourne.

Business leaders held crisis talks with the state government on the night of Aug. 5 over fears the clampdown on warehouses could trigger national food shortages.

In response, supermarket distribution centres and medical warehouses will have an extra two days to comply with restrictions.

From midnight on Sunday they will be forced to reduce capacity by a third.

Red meat processors will switch to 66 percent, while abattoirs with 25 or fewer staff will be exempt.

Poultry will only fall to 80 percent capacity in a bid to avoid birds being destroyed but not processed, which would have sparked significant chicken shortages.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the federal government had passed on full and frank advice from business groups railing against the restrictions.

He said reducing critical food suppliers could have knock-on effects for supply chains in other parts of the country.

Federal Industry Minister Karen Andrews said industry groups were not crying wolf with concerns about supply chains.

But she doesnt believe there will be food shortages.

As long as people are sensible, buying what they need, dont stockpile it, dont hoard itIm not envisaging that theres going to be major problems, Andrews told ABC radio.

He said everything would be done to make sure essentials were on the shelf.

I cant guarantee that every cut of meat that you might want, in the quantity that you might want it, will be there, Andrews said.

But were doing everything we can to strike that really challenging balance.

The state recorded 471 new infections and eight deaths on Thursday, taking the national toll to 255.

NSW had 12 new cases.

The coronavirus-free ACT will allow strip clubs, brothels, dine-in food courts and 24-hour gyms to reopen from next week.

Matt Coughlan in Canberra
If you want to meet a Republican politician whos the ultimate poster boy for shameless apple-polishing  the kind of eager conservative loyalist who would crawl across broken glass to shine Donald Trumps shoes  you should watch The Swamp, the new HBO documentary, and get a load of Matt Gaetz, a congressman from Florida who got swept into the U.S. House of Representatives by the Trump tidal wave.

Gaetz is a real piece of work. At 38, hes got the baby-faced, handsome-but-not-too-dashing, smile-by-committee looks and easy-talking facility of a jock bro who was popular in high school and is now a mid-level bank manager. If you had to describe what his job is, the most accurate thing to say might be that Gaetz is a congressman who plays a congressman on TV. With his Chris ODonnell immaculateness, hes a constant presence on Fox News and CNN, mouthing his talking points, mirroring the agenda of his right-wing overlords and, at the same time, making those points presentable to liberals. In the movie, we see him speak several times on the phone to President Trump, whos always saying that Matt is great, that hes got the look, all of which leaves Matt responding like an eager puppy.

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Okay, Matt Gaetz is a telegenic flyweight Republican weasel. So what? Well, the ironic reason that hes one of the central figures in The Swamp is that he has staked out the position of being a rebel within the Republican establishment, one who stands tall against the corruption of Washington. His official position is that hes totally against the lobbying culture that controls everything  the special interests that have turned dark money into the sticky fuel that greases the wheels and gums up the process.

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He talks a good game, and there are moments when he seems to be walking the walk. He swore off federal PAC money earlier this year, and teaming up with the Democratic California Rep. Ro Khanna he co-sponsored a bill to limit the war powers of the president. Yet even though Gaetz, in his own mind, is a crusader who stands for restoring integrity to the American political process, the gaping contradiction of all this is that hes in bed with a president who campaigned on his own promise to drain the swamp  yet is, in fact, poised against that goal in every measurable way. Gaetz will yammer on about dirty money, but hes against the regulatory side of government (he doesnt need to be bought off by lobbyists; he already supports most of what they stand for), and when it comes to, say, Donald Trumps coziness with the fossil-fuel industry, he says nothing. To call him a selective moralist would be kind. Hes a TV hack who has made reform his (fake) brand.

The last documentary directed by Daniel DiMauro and Morgan Pehme, Get Me Roger Stone, was a portrait of the real-wing zealot as irresistible sleaze. It captured the staggering scale of Roger Stones lies and smears (and the insane pride he takes in them), showcasing Stone as the missing link between Roy Cohn and Lee Atwater. The movie chronicled his back-room influence and reveled, with a certain lip-smacking glee, in the perversely open corruption of his personality.

In The Swamp, DiMauro and Pehme try for a variation on the same strategy, only this time theyre dealing  by design  with minor-league hypocrites. The movie is about the culture of money that has broken Washington, as seen through the lens of three Republican congressman who claim to abhor it.

In addition to Gaetz, the film profiles Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who has his own way of talking a good game he doesnt necessarily live up to. Hes a green Republican who was trained as an engineer at M.I.T., and whose farmhouse in the wilds of Kentucky is entirely solar-powered. Yet hes not convinced that carbon dioxide emissions are a problem. Even with his science background, his views on climate change have a convenient way of dovetailing with the fossil-fuel fundamentalism of the Koch brothers, the special-interest titans who threatened any Republican with excommunication if they strayed too far from the ungreen path. Yet dammit, Thomas Massie says he wants to get the money out of the system!

Massie, a Star Wars and Lord of the Rings buff, compares the Capitol to the Death Star and nicknames his congressional lapel pin Precious, saying, I think eventually, it will turn me from a Hobbit into a Gollum. I dont think he realizes its already happening. The films other main figure is Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, the founding member of the Freedom Caucus, the group formed in 2015 to be the loyal opposition within the Republican Party. (Gaetz and Massie are both members.) Buck votes a hardcore right-wing party line (lowering taxes for corporations, etc.), and is a staunch supporter of the gun lobby  which, in his mind, counts as an ideology, so its not a special interest. Get it?

These three come on as Eagle Scouts of fiscal responsibility, but essentially they stand for an abstract ideal that allows them to feel good about themselves. Theyre draining their swamp and eating it too. The Swamp is an expose of the selling out of Washington, and part of the offbeat way the movie works is by cozying up to these three and gaining access to the nuts and bolts of their congressional jobs, only to shine a harsh light on their hypocrisy. Yet there are moments, right up to the end, when the documentary buys into their anti-corruption stance, using them as spokesmen. And that, frankly, is a little hard to wrap your moral compass around. Its as if someone had made a documentary about the slaughter of sheep starring a cast of wolves, all of whom claim to be against the slaughter of sheep.

The Swamp is full of insights and tasty details about how the culture of Washington operates. Lawrence Lessig, the Harvard Law School professor, claims that the most important person in the history of Congress after James Madison was Newt Gingrich, who, he says, destroyed Congress. In the mid-90s, after he was elected Speaker of the House, Gingrich shifted the congressional center of gravity from legislating to fund-raising, telling the newly elected members of the House to not even bother moving their families to Washington, since governing would now be placed on the back burner.

We learn about how members of Congress have to purchase their seats on committees (with a payout of $300,000 to $500,000 every election cycle). They have to kowtow to K Street just to keep swimming. And the movie makes the crucial point that the politics of hate  the showbiz gladiatorial politics of red-vs.-blue conflict that play out on a daily basis on cable news  is an extraordinary fund-raising tool. (So was impeachment.) It ties Congress up in permanent gridlock, but it generates boatloads of partisan cash.

Yet The Swamp is finally a documentary about too many different things, even if part of its sophistication is knowing how those things are connected. It looks at the chokehold of Washington by corporate money and the toxic gridlock of hyper-partisanship. It takes detours into school shootings and climate change. Its about the new anti-war sentiment that has taken hold among certain Republicans (in many ways, a revival of the old isolationism). Its about the war in the Republican Party over its own identity. On top of that, the film drags us, once again, through the impeachment of President Trump, an event too recent to need a rehash and not far enough away to gain from the perspective a good documentary can offer.

In the end, though, The Swamp is still well worth seeing, in part for priceless clips like the one in which Trump, during a 2016 campaign rally, talks to his frenzied supporters about how when he first used the phrase drain the swamp, he thought it was hokey, but the place went crazy, so he kept on using it, and then  he says this with a Cheshire cat grin  I started saying it like I meant it! (And the place goes crazy.) Youve got to hand it to Trump: Its not every presidential candidate who could come on as a fearless truth-teller, confess to a crowd that one of his central campaign tenets is something he doesnt believe, and get embraced for being so forthright about his own lie.

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Hedge funds and other investors use detailed information about infrastructure supply chain products, including processors and accelerators, to inform or train their investment models. Timely decisions based on fresh data drives better investment performance; investors call that performance advantage "alpha."

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Traditional cloud market intelligence is not available until six to eight weeks after the end of each quarter. Even then, cloud service providers will not summarize their deployments for traditional market intelligence services and that information cannot be interpolated through surveys.

Increased Cadence

Liftr Insights provides transparency and insight into public cloud deployments offering through its hybrid alternative data. Leveraging its DevOps approach combined with subject matter expertise, Liftr Insights collects and standardizes tens of thousands of worldwide public cloud service offerings.

Liftr Insights had been generated its detailed data once per month for the first 15 months of its Liftr Cloud Components Tracker service. In July 2020, Liftr Insights began offering the same quality hybrid alternative data at a faster, semi-monthly pace, including data customers depend on for processor (Xeon, EPYC and Arm-based architectures) and compute accelerator (GPUs, FPGAs, TPUs and other AI chips) cloud market share insight.

"Customers love our time-series data, because it fully enumerates tracked public cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offerings and also because of our ability to deliver that data reliably at very fast cadence," says Paul Teich, Principal Cloud and Semiconductor Expert at Liftr Insights.

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"Our heightened cadence for delivering unique and detailed data gives our hedge fund customers the edge to generate alpha," say Tab Schadt, CEO of Liftr Insights. "They like to think of Liftr Insights as their special ingredient."

About Liftr Insights

Liftr Insights, based in Austin, Texas, collects and distills data about internet-enabled infrastructure for hedge fund quants to feed into their investment models. Liftr Insights' data collection is compliant with SEC policies and currently gathers publicly available data about the top four public clouds: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure (MSFT), Alibaba Cloud (BABA), and Google Cloud.

Liftr Insights provides a high-level map overlay of service growth and availability for the four tracked cloud service providers at https://bit.ly/LiftrCloudRegionsMap.

Liftr and the Liftr logo are registered service marks of Liftr Insights. The following are trademarks and/or service marks of Liftr Insights: Liftr Insights, Liftr Cloud Components Tracker, and Liftr Cloud Regions Map.

The following are registered intellectual property marks, trademarks or service marks of their respective companies, along with related icons and logos:

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Opinion Article

6 August 2020

As the stay-at-home orders subsides and leisure travelers look to rediscover their own backyards, we cannot forget that numerous hotels around the world derive a healthy portion of their topline revenues from groups. And even after all the postponements, cancelations and booking credits, this side of the business is still a question mark insofar as when exactly it will return to 2019 levels.

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While undoubtedly a clearer picture will emerge as summer fades into fall, there are nevertheless several critical adjustments needed in the near-term as to how you can safely facilitate a conference or event so that you are fully ready once the meeting planners come knocking.

To help understand some of the steps you can take to prepare for this return, I've recruited Andrew Hodd, President of Vantage Venues, a dedicated venue rental space based out of my hometown of Toronto, to answer a few questions. Occupying two high floors in a downtown office tower and lacking a guestroom component presents a distinct set of challenges and opportunities for the facility.

For one, being in the heart of any city poses the issue of contact tracing and enforcing social distancing, and this is further magnified by the Vantage Venues' capacity to host multiple events simultaneously. Next, with an F&B team led by two award-winning executive chefs, foodservice has always been a strong differentiator as well as a profit maker, yet how does one uphold this silo amidst so many new cleanliness concerns? Thirdly, what can hoteliers learn from an operator who isn't mired by appeasing overnight guests? Let's hear what Andrew has to say on some of these issues.

Andrew Hodd, CEO of Vantage Venues  Photo: Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited

What challenges did you face when retrofitting your spaces to meet the new physical distancing requirements?

I am sure we will continue to learn new techniques and strategies, but the industry has proactively strategized together and come up with a tremendous set of practices. Setting up floor markers for spacing, shields at reception desks, cleaning procedures and sourcing PPE are crucial implementations. The challenging part is how to provide a collaborative experience with physical distancing measures in place. We can set up tables to allow for physical distancing, but colleagues gather to meet as a group and learn from one another. Acoustics have become increasingly important, as guests will need to communicate while maintaining distance. Adding audio equipment might be a necessary addition to the room, but we can't forget to clean the mics!

We believe an important step is keeping groups independent from one another. We designed Vantage Venues for privacy, as three quarters of our total space has dedicated lounge areas for food and beverage. We will ensure that is the case for the remaining quarter by providing in-room service or an additional adjacent private room. Each group can isolate while meeting, leaving the only interaction with other people being in elevators or washrooms, which are very short in duration and thus low risk.

What measures are you taking to reassure groups through cleanliness theater?

We will have a team dedicated to cleaning only. This ensures there is no crossover of duties between those serving food and those responsible for sanitization. Safety of staff is key, so the PPE required is also specific to each set of responsibilities. Washrooms, door handles, light switches and so on are all targeted for a thorough regular cleaning. Not only is this important for our guests to see for their own peace of mind, but also to provide cues for guests so they are participating in safe practices. It is a constant reminder to wash or sanitize their hands and wear masks.

As Vantage Venues is focused mostly on hosting groups from Toronto, what efforts has your sales team taken to drum up business from the local market?

Fortunately for us, this has always been our clientele. We engaged our clients before putting together our health and safety guidelines. Now that we have a strong program in place, we are communicating it to clients holding space as well as those who have hosted events here recently. Given our expertise in providing hybrid meetings through our strong AV/IT department, facilitating private groupings of guests and the fact that we are not a hotel property, we feel well-positioned to continuing serving the Toronto business community.

Moving into the kitchen, what efforts are you taking to reassure attendees of your commitment to food safety and to build this revenue stream?

We are committed to three things. First is continuing to provide a terrific culinary experience. The second commitment is to food safety in the face of COVID-19. Third is maintaining our pledge to reduce waste, both food and plastics.

After ensuring groups are isolated from one another, the next step is single serve rather than buffets. Guests will be able to pick up a salad bowl, plated main course and dessert, all served on our fine bone china and covered for safety purposes. Next, we ensure safe collection and washing, which involves gloves and face shields. In our mind, the move to plastic containers and throwaway products is going backwards.

With everyone looking for hybrid meeting solutions, what technologies have you deployed to accommodate people attending remotely and differentiate Vantage Venues in this regard?

Hybrid meeting setup at Vantage Venues in downtown Toronto  Photo: Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited

Hybrid meeting are certainly not new but the necessity for them is. Long before COVID-19, we were investing in hybrid meeting solutions and equipment for producing webinars and videoconferencing. To accommodate the current environment, our IT team has taken leading webcasting components (Wirecast, Wowza etc.) and successfully married them with videoconferencing technologies (Zoom, WebEx, Teams etc.).

This allows presenters to join from anywhere in the world to present virtually to any size audiences. In today's landscape, clients' expectations have changed, with value-driven quality being our top priority. Tech toys and software cannot achieve success alone, though, as hosting a professional live event requires complex logistics, all of which must be managed by a talented team.

Many are saying that group business won't recover simply because all these new measures have taken the fun out of hosting an event. What steps are you taking to make onsite meetings dynamic and engaging while still abiding by the all the new requirements?

Firstly, we have to remember that this will not last forever. As humans, we thrive off of human connection. On the meeting side of things, the technology piece will be crucial. Hybrid meetings will be the norm and it is up to our team to ensure that virtual attendees feel as included as possible. This involves reliable bandwidth, testing procedures, engagement features and proper video displays. As for the fun events, the food experience must be better than ever. We want to use the lower guest counts as an opportunity to get even more creative and attentive to our food product. With masks being strongly recommended, we are having fun by creating our own with a smile on the front. It might take an open-minded group, but I'm sure a game could be made out of mask wearing. Perhaps a game of 'Who am I?' where the name is written on a mask provided for the guest.
By PTI

ISLAMABAD: Despite repeated requests from Pakistan to hold a foreign ministers' meeting on Kashmir, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation has shown reluctance to convene such a conference, prompting an upset Islamabad to threaten that it may call a separate gathering on the issue.

Pakistan has been pushing the 57-member organisation, which is the second largest intergovernmental body after the UN, for the foreign ministers' meeting since India revoked the special status of the Jammu and Kashmir in last August.

However, there has not been any positive response from the OIC, the biggest bloc of Islamic countries in the world, to Pakistan's request so far.

"I am once again respectfully telling OIC that a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers is our expectation," Qureshi said during a talk show on ARY News on Wednesday.

ALSO READ | India firmly rejects China's attempt to raise Kashmir issue at UN Security Council

"If you cannot convene it, then I'll be compelled to ask Prime Minister Imran Khan to call a meeting of the Islamic countries that are ready to stand with us on the issue of Kashmir," he threatened.

A major reason behind the OIC's inaction has been Saudi Arabia's reluctance to accept Pakistan's request for one specifically on Kashmir.

Saudi's support is crucial for any move at the OIC, which is dominated by Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries.

During a virtual meeting of the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir held "on the request of Pakistan" on June 22 also, Qureshi had urged the grouping to "step up its efforts" to resolve the Kashmir issue.
Human Rights Watch says Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union (AU) should urgently and publicly speak out against the Zimbabwe governments crackdown on dissent following aborted peaceful anti-corruption protests on July 31.

SADC and the African Union should call out Zimbabwes government for its repression and rampant abuses throughout the country, said Dewa Mavhinga, southern Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

Mavhinga said, Its important for these regional institutions to send strong signals to the Mnangagwa administration that flagrant violations of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights and other human rights treaties are unacceptable.

He said the Zimbabwean government has arrested at least 60 people, including novelist Tsitsi Dangarembga and opposition MDC Alliance spokesperson, Fadzayi Mahere, in connection with the protests.

He said 16 people were injured and required medical attention. Dangarembga was released on bail the next day.

The Zimbabwe authorities have increasingly arbitrarily arrested critics of the government, Human Rights Watch said.

On July 20, police arrested and detained Hopewell Chinono, an awarding-winning journalist, and Jacob Ngarivhume, leader of the political group, Transform Zimbabwe. Both were denied bail and remain in custody, accused of inciting public violence. Chinono and Ngarivhume had helped expose high-level corruption in Zimbabwe and called for nationwide anti-corruption protests on July 31.

On the eve of the anti-corruption protests on July 30, security forces raided the house of Mduduzi Mathuthu, a prominent journalist and editor of the online newspaper, Zimlive, in Bulawayo. Failing to find him, they arrested his three nephews, 22 year-old Tawanda Muchehiwa, Advent Mathuthu (25), and Amandlenkosi Mathuthu (19). The security agents also detained Mathuthus sister, Nomagugu Mathuthu, to compel him to turn himself in, but released her hours later. Advent Mathuthu was charged with incitement of public violence after allegedly being found with flyers saying Mnangagwa & His Cabinet Must Resign, but was freed by a local court.

The Zimbabwe chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA-Zimbabwe) issued a statement, emailed to Human Rights Watch, that security agents dropped off Mathuthus nephew Muchehiwa at his home on August 1 at about 10 p.m. The group said that he had been tortured by alleged security agents, resulting in serious injuries. According to medical documents reviewed by Human Rights Watch, Muchehiwa was assaulted with a wooden log and sprayed with an unknown substance all over his body. He suffered extensive bruises, an acute kidney injury, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

On July 31, soldiers and the police arrested and briefly detained a lawyer, Obey Shava, and his three clients, activists Joanna Mamombe, Cecilia Chimbiri, and Netsai Marova, as they drove to Harare Central Police Station to report in as required under their bail agreement. Police had stopped the three activists on May 13 at a checkpoint in Harare and allegedly abducted, tortured, and sexually assaulted them.

Shava, a member of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, told Human Rights Watch that I complied with all the instructions they [security forces] gave, that notwithstanding, I was ordered to lie down on the ground. My client, Chimbiri, was assaulted and molested in my presence. I felt helpless.

Chimbiri said that a soldier tore off her top and brassiere and fondled her. Chimbiri was later charged with disorderly conduct in a public place, even though the security forces had assaulted her.

On August 4, President Emmerson Mnangagwa publicly denounced critics in a speech, describing them as dark forces, a few rogue Zimbabweans, and terrorist opposition groupings.

He said: Those who promote hate and disharmony will never win. The bad apples that have attempted to divide our people and weaken our systems shall be flushed out. Good shall triumph over evil.

Following the crackdown on protesters, the chairperson of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, Solomon Dersso, said in a Twitter post on August 3, As we follow [the] situation in Zimbabwe, critical to reiterate the African Commission on Human Rights view that actions of states even in fighting Covid-19 should comply with principles of legality, necessity, and proportionality, thus no basis for arbitrary deprivation of liberty or life, inhumane treatment or torture.

The Zimbabwe crackdown on activists has inspired an online campaign, with the hashtag #ZimbabweanLivesMatter, which has resulted in more than 700,000 tweets in two days, but neither SADC nor the African Union has spoken out about the situation.

Mavhinga said, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, the current chairperson of the African Union, should press President Mnangagwa to end the wave of repression and promote respect for human rights.

The Zimbabwean government says there is no political crisis in the country. In a tweet, Information Secretary, Nick Mangwana, said some local people are peddling lies about the situation in the country in conjunction with the West.



President Ramaphosa should muster support from within the African Union to hold Zimbabwes leadership to their human rights obligations, Mavhinga said. African regional actors should not remain silent in the face of escalating repression in Zimbabwe.
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Linkedin Ghina Ghaliya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, August 7 2020

The ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) is at loggerheads with its political partner in the government coalition, the Golkar Party, following concerns that the omnibus bill on job creation will further expand the powers of the presidency.

In a hearing on the bill at the House of Representatives Legislative Body (Baleg) on Tuesday, PDI-P lawmakers questioned why several articles in the bill transferred authority from ministries and local administrations to the government.

PDI-P lawmaker Arteria Dahlan, for instance took issue with the shift of regional administrations authority regarding spatial planning to the central government, citing Law No. 23/2014 on regional administration, which stipulates that the central administration has authority only in matters of foreign policy, defense and security, justice, fiscal and monetary policy and religion.

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BRISTOL (dpa-AFX) - British tobacco company Imperial Brands plc. (IMB.L, IMBBF.PK, IMBBY.PK) announced Wednesday that Oliver Tant has decided to retire as Chief Financial Officer. He will leave the company following the appointment of a successor. Chief Executive Officer Stefan Bomhard and the Board are actively progressing an external search for a successor. The company said it is focused on recruiting a high-calibre individual to support Bomhard in strengthening performance and creating long-term value for stakeholders. The company will make a further announcement when a new Chief Financial Officer is appointed. Chair Therese Esperdy said, 'On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Oliver for the contribution he has made during his seven years with Imperial.' Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
A move to disband the Minneapolis Police Department in the wake of George Floyd's killing faced an uncertain future Wednesday after a commission blocked the city council from putting a necessary initiative on the November ballot.

The proposal would replace the police department with a new public safety agency, but the Minneapolis Charter Commission voted 10 to 5 to delay consideration of a ballot measure to eliminate the city charter requirement that the city maintains a certain number of police officers per capita.

The Commission, a court-appointed board of volunteers, passed a 90-day delay, which prevents the Minneapolis City Council from meeting an Aug. 21 deadline to get the proposal on the Nov. 3 ballot - a move that effectively kicks the issue to 2021.

The proposal, backed by a majority of the city council, would allow Minneapolis to replace its troubled department, which has long been accused of racism and use of excessive force, with a new agency focused on a "holistic, public health-oriented approach" to public safety.

City council members have said the proposed new agency, tentatively named the Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention, would include a division of armed law enforcement officers. Yet the proposal does not say how many officers would be employed or what their specific role would be - uncertainty that was repeatedly cited by charter commission members who argued voters deserve more specifics.

"The council says, 'Trust us. We'll figure it out after this is approved. Trust us,'" Barry Clegg, a Minneapolis attorney who chairs the commission said ahead of Wednesday's vote. "Well, I don't. . . . We need more time to fill in these blanks so voters can make a decision based on an actual specific plan and not the promise of one."

Wednesday's vote came after several weeks of fierce debate, in which some members of the commission and the public openly complained that efforts to dismantle the police department were moving too quickly. Nine weeks after Floyd's death in police custody, the debate over what to do with the police department has played out against an especially violent summer in Minneapolis with a record number of shootings and other crimes.

It's unclear where the debate goes from here. Thousands of people have marched in the streets across Minneapolis in the weeks since Floyd's Memorial Day death, calling on the city to defund the police. In the neighborhood where Floyd was killed, handmade signs reading "Abolish the Police" dot the landscape.

Yet those calls were met with an equally loud contingent of critics, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and prominent members of the black community, who pressed for a more cautious approach. Some residents, including those living on the city's predominantly black north side, which has suffered a rash of deadly shootings and other violent crime in recent weeks, have argued they need more police, not less, and said they had been left out of the public input process.

"There is no one who does not want real reform in the Minneapolis Police Department," Lisa Clemons, a local activist from the north side who works with the anti-violence group A Mother's Love, wrote on Facebook. She argued trying to enact reform without the input of Medaria Arradondo, the city's first black police chief, and members of the community "just makes no sense."

Yet some have been critical of the outsized role of the charter commission in the effort to enact police reform - complaining the panel's 15 members are appointed by a Hennepin County judge and not elected by Minneapolis residents, thousands of whom submitted public comments in favor of the proposed ballot amendment.

Commissioner Andrea Rubenstein, who chaired a working group that studied the proposal, acknowledged the tensions. While admitting she opposed the effort to dismantle the police department, she argued against delaying consideration of the measure in favor of an "up or down" vote, which would have allowed the city council to put the charter amendment on the ballot for voters to decide.

"If we table it, it feels more like a sleight of hand," Rubinstein said. "It's perfectly true that we lack sufficient information to make an informed decision . . . but an extension to consider it will not help us fill in any missing pieces." But other members rejected her effort.

It was not immediately clear how the city council might proceed. In a call with constituents, Andrea Jenkins, a city council member who represents the South Minneapolis neighborhood where Floyd was killed, said she hoped the council could still find a way to get the issue on the ballot in November. "I think it should be on the ballot so that our neighbors can weigh in," she said.

But it was unclear if the council had any power to challenge the charter commission's delay, which was legally permitted under state law.

In a statement posted on Twitter, city council president Lisa Bender called the commission's vote "disappointing."

"(It) creates barriers to change, but it will not stop our work to re-imagine public safety in Minneapolis," she wrote.
Keller, TX Ribbon Cutting. Pictured left to right: Jay Quintana, CEO; Omar Jenkins, CFO; Marc Sparks, Pres. Patients thrive best when their environment and care far exceeds their expectations in the high quality, modern rehabilitation hospital setting at Everest.

Everest Rehabilitation Hospitals today cut yet another ribbon for the opening of its newest 36 private bed, 41,000 square foot, modern post-acute care rehabilitation hospital in Keller, Texas (N. Ft. Worth) at 791 S. Main Street. The hospital provides comprehensive rehabilitative services and around the clock registered nursing care to patients overcoming a variety of debilitating illnesses and injuries such as stroke and other neurological disorders, brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, amputations, orthopedic and other chronic complex medical conditions.

Jay Quintana, Everest Rehabilitations CEO and co-founder said, While our traditional hospital ribbon cutting festivities are dampened by the Coronavirus; we are ecstatic about opening our fourth identical, 36-bed rehabilitation hospital in Keller, Texas. Our newest Keller, TX location is centrally located in the heart of the fastest growing part of the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex. We look forward to providing exceptional post-acute health care to the communities of Keller, Southlake, Bedford, Ft. Worth, Westlake, Trophy Club, Roanoke, Grapevine, Watauga, Colleyville, North Richland Hills and beyond. Rehabilitation hospitals, like Everest, are extremely valuable to the communities we serve as we complete the continuum of care to get patients home. We whole-heartedly believe that patients thrive best when their environment and care far exceed their expectations in the high energy, high quality, modern hospital setting at Everest.

Omar Jenkins, Everest Rehabilitations CFO and co-founder said, We started looking for a site in this part of the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex over four years ago and finally the perfect five acre site became available after an exhaustive two year search. We are excited to be able to provide one to one physical therapy care to our patients, five to seven days a week in this region. Our strong nurse to patient ratio contributes to optimal outcomes in our post-acute care, naturally lit hospitals.

The hospital project represents a $23 million dollar investment in the community and includes numerous uncommon hospital details akin to a luxury hotel. The project includes spacious, state of the art physical therapy gyms, a large outdoor (park like) mobility courtyard for therapeutic use, a HydroWorx aqua therapy system, a fully furnished Assisted Daily Living apartment where a patient can practice every day activities, several family gathering areas, a large open dining hall, a real therapy car, in-house dialysis and an in-house pharmacy. Everest Rehabilitation hospitals provide interdisciplinary care with physician-led teams of therapists focused on improving a patients quality of life in a modern and naturally lit setting. Each identical 36-private bed Everest Rehabilitation Hospital is carefully designed to expand by 18 additional private rooms. The entire infrastructure (dining, kitchen, parking and mechanical) is already in place for every hospital to support the bed expansion. The Keller, TX physical rehabilitation hospital is a prime location for these room additions.

About Everest Rehabilitation Hospitals, LLC

Everest Rehabilitation Hospitals LLC, based in Dallas, Texas, is a multispecialty acute care physical rehabilitation hospital company focused on providing high quality, physical rehabilitation care. Everest is passionate about patient care; striving to create healing and nurturing environments for all patients that not only meet their medical needs but address their emotional and social needs as well. Patients are guided through the necessary steps to reclaim daily life, recover function, and return to an optimal quality of life by combining the latest treatments, technologies, and research with a unique interdisciplinary team approach involving the patient and family from day one. Everest provides the highest level of care available to patients with disabilities caused by injuries or illnesses, or from traumatic accidents.

http://www.everestrehab.com

Jay Quintana, CEO/ Co-Founder

Jquintana(at)everestrehab.com

469-713-1145
South Korean president is pushing for an end of war declaration, but critics worry it may undermine alliance with US.
It wasn't. "It's like driving a car and swerving to avoid a cat but heading for a group of school children instead," says Major Chris Hunter, a counter-terrorist bomb disposal operator whose missions to Iraq inspired some scenes in the Oscar-winning film The Hurt Locker. "It's a really flawed logic. Of course, remove the material if it is a hazard on the ship. But you've then got to do something with it." Large bags of ammonium nitrate stacked in the warehouse in Beirut. An undated photo shows large bags labelled "Nitroprill" stacked on top of each other inside a warehouse. Chemical giant Orica manufactures a product called Nitropril, with one 'l'. (The difference in spelling suggests the possibility the chemicals in the Beirut warehouse were a knock-off version.)

Distinctive features of the building in the stockpile photo, such as its windows and doors, closely match footage of the warehouse as it burnt on Tuesday. Loading For six years people of Beirut were blissfully unaware of the threat hidden in their own backyard. Warnings about the risk of detonation were ignored. Then, just after 6pm on Tuesday, a combination of ignorance, incompetence and negligence appears to have triggered a major disaster. Somehow, a fire started in the warehouse. The cause of the blaze is not known but it sparked a relatively small blast that sent a grey cloud of smoke into the air. Thirty-five seconds later, a much bigger explosion - believed to be caused by the ignition of the ammonium nitrate - sent a shockwave across the city.

Dozens were killed and more than 5000 injured. The homes of some 300,000 residents may be temporarily uninhabitable. The blast was so powerful that warehouse 12 is now a 140-metre wide crater. The force of the explosion even overturned a nearby cruise ship. "You're looking at 2750-tonnes of ammonium nitrate. That's equivalent to about 1000-tonnes of TNT, so the destructive capability of something like that is huge," says Hunter. "I think it is the biggest explosion outside a military environment that I have certainly seen in my 30-year career." One thousand tonnes of TNT is equivalent to one kilotonne. The nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima, is thought to have been about 13 kilotonnes. Ammonium nitrate is chiefly used as an agricultural fertiliser but can also be an ingredient to make explosives. About two tonnes of it were in the bomb which ripped apart Oklahoma City's Alfred P Murrah Federal Building during the 1995 terrorist attack. It also triggered a 2001 explosion at a factory in the French city of Toulouse which killed 31 people, as well as devastating blasts in Waco, Texas, in 2013 and Tianjin, China, in 2015.

Documents released on Wednesday - the accuracy of which have not been challenged by the Lebanese government - show port officials fired off multiple warnings about the Beirut port stockpile. Most went unanswered. In June 2014, the then director of customs Shafik Merhi sent a letter to an unnamed "Urgent Matters Judge" requesting a solution to the warehouse cargo. Badri Daher, the current director of Lebanese Customs, told television network LBCI on Wednesday that up to half-a-dozen other letters were sent to government officials over the next three years. The letters asked for guidance about the material and raised concerns about its safety. In 2016, one letter said: "In view of the serious danger of keeping these goods in the hangar in unsuitable climatic conditions, we reaffirm our request to please request the marine agency to re-export these goods immediately to preserve the safety of the port and those working in it."
At the ceremony (Photo: VNA)



The medicine, interferon Alfa 2B produced by Cuba, is of special importance in treating the COVID-19 heavy cases. The whole batch was immediately transferred to Da Nang and Quang Nam.

Besides, a group of Cuban health experts has been sent to Vietnam to support the fight.

Speaking at the ceremony, Sen. Lt. Gen. Nguyen Chi Vinh, member of the Party Central Committee and Deputy Defence Minister, expressed gratitude to the Cuban people for their special sentiment to Vietnam, especially in this difficult time, and affirmed that this is a fine tradition in the bilateral solidarity and friendship.

The official also said he hopes for coordination from offices and units in implementing cooperation activities with Cuba in the time to come.

For her part, Cuban Ambassador to Vietnam Lianys Torres Rivera said the handover of the medicine to assist Vietnam in the fight against the pandemic helps affirm the desire to boost bilateral cooperation in the medical and pharmaceutical fields with Vietnam, contributing to the bilateral relations of comprehensive cooperation.

The diplomat expressed her hope that the two sides will continue their efforts to maintain and intensify the fine traditional relations, showing to the world the strength of solidarity and cooperation in effectively fighting the common challenges of the mankind./.
Conducting test for COVID-19 (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi  Vietnam on August 5 afternoon recorded another 41 cases positive to the SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19, according to the National Steering Committee on COVID-19 Prevention and Control.



By 6:00 pm of the day, the country had reported 713 COVID-19 cases, including 309 imported ones that have been quarantined right after their arrival, and 264 new cases related to the central city of Da Nang since July 25.



The committee further said that also on the day, three COVID-19 patients were given the all-clear in the northern province of Ninh Binh. With this, the number of the cases in this group rose to 381 out of the 713, or 53.4 percent of the total.



The COVID-19 fatalities in Vietnam stood at eight.



Among the patients being treated, 22 have tested negative for the virus once and 11 others at least twice.



Currently 1,565 people are being quarantined at hospitals, 20,645 at other concentrated facilities, and 97,831 others at home.
Figure 1

Map of Wahgnion Gold Project

Map of Wahgnion Gold Project

Revised production schedule reflects higher plant throughput capability; raising 2020 guidance



(All amounts are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated)

TORONTO, Aug. 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Teranga Gold Corporation (Teranga or the Company) (TSX: TGZ) (OTCQX: TGCDF) is pleased to report an updated life of mine (LOM) plan and new 2020 guidance for its Wahgnion Gold Operation (Wahgnion), located in southwest Burkina Faso, West Africa.

Since achieving commercial production on November 1, 2019, Wahgnions processing plant has performed approximately 25% above nameplate capacity for throughput and gold recovery, resulting in higher than planned production. As such, Teranga has updated the LOM plan to accommodate the higher plant throughput capability, increasing Wahgnions average annual production by 25% and reducing the mine life to 10 years. With a goal of extending the mine life to 15 years, Teranga has commenced a multi-year drilling and exploration campaign around three of the existing deposit areas and at more than a dozen promising targets at Wahgnion.

Teranga has also increased Wahgnions 2020 guidance for gold production to between 150,000 and 165,000 ounces, up from earlier guidance of 130,000 to 140,000 ounces. The higher guidance for 2020 is based on mill throughput of between 3.0Mtpa and 3.2Mtpa and total material movement of between 22Mtpa and 26Mtpa.

The updated life of mine plan is very good news for Wahgnion, and for Teranga overall, said Richard Young, President and CEO. With production averaging about 150,000 ounces of gold per year through 2025 at reasonable costs and at current gold prices, we expect to generate significantly more net cash flow from Wahgnion in the coming years, compared to the original feasibility study.

Mr. Young added: The Wahgnion update further demonstrates our teams exploration, development and operating expertise, which we will leverage at the newly integrated Sabodala-Massawa complex and across our pipeline of early to advanced stage exploration properties in West Africa.

Story continues

Updated Wahgnion LOM Highlights

Annual 5-year Average

(2021-2025) Annual Life of Mine Average

(2020-2030) Gold production 149,000 oz 138,000 oz Mill grade 1.67 g/t 1.59 g/t Plant throughput 3.0Mtpa 2.9Mtpa All-in sustaining costs (AISC) per ounce (1)(2) $920 $1,007 Net cash flow (2)* $83M $64M

* Net cash flow after minority interest



Year-to-date, total gold recovered in the plant is reconciling well to reserve models following a minor negative reconciliation to reserves in 2019 due to the impact of historic artisanal activities and start-up conditions during plant commissioning. As of December 31, 2019, Wahgnion had a proven and probable reserve base of 1.55 million ounces (30.32 Mt at 1.59 g/t Au at $1,250 gold) and measured and indicated resources of 2.37 million ounces (49.62 Mt at 1.49 g/t Au at $1,500 gold).

We are extremely pleased with the results of the Wahgnion life of mine plan update, with the confirmation of sustainable higher plant throughput rates and the corresponding increase in production, said Paul Chawrun, Chief Operating Officer. We are also confident in Wahgnions potential to increase resources and ultimately reserves in the coming years. Our reserve development drill program will focus on Nogbele, Fourkoura and Stinger, which are all near-mill deposits that demonstrate room for expansion, as well as at over a dozen regional prospects that have undergone limited drilling and present further upside.

Wahgnions priority exploration prospects demonstrate favourable lithology and structural characteristics with positive geochemical and geophysical signatures similar to the known deposits comprising the current reserve base.

Project Return Sensitivity Analysis (2)

(In US$ Millions)

Gold Price $/oz $1,500/oz $1,600/oz $1,700/oz $1,800/oz After-tax NPV 0% $ millions $583 $695 $808 $920 After-tax NPV 5% $ millions $476 $566 $656 $746 After-tax after minority interest NPV 0% $ millions $561 $662 $762 $863 After-tax after minority interest NPV 5% $ millions $461 $543 $625 $707

Updated Wahgnion LOM Mine Plan

The mine plan for Wahgnion focuses on open-pit mining of four initial gold deposits within the mine lease, which includes the Nogbele, Fourkoura, Stinger and Samavogo deposits (see Figure 1 in Appendix).

The Wahgnion processing plant is adjacent to the Nogbele deposit, which contains approximately 50% of total mineral reserves. The Fourkoura, Stinger, and Samavogo deposits are each located within 25 kilometres of the plant.

Mining Plan Unit Total 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 Total Ore Mt 29.7 2.8 2.9 2.9 3.1 3.1 2.9 3.0 2.6 2.7 2.8 1.0 Total Ore Grade g/t 1.60 1.74 1.86 1.35 1.76 1.76 1.66 1.32 1.45 1.49 1.50 1.89 Total Waste Mt 247.7 19.4 17.4 17.2 24.0 28.6 28.1 29.2 26.4 29.6 24.1 3.7 Total Movement Mt 277.4 22.2 20.3 20.1 27.1 31.7 31.0 32.2 29.0 32.4 26.8 4.7 Total Tonnes: Oxide % 43 68 47 36 64 60 32 41 30 42 20 0 Total Tonnes: Transition % 13 14 22 12 13 11 11 25 12 12 3 0 Total Tonnes: Fresh % 44 18 31 52 23 29 56 34 58 46 77 100 Nogbele Movement Mt 131.4 22.2 12.0 5.2 11.4 10.2 10.7 25.6 17.7 7.8 8.6 Fourkoura Movement Mt 21.3 8.2 13.0 Samavogo Movement Mt 62.6 1.9 15.7 9.6 11.4 6.6 11.3 6.1 Stinger Movement Mt 62.2 11.9 8.9 18.4 18.3 4.7 Processing Plan Unit Total 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 Total Ore Mt 30.3 3.0 3.0 2.9 3.0 3.1 2.9 3.0 2.8 2.9 2.8 1.0 Total Grade g/t 1.59 1.73 1.84 1.35 1.76 1.75 1.66 1.32 1.39 1.43 1.50 1.89 Ounces Processed Moz 1.5 0.17 0.18 0.12 0.17 0.18 0.15 0.13 0.13 0.13 0.13 0.06 Ounces Recovered Moz 1.4 0.15 0.16 0.11 0.16 0.16 0.14 0.12 0.12 0.12 0.12 0.05 Oxide % 34 60 33 25 44 50 30 31 20 34 20 0

Operating Costs(2)

Operating costs include all direct costs for the production of gold dore. The estimates are based on annual rates determined in the mining schedule with ore delivery from the Wahgnion pits.

Unit mining costs have increased by approximately 20 cents per tonne, compared to the National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (NI 43-101) amended technical report on Wahgnion dated July 31, 2019 (the Report). Cost increases are due to the change in the composition of the mobile equipment fleet to accommodate more challenging than expected ground conditions in the oxide zones of the pits, as well as extending contractors to increase the mining rate to accommodate the higher mill throughput. Unit processing costs are marginally lower than those set out in the Report, while general and administrative costs are higher than those in the Report by $1.30 per tonne milled, largely due to additional security costs. Overall, total gold production and recovery rates are in line with the Report. Total capital, including development and sustaining capital, has increased by approximately $30 million due to additional mobile equipment required to move approximately 25% more material annually.

Unit LOM Average Cost Open Pit Mining $/tonne mined 2.40 Processing $/tonne milled 11.40 General and Admin $/tonne milled 5.40

General and administrative costs consist of site office costs, insurance, financial costs (banking charges, legal fees, etc.), refining and transportation costs and personnel costs.

Notes for LOM Production Schedule

(1) Based on the mineral reserves estimates as at December 31, 2019.

(2) Proven and probable mineral reserves are based on a $1,250/oz gold price.

(3) Sum of individual amounts may not equal due to rounding.

Endnotes

(1) The Company has included non-IFRS measures in this document, including total cash costs, total cash costs per ounce, AISC, and AISC per ounce. The Company believes that these measures, in addition to conventional measures prepared in accordance with IFRS, provide investors an improved ability to evaluate the underlying performance of the Company. The non-IFRS measures are intended to provide additional information and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS. These measures do not have any standardized meaning prescribed under IFRS, and therefore may not be comparable to other issuers. Total cash costs figures are calculated in accordance with a standard developed by The Gold Institute, which was a worldwide association of suppliers of gold and gold products and included leading North American gold producers. The Gold Institute ceased operations in 2002, but the standard is considered the accepted standard of reporting cash cost of production in North America. Adoption of the standard is voluntary and the cost measures presented may not be comparable to other similarly titled measure of other companies. Total cash cost per ounce sold is a common financial performance measure in the gold mining industry but has no standard meaning under IFRS. The Company reports total cash costs on a sales basis. We believe that, in addition to conventional measures prepared in accordance with IFRS, certain investors use this information to evaluate the Companys performance and ability to generate cash flow. Accordingly, it is intended to provide additional information and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS. The measure, along with sales, is considered to be a key indicator of a Companys ability to generate operating profits and cash flow from its mining operations.

Beginning in the second quarter 2013, we adopted an AISC measure consistent with the guidance issued by the World Gold Council (WGC) on June 27, 2013, of which Teranga became a member on November 27, 2018. The Company believes that the use of AISC is helpful to analysts, investors and other stakeholders of the Company in assessing its operating performance, its ability to generate net cash flow from current operations and its overall value. This measure is helpful to governments and local communities in understanding the economics of gold mining. AISC is an extension of existing cash cost metrics and incorporate costs related to sustaining production. The WGC definition of AISC seeks to extend the definition of total cash costs by adding corporate general and administrative costs, reclamation and remediation costs (including accretion and amortization), exploration and study costs (capital and expensed), capitalized stripping costs and sustaining capital expenditures and represents the total costs of producing gold from current operations. AISC excludes income tax payments, interest costs, costs related to business acquisitions and items needed to normalize profits. Consequently, this measure is not representative of all of the Companys cash expenditures. In addition, the calculation of AISC does not include depreciation expense as it does not reflect the impact of expenditures incurred in prior periods. Therefore, it is not indicative of the Companys overall profitability. Life of mine total cash costs and AISC used in this press release are before cash/non-cash inventory movements, and exclude any allocation of corporate overheads. Other companies may calculate this measure differently.

For more information regarding these measures, please refer to Terangas Managements Discussion and Analysis for the three months ended March 31, 2020 accessible on the Companys website at www.terangagold.com .

(2) Life of mine assumptions include:

Gold price: $1,600 per ounce

Heavy fuel oil (HFO): $0.72 per litre

Light fuel oil (LFO): $1.04 per litre

Euro to USD Exchange Rate: 1.10:1

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain statements that constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws (forward-looking statements), which reflects management's expectations regarding Terangas future growth opportunities, results of operations, performance (both operational and financial) and business prospects (including the timing and development of new deposits and the success of exploration activities) and other opportunities. Wherever possible, words such as plans, expects, does not expect, scheduled, trends, indications, potential, estimates, predicts, anticipate, to establish, does not anticipate, "believe, "intend, ability to and similar expressions or statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might, will, or are likely to be taken, occur or be achieved, have been used to identify such forward looking information. Specific forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements and information with respect to Wahgnions life of mine plan, financial and operational results, ore production and the capital and operating costs in respect thereof, proposed operational changes and the timing thereof, future opportunities for enhancing development at Wahgnion, and timing for the release of the Companys disclosure. Although the forward-looking information contained in this press release reflect managements current beliefs based upon information currently available to management and based upon what management believes to be reasonable assumptions, Teranga cannot be certain that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking information. Such forward-looking statements are based upon assumptions, opinions and analysis made by management in light of its experience, current conditions and its expectations of future developments that management believe to be reasonable and relevant but that may prove to be incorrect. These assumptions include, among other things, the closing and timing of financing, the ability to obtain any requisite governmental approvals, the accuracy of mineral reserve and mineral resource estimates, gold price, exchange rates, fuel and energy costs, future economic conditions, anticipated future estimates of net cash flow, and courses of action. Teranga cautions you not to place undue reliance upon any such forward-looking statements.

About Teranga

Teranga Gold is transitioning into a mid-tier gold producer operating long-life, low-cost mines and advancing prospective exploration properties across West Africa, one of the worlds fastest growing gold jurisdictions. The top-tier gold complex created by integrating the recently acquired high-grade Massawa Project with the Companys Sabodala mine, the successful commissioning of Wahgnion, Terangas second gold mine, and a strong pipeline of early to advanced-stage exploration assets support the continued growth of Terangas reserves, production and cash flow. Through its continued success and commitment to responsible mining, Teranga creates sustainable value for all stakeholders and acts as a catalyst for social, economic, and environmental development.

Contact Information

Richard Young

President & CEO

T: +1 416-594-0000 | E: ryoung@terangagold.com Trish Moran

VP, Investor Relations & Corporate Communications

T: +1 416-607-4507 | E: tmoran@terangagold.com

Figure 1  Map of Wahgnion



https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/eb0849dc-ae9e-432c-b24e-20646572c224

Table A  Life of Mine Cash Flow(2)

Unit LOM 2020+ 5-Year Average

2021-2025 LOM Average 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 Production koz 1,429 149 138 154 163 115 162 164 141 117 117 124 120 53 - Gold Price $/oz 1,600 1,600 1,600 1,600 1,600 1,600 1,600 1,600 1,600 1,600 1,600 1,600 1,600 1,600 - Revenue USDM 2,306 241 223 252 274 183 259 262 226 188 187 199 193 84 - Total Cash Cost (3) USDM 1,297 124 126 122 117 115 121 130 137 128 131 130 125 41 - Capex USDM 143 14 14 19 5 17 15 17 15 15 18 11 6 6 - Regional Admin USDM 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 - All-in Sustaining Costs (AISC) USDM 1,451 138 140 143 123 132 137 148 152 144 150 142 132 48 - All-in Sustaining Costs (AISC) (3) $/oz 1,007 920 1,007 908 717 1,154 846 906 1,079 1,229 1,288 1,141 1,092 917 - Development Capex USDM 29 2 3 18 5 3 2 2 0 - - - - - - Cash Flow Before Taxes,

Mine Closure and Other USDM 825 100 80 91 146 49 120 112 73 43 36 57 61 36 - Taxes, Mine Closure, and Other (4) USDM 130 15 13 13 10 13 7 22 22 15 12 11 14 (9) (0) Net Cash Flow USDM 695 85 67 78 137 36 113 90 51 28 24 46 48 45 0 Minority Interest USDM 34 2 3 - - - - 1 9 5 3 2 5 5 4 Cash Flow After Minority Interest USDM 662 83 64 78 137 36 113 90 42 23 21 44 43 40 (4)







Table B  Life of Mine Operating Costs(2)

Unit LOM 2020+ 5-Year

Average

2021-2025 LOM

Average 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 Open Pit Mining USD/t mined 2.4 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.5 2.7 2.1 2.1 2.4 2.1 2.4 2.1 2.6 4.1 Processing CIL USD/t milled 11.4 11.2 11.4 11.6 11.2 11.7 10.9 10.6 11.4 11.2 11.8 11.1 11.9 12.6 General & Admin. USD/t milled 5.4 5.4 5.4 6.2 5.4 5.6 5.3 5.2 5.6 5.4 5.7 5.5 3.7 5.3 Mining USDM 654 60 63 56 51 54 56 66 74 67 70 70 70 19 Processing CIL USDM 346 33 33 35 34 33 33 33 33 34 33 33 33 12 General & Admin USDM 161 16 16 18 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 10 5 Refining & Freight USDM 5 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 By-product Credits USDM (3) (0) (0) (0) (0) (0) (0) (0) (0) (0) (0) (0) (0) (0) Total Operating Costs USDM 1,162 110 112 109 101 104 106 115 123 117 120 118 113 36 Capitalized Deferred Stripping (1) USDM (2) - (0) (2) - - - - - - - - - - Royalties (2) USDM 137 14 13 15 16 11 15 16 13 11 11 12 11 5 Total Cash Costs(3) USDM 1,297 124 126 122 117 115 121 130 137 128 131 130 125 41 Total Cash Costs(3) USD/oz 900 824 900 778 685 1,000 749 796 968 1,089 1,122 1,047 1,036 786 Sustaining Capex USDM 142 14 14 17 5 17 15 17 15 15 18 11 6 6 Capitalized Deferred Stripping (1) USDM 2 - 0 2 - - - - - - - - - - Regional Admin USDM 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 All-In Sustaining Costs (AISC) USDM 1,451 138 140 143 123 132 137 148 152 144 150 142 132 48 AISC USD/oz 1,007 920 1,007 908 717 1,154 846 906 1,079 1,229 1,288 1,141 1,092 917 Development Capex USDM 29 2 3 18 5 3 2 2 0 - - - - -

Notes to Tables A and B above:

(1) Excludes any capitalized deferred stripping adjustments beyond 2020.

(2) Royalties include royalties on total production payable to both the Government of Burkina Faso and a privately held Company.

(3) Total cash costs per ounce and all-in sustaining costs per ounce are non-IFRS financial measures and do not have a standard meaning under IFRS. Total cash costs per ounce and all-in sustaining costs per ounce are before cash/non-cash inventory movements, and excludes allocation of corporate overheads. Please refer to non-IFRS Performance Measures.

(4) Taxes, mine closure and other includes income taxes paid to the Government of Burkina Faso, government social fund, working capital, closure cost payments, and plant residual value. Sustainability costs and exploration costs are not included.

(5) Sum of individual amounts may not equal due to rounding.








At a meeting chaired by Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine - Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Oleksiy Reznikov, executive authorities coordinated their approaches to the strategy of de-occupation of Crimea.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said this at an online briefing on Thursday, August 6, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"Yesterday, under the chairmanship of Vice Prime Minister - Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Oleksiy Reznikov, a meeting was held at which the executive authorities coordinated their positions and approaches to the strategy of de-occupation of Crimea. The work on this issue does not stop. We have decided on further actions in order to synchronize and unite all positions and materials from the executive authorities. First of all, we are talking about the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Reintegration and the representative body of the President of Ukraine in Crimea," Kuleba said.

According to Kuleba, such a document will be submitted to the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC). "We will prepare a consolidated document and submit it to the National Security and Defense Council for involvement in a common strategy document, which will finally be adopted," the minister said.

As Ukrinform reported, Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Anton Korynevych drew attention to the need to develop a strategy for de-occupation and reintegration of the temporarily occupied territories. Such a strategy is urgently needed, he said. After all, it is already the seventh year of the occupation of Crimea, and Ukraine still does not have a consolidated strategy to regain control over the peninsula. At the same time, Korynevych noted that a great part of this strategy should be closed and secret, especially information relating to security issues.

ish
MANISTEE COUNTY  When Manistee County last went to the polls on May 5, county clerk Jill Nowak had urged residents to consider voting by absentee ballot, for the safety of both voters and poll workers.

While some restrictions have been eased in northern Michigan since the May 5 election, the coronavirus pandemic continues and absentee voting has remained high.

Our absentee ballot count was up, Nowak reported. Last week when I ran the report, we had 30% of registered voters were sent absentee ballots.

Michigan law allows absent voting for any reason should a voter follow the necessary procedures when requesting a ballot.

The Michigan Secretary of States office reported that 1.6 million votes were cast using absent voter ballots  more than any other election in the states history.

Nowak said there was also an increase in voter turnout compared to some previous primary elections, with 36.72% of registered voters casting their ballots.

The primaries seem to not be as well-attended as the general, Nowak said. I looked at 2016, the last primary we had in a Presidential year, and it was 29.12%. I was pleased with the 36.72%  even though it still seems low  it's better than it has been.

Despite any challenges posed by the ongoing pandemic, Nowak felt the election ran smoothly.

Actually it went really well, Nowak said. We were prepared. We had a lot of PPEs in precincts we received from the Bureau of Elections. We had gloves and masks and hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes. Some of the clerks had got sneeze guards, and they practiced social distancing.

Nowak reported that some of the smaller precincts may have experienced some delay due in part to coronavirus precautions.

There were a few lines Ive seen in the smaller precincts where they dont have the room to spread out a lot of voting booths so they may have had fewer voting booths so they could social distance them, she said. But everyone was very polite and very respectful and totally understands the situation were in.

While residents were not required to wear masks while voting, Nowak said that a majority still opted to wear them.

We cant deny anyone the right to vote ... because they werent wearing a mask, Nowak said. The local clerks said that pretty much everybody was wearing masks. They were abiding by that anyway even though it was just strongly recommended, it wasnt required. So that was good to hear.

The votes, including write-ins, had not been officially certified by the Manistee County Board of Canvassers as of press time Thursday.
A mother has shared incredible photos of her 'miracle' baby girl who weighed just 1 pound, 2 ounces when she was born four months before her November 16 due date.

Lura Lauer, 28, and her fiance Ricky Garcia, 39, from Charlotte, North Carolina, welcomed twins Lyric Elaine and Cali Rose on July 15 after she went into premature labor 22 weeks and two days into her pregnancy.

Speaking with The Sun, the mom said the micro-preemies were both given a 10 per cent survival rate. Cali tragically died two days after she was born, but their surviving daughter Lyric has been defying the odds and is now three weeks old.

Miracle baby: Lyric Elaine Garcia weighed 1 pound, 2 ounces when she was born at 22 weeks and two days, four months before her November 16 due date

'Every challenge shes faced thus far, shes been kicking a**,' Lauer said of her baby girl. 'Shes such a little fighter and the nurses and doctors have been taking great care of her.

'Theyve been very vigilant and proactive, everything thats popped up theyve caught quickly,' she added. 'The doctors exact words were, "She is amazing us every day." She is truly a miracle.'

While sharing her story with The Sun, she explained that she found out she was pregnant in March and learned she was having twins during her first appointment with her gynecologist.

The yoga teacher said she was sick all day, every day for her entire first trimester of pregnancy and much of her second.

She was around 20 weeks pregnant when she started experiencing contractions but thought they were Braxton Hicks, 'false labor' pains that are common in pregnancy.

Lauer said her doctor assured her the contractions were probably Braxton Hicks when she had a check-up on July 14 and was told she could continue her yoga practice.

After class that evening, the contractions worsened to the point that she couldn't sleep. She said she spent the night crying in pain.

Lauer and Garcia called the hospital the next morning and was asked to time her contractions to see how frequent they were. Once she said they were 'one right after another,' she was told to come in immediately.

Incredible: Lyric's mother, Lura Lauer, has shared photos of her 'little fighter' after welcoming twins on July 15. Lyric's sister, Cali Rose Garcia, died two days after she was born

The couple went to their local hospital, Novant Health Huntersville Medical Center, where they learned she was already 3 centimeters dilated. She was given medicine to stop the contractions before speaking with neonatal doctor.

'He told us the hospital we were at do not resuscitate if you give birth to a baby at less than 24 weeks,' she recalled. 'He said if I was to give birth that day, I would have to say goodbye because theyre not viable at that age.

'They said they didnt have the capability to care for babies that young. It felt like a nightmare.'

They decided to transfer to the Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center in Charlotte, which was just 15 minutes away, because it had a more advanced neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

Lauer said she was supposed to take medication to stop her contractions every six hours, but seven had already passed when she got to the hospital.

Her contractions had worsened by the time she got the medicine at 7 p.m. She was 6 centimeters dilated and in labor.

Lyric was born less than an hour later at 7:53 p.m. and 'came out with one push.' Cali arrived the same way three minutes later, weighing 1 pound, 1 ounce  an ounce less than her sister. They were both only 11 inches long.

'I heard both of them cry and they both were breathing, which was a good sign, but they were immediately rushed out of the room, before I got to hold them,' she said.

Looking back: Lauer, 28, and her fiance Ricky Garcia, 39, found out she was pregnant in March and were surprised to learn they were having twins

Critical condition: Cali had severe brain hemorrhaging and suffered more complications than her sister, who is now three weeks old

Lauer was grateful to have her fiance with her, which wouldn't have been possible a few months ago because of COVID-19 restrictions. Although they knew their daughters were in critical condition, they hoped they'd beat the odds.

She said that two days after she gave birth, the doctor told them that Cali had two brain hemorrhages that were both grade 4, the most severe, and was declining.

They were told she was in pain, and if they kept her on a ventilator and life support, she would be suffering. With all of the complications, it was unlikely she would ever live a normal life.

'It was one of the hardest things Ive ever had to decide,' she said. 'But Ricky and I didnt want to be selfish and didnt want her to suffer, so we made the decision to take her off the ventilator.'

Lauer said she and Garcia kissed their daughter and held her close as she took her last breath.

'Im a very spiritual person and I lost my mother when I was young, so I told her to go with her grandmother,' she said, adding: 'I recently spoke to a psychic medium, who told me Cali sacrificed herself for her sister.'

Lyric, who had a grade 1 brain hemorrhage, started showing improvement after her sister passed away and has had few complications aside from some necessary procedures.

Amazing moment: Lauer was able to hold Lyric for the first time when she was two and a half weeks old

Devoted parents: Lauer and Garcia are determined to bring their baby girl home one day

According to the mom, the infant has had surgery to insert a tube to drain her perforated intestine. She also had a tube inserted to treat her collapsed lung.

Lauer was able to hold her daughter for the first time two and a half weeks after her birth. She shared a photo of the emotional moment on Instagram on Sunday, saying an 'immense peace fell over [her]' when they put Lyric in her arms.

'I was holding my baby girl and she was holding me,' she wrote in the caption. 'I prayed for this moment. I didnt want it to end. I didnt want to let her go. But the moment came and went, and soon after she was placed back into her incubator.'

'Shes still got a long fight ahead of her,' she added. 'Every day brings new challenges for her and she is bravely taking on each one ... I have to let go of my fears and keep my faith strong. We WILL bring her home one day. We WILL get to hold her close and sing her to sleep. We WILL tell her the story of how she is a miracle from God! I know it in my heart.'

Babies who are born before 26 weeks, like Lyric, are considered micro-preemies. They experience more medical problems than preemies born later, including brain bleeding and poor heart function, but it's possible for them to fully recover.

In 2014, Lyla Stensrud broke the record for the earliest premature baby in the world to survive after she was born at 21 weeks and fours days. She is now six years old and continues to thrive.

The record was previously held by James Elgin Gil, who was 21 weeks and five days premature when he was born in 1987. He has since grown to be a healthy adult.

'Since I posted her pictures on social media, I've had mums from all over the world, from Istanbul to Canada, reach out with stories of 22 weekers surviving and thriving,' Lauer told The Sun.

'It just baffles me that so many hospitals dont resuscitate at that age, because it is absolutely possible for a baby to survive.

'I think Lyric is an example that  even when the doctors are unsure  hope, faith, determination, and love are such powerful energies. I believe that's what's keeping our daughter alive,' she added.

'This is why I wanted to share her story. Lyric is an inspiration to me and to so many other people.'

The couple's family started a GoFundMe for Lyric's medical expenses and Cali's memorial and have already raised over $16,000.
When Mahinda Rajapaksa was vanquished in Sri Lanka's presidential elections in 2015, many thought the shrewd leader, known for his brutal military campaign against the Tamil Tigers, was a spent force.

But five years later, the 74-year-old leader is back at the top in Sri Lankan politics along with his three siblings, winning the general elections held on Wednesday.

However, it has not been a smooth sailing for Rajapaksa, a veteran street-fighter politician who entered Parliament when he was just 24. After losing the seat in 1977, he focused on his law career until reentering Parliament in 1989.

Rajapaksa served as labour minister (1994-2001) and minister of fisheries and aquatic resources (1997-2001) under President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who appointed him as prime minister after the general election of April 2004, when the United People's Freedom Alliance, a coalition led by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, won a majority in Parliament.

He was chosen as the Sri Lanka Freedom Party's presidential nominee in November 2005. Shortly after his victory in the election, Rajapaksa announced his intention to crush the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which had established a de facto government in northern Sri Lanka.

Ending the nearly 30-year-long bloody civil war with the LTTE, where all his predecessors had failed, Rajapaksa became a hero and used it to return to power with a thumping win in 2010, leading to political analysts labelling him "a man with a midas touch."

Rajapaksa had acknowledged a number of times that his crowning moment in his over four-decade political career was the victory against Tamil Tigers.

However, he was accused of condoning sexual violence and extrajudicial killings allegedly by Lankan security forces during the civil war, which ended in May 2009 with the killing of LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran. He was also accused of approving a crackdown on dissent, and his supporters are alleged to have been involved in the murder of journalists who were critical of the government.

During his presidency from 2005 to 2015, Rajapaksa consolidated his position. The Constitution was changed to allow him to serve a third term, and his three brothers - Gotabaya, Basil and Chamal - were awarded influential positions, leading to accusations that he was running the country like a family firm.

His domestic popularity appeared to wane during 2014 because of rising prices and concerns of corruption and abuse of power, and, in an attempt to secure another presidential term before losing support, he again called for an early presidential poll. But his political gamble backfired and he was defeated in the elections in 2015. Maithripala Sirisena, formerly a member of Rajapaksa's cabinet, defeated him and was sworn in as president.

During his tenure as president, Rajapaksa concluded several deals with China, raising concerns in India and the West.

Critics say it was due to Rajapaksa that the country has fallen into the "Chinese debt trap". The strategic Hambantota port, which was funded by a Chinese loan during his regime, was leased to Beijing on a 99-year debt-for-equity swap in 2017 after the country failed to pay off the debt.

In 2015, Parliament restored a constitutional two-term limit on the presidency barring Rajapaksa from contesting again. In August, Rajapaksa was elected to Parliament.

After their defeat in 2015, the Rajapaksas were battling arrests and corruption cases in court. There were scores of cases filed against them for alleged misappropriation and the cases are still pending.

Three years later, Rajapaksa was briefly appointed as the prime minister in October, 2018 by then President Sirisena, who sacked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in a controversial move that plunged the country into an constitutional crisis. Rajapaksa resigned on December 15 after the Supreme Court declared that the dissolution of Parliament by Sirisena was "illegal".

Later, Rajapaksa and his supporters in Parliament defected from the ruling party and joined the SLPP, founded by his brother Basil, and he formally became the Leader of the Opposition.

The Easter bombings on April 21, 2019 that killed more than 250 people was a turning point in Sri Lankan politics as the then government appeared to have failed to act though it had advance intelligence report of an impending terror attack.

The SLPP led by the Rajalaksas lambasted the government of President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe for the failure on the security front. The SLPP also announced the presidential candidacy of Rajapaksa's brother Gotabhaya, who had served as his defence minister in the final years of the civil war against the LTTE.

The brother-duo promised security to Sri Lankans who became worried about Islamic extremism in the Buddhist-majority country. Gotabhaya won the presidential election in 2019, resulting in reversal of the fortunes for the Rajapaksa clan.

After becoming President, Gotabaya appointed Rajapaksa as the prime minister of the caretaker cabinet until the general election in August 2020.

Rajapaksa visited New Delhi in February on his first official visit abroad after being appointed to the office. During his visit, Rajapaksa met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discussed a range of key bilateral issues, including trade, defence and security.

The massive victory of the powerful Rajapaksa family-run party in the August 5 election will allow them to amend the Constitution to restore presidential powers and tighten their grip on political power.
They left Bachelor In Paradise together on Monday night's episode, but Brittany Hockley has since revealed that Timm Hanly completely 'ghosted her' once they returned from Fiji.

Appearing on the podcast The Babble on Thursday, the 32-year-old revealed Timm's last words to her.

Brittany claimed that the 27-year-old was on 'a high' when they left Paradise and that he was 'so happy to be with me.'

Final farewell: Brittany Hockley has opened up about being 'ghosted' by Timm Hanly after they finished filming Bachelor In Paradise

'I remember him just saying, he would like grab my face, saying: "You're literally my ride or die." He just kept saying it, "You're my ride or die. I'm gonna love you so hard,"' Brittany said.

'I didn't think I'd ever be with someone like Timm, but I was like "This is it. We're going to have this weird and wonderful relationship."

'And then um, as you may have heard, it lasted for about 6.4 days.'

Better times: Brittany explained that Timm was on 'a high' when they left Paradise, but shortly after he gave her the flick

The radiographer told 10Play following the episode that Timm became a 'different person' after leaving the show and he 'blocked her on everything'.

'I was so disappointed, so exasperated by the whole thing,' she said.

'I just thought this speaks volumes. I'm still trying to look out for you and you can't even give me the time of day.'

Ghosted: The radiographer told 10Play following the episode that Timm became a 'different person' after leaving the show

However, speaking on The Babble, she revealed that they have since spoken to each other and Timm has made amends.

'We had a chat through the show and I basically was really honest and just said, "You really hurt me and you embarrassed me" and he apologised,' Brittany said.

'He said, "If I could go back and handle it differently, I would. I've learnt a lot and I don't know why I did what I did, and I was just in a bad head space."'
Her credibility, particularly in the HIV-AIDS community, has taken an enormous hit in the last five months, said Mitchell Warren, the executive director of AVAC, a global advocacy group fighting to end HIV/AIDS, who has worked closely with Birx. She is absolutely data driven, so it is incredibly disappointing to see her coordinating a national response which has not at all been best in class, but has been a disaster on many levels.
Multiple Saugus police officers who were wounded Thursday morning in a stabbing are expected to survive, authorities said.

Three officers were stabbed or slashed by a suspect with a knife shortly after 7:20 a.m. while responding to a call at 29 Tuttle St., Massachusetts State Police spokesperson David Procopio said.

They were all taken to Massachusetts General Hospital with injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening. A fourth officer was taken to the hospital for precautionary reasons, according to procopio.

In a statement, Saugus police said the person accused of stabbing the officers was taken into custody, and there is no danger to the community.

The suspect, who was identified as an adult male, was taken to MelroseWakefield Hospital, Procopio said. Authorities did not disclose the extent of the mans injuries.

The investigation into the incident will be led by state police, according to Procopio. Patrols and a state police chemist were sent to the scene to help.
The principle of religious freedom is important to most Americans. But as President Donald Trump touts his support for it during his reelection bid, there are notable fault lines among people of different faiths and political ideologies over what it truly means.

About 8 in 10 Americans said religious freedom issues are at least somewhat important to them, with 55% saying they are very important, according to a newly released poll conducted by The University of Chicago Divinity School and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

While 35% of U.S. adults overall said they believe their own religious freedom is threatened at least somewhat, conservatives were more likely than liberals to say so. Across the largest U.S. religious denominations, evangelical Protestants were especially likely to perceive risks to their freedom to worship.

A divide over religious freedom for Muslims was particularly apparent in the poll. About half of Americans said U.S. Muslims freedom to worship is threatened at least somewhat, including 7 in 10 atheists and agnostics, about 6 in 10 Catholics, and about half of white mainline and nonwhite Protestants. Only about 3 in 10 white evangelicals, however, said Muslim Americans religious freedom is at least somewhat threatened.

The polls findings suggest that, as Trump leans into religious freedom as a touchstone of his outreach to devout voters, conservatives and evangelicals who make up the core of his base hold distinctly different perspectives on the topic than other Americans. Whether those divergent views can be joined and harnessed to make progress on the issue for a wide variety of faiths remains an open question.

No ones religious freedom is an island, and if the government is empowered to take religious freedom away from Muslims or other religious minorities, the government is going to be empowered to take away religious freedom from other religious groups, said Luke Goodrich, senior counsel at the nonpartisan Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.

Becket has racked up legal victories for Christian clients, including last months Supreme Court ruling that upheld the ability of religious schools and other institutions to make certain employment decisions without facing discrimination claims.

But the nonprofit firm represents members of all faiths, and its vitally important, for the health of religious freedom over the long term, that Americans care for religious freedom for those with whom they deeply disagree, Goodrich said.

In the poll, 77% of liberals said Muslims freedoms were threatened at least somewhat, compared with 32% of conservatives. Liberals also were roughly three times more likely than conservatives to perceive threats to atheists and Buddhists, and somewhat more likely to perceive threats to Jews, 56% to 41%.

By contrast, by roughly two to one, more conservatives than liberals said evangelical Protestants, Catholics and other Christians face threats to their religious freedom.

Andrew Lewis, an associate political science professor at the University of Cincinnati who focuses on religion, said a polarization of religious freedom has developed over the past two decades, with potentially negative consequences.

Religious freedom has always been a contested question in America, Lewis said, but the fact that its entered into our politically partisan landscape is bad for thinking about how we protect the rights of people.

The poll was conducted in February, before the coronavirus wreaked havoc in the country, but has not been made public until now. Some of its findings have resonated more sharply since the pandemic began.

For example, 46% of evangelicals said their religious freedom was under threat, compared with 27% of mainline Protestants, 36% of Catholics and 40% of Americans affiliated with other religions.

Another UChicago Divinity School/AP-NORC poll conducted in the early weeks of the pandemic found white evangelicals were particularly likely to say in-person worship should be allowed in some form, and 46% said that barring those services would violate religious freedom.

David Nirenberg, dean of The University of Chicago Divinity School, pointed to communications bubbles in certain faith communities that often reinforce to believers the assertion that their religious liberty is imperiled.

Were seeing some of that now mobilized again in the public health response to the virus, Nirenberg added, including restrictions on in-person worship and other behavior that are represented in some of those same communities as an attack on their religious liberties.

Trumps reelection campaign has appealed to evangelicals in part by seeking to portray Democrats as opponents of religious freedom, with surrogates often citing state and local restrictions on in-person worship during the pandemic.

Religious freedom lawyer Asma Uddin connected the polls finding that evangelicals are less likely than other groups to believe Muslims freedom to worship is threatened to their broader perspective on religious freedom.

Evangelicals can view religious freedom essentially as a shield to protect the in group, added Uddin, a fellow at the Aspen Institute think tank. As a result, it becomes something you cant defend for the out group.

However, the polls findings of a gulf in perceptions about religious freedom wasnt limited to evangelicals. About half of atheists and agnostics said evangelical Protestants claims to religious freedom threaten others rights at least somewhat, and about 4 in 10 said the same about other Christians.

By comparison, 16% of Protestants perceived evangelicals and other Christians as threatening the rights of others with their claims.

Roughly comparable shares across religious affiliations  about 4 in 10  said Jews freedom of religion is being threatened at least somewhat. Similarly, roughly comparable shares across religious affiliations  all under 2 in 10  said Jews claims were threatening to others rights.

Religious groups that make up a small share of the U.S. population could not be analyzed separately in the poll because of sample size.

The AP-NORC poll of 1,015 adults was conducted Feb. 13-16 using a sample drawn from NORCs probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 17:36:32|Editor: huaxia

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Photo taken on Aug. 5, 2020 shows the U.S. Department of Commerce in Washington D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

- The future of what many consider the world's most important bilateral relationship now hinges upon whether Washington has the much-needed rationality and vision to make the right choice.

- To turn the current dangerous tide in the bilateral relationship around and put it back on the right track, the United States needs to immediately stop pushing in the wrong direction and start taking de-escalatory and remedial actions.

by Xinhua writer Wang Lei

BEIJING, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- The relationship between China and the United States has arrived at a highly critical juncture after over four decades of generally stable development.

The future of what many consider the world's most important bilateral relationship now hinges upon whether Washington has the much-needed rationality and vision to make the right choice.

Over the past few months, a handful of hardliners in Washington have launched a China-smearing campaign over the coronavirus pandemic and human rights in Xinjiang, meddled in China's internal affairs concerning Hong Kong, Taiwan and the South China Sea, cracked down on Chinese tech firms, and deliberately stirred up an ideological confrontation with Beijing. Most recently, Washington abruptly ordered the closure of the Chinese Consulate General in Houston, an unjustified and reckless political provocation.

As a result, the relationship between the world's top two economies now faces what Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi recently described as the most serious challenge since the two sides forged diplomatic ties 40 years ago.

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)

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in his recent fact-twisting speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library, claimed that America's policy of engagement with China is wrong and has failed, in a bid to deny the tremendous benefits the two sides have jointly delivered to their peoples and the rest of the world, and legitimize his call to form an anti-China alliance.

In order to navigate the China-U.S. relationship through such uncharted and turbulent waters, it is important for the two sides to set straight misinterpretations from Washington's China hawks about the history of the exchanges and cooperation between the two countries.

In the past 40 years, bilateral trade between China and the United States has increased dramatically, from a negligible 2.5 billion U.S. dollars in the late 1970s to the incredible amount of over 630 billion dollars in 2018.

The robust economic and trade relationship has supported around 2.6 million jobs in the United States across a range of industries, and over 72,500 U.S. companies have investments or business in China.

Moreover, cooperation between the two countries in major global issues, like fighting terrorism, tackling the 2008 financial crisis and coping with the climate change challenge, has made significant contributions to sustaining peace and stability, and promoting development around the world.

To turn the current dangerous tide in the bilateral relationship around and put it back on the right track, the United States needs to immediately stop pushing in the wrong direction and start taking de-escalatory and remedial actions.

Firstly, it should respect China's sovereignty and territorial integrity and stop interfering in China's domestic affairs, just as China respects those of the United States.

And though in the face of Washington's provocation Beijing has always kept maximum restraint, that does not mean that the country will bow to bullying. Indeed, China has every right to make a legitimate and firm response to defend its national interests.

Secondly, China will firmly follow its own path of development and pursue its rightful goal of great national rejuvenation for the Chinese people. Washington should rid itself of the delusion that Beijing will somehow change course and adopt U.S.-style political and social systems.

Photo taken on Sept. 24, 2015 shows the national flags of China (R) and the United States as well as the flag of Washington D.C. on Constitution Avenue in Washington, capital of the United States. (Xinhua/Bao Dandan)

Thirdly, Washington should join Beijing in reactivating communication at all levels and in all-important sectors such as economy and trade and security, as well as cultural and people-to-people exchanges, so as to avoid any high-risk strategic misjudgement.

The United States should also work with China and the rest of the international community to step up international cooperation, particularly in the ongoing fight against the pandemic, and to support the multilateral system with the United Nations at the center and make it better and more effective, instead of turning against it.

Now, the ball is in the U.S.' court. For the interests of both China and the United States, as well as those of the wider world, China is always ready to work with the U.S. side to boost bilateral ties on the basis of coordination, cooperation and stability, and to maintain global peace and prosperity.

The development of China and of the United States is not a zero-sum game, and the two countries should not reject each other but draw on each other's strength to achieve common development, Wang noted in an exclusive interview with Xinhua on Wednesday.

It is wise for U.S. policymakers to ditch their Cold-War mentality and political shortsightedness, demonstrate wisdom and vision, and meet Beijing halfway for a better, shared future of the two peoples and those worldwide. 
MOSCOW -- Seven members of the so-called New Greatness movement have been handed sentences ranging from 7 years in prison to 4-year suspended sentences.

The Lyublino district court in Moscow on August 6 convicted all seven defendants on charges of "organizing an extremist group intending to carry out crimes of extremist character."

Judge Aleksandr Maslov sentenced 27-year-old Vyacheslav Kostylenkov to 7 years in prison, 34-year-old Pyotr Karamzin to 6 1/2 years in jail, and 22-year-old Vyacheslav Kryukov to 6 years in prison.

The other defendants -- Maksim Roshchin, Dmitry Poletayev, Maria Dubovik, and Anna Pavlikova -- were handed suspended prison terms between 4 and 6 1/2 years.

All the defendants pleaded not guilty.

Earlier on August 6, dozens of people gathered in front of the court building to show support for the accused.

Police detained three activists who had worn police uniforms while staging a protest performance in front of the court building,

In their protest, the activists cut the throat of a mannequin with a knife -- sending out a spray of fake blood while one of the protesters chanted: "It is an act of sacrifice taking place here!"

On July 14, the prosecutor asked the court to sentence Kostylenkov, 27, to 7 1/2 years in prison; Karamzin, 34, to 6 1/2 years; and Kryukov, 22, to six years.

The prosecutor also requested that the four other defendants be handed suspended sentences ranging from four to 6 1/2 years.

All of the defendants were arrested in 2018 and charged with creating an extremist group with the intention of overthrowing Russian President Vladimir Putin's government.

Critics say the case against them was fabricated by Russias security services.

The rights group Memorial describes the seven as political prisoners.

Pavlikova was 17 at the time of her arrest. She spent several months under house arrest, which sparked protests in Moscow and other cities.

The defendants say they had turned their online chat group, which was critical of Russia's government, into a political movement called New Greatness at the suggestion of one group member.

Later, it was revealed that the man who proposed the idea, wrote the movement's charter, and rented premises for gatherings was a special agent of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB).

In April 2019, another member of the group, Pavel Rebrovsky, was sentenced to 29 months in prison.

Earlier, group member Rustam Rustamov received a suspended 18-month prison sentence.

Both pleaded guilty and cut deals with investigators.

Another group member, Sergei Gavrilov, fled to Ukraine in October 2019. He has asked for political asylum in Ukraine.
Bollywood actress Rhea Chakraborty and her counsel Satish Maneshinde have reserved their comments on whether the actress will appear before the Enforcement Directorate in the money laundering case filed against her in the Sushant Singh Rajput death case. Rhea Chakraborty's lawyer has refrained from comment on the same. However, he has reacted to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filing a first information report (FIR) in the case.

Maneshinde continues to maintain that the Bihar Government has "transferred" a case to the CBI instead of the Mumbai Police, a case which it had NO jurisdiction to investigate legally. He said, "The Hon'ble Supreme Court is seised of the issue pursuant to the Transfer Petition filed by Rhea Chakraborty."

"The SC has directed all parties to file their replies and Mumbai Police is directed to place the report of investigations. Pending the said proceedings the CBI has registered and continued the illegality which was perpetrated at the hands of Bihar Police. CBI being a premier investigative agency in the country should desist from taking any further steps pending the SC proceedings. Apart from the same unless the Maharashtra Government consents to CBI investigating the case...it would be totally illegal and beyond any known legal principles, affecting the Federal Structure of the Nation," Maneshinde added.

ALSO READ: CBI Files FIR Against Rhea Chakraborty In Sushant Singh Rajput's Death Case

ALSO READ: Sushant Singh Rajput's Death: Ankita Says The Moment Has Finally Arrived As Centre Accepts 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
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-07 05:17:51|Editor: huaxia

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WASHINGTON, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that he has determined to re-impose a 10-percent tariff on aluminum from Canada, according to a newly released presidential proclamation.

The 10-percent tariff will take effect on Aug. 16, and "shall continue in effect, unless such actions are expressly reduced, modified, or terminated, " the proclamation read.

Amid strong opposition, the Trump administration slapped tariffs on imported steel and aluminum globally in 2018 citing national security concerns.

In May 2019, Trump removed the tariffs on Canada and Mexico, in hope that the U.S. Congress would ratify the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), a new trade agreement that entered into force on July 1. Enditem
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Amenify, a marketplace for services within luxury apartment buildings, recently announced the addition of contactless delivery for Lunch and Dinner. In select markets, the company is delivering fresh, high-quality meals that are handmade each day by professional chefs.

Apartment operators can rely on Amenify to:

The next amenity for apartment living: Catering Services from Amenify

Source professional chefs in the local market Create rotating menus based on resident feedback Manage booking and end-to-end delivery Support all residents with a dedicated concierge Maintain quality in the provider network

Due to a softening market and a substantial increase in residents working from home (84% of apartment residents, per Amenify data), apartment operators are looking for ways to drive retention through exclusive services.

Sid Lakireddy, President at Anchor Valley Partners said, "Renters today want a lifestyle, and food is something that more than 90% of our residents have requested. I'm a fan of Amenify because they are an end-to-end technology and support solution -- there's no work for our staff."

Consumer preference is changing, as residents are looking for ways to save both time and money. Amenify is focusing on services where they can do both, per Everett Lynn, CEO of Amenify. "We built our lunch program to reduce costs by 40-45% compared to other delivery platforms. Our density allows us to create these win-wins  with bulk purchasing and proprietary scheduling software, we help local businesses while also improving the resident experience."

The delivery industry represents a significant opportunity for Amenify's batch efficiency model, as Mr. Lynn went on to say, "it is incredible how much inefficiency there is for food delivery and meal-kits. A single meal should not cost $25 due to fees from a ridesharing app... nor should a meal arrive quadruple-wrapped from a logistics center 200 miles away. By removing inefficiencies, that's how we've reduced costs while maintaining quality."Apartment operators have responded well to Amenify services. The company reports that there are currently more than 1,000+ apartment buildings (more than 300,000 units) that are contracted and awaiting launch across 25 markets in the U.S. and they are now asking new clients to join a waitlist.

ABOUT AMENIFY

Amenify is an in-home services platform that makes residential living easy. Its technology connects apartment residents with local service companies  hiring dedicated teams for cleaning, chores, dog walking, catering, local delivery, and more. Amenify provides a single point of contact for booking and customer support.

Amenify's team in San Francisco and Denver believes in leveraging network effects to create a win-win for all stakeholders: residents, building managers, and outside companies seeking to join the community. The company's growth has been fueled by strategic investors which control 1.0+ million apartment homes in North America (source: Housingwire, 2019).

SOURCE Amenify

Related Links

http://amenify.com/


Successful balance sheet restructuring positions Company to fund its future growth

Oversubscribed Offering raises significantly more capital than originally anticipated

Strong demand expands shareholder liquidity; financing attracts over 40 new investors, with minimal equity dilution and no disruption of $200 million of favorable tax assets

Proceeds applied to settle $34 million of debt owed to Vertex and Pender Funds

DENVER, CO, Aug. 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Intermap Technologies Corporation ("Intermap" or the "Company") today announced that it has closed the first tranche of its previously announced and fully subscribed issuer private placement (the "Private Placement") of up to 4,317,118 Class A common shares ("Shares") at a price of CAD$0.56 per Share  a 40% premium to the previously announced offering price on July 7, 2020. Both tranches were well oversubscribed. The first tranche included the issuance of 3,571,428 Shares, raising aggregate gross proceeds of CAD$2 million. Strong investor demand allowed the Company to attract dozens of new sophisticated investors.

The Private Placement was executed carefully, with the Company taking care not to disturb its valuable tax attributes. As previously disclosed in the Company's financial statements, Intermap has $221 million in Net Operating Losses ("NOLs"), including $164 million in the United States and $57 million in Canada. Greater ownership diversification protects the Company's tax assets from a deemed ownership change, as defined by US IRC Section 382. A deemed ownership change would limit the Company's ability to utilize its tax attributes to increase future cash flow. As a result of this private placement, the total ownership shift for the prior three years immediately after the private placement will be approximately 40%, well within the US IRC Section 382 allowances. The Board and management will remain diligent in maximizing these tax assets as they consider alternative capital strategies to accelerate the Company's growth and strategic alternatives.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the Private Placement to satisfy obligations under the amended settlement agreement (the "Settlement Agreement") entered into among the Company, its wholly-owned subsidiary, Intermap Technologies Inc. ("ITI"), and PenderFund Capital Management Ltd. (the "Lender"). Under the terms of the Settlement Agreement, the Company and ITI can fully settle the Company's outstanding debt of US$33.9 million to the Lender with a payment to the Lender of US$1 million on or before September 1, 2020.

"This is the first time we have issued stock in nearly three years and we issued only the amount of stock necessary to achieve our goals," commented Patrick Blott, Intermap's Chairman and CEO. "Because the offering was oversubscribed, we issued fewer shares at a higher price to raise more capital with less dilution than we announced previously. With this financing, the Company has eliminated its debt overhang, strengthened its investor base, and positioned itself for highly scalable growth, while preserving the Company's valuable tax assets, which can fund growth and acquisitions. Investors and customers have begun to respond favorably as we continue to responsibly execute on Intermap's business plan."

The Company also issued 139,284 warrants to certain finders (the "Warrants") under the Private Placement. Each Warrant is exercisable for one Share at an exercise price of US$0.417 per Share, being the U.S. dollar equivalent to CAD$0.56 as of the date of issuance of the Warrants, at any time until July 31, 2022.

All Shares and Warrants issued in connection with the Private Placement are subject to a 4-month hold period during which trading in the securities is restricted in accordance with applicable securities laws.

The Company intends to close a second tranche of the Private Placement within the next two weeks at the same offering price of $0.56 per Share, up to the cumulative maximum number of Shares and Warrants issuable under the Private Placement of 4,317,118. The second tranche is oversubscribed.

The Private Placement and the listing of the Shares issued under the Private Placement and the Shares issuable upon exercise of the Warrants on the Toronto Stock Exchange (the "TSX") are subject to final approval of the TSX upon satisfaction of customary closing conditions. The TSX conditionally approved the Private Placement and the listing of the Shares issued thereunder and the Shares issuable upon exercise of the Warrants prior to closing of the first tranche.

Patrick A. Blott, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Company, subscribed for 267,857 Shares. His participation constitutes a "related party transaction" as defined under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). Such participation is exempt from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 on the basis that participation in the Private Placement by Mr. Blott does not exceed 25% of the fair market value of the Company's market capitalization. Mr. Blott's participation was reduced by strong demand among other investors and reflects continued insider commitment to the Company's business plan. In order to accommodate strong investor demand, amounts allocated to insiders were reduced to approximately 8% of the newly issued shares, down from an initial requested allocation of approximately 23% of the Offering.

The Board of Directors and management team are committed to the ongoing protection of shareholder value and re-establishment of credibility in the capital and business markets where the Company competes. The Company completed the Private Placement among 41 investors, including existing, former and new shareholders. As a result, the Company expanded and diversified its investor base, and following the lock-up the publicly traded stock, now has a bigger float with greater liquidity. The Company will continue to minimize dilution as it seeks to capitalize on opportunities to grow the Company and safeguard and maximize shareholder value.

For more information about Intermap's geospatial solutions, visit intermap.com/investors to download a presentation.

Intermap Reader Advisory

Certain information provided in this news release, including (but not limited to): the completion of additional issuances of Shares and Warrants in one or more subsequent tranches, the use of proceeds of the Private Placement, the elimination of the Company's debt to the Lender, the future value and liquidity of the Company's updated investor base and the Company's future efforts to minimize dilution, the Company's future growth prospects, and the value of the NOLs including their ability to fund future growth and acquisitions, constitutes forward-looking statements. The words "anticipate", "expect", "project", "estimate", "forecast", "will be", "will consider", "intends" and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Although Intermap believes that these statements are based on information and assumptions which are current, reasonable and complete, these statements are necessarily subject to a variety of known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Intermap's forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties pertaining to, among other things, COVID-19 and its impact on both the Company's business and operations and those of its customers, cash available to fund operations, availability of capital, revenue fluctuations, nature of government contracts, economic conditions, loss of key customers, retention and availability of executive talent, competing technologies, common share price volatility, loss of proprietary information, software functionality, internet and system infrastructure functionality, information technology security, breakdown of strategic alliances, and international and political considerations, as well as those risks and uncertainties discussed Intermap's Annual Information Form and other securities filings. While the Company makes these forward-looking statements in good faith, should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary significantly from those expected. Accordingly, no assurances can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will transpire or occur, or if any of them do so, what benefits that the Company will derive therefrom. All subsequent forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, attributable to Intermap or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. 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 forwardlooking statements made herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable securities law.

About Intermap Technologies

Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Intermap (TSX: IMP) (ITMSF: BB) is a global leader in geospatial intelligence solutions. The Company's proprietary NEXTMap database and value-added geospatial data management, processing, analytics, fusion and orthorectification software and solutions are utilized across a range of industries that rely on accurate, high-resolution elevation data, including aviation, engineering, environmental planning, government markets, hydrology, insurance, land management, law enforcement and patrol, oil and gas, renewable energy, telecommunications, transportation and utilities. Intermap's commercial applications include locationbased intelligence, risk assessment, geographic information systems, global positioning systems and 3D visualization. For more information, please visit www.intermap.com.

SOURCE Intermap Technologies Corporation

Related Links

www.intermap.com


It peaked at 31,255 in 1967. But in a reversal of Trump policy that kept the number secret, Biden officials this week revealed the current total, suggesting the disclosure will help curb spread of the weapons.
Joe Biden has always been an empty suit, for all of his 39 years in Congress, then eight as vice president.

He demeaned himself at the Clarence Thomas hearings in 1991 where he revealed his inner cruel nature. How he was ever elected again after that does not speak well for his constituents. He is a lifelong prevaricator, plagiarist and groper of female children. He has apparently sexually assaulted an adult woman as well. And weve all heard the stories of how he liked to swim nude in the presence of female secret security agents when he was VP. In short, the guy is a jerk, a poseur. He is also, and has always been a racist of the worst kind, the type who believes it is justified.

Throughout his years in Congress, he has seen to it that both his primary and extended family members have become rich by less than above-board means. His son Hunter is a case in point. The list of events showing Hunters unethical path to wealth is legion. If a son of Trumps had been as corrupt as Hunter, we would never hear the end of it. And as Robert Gates has commented, Joe Biden has been wrong on every foreign policy issue for forty years.

And yet, with all this baggage, this is the man the Democratic Party has chosen as their presidential candidate to defeat President Trump! Theyve chosen very poorly as time will most certainly reveal.

This campaign season, for all the hysterical vitriol displayed by the left, is nothing if not amusing as well. Reading and watching the panicked leftists who fear a Biden-Trump debate so much they are advising they be cancelled is entertaining for they seem to think we dont see through their oh-so-disingenuous arguments. They know as well as those on the right do that Biden is failing fast. That his rapacious wife has not called a halt to his campaign is proof that she does not love the man; she sees him as the avenue to her own exalted place in the power structure of D.C. She is a sort of comic book Lady Macbeth.

As the days pass and we see the short glimpses of Biden in his lovely patioed basement, we see a man lost in the fog of dementia, who loses his train of thought in the middle of sentences. He often has no idea where he is or to whom he is speaking. He is quick to anger if asked a question he does not like or cannot answer. He has so far acquitted himself as a man perhaps the least qualified, tempermentally and intellectually, to be president. He has embraced Bernie Sanders socialist platform as his own, balked at condemning the BLM and Antifa violence that has razed numerous democrat-run cities throughout the nation. He is wobbly on defunding the police which means he is afraid to speak out against the demands of the rioters. He is a coward.

He has even announced he will not attend the Democrat convention in Milwaukee. Any bets on whether or not he will debate the president? Chances are he will bow out of that commitment as well. His handlers are surely acutely aware of his obvious limitations by now. Even a high-tech ear piece would not help Joe. Directions and corrections in his ear would only confuse him further.

What is the Democrat party to do? Well, everything they are doing. They have an orchestrated strategy that is being implemented daily. Every leftist appearing on television and writing at the NYT, WaPo, and throughout the online media are doing everything in their power to convince the American people that the U.S. is irredeemably racist, a despicable lie.

They drone on and on about how Trump has handled the covid pandemic poorly, another an outright lie. He has been on top of it from the outset. (Would Biden have banned flights from China? Not a chance; hes owned by China.)

They are spreading the fear that Trump will refuse to leave the White House if he loses, a ridiculous notion even from them. They are working hard to convince every American that the coming election will not be legitimate.

Mail-in-voting is one way to ensure that. They plan on votes not being counted by Jan. 20 so that Morticia Pelosi can be named temporary president. Can any of us imagine that nightmare? That two months would give them time to cheat/fix the results to their satisfaction or even to replace Biden, if he were to be declared the winner, based on the 25th Amendment.

The Democrats are up to no good, of that we can all be certain. They have never accepted Trumps 2016 victory and, as a result, have behaved poorly ever since, wholly without class or grace. All the divisiveness has come from their refusal to acknowledge their candidate lost. The pathetic Carl Bernstein, forever trying to relive his role in Watergate, is demanding the Republicans remove Trump from office now! What does that tell us? That even Carl knows Biden cannot win. The question is, will Biden remain the candidate until November 3rd? We shall see. If he chooses Heels-up Kamala Harris as his running mate and Trump airs the clip of her accusing Biden of being a racist, theirs will be an ever-imploding exercise in futility. That would be a self-inflicted wound but fascinating  and grim in all its ramifications.

The Democrat party has devolved into a gang of thugs, as the hearing with Attorney General Bill Barr proved beyond a reasonable doubt. There is not one with the courage to speak up and admit that the party is broken into bits of dross, illegitimate due to their embrace of socialism. Everything they support is in opposition to the Constitution: illegal immigration, open borders, anti-law enforcement, anti-military, pro-violence in our streets, hatred of both the First and Second Amendments. They are prepared to lie, cheat and steal to gain power and implement their plan to destroy the middle class and turn the U.S. into Venezuela.

And they believe that Joe Biden is going to take them where they want to go! It is not only Joe Biden who is an empty suit. The Democratic Party has relinquished any and all legitimacy it once had. Why and for what? Because their criminally corrupt candidate lost in 2016, a D.C. outsider won, and they have been in the throes of an enraged tantrum ever since. How else would they have ended up with empty-suit Biden as their candidate? Karma?

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

 William Shakespeare, Macbeth

Image credit: Screen shot from a camera aimed at a television set during a broadcast, enhanced with Photoshop.
I have been working in the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development and formerly in State House for some time but I am surprised today when I say top government officials and the #Covid-19 committee members praising Gen. Wesley Clark as a freedom fighter for Africans.

Stories Continues after ad

How really do you celebrate a donation of $100,000 when the so-called donor is taking away millions of dollars from you? Gen. Clark through his briefcase companies that dont even go through procurement processes have been siphoning lots of our resources back their countries through dubious dealings. Ugandans and Africans have been fooled enough. He is the man behind the dubious SICPA company that was given a tender to supply stamps to Uganda Revenue Authority without being submitted to any procurement rules and at the same time, the tax payer has as of today paid Shs90 billion. Uganda government first paid Shs30 billion and just recently not even a month, an additional Shs60 billion was released to SICPA owned by him.

In their top management recently, Ministry of Finance rejected SICPA quality of stamps and the reason is that they are of low quality and overpriced. It was also revealed that the stamps are overpriced with each stamp going for Shs130 instead of Shs35. Through his agents, Gen. Clark and SICPA lied are to be paid Shs340 billion annually from the tax payers and yet had his company been subjected procurement, there would be value for money.

The argument is that why cant Gen. Clark if he loves Uganda more than us print those stamps and empower our people with jobs? In their submission to the Ministry of Finance, they indicated that after government pay Shs340 billion, they would make a profit of Shs800 billion but they are running back to government to milk the unsuspecting tax payers.

Gen. Clark and his agents through their company GVG were given over $26 million by government of Uganda to supply an equipment meant to monitor telephone companies. The same equipment was overpriced but the news is that the equipment failed to work and yet Gen. Clark and his commission agents were paid. In a joint security meeting by chiefs and Uganda Communication Commission, his equipment was rejected as well like Tanzania did but who is going to compensate for the money lost?

I would wish to request the United States government to investigate such people like Gen. Clark who come her in Uganda and more Africa and in turn steal from here and yet claim to be clean and corruption free.

Gen. Clark is a director of companies in Switzerland and most of them have exploited Africa through their agents who collect commission on behalf of heads of states. Uganda ought to have done a due diligence on some of these companies before giving them contracts. Tanzanian President John Pombo Magufuli chased one of Gen. Clarks companies. Most of his companies have dented with corruption scandals.

Dr. Magufuli suspended the head of the countrys telecoms regulator and disbanded the board, claiming the organisation has failed to monitor the industry and gather revenue for the state.

According to the office of the president, the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) installed a traffic monitoring system Global Voices Group (GVG) in 2013 but has failed to use it. The contract was signed by Ally Simba, the director general of the TCRA, who has been suspended.

The system was designed to allow 28% of international telecoms revenue to be paid to the government. According to the TCRAs figures on its own website, international calls are charged at $0.25 a minute, out of which the international network operators get $0.13, the government receives 7 cents, and the balance of 5 cents is shared by the consultant and TCRA for maintenance.

This enables the country to earn about 20 billion Tanzanian shillings a year from the revenue share, says the TCRA  meaning that the TCRAs revenue calculations are a long way short of the 400 billion shillings ($180 million) that the president says has been lost.

According to the TCRA, the contract for the monitoring system went  after an open tender  to a consortium of Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS) and Global Voice Group (GVG). The project was being financed under build operate and transfer, whose main advantage is that no funds are paid up front.

According to their website, the Seychelles-based GVG says that it is a pioneer in the development and implementation of telecom governance technologies, with clients in 10 African governments.

Gen. Clark represents the unacceptable face, the perceived American standing and abuses African countries by giving peanuts with his agents. Therefore, it is a shame for him to donate peanuts and yet his been given preferential treatment and reaping big from Africa.

The writer is a Patriotic Ugandan
As many as 504 separatist leaders, who had been detained following the abrogation of Article 370 provisions a year ago, were released after they signed bond of "good behaviour", Jammu and Kashmir Police chief Dilbag Singh said on Thursday.

Photograph: Umar Ganie for Rediff.com IMAGE: A Central Reserve Police Force personnel stands guard at a checkpoint during a lockdown in Srinagar.

Singh also said out of the 350 separatist leaders and stone pelters who had been sent to jails in other states, only 50-60 continued to remain behind bars and the rest were released.

"A total of 504 separatist leaders belonging to Hurriyat Conference and Jamaat-e-Islami and others have been released so far after they signed good behaviour bond," he said.

Those who sign "good behaviour bond" are bound to maintain peace and not indulge in any violent or separatist activities after being released from jails or home detention.

The Director General of Police said after the abrogation of Article 370 provisions on August 5, 2019, a total of 5,500 youths were detained by security forces and all of them were let off after three-four days following counselling and taking assurance from their parents that they would not indulge in any violent acts like stone pelting in future.

However, he said, cases were against 1,200 other youths for indulging in violent acts.

Singh said about 144 boys, who were under 18 years old, were also detained last year for indulging in violence and currently just 17 of them are in remand homes set up under the Juvenile Justice Act.

He said at least 16 youths, who joined the ranks of the militants, have returned after persuasion of police and family members and no action has been taken against them as they were not involved in any violence so far.

Referring to those who were sent to jails outside Jammu and Kashmir, the police chief said about 300 were released as their custody period under the Public Safety Act was over and it was felt that their further detention was not required.

"We will review the cases of other 50-60 people when their prison terms come to an end," he said.

Talking about the future strategy to deal with militancy in Jammu and Kashmir, Singh said there was a need to enhance technical surveillance along the border with Pakistan so that terrorists could not enter India and efforts should be made for de-radicalisation of the youth.

In addition, there should be programme for skill development for the youth and all development aspirations gaps should be filled, he said.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sullivan Countys elections official said he doesnt know what turnout to expect today as voters cast ballots in primary elections for U.S. Senate, Tennessees 1st Congressional District seat and Tennessee General Assembly races, as well as county elections.

Jason Booher, administrator of elections, said he believes there was a good early and mail-in voting turnout, but hes not sure what to expect at the polls because theres no other election year he can compare to this one.

I have no idea what to expect, Booher said. COVID shattered that crystal ball.

Voters who waited until Election Day to vote may contend with some rain today. The National Weather Service predicts the chance of precipitation at 60%, with showers and thunderstorms likely to occur throughout the day before 8 p.m. Polling places in Sullivan County are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

National primaries

There are two Republican national primaries on the ballot, one for the U.S. Senate seat held by longtime Sen. Lamar Alexander and the 1st District congressional seat held by Phil Roe. The two Republicans arent seeking reelection.

For the congressional seat, only the Republican primary is competitive, with 16 names on the ballot. Candidates in the Republican primary are Jay Adkins, Phil Arlinghaus, Richard Baker, Chance Cansler, John Clark, Rusty Crowe, Steve Darden, Robert Franklin, Josh Gapp, Diana Harshbarger, David Hawk, Timothy Hill, Chuck Miller, Carter Quillen and Nichole Williams. Chad Fleenor, whose name is still on the ballot, suspended his campaign and endorsed Jay Adkins. Though the Republican candidates share common ground on many issues, the primary race has also gotten heated with attack ads and mailers flooding the airwaves and mailboxes of the district. Candidates have called their rivals out on personal histories, political records and over who would be more loyal to President Donald Trump.

Blair Walsingham is the presumptive Democratic nominee for the seat. The two other candidates on the ballot, Chris Rowe and Larry Smith, have dropped out, and Rowe has endorsed Walsingham.

The Republican primary for the Senate seat is also packed, with 15 names on the ballot, including Clifford Adkins, Natisha Brooks, Byron Bush, Roy Dale Cope, Terry Dicus, Tom Emerson Jr., George Flinn Jr., Bill Hagerty, Jon Henry, Kent Morrell, Glen Neal Jr., John Osborne, Aaron Pettigrew, David Schuster and Manny Sethi.

The five candidates in the Democratic primary for the Senate seat are Marquita Bradshaw, Gary Davis, Robin Kimbrough, James Mackler and Mark Pickrell.

At the local level, Sullivan County is holding elections for various positions, including four seats on the Sullivan County Board of Education. The races and nine candidates running are:

 District 1: Incumbent Mark Ireson faces challenger Mark Harris;

 District 3: Incumbent Matthew Spivey faces challenger Mark Vicars Jr.;

 District 5: Incumbent Randall Jones faces challengers Grover Starnes and Jason Horton;

 District 7: Incumbent Jane Thomas faces challenger Mary Rouse.

There are also elections for constables in all 11 of the countys districts. The races for District 1 through District 3 have one candidate on the ballot for each, but the races for Districts 4 through 11 are competitive.

Tennessee primaries

Primaries are also being held for the local seats in the Tennessee General Assembly, though only one race is competitive. The Republican primary for Tennessees 3rd House District has Scotty Campbell facing off against Neal Kerney for the seat of outgoing incumbent Timothy Hill. The winner will settle the race because there is no Democratic opposition.

Incumbent Sen. Jon Lundberg, a Bristol Republican, runs unopposed in his primary, but hes set to face Amber Riddle, a Democrat, in the November election for the Tennessees 4th Senate District. State Rep. John Crawford, a Kingsport Republican of Tennessees 1st House District, is unopposed in the primary and the general election.

Incumbent Rep. Bud Hulsey, a Kingsport Republican of Tennessees 2nd House District, will face Democratic challenger Avril Love Jr. in November.

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IOM-bound cruise cancelled after passengers catch coronavirus



The MS Roald Amundsen was set to stop off at the Isle of Man next month

A Norwegian cruise firm has cancelled a trip to the Isle of Man after a number of passengers aboard the vessel contracted coronavirus.

Hurtigrutens boat, MS Roald Amundsen, was due to stop off in Douglas during a tour of the British Isles, despite non-Manx residents still unable to enter the Island without a special permit.

The cruise had been due to visit the Isle of Man in September but, after 41 people onboard the boat tested positive for Covid-19, the journey will no longer go ahead.

Before the cancellation was confirmed, MS Roald Amundsen was set to become the first expedition cruise ship to depart from a UK port since the country entered coronavirus lockdown in March.
The New York Attorney General filed a lawsuit against the National Rifle Association on Thursday, seeking to dissolve the powerful gun lobby for a multitude of alleged violations of state law governing charities.

Attorney General Letitia James accused the NRA of an array of illegal conduct, according to a press release describing the suit, including [the] diversion of millions of dollars away from the charitable mission of the organization for personal use by senior leadership, awarding contracts to the financial gain of close associates and family, and appearing to dole out lucrative no- show contracts to former employees in order to buy their silence and continued loyalty.

The civil lawsuit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, also names as defendants longtime NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre and three other NRA executives  Wilson Woody Philips, John Frazer and Joshua Powell  and seeks their removal from their current positions and prohibition from their future service on any other New York-based nonprofit board. Those four executives failed to fulfill their fiduciary duty to the NRA, James alleged, and used millions upon millions from NRA reserves for personal use, including trips for them and their families to the Bahamas, private jets, expensive meals, and other private travel.

The lawsuit singled out LaPierre, in particular, for enabling a culture of self-dealing, mismanagement, and negligent oversight at the NRA, often for his personal benefit.

With the assistance of Phillips, Powell and Frazer, LaPierre abused his position as a fiduciary to the NRA to obtain millions of dollars in personal benefits in the form of undisclosed, excessive compensation, the lawsuit said, which includes in-kind benefits and reimbursements from the NRA and its vendors.

But James is demanding more than a change in leadership. The corruption within the organization, she argued, is pervasive, as senior leaders blatantly ignored internal policies, while the boards audit committee was negligent in providing oversight.

Story continues

James wants to see the entire 149-year-old organization, which is chartered in New York, shuttering its doors.

The NRAs influence has been so powerful that the organization went unchecked for decades while top executives funneled millions into their own pockets, said Attorney General James in a statement, according to the release. The NRA is fraught with fraud and abuse, which is why, today, we seek to dissolve the NRA, because no organization is above the law.

PHOTO: New York Attorney General Letitia James in New York City, Nov. 19, 2019. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

(MORE: NRA infighting spills into public view with anonymous leak of documents)

The NRA quickly filed a countersuit against the attorney general. In a statement, NRA President Carolyn Meadows vowed to fight what she considers a politically motivated attack.

This was a baseless, premeditated attack on our organization and the Second Amendment freedoms it fights to defend, said Meadows. You could have set your watch by it: the investigation was going to reach its crescendo as we move into the 2020 election cycle. Its a transparent attempt to score political points and attack the leading voice in opposition to the leftist agenda. This has been a power grab by a political opportunist  a desperate move that is part of a rank political vendetta. Our members wont be intimidated or bullied in their defense of political and constitutional freedom. As evidenced by the lawsuit filed by the NRA today against the NY AG, we not only will not shrink from this fight  we will confront it and prevail.

LaPierre echoed that sentiment with a similar statement of his own and also dismissed any allegations of financial mismanagement within the organization.

The NYAGs actions are an affront to democracy and freedom, LaPierre said. This is an unconstitutional, premeditated attack aiming to dismantle and destroy the NRA  the fiercest defender of Americas freedom at the ballot box for decades. The NRA is well governed, financially solvent, and committed to good governance. Were ready for the fight. Bring it on.

The NRA has been a major force in Republican Party politics for decades and, more recently, has emerged as a key source of support for President Donald Trump. In the 2016 election, various arms of the NRA were responsible for directing more than $50 million into political campaigns, including $30 million to back then-candidate Trump, according the federal election data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

In response to questions from reporters on Thursday, President Trump called the move terrible and suggested that the NRA should move to another state, such as Texas, where the organization could lead a very good and beautiful life.

But New York wasnt the only jurisdiction to take aim at the NRA on Thursday. At the same time, in a separate but similar action, Attorney General for the District of Columbia Karl Racine also filed a lawsuit against the NRA and the NRA Foundation, its D.C.-based charitable arm, for misusing charitable funds to support wasteful spending by the NRA and its executives.

The Foundations Board of Directors was controlled by the NRA and allowed the NRA to exploit it through risky multi-million-dollar loans, the complaint alleges, according to a press release, including a $5 million loan that the NRA has never repaid.

Racine is seeking to recover the allegedly wasted funds and asking the court to impose changes to the foundations governance structure to ensure its independence from the NRA.

Charitable organizations function as public trustsand District law requires them to use their funds to benefit the public, not to support political campaigns, lobbying, or private interests, said Racine in a statement. With this lawsuit, we aim to recover donated funds that the NRA Foundation wasted. District nonprofits should be on notice that the Office of the Attorney General will file suit if we find evidence of illegal behavior.

PHOTO: In this undated photo shows the exterior of the Headquarters of the National Rifle Association inFairfax, Va. (Mark Peterson/Corbis via Getty Images)

(MORE: Watchdog groups sue federal agency over NRA's alleged campaign coordination 'scheme')

The filing in New York is the culmination of a 17-month investigation into the organizations finances and its nonprofit status launched in April 2019 in the wake of revelations about questionable spending practices inside the NRA that were further detailed in an anonymous leak of internal documents.

In April, the NRA sued its longtime ad agency Ackerman McQueen, the contractor behind NRATV, raising questions about the firms relationship with then-NRA President retired Lt. Col. Oliver North. Days later, The New Yorker published an investigation by Mike Spies of the nonprofit journalism outlet The Trace that claimed memos created by a senior N.R.A. employee describe a workplace distinguished by secrecy, self-dealing, and greed, whose leaders have encouraged disastrous business ventures and questionable partnerships, and have marginalized those who object.

Later that same month, The New York Times reported that in a letter sent to NRA board members, LaPierre accused North of extorting him, threatening to release damaging information about the NRA unless LaPierre resigned from his post as chief executive officer. Ultimately, however, it was North who would step down as president, losing the apparent power struggle.

Then, in May, a trove of what appeared to be internal NRA documents were anonymously posted online, raising more questions about LaPierres leadership amid mounting allegations of financial mismanagement within the gun lobby.

The leaked documents included letters that appeared to show that North had raised serious concerns with the organizations audit committee about $24 million in legal fees paid to the firm of outside counsel William Brewer over the previous year. ABC News was not been able to verify the authenticity of the documents, but NRA officials did not dispute that they were real, instead calling the leak pathetic.

Those fees, estimated in one letter to cost the organization nearly $100,000 per day, are draining NRA cash at mindboggling speed, wrote North and NRA Vice President Richard Childress on April 18 as they urged the committee to authorize an independent review.

Invoices of this size for 12 months of work appear to be excessive and pose an existential threat to the financial stability of the NRA, the letter reads. This is a fiscal emergency.

The leaked documents also included purported letters to LaPierre from Ackerman McQueens chief financial officer William Winkler seeking more information about $274,965.03 in wardrobe expenses made at Zegna in Beverly Hills and $267,460.53 of other personal expenses  primarily travel to the Bahamas, Palm Beach, New York, Los Angeles, Reno, Budapest and Italy  apparently for LaPierre but charged to Ackerman McQueen.

That latter total also includes $13,804.84 for an apartment in Fairfax, Virginia that, according to the letter, LaPierre required we rent and billed to the NRA for a young woman who, according to LinkedIn, was then an intern at the organization.

PHOTO: Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of the NRA, arrives at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana, April 26, 2019. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images, FILE)

(MORE: NRA board member: 'Imperative' to clean house, move on from CEO Wayne LaPierre)

In response to questions, however, top NRA officials have continued to express their support of LaPierre.

This is stale news  being recycled by those with personal agendas," said NRA president Meadows last year. "In any event, the entire board is fully aware of these issues. We have full confidence in Wayne LaPierre and the work hes doing in support of the NRA and its members. It is troubling and a bit pathetic that some people would resort to leaking information to advance their agendas. This has no bearing on the boards support of Wayne  and the work the NRA does to protect Americas constitutional freedoms."

As NRA in-fighting spilled into public view, other investigators opened similar probes. The Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia issued subpoenas as part of an investigation into whether these entities violated the Districts Nonprofit Act, and a Democratic lawmaker and member of the House Ways & Means Committee released a report detailing the NRAs alleged self-dealing, corruption and abuse of its tax-exempt status and urged the Internal Revenue Service to investigate.

The investigation that resulted in Thursdays lawsuit was led by the New York Attorney Generals Charities Bureau, which supervises the activity of foundations and other charities to ensure that their funds and other property devoted to charitable purposes are properly used, according to the bureau's website. Thursdays lawsuit seeks restitution for NRA members who were allegedly defrauded and additional penalties worth millions of dollars.

The New York charities bureau is the same team that forced the Trump Foundation to dissolve in 2018 for alleged misappropriations of charitable funds to service Trumps business and political interest.

In a press conference on Thursday, James said the investigation is ongoing, and while the lawsuit is a civil matter, any potential criminal activity they uncover will be referred to prosecutors.

Enough was enough, James said. We needed to step in and dissolve this [organization] just as we did with the Trump Foundation.

ABC News Katherine Faulders contributed to this report.

This report was featured in the Friday, Aug. 7, 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.

NY Attorney General lawsuit seeks to dissolve National Rifle Association originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Trades words with Uzodimma over alleged takeover plot

The Edo State House of Assembly has removed the Deputy speaker, Hon.Yekini Idaiye on grounds of alleged gross misconduct.

The lawmakers have also engaged in war of words with the Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodimma over an allegation by the lawmakers that the Imo State governor was conniving with the sacked deputy speaker and other APC leaders on how to import a mace and forcefully seize the state assembly

The removal of the deputy speaker from office was sequel to a motion moved by Hon. Henry Okhuarobo, representing Ikpba-Okha State Constituency and seconded by Hon. Marcus Onobun of Esan West State Constituency

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Moving the motion, Okhuarobo said Mr. Speaker, with me is a notice of removal of the deputy speaker of the house signed by two-third members of the house.

The removal of the deputy speaker is on the grounds of gross misconduct and divulging of official secrets, Okhuarobo said.

The lawmakers, after deliberations on the petition, unanimously adopted the motion through a voice -vote.

The Speaker, Hon. Francis Okiye thereafter pronounced the deputy speaker removed.

In his place, Hon. Roland Asoro was made the Deputy Speaker of the assembly shortly after he was nominated and the oath of office and allegiance administered on him by the Speaker .

The motion for the nomination of Asoro as the new Deputy Speaker was moved by Hon. Emmanuel Okoduwa, representing Esan North East I, and seconded by Hon. Ephraim Aluebhosele of Esan South-east.

Meanwhile, the state assembly has accused the Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodimma and other APC leaders of plotting to forcefully take over the assembly by importing a mace to perfect the act.

It also alleged that the plan was in connivance with the impeached Deputy Speaker, Idiaye who recently declared support for the governorship candidate of APC, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu.

Speaker of the assembly, Okiye, who made the allegation during a media briefing at the Government House, venue of the state assembly, called for the intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Okiye in the briefing captioned Urgent Need to Call Imo State Governor, Sen. Hope Uzodinma and Leaders of the APC in Edo State to Order over Their Plan to Violently and Illegally Take over the Edo State House of Assembly, further alleged that the perpetrators planned to import a fake mace to take over the assembly.

He said the action if allowed to happen is akin to lighting a match in an already tensed political environment, which conflagration is capable of causing crisis in the state on a scale that would be beyond imagination

We call on Edo people whose mandate and interests the state legislature holds and protects, to rise against this planned attack and plot to subvert their will and subjugate them using external forces.

We urge lovers of democracy across the world, institutions that uphold democratic tenets and values, pro-democracy groups, to denounce this planned illegality that seeks to distract a duly constituted authority.

We recognise the constitutional rights of the three members of the House of Assembly to support the candidate of their choice, but that should not distract them from coming to work to carry out the job they were elected for, Okiye noted.

Reacting to the allegation, Imo State Commissioner for Special Projects, Mr. Simon Ebegbulem described the allegation as baseless, adding, that it is a mark of insensitivity.

He said The illegal Speaker and his governor are not making sense with this baseless allegation. I dont even know what they are talking about because there is no House of Assembly in Edo State. I think that is why the so-called Speaker is running away from his shadow like a criminal that will always run once he sees a law enforcement agent.

Ebegbulem wandered why Okiye should even mention the name of his boss into the political problem of Edo State if not that all of them are jittery of the impending defeat that waits them come September 19.

I Idont know why he should draw the leg of His Excellency, Governor Hope Uzodimma into his political problems. My governor is interested in working with other APC governors and stakeholders to reclaim Edo State, which has been an APC state before Governor Obaseki donated it to the PDP.



Source: https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2020/08/06/edo-assembly-removes-deputy-speaker/
The Chedi Lustica Bay - Montenegro The GHOTW collection, thoughtfully curated for the rising bleisure traveller, is expanding its offer in prime locations as well as up and coming destinations.

On the new member hotels, Pedro Colaco, CEO, Great Hotels of the World says, I am thrilled to welcome each of these hotels to the collection. In the current highly challenging business environment, hotels feel, more than ever, the need for a representation company that supports them, quickly adapting to the rapidly changing pace of business. We work closely with sales and marketing teams and support their return to profitability. We are more relevant than ever. Our flexible, unbundled services, high-tech operation and the high touch approach that a collection of 60 hotels permits, ensure we are uniquely positioned to serve the independent hotel segment.

At the same time, the groups and events segment has become increasingly complex; our growing portfolio of destinations and properties, together with the speed and ease with which we can communicate with our member hotels, makes us a very desirable partner.

Puro Warszawa Centrum, Warsaw Poland

What makes it a Great Hotel of the World?

Its unabashed passion for local culture and unbeatable location in the heart of old town Warsaw. With a strong focus on design, the hotel boasts a host of paintings, furniture and statement pieces created by local artists that bring to even the busiest of travelers an immediate feel for the sleek, vibrant, modern ethos of contemporary Warsaw. Guests are also perfectly poised to walk to all major sites and enjoy the best old town has to offer. The young quick-witted staff is always in the know about what you cant miss out on while in Warsaw.

Fun Fact:

The city center is home to the worlds narrowest 2-storey house. Commissioned by Israeli writer and filmmaker Etgar Keret, the house is 1.22m wide and 9m high.

Yeatman Hotel Porto, Porto Portugal

What makes it a Great Hotel of the World?

The uniqueness and authenticity of the experience. Owned by one of the most prominent family names in Port Wine production, every aspect of this 5*, 70 room boutique lodging is imbued with the spirit, history and flavor of the 300 year old wine making tradition. The terraced construction  a reflection of the Douro valley itself, the decanter shaped infinity pool, the award winning wine cellar and memorabilia in guest rooms and common areas and even the Caudalie Vinotherapie Spa. Of course, good wine must go hand in hand with good food and guests will not be disappointed with the 2 Michelin starred Yeatman Gastronomic Restaurant led by Chef Ricardo Costa.

Fun fact:

Vila Nova de Gaia is the epicenter of Port Wine production. Barrels of wine from the upper Douro Valley would be transported by boat and taken to a Port wine lodge to mature in the cool damp riverside cellars  where the Yeatman Hotel Porto is now located.

Almanac Barcelona Hotel, Barcelona, Spain

What makes it a Great Hotel of the World?

Location, location, location! Just steps from the iconic Passeig de Gracia, this exceptional 5* property is at once one of the most sophisticated addresses in Barcelona and the perfect spot from where to set off to see some of Gaudis most iconic properties. With state of the art meeting and business facilities for up to 100 attendees, as well as a sublime Spa and rooftop swimming pool, here, its easy to put bleisure, alone or in the company of family and friends, into practice.

Fun fact:

Almanac Barcelona Hotel is a breezy 10 minute walk from the uber trendy Jaime Beriestain Concept Store and Cafe. Jaime Beriestain is the renowned creative force behind the stunningly beautiful and effortlessly elegant design of the Almanac Barcelona Hotel.

Grand Hotel Kronenhof, Pontresina, Switzerland

What makes it a Great Hotel of the World?

Its fervent commitment to seamlessly blending spades of historic splendor and charm with practical modern-day necessities for both business and leisure. Hailed as one of the worlds top luxury and wellness resorts, the Grand Hotel Kronenhof is housed in a historically protected neo-baroque building dating back to 1848 and offers guests a state of the art wellness center and indoor pool that looks out onto the mesmerizing mountain side and picturesque Alpine village. A regal and serene setting to unwind in but also a stunning backdrop to bring to life corporate events of up to 400 guests and inspiring meetings and incentive trips.

Fun fact:

Right in Pontresina you can catch the Bernina Express  arguably the most scenic train in Switzerland - and ride along the UNESCO world heritage line through the Swiss Engadin Alps all the way to Poschiavo Italy.

Chedi Lustica Bay, Tivat Montenegro

What makes it a Great Hotel of the World?

Its the perfect all-in-one bleisure hotel in an exciting, pristine winter/summer destination. Just a 15 minute drive from Tivat International Airport, nestled into the stunningly azure Lustica coastline, the newly built property boasts 111 guestrooms, two restaurants, two bars, conference room and a business center, along with an outdoor heated pool, spa and fitness center and a private beach.

Fun Fact:

Montenegros main geographical feature is its mountainous terrain which makes for the perfect winter slalom, ski off-piste and downhill destination during the chillier months of December through March.

Alcron Hotel Prague, Prague Czech Republic

What makes it a Great Hotel of the World?

The palpable rich historical background and marked architectural style prevalent throughout much of Prague, instantly immerses visitors in the deep cultural experience that visiting Prague provides. Exceptionally well located between new town and old town, guests can easily manage to take in the citys most sought after sites, museums, restaurants and shopping between meetings in one of the propertys 10 exceptional event venues or in the nearby business district. Add to this a fully equipped gym, sauna and spa and you will be hard pressed to find a better place to add a few days of leisure to your business trip.

Fun Fact:

Built with a vision of becoming a world-class hotel to match Pragues booming international status in the 1930s, The Alcron Hotel Prague hosted many prominent national and international dignitaries and celebrities, including Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong in 1968 when they performed at the Lucerna Concert Hall at a time of eased restrictions in the political climate.

Arena Amsterdam Hotel, Amsterdam, Netherlands

What makes it a Great Hotel of the World?

The exquisite ambience and hip style explicitly designed with those for whom there is no set line between work and play in mind. A pre-war Christian orphanage magnificently transformed into a genuinely styled ultra-modern Dutch minimalist property, every nook and cranny is useful, pleasing to the eye and supremely comfortable. With a number of common areas, meeting rooms and event venues, including the must-try PARK cafe and restaurant, the Arena Amsterdam seeks to maintain the social role it has always had in the community by making sure that this is where guests and locals meet, connect, sing and dance together.

Fun Fact:

Amsterdam East is home to the Youseum  not quite a museum  more of an immersive kaleidoscopic experience with 15 rooms that take you through 25 different highly instagramable experiences, featuring you and what it means to see and be seen!

About Great Hotels of the World (GHOTW)

GHOTW represents a portfolio of 60 largely independent upscale hotels and resorts worldwide that have been thoughtfully curated to cater to the rising bleisure traveller. Beyond exceptional accommodation, a sweeping range of meetings and events venues, and world-class leisure facilities in exciting destinations, the Great Hotels of the World brand is a seal of authenticity and character in hospitality.

Just as each hotel is unique, so are the tailored sales and marketing products and services that GHOTW provides to each one. This highly personal approach ensures that each hotel retains its independent look and feel while accessing state-of-the-art technology, distribution channels, and new source markets.

GHOTW has operations in London, New York, Frankfurt, Milan, Madrid and Lisbon. For more information, please visit http://www.ghotw.com
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The number of infants with COVID-19 has nearly doubled since mid-July in Nueces County, according to public health officials.

Before the second week of July, the Texas coastal county that includes Corpus Christi, reported 85 total positive cases in children under the age of 2. Since then, 82 more infants have tested positive for the disease for a total of 167 since the start of the pandemic.

"It is terrible because we don't know the long- or short-term effects of COVID-19 on the baby," said Nueces County Director of Public Health Annette Rodriguez. "It is hard enough to lose someone in a vulnerable population. When it is children dying, it is so difficult."

Officials aren't sure why there is a spike among infants and may not know until after the pandemic. Rodriguez said they are focusing on stopping the spread before they can really dive into the cause of certain population outbreaks.

The death of a six-month-old on July 10 from COVID-19 complications put infant cases on the radar for county health officials. Many of the cases are stemming from family contact with infected parents or grandparents, Rodriguez said.

"If you are sick, stay away from the baby," she said. "I know they are cute and you want to hold them, but you don't want to get them sick too."

Health officials recommend new mothers wear a face mask while feeding the child and limiting contact.

As of Wednesday, Nueces County has recorded more than 13,000 positive cases and 217 deaths.

Taylor Pettaway is a breaking news and general assignment reporter for MySA.com | taylor.pettaway@express-news.net | @TaylorPettaway
A judge on Thursday extended for another two weeks a temporary restraining order that restricts federal officers from assaulting, threatening to assault or arresting journalists or legal observers documenting protests in Portland.

U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon ruled -- over the objections of attorneys from the U.S.Justice Department -- that the order will run through 5 p.m. Aug. 20.

Simon found that grounds exist to leave the limits in place, given that an enhanced force of federal officers remains in Portland.

Attorney Jordan L. Von Bokern of the Justice Department unsuccessfully argued that an extension was unnecessary because the circumstances in Portland have changed, with federal officers largely remaining inside the federal courthouse after an agreement reached last week with Gov. Kate Brown.

The state and local police have resumed their traditional law enforcement functions that they had previously left in the hands of the federal forces, he said. The federal response has diminished almost to zero.

Yet Von Bokern couldnt say when the extra federal officers will be pulled from Portland.

I dont know what the plans are for adjusting the number of federal officers within the district or under what conditions they will be sent out of the district, he said.

The temporary order stems from a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, which has urged the judge to stop the federal agents occupation of Portland and submitted at least a dozen statements from journalists, photojournalists and legal observers who have suffered shots to the back, neck and legs from impact munitions fired by federal officers outside the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse in the last month.

The judge backed away from his initial inclination to modify the order by requiring both journalists and federal law enforcement to wear more identifiable clothing. He also dropped his idea floated last week to have the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon be the gatekeeper, responsible for deciding who to label an authorized journalist to get special vests or gear.

Simon said he was swayed by arguments raised by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 16 news organizations. In a friend of the court brief, attorney Duane Bosworth argued on behalf of the committee and the news organizations, including The Oregonian/OregonLive, that, The First Amendment bars any system that would require journalists to be licensed  by the government, third party, or otherwise  to gather and report the news. Such a system would constitute both an unconstitutional prior restraint and an unacceptable impediment to the publics right to know.

Attorney Matthew Borden, for the ACLU of Oregon, argued that the temporary restraining order should be extended, saying its anyones guess what the federal officers may do in the coming days, weeks or months.

He told the judge that hes concerned that as soon as the court lifts the restrictions, the federal officers will unleash the same destruction and mayhem that brought us to your steps in the first place.

Theyve made it clear they may resume action on the streets of Portland, and that remains a danger to us, Borden said.

Borden also referenced a deposition he took of Gabriel Russell, the regional director of the Federal Protective Service, who said he doesnt know when the federal officers will depart Portland.

Portland Deputy City Attorney Naomi Sheffield told the judge the city didnt have a position on whether the extension of the order.

But Sheffield noted for the record her opposition to how Von Bokern characterized local police actions in the last several weeks.

The Portland Police Bureau at no point in time has ceased its traditional law enforcement functions, she said. Portland police have continued its law enforcement function over the last two months, even while the federal agents came to Portland.

Portland police, though, rarely stepped out of the downtown Justice Center as demonstrators turned their focus on the federal courthouse in July. Federal officers often emerged from the courthouse and fired tear gas or impact munitions to clear late-night crowds after people threw fireworks and other objects, broke windows, and set fires.

Portland police face a separate court order to limit use of tear gas and impact munitions unless a life or public safety is at risk.

Simon set a future hearing for 10 a.m. Aug. 18 when the ACLU will argue for the temporary restraining order to be turned into a preliminary injunction.

Simon said hed consider then whether to require federal officers or journalists to wear more identifiable markings to help avoid the conflicts and to hold officers who violate the court restrictions accountable.

Yet the judge asked each side to return later this month with their analysis on whether the withdrawal of the federal officers between now and then could negate the need for a future injunction.

If those out of town federal officers were to leave town, Simon asked, would that change the calculus of irreparable injury?

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian

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Our efforts to understand the epidemic in one state are clouded by the efforts of the authorities to sustain one-man rule and the panic on which it is based. They are also clouded by the faithful alliance of the press with the authorities.

Over the past two days in Minnesota the authorities have attributed four (8/4) and 9 (8/5) new deaths to COVID-19. Seventy-six percent of all deaths attributed to the epidemic have occurred among residents of long-term care facilities. Hospitalizations continue at a level that would be indetectable under sane conditions.

Stepping back to look at the big picture, Kevin Roche provides A Brief Minnesota and National Status Report that steps back to look at the big picture. Kevin also conveys the experience tuning in to the Minnesota Department of Health press briefings and even manages to work in the Minnesota authorities rendition of the Sturgis apocalypse. Here are Kevins comments in their entirety, slightly edited:

Nationally, the big news, extremely disappointing to the freak-out brigade, is that the case surge is clearly over in the big Southern and Southwestern states, hospitalizations are down dramatically there and deaths are following. And these states managed to deal with this case surge with far fewer deaths than occurred in the Northeastern states in the spring.

The media and basement cowerers are trying to gin up concerns about a Midwest state case surge but that isnt actually happening. The calls for another lockdown just seem bewildering at this point. You didnt do enough damage with the first one?

The other major national news is the attempt to generate fake research to limit school openings. All of this stuff is overtly political at this point, but the school stuff for sure will generate a significant backlash from parents and only one party can get the blame for that.

Look, here is what we really know. This is one mysterious virus; the pattern for why it suddenly emerges in more force in a particular location is really uncertain. Maybe weather factors contribute, but I am hesitant to ascribe it all to that.

Once it emerges, it doesnt seem to matter what is done. It seems that it only takes a very small dose to cause an infection, so good luck with suppression efforts. Masks and mask mandates clearly arent a major inhibitor, nor is much else.

Going absurdly hard lockdown like New Zealand did and Australia is trying to do and Hawaii has basically done is simply suicidal and a bad bet that a vaccine will be a cure all. This virus is going to be around, just like all the other seasonal coronaviruses are, and even after a vaccine, if there is an effective one, some people are going to get sick and die from it, just like they do from the flu.

And we better hope that all our suppression efforts dont lead to a really lethal version of this virus. I made the point earlier today that if you did an real apples to apples comparison of coronavirus and fluif we tested everyone with symptoms or exposure for flu and if there were no vaccine, flu would be 5 to 10 times worse than what we have experienced with coronavirus.

We are going to have to accept living with this, just like we do other infectious agents. How sane does Sweden look right now?

In Minnesota, we are very fortunate that whatever factors make the virus upsurge are apparently absent here. Our incompetent leaders try to scare us anyway. Last Friday and yesterday the briefers brought up hospitalizations again, that is the best they have apparently. They fumbled around trying to keep the scare tactics up while acknowledging that deaths are way down. They use lagging indicators a lot.

My favorite part was warning people about coronavirus scamsters and when they started on that I thought for a moment they were going to admit that they had been scamming people with the data and messaging they present.

Yesterday we learned that those naughty, naughty people with the rodeo in northern Minnesota had not created one additional case beyond the one previously reported. Unfortunately if they dont show up soon, they wont show up at all.

Those extra hospitalizations and deaths we were promised several weeks ago havent shown up either. Oh, and a week out from the mask mandate and the clock is ticking on that big reduction in cases we are supposed to see.

And where is that darn version 4 of the [Minnesota] model? We seem to be missing a lot of things, especially some honesty and integrity. But never fear, they tell us that when Sturgis occurs, the apocalypse will return to Minnesota and we will all have to huddle in our homes for weeks to avoid bikers coming and going through Minnesota.

So the truth about Minnesota is that we dont have an epidemic right now and we should be very grateful. I dont know why cases are so low here and neither do the mush heads at the state. Unfortunately, I do think it could be back, and I wonder how that could happen when the Dictator [i.e., Governor Walz] has promised us that masks will save us all.

Maybe we need masks on the virus. Think he can order that?
LONDON, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- On August 4, 2020, a major port explosion caused devastating damage across the city of Beirut, Lebanon. In the initial aftermath, the disaster is reported to have caused at least 100 deaths and injured around 4,000 people. It has since been established that the explosion was caused by the ignition of 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate (AN) stored at the port. This tragic event has rocked Lebanon's largest city and has naturally raised questions over AN storage and handling regulations. This Insight provides context on the well-established safety considerations in the AN industry and considers the implications of another high-profile AN-related incident on the market.

Beirut explosion puts ammonium nitrate in the spotlight (PRNewsfoto/CRU)

Unsafe storage conditions cited as cause of explosion

The explosion occurred on August 4, at a warehouse in Beirut's major port. The Lebanese President Michel Aoun has confirmed the blast was caused by 2,750 t of AN that had been stored unsafely in a warehouse at the site. The blast has destroyed the country's largest port, including silos containing the national grain reserve. Lebanon imports as much as 80% of its food needs and around 85% of the country's cereals are understood to have been stored in the facility.

The AN is understood to have been impounded at the port since late 2013 when a vessel travelling from Georgia to the port of Beira in Mozambique encountered engine problems and was forced to port. Media reports suggested the ship was deemed unseaworthy by Beirut's Port State Control and it was forbidden to complete its journey. The ship owner is understood to have declared bankruptcy, leaving the ship and its cargo abandoned at the port.

The Director General of Lebanese Customs told reporters that customs officials had sent six documents to the judiciary warning that the AN stored at the port posed a danger. Lebanon's Prime Minister also commented that it was unacceptable that the AN had been left for six years at the warehouse without appropriate safety measures.

While the origin and destination of the cargo's original route are largely immaterial now, the Shipping Agency of the Georgian Ministry of Economy has confirmed that the vessel contained AN produced by Rustavi Azot, the Georgian nitrogen producer. The vessel was destined for Mozambique, which typically imports 35-40 kt per year for explosives use in open pit coal mining, according to CRU estimates.

Read the full story:

https://www.crugroup.com/knowledge-and-insights/insights/2020/beirut-explosion-puts-ammonium-nitrate-in-the-spotlight/

Read more about CRU: http://bit.ly/About_CRU

About CRU

CRU offers unrivalled business intelligence on the global metals, mining and fertilizer industries through market analysis, price assessments, consultancy and events.

Since our foundation by Robert Perlman in 1969, we have consistently invested in primary research and robust methodologies, and developed expert teams in key locations worldwide, including in hard-to-reach markets such as China.

CRU employs over 280 experts and has more than 11 offices around the world, in Europe, the Americas, China, Asia and Australia  our office in Beijing opened in 2004 and Singapore in 2018.

When facing critical business decisions, you can rely on our first-hand knowledge to give you a complete view of a commodity market. And you can engage with our experts directly, for the full picture and a personalised response.

CRU  big enough to deliver a high-quality service, small enough to care about all of our customers.

SOURCE CRU
Many opposition politicians have ignored the ceremony.

Polish President Duda mentioned Ukraine in his inaugural swearing-in address on August 6.

According to him, the country will have an opportunity to act for the security of the continent in 2022 when Poland chairs the OSCE, according to RFE/RL's Ukrainian service.

Duda stressed this is an important task, which also includes restoring the full sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.

Read alsoConservative incumbent Duda re-elected Polish president  media

The ceremony was held at the Sejm, during a session of the National Assembly. However, many opposition politicians have ignored the ceremony. Of the invited former presidents, only Aleksander Kwasniewski attended the event.

As reported by Radio Poland, Duda garnered 51.03% of the vote in Poland's run-off presidential election last month, while opposition-backed challenger Rafa Trzaskowski, the mayor of Warsaw, won 48.97%.

A special chamber within Poland's Supreme Court on Monday announced that the result the election was valid, despite over 5,000 legal challenges to the ballot.
TEL AVIV, Israel, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Neura, the leader in AI-powered behavioral intelligence providing real-world insights for health organizations, governments, and consumer brands today announced the adoption of ViruScore COVID-19 predictive testing solution.

Neura's Human Behavioral Intelligence Platform is the first-ever AI-based approach to be utilized in the field, with HY Laboratories, the main provider of COVID-19 tests solutions in Israel, and one of the world's top 5 HMOs using it to grade testing samples to enable more efficient test pooling.

Neura transforms vast amounts of anonymized sensory data from millions of mobile devices using AI and machine learning, into actionable insights such as Social Distancing Index, Human Encounter Rate, crowd-gathering patterns and Super-Spreader mobility patterns. These actionable insights are subsequently utilized by health organizations, municipalities, and governments to predict and contain the spread of COVID-19. As part of Neura's newest offering, these same COVID-19 insights are fused with pandemic data to create a risk score. The score is employed by HMOs and labs to grade the probability of a positive or negative result on a four level scale ranging from "highest probability" to "lowest probability.

In Neura's study with HY Laboratories, the Neura ViruScore solution achieved 98% accuracy in test prediction across a sample size of 1,000 tests. As a result, Neura was able to create a population sample with 2% positive infection rate, producing an optimal environment for pool testing and enabling the HMO to increase capacity by 6X.

Three out of four models did not assign batches with even a single positive test to its lowest probability classification and the fourth assigned only a single positive test. Those results point to Neura's human behavior driven based testing approach playing a pivotal role in breaking infectious chains faster, and potentially saving millions of dollars by reducing the number of tests required.

"Neura's solution is a significant leap forward for the deployment of behavioral-intelligence tech in the fight against COVID-19," said Neura's CEO, Amit Hammer. "Being able to identify high and low-risk groups, future outbreaks, and behavioral Super-Spreaders is crucial to government efforts to fight the virus. With the recent FDA approval of COVID-19 test pooling, Neura's insights will go even further in helping to slow and break down the chain of infection."

"As of today, we do not look only at the analytical and clinical utility of testing, but at the entire workflow and its implications on a much broader scale. Neura brings an out of the box approach and new possibilities for sample managing, achieving a powerful enhancement of the test pooling process," said Tsofnat Cohen Lubetzky, Head of Business Development at Hylabs. "By leveraging Neura's ViruScore solution, we are able to pool tests far more effectively, delivering much faster results, while helping to conserve supplies of vital testing kits, it has been an absolute and unequivocal breakthrough."

About Neura:

Neura empowers organizations to drive strategic, data-driven decisions based on large scale human behavior and activity signals. Its Behavior Intelligence Platform transforms vast amounts of anonymized data into actionable, impactful and monetizable insights based on population behavior and lifestyle.

TheNeura.com, Neura's brand solution enables powerful audiencing and CRM enrichment, combined with highly effective, contextually relevant engagement, pinpointing optimal moments of availability.

Neura.co, Neura's COVID-19 solution equips policymakers, health organizations, and businesses with real-time tools to monitor, predict and contain the Coronavirus pandemic. Providing decision makers with the necessary insights to safely reopen the economy. The Behavior Intelligence data is also utilized by labs and HMOs as part of Neura's ViruScore, the world's first-ever COVID-19 predictive testing solution enabling more effective pooled testing.

Contact:

Joel Strauss

Strauss Communications

[email protected]

+13477639957

SOURCE Neura
The Tennessee Supreme Court on Wednesday vacated the temporary injunction entered by the Davidson County Chancery Court, which, in part, required the State to provide an absentee ballot to any eligible voter validly seeking to vote by mail to avoid transmission or contraction of COVID-19 for all elections occurring during the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic.

The Court held, however, that the absentee ballots for the August 6, 2020 election should be counted as to Tennessee voters who timely voted by absentee ballot by mail according to the trial courts temporary injunction and who otherwise meet the statutory requirements for absentee voting.





This decision stems from two cases involving plaintiffs who alleged the States interpretation of a law describing who may vote by absentee ballot in Tennessee burdens their constitutional right to vote during the COVID-19 pandemic. The trial court determined that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on their claims and entered a temporary injunction that ordered the State to provide an absentee ballot to any eligible voter validly seeking to vote by mail in order to avoid transmission or contraction of COVID-19 so long as pandemic circumstances continue.

The trial court allowed the State to challenge the validity of the injunction by an interlocutory appeal to the Court of Appeals. On June 24, the Supreme Court granted the States motions to assume jurisdiction over the States appeals but denied the States motions to stay the temporary injunction pending resolution on appeal. The Court heard oral arguments in the cases on an expedited schedule on July 30, 2020.





At oral argument, the State conceded that, under the States interpretation of the Tennessee statute at issue, individuals with a special vulnerability to COVID-19, as defined in the opinion, or caretakers for individuals with a special vulnerability to COVID-19 already satisfy the statutory requirements for eligibility to vote by absentee ballot.





In the Supreme Courts majority opinion authored by Justice Cornelia A. Clark, the Court held that, under the States interpretation at oral argument as to persons having a special vulnerability to COVID-19 as well as the caretakers of such persons, injunctive relief was not necessary because the State identified them as already qualifying under Tennessee law for absentee voting. As to persons who do not have a special vulnerability to COVID-19 or are not caretakers for such persons, the Court held that the States interests in the efficacy and integrity of the election process sufficiently justified the moderate burden that the laws limiting absentee voting placed on the right to vote of such individuals.

Therefore, the Court held that these individuals were not likely to prevail on the merits of their underlying claims and that, accordingly, the trial court erred in granting its temporary injunction. The Supreme Courts majority opinion vacated the trial courts temporary injunction. Because absentee ballots already have been cast for the August 6, 2020 election and because courts avoid changing election rules on the eve of an election, the Court held that the ballots shall be counted as to all Tennessee voters who timely voted by absentee ballot for the August 2020 election under the trial courts temporary injunction and who otherwise meet the statutory requirements for absentee voting.





Justice Sharon G. Lee filed a separate opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part. Justice Lee agrees that the temporary injunction is not necessary as to persons having a special vulnerability to COVID-19 or to the caretakers of such persons, given the States interpretation of these persons already qualifying for absentee voting under Tennessee law. Additionally, Justice Lee agrees with the presumption of constitutionality of the relevant statutes on absentee voting, the applicable standard of review, and the moderate burden on the right to vote of persons without a special vulnerability to COVID-19 or those who are not caretakers of such persons. Justice Lee determined, however, that the State failed to establish that its financial or administrative interests, as well as its interest in preventing voter fraud, sufficiently justified the moderate burden on the fundamental right to vote of persons without a special vulnerability to COVID-19 or those who are not caretakers of such persons. Accordingly, Justice Lee determined that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in issuing a temporary injunction protecting the constitutional rights of all eligible voters during this pandemic.





To read the Supreme Courts majority opinion authored by Justice Cornelia A. Clark, and the concurring and dissenting opinion, authored by Justice Sharon G. Lee, in Earle J. Fisher, et al. v. Tre Hargett, et al. , and Benjamin Lay, et al. v. Mark Goins, et al. , go to the opinions section of TNCourts.gov.





Majority opinion - http://tncourts.gov/courts/ supreme-court/opinions/2020/ 08/05/earle-j-fisher-et-al-v- tre-hargett-et-al

Concurring and dissenting opinion - http://tncourts.gov/courts/ supreme-court/opinions/2020/ 08/05/earle-j-fisher-et-al-v- tre-hargett-et-al-concurring- part




Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-07 06:24:52|Editor: huaxia

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UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations is aiding the Lebanese government following the explosions in Beirut by releasing emergency funds, assessing needs and planning alternative aid delivery, a UN spokesman said on Thursday.

Already 9 million U.S. dollars in emergency aid have been released locally for hospitals and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is expected to release additional funds soon, said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The World Health Organization reported three hospitals are inoperable and two more have sustained substantial damage, the spokesman said. The equivalent of 500 hospital beds has been lost due to damage.

Najat Rochdi, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon, authorized the funds from the UN's Lebanese Humanitarian Fund.

A special international appeal for additional funds is also anticipated, the spokesman told correspondents at a regular, virtual briefing.

Haq said the United Nations will follow up "to make sure that all of the aid that we distribute goes to where it's needed."

The OCHA is sending emergency teams that include experts from the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group and UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination team to assist with the emergency response.

"We do have teams who are specialists in search and rescue who are on the ground for the current phase, which involves trying to find the people who are still missing following the blast," he added.

About 100 people have been reported missing. More than 130 Have been killed.

"With the Beirut Port inoperable, the UN and its partners are looking to adjust logistic networks to ensure sustained operations," Haq said. "Humanitarian materials will likely be redirected through the Tripoli Port."

The port in the north of the country is a little more than 80 kilometers north of Beirut.

"The change may have adverse consequences for some supply chains, as Tripoli Port has a lower capacity than Beirut Port," he said. "Beirut International Airport remains open for passenger and cargo flights."

"We are, in fact, exploring using alternative ports in the short term, including in places like Cyprus and Turkey, to make sure that we can get aid to Syria efficiently while Beirut Port is being repaired," he said.

The leadership of the UN Mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL) visited the Maritime Task Force ship that was damaged in the explosion on Tuesday and visited the injured peacekeepers from the vessel who were injured in the blast, the spokesman said.

A total of 23 UNIFIL peacekeepers from Bangladesh had been admitted to hospitals, of whom 18 have been discharged, he said. Two peacekeepers remain in critical but stable condition. Enditem
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Z Natural Foods released their newest superfood powder; Organic Freeze-Dried Super 8 Berry Blend.

This dark purple berry mix is a potent blend of eight of the most nutrient-rich berries on earth.

Z Natural Foods Announces New Organic Freeze-Dried Berry Blend Extremely high in antioxidants and powerful phytonutrients, this concentrated mix of freeze-dried berry powders provide the very best in flavor, aroma, and nutritional potency.

The organic berries are freeze-dried and powdered to preserve the phytochemicals and other vital nutrients. This unique blend of super berries contains: Organic Goji Berry, Organic Acai Berry, Organic Maqui Berry, Organic Blueberry, Organic Blackberry, Organic Strawberry, Organic Red Raspberry, and Organic Acerola Cherry.

"This dark berry blend is one of the healthiest foods on earth," reports Pattanaphol "Pop" Tharitimanont, Director of New Product Research & Development for Z Natural Foods. The naturally sweet, sour, and delightfully tart flavor makes you feel like you are eating real fresh berries."

Experts agree that dark berries deliver superior health benefits, phytonutrients, and antioxidants than almost any other food. Additionally, these dark berries may support good health and have a positive effect on your immune system which may be your best defense against getting sick.

The 8 organic berries are:

Organic Acerola Cherries (unripe) - Our acerola cherry powder contains more than 500% of the daily value of Vitamin C, making this unique South American berry a super immune booster.

Organic Goji Berry - A relative of the tomato, goji is a bright red berry with a natural source of lycopene and has also been called the world's most powerful anti-aging food.

Organic Acai Berry - Freeze-dried acai is the most potent form available of this amazing berry which contains 30 times the anthocyanins levels as red wine.

Organic Maqui Berry - High in antioxidants, Maqui Berry is a rare and potent, dark purple berry found only in the Patagonia region of South America.

Organic Blackberry - The deep blue and purple colors of blackberries top the charts as the leading disease-fighting pigment.

Organic Strawberry - Bursting with flavor, our 100% organic freeze-dried strawberry powder captures all the natural taste and nutrition this remarkable berry has to offer.

Organic Red Raspberry - Red Raspberries rank near the top of all fruits for antioxidant strength, particularly due to their rich content of ellagic acid (from ellagitannins).

Organic Blueberry - Researchers analyzed 60 fruits and vegetables for their antioxidant capability and blueberries rated highest in their capacity to combat free radicals.

"Our customers love this blend because of the amazing taste, high nutrition, and versatility,'' reports Pop. They tell us they enjoy it as a refreshing iced berry juice, adding it to favorite recipes, sprinkled on yogurt, and for improving the taste and nutrition of smoothies."

Rich in advanced nutrients such as antioxidants, polyphenols, anthocyanins (more than red wine), Vitamin A and C, as well as omega 6 and omega 3 fatty acids, Organic Freeze-Dried Super 8 Berry Blend is soy-free, gluten-free, vegan, and does not contain added preservatives or sugar.

Our Organic Freeze-Dried Super 8 Berry Blend comes in an air-locked, freezer-tight, resealable, stand up foil pouch and can be safely stored for 2 years in refrigerator or freezer. For more information, you are invited to visit www.ZNaturalFoods.com .

About Z Natural Foods

Z Natural Foods is a leading provider of high quality, organic superfoods, and concentrated fruit powders. With over 400 specialty products, Z Natural Foods provides a wide range of natural foods to the biggest wholesalers and retailers in the industry. Offering services such as wholesale, blending, packaging, delivery, and retail, Z Natural Foods provides a unique niche to the food industry. For more information about Z Natural Foods, visit www.ZNaturalFoods.com or call 888-963-6637.

Media Contact

Sam Hirschberg

888-963-6637

[email protected]

SOURCE Z Natural Foods

Related Links

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ETX Daily Up

Podcast series are definitely in vogue. An increasing number of actors are signing up for these productions. The latest actress to get on board is none other than Kerry Washington. Her production company will develop three series for Audible, and the star will even play the main role in one of them. We bring you the lowdown.
Hadi al-Bahra has said that the Constitutional Committee will go ahead and will not be postponed unless the coronavirus situation changes in Switzerland writes Shaam Network.

Syrian Constitutional Committee Co-Chair and opposition representative, Hadi al-Bahra, said on Tuesday that there will be no delay of the meetings of the Constitutional Committee scheduled to start in Geneva on Aug 24, 2020.

Bahra stressed in a virtual workshop held by the committee  which was attended by a number of its members and a group of journalists  that the meeting came after long negotiations and procrastination on the part of the regime to lock down the agenda.

He explained that agreement of the agenda happened after the spread of the coronavirus, which allowed the meeting to take place on Aug. 24, 2020, pointing out that, to date the meeting has not been officially postponed, but it might be, depending on the development of the coronavirus situation in Switzerland.

Bahra stated that, visas were only granted to the members of the committee participating in the meeting, and there were certain actions that the Swiss authorities took.

He also touched on, the need to educate Syrians about the importance of the Constitutional Committee and its work, especially the extent of its contribution to the future of the country.

Bahra said that field agreements in all areas of Syria are temporary, considering that these agreements are, a temporary organizational stage to sort out military matters, and it is once that is achieved, the political process will start.

He stressed that, the first meeting of the Constitutional Committee last year was the beginning of the process, and it gave a positive impression about the progress it had been making and the development of the framework of its mandate.

On Jul. 25, 2020, representatives of the 50th negotiating committee in the Syrian Constitutional Committee held a virtual meeting, at the invitation of Bahra. to with Anas al-Abdah, also attended.

Attendees discussed the preparations for the upcoming stage, which was initiated by United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen.

Abdah presented a brief on the latest political developments related to Syria, during which he affirmed the HNCs full support for the work of the Syrian Constitutional Committee.

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.
Rapid first aid during cardiac arrest makes the difference between life and death. But what happens to the heart and the internal organs when people come running and begin to give well-meaning but heavy-handed heart massage as they attempt to keep the person who has suffered a cardiac arrest alive?

A research collaboration between the Department of Forensic Medicine at Aarhus University, Denmark, and the East Midlands Forensic Pathology Unit at the University of Leicester in the UK now offers an answer to this question.

Using a new CT scanning method, the researchers show how the chest and abdominal region of a deceased person move during simulated heart massage.

"Specifically, we've simulated heart massage by compressing the chest of a deceased person in a controlled manner in precisely the same way as would happen with heart massage. Though with the difference that this was done gradually and in slow motion while the whole process was CT scanned at the same time," explains Kasper Hansen, assistant professor at the Department of Forensic Medicine at Aarhus University and the lead author of the study, which has been published in the scientific journal Resuscitation.

The method can be compared with a stop motion video production, but where each image in the video has been replaced by a complete 3D CT scan. The method reproduces the organs movements during heart massage in a very detailed way and makes it possible to perform advanced imaging analysis on the volumetric dynamic CT dataset.

According to the Danish Heart Foundation, in Denmark 5,400 people suffer cardiac arrest outside of the hospitals every year, with approx. 16 per cent of them surviving. Although more people than previously survive thanks to stronger efforts in general resuscitation training and improved rehabilitation, there is still room for improvement in resuscitation techniques and procedures. Kasper Hansen hopes that this is where the new CT scanning method will prove useful.

The goal of heart massage is blood circulation, but we don't know enough about how the blood is pumped onwards, and why certain characteristic heart massage injuries such as lesions on the internal organs occur." Kasper Hansen, Assistant Professor, Department of Forensic Medicine, Aarhus University

"There are many unknowns in connection with resuscitation. The new technique makes it possible to examine different aspects of heart massage. Using the method allows us to directly study the organ movements, and may help to clarify the basis for important physiological mechanisms. Because the scans have been carried out on a deceased person, it hasn't been possible to measure the blood flow directly. However, the method clearly demonstrates how, for example, the heart is affected during heart massage, and we can therefore gain a better understanding of the critical mechanisms during heart massage," says Kasper Hansen.

In connection with the scientific publication, the study presents five videos that have been exported with so-called predefined display settings from the specialised imaging software.

"Specialized radiological software is needed to be able to utilize and show the full potential of the method and what it can deliver. In the article we therefore use the videos as a practical and known format to communicate how our new method is able to contribute to creating new insight into different elements of heart massage for experts within the field. Furthermore, we believe that anyone who has completed a first aid course will be able to relate to the videos. So we also hope that these videos will be fully utilised in the general first aid courses," says Kasper Hansen.

"Our results are a fine example of how research on the deceased can help the living, which is a mantra within forensic medicine research all over the world. The relatives of the deceased person used in this study have agreed to the experiment being carried out and to the publication of the results." This is of invaluable importance for this type of research, emphasises Kasper Hansen.

"It helps to bring us closer to our goal, which is for the method we present in the study to contribute to the development of better and more effective procedures for the treatment of cardiac arrest - and in this way to more people surviving a cardiac arrest," says Kasper Hansen.
Beirut blast: 700 tonnes of Ammonium Nitrate stored in Chennai safe, e-auction done, says Customs

India

oi-Briti Roy Barman

Chennai, Aug 06: Two days after unsafely stored ammonium nitrate that killed at least 135 people and injured thousands in Beirut, Lebanon, concerns have been raised about stored nearly 700 tonnes of the explosive ammonium nitrate for years under the custody of the Customs Department, outside Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

Beirut Explosion: What makes Ammonium Nitrate explode, how dangerous is it | Oneindia News

Referring the fatal Beirut tragedy, PMK chief Dr Ramadoss demanded safe disposal of the explosive chemical and its safe use in making other products.

"There is a risk of a similar explosion. To avert that the explosives ought to be disposed safely and used for manufacture of fertiliser and other needs," Ramadoss tweeted.

Beirut explosion: Death toll rises to 113; Two-week state of emergency declared

But Chennai port officials have denied and said the pile of explosives is no longer stored in the harbor.

"Around 36 containers, each with around 20 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, have been shifted long time ago and now they are under the Customs Department's control," an officer from Department said.

The chemical worth Rs 1.80 crore was seized from a Tamil Nadu-based importer in 2015, who had allegedly declared it as fertiliser grade although it was an explosive grade, a Customs official said.

However, the consignment, imported from South Korea, was safe and an e-auction process was on to clear it, he said. According to a statement issued by the Customs Department, the seized consignment was kept in safe custody in the container freight station at Manali.

"The seized chemical is securely stored and the safety of the cargo and public is ensured considering the hazardous nature of the substance," the statement said. The freight station was located about 20 km away from the city and there was no residential locality within the vicinity of 2 km, it said.

All safety measures are being taken by the freight station and monitored by the Customs to ensure public safety. Also, the process of disposal of the cargo is taken up promptly by the Customs, it said. The disposal would be done within a short period by following all safety measures, the statement said.

The Customs' clarification comes in the wake of reports in a section of the media that huge quantities of the chemical substance being stored could be a risk, even as political party Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) sought the government to ensure its safe disposal.

kk"The goods are safe and pose no danger" a senior Customs Department official told PTI when asked about the fears of safety in the backdrop of the devastating Beirut explosion.

Elaborating, the official, on condition of anonymity, said the sleuths had in November 2015 seized 697 tonnes of ammonium nitrate in 37 containers valued at Rs 1.80 crore from the importer. "The importer had misdeclared the goods as ammonium nitrate of fertiliser grade whereas on examination it was found to be of explosive grade and that (the importer) had not followed the Ammonium Nitrate Rules, 2012," he said.

The containers were seized then and were since lying at the freight station while the licence of the importer had been cancelled. While seven tonnes of the chemical got spoilt during the deluge in December 2015, the remaining 690 tonnes were under process of e-auctioning, he said.

What is ammonium nitrate and why it is explosive

Ammonium nitrate is a chemical compound containing the element nitrogen, as well as hydrogen and oxygen, and is commonly used in agriculture as fertilizer. Nitrogen is an essential element for plants and ammonium nitrate is particularly good, compared with other fertilizers.

Ammonium nitrate is also an explosive compound and is used around the world in mining and construction operations in the times of detonations.

The chemical is highly stable under normal conditions.

But it can explode after exposure to contaminants or fuel oil and then heated.

If the chemical heated with above 170 degrees Fahrenheit, it begins to undergo decomposition. With rapid detonation, chemical reaction can occur that converts ammonium nitrate to nitrogen and oxygen gas and water vapor. And the process releases huge amounts of energy.

Though burning ammonium nitrate in an open field is not likely to result in an explosion in confined space high energy explosion can occur.

In the Beirut explosion, not all of the ammonium nitrate used exploded in the explosion.

Some of it decomposes slowly creating toxic gases like nitrogen oxides which are responsible for the red-brown plume of smoke seen in the aftermath of the explosion, says specialists.

As ammonium nitrate is potentially explosive, countries and unions impose strict regulations on storing and processing it.

"It is generally kept under controlled conditions and modified volumes to minimize chances of explosion," says Brent Kaiser, a plant biologist at the University of Sydney.

Notably, in 2015, explosions partly caused by the detonation of around 800 tons of ammonium nitrate rocked the Beijing port in China, killing 173 people.

In 1947, the worst industrial accident in US history that killed 581 people when a ship in the harbor of Texas City, Texas, carrying approximately 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate caught fire.

Notably about 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate were stored in a Beirut port warehouse that exploded on Tuesday.
Pandemic uncertainty has slowed, but won't stop, plans to bring an arts and convention center to Jacksonville.

This week, a sign of optimism emerged in the now-vacant lot on North Main Street that is the future location of the Jacksonville Center for the Arts.

"Building hope. When the dust settles, we'll be here," the sign reads.

Jacksonville Center for the Arts President Susan Weller said she hopes the sign will be encouraging to those struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The extended shutdown of most of the state "hit us hard," Weller said.

The board is in the midst of a five-year drive to raise money for construction of the 20,000-square-foot facility. About $1.5 million has been raised, but the extended economic uncertainty created by the coronavirus makes raising funding and private donations a challenge.

Everything we do has to be face to face," she said. "It has definitely set us back a few years."

The group has a 98-year lease with the city of Jacksonville for property at 305 N. Main St. The center would have a theater for 300 to 500 people, meeting rooms, exhibit space and banquet areas.

The center's board sees it as an economic engine for the community.

Weller understands people might have doubts, but with the money raised so far and the support the group is seeing, she is confident people are starting to notice.

Were starting to gain attraction. It is going to be built and were going to shock everybody and grow the economy, Weller said.

For now, the group will wait, using things like the sign as a reminder it is committed to the cause and to seeing the center built.

We cant depend on people to donate at this time. People are just scared, Weller said. We have to just wait.
- Increase in adoption of heat pumps in the residential sector and benefits related to reduction of CO2 emissions drive the growth of the global heat pump market

PORTLAND, Ore., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Heat Pump Market by Type (Air-to-Air, Water Source, and Geothermal) and Application (Residential, Industrial, and Commercial): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2019-2026." According to the report, the global heat pump industry generated $55.2 billion in 2018, and is estimated to reach $99.6 billion by 2026, witnessing a CAGR of 7.7% from 2019 to 2026.

Drivers, restraints, and opportunities

Increase in adoption of heat pumps in the residential sector and benefits related to reduction of CO2 emissions drive the growth of the global heat pump market. However, high cost of investments hinders the market growth. On the other hand, surge in prominence of geothermal heat pump technology and favorable regulatory policies offer new opportunities in the coming years.

COVID-19 Scenario

The outbreak has caused lockdown of the manufacturing factories and as a result, there is a disruption in the production cycle. Accordingly, the supply chain has also got affected.

With lockdown in effect, the demand from commercial sector will be reduced for sure. In addition, with governments and healthcare researchers outlining the fact that central air-conditioning aids in spreading the coronavirus, there would certainly be a steep decline in the production line.

However, there hasn't been any threat projected for window air conditioners yet. But, disruption in the supply chain may pose a hindrance for the residents who want to install new systems.

Download Report Sample (185 Pages PDF with Insights) @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/5341

The air-to-air segment to maintain its leadership status during the forecast period

Based on type, the air-to-air segment contributed to nearly three-fourths of the total share of the global heat pump market in 2018, and is estimated to maintain its leadership status during the forecast period. This is attributed to its widespread acceptance and low installation cost in comparison to other heating technologies. However, the water source segment would witness the largest CAGR of 8.1% from 2019 to 2026, owing to rise in efforts to attain decarbonization in the heating system.

The residential segment to maintain its dominance by 2026

Based on application, the residential segment accounted for the highest market share of the global heat pump market, accounting for nearly three-fourths of the total share in 2018, and is expected to maintain its dominance by 2026. This is attributed to climatic changes promoting adoption of heat pumps to offer heating solutions during cooler seasons and cooling solutions during hot days. However, the commercial segment would register the highest CAGR of 8.3% from 2019 to 2026, owing to versatility, long-term reliability, and low maintenance of heat pumps.

Get detailed COVID-19 impact analysis on the Heat Pump Market: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-for-customization/5341?reqfor=covid

Asia-Pacific to dominate by 2027, North America to grow steadily

Based on region, Asia-Pacific contributed to the highest share in terms of revenue in 2018, accounting for more than two-fifths of the global heat pump market, and is expected to maintain its lead position during the forecast period. Moreover, this region is expected to maintain the highest CAGR of 8.1% from 2019 to 2026. This is due to high adoption of the system in China with population relying on cost- and energy-effective energy products. However, North America is expected to register a CAGR of 7.4% during the forecast period.

Leading market players

Daikin Industries Ltd.

Ingersoll Rand Plc

Glen Dimplex Group

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation

Melrose Industries PLC

StiebelEltron

NIBE Industrier AB

ViessmannWerke GmbH & Co. KG

Vaillant Group

Panasonic Corporation

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Smart Cooling Systems Market: Smart cooling system market is projected to reach $137,548 million by 2022, with a CAGR of 52.4 % from 2016 to 2022.

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Just like China wants Trump to lose the US presidential poll, it may want Modi to lose the Lok Sabha polls.

So months before the 2024 elections, China may take possession of an important area, say one of the Char Dhams, warns Sanjeev Nayyar.

Now that the latest India-China stand-off does not seem to be ending, it might be useful to reflect on the learnings for India.

Post Pokhran 2, then defence minister George Fernandes justified India's second nuclear explosion by naming China as 'India's Enemy No 1'.

Twenty-two years later, the current stand-off has resulted in the average Indian too seeing China as enemy number one, thanks to the Galwan Valley clash in which 20 Indian soldiers made the supreme sacrifice.

Here are some key learnings and observations for India on how to handle the dragon to our eastern borders.

1. Never trust the Chinese. ]=;They have mastered the art of deception. As Geostrategist Brahma Chellaney wrote (external link), 'Deception, concealment and surprise have driven China's repeated use of force -- from seizing the Johnson Reef in 1988 and the Mischief Reef in 1995 to occupying the Scarborough Shoal in 2012 and now vantage locations in Ladakh. It has changed the South China Sea's geopolitical map without firing a shot or incurring any international costs.'

2. Never let your guard down. Political leaders might shake hands, but the Indian armed forces should always be on the alert, and plan for the unexpected.

3. The Chinese respect strength, both economic and military power. India should work towards building both.

4. The Chinese hate to lose, so expect them to be back in Ladakh with renewed vigour or they will acquire new areas that makes the current understanding irrelevant.

5. Iran, North Korea and Pakistan are among China's best friends. Their plans will now work more in tandem than ever before and require close observation.

6. The Chinese cherry pick agreements. Former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal wrote (external link), 'China has repeatedly demonstrated that either it does not respect the agreements it signs or interprets them as it wants. In 1996 it agreed to 'clarifying the alignment of the LAC in those segments where they (the two sides) have different perceptions In 2002, China decided to repudiate this agreement unilaterally.'

7. India need not always play by the rule book or go by signed agreements, but be driven by national interests alone. Remember the story of Ashwatthama in the Mahabharata.

8. Appeasement postpones but magnifies problems. For decades successive Indian governments have been sensitive to Chinese interests.

What India got in return was encroachment of its territory, arming of Pakistan by China and Galwan Valley clash!

9. India must accept that China and Pakistan are made for each other. Former high commissioner to Pakistan G Parthasarathy wrote (external link), 'Nawaz Sharif described his country's relations with China as: 'Sweeter than the sweetest honey'/. Pakistan's ambassador to China gushingly described the Sino-Pakistan relationship as: 'Deeper than the ocean, higher than the mountains and stronger than steel'.

Remember that China protects 'Pakistan-based terrorist groups like the LeT and JeM from international sanctions in the United Nations'.

Therefore, India should expect that China would continue to support Pakistan in every way and prepare for a two-front war, with China and Pakistan, in the next three years or risk losing parts of Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh.

10. China has a bigger economy and is a stronger military power than India, but Indians are no pushovers either.

We must stop underestimating ourselves, at the same time not underestimate Chinese intent to harm India's rise non-stop.

Former ambassador P Stobdan wrote (external link) in India Today, 'India is not a pushover like the three Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, with which China fixed boundary settlements in its favour through a blend of 'incentives with coercion' pressure tactics.'

11. China follows the creeping acquisition route. They take possession of a small area of another country. If the protests are not strong enough they continue.

The Dalai Lama said on Rediff.com, 'The Chinese way... is to do something rather mild at first; then to wait a bit, and if it passes without objection, to say or do something stronger. But if we take objection to the first statement or action, they urge that it has been misinterpreted, and cease, for a time at any rate, from troubling us further.'

12. China is used to presenting countries with a fait accompli, for example, the road through Eastern Ladakh from Sinkiang to Tibet via eastern Ladakh or Aksai Chin.

If China wants such favours there should be a clear strategic status quo.

Strategic affairs analyst Maroof Raza wrote (external link) in The Tribune, 'If China has control over the Galwan valley, the Depsang plains (north of Leh) will greatly shorten the route taken by the Chinese -- to link up with the Shaksgam valley, that China first grabbed and then made Pakistan 'temporarily' gift it to Beijing! This valley, though inhospitable, has the largest collection of glaciers (over 250 to be precise) that China regards as a source of water to further its agenda of world domination.'

13. Talks with China on the boundary question must take place only when China submits its version of the Line of Actual Control. So far China has not given India any such maps.

14. India must remember that China has deliberately kept the border dispute unresolved so as to keep India off balance and 'reduce its maritime military investments'.

15. The Chinese strategy is to win without fighting. They captured the US market with low cost products such that US industry became dependent on it. They are replicating the same strategy with India.

India needs to enhance domestic production and design capabilities so that dependence on China reduces.

Similarly, they take possession of a country's territory, then negotiate a pullback by which they continue to be in possession of the country's territory and simultaneously ensure Indian Army pulls back from its own territory. Brahma Chellaney says it is part of the well-known 'advance ten miles, retreat six miles strategy'.

16. Gautam Chikermane of the Observer Research Foundation, summed up the Chinese approach in his tweet: 'How China negotiates 101: First intrude, then seek "partners". First attack, then talk "peace". First create zero-sum, then push for "win-win". First build suspicions, then ask for "trust". First go backwards, then pursue "forward".

17. Boycott Chinese products. Start with not buying Chinese brands. So if I have to buy a laptop I will buy an American brand, even if it is made in China, instead of a Chinese one. Companies that own brands make profits, not the ones who contract manufacture.

Indian consumers must not buy products of companies who indulge in 'lazy manufacturing', meaning Indian companies who import a finished product from China, stamp their brand name and then sell to consumers.

18. The Government of India must remember that diplomacy works best when it is backed by military power. So India must arms itself adequately, enough to fight a two-front war.

19. Present-day China is 'centred on the rhetoric of national rejuvenation', according to Aswini K Mahapatra (external link).

Deeper intent is to end China's humiliation and restore to its historical position, returning China to its rightful position in the world stage.

'Likewise,' he adds, 'China's assertion of territorial claims, whether in the South China Sea or in the East China Sea over Japan's Senkaku islands or over territory along the India-China border, including Arunachal Pradesh, has much to do with its national rejuvenation logic.'

The Chinese want to retrieve lands they feel were theirs before the Western and Japanese invasions of the 19th century, hence the current aggression.

20. China wants the 21st century to be the Chinese century and not an Asian century.

Even though many Indians are not aware of it, China is aware of India's potential and hence wants to 'thwart India's rise to the global high table'.

How many Indians know that Indian masters helped the Chinese deal with epidemics between the 1st and 8th centuries AD, as Prof Dr Shashi Bala recently wrote (external link) in Bhavan's Journal.

21. Whilst building strategic border roads, India must check whether it occupies the mountain heights, to prevent a Kargil-like situation where Indian convoys were fired from hill tops by Pakistanis, to ensure the enemy does not dominate the road.

22. Indians must note that jingoism works with Pakistan, whilst low key dialogue works better with the Chinese.

23. Water could be another weapon that China would use aggressively against India.

Sonali Mitra wrote (external link), 'The absence of data sharing on the Brahmaputra during and after the Doklam standoff and lack of clarity on the intent behind the 1,000 mlong tunnel to transfer water from Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet to Xinjiang betray China's selfdeclared 'responsible' behaviour involving transboundary waters.'

24. Just like China wants Donald Trump to lose the coming US presidential poll, China may want Modi to lose the Lok Sabha polls.

So months before the 2024 elections, China may take possession of an important area, say one of the Char Dhams.

Options given to Modi would be war or give up all claims on Gilgit/Baltistan if he wants the possessed area or tirth sthan back.

25. India all along has been too sensitive to China's concerns. So India must:

Ask what it has achieved by being sensitive to China's concerns.

Start exporting arms, for example the Brahmos missiles to countries like Vietnam and Indonesia.

Establish diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

Establish close economic, defence and tourism ties with countries of South East Asia with whom India has centuries-old civilisational linkages.

Award the Dalai Lama the Bharat Ratna.

Prepare a comprehensive plan to increase domestic production of key items like active pharmaceutical ingredients where India depends on China substantially for supplies.

Prepare a comprehensive plan to increase domestic production of key items like active pharmaceutical ingredients where India depends on China substantially for supplies. Note that Indian pharma companies can export medicines to the West because of API that comes from China. If China chokes the supplies, the world gets affected.

Organise packaged tours to Daulat Beg Oldi, close to the Xinjiang Highway. Tourists are one way of saying the territory is India's.

Make one organisation responsible for guarding the Line of Actual Control. Currently, the LAC is guarded by the Indian Army and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police. So let the army control the ITBP, but the responsibility should be made clear.

China will treat India with respect only when India increases the cost for Chinese expansionism and makes the Chinese lose face.

Sanjeev Nayyar is a chartered accountant and founder, www.esamskriti.com.
Four Canadian cancer patients have been granted permission to use psilocybin as a treatment for end-of-life distress, a groundbreaking role for the hallucinogen in health care.

Federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu approved the use through the Office of Controlled Substances. The application was submitted more than 100 days ago.

Spencer Hawkswell, executive director of Therapsil, said the non-profit organization decided to go through the minister after a more general application to Health Canada submitted in 2017 was rejected two years later.

Obviously, bureaucracy is not a human being, Hawkswell told The Telegram. People have compassion. Bureaucracies dont always have compassion.

Therapsil is a coalition of health-care professionals that has been pushing for therapeutic use of the psilocybin in small doses for patients in palliative care. The drug is naturally found in several species of fungi commonly referred to as magic mushrooms.

In an ideal situation, these decisions are not made by the Office of Controlled Substances. They are made by doctors and patients, Hawkswell said.

One of the four patients said shes delighted with the ministers decision.

The acknowledgment of the pain and anxiety that I have been suffering with means a lot to me, and I am feeling quite emotional today as a result, Laurie Brooks of British Columbia said in a statement released by Therapsil.

In large doses, psilocybin has a similar effect to LSD and other psychedelic drugs. In small doses, however, it can counteract severe depression and anxiety caused by situational stress and even some mental illnesses.

Last month, a woman in St. Johns told The Telegram how micro-doses of psilocybin have completely changed the way she copes with bipolar disease. Jennifer said shes been able to reduce her regular medications by half as a result.

She takes a small dose every four days to avoid building a tolerance.

The day after I take it, Im on top of the world, she said at the time. Im so happy. Everything is brighter. Theres no depression, theres no anxiety. Everything feels good.

Hawkswell said the wait was too long, but he hopes Tuesdays decision will open more minds to the drugs potential.

A doctor should have the right to prescribe psilocybin to a patient who needs it, whether theyre at end of life or they suffer from severe alcohol addiction or PTSD or cluster headaches, Hawkswell said. This is a decision for doctors and therapists and patients. Its not a decision that should be in the hands of government officials and bureaucrats.

The four Canadians are believed to be the first known patients to legally use psilocybin since the compound became illegal in Canada in 1974.
HP power minister Sukhram Chaudhary, his two daughters test positive for Covid-19

In a Facebook post, the minister stated that his personal assistant Sonu Chaudhary had tested positive for the virus

Sukhram Chaudhary(HT File)
A second free-range egg farm in Victoria has been hit with bird flu as the state grapples with an out-of-control second wave of coronavirus.

Birds on the farm near Lethbridge, about 100km south-west of Melbourne, have tested positive for a strain of H7N7 avian influenza virus.

The outbreak is within a restriction zone that was established around the first farm after a case was detected on July 31.

All birds on the affected property are being destroyed to stop the spread of the disease.

H7N7 is spread from one sick bird to another and mainly affects chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, guinea fowl, quail, pheasants, ostriches and wild birds (stock)

Movement of poultry and processing equipment in and out of Golden Plains Shire has been restricted and the property has been quarantined.

'Movement controls are dependent on the risk,' Victoria Health said in a statement online.

'These controls prohibit, until further notice, the movement of birds, equipment and products within and out of, the designated restricted area, except under permit issued by Agriculture Victoria.'

Agriculture Victoria is conducting surveillance throughout the area to determine whether the virus is contained to the farm or may be a risk to other properties.

Victorias Chief Veterinary Officer Dr Graeme Cooke said residents in the control area with pet chickens should ensure they are kept separate from all other birds.

H7N7 is spread from one sick bird to another and mainly affects chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, guinea fowl, quail, pheasants, ostriches and wild birds.

It can also be passed from animal-to-person but not person-to-person.

The second outbreak is within a restriction zone (pictured) that was set up around the first farm after a case of bird flu was detected on July 31

A control zone across the Golden Plains Shire (pictured) has been established around the restricted area

Cases of human infection are rare and usually the result of contact with sick birds.

Symptoms start off like the common flu such as cough, fever, sore throat, muscle aches, headache and shortness of breath.

Anyone who has had contact with birds on an affected property who begins experiencing symptoms is advised to call their doctor or the Department of Health and Human Services on for medical advice.

There is currently no risk to any food supplied by the farm.

Farmers are being urged to report any suspicious and unexplained bird deaths to the 24-hour Emergency Animal Disease Watch Hotline on 1800 675 888, to their local vet or to Agriculture Victoria animal health staff.

It comes as the state battles another zoonotic disease, recording 471 new cases of coronavirus and eight deaths on Thursday,

The figures were a sharp drop from the previous day, which saw Victoria count 725 new cases and 15 deaths - the worst day of any Australian state since the pandemic began.
By PTI

BENGALURU: The four astronauts-elect for India's first manned space mission Gaganyaan have completed training in Russia on crew actions in the event of an abnormal descent module landing, Glavkosmos, a subsidiary of Russian space organisation Roscosmos said on Thursday.

The astronauts were in good health and determined to continue their training, it said.

"To date, Indian cosmonauts have completed training on crew actions in the event of an abnormal descent module landing: in wooded and marshy areas in winter (completed in February 2020), on the water surface (completed in June 2020), in the steppe in summer (completed in July 2020)," Glavkosmos said.

In June 2020, they passed training in short-term weightlessness mode aboard the IL-76MDK special laboratory aircraft, and in July, they were trained to lift aboard a helicopter while evacuating from the descent module landing point, it said on its website.

The programme also included training in a centrifuge and in a hyperbaric chamber to prepare their organisms for sustaining spaceflight factors, such as G-force, hypoxia and pressure drops, it said, adding that these training are to be held in the near future.

Four Indian Air Force fighter pilots are currently under training in Moscow and are likely to be potential candidates for Gaganyaan, initially planned around 2022.

However, the city-based Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has indicated the mission may be delayed due to COVID- 19 pandemic and the lockdown induced by it.

The Indian astronauts are undergoing training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC) following the courses of the general space training programme and of the systems of the Soyuz MS crewed spacecraft.

The completion of their training at GCTC is scheduled for the first quarter of 2021, it said.

The contract for the training of Indian astronauts between Glavkosmos and the Human Spaceflight Center of ISRO was signed on June 27, 2019, and their training in Russia started on February 10 this year.

The entire process of preparation and training takes place in Russia, Glavkosmos said, it included a number of courses necessary for prospective Indian cosmonauts.

The regular courses comprise medical and physical training, learning Russian (as one of the main international languages of communication in space), and studying the configuration, structure and systems of the Soyuz crewed spacecraft.

Glavkosmos said the trainees' health status is monitored on a daily basis, and once every three months, highly professional GCTC doctors conduct their thorough medical examination.

"The GCTC instructors praise the effort and high motivation of the Indian cosmonauts. They also note their extremely serious and very professional attitude to the training process," it added.

Indian officials had earlier said that after training in Russia, the astronauts will receive module-specific training in India.

In that, they will be trained in a crew and service module designed by ISRO, learn to operate it, work around it and do simulations.
The coming election will be a key test for the Southeast Asian country, under military rule for decades. The economy and peace talks with armed groups dominate the campaign. International charges against Myanmar over the Rohingya tragedy weight heavily as well.

Yangon (AsiaNews/Agencies)  Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has formally announced this morning that she will seek a second term of office in the upcoming November elections.

Experts note that the vote represents a key test for the Southeast Asian country, which was ruled for decades by a repressive military dictatorship, and has only in the past few years undertaken the difficult path of democratic development.

This process has come with major difficulties, controversies and violence, including the persecution of minority Rohingya Muslims, in the western state of Rakhine, a charge rejected by Myanmar authorities.

The former secretary, now president of the National League for Democracy (NLD), Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, spent years under house arrest before her release. In 2015, she led her party to a landslide victory. However, under the constitution, she has to share power with the generals, who control a quarter of all seats in both houses of parliament.

Once an icon of the pro-democracy struggle, Suu Kyi has been State Counsellor (de facto of Prime Minister) since she is barred from the Presidency, the Foreign Ministry and the Presidents Office because.

Despite such constraints, she runs the Myanmar government and has been harshly criticised in recent years for the violence (genocide according to some) against Rohingya Muslims.

As a result, her international image has suffered. Countries like Canada and cities like Oxford, where she graduated, have withdrawn honours conferred upon her in the past; however, at home she remains very popular, so much so that her re-election is almost taken for granted.

Today the 75-year-old leader met about fifty supporters outside her home in Yangon, the country's economic and commercial capital, making her candidacy in November official.

Some loyalists wore red coloured masks, with the NDLs symbol, and chanted slogans and songs including "Mother Suu, stay healthy".

The Rohingya question remains the hot topic at the international level. This stems from the flight of more than 730,000 people in the wake of a military crackdown. According to foreign observers and some UN agencies, the action was tantamount to genocide.

Suu Kyi has always rejected the charge. Responding to Gambia's complaint before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the Myanmar leader called the accusation "incomplete and incorrect".

At home, public attention is centred on the difficult peace process with armed groups in various regions of the country, as well as the economic crisis, exacerbated by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which is linked to the military and made up of several former senior army officers, is the NDLs main rival.
TOKYO, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- On August 6, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Soka Gakkai Buddhist organization put out a statement calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons and the early entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

The Soka Gakkai pledges to exert all efforts for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons and also urges the Japanese government to move toward participation in the TPNW, stating, "At this deeply significant juncture, the government of Japan, the only country to have suffered atomic bombings during war, should announce its readiness to consider participation in the TPNW, thus positively shaping the discourse on the elimination of nuclear weapons within the international community."

In the statement, Yoshiki Tanigawa, chair of the Soka Gakkai Council on Peace Issues, states, "In recent years, there are signs that a nuclear arms race among the nuclear-weapon states is again intensifying. At the same time, the global spread of the novel coronavirus has demonstrated that military force is incapable of resolving global challenges, compelling us to confront the question of what constitutes authentic security for human beings."

See full statement at https://www.sgi.org/in-focus/press-releases/75th-anniversary-hiroshima-and-nagasaki.html

On August 6 and 8 respectively, the Soka Gakkai in Hiroshima and Nagasaki will hold online meetings to listen to testimonies of hibakusha, the survivors of the atomic bombings. Over the past year, youth members in these areas have continued to collect testimonies of wartime experiences, including those of hibakusha, aiming to publish the latest volume this fall. The Soka Gakkai in Japan will also hold an online youth summit toward the renunciation of war in September.

At the global level, the SGI (Soka Gakkai International), with around 200 organizations of different faith backgrounds, including Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jain, Jewish, Muslim and indigenous traditions, has signed a Joint Interfaith Statement on the 75th Anniversary of the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The statement affirms that "the presence of even one nuclear weapon violates the core principles of our different faith traditions and threatens the unimaginable destruction of everything we hold dear." It lays out the environmental, health and economic consequences of a nuclear explosion and urges governments to ratify the TPNW. This is the twelfth such interfaith statement issued since 2014, supported by a growing number of faith groups.

Read the statement here: https://20561860-86b7-4801-a5d6-af3a3b4e6a59.filesusr.com/ugd/dca5da_26cbc5f57ae94e36a3394ff914d00893.pdf

The Soka Gakkai is a global Buddhist organization with 12 million members around the world that promotes peace, culture and education. The Soka Gakkai has worked toward the abolition of nuclear weapons for 60 years, since the Declaration Calling for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons issued by second Soka Gakkai President Josei Toda on September 8, 1957.

Contact:

Joan Anderson

International Office of Public Information

Soka Gakkai

Tel: +81-80-5957-4711

E-mail: anderson[at]soka.jp

www.sgi.org

SOURCE Soka Gakkai

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Dai Xu, a top general of the Peoples Liberation Army has advocated that China should take stock of its relative weaknesses compared to the US and behave accordingly, according to a report in Nikkei Asian Review that cited a recent article authored by the officer who has been described as one of Chinas most prominent hawks.

In his article, Dai underscored how no country had come forward to establish an alliance against the United States through the ongoing China vs US episode that has been playing out. China has provided assistance to so many countries, benefiting them in so many ways, but at this critical moment, none of them has taken any unified action with China, Dai wrote.

The top general, the analysis in Nikkei Asian Review said, appeared to suggest that China had gotten ahead of itself.. He warned that China should never knock on (Americas) door and make a loud announcement that I shall surpass you, replace you and be the worlds number one.

The Nikkei Asian Review analysis authored by a senior fellow at the Lowy Institute in Sydney, Richard McGregor, interpreted multiple voices from China to signal the view that Beijings interests would have been far better served by sticking with the low-profile policy counseled by Deng Xiaoping. The reference the doctrine of a revered political leader like Deng, was seen as an effort to criticise Xi Jinping without mentioning him by name.

In the article (Here is the link to the article published in a mainstream Chinese publication), General Dai said that traditionally, China and the US had a very close trade relationship, but the Trump administration has now branded the country a trade terrorist and a global economic aggressor.

He also listed 10 understanding about the Sino-US relationship. Among them is the United States ruthless push towards portraying China in a negative light which is beyond the expectations of most Chinese officials. He also said that China has not received support from any country.

General Dai then went on to say that the US has been united at the domestic front. He also said that China needs to understand that China is not a paper tiger, but a real tiger that kills people.

Suggesting the way forward, the military general said that China doesnt need to make a loud announcement to be number 1. General Dai said that even if China knows it can beat the US, it needs to keep a low profile.

He also said that China should consider the US as worlds number 1.

Another retired army officer, Major General Qiao Liang had told South China Morning Post in May this year that Beijing should not consider the coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity to take back Taiwan by force.

The military strategist said Taiwan can be used by the US and its western allies to impose sanctions on China that would stop Beijing from importing resources needed for its industry.

Chinas ultimate goal is not the reunification of Taiwan, but to achieve the dream of national rejuvenation  so that all 1.4 billion Chinese can have a good life, Qiao, a professor at the PLA National Defence University in Beijing, had said in an interview to SCMP.

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LONDON, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 17,000 people from around the world signed up to participate in the WTTC/Carnival Corporation Global Scientific Summit on COVID-19 last week to hear directly from 12 renowned public health experts and scientists, sharing their knowledge and the latest evidence-based practices related to the prevention, detection and mitigation of COVID-19.

The free, open-to-the public event was hosted by the World Travel & Tourism Council ( WTTC ), which represents the global travel and tourism private sector, and Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL;NYSE: CUK), the world's largest cruise company.

The virtual summit explored the most up-to-date science and medical evidence related to COVID-19 to help inform practical, adaptable and science-based solutions for the "new normal."

Gloria Guevara, WTTC president and CEO, said: "The summit accomplished exactly what it set out to do, as a platform for leading health experts and scientists to discuss the latest thinking, best practices and evidence-based protection and mitigation measures, such as testing and tracing, which is going to be crucial in the recovery. It was also interesting to learn that the widespread adoption of protective face masks can dramatically improve the current situation.

"We'd like to thank our esteemed panelists, our WTTC members and viewers who joined us from around the globe. It is clear that after hearing from our panelists, we must support a more vigorous program of testing and tracing globally, if we want to transition to a new normal and return to safe travels. As the world learns to live with COVID-19, it is imperative that we continue to prioritize public health and saving lives, whilst restoring consumer confidence, driving global economic recovery, and saving the jobs of millions of people whose very livelihoods depend upon a thriving travel and tourism sector.

"We are delighted to be working with Carnival Corporation, and this unique summit gave the public and our members in the travel industry a chance to hear facts directly from scientists, which was an invaluable experience."

"This summit allowed us to put the general public in direct communication with the leading experts working on science-based solutions to mitigating and living with COVID-19," said Arnold Donald, president and CEO of Carnival Corporation, and a member of the WTTC executive committee and its vice chair for North America. "The pandemic touches all corners of society and is in one way or another affecting everyone and all industries. We are grateful to the distinguished panelists who shared straightforward, easy-to-understand insights about living in a world with the virus, and we appreciate WTTC partnering with us to present this event."

The summit covered epidemiology, transmission, screening and testing, therapeutics and practical risk mitigation in three one-hour sessions.

A session on "The Science of COVID-19" focused on epidemiology, transmission and testing, with featured speakers Dr. Steven Gordon, chair of infectious disease at Cleveland Clinic; Dr. William Morice II, president of Mayo Clinic Laboratories; Dr. Stacey L. Schultz-Cherry, co-principal investigator, St. Jude Center for Excellence in Influenza Research and Surveillance; and Dr. Joshua Wolf, associate member of the infectious diseases department at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

The prestigious lineup of speakers for the "Treatment & Prevention" session, where discussion included vaccines, were Dr. Julio Frenk, president of the University of Miami and former Minister of Health for Mexico; Dr. Adolfo Garcia-Sastre, head of pathology at Mount Sinai Hospital; Dr. Jewel Mullen, associate dean for health equity at Dell Medical School at the University of Texas Austin; and Dr. Vivek Murthy, the 19th Surgeon General of the United States.

The final session on "Life in a COVID-19 World," looked at best approaches in mitigating spread and featured Dr. Thomas Cahill, physician and venture capitalist with Scientists to Stop COVID-19; Dr. Michael Lin, neurobiology & bioengineering associate professor at Stanford University; Dr. Michael Rosbash, 2017 Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine and professor at Brandeis University; and Dr. Stuart Schreiber, a Harvard University chemist and co-founder of the Broad Institute.

To replay the summit, please visit CovidScienceSummit.com .

About WTTC

Evidence from WTTC's Crisis Readiness report , which looked at 90 different types of crises, highlights the importance of public-private cooperation to ensure that smart policies and effective communities are in place to enable a more resilient travel and tourism sector.

According to WTTC's 2020 Economic Impact Report , during 2019, Travel &Tourism was responsible for one in 10 jobs (330 million total), making a 10.3% contribution to global GDP and generating one in four of all new jobs.

For further information please contact the WTTC press office at [email protected]

About Carnival Corporation & plc

Carnival Corporation & plc is one of the world's largest leisure travel companies with a portfolio of nine of the world's leading cruise lines. With operations in North America, Australia, Europe and Asia, its portfolio features Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Seabourn, P&O Cruises (Australia), Costa Cruises, AIDA Cruises, P&O Cruises (UK) and Cunard.

Additional information can be found on www.carnival.com , www.princess.com , www.hollandamerica.com , www.seabourn.com , www.pocruises.com.au , www.costacruise.com , www.aida.de , www.pocruises.com and www.cunard.com .

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American Properties Realty, Inc. has announced that Traditions at Chesterfield, located within the 500-acre Old York Village, is now sold out. We are truly grateful for the success at Traditions at Chesterfield, and anyone still interested in purchasing a new home at one of our other available communities should reach out to us directly, said Csik. Our team is ready to help find you find your dream home.

Going. Going. Gone! American Properties Realty, Inc. has announced that Traditions at Chesterfield is now sold out! After two years of tremendous sales, the premier residential community located within 500-acre Old York Village has sold its last home, said Paul Csik, Senior Vice President of American Properties Realty, Inc.This marks the final offering of new, single-family residences in all of the master planned community.

Upon its opening, Traditions at Chesterfield quickly rose in popularity due, in part, to its premium location within Old York Village. It further distinguished itself by offering a coveted retail component within walking distance  The Shops at Old York Village (located off Old York Road on Saddle Way Boulevard). This provided potential homebuyers with the added convenience of having a traditional downtown feel complete with unique shopping opportunities all within walking distance to their new homes. As an added incentive, Traditions at Chesterfield offered low maintenance, fee-simple residences without a homeowners association or any related fees.

The communitys success was seen far and wide as it quickly garnered multiple awards, including the prestigious title of Community of the Year from the New Jersey Builders Association. Offering both carriage homes and single-family residences that fit varying lifestyles, its no wonder the community become one of the most loved in Chesterfield  a town that has also been voted the #1 Best Place to Live in Burlington County by Philadelphia Magazine.

The neo-traditional homes here at Traditions at Chesterfield are located in the most appealing residential community in Old York Village, said Csik. Featuring a smart growth, village design, we were able to create a place where families from all stages and phases of life wanted to start their next chapter. As if that wasnt reason enough to make a move, Traditions at Chesterfield also offers access to a highly ranked, state-of-the art elementary school that is adjacent to centralized recreational facilities. It really is the best of all worlds.

Although Traditions at Chesterfield is sold out, American Properties Realty, Inc. still has new home opportunities available at Heritage at Highland Park in Highland Park, NJ, and Heritage at Pennington in Pennington, NJ.

Heritage at Highland Park, a new community of luxury townhomes in Highland Park, is offering virtual tours of its Aurora, Brookside and Charles model homes. The new Brookside model is also available for tours. Priced from the $390s, homes feature three bedrooms, three baths and a one-car garage. A loft/fourth bedroom option is also available. Quick delivery homes are available, including the Charles Home of the Month with an incentive of $20,000  buyer must use builders preferred lender, Caliber Home loans. See Sales Manager for details. The Sales Office is open from 10am to 5pm daily. To learn more, call Erika Rotondo or Kelly Flanagan at 732-354-3543. They can also be reached via email erotonodo@americanproperties.net or kflanagan@americanproperties.net.

Heritage at Pennington, a successful new community of townhomes and two-story villas in Pennington, NJ, is now offering virtual tours of its Rosedale model home. Those interested can visit HeritageAtPennington.com to take a virtual tour and learn more about Phase 2, which features new townhomes with first-floor master bedrooms for the ultimate comfort and convenience. Homes at Heritage at Pennington are priced from $434,990. $5,000 incentives are available toward options. See Sales Manager for details. The Sales Office is open from 10am to 5pm daily. To learn more, call Dana Pennock at 609-559-5904 or email dpennock@americanproperties.net.

We are truly grateful for the success at Traditions at Chesterfield, and anyone still interested in purchasing a new home at one of our other available communities should reach out to us directly, said Csik. Our team is ready to help find you find your dream home.

About American Properties Realty, Inc.

American Properties Realty, Inc., A Licensed Real Estate Broker, continues its proud 45-year tradition of introducing award winning communities that provide excellent quality, convenient locations and affordable pricing for New Jersey homebuyers. The Principals of American Properties Realty, Inc., have been involved in the creation of over 10,000 residences ranging from luxurious estate homes to award-winning master planned communities of apartments, condominiums, townhomes and single-family homes.

Traditions at Chesterfield: A smart growth success story
As the climate crisis in the Pacific further escalates, Pacific Islanders are already seeing tragic effects on their daily lives. Reduced access to water and food means more and more people have had to live in extreme conditions and might have to leave their homes.

Predictions by theUN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights say the world risks a 'climate apartheid' scenario where the wealthy pay to escape overheating, hunger and conflict while the rest of the globe is left to suffer. The climate crisis could force 120 million more people into poverty by 2030 and the brunt of the impact will be in poor countries, regions, and the places poor people live and work.

Solomon Yeo is a young climate change and human rights activist, working in the Pacific. He is the director of the youth-led organisation Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change. Their vision? To "live with dignity and without fear of climate change denying us and our children of that freedom."

How did you get involved in climate change activism?

My passion to help my fellow Pacific brothers and sisters derives partly from the shared experiences and hardships we face together growing up in the Pacific.

Climate change is a cross-cutting issue to almost all of the problems we have in the Pacific and, undoubtedly, it poses an existential threat to our Islands.

Although we have contributed almost nothing to this problem, we have to live with such injustice each day.

How have your legal studies motivated your work?

During law school, it was inspiring to see how law can be a vehicle to accelerate change. Together with 26 other Pacific Island law students, we researched legal solutions towards addressing this climate crisis and then we started our journey.

What kind of work are you doing in the Pacific to combat climate change?

My main role is to direct our operations in the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji. Together with our members we campaign nationally, regionally and internationally.

We work to influence policies and create awareness, focusing on conservation, climate change, disaster risk management, and youth and women's empowerment.

How has the COVID-19 crisis affected climate change activism? Are you hopeful for a better approach from governments on climate as we enter the 'new normal'?

A lot has changed due to COVID-19, and climate campaigning can be quite challenging. But we are persevering and compromising, for example, by pivoting to the virtual space. Together with other youth activists, we have been heavily engaged in regional and international online activism.

The message is clear from Pacific youth activists: in spite of the COVID-19 crisis, climate activism must continue. The digital space has opened up unfamiliar yet innovative avenues for climate activism. One example is the 350 Pacific Climate Warriors and their virtual 'Pacific Pawa Up Fellowship,' where youth participants strengthen their skills, and learn more about Pacific activism and identity.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a reality check for the people and governments on the importance of our ocean, environment, healthcare system, food sectors, land, welfare, indigenous people, and education. When we return to 'normal,' I believe many governments will understand their real priorities.

Most importantly, COVID-19 teaches us that it is possible to sacrifice a year and act with great urgency to bring transformational changes in our societies that realign development towards a sustainable future. I wish that to be the new normal that everyone can work towards.

You recently went to the UN Climate Change Conference in Madrid, Spain (2-13 December 2019). How was that experience?

A day after I graduated, I joined the Solomon Islands delegation travelling to Madrid, Spain to take part in the Conference. I was assigned to shadow our lead negotiators on Loss and Damage.

Ultimately, the final agreement on Loss and Damage was weaker than anticipated. It was disappointing to sit at the negotiation table to see that the worst polluting countries are continuing their stalling tactics and have watered down the negotiations.

It was clear: climate negotiations should not be the only method that we depend on for progress.

On the other hand, it was very empowering to see a united front from Pacific, Caribbean, Latin American, Asian, African and some EU countries, coming together as one to advocate for progress. It was admirable to see that negotiators, although frustrated, did not break in such circumstances because they know that their people, and their children, are depending on them.

How do you incorporate human rights into your fight against climate change?

The failure of governments to adequately address the climate crisis means that our human rights are threatened. The main aim of our campaign is therefore to bring climate change and human rights to the International Court of Justice. What we want is to bridge the divide between international climate change law, and international human rights law, which currently exist in parallel. We believe that the International Court of Justice can deliver this and help catalyse other much-needed actions to bring transformational change.

What would be your best advice to children and the next generation in the Pacific?

Never doubt how powerful and influential you can be towards bringing change. Be brave, be conscious and honour your Pacific heritage by continuing the Pacific fighting spirit against the biggest problem of our generation.



Disclaimer: The views, information and opinions expressed in this article are those of the persons featured in the story and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

6 August 2020




To the editor,

U.S. Rep. John Lewis will forever be remembered as an American hero. To honor his efforts, I have contacted our representative in Congress, Jahana Hayes, to suggest that Rep. Lewis would approve of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, being renamed Bridge of the Freedom Riders. However, when a new voting rights act is introduced and ultimately passed, I hope, it will be named The John Lewis Voting Rights Act of 2021.

Everyone has heard the phrase: Freedom isnt free. It is painfully true that our democracy is under attack from outside our borders as well as inside. One effort to support our American way of life is The Democracy Project, which is a national survey jointly commissioned by Freedom House, the George W. Bush Institute, and the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement examining American attitudes toward democracy. The first of six key findings is that there is broad public support for our democracy but the very real fear that it is weakening.

The vitriol coming out of Washington, D.C., about voter fraud when ballots are mailed is a key example. The Brennan Center for Justice, inspired by Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, cautions that we must do everything possible to promote voter engagement and not curtail mailed ballots to eliminate phantom voter fraud. Most Americans support mail-in ballots.

The Supreme Court ripped the heart and soul from the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by a 5-to-4 vote on partisan lines in 2013. This permitted nine states, mostly Southern, to no longer require federal approval before changing their election laws. This further suppresses voters and states now have an effective means to disenfranchise racial minority voters.

Partisanship, a virus or cyberhackers should not be allowed to hijack our election.

We are all Americans.

John A. Fegley

Danbury
A male nurse who allegedly drugged and raped a woman, stalked another and was found with 'concerning videos of young women' has been refused bail.

The 30-year-old nurse appeared via video link at Brisbane Magistrates Court on Wednesday charged with 10 offences including, rape, sexual assault and stalking.

The father-of-one was also charged with stupefying in order to commit an indictable offence, observations or recordings in breach of privacy and drug-related charges.

The 30-year-old male nurse allegedly drugged a woman in her 20s before raping her

Police allege the nurse gave a woman in her 20s a stupefying drug before raping her last month in an apartment in Brisbane, ABC reported.

Following a search of the residence police allegedly located several mobile phones and recording equipment, plus prescription and illegal drugs.

They also allegedly found 'concerning videos' on a phone of other women he had met on social media apps such as Tinder and Snapchat.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Tara Williams told the court on Wednesday that the nurse allegedly drugged his victim with the sedative drug benzodiazepine, which he allegedly obtained from the hospital.

Magistrate Anthony Gett rejected the man's bail application noting there was a 'level of deliberateness and planning'.

'It would seem to me there [are] serious concerns about his methods and the nature of the offences he has [allegedly] perpetrated against others,' he said.

'The risk of re-offending is too significant.'

The man was remanded in custody to reappear in court on August 24.
Indian security product have a significant opportunity to help address security challenges that have emerged as a number of enterprises continue to 'work from home' (WFH) amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a report said on Thursday.

The Data Security Council of India (DSCI), in a report titled 'Security Use Cases and Solutions', said amid the fear of contagion, working from home has become the new normal for many professionals.

"However, with the huge rise in the number of employees working remotely, it is of vital importance that we also take care of our cyber hygiene and be productive simultaneously. As organisations grapple and brace this new normalcy...some of the Indian security product can assist you in this journey," it added.

The National Centre of Excellence for Cybersecurity Technology Development & Entrepreneurship, a joint initiative of DSCI and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), scouted for innovative technologies and security solutions for WFH which may emerge in the coming times and can be deployed immediately or in the near future.

The report provided a list of start-ups working in areas including data security, access control, identity management access provision, securing BYOD (bring your own device) connections and multi-cloud environments.

DSCI CEO Rama Vedashree said the purpose of the compilation is to create visibility of innovation and efforts made in this area, increase awareness about the ideas and solutions to solve problems of the new paradigm, and help these organisations enhance their market potential and explore opportunities.

MeitY Secretary Ajay Sawhney said while has enabled organisations to continue working, they also face new vulnerabilities.

"As we move forward, is a fact of life and it can give us tremendous new opportunities...We not only have to take care of the issues (arising) but we have to do that in a manner that we remain leaders in adopting these new technologies, in growing and nurturing these new technologies," he said.

He added that Indian start-ups working on security should focus on providing these solutions to not just India, but the world.

"For too long, we have been dependent on products coming from outside. It's time to change that," he added.

He cited the example of 'Aarogya Setu', and said the app was made by a team of about 15 persons from industry coming together as volunteers.

Another 4-5 people joined, including senior mentors from the industry, and this team put together the app within 21 days, he said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A couple whose parents survived the Holocaust were left feeling nauseous after stumbling across a fence emblazoned with swastikas.

The couple were driving towards Mount Cook near Cooktown, in Queensland, when they discovered the home with the Nazi symbols on the front gate.

A photo taken by the shocked couple showed white pipes taped to the fence in the shape of a swastika, with two lightning bolts on either side.

Pillars on either side of the gate have red ornaments of the swastika with a monkey perched on top.

The 71-year-old woman, who did not give her name, said: 'Both my mother, father and stepmother survived the horrors of the Holocaust and subsequently lost their parents, siblings, large extended families, friends, and their entire communities.

The couple were driving near Cooktown, in Queensland, when they discovered the home with the Nazi symbols on the front gate (pictured). An image showed white pipes taped to the fence in the shape of a swastika with two lightning bolts on either side

'This sight turned my stomach and made me furious that in this day and age, we still have people advocating for genocide.

'I love Australia, but I feel robbed because so many people must have seen this outrage and no one voiced their objections.

'I believe that those who displayed this disgusting signage should be charged with incitement to murder.'

Dr Dvir Abramovich, Chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission, has been spearheading the efforts to ban public displays of swastikas.

Dr Dvir Abramovich (pictured), Chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission, has been spearheading the efforts to ban public displays of swastikas

He said he didn't understand how a symbol from Hitler's Germany could be flown in Australia in 2020.

'For a Holocaust survivor, this hellish sight is their worst fears realised and would be as scary as being threatened with a gun,' Dr Abramovich said.

'Anyone who believes in our nation's shared values will be outraged by these signs that are dripping with venomous hate and are a call for murder.'

He called it 'spine-chilling' that there were 'Final Solutionists' who celebrate Hitley's legacy.

Dr Abramovich called the move a punch to the gut to all Holocaust survivors.

'We should remember that the stone-cold murderer who massacred 51 worshippers in the mosques in Christchurch and other white-supremacist killers were inspired by the very ideology represented by the swastikas exhibited on that gate,' Dr Abramovich said.

'Now is the time to act and to send the unmistakable message that Nazism has no place in Australia.

'Once the Covid-19 crisis is over, I call on the QLD government to once and for all close the lid on this disgusting phenomenon and to outlaw the public display of any symbol of the Third Reich.'
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New Delhi: Actor Sooraj Pancholi, who is allegedly being linked to Disha Salian's death case, has blasted 'fake media' on social media for dragging his name. A news report shared a picture of Sooraj from a party with his friends, including actress Athiya Shetty and claimed that Disha Salian was also present there. However, the actor corrected them by saying the woman in the picture, taken in 2016, isn't Disha but one of his friends.

"Is this the media we are supposed to trust? That girl in the picture which was clicked in 2016 is not 'Disha Salian' that is my friend who doesn't even live in India .. Please stop brainwashing people and PLEASE stop harassing me and dragging me into this! Start being responsible of your actions as it can ruin someones life," Sooraj wrote.

"I have said this before and I'm saying it again 'I have never met or spoken to Disha Salian in my life'. Ive had enough," he added.

Disha Salian was a celebrity manager. She had also managed actor Sushant Singh Rajput. Disha, 28, allegedly died by suicide by jumping from a high-rise building in Mumbai on June 8, nearly a week before Sushant was found hanging at his apartment on June 14.

Sooraj Pancholi was in 2013 charged with abetting actress Jiah Khan's suicide. They were dating each other at that time. The 25-year-old was found hanging at her Mumbai residence on June 3, 2013. It was deemed a suicide and reconfirmed as a suicide in 2016 following an extensive investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and a hearing at the Bombay High Court.
(Newser)  (UPDATE: The governor has since tested negative. The original story follows.) Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday, and the discovery came just ahead of a planned meeting with President Trump, reports the Columbus Dispatch. The 73-year-old Republican took the test as part of the protocol set up for those who planned to greet Trump at an airport in Cleveland. DeWine doesn't appear to have any symptoms and will return to his home in Cedarville to quarantine for two weeks. His wife, Fran, also will be tested, per the AP.

story continues below

DeWine is the second governor to test positive, following the diagnosis of Kevin Stitt in Oklahoma last month, notes Politico. Ohio's lieutenant governor, Jon Husted, tested negative as part of the Trump protocol. The president is making his first visit to the state since the pandemic began, notes the Washington Post. (Read more Mike DeWine stories.)
MAYFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio

Breaking and entering: Bonnie Lane

A woman arrived home at 3:45 p.m. July 24 to find a man exiting her garage. She said he asked if she was selling a lawn mower.

A neighbor then reported that he was following the same man after he confronted him with a gun for taking a leaf blower from his garage.

Officers located the suspect and arrested him. He had told one victim that he has a drug problem.

A hedge trimmer was located on a tree lawn and found to have been stolen from the garage of a third resident. The Alabama man, 34, was charged with three counts of breaking and entering.

Theft: East Miner Road

A resident said July 27 that a political sign and a small American flag had been taken from his yard. He said he was walking in the area of the high school and found pieces of both. The incident was documented.

Juvenile complaint: Belrose Road

A resident said July 24 that there are ongoing issues at Oakville Park at night with teenagers yelling and swearing. He said they have also called him a racist and made comments about his children.

He said they had come to his house the previous night, kicking his door and yelling. Officers spoke to the resident and advised him that they will continue to frequently monitor the park at night.

Fraud: Golden Gate Plaza

A man said July 23 that he was scammed by panhandlers in the parking lot near Fresh Thyme. He said they ask for money in exchange for fake jewelry and he partook in a transaction with them.

The suspects are said to be two men with out-of-state license plates on their vehicles. Special attention was given to the area.

Fraud: Mayfield Road

A Chick-Fil-A manager reported July 23 that a customer had disputed and had reversed three credit card orders that were delivered to an East Cleveland apartment in June to the same person. The orders totaled $711. A report was filed so the matter could be investigated by the credit card company.

Suspicion: Summit Road

A resident reported July 24 that he had found finger-sized punctures on a basement window screen. Police believe it could be consistent with someone trying to enter the home through the window.

Fraud: Mayfield Road

A Dibellas Subs shift manager received a call July 26 from someone claiming to be a Mayfield Heights police lieutenant and stating that he was performing an audit of counterfeit money circulation.

She was requested to purchase two pre-loaded Green Dot gift cards with money from the store. She did as asked and loaded each in the amount of $400 and provided the caller with the redemption codes before being alerted to the scam.

The phone number originated from California and belongs to an 88-year-old man. Detectives believe the phone number was spoofed.

Criminal damage: SOM Center Road

After a verbal incident at Target with classmates from West Geauga High School July 26, a girl returned to her vehicle to find a flat tire and the word thief scratched into the paint.

Upon investigation, a 16-year-old Chesterland girl admitted to her mother that she had caused the damage because the friend of the other girl had taken over $100 from her. The parents agreed to discuss handling the matter among themselves.

Theft: Mayfield Road

A total of 12 cartons of cigarettes were reported stolen from True North Shell July 26. The incident was found to have occurred on July 24 and may have involved several people who worked together to distract the cashier by bringing her out from behind the counter.

In a video, an unknown woman is seen entering the rear office and crawling to a cabinet behind the counter where the cigarettes were stored. A known Highland Heights woman, 55, is also seen in the video stealing other items. Police are investigating.

Read more news from the Sun Messenger.
According to the report, The value of the safety net for single-mother families is 133 percent higher today than in 1940, and 56 percent higher than in 1960.

Nevertheless, changes in behavior reflect changes in values. Why do values change?

Gallup has been asking since 1952, How important would you say religion is in your own life -- very important, fairly important or not very important.

In 1952, 75% said very important. In 1970, this was down to about 60%, and by 1978, this was down to 52%.

It was in this environment of a dramatic drop in Americans sense of the personal importance of religion that, in 1973, the Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion.

A wave of court decisions banned religion from the public square. In 1962, prayer in public school was banished.

In 2002 Gallup polling, 45% said have a baby outside of marriage was morally acceptable. By 2015, this was up to 61%, and by 2019, it was up to 64%.

What seems clear is that the collapse of marriage and family that has been occurring in our nation is not occurring in a vacuum. Values are changing.

For those who are worried about the situation, who want to see marriage and family strengthened again, the beginning must be awareness of the problem. To this end, the Joint Economic Committee report provides an important service to the nation.
While the uncertainties of COVID-19 wax and wane with every day of new information overload, one emerging certainty is the closure of Australias borders to refugees and migrants for the foreseeable future, while interstate and regional closures are also likely to be part of life.

Border closures will come at great cost as immigration, traditionally the engine driving Australias remarkable economic growth record, will largely disappear for the medium term. Just how Australia will maintain its growth rate without being able to flog off apartments to migrants, without wealthy international families to maintain high-end property values, students to keep our rental markets buoyant, backpackers to harvest our fruit and other countries university graduates to meet our skills shortages are now questions of great moment.

Austal had an all-female apprentice intake in 2019 to supplement its fabrication staff and trades assistants. Credit:Trevor Collens

Without tens of thousands of new workers pouring into the country every year, the need for new industrial arrangements to improve productivity and competitiveness has not been so great since the 1980s, which brought the Accord and the advent of enterprise bargaining.

The calls to establish domestic industries in sectors we now deem critical, such as pharmaceuticals, also bring industrial complications lest they become modern-day, union-dominated feather beds that will achieve little and cost us enormously, as protected monopolies such as the Postmaster-General's did in the past.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated its travel advisory information for the first time in five months.

Back in March, the government health agency warned US travelers to avoid all nonessential international travel as cases of COVID-19 exploded around the world.

But on Thursday, they amended that warning and released a list of 20 destinations where the risk of contracting COVID-19 is 'low' or 'very low'.

The CDC now has a list of 13 destinations where the 'COVID-19 Risk is Very Low'.

The list includes countries such as Greenland, Laos and Taiwan.

The CDC additionally released a list of 'Level 1' destinations where the 'COVID-19 Risk is Low'.

New Zealand, Fiji and Thailand are among the seven places included.

However, the health organization still advises against travel to all other countries across the globe - including the United Kingdom, Australia and Japan.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated its travel advisory information for the first time in five months. Countries colored in gray and yellow pose 'low coronavirus risk' or 'very low coronavirus risk' to US citizens. The CDC still cautions against travel to any countries colored in orange

Both the CDC and the State Department say New Zealand poses low risk to travelers amid the coroanvirus pandemic. However, US tourists are currently unable to visit, given that the country has closed its borders to non-citizens. New Zealand's capital, Wellington, is pictured

The CDC says there is a 'low risk' of American tourists contracting coronavirus in Thailand - however it's impossible for US travelers to currently enter the Asian country

CDC'S 'LOW RISK' AND 'VERY LOW RISK' TRAVEL DESTINATIONS No Travel Health Notice: COVID-19 Risk is Very Low British Virgin Islands Brunei Cayman Islands Dominica Falkland Islands French Polynesia Greenland Level 1: COVID-19 Risk Is Low Bonaire Fiji New Zealand Saba Saint Barthelemy Sint Eustatius Thailand Advertisement

Shortly after the CDC released their travel advisory, the US State Department also lifted a global 'Do Not Travel' advisory that they had issued back on March 19.

In a similar fashion to the CDC, the State Department has given countries numbers between 1 - 4 based on their level of coronavirus risk.

Countries such as New Zealand and Thailand are labelled as 'Level 2' low-risk countries.

'With health and safety conditions improving in some countries and potentially deteriorating in others, the department is returning to our previous system of country-specific levels of travel advice,' the State Department said in a statement.

U.S. airline stocks rose on the announcement.

However, enthusiastic American travelers may be in for some disappointment, with most places on the low-risks lists closed to US citizens.

Thailand, Greenland and New Zealand have all banned international travelers from arriving in a bid to keep their coronavirus cases low.

A majority of countries have closed their borders to US arrivals, given that the country leads the world in the number of COVID-19 cases.

More than 4.8 million Americans have tested positive to the contagious virus, and more than 159,400 citizens have died.

However, US travelers willing to ignore advice from the CDC and the State Department can find a small number of countries that are still open to tourists.

Ireland, The United Kingdom and Mexico are still welcoming American travelers - but those countries still pose a risk
Adam Walker, 32, from Tennessee, said he transitioned after giving birth to sons

A transgender man says his relationship with his two young sons has improved since identifying as male.

Adam Walker, 32, from Tennessee has been living openly as a transgender man since coming out in July, 2017 and is a father of two.

Adam admits it has been difficult for his eldest son James, ten, to understand because he remembers his mother, as opposed to Lincoln who was one when he started to transition and is now five.

The surgical technologist has had 'top surgery' which is a procedure to create a male-contoured chest, specifically, a double mastectomy with nipple grafts.

Adam Walker, 32, from Tennessee has been living openly as a transgender man since coming out in July, 2017 and is a father of two (pictured with his son Lincoln, who was one when he started transitioning and is now five)

Adam, pictured now with his son James, ten, who initially struggled to accept his father's new identity after he came out

Adam said: 'I remember telling James, then seven, that I was going to be a boy.

'He said, "No you're not. You don't have a penis".

'I didn't go into a lot of detail because of his age. Lincoln, then one, was way too young to understand.

'It took over two years for both of the boys to call me "Dad," I kept correcting them from November 2017 until February 2020.

Adam underwent top surgery - a double mastectomy with nipple graft - in order to get closer to being his true self in 2019

Adam said the only thing he liked about his life prior to his transition were his two pregnancies. Pictured: Pregnant with his younger son Lincoln before transitioning

'Then suddenly Lincoln started saying "Daddy" and James copied - after a couple weeks of reinforcement, I was Daddy to him too..

'I hated it when they called me "Mom". It was so awkward because people used to stare.

'I am a happier person now and in that respect it has improved my relationship with the boys.

'Lincoln and I have a great relationship. I'm all he has really, so he's attached to me big time.

The father-of-two said his relationship with his two sons has improved tremendously since his transition

Adam pictured recovering from his double mastectomy. Adam, who was disowned by his family, said he was happier than ever

Adam (pictured prior to his transition) said he wants his boys to know about the different genders, sexuality and acceptance

'I think me deciding to transition put a strain on my relationship with James, but I think he'd agree that he'd rather have a happy dad than a dead mom.

'Living a lie is not worth living and I hope this teaches my boys that. I also reinforce that I will love them and be here for them no matter what they tell me.

'I encourage both boys to be whoever they want to be.

'I grew up so isolated and I want my boys to know different genders, sexuality, and most of all acceptance.

'I am still a human being with feelings and I'm just trying to raise my boys right!'

Adam with James during his pregnancy with Lincoln. The father-of-two explained he came out as a lesbian before realising he was a man

Adam said he used to despise everything 'girly' in his past life. He also felt 'gross' as female and realised he was transgender thanks to a lesbian relationship (pictured during pregnancy with Lincoln)

Adam recalls despising everything 'girly' but adored being pregnant.

He grew up in a strict religious family and homosexuality was taught to be a sin - Adam felt ashamed of his desire to be a male but was unable to speak out.

He felt 'gross' as a female but says being in a lesbian relationship made him realise he is transgender.

He started wearing male clothing and boxers in 2016 which is when his journey truly began.

Adam adds: 'I distinctly remember around the age of seven, I wanted to stand to pee so bad that I took a funnel and used that.

Adam as a child. He explained he had unconsciously wanted to be a man for all his life, but started his transition journey in 2017

James and Adam at school. The father-of-two recalled his son, then seven, struggled to understand his new identity

'I hated dresses, long hair, and anything girly really.

'I had the shirtless poster of Usher on my bedroom walls as a kid, but I idolised his body.

'Despite having relationships with men before, I was never attracted to men, which is when I began to feel like something was wrong with me.

'After splitting with my ex-husband, who is James's father, and having a one night stand which led to a pregnancy. I came out as lesbian even though I had never been with a woman before.

The boys at school! Adam explained that even though he had been with men - which resulted in his two pregnancies - he had never felt attracted to men

Adam before his transition when he was 16. Even though Adam explained he trully felt attracted to women, he did not 'feel like a lesbian'

'I knew my attraction to women was true but I didn't actually feel like a lesbian. I wanted a penis more than anything.

'I had a whirlwind relationship with a woman for three months and it felt right.

'She brought up the idea of me being a male and I didn't immediately dismiss it, but said that I would never transition because of the boys.

'She asked what my name would be and I just blurted out Adam.

Adam's body before his top surgery. The father-of-two began taking hormones in 2017 after starting to wear boxers and male clothing the year before

Adam said he felt much better after undergoing the double mastectomy. The father hails from a conservative town and lost friends and family due to his transition

'A few months later in July 2017, I began taking testosterone.'

Adam has since lost friends and family members since coming out but insists he is happier.

He said: 'I was forced to tell my colleagues as my voice was changing and I couldn't say I was sick for much longer.

'I live in a small conservative town so I was the first trans person they knew of.

'It was hard for my co-workers, whom known me for six plus years, to start calling me Adam and use the he pronouns. I didn't even answer to Adam for the longest time.

Adam and James together now. Adam said he felt he was being a better role model to his children

What is gender affirming surgery? Gender Affirming Surgery (GAS), also known as Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS) refers to the surgical procedure transgender people undertake to modify their appearance in order to suit the gender they identify with. GAS is a form of treatment to Gender Dysphoria, a condition where a person experiences discomfort or distress because there's a mismatch between their biological sex and gender identity. Adults aged 17 and over can consent to going through these surgeries after undergoing therapy and living in their preferred gender for a year prior to the procedures. Several procedures exist for both transgender men and women, as well as hormone therapy. Masculinization surgeries may include: - a bilateral mastectomy (removal of both breasts) - a hysterectomy (removal of the womb) - a salpingo-oophorectomy (removal of the fallopian tubes and ovaries) - phalloplasty or metoidioplasty (construction of a penis) - scrotoplasty (construction of a scrotum) - and testicular implants a penile implant For trans women, surgery may involve: - an orchidectomy (removal of the testes) - a penectomy (removal of the penis) - vaginoplasty (construction of a vagina) - vulvoplasty (construction of the vulva) - clitoroplasty (construction of a clitoris with sensation) - breast implants facial feminization surgery (surgery to make your face a more feminine shape) Source: NHS.uk Advertisement

'It has been a tough path but I wouldn't change a thing. My family have disowned me, but I didn't choose this life.

'I have embraced it and come to the conclusion that God made me this way for a reason.

'No trans person wakes up and thinks, "I would really like to inject myself every week with hormones and have surgery to have the outside match with what I see on the inside".

'I honestly love being able to take my shirt off outside and be comfortable. Yes I have scars, but I really don't care.

'I am a better role model to my children now that I am finally me.'
Fires fueled by strong Mediterranean winds have raced across multiple towns in the Marseille region of France, injuring at least 22 people. The troubles come as the nation struggles to prevent a second wave of coronavirus infections.

By Stefan J. Bos

As France re-emerges from lengthy coronavirus lockdowns, the nation is now facing a new battle to prevent fires from spreading. From the air, vast plumes of smoke could be seen billowing above a picturesque wooded area near the Mediterranean coast.

Fires forced the evacuation of 2,700 tourists, nursing home residents, and others here in the Marseille region. Some 1,800 firefighters, backed by helicopters and planes, already battled the worst blaze through the night around the town of Martigues. But they could not prevent the destruction of several businesses.

They were still working Wednesday to extinguish the fire more than 14 hours after it broke out Tuesday.

Its flames spread quickly from a wooded area toward the sea, some eight kilometers (five miles) away. Fires were sweeping through residential areas and multiple campgrounds. Firefighters tried to evacuate campers via land and sea.

French Interior Minister Gerard Darmanin rushed to the site overnight, and firefighting teams were sent in from other regions to help.

Cause not known

The cause of the fires is not known. Officials say civilians and more than a dozen firefighters suffered minor injuries in the Martigues blaze and five others that erupted in the area. The other fires were brought under control in the towns of Port-de-Bouc, Aubagne-Carnoux, Gignac-la-Nerthe, and Fontvieille.

Given continued winds Wednesday and dry and hot weather across France, authorities banned any controlled fires in the area. Authorities also halted construction work involving sparks or hot equipment until the flames are extinguished.

The fires could not have come at a worse moment for France as businesses try to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

Adding to misery are fresh warnings by the government's Covid-19 scientific council that France could, in its words, "at any moment" lose control over the spread of the coronavirus. Official data showed the first increase in intensive care patients since April rising by 13 over the weekend.

Twenty-nine new deaths were reported over the same period, bringing the country's reported coronavirus death toll to nearly 30,300 people.
An American official said the text messages were part of a worldwide campaign in multiple languages, but did not answer further questions about what countries were targeted. The official emphasized that the program was anonymous, and that people providing information and earning the reward could be eligible for relocation on a case-by-case basis.

Washington does not need most people to respond or even like the message.

I can imagine it is annoying for a lot of people, but just like telemarketers they are hoping a few people will make this worthwhile for them, even if everyone else is rejecting them, said Nicholas Dujmovic, a former C.I.A. historian and professor at the Catholic University of America.

The true audience for the text messages may be American voters as much as it is foreign cellphone owners. The effort is the latest push by the Trump administration to show it is taking the threat of election interference seriously. In recent weeks, intelligence officials have warned about broad foreign interference efforts, and the State Department has outlined various Russian propaganda and disinformation drives.

But there appears to be at least some hope among American officials that the new effort is a creative way to let Russians and other people know that Washington is on the hunt for election hackers.

It was unclear what technology was used to send the messages, how many were sent or which U.S. agency carried out the efforts. But people in Russia and Iran posted screenshots of the text messages they had received.

The State Department also announced the reward program on one of its Persian-language Twitter feeds.

Cybercriminals beware: The United States is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information about foreign influence in U.S. elections, the tweet read in Persian.
By Joseph Ax and Doina Chiacu (Reuters) - Former Vice President Joe Biden will not travel to Wisconsin to accept the Democratic U.S. presidential nomination during the party's national convention this month because of coronavirus concerns, party officials said on Wednesday. The decision to pull Biden and other speakers from Milwaukee, where Democrats had once planned to hold a multiday nominating convention in person, ensures the event from Aug.

By Joseph Ax and Doina Chiacu

(Reuters) - Former Vice President Joe Biden will not travel to Wisconsin to accept the Democratic U.S. presidential nomination during the party's national convention this month because of coronavirus concerns, party officials said on Wednesday.

The decision to pull Biden and other speakers from Milwaukee, where Democrats had once planned to hold a multiday nominating convention in person, ensures the event from Aug. 17-20 will be almost entirely virtual. Biden will accept the nomination and deliver a national address from his home state of Delaware, the Democratic Party said.

Separately, Republican President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would "probably" deliver his nomination acceptance speech later this month from the White House.

The last-minute changes are the latest reminder of how the pandemic has wreaked havoc on traditional campaigning ahead of the country's Nov. 3 elections. The presidential conventions are typically made-for-television affairs featuring often-raucous speeches in front of thousands of the party faithful.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) said the decision was made to protect Milwaukee residents as well as the vast number of people needed to stage a national convention.

The event will feature two hours of prime-time programming each night with feeds from around the country, the DNC said.

"From the very beginning of this pandemic, we put the health and safety of the American people first," DNC Chairman Tom Perez said in a statement.

The Republican convention was initially set for Charlotte, North Carolina, before Trump moved part of the festivities to Jacksonville, Florida, after North Carolina's governor warned he might not permit a huge crowd.

But a surge of coronavirus cases in Florida prompted Trump to cancel those plans. Only one night of the convention, a "nomination night," will take place in Charlotte, Trump said in an interview on Fox News on Wednesday.

Trump said the bulk of the convention would be virtual and include live speeches from different locations, including his address on Aug. 27.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Colleen Jenkins)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Cybercrime and cyber-enabled crime are among the fastest growing security threats in the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has only made the situation worse. According to the FBI, since the coronavirus pandemic was declared, cybercrime has increased by some 400 percent.

Cyber intrusions are becoming more commonplace, more dangerous, and more sophisticated, and target both private and public sector networks. Businesses and companies are targeted for trade secrets and sensitive data, universities and laboratories are targeted for research and development while private citizens are victimized by fraudsters and identity thieves.

In late July, the U.S. Department of State announced rewards of up to $1 million each for information leading to the arrests or convictions of Ukrainian nationals Artem Viacheslavovich Radchenko and Oleksandr Vitalyevich Ieremenko. Both are suspected of participating in transnational organized cybercrime.

Based on an investigation of their activities, Radchenko and Ieremenko have been accused of hacking into the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissions Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system and indicted for securities fraud conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, computer fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, and computer fraud. The 16-count indictment alleges that the two hackers stole thousands of confidential files, which were then illegally sold for profit. The Securities and Exchange Commission has also filed a civil complaint, charging Ieremenko and other individuals and entities.

This reward offer was made under the State Departments Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program, which together with the Narcotics Rewards Program, has brought some 75 transnational criminals to justice since these programs began in 1986.

Any information regarding these cyber criminals should be sent to the U.S. Secret Service by e-mail at Rewards@usss.dhs.gov. Anyone interested in learning more about the case against Radchenko, Ieremenko or the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program should go to https://www.state.gov/artem-viacheslavovich-radchenko/.

Cyber criminals do not observe nor respect the rule of law in any country. As their criminal reach is worldwide, we welcome the cooperation and coordination of all governments to bring these criminals to justice and protect innocent citizens throughout the world, said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a written statement.

The United States is committed to that effort in part through the State Departments Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program to help our law enforcement partners bring cyber and other transnational criminals to justice.
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Madrid, Spain  Thu, August 6, 2020 18:01 530 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c1a6b2 2 News Canary-Islands,Spain,coronavirus,COVID-19,Tourist,tourism,travel Free

Spain's Canary Islands has taken out insurance to cover costs visitors face if they become infected with the coronavirus, the archipelago's regional government said Wednesday.

Under a deal struck with the Spanish branch of French insurer AXA, any tourist who tests positive for COVID-19 during their stay will be eligible for free medical care, repatriation and additional accommodation for quarantine measures, a statement said.

The islands off northwest Africa are "the first Spanish region where tourists, both Spanish and foreign, will be guaranteed" that their virus-related expenses will be covered, regional tourism chief Yaiza Castilla said.

The coverage, which is already effective, is free to visitors but it will only apply those with no prior knowledge that they were infected with the virus.

Read also: Switzerland adds Spain to coronavirus quarantine list

It will only be activated if a tourist does not have personal insurance to cover the costs.

Tourism accounts for about 35 percent of the Canary's economic output, with tourists from Britain accounting for about a third of all visitors.

The COVID-19 pandemic hit Spain harder than most countries, with 28,499 deaths so far and a three-month lockdown which crippled the tourism sector.

Despite having a much lower infection rate than that of mainland Spain, the tourism sector on the islands has taken a hit from Britain's decision last month to require all people returning from Spain, no matter what region, to undergo quarantine.
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Linkedin Elodie Mazein (Agence France-Presse) Larnaca, Cyprus  Thu, August 6, 2020 14:33 530 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c098f6 2 News Britain,Cyprus,tourism,tourists,travel Free

The holiday island of Cyprus had hoped British tourists would give a badly-needed boost to its pandemic-hit tourism sector, but only a trickle of sun-seekers have arrived.

"2020 is a lost season," said beach bar manager Giannis Aggelopoulos in the resort town of Larnaca, which is usually busy with Brits enjoying sandy beaches but now largely empty of foreign tourists.

In a normal year, UK citizens make up the largest group of visitors to the former British colony in the eastern Mediterranean, where restaurants offer bacon and eggs for breakfast, pints of ale and televised Premier League games.

"It's a home away from home," said one visitor, Paul, who arrived Tuesday on an under-booked Wizz Air flight from London with his partner Nastasha and their young son.

"We are here to help a bit," he said. "We like to go to the restaurants, to the bars, to do some shopping. We're going to spend some money."

But for Cyprus' hard-hit tourism sector it's all too little too late.

Most arrivals from Britain since Cyprus eased bilateral restrictions last Saturday have been individual travelers and dual nationals, not the usual big tour groups.

Major package deal operators have delivered very few of the groups that have in the past packed out seaside resorts from Paphos in the west to Ayia Napa in the east.

Tourism has all but collapsed in Cyprus, where the sector earned 2.68 billion euros last year -- over 12 percent of gross domestic product, according to official statistics.

As Cyprus shuttered its borders for several months because of COVID-19, foreign tourist arrivals fell by 84 percent in the first half of the year to just over 255,000.

Read also: Cyprus introduces COVID-19 testing on Greek arrivals amid spike

'Prohibitive restrictions'

Brits normally account for 40 percent of arrivals, or 1.2 million people -- more than Cyprus' entire population -- said Philokypros Roussounides, head of the Cyprus Hotel Association.

But, even though they are allowed back now, many have been put off by strict health regulations and the need for COVID-19 testing.

Cyprus on August 1 upgraded Britain to "Category B" from "C", meaning UK visitors no longer have to quarantine on arrival.

But they must still present a negative test that is no older than 72 hours, unlike visitors from "A" countries, which are deemed by Cypriot authorities to be the safest.

"The tour operators informed us last week that they will not put Cyprus back (into their catalogues) unless something changes to bring the UK into the A-list," said Polyviou.

British low-cost carrier Jet2 announced late last month it was suspending its "flights and holiday program" to Cyprus until after August 16, citing "prohibitive entry restrictions".

Roussounides -- who said barely 20 percent of hotels are open -- predicted that "the only British tourists that will come to the island will be individuals", rather than tour groups.

Marios Polyviou, head of the Sunnyseeker Hotels group, said for now only six of the chain's eight hotels on the island are open.

"We have no indication that this is going to get better," she said.

Read also: Cyprus to reopen to UK tourists on Aug. 1

'Why take the risk?'

A recent rise of daily coronavirus infections on Cyprus has alarmed authorities and raised public concerns about the reopening to foreign visitors.

At the Ciao Stelio Deluxe Hotel near the Larnaca seafront, masks, gloves and gel are ready for guests on entry. Plexiglass panels protect hotel employees, and markers on the ground indicate physical distancing measures.

Guests from "B" countries must show their negative coronavirus test in order to access their rooms, a hotel employee said.

British guests usually account for a quarter of the hotel's visitors, the employee said.

Polyviou from Sunnyseeker Hotels group said the company had invested heavily in anti-coronavirus measures, but that occupancy rates were "very low".

Looking to the future, Polyviou holds a pragmatic view.

"We have to learn to live with the virus, to be more responsible... We have to train ourselves until a reliable vaccine comes to the market," Polyviou said.

"We cannot close the borders forever."

Aggelopoulos, the manager of the Larnaca beach bar, said he expected losses of 40 percent this year compared to 2019.

But he said a delay to mass tourist arrivals was not necessarily a bad thing.

The return of British tourists, and foreign visitors in general, he argued was "a very big risk for the Cyprus people, and for what?

"Two or three months of tourists? It's not worth it. Why take such big a risk now in the middle of the summer?"

Topics : Britain Cyprus tourism tourists travel
Chinese Foreign Minister Says Beijing Not Interested in Diplomatic War With US

Sputnik News

22:22 GMT 05.08.2020

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Beijing is not interested in a diplomatic war with Washington although China stands ready to defend itself if necessary, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the state-run Xinhua news agency on Wednesday.

"China has no intention to fight a diplomatic war with the US as it will only hurt the interests of the two peoples even more. Starting a diplomatic war does not prove the strength of the US. Quite to the contrary, it only exposes the increasing lack of confidence of the US", Wang said during an interview, a video of which was posted on the agency's social media channels.

The foreign minister added that should the US take steps to stoke a diplomatic conflict, China will be ready to respond.

Tensions between Washington and Beijing have escalated in recent weeks, after the US authorities ordered the closure of the Chinese consulate general in the city of Houston in late July, citing alleged spying and interference efforts.

In response, the Chinese authorities on 24 July ordered the closure of the US consulate general in Chengdu. The Chinese Foreign Ministry called this decision a legal and relevant reply to Washington's actions.

A Sputnik

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One in 5 Mail-In Ballots Not Counted in New York City Primary

Approximately 20 percent of mail-in ballots sent in by voters in New York City were not counted, according to new certified election results.

Some 318,995 mail-in ballots were counted in the June 23 Democratic presidential primary, the city Board of Elections said in the new certification.

Approximately 414,582 voters in New York City voted by absentee ballot in the primary, Robert Brehm, the co-executive director of the states Board of Elections, said in court last month.

That means more than one in five ballots were rejected for one reason or another.

Wow. Over 84,000 New Yorkers did not have their voices heard in the June 23rd primarymany due to no fault of their own, Suraj Patel, a candidate for New Yorks 12 Congressional District, said in a social media statement.

The issues stemmed in part from more than 10 times the number of absentee ballots being used than in a normal year after Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo mandated in June that any voter who wanted to could vote by mail.

U.S. Postal Service workers struggled to handle the volume and failed to properly process some ballots.

I voted stickers sit on a table at the BrooklynMuseum polling site during the New York Democratic presidential primary elections in New York City, N.Y., on July 23, 2020. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)

Others were rejected because they were incomplete or lacked a valid postmark or signature. In one district in Brooklyn, according to court filings, 1,135 of the 8,285 absentee ballots received by the board of elections in the week leading up to the primary lacked a postmark and were ruled invalid by election officials.

U.S. District Judge Analisa Nadine Torres ruled on Monday that the state Board of Elections must direct all local boards of elections to count valid absentee ballots.

Citing testimony by Douglas Kellner, another state commissioner, the judge said state and city election officials set up a voting process where arbitrary factors lead the state to valuing one persons vote over that of anotherthe kind of process specifically prohibited by the Supreme Court.

The state Board of Elections is appealing the decision.

Given the totality of the circumstances here, we understand the desire to protect the rights of voters, Kellner said in a statement sent to The Epoch Times. However, this will place a tremendous burden on the local boards of elections as they are preparing for the November general election and is highly unlikely to change the results in any contest.

The city Board of Elections hasnt responded to requests for comment.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) leads a hearing about CCP virus preparedness and response on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 12, 2020. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters)

The board on Tuesday declared Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) the winner over Patel, who challenged her in the Democrat primary and was one of the plaintiffs in the case involving mail-in ballots.

Im thrilled the voters of NY-12 have decided to return me to Congress for another term, with a decisive winning margin that clearly reflects the will of the voters, Maloney said in a statement.

Patel said the city Board of Elections defied the court ruling by preliminary certifying the race without a final vote tally and that hes not conceding for now.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, told reporters this week that the board can do better and must do better.

The board should be replaced by a modern management-focused agency to do this work better in the future, the mayor said, but added that hes confident the board can handle the 2020 presidential election.
A nurse prepares a shot as a study of a possible COVID-19 vaccine, developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc., gets underway in Binghamton, N.Y. Who gets to be first in line for a COVID-19 vaccine? U.S. health authorities hope by late next month to have some draft guidance on how to ration initial doses, but it's a vexing decision. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink)



U.S. biotech company Moderna, which is in the late stages of testing a potential COVID-19 vaccine, said Wednesday it is charging between $32-$37 per dose.



Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said the $32-$37 price range is cheaper "pandemic pricing" for the vaccine and the company is also in discussion for larger volume agreements that will have a lower price.



"We are working with governments around the world and others to ensure a vaccine is accessible regardless of ability to pay," said Bancel. "We're currently in a pandemic as defined by WHO. At Moderna, like many experts, we believe the virus is not going away and there will be a need to vaccinate people or give them a boost for many years to come."



Bancel added that the company defines a small order of the vaccine as "in the millions."



The price range is higher than the $19.50 per dose Pfizer and BioNTech have agreed to with the U.S. government.



Moderna on Wednesday also reported a five-fold increase in revenue for the second quarter.



Based in Cambridge, Mass., Moderna posted total revenue of $66 million for the April-June period  more than five times its $13 million revenue for Q2 2019. It reported, however, a total net loss of $117 million.



Moderna began a late-stage trial for the mRNA-1273 vaccine candidate last week and expects results as early as October.



Revenue was aided partly by federal grants for development of the vaccine candidate. Moderna received a $483 million federal contract in April to test the candidate and said last month tests have shown a "rapid and strong" immune response against COVID-19.



CEO Stephane Bancel said the company is in discussions with "several countries" for potential mRNA-1273 supply agreements and has so far received $400 million in deposits.



Moderna's vaccine candidate is one of several that have entered stage-three clinical studies in the United States, Europe and China.



World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysusm said Tuesday there has been vaccine progress but warned there may never be a cure.



"There's no silver bullet at the moment and there might never be," he said. "For now, stopping outbreaks comes down to the basics of public health and disease control. Testing, isolating patients and tracing and quarantining their contacts. Do it all." (UPI)


TCN News

Amnesty International India on Thursday called for the immediate release of all political prisoners marking the first anniversary of abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution bifurcating Kashmir into two separate union territories.

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Over the last year the Government of India has been systematically dismantling all avenues for justice for the people of Jammu and Kashmir, stated Avinash Kumar, Executive Director, Amnesty International India. He discussed that high proportions of zero political representation, protracted internet restrictions, arbitrary use of stringent laws, verbal orders of detention and crippling of the local media  all of these have been continuously blocking voices from Kashmir and it is a year since we have heard the people of Jammu and Kashmir speak.

Last year on August 5 when Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated into two separate union territories, the region came under the direct control of the central government and hence started the brutal crackdown of Kashmiri political leaders, journalists and activists. Simultaneously, an increasing number of administrative detentions and attacks on press freedom has been underreported in the absence of 4G mobile internet. Kumar highlighted these issues to demand decongesting prisons and launch a prompt and independent investigation into the attacks on Kashmiri journalists.

In a statement, Amnesty elaborated that interviews with journalists and resulted in gathering corroborating evidence from news reports  both print and digital and Right to Information applications, which led Amnesty India to document the heavy-handed tactics of the Government of India in the region in a series of situation updates since August 5, 2019, all of which has been compiled into a detailed report by the agency. It further acknowledged that the Government of India may have legitimate security concerns which may merit reasonable restrictions on the right to freedom of expression in certain circumstances, but these restrictions must always be limited in duration and demonstrably proportionate as set out under Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which India is a state party.

However, in an absolute violation of Indias international obligations, the entire population of Kashmir has been deprived of their right to freedom of expression and opinion through protracted communication restrictions since the last one year which has been compounded by a censored media, continuing detention of political leaders, arbitrary restrictions due to the pandemic with little to no redressal, it stated. Amnesty also outlined that despite moderate ease of restrictions in 2020, the governments near-total control over the information coming out of the region was strengthened through the use of repressive laws such as the Jammu & Kashmir Public Safety Act (PSA) and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

The draconian media policy introduced by the government openly aims to create a sustained narrative on the functioning of the government in media by checking on anti-national activities, fake news and plagiarism has further extinguished independent media in the region, said Amnesty. It mentioned that Amnesty has documented physical attacks on, harassment and intimidation of at least 18 journalists since August 5, 2019. In absence of reportage, merely gathering information from various digital and print media, Amnesty further found that at least 70 political leaders  cutting across a wide political spectrum  were placed under administrative detention. However, not a single case of detention of a political member belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was found in the record. While most of those arrested have been subsequently released, many continue to be in detention on the basis of verbal orders or repressive laws such as the PSA. This, it highlighted, is in complete violation of their fair trial rights guaranteed by the ICCPR and Indian Constitution.

Speaking about the release of political leaders, Amnesty stated that through the signing of bonds that restrict them from indulging in any political activity including making political speeches, is also as problematic as their detentions, because under international law, political speech cannot be prohibited unless it constitutes a direct threat to public order. Amnesty resonated that the Governments ruthless attempts to create a public opinion of normalcy while curbing the freedom of the independent press has usurped the voice of the region.

A rights-respecting government must know that an end to the abuses in Jammu & Kashmir cannot come without the involvement of its people, said Kumar. He also discussed that Kashmir has been forced to transition from one lockdown to another, with government policies during the COVID-19 pandemic, and these have further marginalized its people by severely affecting their access to justice. Between 2016 and 2019, Amnesty found that more than 300 habeas corpus petitions were filed against unlawful detentions before the Srinagar wing of the J&K High Court but as on August 4, 2020, only 11 habeas corpus petitions have been filed. This sharp fall may be attributed to the punitive emergency measures invoked by the government to curb the COVID-19 pandemic but also the lack of hi-speed internet required for uninterrupted online hearings, he informed. Further, closure of the State Human Rights Commission along with six other commissions, including the State Commission for Protection of Women and Child Rights, has further left the people of Jammu & Kashmir with absolutely no redressal for their human rights violations.

In the light of the above, Amnesty International India has demanded the Indian Government to restore 4G mobile internet and end the criminal investigations against journalists under PSA and UAPA while simultaneously withdrawing the new media policy. It has further called on the BJP government to immediately and unconditionally release all political leaders.
Taking advantage of a total lunar eclipse, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have detected Earth's own brand of sunscreen -- ozone -- in our atmosphere. This method simulates how astronomers and astrobiology researchers will search for evidence of life beyond Earth by observing potential "biosignatures" on exoplanets (planets around other stars).

Hubble did not look at Earth directly. Instead, the astronomers used the Moon as a mirror to reflect sunlight, which had passed through Earth's atmosphere, and then reflected back towards Hubble. Using a space telescope for eclipse observations reproduces the conditions under which future telescopes would measure atmospheres of transiting exoplanets. These atmospheres may contain chemicals of interest to astrobiology, the study of and search for life.

Though numerous ground-based observations of this kind have been done previously, this is the first time a total lunar eclipse was captured at ultraviolet wavelengths and from a space telescope. Hubble detected the strong spectral fingerprint of ozone, which absorbs some of the sunlight. Ozone is important to life because it is the source of the protective shield in Earth's atmosphere.

On Earth, photosynthesis over billions of years is responsible for our planet's high oxygen levels and thick ozone layer. That's one reason why scientists think ozone or oxygen could be a sign of life on another planet, and refer to them as biosignatures.

"Finding ozone is significant because it is a photochemical byproduct of molecular oxygen, which is itself a byproduct of life," explained Allison Youngblood of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder, Colorado, lead researcher of Hubble's observations.

Although ozone in Earth's atmosphere had been detected in previous ground-based observations during lunar eclipses, Hubble's study represents the strongest detection of the molecule to date because ozone -- as measured from space with no interference from other chemicals in the Earth's atmosphere -- absorbs ultraviolet light so strongly.

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Hubble recorded ozone absorbing some of the Sun's ultraviolet radiation that passed through the edge of Earth's atmosphere during a lunar eclipse that occurred on January 20 to 21, 2019. Several other ground-based telescopes also made spectroscopic observations at other wavelengths during the eclipse, searching for more of Earth's atmospheric ingredients, such as oxygen and methane.

"One of NASA's major goals is to identify planets that could support life," Youngblood said. "But how would we know a habitable or an uninhabited planet if we saw one? What would they look like with the techniques that astronomers have at their disposal for characterizing the atmospheres of exoplanets? That's why it's important to develop models of Earth's spectrum as a template for categorizing atmospheres on extrasolar planets."

Her paper is available online in The Astronomical Journal.

Sniffing Out Planetary Atmospheres

The atmospheres of some extrasolar planets can be probed if the alien world passes across the face of its parent star, an event called a transit. During a transit, starlight filters through the backlit exoplanet's atmosphere. (If viewed close up, the planet's silhouette would look like it had a thin, glowing "halo" around it caused by the illuminated atmosphere, just as Earth does when seen from space.)

Chemicals in the atmosphere leave their telltale signature by filtering out certain colors of starlight. Astronomers using Hubble pioneered this technique for probing exoplanets. This is particularly remarkable because extrasolar planets had not yet been discovered when Hubble was launched in 1990 and the space observatory was not initially designed for such experiments.

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So far, astronomers have used Hubble to observe the atmospheres of gas giant planets and super-Earths (planets several times Earth's mass) that transit their stars. But terrestrial planets about the size of Earth are much smaller objects and their atmospheres are thinner, like the skin on an apple. Therefore, teasing out these signatures from Earth-sized exoplanets will be much harder.

That's why researchers will need space telescopes much larger than Hubble to collect the feeble starlight passing through these small planets' atmospheres during a transit. These telescopes will need to observe planets for a longer period, many dozens of hours, to build up a strong signal.

To prepare for these bigger telescopes, astronomers decided to conduct experiments on a much closer and only known inhabited terrestrial planet: Earth. Our planet's perfect alignment with the Sun and Moon during a total lunar eclipse mimics the geometry of a terrestrial planet transiting its star.

But the observations were also challenging because the Moon is very bright, and its surface is not a perfect reflector because it is mottled with bright and dark areas. The Moon is also so close to Earth that Hubble had to try and keep a steady eye on one select region, despite the Moon's motion relative to the space observatory. So, Youngblood's team had to account for the Moon's drift in their analysis.

Where There's Ozone, There's Life?

Finding ozone in the skies of a terrestrial extrasolar planet does not guarantee that life exists on the surface. "You would need other spectral signatures in addition to ozone to conclude that there was life on the planet, and these signatures cannot necessarily be seen in ultraviolet light," Youngblood said.

On Earth, ozone is formed naturally when oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere is exposed to strong concentrations of ultraviolet light. Ozone forms a blanket around Earth, protecting it from harsh ultraviolet rays.

"Photosynthesis might be the most productive metabolism that can evolve on any planet, because it is fueled by energy from starlight and uses cosmically abundant elements like water and carbon dioxide," said Giada Arney of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, a co-author of the science paper. "These necessary ingredients should be common on habitable planets."

Seasonal variability in the ozone signature also could indicate seasonal biological production of oxygen, just as it does with the growth seasons of plants on Earth.

But ozone can also be produced without the presence of life when nitrogen and oxygen are exposed to sunlight. To increase confidence that a given biosignature is truly produced by life, astronomers must search for combinations of biosignatures. A multiwavelength campaign is needed because each of the many biosignatures are more easily detected at wavelengths specific to those signatures.

"Astronomers will also have to take the developmental stage of the planet into account when looking at younger stars with young planets. If you wanted to detect oxygen or ozone from a planet similar to the early Earth, when there was less oxygen in our atmosphere, the spectral features in optical and infrared light aren't strong enough," Arney explained. "We think Earth had low concentrations of ozone before the mid-Proterozoic geological period (between roughly 2.0 billion to 0.7 billion years ago) when photosynthesis contributed to the build up of oxygen and ozone in the atmosphere to the levels we see today. But because the ultraviolet-light signature of ozone features is very strong, you would have a hope of detecting small amounts of ozone. The ultraviolet may therefore be the best wavelength for detecting photosynthetic life on low-oxygen exoplanets."

NASA has a forthcoming observatory called the James Webb Space Telescope that could make similar kinds of measurements in infrared light, with the potential to detect methane and oxygen in exoplanet atmospheres. Webb is currently scheduled to launch in 2021.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHbiPO8bAts&feature=emb_logo
Luxembourg's National Research Fund (Fonds National de la Recherche, FNR) has launched an advertising campaign on the tram network to raise awareness of research in the Grand Duchy.

The initiative, known as LetzSCIENCE, is an interactive campaign that is being featured through 41 striking 2m posters in trams in the capital.

The FNR teamed up with STUDIO Polenta and Virtual Rangers, along with consultant Stephen Korytko and web designer Cropmark, to produce the campaign, which makes use of the recent science of augmented reality (AR).

It was launched after an FNR survey showed that 70% of people said they wanted to know more about research and science in Luxembourg.

More information can be found here.
Up to 500,000 Brits are suffering from psychosis, fatigue and loss of eyesight after recovering from coronavirus, MPs have been told.

Campaigners have even warned some doctors are dismissing many of the symptoms of 'long Covid' as being 'all in their heads'.

The founder of the Long Covid Support Group, Claire Hastie, said the lasting effects of the illness had left her wheelchair-bound.

Another member of the 15,000-strong group, a doctor, revealed that he was unable to walk up one flight of stairs without getting out of breath.

Ms Hastie, who was diagnosed with Covid-19 in March, claimed data from the King's College London symptom tracking app shows that up to 500,000 people in the UK are currently suffering from the long-term effects of Covid-19.

Most coronavirus patients will recover within a fortnight, suffering a fever, cough and losing their sense of smell or taste for several days.

However, evidence is beginning to show that the tell-tale symptoms of the virus can persist for weeks on end in 'long haulers'  the term for patients plagued by lasting complications.

Up to half a million Brits are suffering from psychosis, fatigue and loss of eyesight after recovering from coronavirus, MPs have been told

Nine in 10 coronavirus patients from ICU in Wuhan still suffering serious lung damage A new study has found that the 90 per cent of coronavirus patients treated in intensive care in Wuhan - the place in China where the virus broke out - are still experiencing lung damage. Research (seen by The Times) by the intensive care director at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Peng Zhiyong, found that patients had a lack of energy and couldn't walk far. And almost half of the patients have developed depression because they can't return to normal life. Dr Peng is doing a year-long study following 107 patients who suffered pneumonia and were intubated during the crisis. After three months he found 90 per cent still had lung damage. He also found that about 10 per cent of people had lost the antibody that could fight off the virus. And less than half of the people had managed to return to their jobs. Up to 50 per cent were depressed. Advertisement

Survivors have described feeling like there is a 'slab of concrete' on their chest, and have struggled to complete everyday tasks, such as emptying the dishwasher, without feeling extremely tired.

Previously fit people told the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on coronavirus how their lives had been turned upside down by a horde of lasting symptoms.

Ms Hastie described how she used to cycle 13 miles to work but can no longer walk 13 metres and is now largely confined to a wheelchair with her children providing much of her care.

She said: 'Many people in our group to this day are being told by their GPs that it's caused by anxiety and it's all in their heads.

'It can cause anxiety but it is not caused by anxiety. The science needs to catch up with us.'

Another member of the Facebook support group, an anaesthetist and intensive care doctor, said he was now unable to walk up just one flight of stairs without feeling chest pain and shortness of breath.

Dr Jake Suett said: 'I was doing 12-hour shifts in ICU. It's a high-pressure situation, you have to be able to be active. I was going to the gym three times a week regularly.

'And now a flight of stairs or the food shop is about what I can manage before I have to stop... if I'm on my feet then shortness of breath comes back, chest pain comes back.'

The APPG were also told that an online survey of 1,800 people found that many employees felt pressured to go back to work even though they didn't feel they could while suffering from long-term symptoms.

Pictured is Claire Hastie - founder of the Long Covid Support Group

Ms Hastie said that people in her Facebook group, which now has 15,327 members, have been told they'll never work again.

She gave an example of a Pilates teacher who doesn't know if and when she'll ever be able to work again, adding: 'People are being pressured back by employers who, understandably, don't understand this.'

One Long Covid activist, Robin Gorna, revealed that her three children aged between 11 and 16 had suffered from long-term symptoms and one took four months to recover.

And one member of the APPG, Labour MP Andrew Gwynne, said that he was still suffering from coronavirus symptoms after 18 weeks.

Talya Varga, 27, said the shortness of breath she has experienced since having Covid-19 in April feels like a 'concrete slab on her chest'

NHS will set up 'virtual wards' to treat people with long-term illnesses caused by coronavirus in their own homes Patients recovering from coronavirus will be treated online from their own homes because there is no funding for new rehab clinics, according to health officials. NHS England said rehabilitation will 'largely be provided in existing physical facilities' and in some cases patients will be treated virtually in their own homes. But the Health Service Journal (HSJ) said no capital funding was made available for more facilities - and spaces are currently limited. Instead, a virtual ward - the yourcovidrecovery.nhs.uk website - will be used to treat the majority of people recovering from severe coronavirus symptoms. The Government confirmed a further 500 million in revenue funding over the rest of this year for Covid rehab services - meaning health workers' salaries and the costs of existing buildings will be met. But no more buildings can be built, or renovated for the purpose, because capital funding - which is for long term projects - has not been made available. Ruth Ten Hove, director at the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, told the HSJ: 'The message we have been given is that people can now do their rehab online (through a new NHS website). 'We were involved in the website and it can get good outcomes. But it's not for everyone and using that alone will widen health inequalities and digital exclusion.' An NHS spokesman said the decision not to allocate capital funding was made because patients can access treatment online. Advertisement

He said that he struggles to ask just one Parliamentary question on Zoom and then is forced to spend the rest of the day in bed.

British scientists have already launched an investigation into the long-term impacts of Covid-19 in search of answers to thousands of people's problems, which has been referred to as 'this generation's polio'.

The Department of Health has announced that up to 10,000 people will be involved in a study to look at how people who catch the coronavirus fare long-term.

Growing evidence suggests that even people who only get mildly sick may suffer long-lasting health effects including lung damage.

The UK's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) has warned that Covid-19 patients could be left with 'extreme tiredness and shortness of breath for several months'.

The study, led by researchers and doctors in Leicester, will look at how people's mental health is affected by illness and whether factors like sex or ethnicity affect how well someone recovers from Covid-19.

Patients in the study, which will receive 8.4million in funding, will have medical scans, blood tests and lung samples so experts can look at how they are affected.

It comes as the NHS has announced it's launched a long-term recovery service called 'Your Covid Recovery', which will offer online advice to the public and more specialised physio and mental health support to some patients from this summer.

Chief Medical Officer, Professor Chris Whitty, said: 'As well as the immediate health impacts of the virus it is also important to look at the longer-term impacts on health, which may be significant.

'We have rightly focused on mortality, and what the UK can do straight away to protect lives, but we should also look at how Covid-19 impacts on the health of people after they have recovered from the immediate disease.'

Researchers from Italy have reportedly found that almost 90 per cent of patients discharged from a Rome hospital after recovering from coronavirus were still experiencing at least one symptom two months after coming down with the illness.

The APPG also heard from a group of grieving relatives who have lost family members to coronavirus.

Jo Goodman, who represents a group of 1,450 bereaved family members, is urging the Government to consider a Hillsborough disaster-style inquiry into the handling of the coronavirus response.
South African business leaders are growing increasingly concerned that the government doesnt have the will or capacity to overcome the economic devastation wrought by the coronavirus pandemic.

Business for South Africa, an alliance of the nations main business groups also known as B4SA, expects the economy to contract as much as 10% this year and has spent the past four months drafting a plan to get it back on track. About 250 experts worked for free on the proposals that could potentially add 1 trillion rand ($58 billion) to gross domestic product, but they have gained limited traction with the authorities so far.

My confidence in the government implementing this is very low, Busi Mavuso, the chief executive officer of Business Leadership South Africa, which forms part of B4SA, said in an online briefing with Bloomberg. I cant say the government jumped for joy in receiving it.

The 5.1 trillion-rand economy, which was already in recession before the coronavirus struck, went into a tailspin after a lockdown was imposed in late March to curb the spread of the disease. Most businesses were shuttered for five weeks and a study by a group of 30 academics and researchers estimated that 3 million people lost their jobs between February and April, while 1.5-million others were furloughed.

The government could have done a better job in managing the lockdown and the ensuing fallout, Cas Coovadia, the CEO of Business Unity South Africa, another B4SA member, said at the same briefing. Still, he said the business groups had supported the need for a lockdown.

If all the work that business has done on how to orchestrate a revival goes to waste because of inaction, history will judge us, he said. The ball very much does lie in the governments court. Leadership has got to come from government.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced a 500 billion-rand package to shore up the economy and support individuals and business that have lost their income, with part of the money to come from redirecting existing budgets. He also aims to galvanize 2.3 trillion rand in new infrastructure investment over the next decade that could create more than 1.8 million jobs.

The B4SA plan calls on the government to fulfill long-standing pledges to make it easier to do business, clamp down on graft and overhaul badly managed state companies. The group opposes tinkering with the central banks mandate or threats to its independence and dictating to pension funds on how to invest.

It is not as though we didnt know what decisions need to be taken and what then needs to be implemented, said Martin Kingston, who heads B4Sas steering committee and is deputy president of Busa. Where there is skepticism or concern amongst the leadership of business is that leopards dont change their spots. The hallmark of inaction and indecision is going to carry on.

Kganki Matabane, the CEO of the Black Business Council, voiced similar concerns.

We are always announcing plans, he said. There is no action that follows the words. We need to find a way to put more pressure on government to start implementing and stop talking.

Now read: MTN South Africa revenue falls due to Cell C roaming deal
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 17:09:00|Editor: huaxia

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HARARE, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe recorded three COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday, raising the country's death toll to 84.

All the deaths were of elderly people, two men and a woman and occurred in Bulawayo and Manicaland provinces, the Ministry of Health and Child Care said in a statement Thursday morning.

The country recorded 118 new cases of COVID-19, taking the country's total cases to 4,339.

Of the new cases, 117 are due to local transmission and only one is an imported case, a citizen who returned from South Africa.

A total of 26 recoveries were recorded, increasing the total number of recoveries in the country to 1,264 while active cases stand at 2,991.

The country has done a total of 142,219 COVID-19 tests to date. Enditem
An appeal court has overturned a decision that paved the way for some working holidaymakers from overseas, including Britain and Norway, to receive a refund of the so-called backpacker tax, in a boost to the budget bottom line.

On Thursday the Full Court of the Federal Court upheld a Tax Office appeal against a decision of Brisbane-based Federal Court Justice John Logan, who ruled in a test case last year that the backpacker tax could not be applied to a British woman in Australia on a working holiday visa.

A win for Treasurer Josh Frydenberg: The Full Federal Court found the backpacker tax applied to a British national on a working holiday visa. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The decision is a win for the ATO and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, whose predecessor-turned Prime Minister Scott Morrison introduced the tax.

In a decision in October, Justice Logan found the backpacker tax fell foul of a non-discrimination clause in a double taxation treaty between the UK and Australia. The treaty provides that parties shall not tax citizens from the other country in a "more burdensome" way than their own citizens who are also residents for tax purposes.
The call record of late Bollywood actor has been revealed. Sushant's call details show that not a single call or message was exchanged between the late actor and his girlfriend Rhea from June 8 to June 14.

From Nepotism to groups of the industry, Sushant Singh Rajputs death case has opened a pandora box.

Its been more than a month since Bollywood actor SSR died by suicide at his residence in Mumbai. His death has sent shockwaves across the entire nation.

The call record of late Bollywood actor has been revealed. Sushants call details show that not a single call or message was exchanged between the late actor and his girlfriend Rhea from June 8 to June 14.

Also read: India slams Pak for its criticism of Ram Temple construction

Also read: Need to bring in tech to make India Atmanirbhar, says Arjun Bajaaj, Director, Videotex & Founder, Shinco

As per the reports, it was the time when Sushant was under extreme pressure after the death of his former manager Disha Salian. Disha reportedly jumped off the 14th floor of a building in Malad and died by suicide, six days before Sushants demise.

Between January 20 to 25 this year both Bollywood celebrities exchanged around 20 calls, the recently revealed report added. When these above-mentioned calls were exchanged, the late actor was with his sister in Panchkula Haryana.

Bihar police landed in Mumbai for the investigation after Sushant Singh Rajputs father, KK Singh filed an FIR against Rhea Chakraborty and leveled some serious allegations.

The Centre has accepted the Bihar governments recommendation for the CBI probe. The Supreme Court has given 3 days to Mumbai police for handing over all the shreds of evidence of the SSRs death case.

Bihar officers have returned to Patna who came to Mumbai for the investigation in the Sushants case, as per the reports.

Also read: UPSC issues clarification regarding CSE results 2019
By now weve all seen videos and photos of packed house parties, beaches and even concerts full of young people not physically distancing as if the pandemic is over.

In July, Ontario Premier Ford made a plea to young people to rein it in and to think of their grandparents after a spike in COVID-19 cases  more than half of which were people 39 and under. In the U.S., health officials have also been imploring young people to take the outbreak more seriously.

But rather than lumping all millennials and Gen Z members into one monolith, its important to remember that just because someone under 40 gets infected, its not always via a crowded house party, says Dr. Colin Furness, an infection control epidemiologist and assistant professor at the faculty of information at the University of Toronto.

The way we answer that question is learning from contact tracing. It will tell you about occupations, who they were in contact with, whether they have a service job or are really rich and bored, he said.

Furness says the more data is collected about those infected, the better understanding we will have of who and how the virus affects people within these age groups. New data released last week, for example, revealed COVID-19s disproportionate impact on Torontos racialized and low-income groups.

Its more complicated than kids going to parties, Furness said. I have students and recent former students and theyre all uniformly cautious.

Canadian millennials and Gen Z members have already been feeling the brunt of the pandemic. Between a quarter and a third of them have lost their jobs, many of which are in the retail and food sector, which doesnt allow for working from home.

When thinking about outbreaks in bars and restaurants something to consider beyond young patrons, is that the people working in those jobs tend to skew younger. The 2016 Census found the median age of food and beverage servers was 26, the median age of people working in retail was 33 and the median age in the overall service sector was 36.

I find it frustrating when it isnt taken into consideration that (young people) are working in minimum wage jobs, cant afford to quit, are taking care of elderly family members, dont have a car, working in the gig economy and live with our roommates in a tiny condo with no privacy and no windows that open, said Ruth Collings, 30, a Cabbagetown resident whose roommate is a nurse. As long as certain people want their groceries delivered to minimize their own COVID-19 risk, someone has to deliver them and take on that risk.

Collings adds that as a person living with a chronic illness, shes already aware of the risks of infection and frustrated by the stereotype that young people feel invincible to the virus.

To Collings point, when the Star posted a Twitter call-out to millennials and Gen Z members in the GTA asking whether they still exercise precautions during the pandemic, more than 150 responses from people who are parents, educators, students, immunocompromised and living with family say viral videos of young people in crowded beaches and bars dont paint a complete picture of how people under 40 are behaving during the pandemic.

Chanele McFarlane, 28, gave birth to her daughter Eden this past April and has been extra careful about outings. She says her and her husband Chris, 31, do curbside pickup for groceries, wipe down everything that comes into the house and wash their hands before holding their daughter.

Other than doctor appointments, I havent stepped foot inside anywhere, said the Brampton resident who works in marketing. When I see crowds on TV, you couldnt pay me to be reckless like that and we dont know the effects the virus has on newborns.

McFarlane adds that theyre not only being extra cautious for their newborn, but also McFarlanes grandmother who is 80. She wants their daughter to be able to spend as much time with her great-grandmother as possible.

Another new parent, Kevin Hulbert, a 37-year-old recruiter living in Mississauga, has been having discussions with his wife Christine Bottomley, a 37-year-old nurse practitioner, about who within their family can see their 10-month-old son, Benjamin.

While Hulbert hasnt been participating in most of the Stage 3 activities, he says the provincial governments emphasis on reopening the economy means more people have to go back to work, and people are being given the green light to eat, drink and work inside restaurants.

Were being criticized for not being cautious, but are encouraged to go to areas that seem like a recipe for disaster and greater spread, he said. Thats the frustrating part, the mixed messaging.

Members of Gen Z have also grown tired of being branded covidiots.

Robyn Matuto is a 22-year-old working from her home in digital marketing. The North York resident says its not unusual for immigrant families to live in multi-generational households that include grandparents, one of the reasons why she and her friends continue to restrict social interactions to Zoom calls and the occasional park meetup.

For a 22-year-old it might not be a big risk to go out, but if were coming back to our lolo (grandfather in Tagalog) we dont have the luxury of going out.

I feel like people are seeing the King West crowd, which tend to be better off and maybe have different life circumstances, Matuto said. I live with my mom, but so many of my friends live with others and cant buy into the idea of partying when there are six other people at home.

Nishat Chowdhury, 19, is a Ryerson journalism student and has been working part-time at a clothing store in Scarborough Town Centre since the end of June.

She was first asked to go back to work in April to help process online orders, as malls werent allowed to open yet, but she didnt feel ready at the time. She currently takes the bus and the LRT to get to work from her home, which she shares with her family of five.

I do know people who go party and not wear masks and its frustrating, but its also unfair (to only blame young people) because there is a large number of people like me who are following public health guidelines, she said, adding that there are plenty of viral videos of older people starting fights in stores because they didnt want to wear a mask.

I have a group of seven to eight friends that I barely see because we live in different parts of the city, but when I do were in a field where no one is around and we dont hug. People think were dumb and not empathetic, but we have people at home who are vulnerable, and I have older coworkers to think about.

It may be tempting to put the blame solely on young people. The millennials are ruining everything headline has become a meme at this point. Among the things millennials have been blamed for in the last 10 years: the end of the NFL, the declining housing market, the unpopularity of McDonalds, falling yogurt sales and falling pet food sales.

The trope of millennials ruining everything has followed all the stages of our lives, said Mira Dineen, a 31-year-old social worker who provides counselling to young women with anxiety. Its frustrating because theres so much more going on.

Dineen said COVID-19 has been a topic with many of her clients and theyve been taking extensive caution.

Lockdown fatigue has also been attributed to why younger people are more out and about.

Lucia Hernandez, a 34-year-old translator working from her home in Roncesvalles, acknowledges the challenges young people have when circumstances make it harder to stay at home.

I know for me, living without AC, not having a backyard, some part of me gets it to some degree, she said. And then there are people who have no choice and have to go to work.

Still, Hernandez says shes not venturing out much out of concern for her husbands parents.

Anne-Marie Longpre, 37, says she and her 33-year-old partner only go out for groceries and distanced gatherings at the park in their Little Italy neighbourhood. Longpre is a high school teacher, and come September, she will be back in the classroom.

I feel like being a teacher makes you an expert on how viruses spread, she said. I got strep throat twice last year. When youre in an enclosed space with poor ventilation, thats just how it works.

Longpre says she wants to make sure she stays healthy when she goes back to school, and that returning to work will also mean ending visits to her moms backyard. Its something weve already discussed, she said. I wont see my mom for a while once school starts because my contact with others will go up.
Heritage Trail bridges to reconnect former steam railway line

Digital impressions have been released of proposed bridges which will reconnect sections of the former steam railway line between St Johns and Kirk Michael.

The project follows the recent successful completion of improvements to the Heritage Trail, linking the Islands east and west coasts between Peel and Douglas, and will extend the route a further 7 miles north from St Johns.

Construction on the capital scheme is expected to get under way later this year, and is forecast to cost 1.3m.

Bridges will be reinstated at Glen Wyllin, Glen Mooar and across the A1 near Ballaleece, St Johns, and will provide accessibility for walkers, runners, disabled users, cyclists and horse riders.

In addition to the replacement bridges, the surface of the trail will be upgraded, making it available all year round and stimulating long-term health benefits by encouraging people to become more active on a regular basis.

Officers from the Department of Infrastructure will deliver a presentation on the plans to representatives from Peel, German and Michael Commissioners at Michael School on Wednesday 12 August at 7.30pm. The presentation is open to the public.
By PTI

WASHINGTON: Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and several lawmakers on Thursday joined the Sikh community to remember the victims of the 2012 tragic Oak Creek gurdwara shootout, urging the people to reduce gun violence and give hate no safe harbour.

On August 5, 2012, a white supremacist opened firing inside the Oak Creek gurdwara in Winconsin, killing six people.

A Sikh priest, who received injuries in the shootout that left him paralysed, passed away in March this year.

"Eight years ago, a white supremacist targeted a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, WI" ultimately taking seven lives in an unspeakable act of terror," Biden, the former vice president, said in a statement.

"To truly honour those we lost, it's up to all of us to stand up to bigotry in our lives, give hate no safe harbour, and reduce gun violence," Biden said as several US lawmakers joined the Sikh community in remembering the victims on the 8th anniversary of the attack.

The six victims killed included one woman: Paramjit Kaur, 41; and five men: Satwant Singh Kaleka, 65, the founder of the gurdwara; Prakash Singh, 39; Sita Singh, 41; Ranjit Singh, 49; and Suveg Singh Khattra, 84.

All of the male victims wore turbans as part of their Sikh faith.

"Eight years ago today a white supremacist walked into a Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, WI, fatally shooting 6 people. We just honoured El Paso and next week is the anniversary of Charlottesville. How much longer will the rising threat of white supremacy go virtually unaddressed?" Indian-origin Senator Kamala Harris said in a tweet.

Congresswoman Judy Chu said, "eight years after the horrific murder of six Sikh Americans in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, we continue to remember the lives that were needlessly lost due to white supremacy and gun violence."

"Today, as our nation continues to grapple with systemic racism and inequality, it is more important than ever that we recommit ourselves to rejecting hate and intolerance in all forms. Whether it is a gurdwara in Oak Creek, a church in Charleston, a synagogue in Pittsburgh, or a Walmart in El Paso, an attack on any racial or religious community is an attack on us all. These acts of domestic terrorism do not reflect our values as a nation, and we must denounce violence and hatred wherever they arise," she said.

Congresswoman Grace Meng said that this reminds of the everlasting impact of that day, as Sikh priest Baba Punjab Singh who passed away in March, rightly ruled a homicide due to his paralysing injuries from the Oak Creek shooting.

"On this anniversary, let us honour the "now seven" lives lost and come together to reject bigotry, hate, racism, and xenophobia, to ensure that all Americans, regardless of their race, religion, or country of origin, feel safe in the country we call home," she said.

According to Congressman Ted Lieu, this was a despicable act of hatred and violence.

"The dual epidemics of white supremacism and gun violence have torn apart families and communities across this country. 8 years ago today, the Sikh community was ravaged by that pain in Oak Creek, Wisconsin," said Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna.

"As we continue to stand up against bigotry and racism today, we remember the tragedy at Oak Creek Gurdwara eight years ago. That day we lost six Sikh-Americans to a senseless act of violence as they prayed together as a community.

"We remember their lives as we strive to make the United States a better, more tolerant and accepting society," said Indian-American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi.

"Especially, as we currently face a global pandemic and economic crisis, we must never let our fears or prejudices cloud our judgement and actions. We are in this together. The United States is proud to be a diverse nation where the kind of religious intolerance that took place at Oak Creek gurdwara has no place. By remembering the anniversary of Oak Creek gurdwara shooting, we recommit ourselves to the ideals of acceptance, equality, and mutual respect," he said.

"As we remember the victims of this horrific attack motivated by hate and bigotry, we must recommit ourselves to the fight against racism, xenophobia, and gun violence in our country," said congresswoman Barbara Lee.

Rajwant Singh, co-founder and senior adviser of the National Sikh Campaign, said the community is grateful that Biden took time from his busy campaign schedule to remind all Americans about the tragedy.

"Sikh community will remain indebted to the Oak Creek Police Department, Mayor of Oak Creek, Governor Scott Walker, US Department of Justice and President Barack Obama for their support to the community during this very difficult time.

"America lowered its flags in honour of these victims. Millions of Americans poured love and support to the Sikhs, for which the community will always remain grateful," he said.

In a statement, United Sikhs said that Sikh Americans continue to be the victims of hate crimes.

This year alone, there have been incidents of vandalism and hate.

To name a few, on January 13 vandals painted a swastika.

They wrote "white power" on a sign in front of Guru Maneyo Granth Gurdwara Sahib on Walnut Avenue in Orangevale, Sacramento County, California.

In a recent incident, on July 25, a Sikh community leader Amit Pal Singh, chairman of the Sikh Society of Central Florida, was a victim of hate language sprayed across his car, it said.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 18:27:49|Editor: huaxia

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French President Emmanuel Macron gives a speech in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, Aug. 6, 2020. Macron arrived in Beirut on Thursday following Beirut's huge explosions which has killed at least 137 people and injured nearly 5,000. (Dalati & Nohra/Handout via Xinhua)

BEIRUT, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Beirut on Thursday following Beirut's huge explosions which has killed at least 137 people and injured nearly 5,000, MTV local TV channel reported.

"I came quickly to support the Lebanese people after the explosion that took place on Aug. 4. I had to visit Lebanon to highlight the strong relations between France and Lebanon," Macron said from the airport.

Macron, who was received at the airport by Lebanese President Michel Aoun, said France has already sent support to Lebanon and it will send more medical equipment in the coming days.

Macron emphasized the need for Lebanon to implement structural reforms including the fight against corruption because the country is suffering at political, moral, economic and financial levels.

France sent three aircrafts to Lebanon carrying medical equipment while transporting onboard experts in crisis management. Enditem
President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has called for stern sentences to all corrupt individuals saying this will help in curbing the vice which has retarded service delivery in the country.

Museveni said during the launch of a new anti-corruption campaign dubbed Expose the Corrupt. The campaign is peddled at creating awareness about the deadly vice and showing the best practices of how it can best be fought and manned down.

Uganda loses over Shs 600 billion annually in procurement frauds by government officials and other related corruption practices.

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Museveni has raised concern with leniency from Judiciary when dealing with corruption cases. Giving examples of three national resistance army (NRA) soldiers who, in Semuto in 1982 who went to a bar, got drunk and killed three ladies using the principle of an eye-for-an-eye. The three soldiers were sentenced to death. The citizens of Uganda will appreciate sterner sentences that discourage the corruption vice.

Museveni directed the head of State House Anti-Corruption Unit Lt Col Edith Nakalema to keep in close contact with the business community saying that they have information that will aid in the fight against corruption in the procurement function of Government.

Corruption is an ideological problem and therefore changing the mindset of citizens away from wanting quick wealth, using unscrupulous means is one of the best ways to man it down. The Anti-corruption institutions have been infiltrated making it a problem to fight corruption. He said

I was deliberate in setting up the various anti-corruption agencies. Previously, only the courts of law and the Police were the only agencies in place. The LC structure was supposed to the frontline in the fight against corruption, a people-led fight. He said

He said the inspector general of governments (IGG) focus is only public sector corruption, the graft in the private sector needs to be fought. That is one of the reasons why state house anti-corruption was created.

Corrupt juniors dont fear to be corrupt because they do things and get away with them. Top leaders, you are here to work for the people and not your juniors. He said

He urged Col. Nakalema to get facts and expose the corrupt. These people are easy to get but your work methods arent working. For instance why should there be corruption at the sub county level? Really the problem is the management of these institutions. He said and implored the Col. Nakalema to link up with victims.

We are using bureaucratic methods to fight corruption. The enemy has blocked the nose of institutions that are trying to expose the Corrupt. We therefore need to change how systems operate.

Since inception, Lt. Col. Edith Nakalemas state house anti-corruption unit has been working with the police and has arraigned 153 persons and 19 of these have been sentenced. The Unit has since intervened in murders, large scale land grabbing and theft in various regions.
Colombia's former President Alvaro Uribe has tested positive for COVID-19, just a day after he was placed under house arrest as part of a fraud and witness tampering investigation.

Despite the positive test, Uribe is not presenting any symptoms. His two sons, Tomas and Jeronimo, are also infected with the virus.

Testing was done Wednesday by a medical unit that visited the 68-year-old former president's home in Cordoba, a province on Colombia's Caribbean coast.

'He has not presented any major symptoms or any respiratory difficulties. We look forward to his speedy recovery and we send him a hug of solidarity from the Democratic Center's headquarters,' said senator Gabriel Velasco, the lead spokesperson for the political party, which Uribe help established in 2012.

Uribe was put on home confinement Tuesday, after the Supreme Court found that there was the possibility of obstruction of justice surrounding a probe of Uribe, who served as president from 2002 to 2010.

The investigation stems from accusations filed by Senator Ivan Cepeda, who charges that Uribe was a founding member of a paramilitary group in his home province during the decades-long civil conflict involving government forces, leftist rebels and right-wing bands that left hundreds of thousands dead, displaced or missing.

Alvaro Uribe, who was Colombia's president from 2002 to 2010, has tested positive for COVID-19 along with his two sons. Uribe received the results Wednesday, a day after the Supreme Court placed him under house arrest as part of a probe investigating the 68-year-old for fraud and witness tampering

The sons of Alvaro Uribe, the former president of Colombia is under house arrest, Jeronimo Uribe (left) and Tomas Uribe (right) tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday.

Uribe, a mentor of President Ivan Duque who now serves as a senator, has repeatedly declared his innocence in the case and questioned the high court's independence.

'The deprivation of my freedom causes me a profound sadness for my wife, for my family and for the Colombians who still believe that I have done something good for the homeland,' the 68-year-old wrote on Twitter.

It is the first time ever that a former president in Colombia has been ordered detained.

'I have always considered him and will considered him a genuine patriot, dedicated to serving Colombia,' Duque said in a video statement. 'Alvaro Uribe confronted drug trafficking, terrorism, and the totalitarian regimes of Latin America.

'It hurts, as a Colombian, that many who have wounded the country with barbarities defend themselves in freedom ... that an exemplary public servant who has held the highest position of the state cannot defend himself in freedom with the presumption of innocence.'

Supporters of former President Alvaro Uribe confront the police in Bogota, Colombia, after the Supreme Court announced its decision to place Uribe under house arrest on Tuesday

People who support the house arrest of Senator Alvaro Uribe gather in a street in Bogota, Colombia, after the Supreme Court announced its unanimous decision as part of an investigation surrounding fraud and witness tampering by the former president

Alvaro Uribe is being investigated for fraud and witness tampering after an accusation was brought forward alleging the former leader was a founding member of a paramilitary group

Uribe's political legacy remains highly polarizing, with some Colombians crediting him for weakening leftist rebels and turning the tide in the country's long civil conflict with the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia [FARC], while others decry his iron-fisted approach.

Some of the Andean nation's most grave human rights abuses took place during his mandate.

Throughout his career, Uribe has been dogged by allegations of ties to drug cartels and paramilitaries. The civil aviation agency he led in the early 1980s was accused of giving air licenses to drug traffickers. Declassified State Department cables from a decade earlier show U.S. officials were told the up-and-coming politician had ties to cartels.

In 2012, Uribe accused Cepeda of orchestrating a plot to tie him to right-wing paramilitary groups.

But in 2018 the court said Cepeda had collected information from former fighters as part of his work and had not paid or pressured former paramilitaries.

Instead it was Uribe who was at fault, the court said, adding that his allies had undertaken new witness tampering efforts even after its original ruling.

Uribe and lawmaker Alvaro Hernan Prada face prison terms of up to 12 years. That would put Uribe in the ranks of other former Latin American presidents, including Brazil's Lula da Silva and Peru's Alberto Fujimori, who have served time in confinement.

'There is no one in Colombia who is above justice or the law, no matter how influential they are,' Cepeda said in a virtual news conference.

Uribe is best known for mounting an aggressive offensive against Marxist guerrillas during his 2002 to 2010 tenure. He and his family have long been accused of paramilitary links. His brother Santiago is facing a murder charge.

Uribe's detention may weaken the cohesion of the Democratic Center in Congress as Duque ties to pass reforms meant to help manage the fallout of coronavirus.
JUNEAU, Alaska - State wildlife department employees have killed four bears near the remote area in south-central Alaska where authorities say a man was fatally mauled last week.

The state Department of Fish and Game on Thursday said preliminary analyses of DNA and other evidence link a female brown bear and a female black bear to the site and the victim. Officials initially believed a brown bear was involved, based on early evidence.

Alaska State Troopers have identified the man as 46-year-old Daniel Schilling of Hope.

The incident occurred July 29. Troopers said Schilling was reported to have been clearing a trail about a mile behind his property. He was late returning home and his dog returned without him. His body, with wounds consistent with a bear attack, was found by family and friends in the area in which he had been working, troopers said.

The Department of Fish and Game said an empty canister of bear repellent spray was found and appeared to have been discharged at the site. No one saw what happened, and nothing that could have attracted a bear, such as a food cache or animal carcass, was found in the area, the department said.

A female brown bear and three female black bears were killed by department employees Wednesday near the site, and samples taken from them will be analyzed as part of the investigation, the department said.

We may never know exactly what happened but were doing the best we can to understand what circumstances led up to this attack, said Cyndi Wardlow, a regional supervisor with the department.
The battle over net neutrality is heating up again. This week the Department of Justice asked a federal judge in California to block the states net neutrality law, contending that it countermands federal regulations.

The California law, SB 822, was passed in 2018 and prohibits broadband service providers from blocking, throttling, or offering paid "fast lanes" for certain content on their networks in the state. It was set to take effect last year, but immediately after passage the Trump administration sued, and California officials agreed not to implement the law until the legal challenges were settled.

Californias attempt to nullify federal law should fail for two separate and independent reasons," reads an August 5 DoJ legal memorandum in support of its motion for a preliminary injunction blocking the state law. "First, under well-established principles of conflict preemption, a state law that conflicts with the purpose or objectives of a federal regulatory scheme is preempted, the brief states. Second, California improperly attempts to assert regulatory authority over an inherently interstate communications service in violation of the Communications Act of 1934, DoJ attorneys argue, insisting that the federal government has authority over interstate communications.

The motion is the latest legal maneuver that follows the Trump administrations controversial repeal of FCC rules. Last October, a federal appeals court upheld the legality of the FCC's repeal in another key court caseMozilla et al v. Federal Communications Commission (FCC). However, in the 2-1 ruling, the court also held that the FCC couldnt block states from imposing their own net neutrality rulesand, in fact, as many as 29 states, including California, have moved to do so.

In its filing this week, the DoJ portrayed the Trump administration's repeal of net neutrality protections as "an order that honored a historically bipartisan commitment to a free and open Internet.

 Net neutrality remains a key issue for the library community. 

Observers, however, say that characterization is hardly accurate. In fact, the repeal was largely pushed by the telecom industry, and the FCC board's 3-2 vote was partisan, highly charged, and marred by a compromised public comment process in which investigators say millions of fake comments were posted in support of the FCC repeal. In May of 2018, the Senate voted 52-47 to block the FCCs repeal under the Congressional Review Act, before the effort stalled in the then GOP-controlled House. Meanwhile polls have shown that more than 80% of the public supports restoring net neutrality protections (a level at which the issue has consistently polled).

Net neutrality remains a key issue for the library community. The American Library Association has been on the front lines of the net neutrality battle with the FCC, Congress, and the federal courts for more than a decade, working with other library and higher education organizations, as well as broad coalitions of net neutrality advocates. In Mozilla, ALA joined in filing an amicus brief in support of net neutrality. A range of other groups in the publishing ecosystem including authors groups, and dozens of media and public advocacy organizations, including PEN America, have also voiced support for restoring net neutrality protections.

California attorneys are due to file an answer to the DoJ's suit by September 16; Amicus briefs meanwhile are due August 19. Meanwhile, the lawsuit could be mooted depending on the outcome of the November elections. Democratic candidate Joe Biden has pledged to direct the FCC to restore net neutrality if elected.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 07:28:57|Editor: huaxia

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WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- More than 110 students have been sent home to quarantine for 14 days after six kids and a school staffer tested positive for COVID-19 in a school district in southern U.S. state Mississippi, local media reported Wednesday.

Taylor Coombs, spokesperson for the Corinth School District, told CNN that 116 students have been considered in "close contact" of a positive case and quarantined.

In a letter posted on Facebook on Wednesday, the Corinth School District told parents that the school has done contact tracing and is asking anyone who had contact with the individuals to quarantine for 14 days.

Students and staff are screened daily upon entering the building with temperature checks, and staff has to answer questions daily about if they have had symptoms in the past few days, said a CNN report.

Guidance from the district says that all staff, parents and volunteers must wear a face covering in the school buildings, while teachers must wear a face covering in all common areas and during all student interactions.

In-person classes resumed in the district on July 27, according to the school calendar. The student population in the district is 2700.

Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves issued a mask mandate for the state which went into effect on Wednesday. Enditem
Here is what we know so far:

Beirut blast death toll has climbed to135, with around 5,000 people wounded and dozens of others missing.The number of casualties is expected to rise.

The cause of the blasts remained unknown on Wednesday, but reports point to 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse in Beirut's port for six years as a possible cause of the explosions.

Lebanon's Cabinet on Wednesday declared a two-week state of emergency in Beirut.

World leaders offered support and condolences to the country, including Gulf nations in the region. Israel has also offered humanitarian aid.

The medical unit of the Chinese peacekeeping forces to Lebanon said it will provide medical aid to Beirut.

President Xi Jinping sent a message of condolence to Lebanese President Michel Aoun on Wednesday over explosions in the country's capital, Beirut, that killed more than 110 people.

In the message, Xi said he was shocked to learn about the explosions, which caused heavy casualties and property losses.

"On behalf of the Chinese government and people, and in my own name, I would like to express my sorrow for the loss of life and extend my deep condolences to the families of the victims as well as the injured," Xi said. Two explosions rocked Beirut on Tuesday, leaving more than 110 people dead and 4,000 injured, according to multiple media reports.

The blasts hit the Port of Beirut at around 6:10 pm local time, shaking buildings all over the city. The number of casualties is expected to rise as search and rescue efforts and medical treatment of the injured continue.

The cause of the blasts remained unknown on Wednesday, but reports point to ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse in Beirut's port for six years as a possible cause of the explosions.

Lebanon's Cabinet on Wednesday declared a two-week state of emergency in Beirut, and handed control of security there to the military, Reuters reported.

The Lebanese government also said it was putting an unspecified number of Beirut port officials under house arrest pending an investigation, according to AFP.

Following the explosions, Aoun had called for an emergency meeting of the country's Supreme Defense Council, according to the presidency's Twitter account.

Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab declared a national day of mourning on Wednesday for the victims of the explosions.

The Chinese embassy in Lebanon told reporters that one Chinese person was slightly injured and no Chinese had been killed in the explosion so far.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said in Wednesday's news briefing that China expresses deep sympathy and condolences over the incident and is willing to provide assistance within its capacity for Lebanon in handling the incident.

Many countries also expressed solidarity and sympathy with Lebanon over the explosions, which dealt a further blow to a country already battling the COVID-19 pandemic and an economic crisis.

Lebanon's Al-Jadeed TV reported that Iraq and Qatar will send field hospitals to Lebanon, while French President Emmanuel Macron, in a phone call with Aoun, promised on Wednesday to also send help.

Russia's Ministry of Civil Defense, Emergencies and Disaster Relief said it will send rescuers, medical workers, a makeshift hospital and a lab for coronavirus testing to Lebanon.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry expressed sorrow on Tuesday over the casualties and damage caused by the explosions, in which two Turkish citizens were slightly injured.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi extended his condolences to Lebanon and wished a speedy recovery for those injured in the blasts. "My sincere condolences and sympathy go to the government and people of Lebanon over the tragic explosions," he wrote on his official Facebook page.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Tuesday that his country is ready to provide any support it could to Lebanon to help it recover from the tragedy, while sending his condolences to the families of the victims.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye said in a statement that Palestine is "ready to put all its capabilities" at the service of Lebanon and provide any needed assistance immediately.

Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's Executive Committee, also expressed sorrow over the "devastating tragedy" and her wishes for Beirut to overcome the calamity.

In the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Islamic Hamas movement's political bureau, phoned Aoun to express his support for Lebanon.

In a rare move, Israel offered Lebanon humanitarian aid on Tuesday over the explosions.

"Israel has approached Lebanon through international security and diplomatic channels and has offered the Lebanese government medical and humanitarian assistance," Israel's Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry said in a joint statement.

Israel and Lebanon have no official ties, and tensions have been rising on the Israel-Lebanon border recently.
FMCG major on Thursday announced the launch of Protect range of surface disinfectant sprays, strengthening its portfolio into the fast-growing segment of safety and hygiene after COVID-19.

Besides, has also announced to partner with housing finance company HDFC and cab aggregatorOla to help them continue to offer safe services.

Ola will provide The Protect range to the driver-partners and it will be used by them to disinfect commonly used surfaces like seat, inner panel, handles, etc before every ride.

While HDFC will use it to safeguard their customers and employees in offices across India.

chief marketing officer Koshy George said, During these difficult times, higher hygiene standards and enhanced cleanliness protocols are top priorities for consumers."



As much as people are apprehensive of stepping out, employers too, are concerned about the safety of their employees. We are thus happy to partner Ola and HDFC in their endeavour to provide employees, customers and driver-partners a safe and sanitised environment, he said.

Several FMCG have recently introduced surface disinfectant sprays as people are now adopting higher hygiene standards and enhanced cleanliness protocols are on their top priority.

Amidst the global pandemic, there is a significant shift in consumer behaviour towards adopting conscientious safety and hygiene practices. This has led to a steep surge in demand for personal, domestic and out-of-home sanitising and disinfecting solutions.

Both variants of the Protect range -Marico's Travel Protect and Marico's House Protect - are spray bass and contain 77 per cent alcohol.

(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.)
Syracuse, N.Y. -- Less than a week after officially welcoming its first students back to campus, Syracuse University has placed a group of students on interim suspension for violating the states mandatory quarantine rules, the school said Thursday.

The school formally welcomed a group of freshman to campus last weekend to quarantine in dorm rooms, while the number of students quarantining off campus has been steadily growing so that students can get the state quarantine completed by the start of the school year.

Students arriving from 34 states are currently subject to the states mandatory two-week quarantine. Students quarantining off campus are not permitted on SUs campus until they have gone through the quarantine process.

The school did not release the names of the students or provide details of what led to the quarantine violation, citing federal privacy laws. Its unclear if the students were part of the on-campus or off-campus quarantine.

Senior Associate Vice President for Communications Sarah Scalese provided the following statement:

The health and safety of our students, faculty, staff and the broader Syracuse community is our priority. Creating a safe campus environment is all of our responsibility, and Syracuse University will not tolerate any actions  on the part of students, faculty, or staff  that jeopardize the health of our community. Our students are expected to comply with the Code of Student Conduct, the Stay Safe Pledge and executive orders issued by the New York State Governors Office and the Onondaga County Health Department. Students who violate these requirements will be met with appropriate sanctions. While we cannot comment on a specific case due to federal privacy laws, recently, the University has placed a group of students on interim suspension for knowingly violating quarantine orders.

Our students have expressed repeatedly their desire to be on campus this fall; our ability to resume residential learning is very much dependent on our communitys behavior and willingness to adhere to public health guidelines.

Central New York has done an excellent job limiting the amount of coronavirus cases locally but the return of college students from across the country poses a threat to increase those numbers if its not done correctly. That concern is highest at Syracuse because of its size, its ability to draw students from across the country and the student bodys reputation for partying.

A number of medical experts, both local and national, have told syracuse.com | The Post-Standard that they believe that colleges attempting to deliver an in-person education provides a reward that is worth taking that risk as long as schools have a good plan in place. They cited the importance of education, the value of colleges to local economies and mental health benefits as reasons to take the risk.

Syracuses reopening plan includes safety measures, testing and monitoring, attempting to educate students on the importance of limiting coronavirus spread and punishments for students who violate rules.

MORE ON CORONAVIRUS AND COLLEGES

Syracuse University reopening: What happens when a party school meets a pandemic?

Syracuse reopening plan: Nearly 2,000 students could need to quarantine; Sheraton will be used during the year

College students confront falls reality: A lot of people are upset were paying more for less

Syracuse University may look much different when students return: Sports, parties, office hours, more

Syracuse University will require negative coronavirus test from students before they arrive on campus

Syracuse University releases suggestions for fall reopening: Dont hold doors and keep 12 months of PPE

How will Syracuse University test 20,000 students for coronavirus? By pooling their saliva

Contact Chris Carlson anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-412-1639
Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidates Erin O'Toole and Peter MacKay wait for the start of the French Leadership Debate in Toronto on June 17, 2020.As the race for Conservative leadership enters its final weeks, new data from Elections Canada offers a glimpse into fundraising efforts of each campaignand how the battle for donor dollars has tightened in the lead up to the final vote tally. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press)

Battle for Donor Dollars Tightens Among Conservative Leadership Contenders

OTTAWANew data from Elections Canada offers a glimpse into the fundraising efforts of each Conservative leadership campaignand how the battle for donor dollars has tightened leading up to the final results.

Second-quarter contribution numbers for the Conservative party show Erin OToole moved ahead of rival Peter MacKay to become the fundraising leader between April and June, bringing in $1.24 million in leadership donations.

But MacKay wasnt far behind, raising $1.16 million over the same period.

In the first quarter of this year, MacKay had the most in donations with $1.04 million, coming in ahead of OToole, who raised $785,000.

Meanwhile, Leslyn Lewis, who is backed by many social conservative groups, more than doubled her fundraising totals compared to earlier in the year, raising $996,000 in donations last quarter, up from about $448,000.

Lewis also attracted more individual donors than the four other candidates this quarter at just over 10,000 contributors, compared to 8,900 donors for OToole and 6,800 donors for MacKay.

Some donors may have donated more than once, so these numbers are approximate.

Derek Sloan, who is also courting the social conservative vote, raised $329,000, down slightly from the $410,000 he raised in the first quarter of 2020.

The figures suggest the race remains a showdown between the two perceived frontrunners, MacKay and OToole, but they also show Lewis as a strong and surprising contender, says Conservative strategist Tim Powers.

I dont think shes going to win, but of all the candidates, I think shes the one who has captured the most interest among people in the campaign and maybe has positioned herself very well for future prospects in the Conservative party, Powers said.

The fact that Lewis doubled her fundraising totals and put herself on a level playing field with the two frontrunners financially using a greater number of small donations is reminiscent of former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harpers rise to power, says Stephanie Plante, a political scholar and director of the centre for security, intelligence and defence studies at Carleton University.

When Stephen Harper first jumped into the Tory leadership race, he kind of had the same argument as her, which is, I bring all these $10 and $15 donations from all these people and you cant sleep on that because those $10, $15 donations add up very quickly. And thats what shes proving.

The numbers also show the Conservatives have been largely successful at maintaining a steady flow of political donations even during the height of lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is noteworthy at a time when millions of Canadians lost their jobs or were thrown suddenly into economic uncertainty, Powers said.

Its hard to break through that. No leadership campaign in the modern era has had ever to deal with something of this magnitude, he said.

The fact that they can still raise good amounts of money is a reflection, I guess, of Conservative supporters. But its not been easy.

As seasoned campaigners, no one should be surprised that MacKay and OToole have been able to keep their fundraising numbers up, Plante said.

But without traditional chicken dinners and glad-handing events, thanks to COVID-19 restrictions, the Conservative candidates have shown they are using newer techniques to tap into their supporters pocket books, including text message and email blitzes.

And the WE controversy, which has the Liberals facing ethics investigations involving Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau, could be helping inch those Tory fundraising numbers up, Plante says.

Its all kind of piling on, she said.

Im wondering if people are perhaps now taking a second glance at whats happening in the Conservative race and responding financially.

The winner of the Conservative leadership race will be announced later this month.

By Teresa Wright
As the number of COVID-19 cases continue to multiply rapidly worldwide, the British authorities have raised concerns over a second wave of infections. The authorities also added that they will impose stricter measures to contain the spread of the virus.

As per several reports, Britains Health Secretary Matt Hancock voiced concerns about a second wave of the virus infections and said that strict quarantine measures will be imposed to curb the outbreak. The health secretary also added its not just Spain but other countries too where the number of coronavirus cases are increasing.

Last week, the UK re-imposed a 14-day quarantine measure on people coming from Luxembourg and Spain, which is one of the hardest-hit countries from the deadly disease. Several other European countries and cities have reimposed stricter measures, including a wake-up week in Greece and new face mask and quarantine restrictions elsewhere. Mask-wearing measures were also announced in Rotterdam and in some parts of Amsterdam, including its famous red-light district.

Announcing the re-imposition of measures in Greece, government spokesman Stelios Petsas said that they are trying to wake up people with messages on additional measures, citing travelling, social gatherings and public transport as major reasons behind the spread of the virus.

Read: COVID-19: UK Might Face Much Bigger Second Wave If Schools Reopened Without Proper Testing

Read: Supply Of COVID Vaccine For Our People Guaranteed: UK On Pact With India's Wockhardt

Current situation in other Europen nations

Other European nations such as France are exempted from quarantine guidelines. However, they have been recently witnessing a spike in infections, prompting fears that they too would soon impose tighter restrictions. On August 5, France recorded nearly 1,400 new cases, the highest single- day spike in more than a month. Toulouse in France has made face masks mandatory, with more cities expected to follow suit.

Germany recently included Belgium's Antwerp province on its list of places from where people arriving would have to stay in quarantine for 14 days unless they can show a negative virus test. In Belgium, Westvlees, a meat processing plant, sent 225 staff members home to isolate after a number of coronavirus cases were detected.

Switzerland added mainland Spain to the list of places from where travellers arriving would have to quarantine. As per reports, Europe is currently the hardest-hit region with 211,764 fatalities, but the number of deaths is rising fast in Latin America, with 208,329 causalities in total.

(Image credit: AP)

Read: UK Government To Invest $1.7 Billion In Building Projects To Revive Economy

Read: UK Government Assures Of 'taking Action' If COVID-19 Spreads In London
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday conducted multiple raids in four cities in connection with a money laundering case linked to a bank fraud probe against Hilal Rather, the son of former Jammu and Kashmir minister Abdul Rahim Rather, officials said.

They said the raids were carried out at 16 locations in Kashmir, Jammu, Delhi and Ludhiana.

The exercise has been undertaken to collect evidence, they said.

The central probe agency has filed a money laundering case against Hilal Rather and others, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), taking cognisance of a CBI FIR and Income Tax Department probe against him that pertains to a Rs 177-crore alleged bank fraud.

The CBI has alleged that Hilal Rather entered into a criminal conspiracy with the then officials of the Jammu and Kashmir Bank to get loans of about Rs 177.68 crore in alleged violation of rules and guidelines.

His father, a former finance minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, is a National Conference (NC) leader.

"The loans that were sanctioned for construction of flats were allegedly diverted and misappropriated by the accused using the bank accounts of his employees," the CBI had alleged.

It was further alleged by the CBI that the accused submitted forged certificates and bills to the bank.

In a charge sheet filed before special court in Jammu this March, the CBI had named the then branch heads of J&K Bank, New University Campus branch, Iqbal Singh and Arun Kapoor apart from Hilal Rather.

Detailing alleged omissions on part of bank officials, the CBI had said they "did not" verify certificates and helped Rather in siphoning off the loan amount and laundering of money.

The I-T Department too had raided him in June last year on charges of alleged tax evasion.

"During the search, it was detected that the tax evader (referring to Hilal and his group) has been given illegal benefit of Rs 60 crore by J&K Bank. His outstanding loan of Rs 190 crore was settled at Rs 130 crore, although he did not deserve any concessional treatment," the Central Board of Direct Taxes had then said in a statement.

The CBDT is the policy-making body for the I-T Department.

Referring to Hilal, the CBDT statement has alleged that "he is also holding and operating a foreign bank account".

"Neither his interest in the Dubai company nor the foreign bank account has ever been disclosed by him in his tax returns," it said.

It added that Hilal and his group "sold/booked part of his real estate project of Paradise Avenue near Jammu against unaccounted cash."
WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will travel to central and Eastern Europe next week to discuss efforts to counter Russian and Chinese influence in the region and talk about U.S. troop deployments on the continent.

The State Department said Thursday that Pompeo will visit the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Austria and Poland on a weeklong trip that is only his third overseas since the coronavirus outbreak. Pompeo briefly mentioned the trip at a news conference Wednesday in which he said the countries he will visit beginning on Tuesday are all great friends of the United States.

His visit comes as the Pentagon prepares to move ahead with the redeployment of thousands of American troops from Germany, including relocating some to Poland. The shift has raised significant concerns in Europe and elsewhere as the Trump administration has given conflicting reasons for it, ranging from antipathy toward Germanys leadership to strategic planning.

Pompeo is also expected to raise U.S. concerns about foreign countries, particularly NATO allies, allowing the Chinese telecom giant Huawei into their 5G networks as well as concerns about European dependence on Russian energy.

In Prague, Pompeo will meet President Milos Zeman and Prime Minister Andrej Babis to discuss nuclear energy co-operation and efforts to counter malign actions of Russia and communist China, the department said in a statement. In Pilsen, Pompeo will commemorate the World War II liberation of western Czechoslovakia by U.S. troops.

Energy and the tenuous political situation in the Balkans will top Pompeos agenda with Slovenian officials in Ljubljana, where he is expected to deliver a statement with the foreign minister about the security of 5G networks, the department said.

In Vienna, Pompeo will meet Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz to review trade relations and regional security. Pompeo will also hold talks with the head of the Vienna-based U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is charged with monitoring Irans adherence to the 2015 nuclear deal from which the U.S. has withdrawn.

The Trump administration is trying to convince other members of the U.N. Security Council to indefinitely extend an arms embargo on Iran that is due to expire in October, under terms of the nuclear deal.

In Warsaw, Poland, Pompeo plans talks with President Andrzej Duda, who recently won a narrow reelection after a bitter campaign that concerned human rights advocates and others.
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Founded in 2005, Aerobotix has 42 employees and over 125 robotic systems currently operating in the United States and abroad. Founded in 2010, Shape Fidelity has 23 employees with several stationed in critical support positions at facilities like NASA. "We've been working so closely for nearly ten years that it just makes sense for us to consolidate operations and still give our customers high quality, cutting edge solutions," says Rob Black, President of Shape Fidelity.

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Classic City Eats opened on Baxter Street at the onset of COVID-19 closures in Athens in early March. Its grand opening was short-lived as the
A Chinese court on Thursday sentenced a Canadian citizen to death for producing drugs, the third Canadian to be given the capital punishment since Ottawa detained a top executive of the Chinese company, Huawei, in 2018.

The Canadian identified as Xu Weihong was sentenced to death for manufacturing ketamine, a tranquilising drug for humans and animals, on Thursday at a first trial in the southern city of Guangzhou, the Guangzhou Intermediate Court said.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at the regular ministry briefing on Thursday that drug crimes were very serious and everyone was equal before the law.

Chinas relevant authorities handled the case independently according to law. I dont think it should have any effect on China-Canada relations, Wang said when asked to share details about the case.

A Chinese national, Wen Guanxiong, was also charged with making drugs in the same case; he was jailed for life.

The latest conviction of a Canadian comes at a time when ties between China and Canada are strained over the case of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei Technologies, who was arrested in the Canadian city of Vancouver in late 2018, on a warrant from the US.

Beijing has said that the US and Canada have abused their bilateral extradition treaty to arbitrarily take compulsory measures against a Chinese citizen without cause.

This is a serious political incident that grossly violates the legitimate rights and interests of the Chinese citizen, the Chinese foreign ministry had said earlier.

In January 2019, a Canadian citizen Robert Lloyd Schellenberg was given the death sentence in the north-eastern city of Dalian after the judge had changed his original 15-year jail sentence.

Schellenberg, then 36, was detained in 2014 on suspicion of smuggling crystal meth from China to Australia.

Three months later, in April 2019, Fan Wei, another Canadian was sentenced to death in the southern city of Jiangmen.

Beijing has also formally charged two Canadians, ex-diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor, with spying since the diplomatic hostilities began.

China has denied that their arrest is linked to Mengs case.
Health conference expected to bring 10,000 visitors to Phuket

PHUKET: An annual medical conference that is expected to attract some 10,000 attendees scheduled to be held in Phuket next month, and is hoped to bring another welcome boost to Phukets ailing island economy.

tourismeconomicsCOVID-19

By The Phuket News

Thursday 6 August 2020, 12:56PM

PHAT President Praphat Thammawongsa said the conference was expected to bring some 10,000 people working in the medical industry to Phuket. Photo: PR Phuket

The news comes after Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew welcomed members of the Public Health Association of Thailand (PHAT) at Phuket Provincial Hall yesterday (Aug 5).

The delegation, led by PHAT President Praphat Thammawongsa, was in Phuket as a part of a location survey for their yearly academic meeting, reported the Phuket office of the Public relations Department.

Dr Praphat explained that the conference will be held at Phuket Rajabhat University in Rassada on Sept 20-22.

The conference is expected to be joined by around 10,000 people working in the medical industry, including hospital executives, public health academics, lecturers, among others, he said.

The conference will focus on the issues concerning medical personnels capabilities to control and prevent the spread of COVID-19, Dr Praphat added.

We also expect Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Health Anutin Charnvirakul to join the opening ceremony, he said.

While in Phuket to attend the conference, attendees will have the opportunity to travel in Phuket, he added.

Governor Narong welcomed the move to hold the conference in Phuket.

We must thank PHAT for choosing Phuket as the location of the conference. This chance will build confidence among Thai people that Phuket is safe to travel to, he said.

Phuket people must prepare to be good hosts and welcome and take care of the medical personnel coming to attend the conference, Governor Narong said.

They may be tired from fighting the virus, so we want them to take a rest and relax on this beautiful island, he added.
Seniors without access to devices, internet struggle to connect with health care services and family

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 COVID-19 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 percent of those 71 and older), hearing loss (nearly two-thirds of those 70 and older), and impaired vision (13.5 percent 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, and inadequate captioning among the hurdles.)

Many older adults with limited financial resources also may not be able to afford devices or associated internet service fees. Half of the seniors living alone and 23 percent of those in two-person households are unable to afford even basic necessities. Others arent 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 been closed to visitors, and so, 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 dont, 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 percent of the plans members have vision issues that interfere with their ability to use digital devices; 28 percent 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 percent 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 the 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 she was able to talk to her mother 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 servicessomething 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.

Judith Graham is a contributing columnist for Kaiser Health News, which originally published this article. KHNs coverage of these topics is supported by The John A. Hartford Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and The SCAN Foundation.
Parents are banding together to form education pods for children to learn in groups, but not everyone can afford them.

Starting first grade this year was supposed to be a big deal for Christy Teels seven-year-old son, Anderson, and she was going to take a commemorative picture with his backpack on, as he got on the school bus.

But hopes of schools reopening normally in her school district outside of Boston this academic year were dashed a few weeks ago, as cases of coronavirus continued to rise across much of the United States.

Instead, Anderson will be doing a hybrid learning plan: going to school two days a week, and staying home for three days, where he will be learning online. And it remains unclear if the school bus service is going to be available.

When I found out that my son was going to be home three days a week, I thought I cant do it, its going to be a battle,' Teel said. She homeschooled Anderson in the spring when schools abruptly shut down, an experience which she says turned out to be a colossal failure.

Paul Adamus, seven, climbing the stairs of the school bus on the first day of school on August 3, 2020, in Dallas, Georgia [File: Brynn Anderson/AP Photo]

Now she is racing to set up a learning pod, where she, together with other families with children of similar age, will hire a teacher who would supervise the online instruction as well as oversee other activities.

Teels plan is to have the pod meet for three hours a day, three times a week in one of the family homes. Depending on the teachers qualifications, it will cost between $50 and $150 an hour, which would be split among the families.

It is a concept that is spreading fast across the US as the pandemic drags on. Facebook groups have popped up connecting parents with one another and new websites have emerged offering to link families with instructors.

Parents say these pods will allow their children to remain on track academically, learn together, collaborate on activities and socialise with one another. It would also provide at least some childcare, so parents can go to work, or allow them to focus on their remote jobs at home.

A sign announcing the closure of the Mundelein High School ground in Mundelein, Illinois [Nam Y Huh/AP Photo]

Crystal Lucas, who has been a teacher in Ashland, Oregon, for more than 10 years, is planning on becoming a pod instructor and conduct private tutoring most afternoons, after her role as an elementary school teacher was restructured because of COVID-19 to include more hours for no additional pay.

She said she is now excited at the prospects of giving focused, individual teaching to a group of eight students, three times a week. She plans to charge $500 a day.

I hope to show what a professional educator can do in a small group environment, Lucas told Al Jazeera.

Theres a dramatic difference in what I can offer, the gains we can academically make with a group of eight versus a group of 28, she said.

Political hot button

The issue of school reopenings has turned into a political hot button topic in the US, one President Donald Trump sees as key to his re-election bid in November. He and his administration have been pushing for schools to reopen so that parents can return to work and the economy can get back on track.

But that policy has been at odds with health experts.

There may be some areas where the level of virus is so high that it would not be prudent to bring the children back to school, Dr Anthony Fauci, the countrys top infectious-disease expert, warned on Monday. So you cant make one statement about bringing children back to school in this country. It depends on where you are, he said.

President Trump has been in favour of reopening schools across the US [Kevin Lamarque/Reuters]

Though many schools, especially in smaller towns and in rural areas, plan on offering in-person instruction this term, albeit with mandates for masks, hygiene, screening and social distancing  most districts, especially in large and urban cities, will remain closed.

Chicago, the nations third-largest school district announced on Wednesday it would start the school year with online-only learning, leaving New York City as the only major urban area still intending to start some in-person classes.

A recent poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs found 80 percent of parents were at least somewhat concerned that school reopenings could lead to another surge in coronavirus cases and 31 percent thought schools should remain closed this autumn.

Protesters carrying a symbolic coffin during the National Day of Resistance against schools reopening in New York City, US [Eduardo Munoz/Reuters]

Last week, the American Federation of Teachers, one of the countrys largest teachers unions, issued a resolution authorising its members to strike if their schools plan to reopen without proper safety measures, and saying it will support any local chapter that decides to strike over reopening plans.

And across the country, teachers have staged car caravans and street marches demanding that health concerns and scientific findings on the virus dictate when and how schools reopen.

Trump, meanwhile, on Monday repeated his call for schools to open, tweeting: OPEN THE SCHOOLS!

OPEN THE SCHOOLS!!!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 4, 2020

Deepening inequalities

But the learning pods, which many parents are hoping would provide childcare as well as academic instruction for their children, also threaten to deepen existing inequities in access to education in the US.

I think pods are a terrific option, says Eliza Bobek, a clinical assistant professor at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.

My concern is that they are further creating equity issues based on what parents can afford to pay or dedicate time for, Bobek told Al Jazeera.

Ja Nayah Wash,10, a fourth-grader, pausing before getting on the school bus in Decatur, Mississippi [Janine Vincent/Newton County Schools via AP]

According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll, 49 percent of parents of colour worry about their children not having the technology needed for remote learning, compared with 17 percent of white parents. About 73 percent of parents of colour are concerned about their children falling behind academically this year.

But even among the more affluent parents who can afford pods and caregivers, there is concern that with schools shut and many sporting activities halted, children will be spending more time at home, often in front of a screen, missing out on critical interaction with their peers.

We are seeing a tremendous increase in anxiety among children, Shawn Nasseri, an ear, nose and throat surgeon in Los Angeles. Nasseri says a growing number of his child patients are suffering from adverse effects of not being able to socialise.

Children are coming in with tic disorders, they are snorting, sniffing, swallowing, or moving their limbs repetitively, Nasseri said. Children need to interact with each other, it is critical for their social-emotional development and their learning.

An elementary school student using hand sanitiser before entering school for classes in Godley, Texas [LM Otero/AP Photo]

Regardles of how children are educated this academic year  in-person, online, or a mixture of the two  it will likely change the way many see schooling, said Jordan Shapiro, author of The New Childhood: Raising Kids to Thrive in a Connected World.

I think its going to be an experiment, where a whole bunch of people will do random things and most of them are not going to work, Shapiro tells Al Jazeera.

The truth is children need a lot of guidance and a lot of mentorship, in order to get benefits, he says. Pods sound nice, in theory, but the bigger issue is whether or not theres adult supervision, real construction of curriculum.

Christy Teel, who works part-time from home as a lawyer, says she recognises her familys privilege in being able to afford a pod instructor. Still, she says, she worries about her childs wellbeing, as well as his academic prospects.

Im very concerned about the impact this is going to have on the children going forward, their friendships, relationships, and how they view school and their teachers, Teel said. I definitely think the kids are going to suffer, but I dont know what else could be done.
Admitting what thousands of jobless workers in Florida, and millions of unemployed around the country already know to be true, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, in a Tuesday interview with CBS Miami, acknowledged that the states unemployment system was designed to frustrate applicants by putting as many kind[s] of pointless roadblocks along the way to pay out the least number of claims.

DeSantiss remarks came during an hour-long interview in which the governor agreed with reporter Jim DeFede that the animating philosophy of the system was to discourage distributing benefits to eligible workers. Roughly 1.5 million workers in Florida remain out of work and according to the states own claim dashboard over 100,000 eligible claimants have yet to be paid.

Florida governor and President Donald Trump in December 2019. (Image credit: Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

Floridas unemployment system has been plagued, purposefully, with website crashes, technical glitches and system errors which have only been exacerbated as hundreds of thousands of jobless workers began applying in March. Users reported having to enter their personal information dozens of times only for their profile to disappear or the page to crash. It is not an exaggeration to state that collectively, millions of hours have been wasted by thousands of desperate workers trying to access their funds while millions of dollars and thousands of hours in manpower has likewise been wasted trying to operate a system that was designed not to work.

Unable to navigate the broken website, applicants were told to utilize the phone lines instead. In the last week of March only 1 percent of the 864,000 calls placed were answered. The state and DeSantis hurriedly signed off on and awarded $150 million worth of no-bid contracts to call center and technology companies which did little to actually resolve systematic problems.

Jobless workers were forced to endure hours-long lines in order to receive paper copies of documentation that couldnt be accessed on the website, dubbed CONNECT, which had been created by Deloitte Consulting at the cost of nearly $78 million to Florida taxpayers in 2013. On Monday Politico reported that Deloitte was also awarded a state Medicaid modernization contract worth at least $135 million. The contract was signed by the head of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, Mary Mayhew, a DeSantis appointee.

Of the over 1 million Floridians who had applied for the miserly $275 weekly benefit in mid-March, a Pew Research Center study conducted at the end of April found that only 8 percent had received it. Approximately 40 percent of eligible Floridians who had applied for unemployment were denied and forced to reapply again, affecting some 268,000 people.

DeSantis sought to blame the jobless for being unable to navigate the purposefully broken system and for filling out incomplete forms. When pushed by reporters during a May press conference as to why thousands of March unemployment filers had yet to receive their funds, DeSantis scoffed at the idea that they existed, claiming, without evidence, that 99.99 percent of those folks have been paid.

Using Tuesdays interview to obfuscate his role in this crime against the working class, DeSantis meekly vowed some type of accountability against those responsible for the systems implementation pending the release of an ongoing Inspector General report. However, when DeFede pointed out that a 2019 audit of the Department of Economic Opportunity had already been conducted and had identified the same flaws that DeSantis was now openly admitting were baked into the system, DeSantis demurred from all talk of accountability, countering that, Nothing ever reached my desk, and I was not asked to do anything.

Continuing the theme of not doing anything, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows concluded another day of talks Wednesday in which no concrete proposals were agreed upon and no date set for a vote on a new coronavirus pandemic relief bill which would extend federal unemployment benefits, previously set at $600 per week, as well as an eviction moratorium for those living in properties with federally backed mortgages.

Meadows vowed that if a deal was not reached by Friday that Trump would take executive action to extend benefits, end the payroll tax and extend the federal moratorium on evictions on his own. Speaking to reporters, Meadows commented, Ive been working around-the-clock to look at the options the president has at his disposal within the confines of his legal authority within the executive branch.

After benefits expired last week, roughly 30 million workers have seen their incomes slashed between 60 and 80 percent and according to the Aspen Institute, 23 million are at risk of eviction. The Eviction Lab at Princeton University has found that roughly 30 state moratoriums have expired since May.

Courts have already resumed evictions in major cities such as Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which has seen a 21 percent increase in eviction filings since June, with nearly 1,500 submitted since May. Speaking to the Associated Press, Colleen Foley, the executive director of the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee, remarked: We are sort of a harbinger of what is to come in other places.

Pelosi, who has already signaled her willingness to compromise on cutting unemployment benefits, claimed to see the light at the end of the tunnel in regards to a final proposal, however, how long that tunnel is, remains to be seen. While the millionaires in Congress and the billionaire in the White House have the luxury of time, for millions of food-insecure workers and their families the need is dire.

Data released this past Friday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis found that staple food prices continued to rise, some by double-digit percentages. Beef and veal have increased in price by 25.1 percent compared to last year. The price of eggs is up 10.4 percent since February while poultry and pork are up 8.5 and 8.6 percent, respectively.

The World Socialist Web Site recently spoke with Leon, an unemployed service worker from Pennsylvania, on the expiration of his benefits.

Im infuriated that Congress wasnt able to resolve this issue, said Leon. My situation with food and groceries is now in the air. Im going to have to be very creative in order to survive.

A former Starbucks employee, Leon was making over three times the income he made while working while on unemployment. The CEO of Starbucks makes nearly $20,000 an hour. Thats more than I made in a year, he said. Leon responded to the claims being endlessly repeated by Democrats and Republicans that the pandemic benefits are a disincentive to work: My immune system is compromised. Im not returning to work, pay or no pay.

There are no places to go to work, even if I wanted to, he said. Whats available?

Leon spoke about the political situation, which he had been following very closely as the pandemic benefits wound down. Both Democrats and Republicans dont care. I heard that Nancy Pelosi didnt want to extend benefits for even another week, even though the Republicans and Trump did. Supposedly her reasoning was that the Democrats would rather end the benefits altogether than keep what we had going until there was an agreement in Congress. That makes no sense. It just proves that she hates poor people.

Shes actually making Trump and the Republicans look good in this, which is just horrifying, he concluded.
President is seeking two-thirds majority in the 225-member parliament to change the constitution.

The counting of votes is under way in Sri Lanka after Wednesdays parliamentary election that saw a lower turnout amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Elections Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya said counting started at 9am local time (03:30 GMT) and the first results were expected by late afternoon with the final tally coming in at about midnight.

Polling ended without major incidents of violence and with a turnout of 71 percent, Deshapriya said on Wednesday. More than 16.2 million people were registered to vote.

The voting rate was lower than the previous parliamentary elections in 2015, where a 77 percent turnout was recorded.

However, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said the number of voters was a show of confidence in the government over its efforts to control the spread of the coronavirus.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa is seeking two-thirds majority for his party in the 225-member parliament to enable constitutional reforms [Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters]

The presidents elder brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, is running as the prime ministerial candidate from the governing Sri Lanka Podujana Party (SLPP) and is tipped to win.

A strong mandate in Parliament would bolster the powers of the 71-year-old president, who was elected in November in a landslide victory.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa is seeking a two-thirds majority for his party in the 225-member parliament to enable constitutional reforms.

Gaining more than 150 seats in total would allow Rajapaksa to enact constitutional changes, and potentially revoke the countrys 19th constitutional amendment, a long-standing campaign promise from last year.

The amendment, enacted in 2015 following 10 years of rule by Gotabayas elder brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, curtailed the powers of the president, distributing them more evenly with the prime minister and other democratic institutions.

The main opposition United National Party, led by former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, has been plagued by divisions.

Most of its previously popular candidates contested under the banner of a separate party, known as the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (United Peoples Front) and led by former presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa.

Meanwhile, the president announced the new parliament will meet on August 20.
The death of a man Friday morning east of Benson appears to be legally justified, according to a press release from the Nebraska Attorney Generals Office.

Frank Williams, 59, of Omaha, died from a single puncture wound in an incident near 45th and Miami Streets, according to the release.

Omaha police were called to the area just before 9:40 a.m. to investigate a report of a disturbance. While en route, officers were told that a person was down in a driveway.

When officers arrived at the home, they found Williams fatally wounded in the driveway. He was taken by ambulance to the Nebraska Medical Center, where he was declared dead.

Omaha police are investigating the death, which was referred to the Nebraska Attorney Generals Office for consideration of charges due to a conflict of interest, the press release stated.
Night and weekend curfew in Jammu and Kashmir 2022: Know guidelines, rules: What is allowed, what is not

BJP sarpanch killed by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Aug 06: A BJP sarpanch has succumbed to injuries after being attacked by terrorists in South Kashmir's Qazigund.

J&K sarpanch killed | Terrorists shoot Kulgam BJP leader | Oneindia News

IGP Vijay Kumar confirmed the development. Sarpanch, Sajad Ahmed Khandey was attacked by terrorists at Vessu in Qazigund, South Kashmir. He was immediately rushed to hospital.

The medical superintendent at the GMC Anantnag, Mohammad Iqbal told the media that he was brought dead to hospital.

Three soldiers martyred in ambush by terrorists at Manipur

This is the second attack in 48 hours after a BJP sarpanch Arif Ahmad was critically injured after being fired upon by terrorists at Akhran Qazigund on August 4.

Last month former BJP district president Waseem Bari, his father and brother were killed inside their shop after terrorists opened fire on them. Bari had a 10 member police security and all of them were suspended and arrested as they were not with him at the time of the attack.

In June terrorists killed Congress sarpanch outside his house at Lokbhawan in Anantnag district.
Salma Hayek continues to show her love for Beirut, Lebanon in the city's time of need.

The Frida star, 53, wrote, 'I [love] you Beirut,' adding the hashtags, #beirut #lebanon and #tbt,' following a Tuesday explosion that killed at least 135 people and left at least 5,000 hurt.

Hayek, who's married to billionaire businessman Francois-Henri Pinault, wore a creme colored top in the image, with multiple buildings in the background.

The latest: Salma Hayek, 53, wrote, 'I [love] you Beirut,' adding the hashtags, #beirut #lebanon and #tbt,' on Instagram Wednesday following a Tuesday explosion that killed at least 135 people and left at least 5,000 hurt

The Oscar-nominated actress spoke on Tuesday about the deadly blast, writing, 'Today two explosions devastated the capital of the already hurting Lebanon.

'My broken heart goes out to all the people who have lost loved ones and who are in the affected areas of my beloved Beirut.'

An initial probe of the incident on Wednesday explored the possibility that the explosive fertilizer known as ammonium nitrate was not properly stored, the AP reported.

Multiple port authorities were arrested in connection with the explosions.

Horrific: Massive damage was visible throughout the area

An initial probe of the incident on Wednesday explored the possibility that the explosive fertilizer known as ammonium nitrate was not properly stored

Hayek was one of a number of celebs to take to social media and acknowledge the tragedy, as others included Naomi Campbell, Ariana Grande, Kate Hudson and Heidi Klum.

Campbell wrote, 'My thoughts, prayers and love go out to the people of Lebanon and their families,' while Grande said, 'My heart, my love, my condolences are with Lebanon and everyone affected by the tragedy.'

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump said in a White House briefing that he was unsure of the cause of the blasts, and whether they were accidental or intentional.

Traveler: Hayek was snapped in London March 7, just before the pandemic spurred the shutdown

Gorgeous: The Oscar-nominated actress was snapped in California earlier this year

'Whatever happened, its terrible, but they dont really know what it is - nobody knows yet,' Trump said. 'How can you say accident if somebody left some terrible explosive-type devices and things around perhaps - perhaps it was that. Perhaps it was an attack. I dont think anybody can say right now. Were looking into it very strongly right now.'

He continued: 'Some people think it was an attack and some people think it wasnt. In any event, it was a terrible event and a lot of people were killed and a tremendous number of people were badly wounded, injured. And were standing with that country.

'Ive heard it both ways. It could have been an accident and it could have also been something that was very offensive.'
A former senior executive of Australia's Today show who was told 'not to look at' Ellen DeGeneres during a tense meeting in 2013 has revealed he wasn't surprised when her staffers made allegations of on-set bullying last month.

Neil Breen, who witnessed the tension among Ellen's employees first hand when the talk show host, 62, appeared on Today seven years ago, took aim at Ellen yet again during Wednesday's episode of A Current Affair.

Breen, who now presents his own radio program on 4BC, said: 'As soon as I first saw reports surface there were troubles behind the scenes at Ellen's show, I didn't bat an eyelid.'

'I didn't bat an eyelid': A former senior executive of Australia's Today show who was told 'not to look at' Ellen DeGeneres (pictured) during a tense meeting in 2013 has revealed he wasn't surprised when her staffers made allegations of on-set bullying last month

Just last week, Breen spoke on 4BC about his experience working with Ellen in 2013, claiming that her staff 'walked on eggshells' around her.

He said that Ellen's employees were the only ones who were allowed to interact with her - and they laughed so loudly at her jokes during her interview with Today reporter Richard Wilkins that Breen had to tell them to be quiet.

He claimed that Ellen's people dictated everything - from seating, to lighting, to how the interview would work - adding that he found the whole situation 'bizarre'.

Not shocked: Neil Breen (pictured), who now presents his own radio program on 4BC, told A Current Affair: 'As soon as I first saw reports surface there were troubles behind the scenes at Ellen's show, I didn't bat an eyelid'

Breen said that Ellen was initially supposed to co-host the Today show during her tour of Australia, but the plan was continually changed and watered down by her team.

Eventually, it was agreed that Ellen would do a sit-down interview with Wilkins in Melbourne - meaning that production had to be moved there from Sydney at the show's expense.

Breen said that he and Wilkins arrived at 'one of the plush hotels in Melbourne' on the day of the interview to find 'a lot of people' from Ellen's team waiting for them.

'The people who worked with her walked on eggshells': Last week, Breen (pictured) shared his 'bizarre' experience of working with Ellen and her staff in 2013

'The producer called us aside and said, "Now Neil, no one is to talk to Ellen. You don't talk to her, you don't approach her, you don't look at her,"' he said.

'"She'll come in, she'll sit down, she'll talk to Richard and then Ellen will leave." And I sort of said, 'Are you fair dinkum? I can't look at her?' I found the whole thing bizarre.'

During the interview itself, Breen had to ask Ellen's staff to stop laughing at her jokes because it was interrupting the recording.

'Don't look at her': Before the interview, one of Ellen's producers had apparently warned Breen not to acknowledge the Emmy-winning host at all when she entered the room

Breen said he had no idea whether Ellen knew what was happening around her, 'because I never got to talk to her'.

'I have no idea whether she's a nice person or not, I wouldn't have a clue,' he added. 'But I can tell you the people who work with her walked on eggshells the whole time.

'We're there to do an interview to promote what she's doing, but you can't look at her? Someone get real.'

Claims: Last month, a number of employees of The Ellen DeGeneres Show accused the three executive producers, Ed Glavin, Mary Connelly and Andy Lassner, of 'bullying'. Pictured: Ellen with pop star Justin Bieber

It comes as The Ellen DeGeneres Show faces an internal investigation following numerous allegations there is a 'toxic' and 'bullying' workplace culture.

Ellen, whose philosophy is 'be kind to one another', and her show are now subject to a probe by WarnerMedia, which will look into 'staff experiences on set'.

An internal memo sent last week explained that current and former staff will be interviewed about claims of 'mistreatment, racism and intimidation' behind the scenes.

Viral: The backlash against Ellen gained momentum on March 20, when comedian Kevin T. Porter asked his Twitter followers to post their 'insane' tales of 'Ellen being mean'

Ellen hasn't been accused of any wrongdoing herself.

The memo insisted that producers Telepictures and Warner Bros. Television are committed 'to providing an environment where employees can flourish'.

Statement from Ellen show executive producers '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. '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 realise, as many in the world are learning, that we need to do better, are committed to do better, and we will do better.' By executive producers Ed Glavin, Mary Connelly and Andy Lassner Advertisement

Last month, a number of employees of The Ellen DeGeneres Show described it as a 'toxic work environment'.

One current and 10 former employees of the daytime chat show accused the three executive producers, Ed Glavin, Mary Connelly and Andy Lassner, of 'bullying'.

A source told Buzzfeed: 'The issue is these three executive producers running the show who are in charge of all these people [and] who make the culture and are putting out this feeling of bullying and being mean.

'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 we'll hire someone else because everybody wants to work here."'

Although Ellen has not been accused of any wrongdoing, employees have claimed they were instructed not to talk to her if they saw her in the building.

One former employee said: 'If she wants to have her own show and have her name on the show title, she needs to be more involved to see what's going on. I think the executive producers surround her and tell her, 'Things are going great, everybody's happy,' and she just believes that, but it's her responsibility to go beyond that.'

A black woman claims she suffered a number of 'microaggressions', her request for a raise was ignored and she was accused of 'walking around looking resentful and angry' after asking for staff members to undergo diversity and inclusion training.

Another former employee alleges they were fired after taking medical leave for one month following a suicide attempt.

They said: 'You'd think that if someone just tried to kill themselves, you don't want to add any more stress to their lives.'

Don't talk to her: Social media users chimed in with their experiences, often with similar themes

Executive producers Glavin, Connelly and Lassner have released a statement in light of the investigation.

'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,' they said.

'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.'

Queen of social distancing! Ellen has been accused of being unapproachable, with some crew asked not to speak to her

They continued: '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 realise, as many in the world are learning, that we need to do better, are committed to do better, and we will do better.'

In April, it was reported that the Ellen crew was angry over the lack of communication and transparency from bosses after being forced to take pay cuts when production first shut down due to the coronavirus outbreak.

A group of about 30 staffers were upset that Ellen had hired an external non-union company called Key Code Media to film the show while quarantined at home.

'Higher-ups in production would occasionally answer phone calls but reveal little' to the crew members, who had their pay slashed by 40 per cent amid changes brought about by the virus, insiders told Variety.

Shocking accusations: Ellen was accused of being downright rude to some people

Sources told the outlet that this was not the case with all the shows, as crews for John Oliver, Desus & Mero, and Samantha Bee were paid their full rates, while Jimmy Kimmel dipped into his own pocket for a time to keep his staff on their regular rates.

Producers responded that 'our executive producers and Telepictures are committed to taking care of our staff and crew and have made decisions first and foremost with them in mind'.

Earlier this year, numerous reports from previous employees emerged claiming that Ellen had been unfriendly on set and that crew members were warned not to talk to the host or make eye contact.

Say what? Benjamin Siemon tweeted about a staffer who was told to expect Ellen to be mean

The backlash against Ellen gained momentum on March 20, when comedian Kevin T. Porter asked his Twitter followers to post their 'insane' tales of 'Ellen being mean'. (Porter's effort was linked to a charity drive for the Los Angeles Food Bank.)

Writer Ben Simeon responded that 'a new staff member was told, 'Every day [Ellen] picks someone different to really hate. It's not your fault, just suck it up for the day and she'll be mean to someone else the next day.' They didn't believe it, but it ended up being entirely true.'

'Everyone must chew gum from a bowl outside her office before talking to her and if she thinks you smell that day you have to go home and shower,' Simeon added in another tweet.

Sensitive noise: The writer also said the host was very particular about personal hygiene

Ellen, who is reportedly worth $330million, has also caught flak for tone deafness after joking that locking down in her opulent mansion was 'like being in jail.'

It comes after reps for the show were forced to deny reports last month that the program was on the verge of being cancelled.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Ellen has continued to broadcast her daytime show from the living room of the Montecito, California, mansion she shares with her wife, Australian actress Portia De Rossi, 47.

Meanwhile, Ellen is now allegedly telling senior figures at Telepictures and Warner Bros. that she has had enough and wants to pull the plug on the show.

Last Thursday, she attempted to do some internal damage control by issuing an apology email to current staffers, in which she appeared to deflect all blame and noted that she was 'disappointed' to learn the show was not 'a place of happiness'.

The email was immediately met with backlash, with many expressing disappointment over Ellen shifting the blame to her executive producers.
Learn more about applying for Fulbright grants The Fulbright scholarship application process is open to Emory seniors, alumni and graduate students. Undergraduates, including those in nursing and business, and recent alumni can learn about the Fulbright process here. The internal application deadline is Sept. 3. Information about applying through the Laney Graduate School is listed here. The internal deadline is Aug. 24.

Fourteen Emory University students and recent alumni have been selected as Fulbright finalists to teach English, pursue graduate study and conduct research abroad during the 2020-2021 academic year.

Four additional Emory alumni have been named alternates and may become grantees in the U.S. governments flagship international exchange program.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program has provided grants every year since 1946 to nearly 2,000 students, early career professionals and artists who engage in the cultural exchange in more than 160 countries. Awardees are selected based on their academic merit, ambassadorial skills and leadership potential.

This years Emorys recipients were selected from 62 undergraduate applicants, of which 37 were named semi-finalists.

This years applicant pool of graduating seniors, recent graduates and professional masters students was the largest weve ever worked with, says Megan Friddle, director of Emory Colleges National Scholarships and Fellowships Program.

Fulbright recipients typically spend an academic year in their host countries, gaining experience in research and study while also engaging in cultural exchange. The current pandemic has postponed the departure for many of this years recipients until January 2021. Actual departure dates will vary, depending in part on each countrys travel restrictions.

Emorys U.S. Fulbright grantees for the 2020-2021 academic year are:

Jessie Jiang 20C, biology and music, was selected to conduct research in a neurobiology lab in Spain, studying an overlooked drug target for the treatment of Alzheimer's Disease.

Aleksei Kaminski 20C, economics and African studies, was selected to study and conduct research at Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. His research will focus on shifting voting patterns in Brazil.

Margaret McLeod 16C, international studies and Spanish, will pursue an international MBA at the prestigious International University (IE) Madrid in Spain.

Zoe Robbin 19C, quantitative sciences and Arabic, was selected for her proposal to partner with the Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST), the National Agricultural Research Center (NARC) and EcoPeace Middle East in a mixed-methods study of wastewater filtration and water reuse needs among farmers and residents in the Jordan Valley of Jordan.

The following students and alumni were selected to serve as Fulbright English Teaching Assistants in countries around the world:

Mary Bohn 20C, East Asian studies with global development studies minor, Indonesia

Jessica Bouvier 19C, English and creative writing with political science minor, Taiwan

Clara Caro 20C, neuroscience and behavioral biology, Czech Republic

Sara Cunningham 20C, English and creative writing and linguistics, Germany

MK Healy 20C, Arabic and international studies, Morocco

Connor Innes 20C, biology and East Asian studies, South Korea

Carmen Shaw 20G, population biology, ecology and evolution, Thailand

Aida Smajic 21G, Rollins School of Public Health, Bosnia and Herzegovina

LaTonya Turner 20C, linguistics with Korean minor, South Korea

Grace Xu 20C, biology, Taiwan

The alternates are all 2020 graduates of Emory College. Selected as alternates for the English Teaching Award are Paula Manrique, an environmental sciences major and sustainability sciences minor, Spain; Kathryn Matuska, a chemistry major and sustainability minor, Malaysia; Sophia Minnillo, French studies and linguistics double major, France; and Jackson Richard, a double major in media studies and anthropology and human biology, Colombia.
Getty Images

Well, it's not the first time Facebook decided to remove a post by President Trump. But one post from Trump on Wednesday caused some serious backlash because it reportedly "spread misinformation about coronavirus."

Facebook quickly deleted a post by President Trump for violating its policy against disseminating misinformation about the virus. This particular post included a link to a Fox News video in which Trump stated that children are "virtually immune" to the virus, according to the Associated Press.
BIG RAPIDS  Emily Bromley, MD, FACOG, recently joined the medical team at Spectrum Health Big Rapids Hospital to provide obstetrics, gynecology and urology services to women in the community.

A native of Fargo, North Dakota, Bromley earned her bachelors degree while studying physiology and German at the University of Minnesota and her medical degree from the University of North Dakota.

She recently completed four years of residency at Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital.

While in medical school, she worked at a hospital in Turkey and while in residency spent time in Togo, a country in Africa providing gynecologic consultation and surgical treatment at a mission hospital.

Her international experience gave her an appreciation for the abundance of resources we have in the United States and the choices patients have in choosing their treatment options.

It helped me gain a broader perspective of the different tools I can use and different ways to be creative in surgery and in my medical practice, she said. It gives me an appreciation for all the resources we do have.

Bromley believes in working with women to provide the best experience possible during pregnancy and childbirth including being open to natural birth and not using unnecessary interventions.

This is your body, this is your experiencelets make this experience what you want it to be and whats important to you  in a safe way, she said.

Bromley enjoys performing surgery and has experience in robotic surgery along with a variety of surgical procedures.

Bromley said she prefers living and working in smaller towns and has already settled into Big Rapids. She enjoys hiking, traveling, exercise and exploring the outdoors.

To make an appointment with Bromely, call Spectrum Health Big Rapids Hospital Obstetrics, Gynecology and Urology at 231-592-4200.
The best bang for your buck! This option enables you to purchase online 24/7 access and receive the Sunday, Tuesday & Thursday print edition at no additional cost * Print edition only available in our carrier delivery area. Allow up to 72 hours for delivery of your print edition to begin. Print edition not available for Day Pass option.
Applauds Health Canada's Approval Of Psilocybin Compassionate Access For Patients

NEW YORK, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Mind Medicine (MindMed) Inc. (NEO: MMED) (OTCQB: MMEDF), the leading psychedelic pharmaceutical company, has engaged renowned psychedelic assisted therapy expert Dr. Peter Gasser as an advisor to its LSD experiential therapy program Project Lucy.

Dr. Gasser has pioneered the legal, medical use of psychedelics through clinical research and compassionate access in Switzerland. Dr Gasser has served as the President of the Swiss Medical Society for Psycholytic Therapy since 1997. Through compassionate access in Switzerland, Dr Gasser holds several individual treatment permissions to treat patients with MDMA and LSD.

Dr. Gasser and University Hospital Basel's Dr Matthias Liechti are conducting a Phase 2 trial of LSD assisted therapy for anxiety disorders. MindMed previously acquired the exclusive license to this ongoing Phase 2 trial through its collaboration agreement with the University Hospital Basel.

MindMed's Project Lucy intends to start a Phase 2b human efficacy trial that will focus on experiential doses of LSD to treat anxiety disorders administered by a therapist.

"Dr. Gasser is one of the leading global experts on psychedelic assisted therapy and it's an honor for us to work together as we build Project Lucy into a world class commercial drug development program," said MindMed Co-Founder and Co-CEO JR Rahn. "Dr Gasser's vast experience and history treating patients as a therapist through compassionate access in Switzerland also interests the company and will have tremendous benefits to our patients."

Dr. Gasser helped pioneer compassionate access for end of life psychedelic assisted therapy in Switzerland. This week, the Canadian health minister approved compassionate access of psilocybin assisted therapy for terminally ill patients.

Rahn added: "Health Canada's recognition that psychedelic substances have medicinal value and potential benefit for patients is extremely encouraging for all of us in the psychedelic inspired medical space. It takes a village of dedicated government officials, scientists, therapists and entrepreneurs to make impactful change for patients, and we hope additional clinical trials will compel regulators to further allow psychedelic inspired medicines to help the millions of patients suffering from mental health and addiction."

About MindMed

Mind Medicine (MindMed) Inc. is a neuro-pharmaceutical company that discovers, develops and deploys psychedelic-inspired medicines to improve health, promote wellness and alleviate suffering. The company has initiated or is initiating studies to evaluate potential treatments to help patients with ADHD, anxiety, cluster headaches and substance abuse. The MindMed executive team brings extensive biopharmaceutical industry experience to this groundbreaking approach to the development of next-generation psychedelic medicines. MindMed trades on the NEO Exchange under the symbol MMED. MindMed can also be traded in the US under the symbol OTC: MMEDF and in Germany under the symbol DE:MMQ. For more information: www.mindmed.co.

MindMed Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties relating to future events and performance of Mind Medicine (MindMed) Inc. ("MindMed"), and actual events or results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Words such as "anticipate," "expect," "intend," "plan," "believe," "seek," "estimate," variations of such words, and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. These statements concern, and these risks and uncertainties include, among others, MindMed's and its collaborators' ability to continue to conduct research and clinical programs, MindMed's ability to manage its supply chain, product sales of products marketed by MindMed and/or its collaborators (collectively, " Products"), and the global economy; the nature, timing, and possible success and therapeutic applications of Products and Product candidates and research and clinical programs now underway or planned; the likelihood, timing, and scope of possible regulatory approval and commercial launch of Product candidates and new indications for Products; unforeseen safety issues resulting from the administration of Products and Product candidates in patients, including serious complications or side effects in connection with the use of MindMed's Products and product candidates in clinical trials; determinations by regulatory and administrative governmental authorities which may delay or restrict MindMed's ability to continue to develop or commercialize Products; ongoing regulatory obligations and oversight impacting Products, research and clinical programs, and business, including those relating to patient privacy; uncertainty of market acceptance and commercial success of Products and Product candidates and the impact of studies on the commercial success of Products and Product candidates; the availability and extent of reimbursement of Products from third-party payers, including private payer healthcare and insurance programs, health maintenance organizations, pharmacy benefit management companies, and government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid; competing drugs and product candidates that may be superior to Products and Product candidates; the extent to which the results from the research and development programs conducted by MindMed or its collaborators may be replicated in other studies and lead to therapeutic applications; the ability of MindMed to manufacture and manage supply chains for multiple products and product candidates; the ability of MindMed's collaborators, suppliers, or other third parties (as applicable) to perform manufacturing, filling, finishing, packaging, labelling, distribution, and other steps related to MindMed's Products and product candidates; unanticipated expenses; the costs of developing, producing, and selling products; the ability of MindMed to meet any of its financial projections or guidance and changes to the assumptions underlying those projections or guidance; the potential for any license or collaboration agreement to be cancelled or terminated without any further product success; and risks associated with intellectual property of other parties and pending or future litigation relating thereto, other litigation and other proceedings and government investigations relating to MindMed and its operations, the ultimate outcome of any such proceedings and investigations, and the impact any of the foregoing may have on MindMed's business, prospects, operating results, and financial condition. Any forward-looking statements are made based on management's current beliefs and judgment. MindMed does not undertake any obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statement.

Media Contact: Anna Walsh

E: [email protected]

P: 212-254-4730

Investor Relations: [email protected]

SOURCE Mind Medicine (MindMed) Inc.

Related Links

http://www.mindmed.co


ATLANTA, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Landis+Gyr (Swiss: LAND.SW) and SMUD have agreed on a new five-year contract that extends Landis+Gyr's status as the California utility's exclusive advanced meter provider.

The agreement, which includes both residential and commercial electric advanced meters, supports SMUD's increased focus on customer engagement and distributed energy resource integration by measuring and monitoring necessary data for resource integration and efficiency programs.

"As a leader in grid modernization, and to deliver on our clean energy goals while continuing to provide affordable energy requires advanced metering technology," said Frankie McDermott, SMUD Chief Energy Delivery Officer. "Our relationship with Landis+Gyr goes back to our first deployment of advanced metering technology, and this new agreement is an important piece of our ongoing technology upgrades."

SMUD is the nation's sixth largest community-owned electric utility, providing service to more than 635,000 residential and commercial customers and about 1.5 million people in the Sacramento region.

"This is a great opportunity for Landis+Gyr to continue our relationship with a leader in clean energy adoption and promotion of grid modernization," said Prasanna Venkatesan, Executive Vice President of Landis+Gyr Americas. "Our smart metering platforms are specifically engineered to measure and monitor the data necessary to manage the evolving power grid."

Landis+Gyr's advanced metering solutions are an important component of Gridstream Connect, the company's platform for utility IoT technology that enables the next generation of energy applications at the grid edge.

About SMUD

As the nation's sixth-largest community-owned, not-for-profit electric service provider, SMUD has been providing low-cost, reliable electricity for almost 75 years to Sacramento County (and small adjoining portions of Placer and Yolo Counties). SMUD is a recognized industry leader and award winner for its innovative energy efficiency programs, renewable power technologies, and for its sustainable solutions for a healthier environment. SMUD's energy is about 50 percent carbon-free. For more information, visit smud.org.

About Landis+Gyr

Landis+Gyr is the leading global provider of integrated energy management solutions for the utility sector. Offering one of the broadest portfolios, the company delivers innovative and flexible solutions to help utilities solve their complex challenges in smart metering, grid edge intelligence and smart infrastructure. With sales of USD 1.7 billion, Landis+Gyr employs approximately 5,800 people in over 30 countries across five continents with the sole mission of helping the world manage energy better.

More information is available at www.landisgyr.com .

SOURCE Landis+Gyr

Related Links

http://www.landisgyr.com


New York: The Trump administration on Thursday rescinded its warnings to Americans against all international travel because of the coronavirus pandemic, saying conditions no longer warrant a blanket worldwide alert.

The State Department lifted its level-four health advisory for the entire world in order to return to country-specific warnings. That move came shortly after the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention revised its COVID-19 travel advisory information. The CDC lifted "do not travel" warnings for about 20 locations but advised staying away from the vast majority of the world.

Travelers make their ways to the south security checkpoint in the main terminal of Denver International Airport in Denver. Credit:AP

"With health and safety conditions improving in some countries and potentially deteriorating in others, the department is returning to our previous system of country-specific levels of travel advice in order to give travellers detailed and actionable information to make informed travel decisions," the State Department said in a statement.

"This will also provide US citizens more detailed information about the current status in each country," it said.
LAPD SWAT officers muster during a search for a homicide suspect in Van Nuys in 2019. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

After assessing the hilly terrain around a Sunland house where a homeless man had holed up one morning in May 2017, the Los Angeles Police Departments heavily armed SWAT team requested more firepower  and got it in the form of a helicopter equipped for aerial shooting, dubbed Sniper-1.

By the time theyd left the scene hours later, the team had fired more than 40 rounds at 29-year-old Anthony Soderberg, including more than a dozen from the helicopter  a first in LAPD history. Many of the rounds were fired from hundreds of feet away, and many came after a bloodied and unarmed Soderberg had exited the home, rolled off the edge of a patio and dropped into a ravine, where hed later be pronounced dead.

The Los Angeles Police Commission ruled that the officers had opened fire when they were not in imminent danger or when they were too far away to determine whether a threat existed. Of 13 officers investigated, the commission ruled that 12 had used deadly force in a way that was not objectively reasonable and was out of policy.

It was one of three incidents that a SWAT officer reported to LAPD internal affairs early last year as part of a whistleblower complaint about the elite unit.

Now, that officer, SWAT Sgt. Tim Colomey, has filed a civil lawsuit accusing a group of veteran officers known as the SWAT mafia of creating a culture of violence in the unit that glorifies deadly force, and he alleges commanders turned a blind eye to the problems despite his flagging them internally.

The lawsuit does not cite any specific incidents, but Colomeys attorney said they include the three cases hed previously reported  each of which offers a window into the actions of SWAT and how Police Department leaders handled them.

The helicopter incident resulted in few changes within the SWAT unit, as top commanders and SWAT leaders maintained the officers did nothing wrong.

In another incident, a SWAT team member shot a homeless man on a skid row roof with a Taser, jolting him to his death on the pavement below. In a third, SWAT members miraculously avoided killing a gunman after firing more than 80 rounds into a shed where he was hiding.

Story continues

An LAPD source familiar with Colomeys statements to internal affairs, who requested anonymity to discuss the matter candidly, confirmed to The Times that Colomey had flagged the three cases as part of an earlier investigation into the SWAT teams selection process that began in 2018.

Colomey, who often worked as a negotiator for the unit and helped oversee the SWAT training academy, thought that the veteran officers who ran the mafia disregarded department rules governing the use of force and encouraged younger officers to do the same, according to his lawsuit. He alleges that the older officers called members of the unit who tried to deescalate situations or use less lethal weapons cowards, and used nepotism to fill the unit with like-minded officers willing to kowtow to them.

Diana Wells, Colomeys attorney, said that after Colomey spoke to internal affairs in the prior investigation, they produced a report, a copy of which Colomey received, that mentioned the SWAT mafia and referenced the Soderberg case, but otherwise ignored Colomeys concerns.

Wells declined to provide that report to The Times.

Greg Kirakosian, an attorney who represents Soderbergs family, said Colomeys claim of a corrupt clique encouraging deadly force when less lethal alternatives were available helps explain the circumstances in Soderbergs case.

They run by their own rule book as to what they deem an appropriate opportunity to use deadly force, Kirakosian said. The notion that they give thumbs-up to these officers to use deadly force at any given time couldnt be more true.

The incident involving Soderberg began after a woman found him in her Sunland kitchen one morning. According to the subsequent investigation, gunshots were heard in the home and Soderberg was heard screaming, Ill put a bullet in your head.

The SWAT team descended on the scene, and Colomey came in as a negotiator. The standoff dragged on for hours  with officers deploying a camera-equipped robot to keep watch on Soderberg. They fired a projectile to crack a window, and used a stinger grenade and hot gas to agitate him and force him out.

Soderberg, 29, was seen with a firearm shortly after 1 p.m., and he fired at the helicopter about 1:08, the investigation found. But when he emerged at 1:48, he was no longer holding a weapon, and the Police Commission ultimately found that he was unarmed when he exited the house.

Kirakosian said Lt. Ruben Lopez had given the officers what amounted to a shoot-to-kill order. Colomey alleges in his lawsuit that Lopez was involved in suppressing his earlier complaints about the so-called mafia and its members. Now, Kirakosian said hed like to hear more from Colomey.

Soderbergs family is suing the Police Department, alleging that SWAT officers violated Soderbergs rights and the LAPD failed to properly train its SWAT team.

The case was to go to trial in March, but was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the latest allegations, Kirakosian said, he may have to request more time to collect evidence, given that the LAPD had not previously disclosed, as it should have, Colomeys past concerns about Soderbergs shooting or the prior internal affairs investigation that looked at it.

They didnt tell us about this other investigation or this other person who clearly knows facts about the case, Kirakosian said.

Two years before Soderbergs death, in May 2015, the SWAT team responded to reports of a man on the roof of a downtown building and found Carlos Ocana, 56, who also was homeless, atop a billboard.

According to a subsequent investigation, police decided to lure Ocana down from the billboard by placing a cigarette at the bottom of a ladder, and coax him further from the ledge by offering him a lighter. Instead, Ocana took the cigarette, pulled a lighter from his pocket, and turned back to climb back up the ladder, the investigation found.

Officer Steve Scallon then shot Ocana with a Taser.

Scallon later said he fired to prevent Ocana from climbing the ladder again. Instead, it jolted Ocana off the roof. He fell more than 15 feet and landed in a parking lot below, just missing one of two air cushions that firefighters had placed below him. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

Skid row residents protested the units approach to the incident with Ocana, and said police needed to change their approach to mentally ill people in the area. They said Ocana had been terrified of the SWAT team, which had arrived with big guns.

Then-LAPD Chief Charlie Beck concluded that Scallons tactics substantially and unjustifiably deviated from his training.

The third incident flagged by Colomey occurred in June 2017, one month after Soderberg was killed.

In that incident, police alleged that a gunman in South L.A. had fled from them while engaging in a roving gun battle in which a police dog was shot in the leg and a SWAT team member had a bullet ricochet off his helmet.

Jose Rauda was ultimately cornered in a shed behind a home. After the officers helmet was grazed, the SWAT team members unleashed heavy fire on the shed, according to sources. Rauda was taken into custody, charged with attempted murder of officers, convicted by a jury and sentenced to life in prison.

Sources said Colomey took issue with the degree of force used in each of the three cases, arguing that much of the shooting could and should have been avoided. An LAPD source who is not authorized to discuss the matter and requested anonymity said Colomey seemed particularly irate about the shooting of Soderberg from a helicopter.

In a statement after Colomey filed his lawsuit, the LAPD acknowledged that it was already aware of some of his allegations, but said other claims were new and deeply concerning.

The department promised a thorough investigation by its inspector general, and said it is committed to rooting out misconduct at all levels.

It declined to answer questions about the past cases Colomey flagged, citing pending litigation.

The LAPD source said some of the SWAT members involved in the incidents Colomey reported are no longer on the team, having retired. The source also said that Colomey had long been aware of the influence of older officers in the unit, given his 11 years assigned to the team, and only took issue with it once he and others had a falling-out over how new members were selected.

Wells, Colomeys attorney, said Colomey believes that most of the officers and supervisors in SWAT dont act like the alleged SWAT mafia veterans, but that he had come to realize in recent years the very real influence the older men had on everything within the unit.

Colomey remains a part of the elite Metropolitan Division but was transferred to a detail at Los Angeles International Airport in October, which worsened his commute from his home in San Bernardino County. He alleges he was transferred as retaliation for speaking out  freeway therapy, as its known in the LAPD.




Washington

North Carolina

Alabama

When federal and state entities spend money on broadband infrastructure, they want a good return on investment, and they want to know theyre helping people in need. As such, accurate data on Internet access and quality is crucial for decision-making.Its well known that the Federal Communications Commissions Form 477 data, which helps direct billions of dollars, overestimates high-speed Internet access. But this data can be challenged if a state can show with another set of data that a local area lacks sufficient broadband service.Thats one reason a state might collect its own broadband data through a survey, but there can be other reasons as well. Three states that have recently kickstarted their own broadband surveys  Washington, North Carolina and Alabama  spoke toabout their strategic visions.Russ Elliott, director of the Washington State Broadband Office, constantly hears people say, Our broadband stinks. While Elliott, a former broadband provider, can sympathize with the sentiment, he knows he needs more specific information to initiate a strategy. Thats where survey data comes in.I cant quantify stinks, Elliot stated. What Im trying to do is quantify what stinks means.And he has to do it with a survey that drills down deeper than current federal data, which analyzes broadband service from too broad of a view. At the federal level, if one household has broadband service within a Census block, the entire Census block is defined as served, even if that block encompasses miles of unserved space.The Washington broadband survey, which launched last week, had been completed by only 9,000 respondents at the time that Elliott spoke to, but because the state can link those responses to addresses, it's already seeing things the feds cant.I contend that we are in microsurgery, not macrosurgery, Elliott explained. What its doing for us immediately is its starting to shine a light on the existing maps out there that are being leveraged for major funding decisions, showing that those maps are not telling a proper story of what current availability is.This step is important for the state, as it wants more federal money in order to accomplish its aggressive legislative mandate of ensuring that every Washington home has download and upload speeds of 150 Mbps by 2028. The state has estimated that it would take more than $3 billion to get fiber infrastructure to every home that doesnt have broadband service.Based on his experience, Elliott believes the broadband survey can allow Washington to challenge the FCC if it declares an area served when it really isnt. When Elliot was broadband manager in Wyoming, he saw what granular data can do: Wyoming was able to successfully challenge the FCCs data and help a carrier win USDA money to bring high-speed Internet service to Sweetwater County.Elliott said another purpose behind the survey is to help identify homes where people cant afford high-speed Internet despite being in an area with good broadband infrastructure.Washington is also proud of its survey tool, which was developed by the Minnesota-based GEO Partners LLC. The tool, Elliott said, has a unique component that can generate technical feasibility information within minutes.This feature is a godsend given that broadband feasibility studies can, in addition to costing tens of thousands of dollars, take months to finish. And the windows for winning federal broadband funds are short.The windows are open for 45 to 60 days, Elliott pointed out. Its really hard to turn around a study if you dont have one on the shelf.More than anything, Washington wants the broadband discussion to be a community up rather than provider down conversation. Communities that are willing to take surveys and quantify their issues have more power, Elliott said.The broadband mapping effort in North Carolina is still going strong. In contrast to Washington, which is primarily interested in learning about gaps in broadband service, North Carolina wants to know about household connectivity levels, whether theyre high or low, throughout its territory.Jeff Sural, director of broadband infrastructure, said that with its survey North Carolina wants to gather as much context as possible, whether its related to Internet service providers, the tech thats facilitating the service, upload and download speeds, latency or other information. These facts tie back to mapping, which ties back to funding.Additionally, North Carolina plans to use the survey data as a type of audit.We have a grant program, Sural said. We give money to broadband providers to provide better service. We want to make sure theyre doing that. Its an audit process, if you will. We want to verify if those grant recipients are delivering the product or service they promised when we gave them the grant funding.In addition to guiding its own broadband funds, North Carolina also sees its survey information as a way to verify or challenge federal data.For states that are interested in doing broadband surveys, Sural recommends thinking carefully about survey questions and providing as much clarification as possible. Even a simple question like How much are you paying for Internet? can be confusing because it overlooks the possibility of bundled service. Sural also commented on the importance of offering the survey in multiple languages and including a phone option if the goal is to serve different populations.As a final point, Sural pointed out that states shouldnt commit to a particular kind of speed test without further analysis. North Carolina examined multiple kinds of speed tests and ended up developing its own speed test for more robust results.Kenneth Boswell, director of the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs, wrote in an email that federal broadband speed data is not granular enough to meet Alabamas needs. The importance of accurate data has become especially critical in light of COVID-19.The COVID-19 pandemic has made our survey efforts even more important in the short term, because our school children need broadband for distance learning, many of our residents need broadband to be able to telework, and telehealth visits can be a lifeline for people who cannot see their doctors in person, Boswell said.Gov. Ivey recently committed $100 million for the Alabama Broadband Connectivity for Students program, to ensure that all low-income students have access to the Internet for the start of school in the fall, Boswell added. Our survey results will help us develop longer-term strategies for ensuring that not just those students, but all residents have broadband access.Alabamas survey will run indefinitely and provide baseline numbers for the states different broadband efforts, including the Broadband Alabama program and Alabama Broadband Accessibility Fund.Boswell advised other states to diligently promote broadband surveys well after they are launched.As with many survey efforts, interest in a broadband speed survey is often highest when the survey is first announced, then tapers off over time, Boswell said. Were using a variety of approaches to publicize the survey and encourage residents to submit their results. So far, weve been pleased with our surveys response rate.
The West Africa Examination Council, WAEC says it has begun probe into allegations of Examination malpractices in some Senior High Schools in the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

The sub-regional examination body tells Citi News that teachers in some schools have been implicated in the misconduct resulting in the student-agitations recorded in some of the areas.

The WAEC Branch Controller in the Ashanti region, Divine Worlanyo Agbenyo said schools stand the risk of having their entire papers cancelled if found culpable.

When we are writing the exams and we have irregular activities before or after the exams, all these are punishable. Some of these are such that you can have the entire results for that paper cancelled. The onus rests on students and parents to ensure that their children study hard to merit whatever certificate that they will be getting, he said.

Senior High School students in the country on Monday, August 3, 2020 began sitting for The West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

With the examination in its early days there have been a number of reports about student-agitation over what some describe as tight security and supervision of the exercise.

Some students of Tweneboa Kodua Senior High School at Kumawu in the Ashanti Region on Monday threatened to boycott the exams saying their school authorities was being 'too strict' during the supervision of their first paper.

A video footage from that school earlier this week saw students rioting and toppling school properties including furniture over the same allegation.

---citinewsroom
The per-country cap on legal permanent residency punishes immigrants from India and the wait for the coveted Green Card for Indians runs into 200 years, a top American senator has said, terming the "discrimination" as "inconsistent" with the principles of a merit-based immigration system.

Green Card, known officially as a Permanent Resident Card, is a document issued to immigrants to the US as evidence that the bearer has been granted the privilege of residing permanently.

Indian IT professionals, most of whom are highly skilled and come to the US mainly on the H-1B work visas, are the worst sufferers of the current immigration system which imposes a seven per cent per country quota on allotment of the coveted Green Card or permanent legal residency.

Republican Senator Mike Lee, on the Senate floor, said on Wednesday that he has always been struck by the fact that the government has conditioned Green Card.

There may have been some legitimate reason many decades ago for this, but has led to a system that largely discriminates against Green Card applicants from one country, Lee told his Senate colleagues.

Currently, there is a backlog of almost one million foreign nationals and accompanying family members lawfully residing in the United States who have been approved for, and are waiting to receive, employment-based Green Cards. The largest number of them are from India.

"I mean, literally one country. This is inconsistent with our founding principles. this is not how we try to do things as Americans, and it's not right. Today, if you're a work-based immigrant from India entering into the EB- Green Card application process, you will wait almost 200 years before your application is even considered solely because of where you were born," the senator said.

"Almost 200 years on a waiting list. Some people don't even live that long. Our country isn't much older than that, and that's the amount of time they would have to wait based solely on the basis of the country in which they were born," Lee said, urging his Senate colleagues to lift the country-cap on Green Card applicants.

"If you're born anywhere else, anywhere else other than China; let's say in Ghana, Sweden, Indonesia, basically any other country other than India, your application will be considered immediately. This sort of discrimination is simply inconsistent with the principles of a merit-based immigration system and with our founding principles and the principles that unite us as Americans," Lee said.

He sought unanimous consent that the judicial committee be discharged from further consideration of S 386 and the Senate now proceed to pass the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act (HR 1044), as passed by the House, that would eliminate the seven per cent per-country ceiling, along with his amendment.

The legislation would allocate employment-based visas to prospective immigrants by application date on a first-come, first-served basis without regard to country of origin.

However, it would not reduce the backlog because it would not increase the number of foreign nationals receiving Green Cards. As passed by the House, HR 1044 would include a three-year transition period from the current system to the new system.

Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, however, opposed Lee's amendment, arguing that it does not include the language to protect immigrants' children who are less than 21 years of age.

The amendment would modify his proposal, allowing for immediate implementation of the 50/50 rule. The Lee amendment, he argued, will also provide that current H-1B employees may continue to change employers.

The purpose of his 50/50 provision is to prevent outsourcing companies from hiring new H-1B employees. Lee's language would not allow these companies to import new H-1B workers to exploit, the senator said.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

"So that is not objectionable to me. Lee's amendment also accepts my proposal to delay by one year the bill's section changing the distribution of Green Cards to allow processing time for pending applications," Durbin said.

Durbin said that the amendment currently being considered for which unanimous consent has been asked includes several key provisions he has advocated for that were not in Senator Lee's original bill.

These include filing to protect immigrant workers and their families stuck in the backlog, and annual Green Card set-aside for those ineligible because they are overseas, a one-year delay to section 2 of the bill to protect pending Green Card applications, and the 50/50 rule to protect American jobs and workers and to prevent the exploitation of immigrant workers that helped create the Green Card backlog.
Chronically overbooked court dockets, too few circuit-court sittings, and a straightforward trial that ran out of time have prompted a judge to lament systemic delays in northern Manitoba.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 6/8/2020 (530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Chronically overbooked court dockets, too few circuit-court sittings, and a straightforward trial that ran out of time have prompted a judge to lament systemic delays in northern Manitoba.

Last week, provincial court Judge Todd Rambow tossed out an impaired-driving case against a Norway House man who waited more than a year-and-a-half for his day in court.

Deciding the mans charter right to have a trial within a reasonable time was violated, the judge took the opportunity to comment on longstanding problems with holding court in Norway House, a largely Indigenous community of roughly 8,000 people about 800 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

Rambow said he and the two other provincial court judges who live in Thompson and preside over circuit court hearings in more than 15 other communities across northern Manitoba have "long been concerned with the insufficient number of sitting days upon which to adjudicate Norway House matters."

Norway House has roughly the same population as Dauphin, Rambow said, "but without, I strongly suspect, the same number of court sitting days." Dauphin, about 300 km northwest of Winnipeg, has a permanent courthouse.

He said Norway House is "currently experiencing a significant work volume relating to gang and/or drug-related violence. We have lamented the significant overbooking of Norway House dockets, which, unfortunately, has become all too commonplace."

Trial dates are supposed to happen in Norway House twice a month, when a judge travels there. All circuit court sittings in Manitoba are currently cancelled owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is not uncommon for them to be cancelled for reasons such as bad weather.

Its common for cases to run out of time, Rambow said. He made clear he didnt have evidence of systemic delay in the case at hand  for which the Crown is considering an appeal  but was "merely voicing my concerns" about the chronic issues.

"I am not the first judge to be concerned about a lack of northern judicial resources," he said, referencing two other Manitoba court decisions that called attention to the issue within the past year.

One of those rulings, issued by Justice Chris Martin in November, was also the result of a charter motion launched by defence lawyer Rohit Gupta, who represented the accused in this most recent case.

Myles William Folster was arrested in Norway House in July 2018, and impaired driving charges were officially sworn against him about a month later. His trial began more than a year later, in November 2019, but before it could be completed, court ran out of time.

The one-day circuit court session had to deal with several other court cases before the trial could start in the afternoon.

It was supposed to resume in May, but all circuit courts across the province were cancelled owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rambow subtracted the delays caused by the COVID-19-related cancellations and by Folsters defence lawyer, and found the case took 18 months, 23 days  over the time limit set by the Supreme Court in its so-called Jordan decision in 2016 that cracked down on delays. He ordered a judicial stay on Folsters charges on July 30, dropping the case.

Gupta said Folster was fortunate he wasnt in custody while he waited for his trial. Others, he said, are still waiting for circuit courts to resume. Gupta pointed to a persistent lack of court resources.

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"The systemic problem is overlaid throughout all of northern Manitoba, and its going to continue to be a problem," he said.

"There remains three judges (in Thompson). I think it echoes, and what Jordan echoes, is that all players in the justice system need to come together to figure out a solution here."

The Crown has 30 days to decide whether to appeal.

The Aboriginal Justice Inquiry recognized as far back as 1991 that Manitoba circuit courts didnt provide enough time for all cases to be heard. The report recommended the temporary court sessions last at least two days at a time, saying: "There is no clearer example of the unequal and uneven manner in which the current justice system deals with Aboriginal people than in the circuit courts of northern Manitoba."

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay
NEW YORK, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of FirstEnergy Corporation ("FirstEnergy" or the "Company") (NYSE: FE). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980.

The investigation concerns whether FirstEnergy 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 a state-funded bailout of two nuclear power plants formerly owned by FirstEnergy.

On this news, FirstEnergy's stock price fell $7.01 per share, or 16.99%, to close at $34.25 per share on July 21, 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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Ateca Holding has entered into an agreement with The American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute (AHLEI), to provide its world-class training programmes in Uzbekistan.

Ateca is developed by UAE hotel experts, in collaboration with the Tourism Development Institute under The State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan for Tourism Development.

Making the announcement Michel Noblet, Executive Chairman of Ateca Holding, said: The hospitality sector is emerging as one of the most diverse, competitive and fast-paced industries in Uzbekistan developing at an unprecedented pace to meet the growing demand for quality accommodations from domestic and international travellers. At Ateca Holding we are proud to be the first and only organisation in Uzbekistan to offer AHLEIs prestigious training programmes at the Ateca Hotel Academy Hub in partnership with the Tourism Development Institute under The State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan for Tourism Development. Drawing on our outstanding industry experience, we are committed to help students master their area of interest with a focus on real-world practices to expand their perspective and expertise which in turn will enable them to grow in their respective careers.

The demand for trained hotel professionals is high in the Republic and is expected to grow drastically with the increasing number of hotels. However, currently, only a fraction of hotel industry staff have formal education or training leaving a huge gap in skills at the start of the career.

To meet the need for continuous learning and professional development in Uzbekistans hospitality industry, Ateca Hotel Academy Hub, offers a variety of certification, executive diploma and customised programs for both experienced professionals as well as beginners.

Ed Kastli, MBA, CHMS, CGSP  Channel Vice President, International Sales, American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute stated: We are very excited to enter Uzbekistan and support the advancement of the hospitality sector in the country with strong partners such as Ateca Holding and the Tourism Development Institute under The State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan for Tourism Development. Our shared goal is to train a dynamic workforce who can make a difference to the hospitality and tourism industry in Uzbekistan. AHLEIs well-defined and globally recognised courses are for all segments of the hospitality sector. Our training workshops are tailored to address complex, multi-dimensional business that demand a new managerial mindset.

In todays competitive world, everyone looking for a career in hospitality needs to have extensive hospitality know-how and a broad set of strategic skills to enter the industry and reach the desired positions. AHLEI offers the worlds top-notch certification programs supported by a global network of 25,000 hotel members, and endorsed by the American Hotel & Lodging Association.

Karimov Kamoladdin, Chief Executive Officer and General Manager for Ateca Holding, said: The Ateca Hotel Academy Hub is dedicated to prepare students for a flourishing career in the regional and global hospitality industry through AHLEIs world-class education, workshops and training programmes. The award-winning team at Ateca Hotel Academy Hub comprises the very best faculty members including executives from leading hotels  all of whom have top degrees from prestigious universities. -- Tradearabia News Service
Chinas national flag is seen waving at the China Consulate General in Houston, Texas

By Huizhong Wu and David Brunnstrom

BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China said the U.S. move to close its Houston consulate this week had "severely harmed" relations and warned it "must" retaliate, without detailing what it would do.

Washington on Tuesday gave China 72 hours to close the consulate, which it said was "to protect American intellectual property and Americans' private information," a dramatic escalation of tension between the world's two biggest economies.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin described the U.S. allegations as "malicious slander" and said the "unreasonable" move had "severely harmed" relations.

"China must make a necessary response and safeguard its legitimate rights," he said, declining to specify any measures.

The South China Morning Post reported that China may close the U.S. consulate in the southwestern city of Chengdu, while a source told Reuters on Wednesday that China was considering shutting the consulate in Wuhan, where the United States withdrew staff at the start of the coronavirus outbreak.

Hu Xijin, editor of China's Global Times tabloid, posted on Twitter: "Based on what I know, China will announce countermeasure on Friday Beijing time. One U.S. consulate in China will be asked to close."

He had earlier said that shutting the Wuhan consulate would be insufficiently disruptive and suggested that China could cut U.S. staff at its large consulate in Hong Kong, which he described as an "intelligence centre."

"This will make Washington suffer much pain," he wrote.

The other U.S. consulates in China are in Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenyang.

China has four other consulates in the United States - in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York - as well as an embassy in Washington.

A U.S. law enforcement official, familiar with the reasons for the closure of Chinese consulate in Houston, said there was "not one singular incident" which led to the decision. He said the consulate was part of a "continual pattern" of suspicious or potentially illegal activities by Chinese diplomatic missions.

Story continues

Republican Senator Marco Rubio, acting chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, described the Houston consulate on Twitter as the "central node of the Communist Party's vast network of spies & influence operations in the United States".

President Donald Trump said in answer to a question at a news briefing on Wednesday it was "always possible" other Chinese missions could be closed too.

Richard Grenell, special presidential envoy for Serbia and Kosovo who served until recently as acting director of U.S. national intelligence, told Reuters the U.S. strategy was "very much start with one and move on to others if need be."

"It's the escalation strategy," he said.

"The whole goal is to change the behavior of the Chinese... this is emerging as the Trump doctrine, which is very harsh actions, sanctions and isolation while at the same time always offering a chance to exit if the behavior changes."

The Wall Street Journal said U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would deliver a speech in California later on Thursday urging allied countries and the people of China to work with the United States to change the Chinese Communist Party's behavior.

In spite of the tensions, a flight bound for Shanghai carrying U.S. diplomats left the United States on Wednesday night, as Washington pressed ahead with its plan to restaff missions in China evacuated due to the coronavirus pandemic.

ELECTION 'GAMBIT'

U.S.-China ties have deteriorated sharply this year over issues ranging from the coronavirus and telecoms-gear maker Huawei to China's territorial claims in the South China Sea and its clampdown on Hong Kong.

Chinese state media editorials said the U.S. move against the Houston consulate was an attempt to blame Beijing for U.S. failures ahead of Trump's November reelection bid.

Opinion polls show Trump trailing his Democratic rival Joe Biden ahead of the Nov. 3 election. The candidates have appeared to compete in their campaigns over who can appear toughest towards Beijing.

Separately, the Federal Bureau of Investigation alleged in U.S. court filings that a Chinese researcher accused of visa fraud and concealing ties to the military was now holed up in China's consulate in San Francisco.

Other Chinese researchers at U.S. universities have also been arrested for visa fraud, according to U.S. court filings.

Wang said China would safeguard its citizens.

"For some time, the U.S. has held ideological bias to continuously surveil, harass and even arbitrarily detain Chinese students and scholars in the U.S.," he said.

"We urge the U.S. to stop using any excuse to restrict, harass or oppress Chinese students and researchers in the U.S."

(Reporting by David Stanway, Tony Munroe and Huizhong Wu in China and Steve Holland, Daphne Psaledakis, Humeyra Pamuk, David Brunnstrom and Mark Hosenball in Washington; Editing by Nick Macfie and Rosalba O'Brien)
OTTAWAIt has been seven weeks since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised action very soon to address systemic racism in Canadian policing and other institutions.

For Matthew Green, an NDP MP and member of the cross-party Parliamentary Black Caucus, very soon is now long past due  and cant come soon enough.

Thats especially the case, he says, after more than 100 Liberal MPs and half of Trudeaus cabinet signed a declaration from the Black caucus in mid-June that called for a wide range of reforms.

If these ministers are not serious, then they ought not have signed on, Green told the Star by phone on Wednesday.

What were asking for is not radical. It is actually basic justice principles of applying policy and the legal system in an equitable way, he said.

Responding to questions from the Star on Wednesday, Trudeau spokesperson Alex Wellstead provided a quote from the prime minister after the Liberal cabinet retreat in early July. Trudeau pledged at the time that his ministers would craft a work plan for the summer to build strong policies to tackle racism. This would include reforms to police and the justice system, improved protections for temporary foreign workers and legislation to expand First Nations policing of their own communities, Trudeau said.

In 2019, the Liberal government unveiled a $45-million strategy to tackle racism in the public service and federal policies. The party also promised during the election last year to increase funding for the strategy.

But in mid-June of this year, Trudeau pledged further action on systemic racism would come very soon. At the time, much of the Western world was roiling from widespread demonstrations denouncing police brutality and racism against Black, Indigenous and other racialized people.

In Canada, demonstrations were fuelled by a series of incidents in which people died during interactions with police. These included Chantel Moore, a 26-year-old First Nations woman shot and killed on June 4 during a wellness check at her apartment in Edmunston, N.B., and 29-year-old Regis Korchinski-Paquet, an Afro-Indigenous woman who died in Toronto after falling from an apartment balcony during a police visit.

On June 16, the Parliamentary Black Caucus released its declaration that called on governments to act immediately on a wide range of demands to address systemic racism in Canada. The document called for Ottawa to end mandatory minimum jail sentences, create programs to support businesses owned by Black Canadians and improve the collection and release of race-based data. It also called for more Black and Indigenous judges, and to shift money from police budgets to health and social services.

The document was signed by at least 25 cabinet ministers, including Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and Justice Minister David Lametti.

Greg Fergus, a Liberal MP from Quebec who is the chair of the Parliamentary Black Caucus, said Black Canadians have been waiting for decades for reforms and that he is confident the Trudeau government will take significant steps to address racism. He said he has spoken with Trudeau directly about the issue and that he has been assured actions are going to be taken  though he declined to discuss specific plans because he doesnt want to scoop his own government.

I know that everybody would like this to be done yesterday, but Im glad theyre taking the time to get it right, he said.

For the first time in my life I actually really feel that, Wow, were going to get at this, were really going to give this a real say  because Canadians will want things to be done.

Green was less optimistic, and said he believes the Liberal government has already missed opportunities to implement change. He said several demands in the Black caucus declaration could have been pursued immediately, including the elimination of mandatory minimum jail sentencing and amnesty for people convicted for cannabis-related crimes before it was legalized.

The federal government was also criticized this spring for delaying its promised response to the National Inquiry Into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, which probed the systemic causes of disproportionate violence against these groups and concluded in June 2019 with a list of demands for change.

Green said he will be looking to Aug. 12, when the House of Commons is next scheduled to sit, as the next chance for the Liberals to follow up with the action they promised.

This government can move immediately  immediately  within weeks to award their insiders and their friends a contract that would have resulted in the benefit of $43 million, Green said, referring to the controversy over the Liberal governments decision to outsource a student grant program to WE Charity.

They did that without any drawn out or protracted incremental approach. So why cant they make those same investments in the Black community? he said.

Correction  Aug. 6, 2020: This story was edited to correct Liberal MP Greg Fergus position as the chair of the Parliamentary Black Caucus.
Equity benchmark indices - Sensex and Nifty - closed the intraday trade on Thursday on a bullish note after the RBI's key moves to lift the economy and positive sentiment in global equities. The 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex ended 362 points higher at 38,025 and broader NSE Nifty advanced 98 points to 11,200. Of the 30 shares, 23 advanced, while 7 declined.

"The market might continue its positive movement in the near term, with more stock specific action as the earnings season progresses. Investors would now be awaiting an announcement of US stimulus which could bring cheer to the market. However we find the risk-reward unattractive at the current levels and we would advise investors to remain defensive in their portfolio approach. Traders on the other hand are advised to stay cautious and keep booking profit at regular intervals," said Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

Here are 5 key things to know before Friday's opening bell:

RBI monetary policy

Domestic bourses reacted positively after the RBI's encouraging measures to boost the slowing economy amid the coronavirus crisis. These decisions are also expected to have an impact on the market movement, analysts said. "The RBI's MPC today kept the repo/reverse repo rates unchanged at 4%/ 3.35% and maintained its policy stance at accommodative levels which could continue for as long as necessary to revive growth. Further, the central bank also announced measures including one-time restructuring of the loans to support NBFCs, HFCs, corporate debt market, and announced a relaxation on the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio for gold loans. Thus all these measures along with accommodative stance boosted market sentiments. The global cues on the other hand were weak as investors waited for signs of agreement on a US stimulus package," Khemka said.

No moratorium extension

The decision by RBI not to extend the moratorium period is expected to further lift the banks tomorrow. "The additional measures announced to support the stressed sectors were also received well by the market. At the same time, no extension of the moratorium and steps to further strengthen the financial system relieved the banks and other financial institutions which in turn triggered a sharp uptick across the board," said Gurpreet Sidana, Chief Operating Officer, Religare Broking.

Gold demand

With RBI allowing banks to lend up to 90 per cent against gold, the demand of the yellow metal is expected to rise and investors would take it into account. "This is a progressive step and should increase the demand for gold loans. This will put more money in the hands of the borrower. The increase in LTV Ratio will help us to grow the book. While this move will help broaden the gold loan market, we will also witness an increased competition in this segment. Lenders will need to ensure that their valuation and risk management processes remain tight and robust," said CVR Rajendaran, CEO & MD, CSB Bank.

Coronavirus cases

On Wednesday,India saw the single-day surge of 56,282, thereby taking the total number of cases to 1,977,972. Death toll has surged past the 40,000 mark.

Technical insights

"The short term trend of Nifty continues to be positive with volatile movement. Some more upside is left in the market and Nifty is expected to reach the upper resistance area of 11,350 by next week. Immediate support is placed at 11,100. The stoploss for positional long trades needs to be placed at 10,900 levels," said Nagaraj Shetti, Technical Research Analyst, HDFC Securities.

"The buoyancy in the global markets is helping the index on every dip and this scenario may continue. However, we still feel that it would be difficult for the index to sustain at the higher levels, without the participation from the banking pack thus traders should keep a close eye on the banking index for cues. The major hurdle is intact at 11,350 in the Nifty. Traders should limit their leveraged trades and prefer index majors over the others for short term trading," said Ajit Mishra, VP - Research, Religare Broking.Also read: Real GDP growth to remain negative in H1, full fiscal: RBI Gov Shaktikanta Das

Also read:RBI keeps repo rate unchanged at 4%, maintains status quo
Back in June, we reported that China had begun ramping up imports of U.S. LNG ostensibly in a bid to fulfill the January trade agreement with Washington and possibly avert another full-blown trade war.

According to Wood Mackenzie via NGI, China took in 10 LNG cargoes from U.S. suppliers between April and May at the expense of its traditional suppliers, including Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

But its now emerging that the LNG purchases could have been a mere smokescreen.

Reuters has reported that Chinas imports of U.S. energy products, including crude oil, liquefied natural gas (LNG), and metallurgical coal, clocked in at just $1.29B through June, or a mere 5% of the $25.3B energy target.

The deal committed Beijing to purchase an extra $52.4 billion of U.S. energy supplies over the next two years from a baseline of just $9.1 billion in 2017. The deal requires China to import an extra $200B worth of American goods over the next two years.

But its now abundantly clear that China intends to use the Covid-19 pandemic to abscond from fulfilling its end of the bargain--no doubt to the chagrin of the Trump administration.

Weak imports

Source: Reuters

Reuters has reported that whereas crude oil was supposed to feature prominently in the Phase 1 deal, China imported only 45,603 barrels per day (bpd) of U.S. oil during the first half of the year, or about half of 85,453 bpd it imported during last years corresponding period.

Wood Macs Sushant Gupta reckons that China would need to import 1.5 million bpd of U.S. crude in 2020 and 2021 just to fulfill its commitments. That figure has increased from 1,000,000 b/d thanks to the oil price collapse. Related: Russias Largest Coal Mine Gets Unexpected New Owner

A surprising twist: Refinitivs Emma Li says China ramped up its crude imports from the U.S. to 940,000 bpd in July and could hit an all-time high of 1.01 million bpd in August.

Unfortunately, swelling stockpiles coupled with narrowing refining margins are expected to crimp the pace of imports once again during the third quarter.

Source: Reuters

Chinas LNG imports from the U.S. fared much better, trebling to 878,754 tonnes through June compared to the same period last year thanks to robust household demand. However, weak natural gas prices mean that the value of those purchases only doubled compared to a year ago. EIA data shows that the U.S. exported 2,836,327 million cubic feet of natural gas and another 1,819,386 million cubic feet of LNG in 2019. The latest LNG import clip by China would mean its absorbing nearly 5% of U.S. imports.

U.S. natural gas prices have surged 22% over the past week, touching $2.20/MMBtu for the first time since January after hotter-than-expected weather raised hopes that there will be a corresponding increase in cooling demand.

Unfortunately, higher natural gas and LNG prices could lead to dwindling exports from the Middle Kingdom.

Natural Gas Prices (Henry Hub) in USD per MMBtu

Source: Business Insider

Collapse of Phase One trade deal?

China will no doubt point to the adverse effects of Covid-19 as the reason why its been unable to meet the terms of the deal. Related: Oil Prices Soar After EIA Reports Large Crude Draw

Its not like Chinese companies are strangers to declaring force majeure when it suits them: In early March, Kazakhstan revealed that Beijing had issued a force majeure declaration to state pipeline company KazTransGas (KTG) regarding its natural gas supplies. Consequently, import data published by Beijing revealed that Turkmen imports had declined some 17.2% during the first two months of the year. Uzbekistans exports to China, of which gas is a major component, fell 35.4%. Meanwhile, Chinas largest LNG importer, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNOOC), and PetroChina also invoked force majeure clauses on various LNG suppliers, though the notice was rejected by Shell, Total, and Qatargas.

You can be sure Trump will not be buying it, either.

Back in May, Trump threatened to terminate the Phase One trade deal if China fails to buy an extra $200B worth of American goods and services.

"They took advantage of our country. Now they have to buy and if they do not buy, we will terminate the deal. Very simple. China doesn't want to see me elected," Trump ranted.

Bear in mind that Trump made those comments at the height of the Covid-19 crisis in China. You can bet he wont hesitate to make good on his threat if China continues to slack on its promises, especially now that the Covid-19 situation in the country has improved significantly.

By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com

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Coronavirus is wreaking havoc on schools, stores, businesses and events. With in-person concerts, talks, comedy shows, food festivals and other gatherings cancelled, we have turned our events column into a "nonevents" column. It will remain this way as long as social distancing and stay-at-home orders are in effect.

During this difficult time, please consider contributing to your local arts organizations or to individual artists and performers.

Peep crazy cult movie art. Attend the online PaleyFest. Catch a screening of Queen & Slim with Lena Waithe and Dev Hynes in person. Adopt a kitty looking for a forever home. Learn the history of the Colorado Street Bridge. Check out gems from the Disney archives.

'You Never Had It - An Evening with Bukowski' is a found footage film of an interview with Charles Bukowski in San Pedro in 1981. (Film still from 'You Never Had It - An Evening with Bukowski')

Friday, Aug. 7 (opening)



You Never Had It - An Evening with Bukowski

This lost footage film is a love letter to Los Angeles featuring Charles Bukowski. It was rediscovered by the director Matteo Borgardt's mother, Silvia Bizio, an L.A.-based journalist and HFPA veteran. The film features Bizio as she spends a wine and cigarette-filled evening interviewing the author in 1981 in his San Pedro home. The Kino Lorber release is timed to what would've been Bukowski's 100th birthday.

COST: $12; MORE INFO

Friday, Aug. 7; 4 p.m. PDT



Out in Public

UCLA Film & Television Archive's Virtual Screening Room presents a screening of shorts from the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project, which highlights different LGBTQ+ moments in history and ways of being queer in public.

COST: FREE; MORE INFO



Friday, Aug. 7; 7 p.m.



Play Your Part: A Benefit for Yola

Attend a virtual fundraiser for the L.A. Phil's Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (YOLA) and its learning programs with a free online concert and workshop featuring Brandi Carlile, Gustavo Dudamel, Thomas Wilkins, members of the L.A. Phil and members of YOLA.

COST: FREE, but donations encouraged; MORE INFO

Friday, Aug. 7 - Sunday, Aug. 9



Craft Lake City

This year, Utah's largest local arts festival returns online for its 12th edition. Check out more than 250 local artisans, builders, vintage vendors and craft food creators, attend workshops and connect with makers directly online.

COST: FREE; MORE INFO

Gallery1988's Crazy4Cult show goes online this year. Artwork will be revealed on Friday at noon. (Image: Dany Paragouteva)

Friday, Aug. 7 at noon (opening)



14TH Annual CRAZY4CULT Show

Gallery1988's annual most popular group show debuts its works exclusively online this year. View paintings, prints, sculptures and pins inspired by movies.

COST: FREE; MORE INFO

Edward James Olmos attends the 'Queen & Slim' Premiere at AFI FEST 2019 on Nov. 14, 2019, in Hollywood, California. (Emma McIntyre/Getty Images)

Friday, Aug. 7; 7 p.m. PDT



Dan Guerrero Happy Hour with guest Edward James Olmos

Guerrero's biweekly En Casa con LA Plaza livestream series returns for a conversation with actor, director, producer and activist Edward James Olmos. The session will be broadcast on Zoom and Facebook Live.

COST: FREE with RSVP; MORE INFO

Friday, Aug. 7; 4 p.m. PDT



John Ridley's N? Studios Events: Ryan Alexander

John Ridley's N? Studios presents a number of digital events for members of his Milwaukee-based physical space as well as for artists and art lovers. This week, N? Studios Unplugged x Next Showcase features a live music set by musician and producer Ryan Alexander. It will be available to view on the N? Studios website and on its YouTube channel.

COST: FREE, but RSVP encouraged; MORE INFO

Friday, Aug. 7 (opening)



Virtual PaleyFest LA

The Paley Center's annual, in-person TV festival moves to a new online format beginning this week, with screenings available to members on YouTube on Aug. 7 and to the public on Monday, Aug. 10. Spotlighted shows include: Dolly Parton's Heartstrings (Netflix), Justin Bieber: Seasons (YouTube), Late Night with Seth Meyers (NBC), The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon), Mrs. America ( FX on Hulu), One Day at a Time (Pop TV), Outlander (Starz), Ozark and Queer Eye (both Netflix). There's also an exclusive Schitt's Creek conversation available exclusively to Citi cardmembers and Paley Center Members.

COST: FREE - $75; MORE INFO

Friday, Aug. 7; 7 p.m.



50-Year Retrospective: The Flights of Apollo: "After Apollo 13 - What Changed?"

Santa Monica College's John Drescher Planetarium continues its Friday night events in August with live virtual shows presented on Zoom. Each night starts with a Night Sky Show at 7 p.m., followed by the featured presentation at 8 p.m. This week, senior lecturer Jim Mahon talks about the nearly fatal Apollo 13 mission and how it had far-reaching effects on the number and types of lunar missions NASA was ultimately able to fly.

COST: FREE; MORE INFO

Saturday, Aug. 8; 8 p.m.



The Drive-in at Hotel Figueroa: Queen & Slim

Hotel Figueroa DTLA

Athena Lot

818 James M. Wood Blvd., downtown L.A.

Women Under the Influence and YOLA Mezcal present a new drive-in film series that amplifies the work of women, BIPOC and LGBTQ voices. The series kicks off with a screening of Melina Matsoukas' Queen & Slim, introduced by writer Lena Waithe and with soundtrack composer Dev Hynes (aka Blood Orange). All proceeds will benefit the social justice organizations Trap Heals and WoW Project. Next Saturday (Aug. 15), the series screens Love & Anarchy (1973) by director Lina Wertmuller.

COST: $40 per car; MORE INFO

Saturday, Aug. 8 - Sunday, Aug. 9; 6:30 p.m. doors



The Princess Bride / Fight Club

Lakeview Park

5305 E. Santiago Canyon Rd., Silverado

Street Food Cinema hits Orange County with drive-in screenings of The Princess Bride on Saturday and Fight Club on Sunday. Food will be available onsite; outside food and beverages are also permitted. Guests must stay in their cars except when ordering food or using restrooms; masks are required when interacting with staff. No tickets will be sold at the door.

COST: $20 per car, plus $8 per ticket (each person must have a ticket); MORE INFO

Michelson Found Animals hosts a Cuteness Overload: Kitten Adoption Week from Aug. 8 to 17. (Jennifer C. via Flickr/Creative Commons)

Saturday, Aug. 8 - Monday, Aug. 17



Cuteness Overload: Kitten Adoption Week

The Michelson Found Animals Adopt & Shop and NBC's Clear the Shelters team up for a virtual adoption event that aims to find homes for more than 50 kittens. Starting on Aug. 8, check the website adoptandshop.org for potential pets. They're accepting applications Aug. 8-12 via the website. Starting on the 12th, families and kittens will have a virtual meet-and-greet. If there's a match, an in-person adoption appointment will be set. Adoption fees are two-for-one, if you adopt two kittens.

COST: $150 (adoption fees); MORE INFO

A virtual celebration of the Colorado Street Bridge begins this week. (Courtesy: Pasadena Heritage)

Sunday, Aug. 9 - Saturday, Aug. 15



Virtual Celebration of the Colorado Street Bridge

Pasadena Heritage kicks off a weeklong celebration of the Colorado Street Bridge, which opened in 1913. The events include a custom and classic car cruise, a lecture on the bridge's history and children's activities.

COST: $20 - $25; MORE INFO

Sunday, Aug. 9 - Saturday, Aug. 22



7th Annual Burbank CoVedy Festival

The virtual comedy fest features a lineup of shows, podcasts, workshops and Q&As with more than 250 participants and performers from around the world including Michael Rapaport, Rob Paulsen, Jackie Kashian, Jimmy Pardo, Laurie Kilmartin and Jimmy Dore.

COST: Ticket prices vary ($5 - $25); MORE INFO

Sunday, Aug. 9; 12:30 p.m. PDT



Walt Disney Archives Lecture Series: Photo Library Presentation

This pre-recorded segment from the Disney Archives features Cesar Gallegos, Heather Hoffman, Michael Buckhoff and Maggie Evenson as they discuss the 20th Century Fox/Disney photo collection. The presentation highlights rare images from the library. Ticketholders will receive a private link to view the presentation at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday.

COST: $5 - $10; MORE INFO

Through Sunday, Aug. 30



7th Annual Los Angeles Diversity Film Festival

The LADFF features 57 official selections -- features and shorts -- from 17 countries around the world. Dedicated to storytelling from marginalized voices, all films stream at LADFF for the first time in festival history.

COST: $7.99 per film or shorts program; MORE INFO

Employees Only has transformed their next door parking lot and launched Summer Social Club with physically distant protocols in place. (Employees Only)





Dine & Drink Deals

Who doesn't miss going out to eat or stopping by a bar for a drink? Here are a few options from restaurants and bars as we work our way back toward normal.
Aug 6 (Reuters) - U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) company Cheniere Energy Inc said on Thursday the sixth liquefaction train at its Sabine Pass LNG export plant in Louisiana will be ready sooner than expected in the second half of 2022.

Previously, the company said it expected to "substantially complete" Train 6 at Sabine in the first half of 2023. The company made the announcement in its second quarter earnings release. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino Editing by Chris Reese)
The on Thursday urged the member nations of its southeast Asia region to maintain essential health services and accelerate resumption of facilities hit by the pandemic as an integral part of the response.

The pandemic has put immense strain on health systems across the South-East Asia Region.

Previous disease outbreaks have shown that disruption to essential services caused by an outbreak can be more deadly than the outbreak itself, said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, the Regional Director WHO South-East Asia Region, on Thursday.

"We must fast track efforts and do all we can to avoid that from happening while continuing efforts to break the transmission chain," she stressed during a virtual meeting with ministers of health from the region.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, repurposing of health workers, cancellation of elective care, closure of outpatient services, insufficient personal protective equipment and changes in treatment policy have significantly impacted the delivery of essential services, she said.

Additionally, changes in health-seeking behaviour, constrained physical access and financial hardship have also limited service uptake, Singh said.

"We must strengthen our evidence and knowledge-base on how essential services can be maintained. We must continue to innovate, accelerate our efforts to sustain our gains while sharing our experiences and learnings and adapting policies to suit local contexts and transmission scenarios," the regional director WHO South-East Asia Region said.

Strengthening health system resilience with a focus on primary is key to maintaining and strengthening essential health services amid the "new normal", she said.

"The emergence and spread of has reiterated the critical importance of building strong primary systems that can withstand acute events while continuing to provide services required to meet most people's needs."



A rapid assessment of 25 essential services carried out by WHO in May showed significant disruptions to essential health services around the globe, including the world health body's South-East Asia Region.

Routine immunization and supplementary measles and rubella campaigns were disrupted in eight of the region's 11 countries. Both out-patient and in-patient services for non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart diseases and cancer have been greatly affected, she said.

The most affected service has been that of mental health, which is so critical in these difficult times.

Across the region, family planning, antenatal care and institutional childbirth services have been reduced significantly, impacting capacity to accelerate reductions in maternal and neonatal mortality, Singh said.

Pressures on the health system, reduced service utilisation, damaged supply chains and the potential for reductions in health spending could inhibit progress towards universal health coverage and weaken the battle against antimicrobial resistance (AMR), she said.

If case detection for tuberculosis drops by 50 per cent over a period of three months, the region could return to 2012 levels of the disease prevalence, she cautioned.

"Strengthening and maintaining essential health services has been one of the region's core priorities from the beginning of the pandemic and will continue to be a key area of focus.

The health and well-being of the region's near two billion people is at stake and with it the sustainable development of more than a quarter of the world's population," Singh said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Midland Health Department reported the 45th Midland County resident has died due to complications with coronavirus.

A man in his 70s passed away Tuesday after being treated at Midland Memorial Hospital, according to the city of Midland.

The health department also reported 69 new coronavirus cases Wednesday, bringing the total to 314 this week and 2,492 during the pandemic. The number of recoveries also topped 1,300 on Wednesday, according to the health department, reaching 1,301. There also are 768 people self-isolating, 229 under investigation and 141 listed as unable to locate/refused.

The Texas Department of State Health Services is requiring local health departments to switch to a new software for reporting case numbers. Once the Midland Health Department completes the transition, more numbers will be available.

Coronavirus report

Cases Monday: 184

Cases Tuesday: 61

Cases Wednesday: 69

Total cases: 2,492
Japan marked 75 years since the world's first atomic bomb attack, with COVID-19 forcing a restriction on ceremonies to remember those who died. Survivors, relatives and some foreign dignitaries attended this year's main event in Hiroshima to pray for the ones killed or injured in the bombing and appealed for peace all over the world, as per a report in AFP.

But the public in general was not allowed and the ceremony was broadcast online. Participants were mostly wearing black and had masks on. They offered a silent prayer at exactly 8:15 am (2315 GMT Wednesday), when the first nuclear weapon used in wartime was dropped.



Speaking afterwards, Hiroshima mayor Kazumi Matsui warned in an address that the world must come together to face global threats, like the coronavirus pandemic, and to warn against the nationalism that led to World War II.



"We must never allow this painful past to repeat itself. Civil society must reject self-centred nationalism and unite against all threats," he said.



AP

Humanity must "unite against threats to humanity and avoid repeating our tragic past," Matsui added, making an annual call for a world without nuclear weapons.



The bomb attack on Hiroshima killed around 140,000 people, many of them instantly, with others perishing in the weeks and months that followed, suffering radiation sickness, devastating burns and other injuries.



Three days later, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, where 74,000 people were killed.



'No one can escape'

Many of the traditional events to mark the sombre anniversary have been cancelled because of the pandemic, a global threat that carries an all-too-familiar fear for some survivors, including 83-year-old Keiko Ogura, who lived through the Hiroshima bombing.



With the outbreak of the virus, "I recall the fear I felt right after the bombing... no one can escape", she told journalists last month.



She too urged people around the world to recognise the need to fight common challenges as one.



"Whether it's the coronavirus or nuclear weapons, the way to overcome it is through solidarity among mankind," she said.



The landmark anniversary this year underscores the dwindling number of bomb survivors, known in Japan as "hibakusha".



Reuters

Those who remain were mostly infants or young children at the time, and their work to keep the memory of the bombings alive and call for a ban on nuclear weapons has taken on increasing urgency as they age.



Activists and survivors have created archives of everything from the recorded testimony of hibakusha to their poems and drawings.



But many fear interest in the bombings is fading as they recede beyond the horizon of lived experience and into history.



'Unspeakable horror'

"Just storing a pile of records... is meaningless," said Kazuhisa Ito, the secretary general of No More Hibakusha Project, an NGO that compiles records and documents from survivors.



"What we want is to engage young people with this issue and exchange views with them, globally," he told AFP.



Reuters

The historical assessment of the bombings remains the subject of some controversy. The United States has never apologised for the bombings, which many see as having ended the war.



Japan announced its surrender just days later on August 15, 1945, and some historians argue the bombings ultimately saved lives by avoiding a land invasion that might have been significantly more deadly.



But in Japan, the attacks are widely regarded as war crimes because they targeted civilians indiscriminately and caused unprecedented destruction.



In 2016, Barack Obama became the first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima, where he offered no apology but embraced survivors and called for a world free of nuclear weapons.



Hiroshima and Nagasaki were key stops on Pope Francis's first trip to Japan last year, where he denounced the "unspeakable horror" of the attacks.


A 62-year-old worker died and two others received injuries in a boiler burst accident at an agro-industries factory at Nandyal in Andhra Pradeshs Kurnool district. The accident occurred during the early hours of Thursday, the police said.

Nandyal deputy superintendent of police M Chidananda Reddy said the accident happened at around 2.45 am at SPY Agro Industries Limited, a subsidiary of Nandi Group of Industries, at Udumalpuram on the outskirts of Nandyal town.

The deceased was identified as Lakshmana Murthy. The exact cause of the accident will be ascertained after the arrival of the inspector of factories. We have booked a case of accidental death and are investigating the case, the DSP told Hindustan Times.

Also read: Senior TRS lawmaker S Ramachandra Reddy dies of cardiac arrest in Hyderabad

SPY Agro Industries Ltd is a modern grain-based distillery, producing 150,000 litres of grain neutral spirit (Extra Neutral Alcohol) per day from a variety of grains. Besides, it also manufactures dry ice and cattle feed.

The company was promoted by former Nandyal parliamentarian late SPY Reddy. This is the second such incident in the same factory in the last 40 days. On June 27, there was a major leakage of ammonia gas, resulting in the death of a 50-year old general manager of the company.

According to a senior official of the company, who preferred anonymity, the incident happened at the captive power plant of the factory when the workers were conducting some repairs to the boiler.

Due to high pressure, the boiler burst and boiling hot water fell on the workers. One of the workers, Lakshmanamurthy, suffered serious burn injuries and two others sustained minor burns, he said.

The victim was rushed to Kurnool Government Hospital where he was pronounced brought dead. The other two injured workers were discharged after being given the treatment in the morning.

On receiving the information about the accident, the police and revenue officials reached the spot and examined the cause of the accident.
Americans are eating at home more during the pandemic, and that's been good news for Kraft Heinz. The company's stock is up 9% this year. Breakfast in particular has been a boon for the prepared foods business  and a struggle for restaurants like Starbucks and McDonald's, which have invested huge amounts of money and resources into luring commuters with coffee and quick-serve food. Fewer people are commuting, and breakfast has become a home meal once again.

"These last few months have not been easy, and the struggle is real for parents with kids who are picky eaters," the company said in a press release, adding that "56% of parents have served their kids Mac & Cheese for breakfast more often during Covid-19 related state lockdowns than previous months."
Ohio governor Mike DeWine tested positive for COVID-19 Thursday ahead of a scheduled meeting with President Donald Trump.

DeWine received a coronavirus test in line with the standard protocol to meet the president; He planned to greet Trump on the tarmac at Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland. Trump is scheduled to tour the Whirlpool plant in Cylde, Ohio before attending a private fundraiser.

The 73-year-old Republican governor is asymptomatic and will return to Columbus to be retested along with his wife Fran DeWine, according to a news release. DeWine will quarantine in his home for the next 14 days.

Ohio lieutenant governor Jon Husted was also tested for the virus, but tested negative.

DeWine becomes the second governor known to have contracted the coronavirus, after Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt.

More from National Review
YEREVAN.  An appeal has been filed with the court against the decision to detain Robert Nazaryan, former mayor of Yerevan and ex-chairman of the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) of Armenia; Attorney Gagik Khachikyan said this in a conversation with Armenian News-NEWS.am.

"The suspicion made has absolutely nothing to do with reality," he said.

The lawyer added that Nazaryan was not charged.

To note, a while ago the Special Investigation Service (SIS) issued a statement in that regard.

According to the SIS report, Robert Nazaryan was detained on suspicion of abusing his official powers.

Accordingly, evidence was obtained that in 2011, Nazaryan had abused his official powers as then head of the PSRC in the interests of establishing privileges for a particular company, thus causing serious consequences.
President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani has claimed Black Lives Matter is a "domestic terrorist group," despite the group never being tied to a single terrorism event in a global database of almost 200,000.

"These are killers, and these are people who hate white people. They're people who hate white men in particular. And they want to do away with a mother-father family," Mr Giuliani said on Fox and Friends on Thursday, although ample evidence debunks that claim.

While the US State Department has a list of foreign terror organisations, the government does not legally denominate domestic terror groups.

In two separate incidents on 7 July 2016, two black US military veterans allegedly invoked the phrase "black lives matter" as they opened fire on police and civilians in Dallas, Texas, and Bristol, Tennessee.

Investigators determined both men had acted alone, and that the Black Lives Matter political organisation was in no way involved.

"That's not to suggest that no one associated with BLM  or any particular movement  never engages in some criminal behavior," Joshua Geltzer, a counterterrorism expert who has worked on the national security council, told PolitiFact in July. "But the relevant question is whether the organization itself engages in the type of activity laid out by statute. And, on that, there's been no evidence provided to indicate as much."

More follows
Zhang Pengjun and Li Jinghui do a live broadcast in Wuhan.

Zhang Pengjun and Li Jinghui are both reporters with China Central Television (CCTV)'s News New Media Center. This year, the couple stayed in Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei Province, for 92 days as they reported from the front line on Wuhan's efforts to combat the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). As she recalls the days she was "fighting on the battlefield" with her husband, Li tells Women of China, "It was our tough, but sweet, memory."

Li Jinghui reports news at Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University.

Fighting, Winning with Wuhan

Before this year's Spring Festival, a short documentary, entitled "Forgive You," was broadcast. Zhang and Li both participated in shooting that film. "Forgive You" depicted how people at different posts, such as a train driver and an armed police soldier, chose to continue working during the Chinese New Year holiday instead of gathering with their families. Zhang and Li never expected they would have to make a similar choice  during 2020 Spring Festival  when they were working on the film.

On January 24, Chinese New Year's Eve, Li's parents waited in their home, in Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, for their daughter to visit and celebrate Spring Festival. The following day, they received a call from Li. "I believe our family is understanding in a special occasion, aren't we?" Li asked her parents. She was calling on her cellphone as she was riding a train from Beijing to Wuhan. Her parents soon figured out what was going on. They asked, "You are going to Wuhan, right? Is Pengjun with you?"

Zhang Pengjun reports from the Central Hospital of Wuhan.

Recalls Li: "When I decided to study journalism as my major in university, my parents told me it would be a meaningful, but tiring, job to be a reporter. Regardless of good things or bad things, I have to be at the spot." Li said she was moved by her parents because they always supported her when she decided to report on the front line. This time was no exception. Li's parents reminded her, and her husband, to protect and take care of themselves. They were sure the young couple would complete their assignment.

There was a period of time when Zhang entered isolation wards almost daily. He reported on doctors and nurses who were doing their best to save COVID-19 patients. But Zhang encountered a few "accidents." For example, a doctor whom he had interviewed one day developed a fever. Zhang, as a close contact, had to receive a nucleic acid test (NAT) to check whether he had been infected with the coronavirus. Fortunately, the doctor was simply catching a cold, and Zhang was alright. On another day, Zhang accidentally touched his eyes with his goggles when he was taking off the goggles after he exited an isolation ward. To avoid being infected with the virus (from the potentially contaminated goggles), a nurse used saline water to wash Zhang's eyes. That scene was recorded and posted on Weibo, and it aroused the concern of countless netizens.

Li Jinghui accompanies Zhang Pengjun as he receives a checkup. They pose for their first photo after they arrived in Wuhan.

"We lived in separate rooms when we were in Wuhan. My husband went to the virus-polluted 'red zone' frequently, so he chose not to live with me to avoid the risk of infecting me with the virus. Although we were in the same apartment building, I was living on Floor 6 and he was living on Floor 15. We could be 'connected' by an elevator, but we had to stay apart from each other," Li recalled. It was not until she accompanied Zhang, as he was going to hospital to receive a check-up, that Li had the precious opportunity to pose for a photo  with her husband  while they were in Wuhan. "It was during those days that we realized we could face the virus, or even face the threat of death. The best news for me was that my husband was fine," Li said, with tears in her eyes.

In Zhang's eyes, his wife was the slimmest member of CCTV's reporting team in Wuhan. Li seemed to be weak, but, in fact, she was courageous and strong when coping with difficulties. When the two hospitals, Huoshenshan and Leishenshan, were being constructed, Li went to the construction sites to complete livestreaming reports. She took masks and boxes of food to the doctors and nurses. Her kind deeds won her praise from many netizens, who called Li "little sister who brings warmth to others."

Zhang and Li promised each other they would take care of the other if he or she fell ill. Li had been wearing a badge, with the logo of CCTV News, since she began reporting on the fight against COVID-19 in Wuhan. She had interviewed a doctor who had traveled from Shaanxi Province to support Wuhan's fight. After the doctor finished his assignment and was about to return to Xi'an, Li asked the doctor to deliver her badge to her parents. Li hoped her parents would know she and her husband were fine after they received her badge. "Family was our backup, and gave us strength when we were in Wuhan," Li said.

The couple returns to Beijing.

Companions in Marriage, Career

Zhang and Li are intimate companions in both marriage and career. Li met Zhang on December 1, 2013. She remembers it was a snowy day. "I was in third year when I was an undergraduate student at the School of Journalism and Communication, under Lanzhou University. At that time, Pengjun was a CCTV reporter who worked in Gansu Province (in Northwest China). I met him when he was interviewing an elderly couple, who opened a small reading room for children from migrant workers' families. My classmates and I also visited the couple, because we wanted to shoot a video for them," Li recalled.

Zhang and Li wed in 2018. They originally planned to host their wedding ceremony in Lanzhou (capital of Gansu Province) that year. However, they postponed the ceremony, in part because they were busy reporting on breaking news, including a severe flood in Gansu.

In August last year, Li became a reporter with CCTV's News New Media Center, and she relocated to Beijing. Zhang was also posted in Beijing. After they returned from Wuhan, the couple were assigned to report on this year's "two sessions," the third sessions of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) and the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). The "two sessions" were held in late May. Li was one of the reporters who covered the CPPCC session. She noticed many of the CPPCC national committee members from Hubei Province, especially from Wuhan, expressed gratitude to people from across the country, who had supported their efforts to combat COVID-19. They bowed before they gave a speech. Li was deeply touched."

During the 'two sessions' this special year, NPC deputies and CPPCC national committee members raised a lot of proposals and suggestions focusing on detailed topics or problems, for example, how to help small and mediumsized enterprises boost development? How to solve college students' and migrant workers' difficulties in employment? Attendees to the 'two sessions' showed a great sense of mission," Li said.

Zhang and Li were very happy in the middle of May, because their small family was named, by the All-China Women's Federation, a "National Most Beautiful AntiEpidemic Family." Li said the honorable title was "the most beautiful gift" they received after they returned home from Wuhan.

Zhang Pengjun and Li Jinghui exchange their microphones as special "gifts" during their wedding ceremony.

Photos provided by Li Jinghui

(Women of China English Monthly July 2020 issue)
The NRA's chief executive Wayne LaPierre was singled out - AFP

New York's attorney general has filed a lawsuit seeking to disband the National Rifle Association [NRA] after claiming an 18-month investigation revealed "greed, abuse and brazen illegality" among some executives.

Letitia James claimed that mismanagement by the pro-gun organisation's leadership contributed to a loss of more than $64 million over three years as she announced the move at a press conference on Thursday.

She singled out four current or former executives including Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's chief executive and the public face of the body, while detailing allegations of "corruption" at the top of the group, founded in 1871.

Among the claims was that Mr LaPierre spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in NRA funds on private plane trips for himself and his family, including eight trips to the Bahamas.

There were also allegations of expenses being signed off in bulk without proper approval and NRA money being spent on lavish trips, expensive dinners, travel agents and private security

Ms James said the NRAs funds, which given its charitable status should be used to benefit its 5 million members, had instead been turned into a personal piggy bank by some executives.

She claimed the NRA had been failing to carry out its charitable mission and instead had been operating as a breeding ground for greed, abuse and brazen illegality.

For these years of fraud and misconduct we are seeking an order to dissolve the NRA in its entirety, Ms James said.

She later said: Today we send a strong and loud message that no one is above the law, not even the NRA, one of the most powerful organisations in this country.

Ms James was able to make the move because the NRA is registered as a charity in New York state. It remains to be seen whether her push will be successful.

The NRA will firmly oppose the attempts to force it to disband, potentially setting up years of legal wrangling. Theoretically it could also headquarter in another state to ensure its survival.

Story continues

The NRA is the most well-known pro-gun lobbying group in America and has been a major supporter of Donald Trump, the US president, during his presidency.

Mr Trump has been accusing Joe Biden, his Democratic presidential rival, of opposing the right to bear arms and could jump on the development to warn of a looming threat to gun owners.

Liberals view the NRA as a major roadblock in attempts to pass tighter laws on gun ownership in America, given the group has spent vast amounts on political activities, giving it sway in Washington.

Ms James dismissed suggestions that she had acted now either because of the approaching presidential election, which is on November 3, or because of her own past support for tighter gun laws.

Ms Jamess lawsuit singles out four current or former NRA executives: Mr LaPierre, Wilson Phillips, the former treasurer, Joshua Powell, the former chief of staff, and John Frazer, the executive director of general operations.

Ms James is pushing to have Mr LaPierre and Mr Frazer, who are both still at the NRA, removed from their posts and to ban all four men from serving on the boards of any charities based in New York in the future.

The lawsuit claims the four men instituted a culture of self-dealing, mismanagement, and negligent oversight at the NRA that was illegal, oppressive, and fraudulent, according to a statement released by the New York attorney generals office.

The lawsuit is a civil case. It is unclear if Ms James will make recommendations for criminal charges at a later date. She left the door open at her press conference but was non-committal.

A statement in response posted on the NRAs Twitter feed said the organisation will confront and prevail against the lawsuit.

This was a baseless, premeditated attack on our organisation and the Second Amendment freedoms it fights to defend, part of the statement read.

You could have set your watch by it: the investigation was going to reach its crescendo as we move into the 2020 election cycle.

Its a transparent attempt to score political points and attack the leading voice in opposition to the leftist agenda. This has been a power grab by a political opportunist  a desperate move that is part of a rank political vendetta.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Tropical Storm Isaias downed at least 2,000 trees on Staten Island, officials announced Wednesday afternoon  bringing down power lines and crippling the boroughs electricity as thousands of residents still remain without power.

Speaking to reporters at the New York City Emergency Management (NYCEM) command center at the Staten Island Mall, Commissioner Deanne Criswell said about 75% of downed trees reported on the Island have been removed but that more work lies ahead.

We saw winds that were the strongest since Sandy, the largest number of downed trees the city has seen in recent history, said Criswell. Just from a sheer logistic standpoint its creating a large amount of workload, but nothing that we cant handle.

The New York State Department of Transportation and the New York State Parks Department deployed personnel and equipment to assist in tree removal, officials said, consisting of about 13 crews who are assisting throughout the city, including Staten Island.

The cost for the additional support will likely be shared between New York City and New York state, an NYCEM spokesperson said.

In addition to deploying light towers to crucial intersections on the borough that remain without power, Criswell said NYCEM is also using the towers as pseudo-backup generators for some individuals on Staten Island who are on life-saving equipment.

Local politicians expressed concerned for vulnerable populations on the Island and said Con Edison was partnering with the NYPD to assess which homes required wellness visits as temperatures reached the high 80s.

There have been about 20,000 reports of downed trees citywide, said Criswell, and while that creates a considerable challenge for NYCEM and others, she said the lack of flooding that came with the storm will allow for a quicker recovery than if there was more significant rain and flood damage.

We think were about 75% done with the tree removal in Staten Island,' Criswell said. Well continue to work through that.

29 Isaias, the morning after

Still, over 16,000 Staten Islanders were without power as of 4:40 p.m.

Earlier in the day, Borough President James Oddo said he was told by Con Edison during a morning call that full restoration of power will be a multi-day effort and that restoration delays were strongly tied to the sheer volume of outages that occurred.

He added that Con Edison was in a full-scale response, which means all of the companys resources are being utilized.

While Manhattan, which has just over 100 homes without power as of Wednesday afternoon, currently has an estimated restoration time of 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Staten Island and the other outer boroughs do not currently have an estimated time of restoration, according to Con Edisons outage map.

Con Edison did not immediately respond to a request for information on Staten Islands estimated time of restoration at the time of publication.

Councilman Steven Matteo (R-Mid-Island) said the rate at which power was being restored was unacceptable.

Obviously this isnt fast enough, obviously this can go into tomorrow, and my constituents  some are emailing me that theyre hearing from Con Ed  when they do get through  that it could be Friday, too, said Matteo on Wednesday morning, as he urged Con Edison to double their efforts and restore power to wide swaths of the Island as quickly as possible.

Later in the afternoon, Matteo tweeted that there was some progress, but certainly not enough.
EDWARDSVILLE  Madison County Circuit Judge Sarah Smith has graduated from the U.S. Army War College with a masters degree in strategic studies.

She was one of three Illinois National Guard officers to attend the college, the Armys top leadership school.

She was recently promoted to full colonel and attended the college via correspondence courses, as well as attending classes.

It is a strenuous two-year program. Like most of the students, I was balancing a civilian career, family, my duties with the National Guard and the curriculum requirements, Smith said. I want to thank my family, particularly my husband and three boys, for taking this journey with me. There were some stressful times over the past two years, but they kept pushing me through.

She was selected for the college two years ago.

The U.S. Army War College is a difficult program to get into, said Smith, the state judge advocate for the Illinois Army National Guard. I want to extend my deepest gratitude to the senior leaders of the Illinois Army National Guard who believed in me enough to select me for this exceptional learning experience.

The U.S. Army War College educates and develops leaders for service at the strategic level and produces graduates who are skilled critical thinkers and complex problem solvers. The program focuses on key concepts in the study of war at the strategic level, including national security policy, strategic leadership, and national strategy with a focus on the relationships among military, economic, diplomatic and informational elements of power in both a domestic and international context, according to an Army news release.

Since it was founded in 1901, the Army War College has had notable graduates, including President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who graduated first in his class as a captain; Generals Omar Bradley, George Patton, Colin Powell, Norman Schwarzkopf, and Tommy Franks.

This year, the program graduated about 80% of the incoming class.

Smith was mobilized for the first time in 2005 in support of Hurricane Katrina. Her overseas experience includes service as the chief of operational and administrative law for the 35th Infantry Division in Kosovo and as deputy staff judge advocate for the 33rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team in Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. She was the first woman military judge in the entire Army National Guard.

I have learned so much from all of my military experiences, Smith said. I am excited to use the strategic knowledge and critical thinking skills from this program and to see what doors open up for me in the future.

Smith has earned multiple service awards, most notably the Bronze Star medal for her service in Afghanistan. She serves as the state judge advocate of the Illinois Army National Guard, where she is the highest-ranking JAG officer and advises general officers and other senior level commanders on all military matters. She is a circuit judge for the Third Judicial Circuit in Madison County.
CAIRO  Ethiopia is carrying on with filling the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam reservoir, despite the lack of an agreement with the two downstream countries, Egypt and Sudan, threatening Cairo and Khartoums shares of the Nile water.

Egypt has responded by forming a strategy to deal with Addis Ababa's actions, starting with projects to reduce the effects of the GERD.

On July 28, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said in a speech at the opening of the Robbiki Industrial City that the state is seeking to save every water drop through modern irrigation projects with investments worth 1 trillion Egyptian pounds ($62.5 billion).

He stressed that Egyptians are right to be concerned about the GERD, adding, We will set up a 20,000-kilometer (12,400-mile) concrete lining for canals to reduce water loss. The villagers are helping [with a canal lining project] and within a year, we will reduce water loss and maintain water in drains and canals, Sisi said.

The state is well aware of what is happening and is taking preventive measures with desalination and water treatment plants. Egyptians should know that there is a comprehensive plan to manage water use, he added.

During a July 23 meeting with the ministers of irrigation, housing and agriculture, Egyptian Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly announced his initial approval for the allocation of four billion Egyptian pounds ($25 million) for the canal lining project.

Madbouly also pointed to the construction of desalination plants in coastal governorates and the establishment of treatment plants for wastewater. He stressed the need to increase fines and penalties for wasteful water usage and illegal tapping into water networks.

Madboulys meeting with the ministers followed Ethiopias July 21 announcement that it had completed the first phase of filling the dams reservoir. The move defied the Arab League's call for Ethiopia to wait for an agreement on the rules for the filling and operation of the GERD, during an emergency meeting held June 23 upon Egypts request.

Ethiopian Foreign Minister Gedu Andargachew celebrated the completion of the first phase of the dams filling. It was the Nile River, and the river became a lake. It will no longer flow into the river. Ethiopia will have all the development it wants from it. In fact, the Nile is ours! he said July 22.

Mohamed Nasr Allam, a former Egyptian minister of irrigation and water resources, told Al-Monitor the new water projects are necessary in light of Ethiopia's insistence on unilaterally filling the dam without a fair agreement to guarantee the water shares of the downstream countries.

Egypts annual share of the Nile River amounts to 55.5 billion cubic meters, while its annual needs exceed 80 billion cubic meters. It relies on groundwater and rain to fill the deficit, yet it struggles to fully meet its water needs, even without a decrease in its Nile water share. This is why Egypt is looking into alternatives to secure water, Allam explained.

No project will be enough to meet Egypts water needs, especially for farmers, who will soon experience water scarcity should the [GERD] crisis remain unresolved, he added.

On Feb. 10, Abdel Latif Khaled, head of the irrigation department and the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, stated that 80% of Egypt's share of the Nile water is used in agriculture.

Mohamad Gamal, a professor of agricultural economics, said in a July 18 press statement that the first stage of filling will harm about 3.6 million farmers in Egypt. He estimated Egypt's economic losses at 54 billion pounds ($3.4 billion), in addition to an expected $900 million increase in imports to maintain food security.

Should Ethiopia succeed in filling the dam with 74 billion cubic meters of water without reaching an agreement, the Egyptian people would face catastrophic consequences as a result of the interruption of electricity generation from the [Aswan] dam and the lack of water supplies during the drought years. No irrigation project could replace the Nile water, Gamal said.

Mohamed al-Sebaei, spokesman for the Egyptian Ministry of Irrigation, said July 26 that Egypt fears prolonged drought, which is the main point of contention with Ethiopia. Egypt believes it is of paramount importance for both countries to cooperate in managing drought periods.

Samir Ghattas, a member of the Egyptian Parliament and head of the Middle East Forum for Strategic Studies, told Al-Monitor, These projects are merely short-term palliative measures. The government is very late in addressing this issue.

He expects Addis Ababa to continue to maneuver to prolong the ongoing negotiations sponsored by the African Union, and they can be predicted to falter, as happened when the United States was mediating the talks and failed to solve the crisis.

On Feb. 29, Ethiopia rejected US mediation and declined to attend the last round of talks in Washington, bringing the negotiations back to square one.

The three countries met again Aug. 3 for talks sponsored by the AU.

In a July 27 telephone interview on the Sada el-Balad satellite channel, Alaa Zawahiri, a member of Egypt's technical committee for the GERD negotiations, said the talks are expected to last two weeks, until Aug. 17. He expressed hope that a binding agreement will be reached.

Ghattas stressed that the military option is not on the table for the Egyptian government, as several regional parties were involved in the construction of the dam. He said that the Egyptian leaderships only option is to resume negotiations and look for ways to manage water consumption.

During his July 28 speech, Sisi also ruled out military action with regard to the GERD, urging the press to drop the topic.
A suspect who has been on the run since fleeing Seattle in the wake of a shooting in the so-called Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) zone has been charged with murder.

Marcel Long, 18, who remains at large, was charged Wednesday with premeditated first-degree murder in the death of Lorenzo Anderson, a 19-year-old Seattle man who was killed on June 20.

The murder charge also carries a firearms enhancement.

Long, who also goes by the name Marcel Green and is known as Celly Cell on social media, has a last known address in Renton, according to the charges.

His bail was set at $2 million and he is scheduled to be arraigned August 19.

Lorenzo Anderson, 19, an aspiring rapper known as Lil Mob was fatally shot in Seattle Washington's Capitol Hill Protest Zone also known as CHOP on Saturday June 20, 2020

Marcel Long has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Lorenzo Anderson near the CHOP protest zone on June 20.

Authorities said Long was caught on video chasing Anderson with a gun as the Anderson fled.

Detectives are also investigating a second fatal CHOP shooting June 29, which killed a 16-year-old boy and injured a 14-year-old boy.

Police cleared the six-block protest area east of downtown known as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest, or CHOP on July 1 after demonstrators occupied the area for several weeks following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

On Monday, Seattle's police chief pleaded with city officials to 'stop mob rule and do the right thing' after 'aggressive' protesters marched on her home Saturday.

Carmen Best wrote a letter to the council two days after protesters showed up at her home Saturday night. Best, who opposes a 50 per cent cut in police funding, said council members need to 'forcefully call for the end of these tactics.'

Protesters recently also appeared outside the homes of Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and some people on the City Council as demonstrations continue following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Pictured: Police push demonstrators back atop a Black Lives Matter street mural in the area formerly known as CHOP during protests in Seattle on July 25, 2020 in Seattle, Washington

Best last month spoke out against a plan proposed by advocates to cut the police department budget by 50 per cent and reallocate the money to other community needs. 'We will be much less safe,' she warned.

The Seattle Times reports residents blocked a road into Best's neighborhood during the demonstrations. Footage appears to show armed neighbors blocking the road. A protester says: 'We don't have guns, you're the ones with guns.'

Neighbor Jamie Roulstone said: 'It was not peaceful. They were here to intimidate. Scare people. Scare children. There were children out there and they were asking them what schools they went to. They were yelling the most horrible things you've ever heard in your entire life.'

Best's letter said her neighbors 'were concerned by such a large group' and didn't allow protesters to 'trespass or engage in other illegal behavior in the area, despite repeated attempts to do so.'

Seattle's police chief urged the City Council to tell protesters to stop visiting the homes of elected officials and others during emotional debates over reducing funding for police

Meanwhile, Seattle residents have said calls to half the police budget are 'radical' and 'irresponsible' after violence and vandalism spread throughout the city during protests.

Around 300 people who phoned in to a city council meeting last week said the redistribution of around $85million in funds will 'hurt the vulnerable'.

'Defunding the police is a radical experiment that will hurt the vulnerable,' one woman claimed. 'Why are you defunding the police when many of you have called on the SPD for protection recently? We know you have. Why are you cutting protection for everyone else?'
Shimla, Aug 6 : Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has sought the permission of the BJP government in Himachal Pradesh to spend three weeks along with her family and friends in the cool climes of her dream house set amid the cherry, peach and apple trees on the outskirts of the state capital.

The five-room cottage -- with wooden frames and shingled exteriors and a sloping tiled roof -- has recently completed its construction at a height of more than 8,000 feet amid thick forests of pine and cedar in Charabra, some 15 km uphill from Shimla.

A state Congress leader told IANS that Priyanka Gandhi wants to stay in her cottage from August 10 for a minimum of 20 days. This will be her first homecoming as the construction of the cottage has just got over.

"We are awaiting the response of the government. She has assured to follow all the health protocols while coming and staying in her cottage that include 14-day mandatory quarantine and getting the Covid-19 tests done for all the people who are accompanying her," said the leader, requesting anonymity.

People accompanying her include some of her family friends from Delhi, Gurugram and Bengaluru, said sources.

Ahead of the Covid-19 pandemic, Priyanka Gandhi, along with her children and mother Sonia Gandhi, had been regularly visiting to inspect the construction work of the two-storey house on a 4-bigha plus agricultural plot that was purchased in 2007.

Congress leader and former Cabinet Minister Vidya Stokes had played an important role in helping Priyanka Gandhi buy a three-and-a-half bigha (one bigha is 0.4 hectare) agricultural plot for around Rs 47 lakh in 2007. The then Congress government in the state had relaxed norms to let the Vadras buy the land.

The plot is close to The Retreat, the summer holiday resort of the Indian President.

Oberoi Group's luxury spa Wildflower Hall also lies close to Priyanka Gandhi's cottage. The Congress leader is one of the most high-profile people to build a house in Himachal Pradesh, years after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee chose Kullu Valley for a cottage.

The work for the cottage was initially handed over to Delhi-based architects in 2008.

In 2011, the entire building was pulled down -- not because of any dispute -- but apparently the Gandhi scion was unhappy with the size of the rooms and the building design, leaders privy to the Gandhi family said.

Later, it was re-constructed and redesigned by renowned Shimla-based builder Tenzin in the hill architecture style with strong foundation, with an open terrace at the top, and bigger rooms and drive-in.

The then Himachal Pradesh government had relaxed land rules under Section 118 of the Land Reforms and Tenancy Act to facilitate the sale for the Gandhi family.

The law prohibits outsiders from buying land in the hilly state and those who wish to buy land for non-agricultural purposes have to seek a relaxation from the government.
A hospital nurse for 33 years, Nanette Miller would call her husband Frank at the end of each shift to let him know she was coming home. On Dec. 7, 2018, the phone call came with a somber declaration: "I can't do this anymore."

Miller had to help on another hospital floor that day. She didn't know how to get back.

Several months later, she was diagnosed with what she and her husband had feared --early onset Alzheimer's disease.

But now, not even a year removed from her official diagnosis, Miller is already on a road to potential recovery due to the expansion of a groundbreaking technique crafted by the West Virginia University Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute.

Using focused ultrasound, Dr. Ali Rezai, executive chair of the RNI, and his team successfully opened the blood-brain barrier in a clinical trial with Miller, 54, of Mill Run, Pennsylvania.

By opening the blood-brain barrier, which separates the bloodstream from the brain tissue and restricts medicines, immunotherapy, gene therapy and other therapeutics from entering the brain, researchers hope it can reduce plaques and lessen Miller's symptoms.

Rezai and his team previously made waves by being the first in the world to open the hippocampal blood-brain barrier in Alzheimer's patients. With Miller, doctors took it a step further by targeting other parts of the brain, namely the parietal lobe, insula and precuneus.

Because our first trial, which targeted the hippocampus, was successful, the FDA allowed us to expand it to treat larger parts of the brain. This is an area of the brain 10 times larger than what the FDA allowed previously. These other parts of the brain, broadly the parietal lobe, are involved in knowing where you are within your environment and surroundings, and in thinking and processing of memory." Dr. Ali Rezai, Executive Chair of the RNI

During this study, doctors injected microscopic bubbles into the patient's bloodstream, and exposed the bubbles to focused ultrasound from a treatment helmet attached to the MRI, temporarily causing the blood brain barrier to open.

The gradual decline

Forgetting how to return to her work floor was not the only memory setback for Miller. She struggled with number combinations to secure areas of the hospital containing medicines

A coconut cake she made mistakenly wound up in a cupboard. By the time, they found it, it had molded.

And, as an organist at Indian Creek Baptist Church in Mill Run for several years, Miller can no longer play the instrument.

According to the Mayo Clinic, Alzheimer's disease is a progressive disorder that causes brain cells to waste away and die. It is the most common cause of dementia -- a continuous decline in thinking, behavioral and social skills that disrupts a person's ability to function independently.

But because of Miller's relatively young age at 54 (most Alzheimer's patients first experience symptoms after 60), her family and doctors are hopeful they caught it early enough to effectively stabilize or weaken her symptoms. There is currently no cure for Alzheimer's.

"If I can at least stay on a level plain like I am right now, I'd call that a success," Miller said.

Frank Miller finds it quite a coincidence that his wife helped countless people over the years as a nurse, and now the tides have turned.

"She helped so many patients," he said. "And years ago, she and her mother would bake 400 dozen cookies for people for Christmas. Now she's relying on the help of others and her doctors.

"We do realize this is a study. Nothing's guaranteed. But we feel we're helping them out just as much as they're helping Nanette."

RNI doctors will monitor Miller for five years as part of the study. They also plan to conduct the trial on additional patients.

"In our first trial, we've seen a reduction in the decline from Alzheimer's in terms of memory, cognition and overall function," Rezai said. "Given the fact that we're able to treat larger parts of the brain gives us better opportunities to see improvements in symptoms of Alzheimer's. I would say if you're stable, you're good. If you improve, that's fantastic."
The swap would be second this year and the fourth since Zelensky became president in 2019.

Ukraine expects to exchange around 100 prisoners on each side with Russian-controlled parts of Donbas within weeks.

This was disclosed by President Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, in a comment for Reuters on Thursday during a visit to eastern Ukraine.

Read alsoZelensky's Office announces new prisoner swap with Donbas soon

Yermak, the head of the president's office and a key Ukrainian negotiator, told Reuters that Kyiv had submitted a list of about 100 people to mediators at the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

He said the Russian-controlled forces submitted around the same number. While there was no date for the exchange, he said, "I hope that it will be soon. I think it's within weeks."

The swap would be second this year and the fourth since Zelensky became president in 2019.

Yermak was accompanying Zelensky on a visit to the frontline where he met soldiers and civilians in the area.
Ed has named Assad Ulhaq (pictured) as senior broker and producer, focusing on international property facultative reinsurance, primarily in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The appointment is effective immediately.

According to a statement from the global reinsurance, wholesale and specialty brokerage, Ulhaq brings 10 years of industry experience, having most recently worked at RFIB where he was responsible for the placement of heavy industrial risks in the Middle East. He began his insurance career at Aon, following a decade working in the airline industry, where he went on to specialise in property and special industrial risks in Australia, New Zealand, the Nordics, Benelux and South Africa. During his time in Aons Dubai office, Assad worked on regional property business.
Oh yes, this is much better than an ice cream truck rolling through the neighborhood. Fair warning--this hot pink La Gloria delivery truck that's dropping off thirst-quenching Margaritas to your front door is actually spotted all over the streets of San Antonio.

It's a perfect slice of heaven on a blistering Texas afternoon. But we thought this was cool idea--and just pondering if some Houston restaurant peeps may get wind of this and do the same.

PANDEMIC-SAFE HUGS: Houston-area couple creates pandemic-safe "hugging booth"

Owner of La Gloria, Chef Hernandez decided to roll out this margarita truck that delivers frozen and and on-the-rocks straight to your door in the wake of the quarantine.

"Our Margarita Trucks are another fun and creative way to adapt to the ever-changing business landscape," Hernandez told KSAT. "Today, safety is top of mind for everyone, and many of our customers are simply not ready to dine out; however, we know that doesnt mean they dont crave one of our famous margaritas."

If you take a look at the menu, you've got several chilly margs to choose from--from their signature Blue margarita, Mango margarita to the Prickly Pear marg. Guests can get the drinks served in 16-ounce glasses with a 50 milliliter add-on of El Jimador tequila priced at $10.

Houstonians, if you head over to San Antonio and take advantage of the pink truck's offerings, you can also get scrumptious Bistec Taco Kit to go with your Blue marg.

Before you order here, check out the delivery times and most importantly, if you're in the delivery zone Your frozen margs to the door are available from 3 p.m. to 8 pm. on Tuesday, 12 p.m. until 8 p.m., Thursday-Saturday, and 12 p.m. until 6 p.m. Sunday.

"Delivering to our customers homes does not only make enjoying our signature margaritas safer and more convenient, but this new avenue of serving our customers also helps to rebuild our business in turn allowing us to hire back more members of our team," Hernandez said.

alison.medley@chron.com
BARIG, the association of international and German airlines operating in Germany, is observing with great concern that in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, individual countries (within the EU and worldwide) are increasingly introducing individual travel restrictions.

These uncoordinated measures lead to a difficulty to manage patchwork of regulations, which causes massive uncertainty among travellers. The urgently needed international "track and tracing" solution that creates compatibility between the individual state apps and enables data exchange is still missing. Instead, the pandemic management must be coordinated, transparent and at the highest level in order to regain the trust of travellers and to help the heavily burdened international economy to get back up on its feet.

Countries that have adopted uncoordinated individual travel restrictions and regulations need to urgently rethink their actions, states BARIG Secretary General Michael Hoppe. Joint, coordinated action by the international community, which also needs to be based on the recommendations of the expert bodies of ICAO, EASA and ECDC, is essential for overcoming the global economic consequences of the pandemic.

The specific demands of BARIG include:

 Joint assessment of the Covid-19 situation within the EU and worldwide by the responsible state ministries and higher-level institutions such as the European Commission and a coordinated procedure derived from this.

 Coordinated implementation of the "Take-Off Aviation Health Safety" protocol developed by ICAO, EASA and ECDC.

 Compatibility of the tracing apps published by the states.

 Clear information for the travellers about possible measures always in coordination with the travel industry.

Michael Hoppe: Travel restrictions not only hurt the aviation industry extremely, but also have a heavy impact on the European as well as global economy, and delay the urgently needed recovery enormously. The cooperation of the international community and the close coordination of measures are essential to ensure that travellers fly safely and enable the sustainable reactivation of the economic cycle simultaneously. With the comprehensive protection and hygiene measures at the airports as well as on board the aircraft, the aviation industry enables people to have a health-friendly transport." - TradeArabia News Service
(Bloomberg) -- U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders said he will introduce legislation to tax what he called the obscene wealth gains from billionaires during the coronavirus crisis.

Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, made the announcement in a Twitter post Wednesday evening. Last year, while running for the Democratic nomination, Sanders embraced a proposal that would tax fortunes above $32 million at 1%, with an increasing rate that would top out at 8% over $10 billion.

This time, hes directed his focus to the profits billionaires have made since the Covid-19 crisis started. Sanders wrote that a 60% tax on the windfall gains from 467 billionaires between March 18 and Aug. 3 could raise more than $420 billion, which he said would be enough to allow Medicare to pay all out-of-pocket health-care expenses for everyone in the U.S. in the next year.

MUSK MONEY: Elon Musk soars past Warren Buffett on billionaires ranking

The senators office didnt respond to a voice mail and email after normal business hours.

While the pandemic has left millions of Americans unemployed, the collective fortune of Americas billionaire class has surged since January, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The worlds wealthiest family, the Waltons of Walmart Inc., is richer than ever, and tech companies have become so powerful that some of the industrys moguls had to defend their businesses to Congress last week. The market value of five of the largest American tech companies now represents almost a third of U.S. gross domestic product.

The worlds richest man, Amazon.com Inc.s Jeff Bezos, has gained $74.9 billion this year alone, pushing his fortune to $190 billion. Elon Musk of Tesla Inc. has added $42.5 billion, taking his wealth to $70 billion, while Facebook Inc.s Mark Zuckerberg is $16.2 billion richer, with a $94.5 billion net worth.

STIMULUS FRAUD?: Houston entrepreneur accused of using CARES Act money on Lamborghini

A Sanders tax on billionaire gains during the pandemic would need to get through Congress to take effect, which is virtually impossible given that Republicans control the Senate. And while the pandemic has renewed progressive demands to soak the rich, many Democrats have steered clear from backing a direct wealth tax. Presidential candidate Joe Bidens proposed $4 trillion in new taxes avoids such a levy entirely and focuses instead on added income and payroll taxes for high-income individuals.

In his Twitter post, Sanders contrasted the gains made by the likes of Bezos and the Walton family with the U.S.s continuing high unemployment and growing food insecurity.

In all likelihood, in the midst of everything else, we are currently witnessing what is likely the greatest transfer of wealth from the middle class and the poor to the very rich in the modern history of this country, Sanders wrote.

2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Technavio has been monitoring the baby diapers market and it is poised to grow by USD 16.94 billion during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of over 5% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200806005633/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Baby Diapers Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire)

Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please Request Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impact

Frequently Asked Questions-

What was the value of the baby diapers market in 2019?

Technavio says that the value of the market was USD 56.57 billion in 2019 and it is projected to reach USD 73.51 billion by 2024.

At what CAGR is the market projected to grow during the forecast period 2020-2024?

Growing at a CAGR of over 5%, the market growth will accelerate during the forecast period.

What is the key factor driving the market?

Increasing focus on product improvement is one of the key factors driving the market growth.

Who are the top players in the market?

Domtar Corp., Essity Aktiebolag (publ), First Quality Enterprises Inc., Hengan International Group Co. Ltd., Kao Corp., Kimberly-Clark Corp., Koninklijke Philips NV, The Procter Gamble Co., Unicharm Corp., and Unilever Group are some of the major market participants.

Which region is expected to hold the highest market share?

APAC

What is the year-over-year growth rate of the global market?

The year-over-year growth rate for 2020 is estimated at 5%.

The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. Domtar Corp., Essity Aktiebolag (publ), First Quality Enterprises Inc., Hengan International Group Co. Ltd., Kao Corp., Kimberly-Clark Corp., Koninklijke Philips NV, The Procter Gamble Co., Unicharm Corp., and Unilever Group are some of the major market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments.

Increasing focus on product improvement has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market.

Baby Diapers Market 2020-2024: Segmentation

Baby Diapers Market is segmented as below:

Product Disposable Training Swim Pants Others

Geography North America APAC South America Europe 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=IRTNTR43667

Baby Diapers 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 baby diapers market report covers the following areas:

Baby Diapers Market size

Baby Diapers Market trends

Baby Diapers Market analysis

This study identifies the rising R&D investments by key market competitors as one of the prime reasons driving the baby diapers market growth during the next few years.

Baby Diapers Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of vendors operating in the baby diapers market, including some of the vendors such as Domtar Corp., Essity Aktiebolag (publ), First Quality Enterprises Inc., Hengan International Group Co. Ltd., Kao Corp., Kimberly-Clark Corp., Koninklijke Philips NV, The Procter Gamble Co., Unicharm Corp., and Unilever Group. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the baby diapers market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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Baby Diapers Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist baby diapers market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the baby diapers market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the baby diapers market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of baby diapers market vendors

Table of Contents:

Executive Summary

Market Landscape

Market ecosystem

Market characteristics

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 Product

Market segments

Comparison by Product

Disposable Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Training Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Swim pants Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Others Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by Product

Market Segmentation by Distribution channel

Market segments

Comparison by Distribution channel

Retail stores Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Online channels Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by Distribution channel

Customer Landscape

Geographic Landscape

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

North America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

APAC Market size and forecast 2019-2024

South America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Europe 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

Domtar Corp.

Essity Aktiebolag (publ)

First Quality Enterprises Inc.

Hengan International Group Co. Ltd.

Kao Corp.

Kimberly-Clark Corp.

Koninklijke Philips NV

The Procter Gamble Co.

Unicharm Corp.

Unilever Group

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 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/20200806005633/en/

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An attack at an anti-India rally in Karachi left 39 people injured on Wednesday. The rally was organized and was being conducted to protest against the abolishment of Article 370 due to which special status of Jammu and Kashmir was revoked.

A grenade attack at an anti-India rally in Karachi left 39 people injured on Wednesday evening, officials said. The explosion occurred near the main truck that was part of the rally organised by Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) in Gulshan-i-Iqbal area, a JI spokesperson was quoted by Dawn as saying. Two bike-borne unidentified persons threw a grenade at the rally and fled the spot. The rally was being held to protest against Indias move to abrogate Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir on August 5 last year.

Among the 39 injured, one person was said to be in a critical condition while no fatalities were reported, said Meeran Yousuf, the media coordinator to the Sindh Health Minister. The rally was organized and was being conducted to protest against the abolishment of Article 370 due to which special status of Jammu and Kashmir was revoked.

Five of the injured were earlier rushed to Al Mustafa Hospital, seven to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), 11 to Aga Khan University Hospital and 10 to Liaquat National Hospital. The Sindhudesh Revolutionary Army (SRA), a banned outfit, claimed responsibility for the attack through social media.

Also read: J&K Guv GC Murmu resigns 9 months after assuming charge, Manoj Sinha to take over

Also read: As incessant rains pound Mumbai, PM assures all possible support to Uddhav Govt

Meanwhile, in a separate incident, three people were hurt in a cracker attack in the citys Korangi area, according to police. Unidentified miscreants on a motorcycle threw a homemade grenade at an estate agency at Nasir Jump, Korangi-I and escaped, according to Dawn. The injured were shifted to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre or JPMC.

Also read: Indias Covid-19 tally close to 2 million, death toll now at 40,699
Comedian Tiffany Haddish Joins Councilmember Herb Wesson in Donating Computers to Students in Foster Care

On Wednesday, Jul. 30, actress and comedian Tiffany Haddish joined Los Angeles Councilmember Herb Wesson and Sentinel columnist and political strategist Jasmyne Cannick in handing out over 700 laptops to students in the L.A. County foster system.

Both Haddish, 40 and Cannick, 42, spent time during their youth in the foster care system in Los Angeles in the 90s. Cannick was joined by her social worker from when she was in the foster care system between 1990 and 1996 Gina Prophet who today is a supervisor in the Palmdale Department of Children and Family Services.

The computers given away were a donation from Wessons OurCycleLA project which is a digital inclusion program designed to bridge the digital divide in low-income households in Los Angeles and other marginalized communities.

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As the ongoing pandemic has severely impacted India's hotel industry, the sector has recorded a 43.5 per cent fall in Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR) for the first half of 2020 on a year-on-year basis, according to a report by JLL.

All key 11 markets in India reported a decrease in RevPAR Performance in Q2 over the same period last year, showed the report titled 'Hotel Momentum India (HMI) Q2 2020'.

"Overall, in terms of inventory volume, brand signings declined by 83 per cent in Q2 2020 over Q2 2019, however international operators signed a greater number of keys than domestic peers. Room and F&B demand continue to remain minimal amidst lockdowns and partial openings," it said.

Mumbai continues to be the RevPAR leader in absolute terms, despite the decline of RevPAR by 81 per cent in Q2 2020 compared to Q2 2019, said the report, adding that Goa saw the sharpest decline in RevPAR in Q2 2020, with a 93.9 per cent drop compared to the same period in the previous year.

International hotel operators dominated signings over domestic operators with the ratio of 63:37 in terms of inventory volume, as per the report.

Other cities such as Kolkata (88.9 per cent), Bengaluru (88.5 per cent), and Ahmedabad (85.5 per cent) also witnessed sharp decline in performance.

"Whilst hotels in certain cities opened in early June, guests have not yet returned. We believe that demand in business cities will take time to recover and it will only happen when companies allow their employees to travel through their revised travel advisories. Leisure demand may pick up around large cities wherein close friends and family groups may start travelling by road in the coming months," it said.

Jaideep Dang, Managing Director, Hotels & Hospitality Group (India), JLL, said: "Investors are taking a sharper interest in exploring operational hotel opportunities. Conversations are progressing, but site visits are still out of bounds and hence transactions and development activity has not yet begun. However, we remain confident that activity will resume in the medium-term."

--IANS

rrb/sn/vd

(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.)
She recently celebrated her younger brother Joey's 30th birthday with a lavish jungle paradise themed bash.

But Frankie Essex treated herself on Wednesday as she was spotted arriving in Chigwell, Essex laden with bags after a shopping spree at Louis Vuitton in London.

The former TOWIE star, 32, cut a stylish figure in a white pleated dress, which wrapped over at the bust and cinched her in at the waist.

Designer garb: Frankie Essex treated herself on Wednesday as she was spotted arriving in Chigwell, Essex laden with bags after a shopping spree at Louis Vuitton in London

Frankie complemented her summery outfit with white trainers and a snakeskin print moneybag which she wore around her waist.

She styled her blonde hair in a sleek straight centre parting and amped up the glamour with a full face of make-up.

After leaving the tube, Frankie peeled off her mandatory face mask and beamed, clearly delighted with her designer purchases.

Gorgeous: The former TOWIE star, 32, cut a stylish figure in a white pleated dress, which wrapped over at the bust and cinched her in at the waist

Happy: After leaving the tube, Frankie peeled off her mandatory face mask and beamed, clearly delighted with her recent designer purchases

Frankie flew solo on the trip but last month shared a loved-up picture of herself with boyfriend Luke while telling the world what he means to her.

Taking to Instagram, the star wrote: 'Not only my boyfriend but my best friend' as he threw his arms around her.

The reality star made her first public appearance with personal trainer Luke back in November, when they attended a Halloween themed party together.

Party! Frankie recently celebrated her younger brother Joey's 30th with a lavish jungle paradise themed bash

Last year, Frankie spoke about her new love with Closer magazine and said: 'Yes, I'm in a relationship. We've been seeing each other for a few months, and I'm really happy.

'He treats me well and is very, very, supportive in every way, we're good together.'

She also shared a sweet message about him on his birthday on social media.

She wrote: 'Follow your heart and the magic will too  wishing my darling the happiest birthday today you have been my absolute rock since the day we met...!

'Your one in a million and I cant wait to spend another year with you laughing at our own jokes and keeping eachother sane happy 29th + 1th baby I love you [sic]'.
Despite our broad understanding of the different brain regions activated during rapid-eye-movement sleep, little is known about what this activity serves for.

Researchers at the University of Bern and the Inselspital have now discovered that the activation of neurons in the hypothalamus during REM sleep regulates eating behavior: suppressing this activity in mice decreases appetite.

While we are asleep, we transition between different phases of sleep each of which may contribute differently to us feeling rested.

During (rapid eye movement) REM sleep, a peculiar sleep stage also called paradoxical sleep during which most dreaming occurs, specific brain circuits show very high electrical activity, yet the function of this sleep-specific activity remains unclear.

Among the brain regions that show strong activation during REM sleep are areas that regulate memory functions or emotion, for instance. The lateral hypothalamus, a tiny, evolutionarily well conserved brain structure in all mammals also shows high activity during REM sleep.

In the awake animals, neurons from this brain region orchestrate appetite and the consumption of food and they are involved in the regulation of motivated behaviors and addiction.

In a new study, researchers headed by Prof. Dr. Antoine Adamantidis at the University of Bern set out to investigate the function of the activity of hypothalamic neurons in mice during REM sleep.

They aimed at better understanding how neural activation during REM sleep influences our day-to-day behavior. They discovered that suppressing the activity of these neurons decreases the amount of food the mice consume.

"This suggests that REM sleep is necessary to stabilize food intake", says Adamantidis. The results of this study have been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Long-lasting effect on neuronal activity and feeding behavior

The researcher discovered that specific activity patterns of neurons in the lateral hypothalamus that usually signal eating in the awake mouse are also present when the animals were in the stage of REM sleep.

To assess the importance of these activity patterns during REM sleep the research group used a technique called optogenetics, with which they used light pulses to precisely shut down the activity of hypothalamic neurons during REM sleep. As a result, the researchers found that the activity patterns for eating were modified and that the animals consumed less food.

We were surprised how strongly and persistently our intervention affected the neural activity in the lateral hypothalamus and the behaviour of the mice." Lukas Oesch, Study First Author, University of Bern

"The modification in the activity patterns was still measurable after four days of regular sleep." These findings suggest that electrical activity in hypothalamic circuits during REM sleep are highly plastic and essential to maintain a stable feeding behavior in mammals.

It is a question of quality

These findings point out that sleep quantity alone is not solely required for our well-being, but that sleep quality plays a major role in particular to maintain appropriate eating behavior.

"This is of particular relevance in our society where not only sleep quantity decreases but where sleep quality is dramatically affected by shift work, late night screen exposure or social jet-lag in adolescents", explains Adamantidis.

The discovered link between the activity of the neurons during REM sleep and eating behavior may help developing new therapeutical approaches to treat eating disorders.

It might also be relevant for motivation and addiction. "However, this relationship might depend on the precise circuitry, the sleep stage and other factors yet to be uncovered", adds Adamantidis.
LAUSD Parents, Students, and Teachers Protest for Police-Free Schools

Parents, students and teachers protested at the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce in part of a national action to demand equity for students. Protestors are demanding the police are defunded, that police are out of schools, and making sure students dont return to schools until health experts confirm that its safe.

Police are criminalizing students, says Director of Operations and Campaign at L.A. Students Deserve Joseph Williams. In LAUSD, Black students are only 8% of the student population, but theyve been 25% and 30% of all contacts, citations, and arrests by L.A. school police. We know that Black student achievement has been one of the lowest rates on all of LAUSD.

Williams infers that LAUSD refuses to invest in Black student success and instead is investing in prioritizing the criminalization of Black students. They are calling out and demanding the school district to move towards police free schools and funding the allocation of resources that students deserve. Williams also mentions they are calling out state legislators and people in power to tax the rich so that the schools can get the resources they need.

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The protestors are fighting for racial equality. Their claim is that the Chamber of Commerce represents the interests of businesses and corporations. They recently voted against Proposition 15, which is directly against the interests and needs of schools, communities and youth, Williams tells the L.A. Sentinel. Were seeing that they are choosing billionaires instead of choosing what our schools and students need. Were here to call them out for that.

Student leader and rising-senior at Girls Academic Leadership Academy, Kahlila Williams, expressed her frustrations. She feels that the Chamber of Commerce focuses on the rich. Williams tells the L.A. Sentinel, Were calling on them to fund students and not billionaires. For years, students in Black and Brown communities have faced [the] inequality of LAUSD and our California businesses. They need to pay up and start funding our schools.

Not every student in LAUSD has equitable access to online learning and thats what they are pushing for. Students in Black and Brown communities are being disproportionately affected by this pandemic and LAUSD, the rising senior,, Williams states. For online learning, we need the resources and that access and we cant do that if we are not being funded. Were calling out the Chamber of Commerce, thats why were calling out (Austin) Beutner. Were asking them to fund us and they need to fund us, says Williams.

The time is up for neglecting our communities. The time is up for criminalizing our students. The time is for billionaires not paying their fair share, says UTLA President and Activist Cecily Myart-Cruz. She indicates its the perfect time to stand up and speak truth in power. Myart-Cruz passionately states, In words of the late John Lewis, let us get in the way and demand change.

Along with the students, parents, and teachers, there was a long line of protesters in their cars that marched over to LAUSD headquarters to provide a letter demanding justice. As protesters walked the streets of downtown, cars were honking with their signs supporting the movement and chants of Defund the police! Defund the police! Defund the police! yelled as they approached LAUSD headquarters.

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Late Sunday night, UTLA and LAUSD reached a tentative agreement on distance learning that meets UTLAs top needs of protecting the health of staff and students. They will have a smart start to the school year and will put more emphasis on socio-emotional support and strengthen technology support. The agreement will go to the LAUSD School Board next week for a vote.
SINN Fein TD Maurice Quinlivan has been appointed to the high-profile role of chairman of the influential enterprise, trade and employment committee.

The news  confirmed by his party president Mary-Lou McDonald  came after Limericks poll-topper turned down a front-bench role in favour of this position.

Mr Quinlivan said he hopes to strike a balance between getting people back to work in a post Covid-19 pandemic world, and protecting the rights of workers.

Its important businesses get the supports they need, but its critically important they dont use this opportunity to diminish workers rights and cut pay. Thats something we will be holding not just businesses, but governments to account on, the City TD told Business Leader.

Mr Quinlivan hopes his role can have an impact on Limerick, which has eight out of 10 of Irelands unemployment blackspots.

As main opposition, Sinn Fein has its pick of the committees.

I think our front bench team is excellent, they are very strong. Sinn Fein never had five committees before, so we will work together and try and make sure workers and families are protected. Well make sure we scrutinise them properly and so be no attacks on workers, he pledged.

Ms McDonald said: This is the first time a Sinn Fein TD has held this important role and is reflective of the change that people voted for in February's election. Maurice brings an immense wealth of experience to this position and I have no doubt he will do an excellent job in his new role.

Mr Quinlivan was his partys spokesperson on enterprise, trade and employment in the latter part of his maiden Dail term.

The enterprise, trade and employment committee will play a very important role in providing vital oversight as we face the unprecedented challenges in trying to rebuild society in a way which delivers a fair recovery for all at a time of crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Sinn Fein president said, The committee needs to hold the government to account and ensure that we see a society that facilitates the growth of enterprise, while protecting the rights of workers.

Its anticipated the committee will sit for the first time in September.

Mr Quinlivan was first elected to Dail Eireann in 2016, and retained his seat by heading the poll in 2020. Prior to this, he served a full term on the former Limerick City Council, and 18 months on the new unitary authority. Married to Sue, he lives in Thomondgate.

For more Limerick news click here
(Bloomberg) -- Uber Technologies Inc. generated more revenue from delivering food than transporting people for the first time last quarter, but it failed to offset a steep and prolonged decline in ridership brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

Sales fell 29% in the second quarter to $2.24 billion, ending a decade of unchecked growth. The loss in the quarter also widened, but Uber maintained Thursday that it will achieve its goal of turning an adjusted profit by the end of next year.

Delivery revenue, which was growing even before the pandemic, surged 103% during the quarter and is now central to Ubers strategy. Along with a $2.65 billion deal to acquire Postmates Inc. and expand its food delivery operations, Uber has begun delivering other items including groceries, prescriptions and packages. Uber now includes UberEats, its food delivery service, as part of the Delivery category.

Delivery is clearly one of the major beneficiaries of Covid-19 bolstering UberEats as well as competitors GrubHub and DoorDash, said JMP Securities analyst Ron Josey in an interview.But those same pandemic health restrictions that prompted customers to hunker down and order out froze travel in many of Ubers most important markets. Mobility, Ubers new category for rides and scooters, plunged 67% to $790 million in revenue. Ride demand has rebounded in cities like Hong Kong that have re-opened, but remains low in San Francisco, Los Angeles and other areas still struggling to contain the virus, Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi said during a conference call to discuss the results.

He also said he hasnt seen any signs there will be permanent damage to Uber as a result of the pullback, but declined to provide a date for a full global recovery.

Daniel Morgan, a portfolio manager at Synovus Trust Co., said given the number of retailers, schools and workplaces closed or at reduced capacity, transportation use will probably remain low for the foreseeable future. Continued high Covid-19 case levels will likely weigh on ride-sharing demand throughout 2020 and into 2021, he wrote in a note to clients.

Story continues

In an acknowledgment of the long-term consequences of the pandemic, Uber said this week that its own employees could work from home until the end of June 2021. As the effects weigh on the business, Khosrowshahi has turned to cost-cutting. He eliminated about a quarter of the workforce in May and shuttered dozens of offices.Uber even pared back its global food delivery operation by exiting more than a half-dozen markets to make room for expansion in more developed ones. After bidding unsuccessfully for Grubhub Inc., Uber agreed to buy Postmates last month in a bid to add more U.S. customers and become the third largest food delivery service in North America, according to SecondMeasure.Although the company once trumpeted exotic projects like self-driving vehicles and helicopter rides, those businesses were scarcely mentioned in the companys financial report, reflecting humbler ambitions and a focus on delivery and mobility.In the quarter that ended in June, gross bookings from delivery doubled to $6.96 billion. Mobility, which is predominantly made up of ride-hailing but also includes scooter rentals, declined 75% to $3.05 billion. Many investors pay close attention to gross bookings to track the total value of spending with Uber. Analysts expected less from delivery and more from ride-hailing in the quarter.

The loss excluding taxes, interest and other expenses was $837 million. Analysts on average expected an adjusted loss of $883 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That loss didnt include deductions related to restructuring, compensation or other charges during the quarter like Ubers Covid-19 response. Uber spent $48 million during the quarter to reimburse drivers for the cost of purchasing their own protective gear and compensate drivers who were either diagnosed with the virus or quarantined because of it and couldnt work.

Q2 was a tough quarter, but I am just incredibly proud how the team executed, Khosrowshahi said on the call. I think that we pivoted in a big way.

The company ended the quarter with $6.8 billion in unrestricted cash, $1 billion in short-term investments and equity stakes in Didi, Grab and Yandex totaling $9.4 billion.

One dark cloud still lingering over Uber and other gig companies Lyft Inc., Instacart Inc. and DoorDash is the potential impact of reclassifying workers as employees. If Uber reclassifies drivers, ride prices would increase as much as 30% in San Francisco and as much as 120% in the less populated Inland Empire where demand is sparse, according to an analysis by Uber.

Uber was dealt setbacks over the last year in California, where the law is designed to give employee benefits to its workers, and New York, where courts have sided with some drivers. The states represent two of Ubers largest markets.

Khosrowshahi didnt directly address that threat to the company, focusing instead on the strength of a November ballot measure in California that would overturn the 2020 law.

Time will tell whether or not the legislature or the voters and the courts agree with our position, he said.

The number of people using Ubers platform each month, a closely watched measure of engagement, shrank 44% in the second quarter to 55 million customers, well below analysts expectations of a decline of about 7%. Shares sank about 3% in extended trading after the financial report.

(Updates with CEO and analyst quotes from fourth paragraph)

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.

2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Hyderabad, Aug 6 : Telugu actor Allu Sirish says hits and flops come and go but there is always that one film that stays memorable.

Sirish took to Instagram, where he shared a poster of the film "Srirastu Subhamastu". He says it is the one film in his career that will stay memorable in every way for him.

"Hits and flops come and go. But then there will always be that one film that's memorable in every way. For me that film was 'Srirastu Subhamastu'," he wrote alongside the image.

The actor recalled the time he was shooting for the 2016 film, directed by Parasuram.

"I was going through one of the toughest times in my personal life. I would beg Bujji Sir (Parasuram Petla) to keep the shoot as I dont wanna go back home or be alone. In Bujji, I found a director who taught me acting and mentored me, a friend who I could share my emotions with and a brother who is very protective of me," he said.

The actor said he felt like he was playing himself in the film.

"Once on sets I would forget everything on my mind, even the fact that we were working. We'd be laughing, traveling and eating together every day. The character too was named Sirish, so it was all a blur for me. It felt like I'm playing myself. We shot across Hyderabad, Vizag and Kashmir with a huge ensemble cast," he said.

Sirish then thanked all his co-stars Lavanya, Rao Ramesh, Prakash Raj, Subbaraju, Ali, Hamsa Nandini, Tanikella Bharani and every character actor for being a part of the film.

The actor also thanked the technicians and said that he was ever grateful to the film's director Parasuram for giving him a break with the film.

"I can't believe its been already 4 years of this film. Hoping my life is filled with many more "srirastu subhamastu" moments going forward. Thank you for all the love shown towards this film. Sweetest memories!" The movie is inspired by the 2014 Kannada movie "Bahaddur".
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-07 06:10:15|Editor: huaxia

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PARIS, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- The police operation to tackle the hostage-taking at a bank office in the northern French port city of Le Havre ended without casualties, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin announced.

"The hostage-taker was arrested. The hostages are released and safe," the minister tweeted.

A man armed with a gun seized six hostages after he stormed a bank office at 17:00 local time (1500 GMT). One hostage had escaped.

Security forces cordoned off the area and elite RAID police officers were dispatched. After several hours of negotiations, all the hostages were gradually released. The author of the hostage-taking surrendered to the police, hoisting a white flag before being arrested.

The hostage-taker, 34, suffers mental health problems. He was known to police for common law delinquency and weapon-carrying, local media reported. Enditem
HMD Global, the maker of Nokia-branded phones, on Thursday announced the appointment of former OneWeb advisor Alain Lejeune in the new global operations leadership role for the company.

Lejeune brings to the new role more than 25 years' experience in telecommunications and is a seasoned global operations leader. At OneWeb, he was a special advisor focused on the operations strategy.

In his new role as Global Leader of Operations at HMD, Lejeune will be responsible for overseeing all operations for HMD Global and leading engineering and supply chain management efforts for the company.

"Steadfast operations play a pivotal role in maintaining equilibrium for a nimble startup such as HMD Global, and I look forward to helping the business maintain momentum and navigate change now and, in the future," Lejeune said on his appointment.

He will report to Florian Seiche, Chief Executive Officer at HMD Global. Prior to OneWeb, Lejeune worked with TCL Group -- joining as part of the company's acquisition of the mobile phone division of Alcatel.

Lejeune was also responsible for managing the acquisition of global licensing rights from Canadian-based BlackBerry Limited by TLC.Following a successful acquisition, he became President of the BlackBerry Mobile business division created within TCL and re-launched BlackBerry smartphones as a premium professional brand to global markets.
BENGALURU -- Waning rice supplies in Vietnam pushed export prices to a near 2-month peak this week, while a strengthening domestic currency kept rates of the Thai variety high, subduing demand.

Vietnam's 5% broken rice prices rose to $470 per tonne on Thursday, their highest since mid-June, from $440-$450 last week.

"Supplies are running low as the summer-autumn harvest has come to an end," a trader based in Ho Chi Minh City said, adding that local traders have also been hoarding the grain in anticipation of higher prices.

"Traders have been focusing mainly on fulfilling their export contracts signed earlier with Cuba, Malaysia and the Philippines."

Vietnam will start sowing the autumn-winter crop, and the next harvest won't begin until October, other traders said.

In Thailand, benchmark 5% broken rice prices were quoted at $463-$485, little changed from $465-$483 last week.

"The strong baht (against the U.S. dollar) has really kept the price of Thai rice higher than our competitors and deterred buyers," a Bangkok-based trader said.

Supply remains a concern as the drought earlier in the year affected production.

"We are seeing not much new supply entering the market for the off-season crop despite recent rain, which means the price will likely stay high," another Bangkok-based trader said.

Top exporter India's 5% broken parboiled variety prices were unchanged at $380-$385 per tonne from the previous week.

India's rice exporters are struggling to fulfil orders due to limited availability of containers and workers at mills and the country's biggest rice handling port due to surging coronavirus cases.

"Loading is still limited at Kakinada port due to labour shortage," said an exporter based at Kakinada in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

In Bangladesh, the longest-running floods in over two decades have submerged nearly 80,000 hectares of paddy fields, according to officials from the agriculture ministry.
(Photo : Screenshot from Twitter post of @AndyVermaut) Leaked Photos of China's New Type-075 Warship Show It Began Sea Trials (Photo : Screenshot from Twitter post of @CavasShips) Leaked Photos of China's New Type-075 Warship Show It Began Sea Trials

China's new warship, a new class of the country's amphibious ships, has started its sea trials as revealed by leaked photos. According to UNSI News' latest report, the pictures showing Chinese Type-075 were released on several Chinese social media platforms.

The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type-075 amphibious assault ship (LHD) can be seen sailing into the sea to prepare for its tests. China's first amphibious warship set sailed in 2019, while the second one was launched on April , as reported by the Congressional Research Service.

Also Read: Satellite Images Show 20% More Population of Emperor Penguin; 11 New Colonies Found in Antarctica

According to the Office of Naval Intelligence 2020 report, three Chinese amphibious assault warships are being constructed. It was explained that the Chinese Navy is focusing on a wide array of weapon acquisition programs and platforms. These include anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCMs), anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBMs), unmanned vehicles (UVs), submarines, aircraft, and surface ships.

Also Read: North Korea Might Have Developed Miniaturized Nuclear Devices: UN Warned it Could Be Used to Fit into Ballistic Missiles

China's naval modernization effort also supports "command and control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems" or C4IRS. It also includes improvements in logistics and maintenance, personnel quality, doctrine, exercises, and education and training.

The report also claimed that China's military modernization effort's primary goal is to address the situation the country faces with Taiwan. It also aims to have greater control over the South China Sea and other near-seas regions.

China's New Amphibious Warship's capabilities

The capabilities of the Chinese Navy's new warship were detailed by the CRS report. It explained that the Asian country could use the amphibious vehicles vessels for noncombatant evacuation operations, protecting its stated claims in the South China Sea, and other military actions.

The long-anticipated initial sea trials of #China 's 1st Type 075 #amphibious assault ship could begin soon, judging from these photos on 4 August. Good look into the well deck below and hangar deck above. 2nd ship is ahead at left. MT @RupprechtDeino via @ from Weibo pic.twitter.com/2SOO4xzNzG  Chris Cavas (@CavasShips) August 5, 2020

"Although larger amphibious ships such as the Type 071 and Type 075 would be of value for conducting amphibious landings in Taiwan-related conflict scenarios," written in the CSR report.

"Some observers believe that China is building such ships as much for their value in conducting other operations," added the report.

The war vessel can also be used for maritime security operations and humanitarian assistance/disaster relief (HA/DR). The report also claimed that China conducted its amphibious assault ship's sea trial because of the rising conflict between Beijing and Washington D.C., which have worsened in recent months.

"The PLAN began development of the Type 075 in 2011 as a helicopter carrier that would displace about 35,000 tons - smaller than the U.S. 45,000-ton Wasp and America-class big decks," reported by USNI News last week.

For more updates on China's sea trials, keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Also Read: Trump's 'Super Duper Missile:' US Army Releases a New Footage of Its Test Launch

This article is owned by TechTimes.

Written by: Giuliano de Leon.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
CALGARY - Shares in Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. rose Thursday after it reported record production of synthetic crude oil and lower operating costs at its oilsands mining operations in northern Alberta during the second quarter.

Production of synthetic crude  oilsands bitumen that fetches higher prices after being upgraded to a light oil quality  rose to a record 464,300 barrels per day, despite maintenance activities at its Horizon oilsands mine in May.

Meanwhile, Canadian Natural said it cut costs at its mining and upgrading operations to $17.74 per barrel, a 15-per-cent decrease from the first quarter.

During the quarter, we effectively and efficiently reacted to temporarily curtail production and complete maintenance due to low prices while prioritizing high-margin production, said president Tim McKay on a conference call.

Then, as prices improved, we quickly reinstated production cost effectively.

He credited the improved performance to synergies between Canadian Naturals Horizon mine and the Athabasca Oil Sands Project mine it operates after buying a 70 per cent stake in 2017.

The Athabasca mine supplies the Shell Canada-operated Scotford upgrader near Edmonton  McKay said Canadian Natural is confident it will be able to fill an additional 15,000 to 20,000 bpd of capacity at Scotford when its expansion to 320,000 bpd of capacity opens later this quarter.

The Calgary-based company beat analysts financial expectations in the three months ended June 30 despite taking a net loss of $310 million on $2.94 billion in revenue, compared with a year-ago profit of $2.8 billion on $5.93 billion in revenue.

Its adjusted loss was $772 million or 65 cents per share, versus expectations of 85 cents per share on $2.84 billion of revenue, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.

In Toronto, its shares closed 2.9 per cent higher at $25.76 as analysts applauded the companys higher than expected second-quarter production and prospects for strong output in the second half of 2020.

The company reduced output at its primary heavy oil operations by 24 per cent and at its thermal oilsands projects by seven per cent in the second quarter compared with the first because their non-upgraded products were harder hit by low crude prices.

It said it expects an acceleration of corporate tax cuts by the province of Alberta from 10 to eight per cent effective July 1 will result in tax savings for 2020 of $35 million, which it said it expects to invest in projects in Alberta.

Canadian Natural said its current break-even West Texas Intermediate price level is US$30 to US$31 per barrel. WTI crude traded at US$42.12 on Thursday morning.

The company said it will leave its capital spending budget at $2.7 billion this year and expects its net debt at year-end will be unchanged from last years level.

It produced 1.16 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in the second quarter, including about 922,000 bpd of crude and liquids produced with natural gas.

North American natural gas production averaged 1.4 billion cubic feet per day, a two per cent increase from the first quarter, as Canadian Natural enacted a plan to add about 60 million cf/d of low-cost gas production.

The company consumes the equivalent of about half of its natural gas production in its oilsands operations.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 6, 2020.

Companies in this story: (TSX:CNQ)

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The country's strategy with Covid-19 is not working and we don't have control of the virus, according to an expert.

Professor Tomas Ryan, an associate professor at Trinity College, fears we could be in a situation in a couple of weeks where restrictions may need to be reimposed as cases continue to rise.

50 new cases of coronavirus were reported by the Department of Health last night.

Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn said: "Covid-19 is an extremely contagious virus and we have seen a significant increase in its spread across multiple counties over recent days. We are monitoring this very closely.

"Our focus over the coming weeks will be on continuing every effort to slow the spread of the virus so that our schools can reopen, our healthcare services resume, and our nursing homes are protected."

Prof Ryan says there needs to be a change in policy to stop the spread.

What were doing is not working, and we need to think about making some changes, he said.

Clearly cases are still rising and it doesnt feel like we have any control of this.

Many of the cases that were identified were close contacts of previously confirmed cases.

The problem is they were spreading the virus for at least a couple of days before that because our test, trace, isolation structure is still not fast enough.

The professor said that without change, Ireland could experience a situation like in Melbourne or Aberdeen The Australian state of Victoria is still in lockdown following a spike in coronavirus, while in Aberdeen people are being confined to within eight kilometres of their homes.

He added: In a couple of weeks we could be in a situation quite similar to what happened in Melbourne or Aberdeen and no one wants to see that. He said we will be dealing with bigger challenges when pubs and schools reopen.

As winter comes and as flu season comes, we need a more robust system to be doing this.

We cannot be just walking a tightrope. We need proper guard rails."
Computer Aided Engineering Market Research Report by Type (Computational Fluid Dynamics, Finite Element Analysis, Multibody dynamics, and Optimization & simulation), by Deployment (On-Cloud and On-Premise), by Application - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19

New York, Aug. 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Computer Aided Engineering Market Research Report by Type, by Deployment, by Application - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913923/?utm_source=GNW



The Global Computer Aided Engineering Market is expected to grow from USD 7,825.60 Million in 2019 to USD 13,186.09 Million by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 9.08%.



Market Segmentation & Coverage:

This research report categorizes the Computer Aided Engineering to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets:



Based on Type, the Computer Aided Engineering Market studied across Computational Fluid Dynamics, Finite Element Analysis, Multibody dynamics, and Optimization & simulation.



Based on Deployment, the Computer Aided Engineering Market studied across On-Cloud and On-Premise.



Based on Application, the Computer Aided Engineering Market studied across Automotive, Defense & aerospace, Electronics, Industrial equipment, and Medical devices.



Based on Geography, the Computer Aided Engineering Market studied across Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The Americas region surveyed across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and United States. The Asia-Pacific region surveyed across Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand. The Europe, Middle East & Africa region surveyed 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 Computer Aided Engineering Market including Altair Engineering, ANSYS, Inc., Autodesk, Inc., Bentley Systems, Inc., Dassault Systemes, ESI Group, Exa Corporation, Exa Corporation, Mentor Graphics Corporation, MSC Software Corporation, and Siemens AG.



FPNV Positioning Matrix:

The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Computer Aided Engineering 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 the market 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 Computer Aided Engineering Market?

2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Computer Aided Engineering Market during the forecast period?

3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Computer Aided Engineering Market?

4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Computer Aided Engineering Market?

5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Computer Aided Engineering Market?

6. What are the modes and strategic moves considered suitable for entering the Global Computer Aided Engineering Market?

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913923/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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Dean Holmes was 'pulled from the graduation procession line' for York Catholic High School's commencement on August 1 because he was wearing the mask

A black high school student from Pennsylvania was forced to remove his Black Lives Matter face mask in order to graduate, according to the teen's family.

Dean Holmes had been participating in his graduation from York Catholic High School in York on July 28 when he was 'pulled from the graduation procession line' by the school's principal Katie Seufert and told to remove his mask.

In a statement, York Catholic High School said each graduate was 'given a face shield to be worn in lieu of a face mask.'

The school added that Dean had not worn the mask for 45 minutes prior to the ceremony starting. They said that it was not until the 'last minute' when Dean put on the mask, right before entering the church.

He was asked to remove the mask 'away from other graduates and guests,' the school said in their statement.

'The decorum of York Catholics Baccalaureate and Graduation ceremonies follow the tradition that no messages are permitted on caps or gowns. Any graduate wearing a cap, gown, or mask with any message would have been asked to remove it.'

The school added that they had questioned and checked the temperatures of students before they were allowed in. Two students who had solid color masks, and had sought permission in advance, were allowed to wear them.

Dean shared photos from the moments before graduation that show him wearing the mask while posing with friends. He and his mother shared that he has been subject to a long history of discrimination at the school

The student said that he was forced to hand over his mask and wear the new one, providing video that showed him walking last for the guys line in the graduation ceremony

Dean took to his own Facebook, soon after, refuting many of the claims made by the school.

He shared that during the 45 minutes prior to the graduation, he had actually been outside on the lawn while taking pictures and chatting with friends.

The student said that during that time, he was not checked in or asked any questions regarding his health. He also refuted claims that he had his temperature checked during that time.

Dean shared that he had actually had on his mask for the duration of that time, providing a photo he took with a friend that has a time stamp showing he had his face covered.

'It is sad that they are trying to pull this because I talked to administration members before graduation started and they saw me with my mask on but did not say a word about it,' the high school graduate said. 'I did not just put the mask on right before walking in and I am sure classmates can attest to this.'

Dean explained that administrators had not said anything about the mask until he had started walking during the ceremony.

He said that he ignored the first administrator and began arguing with the second, getting out of line to finish his conversation.

The school released a statement saying that the student was not wearing a mask for the 45 minutes prior to the ceremony. They also sated that messages were not allowed on caps or gowns

The student said that he was forced to hand over his mask and wear the new one, providing video that showed him walking last for the guys line in the graduation ceremony.

'They misrepresent me and still offer no apology or anything of the sort. The image of the school seems to be more important than my black life unfortunately,' Dean concluded in his post.

'Trust that I will continue to fight for what is right forever and always. I do not stand for this. I will not back down.'

Dean, along with two other students, have organized a BLM march at the catholic school for August 15.

His mother June Holmes, was furious with the school, and lambasted them in a viral August 1 Facebook post where she criticized them for jeopardizing her son's 'health and safety' and asserted that his freedom of expression was 'censored'.

'As a parent I will not stand for my son being humiliated publicly, having his basic human dignity crushed on what should have been one of the happiest days of his young life,' June said in the post.

The concerned mother shared that Dean had been subject to a series of questionable incidents surrounding his race and activism.

Dean shared grabs on Facebook showing that there were not clear instructions that advised against wearing masks

More grabs from Dean's Facebook showing the school's website

She said that while the minority student population at the private school is roughly 30 per cent, there are no

June Holmes also highlighted that her son started the 'Minority Student Club' after he was specifically prohibited from creating a black student union at the school.

Prior to the latest incident surrounding graduation, the mother shared that Dean received a 100 per cent on a essay he wrote on being a black boy in America. When he tried to enter the essay in a speech contest for the school, he was told he couldn't read the piece.

'My son literally was discriminated against in plain sight based on his race and his prior civil rights activism, and this latest action is part of a pattern and practice of discrimination at York Catholic and it cannot stand unchallenged,' she declared.

'One can only graduate from high school one time and for him to have to suffer this injustice is reprehensible. The dissatisfaction that he felt by being pulled out of line and forced to remove his mask was both incalculable and traumatic and will follow him the rest of his life.'
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

Even with the chaos of this unpredictable year, New Mexicos annual back-to-school sales tax holiday will still take place this weekend as scheduled.

This year, the New Mexico Gross Receipts Tax Holiday begins at 12:01 a.m. Friday and ends at 12:01 a.m. Monday, according to the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department.

During that window, the state suspends collection of gross receipts tax on sales of qualifying items  which range from laptops to backpacks to sneakers  allowing shoppers to buy them tax free.

Charlie Moore, spokesman for the state tax and revenue department, said the holiday saves shoppers around $4 million statewide during a typical year.

However, with the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting the traditional back-to-school shopping season, its difficult to predict how different the tax holidays impact will be in 2020.

This year, who knows? Moore said.

Last month, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham delayed in-person instruction at all New Mexico public schools until after Labor Day in response to a spike in COVID-19 cases, which could change how and when shoppers buy school supplies.

A survey published in July by the National Retail Federation showed consumers nationwide plan to spend a record amount on school supplies in 2020, as more shoppers expect to buy computers and other electronics this year to prepare for remote learning.

This trend stands to affect local businesses like Computer Corner, near Menaul and Carlisle in Albuquerque. Co-owner Carole Petranovich said the tax holiday is always a major event at her store.

Its our biggest retail time of year, Petranovich said Tuesday. Its bigger than the regular Christmas holidays and year-end holidays.

Petranovich said she thinks this year will be a little different. In addition to serving walk-ups on Friday and Saturday, Computer Corner always takes pre-orders for the two weeks prior to the tax holiday. That allows customers to pay for their purchases during the weekend, and pick up their wares when crowds have dissipated.

This year, Petranovich said, pre-orders are down, and shes unsure how many shoppers will show up in person.

We dont know what to expect over the weekend because, of course, we can only let a certain number of people into the store, she said.

Petranovich plans to have staff at the door to monitor volume in the shop, pass out face masks to customers trying to enter without one, and hand out fliers to anyone who has to wait outside for their turn to enter.

She said despite the uncertainty, she hopes people will support local businesses during the tax respite.

Theres a big push for that right now anyway because of the economy and the jobless rate, Petranovich said. I think that this is just a very important year for (supporting local business).

Computers priced under $1,000 and related hardware priced under $500 may be sold tax-free on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, according to the state tax department.

Additionally, clothing and shoes priced at less than $100 per unit, and a wide range of back-to-school supplies under $30, may be sold tax-free during the weekend.

Moore said one recent change is that online retailers may now choose to take advantage of the deduction as well. According to the retail survey, 55% of K-12 shoppers said they will buy online, up from 49% last year.

Moore reminded those looking to shop in person during the tax-free weekend that the states public health order will continue to limit occupancy and require masks. The state tax department is asking shoppers to follow social distancing guidelines.

Journal business editor Gabrielle Porter contributed to this report.
German authorities did not follow the correct procedures when they extradited the prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case, an adviser to Europe's top court has said.

Christian B, who is being investigated over the child's disappearance, had challenged his European arrest warrant issued over a separate 2005 rape charge.

The 43-year-old German was extradited from Italy to Germany two years ago under the warrant, and was later convicted of the rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Portugal.

His legal team challenged the validity of the extradition and a German court sought guidance from the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

In a non-binding opinion, the CJEU said German authorities should have got permission from Italy for the rape charge.

There will be a final verdict on his appeal at a later stage.

The rape took place in Praia da Luz - the same Portuguese resort where three-year-old Madeleine went missing two years later.

The toddler had been on holiday with her family when she vanished from her bedroom, sparking a search that has lasted more than a decade.

Earlier this year, Christian B - whose full name cannot be reported for legal reasons - was revealed as the prime suspect being investigated by a German prosecutor who believes Madeleine is dead .

He was living nearby at the time of Madeleine's disappearance and telephone data suggests he was near the apartment an hour before she was last seen.

The 43-year-old lived along the Algarve coast for many years and was known to travel regularly between Portugal and Germany.

He is currently serving sentences for rape and drug dealing in a prison in Kiel, north Germany.

But his jail term for the drugs offence ends in January and prosecutors fear he could disappear once released.
TORONTO  Black and Indigenous employees say they were disparaged. Female employees say they were sexually harassed. Guides say their managers instructed them to block off an exhibit on same-sex marriage during tours for religious schools.

All this has happened, critics say, at an unlikely place: The Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg.

In recent weeks, the museum has been engulfed by accusations of discrimination and harassment. And on Wednesday the museum released a report from an external review, which concluded that racism is pervasive and systemic within the institution.

For a museum devoted to documenting the history of human rights, the report was a stinging rebuke.

This is a tainted place as far as Im concerned, said Barbara Nepinak, an elder of the Pine Creek First Nation who is a member of the Special Indigenous Advisory Council to the museum. But it can be fixed and I strongly believe it will be fixed.
A Department of Defense spokesperson said today that no definitive cause for the deadly explosion that ripped through Beirut this week has been identified so far, despite President Trump calling it an 'attack'.

But he did not rule out that it was an accident.

Pentagon representative Jonathan Hoffman addressed the ongoing investigation into Tuesdays explosion in the Lebanese capital that killed 135 people, among them at least one American, and injured about 5,000 others during Thursday's press briefing.

Investigators in Lebanon focused on possible negligence in the storage of tons of a highly explosive fertilizer in a waterfront warehouse.

Pentagon representative Jonathan Hoffmant said on Thursday that no definitive cause for the deadly explosion that ripped through Beirut this week has been identified so far

A general view of the destroyed port area in the aftermath of the massive explosion in downtown Beirut, Lebanon

A series of massive explosions in the Lebanese capital's port area rocked the city on Tuesday evening local time, killing at least 135 people and injuring more than 5,000 others

'Many people have posited it was an accident, terrible, unfortunate accident,' Hoffman told reporters this afternoon. 'So were going to work with the intelligence community, were going to work with our allies and partners. Were going to wait and see.'

His comments came just days after President Donald Trump called the explosion a terrible attack.

Declining to provide any evidence to back up his assertion, Trump said during a White House briefing on Tuesday evening that he had met with some of our great generals and they seem to feel that it was [an attack].

This was not some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of event. They would know better than I would,' the president added. 'They seem to think ... it was a bomb of some kind, yes.'

The following day, Defense Secretary Mark Esper made a statement that appeared to contradict the president's take on the incident, saying that most believe it was an accident, as reported.

When asked about Esper and Trump's conflicting remarks, the Pentagon spokesperson pointed to a 'fast-evolving situation' and noted that 'different information' has come to light in the last few days.

Hoffman did not reveal the nature of the emerging information, saying that he was not going to discuss 'our intelligence.'

The blast was believed to have been caused by an estimated 2,750 of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse

Rescuers are seen on Thursday digging through mounds of debris in search of victims at the site of the explosion in the city port

Christelle Helou, a young Lebanese woman, hugs the coffin of her cousin Nicole, 25, killed in the blast during her funeral ceremony in the south Lebanese town of Sarba

'The president and Secretary [Esper] have both been consistent that weve reached no definitive cause for the explosion,' Hoffman said.

The press secretary added that the US was sending humanitarian aid to Lebanon, including food, water and medical supplies, and extended an offer to help with the investigation into the blast.

'We're going to defer to and give the Lebanese government space to complete their investigation and reach their conclusions,' he said. 'if they ask for assistance, the US would be willing to provide that.'

The explosion that rocked Lebanon's capital was tied to a stockpile of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate.

The chemical, belonging to a Russian businessman. had been left sitting in a warehouse ever since it was confiscated from an impounded cargo ship in 2013.

President Donald Trump described deadly explosions as a terrible attack during a Tuesday press conference, despite no evidence suggesting the blasts were intentional

The explosion, powerful enough to be felt in Cyprus across the Eastern Mediterranean, killed more than 130 people, wounded thousands and blasted buildings for miles around.

Multiple videos of the explosion showed fires and thick plumes of smoke emanating from a building in Beirut's port area before a mushroom cloud erupts, sending a shockwave ripping through the city.

Lebanon's Prime Minister Hassan Diab called the explosion a 'catastrophe' and vowed that those responsible 'will pay for what happened'.

Two days later, some 300,000 people - more than 12 per cent of Beirut's population - cant return to their homes, officials estimate. Damaged hospitals are still struggling to deal with the wounded and officials have estimated losses at $10billion to $15billion.
Tom Hanks continues to bring joy to the world despite the ongoing tensions in the U.S. and the growing health crisis brought by COVID-19.

According to the a report by Deadline, Disney is eyeing Hanks to play the role of Geppetto in the live-action adaptation of the classic "Pinocchio." It is set to be directed by renowned American director and screenwriter Robert Zemeckis.

Sure enough, nothing is set in stone yet. In fact, discussions for the role are still in the "very early" stages. However, as Deadline note, Hanks has apparently already reached out to Zemeckis to express his interest in playing the role.

For those not in the know, Geppetto is one of the main characters in the tale of "Pinocchio." He is the woodcarver who created Pinocchio, wich was then brough to life by a fairy. The fictional character plays a significant role as the wooden puppet tries to become a real boy.

Tom Hanks Targeted by Disney For a Long Time

Aside from his age, which makes him perfect to play the elderly Geppetto, Hanks' demeanor and humor will certainly help him in the role should he accept it.

It could also be the reason why Disney has been targeting the 64-year-old actor to play the role years ago when Paul King was the one being tagged to direct the live-action film.

It remains to be seen when the cast will be finalized, but it is worth noting that Zemeckis has been chosen to direct the film while Andrew Miano and Chris Weitz will serve as producers through their production company Depth of Field.

Weitz and Zemeckis will be the ones to write the script for the film.

Tom Hanks on the Headlines

Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson have been on the headlines in recent months, for some good and bad reasons.

First and foremost, they were the first celebrities to be open about their positive COVID-19 diagnosis. Early in March, the veteran actor announced on social media that he and his wife contracted the diseases while they were in Australia for some projects.

They had to be quarantined in the country, though the husband and wife provided their fans with daily updates about their condition.

On the other hand, most recently, the couple delivered some good news when they revealed that they have been granted Greek citizenship.

In 2019, the Hanks family was granted honorary Greek citizenships after they helped bring attention to the devastating wildfire in Athens. Then, on July 26, 2020, Greece Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis posted a photo on Instagram officially announcing the husband and wife as Greek citizens.

READ MORE: 'American Ninja Warrior' Faces Major Scandal After Champ's Arrest [REPORT]
Vice President Mike Pence uncorked a rare public attack on the chief justice of the Supreme Court, calling John Roberts a 'disappointment' to conservatives.

Pence called out Roberts in an interview with the Christian Broadcast Network, following a series of high-profile decision where Roberts sided with liberals against the Trump administration.

'Look, we have great respect for the institution of the Supreme Court of the United States,' Pence told interviewer David Brody.

'But Chief Justice John Roberts has been a disappointment to conservatives  whether it be the Obamacare decision, or whether it be a spate of recent decisions all the way through Calvary Chapel,' he said.

'Chief Justice John Roberts has been a disappointment to conservatives,' said Vice President Mike Pence in an interview

His reference to the Calvary Chapel case, Calvary Chapel Dayton Valley v. Sisolak, involved a Nevada state public health order restricting church attendance to 50 amid the coronavirus outbreak. Roberts sided with the majority in the 5-4 decision against the church's claim it was facing unfair discrimination.

Roberts also sided against the Trump administration on its efforts to end the Obama-era DACA program for people who came here illegally as immigrant children, and on a major case protecting gay, lesbian, and transgender workers from discrimination in the workplace.

Pence pointed to the 2016 elections, when Donald Trump made appointing conservative justice a top campaign issue as he was able to win support from evangelical voters, even while facing negative press coverage about allegations from women who claimed he sexually harassed or assaulted them.

Roberts, a conservative George W. Bush nominee, sided with liberals in a number of rulings this term

Pence pointed to the ruling on Calvary Chapel Dayton Valley

'It's a reminder. I think several out of the Supreme Court are a reminder of just how important this election is for the future of the Supreme Court.'

'We remember the issue back in 2016, which I believe loomed large in voters' decisions between Hillary Clinton and the man who would become president of the United States,' he said. 'And some people thought that it wouldn't be as big an issue these days. But I think that's all changed.'

He pointed to a recent decision that took down a Louisiana law that would prohibit abortion clinics from operating unless they had doctors with admitting privileges at area hospitals  a move that opponents said would nearly eliminate abortion clinics in the state.

Pence called it would 'a very modest restriction on abortion providers' and said it was a 'wake-up call' for pro-life voters, who he said know that 'the destiny of the Supreme Court is on the ballot in 2020.'

Roberts is a George W. Bush appointee who despite ruling to preserve key parts of Obamacare has mostly sided with conservatives on the court, despite the recent departures.

It was Trump appointee Justice Neil Gorsuch who authored the landmark gay rights decision.

Republican lawmakers blasted Roberts over his DACA decision, who rested on technical grounds. He found the administration had not followed proper procedures or sufficiently evaluated the potential impacts  in short a 'procedural requirement that it provide a reasoned explanation' for the move.

The opinion argued Trump could have exerted authority to end the program had it done so through proper procedures  and Trump has taken to citing the case to argue he has even greater executive power.
A maskless woman allegedly assaulted two police officers after refusing to give them her details.

Victoria Police said the woman, 25, was walking along Yarra Street in Geelong, southwest of Melbourne, without a face covering on Monday afternoon.

She allegedly refused to tell the constable and sergeant her name and became aggressive when they attempted to arrest her around 3.30pm.

A maskless woman 25, allegedly assaulted two police officers in Geelong (Yarra Street pictured), southwest of Melbourne, on Monday afternoon after refusing to provide her details

The woman 'became aggressive' when the officers attempted to arrest her and she was charged with assault and set to appear in Geelong Magistrates Court (pictured)

The First Constable and Sergeant both required treatment after receiving minor injuries to their arms and hands (Police and Defence Force personnel pictured in Melbourne on Thursday)

'Police have arrested and charged a woman in Geelong after she allegedly assaulted two police officers and breached the directions of the Chief Health Officer.

'The officers made multiple attempts to confirm her identity and the woman allegedly refused to provide her details,' a police spokesman explained.

The spokesman said the 25-year-old 'became aggressive and assaulted them' when 'the officers then attempted to arrest her'.

The constable and sergeant both required treatment after receiving minor injuries to their arms and hands.

The 24-year-old was charged with assault police, resist police, fail to provide address and fined $200 for failing to wear a face covering.

She was bailed and is set to appear at Geelong Magistrates' Court on August 10.

A 36-year-old West Melbourne man was arrested in Geelong on Tuesday after failing to wear a mask and allegedly threatening to injure the officers.

A 38-year old woman also allegedly bashed an officer's head into the concrete at a Frankston shopping centre after refusing to wear a mask.

The 26-year-old Constable and her partner approached a woman about 5pm Monday near the Bayside shopping centre before the alleged scuffle.

A 26-year-old police officer (pictured) allegedly had a clump of her hair pulled out after confronting a woman who wasn't wearing a mask in Melbourne

The 38-year-old woman allegedly became violent after being approached near the Bayside shopping centre in Frankston (pictured)

The woman was taken to a police station, charged with assaulting police, recklessly causing injury, two counts of assaulting an emergency worker, two counts of resisting an emergency worker on duty and refusing to state her name and address.

It is mandatory to wear a face covering when outdoors in Victoria and anyone caught flouting the rule faces a $200 on-the-spot fine.

Victoria Police have issued a total of 176 fines for health breaches across the state in the last 24-hours.

51 Victorians were fined for failing to wear a face covering and 55 Melburnians were penalised for breaching curfew.

Melbourne is currently in its first week of a strict stage four lockdown where residents must remain at home between 8pm and 5am.

Non-essential businesses have been closed and residents are only permitted to leave home for essential reasons such as exercise and shopping for supplies.

Melburnians allowed to work on-site now have to show a permit or official work ID or face fines of up to $99,123 for businesses and up to $19,826 for individuals.

Victoria reported 471 new COVID-19 cases and eight deaths on Thursday after a record 725 cases and 15 deaths on Wednesday.

The state is currently battling against 7449 active cases with 575 Victorians in hospital and 42 of those in intensive care.
A Hanoi man visiting Da Nang and three that had contact with infected cases in the central city have raised Vietnams active tally to 328.

"Patient 714" is a 42-year-old man in Bac Tu Liem District of Hanoi who works as a public bus operator.

He traveled to Da Nang with his family from July 14 to 17. Two days later, he started running a slight fever and had a sore throat. On August 4, he had his samples taken for Covid-19 testing at Hanois National Hospital for Tropical Diseases and the result turned out positive.

The other three cases are residents in Quang Nam Province that borders Da Nang.

Numbered 715-717 and between 42 to 45 years of age, they had all come into close contact with people who were being treated or taking care of sick people at hospitals in Da Nang and later diagnosed with Covid-19.

With the four added, Hanoi now has three Covid-19 cases and Quang Nam 49, counted from July 25 when the Covid-19 community transmission returned in Vietnam.

Locally transmitted cases spread to two more provinces on Wednesday, Lang Son and Bac Giang in northern Vietnam, with four and two cases each.

So far, the epicenter Da Nang has got 192 cases, HCMC eight. Other cities and provinces with community infections are Dak Lak, Quang Ngai, Dong Nai, Thai Binh and Ha Nam. All cases in other places are linked to Da Nang.

Eight Covid-19 patients have died after contracting the new coronavirus at hospitals in Da Nang. They are aged between 53 and 86, and have suffered from chronic diseases for years.

By Wednesday morning, Vietnam has recorded 717 Covid-19 cases, including 328 active patients after 381 have recovered.

The nation is putting more than 170,000 in quarantine.

Almost 710,000 have died of Covid-19 worldwide.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said he tested negative for the coronavirus, in contrast with test results he received earlier Thursday.

DeWine said he had a PCR test administered after an antigen test earlier indicated he had tested positive for the coronavirus. The earlier test was administered before the Republican governor was scheduled to greet President Donald Trump upon his arrival in Cleveland.

PCR or polymerase chain reaction tests are considered the most accurate kind available on the market, but demand has often overwhelmed supply, leading to delays. These tests detect genetic material related to the virus, while antigen tests look for protein fragments found on or within the virus.

DeWine explained the antigen test was conducted as a part of protocol ahead of meeting with the president. While this kind of test is based off "new technology to reduce the cost and improve the turnaround time," DeWine said his state "does not have much experience with antigen tests."

"We will be working with the manufacturer to have a better understanding of how the discrepancy between these two tests could have occurred," he said.

DeWine said he and his wife would have another PCR test conducted on Saturday "out of an abundance of caution, and at the direction of medical professionals."

The announcement of DeWine's earlier test results came shortly after Trump left the White House to travel to Ohio, where he was set to speak about the economy and tour a Whirlpool manufacturing plant. The president was also scheduled to participate in a roundtable event with his supporters and attend a fundraising committee reception in the evening. Trump was scheduled to travel to New Jersey later in the day.
Unification Minister Lee In-young expressed regret Thursday over North Korea's release of water from a border dam without giving South Korea prior notice earlier this week.



On Monday, the North partially opened the floodgates of Hwanggang Dam on the western inter-Korean border and sent water into the Imjin River, a move that put authorities here on alert against a potential rise in water levels in the South.



"I express my regrets over the recent unilateral measure to release dam water," Lee said at the start of a meeting of the Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Council. "North Korea might have had difficulties of their own due to heavy rainfall, but I would like to stress they should have at least notified us prior to the release."



He urged the North to notify the South in whatever way possible.



"No matter how difficult the inter-Korean situation is politically and militarily, we need to restart dialogue immediately at least on issues related to the humanitarian field or the safety of the residents living near the border," he added.













Under an agreement signed between the two Koreas in October 2009, the North agreed to notify the South in advance of its plans to open the floodgates, following a deadly accident that killed six South Koreans after the North discharged water from Hwanggang Dam without notice.



The defense ministry said it is closely monitoring related moves in the North while sharing information with other government agencies.



"We are actively sharing information on the situation with other government agencies to prevent any damage to our people and troops," Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson Col. Kim Jun-rak said during a regular press briefing. (Yonhap)
Police are still being advised to automatically believe alleged abuse victims in new guidelines despite warnings from a senior judge in his review of the 'Nick the fantasist' case.

The College of Policing guidance, which was published today, controversially tells detectives investigating claims of child abuse that 'the intention is that victims are believed'.

Sir Richard Henriques, in his review of how police handled claims of VIP sex abuse from the fantasist Carl Beech, called for the instruction to be withdrawn because suspects are innocent until proven guilty.

Beech's slurs were described as 'credible and true' by a senior officer, and went on to trash the reputations of esteemed public figures including D-Day hero Lord Bramall, former Home Secretary Leon Brittan, ex-Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath and former Tory MP Harvey Proctor.

The new guidance comes despite warnings from retired judge Sir Richard Henriques, in his review of how police handled claims of VIP sex abuse from the fantasist Carl Beech (pictured in a police interview from 2016)

Sir Richard criticised the decision to keep the guidance, telling The Times: 'They've learnt nothing at all from Nick.

'The whole basis of their explanation for believing Nick is that they were driven to believe by the protocol that was in existence.'

The guidance was produced by the College of Policing and senior officers in Operation Hydrant, which leads the investigation of historic abuse allegations.

It was today defended by Hydrant chief Simon Bailey, who insisted officers did not apply 'blind belief'.

He said that victims were constantly told by their abusers they would never be believed, and they would never come to the police if they did not feel they would be listened to.

The new guidance also urges officers not to go 'trawling' for abuse victims but to use prior investigation to approach specific groups of possible victims or witnesses.

It also advises the, when releasing information about a suspect who has died, officers must 'make it clear that there police are making no judgments about guilt'.

Wiltshire Police was criticised for holding a press conference outside the late former Prime Minister's Edward Heath's home in 2015 to announce they were investigating claims he was a paedophile, before urging other alleged victims to come forward.

The force later said that, if the politician had been alive, he would have been interviewed about seven disclosures under criminal caution.

Carl Beech - the fantasist and paedophile known by the pseudonym 'Nick' - was sentenced to eighteen years in prison in July 2019 to his false claims, including against Sir Edward.

Sir Richard criticised the decision to keep the guidance, saying: 'They've learnt nothing at all from Nick'

Sir Richard's report on Scotland Yard's investigation, Operation Midland, advised that 'the instruction to believe a victim's account should cease'.

He said people who make allegations to police should be called complainants, not victims, so not to imply guilt. The report, commissioned by the Met, was handed to senior commanders in 2016 but was finally published in full in October 2019.

It exposed the appalling failures of senior officers who believed Nick's false allegations as they mounted a bungled 2.5 million investigation which ruined the lives of war hero Lord Bramall, Lord Brittan and Mr Proctor.

Police decided to automatically believe claims of sexual abuse in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal, when it emerged that credible rape reports had been dismissed.

But the approach led to the Met notoriously describing as 'credible and true' the false allegations made by Beech, which were also backed in Parliament by the Labour MP Tom Watson.

The 51-year-old falsely alleged that between the ages of seven and 16 he had been collected by car from his various schools in the country and driven to London, where he and other young boys were raped, burned, stabbed and tortured.

He claimed the offences were committed in the Carlton Club or in the apartment block in Pimlico called Dolphin Square. Afterwards, Nick would be returned by car to his home, where he lived alone with his mother.

He had originally made allegations to Wiltshire Police, who had interviewed him but concluded he lacked credibility.

His mother was also questioned and told them she had no knowledge of any unauthorised absence from school and had never seen any bloodstained underwear or similar sign of sexual abuse.

Yet Met officers listening to his claims were not given his earlier interviews so missed the large number of inconsistencies.

Beech's slurs were notoriously called 'credible and true' during a press conference outside New Scotland Yard

Sir Richard said they then continued investigating his claims 'in a disordered and chaotic manner and littered with mistakes'.

In his new book, From Crime To Crime, which was serialised in the Daily Mail, the former judge wrote: 'They failed to ask Nick for his computers or mobile phone.

'They ignored the fact that his medical records disclosed no injury consistent with his allegations in his personal online blog that his feet were stabbed and burned, poppies pinned to his bare chest and numerous bones broken.

'They had no regard to the inherent improbability of men of the highest standing and impeccable character having behaved in the manner alleged.'

Moving on the notorious 'credible and true' press conference, he continued: 'Instead the police made a public appeal for information, with a senior officer, Detective Superintendent Kenny McDonald, standing outside New Scotland Yard and telling a press conference that they believed Nick's allegations to be both 'credible and true'.

'The words should never have been uttered, and the officer himself later admitted they were inappropriate, saying he selected the wrong words in the heat of an interview.

'But there was no correction for many months, by which time, as we will see below, two completely bogus potential witnesses had come forward with more lies purporting to support 'Nick'.'
Highly anticipated: Apple arguably dominates the truly-wireless earbud space with its AirPods, but Samsung is quickly proving to be a worthy competitor, especially with new offerings like the Galaxy Buds Live just around the corner. These new Buds, which were just announced today at Samsung's annual 'Unpacked' event, boast an ambitious new look and premium features that help them stand out from the pack.

First, let's discuss the Buds' new appearance: unlike previous truly-wireless earbuds from Samsung, the Galaxy Buds Live do away with the oval-shaped aesthetic in favor of what it calls a "bean-shaped" design. That's certainly an odd way to describe a product, but it's also accurate in this case: as you can see from the images throughout this article, the Galaxy Buds Live are indeed shaped like a pair of beans.

Samsung didn't choose this look just for the fun of it, of course. The bean-shaped design is intended to make the buds a bit less noticeable in public, while also improving comfort. They accomplish the latter by fitting "neatly inside your ear's concha," rather than requiring you to shove a "protruding speaker" down your ear canal.

In addition to the Buds themselves getting a new appearance, their carrying case has also been altered. Previously, Samsung shipped Galaxy Buds in a small, oval-shaped case with a rounded top and flat bottom. This time around, the Galaxy Buds Live come in a square charging case, which looks to be a bit bulkier.

Moving on, the Galaxy Buds Live's first major selling point is Active Noise Cancellation (ANC). This feature is present in other high-end earbuds, but so far, it's been missing in Samsung's Galaxy Buds, so it's notable this time around. As the name suggests, the functionality (developed in collaboration with AKG) allows users to tune out distracting background noises without "missing what's important."

That means that some sounds, such as voices or "announcements," will still make their way to your ears, but others, like noisy traffic or white noise, will not. Samsung calls this "Open" ANC, and it can be activated with a simple long-press on the side of one of the buds.

ANC isn't the only new feature arriving with the Galaxy Buds Live. Samsung is also shooting for "best-in-class" call quality, courtesy of something called a "Voice Pickup Unit." The Voice Pickup Unit allegedly senses the movements of your jaw and converts those vibrations into voice signals that enhance your voice's quality, even in "noisy places."

Incoming audio ought to be fairly clear, as well: the Galaxy Buds Live have a pair of 12mm AKG speakers, designed to "deliver spacious sound."

If you're a fan of Samsung's 'Bixby' voice assistant, you may be pleased to hear that it's been fully integrated into the Galaxy Buds Live. You can wake up the assistant and give it commands using natural language -- you can tell it to "Call Jessica," for example, or ask it "How's the weather today?" to receive a seamless response.

It's unclear how Samsung plans to prevent the AI from executing accidental commands, but we assume that's something the tech giant's engineers have accounted for.

In terms of battery life, the Galaxy Buds Live can be used for up to eight hours on a single charge, provided you don't switch on Bixby or ANC. Using both of these features in tandem will drop that number to around five and a half hours, though you can gain an extra 11 hours of juice by popping the Buds into their charging case for a while.

The Galaxy Buds Live don't offer much in the way of water resistance, with only an IPX2 rating. That should be enough to protect the buds from dripping water, but they probably won't survive full submersion, or heavier splashes without at least some damage.

If the Galaxy Buds Live sound like your cup of tea, you won't have to wait long to get your hands on a pair. They ship out tomorrow for $170, with three different color options: white, black, and a fancier, metallic copper skin.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has ordered that the prosecutors general of Russia and Ukraine be invited to Belarus to investigate the case of detained Russian citizens allegedly serving as members of the Wagner private military company.

"The president has ordered that the prosecutors general of Russia and Ukraine be invited to Belarus to investigate the situation of the detained militants. The president made the statement at today's meeting on the provision of security of the election campaign," the Belarusian state-run news agency BelTA reported.

Lukashenko said he had a long conversation on "those so-called 33 warriors" with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday.

"My stance was crystal clear: we have Belarusian laws, and they committed violations on the territory of Belarus. We know everything the Investigative committee has uncovered by now," he said.

"Everyone is concerned about this problem, as it is a serious one. The three of you [the prosecutors general] should take a look at international treaties, the multilateral agreements signed by us with the Russian Federation and Ukraine (after all, we have undertaken obligations for such situations, same as others), and our laws. The Investigative Committee chairman, acting together with the State Security Committee, will brief you on the operative information and the information provided by the investigators: there are the documents and the information on the table. The three of you will make a decision," Lukashenko said.
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.

WEs youth entrepreneurship program proposal is included in annex nine of a briefing package about a student aid program that goes to the Prime Ministers Office, chief of staff Katie Telford later tells the finance committee. The proposal is declined.

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. Neither Morneau nor Trudeau is at the meeting.

The same day, a member of the Prime Ministers Office policy team speaks with WE as part of stakeholder consultation, but then directs the organization to ESDC.

WE begins incurring eligible expenses.

May 8: Trudeau finds out that WE is being recommended to run the student-volunteer program hours before a cabinet meeting. He later tells the finance committee that he pulled the item from the agenda and sent it back to the public service for more due diligence because of how the deal could be perceived.

May 21: The public service comes back to Trudeau, he tells the finance committee. The recommendation to go with WE doesnt change.

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 Prime Ministers Office.

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 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.

July 29: The Conservatives call on the federal ethics czar to widen his probe of Trudeau to include travel expenses WE covered in addition to speaking fees for his mother, wife and brother. Dion sends letters to the Tories and NDP saying he is expanding his probe of Morneau to look into the $41,000 in WE-sponsored travel.

July 30: In a rare event, Trudeau testifies before the House of Commons finance committee and lays out when he first learned about WEs involvement in the Canada Student Service Grant program. He says WE Charity didnt receive any preferential treatment in the process. He also says it is now unlikely the grants will be rolled out.

July 31: Speaking to reporters, Trudeau says he believed there was no conflict of interest because his family would not benefit from WE running the student volunteer program.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 6, 2020.

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Consider this an opportunity to tailor your childrens education to their interests, and use it to inspire them to develop a love of learning. Particularly for history and science assignments, Bogart said, identify an area of curiosity and plan a project around it. Allow your child to choose books appropriate to their grade level, but aligned with their passions. As a practical measure, if youre teaching more than one child, get them to agree on topics, and teach history and science as a group as much as possible. For skill-driven subjects, such as math and writing, choose the same textbook style for all children and purchase curricula based on the appropriate grade level.
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's main grain silo at Beirut port was destroyed in a blast along with the wheat inside, leaving the nation with less than a month's reserves of the grain although other vessels with supplies are on the way, the economy minister said on Wednesday.

Raoul Nehme told Reuters a day after Tuesday's devastating blast that Lebanon needed reserves for at least three months to ensure food security and was looking at other storage areas.

He said reserves now stood at "a bit less than a month".

The explosion was the most powerful ever to rip through Beirut, leaving the port district a wreck of mangled masonry and disabling the main entry port for imports to feed a nation of more than 6 million people.

The Beirut silo was capable of holding 120,000 tonnes of grain, said Ahmed Tamer, the director of the port of Tripoli, Lebanon's second biggest city.

The port in Tripoli, Lebanon's second biggest port, is not equipped with grain storage facilities but wheat could be transferred to warehouses 2 km (about one mile) away, he said.

At the time of the blast, the Beirut silo held no more than 15,000 tonnes of wheat as some millers had unloaded cargoes directly because of a delay in issuing letters of credit for payment, Ahmed Hattit, the head of the wheat importers union, told the local Al-Akhbar newspaper.

Hattit said existing reserves of flour were sufficient to cover market needs for a month and a half and said there were four ships carrying cargoes totalling 28,000 tonnes of wheat that had not docked at the port yet.

Lebanon is trying to immediately transfer four vessels carrying 25,000 tonnes of flour to the port in Tripoli, an economy ministry official told news channel LBCI.

(Reporting by Dahlia Nehme in Beirut and Maha El Dahan in Dubai; Writing by Nadine Awadalla; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Edmund Blair)
By PTI

HYDERABAD: The Telangana Cabinet has approved a new policy under which the majority of employment is given to the locals in the industries set up in the State and the firms providing jobs to local youths will be offered more incentives.

For additional incentives, the firms will be defined into two categories.

While in one category, 70 per cent semi-skilled and 50 per cent skilled manpower should be locals, under the other category, 80 per cent semi-skilled and 60 per cent skilled manpower should be locals, an official release issued Wednesday night said.

In order to ensure availability of skilled manpower the industries will be linked to technical educational institutions such as ITIs and polytechnics, it said.

"The Cabinet felt that the locals should have more opportunities in the industries being set up in the State. The Cabinet also decided to give incentives to the industries, which are providing more job opportunities to the locals," it said.

Under the leadership of Industries Minister KT Rama Rao, the industries department had done an exercise and prepared a draft policy which was discussed by the cabinet on Wednesday, it said.

In order to decentralise the IT industry in the city, the cabinet approved a "Grid policy (Growth in dispersion)" to offer incentives to the IT firms being set up in other areas other than the West Zone of Hyderabad.

The Cabinet has also decided to encourage and promote the use of electric vehicles to decrease the air pollution in the State.

It was also decided to encourage the production of electric vehicles in the State by offering incentives.

The State cabinet has also approved the Telangana State Electronic Vehicle and Energy Storage Solution Policy.
Mohanlal, the complete actor is finally back in Kochi, after spending over 6 months in Chennai amidst the lockdown. The superstar has reportedly finished his quarantine period and is all set to kickstart the shooting of his next outing, very soon. Interestingly, Mohanlal is now setting social media on fire with his new look.

In the recent pictures that have been going viral on social media, Mohanlal is sporting a new look, with a thick, long beard. As expected, the fans of the complete actor and Malayalam cinema audiences are going gaga over his new look, and are eagerly waiting to know the reason behind this makeover.

The rumours mills suggest that Mohanlal is sporting this new look for his directorial debut Barroz: Guardian Of D'Gama's Treasure, in which he also plays the titular character. However, a few other sources state that the complete actor's new look is for Drishyam 2, the project that he is expected to kickstart by the second half of August 2020.

Well, Mohanlal's new look totally goes with his character in Barroz, but the project will not start rolling anytime soon due to the coronavirus threat and lockdown. The senior actor is planning to kickstart his next outing Drishyam 2 on August 17, 2020. But, it is unlikely for Mohanlal to sport such a look in the Jeethu Joseph directorial, as the character George Kutty had a different look in the first installment, Drishyam.

Coming to Drishyam 2, Mohanlal is joining hands with director Jeethu Joseph for the third time, for the project. The actor will reprise the celebrated character George Kutty once again in the movie, which will bring back all the major faces in the star cast of the first installment. The project is produced by Antony Perumbavoor, under the banner Aashirvad Cinemas.

Also Read:

DID YOU KNOW? This Mohanlal Starrer Got A Story Change At The Last Minute!

Dulquer Salmaan To Start Shooting For Rosshan Andrrews Project After Lockdown?
Ukrainian banks post lower profits over quarantine  NBU

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The decrease was due to the deduction to reserves, as well as lower demand for banking services, which led to a drop in fee and commission incomes.
Photo: The Canadian Press Karina Gould, Minister of International Development, holds a press conference via video in Ottawa.

Canada is emphasizing the need for economic and political reform in Lebanon over the long term as it looks at immediate ways to help the country following this week's deadly explosion in Beirut.

Canada has so far promised $5 million in emergency aid and International Development Minister Karina Gould says the federal government is committed to helping Lebanon as it begins to recover from the blast.

Yet Gould emphasized long-standing Canadian calls for economic and political change in the country to address many of the root problems that have left Lebanon one of the most indebted countries in the world.

Many Lebanese have expressed frustration and anger at their political elites following Tuesday's explosion at the Beirut port, which has been blamed on tonnes of ammonium nitrate having been improperly stored for years.

Meanwhile, Gould says Canada's embassy in Beirut managed to escape the explosion relatively unscathed and will reopen on Monday to begin offering consular assistance to Canadians in need.

However, Gould referred questions about whether Lebanese-Canadians will be able to bring relatives in crisis to Canada to Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino.
The boy was in fair condition at a hospital after being shot at least once in each leg, according to a statement from police. A 26-year-old man was in fair condition with a gunshot wound to his left arm, another 26-year-old man was in fair condition with a gunshot wound to the left leg, and a 36-year-old man was in fair condition also with a gunshot wound to his left leg, police said.
Photograph: Fotosearch/Getty Images

To many Americans, he was the commander-in-chief who had the mettle to end the second world war quickly and save countless lives. To many in Japan and elsewhere, he was the perpetrator of a war crime that pushed the world into a perilous new age. And to Clifton Truman Daniel, Harry Truman was just grandpa.

He expected decent behavior out of his grandchildren but there are pictures of me climbing on him when I was small and hes laughing, says Daniel, grandson of the 33rd US president.

Related: A nuclear arms race in space? It seems we've learned nothing from Hiroshima

He was remarkable in a lot of ways and, at the same time, unremarkable. He was a small-town, midwestern, farm-raised, solidly middle-class American with boundless curiosity about the world. He had faith in humanity and he retained that the rest of his life despite this decision and others, Daniel said.

Clifton Truman Daniel claps during a meeting with students at a school in Hiroshima in 2012. Daniel was invited by a Japanese peace group and attended a memorial event. Photograph: Itsuo Inouye/AP

Forty-four men have held the American presidency but only one has used nuclear weapons.

Seventy-five years ago on Thursday, Truman gave the order for the B-29 Superfortress bomber Enola Gay to drop the atom bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. In a blinding flash it incinerated tens of thousands of people, melted buildings and streetcars and reduced a 400-year-old city to dust.

The use of the bomb, and one that followed in Nagasaki three days later, has been the subject of anguished debate for three-quarters of a century. Advocates say the war in the Pacific had no end in sight and the planned US land invasion of Japan would have resulted in massive casualties on both sides.

But Trumans successor as president, Gen Dwight Eisenhower, was among those who thought Japan was close to surrendering anyway. And as the decades have gone by, Trumans decision has been condemned as an act of barbarity that killed innocent children, paved the way for American imperialism and put humanity under a nuclear sword of Damocles.

Peter Kuznick, director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University in Washington, told the CSpan network in 2015: The confusing things is why Truman, who was not bloodthirsty  he was not a Hitler, he did not take pleasure in killing people  would use the atomic bombs, knowing that the Japanese were defeated and trying to surrender, knowing that they were not militarily necessary.

Story continues

What we assume as historians is that a big part of his motivation was that he was sending a message to the Soviets that if the Soviets interfered with American plans in Europe or in Asia then this was the fate they were going to get. And the astounding thing is the Soviets interpreted it that way.

An allied correspondent stands in the rubble in front of the shell of a building that once was an exhibition center and government office in Hiroshima, Japan, a month after the first atomic bomb. Photograph: Stanley Troutman/AP

Daniel is keenly aware of that legacy: his youngest son works as a teacher in South Korea, just 25 miles from the border with the North under the volatile dictator Kim Jong-un. Daniel himself grew up blissfully unaware of his grandfathers fame or, in some eyes, infamy. My parents always said they were trying to keep our lives as normal as possible, so they didnt say anything, he recalls of school.

It was, I think, the first day of first grade and the teacher went around the room asking everybody to say a little bit about themselves, and I probably just stood up and said, Hi, Im Clifton Daniel, and sat back down again. She said, Wasnt your grandfather president of the United States? I said, First Ive heard of it! I probably didnt know what that meant at that point.

Daniel was only 15 when his grandfather died and had not discussed the bomb or other policy decisions from his presidency. I was much more interested in playing outside if the weather was nice or getting into trouble in the attic and climbing on the roof, so I just didnt ask.

I felt pretty stupid about that but over the years, reading about my grandfather, I would not have learned anything that you could not have gotten out of books. He was a remarkably open and consistent human being.

Truman, who was thrust into the presidency just four months earlier by the death of Franklin Roosevelt, wrote about his reasoning for dropping the atom bomb: My object is to save as many American lives as possible but I also have a human feeling for the women and children of Japan.

Daniel, 63, a student of presidential history who plays Truman in a stage show and is honorary chairman of the Truman Library Institute, recalls that photographer Joe ODonnell asked my grandfather point blank, Did you ever have any regrets about that? My grandfather said, Hell, yes. You dont do something like that without thinking about it.

He didnt want to have to do it but he felt that he had to, to stop the war and to save both American and Japanese lives. The reports they were getting were that, in a land invasion of the Japanese main islands, the Japanese were building up forces to resist. Now we know that the Japanese knew where we planned to land and they were massing troops.

Estimates of the possible casualties have been debated, Daniel notes, with a quarter to half a million most often quoted. In fact the United States minted half a million purple heart medals in anticipation and I believe that we are still using those medals. So they were expecting a bloodbath, of course much worse for the Japanese because these were civilians armed with sticks.

Kiyoshi Yoshikawa, a survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945, displays the heavy scarring on his back, soon after leaving hospital, on 13 August 1951. Photograph: FPG/Getty Images

What gets me especially is people trying my grandfather as a war criminal in absentia, saying that it was a cruel gambit to keep the Russians out of Japan, which it was not. Russian expansionism was certainly on his mind, but he wanted the war over for humanitarian reasons.

He met Colonel Paul Tibbets [pilot of the Enola Gay] after the bombing and asked Tibbets if he was taking any grief from anyone about having used the weapon. Tibbets, said, No, I havent, and Grandpa said, Well, if you do, if anybody gives you a hard time about it, you refer em to me because it was my decision. I take responsibility. So he owned it.

Truman had a sign that said The buck stops here on his desk. But the legacy of his decision that day in 1945 has passed down generations. One day Daniel, who has worked in journalism and public relations, got a phone call from Masahiro Sasaki, the brother of Sadako Sasaki, who survived Hiroshima but, aged 12, was diagnosed with leukaemia and told she had a year to live. Based on a Japanese legend that folding a thousand origami cranes allows the granting of a wish, Sasaki started folding, wishing for a world without nuclear weapons. She died before she had folded 600.

Her brother Masahiro and his son met Daniel in New York, showed him the last crane that Sadako folded before she died and invited him to Japan. Daniel visited in 2012 and 2013, conducting interviews with survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, two of which will appear in a Truman Presidential Library and Museum exhibit in Independence, Missouri, along with one of Sasakis cranes.

How did he feel in Japan? Its going to sound odd, possibly, but in Hiroshima and Nagasaki theres an odd feeling of peace. When you get to the peace park or any of the memorials, youre on hallowed ground because the ashes of the victims are underfoot. There is one survivor in Hiroshima who calls it the sad layer of the soil. If you dig down about three feet, youll find a thin white layer and thats ash, bone, human remains and its under the entire peace park. So youre really standing in a cemetery.

He adds: I never felt at any point that going was a bad idea, that I was in any kind of danger or trouble, but I was surprised at how good it felt to be there and I dont mean good in an Oh, boy, Im happy kind of a way, but its like going to church on Sunday. Youre on hallowed ground and it just feels right to be there and to be doing what youre doing.

A lot of Americans go and apologise. Theyre overcome emotionally. I was too, several times. Youre hearing these horrific stories but its not the horror that sticks with me. Its the people whove been through this and yet here they are telling you in kindness and all they want is for this not to happen again. 

A woman prays in front of the cenotaph for the atomic bombing victims in Hiroshima on Monday. Photograph: Eugene Hoshiko/AP

By the end of 1945, the atom bomb was estimated to have killed 140,000 people in Hiroshima, where a museum contains scorched school uniforms, a lunchbox of carbonized food and a pocket watch stopped at 8.15am. At the Truman presidential library, a stone plaque dedicated in 1995 is inscribed: In gratitude to President Harry S Truman for saving many lives by using atomic weapons to end World War II.

With the benefit of 75 years hindsight, what does Daniel himself think?

My viewpoint has sort of evolved and then not. Its gone back and forth. Ive never ever wanted to tell either side that it was a good or a bad thing to do. I have shaken hands with world war two veterans, Pacific war veterans, who have told me with tears in their eyes that if it hadnt been for my grandfathers decision, they would not be standing in front of me  they were getting ready to invade Japan.

And yet I know survivors. Ive held that little girls last paper crane in my hand. So I cant tell a survivor that it was the right thing to do. It was an awful decision to have to make. It was a decision in war. The discussion still goes on, but I think the best discussions are the ones where you look carefully at how it happened, how we came to this, and also historians trying to put themselves in the shoes of the people involved.
ALBANY  The office of the state Inspector General on Thursday released a highly critical report on the State Police's internal investigation into the actions of troopers assigned to a federal drug task force based in New York City  officers who according to the report were found to have falsified work records and committed other wrongdoing but received the administrative equivalent of a slap on the wrist.

Inspector General Letizia Tagliafierro said her office uncovered a lack of controls among members of the task force that created an environment ripe for abuse with insufficient accountability and oversight.

"The State Police has implemented significant reforms in the wake of this investigation, but there is more work that must be done to ensure that the Drug Enforcement Task Force members are properly supervised, Tagliafierro said in an emailed statement.

The report found four task members retired before discipline could be issued; eight members were served disciplinary offers in May 2019, but four of them retiring with good standing identification cards. Tagliafierro issued nearly 20 recommendations for improvements to operations including vehicle use, disciplinary procedures and internal checks and balances.

The recommendations include prohibiting task force members who live more than 50 miles away from New York City from commuting to and from their homes in assigned vehicles; factoring retirement and resignations into disciplinary decisions and requiring documentation of those decisions in a troopers personnel file; seeking restitution for time and attendance abuse; training members to ensure they understand and adhere to applicable DEA rules and regulations; and referring more serious personnel complaints to the inspector general for review, among other recommendations.

State Police confirmed they have received the inspector generals report, and it is being reviewed.

As noted by the inspector general, the State Police has already taken significant actions, including changes to DETFs supervisory protocols, leadership and membership, as well as strengthening oversight by Division Headquarters, the State Police said in a statement. Integrity is a core value of the State Police, and violations of division policies are simply not tolerated.

The report confirms previous reporting by the Times Union concerning the events that followed a February 2018 single-vehicle accident involving former State Police senior investigator Francis Stabile III, who retired last year amid an investigation of his on-duty activities and those of his fellow members assigned to the federal task force in New York City.

The inspector general found Stabile evaded discipline during an internal State Police probe of the former senior investigators conduct. Stabile ultimately was suspended for 30 days without pay, demoted to sergeant and reassigned, but was able to retire in good standing without receiving formal discipline, the report found.

Stabile, 49, died in May of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound; he was found in his vehicle at a boat ramp in Rhinebeck, Dutchess County.

The investigation of troopers assigned to the 150-member federal Drug Enforcement Task Force began after Stabile, then a State Police senior investigator, crashed his unmarked police SUV on a Dutchess County highway. He told a trooper who responded to the scene that he had lost control after swerving to avoid a deer. A resident whose front-yard fence was splintered by Stabile's vehicle said the investigator looked unsteady and had difficulty talking.

Earlier: Trooper's crash leads to internal probe of drug unit

The internal State Police probe, which began with a review of the mishandling of the crash by troopers, shifted to the question of why Stabile was off-duty but driving his undercover SUV more than 100 miles north of the DETF's Manhattan headquarters. Stabile's residence at the time was about eight miles south of the crash scene, according to public records. He abruptly retired in January 2019.

Questioned by the Times Union earlier this year, the State Police declined to say whether Stabile's retirement was part of a negotiation with the agency. The investigation of the drug task force members was handled by former Troop K Maj. Michael A. Kopy, who retired in the midst of the probe. Capt. James Murphy, another former high-ranking State Police member who had been assigned to the DETF, retired in May 2018, as the probe was ongoing.

In 2018 and 2019, at least 12 State Police members assigned to the DETF applied for retirement.

Read the full Inspector General report:

In January 2019  the same month that Stabile retired  Kopy was appointed as Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's director of Emergency Management, a position in which he remains.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

After reviewing Stabiles actions and finding he had abused overtime, misused a state vehicle and directed subordinates to falsify time records, State Police expanded its probe to review the conduct of 36 of the 39 task force members, according to the IG's report. The department found 13 members of the task force warranted discipline  certain members had falsified overtime charges, conducted surveillance contrary to department rules and improperly used assigned vehicles  but Tagliafierro said State Police failed to adequately discipline the troopers.

The discipline doled out by State Police was extremely lenient and lacked transparency, the report charges.

The range of discipline imposed  from a two-day deduction in annual leave to a five-day suspension without pay  merely mirrored the number of working hours each member was found to have wrongfully claimed. The State Police did not seek reimbursement from any member including those who retired during the course of the review, Tagliafierro said in the report. All members who retired after serving their terms of discipline received a retirement in good standing State Police identification card.

While Stabile was among those who received a good standing identification card, it was later taken away following inquiries from the Times Union about whether he had received one.

The report also revealed the federal Drug Enforcement Agency served as a roadblock to the State Police Professional Standards Bureau in accessing requested records for its internal investigation. Tagliafierro suggested that the bureau's decision referring to their probe as an "audit rather than an investigation may have indicated a lack of urgency and importance.

The unusual intervention by the inspector general's office followed a series of Times Union stories that revealed details of the State Police investigation, which was closed without the agency disclosing its findings.

Historically, the offices of the state's inspector general and attorney general have allowed the State Police to handle investigations of wrongdoing by its members  with an outcome that usually ends with private discipline or forced retirements even when the allegations may be criminal.

The inspector generals report goes beyond the task force members conduct, also scrutinizing the standards and efficacy of those who were charged with conducting the internal probes and the policies and procedures currently in place to prevent gross misconduct.

The report calls for adequate, timely training for task force members while also expanding its pool of troopers for the special assignment. Selection currently is based on seniority.

Given the nature of the DETF assignments, it would be prudent to utilize a competitive selection process that includes a panel interview as well as a review of the members prior training, accolades, certifications, disciplinary record, and prior time and attendance, the report states. Additionally, DETF applicants should have prior experience in narcotics investigations before a transfer into DETF is considered.
CAMDENTON, Mo. - An Illinois man has died after being hit by a boat anchor on Lake of the Ozarks, authorities said.

Craig Gathmann, 55, of Manito, Illinois, was operating a boat Wednesday afternoon with the anchor still in the water, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said. Once the anchor released, the tension in the rope caused it to catapult out of the water, hitting Gathmann, investigators said.

Gathmann was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Patrol records show the incident was the second boating death on the lake this year.
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Terminal , a company that builds world-class remote engineering teams for high-growth tech companies, today announced its expansion into South America with a new remote talent hub in Colombia. This expansion enables Terminal customers to access 25% of Latin America's 1.2M engineers, offering unparalleled reach into the best talent on the market so tech companies can find, hire and onboard world-class engineering teams more than 40% faster than going it alone. The expansion also dramatically expands tech companies' access to a diverse workforce with a vetted talent pool up to 30 times larger than traditional hiring markets in Silicon Valley, while helping to achieve 75% lower monthly turnover than any U.S. tech hub.

"Colombia is exploding with engineering talent that most in tech don't have the capacity to access. With hundreds of startups and a burgeoning tradition of innovation, it's the ideal gateway to ultimately connect millions of South American engineers with the tech titans of tomorrow," said Clay Kellogg, CEO of Terminal. "Terminal's expansion into the region reflects our ongoing mission to connect growing tech companies with top talent ecosystems as well as more diverse candidate pools. It's a powerful and proven combination to fuel innovation, accelerate growth, advance inclusion and power the economic recovery."

Colombia is the third-largest and fastest-growing tech talent hub in Latin America and is home to over 100,000 skilled engineers, of which two-thirds hold advanced degrees in computer science or a related field. With the Colombian STEM talent pool growing by an average of 150,000 workers annually  far outpacing the 60,000 computer science majors graduating from American universities each year the country offers 280% more available candidates per open job than the Bay Area and New York. Terminal's Engineer 2020 report found that 88% of engineers prefer working in time zones within two hours of colleagues, and Colombia's location provides compatibility for any company based in North America.

"Terminal's decision to enter Colombia confirms our reputation as a hotbed of world-class technology talent. The strong tech-focused ecosystems of cities such as Barranquilla, Medellin and Bogota will dramatically enhance Terminal's pool of world-class engineers who power innovation for high-growth tech companies," said Elias D. Nino-Ruiz, chair of the computer science department at Universidad del Norte. "Their presence will turbocharge our technology ecosystem and provide our residents with exciting opportunities with companies they previously couldn't access."

To help companies optimize hiring strategies across their talent pools in the United States, Canada, Mexico and now Colombia, Terminal also launched a new tool called Teamfinder . The technology and proprietary data set is designed to help hiring managers and engineering leaders understand the ideal markets where talent best matches their specific priorities and culture. By assessing thousands of data points in major engineering talent markets, such as engineering specialty and size of talent pool, Teamfinder recommends markets where tech companies would have the greatest success scaling remote teams for their unique needs, helping to maximize recruiting efforts while accelerating innovation.

About Terminal

Terminal is the world's first tech-enabled remote teams engine for fast-growing companies. The company provides services and infrastructure in a complete solution that allows businesses to build world-class remote engineering teams faster than any other solution on the market. We hire, develop and retain talent by creating communities that take the guesswork out of remote and help startups thrive. Fast-growing tech companies such as Bluescape, Armory, Hims and Hers and more look to Terminal to build remote engineering teams with Terminal across Canada, Mexico, the US, and now Colombia. Learn more about remote scaling at Terminal.io.

SOURCE Terminal
Tibets Panchen Lama, a senior Buddhist monk hand-picked by Beijing to replace a candidate more widely recognized by Tibetans as authentic, paid a rare and largely unnoticed recent visit to Tibets regional capital Lhasa, where he was received by government officials, reports in Chinese state media said.



Gyaltsen Norbu, called Gyaincain in Chinese, arrived in Lhasa on July 31 and was greeted by Chinese authorities, students, and civil servants, and later went to pray on Aug. 3 in Lhasas Jokhang temple, media sources said.



Few in Lhasa appear to have been aware of the Panchen Lamas visit, though, a city resident told RFAs Tibetan Service this week.



Access to the Jokhang and Lhasas central Barkhor old town area are usually tightly restricted, RFAs source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.



But a few days ago even more police were deployed there than usual. Gyaltsen Norbu was probably visiting then, the source said, adding, Not many Tibetans know about the China-appointed Panchen Lama, and only those who dont know his background will care much about him.



Beijing named Gyaltsen (Gyaincain) Norbu as the Panchen Lama in 1995 in a retaliatory action after the exiled Dalai Lama identified another child, six-year-old Gendun Choekyi Nyima, as the reincarnation of the widely venerated religious figure.



Tibetan tradition holds that senior Buddhist monks and other respected religious leaders are reincarnated in the body of a child after they die.



The boy selected by the Dalai Lama disappeared into Chinese custody together with his family in 1995 and has not been heard from since.



Chinese authorities have meanwhile had difficulty persuading Tibetans to accept Gyaltsen Norbu as the official face of Tibetan Buddhism in China, and ordinary Tibetans and monks in monasteries traditionally loyal to the Dalai Lama have been reluctant to receive him.



A bid for authority



For many years the Chinese government has tried to strengthen Gyaltsen Norbus spiritual image, and their biggest challenge has been for him to win the hearts of the Tibetan people, said Tenzin Tsetan, a researcher at the Dharamsala, India-based Tibetan Policy Institute.



The Chinese government has therefore made him visit Tibetan farming and nomad areas and monasteries in Lhasa and the Tibet Autonomous Region to gain their approval, Tsetan said.



They are doing this in the hope that this will give him the spiritual authority to select the next Dalai Lama."



Regarded by Chinese leaders as a separatist, the present Dalai Lama fled Tibet into exile in India in the midst of a failed 1959 Tibetan national uprising against rule by China, which marched into the formerly independent Himalayan country in 1950.



He turned 85 last month and lives in Dharamsala.



In a statement made public on Aug. 1, five U.N. human rights experts and members of U.N. working groups on enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention called on China to publicly disclose the whereabouts of the missing Panchen Lama selected by the exiled Dalai Lama.



Meanwhile, the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet advocacy group said on Aug. 4 that Beijings manipulation of the appointment of Tibetan Buddhist leaders stands in clear contravention of human rights law.



The international community should therefore double its efforts to safeguard the rights of the Tibetans to choose a future Dalai Lama without interference by the Chinese government, ICT said.



Reported by RFAs Tibetan Service. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Disaster relief workers rescue passengers in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday, after a bus was submerged in floodwaters caused by torrential rain that has continued to hit the nation's interior since Saturday. / Yonhap



By Jun Ji-hye



Heavy rain pounding the country's metropolitan and central regions since Saturday has been causing growing casualties and heavy property damage, with the number of people killed approaching 20, according to disaster relief officials Thursday.



Major highways running across Seoul including Dongbu and Olympic expressways were partly closed, causing enormous inconvenience to many commuters who chose to go to work by car.



The authorities are remaining on high alert as the Korea Meteorological Administration forecast that the country's interior will receive more rain until Friday, with some areas in the capital region expected to suffer rainfall of more than 50 millimeters per hour.



A flood alert was issued for areas near the Han River Bridge in central Seoul at 11 a.m. for the first time in nine years after the river continued to swell amid the torrential rain, which led the authorities to open the floodgates of key dams, including Soyang River Dam and Paldang Dam, a day earlier in a bid to release the waters into the sea via the Han River, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government.



Districts that are at risk of floods include Yongsan, Mapo and Yeongdeungpo, the city government said.





Five rescued from bus caught in flood [PHOTOS] Rescue workers missing in floods after boats capsize Seoul highways closed as downpours raise water level of Han River [PHOTOS] Mudslide: New Zealand Chamber of Commerce in Korea mourns death of former official Border areas including Cheorwon in Gangwon Province, and Yeoncheon and Paju in Gyeonggi Province were hit hardest by the massive downpours the previous day, with more than 2,000 local residents forced to evacuate to safe areas such as schools and gymnasiums.



Some villages in Cheorwon have received more than 600 millimeters of rainfall in total, which led the Hantan Stream, the upper region of the Hantan River, to burst its banks.



According to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (CDSCH) under the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, 17 people have been confirmed dead, with 10 others still missing nationwide as of 4:30 p.m., Thursday.



Among the fatalities were a 50-year-old resident of Hongcheon, Gangwon Province, who was missing Monday after his car was swept away by strong currents. His body was found Wednesday.



Meanwhile, at least one person was killed and five others including a police officer went missing after three boats capsized near Uiam Dam on Uiam Lake in Chuncheon, also Gangwon Province, at 11:30 a.m. These people were believed to have been swept away through one of the dam's open gates as it was releasing water for flood prevention. These have yet to be included in the government's official record of the number of casualties.



Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun issued an emergency order to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the National Fire Agency and the National Police Agency to mobilize all possible means and personnel available to search for the missing.



"Rescue workers will also need to pay keen attention to their own safety," Chung said.



The heavy rains have caused landslides and floods that have led to massive property damage, the CDSCH said, noting that it has also received more than 5,000 reports regarding damage to facilities, including roads and bridges.




Actor Rana Daggubati and Miheeka Bajaj are all set to tie the knot on Saturday, and parents of the couple have now given the details of the ceremony. While the guest list will restricted to 30, all rituals will be carried out in keeping with traditional Telugu and Marwari customs so that the kids dont miss out on anything, the parents have said.

Ranas father and producer Daggubati Suresh Babu told Times of India in an interview, There will not be more than 30 people present at the wedding. We want to limit the guest list to just family and we havent invited even some of our closest friends, within and outside the film industry. The reality is that Covid-19 cases continue to rise and we dont want our celebrations to risk anybodys health, so I want to set the right example. The ceremony will be small but beautiful. Everybody who will attend the wedding will get tested for Covid-19. We will also keep sanitisers across the venue and maintain social distancing. Its a happy occasion and we want to make it a safe one too.

Miheekas mom Bunty Bajaj also told the daily, All functions will take place with our traditional Telugu and Marwari customs. We wanted all the functions to go on just like every other wedding. We dont want our kids to miss out on anything. Only difference would be the reduced guest list. Miheeka and I have designed the entire theme for the wedding and we got a team from Delhi to execute it. I want to keep the theme a surprise so I wont reveal what it is yet, but it will be truly special. Every girl dreams about her wedding day and wants it to be perfect and Miheeka is no different. As her mother, Im trying everything I can to make it special for her. I have one or two surprises in store for her and I cant wait to see her reaction on the D-Day.

Also read: Sushant Singh Rajputs case should be probed by CBI, Mumbai Police buying time to ensure evidence is destroyed: lawyer

The couple is set to get married on August 8. Talking about proposing her, Rana had said in May, She knew where Im getting at when I called her. And then she met me in person, thats it. I remember I said a bunch of things together. For me, it was serious. It was commitment. When I met her, thats the time I felt I am ready to do this. It was that simple, for real, he said. Rana added that he never consciously thought about marrying or not marrying someone from the film industry. I never thought about it. I met her, I liked her, and thats it. I found love.

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Even as Maines Democrat senatorial candidate is giving a tough fight to the incumbent Republican Senator Susan Collins in the United States, the Indian-origin Democrat and current Speaker of the Maine State Assembly Sara Gideon is making news in the US as well as India.

Gideon was recently endorsed by former two-time US President Barack Obama as the senatorial candidate for Maine.

The endorsement was big news as Maine is often considered one of the most important and high-profile Senate races ahead of the Presidential elections in November this year.

But who is Sara Gideon?

48-year-old Gideon was born to an Indian immigrant father and a second-generation Armenian mother in Rhode Island, US. Gideons father immigrated from India and worked as a pediatrician in Rhode Island, where Gideon, the youngest of four children, grew up. She moved to Maine after meeting her husband Ben Gideon, a personal injury trial lawyer.

After finishing her higher education from the George Washington University, Gideon served as an intern for US Senator Claiborne Pell. she later moved to Maine where she built the rest of her political career.

Her senatorial campaign has focused on putting Maine first" as she emphasizes the need for politicians to focus on those they represent while working for larger national interests. Due to her impetus on improving the lives of working-class families in Maine, Gideon enjoys the support of most of the labour unions in the region, including ones that had previously supported her opponent Collins.

Gideon has attracted the attention of the all of the Democrat party across the US and has managed to pull off an impressive donation of USD 23 million to run her campaign against Collins, setting a new record in Maine.

The Jewish connect

Gideon is also popular among the Jewish community in Maine which is numbered at 10,000-15,000, many of show an affinity to her due to her marriage to Jewish advocate Benjamin Gideon. But it might be more than that. Analysts feel that Gideons centrist take on the question of Israels policies and geopolitics might also make her popular among the Jews across the country. Considering that a win for Gideon would bring the Democrats a step closer to wresting Senate from the Republicans, her victory might play into the larger benefit of several sections of Jews and Jewish PACs that are more inclined to support the Democrats under Donald Trumps polarised regime.

Her liberal views on issues like abortion, immigration, and social safety net - issues that Liberal Jews endorse - also make her ideal for the Jewish vote.

The Desi Factor

After entrepreneur Rik Mehta, she is the second Indian-American to have won a Senate primary race this election season. Both Ms Gideon and Mr Mehta are the first Indian-American to win the primaries in their respective states.

If elected in November, she will be the second Indian American women to be elected to the US Senate. Kamala Harris from California is the first Indian origin Senator to be elected to the US Senate.

So grateful to have my sons Julian and Alek helping get out the vote this weekend! Join our family in making calls before the #MESen primary on Tuesdaysign up here: https://t.co/9HyE1nqa5F pic.twitter.com/fnRieT7k13 Sara Gideon (@SaraGideon) July 12, 2020

The news brought cheer on social media with many Indian-Americans expressing delight at Gideons prospects.

If Sara Gideon wins, there will be two half-Indian Democratic women serving in the U.S. Senate. Krishan Patel (@IAmKrishanPatel) June 15, 2019

If Maine does the right things, we can have one whole Indian senator between Sara Gideon and Kamala Harris https://t.co/vlVnHncAmI Vinny Venkat (@venkatinthehat) July 15, 2020

In her Twitter bio, Gideon describes herself first as a Mom and then a politician. The international relations graduate has two sons with whom she shares a warm relationship with. She often shares images of the sons - Julian and Alek - helping her out with the campaign by making phone calls to locals to seek support for their mom.

A supporter of womens rights, Gideons campaign promises to focus on womens healthcare and reproductive rights.

(With inputs from PTI)

Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Coronavirus News here
A cleaner caught with 300,000 earrings stolen after a raid on Tamara Ecclestone's home insisted today she has no idea who two of her co-defendants are.

Maria Mester, 47, was allegedly wearing the jewellery when she was held after arriving at Stansted airport on January 31, travelling from Italy where she lives.

The raid happened after Ms Ecclestone, the daughter of former Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone, headed off for her Christmas holiday with husband Jay Rutland and their daughter Sophia.

Maria Mester, 47, denies conspiracy to commit burglary of Tamara Ecclestone's 70m mansion

Earlier this year Mester, who was born in Romania, denied plotting to burgle Ms Ecclestone's mansion and concealing criminal property.

Security worker Alexandru Stan, 49, and barman Sorin Marcovici, 52, are the latest to be charged following the burglary at Miss Ecclestone's 70m mansion in Kensington on December 13.

Mester's bar worker son Emil-Bogdan Savastru, 29, of Bethnal Green, also denies conspiracy to commit burglary, having custody or control of a counterfeit currency note and attempting to remove criminal property.

It is claimed Savastru was found in possession of a Louis Vuitton bag similar to one taken in the raid and was planning to board a flight to Japan, which he denies.

Maria Mester, pictured with her 29-year-old son Emil-Bogdan Savastru who are both charged

Most of the 50m of stolen property has never been recovered.

Prosecutor Paul Jarvis told Judge John Denniss at Isleworth Crown Court today he would be seeking to join the case of Stan and Marcovici with Savastru and Mester's case and have them all tried together.

Judge Denniss said to Mester, who appeared in court via video-link from custody: 'Your barrister has told me that you do not wish to be joined with the other defendants in trial.

'There is an application to join Mr Stan and Mr Marcovici to your case.'

Tamara Ecclestone lives at the 70m Kensington property with husband Jay Rutland

Speaking through a Romanian interpreter Mester replied: 'I don't even know those people. I've only seen them in documents.'

Earlier, Sophie Akister, prosecuting, said: 'The Crown says this case relates to an investigation into burglaries of properties in southwest London.

'The Crown say there were three burglaries, on 1 December, 2 December and 13 December.

'With respect of Mr Stan these were three venues that are occupied by high profile, high net-worth with 17m estimated stolen.

There were three burglaries at the start of December in homes including Tamara's property

'These subjects were identified in communication data and we say played a role in the enterprise, the group involved were sophisticated and we say not opportunistic.

'It is an international organised crime group, Mr Stan was a part of.'

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 neighbours Palace Green mansion.

Tamara Ecclestone, who is the daughter of former Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone

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.

Savastru, Stan and Marcovici were also due to appear via video-link from custody today but were not produced due to an administrative mix-up.

Defending Marcovici, Ben Rowe told the judge: 'There is a problem in producing Mr Marcovici and Mr Stan, they were thought to be in prisons which they weren't and they haven't been produced.'

A total of eleven advocates appeared on the court video-link today but due to technical difficulties and the non-appearance of some interpreters and defendants the hearing was adjourned.

Prosecutor Paul Jarvis said: 'In the circumstances in which we are all operating at the moment it is extremely difficult for everyone to make meaningful submissions.'

Judge Denniss told the court: 'We simply cannot proceed today with counsel not being able to hear and some defendants not being produced.

'The video system was not designed for so many people and it is proving very difficult for me to provide instructions this morning.

'Today clearly demonstrates that the system is inappropriate for a multi-handed case.

'It is a waste of money and a waste of time and I'm going to record that.'

Stan, of Harrow, is charged with conspiracy to commit burglary with intent to steal between November 29 and December 9 2019.

Marcovici, of Romford, is charged with conspiracy to commit burglary with intent to steal between December 6 and 12 December 2019.

Both men will next appear along with Savastru and Mester at Isleworth Crown Court on September 11.
U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves often weaves the nations history of discrimination into his analysis. Reeves, a Black man who writes with trenchant candor about racism in America, was appointed to the Southern District of Mississippi by President Barack Obama in 2010. His Tuesday decision in Jamison v. McClendon, however, is much more than a legal history lesson. It is a fiery protest against the injustices of racist law enforcement wrapped in a scholarly critique of the appalling doctrine that lets lawless cops off the hook. He denounced a legal system that favors unconstitutional policing over Black lives. And then he let the officer off the hook.

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The doctrine of qualified immunity, which protects police officers from lawsuits over their behavior on the job, has suddenly received massive scrutiny in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd and the ensuing Black Lives Matter protests. Judges have begun to grapple with the courts role in expanding the doctrine and its dehumanizing consequences. Some judges are now even listening to the protests in the streets. A federal appeals court cited Floyds killing in a June opinion denying qualified immunity, explaining that the doctrine risks letting cops disrespect the dignity and worth of black lives. Reeves has now joined the chorus of judges urging the Supreme Court to acknowledge the worth of black lives and its complicity in using legal jargon to cover up systemic racism in law enforcement.

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The facts in Jamison are depressingly familiar. A white Mississippi officer named Nick McClendon pulled over Clarence Jamison, a Black man driving his new Mercedes convertible. McClendon claimed that Jamisons temporary tag was folded up. (Later, Jamison provided evidence that the tag was never folded.) McClendon ran a background check but found no criminal history. He then asked Jamison if he could search the Mercedes, allegedly (and falsely) accusing Jamison of carrying 10 kilograms of cocaine. Jamison initially refused the search. But after McClendon asked five times, Jamison acquiesced. The officer proceeded to dismantle Jamisons car for nearly two hours, searching every inch and finding no contraband. In the process, he destroyed portions of the car, inflicting thousands of dollars worth of damage. McClendon also deployed a drug-sniffing dog, who found nothing.

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Jamison then sued McClendon for violating his Fourth Amendment rights. A federal law passed in the wake of the Civil War lets individuals sue state officers who infringe on their constitutional liberties. But the Supreme Court has hobbled this law by imposing an extra-textual requirement: A victim must prove that the officer violated a clearly established right beyond debate, meaning a court has previously found that a nearly identical offense violated the Constitution. If a victim cannot meet this burden, the official receives qualified immunitya shield against the lawsuit.

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Reeves ruled that McClendon had flagrantly disregarded the Fourth Amendment by unlawfully coercing Jamison to consent to the search. Yet because there is no precedent that places the Constitutional question beyond debate, the judge held, McClendon is entitled to qualified immunity, and Jamisons claim cannot proceed. Reeves pointed out that it would be naive to hold otherwise, suggesting that his hands were tied by the higher courts. After all, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals hears appeals from Reeves court. In 2019, the 5th Circuit granted qualified immunity to prison guards who locked an inmate in a frigid cell covered in feces, forcing him to sleep naked on the floor for six days, because an inmates right not to be locked in a feces-covered cell for six days was not clearly established.

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The 5th Circuit has made clear that it believes even the most transparently abusive officer should be shielded from liability. Rather than issue a decision destined to be reversed by the 5th Circuit, Reeves placed Jamisons ordeal in the context of Black Americans broader struggle for equal justice. His opinion began with a list of Black people whove fallen prey to that racism.

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Clarence Jamison wasnt jaywalking, Reeves wrote. That was Michael Brown.

He wasnt outside playing with a toy gun. That was 12-year-old Tamir Rice.

He didnt look like a suspicious person. That was Elijah McClain.

He wasnt suspected of selling loose, untaxed cigarettes. That was Eric Garner.

He wasnt suspected of passing a counterfeit $20 bill. That was George Floyd.

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He didnt look like anyone suspected of a crime. That was Philando Castile and Tony McDade.

And on Reeves went, citing police assaults on nearly two dozen Black people over the last few years. Thankfully, Jamison left the stop with his life, he noted. Too many others have not.  Tragically, thousands have died at the hands of law enforcement over the years, and the death toll continues to rise. Countless more have suffered from other forms of abuse and misconduct by police.

Reeves then embarked upon a powerful condemnation of qualified immunity. The harm in this case to one man, he wrote, sheds light on the harm done to the nation by this manufactured doctrine. He explained that, during Reconstruction, white Southernersincluding law enforcementtortured and murdered formerly enslaved people to reestablish their brutal racial caste. To end this campaign of racial terror, Congress passed the Ku Klux Klan Act, the basis of civil rights suits like Jamisons. Sadly, federal courts promptly decided to place their hand on the scale for white supremacy, gutting the federal governments efforts to protect black Americans from both vigilante and state-sponsored violence.

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That trend continues today in the form of qualified immunity. The Supreme Court has made it almost impossible for victims of police misconduct to sue their tormentors in federal court. Federal judges were intended to be guardians of the peoples federal rights, yet they have transformed into enablers of system racism and abuse at the hands of the police. Reviewing recent qualified immunity decisions, Reeves noted:

Our courts have shielded a police officer who shot a child while the officer was attempting to shoot the family dog; prison guards who forced a prisoner to sleep in cells covered in feces for days; police officers who stole over $225,000 worth of property; a deputy who bodyslammed a woman after she simply ignored [the deputys] command and walked away; an officer who seriously burned a woman after detonating a flashbang device in the bedroom where she was sleeping; an officer who deployed a dog against a suspect who claim[ed] that he surrendered by raising his hands in the air; and an officer who shot an unarmed woman eight times after she threw a knife and glass at a police dog that was attacking her brother.

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With a historians eye, Reeves demonstrated that these decisions are not anomalies. They are part of the federal judiciarys long, dispiriting history of slamming shut the courthouse doors on the most vulnerable, particularly Black Americans. The Supreme Court has corrected such injustices in the past. It outlawed school segregation in Brown v. Board of Education. And just this year, it abolished non-unanimous jury verdicts, a tradition rooted in bigotry. Just as the Supreme Court swept away the mistaken doctrine of separate but equal,  Reeves concluded, so too should it eliminate the doctrine of qualified immunity.

The Supreme Court declined to reconsider qualified immunity just two months ago. Opponents of the doctrine have a tortuous road ahead, but Reeves encouraged them to strike forward anyway. As people marching in the streets remind us today, some have always stood up to face our nations failings, Reeves wrote, alluding to the Black Lives Matter movement. Through their efforts we become ever more perfect.

For more of Slates news coverage, subscribe to What Next on Apple Podcasts or listen below.
New Delhi on Thursday rejected Beijings interference in the countrys internal affairs after China backed a move on behalf of its traditional ally Pakistan to discuss the Kashmir issue at a closed-door meeting of the UN Security Council.

Chinas pushed for the discussion at the UN Security Council to coincide with the first anniversary on Wednesday of Indias decision to scrap the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and to split it into two union territories. Pakistan had pulled out all stops to rake up the Kashmir issue and observed Wednesday as a day of exploitation.

The external affairs ministry said in a statement that China initiated a discussion in the UN Security Council on issues pertaining to the Indian Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.

We firmly reject Chinas interference in our internal affairs and urge it to draw proper conclusions from such infructuous attempts, the statement said.

The statement further noted that this was not the first time that China has sought to raise a subject that is solely an internal matter of India. It added, As on such previous occasions, this attempt too met with little support from the international community.

The statement came a day after New Delhi tersely asked Beijing on Wednesday to keep out of the internal affairs of other countries after China contended that Indias unilateral changes to the status of Jammu and Kashmir were illegal and invalid.

Responding to comments by the Chinese foreign ministrys spokesperson, external affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava had said: The Chinese side has no locus standi whatsoever on this matter and is advised not to comment on the internal affairs of other nations.

This was the third time within a year that China raised the Kashmir issue at the UN Security Council using what is known as the any other business (AOB) item of the agenda, people familiar with developments said on condition of anonymity. China brought up the issue in August last year and in January. Prior to this, the last time the Kashmir issue was on the Security Councils agenda was in 1971.

Such items are taken up during informal, closed-door consultations of the Security Council and there are no records of the discussions or formal outcomes, the people said. However, such moves by China in the past have been opposed by France, the US and other permanent members of the Security Council, who have said Kashmir is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan.

Indias permanent representative to the UN, TS Tirumurti, tweeted: Another attempt by Pakistan fails! In todays meeting of UN Security Council which was closed, informal, not recorded and without any outcome, almost all countries underlined that J&K was bilateral issue & did not deserve time and attention of Council.

The people cited above said members of the Security Council usually do not oppose AOB items as they produce no outcomes. This was the route adopted by Security Council members to discuss the situation in Hong Kong in May.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 05:15:22|Editor: huaxia

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A Chinese peacekeeper prepares medical supplies at the camp of the Chinese peacekeeping forces to Lebanon, on Aug. 5, 2020. (Xinhua)

Chinese peacekeeping forces to Lebanon will provide medical aid to Beirut following the deadly explosions at the port of the Lebanese capital.

BEIRUT, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- The medical unit of the Chinese peacekeeping forces to Lebanon said it will provide medical aid to Beirut following the deadly explosions at the port of the Lebanese capital on Tuesday.

A Chinese peacekeeper checks inventory of medical supplies at the camp of the Chinese peacekeeping forces to Lebanon, on Aug. 5, 2020. (Xinhua)

Upon the request of the UN Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL), the 18th batch of Chinese peacekeeping troops to Lebanon organized an emergency team of nine medical personnel from fields including surgery, internal medicine, burns and anesthesiology.

The personnel and vehicles are well prepared and will head to Beirut, carrying medical supplies and protective equipment, said the medical unit.

A Chinese peacekeeper prepares stretchers at the camp of the Chinese peacekeeping forces to Lebanon, on Aug. 5, 2020. (Xinhua)

Two huge explosions rocked Port of Beirut on Tuesday at around 6:10 p.m. local time (1510 GMT), leaving 135 dead and some 5,000 others injured. 
The requested page is currently unavailable on this server.

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Weidner Apartment Homes

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Weidner Apartment Homes has named Kevin Colard its new chief investment officer. He's been with the company for 14 years. Company founder W. Dean Weidner said in a statement, One of Kevin's greatest accomplishments is the national network of real estate brokers that he has helped cultivate. This pristine standing in the marketplace has provided an invaluable edge to help consistently win deals in a very competitive landscape that is packed with other very qualified buyers. Based in Kirkland, Weidner now counts about 280 buildings and 56,500 units in its portfolio.




Along the East Coast, where millions are still without power because of Tropical Storm Isaias, more rain is expected in the coming days.

Nearly 1.6 million customers across New Jersey, New York and Connecticut have been affected by power outages.

PHOTO: Already Thursday morning, a round of storms is moving through parts Maryland and Virginia. These storms are headed off to Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey in the next few hours. (ABC News)

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said Thursday that it expects the months ahead to be some of the "most active" in decades.

The agency utilized its Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) index, which measures the combined intensity and duration of all named storms during the season.

"This year, we expect more, stronger, and longer-lived storms than average, and our predicted ACE range extends well above NOAAs threshold for an extremely active season," Gerry Bell, lead seasonal hurricane forecaster at NOAAs Climate Prediction Center, said in a statement.

The agency said this is one of the most active seasonal forecasts that NOAA has produced in its 22-year history of hurricane outlooks.

NOAA's updated outlook covers the entire six-month hurricane season and calls for 19 to 25 named storms, with winds of 39 MPH, and of those seven to 11 of those will become hurricanes with winds of 74 MPH or greater. That outlook also predicts three to six hurricanes with winds of 111 MPH or greater.

Story continues

Hurricane season ends Nov. 30.

PHOTO: The NOAA said this is one of the most active seasonal forecasts it has produced in its 22-year history of hurricane outlooks. (Daniel Manzo/ABC News)

On Thursday, storms were moving through parts Maryland and Virginia and headed to Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

A new flash flood watch has been issued for the region. In eastern Pennsylvania, rivers are just beginning to recede from elevated levels due to the excessive rainfall. Any additional rain could cause flash flooding.

PHOTO: High-resolution models are showing that some of the storms will likely make it into the New York City metro area by Friday, where localized flooding will be possible. (ABC News)

High-resolution models are showing that some of the storms will likely make it into the New York City metro area by Friday, where localized flooding will be possible.

Then it appears another wave of strong storms will arrive early Saturday morning in parts of New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania and perhaps New York City.

PHOTO: Then it appears another wave of strong storms will arrive early Saturday morning in parts of New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania and perhaps New York City. (ABC News)

These storms could bring 3 to 4 inches of rain to parts of the Mid-Atlantic, especially northern Virginia to southern New Jersey, which means the flooding threat could last for the next few days.

PHOTO: These storms could bring 3 to 4 inches of rain to parts of the Mid-Atlantic, especially northern Virginia to southern New Jersey, which means the flooding threat could last for the next few days. (ABC News)

Out west, a fire threat remains from Arizona to Montana due to dry and gusty winds. In Nevada, the dry air and lightning pose a risk for fires.

After Isaias rocks East Coast, more storms on the way originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Vietnam is urging its citizens to install a domestically developed contact-tracing mobile app to identify and alert people who have interacted with COVID-19 patients.

The smartphone app, named Bluezone, relies on Bluetooth signal to log when two users are near each another, information that can later be used for contact tracing in relation to COVID-19 cases.

The development of the Bluezone app is overseen by Vietnams Ministry of Information and Communications and Ministry of Health. It was introduced on April 18.

Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung pledges that the tracking app would not invade users privacy.

Bluezone is now available for Android devices on the Google Play Store and iOS devices on the App Store.

Only over 4.2 million people out of Vietnams 76.8 million smartphone users have downloaded the app, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications.

Vietnam had a population of more than 96.2 million as of April 2019, according to the General Statistics Office.

The figure is far behind the ministrys target of 50 million active Bluezone users  the minimum number that it believes is needed for the app to have a meaningful impact.

In order to realize this target, Minister Hung ordered all state-owned agencies and enterprises to request all visiting guests to install the app.

Meanwhile, the Vietnam Telecommunications Authority (VNTA) under the ministry asked mobile service providers to send text messages to all subscribers on a daily basis, reminding them of installing Bluezone.

In addition, the VNTA is propagandizing the app by running the message Hay cai dat Bluezone (Please install Bluezone) next to carrier logos on smartphones.

At the same time, the Authority of Information Technology Application said it is altering some information on the application to prevent misunderstandings, as well as setting up a hotline for troubleshooting.

Previously, the Peoples Committee of Da Nang City in central Vietnam, where 193 local COVID-19 infections and seven deaths have been recorded since July 25, also encouraged local residents to install the contact tracing app on their smartphones.

Vietnam has documented 718 COVID-19 cases, with 381 recoveries and ten virus-related deaths since the coronavirus first hit in January.

The detection of a community-based patient in Da Nang on July 25 ended the countrys streak of 99 days with no local transmission.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
New Yorks attorney general sued the National Rifle Association on Thursday, seeking to put the powerful gun advocacy organization out of business over claims that top executives illegally diverted tens of millions of dollars for lavish personal trips, no-show contracts for associates and other questionable expenditures.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 6/8/2020 (530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FILE - This Feb. 29, 2020 file photo, National Rifle Association Executive Vice President and CEO Wayne LaPierre speaks at Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2020, at the National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Md. New Yorks attorney general is suing the National Rifle Association, seeking to put the powerful gun advocacy organization out of business over allegations that high-ranking executives diverted millions of dollars for personal benefit. The lawsuit filed Thursday, Aug. 6, by Attorney General Letitia James followed an 18-month investigation into the NRA, which is a nonprofit group originally chartered in New York.(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

New Yorks attorney general sued the National Rifle Association on Thursday, seeking to put the powerful gun advocacy organization out of business over claims that top executives illegally diverted tens of millions of dollars for lavish personal trips, no-show contracts for associates and other questionable expenditures.

Attorney General Letitia James lawsuit, filed in Manhattan state court, highlighted misspending and self-dealing claims that have roiled the NRA and its longtime leader, Wayne LaPierre, in recent years  from hair and makeup for his wife to a $17 million post-employment contract for himself.

Its clear that the NRA has been failing to carry out its stated mission for many, many years and instead has operated as a breeding ground for greed, abuse and brazen illegality," she said at a news conference. Enough was enough. We needed to step in and dissolve this corporation."

Simultaneously, Washington D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine  like James, a Democrat  sued the NRA Foundation, a charitable arm of the organization that provides programs for marksmanship and firearm safety, accusing it of diverting funds to the NRA to help pay for lavish spending by top executives.

In a statement, NRA President Carolyn Meadows labeled James a political opportunist pursuing a rank vendetta with an attack on its members Second Amendment rights.

You could have set your watch by it: the investigation was going to reach its crescendo as we move into the 2020 election cycle, said Meadows, who announced a countersuit in federal court in Albany that could set the stage for a drawn-out legal battle lasting well past Novembers election.

The New York lawsuit made only civil claims, but James said the investigation was ongoing and any criminal activity discovered would be referred to prosecutors and the Internal Revenue Service.

The NRA's financial troubles, James said, were long cloaked by loyal lieutenants but became public as deficits piled up. The organization went from a nearly $28 million surplus in 2015 to a $36 million deficit in 2018.

New York State Attorney General Letitia James announces that the state is suing the National Rifle Association during a press conference, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2020, in New York. James said that the state is seeking to put the powerful gun advocacy organization out of business over allegations that high-ranking executives diverted millions of dollars for lavish personal trips, no-show contracts for associates and other questionable expenditures. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

The organizations prominence and cozy political relationships, James said, enabled a culture where non-profit rules were routinely flouted and state and federal laws were violated. Even the NRAs own bylaws and employee handbook were ignored, she said.

Though headquartered in Virginia, the NRA was chartered as a non-profit in New York in 1871 and is incorporated in the state.

Republican Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson defended the NRA, tweeting that if New York doesnt want it, the organization should move south, where people respect and value the Second Amendment. Arkansas would be a natural home.

The Washington, D.C., attorney general has been investigating the NRA Foundation for more than a year. It said its investigation determined that low membership and lavish spending left the NRA with financial problems and so it exploited the tax-exempt foundation to remain afloat.

Charitable organizations function as public trusts  and District law requires them to use their funds to benefit the public, not to support political campaigns, lobbying, or private interests, Racine said in a statement.

His lawsuit sought not to have the NRA destroyed, but to have a court-appointed monitor supervise its finances and a trust created to recover money diverted from the foundation.

The New York lawsuit also named LaPierre  the NRA's CEO  and three other current and former executives as defendants, including general counsel John Frazer, retired treasurer and chief financial officer Wilson Phillips, and LaPierres former chief of staff Joshua Powell. The lawsuit accuses all four men of wrongdoing and seeks fines and remuneration.

LaPierre, who has been in charge of the NRAs day-to-day operations since 1991, is accused of spending millions of dollars on private travel and personal security, accepting expensive gifts such as African safaris and use of a 107-foot (32-meter) yacht from vendors and setting himself up with a $17 million contract with the NRA, if he were to exit the organization, without board approval.

The lawsuit said LaPierre, 70, spent NRA money on travel consultants, including luxury car services, and private jet flights for himself and his family, including more than $500,000 on eight trips to the Bahamas over a three-year span.

Some of the NRA's excess spending was kept secret, the lawsuit said, under an arrangement with the organization's former advertising agency, Ackerman McQueen.

The advertising firm would pick up the tab for expenses for LaPierre and other NRA executives and then send a lump sum bill to the organization for out-of-pocket expenses, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit comes at a time when the NRA is trying to remain relevant and a force in the 2020 presidential election as it seeks to help President Donald Trump secure a second term.

An ongoing schism within the organization is pitting some of its most ardent gun-rights supporters against one another.

The internal battles reached a pitch in 2019, when NRA President Oliver North was ousted amid a tussle with LaPierre as he sought to independently review the NRAs expenses and operations. He accused LaPierre of exerting dictatorial control.

James' lawsuit portrayed the NRA as the victim of its leaders, and she was asked during a news conference why she would victimize it further by shutting it down, rather than removing or fining its officers.

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James said the breadth and the depth of the corruption and the illegality justified the organization's closure.

She took similar action to force the closure of Trump's charitable foundation after alleging he used it to advance business and political interests.

The appearance of a Democrat trying to bring down the NRA for good could create a sense of Is this politics or is this real? said Philip Hackney, a University of Pittsburgh law professor and former IRS attorney.

But Hackney added: I think its more real and I think she was right to bring this complaint.  In a strange way, the NRAs behaviour almost forces her hand. Theres essentially a fraud on all its members.

___

Pane reported from Boise, Idaho. Tom Hays contributed to this report from New York.
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Linkedin Rizki Fachriansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, August 6, 2020 14:04 530 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c06b64 1 National Jokowi,Inpres-presidential-instruction,COVID-19-protocol,sanctions,COVID-19,pandemic,face-mask Free

President Joko Jokowi Widodo has ordered the nationwide enforcement of COVID-19 protocols, making violations subject to legal sanctions throughout the country.

The rules, established by Presidential Instruction (Inpres) No. 6/2020 issued on Tuesday, seek to improve public compliance with health procedures to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

According to the Inpres, all regional heads  governors, mayors and regents  are required to immediately formulate and issue policies for the prevention of COVID-19 contagion and to establish sanctions for violations of policies.

In addition to penalizing individual violations, the Inpres also requires sanctions against businesses, organizations and collectives that are found to have violated prevailing health protocols.

The sanctions may range from a written warning and community service to fines and temporary suspension of businesses and organizations, according to the Inpres.

All expenses required for the implementation of the presidential instruction shall be sourced from the state budget, the regional budget and other legal and independent sources in accordance with the law, the Inpres stated, according to the Cabinet Secretariat website, setkab.go.id.

Read also: Jakarta collects more than Rp 2 billion in PSBB fines

A number of regions in the country have already been enforcing prevailing health protocols and large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) through a variety of policies.

West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil, for instance, signed a gubernatorial decree that required all residents to wear face masks, with violations of the policy penalized by a fine.

According to the gubernatorial decree, those found not wearing a face mask in public may be subject to a Rp 100,000 (US$6.95) to Rp 150,000 fine or community service.

Meanwhile, Jakarta has collected a total of Rp 2.47 billion (US$188,120) in fines from violations of PSBB, which have been extended until Aug. 13.

Most of the fines were collected from people found not wearing face masks in public places, kompas.com reported.
Syracuse, NY -- In a week in which Onondaga County recorded its lowest coronavirus infections since March, County Executive Ryan McMahon used one word Thursday to describe the progress:

Consider:

Onondaga County alone is testing three times more people -- 2,227 on Thursday -- as needed for the entire five-county region (a state requirement of 775 tests a day across Central New York).

New infections are as low as theyve been in over four months. There were 11 new cases found overnight from among those 2,227 test results -- or a 0.49% infection rate, McMahon said. Of those, five were attributed to unknown community spread. One is still being investigated. The rest were among families with known infections, travel (Nevada) or senior living.

Hospitalization numbers are as low this week as theyve been since the early days of the pandemic in mid-March. As of Thursday, there were 14 hospitalized (nine for treatment, five for state-mandated quarantine before release) and three in critical care, McMahon said.

The numbers continue going down despite the phased reopening of the economy, McMahon noted. There have been hiccups, but nothing thats derailed the fight for more than a few days, he added. The seven-day positive rate is 0.8%, far below the 5% that is considered cause for alarm. (A few months ago, the county was averaging an 8% to 9% infection rate.)

All of those things are remarkable, he said.

Its a similar sentiment to that of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who said earlier that it defies common sense that the entire state continues to see low numbers of infections as the virus spikes in neighboring states and across the country.

Statewide, there were 703 new cases reported in the past day, from among 72,370 tested. Thats a 0.97% infection rate. There were 570 hospitalized and three more deaths overnight, the governor announced.

The question for Onondaga County now is, can the community do any better?

We wont get this infection rate much lower, McMahon suggested of the countys 0.49% positive rate. Later, he added a bolder statement: I believe the data is as good as its going to get until we have a vaccine.

That doesnt mean that life can go back to normal, though, he said. Envision in March if the community knew its numbers would be so low by early August. The belief back then might have been that people would be back to work and children back in school normally, he suggested.

But now that were here, its still tough as we go through different phases of reopening, he said.

And the virus continues to take its toll: a man in his 90s died overnight from the virus, bringing the countywide number lost during the pandemic to 201, McMahon said.

Staff writer Douglass Dowty can be reached at ddowty@syracuse.com or 315-470-6070.
It was simply the wrong decision.

Three and a half years after Black teen Dafonte Miller was catastrophically injured during an assault by off-duty Toronto officer Michael Theriault, the forces new interim police chief formally apologized for failing to call in Ontarios police watchdog to investigate in the case.

We made the wrong decision that night, James Ramer, who took over as interim chief on Aug. 1, told a news conference Thursday. As a result of that decision, trust has been broken between the police, Dafonte Miller and the broader community. For that, on behalf of the Toronto police service, I want to apologize.

The long-sought admission follows years of outcry and allegations of a cover-up by Toronto and Durham Regional police, whose officers responded to the December 2016 assault in Whitby, near the Theriault family home, which left Miller permanently blinded in one eye.

Neither police force called in the Special Investigation Unit (SIU), Ontarios arms-length, civilian police watchdog, to investigate Theriaults actions, despite provincial law requiring police to notify the SIU of a serious injury involving a police officer.

Instead, the watchdog was only informed of the assault months later by Millers lawyer Julian Falconer. The SIU then swiftly opened the investigation that led to criminal charges against Michael Theriault and to his June conviction of assault.

Falconer has alleged that the SIU was not notified by either police service on the night of the incident as part of a deliberate and intentional effort on the part of police authorities to conceal a crime by one of their own.

Reached Thursday, Falconer said Ramers Thursday comments came as a surprise to Miller and his family, and that he wouldnt be immediately commenting.

Michael Theriault was initially charged with aggravated assault alongside his younger brother, Christian Theriault. Both brothers were found not guilty of that charge, but Michael Theriault was convicted of the less serious offence of assault. The brothers were also found not guilty of attempting to obstruct justice in the case.

A sentencing hearing for Theriault is scheduled to be held next month.

Ramer said during the news conference Thursday that both sides were appealing the verdict. Reached Thursday, Theriaults lawyer, Michael Lacy, confirmed the Crown has appealed the brothers acquittals, but said his client has up to 30 days after any sentence is imposed to file an appeal.

Ramers apology came the same day the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD)  a provincial body that investigates police complaints  completed an investigation into Toronto police handling of the case. Its confidential report has since been provided to the Toronto police board and to Miller.

While Ramer said he could not release the report or provide details about its findings, he said it focused on a police services duty to report to the SIU.

Asked why it took more than three years for the Toronto police to apologize to Miller and his family, Ramer said: This is only day five for me.

He added: Given the report that I just received, I felt it was important for me as a chief to do that.

At the Thursday news conference, Ramer committed to developing a policy ensuring that Toronto police service will notify the SIU about any serious injury involving a civilian and a police officer, regardless of whether the officer was off duty or not. The Durham Regional Police announced a similar change in policy in 2017.

The move was celebrated by Mayor John Tory and by the Toronto police board, which said in a statement that we echo the apology that has been made to Mr. Miller and to the community at large.

Tory called Ramers commitment to ensuring the SIU is called whether an officer is on or off duty an important step toward repairing trust.

Howard Morton, a Toronto lawyer and past director of the SIU, said police services have been legally required to notify the SIU when a civilian is seriously injured since 1990  you shouldnt need a policy, he told the Star Thursday.

The failure to notify the SIU of serious injuries involving police was the subject of most of my big big fights, Morton said, adding: They just wouldnt call. Previous SIU directors have also raised concerns with Toronto police about failures to notify the watchdog about civilian injuries, or delays as long as months or longer.

While the interim Chiefs apology is a good step, its regrettable it took an incident like this one to bring this basic issue of immediate notification to a head after all these years, said Ian Scott, who was the SIU director from 2008 to 2013.

Desmond Cole, a Toronto journalist and activist who has written and spoken extensively about the Theriault case, said Ramers comments demonstrate that when police break the law there are literally no consequences.

What Ramer is now telling us is that police will follow the law from here on in. The fact is that police can break the Police Services Act without facing consequence, Cole said.

Sarah Jama, a spokesperson for Black Lives Matter Toronto, said in an interview that it shouldnt have taken more than three years for the Toronto police to apologize  but we werent waiting for an apology, we knew that this was wrong.

The issue is bigger than this apology. We need to take power from police and move it into the community, she said, adding that the case shows why police need to be defunded and money put towards communities.

The Theriault brothers father, John Theriault, is a former Toronto police officer who was working in the Toronto police professional standards unit at the time of the assault  the unit that handles officer misconduct including incidents involving the SIU.

In a written complaint to the OIPRD in 2017, Falconer alleged that John Theriault repeatedly contacted (Durham police) investigators to gain information relating to the status of the investigation.

Ramer would not comment on John Theriaults role when asked about it Thursday, citing ongoing investigations, but revealed that on the night of the assault neither he nor then-chief Mark Saunders were informed of the incident.

In addition to the OIPRD, the Waterloo Regional Police are also conducting an external review of Toronto polices handling of Millers assault. That review will focus on why the SIU was not called and its findings will be presented to the Toronto police board.

We have requested and are awaiting documents and information from the SIU, the Crown, and TPS, a spokesperson for Waterloo police said. Once we have that information, which should be very soon, we will have a better idea on how long the review and writing of the report will take.

A spokesperson for the OIPRD confirmed Thursday that one of three investigations it has launched into Millers assault has been completed and provided to the Toronto police board. Citing confidentiality provisions with Ontarios Police Services Act, the OIPRD said it cannot provide a copy of the report or provide any further details.

Kate Puddister, a University of Guelph professor who researches police oversight, said she was pleased to hear Ramer acknowledge Toronto police made a mistake when they failed to notify the SIU.

Notification is vital for the process of civilian oversight to function, but equally important, proper notification demonstrates to the public that the process exists and is functioning well  and this is crucial to promote public confidence in SIU investigations and police oversight, she said.

Wendy Gillis is a Toronto-based reporter covering crime and policing for the Star. Reach her by email at wgillis@thestar.ca or follow her on Twitter: @wendygillis

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MARYLAND  New applications for Maryland jobless benefits edged down to 18,268, the fourth consecutive week in which the number of first-time unemployment filings was fewer than the week before. Initial claims are now at its lowest level since mid-March, according to the state's labor department.

The latest figure  which covers the week ending Aug. 1  represents a 23.3 percent decrease from the 23,839 jobless claims that were filed the prior week. It also pushes the total number of filings to more than 1.08 million.

Prior to the pandemic, first-time unemployment filings in Maryland hovered between 2,000 and 6,500 per week. During the public health crisis, however, these numbers have fluctuated between 2,090 and 109,263.

Here's a closer look at the claims filed during the pandemic:

Graph: Patch / Source: Maryland Department of Labor

Of the 18,268 workers who applied last week, 6,741 filed for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA)  a federal program for gig workers, contractors, and other self-employed people who otherwise are ineligible for regular jobless benefits.

The jurisdiction with the most PUA claims was Prince George's County, with 1,438, according to state data.



Claims filed for Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC)  a federal program that provides an additional 13 weeks of pay to workers who've exhausted their other benefits  was 799.



The most PEUC claims were filed in Baltimore County. The total stands at 157.

On Friday, the Maryland Department of Labor announced that it had begun offering an additional 13 weeks of unemployment insurance benefits through the Federal-State Extended Benefits program. Claimants must exhaust both their regular and PEUC benefits before applying on the state's BEACON One-Stop portal.

This article originally appeared on the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Patch
A day after arranging Lord Hanuman pujan at his residence, Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) chief Kamal Nath hosted a grand celebration to mark the historic foundation stone laying ceremony of Ram Temple. The occasion was accompanied by the lighting of diyas and musical performance at the MPCC office on Wednesday evening.

A mammoth billboard of lord Ram was placed atop the office at Link Road, Bhopal while the party workers kept chanting Jai Sri Ram aloud in and outside the party headquarters. Later, MPCC president and other leaders took part in lord Rams aarti within the party office.

Similar celebrations were organised by the states BJP leaders as well. Its a historical day as every Indian desperately wanted the temple construction to commence and the wish has come true, Kamal Nath told the media.

Claiming its wrong if someone tries to run away with the credit, Nath added that it was late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who had opened the gates of the disputed site in 1989 and had vowed to bring Ram Rajya. Responding to health concerns amid pandemic, he said only limited guests were invited here at the ceremony as per the regulations.

However, it was a rare occasion in the politically-charged central state when both the mainstream political rivals celebrated the same occasion at the same time.

Asked to comment on state Congress celebrating Ram temple bhumi pujan with full fervour, Home minister Dr Narottam Mishra on Thursday said, Its fine, all we also wanted was that everyone become Sita-Ram-may (immersed in devotion of lord Ram-Sita).

Blaming the Congress for delaying temple construction, VS Kokje, president of Vishwa Hindu Parishad said, In the changed scenario, the Congress party is now trying to ally with the Hindus.
Deputy General Secretary of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Obiri Boahen has justified the reason why people like JB Daquah should be added to the founding fathers of Ghanas independence.



According to him, the role of JB Danquah in the independence struggle of the country cannot be swept under the carpet as he used the poem he wrote to suggest the name Ghana for the country to adopt.



Speaking on Okay FMs 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show, the Deputy Chief Scribe for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) narrated that JB Danquah in his poem personified the country as a beautiful young woman that deserved to be called Ghana.



What he did significantly was that the name Ghana came from him. He wrote a poem and, in that poem, he was talking about Ghana as a beautiful young woman as we were starting afresh. And he said that the name for such a beautiful young woman in Ghana, meaning the ancient Ghana Empire, he justified.



Nana Obiri Boahen, however, hinted that the suggested name stirred up a controversy in the country as people contemplated the name but Dr. Nkrumah surprisingly together with others agreed to use the name Ghana to replace Gold Coast.



For the purpose of this discussion, even if JB Danquah did not do anything at all to help in the struggle of our independence, he introduced the name Ghana for the country. He often engaged the elites in Cape Coast whenever he went to court in Cape Coast to discuss the best way towards gaining independence for the country, he argued.



He added that even though Dr. Kwame Nkrumah should not be painted black as some seem to do, it is undeniable fact that he virtually antagonized everybody including Ako Adjei who advocated for him to come back to Ghana to work as the General Secretary of UGCC.



 . . I dont think we should paint him [Nkrumah] black as sometimes people seem to do because the circumstances at that time demanded him to react in a certain way . . . even Ako Adjei who advocated for Kwame Nkrumah to come back to Ghana to work as the General Secretary for the UGCC, later, Kwame Nkrumah antagonized him and he imprisoned a lot of people, he said.

Source: Daniel Adu Darko/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected]









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Medical workers disinfect returnees from Equatorial Guinea before letting them into the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi, July 29, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Anh Tuc.

Fifteen of the 219 Vietnamese repatriated from Equatorial Guinea last week carry malaria, with six additionally crippled by Covid-19.

The patients were found infected with the deadly Plasmodium falciparum parasite, which spreads malaria via the bite of a female Anopheles mosquito feeding off humans.

Malaria, often fatal, typically causes intense fevers, debilitating chills, vomiting, and associated flu-like symptoms. It is commonly found in tropical and subtropical regions skirting the equator.

Dr. Tran Van Giang of the Department of Viruses, Parasites and HIV at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi said six of the malaria sufferers were also diagnosed with Covid-19.

Of the six, three have since recovered from malaria, he added.

The remaining malaria infectees have been "responding well" to hospital treatment and are recovering.

Giang explained patients contracting both diseases simultaneously suffer greater organ damage than normal, complicating the treatment process.

The hospital has measures in place to treat malaria, having received scores of infected Africa returnees.

So far, 21 of the 219 citizens repatriated from Equatorial Guinea have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, opposed to the prior figure of 129.

The returnees were employed at Sendje Hydropower Plant under labor contracts signed by Duglas Alliance Ltd of the U.K. and three Vietnamese companies.

They had sought help earlier last month from Vietnamese representative agencies in Angola. The Vietnamese government then ordered a special flight to bring them home, including those infected with Covid-19.

Upon landing, all passengers and flight crew were quarantined for 14 days at the Hanoi hospital.

Over 16,000 Vietnamese have been brought home from overseas on dozens of special flights since early April, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Vietnam has recorded 717 Covid-19 infections so far, including 381 recoveries and 327 active cases. Nine patients, mostly elderly and suffering pre-existing illnesses, have died the past week, including one Thursday morning.
Doris Buffett, a self-styled retail philanthropist who once declared that her billionaire younger brother, Warren Buffett, loves to make money and I love to give it away, died on Tuesday at her home in Rockport, Me. She was 92. Her death was confirmed by her grandson Alexander Buffett Rozek. Ms. Buffett had been a benefactor in her own right when her brother, one of the worlds most successful investors, announced his intention in 2006 to donate nearly his entire fortune before he died, opening the gates to a flood of supplicants. At the time his worth was ...
Disha Salians father Satish Salian on Thursday has written to Maharashtras Assistant commissioner of police Dilip Yadav rubbishing reports that his daughter was raped and murdered. He said that his family has been continuously harassed by the media and it has taken a huge toll on their familys health.

Amid the ongoing media speculation around late actor Sushant Singh Rajputs case, Disha Salians father Satish Salian has ended his silence on Thursday and slammed reports that claim her daughter was raped and subsequently murdered. In a letter to Maharashtras Assistant commissioner of police Dilip Yadav, he said that his family has been continuously harassed by the media in relation to his daughters death and it has taken a huge toll on their familys health.

He stated that the news of her involvement with any politician or attending parties with big names of the film fraternity, rape and murder are all false and fabricated. The stories hold no truth and are tarnishing his daughter and familys reputation, says her father.

A day after SC reprimanded Mumbai Police in the death probe, Dishas father, on the contrary, expressed that he is completely satisfied with the investigations conducted by them and does not suspect any foul play.

Satish Salians reaction comes a day after former Maharashtra CM Narayan Rane alleged that Disha Salian was raped and murdered. Claiming that the Maharashtra government is trying to save the culprits, Rane also alleged that Dishas family is under pressure.

Meanwhile, a PIL has also been filed in the Supreme Court urging the transfer of Disha Salians case to CBI stating that both the cases are interlinked. Several reports have hinted at Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackerays son Aadityas involvement in the whole matter. In response, Aaditya recently released a public statement in which he said that some people are unnecessarily dragging him into the matter and the reason might be their political failure or rather success of Maharashtra government.

Rubbishing his involvement in the matter, Aditya called the attempt of politicising the dead a blot to humanity. He added that he is the grandson of Hindihriduysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray and wont act in a manner that will affect his image.
By Online Desk

KOLHAPUR: The Panchganga river crossed its danager mark in western Maharashtra's Kolhapur district on Thursday evening, officials said.

As the catchment areas of Radhanagari dam were receiving heavy showes, water was released, leading to a rise in the river's level, they said.

By late evening, some 1,750 familiesfrom 23 villages were shifted to safer places.

The river was flowing above the danger mark of 43 feet at Rajaram Weir outside the Kolhapur city.

"So far 4,413 people from 1,750 families in 23 villages in Gadhinglas, Panhala, Karveer, Gaganbawda, Ajara, and the Kolhapur city have been shifted," said district collector Daulat Desai.

Around 1,100 livestock animals were also shifted.

As per the district's disaster management cell, at 8 pm on Thursday, the water level at Rajaram Weir was 43.9 feet.

So far, 98 bunds have gone underwater in the district.

"At 7 pm, water from Radhanagari dam was being released at 4,256 cusecs and that is why the level of the Panchaganaga is rising," said an official.

ALSO READ | Mangroves destruction to blame for flooding in Mumbai: Experts

Nine state highways and 25 other roads in the district were affected due to the rains, a Public Works Department official said.

Meanwhile, an official from the irrigation department said owing to good rainfall in the catchment areas of the Koyna dam in the neighbouring Satara district, 2,427 cusecs water was being released.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has already deployed four teams in Kolhapur district.

The Sangli district administration had also asked people living on the banks of the Krishna, Warna and Koyna rivers to remain alert.

Last year, unprecedented rains wreaked havoc in western Maharashtra, especially in Kolhapur and Sangli districts, claiming over 60 lives.

The India Meterological Department (IMD) said there will be light to moderate rain with thunder and lightning in Pune and adjoining areas and heavy rain in isolated places in Ghat areas on Friday.

On Saturday and Sunday, light rains are expected, it said.

On the other hand, a 47-year-old man fell into a swollen nullah and was washed away in rain-hit Thane district of Maharashtra, district authorities said on Thursday.

The incident took place in Mira-Bhayander township of the district on Wednesday evening and his body was found on Thursday, an official said.

District Disaster Control Room chief Anita Jawanjale said the victim, Rakesh Harshora, a residentofMahajanwadi, came out of his house looking for his two-wheeler.

He accidentally fell into the swollen nullah near his house and was swept away, the official said.

His brother lodged a police complaint after which a search was launched, Jawanjale said.

The body of the victim was traced by the search team and sent for post-mortem examination at a government hospital, the official said.

Thane and adjoining Palghar district were lashed by heavy showers on Wednesday.

ALSO READ | Rain intensity reduces, transport services resume in Mumbai

Meanwhile, a portion of a dilapidated four- storey building collapsed due to incessant rainfall in Mira- Bhayandar city of Maharashtra's Thane district, a civic official said on Thursday.

The building on Talao Road, which had been declared dangerous, is now being torn down by the authorities, ward officer Damodar Sankhe said.

A part of the 35-year-old structure collapsed due to heavy rains, prompting firemen and local disaster cell personnel to rush to the scene, a fire officer of the Mira- Bhayandar Municipal Corporation said.

The building has three wings, with 150 flats, which were vacated in March itself, he said.

(With PTI Inputs)
(Newser)  President Trump warned Thursday of a radically different future for Americans under a President Joe Biden. "Take away your guns, take away your Second Amendment. No religion, no anything," Trump told supporters at the Cleveland airport. "Hurt the Bible. Hurt God. Hes against God." The president had made a similar claim last week, the Hill reports, saying "the radical left" intends to "wipe away every trace of religion from national life." Biden's campaign quickly answered the accusation that the former vice president opposes God. "Joe Biden's faith is at the core of who he is; he's lived it with dignity his entire life," a spokesman said, "and it's been a source of strength and comfort in times of extreme hardship." Biden is likely to be the Democratic nominee on the ballot against Trump, a Republican, in November.

story continues below

Biden often talks of his Catholic faith, per CNN, especially how it has helped him deal with loss. "I'm not trying to proselytize, I'm not trying to convince you to be, to share my religious views," he said at a town hall after the church shootings in Charleston. "But for me it's important because it gives me some reason to have hope and purpose." The Biden campaign's website includes a proposal for "Safeguarding America's faith-based communities." A former Republican National Committee staff member said Thursday that an attack like this could backfire on Trump. "We've seen these attacks before, and they've just not been effective outside of a very small part of the Republican base," Doug Heye said. "You've made such over-the-top political attack that questions someone's faith, it's bound to not be effective." (Read more Election 2020 stories.)
NEW YORK, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As the COVID-19 pandemic remains entrenched in the United States, demand for effective and comfortable face masks continues to climb. To meet the current and future needs, Creative Home Ideas/YMF, an American company with 35 years of experience in developing and manufacturing, has launched a new division, Germ Tech, offering high quality personal protective equipment to businesses and consumers.

Germ Tech ergonomically shaped KN95 personal protective respirator masks captures over 95 percent of bacterial microns and particulates in the air.

According to Yaron Shemesh, CEO of Creative Home Ideas, "We created this division as a result of having to search for high quality PPE to keep our employees safe. After much research we discovered that not all PPE is created equally. To help keep our employees safe we decided to develop and rigorously test our own superior high-quality protection products and then share them with other businesses around the country."

Germ Tech specializes in KN95 personal protective respirator masks, a more secure fitting, filtering face mask that captures over 95 percent of bacterial microns and particulates in the air. In addition to their superior defense against virus contamination, the KN95 respirator masks are ergonomically shaped so that they don't feel as claustrophobic as other masks and don't press against the wearer's mouth when talking.

The Germ Tech KN95 respirator face masks are rigorously tested and manufactured at an FDA-certified facility and feature five layers of protection and efficient filtering. An ear-loop design and adjustable nose clip ensure the masks fit securely to the face and are comfortable for both adults and children. In addition to KN95 face respirator masks, Germ Tech also offers 3-ply disposable face masks that can be customized with company logos along with DailyGard 70% ethyl alcohol gel hand sanitizers and Fourplus 75% alcohol gel hand sanitizers. Sanitizing wipes and reusable face masks are coming soon.

While 3-ply disposable face masks afford a basic level of protection and enhance social distancing, the KN95 respirator face masks are strongly recommended for those who work in close proximity to others due to their more secured fit and extra levels of filtration. The masks are a smart solution for dental offices, personal care salons, teachers and schools, construction workers, manufacturers, hospitality industry, health and fitness clubs, and a variety of other businesses. Companies can purchase the masks in bulk; wholesale discounts are available. Buyers also can set up an account for easy checkout on repeat orders. All orders ship within 24-48 hours from the USA.

"KN95 respirator face masks also offer enhanced protection for social distancing, traveling with public transportation and in congested areas like grocery stores, retail shops, parks, or city streets. While 3-ply masks keep others safe from your germs and are perfect for everyday customers, businesses and employees in high exposure settings should be investing in a higher level of protection like the KN95's," Shemesh concluded.

More detailed product information, including pricing, product testing results, and tutorials on correct usage, is available on the Germ Tech website, Germ Tech.

Headquartered in NYC, Creative Home Ideas is a 35-year-old family owned business manufacturing and distributing high quality bedroom and bath linens, kitchen textiles, accent rugs and pillows and personal protective equipment. Every design is thoughtfully created to add color, texture, and ready-to-wear style to your home.

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The Media Matters, Inc.

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Hydroxychloroquine: What is being said?

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Debate over the anti-malarial hydroxychloroquine, a drug some say is an effective treatment for the coronavirus, has resurged amid the ongoing pandemic and Big Tech and social media platforms censoring medical professionals who promote it.

The persistent back-and-forth about the drug has continued in part because of fluctuating case numbers and growing deaths as vaccines and other therapeutics are being developed. Earlier this year, President Donald Trump brought attention to the drug after he said he had been taking it as a preventative measure. The president began the regimen following two White House staffers testing positive for the coronavirus. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro contracted the virus and has credited the drug for his recovery.

Still, some in the medical community say there is little to no evidence that it is a helpful treatment for the disease.

Below is a round-up of what has taken place in recent months surrounding this drug.

Drs. Birx, Fauci, others opposed: HCQ not effective

Among those who have said the drug for treating COVID-19 is not effective is Dr. Deborah Birx, who has been a key figure advising the president as the White House coronavirus response coordinator.

In a Thursday interview with Fox & Friends, Birx explained that while some say the drug is effective, it's more complicated.

"Science and medicine has always been full of accounts like this," she said, when asked about the doctors who spoke on Monday in favor of the drug, whose stories were subsequently scrubbed from the internet.

"And that's why you do randomized clinical trials, to actually be able to compare patient to patient," she said, noting that the doctors in the individualized practices had no controls.

Thus far, in the randomized controls, there is no evidence that hydroxychloroquine improves those patients' outcomes, she said.

"Whether they have mild, moderate disease or whether they're seriously ill in the hospital. Medicine always has these reports and that's why we do these randomized control trials. There also may be a specific subgroup that does benefit but we can't see those in those randomized controlled trials."

Asked about whether doctors should have the freedom to prescribe the drug if they think their patient will benefit and if pharmacy boards should be permitted to ban it across the board, Birx replied that it varies by state.

"Medical boards decide for their state based on clinical practices," she said, noting that Ohio, which recently instituted such a ban, must have had a specific reason for taking the approach it did and that every state has to examine their situation independently.

At the behest of Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, the Ohio Board of Pharmacy reversed course on its ban on the drug Thursday. The initial ban prohibited pharmacies, clinics and other medical institutions from selling or dispensing the drugs but they would still be used in clinical trials.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has in large part spearheaded the nationwide response to COVID-19, said in an MSNBC interview Wednesday: "The scientific data, the cumulative data on trials, namely clinical trials that were randomized and controlled in the proper way, all of those trials showed consistently that hydroxychloroquine is not effective."

Similarly, Dr. Carlos del Rio, an infectious disease physician at Emory University School of Medicine, told NBC News that there is no reason to keep talking about the drug in the context of COVID-19.

It does not work for treatment or for prevention. I have no idea why there is still talk about it, but its wrong, he said.

Some doctors say the drug works

On the steps of the United States Supreme Court Monday, a group of doctors dressed in white coats who called themselves America's Frontline Doctors said that they have been treating many patients who have a variety of medical conditions, including those who have contracted COVID-19, with the drug and that it has invariably helped them.

Notable among the physicians who spoke was Dr. Stella Immanuel, a Houston-based doctor who was born in the African nation of Cameroon.

"Nobody needs to get sick. This virus has a cure  it is called hydroxychloroquine, I have treated over 350 patients and not had one death," Immanuel said, noting she had extensive experience treating malaria patients in West Africa.

Considerable mass media coverage of her words has centered on the fact that she is also a pastor who has a deliverance ministry and on her previous remarks about what sexual and health problems demonic spirits can cause.

Video footage of their remarks was soon scrubbed from many social media platforms and website hosting service Squarespace disbanded the doctors' website.

Dr. Joe Ladapo, a physician from the University of California-Los Angeles who appeared with the group, told USA TODAY in an email that he showed up at the event on the steps of the high court "because I believe its critically important for us to have a discussion that includes different perspectives about our approach to COVID-19."

Arguing in favor of the drug, Harvey A. Risch, a professor of epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health, opined in Newsweek last Thursday that the medication is a particularly good treatment when given early on when patients become sick with COVID-19 and when combined with antibiotics like azithromycin or doxycycline and the nutritional supplement zinc.

"Physicians who have been using these medications in the face of widespread skepticism have been truly heroic. They have done what the science shows is best for their patients, often at great personal risk," Risch said.

"I myself know of two doctors who have saved the lives of hundreds of patients with these medications, but are now fighting state medical boards to save their licenses and reputations. The cases against them are completely without scientific merit."

The medication has become disregarded partly because it has become highly politicized, he continued, explaining that many see support for or opposition to the drug as a political identity marker. But the drug has not been properly used in many studies, he maintained. The Food and Drug Administration recently announced concerns about cardiac arrhythmia risk but Risch argued that it was based on an incomplete picture of how such cases are reported in the agency's Adverse Event Reporting System.

"In the future, I believe this misbegotten episode regarding hydroxychloroquine will be studied by sociologists of medicine as a classic example of how extra-scientific factors overrode clear-cut medical evidence," he said.

"But for now, reality demands a clear, scientific eye on the evidence and where it points. For the sake of high-risk patients, for the sake of our parents and grandparents, for the sake of the unemployed, for our economy and for our polity, especially those disproportionally affected, we must start treating immediately."
Netflix star Daisy Coleman has died by suicide, aged 23.

Documentary subject Coleman appeared in 2016 film Audrie & Daisy. Her body was found after her mother, Melinda, urged police to undertake a welfare check.

She called Coleman my best friend and [an] amazing daughter as she announced the news on Facebook.

She continued: I think she had to make it seem like I could live without her. I cant. I wish I could have taken the pain from her!

Audrie & Daisy revealed Coleman and Audrie Potts experiences of sexual assault in 2012. The documentary explores the bullying faced by teenage assault victims.

Melissa added: She never recovered from what those boys did to her and its just not fair. My baby girl is gone.

The documentary details Colemans allegations that she was raped at a party when she was 14 years old by Matthew Barnett, who was 17.

After the news made national headlines, her family were forced to move out of Maryland. The case was eventually dropped, which Colemans family claimed was due to the fact Barnetts family had local political connections.

Coleman went on to co-found SafeBAE (Before Anyone Else), a non-profit organisation focused on stopping sexual assault among school students, as well as helping young survivors.

A statement released by SafeBAE said: [We are] shattered and shocked by her passing.

She had many coping demons and had been facing and overcoming them all, but as many of you know, healing is not a straight path or any easy one. She fought longer and harder than we will ever know.

Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up

The statement added that Coleman would want the young survivors she helped to know they are heard, they matter, they are loved, and there are places for them to get the help they need.

Audrie & Daisy premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. It went on to win a Peabody Award.

When life is difficult, Samaritans are here  day or night, 365 days a year. You can call them for free on 116 123, email them at jo@samaritans.org, or visit www.samaritans.org to find your nearest branch.
On August 5, Prime Minister Narendra Modi performed bhoomi pujan  a customary laying of the first brick -- for the Ram temple at Ayodhya. This marks the culmination of a 135-year-long dispute, whose outcome was crucially shaped by the demolition of the Babri mosque on 6 December 1992.

Today, August 7, marks 30 years of the implementation of the B. P. Mandal Commissions recommendations by the V P Singh-led National Front government. The decision gave 27% reservation to the Other Backward Classes (OBC) in government jobs. This was extended to educational institutions under the first United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in 2006.

Both kamandal (an oblong water pot used by sadhus), a term often used to describe the Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJP) Hindutva politics, exemplified by the demand for the temple, or mandir, and Mandal politics had to eventually seek judicial sanction for their goals, but political agitation played a crucial role in fulfilment of their demands. To be sure, the larger political motivation for both Mandal and mandir went beyond the immediate cause being championed. It was to capture political power. The protagonists of Mandal wanted to unite the socially backward against upper castes. This necessarily involved causing fissures in the Hindu vote. The BJP, in keeping with its ideological worldview of Hindu nationalism, has always wanted to consolidate the majority Hindu vote.

Given Indias social arithmetic, successfully achieving either of these consolidations is a sure shot way to political power. According to the 2011 census, Hindus have a share of 79.8% in Indias population. The 2015-16 National Family and Health Survey (NFHS) shows that among these 45.7% belong to the Other Backward Classes (OBC), 22.2% to Scheduled Castes (SC) and 9.6% to Scheduled Tribes (ST).

This is exactly why the conflict between Mandal and mandir has been the central fault line in Indian politics for a large part of the last three decades. The BJP, which enjoyed high levels of support among the upper caste voters even earlier, could not achieve its current political dominance until it was able to make a dent in the votes of Hindu OBCs and SCs. Interestingly, many experts believe that VP Singhs decision on Mandal was partly motivated by a desire to stop the ascendancy of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which scripted a turnaround between 1984 and 1989 largely on the basis of its demand for a Ram temple.

See Chart 1: BJP all India vote share and estimates of support among upper castes, OBCs, SCs and STs

How did the BJP gain support among the votaries of Mandal? Mandal worked by creating fissures in a monolithic Hindu vote bank. The BJP has undermined Mandal by creating further fissures in this vote bank. One place where this strategy has been the most successful is Uttar Pradesh. A look at sub-caste wise vote shares for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from the National Election Study conducted by the Centre for Studies of Developing Societies, Lokniti makes this clear. The only sub-castes where the grand alliance of Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) had an edge vis-a-vis the BJP were Yadavs and Jatavs. These two sub-castes are the primary support base of the SP and the BSP, but put together they only have around 20% share in the states population. The BJP had a huge advantage among all other Hindus, including OBCs and SCs. The coming together of the SP and BSP was described as a grand coalition of Mandal. In the end, it was just a coalition of two sub-castes and Muslims.

See Chart 2: Vote share in Uttar Pradesh

What explains this shift in favour of the BJP? Growing traction for the BJPs overall politics and Prime Minister Narendra Modis popularity has definitely played a role. These generic factors have been complemented by a careful strategy.

The BJP has been crafting a social justice agenda of its own to counter the narrative of forces which championed Mandal in the 1990s. This has been achieved by portraying dominant OBC, and even Dalit sub-castes, as the usurpers of the distributive gains of Mandal, both in the realm of jobs as well as political representation. This is something that appeals to those who, the BJP claims have been deliberately left behind.

The biggest policy move in this direction has been the formation of the Commission to Examine Sub-categorisation of Other Backward Classes for OBCs. This commission, HT reported on 31 December, 2019, might recommend breaking the existing 27% OBC reservations into three bands  with 10% each going to those that have got no benefits so far or only some benefits, and another 7% to those who have thus far received the most benefits (see https://bit.ly/31mvg24).

This move, if and when implemented, will create a huge rupture in OBC unity and consolidate the beneficiaries  there are 2633 OBC sub-castes in India  in favour of the BJP. The policy clearly has political undertones, but intra-caste inequality is an objective reality in India. While there is no systemic data at the national level, there exists region-specific research to show this. For example, a 2018 World Bank research paper, which is based on a field survey of 9000 poor households in Bihar shows that intra-caste divisions can play a bigger role in creation of inequality than inter-caste factors.Yadavs, an OBC sub-caste and the core supporters of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the main Mandal based formation in Bihar, reported a higher average land ownership than not just other OBCs and SCs but also some upper castes. The image of a dominant OBC isnt entirely fiction.

To be sure, not all of the BJPs political success in usurping the erstwhile supporters of Mandal can be attributed to an exercise in social reengineering aimed at breaking OBC-SC unity while placating upper castes. The announcement of 10% reservations for economically weaker sections among those who were not entitled to reservations earlier is a move in the latter direction.

In contrast to the usual rhetoric branding the BJP has pro-upper caste, the party has taken the side of the unprivileged on some key issues. The Modi governments decisions to nullify two Supreme Court orders on dilution of provisions of Prevention of Atrocities against SCs/STs Act and implementation of reservations in higher education teaching jobs at the level of institutions rather than departments (which would have led to reduction in number of reserved positions) are examples of this. Such decisions have helped the BJP pre-empt political damage from the forces of Mandal even at the risk alienating upper caste interests.

A reorientation of welfare policies has also played a role. A recently published paper by Yamini Aiyar and Neelanjan Sircar argues that the centralised and technology driven distribution of targeted welfare benefits, most of which go to SCs, STs and OBCs, has allowed the BJP to establish a direct connect with voters, while bypassing state governments and therefore regional parties. Given the fact that most state governments face greater fiscal constraints, this has created an additional problem for regional parties (most Mandal formations are regional), in countering the BJPs efforts to consolidate their vote bank.

With its subaltern social base being fragmented on the question of reservations and state governments ability to give an economic boost to the social justice project coming under squeeze, Mandal politics is facing the biggest challenge it has ever faced in its struggle against mandir politics. Conscious efforts to create a subaltern Hindutva narrative and promote local heroes, as was seen in Modis reference to Maharaja Suheldev  a lower caste king who fought against a nephew of Mahmud of Ghazni  during his speech at Ayodhya on 5 August, only increase Mandals political challenge by creating tensions between Muslims and the Hindu OBCs and SCs. Mandals initial success in countering the BJP was based on an electoral unity between Muslims, OBCs and SCs.

Does this mean that the kamandal has triumphed over Mandal for good? Politics, especially in a country such as India, is always in a state of churn, and it is hazardous to make predictions. Fresh contradictions could undermine the BJPs support among the subalterns. In an article published in The Indian Express, Christophe Jaffrelot and Kalaiyarasan A have argued that the Narendra Modi government has been taking decisions which are leading to a reduction in number of reserved jobs and a cut in funds earmarked for Dalits (see https://bit.ly/3a1fldb).

Will the BJP be able to manage these contradictions? Or will it suffer a blowback for failing to fulfil the promises to those it claims have been betrayed by Mandal politics? Whatever the answer it is clear that 30 years after Mandal, Indian politics is entering a new phase.

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Chennai, Aug 6 : The BJP is luring some disgruntled persons in DMK in order to project that it is growing in the state and one sparrow does not make a summer, said DMK spokesperson and MP T.K.S. Elangovan.

Elangovan was referring to the quitting of former Deputy Speaker of the Assembly, V.P. Duraisamy, from the DMK and the recent actions of party legislator from Thousand Lights constituency here, K.K. Selvam.

Selvam had recently met BJP National President J.P. Nadda and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal in New Delhi.

"The BJP is hooking disgruntled persons in the party or those facing some legal problems. The BJP and also those who are joining it know that the party will not come to power in Tamil Nadu in the near future. And the DMK members are not joining BJP for ideological reasons," Elangovan told IANS.

According to him, the party is not losing anyone with a good following at the ground level.

"Duraisamy aspired for Rajya Sabha membership which had gone to some other person. The party would have fielded him in the Assembly elections. Similarly, Selvam didn't get the post of Chennai West District Secretary following the death of sitting legislator J. Anbazhagan," Elangovan added.

Interestingly, the traffic between DMK-BJP is two-way and not one way.

Recently, BJP leader S.K. Vedarathinam in Nagapattinam district quit the party to join the DMK. A three-time MLA under DMK, Vedarathinam had quit the party nine years back to join the BJP.

It is said that Vedarathinam was not happy in BJP as he was not given a prominent post and hence he decided to go back to DMK.

"The coming back of Vedarathinam is actually a gain for the party. He has good grassroots support which may not be so in the case of Duraisamy or Selvam," Elangovan said.

It is rumoured that the BJP is casting its net for some more DMK leaders, including some lawmakers.

"For BJP it is an image building exercise to show the unsuspecting people that it is gaining traction in the state. For those whose main purpose of being in politics is to make money will jump ships. For them the only ideology is to make money and to develop their business," Elangovan said.

On Wednesday, the DMK suspended Selvam for actions which defamed the party, and stripped him of all party posts and issued a showcause notice to him as to why he should not be removed as a basic member of the party.

On his part, Selvam said that he was not worried even if he was removed from the party. He also attended a puja at the office of the BJP's Tamil Nadu unit on Wednesday.

He also indirectly criticised his party, saying that hereditary politics has now become family politics and asked DMK President M.K. Stalin to hold organisational elections and condemn the denigration of Hindu deity Murugan and the prayer "Kanda Shasti Kavacham" by the YouTube channel Karuppar Koottam.

Selvam said that he was hoping for the post of DMK's Chennai West District Secretary following the death of sitting legislator J. Anbazhagan due to Covid-19, but was denied the same.

On the possible entry of Rajinikanth into active politics by floating a party, Elangovan said: "If at all he floats a party and contests the elections, he may get 5 per cent vote. Even that will be at the cost of the ruling AIADMK. Kamal Haasan's party 4 four per cent vote in the Lok Sabha polls." "AIADMK founder M.G. Ramachandran's fan base was DMK members. When he broke away from the DMK, his fans too went with him. He also had mass appeal. In the case of Rajinikanth, his fans will be in several parties and when it comes to voting, they will choose the party over their movie idol," he said.

When pointed out that Rajinikanth's mass appeal cannot be compared with that of Kamal Haasan, he added: "If Rajinikanth continues to have a mass fan following, then his films should have been great hits. But his recent movies are not great hits."
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) wants to develop an offline system so that digital payments can be expanded beyond metros and cities, a move that Governor Shaktikanta Das said will push the adoption in areas with slow or no internet.

It is, therefore, proposed to allow a pilot scheme for small-value payments in offline mode with built-in features for safeguarding the interests of users, liability protection, etc, he said. The pilot will be conducted till March 31, 2021.

In India, digital payments have mostly been adopted by smartphone users but the country has around 500 million feature-phone users. Outside large cities and towns, internet speed also tends to be slower, causing payments to fail on multiple occasions.

The central bank is looking to address these issues and also encourage rural consumers to adopt digital solutions.

Follow our LIVE blog for the latest updates from the RBI Monetary Policy statement

Das said that tech companies would have to work with Payment System Operators (PSOs) to allow payments via cards, wallets and mobile devices. Payments of up to Rs 200 can be offered without any additional factor of authentication but the choice will remain with the user. The limit for such transactions will be Rs 2,000.

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has been running a USSD-based payments mechanism for feature phones for many years. However, it has not seen widespread adoption like Unified Payments Interface.

NPCI is working with three startupsToneTag, Gupshup and Minkvilletrying to test feature phone-based payments solutions.

Now, the regulator has stepped in and said it would issue instructions and based on initial experience, detailed guidelines would be released.

Besides offline payments, the RBI also wants payments system operators to work on an online grievance resolution mechanism. This will address consumer complaints around digital payments.

To begin with, authorised PSOs shall be required to implement ODR (Online Dispute Resolution) systems for failed transactions in their respective payment systems, Das said.

An online redressal system will enable consumers to immediately report failed transactions or fraudulent transactions without having to dial a separate number or wait for assistance from call centres.

The banking regulator even wants the system to be digitised so that customers can lodge complaints easily.

The move comes at a time when there are multiple frauds being reported on digital payments, especially UPI. Players like NPCI, RBI and even operators like Google Pay, PhonePe and Paytm have been carrying out awareness campaigns to protect customers.
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are struggling to work out an agreement that would restore some federal jobless aid.

An unemployed makeup artist with two toddlers and a disabled husband needs help with food and rent. A hotel manager says his unemployment has deepened his anxiety and kept him awake at night. A dental hygienist, pregnant with her third child, is struggling to afford nappies and formula.

Around the country, across industries and occupations, millions of Americans thrown out of work because of the coronavirus are straining to afford the basics now that an extra $600 a week in federal unemployment benefits has expired.

My worst nightmare is coming true, said Liz Ness, a laid-off recruiter at a New Orleans staffing agency who fears she will be evicted next month without the added help from Washington. Summer 2020 could be next years horror movie.

I don't know what we're going to do now. Bethany Racobs-Ashford, makeup artist

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are struggling to work out an agreement that would restore some federal jobless aid. Even if they do reach a deal, the amount is likely to be less than $600. And by the time the money starts flowing, it could be too late for many Americans who are already in dire straits.

Members of Congress may have the luxury to come to an agreement this week and vote next week and then roll it out over several weeks, said Brian Gallagher, CEO of United Way Worldwide. Families dont have that luxury  they are out of money tomorrow.

In the meantime, up to 30 million Americans, their jobs lost or income slashed by an outbreak that has paralysed the economy and killed close to 160,000 people in the US, are trying to get by solely on state unemployment benefits, which on average are less than $400 a week.

On Thursday, the government said nearly 1.2 million laid-off Americans applied for unemployment last week. That is a decline from the previous week. Still, it was the 20th straight week that at least one million people sought jobless aid. Before the coronavirus, the number had never surpassed 700,000 in a single week.

Bethany Racobs-Ashford, the makeup artist with two small children, said the $600 had been a lifeline.

Racobs-Ashford said that the extra $600 in federal benefits was a lifeline for her family [File: Tony Gutierrez/AP Photo]

The 32-year-old Dallas resident was just entering the busy wedding season, when she typically earns most of her income, when the outbreak struck and she lost her job. Her state unemployment aid amounts to only about $828 a month.

I dont know what were going to do now, she said.

Fearing eviction from their home, Racobs-Ashford and her family moved in with her 70-year-old mother. She worries about taking on a new job that could compromise her familys health.

Jackilyn Lopez of Tucson, Arizona, said the $600 had been a godsend for her family since she lost her job as a hygienist in March, when most dental practices shut down. She and her husband have an 18-month-old daughter, and Lopez is due to give birth in three weeks.

Her employer has reopened but has yet to recall Lopez. She feels fortunate that her husband has kept his job as an assembly worker at a laser manufacturer. But Lopez, 30, just received her first weekly unemployment check without the $600, and it was only $213.

Our groceries are more than that each week, with the diapers and formula, she said.

We are going to have tens of millions of families not just in desperate need, but they are going to be out of their home, and it's going to be catastrophic. Brian Gallagher, CEO of United Way Worldwide

Food banks, pantries and other safety-net organisations report soaring demand from people in need. Charitable groups worry the problem will worsen with the end of the $600 and the expiration of coronavirus-era moratoriums on evictions.

Up to 23 million renters nationwide are at risk of being evicted by the end of September, according to the COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project, a coalition of economic researchers and legal experts.

We are going to have tens of millions of families not just in desperate need, but they are going to be out of their home, and its going to be catastrophic, the United Ways Gallagher said.

My worst nightmare is coming true. Liz Ness, a laid-off recruiter in New Orleans

United Way, which runs the 211 network, a service that connects the needy with help, typically receives 11 million calls a year. This year, it foresees 20 million calls.

The Greater Boston Food Bank, one of the nations largest food banks and a supplier for hundreds of pantries, soup kitchens and senior centres, said it is seeing the highest demand in its 40-year history. Many people are seeking help for the first time.

So far, food banks and pantries that rely heavily on donations say giving has been strong since the outbreak hit.

In Florida, whose tourism industry has been pummelled, 38-year-old John Brenner of Plantation lost his position as a hotel manager and has been out of work for four months. Floridas weekly unemployment aid is capped at $275 a week, so Im quite reliant on that extra $600, he said.

The anxiety the Senate is giving me isnt helping much, Brenner said.
Some civil rights activists feel Biden's lack of voice in the immigration debate is a missed opportunity: Getty

Donald Trumps campaign has requested the first presidential debate ahead of Novembers general election be rescheduled to early September if a fourth debate cannot be added to the schedule.

A letter from the presidents personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, to the Commission on Presidential Debates argued that voting in more than a dozen other states means several million voters will already have cast mailed-in ballots before the first scheduled debate on 29 September.

For a nation already deprived of a traditional campaign schedule because of the Covid-19 global pandemic, it makes no sense to also deprive so many Americans of the opportunity to see and hear the two competing visions for our countrys future before millions of votes have been cast, said Giuliani, calling the current schedule an outdated dinosaur and not reflective of voting realities in 2020.

Several states have prepared for a demand for absentee ballots among voters looking to avoid coming into contact with the coronavirus at the ballot box, though an impeded US Postal Service and the presidents ongoing attacks against mail-in voting, including baseless claims about mass voter fraud, have

On Tuesday, the president appeared to reverse course on mail-in ballots in the swing state of Florida, claiming that the states Republican governors better prepared the state for absentee turnout  though governors in 25 other states and many election officials are also Republicans. GOP officials also have feared that the presidents rhetoric against absentee voting could be polarising to his own supporters who rely on the practise.

The solution is easy: add an additional debate in early September before the first ballots are sent out in North Carolina [on 4 September], or move up the final debate currently scheduled for [22 October] into the first week in September, Mr Giuliani said.

Mr Giuliani said that a simple studio format with no audience should be established as an emergency back-up plan for all currently scheduled presidential and vice presidential debates.

Story continues

The campaign has accused Democratic challenger Joe Biden of trying to skip out of the debates, though in June his campaign committed to the three scheduled debates. Several commentators have urged him to avoid debating the president, who they argue will likely spend time on stage spouting misinformation, while the Trump campaign seeks to lure the former vice president into a public gaffe.

In a statement, Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates reiterated that the candidate will appear on the dates that the commission selected and in the locations they chose.

Donald Trump has not, he said, continually trying to insert his choice of friendly moderators, now including one who just published an op-ed offering the case for Trumps re-election.

Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt is among list of mostly Trump-friendly potential moderators suggested by the campaign, including Fox News hosts and contributors Maria Bartiromo, Shannon Bream, Dagen McDowell, Rachel Campos-Duffy, Harris Faulkner, Michael Goodwin, Bill Hemmer and Susan Li; former Fox host Brett Baier; Today anchor Hoda Kotb; and several CBS and ABC anchors and conservative radio hosts.

The commission has scheduled three debates and one vice presidential debate.

In addition to a debate on 29 September in Ohio, the candidates are expected to appear on 15 October in Miami and 22 October in Nashville.

A debate between Mike Pence and Bidens running mate is set for 7 October in Salt Lake City.

Read more

These are the key moments to look out for in the 2020 election

Trump claims 2020 election results may not be known for years

US Census Bureau says counting will end a month early

Trump: New York election should be redone in row over mail-in voting
When the coronavirus pandemic hit, almost everyone at the University of California, Irvine  and colleges across the nation  had to abandon campus.

But James Nowick, professor of chemistry, was not a part of that exodus. That's because his lab, which designs and constructs chemical molecules, had the right equipment to help in the global push to find treatments for COVID-19.

Nowick's team set to work in April, and now, on the preprint server bioRxiv, they describe the development of a ring-shaped molecule called a macrocycle that's designed to gum up the machinery of the virus by blocking the action of an enzyme essential for it to reproduce.

Adam Kreutzer, a project scientist in Nowick's group, spearheaded the effort to design and produce the new molecule.

We didn't know for sure if we could synthesize the macrocycle, because sometimes macrocycles can be difficult to synthesize." James Nowick, Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of California

But Kreutzer succeeded on his first try with the macrocycle the team thought might work. "It's a novel molecule that's never been made before," he said.

The researchers then tested the macrocycle to see if it could block the action of the coronavirus enzyme. The macrocycle binds to an enzyme molecule called the main protease that's necessary for the virus to function.

The protease cleaves long strings of proteins that the virus forces its host cell to make into separate components, which the virus then uses to keep replicating.

The new macrocycle, Kreutzer said, "sits there in the active site of the enzyme and makes it nonfunctional."

The research goes hand-in-hand with work in the lab of Rachel Martin, also a UCI professor of chemistry, who is determining the range of shapes that the coronavirus's main protease can take.

Identifying these various structures is what allowed Nowick's lab to design a macrocycle that can lock onto the coronavirus.

This strategy for stopping the protease, Nowick noted, is the same employed in a key class of drugs for treating human immunodeficiency virus. But because the viruses are so different, the same inhibitors can't be used for both.

Nowick and his team named the macrocycle University of California, Irvine Coronavirus Inhibitor-1, or UCI-1, to indicate that it's the first molecule in what will still be a long journey to create a drug to treat or prevent COVID-19.

Now that Nowick's lab has a prototype called an "initial hit," researchers need to make additional molecules that are more effective in blocking the protease. Then they must figure out how to actually deliver the best molecule to infected cells.

This means that, while the new macrocycle is a promising first step, Nowick said, "people need to understand that it's a long way from a drug candidate."
Authorities in the south-central Vietnamese province of Khanh Hoa have discovered 45 foreigners who had been staying in the locality without identification papers or with expired visas.

Officers under the provincial Department of Police confirmed on Tuesday they had recently inspected 80 accommodation facilities in Khanh Hoa and found 45 foreigners who had been staying there illegally.

Among them, 25 were unable to present legitimate identification papers, which indicated they had entered Vietnam against the law.

The other 20 foreign citizens were holding expired visas.

Most of the illegal foreigners are Chinese while the others are Russian nationals.

The border jumpers were sent to three local quarantine camps while those with expired visas were asked to quarantine at their accommodation facilities.

The police department has suggested that all of the 45 foreigners be brought to one quarantine facility to have their health monitored regularly.

They will have to pay for all expenses during the isolation period.

Nguyen Dac Tai, vice-chairman of the Khanh Hoa Peoples Committee, ordered competent authorities to continue examining local accommodation facilities to promptly detect similar cases.

Under the direction of the prime minister, those who organize for people to enter Vietnam illegally will be criminally charged, Tai asserted.

Foreigners who enter Vietnam illicitly or stay in the country against the law must undergo medical examination and epidemiological investigation before being sent back to their home country.

As of Wednesday, a total of 707 people were being quarantined in Khanh Hoa, of whom 613 have tested negative for the novel coronavirus.

The province currently has five quarantine camps and is expected to establish two more facilities in the coming time.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Massachusetts census advocates are calling on the Secretary of the Commonwealths office to release more than $1 million from the states census fund that was supposed to go to municipalities and nonprofits to help them boost census participation.

In a letter sent Thursday, they called for Secretary William Galvins office to release more than $1.3 million that was allotted to the decennial count through a supplemental budget the governor signed into law in December. Census advocates estimate $986,055 should be distributed to community groups and $330,000 should be distributed to municipalities, arguing the funds were supposed to help with census outreach in historically hard-to-count communities, including low-income neighborhoods, immigrant enclaves and areas where residents write or speak little English.

As you know, low response rates are most common in low-income communities, particularly in densely populated urban centers with many immigrant families and rural areas. An undercount in our cities and rural areas will compound inequalities across the Commonwealth for the next ten years, the letter states.

Nine organizations signed onto the letter, including the Massachusetts Census Equity Fund, Massachusetts Voter Table and the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition.

The Census Bureau announced last week it plans to end door-knocking efforts a month early, giving census workers and organizers until Sept. 30 to get households that didnt respond to participate in the count. Advocates, lawmakers and state officials, including Galvin, say communities will receive less federal funding and less political representation than they need if their populations are severely undercounted.

Galvins office confirmed receipt of the letter.

The department received authorization from Gov. Charlie Baker last week to carry over the census grant funds into fiscal 2021, spokesperson Debra OMalley said in an email.

We have been working to prioritize those funds to make sure the money goes to the communities where responses are lowest and where it can do the most good to get people counted, she said. We are certainly concerned about the lower response rates in urban areas with higher immigrant populations, which is why we recently allocated $150,000 for the MIRA Coalition in their efforts to reach out to those communities.

The letter comes as the U.S. Census Bureau starts door-knocking to households that havent responded to the 2020 Census in Boston, Lawrence and East Bridgewater.

Boston has a response rate of 53.5%, lower than the state response rate of 65.2%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Lawrences response rate is 49.7% and East Bridgewaters is 77%, according to the agencys website.

Of those three communities, only Lawrence confirmed receipt of a municipal grant for the decennial count by Tuesday morning. Lawrence received $50,000 on April 30 after households started receiving the 2020 Census in the mail.

According to Galvins office, the city of Boston provided information needed to receive the census grant on Monday. The department granted the city $50,000 to help them with their below-average response rate.

The Massachusetts Legislature approved $3.9 million for census efforts, including $1 million specifically for municipalities . About 5% of the $3.9 million could stay in Galvins office for related administrative costs, advocates say. The rest is supposed to go to the census effort.

As of late June, 22 municipalities received grants from the state for the count between mid-March and late June, according to documents obtained by Lawyers for Civil Rights through a public records request and provided to MassLive.

The state issued $670,000 in grants to those 22 municipalities, including $50,000 each to Worcester, Springfield and New Bedford each.

The Boston Globe first reported in mid-March the census funds disbursement was delayed, noting the state missed a February deadline to fund at least 50% of nonprofit grants. Galvins office told the Globe it sent about $658,000 in checks to nearly 30 nonprofits. Galvin said at the time he was timing the grants with the start of count, though some nonprofit leaders said they could have used the funds sooner.

Galvins office has issued at least $1.9 million to 69 community organizations, according to a list of Complete Count awarded grants provided to MassLive. (Another $10,000 was issued to two organizations in Pittsfield that did not accept the grants, according to the list.)

Malden, one of the cities that raised concerns about the funds, received a $25,000 census grant two days after the Globe story published. The next round of municipal grants were sent more than a month later.

In Thursdays letter, census advocates say the median response rate in Massachusetts is 71.5% but a closer look at responses at the community level show much bigger gaps in participation. The median response rate for cities and towns with the highest number of COVID-19 cases per capita was 47.8% as of July 8.

Time is running short for effective outreach efforts, the letter states. Nonprofits, municipal finances, and staff capacity are stretched thin by the COVID crisis.

Related Content:
Punjab Hooch Tragedy: Police arrest paint store owner

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Chandigarh, Aug 06: A major breakthrough has been achieved in the Punjab Hooch Tragedy case. The Punjab police has arrested the main accused in the case, which was responsible for the death of over 100 people.

The police has arrested a Ludhiana based paint store owner for allegedly triggering the chain of events that led to the death of 111 persons across three districts.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday directed the state police chief to book those directly involved in the hooch tragedy that has claimed 113 lives, for murder.

Book those directly involved in hooch tragedy for murder: Punjab CM to police chief

Promising justice for the victims of the case, which he termed as the biggest tragedy of recent times, the chief minister asserted that he will not tolerate any political interference in the case.

Singh also mooted enhancement of punishment for spurious or illicit liquor manufacturing and smuggling under the Excise Act, to ensure repeat offenders remain behind the bars and are not able to come out easily to indulge again in the crime.

During the cabinet meeting, several ministers agreed to Advocate General Atul Nanda's suggestion that a strict law like Punjab Control of Organised Crime Act (PCOCA) was needed to combat organised crime like illicit liquor smuggling.

RBI: Repo rate unchanged at 4%, Reverse Repo Rate unchanged at 3.3% | Oneindia News

The chief minister asked the sub-committee, set up under minister Brahm Mohindra, to examine the provisions of the proposed law, to finalise and submit its report at the earliest.

He agreed with Sukhjinder Randhawa and other ministers that Punjab Control of Organised Crime Act (PCOCA) could help control hardcore criminals and act as a deterrent to gangsters, who continue to deal in organised crime even from prison, and had close connections with terrorists too, according to a government release here.

The chief minister's directives on the hooch tragedy came during two separate video conferences  one of the cabinet meeting and the other a review meeting of the case with top police and administrative officials.

Amarinder Singh also led his council of ministers in observing a two-minute silence as a mark of homage to the victims of the tragedy.

As many as 113 people died in the hooch tragedy with 84, the maximum fatalities, in Tarn Taran, followed by 15 in Amritsar and 14 in Batala.

"Finish off this business, clean up the border areas.

This has to stop," said the chief minister in his directive to police and district officials during the review video conference earlier.

The illicit liquor business, using 'lahan' (raw material for making liquor), has been going on in border areas for a long time.

But now it had assumed even more dangerous proportions with the new trend of smuggling from neighbouring states, then chief minister said.

Asserting that he wanted to see an end to this whole business of spurious and illicit or smuggled liquor," the Singh directed the officials concerned to be extremely strict in dealing with the criminals, whether male or female.

Reiterating his government's zero-tolerance policy to illicit and spurious liquor, and drugs, he asked the police to coordinate closely with the excise and other departments concerned to wipe this menace out of Punjab once and for all.

Pointing out that the victims of the hooch tragedy were the poorest of the poor, Singh set a 10-day deadline for the deputy commissioners and police officers concerned to identify and process cases to provide targeted additional relief for their families.

The chief minister has already announced Rs 2 lakh ex gratia to the families of each of the victims of the tragedy.

Inspector General of Police SPS Parmar said cases have been registered under section 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC and the Excise Act, and a coordinated crackdown had been launched in all border areas to identify and nab the criminals and initiate strict action against them under the law.

He revealed that initially, the families of the victims in Tarn Taran, which had suffered the maximum loss of lives, hid the deaths and cremated the bodies without post mortem.

Parmar suggested the introduction of colour coding for ethanol and other spirits to check their illegal sale and distribution.

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Story first published: Thursday, August 6, 2020, 12:19 [IST]
By PTI

DUBAI: Kuwait has approved India's request to run repatriation flights for citizens wishing to return home, even as the Gulf nation has imposed an indefinite travel ban on 31 "high-risk" coronavirus countries, including India, according to a media report on Thursday.

Kuwait's Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will operate the repatriation flights from August 10 to October 24, the Gulf News reported, citing Kuwaiti newspaper Al Qabas.

The burden of flights will be shared equally between Indian and Kuwaiti airlines and each day about 1,000 Indians will leave Kuwait City, the report said.

Kuwait has a population of 4.8 million with foreigners accounting for 3.4 million.

ALSO READ | COVID-19: Vande Bharat flight with 233 Indians departs from China's Guangzhou

There are about one million Indian expatriates in Kuwait.

"The arrangements proposed by the Indian side are limited to departure only and do not include their return to Kuwait," an official was quoted as saying in the report.

Earlier in the week, Kuwait suspended flights from 31 "high-risk" countries.

The list included India, Pakistan, Egypt, and the Philippines -- all of whom have sizeable communities in Kuwait, the Gulf News reported.

The coronavirus has so far claimed 469 lives with 70,045 confirmed infections in Kuwait, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre.
Katie Price has received 'devastating' news about her broken feet after paying a visit to a specialist in west London on Wednesday.

The reality star, 42, was pictured being wheeled into the Fortius clinic in West London for a consultation after the freak accident in Turkey, and in an Instagram update revealed she's 'gutted' by the prognosis.

Katie did not elaborate on the state of her feet following a visit to a consultant, but her pals attempted to lift her spirits by later taking her to the Kurobuta restaurant for dinner.

Tragic: Katie Price, 42, has received 'devastating' news about her broken feet after paying a visit to a specialist in West London on Wednesday

In the post she shared with fans on Instagram, Katie wrote: 'Just finished my appointment with my consultant and surgeon about my feet.

'After further scans, the news is absolutely devastating. I'm gutted.'

MailOnline has contacted a representative for Katie Price for further comment.

The star was seen being wheeled into the doctor's with the help of clinic staff, before later leaving with new braces to help heal her broken feet.

Upsetting: The reality star shared an update with her fans on Instagram, admitting she is 'gutted' by her prognosis

In pain: Katie was pictured being wheeled into the Fortius clinic in West London for a consultation after the freak accident in Turkey

Difficult: She needed the help of clinic staff to be carried into the chair, after returning to the UK from her family holiday on Wednesday

Ouch! Katie still managed to look effortlessly stylish in a coral frilled mini dress as she was carried to the waiting wheelchair

Difficult: The star has been left in agony after breaking both her feet in Turkey, and has been told she won't be able to walk for three to six months

She still looked effortlessly stylish in a coral mini dress as she spent several hours visiting a specialist before leaving with her new boots.

Clearly disheartened at the slow progress of her recovery, Katie's pals attempted to cheer her up by heading to out for dinner in a new pink wheelchair.

Katie was rushed to A&E in Turkey last week for emergency surgery after doctors realised the extent of her horrific injuries.

The TV personality had to spend a night in hospital after fracturing both ankles after she jumped off a wall at the holiday theme park, Land Of Legends.

The journey to recovery will be a long road for Katie as she won't be able to walk for three to six months.

Protection: Both Katie and her entourage ensured they were wearing their protective face masks as she was wheeled into the clinic

Challenging: The star was clearly disheartened by the outcome of her consultation, as she offered her fans an update on Instagram

Funky: She still managed to put her own stylish stamp on things as her driver pulled out her own bright pink wheelchair

According to doctors, she will need pins in her feet which will undoubtedly be another agonising experience.

Katie thought she might have to cut her holiday short to head home with her Love Island beau, Carl Woods.

However, she decided to endure the pain and ride it out in Turkey for the sake of her children so that they could enjoy the rest of their holiday.

Carl has been by Katie's side throughout the ordeal, and as they arrived back home on Wednesday it's been revealed the smitten pair are planning to move in together.

Off she goes! Several hours later Katie was wheeled out of the clinic following her consultation

Steady now! She needed the help of an electronic ramp attached to the wheels to get her down the stairs

In pain: Katie has been left devastated by the injury, which happened following a 'freak accident' in Turkey

Supportive: Her pals ensured they were there to offer their support as she left the clinic with 'absolutely devastating news'

Feeling better? It later seemed that Katie's friends were trying to lift her spirits as she was seen heading out for dinner in her pink chair

A source told The Sun: 'She was talking about moving in with Carl before the holiday to Turkey, and being together 24/7 has only encouraged her to officially move in together.

'They're house-hunting together in Essex this week and can't wait to live together. They're extremely loved up and her kids have given him the thumbs up. She's over the moon.'

A representative for Katie confirmed the plans, explaining: 'As Katie is temporarily wheelchair-bound, something no one could have foreseen, she has voiced the possibility of looking for a property that would work better for her wheelchair access and mobility scooter.

'Carl as Katie's carer would be living with her. There is a lot to consider: Katie's rehabilitation, the children, school, respective family, work commitments.

'Essex would be a probable location - Katie however remains in her current rented property in Surrey.'

Friends: She needed her pal's help to get over the pavement as she headed out for dinner in her stylish dress

Difficult: Katie was rushed to A&E in Turkey last week for emergency surgery after doctors realised the extent of her horrific injuries

Scary: The TV personality had to spend a night in hospital after fracturing both ankles after she jumped off a wall at the holiday theme park, Land Of Legends

Earlier this week Katie slammed trolls who accused her of faking her injury - as her daughter Princess claimed her mother won't walk properly for a year.

Taking to an Instagram video, the mother and daughter addressed those who have accused them of lying - after one troll claimed Katie was in fact abroad having bunion surgery.

'By the way, someone said on my Instagram, ''Oh she has had bunions done on both feet!''

'Well, when I have the X-rays and show you, I haven't had bunions, I have never had bunions in my life!' Katie insisted.

Angry: According to doctors, she will need pins in her feet which will undoubtedly be another agonising experience

How long? Earlier this week Katie slammed trolls who accused her of faking her injury - as her daughter Princess claimed her mother won't walk properly for a year

Princess then chimed in, saying: 'She'll be in a wheelchair for three to six months - but she won't walk for a year!'

Attempting to explain the condition - which sees a painful bump appear where the toe and foot connect - Katie seemed unsure herself, saying: 'Like, you know, the side where you get like... that is one thing perfect about me, my feet! But obviously they are not perfect now!

'At least I am learning to use the wheelchair better now!'

Jovial: Clearly hoping to lift her spirits Katie's friends took her to dinner at Kurobuta after her disheartening consultation

Worrying: It's unclear what the prognosis for the star will be after seeing a specialist about her broken feet

Katie and the family travelled to Turkey for a relaxing getaway last week but things quickly turned to disaster when the mother-of-five broke both her ankles.

The reality star shared a clip of her trip to hospital on Monday as she writhed in agony and she cried out 'it f***ing hurts' and 'someone help me' as medics tended to her injured feet.

Katie posted a video online from her stint in hospital as she got her feet bandaged up by medical staff and she cried out from the horrendous pain.

As the doctor attempted to reposition her broken leg, the former glamour model yelled out 'help, ouch, It's hurting me,' and pleaded with staff to operate on her.

Agony: Katie posted a video on Monday of her experience at the hospital in Turkey as she fractured both ankles by jumping off a wall at a theme park on her holiday
Students at International University, a member of the Viet Nam National University-Ho Chi Minh City (VNUHCM). VNS Photo Gia Loc

HCM CITY  Nguyen Canh Han, one of the thousands of students who have returned to Viet Nam because of the COVID-19 pandemic, plans to apply for admission to International University, one of the members of Viet Nam National University-Ho Chi Minh City (VNUHCM).

My parents advised me that I should apply at a university in Viet Nam so that I can continue learning. My parents are worried if I return to the US, Han said.

Han, who completed one year of university study in the US, wants to transfer to a local university as a second-year student.

Dr Ha Viet Uyen Synh, head of the undergraduate training division at International University, said that

admission should be based on each university's enrollment criteria and students' capabilities. Students may be able to transfer earned credits from overseas universities, but they could also lose credits as well, depending on requirements.

International University said it would enroll students with an international baccalaureate or those graduating from high schools in other countries.

International University will enroll them in international training programmes taught in English or in joint training programmes that we have with foreign universities, Synh said.

The university will admit these students as transfer students from their university or as students of foreign universities with which we already co-operate, he added.

If students want to study in a different major from the one they chose abroad, they will have to pass the universitys interview round.

International University has joint training programmes in which students study at universities in the US, Australia and New Zealand after they complete two years of study at the university.

The university said it had received 15 applications from overseas students.

Other members of VNUHCM such as the University of Natural Sciences, University of Technology, University of Economics and Law, University of Information and Technology, and University of Social Sciences and Humanities will also admit students from overseas.

Speaking at an online forum on overseas students held last month, Dr Nguyen Thu Thuy, acting head of the Tertiary Education Department under the Ministry of Education and Training, said that 352 joint training programmes would help overseas students continue their study in Viet Nam.

Many reputable foreign universities have invested in Vietnamese higher education and their joint training programmes meet international standards, Thuy said.

Dr Nguyen Tien Thao, deputy head of the training division at Viet Nam National University in Ha Noi, said that training programmes at the countrys universities were the same as foreign programmes.

Because of global integration, Vietnamese universities have quickly accessed new training programmes, Thao said, adding that their joint training programmes meet international standards.

With more than 200 universities in the country, overseas students need to identify which university programmes are most suited to their needs.

International degrees are also offered at some universities in the country.

Viet Nam National University in Ha Noi said it would provide information about detailed procedures and its training programmes to overseas students.

Dr Nguyen Phong ien of Ha Noi University of Technology said the university has many options available for overseas students. VNS
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Linkedin Sanjay Kanojia and Parvaiz Bukhari (Agence France-Presse) Ayodhya, India  Thu, August 6, 2020 10:36 531 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066bf2f78 2 World Narendra-Modi,India,sectarian-issues,sectarianism,hindu,temple Free

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said "golden history" was written Wednesday as he launched construction of a new Hindu temple at a flashpoint religious site that has sparked some of the country's bloodiest sectarian violence.

The colorful ceremony in Ayodhya, with Modi surrounded by saffron-clad priests, came on the first anniversary of the removal of the special status enjoyed by divided Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority region.

For his Hindu nationalist supporters, both steps confirm Modi as a decisive, visionary and heroic leader -- and India's most important in decades.

His critics see him as remolding the officially secular country of 1.3 billion as a Hindu nation at the expense of India's 200 million Muslims, and taking it in an authoritarian direction.

"Modi has certainly been India's most transformative leader in recent memory," Michael Kugelman, from the Wilson Center, told AFP, making him "wildly popular, but also highly controversial and quite divisive".

The holy city of Ayodhya in northern India has long been a religious tinderbox, providing the spark for some of its worst sectarian violence.

In 1992, a Hindu mob destroyed a centuries-old mosque there that they believed had been built on the birthplace of Ram, an important deity.

This triggered religious riots that killed 2,000 people, most of them Muslims.

A lengthy legal battle ensued, but in November India's top court awarded the site to Hindus, allowing a temple "touching the sky" to be built on top of the ruined mosque.

Wednesday's elaborate religious ceremony, involving priests in saffron masks, bricks made of silver and 135 living saints, was broadcast live on television.

Images that appeared to show how the temple would look like when completed were displayed in New York's Times Square.

Crackers and dancing

Small celebrations took place across India including in Pune where people danced around a Ram statue and in Amritsar where Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) youth members burned crackers.

Modi, 69, sharing a stage with the head of the RSS militaristic hardline Hindu group, compared the building of the temple to India's struggle for independence from Britain.

"Just as 15 August [Independence Day] symbolizes the untiring tenacity, millions of sacrifices and the fervent desire for freedom... similarly this day reminds of the sacrifice made by several generations... for the Ram temple," he said.

"A wait that lasted centuries is ending today. Golden history has been scripted."

Modi's biographer, Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, told AFP earlier that the premier was looking to "make his position permanently in history" on the strength of this temple.

Further cementing his place in the country's annals is his action on Kashmir, divided between India and Pakistan since 1947 and the spark of two wars and much bloodshed.

The BJP had long seen the special status enjoyed by the part of Kashmir controlled by India as a historical wrong, and on August 5 last year, Modi abolished it.

An accompanying security operation turned the region into a fortress for weeks, with all telecommunications cut and thousands taken into custody.

Even now, India has "maintained stifling restraints on Kashmiris in violation of their basic rights", according to Human Rights Watch.

People from outside Kashmir are now allowed to buy land for the first time, igniting fears Modi wants to change the region's demographic makeup with an Israel-style "settler" project.

Fearing protests ahead of the anniversary, thousands of Indian troops imposed a tight curfew in Kashmir and the streets were largely deserted.

'India exposed'

But in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Prime Minister Imran Khan led a rally as "solidarity marches" took place in major cities.

"India stands exposed before the world, yet again, as an oppressor and aggressor," Khan said in a statement.

Other actions have also alarmed Modi's critics and delighted his fans.

Last year, a new law made it easier for millions of illegal immigrants from three neighboring countries to get citizenship -- but not if they are Muslims.

More may be in the pipeline, including a mooted nationwide register obliging people to prove they are Indian, and a uniform civil code doing away with Islamic rules in areas such as marriage.

"Clearly, it's full speed ahead with the Hindu nationalist agenda," Kugelman said.
The gross domestic product (GDP) of Ukraine, according to the Ministry of Economy, in the first half of 2020 decreased by 6.5% compared to the same period in 2019, in particular in the second quarter the decline was 11%, which is less than expected earlier (14%).

"The monthly dynamics of economic activities indicates that the economy has passed the peak and has overcome the threshold of the maximum negative effect from tough anti-epidemic measures both inside the country and abroad, which was most felt in April-May 2020. And so far, against the background of easing quarantine, it gradually begins to recover," the Ministry of Economy notes in its review of economic activity for the first half of 2020.

According to the ministry, in January-July the reduction in the consolidated production index amounted to 7.7% (by 7.3% in January-May 2020).

"In June 2020, the easing of quarantine restrictions, both inside the country and beyond its borders, contributed to a slowdown in the decline in industrial production - to 5.6% (compared to 12.2% in May 2020), taking into account the effect of calendar days - to 7.1% (11.7%, respectively)," the Ministry of Economy said.

In particular, the seasonally adjusted industrial production index increased by 3.4% in June from May 2020, the ministry said.

A decrease in the depth of the fall in June was observed in extracting industry to 4.9% (a decline of 8.9% in May 2020) and in processing industry to 6.2% (a fall of 15.6%, respectively), according to the ministry's data.

In June, the rate of decline in metallurgy production slowed significantly, to 3.9% compared to 19% in May due to the recovery in economic activity. In particular, Dniprovsky Metallurgical Plant resumed work after a seven-month pause.

The machine building industry maintained the pace of production decline in June: a decline of 22.5% compared to 22.4% in May.

"At the same time, in the supply of electricity, gas, steam and conditioned air, there was a deepening fall to 4% (1.9%, respectively)," the ministry said.

Construction in June, thanks to road works, increased by 0.1% compared to "minus" 2.6% in May, and in the first half fell by 5.5% (25.3% in the same period last year), the ministry said.
Bihar police chief Gupteshwar Pandey on Thursday warned of legal action if an IPS officer, who had gone to Mumbai to probe actor Sushant Singh Rajput death case, was not released from 'forcible quarantine' by the end of the day.

IMAGE: Bihar Police team coming from Mumbai after meeting with IG and submits the report of late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput case, in Patna on Thursday. Photograph: ANI Photo

Pandey expressed bewilderment over no positive response from the municipal authorities in Mumbai, whom he accused of keeping IPS officer Vinay Tiwari in virtual house arrest, despite being informed about the adverse remarks made by Supreme Court against their action.

Talking to reporters, the Director General of Police said he will consult the state's Advocate General on the matter and, if Tiwari, posted as SP, City (East) in Patna, was not allowed to leave by Thursday, moving the court could be an option.

It is a virtual house arrest. Our officer went to Mumbai after informing his counterparts there in writing and over phone. I too had sent an SMS to my counterpart in Maharashtra informing him that Tiwari will be there for three days and shared with him the details, Pandey said.

Tiwari had requested for an accommodation in the IPS Mess, which was not granted. We let it go. But his forcible quarantine shortly after his reaching Mumbai is unacceptable. The IG, Patna Zone, wrote to the BMC chief quoting the guidelines of the Maharashtra government under which Tiwari could have been exempted from quarantine. It elicited no positive response, he lamented.

Pandey said on Wednesday, when the Supreme Court also frowned upon the treatment meted out to Tiwari and called it 'unprofessional', the IGP again contacted the municipal authorities, but nothing came of it.

"We shall now be waiting till the end of the day and consulting the Advocate General in the meantime. If all else fails, moving the court could be an option," Pandey added.

Meanwhile, a four-member team of Patna police which had been camping in Mumbai for more than a week and carrying out investigation in the matter, returned from the western metropolis but refused to be drawn into any controversy relating to the matter.

All went fine. We carried out our probe as per the instructions of our seniors. Whatever our findings have been, we will share these with our higher-ups, the officials said in response to a barrage of questions from journalists in Patna upon arrival.

They also side-stepped queries about reported non-cooperation by the Mumbai police.

During their stay in Mumbai, they recorded the statements of Rajput's sister, his former girlfriend Ankita Lokhande, director Rumi Jaffrey, the late actor's flatmate Siddharth Pithani, his manager, cook, doctors among others, a member of the team earier said before leaving for Bihar.

The team had also visited some banks to look into the financial transactions made from Rajput's accounts.

The 34-year-old actor was found dead inside his Bandra residence on June 14 last and an FIR was lodged by his father K K Singh, who resides in Patna, at a local police station on July 25.

A tug of war ensued between the governments of the two states with Maharashtra contending that Bihar had no jurisdiction in the matter since the death took place outside the state.

A petition challenging Bihar police's jurisdiction to probe the case was also filed in the Supreme Court by actress Rhea Chakraborty, who along with her family members has been named as the main accused in the first information report lodged by Rajput's father.

She has been accused of abetting the actor's suicide, keeping him in wrongful confinement, and defrauding him of crores of rupees.

The impasse led the bereaved father to call up Pandey and request that the matter be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation which was followed, the same day, by a recommendation to the effect by the Nitish Kumar government.

The Centre, too, issued a notification approving the recommendation, in an apparent rebuff to the Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-

Congress government in Maharashtra that there was no need to hand over the matter to the CBI.
But three judges dismissed appeal and said Mayor entitled to introduce measure

The IWGB appealed against the Mayor of London's decision to charge minicabs

A trade union has lost its appeal over taxi congestion charges after judges rejected a legal challenge.

The Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) appealed against a decision by the Mayor of London to introduce a charge for minicabs claiming it unlawfully discriminated against black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) and women drivers.

Sadiq Khan's decision, which came into effect in April last year, removed an exemption from the congestion charge for all private hire vehicles  except those that are wheelchair accessible.

The Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) appealed against a decision by the Mayor of London to introduce a charge for minicabs (file photo of a congestion charge sign)

The ruling noted that 94 per cent of licensed minicab drivers in London are from BAME backgrounds, with 71 per cent living in the most deprived areas of London.

In comparison, the ruling says, 88 per cent of black cab drivers  who remain exempt from the 15 daily charge  are white.

After a High Court challenge last year  in which its claim was dismissed  the IWGB took its case to the Court of Appeal.

But in a ruling yesterday, three senior judges dismissed the appeal. They said even when the decision was subjected to high standards of scrutiny, the Mayor was entitled to introduce the measure.

Lady Justice Simler said: 'Although this is a case in which an increased level of scrutiny is called for, that does not mean no margin of discretion is to be accorded to the decision maker.

'To the contrary, in my judgment the Mayor had some margin of discretion both as to the aims and as to means adopted to achieve them.'

She noted: 'This significant disparity of impact between black and minority ethnic minicab drivers on low incomes on the one hand and white taxi drivers on the other is stark and has raised legitimate questions about the measure adopted by the Mayor.

'It has made this appeal particularly troubling.'

Chancellor of the High Court Sir Geoffrey Vos said he agreed with the ruling, adding: 'I too found the case troubling.

'At first sight, the measure adopted by the Mayor looked as if it might have been targeted at (mostly BAME) minicab drivers who are deprived of the exemption, leaving (mostly white) taxi drivers exempt from the congestion charge.

'It seemed to us, as we have now held, that stringent scrutiny would be required to justify such a state of affairs.

'On careful analysis, however, I have been persuaded that appearances were indeed deceptive. First, there is no real doubt that the Mayor's overwhelming and legitimate aim was to reduce traffic and congestion in the zone.

Senior judges said even when the decision was subjected to high standards of scrutiny, the Mayor was entitled to introduce the measure (file photo of a Black cab protest in London)

'Secondly, it became clear that the only effective way of doing so would be to address the exponential rise both in the absolute number of minicab drivers operating in London and in those entering the zone. Fewer private cars and taxis were doing so, but minicabs continued to increase.

'Thirdly, there was no purpose in interfering with the exemption accorded to taxis, because taxis provide unique advantages to Londoners. They allow wheelchair-bound passengers to travel and are required to carry passengers under a raft of regulations that do not affect minicabs.

'In short, the measure and its discriminatory impact on BAME minicab drivers was, in my judgment, justified by the legitimate aim of reducing traffic, congestion and pollution.'

IWGB president Henry Chango Lopez said: 'The court confirmed what we have stated all along, that the Mayor's decision had a disproportionate impact on black minority ethnic minicab drivers.

'Sadly, it did not consider that the congestion charge on minicabs was unlawful. While this is a setback, we are determined to continue fighting against this policy, which is having a crushing impact on some of the most marginalised workers in London.'

A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: 'We are pleased with the judges' decision.

'Private hire vehicles have had to pay the Congestion Charge since April of last year. This has helped to control traffic volumes, congestion and air pollution in central London and this remains critical as our Streetspace programme is rolled out in response to Covid.'

A TfL spokesperson said: 'We welcome the judges' decision covering the removal of the exemption from the Congestion Charge for private hire vehicles. The change means fewer minicabs driving where pollution and congestion are most concentrated.'
RTHK: Porn interrupts hearing for accused Twitter hacker

A court hearing held via Zoom for a US teenager accused of masterminding a stunning hack of Twitter was interrupted on Wednesday with rap music and porn, a newspaper reported.

The purpose of the hearing was to discuss reducing bail terms set for the 17 year old Tampa resident arrested last Friday over the hack last month of the accounts of major US celebrities.

But the interruptions with music, shrieking and pornography became so frequent that Judge Christopher Nash ended up suspending it for a while, the Tampa Bay Times said.

Investigators view the youth as the brains behind the mid-July cyberattack that rocked Twitter.

Hackers accessed dozens of Twitter accounts of people such as Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Elon Musk, after gaining access to the system with an attack that tricked a handful of employees into giving up their credentials.

The hack affected at least 130 accounts, with tweets posted by the usurpers duping people into sending US$100,000 in Bitcoin, supposedly in exchange for double the amount sent.

Bail for the 17 year old was set for US$725,000 and in the hearing his lawyers were seeking to reduce it.

After the judge suspended the hearing, and eventually resumed it, hackers went at it again - with interruptions that disguised their user names as organisations such as CNN and BBC.

In the end, judge Nash ruled against reducing the youth's bail.

He was arrested along with two others, aged 19 and 22, one of whom lives in Britain, and was charged with cyber fraud. (AFP)

This story has been published on: 2020-08-06. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
St. Tammany Corp., the economic development agency for the parish, has been recognized as one of the First-Rate Economic Development Agencies in the South by Southern Business and Development, a leading industry publication.

The ranking is based on Southern Business and Developments 26 years of experience working with a group that now includes approximately 1,400 economic development organizations in the southern U.S. In determining agencies worthy of recognition, Southern Business and Development takes into account determining factors such as deal activity, deal quality and the organizations reputation among economic development specialists in that state.

Alabama and Louisiana were listed as Co-States of the Year in the 2020 SB&D 100. The recognition of St. Tammany Corp. includes a photograph of St. Tammany Corp. CEO Chris Masingill and Don Pierson, secretary of Louisiana Economic Development.

Other agencies in Louisiana honored by Southern Business and Development this year include Louisiana Economic Development, Greater New Orleans Inc., Port of South Louisiana, Lafayette Economic Development Authority and SWLA Economic Development Alliance.

St. Tammany Corp.'s goal is to make the parish the destination of choice for highly-skilled talent, business formation, attraction, expansion and retention. The agency implemented a five-year strategic plan called "THRIVE2023" which it is following to increase outreach and technical assistance to existing businesses, enhance data and research publications, and strengthen collaborations between workforce partners and industry leaders to create new local job opportunities.
On August 3, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan issued an emergency order overriding the decision by Montgomery County to keep private schools closed until at least October 1. Yesterday, Montgomery County responded with a new order requiring private schools to remain closed until at least that date.

The County issued its new order pursuant to regulations that authorize local health officers to take any action or measure necessary to prevent the spread of communicable disease and issue, when necessary, special instructions for control of a disease or condition. The County believes that this language enables it to bypass Hogans emergency order that gives private schools authority to decide whether to reopen.

I havent formed an opinion on whether the County has found a lawful way to keep private schools closed in the face of the governors actions. Maybe there will be a court battle, maybe not.

The broader question is what a conflict like this means for the nations future. Its normal for liberals and conservatives to disagree about taxation, government regulation of business, and foreign policy. They have been disagreeing about the first two matters for as long as I can remember.

But now the disagreements extend to whether parents can send their kids to school (if they are willing to pay); whether the religiously observant can attend religious services; whether people who express politically incorrect opinions can keep their jobs or remain in college; whether communities can have a police force (or a reasonably effective one); and whether violent felons can be held in jail or, instead, must be released without bail. This makes me wonder whether, or for how long, liberals and conservatives will be able to co-exist.

To be sure, the first two of these issues arise in the context of a pandemic. Its understandable that serious disagreements have arisen over how best to balance public health considerations with other core values.

But the actions of some leftist governmental units suggest that they dont regard the right to attend church or to educate ones children privately as important values, at all. Its also questionable whether, or to what degree, leftist governmental units will be less aggressive in asserting power once the pandemic is over.

The pandemic has exposed deep fissures that arent likely to disappear with the Wuhan coronavirus.
ALBANY -- Police charged a 24-year-old Albany man for allegedly trying to set fire to a police vehicle during a night of violence following protests over police brutality earlier this year.

Police charged Ah-Juan Boyd with felony arson for allegedly trying to set a police vehicle on fire in front of police headquarters on June 1. Boyd allegedly placed a mattress against an Albany police vehicle and ignited it.

It is the second time he's been accused of arson for starting a fire during the protests in Albany.

Boyd had previously been charged with being part of a group that stopped a tractor-trailer on South Pearl Street and removed the driver on May 30. Boyd then allegedly set the truck on fire as it sat in the middle of South Pearl and Westerlo streets.

The incident was noted by city officials the next morning as one of a number of actions that resulted in damage across the city, including broken store windows, graffiti and theft, that occurred after a day of rallies against police brutality. Once a daytime protest ended, some demonstrators gathered behind the police station on Arch Street. One protester threw rocks at a police car - an incident that at least one reporter recorded on a phone - and police said bricks were thrown at them. Police later moved in on the crowd and the protesters headed down South Pearl Street.

Albany man charged with lighting tractor trailer on fire during May 30 unrest

Police did not provide information on how they identified Boyd as the suspect responsible for either incident.

The unrest broke out hours after thousands gathered in Albany to peaceably protest against police brutality. Beginning in the late afternoon of May 30, people threw trash, bricks and rocks at police officers and police horses, as well as smashed windows at businesses throughout the city.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

A second violent encounter between protesters and police happened two nights later in front of police headquarters on Henry Johnson Boulevard. Officials have charged nearly two dozen people with various offenses in connection with the violence on both nights.

Boyd was arraigned and jailed.

More than 20 people have been arrested in connection with the widespread violence, including the 20-year-old son of the regional director for Empire State Development has been charged with felony criminal mischief for allegedly causing more than $19,000 in damage to the Albany County Department of Probation building during a May 30 protest against police brutality that turned violent.

Son of state economic director charged with damage during protests

Brian Yevoli's father, Michael Yevoli, 50, previously headed the Albany city planning department before working for Columbia Development. In 2016, he was named by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's administration as the regional director of the Capital Region for Empire State Development, the state's economic development agency.
The shelters population reflected the recent shifts in the migratory flow. Last year, during the peak of the migration crisis, as many as 200 migrants slept there a night, most hoping to present themselves at the border and apply for asylum, said Gilda Irene Esquer Felix, who runs the shelter.

But since the Trump administration had effectively suspended access to the asylum program, nearly all of those migrants who had been waiting for an opportunity to cross had left the shelter, returning to their home countries, melting into Mexican society or trying to find an illegal route across the border.

In recent months, only a handful of migrants have been showing up at the shelter each day, Ms. Esquer said, with most being failed border crossers who needed a place to rest for a night or two after being caught in the United States and sent back to Mexico.

Two Mexican women traveling together were among about a dozen residents there one night last week. They had met during a failed crossing several weeks ago and had since tried three other times, to no avail.

Various friends have been successful, lamented Dinora, 24, who allowed publication of only her first name. She had been compelled to migrate, she said, after she lost her job as a seamstress in a factory in her home state of Campeche on the Gulf of Mexico.

She had heard that the Americans were not detaining people, making it much easier to try again. But after four failed crossings, and the duress of trying to cross the desert, she had decided to head back home.

No more, she said.

Her friend, however, was determined to try again.

Zolan Kanno-Youngs contributed reporting from Washington, D.C.
She's been holidaying on the Spanish party island with her boyfriend Biggs Chris since last month.

And Rebecca Gormley appeared at peace as she performed backstrokes during a swimming session in Marbella on Thursday.

In a clip shared to Instagram, the Love Island star, 22, turned heads in a polka dot bikini by Boux Avenue as she swam to the show's 2015 contestant Cally Jane Beech's new track Heart Sing.

In her element: Rebecca Gormley appeared at peace as she enjoyed a swimming session in Marbella on Thursday

The former beauty pageant queen commanded attention as she slipped into the two-piece, complete with a halterneck monochrome bralet and matching briefs.

Model Rebecca displayed her naturally radiant complexion as she went make-up free while her tresses were drenched in water.

The TV star captioned her video: 'Happiness comes in waves.' (sic)

'Happiness comes in waves': In a clip shared to Instagram, the Love Island star, 22, turned heads in a polka dot bikini by Boux Avenue

Radiant: The former beauty pageant queen commanded attention as she slipped into the two-piece, complete with a halterneck monochrome bralet and matching briefs

The brunette beauty is loving life as she soaks up the sun with her hunky beau Biggs, 27.

The couple face 14 days of quarantine when they return to the UK after the government pulled its air bridge with Spain following a spike in COVID-19 cases.

Their relationship seemed to be on the rocks last month when Biggs was accused of messaging another woman just days after he and Rebecca reunited following 10 weeks apart in lockdown.

The Glaswegian car repair specialist is said to have exchanged a series of messages with healthcare assistant Caitlin Fulton, who claims she learned of his blossoming romance with Rebecca when she saw pictures of them kissing.

Supportive: The brunette swam to the show's 2015 contestant Cally Jane Beech's new track Heart Sing

'We'd been messaging back and forth after he followed me on Instagram and we'd talked about going away when lockdown ended, to a holiday cottage or a lodge somewhere in the UK,' she told The Sun.

'He even left me a voice note saying that coming down to see me "sounded good". We were making plans as recently as Saturday.'

Caitlin told the publication that she learned of Biggs' relationship with Rebecca when she saw photographs of them kissing in Newcastle.

'I was a bit shocked that he had a girlfriend,' she said. 'And obviously I would be shocked if that was my boyfriend messaging someone.'

The couple split up briefly before lockdown after she had a drunken sleepover with Love Island 2019 contestant Michael Griffiths.
A new center hosted at the University of Chicago -- co-led by the largest medical imaging professional organizations in the country -- will help tackle the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic by curating a massive database of medical images to help better understand and treat the disease.

The work is supported by a $20 million, two-year federal contract that could be renewable to $50 million over five years.

Led by Maryellen Giger, PhD, of UChicago, along with leaders from the American College of Radiology (ACR), Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), and American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), the Medical Imaging and Data Resource Center (IDRC) will create an open source database with medical images from thousands of COVID-19 patients. Funding is from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The MIDRC is responding to an unmet need of the medical imaging community as doctors and scientists seek to better understand SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19, and its effects on the human body. By collecting and integrating images and their data via a dynamic, secure networked system, the MIDRC will provide a large-scale, open, common framework to enable technological advancements, guide researchers' validation and use of AI (artificial intelligence), and translate clinical systems for the best patient management decisions.

We have not sufficiently explored imaging for its role in helping us fight COVID-19, especially in terms of developing machine intelligence tools and systems. There currently are not enough curated data available to study. But having these top imaging organizations involved will make a difference -- almost every scientist or clinician in medical imaging belongs to at least one of these organizations." Maryellen Giger, the A.N. Pritzker Professor of Radiology

Medical images provide important windows into the detection, diagnosis and monitoring of diseases like COVID-19; for example, X-rays or CT scans of the lungs have the potential to help doctors determine the severity of the disease and decide on an optimal treatment course for a patient. But examining individual images is time consuming and difficult for physicians, and automated systems can improve accuracy and speed. For artificial intelligence (AI) to accurately analyze any given scan, many thousands of images first must be collected and annotated to train machine-learning algorithms.

Funded under the NIH's special emergency COVID-19 process, MIDRC proposes to create an open access platform to collect, annotate, store and share COVID-related medical images to enable effective and efficient clinical task-based distribution, analyses and validations.

"Through the MIDRC Data Commons Portal, investigators will be able to access images and data to expedite research that will provide solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic," Giger said. "This will speed up the sharing of new research on COVID-19, answering questions about COVID-19 presentation in the lungs, the efficacy of therapies, associations between COVID-19 and other co-morbidities, and monitoring for potential resurgence of the virus."

The project will involve five infrastructure development projects, conducted under the oversight of the MIDRC executive advisory committee. These projects include:

Creation of a platform for COVID-19 imaging and associated data.

Development of a real-world testing and implementation platform with direct, real-time connections to healthcare delivery organizations.

Implementation of quality assurance and evaluation procedures across the MIDRC.

Launch of a data commons portal for data intake, access and distribution.

Linking of the MIDRC to other clinical and research data registries.

The committee also will oversee 12 research projects in support of solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic, overall providing funding and other resources to investigators at the ACR, RSNA and AAPM, as well as across 20 universities and the Food and Drug Administration.

Within three months, the MIDRC plans to upload more than 10,000 COVID-19 thoracic radiographs and CT scan images via the existing input portals of the RSNA repository and the ACR registry, allowing researchers worldwide to access the images and accompanying clinical data to answer new questions about the disease.

"The University of Chicago is well prepared to host the MIDRC, as members of our faculty have led the development of data commons repositories in the past, including the National Cancer Institute's Genomic Data Commons," said Kenneth S. Polonsky, MD, Dean of the Division of the Biological Sciences and Pritzker School of Medicine. "Under the leadership of Dr. Giger and representatives from the top professional organizations in medical imaging, the MIDRC will provide a resource that will accelerate the transfer of knowledge and innovation around SARS-CoV-2 and give us the tools needed to fight the pandemic."

While COVID-19 will be its initial focus, it will not be the only target; the team hopes to expand the MIDRC to become a resource that would span diseases and disciplines, creating focused medical imaging data commons and machine intelligence pipelines for chronic and other infectious diseases.

"This effort will enable the rapid open distribution of curated COVID-19 imaging and associated data to empower a broad community of data scientists in academia, government and industry to answer, quickly and rigorously, critical questions about patient care," Giger said. "Ultimately, it will be expanded to incorporate additional data from multiple registries and repositories to support the NIH's data collection efforts, allowing researchers to address topics no single archive could inform independently."
Shia LeBeouf, left, and Bobby Soto star in "The Tax Collector," directed by David Ayer. (RLJE Films)

Toxic macho energy permeates writer-director David Ayers latest South Los Angeles-set shoot-em-up, The Tax Collector, a viciously exploitative bloodbath that regurgitates the negative image of Latino people still so pervasive in media.

Honor-bound enforcer David (Bobby Soto), whose job within his family-run criminal organization is to ensure subordinate factions pay their dues, drives the hackneyed plot riding alongside Creeper  Shia LaBeoufs nearly risible interpretation of a trigger-happy, sadistic henchman. Despite an implied brotherhood, the bond between the two feels distant from that of the cops in End of Watch, possibly Ayers best directorial effort to date. (He also wrote the script for "Training Day" and directed the blockbuster "Suicide Squad.")

Brown bodies begin to pile up in a by-the-numbers and senselessly vile wave of carnage when an emissary from a Mexican cartel, Conejo (Jose Conejo Martin) arrives to set up a new hierarchy undermining Davids boss, Wizard. Half-baked religious undertones, which result in incoherent dialogue, try to sell the idea of David as a light in darkness and Conejo as a demonic figure.

These pseudo spiritual tropes  and Ayers attempt to make a point about interracial solidarity  are rendered ineffective being at once generic and contrived, like someone throwing random objects at a wall to see what sticks. One of the most atrocious viewing experiences of the year, The Tax Collector relies on a trite visual language built on obvious flashbacks and bland imagery that match the unimaginatively dreadful writing where every Latino in sight is a gangster.

Occasionally, Ayer gives David hints of a conflicted morality as a father and husband leading a perilous double life, but those are short-lived. Nonetheless, Soto exudes the presence of a leading man with potential, and the supporting Latino cast  notably Chelsea Rendon (excellent on the Starz series Vida) and George Lopez (interestingly cast against type)  commit to the few moments they are afforded to be more than background targets. They deserve better, and it would be unfair to pass judgment on talent who already get so few opportunities.

Throughout his testosteronefueled career, the director has claimed to mine inspiration from his years living in South Los Angeles, as first seen in his directorial debut Harsh Times. Hes also hired Mexican American actors Jay Hernandez (Suicide Squad) and Michael Pena (Fury) in some of their most high-profile roles. And yet, when he returns to tell another story centered on Latinos, the result is a repugnant low blow.

How does a flagrantly violent, stereotype ridden, poorly realized production uplift a community in such dire need of meaningful representation in Hollywood? Thats not to say every film must portray Latino characters heroically, but the lack of nuance and innovation is aggravating. Imagine if Ayers interest in Chicano culture manifested as a force to push against perpetuated narratives rather than preserving them, or a platform for Latino filmmakers and actors to be the dominant voice in their own stories.
By Associated Press

COLUMBUS: Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine tested positive Thursday for the coronavirus just ahead a planned meeting with President Donald Trump.

The Republican governor's office said Thursday that he took the test as part of standard protocol before meeting Trump at an airport in Cleveland. He had planned to join the president on a visit to the Whirlpool Corp. plant in northwest Ohio.

His office said the 73-year-old DeWine had no symptoms, but was returning to Columbus. His office said he and his wife, Fran DeWine, will both be tested there. DeWine then plans to quarantine at his home in Cedarville for 14 days.

Lt. Gov. Jon Husted (HYOOS-ted) tested negative. DeWine, in his first term as governor, is one of Ohios most familiar politicians, previously serving as a U.S. congressman, two-term U.S. senator, Ohio attorney general and lieutenant governor.

DeWine becomes the second U.S. governor to test positive for coronavirus after Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt announced he contracted the virus last month. In recent weeks, DeWine has pleaded with Ohioans to take personal responsibility over the virus spread across the state. He avoided a statewide mask mandate until July 23 when the number of daily cases in the state began to push over 1,000.

DeWine's first try at a statewide requirement for wearing masks inside businesses  back in April  drew backlash that led him to rescind that directive the following day, a stutter among the aggressive moves that had won him early praise in his efforts to curb the virus.

Mask-wearing also has been a point of contention at the Statehouse, where many Democratic lawmakers have donned masks while many Republican lawmakers have not. DeWine has often found himself at odds with members of his own party on the policy.

DeWines key health adviser during the pandemic, Dr. Amy Action, left government this week. In the early months, she joined DeWine at daily briefings and was a popular figure. However, backlash against state restrictions helped lead to a protest at her home and her decision to step away from the public spotlight.

DeWine gave a public update Tuesday on the coronavirus in Ohio, but had postponed a regular one Thursday because of the presidents visit.

In at least two briefings, DeWine has shared with the public how the virus has taken the lives of several friends, urging them to think about their loved ones, especially grandparents, when leaving the house and not following social-distancing protocols. The first-term governor has 23 grandchildren.
PHILIPSBURG:--- Minister of Health Richard Panneflek announced on Thursday that as of midnight tonight (0:00) hours to 06.00 am the next morning. St. Maarten will be implementing some drastic measures to better curtail social gatherings in night clubs, bars, or any place that a large number of people gather.

Minister Panneflek that the government of St. Maarten is doing its best to avoid a total shutdown however stricter measures has to be implemented in order to flatten the curve on COVID-19. The Minister of Health said these measures are necessary since the numbers of persons infected with COVID-19 has drastically increased in the past days.

Currently, St. Maarten has 80 positive cases of COVID-19, three of which are hospitalized.

Due to the rapid increase, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has implemented travel restrictions on St. Maarten. The warning Level 3 is now enforced for St. Maarten as of today Thursday, August 6th, 2020. Panneflek said despite the travel warning placed by the CDC, the cases on St. Maarten are all locally transmitted. Panneflek said that the Aruban website shows that Aruba has 89 new cases of COVID-19 with a few days. Currently the number of active cases in Aruba from 92 to 146, therefore it is important that residents on St. Maarten must not let their guards down when it comes to social distancing and hand sanitizing.

Panneflek said the current trend on St. Maarten shows that there are a number of persons that were tested and are asymptomatic, thus he cautioned relatives to beware of how they are greeting family members that do not live with them.

Measures for entry on St. Maarten- Dr. Earl Best.

Inspector General Dr. Earl Best said that based on the travel restrictions issued today by the CDC travelers must avoid unessential travel. Best said based on the level 3 restrictions placed by CDC can either be travel restrictions or total travel ban.

Best said that St. Maarten has certain measures in place for its visitors, those measures he said must be respected if not visitors could be denied entry.

Travelers wishing to visit St. Maarten especially from high-risk zone such as the USA, and Europe must upload their PCR test, travel health insurance for evaluation before entry is granted. Travelers that receive entry must present their entry form to the healthcare officials at PJIAE and immigration. Besides the evaluation travelers have to give consent to several things prior to arrival that is retesting, to be examined locally, and isolation if necessary.

Best further explained that the Health Ministry is busy working on making it mandatory for travelers to have COVID-19 health insurance, he said that policy is not yet ready but when completed it will be announced.

In-transit passengers will have to submit the same requirements such as the PCR testing, Best explained that in-transit passengers spend a few hours in the terminal building at the airport and can be in contact with local residents, he said at times these travelers are forced to overnight on St. Maarten, therefore, it is also necessary that they fully comply with the set requirements to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-07 01:02:57|Editor: huaxia

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HELSINKI, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Finnish government decided on Thursday to resume travel restrictions on the Netherlands, Belgium and Andorra as of Aug. 10.

The number of COVID-19 cases in those countries has started increasing and exceeded the Finnish criteria, the government said in a press release.

The government also noted that numbers in Germany and Denmark have increased as well, adding that it will review the situation to verify if the occurrence rate in the two countries exceeds the criteria Finland has set.

Finland relaxed travel from a total of 17 European countries in mid-July. However, it returned to controls for travel from Austria, Slovenia and Switzerland last week, as their COVID-19 occurrence rate had exceeded the Finnish criteria.

Under the Finnish policies announced in early July, unrestricted travel is only allowed to and from countries where the current occurrence of the COVID-19 is 8 cases per 100,000 residents within two weeks. In Finland, the figure stands at 2.3 per 100,000 people.

Outside of the Schengen area, Finland has opened borders to countries including Cyprus, Ireland, San Marino, Georgia, China, Japan, New Zealand, Rwanda, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay.

The government also said that the epidemic situation in neighboring Sweden has developed positively. The government pledged that in the next review, the entries from Sweden via air travel and over the sea and land would all be reviewed separately.

Kirsi Varhila, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, told a press conference Thursday that a "road map" for upcoming anti-COVID-19 measures would be published next week, and it would also include the criteria for requiring the use of face masks.

According to Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland has to date confirmed a total of 7,532 COVID-19 infections, of which 20 are new-confirmed cases. The death toll now is 331, while an estimated 6,980 people have recovered. Enditem
The Kuwaiti website al-seyassah.com published a statement by the Armenian Embassy in Kuwait about the July clashes on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

The statement notes that Azerbaijan continues to spread misinformation about the facts of violation of the ceasefire regime on the international border between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

During the Tavush events, Azerbaijan fired at civilians and threatened to destroy civilian infrastructures, used Hermes-900 drones and other types of UAVs, which the Armenian side effectively destroyed, regionmonitor reported.

Azerbaijan continues to recruit and send terrorists from Syria to the Caucasus against the peaceful Armenian population, the embassy noted adding that Azerbaijan and its ally Turkey in late July began large-scale military drills along the borders of Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, threatening the security of not only Armenia, but the entire region.

The Azerbaijani aggression is a gross violation of the fundamental principles of international law, taking into account also the call of the UN Secretary-General for an immediate ceasefire throughout the world amid the COVID19 pandemic, the statement said.

The Armenian Embassy also referred to the speech of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev as the latter tried to convince his people that the Karabakh conflict can be resolved by military means, and peace talks are useless.

The current leadership of Azerbaijan has publicly expressed its ambitions regarding the territory of present Armenia, including the Syunik province and the capital Yerevan, the statement noted and added that this is funny.

The anti-Armenian policy has become the cornerstone of the state of Azerbaijan, the statement concluded.
Royal life did not pan out the way that Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex expected. While Prince Harry had reportedly been unhappy for some time as the third wheel in Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince Williams shadows, Meghan had no clue what she was getting into.

Having grown up in The Firm, the Duke of Sussex had hoped to see some positive change when he wed the American duchess. Together, they wanted to modernize some royal traditions while taking back their personal narratives from the increasingly intrusive tabloids. Unfortunately, that never happened.

Instead, the Sussexes found themselves at odds with Kate, Prince William, and the rest of the royals. Though theyve since tried to make a clean break, the duo will forever be tied to the Cambridges royal work.

The Duchess of Sussex waves to the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge as they arrive at the #CommonwealthDay Service pic.twitter.com/G5S4382d0w  Royal Central (@RoyalCentral) March 9, 2020

RELATED: Prince Harry Was Unhappy in the Royal Family for a Long Long Time Source Reveals

The Sussexes and the Cambridges were drifting apart before Megxit

There had seemingly been some tension between Prince William and Prince Harry since 2016 when Meghan was introduced to the family and the older prince called her, that girl. The brothers began drifting apart after that. As a result and their vastly different personalities, Meghan and Kate never got the chance to bond.

The real divide between the two royal households was revealed in November 2018 when the Sussexes announced their intent to relocate from Kensington Palace in London to Frogmore Cottage in Windsor. In May 2019, they also announced that they would be splitting the Royal Foundation Charity from the Cambridges to form, Sussex Royal Foundation.

Distance didnt seem to improve anything, by January 2020, Meghan and Harry announced they would be leaving the royal family and the U.K. behind for good.

RELATED: Prince William and Prince Harry Have Been Having Difficult Discussions Lately, Insider Says

Prince Harry and Prince William split the funding for their charities

Amid the Sussexes move to LA and the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic which hit the royal family close to home when Prince Charles was diagnosed, the royal brothers seem to be on the same page for the first time in a long while.

The Sussexes were forced to shutter the Sussex Royal Foundation when they resigned from their royal roles. Instead, they will form Archewell Foundation which is expected to launch in 2021. This led to Prince William and Prince Harry splitting the funding so that Prince Harry could have the portion that belongs to him.

When they were accused of misappropriating funds, the brothers banned together and clapped back, proving theyre on the same page.

The grants made to Sussex Royal were to support the charitable work of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, a Kensington Palace spokesperson told The Telegraph. They were fully in line with governance requirements and were reported transparently. Prince Harrys spokesperson called the claims, defamatory and insulting.

RELATED: The Royal Family Is Terrified Prince William Will Be Depicted as the Bad Guy in Meghan Markle and Prince Harrys New Book

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry will always be tied to Kate Middleton and Prince Williams royal work

Though Meghan and Prince Harry are living wildly different lives outside of the royal family without the same rules and restraints, they will always be tied to Kate and Prince William.

Meghans project, The Hubb Community Kitchen where she supported those affected by the terrible fire at Grenfell Tower in 2017 remains under the Cambridges Royal Foundation. Meghan helped the women of the community cook and create a cookbook for funding, Also, Prince Harrys legacy program, Full Effect, is a youth violence prevention initiative. The Royal Foundations annual financial report which was released in June 2020 reads via Vanity Fair,
BEIRUT The massive explosion and devastation triggered by thousands of tons of chemicals improperly stored in Beiruts port is the culmination of decades of corruption that has driven one of the Middle Easts most spirited countries to ruin.

The staggering destruction, with losses in the billions of dollars, will compound Lebanons multiple humanitarian catastrophes. Its people are seething with rage as they are pushed into even more poverty and despair by an accident that appears to have been completely avoidable.

But it remains to be seen whether it will serve as the long-awaited catalyst to dislodge an entrenched political class responsible for years of graft and mismanagement. Even if it does end up being the spark for change, it will likely take years of instability and unrest, spurred by dismal economic conditions, to get there.

Lebanons rulers, many of them warlords and militia holdovers from the days of the 1975-90 civil war, have proven to be extremely resilient. They hang on to their seats from one election to the next, largely because of the countrys sectarian power-sharing system and an antiquated electoral law that allows them to behave with virtual impunity while guaranteeing their political survival.

The Lebanese people rose up many times before, including 15 years ago when former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated in a truck bombing; in 2015s You Stink protest movement during the garbage-collection crisis; and most recently in October, at the onset of the economic crisis. Each time, they eventually became disillusioned and beset by divisions as political parties hijacked and co-opted their protests.

Fawaz Gerges, professor of Middle Eastern politics at the London School of Economics, said the interests of Lebanons politicians were far too deeply entrenched in the system.

Even though historically speaking, such national catastrophes or ruptures serve as a catalyst for transformative change, I am deeply skeptical about the governing and ruling elite in Lebanon instituting change on their own. This is delusional, he said.

Some say this time could  and should be different.

The gigantic explosion that ripped through Beirut on Tuesday was the apparent result of an accident that ignited 2,750 tons of an ammonium nitrate stockpile that had been stored for six years in a seaside warehouse, apparently with the knowledge of port officials as well as political and judicial authorities. More than 135 people were killed and more than 5,000 injured. Many are still missing and around quarter of a million people are now without homes.

As the nation mourned, a collective feeling has taken hold that this time, its leaders must be held accountable for committing a crime and rendering the capital unlivable. On Thursday, the shock gave way to fury as Beirut residents realized the full scale of the disaster and scattered protests erupted.

Hang them from the gallows in the streets, someone etched in the layer of pulverized debris covering a wrecked car in a devastated street.

The pent-up emotions erupted when French President Emmanuel Macron came to Lebanon to show support, visiting the epicenter of the blast and then touring some of the worst hit neighborhoods. He was quickly accosted by anxious and emotional residents pleading with him to help free the nation from its rulers. France is the former colonial power in Lebanon and maintains historically good ties with the country.

Macron made it a point to say he was not here to support Lebanese leaders and would make sure that any assistance from France would go to the people. He reiterated that no financial assistance would be given to the government to help ease a deepening financial crisis without substantial reforms.

There is a need to create a new political order in Lebanon, Macron said after meeting with political leaders, calling for a complete overhaul of the system and urgent reforms in all sectors.

He did not address the steep challenges of doing this in a broken and divided country thats nearly bankrupt as a result of an unprecedented financial and economic crisis along with the coronavirus pandemic. At this point, the state is barely able to provide any electricity, collect garbage or provide basic security and food needs.

The scale of the national destruction is sure to further weaken Prime Minister Hassan Diabs government. It has struggled to implement any significant reforms since coming to power in January because of a lack of will on the part of political parties in ending the corruption from which they profit.

He has assigned an investigative committee that he said should submit its findings within a few days. But it is highly unlikely that any senior leaders will be punished. Instead, officials were shifting blame about who was responsible for the catastrophe.

What was destroyed in 15 years of war, was re-destroyed in one second, said Tony Sawaya, who heads an insurance brokerage firm. He had little to no hope that anything would change.

Nothing will change. It will be business as usual, he said, adding that all corrupt politicians are supported by their followers and the international community.

Others have called for a resumption of the thawra Arabic for revolution.

Gerges said the main question is whether the Lebanese people will collectively rise up and say enough is enough, which would mean implementing a new electoral process, a new government and a new system of governance.

All those raise massive challenges.

Sustained mass protests must continue, Gerges said, even if it takes years to force out the elites and change the system.

Its a choice between death, or renewal through struggle, he said.

-

EDITORS NOTE: Zeina Karam, the news director for Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, has covered the Middle East since 1996. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/zkaram.

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
Radio hosts Kyle Sandilands and Jackie 'O' Henderson have defended U.S. television presenter Ellen DeGeneres, whose daytime talk show is facing multiple allegations of bullying, racism and sexual harassment behind the scenes.

The KIIS FM duo said on Thursday that the 62-year-old was being 'unfairly targeted' by some disgruntled former staffers who simply couldn't hack it in the industry.

During a segment about the scandal, they tore shreds off former producer Hedda Muskat, who alleges she was 'emotionally abused' and repeatedly told by DeGeneres to 'get to the point' while working on the first season of her program in 2003.

While they did not excuse the alleged misconduct of senior executives on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, they both agreed that telling a bumbling staffer to 'get to the point' is normal in the fast-paced media industry.

'When you're dealing with big shows at the top of their game, you haven't got time for p**sants,' Sandilands said, after watching footage of Muskat speaking out against DeGeneres on Sunrise on Wednesday.

Speaking out: Radio hosts Kyle Sandilands (left) and Jackie 'O' Henderson (right) have defended U.S. television presenter Ellen DeGeneres, whose daytime talk show is facing multiple allegations of bullying, racism and sexual harassment behind the scenes

Their view: While the KIIS FM duo did not excuse the alleged misconduct of senior executives on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, they said that the 62-year-old host (pictured) was being 'unfairly targeted' by some disgruntled former staffers

Muskat told Sunrise host David Koch that DeGeneres would often 'snarl' when she walked into her office to pitch segments for the show.

'I always felt that I was never welcomed in her office. She always hurried me. "Get to the point, get to the point,"' she said.

Responding to these claims, Henderson said it was 'actually quite impressive' that DeGeneres would sit and listen to her producers' pitches in person, adding that Sandilands would 'never' do that.

She continued: 'I think Ellen is being unfairly targeted. When people say those things out loud, it sounds bad - like, "Oh, she said get to the point..." But f**k you, get to the point! She's a busy woman.'

Hitting back: Sandilands and Henderson tore shreds off ex-producer Hedda Muskat (right), who alleges she was 'emotionally abused' by DeGeneres while working on the first season of her program in 2003. Muskat is pictured with David Koch (left) on Sunrise on Wednesday

Claims: Muskat (pictured) said on Sunrise on Wednesday that DeGeneres would often 'snarl' when she walked into her office to pitch segments. 'I always felt that I was never welcomed in her office. She always hurried me. "Get to the point, get to the point,"' she said

Sandilands replied: 'It happens here, too. Sometimes [producers] come in with the best intentions and they're not dumb, they just don't know how to get to the point quick.'

Muskat had also claimed on Sunrise that Ed Glavin, one of the executive producers of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, became DeGeneres' 'dog' and would 'go off on people', adding: 'Ellen would laugh and say every production needs their dog.'

Sandilands appeared to side with DeGeneres on this matter, saying that every major media operation needs an enforcer to keep staff in line.

'Every production does need its "dog". You can't all be sitting around holding hands and patting each other on the back. It's a daily live TV broadcast. It's serious business,' he said.

'Sometimes [executive producers] do need to be the bad guy,' Henderson added.

'I don't think Ellen disliked this producer. I just think some people aren't great at pitching ideas.'

Straight-talkers: They both agreed that telling a bumbling staffer to 'get to the point' is normal in the fast-paced media industry, and not as bad as Muskat made it out to be

Sandilands responded: 'You can't just pander to the soft. When you're dealing with big shows at the top of their game, you haven't got time for p**sants.'

He said he suspected there was 'more to the story' of Muskat's departure from The Ellen DeGeneres Show besides simply being 'bullied' by DeGeneres and Glavin.

The Sydney radio hosts suggested that Muskat should pitch them a segment idea in order to test her abilities as a producer.

Under scrutiny: It comes as The Ellen DeGeneres Show faces an internal investigation following numerous allegations there is a 'toxic' and 'bullying' workplace culture

It comes as The Ellen DeGeneres Show faces an internal investigation following numerous allegations there is a 'toxic' and 'bullying' workplace culture.

An internal memo sent last week explained that current and former staff will be interviewed about claims of 'mistreatment, racism and intimidation' behind the scenes.

DeGeneres hasn't been accused of any wrongdoing herself.

Several previous employees have claimed that DeGeneres was unfriendly on set and that crew members were warned not to talk to the host or make eye contact.

Claims: Several previous employees have claimed that DeGeneres was unfriendly on set and that crew members were warned not to talk to the host or make eye contact

Meanwhile, DeGeneres is now allegedly telling senior figures at Telepictures and Warner Bros. that she has had enough and wants to pull the plug on the show.

Last Thursday, she attempted to do some internal damage control by issuing an apology email to current staffers, in which she appeared to deflect all blame and noted that she was 'disappointed' to learn the show was not 'a place of happiness'.

The email was immediately met with backlash, with many expressing disappointment over Ellen shifting the blame to her executive producers.
VICTORIATwenty-one-year-old Teagan Howden cradled a large dog like a baby and faced the camera.

So, apparently Canadas takin over TikTok, she mouthed, then broke into silent laughter as the dog licked her face.

It wasnt the most viral of the Nanaimo, B.C. TikTokers videos  but it may turn out to be the most prophetic. U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening to ban the Chinese-owned app in the States, citing data-security concerns, if it doesnt sell to an American company before Sept. 15.

Such a move has the potential to cut off millions of American users and leave a void Canadian creators such as Howden say theyre keen to fill.

Thats my dream. I would love to make a living creating content, Howden, whose account has more than one million likes, said in an interview. The U.S. has so much control over TikTok right now  since theres a potential ban on that, I think Canada would be the next in line.

TikTok is a short-video-based social media platform in which 100 million users have as long as one minute to record a clip of themselves lip-synching, joking or opining their way to hopeful viral fame. Its most popular among Generation Z  people under the age of 25  and has evolved in its three years of existence to become a viral content engine where videos from even lesser-known accounts can bag millions of views overnight.

Trump has framed his concerns around a Chinese company having access to Americans personal data, echoing arguments that earlier this year led a Chinese gaming company to sell Grindr, a gay dating app, to an American company for more than $600 million US. Now hes pushing TikTok to sell to Microsoft.

But Michael Geist, an expert in internet law at the University of Ottawa, said the threat to ban TikTok is more about politics than privacy, and that TikTok isnt so different from American companies in the way it collects data.

According to Reuters, TikTok owner Zhang Yiming told the companys employees that they could expect difficulties with the U.S. because of a rise in anti-Chinese sentiment. He also confirmed the company was in talks with an American technology company, with an eye to keeping the app available in the U.S.

Lindsay Graves, a TikToker from Coldbrook, N.S., who makes history videos about Canadians and the First World War and who has more than 20,000 followers, says she doesnt find the data collection by TikTok any more concerning than that done by American companies such as Facebook or Google. She doesnt care for the U.S. president potentially getting in the way of a beloved social network, where shes met many Americans she now counts as friends.

Graves recalled how a video suggesting viewers reserve tickets to a Trump rally in Tulsa, Okla., with no intention of going was credited for the rallys low turnout.

Clearly the younger generation is using this app in a way that is not positive for Donald Trump, said Graves, who is 27. Its really nothing more than a tantrum, is what it is.

The potential for a forced exodus of American TikTok users leaves Canadian creators with a problem, and an opportunity, said Michelle Pinchev, who founded the social media strategy consultancy Pinch Social in Toronto.

This is a trade war. Its a tech war between the U.S. and China and, unfortunately, TikTok is getting in the crossfire. I think Canadian users are watching whats happening in the U.S. and wondering if Canada is going to follow suit, she said.

TikTok is a really good platform for creating content. That kind of content is going to become coveted  (Canadians) can share it on Instagram or Twitter for their American followers.

Matt Colbourne from Corner Brook, N.L., started using TikTok to try to funnel users to his YouTube account, which he hopes will fuel a self-sustaining career as an internet comedian. Then his TikTok following exceeded his YouTube following within six weeks. He now has has 28,000 followers on TikTok.

The growth happens a lot quicker on there, he said.

Hes hoping that TikTok keeps going in Canada, where most of the fans of his Newfoundland comedy come from, but worries that an Amexit from TikTok could change the app altogether.

Maybe it could be the best thing to happen because of less competition, the 23-year-old said. My biggest concern is how is everyones preference for content going to change when their favourite American content creators arent there anymore?

Pinchev said one possibility if TikTok is banned in the U.S. is that users will migrate over to an alternative platform, such as the reels feature Facebook plans to roll out.

In the meantime, savvy American TikTok users are being proactive and encouraging their followers to find them on other apps while TikTok remains live in the U.S., Pinchev said.

And some Canadians are enjoying pointing out their exemption from that particular scramble.

Neema Nazeri, a Toronto comedian, made a spoof signoff video on Tik Tok last week  pretending to lament the potential TikTok ban before laughing and pointing out that, in Canada, the ban wouldnt impact him.

Obviously I was joking, but theres a bit of truth behind it, too  because if all the American creators are out, theres more room for Canadians and the rest of the world to showcase their content, Nazeri said.

He said hes happy Canada doesnt seem to be contemplating a TikTok ban for now, but even if it did he would be prepared to fall back on his other social media networks.

Im not really worried if something happens, he said. I just want to keep up  thats the thing you have to do as a creator is keep on top of the trends.

With files from The Canadian Press

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The problem, Cisco said, is that gig workers and other self-employed claimants were asked to enter their 2019 net income to establish their weekly benefit amount before the state could verify the figures, and the state is not allowed to waive recoupment of the funds from people who were overpaid.
City-based University of Hyderabad (UoH) on Thursday said it has decided to resume classes in online mode for about 2,000 ongoing post-graduate students in various programmes from August 20.

The university had suspended classes for all batches on March 15 and has since completed the evaluation process of final semester students, allowing them to graduate, a press release from the varsity said.

Based on projections about the continuing COVID-19 epidemic, a task force headed by senior professor Vinod Pavaralarecommended that the university start online teaching, the release said.

The recommendations were discussed and approved at a meeting of Heads of Department and Deans of Schools convened by the Vice-Chancellor.

Considering the difficulties that some students are likely to face with costs of connectivity, the university has also accepted the recommendation to re-purpose the existing boarding allowance scholarship of Rs 1,000 a month into a digital access grant to students from deprived backgrounds, the release said.

The Vice-Chancellor has also announced the universitys plan to shore upinformation communication technology infrastructure at the department-level or at the level of individual faculty members to enable them to effectively deliver online teaching.

Earlier, the Task Force held consultations with various stakeholders, including students and faculty members, and received a number of suggestions by email on resumption of academic activities, the release said.
India has recently thrashed a China-Pakistan joint effort to discuss Kashmir in the United Nations Security Council The third this year, the two nations have repeatedly been trying to isole India on this issue, but have failed as four out of five of the permanent members have sided with India, and said that it is a bilateral issue, and not on the agenda of the Council

On Thursday, India rejected a Chinese attempt to meddle in Indian internal affairs, by raising the issue of Kashmir, on behalf of Pakistan, in the United Nations Security Council.

Recently, Pakistan had requested the UNSC to discuss the Kashmir issue, on the anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370, and the revocation of Jammu and Kashmirs special status.

The External Affairs Ministry put out a statement on the matter, and said, This was not the first time that China has sought to raise a subject that is solely an internal matter of India. We firmly reject Chinas interference in our internal affairs and urge it to draw proper conclusions from such infructuous attempts, the ministry statement said.

Also Read: Stand on the side of peace: Mike Pompeo slams China on prosecuting HK activists residing abroad

Also Read: Beirut explosion: 78 dead, 4,000+ injured, world leaders express shock

Another attempt by Pakistan fails! said TS Tirumurti, Indias permanent representative at the U.N, on Twitter, after Pakistan and Chinas third attempt to discuss Kashmir in the UNSC. Four out of five of the permanent members of the Council sided with India, and called Kashmir a bilateral matter, not relevant to the Councils agenda.

In Islamabad though, things were viewed a bit differently. Pakistans foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi took to Twitter, and said This 3rd meeting in a year by the UN Security Council serves as a stark repudiation to the Indian claim that Jammu and Kashmir is an internal matter,

The narrative that Pakistans Prime Minister Iran Khan, and his government are creating is that they have got global support on Kashmir, and that they have successfully isolated India, with regards to this issue.

The UNSC Rotational Chair for August, Indonesia, seemed to initially support Pakistan, though in the end, they held that Kashmir must be solved bilaterally.

Also Read: President Trump signs order restricting H1-B visas to top talent
Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker warned Wednesday that the state faces extraordinarily painful budget cuts if the federal government fails to provide states with relief funding to make up for tax revenue shortfalls caused by efforts to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

Illinois budget for the year that began July 1 is heavily dependent upon federal aid, which would be used to pay back borrowing of up to $5 billion under a special program through the Federal Reserve. In addition, the shift of the states income tax deadline to July 15, which was in line with federal action, caused a revenue deficit for the previous budget year, which ended June 30.

But the issue of federal relief to state and local governments has been caught in a political stalemate in Washington between House Democrats, Senate Republicans and the White House amid negotiations that also include the extension of special unemployment benefits that ended in July.

House Democrats are seeking $1 trillion in aid to state and local governments. Republicans who control the Senate have questioned the need for further aid to states after initial funding was focused on direct coronavirus relief. President Donald Trump has opposed new relief funding, contending it is an attempt to bail out financially mismanaged states and cities run by Democrats.

At this point, Pritzker said, Democratic and Republican governors across the nation are all hoping, praying, making calls about it.

If the Republicans continue to take the stand that theyve taken, including the Republicans in the Illinois delegation, against support for local governments and state governments, then were going to have to make drastic cuts, the first-term Democratic governor said.

This will be painful, extraordinarily painful. And for a federal government that wants, as we all do, to limit the unemployment damage thats been done across the nation, the layoffs that would follow such cuts would go beyond government workers to include employees of private companies that provide supplies and services to governments, Pritzker said.

Pritzkers warning came as public health officials announced 1,759 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Illinois, including 30 confirmed deaths. Total reported cases in Illinois stand at 186,471, including 7,573 deaths. The states seven-day positivity average remained at 3.9%.

Speaking at the James R. Thompson Center, Pritzker announced the state was performing an average of 41,000 tests per day over the last seven days. But he said only four of the states 11 pandemic recovery regions now average a positivity rate below 5%, compared with two weeks ago when 10 of the regions were below that figure. Chicago and suburban regions are hovering near 5%, though the Will-Kankakee County region is exceeding 6%, state data shows.

Earlier on Wednesday, attorney Thomas DeVore filed a petition in downstate Clay County asking a judge to hold Pritzker in civil contempt. DeVore, an attorney who has represented several challenges to Pritzkers authority under the pandemic, alleged the governors continued issuance of emergency orders disregarded a ruling by Judge Michael McHaney that the governors power ended July 2.

DeVore is representing Republican state Rep. Darren Bailey, of Xenia, who challenged Pritzkers executive authority. Bailey was removed from the House during a special pandemic session in May until he was allowed to return after wearing a face mask.

Pritzker called McHaneys rulings against his executive orders ridiculous and noted Will County Circuit Judge John Anderson called the Clay County judges findings bereft of any meaningful legal analysis.

Anderson ruled against a group of landlords that challenged Pritzkers pandemic-prompted moratorium on residential evictions, concluding that the governors disaster declarations and executive orders pertaining to COVID-19 remain in full force and effect.

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(Photo : REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir) Smoke rises from the site of an explosion in Beirut's port area, Lebanon August 4, 2020. (Photo : Talal Traboulsi/via REUTERS ) Smoke is seen after an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon August 4, 2020, in this picture obtained from social media. (Photo : Tszrkx/Wiki Commons) Ammonium Nitrate Isn't Really Dangerous, But Here's What Went Wrong

Authorities blamed the massive explosion in the capital of Lebanon, Beirut on Tuesday, August 5, that killed at least 135 people and injured about 5,000 to the 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse near the port. President Michel Aoun blasted the existence of such massive amount of chemicals. But the truth is, ammonium nitrate is not really a dangerous chemical.

Ammonium nitrate is widely used as fertilizers and appears as prills or porous pellets while it is also used in making mining explosives. However, it is non-explosive as it is and needs fuel oil and high charge to ignite.

Tech Times reported that Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab said the blast was caused by around 2,700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored near the city's cargo port. Video footage appears to show a fire burning nearby before the blast.

Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab already ordered a probe about the "dangerous warehouse" where explosive materials are stored since 2014.

Read also: Beirut Blast Update: More Than 70 Killed, Nearly 3,000 Injured from the Explosion that Triggered a 3.3 Magnitude Quake

Since Ammonium Nitrate Isn't Really Dangerous, what went wrong?

While ammonium nitrate does not burn on its own, prills provide a more concentrated supply of oxygen than the surrounding air that triggers the combustion of other materials. Thus, when combined with oil and other fuels, it is effective in mining explosives.

However, the chemical can decompose on its own at high enough temperature, producing gases like nitrogen oxides and water vapour. The rapid emission of these gases causes a blast.

So what triggers ammonium nitrate decomposition?

Decomposition of materials can be triggered by an intense near the storage facility. Since investigation is still on-going, we can only speculate based on videos taken before the incident.

Starting a fire with ammonium nitrate explosion is quite difficult as the high temperature needs to be sustained within the same area where the prills are stored. Moreover, the prills cannot burst and need to be contaminated with other combustible material.

In one video taken just outside the blast site, huge smoke was coming out as sparks and fire started in a building just before the catastrophic explosion.

bro was 10 feet away how tf he post this he different fr pic.twitter.com/WenesfqyNw  sex (@atlsavagee) August 4, 2020

Lebanese media initially reported that the blast was caused by fireworks due to the sparks seen on site. A large fireworks warehouse was reported to be caught on fire and it may have contaminated the ammonium nitrate that later triggered the massive explosion.

However, Lebanon's General Security Directorate Major General Abbas Ibrahim quickly dismissed the idea that fireworks caused the blast. He said on Lebanon TV that the explosion was due to seized "high explosive materials" that are store in the area, adding that it is ""naive to describe such an explosion as due to fireworks."

After explosion health risks

The massive blast from 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate produces enormous amounts of nitrogen oxides. These include nitrogen dioxide, which is a bad-smelling red gas, like the reddish plume of gases that came out after the explosion.

Nitrogen oxides can irritate the respiratory system while people with respiratory conditions are highly at risk. These are common in urban air pollution, but the Beirut discharge of these gases will continue to put the residents' health at risk for several days or weeks, depending on the local weather.

Read also: Four Explosions Within 24 Hours: Here's What Happened in Lebanon, China, North Korea, and UK

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Mexico's most influential newspaper, El Universal, published an article under the title 'Energy and territorial disputes threaten to reignite war in the Caucasus' in English and Spanish, on the military clashes started between Armenia and Azerbaijan on July 12.



The article emphasized the fact that Nagorno Karabakh belongs to Azerbaijan is recognized by the entire international community, including Mexico and the UN.

It underscored that four resolutions of the UN Security Council, as well as other documents from international bodies, including the OSCE and the European Council demand the immediate liberation of all occupied territories in Azerbaijan, and the return of displaced people to their homes.
Researchers conduct a group interview about mobile phone use and empowerment with Maasai women in northern Tanzania in 2018. Standing, left to right: research assistant Felista Terta, lead researcher Kelly Summers, and research assistant Naomi Peter. Credit: Timothy Baird, Virginia Tech.

Mobile phones have the power to change the lives of women living in remote communities by reducing barriers to information and increasing access to local economies. However, the introduction of new technologies can hamper efforts to empower women by increasing disparities in power dynamics.

Associate Professor Timothy Baird of the College of Natural Resources and Environment and Kelly Summers, who earned a master's degree in geography from Virginia Tech in 2019, led a National Science Foundation-funded study examining the impact that mobile phones are having in Maasai communities in Tanzania. Their findings, published in the Journal of Rural Studies, reveal crucial insights into the ways that technology impacts social dynamics in a distinct community in Africa.

A nomadic people adapt to a changing world

The Maasai are an ethnic group of approximately 2 million people, living primarily in Kenya and Tanzania. As one of a number of indigenous groups in Africa to practice pastoralism, which involves the rearing of livestock, the Maasai have traditionally been nomadic, traversing the continent's Great Rift Valley to find grazing land for their animals.

This way of life, which has sustained Maasai for centuries, is evolving rapidly with the widespread expansion of western society and the ideas and technologies that come with it.

"Maasai are moving into a world some might call 'modern,'" noted Baird, a faculty member in the Department of Geography who has been researching Maasai communities since 2005. "Already there are aspects of our own 'western' lives that are evident in their lives. For example, several developments in Maasai society, from the growth of formal education to the spread of organized religion, have led to changes in the traditional structures that shape Maasai lives. From my vantage, mobile phones have been a kind of steroid for accelerating those changes."

For a population that herds livestock across wide stretches of wild savanna, mobile phones are a boon to their economy and life. But few studies have investigated how this new technology is impacting the lives of women in Maasai communities, which are traditionally patriarchal. In family units where men exert significant control, often over multiple wives, it is important to understand how phones have impacted gender dynamics.

"As a man, it's difficultand really not appropriatefor me to have meetings with individual women or groups of women," Baird explained. "Maasai men may be quite uncomfortable with such a setup, and Maasai women may have no experience engaging with a man who is not a relative. So I needed help."

Enter Kelly Summers, who received bachelor's degrees in natural resources conservation and in forestry from Virginia Tech in 2014.

"While I was serving as an agriculture Extension agent with the Peace Corps in Tanzania, I read an article about Tim's research and reached out to him about doing graduate work in Tanzania," said Summers, who is currently working as an environmental protection specialist for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "Because I had experience interacting with women while living in and traveling to remote communities in Tanzania, it was a good fit."

Summers, working with collaborators, including Maria Elisa Christie, director of women and gender in international development for Virginia Tech's Center for International Research, Education, and Development, was able to conduct interviews with Maasai women, trying to puzzle out the difficult question of what women's empowerment might look like in a cultural context bounded by traditions but also stimulated by an expanding world.

"I don't want to paint a monolithic picture of a whole group of people," Summers said. "All of the women I spoke with had multiple identities within their communities: some women owned businesses, and some took on the work of tending to livestock. They were mothers and wives. Some were teachers and some were active in churches. There are a range of identities, and phones impact those identities for better or worse, or both."

Understanding the contexts of empowerment

To understand how a new technology like mobile phones could potentially support women's empowerment, it was important for researchers to understand what empowerment would look like within the specific contexts of Maasai life.

"To unpack this idea of empowerment, we had to characterize our terms and then look for examples of those characterizations," Baird said. "We had to ask: what are the aspects of your social world, what are the physical materials, and what are your own personal assets that allow you to make decisions and then act on those decisions. From that, we could develop more targeted questions about issues that embody empowerment and the factors that promote or obstruct it."

For Maasai women, the barriers to using mobile phones to gain empowerment vary: from access to reliable electricity to technological fluency and literacy, to having the financial resources to pay for data, their ability to use phones is shaped by a broad array of issues that are themselves in a state of radical flux. The study results show that some concerns are unique to Maasai communities, while others seem universal.

"One observation we made was that Maasai women are very much addicted to their phones," Summers explained. "If they can't get a charge or they can't purchase minutes, the feeling they have is very similar to our own anxiety when our phones lose power. We all want to communicate, we all want to be in a community, and phones are becoming a major tool to do that among Maasai women. Those who don't have access to a phone very much feel that they're missing out."

To work around some of the challenges pertaining to access, Maasai women have found cooperative solutions. Baird and Summers cite the important role that informal village community banks play in allowing women to develop business relationships with other women outside their family units, increasing the women's economic autonomy.

While mobile phones are a positive motivator in seeking these burgeoning opportunities, the authors stressed that mobile phones can also reinforce inequalities. For Maasai women, who typically have multiple roles within family and community structures, mobile phones can simultaneously empower an individual in one role while disempowering her in another.

"The same power dynamics that already existed are now playing out with phones," Baird said. "We found that men, the traditional gatekeepers in this society, are the ones who often control women's phones. They can use them as a reward or a punishment, a carrot or a stick."

Summers added that one of their findings is that Maasai men and women used phones differently: "Men will use their phones to talk to people outside their immediate social circle, but women will primarily talk to people they already know: mothers and sisters and other people in their family unit. They are rarely using their phones to reach out to new people."

While mobile phones can be used in ways that empower women, the researchers stress that it is more realistic to view this technology as a new arena where tensions between traditional cultural norms and the growing aspirations to engage in a broadly interconnected world continue to play out. Future efforts aimed at using mobile technologies to advance women's empowerment need to better understand what empowerment would look like within the specific contexts of a distinct culture, and what consequencespositive and negativeare risked when new technologies take root.

Explore further Maasai of Tanzania facing severe food insecurity and chronic child malnourishment

More information: Kelly H. Summers et al. Mobile phones and women's empowerment in Maasai communities: How men shape women's social relations and access to phones, Journal of Rural Studies (2020). Kelly H. Summers et al. Mobile phones and women's empowerment in Maasai communities: How men shape women's social relations and access to phones,(2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2020.04.013
Ed, the London-based reinsurance, wholesale and specialty broker, announced the appointment of Assad Ulhaq as senior broker and producer with immediate effect. In this role Ulhaq will focus on international property facultative reinsurance, primarily in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Ulhaq joins Ed with 10 years of industry experience, having most recently worked at RFIB where he was responsible for the placement of heavy industrial risks in the Middle East.

He began his insurance career in 2010 at Aon, following a decade working in the airline industry, where he went on to specialize in property and special industrial risks in Australia, New Zealand, the Nordics, Benelux and South Africa. During his time in Aons Dubai office Ulhaq worked on regional property business.

As we expand our international property fac capabilities and respond to the ever-evolving marketplace, it is vital that we continue to attract top industry talent, said Jennifer DArcy, head of facultative reinsurance. Assad brings to the team a wealth of knowledge and global experience in the reinsurance market and his proven ability to build key market relationships will be pivotal in sourcing new business opportunities and providing clients with the best tailored solutions. I am very pleased to welcome him to the team.

A Lloyds broker, Ed is owned by BGC Partners Inc., a global brokerage and financial technology company.

Source: Ed

Visit the Big Re, Carrier Managements reinsurance hub, for complete reinsurance coverage. Launched during the week of what would have been the Reinsurance Rendez-Vous de Septembre, this special page aims to provide complete reinsurance coverage of, by and for reinsurance professionals and buyers including news, features, interviews, commentaries, whitepapers, videos, webinars and more.

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Arman Izadi and Jake Paul on July 28, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada; Arman Izadi poses in front of his Las Vegas home.

Denise Truscello/WireImage via Getty Images; @izadi/Instagram

As part of an ongoing investigation related to unspecified "criminal acts" at an Arizona mall in May, the homes of Jake Paul and his associate, Arman 'Armani' Izadi, were raided by the FBI on Wednesday.

Paul, a 23-year-old YouTube star, was charged with trespassing and unlawful assembly after footage on social-media showed him outside a looted P.F. Chang's restaurant. He denied involvement in a tweet.

Izadi, 35, posted on Instagram asking that he be charged for the activities in solidarity since he was with Paul at the time.

Izadi has faced several charges related to pimping and battery, agreeing in 2014 to a guilty plea on one count of pandering, the legal term for pimping.

As speculation has run rampant around the FBI raids, some have focused their attention on Izadi and his storied past.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

The FBI search of YouTube megastar Jake Paul's home Wednesday sparked immediate headlines and speculation. Paul is known for mischief, so a federal search of his home, which produced images of police carrying large guns out of the property, was a guaranteed draw for YouTube followers. But as the day continued, another important character in the saga emerged. It was revealed that agents also executed a federal search warrant at the homes Paul's associate Arman 'Armani' Izadi in Las Vegas.

The warrants, which are sealed, are part of an ongoing investigation, a spokesperson for the FBI's Los Angeles office confirmed to Insider. A spokesperson for the FBI's Phoenix field office told Insider that the ongoing investigation is related to "criminal acts surrounding the incident at Scottsdale Fashion Square in May 2020."

Paul, 23, was charged with two misdemeanors in May for alleged looting and vandalizing at the Scottsdale, Arizona, mall. The charges were eventually dropped to facilitate the pursuit of a federal investigation, according to The Sun. Footage of the incident shared on Instagram showed Paul standing outside a looted P.F. Chang's restaurant. Paul, who has more than 20 million YouTube subscribers, denied the charges in a May 31 tweet.

Story continues

Izadi, a DJ, former Team 10 member, and close friend of Paul's who officiated his stunt wedding to Tana Mongeau, said in a tweet that he was with him in Scottsdale. In a June 4 Instagram caption, he said that he wanted to be charged, too. "If running from the cops shooting tear gas at us with no orders is a crime then #ChargeMeToo," Izadi, 35, wrote in the caption of the post, which has since been deleted.



The picture Arman Izadi posted to Instagram on June 4. The post, in which he defended Jake Paul and asked to be charged with the same crimes, has since been deleted.

Arman Izadi/Instagram

Soon after Wednesday's raid on his hot-pink Las Vegas mansion, which he calls the "Graffiti Mansion," Izadi posted several Instagram story videos of at least a dozen bikini-clad women hanging out on the property. "The only thing they wanted to know about was Arizona," he said in an Instagram story, after the internet entered a tailspin of theorizing about the mysterious searches.



Screenshots show Arman Izadi's Instagram stories just hours after an FBI raid on his Las Vegas mansion.

@izadi/Instagram

Izadi had his own history of trouble with law enforcement before he became involved with Paul

As Will Sommer of The Daily Beast reported in 2018, Izadi has pleaded guilty to pandering, also known as pimping, and attempted battery with substantial bodily harm.

After Izadi was arrested in 2013 on 20 counts  including robbery, kidnapping, pimping, and battery  Sommer reported that three women told a grand jury they were recruited by Izadi through "nightlife events."

"Izadi lured women to his prostitution ring with promises of immense wealth, his companionship, and most of all, his protection," the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported in 2013 after reviewing police records.

When one woman tried to quit her work as a prostitute, investigators alleged that he threatened and beat her. The woman described his use of a wet towel on her face as "water boarding," the Las Vegas Sun reported.

The charges were dropped after Izadi entered a plea deal on one count of pandering in January 2014, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. Izadi has maintained his claim that he was "set up" by police, despite his guilty plea, according to the Daily Beast.

The so-called Graffiti Mansion, where Izadi now lives and the Paul brothers have visited often, is known for its wild and lavish parties, often hosting huge groups of women. Izadi, who has 169,000 YouTube subscribers, has posted several videos that depict these parties. He often calls the women who visit the mansion, many of whom are models, "Barbies," as he did in his Wednesday Instagram stories.

People in Paul's orbit have sounded the alarm on Izadi before

In an interview with the YouTube drama reporter Daniel Keem (a.k.a. Keemstar), Adam Quinn, a former manager of Izadi and Paul's YouTuber collective Team 10, said that he left his job because of Izadi's allegedly nefarious behavior. After confronting Paul about Izadi, Paul said that he would continue working with him, Quinn said.

Allegations of inappropriate behavior and harassment at Team 10 homes have spread throughout the YouTube community. In a May 2019 YouTube video, YouTuber Hannah Forcier described her experience at Paul's Team 10 mansion in Calabasas as sexual assault. "It was so uncomfortable," Forcier said in her video, explaining details of how two unidentified men in the home allegedly grabbed her butt, even after she said she was uncomfortable. Forcier specified that the men were neither Paul nor Izadi, but she left the home immediately after the alleged assault.

Representatives for Izadi and Paul did not return Insider's request for comment.

Related: Inside a $12,000-a-night Airbnb in Hollywood

Read the original article on Insider
India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Oneindia Staff

New Delhi, Aug 27: Three months after the stand-off at the Galwan valley, a survey was conducted on India-China relationship by the Chinese mouthpiece, Global Times, and the results show that the Chinese citizens are not happy with the actions of their leaders.

In this survey, it has been revealed that the Chinese citizens like India with more than 50 per cent holding a favorable impression of China. Almost 51 per cent respondents appreciate the Modi government.

Newest First Oldest First For India, the LAC runs along 16 districts across one union territory (Ladakh) and four states (Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh). Chinas biggest tech company Huawei is trying to woo India by running big advertisements on all leading dailies of India. More than 30 per cent feel the ties will improve, and almost nine per cent of the respondents said they see improvement in the short term, while 25 per cent feel things will improve in the long term. Nearly 70 per cent believe the anti-China sentiment in India is excessive. As efforts are on to de-escalate ongoing tension at Line of Actual Control, China on Wednesday said that it sees India as a partner instead of a rival and an opportunity instead of a threat. Relations between India and China have been tense after Indian troops clashed with PLA soldiers at Galwan Valley on June 15 leading to the death of 20 Indian soldiers, although Chinese troops also suffered casualties but China's foreign ministry has refused to divulge figures. Chinese ambassador to India Sun Weidong speaking at the China-India Youth webinar said that China sees India as a "partner instead of a rival and an opportunity instead of a threat." Darcha is 147 kilometres from Manali and lies on the highway to Leh after Jispa and Keylong across Rohtang La. The Darcha-Padum-Nimu route requires only a single 4.5 km tunnel through the 16,570 feet Shingo La between Darcha and Padum to ensure that the road is closed only for two months in winter. According to military commanders, the need to build the third axis was felt as tunnelling would be required under four more high mountain passes on the existing Manali-Leh route if the road has to be kept open throughout the year. In an effort to ensure that the project meets its two-year deadline, Gadkaris ministry has proposed that the task to build the tunnel should be given to the company that constructed the 9.02 km tunnel at Rohtang La on the condition that it meets the timeline. The project, which has been in the pipeline for a decade, is scheduled to be completed by the defence ministry within two years. Officials said the third route requires upgrading the Darcha-Padum-Nimu trekking route into a metalled road and building a 4.5 kilometre tunnel under Shingo La on the Darcha-Padum route. New Delhi perceives Beijings reluctance to disengage despite reminders as an effort to set a new normal at the border. The defence ministrys road project is being given its hardest push by road and highways minister Nitin Gadkari and his colleague Gen VK Singh after China provoked a standoff along the Line of Actual Control in East Ladakh and started mobilising troops in depth areas. Senior military commanders said the third route to feed Ladakh by road is urgently needed given how Pakistan and its all-weather friend, China were eyeing the Siachen Glacier and Daulat Beg Oldie. Nimu is 35 kilometres from Leh town and headquarters of XIV Corps responsible for the defence of East Ladakh and Siachen Glacier. Indias national security planners are pushing hard to complete an all-weather strategic route to Ladakh that will link Darcha in Himachal Pradesh to Nimu via Padum in Kargils Zanskar valley, people familiar with the matter said The Chinese ambassador also said that they will encourage language learning and communication. With the help of Indian colleges and universities, Chinese colleges and universities carry out the study of Hindi, Tamil and Bengali. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and India 70 years ago, Sun said, bilateral relations have withstood tests and become more resilient. He said Chinas President Xi Jinping has said that Beijing will neither import foreign models of development, nor export the Chinese model and ask other countries to copy its practice. On a question on support to Indians aspiring to learn Chinese language, Sun said a strong team of Chinese teachers will help cultivate more Indian students who understand Chinese and love Chinese culture. China and India, neighboring countries, should live in peace and avoid conflicts, he said. Sun said that in order to achieve development goals, both countries need a peaceful and favourable external environment. In the webinar, Sun said, As two rising major neighbours, China and India should abandon the old mindset of drawing lines by ideology, and get rid of the old game of ones gain is anothers loss and zero-sum game. The CMC, which is the overall high command of the Chinese military is headed by Chinese President Xi Jinping. On August 14, Misri met Maj. Gen. Ci Guowei, Director of the Office of International Military Cooperation of Chinas Central Military Commission, (CMC) and briefed him about Indias stance vis-a-vis the situation on the borders in eastern Ladakh Union Territory. On August 14, Misri met Maj. Gen. Ci Guowei, Director of the Office of International Military Cooperation of Chinas Central Military Commission, (CMC) and briefed him about Indias stance vis-a-vis the situation on the borders in eastern Ladakh Union Territory. In recent weeks, Misri met a senior official of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) and senior General of Chinese military and briefed them on Indias stance on the situation at the borders in eastern Ladakh Union Territory. Indian Embassy officials told PTI here that the closed-door meeting was part of the continuing outreach activities with all shades of Chinese opinion on the state of relations between the two countries. The Indian Army officer killed the clash was the commanding officer of a battalion at Galwan. There was no firing. Apparently the two sides clashed with stones and rods. There are various accounts on the number of casualties on the Chinese side. Some accounts suggest 5, while the others say it is 3. However there is no official word on the same. The visit by Army Chief General M M Naravane to Pathankot has been cancelled. National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Tuesday said if the Chinese can "shoot dead" three Indian soldiers during the 'de-escalation process', one can imagine how serious the situation must have been in the first place. Earlier in the day, the Indian Army said an officer and two soldiers were killed in a violent confrontation with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley on Monday. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will be discussing the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a short while from now. Singh has already met Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat, the three service chiefs and External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar. We will eventually learn about the details of what happened in Ladakh. That is our right. But right now, we must grieve with & stand by the families of our martyred soldiers. And stand solidly in support of our armed forces.  anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) June 16, 2020 Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra's tweet: Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh has briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the situation along the Line of Actual Control. Mehbooba Mufti took to Twitter to say that the nation wants to know why there is no talk of retaliation. Taking to Twitter, Mufti wrote,''Seems like China has hijacked the aggressive ghar main ghuske marengay militaristic approach. Nation deserves to know why there is no talk of retaliation to avenge the death of three Indian army personnel!.'' Congrress leader Shashi Tharoor: The tragic news from Ladakh is shocking & calls for resolute handling by our Govt. Meanwhile, let us bow our heads in tribute to the three martyrs who gave their lives to protect India, and honour those who serve on our borders every day, risking their lives for our nation. Both sides have been ascertaining that pending the final resolution of the boundary issue, it is important to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas. China has lodged solemn representations and protests to India. Here, we are sternly demanding India to earnestly abide by the relevant agreement and strictly restrain their frontline troops. They should not cross the borderlines says Zhao Lijian, the spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh has met with External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar and Chief of Defence Staff, General Bipin Rawat and discussed the situation along the LAC. Zhao Lijian, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson said that China has lodged solemn representations and protests to India. Here, we are sternly demanding India to earnestly abide by the relevant agreement and strictly restrain their frontline troops. They should not cross the borderlines, Lijian said. "Chinese side also suffered casualties in the Galwan Valley physical clash", tweets Editor In Chief of Chinese Newspaper Global Times The happening in the #Galwanvalley is a continuation of violations by China. It is time now that the country stands up to these incursions. Our soldiers are not fair game that every few days officers and men are being killed and injured defending our borders. (1/2)  Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) June 16, 2020 Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said the happening in Galwan Valley is a continuation of violations by China and added that it is time now that India stood up to these incursions. The talks are being held between Major General Abhijit Bapat, the commander of the Karu based HQ3 Infantry Division and his Chinese counterpart. The talks are being held at the site of the clash. Samajwadi party chief Akhilesh Yadav took to Twitter and wrote, "Received the report of a commanding officer and two soldiers of Indian Army being killed in a 'violent face-off' with Chinese soldiers in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh. Heartfelt condolences." He also said that he expects a clarification on the ground reality of situation.   



  UPA                LAC   



               ?



               



      ?  Kapil Sibal (@KapilSibal) June 16, 2020 Congress leader Kapil Sibal slammed the Union government for failing to respond to Chinese action in Ladakh. He also took pot shot on Prime Minister's 56-inch chest. Indian troops seriously violated consensus of the two sides by illegally crossing the border twice and carrying out provocative attacks on Chinese soldiers. This resulted in serious physical clashes, Chinas Global Times said while quoting foreign minister, Wang Yi. Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda on Tuesday termed as 'disturbing' the violent clash between Indian and Chinese troops in Galwan Valley and said the government should offer a clearer picture to the nation on the border issue. He sought to know as to how Indian soldiers lost their lives during a de-escalation process and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh should come out with a clearer picture. "Saddened by the news of the martyrdom of our boys in the Galwan Valley. I salute their indomitable courage, selflessness and sacrifice," said VK Singh. The editor of Global Times posted on Twitter,  based on what I know, Chinese side also suffered casualties in the Galwan Valley physical clash. I want to tell the Indian side, dont be arrogant and misread Chinas restraint as being weak. China doesnt want to have a clash with India, but we dont fear it. The talks between the two sides are still continuing and efforts are on to defuse tensions between India and China after a violent clash occurred. The situation still remains fluid in Ladakh. Hectic talks are on to defuse the tensions along the Line of Actual Control. The Congress has termed as "shocking" and "unacceptable" the death of an Indian Army officer and two soldiers in a violent face-off with the Chinese troops, and asked Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to confirm the development. "Shocking, Unbelievable and Unacceptable! Will the Raksha Mantri confirm," Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said on Twitter. Saddened by the news of the martyrdom of our boys in the Galwan Valley. I salute their indomitable courage, selflessness & sacrifice.



Jai Hind!!  Vijay Kumar Singh (@Gen_VKSingh) June 16, 2020 Saddened by the news of the martyrdom of our boys in the Galwan Valley. I salute their indomitable courage, selflessness and sacrifice, Union Minister, General V K Singh said. AIMIM chief and Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi took to Twitter to condemn the killings of three Indian army personnel. "India stands with the 3 brave martyrs who were killed by China today in Galwan. My thoughts are with families of Colonel & 2 brave soldiers. The commanding officer was leading from the front. The government must avenge these killings & ensure that their sacrifice was not in vain," Owaisi tweeted.
Kerry Washington led the charge as Olivia Pope in Scandal, ABCs super-addictive, politics-centered drama. Even though it ended in 2018, Washington recently confessed that the former co-stars of Scandal are still obsessed, which is something we know at-home Gladiators can totally relate to.

Scandal | Bob DAmico/Walt Disney Television via Getty Images

The Scandal phenomenon

For seven seasons, Scandal was a part of ABCs salacious lineup of shows dubbed TGIT, or Thank God its Thursday. Each week, fans would look forward to the twists, turns, and titillation synonymous with Shondaland produced shows.

Scandal wowed audiences with provocative storylines from 2012 to 2018. The narrative revolved around a Washington, D.C.-based fixer named Olivia Pope, who knew where all the bodies were buried, figuratively (and sometimes literally).

RELATED: Ignore the Haters, Says Kerry Washington About Being Confident

Olivia was flanked by her team of Gladiators, who were equally lethal as legal eagles and menacing muscle. Liv was a whiz when it came to coverups, conspiracies, and helping D.C.s heavy-hitters out of sticky situations. But the poised political fixer also had her share of skeletons, including a hot and heavy affair with the remarkably charming (and very married) President of the United States.

From the political underbelly to the top of the food chain, Scandal served up stories that kept viewers hooked. It is no surprise that many devotees have headed to streamers to relive the show. And as much as fans adore the cast of characters, based on what Washington says, it appears that the former co-stars still dig each other too.

We Are Still Totally Obsessed With Each Other, Says Kerry Washington

RELATED: Kerry Washington Revealed Which 2020 Emmy Nomination Means the Most to Her

During a recent appearance on Good Morning America, Washington confessed that the former Scandal cast-mates get along well and enjoy reconnecting. She quipped about the team being obsessed with each other, which may explain the groups explosive on-screen chemistry.

Its always so fun to get together with our Scandal fam, Washington told GMA. We are still  you know, years after wrapping  we are still totally obsessed with each other. So, its always fun when we get to spend a little time.

Washington notably connected with ex-scene partner, Tony Goldwyn, for yoga practice, as seen on Instagram Live. Before I was able to make a living as an actor, one of my many hustles was yoga, Washington revealed to GMA. And I got certified to teach in India. I lived in India after college.

Washingtons Instagram followers will notice that she is a keen yoga practitioner. And in her GMA interview, the star shed light on why she decided to teach online and how Goldwyn got involved.

So, I think I started really teaching the yoga online in a way because I needed to be doing more yoga to calm my nerves and to sort of center myself, and I thought maybe if my millions of followers knew that I was doing it they could hold me accountable and I would show up for them and show up for me. So, weve been doing yoga, and sometimes I have special guests, and Tony [Goldwyn], of course, is the ultimate special guest. So, it was fun to practice with him. Kerry Washington on Good Morning America

RELATED: Heres Why Kerry Washington Rocked Pajamas on GMA, and Where You Can Get a Pair Like Hers
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Linkedin M. Jegathesan (Agence France-Presse) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia  Thu, August 6, 2020 07:00 531 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066be061d 2 SE Asia 1MDB,Jho-Low,Malaysia,corruption,fugitive,China Free

The alleged 1MDB mastermind and other suspects in the scandal are believed to be hiding out in China, Malaysia's police chief said Wednesday, urging authorities there to help hunt down the fugitives.

Billions of dollars were stolen from sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad and bankrolled a global spending spree, with looted cash used to buy everything from pricey art to real estate.

Former Malaysian leader Najib Razak lost power in 2018 over his involvement in the fraud and was last week convicted in a 1MDB-linked trial, but several other suspects remain at large.

The most prominent is Low Taek Jho, a bespectacled, chubby financier known for partying with Hollywood A-listers and accused of being the scandal's mastermind.

Malaysian police said last week Low was believed to be hiding in the semi-autonomous Chinese city of Macau -- but Beijing swiftly shot down the suggestion, insisting it does not harbor foreign criminals.

However, Malaysia's Inspector-General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador said a woman was arrested this year who had been sending documents to Low in the gambling boomtown, and authorities had concluded he was there.

He also said Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, ex-CEO of a 1MDB unit, was believed to be in Hong Kong while another former official from the fund, Jasmine Loo, was thought to be in the Chinese city of Shenzhen.

"Jho Low is almost freely conducting his business" in Macau, he told AFP in an interview, and appealed for help from authorities. "We want the local authorities, the police, in Macau to act responsibly."

"Don't the authorities in Macau have the police instinct to assist us?" he added.

Low's whereabouts have long been the subject of speculation, and he has been rumored to be other locations including the United Arab Emirates. He has been charged in Malaysia and the United States over 1MDB, and denies wrongdoing.

Abdul Hamid also said ties with police in the southern Chinese territory of Hong Kong had deteriorated in recent years, hindering law enforcement efforts there.

Officials in Hong Kong and Macau did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The police chief said it was hard to know when he would succeed in hunting down Low, commonly known as Jho Low, and other fugitives.

"As long as there is a lack of cooperation from authorities in Hong Kong or Macau... it is impossible for me to give any dates," he said.

But he added: "We will never rest. We will bring them to justice."
2020 has not gone according to plan for Airbnb. The tech company came into the year preparing for a highly anticipated IPO, but then the coronavirus pandemic changed everything.

As the pandemic devastated the global travel industry, Airbnb laid off nearly 25% of its employees, raised emergency debt funding and at least temporarily shelved the IPO.

But there is one bright spot. While urban Airbnb hosts have suffered heavily along with traditional hotels and travel companies, Airbnb hosts in rural areas are seeing huge surges in business.

These rural Airbnbs for local getaways are all the rage as Americans jump at opportunities to escape the confines of their homes and the stress of the ongoing pandemic.

Trisha Mixer lost over $40,000 worth of bookings for her two properties outside Austin, Texas, when Covid-19 hit. But once the state started reopening in May, she said, she was "barraged" with requests.

"You could tell people were desperate," Mixer said.

Mixer's two properties, a lake house and a cottage, are 30 and 90 minutes away from Austin, respectively, and the majority of her recent customers are other Texans  even people from Austin who just want to get away. Summer weekends have always been popular, but this year she hasn't had to do extra to fill up weekdays too.

Mixer even raised prices a little to try to slow down the pace of bookings, but it didn't work. Her properties are filled through the summer, and weekend business looks steady through the end of October.

The data supports the popularity of rural renting. According to Airbnb, hosts in rural areas of the U.S. earned over $200 million in June 2020, an increase of more than 25% from the same period a year ago. Airbnb also said more than nine of every 10 dollars earned by hosts for June trips inside the U.S. were for sites outside the 10 biggest American cities by population.

Airbnb's data also supports hosts' speculation that guests are choosing to stay local. In New York, for example, Airbnb hosts earned over $5.8 million from guests living within 300 miles during June, according to data from the company.

"Many families are looking to stay in short-term rentals because it gives you a little more control over your environment, a little more privacy," a spokeswoman for Airbnb told CNBC. People can access these quieter areas by driving and still practice social distancing while going outdoors, she added.
A union representing thousands of California prison employees has filed a wide-ranging grievance against the state corrections department and its health care system, charging that officials are exposing staffers to uncontrolled coronavirus outbreaks inside state-run prisons.

SEIU Local 1000, which represents health care workers, clerical staff, custodians and other prison employees, said corrections officials have propelled a system-wide outbreak by recklessly moving prisoners and failing to follow health and safety guidelines.

The grievance, filed July 28, alleges that union officials documented safety violations at all 35 prisons owned and operated by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, or CDCR.

Some of these prisons have already had serious COVID-19 outbreaks, the grievance states. (Prison and prison health care officials) should still be able to prevent outbreaks if they take all possible and reasonable steps to prevent them.

The filing comes as the deadly virus continues to overwhelm prisons throughout the state, infecting more than 8,500 incarcerated people and killing 51. The virus has also sickened more than 1,900 staff members  at least one at each facility  and taken the lives of eight.

The union is not demanding monetary damages, but instead is asking the state to make sure that proper protocols are created and enforced.

Among the problems alleged in the grievance, union attorneys say that CDCR has failed to provide adequate personal protective equipment, does not always force people inside prisons to wear masks and has failed to adequately test staff and incarcerated people for the virus.

Some of the concerns echoed those previously outlined by UC health experts, who toured San Quentin in mid-June. The experts warned that the prisons profoundly inadequate resources and failure to quickly address the crisis could put both incarcerated people and staffers at risk.

The union additionally took aim at the infamous transfer of nearly 200 men from a prison that had become a virus hot zone  the California Institution for Men in Chino (San Bernardino County)  to Corcoran and San Quentin state prisons, both of which had avoided outbreaks until the transfers. Prisoners shipped from Chino were not tested for up to a month before they were loaded onto buses, and the transfers ignited widespread and deadly outbreaks.

These late-May transfers  along with a decision by the state to resume the intake of new prisoners from county jails  effectively tripled the number of facilities facing outbreaks from four to 12, said union attorney Daniel Luna.

For the first few months, they had a good handle on the spread, Luna said. (Then) there were some missteps that we hope they avoid at other institutions.

Union officials are suggesting seven different policy changes. They include each prison creating its own COVID-19 incident command center, distributing a clear written plan for isolation and quarantine areas, and ensuring that physical distancing and other safety guidelines are followed.

Luna said the grievance encompasses many, but not all, of the concerns raised by workers on the front lines of the prison outbreaks.

We represent the nurses, and theyre the ones who are very hands-on with managing virus and treating infected inmates, he said. It takes into account those experiences.

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.

SEIU Local 1000 does not represent corrections officers.

In a statement, CDCR spokeswoman Dana Simas said the state prison system and the California Correctional Health Care Services have implemented a number of extraordinary and unprecedented measures to protect people who live and work in our institutions.

Simas said all staff and incarcerated people were issued cloth masks in April and are required to wear them when they cannot maintain 6 feet of physical distancing. The prisons have additionally established a work group to monitor personal protective equipment, and have secured resources to conduct ongoing statewide staff testing at no cost to the employees.

Prison and prison health officials will be coordinating a response to the unions concerns, Simas said.

Additional measures have been taken to protect employees and incarcerated people, including actions to reduce the incarcerated population by more than 18,000 to maximize space for physical distancing, and isolation/quarantine efforts, Simas said.

The grievance may be ultimately submitted to a neutral arbitrator whose decision would be binding for both parties.

While prison worker unions in California have lodged coronavirus-related complaints to individual prisons, its rare to file directly to the state prisons headquarters. The filing should fast-track the process by requiring officials to respond in 14 days rather than 30.

Because the grievance was filed July 28, the system is expected to respond by next week.

Megan Cassidy is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy
The government of Azerbaijan continues bringing in international experience and knowledge for strengthening national efforts aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus pandemic as a group of medical experts from Italy arrived in the country this week, Caspian News writes in the article Italian Specialists Join Azerbaijani Experts On Covid-19 Frontline. The mission of Italian medical experts from the countrys Civil Protection Department traveled to the Caspian country on Monday via special flight operated by the Finance Guard of Rome.

The team includes six professionals, including doctors and nurses from Piedmont, Tuscany, Valle dAosta and the National Institute for Infectious Diseases Lazzaro Spallanzani in Rome, a world-class center in the study of infectious diseases that since June started a high profile collaboration program with the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Azerbaijan, reads a statement issued by the embassy of Italy in Baku.

The Italian medical experts will remain in Azerbaijan for about two weeks, available to local authorities in order to carry out consultancy, assistance, and training activities in the fight against and prevention of Covid-19, alongside their Azerbaijani counterparts. During the visit, our existing protocols on treatment and prevention of the disease will be discussed. We are interested in their views on the future prognosis of the pandemic, the forecasts of the World Health Organization. In autumn, the disease is likely to go along with other respiratory diseases. In this regard, we have some training and protocols, said Ramin Bayramli, who heads the Management Union of Medical Territorial Units in Azerbaijan.

The Italian medical contingent is not the first foreign professional group to visit Azerbaijan for helping contain the coronavirus outbreak. A group of infectious disease specialists, resuscitators, and pulmonologists from Russia and Turkey arrived in Azerbaijan on July 8 to work with local specialists for the treatment and prophylaxis to prevent the spread of the disease.

The next foreign medical specialist mission traveled to the Caspian country from Cuba as the countrys air carrier Azerbaijan Airlines brought a staff of 115 medical experts from Cubas world-renowned Henry Reeve Brigade to Baku on July 13. They are expected to intensively work with the local medical personnel on Covid-19 frontline over three months.

The Henry Reeve Brigade is known well for its contributions during health crises, wars, and natural disasters in various countries, including the Ebola pandemic and the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan. Currently, thousands of specialists from the organization work in 25 countries around the world to help local authorities contain the spread of coronavirus.

Azerbaijan has confirmed 32,910 coronavirus cases as of August 4. The fatalities reached 473, while the total number of recoveries is amounted to 28,348. Azerbaijan has recorded the least number of Covid-19 infections and deaths in the Caspian region, where Russia, Iran, and Kazakhstan are also located. Currently, Covid-19 patients in Azerbaijan are treated at 46 hospitals. The government of the country has put into operation nine modular hospitals for treating coronavirus patients.
The Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye has ordered the Minister of Communications, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful to appear in Parliament to answer questions on the revenue accrued so far by the Kelni GVG monitoring system.

The Minister, according to the Minority, has failed to appear in Parliament on three consecutive occasions to provide an account on the implementation thus far.

According to the Speaker of Parliament, the Minister was supposed to be present in the House on Monday but she could not honour the invitation.

Prof. Oquaye thus instructed that she makes herself available on Friday August 7, 2020 to answer relevant questions on the matter.

I notice that no answer has been placed on record. I direct that the Minister must answer all the relevant questions and make herself available on Friday to answer the relevant questions, Prof. Oquaye said.

Kelni GVG was contracted by the government to develop and oversee the Common Platform for traffic monitoring, revenue assurance and mobile money monitoring.

The implementation of the Common Platform is in line with the Communication Service Tax (Amendment) Act, 2013, Act 864.

A lot of the criticism of the deal, which is costing Ghana $89 million, has come from think tank IMANI Africa.

IMANI Africa also raised privacy concerns while questioning the credibility of Kelni GVG.

It has maintained that this deal mirrors the controversial agreements the state entered into with Subah Infosolutions and Afriwave Telcom Ltd in 2010 and 2016 respectively.

IMANI had earlier petitioned the Vice President to revoke the contract.

But the Communications Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, in Parliament rejected allegations of corruption and underhand dealings in the award of the revenue assurance monitoring contract to Kelni GVG.

She said the accusations of corruption and underhand dealings are needless.

The government has assured that the necessary due diligence was carried out during the processes that led to the selection of Kelni GVG.

Kelni GVGs monitoring system took off in 2018.

---citinewsroom
Their inaction has forced my hand, he said in a statement. This reopening does not mean that we are in the clear as it relates to the pandemic but rather that I want to support our residents facing extreme financial hardships as a result of working in the restaurant and service industry.
A 22-year-old Romanian national, Daniel Mazarache, 66 Esker Park, Lucan, Dublin, pleaded guilty at Carrick-on-Shannon District Court to the theft of four phones at Carphone Warehouse, Rosebank, Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim on October 7, 2014.

Judge Kilrane said the defendant was an accomplished thief who has committed thefts all over Europe and, unfortunately for us, has ended up back in Ireland.

The court heard Mr Mazarache, who was 16 at the time of the offences in Carrick-on-Shannon, left Ireland in 2017 and returned here in January 2020.

He has previous convictions from Naas District Court in 2015 where he was given a community service order for theft offences.

He has convictions in other jurisdictions. In Austria he was sentenced to two years for aggravated theft while he was given a five year suspended sentence for theft in France in 2018, and also has a conviction from Lisbon.

He is currently serving sentences in Cloverhill Prison for handling stolen property and other theft offences. He is due for release in February 2023.

I wouldn't trust this man in relation to rehabilitation as far as I could throw him. He is a born thief, the judge said.

He adjourned the case until November 17 for a probation report.
Consider it Earth's ultimate mirror selfie.

In a new study, a team led by astrophysicist Allison Youngblood at the University of Colorado Boulder set out to achieve something new in planetary photography: The group used the Hubble Space Telescope to try to view Earth as if it were an exoplanet--or a world orbiting a star many light years from our own.

It wasn't easy: To capture Earth as an alien world, the researchers had to use the moon as a giant mirror, recording sunlight that had passed through our planet's atmosphere, bounced off the lunar surface and come back.

"It's like what an astronaut might see standing on the surface of the moon," said Youngblood, a research scientist at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).

Previous studies have taken a similar look at Earth as an exoplanet. But the new research, which appears August 6 in The Astronomical Journal, is the first to succeed in taking such a selfie using a combination of a space instrument and the moon. Youngblood said that the group's findings could one day help scientists to hone how they search distant planets for the possible fingerprints of life--in this case, ozone in the atmosphere.

"Ozone is what we call a biosignature," said Youngblood, who worked on the project as a postdoctoral fellow at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "It's a byproduct of molecular oxygen, which can be a byproduct of life."

The search for life

Over the last several decades, scientists have confirmed the existence of more than 4,000 planets beyond Earth's solar system. Many of them were spotted using what researchers call the "transit" method--a planet passes in front of its host star, causing the light from that star to dim ever so slightly.

This approach has an added benefit, too, Youngblood said. Train a powerful enough telescope, such as Hubble, on an alien planet, and you can see how starlight filters through its atmosphere. Scientists, in turn, can analyze that starlight to identify the gases that are present in the atmosphere.

In the coming decades, one of the big targets that planet hunters will be looking for is ozone. It's created when ultraviolet light from the sun reacts with oxygen gas in the atmosphere--meaning that, at least on Earth, ozone is often connected to the activity of photosynthesizing organisms.

In the hunt for life, "one biosignature alone isn't enough," Youngblood said. "But if you, for example, saw ozone and methane together, that might indicate that there is life."

The problem is that ozone is also tricky to spot from the ground on Earth. To get around that limitation, Youngblood and her colleagues had to go to space.

Total eclipse

They got their chance in the wee hours of January 21, 2019. On that day, Earth's orbit brought the planet directly between the sun and the moon, leading to the first total lunar eclipse of the year. (The event also turned the moon an eerie blood-orange color, which gave it the nickname "super blood wolf eclipse.")

"During a total eclipse, all of the light you see reflected off the moon has already passed through Earth's atmosphere," Youngblood said.

To capture that reflection, and particularly the ultraviolet light shining off of the moon, the team pointed Hubble at the lunar surface--not something the telescope was designed for.

"I talked to colleagues and they said, 'Pointing Hubble at the moon is really challenging,'" Youngblood said. "The moon is too close."

Put differently, getting a stable image of the moon using Hubble is a bit like hitting the bullseye on a dart board while standing on a swaying cruise ship in the middle of a storm. But with a bit of luck and mathematical savvy, the team prevailed. Youngblood and her colleagues were able to detect the distinct ultraviolet signals of ozone in Earth's atmosphere.

The team's results aren't a perfect representation of what ozone might look like on a real-life exoplanet. For starters, Youngblood and her colleagues were able to peer much deeper into Earth's atmosphere than would be possible in a world many lightyears away.

But, she said, the study is a good proof-of-concept that it can be done. And that means that scientists may one day be able to locate the hints of living organisms on a planet far, far away.

###

Coauthors on the new study include John Stocke, professor in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences (APS) at CU Boulder; Kevin France, assistant professor in LASP and APS; Giada Arney and Aki Roberge of NASA Goddard; and Antonio Garcia Munoz of the Berlin Institute of Technology.
The teenage entrepreneur who founded Australia's number one parking deals comparison site has revealed how he successfully revived his business as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold.

Rylan Kindness wasn't even old enough to hold a driver's licence when he launched Parking Deals Australia in 2017 as a 16-year-old Brisbane high school student.

The site saves motorists time and money by taking the hassle out of parking by offering inner-city spots at a discounted price.

Over the next three years, the ingenious app grew rapidly as airport and cruise parking companies began advertising their spaces on the site for free, with Parking Deals Australia then earning a commission from each booking.

Rylan Kindness, 18, (pictured) is the founder and CEO of Parking Deals Australia - a business he launched when he was only 16

Mr Kindess solved Australia's parking crisis by developing a site that compares discounted parking prices

But the company the young CEO had worked tirelessly to build almost collapsed in a matter of days as the coronavirus pandemic smashed the tourism industry - his largest customer base - in March.

With the need for his service rapidly shrinking, Mr Kindness realised the app had to 'adapt or die'.

'When P&O cancelled all of their cruises we had an influx of hundreds of customers wanting their money back. That is when it became really real,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'My heart dropped in my chest, I was so overwhelmed. I thought, "oh f**k this is really happening".

"The business I built over the last three to get to that stage was taken away in a weekend.

'I felt lost for the next move.'

Mr Kindness' site had grown rapidly in the 12 months leading to the March lockdown, averaging $150,000 to $250,000 a month in revenue

Mr Kindness, now 18, and his team of seven spent the next week helping customers cancel their prepaid cruise parking spots they would no longer need.

Once that was sorted, it was time to enact a plan to salvage the business, which has 45,000 car spaces nationwide.

'We cut contract work, marketing dollars, expenses that we pay but dont need,' Mr Kindness said.

'Once we cut our expenses and checked our finances, we became sure our team were going to be fine.'

'It was like we had hit ground zero, but survived. Then we thought, "okay, how are we going to rebuild?"'

Mr Kindness and his team began reexamining the market and realised there was now a storage demand for the cars the company had formerly provided with parking, and the same went for caravans and boats.

They immediately began reaching out to suppliers and updating the website to reflect their new service.

A lot of people were contacting us to rent their spaces,' he said.

Customers are definitely loving comparing their storage and having the peace of mind that they are getting a great deal.

'Storage is just as good as parking.'

The company now has 8000 storage spaces across Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney, which consist of storage company units as well as privately owned lots.

Those who wish to rent out a car or boat space, or a vacant block of land to host a caravan, can contact the website to advertise their area for free.

Once it is booked, they can earn cash, with rates depending on the location and security features.

A percentage of the booking cost goes to Parking Deals Australia.

Mr Kindness said some of their customers were making up $4000 to $8000 a year off their parking space, while storage owners are earning around $100 to $150 per month.

In the 12 months leading to the March lockdown, airport and cruise parking companies were receiving on average $150,000 to $250,000 a month worth of revenue from the site.

Parking Deals Australia moved into their Brisbane city headquarters (pictured) in April last year

Mr Kindness (pictured with friends last November) quickly pivoted his company to compare storage spaces deals for cars, boats and caravans

The teenager said pivoting was crucial to saving the company and offered seven tips for businesses owners who find themselves in the same position.

The first step is to acknowledge the business is under threat.

If you dont change you will die,' he said.

'People will always go into denial, and tell themselves "its not that bad".

'Soon enough they will realise just how bad it could be. There is no point sitting around waiting for that to happen.'

Next, determine what sets your business apart.

'Know the niche of the business you already have and the needs of your current clients,' he said.

Our niche is about saving people time and money, so we used our same niche but converted it to something outside of parking.

'If there is no demand for a business no cash will be coming and you're a sitting duck. Now's your time to really think about how you can use your current business in new ways. What can you innovate? What new product/service can you create?

Kindness (pictured with friends at a hotel in June) saved the company with his radical move, as people with storage spaces and blocks of land have come forward to rent their assets for additional incomes

Mr Kindness pictured in March last year, right as his company began to rapidly climb to its peak

'It doesn't have to be expensive to explore a new pivot. Start with your minimum viable product and see if you get traction.'

Once you have a plan, it is time to get your team in the right mindset.

'This is the time to get your house in order. Make sure your team is healthy/safe and all on the same page with what the company is going through and potential threats for the future and what the strategy is to deal with them,' he said.

'When you team are all in the same mindset, everyone knows what steps are being taken to achieve the new goal.'

RYLAN KINDNESS' SEVEN TIPS FOR PIVOTING A BUSINESS 1. Acknowledge the business is at threat 2. Determine the niche of your business 3. Get your team in the right mindset 4. Forget your pride 5. Take Action 6. Listen to customers 7. Act accordingly Advertisement

As you begin the next process, there may be times when it is difficult to make ends meet.

Mr Kindness said it is important to reach out to suppliers before the situation reaches breaking point.

'Forget your pride, and acknowledge that you might actually need help,' he said.

'Reach out to your network, talk to people or look for resources.

If there is a provider you have expenses to pay, negotiate before you dont have the money to pay for it.

'Try to negotiate your expenses down, that will give you breathing room with the pivot.'

The next step is to action your plan, which may involve changing or improving a product or cutting out under-performing parts of your business.

Once it is in action, listen to your customers to get insight into how your new service is tracking.

Lastly, act on the input of your customers to better your business.

A lot of founders and CEOS are not on the forefront of customer service experience,' Mr Kindness said.

'When customers started dialling in when PNO cancelled, I took calls first hand so I could really understand them so I could direct the company the right way.'

Mr Kindness, who was inspired to form his business by his parents' continuous frustrations over expensive parking, said the current economic climate should be viewed as an opportunity.

'The pandemic has changed the mindsets of people,' he said.

'A lot of businesses are vulnerable and are now more open to innovations.

'For businesses, COVID-19 is like a bushfire.

'It rips through then makes room for re-growth.

'Thats what happened to Parking Deals Australia; it paved a new a way for us.

'In hindsight, it was a really positive experience.
Belarusian President Lukashenko delivers his annual address to the Belarusian people and the National Assembly in Minsk

By Andrei Makhovsky

MINSK (Reuters) - Thousands of opposition supporters clapped, cheered and chanted at a rally in Minsk on Thursday evening, defying a crackdown by Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko's government ahead of a presidential election this weekend.

Lukashenko, a 65-year-old former Soviet collective farm manager, is facing the biggest challenge in years to his rule and accuses protesters of being in cahoots with foreign backers to destabilise the country.

Protests have swelled in support of his main challenger Svetlana Tikhanouskaya, a former English teacher who launched her bid after her husband, who planned to run, was jailed.

Her campaign was forbidden from staging a planned rally on Thursday evening, so her supporters gathered at a government-sanctioned outdoor concert at a separate venue.

Riot police arrested DJs after they played a song called "Changes" favoured by the opposition.

"This is an amazing atmosphere, amazing people, I want to be with them. And I want changes," said Irina, a 47-year-old teacher who gave only her first name.

Lukashenko earlier announced that a number of U.S. nationals had been detained but did not say when or why.

Belarus has sought to mend fences with Washington as ties fray with traditional ally Moscow, and in February hosted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the most senior U.S. official to visit in more than two decades.

"Some people were detained with American passports, married to Americans, working in the State Department," the Belta news agency quoted Lukashenko as saying.

The U.S. embassy in the capital Minsk did not reply to a request for comment.

Belarus and Russia also traded barbs again over a group of suspected Russian mercenaries who were detained in Belarus in July and accused of plotting to foment unrest.

Russia has said the men were employees of a private security firm and were passing through Belarus on their way to Latin America. Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman said the men should be returned to Russia.

Story continues

Lukashenko said they had broken the law.

"A hybrid war is going on against Belarus and we should expect dirty tricks from any side," he said.

(Additional reporting by Tom Balmforth in Moscow; writing by Matthias Williams; editing by Timothy Heritage and Jonathan Oatis)
Domestic equity benchmark Sensex jumped over 150 points in opening session on Thursday ahead of the Reserve Bank of Indias monetary policy outcome.

The BSE Sensex was trading 183 points or 0.49 per cent higher at 37,846.33; while the NSE Nifty was up 52.70 points or 0.47 per cent at 11,154.35.

ONGC was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising over 3 per cent, followed by Tech Mahindra, TCS, HCL Tech, NTPC, Infosys and HDFC duo.

On the other hand, Maruti, Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel, M&M and Reliance Industries were among the laggards.

In the previous session, the 30-share Sensex ended 24.58 points or 0.07 per cent lower at 37,663.33, while the Nifty inched up 6.40 points or 0.06 per cent to close at 11,101.65.

Exchange data showed that foreign institutional investors sold equities worth Rs 60.18 crore on a net basis on Wednesday.

According to traders, investors are positive ahead of the Reserve Bank of Indias monetary policy outcome, scheduled for later in the day.

Participants are keeping a close eye on the RBI policy outcome and that would set the tone for the rest of the day as well, said Ajit Mishra, VP - Research, Religare Broking.

While the expectations are mixed on key rates, we feel commentary on the moratorium and future outlook would hold importance, he added.

Bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo were in red, while Seoul was trading on a positive note.

Stock exchanges on Wall Street ended on a positive note in overnight session.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.20 per cent higher at $45.26 per barrel.
Vo Thanh Dong and Nguyen Thi Hien started helping with COVID-19 prevention and control work at the Hoa Tien Commune Medical Station in Da Nang's Hoa Vang District on Sunday.

Student Vo Thanh Dong checks peoples temperature.  Photo tuoitre.vn

The third-year students are among 340 students from the Da Nang University of Medical Technology and Pharmacy who volunteered to work at medical stations in the central city to support COVID-19 prevention and control work.

Enthusiastic support

As the gateway of Hoa Vang District with Dien Ban Town in neighbouring Quang Nam Province, Hoa Tien Commune has a large amount of traffic. To implement social distancing, a medical team was assigned there. Whenever a car arrived, Dong and Hien come to measure their body temperature.

If the people have high body temperature, Dong and Hien asked if they had been to Da Nang Hospital in July or if they had been to a place a COVID-19 patient had been.

Then they take notes and report to the local health station.

At Hoa Nhon Commune Medical Station, four other students of the university are supporting eight medical workers. In recent days, the medical workers have been extremely busy as the locality has reported several new cases of COVID-19.

Hoa Nhon Primary School No 1 set up a quarantine centre for more than 100 people who had close contact with COVID-19 patients, meaning medical workers must be on duty there.

Nguyen Thi Diem, head of the Hoa Nhon Commune Medical Station, told Tuoi tre (Youth) newspaper that during her 30 years of working in the health sector, she has never been as tired as now.

Thanks to the students help, I have several minutes per day to relax, she said.

Workers of a supervision station have quick lunch on the Bo Bo Hill, which is the gateway of Hoa Vang District with Dien Ban Town in the neighbouring Quang Nam central province.  Photo tuoitre.vn

Fire yourself

Facing the complex outbreak, the Ministry of Health's working groups have set up plans for worst-case scenarios in Da Nang.

To have local forces and support against the pandemic in Da Nang and the central region, the group of associate professor Tran Nhu Duong, deputy director of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, organised a training course for lecturers in Da Nang. These people will be the core to train supportive forces throughout the city.

Reviewing anti-pandemic documents while waiting for assignments, third-year student Le Thi Thao said before she joined the campaign, she called home to inform her parents in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai.

Initially, her parents were against her heading towards the centre of the outbreak.

"But I'm determined to do something meaningful. As a medical student, with my knowledge, this is the time the society needs me the most," she said.

At the end of July, these students were in the middle of an exam. Instead of reading books and revising, the students joined the citys anti-pandemic struggle.

Third-year pharmacy student Pham Minh Tam was one of the first to sign up following a call from the university.

With the experience of participating in the anti-pandemic campaign during social distancing in April, upon hearing the news that all three major hospitals in Da Nang were lockdown, Tam decided to help out.

Tam was assigned to Hoa Vang District Medical Centre. Carrying his luggage with two sets of clothes and some personal protective equipment provided by the school, Tam said that he would stay until the city had controlled the pandemic.

He said he wasn't worried because he believed in the protective equipment and the medical knowledge he had learned.

"I think it is a good opportunity for me to learn and enrich my medical knowledge, he said.

Le Thi Thuy, deputy principal of the Da Nang University of Medical Technology and Pharmacy, told Tuoi tre that the university management board was very surprised because, after only one day of informing students about the campaign, more than 400 volunteered to join.

Seeing them burning with enthusiasm, we seem to relive our youth, she said.

Besides 350 students, the university assigned 10 workers of the testing faculty to support the municipal Centre for Diseases Control.

If the Ministry of Health needed, the university was ready to assign more, she said.

In addition, the university's teaching staff, trained by the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, can also participate in retraining medical students in the city when required.

An official of the Da Nang Department of Health said more student volunteers would be assigned to support quarantine centres.

Medical and pharmaceutical students will work at the centre for diseases control and seven district health centres in the area to support epidemiological surveillance and update data. VNS

Vietnam confirms ninth COVID-19-related death A 67-year-old woman who tested positive for COVID-19 linked with the outbreak in the central city of Da Nang has been confirmed dead, marking the ninth COVID-19-related fatality in Vietnam so far.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - The Supreme Court of Virginia has denied the appeals of two men convicted in the brutal beating of a Black man in a Charlottesville parking garage the day of a violent white supremacist rally.

The court denied Jacob Scott Goodwins petition for appeal Wednesday and denied Alex Michael Ramos petition for appeal in early May, according to Virginia Attorney General Mark Herrings office. Both were convicted of malicious wounding for their roles in the 2017 beating of DeAndre Harris, which was captured in photos and videos widely shared online.

Goodwin was sentenced in 2018 to serve eight years in prison and Ramos was sentenced to serve six for their roles in the attack by a group of men. Harris was punched and hit with weapons and left with a spinal injury, a broken arm and head lacerations that required eight staples.

Prosecutors said Ramos hit Harris in the back of the head and bragged about the attack on Facebook.

Hundreds of white supremacists gathered in Charlottesville in August 2017 in part to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. They clashed with counterprotesters during a day of violence in which a white supremacist rammed his car through the crowd of people, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer.

The violence, mayhem, injury, and death caused at the hands of the racists and white supremacists who descended on Charlottesville for the Unite the Right rally can never be forgotten, but we can make sure that the individuals who broke the law or incited violence are brought to justice, Herring said in a statement.

Two other men were also charged and sentenced to prison for the attack on Harris.
By Trend

By providing financial assistance to Lebanon, Azerbaijan, represented by President Ilham Aliyev, has demonstrated Islamic solidarity, which is so necessary at the present time, Lebanese MP Imad al-Hout told Trend.

The MP said that the assistance provided by the Azerbaijani government to the people of Lebanon is very important and well-timed.

We shall express our gratitude to President Ilham Aliyev, the government of Azerbaijan, and fraternal Azerbaijani people for the provided financial support, he added.

Al-Hout also noted that the financial support by Azerbaijan to Lebanon will become a great impetus for strengthening relations between the two countries, which primarily is beneficial to Beirut.

On August 4, a massive explosion occurred in the port of Beirut, as a result of which hundreds were killed and more than 4,000 Lebanese were injured.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev sent a letter of condolences to Lebanese President Michel Aoun on August 5 and expressed the solidarity of the Azerbaijani people with the people of Lebanon.

On the same day, Azerbaijani Prime Minister Ali Asadov signed an order on providing financial assistance to Lebanon.

According to the order, taking into account Lebanon's need for humanitarian assistance to eliminate the consequences of the tragedy and in order to provide this country with financial assistance, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs is allocated $1 million dollars from the reserve fund envisaged in the state budget of Azerbaijan for 2020.

The Azerbaijani Ministry of Finance is instructed to ensure payment of the allocated funds in the prescribed manner. The order came into force from the date of signing.
Numerous events have made headlines in the last couple of years on this day. From Anushka Sharma wishing her husband on Friendship Day to Priyanka Chopra Jonas shopping with Sophie Turner, here is a compilation of some of the events which happened in the past on this day. Read on:

Anushka Sharma shares a Friendship Day post

Bollywood actor Anushka Sharma wished her husband on the occasion of Friendship Day two years ago. She took to social media and shared an adorable selfie through her official Instagram handle. It features the duo in casual outfits while smiling for the camera. They have also sported classic sunglasses for a complete look. In the caption accompanying her Instagram post, Anushka Sharma wished him with a simple message on this occasion. The actor wrote, Happy Friendship day. She added two emoticons like a boy and a girl holding hands, and a red heart. Check out the social media post by Anushka Sharma:

Source: Anushka Sharma's Instagram

The first schedule of Salman Khan's Bharat concludes

The makers of Salman Khans Bharat wrapped up the first schedule of the movie in Mumbai after filming two dramatic sequences. Filmmaker Ali Abbas Zafar took to his official Twitter handle and announced the news. He also thanked the cast and crew for their efforts. The movie features Salman Khan alongside Katrina Kaif, Disha Patani, and Sunil Grover in pivotal roles. The director of Salman Khans Bharat wrote, The first schedule of @Bharat_TheFilm completed in Mumbai, two dramatic action sequences done... thanks you cast & the crew... Here we come Malta... get ready for Desi rock n Rolla... Check out his tweet:

First schedule of @Bharat_TheFilm completed in Mumbai, two dramatic action sequences done .... thanks you cast & crew ... Here we come Malta ..  get ready for Desi rock n rolla...  ali abbas zafar (@aliabbaszafar) August 6, 2018

Kirti Kulhari joins the cast of The Girl on the Train remake

Bollywood actor Kirti Kulhari joined the cast of The Girl on the Train remake. She bagged the role of a cop in the mystery thriller drama flick. During that time, the star flew to London to begin the shooting of the movie. In an interview with Mumbai Mirror, Kirti Kulhari revealed about her character of Aalia Shergill and called it 'interesting with a unique look'. The actor explained how she watched a documentary to understand the working style of an investigative officer in the United Kingdom.

Also read: Priyanka Chopra Jonas Wishes Ranveer Singh On His 35th Birthday; See Post Here

Also read: Salman Khan Looks Better With Sonakshi Sinha Or Priyanka Chopra Jonas On-screen?

Sophie Turner and Priyanka Chopra Jonas's vacation snaps

The photographs of Sophie Turner and Priyanka Chopra Jonas from Miami vacation took the internet by storm. They feature celebrities having a gala time while shopping for cosmetics. Sophie Turner has donned a pair of biker shorts and teamed it up with a check-patterned button-down shirt. On the other hand, Priyanka Chopra Jonas dressed up in a two-piece attire. The blue-white outfit features an off-shoulder style. Check out their photos:

Source: Jsistersnews's Instagram

Source: Jsistersnews's Instagram

Also read: Ajay Devgn Lends Voice To 'Lalbazaar', Actor Ronjini Chakraborty Calls It 'icing On Cake'

Also read: Kajol And Ajay Devgn's 'Jee Le' From 'U Me Aur Hum': Making Of The Song
As used in website development contracts, indemnification typically concerns whether the vendor will defend you in court if you later get sued for your use of the technology, including Intellectual Property (IP), or services provided by the website development vendor.

In some instances, a well-drafted indemnity clause can protect you in litigation ensuing from your violation of a website development contract which results in third-party claims against you and/or your vendor. Whether it is your vendor or a third party that initiates the lawsuit, you will want to know where the proverbial buck stops when the legal bills start to roll in  and who will pay those legal bills.

One way to address the risks of potential litigation for unknown risks is to agree in the website development contract before it is signed who will be responsible for paying those legal costs  should they arise. In broad legal terms, this is what is commonly referred to as an indemnification clause.

Indemnification simply refers to a contractual bargain where one party promises to defend the other party in the event of a lawsuit  likely tied to certain unknown or perhaps even known risks.

Prepare in Advance

Not all indemnity provisions are created equally, though, as they can be quite narrow and issue-specific, or far-reaching. The practical implications of the range of indemnification coverage necessitates a well-informed understanding of the obligations and risks laid out in your specific website development contract.

At a minimum, you should review the indemnification terms in your website development contract so that should you be served with a lawsuit, you know what degree, if any, of legal responsibility the website development vendor may have. Knowing where to turn when an unexpected lawsuit pops up is certainly comforting.

Here is an example of an Indemnification/Non Infringement provision from a sample website development contract provided by Columbia University:In performing services under this Agreement, DEVELOPER agrees not to design, develop, or provide to COMPANY any items that infringe one or more patents, copyrights, trademarks, or other intellectual property rights (including trade secrets), privacy or other rights of any person or entity. If DEVELOPER becomes aware of any such possible infringement in the course of performing any work hereunder, DEVELOPER shall immediately so notify COMPANY in writing. DEVELOPER agrees to indemnify, defend, and hold COMPANY, its officers, directors, members, employees, representatives, agents, and the like harmless for any such alleged or actual infringement and for any liability, debt, or other obligation arising out of or as a result of or relating to (a) the Agreement, (b) the performance of the Agreement, or (c) the Deliverables. This indemnification shall include attorneys fees and expenses, unless DEVELOPER defends against the allegations using counsel reasonably acceptable to COMPANY. DEVELOPERs total liability under this Agreement shall not exceed twice the amount of revenue derived by DEVELOPER under this Agreement.

It is safe to assume that every website development contract has an indemnity clause.

What to Do if Sued for Improper Use of IP

Assuming these indemnity provisions exist in your website development contract and you get sued by a third party for improper use of their IP, what then do you do?

The first thing to do is immediately provide your website development vendor a written copy of the lawsuit along with a letter specifically requesting that the vendor defend you in the lawsuit. Your letter should include specific references to the contracts applicable indemnification language. Then, at least one of two things could happen:

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

First, the website developer vendor as the indemnitor agrees to defend you as the indemnitee in the lawsuit, but you must assist if, and when the development vendor asks for any specific information about your use of the IP in dispute. In addition, you may need to assist in the litigation process by providing documents or providing witnesses for depositions. Ultimately, if the lawsuit does not settle then you may have to provide witnesses at trial. However, the development vendor will pay all the legal fees and expenses unless there is a dispute between you and the development vendor.

Or

Second, the website development vendor refuses to indemnify you and you must defend you company in the IP litigation. Of course this can be expensive to prepare for trial, and whether you ever get to trial or not you have the right to expand the lawsuit and bring the website development vendor into your lawsuit as whats referred to as a third party defendant. Therefore, if you lose the lawsuit you can assert a claim in the court action against the website development vendor.

Alternatively, you could defend yourself in the lawsuit, all the way through trial, without any involvement by the website development vendor. In that instance, if you settled the case before trial or tried the case to a judgment, you could then bring a separate lawsuit against the website development vendor to recover your attorneys fees and expenses.

What if the website development vendor is sued for your alleged IP violation?

It is possible that a third-party vendor could sue your website development vendor for some IP infringement. It is also possible in that scenario that the website development vendor claims no responsibility for and asks you to defend their interests in that litigation, that is you indemnify the website development vendor in the litigation.

Whether this is a possible scenario depends on the language and breadth of your website development contracts indemnification clause. Whether or not you would agree to that type of an indemnification would, of course, be dictated by the specifics of your unique set of facts and circumstances.

Let us assume your website development contract has a broadly worded indemnity clause. What happens then if you refuse to indemnify the website development vendor on the basis that you did nothing wrong and you did not infringe the third-party IP?

Well, the website development vendor could defend itself in litigation and then  once the case is settled or ends in a final judgment  bring a separate suit against you for breach of the contractual indemnification. Alternatively, the website development vendor could foist you into the first lawsuit by bringing you in as a necessary third-party defendant.

Conclusions

Every website development contract addresses the issue of indemnification, so hopefully you have a better idea about what indemnification means and how it could affect your legal rights and obligations in the future. If you have questions about the scope or interpretation of your contracts indemnification provision(s), its a good idea to engage a lawyer who has experience in drafting and negotiating website development contracts and statements of work, including indemnification provisions.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

This website development series should help you learn more about legal issues to consider and what to negotiate. So please stay tuned for the future installments in our series, which will include topics such as, lawsuits and arbitrations, and related topics.

Read Part 5: Mediating Disputes
This blog covers software patent news and issues with a particular focus on wireless, mobile devices (smartphones, tablet computers, connected cars) as well as select antitrust matters surrounding those devices.
San Antonio officials held a virtual town hall Wednesday at 7 p.m. to provide some much-needed clarity about the reopening of schools. Questions were submitted by email to COVID-19@sanantonio.gov or by phone on the COVID-19 hotline, 210-207-5779.

8:35 p.m. | The city of San Antonio is creating zones based on health data that decide when and how students go back to school: red being the worst, yellow and green.

Through the citys poll questions, many viewers commented that they want to see virtual learning continued through the yellow, or medium-risk zone. Asked about concerns about virtual learning, participants said they were most concerned about issues such as equity, accountability and engagement.

Natalie Clifford, an educator and the high school director of the Harlandale Education Association, called on elected officials to allocate more resources for virtual learning and financial support for families to ensure they can continue preventing the spread of the virus by staying home if they choose. She said Black, Latino and Indigenous communities have been disproportionately hurt by COVID-19, a disparity that school and elected officials must work to ensure doesnt widen further with the start of school.

Bringing students back to school in the midst of a pandemic will bring its own set of complications, she said. Although students may try their best to wear masks and physically distance, theyre young people who sometimes make mistakes.

We know realistically as educators, a lot of these things are going to be difficult to enforce, Clifford said.

8:06 | Getting sick. Death. Dying. Illness. COVID. Everything. Those were among the concerns submitted by more than 3,000 people participating in the citys town hall when asked about their concerns for schools moving back to in-person learning.

School administrators say they must balance the risks to students' academic learning and the safety of the community as a whole.

But some panelists are arguing that going back to in-person classes will pose too great a risk to San Antonio. Right now, San Antonio's percentage of COVID-19 test results that come back positive hovers around 15 percent -- but the goal is 5 percent, according to Metro Health.

I want to go back myself, but it just isn't at this time rational, said Alejo Pena Soto, a Jefferson High School student who serves on the panel. It just isn't something we can consider until our metrics are so much lower.

7:30 | Dr. Junda Woo, medical director at the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District, said each school district or system will be asked in the future to create a seven-person panel to guide districts on their response to COVID-19. Each panel will need to include the following in its members: a teacher; student; parent; non-instructional staffer, such as a custodian; a school nurse, pediatrician or adolescent health care provider; and a human resources representative.

The seventh member may be someone else who'd be affected by the districts decisions, such as an advocate from the disability or immigrant community, Woo said. The seventh member cant be the superintendent or someone else who already has power in shaping the decisions, she said.

I want to empower people from those groups to speak up, Woo said.

7:09 p.m. | More than 800 people are tuning into the citys Facebook Live town hall focused on reopening schools amid the coronavirus pandemic. The city is asking participants to vote on topics during the discussion through a third-party website. To vote, viewers can visit Menti.com and enter the code: 2300.

7 p.m. | Live town hall starts, led by Dr. Junda Woo, medical director of the Metropolitan Health District.
Radhika Apte's character in Raat Akeli Hai assumes that the sexual abuse she is subjected to is a one-off affair, only to discover that all the other women in the family, too, have suffered similar fates.

When the trailer of popular casting director Honey Trehan's directorial debut Raat Akeli Hai released, it drew instant comparisons to Rian Johnson's whodunit from last year, Knives Out. But these comparisons were dismissed by the film's makers, who argued that the structure and mood of two whodunits can be similar.

But the parallel goes beyond just the whodunit template, extending to underlying sociopolitical commentary as well. Both Knives Out and Raat Akeli Hai feature the bond between a rich patriarch and a much younger woman, who is considered an outcast by the rest of the family. While Knives Out used this premise to comment on Americans' prejudice against immigrants (Ana de Armas' character is an immigrant in the US), Raat Akeli Hai chooses the patriarchy and the feudal mindset as its targets, and the viewer's bias as its weapon of choice.

Writer Smita Singh's narrative always sides with its women, even though they are constantly suspected of murder and foul play by the authorities and other men in the film. The narrative is not interested in counting her as a suspect because a presumption of that sort is far too convenient. The only element that works against Radha's (Radhika Apte) 'innocence' is her identity as the mistress of a man who has been murdered. Her lineage can be traced to Chambal dacoits, and she was sold by her father to Raghubeer Singh, the Kanpur-based MLA she was married to the night he was murdered.

The title of the film is telling, for it not only establishes the intrigue of a whodunit, but also serves as a comment on sexual abuse within the home and how dealing with it can be an excruciatingly lonely journey.

Though Radha is given the most screen time in the film, towards the end, all the other women in the household too gain significant roles. Radha, who assumes that the sexual abuse she is subjected to is a one-off affair and that she has been wronged singularly because of her background, discovers that all the other women have been spending the night crying in their respective corners of the ancestral haveli.

In the end, all the female characters come to terms with this common reality of womanhood, probably gaining a sense of coming together in their suffering. Here is a look at the story of each woman in Raat Akeli Hai  divided by their position in the family, yet tied together by the misery they suffer. Some spoilers follow.

Radhika Apte as Radha

Radha is introduced in Raat Akeli Hai decked up in a shadi ka joda, sitting quietly on the bed in her room situated in one corner of the haveli. Her appearance is not very dissimilar to the sprawling yet murky haveli, located in an isolated corner of Kanpur, which has been lit up on the day of the wedding  and the day of the murder.

Inspector Jatil Yadav (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), who is smitten by the 'decently-clad' Radha right at the onset, cannot help but flirt with the suspicion that Radha must have plotted the killing of her husband with her lover. He assumes she is yet another femme fatale, a co-conspirator in her rich husband's premeditated murder. This perception, rather being dangerously presumptuous, is interesting, given director Honey Trehan's background.

Trehan has been as assistant director in several of Vishal Bhardwaj's films, who first introduced Tabu as a modern-day Indian version of Lady Macbeth in his 2003 crime drama Maqbool. She joins forces with her much older husband's (Pankaj Kapur) Man Friday Maqbool (Irrfan Khan), to assassinate him. Her character tread a similar path in Bhardwaj's 2014 Hamlet adaptation Haider, and followed it up with yet another husband-killing act in Sriram Raghavan's 2018 black comedy, Andhadhun.

But Apte here, unlike Tabu, is not interested in posing as a seductress who could double-cross her husband. She is too resigned to her fate as a woman born into a lower caste, but also asserts her innocence when family members point fingers at her. She does not give in to their perception of her completely, and refuses to dance to the tune of 'Raat Akeli Hai,' the popular seduction song from Vijay Anand's 1967 spy thriller Jewel Thief, that inspired the title of the film.

Shivani Raghuvanshi as Vasudha

Raghuvanshi plays the paternal niece of the murdered MLA. She is often seen lurking inside the haveli with her mother, their prying eyes set on the investigative proceedings. Otherwise, like most other women in the film, she remains absent throughout the story. Only the last half-an-hour explains why her presence is indispensable.

It is revealed towards the end that Vasudha, a victim of serial sexual assault by her uncle, was expelled from her school because she became pregnant. When investigated by Yadav, Vasudha casually claims she was not really close to her murdered uncle because she was never at home. But the fact is that their pasts are inextricable. She suffers alone for years, as even her mother refuses to support her in order to secure the future of her brother.

When Radha discovers that like her, Vasudha was also a victim of ceaseless sexual assault, she asks her to never forgive her mother for staying mum. At one point during the investigation, Radha tells Yadav that she does not know anyone more tortured and desperate than herself, only to eventually discover how wrong she was. She realises that the patriarchy and sexual exploitation of women is not confined to one caste, class or social background, but rather is pervasive and can plague even an MLA's educated, urban, upper-caste family.

Padmavati Rao as Pramila chachi

Rao plays Vasudha's mother, and Singh's sister-in-law. When Yadav interrogates her, she says the motive behind murder is not always hatred, but often jealousy. While that may give viewers the impression that she was jealous of Singh's wealth and political standing, her role in the murder turns out to be quite different.

She is revealed to not only be involved in murdering Singh's former wife, her bhabhi (sister-in-law married to an older brother) out of jealousy, but also in curbing his sexual crimes against her daughter. When her crime is caught, she argues that she did so in order to maintain a 'clean reputation' for their family, and to ensure the wedding of her son Vikram to a politician's daughter happens smoothly. To this, Radha responds, "But what about my future? What about your daughter's future?"

After Vikram asks his mother to go away, she locks herself in a room and contemplates suicide. She is about to shoot herself in the head when she hears a knock on the door. "Who is it? Vikram?" she asks with a sign of hope in her quivering voice. "It's me," her daughter responds. Disappointed that she is abandoned by her son, she shoots herself. Even unconditional love from her daughter could not save her from deep-rooted patriarchy.

Shweta Tripathi as Karuna

Karuna is Singh's daughter, who is pregnant at the time of his murder. Her husband, like most other men in the film, is convinced that Radha is the culprit. Karuna, however, has not ruled out any family member, and tells Yadav that she has often seen Pramila chachi keep an eye on the proceedings.

Throughout the film, as a result of her pregnancy, Karuna looks exhausted all the time. But it feels like a lot of the exhaustion also stems from living in a family as toxic as hers. When she finds out towards the end that her father was assaulting her cousin, and that her aunt brushed this under the carpet, she cannot help but let out a helpless, frustrated scream.

As a woman who is about to bring a child into a world that she is exhausted of, Karuna seems to fervently hope that she can raise her/him in a better world, irrespective of gender.

Chunni and her dadi

Chunni is the young girl who works as a house help at the haveli. She tells Yadav during the investigation that her dadi (paternal grandmother), who lives with her, could not get over her father's demise. Her father was a driver in Singh's household, who went missing five years ago. When Chunni tried to file an FIR, the case was rejected, as the police was loyal to Singh. Chunni's grandmother was a loyalist too. She had been working at the haveli for generations, and yet, her son never got a fair judgment, or even a missing person's report.

When Yadav suspects Chunni is an eyewitness to Singh's murder, he probes her on the details. But she is scared that she will be killed like her father. Her name is quite interesting with respect to her role in the case. She, like a chunni, is used as a cover-up to protect the 'ghar ki izzat' that the family often mentions to mask their guilt.

When her grandmother is questioned by the police about Chunni's suspected murderer, she recognises the man shown to her in the pictures, but never acknowledges this to the police. She seems to have lost faith in the system and decides to avenge the death herself. Later, we see her hunt the man down and burn him alive, in order to exact revenge for her granddaughter's death, in what seems to be straight out of Devashish Makhija's 2017 thriller Ajji.

Ila Arun as Yadav's mother

It is interesting to watch Arun's character as she remains completely removed from the events unfolding at the haveli. Her single-minded agenda is to get her son married. She seems to be on the lookout for a prospective daughter-in-law, but Yadav rebukes her for even considering skimpily-dressed women. She explains to him, "Shaadi usse karo jiske sath zindagi kaatne mei mazza aaye" (marry the one with whom you are likely to enjoy your life).

Despite her liberal approach towards choosing a partner, Arun claims she is compelled to demand dowry, as otherwise, the bride's family assumes there is some khot (hitch) in the groom. Yadav is also not immune to this bias, even though he objects to his mother's demand for dowry. Every morning, before he steps out of the house, he takes out a tube of fairness cream stashed behind the mirror, to make sure he looks 'fair and handsome' even during the investigation of a murder case. The character undergoes a journey in the film before he eventually dumps the tube, and decides to reclaim his lost confidence.

Arun's banter with Yadav shows how it is not particularly a decent world for men either. But even though Siddiqui is the protagonist here, the latent idea behind Smita Singh's script is to express the deep ache for the women of her story. It is a rare whodunit where the 'murderer' is actually a victim in every sense. Sure, every criminal paints themselves as a victim of their circumstances. But in this case, with the absence of any support from even the women around her, Vasudha had no option but to fight a lonely battle that night, like she did every other night.

All images from Netflix.
CNBC.com's MacKenzie Sigalos brings you the day's top business news headlines. On today's show, the After Hours team dives into Nintendo's eye-popping profits, and explores the effect of the pandemic on the future of gaming. Plus, CNBC's Robert Frank explains Senator Bernie Sanders' latest wealth tax proposal on billionaires.



Nintendo just reported a wild 428% surge in profits thanks to the lockdown gaming boom

Nintendo's operating profits skyrocketed 428% in the fiscal first quarter, the company said Thursday, a wild jump that reflects just how much the video game industry has benefited from the coronavirus pandemic. The Japanese gaming giant reported operating profit of 144.7 billion yen ($1.4 billion) in the April-June quarter, smashing analyst expectations and representing a massive climb from the 27.4 billion yen it posted in the year-ago quarter.

Sen. Sanders proposes one-time tax that would cost Bezos $42.8 billion, Musk $27.5 billion

Top tech leaders and other billionaires would be forced to hand over billions of dollars in wealth they've gained during the coronavirus pandemic under a new bill introduced by Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Ed Markey D-Mass., and Kirsten Gillibrand D-N.Y. The "Make Billionaires Pay Act" would impose a one-time 60% tax on wealth gains made by billionaires between March 18, 2020 and Jan. 1, 2021. The funds would be used to pay for out-of-pocket healthcare expenses for all Americans for a year. As of Aug. 5, the bill would tax $731 billion in wealth accumulated by 467 billionaires since March 18, according to a press release. If passed, the bill would tax billionaires on wealth accumulated through Jan. 1, however.

Uber revenue drops 29% but delivery bookings double
Television actor Sameer Sharma was a happy person who did not take any stress, say his friend and co-stars. Sameer was found dead in his Mumbai home on Wednesday. He is suspected to have died by suicide.

Sameers Yeh Rishtey Hain Pyaar Ke co-star Sanjeev Seth remembered the actor as a cordial and gentle person. I met him on the sets of our show and we would all get along well. One could never have guessed that he would take such an extreme step- at least from his behaviour. He was professional and well behaved. We knew that he was divorced and lived alone in the city. We werent in touch in the last few months due to lockdown. This news is shocking for me and everyone in the unit.

Actor Avinash Sachdev said they even discussed Sushant Singh Rajputs suicide. We knew each other since 2013 when we did Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon? Ek Baar Phir for two years. Later, we worked in Ayushman Bhava in 2017. We were friends and kept in touch all through the lockdown. He was as frustrated about staying at home as everyone else. I dont think he was under any financial stress, had depression, work related or personal issues. He was a happy-go-lucky person, never took any stress and enjoyed life.

He went on to say, I dont know why this happened. In fact, we spoke on July 22 and we even spoke about Sushant Singh Rajputs death and he said, Suicide can never be an option. We were supposed to go live on Instagram and talk to people about staying positive. He was writing poems and web series and composing music and had done so much work since 2004. In fact, he took a break from acting and yet returned with good roles on TV. I dont know if he was depressed or not as we never had any such conversation and neither did I ever feel that he was feeling low or had mood swings, he said.

Sameer, who worked in serials such as Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki and Yeh Rishtey Hain Pyar Ke, was found dead in his flat in Neha building in Chincholi Bunder locality in Malad (West) on Wednesday night, a police official said.

Also read: Sooraj Pancholi slams reports connecting him to Disha Salian, Sushant Singh Rajputs deaths: Never met, spoke to Disha

No suicide note was found at the spot and it is suspected he hanged himself two days back, Malad police stations senior inspector George Fernandes said. The actor were living alone in the rented flat since February, he said, adding the police were trying to get in touch with his family members.

We have not found any suicide note at the spot. It seems to be suicide case. It is suspected that he hanged himself two days back. We have sent the body for an autopsy, Fernandes said. Based on primary information, an Accidental Death Report (ADR) has been registered, he said, adding that further investigation is underway.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
A reporter with Daily Graphic in Koforidua the Eastern Regional Capital Damalie Emmanuel Pacome has been attacked by students of Bright Senior High School in Akyem Kukurantumi.

The students holding Knives, cutlasses sticks, stones chased the Journalist who was in the school to verify report of an attack on invigilators by the students candidates of Bryt SHS.

They accosted and seized his mobile phone in the school. Sensing danger, the Journalist took to his heel for safety but was pursued for about 15 minutes by the mob of students from the school towards Kukurantumi township.

Some of the students jumped on a motorbike to cross the Journalist on the way and hit him several times with sticks, seized his bag, and attempted to lynch him but a Commercial driver rescued him into his vehicle while the rampaging students continued hitting with the stick.

The Journalist is badly injured with cuts on the face and part of the body.

The journalist has lodged an official report at the Kukurantumi Police station where he has been issued Police Medical forms for treatment at the Community Hospital at Akyem Kukurantumi.

Kasapa News Eastern Regional Correspondent Kojo Ansah reports that the students were heard saying we have paid Ghc6000 bribes each you Journalists want us to fail. We will beat you up.

---kasapafmonline
UN Women, the United Nations' entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women, on Wednesday held a virtual ministerial roundtable meeting on ensuring progress toward gender equality amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Chinese women affairs official Huang Xiaowei delivered a keynote speech at the meeting.

Huang, vice chairperson of the National Working Committee on Children and Women under the State Council and first member of the secretariat of the All-China Women's Federation, shared China's achievements and experience in coordinating epidemic control and economic and social development.

In the face of COVID-19, the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government have put the people and lives above everything else, and mobilized the whole country to fight the novel coronavirus, Huang said in the speech.

Huang introduced China's efforts in protecting the lives and health of women and children amid the epidemic and the roles Chinese women and women's federations have played in COVID-19 response and recovery.

Huang called for more global solidarity against the virus, as well as efforts to achieve gender equality and women's well-rounded development.

UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka called for more attention to women's contributions to COVID-19 response and recovery, as well as better global cooperation to build a more inclusive and equal world.

Representatives from 11 countries including China, Egypt and Uganda spoke at the roundtable, which was attended by nearly 90 people online.
Israa Seblanis long white veil trailed behind her. She gazed downward as the camera captured her smile and panned to her train, draped around her feet in a lacy circle. She was just hours away from her wedding ceremony.

Then came a deafening boom that knocked her to the ground and shattered the day in an instant.

As Dr. Seblani, 29, posed for her wedding video, an explosion tore through the city  leaving at least 145 dead, thousands injured and dozens more missing  devastating much of central Beirut and blowing windows from their frames for miles.

One thing came into my mind: Now you are going to die, Dr. Seblani said in an interview on Thursday.

The camera captured the instant that the massive blast rattled the Saifi neighborhood, less than a mile from the epicenter, and the panicked moments that followed as Dr. Seblani and the groom, Ahmad Sbeih, scrambled for safety.
Investors will keenly watch the monetary policy decision by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) which will be released today. According to Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofA), the central bank may opt for a 25 basis point cut in the repo rate. BofA says the RBI will not only cut rates now but will follow it up with another 75 bps cut in the rest of the financial year 2020-21 (FY21).

Besides, June quarter results, stock-specific action, Covid-19 trends, and global cues will continue to guide On the earnings front, over 65 companies are slated to declare their June quarter results today. The list includes names such as Adani Power, Adani Enterprises, GSPL, Vodafone Idea, JK Tyre, Lupin, and Lemon Tree Hotels.

On Wednesday, real estate major DLF reported a Rs 179.5 crore pre-tax loss for the quarter ended June 30. The firm had posted Rs 158.9 crore consolidated profit before tax during the same quarter last year. Its operating revenue plunged 59 per cent year-on-year to Rs 543.6 crore from Rs 1,331.2 crore.

Adani Gas reported a 49 per cent dip in profit before tax for the June quarter, at Rs 62.58 crore, against Rs 122.7 crore in the corresponding period last year.

And now, let's take a look at the market snapshot for today -

The Indian are likely to see a muted start as indicated by the SGX Nifty which was trading around 11,139.8 levels, up 12 points around 7:32 AM. In the overnight trade, US stocks' main indexes rose after Disney delivered a surprise quarterly profit, with sentiment aided by signs that a coronavirus fiscal relief package was imminent.

Asia futures were mixed on Wednesday and gold traded mixed, after US and European equities gained overnight on strong earnings results.

In commodities, oil prices were unchanged, struggling to hold onto five-month highs.
BARRY COUNTY, MI  Health officials say approximately 250 people who attended a Southwest Michigan overnight camp are at risk of coronavirus exposure after several people at the camp tested positive for the virus.

Five staff members and one camper who were at Camp Michawana near Hastings have tested positive for COVID-19, and one person is considered a probable case because of their symptoms, the Barry-Eaton District Health Department announced Thursday, Aug. 6.

Health officials warn that anyone who attended Camp Michawana, a faith-based youth camp, on or after July 24 may have been exposed to the virus. The camp property includes a childrens overnight camp, a family camp and a traditional-style campground  all three of which were open during the potential exposure period.

About 250 people attended or staffed the camp in the past two weeks and are at greatest risk of exposure, health officials said. Of that total, 180 were children under the age of 18 who attended the childrens overnight camp and 70 were either staff members or attendees of the family-style camp.

The Barry-Eaton District Health Department recommends that those at risk of exposure self-quarantine at home for 14 days past the last date of their stay at the camp. Individuals should monitor themselves closely for symptoms of COVID-19, and seek testing immediately if symptoms develop, health officials said.

After Michigan saw COVID-19 outbreaks at child-care centers and camps in recent weeks, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer mandated Thursday that face coverings must be worn in all Michigan child-care centers and camps.

COVID-19 is still a very real threat to Michiganders of all ages, and we must continue to stay vigilant and use every tool at our disposal to protect ourselves and each other, Whitmer said regarding the executive order.

Public health officials said this week they are now aware of more than 50 confirmed cases and 13 probable cases of COVID-19 tied to a Christian youth camp in Gladwin County.

Barry County has confirmed 144 positive COVID-19 cases and two deaths total, according to the health department. There have been 389 positive cases and 8 deaths confirmed in Eaton County.

Statewide, health officials have reported 85,429 positive cases and 6,237 deaths in Michigan as of Aug. 6.

COVID-19 PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus.

Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible.

Use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, countertops) and carry hand sanitizer with you when you go into places like stores.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has also issued an executive order requiring people to wear face coverings over their mouth and nose while inside enclosed, public spaces.

Read all of MLives coverage on the coronavirus at mlive.com/coronavirus.

Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus.

Read more on MLive:

Whitmer mandates mask use at child-care centers and camps

Are masks bad for your health?, plus 8 other coronavirus myths and truths

Latest on coronavirus antibodies and immunity: What we know and what we dont at this point

53 confirmed, 13 probable coronavirus cases now linked to Gladwin County youth camp
He yelled that he was God and that his wife is the devil, and he spat at the officers below. Then he said, Two bodies gotta drop, fired twice into the air and began shooting from the window, Murphy said.
More than half of Louisiana households are operating either below federal poverty standards or in the realm of working poor families as defined by ALICE  a United Way measure applied to people who are Asset Limited, Income Constrained and Employed.

Thats 51 percent of the states 1,735,620 households that struggle to meet their bills, the report, released Thursday in Louisiana, said. One-third of the states households fall into ALICE income standards.

In releasing the data, the Louisiana Association of United Ways said it showed that a family of four in the state needs income of $69,732 to make ends meet. Thats well above wages that low-income jobs like cashier, the most common job in Louisiana, can provide.

Cashiers, for example, earn $9.10 an hour and about $18,200 a year, the report said. Other common but low-wage jobs that keep people below ALICE living standards include nursing assistants, clerks and services, the report says.

The greatest impact of the report, what it has done, is frame the needs for half of the population, said George Bell, president and CEO of Capital Area United Way in Baton Rouge. We understand what that need is, how fragile that population is. We hope it changes how policymakers make decisions. It enlightens people at the core of our struggles in our region and state.

United Way researchers said Thursday that most affected Louisiana families include senior citizens, black families and households headed by single mothers. In fact, the ALICE report data suggest that those families operating within ALICE standards have increased from 23% to 33% of Louisiana households over the past decade.

The study said that over the past decade, even as unemployment fell, the number of low-wage jobs have almost doubled, leaving the working poor unable to catch up financially. And COVID-19 and the pandemic have worsened matters, news conference speakers said.

Acadiana coronavirus progress may be stalling out; caseload remains high The Acadiana regions recent progress in stemming the summer coronavirus surge appeared stalled on Thursday, as the rolling seven-day caseload

Patty Riddlebarger, Entergys vice president for corporate responsibility, said that across Entergys service area, almost 600,000 customers were behind on their power bill payments at the end of July. The company set a monthly record for customers receiving assistance with payments; August is expected to be worse. Entergy is the ALICE statewide sponsor in Louisiana.

Elsa Dimitriadis of United Way of Acadiana said the recent numbers, which reflect 2018 data, reaffirm why the local United Way directs most of its resources toward the working poor. The pandemic, she said, has only worsened problems for those in low-wage jobs, whove had to deal with additional childcare worries because of closed schools even while many of them are pressed to go to their jobs as essential workers.

She said basic necessities for ALICE families dont include debt payments or savings or even such expenses as haircuts or flat tires. They dont include luxuries like birthday parties or circumstances like unplanned illnesses.

When we have conversations about ALICE we need to understand deeply what basic necessities mean, she said.

Lafayette of Acadiana serves Acadia, Lafayette, St. Martin and Vermilion parishes. Some 54 percent of Acadia Parishs household fall under ALICE income standards; 43 percent of Lafayette Parishs 94,002 homes; St. Martin, 50 percent of the 19,556 households; and 48 percent of Vermilions 21,632 households.

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Lafayette school board devotes $1.5 million to closing internet connectivity gaps for students The Lafayette Parish School Board allocated $1.5 million Tuesday toward providing short-term internet connectivity solutions for students with

Obviously, we are looking at the numbers, Dimitriadis said. We will strengthen our commitment to work collaboratively with other non-profits in the area and to reach out to funders and community leaders, she said.

Katie Pritchett, senior vice president of impact and operations for the Capital Area United Way, said that office will use ALICE data to overlay information her office collects to pinpoint the greatest areas of need in that service area, which includes East Baton Rouge Parish, where 52% of 163,274 households fall below ALICE income standards.

Bell said ALICE reports help his staff decide how to fund programs and how to shift resources toward ever-changing needs. For example, COVID-19 forced many local people out of work and created a need for food distribution. His office has worked with area grocers to provide more fresh produce to people in need.

Pritchett said ALICE numbers in that area are up from 45% to 49% in recent years, especially since the 2016 floods affected childcare availability for low-income workers.

Were talking about a population that relies heavily on childcare to go to work, she said.

Mike Williamson, president and CEO of United Way of Southeastern Louisiana, said the report shows daunting challenges for Louisiana, especially with the extra challenges posed by COVID-19.

We could have seen some progress, he said in meeting the working poors needs since 2018. But the reality is some of that has been undone.

In Orleans Parish, for example, 57 percent of the 155,104 households fall below ALICE income standards.

Looking at prior data, one in two households are doing OK. The United Way sits at the intersection of the two; we need to help connect those able to get by to help their neighbors who are not.

He added, 50 percent of our neighbors cant afford the basics. Our values suggest we cannot live with that scenario.

Sarah Berthelot, president and CEO of the Louisiana Association of United Ways, said everyone knows someone who falls into the bracket of ALICE households, hard workers in Louisiana who make more money than federal standards for poverty but not enough to afford the basic essentials. She said such families make tough financial choices, such as whether to buy food or medicine.

Oftentimes, she said, they are one emergency away from seeing their finances spiral out of control.
(CNN)  US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is urging American companies to remove "untrusted" Chinese-owned technology from their digital networks, as the Trump administration steps up efforts to restrict the reach of Chinese tech in the United States.

Speaking on Wednesday, Pompeo announced plans to expand the administration's push for a so-called "clean network," listing five areas of critical importance that the government will seek to prohibit Chinese companies from accessing: app stores, apps, cloud services, mobile carrier networks and undersea internet cables.

"We want to see untrusted Chinese apps removed from US app stores," Pompeo told reporters. "With parent companies based in China, apps like TikTok, WeChat and others are significant threats to personal data of American citizens, not to mention tools for [Chinese Communist Party] content censorship."

The administration also wants to restrict smartphone companies such as "Huawei and other untrusted vendors" from pre-installing or making available for download popular US apps.

Under the broad proposals, Chinese cloud service providers operating in the United States would also face scrutiny.

"We're protecting Americans' most sensitive personal information and our businesses' most valuable intellectual property  including Covid vaccine research  from being accessed on cloud-based systems" run by Chinese companies such as Alibaba, Tencent and others, said Pompeo.

Alibaba and Tencent both have cloud data centers in in Virginia and Silicon Valley.

The Trump administration will also work to bar Huawei and other Chinese tech companies from building carrier networks or undersea data cables that connect the United States to the rest of the world.

The announcement signals a more aggressive push by Washington to limit the influence of Chinese tech companies, which the US views as a threat to national security. Beijing already places hefty restrictions on the ability of foreign tech companies to operate in China  and its so-called Great Firewall has for years shut out content widely available elsewhere on the internet.

"The United States calls on our allies and partners in government and industry around the world to join the growing tide to secure our data from the [Chinese Communist Party's] surveillance state and other malign entities," Pompeo said in a statement Wednesday.

"Building a [clean] fortress around our citizens' data will ensure all of our nations' security," he added, noting that more than 30 countries and territories support the US strategy.

He did not provide further detail as to how the sweeping restrictions would be implemented, or whether they would require the support of private companies.

The announcement comes as tensions between the United States and China are at an all time high, with the two countries battling over technology. Trump last week threatened to ban TikTok in the United States, forcing parent company ByteDance to mull selling it to Microsoft.

Washington has been pressuring allies to restrict or ban Huawei products from their 5G networks for years, and has cut the smartphone and telecommunications equipment maker off from key US tech and supplies.

A TikTok spokesperson said in a statement that "TikTok US user data is stored in the [United States], with strict controls on employee access."

"Our content and moderation policies are led by our US-based team and are not influenced by any foreign government," the spokesperson added.

Huawei did not respond to a request for comment before publication. The company has previously said that its products do not pose a national security risk.

Alibaba and Tencent did not immediately respond to request for comment.

When it comes to TikTok and WeChat, which is owned by Tencent, the apps have fewer features than their domestic Chinese versions, known as Douyin and Weixin. But they still have ties to China, according to Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy.

WeChat users, for example, "can communicate with users on Weixin, which uses servers based in China," Eurasia Group analysts wrote in a report last week.

And "while a WeChat user can send data to a Weixin user, the Chinese user will not see the content if it contains terms banned under Chinese law. WeChat users can send content among themselves that would be banned in China," the analysts wrote.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Pompeo: 'Untrusted' Chinese apps should be removed from US app stores."
Slate's Who Counts? series is made possible by the support of Slate Plus members and readers like you.

It seems that Democrats in Congress are finally putting up a real fight to save the U.S. Postal Service, and in turn the November elections.

On Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told told White House negotiators that the next coronavirus relief bill would have to include more funding for the financially battered agency and scrap rules that have created massive delivery delays, which many worry could disrupt voting by mail this year by preventing Americans from getting their ballots in on time. The pair also met with Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, the Trump donor and former logistics executive who, shortly after being appointed this year, imposed a series of cost-cutting measures that have slowed service to a crawl.

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Afterward, Schumer called the conversation heated and told reporters that the party would continue pressing the issue. We will advocate strongly for money so that they can hire all the people necessary, both overtime and new people, to make sure that every single ballot is counted, he said. That is a sine qua non for us.

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Actually winning this battle will be tricky, however. Democrats need to accomplish two separate and equally important tasks in order succeed. First, they need to need to win more funding for the Postal Service to guarantee it has enough manpower to handle the election. Second, they have to ensure that the administration actually uses the money to restore delivery back to normal. Left to his own devices, it seems unlikely that Donald Trump would cooperate.

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It really cannot be overstated how much the president hates the Postal Service; as far as his personal obsessions go, it ranks only a bit below Crooked Hillary and Fake News CNN. Hes long accused USPS of giving a sweetheart shipping deal to Amazon, which he also despises, because CEO Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post. In 2018, his administration unveiled a plan to eventually privatize the agency, an idea many conservatives support, though the Treasury Department eventually walked it back a bit. This April, Trump called USPS a mismanaged joke and said he wouldnt approve any coronavirus bailout money for it unless it massively raised its postage rates on packages.

Its not 100 percent clear why Trump loathes Americas mail carriers so strongly. Theres the Bezos factor, of course. Theres the fact that hes fairly close to UPS, which hes called one of the most amazing companies on Earth, and has long lobbied for the Postal Service to raise package prices (which would let private shippers steal some of its business away). Meanwhile, many are worried that the president has been trying to kneecap the agency as part of his monthslong attack on mail-in voting, which hes suggested is corrupt and unreliable (though hes recently shifted to arguing vote-by-mail is just fine in states run by Republicans, like Florida). But regardless of his precise psychological motivations, Trump clearly has no desire to actually aid the USPS.

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DeJoy, who began his tenure as postmaster general in June, was not appointed directly by Trump. But he shows every sign of being a flunky. The man is a big-time fundraiser for the Republican Party and backer of the president, who nominated DeJoys wife to be ambassador to Canada. The Postal Services board of governors, which officially selected DeJoy, was also dominated by the White Houses hand-picked members at the time (it currently consists entirely of Trump appointees). And after he arrived at USPS, DeJoy almost immediately announced a new set of rules that would slow down service. Among other changes, he banned overtime pay and extra delivery trips, and ordered mail carriers to leave letters and packages behind in distribution centers until the next day if they couldnt fit on the truck. He justified this operational pivot as a cash-saving exercisethe Post Office has lost money each of the past 13 years, mostly due to a notoriously absurd rule requiring it to prefund all of its retiree health benefits, something no other federal agency or private company has to do. But theyre exactly the sort of changes youd make if you wanted to undermine customers faith in an agency en route to privatizing it, or muck with an election. It doesnt help matters that USPS is reportedly trying to almost triple what it charges states to mail ballots to voters.

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All of which is to say that the safest bet for Democrats is to assume that they are dealing with a group of nihilists who will go out of their way to screw up the mail, regardless of what funding they put in the next relief bill.

One obvious way for USPS to do that would be to simply not spend the cash lawmakers set aside. The Ukraine scandal demonstrated that the Trump administration was willing to illegally hold up money that Congress appropriated in order to achieve its political goals. But short of an impeachable offense, there are also several lawful ways that the White House could try to freeze any additional funding for the Postal Service. For instance, the Office of Management and Budget could slow-walk the formal spending plan, known as an apportionment, that it will need to send USPS before the agency can actually use its infusion of dollars. The administration could also ask lawmakers to formally rescind the appropriation, which, under the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, would allow Trump to pause the funding for up to 45 days. The time limit only includes days that Congress is actually in session, so if lawmakers took a summer or fall recess to go campaign, the countdown could actually last much longer, and possibly run out the shot clock until the election.

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And then, even if the money did eventually make its way to USPS, its entirely possible the postmaster general would refuse to cooperate by simply keeping in place the set of policies that are currently slowing down mail delivery.

To save the Postal Service in time for the election, Democrats will need to head off that sort of chicanery. The good news is that they can, as long as theyre careful about writing the bill. To restore service levels, Congress can increase funding and require that the postmaster general use those funds to restore service back to prior standards, Richard Kogan, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, told me. In addition, Congress can take steps in legislation to force the funding it provides to the Postal Service to be immediately available to them, by requiring the Office of Management and Budget to move those funds immediately to the agency.

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Or, in short: Congress has to give the Postal Service the money, tell the agency very specifically how to use it, and bar Trump from impounding it. And at that point, we still have to hope the administration doesnt just flout the law.

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So far, Democrats have only checked a few items off this list. Theyre currently demanding $10 billion over a year, and are suggesting that theyll ask for policy changes as part of their legislation. But when the House passed its coronavirus relief bill, the HEROES Act, back in May, its section on postal funding didnt include any strong protections that would stop Trump from freezing the appropriation. If Schumer and Pelosi want to win this standoff and fix the mail, theyll have to cut all Trumps avenues for sabotaging it.

For more of Slates news coverage, subscribe to What Next on Apple Podcasts or listen below.
Online comedy and music performances planned for the coming days and weeks in Melbourne can not go ahead under the strict stage four pandemic restrictions, in another blow for the state's reeling arts sector.

Venues and performers had been counting on a continued exemption, similar to the one granted to religious ceremonies, for performances recorded or streamed for online broadcast.

Hopes were raised on Sunday when new directions from Victoria's health department appeared to confirm the exemption. On Thursday morning, several organisations, including the state government-funded Delivered Live, still thought they could continue performing - under strict hygiene precautions - at studios across the city.

Chris Howlett, who founder of the Melbourne Digital Concert Hall. Credit:Justin McManus

However, the list of "permitted work premises" issued by the government late Wednesday night made no exception for performance, with the care of animals at zoos the only kind of work permitted in the "arts and recreation" category.
J K Trust, a social initiative of Group, on Thursday announced the birth of India's first batch of buffalo calves at a farm near Pune which it said will help multiplication of superior animals.

The five calves were born from four buffaloes at Sonawane buffalo farm in Daund district near Pune. Also, this is the first case of twin buffalo calves born through in the country, J K Trust said in a statement.

These calves are of the Murrah breed, which is one of the world's most renowned buffalo breeds.

This first of its kind initiative was pioneered by JKBovagenix, an NGO working in the field of animal husbandry and is currently implementing 'Cattle and Buffalo Breed Improvement Programme' across the country.

The organisation has been producing calves from cows through and now has found success in producing calves from buffalo by deploying assisted reproductive technology (ART).

I am delighted with the milestone achieved by JKBovegenix under the aegis of Group to produce buffalo calves through IVF. This is one of its kind initiatives that upholds the potential to give a significant boost to our dairy production.

It is imperative that in today's context we conserve our indigenous cattle and buffalo breeds, as the milk given by them contain higher nutritional value to fight diseases, Group chairman and managing director Gautam Hari Singhania said.

Also, increasing the Indian dairy produce can usher in more growth at the grass-root level across Indian villages, he added.

J K Trust has been pivotal for establishing 94 IVF pregnancies from a Gir Donor cow 'GAURI' in a span of 16 months (from April 2019 to July 2020), the statement said.

This initiative will pave the way for rapid multiplication of superior animals at a much faster pace.

India has more than 109 million buffaloes that are 56 per cent of the world's buffalo population. India is also home to Murrah, one of the world's most renowned buffalo breeds and using ART in buffaloes can enable India to multiply the population of genetically superior buffaloes resulting in higher quantity milk yield.

"Though IVF in buffaloes is comparatively more difficult than cows, the latest ART needs to be popularized and should be used in buffaloes," J K Trust CEO Shyam Zawar said.

JKBovaGenix has been instrumental for the first IVF calf in India from frozen IVF embryo (named as Krishna) on January 9, 2017.

(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.)
Diabetes seldom occurs in newborns--a condition known as neonatal diabetes. But when it does, it's mostly due to a mutation in a single gene such as the KCNJ11 or insulin (INS).

This early-onset type of diabetes differs from type-1 diabetes in that it occurs within the first six months of life and can be either transient or permanent. Most of the mutations that underly this disease prevent the pancreas from producing sufficient insulin, which leads to high blood glucose levels or hyperglycemia.

To understand what causes permanent neonatal diabetes and to find a cure, scientists often use mouse and pig models having Insulin2 (Ins2)C96Y gene mutations. These models develop permanent early-onset diabetes resembling neonatal diabetes.

However, a major limitation of these models is that by using them, inter-species transplantation of pancreatic insulin-producing cells (pancreatic beta cells), called islet transplantation, cannot be evaluated, due to adverse immune system reactions characterizing such interspecies transplantation.

Now, in a paper published in Scientific Reports, scientists from Tokyo Tech describe how they established a new mouse model of permanent neonatal diabetes, which exhibits severe insulin-deficiency and beta-cell dysfunction in an immune deficient background.

We wanted to create a mouse model that would allow us to evaluate the efficacy of transplanting human stem cell-derived or xenogeneic pancreatic beta cells into these mice without having to consider immune responses" Shoen Kume, Study Lead Author and Professor, Tokyo University of Technology

To achieve this goal, the scientists used the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technique to introduce a three base pair deletion in the Ins2 gene of a severely-immunodeficient BRJ mouse, that lacked mature T and B lymphocytes and natural killer (NK) cells.

This mutation causes a Gln (Q) deletion (p.Q104del), hampering insulin production. The scientists named the mutation 'Kuma mutation'.

Upon examining the Kuma mice as they aged, the scientists discovered that both male and female Kuma mutants developed hyperglycemia three weeks after their birth. They conjectured that this may be due to the low stability of the mutant insulin protein.

The scientists also noted that these mice had markedly reduced beta-cell area, size, and mass, as well as a significantly decreased number and size of insulin granules within the beta cells. This meant that the mice could serve as a permanent neonatal diabetes model for islet transplantation.

To corroborate this, their treatment with insulin implants over four weeks successfully reversed their hyperglycemia.

Based on these findings, Prof Kume and his team believe that "the Kuma mutant can not only be used for molecular studies of the Insulin gene and beta cell dysfunction, but its immune-deficient background allows it to be an attractive model for studies examining the functionality of transplanted beta-cells generated from human- or xenogeneic-derived stem cells".

Moreover, as the Kuma mutation is well conserved across different species, the same gene-editing approach can be applied to creating permanent neonatal diabetic models in other animal species, making advancement in the research on this disease condition a little bit easier.
OKLAHOMA CITY, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- CHIP BAKER is proud to announce the launch of GREENER CONSULTING GROUP, the first truly comprehensive cannabis industry consultation and advisement firm with hubs in Oklahoma, Texas, California and Colorado.

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Whether you are an investment group, business or a city council, Greener Group can guide you to success in the cannabis industry. Greener Consulting Group can solve any problem. Our consultants have a wide range of experience dealing with issues encountered on the city, county and state level, all the way down to individual business and operational guidance.

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New Delhi:

Issuing a veiled warning, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said one cannot convert black money into white by merely depositing unaccounted cash in bank accounts as taxes are required to be paid on them.



By just depositing it (unaccounted money), you dont avoid the responsibility of paying tax, he said when asked about surge in deposits in banks following withdrawal of high denomination currency notes.



He further said the income tax department is keeping an eye on such deposits.



As per RBI, about Rs 8.45 lakh crore in scrapped Rs 500 and 1,000 notes were deposited with banks by November 27.



Following the governments decision to demonetise from November 8 mid-night, people have been depositing these notes in banks.



The Lok Sabha has amended the Income Tax Act to provide for higher tax and penalty on such undisclosed income. The Bill is pending in the Rajya Sabha.



As per the amendment, the government will levy a tax of 50 per cent on unaccounted demonetised cash if it is disclosed voluntarily till December 30. After that, a steep tax and penalty of up to 85 per cent will be levied on undisclosed wealth that is discovered by authorities.



Replying to a question of long queues for withdrawal of cash at banks, the finance minister said RBI has increased the supply of new Rs 500 notes and asserted that the situation will improve soon.



Jaitley also discussed the issues concerning demonetisation with the state finance ministers after the GST Council meeting.



Several state finance ministers, he said, demanded relaxation in the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) norms as well as an increase in Ways and Means Advances to deal with their public finances.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Technavio has been monitoring the debt collection software market and it is poised to grow by USD 562.21 million during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of almost 4% 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/20200806005487/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Debt Collection Software Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire)

Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please Request Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impact

Frequently Asked Questions-

What was the value of the debt collection software market in 2019?

Technavio says that the value of the market was USD 2,737.93 million in 2019 and is projected to reach USD 3,300.14 million by 2024.

At what rate is the market projected to grow during the forecast period 2020-2024?

Growing at a CAGR of almost 4%, the market growth will accelerate during the forecast period.

What is the key factor driving the market?

Pricing strategies of vendors is one of the key factors driving the market growth.

Who are the top players in the market?

Advantage Software Factory, Chetu Inc., Experian Plc, Fair Isaac Corp., Fidelity National Information Services Inc., Nucleus Software Exports Ltd., Quantrax Corp. Inc., Temenos AG, Totality Software Inc., and Wincollect Pty. Ltd. are some of the major market participants.

Which region is expected to hold the highest market share?

APAC

What is a major trend in the market?

Rise in demand for integrated debt collection software solutions is a major trend driving the market growth.

What is the year-over-year growth rate of the global market?

The year-over-year growth rate for 2020 is estimated at 1.88%.

The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. Advantage Software Factory, Chetu Inc., Experian Plc, Fair Isaac Corp., Fidelity National Information Services Inc., Nucleus Software Exports Ltd., Quantrax Corp. Inc., Temenos AG, Totality Software Inc., and Wincollect Pty. Ltd. are some of the major market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments.

Pricing strategies of vendors has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market.

Debt Collection Software Market 2020-2024: Segmentation

Debt Collection Software Market is segmented as below:

Deployment On-premise Cloud-based

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=IRTNTR43331

Debt Collection Software 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 debt collection software market report covers the following areas:

Debt Collection Software Market size

Debt Collection Software Market trends

Debt Collection Software Market analysis

This study identifies a rise in demand for integrated debt collection software solutions as one of the prime reasons driving the debt collection software market growth during the next few years.

Debt Collection Software Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of vendors operating in the debt collection software market, including some of the vendors such as Advantage Software Factory, Chetu Inc., Experian Plc, Fair Isaac Corp., Fidelity National Information Services Inc., Nucleus Software Exports Ltd., Quantrax Corp. Inc., Temenos AG, Totality Software Inc., and Wincollect Pty. Ltd. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the debt collection software market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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Debt Collection Software Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist debt collection software market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the debt collection software market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the debt collection software market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of debt collection software market vendors

Table of Contents:

Executive Summary

Market Overview

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

Bargaining power of buyers

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

Threat of substitutes

Threat of rivalry

Market condition

Market Segmentation by Deployment

Market segments

Comparison by Deployment

On-premise Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Cloud-based Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by Deployment

Customer Landscape

Overview

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

Market drivers

Market challenges

Market trends

Vendor Landscape

Overview

Landscape disruption

Vendor Analysis

Vendors covered

Market positioning of vendors

Advantage Software Factory

Chetu Inc.

Experian Plc

Fair Isaac Corp.

Fidelity National Information Services Inc.

Nucleus Software Exports Ltd.

Quantrax Corp. Inc.

Temenos AG

Totality Software Inc.

Wincollect Pty. Ltd.

Appendix

Scope of the report

Currency conversion rates for US$

Research methodology

List of abbreviations

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis 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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Dr Edward Antwi, the National Child Heath Coordinator, has charged parents to set good examples by strictly observing the COVID-19 safety protocols for their children to emulate.



He said parents should be seen by the children washing their hands with soap under running water, practicing cough etiquettes and using alcohol-based sanitizers to stay safe of the disease.



Dr Antwi said this during the opening of a two-day virtual stakeholder conference to generate a policy brief strategy on the re-opening of early childhood educational centres amidst COVID-19 within the Ghanaian context.



Dubbed: Continuous learning and re-opening of early childhood centres and care programmes: what will it take Ghana? the conference was organised by the Centre for Learning and Childhood Development (CLCD), Ghana Education Service, Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, UNICEF and some Non-Governmental Organisations.



Topics to be treated include; Preventing, Detecting and Managing COVID-19 at school and in the home; Continuous learning in the COVID-19 era lessons from the field research; and the Impact of caregiver engagement and child development.



Others are UNICEFs framework for school reopening: overview and resource needs; and Reopening schools and inclusive education in the COVID-19 era: lessons from a caregivers perspective.



However, Dr Antwi said, children under-two should not wear nose masks as they would suffocate.



Speaking on the topic: Preventing, Detecting and Managing COVID-19 at School and Home, Dr Antwi advised parents not to send their children to crowded areas and must ensure they wore nose masks when going out.



He said they should teach the children not to visit peoples home nor encourage visitors into their homes unnecessarily, adding that if it so happened, they should observe social distancing.



Dr Antwi said at school, there should be adequate ventilation in classrooms, overcrowding in buses should be avoided, and both students and teachers should be screened before entering the classroom.



He said schools should provide adequate handwashing facilities at the entrance, supervise children whilst using sanitizers to avoid swallowing, and contact hours should be reduced.



He said the schools should be linked to a health facility to cater for pupils and teachers when they showed signs of sickness but as much as possible sick teachers and children must stay home.



He advised that teachers and parents should be educated on all the protocols including new developments to help prevent the spread of the disease.



Mrs Naa Koshie Lamptey of the National Council for Private Early Childhood Growth and Development, speaking on how to inform policy on school reopening, called on teachers to accept the children and support them through the learning process saying that none should be stigmatised in case one contracted the disease.

Source: GNA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
President Donald Trump speaks to workers at a Whirlpool manufacturing facility in Clyde, Ohio, on Aug. 6, 2020. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Trump Signs Executive Order to Reduce US Reliance on China for Medicine

WASHINGTONIn response to supply disruptions caused by the pandemic, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Aug. 6 in Clyde, Ohio, to ensure that essential medicines, medical supplies, and equipment are made in the United States.

Speaking at Whirlpool Corporations manufacturing facility in northwest Ohio, Trump said, Well end reliance on China just like we did with the washers and dryers.

As we celebrate Whirlpools 109-year legacy of American Manufacturing excellence, today I want to lay out my vision to bring millions more jobs and thousands more factories back to American shores, where they belong.

In 2018, Trump imposed tariffs on imported washers to help domestic manufacturers such as Whirlpool, a Michigan-based manufacturer.

As a result of the tariffs, Trump said Whirlpools nine factories across the country have thrived.

During the course of the next four years, we will bring our pharmaceutical and medical supply chains home, Trump said. We cannot rely on China and other nations across the globe.

In order to prevent medical supply chain disruptions in the future, Trump signed the executive order called Combating Public Health Emergencies and Strengthening National Security by Ensuring Essential Medicines, Medical Countermeasures, and Critical Inputs are Made in the United States.

The broad executive order covers medicines as well as medical supplies, including masks, gloves, and goggles, and medical equipment such as ventilators.

It has three components, which include the Buy American order to ensure that government agencies, including the departments of Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, and Defense, buy American products.

The order aims to increase government demand for U.S.-made products to help create a market for manufacturers to invest and to produce in the United States.

The second component of the order is deregulation, which ensures the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ease rules for the development of advanced manufacturing facilities in the United States.

This will help create a more rational and streamlined regulatory process to address national security threats in a timely fashion, according to White House trade adviser Peter Navarro who briefed reporters earlier about the executive order.

The third component of the order, which is critical to keeping drug prices down, is to catalyze advanced manufacturing and continuous manufacturing techniques, Navarro said. The objective is to create economies of scale and scope to help reduce the cost of production in the United States.

Besides essential medicines, medical countermeasures are also a key part of this order, as they are crucial to fighting national security threats, including chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and pandemic threats.

In addition, the executive order will help combat the trafficking of counterfeit medicines coming primarily from China.

In a campaign-style speech in Ohio, Trump criticized previous administrations for letting foreign nations steal our jobs, loot our factories, and plunder the crown jewels of the U.S. economy.

The Obama-Biden administration was perfectly happy to let China win, your jobs disappear, and your factory close, he said.

Besides the medical supply chains, Trump said he would take similar actions to onshore manufacturing across other critical sectors, including electronics, machine tools, shipping, aerospace, autos, iron, and steel.

The pandemic has disrupted the U.S. pharmaceutical industrys global supply chain, which is largely dependent on China, calling attention to a dangerous level of dependence by the United States on this global competitor.

China is the dominant supplier of thousands of medicines found in U.S. homes and hospitals, from antibiotics to chemotherapies, from HIV/AIDS drugs to antidepressants and painkillers. That has made the United States vulnerable to supply-chain disruptions arising from the pandemic.

China also has a dominant market share in personal protective equipment, such as masks, respirators, surgical gowns, and gloves, which are currently in high demand. During the pandemic, countries where production facilities are located have imposed export restrictions for critically needed items, which has alarmed the U.S. government.

Trumps new executive order will help jumpstart domestic manufacturing of critical drugs and their components, according to Rosemary Gibson, the co-author of the book China Rx and a senior adviser at the Hastings Center, a bioethics research institute.

The United States had shortages of critical drugs for more than 20 years under Democratic and Republican administrations, she said. And nobody did anything about that for years.
SCHOHARIE - The National Transportation Safety Board plans to vote on Sept. 29 to approve the agency's final report on the 2018 limo crash in Schoharie that killed 20 people.

The timing of the vote is not accidental: the two-year anniversary of the deadly crash, the worst U.S. transportation disaster in more than a decade, will be roughly a week later on Oct. 6.

"The board will vote on the findings, probable cause and recommendations as well as any changes to the draft final report," the NTSB said.

It is expected that the final report would be issued shortly after.

The limo, a 34-foot stretch Ford Excursion with failing brakes, was owned by the Hussain family that also ran a rundown motel in Wilton that was shuttered last year by the state Department of Health.

The patriarch of the Hussain family, Shahed Hussain, is a long-time FBI informant who left his small limo service in the hands of his son Nauman Hussain when he left for Pakistan in early 2018.

The vote's timing was also not unexpected. The Times Union reported in June that the NTSB would issue its report on the crash just before the second anniversary of the crash.

The report's release, however, could be too late for the families of the crash victims who have been waiting for the trial of Nauman Hussain, the only person charged with criminal wrongdoing in the disaster. State Police investigated the crash, and the Schoharie County District Attorney Susan Mallery has been prosecuting the case with the help of the state Attorney General's office.

Hussain, 30, is facing 20 charges each of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.

However, Mallery and Nauman Hussain's lawyers have been in talks for a potential plea deal that could spare Hussain a trial as well as prison time. No agreement has been reached, although the two sides are expected to meet once again with Schoharie County Court Judge George Bartlett III later this month. Many of the families of the victims are upset that a trial might not be held, depriving them of learning key details of the case only known to law enforcement and the grand jury that indicted Hussain in April of 2019.

It is unclear where the NTSB report will place blame for the crash, and whether the state Department of Transportation and Department of Motor Vehicles will be criticized for not doing more to prevent the crash after the Excursion failed two DOT inspections in the months leading up to the crash.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

A State Police report blamed Nauman Hussain for failing to maintain the limo, as he had known about brake problems that were uncovered by an initial DOT inspection in March of 2018.

The State Police report said the Excursion, which was nearly two decades old at the time of the crash, experienced "catastrophic" brake failure as it rumbled down a steep section of Route 30 carrying 17 passengers en route to a birthday celebration in Cooperstown. The group, mostly from Amsterdam, included several siblings and newlyweds.

The Excursion blew through a stop sign at the bottom of the hill where Route 30 intersects with Route 30A and crashed into the parking lot of the Apple Barrel Country Store, killing two bystanders who were leaving the popular store and restaurant before slamming into the side of a ditch.

All 17 passengers and the driver died of devastating injuries.

Only the driver, who was crushed to death in his seat, was wearing a seatbelt.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-05 23:00:41|Editor: huaxia

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Two medical staff members from northwest China's Qinghai Province take a rest before leaving the Wuchang temporary hospital in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, March 10, 2020. (Xinhua/Fei Maohua)

Richard Horton: To blame China for this pandemic is to rewrite the history of COVID-19 and to marginalize the failings of Western nations.

LONDON, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- To blame China for this pandemic is to rewrite the history of COVID-19 and to marginalize the failings of Western nations, said Dr. Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of medical journal The Lancet.

"The present wave of anti-China sentiment has now evolved into an unpleasant, even racist, sinophobia, which threatens international peace and security," Dr. Horton said in an opinion article recently published by British newspaper The Guardian.

"At moments of geopolitical stress, it is surely better to intensify, not weaken, personal and institutional relationships. It is surely better to build better understanding between peoples," Dr. Horton said in the article.

"China's 1.4 billion people are not immune from the economic shocks that are currently enveloping the world. A pandemic is a moment for solidarity between peoples, not conflict between governments," he said.

Nurses Liu Guangyao (R) and Qiao Bing take care of a patient at an ICU ward of the Third People's Hospital of Henan in Zhengzhou, central China's Henan Province, April 26, 2020. Liu and Qiao are both the hospital's ICU nurses, who are a pair of lovers born in 1990s. (Xinhua/Li An)

A pandemic is a moment for "conciliation, respect, and honesty between friends", Dr. Horton noted.

Instead of accelerating a new cold war between the West and China, Dr. Horton called on medicine and medical science to help establish a new compact between nations.

He also praised China's scientists who acted "decisively and responsibly" to protect the health of the Chinese people in the case of COVID-19.

"They advised early lockdown to cut the lines of viral transmission. They implemented strict physical distancing policies to reduce social mixing. And they built temporary hospitals to expand bed capacity and to enable triage of the sickest patients to intensive care," he said. 
YPSILANTI, MI  The Washtenaw County Health Department and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services issued a public health advisory on Thursday, Aug. 6 that said there is a suspected Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) in Ypsilantis Ford Lake.

The department stated that people and pets should avoid direct body contact with any scums in the lake, water that is blue-green or looks like it has a green sheen on the surface, officials said in the release.

Officials also said that people and pets should avoid swallowing the lake water. The health department said that a resident near Ford Lake notified the MDHHS of a suspected HAB, describing the spot on the water that the resident described as looking like spilled paint.

A HAB occurs when colonies of algae  simple plants that live in the sea and freshwater  grow out of control and produce toxic or harmful effects on people, fish, shellfish, marine mammals and birds. The human illnesses caused by HABs, though rare, can be debilitating or even fatal, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

According to the release, officials said those visiting Ford Lake can and should do the following:

Swim in the water but stay away from water that has scums or mats, looks like spilled paint, or has colored streaks.

Keep children and pets away from algae in the water or on the shore.

Do not let pets or livestock drink the water or eat scum on the shore.

All fish should be caught and released and not consumed. Ford Lake is under a Do Not Eat Fish Advisory.

Do not drink water from lakes, ponds, or rivers.

Rinse people and pets off after swimming. When in doubt, keep people and pets out of the water.

Call you doctor or veterinarian if you or your pet get sick after going in the water.

The United States Geological Services (USGS) is currently conducting monitoring of lakes and took two samples from Ford Lake in mid-July in partnership with Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE).

A follow up in late July by USGS didnt confirm an active bloom in the lake at that time.

Suspicious looking Algae can be reported by calling 1-800-662-9278 or by sending an e-mail to AlgaeBloom@Michigan.gov.

Read more from the Ann Arbor News:

Man honored for saving drivers life with emergency CPR in Ann Arbor

Services set for Michigan State Police trooper killed in alleged drunken-driving crash

Fire damages new apartment development in Ann Arbor

Son who killed father in Ann Arbor sentenced to prison
New Delhi, Aug 6 : Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, a research-led global pharmaceutical company, on Thursday announced that it is set to introduce a 400 mg version of oral antiviral - FabiFlu -- for the treatment of mild to moderate Covid-19 in India.

It was the first Indian company to commercially launch an antiviral drug - Favipiravir with brand name FabiFlu - for the treatment Covid-19 patients. The company received marketing and manufacturing approval from the Drug Controller General of India and launched the product in the Indian market on June 20.

According to the company, the higher strength will improve patient compliance and experience, by effectively reducing the number of tablets that patients require per day.

Earlier, the 200 mg dosage of FabiFlu required patients to take 18 tablets on Day 1, followed by 8 tablets each day thereafter for a maximum of 14 days.

A higher pill burden has been associated with lower adherence to therapy, the latter affecting viral suppression and overall treatment outcomes. Reducing the pill burden has also been a demand from doctors and patients to enable adherence, the company said.

"With the new 400 mg version, patients will now have a more relaxed dosage regimen, with 9 tablets required on Day 1, and thereafter 2 tablets twice a day from Day 2 till end of the course," Glenmark Pharmaceuticals added.

Explaining the significance of this development, Monika Tandon, Vice President and Head, Clinical Development of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Limited said, "The 200 mg dosage of FabiFlu was developed in line with global formulations of the drug Favipiravir, which had similar strength. The 400 mg version is a result of Glenmark's own R&D efforts to improve treatment experience for patients in India." She added, "Being the first company to launch Favipiravir in India, we continue to innovate and seek new treatment options for Covid-19 patients. Introducing this higher strength of FabiFlu is in line with these efforts to ensure a smoother experience for patients, by reducing their daily pill burden." Glenmark has also commenced a Post Marketing Surveillance (PMS) study on FabiFlu to closely monitor the efficacy and safety of the drug in a large pool of patients prescribed with the oral antiviral Favipiravir, as part of an open label, multicentre, single arm study.

It is also conducting another Phase III clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy of two antiviral drugs Favipiravir and Umifenovir as a combination therapy in moderate hospitalized adult Covid-19 patients in India.

The combination study which is called the FAITH trial is looking to enrol 158 hospitalized patients of moderate Covid-19 in India. Early treatment with combination therapy will be evaluated for safety and efficacy as it is emerging as an effective approach in shortening duration of virus shedding, facilitating early clinical cure and discharge of patients.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
LAS VEGAS  A U.S. appeals court refused Thursday to resurrect the criminal case against states rights figure Cliven Bundy, family members and others stemming from a 2014 armed standoff with federal agents trying to round up Bundy cattle near the family ranch in Nevada.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal in San Francisco denied prosecutors efforts to overturn U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarros decision to stop a months-long trial in January 2018 for flagrant prosecutorial misconduct and her dismissal of the criminal indictment so it could not be re-filed.

The judgment is affirmed, Judge Jay Bybee wrote for the three-judge panel that heard oral arguments May 29. The judges found Navarro properly identified violations of recognized statutory or constitutional rights, and she had the authority to punish the government to deter future illegal conduct.

Bundy, his sons Ryan and Ammon Bundy, and Montana militia leader Ryan Payne had faced life in prison. But they were set free after nearly two years of detention ahead of trial on charges including conspiracy and assaulting federal officers.

Their arrests, with a total of 19 co-defendants in the Nevada case, came in early 2016 after the Bundy brothers and Payne took part in a 41-day anti-government protest occupation at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon.

The Nevada case stemmed from a years-long dispute between Bundy and the federal Bureau of Land Management over years of unpaid grazing fees. It grew to involve self-described personal militia members from 11 other states who answered a Bundy family plea for help in March 2014. It became a symbol for advocates of states rights, anti-federal policies and the sovereign citizen movement.

They still say Im trespassing, Bundy, 74, said Thursday. He maintains the federal government has no authority and U.S. courts have no jurisdiction over state lands. He acknowledged he continues to refuse to pay fees for his cows grazing in the scrub desert of what is now Gold Butte National Monument.

These feds came in here and overreached on my land and my ranch, he said. Were willing to go through what weve had to to defend our rights and the constitution and freedom. I have no contract with the federal government.

U.S. Attorney Nicholas Trutanich in Las Vegas said he respected the decision; noted the appeals court called it a difficult and trying case; and pointed to a footnote in which the appeals court judges said misjudgments by prosecutors did not rise to professional misconduct.

The judges said they found a serious constitutional violation based on choices made by the government.

Ammon Bundys attorney, Daniel Hill, dubbed the ruling the Republic in action.

We have courts so that someone can tell the government when its done wrong. Judge Navarros order dismissing the case was righteous, and the 9th Circuit agreed, Hill said.

Navarro found deliberate attempts by the FBI and prosecutors to mislead and distort the truth. She blamed FBI agents for reckless disregard of requirements to turn over evidence relating to government snipers and cameras that monitored the Bundy homestead.

The appeals court said pre-standoff threat assessment reports prepared by government agents should have been turned over from the FBI to federal prosecutors to defense attorneys.

These documents could have helped bolster the defenses claim that the government had engaged in an overmilitarized impound operation that the Bundys claim fueled their fears of being surrounded by snipers, the court said.

Someone in the government made a conscious choice to withhold these documents. It may not have been a malicious choice, but it also was not a matter of simple oversight.

Cliven Bundys attorney, conservative activist Larry Klayman, said evidence showed government agents threatened the Bundys lives, killed their cattle, assaulted family members and perpetrated tyrannical executive power over them.

Prosecutors failed to gain full convictions in two earlier trials against six other defendants who acknowledged carrying assault-style weapons during the April 2014 confrontation outside Bunkerville, 80 miles (129 kilometers) northeast of Las Vegas.

None was found guilty of a key conspiracy charge.

Navarro separately dismissed charges against four remaining co-defendants who had been awaiting trial later in 2018.
Three defendants in child trafficking case to stay detained till mid-September

 Moskva city news agency, Kirill Zykov

10:25 06/08/2020

MOSCOW, August 6 (RAPSI)  The Moscow City Court has upheld detention of three obstetrics and gynecology doctors accused of the surrogacy mothers children trade, RAPSI has learnt from the courts press service.

Thus, obstetrician-gynecologist of the reproductive medicine organization Next Generation Clinic Yuliana Ivanova, obstetrician-gynecologist of the citys maternity hospital N3 Lillia Panaioti and doctor Valentina Chernyshova will remain detained until September 14.

They are charged with human trafficking committed by an organized group.

In total, seven people involved in the case are in detention. One more accused woman is under house arrest.

In January, law enforcement found a body of a dead newborn boy in a flat in the Moscow Regions town of Odintsovo. There were also three other kids there along with a nurse. Investigators believe surrogate mothers gave birth to the children to transfer them later to foreign parents.




(Natural News) A study published in the journal Scientific Reports found that higher levels of physical fitness are linked to better cognitive performance and improved white matter integrity.

The researchers from the University of Munster in Germany, who tested mostly 30-year-olds, said that these findings further strengthen the role of physical fitness in positive brain health outcomes.

This leads us to believe that a basic level of fitness seems to be a preventable risk factor for brain health, said Dr. Jonathan Repple, one of the authors of the study.

Better cognition linked to fitness among younger adults

The current study examined the relationship between physical fitness, white matter microstructure and various cognitive domains. Researchers drew data from the Human Connectome Project, which provided a compilation of neural data including MRI brain scans of 1,206 healthy adults with a mean age of about 29.

Some of these participants also went through other kinds of tests. A total of 1,204 had a walking test where they walked as fast as they could for two minutes. Meanwhile, 1,187 participants did cognitive tests that measured memory, reasoning, sharpness and judgment among other parameters.

The team noted the distance traveled and their scores in the cognitive tests. They found that volunteers who did better in the two-minute walking test also performed significantly better in all but one of the cognitive tasks. The link remained significant even after controlling for a range of variables such as body mass index, blood pressure, age, education level and sex.

Furthermore, they observed improvements in the structural integrity of white matter, which enhances connectivity between neurons and thus make information processing efficient.

The researchers were surprised by the findings given that their sample population is relatively young.

We knew how this might be important in an elderly population, which does not necessarily have good health, but to see this happening in 30-year-olds is surprising, said Repple.

Previously, a study on older adults without dementia showed that physical activity, in particular aerobic exercise training, can increase the size of the hippocampus, the area of the brain responsible for memory, learning and emotion.

The current study, on the other hand, adds to research on the brain health of a younger demographic and the factors associated with it.

Where future studies on brain health and fitness could go

This is not the first time that a study found a link between physical fitness and the brain. Multiple studies did the same before with similar results. These studies, however, are mired with limitations.

For one, there are important variables that were overlooked in their analyses. Experts associate low levels of fitness with higher blood pressure. When a study found improved cognitive abilities vis-a-vis high physical fitness, there is the possibility that lower blood pressure may have contributed to this result.

Furthermore, most similar studies use only one marker of mental performance at a time. The present study, however, used data that measured various cognitive domains.

The researchers also remark that 30 samples are already pretty good when it comes to studies using MRI. The large sample size in their study means that findings are more robust and potential misleading factors are reduced.

But further research has to be carried out. Future studies may want to look at how fitness and cognitive performance change over time, as well as how the link between the two works for people with mental health conditions.

Moreover, it is important to know whether increasing a persons fitness increases cognitive ability, something that has remained a question in the current study. Instead, the study highlights physical fitness as a modifiable risk factor related to brain health.

Learn more about the natural ways to boost brain performance at Brain.news.

Sources include:

MedicalNewsToday.com

Dana.org

EverydayHealth.com
Pendergrass Donates Collection of Historical and Political Memorabilia to USM Archives

Wed, 08/05/2020 - 19:26pm | By: David Tisdale

A plethora of buttons, posters, flyers, bumper stickers and other memorabilia showcasing local, state and national political campaigns and activism in Mississippi dating back more than a century make up a collection retired Hattiesburg ophthalmologist Dr. John Pendergrass recently donated to The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) University Archives and Special Collections.

Dr. Pendergrass cites a longtime interest in history and politics as inspiration for the nearly half-century growth of the collection, numbering more than 1,000 items.

I feel like Im giving away my children, Dr. Pendergrass said. These items really have become like family members, over time. But I knew I needed a good home for them for the future, and USM Special Collections is the perfect place. I know they will take good care of the collection, and make it available for others to enjoy.

University Archives staff believes the collection is one of the largest of its kind in the country to be held at a university.

This is a spectacular collection to add to Southern Misss Special Collections, and were extremely grateful to Dr. Pendergrass, said Lorraine Stuart, associate professor in USM University Libraries and Head of Special Collections and curator, Historical Manuscripts and Archives. This collection documents in detail two important collecting areas for us  Mississippi politics and Civil Rights. Many of the political races are fairly obscure and may have been forgotten if Dr. Pendergrass had not taken the care to collect and preserve documentation of them for the past 45 years.

Buttons include those from the last Confederate veteran to serve as a Mississippi governor, Anselm McLaurin, who had enlisted at age 16 at the end of the war; also from the Know Mississippi Better Train, the brainchild of Lt. Gov. Dennis Murphree. The train made summer trips through the contiguous U.S., with promotional materials and Mississippi products; 30 delegates traveled with the train, as well as a 25-piece band from USM. With the exception of the WWII years, it ran from 1925-48.

A button of Aaron Henry, a Civil Rights activist from Clarksdale who served in the State legislature from 1979-1995, and one promoting Free Elections in Sunflower (County) are featured. Stuart says that, thematically, they are tied together because following the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated local elections in the county because of racial discrimination.

Another button is from Cliff Finch, who defeated William Winter in the Democratic primary during his first gubernatorial run.

The campaign buttons alone are a visual chronicle of Mississippi political history from the 1890s to now, Stuart said. They serve as a portal for students and researchers to delve further into Mississippi.

Campaign mailers spanning the decades are also an integral part of the collection, and chronicle how issues and party positions evolved over the years. Analyzing those would be an interesting student research project, Stuart continued Theres also a potential research project based on the graphics alone  how they have changed over time. There is a lot of different aspects that can be delved into.

A native of Clarksdale, Mississippi, Dr. Pendergrass graduated from then Delta State College (now Delta State University) and received his medical degree from the University of Mississippi Medical Center. He served in the U.S. Air Force as a Flight Surgeon at Da Nang Air Base in Vietnam and received the Air Medal. He completed his Ophthalmology residency at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, Texas and practiced at the Green Eye Institute in Hattiesburg from 1975-2019.

Dr. Pendergrass joined the American Political Items Collectors (APIC) organization in 1977 and began collecting in earnest. His collection grew quite large over the years, but his main focus was the President Eisenhower administration. He amassed one of the largest known collections of Eisenhower memorabilia, with nearly 400 items, which he donated to USM in 1984 and that will be incorporated into his recent gift; and, as founder of the Hattiesburg Track Club (HTC), also gifted that organizations records to USM Special Collections.

When Stuart went to Dr. Pendergrasss office to pick up some recent HTC records, she spotted his book, Racing Back to Vietnam: A Journey in War and Peace that recounts his experience as a flight surgeon in Da Nang and his return to Vietnam, 45 years later, to participate in a triathlon. He gave me a copy of the book for the collection, and then gave all of the research for the book, Stuart said. So, he has been personally responsible for three unrelated but important collections. I appreciate his generosity and support of USM Special Collections. For information about USM Special Collections, visit http://www.lib.usm.edu/spcol/.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-07 01:48:07|Editor: huaxia

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RAMALLAH, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Palestine on Thursday said that Israel must assume its legal and political obligations as per the international law.

Palestine Liberation Organization's Executive Committee, which is the highest political level in Palestine, was convened in the West Bank city of Ramallah over the latest developments and the means to counteract the Israeli annexation plan.

"In the event that Israel carries out any annexation of Palestinian land in any way, it must assume all its responsibilities in accordance with the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949," the Executive Committee said in its final statement.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who chaired the meeting, reiterated his official position rejecting the annexation plan as well as the United States President Donald Trump's Middle East Peace Plan.

The committee said that an international coalition against the Israeli annex plan may lead to holding an international multilateral peace conference in order to return to peace negotiations.

Abbas has suspended all ties with Israel since May 19 after the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he is planning to annex a large part of the West Bank, which is considered a violation of signed agreements and international laws and resolutions. Enditem
WASHINGTON, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Trade & Travel (T&T) announced that Ms. Esther Krofah, Executive Director of FasterCures, a center of the Milken Institute focused on accelerating biomedical innovation, will participate in its inaugural technology accelerator program as a "Leading Voice." Krofah will provide critical context on the status of COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics to T&T's cohort of technology companies focused on enhancing passenger screening and safety in the trade and travel industries.

Across the globe, government and industry leaders are developing new requirements for the trade and travel industries. As a "Leading Voice" participant, Ms. Krofah's will assist T&T's cohort companies in understanding the current state of COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics, and provide guidance on how to navigate this environment.

"It is critical for leaders in the travel and tourism industry to understand the evolving landscape of possible vaccines and treatments for COVID-19, a global crisis that is reshaping society," said Krofah, a noted expert in the development of vaccines and treatments. "I am eager to share my insights with this group, and hear from travel and tourism leaders about what it's going to take to leverage the groundbreaking medical innovations that will save lives and help our economy recover."

In May, Dcode and Pangiam announced their commercial partnership to de-risk and accelerate emerging tech companies that can advance trade and travel. Trade & Travel combines Dcode's proven go-to-market acceleration strategy with Pangiam's decades of expertise in security and innovation in the U.S. government and trade and travel industries.

Patrick Flanagan, CEO of Pangiam stated, "Historically, innovation in the trade and travel industries has been defined by security and a need to meet a growing demand. While those opportunities remain, there is an urgent need to address the current public health challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. We are excited to have Esther joining us as a 'Leading Voice' to provide the health expertise that will help our companies solve these challenges."

Meagan Metzger, CEO of Dcode, said, "FasterCures' participation adds a vital public health perspective to the programming for our inaugural Trade & Travel accelerator. With Esther's participation, Trade & Travel can provide a holistic experience for companies entering these highly regulated industries, embodying Dcode and Pangiam's vision to help emerging tech improve these spaces with a focus on public health, security, safety, and more."

The coronavirus outbreak highlights an urgent need for passenger screening technology that can mitigate the impact of global crises and support the travel industry's ability to adapt safely and swiftly to emerging threats. Particularly in health crises, existing collaboration in threat detection, data analytics and movement, contact tracing, rapid detection and diagnostics, and emergency response deployments struggles to keep pace with the virulence of pandemics, compounding global health exposure. This public-private partnership problem leaves the trade and travel industries with significant financial burden and public exposure, and no clear solutions.

T&T's inaugural program on passenger screening and safety kicks off August 11th and focuses on bringing some of the world's most promising technologies to leading brands in these industries, with the goals of expediting the safe and efficient resumption of travel and leveraging technology to better protect the global trade and travel ecosystems in the future.

About Trade & Travel "Leading Voices"

Trade & Travel invites senior leaders across industry and government to participate in its technology cohorts, speaking to its companies and learning about their technical capabilities, in order to advance its mission of helping emerging technology firms accelerate rapidly into the trade and travel industries. Leading Voice participants have a vested interest in the policies governing the trade and travel industry. Leading Voice participants represent government and nongovernmental stakeholders who advance the legislative and regulatory goals of the trade and travel industries. T&T works with each Leading Voice participant to determine the appropriate level of engagement in the T&T program.

About Dcode

Dcode connects the tech industry and government to drive commercial innovation in the federal market. Dcode has worked with more than 100 tech companies and hundreds of government organizations, driving more than 200 new implementations of commercial technology in government and millions in federal contracts. Visit dcode.co to learn more.

About Pangiam

Pangiam is a public-private partnership company creating a network of industry partners aimed at revolutionizing the future of operations, security, and safety at airports, seaports, and land border crossings through the use of emerging technology. As a team of customs and security professionals with over 50 years of experience at senior levels of the U.S. government, Pangiam has an intimate understanding of the security, facilitation, and disaster response challenges and aspirations of governments and industry leaders around the world.

About FasterCures

With an independent voice, FasterCures is working to build a system that is effective, efficient, and driven by a clear vision: working with our partners to build a patient-centric system where science is accelerated, unnecessary barriers are overcome, and lifesaving and life-enhancing treatments get to those who need them as rapidly as possible.

SOURCE Trade & Travel

Related Links

http://tradeandtravel.dcode.co


The world economy is struggling along as the COVID-19 epidemic continues spreading and has greatly impacted global production and demand.

At this point, it is needed more than ever for the international community to strengthen comprehensive cooperation to foster a strong force against the pandemic and to jointly roll out stronger macropolicy to hedge against the outbreak and reverse economic decline.

However, some U.S. politicians are obsessed with making troubles. Recently, they have wantonly stigmatized the international environment for economic cooperation and accused China of engaging in an "economic blitzkrieg" and attempting to raid the U.S. instead of trading with it.

They have also advocated U.S. economic and technological decoupling from China, trying to sabotage the global industrial chain and supply chain. Such ridiculous attempts seriously disobey the reality and will only set up a stumbling block for global economic recovery.

While the confirmed cases and fatalities of COVID-19 in America continue to rise, the real GDP of the U.S. contracted at an annualized rate of 32.9 percent in the second quarter, the worst decline since the government began keeping records in 1947.

Fitch Ratings downgraded its outlook on the U.S. credit rating from "stable" to "negative" in a recent report.

The U.S. economy cratered into a "very deep and dark hole" in Q2, according to Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics. "We're coming out of it, but it's going to take a long time to get out," Zandi added.

While most parts of the world are slowly climbing out of the "blockade", the U.S. has remained an outsider among advanced economies because of its uneven management of the crisis, as pointed out by The Financial Times.

It is U.S. policy that threatens to pull the world under now as the countrys troubled response to the coronavirus pandemic emerges as a chief risk to any sustained global recovery, said an article published on Reuters.

Faced with such a severe situation, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other officials, however, seem bent on starting a new Cold War against China.

By stirring things up with ideologies and attempting to decouple from China, they fantasize about passing the buck on China and whitewashing the U.S. government's inability to contain the epidemic and the economic downturn back home. But their trick will never work.

American economists have publicly pointed out that some U.S. politicians lack common sense of economics, and the international community is worried that the world economy will suffer even greater losses after the silly shows put on by Pompeo and other U.S. officials.

Some economists warn that decoupling would amount to building giant trade barriers between the world's two largest economies, which could send the cost of goods up, reduce economic growth and set the table for an economic cold war, according to an article on American news website The Hill.

Former U.S. senior diplomat Charles Freeman noted that decoupling will injure and impoverish both countries as well as the rest of the world.

One of the keys to solving the current world economic crisis is to jointly maintain the stability of the global industrial chain and supply chain. China's role in the global industrial and supply chains has been decided by both the law of markets and the choices of enterprises.

While preventing and controlling the epidemic, China has been promoting the resumption of work, production, business and market in an orderly manner.

China's economy grew by 3.2 percent year-on-year in the second quarter. Its manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) rose to 51.1 in July, expanding for the fifth consecutive month (a reading above 50 indicates expansion).

The hard-won economic performance of China counts as a precious sign of global economic recovery.

China willmore than everpromote world economic growth once again, said an article published on German daily newspaper Der Tagesspiegel.

It should be noted that the U.S. has recently resorted to state power to suppress certain Chinese companies, which was outright hegemony and has posed a threat to the upgrade of the global industrial chain on the normal track.

Pompeo announced on August 2 that U.S. President Donald Trump would announce new action ''in the coming days'' related to Chinese software companies that his administration views as a threat to U.S. national security.

Prior to this, the U.S. also went out of its ways to interfere in the 5G network construction in other countries and openly coerced some countries into excluding Chinese tech company Huawei in their 5G international cooperation.

It is evident that the U.S. is deliberately generalizing the concept of national security, making the threats against relevant companies based on the presumption of guilt and without any evidence.

Such moves run counter to the principles of a free-market economy, reveal the U.S. hypocrisy in so-called "upholding fairness and freedoms" and its typical double standards, and violate the World Trade Organization (WTO) principles of openness, transparency, and non-discrimination.

The basic theories of international economics show that no single country has all the resources, technologies and capabilities required for a new round of global technological and industrial upgrading.

China-U.S. decoupling in science and technology will only undermine the global scientific and technological innovation system and hinder the recovery of world economy.

Innovation is one of the most important drivers of world economic growth. The practices of some U.S. officials have clearly obstructed the long-term development of global economy.

Billions of dollars in tech revenue are at risk across Asia Pacific following the most recent U.S. restrictions on Huawei, according to a report by S&P Global Ratings, an American credit rating agency.

The practice of seeking decoupling of science and technology has seriously disrupted the order of globalization, said an article on Foreign Policy.

The world is witnessing a time with an overwhelming trend toward peace and cooperation, openness and connectivity, as well as reform and innovation.

Countries must have an opener mindset and take more open steps, and work together to make the pie of the global market even bigger. They need to strengthen the mechanisms for sharing benefits globally, and explore new ways of international cooperation. The goal is to give more impetus to economic globalization and remove impediments as much as possible.

Such a vision of development has been widely acknowledged by the international society. The world welcomes propellers for win-win cooperation, rather than stumbling blocks that do nothing but to cause troubles.

As the world's largest economy, the U.S. is supposed to make more contributions to world economic recovery.

Some U.S. officials should heed the voices from the international community, provide an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory environment for market entities of other countries to invest and operate in the U.S., stop politicizing trade and economic issues, and stop promoting discrimination and policies of exclusion through abusing the concept of national security.

Hopefully, they could make a right choice out of their responsibilities for both the American and world economy.

(Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by People's Daily to express its views on foreign policy.)
'Jesus Politics': Phil Robertson says we dont need a political fix' for a spiritual war

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"Duck Dynasty" patriarch Phil Robertson tackles the problems facing America in his new book,Jesus Politics: How to Win Back the Soul of America, and says the solution is a spiritual one, not a political one.

In the book, the New York Times bestselling author bluntly expresses his beliefs about the destructive nature of American politics. As an outspoken Christian, he charges other believers to do everything they can in these times to advance the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.

Robertson encourages Christians to invite Jesus into the issues facing the nation. He details, from Scripture, how he believes Jesus would respond to the issues of our day by offering a manifesto of how to do good by King Jesus, bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to homes, neighborhoods, churches, communities, and the nation.

The following is an edited transcript of The Christian Post's interview with Robertson, where he journeys through Scripture to share what he believes the problems in America are and how Christians can work to overcome those issues.

CP: What message are you trying to get across through your new book, Jesus Politics?

Robertson: You got to remember, when Jesus got here roughly, by my count, 5,300 years ago, the prediction was made way back in Genesis: "Someone born of a woman would crush the evil one."

So everyone waited, and in the Old Testament from Genesis all the way through Malachi up to Matthew, it says: "Jesus is coming!" All the prophecies, hundreds. "We've got Jesus coming. This is where He'll be born." All these prophecies.

Well, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Jesus is here and John the Baptist was hollering, "Repent, for the Kingdom of God is near." And then Jesus went out and He preached, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near." He sent out the disciples, and they all said, "Repent, for the Kingdom of God is near."

It came, and in Acts Chapter 2, He gave these Apostles the ability to speak in any language worldwide. He sent them out and it reached worldwide, and now there's about 3 billion of us.

What we're trying to do through this book is just to get the human race to put their faith in Jesus. He'll remove their sin and He'll guarantee them they can be raised from the dead, for crying out loud! All they have to do is love Him and love each other. I just don't see the downside.

Thats the best deal we're ever going to get. Someone says, "I think I'll take my chances without Jesus." I'm like, "And what chance is that? Cause physical death, as we all know, it's all around us. It's coming at some point." At least with this, I've never heard a story that said, "Every wrong thing you ever did won't be counted against you. Nothing in the future will be counted against you. He'll be interceding for you back in Heaven. And on top of that, don't fear death, if you believe in me," Jesus said. "Even if you die, yet shall you live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die" [John 11].

Your body goes into the cemetery and your soul, your spirit goes to live with God. And when Jesus returns, He's going to raise your dead cold body, and it'll be an immortal body that'll live forever. I'm like, this is about the best rescue I've ever heard of.

So that's the message we're getting out there. We're still trying to get people to just love God, love your neighbor. I'm not asking for the moon here. There's a lot of people who come down here all the time. So we are making an impact. We can't stop because God has afforded us to do whatever we do in the Kingdom. I happen to be a proclaimer.

CP: Are you like a voice crying out in the wilderness in these times?

Robertson: In the book of 1 Peter, the Apostle  he's the one that ran out on Jesus at one time  listen to this, "You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood." So think about it. When I'm walking down the road and somebody drives by and looks at me, he may say something like, "I wonder where that homeless guy is going? Cause I look a little scruffy." He would never think I was a member of a royal priesthood and I'm actually a priest in the Kingdom of God.

"We are a chosen people, a holy nation of people belonging to God" [1 Peter 2]. Here's my point: We're a Kingdom, a spiritual Kingdom, with Jesus being the King. We bow to Him. He's a good King because He's our brother, our friend, our Savior. He's a great King! He's never going to desert us. He'll always be there. He's removed our sin. He's going to raise us from the dead, and so we go forth and share that with others because I don't think it's a political fix. I call it (the book) Jesus Politics because I wanted them to see it's a spiritual war we're in. Not so much a political fix. It's a spiritual fix.

So we need to get back to God. They ran Him out of our schools, out of Hollywood, out of the news media, and out of the education. I have two degrees. I know I don't look like I do, but I actually do. Not one of my college professors ever said the word Jesus or God or the Holy Spirit. Not one word in any history class. Nothing!

[In college,] I was just out there getting high, getting drunk, running around  it was the '60s  until I was 28. I sat down with [someone] and I thought, "He What? God became flesh." We're counting time by it. This calendar says 2020. Last year was 2019, 2018, walk it back, you're going to get to year one. Well, it just so happens that's when Jesus showed up. Well, I would at least investigate Him.

CP: Jesus Politics exposes the destructive nature of American politics. What inspired the book? Was this some kind of a divine deposit?

Robertson: It wasn't like I heard an audible voice that said, "Phil, write a book, no." I'm just watching what Lot observed, way back in Sodom and Gomorrah. The Bible says he was tormented in his righteous soul. "If God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment. If He did not spare the ancient world when He broke the flood on its ungodly people" [2 Peter 2:4]. There was a period in history before now, way back in the days of Noah, what was the problem? God said, "Their every thought was evil. Except for eight" [Genesis 6]. Noah and his family.

Well, he drowned them all. "But He protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness and others. If He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah ..." They were wicked, kind of like we are. "For burning them to ashes and He made them an example of what's going to happen to the ungodly. He rescued Lot, a righteous man who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men. For that righteous man being among them day after day was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds, he saw and heard" [2 Peter 2].

If this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly man from trials and hold the unrighteous for the Day of Judgment or continuing their punishment. That's what motivated [me] to say, "Please read this; please think about what you're doing."

The fruit of the Spirit. We're trying to get America to understand. Because if I look at them in the streets of New York and I'm thinking, wait a minute, spray cans, the F-word follows them everywhere they go. They're grown. They're adults. ... They're full of hate. And I'm thinking, the fruit of the Spirit  "Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" [Galatians 5:22-23].

It's a spiritual war! That's why I don't think it's a political fix. I think it's a spiritual fix from bottom to top.

CP: Some Christians confuse their spiritual identity with their political ideologies. Can you talk about that, and why as Christians, we have to be careful not to do that?

Robertson: The source of love is the God of Heaven. God, the Apostle John said, "is love." Listen to this: "If I had the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains ..." this answers your question ... "but have not love. I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor, and surrender my body to the plains, but have not loved, I gained nothing. Love is patient" [1 Corinthians 13].

So even Christians get tangled up in these local events and these evil things that they see. "Love is patient." Think about a person being patient, the people in your streets in New York and all across the country. They are on the other side of patient.

"Love is kind. It does not envy." You've got it and I need it, and it's not fair because you've mistreated my ancestors. They're envious. "Your white privilege."

[The Bible says,] "Love does not boast. Love, it's not proud, it's not rude." How about that for the streets of America? Love is not rude. "It is not self-seeking. It's not easily angered." They form these groups under the banner.

Oh you say, "It seems we may have a problem in the country." The Bible says, "Love keeps no record of wrongs." We weren't even here. I didn't do it. I wasn't there. You're going back 100, 200 years.

1 Corinthians 13 continues: "Love does not delight in evil. Love rejoices with the truth." Check this one, "Love always protects"  shields, defends  "Love always trusts. Always hopes, always perseveres and Love never fails."

Do you realize how difficult it is to get human beings to do that?

So for everyone I see who drives down here, flies out here, I take them to the river and they start over again, they give their life to Jesus. They're members of the Kingdom of God. They are guaranteed to be raised from the dead. For everyone that does it, I'm like, "it's worth it." Even if just one turned, it would be worth it.

CP: So how would Jesus Politics deal with the current climate of racism and social injustice?

Robertson: You know what the saddest thing in the world is to see people not realizing? The Apostle Paul was speaking to the smartest individuals that the Greek Empire had.

Check this out: "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. He's not served by human hands as if he needed anything. Because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man He made every nation of men" [Acts 17].

You say, "We all came from Adam? Well, how come that one is a different color than I am?" God did it. God made him that way. He Himself gives all men life, everything else. He determines the time set for them, the exact places where they should live. God did this so men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him. So He's not far from each one of us.

My college professors said there were three races. But the bottom line is, God said,[theres] just one race on the planet Earth, it's called the human race. We all came from the same two: Adam and Eve. They've traced that DNA all the way back and then it just stops. Therefore, if we all come from one man, there's only one race on planet Earth, the human race.

Where we meet up [together], it's a pretty rough part of town, as they would say, but Miss Kay and I, we go up on Sunday mornings. Now, since the pandemic, there's about 100. But before that, there was a couple hundred. About 60% of them are African American, and 40% of them are white. I told them one day, I said, "this is pretty cool. There's no black churches with us, no white churches. It's just the Kingdom of God worldwide." This is the way it ought to be.

We have a meal, some of the homeless people come in. They've been sleeping under a bridge, we help them out, try to get them out from under the bridge if they want to. But the homeless are there, we're all eating a meal together. We stop and we remember the blood that was shed for us, the Lord's supper  the bread, the body that was nailed to cross. We just stop in the middle of the meal. So let's remember Jesus here with the Lord's Supper.

When I go down there I'm baptizing some of these dudes that live on the street and they haven't had a bath probably, some of them six months. But I don't care. I love them. They're my brother and they're in the audience. So it is a pretty cool thing to be a part of. Blacks, whites altogether. Brothers, sisters in the Lord. So that's what we're trying to show America. We're reaching a lot of them but we could always reach more, so that's why I wrote a book.

CP: The subtitle of the book reads, "How to win back the soul of America." Would you say that America has sold its soul?

Robertson: Here's the Apostle Paul, he's talking to the young evangelist named Timothy. Check this out, because you ask who stolen their soul, it's the evil one.

"The Lord's servant must not quarrel." That's me. "Instead He must be kind to everyone." I'm the Lord's servant. I don't bad mouth the people that are tearing up and shooting up the streets and the spray cans.

You say, "You don't hate them?" Not at all. I would love to sit down with them and have a little Bible study. "The Lord's servant must be able to teach, not resent those who oppose him."  I have plenty  "He must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance and leading them to a knowledge of the truth." The truth in the Bible is Jesus' death, burial and resurrection. "Hoping they'll come to a knowledge of the truth that they'll come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil who has taken them captive to do His will" [2 Timothy 2].

So every time I [answer] a question [I] read a Bible verse to let [you] know [I] didn't write this, [I] just read it. That's why when you become a faithful soldier, for God, and you realize that "You'll know the truth and the truth does set you free" [John 8]. Set you free from what? Set you free from Satan! He's taken you captive to do His will.

[Jesus will] set free from sin  take your sins away. Set free from guilt. "My life's in shambles, I'm on drugs." Set you free from law, having to be perfect. He'll remove your mistakes. He'll intercede for you not counting your future sins against you.

Also the final thing, He sets you free from is the grave. That's what I call game, set, match! Set free from Satan, sin, guilt, law, and the grave.

CP: In the book, you provide a manifesto that shows us how to do right by King Jesus. Any last words?

Robertson: Vote for people who are godly and love them all. Forgive and be quick to forgive. It's God who granted us repentance  you and me. He gave us repentance. I never dreamed I'd be following Jesus. But I am, and now that I am I'm like, "What was I thinking [before]?"
Samsung is one of few companies still making premium Android tablets, and its getting pretty good at it. The company announced the new Galaxy Tab S7 and S7+ at its Unpacked event yesterday and based simply off the specs, these are very impressive devices. Not only are they the first 5G tablets in the US, but they sport roomy displays with 120Hz refresh rates. Theyre also powered by Qualcomms recently announced Snapdragon 865 Plus CPU, promising plenty of power for productivity. The Tab S7 is smaller and uses an LCD screen, while the 12-inch S7+ is clearly the higher end model. I got my hands on a Tab S7+ for a quick spin, and so far, Im impressed.

Samsungs design game is stronger than ever, at least when it comes to its tablets and laptops. The Tab S7+ is very well made and feels like the Rolls Royce of Android tablets (although that isnt saying much since there arent many of them around). Its sleek lines and brushed metallic finish lend it an air of class thats enhanced by the absolutely arresting 12.4-inch AMOLED. The device feels pretty heavy, though, at 575 grams (1.26 pounds).

Snap on the new keyboard case and the Tab S7+ gains a bit more weight, although its still lighter than most laptops. Ive had issues with Samsungs keyboard accessories in the past -- they were cramped, shallow and very finicky. The Tab S7+s keyboard is a vast improvement. Because previous Tabs were 10-inch slates, there wasnt a lot of room for Samsung to squeeze in a full keyboard. This time around, the keys are well-spaced, offer plenty of travel and are a pleasure to type on. Samsung also added a new row of dedicated function keys at the top and I was able to take quick screenshots by pressing the second last button.

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The keyboard cover also features a wider trackpad than previous generations, and now supports multi-finger gestures. I havent used the Tab enough to say that all of the actions work well, but two-finger scrolling to pull up the apps drawer on the DeX desktop was effective. Im hopeful that the keyboard, which will cost you extra (Samsung hasnt shared how much yet), will make it much easier to multitask on the Tab S7+.

But just as important as a good keyboard is good multitasking software. Samsung has been trying to improve its DeX desktop interface for Android for years, adding things like resizable windows, a dedicated keyboard shortcut to activate it and multi-window support over time. On the Tab S7+, DeX automatically launches when you attach the keyboard, which makes sense. I cant say much about the software here, in part because Samsung cautions this isnt a final version. From the brief time Ive spent with the Tab S7+ though, Im underwhelmed -- there still arent buttons to close windows, for example, or an easy way to return to the desktop home page. Perhaps these are things Samsung will address by the time the Tab S7+ launches later this year.

One of my favorite things about Samsungs tablets is the S Pen, because it makes note-taking and drawing so easy. The improved 9ms latency didnt feel like a significant improvement, though, and I already found previous generations of the S Pen smooth and responsive. When I doodled a smiley face and wrote a quick list on the Tab S7+, there was a cute, but not really helpful, sound effect like writing with a lead pencil on paper.

Cherlynn Low / Engadget

What is helpful are the new Notes features like being able to import a PDF and annotate it or pull in audio recordings. I wasnt able to test these out during my short time with the Tab S7+, but I remain impressed with the Notes apps ability to recognize my truly awful handwriting and index it so I can quickly find the exact list I need.

I havent pushed the Tab S7+ very hard during this quick test period, but it was fast and responsive while I had it. The Snapdragon 865 Plus chipset is clearly very powerful, though Im not sure if the 6GB of RAM Samsung provides in the base model is going to be enough for serious multitasking. Thats less RAM than the 8GB that the Note 20s start with, too!

Im not a fan of taking photos with tablet cameras, especially not an unwieldy 12-inch monster like the Tab S7+. But if you really need it, the S7+s dual rear cameras took clear, colorful shots. And as expected, the AMOLED screen made things like a 1080p trailer for Christopher Nolans Tenet look rich and inviting, with details like broken tiles on the ground appear especially crisp. The trailers music also sounded rounded from my brief preview, thanks to the quad-speakers.

Cherlynn Low / Engadget



There are a few more things I didnt get around to fully testing for this hands-on, namely 5G connectivity and gaming with Xbox game pass. Since this preview unit doesnt run final software yet, there are a lot more things about the multitasking environment and DeX that I cant comment on either. But so far, this peek at what the Tab S7+ has to offer has been promising. It has a bombastic specs list (though the 11-inch model is less impressive) and a beautiful build, which might make the $849 starting price easier to swallow. Before you go splurging on it though, you should stay tuned for a full review for the verdict on things like battery life and prolonged real-world performance.
A data security breach involving an online examination tool used by Australian universities is under investigation.

A University of Sydney spokeswoman said it met with the company, ProctorU, on Thursday and confirmed an investigation into a confidential data breach was under way.

A data breach involving online examination software used by Australian universities is under investigation. Credit:Erin Jonasson

"Any breach of security and privacy of this type is of course deeply concerning and we will continue to work with ProctorU to understand the circumstances of the breach and determine whether any follow-up actions are required on our part," the spokeswoman said.

"Well also review our experience of online exams and proctoring this year to inform our approach to assessments in 2021.
Mumbai, Aug 6 : Akshay Kumar, Lara Dutta, Huma Qureshi and Adil Hussain, were clicked at Mumbai Airport on Thursday, on way to board a charter flight to the UK on Thursday.

Akshay and his co-stars will shoot for the first international schedule of the upcoming film "BellBottom" in Glasgow, Scotland, amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Bollywood superstar was accompanied by wife Twinkle Khanna and children, Aarav and Nitara. Lara was spotted along with her husband Mahesh Bhupathi and daughter Saira. All of them followed proper safety precautions, wearing masks and face shields. Akshay and Huma even posed for the paparazzi in gear.

Actress Vaani Kapoor also plays a pivotal role in the film.

Soon after boarding the flight, Adil took to Twitter and shared a selfie. "Taking off for Glasgow, #Scotland Now @CreativeScots@alangemmell to shoot. First Film Shoot during Covid19 #LockDown after four months," he wrote.

In the image, he is seen sporting a mask with the "BellBottom" logo on it.

Inspired by true events, the film is set in the 1980s, and the story is about one of India's forgotten heroes. Director Ranjit M. Tewari will helm the project.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
(Newser)  An online hearing for the teen accused of masterminding last month's massive Twitter hack was delayed Wednesdayby hackers. The Tampa judge briefly suspended the hearing for 17-year-old Graham Clark after "ZoomBombers" posing as CNN and BBC reporters played loud rap music and displayed pornographic images, WFLA reports. After the Zoom hearing resumed, and disruptions continued, Judge Christopher C. Nash declined to lower Nash's bail from $725,000, reports the AP. Clark is accused of making at least $117,000 from the scheme, which involved hijacking the accounts of high-profile users including Barack Obama and asking for Bitcoin donations. Nash said the next online hearing will be on Oct. 7and added that it will be "a password protected Zoom conference." (Read more Twitter stories.)
As part of the first stage of the reopening, Egypt reopened its main seaside resorts to international flights and foreign tourists on 1 July

As many as 50,000 tourists have visited Egypt's seaside cities of Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada since the country announced the resumption of regular international flights last month following a three-month closure due to the coronavirus pandemic, Egypt's tourism minister Khaled Al-Anany said.

As part of the first stage of the reopening, Egypt reopened its main seaside resorts to international flights and foreign tourists on 1 July.

Foreign tourists are now allowed to fly into three areas: South Sinai, where the popular seaside resort of Sharm El-Sheikh is located, the Red Sea governorate, home to the city of Hurghada, and Marsa Matrouh on the Mediterranean.

The tourists came from Ukraine, Belarus, Switzerland, Serbia, and Hungary, Al-Anany said during a meeting held Wednesday with a number of investors and hotel operators in the Red Sea and South Sinai governorates to discuss challenges facing the tourism sector.

"No single coronavirus infection was detected among those tourists whether during their stay in Egypt or after their return to their countries," the minister was quoted as saying in a statement carried by Ahram Arabic news website.

Officials earlier said that travelers coming from countries with high rates of coronavirus infections are required to submit test results to prove they are virus-free before travelling.

Hotels and restaurants in Egypt are now allowed to operate at 50 percent of the usual capacity after meeting health and safety protocols.

Egypt's daily tally of new coronavirus infections and daily death toll both have continued to decline in recent weeks despite the recent lifting of lockdown measures in the country.

The country reported 123 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, bringing the total infection tally to 94,875, including 4,930 deaths.

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Huynh Sang simply looked for a way to send positivity to child cancer patients through gifts of DIY ship models, but what he created turned out to be way more than that.

Sangs home on Lac Long Quan Street, Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City, was seen in late July harboring over 100 model ships, enough to wow any visitors.

The collection covers a multitude of ship and vessel designs throughout history: from sailboats and sampans  a kind of flat-bottomed wooden boat with one on-board shelter  to battleships and aircraft carriers, even the infamous passenger liner Titanic.

From drawers to the floor, virtually every space inside Sangs home is occupied by model ships. Some other unfinished ship miniatures were in various stages of being built.

According to Sang, this whole endeavor started from the idle hours during the COVID-19 social distancing order back in April, taking advantage of the quality time with his son by building a compact ship model.

As he spent more time on the hobby, he grew more and more engrossed with his newfound interest. After the humble early project of building a sampan, Sang further honed his skills to take on more complicated projects such as the Titanic, an aircraft carrier, and a battleship.

The beginner pieces allow me to create solely from memory and imagination, but the more advanced ones require me to look up images and do research to approach a certain level of realism, Sang said.

Ferrying the dreams

Since the adoption of his new hobby, Sang does not consider any objects in his house to be disposable anymore  he utilizes plastic straws, single-use chopsticks, carton boxes, Q-tips, and anything else he can find to incorporate them into his projects. Each model takes him about five to ten hours to make, depending on the complexity, details, and size of each model.

During my transition into creating big ships, I found myself gathering more thoughts on the tides of life that these children are grappling with day to day, which predicated my initiative of sending model ships to them. Kids would love the toys, just like my child does, Sang said about the genesis of his project 'Cho uoc mo qua ngon song' (Ferrying dreams through the tides of life).

Under Sangs adept hands, each model is meticulously crafted down to the minor details such as spare sails on sailboats, smokestacks on the Titanic, missile launchers on battleships or even strokes of paint to show damage and wear on aircraft carriers.

However, Sangs favorite design has always been the stripped-down ferries and sampans endemic to the Mekong Delta.

I use the boat theme in my gifts to the child patients, hoping that the imagery would help them champion their struggle with pain and diseases and retain their grace, innocence and positivity each morning they wake up, Sang said.

Another bundle of gifts for child patients

Shortly after completing his first round of gift projects for child cancer patients, Sang talked about his initiative in a Facebook update, which gathered an unexpected amount of support from concerned people.

The social media post helped gather material for Sangs model-making work, as well as a considerable amount of money from benevolent supporters.

On the afternoon of July 31, Sang was able to gift the children receiving treatment at the Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital with his usual model boats and also packages to help reimburse their hospital fees donated by Sang and his supporters.

There were 13 patients who received VND5 million [US$215] hospital fee reimbursement each, while one received VND6 million [$258], which brings the total amount to VND71 million [$3,100]. The beneficiaries are all underprivileged children facing hardship in terms of hospital fees, said Dinh Thi Kim Phan, teacher for child patients in the general medicine pediatrics department of the Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital.

Huynh Sang is shown preparing ship models before gifting them to child cancer patients in this photo taken on July 31, 2020. Photo: Cong Trieu / Tuoi Tre

Sang is seen using a hot glue gun to craft his ship model. Photo: Cong Trieu / Tuoi Tre

A collection of DIY ship models is displayed on a shelf in Sangs house. Photo: Cong Trieu / Tuoi Tre

A ship model of a sailboat. Photo: Cong Trieu / Tuoi Tre

Sang holds one of his DIY ship models. Photo: Cong Trieu / Tuoi Tre

Sang holds a ship model replicating a battleship. Photo: Cong Trieu / Tuoi Tre

Sang (middle) is pictured completing one of his DIY ship models. Photo: Cong Trieu / Tuoi Tre

Volunteers supporting Sangs philanthropic cause are seen preparing for a gift ceremony at the Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital. Photo: Cong Trieu / Tuoi Tre

A child patient at the Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital takes a ship model from Huynh Sang. Photo: Cong Trieu / Tuoi Tre

A child patient at the Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital receives a ship model from a philanthropic supporter. Photo: Cong Trieu / Tuoi Tre

Child patients peek at ship models through the glass from the other side of the door in this photo taken at the Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital. Photo: Cong Trieu / Tuoi Tre

Parents of child cancer patients receive packages of milk from the philanthropic supporters. Photo: Cong Trieu / Tuoi Tre

Tu Uyen, a child patient at the Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital is seen with her ship model gift. Photo: Cong Trieu / Tuoi Tre

A child cancer patient (middle) holds a ship model gift. Photo: Cong Trieu / Tuoi Tre

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Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds made headlines this week when he admitted it had been a 'giant mistake' to marry wife Blake Lively on a former plantation.

The couple tied the knot in 2012 at Boone Hall, a 730-acre estate in South Carolina that relied on slave labour.

'It's impossible to reconcile,' Reynolds said. 'What we saw at the time was a wedding venue on Pinterest. What we saw after was a place built upon devastating tragedy.'

The comments have sparked debate on both sides of the Atlantic, with Twitter users torn over whether it is appropriate to 'ignore' the dark history of a dream wedding venue.

Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds made headlines this week when he admitted it had been a 'giant mistake' to marry wife Blake Lively on a former plantation. The couple tied the knot in 2012 at Boone Hall, pictured, a 730-acre estate in South Carolina that relied on slave labour

The issue could prove problematic for some stately homes and castles across the UK which have their own dark pasts rooted in the British slave trade.

Slavery and the British Country House, a book published by English Heritage in 2013, examined in detail the links between the nation's great houses and its colonial past.

Some, including Grade I-listed Harewood House, near Leeds, were built using money derived from slavery. Others were inhabited by wealthy businessmen in the trade.

Here, FEMAIL examines the dark histories of four popular British wedding venues.

HAREWOOD HOUSE, WEST YORKSHIRE

Harewood House, a Grade -I listed building in West Yorkshire, was built in the 18th century for Barbadian-born landowner Edwin Lascelles, 1st Baron Harewood. Edwin later acquired a vast portfolio of West Indian property. In just 14 years more than 2,947 slaves were acquired

Sitting in 1,000 acres, Harewood House, a Grade -I listed building in West Yorkshire, was built in the 18th century for Barbadian-born landowner Edwin Lascelles (left), 1st Baron Harewood. It was inherited by his cousin, Edward Lascelles, 1st Earl Harewood (right), a slave trader

Sitting in 1,000 acres, Harewood House, a Grade -I listed building in West Yorkshire, was built in the 18th century for Barbadian-born landowner Edwin Lascelles, 1st Baron Harewood.

At the time of its construction (1759-71), Edwin owned neither slaves nor plantations. However the wealth underpinning the estate derived from an immense West India fortune created by his father, Henry Lascelles (1690-1753), who owned a Barbados plantation (sold off in 1758) and set up a syndicate investing in slaving.

Edwin later acquired a vast portfolio of West Indian property. In just 14 years, between 1773 and 1787, more than 27,000 acres and 2,947 slaves were acquired, worth 293,000 (about 28.3 million).

Ties to the West Indies were strengthened still further when Edwin died childless and the estate was inherited by his cousin, Edward Lascelles, 1st Earl Harewood.

Edward made an incalculable fortune from buying and selling men and women out of Africa. He then locked them up for months on so-called factory ships, from which they were eventually dispatched to the New World. Many died on the voyage from Africa to Barbados, while countless others were murdered or executed when they rose in rebellion at their savage treatment upon arrival.

Today Harewood is an upmarket wedding venue and serves as a filming location. The Downton Abbey film and ITV series Victoria were both partly filmed on site. Part of the estate has been developed as the village in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale.

A statement on the Harewood House website, posted in June, reads: 'We recognise the colonial past of Harewood House which was created using the historic wealth of the Lascelles family, garnered from the West Indian sugar trade of plantations, enslavement of people of colour and ownership of ships and warehouses.

'Today, Harewood House is an educational charity set up to share Harewoods story, to listen, to learn, and to enrich peoples lives using our collections, surroundings, and our history as means of creating a better society today.

'We condemn racism in all its forms, we believe that black lives matter, and we commit to tackling how Harewood shares and confronts the past, and to question what that means for communities today. Harewood cannot change its past, but we can use it as a stark, unequivocal truth to build a fairer, equal future.'

LEIGH COURT, SOMERSET

Leigh Court, in Abbots Leigh, Somerset, was constructed in 1814 by Bristolian businessman Philip John Miles. Philip John Miles was a major beneficiary of the Slave Compensation Act, in which slave owners were paid for enslaved people freed in the colonies

Built on the site of a house of rest for the monks of St Augustine's Abbey and then an Elizabethan mansion, the current Leigh Court, in Abbots Leigh, Somerset, was constructed in 1814 by Bristolian businessman Philip John Miles.

Leigh Court, in Abbots Leigh, Somerset, was constructed in 1814 by Bristolian businessman Philip John Miles, pictured

According to Madge Dresser, an Honorary Professor of History at the University of Bristol, Miles 'built on his father William's success as a planter and trader, to become Bristol's first sugar millionaire and its largest West India merchant'.

Writing in Slavery and the British Country House, Professor Dresser notes Miles' family business papers 'contain mortgages dating from the 1760s and 1770s for the Vallay, Rhodes Hall and other 32 Jamaican plantations containing hundreds of enslaved Africans'.

Philip John Miles was a major beneficiary of the Slave Compensation Act, in which slave owners were paid for enslaved people freed in the colonies. Records show he sought over 36,000 for over 1,700 slaves at plantations in Jamaica and Trinidad.

Leigh Court, a Grade II-listed property, is now a private conference centre and wedding venue.

STORRS HALL, CUMBRIA

Originally constructed in the 1790s for landowner and politician Sir John Legard, Storrs Hall was substantially remodelled and enlarged in 1808-1809 by John Bolton, a Liverpool slave owner and slave trader. Storrs Hall, pictured, is now a hotel

Originally constructed in the 1790s for landowner and politician Sir John Legard, Storrs Hall was substantially remodelled and enlarged in 1808-1809 by John Bolton, a Liverpool slave owner and slave trader.

Originally constructed in the 1790s for landowner and politician Sir John Legard, Storrs Hall was substantially remodelled and enlarged in 1808-1809 by John Bolton, pictured, a slave trader

Bolton's fortune originated in slave-related business. He began his career as an apprentice for the Liverpool West India partnership of Rawlinson and Chorley, Professor Jane Longmore, Vice Chancellor of the University of Cheshire, wrote in Slavery and the British Country House.

'In 1773 he was sent out to St Vincent and returned to the UK 15 years later when he began his own counting house and engaged in slaving and trade in West India produce,' Professor Longmore continued.

The Transatlantic Slave Trade Database shows him as participating in 69 slave voyages between 1788 and 1807. Initially (1788-1791) Bolton was one of a dozen or so partners in the voyages but subsequently he appears as the sole owner in the vast majority of them. His activity peaked between 1798 and 1805, in each year of which he sent at least five ships from Liverpool.

Storrs Hall, on Windermere, is now a private hotel which hosts weddings. The current owners are not related to John Bolton.

A Storrs Hall spokesperson said: 'Some of the more extreme stories about John Bolton's use of Storrs do not have any historically documented basis, they have however become part of folklore, as promoted by a local visitor attraction.

'He was the third owner of Storrs and extended the original building; when later owners turned it into a hotel in the late 19th century it was extended and more than doubled in size again. The debate about the heritage left by people who made their fortunes in the slave trade, is one that is right to have.'

FRAMPTON COURT, GLOUCESTERSHIRE

Set on 1,500 acres, Frampton Court hosts an annual country fare and is a coveted wedding venue. It has associations with slavery, although none as concrete as other properties

Set on 1,500 acres, Grade I-listed Frampton Court hosts an annual country fare and is a coveted wedding venue.

However Professor Dresser notes the estate has 'associations with slavery' although they are 'harder to determine with precision'.

The current stone mansion was rebuilt in 1730 by Richard Clutterbuck, who had inherited Frampton from his father William Clutterbuck, who in turn had been given the estate by his grandfather John Clifford in 1684.

Professor Dresser writes: 'Richard Cutterbuck made his fortune as the Bristol Controller of Customs and whose father seems to have served in the more lowly office of customs server before him.

'Given his role of regulating the merchandise going in and out of the port at the height of Bristol's involvement in the African trade, it is virtually certain that Richard Clutterbuck profited from it, either directly or covertly through loans, bribes or emoluments.'
Superintendent Hector Garcia said in an announcement that the last time that the two people were onsite while possibly contagious was Wednesday morning. It was determined that no one was in close contact with them, Garcia said. Close contact is defined as within 6 feet for a total of 15 minutes.
The Deputy Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Yekini Idiaye, has been impeached from office a few days after declaring political support for the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, Osagie Ize-Iyamu.

Mr Idiaye, removed on Wednesday during plenary, was replaced with Roland Asoro, the member representing Orhionwon II Constituency.

Information on Mr Idiayes impeachment was emailed by the Edo State Government House to PREMIUM TIMES, Wednesday.

The email, sent from the office of the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Godwin Obaseki, did not give details about the development other than that, He was impeached on Wednesday during plenary session of the Assembly.

The Speaker of assembly, Frank Okiye, said Mr Idiaye was removed because he was planning with the leaders of the APC, including the governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodinma, to violently take over the assembly, according to a report by the Punch newspaper.

Mr Idiaye, a few days ago, visited Mr Ize-Iyamu at his private residence in Benin City and promised to support him to win the September election in Edo.

There is no reason for me to defect to another party because there is no single project in my village to show under this present administration, Mr Idiaye told the APC governorship candidate.

Mr Ize-Iyamu, in his response to Mr Idiaye, said the non-inauguration of 14 members of the Edo assembly had deprived many people in the state of representation in the assembly.

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Mr Idiaye was accompanied on the visit by a lawmaker, Emmanuel Agbaje, who is representing Akoko-Edo Constituency II, and two yet-to-be-sworn-in members of the Edo assembly.

Out of 24 members of the assembly, 17 are supporting the APC candidate.

The Edo election is a straight fight between Messrs Ize-Iyamu and Obaseki. The latter is seeking a second term under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party.

PREMIUM TIMES could not immediately reach Mr Idiaye for his comment.
Sri Lankas main prison, Welikada, recently underwent a major break out as a feline who was being detained by the authorities for smuggling drugs and other contraband items inside the prison escaped from the room it was being held in. The cat in question was arrested for allegedly smuggling two grams of heroin, two sim cards and a memory chip, all in a plastic bag around its neck into the Welikada Prison, reported a police official.

On Sunday, the cat made its big prison break and has since disappeared, reported the Aruna Newspaper. The police are not offering any comments in regard to this.

However, this isnt the first attempt of people trying to smuggle small packets containing contraband items like cell phones, chargers, drugs, etc. inside the prison.

Just recently the authorities seized an eagle which was being used to distribute narcotics to the people in the suburb of Colombo but drug traffickers.

Sri Lanka has been in the throes of a massive drug problem on its streets as even the detectives in charge of the anti-narcotics division are involved in the smuggling and selling of the confiscated substances.

(With AFP inputs)

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Nixons support on Capitol Hill had cratered in the wake of new revelations in the Watergate scandal. But contrary to folklore, the trio didnt tell him to quit. In fact, the New York Times reported, Nixons chief of staff Alexander Haig specifically advised Rhodes, Scott and Goldwater against it, telling them in advance that the president was almost on the edge of resignation and if you suggest it, he may take umbrage and reverse.
Pauline Hanson has criticised calls to change the name of Pauls 'Smarter White' milk brand because it's offensive to Aboriginal people.

Daily Mail Australia revealed on Monday that Indigenous activist Dr Stephen Hagan wanted the named changed because it suggests 'white people are smarter'.

Dr Hagan was behind a successful campaign to change the name of Coon cheese after the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Canadian dairy giant Saputo agreed to axe the 85-year-old moniker, named after American cheese ripening pioneer Edward William Coon - because of its racist connotations - and is working on a new name.

Pauline Hanson has criticised calls to change the name of 'Smarter White' milk because it offends Aboriginal people. Pictured: Her Facebook post

'Now that the leftists have cancelled cheese and lollies they will be looking for their next target,' wrote Pauline Hanson (pictured)

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson today criticised Dr Hagan in a sarcastic Facebook post.

'Now that the leftists have cancelled cheese and lollies they will be looking for their next target,' she wrote.

'Rumour has it that 'Smarter White Milk' was top of the list but 'Australian White Potatoes' has emerged as a dark horse.

'Which do you think will be next to go, the intolerant lactose or the supremacist spud?

Dr Stephen Hagan, who succeeded in having the Coon cheese brand scrapped, now wants Pauls to rename its Smarter White milk

'If you think there is a third option that deserves to be here feel free to let me know. Remember, there are no stupid suggestions just stupid activists.'

Senator Hanson added a poll so her supporters could vote on which name they think is more likely to be changed.

Smarter White Milk - which she dubbed 'Intolerant Lactose' - received 56 per cent of votes.

Australian White potatoes - which she called 'Supremacist Spuds' - got 44 per cent.

Dr Hagan, a former diplomat and academic, who now works as a social justice consultant, said Pauls's French parent company Lactalis should consider replacing the 'Smarter White' label, which has been used to sell low-fat milk since 2002.

'Aboriginal people are saying that there's an inference that it's for smart, white people, not for smart, black people,' Dr Hagan told Daily Mail Australia.

'There's a lot of Aboriginal people who take offence, who don't drink that milk because of the interference that it's 'smarter white'.'

Dr Hagan said 'these enlightened times' of the Black Lives Matter movement meant a name change was 'worthy of consideration'.

Dr Hagan said the Smarter White brand, which dates back to 2002, was offensive to Aboriginal people because it implied white people were more intelligent

Dr Hagan last month convinced Canadian dairy giant Saputo to axe an 85-year-old moniker, named after American cheese ripening pioneer Edward William Coon, because of its racist connotations

The soy milk drinker said lots of Aboriginal people had raised the matter with him.

'I recall having conversations with people who don't buy that because of the connotation 'white people are smart',' he said.

'A lot of people have raised it with me: they asked the question about the Smarter White milk - 'Why couldn't it just be Smarter Milk? Why does it need to put the 'white' in there?'

'If enough people want to bring it to my attention, I'm happy to write a letter to the owners of Pauls and say, 'Look, will you consider changing the name?'.'

Pauls' French owner Lactalis declined to comment.

'Unfortunately we're unable to make any further comment,' a spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia.

Indigenous Alice Springs town councillor Jacinta Price described the call to rename Smarter White milk as 'utter nonsense'.

'I don't know a single Indigenous Australian who is offended at all by milk being called 'Smarter White',' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'Indigenous Australian have far greater issues to be concerned with than the name of a brand of cheese named after its founder or what's written on a carton of milk.'

Ms Price, who ran as a Country Liberal Party candidate at last year's federal election, said affluent activists 'whose lives are easy' were inventing issues to feel like victims instead of addressing family violence and sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities.

'I'd advise anyone who chooses to be offended by such a ridiculous proposition to assess their priorities,' she said.

'The victim mentality is unhealthy and completely unhelpful in attempting to address the real issues.'
Grassland farmers could reduce their overall nitrogen (N) input and maintain profitability with simple improvements to soil and nutrient management.

Independent grassland and soil specialist Chris Duller has been working with farmer William Hannah to explore options for reducing the amount of fertiliser N used at Mountjoy near Haverfordwest.

Inputs of N add two pence per litre (ppl) to the cost of production at this 500-acre spring-calving dairy farm.

As the farm sits near to the Western Cleddau river, cutting inputs would not only reduce the 40,000 annual spend on N but would have environmental benefits too.

During a live digital broadcast from Mountjoy, Mr Duller said the carbon cost of manufacturing nitrogen fertiliser is 3.5kg CO2 equivalent per kgN.

This adds up to 43 tonnes of CO2 equivalent a year on Mountjoy - comparable to the emissions created by 18 return flights from the UK to Florida annually.

N inputs on the grazing platform are currently 300kg/ha/year with a whole farm average of 270kg  the target is to reduce the whole farm figure to 150kg.

Mr Duller explained that in well managed grassland every kilogramme of N applied typically produces around 30kg/DM/ha of grass  a response of 30:1.

But nitrogen efficiency often diminishes when it is applied in higher quantities  the grass growth response rate from the first 100kg can be as high as 50:1 but may half with the next 100kg applied.

Mr Duller said, often the benefit from the next 100kg is very marginal: It will turn the grass green and that is about it."

At the beginning of the project at Mountjoy, N was applied at full rate (30kgN/ha), half rate (15kgN/ha) and zero rate to different sections of a grazing field following grazing rounds in June and July.

On the area that had the full nitrogen rate, growth rates of 79kgDM/ha/day were recorded.

On the half rate area, grass growth was only marginally lower (70kgDM/ha/day) but on the land on which no N was applied growth was down to 52kgDM/ha/day.

This early pilot study has shown that there is potential to ease back on the nitrogen in the summer without losing much grass growth, although currently natural soil nitrogen supply in the study field isnt adequate to maintain grass growth on its own.

We now need to expand this trial across other grazing paddocks," said Mr Duller.

But there are many reasons beyond inputs of N that will influence grass yield and these will be considered at Mountjoy.

Mr Duller said measures ranging from addressing soil compaction and maintaining potash and phosphate levels to applying slurry at the correct time can all result in less N being required to get the same grass response rate.
Jacob Elordi isnt just another heartthrob. The 23-year-old actor has the grit to travel to dark places on the HBO TV series Euphoria, where he plays Nate, a high school jock with anger management issues. More recently, Elordi switched courses to reprise his role as Noah in the Netflix rom-com The Kissing Booth 2, a sequel to the hit 2018 movie (a third installment has already been shot). Up next he stars in the indie drama 2 Hearts (in theaters on Oct. 16) and in Deep Water, a thriller with Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas, scheduled for release later this year.

For Varietys Power of Young Hollywood issue, Elordi talked over Zoom from his home in Brisbane, Australia, about preferring to play the bad guy.

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Euphoria is set in high school. What shows about high school did you watch growing up?

I watched High School Musical. I was actually a big fan of that. I watched Gossip Girl start to finish. Its intense. The soundtrack on that is crazy, by the way, if you go back and watch it. Also, Chuck Bass. What an irredeemable character. I believe he rapes two girls in the first episode, and then by the last season, you love him. How do you do that? What kind of arc is that?

Whats it like playing a morally questionable character?

When I was younger, I didnt question it so much. I just wanted to work and make movies. If the script is acknowledging them  and theyre meant to be there, and not just an outcome of bad writing  then I think its much more interesting to play it. Id hate to play someone whos morally correct all the time. We do shitty things all the time to each other.

Did you have to audition for Euphoria?

It was super simple. It was really just like a conventional audition process. I went down to the casting office, fumbled through my lines and ended up getting called back. And yeah, it was just like that. Sorry, I have a cough. I think I have this asthma thing going on. Its not the virus. Please dont jump to any conclusions.

Story continues

What can you tell us about Euphoria Season 2?

Sam [Levinson] changes scripts like a madman. I could tell you something now, and it would not be at all relevant to what Im going to read when we go back. Its ever changing, even up until the day that were shooting.

Did you work with an intimacy coordinator for your sex scenes?

Yeah, we did. Its interesting. I feel like everyone is supposed to say what a wonderful thing that is, given the current climate. I do agree with it to a degree, because it offers a safety net to yourself as a performer and to the people around you that you can always fall back on, and you can have that mutual trust.

I could just be being an idiot, but sometimes it can make a scene feel forced and I feel like it can lose that spark, which maybe has to happen for a safe work environment. But I would often wonder if theres another way, or if you could opt to have it or not to have it. Because if you have communication, like Alexa [Demie] and I had incredible communication. So we sorted most of all stuff out ourselves. I question what it does to the integrity of a scene, I suppose, in some instances. But its definitely a necessary thing, or a version of it, for sure.

Do you feel any pressure to look a certain type of way, given the physicality of your roles?

I wouldnt say in a vain nature. During Euphoria, I started the show much bigger, and then decided to lose that muscle and weight as we shot. I know a lot of male actors  kudos to them  do pushups and stuff before a scene, even if it has nothing to do with the scene, just so they look like theyre in great shape. Which is

fine, but I wouldnt say its my prerogative. I have a large frame in general.

Have you ever gotten your makeup done Euphoria-style?

I never got it done for my general life. I was meant to have it done for the premiere, but I was coming off of a plane. I would have loved that. Theres a movie called, I think its Velvet Goldmine, with Ewan McGregor and Christian Bale. This Iggy Pop thing. But they all wore makeup to that premiere. Everyone now is like, Wow, Euphoria has all this makeup. Look how far weve come. But if you go back to that movie, its Christian Bale on the carpet with this gorgeous stuff on his face.

Lets talk fashion choices. You were recently photographed in New York with gold nail polish.

I dont really know if theyre choices, as just kind of wake up and do it. Im pretty sure Id just gotten a suit in New York that had these little gold cat ears on it and I just wanted my nails to be gold. My nieces sometimes paint my nails, so maybe it was just an extension of that. Theres also something, just to be candid, really nice about the lady that sits there, and you have a little conversation with her as she files your nails and puts the paint on it. Its a great zen experience.

As for fashion, Im pretty sure most of it comes from my idols or movies. Ill see a character or something, and Ill just want to be like them. Ill just completely rip whatever theyre wearing.

Is there as much paparazzi for you in Australia as there is in L.A.?

Mm-mm [no]. This is the most beautiful place in the world. I had a run-in in Sydney once, strangely. That sucked. But, no. If Im by myself, you wont see me. Im a ghost.

The plot of Kissing Booth 2 revolves around a Dance Dance Revolution competition. Did you ever do DDR while shooting the movie?

Not even for a second. I dont even think I would have been allowed. It would have been an insurance problem. I would have gotten a serious injury. They dance so hard in that. No, Im so bad at that. Have you ever done that at an arcade?

Lets talk about how Kissing Both 2 ends

I havent seen it. Youve seen more than I have. I dont know if Im allowed to say that, but I havent. Do you like it?

Yeah, it was cute.

Be honest.

I thought it was better than the first one.

Thats so kind of you.

What was it like being on set with Ben Affleck while making Deep Water?

Like a dream. It was the most ridiculous thing ever. At first I just knew that Ben was in it. In my emails, its Ben Affleck, do you know what I mean? Hes one of the performers of my childhood, and just one of the all-time greats. We would do scenes from Good Will Hunting in acting school. Ive seen every single movie that mans made.

What can you tell us about Deep Water?

Its why I hope the cinemas open. Its such a Friday night movie to just go and see. You can get something out of it as well because its intelligent and its classy. I dont have the largest part to play in it, so I cant speak to the plot so much personally, but I just really like it. I think its such an important kind of movie for cinema and for movies. You would have seen it in the 90s or the early 2000s. Its such a movie. Its got a strong plot. Its intense. Its got great actors in it, and a great director. I hope its the rebirth of these kind of movies again.

What do you think of the Twitter account dedicated to Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas updates?

I feel like the Internet is dedicated to that. I feel so bad for them. Let them walk their bloody dog.

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Telangana has decided to go the way of several other states such as Maharashtra, Andhra and Karnataka which have policies to hire a majority of local people in industry.

Hyderabad: The Telangana Cabinet on Wednesday approved a proposal to reserve 80 per cent of semiskilled jobs and 60 per cent of skilled jobs for local people. This will apply to new industries coming up in the state.

These proposals were contained in the draft policy tabled by IT and industries minister K.T. Rama Rao, which was discussed and approved at a Cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao.

In preparing the policy draft, the Industries Department acted upon a diktat from Chandrashekar Rao to give preference to local people in new industries coming up in the state after since introduction of the TS-iPASS industrial policy.

In another decision, the cabinet felt that the IT industry in Hyderabad should not be concentrated at one point but spread all over the city. It approved a GriD policy  Growth in Dispersion  to give incentives to IT companies if they set up in areas other than western Hyderabad.

To encourage and promote the use of electric vehicles to decrease air pollution, the Cabinet approved the TS Electronic Vehicle and Energy Storage Solution Policy which will provide incentives to e-vehicle manufacturers.

As per the jobs policy, new industries coming up in the state were divided into two categories: In category-I, 70 per cent of jobs for semi-skilled workers are to be reserved for locals, and 50 per cent of skilled jobs should be filled by locals;

in Category-II, 80 per cent of semi-skilled manpower should be locals and 60 per cent skilled manpower.

The cabinet pointed out that states like Maharashtra (50 per cent of supervisory staff and 80 per cent of total employees), Karnataka (75 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (75 per cent) and Madhya Pradesh (70 per cent) were offering incentives with a condition that the industries employ local persons.

It was felt that this has faced a lot of criticism across industry quarters and the media, stating that it violates the constitutional provisions of equality and that Article 16 specifically states that no citizen shall, on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, residence, be ineligible for, or discriminated against in respect or, any employment or office.

The state government felt that instead of adopting such negative measures to employ local manpower it should propose an innovative two-pronged strategy to create a favourable environment to ensure that local youth are employed in industries.

During the meeting, the chief minister said one of the objectives of the new industrial policy was to attract investments to empower local people by skill development, employment generation, strengthen the economic well-being and improve overall standard of living of local people.

The Cabinet decided that the industries established in the state need to be facilitated with the employable local manpower through synergy between the government, Industry and the academia. It was also decided to ensure availability of skilled manpower through institutions like TASK, tagging core industries with ITIs/Polytechnics to ensure continuous availability of skilled manpower.
Conspiracy theorists have vowed to read a bizarre script to police who threaten to arrest them at a planned rally in Melbourne on the weekend to protest the stage-four lockdown.

A Facebook event to protest the shutdown intends to 'fill up the streets to show these criminals we won't give up our country and livelihoods without a fight'.

It has attracted more than 100 confirmed attendees and almost 400 expressions of interest.

Victoria Police said the 'selfish behaviour' will not be tolerated, and officers will 'respond and take appropriate action'.

But rally organisers have advised protesters to recite a script which they believe will stop police arresting them.

It reads: 'I have the right to demonstrate' and 'if you arrest me that will give me the right to place you in the witness box at the Melbourne Magistrates' Court'.

Rally organisers have advised protesters to recite a script to police from arresting them

A Facebook event to protest the shutdown intends to 'fill up the streets to show these criminals we won't give up our country and livelihoods without a fight'

In a statement on Thursday, Victoria Police said it was aware some 'selfish' people may be planning to protest in Melbourne's CBD on Sunday. Pictured: A man being fined in Victoria

The script then asks police if they have a 'valid Constitutional grant of power after the illegal removal of the crown' along with other questions about former Attorney General Robert Hulls.

Controversial anti-masker Eve Black used the same speech on cops at a checkpoint last month, although she was later arrested and fined.

In a statement on Thursday, Victoria Police said it was aware some 'selfish' people may be planning to protest in Melbourne's CBD on Sunday.

Should the march proceed, police said it would constitute a 'completely blatant breach' of the chief health officer's directions and put Victorians' lives at risk.

'This selfish behaviour will absolutely not be tolerated,' police said in a statement.

'Be assured Victoria Police will be responding and will take appropriate action.

Controversial anti-masker Eve Black used the same speech on cops at a checkpoint last month, although she was later arrested and fined

In a statement on Thursday, Victoria Police said it was aware some 'selfish' people may be planning to protest in Melbourne's CBD on Sunday. Pictured: A woman is arrested in Melbourne

'There will be a highly visible presence in and around the city to ensure the community is complying with stage four restrictions.'

They warned anyone caught on the street protesting could be issued on-the-spot fines of $1,652 or arrested if necessary.

The organisers of the event may also face disciplinary action, with police seeking to track them down.

But police have promised a common-sense approach to enforcing worker permits that are now in place with the stage-four lockdown, provided people do not try to rort the system.

Meanwhile, another person refusing to wear a mask fought off officers as they arrested her in Victoria.

Police in Geelong saw the 25-year-old woman on Monday afternoon and she allegedly repeatedly refused to provide her identify when asked.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said the tough restrictions were the 'only way' the state would drive down cases

They warned anyone caught on the street protesting could be issued on-the-spot fines of $1,652 or arrested if necessary. Pictured: Police arrest a man for not wearing a mask in July

When they attempted to arrest her, she allegedly became aggressive and assaulted them, with the two officers receiving minor injuries to their arms and hands.

The woman was charged with assaulting police, resisting police, failing to provide an address and fined $200 for breaching coronavirus directions.

Victoria Police released details of the arrest on Thursday after repeated incidents of people not wearing masks and refusing to co-operate with officers, including a 26-year-old policewoman's head being smashed into concrete by an anti-masker in Frankston.

176 fines handed out in Victoria on Wednesday * 51 for failing to wear a face covering * Seven at vehicle checkpoints, with 20,612 vehicles checked * 55 for curfew breaches * 4938 spot checks on people at homes, businesses and public places Advertisement

Victoria recorded 471 new cases of COVID-19 and eight more deaths on Thursday, far fewer than the record-breaking 725 cases and 15 deaths reported on Wednesday.

Regional Victoria entered stage three restrictions overnight, with residents only able to leave their homes to shop for food and essential items, to provide or receive care, to exercise, and to work and study if they can't from home.

The state's shutdown is expected to strip as much as $9 billion from the national economy over the three months to September, according to federal modelling.

The national unemployment rate is also expected to peak at almost 10 per cent.

Mr Andrews said the tough restrictions were the 'only way' the state would drive down cases.

'I'm not for a moment saying businesses are happy about this. They're not, I'm not, workers are not. This is not the position we wanted to find ourselves in,' he said.
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No fewer than 8,323 persons from Anambra are to benefit from the National Cash Transfer Programme of the Federal Government, Dr Temitope Sinkaiye, Director General of the programme has disclosed.

Sinkaiye made the disclosure in Awka on Wednesday during a Livelihood Pilot Step down Orientation Training held for Cash Transfer Facilitators of the program in Anambra.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the National Cash Transfer Office is an agency under the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management helping to alleviate poverty among poor and vulnerable Nigerians.

The DG, represented by Mr Henry Ayede, National Communication Officer of the agency, noted that stipends would be paid to beneficiaries to support themselves financially and establish business of their choice.

Sinkaiye said that six pilot Local Government Areas namely; Orumba South, Ayamelum, Awka North, Dunukofia, Anambra West and Ihiala had been selected to benefit the programme.

According to her, six states from the six geo-political zones were selected to benefit from the pilot scheme of the `Livelihood Top Up Programme expected to last for three years.

She hinted that the remaining 15 council areas would be added in due course, explaining that after the pilot programme, the agency would extend the programme to more states.

Sinkaiye noted that the livelihood was the third phase of cash transfer targeted at alleviating poorest Nigerians from the deplorable economic condition.

The DG advised prospective beneficiaries of the programme to see their selection as a life sustaining opportunity.

Mr Raph Enukorah, Head of the Cash Transfer Unit, Anambra State, explained that the six council areas in the state were selected based on their poverty rating.

Enukorah said that the state selected health as a top priority to strengthen the child and maternal healthcare, noting that most of the beneficiaries were pregnant and nursing mothers as well as children from zero to five years.

Mr Christian Obiajulu, Livelihood Cash Transfer Officer in the state said that the beneficiaries would be paid N5, 000 monthly stipend which according to him would be paid bi-monthly for three years starting from August, 2020 to 2023.

He said that under the programme, the beneficiaries were encouraged to form cooperative societies to enable them save, adding that those who showed seriousness would be supported with N100, 000 grant to further boost their enterprises at the end.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Education officials in Kenya announced last month that the entire school year is canceled, and students will have to repeat a grade next year amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, according to a recent report.

The New York Times reported that students in Kenya arent expected to begin classes again until January -- which is the usual start of the school year in that country. Education experts told the media outlet that Kenya is believed to be the only nation to cancel the academic year and order students to start over.

The decision to scrap the school year was made to protect students and teachers from contracting COVID-19, while also addressing inequality issues that arose when school was first suspended in March, Kenyas Education Secretary George Magoha told the Times. When schools closed, only some students had technology to access remote learning.

But Kenyan education experts told the New York Times that canceling the school year to level the playing field could widen education and inequality gaps further.

Canceling the school year affects over 90,000 schools, more than 300,000 teachers, and over 18 million students from pre-primary to high school, including 150,000 more in refugee camps, the Times reported, according to the education ministry.

National exams taken by students in their last year of primary school and high school were postponed. There will be no intake of new students in 2021, according to the media outlet.

Universities and colleges in Kenya are also closed for in-person learning until January 2021, but can continue remote learning and graduations, the Times reported.

Some parents with kids in private schools in Kenya arent waiting for the government to reopen schools in January -- but are considering moving their children to British, French, or other private foreign schools in Kenya, which plan to give students foreign standardized tests. Students who pass those exams can advance to the next grade.

But students who were supposed to take the Kenyan tests, which are canceled, will be left behind.

RETURN TO SCHOOL IN NYC

Come September in New York City, parents will have the option to allow their children to fully work remotely, but if they choose to send their kids back to the classroom, students will only be allowed to return for in-person learning two or three days of the week -- working remotely the rest of the week.

Under the plan, classes will be held in cafeterias, auditoriums, gymnasiums and in enclosed outdoor spaces and students, and teachers will be required to wear face coverings while following strict social distancing rules.

The city Department of Education (DOE) will supply schools with cleaning supplies and personal protective equipment like face coverings, and schools will be deep cleaned every evening using an electrostatic disinfectant.

The agency put together two scheduling models for schools that can allow for 50% of students return to classrooms and another model for schools that can 33% of students to return.

*** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK ***

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Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., after being sworn in as Chief of Staff of the Air Force, hugs his mother in the Oval Office of the White House. Read more

Gen. Charles "CQ" Brown became the new chief of staff of the Air Force on Thursday, making history as the first Black chief of a military service and acknowledging the significance to himself and others.

"This is a very historic day for our nation, and I do not take this moment lightly," Brown said, speaking in a hangar at Joint Base Andrews. "Today is possible due to the perseverance of those who went before me, serving as an inspiration to me and so many others."

Brown cited as examples the Tuskegee Airmen, an all-Black unit of fighter pilots in World War II; Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Jr., who commanded them and went on to become a general; Brig. Gen. Charles McGee, one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen; and Gen. Daniel "Chappie" James Jr., the first Black four-star general in U.S. military history.

Seated in the audience as a special guest was Edward Dwight Jr., a former Air Force test pilot who became the nation's first African American astronaut candidate. Brown called him "quite an inspiration."

Brown, 58, takes over after assignments that span the globe, and was confirmed by the Senate with a 98-to-0 vote. For the past two years, he has commanded Pacific Air Forces, overseeing operations from a headquarters in Hawaii. He previously served as the deputy commanding general of all U.S. military forces in the Middle East, and as the top Air Force general in the Middle East, where he oversaw the air war against the Islamic State.

Brown, speaking to a group of guests that included Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett and the retiring Air Force chief, Gen. David Goldfein, said that he is committed to facing present challenges for the Air Force while preparing for the future.

"You can expect my leadership to be framed by the same four core tenets that I have used throughout my career: Executive at a high standard, be disciplined in execution, pay attention to details, and have fun," he said.

The military has had several Black four-star generals in the past, including Army Gen. Colin Powell, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George H.W. Bush. But no Black officer had ever run a military service branch as chief before Brown.

 READ MORE: Girls High grad to lead the National Education Association, the countrys largest union

Thursday's ceremony had a smaller crowd than customary as a new service chief takes over due to the coronavirus pandemic, but still included scores of guests and dignitaries. President Donald Trump did not attend, but he and Vice President Mike Pence swore Brown in separately in an Oval Office event on Tuesday, during which the president called him a "great gentlemen" and "great man."

Brown replaces Goldfein, who served as Air Force chief for more than four years. Goldfein was recommended as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by former defense secretary Jim Mattis before Trump selected Army Gen. Mark Milley.

Goldfein said that he "could not be prouder that a true warrior, leader and personal friend" will make his first walk into the Pentagon as Air Force chief on Friday.

Milley called Goldfein one of the finest officers he has ever served with, and said he is looking forward to working with Brown.

"In CQ, we have all that is good about America," Milley said. "He not only represents exception competence, as well, and strategic intellect and impeccable character. But in CQ, we see that America can be a better place."

Esper said that Brown is exceptionally qualified to be the next Air Force chief, and highlighted his past roles.

General Brown, the lessons you learned and the experience you gained in each and every assignment will help you excel in this new role, I am sure, Esper said. And I know you will do so while inspiring and leading our nations airmen.
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A Columbus judge on Wednesday ruled against a request from a group of bars seeking to block a state order requiring bars to stop serving alcohol at 10 p.m. David Petkiewicz, cleveland.comDavid Petkiewicz, cleveland.com

Weather

Expect the mild weather to continue on Thursday, with sunny, clear skies and highs in the upper 70s. Thursday night will be clear, with lows dropping into the 60s. Read more

Local scores: Cleveland Indians 2, Cincinnati Reds 0

The headlines

Closing time: Gov. Mike DeWines order stopping liquor sales at 10 p.m. will stand for now, after a Columbus judge on Wednesday ruled against a request from a group of bars seeking to block the order from going into effect. Andrew Tobias reports the Franklin County judge said Ohio law clearly gives the Ohio Liquor Control Commission authority to regulate bars, including setting their hours of operation.

Contact tracing: The Ohio Department of Health says at least 50 bars and restaurants across the state were associated with coronavirus outbreaks since July 1, reports Seth Richardson. The anecdotal information doesnt capture the full picture of coronavirus transmission, but it provides a glimpse into where the disease is spreading.

Subtext: Cleveland.com has started a new, free Subtext account to send coronavirus updates. Every day, well send updates about the virus -- confirmed cases, major cancellations, relevant scientific information and more. You can even text us back. Go to https://joinsubtext.com/ohiocoronavirus and enter your phone number. Or send a text to 216-279-7784. Did we mention its free?

This Week in the CLE: How can 5-year-olds wear masks all day at school? Were talking about Gov. Mike DeWines mask mandate for all K-12 students on This Week in the CLE, cleveland.coms daily half-hour podcast.

Outdoor schools: As schools prepare to resume classes amid the coronavirus pandemic, many in Cuyahoga County have been debating whether to bring students back to the classroom or stick with virtual models. They generally havent planned to move classes outside. Evan MacDonald reports that doctors say holding classes outdoors is worth considering, but administrators say the concept comes with complications, danger and expense.

New numbers: The Ohio Department of Health reported 1,199 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, a slight increase from the day before. Andrew Tobias reports Ohio had 26 new deaths and 112 new coronavirus-related hospitalizations. Both numbers are down from the previous days reported 31 deaths and 127 hospitalizations, respectively.

Mail-in voting: An expected surge in mail-in voting because of the coronavirus pandemic combined with a troubled U.S. Postal Service has election watchers concerned that presidential ballots wont reach election boards on time this November. Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose is urging prospective mail-in voters to request and cast their absentee ballots as soon possible. Peter Krouse has a voting Q&A.

Briefing postponed: Gov. Mike DeWine is postponing his Thursday coronavirus briefing so he can greet President Donald Trump in Cleveland, Jeremy Pelzer reports. DeWine is scheduled to meet Trump on the airport tarmac, though wont accompany him to the Whirlpool factory in Clyde or a fundraiser in Bratenahl. DeWine has rescheduled his briefing to Friday at 2 p.m.

Pension revoked: Public officials in Ohio convicted of federal corruption charges would lose the taxpayer-financed share of their state pension, under proposed legislation. Andrew Tobias reports that under current law, public officials convicted on state bribery or racketeering charges can have their state pension revoked. House Bill 741 would add the equivalent crimes under federal law, as well as a litany of other federal charges including theft, extortion and fraud.

Presidential debate: President Donald Trumps campaign requested an additional debate against former Vice President Joe Biden to be held earlier than the first debate scheduled in Cleveland, reports Seth Richardson. Trumps personal attorney Rudy Giuliani proposed two changes to the debate schedule in a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates; both would usurp Clevelands status as the host city for the first debate.

United Way: The United Way of Greater Cleveland has eliminated 12 positions to align with the agencys transition to a digital and data-driven focus, including on fighting racism and helping families who face eviction. Julie Washington reports full-time clerical and mid-management jobs were cut, reducing the nonprofit to 115 employees.

Hopkins recovery: The chief of Clevelands airports predicts it could be years before Cleveland Hopkins International Airport recovers from the impacts of the coronavirus crisis. Robert Higgs reports that officials believe the recovery at Hopkins will be tied to the still precarious fate of the airlines.

RTA tax: Downtown Cleveland Residents is supporting a property tax increase for Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority to boost service  even though the RTA does not have a tax heading to the ballot. Courtney Astolfi reports the group, a community relations board recognized by the city of Cleveland, passed a resolution at its July forum backing a greater taxpayer investment in RTA service, which has been cut 29% since 2006 and has seen fares double.

Campaign spending: Democratic former Vice President Joe Bidens campaign will spend $280 million on television and digital advertising this fall across 15 states, including Ohio. Seth Richardson reports the sum dwarfs Republican President Donald Trumps $147 million fall purchases over roughly the same period.

Kanye West: Rapper Kanye West on Wednesday filed petitions to appear on the presidential ballot in Ohio as an independent, reports Seth Richardson. The popular hip hop artist -- or people on his behalf -- have been collecting signatures for West in the states where the rapper can still appear on the ballot. Wests campaign filed 14,886 petitions with LaRoses office, 5,000 of which must be valid to appear on Ohios ballot as an independent candidate.

FBI raid: FBI and IRS agents Tuesday seized boxloads of evidence that could determine whether the Ukrainian oligarch, Igor Kolomoisky, laundered millions of dollars through Cleveland real estate, John Caniglia reports. A Delaware lawsuit alleges that Kolomoisky and others formed PrivatBank in the early 1990s and from 2006 through 2016, Kolomoisky and others used PrivatBank as their own personal piggy bank  ultimately stealing billions of dollars from PrivatBank and using United States entities to launder hundreds of millions of dollars.

Holocaust survivor: Gita Frankel spent her retirement reliving the nightmare years she spent in concentration camps, to educate students. Frankel described to teenagers how she and her mother were deported to Auschwitz during World War II, making others see the flames from the crematoria and smell the odor of burning human flesh. Julie Washington reports the 94-year-old Frankel of University Heights, died July 25 of pneumonia.

College opening plans: The Cuyahoga County Board of Health will not likely issue a recommendation for colleges in the county. Emily Bamforth reports many schools are implementing hybrid reopening plans this month, which will allow students back on campus and in residence halls but at reduced density.

Murder-suicide: An Elyria mother told her husband she was going to move out before he killed her, their three children and himself, Kaylee Remington reports. John Nelson, 44, and Robin Nelson, 35, experienced marital problems in the days before police found them and their three children dead on July 29.

Cleveland numbers: Cleveland Mayor Frank Jacksons administration on Wednesday reported 26 new coronavirus cases in the city. Robert Higgs reports the age range of the patients is the lowest from any of the citys daily briefings. They range in age from less than 1 year old to their 20s.

Sales tax holiday: Ohios sales tax holiday runs Friday-Sunday, exempting state and local sales tax on qualifying items, including clothing priced at $75 or less and school supplies or instructional material priced at $20 or less, reports Peter Krouse.

Human trafficking grant: The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday awarded nearly $500,000 to the Jordan Community Resource Center, a Cleveland Heights nonprofit organization that supports women in crisis, reports Sabrina Eaton.

Amusement parks: Attendance at Cedar Point and other parks this summer hasnt met expectations, due to recent spikes in Covid-19, reports Susan Glaser. The company reported a second-quarter operating loss of $142 million, based on a 98% drop in revenue during the three-month period that ended June 28.

CLE Market: The Cleveland Cavaliers are holding their first CLE Market, to sell unreleased bobbleheads, promotional items from the 2019-20 season, 50th Cavs season merchandise and more. Marc Bona reports the cashless event is 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 8, at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse and online.

Oktoberfest: For the first time in its 15-year history, Cleveland Oktoberfest has been canceled because of the coronavirus, reports Marc Bona.

Cruise the Zoo: Cruise the Zoo became such a popular, socially distant way to visit the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo that its bringing the drive-through experience to its Asian Lantern Festival. Joey Morona reports that visitors will be able to view the exhibits 70 illuminated, Instagram-ready lantern displays from the comfort of their own vehicle on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Outstanding award: The Cleveland Public Theatre has been named winner of the 2020 Outstanding Theatre Award by the National Theatre Conference. Joey Morona reports the organization typically recognizes one non-profit theater for outstanding achievement at its annual meeting in New York City.

Little black dress: Cleveland.coms sister site, WIRED, explains the history behind the hero piece in your closet, the little black dress.

Veterans ceremony: Items and medals belonging to Fielding Wesley Featherston III were returned to his family, more than 50 years after his plane went down in Laos, during a ceremony in Veterans Park in Mentor on Wednesday morning. David Petkiewicz has photos of the ceremony, after the items were found in a warehouse in Cleveland.

Other headlines

72-year-old man robbed at gunpoint in JACK Cleveland Casino parking garage Read more

Walmarts drive-in movie experience coming to Akron in October Read more

University of Akron faculty union rejects proposed contract that included layoffs Read more

What you need to know to ensure your mail-in ballot gets counted Read more

Man shot to death in East Cleveland home, suspect shot in leg, police say Read more

Woman killed in hit-and-run crash in East Akron Read more

Parma City Council to increase garbage fees under new contract with Rumpke Read more

See waterspouts visible over Lake Erie on Wednesday (photos) Read more
EDMONTONThe Alberta government has announced $48 million for shelters and community organizations that have been helping homeless people during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is still working out how the money will be divvied up.

This critical financial support will help ensure the important work of our partners can continue, Community and Social Services Minister Rajan Sawhney said Wednesday.

The money is on top of $25 million announced in March.

The new funds mean that throughout the winter, isolation and care centres can continue to shelter people who are sick with, or have been exposed to, COVID-19 and have nowhere else to go.

Funding for Alberta's homeless The government of Alberta has announced funding for shelters and community organizations in response to the pandemic. $48 million Announced in August 2020. $25 million Announced in March 2020. Source: The Canadian Press

Sawhney said overflow shelter spaces will be needed to ensure there is adequate physical distancing, especially once the weather gets colder.

We are confident that with this funding, shelters will be able to continue providing the compassionate care that all Albertans deserve.

The minister could not say which organizations would receive the money and how many spaces the funding could support.

We dont have highly specific details as of yet, but those details will be forthcoming.

But Sawhney said overflow shelter sites at convention centres in Calgary and Edmonton wont be reactivated as demand increases in the winter.

The province wound down the temporary shelters at the Calgary Telus Convention Centre and Edmonton Expo Centre this summer.

We are working with both cities to explore different infrastructure and different spaces to make sure it complies with all of the social distancing requirements and also to make sure that its a safe place for individuals to shelter in, Sawhney said.

Some of those details will be announced as soon as we finalized those spaces.

The Mustard Seed, which serves homeless people in Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer and Medicine Hat, is grateful for the provincial support, said CEO Stephen Wile.

But he said there remains significant need.

The population we serve has a more significant medical urgency in the sense that many of them have numbers of physical problems, said Wile.

And so to protect them and to protect everyone has been a challenge.

He added that keeping up staffing levels has also been difficult.

If someone comes to work with a cold or a sniffle, then they automatically have to go home and then the rest of the team either has to pick up the slack or we have to call in other individuals to meet those needs, Wile said.

If this pandemic was two weeks long, it wouldnt be a problem. But when its many months long, we see many of our staff in and out of the building and waiting for tests and swabs in order to determine whether or not they can come back to work.

Alberta Health says there have been 11 COVID-19 cases at Calgary Alpha House, 25 at the Calgary Drop-in Centre, two at the Salvation Army Centre of Hope and nine at womens shelters. All have recovered.

Funding for Alberta's homeless A breakdown of COVID-19 cases among Alberta's shelters. All have recovered. 11 Calgary Alpha House 25 Calgary Drop-in Centre 2 Salvation Army Centre of Hope 9 womens shelters Source: The Canadian Press

Tim Richter, president of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, said its good that Alberta shelters have managed to avoid widespread outbreaks like those in Toronto and other cities.

But we are far from out of the woods yet, he said.

Richter said people across Canada have been sleeping outside because they dont believe shelters are safe.

Rough sleeping is dangerous now, he said, noting increased violence, fire hazards and overdoses.

That will be compounded as winter sets in.

Richter said hes happy to see Alberta is committed to sustaining its support but would prefer the government focus on long-term housing.

The best protection against COVID-19 is a home. Housing is health care.

Sawhney said Seniors and Housing Minister Josephine Pon is working with her federal counterpart on addressing the very dire need for permanent supportive housing in Alberta.

That work is underway and please stay tuned to hear more about that.

Read more about:
The famous Italian painter Raffaello Sanizo, or known as Raphael, died 500 years ago, but the site of his resting place has remained a mystery  until now.

Scientists created a 3D reconstruction of the late artist from a skeleton exhumed in 1833 using a plaster cast of the skull made at the time.

Experts have speculated that Rome's Pantheon was where Raphael was laid to rest, but the skeleton in question was unearthed with other remains.

Following the reconstruction, the team determined it was a clear match based on portraits by other artists of the period, as well as self-portraits.

Scroll down for video

Scientists created a 3D reconstruction of the late artist from a skeleton exhumed in 1833 using a plaster cast of the skull made at the time

Raphael was a creator of the High Renaissance and is part of the famous artist trinity along with Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci.

He was born in Urbino, Italy in 1483 and died at the age of just 37 in 1520.

The cause of Raphael's death has also remained a mystery  some speculate his active sex life led him to contract syphilis.

Others theorize that he died from pneumonia after traveling to see a lover in the dead of winter.

Following the reconstruction, the team determined it was a clear match based on portraits by other artists of the period, as well as self-portraits (pictured)

The 3D reconstruction only produced 80 percent of the original face, but the scientists say 'there is no doubt about the results.' Pictured is another self-portrait by Raphael

However, where Raphael's body was laid to rest has been an age-old mystery.

Scientists at Rome's Tor Vergata University reconstructed the face of molecular biology expert Mattia Falconi told AFP. man believed to be the late artist.

The 3D reconstruction only produced 80 percent of the original face, but the scientists say 'there is no doubt about the results.'

Mattia Falconi told AFP: 'The only part of the face that could not be reconstructed this way were the ears'but fortunately Raphael had long hair that covered his ears'.

'We have concrete evidence for the first time that the skeleton exhumed in 1833 belongs to Raffaello Sanzio.'

The new discovery opens up the opportunity to further investigate teh skeleton to determine the correct hair and eye color.

The team was set to re-exhume the body this year, but the project was put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic.

'The 3-D model shows the eyes and mouth (in the portraits) are his, but he has been kind to himself about his nose,' Falconi said.

'We know that Raphael often painted himself younger than his years, and this model allows us to see him as he really was'.

Despite his premature death, Raphael produced a vast library of stunning work, much of it at the Vatican.
RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan's appeal to the Armenian authorities continues to agitate Yerevan and Moscow experts. Some observers believe that the collapse of the Armenian-Russian relations will threaten Armenia's independence and the Armenian people's future. In the article "Armenia's open society: Where Russophobes come from" Vestnik Kavkaza has already examined Simonyan's thesis that the Armenian authorities have turned the country into a staging ground for anti-Russian forces in the Caucasus, flooding it with anti-Russian NGOs. Here we will try to understand how true is the following accusation: "You kicked out Russian Armenian businessmen. You dont want anything to do with Russia".

More than a billion dollars are transferred to Armenia annually from Russia, they say that this money remains the main source of income for the population. But until recently, there was another process as well - Russian businessmen, mostly of Armenian origin of course, worked in Armenia. Why of course? First, people implementing projects here are often guided by patriotic considerations rather than by big profits. Second, local business customs are very specific. In the spring of 2018, the online magazine about offshore companies 'Off the Coast' published the article 'Business in Armenia for Russians - Tips on starting or buying a business': "If you decide to start your own business in Armenia, you will have to prepare for the enormous difficulties associated with the mentality of local residents. Each employee here will try to do everything to take at least something home, even if he does not need it. Therefore, the first tip is full control over work performance. "

On the positive side, the magazine pointed to "a single principle of taxation and equality between residents and non-residents." However, the disagreements between the Armenian authorities and Russian business in the country began in the tax sphere - claims were made against a subsidiary of Russian Railways; Gazprom Armenia was accused of tax evasion.



After Nikol Pashinyan came to power, the Armenian State Revenue Committee announced tax violations at several gas filling companies, including the subsidiary of Gazprom Armenia, Avtogaz; South Caucasus Railway was accused of tax violations. Then the experts described the tax authorities' actions as an attack on Russian business as part of the Russian gas pricing.



It is fair to say that bargaining is appropriate in interstate economic relations, but, as a rule, the contracting parties try not to wash dirty linen in public. In the case of Armenia, many were embarrassed that the authorities acted demonstratively.

The new leadership of Armenia announced the closure of the Center for Strategic Initiatives, created by the founder of Troika Dialog Investment Company, philanthropist Ruben Vardanyan. In March last year, the Armenian media attacked Vardanyan, accusing him of creating a network of several dozen offshore companies through which money was withdrawn from Russia, including with the use of "criminal schemes." According to an investigation dubbed the Troika Laundromat, the network operated from 2006 to 2013, in total $9 billion was laundered and withdrawn from Russia. Vardanyan, who invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the Armenian economy, asked "not to mix round and green", but nevertheless ended up in disgrace with the Armenian authorities. Meanwhile, several years ago, Vardanyan was called one of the largest investors in Nagorno-Karabakh occupied by Armenia. In 2014, the director of the Center for Political Innovation and Technology, political scientist Mubariz Ahmedoglu said: "Now almost all the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh are hostages of the local branch of Ameriabank. All of Vardanyan's activities in Nagorno-Karabakh serve to transform this region into a theatrical stage for scenery. Information about Vardanyan's income is not available. It is only known that Vardanyan's economic activity in Nagorno-Karabakh was not favourable to a rapprochement between Armenians with Russia.

The story of the owner of the Tashir Group conglomerate, Russian billionaire of Armenian origin Samvel Karapetyan looks just as confusing. Three years ago, a contract was signed with Tashir Capital, part of Samvel Karapetyan's holding, to transfer the high-voltage network for the next 25 years, but already in 2018 the company refused to manage the High-Voltage Electric Networks.



All this can be regarded as political steps by the Armenian leadership, since during the economic crisis, the semi-blockade situation, and now the situation is worsening due to the coronavirus pandemic, it is difficult to see an economic motive in kicking out the "hens that lay the golden eggs" from the country. Experts predict that the Armenian economy could drop by 10-12%, if there is no second wave of the pandemic. Large foreign investors who went off Armenia left it alone with the main sphere of the economy, bringing revenues to the budget - mining plants, but over the past year, ore world prices fell by 30-40%.

As for gas, although the tariff for the population remained unchanged, for large consumers it was increased. As a result, there is an increase in prices for consumer goods, because an increase in gas prices automatically leads to an increase in prices for other goods. Experts have already dubbed this process the last nail in the Armenian economy's "coffin".
In some ways, "3 in the Morning" - the Netflix stand-up special from "Saturday Night Live" writer Sam Jay - is a sort-of capsule from the Before Times. For one, it was taped in front of a sold-out crowd of hundreds at the Masquerade in downtown Atlanta.

"It is kind of like, 'Wow, I made this right before the world blew up,'" Jay, 38, said in a phone interview Monday, hours before her special's release. "I had thoughts of, 'How relevant is any of this stuff now?' because the world is just completely different."

Ultimately, though, Jay said, "It really isn't completely different, it's just completely exposed. I think a lot of the things I was saying was speaking to the pulse of what was going on, and that stuff was kind of under the surface."

Take, for example, Jay's bit about the British Museum being filled with stolen artifacts - a thread that has come up in recent years, and especially amid conversations about race in the past few months. "It's huge. I was overwhelmed," Jay tells viewers of the U.K. institution. "It was wing after wing after wing of stuff, and it blew my mind because I was like 'Wow, White people stole all this" stuff.

She also pokes fun at Elon Musk's rogue attempts to send humans into space in a bit that Jay thinks might hit differently after Musk's SpaceX company teamed with NASA on a test flight that successfully landed just days ago. Those developments "kind of made the joke relevant again," Jay said.

Jay has been an exciting addition to SNL's writers room, which she joined in 2017 on the heels of renewed criticism around the show's long-standing lack of diversity. In addition to being Black, Jay is a lesbian, and early on in her tenure, she told Vice she wanted to bring her perspective to the show's sketches. "Like urban culture stuff, gay culture stuff . . . women stuff, that they may not necessarily have their pulse on," she told the site. "Just who I am, you know what I mean?"

Many of the riffs in "3 in the Morning" take on the same layered approach Jay employs in her SNL sketches, including "Cha Cha Slide," a 2019 sketch that featured John Mulaney as a man attending a wedding with his girlfriend. Because the girlfriend (Ego Nwodim) and her family are Black, the joke initially plays like the gag is about the White guy sticking out at a Black wedding. But the sketch, which Jay wrote with co-head writer Bryan Tucker, gradually reveals that Mulaney's character is exceptionally well-versed on Black culture, having attended a historically Black college and pledged a Black fraternity. The bit is merely about the awkwardness of meeting a significant other's family.

"Even in school, I would like to just play the devil's advocate. I just like to challenge how people think," Jay said. "SNL is very different [than stand-up] because you're seeing it manifest itself in a sketch, but there are still some of those basic principles in the sketches I write, which are 'Look at this thing and think about it like this,' or 'Wouldn't it be funny if this was the case rather than what we've always known to be the case?'"

We spoke with Jay about how she approached her Netflix special, the joke that made her feel most vulnerable and the SNL bit that made her feel like she had hit her stride on the sketch comedy show. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: Are there any jokes that sort of pushed you out of your comfort zone, either the actual joke itself or what you were doing onstage?

A: The joke I did about my [late] mom was probably the hardest joke to do because I don't talk about my mom onstage a lot. [Note: The joke revolves around Jay's fear, at 11 years old, that she would be abducted by aliens, which manifested in a way that deeply worried her mother.] And it's just very personal. I feel like there are still things that are unresolved with how I feel - not unresolved, just sensitive. It's a very sensitive thing. I'm a girl who grew up very close to her mother and it's just very tragic for me. So, to talk about anything like that and be that vulnerable and put something about my mother up to be critiqued and criticized by other people . . . was not easy to do.

I try to be honest in my art. It felt dishonest if I didn't tell it when talking about how I think about my life in relation to having my own kids.

Q: When you're telling your joke about trans women, you acknowledge that it will probably make some people uncomfortable. Is there anything you did in constructing the joke, or setting it up, to assuage that discomfort? (The joke is assuredly edgy - and it wouldn't be fair to describe out of context.)

A; I was really trying to do it from a place of "This is a thing that is happening in society." And we all need to be willing to talk about it in a real way and be honest about our fears, but also be honest about our prejudices. And be honest about the fact that, whatever our fears or prejudices are, it is not okay to discriminate against anyone or to treat anyone as if they don't deserve the same rights that you have.

Q: How much control did you have over the special? Was it more than you've had in previous stand-up shows (a 15-minute set in the first season of Netflix's "The Comedy Lineup," and a half-hour on Comedy Central)?

A: Everything you're seeing was a choice that I made, from the coloring to the lighting to the directing. It's all a choice that I made, and so it's the first time outside of [the 2018 stand-up album "Donna's Daughter"] and the first time, visually, that I'm putting anything out that is completely me.

Q: You grew up in Boston, but you said on the Las Culturistas podcast last year that you opted not to do the special there. Instead, you chose Atlanta, where you were born, and where you lived for several years in your early 20s. Is it like a second home for you?

A: To some degree, I feel like Atlanta is where I found myself. It's where I figured out who I was, where I came out, where I met my girlfriend. It's where I met my first group of gay friends. It definitely has a second home feel.

Q: "Cha Cha Slide" is one of the sketches SNL fans associate most with you, and it was such a refreshing moment for SNL. And full disclosure: After seeing it, I told several people it was "the blackest sketch I'd ever seen on SNL." Is it one that you heard/hear about a lot?

A: It was one of the few times I read stuff [after the show]. That sketch, I just feel like I got all this Black magic in it. You know, me and Tucker wrote it together, and . . . it was one of those SNLs where I was like "I hope Black people watch today because I feel so good about this one." And to see the tweets from the people picking up on the nuance and the fun of it, it felt real good.

Q: Was that the first sketch where you felt like you'd hit your stride on the show?

A: "Them Trumps" was the first sketch that felt like, "Yeah, this me." It's like an "Empire" parody, but it's Trump and [he's] Black. One of his businesses is a ham company. It's just all the type of goofy [stuff] that I like.

Q: I feel like people know a fair amount about how SNL auditions cast members, but we don't know as much about how they hire writers. What was the process like for you?

A: There's a million different roads to it. I went through the cast process. I was auditioning for that. And then they just were like, we don't know if that's right but we still want you around, and would like to offer you a writing job. It was one of those things where I had to get over my little ego. But then I realized I probably wouldn't have been really good at being a cast member. I don't do sketch, and I'm not an improv-y type person. None of that is my personality.

Now that I'm in the writing position and I've been there. I feel like it's the best way that I could have learned; I could grow and also serve the show. I feel like I serve the show so much more as a writer than I would have as a cast member, 100 percent - it just was the right fit.

Q: SNL is probably at its most diverse ever right now. What's it like to be on the show now, especially following public conversations about the show needing to hire more people of color? Does it feel like a moment?

A: Yeah, it does a little bit. You've got [writer-turned-cast member] Bowen [Yang] there. There's me, there's Ego [Nwodim], there's Chris [Redd]. Gary Richardson, who is another Black writer on the show. Sudi Green, who is Iranian. You have all this energy, but then you have the old energy that was already there - like James Anderson, who has been at the show forever, and is a gay writer. You have [co-head writer Michael] Che, you have Kenan [Thompson]. It just feels like the sauce is cooking right, for whatever reason.
Kyrgyzstan's First Deputy Foreign Minister Nuran Niyazaliyev held Thursday meeting with Russian Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Nikolay Udovichenko, the press service of the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry said, Trend reports via Kabar.

During the meeting, the interlocutors exchanged views on a number of topical issues of Kyrgyz-Russian cooperation, international agenda and measures taken to combat the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, including the resumption of regular flights between Kyrgyzstan and Russia.
anatakti

This is the first photo ever of a Stealthy Black Hawk helicopter (photo)We are constantly on the lookout for more details about the U.S. militarys highly elusive stealthy Black Hawk helicopters, one of which famously crashed during the raid that led to the death of Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in 2011, as well as any possible predecessors that predated them. Now, what appears to be a previously unpublished picture has come to our attention that shows a heavily modified EH-60 electronic warfare and signals intelligence variant of the Black Hawk. Is seems to be, at the very least, one of the missing links connecting the unique Black Hawk helicopters used on the Bin Laden raid and stealthy Black Hawk design concepts dating back to the 1970s.It is our understanding that the picture in question seen at the top of this story and again below in a slightly enhanced manner, has a relation to Fort Eustis in Virginia. In addition to being home to 128th Aviation Brigade, previously known as the U.S. Army Aviation Logistics School, Fort Eustis Felker Army Airfield it also hosts a unit commonly known as the Flight Concepts Division (FCD), that is now called the Aviation Technology Office (ATO). This is the unit understood to be responsible for leading the development of the stealth Black Hawks used during the Bin Laden raid and many of the U.S. Armys most advanced and secretive rotary-wing capabilities.The picture is undated and we have no immediate information about any program or programs the helicopter might have been associated with. The location where it was taken is also unknown, but is a desert locale that could indicate it was shot somewhere in the American southwest, which is home to a number of aviation test facilities, including top-secret air bases, such as Area 51 and the Tonopah Test Range Airport. The stealthy Black Hawks used in the Bin Laden raid were housed at the former, according to reports.
Q  I have a few friends who have decided to take on homeschooling full time. If we make this decision, too, what would help our kids make this transition smoother? My friends think getting their kids up early, going to bed early and trying to have a class-like environment is best. This also includes buying new school supplies, clothes, backpacks, etc. We're also concerned how to know if our kids are actually learning what we would be teaching them.

We will be homeschooling our children for the first school semester and will re-evaluate things a few weeks before the next semester. Everything will hinge on how the situation appears at that time. Our children are 5, 9 and 16, so they are spaced out quite a bit. Our decision to homeschool was not an easy one to make and yes, it's scary as well as time-consuming with three kids. There are professional tests that you can order to test your children. The best way to know how they're learning and retaining material is to make up your own tests and review before testing. This will either go well or you will have to back up and reteach a specific subject. It's really not that hard.  T. S. in Dallas
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 09:31:30|Editor: huaxia

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ABUJA, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria's defense authorities on Wednesday confirmed that six gunmen have been killed in a raid by troops in the country's delta region.

Defense spokesman John Enenche said during the "Delta Safe" operation on Tuesday, the troops smoked out suspected pirates, militants, and kidnappers from their notorious hideouts in the oil-rich Bayelsa State.

A gunfight ensued between the troops and gunmen, killing the six gunmen, and many others fled with gunshot wounds, according to Enenche.

"The gallant troops sustained the gunfight until they neutralized the pirates and militants ashore," he said, adding the troops seized three out of the five attacking boats belonging to the gunmen.

The operation followed credible intelligence from the troops who monitored a suspected pirate leader and another notorious kidnap kingpin from the country's oil hub, Port Harcourt, to their camp in the local government area of Bayelsa. Enditem
-- The blasts hit the Port of Beirut at around 6:10 p.m. Tuesday, killing at least 100 people and injuring 4,000 others so far.

-- The causes of the blasts remained unknown, but Interior Minister Mohammad Fahmi said the 2,700 tons of explosive chemicals stored at Port of Beirut may have led to the explosions.

-- The explosions have dealt another huge blow to Lebanon, which is struggling to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Two huge explosions rocked the Lebanese capital Beirut on Tuesday, killing at least 100 people and injuring 4,000 others in a toll that officials expect to rise.

The international community has expressed solidarity and sympathy with Lebanon over the deadly explosions as rescue workers continued their search for people missing under the rubble of collapsed buildings.

Damaged buildings are seen after the huge explosions at the port of Beirut, Lebanon, Aug. 4, 2020. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)

DEADLY EXPLOSIONS

The blasts hit the Port of Beirut at around 6:10 p.m. local time (1610 GMT), shaking buildings all over the city, shattering glass in most areas, damaging vehicles on the streets, while causing massive casualties and damage.

Hours after the explosions, the capital witnessed the Lebanese Red Cross and Civil Defense teams rushing to the site to rescue those buried in the rubble, ambulances shuttling between hospitals to deliver the injured, and local residents walking through the streets searching for relatives.

Local hospitals, having reached their capacity in a short time, urged the public to donate blood to save the injured.

Many of the injured are still without treatment, Lebanese Health Minister Hamad Hassan said.

The number of casualties is expected to rise as the counting continues. Local media outlets have been announcing the names of hundreds of people still missing, in the hope of helping their families find them.

Rescuers search for survivors after the explosions in Beirut, Lebanon, Aug. 5, 2020. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)

The causes of the blasts remained unknown, but Interior Minister Mohammad Fahmi said the 2,700 tons of explosive chemicals stored at Port of Beirut may have led to the explosions.

"Customs authorities must be asked about the reasons behind storing such chemical materials at Port of Beirut," Fahmi said.

Investigations into the explosions are expected to reveal the real causes of the disaster within five days.

Following the explosions, Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab immediately declared Wednesday a national mourning day for the victims.

President Michel Aoun also called an emergency meeting of the Higher Defense Council, which later on Tuesday urged the Lebanese cabinet to announce a state of emergency in the city for two weeks.

A damaged building is seen after the explosions in Beirut, Lebanon, Aug. 5, 2020. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)

The council also urged the cabinet to allocate funds for hospitals to help them treat the injured, and to contact all friendly countries to seek support and set up a fund to provide compensations for those affected by the disaster.

The Lebanese cabinet is expected to hold a meeting on Wednesday to look into the proposal by the Higher Defense Council and announce new measures to deal with the current crisis.

HELPING HANDS

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday sent his condolences to the families of the victims, adding the organization "remains committed to supporting Lebanon at this difficult time, and is actively assisting in the response to this incident."

World Health Organization spokesperson Inas Hamam told Russian media outlet Sputnik on Tuesday that the organization is sending trauma kits containing emergency medical supplies and surgery kits to Lebanon.

"Our hearts and prayers are with all those affected, and we continue our mission to ensure the wellbeing of all people in Lebanon and across the region," Hamam said.

Jordanian national flag is seen at half-mast at Royal Hashemite Court, in Amman, Jordan, Aug. 5, 2020. Jordan's Royal Hashemite Court on Wednesday announced the national flag at its main entrance would be flown at half-mast for three days, mourning for the victims of the Beirut's explosions on Tuesday. (Photo by Mohammad Abu Ghosh/Xinhua)

Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a message of condolence to Aoun, extending profound condolences to the victims and conveying heartfelt sympathies to the bereaved families and the injured.

Al-Jadeed TV reported that Iraq and Qatar will send field hospitals to Lebanon on Wednesday, while French President Emmanuel Macron, in a phone call with Aoun, promised to send support for Lebanon on Wednesday.

In a rare move, Israel on Tuesday offered humanitarian aid to Lebanon over the explosions.

"Israel addressed Lebanon through international security and political elements and offered the Lebanese government medical humanitarian assistance," Israel's Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry said in a joint statement.

Israel and Lebanon have no official ties and tensions have been rising on the Israel-Lebanon border recently.

Damaged buildings are seen after the explosions at the Port of Beirut in Lebanon, Aug. 5, 2020. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)

GRAVE CONSEQUENCE

The explosions have dealt another huge blow to Lebanon, which is struggling to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Arab country, with a high population density of some 667 people per square km, has so far registered more than 5,000 COVID-19 cases, with over 60 deaths.

It reopened briefly on Tuesday for two days before starting another five-day lockdown in an attempt to restrict the spread of the virus.

Additionally, the economic slowdown in Lebanon, which has already prompted thousands of companies and businesses to shut down and caused high unemployment and poverty rates given the decreasing job opportunities, might also get much worse following the explosions.

According to a report in July by online independent newspaper Elnashra, the General Confederation of Lebanese Workers estimated that 150,000 Lebanese lost their jobs in 2020 amid the current economic deterioration.

Damaged vehicles are seen after the explosions in Beirut, Lebanon, Aug. 5, 2020. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)

The Lebanese government has so far been incapable of implementing necessary reforms, including a forensic audit which will highlight the sources of money squandering in the country, to unlock international aid from the International Monetary Fund.

This has led to renewed nationwide protests against the government following the easing of anti-coronavirus measures.

While the international community is focusing on the rising number of the dead and injured in the explosions, concerns are growing over their effects on food security, as the blasts have flattened several ports in the capital, including the Port of Beirut, the country's largest, making it harder for Lebanon to import food, fuel and other much-needed supplies.

According to local media reports, Lebanon imports as much as 80 percent of its food needs and relies heavily on imported soft wheat.

The country's major grain silo in the capital was also damaged, and all the wheat stored at the facility has been "contaminated," Lebanon's state-run National News Agency quoted Minister of Economy and Trade Raoul Nehme as saying.
Battered by torrential rains, several parts of Karnataka are facing a flood-like situation for the third consecutive year, putting lives and property at risk.

Several districts of the states coastal, Malnad and north interior regions are receiving heavy rains and the showers are expected to continue, while there are reports of landslides in hilly areas of Kodagu and Chikkamagaluru districts.

With flood-like situation in several parts of the state, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, who is currently undergoing treatment for Covid-19 infection at a private hospital here, has ordered immediate release of Rs 50 crore for emergency relief.

In wake of heavy rains in several parts of the state, I have instructed the Chief Secretary to review the situation and issued instructions to DCs (Deputy Commissioners) to closely monitor the situation & take necessary measures. Also ordered immediate release of Rs 50 crores for emergency relief purposes, he tweeted last night.

A statement released by the CMO on Thursday said, Yediyurappa has directed the district in-charge Ministers to take precautionary measures in the wake of heavy rainfall across the state.

He instructed the ministers to remain in their constituencies and tour the damaged areas and also directed them to undertake relief distribution and other necessary measures.

Rs 50 crore has already been released and if necessary more funds would be released. The ministers can take decisions regarding emergency works, he added.

Revenue Minister R Ashoka said he had spoken to Deputy Commissioners of all the districts and given them necessary instructions to respond immediately to the situation.

He has called for a meeting of the disaster management authority later today.

Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said he will be holding a meeting with the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) regarding relief and rescue measures to be taken.

Parts of districts in coastal and Malnad regions are currently under red alert and rains are likely to continue there.

Officials said, ... depending on the situation we will downgrade the alerts, it (rains) is likely to reduce during the next couple of days...wind speed is also high some parts, it may also reduce. In Kodagu district along with widespread rains, landslides have also occurred.

There have been landslides at Brahmagiri, near Talacauvery, the origin of river Cauvery.

At least four to five people- including the Talacauvery temple priest and family are currently missing...

rescue teams have reached the spot, officials said, adding that sensing danger the priest had been asked to vacate the house earlier but he did not.

This is the third consecutive year that Kodagu is facing floods and landslides.

Several parts of north Karnataka, especially the border district of Belagavi are also facing flood situation as inflow has increased in Krishna river and its tributaries due to heavy rains in neighboring Maharashtra and also in the district.

With inflow increasing in Tungabhadra river, there is flood like situation in parts of Ballari district also.

There is a similar situation in Uttara Kannada district that is battered by rains and heavy winds.

The swollen Gangavali river has caused flood like situation in parts of the district.

Due to continuous rains in coastal and Malnad region several rivers including Netravati are swollen and gates of the dams have been opened.

There are also reports of heavy rains and wind causing destruction to crops in parts of Dharwad and Haveri among other districts.

The Karnataka government had recently said it has identified 1,989 villages and over 51 lakh people in 19 districts as flood prone.

As a temporary arrangement for those who will be affected by floods, as many as 1,747 relief centres have been identified- they are schools, anganwadi centres, community centres among others, Minister Ashoka had said recently.

In August 2019, Karnataka witnessed one of its worst natural calamities when heavy floods affected 103 taluks in 22 districts, killing more than 80 people and displacing nearly seven lakh people.
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New coronavirus cases appear to be declining across the United States after infections fell five percent nationally last week and 30 states reported fewer cases than in the previous seven days.

The number of infections across the US has now fallen for the second straight week and an average of nearly 60,000 new cases are being reported each day.

The current seven-day average of daily cases is down from a peak of well over 70,000 in the second half of July when the virus was surging in Sunbelt states.

While cases appear to now be on a downward trajectory nationally, deaths have been increasing for a month and an average of 1,000 Americans are currently dying each day.

The US has now racked up more than 158,000 coronavirus deaths and more than 4.8 million infections.

The death rate is 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.

The number of infections across the US has now fallen for the second straight week and an average of nearly 60,000 new cases are being reported each day

The number of new COVID-19 cases reported last week fell 5 percent from the previous week. California, Florida and Texas collectively accounted for nearly 180,000 of the new cases, though new infections were lower in all three states compared to the previous week

Last week, coronavirus cases fell five perfect compared to the previous seven days, according to a Reuters tally of state and county reports.

California, Florida and Texas collectively accounted for nearly 180,000 of the new cases in the week ending August 2.

New infections were lower in all three of those hotspot states compared to the previous week.

Cases rose week-over-week in 20 states, including in Oklahoma where cases have risen for nine weeks in a row, in Montana where cases are up for eight straight weeks, and in Missouri where infections have risen for seven weeks.

Meanwhile, a total of 22 states have reported increases in deaths for at least two straight weeks, including hotspots California, Texas and Florida.

Deaths in Arizona, another hotspot state, decreased last week for the first time since they started to surge in early July.

Even though deaths are now rising across the US, they are below the levels seen in April when an average of 2,000 people a day were dying from the virus - mostly in the original epicenter of New York.

Deaths surged in April in the weeks after coronavirus infections spiked mostly in the Northeast.

The number of fatalities are now increasing in Sunbelt states and across the Midwest after infections surged there throughout June and July.

While cases appear to now be on a downward trajectory nationally, deaths have been increasing for a month and an average of 1,000 Americans are currently dying each day

Coronavirus deaths across the United States have increased by 36 percent in a week with states in the Sunbelt and Midwest seeing the largest weekly spikes

Meanwhile, Dr Deborah Birx - who is leading the White House COVID-19 task force - warned nine cities on Wednesday about increasing cases.

In a call with state and local officials that was obtained by the Center for Public Integrity, Birx said there were encouraging signs in southern states hit hard by the pandemic.

'We are concerned that both Baltimore and Atlanta remain at a very high level,' Birx said on the call.

'Kansas City, Portland, Omaha, of course what we talked about in (California's) Central Valley.

'We are seeing a slow uptick in test positivity in cases in places like Chicago, Boston and Detroit and DC,' she said, adding that the virus has entered a new phase.

'This outbreak is different from the March, April outbreak in that it's in both rural and urban areas.'

Earlier this week, Trump had criticized Birx for giving a sobering description of the state of the pandemic.

It comes as Dr Anthony Fauci said the 'numbers don't lie' when it comes to coronavirus in the US as he acknowledged that the country has the worst COVID-19 outbreak in the world and some states, in a sense, were 'on fire'.

His comments came during an interview on Wednesday with CNN's Dr Sanjay Gupta at a virtual Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health forum.

When asked if the US had suffered the worst globally given the country represents a quarter of total COVID-19 infections but only holds about 5 percent of the world's population, Fauci said: 'Yeah, I mean it is. Quantitatively, if you look at it, it is.'

'The numbers don't lie.

'Every country has suffered. We, the United States, has suffered... as much or worse than anyone.

'I mean, when you look at the number of infections and the number of deaths, it really is quite, quite concerning.'

Deaths related to COVID-19 have now risen nationally for four straight weeks, while the number of infections have declined for the second week, according to an analysis of data

Anthony Fauci, who is a member of the White House's coronavirus task force, said that the US has 'quantitatively' suffered from the COVID-19 pandemic as the country averages nearly 60,000 new cases and 1,000 deaths per day

Data from Wednesday shows that the US represents 22 percent of global COVID-19 deaths and more than 25 percent of worldwide infections.

Fauci's tone contrasts with comments made by President Donald Trump on Monday when he declared in an interview with Axios on HBO that coronavirus was 'under control' in the US.

When confronted by the fact that an average of 1,000 Americans are dying each day from COVID-19, Trump said: 'They are dying, that's true. And you have - it is what it is.'

'But that doesn't mean we aren't doing everything we can. It's under control as much as you can control it. This is a horrible plague.'

In an interview with Reuters in which he was asked if he shared that sentiment, Fauci said some parts of the country were more under control than others.

'We're a big country. You can pick out some parts of the country that are looking good and you could say is under control; you could pick some parts of the country that are on fire, in the sense, I mean you're having outbreaks that you know you don't get 70,000 cases a day when nothing's going on,' he said.

Trump also said in that interview, which was filmed on July 28, that the country's current death rate was 'lower than the world'.

Citing a series of charts and graphs regarding death rates in comparison to cases, Trump said: 'The United States is lowest in numerous categories. We're lower than the world, than Europe.'

He went on to say: 'Death is way down from where it was. Where it was is much higher than where it is right now.'

Fauci went on to say that he doesn't believe the US would have to lockdown again like it did in April to stop the spread.

'We can do much better without locking down,' he said.

In an interview with Axios on HBO that was filmed last Tuesday but only aired Monday, Trump said the virus was well-controlled across the US despite the country averaging about 65,000 new cases and 1,000 deaths per day

He said Americans should wear masks, keep physically distanced, shut down bars, wash their hands and favor outdoor activities over indoor ones in order to help stop transmission of the virus.

In response to recently criticisms from Trump, Fauci said that doctors try to focus on the science rather than political distractions.

'What we try to do, you know maybe some could do it better than others, is to focus like a laser on what we're supposed to be doing: getting this epidemic under control,' he said.

Fauci said differences in the seriousness with which people had taken the virus in the US had hampered the response to the pandemic in comparison to other countries.

'We have somewhat of a disjointed approach to things,' he said. 'If we had a uniformity of it, and everybody rode together in the same boat, we probably would do much better.'

Fauci and other medical professionals have urged Americans to wear masks and maintain a social distance to prevent the spread of the virus. He lamented the fact that mask-wearing had become political earlier in the pandemic.

Trump declined to wear a mask in public for months and Vice President Mike Pence faced criticism for not wearing one when he visited the Mayo Clinic in April.

'Thank goodness that's changed,' Fauci said.

'I'm very pleased now that we're seeing the vice president consistently wearing a mask, the president tweeting that you should be wearing masks. That's a good thing. That's a step in the right direction.'

Globally, there were 18,895,712 COVID-19 cases as of Thursday, according to John Hopkins
Northern Ireland IT company Neueda has announced a 20m investment bringing 230 new jobs paying an average of around 43,000.

The Belfast firm said it is now intending to repay the government after furloughing eight members of staff during lockdown.

Its expansion is being supported by economic development agency Invest NI with funding of 2.2m. The new roles - which include software engineers and cloud solution experts - are to be filled over the next three years, bringing job numbers to around 450.

Chief operating officer Paddy O'Hagan said furloughing had been a "prudent" measure at the onset of lockdown but that all staff were now back in their jobs.

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The company will be repaying the furlough money to the government.

And he said homeworking would continue in the short-term though its offices at Lanyon Towers would be kept to provide a base for employees. But he said he did not expect the company to need bigger offices in future as use of homeworking would continue.

While the average salary for the new roles would be around 43,000, he said the more senior roles would have salaries of up to 80,000. He said the expansion had come about despite economic uncertainty and fears about the coronavirus pandemic. "Everyone is fearing a second spike and what's going to happen around Brexit but there is a point in time where we just have to dust ourselves off and get on with it, and look beyond to what next year looks like.

"With Brexit there is so much certainty, particularly as to whether services are covered in whatever deal we get, as well as access to talent as we need people with specific skills to come into Northern Ireland to augment the people we already hire."

Economy Minister Diane Dodds said Neueda was a business "to be proud of".

"The jobs will be created in a sector which our economic recovery plan has identified as an area where Northern Ireland can lead. The digital sector currently underpins many other sector and has the potential to grow rapidly providing more and better paid jobs.

"These jobs will contribute over 10m in additional annual salaries to the local economy.

"I would like to commend Neueda on taking further steps to grow its business in such challenging times and I wish it every success for the future."

Mr O'Hagan said the company was aiming to use the new investment to grow customer numbers outside Northern Ireland.

"We hope to drive sales in the US, Great Britain, mainland Europe and eventually into Asian markets where we see an abundance of opportunities for our services."

The company also has premises in Athlone in Co Westmeath, as well as in Malaga, New York, London and Riga.

Company clients include the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA). The business reported revenues of 23.4m in its latest accounts.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (Photo: AFP)

Hanoi - US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on August 4 held a phone talk with Bruneian Foreign Minister II Erywan Yusof, during which he reaffirmed Washingtons support for Southeast Asian countries in upholding their sovereign rights against Chinas unlawful maritime claims in the East Sea.

According to US Principal Deputy Spokesperson Cale Brown, Pompeo stressed the USs opposition to Chinas efforts to use coercion to push its unlawful maritime claims in the sea.Pompeo and Erywan also discussed the importance of continued bilateral security relations and expressed their commitment to work toward strengthening the relations.Earlier on August 3, Pompeo had similar discussions with his Indonesian and Singaporean counterparts on bilateral ties and regional tensions related to Chinas illegal sovereignty claims in the East Sea.On July 15, Spokeswoman of the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry Le Thi Thu Hang said peace, stability, cooperation, and development in the East Sea are the common aspirations and goals of countries bordering the East Sea as well as of those in the region and the international community.Upholding international law, respecting legal order at sea, and fully and responsibly implementing the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) are critical to realising those goals, she said.Vietnam hopes that countries will exert utmost efforts to contribute to maintaining peace, stability, cooperation in the East Sea and to settling disputes via dialogue and other peaceful measures in accordance with international law for common interest and in line with aspirations of countries in the region and the international community, she said, adding that Vietnam always makes active and responsible contributions to this process.
NEW YORK, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Wrongful death and negligence lawsuits have been filed against the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) on behalf of four of the six Harlem "death trap" apartment building fire victims  including a mother and her four young children  alleging that the May 8, 2019 inferno was predictable and preventable, according to attorney Evan M. Oshan. The separate but related filings (Estates of Andrea Pollidore, minors B.P. and N.P, Mahmoud Ibn Talib Abdul-Rauf. v New York City Housing Authority et al., NY STATE SUPREME COURT), follow Mr. Oshan's pre-suit claim for $2.2 billion against the "historically and institutionally inept" agency on behalf of the victims resulting from the catastrophe that shocked the city and nation.

Mr. Oshan, of Oshan & Associates, (Oshan Law) along with counsel from Saltz Mongeluzzi & Bendesky, PC, (SM&B) and Morelli Law Firm (Morelli Law) filed complaints yesterday in New York State Supreme Court. They detail the historical failures of the NYCHA, link the alleged lethal lapses to the actual cause of the early morning two-bedroom unit fire, requests a jury trial, and calls for unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. The attorneys filed on behalf of the estate administrators for Andrea Pollidore, 45, her minor daughters B.P., 6, and N.P., 11, and Jamilla Abdullah, mother of Mahmoud Ibn Talib Abdul-Rauf, 33, a family friend who was visiting the Pollidores in apartment 5-G of the Frederick E. Samuels Apartment along West 142nd St. at Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard. Mrs. Pollidore's two young sons were also killed in the fire.

"This complaint is the next major step on the path to justice for the victims of a devastating fire in a death trap apartment that we now know was clearly predictable and easily preventable if only the defendants had properly done their jobs and maintained the building," said Mr. Oshan. "As alleged, the victims would unquestionably be alive today if the NYCHA defendants and their employees, not engaged in a long and well documented pattern of intentional and grossly negligent conduct that constituted reckless indifference to the tenants they were entrusted to safely shelter and protect."

The defendants, asserts the complaints, "intentionally ignored the risk to life and limb associated with inadequately equipped and maintained fire detection and suppression systems in the Frederick E. Samuels Houses, including in Apartment 5-G." Specifically, it is alleged, among the dozens of design, maintenance and operations shortcomings, the failure to:

Monitor and/or maintain and/or service the fire alarms and smoke detectors in the hallways.

Install adequate fire alarms and smoke detectors in the building, and in the apartment, in compliance with New York City Administrative Code  27-980;

fire alarms and smoke detectors in the building, and in the apartment, in compliance with New York City Administrative Code  27-980; Install sprinklers or other fire suppression systems in the unit and throughout the building.

Mr. Oshan added, "We look forward to all the facts in this case coming to light at trial, and to holding those responsible fully accountable for their actions. It is clear and we will demonstrate that the loving mother of those four precious children was in no way connected to the cause of the fire. Her family and Mr. Abdul-Rauf, their close friend who helped with child care due to her work schedule as a health care worker, were asleep, helplessly trapped in the burning fifth-floor apartment that had steel bars on the windows and no sprinklers."

Robert J. Mongeluzzi, of SM&B, whose firm represents the estates minors B.P. and N.P. stated, "Fire safety requires three major elements- fire suppression, fire warning and easy emergency escape . The defendants utterly failed on all three counts- no sprinklers, no wired in smoke detectors and virtually inaccessible fire escapes. The defendants struck out on all three - and these victims paid with their lives." Andrew R. Duffy and Jeffrey P. Goodman, partners at SM&B, are Mr. Mongeluzzi's co-counsel.

Benedict P. Morelli, who filed on behalf of the estate of Mrs. Pollidore, said the victims estates are hoping the end result of the litigation benefits the hundreds of thousands of other vulnerable New Yorkers living in NYCHA units. "The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York's investigation well before this tragedy of NYCHA infamously identified  leading to a record $2 billion Federal court settlement that was supposed to result in sweeping reform at the NYCHA - a culture where 'accountability does not exist,'" he noted. "We aim to finally expose and shatter in court that culture so no resident in a NYCHA building has to worry when they go to bed if their fire alarms and smoke detectors are in working order, and if they sound will they be able to quickly escape to safety." Mr. Morelli's co-counsel in his firm is David T. Sirotkin.

SOURCE Saltz Mongeluzzi & Bendesky, PC
The Samsung Galaxy Fold 2 is not waterproof, but it has much better protection against water than its predecessor did. Samsung announced the Galaxy Z Fold 2 yesterday, kind of, but it didnt really elaborate on what well talk about here.

Before we start, its worth noting that the company did talk about the device. It showed the phone and everything, while releasing some additional details, but it did not talk about its specs. It also did not share anything regarding its pricing or anything of the sort. More details will follow at the beginning of September.

The Galaxy Z Fold 2 is not waterproof, but it comes with Anti-Erosion Waterproof Coating

That being said, lets talk about Anti-Erosion Waterproof Coating. That is something the Galaxy Z Fold 2 is equipped with, according to Max Weinbach, as a well-known tipster.

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As already mentioned, Samsung did not talk about that during its Unpacked event. Mr. Weinbach says that this does not make the phone waterproof. It should, however, be able to survive a dunk without a problem.

Samsung did talk about an improved hinge during its event, and a system in place that should keep the dirt out of the hinge. The phone also comes with a new display, this time made out of glass (UTG), but it still has a plastic layer on top.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 also looks much better than its predecessor. The device has considerably thinner bezels, especially around its secondary display.

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Both of its displays include a display camera hole, though a rather small one. The whole device simply seems considerably more advanced than its predecessor, and thats a good thing.

We dont know all the details just yet

The Galaxy Z Fold 2 will also include improved internals. Samsung did not share the details just yet, but it will offer flagship-grade specifications, no doubt about that.

Both of its display will be OLED panels, while the one on the inside is also expected to offer 120Hz refresh rate. The phone will include plenty of RAM, and the same goes for storage as well.

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Android 10 will come pre-installed on the device, along with Samsungs custom UI. A large battery is expected as well, along with fast charging, and fast wireless charging.

Samsung will release more details at the beginning of next month. In fact, the phones full announcement may arrive at that time. It is also worth noting that the phone is expected to cost around $2,000.
A charity has reported entire streets wiped out following a large explosion in Lebanon.

Residents of Beirut awoke to a scene of utter devastation today after yesterday's massive explosion at the port sent shock waves across the Lebanese capital.

At least 100 people have been killed and 4,000 injured by the blast near Beiruts harbour on Tuesday evening.

Rodney Eid, the assistant director for crisis management at Red Cross Lebanon, has said he expects the death toll to rise.

Our teams are still searching the area, and it is a big area, around the blast  to look for survivors, to look for people who are injured.

We have also set up two triage and first aid locations next to the blast area so that minor injuries can be treated there as we were overwhelmed with the number of calls yesterday and we were trying to respond to the most vulnerable and to the critical cases first.

Mr Eid said there are a lot of people who are missing.

He added: I expect the death toll to rise.

Some of the damage from yesterday's massive explosion in Beirut. Photo: AP/Hassan Ammar

Authorities in Lebanon are yet to announce the cause of the explosion.

Save the Children said in a statement that members of their team on the ground in the city have reported entire streets destroyed and children unaccounted for.

Volunteers in Beirut rescue a man who had been trapped under the rubble from Tuesday's massive explosion for over 16 hours https://t.co/SP37wcUUQV pic.twitter.com/iXsJ52oDWX  CBS News (@CBSNews) August 5, 2020

Despite the charitys offices in the city being badly damaged, they have pledged that a rapid response team is ready to offer support.

Jad Sakr, Save the Childrens country director in Lebanon, said: We are shocked and devastated by the explosion today.

The death toll may not be known for several days but we do know is that in a disaster like this, children may be hurt, shocked and separated from their parents.

Our child protection teams are ready to support the governments efforts, which will almost certainly go on for several days to come.

It is vital that children and their families get access to the services they urgently need, including medical care and physical and emotional protection.

Seven different angles of the massive explosion in Beirut, Lebanon from this morning.



pic.twitter.com/5TfpK6WYQp  somalia (@somalinews247) August 4, 2020

The incident could not have occurred at a worse time and has hit communities who were already suffering from the impact of the Covid-19 crisis and the economic deterioration.

Beiruts main port, now completely damaged, is vital for much of the food, grains and fuel that Lebanon imports, and families will immediately feel the shortage in basic needs as a result of this tragedy.

Rescue workers and security officers work at the scene of the explosion today. Prime Minister Hassan Diab, in a short televised speech said: "We are witnessing a real catastrophe." Photo: AP/Hussein Malla

Pope Francis tweeted: Let us pray for the victims of the explosions in Beirut and for their families; and let us pray for Lebanon so that, through the dedication of all its social, political and religious elements, it might face this extremely tragic and painful moment.

Foreign minister Simon Coveney tweeted: Our thoughts & prayers are with people of Beirut & Lebanon after shocking explosion yesterday. #Lebanon & #Ireland have a special relationship. We will support in any way we can.

Our thoughts & prayers are with people of Beirut & Lebanon after shocking explosion yesterday. #Lebanon & #Ireland have a special relationship. We will support in any way we can. @dfatirl @UNIFIL_ @defenceforces https://t.co/vIVhbE3f9L  Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) August 5, 2020

A British man living in Beirut, Richard Gordon-Smith, said it had come at the worst possible time for the city.

Gordon-Smith, from Twickenham in London, said: All of the hospitals have been wrecked. Patients are out on the street instead of being treated inside hospitals.

This could exacerbate things beyond the tipping point.

Children's charity UNICEF said it is "saddened at the loss of life" following the explosion.

They said the blast has also displaced more than 300,000 people.

The video of the #Beirut port explosion that has hit me the hardest. A first hand perspective of what it felt like that has been circulating on WhatsApp. pic.twitter.com/8PvZivqGXR  Tala Alrajjal (@tala_alrajjal) August 4, 2020

Ms. Yukie Mokuo UNICEF Representative in Lebanon, said: Our hearts are with children and families who have been impacted, especially those who lost their loved ones. We wish a speedy recovery to the injured.

Yesterdays catastrophe in Beirut adds to what has already been a terrible crisis for the people of Lebanon compounded by an economic collapse and a surge in Covid-19 cases. The pandemic already meant that hospitals are overwhelmed, and front-line workers are exhausted.

UNICEF is coordinating very closely with authorities and partners on the ground to respond to the needs, including those of health and other front-line workers.

A damaged hospital after the explosion in Beirut. Photo: AP/Hassan Ammar

"We have provided drinking water to staff at the Beirut port and are supporting the Ministry of Public Health to take out what is left of stored medicines and vaccines in a warehouse at the port.

"Child protection partners are providing psycho-social support to affected children across the city. Over the coming days, we will increase our efforts to reach families in need with much-needed assistance."
Perhaps the lesson to be learned from State GOP consultant ill with virus rues mistake (Aug. 5), about how veteran Republican political consultant Richard Costigan and members of his family contracted COVID-19 after attending a family gathering in Georgia last month, is this: Dont take a flight anywhere right now unless its absolutely necessary, and wear masks even when youre outdoors with non-household relatives. Unfortunately, our nation is still struggling to control outbreaks of the coronavirus this summer, and any vacations or trips to visit family must be put on hold.

Gregory Smithson, San Carlos

Pastors responsibility

In response to the writer of Importance of worship (Letters, Aug. 5) who defended the priest exposing his flock to the deadly COVID-19 virus, I say this: In the midst of a pandemic, we all have to make sacrifices by temporarily giving up things that are important to us. Its a pastors responsibility to encourage and support us in these difficult decisions. And one thing more he needs to realize: God gave us science. We ignore his gift at our peril.

David Wilcox, Walnut Creek

Play by the rules

The letter writer is entitled to his belief in supernatural things. But neither he, nor his fellow parishioners, are entitled to become infected with COVID-19 in their churches and then go out into public and spread the disease to the larger community.

The letter writer claims that requirements to wear masks and avoid public gatherings only foster bitterness among his co-religionists. Well, thats fine. Let them be bitter, if they choose to, but they must play by the rules of public health and safety.

Steven Heimoff, Oakland

Health comes first

Concerning Beauticians say theres better idea (Business, Aug. 5): While Im certain that cosmetologists sanitize suites where they offer personal grooming services, perhaps their concern should be less with the cleanliness of their operations and more with the health of themselves and their clients.

Without sufficient testing and tracing protocols in place, theres no way of knowing if any of them have or were exposed to someone with COVID-19. Right now, Id love to get a nice manicure and hair styling, but will continue to defer to county health authorities who know better than anyone else about when I can do these things safely.

Felicia Charles, Millbrae

Plan for libraries

Regarding Keep the books clean (Letters, Aug. 4): I live in Stanislaus County, where we have been able to reserve books online since about the end of March. We reserve our book of choice and when it is available, we pick it up in a bin outside the library.

We do not go in, of course, as the libraries are closed. We return the book the same way. Each returned book is then cleaned and quarantined for three days before it is available to be checked out again. I have been doing this since the program started and found the books to be in clean condition. I am certain that such a procedure would be practiced by the San Francisco libraries just as it is in our small community to ensure the health and safety of all patrons.

Carol Barr, Riverbank

Keep the zoos open

Regarding Zoos could be latest shutdown casualties (Aug. 2): I dont get it. The only indoor spaces the public enters at zoos aside from the bathrooms are nocturnal animal exhibits and the gift shop.

So close those two. The rest of zoo areas are spacious and outdoors, where people can socially distance, wearing masks. It makes even less sense to close zoos than it did to close dog parks. (After all, dogs could jump up and pull someones mask off!)

Rocky Leplin, Richmond

A lack of preventive measures

A photo accompanying the news article Polarizing GOP candidate loses Kansas primary (Aug. 5) shows Rep. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., speaking to supporters after defeating Kris Kobach in the Republican senatorial primary. None of them, including Marshall, are wearing face masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and none of them are observing social distancing. If Dorothy were still around, shed probably want to leave Kansas again and return to the Land of Oz.

Brandon DeGuzman, Daly City

Inequities among schools

As a retired educator, Im not surprised to read Elementary teachers: Rules to reopen favor private schools (Front Page, Aug. 5). Charter and private schools not required to follow Californias stringent Common Core standards have higher staff turnover despite smaller class sizes and teachers who are not unionized or can engage in collective bargaining.

Since they operate outside all of these structures, they will surely seek waivers to reopen while public schools remain closed during this coronavirus pandemic. This health crisis is indeed shining a harsh light on the inequities between public and private schools, as well as the different attitudes that the families whose children attend them have about communal responsibility.

Julian Grant, Pacifica

Properly wear the face mask

Regarding How some schools may open in person (Aug. 4): The article suggesting schools could open provides clear evidence of why they should not. A photo shows a teacher at Freedom School wearing a mask  below her nose. If teachers cant get it right, how can we expect students, parents and all those with whom they interact to be safe?

Pat Marriott, Los Altos

Remembering Ralph Barbieri

Regarding Ralph Barbieri 1946-2020 (Aug. 4): Bravo and thank you for that fascinating, lucid and tear-producing obituary for Ralph Barbieri!
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Delta Dental of California today announced it has been named number 25 of the top 100 corporate philanthropists in the San Francisco Bay Area by the San Francisco Business Times. This is the third consecutive year Delta Dental of California has been recognized for its support of Bay Area charities.

"Recent events are a powerful reminder of how vital the services provided by local nonprofits are to the community," said Mike Castro, President and CEO of Delta Dental of California. "Service is a core value of Delta Dental of California, and we are committed to supporting local organizations that care for the vulnerable and underserved."

Delta Dental of California's ranking on the list has risen each year from 49th in 2017, to 32nd in 2018, and now 25th for 2019.

The San Francisco Business Times corporate philanthropy list annually cites the Bay Area's most generous corporate citizens. It highlights companies that made contributions to Bay Area-based charitable organizations in the following counties: San Francisco, San Mateo, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, Santa Clara, Solano and Sonoma. In 2019, Delta Dental granted more than $10 million across the enterprise's 15-state service area, the District of Columbia, including $2.55 million to Bay Area groups.

Most of Delta Dental of California's funding for nonprofits comes via the Delta Dental Community Care Foundation, which seeks to build caring, resilient communities. The Foundation partners with organizations across its 15 state and D.C. service area that are working to increase access to care, promoting and advancing oral health education and providing other community support.

"The Delta Dental Community Care Foundation is proud to support our Bay Area partners working to ensure food security, health care and dignity to historically underserved populations in our backyard," said Kenzie Ferguson, vice president for Foundation and corporate social responsibility for Delta Dental of California. "We strive to ensure our work has an impact and are grateful to be recognized by the San Francisco Business Times for our efforts to make a difference in our local community."

About Delta Dental of California

Since 1955, Delta Dental of California has offered comprehensive, high-quality oral health care coverage to millions of enrollees and built the strongest network of dental providers in the country.

The Delta Dental of California network includes its affiliates, Delta Dental Insurance Company, Delta Dental of Pennsylvania, Delta Dental of New York, Inc., and provides dental benefits to more than 36 million people across 15 states and the District of Columbia. All are members of the Delta Dental Plans Association, based in Oak Brook, Illinois, the not-for-profit national association that collectively covers millions of people nationwide.

For more information about Delta Dental of California, please visit www.deltadentalins.com.

About the Delta Dental Community Care Foundation

The Delta Dental Community Care Foundation partners with local communities to increase access to care, support dental education and fund research that advances the oral health field. Since 2011, the Foundation has awarded more than $60 million across 15 states and the District of Columbia. The Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Delta Dental of California and its affiliated companies, including Delta Dental Insurance Company, Delta Dental of Pennsylvania and Delta Dental of New York, Inc.

Contact:

Tami Holzman

415-972-8300

[email protected]

SOURCE Delta Dental of California

Related Links

https://www.deltadentalins.com


BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 6

By Ilkin Seyfaddini - Trend:

The Embassy of Uzbekistan in Seoul (South Korea) held a videoconference with Director of Business Management of Korean KC Green Materials company Tae Young Lee, Trend reports with reference to Dunyo News Agency.

The parties discussed issues of attracting innovative solutions of the South Korean company in the processing of industrial waste in the Angren Coal Deposit in Uzbekistan and organization of production of environmentally friendly building materials.

The Korean side reported that KC Green Materials is engaged in research and development for recycling various types of waste, including coal ash. The company has several technological patents in the field of innovative solutions for recycling industrial waste into environmentally friendly building materials.

The manager of the South Korean company expressed readiness to study the issue of cooperation with Uzkimyosanoat JSC on recycling industrial waste to produce products that can be used in the production of cement raw materials, soil, light aggregates, other building materials and road construction.

As a result of negotiations, it was agreed to provide KC Green Materials with detailed information for further study, as well as to conduct negotiations in the nearest future.

---

Follow author on Twitter: @seyfaddini
Lebanon's Newly-Elected President Is the Only Christian Head of State in Middle East

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Lebanon's parliament has elected former general Michel Aoun, a Christian, as president, ending a two-and-a-half-year power vacuum and leading to celebrations in the country's Christian areas. The new leader, the only Christian head of state in the Middle East, is backed by the Hezbollah movement.

The 81-year-old former Lebanese army chief secured the presidency by winning the support of 83 lawmakers, well above the absolute majority of 65 needed to win, after 45 failed sessions to elect a new leader since May 2014, when Michel Suleiman stepped down as president at the end of his term, Al Jazeera reported.

Aoun was backed by two of his biggest rivals, Samir Geagea, leader of the Christian Lebanese Forces, and former premier Saad Hariri, a Sunni who has received regional support from Saudi Arabia.

Hariri's support is therefore being seen by some as a sign of both Saudi Arabia's declining influence in Lebanon and an increasing role of the Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Hariri is otherwise known for being against Syria's government, which is led by the embattled President Bashar al-Assad, who is from a Shiite sect, and a supporter of Hezbollah's main rival. It is believed that Hariri decided to back Aoun partly because he suffered losses in his Saudi-based construction firm, Saudi Oger, which had weakened his political influence in Lebanon.

Under a power-sharing agreement in Lebanon, the presidency is reserved for a Maronite Christian while the premier is a Sunni Muslim and the speaker of parliament a Shiite Muslim. Aoun is expected to nominate Hariri to return as prime minister, in exchange for the latter's support.

Aoun will return to the presidential palace more than two-and-a-half decades after being forced out of it as army commander an interim head of the state by Syrian forces and Lebanese troops loyal to a rival commander.

Aoun declared a "War of Liberation" against Syrian army forces in 1989, when he was the army's general.

In October 1990, the Syrian forces invaded Aoun strongholds including the presidential palace in Baabda, on the suburbs of Beirut, killing hundreds of Lebanese soldiers and civilians. Aoun fled to the French Embassy, and then to France, where he was granted asylum and where he lived in exile for 15 years until 2005.

Aoun returned to Lebanon in May 2005, days after the withdrawal of Syrian troops from the country. In 2006, as head of the Free Patriotic Movement, he signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Hezbollah, starting a major alliance that has remained ever since.
A man got more than a lifetime's worth of luck in one go. He got lucky not once or twice but 25 times! Raymond Harrington, from Virginia, US, bought 25 identical lottery tickets for the same drawing and won... 25 times. The man won $1,25,000.

Harrington reportedly visited the Wegnam's store in Virginia Beach and bought 25 $1 tickets for Virginia Lottery's July 17 'Pick 4' drawing.

News Break

It was obviously a gamble, how people buy more than one ticket in the hopes that at least one of them turn out to be the lucky one. Well when the results were announced Harrington found that all 25 of his tickets had winning numbers.

Each of his tickets won $5,000, taking his total prize to $1,25,000. "Something just told me to play 25 times," Harrington reportedly said after winning the lottery.

He wants to invest the money in his sons college education.

In a similar case of luck turning out to be really good for a person, or in this particular case, perseverance with luck, made a man a millionaire.

After 30 years of running the same number in the Colorado Lottery, Joe B finally received the sweet taste of a win. Double that taste because he not just won once, but twice.

Colorado Lottery

According to a 9 News report, Joe B won two Powerball jackpots which were worth $1 million each. He had bought the winning tickets from different places, one from a 7-Eleven at Lake Avenue and another at a Loaf and Jug. According to Colorado's Lottery's Communications Director Meghan Dougherty, Joe B bought one ticket in the morning and the other one in the evening.

The state's Lottery earlier received approval to process winning tickets worth $10,000 or more at a touch-free, drive-through claims office in Pueblo since the pandemic has taken over everywhere.

Colorado Lottery

Winners are supposed to make an appointment by calling the Colorado Lottery office to set appointments to claim their winnings. The prizes can also be sent over to the winners via mail.

May be Joe was playing the odds by betting on the same number for 30 years and slowly but surely it paid off.

Talk about good luck.
Dr Anthony Faucis family received death threats following his appeals to Americans to take the public health crisis from the coronavirus pandemic seriously, the nations leading infectious disease expert said on Wednesday.

I wouldnt have imagined it in my wildest dreams that people who object to things that are pure public health principles are so set against it and dont like what you and I say, namely in the word of science, that they actually threaten you, he said during a forum at Harvard Universitys TH Chan School of Public Health.

He said that his family has obtained security following threats and harassment.

Dr Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, also warned against the nations disparate efforts among individuals and local governments to combat Covid-19, leaving a patchwork response among cities and states without a significant federally coordinated response.

As long as you have any member of society, any demographic group whos not seriously trying to get to the end game of suppressing this, it will continue to smoulder, he said. That will be the reason why in a non-unified way weve plateaued at an unacceptable level.

He also condemned a degree of anti-science feeling in this country that is almost related to authority and a mistrust in authority  including the ridiculous politicisation of wearing masks to prevent transmission, he said.

I think its not just related to science, its almost related to authority and a mistrust in authority that spills over, because in some respects, scientists  because theyre trying to present data  may be looked at ... as being an authoritative figure, he said.

Confirmed Covid-19 cases in the US have surged to nearly 4.8 million, with a seven-day average of roughly 60,000 daily cases, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. The nations death toll has surpassed 157,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. The US has averaged more than 1,000 deaths a day for more than a week.

A surge in new infections followed the lifting of stay-at-home measures and business reopenings in May and June. The nations confirmed cases more than doubled within six weeks from June to July.

Though the US performed more than 60 million tests, the positive rate continued to increase, while Americans have reported significant delays in receiving results, often waiting up to more than a week, by which point a diagnosis cannot be meaningfully addressed.

Its unacceptable, period, said Dr Fauci, speaking to CNNs Dr Sanjay Gupta. For me to say anything different is distorting reality.

In Donald Trumps recent interview with Axios, the president falsely claimed that the US is lower than the world in numerous categories and dismissed the nations death toll (it is what it is) by insisting that the administration is doing everything in its power to combat and control the outbreak.

The president touted that the US death rate by the case is lower than in other countries, though the percentage of the overall US population that has died is much higher, as interviewer Jonathan Swan pointed out.

You cant do that, the president replied.
HARARE, Zimbabwe - A Zimbabwean investigative journalist will remain in jail after a judge dismissed his bail application Thursday, as the United Nations secretary-general raised concern about a wave of arrests in the country.

Journalist Hopewell Chonono has been in detention for more than two weeks.

Before his arrest, Chinono regularly posted on Twitter about alleged government corruption and encouraged Zimbabweans to speak out and act against graft. He is charged with inciting public violence for supporting anti-government demonstrations that were planned for July 31.

Opposition politician Jacob Ngarivhume was also arrested for organizing the anti-government protest, which was thwarted by police and the military which kept people off the streets of Harare, the capital, and other cities on July 31.

Hundreds have been arrested in recent months, including journalists, lawyers, opposition politicians, doctors and nurses, for protesting against the government or striking for better pay as tensions rise in the troubled southern African country.

Another investigative journalist, Mduduzi Mathuthu, is in hiding. He told The Associated Press his lawyers would approach the courts for protection before handing himself to the police. He said he feared being tortured, as has allegedly happened to several other government critics.

I need the courts protection before I return home, he said. The president has labeled us terrorists and has spoken of flushing us out, and that has dark connotations because it gives me a picture of an animal being startled and chased into the open to be killed.

He was referring to President Emmerson Mnangagwas statement this week in which he vowed to continue with the clampdown.

Mnangagwa described critics as dark forces, and a few bad apples that should be overcome, in an address on state television Tuesday.

Human rights lawyers said more than 60 people have been arrested in the past week, while others were allegedly abducted and tortured as security agents sought to crush the protest. The arrests are continuing even though the protest did not take place, said Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.

On Thursday, a government spokesman, Nick Mangwana, dismissed the allegations, saying there is no crisis or implosion in Zimbabwe.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is following developments in Zimbabwe with concern, his office said.

He urges the government of Zimbabwe to ensure the protection of all fundamental human rights, notably the freedom of opinion and expression and the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, said a statement from Guterres office.

Zimbabwes neighbour, South Africa, on Thursday said it noted with concern reports of abuses in Zimbabwe and said that South Africas Minister of International Relations Naledi Pandor discussed the issue with Zimbabwes Foreign Affairs Sibusiso Moyo on Tuesday via telephone.

The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on Kuda Tagwirei, a business associate of Mnangagwa, in signs of the international communitys growing frustration with Mnangagwas administration.
Couples and tourists stroll along the South Bank in London, England, in this file photo. Received Pronunciation, or the 'Queen's English,' has been ranked the most attractive accent in a survey of British people by dating website eHarmony. (Mike Stezycki/Unsplash)

Queens English Is Britains Most-Attractive Accent: Survey

The Queens English is the most attractive accent to British people, according to a survey commissioned by the dating website eHarmony.

Also known as Received Pronunciation (RP), the accent is considered the standard form of spoken British English.

RP also came top for intelligence, sophistication, charm, and reliability.

The eHarmony survey had over 1,000 people listen to the same English sentence recited in 20 different accents then rank them according to 10 positive personality traits.

It found that accent influences who people select for a date.

One in five said theyd dated someone because of their accent, with more men finding the London accent attractive and more women being drawn to the Manchester accent.

Choosing A Date

eHarmony relationship expert Rachael Lloyd, however, cautioned against choosing someone to date based on their accent alone.

Its important to remember that while we might find someone more appealing due to the way they speak, we need to evaluate their core values and personality traits to work out if they are a suitable match, she said in a statement.

Where a potential match is from and how they speak should be looked at with an open mind, she said, citing core values and compatibility as the most important things to consider in the quest for a happy relationship.

Celebrity Influence

Some accent choices were influenced by the popularity of celebrities, Lloyd said.

The friendliest accent, Geordie, spoken in and around Newcastle in North East England, was boosted by TV personalities Ant and Dec.

Lloyd said former James Bond star Sean Connery was still doing wonders for the Edinburgh accent, which came third for attractiveness.

The accents doing well in the survey were not all British.

Kiwi ranked second-most attractive, and Australian ranked fourth-most attractive ahead of German, Yorkshire and the Irish Republic.

American was voted the most interesting.

Domestic accents also did well.

Geordie hit the top spot for humour, and Liverpudlian was second funniest followed by Irish.

Irish was also found the most charming, and Yorkshire the most honest.

Cornish was among the five funniest of the 20 accents, yet it came bottom for attractiveness.

The traditionally romantic Spanish and French accents ranked next least attractive at positions 18 and 19, respectively.
A media comprised of a sandwich of materials, tested by Sandia National Laboratories, is being manufactured into N95-like respirators that could be used in local medical facilities. The project originated from the urgent need for personal protective equipment when the COVID-19 outbreak began.

I can almost assure you that no one else in the country is making respirators the way we're making them. We didn't want to research the same materials already used in the typical N95 supply chain due to availability issues, so we looked into other materials we could get ahold of that seemed most likely to meet the filtration requirements." Dave Mayberry, technical lead for Marpac, Sierra Peaks and Sew-EZ, the companies that worked with Sandia on materials testing

Marpac, Sierra Peaks and Sew-EZ were matched with Sandia scientists through the New Mexico Small Business Assistance program that pairs Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories with companies seeking help to solve technical problems. Sandia worked on a project with each company.

"It's been very satisfying to see NMSBA, a state program, help New Mexico businesses address COVID-19 issues," said Jackie Kerby Moore, manager of technology and economic development at Sandia. "It was also rewarding to see the Sandia team jump on the opportunity to help these three businesses with their respirators."

Marpac specializes in manufacturing medical tube securement devices and works closely with engineering and manufacturing companies Sierra Peaks and Sew-EZ.

Mayberry reached out to Sandia after receiving an inquiry from a local hospital to see if the company could help address the potential shortage of N95 respirators. Certified N95 respirators are worn like masks and protect users from 95% of airborne particles and liquid contamination.

Sandia has the equipment and expertise to help, and within a few days after Marpac reached out, a team of scientists began working on the challenging task of modifying systems to make sure samples were tested properly.

Sandia principal investigator Michael Omana said the team modified aerosol and filtration systems typically used for nuclear nonproliferation work. They had to reduce the systems' airflow significantly to mimic the rate that humans breathe. They also modified existing test boxes to quickly mount and seal the samples inside prior to running them through the testbed.

"We were tapped about the first project with Marpac on a Thursday and drafted the scope of work and contract by Friday," Omana said. "By Monday or Tuesday, we had finished all system modifications. Initial testing of the first set of materials was completed by the end of the week, and data was provided to Marpac."

Initial test materials underperformed, with the best sample coming within 10% of the desired filtration levels. Within a couple of weeks, the researchers started seeing promising results from new material compositions. Creativity in combining materials resulted in samples with protection levels comparable to N95 respirators.

Marpac manufactured 500 N95-like respirators using the materials Sandia tested, and Mayberry said they passed fit tests at a local hospital. They're also looking into additional medical facilities that could use the product.

"We feel fortunate that the local hospital provider came to us after seeing our capabilities," Mayberry said. "This definitely stretched us out of our comfort zone, and certainly without the technical support from Sandia Labs, this would have been hard to validate all the types of materials that would be likely constructed into a respirator."

Working quickly was critical for the projects, Sandia distinguished technologist Dora Wiemann said, and the team put in long hours -; including on weekends.

The projects with each company built upon each other. For the first project with Marpac, researchers tested sheets of composite materials provided by the company in the large, modified filtration system.

For the second project with Sierra Peaks, additional test-box modifications enabled the scientists to mount and seal samples cut in respirator geometries, and to complete comparison studies against certified N95 respirators.

The third project with Sew-EZ, which is ongoing, involves further sample testing using the filtration system and an additional commercial-off-the-shelf system, which is typically used by industry to certify products like N95 respirators.

"Sandia is not a certification lab, but the joint use of the systems enabled us to provide data that may be compared against products which have been certified through traditional avenues," Omana said. "This data will help the company if it chooses to seek certification of its product through the proper organizations."

Omana and a couple of other researchers test the materials in the lab, then forward data to be processed into quantitative results. The timeline on all projects has been tight, but the researchers said promising tests have been rewarding, especially because the result has the potential to help people during a time of crisis.

"I'm glad to be in the position I am so that I can help with this really big issue with characterizing materials that can be used for N95 replacements," Wiemann said. "By the end of the initial modifications and testing, we were a very close-knit team, solving an important problem. It was exhausting and exhilarating."
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Haig Partners LLC was the exclusive financial advisor to German Motors in the sale of BMW San Francisco to Lithia Motors, Inc. ("Lithia").

"We congratulate Lithia on the purchase of BMW San Francisco which has been in our family for 56 years," said Henry Schmitt, owner. "We are grateful to have had the opportunity to serve BMW and MINI customers in the Bay Area and to have worked with so many special associates at the dealership. I'd also like to thank Alan Haig and Nate Klebacha at Haig Partners who assisted us by conducting a thorough and professional sale process. They were patient and creative and brought the best possible buyer for our business."

Bruce Bercovich of Arent Fox LLP served as legal counsel to German Motors.

"We're very excited to welcome the talented team of BMW of San Francisco to the Lithia family," said Bryan DeBoer, Lithia Motors President and CEO. "Their passion for BMW and their enthusiasm for technology is geared perfectly for this region." The store is expected to generate $210M in revenue for Lithia.

Alan Haig, President of Haig Partners, stated, "It was an honor to assist Henry Schmitt and his family in the sale of their large and successful dealership. This transaction demonstrates that buyers are eager to acquire leading franchises in leading markets, despite the impact of COVID-19. We wish Lithia much success as they continue their rapid growth strategy."

Haig Partners LLC is a boutique investment banking firm that focuses on auto/heavy truck/RV dealers and the companies that serve them. It is the leading buy-sell advisory firm to owners of higher value dealerships and dealership groups. Since 1996, the principals at Haig Partners have completed over 180 dealership transactions totaling over $5.3 billion, more than any other team in the industry. They also publish the widely followed Haig Report that tracks trends in the auto industry and how they impact dealership valuations. The latest Haig Report is available here. Alan Haig is a frequent speaker at leading industry events. For more information, visit www.haigpartners.com.

Contact:

Alan Haig

(954) 646-8921

[email protected]

SOURCE Haig Partners LLC
At noon yesterday, John Hume was gently laid to rest in Derry, the town he loved so well. As he is buried, we should not let the great good that he has done to be interred with his bones.

Let no one dare attempt to airbrush his formative influence in shaping and making today's peace. Without his political genius, there would be no peace, no partnership and no reconciliation possible. It is the solemn duty of all democrats, but especially those in the SDLP, the party that he created, to secure his inspirational message for the future and achieve his ultimate aim of the reconciliation of our divided people.

Working with John Hume was an extraordinary experience. For many years, I saw at close quarters the dedication that marked his political life.

At several international events, I witnessed the admiration and respect with which politicians from many different countries across the political spectrum regarded him.

In the United States, he had superstar status, especially on Capitol Hill. Politicians of both major parties sought his counsel and attention. Senator Ted Kennedy was a close personal friend and supporter.

I remember, in particular, that we attended a European socialist conference in Berlin just after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. There, John presented a piece of a peace wall from Belfast to Willy Brandt.

Brandt, the former mayor of a divided Berlin, was moved and praised John's commitment to peace, not just in Ireland, but also in Europe, through his steadfast support for the European Union.

He could be demanding, as was his right as a political leader, steering not just a political party, but a political project to its successful conclusion. At times, he was under enormous personal pressure, which I believe ultimately damaged his health.

He sacrificed his life so that others might live their lives to the fullest. His greatest wish was to create a world in which each individual could achieve their full potential. But, in order to do so, the right structures had to be established for people to live in peace and with the freedom to express their political identities.

As Seamus Mallon asserted before he died, John Hume's political stature was as great as that of Daniel O'Connell and Charles Stewart Parnell.

These two political giants dominated Irish politics in the 19th century and were firmly committed to peaceful parliamentary politics and radical political reform in an Ireland then dominated by Britain for many generations.

Hume, who was in that democratic nationalist tradition, likewise dominated Irish politics in the second half of the 20th century.

The impact of his thinking was so influential that he radically reshaped the political thinking, not just of nationalists and republicans, but also unionists. As leader of the SDLP, he outlined a new approach to solving our problems through dialogue and peaceful persuasion. His analysis was that, in order to bring about a lasting peace in Ireland, the root cause of that division had to be tackled.

He was adamant that it could not be resolved through political violence. Violence could only exacerbate the problem. Famously, he would often proclaim that we should spill our sweat, not our blood.

That root cause was the historic division between the nationalist and unionist political traditions within Northern Ireland, which could be gradually and systematically addressed by the representatives of both traditions, working by agreement through mutually agreed structures.

Through working together, trust would then develop and through that trust the conditions necessary for reconciliation would also emerge. This would in time lead to the ultimate reconciliation of the people, both north and south.

That reconciliation would bring about a new Ireland, in which all people could live together in peace and security, without undermining their cherished political identities.

John was a visionary, not just in relation to Irish politics, but also in relation to Europe, which he saw as the greatest example of successful conflict resolution. He saw the need for Ireland and Britain to be part of a greater community of nations, where all could work together to build and maintain the peace established in Europe after two wars.

As an MEP, he was greatly respected by all parties and could well have become the president of the parliament, but for his dedication to political life here. He was also offered the Irish Presidency by the parties in the Republic, but this he declined due to commitments in the North.

John Hume was an extraordinary leader of the SDLP and an exceptional political thinker. Above all, he was a statesman. His imprint was present on all major initiatives, from Sunningdale to the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985, as well as his ultimate achievement, the Good Friday Agreement.

May he rest in peace.

Alban Maginness was part of the civil rights march on Bloody Sunday in 1972. He is a former chairman of the SDLP
Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Thursday directed the district in-charge ministers to take precautionary measures in the wake of heavy rainfall across the state. Yediyurappa also instructed the ministers to remain in their constituencies and tour the damaged areas.

Several parts of Karnataka are facing a flood-like situation for the third consecutive year, putting lives and property at risk. Many districts of coastal, Malnad and north interior regions are receiving heavy rains and the showers are expected to continue, while there are reports of landslides in hilly areas of Kodagu and Chikkamagaluru districts.

Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, who is currently undergoing treatment for COVID-19 infection at a private hospital in Bengaluru, has ordered the immediate release of Rs 50 crore for emergency relief.

Last night, Yediyurappa tweeted, "In wake of heavy rains in several parts of the state, I have instructed the Chief Secretary to review the situation and issued instructions to DCs (Deputy Commissioners) to closely monitor the situation & take necessary measures. Also ordered immediate release of Rs 50 crores for emergency relief purposes."

A statement released by the CMO today said that the Chief Minister has directed the district in-charge Ministers to take precautionary measures in the wake of heavy rainfall across the state.

He instructed the ministers to remain in their constituencies and tour the damaged areas and also directed them to undertake relief distribution and other necessary measures.

Notably, Kodagu district witnessed landslides along with widespread rains. There have been landslides at Brahmagiri, near Talacauvery, the origin of river Cauvery.

This is the third consecutive year that Kodagu is facing floods and landslides. Several parts of north Karnataka, especially the border district of Belagavi are also facing flood situations as inflow has increased in Krishna river and its tributaries due to heavy rains in neighboring Maharashtra and also in the district.

With inflow increasing in the Tungabhadra river, there is a flood-like situation in parts of Ballari district also, and a similar situation prevails in Uttara Kannada district.

Recently, the state government had said it has identified 1,989 villages and over 51 lakh people in 19 districts as flood-prone.
Out-of-control wildfires north of the Arctic Circle have released more dangerous greenhouse gases in two months than all of the fires last year combined, scientists have said.

The latest data from the European Unions Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service reveals the appalling extent of the fires in the Siberian Arctic, which are releasing huge amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere.

Around 600 individual fire hotspots are being detected every day, compared with 200 to 300 on average in July 2019, and images taken by the satellites show enormous plumes of thick smoke, many stretching tens of kilometres across the tundra.

In total, smoke from the wildfires was covering an area of about 3.6 million sq km (1.4 million sq miles) on Wednesday - more than a third of the area of Canada.

What we have been seeing in the Arctic this summer is a significant number of wildfires in the Siberian Arctic that have been burning since about the second week of June with high intensity and producing large amounts of smoke pollution covering much of the region, Mark Parrington, senior scientist at Copernicus, told The Independent.

In terms of CO2, we estimate that 205 megatonnes of CO2 was emitted from wildfires within the Arctic Circle between 1 June and 31 July 2020.

For some context, the annual total wildfire emissions for the Arctic Circle in 2019 was 182 megatonnes of CO2, he said.

This is more CO2 emissions than the annual output of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland combined.

Speaking about the increase in fires in recent years, Dr Parrington said detailed data on fires north of the Arctic circle only goes back to 2003, nonetheless, what the observations show is that up until 2019 there had been some fires in the Siberian Arctic but they have been relatively short-lived, lasting for a few days.

But in 2019 and 2020 the fires have been more widespread and more persistent, burning for several weeks between June and August.

He added: Observations are somewhat limited prior to the mid-1990s but there does not seem to be any evidence of similar fire events in the years before any routine monitoring data are available.

The wildfires come amid a heatwave in northern Siberia, where temperatures have been 15C to 20C warmer than normal for consecutive days, forecasters said this week.

Also in Canada, a temperature of 33C was recorded north of the Arctic circle, highlighting the impact of the Arctic amplification phenomenon in which temperatures in northern polar regions have risen at least twice as fast as other parts of the globe amid the climate crisis.

According to the Moscow Times, ice cover in the Arctic Ocean hit an all-time low for this time of year on 15 July, the paper said, citing Russias National Snow and Ice Data Centre.

The Siberian coast is most affected, while the Northeast Passage, a sea shipping route connecting Europe with Asia, was free of ice by mid-July. Last year, it took until late August for the ice to melt and open the route.

Dr Parrington said: The direct impact of these wildfires on the global climate is difficult to quantify but there are a number of potential indirect impacts. In terms of the CO2 emissions, some of this will be reabsorbed by the biosphere but this is a slow process and we dont have an estimate of this right now, however, fires in peatland are releasing carbon which has been stored in the ground for thousands of years.

He added: Changes to the surface albedo [reflectivity], due to changes in the land surface with the burn scars and deposition of black carbon to sea ice in the Arctic Ocean could also alter how solar radiation is absorbed or reflected and affect how the climate is changing in the Arctic.

The burning of peatlands is highly alarming to climate scientists, not only because of the CO2 emissions and changes to the albedo, but also because as the Arctics enormous areas of permafrost melt, they release huge stores of methane - an extremely potent greenhouse gas - further accelerating the rise in temperatures.
Originally published March 9, 2008

The flat roofs across the street were checkered with black shadows. In the dim yellow light of a city sky at night, Sgt. Lorenzo Martinez thought he saw a man move.

He jumped away from the window and pressed his back to the wall.

Maybe, he thought, he was becoming too cautious, too wary. Ever since six of his friends in Alpha Company had been killed in hidden-bomb attacks in Iraq, he had been easily spooked.

His mind raced. Was the door locked? Was there a route of escape? What would he do without a weapon?

With just thumb and forefinger, he slowly separated the blinds and peered out again.

He froze.

Sure enough, it was a sniper.

*

But this was Philadelphia, not Baghdad, and Martinez was in his own bedroom on the second floor of his own house on North Fifth Street.

Somehow, the bald, 44-year-old father of two had transported himself back to Iraq, back to the dusty roads and drab villages where the bomb attacks his outfit suffered in 2004 and 2005 made it the hardest-hit Pennsylvania National Guard unit since World War II.

This evening in June 2006, he'd had a couple of beers. He and his wife, Maria, had exchanged sharp words. His eyes, flashing in the round mirror on the dresser, had grown wild.

Now he yanked open the drawers and dumped them on the floor. He turned over the mattress and shoved it, with other furniture, against the door.

With the lights out, he stood staring at imagined danger across the way.

He began to dwell on the faces of the men who'd been lost - members of the First Battalion of the 111th Infantry, based at an armory in Northeast Philadelphia.

There was Spec. Gennaro Pellegrini, a police officer who boxed professionally and was known as Punchy. Martinez could picture him all worked up, ready for a fight.

There was Sgt. Brahim Jeffcoat, long-faced and lean, who was a Temple University student and father of a 19-month-old girl. His round glasses gave him a studious look.

There was Nathaniel DeTample, a former 130-pound wrestler at Pennsbury High School in Bucks County. At 19, he was a rarity in Alpha: a private first class in the veteran unit. Martinez always thought he looked like a baby.

Martinez could bring to mind all the faces - of those three and of the others, Spec. Kurt Krout, Sgt. Francis Straub, Spec. John Kulick. They had been killed in a pair of bomb blasts three days apart in August 2005. The calamity had been major news across the state.

During his night of distress, Martinez had these men on his mind. "Where," he wanted to know, "are my friends?"

*

More than two years after coming home, and on the eve of the Iraq war's fifth anniversary, the 131 survivors of Alpha Company are still trying to sort out the meaning of their sacrifice.

These were citizen-soldiers, many of them family men, drawn from across the Philadelphia region. They are, today, police officers and prison guards, construction workers and drugstore clerks. One is an airport screener, one carries mail, and one digs graves.

The Inquirer set out almost a year ago to track down every Alpha member. About a third have left the Guard, and others have transferred to units as far away as Texas and Arizona. One died in a car accident, one went to prison, one melted into the shadows of Army Special Forces. It took court records to find some. Others, although still in the Guard and in the area, were wary of talking.

The newspaper ultimately reached all but one veteran, and all but five cooperated in reporting on how they were doing.

Alpha never expected to go to war. Its members knew it was possible, but the Pennsylvania Army Guard hadn't sent units into combat since World War II.

Many of the men had been in the Guard for years without ever venturing much farther than Fort Indiantown Gap on the eastern slopes of the Allegheny Mountains.

Then came 9/11. Then came the Iraq invasion. Alpha was called up in 2004 for almost six months of pre-Iraq training in Texas and Mississippi. The unit then spent nearly 11 months in the dust and danger of northern Iraq, where Alpha endured half a dozen bomb attacks and ambushes in which men were hurt. Besides the six men who were killed, 17 received the Purple Heart for wounds in combat.

Amid the relief and joy of coming home in late 2005, the survivors weren't fully prepared for what, to them, were unexpected difficulties of readjusting to civilian life.

Some emerged from the trial of Iraq stronger and more self-confident, with high hopes for the future.

But others feel derailed and don't know, yet, how to get back on track. Almost half - 46 percent - have been treated for post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

For many, the stresses of reentry - reacquainting themselves with wives and girlfriends, returning to work or school - caused levels of anger and anxiety that required psychotherapy and medication, often at a VA hospital or clinic.

About a third were collecting VA disability pensions for PTSD, hearing loss, bad backs and other injuries - some while still serving in the Guard.

Almost every man said he had felt welcomed home. Sometimes strangers, seeing them in uniform, would say thank you. But many in the company saw an America bored with veterans' stories - too detached or too distressed by events in Iraq to care much about them. And that felt like an insult.

For some men, the path to recovery remains as elusive as the shadowy insurgents Alpha stalked on the plain of ancient Mesopotamia.

Sgt. Allan Dempster of South Philadelphia, rocked by two bomb blasts in September 2005, came back and was medicating himself with alcohol, only to learn that he had traumatic brain injury - which the Pentagon now calls the signature injury of the Iraq war.

Dempster never got a Purple Heart. The Army apparently did not consider his injury to be a combat wound. Yet it haunts him still. His evaluation of his own condition is both plaintive and concise.

"I am changed," he said.

Some of the men in the all-male unit said they'd almost rather be back in Iraq. Life was simpler there; a man just followed orders. Fifty of them said they'd volunteer to go back, and 10 others said they'd consider it.

All of the veterans, in one way or another, have been marked indelibly by their Iraq experience - some quite literally, as in the case of Sgt. Neill Coulbourn of Phoenixville.

Coulbourn has a tattoo etched on his big right arm that bears the names of six men - six dead men. Underneath, it says: August 2005.

For Alpha Company, everything begins with August 2005.

*

The summer temperature at Forward Operating Base Summerall was routinely 110 degrees. The desert compound 110 miles north of Baghdad had been an Iraqi military airfield before the Americans took over. To Sgt. Dan South, it seemed "like a little fort in Indian country. "

This was August 2005. South had been in Iraq for eight months. Several times, the unit was hit with roadside bombs and suicide attacks. As yet, it had suffered no fatalities.

South, 23, joined the Army out of high school in York County. He had been in the Fourth Infantry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, but had gotten out a few months before the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

He then joined the Guard to get the college benefits it offered and enrolled at Millersville University. As the war rolled into 2004, he began to suspect he would never make it to graduation. Indeed, he was called up for 18 months. He joined Alpha for training and then flew out with the unit around Thanksgiving 2004.

He never wanted to go to Iraq. It wasn't that he opposed the war; he didn't. In fact, he wanted to earn the respect of his father, who had been a Marine at the Vietnam War battle of Khe Sanh. But South had other plans. He wanted to be back in school.

In the summer of 2005, nearly half of all U.S. troops in Iraq were from the Guard and reserves. Never before had part-time soldiers carried so heavy a share of the load in fighting a war.

As guardsmen, the men of Alpha were typically older than regular Army troops. Fourteen were over 40, and the eldest was 55.

FOB Summerall, as they called their base, was near Beiji, an important crossroads with the largest oil refinery in Iraq. The fortress, an ocean of white trailers, was surrounded by a wall of enormous sandbags, each filled with a ton of soil.

For the 1,000 or so men of Task Force Dragoon, of which Alpha was a part, living at the FOB was only occasionally dangerous. Insurgents might lob in a mortar shell, but they knew U.S. forces would respond with shells twice as big.

By Army standards, the accommodations were comfortable. Troops ate in a cool, spacious dining facility where the menu included Baskin-Robbins ice cream. They bunked, in pairs, in steel, air-conditioned boxes that looked like shipping containers. Each day, soldiers could be seen running in shorts and T-shirts along the dirt-and-stone roads of the compound. The air often was thick with dust.

Many Alpha soldiers had volunteered for Iraq. They had been members of other companies in the battalion and agreed to fill vacant slots on Alpha's roster.

Still, they complained. They complained about the heat. They complained about the spiders and scorpions. They complained about their leaders. All the carping - which they saw as every soldier's right - let off steam.

Every day, usually twice a day, they rode dangerous patrols in their armored humvees. Every day, they were in danger from mines planted beneath the roads, from bombs hidden alongside the roads, from suicide bombers driving cars or trucks packed with explosives.

And every day, they counted the time until they could go home.

*

Almost every Alpha soldier was on at least one patrol that came under attack.

Staff Sgt. Anthony Kelly, a platoon sergeant from Drexel Hill, a law-school graduate with a shaved head, kept an e-mail diary in which he wrote: "Imagine rolling down the street at 60 m.p.h in a 12-ton freight car, equipped with a [machine gun] that spits hundreds of pointy metal bricks at a couple of thousand feet per second.

"Now imagine some yokel taking potshots at you . . . or planting a bomb for you to run over, or planting one in a car that he tries to drive into the side of your humvee (killing himself in the process). . . . It feels like driving through a really bad neighborhood. "

Soldiers rarely had a chance to fight back.

"Me, personally, I never saw an insurgent," said Sgt. Mark Ransom of Royersford, a former Marine who would have preferred a head-to-head fight. "It was a year of just sitting around and waiting to get blown up. "

Over the months, the frequency of attacks waxed and waned. Soldiers would kick open some doors in Beiji and break up an insurgent cell. Bomb attacks would ebb. Then another cell would arise, and attacks would increase. The battle to stay ahead was constant.

In May and June 2005, bomb blasts seemed to come in waves, and several men were seriously hurt. As August arrived, Alpha's sector seemed quiet.

Capt. Anthony Callum, the company commander, felt confident enough to accept the two weeks of home leave the Army offered each soldier during his deployment.

Callum, too, had never expected to find himself at war. He had been in the Guard for 18 years. In 1983, he was a Navy sailor off the coast of Beirut when 241 Marines on shore were killed in a terrorist bombing of their barracks. That was the closest Callum had ever come to combat.

"I thought my adventure stories were over," he said just before leaving for Iraq around Thanksgiving 2004. "Why would they want a 43-year-old man with a family of four? "

Still, he was excited: It was the leadership chance of a lifetime.

Callum was 6,000 miles from Iraq, at home with his wife and two children in the Philadelphia suburb of Chalfont, when bad news arrived from Iraq.

Two Alpha soldiers, Sgt. Jeffcoat, 25, of Philadelphia, and Spec. Krout, 43, of Spinnerstown, Bucks County, had gone with a convoy to the Camp Anaconda supply base to pick up a machine gun that needed repair. This was not an Alpha mission; they merely bummed a ride with other troops.

On their way back, a roadside bomb along the Samarra bypass killed them both.

A shaken Callum started back for Iraq as fast as he could.

He had traveled as far as Germany when the news got worse.

*

The Sunni insurgents appeared intent on picking a fight. They were out in the dark somewhere, shooting rocket-propelled grenades into the air or lobbing them at truck convoys on Highway 1, like some school-yard tease: Come and get me!

Alpha Company, burning from the loss of two of its men, leaped at the challenge.

It was after 11 p.m. on Aug. 9. Alpha's Second Platoon had been on call since 9 as a quick-reaction force in case anything happened in Task Force Dragoon's sector of Salahuddin province.

Sixteen men from the Second and Third Squads began to load up. By now, with scores of missions behind them, the Alpha soldiers were confident veterans. They put on their helmets, wrap-around armor vests, knee pads and elbow pads. They checked their ammunition and started the smoky diesel engines of their four armored humvees.

Spec. Kulick 35, a lanky Jenkintown firefighter, had all his personal belongings packed and ready to send home. His roommate, Spec. Robert Jackson, a North Philadelphia barber and divorced father of three, knew Alpha Company wouldn't be relieved for several months. What was Kulick thinking?

"He was always the kind of guy who liked to be prepared ahead of time," Jackson recalled. "But I said: 'Whoa! It's way too early for that. You've got plenty of time. ' "

As the squads waited by their humvees, Lt. Hasan Fersner emerged from the tactical operations center with their orders.

At 26, the rugged, square-chinned Fersner was the platoon leader. His father had been studying Islam when he was born, and had given him his Islamic-sounding name. But Fersner was Christian. He had majored in English lit at Stroudsburg University.

He told the men that Army scouts had spotted insurgent grenade fire in a back-country area near the town of Laqlaq known as Smugglers Road. It ran between Highway 1 and the west bank of the Tigris River.

Alpha was to go out and battle the insurgents, or at least chase them away. Battalion leaders wanted two civilian dog handlers and their dogs to go along.

"If anybody tried to run, we'd have the dogs to sniff them out," Fersner recalled.

To make room for the dog teams, Kulick, the lanky firefighter, was asked to vacate his spot in the fourth humvee and take a seat in the third.

He did what he was told.

*

The humvees, each topped with a machine gun, departed the FOB by Gate 3. The soldiers rode without lights, using night-vision goggles. But the diesel-powered engines were noisy.

They rumbled past the village of As Saliyah and continued into open desert.

They crossed a railroad overpass and turned south on Highway 1, a four-lane road that prewar invasion planners had code-named Tampa.

They then swung left toward Laqlaq, rolled through the town and stopped on Smugglers Road. Beyond lay the sudden green swath by the Tigris.

Another U.S. force was heading south on Smugglers Road so they could clamp the insurgents in a vise.

Sgt. South, driver of the third vehicle, was spoiling for a fight. The men of Alpha were confident. They had superior weapons and superior training. They believed they could win any head-on fight with the insurgents.

"We were professionals and they were amateurs," South said. "The whole job of infantry is to engage the enemy. "

The first Alpha humvee made the left turn, north. Then the second followed. Then South's vehicle moved after the others.

That was the last moment South could remember.

Directly beneath his humvee, a bomb exploded.

Several 155mm artillery rounds, investigators would later say, had been wired together, packing enough power to destroy a heavy tank. The lighter humvee, with South and four other men in it, was obliterated.

An instant later, a second bomb exploded from under the road, but this one missed its target, creating a big crater between the first and second U.S. vehicles.

Then, from a field to the right, the insurgents opened up with gunfire and grenades.

The U.S. plan to squeeze the insurgents had backfired. Instead, Alpha men were the ones who were ambushed.

Spec. Kieran McGurk, a ruddy-faced 21-year-old who had joined the Guard straight out of Upper Darby's Monsignor Bonner High School, was standing in the turret of the last humvee. The first blast momentarily blinded him.

"It was so bright," he said. "I just remember feeling the heat off of it. It was incredible. "

When Jackson, at the wheel of the trailing vehicle, had to stomp on the brakes, McGurk was thrown into the side of the turret and broke his wrist.

He fell down into the humvee but got up and started firing the M240 Bravo machine gun into the blackness. It jammed. He then picked up a SAW, a light machine gun, and fired with that.

After the second bomb, there may have been a third, possibly planted in a tree on the left side of the road.

A large section of tree trunk smashed through the bullet-resistant windshield of the second humvee and pinned a wounded Staff Sgt. Timothy Breen to his seat.

The soldiers were confused: Had the road bomb knocked over one of the trees that lined the road? Or had a bomb been planted in the tree itself?

"Something had to cause the tree to become a missile," said Staff Sgt. David Jock.

Jock, a short, redheaded rooster of a man, was a medic. A former member of the Army's 82d Airborne Division, he was a paramedic at home in rural Chester County. He already had seen a lot in Iraq. Any time there was blood, the medic had to come running.

In the smoke of battle, there was uncertainty over whether the insurgents had fired rocket-propelled grenades. Jock was sure they had.

He said an RPG flew right past his window. He saw the flame trail. The rocket hit a wall next to the road. "You could feel the heat from it when it went off," he said.

Jock rode in the lead vehicle with Fersner, the platoon leader. In the dark, as the vehicle turned to go help the others who were hit, it fell into one of the blast holes. The sudden lurch tore ligaments in Jock's left shoulder.

*

The firefight lasted only a short time.

Fersner was on his radio getting reports from the other humvees. But from Vehicle No. 3, led by Spec. Gennaro Pellegrini, there was silence.

"Pellegrini still hadn't called in," Fersner said. "I was trying to contact him. "

Only later, as the firing died down and the insurgents slipped away, did Alpha Company realize the full scale of what had happened.

Vehicle No. 3 was gone.

Pellegrini, 31, a Philadelphia police officer who had been ready to leave the Guard before he got the call to Iraq, was dead.

So was Sgt. Francis Straub Jr., 24, of Philadelphia, who had worked for United Parcel Service.

So was Pfc. Nathaniel DeTample, 19, of Morrisville, one of the youngest in Alpha.

And so was John Kulick. Kulick, who'd packed his bags early; Kulick, who'd given up his seat.

If Kulick had been in the last vehicle, where he usually sat, he would have survived. No one in that vehicle was hurt. Not the dog handler. Not the dog.

But where was the fifth man in Vehicle No. 3? Where was the driver, Dan South, the sergeant who'd been spoiling for a fight?

"We couldn't find South," Jock the medic said.

South, somehow, had been thrown from the destroyed vehicle. The explosion that killed the four men had rocketed him over a stone wall.

"It's all kind of foggy," he said. "I'm pretty sure I remember driving down Smugglers Road. The next thing I remember is coming to. I didn't know where I was. "

South awoke hearing Sgt. Sean Snell calling his name.

"Over here," South said.

He didn't yet know what had happened. But he could see an orange glow. It was from the burning humvee.

Snell, then of Philadelphia's East Falls section, had been delivering pizzas when he was called up for Iraq. In Alpha Company, he was a squad leader.

He leaped over the wall and found South sitting up in shock, with no helmet, no armor vest, no rifle. Other than his uniform, all he had on were knee pads.

Snell checked South all over. Satisfied that he was medically stable, he told South he had to go check on the others. But first he drew a 9mm Glock pistol from his holster and gave it to South.

"If you see anything," Snell told South, "shoot it."

*

Back at FOB Summerall, other Alpha soldiers were leaning over the radio at their tactical operations center to catch snatches of the action miles away.

Martinez had been in his hut, winding down for the night, when another soldier ran in and said the patrol had been hit - no one yet knew how bad. Martinez leaped up and ran to the operations center.

He remembers that it was hard to make heads or tails of the radio chatter. They heard that one man had been killed in action. Then they heard two. Or was it three? More? For security reasons, no names were used over the air.

Sgt. Jeremiah Boring, then of Harleysville, recalled: "Everyone from our platoon was running around getting our combat gear ready. . . . We were all planning on going out. "

Boring, who had just turned 23, had joined the Guard three years earlier to earn money for college after his father lost his job at a Ford Motor Co. supplier. Boring had received a Bronze Star in June for pulling wounded men from a burning vehicle.

When Alpha men learned battalion leaders were sending a different unit to help the men on Smugglers Road, they felt betrayed. They slammed their helmets and cursed at being held back.

"But after a while," Boring said, "we started to take the measure of what we lost, and there were a whole lot of tears."

*

Smugglers Road now hosted a convention of "fobbits. " That's what Alpha infantrymen called soldiers who rarely left the relative safety of the FOB - Forward Operating Base Summerall.

All sorts of officialdom, along with backup combat forces and two helicopters, had descended on the ambush site. It was being treated the way police would handle a crime scene.

One "fobbit," overcome by the excitement and the still-intense night heat, had to be airlifted to a medical facility.

In all of the hubbub, South somehow had been left behind.

A medic found him sitting in the back of a humvee long after other wounded men had been evacuated. With his painful broken jaw and rib, South had to ride all the way back to the FOB, bouncing along on hard roads, with the other Alpha survivors.

Kelly, the Second Platoon sergeant, was waiting at the battalion aid station when the dirty, exhausted troops returned.

He watched as the men, spent and bedraggled, pulled themselves to their feet. One of them - the medic, Dave Jock - didn't go inside the steel building. Instead, he disappeared behind the building.

Kelly went to check on him.

As he approached, Jock looked up at the bigger man and burst into sobs.

*

On a flight layover at the airport in Shannon, Ireland, Sgt. Greg Torricellas, a Havertown carpenter, was headed home for two weeks of leave.

He called his fiancee, Anna Marie McConaghy, in Delaware County, to tell her when he'd be coming into the Philadelphia airport.

He said he was feeling blue about Jeffcoat and Krout, whose deaths he had learned about from the Armed Forces Network while en route.

"She said something about Pellegrini," he remembered. "I said, 'No, no, Pellegrini's not dead. ' "

But McConaghy named the Alpha soldiers who'd been killed Aug. 9. She'd heard it on the news in Philadelphia.

So many. Torricellas was dumbstruck. He couldn't talk. He had to get off the phone.

Staff writer Tom Infield first reported on Alpha Company, a National Guard unit based in Northeast Philadelphia, in November 2004, when the soldiers were preparing to depart for Iraq. In the years since, he has revisited the company many times and written about the deaths of six members in 2005; deployment in Iraq at Forward Operating Base Summerall, which he visited in September 2005; the guardsmen's return to the United States; and the early readjustment at home.

Beginning last March, Infield, later assisted by correspondent Will Hobson, contacted 130 of the 131 survivors on the company roster; 126 of them agreed to be interviewed or to complete a survey of questions about how they were coping since coming home. Some were interviewed more than half a dozen times.

In addition to the guardsmen, Infield interviewed wives, girlfriends, parents and children of the soldiers; experts and officials in the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Defense, and the National Guard; and medical authorities on post-traumatic stress disorder.
On August 6 and August 9 of 1945, warfare changed forever when the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, devastating the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and killing more than 100,000 people.

The attack on the people of Hiroshima at 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945, and the second attack on the city of Nagasaki at 11:02 am on August 9 killed and wounded hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting men, women, and children in a horrible blast of fire and radiation, followed by deadly fallout.

In years that followed, those who survived -- the hibakusha -- suffered from the trauma of the experience and from the long-term effects of their exposure to radiation from the weapons.

Before the blast, they were thriving cities. In a flash, they became desolate wastelands.

Seventy-five years later, take a glimpse at the destruction.

Rubble caused by the atomic bomb blast is seen in Hiroshima, Japan in September 1945. On August 6, 1945, at 8:15 am, the crew of the B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped the first wartime atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan, a bustling regional hub that served as an important military communications center, storage depot and troop gathering area. The bomb, code-named "Little Boy," detonated with an estimated 15,000 tons of TNT, destroying five square miles of the city and directly killing some 70,000 people. Final casualty numbers remain unknown; by the end of 1945, injuries and radiation sickness had raised the death toll to more than 100,000. Photograph: US Navy/Lieutenant Wayne Miller/Reuters

Colonel Paul Tibbetts poses in front of his B-29 Superfortress "The Enola Gay" (named for his mother) in this undated US Air Force handout photo. The Enola Gay is the same plane he piloted when his bombardier dropped the first atom bomb over Hiroshima. Photograph: US Air Force/Reuters

A Japanese soldier walks through the atomic-bomb levelled city of Hiroshima, Japan in September 1945. Archive footage shows pre-bomb Hiroshima as a bustling, thriving city of trilby-topped gentlemen boarding trams, ladies dressed in elegant kimonos, and uniformed schoolchildren walking beneath cherry blossoms overhanging shopping streets. After the blast, rubble and contorted metal stretched almost uninterruptedly to the horizon. Photograph: Lieutenant Wayne Miller/USNR/Naval History and Heritage Command/Reuters

Devastation caused by the atomic bomb seen in Hiroshima, Japan. The radius of total destruction was reportedly 1.6 km. "The impact of the bomb was so terrific that practically all living things -- human and animal -- were literally seared to death by the tremendous heat and pressure set up by the blast," Tokyo radio said in the aftermath of the explosion, according to a report by The Guardian in August 1945. "All the dead and injured were burned beyond recognition. Those outdoors were burned to death, while those indoors were killed by the indescribable pressure and heat." Photograph: War Department/US National Archives/Reuters

A bridge 4,400 feet (1.34 km) east of the detonation center of the atomic bomb blast is seen in Hiroshima, Japan. When the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the first thing people noticed was an "intense ball of fire" according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. Temperatures at the epicentre of the blast reached an estimated 7,000 degrees Celsius, which caused fatal burns within a radius of about 3 km. ICRC experts say there were cases of temporary or permanent blindness due to the intense flash of light, and subsequent related damage such as cataracts Photograph: US Army/Library of Congress/Reuters

Hiroshima turned into a wasteland after the bombing. Photograph: War Department/US National Archives/Reuters

People walk along a road cleared of the debris caused by an atomic bomb in Hiroshima, Japan. The bombing started intense fires that spread rapidly through timber and paper homes, burning everything in a radius of 2 km. Photograph: War Department/US National Archives/Reuters

A cyclist rides near a trolley on streets cleared of the debris of the atomic bomb blast in Hiroshima, Japan. It is estimated that as many as 20,000 Japanese military personnel were killed. US surveys estimated that 4.7 square miles of the city were destroyed. Japanese officials determined that 69 per cent of Hiroshima's buildings were destroyed and another 6 to 7 per cent damaged. Photograph: US Navy/PhoM3/C George Almarez/Reuters

A mushroom cloud rises after an atomic bomb codenamed "Fat Man" exploded after being dropped by a US Army Air Force B-29 bomber over Nagasaki on August 9. Three days after the destruction of Hiroshima, another American bomber dropped its payload over Nagasaki, some 185 miles southwest of Hiroshima, at 11:02 am. Not the original intended blast site, Nagasaki only became the target after the crew found that city, Kokura, obscured by clouds. The Nagasaki explosive, a plutonium bomb weighed nearly 10,000 pounds and was built to produce a 22-kiloton blast. Photograph: US Army Air Forces/Library of Congress/Reuters

Devastation caused by an atomic bomb is seen in Nagasaki. The bomb's destructive force wiped out about 30 per cent of the city. Some 60,000 to 80,000 people died in Nagasaki, both from direct exposure and long-term side effects of radiation. Photograph: Department of Energy/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory/Reuters

Although the bomb was more powerful than the one used on Hiroshima, its effects were confined by hillsides to the narrow Urakami Valley. The radius of total destruction was about 1 mile (1.6 km), followed by fires across the northern portion of the city to 2 mi (3.2 km) south of the bomb. Photograph: Department of Energy/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory/Reuters

A woman being treated shows her wounds caused by an atomic bomb in Nagasaki. The bomb attacks unleashed radiation that proved deadly both immediately and over the longer term. Radiation sickness was reported in the attack's aftermath by many who survived the initial blast and firestorm. Acute radiation symptoms include vomiting, headaches, nausea, diarrhoea, haemorrhaging and hair loss, with radiation sickness fatal for many within a few weeks or months. Bomb survivors, known as hibakusha, also experienced longer-term effects including elevated risks of thyroid cancer and leukaemia, and both Hiroshima and Nagasaki have seen elevated cancer rates. Of 50,000 radiation victims from both cities studied by the Japanese-US Radiation Effects Research Foundation, about 100 died of leukaemia and 850 suffered from radiation-induced cancers. Photograph: Department of Energy/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory/Reuters
LOBAMBA  Away with labour brokers! Over 40 hotel employees and people hired in different industries have signed a petition, which calls for government to stop all labour brokers from operating in the country in all industries.



The petition was delivered yesterday morning to Parliament by Lobamba Indvuna Yenkhundla Bhekisisa Bhembe, with 12 representatives from the petitioners. The petition listed five grievances and it was directed to the House of Assembly, so it could be debated. The petitioners gave the Members of Parliament (MPs) 14 days to respond to their grievances and start the debate on the Labour Brokers Bill.



Received



The petition was received by Parliamentary Secretary Mpendulo Ngcamphalala. A labour broker, also referred to as a Temporary Employment Service (TES), is a person or company that provides labourers to client companies on a temporary basis. The workers work at the client company site but are the employees of the labour broker.



This means the labour broker is responsible for all the administrative work related to the employee such as payroll, taxes, leave administration and others.

According to the petition, the challenges with labour brokers started in 1992 through retrenchments that happened in hotels. The retrenchments encouraged the growth of labour brokers, which spread through lodges, supermarkets, banks and filling stations.



We are now faced with what is called a labour brokers virus outbreak, which can only be treated by the Labour Brokers Bill and as a result, we are calling for an emergency debate of the Bill within 14 days, reads the petition.

The first plea on the petition was that the House of Assembly debates the Labour Brokers Bill promptly instead of shifting it to an unknown date as this would, in turn, lead to hotels signing other contracts with the labour brokers.



If there is delay, by the time the House debates this bill, the horse would have long bolted. We have gathered that the brokers are due to renew their contracts with the different entities in the next coming months. The early debate would free people from the oppression, reads the petition.



It also requested Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini to intervene by assigning a private committee to work in the recompilation of the Labour Brokers Bill because some MPs and senators had conflicting interests in the matter. The petition claimed that parliamentarians had hotels, shares in hotels or owned labour broker companies. This, in turn, will make them delay the debate or debate it in their favour, said the petition. The petitioners also requested the Ministry of Labour and Social Security to force all labour brokers to claim their share in the E25 million COVID-19 layoff relief and compensation fund.



Lockdown



Also, it requested that employees should claim directly since some of the labour brokers had closed business and left the country amid the lockdown.

We are in a dilemma as to how we will claim because we were left in the dark. Our benefits have not been given to us for three months now. The ministry and MPs should investigate the reasons that make hotels claim for permanent workers only, leaving us behind as casuals. All of us have been badly affected by the emergence and spread COVID-19, the petition reads further.



The petitioners fourth grievance was that labour brokers were not utilising the gazette, underpaying workers across all sectors in the process. They have made us work for more than 15 years as casuals and that is very unfair, especially to the youth. They do not give us letters of employment which leads us into suffering as we cannot take anything on credit and accumulate assets like furniture. We simply get slavery salaries and as a result, we call for all labour brokers to be banned in the Kingdom of Eswatini, reads the petition. It was also requested that MPs should set up a relief fund that would pay rent for people employed by labour brokers who had lost their jobs.



If creating the fund is not possible, we would appreciate it if the MPs would negotiate two months relief rent with our landlords since the E400 from the COVID-19 layoff relief and compensation fund is not sufficient for even two weeks groceries. We will die inside rented flats due to hunger or we will die on the street after being evicted, read the petition. After receiving the petition, Ngcamphalala said they were not requested to respond to it but to process it. If the petition has qualifying features we will send it to the House for debate and if it does not, we will contact Indvuna Yenkhundla, Bhekisisa Bhembe to inform you, said Ngcamphalala.

The petitioners then moved to the Lobamba Inkhundla Centre to share their experiences while employed by labour brokers.

Meanwhile, one of the hotel employees who were sharing their experiences pointed out glaring disparities in salaries under labour brokers.

The person in an equivalent position as I am earns E17 000 while I get E3 000 per month. The hotel employees spoke on condition of anonymity.

Gap

While sharing about the salary gap, the hotel employee said it pained him to see his equal developing in life while he was still in the same position that he had been in the past 17 years that he had been employed.

The person I am in the same position with drives a car and has built a house, but I have nothing. I still stay in a rented house and never dream of buying a car, he said.

Another hotel employee said she was worried that they had no benefits to take home should they resign or retire.

Another employee, who had been working as a housekeeper at a hotel in Ezulwini said, After working in that hotel for seven years, I was promised a E6 424.88 payout and I do not even know how they reached that amount as I was told by word of mouth over the counter.

She said she was supposed to receive it on July 31.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday a number of U.S. nationals had been detained before a presidential election on Sunday, but did not say when or why.

The veteran leader is facing the biggest challenge in years to his long rule and has launched a crackdown on opposition protesters whom he accuses of plotting with foreign backers to overthrow him.

Belarus has sought to mend fences with the Washington as ties fray with traditional ally Moscow, and in February hosted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the most senior U.S. official to visit in more than two decades.

"Some people were detained with American passports, married to Americans, working in the State Department," the Belta news agency quoted Lukashenko as saying.

The U.S. embassy in the capital Minsk did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Earlier on Thursday, Belarus and Russia had traded barbs again over a group of suspected Russian mercenaries who were detained in Belarus in July and accused of plotting to foment unrest.

Russia has said the men were employees of a private security firm and were passing through Belarus on their way to Latin America.

"The guilt of the detained citizens in Belarus is not backed up by any evidence. They must return to Russia," Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.

A 65-year-old former Soviet collective farm manager, Lukashenko has brooked little opposition to his rule since he rose to power in 1994. But he faces a wave of dissent over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the economy, and his human rights record.

More than 1,300 people have been detained in a widening crackdown, rights groups say.

Lukashenko's main challenger is Svetlana Tikhanouskaya, who decided to run for president after her husband, who had hoped to be a candidate, was arrested in May.

A former English teacher, Tikhanouskaya plans a mass rally on Thursday evening despite a ban by the authorities. Her campaign chief was released after being briefly detained.

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President Michel Aoun blamed the explosions on unsafely stored ammonium nitrate. Port and customs officials have been placed under house arrest. Some suspect the presence of weapons. Former prime ministers are calling for "an international or Arab investigation" into the incident. The governor of Beirut says that people need food, clothes, material to rebuild their home; refugees need shelter. AsiaNews continues its Help devastated Beirut campaign.

Beirut (AsiaNews) The blasts that struck the Port of Beirut yesterday had one tenth of the explosive power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima 75 years ago, this according to specialists from the University of Sheffield (United Kingdom)

The explosion was unquestionably one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions in history, they noted. It killed at least 135 people and injured nearly 5,000. Some 300,000 residents have been displaced, their homes destroyed or damaged.

Because of potentially poisonous gases, hundreds of thousands of people are leaving the capital for the mountains or anywhere that is far from the affected area.

According to Lebanese President Michel Aoun, the explosions were caused by 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, unsafely stored in a warehouse. For this reason, some port officials have been placed under house arrest, whilst an investigation is underway.

In their defence, port and customs officials are saying that they had requested the removal of the chemical several times but to no avail.

Online specialist sources note that the ammonium nitrate had been seized from a Moldovan-flagged ship in 2013 over some legal issues. The ships owners eventually abandoned it and its cargo was stored in one of the ports warehouses.

Several analysts suspect that the blasts occurred because weapons were also stored in the port. In any case, for many Beirut residents, the incident shows the incapacity of the countrys political leaders to run the country.

Some are pushing for an international inquiry. All former Lebanese premieres, in opposition to the present government, yesterday called for an "international or Arab" investigation, since the explosions "undermined the confidence of the Lebanese people in the government".

The group includes Fouad Siniora, Saad Hariri and Tammam Salam. Walid Jumblatt's party and Marwan Hamade have also urged an international investigation.

Meanwhile, the situation on the ground remains catastrophic. Many people have volunteered to clear the streets of the capital chocked with rubble and dust.

The humanitarian situation is serious. The Governor of Beirut, Marwan Abboud, issued an appeal: Beirut needs food. Beirut needs clothes, housing, materials to rebuild homes. Beirut needs shelter for refugees, for its people.

In order to help the people of Beirut and Lebanon, as well as Caritas Lebanon, AsiaNews is launching a campaign to Help devastated Beirut. Those who want to contribute can make a donation to:

PIME Foundation:

- International Bank Account Number (IBAN): IT78C0306909606100000169898

- Bank Identifier Code (BIC): BCITITMM

- Reason for transfer: AN04  HELP DEVASTATED BEIRUT
New Delhi:

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar again voiced support to the Modi government's decision on demonetisation on Saturday, saying it is a positive step which will lead to benefits.

"This 'notebandi' is a positive step which will lead to benefits. It will happen," he said addressing a JD(U) meeting, where differences in the party came in the open as former party chief Sharad Yadav targeted the Modi dispensation over demonetization.

Terming corruption and black money as a big sin and a "festering wound" which must be eradicated, Kumar said, "Severe steps will have to be taken. That is why we offered our support to this (demonetization). It is a positive beginning." The JD(U) president also refrained from any criticism on the implementation issue, which has been vociferously raised by the opposition.

He, however, added that demonetisation alone will not end black money. He asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to also launch a crackdown on benami properties immediately and target black money hoarded in assets like gold and diamonds.

"Currency forms a significant part of black money but total black money is much more than that. The country's money has been laundered to overseas as well and that too should be brought back," he said.

Kumar's remarks in support of demonetization, which has united most of the opposition parties against it, came after Yadav hit out at Modi dispensation over the issue.

Yadav alleged the decision is aimed at capitalising banks that were "sinking" due to Rs 8.5 lakh crore of NPA and its goal is not to target black money. The decision has forced entire country to stand in queue, said Yadav, who played an active role in rallying opposition's protests before Kumar declared his support to demonetization.

Yadav, however, also spoke in the same vein that his party supports the step but is critical of the ill-prepared manner in which it was executed. Kumar, however, did not touch on the implementation part of demonetization, merely saying that his government does everything with due preparation and so should the Centre.

"We support demonetisation. It should be implemented with preparation. We do our work with full preparation. They (Centre) should also have done that. "We said there can be nothing better if it helps curb corruption, bring out some amount of black money and illegal work is stopped to some extent," he said.

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Announcement of Periodic Review: Moody's announces completion of a periodic review of ratings of Nielsen Holdings plc

Global Credit Research - 06 Aug 2020

New York, August 06, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") has completed a periodic review of the ratings of Nielsen Holdings plc 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.

Nielsen's Ba3 Corporate Family Rating (CFR) reflects the company's leading international positions within its consumer data measurement, viewership and analytics operating segments, relatively high entry barriers with high client switching costs and long-standing contractual relationships across its diverse client base. The company benefits from solid EBITDA margins despite margin pressure in the Connect business from: (i) slowing revenue growth amid an increasingly competitive landscape, (ii) reduced spend from Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) clients, and (iii) growth in e-commerce and private label sales, areas where Nielsen has minor exposure, coupled with investments in the Media business to adapt to shifts in advertising spend and changes in consumer viewing habits. The rating is constrained by ongoing cyclical and secular spending pressures from certain client verticals both in the US and abroad; proliferation of new technologies that alter consumer buying habits and advertising/marketing delivery channels; moderately high financial leverage; and diminished free cash flow generation. Nielsen's rating also considers the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on its profitability given its exposure to the US and overseas economies, which has left it vulnerable to shifts in market demand and sentiment in these unprecedented operating conditions.

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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 Business and Consumer Service Industry published in October 2016. 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.

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.

Gregory A. Fraser, CFA 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 Stephen Sohn 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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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Latin Metals Inc. (Latin Metals or the Company) - (TSXV: LMS) (OTCQB: LMSQF) announces that it has acquired the Lacsha copper property (Lacsha or the Project), located in the Peruvian Coastal Copper Belt. As a prospect generator, the Company already owns a portfolio of projects in Argentina and has been actively seeking to acquire copper and precious metal projects in Peru. The staking of Lacsha represents an important first acquisition in Peru and the Company is actively reviewing several other opportunities in the country.



Recent discoveries in the Cretaceous age Coastal Copper Belt include copper porphyry, VMS, IOCG and intrusion-related gold deposits. Lacsha is prospective for copper-molybdenum porphyry and associated mineralization; geochemical anomalies have already been defined over an area of 5.0 km by 2.5 km. The Coastal Copper Belt in Peru has been a focus for recent discoveries over the last 15 years, however much of the exploration effort has been focused in southern Peru, leaving much of the central and northern portions of the belt significantly under-explored.

Lacsha Copper Project

The Project is located approximately 110 km by road from Lima, 40 km from the coast, and is accessible year-round by paved road. The 4,000-hectare Lacsha project was selected for staking based on the results of historical multi-element geochemistry (Figure 1) and anomalies that extend over an area measuring 5.0 km x 2.5 km. The claims lie immediately south and contiguous with a large block hosting Newmont Corporations Sumacwayra copper-molybdenum discovery.

A total of 21 stream sediment samples define multi-element anomalies across 6 drainages, with copper assay results ranging from 125 ppm to 969 ppm. Results from 13 rock chip samples range from 23.6 ppm to 2,679 ppm (0.26%) copper and from <1 to 427 ppm molybdenum.

Stream sediment sampling has indicated clear metal zonation across the survey area, with a central area of copper-molybdenum anomalies and distal silver and zinc-lead anomalies. Copper and molybdenum show a strong correlation coefficient of 0.92.

Future Work

The Company plans to complete mapping combined with surface geochemistry in Q3 2020. Stream sediment sampling has historically worked well in defining anomalous areas and an additional 50 stream sediment samples will expand geochemical coverage within the Lacsha project. In tandem with this work and geological mapping, approximately 100 rock chip samples will be collected.

Figure 1: Map of the Lacsha copper project, showing historical copper geochemistry results for stream sediment, soil, and rock chip sampling, which defines a target area approx. 5.0km by 2.5km in area.

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/92b2f26d-ecda-4660-8d2a-b1c0ff71b119

Figure 2: Project Location Map (left) and locations of operating mines & exploration projects (right), highlighting the Cretaceous mineral belt and the Lacsha copper project.

Investor Relations Contracts

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/625df335-0952-44e5-8fb6-486e480dd7c3

The Company is pleased to announce that it has entered into two investor relations and marketing agreements.

The Company has entered into an agreement with Dig Media Inc. (dba Investing News Network) ("INN") pursuant to which INN will provide certain advertising services to the Company. Such services include the creation of a profile for the Company, which will include interviews, videos and articles related to the Company, as well as lead generation and general online marketing. INN will provide such services until June 30, 2021. As consideration, the Company will pay INN a fee of up to $36,000 (plus tax). Based out of Vancouver, British Columbia, with officers around the globe, INN is an independent firm, which is dedicated to providing independent news and education to investors. To the Company's knowledge, INN does not have any direct interest in the Company or its securities.

The Company has also entered into an agreement with Urbane Capital Corp. ("UCC") pursuant to which UCC will manage social media accounts and help with the content and design of the Company website and presentation materials. In addition, UCC will help set up a CRM and marketing platform, introduce the Company to and communicate with analysts, institutional investors, retail investors, news channels, newsletter writers and stakeholders to improve the dissemination of news and encourage investment in the Company. UCC will provide such services until October 31, 2020, and as consideration, the Company will pay UCC an aggregate fee of $18,000 (plus tax). Based out of Vancouver, British Columbia, UCC is an independent corporate communications and marketing firm. UCC does not have any direct interest in the Company or its securities to the Company's knowledge.

About Peru

Mining and extractive industries in the country account for approximately 15% of GDP and Peru is a significant producer of base metals and precious metals. In world production, Peru is ranked #2 in copper production and #7 in gold production. Politics in Peru is currently dominated by democratic center-right policy and the government understands the importance of mining to the national economy. Mining law and regulatory framework in Peru is well-established and the country is competitive with respect to labour and power costs. Fraser Institute Annual Survey of Mining Companies 2019 results show Peru is the second most attractive jurisdiction in Latin America and the Caribbean.

About Latin Metals

Latin Metals is a mineral exploration company acquiring a diversified portfolio of assets in South America. The Company operates with a Prospect Generator model focusing on the acquisition of prospective exploration properties at minimum cost, completing initial evaluation through cost-effective exploration to establish drill targets, and ultimately securing joint venture partners to fund drilling and advanced exploration. Shareholders gain exposure to the upside of a significant discovery without the dilution associated with funding the highest-risk drill-based exploration.

QA/QC

The Company has not assessed the QAQC of historical sampling and results thereof. Historical results are not consistent with the standards of disclosure defined by NI 43-101 and may not necessarily be consistent with CIM best practice. The Companys planned future work will include verification samples to verify the location and magnitude of the various surface geochemical anomalies discussed in this news release.

Qualified Person

Keith J. Henderson, P.Geo., is the Company's qualified person as defined by NI 43-101 and has reviewed the scientific and technical information that forms the basis for portions of this news release. He has approved the disclosure herein. Mr. Henderson is not independent of the Company, as he is an employee of the Company and holds securities of the Company.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors of

LATIN METALS INC.

Keith Henderson

President & CEO

For further details on the Company readers are referred to the Company's web site ( www.latin-metals.com ) and its Canadian regulatory filings on SEDAR at www.sedar.com .

For further information, please contact:

Keith Henderson

Suite 2300

1177 West Hastings Street

Vancouver, BC, V6E 2K3

Phone: 604-638-3456

E-mail: info@latin-metals.com

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and U.S. securities legislation, including the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements regarding the negotiation of the Option Agreements and exercise of the Option for the Properties, the anticipated content, commencement, timing and cost of exploration programs in respect of the Properties and otherwise, anticipated exploration program results from exploration activities, and the Company's expectation that it will be able to enter into agreements to acquire interests in additional mineral properties, the discovery and delineation of mineral deposits/resources/reserves on the Properties, and the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Often, but not always, forward looking information can be identified by words such as "pro forma", "plans", "expects", "may", "should", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", "potential" or variations of such words including negative variations thereof, and phrases that refer to certain actions, events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. In making the forward-looking statements in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including without limitation, market fundamentals will result in sustained precious metals demand and prices, the receipt of any necessary permits, licenses and regulatory approvals in connection with the future development of the Companys Argentine projects in a timely manner, the availability of financing on suitable terms for the development, construction and continued operation of the Company projects, and the Companys ability to comply with environmental, health and safety laws.

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 differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors include, among others, operating and technical difficulties in connection with mineral exploration and development and mine development activities at the Properties, including the geological mapping, prospecting and sampling programs being proposed for the Properties (the "Programs"), actual results of exploration activities, including the Programs, estimation or realization of mineral reserves and mineral resources, the timing and amount of estimated future production, costs of production, capital expenditures, the costs and timing of the development of new deposits, the availability of a sufficient supply of water and other materials, requirements for additional capital, future prices of precious metals and copper, changes in general economic conditions, changes in the financial markets and in the demand and market price for commodities, possible variations in ore grade or recovery rates, possible failures of plants, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated, accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry, delays or the inability of the Company to obtain any necessary permits, consents or authorizations required, including TSX-V acceptance for filing of the Option Agreements, any current or future property acquisitions, financing or other planned activities, changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting mining operations, hedging practices, currency fluctuations, title disputes or claims limitations on insurance coverage and the timing and possible outcome of pending litigation, environmental issues and liabilities, risks related to joint venture operations, and risks related to the integration of acquisitions, as well as those factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's latest Management Discussion and Analysis and other filings of the Company with the Canadian Securities Authorities, copies of which can be found under the Company's profile on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com .

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward looking statements. Except as otherwise required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking information in this news release or incorporated by reference herein.
Euphoria star Zendaya Coleman struck a pose in a backless Hanifa pleated dress, Tori Soudan boots, and We Dream In Colour earrings in a new fashion spread from an all-Black crew.

The Oakland-born 24-year-old also looked fierce in a red Aliette AW/20 single-strapped dress for the alternate September cover of InStyle, on newsstands August 14.

'There is a responsibility that's different for me. I have to think about things that an average 24-year-old wouldn't be thinking about,' Zendaya told the mag.

'Fashion is back!' Euphoria star Zendaya Coleman struck a pose in a backless Hanifa pleated dress, Tori Soudan boots, and We Dream In Colour earrings in a new fashion spread from an all-Black crew

On newsstands August 14! The Oakland-born 24-year-old also looked fierce in a red Aliette AW/20 single-strapped dress for the alternate September cover of InStyle

'And a lot of people are watching, so I can't necessarily make the same kind of mistakes that people make in their 20s and just forget about it. So now I'm trying to learn to not be afraid of making those mistakes and how to put myself out there more.'

Coleman's skirt dramatically billowed in the wind while wearing a Christopher John Rogers FW/20 'Zinnia' plaid gown selected by her 'Image Architect' Law Roach.

Hairstylist Larry Sims and make-up artist Sheika Daley took many precautions during the former Disney Channel star's coronavirus-era shoot at a Los Angeles mansion.

'There are so many things that can take you down emotionally,' Zendaya said of the many horrors of 2020.

Zendaya told the mag: 'There is a responsibility that's different for me. I have to think about things that an average 24-year-old wouldn't be thinking about'

Werrrk! Coleman's skirt dramatically billowed in the wind while wearing a Christopher John Rogers FW/20 'Zinnia' plaid gown selected by her 'Image Architect' Law Roach

BTS: Hairstylist Larry Sims and make-up artist Sheika Daley took many precautions during the former Disney Channel star's coronavirus-era shoot at a Los Angeles mansion

'I'm grateful for my health and for the fact that I can quarantine safely. I know that I'll be okay financially once this is over, but for a lot of people that isn't the case. So anytime I start complaining, I just stop.'

As for the nationwide racial unrest, Coleman has 'a little bit of hope' when she watches her teenage niece face this brave new world.

'When I see her Instagram posts and the things she's talking about, it's really special,' the homeschooled triple-threat explained.

'She is only 15, and we can have a dialogue about what's happening. So clearly there is hope in the youth. That makes me want to keep going.

Zendaya said of the many horrors of 2020: 'There are so many things that can take you down emotionally...I'm grateful for my health and for the fact that I can quarantine safely'

'There is hope in the youth': As for the nationwide racial unrest, Coleman has hope when she watches her 15-year-old niece (R) face this brave new world (pictured in 2017)

'The No. 1 thing was safety': Beside learning piano and painting at home, the homeschooled triple-threat managed to star in Euphoria creator Sam Levinson's drama Malcolm & Marie - the first officially sanctioned movie to be shot during COVID-19 (pictured with co-star John David Washington)

'And more than anything, I just want to tell people that your voice does matter. The little things do matter. And continue to use your emotions. They are sometimes considered a weakness, but in this time they are very powerful.'

Beside learning piano and painting at home, Zendaya managed to star in Euphoria creator Sam Levinson's drama Malcolm & Marie - the first officially sanctioned movie to be shot during COVID-19.

'The No. 1 thing was safety. Everyone had to quarantine and get tested in order to shoot in isolation. We created our own little bubble and made sure that once we were in, we couldn't leave,' Coleman explained.

'It was very much like a play. I did my own hair and make-up and dressed in my own clothes. And then we shot in black and white on film, so we'll see how it turns out. I think we were able to create something really special.'

'I do miss Rue': Zendaya said the second season script of her HBO series is 'beautiful' but production has been on hold ever since the March 11 table reading

Airing September 20 on ABC! For her role, Coleman scored a nomination for outstanding lead actress in a drama series at the virtual 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards

The biracial beauty gushed: 'I'm honestly speechless, my heart is just overflowing with love and gratitude...I am a small piece of a big beautiful puzzle'

The biracial beauty said the second season script of her HBO series is 'beautiful' but production has been on hold ever since the March 11 table reading.

'I do miss Rue. She's like my little sister in a lot of ways. And going back to that character is a home base for me,' Zendaya gushed.

'But in order to do it the way we want to do it, we need to wait until it's safer. There is an idea to do a couple of bridge episodes that can be shot safely but aren't necessarily part of Season 2. So, hopefully, we will be able to do those in the coming months. I can't wait.'

For her role, Coleman scored a nomination for outstanding lead actress in a drama series at the virtual 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards, which air September 20 on ABC.

'Dune was incredible! It's fun to escape into another world': Zendaya next plays Paul Atreides' (Timothee Chalamet) Fremen love interest Chani in Denis Villeneve's two-part sci-fi epic Dune, which hits US/UK theaters on December 18

Better luck next time? Sean Young (R) originated the role of Chani in David Lynch's dismally-reviewed 1984 film, which only earned $37.9M back from its $42M budget

'I'm honestly speechless, my heart is just overflowing with love and gratitude,' the Lancome brand ambassador wrote on Instagram.

'I am a small piece of a big beautiful puzzle and I'm so proud of all of you. Thank you to everyone out there who's watched and given our show life.'

Zendaya competes against The Morning Show's Jennifer Aniston, The Crown's Olivia Colman, Killing Eve's Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh, as well as Ozark's Laura Linney.

Coleman next plays Paul Atreides' (Timothee Chalamet) Fremen love interest Chani in Denis Villeneve's two-part sci-fi epic Dune, which hits US/UK theaters on December 18.

'Dune was incredible. I wasn't in it very much, so when I was watching the trailer, I was like, "Oh my gosh!" I called Timothee [Chalamet, who stars in it] and said, "Dude! You should be proud,"' the 5ft10in millennial recalled.

'It is a big deal to even be a small part of something with such a massive cast. And I love sci-fi stuff too. It's fun to escape into another world.'

Warner Bros. adaptation of Frank Herbert's 1965 novel also features Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Jason Momoa, Stellan Skarsgard, Charlotte Rampling, and Oscar Isaac.

Sean Young originated the role of Chani in David Lynch's dismally-reviewed 1984 film, which only earned $37.9M back from its $42M budget.
Many fear interest in the bombings is fading as they recede beyond the horizon of lived experience and into history.

Japan on Thursday marked 75 years since the world's first atomic bomb attack, with the coronavirus pandemic forcing a scaling back of ceremonies to remember the victims.

Survivors, relatives and a handful of foreign dignitaries attended this year's main event in Hiroshima to pray for those killed or wounded in the bombing and call for world peace.

But the general public was kept away, with the ceremony instead broadcast online.

Participants, many of them dressed in black and wearing face masks, offered a silent prayer at exactly 8:15 am (2315 GMT Wednesday), the time the first nuclear weapon used in wartime was dropped over the city.

Speaking afterwards, Hiroshima mayor Kazumi Matsui warned against the nationalism that led to World War II and urged the world to come together to face global threats, like the coronavirus pandemic.

"We must never allow this painful past to repeat itself. Civil society must reject self-centred nationalism and unite against all threats," he said.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has been criticised by some for his attempts to revise a key pacifist clause of the country's constitution, pledged in his address to "do my best for the realisation of a world without nuclear weapons and peace for all time".

And UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who addressed the gathering by video message because of the pandemic, warned that "the only way to totally eliminate nuclear risk is to totally eliminate nuclear weapons".

The bomb attack on Hiroshima killed around 140,000 people, many of them instantly, with others perishing in the weeks and months that followed, suffering radiation sickness, devastating burns and other injuries.

Three days later, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, where 74,000 people were killed.

No one can escape

Many of the traditionally sombre events to mark the anniversary have been cancelled because of the pandemic, a global threat that carries an all-too-familiar fear for some survivors, including 83-year-old Keiko Ogura, who lived through the Hiroshima bombing.

With the outbreak of the virus, "I recall the fear I felt right after the bombing... no one can escape", she told journalists last month.

She too urged people around the world to recognise the need to fight common challenges as one.

"Whether it's the coronavirus or nuclear weapons, the way to overcome it is through solidarity among mankind," she said.

The landmark anniversary this year underscores the dwindling number of bomb survivors, known in Japan as "hibakusha", many of whom suffered physically and psychologically after the attack.

Those who remain were mostly infants or young children at the time, and their work to keep the memory of the bombings alive and call for a ban on nuclear weapons has taken on increasing urgency as they age.

Activists and survivors have created archives of everything from the recorded testimony of hibakusha to their poems and drawings.

But many fear interest in the bombings is fading as they recede beyond the horizon of lived experience and into history.

Unspeakable horror

"Just storing a pile of records... is meaningless," said Kazuhisa Ito, the secretary general of No More Hibakusha Project, an NGO that compiles documents and testimonial accounts from survivors.

"What we want is to engage young people with this issue and exchange views with them, globally," he told AFP.

The historical assessment of the bombings remains the subject of some controversy. The United States has never apologised for the bombings, which many see as having brought an end to the war.

Japan announced its surrender just days later on August 15, 1945, and some historians argue the bombings ultimately saved lives by avoiding a land invasion that might have been significantly more deadly.

But in Japan, the attacks are widely regarded as war crimes because they targeted civilians indiscriminately and caused unprecedented destruction.

In 2016, Barack Obama became the first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima, where he offered no apology but embraced survivors and called for a world free of nuclear weapons.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki were key stops on Pope Francis's first trip to Japan last year, where he denounced the "unspeakable horror" of the attacks.
... this will allow the "In Depth" team to cultivate artists that Red 9 works with on a consistent basis for additional music opportunities in the film and television industry.

The music producing/publishing firm Red 9 Records, based in Palm Beach, FL, is soon partnering with the team of developers behind the "In Depth" series, hosted by Laurence Fishburne (http://www.indepthlf.com). The show is a platform for unique educational stories, highlighting advances in technology, industry innovations, and thought leaders across multiple disciplines, and is distributed nationally. Through this new partnership, Red 9s artists will be able to provide scoring and musical support opportunities for the program.

Additionally, this will allow the "In Depth" team to cultivate artists that Red 9 works with on a consistent basis for additional music opportunities in the film and television industry.

Featuring a burgeoning catalogue of artists, Red 9 Records is working with talent in South Florida and Nashville Tennessee on the development of early catalogues for previously unsigned artists. The leadership at "In Depth" recognized the possibility of highlighting these individuals and groups in both long and short-form segments in national campaigns.

About In Depth: The program is anchored by veteran actor Laurence Fishburne, who brings his presence to the small screen in an effort to keep viewers informed about changes in the world. The program has won many accolades and awards through its tenure.
Chris, who was with friend Salvatore Chiocca, said the seal stayed for 15 minutes

The seal surprised the rower when he jumped onto his boat to hitch a quick lift

Chris Van Hayden was joined by a friendly seal when rowing in the River Thames

This is the unexpected moment a friendly seal surprised a passing rower by jumping on to his boat and trying to hitch a ride up the River Thames in west London.

Chris Van Hayden was out with his friend Salvatore Chiocca near Syon House, opposite Kew Gardens, when the brave seal spent 15 minutes playing with the rowers, winning over the affections of its unlikely friends.

Video footage shows the seal leap out of the water and fearlessly clamber on top of one of the boats.

Chris Van Hayden was surprised when a friendly seal climbed on top of his boat and tried to hitch a ride up the River Thames

Chris was out rowing his with friend Salvatore Chiocca when the friendly seal began climbing on and off their boats for around 15 minutes

The seal then relaxes on top of the boat, casually gazing at the view while it sunbathes.

Chris is heard laughing and saying 'you must like me', as the seal refuses to jump back into the water.

A second video, filmed by Salvatore, shows Chris and his unlikely passenger making their way down the Thames.

Chris, who is a London Blue Badge Tourist Guide, said the friendly seal 'played around' with his oar while climbing on and off the boats.

He posted the video on his Facebook page, Chris Van Hayden Tours, on July 27, writing: 'No, this is not sunny California under a few clouds, but London's River Thames on an early July morning.'

Describing the encounter, he added: 'This chap spent a good 15 minutes with me and my rowing mate Salvatore Chiocca, climbing on and off our boats, allowing himself to be stroked and playing around with my oar.

To my luck, just two days later I found a seal pup, happily basking in the sun, not too far from this spot.'

A second video shows the friendly seal riding in style as it sits on the front of the rowing boat while the two men can be heard laughing at the brave animal

Chris Van Hayden (above), who is a London Blue Badge Tourist Guide, said seals are incredibly friendly and curious animals, but may sometimes get aggressive when feeling threatened

The Thames is home to both grey seals and harbour seals, who have been spotted as far up the river as Richmond Lock and Weir, but only harbour seals breed there.

The seal population in the Thames has been rising over the past few years, according to the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).

The seals can feed on more than 120 species of fish that live in the river, including two species of shark.

To feed, seals make their way from the estuary upstream to the cleaner waters, around Richmond in west London, where there is less competition from other seals.
Ukraine expects to receive full information from Iran about the circumstances in which Iranian forces shot down an airliner in January, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, told Mohammad Javad Zarif, on Wednesday, August 5.

The report should respect all international standards, Kuleba reminded Zarif.

The ministers also discussed the results of the first round of negotiations on compensation to the crash victims' families that ended August 2.

"The Ukrainian foreign minister stressed that at the next round of talks in October, Ukraine expects to receive all the necessary information about the circumstances of the plane crash from the Iranian side. According to him, after establishing all the facts about the tragedy, it will be possible to start calculating the amount of compensation," Ukraine Foreign Ministry reiterated in a report.

Meanwhile, Kuleba and Zarif agreed that their forthcoming meeting in October should be fruitful, after which it would be possible to assess and calculate compensation from the Iranian government.

Speaking to Kuleba on the phone, Zarif also voiced Iran's readiness to pay compensation to the families and relatives of the plane crash victims. Zarif described the settlement as a step to alleviate their grief.

As Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 took off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini international airport on January 8, heading to Kyiv, two missiles were fired at the plane. The three-year-old Boeing crashed near the capital city, killing all 167 people aboard.

After three days of secrecy and denial, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps ascribed the incident to human error.

Iran refused for months to hand over the doomed plane's black boxes for deciphering, while repeatedly admitting that it was not capable of reading the flight recorders.

However, under international pressure, the crashed Boeing's black boxes were delivered to France on July 17.

Tehran still insists that a "human error" had led to the tragedy, a claim that Ukraine and Canada have dismissed. They say the Islamic Republic must provide an accurate report and a convincing explanation. Furthermore, Ukraine seeks maximum compensation for the victims' relatives.

The appointment of expert groups to investigate the tragedy and the timing of the second round of talks in Tehran next October were among the most important agreements reached during the first round of negotiations, the Islamic Republic's official news agency, IRNA, reported on August 5.
Teachers across Pittsylvania County Schools returned to their buildings and classrooms on Tuesday to begin preparing for the new school year, but not all were greeted with a collection of masks, gloves, wipes and other cleaning supplies that will become a mainstay of in-person instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jessica Jones, the president of the Pittsylvania Education Association, said teachers at some of the countys schools received these items on their first day back while teachers at other schools did not.

Its like, You knew Aug. 4 was coming, she said, indicting the school division for not being adequately prepared. That could have been something that people had in their room when they showed up.

Students are scheduled to return to class on Aug. 20.

Instead, the inconsistent delivery of personal protective equipment  commonly known as PPE  and cleaning products, she added, gives credence to the teacher unions recommendation that the school year start online.

She would like the school division to prove it has many of the small details  like distributing PPE to teachers  taken care of before the school year starts. So far, Jones said, that doesnt seem to be the case.

The details make the difference, she said.

Pittsylvania County Schools Superintendent Mark Jones and Associate Superintendent for Support Services Robin Haymore did not respond to the Danville Register & Bees repeated requests for comments in response to the education associations concerns.

Mark Jones told the Register & Bee in July the school division planned to spend at least $200,000 on PPE. At the time, he called it a very conservative estimate as we open schools.

Part of the districts reopening plan includes providing two washable and reusable cloth face coverings for all staff members, in addition to at least one cloth face covering for each student.

Also in July, Mark Jones said the district had already purchased 30,000 paper masks; cleaning product dispensers for classrooms; plexiglass screens for staff members like speech therapists and others who work closely with students; and storage containers for each school to move furniture outside in an attempt to create space for social distancing in classrooms.

On Tuesday, Jessica Jones learned many of those plexiglass barriers had not yet been installed in the front desk areas of schools.

That, combined with the lack of PPE and cleaning supplies on hand for teachers, gave her pause when considering the state of the districts reopening plan.

She credited the administration for devising a reopening plan that is in lockstep with guidelines from the Virginia Department of Health and the Virginia Department of Education, but the rollout of the plan on the very first day was uninspiring.

[The plan is] easy to do wrong if the details arent right, she said. It might look good on paper, but what does it look like when its in 3D? Its all about the actions and the implementation and what that looks like. What does it look like when you press play and things are in motion?

The current reopening plan allows K-third grade, along with English learners and special education students, to attend in-person classes four days per week while all other grades attend two days per week. Students can also choose fully- remote learning.

During the school day, teachers will be expected to clean in between each of their classes, but Jessica Jones said that might cut down on the time available to enforce the mask and physical distancing requirements while students move about in the halls.

Jessica Jones said part of the first day for teachers included viewing a live-streamed message from Mark Jones that included, among other topics, a portion on why virtual learning wasnt ideal for the school division as a whole.

He did mention that virtually is not beneficial for our particular locality because of issues with the internet, Jessica Jones recalled. Even if you could get WiFi, you maybe couldnt manage to get the internet because of the connectivity issues.

Under normal circumstances, Jessica Jones said teachers would obviously much rather prefer to meet with students face-to-face, in part because it was realized at the end of last year that many students were not learning as well virtually. However, she added, if all-virtual learning isnt an option, the district must find suitable ways to keep everybody safe during in-person instruction.

You want it to be right and just the first time because with what we have as far as the current societal issue with the pandemic, some things you just dont want to get wrong, she said. Theres no do-over when youre dealing with somebodys life.

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NEW YORK, Aug. 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In a release issued on Wednesday, August 5th, by Weyland, Tech. (OTCQX: WEYL), the text in the headline and body have been corrected. The corrected release follows:

Weyland Techs AtozGo Launch Co-Marketing Campaign for Food Delivery Service in Jakarta with ShopeePay

Weyland Tech, Inc. (OTCQX: WEYL), a leading global provider of eCommerce, mCommerce, and fintech business enablement solutions, has partnered with ShopeePay , Indonesias integrated e-money services, to launch a marketing campaign for Weylands fast-growing AtozGo food delivery service in Jakarta.



As recently announced , the partnership between AtozGo and ShopeePay will allow AtozGo users to transact in-app using ShopeePay. Through this integration, AtozGo will benefit from hundreds of thousands of merchants and millions of users already on the ShopeePay platform. As part of the new joint marketing campaign, ShopeePay is offering its users a 30% discount on AtozGo orders during the first month from launch.

The AtozGo mobile app is also being updated to include a new option for paying for deliveries using ShopeePays mobile fintech technology.

The formation and launch of our new co-marketing campaign with ShopeePay is a huge win for AtozGo and demonstrates our unique value proposition for both partners and customers alike, noted Djunaedy Hermawanto, CEO of Weyland Indonesia Perkasa, the local operator of AtozGo.

Our rapid growth reflects our unique approach to the market, which includes being 100% pedestrian-powered and driven by the entrepreneurial spirit of our delivery people, continued Hermawanto. We now expect an even greater acceleration with our new ShopeePay partnership.

AtozGo has now attracted more than 1,000 delivery people, up from 680 in March, by offering flexible hours and unlimited income potential. Merchants are also increasingly joining AtozGo, now at more than 35,000, up 9,000 over just the last few weeks. The increase in merchants provides AtozGo customers a greater selection of household products and services, with this driving larger and more frequent orders.

Story continues

ShopeePay has also been increasing in popularity. A survey conducted by M2insights in January revealed that ShopeePay has become one of the top five e-wallets in Indonesia, and nearly 40% of respondents were using ShopeePay to transfer funds and make electronic payments. M2insights covered the new ShopeePay/AtozGo partnership in an article published on July 9.

We expect our mutual platform integration with ShopeePay and especially the new co-marketing campaign to raise our profile in the industry and attract other valuable partnerships, added Hermawanto. We also see the integrations supporting the expansion of AtozGo into other urban areas in Southeast Asia where ShopeePay has already built a large user base.

Statista reports that online food delivery business in Indonesia is expected to reach $1.95 billion in 2020, and continue to grow at a 11.5% compounded annual growth rate to $3.02 billion by 2024. Weylands success with AtozGo and ShopeePay has validated Weylands entry into Indonesia as one of only a handful of U.S. publicly traded companies focused on this hyper-growth emerging market.

According to the e-Conomy SEA 2019 report by Google, Temasek, and Bain, Indonesias Internet economy was worth $40 billion in 2019 and will grow more than threefold by 2025. Bank Indonesia, the countrys central bank, reported that the total value of e-wallet transactions increased from $3.2 billion in 2018 to $10.45 billion in 2019. The Asian Banker report projects it will exceed $15 billion in 2020.

About ShopeePay

SeaMoney Indonesia was founded in November 2015 and is part of the Sea Group. SeaMoney has an electronic money product with the trademark ShopeePay which was granted a Bank Indonesia license in August 2018 and was officially launched in November 2018. ShopeePay can be used as one of the payment methods on Indonesia's largest e-commerce platform, Shopee.

To meet the needs of users and expand payment access easily, since October 2019, ShopeePay has launched payments for merchants who do not have a store at Shopee though. ShopeePay has collaborated with various merchants such as food & beverage, retail, and various other services to receive payments using ShopeePay. Shopping online and shopping directly at merchants is now even easier with the benefits of ShopeePay.

About Weyland Tech

Weyland Tech, Inc. (OTCQX: WEYL) is a U.S.-based leading global provider of eCommerce, mCommerce, and fintech business enablement solutions. Its CreateApp platform-as-a-service enables small-and-medium sized businesses worldwide to easily create and deploy a native mobile app for their business without technical knowledge or background. CreateApp empowers businesses to reach more customers, increase sales, manage logistics, and promote their products and services in an easy, affordable, and highly efficient way. CreateApp is offered in 14 languages across 10 countries and three continents, including some of the fastest-growing emerging markets in Southeast Asia.

Weylands subsidiary, Logiq Inc., provides a data-driven, end-to-end eCommerce marketing solution for enterprises and major U.S. brands, like Home Advisor, QuinStreet and Sunrun. The AI-powered LogiqX data engine delivers valuable consumer insights that enhance the ROI of online marketing spend. The companys AtozPay  subsidiary offers mobile payments, e-wallet, and the AtozGo  hyper-local food delivery services in Indonesia, which has the fastest-growing mobile economy in Southeast Asia. For more information about Weyland Tech, go to weyland-tech.com .

Important Cautions Regarding Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements relating to the business of the Company. All statements, other than statements of historical fact included herein are forward-looking statements including statements regarding: the adoption of our product offerings by SMBs and other businesses; the ability of the Company to successfully integrate the assets of Logiq, the continued growth of the eCommerce segment and the ability of the Company to continue its expansion into that segment; the ability of the Company to attract customers and partners and generate revenues; the ability of the Company to successfully execute its business plan; the business strategy, plans, and objectives of the Company; the continued use and success of AtozGo and AtozPay; and any other statements of non-historical information. These forward-looking statements are often identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as believes, expects or similar expressions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, they do involve assumptions, risks, and uncertainties, and these expectations may prove to be incorrect. Investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this news release. The Companys actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors, including those discussed in the Companys periodic reports that are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on its website (www.sec.gov). All forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these factors. Other than as required under the securities laws, the Company does not assume any duty to update these forward-looking statements.

LogiqX is a trademark of Logiq, Inc. All rights reserved.

Company Contact

Brent Suen, CEO

Weyland Tech Inc.

Email contact

Media & Investor Contact

Ronald Both or Grant Stude

CMA Investor & Media Relations

Tel (949) 432-7566

WEYL@cma.team
















TORRINGTON  City schools are scheduled to reopen Sept. 8, and the school district is using a hybrid model that puts students in the classroom for a portion of the week, coupled with home-based learning. A mid-week day will keep students home, allowing custodial staff to clean the buildings.

That was the topic of Wednesday nights Board of Education discussion during a special meeting with Superintendent of Schools Susan Lubomski, business manager Ed Arum and administrators including Susan Ferguson.

School board Chairman Fiona Cappabianca reviewed the districts previous plans for reopening, which have been amended and adjusted several times to follow Gov. Ned Lamonts exective orders, and the state Board of Educations changing requirements.

The school administration initially developed a three-part plan: a full reopening with social distancing, a hybrid model with 50 percent of the students in the building(s) two times a week, and a full-closure model, with all students learning at home, Cappabianca said.

The hybrid plan

According to Lubomski, the hybrid plan was developed in late July. Education officials first said they wanted all students in school for a full day and a full week. On July 26, Gov. Lamont and (state education) Commissioner (Miguel) Cardona said there would be flexibility and a different approach, and that it didnt have to be all students, every day, in person (in school), Lubomski said. On July 28, there was an addendum ... To open the schools based on physical space, cohorts (small groups of students that are together all day) and cleaning.

When we did that plan, and were asked to do phase one, with students in person, five days a week in school  was it possible? Absolutely, Lubomski said. Was it optimal and best for students? Probably not.

The hybrid model, Lubomski said, is better for students, who will attend school Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. The school day, she said, will be a flow of full group lessons and group work, as appropriate.

For students in the hybrid model, Wednesdays would be a distance learning day, she said, with a blend of real-time and remote instruction, with daily interactions between students and teachers, and small group work and independent work, supported by parents as needed.

We want (the schools) to get into that flow, and it will take us a little bit of time, as it is with anything new, Lubomski said. We feel the hybrid model is best for our students. (It) allows for social distancing, cleaning ... (With) no disruption to course offerings in grades 6-12, electives, unified arts, AP courses and unified physical education.

Our goal for remote learning in the hybrid is also about relationship building, with small group instruction on a virtual platform, Lubomski said. It also allows for screen breaks and independent work time.

To ensure student safety, schools will streamline the way students arrive and leave the buildings. Hallways will be designated to avoid crowding. Mask breaks will be part of the day. The district is also reducing the number of students on a school bus. This will provide a little bit of normalcy, Lubonski said.

Overall, the superintendent said, the district was looking to improve the students education experience, compared to the end of the previous school year when the pandemic closed public schools in March. We dont want to do what we did in the spring, she said. Thats not the design were looking for. We want a nice, blended experience.

Arum provided details on the added supplies and staffing needed to keep schools clean, provide personal protective equipment for students, teachers and staff, and other additions to the school day. The cost of those additions, he said Wednesday, is about $1.9 million, but is a necessary part of the process, and that the teachers and staff in the district were working with him to save money. Lubomski praised Arum for his work, saying the costs initially were more than $2 million. That funding must be added to the education budget.

Public concerns

Public comments during the meeting included parents asking about high-risk students with asthma and other health concerns; a special education teacher asking to require masks for pre-schoolers; and a parent group, represented by Julie Grant, who read a letter admonishing the school district and the Board of Education for a perceived lack of detail about returning to school in September.

We agree that (school board member) Nikki Fappiano did a great job as our representative, Grant said, referring to a previous school board meeting and discussion on the reopening plan. She listened thoughtfully and made good comments, and we applaud her for her questions about details. Theres a lack of detail for any rational, human parent to make a decision.

Grant said parents needed to know more about what remote learning would look like.

We want to make sure children do whats going to keep them safe (in school), she said, referring to Dr. Anthony Faucis recent comments about Connecticuts status in the coronavirus pandemic.

Fauci, the nations top infectious disease expert, said Monday that Connecticut is currently in a good place because the states baseline rate of COVID-19 infections is very low, predicting the state will have an upper hand with containing, rather than just mitigating, any flare-ups that might develop this fall. The states infection rate has remained around 1 percent in recent weeks, among the lowest in the country.

But Grant said if Connecticut was being used as an experiment or an example to the rest of the nation, more information was needed on safety. She also said most parents were committed to remote learning and were very hesitant about sending their children back to the classroom.

(The school board needs to) come up with a thoughtful, progressive plan, she said. We have an incredible opportunity to do something so good.

Torrington special education teacher Jason LaFreniere also spoke, saying the plans issued by the school administration are missing specific details.

Whatever the Board of Education decides will have everyones best interest at heart, and families must realize that whatever decision they make is the right one for them, he said. There are pros and cons, but they need to do whats right for them. ... Its stressful for families, and equally stressful for staff.

LaFreniere asked whether teachers would be responsible for the daily remote learning plans as well as those in the classroom, and wanted to know how remote learning would be monitored. There are situations that can have clear practices and strategies, he said. They are missing specific details.

Parents choice

School board Vice Chairman John Kissko said Thursday that the boards role in the reopening of schools is to provide input and ask questions.

The state is going to make the choice, and tell us which plan to use, he said. The superintendents of schools are the ones who present that plan to the state. ... We ask questions to understand whats going to happen.

The plan the superintendent presented us with on Wednesday is the one were going forward with, subject to the govenor and what the state says, he said. Its subject to one thing or another.

Kissko said parents can choose to participate in the hybrid plan, or use a total distance learning model.

They can opt out, and do distance learning, he said. (Distance learning) is not the same (model) in the spring, but it will be distance learning.

A survey recently was presented to parents in the district to guage their preference for their children in the fall. Kissko said nearly 40 percent of parents said they wanted to use a distance learning plan.

It sounds like a high 30 percent of parents are saying their kids will not be there in person, but thats subject to change, he said. Maybe that will change  we wont really know until the doors open.

Information on back to school plans are available at torrington.org.
A handful of families can rightfully claim to be true-blue Delhiwallahs  the earliest settlers of Delhi. Sadia Dehlvi belonged to one such family of traders who took on the name Dehlvi upon making this city their home. Sadia, 63, died at her home in Nizamuddin East after a long battle with cancer. Her son, musician Arman Ali Dehlvi was by her side. The last rites were performed on the morning of August 6.

Saddened by the untimely demise of historian and writer Sadia Dehlvi Ji. Delhi will remember her as a true dilliwali and a historian of the people. RIP pic.twitter.com/I59ri3vbT5  Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) August 6, 2020

In her lifetime, Sadia donned many hats an author, journalist, scriptwriter. She also wrote a column for Hindustan Times. She would narrate stories and talk about the tehzeeb of Dilli with such soulfulness that you would be transported to a mystical place  a Delhi that is now lost. Her home was a warm place filled with the laughter of friends, the music that her son made, and of course, food. Her wit was distinct, just like the aromas wafting out of her kitchen. Her dastarkhwaans were legendary, transcending food.

Author and close friend of Sadias, Rakhshanda Jalil wants to celebrate her life. I want to remember her for the sparkling person that she was. She was a great raconteur and could really spin a story with a twinkle in her eye. She was a great cook and her benchmark was her mother; if her mother nodded in approval, that meant it was alright. Family was important for her.

Read: Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya: Celebrating the mystics life and times

A devotee of the Chishti order of Sufism, Sadia was most at peace at the dargahs of Ajmer Sharif and Nizamuddin Auliya. Haji Syed Salman Chishty, Dargah Ajmer Sharif, says, Its tragic and there really are no words to express the loss. Sadia Aapa has always been so full of life and a great human being. Her home was the essence of Tehzib-e-Dilli  the immaculate culture as well as hospitality of Delhi. A great lover and devotee of Chishty Sufi tradition, she frequently visited Ajmer Dargah Sharif. Sadia Aapa had a special connect with Khawaja Gharib Nawaz and would spend hours in Dargah Sharif meditating as well as interacting with mystics, faqirs and deekers. For us, visiting Delhi will never be the same.

Author Bhaichand Patel, who had been friends with Sadia Dehlvi for over three decades, talks about Sadias love for life. I have known her since 1986. I had just come to Delhi at that time. She knew everybody in town, and came from a distinguished family. She was a wonderful person, very bright, brainy and a learned person. She was always helpful to people, everybody loved her. She also had a wedding reception at my home and a lot of VIPs came including the Giani Zail Singh who was the President that time. And when she was young, she was prettier than any movie star, he says.

Sadia spent a considerable time in Old Delhi, and at her familys ancestral home, Shama Kothi in Central Delhi, forging strong ties with the people there. Of one such family of hakeems, Munib Ahmed Khan, recalls his time with her. Sadia aunty was a very strong person. She was a fighter all through her life. Our families go back a long way. Mine is a family of hakeems, so we were close to people who would make Unani medicines. I knew her for as long as I can remember, he says.

Author and lawyer Saif Mahmood remembers her as a feisty woman: I had known Sadia Apa forever. Our families had known each other for three generations. She fought orthodoxy and cancer alike. She typified the old Shahjahanabadi culture even while driving the image of the traditional Muslim woman away from the stairs of the Jama Masjid and bringing it centre stage. Her mannerism, on one hand, made her look like a post-modern elitist woman of the kind you see on European screens, and on the other, evoked that certain sense of plainness which is characteristic only to the streets of Purani Dilli. To me, it seems that she will pop out from somewhere, laal gulaab in hair, and say: chalo ab ho gaya rona dhona, celebrate me now.

Read: Reviving Delhis long lost and forgotten home recipes

Her aura was such that even those who hadnt met her, or had only seen her socially a few times, were immediately besotted.

For chef Sadaf Hussain, who has seen the bylanes of Purani Dilli through her lens and stories, and how she has narrated those, meeting her was on his wish list. He says, I never got to meet her but her work has inspired me, and it was the meeting I wanted to do this year. She and her family used to say, we are the real Dehlvis. This added swag to her personality, adding, If you ask me how I would give an ode to her, I would say I will make nihari.

Abhinav Bamhi of Faqirchand and Sons Bookstore says that it was her unmistakable aura that attracted everyone. I have seen her at our shop a few times, and met her at book launches, literary events and cultural evenings. She always had this charisma  everyone going around her, people greeting and coming up to her. I enjoyed admiring her assertively profound presence and aura. She had such an amazing Dilliwali vibe that one could feel the culture in her, that urdu ka andaaz and mystical sufi vibe. These are some things that will stay with me forever, he says.

Anuj Bahri, of Bahrisons Booksellers, says that she would visit them often, and in true Dilli style, he pens an ode to her:

Dilli ki nazaakat

Ko dekha hai kareeb se

Tum woh lau ho

Jo dilli ke dil se roshan rahe gi

The night was cooler, the moon shone a bit brighter and there was a whiff of jasmines somewhere close. Delhi would never forget you, Sadia.

Follow @htcity for more
DALLASFor Savannah Robison, the State Fair of Texass youth livestock competitions this fall will be bittersweet. After graduating, the incoming senior at Lake Dallas High School in Corinth wont be eligible for another chance to participate.

My last year, its something really special to me, the 17-year-old said. I know I can always come back and visit, but this is gonna be my last time showing in the show ring. I wont get that feeling again.

The State Fair of Texas is the nations largest and longest state fair, with over 2.5 million visitors over 24 days in 2019. Last year, there were more than 3,500 participants in the market week shows for Texas youth, and over $1.3 million (U.S.) in scholarships and prize money were awarded on auction day alone.

But after this years Fair was cancelled for the first time since the Second World War due to the coronavirus pandemic, students are deciding whether they want to bring the animals theyve been taking care of for months  and in some cases, years  to Fair Park for a select number of scaled-down competitions.

For her final shot at taking home a State Fair champion banner, Robison said shes put in more money than ever before, and has been trying to save half of her income from her job at Chick-fil-A for her pigs. Since mid-May, shes spent two hours feeding, walking or bathing her three pigs every day.

If I couldnt show them, I think my whole summer would just be ruined, honestly  all of that would just go to waste, Robison said. Id be really sad and aggravated.

Organizers of the Minnesota State Fair, Eastern States Exposition and Great New York State Fair have either completely cancelled youth livestock shows or announced an intention to explore the possibility of virtual events or other alternatives. Of the nations five largest state fairs, only the Tulsa State Fair and the State Fair of Texas currently still plan to hold in-person events.

Fair Parks select number of youth market livestock shows are currently scheduled to take place from September 23 to October 2, with some breeding shows set to happen later in October through a partnership with Wacos Heart OTexas Livestock Show. Daryl Real, the State Fairs senior vice president of agriculture and livestock, said a Fair Park team will remind all attendees to abide by required masks and social distancing rules.

We dont want to be a part of the spread, Real said, adding that all staff will undergo daily temperature checks. We want to be a part of the solution, to allow folks to get to participate in a healthy and safe way.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the risk of animal-to-person transmission of the coronavirus is considered low. However, CDC guidance advises fair and agricultural show organizers to consider the potential for COVID-19 to spread from person to person, person to animal, and potentially animal to animal.

Real said social distance will be created by limiting attendance at Fair Park each day, preventing barns from being filled to capacity, and scheduling competitors to come in at different times. Those who feel sick are also encouraged to stay home and watch livestreams of the shows.

Theres a lot of unknowns, market steer judge Jirl Buck said, acknowledging that some students may still be weighing whether to come this year. But I think they should go give it 100 per cent, and prepare their animals, and look forward to the opportunity to get to show at the Texas State Fair.

Over the past decade, Buck has judged at multiple state fairs across the country, as well as other livestock shows in Texas. He said the Lone Star State is extremely competitive compared to many other states.

Texas boasts the largest number of members by state in both the National FFA Organization and 4-H. Participation in one of these programs is a qualification requirement for youth livestock contests at most state fairs.

Anytime you go to Texas, you expect high quality, Buck said. Its such an honour, from a judges standpoint, to judge a major livestock show of that quality.

Rylie Hardin, an incoming Lake Dallas High School senior who has competed in shows around the country, said theres just a sense of pride to winning in his home state. The 17-year-old who first stepped foot in a livestock arena at three years old has had multiple champion pigs at the State Fair, and wants to see his efforts pay off in his final year, too.

Hardin said hes not too worried about getting COVID-19, and trusts that the Texas State Fairs precautions will create a safe environment to compete in.

I worked hard for this, I want to do it, and I dont think its too risky for me, said Hardin, who attended a socially distanced show in Iowa earlier in July. Im very comfortable going. So its all a matter of preference  if you dont feel safe, dont go, but I personally feel safe.

Robison said she also isnt overly concerned about COVID-19, noting that she has masks and hand sanitizer if needed, and trusts the people who will be around her. In Fort Worth, however, incoming Arlington Heights High School senior Addison Guymon is a little less sure about whether shell attend.

This September would be 17-year-old Guymons second time at the State Fair. Shed been looking forward to showing her three heifers and competing with a cow-calf pair for the first time, but now plans to monitor the pandemic situation before committing to returning to Fair Park.

If cases started to spike, that would definitely scare me and my family, Guymon said. I think thats the only thing that would keep me from going, is if it just got really bad, and there was nothing we could really do but stay home to try and help it.

Guymon said shes attended two shows this season where masks werent required, though she wore one anyway. Even though shes been upset about other show cancellations, Guymon said she understands that lives are more important than a livestock show.

But she said shes glad that the State Fair is providing an opportunity to participate in her last year of eligibility. She has until August 25, when online entries close, to consider.

When its just taken away from you, its very, very heartbreaking because you had no say, Guymon said. Now, I can decide if I want to go or not, which makes me feel a lot better.

Of course, all schedules remain tentative. The shows could still be cancelled if health orders related to the pandemic are issued by local, state or federal agencies, which happened in March to Rodeo Austin and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, two other Texas livestock majors.

If the State Fairs fall events end up getting called off, Hardin said his dad is prepared to join others in the industry to organize a pig show of their own. According to Hardin, his parents never once asked whether he still wanted to show or not because of the pandemic.

They know I want to, he said. This is what I love to do.
Two workers were yesterday impaled by steel bars and four others were injured after a crane accident on a Miami tower block construction site.

A bundle of rebar - steel rods used in reinforcing concrete structures - came loose as it was being flown by tower crane at the site in the Brickell Plaza area at around 11.30am.

The rebar impaled two of the workers through their upper body, requiring fire crews to extract them from the metal before being rushed to hospital.

Others were struck by the rebar but were able to get out from underneath the metal themselves, Local 10 reported.

A bundle of rebar - steel rods used in reinforcing concrete structures - came loose as it was being flown by tower crane at the site in the Brickell Plaza area at around 11.30am (pictured: an injured worker is winched down on a stretcher by firefighters yesterday)

Harrowing video footage taken by a worker atop the building site shows at least one worker laid out in the central cavity of the tower block yelling in pain surrounded by scattered metal rods.

'Something malfunctioned and it came loose,' told the Miami Herald. 'The two trapped under the rubble were impaled by rebar in their upper body. We cut them out.'

Miami's building department identified the contractor of the development as a joint venture between British construction firm Ant Yapi and Miami Beach's Civic Construction. The developer was the OKO Group LLC.

'The incident occurred while a reinforcing steel cage came loose as it was being flown by the tower crane of our structural contractor, injuring five workers,' William Real, of Civic Construction, later said in a statement.

Accidente hoy en miami en la zona de Brickell , el riesgo que siempre estoy expuesto todos los dias con mis companeros pic.twitter.com/KXYHXAaEfd  Ale (@j_ainfante69) August 5, 2020

The company said that five of the injured were 'alert and conscious' and that a sixth employee had been treated and discharged at the scene.

'They are reported to be stable and receiving care for their injuries. The safety of our workers and contractors is always our highest priority and we are cooperating with the [city of Miami] building department and OSHA in an internal investigation to determine the cause of todays incident and to prevent it from occurring again,' the statement said.

The completed office tower will be 724ft tall and become the second tallest building in the city after the Southeast Financial Center.
A fake letter has been distributed to Brisbane residents offering a one-off $1860 grant for electricity bills during COVID-19, sparking an urgent warning from Calamvale councillor Angela Owen.

The letter features Brisbane City Council colours and letterhead, but where it falls down is the use of a mobile number for residents to call to check their grant eligibility.

The letter addresses residents within the 4017 and 4034 postcodes. This includes Bracken Ridge, Brighton, Deagon, Sandgate, Shorncliffe, Aspley, Boondall, Carseldine, Geebung and Zillmere.

"It is with joy that we inform you of your successful qualifications for the newly-introduced Council COVID-19 grant which allows people ... who have lost income due to the COVID-19 outbreak to receive a one-off grant of up to $1860 off your electricity bill," the scam letter said.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 01:26:44|Editor: huaxia

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NAIROBI, Aug.5 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday launched Kenya's chapter of Generation Unlimited (GenU), a UN platform which he said will assist the government in unlocking the potential of Kenyan youth.

Kenyatta said the youth account for about three quarters of the Kenyan population, adding that the government's increased investment in youth-leaning sectors such as education, ICTs and entrepreneurship over the years was out of the appreciation of the immense economic potential held by young people.

"It is for this reason that I welcome GenU as a platform, which will enable leaders, partners, and stakeholders to make investments that will unlock the potential of Kenyan youth," he said in a statement issued after the virtual launch in Nairobi.

GenU is a United Nations youth empowerment program launched in 2018 with the goal of ensuring that young people, aged between 10 and 24 years are either in school, training or employment by 2030.

During the launch, Kenyatta assured Kenyans that his administration will continue investing in interventions that seek to better the wellbeing of young people.

He said Kenya's youthful population is the nation's greatest resource, with the highest potential to uplift the country's socioeconomic profile.

" My administration has prioritized investments in young people. These investments are yielding results and we can confidently say that Kenya has made good progress towards the achievement of objectives of GenU," he said.

Kenyatta said his administration's main preoccupation is creation of jobs and sustainable livelihoods for young people.

"In this context, we have taken steps to expand the internship program, with the aim of connecting skilled youth with job opportunities and enable them to acquire practical and workplace skills," he said.

He said the Big 4 development agenda covering manufacturing, food security, affordable housing and universal healthcare offers expanded employment opportunities in agriculture, health, housing, and manufacturing.

He said despite the progress made in opening up the economy and creating employment opportunities, the country is still faced with a huge challenge of unemployment.

"Even as we acknowledge the progress we have made, I recognize that a lot more needs to be done. A significant number of our young people are unemployed or underemployed, and this situation has been worsened by the COVID-19 crisis.

"I am also aware that our young people face significant structural, financial, or technical barriers that limit their access to sustainable jobs," he added. Enditem
Press Release

6 August 2020

The School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is privileged to announce that Mr Robert H. Burns, Founder of Regent International Hotels, is bestowed the prestigious SHTM Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020 and is inducted into the School's famed Gallery of Honour at the same time.

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The SHTM Lifetime Achievement Award was established in 2016 to honour outstanding persons who have contributed substantially to the development of hospitality and tourism in Hong Kong, the region and around the world. In bestowing the award, the SHTM seeks to recognise true leaders who help define the global hospitality landscape and advance the industry.

Expressing his heartfelt congratulations to Mr Burns on receiving the SHTM Lifetime Achievement Award, Professor Kaye Chon, SHTM Dean, Chair Professor and Walter and Wendy Kwok Family Foundation Professor in International Hospitality Management, said, "Mr Burns is a longstanding partner of the SHTM and a truly deserving recipient of this award. With steadfast support from industry partners such as Mr Burns, our School is committed to nurturing all the bright minds who will become future leaders of this very exciting global industry."

"I am honoured to receive this year's SHTM Lifetime Achievement Award," said Mr Burns. "It has been a pleasure to be a part of this incredible global industry. Much of the industry has evolved greatly just in the past few decades, and I feel fortunate to have contributed in some small way. It is an exceptional honour to receive this award from PolyU where the School is known worldwide for its excellence in hospitality and tourism management education. Congratulations to the faculty and staff at the SHTM!"

Founder of Regent International Hotels and developer of Grand Hotel a Villa Feltrinelli, Gargnano, Italy, Mr Robert Burns is a legendary figure of the hotel industry famed worldwide for setting new benchmarks in luxury hospitality.

Mr Burns has spent six decades in the hotel industry, beginning at the Waldorf Astoria in the late 1940s, while attending New York University. Following his time in New York and after four years in the U.S. Army, he completed his undergraduate degree at Michigan State University's School of Hotel Management with an MBA from the University of Michigan. He then joined Sheraton Hotels' management training programme, working in hotels in Detroit, Pittsburgh, Dallas and Nebraska. In 1960, he joined Sheraton hotels in Hawaii. Three years later he became General Manager of the Kahala Hilton in Hawaii, where he was also a faculty member of the University of Hawaii.

In 1970, Mr Burns founded Regent International Hotels in Hong Kong, building one of the industry's most renowned 5-star brands. The opening of The Regent Hong Kong in 1980 drew international recognition, which brought a new dimension in amenities and services to hotels in the city and attracted worldwide attention. An icon of the industry, combining Asian service excellence with western efficiency and luxury, it was voted the "best hotel in the world" among several international awards. Under Mr Burns' leadership, the group opened 18 luxury hotels worldwide in 22 years. In 1992, Regent was acquired by Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts. In 2001, after a five-year restoration, he opened the much-admired Grand Hotel a Villa Feltrinelli in Italy.

Mr Burns has long been a leader in the industry through education and advocacy groups. He was Chairman and Co-founder of the World Travel and Tourism Council, a forum of more than 200 members of international chief executives in leading travel and tourism companies worldwide. Its unique mandate encourages industry growth and protects cultural and natural heritage sites. He was a member of the Dean's Advisory Council at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration and the University of Hawaii's School of Travel Industry Management. For 20 years, he lectured on Stanford University's MBA programme. He served as Director of The Asia Pacific Fund and Chairman of The Chrysalis Emerging Markets Fund, ING Barings and a Director of Wharf (Holdings) Limited in Hong Kong. Mr Burns also lectured extensively through the Asia-Pacific for the U.S. State Department and Pacific Asia Travel Association. In New York City, he serves on the board of Jazz at Lincoln Center.


Lebanese officials say ammonium nitrate, a substance used as fertilizer in agriculture, likely caused the massive explosion in Beirut.

The explosion killed at least 100 people and injured more than 4,000 others on Tuesday. It flattened much of the port and damaged buildings across the capital city.

Lebanons President Michel Aoun said more than 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate had been stored without safety measures for six years at the port. He added the government was determined to investigate and expose what happened as soon as possible.

In agriculture, ammonium nitrate fertilizer is released into the soil to help plant growth. Under normal conditions, the substance does not explode easily.

Explosives experts say the Beirut explosion was likely caused by a fire at a storage area of fireworks nearby.

Boaz Hayoun works closely with the Israeli government on safety and issues involving explosives. He told the Associated Press, Before the big explosion, you can see in the center of the fire, you can see sparks, you can hear sounds like popcorn and you can hear whistles.

Hayoun said those are common signs of the burning of fireworks.

Jeffrey Lewis, a missile expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California, agreed. He said, If you have a fire raging next to something explosive, and you dont put it out, it blows up.



Previous explosions

Ammonium nitrate has caused several earlier industrial explosions in countries including Germany, the United States and China.

In 1921, a massive explosion involving ammonium nitrate at a chemical plant killed more than 500 people in Oppau, Germany.

And, in 1947, a burning cigarette caused an explosion in Galveston, Texas as workers were loading the fertilizer into a ship. It killed 581 people and injured 3,500.

More recently, 173 people were killed at a factory in Tianjin, China. That 2015 explosion involved ammonium nitrate and other chemicals. Witnesses to the event said it felt like an atomic bomb had hit.

Ammonium nitrate has also been used in terrorist acts in the United States.

A truck filled with the fertilizer exploded in New York City in 1993 at the World Trade Center. Kuwait-born Ramzi Yousef was found guilty of the bombing and is serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison.

On April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh, a former American soldier, left a truck in front of a federal office building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Inside the truck was a powerful bomb made out of fertilizer, fuel and other chemicals. McVeigh exploded the bomb killing 168 people.



For these reasons, ammonium nitrate is a tightly controlled substance. Most countries bar its storage in areas near fuel and sources of heat. Much of the European Union also requires that calcium carbonate be added to ammonium nitrate because it makes the fertilizer less likely to explode. The United States strengthened its rules on storage and use of the substance after the Oklahoma City attack.

Despite its dangers, Jimmie Oxley, a chemistry professor at the University of Rhode Island, said the use of ammonium nitrate is necessary as fertilizer for farming and as an explosive.

She told the French news agency AFP, "We wouldn't have this modern world without explosives, and we wouldn't feed the population we have today without ammonium nitrate fertilizer.

"We need ammonium nitrate, we just need to pay good attention to what we're doing with it, she said.

I'm Mario Ritter, Jr.

Hai Do wrote this story for Learning English with additional reporting from the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse. Caty Weaver was the editor.

________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

determine - v. to officially decide something because of evidence or facts

expose - v. to reveal something

spark - n. a short bright flash of burning material

popcorn - n. corn in the form of yellow seed that burst open when heated

rage - v. to happen in a destructive or intense way

cigarette - n. a small roll of paper that is filled with tobacco and smoked
Seth Rogen plays Herschel, left, and Ben in "An American Pickle." (Hopper Stone)

The new Seth Rogen vehicle, An American Pickle, is a lot like the foodstuff for which its named: a quick, tart, satisfying bite and, of course, kosher. The film heralds a return of sorts classic American Jewish cinema (theres a nod to Yentl), the likes of which hasnt been seen, it seems, in some time.

The film is the solo feature directorial debut of Brandon Trost, a prominent cinematographer who has worked on many Rogen vehicles like This Is the End, Neighbors and The Interview. Its written by Simon Rich, who adapted the screenplay from his four-part humor series Sell Out, which ran in the New Yorker in 2013. But this is a Rogen film through and through, offering the actor the chance to inhabit two very different roles, playing against himself.

Rogen is Herschel Greenbaum, a ditch-digger from an Eastern European city called Shlupsk, who immigrates to Brooklyn at the turn of the 20th century with his wife, Sarah (Sarah Snook), with dreams of buying their own gravestones and one day trying seltzer. Herschel goes to work in a pickle factory killing rats, where he falls into the pickle vat and is sealed inside. A century later, a drone disturbs the vat and Herschel emerges, fully preserved, alive and sentient (just go with it). The doctors find his only living relative, great-grandson Ben Greenbaum (also Rogen), a freelance mobile app developer, and wacky, time-traveling mishaps and misunderstandings ensue.

Richs series Sell Out is a bit more barbed, with a willingness to needle the modern Rich, who is a feckless script doctor. In the script for An American Pickle, Rich extends a bit more charity to Ben, who is more hapless than feckless. He leads a comfortable if unexamined life, filling his days with modern comforts and making an app called Boop Bop to tell you if your kale chips are ethical. Its all to distract from the deep sorrow of losing both his parents in a car accident, something his great-grandfather wants to dive right into, details and all.

Story continues

Sarah Snook and Seth Rogen in "An American Pickle." (Hopper Stone)

For Herschel, family, memory and legacy is everything. On a quest to buy back the land where Sarah is buried, in the shadow of a Russian vodka billboard, he starts the hottest new artisanal pickle venture in Williamsburg, with his all-natural brine and reusable jars. Everything old is new again, after all. Stubborn, loyal Herschel is overbearing and out of touch, while the jealous and competitive Ben is eaten up by envy. Their interpersonal feud escalates in a series of increasingly outlandish (yet plausible) events. Anchoring this is a rather deft performance by Rogen, who creates two distinct characters. His Ben may not be that far off his usual roles but with bouncing off his Herschel and with almost no other significant supporting actors, its an impressive turn from Rogen, especially his facility with Herschels accent.

An American Pickle is swift and rather pat and even earnest despite its wacky premise and the issues it skirts. With an 88-minute run time, theres just no room to treat the twists and turns with any level of depth, and it avoids fully probing the topics like cancel culture and free speech with which it toys, avoiding the thornier areas. It gestures toward controversial ideas but always swerves back to a simple but profound message of togetherness and family, and the personal importance of honoring tradition and memory.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.
From the new sketches, the Sonet sure looks like one of those remote-controlled toys kids (or the young at heart) would play with. It has large wheels wrapped in rugged tires fitted onto a small crossover body. Design-wise, it features all of Kias signature styling cues: from the tiger-nose grille up front to the full-width LED taillights. It looks quite aggressive and rugged too with large intake vents on the bumper, an integrated diffuser at the rear, and black cladding all around.

Kias crossover lineup will soon expand even more with the introduction of the upcoming Sonet. Last month, the Korean automaker only released one photo of the small crossover with most details still hidden in the shadows. Now, we get to a better look at the details of the Kia Sonet. Even better, they even included a preview of the cabin.

Apart from its design, these new sketches show how small the Sonet will be. If these renders are accurate, the rear doors alone make it look like an adult would barely fit. With that in mind, imagine its trunk/cargo spaceor whatevers left of it.

While the outside might be small, the interior is big on features. Kia says the cabin features a minimalist design trimmed in high-quality materials. Front and center is the 10.25-inch HD touchscreen and navigation system with UVO Connected technologies. In front of the driver sits a digital instrument cluster. Other interior features include steering wheel-mounted controls and selectable drive and traction modes.

At the moment, Kia has not revealed any details about the Sonets powertrain just yet. Considering that it has different drive and traction modes, the small crossover may have all-wheel drive.

The Sonet is set to debut later this week - August 7 - in India. It wont be too long now before we get to see the small crossover in the metal. As much as it would be cool to look like a small toy, expect it to be toned down as a production model. Will it make its way to the Philippines? Could it replace the Picanto as Kia's smallest offering, much like what Suzuki did when they replaced the Alto with the funkier S-Presso? Everything's up for speculation, so your guess is as good as ours.
Hundreds of Adirondacks residents are asking Essex County District Attorney Kristy Sprague to fully investigate off-duty Cohoes Police Officer Sean T. McKowns use of his service pistol in June and his allegedly false claims that a Black male fired at him first.

A letter with at least 735 signatures was delivered to Spragues office on Thursday morning asking the county's top prosecutor to investigate the June 6 incident on Lincoln Pond Road in Elizabethtown  as well as the law enforcement probe that followed it.

We ask that your office uphold its promise of justice for all, the letter stated. That obligation applies with particular force to members of our community that are under-represented. That obligation also applies with particular force to those who we depend on to uphold the law namely those sworn to do so.

The letter asked the district attorney to respond to Westport attorney Matthew Melewski, who spoke at a news conference in Elizabethtown after the letter was delivered to Spragues office.

"This is not a trivial matter," Melewski said at the press conference. An audio recording of the Thursday event was provided to the Times Union. "This is not a child pulling a fire alarm and falsely reporting a fire. This is very, very serious and someone needs to take responsibility."

Asked what went wrong in the incident, Melewski replied: "Someone decided to bury it."

The Times Union first reported July 27 that McKown, a 19-year veteran of the Cohoes force and who is white, called 911 and told State Police that after three confrontations, a Black male youth displayed a gun and fired at him. McKown told troopers he fired his weapon four times while retreating toward a hill and ditched the gun. State Police said McKown was asleep when they showed up. Awakened, he appeared highly intoxicated, sources with knowledge of the case said.

The sources said McKown called State Police back and said his story had been false. He admitted the Black male youth did not display a gun or fire at him, and admitted he shot bullets into a tree stump. Troopers said they did not believe McKown's second account either because they determined he neatly placed the weapon down and did not ditch it.

State Police described McKowns statements as extremely inconsistent.

Sprague and her top assistant met with State Police on June 10 and told them there was not enough evidence to prosecute McKown on charges of menacing or filing a false report, sources told the Times Union. Sprague has refused to acknowledge that she made a decision not to prosecute the case  or answer other questions, such as whether she knew McKown before the incident.

On Thursday, in response to a Times Union email for comment, Sprague said she received the letter signed by residents and other concerned citizens on Aug. 4 via Facebook.

I will review the file, she said. As for the remainder of your questions I do not feel it necessary to address these questions as you seem to want to make this an issue. Quite frankly, I will not entertain such speculation. As I would with any case (if) I have a conflict or an issue that would not allow me to be fair or unbiased, I would apply for a special prosecutor.

Sprague, a graduate of Albany Law School who was elected in 2009, was a member of the Gov. Andrew Cuomo's former Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption.

A State Police spokesman said last week: The State Police conducted an investigation into this incident, including collection of physical evidence, review of security camera video and interviews with 18 potential witnesses. All of the information was presented to the Essex County district attorneys office, and no charges were filed. If new information on this case is brought forward, we will consult with the district attorneys office and re-open the investigation, if warranted.

Attending Thursday's news conference was Nicole Hylton-Patterson, the inaugural director of Adirondacks Diversity Initiative, a state-funded effort focused on addressing inclusion, equity and diversity in the Adirondacks. Racist graffiti was spray-painted on a bridge in the village of Saranac Lake, where she lived, in late June.

Asked to describe her reaction when she learned of the McKown incident, Hylton-Patterson said: As a Black person it was instant trauma, visceral and especially because I believe that I was the object of a racist act.

Hylton-Patterson said: We need the district attorney to step up and fully investigate this, with the intensity, the intentionality and the deliberateness and the expediency with which it deserves  we need the DA to step up and do her job.

Among those at the news conference was Martha Swan, the executive director of John Brown Lives!, an organization whose namesake was an abolitionist revolutionary who was hanged in 1859. John Brown Farm State Historic Site is also just outside the village of Lake Placid.

Swan noted that McKowns incident happened as protests were happening around the country  and in Essex County  following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25.

Given the activity across the county and ample coverage in the press, District Attorney Sprague must surely know that this is an incident, a situation of concern and urgency to her constituents, Swan said at a news conference in Elizabethtown on Thursday after the letter was delivered.

It deeply troubles me that it appears as though this incident has been treated as a routine matter that the district attorney herself and her office need not take charge of, need not get out in front of and investigate deeply.
Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - A Tunisian military plane carrying first aid for Lebanon took off on Thursday morning for the Lebanese Beirut following a deadly blast at the port area of the capital, which has killed at least 135 people and injured about 5,000 others, PANA reported
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At least one person in the United States has died every 80 seconds on average over the last seven days, according to new research, as President Donald Trump said the nations soaring death toll is what it is in a recent interview.

The grim figures were first reported by NBC News on Wednesday, which noted its own tally revealed 7,486 people died in the last seven days due to Covid-19.

That tracked with other data surrounding the coronavirus pandemic published daily by Johns Hopkins University, which showed more than 158,000 total deaths nationwide associated with the novel virus.

Whereas the rate of deaths was somewhat slower in July, with one American dying every 102 seconds on average throughout the month, the latest figures appeared to show an acceleration in pace, as NBC News reported.

Meanwhile, the president has shrugged off the reemergence of Covid-19 in many states across the country, once again insisting the virus would disappear  a claim he has made without evidence since the start of the pandemic  while demanding schools reopen for classes during the autumn.

Axios Jonathan Swain pressed the president on the issue in an interview the news outlet released earlier this week, in which the journalist told the president: A thousand Americans are dying a day.

They are dying. Thats true, Mr Trump replied. It is what it is.

But that doesnt mean we arent doing everything we can, he added. Its under control as much as you can control it.

However, Americans largely disagree with the president on his defence of the US response to the pandemic. In a survey published by NPR/Ipsos on Tuesday, two-thirds of respondents said they believed the US was handling the pandemic worse than other countries.

A majority of those surveyed also supported more aggressive measures to battle the rise of infections.

The US Centre for Disease Control (CDC) has projected the death toll to reach 173,000 by 22 August, which would essentially equate to nearly 1,000 deaths every single day for an entire month.
By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijans Deposit Insurance Fund has paid AZN 402.3 million ($236.6m) to 17,900 depositors of four liquidated banks in the country, the fund reported on August 6.

Some AZN 170.8 million ($100.4M) has been paid to 7,600 depositor of AtaBank, and AZN 121.7 million ($71.5M) paid to 5,100 depositors of Amrahbank

The payment of compensations to these banks started from June 1 are made in non-cash form in 35 branches through Kapital Bank debit cards and Khazri fast money transfer system.

Moreover, AZN 29.8 million ($17.5M) was paid to 2,300 depositors of AG Bank, and AZN 80 million ($47M) was paid to 2,900 depositors of NBC Bank.

The payment of compensations to these banks started on June 16, and are paid in non-cash form in 20 branches through debit cards of the International Bank of Azerbaijan.

According to Article 28.3 of the law "On Insurance of Deposits", the Deposit Insurance Fund accepts applications from depositors within one year from the date of first publication of the notice on compensation.

The licenses of Azerbaijans AtaBank OJSC and Amrahbank OJSC were canceled on April 28 upon the decision of the Board of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA). On May 12, the licenses of AGBank OJSC and NBC Bank OJSC were canceled and the bankruptcy process was launched.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Al Mohler denounces NY Times, media blaming churches for spreading COVID-19

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Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler Jr. denounced The New York Times and other media outlets that seem to blame churches for the spread of COVID-19.

In an episode of Mohlers podcast The Briefing on Monday, the Southern Baptist leader critically analyzed an article published by The New York Times last month that accused churches of being the epicenter of infections nationwide.

Mohler noted that the piece, published on July 8 and updated on July 10, listed 650 confirmed novel coronavirus cases linked to 40 churches  365 of those infections cited by the Times were in Union County, Oregon, many of which were reportedly linked to a church following a wedding that was attended by guests from out of town.

Six hundred and fifty? For Christians operating from a biblical worldview, every single human life is precious, but in the midst of a plague or a pandemic we have to do some math, said Mohler. Six hundred and fifty here, over against a confirmed 4.75 million cases of COVID-19 in the United States, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

Mohler stressed that he wasn't suggesting only 650 cases of COVID-19 can or should be traced to a church or religious service meeting. He was, however, taking issue with how much attention the Times gave to the number linked to the churches with its headline and story.

I am saying that The New York Times documented only 650 cases and used that as justification to run what was in the print edition, a half-page of the paper, he continued.

This tells us that there's something behind the story other than the math. There's indeed something behind the story other than the story.

Mohler then pointed to a USA Today article released several days later, which reported the same 650 cases and used the NY Times piece as its source.

That's lazy journalism at the very least. You're talking 10 days later and all this reporter cites is the number from The New York Times more than 10 days old, and a number that didn't justify The New York Times article in the first place, he added.

There's something going on behind these stories, more than the math. It tells us something of the view of the secular media toward churches and church services.

In response to state orders to shut down businesses and churches in late March, the vast majority of congregations decided to halt in-person worship services as a precaution until states slowly began allowing services to reopen.

Many congregations have reopened their doors, but some quickly decided to shut back down after COVID-19 infections spiked among their church members.

For example, First Baptist Church of Tillmans Corner of Mobile, Alabama, returned to online-only services in early July due to what Pastor Derek Allen called a spike in COVID-19 cases among our faith family.

Regardless of what is happening nationally or statewide, there has been a significant increase in cases among FBTC members in the past two weeks. We need to move quickly and decisively to stop the virus before it spreads any further, Allen said in July.

We dont want to see any of our faith family members suffer through a COVID-19 infection, and we want to do our part to contain this spike as much as possible.

Nevertheless, many take issue with the media blaming churches for spreading the virus, especially congregations that observe social distancing guidelines, noting that there are other possible factors for the spike in cases.

Last month, Arkansas Baptist State Convention Executive Director J.D. Tucker sent a complaint to state officials over a report singling out specifically churches as possible sources of COVID-19 infections.

At issue for Tucker was a report by the Arkansas Department of Health naming dozens of churches, including two Baptist ones, as having allegedly documented COVID-19 exposure.

Those two churches had at least 22,000 unique individual attendees since February 26, yet the ADH put them on the list for having four people attend (a family of three at one church, one person at the other) who later tested positive for the virus, stated Tucker.

These two churches in particular, as well as a multitude of other Arkansas Baptist Convention churches, have provided an incredible amount of ministry to Arkansans during this pandemic, provided thousands upon thousands of meals, served their communities through Disaster Relief efforts, and served first responders and the medical community.
Eight COVID-19 patients have died after a fire broke out at Shrey Hospital in Ahmedabad's Navrangpura area early Thursday morning. "Eight coronavirus patients admitted in the ICU ward of Shrey hospital have died due to the fire, which has been doused," an Ahmedabad fire department official was quoted by India Today as saying.

The deceased include five male and three female patients. Several fire fighters were rushed to the spot, even as the hospital authorities attempted to evacuate the rest of the patients. The cause of the fire has not been ascertained yet. Local fire and police departments rescued several others. A healthcare worker was also injured in the fire.

Almost 40 other patients have been rescued and shifted to the civic body-run SVP Hospital after the fire. As per officials, around 50 coronavirus patients were admitted to this hospital. Out of these, 10 were in the ICU ward of the private hospital in Ahmedabad.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to express his deepest condolences after this unfortunate incident. The Prime Minister wrote, "Saddened by the tragic hospital fire in Ahmedabad. Condolences to the bereaved families. May the injured recover soon. Spoke to CM Vijay Rupani and Mayor Bijal Patel regarding the situation. Administration is providing all the required assistance."





Saddened by the tragic hospital fire in Ahmedabad. Condolences to the bereaved families. May the injured recover soon. Spoke to CM @vijayrupanibjp Ji and Mayor @ibijalpatel Ji regarding the situation. Administration is providing all possible assistance to the affected. a Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 6, 2020

With 1,073 new COVID-19 positive cases, Gujarat's coronavirus tally stands at 66,777 as of Wednesday whereas 2,557 people have died so far.

(With inputs from PTI)

Also read: SEBI Chairman Ajay Tyagi's tenure extended for 18 months till February 2022
One after another, Castro Valley residents called in to a public Zoom meeting Monday night to oppose an affordable housing development on a grassy lot that had long been targeted for residential building.

Neighbors told the Alameda County Planning Commission that the 6-acre site where developers want to build 72 homes should remain open space. They said the the project would cause traffic jams and lead to an increase in crime. They argued it was out of character with the neighborhood.

A few years ago, this type of development might have been shot down. But despite the opposition, the commission unanimously approved the project. The reason? Under a slew of state laws passed in recent years, cities and counties no longer have the power to reject housing that meets local rules and includes affordable homes.

Alameda County Planning Director Albert Lopez said that the commissioners didnt really have any choice but to give a green light.

The development checked all of the boxes, said Lopez. Even though a lot of residents wanted to keep open space, there wasnt really a path by which they could accomplish that.

From San Bruno to Castro Valley to Lafayette, a slew of major Bay Area housing approvals are the result of changing politics and new state legislation that forces cities to accept development despite residents protests. This includes SB35, which streamlined housing construction in counties and cities that fail to build enough housing to meet state housing goals. Also, SB330 cuts the time it takes to obtain building permits, limits fees and prevents local governments from shrinking projects that abide by all city codes.

In June, the San Bruno City Council approved the 425-unit Mills Park development. Just a year ago, the council had rejected it, prompting the threat of a lawsuit from Californias Department of Housing and Community Development. During the debate in June, San Bruno officials warned that the city was legally compelled to approve the project since it met all city requirements and that turning it down would result in fines of $600,000 a month.

We are faced with the reality that housing is allowed on the site and a plan has been submitted, San Bruno City Manager Jovan Grogan said at the meeting. These are tough conversations, but we have to have them.

Brittany Hosea-Small / Special to The Chronicle

In July, the Lafayette Planning Commission approved a proposal for 315 apartments on 22 acres thats been caught up in conflict since 2011, a fight that has included lawsuits and a ballot measure. Last week, the San Mateo Planning Commission unanimously approved the 961-unit Concar Passage mixed-use development, which had been in the works for three years.

Land use attorney Jennifer Hernandez said new state law has very much narrowed the lawful reasons cities and counties can deny projects that comply with zoning and the general plan.

Leora Tanjuatco Ross of the Housing Leadership Council of San Mateo County said, The approval of these projects is the direct result of the work that has been happening over the last four or five years at the state level.

We are finally seeing it pay off, she added.

Some of the pressure to force cities to comply with the new legislation comes from the California Renters Legal Advocacy and Education Fund, known as CaRLA, which has filed dozens of lawsuits against cities that have illegally rejected or sought to downsize projects.

CaRLA co-director Victoria Fierce said city planners and elected officials are now well aware of the rules, even if neighbors are not.

Its starting to sink in now that the new process has teeth and consequences, said Fierce. The neighbors dont understand that there is a whole new world where you have to actually follow the rules.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Still, the flurry of major housing approvals comes as rents in the Bay Area are plummeting and financing is nearly impossible to obtain for development.

These projects have emerged from the mess that constitutes the approval process in California, said land use attorney Tim Tosta. The question is: Who is going to finance them, and will they get built?

While market-rate developments may be on pause until the economy bounces back, affordable projects will continue to be built, according to Sam Moss, executive director of nonprofit developer Mission Housing. Moss called SB35 and SB330 the most prolific housing legislation that has ever been passed in California. Without it, thousands of affordable units would not have been approved.

There is no stopping it, he said. It has been awesome to watch these projects get approved.

Daniela Ogden, a spokesperson for the affordable developer that just won approval in Castro Valley, said that the neighborhood opposition was disturbing.

There wasnt really anything they could do legally to stop it, said Ogden of Eden Housing. They were grasping at straws. But it was disheartening to hear the allegations and accusations from a community that we want to move people into.

Brian Myers, the developer of the Concar Passage project in San Mateo, said that good developers have to do as much community outreach as ever, but that the stricter state laws come in handy in cities that are unreceptive to housing. Thats for bad actors who want to hold up projects, which is not the case in San Mateo.

J.K. Dineen is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jdineen@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SFjkdineen
New Delhi:

Pharmaceutical firm Laurus Labs initial public offering (IPO) will hit the equity market this week to raise an estimated Rs 1,332 crore.

The IPO is scheduled to open on December 6 and close on December 8.

The offer comprises fresh issue of shares worth Rs 300 crore and an offer for sale of 24,107,440 shares by shareholders -- Aptuit (Asia) Pvt Ltd, Bluewater Investment, FIL Capital Management (Mauritius) Ltd and Fidelity India Principals.

The price band for the issue has been set at Rs 426-428 per share. At the upper band, the shares offered by the selling shareholders will fetch Rs 1,332 crore.

The Hyderabad-based company plans to utilise the net proceeds from the fresh issue towards pre-payment of term loans and general corporate purposes.

Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Ltd, Citigroup Global Markets India Private Ltd, Jefferies India Private Ltd and SBI Capital Markets Ltd are the book running lead managers to the offer.



The shares of the company are proposed to be listed on BSE and NSE.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-05 23:48:27|Editor: huaxia

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BAGHDAD, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Deputy Minister of Health Hazim al-Jumaili warned on Wednesday of difficult days ahead as the daily rise in COVID-19 cases has been staying high in Iraq.

"The current figures of infections and deaths are not expected and the citizens were supposed to abide by wearing masks, personal protection, social distancing, and preventing gatherings to cross the pandemic crisis," al-Jumaili said in a press release.

"Every day, many gatherings occur and there must be deterrence," al-Jumaili warned.

Al-Jumaili said that he hoped serious penalties to be applied against violation of the health restrictions.

He confirmed that any return to normal life "is not on the table for the current period," but the Higher Committee for Health and National Safety, headed by Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, will discuss the matter for a final decision.

Meanwhile, the health ministry reported 2,834 COVID-19 cases during the past 24 hours, bringing the total infections in the country to 137,556.

It also reported 77 fatalities during the day, raising the death toll to 5,094, while 2,339 more patients recovered, bringing the total number of recoveries to 98,442.

The new cases were recorded after 16,531 testing kits were used across the country during the day, and a total of 1,076,150 tests have been carried out since the outbreak of the disease, according to the statement.

Earlier, the health ministry frequently said the increase of COVID-19 infections was caused by lack of public compliance to the health instructions and stronger testing capacity with the increase of labs in Baghdad and other provinces.

Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, Iraq has been taking measures to contain the pandemic.

On July 26, Iraq's Higher Committee for Health and National Safety decided to extend the weekly full curfew from July 30 to Aug. 9.

China has been helping Iraq fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

From March 7 to April 26, a Chinese team of seven medical experts spent 50 days in Iraq to help contain the disease, during which they helped build a PCR lab and install an advanced CT scanner in Baghdad.

Since March 7, China has also sent three batches of medical aid to Iraq. Enditem
One of the most common questions asked on the Cheshire Community Forum on Facebook centers around one of Cheshires largest recreation areas, and whether or not it has been fully reopened to the public.

Mixville Park, located on Notch Road, is usually a hub of summer activity, offering ample opportunities for summer camps, fishing, and boating. When the pandemic arrived, however, many outdoor recreation areas were forced to shut down.

As the town has begun to slowly reopen, many Cheshire residents expressed an eagerness to return to Mixville, but certain restrictions have made opening Mixville much more difficult than the other parks in town.

Mixville is tricky, said Cheshire Parks and Recreation Director John Gawlak. The waterfront poses a larger set of issues, and Mixville itself has needed some upgrades for some time now.

For a majority of the summer, Mixville Park had been open for passive recreation only, which includes hiking, walking, and fishing. Many Cheshire residents remained frustrated that other parks in town had opened, yet Mixville remained half-closed.

Due to Connecticuts Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) guidelines released during the pandemic, Mixville was not been able to be open for waterfront activities or pavilion rentals.

However, Gawlak and his team are ready to officially reopen Mixville to Cheshire residents who have been eagerly waiting to return to its beach.

On July 29, the Cheshire Parks Department released a reopening plan for Mixville and, as of Aug. 1, the Park is officially open for full capacity, with some restrictions.

The plan states that two Mixville rangers have been hired to monitor the park from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. The rangers will check people in when they arrive at the park and provide them with a sheet of paper that lists the rules and regulations about social distancing and proper sanitizing techniques.

The parking-lot will be limited to 55 cars per day and only one car per household in order to limit the number of guests at the park. The total number of cars the lot can hold is approximately 110.

There will still be no parking fee for Cheshire residents at Mixville, but a reservation must be made with the Parks Department prior to visiting, according to the plan.

As of Aug. 3, the Town was reporting that no parking permits remained for Sunday, Aug. 9; Saturday, Aug. 15; and Saturday, Aug. 22.

The plan does indicate that swimming will be open, although there will be no lifeguard on duty.

While the pavilions at both Bartlem and Cheshire Parks are available for rental, the pavilions at Mixville will not be offered for such use until at least Aug. 31.

Access to the full 2020 Mixville Park Summer reopening plan is here: https://www.cheshirect.org/media/174301/mixville-reopen-proposal-for-summer-2020.pdf.

For more information on all COVID-19-related protocols and guidelines, visit https://www.cheshirect.org/recreation-and-leisure/.
Figure 1

Toroparu Project  Map showing Northern and Southern Access Road Network

Toroparu Project  Map showing Northern and Southern Access Road Network

Figure 2

Photograph of Toroparu Project Infrastructure

Photograph of Toroparu Project Infrastructure

Gold X signs agreement with CM Engineering of Suriname for design of Northern Access Route connecting Toroparu to tidewater at Buckhall



LIDAR based engineered design expected to be completed in September 2020



Remaining US$250,000 of debt has been converted into equity at C$3.20 per share leaving Gold X debt free and 100% owner of Toroparu

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gold X Mining Corp. (TSX.V: GLDX, OTCQX: SSPXF) (Gold X or the Company) is pleased to announce commencement of engineering and design for a new road link that will replace use of the historical road route between the Toroparu Gold Project and Tidewater, decreasing both capital and operating costs of access for the project.

The new road link will connect Toroparu to the Barama  Buckhall Landing Road (the Barama Road) which also serves as the Aurora Mines access to Tidewater (see Figure 1: Toroparu Project  Map showing Northern and Southern Access Road Network). As shown on the map, the new 58 km (36 mi) link will connect to the Barama Road approximately 14 km east of the Aurora mine, creating the Northern Access Route between Toroparu and Tidewater. When the new link is completed, the Northern Access Route will replace the Southern Access Route as the primary access road for construction and operation.

The engineering and design team is being led by CM Engineering located in Paramaribo, Suriname. CM-Engineering, in partnership with Haukes Construction NV, are experts in the design, engineering, and construction of roads, ports and other facilities in the tropical rainforest environments specific to the Guiana Shield. Experience with similar projects in Suriname including construction of 23 km ore haul road construction for IAMGOLDs Gros Rosebel Mine, as well as contracts with Newmont, Surgold, Suralco, Staatsolie, and Ministry of Public Works uniquely qualify the team to provide site specific designs for the Northern Route project in an efficient manner. The initial engineered designs based on Gold X recently completed LIDAR and Photogrammetry survey completed earlier this year are expected in 60-days allowing for initial road construction works to commence in Q4 2020.

Story continues

Figure 1 is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/48a75235-77c9-4537-a1e9-98f7582060be

Paul Matysek, CEO commented, The participation of regional engineering and construction companies will allow us to efficiently design and build out our northern route access infrastructure while early stage construction activities can begin in parallel at Toroparu via our southern access route, 120-person man-camp, airstrip, heavy equipment maintenance and administration facilities. It also provides a direct and rapid link between the Guyana Goldfields/Zijin gold operation and processing facility which will clearly enhance potential collaboration and synergies between our companies.

The historical link to Tidewater has been via the Southern Access Route over the Itaballi-Puruni-Papishou Landing Road (the Puruni - Papishou Road). Gold X subsidiary, ETK Inc., extended a road between Itaballi Landing and Puruni Landing in the early 2000s to service mining communities from Puruni Landing to Papishou Landing west of Toroparu. To support the local mining community, ETK has continued to operate the barge crossing at Puruni Landing without charging any tolls to the Guyanese small miners community. The final section of the Puruni  Papishou Road links Toroparu to the Kurupung River Hydroelectric Project over a 58 km distance.

Existing infrastructure at Toroparu includes administration building, camp with 120-person capacity, heavy equipment maintenance shed/warehouse and night certified gravel airstrip (see Figure 2: Photograph of Toroparu Project Infrastructure).

Figure 2 is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1cbb25aa-6556-4437-b93b-43a12954f87a

Convertible Debentures Update

Further to the Companys announcement on July 16, 2020, the outstanding balance of US$250,000 convertible debentures have been converted into Gold X common shares at C$3.20 per share.

This leaves the Company debt free and the 100% owner of the 7.35 million ounces Measured and Indicated and 3.15 million ounces Inferred gold resources1 at Toroparu Project and over 538 Km2 of highly prospective and underexplored permits.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of Gold X Mining Corp.

Paul Matysek

Director and Chief Executive Officer

____________________________

1 Preliminary Economic Assessment Report of the Toroparu Gold Project, Upper Puruni River Area, Guyana, Effective Date: June 11,2019 (SRK Consulting (USA) Inc.) filed on www.sedar.com on July 18, 2019 and is available on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).

About Gold X Mining Corp.

Gold X Mining Corp. is a Canadian junior mining company developing the Toroparu Gold Project in Guyana, South America. Gold X has spent more than US$150 million on the Project to date to both classify 7.35 million ounces of Measured and Indicated and 3.15 M-oz of Inferred Gold Resources1, develop engineering studies for use in a feasibility study, and define a number of exploration targets around Toroparu on its 53,844 hectare (538 km2) 100% owned Upper Puruni Concession.

A Preliminary Economic Assessment study (Preliminary Economic Assessment Report, Toroparu Gold Project, Upper Puruni River Area, Guyana, dated July 18, 2019 completed by SRK Consulting (U.S.), Inc.) (the Technical Report) Gold defined a 5.02 M-oz Potentially Mineable Gold Resource producing 188 thousand ounces of gold per year over a 24-year mine-life. The Technical Report is available on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) and on the Companys website (www.goldxmining.com).

Contact Gold X Mining Corp.

Telephone: +1 (604) 609-6132

Email: investors@goldxmining.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-looking Statements

This press release includes certain forward-looking statements concerning future performance and operations of the Company, including the expected positive results from the Toroparu Project based on the estimates and findings contained in the PEA, as summarized herein, as well as management's objectives, strategies, beliefs and intentions. Forward-looking statements are frequently identified by such words as "may", "will", "plan", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "intend" and similar words referring to future events and results. Forward-looking statements are based on the current opinions and expectations of management at the time such statements are made. All forward-looking statements and information are inherently uncertain and subject to a variety of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, including the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development, fluctuating commodity prices, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, uncertainties of project cost overruns or unanticipated costs and expenses, uncertainties inherent in conducting operations in a foreign country, uncertainties related to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, the risk that the conclusion of pre-production studies may not be accurate, the Company's successful advancement of the Toroparu Project toward feasibility and obtaining positive results from ongoing evaluation and testing of multiple gold targets located in the Company's landholdings in Guyana and Colombia, among other risks as described in our public filings available at www.sedar.com. Actual events or results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements and we caution against placing undue reliance thereon. Gold X Mining Resources Ltd. has an ongoing obligation to disclose material information, as it becomes available.




VANCOUVER, BC, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Contact Gold Corp. (the "Company" or "Contact Gold") (TSXV: C) (OTCQB: CGOL), is pleased to announce that it intends to offer units of the Company ("Units") pursuant to a proposed public offering (the "Offering"). Each Unit will consist of one share of common stock in the capital of the Company (a "Share", and as a constituent of the Unit, a "Unit Share") and one-half of one Share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"), with each Warrant entitling the holder thereof to acquire one Share at an exercise price and term to be determined in the context of the market.

The Company also announces the entering into of a binding letter of intent (the "LOI") with Waterton Nevada Splitter, LLC ("Waterton"), a significant shareholder of the Company, to redeem all or a portion of the currently outstanding Class A Shares of Preferred Stock of the Company ("Preferred Shares") (which may be coupled with a private placement with Waterton to fund the redemption of the remaining portion of the Preferred Shares), or undertake an amendment to the terms of the Preferred Shares, subject to certain terms and conditions as further described below.

Matthew Lennox-King stated, "A successful offering will allow the Company to launch exploration programs at the Green Springs and Pony Creek projects with drilling expected to commence almost immediately following the closing of the Offering. Satisfaction of the terms of the Waterton LOI will allow Contact Gold to redeem all or a portion of the Preferred Shares, eliminating or reducing these securities from the Company's capital structure. If completed, this will create better alignment amongst all stakeholders and position the Company to capitalize on the value of its Nevada projects."

Offering

The proposed Offering will be marketed on a "best efforts" basis and the final size and pricing of the Offering will be determined in the context of the market and taking into account other factors. The Offering will be conducted (A) in Canada pursuant to a prospectus supplement (the "Prospectus Supplement") to the Company's short form base shelf prospectus dated October 24, 2018 filed in all of the provinces and territories of Canada, except for Quebec (the "Canadian Jurisdictions"), and (B) to the public under an offering statement on Form 1-A, which includes an offering circular (the "Offering Statement"), pursuant to Regulation A under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "1933 Act"), filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC").

A preliminary Prospectus Supplement and a preliminary Offering Statement containing important information relating to the Offering have been filed with the securities commissions in the Canadian Jurisdictions and in the United States with the SEC, respectively. The preliminary Prospectus Supplement and the preliminary Offering Statement are still subject to completion or amendment. Copies of the preliminary Prospectus Supplement and the preliminary Offering Statement are available at www.sedar.com and www.sec.gov and may be obtained from Cormark Securities at Cormark Securities Inc., 416-943-6405, Royal Bank Plaza, South Tower, Suite 2800, 200 Bay Street, P.O. Box 63, Toronto, ON M5J 2J2.

The Offering will be conducted by Cormark Securities Inc. and its U.S. affiliate (the "Underwriters"). The Company has granted to the Underwriters an option (the "Over-Allotment Option"), exercisable in whole or in part, in the sole discretion of the Underwriters, for a period of 30 days from and including the closing date of the Offering, to purchase additional Units, additional Shares and/or additional Warrants, in an aggregate amount not to exceed 15% of Units, Shares or Warrants sold pursuant to the Offering, on the same terms and at the same price as the Units, Shares and Warrants sold under the Offering, to cover over-allotments, if any, and for market stabilization purposes.

If the Offering is completed, the net proceeds from the Offering are expected to be used to undertake further drilling at Contact Gold's Green Springs and Pony Creek projects located in Nevada, to redeem a portion of the Preferred Shares, for exploration expenditures on Contact Gold's other properties, and for general working capital purposes. The nature and extent of the drilling at the Green Springs and Pony Creek projects will be scaled based on the amount of proceeds ultimately received by the Company from the Offering. The Offering will be subject to certain conditions, including but not limited to successful marketing efforts and the receipt of all necessary securities regulatory and stock exchange approvals. There can be no assurance as to whether the Offering will be completed.

This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any offer or sale of any securities, in any state or jurisdiction in which the offer, solicitation, or sale of securities would be unlawful. The securities being offered have not been approved or disapproved by the SEC or any Canadian securities commission, nor has any such regulatory authority passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of the preliminary Prospectus Supplement or the preliminary Offering Statement. The securities being offered have not been and will not be registered under the 1933 Act.

Waterton Letter of Intent

In accordance with the terms of the LOI, if at least C$10,000,000 is raised pursuant to the Offering: (i) Contact Gold will use a minimum of C$5,000,000 from the proceeds of the Offering to redeem a portion of the Preferred Shares; (ii) Waterton will purchase Shares (at a price per share equal to the price per Unit Share) in an aggregate amount required to redeem the balance of the remaining issued and outstanding Preferred Shares (the "Redemption Placement"); and (iii) Contact Gold will apply the Redemption Placement proceeds to redeem all of the outstanding Preferred Shares.

If less than C$10,000,000 is raised under the Offering, Contact Gold has agreed to use commercially reasonable efforts to obtain all approvals (including shareholder and regulatory approvals) (the "Approvals") required to amend the terms of the Preferred Shares, by amending the articles of incorporation ("Article Amendments"), to:

i. extend the maturity date from June 7, 2022 to a date that is five years from the date all Approvals are obtained;



ii. reduce the cumulative dividend rate from 7.5% to 3.75% per annum from the date the Article Amendments are effective; and



iii. reduce the conversion price of the Preferred Shares from C$1.35 per share to the lesser of: (A) C$0.31; (B) 135% of the offering price allocated to a Unit Share; and (C) 135% of the 20-day volume weighted average price of the Shares prior to the date all Approvals are obtained.

If more than C$3,000,000 and less than C$10,000,000 is raised in the Offering, and Contact Gold fails to complete the Article Amendments, it has agreed to use 50% of any proceeds in excess of C$3,000,000 to redeem a portion of the issued and outstanding Preferred Shares. Completion of the transactions contemplated by the LOI is subject to all requisite approvals including shareholder and TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV") approvals.

Technical Report

The Company also advises that it has filed a National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects technical report entitled "Technical Report for the Green Springs Project, White Pine County, Nevada, United States of America", dated and effective as at June 12, 2020 (the "Report"), and available under the Company's issuer profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The Report has also been posted on the Company's website.

About Contact Gold Corp.

Contact Gold is an exploration company focused on producing district scale gold discoveries in Nevada. Contact Gold's extensive land holdings are on the prolific Carlin, Independence and Northern Nevada Rift gold trends which host numerous gold deposits and mines. Contact Gold's land position comprises approximately 200 km2 of target rich mineral tenure hosting numerous known gold occurrences, ranging from early- to advanced-exploration and resource definition stage.

Additional information about the Company is available at www.contactgold.com.

Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy of this release. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein.

The Form 1-A has not been qualified by the SEC or any state securities commission. For the purposes of Regulation A of the 1933 Act, (a) no money or other consideration is being solicited and if sent in response, will not be accepted; (b) no offer to buy the securities can be accepted and no part of the purchase price can be received until the Offering Statement is qualified, and any such offer may be withdrawn or revoked, without obligation or commitment of any kind, at any time before notice of its acceptance given after the qualification date; and (c) any person's indication of interest involves no obligation or commitment of any kind. All sales, if any, are anticipated to be subject to limitations set forth in Rule 251(d)(2)(i)(C) of Regulation A, as described in the Offering Statement.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of the applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts", "estimates", "believes" or "intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In this news release, forward-looking statements relate, among other things, to the proposed Offering and Redemption Placement, the intended use of proceeds therefrom, the completion and nature of the transactions contemplated by the LOI, the satisfaction of the conditions to the completion of the transactions contemplated by the LOI, including the receipt in a timely manner of regulatory and other required approvals and clearances, including the approval of the TSXV for the Redemption Placement and shareholder and TSXV approval of the Article Amendments; and the nature, timing and extent of the Corporation's planned exploration programs and activities..

These forward-looking statements are based on opinions and estimates of management of the Company at the time such statements were made and are based on various assumptions, including but not limited to, favourable and stable general macroeconomic conditions, securities markets, spot and forward prices of gold, silver, base metals and certain other commodities and currency markets (such as the $ to US$ exchange rate); no materially adverse changes or economic developments, that various risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development and mining will not materialize and the ability to continue raising the necessary capital to finance operations. Actual future results may differ materially as forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to materially differ from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks, uncertainties and other factors that may affect the forward-looking statements in this news release include but are not limited to: risks related to the Offering; risks related to successful marketing efforts; changing market conditions; and receipt of applicable regulatory approvals. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list is not exhaustive of all factors and assumptions which may have been used.

Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of the Company believes, or believed at the time, to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure shareholders that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking statements, as there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. The Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law.

SOURCE Contact Gold Corp.
Two members of a syndicate who specialized in duping unsuspecting members of the public of their hard earned money under the pretence of washing dollars for them have been arrested by men of Ogun State Police Command.

The two suspects; Chika Kasarachi and Ifeanyi Okechuckwu were arrested following a complaint by one Omeh Chidebere Ishoke who reported at Sango police station that he was accosted by the suspects who lured him to their hideout at Koleosho Street.

The suspect also collected his MP3 mini speaker valued at N68,000 but no dollar was given to him at the end.

Upon the report, the DPO, Sango Police Station, Godwin Idehai quickly led his men to their hideout where the two suspects were apprehended.

Recovered from them are unidentified liquid substance, several fake American dollars and assorted charms. Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police, CP Edward Ajogun has ordered a massive manhunt for other members of the syndicate who are on the run. He also directed that the past activities of the suspects should be properly investigated with the view to bringing their nefarious activities to an end. The CP therefore warned members of the public to beware of those who are out to swindle them and that they should stop being gullible. On interrogation, they confessed being fraudsters who have duped many unsuspecting people using the same method.

Follow Us on Facebook  @LadunLiadi; Instagram  @LadunLiadi; Twitter  @LadunLiadi; Youtube  @LadunLiadiTV for updates
Nearly 10 years after the Tohoku-oki earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant and triggered an unprecedented release radioactivity into the ocean, radiation levels have fallen to safe levels in all but the waters closest to the shuttered power plant. Today, fish and other seafood caught in waters beyond all but a limited region have been found to be well within Japan's strict limits for radioactive contamination, but a new hazard exists and is growing every day in the number of storage tanks on land surrounding the power plant that hold contaminated wastewater. An article published August 8 in the journal Science takes a look at some of the many radioactive elements contained in the tanks and suggests that more needs to be done to understand the potential risks of releasing wastewater from the tanks into the ocean.

"We've watched over the past nine-plus years as the levels of radioactive cesium have declined in seawater and in marine life in the Pacific," said Ken Buesseler, a marine chemist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and author of the new paper. "But there are quite a few radioactive contaminants still in those tanks that we need to think about, some of which that were not seen in large amounts in 2011, but most importantly, they don't all act the same in the ocean."

Since 2011, Buesseler has been studying the spread of radiation from Fukushima into and across the Pacific. In June of that year, he mobilized a team of scientists to conduct the first international research cruise to study the early pathways that cesium-134 and -137, two radioactive isotopes of cesium produced in reactors, were taking as they entered the powerful Kuroshio Current off the coast of Japan. He has also built a network of citizen scientists in the U.S. and Canada who have helped monitor the arrival and movement of radioactive material on the Pacific coast of North America.

Now, he is more concerned about the more than 1,000 tanks on the grounds of the power plant filling with ground water and cooling water that have become contaminated through contact with the reactors and their containment buildings. Sophisticated cleaning processes have been able to remove many radioactive isotopes and efforts to divert groundwater flows around the reactors have greatly reduced the amount of contaminated water being collected to less than 200 metric tons per day, but some estimates see the tanks being filled in the near future, leading some Japanese officials to suggest treated water should be released into the ocean to free up space for more wastewater.

One of the radioactive isotopes that remains at the highest levels in the treated water and would be released is tritium, an isotope of hydrogen is almost impossible to remove, as it becomes part of the water molecule itself. However, tritium has a relatively short half-life, which measures the rate of decay of an isotope; is not absorbed as easily by marine life or seafloor sediments, and produces beta particles, which is not as damaging to living tissue as other forms of radiation. Isotopes that remain in the treated wastewater include carbon-14, cobalt-60, and strontium-90. These and the other isotopes that remain, which were only revealed in 2018, all take much longer to decay and have much greater affinities for seafloor sediments and marine organisms like fish, which means they could be potentially hazardous to humans and the environment for much longer and in more complex ways than tritium.

"The current focus on tritium in the wastewater holding tanks ignores the presence other radioactive isotopes in the wastewater," said Buesseler. "It's a hard problem, but it's solvable. The first step is to clean up those additional radioactive contaminants that remain in the tanks, and then make plans based on what remains. Any option that involves ocean releases would need independent groups keeping track of all of the potential contaminants in seawater, the seafloor, and marine life. The health of the ocean--and the livelihoods of countless people--rely on this being done right."

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a private, non-profit organization on Cape Cod, Mass., dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930 on a recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences, its primary mission is to understand the ocean and its interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate a basic understanding of the ocean's role in the changing global environment. For more information, please visit http://www.whoi.edu.

###

Key Takeaways

* Concentrations of radioactive material released into the Pacific from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant and found in the Pacific Ocean or in fish have largely declined to safe levels.

* A larger problem exists in the form of more than 1,000 tanks full of contaminated, but treated, wastewater stored on the grounds of the power plant and that have been suggested need to be emptied into the ocean to free up space for more untreated water.

* Current focus on tritium levels overlooks the much larger problem presented by other radioactive isotopes in the treated water, not all of which have been made public.

* Many of these other isotopes emit more dangerous forms of radiation, and act in more complex ways in the environment, accumulating in seafloor sediments and in marine life, more readily than tritium.
While those attacks did not have a decisive effect on the election, they showed Moscows continuing efforts to influence votes in the United States, Dr. Farkas said Wednesday in an interview.

She criticized the State Department for failing to explain how the Strategic Culture Foundation had tried to intervene in the current election, arguing the report missed an opportunity to wake people up.

The State Department should not be releasing information that is so sanitized that it fails to convey the enormity of the situation, Dr. Farkas said. The whole point of writing a report like this is to put the American people on alert.

Intelligence officials in recent days have briefed members of Congress about election threats from Russia and other countries. Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, and other lawmakers have called on the administration to declassify and release to the public information about those threats.

The fact that they are issuing this report about what the Russians are doing around the globe but not in the United States shows all the more how information relative to our own security should be declassified, Mr. Blumenthal said in an interview on Wednesday. The classified briefings have been absolutely chilling and frankly terrifying in the magnitude of foreign threat to our election security that we face. It really is a break-the-glass moment.

The State Department report tries to gauge the reach of the pro-Russia propaganda sites. Global Research is by far the most popular. According to the report, it has accumulated 12.4 million page views, drawing an average of 351,247 people per article. Other sites, like News Front and SouthFront, have nine million and 4.3 million readers each. The Strategic Culture Foundation has far less substantial internet traffic, having drawn only about 990,000 visitors.

The Russian Embassy in Washington said the State Department report was an effort to stop proposals to resume security cooperation with Russia.
TAMPA, Fla., Aug. 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HCI Group, Inc. (NYSE:HCI), an InsurTech company with operations in insurance, software development and real estate, has completed the previously announced sale of its headquarters property and a nearby right of way to the State of Florida as part of a planned road improvement project. The headquarters property, known as Cypress Commons, was part of a portfolio of Florida commercial properties owned and operated by HCIs real estate division, Greenleaf Capital. HCI acquired the property in 2010.



The combined compensation to HCI for the properties was $47.5 million. After transaction costs, including legal expenses and expert fees, HCI received $44 million from which $7 million was used to retire mortgage debt on the headquarters property.

The properties were valued on HCIs books at approximately $7 million. Accordingly, HCI will report a pre-tax gain on the sale of approximately $37 million. After tax, that gain should increase HCIs book value by approximately 15% or $3.58 per share.

As part of the sale agreement, HCI has the option to occupy the headquarters property for up to three years after the sale. During this time, Greenleaf will continue to manage the property, which has numerous other tenants.

Management Commentary

This sale demonstrates the value of our judicious investments in real estate, said HCI Group Chief Executive Officer Paresh Patel. In this case, we not only had use of the property for many years, but during those years, we also quietly and consistently added shareholder value on an income tax efficient basis. With this sale, we added significant cash to our balance sheet, paid down debt and increased book value. While we are disappointed to give up ownership of our headquarters, we are gratified the property will go to improving transportation in the Tampa Bay area.

About HCI Group, Inc.

HCI Group, Inc. is an InsurTech company with operations in insurance, software development and real estate. HCIs leading insurance operation, TypTap Insurance Company, is a rapidly growing, technology-driven insurance company, which provides homeowners insurance and flood insurance primarily in Florida. TypTaps operations are powered in large part by insurance-related information technology developed by HCIs software subsidiary, Exzeo USA, Inc. HCIs largest subsidiary, Homeowners Choice Property & Casualty Insurance Company, Inc., provides homeowners insurance primarily in Florida. HCIs real estate subsidiary, Greenleaf Capital LLC, owns and operates multiple properties in Florida, including office buildings, retail centers and marinas.

The company's common shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "HCI" and are included in the Russell 2000 and S&P SmallCap 600 Index. HCI Group, Inc. regularly publishes financial and other information in the Investor Information section of the companys website. For more information about HCI Group and its subsidiaries, visit www.hcigroup.com.

About Greenleaf Capital

Greenleaf Capital, LLC is the real estate division of HCI Group, Inc. Greenleaf owns and manages numerous Florida real estate properties, including office buildings, retail shopping centers and waterfront properties. Greenleaf Capital owns and manages over 500,000 square feet of space on over 60 acres of land. For more information, please visit www.gleafcapital.com.

Company Contact:

Rachel Swansiger, Esq.

HCI Group, Inc.

Tel (813) 405-3206

rswansiger@hcigroup.com

Investor Relations Contact:

Matt Glover

Gateway Investor Relations

Tel (949) 574-3860

HCI@gatewayir.com

Media Contact:

Amber Brinkley

Kippen Communications

Tel (727) 466-7695

amber@kippencommunications.com
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Triple-S Management Corporation (NYSE:GTS), a leading managed care company in Puerto Rico, today announced its second quarter 2020 results.

"We are proud of our team's tireless efforts to provide our customers, providers and communities with quality health care services and support as we all navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic," said Roberto Garcia-Rodriguez, President and Chief Executive Officer. "Through the expansion of virtual health care consultations and home delivery of prescription drugs, food delivery to our elderly population and protective equipment to providers, as well as our focused efforts to enable the continuity of care for our most vulnerable members, we are committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of all our stakeholders in this challenging environment."

"Our second quarter results reflected lower utilization caused by the stay-at-home measures instituted by the government to combat COVID-19," added Mr. Garcia-Rodriguez. "Utilization has begun normalizing but will depend on the rate of progress containing the coronavirus and re-opening the economy. While we anticipate demand for deferred procedures to resume during the second half of 2020, we continue to be measured and thoughtful about our business, and our focus squarely remains on ensuring current and prospective members receive quality service and a superior health care experience."

Second Quarter 2020 Consolidated Results and Other Highlights

Net income of $43.6 million , or $1.87 per diluted share, versus net income of $30.9 million , or $1.35 per diluted share, in the prior-year period;

, or per diluted share, versus net income of , or per diluted share, in the prior-year period; Adjusted net income of $40.9 million , or $1.76 per diluted share, versus adjusted net income of $25.6 million , or $1.12 per diluted share, in the prior-year period;

, or per diluted share, versus adjusted net income of , or per diluted share, in the prior-year period; Operating revenues of $875.5 million , a 0.4% decrease from the prior-year period, primarily reflecting lower Managed Care net premiums earned;

, a 0.4% decrease from the prior-year period, primarily reflecting lower Managed Care net premiums earned; Consolidated loss ratio of 76.1%, a 610 basis-point decline from the second quarter of 2019, reflecting lower Managed Care utilization of services during the quarter as the result of the government-enforced lockdown related to the COVID-19 pandemic;

Medical loss ratio ("MLR") declined 510 basis points to 79.4%;

Consolidated operating income was $43.7 million , compared to consolidated operating income of $38.2 million in the prior-year period;

, compared to consolidated operating income of in the prior-year period; During the second quarter of 2020, the Company repurchased 375,373 shares at an aggregate cost of approximately $6.0 million , completing its share repurchase program.

Selected Consolidated Quarterly Details

Consolidated net premiums earned were $858.5 million , down 0.1% from the prior-year period, primarily reflecting lower Managed Care premiums.

, down 0.1% from the prior-year period, primarily reflecting lower Managed Care premiums. Consolidated claims incurred were $653.1 million , down 7.5% year-over-year. Consolidated loss ratio was 76.1%, 610 basis points lower than the prior-year period, mostly reflecting a decline in Managed Care utilization of services during the quarter as the result of the government-enforced lockdown.

, down 7.5% year-over-year. Consolidated loss ratio was 76.1%, 610 basis points lower than the prior-year period, mostly reflecting a decline in Managed Care utilization of services during the quarter as the result of the government-enforced lockdown. Consolidated operating expenses of $178.7 million increased by $44.6 million , or 33.3%, from the prior-year period, primarily reflecting an accrual of a potential litigation loss in the Company's Managed Care segment and the reinstatement of the HIP fee in 2020. The consolidated operating expense ratio was 20.7%, a 510 basis point increase from the prior-year quarter.

Selected Managed Care Segment Quarterly Details

Managed Care premiums earned were $789.3 million , down 0.6% year-over-year.

, down 0.6% year-over-year. Medicare premiums earned of $372.4 million increased 1.7% from the prior-year period, largely due to an increase of approximately 19,000 member months, which primarily reflects a more competitive product offering, and an increase in the average membership risk score. This increase in premiums earned was partially offset by the recognition of estimated premium rebates due to the lower MLR resulting from the decreased utilization of services following the pandemic-related lock-down.

increased 1.7% from the prior-year period, largely due to an increase of approximately 19,000 member months, which primarily reflects a more competitive product offering, and an increase in the average membership risk score. This increase in premiums earned was partially offset by the recognition of estimated premium rebates due to the lower MLR resulting from the decreased utilization of services following the pandemic-related lock-down.

Commercial premiums earned of $195.8 million decreased 2.5% from the prior-year period, mainly reflecting lower average premium rates and the recognition of estimated premium rebates due to the decreased utilization of services following the lock-down. These decreases were partially offset by an increase in fully-insured enrollment during the quarter of approximately 20,000 member months and the reinstatement of the HIP Fee pass-through in 2020.

decreased 2.5% from the prior-year period, mainly reflecting lower average premium rates and the recognition of estimated premium rebates due to the decreased utilization of services following the lock-down. These decreases were partially offset by an increase in fully-insured enrollment during the quarter of approximately 20,000 member months and the reinstatement of the HIP Fee pass-through in 2020.

Medicaid premiums earned of $221.1 million decreased 2.6% from the prior-year period, primarily reflecting lower membership of approximately 15,000 member months. In addition, the 2019 quarter included retroactive premiums related to adjustments to the premium rates for high-cost high-need members as part of an ongoing reconciliation with ASES.

decreased 2.6% from the prior-year period, primarily reflecting lower membership of approximately 15,000 member months. In addition, the 2019 quarter included retroactive premiums related to adjustments to the premium rates for high-cost high-need members as part of an ongoing reconciliation with ASES. Reported MLR of 79.4% improved 510 basis points from the prior-year period, primarily reflecting lower utilization of services during the quarter as the result of the lockdown.

Update on P&C Segment Reserves related to Hurricane Maria

As of June 30, 2020:

Triple-S Propiedad, Inc. (TSP), the Company's P&C subsidiary, has paid a cumulative amount of $757 million in claims and expenses related to Hurricane Maria. Estimated gross losses remain unchanged at $967 million .

in claims and expenses related to Hurricane Maria. Estimated gross losses remain unchanged at . TSP received 3 new claims and closed 150 claims during the second quarter of 2020. 505 claims remain open.

The Company has been served with process with respect to 341 of the 505 claims that remain open.

As is the case for all claim liabilities, the gross losses related to Hurricane Maria are based on the Company's best estimate of the ultimate expected cost of claims with the information currently on hand and are subject to change.

Liquidity

As of June 30, 2020, the Company has cash and cash equivalents of $141.1 million. Triple-S's investment portfolio stood at $1.7 billion as of June 30, of which 74% was in investment-grade fixed income securities. The Company also believes it would be able to access additional debt, if necessary, to further reinforce its liquidity. In sum, the Company believes it remains well capitalized to support its business operations throughout the pandemic and beyond.

2020 Outlook

The Company is raising its full year 2020 guidance for adjusted net income per diluted share to be between $2.80 and $3.00, compared to its previous outlook for adjusted net income per diluted share between $2.60 and $2.80. The Company is currently assuming a weighted average diluted share count for full year 2020 of 23.4 million shares and no further share repurchases.

Conference Call and Webcast

Management will host a conference call and webcast today at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time to discuss its financial results for the three months ended June 30, 2020. To participate, callers within the U.S. and Canada should dial 1-855-327-6837 and international callers should dial 1-631-891-4304 at least ten minutes before the call.

To listen to the webcast, participants should visit the "Investor Relations" section of the Company's website at www.triplesmanagement.com several minutes before the event is broadcast and follow the instructions provided to ensure they have the necessary audio application downloaded and installed. This program is provided at no charge to the user. An archived version of the call, also located on the "Investor Relations" section of Triple-S Management's website, will be available about two hours after the call ends and for at least the following two weeks. This news release, along with other information relating to the call, will be available on the "Investor Relations" section of the website.

In addition, a replay will be available through August 20, 2020 by calling 1-844-512-2921 or 1-412-317-6671 and entering passcode 10010350. A replay will also be available at www.triplesmanagement.com for 30 days.

About Triple-S Management Corporation

Triple-S Management Corporation is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. It is one of the leading players in the managed care industry in Puerto Rico. Triple-S Management has the exclusive right to use the Blue Cross Blue Shield name and mark throughout Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Costa Rica. With over 60 years of experience in the industry, Triple-S Management offers a broad portfolio of managed care and related products in the Commercial, Medicare Advantage, and Medicaid markets under the Blue Cross Blue Shield marks. It also provides non-Blue Cross Blue Shield branded life and property and casualty insurance in Puerto Rico. For more information about Triple-S Management, visit www.triplesmanagement.com or contact [email protected].

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This earnings release presents information about the Company's adjusted net income, which is a non-GAAP financial metric provided as a complement to the results provided in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (GAAP). A reconciliation of adjusted net income to net income, the most comparable GAAP financial measure, is provided in the accompanying tables found at the end of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This document contains forward-looking statements, as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include information about possible or assumed future sales, results of operations, developments, regulatory approvals or other circumstances. Sentences that include "believe", "expect", "plan", "intend", "estimate", "anticipate", "project", "may", "will", "shall", "should" and similar expressions, whether in the positive or negative, are intended to identify forward-looking statements.

All forward-looking statements in this news release reflect management's current views about future events and are based on assumptions and subject to risks and uncertainties. Consequently, actual results may differ materially from those expressed here as a result of various factors, including all the risks discussed and identified in public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In addition, the Company operates in a highly competitive, constantly changing environment, influenced by very large organizations that have resulted from business combinations, aggressive marketing and pricing practices of competitors, and regulatory oversight. The following factors, if markedly different from the Company's planning assumptions (either individually or in combination), could cause Triple-S Management's results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements shared here:

Trends in health care costs and utilization rates

Ability to secure sufficient premium rate increases

Competitor pricing below market trends of increasing costs

Re-estimates of policy and contract liabilities

Changes in government laws and regulations of managed care, life insurance or property and casualty insurance

Significant acquisitions or divestitures by major competitors

Introduction and use of new prescription drugs and technologies

A downgrade in the Company's financial strength ratings

Litigation or legislation targeted at managed care, life insurance or property and casualty insurance companies

Ability to contract with providers consistent with past practice

Ability to successfully implement the Company's disease management, utilization management and Star ratings programs

Ability to maintain Federal Employees, Medicare and Medicaid contracts

Volatility in the securities markets and investment losses and defaults

General economic downturns, major disasters, and epidemics

This list is not exhaustive. Management believes the forward-looking statements in this release are reasonable. However, there is no assurance that the actions, events or results anticipated by the forward-looking statements will occur or, if any of them do, what impact they will have on the Company's results of operations or financial condition. In view of these uncertainties, investors should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which are based on current expectations. In addition, forward-looking statements are based on information available the day they are made, and (other than as required by applicable law, including the securities laws of the United States) the Company does not intend to update or revise any of them in light of new information or future events.

Readers are advised to carefully review and consider the various disclosures in the Company's SEC reports.

Earnings Release Schedules and Supplemental Information Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets................................................................................. Exhibit I Condensed Consolidated Statements of Earnings..................................................................... Exhibit II Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows................................................................ Exhibit III Segment Performance Supplemental Information..................................................................... Exhibit IV Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures...................................................................... Exhibit V

Exhibit I Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (dollar amounts in thousands) Unaudited





























































June 30,

2020

December 31,

2019 Assets



































Investments

$ 1,755,698

$ 1,643,637 Cash and cash equivalents



141,071



109,837 Premium and other receivables, net



547,209



567,692 Deferred policy acquisition costs and value of business acquired

238,636



234,885 Property and equipment, net



126,685



88,588 Other assets



212,131



174,187























Total assets

$ 3,021,430

$ 2,818,826











































Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity



































Policy liabilities and accruals

$ 1,470,558

$ 1,425,477 Accounts payable and accrued liabilities



501,397



370,483 Short-term borrowings



15,000



54,000 Long-term borrowings



54,940



25,694























Total liabilities



2,041,895



1,875,654



















Stockholders' equity:













Common stock



23,438



23,800

Other stockholders' equity



956,807



920,065























Total Triple-S Management Corporation stockholders' equity

980,245



943,865























Non-controlling interest in consolidated subsidiary



(710)



(693)























Total stockholders' equity



979,535



943,172























Total liabilities and stockholders' equity

$ 3,021,430

$ 2,818,826

Exhibit II Condensed Consolidated Statements of Earnings (dollar amounts 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 Revenues:































Premiums earned, net

$ 858,535

$ 859,493

$ 1,734,432

$ 1,627,495

Administrative service fees



2,809



2,456



5,003



5,088

Net investment income



13,815



15,062



28,126



30,438

Other operating revenues



303



1,591



4,342



3,168



Total operating revenues



875,462



878,602



1,771,903



1,666,189







































Net realized investment (losses) gains



(221)



2,364



(687)



3,679

Net unrealized investment gains (losses) on equity investments



28,338



3,323



(28,468)



22,992

Other income, net



801



1,705



4,406



2,874



Total revenues



904,380



885,994



1,747,154



1,695,734





























Benefits and expenses:

























Claims incurred





653,087



706,304



1,367,609



1,329,494

Operating expenses



178,659



134,084



340,860



266,747



Total operating costs



831,746



840,388



1,708,469



1,596,241







































Interest expense



1,864



1,831



3,717



3,619

































Total benefits and expenses



833,610



842,219



1,712,186



1,599,860

































Income before taxes



70,770



43,775



34,968



95,874





























Income tax expense



27,181



12,849



17,531



30,165





























Net income









43,589



30,926



17,437



65,709































Net loss attributable to the non-controlling interest



(10)



(5)



(17)



(8)





























Net income attributable to Triple-S Management Corporation

$ 43,599

$ 30,931

$ 17,454

$ 65,717





































Earnings per share attributable to Triple-S Management Corporation:





























































Basic net income per share

$ 1.88

$ 1.35

$ 0.75

$ 2.88

Diluted net income per share

$ 1.87

$ 1.35

$ 0.75

$ 2.87







































Weighted average of common shares



23,193,626



22,830,399



23,287,787



22,794,297

Diluted weighted average of common shares



23,271,303



22,895,000



23,372,985



22,866,691

Exhibit III Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (dollar amounts in thousands) Unaudited































For the Six Months Ended





June 30,





2020

2019















Net cash provided by operating activities

$ 170,282

$ 26,305











Cash flows from investing activities:













Proceeds from investments sold or matured:















Securities available for sale:

















Fixed maturities sold



66,316



315,495





Fixed maturities matured/called



18,752



14,420



Securities held to maturity - fixed maturities matured/called



339



1,178



Equity investments sold



72,775



70,054



Other invested assets sold



11,814



2,096

Acquisition of investments:















Securities available for sale - fixed maturities



(91,930)



(291,533)



Securities held to maturity - fixed maturities



(340)



(539)



Equity investments



(160,104)



(67,560)



Other invested assets



(20,799)



(15,424)

Increase in other investments



(2,400)



(2,692)

Net change in policy loans



(97)



(771)

Net capital expenditures



(45,927)



(10,659)

Capital contribution on equity method investees



(4,933)



-

















Net cash (used in) provided by investing activities



(156,534)



14,065











Cash flows from financing activities:













Change in outstanding checks in excess of bank balances



34,024



13,189

Repayments of short-term borrowings



(39,000)



-

Proceeds from long-term borrowings



30,841



-

Repayments of long-term borrowings



(1,618)



(1,613)

Repurchase and retirement of common stock



(14,982)



(1)

Proceeds from policyholder deposits



16,421



8,204

Surrender of policyholder deposits



(8,200)



(11,421)

















Net cash provided by financing activities



17,486



8,358

















Net increase in cash and cash equivalents



31,234



48,728















Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period



109,837



117,544











Cash and cash equivalents, end of period

$ 141,071

$ 166,272

Exhibit IV

Segment Performance Supplemental Information

(Unaudited)

Three months ended June 30,

Six months ended June 30, (dollar amounts in millions) 2020 2019 Percentage

Change

2020 2019 Percentage

Change Premiums earned, net:















Managed Care:

















Commercial $ 195.8 $ 200.8 (2.5%)

$ 396.9 $ 399.3 (0.6%)



Medicare 372.4 366.0 1.7%

760.2 698.6 8.8%



Medicaid 221.1 227.0 (2.6%)

442.0 401.4 10.1%





Total Managed Care 789.3 793.8 (0.6%)

1,599.1 1,499.3 6.7%

Life Insurance 48.1 45.0 6.9%

94.8 89.2 6.3%

Property and Casualty 22.4 21.8 2.8%

43.0 41.1 4.6%

Other (1.3) (1.1) (18.2%)

(2.5) (2.1) (19.0%)







Consolidated premiums earned, net $ 858.5 $ 859.5 (0.1%)

$ 1,734.4 $ 1,627.5 6.6% Operating revenues (losses): 1















Managed Care $ 797.4 $ 802.9 (0.7%)

$ 1,615.5 $ 1,518.0 6.4%

Life Insurance 54.9 51.8 6.0%

108.5 102.6 5.8%

Property and Casualty 24.7 24.1 2.5%

47.4 46.0 3.0%

Other (1.5) (0.2) (650.0%)

0.5 (0.4) 225.0%







Consolidated operating revenues $ 875.5 $ 878.6 (0.4%)

$ 1,771.9 $ 1,666.2 6.3% Operating income (loss): 2















Managed Care $ 29.3 $ 29.3 0.0%

$ 43.5 $ 51.4 (15.4%)

Life Insurance 9.5 5.2 82.7%

14.5 10.9 33.0%

Property and Casualty 6.7 4.8 39.6%

6.5 8.3 (21.7%)

Other (1.8) (1.1) (63.6%)

(1.1) (0.6) (83.3%)







Consolidated operating income $ 43.7 $ 38.2 14.4%

$ 63.4 $ 70.0 (9.4%) Operating margin: 3















Managed Care 3.7% 3.6% 10 bp

2.7% 3.4% -70 bp

Life Insurance 17.3% 10.0% 730 bp

13.4% 10.6% 280 bp

Property and Casualty 27.1% 19.9% 720 bp

13.7% 18.0% -430 bp

Consolidated 5.0% 4.3% 70 bp

3.6% 4.2% -60 bp Depreciation and amortization expense $ 3.8 $ 3.5 8.6%

$ 7.7 $ 7.0 10.0%

1 Operating revenues include premiums earned, net, administrative service fees and net investment income. 2 Operating income or loss include operating revenues minus operating costs. Operating costs include claims incurred and operating expenses. 3 Operating margin is defined as operating income or loss divided by operating revenues.

Managed Care Additional Data











Three months ended

June 30,

Six months ended

June 30, (Unaudited)

2020 2019

2020 2019 Member months enrollment:











Commercial:













Fully-insured 975,212 955,463

1,953,554 1,908,515



Self-insured 327,030 353,961

657,262 716,451





Total Commercial 1,302,242 1,309,424

2,610,816 2,624,966

Medicare Advantage 405,203 385,835

813,110 769,443

Medicaid

1,077,456 1,092,132

2,145,472 2,121,868







Total member months 2,784,901 2,787,391

5,569,398 5,516,277 Claim liabilities (in millions)





$ 349.1 $ 423.1 Days claim payable





49 61 Premium PMPM:











Managed Care $ 321.13 $ 326.21

$ 325.54 $ 312.37



Commercial 200.78 210.16

203.17 209.22



Medicare Advantage 919.05 948.59

934.93 907.93



Medicaid 205.21 207.85

206.02 189.17 Medical loss ratio: 79.4% 84.5%

81.6% 84.1%

Commercial 67.5% 80.9%

73.0% 81.9%

Medicare Advantage 77.2% 82.4%

80.0% 81.5%

Medicaid

93.7% 91.1%

92.0% 90.7% Adjusted medical loss ratio: 1

76.9% 85.7%

80.5% 85.5%

Commercial

67.5% 83.6%

72.8% 83.4%

Medicare Advantage

74.6% 82.9%

78.1% 81.3%

Medicaid

89.3% 92.2%

92.0% 94.2% Operating expense ratio:











Consolidated 20.7% 15.6%

19.6% 16.3%

Managed Care 17.8% 12.9%

16.6% 13.7%

1 The adjusted medical loss ratio accounts for subsequent adjustments to estimates, such as prior-period reserve developments and Medicare premium adjustments, and presents them in their corresponding period.

Managed Care Membership by Segment











As of June 30,











2020 2019 Members:





Commercial:







Fully-insured 324,489 318,429



Self-insured 108,982 117,978





Total Commercial 433,471 436,407

Medicare Advantage 134,601 128,670

Medicaid 364,157 364,495







Total members 932,229 929,572

Exhibit V

Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures













Adjusted Net Income (Unaudited)

Three months ended

June 30, Six months ended

June 30, (dollar amounts in millions) 2020 2019

2020 2019 Net income

$ 43.6 $ 30.9

$ 17.4 $ 65.7 Less adjustments:











Net realized investment (losses) gains, net of tax (0.2) 1.9

(0.6) 2.9

Unrealized gains (losses) on equity investments 22.7 2.7

(22.8) 18.4

Contingency accrual (20.0) -

(20.0) -

Private equity investment income, net of tax 0.2 0.7

2.3 1.0



Adjusted net income $ 40.9 $ 25.6

$ 58.5 $ 43.4



Diluted adjusted net income per share $ 1.76 $ 1.12

$ 2.50 $ 1.90

Adjusted net income is a non-GAAP financial metric and should not be considered a substitute for, or superior to, financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP. Management believes that the use of this adjusted net income and adjusted net income per share provides investors and management useful information about the earnings impact of realized and unrealized investment gains or losses, as well as other non-recurring items impacting the Company's results of operations. This non-GAAP metric does not consider all the items associated with the Company's operations as determined in accordance with GAAP. As a result, one should not consider these measures in isolation.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:



AT THE COMPANY: INVESTOR RELATIONS: Juan Jose Roman-Jimenez Mr. Garrett Edson EVP and Chief Financial Officer ICR (787) 749-4949 (787) 792-6488

SOURCE Triple-S Management Corporation

Related Links

http://www.triplesmanagement.com


SPRINGFIELD  State Rep. Bud L. Williams led the citys Black community and politicians Thursday in rally honoring the legacy of the late civil rights leader John Lewis and marking the 55th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The hourlong program was on the City Hall steps where Williams recalled protesting for Civil Rights himself in his earlier years and across Court Square from the MassMutual Center and from Old First Church, venues where Lewis  one of the Big Six leaders of the Civil Rights era and later a congressman from Georgia  spoke on his trips through Springfield.

Lewis was beaten very badly by Alabama state troopers after marching across the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma in March 1965. The event, and images of the violence on television, helped get the Voting Rights Act passed months later.

Lewis died in July at the age of 80.

Williams explained that the right to vote guarantees all the other rights: assembly, free press, the right to petition the government, assembly. And he called on Congress  the Senate specifically  to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act.

The Black vote matters, Williams said.

He also wanted to remind the crowd that the struggles of the Civil Rights era are in the past, but not the distant past.

"It's only been 55 years," Williams said. "Fifty-five years. Not very long."

U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and longtime Lewis friend, called the Voting Rights Act  along with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Medicare and Medicaid Act of 1965  as some of the greatest legislative achievements in the nations history.

Bishop Talbert Swan, president of the Springfield chapter of the NAACP, said the Voting Rights Act itself doesnt mean much following a 2012 Supreme Court decision that made it unenforceable.

What followed was a series of state laws that make it harder for people to vote: closed polling places, restricted hours, requirements for voter ID despite no evidence of widespread voter fraud that ID laws might be able to prevent.

Lets not get too wrapped up in things that are symbols, Swan said. The Voting Rights Act is not worth anything unless it has teeth in it.

Neal said the re-authorization is in the hands of the Republican-controlled Senate, the same place as the latest coronavirus relief package he is negotiating now.

In December, the House passed re-authorization, 228 to 187, with one Republican voting with the Democrats.

In the past, reauthorization votes were bipartisan and Republican presidents signed the bills into law.

There is just been this trend to make voting rights a partisan issue, said Neal, lamenting the lack of bipartisan work by what he called skilled legislators.

Swan and Williams put the blame more squarely on Republicans. They said its largely white people who were so put off by having a Black president in Barack Obama that they will do anything to regain power.

Every time there is a Black progress, there is white backlash, Swan said.

While it wasn't billed as a partisan event, Williams exhorted the crowd to vote Donald Trump out of office, keep Democrats in control of the U.S. House.

"And let's flip the Senate," Williams said.

Speaker after speaker praised Neal, especially his successful lobbying to keep the TD Bank branch open in Springfields primarily Black Mason Square neighborhood.

No mention was made of Neals primary opponent, Holyoke Mayor Alex B. Morse.

In a separate interview, Morse expressed his support for getting the Voting Rights Act renewed.

We need a voting rights act now more than ever, Morse said.

At the ceremony outside City Hall, some carried signs from the city Democratic Committee exhorting people to vote on Primary Day, Sept. 1 and in the November General Election. No candidates names were listed.

City Councilor Jesse Lederman, who serves as chairman of the Springfield Democrats, said there are three ways to vote: vote early and for the primary that means during the last week of August. Vote by ail or vote in person on the day of the election.

Speakers also said Black lives need to be counted in the Census, an ongoing process happening right now.

Neal shared his personal memories of Lewis  they served together in Congress and on the Ways and Means Committee.

Lewis invited Neal to a luncheon with South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Tutu relayed how that when Nelson Mandela got out of prison, Mandela asked that his first meeting be with the prosecutor who pushed for the death penalty. Mandela wanted to forgive the prosecutor.

Neal said he later told Lewis that he wasn't sure he could have been so wiling to forgive.

That just means, Lewis told Neal, I need to spend more time working with you.

Related Content:
The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has announced that its partner SONABEL, the Agency responsible for the Management the Bagre and Kompienga dams in Burkina Faso will start the annual spillage from today, August 5 to Monday, August 10.



It, therefore, urged communities downstream along the White Volta lake to move to higher grounds and safe havens in all such affected communities.



According to NADMO, the spillage is due to the rate of rise in the water levels of the two dams.



The current level of the Kompienga dam, as of today, August 5, 2020, is 172.41m with the rate of rise at 38.45 per cent as against 28.66 per cent the same period last year.



An official statement signed by Mr Eric Nana Agyemang-Prempeh, the Director-General of NADMO and copied the GNA in Accra, said NADMO following its standing agreement with its partner, SONABEL, the Agency responsible for the Management of the Bagre and Kompienga Dams in Burkina Faso, has gotten a report that due to the rate of rise in the water levels of the two dams, the Authorities of SONABEL have decided to begin the spillage of the two dams.





It said: "The level of the Bagre Dam as of today being 234.62m with its rate of rise at 94.42 per cent as against 60.58 per cent same period last year. Due to the rapid rise in the water level of the Bagre Dam, the opening of the dam valves may be affected as soon as the level reaches 234.75m and that may happen any day between today 5th August 2020, and Monday 10th August 2020".



It said due to the possible effect of the spillage of the two dams on areas downstream the White Volta, some communities along the river are likely to be affected, as in flooding and NADMO would want such communities to be on the alert and prepare themselves for the spillage and its impact on them and their activities.



The statement said as a result of the report from SONABEL and its likely impact on communities downstream, which are mostly in Ghana as listed above, the Management of NADMO has automatically launched Operation ThunderBolt 2020 with immediate effect.



NADMO has thus dispatched its Men to the Districts in the affected regions to prepare the people in the area and to train them to manage the effect of the spillage on their Communities.



The NADMO Team would be based in Tamale and Bolga but the training will go on in two zones.



"We entreat all the people living along the White Volta and all the affected areas to co-operate with the NADMO Staff and the supporting staff from the District Assemblies to make the Operation a success to help save lives and properties," it added.



Areas likely to be directly affected by the spillage are Bawku West, Nabdam, Talensi, and Pulsiga, all in the Upper East region.



Others to be affected in the North East region are West Mamprusi, Mamprugu, Magdori, and Mamprusi.



Kumbugu, Karaga, Tolon, Savelugu are areas to be affected in the Northern region.



Daboya, Central Gonna (Buipe), and Lawra in the Savannah and Lawra West regions, respectively will also be affected.

Source: GNA









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Italys civil aviation regulator ENAC is threatening to ban Ryanair from the countrys airports over alleged non-compliance with rules introduced to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

ENAC accused the Dublin-based airline of repeated violation of anti-Covid-19 health measures drafted by the Italian government and in force to protect passengers health.

Airlines operating in Italy are not required to ensure social distancing of one metre if other safety steps such as mandatory wearing of face masks are taken, but ENAC claimed Ryanair is failing to meet these requirements.

The regulator warned that if violations of the rules continue it could prevent Ryanair from flying to or from Italy.

The airline serves 29 airports in Italy.

ENAC has raised its concerns with the Irish Aviation Authority.

Ryanair said in a statement that the claims made by ENAC are factually incorrect and insisted it is committed to the highest level of safety for our passengers and crew at all times.

Read More

It said its procedures are in line with the safety recommendations and measures set out by the Italian government.

These include implementing boarding procedures to avoid unnecessary gathering of passengers and making face masks mandatory for passengers and crew.

It comes as Ryanair today announced it has restored over 60 pc of normal flight schedules in August, following the successful resumption of 40 pc of its services at the end of June.

The airline has flown 4.4 million customers to destinations across Europe in July and plans to continue to increase its flight frequencies throughout August with more than 11,000 weekly flights.

Ryanair CEO Eddie Wilson said: Since the resumption of our schedule in late June, passenger numbers have continued to grow and as a result, were delighted to announce that our flight schedule is set to increase to more than 60 pc in August.

"We were pleased to see our people and customers adopt to our healthy flying measures, and encourage all those travelling with us in August to continue to do so."
As part of measures to beef up the security situation in the newly created Savannah Region, the Inspector General of Police(IGP), Mr. Oppong-Boanuh has expressed surety of establishing several police posts in the region.

The IGP who was in the region on an official visit to ascertain the security situation and to prepare his men ahead of the forthcoming December 7 elections, took turns to respond to security concerns from the Overlord of the Gonja Kingdom and the Savannah Regional Minister.

Mr.Oppong-Boanuh in his brief remark at the Jackpa Palace and the office of the Regional Minister, commended the duo for creating a conducive environment for his men to operate in the region, urging them on!

He cautioned citizens against mob justice, whilst appealing for peaceful conduct of the 2020 elections.

On the request for various security posts in the Savannah Region, he said,"the request for the establishment of police posts in some communities as requested by the minister and Overlord will be heeded to as soon as I get back to Accra".

According to him, a team will soon be assigned to the region to prepare the grounds for the establishment of all the security posts requested for.

He directed the Savannah Regional Police Commander to ensure there is adequate security at the palace at all times as requested by the king.

The Savannah Regional Minister, Hon. Salifu Adam Braimah, who received the team expressed gratitude to the IGP for his timely response to security concerns in the region in recent times.

Whilst condemning the unfortunate lynching of 90-year old Akua Denteh, he remarked," I want to thank you for remaining resolute and working hand in hand with REGSEC which yielded results and I know with your unfailing support, perpetrators shall appropriately be dealt with by the law".

The minister requested for the setting up of a police post at Kafaba where the lynching happened as well as Kpalbe and Kito in the North East District Capital and East Gonja Municipality respectively.

He also called for the upgrading of the Daboya police post in the North Gonja District.

In an address read on his behalf by the registrar of the Gonja Traditional Council, the Overlord of the Gonja Kingdom, Yagbonwura Tutumba Boresa 1, commended the IGP for the swift action in arresting the perpetrators of the dastardly lynching of 90-year old Akua Denteh at Kafaba.

He appealed for the establishment of a police post at Makango, Kusawgu-Tulwe enclave among others.

The king also made a solemn request for a 24-hours police presence at the Jakpa Palace.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 23:36:39|Editor: huaxia

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DAR ES SALAAM, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian authorities on Thursday urged stakeholders in the tourism industry to ensure tourists arriving in the country are strictly protected against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hamisi Kigwangalla, the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, said protection of tourists against the viral disease will make Tanzania a safe destination for tourists from across the world.

Kigwangalla made the appeal in the country's safari capital of Arusha when he presented awards to 33 organizations and institutions in the hospitality industry for their support during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said the resumption of international flights provided hope for the tourism sector in the east African country.

"If every stakeholder in the tourism sector plays his part by observing guidelines issued by health authorities, tourists will continue cultivating trust with Tanzania," said the minister.

On May 7, Kigwangalla said an assessment of Tanzania's tourism industry after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic had shown that the number of tourists visiting the country would have dropped from an estimated 1,867,000 to 437,000 annually.

On May 18, Tanzania reopened its skies for international passenger flights. Enditem
Haunting eyewitness video of Tuesdays explosion in Beirut, Lebanon captured the moment the blast interrupted a brides photoshoot.

Israa Seblani was posing in her wedding gown about one kilometre away from the port where the massive explosion occurred.

The couples wedding videographer, Mahmoud Nakib, released video that shows the blast shockwave blowing away Seblani's gown and bouquet. Nakib was sent stumbling across the street, turning the camera back on the bride as she fled to safety with the groom.

"What happened during the explosion here  there is no word to explain... I was shocked, I was wondering what happened, am I going to die? How am I going to die?" Seblani told Reuters.

Seblani is a doctor working in the United States and had arrived in Beirut three weeks prior to the explosion to plan for her wedding. She and her husband were unharmed.

The blast flattened Beirut's busy port area, sending glass flying and collapsing walls, floors and balconies for kilometres, killing at least 135 people and wounding about 5,000, according to Lebanese officials. It appeared to have been triggered by a fire that touched off a giant quantity of ammonium nitrate fertilizer stored for years in the port.

with files from the Canadian Press
Russian Su-27 Intercepts US RC-135 and Poseidon Aircraft Over Black Sea, MoD Says

Sputnik News

16:09 GMT 05.08.2020(updated 17:00 GMT 05.08.2020)

Russian airspace control systems have been detecting numerous air targets approaching the country's border over neutral waters in the Black Sea for several weeks.

A Russian Su-27 fighter has intercepted a US Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft and a US Navy Poseidon patrol aircraft over the Black Sea, the Russian Defence Ministry said in a statement.

"Russian airspace control systems detected two air targets approaching the Russian state border over the neutral waters of the Black Sea. To intercept targets, an Su-27 fighter from the air defence forces of the Southern Military District was scrambled", the ministry said.

The crew of the Russian fighter identified the aerial objects as a US Air Force RC-135 strategic reconnaissance aircraft and a US Navy R-8A Poseidon patrol aircraft.

"After the US reconnaissance planes turned away from the Russian state border, the Russian fighter safely returned to the airfield ... No violation of the Russian state border by US reconnaissance aircraft was allowed", the statement says.

American reconnaissance aircraft. When the jet approached the air targets, it identified them as a US Air Force RC-135 strategic reconnaissance aircraft and a P-8A Poseidon base patrol aircraft.

After the US Navy reconnaissance aircraft turned away from Russia's border, the Russian fighter returned to its home airbase.

On 29 July, the Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet announced that it was commencing military drills involving over 20 vessels just days after NATO's large-scale Sea Breeze-2020 exercise concluded in the northwest of the Black Sea.

A Sputnik

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 6

By Jala Gasimova  Trend:

The monument to the victims of the Khojaly genocide, a massacre against Azerbaijani civilians committed by Armenian military forces on Feb. 26, 1992, at the "Nieuw Eikenduynen" cemetery in the Netherlands Hague city, has been moved, the Azerbaijani State Committee on Affairs with Diaspora told Trend.

The monument was erected in 2007 upon the initiative of the Dutch-Azerbaijan Cultural Association with the financial support of the Azerbaijani and Turkish communities. Every year on February 26, an event is held in front of the monument to commemorate the memory of the victims of the Khojaly genocide, the message said.

The Association held talks with the municipality of Hague to move the monument to a more suitable location. Upon reaching an agreement, the monument was moved to a more spacious territory, and the adjacent territory was landscaped. The memorial plaque installed here presents brief information about the Khojaly genocide in Azerbaijani and Dutch languages, Chairman of the Association Ilhan Ashkin said.

Hague is one of the largest political centers in Europe, and such a monument is important from the point of view of bringing the truth about the Khojaly genocide to the international community. We thank the Azerbaijani and Turkish communities for their work, Ashkin said.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Quoc Dung, Head of Vietnam's ASEAN SOM, attended the 33rd ASEAN-US Dialogue, which was held via video conference on August 5

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Quoc Dung, Head of Vietnam's ASEAN SOM

to discuss cooperation orientations between the two sides in the coming time and exchange views on regional and international issues of mutual concern.

David Stilwell, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said the US always attaches great importance to relations with ASEAN and supports the blocs central role in the regional architecture. The US also highly evaluated Vietnams role as ASEAN Chair 2020 in coordinating and leading ASEAN to overcome difficulties and challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The two sides agreed to further deepen the bilateral strategic partnership and cooperation in the coming time, as well as implementing effectively current cooperation programmes and initiatives such as ASEAN-US Trade and Investment Framework, ASEAN-US Connect Initiative, ASEAN-US Smart Cities Partnership, and Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative.

ASEAN agreed to strengthen coordination with the US to implement the ASEAN-US action plan for 2016-2020 and soon adopt the bilateral cooperation action plan for 2021-2025.

The two sides pledged to actively work together to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic, especially enhancing preparedness to cope with new waves of infections, supporting each other to minimise the impact of the disease, maintaining regional and global supply chains, and promoting sustainable recovery.

The US announced that it has provided about 87 million USD for ASEAN countries to cope with the pandemic, and affirmed its continued assistance to the regional countries to improve their capacity to respond to diseases, with the priority given to the implementation of the ASEAN-US Health Futures Initiative, training health experts and building pandemic control mechanisms.

ASEAN welcomed the USs timely financial assistance in curbing the pandemic and called on the US to actively support and contribute to ASEAN's initiatives on the COVID-19 Response Fund and Regional Reserve of Medical Supplies.

The US applauded ASEAN's efforts to promote its role in stepping up cooperation, dialogue and trust building in the region, as well as advocated the bloc's endeavours to implement fully and strictly the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and build an effective Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) in line with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Quoc Dung affirmed that amid the complicated developments of COVID-19, ASEAN has upheld its Cohesive and Responsive spirit and promoted solidarity, unity and efforts to overcome difficulties and challenges.

The Vietnamese official highly appreciated the US's timely assistance to ASEAN in coping with the epidemic right from the beginning of the outbreak.

He proposed the US continue supporting ASEAN to improve its capacity to cope with, reduce the impact of the disease, and promote sustainable economic recovery.

ASEAN welcomed and was willing to create optimal conditions for US businesses and investors to operate in the region, Dung affirmed.

He applauded the US proposal on building the Mekong-US Partnership, supporting the promotion and harmonisation of subregional development efforts, including the Mekong subregion in the overall development of ASEAN.

The Deputy Minister shared the views of other countries that in the current context, countries need to promote dialogues, build trust and hold responsible for building the East Sea into a sea of peace, friendship and cooperation.

He reiterated ASEAN's stance at the 36th ASEAN Summit on ensuring peace, security, stability, safety and freedom of aviation and navigation in the East Sea. The related parties should refrain from taking actions that complicate the situation and not carry out militarisation activities, Dung said.

Any disputes should be resolved via peaceful measures in accordance with international law, including the 1982 UNCLOS, while continuing to implement fully and effectively the DOC and soon resuming negotiations to complete an effective COC, contributing to the maintenance of peace, security and stability in the East Sea, he added.

The official also announced plans to hold ministerial meetings and summits between ASEAN and the US as part of Vietnam's ASEAN Chairmanship in 2020.

Founded in 1967, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) groups 10 member countries, namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam./.VNA
ZUG, Switzerland, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Bitcoin Association, the global industry organization that works to advance business with Bitcoin SV, today announces the first Chinese-language edition of its popular Bitcoin SV DevCon series will be held August 29-30 in partnership with CSDN and nChain.

The two-day virtual event will be hosted entirely in Chinese and will feature leading figures from China's technology and blockchain communities teaching sessions designed to educate and upskill developers interested in working with the Bitcoin SV blockchain. The weekend-long programme will provide a foundational understanding of the Bitcoin network, in addition to introducing advanced blockchain functionalities including smart contracts, cloud computing implementations and the miner fee economy.

A full schedule for Bitcoin SV DevCon: China is available at

https://bsvdevcon.net/bitcoin-sv-devcon-august-2020

The inaugural Bitcoin SV DevCon was held last month over the weekend of July 18-19, with more than 3,000 attendees participating live. Following a strong response to Bitcoin SV developer initiatives already rolled out this year in partnership with CSDN, Bitcoin SV DevCon: China will meet a growing demand for blockchain education programmes emerging and is the latest sign of Bitcoin Association's strong ongoing commitment to its Chinese-speaking community.

CSDN is the largest IT and software developer community in China, with 31 million users and a top 30 Alexa Global ranking. CSDN's participation will help distribute the Bitcoin SV DevCon: China educational content to a large audience.

Attendance is free and registration is open now at https://bss.csdn.net/m/topic/bsvdevcon

Speaking on today's announcement, Bitcoin Association Founding President Jimmy Nguyen, commented:

"After the success of Bitcoin SV DevCon 2020 last month, Bitcoin Association are delighted to be able to extend our partnership with CSDN to produce our first-ever Chinese language DevCon for the growing Bitcoin SV community in China. There are great opportunities emerging for individuals with the knowledge and skillset to build with Bitcoin and I'm excited to see the development and innovation sure to emerge as a result of the DevCon."

Also speaking on today's announcement, CSDN Founder and Chairman Jiang Tao spoke of the importance of programmes like Bitcoin SV DevCon for developers:

"The 5G age will enhance the advantages of blockchain technology. Over the next decade, the Bitcoin blockchain platform will enable new industrial fields to emerge, meaning that now is a great time for developers to learn more about blockchain technologies."

Lise Li, China Manager for Bitcoin Association, commented on the organization's commitment to bringing further opportunities for China's Bitcoin SV community:

"Bitcoin SV developer initiatives have been a key goal for Bitcoin Association this year, which we've taken to implementing in China through a host of different measures, including the creation of the Bitcoin SV Developer Zone with CSDN, a series of Chinese-language webinars, and now, Bitcoin SV DevCon. Many innovative businesses and developers in China are working on blockchain solutions as present, so Bitcoin SV DevCon will be a good opportunity to introduce them to the power of the Bitcoin SV blockchain and show them what's possible when developing with it."

About Bitcoin Association

Bitcoin Association is the Switzerland-based global industry organization that works to advance business on the Bitcoin SV blockchain. It brings together essential components of the Bitcoin SV ecosystem  enterprises, start-up ventures, developers, merchants, exchanges, service providers, blockchain transaction processors (miners), and others  working alongside them, as well as in a representative capacity, to drive further use of the Bitcoin SV blockchain and uptake of the BSV digital currency.

The Association works to build a regulation-friendly ecosystem that fosters lawful conduct while facilitating innovation using all aspects of Bitcoin technology. More than a digital currency and blockchain, Bitcoin is also a network protocol; just like Internet protocol, it is the foundational rule set for an entire data network. The Association supports use of the original Bitcoin protocol to operate the world's single blockchain on Bitcoin SV.

SOURCE Bitcoin Association
The Central Bureau of Investigation officially took over the Sushant Singh Rajput death case on Wednesday. The investigating agency registered an FIR against Rhea Chakraborty and five others in connection to the case.

Agency officials said that they stepped in to investigate the case after the centre handed the case to them on the recommendation of Bihar government. They also said that they are in touch with the Bihar Police, which had first registered an FIR in Sushant's death case.

The FIR registered by the CBI will be uploaded on their website soon. The CBI's Special Investigating Team (SIT), which is currently investigating Vijay Mallya's bank fraud case, will also be handling Sushant's case.

The CBI has taken over the case amidst a tug of war between the Maharashtra government and the Bihar government over jurisdiction of the case.

Dissatisfied with the Mumbai Police's handling of the case, Sushant's father and his lawyer Vikas Singh had filed an FIR with the Patna Police on July 26, alleging Rhea Chakraborty, her family members and two others of abetting to suicide.

When the Bihar Police stepped in and a team of four police officials from Bihar were sent to Mumbai to investigate, many lapses in the Mumbai Police's investigation of the case began to be uncovered. Due to this, Sushant's family felt that it is best that CBI takes over the case. This was recommended even by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is investigating possible money laundering angles with relation to the case. The ED has summoned Rhea on August 8, and will be questioning her regarding the cheating allegation made in the FIR.

ALSO READ: Sushant's Death Case: No Calls Exchanged Between Late Actor And Rhea Chakraborty After June 8

ALSO READ: Sushant Singh Rajput's Death: Ankita Says The Moment Has Finally Arrived As Centre Accepts 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
Operators of the nation's critical infrastructure will be forced to pass on information about cyber attacks to the Australian Signals Directorate in real time, and potentially allow the cyber spy agency into their networks to fend off major hacks.

Company directors will also have legal duties to ensure a reasonable standard of cyber security - in the similar way to how they are already responsible for workplace health and safety - under a $1.66 billion boost to the nation's cyber defences.

Australia has experienced a wave of cyber attacks from a sophisticated state-based actor. Credit:Kacper Pempel

Prime Minister Scott Morrison released the nation's new cyber security strategy on Thursday, which will give new powers to the ASD to protect the country's critical infrastructure such as ports, water, power plants, telecommunications and defence industry.

The new plan also redefines what is deemed "critical infrastructure" with universities, finance and banking, health and the food and grocery sectors added to the list.
HONG KONG, Aug 5 (Reuters) - China's biggest video game and social media company Tencent Holdings is driving a merger of Twitch-like game streaming platforms Douyu and Huya, as it seeks to consolidate its dominance in the industry.

Tencent, which is already Huya's biggest shareholder and also owns over a third of Douyu, has been pushing the deal for months, four sources familiar with the situation told Reuters.

Tencent seeks to control or at least become the biggest shareholder of the merged entity, the sources added. Huya and Douyu are ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, as China's most popular video game streaming sites, where users flock to watch esports tournaments and follow professional gamers.

Tencent is gradually pushing to consolidate some businesses between Huya and DouYu, one source said.

Both Huya and DouYu are listed in the United States, with a combined market capitalisation of $10 billion. In April, Tencent became the biggest shareholder of Huya after exercising its option to acquire additional shares, clearing a major impediment to the merger.

A merger of the two, with a combined market share of more than 80% in the country according to data from MobTech, would lower costs and ease cut-throat competition among them.

The duo have been locked in a fierce rivalry that has seen them offer signing fees and contracts worth tens of millions of yuan to sign streamers.

The deal would also help Tencent fend off rising challengers like ByteDance, the owner of TikTok which is working on several full-fledged games simultaneously.

A merger could also involve eGame, Tencent's own streaming site and ranked No. 4 in the country, said one of the sources. The merger, first reported by domestic media The Beijing News in June, is still at an early stage, said the sources. (Reporting by Pei Li, Julie Zhu and Kane Wu; Editing by Brenda Goh and Jacqueline Wong)
There have been close to 19 million COVID-19 cases and over 710,000 deaths worldwide, with 6,589 more deaths on Wednesday.

The United States will, by all accounts, exceed 5 million cases of COVID-19 today. The drive to reopen school systems in many states will undoubtedly accelerate the pandemic even more.

One of the first schools to open was Greenfield Central Junior High School in Indiana. On the first day, the superintendent of the Greenfield-Central Community School Corporation was notified that a student who had attended classes had tested positive for the coronavirus.

Crowded hall at a Georgia High School reopening

In Georgia, a second grader tested positive for the coronavirus on the first day of school. The Sixes Elementary in the Cherokee County School district had to close the classroom the next day for deep cleaning, and the instructor and 20 students were quarantined at home for two weeks.

At Gwinnett County Public Schools, which serves over 180,000 students, 260 district employees were prohibited from entering their schools due to positive tests for COVID-19 or from direct exposure to someone who was infected.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, (AJC) In-person training and meetings are taking place without areas being wiped down or disinfected in between, and masks arent being worn at all times, said several teachers who didnt disclose their names when contacting the AJC. Others added that their school still hadnt received hand sanitizers.

Teachers around the US who spoke with the WSWS were outraged over the back-to school drive.

Chris, a long-time teacher in West Virginia, is currently working as a substitute and a home health care worker. He told the WSWS he would be in support of going out on strike in his role as a teacher and supports the demands laid out in the statement published on the WSWS yesterday.

It does appear that the reopening compromised the effort to contain the virus. Here in West Virginia, the statewide date for bringing the kids back to school is September 8. Kanawha County Schools sent me a letter a couple of weeks ago giving me three choices. (1) I would not return. (2) I would return for long-term substitute positions. (3) I would be available for long-term or day to day positions. I chose (3), knowing that a lot can happen between now and then. I have multiple risk factors and am in no hurry to get back to work. My son is scheduled to start back as a TA [teachers assistant] at Notre Dame on Monday.

The federal CARES relief package provided a meager $13.5 billion for K-12 education, less than one percent of the total stimulus package, despite educators indicating schools across the nation will need multiples of that sum to prepare for and retrofit dilapidated structures with proven systems to minimize the spread of the virus from class to class and person to person.

Adam Goldstein, a fifth-grade teacher in San Diego, noted that, Its incredible to me that the federal government would see the necessity of bailing out airlines and banks, and not see the need to do something similar for the public schools in this country.

Louisiana currently ranks as the US state with the highest per capita rate of COVID-19 infections: 2,712 per 100,000 people. The state also ranks fifth for highest rate of per capita deaths. To date, Louisiana has recorded a total of 126,061 cases and 4,096 deaths.

Under these conditions, the Jefferson Parish School Board, representing the largest school district in the state, in the major suburbs of New Orleans, is planning to carry out a physical reopening on August 12. The districts superintendent, Dr. James Gray, says that of the 50,000 students in the district, half have already registered for virtual learning, indicating widespread doubt by parents about the safety of sending kids back to school. Local WDSU-TV broke the news that a handful of teachers in the district have just tested positive for the virus.

Despite weeks of teachers rallying against the unsafe reopening of schools, teachers were forced back to the buildings on Monday, August 3 for meetings and to prepare the classrooms.

One elementary school teacher, who preferred to remain anonymous, spoke to the WSWS about the reopening. We were told to assemble in the cafeteria, all faculty and staff. In Phase 2, the group size limit is supposed to be 25, but we had 60 people in the room, she said.

While it was somewhat possible to remain distanced with just the staff in school, this would be impossible to do so once the students arrive. The teacher explained, The principal even admitted that we would not be able to maintain the minimum 6-foot distance guideline. When she set up her classroom, in which she is going to have 25 students, she tried to space out the desks, but the spacing measured to 15 or maybe 18 inches apart. (6 feet = 1.8 metres and 1518 inches = 3846 cm).

In addition to concern about her own health, having suffered from pneumonia in recent years, she worries for the students and their families. According to the Strong Start guideline released by the school board, students who present with fever during the morning temperature check will be sent into an isolation room with other potentially sick students. Considering that children are exposed to multiple viruses, from flu to stomach bugs, those without COVID-19 could end up in close, contained quarters with students who are infected.

When asked about the personal protective equipment that is promised in the same district-wide guideline, she said that the school has informed her that each teacher will receive one mask, which hasnt arrived yet. We will have hand sanitizer in the classroom and cafeteria, but no stations around the building.

She expressed growing disgust with Governor John Bel Edwards (Democrat), who she says has caved in to business interests and pressure from the White House, and now hes ignoring common sense and has allowed the state to open up far too quickly.

The current push to reopen schools on schedule, a position supported by both capitalist parties, forcing children in K-12 back to their desks amidst a raging pandemic, is based on the class logic that the extraction of surplus value from workers is paramount regardless of the consequences that come with it.

In the crudest and most malign terms, President Trumps comments on Fox News capture the essential narrative being put forth to delude the public when he said, This things going away. It will go away like things go away, and my view is that schools should be open. If you look at children, children are almost  and I would almost say definitely immune from this disease they just dont have a problem we have to open our schools.

The comments of Dr. Robert Redfield of the CDC to the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis are simply a public health cover for the criminal policy being pursued. He said, I dont think I can emphasize it enough as the director for the Centers for Disease Control, the leading public health agency in the worldit is in the public health interest that these K-12 students to get the schools back open for face-to-face learning  I want these kids back in school. I want it done smartly, but I think we have to be honest that the public health and interest of the students in the nation right now is to get a quality education and face-to-face learning. We need to get on with it.

The dishonesty behind these sentiments is appalling. To get on with it, there must be certain conditions met, which include a contained pandemic where transmission is halted and surveillance in place to track it. These are just the most basic measures that are woefully lacking.

The number of tests conducted daily in the United States peaked on July 24, with 929,838 new tests. On August 5, this figure had rapidly declined to 664,219 new tests, back to levels from more than a month ago. It appears that the decline in the seven-day average of new cases has correlated with less testing, which could mean that state and federal governments are following Trumps repeated directives to test less so that the infection numbers will go down.

All these figures must be taken with caution, even skepticism, because in the middle of July the Trump administration shifted reporting of hospitalizations away from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention into the hands of the Department of Health and Human Services, where Trump political appointees hold sway.

Not only is the number of tests conducted rapidly declining, but the time to report these time-sensitive results has also been, on average, taking four or more days, making them useless for contact tracing. According to Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, A test result that comes back in seven or eight days is worthless for everybodyit shouldnt be counted. Its not a test in any kind of effective manner because its not actionable.

The state of contact tracing across the nation has remained abysmal. Tracers in Arizona are unable to reach a significant number of infected individuals. Cities in Florida have given up on these programs. In New York City, tracers are complaining of paralyzed communications and difficulty training new tracers.
ATLANTA, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- United Way of Greater Atlanta announced today that Global Payments Inc., a leading worldwide provider of payment technology and software solutions, and long-time supporter of the organization, donated $250,000 to the United for Racial Equity and Healing Fund. This is the first large donation to the fund, which is designed to reduce and prevent racial inequities across systems that impact child well-being (education, health, housing and economic stability) across the Greater Atlanta region. This donation puts United Way on the path to the first $1 million of donations to the fund, which it will match.

"We are grateful to Global Payments Inc. for their partnership and for showing such strong support for our community through their generous gift," said Milton J. Little, Jr., President and CEO of United Way of Greater Atlanta. "Contributions to the United for Racial Equity and Healing Fund will be invested in structural solutions to catalyze effective, long-lasting change, address the root causes of racial inequity and prioritize hope, healing, and care during an unprecedented time."

Nearly 500,000 children in Greater Atlanta live in communities that lack the basic opportunities and resources that all children and families need to thrive. These communities are in zip codes where the majority of residents are people of color. These are also communities where COVID-19 hit hard, exposing the health and economic disparities resulting from years of disinvestment and structural racism. The current spotlight on these disparities and recent civil unrest has created new momentum to address racial inequities and an opportunity to convert the moment into a turning point for advancing deep and widescale changes.

"At Global Payments, we stand together as a company against racism, intolerance and injustice in all their forms. Our investment highlights the importance of the work that United Way is doing to focus on the injustices that are taking place in our world today," said Jeff Sloan, CEO of Global Payments, Inc. "Together, we will continue to work to drive positive change in the communities in which we live and work and stamp out injustice."

Funds will be invested in organizations in Greater Atlanta that are primarily focused on racial inequity challenges in their communities and on a regional level. Priority will be given to organizations:

Led by (executive leadership, staff, board) and focused on Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities most directly impacted by structural racism

Leading policy and advocacy efforts that intersect with on-the-ground civic engagement that is focused on people of color

Prioritize youth voices and take a multi-generational approach

Working on or adjacent to racial justice efforts

To donate or learn more about the United for Racial Equity and Healing Fund, click here.

About United Way of Greater Atlanta

United Way of Greater Atlanta, the largest United Way chapter in the nation, focuses on ensuring that every child in Atlanta has the opportunity to reach his or her full potential. The organization invests in more than 200 programs in 13 counties through the Child Well-Being Impact Fund and works to help children succeed in school, improve financial stability of families, provide affordable and accessible healthcare and end homelessness. For more information, visit:unitedwayatlanta.org or Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.

About Global Payments

Global Payments Inc. (NYSE: GPN) is a leading pure play payments technology company delivering innovative software and services to our customers globally. Our technologies, services and employee expertise enable us to provide a broad range of solutions that allow our customers to operate their businesses more efficiently across a variety of channels around the world.

Headquartered in Georgia with nearly 24,000 employees worldwide, Global Payments is a member of the S&P 500 with worldwide reach spanning over 100 countries throughout North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America. For more information, visit www.globalpaymentsinc.com and follow Global Payments on Twitter (@globalpayinc), LinkedIn and Facebook.

SOURCE United Way of Greater Atlanta

Related Links

http://www.unitedwayatlanta.org


Seventy-five years ago, on Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, the United States ushered in the nuclear age by dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and then Nagasaki, Japan. More than 100,000 Japanese residents, and possibly up to double that number, died of the blast, fire and radiation. Since then, many survivors - known as the hibakusha - have advocated for global nuclear disarmament. Our research finds strong public support for nuclear disarmament in both the United States and Japan.

Here are four things to know about efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons.

- - -

1. The status of existing nuclear treaties

A total of 191 governments have joined the 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The Non-Proliferation Treaty, or NPT, as it is widely known, allows the United States, Britain, China, France and Russia to maintain nuclear weapons if they move toward eventual nuclear disarmament. Three countries - India, Israel and Pakistan - have nuclear weapons and have not signed the treaty. North Korea was a member but withdrew from the treaty and developed nuclear weapons.

Today, more than five decades after the agreement opened for signature, there are about 13,410 nuclear weapons around the world. Over 90% belong to the United States and Russia, which had an intense Cold War nuclear rivalry.

The NPT's non-nuclear members have long criticized the nuclear powers for continuing to maintain and modernize their weapons. NPT countries usually meet every five years to review the accord; the coronavirus pandemic forced the postponement of this year's conference, which would have included more criticism.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019, both designed to reduce nuclear dangers. Arms-control advocates fear that President Donald Trump may also not extend the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty if he is reelected, unless China agrees to join. This treaty, which limits U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals, will expire on Feb. 5 if it isn't renewed. Chinese officials have refused to participate in arms-control talks, arguing that their nuclear forces are a small fraction of those of the United States and Russia.

The Trump administration has also floated the idea of conducting the first U.S. nuclear test explosion since 1992. That would violate the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which the United States has signed but not ratified. North Korea is the only country to have tested nuclear weapons in the 21st century. Experts warn that if the United States begins testing, that could trigger an arms race with China and Russia - and possibly a new era of nuclear testing around the world.

- - -

2. Disarmament advocates have advanced their efforts beyond the NPT

In 2017, 122 countries adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Known as the Ban Treaty, this agreement outlaws all activities related to nuclear weapons: building them, possessing them, testing them and threatening their use. Nuclear-armed nations and their allies predictably disapproved, and none voted to adopt the treaty.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for helping to establish the Ban Treaty. The campaign's director, Beatrice Fihn, accepted the prize alongside Hiroshima survivor Setsuko Thurlow, a hibakusha disarmament advocate who has devoted her life to recounting her harrowing experiences on and after Aug. 6, 1945.

The Ban Treaty requires 50 governments to ratify it before it can come into force. On July 15, Botswana became the 40th. But the disarmament impact that the treaty could have remains unclear because the nuclear-armed countries and their allies have vowed never to join.

- - -

3. Americans don't support the Ban Treaty

If U.S. and allied leaders don't support the Ban Treaty, what about the public? To find out, we conducted nationally representative Internet surveys in the United States and Japan. Working with the survey firm Dynata and our colleague Jonathon Baron, we surveyed 1,219 U.S. and 1,333 Japanese residents in August 2019. Some respondents read basic information about the Ban Treaty and were asked whether they supported it. Other groups of respondents provided their opinion after reading the same information, followed by one of three possible critiques of the treaty advanced by their nation's government. Finally, all subjects indicated their attitudes toward a range of statements about nuclear disarmament, in principle.

In the group that read about the Ban Treaty without any critique, 64.7% of Americans and 75% of Japanese said they wanted their governments to ratify it. But if Americans also read a U.S. government critique of the treaty, support dropped to as low as 45.5%. Yet even Americans skeptical of the Ban Treaty told us that, on average, they'd like to see nuclear weapons eliminated eventually. In Japan, citizens supported the Ban Treaty at the same rate, regardless of whether they read any Japanese government arguments against it.

- - -

4. The Trump administration has taken a different disarmament approach

In 2018, the Trump administration unveiled an initiative called Creating an Environment for Nuclear Disarmament. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Ford pitched the plan by rejecting the Ban Treaty and arguing that traditional U.S. approaches to reducing nuclear arms alongside Russia were no longer feasible.

In support of this initiative, the United States assembled a group of nuclear and non-nuclear nations to discuss long-term steps toward disarmament. Ban Treaty sympathizers, who seek swifter abolition of nuclear weapons, contend that this initiative appears to abandon the NPT's disarmament commitments. Some even claim the Trump administration is trying to create "conditions to never disarm."

- - -

Davis Gibbons is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Southern Maine and an associate at the Project on Managing the Atom at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Herzog is a PhD candidate in political science at Yale University and a Stanton Nuclear Security predoctoral fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. For other analysis and commentary from The Monkey Cage, an independent blog anchored by political scientists from universities around the country, see www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage.
T he man convicted of murdering British backpacker Grace Millane acted abhorrently following her death but the trial that found him guilty was flawed, an appeal has heard.

His lawyer Rachael Reed told Court of Appeal judges that she was not seeking to excuse his actions after Ms Millane's death, according to news organisation Stuff.

But she said the judge placed too much weight on those actions in determining the sentence of the man, whose name is being kept secret in New Zealand.

Ms Reed also said the conviction had problems, including questions around the issue of consent, some of the expert evidence, and negative evidence given by other women about his character.

A jury convicted the man of strangling Ms Millane on her 22nd birthday in December 2018 after they met via Tinder.

Ms Millane, from Wickford in Essex, went out for drinks with him before returning to his hotel apartment in central Auckland, where he killed her.

He stuffed her body into a suitcase, drove to a forest and buried it in a shallow grave, where police found it a week later.

Prosecutors argued that he deliberately strangled Ms Millane to death, while the defence claimed she died accidentally after the pair engaged in rough sex that went too far.

The jury found the man guilty of murder and a judge sentenced him to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years.

Ms Millanes death sparked a debate in New Zealand and Britain about reliance on arguments of so-called rough sex as a defence for murder.
Protesters in Beirut call for governments resignation as authorities arrest 16 as part of probe into deadly blast.

Lebanese authorities have taken into custody 16 individuals as part of an investigation into the Beirut port warehouse explosion that shook the capital, state news agency NNA reported.

The Lebanese government has given an investigative committee probing the blast four days to determine responsibility for the explosion, Foreign Minister Charbel Wehbe told French radio.

French President Emmanuel Macron offered Frances support for the Lebanese people on a visit to Beirut after the port blast, but said crisis-hit Lebanon would continue to sink unless its leaders carry out reforms.

Officials said the death toll from the explosion killing at least 157 people and injuring 5,000 others was expected to rise as search-and-rescue operations continued for people listed missing under the rubble in areas near the port.

Here are the latest updates:

Friday, August 7

04:19 GMT  Four Filipinos killed, 31 injured

At least four Filipinos were killed in the Beirut explosion and two others were in critical condition, according to the Philippiness Department of Foreign Affairs.

A total of 31 Filipinos were injured in the blast, the office said.

02:10 GMT  Beirut resident vents fury at Lebanese leaders

A Beirut resident told Al Jazeera live on air why so many are furious with Lebanons authorities, after she lost four neighbours in Tuesdays explosion.

Our anger will only stopif we see those b******* in prison, she said.





01:47 GMT  Ex-captain of cargo ship blames Lebanese authorities for blast

Boris Prokoshev, the former captain of the ship that brought almost 3,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate to Beirut, said Lebanese authorities were very well aware of the dangers posed by the vessels cargo.

Its the government of Lebanon that brought about this situation, Prokoshev told the Associated Press news agency from his home in the Krasnodar region of Russia.

His ship, the MV Rhosus, was not supposed to be in Lebanon at all, he said.

Boris Prokoshev, a sea captain, poses for a photo after his interview with the Associated Press outside Sochi, Russia [Kirill Lemekh/ AP Photo]

When it set sail from the Georgian Black Sea port of Batumi, the ship was bound for the Mozambiquan port of Beira. But the Rhosus made a stop in Beirut to try to earn extra money by taking on several pieces of heavy machinery.

The machinery proved too heavy for the Rhosus, however, and the crew refused to take it on. And the ship was soon impounded by the Lebanese authorities for failing to pay port fees, and never left the port again.

They knew very well that there was dangerous cargo there, Prokoshev said. In my opinion, they should have even paid him [the owner of the boat] to take the dangerous cargo, a real headache, out of the port. But they just arrested the ship instead.

00:54 GMT  EU releases 33 million euros in emergency aid

The European Union announced the release of 33 million euros in emergency aid to Lebanon to help cover the immediate needs of emergency services and hospitals in Beirut.

A donor conference is also planned to mobilise additional funding for reconstruction after an assessment of what is required, an EU source told AFP news agency.

Thursday, August 6

23:38 GMT  Tear gas as protesters gather in downtown Beirut

Security forces fired tear gas to disperse dozens of anti-government protesters calling for the Lebanese governments resignation near the parliament building in Beirut.

The state-run National News Agency (NNA) said protesters set fires, vandalised stores and threw stones at security forces, prompting the officers to use tear gas.

Several people were wounded in the clashes, the agency said.

Riot police advance to push back anti-government protesters in Beirut, Lebanon, on August 7, 2020 [Hassan Ammar/ AP]

Anti-government protesters throw stones and clash with riot police in downtown Beirut [Hassan Ammar/ AP]

Anti-government protesters call for the resignation of Lebanons government [Hassan Ammar/ AP]

Hello and welcome to Al Jazeeras continuing coverage of the deadly explosion at Beirut port. Im Zaheena Rasheed in Male, Maldives.

21:00 GMT  Lebanon envoy to Jordan resigns over negligence

Lebanons ambassador to Jordan has announced her resignation, following a cataclysmic blast that ravaged central Beirut, saying total negligence by the countrys authorities signalled the need for a leadership change.

It is the second resignation by a Lebanese official since the explosion that wounded at least 5,000 and destroyed entire districts of the capital.

#Lebanon's ambassador to Jordan, Tracy Chamoun, has resigned, saying she can no longer represent this state. "The least that those in power can do today, after what happened, is to resign."  Timour Azhari (@timourazhari) August 6, 2020

20:30 GMT  Italy pledges global response to help Lebanon

Italys foreign minister pledged an international response to help Lebanon. The country has already sent specialists, firefighters and over eight tonnes of humanitarian aid to Beirut.

There will certainly be an international response and I am happy that countries like France are at the forefront in helping Lebanon, Luigi Di Maio told AFP in an interview.





20:15 GMT  Lebanon banks told to extend cheap dollar loans to victims

Lebanons central bank has instructed banks and financial institutions to extend exceptional dollar loans at zero interest to individuals and firms impacted by the Beirut port explosion.

Banks have since October frozen people out of their own savings accounts and blocked transfers abroad.

Under an April central bank circular, they now pay depositors with dollar accounts in cash in the local currency at a market rate well below that of the parallel market.

The central bank said the exceptional loans should be made, regardless of customer account limits, to individuals, private businesses, small- and medium-sized enterprises and corporations  with the exception of real estate developers  to carry out essential repairs to homes and businesses.





19:45 GMT  Mozambique denies knowledge of ship tied to explosion

Mozambican port authorities denied any knowledge of the ship carrying the cargo of ammonium nitrate said to have caused the devastating explosion in Beirut.

They were reacting to widespread reports that the ammonium nitrate had arrived in Lebanon in 2013 on board a Moldovan-flagged ship sailing from Georgia and bound for the central port city of Beira.

The port operator was not aware that the vessel MV Rhosus would dock at the port of Beira, the Beira ports authority said in a statement.

It said that typically, the arrival of any ship at the port is announced by the ships agent to the port operator seven to 15 days in advance.

19:30 GMT  Sixteen people detained over port explosion

State news agency NNA has quoted Judge Fadi Akiki, a government representative at Lebanons military court, as saying authorities had so far questioned more than 18 port and customs officials and individuals responsible for or involved in maintenance work at the warehouse housing highly explosive material that blew up.

Sixteen people have been taken into custody as part of the investigation, NNA quoted Akiki as saying, without naming the individuals. He said the investigation was continuing.

19:15 GMT  Lebanon central bank freezes accounts of port, customs officials

Lebanons central bank has ordered a freeze on the accounts of the heads of Beirut port and Lebanese customs along with five others, according to a central bank directive seen by Reuters news agency and confirmed by the central bank.

The directive, dated August 6 and coming from the central bank special investigation commission for money laundering and terrorism fighting, said the decision would be circulated to all banks and financial institutions in Lebanon, the public prosecutor in the appeals court and the head of the banking authority.





19:00 GMT  Qatar residency permits will get priority to return

Lebanese holders of Qatar residency permits who are currently in Lebanon and want to come back to Qatar will be granted exceptional entry permits, officials said.

They will be required to take a coronavirus test on their retun, Qatars Government Communications Office said in a statement.

Lebanese holders of Qatar residency permits will also be able to apply for entry for their immediate family members at the Qatar embassy in Beirut, the statement added.

Government Communications Office statement on giving priority to Lebanese holders of Qatar Residency Permits in Lebanon wishing to return to #Qatar. https://t.co/jQ3FKiA9MC     (@GCOQatar) August 6, 2020

18:50 GMT  EU leaders call for additional support for Lebanon

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel have called for additional support for Lebanon.

The dramatic incident will have major economic consequences for a country that was already facing many challenges, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the leaders said in a letter sent to the heads of state of the EU member states.

We must keep in mind the strong partnership between the EU and Lebanon, a country of strategic importance which hosts the largest number of refugees per capita.

Together with @eucopresident, we have sent today a letter to Member States urging them to support #Lebanon beyond its immediate needs in the current dramatic circumstances, also for its longer term reconstruction. We stand ready to help coordinate EU support. pic.twitter.com/2xrvV8ep5s  Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) August 6, 2020

18:35 GMT  UN releases $9m to help Beirut hospitals

The United Nations has said it is releasing $9m to address immediate needs following the explosion that devastated Beirut and to help strengthen operations in the citys hospitals.

UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said the money from the Lebanon Humanitarian Fund will be followed by additional funds from the UNs Central Emergency Response Fund.

He said the UN is carrying out assessments of the damage and needs that result from the massive explosion and hopes to hold a meeting on Monday to inform the 193 UN member states of the results and launch an appeal to help Lebanon.

#Lebanon and its people have always been generous in their support to refugees & the aid community. OCHA's @Insarag & UNDAC teams are in Beirut. My colleague @rochdi_najat has released $9 million to address urgent needs & support affected hospitals. https://t.co/GrQs5ga6Yy pic.twitter.com/qSLlD07n4V  Mark Lowcock (@UNReliefChief) August 6, 2020

18:20 GMT  IMF urges Lebanon to break reform impasse

The International Monetary Fund has urged Lebanese officials to break an impasse and move ahead with reforms after a massive Beirut blast devastated the capital and cost the crisis-hit country billions in damages.

It is essential to overcome the impasse in the discussions on critical reforms, said the world body, which has been in talks with the Lebanese government since May over the countrys financial crisis.

The talks have since hit a wall, with the IMF urging authorities to put in place a meaningful program to turn around the economy following Tuesdays explosion, which it called a disaster.

18:05 GMT  US army to send supplies to Beirut

The United States military is sending shipments of water, food and medicine to Lebanon.

Deliveries of three C-17 military planes loaded with food, water and medical supplies are impending, a spokesman for US Army Central Command chief General Frank McKenzie has said, without stating when they would arrive.

McKenzie said the US was ready to continue providing assistance to the Lebanese during the terrible tragedy in partnership with the Lebanese army, the US embassy in Lebanon and the US Agency for International Development.





17:50 GMT  Macron warns Lebanon reforms are needed within months

Lebanon needs to make key reforms to its electricity, banking, and customs sectors immediately in an international framework, French President Emmanuel Macron has said.

Macron warned that without reform and action against corruption, the country could start running out of fuel and food within months and that will be the fault of those who refuse to act today.

There will be a before and an after August 4, Macron said, adding that he sees hope for change in the anger of the youth and the street.

17:25 GMT  Lebanon coronavirus cases peak after deadly blast

Lebanon hast recorded 255 new coronavirus cases  its highest single-day infection tally  after a monstrous blast upended a planned lockdown and sent thousands streaming into overflowing hospitals that were already struggling to cope with the coronavirus.

The health ministry figures were reported by the state-run National News Agency, which also announced two new deaths.

They bring the total number of COVID-19 infections in Lebanon to 4,604, including 70 deaths since the outbreak first began in February.

17:10 GMT  Macron: Aid conference for blast-hit Lebanon in coming days

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced that an international aid conference for disaster-hit Lebanon would be held soon.

Speaking to journalists at the end of snap visit to Beirut, he said the conference would be held in the coming days.

He stressed that the aid raised during the conference would be channeled directly to the people, the relief organisations and the teams that need it on the ground.

Separately, the French leader stressed that an audit of the Lebanese central bank, among other changes, was needed in order to help the cash-strapped country, adding that the World Bank and United Nations would play a role in implementing reforms.

If there is no audit of the central bank, in a few months there will be no more imports and then there will be lack of fuel and of food, he said.

16:00 GMT  Frances Macron urges independent, transparent probe into blast

French President Emmanuel Macron has said that an independent, transparent investigation into the massive explosion in Beirut is owed to the victims and their families by Lebanese authorities.

Angry crowds approached Macron and the Beirut governor as they walked through a blast-torn street, and through a devastated pharmacy.

After meeting with political leaders later, the French leader mentioned the anger in the street he had witnessed earlier.

He said: There is a political, moral, economic and financial crisis that has lasted several months, several years. This implies strong political responsibility.

He said he discussed addressing corruption and other needed reforms with Lebanons president and prime minister.

I came here to show the support of the French nation for the Lebanese people, Macron said, stressing the word people.

Macron promised angry protesters on Thursday that French aid will not fall in the hands of corrupt politicians [Lebanese Presidency via Anadolu]

15:30 GMT  Denmark to donate $1.9m to Lebanon

Denmark has pledged to donate 12 million kroner ($1.9m) to Lebanon, chiefly to be channeled via the Red Cross, and 600 chemical protection suits.

Development Minister Rasmus Prehn said Tuesdays explosions in Beirut come at the worst possible time for Lebanon. The countrys economy and health care are already completely on their knees, he said.

And COVID-19 just makes the situation worse. At the same time, the country is home to 1.5 million refugees who also need support.

So far this year, Denmark has provided 32 million kroner ($5.1 million) in humanitarian aid to Lebanon, mainly to help refugees in the Middle Eastern country.

15:15 GMT  UK PM Johnson says: We will focus on the needs of Lebanese people

United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that he was shocked by the blast in Beirut and that the UK would continue to focus on the needs of the people of Lebanon.

I was absolutely appalled and shocked by the scenes from Lebanon, from Beirut, Johnson said. I am sure that the UK will continue to focus on the needs of the people of Lebanon.

14:45 GMT  Italy sends second plane carrying medical equipment to Lebanon

Italy has sent 8.5 tons of medical equipment to Lebanon in a second aid flight following the massive explosion in Beirut.

The foreign ministry said the flight left from Brindisi Thursday morning following a request from Lebanese authorities.

On board were surgical and trauma kits. Earlier, a team of firefighters and experts in chemical and biological agents flew in to help.

In a statement, the foreign ministry said the Italian assistance represents a new show of friendship and solidarity toward the Lebanese people and authorities.





14:25 GMT  Jordan to build field hospital in Beirut within 24-hours

Two Jordanian Air Force military aircraft are flying to Lebanon carrying material for a field hospital thats expected to be set up within the next 24 hours in Beirut.

The military field hospital will be staffed by 160 medics and other staff and will include 45 beds, 10 intensive care beds and 2 surgery rooms.





14:15 GMT  China to send medical team, supplies to Lebanon after Beirut blast

China has announced that it will send a medical team and supplies to Lebanon in the aftermath of the port explosion that injured more than 5,000 people.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Thursday that Chinese leader Xi Jinping had conveyed a message of condolence to Lebanese President Michel Aoun following the blast.

As a friendly country to Lebanon, China is willing to continue to provide assistance within its capacity for Lebanon to tide over the difficulties, Wang told reporters at a daily briefing.





14:05 GMT  German embassy staff killed in Beirut blast

Germanys foreign minister said that an employee of the German Embassy in Beirut was killed in the huge blast that devastated the Lebanese capital earlier this week.

Heiko Maas says in a statement that the woman died as a result of the consequences of the explosion in her apartment. He has offered his condolences to embassy staff. The embassy building was damaged in the blast.

14:00 GMT  UK to send British Royal Navy ship

Britain is sending a Royal Navy ship to Beirut to help the city recover from Tuesdays devastating port explosion.

Defense Secretary Ben Wallace says the survey vessel HMS Enterprise, currently in Cyprus, will assess damage and help Lebanese authorities prepare to rebuild the port.

Britain has pledged a 5 million pound ($6.6 million) humanitarian support package for Lebanon and says it will send search and rescue teams and expert medical support.

12:34 GMT  French rescue team searches for potential survivors at destroyed port

A French colonel leading a rescue team in Beiruts port where Tuesdays deadly explosion took place, said a group of seven or eight people might be alive but stuck under the rubble of a command centre buried by the explosion.

12:15 GMT  Angry crowds in Beirut urge Macron to help bring change

French President Emmanuel Macron toured Beiruts shattered streets with crowds demanding the end to a regime of politicians they blame for corruption and dragging Lebanon into disaster.

I see the emotion on your face, the sadness, the pain. This is why Im here, he told one group, shaking their hands on roads strewn with rubble and flanked by shops with windows blown out after Tuesdays blast that killed 145 and injured 5,000.

Macron promised to send more medical and other aid to Lebanon, while those around him chanted Revolution and The people want the fall of the regime.

But what is also needed here is political change. This explosion should be the start of a new era, Macron said, making the tour shortly after arriving on the first visit to Lebanon by a foreign leader since the blast.

One man told Macron: We hope this aid will go to the Lebanese people not the corrupt leaders.

"Help us. Please help us. What are you doing to help us?" pic.twitter.com/44upgNq54o  Quentin Sommerville (@sommervilletv) August 6, 2020

11:58 GMT  Lebanon central bank tells banks to make cheap dollar loans to those hit by Beirut blast

Lebanons central bank instructed banks and financial institutions to extend exceptional dollar loans at zero interest to individuals and firms impacted by the Beirut port explosion.

Money transfer houses should distribute transfers from abroad to Lebanon in dollars, the central bank said separately.

Exceptional loans should be made regardless of customer account limits, carry no interest and be repaid over five years. It said the loans can be repaid in Lebanese pounds based on the interbank rate of 1,515 pounds to the dollar.

The central bank would in turn provide dollar loans at zero interest to the banks and financial institutions granting the exceptional loans, it said.

11:35 GMT  Macron pledges aid wont go to corrupt hands, wants new Lebanon deal

French President Emmanuel Macron told angry Lebanese crowds in downtown Beirut that French aid would not go to corrupt hands and he would seek a new deal with political authorities.

I guarantee you this  aid will not go to corrupt hands, Macron told protesters in central Beirut two days after the city was devastated by a blast.

I will talk to all political forces to ask them for a new pact. I am here today to propose a new political pact to them, he said, after being greeted by crowds calling for an end to the regime.

https://twitter.com/sommervilletv/status/1291326073330900993?ref_src=twsrc^tfw

11:15 GMT  Death toll from Beirut blast reaches 157

Lebanons ministry of health said that the number of people killed in the blast at Beiruts port reached 157, while 5,000 others have been injured.

Officials said the death toll was expected to rise as rescue operations at the port continue.

10:57 GMT  Beirut blast: In a small Texas town, echoes of Lebanons tragedy

The shocking videos coming out of the Lebanese capital are grimly familiar to Tommy Muska as he sits thousands of miles away in the US state of Texas: a towering blast, a thundering explosion, and shock waves demolishing buildings with horrifying speed.

The mayor of West, Texas, lived through the same thing seven years ago when one of the deadliest fertiliser plant explosions in US history partly levelled his rural town. Muska has a feeling that, yet again, no lessons will be learned from this tragedy.

Read more here.

An aerial view of the aftermath of a massive explosion at a fertilizer plant in the town of West, Texas in 2013 [File: Adrees Latif/Reuters]

10:35 GMT  Druze leader Jumblatt urges international probe into Beirut port blast

Lebanons leading Druze politician Walid Jumblatt called for an international investigation into the Beirut port explosion and said he had no trust in the government to find out the truth about it.

We have no trust at all in this ruling gang, said Jumblatt, whose party has lawmakers in parliament but is not in the cabinet, which took office in January with backing from the Hezbollah movement and its allies.

If not for the help of foreign states and the Arab region, Lebanon would disappear, he said, calling for a government of neutrality.

Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said he had no trust in the government to find out the truth about the blast [File: Philippe Wojazer/Reuters]

09:52 GMT  French President says Lebanon needs reforms or will continue to sink

French President Emmanuel Macron offered Frances support for the Lebanese people on a visit to Beirut after the port blast, but said crisis-hit Lebanon would continue to sink unless its leaders carry out reforms.

Macron said Frances solidarity with the Lebanese people was unconditional, but said he wanted to tell some home truths to political figures.

Beyond the blast, we know the crisis here is serious, it involves the historic responsibility of leaders in place, Macron told reporters.

We cant do without telling each other some home truths, he added. If reforms are not carried out, Lebanon will continue to sink.

Lebanons President Michel Aoun with French President Emmanuel Macron upon his arrival at the airport in Beirut, Lebanon [Dalati Nohra/Reuters]

09:47 GMT  EU Commission ready to help Lebanon with preferential trade

The European Commission is ready to help Lebanon with preferential trade and customs backing, the head of the EU executive said after a phone call with Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab.

The Commission stood ready to explore how to boost our trade relations in this challenging time, in particular in the form of further preferential trade and customs facilitation, Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement.

She also offered the EUs help in assessing Beiruts reconstruction and Lebanons recovery, as well as support in discussions with international financial institutions to unlock further economic aid.

The 27-country bloc has deployed more than 100 firefighters, a military vessel for medical evacuation and activated its Copernicus Satellite mapping system to help assess the damage.

European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen offered the EUs help in assessing Beiruts reconstruction and Lebanons recovery [File: Anadolu]

09:30 GMT  At least four Bangladeshis killed in Beirut blast

At least four Bangladeshis were killed and 80 others were wounded, Bangladeshs Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Twenty-one Bangladesh Navy crewmen were among the injured, as a Bangladeshi naval ship at the Beirut port was damaged.

According to government data, around 150,000 Bangladeshis are currently working in the Mediterranean country.

09:19 GMT  Bangladesh to send food and medical aid

Bangladesh announced it was sending emergency food and medical aid to the Lebanese capital Beirut in the wake of a deadly explosion.

The country has decided to send food items, medical equipment, and medical teams to Lebanon, Bangladeshs Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The decision follows a Wednesday phone call in which Bangladeshi Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen expressed his condolences to his Lebanese counterpart Charbel Wehbe on the victims of Tuesdays deadly blast.

09:11 GMT  Lebanon gives investigating committee four days to find culprits

The government of Lebanon has given an investigative committee four days to determine responsibility for the devastating explosion in Beirut port on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Charbel Wehbe told French radio.

This morning, a decision was taken to create an investigative committee which in four days maximum must provide a detailed report on responsibility  how, who, what, where? There will be judicial decisions, he told Europe 1 radio.

It is serious, and we take it seriously, Wehbe said.

Those responsible for this horrible crime of negligence will be punished by a committee of judges, he added.

08:38 GMT  Lebanons financial capacity very limited, economy minister says after blast

The Lebanese state and central bank have very limited financial capacity to confront the impact of the port warehouse explosion that devastated Beirut without foreign aid, its economy minister said.

The capacity of the state is very limited, and so is that of the central bank and the banks. Were not swimming in dollars, Raoul Nehme said in TV comments to Sky News Arabia.

He said working with the International Monetary Fund was the only way out for Lebanon, which was already wrestling with a dollar crunch and financial meltdown before Tuesdays blast.

08:25 GMT  French presidency says Macron to go directly to disaster area

A French presidential official said French President Emmanuel Macron will go directly to the port and meet Lebanese and French teams in the disaster area upon his arrival in Beirut.

Later in the day, Macron will head to the presidential palace for meetings with top officials. He will also meet with members of different political factions and civil society.

The French official said Macrons trip is meant to show that Lebanon is not alone and to give the Lebanese people confidence. Macron has said his role is to show that he believes in the country.

An aerial view shows the massive damage done to Beirut ports grain silos and the area around it after a mega-blast tore through the harbour in the heart of the Lebanese capital [File: AFP]

08:18 GMT  Iraq to send oil aid to Lebanon

Iraq announced that it will send oil to Lebanon following a massive explosion earlier this week in the capital Beirut which left many dead and injured and caused widespread destruction.

A team led by Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar Ismail has arrived in Lebanon and has been received by Prime Minister Hassan Diab, said a statement by Iraqs Oil Ministry.

Along with medical aid, oil aid will be made to Lebanon, and tankers carrying oil will leave for Beirut from Baghdad, the statement added.The tankers will pass through Syria.

08:03 GMT  Lebanon diaspora mobilises financial bloodline in wake of blast

Lebanons diaspora, estimated at nearly three times the size of the tiny countrys population of five million, has stepped up to provide assistance following the massive explosion that laid waste to the capital Beirut.

Lebanese expats rushed to wire money to loved ones who lost their homes or were injured in the blast on Tuesday that killed at least 135 people, while others worked to create special funds to address the tragedy.

Read more here.

Lebanese come together for a vigil held at Kensington gardens in central London to honour the victims of the Beirut blast [Tolga Akmen/AFP]

07:47 GMT  Turkish aid, search and rescue team arrives in Beirut

A Turkish military plane carrying aid and a search and rescue team arrived in Beirut, authorities announced.

Aid material prepared by the Turkish ministry of health, the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) and the Turkish Red Crescent (Kizilay) was loaded on a plane from Ankara.

The aircraft was carrying 21 National Medical Rescue personnel, two emergency units, three tents, medicine and medical equipment, 10 AFAD personnel, equipment, a search and rescue vehicle, three Kizilay personnel, a search and rescue team and medical and humanitarian aid.

AFAD President Mehmet Gulluoglu said more aid and emergency medical doctors will be on their way to Beirut.

The Turkish Armed Forces aircraft which took off from Ankara with medical supplies, equipment and a Search & Rescue Team has landed in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, where the explosion occurred. https://t.co/su4MMcKyHp  T.C. Milli Savunma Bakanlg (@tcsavunma) August 5, 2020

07:23 GMT  Rescue operation and search for the missing continue after blast

Rescue operations were continuing as Lebanon awaited assistance following the massive explosion that rocked Beirut port and left the city in devastation.

Members of the Lebanese Red Cross, army soldiers and volunteers were still searching for people listed missing under the rubble in areas near the port.

I am waiting here, I am not moving. My brother works inside the port and we have not heard of him since the explosion took place, screamed Fatima as she stood nearby.

Civil defence workers were also busy examining building structures amid concerns that some might collapse after they were affected by the blast.

Pain  grief  families wait outside #Beirut port not knowing if their loved ones are alive or dead in the blast  search efforts continue amid the rubble pic.twitter.com/16kRfVl3Zl  Zeina Khodr (@ZeinakhodrAljaz) August 6, 2020

07:06 GMT  One French death, 24 injured after Beirut blast

One Frenchman, architect Jean-Marc Bonfils, has died while a further 24 French people were injured in Tuesdays massive warehouse explosion in Beirut, French government ministers have said.

Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot announced Bonfilss death in a tweet. Junior foreign affairs minister Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne added that, of those injured, three had serious injuries.

Larchitecte francais Jean-Marc Bonfils est decede dans la terrible catastrophe de Beyrouth. Je rends hommage a son uvre majeure, telle la restauration dimmeubles patrimoniaux detruits par la guerre du Liban. La France et le Liban sont unis dans le chagrin de sa mort.  Roselyne Bachelot (@R_Bachelot) August 5, 2020

06:41 GMT  Frances Macron leaves for Lebanon: presidency

French President Emmanuel Macron left Paris for Lebanon on a first visit by a world leader to Beirut after the deadly port blast, the Elysee Palace said.

Macrons plane took off just before 0600 GMT and was scheduled to land in the devastated city at around 0900 GMT where the French president was to meet all political actors including President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Hassan Diab.

Macron will seek to rally urgent aid for Lebanon but is also expected to press for overdue reform in Frances ex-colony, just two days after the blast.

French President Emmanuel Macron is the first world leader to visit Beirut after the deadly port blast [File: Anadolu]

06:01 GMT  Death toll from Beirut port blast rises to 137, says ministry

Lebanons ministry of health said that 137 people have been killed in the blast at Beiruts port on Tuesday, while at least 5,000 others have been injured.

Red Cross volunteers at the scene of the explosion said they expect the death toll to rise as searches continue at the port where dozens are still missing, especially among employees who were present at the time of the blast.

05:10 GMT  At least one US citizen killed, several injured in Beirut blast

The US Embassy in Beirut has reported that at least one American citizen was confirmed killed and several more were injured in the explosion at Beiruts port.

We offer our sincerest condolences to their loved ones and are working to provide the affected US citizens and their families all possible consular assistance. We are working closely with local authorities to determine if any additional US citizens were affected, the US statement said.

The embassy says all of its employees are safe and accounted for, according to the AP news agency report.

04:48 GMT  Frances FM raises concerns about Lebanons food security

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has raised concerns about Lebanons food security, after the massive Beirut blast damaged a major silo that contains the countrys grain supply.

There will also be a food need that is indispensable because of the grain silos that exploded, he was quoted as saying on Thursday.

Le Drian also called on the international community to show solidarity with Lebanon, which was already reeling economically even before the disaster.

French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to arrive in Beirut later on Thursday.

04:23 GMT  Australia pledges $1.4m aid to Lebanon

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced that his country is pledging an initial $2 million Australian dollars ($1.4m) to the relief effort and is considering more.

Morrison also told reporters on Thursday that the aid will be provided to the World Food Program and to the Red Cross for food, medical care and essential items.

04:02 GMT  More medical aid from Russia expected in Lebanon

Three Russian flights are scheduled to arrive in Beirut within the next 24 hours, carrying equipment for a coronavirus testing lab and protective gear, among other medical relief supplies for Lebanon.

Earlier, Russia flew in a mobile hospital, along with 50 emergency workers and medical personnel to help with the aftermath of the blast that killed at least 135 people and injured 5,000 others.

03:30 GMT  Amnesty joins call for international probe of Beirut blast

A woman takes pictures inside a damaged church a day after an explosion hit the seaport of Beirut [Hussein Malla/AP]

Amnesty International has called for an international investigation into the Beirut blast, saying that the probe should be free from any potential domestic political interference to ensure truth, justice, and reparations for victims.

The horrific scenes in the aftermath of the explosion were devastating for a country already suffering under the strain of multiple crises, Amnestys acting chief Julie Verhaar said in a statement.

The group also urged the international community to urgently increase humanitarian aid to Lebanon at a time when the country was already struggling with the severe economic crisis, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.

03:00 GMT  Without giving proof, Trump repeats claim about Lebanon attack

President Donald Trump has continued to suggest that the massive explosion that killed at least 135 people in Lebanon might have been a deliberate attack, even as officials in Lebanon and his own defense chief said its believed to have be an accident, AP news agency reported.

How can you say accident if somebody left some terrible explosive-type devices and things around perhaps  perhaps it was that. Perhaps it was an attack, Trump told reporters during a White House briefing.

I dont think anybody can say right now. Were looking into it very strongly right now.

Defence Secretary Mark Esper earlier contradicted the president, saying most people believe the explosion was an accident, as reported.

02:45 GMT  Hariris party wants international investigators to join probe

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariris Future Movement bloc in parliament has called for the participation of international experts in the probe of the massive blast in Beirut, according to Al Jazeeras Zeina Khodr.

The block said it wants a transparent judicial investigation into the incident that killed at least 135 people and injured 5,000 others.

02:17 GMT  Disaster-stricken Beirut to welcome Frances Macron

French President Emmanuel Macron is set to arrive in Beirut on Thursday and will meet the countrys leaders following the deadly blast that killed at least 135 people and injured 5,000 others.

Macron had already spoken to Lebanons President Michel Aoun after the disaster, and has ordered the deployment of assistance to the country.

Macron will travel to Lebanon Thursday, first world leader to visit #Beirut after blast I will go to Beirut 2mw to bring Lebanese people a message of fraternity and solidarity from the French," Macron wrote on Twitter. We will discuss situation with the political authorities.  Zeina Khodr (@ZeinakhodrAljaz) August 5, 2020

01:45 GMT  Rescuers continued to dig out survivors of Beirut explosion

Search and rescue workers, who are working around the clock in the Lebanese, capital, have dug out a child from under the rubble of the explosion, more than 24 hours after the incident.

A video circulating on social media showed rescuers frantically digging debris from the collapsed building as they tried to extract the survivor.

At least 135 people were killed and around 5,000 more were injured following the blast on Tuesday.

Some heartwarming news out of Lebanon amid all the tragedy. More than 24 hours after the #Beirut explosion, a young girl has been rescued from under the rubble. ___#https://t.co/nAameIRsQD  Sina Toossi (@SinaToossi) August 5, 2020

01:17 GMT  Parisians hold prayer vigil for victims of Beirut blast

Lebanese nationals living in Paris and other members of the public held a prayer vigil in the French capital to show solidarity with the victims of a massive explosion in Beirut, Lebanon.

The crowd gathered on Wednesday night outside the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Paris.

Other images of the event showed people in tears as they mourn the victims of the disaster. At least 135 people were killed and around 5,000 more were injured following the blast on Tuesday afternoon.

Lebanese nationals in Paris and other members of the public light candles during the Solidarity Stand event, held to show support for the victims of a massive explosion in Beirut [Mohammed Badra/EPA]

00:15 GMT  Germany sends aid, rescue teams to Lebanon

Germany dispatched rescue teams to help Lebanese authorities find survivors trapped beneath rubble in Beirut.

Teams from the German THW, the countrys emergency organisation, and International Search and Rescue Germany boarded a flight from Frankfurt on Wednesday evening destined for Beirut.

On board are search and rescue dogs, medical assessment teams, as well as 15 tonnes of equipment and tools, Timo Eilhard of the THW told Reuters News Agency.

_____________________________________________________________

Hello and welcome to Al Jazeeras continuing coverage of the enormous explosion in Beirut, Lebanon. Im Ted Regencia in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

For other key developments related to the Beirut explosion from yesterday, August 5, click here.
Harry's, alongside their women's grooming brand Flamingo, noted that the recipients of this funding were "organizations that combat inequality and help Black communities access mental health care." The brand consulted with mental health professionals and conducted in-depth research to select a series of nonprofit partners for this initiative. The funding will go towards supporting efforts to improve mental health for Black women.

"We're proud to announce that we're donating to ten impactful mental health and wellness nonprofits serving Black communities in the U.S. and U.K.," Harry's/Flamingo announced on social media. "Investing in our partners' work means that they'll be able to bring free, confidential therapy and mental health programming to thousands within Black communities in both countries."

AAKOMA Project founder Dr. Alfiee Breland-Noble thanked the brands for selecting the nonprofit as one of their US-based partners. "We're honored to be recognized by innovative brands like Harry's and Flamingo," Dr. Breland-Noble said, "and we're looking forward to continuing our important work with their support."

The AAKOMA Project has been a leader in mental health among Black communities in the Northern Virginia region, including providing free online mental health support to Northern Virginia's teens of color.

About The AAKOMA Project: The AAKOMA Project is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to help diverse teenagers and their families achieve optimal mental health through dialogue, learning, and the understanding that everyone deserves care and support. Find out more at https://AAKOMAproject.org/.

CONTACT: Tracey Deavers, [email protected]

SOURCE The AAKOMA Project, Inc.

Related Links

https://www.aakomaproject.org


Kylie Jenner is known for her enviably curvaceous physique and her highly successful Kylie Cosmetics makeup line.

And the 22-year-old makeup mogul molded the two together on Wednesday, in a sultry portrait shared by her makeup artist Ariel on Instagram.

In the glamour shot, Jenner donned only a light pink, terrycloth robe as she showcased her ample cleavage for the lens.

Glamour shot: Kylie Jenner donned a full face of makeup and showed off her ample cleavage in a portrait shared by her makeup artist on Instagram on Wednesday

Kylie's face was perfectly contoured and she rocked a bronze smokey eyeshadow look that complimented her nude toned pout.

Her golden brown hair was styled into a chic bumped under bob that flowed down from a middle part.

The Kylie Cosmetics founder appeared to be posing in the kitchen of her Calabasas mansion, which had its counter tops overrun by beauty products.

Once her face was complete and she put on some real clothes, Kylie headed out with her best friend Stassie Karanikolaou and Tik Tok star Bryce Hall to grab dinner at Nobu restaurant in Malibu.

Time to eat: Once her face was complete and she put on some real clothes, Kylie headed out with her best friend Stassie Karanikolaou and Tik Tok star Bryce Hall to grab dinner at Nobu restaurant in Malibu

Riding in style: Kylie played chauffeur for the evening as she arrived to the celebrity hot spot in her Tiffany blue Rolls Royce

Kylie played chauffeur for the evening as she arrived to the celebrity hot spot in her Tiffany blue Rolls Royce.

Kylie and her crew were also joined by Kylie's sister Kendall Jenner and mom Kris Jenner.

Stassie - who rode in the backseat of Kylie's luxury vehicle - rivaled her BFF's famous figure in a newspaper print bodycon dress.

She paired the unique piece with some platform boots and she tied her brunette hair back into a bun.

BFF: Stassie - who rode in the backseat of Kylie's luxury vehicle - rivaled her BFF's famous figure in a newspaper print bodycon dress

Finishing touches: She paired the unique piece with some platform boots and she tied her brunette hair back into a bun

Jenner also flaunted her impeccable makeup application on her Instagram Story, while promoting her brand Kylie Skin's impending Clarifying Collection.

She posed with the light pink PR box in her hand, while making sure her lens captured each of the collection's varying products.

As she explained her love for the products, Kylie also revealed that she created an entire Instagram highlight about Kylie Skin, so that fans can have their concerns and questions addressed.

Closer look: Jenner also flaunted her impeccable makeup application on her Instagram Story, while promoting her brand Kylie Skin's impending Clarifying Collection

Check it out: She posed with the light pink PR box in her hand, while making sure her lens captured each of the collection's varying products

One stop shop: As she explained her love for the products, Kylie also revealed that she created an entire Instagram highlight about Kylie Skin, so that fans can have their concerns and questions addressed

The Clarifying Collection goes on sale at 9AM on August 6 and consists of a Detox Face Mask, Clarifying Facial Oil and the Clear Complexion Correction Stick, which can all be purchased separately.

Earlier in the day, Kylie stunned her 188million followers on Instagram, when she and Stassie appeared in coordinating Prada looks.

'prada bae,' captioned Kylie, who copped the same pose as Stassie for the picture.

Though they sported the same silhouette, Kylie sported a white and orange variant, while Stassie kept it edgy in black and green.

Kylie Skin: The Clarifying Collection goes on sale at 9AM on August 6 and consists of a Detox Face Mask, Clarifying Facial Oil and the Clear Complexion Correction Stick, which can all be purchased separately
I tried making and eating Guy Fieri's signature recipes for a whole week. Ethan Miller /GettyImages; Lara Walsh for Insider

Food Network personality and restaurateur Guy Fieri has established himself as the "Mayor of Flavortown" with his unique brand of down-to-earth humor and non-pretentious, yet elevated, American cuisine.

Fieri's eccentric style has become iconic, and his twists on classic recipes like mac and cheese and chili are well-known among fans.

To put some of these memorable dishes to the test, I decided to give two breakfasts, two lunches, two dinners, and one dessert from Fieri's arsenal a try to see if they were really as good as advertised.

Read on to see how my week of cooking Fieri favorites went.

Day one: I tried making his Italian meatball sliders, which are served on Hawaiian rolls.

The sliders were made from pretty typical ingredients. Lara Walsh for Insider

At first glance, I was expecting to be blown away by this recipe since Fieri recommended using fire-roasted tomatoes, fresh basil, and fresh thyme for the sauce.

The recipe also requires Panko crumbs, a 50/50 blend of ground pork and ground beef, and grated parmesan, plus garlic, parsley, and salt and pepper for seasoning.

To start, I cooked onions, garlic, and red pepper flakes in olive oil before adding tomato paste, tomatoes, fresh basil, thyme, water, and some salt and pepper. I let that simmer for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, I soaked the Panko in milk for 10 minutes to get it to the right consistency before adding the ground meat, parmesan cheese, parsley, garlic, and some salt and pepper to taste.

I then formed the mixture into eight pretty giant balls and sauteed them for about eight minutes per side before putting them into an oven dish over half of the tomato-sauce mixture. I put the rest of the sauce on top and added eight slices of mozzarella cheese.

Story continues

Assembling and eating the sliders was harder than I expected it to be.

The sauce was the best part of the meatball-slider dish. Lara Walsh for Insider

After baking my meatballs in the sauce for 25 minutes, I tried to build the sliders with the help of wooden skewers.

But the assembly process wasn't easy.

The meatballs were almost too large to fit on the Hawaiian buns, and I wasn't able to load them up with much sauce. This was unfortunate because the meatballs were surprisingly disappointing when they weren't covered in sauce.

I also noticed that the ratio of sauce to meatballs seemed off. If I was to make this again, I think I could make half the amount of sauce and still have plenty.

The toppings quickly made the breading soggy, so I had to eat these quickly to prevent the rolls from dissolving into a mushy mess.

The Italian meatball sliders were pretty messy to eat. Lara Walsh for Insider

Unfortunately, I assembled most of the sliders right away, so I had to push away the soggy breading the next day.

All in all, I'd recommend eating these sliders as soon as they're done and making sure there's plenty of dipping sauce to serve them with.

The sauce was absolutely my favorite part of the whole dish, and I was tempted to drink it, slurp it, and inhale it by itself once the sliders were gone.

Day two: I attempted Fieri's "Mac Daddy" mac 'n' cheese, one of the dishes I was most excited about.

Guy Fieri is known for his comfort-food recipes. Lara Walsh for Insider

I was surprised by how many ingredients the chef uses to make a classic mac and cheese. In addition to requiring bacon, heavy cream, shallots, garlic, butter, and fresh thyme, Fieri's recipe also needs pepper-jack and cheddar cheeses.

First, I put shallots, garlic, and olive oil in an aluminum-foil pouch and roasted it for half an hour.

The directions also told me to use "reserved bacon fat" to saute the cooked shallot and garlic mixture instead of instructing me to make the bacon first, which I thought was pretty confusing.

I quickly fried some bacon on the stove, set aside the fat, and used it to further fry the shallots and garlic before adding flour to make a roux. After one minute, I whisked in all the heavy cream and fresh thyme and let it cook until it was reduced by a third.

I also cooked a pound of penne pasta on the side while I was waiting for the sauce to reduce.

Next, I stirred in the cheeses, sprinkled in some salt and pepper, and added the pasta. The whole mixture looked creamy and cheesy and smelled like heaven.

I poured the whole thing into a casserole dish and topped it off with the cooked bacon, Panko bread crumbs, butter, and fresh parsley.

Finally, I baked the dish at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes.

The final result was definitely a bit of a letdown, and it was mushy and unappetizing when I tried reheating the leftovers.

The mac-and-cheese recipe required a lot of effort. Lara Walsh for Insider

Surprisingly enough, the mac and cheese was extremely bland. All I could really taste was the heavy cream and the bacon on top.

Despite the expensive list of ingredients and all the time I'd put into making the dish, I was disappointed that the different cheeses, fresh herbs, and roasted shallot didn't really come through.

The next day, I quickly learned that the dish didn't improve with time as the pasta got soggy and the toppings hardened.

I decided to throw the rest of it out after eating it on the second day.

Day three: Fieri's stuffed, double-cut pork chops seemed intimidating to make.

The pork-chop recipe required some fancy ingredients. Lara Walsh for Insider

This recipe definitely fueled my curiosity because of its unusual flavor combinations.

To start, I cut a pocket in each one of the pork chops and put them in a plastic bag to brine with water, kosher salt, black pepper, Dijon mustard, dried sage, and granulated garlic for two hours.

Next, I fried the pancetta in an oil and butter mixture, which seemed excessive with all of the grease the meat generated by itself. Then, in the remaining oil, I cooked mushrooms, shallots, sage, and half of the fried pancetta to the pan for a few more minutes.

After the filling cooled, I added the fontina cheese and stuffed the brined pork with the mixture then set aside the rest with the remaining diced pancetta.

While my oven preheated, I beat two eggs in one bowl and mixed Italian seasoning, pepper, Panko, and flour in another.

In that same saute pan from earlier, I used olive oil (I didn't have any bacon fat like Fieri suggested) to brown the sides of the pork chops that I'd dipped in the breading mixture. I used tongs to hold them together while they cooked.

While the pork was in the oven, I made sauce from the shallots, remaining filling, chicken stock, Dijon mustard, and yogurt.

I finished off the sauce with salt and lemon juice, then poured it on top of the chops along with the remaining pancetta.

Much to my surprise, the seemingly random flavors and textures were amazing together.

The pork chops took over three hours to make. Lara Walsh for Insider

This turned out to be Fieri's biggest dark-horse recipe for me. The crunchiness of the breading paired with the tender meat and all the different flavor combinations made it a big win in my book.

I really liked the sauce  the tangy and citrus elements helped cut some of the richness of the dish.

The chops also held up surprisingly well overnight. Although the breading was a little bit soggy, it still tasted great after I blasted it in the microwave the next day.

This is a recipe I wouldn't mind making again.

Day four: The country ham with stone-ground grits and red-eye gravy was definitely the easiest recipe I attempted all week.

This recipe called for the most basic ingredients. Lara Walsh for Insider

Although this recipe doesn't come straight from Fieri, he has said that it's one of his favorites and he frequently makes it for breakfast.

I was a little skeptical about how bare-bones the ingredients were and the concept of a so-called "coffee gravy," but I decided to give the recipe a try.

First, I put a pot of coffee on, then I started working on the grits. After bringing my water to a boil, I simmered the grits for 45 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent sticking.

While the grits were cooking, I seared the ham for about five minutes per side in a skillet over medium heat until it was browned. Once it was done, I removed it and put a 1/4 cup of coffee with a cup of water in the skillet to simmer until it was reduced by half.

To serve, I put the grits into a bowl with black pepper and butter, followed by the ham, and finished off with spoonfuls of the coffee-gravy mixture.

The ham was good on its own, but I wasn't overly impressed by the grits or the gravy.

The meal was kind of bland. Lara Walsh for Insider

Considering I usually have grits served with cheese, I found this version to be pretty bland. I also noticed that the grits hardened pretty quickly, making it difficult to keep them as leftovers.

The coffee gravy didn't add much flavor to the dish, either. It just made it taste sort of bitter.

Day five: I made Fieri's Texas French toast bananas foster.

All of the ingredients and work were worth it for this recipe. Lara Walsh for Insider

I'm someone who will always choose a savory breakfast over a sweet one, but I'm looking forward to switching things up with Fieri's Texas French toast bananas foster.

It's been years since I've made French toast, but I noticed that Fieri's batter looked like a slightly richer version of what I'm used to with its heavy cream, whole milk, and three whole eggs.

I started by whipping the eggs, milk, and heavy cream in a bowl. I added vanilla extract, Grand Marnier liqueur, sea salt, and ground cinnamon.

Next, I heated up the butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and orange juice and took it off the burner to add 1/4 cup dark rum.

The directions weren't clear about how much longer I was supposed to leave it on, so I reduced it to low heat and kept stirring until it got to a caramel consistency. Then, I added the sliced bananas to the warm mixture.

Meanwhile, I dipped slices of brioche bread into the batter and cooked them for about two minutes per side. Once they were done, I assembled everything and poured the caramel sauce with the bananas on top.

I was in heaven as soon as the first bite of this hit my mouth.

This French toast absolutely blew me away. Lara Walsh for Insider

I can say with 100% confidence that I've never had a better bananas-foster French toast.

The citrus flavors from the addition of the Grand Marnier and the orange juice really come through, and it's hard to beat the combination of brown sugar, cinnamon, butter, and fluffy brioche with caramelized bananas.

I did, however, notice that the amount of sauce was a bit of an overkill, so I'd probably make half of it next time.

I'd also recommend making a fresh batch instead of reheating leftovers. The brioche kind of deflated after being in the fridge, so it wasn't as good the next day.

Day six: The Texas chili was easily the most labor-intensive recipe of the week.

This chili took a lot of work to make. Lara Walsh for Insider

Of all of the recipes I tried this week, Fieri's Texas chili was the one I was most excited to sample.

Instead of using chili powder to give the dish its trademark flavor, Fieri's recipe calls for a homemade paste using ancho, arbol, and guajillo chilis  which you toast, steam, and puree until smooth.

After blending the chilis and setting them aside, I sauteed the onions, peppers, Anaheim peppers, and Fresno chilis in a pan with olive oil for about seven minutes.

Next, I put the chuck and ground beef, which I'd seasoned with salt and pepper, in a separate, deeper pan. I cooked both until they were well browned, then added garlic, cumin, oregano, cayenne, and cinnamon.

Then, I added the cooked vegetables, beef stock, and blended chilis and brought the whole mixture to a boil.

After about two hours, I added the beer, paprika, and masa harina (corn flour), and stirred the mixture for about 12 minutes before sprinkling some salt and pepper on top.

At this point, I noticed that there seemed to be a layer of oil forming, but I tried to mix it up so it was less noticeable. It also looked a lot more watery than the chili I'm used to.

Meanwhile, I started making the beer-cheddar-cheese sauce by cooking unsalted butter, flour, half-and-half, amber beer, cheddar cheese, cream cheese, and Worcestershire sauce. Once everything was melted together, I added salt, pepper, dry mustard, paprika, and cayenne pepper.

I poured this cheesy mixture on top of a bowl of chili before adding a little bit of sour cream, fresh green onions, and diced red onion.

Disappointingly, the end result tasted like hamburger soup.

I didn't like how greasy the dish was. Lara Walsh for Insider

Although this was one of the dishes I was most excited about, I think it ended up being the biggest letdown.

Not only was making the chili very time-intensive and expensive, but also the flavor just didn't make it worth the effort at all. Additionally, the beer-cheddar-cheese sauce was very rich and didn't seem to add much to the whole dish.

The worst part was eating the leftovers.

I usually think chili improves with time, but there was an unappetizing layer of grease on the top of the mixture that I had to scrape off before reheating. Even then, the whole soup seemed to have an oily texture that made me not want to eat it.

I definitely won't be making this again.

Day seven: Fieri's Cin-ful peach cobbler sounded like a sweet way to end the week.

The frozen peaches threw me, but they cooked well. Lara Walsh for Insider

I've never made peach cobbler using frozen peaches or dried cranberries, so I was curious to see how Fieri's recipe measured up.

I started the peach filling by mixing brown and white sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt, and tossing the still-frozen peaches in to coat them.

Next, I made a thickening "slurry" by dissolving a teaspoon of cornstarch into a tablespoon of water and adding the juice of one lemon. This got added to the peach mixture.

After buttering my baking dish and pouring the peach mixture in, I made the crumb topping by mixing brown and white sugar, flour, oats, almonds, dried cranberries, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt with a stick of unsalted butter.

I put half of the crumb mixture on top of the peaches before popping the dish in the oven and lowering the heat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

After baking this for half an hour, I layered on the rest of the crumb topping and baked it for another 45 minutes at 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

This dish wasn't a terrible way to end the week, but the cobbler was a little sweet for my taste.

Overall, I thought the dessert was too sweet. Lara Walsh for Insider

I let the cobbler cool down for about half an hour, then served it with some vanilla ice cream.

The peaches tasted a lot better than expected, but I felt like the dish seemed more like a crisp and wasn't really anything to write home about. I think I'd personally have liked it better if it had a more traditional, flaky crust.

I'm also someone who doesn't like my fruit pies to be too sweet, and all of the sugar in this dish seemed like a bit of an overload.

Conclusion: The Texas French toast bananas foster blew me away, but the Texas chili was the most disappointing dish of the week.

I will definitely be making the French toast again. Lara Walsh for Insider

Fieri's Texas chili didn't live up to the hype flavor-wise and featured a lot of ingredients that were expensive and hard to find.

Honestly, I feel like I won't end up using many of the recipes again.

However, I can confidently say Fier's French toast made me more of a sweet-breakfast person than ever before and is definitely going to be part of my brunch arsenal. It wasn't too difficult to make, and all of the flavors really delivered.

Read more:

Read the original article on Insider
New Delhi: Popular television actor Samir Sharma was found dead at his Malad residence, leaving behind his mourning family, friends and fans. Samir was last seen in daily soap Ye Rishtey Hain Pyaar Ke.

According to Malad police, Sameer had rented the apartment in February this year. While on a round during night duty, the watchman of the society saw the body and alerted the society members. Looking at the condition of the body, the police suspects that the actor committed suicide at least two days back. However, no suicide note was found at the spot.

ALSO READ: TV actor Samir Sharma's last few Instagram posts will leave you teary-eyed!

Samir, who was an active face on social media, also happened to be a writer and poet, as says his Instagram bio 'Actor.Writer.Poet'. One of his Instagram post on late actor Sushant Singh Rajput dwells on depression and mental health.

Many reports earlier hinted at Sushant battling depression for the past few months. Samir in his long post on mental health talked about how 'depression is a very lonely disease and highly misunderstood on'.

Samir Sharma's sudden and untimely demise has shocked the celebrities and fans alike. Condolence messages have been pouring in on social media for his family and friends.

After TV actor Manmeet Grewal, Preksha Mehta, Disha Salian and Sushant Singh Rajput's shocking deaths, Samir Sharma's death by alleged suicide is yet another shocker for the loved ones.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

At least 50 employees from a Belgian pork plant have tested positive for the coronavirus, including cross-border workers from France, the local mayor said Thursday.

All 225 workers from the meat-cutting department at the giant Westvlees meat processing works in Staden, western Belgium, were placed into home quarantine on Wednesday.

They are all to be given COVID-19 tests and, by Thursday evening, of 164 known results, 50 were positive, Staden's bourgmestre Francesco Vanderjeugd told AFP.

"We are waiting for more results," he said, when asked if the quarantine would be extended to the entire 850-strong workforce at the facility.

"We will be testing on a larger scale within the company."

Out of the first six testing results, which triggered the alert on wednesday, two French workers were infected. The plant also employs many Romanians.

"At this instant I don't have the location of the where the 50 live. It's also possible that there's a lot of people that live in France," Vanderjeugd said.

The mayor said he had already contacted the Romanian consul to make him aware of the threat to his citizens.

Abbatoirs and meat-packing plants have become infection hotspots in other countries as the world deals with the epidemic, which has killed more than 700,000 worldwide.

Belgium has one of the highest per capita rates of COVID-19 in the world and infections are again rising after earlier success in bringing the epidemic under control.

Out of a population of around 11 million, 9,859 have died.

As nervous European governments consider reintroducing controls to head off a feared second wave of infections, many are looking at Belgium as a potential threat.

Westvlees is one of Europe's biggest producers of fresh and processed pork. It butchers 1.4 million pigs a year and supplies 140,000 tonnes of meat to clients worldwide.

"850 people work here, and the only production unit where we have had positive cases was the cutting room, where 225 people work," company spokesman Manuel Goderis said.

"The site can continue to operate, but the 225 people who are quarantined at home will not be working with us until next week," he added.

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

 2020 AFP
Very few politicians will ever take the risk of telling their own government how badly it failed, but that is what happened this week when one of Scott Morrisons backbenchers called out years of neglect in aged care.

Concetta Fierravanti-Wells gave the Prime Minister and his ministers a brutal assessment of the broken system that is supposed to look after more than 1 million older Australians.

It was a blast of cold air for a government that likes to warm itself with the notion of a job well done in this pandemic, when the job is not nearly over.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is accountable for the blunders in hotel quarantine and the subsequent spread of infection, but the fault lines in aged care run all the way to Canberra. The system was especially vulnerable after years of missed opportunities to mend its weaknesses.
What lies beyond the pandemic? MassForward is MassLives series examining the journey of Massachusetts businesses through and beyond the coronavirus pandemic.

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Crown Bakery has permanently closed but its famous Swedish coffee ring isnt going far. Theyre moving about a mile down Grove Street in Worcester.

The Swedish coffee rings and other baked goods from Crown Bakery will still be made with the original recipe at The Bean Counter, which recently opened a location on Grove Street in Worcester.

Were so honored to be part of this. People are really, really, really excited. Im thinking I might need to get a bigger oven, owner of The Bean Counter Alice Lombardi said with a laugh.

Lombardi was a longtime fan of Crown Bakery which operated in Worcester for six decades and became close with its former owner Jon Lundstrom.

When Lombardi searched Worcester for a fourth location, she originally asked Lundstrom if his property was an option. Instead, Lundstrom, retiring three years ago, sold the building to an employee.

When that location closed a result of coronavirus, a new partnership was natural.

It feels great, Lundstrom said. Thats what I want. I want the product to stay in Worcester County. I just dont want to disappear. Thats what I was looking for - longevity of our products. Its great.

The Bean Counter will continue to produce iconic items from Crown Bakery, which closed after operating for six decades in Worcester. From left to right, Doug Alvez, head baker at The Bean Counter, center Lenny, baker at Crown Bakery, and Jon Lundstrom.

Lombardi plans to debut the Swedish coffee ring only after it reaches perfection. Lombardi wants customers to leave The Bean Counter with a Swedish coffee ring believing the pastry came from Crown Bakery.

Were doing trial runs. Were just trying to make it over and over again, just to make sure we have everything down pat, Lombardi said. Were not changing a thing.

The Crown Bakery name will appear beside every baked good that originated from the iconic Worcester establishment.

The Bean Counter will start with the Swedish coffee rolls. and eventually introduce other Crown Bakery items such as jelly rolls and torts.

I want to do things well and to me, its all about quality not so much quantity, Lombardi said.

The Bean Counter will continue to produce iconic items from Crown Bakery, which closed after operating for six decades in Worcester.

Before The Bean Counter revealed it would continue the tradition of Crown Bakery, Lombardi said many of her customers expressed sadness that theyd never taste another coffee roll or jelly roll from the Swedish bakery.

Lombardi had already discussed the possibility of collaborating but kept it secret until it was official.

They make products that no one can recreate. Their recipes are all in Swedish. This is how authentic the recipe is, Lombardi said. I really appreciate it. For more than 50 years in Worcester, theyre like a legend. Ive always admired them.

In an example of the mutual respect shared by Lundstrom and Lombardi, each pointed to the other when asked where the idea originated.

After initial conversations, Lundstrom visited The Bean Counter to ensure the bakery had the correct equipment to produce what the Crown Bakery had for about 60 years.

It was like an interview, Lombardi said, laughing at the experience.

The first coffee rolls expect to debut at The Bean Counter next week. Amid continuous change brought by the coronavirus, Lombardi is thankful she can bring a bit of stability - even if its just a coffee roll next week and a jelly roll in the future.

Its just some happy news at this time, Lombardi said. People want comfort. Every time you think of comfort, usually food comes up.

MassForward is MassLive's series examining the journey of Massachusetts' small businesses through and beyond the coronavirus pandemic.

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About 70 students have gone into hotel quarantine while over 1,000 more ordered to self isolate after a young Adelaide woman tested positive to coronavirus.

The woman, aged in her 20s, is a student at Thebarton Senior College, a school for adult learners which will remain closed for another fortnight.

She is the fifth case linked to the school cluster sparked by another young woman who visited the college while infected.

The latest case has mild symptoms and is in a stable condition.

A woman aged in her 20s has became the latest South Australian to test positive to coronavirus. Pictured is a nurse screening patients outside a clinic in the Barossa Valley

Seventy of her classmates considered to be close contacts are now in quarantine under police guard at the Pullman Hotel.

Another 1,100 students and staff at the school have been ordered to self-isolate at home until August 15.

Health officials say they're doing everything to keep the cluster under control to ensure it doesn't spark a widespread outbreak.

'We have not got community transmission in South Australia in any way in widespread form, this is why we are being absolutely over cautious in this instance,' Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier said.

The school cluster accounts for five of the eight active cases across the state.

The woman is the fifth case from Thebarton Senior College (pictured) to test positive

Students in hotel quarantine will be offered mental health and social work support.

'The Thebarton Senior College does have a range of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds of the students attending,' Professor Spurrier said.

'These are young people, and vulnerable young people, and we'll also be engaging some support from social workers as well.'

Thebarton Senior College has been closed for the last week for deep cleaning.

The college was due to reopen on Friday before the latest case was confirmed on Thursday afternoon.

The Education Department will release more details on Friday on how students can continue their studies online.

The school now plans to reopen on August 17.

Seventy of the woman's classmates are now in quarantine at the Pullman Hotel (pictured) under police guard. Pictured are returned travellers at the end of their 14-day quarantine

The latest COVID-19 case takes the state's total to 457.

'There is a significantly higher risk of COVID-19 due to current outbreaks interstate. If you have any symptoms of COVID-19, no matter how mild, you need to get tested as soon as possible,' the latest SA health advice states

The state's death toll remains at four while 445 patients have recovered.

Meanwhile New South Wales remains on knife's edge after 12 new cases on Thursday.

NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian revealed millennials are causing a huge percentage of community transmission.

One man in his 20s visited three bars, three restaurants and a supermarket while infected.

Another infected man in his 20s from Newcastle, two hours north of Sydney, visited five pubs in three days and a Newcastle Jets match on Sunday.

South Australia has recorded 457 cases since the pandemic began. Pictured South Australian Police stopping vehicles near the SA border 5kms east of Pinnaroo.

'We're not saying don't socialise or don't go out at all but we are saying please limit your behaviour just in the next few weeks,' Ms Berejiklian said on Thursday.

'If you have the virus and you go out five times a week to different places you could potentially be spreading it to five different locations, and then we have to contract trace everybody.'

NSW is battling at least 104 active coronavirus cases - with fears of a full-blown second wave like Victoria.

Two of Thursday's new cases are under investigation and 10 are linked to known clusters.

A police car is pictured parked outside Flinders Street Station in Melbourne on Thursday morning. It was another horror day for the state with

Victoria recorded another 471 new cases in its fourth day of stage four lockdown on Thursday, a day after the state's darkest day of the pandemic of 725 cases and 15 deaths.

Four of Victoria's eight deaths on Thursday were connected to aged care facilities - which were also linked to 1,533 of the state's 7,449 active cases.

The deaths were made up of one woman in her 90s, two women and three men in their 80s and two men in their 60s.

More than 100 of the latest infections were from community transmission, called 'mystery cases'.

NSW, Victoria and NSW were the only states to record new cases on Thursday.
A Rhode Island man was sentenced to prison Wednesday for sending dozens of violent emails in which he threatened to torture, sexually assault and kill a Massachusetts professor who has expressed support for abortion rights and criticized Republican President Donald Trump.

Matthew Haviland, a North Kingstown, Rhode Island resident, was ordered by a federal judge in Boston to serve 21 months in prison and three years of supervised release, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Andrew Lellings office.

In September 2019, the 30-year-old man pleaded guilty to multiple counts of stalking and transmitting a threat in interstate commerce.

Over the course of several hours on March 10, 2019, Haviland sent a flurry of roughly 28 violent and threatening messages to a professor in Massachusetts, whose name was not released by authorities, prosecutors said.

The professor has published articles and spoken in favor of abortion rights, according to officials. The individual has also criticized the president.

In multiple emails to the professor, Haviland referenced abortion, writing in two of the messages, You will be held accountable for every f------ baby you murdered through your horrible deception [that] they are not humans and You will have your face ripped off and eaten by me, personally.

I will kill every Democrat in the world so we never more have to have our babies brutally murdered by you absolute terrorists, Haviland also told the professor in one of his emails.

The North Kingstown man went on to say he would sexually assault and kill the professor.

Other messages Haviland sent read, I will rip every limb from your body and eat it, piece by piece, I will bite through your eyeballs while youre still alive and I will torture you relentlessly until the end of time.

Just days after emailing the professor, Haviland sent around a dozen more messages to the university that the victim teaches at, touching on subjects of race, gender and physical disability and accusing the college of promoting the hatred of white people.

In one of the emails, the Rhode Island man said he would bomb the school, claiming that it spreads the idea that its okay to hate people because of their race.

Another message to the school just read, You should be murdered in cold blood.

The Constitution protects everyones right to free speech, but there is a hard line between free speech and the stalking and harassment committed in this case. My office will enforce that line, said Lelling said in a statement.

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The World Health Organization is holding a panel discussion with NBC Nightly News Anchor Lester Holt on Thursday on the coronavirus pandemic, which has infected more than 18.8 million people worldwide and killed at least 708,301, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

The WHO said Monday there may never be a magical cure for the coronavirus even as scientists and drugmakers across the globe race to find a safe and effective vaccine.

Scientists have made progress in identifying treatments that can help people with the most severe forms of Covid-19, and a number of vaccines are in late-stage trials, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a press conference. "However, there is no silver bullet at the moment and there might never be."

For now, world leaders can stop new outbreaks by practicing the "basics" of public health and disease control, Tedros said. "Testing, isolating and treating patients and tracing and quarantining their contacts. Do it all. Inform, empower and listen to communities. Do it all."

Read CNBC's live updates to see the latest news on the COVID-19 outbreak.
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The Indonesian government has expressed its deepest condolences to the people of Lebanon and the victims of the deadly twin blasts that shook the port in the capital Beirut on Tuesday afternoon.

"Our hearts are with the Lebanese people during this difficult and sorrow-filled time," the Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that the Indonesian government would keep monitoring developments in Lebanon after the explosion.

The ministry was maintaining close communication with the Indonesian Embassy in Beirut to ensure the safety of all Indonesian citizens in the country.

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She lost her husband Nick Cordero to complications of COVID-19 on July 5.

And on Wednesday, Amanda Kloots marked the one month anniversary of the Broadway actor's passing with a touching tribute on her Instagram.

Sharing a photo of them together, Kloots, 38, wrote: 'Dear Nick, its been one month since youve been gone. I wish I could say it has got easier, but with each passing day I miss you more and more.'

Grieving: She lost her husband Nick Cordero to complications of COVID-19 on July 5. And on Wednesday, Amanda Kloots marked the one month anniversary of the Broadway actor's passing with a touching tribute on her Instagram

Kloots, the mother of Cordero's one-year-old son Elvis, went on: 'I wish I could see you, hold you, kiss you, talk to you, hear your voice, get a hug, see you with Elvis.

'Your huge presence in our lives is missed every second of every day.'

She concluded: 'I love you forever and always.'

The couple married in 2017 and welcomed their son in June 2019.

Gone but not forgotten: Cordero, 41, died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in LA where he'd been hospitalized since March. He had suffered severe lung damage, had his right leg amputated and was so weak he was unable to move or speak as a result of the coronavirus

Legacy: Kloots and Cordero married in 2017 and welcomed their son Elvis in June 2019

Tribute: 'Dear Nick, its been one month since youve been gone. I wish I could say it has got easier, but with each passing day I miss you more and more,' Kloots, 38, wrote Wednesday

On March 30, the Rock of Ages star, 41, was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles suffering from pneumonia and later tested positive for the coronavirus.

He was placed on a ventilator and in mid-April had his right leg leg amputated due to complications.

He suffered severe lung damage, dropped 65lbs and was so weak he could not move or speak.

After more than 90 days in the ICU, he passed away July 5.

RIP: 'God has another angel in heaven now.... my heart is broken,' Kloots posted on July 5 as she announced the news that Cordero had passed away

During his long illness, Kloots had shared daily updates via her Instagram on his condition and had remained upbeat about his hopes of recovery.

'God has another angel in heaven now.... my heart is broken,' she said as she shared the news that her husband had died.

This past Sunday, Kloots posted a side by side image of her young son and his father.

'I have said from the beginning that Elvis is a mini Nick but WOW this side by side sealed the deal,' she wrote in the caption alongside the picture.

'I feel so lucky to have Elvis in my life. A piece of Nick that is still alive. I am so grateful for that,' she shared.
New Delhi: Actor Hrithik Roshan's mother Pinkie Roshan and his sister Sunaina Roshan have welcomed Centre's decision for a CBI probe into late star Sushant Singh Rajput's death. Pinkie took to Instagram to share a picture with "Justice" written on it and captioned it, "cryforjustice #justiceforalllives #faithinjusticeandpeace".

While Sunaina shared a series of posts on the Centre's nod for CBI inquiry and wrote, "CBI for Sushant Singh Rajput - At last."

Her other post, soon after the case handed over to the CBI, read, "The moment we have waited for has finally arrived."

Meanwhile, Sunaina had also posted a photo of Sushant to seek justice for him.

Sushant was found dead at his apartment in Mumbai on June 14. The death case was investigated by the Mumbai Police. However, friends, and fans of Sushant were demanding a CBI investigation for a fair probe.

On July 25, his father KK Singh, who resides in Rajiv Nagar locality of Patna, lodged an FIR against Sushant's actress girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty with the local police station accusing her of abetment to suicide and mentally and financially exploiting the actor. The Bihar Police then launched a parallel investigation. It was on Tuesday that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar recommended CBI probe into the case after consultation with the family and Centre accepted the request on Wednesday.
In Mamaroneck, N.Y.: a three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath, 3,052-square-foot waterfront house built in 1990, with an eat-in kitchen and living room, two fireplaces, a formal dining room, an office, a family room with a wet bar and built-ins, a backyard deck, a storage shed, a two-car garage, a pond and a deep-water dock on Mamaroneck Harbor, on 0.19 acres in the Rye Neck section.
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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.
Golz said the project is expected to be finished by the end of the year. Around two miles of pipeline, which dates to the 1950s, will be replaced, according to Golz.
On her application, Sarah identified herself as a butch cis woman, specifically looking for femme women, cis or trans. My experience with a plethora of dating apps taught me very quickly that specificity is the soul of narrative, said Sarah. Youve got to describe exactly what youre looking for, otherwise youre just wasting your time and that of whoevers on the end of the line. While Mara indicated on her application that she prefers someone who is less femme than me, during her interview she backpedaled, saying that its not an entirely accurate representation of how she dates. Im femme because Im a more feminine person, but thats not how I would identify as a lesbian, she explained. She said that her outward presentation aside, When you get to know me, I have a forceful, quote-unquote masculine personality. Just a small reminder that we humans contain multitudes.
Five years and a month after the disappearance of Crystal Rogers, the FBI has taken over the investigation and is launching a new search for the 35-year-old Kentucky mother of five.

More than 150 state and federal law enforcement officers on Thursday were executing nine federal search warrants and will be conducting more than 50 interviews in Bardstown, Kentucky, the FBI said in a press release.

FBI officials said they would work with the IRS, Kentucky State Police and the U.S. Attorneys Office to bring a "fresh perspective" to the case, which has attracted national attention over the years as family members in Nelson County and investigators seek answers.

"A hallmark of the FBI is we never give up," FBI Louisville Special Agent in Charge Robert Brown said in the release. "The FBI is committed to bringing those responsible to justice, but we are going to need the communitys assistance."

Who was Crystal Rogers? When did she disappear?

Rogers was from the small, tight-knit town of Bardstown, about 40 miles south of Louisville. She went missing over Fourth of July weekend in 2015. Her mother reported her missing July 5 after she hadn't heard from her daughter in two days.

Rogers' car was found abandoned on the Bluegrass Parkway with her keys, phone and purse still inside. Rogers, a mother of five children, was not known to go anywhere without her kids, according to the FBI.

"My mom is a very special woman," Rogers' daughter, K., wrote on a new website dedicated to the investigation. "The memory that will forever be in my heart is going to DQ and buying my momma lunch. We would always get the chicken strip basket with the toast and gravy to go with it. Going over to mamaw Martins and playing phase 10 and aggravation over and over while eating snacks. Since my moms been missing, life has been really hard. I always wonder what my life would be like if she and my papaw was still here."

Story continues

Are there any suspects?

Properties searched Thursday morning included homes belonging to Brooks Houck, his brother and their mother, Rosemary Houck, the FBI confirmed to USA TODAY.

Rogers had been dating Brooks Houck, an initial suspect, who is the father of one of her sons. Houck has denied involvement with Rogers' disappearance and has never been charged.

Houck's brother, Nick, was a police officer with the Bardstown Police Department at the time and was fired after interfering in the investigation.

The mayor of Bardstown said Nick Houck interfered with the investigation by phoning his brother on July 8 when he knew Brooks was being interviewed by detectives, warning that his brother "should protect himself," and that investigators "might be trying to trip him up," the Kentucky Standard reported at the time.

City officials held an administrative hearing on Nick Houck's actions and fired him a day later.

In 2019, the home owned by Brooks Houck was burned down in what city officials said was arson. Bardstown Fire Chief Billy Mattingly said the house may have been set on fire by disgruntled employees who worked for Brooks Houck.

Possible human remains found near where Rogers disappeared

Possible human remains were discovered two weeks ago near where Rogers was last seen, the Nelson County Sheriff's Office said in a statement, leading to a swirl of rumors that the remains could belong to Rogers.

The remains were discovered July 23 near the border of Nelson and Washington counties, the sheriff's office said. The next day, the sheriff's office requested the assistance of the FBI Evidence Response Team because it was difficult to reach the location of the possible remains, which were sent to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, for testing.

The sheriff's office did not immediately say who discovered the possible remains, or how.

"Out of respect for family members of multiple missing persons in these areas, we will not be commenting on this until we have more information from the lab," the office said in a statement.

What happened to Crystal Rogers' dad?

More than a year after Rogers disappeared, her father, Tommy Ballard, 54, was fatally shot while hunting on family property in a rural area outside Bardstown.

The Nelson County Coroner's Office said he was shot once in the chest, with the bullet entering his chest and exiting his back, according to WHAS-11. He was pronounced dead at the scene on a farm located on Ed Brent Lane.

Ballard's grandson, who was with him during the trip, was not responsible for Ballard's death, Kentucky State Police detectives said.

How is the Crystal Rogers case connected to ambushed police officer Jason Ellis?

In 2017, Kentucky State Police hired former troopers to investigate the cases of both Rogers and Jason Ellis, a Bardstown police officer who was ambushed in 2013 and killed by at least two people.

On May 25, Ellis, a husband and father of two young boys, clocked out of his shift at 2 a.m. and started his normal, 15-mile drive home on the Bluegrass Parkway. He took Exit 34, a narrow ramp bounded on either side by steep stone walls. Halfway around the ramp, someone had dragged a pile of branches into the roadway.

Ellis stopped, turned on his blue lights and got out of his cruiser to clear them. Someone, perched on top of the stone cliff above him, fired a shotgun. Ellis was hit multiple times, and died on the side of the road.

There were no witnesses.

FBI taking over the investigation

The FBI is offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to an identification, arrest or conviction in the Rogers case.

"I ask that members of the community think back to July 3rd and 4th of 2015," Brown said in the release. "For those individuals who have information about this incident but who have not yet spoken to law enforcement for whatever reason, please contact us."

The agency has set up a website for the case at www.crystalrogerstaskforce.com.

If you have information related to the disappearance of Crystal Rogers, you can visit the website, call the FBI tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI or contact your local FBI office, or the nearest American Embassy or Consulate.

Contributing: Justin Sayers, Claire Galofaro, Lucas Aulbach, Louisville Courier Journal

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Crystal Rogers: FBI takes over case of missing Bardstown, Kentucky mom
The Saudi men are said to have arrived at Torontos Pearson International Airport on a fall day.

Among them were DNA forensic experts, a senior military officer and a member of Saudi Arabias ministry of foreign affairs.

Holding tourist visas, they approached different customs kiosks. When questioned by border officers, they said they were not together.

But, if the allegations are to be believed, they were a team of mercenaries known as the Tiger Squad  a group sent by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman just days after the brutal death of prominent Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey.

Their alleged target? Saad Aljabri, a former top Saudi intelligence official who had sought exile in Toronto. They had tracked him to Canada using malware on his phone. They were here to execute him.

This is the extraordinary scene from 2018, seemingly out of a Hollywood spy thriller, that is painted in the allegations of a 100-plus-page lawsuit filed Thursday by Aljabris lawyers at U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

Even though the alleged murder plot was thwarted after the team members failed to get past suspicious border officers, Aljabris life remains today in dire peril, the lawsuit asserts.

Aljabri, a permanent resident of Canada, believes two of his children, who were detained in Saudi Arabia earlier this year and whose whereabouts are not known, are now being used as human bait to lure him out of hiding.

He is seeking unspecified damages from bin Salman and his associates for allegedly orchestrating an attempted extrajudicial killing and for violating international law.

The Star made multiple attempts Thursday by phone and email to reach Saudi embassy officials in Ottawa and Washington for comment but was unsuccessful.

One cannot really determine if the allegations are true based on the court filing and secondary reporting, said Rex Brynen, a McGill University political science professor specializing in Middle East politics.

However, this is entirely consistent with how Saudi intelligence operatives have acted in the case of other dissidents.

Absent solid evidence, Brynen said he suspects Canada will do little more than place Saudi officials in Canada under possibly greater surveillance and warn CBSA to scrutinize Saudi visitors a little more closely.

RCMP, CBSA and CSIS officials said they could not discuss specific cases.

Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said in a statement through his office that while he couldnt discuss matters before the courts, We are aware of incidents in which foreign actors have attempted to monitor, intimidate or threaten Canadians and those living in Canada.

Canadians can be confident that our security agencies have the skills and resources necessary to detect, investigate and respond to such threats.

The lawsuit alleges Aljabri was targeted because of his close ties with the U.S. intelligence community, intimate knowledge of bin Salmans activities and potential to undermine bin Salmans influence and support from the Trump White House.

Few places hold more sensitive, humiliating, and damning information about Defendant bin Salman than the mind and memory of Dr. Saad, the lawsuit states, noting that Aljabri has made recordings in anticipation of his killing.

It goes on to say, That combination of deep knowledge and enduring trust by top U.S. officials is why there is virtually no one Defendant bin Salman wants dead more than Dr. Saad.

The targeting of Aljabri, the lawsuit alleges, is part of a broad campaign by the crown prince to silence dissidents  a campaign that included the murder of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, in the kingdoms consulate in Istanbul. The crown prince has denied he ordered that killing.

The new lawsuit comes at a time of messy relations between Canada and Saudi Arabia, a key player in the Arab world and major oil exporter. Earlier this year, Ottawa announced it would resume military exports to Saudi Arabia after putting a freeze on new permits in 2018 over human rights concerns.

A spokeswoman for Global Affairs Canada declined Thursday to discuss how the legal case might affect Canada-Saudi relations.

During his decades-long career with the Saudi government, Aljabri developed a close relationship with U.S. intelligence officials on counterterrorism files and was credited with helping to thwart a bomb attack in the U.S. by an al-Qaida affiliate, according to the court filing.

Aljabri was also an aide to Mohammed bin Nayef, who was a rival to bin Salman in a bid for the throne. After receiving intelligence that his life might be in danger, Aljabri fled the kingdom in May 2017, first to Turkey, then to Canada, according to the lawsuit.

In June 2017, bin Salman ousted bin Nayef in a palace coup and became the de-facto ruler. In the ensuing months, bin Salman allegedly tried to pressure Aljabri into returning to Saudi Arabia in a series of WhatsApp messages  threatening to use all available means to find him and telling him, We shall certainly reach you.

According to the lawsuit, bin Salman deployed a network of covert agents in the U.S. to try to track down Aljabri. Aljabri owns property in Washington, D.C., and other parts of the U.S. and had an affiliation with the Harvard Kennedy School in Massachusetts.

These agents allegedly approached Aljabris son and family friends in Boston.

It is also alleged that bin Salman went so far as to arrange the arrest of Aljabri through Interpol, the international police agency, accusing Aljabri of corruption. (The New York Times has since reported that Interpol removed Aljabris name from its system because of concerns that the Saudi request was politically motivated).

According to the lawsuit, FBI agents warned Aljabris son in early 2018 that there were credible threats against the family. Then in October 2018, a couple of weeks after the murder of Khashoggi, a group of Saudi nationals travelled to Toronto with the intention of killing (Aljabri).

While the lawsuit alleges the composition of the team was different from the one that killed Khashoggi, it was similar in that it consisted of people drawn from across Saudi government including forensic DNA experts from the General Department of Criminal Evidence in the Ministry of Interior, a senior military intelligence officer with the Ministry of Defense, and a diplomatic officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

They were united only in their loyalty to Defendant bin Salman and their readiness to carry out his personal vendettas, including through torture and murder.

Carrying two bags of forensic tools, and complete with forensic personnel experienced with the cleanup of crime scenes  including an instructor in the exact same criminal evidence department as the forensic specialist who dismembered Khashoggi with a bone saw  the Tiger Squad Defendants attempted to enter Canada covertly, travelling on tourist visas and seeking to avert the detection of Canadian border security by entering through separate kiosks, the court document states.

But the group didnt make it far.

It is alleged that when Canadian border security officers asked them if they knew each other, they lied and said they did not. During a secondary screening, Canadian officials found a photo of some of the Tiger Squad Defendants together, revealing their lie and thwarting their mission.

Everyone was denied entry into Canada, except for one member who had a diplomatic passport, the lawsuit says.

The court document does not make clear how Aljabri came to learn of the interception. A source connected to Aljabri told the Star on Thursday an official with a Canadian security service provided the information and that it was corroborated by a U.S. security official.

Aljabri continues to believe his life is in danger and fears that bin Salman wants to send agents from the U.S. into Canada by land to complete the job.

In March, dozens of armed men stormed the Aljabri family home in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, abducted two of Aljabris children  Omar and Sarah, both in their early 20s  and took them to an unknown location, according to the lawsuit. Other relatives have also been detained.

Aljabri believes the family members are being used as a crude form of human bait in an effort to lure (him) to Saudi Arabia so that he can be killed.

The lawyers representing Aljabri in his lawsuit declined to comment Thursday. One of them is David Pressman, a former ambassador who represented the United States on the United Nations Security Council and a former assistant secretary of Homeland Security.

Toby Jones, a history professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey specializing in the Middle East, said, It is entirely believable that bin Salman would seek to murder those he sees as dangerous to him.

This kind of violence has a long political history in Saudi Arabia. Leaders there have allegedly been involved in the kidnapping or assassination of critics and dissidents from Beirut to London to Istanbul since the 1970s. And has long been the case, the Saudis enjoy almost complete impunity, he said.

Their powerful backers, particularly the kingdoms most important advocate, the United States, see little value in pressuring for change or in demanding accountability. Saudi oil and money long ago bought American and Western silence, and, their willingness to look away.

Last month, four U.S. senators wrote a letter to President Donald Trump to express their concern for the enforced disappearance of the two children of Aljabri, whom they described as a close ally and friend.

They wrote that the U.S. had a moral obligation to help the family.

In a recent article in Foreign Policy magazine, journalist Ola Salem wrote the methods in the Aljabri case appear to be a recurring tactic used by Arab regimes against growing numbers of dissidents abroad.

Families are asked to pressure the dissenting relative into silence, disown them, discredit them and denounce their actions. Families that fail to comply face travel bans, social isolation, job loss, and even incarceration.

In June, the Guardian newspaper reported that another Saudi dissident and video blogger living in exile in Canada, Omar Abdulaziz, had recently been warned by the RCMP that he might be a potential target of Saudi Arabia.

(Mohammed bin Salman) and his group or  I dont know  his team, they want to harm me, he told the newspaper. They want to do something, but I dont know whether its assassination, kidnapping, I dont know  but something not OK for sure.

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Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (Seha), the largest healthcare network in the UAE, has announced new operating hours for select services in Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City (SSMC), Sheikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC) and Tawam Hospital.



This move will expand the networks capacity to accommodate the healthcare needs of patients, decrease waiting times and elevate the overall patient journey, in line with Sehas patient-centric approach to healthcare.



To ensure maximum convenience in patient bookings and consultations, patients will now be able to seek medical consultation for in-demand specialties between 8:30am and 08:30pm, with select clinics also working on Saturdays. The change to operational hours has already been introduced in Tawam Hospital and will come into effect at SSMC and SKMC on August 9.



Rashed Saif Al Qubaisi, Group Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Seha, said: As Seha continues transforming and advancing the healthcare sector in the Abu Dhabi region and beyond, we have a responsibility to ensure our facilities and services are fully accessible to the community.



With our facilities strategically placed to ensure the entire community has easy access to world class healthcare, we are pleased to now extend our operating hours to guarantee convenience in appointment scheduling. We are confident that with this new change, we will be better positioned to meet every medical need amidst the population.



Following Sehas implementation of new safety measures across its facilities in line with government guidelines and as people resume reprioritizing their healthcare needs, select services have been experiencing increased demand. To ensure availability of these offerings, the operating hours of the following services across SSMC, SKMC and Tawam hospital will be extended: Cardiology, Neurology (adult and paediatric), ENT, Neurosurgery, in addition to supplementary specialties per facility.



Dr Marwan Al Kaabi, Acting Group Chief Operations Officer, Seha, said: We look forward to welcoming patients during the new operating hours, and are confident the new scheduling flexibility will allow patients to better manage their healthcare journeys.  TradeArabia News Service
'What has changed is the desperation of Pakistan proxies and the separatists in their failure to foment violence and civilian casualties in Kashmir.'

Photograph: Umar Ganie for Rediff.com IMAGE: Indian Army soldiers conduct a search operation during an encounter in which two militants were killed and a soldier was injured at Ranbirgarh Lawapora in Srinagar, July 25, 2020.

Lieutenant General B S Raju, AVSM, YSM was commissioned into 11 JAT on December 15, 1984. An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, the general attended the NDC course at the Royal College of Defence Studies, UK, and the Master's programme in counter terrorism, at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, USA.

General Raju commanded a rifle company on Soltoro Ridge with 11 JAT. He commanded 15 JAT during Operation Parakaram in the semi desert sector and later at Tut Mari Gali, in Jammu and Kashmir. He commanded the Uri Brigade on the Line of Control and was later the General Officer Commanding of CI Force Victor in south Kashmir.

The general presently commands the Chinar Corps in Kashmir.

"Pakistan has a single minded focus on interference and poisoning the minds of the people of J&K. To further this, it has paid proxies that peddle its destructive narratives... This poisoning of young impressionable minds with the constant drumming of propaganda and false narratives leads the youth to go astray and pick up a weapon," General Raju tells Senior Rediff.com Contributor Air Commodore Nitin Sathe (retd). The first of a multi-part interview:

It is said that there are 200 to 250 militants still active in the Kashmir valley. Of these, how many are foreigners and how many are local boys who have been recruited?

Estimates regarding active militants vary; our present estimates of terrorists in Kashmir are less than 200, down due to relentless successful operations.

This is largely a result of good control over infiltration, killing of existing cadres and reduced recruitment.

While in 2019, till June, 83 youth had joined terrorism, the figure has reduced to 70 in the current year.

This recruitment of local youth into terror in 2019 was 117, which has been comparatively less as compared to figures of 2018 at 214.

This has further dropped in 2020.

These are clear indicators of the decline in terror influence in J&K. We wish that this should drop further, and finally cease altogether.

Photograph: Umar Ganie for Rediff.com IMAGE: Kashmiris at the site where the two militants were killed and an Indian soldier was injured during an encounter at Ranbirgarh Lawapora in Srinagar, July 25, 2020.

Stripping of special status has led to militarisation of youth in South Kashmir.

What exactly has been the motivation for the youth to join the militant camps and what do you attribute the reasons for the same?

What can be done to reverse this trend in the current circumstances?

What have been the innovative tactics/ improvisations that have been employed to control militancy in your AoR (Area of Responsibility)?

South Kashmir has been a hub under the influence of terror even before my last tenure as GOC Victor Force.

The abrogation of Article 370 can in no way said to have led to 'militarisation of youth in South Kashmir'.

To the contrary in the last one year, all parameters of security have improved in the Kashmir valley including South Kashmir.

What needs to be understood about the principal instability factor is that Pakistan has a single minded focus on interference and poisoning the minds of the people of J&K.

To further this, it has paid proxies that peddle its destructive narratives.

Pakistan has been using social and religious radicalisation as a tool to fuel separatism.

This poisoning of young impressionable minds with the constant drumming of propaganda and false narratives leads the youth to go astray and pick up a weapon.

If this issue of Pakistan interference is addressed then the Awaam of J&K will have opportunity to focus on the aspirations of the local people, and work to address the daily challenges while moving towards progress and development.

Local terror recruitment is one of our primary concerns.

Our efforts are aimed at weaning the youth away from terror with proactive steps being taken to identify and counsel vulnerable youth.

We are working to firstly prevent local youth from joining terrorism and secondly to facilitate surrender from those who have joined terror tanzeems.

Invigorating surrender is something that is something that we are working on at multiple levels.

In all operations, we extend every opportunity to local terrorists to give up arms and return to the mainstream.

During most encounters we halt operations and involve the parents or society elders to urge the trapped local terrorist to surrender.

We have been successful on some occasions and hope that such numbers increase.

The family and the misguided youth are assured of State help in surrender, security from terror retribution and help in rehabilitation.

We as a nation and society have to create opportunities for successful rehabilitation of such surrendered terrorists.

To make surrender more attractive in current environment we have given our suggestions for updating the existing surrender policy to the UT (Union Territory) government and it is under consideration.

We look at the Awaam and Kashmiri society to constructively engage with the youth to eradicate the false notions spread by Pakistani and separatist propaganda.

IMAGE: Lieutenant General B S Raju, General Officer Commanding, Chinar Corps, left, along with officers at the Line of Control. Photograph: Kind courtesy Chinar Corps

You took over this prestigious command in February, just after the abrogation of Article 370 and the removal of special status to the state. With the numerous tenures that you have had in the Kashir valley, what do you think has changed in the entire AoR?

On the kinetic front, over the past year, the leadership of all terrorist tanzeems has been effectively targeted and eliminated.

This and the recent successes in the Counter Terrorist operations has now left a definite leadership void.

Infiltration has also reduced to one of the lowest levels in years.

In addition, measures to neutralise the OGW (over the ground workers who aid the terrorists) network is a concurrent effort.

These signs show a marked decline in terror influence in J&K.

We hope to keep up the pressure.

What has changed is the desperation of Pakistan proxies and the separatists in their failure to foment violence and civilian casualties in Kashmir.

Since Kashmir is not burning, the Pakistanis are very uncomfortable.

The Awaam is today looking towards a future of peace, stability, opportunities and development.

They are looking forward to see the impact of the change in administration.

The worries amongst the population are mostly fed by the Pakistani propaganda which is being proactively exposed.

There have been numerous development initiatives fructifying on ground in the recent months, this has to continue for the Awaam to feel reassured and negate inimical propaganda.

The COVID-19 challenge has slowed things, but that is a part of the global challenge that the administration and the Awaam are fighting jointly.

We as the security forces are committed to creating an environment of security where administrative, political and civilian activities can happen without fear of the gun.

It is a work in progress.

Tell us how you are synergising and strengthening the intelligence mechanism in the valley so that timely and accurate intelligence is available to the troops on ground.

Synergy in operations between various Security Forces and the intelligence agencies has been one of the primary reasons of success in the recent Counter Terror and Counter Infiltration efforts.

We have processes in place for the precise coordination in information sharing and conduct of operations. Our last security review meeting at the apex level was on August 2, 2020.

The success in operations both on the Line of Control and the hinterland rely on a combination of use of technology, Human Intelligence and good tactical skills. We have the top of the line technology for intelligence which we continuously keep upgrading.

The HUMINT is also good as the Awaam is wise to see for themselves the fallacy of the lies propagated.

Does the additional requirement of almost 50,000 troops in Ladakh impact the availability of troops to task for internal security duties? It is said that the situation in Ladakh will have severe implications on the security situation in the valley.

In military terms, in J&K we are dealing with the Pakistan border in Kashmir. We have sufficient highly trained and well equipped combat forces to deal with any exigency.

I can assure you that our combat readiness for any contingency is very high.

14 Corps in Ladakh is mandated and equipped to handle the situation both on the Chinese and Pakistani front opposite them. The overall conduct under Northern Command has plans to cater for all contingencies.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
As nurses and counselors in the Pasadena and Deer Park school districts prepare for classes to start this fall amid the coronavirus pandemic, they will rely on technology, training and collaboration to meet needs of students divided between those studying on-campus and those learning virtually from home.

In addition to the preparation for a unique back-to-school situation, everyone must adjust expectations for the upcoming school year while looking for new learning opportunities, said Kellie Hill, a counselor at Carpenter Elementary School in Deer Park ISD.

Some students will be thrilled for the return to normalcy, but others may have become very accustomed to sleeping in or staying in pajamas all day; so the transition will be very difficult, she said. We all have to practice patience and understanding to reintegrate back into a school setting. Also, Im working on creating a video which teaches students etiquette for the virtual classroom.

Students need to know they are cared about

April Weisedel, the chief nursing officer at Pasadena ISD, knows her staff of registered nurses will face myriad challenges once kids are back on campus. To make sure the team is ready, nurses will receive extensive COVID-19 training. Two of them, Ashley Pressly at Bondy Intermediate School and Kristi Donaho from Dobie Ninth Grade Center, said they know that continued learning aimed at preventing the virus spread is incredibly important but emphasized they will focus on the emotional needs of returning students as well.

I really care about kids emotional and mental health, Pressly said. Fear doesnt serve us well in regards to our health.

Donaho agreed. Kids will come to the clinic just because theyre upset about something. For those kids, we have to be there emotionally. For the remote kids, it could be a check-in call. Everybody needs to know theyre cared about.

Individual and group counseling planned

This is likely when collaboration with counselors occurs. Those professionals will be tasked with helping students  including those learning virtually  with any aspects of the pandemic they may be facing.

Rachel Sheffield, a counselor at Bonnette Junior High School in Deer Park ISD, said she and her colleagues will conduct virtual counseling sessions  both individual and group  to offer critical support services for those who need it.

Also, parents and students will be able to access a new link on schools websites to request a call from a counselor.

Sheffield said counselors efforts will focus on quelling anxiety and building strong kids through lessons on self-care and how to manage fear.

Resiliency will be a focus as well, and we will continue to remind students that we will make it through this and we are in it together, she said.

Leaning platforms called a game changer

Hill is excited about the direct access kids will have via Seesaw and Canvas, two of the online learning platforms Deer Park ISD is using for remote instruction.

This is a game changer! she said. Students can message, email and post to these platforms and receive quick responses from the schools counselors.

Through those platforms, kids will access lessons on character education, bullying and drug prevention and anti-victimization.

Sheffield said its her job to make sure her online interactions with students are meaningful.

We know that during adolescence socialization is a vital part of development; so we still are tasked with creating a culture and climate through online school that focuses on positive relationships and peer interaction, she said.

Positive relationships are what Pressly in Pasadena ISD said shes looking to cultivate with her campus staff as she works to educate them about safety protocols.

Theres going to be a lot more collaboration this year. We will have to reach out to our peers for help, she said. As nurses, and sometimes the only health professionals on campus, well have to take a different leadership role than before and get everyone on the same page.

Cheryl Westmoreland, Deer Park ISDs lead nurse, said that amid the summer rush of ordering enough personal protective equipment, extra cleaning supplies, no-touch thermometers and setting up isolation spaces in every school, shes thinking ahead to how she can train a staff member to step into her role temporarily if she's tending to someone in isolation.

Someone has to know how to administer medicine, they have to be CPR-trained and know about first aid, and they also have to have an interest and feel comfortable doing it, she said.

Westmoreland said her nurses are intensely focused on learrning all they can to keep kids and staff healthy and safe.

This is going to be a big year. Nobody wants to go into it not ready; so my nurses are hungry for the right information and they want to be prepared, she said. We want our kids back in school, so they are anxious to get it right.
New Jersey landlord 'demanded' sexual favors for housing, DOJ says

Associated Press

The Department of Justice is suing a New Jersey landlord who it says demanded sex from tenants in exchange for affordable housing for more than a decade.

Joseph Centanni had more than 100 tenants on properties that were federally funded, according to the suit.

On several occasions he coerced vulnerable people who needed to keep or obtain housing to do sexual favors, the DOJ says.

The DOJ said that this behavior violates the Fair Housing Act.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

The Department of Justice is suing a New Jersey landlord that it says demanded sexual favors from tenants in exchange for housing.

Joseph Centanni, of Mountainside, owns 18 properties that house more than 100 people in Elizabeth, New Jersey, according to the lawsuit.

For more than a decade, the lawsuit alleges, Centanni violated the Fair Housing Act, which is intended to protect tenants from sexual harassment and retaliation by their landlords.

"No one should ever be forced to provide sexual favors, or otherwise endure sexual harassment, as a condition to keep or obtain housing," U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said in a statement. "Sexual harassment in housing is illegal under the Fair Housing Act, and we will vigorously enforce this federal law to end this depraved type of behavior."

On several occasions between 2005 and 2019, Centanni coerced tenants or people seeking to live on his properties, which are federally-funded affordable housing, to perform oral sex on him in order to keep or obtain somewhere to live, the suit says. He also subjected vulnerable tenants to unwanted sexual touching and exposed his genitals to them, the Justice Department alleges.

When tenants refused his sexual advances, he would retaliate by initiating eviction actions or threatening to do so, according to the court documents.

A small boy holds a placard during a protest to promote a State government bill (AB 1436) that will prohibit landlords from evicting tenants because of unpaid rent due to the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in San Diego, California, U.S., July 17, 2020.

REUTERS/Mike Blake

In one instance, in 2019, a woman living in one of his apartments approached him to say she might have difficulty paying her rent. Centanni offered to connect her to a rental assistance program, and asked what she would do in exchange, according to the court documents.

Story continues

He brought her to an empty apartment, asked her for a massage, and exposed himself, according to prosecutors. He then used both of his hands to make her touch his genitals, as she said no, prosecutors say. He later helped her to apply for rental assistance.

In another case last year, a woman who planned to move out asked if she could stay because she was having trouble finding a new place, the Justice Department says.

When she asked Centanni if she could stay, he responded to the effect of "how bad do you want your apartment?" according to the lawsuit.

Centanni took the woman to an empty storage room, exposed himself, and asked for oral sex. Feeling like she was out of options, the tenant submitted to Centanni's sexual demand, according to the Justice Department.

Raymond Londa, an attorney for Centanni, declined to comment on the case.

Centanni participated in the federally-funded Housing Choice Voucher Program, a rental assistance program that subsidizes the rent of lower-income tenants, seniors, and people with disabilities.

As of April, Centanni had around 120 tenants who were using the Housing Choice vouchers and was receiving more than $100,000 each month from the program, according to the Justice Department.

Read the original article on Insider
Energy and Gas Assistance Funds Provides Utility Assistance to Families in Need

In partnership with Southern California Edison and Southern California Gas Company, United Way of Greater Los Angeles extends support with utility assistance as people face financial hardship from the pandemic.

More support with energy bills is now available to people directly affected by the coronavirus pandemic due to job loss, closures, illness, or for seniors. United Way of Greater Los Angeles is partnering with Southern California Edison (SCE) and Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) to administer SCEs Energy Assistance Fund (EAF) and SoCalGass Gas Assistance Fund (GAF) programs designed to prevent people from falling into financial hardship. As COVID-19 puts thousands more at risk of financial insecurity, EAF and GAF have extended and increased its maximum assistance available.

Working with an extensive network of community partners, United Way of Greater Los Angeles is helping low-income families in need of utility assistance to apply for EAF and GAF.

In these uncertain times, our struggling neighbors and communities need us now more than ever, said Elise Buik, President and CEO of United Way of Greater Los Angeles. We are proud to have partners such as SoCalGas and SCE join us in our fight to end poverty with these critical programs.

ADVERTISEMENT

We know many of our customers need help right now. Thats why we doubled the amount of bill help customers can get through the Energy Assistance Fund (EAF),said Jill C. Anderson, Senior Vice President of Customer Service at SCE.We encourage customers whove experienced sudden changes to their income to apply for assistance through EAF or any other bill help program that SCE offers.

We are proud to continue to support customers facing financial hardship through the extension of our Gas Assistance Fund program, said Gillian Wright, Senior Vice President of Customer Service at SoCalGas. So many families are struggling to make ends meet right now and SoCalGas wants to help however we can. That is why we have increased the amount of assistance available to our customers.

United Way of Greater Los Angeles administers the EAF and GAF programs with several community partners within our communities.

If you are having difficulty paying your SoCalGas or SCE bill, please review the information below regarding each assistance program.

Southern California Edison

Energy Assistance Fund (EAF) program operates year round. If you are impacted by COVID-19, the EAF program may be able to provide you with a one-time grant in the amount of the electricity bill, not to exceed $200.00 ($300.00 for all electric accounts).

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Learn more about SCEs Energy Assistance Fund and to see if you qualify.

SoCalGas Company

The Gas Assistance Fund (GAF) program operates annually from February thru May. This year, the fund has been extended through December (or until funds are depleted). The GAF program may be able to provide you with a one-time grant for the amount of the gas bill, not to exceed $200.00.

Learn more about the Gas Assistance Fund from SoCalGas and to see if you qualify today.

These programs are a joint effort of SoCalGas, SCE and United Way of Greater Los Angeles, administered in partnership with non-profit partner organizations throughout our region.
Miami, FL, Aug. 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- Energy and Water Development Corp. (OTC: EAWD) ("EAWD" or the "Company"), an engineering solutions company focused on delivering water and energy to all kinds of industries and extreme environments, today announced that its Offering Statement on Form 1-A to offer up to $20 million of common stock, par value $0.001 (the Common Stock) at a price of $1.00 per share to qualified investors in a Reg A public offering has been qualified by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.



The Company expects this offering to allow the Company access to fixed equity pricing, a funding alternative it deems more favorable than variable rate convertible notes. Further, the Company believes its long-term equity and financing options will be significantly improved with the recent execution of several purchase orders and sales contracts described in the recently qualified filing. Assuming successful placement of up to 20 million shares of Common Stock, the Company plans to begin manufacturing, assembling, and commercializing its self-sufficient energy supplied Atmosphere Water Generation Systems (AWGs) to fulfill existing orders. EAWD also plans to use funding from the offering to further advance digital marketing campaigns to promote the provision of safe water in challenged locations.

Chief Executive Officer, Ralph Hofmeier, stated, We are positioning EAWD to capitalize on our revolutionary eAWG product; a state-of-the art solution for the provision of safe water wherever it is required and where energy is not accessible. EAWD continues its active research and development of its innovative Green Energy Tech (Water and Energy Development solutions) to combat water scarcity and to introduce advanced solutions to waste management. Hofmeier added, EAWD is positioned to be at the forefront of offering solutions to protect human health while designing sustainable water and energy solutions in these challenging times of disease outbreaks such as COVID-19.

This announcement shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor may there be any sales of these securities in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful before registration or qualification under the laws of any such state.

About Energy and Water Development Corp.

Energy and Water Development Corp. (EAWD) is a green-tech engineering solutions company focused on delivering water and energy to extreme environments. The Company offers design, construction, maintenance, and specialty consulting services to private companies, government entities and non-government organizations (NGOs). EAWD builds water and energy systems out of already-existing, proven technologies, utilizing their technical know-how to customize solutions to their clients needs.

The Companys website is: www.eawctechnologies.com

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements. The words believe, expect, should, intend, estimate, projects, variations of such words and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, but their absence does not mean that a statement is not a forward-looking statement. These forward-looking statements are based upon the Companys current expectations and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Among the important factors that could cause actual results to differ significantly from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements are risks that are detailed in the Companys filings.

Contact Information:

Energy and Water Development Corp.

Irma Velazquez, Chief Operating Officer

Email: velazquezi@eawctechnologies.com

Tel. +1 347 871 8927
Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar, center, arrives Wednesday at the federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

A federal prosecutor said Wednesday that his office does not intend to charge family members of Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar, identifying them as witnesses rather than targets of the ongoing pay-to-play probe.

Three members of the Huizar family  his wife Richelle, his mother Isidra and his brother Salvador  are mentioned repeatedly in the 113-page indictment against the councilman, who has pleaded not guilty to bribery, money laundering, racketeering and other charges.

Prosecutors have alleged that Huizar family members laundered his bribe proceeds, receiving cash from the councilman and then paying his bills. They also claimed that Huizar's wife, who has not been named by prosecutors but is easily identifiable from details in the criminal complaint and various plea deals, attended a meeting to discuss a real estate consulting agreement that prosecutors later characterized as an indirect bribe.

During Wednesday's trial-setting hearing, Asst. U.S. Atty. Mack Jenkins told a judge that, based on the information his office currently has, he does not expect to charge the three Huizar family members. And he indicated that Huizar's wife, who had no experience or knowledge in real estate, did not get involved in the consulting arrangement.

"[She] declined to participate because she thought it was suspicious," Jenkins said.

The hearing marked the first time that Huizar, the subject of a 34-count criminal indictment, appeared in person at a hearing in the ongoing corruption case.

Prosecutors have accused the councilman, who was first elected to his post in 2005, of heading a criminal enterprise involving bribes from real estate developers looking to build in his district and from a businessman seeking introductions to such developers.

Wearing a dark suit and a face covering, Huizar strode out of the courthouse Wednesday without commenting and quickly climbed into a waiting car. His lawyers also declined to comment.

Story continues

The hearing, which lasted roughly two hours, offered some additional details about the case, including:

 Prosecutors are preparing hundreds of exhibits and intend to call 40 to 50 witnesses, with a jury trial lasting 15 to 20 days.

 Jenkins said Huizar, while on a trip to Las Vegas funded by a Chinese real estate developer, was captured on video with $60,000 in casino chips. He was approached by a casino employee who wanted to make sure Huizar was using his own money, Jenkins said.

 When the employee asked Huizar to fill out an identification form, the councilman declined and immediately left the table, leaving his gambling chips behind, Jenkins alleged.

 Jenkins identified another real estate developer, who allegedly agreed to give Huizar a $500,000 bribe, as David Lee. The Times has previously reported that one of the downtown development projects in the case is a 20-story residential tower being developed by Dae Yong Lee, also known as David Lee.

Lee's attorney, Ariel Neuman, had no comment on Wednesday. Previously, he has stated that Lee is cooperating and looks forward to "a swift resolution clearing his name."

U.S. District Judge John F. Walter set a trial date of Sept. 29 but characterized it as merely a "placeholder." He voiced doubts about whether Huizar, who was suspended from the council in June and is no longer getting a city paycheck, financially qualifies for the services of the federal public defender, which represented him at Wednesday's hearing.

Walter also expressed some skepticism about aspects of the U.S. Attorney's case.

Jenkins told the federal judge that one of the benefits provided by Huizar in exchange for bribes were official city resolutions that offered praise for businessmen and their accomplishments. Walter questioned whether such documents would be worth thousands of dollars in bribes.

"I'm having a hard time seeing a real benefit," he said.

Walter also asked Jenkins whether Huizar could argue that he approved a particular real estate project not because he received personal financial benefits but because the project was good for the city.

Jenkins said the question of whether a project is beneficial to the community is "ultimately irrelevant." And he argued in at least one case, Huizar acted in a way that would not be viewed as beneficial  helping a developer reduce the amount of affordable housing in his project, saving the company $14 million.
As TikTok is being threatened with a ban by President Donald J. Trump because of Chinese ownership, Instagram has taken advantage by launching a rival.

On Aug. 5, the Facebook-owned company launched Reels, a direct competitor of TikTok, and with many of the same features.

Record and edit 15-second multi-clip videos with audio, effects, and new creative tools, Instagram announced.

Users can create videos using editing tools that are embedded in Instagram's camera, like a countdown clock, a timer and a new align tool, which gives users an easy way to string together different video cuts.

And like TikTok, users will have access to a library of recently licensed music from music labels.

Once your reel is ready, move to the share screen, where you can save a draft of your reel, change the cover image, add a caption and hashtags and tag your friends, the company said.

TikTok recently opened negotiations to be acquired by Microsoft.

For information on Reels, visit Instagrams Help Center.
- A couple, Nathanael and Rita, who both live with albinism and got married have had a child called Brian with the same skin condition

- In an interesting twist of fate, Brian's brother, who is known as Nana Yaw, does not have the condition at all

- Nat and Rita have advised the public to accept people living with albinism

Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in

A couple, Nathanael and Rita Ekaya, who both live with albinism in Ghana have narrated their life experiences and how they gave birth to Brian Ekaya who also has the skin condition.

In an interview with TV3 Ghana sighted by YEN.com.gh, Nathanael, who sounds like a foreigner, indicated that he came to the country, met Rita, and instantly felt a connection between them.

Rita, on the other hand, revealed she fell in love with Nathanael because of his great personality and how well he treats her.

READ ALSO: I never thought the Veronica Bucket would become so useful - Inventor Veronica Bekoe in video

Watch the full video below:

Interestingly, when Nathanael and Rita had their first child, Nana Yaw, he turned out to be completely free from the skin condition.

Rita said she was not too happy about that initially, but now the couple consider their family blessed to be a 'mixed' family.

Brian, the second child of the couple who also has albinism, reportedly suffers from breathing difficulties.

READ ALSO: 9 photos of Ghanaian nurse with vitiligo that summarise her skin transformation

Source: Facebook, TV3 Ghana

Source: UGC

In conclusion, the family entreated the public to accept people living with skin conditions and stop discriminating against them.

In a separate report by YEN.com.gh, a beautiful Ghanaian nurse named Enam Honya Heikeens has had her beautiful black skin taken over by a skin condition called vitiligo which started when she was only seven.

In an interview with YEN.com.gh, Enam, who is also the director for Vitiligo Ghana Foundation, indicates that she now helps people to fight against the stigma that people suffer due to their condition, mentioning that it has not been an easy journey at all.

Almost throughout her life, Enam has had to put up with people looking strangely at her and, even worse, avoiding any form of contact with her as though she had a contagious ailment.

Enjoy reading our stories? Download YEN's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Ghana news!

Faces of Ghana: 2 brothers paving roads in Ghana with granite and cobblestones:

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Source: YEN.com.gh
After Beirut blast, Lebanon puts port officials under house arrest

Iran Press TV

Wednesday, 05 August 2020 4:24 PM

Lebanon is to put all port officials, who oversaw storage and security since 2014, under house arrest amid suspicions that negligence of the dangers that are posed by storing ammonium nitrate led to the unprecedented blast that hit the capital Beirut earlier.

The Cabinet took the decision on Wednesday, Reuters reported, citing ministerial sources.

The army will oversee the arrestees until responsibility is determined for the Tuesday explosion, the biggest to ever hit Beirut, in which the country's main grain silo was destroyed.

The blast has so far claimed at least 113 and wounded 4,000 others, said Health Minister Hamad Hassan.

The powerful explosion that was felt as far away as Cyprus, leveled whole sections of the city, turning successive apartment blocks into masses of debris and twisted metal.

Some 300,000 people have also been displaced from their homes.

The Cabinet also announced a two-week-long state of emergency in Beirut, and asked security forces to ensure no one tampered with blast scene.

The country has pledged a transparent investigation into the incident.

Although, nothing has officially been determined, some media outlets alleged that officials "knew" about the dangers that are posed by storing ammonium nitrate -- that is used in agriculture as a high-nitrogen fertilizer -- but failed to do anything about it.

With destruction of the silo, the nation is now left with less-than-a-month's supply of grain, but enough flour to avoid a crisis, the government says.

Also on Wednesday, the United Nations expressed serious concern about the fact that the explosion had come to compound the country's multi-tier share of crisis.

"The UN generally, and UNRWA in particular, are very worried about the situation in Lebanon because of the many layers of this crisis. It's an economic crisis, a financial crisis, a political crisis, a health crisis, and now this horrible explosion," said Tamara al-Rifai, a spokeswoman for UNRWA, the UN agency that provides assistance to Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and other Middle East countries.

The Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah has called for unity to overcome what it described as "national tragedy" following the deadly blast.

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Jigsaw will shed jobs and shut stores as it becomes the latest high street victim of the coronavirus pandemic.

The fashion brand, owned by Carphone Warehouse tycoon David Ross, has been a fixture in the wardrobes of middle-class British women for 50 years and is a favourite of the Duchess of Cambridge, who once worked in its stores.

The precise number of job losses will not be revealed for a few weeks as it prepares for an insolvency process known as a Company Voluntary Agreement, Sky News reported.

Catherine Duchess of Cambridge visits Henry Fawcett Children's centre, London, on March 12, 2019, Wearing a Gucci, top, Jigsaw trousers, high-street brand (right). Left, another pair of Jigsaw trousers

The Jigsaw Ladies Clothes shop in Amersham Old Town, Buckinghamshire, was temporarily closed during Coronavirus lockdown

Masks disaster: PPE in ministers 252m deal cant be used by NHS Fifty million face masks will not be used by the NHS amid safety concerns over their fastenings, officials have confirmed. There are fears the masks, which use ear-loop fastenings rather than head loops, may not fit tightly enough for healthcare staff. They were bought by the Government as part of a controversial 252million contract from Ayanda Capital. The company, which is registered in Mauritius, said the masks met Government specifications. But legal papers have revealed many of the FFP2 respirator masks are failing face fit tests as they do not create a sufficient seal. A further 150million masks are not thought to be affected but will be subject to further testing before any are released for use in the NHS. Boris Johnson said he was very disappointed but legal proceedings were under way so he would not be drawn on the specific example. He said: We have achieved a colossal race against time to produce billions of items of PPE, sourcing them from abroad but now increasingly making them here in the UK as well, and stockpiling them now in case we have a second wave in the autumn and the winter. Campaigners have demanded an inquiry into the contract, which court papers suggest was instigated by a Government trade adviser who also advises the board of Ayanda. Businessman Andrew Mills has denied any suggestions that his position played a part. Layla Moran, Liberal Democrat MP and chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus, said: The Government has serious questions to answer over this shocking waste of taxpayers money. Ayanda said that the contract had been successfully fulfilled and that proper procurement processes had been followed. They said the masks went through a rigorous technical assurance programme. Advertisement

It follows the collapse of Oasis, Warehouse, Cath Kidston and Laura Ashley which have shed close to 3,000 jobs between them. Jigsaw employs 900 staff.

Last night foreign exchange firm Travelex also went into administration with the loss of 1,300 UK jobs.

The company said it had been acutely hit by lockdown and the collapse of travel, along with a cyber-attack on its files this year. Some parts of the business  and 1,800 jobs in the UK  have been saved.

Yesterday, the coronavirus bloodbath continued as Wetherspoons announced it would shed up to a third of its head office staff, taking the total jobs toll this week to 8,000.

Jigsaw, founded in Brighton in 1970, was struggling even before the pandemic struck as tough competition in womens mid-market fashion left the chain nursing losses.

The closure of its 75 stores and concessions during lockdown, together with shoppers concerns over the virus, has tipped it over the edge.

Even after it reopened, experts said the cancellation of weddings and events meant shoppers were shunning its tailoring and formal dresses in favour of comfier, casual clothing.

And employees failure to return to the office means that working women are not buying workwear.

The store closures have already begun, with closures in Newbury, Berkshire, and Aberdeen.

Jigsaw told customers in Newbury: The UK retail sector has been struggling for some time as customers of all ages move to the convenience of online shopping and the coronavirus pandemic has further accelerated this.

We have therefore taken the difficult decision to close a number of our stores and carry out a wider strategic review of our business.

The chain has been accused of mismanagement after seven directors, including a former aide to Samantha Cameron, left earlier this year.

The controversy centres on Mr Ross, 54, estimated to be worth 600million, who bought the brand two years ago from founder John Robinson.

The tycoon has placed the company up for sale after it made a loss of 10.5million for the year to September 2018.

The plan to close stores, cut rents and shed jobs will take several weeks and will only go ahead if it is approved by three-quarters of Jigsaws creditors.

Companies House documents also suggest that Mr Ross was forced to inject a further 7.5million in loans to see Jigsaw through the crisis.

He gave 279,000 to the Conservative Party before last Decembers general election and arranged part of Boris Johnson and Carrie Symondss holiday to Mustique over New Year.

A Mail audit found 107 of the largest UK companies have cut close to 230,000 jobs since March 23 and at least 132,000 of those are in the UK.
Lincoln University president Brenda A. Allen said shes learned a lot, and she believes the board of trustees did too.

Now, its time to put the feud that became public last month behind them and move Lincoln forward through the pandemic, she said.

Clearly, we all have love for the institution, and we will be working to make sure we do the best job for this institution, Allen said Thursday. Im so happy to be able to continue my work here at Lincoln.

Her comments came shortly after Lincolns board, with no discussion at a Zoom meeting, unanimously authorized lawyers to begin negotiating a new contract with Allen, to be voted on by the board at a public meeting within 30 days.

Just last month, the board voted in private against seeking a new contract with Allen, which led to lawsuits by Allens lawyer, Gov. Tom Wolf and Attorney General Josh Shapiro, claiming the board had violated the states Sunshine Law and its own bylaws by voting in private. Wolf and Shapiro in their suit also said that five state-appointed trustees were barred from participating.

 READ MORE: Lincoln University might keep its ousted president in the job after all

That led Chester County Judge William P. Mahon to order the board to seat those state-appointed trustees and hold a new public vote on whether to negotiate a new contract with Allen. In the interim, he ordered her reinstated.

The board also on Thursday seated the state-appointed trustees and all were permitted to vote.

The sudden turnabout came as a surprise to some.

It sure is different when things are voted on publicly than privately, said State Sen. Andy Dinniman, a Democrat and a member of Lincolns board.

After the meeting ended, a man still on the call, whose identity wasnt apparent, summed up the dramatic change this way: We rounded up the votes ahead of time. They knew they couldnt win.

Board Chair Theresa R. Braswell said in a statement: I am happy that we were able to be united in our thoughts regarding this very important matter, and looking forward to renewed energy and collaboration with all stakeholders.

 READ MORE: Lincoln Universitys president must be reinstated immediately, judge rules

Controversy erupted at Lincoln earlier last month as rumors circulated that the board planned to not retain Allen. She has led the school for three years, earning widespread support among faculty, students, and alumni. More than 14,000 people signed an online petition backing Allen, whose contract ran out June 30.

Allen, a 1981 Lincoln graduate, sued the board after it announced it would not pursue a new contract with her, saying members illegally voted to end her tenure. Her supporters say Allen has improved student retention, alumni giving and the universitys academic rankings.

Numbers dont lie, and they all point up, alumnus Ray Jeter, president of Lincolns Pittsburgh alumni chapter, said to the board before the vote.

Allen, who participated in Thursdays meeting, said the issues with the board were more over process than anything else. She learned from it, she said.

Sometimes I put some things to the side and sort of put my head down and get the task done in front of me, she said. Going forward, there are some things you have to address when they occur.

Shes been back for a couple weeks under the judges order and has been working to prepare the 2,100-student historically black university for the fall semester. Fifty percent of students will return to campus and the rest will learn remotely, she said. The return to campus will be delayed a bit, however, until enough COVID-19 testing is available, she said. Students will begin to return on Aug. 19, a week later than planned, she said.

The university also had been coping with a systemwide email shutdown that lasted for about two weeks and recently ended. The university, Allen said, has migrated to a new email system.

Her lawsuit against Lincoln will stay in place until the matter is resolved, said her lawyer, Riley H. Ross III.

Allen said shes not sure how long of a contract shell seek, noting she has family in North Carolina that she needs to see periodically.

Dr. Allen has not been thinking about the contract, Ross said. Her focus has been on getting school ready for the upcoming semester.
~ USZVs role in nonpayment of healthcare services on French territories. ~

MARIGOT/ PHILIPSBURG:--- Over the past week several persons including politicians from both sides of the island have been expressing their concerns over the border controls that began last week Friday by the Gendarmes and the Police aux Frontiers. While most of us do not agree with the interruption of the free movement of people on St. Maarten/ St. Martin since there are families that are disrupted on both sides, the skeleton must now surface so everyone gets a better understanding.

The free movement of people has been regulated in the Treaty of Concordia which was signed way back in 1648 to be exact on March 23rd 1648.

However, there are some key elements that must be highlighted so that the real truth behind the border controls are brought forward and hopefully by then the French side politicians and business people that have been complaining and organizing protests will truly begin to look further to understand the threat to their healthcare system.

Over the past years, St. Martins hospital namely Louis Constant Fleming (LCF) have been plagued by the non-payment of services by persons on St. Maarten that are covered by USZV and some insurance companies.

Workers and pensioners that have contributed to USZV over the years and are still contributing are not able to get adequate healthcare simply because the management of USZV refused to conduct proper business practices with the French Health Institutions just because they cannot manipulate the director of the company assigned by the French Health Care Services to work as the middle company for the French Healthcare Institutions. The debt to LCF and healthcare institutions in Guadeloupe and Martinique are still unpaid and several patients that receive services on the French side are unable to receive further care due to the nonpayment. Some patients that have private insurances also choose to abuse the French healthcare services because they too do not ensure their insurance companies do right by paying their bills.

Some months ago the Health Ministry for the BES islands wrote the management of USZV and informed them that the BES islands are working with the assigned company and recommended that St. Maarten work with the same company but again USZV informed their Dutch counterpart that they will not work with the assigned company for reasons they did not divulge.

While the residents of St. Maarten still show up LCF when the borders are open payment for services are never guaranteed, and with the world pandemic of COVID-19, no one in their right mind will allow their healthcare services to be overrun by people that are not willing to pay for their services or people that do not live in their territory. Already the St. Maarten Medical Center does not grant healthcare services to anyone that are not insured or can guarantee cash payments. French citizens and residents cannot show up at SMMC for free treatment moreover testing for COVID-19.

The story about Observatoire St. Martin and Health Destination has been told over and over and the man behind these businesses has been arrested and remains under investigation by the French judicial services.

USZV prefers to work with OBS even though they know that the bills were never paid while USZV accounts have been debited, they also know of the secret meetings the Chief Financial Officer of USZV have been having with the OBS Director at his office LCF hospital.

Several Ministers of Health on St. Maarten and former Prime Ministers even the Governor of St. Maarten including the current Minister of Health Richard Panneflek and the Inspector General Dr. Earl Best are fully aware of the shady business practice that has been ongoing over the years but none of these highly paid persons have not made any effort to look into this matter because they too get underserved attention and favors from the Director of USZV Glen Carty.

It is clear that ARS Director and the Ministry of Health of France will not allow the Healthcare system on St. Martin to be further burdened especially knowing that the first sets of cases on the French side came from St. Maarten. Yes, one might say in desperate times everyone should be their brother's keepers but for how long can the French hospitals provide services for free while patients are sent to Colombia, Dominican Republic, Curacao, and the Netherlands and those hospitals, hotels, and care services are being paid.

Currently, the ARS and Red Cross on St. Martin are conducting mass PCR testing for COVID-19, these tests are free of charge for persons living on the French side, while the Dutch side is asking its people to pay for these tests that are deemed necessary to fight the COVID-19 warfare.

Already hundreds of people are without work, many are not being paid their salaries even though the SSRP is being paid out monthly, some companies that have been collecting their SSRP are even laying off workers, yet these very people that are now vulnerable are asked to pay for the tests and those that are asymptomatic could not even get the test during the first wave of COVID-19 on St. Maarten.

It is time for the politicians that are supposed to represent the people that elect them to go beyond and ensure that those managing the USZV and its funds do right by their people and pay those they owe. The culprit behind these border controls should not be left hidden in their closets much longer instead they should be dragged out and brought to justice.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

One morning, Amy Rosen woke up with body aches and a throbbing head. When she couldn't shake the feeling, she went to urgent care to get swabbed for COVID-19 and paid $45 to get quick results. Two days later, her test result came back positive.

In the next two weeks, Rosen got nasal and saliva tests another six times at drive-thrus, walk-ups and again at urgent careall in a quest for a negative result to resume her normal life.

As the virus infects Floridians at a record pace, wait times at test sites and long turnarounds for results have people like Rosen taking multiple tests at multiple sites. Desperate for an accurate diagnosis, they strategize, and even pay, to get faster test results.

"You really can't wait for results to get tested again," Rosen said, a Plantation mother of two teenagers. "A positive is kind of a stigma. You need those negatives for validation, to prove you are OK to be out and about."

By now, testing is easy to access in South Florida, and for the most part, it is free. There are mobile units and walk-up clinics, government-run drive-thrus and pop-ups in parking lots. Many testing sites are appointment-only and booked days or weeks into the future. Some walk-ups have lines that wrap around the building or loop through the parking lot.

Getting swabbed is the first step. After the specimen collection, another waiting game begins with some backlogged labs taking as many as 10 to 12 days to deliver results. And, in all the chaos, people with time, money or both are navigating where and when to go, and how to get results quickly.

Why take multiple tests?

Motivation varies: Sometimes a Floridian feels achy or has a cough and wants to know if they have the virus. Sometimes a curious test taker wants to know if he or she has the virus without symptoms. Then there are people who lack trust in a result. In other instances, someone previously positive is seeking a negative resultor two of themto go back to work or emerge from self-isolation.

Tomasina Baker's motivation is paying her bills. A worker at a long-term care facility from Hollywood, Baker swabbed her mouth during her shift and learned she was positive. "I had no symptoms so I didn't really trust the results," she said. To be able to resume her weekend shifts, Baker needed two negative test results, her employer told her.

Baker's game plan: Pay a co-pay for an ER visit and get a quick result from Memorial Hospital. That resulted in a negative in 48 hours. A few days later, she woke up at 5 a.m. and went to a free walk-up in Miramar and waited in line. A week later she had a second negative. Now, she will take another test at her workplace to be extra cautious.

"I think everyone should be tested frequently because the virus is still out there," she said.

In large part, the testing madness has been driven by wait times. As demand for COVID-19 tests continues to rise in hard-hit Florida, the wait times for test results has grown longer, which has led to desperation and a scramble for shortcuts.

Jeff Berke of Fort Lauderdale is on that quest, motivated by his desire to be around family. Initially, Berke drove to Holiday Park in Fort Lauderdale to get tested out of curiosity. Five days later he received a text message saying he was positive. After a week, he returned to Holiday Park, but a new company had taken over the process and handed him an oral swab to do himself in his car. "With oral testing, I have heard stories of it not being accurate," he said. So to better learn his true status, he went the next day to CVS for another test, a self-administered nasal swab. "This one would be with Quest and they told me I would have to wait 7 to 10 days."

Berke said he's not sure whether he's done with testing. "I really want to make sure I get two negative tests. My mom is 86 years old and my brother in law has a compromised immune system. I need to know it's OK to be around them."

Finding short cuts

In South Florida, community spread has taken hold and many national labs processing hundreds of thousands of tests a day are struggling to keep up with the increased demand for coronavirus testsfrom Florida and other states.

When seeking testing, Michael Rosen realized the lab is more important than the test site. Rosen waited 12 days to get a negative test result from a Coral Springs walk-up site that used Quest Laboratories to process the swabs. Then, he used a strategy.

Because his co-worker tested positive, he wanted another test, but he also wanted faster results. So he searched for smaller sites that use smaller labs that advertised shorter wait times. He has taken two tests in city parks that use Real Diagnostics to process results. Each time he waited less than an hour to get swabbed and received results in four daysboth positive. He just took another test in a city park that uses the same lab, eager to end his three weeks of self-isolation at home. "I'm really hoping this last test is negative. A lot of people don't want to be around you unless you are negative."

Other South Floridians learned of a different shortcut. But by paying cash at a private lab, results come back faster. Mike Ross said his Miami lab processes thousands of specimens a day for private businesses, community organizations and individuals. He understands why people seek options to cut their wait times. "People want peace of mind or they don't want to wait in line and they are willing to pay for that," Ross said.

Lab24 has a swab site in Boca Raton and one in Miami where people can walk up, pay cash ($150 to $180) and get results in 24 hours. Private insurance will cover the cost if someone has symptoms, he said. Ross sees no downside in testing multiple times. "It's a complex test. Our scientists have to manually read each report to ensure accuracy."

Ross said Lab24 checks for multiple markers, which means it picks up positives more often than some other labs. "We sometimes have the same person showing up multiple times. We have a hard time saying no."

Some South Florida employers have hired private labs to test all their workers, picking up the expense for fast results. When workers come back positive, the serial testing begins.

One HR manager has discovered: "Some employees are so anxious to get cleared before their paid leave expires that they get tested multiple times, going to private labs, drive-thrus or their doctor's office, and they don't always wait for the result of the first before getting another test in their efforts to get a negative result. But we have stopped asking for negative results because we knew this was going on, and now we are following the new CDC guidelines."

The rules have changed

On July 22, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its guidelines for when someone can stop isolating at home and return to work. Rather than requiring two negative tests 24 hours apart to return to work, someone can go back after 20 days have passed since the first symptom, or 10 days after the first positive test for those without symptoms. And, 24 hours must pass since someone's last fever.

"The government is trying to come up with science-based guidance to relieve the pressure to get repeated testing," said Terry Adirim, Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs at Florida Atlantic University.

Meanwhile, test site directors say be aware while test shopping that the most accurate test to learn if you are infected is the PCR diagnostic test used at most government-run sites. An antibody test offers quick results but only shows past exposure to the virus.

"You can go to Hard Rock today, Tamiami on Thursday and Marlins Park on Friday. It's not like we have an electronic medical record," said Eneida Roldan, clinical director of the FIU/Youth Fairgrounds testing site. "But different tests use different platforms ... it's important that you understand the result you are getting."

Some health officials have said the more people are tested who don't need to be, the harder it is for people who need to get results back.

Dr. Jennifer Goldman, chief of primary care for Memorial Healthcare System and medical director of the CB Smith Park community COVID-19 test site, said, "If someone thinks they have been exposed to someone positive and wants to get tested, they should do so."

But if you get tested, behave like you are positive and quarantine at home until you get the result, Goldman said.

"One of the things we do see is people are focused on getting tested multiple times, but while waiting for results they are going into the community, not knowing if they are positive for coronavirus," Goldman said.

Testing wait times will improve

Jared Moskowitz, director of Florida's Division of Emergency Management, said the state is aware of "test forum shopping."

"We want people to get tested who feel they need to get tested," he said

But because of the demand, long lab processing time has become a national problem, he said. "We want to make sure people who are 65 and older, first responders and people who have been exposed or have symptoms get their results as quickly as possible."

To address on-site wait times, Moskowitz said the state has opened designated lanes at eight sites for people who have symptoms to self swab. In addition, the state is pivoting from using national laboratories to process tests to three smaller companies that promise results in 72 hours. It will soon open sites offering antigen tests that produce results in 15 minutes. While faster, that type of test is slightly less accurate than the more common diagnostic tests.

"Long waits should no longer be an issue," Moskowitz said.

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

2020 Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
The corona virus pandemic has also cast a shadow on applications for affiliation to UP Board.

Merely 215 schools from all over the state have applied for affiliation. Last year, the board had received 2020 applications from schools vying for affiliation with the board counted among the largest examination bodies in the world, informed officials.

The board presently has over 28,000 affiliated government-run, government-aided and unaided schools spread across 75 districts of UP, they added. Among the 173 schools that have applied for new affiliation this year, 82 have sought affiliation for high school while 91 wish to get affiliated for intermediate level. Another 42 schools already affiliated with the board for a stream or subjects have now applied for affiliation for a new stream or subject, said a senior UP Board official.

This year the online applications from institutions wishing to seek affiliation with the board were invited between April 1 and May 31, 2020. We have received the applications and have now begun the procedure, said UP Board secretary Divyakant Shukla. Last year, the applications were accepted till July 31, he added. The schools that have applied this year will be assessed and granted affiliation with effect from April 1, 2021 and the students enrolled in them would be able to appear in the UP Boards high school and intermediate examinations from 2023 onwards, officials shared.

As part of the affiliation granting process, the district inspectors of schools (DIOSs) of respective districts would submit their report to the board by August 20 after an on-the-spot inspection of the schools, they said.

Last year, 2020 schools had applied for affiliation. The Board had recommended, affiliation for 984 schools, including 767 schools in race for new affiliation with effect from 2021-22 session. Students of these schools would be eligible to appear in board exams from 2022 onwards.

However, the state government is still to give its final go ahead to these 767 schools. For the 2021 board exams, the state government had granted affiliation to 1022 schools on July 11, 2019.
Investigation and Findings

Facility A, which employed 3,635 persons in 38 departments, harvests and processes animals during two shifts per day. A third shift sanitizes the facility. On March 24, SDDOH was notified that an employee had received a positive SARS-CoV-2 test result; SDDOH began an investigation that day. The employee worked in department A during the first shift. He had last worked on March 14, developed symptoms on March 16, and was tested on March 22. On March 19, a first-shift employee in department B became ill. The following day, two additional first-shift department A employees and one second-shift department C employee developed symptoms. On March 21, one first-shift department B employee developed symptoms, for a total of six COVID-19 cases among employees. During March 2228, 18 employees from department B developed COVID-19 symptoms, resulting in the departments temporary closure on April 3; 15 cases in employees from nine other departments also occurred that week. On April 3, facility A also began screening all employees for fever, installing physical barriers on the production line, and amending the employee dress code to include optional masks, which were required as of April 13, 1 day after the phased closure of facility A began. By April 4, a total of 247 employees from 23 departments had developed COVID-19.

A COVID-19 case was defined as a positive SARS-CoV-2 reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction test result in a person who had onset of COVID-19compatible symptoms, or who was tested in the absence of symptoms, before April 26 (i.e., 14 days after phased closure began). Illness onset date was defined as the date COVID-19compatible symptoms first appeared (or the specimen collection date, if no symptom onset date was documented). All reported cases were investigated by SDDOH to determine patient symptom onset date, identify and trace contacts, and describe patients clinical course of illness. Lists with employee characteristics provided by facility A were used, along with SDDOH case investigation data, to identify cases associated with facility A and to calculate attack rates. Employees contacts were identified through interviews conducted by SDDOH and were defined as persons who were within 6 feet (2 meters) of an employee who had a positive SARS-CoV-2 test result for at least 5 minutes during the employees infectious period (i.e., from symptom onset to discontinuation of isolation). On April 1, the infectious period was expanded to include persons who had contact with persons with known COVID-19 during the 48 hours before symptom onset, in accordance with changing CDC guidance. Employees who did not work during March 2April 25 were excluded from analysis. Departments were aggregated into seven department-groups as determined by the facilitys supervisory structure: Bacon, Conversion, Cut, Harvest, Sausage, Smoke meat, and Other. Department-groups tended to consist of departments that performed similar functions under similar conditions and received COVID-19-related guidance and communication through similar channels. Attack rates were calculated by shift, department-group, and compensation status. A community resident was defined as a resident of one of the two counties that compose the city where facility A is located who was neither an employee of facility A nor a known contact of a facility A employee. SAS (version 9.4; SAS Institute) was used to conduct statistical analyses. This investigation was determined by CDC to be public health surveillance.

During March 16April 25, among 3,635 facility A employees, 929 (25.6%) met the COVID-19 case definition, including 895 (96.3%) who were symptomatic (Table 1) (Figure). During this period, facility A employees represented 920 (41.8%) of the 2,199 COVID-19 cases identified among community residents. Among 2,403 identified employee contacts, 210 (8.7%) had confirmed COVID-19 (illness onset range = March 30April 25). The median employee age was 42 years (range = 1881 years), and the median employee contact age was 29 years (range = 085 years). Among employees diagnosed with COVID-19, 34 (3.7%) were asymptomatic, as were six (2.9%) contacts and 53 (4.9%) community residents. Among those with symptoms, symptom onset date was not documented for 33 (3.7%) employees, 10 (4.9%) contacts, and 28 (2.7%) community residents. The earliest symptom onset date reported among community residents with diagnosed COVID-19 was February 24.

Among employees with COVID-19, 39 (4.2%) were hospitalized; the median age of hospitalized patients was 60 years (range = 2873 years). As of June 14, 11 hospitalized patients had been discharged after a median length of stay of 6.5 days (range = 169 days). Nine (4.3%) contacts who developed COVID-19 were hospitalized; the median age of hospitalized contacts was 64 years (range = 2379 years), and they were hospitalized for a median of 10 days (range = 115 days). As of June 14, two employees with COVID-19 had died.

The attack rate at facility A during March 16April 25 was 25.6% (Table 2). The highest attack rates occurred in the Cut (30.2%), Conversion (30.1%), and Harvest (29.4%) department-groups. The first, second, and third shifts had similar attack rates. The attack rate among nonsalaried employees was 26.8% and among salaried employees was 14.8%. During the first 3 weeks of the outbreak, the overall attack rate increased approximately fivefold per week (week 1 = 0.2%, week 2 = 1.2%, and week 3 = 6.8%). During the fourth week of the outbreak, an average of 67 employee COVID-19 cases were occurring per day. Within 7 days of facility closure, cases among employees declined to approximately 10 per day.
The female body, from the moment it pushes out an offspring, is subdued, and replaced by something inert  a bottle, a pacifier, a silicone toy, a crib, and erased entirely before the passage of a year.

January 2020, or a pre-pandemic India.

We were alone in the park. We were strangers. Confessing was easy.

The woman seated by my side was in her late 30s. Like me, she was watching her toddler. Her son curled his body into a comma on a jungle gym; mine chortled on a swing.

She began by asking the questions all mums do  how old is your son? (one-and-a-half); firstborn? (yes); does he eat well? 

I shrugged. "If he wishes to. Either way, theres always breastmilk."

She turned quiet. Then asked, "You breastfeed your toddler?"

I nodded.

She lowered her voice  it was less than a whisper. "Me too."

And so it began. The deluge.

She told me of her household comprising (besides her son) her husband and in-laws, and of how, the moment her child crossed infancy, they started castigating her for nursing him. "Hell never grow up," they reprimanded, while at other times they said hell become weak, pointing to 'how furiously he clings!'

To end the noise, she made a pact with her two-and-a-half-year-old child  if he needed to nurse, hed signal discreetly. Shed then find an empty room, lock the door, and feed him where no one was watching.

"Not a soul at home knows I nurse him. At night, he breastfeeds when my husband sleeps. During the day, we have our time together when my in-laws nap. If family is around, he has learnt that he must delay a feed."

Something within me shattered when I heard her words  perhaps a naive certainty that breastfeeding was a right every woman could exercise for however long she and her child desired.

I breastfeed my (almost) two-year-old son on demand, by day and through the night. I breastfeed him when he seems unsure of the morning, when he rejects lunch as unappetising, when strangers make demands of him and intimidate him, when toys backchat and turn hostile, when he is sleepy, when hes unwell, and when, in the busyness of life, we both feel the urge to reconnect.

I breastfeed him because its how we communicate, look out for one another, and grow in unison.

A close relative, when he learnt that I still nursed my child, expressed horror. "This is crazy, he said. "Youre crazy."

Those of us who breastfeed our children past infancy seem to have formed a coven. We are the witches who exist beyond the pale of all that is normal. We are the heretics who havent weaned our babies off our breasts.

To nurse a toddler or an older child is to invite judgement.

Maybe its because of the optics. A mother nursing a newborn could almost go by unnoticed; the baby is tiny, barely perceptible in the crook of her arm, suckling at her breast. A toddler (or an older child) though is not one to be invisibilised. Hes rambunctious, openly joyful as he suckles, sometimes claiming the mothers entire body, sometimes standing, his mouth pressed against the areola, sometimes sprawling at an awkward angle, taking up all the room there is. A child past infancy wont be coy about his meals. Hes ardent, very real.

Or maybe its because, over time, we have mislaid our core identity as mammals  as a class of creatures whose offspring seek nutrition from the mammary glands  and have chosen to reduce womens breasts to sexual objects. So a half-grown boy (or girl) positioned by a boob isnt engaging with a meal or revelling in the security that goes with such feasting. No, we have distorted the image, so it appears unsavoury, cheap.

In 2012, Time magazine published on its cover a photograph of the 26-year-old Jamie Lynne Grumet breastfeeding her three-year-old son. It should have been an unremarkable image  mother and child on a rocking chair perhaps, the kid spilling out of her arms, content. Instead, there stood a woman, hips curving provocatively, a breast oozing out of a spaghetti top, with a full-grown boy on a footstool, taking in a mouthful, glancing cheekily at the camera. The image didnt spell food. It yelled sex.

Or maybe, if we dare admit it, its because theres something formidable about a woman whose body can sustain a pre-schooler  satiate his hunger, soothe his frayed nerves. Her simple act conveys such fierce self-assurance that it threatens to destabilise the patriarchal order. Or, to put it differently, in the words of Gabrielle Palmer (in the dazzlingly argued The Politics of Breastfeeding), the exclusively female power demonstrated by a woman breastfeeding a toddler jars precisely because "it is unacceptable for a woman who has claimed some of the supposedly male power to show she can have both."

With brute force, therefore, the female body, from the moment it pushes out an offspring, is subdued, and replaced by something inert  a bottle, a pacifier, a silicone toy, a crib, and erased entirely before the passage of a year.

For patriarchy to succeed, a woman must be made to believe she isnt sufficient, certainly not for a wild and unruly toddler, or an articulate and assertive older child. And anyone who tries suggesting otherwise must either be silenced or shamed.

Game of Thrones, by no means a flag-bearer of feminism, managed to convey some of societys deep suspicion of, even horror at, a mother committed to extended breastfeeding. When eight-year-old Robert Arryn suckled by Lysa Arryns breast, the camera watched in contempt. The storyline screamed that Lysa, poor thing, was mentally unsound, and her was son deranged, even stunted. This alone could explain why she revealed her bosom to her full-grown offspring, and why he sought comfort in it.

We, the breastfeeding mothers of toddlers (or those older), are condemned to inhabit the attic. We are mad.

*

To nurse a child beyond infancy is to be out in the cold.

When I moved to a new city in India with my 15-month-old, my hope was that Id find a breastfeeding-friendly paediatrician, someone whod back my decision to nurse my child till he self-weaned. Too soon, I hit a dead-end. While there was the odd doctor who encouraged exclusively breastfeeding a newborn for the first six months, I couldnt find a single paediatrician whod endorse extended breastfeeding.

"Desist," the doctors I approached said in unison. The kind ones asserted that breastfeeding past the age of one was unnecessary  a meaningless indulgence that offered little to mum or toddler. The less benign ones viewed it with undisguised hostility. Prolonged breastfeeding, they said, impaired a childs physical health, his mental well-being.

"Replace breastmilk with more solids," urged one paediatrician, "since at this stage, breastmilk is no more than water." "Wean," said another, "or your boy will never know self-reliance." "Stop night feeds," said a third, "or youre bound to gift your child dental caries." "Its about time," declared a homeopath. "You do know, right, that breastfeeding is a habit? That no child self-weans?"

Not long after moving to a new city, I had deduced that most allopaths were misguided about the cognitive, emotional, and psychological ramifications of full-term nursing, and the fact that the benefits of breastfeeding (be it disease prevention or fostering secure attachment, or even counteracting the decay-causing bacteria in the mouth) only accrued the longer a mother breastfed  for, to quote anthropologist Kathy Dettwyler (who discusses the subject at length in the seminal A Time to Wean), "The body doesnt know that the baby has had a birthday and suddenly start producing nutritionally and immunologically worthless milk".

But the homeopaths assertion that babies would not stop breastfeeding of their own volition gave me pause, until I recalled my mother telling me that I had self-weaned at the age of three. Later, a distant friend recounted how her daughter, on turning four, woke up one morning, nursed, then said, "Milk over, Ma. Thank you." She never asked for the breast again.

As I wished to rely on more than anecdotal evidence, I dove into research papers, a number of which, after a close study of larger mammals, discussed the parameters that seemed to guide the age of natural weaning  from the quadrupling of a babys birth weight (Lee, Maituf, and Gordon) to six times the length of gestation. Palaeoanthropologist Holly Smith, after studying a group of twenty-one species of non-human primates (including chimps and gorillas with whom we share 98 percent of our genetic material), observed that their offspring self-weaned around the same time they developed their first permanent molars. In human beings, this would translate roughly into five-and-a-half to six years of age.

To me, Smiths age range made immense sense. For a childs immune system truly matures only around the time he turns six. Breastmilk, packed with immunological benefits, props up his fragile body until such time that he has the wherewithal to confront a germ-rich world independently.

If breastfeeding, then, is no more a habit than breathing  in other words, if it is quite simply a biological need  why are doctors cautioning mothers against full-term nursing? Why are they using flawed rules of thumb such as the tripling of a babys birth weight or the actual length of gestation to advertise one year as the appropriate age to wean?

Some of the average paediatricians advice springs from woefully inadequate training. Medical study glances at lactation but cursorily. It is, to quote journalist Lisa Selin David, "probably the only bodily function for which modern medicine has almost no training, protocol or knowledge." Consequently, the majority of doctors, deprived of solid facts and tutoring, rely on a mix of biases and cultural norms to prescribe weaning post infancy.

Some medical advice can be traced back to the ruthless propaganda of the packaged food industry.

But a lot of the problematic comments mothers are exposed to in clinics are firmly rooted in a medical practice that is essentially driven by men, who, according to critic Jana Sawicki, monopolise "control over womens procreative bodies and reduce them to passive objects of medical surveillance and management". The fact is that it isnt just childbirth that has been appropriated by a strictly patriarchal model of healthcare, it is everything after, too, from how a baby is handled (with carrycots and dummies), to where he sleeps (away, apart, in an lifeless cradle or stroller), to when and how long he is to nurse (scheduled, and no more than a year). So, all at once, the ancient lived knowledge of women recedes, and is silenced. Not surprisingly, mothers who subscribe to full-term breastfeeding  in other words, mothers who defy the time-bound, masculine rules attached to nursing and tune into their instincts  are chastised, and then relegated to the margins.

Not just that. So firm is the grip of medical advice  no matter how flawed  that mothers committed to prolonged breastfeeding have, in courts of law, been repudiated for failing to "wean in a timely manner" (see Dettwyler).

During the present pandemic, my nightmares have revolved around not just succumbing to a virus but also being separated against my will from my nursing toddler, my cries that he is physically and emotionally dependant on breastfeeding  that it is, for him, as vital as an umbilical cord to a foetus  getting dismissed as unworthy of attention.

So heres what mums breastfeeding their offspring past infancy never tell you  that theyre aware that they operate in a space denied legitimacy by medicine; that sometimes theyre scared.

*

Heres a fact: to breastfeed a child past infancy is to be deprived of a community.

Gone are the friends who discussed sore nipples and engorged breasts  theyve long weaned their kids to return to breast-pump-free work schedules.

Gone are the relatives who offered vague noises of support  now, theyre openly disapproving, making barbed jokes about the sissy boy who seeks your breast.

Gone is the kindly paediatrician who mumbled good when you said you nursed your newborn.

I recall feeling more than a twinge of envy when I read an essay by Ruth Kamnitzer who lived in a traditional felt tent in the Mongolian countryside for three years with her baby, while her husband conducted a wildlife study. She spoke of how, when shed breastfeed her toddler outdoors, local grandmothers would regale her with tales of the dozen-odd children they had nursed, and taxi drivers would prophesy that her son would make a great wrestler  for, in the land of Genghis Khan, those who were breastfed beyond infancy were known to possess extraordinary strength.

But the segment that spurred in me jealously like none other was one where Kamnitzer spoke of not just the everydayness of breastfeeding her three-year-old in Mongolia, but also the exuberant levity such moments could carry. She writes:

At the first murmur of [toddler] discord, [my Mongolian friend Tsetsgee] would lift her shirt and start waving her boobs around enthusiastically, calling out, Come here, baby, look what mamas got for you! Her son would look up from the [offending] toys to the bulls-eyes of his mothers breasts and invariably toddle over. [. . .]

Not to be outdone, I adopted the same strategy. There we were, two mothers flapping our breasts like competing strippers trying to entice a client. If the grandparents were around, theyd get in on the act. The poor kids wouldnt know where to look  the reassuring fullness of their own mothers breasts, grannys withered pancake boasting its long experience, or the strange mound of flesh granddad was squeezing up in breast envy. Try as I might, I cant picture a similar scene at a La Leche League meeting.

So, this is what we, the inhabitants of cities who breastfeed our babies beyond infancy, will never know  a moment where we are freed of the burden of over-explaining or rebelling or looking back in anger; a moment of giddy delight we can share with others. The path we have chosen is lonely.

But heres what mothers who breastfeed their children beyond infancy also never tell you. That there are times, as they nurse, when they stumble into indescribable muchness,  a kind of muchness denied while breastfeeding a drowsy newborn  one that is responsive, alive.

Here I am, my son in my arms, his mouth busy, his eyes lowered, intent. Suddenly, in the middle of the business of suckling, he looks up, catches my gaze. His left hand lifts, his fingers stroke my cheek, once, twice  and I have everything I need.

Dharinis first work of literary fiction, These, Our Bodies, Possessed by Light, has been published by Hachette. She was the former editorial director of Simon and Schuster India.

 Illustrations Adrija Ghosh for Firstpost
Google has already confirmed the Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5 launching this fall at a starting price of $499.

Google recently launched the much delayed Pixel 4a smartphone. It also teased the launch of Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G for this fall. Google may have accidentally revealed the launch date of its new phones.

In Googles France website, the company mentioned the pre-order dates for the Pixel 4a, and even its 5G variant and the Pixel 5. Here, its mentioned that pre-orders for the Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5 will begin on October 8. This is expected to be the launch date for the new Pixel phones and it also coincides with when Google usually releases its flagship Pixel. Hopefully, there wont be any delays with this launch.

In addition to the Google Pixel 4a, the Pixel 5 will also have support for 5G. The smartphones will be available at a starting price of $499 ( 37,400 approx). This price is most likely for the Pixel 4a 5G. The new Pixel phones will launch globally except for India. Google has confirmed that its not bringing the 5G phones to India. This is the second time Google is not launching its flagship Pixel in India after the Pixel 4 last year. The affordable premium Pixel 4a will launch in India in October.

The new Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5 are expected to run on Qualcomms Snapdragon 765G chipset. There have been multiple reports asserting the fact that Google will not use a flagship chipset for the Pixel 5. It will have premium features most likely IP68 rating for water resistance and wireless charging. It will also launch with the new Android 11 out-of-the-box.
The propaganda of Gun-Control just got harder. Millions of honest citizens in the USA saw pictures of our inner cities in flames. They heard rioters say they wanted to spread that violence across the country. We read stories of the police being ambushed and killed while Democrat politicians called to defund the police. Millions of us went out and bought a gun for the first time. That makes it harder than ever to sell the fantasy of Gun-Control.

Gun-Control is a fantasy-

Gun-Control sells the utopian idea that we can stop criminal behavior by taking tools from law abiding citizens. Weve passed 23 thousand firearms regulations in the USA so far. With each outrageous crime that is splashed across the news media, were told that the next gun regulation will finally make criminals obey the law. Weve never seen Gun-Control work before, but this next law is sure to be different.

As you can imagine, that rationale gets harder to sell.

Gun-Control takes power from honest citizens and gives it to politicians-

That utopian ideal of Gun-Control is only the frosting on the cake. What lies beneath is equally important. In the United States, Gun-Control significantly infringes the right for honest people to bear arms. .....
Its been a rough year for oil, to say that least. And the worst isnt over yet. Even though oil demand, and therefore oil prices, have been slowly recovering, that upward trajectory is now running out of steam and were headed toward a slump amidst what will almost certainly be a yearslong recession in the wake of the economic fallout from the devastating spread of the novel coronavirus. Even as oil demand and prices have recovered, the tried and true economic model is no longer a failsafe option for oil and gas companies. Pumping crude just isnt paying the bills. This is not solely due to the COVID-19 pandemic--its been a long evolution in the sector. Over the past decade, the oil companies, whose profits were mostly derived from pumping crude out of the oil fields they discovered, transformed themselves into oil and gas companies, oil strategist Julian Lee wrote for Bloomberg Opinion this week. Now they are evolving once again to become energy companies. Shells latest report shows that almost half of its production was natural gas, compared with less than 40 percent in 2005.

The op-ed, entitled Think Big Oil Makes Its Cash Pumping Crude? Not Anymore, argues that Big Oils money is now in trading, not in extraction and refining. The swing is likely to become even more pronounced, Lee writes. Companies like Shell arent going to stop producing oil, but it will become less important as the world increasingly embraces less carbon-intensive forms of energy. As they become more focused on natural gas, electricity and, very likely, hydrogen, their ability to offset any weaknesses in their core activities through trading profits are likely to be severely curtailed.

This tracks with global trends toward a decarbonized economy that has been significantly heightened by the novel coronavirus extreme disruption to business as usual. This unforeseen pause to the previously unstoppable momentum of the global energy industry has driven world leaders to reconsider their options for a greener future. The World Economic Forum has strongly advocated for the development of a new energy orderand a great reset. Whats more, according to reporting by NPR, around the world leaders see opportunity in the global pandemic to address the other big problem humanity faces: climate change. These leaders include the United Nations, the International Energy Agency, and the European Union, all of which are currently considering or actively drafting green stimulus packages. Even dozens of surprising blue chip companies are pushing for a green energy stimulus.

Related: Argentina Scrambles To Salvage Its Shale Boom



Big Oil, particularly in Europe, has already seen the writing on the wall, and accepting the decline of conventional fossil fuels has saved them, protecting them to some extent from the battering oil prices took in April. But it may not be enough going forward, if oil and gas truly do go the way of the dodo any time soon. Trading saved European Big Oil from the full impact of this years oil crisis, Lee writes for Bloomberg Opinion. Its not the first time that massive profits from in-house trading desks ameliorated poor operating results from the core business of finding and producing hydrocarbons  and it wont be the last. But the companies may struggle to carry this safety net into the era of decarbonization.

But so far, trading has managed to save European companies from the far more devastating fate that their production-focused U.S. counterparts have suffered in recent months. Royal Dutch Shell Plc even turned a profit in the April-June quarter despite their oil and gas production being down 7 percent for the year and 11 percent in the quarter, which was offset by aggressive cost and capital-expenditure reductions, plus a very strong trading result. By contrast, Chevron, which avoids pure trading, just reported its worst quarterly loss in at least three decades and warned that the global Covid-19 pandemic may continue to drag on earnings.

The clear takeaway here is that Big Oil needs to evolve to survive--even if that means turning into Big Trade, or even Big Renewable.

By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
NEW YORK, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. today announced the launch of Cheetah for Corporate Counsel, a complete workflow solution that provides corporate counsel professionals with the content and tools to make more effective business decisions.

As regulatory complexities have continued to increase in the midst of the pandemic, the responsibilities of in-house counsel have not only expanded, but have also made the role of corporate counsel even more vital to the survival and future growth of their companies. Cheetah for Corporate Counsel is designed to help users meet and exceed these ever-increasing demands by providing a wide range of content and tools in a single package, making it the only offering on the market with such a breadth of resources at a predictable price point. Organized with the workflow demands of corporate legal departments in mind, the solution enables corporate counsel to quickly advise on complex issues, mitigate new risks efficiently, and ensure better control over outside corporate counsel budgets.

"As the pandemic continues, corporate counsel are facing increased pressure to take more work in-house, control outside spend as companies evaluate their budgets, and assess new risks in the midst of a volatile and quickly changing regulatory environment," said Ken Crutchfield, Vice President and General Manager of Legal Markets at Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. "Wolters Kluwer developed Cheetah for Corporate Counsel to address the pain points that corporate counsel professionals are experiencing due to these increased demands, while enabling them to take control of their role as strategic advisors within their companies."

Cheetah for Corporate Counsel includes several unique features that allow users to do the following:

Proactively manage new legal and regulatory requirements to increase strategic advantages and decrease risk;

Access multistate surveys, checklists and forms, as well as Smart Tasks with step-by-step guides, best practices and considerations for specific legal tasks;

Access uniquely tailored news written specifically for corporate counsel, which can be customized by topic and delivered to users via email;

Create and share research folders with notes and highlights with colleagues, or simply email research findings, and;

Create a "self-service center" by providing access to the platform to business unit colleagues who have frequent legal questions, so that they can access information on their own.

As one of Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S.'s most acclaimed solutions, Cheetah is an intuitive legal research platform powered by Wolters Kluwer's world-class content. The solution combines an easy-to-use, responsive interface with Wolters Kluwer's deep domain expertise and curated analysis to provide legal professionals with in-depth, accurate, and up-to-date information in a single location.

To learn more about Cheetah for Corporate Counsel, visit: https://corporatecounsel.wkcheetah.com

About Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S.

Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. is a part of Wolters Kluwer N.V. (AEX: WKL), 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 advanced technology and services.

Wolters Kluwer reported 2019 annual revenues of 4.6 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 19,000 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands.

For more information about Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S., visit www.WoltersKluwerLR.com, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Media

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Director, Communications

Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S.

Tel: +1 (646) 887-7962

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S.
New Delhi:

An Indonesian police plane with 13 people on board went missing on Saturday, reports said. The twin-engine plane was en route to the island of Batam, south of Singapore, police said.

A police report obtained by news agency Reuters said that the plane is thought to have crashed between the islands of Mensanak and Sebangka or Gentar.

Items have apparently been identified as belonging to the missing aircraft have been recovered by search teams, the report said.

The plane lost contact during a flight, authorities said.



The plane, with five crew members and eight passengers, dropped out of contact midmorning about 50 minutes after taking off from Bangka island off the southeast coast of Sumatra island, a police statement said.



National Search and Rescue Agency chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo said rescuers were searching seas between Mensanak and Sebangka islands.



He said villagers had found a seat and a bag containing a cellphone and police documents.

(With inputs from agencies)

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
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The paper describes in part work to stabilize an otherwise-shifting part of the virus: the protein that fuses with and infects cells, called the spike protein. Earlier research into coronaviruses was critical for the fastest-ever progression from virus genome sequencing to vaccine testing in humans, which took only 66 days.said UT Austin associate professor of molecular biosciences Jason McLellan, an author on the paper.The members of the NIAID team and McLellan laboratory at UT Austin announced earlier this year that they had mapped the molecular structure of a stabilized spike protein within weeks of receiving the genetic sequence, publishing the structure of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in the journalNIAID and the biotechnology company Moderna, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, worked to develop a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine, which, according to the NIH, directs the body's cells to express the spike in its prefusion conformation to elicit an immune response.Today's paper describes findings that the vaccine keeps infection from spreading into the airways of mice, produces neutralizing antibodies and prompts a response in immune cells called memory T-cells.The SARS-CoV-2 spike protein is a shape-shifter, changing its structure before and after fusing with cells. The immune system responds best when the spike protein is in its prefusion shape, so McLellan's team reengineered the protein in two key places to lock it into that shape.McLellan's postdoctoral researcher Nianshuang Wang had identified genetic mutations necessary to stabilize the shape-shifting spike protein for MERS-CoV back in 2017, and the team found the same tactic works with the new coronavirus. Using small genetic modifications to the gene sequence that encodes for the protein, the researchers essentially make part of the spring-loaded portion of the molecule more rigid, preventing it from rearranging.Instead of a painful process of trial and error, the researchers designed the necessary mutations within about a day of receiving the SARS-CoV-2 virus genome. The McLellan lab completed the atomic-level structure, and graduate student Daniel Wrapp harvested and purified the spike protein. Soon after, Corbett and Graham at the NIAID verified that the S-2P protein generated potent antibodies in mice.Source: Eurekalert
No stranger to launching a successful business, Marisa Logan is a talented businesswoman who's done it all. After studying Public Relations at Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Logan started her career at the tender age of 20. In 2010, full of ambition, she relocated to London to continue working in PR representing global brands such as Universal Pictures, Colgate, Samsung and Ferrero Roche.

Marisa Logan, founder of Stream

Can you tell us a bit about Stream?

Stream is dedicated to marketing people and brands and showcasing their power which lead to the extension of my brand offering which is teaching SMEs and solo entrepreneurs how to accelerate their brand awareness through my online courses and one-on-one client consultations.

What sparked the idea? When and how did you get started?

What is the core purpose of Stream?

What are some of the obstacles you've had to overcome since starting out?

This isn't the first time you took a leap of faith in starting a business. What advice would you give to other aspiring entrepreneurs?

What has been your proudest achievement thus far?

I am proud that I trusted my gut and started Stream.

What does the future of entrepreneurship look like to you?

If you could pinpoint one ingredient to success. What would it be? My key ingredient that I will always revisit when starting a new business is to find your purpose, identify how you can be of service to others and launch a brand that matters.

What would you like to see changed in the South African startup landscape?

You're a successful female entrepreneur. What do you believe are the traits an entrepreneur needs in order to succeed?

Thats a tricky question, as I believe there are a lot of traits that are beneficial in succeeding, but my top three would be the ability to trust your intuition, see opportunities at all times and never stop networking.

Where would you like to see Stream in the next year or so?

I would also love to have more courses and toolkits on offer to help further empower solo entrepreneurs and SMEs, not only in South Africa but on a global scale.

Following two years abroad, Logan moved back to Cape Town and started her first business Butter Knife PR. Seven years later, she sold her shares of the award-winning agency and moved to Gauteng. This is where she started Stream - from her bedroom, kitchen, living room and even from her stoep - all during the coronavirus lockdown.This #WomensMonth , Marisa Logan shares her successful journey.I launched Stream during lockdown, creating a platform where different streams of consciousness come together, sharing stories of how people have navigated through struggles to reach success.Ever since starting my career in PR in 2009 I knew I wasnt going to stay in the industry forever and that I wanted a deeper sense of purpose. So after selling my shares at the agency where I was director and co-founder for seven years, in February 2020, I decided to launch Stream.I created Stream to inspire and empower, leveraging my 13 years of local and international experience in PR, social media and digital marketing to help brands be seen and people be heard through Stream Stories and Stream Services.The biggest challenge has been upskilling in order to launch a new business whilst adapting to the impact of Covid and rapidly building a brand across multiple social media channels in addition to curating weekly content in video, photograph and podcast format. All of this on top of working one-on-one with entrepreneurs teaching them how to implement brand awareness strategies via weekly video call sessions.A lot right!? Well, its been thrilling, nerve-racking and super stimulating to say the least.I know times are incredibly tough for so many, but if you can see the silver lining, adapt, learn and grow, you truly can succeed. Its hard to consistently stay positive, so my biggest advice would be to choose your surroundings wisely. Stay in regular contact with friends/family/contacts who are entrepreneurs that inspire you and set healthy boundaries so that your mind can stay sane and productive.Gosh, I have been so hard on myself for the past four months chasing one goal after the next, that I havent quite reflected and allowed the progress to sink in.I am proud that I launched a website , a podcast channel , a YouTube channel, a Facebook page, a LinkedIn page and an Instagram page  creating a loyal community that are so supportive, engaging and complimentary.Every day I get a direct message from someone I dont know thanking me for inspiring or empowering them  and that makes all the hard work and uncertainty so worth it.Just like 2020, I cant give you an accurate prediction...but this is my third business and I am currently working on a fourth which will launch this coming Summer. This is very much just the beginning so keep following Stream and lets see what happens next.I have been very impressed with the small businesses and entrepreneurs that have come together to support one another and stand stronger together through all the turmoil that this year has brought. This is something that I would love to see more of and hope that it continues.Firstly, thank you so much for the kind words and recognition!In addition to sharing a lot more stories of struggles and success, growing the Stream community and inspiring more people.
We know that in a pandemic, we are in unprecedented times, said Biden campaign manager Jen OMalley Dillon. Weve seen chaos in recent primary elections, and we know that our responsibility is to make sure that we give voters everything they need to be able to vote, vote early and vote safely. We believe that our advertising strategy is going to do just that and serve as a way to break through from a lot of the misinformation out there.
Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

Gov. Greg Abbott this week is trying to make it clear that local school boards, not his office, are responsible for the speed at which students across Texas return to the classroom as the coronavirus continues to ravage the state, nation, and the world.

Plus Sen. Ted Cruz continues to test his political influence with GOP voters against President Donald Trump. Join the conversation featuring Scott Braddock, editor of The Quorum Report and Houston Chronicle political writer Jeremy Wallace.
Chennai: A total of 740 tons of ammonium nitrate stored at a Private Container Freight Station in Manali, about 30 km north of Tamil Nadus capital city Chennai, will be safely disposed of within a month, sources said on Thursday. In September 2015, 37 containers, each measuring 20 feet, were seized when they had arrived at the Chennai port from South Korea.

The customs authorities had seized the containers as the recipient company, a private firm, did not have the requisite clearances for handling these explosive/chemicals. It is learnt that the seized chemical is under the process of being sold via the e-auction route and that it would be safely handed over to the buyer.

Top customs officials have stated that these containers are safely stored in the zone of the hazardous material, in containers that have the yellow marking that denotes explosives, in logistics parlance. Besides assuring its safe handover to the concerned party, they have emphasized that it is stored at a location that does not have any inhabitation within a two-km radius.

Ammonium nitrate, which is widely used in fertilizers and explosives has been in the news recently, after the Lebanese government pointed out that it was 2,700 tons of the same chemical which caused a massive explosion at the Beirut port on August 4 evening. In pure form, Ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) is a white, crystalline chemical which is soluble in water. It is the main ingredient in the manufacture of commercial explosives used in mining and construction.
A five-member team of officials from the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) have met CBCID senior officials in connection with the recent mysterious death of a Sri Lankan gangster here, a senior police official said on Thursday.

The Crime Branch CID police, which has taken over the investigation into the death of Maddumage Lasantha Chandana Perera alias Angoda Lokka, has formed seven special teams to look into various aspects, including his 'illegal' stay and fabrication of documents to get Aadhar card for him.

According to the official, the RAW team was in the city yesterday and held discussions with CBCID Inspector General of Police, K Shankar and other senior officials, as Lokka was wanted in connection with serious offences in the Island nation and in the wake of a 'red notice' issued by Interpol.

The team reportedly collected some important documents with regard to Lokka, the official said.

Lokka, whose name was changed as Pradeep Singh in Aadhar card, allegedly suffered a cardiac arrest and declared brought dead at a private hospital here on July 3.

After autopsy at a government hospital, the body was taken to Madurai and cremated.

The media in Sri Lanka had reported the gangster was poisoned to death in India, following which the island nation police sought the help of Coimbatore police for information.

City Police have arrested Sivakami Sundari, Dyaneswaran and Amani Thanji, a Sri Lankan woman, on Sunday on charges of forging documents to get an Aadhar card for Lokka.

According to sources, Amani Thanji's husband was killed by Lokka in Sri Lanka and after that she was staying with him.

In order to establish Lokka's identity, CBCID has sent the viscera to Chennai for examination, the police official added.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - After winning the Democratic nomination Tuesday, Missouri Auditor Nicole Galloway launched her campaign for governor here on Wednesday. Altering the state response to the new coronavirus will likely be a central issue in the campaign. Galloway said voters will have a clear choice in November between two distinct paths for Missouri.
https://www.iiconsortium.org/

The chairs of Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) task groups and working groups shared their proposals for future industry guidance following the IIC Quarterly Member Meeting, which took place virtually from June 22  26, 2020.

Here is a summary of the IIC task group and working group accomplishments and work in process, which span a wide range of industry IIoT requirements and includes contributions from end users:

The Academic Task Group conducted a brainstorming session with academic and industry community members to identify key areas of collaboration, which included joint university/industry projects in key IIoT areas such as healthcare, AI, digital twin, and smart factory. We initiated a guest lecture series on key initiatives to be given by individual member researchers and industry members. We are also working to align skills, expectations and interest areas of researchers with key industry requirements, said Lynne Canavan, Chair of the IIC Academic Task Group and Director of Ecosystems at RTI.

"The Automotive Task Group is a cross-industry innovation platform of Information & Communication Technology (ICT), automotive and transportation industries. We will work on the joint architecture design, the connected and automated requirements collection, safety and security evaluation, testbeds and best practices analysis," said GE Yuming, Co-Chair of the IIC Automotive Task Group and Senior Engineer, CAICT.

The Distributed Computing Task Group is finalizing a technical report entitled, The Industrial Internet of Things Distributed Computing in the Edge, which will be published in Q3. The report provides a framework, explores architectures, and specifies essential capabilities and interfaces for distributed computing at the edge. It also emphasizes security and management, which can be challenging in distributed edge computing environments, said Chuck Byers, Chair of the IIC Distributed Computing Task Group and Associate CTO IIC.

The Distributed Ledger Task Group discussed the use of blockchains for industrial IoT applications. We discussed the latest research and progress on enterprise blockchain for IoT and blockchain-based supply chain management. We also identified new research and collaboration opportunities for the task group going forward, said Xinxin Fan, Co-chair of the IIC Distributed Ledger Task Group and Founding Member and Head of Cryptography, IoTeX.

The Energy Task Group plans to launch the IIC Energy Industry Leadership Council in Q3, which will consist of several global power utility end users. These influential thought leaders will provide feedback on industry trends and challenges to help us prioritize resources so we can deliver more impactful IoT solutions and value to the energy sector, said Eddie Lee, Co-Chair of the IIC Energy Task Group and Director of Global Industry Marketing at Moxa.

The Healthcare Task Group seeks to promote testbeds that support technology-enabled care and facilitate collaborative relationships between academia, industry, and government. We believe such relationships will facilitate cutting-edge research, promote uptake of new technologies, enable adoption of scalable, sustainable business models, and facilitate innovative models of healthcare delivery that enable equitable access to better value healthcare for all, said David Pare, Co-chair of the Healthcare Task Group and Chief Technology Officer, Healthcare & Life Sciences, DXC Healthcare Australia & New Zealand.

The Innovation Task Group hosted an information-sharing session with physicians from the Medical School at Shinshu University to help them develop an IIC Test Drive proposal. They discussed requirements for building a gait analytic system, which will warn the elderly of potential health problems. The task group solicited IIC members with experience in healthcare applications and solutions, ranging from devices, networking, connectivity, security, and medical frameworks, to participate. The members who responded developed a 90-minute showcase to assist the physicians at the university to kick off their project, said Dr. Mitch Tseng, Chair of the IIC Innovation Task Group and Managing Member of Tseng InfoServ LLC.

The Marketing Working Group is the place all IIC members pool deliverables. It is the perfect hotspot for keeping in the loop about promising new technologies, an ideal hub to refine business strategies, and ultimately a forum for executives active in the industry innovation space, said Daniela Previtali, Marketing Work Group Co-Chair, and Global Marketing Director, WIBU-SYSTEMS AG.

The Security Applicability Task Group delivered a half-day IoT Security Maturity Model (SMM) course and completed the Retail IoT SMM Profile in conjunction with the OMG Retail Task Force. Plans for next quarter include the creation of a one-day IoT SMM course and drafts of the Communications Best Practices and of the Device Onboarding and Automated Provisioning Best Practices white papers, said Ron Zahavi, IIC Security Applicability Task Group Co-chair.

The Smart Factory Task Group discussed the needs and experiences of manufacturers, as well as end-user adoption of the IoT maturity model, digital transformation, machine learning and cybersecurity. We also had an in-depth, analytical discussion about the impact of COVID-19 on manufacturing, identifying valuable use cases and opportunities for collaboration, said Farid Bichareh, Chair of the IIC Smart Factory Task Group and CTO, AASA.

"The task group charter for the Testbed Council Task Group was approved at the June 11th working group meeting. The goal of the group is to accelerate the realization of industry-focused testbeds and test drives. The groups efforts are supportive of the work group charter and strategy to focus on the needs of industry users. Group members are invited to get involved to help, mentor and guide the testbed teams and the test drives," said Vijay Ujjain, Co-Chair of the Testbed Council Task Group and Director at PwC.

The Thought Leadership Task Group published our first virtual edition of the Journal of Innovation, which comprises five select webcasts covering a wide range of topics from characteristics of successful IoT projects to skill gaps in smart manufacturing. We are gearing up for our upcoming edition entitled, IoT Enabling Rapid Response to COVID and Future Pandemic, which is scheduled for November 10th, said Edy Liongosari, Co-chair of the IIC Thought Leadership Task Group and Chief Scientist, Accenture Labs.

The Trustworthiness Task Group recently published a white paper on software trustworthiness and at the meeting, continued to work on a trustworthiness framework that incorporates concepts from the white paper and more, said Frederick Hirsch, IIC Trustworthiness Task Group Co-chair. We highlighted the need for understanding context and reviewed the importance of trust in supply chain, such as the need for evidence and assurance. We plan to build on our previous work, which is documented in the IIC Journal of Innovation on Trustworthiness, by continuing to develop the trustworthiness model as part of the trustworthiness framework.

The Vocabulary Task Group concluded its discussions about contributions for definitions to be included in the Vocabulary Technical Report v2.3 and started the final review process. The Vocabulary Technical Report v2.3 is targeted for a Q3 release, said Erin Bournival, Distinguished Engineer, Office of the Corporate CTO at Dell EMC and Chair IIC Vocabulary Task Group.

The next IIC member meeting will take place virtually from September 28-October 2, 2020.

About Industrial Internet Consortium

The Industrial Internet Consortium is the worlds leading organization transforming business and society by accelerating the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). The IIC delivers a trustworthy IIoT in which the worlds systems and devices are securely connected and controlled to deliver transformational outcomes. The Industrial Internet Consortium is a program of the Object Management Group (OMG). For more information visit http://www.iiconsortium.org.

Note to editors: Industrial Internet Consortium is a registered trademark of OMG. For a listing of all OMG trademarks, visit https://www.omg.org/legal/tm_list.htm. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
The man identified as a rape suspect through the use of forensic genealogy was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Wednesday.

Angel Gurule, 24, had pleaded guilty in May to two counts of criminal sexual penetration for the rape of a stranger jogging near the Rio Grande in the South Valley on Christmas Eve 2015. He will also have to register as a sex offender.

The sentence was the maximum under the plea agreement.

The District Attorneys Office uploaded the rapists DNA into a commercial genealogy website and ended up identifying Gurule after finding a match with his second cousin twice removed, who lived in California. Gurule had never been charged with any other crimes and was still living with his parents in the same house, less than half a mile from where the attack occurred. He was arrested in January.

It is believed to be the first case using forensic genealogy in New Mexico.
Patented Dual Technology Based Foot Soak Effectively and Efficiently Attacks Foot Odor and Itching at its Core

Soak Away Foot Odor at the Source with New FootBathTx Treatment

Eliminates Extreme OdorsMedically known as Bromodosis, stinky feet are a common year-round problem. Fungal infections, such as athletes foot, are a frequent cause of foot odor. Feet can also become smelly due to perspiration. Smelly feet arent fun for anyone.

Eliminates Extreme OdorsMedically known as Bromodosis, stinky feet are a common year-round problem. Fungal infections, such as athletes foot, are a frequent cause of foot odor. Feet can also become smelly due to perspiration. Smelly feet arent fun for anyone.

New York City, NY, Aug. 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NEW YORK, NY, August 5th, 2020  Introducing FootBathTx, a scientifically advanced product for the relief of foot odor and itchy feet at its source.

Created by innovative infectious disease researchers, FootBathTxs active ingredient emulates one of the key molecules in our bodys defense mechanism against infection. Tests on FootBathTxs active ingredient submitted to Health Canada yielded clearance for sale as a safe and effective compound.

We created FootBathTx to provide people with a solution not readily available on the market, said Richard Gray, CEO of FootBathTx. Over 70% of Americans will experience foot odor or intense foot itching at some point in their life. The products currently on the market only provide a solution for the effects versus attacking the problem at its core.

This easy to use product requires users to take a 30-minute foot bath once a day for three consecutive days. Directions specify a fourth and final foot bath on the 5th day following the completion of the three consecutive foot baths. To prep the bath, users simply take the FootBathTx treatment packets and mix them together, one base packet and one activator, with 5 liters of water.

Say Goodbye to Smelly Feet! Soak Away Foot Odor at the Source with New FootBathTx Treatment

FootBathTx provides a solution unlike any other on the marketplace today through its patented dual water activated technology. The technology generates an active ingredient for the duration of the 30-minute foot bath, creating the most effective product available.

Story continues

Our clinical trials have showcased how effective our product really is. They show that four 30-minute foot baths are all that is required. says Gray.

FootBathTx advanced hydration therapy foot soak provides the following benefits:

Eliminates extreme foot odor

Relieves uncomfortable itching and burning

Softens hard, dry, flaky skin that can cause deep fissures

Increases blood flow to the feet

Aids in cellular repair

FootBathTx is made in the USA and available for purchase online through the company website and on Amazon. The product is available wholesale to select distributors and retailers worldwide. To learn more, please visit footbathtx.com.

FootBathTx - Richard Gray

(888) 998-8762

News via: KISS PR Story Newswire

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On Sep. 23, 2013, a Russian-owned, Moldovan-flagged ship departed Georgia en route to Mozambique bearing 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, a material used in fertilizer as well as explosives.

Why it matters: The Rhosus made an unscheduled stop in Beirut, apparently due to engine problems. The ammonium nitrate never left the port, but destroyed it nearly seven years later, along with much of the city.

How it happened: Authorities did not allow the Rhosus to travel on from Beirut, either because of its technical issues or a lack of proper documentation. Attempts by authorities and creditors to reach the ships owners were unsuccessful. Crew members were left stranded. So was the cargo.

In July 2014, under the headline "Crew kept hostages on a floating bomb," ship-tracking site FleetMon reported that the ship's owner  a Russian-born Cyprus resident named Gregushkin Igor  had abandoned it with four crew members still stranded on board.

"[P]ort authorities dont want to be left with abandoned vessel on their hands, loaded with dangerous cargo, explosives, in fact," FleetMon noted.

The crew was eventually freed, and the ammonium nitrate was moved to Hangar 12, a storage facility at the port.

"Owing to the risks associated with retaining the Ammonium Nitrate on board the vessel, the port authorities discharged the cargo onto the ports warehouses. The vessel and cargo remain to date in port awaiting auctioning and/or proper disposal," lawyers representing the crew wrote in 2015.

Between 2014 and 2017, port officials wrote to Lebanese courts at least six times seeking guidance on what to do with the ammonium nitrate, the New York Times reports.

Options included exporting it, selling it, or giving it to the Lebanese Army. None of them were taken.

In view of the serious danger posed by keeping this shipment in the warehouses in an inappropriate climate, we repeat our request to demand the maritime agency to re-export the materials immediately," Lebanon's customs chief, Shafik Marei, wrote in May 2016.

"As recently as six months ago, officials inspecting the consignment warned that if it was not moved it would 'blow up all of Beirut,' according to the Guardian.

Flash forward: A smaller explosion at the port  apparently involving fireworks  caused the ammonium nitrate to ignite.

Half the city was seriously damaged, with the governor estimating 250,000 people could be rendered homeless.

Several port officials are under house arrest. People in the streets are demanding that the entire government fall.

Economy Minister Raoul Nehme said "incompetence and really bad management" was to blame for the ammonium nitrate remaining insufficiently secured at the port nearly seven years after the Rhosus set sail.

Go deeper: Macron visits Beirut promising a "new political pact" for Lebanon
BOSTON and TEL AVIV, Israel, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Guardicore , the segmentation company disrupting the legacy firewall market, today unveiled new capabilities for Infection Monkey, its free, open source breach and attack simulation (BAS) tool that maps to the MITRE ATT&CK knowledge base and tests network adherence to the Forrester Zero Trust framework.

New capabilities include an expanded list of MITRE ATT&CK techniques, user interface improvements, and increased security measures for the user. Today's updates demonstrate Guardicore's commitment to empowering cybersecurity professionals with sophisticated but easy-to-use tools that significantly improve security posture. Guardicore will be showcasing the open source tool's new functionality and user interface together with the already existing features at this year's DEF CON Red Teams Village 's virtual conference on Thursday, August 6th at 8:30 p.m. ET.

Infection Monkey is a self-propagating testing tool that hundreds of information technology teams from across the world use to test network adherence to the Zero Trust framework, and find weaknesses in their on-premises and cloud-based data centers. Over the past four years, Infection Monkey has gained significant momentum and popularity amongst the cybersecurity community. With more than 3,200 stars on Github, Infection Monkey is trusted by large enterprises, educational institutions, and more, and has garnered praise from distinguished industry analysts such as Dr. Chase Cunningham, principal analyst at Forrester.

"In cyberspace and in cyber warfare exploitation, attacks succeed because they locate and leverage the weak points in systems and networks. In order to defend from this type of attack cycle, it is necessary to continually test the system for those likely weak points. But this can be difficult, especially when dealing with large infrastructures that are bridged between cloud, non-cloud, on premises, off premises, and a wide variety of other potential configurations. Infection Monkey is one of the most well-aligned tools that fits this need. I'm a huge fan." - from Chase Cunningham's "Cyber Warfare - Trust, Tactics, and Strategies"

Expanded MITRE ATT&CK Techniques and Reporting

Recognizing that cybersecurity experts and enterprise DevSecOps teams continue to rely on the MITRE-developed ATT&CK framework as the foundation for network security tests and assessments, Infection Monkey 1.9.0 now offers a total of 32 MITRE ATT&CK techniques available for testing. These new attack techniques enable cybersecurity professionals to exhaustively test their network like never before while also empowering them to easily communicate steps towards actionable remediation with all relevant stakeholders, from IT to the C-suite.

Improved Usability

As the cybersecurity skills gap continues to widen and IT teams find themselves short-staffed, Infection Monkey 1.9.0 received several interface improvements that ensure the tool can be easily implemented - and most importantly valuable - with no additional staff or education.

Infection Monkey 1.9.0's user interface has been significantly upgraded for configuration, making it easier than ever to set up a variety of different test scenarios on the network. In addition, Infection Monkey 1.9.0 now runs more stealthily to avoid interruptions in attack simulations and improve coverage rates.

Secure By Default

Guardicore is committed to ensuring that Infection Monkey offers the highest standards of quality and safety as a tool. Deployed in enterprise production data centers and cloud deployments, delivering a secure and stable tool is a top priority.

Therefore, Infection Monkey 1.9.0 now requires a secure login by default and has also been verified as secure by Synk.io , a security firm that continuously scans for vulnerabilities in software dependencies. Users of Infection Monkey 1.9.0 can be confident that the tool is safe and secure for deployment.

"Our mission with Infection Monkey is to equip cybersecurity professionals with a valuable open source tool that helps improve their security posture against cybercriminals," said Shay Nehmad, Team Lead and Open Source Software Developer, Guardicore. "With this new version, we have made it easier than ever to use the tool's sophisticated features."

About Guardicore

Guardicore is the segmentation company disrupting the legacy firewall market. Our software-only approach is decoupled from the physical network, providing a faster alternative to firewalls. Built for the agile enterprise, Guardicore offers greater security and visibility in the cloud, data-center and endpoint. For more information, please visit www.guardicore.com or go to Twitter or LinkedIn .

Contact

Emily Townsend

[email protected]

9788883729

SOURCE Guardicore

Related Links

http://www.guardicore.com


LONDON, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Federation of St Kitts and Nevis has not had any new cases of COVID-19 for 25 days, according to the data from the World Health Organisation as at August 5, 2020. With only 17 cases and no deaths, the popular Caribbean destination is yet to announce a date for reopening its borders. The latest Emergency Powers Regulations imposing restrictions on regular international travel expire on August 8th, 2020.

Meanwhile, the government is running a training programme for the hospitality industry until August 27th. This prepares tourism workers for the long-awaited arrival of visitors following strict health and safety protocols.

The government will also launch a track and trace mobile app, mandatory for all visitors. Using geo-fencing technology, the app will alert users when certain devices enter set boundaries. It will also provide tourists with health updates, including new arrivals into St Kitts and Nevis.

"The app will facilitate contact tracing and facilitate the management of suspected cases through real-time feedback," Prime Minister Dr the Hon. Timothy Harris first announced last week on the Leadership Matters programme. "All visitors will be asked to comply with our protocols and to obey our Emergency Powers Regulations," he continued.

"COVID-19 is both a health crisis and an economic crisis," Premier of Nevis Mark Brantley recently commented when announcing a stimulus package for the construction sector. "In Nevis, we are seeking to find ways to restart the local economy," he added.

Until tourism resumes, the country continues to rely on its long-standing Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Programme to sustain its economy. Speaking to Sky News in April, PM Harris explained how the country was tackling the economic impact of the pandemic. He also predicted that the Federation would need to "deal with the health imperatives of a new brand of tourism product which we now have to offer."

To incentivise more foreign investment, the government announced a limited-time offer under the CBI Programme. It allows families of up to four to obtain second citizenship for a US$150,000 contribution to the Sustainable Growth Fund. This remains the fastest route to citizenship.

Business Insider reported on August 1st that, as industry pioneers, "St Kitts and Nevis citizenship by investment thrives amid coronavirus". The publication suggests that due diligence is behind the Programme's hard-earned brand.

[email protected] ,

www.csglobalpartners.com

SOURCE CS Global Partners
Updated at 1:15 p.m. on Aug. 6 with information provided by Marijuana Regulatory Agency spokesman David Harns

LANSING, MI -- Michigan licensing officials on Thursday, Aug. 6 recalled nearly 3,200 contaminated pre-rolled marijuana cigarettes originating from a Bay City processing center.

The Michigan Regulatory Agency said the recall was issued over claims that a worker licked a pre-roll marijuana product while making the product. Its unclear how state licensing officials learned of the allegations.

Owners of the processing center, identified in state licensing records as 3843 Euclid LLC, also operate Dispo, a retail and medical store at 3843 Euclid Ave. in Bay City. The processing license has been suspended for 14 days.

The recall impacts pre-rolled cigarettes, commonly referred to as blunts or joints, from medical and recreational retailers in Bay City, Hazel Park, Detroit, Traverse City, Ann Arbor, Lansing, River Rouge, Ferndale, Quincy, Lowell, Negaunee, and Lapeer.

Various brands have been named in the recall and a full list of the product names and tracking numbers, as well as the stores and dates they were sold are available at the end of this story. Sales of the recalled product occurred between June and Aug. 3.

Consumers who have these contaminated pre-rolls in their possession should return them to the provisioning center or retailer where they were purchased for proper disposal, the Marijuana Regulatory Agency said in a statement. Provisioning centers must notify patients and caregivers who purchased these pre-rolls of the recall.

Consumers who have experienced symptoms after using these products should report their symptoms and product use to their physician. Consumers are requested to report any adverse product reactions to the (Marijuana Regulatory Agency) via email: MRA-Enforcement@michigan.gov or via phone: 517-284-8599.

State licensing officials say there is an ongoing investigation that began on July 31. The processor on the same day agreed to cease all operations until further instruction from the Marijuana Regulatory Agency.

The state identified the potentially impacted marijuana products and placed them on administrative hold in the state tracking system, which alerts sellers of an issue at the time of sale. Multiple sales of the recalled product were made following initiation of the investigation. Its unclear if sellers ignored the hold alerts. The state may penalize retailers or dispensaries that sell product while its on administrative hold.

Marijuana Regulatory Agency spokesman David Harns said he could not reveal if that occurred in this situation because it is an ongoing investigation. Recalls are issued as quickly as possible once all pertinent product and sales information is compiled, Harns said.

Mlive has requested and is awaiting comment from the processing company.

Full product recall information:
CAMDEN  A 36-year-old man from the Newtonville section of Buena Vista Township pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to illegally selling firearms.

Brandon Groce, 36, who has five prior felony convictions, pleaded guilty during a videoconference before U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler to charges including one count of illegally engaging in the business of dealing in firearms and one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said in a news release.

The charges carry a maximum potential penalty of up to five years in prison and 10 years in prison, respectively, and each count carries a maximum fine of $250,000, according to the release.

Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 16.

On six days between February and September 2019, Groce met with an individual in a parking lot in Paulsboro, Gloucester County, to sell firearms. During each meeting, Groce sold at least one firearm and ammunition for cash, according to the release.

At the time, Groce had previously been convicted in state Superior Court of five felonies, including a firearms offense, resisting arrest and three controlled-substance offenses.

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Olamide Adedeji better known as Baddo has pulled down the video of his hit song, Wonma which was recently released. The YBNL rapper was sl...

Olamide Adedeji better known as Baddo has pulled down the video of his hit song, Wonma which was recently released.





The YBNL rapper was slammed on social media over allegations that he portrayed nurses as s3xual objects in the video.





The music video featured vixens dressed in nurse costumes displayed explicit activities and moves while on duty. Olamide later pulled down the video on Instagram.





Nursing World Nigeria, an online outfit that connects Nigerian nurses, also released a statement on the issue.





Read below: Thanks to everyone who took time to report and request that the video by @Olamide posted on Instagram be taken down. While we acknowledge the fact that @Olamide has brought the sounds and beats of Nigeria and Africa to the world at large, the fact still remains that @Olamide recent music video misrepresents and totally disrespects the Nursing profession and healthcare providers. With a video WONMA depicting nurses as s3x toys and s3x objects to over 3.4M and 6.9M followers on @Twitter, @AppleMusic and @instagram.





It was heartbreaking to say the least. To those who also made the calls and desired to remain unnamed we also appreciate you. To everyone who used the hashtag: #NursesAreNotS3xualObjects we also say thank you. The video has now been removed Nurses Are No S3xual Objects
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Itanagar:

Two soldiers were martyred while eight others sustained injuries when suspected militants ambushed an Assam Rifles convoy near Wakka in Longding district of Arunachal Pradesh on Saturday.

The attack took place 20km from Indo-Myanmar border. Defence PRO Lt Colonel Chiranjeet Konwar said the militants ambushed the convoy of 16 Assam Rifles stationed in the district near Wakka at around 1.45pm killing one jawan on the spot while injuring nine others.

He, however, could not divulge the name of the deceased nor the group involved in the ambush.

"Search operation is going on in the area and efforts were being made to evacuate the injured jawans," he added. Unconfirmed reports from Longding said the ambush was carried out jointly by NSCN (K) and ULFA (Independent) cadres.

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This Future Market Insights (FMI) report examines the global animal healthcare market for the period 20172027. The primary objective of the report is to offer updates and information related to market opportunities in the Global Animal Healthcare Market.

The Animal Healthcare Market segmented as follows:

Animal Healthcare Market, by Product Type



Animal Healthcare Market, by Animal Type



Animal Healthcare Market, by Region



This report covers the global animal healthcare market performance in terms of revenue contribution from various segments. The Animal Healthcare market report begins with an overview of the Animal Healthcare market and its definitions. Market viewpoint section underlines the macro-economic factors influencing growth of the Animal Healthcare market along with detailing the opportunity analysis of the market.

For more insights into the Market, request a sample of this report@ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-431

The global Animal Healthcare market is segmented based on product type, animal type and region. Based on product type, the global Animal Healthcare market has been segmented into Feed Additives, Pharmaceuticals and Vaccines. Based on animal type, the global Animal Healthcare market has been segmented into Production Animals and Companion Animals. The global Animal Healthcare market has been segmented into seven major regions: North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), Japan, and Middle East & Africa (MEA).

A detailed analysis has been provided for each region in terms of market size, Y-o-Y growth rate, absolute $ opportunity, and market attractiveness index. Regional market dynamics provides key growth drivers, restraints, and trends pertaining to each region. The forecast of Animal Healthcare by country, component type, imaging technique, application and end user are represented in tabular form for each region. This section will help the client understand the opportunities available in the Animal Healthcare market in major countries by each segment.

In the next section of the report, the Competitive Landscape is included to provide report audiences with a dashboard view and to access the key differentiators among the competitor firms. This section is primarily designed to provide clients with an objective and detailed comparative assessment of product offerings and strategies of key providers specific to a market segment. Detailed profiles of players in Animal Healthcare market are also provided in the report which highlights company description, product/segment overview, SWOT analysis, financial information, key developments related to the market and a strategic overview.

The above sections  by product type and animal type  evaluate the historical market analysis for the period of 2012-2016 and growth prospects of the Animal Healthcare market for the period 2017-2027. We have considered 2016 as the base year and provided data for the forecast period.

The final section of the report presents the global scenario for Animal Healthcare market along with Y-o-Y growth and market forecast till 2027. This section also evaluates the global market opportunity over the forecast period and also the absolute dollar opportunity for each year. This section will help client understand the overall market growth of the Animal Healthcare market and the opportunity analysis for every year over the forecast period.

For Information On The Research Approach Used In The Report, Request Methodology@ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-431

Research Methodology

To arrive at the market size, we have considered parent market statistics in each region and share of Animal Healthcare market. Bottom up approach is used to validate the total market size obtained. The forecast presented in the report provides total revenue of the Animal Healthcare market over 20172027. While forecasting the market size we have considered the impact of several factors such as product approvals for Animal Healthcare, R&D investment by major players, product approvals, penetration of products in different distribution channels, generic penetration across all regions etc. However, quantifying the market across the aforementioned segments and regions is more a matter of quantifying expectations and identifying opportunities rather than rationalising them after the forecast has been completed. In addition, we have taken into consideration the year-on-year growth to understand the predictability of the market and to identify the right growth opportunities in the global Animal Healthcare market.
A state judge on Wednesday threw out a lawsuit by disability advocates challenging provisions of Alabamas absentee ballot laws, saying his court lacked jurisdiction and the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue.

The lawsuit, initially filed in May in Montgomery County Civil Court by the League of Women Voters and several elderly or sick Alabamians, contended that provisions requiring absentee voters to have photo IDs before getting their ballots and another requiring a notary public or two witnesses attest that the voter filled out the ballot violate Alabamas constitution amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Requiring voters without facilities in their homes to obtain copies of photo identifications will endanger their health and their lives during the coronavirus pandemic by exposing them to potential infection outside their homes, the lawsuit stated. " The suit gave the same reasoning for why the witness requirement is unlawful.

But Montgomery County Civil Court Judge J.R. Gaines dismissed the lawsuit for several reasons.

For the reasons laid out in the defendants motions to dismiss, the court finds that it lacks jurisdiction over Plaintiffs complaint because Plaintiffs present a nonjusticiable political question, plaintiffs lack standing to sue defendants, and the claims against defendants are barred by sovereign immunity, Gaines wrote in his order. Additionally, the court notes that even if it had found that jurisdiction exists, it would have found that plaintiffs have failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, for the reasons laid out in the defendants motions to dismiss.

Gaines decision was hailed by Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, whose office represented the state in the lawsuit.

Alabamas absentee voting law requires voters who seek an absentee ballot to submit a copy of their photo ID as well as have two witnesses or one notary to sign the absentee ballot, Marshall said. This simple process, which is designed to protect the integrity of our elections, was upheld today as a Montgomery County Circuit Court dismissed a lawsuit by the League of Women Voters of Alabama seeking to block the law in order to weaken it.Todays circuit court ruling is a victory for Alabamas absentee voting law which will remain in effect to safeguard our elections.

J
A 25-year-old Roxbury man, accused of fatally shooting 46-year-old Viktor Lopez in February, was arrested Wednesday, authorities said.

Sabrion Ramsure was taken into custody around 5:20 p.m. in the area of 663 Parker St., according to a statement from the Boston Police Department.

He had an outstanding warrant for his arrest out of Dorchester District Court on murder and armed kidnapping charges, the statement said.

On Feb. 20, police responded to a radio call about a person shot near 89 Woodrow Ave. in Dorchester, according to authorities.

Officers found Lopez, also known as Marcos Blanco, suffering from a life-threatening gunshot wound. The 46-year-old Dorchester man was taken to a nearby hospital, where he later died, police said.

Ramsure is expected to be arraigned in Dorchester District Court at a later date, police said.

The February killing was the third fatal shooting to happen in Boston within two weeks.

A day before Lopezs death, a teenager was shot and killed close to Cameron Street in Dorchester, and on Feb. 7, 62-year-old Andrew Farley, of Dorchester, was shot to death near Columbia Road and Hancock Street.

The Boston Police Department urged anyone with information related to the investigation into Lopezs death to call homicide detectives at (617) 343-4470.

Anonymous tips can also be submitted by calling the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1 (800) 494-TIPS or by texting the word TIP to CRIME (27463).
U.S. Army modernization officials are about to finish the service's first experiment to see whether the Robotic Combat Vehicle effort can make units more deadly on the future battlefield.

For the past five weeks, a platoon of soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division has been conducting cavalry-style combat missions using two-person crews in specially modified Bradley fighting vehicles to control robotic surrogate vehicles fashioned from M113 armored personnel vehicles in the Robotic Combat Vehicle Soldier Operational Experiment.

Read Next: US Military Gets 1st Black Service Chief as Gen. 'CQ' Brown Takes Charge of Air Force

The platoon has operated in the rugged terrain of Fort Carson, Colorado, testing different technologies to control the robotic vehicles, sending them out hundreds of meters ahead to scout for enemy positions.

"This experiment was 100% successful ... because we learned; the whole purpose was to learn where the technology is now and how we think we want to fight with it in the future," Brig. Gen. Ross Coffman, director of the Army's Next Generation Combat Vehicle-Cross Functional Team, told defense reporters Thursday during a virtual roundtable discussion.

"All of the technology was not successful; it's a sliding scale. Some knocked our socks off, and some -- we've got a little bit of work to do."

The experiment, scheduled to end Aug. 14, is one of three designed to evaluate the performance and potential of robotic combat vehicles on the battlefield, Coffman said.

Some of the technology tested in the experiment worked better than anticipated, he added.

"The interface with the crew ... so the soldiers see where they are, they see where the robots are, they can communicate graphics ... it just absolutely blew us away," he said. "The software between the robotic vehicle and the control vehicle -- while not perfect -- performed better than we thought it would."

There were challenges with the target recognition technology that links the robotic vehicle with the control vehicle.

"It works while stationary, but part of the challenge is how do you do that on the move and how that is passed to the gunner," Coffman said. "We've got some work to do with that.

"We have some work to do with the stability systems with the weapon systems as you are going across terrain," he continued.

Another challenge will be to get the control vehicle and the robot vehicle to communicate adequately beyond 1,000 meters.

"The distance between the robot and the controller is a physics problem and, when you talk flat earth, you can go over a kilometer from the controller to the robot," Coffman said, adding that potential adversaries are wrestling with the same challenge.

Several defense firms participating in the experiment have "created radio waveforms to get us the megabytes per second to extend that range" in dense forest terrain, he said.

"That's the hardest part, is you get into a dense forest, it's really hard to extend the range," he said. "We tested them; we went after them with [electronic warfare] ... so we have a really good idea of what is the realm of the possible."

The Army announced in January that it had selected QinetiQ North America to build four prototypes of the Robotic Combat Vehicle-Light, and Textron to build four prototypes of the RCV-Medium. Both companies were present at the experiment, but their prototypes are still being finalized and did not participate.

After the experiment, an independent evaluation will be conducted on the technical and tactical performance of the robots to decide whether manned-unmanned teaming in combat vehicles can make combat units more effective, Coffman said.

In the first part of fiscal 2022, the Army is scheduled to conduct a second experiment at Fort Hood, Texas, using the same M113 robot vehicles and Bradley control vehicles to focus on company-size operations. The service also plans to conduct a third experiment in the future that will focus on more complex company-size operations.

After each of these experiments, the Army will decide "is the technology where we thought it would be, should we continue to spend money on this effort or should we cease effort?" Coffman said.

The service is also scheduled to make a decision in fiscal 2023 on when manned-unmanned teaming with RCVs will become a program of record, he said, adding that no decision has been made on when the Army will equip its first unit with the technology.

Coffman admits that the technology is "not 100% there yet," but he remains confident that combat leaders will one day have the option to send unmanned combat vehicles into danger before committing soldiers to the fight.

"This is about soldiers and this is about commanders on the battlefield and giving them the decision space and reducing the risk of our men and women when we go into the nastiest places on Earth," he explained.

-- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.

Related: Soldiers Will Control Robotic Combat Vehicles in Upcoming Test
CLYDE, Ohio  During a communications spree across the state Thursday, Republican President Donald Trump tried to soften the blow of the coronavirus pandemic, saying it would be over sooner than people think.

Its a similar refrain to the one Trump used at the beginning of the pandemic and one Trump would undoubtedly love to be a prevailing message out of his Ohio trip. However, cases remain high in both Ohio and across the nation, and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a fellow Republican, tested positive for the coronavirus while waiting to meet Trump on the tarmac in Cleveland, severely complicating his messaging on coronavirus in the state.

First and foremost, we will defeat the China virus, Trump said to a crowd in Clyde, Ohio, using the derogatory term for the COVID-19 coronavirus. Were working very, very hard. We call it the China virus. We call it the invisible enemy. We call it many, many different names. But its bad.

We will win the war and it will happen sooner than people think, Trump said.

Despite the presidents wishes, the coronavirus pandemic is still raging throughout the country. More than 159,000 people in the United States have died from the disease, including more than 3,600 Ohioans.

Trump embarked on a Thursday blitz across Ohio, unable to campaign using normal methods. His stops included an interview on Geraldo Riveras show on WTAM, remarks at Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland, and speaking to a crowd of about 200 indoors -- chairs spread out with people wearing masks -- at the Whirlpool factory in Clyde, Ohio. He toured the factory before the speech. Trump had a high-dollar fundraiser scheduled Thursday evening at the Shoreby Club in Bratenahl.

While technically official White House visits are at the publics expense, for all intents and purposes Trumps appearances served as campaign events where he touted what he described as the economic recovery nationwide and lambasted Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden, who polls show is running competitively against Trump in Ohio.

Trump spent most of his hourlong speech in Clyde talking about the economy. In 2018, he imposed tariffs on foreign-made washing machines, a significant victory for Whirlpool  the only major appliance company still headquartered in the United States. He described the tariffs as a significant victory for the company and proof he was putting American workers first.

However, Trump also ignored or glossed over significant economic challenges that face the country today  largely brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

The economy is strong, Trump said, adding that he expected a quick recovery.

Unemployment claims in Ohio dropped from last week, but hundreds of thousands of people remain out of work. Jobs in the state are at their lowest point since May 2010, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Even the manufacturing sector, which Trump was in Ohio to promote, is at its lowest total jobs-wise since May of 2012.

Still, Trump told the crowd  less raucous than his normal supporters at rallies, but still receptive to his message  that if re-elected, he would end the coronavirus pandemic and resume his economic priorities. He signed an executive order requiring the federal government to purchase some medical and pharmaceutical products from American manufacturers and announced he was re-imposing tariffs on Canadian aluminum.

And, as expected, he attacked Biden and former President Barack Obama for a variety of reasons.

But DeWines positive test  and Trumps insistence on only briefly addressing it  cast a pall over what Trump was hoping to use as a campaign swing through Ohio. A second test administered on DeWine in Columbus came up negative, as did tests for first lady Fran DeWine and staffers at the governors office.

Polls have shown the race narrowing between Trump and Biden, with Biden leading the RealClearPolitics polling average by 2.3 percentage points. Trump won Ohio in 2016 by 8 percentage points and told a small crowd at Burke that he thinks hell win by a larger percentage in 2020.

Biden, whose campaign is taking its prospects in the state much more seriously than a year ago, said Trump was trying to distract from his failures on the pandemic.

Today, as families across Ohio continue to suffer in the face of the pandemic and the economic pain it has caused, Donald Trump is visiting Ohio, not to extend a hand to struggling families, but to try to paper over his record of broken promises to workers and raise money for his campaign, Biden said in a statement. Donald Trump may not want to answer to Ohioans for his failed leadership, but he cannot escape the consequences of his horrific mismanagement of this crisis that has led to more than 90,000 COVID-19 cases in Ohio and left too many workers out of a job and unable to make ends meet.
The Aurum Group

Mike joined The Aurum Group leadership team in April 2020 as President, bringing a wealth of dental experience. Prior to joining The Aurum Group, Mike was CEO of a global dental lab company. Mike has also held executive level positions within the dental industry including Vice President of Marketing at Nobel BioCare, and Consulting Partner with Rodo Digital Prosthetics.

Mike has amassed an amazing career, leading a number of dental companies, start-ups and laboratories at the executive level, helping manage market shifts and technology changes over many years. We are pleased to have Mike join our leadership team, as we forge a new path in Canada and the USA with digital dentistry, particularly in the removable segment, says Mark Maier, CEO of The Aurum Group.

The Aurum Group of Companies, founded by Mr. Hyo Maier, was built on a tradition of high quality and exceptional service. In the past few years, Mark Maier, CEO, his family and talented team across the USA and Canada have become a world leader in the development of the digital denture process.

I could not be more thrilled to join the Aurum Team, as we drive yet another important paradigm shift in dentistry. The Aurum Group will continue to introduce exciting new technology developments that will make removable prosthetics better, more affordable and more convenient for dentists and their patients, says Mike Girard.

***

About the Aurum Group

The Aurum Group is a North American leader in providing a full scope of dental solutions including total comprehensive dental laboratory services, world class continuing education, and practice growth consulting. We believe in the infinite power of a life changing smile; and we exhibit this in all that we do. For more information, please visit our website: http://www.aurumgroup.com.
As districts across Massachusetts prepare to reopen schools this fall, there are many questions from parents and teachers about how it can be done safely during the coronavirus pandemic.

From deep cleaning facilities to mandatory temperature screenings for students and staff, small class sizes and remote and in-person learning hybrids, school districts are considering many factors as September approaches.

Dr. Mark Keroack, president and CEO of Baystate Health, said it is reasonable for some school districts to return to the classroom and in-person instruction.

Having a customized approach for each district, as long as each of the submitted plans follows the guidelines, strikes me as a reasonable way to go, he said Wednesday. If you were in a very rural area that saw almost no cases you could opt to come back as long as you have the appropriate distancing and disinfection and mask wearing.

He said temperature screenings are feasible, but may not always keep infected students from entering the building.

(Screening) is relatively easy to do. We do it with hundreds of employees who come to work every day, the problem is that there are a lot of people shedding the virus who might be getting by because they dont present with symptoms, he said.

Due to safety concerns many districts are leaning toward a hybrid model of instruction.

In Springfield, administrators are considering a model that would have students attend two days in school and three days remotely, or an exclusive remote learning option for students based on health concerns. While a full return to school is technically still on the table, Springfield Superintendent of Schools Daniel Warwick said its not feasible right now based on the lack of space to provide six feet between each student.

We surveyed families at the end of June about their plans for the fall, Warwick said. That included not just a survey, but phone calls with families from staff at a particular school about whether they would be interested in a remote only model or an in-person model if that was possible.

Warwick said many families are undecided and school staff will be reaching out in the coming weeks to make them aware of their options.

Families can choose to stay fully remote. If they feel that is what they want to do for their child that is an option for all families, he said. In the coming weeks staff will be in contact with the families to make sure they understand that and find out what their choice is and what option they prefer.

West Springfield Mayor William Reichelt and Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connor held a Facebook Live forum on Aug. 3 to answer parent questions about the re-opening. The school is currently considering three options including class on Mondays and Tuesdays with remote learning on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Another option includes remote learning from Monday through Wednesday with in-class instruction on Thursdays and Fridays. The third option would be fully online.

There is a concern that we all have about safety for everybody and its mirrored with similar concerns about academics and how do we have kids not continue to fall within the gap range they already have. Its not an easy situation, Connor said.

Keroack advised families to advocate for their children.

If my kids were younger I would want to see that (reopening) plan. I would want to review it and I would wants some assurance that they are actually going to do it and not just put it on paper, he said. If I were a superintendent putting a plan out I would want to reassure people that while we are going to follow the letter of the law with one of our three options here is how we are going to do it. We have enough supplies, we have trained people, we have adequate personal protective equipment. The key thing is you dont want to drop the ball in the execution of the plan and that is what I would be looking for as a parent.

Connor said there is a reopening guide available to parents with responses to many of their questions.

It has protocols on cleaning, whats being used for sanitizing, expectations around masks on the bus and in classrooms and how extra curricular activities are going to work. We tried to incorporate as many of the questions as possible into the guide, he said.

Many school districts are still in the process of finalizing their reopening plans. Final plans are due to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on Aug. 10 and will require local school committee approval.

Related content:
Cpl. Tonna Marek, a 20-year veteran of the Nampa Police Department in Idaho, had never seen an alligator.

It's Idaho, after all, a state famous for its potatoes and wide-open spaces. It's not swampland.

That all changed this week after the department's dispatch center received a 911 call from a local man with a hard-to-believe story: There was an alligator underneath his camp trailer in the backyard.

"Our first instinct was, Obviously, this guy's either crazy or its some kids float toy out of a swimming pool, because we dont have alligators here," Marek told USA TODAY on Wednesday night.

Turns out there's at least one.

Officers with the Nampa Police Department in Idaho found a 6-foot long alligator in a residential area on Tuesday, August 4. The police department called the finding a "first."

Fact check: Post online falsely claims 28-foot alligator shot in Florida

In sharing the story on Twitter, the Nampa Police Department expressed astonishment.

This is Nampa, IDAHO not Tampa, FLORIDA, but we found ourselves helping Idaho Fish & Game on this call last night, police tweeted. We sometimes herd cows, horses, occasionally deal w/deer and even a moose last year.

But a 6 alligator? In Nampa? This was a first, police said in the tweet, adding the hashtag #NampaGator and an alligator emoji.

This is Nampa, IDAHO not Tampa, FLORIDA, but we found ourselves helping Idaho Fish & Game on this call last night.

We sometimes herd cows,horses,occasionally deal w/deer and even a moose last year.

but a 6 alligator?

In Nampa?

This was a first.#OhSnap #SeeYaLater #NampaGator  pic.twitter.com/o12L6Le612  Nampa PD (@NampaPolice1) August 6, 2020

After arriving at the man's house and finding just what he told them they would, Marek said she and her partners were "a little baffled as to what to do or how to catch it" and called Idaho Fish & Game for help with the amphibious reptile that's common in Florida and other states across the southeastern U.S. but not the Intermountain West.

Story continues

"We just assisted with taping his mouth so there wouldnt be any incidental snaps," Marek said.

The alligator, an escaped pet, was soon reunited with its owner, who had lost track of the animal while cleaning its cage, Marek said. Idaho residents are allowed to own exotic pets such as alligators with special permits.

Still, Marek never expected to come face-to-face with one of the large, scaly reptiles in the country's spud capital. She called it "definitely the weirdest" experience of her career.

"Ive never seen an alligator. One of the guys that was on the call with me has been here for almost 25 years and we both laughed last night, saying every day you see or learn something new," she said. "This is definitely something we never thought we would see, and we probably never will again."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Idaho police help wrangle alligator: 'This is Nampa ... not Tampa'
LONDON, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Gett, a global leader in corporate ground travel, and Ola, one of the world's largest mobility platforms, today announce a strategic partnership. The partnership will allow Gett's corporate clients access to Ola's platform in London, enabling them to request a variety of Ola ride options, on-demand, through the Gett SaaS Platform from September.

Gett and Ola have seen an increase in corporate demand in recent weeks following the easing of lockdown restrictions across the capital. In June, the number of corporate rides reached up to 89% of the volumes recorded in February, with July even higher, compared to April and May where volumes were 67% and 74% of pre-Covid levels respectively.

Gett has significantly increased its client base as corporate clients seek to upgrade their ground transportation solutions with Gett's technology to cut costs and meet the increasing safety requirements and mobility needs of their remote workforces. Businesses are taking extra precautions in recent months to enhance the safety of their employees and their own safety while commuting, with corporate taxis often seen as a safer and more efficient alternative than public transport. Similarly, Ola's timely addition of safety features as well as incentives such as the new tipping option have resonated across customers and driver-partners, helping boost demand and supply back to pre-Covid levels.

Ola recently announced Ride Safe UK to raise safety standards in the ride-hailing market. Ola has committed to invest 50 million centrally over the next 12 months to improve safety standards, with 20 million invested directly in the UK. The first phase of the roll out will feature new Ola Safety Guidelines, which includes the market-leading requirement that drivers clean and disinfect cars between each ride, in a first of its kind initiative in the UK.

The partnership enables Gett to expand its corporate platform to include on-demand private-hire across London, alongside other services such as black taxis and pre-booked black cars, all through Gett's SaaS platform for business travelers. Gett and its corporate customers will benefit from access to Ola's leading platform, proven technology, extensive London network of industry-leading driver-partners and safety features. This partnership builds on both companies' long track record in travel and mobility.

Gett already counts a third of Fortune 500 companies as loyal clients. Ola officially launched in London in February 2020 following its UK launch in August 2018, and now operates in 27 cities in the UK and over 250 globally, leading the industry with its approach to passenger safety, driver offering and collaborative regulatory approach.

Dave Waiser, Gett CEO, commented: "We are delighted to be announcing this strategic partnership with Ola. We continue in our mission to organise the world's best mobility providers in one platform, optimising the entire experience, from booking and riding, to invoicing and analytics, so businesses can focus on what they do best. With our differentiated technology and business model, we are partnering with consumer ridesharing companies, instead of competing with them."

Marc Rozendal, Ola's UK Managing Director, said: "Ola's partnership with Gett represents another significant milestone in our commitment to offering Londoners a differentiated service. Partnering with Gett and its leading offering for corporates opens a large market for Ola's platform as travel begins to resume in London, allowing us to further scale by meeting the clear demand from corporate users for consumer ride-hailing. This is yet another step in our mission to connect people and build mobility for people in the UK and around the world."

This news comes after Gett announced a strategic partnership with ride-hailing firm Lyft in November 2019 allowing Gett to expand its reach across the United States.

About Gett

Gett is leading innovation in corporate ground travel across Europe and North America. Gett's unique SaaS solution organizes all the best mobility providers in one platform.

Gett launched one of the first-ever on-demand corporate travel services in 2010, with Google and Disney as its first clients. Since then, a third of the Fortune 500 have become Gett clients.

Gett has devoted years of expertise to designing easy ground travel experiences that allow corporations to focus on what they do best. Today Gett offers corporate users a single solution for seamless and stress-free ground travel, combined with advanced back-end technology, optimizing the entire experience and typically saving 25% of global ground travel costs.

With this announcement, Gett reinforces its position as the leading corporate transportation service. Instead of competing with consumer ridesharing companies, Gett is partnering with them.

In July 2020, Gett completed a US$100m fundraising following strong investor support for its B2B strategy. Gett has raised so far more than US$750m in venture funding.

About Ola:

Ola is India's largest mobility platform and one of the world's largest ride-hailing companies, serving 250+ cities across India, UK, Australia, and New Zealand.

The Ola app offers mobility solutions by connecting customers to drivers and a wide range of vehicles across various forms of transport, enabling convenience and transparency for hundreds of millions of consumers and over 2 million driver-partners worldwide. Ola is recognised for its collaborative approach, working with national governments and local authorities, to help solve transport issues.

Ola has expanded rapidly across the UK since its launch in 2018, operating across 26 local authorities. Cities including London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Coventry and Liverpool. In the UK, Ola has provided millions of rides with tens of thousands of drivers operating on the platform across the UK.

Ola is committed to leading the industry with its approach to passenger safety including Ride Safe UK, 24/7 voice support, Ola Guardian and the Ola Start Code, as well as options to share ride details with emergency contacts and in-app emergency features.

Ola was founded in 2011 by Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati with a mission to build mobility for a billion people and beyond. For more details, visit www.olacabs.com/media.

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1224943/Ola_Gett_Partnership.jpg

Media enquiries:

Gett / Brunswick

Azadeh Varzi / Isabelle Saber

Gett@brunswickgroup.com

+44 (0) 20 7404 5959

Ola / Finsbury

Humza Vanderman / Alastair Elwen

+44 (0) 20 7251 3801

Ola@Finsbury.com
Doctors should join efforts to boost public health



Medical doctors and trainees have threatened to go on strike to protest a government plan to raise admission quotas at medical schools. If they go ahead with their threat, they cannot avoid criticism for taking collective action to protect their vested interests at the cost of patients.



The Korean Intern Resident Association (KIRA), a group of resident doctors and interns, said it will hold an all-out strike starting Friday to oppose the plan to increase admission quotas by 4,000 over 10 years starting from 2022. The Korea Medical Association (KMA), an interest group of 130,000 medical doctors, has also vowed to go on strike Aug. 14 for the same reason. It has called on the Ministry of Health and Welfare to retract the plan which it denounced as a "hasty and unilateral" move.



Those medical professionals and trainees seem to believe that the additional student quotas could nurture an excessive number of doctors, causing competition among them and reducing their income. Yet such a belief is certainly blown out of proportion, considering that South Korea has a shortage of doctors.



According to OECD data, Korea reported 2.3 doctors per 1,000 people as of 2016, lower than the average 3.3 among member states of the rich countries' club. An estimated 106,100 doctors were practicing medicine this year. But 80,300, or 75 percent of them run clinics or work at hospitals in the country's seven major cities, including Seoul, and Gyeonggi Province. This means that provincial areas are suffering an acute shortage of medical professionals.



The country has borne witness to this shortage since the COVID-19 pandemic spread rapidly in the southeastern city of Daegu and its surrounding regions earlier this year. Now there are mounting calls for more doctors, particularly those specializing in public health and epidemiology.



Against this backdrop, medical professionals have no legitimate reason to object to the plan to raise admissions quotas by 4,000 over a decade. Each year the quotas will only expand by 400. Nobody can understand why doctors, residents and interns are against this moderate and gradual increase. The health ministry also plans to make it mandatory for those additional medical students to serve in provincial areas for 10 years after obtaining their license.



Therefore the protesting doctors have gone too far in demanding the withdrawal of the quota hike, as they don't have to worry about an excessive supply of doctors. Their income will not decline even if more students enter medical schools. Instead, the country can address the shortage of medical professionals, provide better healthcare services, and expand the country's capacity to cope with public health crises such as the ongoing outbreak of the novel coronavirus.



Doctors and trainee doctors should not take patients hostage to put forward their self-serving demands. If they stage a general strike, patients and their families will sustain damage. In many cases, their collective action will put patients' lives at risk. They should realize that they will have more to lose than to gain.




The Delhi Police on Thursday arrested a 35-year-old man in connection with the alleged sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl, who is undergoing treatment at the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) in the national capital.

Krishan, who goes by one name, has a criminal record and attacked the girl at her residence in outer Delhis Paschim Vihar area on Tuesday, according to Shalini Singh, joint commissioner of police (western range).

The child was allegedly sexually assaulted when her parents and sister were away at work. She was stabbed multiple times with a scissors. Neighbours who spotted the bleeding child alerted the police, who rushed her to a hospital. She is in a critical condition.

On Thursday, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal visited the girl at AIIMS and announced a financial aid of 10 lakh for her family. The toughest punishment will be given to the culprit. We will appoint the best of our lawyers so that the culprit gets the strictest punishment, Kejriwal said.

Later in the day, Singh said Krishans interrogation confirmed the sequence of events. He has four previous criminal cases registered against him  one of murder, one case of attempt to murder and two of burglary. Further interrogation is underway, Singh said.

The police have also established through CCTV footage that the man, also known as Kakka, entered the house at 4.40pm and left the building by 4.56pm, according to officials.

The primary motive of the suspect was burglary, a police official said, requesting anonymity. He said he was looking for a house that he could easily target....he found the house open and entered. The girl saw him and raised an alarm...he picked up a sewing machine and threw it at her. He said he also picked up a scissor and stabbed her. Because he was heavily inebriated, he doesnt remember how many times he stabbed her, the official said.

Multiple teams were pressed into action to identify and arrest the suspect.

Announcing help for the girls family during his hospital visit, Kejriwal said: The Delhi government will offer financial assistance of 10 lakh to the family of the girl. The girl was the victim of a very brutal attack and this money is a means of providing support to her family.

She has suffered serious internal injuries, which I find hard even to describe. She is currently unconscious and the doctors said she was in a really bad shape when she was brought in on Tuesday. Since then, she has undergone a surgery and it would take another 24-48 hours for her to make it out of danger. We hope that she recovers fully and goes back home, he added.

A second investigator, who did not want to be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media, said when they started scanning CCTV footage, they spotted a man wearing a mask entering the building where the girl stayed.

After some time, the same man was spotted exiting the building, still wearing the mask. Because the time he spent inside the building matches with the time frame when the girl was sexually assaulted and stabbed, he became our prime suspect, this official said.

Then, the official added, CCTV footage checked from nearby areas. In one footage, we spotted him removing his mask. We got that footage enhanced and he was identified, he said. When shown his image, the girls parents said they did not know the man, the police said.

Delhi Police have taken the case registered under POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) at Paschim Vihar police station seriously, said Delhi Police spokesperson Eish Singhal.

Meanwhile, Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal, too, visited AIIMS to meet the girls family on Thursday. DCW also summoned the Delhi Police and sought a detailed action taken report in the case.

Finally, now the police has arrested a person. There should be no delay in getting justice for the daughter. May God bless the girl with good health. Rape cannot be allowed to become a common practice in the country, Maliwal tweeted after the arrest.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 22:23:43|Editor: huaxia

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TRIPOLI, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Libya's UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez Serraj on Thursday met with Turkish and Maltese foreign ministers in the Libyan capital Tripoli to discuss consultation and coordination among the three countries.

The meeting discussed the latest developments in Libya and the need to resume political process in order to achieve security and stability in Libya, said a statement issued by the prime minister's information office.

The officials also discussed cooperation of the three countries and the European IRINI operation against arms smuggling to Libya.

The IRINI operation was launched in order to enforce the UN arms embargo on Libya, where Serraj's UN-backed government and the rival eastern-based army were engaged in deadly armed conflict over control of Tripoli for more than a year.

"Turkey and Malta expressed their appreciation for the humanitarian role played by Libya, and expressed readiness to provide Libyan coastguard's needs in terms of equipment and maintenance," the statement said.

"The meeting also emphasized the need for the European Union to contribute effectively to combating illegal migration and work to tackle the root causes of the problem by directing investments to source countries," it added.

"At the end of the meeting, it was agreed to form a joint working group to deal with and follow up issues of common interests," the statement revealed. Enditem
Subsidiary Beijing Skyrizon and DCH Group of Ukrainian businessman Oleksandr Yaroslavsky and its affiliated companies jointly submitted a new application to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine on August 4 to buy Motor Sich shares, Beijing Xinwei Technology Group Co., Ltd said in a statement on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Thursday night.

"The change of new cooperation partners will not entail significant changes in the subsequent reorganization. Beijing Skyrizon hopes that this change will push for the earliest possible approval of the regulator, and will contribute to the early completion of a major restructuring of domestic assets," the company said in the announcement.

Xinwei said that on the same day, its subsidiary Beijing Skyrizon withdrew its statement that it had previously submitted together with the Ukroboronprom state concern from the Antimonopoly Committee.

"Due to the changes in the basis of business cooperation between Beijing Skyrizon and its subsidiaries and Ukroboronprom Group, Beijing Skyrizon negotiated cooperation in the field of aircraft engines with DCH Group Ukraine and its subsidiaries, and came to an agreement," the company said.

Xinwei recalled that on July 9, 2019, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine announced the opening of a case at the request of Skyrizon Aircraft Holdings Limited (British Virgin Islands) and Ukroboronprom on obtaining joint control over PJSC Motor Sich. The committee sent requests to the participants in the concentration, to which answers were given. However, on June 18, 2020, the committee sent a new series of requests.

Xinwei also said that the subject of the transaction and the shares of the target assets are frozen, so the success of this reorganization is still in question.

According to the report, DCH Group is one of the most important industrial financial groups in Ukraine, uniting metallurgy, mining, engineering, infrastructure, financial and other industries.

According to a source in the government, currently about 75% of Motor Sich's shares are already owned by a group of Chinese owners, and the Antimonopoly Committee was considering the issue of agreeing on a deal to purchase this stake from them by Skyrizon and Xinwei Technology with further free transfer of 25.00002% shares to Ukroboronprom. At the same time, the disputed stake in Motor Sich is used as collateral for financing provided, inter alia, by China Development Bank.

John Bolton, the then national security adviser to the U.S. President, said about the concern of the United States about the sale of Motor Sich to Chinese companies during a visit to Kyiv late August 2019.

At the end of last year, the then U.S. Charge d'Affaires a.i. in Ukraine, William B. Taylor said the United States was looking forward to a new deal to attract a U.S. or other investor to Motor Sich so that the company would not be sold to the Chinese buyer.

The shares of Motor Sich have been frozen since April 2018 under a petition of an investigator of the SBU seeking to safeguard material evidence in a criminal case opened in July 2017.
COLUMBUS, Ohio  Public officials in Ohio convicted of federal corruption charges would lose the taxpayer-financed share of their state pension, under legislation introduced by two Northeast Ohio representatives.

Under current law, public officials convicted on state bribery or racketeering charges can have their state pension revoked. House Bill 741 would add the equivalent crimes under federal law, as well as a litany of other federal charges including theft, extortion and fraud.

The bill is sponsored by Republican state Reps. Gayle Manning, of Lorain County and Dave Greenspan, of Westlake.

I certainly believe we are held to a higher standard than most people, and we should be, Manning said. Were getting taxpayer money, and I just feel that if somebody does anything this serious, they should lose their pension.

Previous versions of the bill have been introduced in past legislative sessions. The Ohio House approved one version of the bill in May 2016, but the legislation stalled in the state Senate.

Past sponsors have represented the Cleveland area, and have referenced the Cuyahoga County corruption scandal from the late 2000s that led to the arrest and imprisonment of dozens of government officials, including former Cuyahoga County Democratic Party Chair Jimmy Dimora and Cuyahoga County Auditor Frank Russo.

But Manning said this version of the bill is in part a response to last months arrest of Republican House Speaker Larry Householder, former Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges and three others. Householder has been removed as speaker but remains in the House.

We thought this was the perfect time to introduce it and see if we can get some traction on it this time around, Manning said.

The bill would only target the share of state pension covered by public employers  it would leave untouched an employees own money they contributed toward their retirement.

The bill has seven co-sponsors  6 Republicans and one Democrat, Cincinnati state Rep. Brigid Kelly.

Note, a previous version of this story incorrectly stated Cleveland Democratic State Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney was a co-sponsor. It has been corrected.
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Americans dont save enough for retirement. Only 32% invest in a 401(k) plan, when 59% have the ability to do so. And only 46.4 million people invested in an IRA, a shockingly low number relative to the 157 million working adults in the U.S. Fewer still maximize their contributions. State governments are coming up with ways to nudge people to save for retirement. There are ethical and philosophical reasons why governments should stay out of the personal finances of citizens, but it is probably necessary in this case.

The main problem is that not all private employers provide access to 401(k) accounts, mostly because their companies are simply too small. Of course, IRAs are available, but not everyone takes the initiative to set one up. Enter the auto IRA, which is a public retirement savings program for private sector workers. The way it works is that upon employment, the employee is automatically enrolled in a state-run IRA program. The employee, who has the ability to opt out of the program, can make contributions up to the $6,000 annual limit, which rises to $7,000 for workers over age 50. The contributions are made through automatic payroll deductions. This is a neat solution to a problem that has been mishandled by the government, in the form of Social Security, which is woefully underfunded and provides uneven outcomes.

Oregon had an early version of this program, called OregonSaves, and it has enrolled about 70,000 participants since it started in 2017. Ten states now have auto IRAs or similar programs, and more are considering following suit. The three auto IRA programs that are in existence have help just over 151,000 people to save almost $90 million, according to David John, an AARP policy adviser who helped develop the model for OregonSaves. In the second quarter of this year, there was a 14% increase in the number of accounts and a 35% increase in the amount saved, he noted, citing data compiled by Masena Associates.

Story continues

The key to the auto IRA program is the opt out feature. Employees arent exactly being compelled to enroll, but it doesnt seem to be easy to not participate. A Google search of OregonSaves reveals a suggested search of How do I opt out of OregonSaves? This also implies that a fair number of people might not want to participate.

A behavioral economist would describe automatic enrollment as a nudge. The government isnt technically forcing anyone to do anything, but is trying to incentivize certain behavior. Our entire tax code is based on nudging. For example, the government wants people to invest in residential real estate, so it made the interest on a mortgage deductible for tax purposes. We observe an outcomenot enough people are saving for retirementand give them a little shove in the right direction.

Not everyone is in favor of the nudge. The American Enterprise Institute argued forcefully against it last year. The argument is, for starters, that the intention of Social Security was that it would be enough to maintain ones standard of living in retirement, and its a little distasteful to take payroll taxes through coercion to fund ones Social Security, and then take an additional couple of percent through pseudo-coercion to fund private retirement savings.

This is especially true when it comes to low-wage workers, who need every dollar they can get to meet their everyday needs. A low-wage worker is likely to have a greater amount of debt relative to their income, and auto IRA contributions would decrease the amount of money available to service that debt, leaving the worker in a worse financial position than before.

I am mostly scornful of attempts to nudge people into certain behaviors. In this particular case, I have an open mind. The whole idea of Social Security was to ensure that people didnt find themselves destitute in their old age. Social Security solved that problem, but now we have the problem of people living at a subsistence level in old age. It should be pointed out that an auto IRA is not a tax, and participants money is invested in stocks and bonds.

Auto IRAs are a better option than expanding Social Security, an idea floated by Sen. Elizabeth Warren during the Democratic primaries. Social Security is not enough for most people to live comfortably in retirement. In many cases, its not enough for people to live without government assistance, putting even more stress on state budgets. This is because people dont save enough during their working years, and are forced to retire early. About 30% of people take Social Security benefits at age 62, which ensures the lowest level of benefits. Waiting until age 70 generates almost twice as much, but only 5% of people wait that long.

Auto IRAs are a private sector solution to a public sector problem. But there should be no coercion involved. When a worker is signed up for an auto IRA, the instructions for opting out should be made clear. There are legitimate reasons to opt out. As long as employees can freely choose not to participate, there is nothing wrong with a nudge in the right direction.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Jared Dillian is the editor and publisher of The Daily Dirtnap, investment strategist at Mauldin Economics, and the author of "Street Freak" and "All the Evil of This World." He may have a stake in the areas he writes about.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion

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2020 Bloomberg L.P.
According to Dr. Anne Lindblad, president and chief executive officer, "Elevating these roles  research, scientific innovation, and human resources  is a tremendous step forward in our company's evolution. It's an endorsement for how far we've come as a major player supporting clinical trials and research for a wide range of human health issues. It reflects our growth and diversification across both government and commercial sectors. And finally, it's a testament to the value of these three outstanding professionals, and the role they've played and will continue to play in our success."

Dr. Traci Clemons, chief research officer, has served as the company's executive vice president for research units and as principal investigator of the National Eye Institute's Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2. She also provides leadership and statistical expertise for other contracts, including the Sickle Cell Disease Consortium for the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as well as several studies of ophthalmic diseases sponsored by the National Eye Institute and industry.

She joined Emmes in 1999 as a senior statistician and was later promoted to vice president and then senior vice president. She has led a number of important research studies for both government and commercial clients. In 2017, Dr. Clemons was named executive vice president. Earlier in her career, she was an assistant professor at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Dr. Clemons said, "I look forward to helping evolve the structure of our therapeutic and research units. Elevating research to an officer-level position is a great responsibility and honor."

She added, "This is important and fulfilling because of the diversity represented by these three promotions."

Dr. Clemons has co-authored more than 100 papers that have been published in a number of scientific journals, including the Journal of the American Medical Association. She holds a Ph.D. and an M.S. in biostatistics from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and a B.A. in mathematics from the University of West Florida.

Dr. Lindblad noted, "Traci combines excellent science and business acumen with an ability to align company functions with our mission and vision. Traci will set the company's research and scientific priorities to align with the goals of the organization. She has extensive managerial research and industry experience."

Dr. Marian Ewell, chief scientific innovation officer, helped to build Emmes' biostatistics, bioinformatics, and clinical data standards services groups, which now include more than 90 staff members. She promotes new statistical methods with Emmes research projects, and her new role encompasses fostering a culture of innovation throughout the company. She also serves as principal investigator of the Statistical and Data Coordinating Center for the Clinical Research in Infectious Diseases contract with the NIH Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.

After serving as a post-doctoral fellow and research assistant at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, she joined Emmes in 1994 as a statistician and was subsequently promoted to senior investigator, vice president and then senior vice president. In 2017, Dr. Ewell was named executive vice president.

According to Dr. Ewell, "Emmes was founded by a statistician, whose vision has resulted in the company's outstanding reputation for trusted clinical research. But we can't rest on our laurels, and my priority will be to lead our new Statistical and Scientific Innovation team in extending our expertise and finding opportunities to partner with other organizations."

In addition to co-authoring numerous scientific papers, Dr. Ewell reviews grant applications for several NIH agencies and served as the Advisory Board chair for the George Mason University Department of Statistics. She earned an Sc.D. degree in biostatistics from Harvard University's School of Public Health, an M.S. in statistics from the University of Wisconsin, and a B.A. in statistics from Princeton University.

"Emmes maintains our competitive edge in the market through differentiation and continual innovation throughout the organization," said Dr. Lindblad. "Having Marian in this role ensures we have a competent leader at the helm with a laser focus on keeping Emmes at the cutting edge of our statistical and scientific research."

Jennifer Hester, chief human resources officer, has been vice president of human resources since 2017 and joined the company in 2006 as its director of human resources. She is responsible for the strategy and leadership of all the programs related to human resources management and related corporate service operations.

Before joining Emmes, Ms. Hester was manager of human resources at Spirent Communications and, before that, manager of finance and administration at North American Networks.

Ms. Hester commented, "Our human resources team remains focused on continuing to help grow Emmes' competitive position in the market and ultimately to build our reputation as workplace of choice for prospective and current employees. We continue to grow our employee base at a double-digit rate, and my priority will be to recruit and retain a highly engaged team. I plan to continue to be active in the community and build strong, effective partnerships with local and state organizations supporting innovative, diverse, and active workforce development."

Ms. Hester is on the board of directors for Montgomery County Workforce Development; serves as vice chair of the board of directors of Rockville Economic Development, Inc.; and participates on the executive committee for Leadership Montgomery. She is also on the board of Girls on the Run in Montgomery County, Maryland. She holds an executive MBA from the University of Maryland, an M.S. in personnel and human resources management from American University, and a B.A. in liberal arts & sciences from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

According to Dr. Lindblad, "As Emmes continues to grow, human resources, talent, benefits, training and facilities are crucial to our success. I have depended on Jennifer over the years to see the future so we do not fall behind supporting our most important asset  our employees. Under Jennifer's leadership, we have been selected four times as a Washington Post top workplace in the greater DC area, and we're also a five-time winner of the Alliance for Workplace Excellence Seal of Approval award."

About Emmes

Emmes is a leading Contract Research Organization working with both public and private sector organizations. We collaborate with our clients to produce valued, trusted scientific research, and our team members are passionate about making a difference in the quality of human health. Emmes has supported more than a thousand studies across a diverse range of diseases since our formation in 1977. Our research is contributing to a healthier world. For more information, visit the Emmes website at www.emmes.com.

SOURCE Emmes

Related Links

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Bottom line: Samsung's recently revealed Galaxy Note20 was another exhibit of the company's growing partnership with Microsoft. The two are not only collaborating on a special Xbox Game Pass app for the latest Note, but also working towards an improved mobile connectivity experience on PC. With Microsoft's latest update to its Your Phone app - currently available to Insiders - Note20 owners will be able to stream Android apps to PCs once the feature rolls out publicly, alongside the phone's launch on August 21.

Microsoft continues to add nifty features to its Your Phone app, catering particularly to Samsung Galaxy devices. In a recent blog post, the company highlighted its expanding partnership with Samsung across productivity and gaming experiences and shared that Note20 owners will be able to stream Android apps to PCs with Your Phone when the device launches.

Aside from the device limitation, at least initially, Your Phone will run/stream just one Android app at a time when the feature becomes publicly available in a few weeks, with support for running multiple apps arriving in November this year.

Users will also be able to pin their favorite Android apps to the Windows Taskbar or Start menu for quick access, allowing Your Phone to offer its own set of features and compromises over Dell's Mobile Connect.

Though it's unknown if Microsoft will open this feature to support other Android devices, the company's own upcoming Surface Duo could offer a similar connectivity experience with Windows 10 PCs.

Additionally, Microsoft is also collaborating with Samsung on productivity apps. The latter's Notes and Reminders app will soon automatically sync with Microsoft's To-Do, Outlook, and Teams apps on PC.

Meanwhile, Android users residing in the US are getting support for Outlook's 'Play My Emails' feature, enabling them to listen and respond to inbox messages vocally.

Microsoft also highlighted its cloud gaming partnership with Samsung, confirming previous reports of special optimizations for Xbox Game Pass on the Galaxy Note20. Pre-ordering customers of the latest Note and Galaxy Tab S7 will be able to benefit from Samsung's Gaming Bundle that includes PowerA's MOGA XP5-X Bluetooth controller and three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

Although pre-ordering customers of the Note20/Tab S7 will begin receiving their units later this month, they'd have to wait until September 15 to start streaming games on the go with Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

They will also need to download a special version of Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass app available exclusively on Samsung's Galaxy Store. Among other factors, the two companies have seemingly agreed to bypass the PlayStore in order to avoid Google's 30 percent fee, not to mention the latter's own cloud gaming rival: Stadia.
Beirut: French President Emmanuel Macron has promised angry crowds in Beirut that aid to rebuild the city will not end up in corrupt hands.

Macron used a visit to the shattered to tell residents reeling from a lethal blast that killed 145 people that no blank cheques would be given to its leaders unless they enacted reforms.

He called for an international inquiry into the devastating explosion that generated a seismic shock felt across the region, saying it was an urgent signal to carry out anti-corruption reforms demanded by a furious population.

Dozens are still missing after Tuesday's explosion at the port that injured 5,000 people and left up to 250,000 without habitable homes, hammering a nation already staggering from economic meltdown and a surge in coronavirus cases.
The Budapest Memorandum was signed on December 5, 1994.

Head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) and first president of independent Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk says that if Minsk talks on Donbas in the TCG format come to a standstill, the Ukrainian side can initiate the signing of a new Budapest Memorandum.

"I think we will not renew, but expand. We will think about a new version of the document," he commented on Obozrevatel TV on the Budapest format and the Budapest memorandum.

Read alsoKravchuk in TCG: cons and pros

In particular, according to the first president, Germany, as one of the leading European countries, Poland and other countries should join in as signatories to the document.

The new version of the Budapest memorandum should propose not only "statements and intent," but also suggest a clear tool for implementing the principles declared in it, Kravchuk said.

"This issue is not to be removed from the agenda, and we will initiate it if everything comes to a dead end. But I do not believe that this deadlock will continue," he said.

As was reported, the Budapest Memorandum was signed on December 5, 1994. According to the document, Ukraine received guarantees of territorial integrity in exchange for renouncing its nuclear status. The memorandum was signed by the leaders of Ukraine, the United States, Russia, and the United Kingdom.

On July 30, Kravchuk became head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group for the peaceful settlement of the situation in Donbas, having replaced Leonid Kuchma.
(Natural News) Joe Biden bristled at a question about whether or not he has taken a cognitive test, asking an interviewer Tuesday morning whether he would pass a drug test and stumbling over his words several times in the course of one minute.

(Article by Kyle Olson republished from Breitbart.com)

During an event with the National Association of Black Journalists, CBS News Errol Barnett asked if Biden has taken a test that would assess his mental fitness, and Biden snapped, No, I havent taken a test! Why the hell would I take a test? Cmon, man!

Biden then challenged Barnett, Thats like saying you, before you got in this program, if you take a test where youre taking cocaine or not, what do you think? Huh? Are you a junkie?

What do you say to President Trump who brags about his test and makes your mental state an issue for voters?  @ErrolBarnett Well, if he can't figure out the difference between an elephant and a lion, I don't know what the hell he's talking about.  Former VP @JoeBiden pic.twitter.com/qsm7Tb7vCO  CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) August 5, 2020

The presumptive presidential nominee went on to boast of his mental acuity and readiness to debate Trump  but stumbled with word order, word choice, and pronunciation multiple times in the same sentences.

Im so forward looking to have an opportunity to sit with the president  or stand with the president  in debates, he insisted (emphasis added).

I am very willing to let the American people judge my physical, mental filmy physical as well as my mental filfitness, he concluded.

In May, Biden caused controversy when he told Breakfast Club co-host Charlamagne tha God that you aint black if voters go for Trump.

.@JoeBiden: "If you have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or Trump, then you ain't black." @cthagod: "It don't have nothing to do with Trump, it has to do with the fact  I want something for my community." @breakfastclubam pic.twitter.com/endvWnOIV2  America Rising (@AmericaRising) May 22, 2020

If you have a problem figuring out whether youre for me or Trump, then you aint black, Biden said.

It dont have nothing to do with Trump, it has to do with the fact  I want something for my community, the radio host shot back.

Biden claiming he has not taken a cognitive test is a reversal from a statement he made in June.

Ive been tested and Im constantly tested, Biden responded when he was asked by a reporter about a mental assessment.

All youve got to do is watch me, and I can hardly wait to compare my cognitive capability to the cognitive capability of the man Im running against, he said.

Former White House Physician Dr. Ronny Jackson has said President Trump aced a cognitive assessment in 2018.

If (Trump) goes head-to-head with Joe Biden cognitively, there just wouldnt be much of a comparison. It would be very one-sided, Jackson told The Kyle Olson Show.

They cannot afford to put Joe Biden on the stage side-by-side with President Trump. It will be an unmitigated disaster for their party, he said.

Read more at: Breitbart.com
More than 600,000 men and women worked on the Manhattan Project nationwide, but only one of them bore witness to all three major atomic blasts in 1945 that led to the end of World War II.

Lawrence Johnston was aboard B-29 Superfortress bombers tending to instruments measuring the power of the world's first nuclear explosions in the "Trinity" test in New Mexico, as well as for the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which prompted Japan's surrender and brought the war to a close.

Read next: Marine AAV Hit Rough Seas, Rapidly Took on Water Before Sinking

As the nation approaches the 75th anniversary of Japan's capitulation on Aug. 15, 1945, when Emperor Hirohito went on the radio to announce that the time had come to "bear the unbearable" and accept the allied terms for unconditional surrender, Johnston's story is unique.

A young physicist born to missionary parents in China, Johnston had done groundbreaking work on the atomic bomb's intricate trigger mechanism.

When the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945, his first reaction on seeing the blinding flash and the mushroom cloud was: "Praise the Lord, my detonators worked."

He was well aware of the immense destructive power and carnage that the bomb would inflict on the city after witnessing the Trinity test but -- like most of the scientists at Los Alamos who created the weapon -- saw its use as the horrific means to achieve the final end to a war that was causing far more killing.

The final death toll from the Hiroshima bombing may never be known, but estimates say at least 80,000 were killed in the initial shock waves and firestorm, some vaporized and leaving only silhouettes to their existence on walls. About 135,000 died overall.

Johnston said he knew that, "All those people that were going to be killed -- I was praying for them.  I was praying that God would help us bring an end to the war."

"So many people were being killed every day, so many Japanese being killed every day by the bombers" with conventional weapons, he said.

Johnston reflected on his role in ushering in the "Atomic Age" in an oral history for the National World War II museum in New Orleans before he died at age 93 in 2011 at his home in Moscow, Idaho.

In a statement, Rob Wallace, of the WWII Museum's education team, said that Johnston "was the only person to see all three atomic detonations in 1945. He was at the Trinity Test, and he was part of the scientific team accompanying deployment over both Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

He studied physics at Los Angeles Community College and the University of California at Berkeley, and received a Bachelor's degree in 1940 from Berkeley, then a center for the study of atomic structure and the transformation of matter into energy.

It was at Berkeley that he came in contact with the brilliant polymath and eventual Nobel laureate Luis Alvarez, who would become his mentor, Wallace said.

Reconciling with Pacifist Daughter

In the years after the war, his biggest critic for taking part in the use of nuclear weapons was his own daughter, Mary Virginia, Johnston said.

"My daughter was a pacifist, and she gave me a lot of criticism," he said. "I got a lot of flak from her, but we get along very well together now."

Mary Virginia "Ginger" Johnston would become pastor of a church in Oregon, he said.

After graduating from Berkeley in 1940, Johnston said he expected to continue his studies there for a doctorate under his mentor, but Alvarez was called East to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Radiation Laboratory to work on ground-controlled approach radar.

He brought Johnston along for his expertise in electronics, which Alvarez surmised from one of their conversations, Johnston said.

At one point, Alvarez asked him, "What do you like to do?"

Johnston said he replied, "Oh, I like to play with radios," and that was enough for Alvarez.

Alvarez was later called to Los Alamos to work with the fractious group of great minds and even greater egos brought together by theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Manhattan Project.

The project was named for the office building that still stands at 270 Broadway in Manhattan, across the street from City Hall, where the original planning began.

Alvarez again summoned Johnston to come work with him. Upon arriving in the New Mexico desert, "I had no idea what they were doing except that it must be important to the war effort," he said.

Alvarez "put me to work on detonators," Johnston said, seeking to devise a precisely timed implosion of conventional explosives that would trigger the nuclear core of the bomb to a chain reaction.

He came up with what was called the "exploding-bridgewire detonator," a series of 32 detonators around the core that would go off within milliseconds of one another. The principles of the exploding-bridgewire detonator have since been used in automobile airbags, Johnston said.

Three B-29 Flights into History

In the early morning hours of July 16, 1945, the world's first atomic bomb had been hoisted atop a tower in in what was then the U.S. Army Air Forces Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range, now part of the White Sands Missile Range, for the test that Oppenheimer christened "Trinity."

Oppenheimer was in a bunker about five miles away and had ordered all others beyond a select few to be at least 25 miles away, including Johnston and Alvarez. Nobody knew for sure how powerful the blast would be.

Alvarez was "mad as socks about that," Johnston said. He convinced Oppenheimer to let him commandeer a B-29 and took Johnston with him to work instruments measuring the force of the blast.

"We saw this big flash, and then we saw this column rising, the first mushroom cloud," he said. "I had developed all of the recording equipment that recorded the pressure wave."

Then, it was off to the island of Tinian in the Northern Marianas chain with Alvarez to prepare for the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

They were aboard a B-29 called the "Grand Artiste" that flew in formation with the B-29 called the "Enola Gay" that dropped the "Little Boy" atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945.

Johnston was again aboard the Grand Artiste when another atom bomb called "Fat Man" was dropped on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, but Alvarez did not make that flight.

"Alvarez said, 'You will be the only one who saw all three of the A-bombs go off.' That made me oh so happy," Johnston said.

He returned to the States and completed his Ph.D. in physics in 1950. He would become an associate professor at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and later worked at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center as head of the electronics department.

He was a professor at the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho, until his retirement. He died in Idaho in 2011.

Reflections on Hiroshima

Aboard the Grand Artiste on Aug. 6, 1945, Johnston and Alvarez had a 1,300-mile flight ahead of them from Tinian to the target area over Hiroshima

"On the long flight to Japan, I figured, 'Man, I don't know how big this explosion is going to be,'" Johnston said. Alvarez was asleep in the tunnel leading from the cockpit to the tailgunner's position, he said.

"Finally, I decided I better talk to him" about the recording equipment. He said, 'I don't care. Set it up wherever you think,'" Johnston said.

On the way back to Tinian, Alvarez sought to collect his thoughts on the immensity of what they had just witnessed. He jotted them down in a letter to his young son dated Aug. 6 -- "10 miles off the Jap coast at 28,000 feet."

"The story of our mission will probably be well known to everyone ... but at the moment, only the crews of our three B-29s and the unfortunate residents of the Hiroshima district of Japan are aware of what has happened to aerial warfare," Alvarez said in the letter, now in the National Archives.

"What regrets I have about being a party to maiming and killing thousands of people are tempered with the hope that this terrible weapon we have created may bring the countries of the world together and prevent further wars," he wrote.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.

Related: Lawmakers Want Medals, Not Certificates, to Honor Veterans Involved in Nuclear Testing
Last month, the state Department of Environmental Conservations division of Law Enforcements Marine Unit and the Marine Resources assisted with freeing a distressed humpback whale stuck in a commercial fishing trawl net in the Ambrose Channel of the New York Harbor.

This incident and others below involving Environmental Conservation Police Officers took place between July 27 to Aug. 2. All specifics were supplied by the DEC.

Humpback whale freed - Marine District, NY Harbor

On July 27, the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) notified DECs Division of Law Enforcement and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries of a distressed humpback whale in Ambrose Channel, one of the busiest waterways in New York Harbor. The distressed whale was reportedly anchored to the sea floor with its tail entangled by an unknown material, leaving it unable to breathe freely and at severe risk of being struck by ships entering and leaving the harbor. DEC Division of Law Enforcements Marine Unit and the Division of Marine Resources were crucial members of the rescue team that assisted the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society and Center for Coastal Studies free the distressed humpback whale from what turned out to be a commercial fishing trawl net. The rescue operation took four days as DEC and partners that also included Monmouth University and Turtles Fly Too supported the disentanglement team flown in from Massachusetts. A U.S. Corp of Engineers vessel used heavy equipment to secure and haul some of the material the disentanglement team cut away to relieve pressure on the whales tail. Finally, on Thursday, July 30, the whale was freed with minimal injury and swam away to continue its journey.

Injured red-tailed hawk rescued - Richmond County

On July 29, ECOs Milliron and Anderson received a call about an injured hawk in Staten Island. Upon arrival, the ECOs were greeted at a local cemetery by the security guards who had found the bird. The ECOs determined the bird was a red-tailed hawk, one of North Americas most common hawks that has a distinct, raspy scream expected from a raptor. The security guards gave the ECOs a small dog bed to hold the hawk comfortably during their hour-long drive to the nearest open wildlife rehabilitator. The Wild Bird Fund in New York County received the distressed hawk and, after a quick initial look, believed it to be experiencing some neurological damage. The Wild Bird Fund took in the hawk for further testing and rehabilitation.

Trapped timber rattlesnake surprises vacationers  Warren County

On August 2, ECO LaPoint responded to a residence in the town of Hague, Warren County, for a report of a trapped timber rattlesnake at residence where a family was vacationing. Upon arriving at the home, ECO LaPoint located the snake outside trapped under a tote. Using snake tongs issued by DEC, along with a cloth bag and bucket lid, he safely secured the rattlesnake in the bucket and removed it from the premises. ECO LaPoint transported the rattlesnake to DECs Green Island maintenance facility where it was temporarily held until it could be released to a suitable location. Timber rattlesnakes are a threatened species in New York. For more information visit DECs website.

Statewide COVID-19 Response

Over the last several months, ECOs have been on the front lines of the COVID-19 response and continue to support the mission assisting federal, state, and local agencies. During the States response to the virus, Officers have filled important roles in the Incident Command System (ICS) at State COVID-19 testing sites. Across the state, ECOs also continue their core functions and have seen an increased trend of recreational participation in hunting, fishing, and boating. The public is encouraged to get outside responsibly and practice social distancing while recreating. To report environmental emergencies, violations of law, or to speak to an Environmental Conservation Officer call 1-844-DEC-ECOS.

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Seventy five years ago today, the United States detonated an atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan, killing an estimated 140,000 people. A year later, John Hersey, a pioneer of "new journalism," visited the city to report an incredible feature for the New Yorker about the experiences of six people who survived the blast. The US had attempted to cover up the true devastation but Hersey expressed it so the world could know. (It was such a groundbreaking undertaking and achievement that there's a new book, Fallout by Lesley M. M. Blume, to tell the story behind Hersey's story.) From Hersey's "Hiroshima" (1946), available in full at The New Yorker:



The former head of the Nobori-cho Neighborhood Association, to which the Catholic priests belonged, was an energetic man named Yoshida. He had boasted, when he was in charge of the district air-raid defenses, that fire might eat away all of Hiroshima but it would never come to Nobori-cho. The bomb blew down his house, and a joist pinned him by the legs, in full view of the Jesuit mission house across the way and of the people hurrying along the street. In their confusion as they hurried past, Mrs. Nakamura, with her children, and Father Kleinsorge, with Mr. Fukai on his back, hardly saw him; he was just part of the general blur of misery through which they moved. His cries for help brought no response from them; there were so many people shouting for help that they could not hear him separately. They and all the others went along. Nobori-cho became absolutely deserted, and the fire swept through it. Mr. Yoshida saw the wooden mission housethe only erect building in the areago up in a lick of flame, and the heat was terrific on his face. Then flames came along his side of the street and entered his house. In a paroxysm of terrified strength, he freed himself and ran down the alleys of Nobori-cho, hemmed in by the fire he had said would never come. He began at once to behave like an old man; two months later his hair was white.

Early that day, August 7th, the Japanese radio broadcast for the first time a succinct announcement that very few, if any, of the people most concerned with its content, the survivors in Hiroshima, happened to hear: "Hiroshima suffered considerable damage as the result of an attack by a few B-29s. It is believed that a new type of bomb was used. The details are being investigated." Nor is it probable that any of the survivors happened to be tuned in on a short-wave rebroadcast of an extraordinary announcement by the President of the United States, which identified the new bomb as atomic: "That bomb had more power than twenty thousand tons of TNT. It had more than two thousand times the blast power of the British Grand Slam, which is the largest bomb ever yet used in the history of warfare." Those victims who were able to worry at all about what had happened thought of it and discussed it in more primitive, childish termsgasoline sprinkled from an airplane, maybe, or some combustible gas, or a big cluster of incendiaries, or the work of parachutists; but, even if they had known the truth, most of them were too busy or too weary or too badly hurt to care that they were the objects of the first great experiment in the use of atomic power, which (as the voices on the short wave shouted) no country except the United States, with its industrial know-how, its willingness to throw two billion gold dollars into an important wartime gamble, could possibly have developed.



"Hiroshima" by John Hersey (The New Yorker, August 24, 1946)


By Lee Sun-ho





Since April 1, anyone coming to Korea from overseas has had to mandatorily self-quarantine for 14 days from the day of entry to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in accordance with the Quarantine Act and other relevant regulations.



To be immune from this kind of inconvenience, many pre-scheduled incoming travelers, including a couple of members of my family, have canceled their visit-to-Korea itineraries in 2020. My son, an architect living in Glen Rock, New Jersey, however, had to touch down at Incheon International Airport on July 20 on account of unavoidable reasons for work, and was released on Aug. 3.



Through the sporadic checks and inspections of my son's two-week quarantined proceedings, I could observe the daily routine during his isolated period with amused interest. Upon arrival at Incheon by Korean Air, he was dispatched to stay at the Marina Bay Hotel at Gimpo as one of 540 incoming entrants on the same day. He paid 1.68 million won ($1,400) or 120,000 won ($100 equivalent) per day for 14 days for his room and board.



During his stay at the designated temporary accommodation without full hotel services, he has been asked to check for symptoms of fever, cough, difficult breathing, etc., and had to report every day on the self-diagnosis apps provided by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The ministry's health staff members monitored his health condition and his daily symptoms reports.



He was strictly prohibited from going out and seeing people inside and outside the non-smoking lodge. He had to stay only in his room. He was always occupied with his own online architect-related tasks for both the New York and Seoul offices. Meal delivery was made from an outside business, and there were four choices  Korean, Western, vegetarian and halal.



One happening was noteworthy to mention, as I confirmed through Korean mass media. Three Vietnamese entrants in their 20s escaped quarantine through windows of their hotel rooms by using emergency ropes from the sixth floor of the building on July 27. They were eventually arrested by the Korean police on July 29 at different spots in Gyeonggi Province. In accordance with violating quarantine regulations under Article 46 of the Immigration Act applying to foreign nationals, the three were deported and banned from re-entry into Korea under Article 11 of the act.



Korea has been recognized as one of several model quarantine countries for carrying out anti-epidemic measures outstandingly well, thanks to the sacrifices and devotions by its pan-national medical and health-keeping manpower initiated by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Protection (KCDC). The infection was so speedy, and caused the wide spread of the invisible enemy to various regions in Korea especially in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province, still showing the highest infection record in the nation as yet.



It is my earnest hope that the mandatory 14-day self-quarantine system rendered by the KCDC will be continued sternly and effectively, so that it would obtain fruit-bearing results in the foreseeable future for the sake of wishful wellness and stability of the "glocal" (global+local) community at large.





The writer (kexim2@unitel.co.kr) is a freelance columnist living in Seoul.


The Bold and the Beautiful has two new fresh faces coming to town. One of them isnt a new character and is actually a recast of legacy character Zende Forrester. Delon de Metz, who is taking over the character that was last played by Rome Flynn, recently spoke about joining the show.

Delon de Metz in 2012 | Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic

Zende Forrester Dominguez on The Bold and the Beautiful

Zende is a member of one of the shows core families, The Forresters, as the son of Kristen Forrester Dominguez, one of Eric Forrester and Stephanie Forresters children.

The character was first brought onto the canvas in 2011 when Zende encountered Kristen and her husband, Antonio Dominguez, in Africa during their honeymoon. Zende was living in an orphanage after his parents died from AIDS. Antonio, who battled AIDS, felt a connection to Zende. After returning to California they went back and adopted him. The family ended up leaving Los Angeles and moved to Florida.

The character returned to the show in the late mid-to-late 2010s as an adult. Zende returned to Los Angeles to work at Forrester Creations, his familys company. During this time, he was perhaps best known for his relationship with Nicole Avant. At the time of the characters last departure, the two got married and moved out of the country. Now, hes back in town.

Daniel Smith played the character as a child from 2001 to 2002. He resumed it again briefly in 2005. Flynn debuted as the adult version of the character in 2015, playing the character up until 2017. A new version of the character, played by de Metz, is next up.

RELATED: The Bold and the Beautiful: Could Tanner Novlans Real-Life Wife, A Former B&B Star, Be Used as a Body Double?

The actor talks about his new role

In an interview with Soap Opera Digest, de Metz talked about joining the show and portraying the character. He explained, Pretty much everything was on lockdown and [when] my agent sent it [the role] to me he said, Hey, these guys are working, you might have a lot of fun with this, take a look at the sides. I said, Lets take a shot, and three rounds of auditions later, I get the go-ahead. Im very excited to join the team.

The actor revealed to the publication that his audition for the role took place via Zoom. His audition included a chemistry read with Kiara Barnes, who plays Zoe Buckingham on soap opera. This is the first time I had used Zoom with casting, or with an actress for a chemistry read, so that part of the process was definitely interesting and a unique experience for me, he said.

RELATED: The Bold and the Beautiful Fans Want Bill to Revisit an Old Love Triangle:

He learned a lot from his mother

And as far as learning the ropes, he didnt know that much about soap operas but says he was able to gain a lot of information and expertise through his mother. He said she has been watching the show for years. I am not as literate in the soap world as I could be, and I am definitely doing my homework now, getting up to speed on the character, he said. But my mom watched the show for maybe 20 years. When I told her, she completely freaked out so we definitely have B&B in the family.

He continued, Mom will come in handy with her Zende knowledge, he reports. Because my mom is a fan of the show, she is first and foremost my research go-to for this. Im going to have to get familiar with what Zende has been through, and everything thats been created to do the character justice, but of course, I do want to put my own spin on it. Hopefully, youll see my own colors come out, but I do think its important to do right by the show and by the character and let all of the past experiences inform the performance.

The Bold and the Beautiful airs weekdays on CBS.
SAN DIEGO, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- California based PropTech company CalTier Realty, LLC, (CalTier) has retained New York Investment Bank Castle Placement to represent its next fundraising round of $5Million. This will support CalTier's growth focusing on expanding its platform to domestic and international investors.

An estimated $500BN is invested into the U.S. Commercial Real Estate (CRE) market from abroad every year. In addition to big institutions, family offices and private equity firms, many individual investors look to deploy capital into U.S. CRE mainly for the purpose of wealth preservation. For these investors, it's a difficult, slow and expensive process often still paper and fax driven with many middlemen and high fees. More importantly, most simply do not have access to the better opportunities that are typically off-market and require institutional backing, forcing them to rely on chasing assets that may not provide the returns they were hoping for.

"We are very excited to retain Castle for our next round of funding. They have a great fundraising platform and are aligned with our goals. We have proven our business model with technology, acquisitions and current fund offerings, such as our SEC-qualified Regulation A+ fund. With this next round of funding we will build out the global PropTech platform and welcome investors from around the world to deploy capital into cash-flowing Multi-Family assets," said Matt Belcher, Co-Founder and Managing Partner.

CalTier is a PropTech company based in San Diego, California that invests in strong rental markets throughout the U.S. directly and with select highly successful real estate partners. To learn more about CalTier and their offerings, please visit their website or contact them at [email protected] . Castle can be reached at https://castleplacement.com/ .

AN OFFERING STATEMENT REGARDING THIS OFFERING HAS BEEN FILED WITH THE SEC. THE SEC HAS QUALIFIED THAT OFFERING STATEMENT, WHICH ONLY MEANS THAT THE COMPANY MAY MAKE SALES OF THE SECURITIES DESCRIBED BY THE OFFERING STATEMENT. IT DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE SEC HAS APPROVED, PASSED UPON THE MERITS OR PASSED UPON THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE INFORMATION IN THE OFFERING STATEMENT. YOU MAY OBTAIN A COPY OF THE OFFERING CIRCULAR THAT IS PART OF THAT OFFERING STATEMENT FROM: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1771232/000114420419047556/tv530766_partiiandiii.htm

YOU SHOULD READ THE OFFERING CIRCULAR BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT.

CONTACT: Matt Belcher

Managing Partner

CalTier Realty, LLC

+1.619.354.2527 x703

[email protected]

SOURCE CalTier Realty

Related Links

https://www.caltierrealty.com/


A fitness trainer from Illinois started carrying an American flag during his daily runs through Lake County Forest Preserves.

Although Mark Palmieri, 36, has never served in the military, he knows many who have, including his best friend, whom he saw struggle after he returned state-side from deployment. That spurred Palmieri to play a greater role in helping servicemen and women when they return home.

And the American flag became part of that effort.

When people see me running with the flag, its generally viewed as a beacon of hope, he told the Daily Herald, adding that hope is what we need most right now.

The purpose, he adds, is to raise awareness of the plight of veterans to the people he comes across, and to honor those who laid down their lives.

I tell people that I work with veterans when they come home, said Palmieri. The suicide awareness component, as it relates to the military, is a big part of why I do this.

Palmieris day job involves training men and women who aspire to join the military; meanwhile, supporting those who return home is where his heart is. He helped found the nonprofit Three Rangers Foundation, which supports veterans and their families for life.

The organization is funded by private donors as well as the veteran-owned Three Rangers brand of spirits.

It might seem political to run to carry an American flag during his runs through forest preserve trailsthese days more than ever beforebut Palmieri insists that politics arent part of the equation. After the pandemic was unleashed on the world, the flag is a welcome sight.

There has been so much fear and loneliness since the virus hit. When people see me on the trails with the flag, its a game changer, he said.

(Illustration  Thanatip S./Shutterstock)

When he first started running eight years ago, Palmieri didnt even like running, he told the news outlet. He was into rucking (hiking with military backpacks filled with weights)which he incorporates into his personal trainingand he would participate in rucking events often carrying an American flag.

And the tradition continued on from there.

Now, his runs along the forest preserve trails are typically 3 to 5 miles long.

The flag also introduced a spiritual aspect into the routine, he says, and he hopes it will inspire others in some way. It has become something bigger than me, he shared. I am trying to motivate my community. People sometimes cheer or thank him for his service when they see him carrying the red, white, and blue.

Jordan Wagner, an executive assistant at Lake County Forest Preserves, was so impressed when she saw Palmieri and his flag that it brought tears to her eyes. Whenever I see the American flag, I always feel pride, unity, sacrifice and purpose, she said.

We would love to hear your stories! You can share them with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.nyc
Then there are the corridors of power  Public Official As home base. The accumulation and exercise of power has defined him for decades. And the fact that his power is at risk could be as terrifying to him as anything else.
Disney Plus as has attracted plenty of viewers the past several months mainly because the networks streaming services library is among the best in the TV and film area.

Recently, Disney Plus broadcast the Broadway hit Hamilton, much to the delight of Broadway fans, who have been locked out of New York Citys theater district since mid-March and wont be able to return until after the New Year at the very best.

Now, word is coming out of Disney that Disney Plus is getting set to release the movie hit Mulan in September.

Thats right, the film is no longer headed for a major theatrical release. The Walt Disney Co. said Tuesday that it will debut its live-action blockbuster on its subscription streaming service, Disney+, on Sept. 4.

Customers will have to pay an additional $29.99 on top of the cost of the monthly subscription to rent Mulan.

Disney has ended its free trial offer period, but you can watch Mulan, and so much more from the Disney library, on Disney+ for $6.99 a month. For a better deal all around, you can also get a package that includes Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ for $12.99 a month.

But Disney Plus isnt just about Broadway plays and major movies. The network wants to be your spot for all of your favorite shows and movies.

Toy Story 4, Avengers Infinity War, Maleficent and The Simpsons are just some of the hit movies and shows that are streaming on Disney Plus.

Also watch National Geographics Life Below Zero and Disneys own Artemis Fowl.

Actually, theres a whole library full of shows past and present for viewers to consume.
VANCOUVER, BC, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - 1933 Industries Inc. (the "Company" or "1933 Industries") (CSE: TGIF) (OTCQX: TGIFF), a vertically-integrated cannabis consumer packaged goods company, is pleased to announce the addition of top brand Five Star Extracts to its select roster of licensed partners in Nevada. The Company's subsidiary, Alternative Medicine Association LC ("AMA"), signed a licensing agreement with California-based Five Star Group, LLC, ("Five Star Extracts" or "Five Star") for the cultivation, manufacture and sale of Five Star Extracts branded products in Nevada for a one-year term.

The Company's newest partnership reaffirms AMA's position as a top producer of cannabis concentrates in Nevada. AMA's expertise in the field has been developed over several years as one of the first cultivation and production licensees in the state. AMA will manufacture Five Star products, including its exclusive flavored Double Shot line and flavored cannabis tinctures. Under the licensing agreement, AMA will manufacture, distribute and sell the licensed products, ensuring compliance with Nevada regulations as well as third-party laboratory testing and certification. The licensed products have already received the approval from the newly formed State of Nevada Cannabis Compliance Board (CCB).

Five Star Extracts are some of the highest quality THC products in the market. Five Star follows strict proprietary extraction procedures to achieve clarity and potency for a smooth cannabis product that stands above the rest. "We are excited to work with a team who shares the same high standards, passion and pride for crafting top quality cannabis products," stated Mr. Jordan Stroum, Director of Sales for 1933 Industries' brands and brand partners. "Five Star brings a differentiated approach to their product offerings with an innovative suite of products that are easy to consume, discreet and can be taken on the go. The Double Shot line is a fast-acting beverage containing 20mg of THC in a variety of flavors and their cannabis-infused tincture beverage enhancers with mix and match flavours are unique to our brand offerings. We are excited to assist Five Star grow its brand in Nevada."

Mr. Jason Winkler, CEO & Co-Founder of Five Star Extracts, stated, "Five Star is very excited to expand the brands footprint in additional states with trusted and like-minded partners such as 1933. We are looking forward to having our Five Star quality product lineup and executing the same marketing initiatives we pride ourselves on within Nevada."

About 1933 Industries Inc.

1933 Industries is a vertically-integrated, growth-orientated company, focusing on the cultivation and manufacturing of cannabis consumer branded goods in a wide range of product formats. Operating through two subsidiaries, the Company controls all aspects of the value chain with cultivation, extraction, processing, and manufacturing assets supporting its diversified portfolio of cannabis brands and licensing partners.

Our award-winning proprietary portfolio of brands include: AMA flower and AMA concentrates, as well as CBD-infused Canna Hemp, Canna Hemp X, Canna Fused, and hemp-specific products. Partners under licensing agreements include: Birdhouse Skateboards, Blonde Cannabis, Bloom, Denver Dab Co., Five Star Extracts, Grizzly Griptape, The Pantry Company, PLUGplay, and The Original Jack Herer.

The Company owns 91% of Alternative Medicine Association, LC (AMA), and 100% of Infused MFG LLC.

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.

Notice regarding Forward Looking Statements: This news release contains forward-looking statements. The use of any of the words "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "project", "should", "believe" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. These statements speak only as of the date of this news release. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks including various risk factors discussed in the Company's disclosure documents, which can be found under the Company's profile on www.sedar.com. 1933 Industries undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

SOURCE 1933 Industries Inc.

Related Links

https://1933industries.com/


SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has said that he will endeavour to finish the work started by John Hume 55 years ago by delivering a full-scale university in Derry.

At his fathers funeral yesterday, a message was read out on behalf of Aidan Hume in which he said the university campaign served as a catalyst for his fathers career in politics.

In 1965, the Lockwood report recommended that Northern Ireland's second university be sited in Coleraine rather than Derry.

It was viewed as a controversial decision at the time and highly contested in the city.

That same year a cross-community campaign was led by John Hume, the unionist mayor Albert Anderson and Eddie McAteer, leader of the Nationalist Party.

At yesterdays funeral a message was delivered by Humes daughter, Mo, on behalf of her brother Aidan who couldnt travel from the United States due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In it, Aidan said that using a moral compass as his only tether his fathers perseverance and sheer will brought hope and history together.

It began with the corrupt siting of the university, driven by a total lack of respect for diversity, he added.

The university campaign acted as a prelude to the civil rights movement and was part of a building of frustrations felt by Derry people.

Ultimately the protest had no impact on the final decision but it may have saved Magee campus, which had been earmarked for closure.

Eamonn McCann, civil rights veteran and former neighbour of Hume, believes it was the university campaign that set the tone for the former SDLP leaders style of politics in the decades to come.

At this stage people will be familiar with the motorcade to Stormont in protest over Lockwood's decision, he added.

But he says, as significant, was a Guildhall Square rally jammed with people where a youthful John Hume spoke not of unionist discrimination but of the need for togetherness to bring about reform.

There really you have the microcosm of his politics and strategy for the rest of his life, it was all there.

In 1993 a Peace and Conflict Studies course was formed at the Magee campus in Derry, an internationally renowned programme offered by leading academics from the International Conflict Research Institute (INCORE).

In recognition of Humes peace-building efforts, Ulster University announced funding for the John Hume and Thomas P. O'Neill Chair in Peace, to be established at the Magee campus.

Set up in honour of both politicians, the Chair is a full-time academic position in peace and conflict resolution studies which helps to train the next generation of peacemakers from around the world.

Presidents and leaders from around the world, including Bill Clinton and the Dalai Lama, spoke to audiences at the campus.

However, there was widespread concern in Derry when a decision was made to relocate the course to Belfast a number of years ago.

JOHNS VISION

Current SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said that throughout his life, John Hume stood up for Derry and all its people.

He understood the transformative impact of education and knew all too well the structural inequalities forced upon the people of this city, he said.

John campaigned for university provision in Derry that could deliver the skills and opportunities our people need to grow and prosper, even against the backdrop of a campaign of violence that plagued the lives of those in the city.

Delivering on Johns vision for Derry is a priority for me and for the SDLP. I am committed to ensuring that everyone in this city has the opportunity to make a live for themselves here.

John's lasting legacy should be that we never allow our young people to be raised for export. Derry needs a full-scale university, nothing else will meet the needs of our people.

Meanwhile, the Derry University Group (DUG) which has been lobbying for an independent university in the city described John Hume as one of the greatest educators and thinkers the city has known since Colmcille.

Garbhan Downey of the DUG said: He taught us of the importance of a university as a centre of learning, industry, science and arts, heritage, philosophy and discourse; as the focal point for community engagement, and the lead agent for positive change and self-empowerment

He worked throughout his career to establish a university here to serve as the bedrock for the new, peaceful society of equals, which he had envisaged for Derry from his earliest days as a social champion.

The campaign to build a university, begun by John Hume sixty years ago, is still unfinished. It has been described as the last remaining civil rights issue.

There could be no more fitting legacy to John Hume than for his home city to finish this job now.
The aid, which will be made available to the Peruvian Army, is proof of Germany's solidarity with the South American nation.

"To Germany, the Republic of Peru has been a reliable partner for many years, and we do not want to abandon it amid this crisis but support it actively in the fight against COVID-19 , in a direct and sustainable manner," the German Embassy in Lima stated.
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Linkedin Nina Loasana (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, August 6, 2020 08:10 531 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066be3eca 1 National sexual-harassment,sexual-abuse-victims,airlangga-university,Sexual-assault Free

Airlangga University (Unair) in Surabaya, East Java, has officially expelled a student who had reportedly tricked multiple victims into performing an act known as bondage mummification under the pretense of academic research.

In a statement published on Wednesday, the university acknowledged that the accused student, Gilang, had committed sexual assault on the victims.

Prior to his expulsion, the Unair rector, Mohammad Nasih, and its ethics committee had conducted an online meeting with Gilang's family, in which the latter admitted his actions and expressed regret.

The case, which gained public attention after several first-person accounts of the allegations made the rounds on Twitter, had tarnished the university's reputation, said the rector.

"We think this case [involving] G has caused immense damage to Unair's reputation as a state university that upholds excellence with moral values," Nasih said, referring to Gilang by his initial, in a statement posted on Unair's official website.

Last week, multiple victims had taken to Twitter to share their accounts of being tricked by Gilang, who was enrolled at Unair's School of Cultural Sciences, into performing sexual mummification acts.

One user with the handle @m_fikris wrote that he and his friend agreed to participate in Gilang's thesis "research" about "wrapping" in July after Gilang persistently begged him, saying he was at risk of failing his studies for not finishing his thesis. Gilang was in his fifth year of university.

Read also: UII students disappointed at clearing of former student accused of sexual abuse

Gilang sent instructions for @m_fikris and his friend to take turns covering each others bodies, including their mouths and eyes, with duct tape. He also instructed them to wrap their bodies in jarik (traditional Javanese cloth) and later asked them to record the process and to send him the footage afterward.

A second victim, who requested anonymity, told The Jakarta Post that Gilang stripped him naked and sexually assaulted him after wrapping him in cloth in his rooming house last year.

Another victim who spoke to the Post said that when they were both university freshmen, Gilang had drugged him, covered his entire body with a blanket, and groped him when he was sleeping at Gilang's rooming house after a university event in 2015. "I confronted [Gilang] the next day, and he admitted all his actions, said the victim.

After the case garnered public attention, Unair established an information center for victims who wanted to report their cases and has prepared counseling services for victims.

Nasih went on to say that the decision to expel Gilang was taken after considering several factors including the accounts of the victims, who felt "abused" and had their "human dignity degraded" by his actions.

"We have also considered the clarification from Gilang's family," he said, adding that the latter had fully accepted the university's decision.

The university would hand over the legal proceedings in the case to the authorities, Nasih added.
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Linkedin Roni V. Sikumbang (The Jakarta Post) Melbourne  Thu, August 6, 2020 11:14 530 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066bf6879 3 Opinion weapon,weapon-procurement,Eurofighter-Typhoon,COVID-19,pandemic,health-worker,doctor,nurses Free

Recently Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto announced his intention to buy 15 second-hand Typhoon jet fighters from Austria. Prabowo stated that these planes, which each costs US$124 million, are needed to fully equip the Indonesian Military. But who are we fighting now?

As many countries strengthened themselves with the latest weapons technology in past wars, we too must equip our doctors and nurses with the best weapons we have to win this war on COVID-19.

By now we know that this is not a short battle, but a long war and our frontline heroes fight every day. They are tireless but tired. Dozens of the valiant fighters have lost their lives due to infection.

Increasing the availability of artificial intelligence (AI) technology and programs in hospitals throughout Indonesia has the potential to protect these healthcare heroes.

We often hear news reports that many patients are not completely honest about their symptoms and, in many instances, healthcare workers become exposed to the virus as a result. The latest research from the Oxford COVID-19 Evidence Service Team suggests that because healthcare workers have a greater risk of being exposed to the virus repeatedly, their infectious dose or viral load is often higher. There is also evidence that a higher viral load leads to more serious illness.

The high death rate of doctors and nurses in Indonesia and globally show how they are most at risk of becoming infected. Indonesia has a 6.5 percent death rate of healthcare workers, according to head of management at the Hasanuddin University Hospital, Irwandy. Our death rate is the highest in Asia.

This awful statistic demonstrates that we are at war and the soldiers on the frontline are doctors and nurses. We as a country have a responsibility to help and protect them. We should provide the most advanced AI technology and programs to reduce healthcare workers exposure and increase the care provided to patients.

So, arm our healthcare workers with AI.

Homemade AI medical technology has been applied on a small scale in Indonesia in this war on COVID-19. At the Airlangga University Hospital in Surabaya, East Java, for instance, RAISA robots deliver food to highly infectious patients to reduce interactions and the risk of transmission. RAISA was developed collaboratively by researchers at Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS) and the hospital. In order to reduce the risks of healthcare workers throughout the nation, we must scale-up these technologies. AI should be our national defense priority.

It will be expensive, but so are Prabowos fighter jets. And, healthcare workers lives are undeniably more precious.

AI technology has joined the frontline of many countries fight against this virus. In China, robots provided patients with face masks and hand sanitizer upon arrival at clinics whereas in Britain robots have been used in routine sanitation of wards.

Alibaba has also developed an AI application that compares brain and lung scans of patients. This cloud-based program is now being used in Ecuador and the Philippines and has a diagnosis accuracy rate of over 90 percent.

In Australia, a major trauma hospital in Melbourne is trialing an AI program to monitor patients at home. The program divides patients into three categories of severity. Ambulances are immediately dispatched for red patients whose condition is rapidly deteriorating. Nurses visit amber patients whose condition is worsening. Whereas the program monitors the vital signs of green patients whose illness is less severe.

In Brisbane, Queensland, the major hospital has implemented telepresence robots in its COVID-19 ward to facilitate doctor-patient communication and safely connect patients with their families and friends through video calls. Using this technology can make patients less anxious, which according to University College London and Kings College researchers is crucial for their body to fight the virus.

There have also been many tragic stories in Indonesia and around the world of patients dying alone and families unable to say goodbye. AI can bring them together. In many religions, followers want to seek guidance while they are sick, and especially if their condition worsens. With telepresence technology, imams, priests and other trusted religious leaders can carry out pastoral care.

We have a responsibility to care for those who care for us  to protect doctors and nurses. AI is an important tool in our armory to fight COVID-19 and to offer safe and holistic care to patients.

Every day we read of new record case numbers and that this virus has taken the lives of our fellow citizens. For every 100 deaths, six are healthcare workers. We are losing those who we need most at this critical moment.

The Indonesian government should focus on the war we are currently in. Although researching and implementing AI in hospitals throughout Indonesia will be expensive, this technology can give hope and much needed support to our doctors and nurses.

While Prabowo emphasizes the need for weapons to protect our country, our healthcare worker heroes are on the battlefield. Other countries are building stronger shields to safeguard their doctors and nurses. Indonesia has a choice to recruit AI to support our hospitals or to persist with the current strategy and resources.

***

The writer is contributor to a number of Indonesian newspapers, now studying at RMIT English Worldwide in Melbourne, Australia.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
CAIROThe countdown to catastrophe in Beirut started six years ago when a troubled, Russian-leased cargo ship made an unscheduled stop at the citys port.

The ship was trailed by debts, crewed by disgruntled sailors and dogged by a small hole in its hull that meant water had to be constantly pumped out. And it carried a volatile cargo: more than 2,000 tons of ammonium nitrate, a combustible material used to make fertilizers  and bombs  that was destined for Mozambique.

The ship, the Rhosus, never made it. Embroiled in a financial and diplomatic dispute, it was abandoned by the Russian businessman who had leased it. And the ammonium nitrate was transferred to a dockside warehouse in Beirut, where it would languish for years, until Tuesday, when Lebanese officials said it exploded, sending a shock wave that killed more than 130 people and wounded another 5,000.

The story of the ship and its deadly cargo, which emerged Wednesday in accounts from Lebanon, Russia and Ukraine, offered a bleak tale about how legal battles, financial wrangling and, apparently, chronic negligence set the stage for a horrific accident that devastated one of the Middle Easts most fondly regarded cities.

I was horrified, said Boris Prokoshev, the ships 70-year-old retired Russian captain, about the accident, speaking in a phone interview from Sochi, Russia, a Black Sea resort town just up the coast from where the ammonium nitrate began its journey to Beirut in 2013.

In Lebanon, public rage focused on the negligence of the authorities, who were aware of the danger posed by the storage of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate in a warehouse on the Beirut docks yet failed to act.

Senior customs officials wrote to the Lebanese courts at least six times from 2014 to 2017, seeking guidance on how to dispose of the ammonium nitrate, according to public records posted to social media by a Lebanese lawmaker, Salim Aoun.

In view of the serious danger posed by keeping this shipment in the warehouses in an inappropriate climate, Shafik Marei, the director of Lebanese customs, wrote in May 2016, we repeat our request to demand the maritime agency to re-export the materials immediately.

The customs officials proposed a number of solutions, including donating the ammonium nitrate to the Lebanese army or selling it to the privately owned Lebanese Explosives Co. Marei sent a second, similar letter a year later. The judiciary failed to respond to any of his pleas, the records suggested.

Lebanese judicial officials could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

The Rhosus, which flies the flag of Moldova, arrived in Beirut in November 2013, two months after it left the Black Sea port of Batumi, Georgia. The ship was leased by Igor Grechushkin, a Russian businessman living in Cyprus.

Prokoshev, the captain, joined the ship in Turkey after a mutiny over unpaid wages by a previous crew. Grechushkin had been paid $1 million (U.S.) to transport the high-density ammonium nitrate to the port of Beira in Mozambique, the captain said.

The ammonium nitrate was purchased by the International Bank of Mozambique for Fabrica de Explosivos de Mocambique, a firm that makes commercial explosives, according to Baroudi and Partners, a Lebanese law firm representing the ships crew, in a statement issued Wednesday.

Grechushkin, who was in Cyprus at the time and communicating by telephone, told the captain he didnt have enough money to pay for passage through the Suez Canal. So he sent the ship to Beirut to earn some cash by taking on an additional cargo of heavy machinery.

But in Beirut, the machinery would not fit into the ship, which was about 30 or 40 years old, the captain said.

Then Lebanese officials found the ship unseaworthy and impounded the vessel for failing to pay the port docking fees and other charges. When the ships suppliers tried to contact Grechushkin for payment for fuel, food and other essentials, he could not be reached, having apparently abandoned the ship he had leased.

Six crew members returned home, but Lebanese officials forced the captain and three other crew members, all from Ukraine, to remain aboard until the debt issue was solved. Lebanese immigration restrictions prevented the crew members from leaving the ship, and they struggled to obtain food and other supplies, according to their lawyers.

Prokoshev, the captain, said Lebanese port officials took pity on the hungry crew and provided food. But, he added, they didnt show any concern about the ships highly dangerous cargo. They just wanted the money we owed, he said.

Their plight attracted attention back in Ukraine, where news accounts described the stranded crew as hostages, trapped aboard an abandoned ship.

The captain, a Russian citizen, appealed to the Russian Embassy in Lebanon for help but got only snippy comments like, Do you expect President Putin to send special forces to get you out, he recalled.

Increasingly desperate, Prokoshev sold some of the ships fuel and used the proceeds to hire a legal team, and these lawyers also warned the Lebanese authorities that the ship was in danger of sinking or blowing up at any moment, according to the law firms statement.

A Lebanese judge ordered the release of the crew on compassionate grounds in August 2014, and Grechushkin, having resurfaced, paid for their passage back to Ukraine.

Grechushkin could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

The crews departure left the Lebanese authorities in charge of the ships deadly cargo, which was moved to a storage facility known as Hangar 12, where it remained until the explosion Tuesday.

Ammonium nitrate, when mixed with fuel, creates a powerful explosive commonly used in construction and mining. But it has also been used to make explosive devices deployed by terrorists such as the 1995 Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh, and the Islamic State group.

Sales of ammonium nitrate are regulated in the United States, and many European countries require it to be mixed with other substances to make it less potent.

The general manager of Beiruts port, Hassan Koraytem, said in an interview that customs and security officials made repeated requests to Lebanons courts to have the volatile material moved. But nothing happened, he said.

We were told the cargo would be sold in an auction, he added. But the auction never happened, and the judiciary never acted.

Koraytem, who has been in charge of the port for 17 years, said that when he had first heard the blast Tuesday, he figured it might be an air attack.

He had no idea what caused the initial fire at the storage facility that preceded the second, far larger blast, he said. Four of his employees died in the explosion. This is not the time to blame, he said. We are living a national catastrophe.

But for many Lebanese, the story is another sign of the chronic mismanagement of a ruling class that steered the country into a punishing economic crisis this year.

Prokoshev, who said he is still owed $60,000 in wages, placed the fault with Grechushkin, and with Lebanese officials, who insisted on first impounding the boat and then on keeping the ammonium nitrate in the port instead of spreading it on their fields.

They could have had very good crops instead of a huge explosion, he said.

As for the Rhosus, Prokoshev learned from friends who sailed to Beirut that it had sunk in the harbour in 2015 or 2016 after taking water on board, he said.

His only surprise on hearing this, he added, was that it had not gone down sooner.
A British artist has announced the launch of a sophisticated 'virtual gallery', relying on the digital world to assist the global art market.

Lincoln Townley, Britain's leading figurative artist, commissioned a team of designers to create digital gallery in order to view art work virtually from anywhere in the world last year.

Following lockdown, the project, which was launched before the pandemic, was accelerated, as the team quickly realised the global art market would see a dramatic shift which would disrupt business.

The high tech 'gallery' has now been finished. It allows viewers from around the world to 'walk' through a gallery and view the art with high resolution technology which brings it to life.

Artist Lincoln Townley in his studio, with finished new works before the lockdown

One of Lincoln Townley's artworks which showcases stylistic echoes of Francis Bacon

The 47-year-old's studio used a leading technology company in San Francisco to build the platform. Bespoke facilities allow Townley's team to upload both his own new works and those of other artists.

The virtual studio has the ability to introduce new artists to his existing collectors remotely and under their control.

The digital showcase also allows the artists to take collectors of Townley's work on a personal tour of the collection, as if they were meeting the artist in person at a traditional exhibition.

Townley has launched his Universe collection, which comprises 22 pieces of original art, in the virtual gallery. It will be viewed and bought predominantly online using cryptocurrency.

His team has also been contacted by several global artists wanting to share the virtual space now that conventional markets are closed or difficult to access.

Townley said: 'For the past three months, my studio has been focused on becoming as digital in our approach to selling.

'We have created a platform which presents new paintings in a gallery environment instantly to my audience through sending links via WhatsApp and email.

'We can now load high resolution images and videos of the works and deliver a purely digital presentation around the world instantly.

'The viewer doesn't need any special hardware to look round the gallery like many Virtual Reality tours do. All you need is your phone, iPad or computer, and you are immersed in the gallery experience.'

Artist Lincoln Townley in front of his work at the opening night at The Maddox Gallery

One of Lincoln Townley's finished works showing a devilish figure in red, yellow and green

David Klein, Townley's studio Director, said: 'The art world is changing rapidly and our gallery understands that.

'Group shows and major exhibitions are going take a very long time to get back to any normality, so we want to work on the virtual model and use technology to enhance the experience of looking at Lincoln's work.

'This virtual model gives our collectors an instant tour of new works. We can even create FaceTime-assisted tours, which allow us to speak to the collector online while they view the works.'

The Coronavirus pandemic has seen the dominance of traditional high-end galleries come to an end, with the rise of virtual viewings and meetings.

Townley has positioned his new collection entirely virtually and embraced the world of virtual currency as payment. The original works start at 175,000.

It is, however, still hoped that the collection will be displayed at The START Art Fair at London's prestigious Saatchi gallery in September, by which time most of the pieces will already be sold.

The Universe collection was inspired by billionaire space projects led by controversial businessman Elon Musk, and his dream of settling humans on Mars.

The vibrant images of powerful faces have the determination to escape our planet, a planet too small for their ambitions.

The London-born BAFTA resident artist, globally recognised for his dramatic figurative work and ICONS collection, has been embracing the digital and cryptocurrency markets for over five years.

He sees this non-regulated form of payment as a way of opening up the online offerings to a much bigger marketplace, particularly during the ongoing pandemic.

Multi-millionaire Townley's rise to fame in the global art market has been dramatic, with some of his works selling for as much as 2m.

Townley has also been commissioned to paint many of the world's biggest icons, including Charlie Sheen, Al Pacino and Sir Michael Caine.

His subjects also include the annual BAFTA honourees, Dame Judi Dench, John Cleese, Kate Moss, Charlie Sheen, Russell Brand, Leonardo Di Caprio, Marlon Brando, Princess Diana, Mohammed Ali, David Bowie, Pele, Ronaldinho and many others.

Townley painted Sir Michael Caine and his wife Shakira. After presenting him the painting, the legendary actor said: 'There's no doubt in my opinion that Lincoln is the next Andy Warhol.'

Last year, the artist sold a diamond-encrusted portrait of the late Princess Diana for a personal record-breaking 1million, beating his previous record of 510,000 set by his painting of Mohammed Ali.

The Princess Diana painting, a two metre square, oil and acrylic spray on linen, had over 100,000 worth of diamonds embedded into the canvas to give a spectacular finish.

The self-taught artist has struggled against an established art market but is now collected across the world including America, Australia, the Middle East and Europe.

His original oil paintings of demons drawn from the unconscious mind have been exhibited at major international galleries, including the National Gallery and the Royal Academy of Arts in London, Los Angeles and the Brisbane Powerhouse.

James Nicholls, Managing Director and Curator of the Maddox Gallery, Mayfair, London, said: 'In each generation, it is a rare occurrence when an artist has the potential to become iconic. Lincoln Townley is such an extraordinary artist.

'The British artist was relatively unknown four years ago. Now he has become famous for creating the most vivid insight into producing electrifying portraits of Hollywood stars.'

He added: 'Sir Michael Caine recently described him as the new Andy Warhol, and others see a Francis Bacon-like quality in his work. The value of his work has risen 200 per cent in the last two years alone.'
The Katsina State Council of the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives has disowned and described the two suspected female nurses arrested by the police in the state as fake and imposters.

Identified as Misira Tijjani and Grace Ejigu of the Okmos Clinic in Kofar Kaura quarters, Katsina state, the two suspected female nurses were arrested on Monday by officers of the Katsina Police Command for alleged involvement and attempt to sell a newborn baby girl to one Eucharia Onyema.

The chairman of the Katsina state council of the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives, Haruna Mamman disclosed this on Wednesday in a press conference held at the State Secretariat of the state council.

We visited the hospital and interviewed both the proprietor of the hospital, Dr. E.E Eze. The two imposters in question and our findings revealed that they are fake and imposters The proprietor of the hospital and the two imposters, even admitted that they were not trained and qualified nurses. We complained to the Deputy Commissioner of Police in whose office and before everyone present, they confessed that they were not Nurses, whereas a day before, they told the police authority that they were nurses. We will pursue this matter to its logical conclusion, they will be prosecuted for impersonation and defamation of character, Mamman added. Mamman told reporters that the association swung into action immediately to authenticate the identity, membership, and qualifications of the two suspects.

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A teenage activist has claimed that coronavirus and other Zoonotic diseases are a byproduct of mistreating the planet.

Environmentalist and conversationalist Bella Lack, 17, from South West London, is a youth ambassador for The Born Free Foundation and appeared on This Morning today to speak about her activism.

Speaking via video link, the teenager claimed that 'many studies' have shown that virus' which come from animals, such as sars, mers and coronavirus, have a direct link to humans 'destroying nature at a high rate'.

The student, who admits her work as an activist has meant she has had to take a year out of school, argued the rapid spread of unknown viruses ' will 'only get more extreme' unless we address the impact human's are having on the natural world.

Environmentalist and conversationalist Bella Lack, 17, from South West London, is a youth ambassador for The Born Free Foundation

Appearing on This Morning today, the teenage activist has claimed that coronavirus and other Zoonotic diseases are a byproduct of mistreating the planet

'It's not a belief', said Bella, 'It's been shown in many studies, the more we infringe into nature, especially deep into forests where we haven't been before, we weaken the buffer between us and viruses.

'Because 70 per cent of diseases are Zoonotic, come from animals, that really correlates with the fact we are destroying nature at a high rate.

'The more we continue to weaken the natural world, the more we weaken ourselves.

'We've already had sars, we've had mers and now we have coronavirus and it will only get more extreme, unless we drastically reduce how much we are impacting on nature.'

Speaking about how the her activist work has affected her education, she admitted: 'Not very well, the night before many of my GSCEs I was out doing a protest and my parents would say I need to revise, but I got through it. This year I was off school doing a documentary and I will be back in September.'

Bella began campaigning and fundraising at just 11, she is pictured with the Duke of Cambridge at the 2018 Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference at St James' Palace

Bella began campaigning and fundraising at just 11, after being inspired by a documentary, which detailed how the production of palm oil was endangering the lives of the Orangutan, an animal particularly close to her heart.

She went on to argue that while it can be 'overwhelming' to tackle the issues the environment faces, we should 'fall in love with the solution' and 'strive for a better future'.

'I'm not really a therapist', said Bella, 'But we can be overwhelmed with the problem or fall in love with the solution.

'Of course we feel anxious when we see the reports of having ten years to prevent catastrophic climate change, but it's not all about sacrifices. It's about striving for a better future.

Bella was then quizzed on whether the production of single use plastic during the pandemic for PPE had a negative impact on the planet

'We saw during the pandemic only 12 per cent of people wanted to return to the normal it was before, it was a portal which showed us a world we had much cleaner cities.'

Bella was then quizzed on whether the production of single use plastic during the pandemic for PPE had a negative impact on the planet.

'I think it's a double edged knife, she responded, 'Because there are disposable masks.

'In Paris there has been a huge green wave and change isn't going to happen overnight and we have to change the narrative and strive for a much more circular economy .

'That's why we need so much more people, I don't even like calling myself an activist, I'm just recognising the scale of the problem.'
White served 21 years in the military, retiring as a lieutenant colonel. He has served as a commercial airline pilot, trained pilots and ran schools in the National Guard.

If elected, White says he would hold elections people can trust and make it easier for U.S. citizens to vote.

He would like to create centralized voting centers to cut back on the number of provisional ballots that need to be counted, he says.

White also wants to clean up voter registration rolls by educating voters on their responsibility to keep their address current, by making sure potential jurors who are culled partially from voter rolls are U.S. citizens, and by removing people who are deceased, he says.

He says some who are summoned for jury duty claim they arent U.S. citizens.

I will work with the county and with the clerks of the court, both at the state courts and the federal courts, to retrieve those records  to see if those people are actually registered to vote, whether theyve been voting, and if they are or are not U.S. citizens, then take appropriate action to enforce the laws, he said.
DETROIT, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Detroit-based Rocket Companies, Inc. ("Rocket Companies" or the "Company") today celebrates its debut on the New York Stock Exchange ("NYSE") as a publicly traded company with its stock beginning to trade under the ticker symbol "RKT." 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. Members of Rocket Companies' leadership team will be ringing the Opening Bell at 9:30 AM ET.

"Rocket Companies has a proven record of innovation that drives industry disruption and delivers an unmatched customer experience, and we're excited to continue that legacy now as a public company," said Jay Farner, CEO of Rocket Companies. "We see tremendous runway to drive long-term profitable growth by increasing market share in the massive and fragmented mortgage industry and leveraging our technology platform to unlock opportunities in our ecosystem. We invest for the long-term and place enormous value on supporting our team members, clients and hometowns."

Farner continued, "I'm proud of the company we've built, both in our financial results and in our resolve to be a force for good. I'd like to thank our team members for their tireless dedication to helping our clients achieve the American dream of home ownership and financial freedom, and I look forward to beginning this next chapter for Rocket Companies."

The widely recognized "Rocket" brand is synonymous with providing simple, fast, and trusted digital solutions for complex personal transactions. Rocket Companies' flagship business, Rocket Mortgage, is an end-to-end digital experience for personal mortgages and is the largest retail mortgage originator in the U.S. The Company's innovative technology platform has enabled its expansion into complementary industries, providing long-term growth opportunities in real estate services, personal lending, and auto sales.

"Rocket has spent the last 35 years becoming America's largest mortgage lender by taking the road less traveled," added Dan Gilbert, founder and chairman of the board of Rocket Companies. "I have full confidence in Jay and the rest of the senior leaders to build on the blueprint that got the company to where it is today and find innovative ways to reach new clients in the future."

Rocket Companies has been headquartered in Detroit, Michigan since 2010. Through the Quicken Loans Community Fund, the Company's contributions and expertise have been able to improve access to housing, employment, and education. In July 2020, the Company announced millions invested into initiatives such as Connect 313, an organization that coordinates digital inclusion strategy across the city of Detroit, as part of the Rocket Mortgage Classic's "Changing the Course" initiative. The company's team members have donated hundreds of thousands of hours to assist in accomplishing these demanding goals.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release includes "forward looking information," including with respect to the initial public offering. These statements are made through the use of words or phrases such as "will" or "expect" and similar words and expressions of the future. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including the risks outlined under "Risk Factors" in the preliminary prospectus and elsewhere in the Company's filings with the SEC, which may cause actual results to differ materially from any results expressed or implied by any forward-looking statement. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in its forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee future results. The Company has no obligation, and does not undertake any obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking statement made in this press release to reflect changes since the date of this press release, except as required by law.

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. For more information please visit www.rocketcompanies.com.

Rocket Companies, Inc.

1050 Woodward Ave

Detroit, MI 48226

Investor Contact:

[email protected]

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

Related Links

http://www.rocketcompanies.com


PITTSBURGH, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Kennametal (NYSE: KMT) announced today that they will attend the Jefferies Virtual Industrials Conference.

Details of the conference are as follows:

When: Thursday, August 6, 2020



Attendees: Chris Rossi, President and Chief Executive Officer

Damon Audia, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Kelly Boyer, Vice President, Investor Relations

About Kennametal

With over 80 years as an industrial technology leader, Kennametal Inc. delivers productivity to customers through materials science, tooling and wear-resistant solutions. Customers across aerospace, earthworks, energy, general engineering and transportation turn to Kennametal to help them manufacture with precision and efficiency. Every day approximately 9,000 employees are helping customers in more than 60 countries stay competitive. Kennametal generated nearly $1.9 billion in revenues in fiscal 2020. Learn more at www.kennametal.com. Follow @Kennametal: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.

SOURCE Kennametal Inc.

Related Links

http://www.kennametal.com


A panel of three judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has denied a request by the Socialist Equality Partys candidates Joseph Kishore and Norissa Santa Cruz for their appeal to be heard before ballots are printed in California.

On July 27, a panel of three Ninth Circuit judges issued a decision that reads, in its entirety: In light of the late date of the appeal, it cannot be calendared for resolution prior to August 26, 2020. The previously established briefing schedule remains in effect. The "previously established briefing schedule" will result in the case being heard after ballots are already printed.

In response, candidates filed an emergency motion for reconsideration. This motion was denied yesterday, August 5, in a one-sentence decision that states only that the motion was "denied," without giving any reasons.

The decisions denying the candidates requests for an expedited schedule were made by Chief Judge Sidney R. Thomas (appointed by Democrat Bill Clinton) and Circuit Judges Mary M. Schroeder (appointed by Democrat Jimmy Carter) and Consuelo Callahan (appointed by Republican George W. Bush).

The ruling means that that the clock will effectively run out on the SEP candidates' case. The ballots will be printed without the SEP candidates' names on them before the Ninth Circuit judges will make any decision on the candidates' right to have their names printed on the ballots.

In the SEP candidates' lawsuit against California Governor Gavin Newsom and California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, the candidates challenged the states decision to enforce its ballot access requirements, which require independent candidates to collect nearly 200,000 physical signatures in order to appear on the ballot, in the middle of the raging pandemic.

In California, petitioning for ballot access opens up in April and closes by August, leaving independent candidates 15 weeks to accomplish this task15 weeks in 2020 that were marked by a state lockdown and a a deadly infection spreading out of control.

The SEP initially filed the lawsuit on June 30. On July 12, the Attorney General for California responded on behalf of Newsom and Padilla, arguing that if the Socialist Equality Party candidates won their lawsuit it would cause an unmanageable and overcrowded ballot for the November presidential general election that would cause voter confusion and frustration of the democratic process.

The SEP candidates replied to this argument three days later, pointing out that it was California state officials who are frustrating the democratic processby insisting on the enforcement of ballot access requirements that are effectively impossible for Plaintiffs to comply with without endangering the safety and lives of their supporters and the public at large.

On July 20, District Judge Dolly M. Gee, nominated by former president Barack Obama, ruled against Kishore and Santa Cruz. She claimed that the SEPs candidates could have avoided the understandable risks of the virus, among other methods, by simply using face coverings and social distancing and gathering signatures in front of grocery stores.

The attorneys for the SEP contested this decision, appealing to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Alongside this appeal, a motion was made to expedite the case so that the appeal could be heard before the state of California printed its ballots on August 28.

On July 31, the attorneys for Kishore and Santa Cruz also filed an opening brief outlining the history of the case, pointing to the fundamental democratic and constitutional rights involved, and arguing for the right to ballot access.

The brief explained that Kishore and Santa Cruz launched their campaign in January but were prevented from gathering signatures by the pandemic and the states measures to combat it. The brief detailed the SEP's long, rich political history in California, and argued that there are less-than-lethal ways of testing whether the candidates can establish enough support to merit ballot access. The SEPs past candidates in the state have won tens of thousands of votes, the brief explained.

In response to Judge Gees claims that wearing of masks and social distancing would suffice to protect signers and SEP volunteers from COVID-19, the SEP candidates highlighted the uncontradicted testimony of a veteran SEP campaigner, who explained that it is not possible to safely collect signatures under present conditions. Placing campaigners and supporters in this situation means in effect that the state is requiring the people to risk serious illness or death as a condition for exercising the basic right to vote and participate in elections.

Judge Gee had further claimed that social media could be used to gather the signatures, but the SEP candidates submitted uncontroverted evidence in court that the SEP has been struggling for years against censorship on these platforms.

"The private technology monopolies claim that. .. speech can be censored on these platforms without regard for First Amendment protections," the SEP candidates argued. "For this reason, the exercise of [the SEP candidates'] core democratic and constitutional rights cannot be outsourced to the private social media platforms and made subject to the whims and caprices of the private owners of these platforms."

Gathering signatures "remotely," as suggested by the state of California, would require each signer to be contacted by a stranger over the phone or internet, that a document be mailed or printed at home, that a mobile notary be hired, and that the document be mailed to the campaigner for submission to the state. In San Francisco, mobile notary fees range from $55 to $115 per signature. At a hypothetical average rate of $100 per notarized signature, the cost of notarizing nearly 200,000 signatures would be on the order of $20 million, not including postage to and from the person signing the petition.

Judge Gee had also accused the SEP candidates of unexplained delays in bringing the lawsuit. The candidates established that they had prosecuted the lawsuit with all possible diligence and speed, and if they had brought it any earlier, they would have confronted arguments that the state would soon re-open and plenty of time remained in the signature-gathering period.

Responding to the states arguments that adding socialist candidates will lead to voter confusion, the candidates appeal brief explained: Placing these socialist candidates with their distinct program on the ballot will inform rather than confuse voters as to important issues, including those who otherwise might not vote. The fact that sample ballots are mailed to voters prior to election day further diminishes any concern about voter confusion, since voters will have an opportunity to research the candidates and their platforms in advance. There is no realistic threat that these avowedly socialist candidates will be confused with the other party candidates.

The SEP candidates argued that by excluding them from the ballot, especially at a time when, according to a recent Gallup poll, over 49 percent of young voters have a positive view of socialism, the state is effectively placing burdens on two different, although overlapping, kinds of rightsthe right of individuals to associate for the advancement of political beliefs and the right of qualified voters, regardless of their political persuasion, to cast their votes effectively.

In their emergency motion for reconsideration, the SEP candidates responded to the Ninth Circuit judges' accusation that the appeal was filed on a "late date," pointing to the fact that the appeal was filed only one day after the decision by Judge Gee. The period within which to file an appeal is 30 days.

Also regarding the supposed "late date" of the appeal, the SEP pointed to a case in 2016, during the last presidential election cycle, where the Ninth Circuit had expedited an appeal in a voting rights case that was filed in mid-October. In contrast, the SEP's appeal was made in July.

According to the records of that case, the notice of appeal was filed on October 15, 2016, an emergency motion was filed on October 18, 2016 to expedite the appeal, and on October 19, 2016, the motion was granted. "The parties were directed to file simultaneous merits briefs by October 24, 2016, and the appeal was argued orally on October 26, 2016."

On this basis, the SEP candidates explained that "that there remains sufficient time to decide the relatively straightforward legal issue involved in this appeal no later than August 28, 2020."

"Expediting appeals in ballot access and voting rights cases is necessary to secure the fundamental democratic and constitutional rights involved, since the elections timetable will early always be faster than the ordinary speed with which appeals are resolved," the candidates stated.

"If this case is decided after ballots are printed on August 28, 2020," then the SEP candidates "will be left without a remedy for violations of those rights."
San Antonio may be dealing with a spike in homicides while working to slow the spread of COVID-19, according to analysis by The Wall Street Journal.

The newspaper found large U.S. cites are experiencing a "sharp rise" in homicides this year, which could signal a "new public safety risk unleashed." Combined, the 50 largest cities reported a total of 3,612 homicides from January to June, an increase of 24 percent.

RELATED: Coronavirus updates: S.A. will use data to determine when, how kids go back to school

Locally, 71 homicides have been reported. During the same time frame last year, the San Antonio Police Department reported 53 homicides, according to the city website. San Antonio's increase, which is about 35 percent, puts the city behind Austin, Chicago and Fort Worth, which take up the top three spots, respectively, according to the newspaper.

While robberies seem to be on the decline, as many people are working and learning from home, San Antonio leads the largest cities in percent change from 2019. San Antonio's robberies increased by more than 20 percent. According to SAPD's numbers, 1,140 robberies have been reported since the start of the year. In 2019, that number was 926.

"Homicides and robberies are up nationwide and we cannot attribute it to anything in particular," the SAPD public information officer said.

The newspaper spoke to analysts who believe homicides are up because violent criminals are "emboldened by the sidelining of police, courts, schools and churches and an array of other social institutions by the reckoning with the police and the pandemic." Others said the increase might be evidence of a fraying of social order, due to institutions being turned "upside-down" during the pandemic.

Edward Glaesar, a Harvard University urban economist, told the newspaper if the numbers continue on the current trend it will be a "challenge for all of America."

Madalyn Mendoza covers news and puro pop culture for MySA.com | mmendoza@mysa.com | @maddyskye
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Travelers on buses poured through Port Authority on Thursday morning without being asked where they'd been while others breezed through Penn Station despite Mayor Bill de Blasio claiming his army of tracers were 'aggressively' tracking who was entering the city from COVID-19 hotspot states and enforcing a mandatory 14-day quarantine.

At a press conference on Thursday morning, de Blasio said: 'We do not want to fine people but if we have to we will this really matters that we get this quarantine right.

'It will be random, it will be moving but I think it will get the message across. What we're doing at the bus station, Penn Station, getting people to fill out those forms and then following up with them aggressively.'

But at Penn Station, Department of Health volunteers handed out the forms like flyers then let people walk out of the station without taking down their details. The travelers were asked if they'd come from out of state but no tickets were checked to ensure people were being honest and there was no one collecting completed forms before letting people leave the station.

At Port Authority, there were no volunteers to either hand out forms or collect them.

Baffled passengers approached a desk themselves to collect a form but then left the station without completing it or handing it back to anyone.

There was no one at the Holland Tunnel, which connects New Jersey and New York, either. On Wednesday night, sheriffs were seen stopping cars on the Goethals Bridge, which connects New Jersey and Staten Island, at random.

A man walks past tracing volunteers at Penn Station on Thursday morning after arriving in the city. It's unclear where he'd come from. The tracers asked if people had come from out of state and then handed out forms but there was no one collecting them afterwards

People at Penn Station walk past COVID-19 tracing volunteers on Thursday who had arrived on trains. No one was forced to fill out a form

Thirty-five states are currently on the quarantine list meaning if people enter New York, Connecticut or New Jersey from them, they have to quarantine

There was no one at the Port Authority checkpoint to make sure people were filling out the forms. Some people voluntarily took them but others did not

There were no Department of Health staff at the checkpoint on Thursday morning. Port Authority staff were baffled that no one had shown up

A man asks a Port Authority employee about having to fill out the COVID-19 form on Thursday morning. There was confusion because no one was there to make sure people were taking them much less filling them out and returning them to the state

There was no one checking cars at the Holland Tunnel, which connects New York City and New Jersey, on Thursday morning

Pictures taken by DailyMail.com show officers stationed at the Goethals Bridge toll plaza on Wednesday night but it's unclear what they asked the motorists they pulled over

The sheriff's department scanned plates and pulled people over on Wednesday evening but they did not give out forms

The police scanned plates at random then questioned the drivers before letting them go. It is unclear what questions they asked or if they took anyone's details - deputies at the scene refused to answer questions or allow motorists to be interviewed about it.

The hotspot states are; Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin.

The form that is being used has up until now only been forced on people on planes. It does not ask for an address if the person's final destination is not New York, and some travelers have anecdotally reported giving fake information once they get off flights from hot-spot cities like Miami once they arrive.

STATES ON THE LIST Alaska  Alabama  Arkansas  Arizona  California  Florida  Georgia  Iowa  Idaho  Illinois  Indiana  Kansas  Kentucky  Louisiana  Maryland  Minnesota  Missouri  Mississippi  Montana  North Carolina  North Dakota  Nebraska  New Mexico  Nevada  Ohio  Oklahoma  Puerto Rico  Rhode Island  South Carolina  Tennessee  Texas  Utah  Virginia  Washington  Wisconsin Advertisement

The tunnel and bridge checkpoints will be manned by members of the sheriff's department, but it's unclear what exactly they will ask when they stop a car, or if they will go beyond the questionnaire.

The questionnaire asks eight questions, including whether or not a person has been in one of the COVID-19 hotspot states recently.

It asks how the traveler is arriving in New York, giving a multiple choice answer, and for their flight details - including their seat number - if they've come by plane.

Crucially, when traveling by car, it asks if New York State is the traveler's final destination.

If the traveler answers that it is not, they are not required to give an address. If they answer that it is, they are.

It's unclear how that address will be checked when the person fills out the form and hands it back to law enforcement.

When completing it online, a person can enter false information to reach the end and be given a clearance that they do not need to quarantine.

It tells them to show that declaration to a compliance officer if asked.

Sheriff Joseph Fucito said the checks would be random, with every sixth or eight car being checked at tunnels and bridges.

Travelers at train stations, it seems, will not be contacted by police but will rather be stopped by members of the city's tracing corps.

On Wednesday, a member of that group said: 'Tomorrow, we'll be deploying our teams to stop travelers to ensure they've completed the form.

'If they haven't we have to complete it with them right then and there.

'If we can't get through to you on the phone, we'll deploy teams to knock on your door.'

But it's unclear what proof of address is required - if any.

'We're not going to be in every apartment,' de Blasio admitted on Wednesday.

He added that the checkpoints are designed to 'send a powerful message'.

'Even if we're not able to reach every single person it's going to get the message across,' he said.

This is the form that travelers are asked to complete when they enter the state. If they say that New York is not their final destination, they told they do not need to quarantine. They also don't have to give an address

If New York is the final destination, travelers have to give an address and their phone number and consent to 'daily texts'. It's unclear what those texts say but if they do not respond to them, the testing and tracing corps say they'll go to the person's address to check on them

The reaction was largely negative, with many saying the checkpoints were a breach of civil liberties.

Others demanded that de Blasio focus more on the escalating crime in the city - that is arguably keeping many of its wealthiest residents at bay.

His checkpoint announcement came as the governor begged wealthy New Yorkers to return to the city to save its tax base.

At a press conference on interview on Tuesday, he said of the wealthiest residents who have long left the city: 'They are in their Hamptons homes, or Hudson Valley or Connecticut.

'I talk to them literally every day. I say. "When are you coming back? Ill buy you a drink. Ill cook.

'Theyre not coming back right now. And you know what else theyre thinking, if I stay there, they pay a lower income tax because they dont pay the New York City surcharge.

'So, that would be a bad place if we had to go there,' he said.

It is not unusual for Manhattan to clear out for the month of August, when temperatures between the skyscrapers soar and send many fleeing to Long Island's beaches or further afield.

But this summer, with the ongoing lack of appeal in the city, the likelihood that people will come back in the fall is shrinking.

What is making matters worse are the increasing calls from other lawmakers to boost taxes on the city's highest earners to try to plug the $30billion deficit that was left by the pandemic.

Cuomo said he is resisting the idea, that will send the already transient group of taxpayers running for the hills.

After his announcement on Wednesday, de Blasio was with with a wave of criticism.
A Virginia mayor has been urged to resign after he allegedly wrote that Joe Biden has just announced Aunt Jemima as his VP pick, on his Facebook page.

Barry Presgraves, the mayor of Luray, Virginia, posted the comment on his Facebook page over the weekend, but swiftly deleted it after backlash from residents and local officials.

The post came as presumptive Democratic nominee for the 2020 presidential election, Joe Biden, is reportedly finalising his choice for his running mate, with several black women mooted as contenders, according to CNN.

Quaker Oats also announced earlier this year that it would retire the Aunt Jemima brand later in 2020, after acknowledging that its origins are based on a racial stereotype.

Earlier this week, in an email to Mr Presgraves, Luray councilwoman Leah Pence urged the mayor to resign, and wrote: The comment you posted has a type of humour that not been appropriate or funny in my lifetime or yours.

She added: While a resignation alone will not resolve the systemic subliminal racism that plagues our community, your resignation is imperative as we work towards ending racism in our community.

She added: You are accountable for your words and decisions as the leader of the town of Luray and your recent actions have caused me and many citizens to lose faith and confidence in your capacity to effectively and justly serve as mayor of the town of Luray.

According to local station WHSV3, councillor Ron Vickers added: Barry does not speak for the council and does not speak for me.

Mr Presgraves initially refused to apologise for the post, and told Page Valley News: I had no idea people would react the way they did. I think people have gone overboard on this....Its an election year.

However, councilman Joey Sours told the station that he spoke to Mr Presgraves, to encourage him to publicly apologise for sharing the meme, regardless of his intent due to the resultant impact, and to make every effort to rectify the situation.

He added: I care deeply for the town of Luray and its citizens and I care for the mayor whom Ive worked alongside for many years. Although the comments were not my own, I apologise to all who were hurt by them, the councilman added.

Mr Presgraves later apologised for his post, and wrote on his Facebook page: I posted a picture on 8-1-20, I am sorry if I hurt anyones feelings lesson learned. It was not my intent to hurt anyone. I took it to be humorous. Sorry!

Although he urged for Mr Presgraves to apologise, Mr Sours added that he believes the mayor should not be individually condemned for his language, and said doing so only cements divisiveness as it prevents a means for dialogue that can bring healing and closure to the situation.

Recommended Black women seize political focus as Biden set to name running mate

This one comment need not define the man nor our community. This is a time for forgiveness and grace  something each of us needs to both give and receive every day. This is something that we will get past, Mr Sours s statement read.

A protest has been organised for Saturday, where residents will meet outside the W Luray Recreation Centre to demand action is taken against Mr Presgraves, who announced earlier in the year that he will not be seeking reelection in November.

According to Mr Sours, the towns council will discuss the incident at their meeting on 10 August, but he confirmed they do not have the power to impeach the mayor.
Scientists behind a trial of coronavirus-sniffing dogs have issued a plea for worn T-shirts and socks from patients with tell-tale symptoms.

Researchers are attempting to train a team of six dogs to try and smell the deadly disease in a matter of seconds  even in people without symptoms.

But the test, involving three working cocker spaniels, a Labrador, a Labradoodle and a Labrador golden retriever cross, needs 'odour samples'.

Experts are now calling on people who have mild Covid-19 symptoms and are due to have a swab test or have been tested to help.

Volunteers will be asked to provide samples of breath and body odour by wearing a mask for three hours, and nylon socks and a T-shirt for 12 hours.

Claire Guest, chief executive of Medical Detection Dogs, added: 'It is vital that we train our dogs to detect the odour of Covid-19 as soon as possible.

'The latest travel disruptions further highlight the difference the dogs could make. Public support is essential in making this possible.

'Anyone who assists us by providing samples will be playing a part in creating a fast, effective and non-invasive diagnosis for the virus and safer spaces for us all.'

She added that the dogs  four of whom are called Furby, Asher, Bumper and Florin  could be trained in as little as six to eight weeks.

Dogs are known to have smell receptors which are 10,000 times more accurate than those belonging to humans.

A new 500,000 trial (pictured, Florin) is underway to find whether dogs can sniff out coronavirus and scientists are asking people with mild symptoms to participate

Researchers are training a team of medical detection dogs, three working cocker spaniels, a Labrador, a Labradoodle and a Labrador golden retriever cross (pictured, Bumper), to smell the deadly disease in 0.5 seconds

Scientists are seeking 'odour samples' from people in the north west to help with the trails and find whether dogs (pictured, Asher) can accurately pick up the scent of Covid-19, even in people who are asymptomatic

There could be huge implications if the dogs (pictured, Furby) an successfully smell out Covid-19, not just in medical settings but in other sectors of society too, with researchers estimating the animals could potentially screen up to 250 people an hour

They can detect odour concentrations as small as the equivalent of one teaspoon of sugar in two Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Studies have already shown they can pick up on 'volatile organic compounds', which are released from the early stages of many cancers.

In the UK, there are already charities which use dogs to try and detect cancer by smelling people's breath and to spot seizures in epilepsy patients.

HOW DO DOGS 'SNIFF OUT CORONAVIRUS'? Dogs are known to have smell receptors which are 10,000 times more accurate than those belonging to humans. Because of this they are able to pick up on certain smells which are released in sweat. For coronavirus detection, dogs are presented with some clothing worn by the person being tested which they then sniff. In theory, they are then able to determine whether or not that person has coronavirus. It has been claimed that they are up to 92 per cent accurate. Studies have already shown they can pick up on 'volatile organic compounds', which are released from the early stages of many cancers. In the UK, there are already charities which use dogs to try and detect cancer by smelling people's breath and to spot seizures in epilepsy patients. But evidence is beginning to show that they may also be useful in spotting Covid-19, which has killed 700,000 people worldwide. After sniffing 1,012 samples, German researchers reported that dogs they used had an accurate detection rate of around 94 per cent  with 157 correct positive identifications, 792 correct reflections of non-infected samples but 33 incorrect results. Professor Maren von Kockritz-Blickwede, who took part in the German research, said: 'We think that this works because the metabolic processes in the body of a diseased patient is completely changed. 'And we think that the dogs are able to detect a specific smell of the metabolic changes that occur in those patients.' While it is unclear exactly how dogs are able to detect the virus, it seems they are able to do so with 94 per cent accuracy. Advertisement

But evidence is beginning to show that they may also be useful in spotting Covid-19, which has killed 700,000 people worldwide.

Dubai International Airport has introduced the use of sniffer dogs who are capable of detecting coronavirus among passengers within minutes.

Officials say the dogs are 92 per cent accurate at spotting the illness, which can take days to cause any symptoms.

And last month German researchers trained an army of dogs to distinguish between samples of fluids from patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 and healthy donors.

The new trial in the UK  which will cost around 500,000  is being led by a team at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

People in the north west  where there has been a recent rise in cases  are being asked to contribute as the study is being done in collaboration with Durham University but it is open to anyone.

Researchers hope to collect 325 positive and 675 negative samples, in order to be able to fully test the dogs for accuracy.

Samples from NHS volunteers and their families are also being collected, according to the team.

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine researchers will then analyse the samples to identify compounds in odour that signify when someone is infected with Covid-19.

The samples will then be sent to the Medical Detection Dogs' training centre in Milton Keynes where the animals will undergo training to identify the virus samples.

Professor James Logan, project lead, said: 'If successful, this trial could revolutionise how we diagnose the virus.

'Rapid screening of high numbers of people, even if asymptomatic, will help return our lives back to some sort of normality.'

It is hoped that if the trial is successful the dogs can be used at UK airports to screen people arriving from abroad.

Ministers have reportedly already been in discussion with charities over rolling out armies of sniffer dogs in British airports.

The researchers estimate the animals could potentially screen up to 250 people an hour.

Professor Steve Lindsay, of Durham University  which is also involved in the study, said the dogs could be a 'game-changer'.

He said: 'We will then be able to scale-up the use of dogs at ports of entry to identify travellers entering the country with the virus.'

Professor Lindsay said this could be very important to help prevent a second wave of the epidemic, which experts fear may be inevitable.

German researchers who trained dogs to sniff out Covid-19 last week said they were 'amazed' at how quickly they could learn to spot samples from infected patients.
06.08.2020 LISTEN

The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), James Oppong-Boanuh has condemned the lynching of 90-year-old Akua Denteh at Kafaba in the Savannah Region.

Akua Denteh, about two weeks ago, was tortured and killed after she was accused of being a witch by a supposed priestess brought into the community to allegedly cleanse it.

The matter has generated nationwide condemnation with calls on the police to ensure that all those culpable are made to face the law.

During a visit to the Savannah Region, Mr. Oppong-Boanuh expressed worry over the incident and urged Ghanaians

The incident was something that was worrying. If you look at the age of the woman and what was done to her by her own relatives is a bit disheartening. Ghanaians in this age and times should not be doing that. Why is it that it is always the ladies that are being accused of witchcraft? We should always ensure that we protect our mothers and sisters.

So far, seven people are in police custody in connection with the incident.

Six of them have already been arraigned and charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

The other one is a 40-year-old priestess, Sherina Mohammed, who is alleged to have masterminded the lynching has been remanded into police custody.

Sherina Mohammed has admitted to being the woman in the viral video, but denied she led the lynching.

She is expected to reappear in court on 20th August 2020.

---citinewsroom
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - An attorney has said the city of Anchorage will take legal action against a local business for violating an order prohibiting indoor dining at restaurants and breweries during the coronavirus pandemic.

Anchorage attorney Kate Vogel said Wednesday that the city will seek an injunction in state court ordering Kriners Diner to stop indoor service and comply with the emergency order that went into effect Monday, The Anchorage Daily News reported.

This will be the first time a municipality takes a business to court for not following an order since the pandemic began in March.

The restaurant continued dine-in service this week after the order went into effect, and was given a stop-work order from the city to cease its dine-in operations Tuesday.

The injunction would allow the city to pursue additional fines while the court reiterates their obligations to obey, Vogel said. If Kriners Diner does not comply, the owners could be charged with contempt of court.

Mayor Ethan Berkowitz issued the order to limit the spread of COVID-19 as the number of confirmed cases have increased. The state reported another 36 confirmed cases in Anchorage on Wednesday.

Diner owner Andy Kriner was not immediately available for comment Wednesday.

During an interview Tuesday, he said he would continue to have dine-in service at his restaurant as long as he has money to pay the fines. The restaurant has already been fined $1,500 by the city  a $300 fine for the first day it remained open and $600 each day it stays open.

The Anchorage Assembly extended an emergency proclamation in the municipality in July that will last until Oct. 16, giving the mayor special powers during the pandemic, such as issuing emergency orders.

Most of the citys restaurants and bars are complying with the emergency order, but Vogel said the city is monitoring some they believe could potentially violate the order in the future.
Belarusian Authorities Cancel Opposition Campaigning Ahead Of Election

By RFE/RL's Belarus Service August 05, 2020

Belarusian authorities have again canceled campaign events by presidential contender Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya ahead of the August 9 election, claiming that repair work needed to be carried out where the political rallies were to be held.

In the city of Slutsk, located 100 kilometers south of the capital, Minsk, local authorities on August 4 said there was an "urgent" need for repair work at an event place and announced that a planned opposition rally was canceled.

Riot police and plainclothes officers then detained at least 17 people as hundreds of opposition supporters gathered for the political rally, according the Vyasna human rights center. Among those detained was the editor of a local news website.

Tsikhanouskaya was also forced to cancel a rally in the city of Salihorsk, scheduled for the evening of August 4 after the one in Slutsk.

Local authorities in Salihorsk, about 130 kilometers south of Minsk, brought excavators to dig up the ground at a stadium where the rally was to be held and told campaign organizers that the event was canceled.

Police then dispersed people who had come to the rally and arrested at least five people.

The day before, authorities in the city of Stolbtsy disrupted a meeting organized by Tikhanouskaya's campaign by driving construction equipment to the local stadium.

Analysts say the authorities can't cancel Tikhanouskaya's rallies because they are legal, but they can use construction and other pretexts as an excuse to disrupt campaign events and claim they are unauthorized.

President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's 26 years of authoritarian rule looks increasingly vulnerable ahead of the August 9 presidential election, although most analysts say he will likely win through a combination of fraud and repression against an energized opposition.

Tens of thousands of opposition supporters have attended daily rallies in recent weeks in support of Tsikhanouskaya, a 37-year-old political novice backed by disqualified presidential candidates.

The lead-up to the vote has been marred by dubious disqualifications and an unprecedented scale of detentions and other persecution against a backdrop of a pandemic and pro-democracy protests.

With about 6.8 million eligible voters, Belarus began early voting on August 4; it will continue through August 8.

However, most voters are expected to cast their ballots on August 9. The Central Election Commission said on August 5 that turnout on August 4 was just under 5 percent of all eligible voters.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/belarusian-authorities -invent-pretexts-to-cancel-opposition-campaigning -ahead-of-election/30767039.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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A Niagara resident who returned from an international trip is among eight new cases of COVID-19 reported in the region Wednesday.

Dr. Mustafa Hirji, Niagara Regions acting medical officer of health, said the travel case involved a person who went on an international vacation against federal government travel advice to a location where there is a significant amount of COVID-19 and got infected there.

Its a reminder of why those travel advisories are in place and why the government is discouraging any foreign travel that isnt essential because there is significant risk of COVID-19. In most other countries its greater than what it is here, Hirji said, declining to identify the country visited but confirming it wasnt the United States.

Hirji said the person did isolate when home, so public health does not believe the case will lead to any significant risks to the public in Niagara.

It is an example of why we are advising that people dont travel internationally this year, that you keep your summer vacation plans to within Canada where things are relatively safer.

Of the other seven new cases, five are from contacts with previously known cases and two are still being investigated as public health is having trouble getting in touch with the individuals. One chose not to speak with the health agency.

The eight new cases in one day is a jump from only two new cases on Tuesday, one on Monday and none Saturday and Sunday.

Hirji had said Tuesday he was concerned the recent low case numbers didnt reflect the reality of what is happening in the region and that people with mild symptoms may not have been getting tested over the long weekend.

Niagara Health, which runs the testing centres, did see fewer patients on the long weekend than in the days leading up to it.

The hospital system reported 523 patients were seen on Wednesday, July 29, and more than 400 patients each on the Thursday and Friday, but the numbers were down to 335 and 327 on Saturday and Sunday. The hospitals testing centres were closed for the civic holiday. On Tuesday, patient testing numbers were back up to 446.

Hirji said Wednesday that after a few days of new case numbers being too low, the region is seeing a balancing out. He said eight cases is a little higher than it should be, but is getting closer to the average of what is probably Niagaras baseline of about four to five new cases on average day.

That baseline is an increase from a few weeks ago when Niagara was closer to about two cases a day.

Fortunately, it doesnt seem to be rapidly rising, it does seem to be levelling off a bit, Hirji said.

I think its really critical that we keep up with all of those personal behaviours that are going to keep it levelled off and, hopefully, maybe even start trending back down. COVID-19 isnt gone.

Hirji said people need to remain vigilant with washing their hands frequently, keeping two metres distance, wearing face coverings indoors and outdoors if they cant keep that distance, and always being mindful of their health. If they do get sick, he said they need to stay home and book a test.

The number of active cases in the region didnt change Wednesday. While there were eight new cases, eight other people recovered from the virus.

The total number of cases in Niagara from the start of the pandemic is 877, with 755 recovered and at least 64 deaths.
An environmentalist has issued a warning regarding the threat of plastic PPE to the environment, saying that evidence has been found of PPE actually sinking below the ocean surface.

Emily Stevenson, a 23-year-old marine biologist, runs a project called Beach Guardian with her father, Rob.

Since launching the initiative in 2017, she and her father have organised more than 200 community litter-picks, with more than 6,000 volunteers taking part to help collect single-use plastic from the ocean.

In a recent video that Stevenson shared online, she was filmed collecting PPE, including face masks and gloves, from the ocean.

The environmental campaigner also revealed that during a recent one-hour litter pick in Cornwall, she found 171 pieces of PPE.

On a previous occasion when collecting litter on the same route, Stevenson found just six pieces of plastic litter.

Though this may be a timely issue now, its unfortunately not one that is going to go away any time soon either, she said.

Weve already found evidence of PPE actually sinking below the ocean surface. This means that there could be a totally unaccounted for concentration of PPE pollution on the seafloor, which can remain as dormant debris for centuries.

Stevenson explained that once PPE reaches the seafloor, it smothers any biological structures such as important Sea Fran beds in the UK, or coral reefs further afield.

Also, this debris entails a plasticising effect when on the seafloor  potentially inhibiting gas exchange between the water column and sediment, she added.

(Beach Guardian / SWNS.COM (Beach Guardian / SWNS.COM)

The marine biologist said that during a recent litter-pick along the Camel Estuary in Cornwall, they discovered a face mask in the water within the first five minutes.

This has been the first time I have been legitimately frightened by PPE pollution, she said.

PPE is in all of our lives; we use it or see it every day. But it is for this very reason that we can all do something about it.

According to research cited by Stevenson, if every person in the UK were to wear a single-use face mask every day for a year, this would create an additional 57,000 tonnes of hard-to-recycle plastic and an extra 66,000 tonnes of contaminated PPE waste.

In July, researchers from Royal Holloway, University of London warned that the River Thames had become severely polluted with plastic, posing a threat to wildlife and the health of members of the public.

They expressed their concern that the increased use of single-use plastic items, and the inappropriate disposal of such items, including masks and gloves, along with plastic-containing cleaning products, during the current Covid-19 pandemic, may well exacerbate this problem.

(Beach Guardian / SWNS.COM (Beach Guardian / SWNS.COM)

In April, conservationists warned that discarded face masks and gloves worn during the coronavirus pandemic were posing a rising threat to ocean life.

A month later, pieces of PPE found washed up off the French coast increased concerns over the detrimental impact of irresponsibly disposed PPE on the environment.
IMAGE: Business as usual. Sort of. A June 26, 2020 snapshot from the Sofitel Legend Metropole, Hanoi, which was once the scene of much more hectic activity during the February 2019 Donald Trump-Kim Jong Un summit. Photograph: Kham/Reuters
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu criticises Berlin during visit to Libyan capital, Tripoli, for talks with GNA.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has criticised Germany for joining a European Union marine mission to supervise the Libyan arms embargo, calling it a wrong step.

On Tuesday, Germany dispatched a frigate carrying 250 soldiers for a five-month mission as part of the EUs Irini mission to enforce a United Nations arms embargo on Libya.

In January, Germany hosted an international conference in Berlin where a number of countries agreed to uphold the weapons embargo. This, however, has been repeatedly violated.

Irini is a biased operation  Germany is the host of the Berlin conference; therefore it needs to be neutral and objective, Cavusoglu told Turkish state news agency Anadolu in the Libyan capital of Tripoli on Thursday.

If it [Germany] takes part in a biased operation, it will lose its impartiality, he added.

Irini, launched in May, is tasked with preventing the flow of weapons into war-torn Libya as well as gathering information on illegal oil exports from the country and disrupting people smuggling in the region.

The Hamburg frigate set sail for the Mediterranean from the port city of Wilhelmshaven on Tuesday [File: Stringer/AFP]

Oil-rich Libya was plunged into chaos when a NATO-backed uprising in 2011 overthrew longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi, who was later killed. The country has since split between rival east- and west-based administrations, each backed by militias and foreign governments.

While the Tripoli-based and internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) is supported by Turkey, eastern-based renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar is backed by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Russia.

Haftar launched an offensive last year to seize Tripoli, but his 14-month campaign collapsed last month when the GNA forces, with Turkish support, gained the upper hand, driving his forces from the outskirts of Tripoli and other western towns.

The GNAs military success depended partly on Turkish-supplied drones that pushed back Haftars self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) from Libyas skies.

In recent weeks, the GNA forces have pressed towards the strategic city of Sirte, the birthplace of Gaddafi located 450km (280 miles) east of Tripoli. The GNA has pledged to retake the coastal city along with the inland al-Jufra airbase.

Seizing Sirte would open the door for the GNAs forces to advance even further eastward and potentially take vital oil installations, terminals and fields now under Haftars control.

Amid rising tensions, neighbouring Egypt has threatened to send troops into Libya if the Turkish-backed GNA forces try to seize Sirte. Last week, the Egyptian parliament gave a green light for possible military intervention, a potential major escalation that would further destabilise Libya.

Cavusoglu, along with his Maltese counterpart Evarist Bartolo, held talks on Thursday with the GNA Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj. The three discussed the latest developments in the Libya crisis and steps for a political solution, Anadolu reported.

Even if there is no officially declared ceasefire, calm reigns on the ground for now, Cavusoglu told reporters after the meeting. But Libyas problem persists, he added.

A durable ceasefire should mean that the GNA, Libyas legitimate government, is able to spread its control to the east of Tripoli, in areas currently held by Khalifa Haftars forces, Cavusoglu said.

Haftar, he added, still does not believe in a political solution and can attack  Tripoli any time.
A new poll has found that 84 per cent of Americans blame the media for creating corrosive political divisions in the country.

The Knight Foundation/Gallup poll reveals that 86 per cent of respondents say they see a great deal or a fair amount of political bias in the media. This compares to 62 per cent who felt the same way back in 2007.

As expected given the medias left-wing prejudice, Democrats are less concerned than Republicans about media bias, with only 22 per cent having an unfavorable view of the press compared to 75 per cent of Republicans.

Americans blame the media for political divisions, but they also see the potential for the media to heal these divides, reports the Knight Foundation. Eighty-four percent of Americans say the media is to blame for political division in this country. Still, 84% also say the media can serve as a healing force.

The survey also found that 54 per cent believe fake news is reported deliberately while 74 per cent believe media owners are influencing news coverage.

Most Americans have lost confidence in the media to deliver the news objectively, Knight Foundation Senior Vice President Sam Gill said. This is corrosive for our democracy.

As we highlighted yesterday, numerous people who work within the mainstream media are now resigning due to the industrys flagrant bias and corrosive impact on society.

A veteran TV personality admitted to MSNBC producer Ariana Pekary, We are a cancer and there is no cure, adding, But if you could find a cure, it would change the world.

Pekary herself resigned because she said that the media does everything to block diversity of thought while promoting hysterical fringe voices for ratings.

New York Times columnist Bari Weiss also resigned last month, asserting she was smeared by her own colleagues as a racist and a Nazi for daring to engage in wrongthink by not echoing fringe social justice rhetoric.
India-Sri Lanka bonhomie on full display as PM congratulates Rajapaksa after landslide win in polls

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Aug 06: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday congratulated his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa on his party's performance in the parliamentary elections, with early trends showing that it was headed for a landslide win.

Modi also commended the government and the electoral institutions of Sri Lanka for effectively organising the elections despite the constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic, a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said.

China did not fund my elections: Rajapaksha

He also appreciated the Sri Lankan people for their enthusiastic participation in the elections, and said this reflected the strong democratic values shared by both countries. Sri Lanka's powerful Rajapaksa family-run Sri Lanka People's Party (SLPP) appeared to be heading for a landslide win in the country's twice-postponed parliamentary election, according to early results announced on Thursday.

Sushant death probe: CBI registers FIR against Rhea, others | Oneindia News

Modi noted that the incoming results of the elections indicate an impressive electoral performance by the SLPP, and conveyed his congratulations and best wishes to Rajapaksa, the statement said. In a tweet, Modi said: "It was a pleasure to speak to you. Once again, many congratulations. We will work together to further advance all areas of bilateral cooperation and to take our special ties to ever newer heights."

Rajapaksa also thanked Modi on Twitter for the congratulatory phone call. "With the strong support of the people of Sri Lanka, I look forward to working with you closely to further enhance the long-standing cooperation between our two countries," Rajapaksa said.

"Sri Lanka and India are friends and relations," he said.

Voting begins in Sri Lankas parliamentary election

Recalling their cordial and fruitful previous interactions, the two leaders reiterated their shared commitment to strengthen the age-old and multi-dimensional India-Sri Lanka relationship, the statement said. They stressed the significance of early progress in all spheres of bilateral cooperation.

Modi informed Rajapaksa about the establishment of an international airport in the Buddhist pilgrimage city of Kushinagar in India, and said the city looked forward to welcoming visitors from Sri Lanka at an early date. The leaders also agreed to remain in close touch as both countries address the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and resolved to take bilateral relations to newer heights in the coming days.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, August 6, 2020, 22:51 [IST]
One Frenchman, architect Jean-Marc Bonfils, has died while a further 24 French people were injured in Tuesday's massive warehouse explosion in Beirut, French government ministers have said.

Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot announced Bonfils's death in a tweet. Junior foreign affairs minister Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne added on Thursday that, of those injured, three had serious injuries.

French President Emmanuel Macron is due to visit Beirut on Thursday.

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SHANGHAI and DUNDALK, Ireland, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- WuXi Vaccines, a global leading company with world-class vaccine contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) capabilities, is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Jian Dong as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). WuXi Vaccines is a joint venture established between WuXi Biologics and Shanghai-based Hile Bio-Technology.

"We are delighted to announce Jian's new appointment. He is a highly regarded leader with over 30 years of bio-pharmaceutical experience, including vaccine production, process development, as well as the design, construction, qualification and operation management of cGMP manufacturing facilities," said Dr. Chris Chen, Chairman of WuXi Vaccines, "We are confident that Jian will lead the company to establish a global high-quality system with outstanding vaccine CDMO capabilities. With a vision to accelerate and transform vaccine development and production, WuXi Vaccines will make substantial contributions to expedite vaccine development and ensure a robust supply chain."

"I am excited for the opportunity to lead WuXi Vaccines. By leveraging our robust capacities and state-of-the-art technologies, the company will further increase its unique presence in the vaccine industry to enable global partners and benefit patients worldwide." Commented Mr. Jian Dong.

Mr. Jian Dong joined WuXi Biologics in 2014, and had been responsible for global biomanufacturing, global engineering, and the overall operations of Wuxi site since 2015. Under the excellent leadership of Mr. Jian Dong, Wuxi site became the first GMP biologics Drug Substance (DS) and Drug Product (DP) facilities in China certified by both the US FDA and EMA. Prior to WuXi Biologics, Mr. Jian Dong spent decades in various roles with increasing responsibilities at Eli Lilly & Co. in the US, Shanghai United Cell Biotechnology and Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products Co., Ltd. With extensive experience in vaccine manufacturing and facility qualification, he had made significant contributions to the tech transfer and large scale commercial production of recombinant hepatitis B vaccine in China.

In February, WuXi Vaccines completed modular lab installation of its vaccine manufacturing facility in Ireland, which represents a great milestone since the announcement of 240 million USD investment last November. With smooth progress made in the site construction, this integrated vaccine manufacturing facility is expected to be operational in 2021.

About WuXi Vaccines

WuXi Vaccines is a joint venture established between WuXi Biologics (stock code: 2269.HK) and Shanghai-based Hile Bio-Technology (stock code: 603718.SH). The business model of WuXi Vaccines is to build world-class integrated platforms and Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) model to enable global companies to develop and manufacture vaccines.
The family of a man who was stabbed to death in February outside of a Chicago bar is suing the bar and the man charged in the killing, claiming the slain man was targeted because he was gay and is accusing the bar of not doing enough to protect him.

Thomas Tansey, a Marine Corps veteran, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of 23-year-old Kenneth Paterimos, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Witnesses told police that Tansey began arguing with Paterinos and that they had to be separated after coming to blows at Richards Bar, a dive bar in the River West neighborhood. Paterimos friends and family members contend that Tansey was making homophobic remarks and was later kicked out of the bar.

Tanseys attorney argues that his client was defending himself when he stabbed Paterimos with a boxcutter outside the bar.

The familys attorney, John Corbett, said he hopes the killing will perhaps bringing some changes that will put a stop to this senseless violence directed toward LGBTQ people.

The wrongful death suit, filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County, also alleges that the bar failed to provide the necessary personnel to protect against the misconduct of patrons.

No trial date has been set.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits Illinois
A clergyman's ex-wife who waged an obsessive campaign against her former husband has escaped being jailed.

A high court judge ruled that locking up Jean Gibbs, 60, would not stop her false claims against Methodist minister Charles Gibbs that he had abused their son.

But Mrs Justice Lieven ordered the sale of Gibbs house so that her former husband, 70, can raise money to pay his legal bills.

A high court judge ruled that locking up Jean Gibbs (pictured), 60, would not stop her false claims against Methodist minister Charles Gibbs that he had abused their son

Mr Gibbs, who now lives on the Isles of Scilly, said his ex-wife had repeatedly accused him of abusing their now grown-up son.

She had breached judges orders not to make such claims and he wanted her jailed for contempt.

She had previously been ordered by courts to halt her bid to destroy the reputation of the Charlie Gibbs (pictured) and force him out of his job

Mrs Justice Lieven, who analysed the case at hearings in the Family Division of the High Court in London, has ruled in his favour.

But she concluded that jailing Gibbs, of Attleborough, Norfolk, would not halt the vendetta.

Another judge imposed a nine-month jail term, following an earlier application by Mr Gibbs, three years ago.

Gibbs had spent four-and-a-half months in jail and had recommenced sending emails as soon as she came out.

The judge said she had decided that the best way to protect Mr Gibbs was to publish a ruling which showed the truth.

Gibbs had publicised the most lurid allegations to as wide an audience as possible, said the judge.

This had a devastating impact on Mr Gibbs quality of life and his ministry.

Mr Gibbs applied to commit his ex-wife to prison for breaching two orders of the court that she should not publish allegations that he had abused their son 20 years ago, said Mr Justice Lieven in her ruling, which was published yesterday.

The judge added: I have come to the clear conclusion that Mrs Gibbs allegations are not true.

Reverend Charlie Gibbs (pictured) believed his ex-wife had succeeded in wrecking his career

'She frequently alleges that various people have believed her when on examination this is not true.

Mrs Justice Lieven said jailing Gibbs would not persuade her to end the campaign.

She added: I therefore consider the more effective remedy is for me to publish a full and detailed judgment, so that Mr Gibbs can distribute this to anyone who has been sent Mrs Gibbs allegations.

She added: I have also ordered the sale of Mrs Gibbs house to pay the costs of the various proceedings Mr Gibbs has been forced to bring.
- A pretty lady in Ghana named Sherifatu gave up on life after being unable to afford to stay on an oxygen mask at hospital

- The lady, who has one child, was suffering from Lupus, a systemic disease that can affect the lungs

- After hearing of her sad decision, a movement led by the Crime Check Foundation helped save Sherifatu's life by procuring the expensive equipment for her

Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in

Sherifatu, a beautiful Ghanaian lady who was hospitalised and put on oxygen, could not afford the hospital bills any longer but was helped by benevolent Ghanaians.

According to the Crime Check Foundation who led the movement to seek help for the mother of one, she had been put on oxygen for six weeks at the hospital when she decided to simply give up and go home.

Knowing that Sherifatu was suffering from Lupus, the doctors refused to allow her to go home without any breathing assistance because it would not end well.

Source: Facebook, Crime Check Foundation

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Meet the dad, mom and son in Ghana who all live with albinism

See initial post before procurement of the equipment:

After hearing of her condition, the Crime Check Foundation led by Ibrahim Oppong Kwarteng was able to provide the expensive equipment with funding from good Samaritans in Ghana.

READ ALSO: Meet stunning Ghanaian nurse whose black skin has been taken over by vitiligo

See post when the equipment was delivered:

After providing the breathing assistance to Sherifatu in her home, she could not be more thankful to Ghanaians for their immense assistance.

She made a video of her beaming with smiles and seeking God's blessings on anyone who supported her when all she thought would happen to her was negative.

READ ALSO: Lady graduates with 1st class after dad denied her varsity education because she's female

Watch the exciting video below:

Meanwhile, YEN.com.gh also reported that a 78-year-old woman identified as Mama Rose Adjei who picks water sachets and sells them for a living has been pleasantly surprised with GHc1,000 by Crime Check Foundation's Ibrahim Oppong Kwarteng.

The story was shared on the official Facebook page of the Crime Check Foundation where it was revealed that the old woman had no children to take care of her.

It is indicated that the 78-year-old had a child who could have supported her, but the child has not been seen for many years.

Enjoy reading our stories? Download YEN's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Ghana news!

Faces of Ghana: 2 brothers paving roads in Ghana with granite and cobblestones:

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Source: YEN.com.gh
Several hours later, Twitter announced that it had frozen the presidents campaign account, @TeamTrump, for a post linking to the video. The campaign was, a spokesman said, in violation of the Twitter Rules on Covid-19 misinformation. At issue was the statement made by Mr. Trump denying established scientific facts about the virus.

The post was removed a short time later and the account was unlocked.

But both measures represented a turning point in the relationship that major social media companies have with Mr. Trump, who has used their platforms to advance his political aims and to harness energy from supporters, but who has never felt compelled to adhere to their rules.

Mr. Trumps conservative allies have repeatedly complained that such rules are arbitrarily enforced. But in the pandemic era, in which misinformation about the virus has been hard to stamp out, tech companies have gotten somewhat more serious about enforcement.

To be sure, freezing the campaign Twitter account is nowhere near the wound to Mr. Trump that taking action against his personal feed would be. But after months of stasis, social media firms appear to be showing the president, the White House and his political aides that their pliability goes only so far.

In another move, Facebook said on Thursday that it was banning ads from a pro-Trump group, the Committee to Defend the President, for an unspecified time period.

As a result of the Committee to Defend the Presidents repeated sharing of content determined by third-party fact checkers to be false, they will not be permitted to advertise for a period of time on our platform, Andy Stone, a spokesman for Facebook, said.

The pro-Trump group has spent over $300,000 on Facebook ads since 2018. Its chairman, Ted Harvey, responded on Thursday by saying that Facebook was determined to restrict free speech and attack those who dare to support President Trump.
A Sydney man who was grossly intoxicated with multiple substances when he stabbed his frail 'drug buddy' more than 50 times has been found guilty of murder.

Luke Close, 33, had pleaded not guilty to murdering Garry Welsh, 63, at his Nowra unit in February 2018, but guilty to his manslaughter although he had no memory of the stabbing.

The Crown did not accept the plea and on Thursday, after a NSW Supreme Court judge-alone trial, Justice Richard Button found him guilty of the more serious charge.

A Sydney man who was grossly intoxicated with multiple substances when he stabbed his frail 'drug buddy' more than 50 times has been found guilty of murder at the NSW Supreme Court

Mr Welsh sustained 52 stab wounds, multiple cuts, from his neck to his toes, as well as blunt force injuries to his torso.

The trial issue related to Close's intoxication and whether, when he stabbed Mr Welsh, he intended at the least to cause him really serious physical harm.

Mr Welsh was a frail man with drug problems and medical conditions, the most serious of which was emphysema.

He had lived alone for many years in a small apartment but often had visitors.

'Some purported friends and acquaintances were in truth persons - many of them burdened by their own problems with prohibited drugs or alcohol or both - who took advantage of him in various ways,' the judge said.

He accepted that Close was grossly intoxicated with alcohol and various drugs before, during and after the homicide and that the fatal acts had 'a flavour of frenzy to them'.

He also accepted that Close later showed signs of emotional regression and irrationality; and that he is 'sincerely amnesic' with regard to the whole tragic event.

'Even so, I am compelled to the firm opinion that his mind was engaged with what he was doing,' Justice Button said.

Close had forcefully inserted a knife or knives into 'a frail old man, who must have been bleeding copiously as a result' and also inflicted many other injuries by violence.

'In my opinion, the mental element of an intention to cause, at the least, really serious physical injury has been established beyond reasonable doubt.'

Close's partner had referred to the men as being 'drug buddies' and said Close himself had a serious addiction which included using ice.

The evidence established that in the lead-up to the stabbing he was agitated and angry, the judge said.

'Whilst it is true that the accused had no reason to possess ill feeling against the deceased, and that they were, if anything, friends, I think that the accused was very on edge and easily upset by the time he arrived at the home of the deceased.'

His behaviour afterwards had been bizarre, in that he drew attention to himself by screeching, damaging cars, and proceeding up and down the street.

'Even so, in my opinion, there are many signs of the engagement of the mind of the accused with the world around him, very shortly after the homicide.'

They included his demanding a neighbour silence her dog, spitting in the face of another neighbour who confronted him and landing punches to the man's torso.

Close will face a sentence hearing on October 23.
Rule of Law and Security Program Specialist, Port au Prince

Organization: UNDP - United Nations Development Programme

Country: Haiti

City: Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Office: UNDP Haiti

Grade: P-4

Closing date: Tuesday, 18 August 2020

Job ID: 32059

Practice Area - Job Family: Democratic Governance - RULE OF LAW

Vacancy End Date: (Midnight New York, USA) 18/08/2020

Duty Station: Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Education & Work Experience: I-Masters Level Degree - 7 year(s) experience

Languages: French

English

Grade: P4

Vacancy Type: FTA International

Posting Type: External

Bureau: Latin America & the Caribbean

Contract Duration: 1 Year with possibility for extension

Background

The UNDP Haiti Country Programme 2017-2021 focuses on three mutually reinforcing areas of cooperation: democratic governance and the rule of law; poverty reduction; and resilience. This programme is in line with the national priorities as set out in the 2012-2030 Haiti Strategic Development Plan, the 2018-2021 United Nations Development Assistance Framework and the UNDP Strategic Plan. It aims to support the Government of Haiti in its long-term approach to sustainable development, emphasizing the need for rapid progress towards the achievement of national goals for Goal 16, so as to build on progress towards the achievement of other sustainable development goals. In recent years, steps have been taken to strengthen the rule of law in Haiti. Despite these efforts, judicial institutions continue to be weak and lack independence. Their capacity needs to be strengthened, especially with regard to supporting planning and budgeting processes. The Haitian National Police, although having made significant progress, particularly with the adoption of a new strategic plan, still needs support to ensure its professionalization and this in order to secure all Haitians in compliance with standards and human rights standards. For its part, Haitian civil society, despite being very dynamic and committed, continues to lack coordinated structure and has difficulty responding to the problem of community violence, particularly against women. UNDP has been a main actor in support to the rule of law sector over the past 15 years. In close coordination with BINUH (Bureau Integre des Nations Unies en Haiti), UNDP providestechnical and financial assistance to Haiti on justice, police and prison related activities and leads the Rule of Law working group for technical and financial partners as well as the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) Outcome on Governance and Rule of Law. Since 2016, UNDP has implemented a Programme to strengthen the Rule of Law in Haiti with the participation of MINUSTAH/MINUJUSTH/BINUH, UNICEF and UN Women. The Programme was designed to bring coherence to UN assistance and to pool efforts and resourcesin the rule of law area and aims to support the development of institutions that are more accountable and responsive to the needs of all Haitians. This includes, on the one hand, an independent justice system and a more professional police, and on the other hand, an increasingly resilient Haitian civil society through inclusive, transparent and respectful human rights institutions. With the current context of a shift in the configuration of the UN presence in Haiti with the end of MINUJUSTHs mandate and the start of the new political mission (BINUH), UNDP will be strengthening its role in the Rule of Law sector, implying addressing new challenges, deepening partnerships and mobilizing financial resources.

In view of the above and in order to reinforce UNDPs strong partnership with the Government of Haiti in advancing the rule of law, security, human rights (ROLSHR), the UNDP country office in Haiti is looking for a Rule of Law and Security Programme Specialist. The Programme Specialist is a highly qualified professional with specialized technical expertise, excellent analytical and management skills in the Rule of Law, Security and Human Rights domain. S/he will provide strategic engagement, programme development and implementation as well as technical guidance on ROLSHR issues especially community security and access to justice. The applicant will have experience in working on ROLSHR issues within the context of stabilization as well as a global understanding of UNDP rule of law programming in development settings.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the authority of the Deputy Resident Representative and through the direct supervision of the Head of the Governance and Rule of Law Unit, the successful applicant will assume the following responsibilities:

Programme management and programmatic quality insurance:

Lead the Rule of Law team in strategic engagement and programme development, planning, and implementation to ensure a Rule of Law programme portfolio, in line with UNDP Haitis Country Programme Document and responsive to changes in the country context;

Ensure the overall management of the Rule of Law programme portfolio including financial, administrative and human resources aspects;

Taking into good practices and lessons learnt, identify key policy/programmatic gaps and entry points/opportunities for consideration by UNDP;

Initiate, conceptualize and formulate position papers, programmatic proposals and concepts for internal and external discussions within UNDP and with partners and other stakeholders, oversee overall workplans and budgets for all activities in the programme portfolio and the continuous monitoring of workplans;

Ensure programme implementation in line with UNDP policies and procedures, including financial accountability, quality assurance, internal reporting and reporting to donors;

Ensure timely and adequate reporting against plans, including timely and articulate progress reports;

Ensure regular monitoring and evaluation, including but not limited to regular field visits, preparation of and participation in Project Board and/or Steering Committee meetings;

Ensure coherence and identify stronger synergies and joint programming and implementation modalities across CO projects (e.g. poverty reduction, resilience and broader governance issues);

Contribute to a culture of knowledge sharing and learning by actively sharing experiences and information with all UNDP projects in the country;

Ensure the integration of cross-cutting issues, such as gender, youth, peace building, and human rights, and link to global policy discourses on rule of law including in relation to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, sustaining peace and on the humanitarian-development nexus.

Partnership, resource mobilization:

Ensure strong partnership and collaboration with UN agencies, funds and programmes, including BINUH and other financial and technical partners involved in the Rule of Law sector;

Provide strong leadership and an overall strategic vision with a view to building national capacities, strengthening Rule of Law to support the overarching peace-building objective of the UN, in close coordination with BINUH;

Ensure sufficient resource mobilization for the programme portfolio in close consultation with Senior Management and is co-responsible for reaching the annual resource mobilization targets;

Liaise regularly and forges close linkages with other UN agencies, funds and programmes as well as other international and national stakeholders concerned with or providing assistance on Rule of Law issues in Haiti;

Identify opportunities for collaboration within the UN system as well as with relevant multilateral and bilateral organization within the area of work;

Ensure high-quality and timely reporting to donors and other partners involved in the programme;

Contribute to the harnessing of effective partnerships and competitive selection of partners for implementation of UNDP projects.

Advocacy, representation and communication:

Promote UNDPs mandate and corporate policy and provides high-level policy advice to government and other partners;

Advocate for UNDP Rule of Law work and represents, where appropriate, UNDP Haiti with national authorities, the Mission and the UNCT, the donor community, and international financial institutions;

Promote Rule of Law results, ensuring appropriate levels of communication, visibility and public awareness on results and ongoing activities;

Represent UNDP in coordination bodies of relevant thematic areas and working groups such as the financial and technical partners group on Rule of Law and the relevant UNDAF outcome group, as designated by the Head of Unit;

Provide policy advice to UNDP Senior Management in Haiti, government counterparts, donors and other partners on issues related to Rule of Law;

Connect to knowledge networks within UNDP, including peers in Crisis Bureau and Regional Hubs;

Represent UNDP, as requested by the Resident Representative, the Deputy Resident Representative and the Head of Unit.

Competencies

CORE

Innovation: Level 5: Creates new and relevant ideas and leads others to implement them

Leadership: Level 5: Plans and acts transparently, actively works to remove barriers

People Management: Level 5: Models high professional standards and motivates excellence in others

Communication: Level 5: Gains trust of peers, partners, clients by presenting complex concepts in practical terms to others

Delivery: Level 5: Critically assesses value and relevance of existing policy / practice and contributes to enhanced delivery of products, services, and innovative solutions

TECHNICAL

Rule of Law, Justice and Security: Level 5: Originate: Catalyzes new ideas, methods, and applications to pave a path for innovation and continuous improvement in professional area of expertise

UN System Coordination: Level 5: Originate: Catalyzes new ideas, methods, and applications to pave a path for innovation and continuous improvement in professional area of expertise

Project and Programme Management: Level 5:Originate: Catalyzes new ideas, methods, and applications to pave a path for innovation and continuous improvement in professional area of expertise

Partnerships: Level 6: Integrate & Empower: Leads integral work of teams utilizing expertise, vision, problem-solving capability, and collaborative energy in professional area of expertise

Knowledge Management: Level 5: Originate: Catalyzes new ideas, methods, and applications to pave a path for innovation and continuous improvement in professional area of expertise

Resource Mobilization: Level 5: Originate: Catalyzes new ideas, methods, and applications to pave a path for innovation and continuous improvement in professional area of expertise

Coordination: Level 5: Originate: Catalyzes new ideas, methods, and applications to pave a path for innovation and continuous improvement in professional area of expertise

Trends and emerging areas analytics: Level 5: Originate: Catalyzes new ideas, methods, and applications to pave a path for innovation and continuous improvement in professional area of expertise

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Advanced university degree (Masters or equivalent) preferably in law, political science, international studies, development studies or a related field.

Experience:

A minimum of 7 years of professional international work experience in multilateral or non-governmental with increasing level of responsibility;

Experience working in developing country settings is required and experience in crisis/politically complex contexts is an asset;

Proven experience of at least 5 years in developing Rule of Law strategies and supervising development programmes aimed at developing national capacities for Rule of Law, Justice and Security;

Proven experience in programme management (including finance, administration, reporting and human resources);

Proven relevant experiences with UNDP in programme management and technical advisory functions;

Proven experience in networking and partnership skill (ability to mobilize support from a wide range of partners - donors, public, private, academic, civil society, business community leaders) ;

Proven successful experiences on resource mobilization;

Solid knowledge of gender-based and human rights-based approaches to programming;

Language Requirements:

Written and spoken fluency in French is mandatory.

Written and spoken fluency in English is a strong asset.

Knowledge of additional UN languages is desirable but not required.

Disclaimer

Important information for US Permanent Residents (Green Card holders)

Under US immigration law, acceptance of a staff position with UNDP, an international organization, may have significant implications for US Permanent Residents. UNDP advises applicants for all professional level posts that they must relinquish their US Permanent Resident status and accept a G-4 visa, or have submitted a valid application for US citizenship prior to commencement of employment.

UNDP is not in a position to provide advice or assistance on applying for US citizenship and therefore applicants are advised to seek the advice of competent immigration lawyers regarding any applications.

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The Centre Thursday told the that the authority has withdrawn look out notices against some foreigners, who have challenged in the apex court the government's orders blacklisting several citizens of 35 countries for alleged involvement in activities.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told a bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari that petitioners who are before the apex court would be "free to leave" India subject to any other pending proceedings including order passed by the court requiring their presence.

"Solicitor General has also, in all fairness, submitted that if the concerned petitioners tender apology, as envisaged by the Madras High Court in the concerned criminal case, the said petitioners can be permitted to leave India despite the pendency of the criminal case but subject to such orders that may be passed by the concerned trial court," the bench said in its order.

The bench was informed that 10 petitioners before the top court have decided to contest the criminal cases pending against them for alleged violation of visa norms and they are not willing to exercise the option of plea bargaining.

The bench ordered transfer of cases pending against them in different trial courts in Delhi to the court of chief metropolitan magistrate, South-East Delhi, Saket district court here and said that these matters be disposed of expeditiously, preferably within eight weeks from today.

The apex court passed the order while hearing the petitions filed by 34 foreigners who have challenged the Centre's orders blacklisting more than 2,700 citizens of 35 countries from travelling to India for 10 years for alleged involvement in activities.

The bench noted in its order that the solicitor general, "on instructions, submits that the look out notices issued against the petitioner(s) before this court stand withdrawn. In other words, the concerned petitioner(s) will be free to leave India subject to any other pending proceedings including order passed by the court requiring his/her presence in the stated proceedings. We place the statement on record."



Taking note of Mehta's submission, the bench said, "In that case, we deem it appropriate that the criminal cases concerning these ten petitioners pending in different trial courts in the NCT of Delhi be brought before the same court hearing...so that all the cases can be disposed of expeditiously."



The bench, which has posted the matter for hearing after eight weeks, said that copy of its order be forwarded to the concerned court and the registrar general of the Delhi High Court for information and necessary action.

During the hearing conducted through video-conferencing, the bench asked Mehta about the status of trial in the criminal cases pending against some of the petitioners.

Mehta, while apprising the bench that cases against 10 out of the 34 petitioners are pending before different trial courts, suggested that these matters may be consolidated.

The Centre had earlier told the court that some of the petitioners



have not pleaded guilty on the purported charges of violation of visa norms while trial against several of them was over as they had pleaded guilty.

The Centre had earlier sought dismissal of the pleas and informed the top court on July 2 that it has issued individual orders on a case-to-case basis for cancellation of visas and blacklisting of 2,765 foreign nationals.

As per the information available, 205 FIRs have been lodged against the foreign members by 11 states and 2,765 such foreigners have been blacklisted so far, the Centre had said in its affidavit.

Of these, visas of 2,679 foreigners (including 9 Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card holders) have been cancelled, it had said, adding that remaining 86 include Nepal nationals who do not require visa.

The top court was also informed by the Centre that 1,906 Look Out Circulars (LOCs) were issued against foreign Tablighi Jamaat members and 227 left India before the issuance of LOCs/Black Listing.

The foreign nationals had on July 2 informed the top court through their advocates that around 1,500 one-liner e-mails were sent to them with regard to cancellation of visas but there was no show cause notice for blacklisting from travel to India for 10 years.

Four petitions have been filed by 34 individuals, including a Thai who is seven months pregnant, challenging the Centre's orders of April 2 and June 4 by which 2,765 foreigners in India were blacklisted.

The petitions, filed through advocate Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi and drafted by advocates Ibad Mushtaq and Ashima Mandla, have contended that the en-masse blacklisting of foreigners without any opportunity to defend themselves is a blatant violation of Article 21 (protection of life and personal liberty) of the Constitution.

(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.)
Vancouver Canucks forward Micheal Ferland will not return for the remainder of the series against the Minnesota Wild. (Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images)

Vancouver Canucks forward Micheal Ferland has been ruled unfit to play for the remainder of his teams playoff qualifier series against the Minnesota Wild due to an undisclosed injury.

Ferland left the Edmonton bubble to return home and will be re-evaluated after the series ends.

#Canucks confirm that Micheal Ferland is 'unfit-to-play' for the remainder of the play-in series vs Minnesota. He has returned home and will be re-evaluated following the series.  Vancouver #Canucks (@Canucks) August 6, 2020

The 28-year-old played just under three minutes during Game 2 against the Wild over the course of four shifts.

Ferland was fined $5,000 for spearing Wild forward Ryan Hartman, the maximum amount allowable under the collective bargaining agreement. He also fought Wild forward Marcus Foligno during his first shift in Game 1.

Concussion issues have plagued Ferland during his career, and he was limited to only 14 regular-season contests in 2019-20 because of his latest head injury, before he returned to the lineup for the postseason.

During the regular campaign, Ferland registered a goal and five points in those 14 games  but was held scoreless in both playoff qualifying games.

He signed a four-year, $14-million contract with the Canucks last summer.

More NHL coverage from Yahoo Sports
Spain, 38, an IT and hotel operations management professional, garnered 33% of the roughly 23,000 votes, as of Wednesday morning. He was ahead of Oro Valley councilwoman Rhonda Pina (24%), former state representative Vic Williams (24%) and former Pima County GOP chair Bill Beard (19%). Pina conceded the race earlier Wednesday.

In an interview with the Star on Wednesday, Spain said he was not yet ready to declare victory because of the potential thousands of votes still outstanding. But he said that he was grateful for the early support, saying it was proof that his hardline conservative stance on limited government resonated with voters.

A significant part of my message, which has been to reduce the size of Pima County government, so that the rest of us can begin to do the work to recover from this coronavirus disaster of building out a better standard of living  I would like to think that that message resonated, he said.

The self-proclaimed grassroots conservative, who for years contributed to the conservative news outlet Arizona Daily Independent, admitted that an endorsement from Miller helped propel him to first political win.
The first online meeting of Ukrainian and Malaysian businesses dedicated to the food industry and agricultural technologies will take place on September 15.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said this at an online briefing on Thursday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

I would like to inform you about our work in the field of promoting Ukrainian exports and attracting foreign investment to Ukraine. This is one of the key priorities that I, as a minister, have set at the center of the work of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On September 15, we will hold the first ever online meeting of Ukrainian and Malaysian businesses. Some 300 companies will take part in this meeting, that is, it is a very large forum. This meeting is also part of the intensification of our efforts in the Asian direction. Malaysia is an extremely promising market for Ukrainian exporters, that is why we are making such efforts to promote Ukrainian exports in the world," Kuleba stressed.

The minister noted that this is done not so much for the sake of exporters as for the sake of Ukrainian economy and Ukrainian citizens working at the enterprises of Ukrainian exporters. Because the more exports we have, the more money is returned to the Ukrainian economy, and the more taxes are paid, the more jobs are created. We do this for the welfare of every Ukrainian involved in this sector of the economy," he said.

Kuleba said that the first online meeting of Ukrainian and Malaysian businesses is organized by the Council of Exporters and Investors at the Foreign Ministry and Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE).

"The first meeting will be devoted to the food industry and agricultural technologies," the foreign minister noted.

ish
For the world to recover fast, it has to recover together: UN health agency urges states to share potential vaccine.

Facebook and Twitter have pulled posts by US President Donald Trump for violating their COVID-19 misinformation rules.

The Philippines has overtaken neighbouring Indonesia as the country with the highest number of COVID-19 infections in East Asia.

India has recorded the biggest single-day coronavirus fatalities of 904 in the past 24 hours.

More than 18.8 million people around the world have been diagnosed with the new coronavirus, while the global death toll surpassed 708,500 people. More than 11.2 million have recovered.

Here are the latest updates:

Thursday, August 6

23:44 GMT  Dozens of NFL players positive

Fifty-six National Football League players in the US have so far tested positive for COVID-19 since training camps opened to rookies on July 21, according to players union data.

Camps opened for all players on July 28, and the season is scheduled to kick off on September 10 with health and safety measures in place designed to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.

The deadline for players to opt out of the season was set for 20:00 GMT on Thursday, with more than 60 reportedly intending to skip the 2020 campaign over COVID-19 concerns.

Crazy that me choosing my familys wellbeing over a game comes with so called fans attacking and questioning me and saying Im selfish. No you guys are selfish for thinking that football is bigger than life. Oh by the way my girls grandfather passed from COVID. U understand now?  Tre'Davious White (@TakeAwayTre_) August 6, 2020

20:59 GMT  No second lockdown despite rising cases: Rutte

The Netherlands does not need to undergo a second lockdown, despite a sharp increase in the number of infections.

The virus is making a dangerous advance and were at risk of losing the gains weve made together in the past month, said Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

We dont want a second lockdown and we dont have to have one, but that wont happen by itself, he said, asking tourists to avoid busy parts of Amsterdam and the countrys youth to obey social distancing rules.









20:37 GMT  Nigeria to reopen for international air travel in weeks

After months of closure, Nigeria will reopen for international air travel in a matter of weeks, said the aviation minister.

It will be in weeks rather than in months, Minister of Aviation Hadi Sirika told a regular briefing in the capital Abuja.

Nigeria began to close its airports in March, a month after Africas most populous country confirmed its first coronavirus case. Domestic air travel restarted last month.









20:07 GMT  Ireland says rise in COVID-19 reproduction rate a serious concern

A rise in the infection rate in Ireland is a serious concern, said a leading health official.

The reproduction rate, or the number of people who become infected from each positive case, has increased to 1.8 from 1.3 a week ago, Professor Philip Nolan, chair of the Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, told a news briefing.

A reproduction number of almost 2 is a serious concern, and although we have not yet seen a significant increase in community transmission, there is a significant risk this could develop over the coming days and weeks, Nolan said.

19:26 GMT  UK to remove Belgium, Andorra and Bahamas from safe travel list

Passengers arriving into the UK from Belgium, the Bahamas and Andorra will need to quarantine for 14 days due to concerns over rising infection rates, said transport minister Grant Shapps on Twitter.

Data shows we need to remove Andorra, Belgium and The Bahamas from our list of #coronavirus Travel Corridors in order to keep infection rates DOWN. If you arrive in the UK after 0400 Saturday from these destinations, you will need to self-isolate for 14 days.  Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) August 6, 2020

In a later post, Shapps added that Brunei and Malaysia were added to the governments Travel Corridor list due to a decrease in confirmed cases in those countries.

18:59 GMT  NY City set up COVID checkpoints

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced COVID-19 traveller registration checkpoints at key entry points into the city to ensure compliance with New York State quarantine requirements and to further curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Today, we announced COVID-19 checkpoints at key entry points. @NYCSheriff Fucito joined us to talk about what that means for New Yorkers and visitors to our city. Learn more: https://t.co/sja6W6Wh6m pic.twitter.com/bp9dXpAcXx  NYC Mayor's Office (@NYCMayorsOffice) August 6, 2020

18:29 GMT  Denmark drops plan to lift curbs on public gatherings

Denmark will not raise a limit on public gatherings, originally planned for this month, after seeing a spike in infections, said the Danish health ministry.

It is crucial that we maintain the good position Denmark is in, where we have the epidemic under control, health minister Magnus Heunicke said.

The Nordic countrys authority on infectious diseases, Statens Serum Institut, would not recommend lifting the limit, the ministry said, as any easing of public gatherings would increase infection risk.

17:55 GMT  France new cases above 1,600 for second day running

People wearing protective masks walk near the Louvre Museum as France reinforces mask-wearing as part of efforts to curb a resurgence of the coronavirus disease [Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters]

France has reported 1,604 new cases in the past 24 hours, the total staying above the 1,600 threshold for the second day running, according to the health ministry.

The ministry also said the number of patients in intensive care units for the disease was on the rise again, at 390 versus 384 the previous day.

17:28 GMT  Trouble ahead: US health expert warn of slow rise

White House health experts have warned of a slow rise in the percentage of people testing positive for the coronavirus in cities such as Boston, Chicago, Detroit and Washington, and urged local leaders to remain vigilant to avoid a surge.

This is a predictor of trouble ahead, top health expert Anthony Fauci told CNN.









16:59 GMT  Ohio governor tests positive, cancels Trump meeting

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has tested positive for coronavirus as part of a safety protocol to greet US President Donald Trump as he arrives in Cleveland to visit a Whirlpool washing machine factory.

Governor DeWine has tested positive for #COVID19. He has no symptoms at this time. Full statement below. pic.twitter.com/WnkmoGxR2m  Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) August 6, 2020

16:38 GMT  S Africas Ramaphosa sets up body to probe COVID-19 corruption





South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has set up a ministerial committee to investigate alleged corruption in state tenders in the fight against COVID-19, according to his office, including with businesses supplying protective gear.

Reports of suspect deals between government officials and businesses providing medical equipment, as well as food aid parcels to the poor, have sparked outrage in South Africa, where more than half a million cases of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 make it the fifth-largest outbreak in the world.

16:06 GMT  N Ireland pauses pub reopening

As Northern Ireland reported 43 new cases, its highest daily rise since May, First Minister Arlene Foster halted the programme of reopening pubs and ordered citizens to wear face masks indoors.

Because of the concern around the level of community transmission and the desire to frankly prioritise the reopening of our schools  we have decided that it is prudent to pause the reopening of our public houses, Foster told reporters.

15:39 GMT  WHO: Global recovery will come faster if vaccine available to all

Economic recovery around the world could come faster if any COVID-19 vaccine is made available to all as a public good, says WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

He was speaking in an online panel discussion with members of the Aspen Security Forum in the United States moderated by the NBC network.





15:16 GMT  Norway sets 10-day quarantine for some travellers

Norway will reimpose a 10-day quarantine starting from Saturday for all travellers from France, Switzerland and the Czech Republic, due to the rising number of cases in those countries.

The Nordic country will also reimpose quarantine for people travelling from Monaco and from certain regions in neighbouring Sweden, while lifting quarantine for other regions.

We need to slow down now to avoid a full stop down the road, said Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, adding that the country would put on hold a planned easing of existing restrictions to prevent a full lockdown of society as experienced earlier this year.

14:47 GMT  Pakistan lifts virus restrictions as cases drop

Pakistan will be lifting most of the countrys remaining restrictions after seeing new cases drop for several weeks.

Pakistans situation has improved significantly compared to other countries in the region, said Asad Umar, who heads Pakistans task force to fight the coronavirus.

All restaurants and parks will be allowed to reopen from August 10, as will parks, theatres, cinemas and public transport.

Pakistan will be lifting most of the countrys remaining restrictions after seeing new cases drop for several weeks [Farooq Naeem/AFP]

14:28 GMT  Learning pods: A solution to US education crisis

Starting first grade this year was supposed to be a big deal for Christy Teels seven-year-old son, Anderson, and she was going to take a commemorative picture with his backpack on, as he got on the school bus.

But hopes of schools reopening normally in her school district outside of Boston this academic year were dashed a few weeks ago, as cases of coronavirus continued to rise across much of the United States.

Read Jihan Abdallas full story here on how parents in the US band together to find a solution to the education crisis triggered by the pandemic.

14:10 GMT  Trump says vaccine possible before November 3

US President Donald Trump has said it is possible the US would have a vaccine before the November election, a far more optimistic forecast than timing put forth by his own White House health experts.

Sooner than the end of the year, could be much sooner, Trump said after being asked on a radio programme when a vaccine might be ready.

Sooner than November 3?

I think in some cases, yes possible before, but right around that time, Trump said.





13:52 GMT  Netherlands: cases keep increasing

The number of infections in the Netherlands keeps increasing, prompting Prime Minister Mark Rutte to cut short a vacation to address the public later on Thursday about the surge.

In the past 24 hours, health authorities reported 601 new infections from 427 a day earlier.

People wearing yellow vests hand out masks and information brochures where to wear the mandatory masks in the busiest streets of the city, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Amsterdam, Netherlands [Eva Plevier/Reuters]

13:20 GMT  1.2 million seek jobless aid after $600 federal check ends

Nearly 1.2 million laid-off Americans have applied for state unemployment benefits in the last week as the pandemic keeps forcing companies to slash jobs just as a critical $600 weekly federal jobless payment has expired.

According to a governments report, the number of jobless claims declined by 249,000 from the previous week, after rising for two straight weeks, and it was the lowest total since mid-March.

Still, it is the 20th straight week that at least one million people have sought jobless aid.

Hello, this is Virginia Pietromarchi taking over the coronavirus liveblog from my colleague Umut Uras in Doha, Qatar.





12:45 GMT  Lockdown sees Turkish women bear brunt of unpaid work: research

Turkish women did four times as much household and care work as men during lockdowns aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus, research supported by the United Nations Development Programme showed.

A survey conducted in May of more than 2,400 people showed women shouldered most of the unpaid work during lockdown even though men spent substantially more time working in the home.

The gender gap in paid work narrowed under lockdown as a result of changes in work patterns and a fall in mens paid work hours, the research found, adding, however, gender gaps in unpaid work and total work time widened.

12:15 GMT  Palestinian infected with coronavirus in Israeli prison

A Palestinian detainee has been infected with coronavirus in an Israeli prison in Ramallah, according to Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS).

The NGO said: The administration of the Israeli prison of Ofer  western Ramallah  announced that the Naim Abu Turki, 38, has been infected with coronavirus.

Abu Turki has been detained for four days, and was arrested from his home in Hebron. The number of Palestinians infected with coronavirus in Israeli prisons has risen to four, in addition to two detainees who were diagnosed with COVID-19 after being released.

11:50 GMT  Germany fights virus uptick with mandatory testing for travellers

Germany announces mandatory tests for travellers returning from high-risk regions after new coronavirus cases breached the 1,000-a-day threshold for the first time since May, fuelling fears of a return to an economically disruptive lockdown.

Health Minister Jens Spahn said free compulsory testing would be in force from Saturday after the Robert Koch Institute, Germanys public health agency, reported 1,045 new cases in a single day.

Part of the increase was due to more tests taking place, he said, but the effect of holidaymakers returning to Germany and of flagging social distancing discipline was also significant.

11:25 GMT  Philippines reports 3,561 new coronavirus cases

The Philippines on Thursday recorded another jump in coronavirus cases to overtake neighbouring Indonesia as the country with the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 infections in East Asia.

A recent surge in cases of the virus in and around the capital Manila has pushed authorities to reimpose a lockdown affecting around a quarter of the countrys 107 million people.

The Philippines recorded 3,561 new infections, taking its total confirmed cases to 119,460. The death toll rose by 28 to 2,150, which is less than half of Indonesias 5,521 fatalities, but is expected to grow after the recent spike in cases.

[Reuters]

10:55 GMT  No Turkish hospitals at capacity due to COVID-19: minister

No Turkish hospitals are operating at capacity because of the coronavirus pandemic, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Thursday, after the Reuters news agency quoted doctors as saying some dedicated intensive care units (ICU) were full.

There are no cities, not even a single hospital, working at capacity due to COVID-19. Claims are unfounded, Koca said on Twitter.

Doctors in coronavirus hotspots, including Ankara and the southeastern city of Gaziantep, told Reuters that hospitals are logging more cases than are reflected in the official nationwide count, with some ICUs and emergency rooms at capacity.

10:30 GMT  Proportion of COVID-19 contacts reached by English tracing scheme falls

The proportion of the contacts of positive COVID-19 cases reached by Englands test and trace system fell in its latest week, the health ministry has said, adding that the decline was partly due to local health protection teams handling outbreaks.

The Department of Health said 4,642 positive cases were transferred to the system in the week to 29 July, of whom 79.4 percent were reached and asked to provide their contacts.

Some 19,150 people were identified as coming into close contact with someone who had tested positive and of these 72.4 percent were reached and asked to self-isolate, it said, a decrease from 76.2 percent in the previous week.

10:00 GMT  Indonesias COVID-19 infections rise by 1,882

Indonesia reported 1,882 new coronavirus infections and 69 additional deaths on Thursday, data from the governments COVID-19 task force showed.

Those brought the total number of cases to 118,753 and deaths to 5,521.

Indonesias case tally was surpassed by the neighbouring Philippines, which with 119,460 coronavirus cases has the most infections in East Asia.

Passengers wearing protective masks and face shields queue for a public bus in Jakarta, Indonesia [Reuters]

09:40 GMT  Human trials of virus vaccine set to begin in Indonesia

Human trials on a potential coronavirus vaccine are due to start in Indonesia next week as part of a collaboration between state-owned pharmaceutical company Bio Farma and Chinas Sinovac Biotech Ltd, a senior researcher said.

The launch of the vaccine trial comes as Indonesia has struggled to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, with a consistently escalating number of cases.

The phase three clinical trial is set to begin on August 11 and will involve 1,620 volunteers aged between 18 and 59, Professor Kusnandi Rusmil, head researcher at Bandungs Padjadjaran University, told reporters.

09:00 GMT  Canadian jailed in Myanmar for holding services during virus ban

A Myanmar court has sentenced a Canadian preacher who said Christians were immune to the novel coronavirus to jail with hard labour for three months for holding church services in defiance of a ban on gatherings during the outbreak.

David Lah, a Canadian of Burmese origin, and another man, Myanmar national Wai Tun, were detained under a disaster management law over services they held in the city of Yangon in April.

A ban on public gatherings in the commercial capital took effect in mid-March. Judge Moe Swe told reporters both men had been convicted of breaking administrative rules.

08:40 GMT  Hong Kong reports 95 new coronavirus cases

Hong Kong reported 95 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, of which 91 were locally transmitted, as authorities tried to contain the virus, which has seen a resurgence in the global financial hub over the past month.

Around 3,800 people have been infected in Hong Kong since late January, 44 of whom have died. On Wednesday, 85 new cases were reported.

The government said it was extending the work from home period for civil servants until August 16.

Around 3,800 people have been infected in Hong Kong since late January [Tyrone Siu/Reuters]

08:20 GMT  UK to slap quarantine on travellers from Belgium: report

The British government will slap a quarantine on arrivals from Belgium after a rise in coronavirus cases, the Daily Mail newspaper reported.

The Mail said ministers are expected to approve the quarantine at a meeting shortly. The transport ministry declined to comment on the report.

The United Kingdom has already imposed a 14-day quarantine on travellers from Spain and Luxembourg.

08:00 GMT  Russia reports more than 5,200 new coronavirus cases

Russian authorities have reported 5,267 new cases of the novel coronavirus, pushing its national tally to 871,894, the fourth largest in the world.

The official death toll rose to 14,606, after officials said 116 people had died across the country in the last 24 hours.

The official death toll has risen to 14,606 across the country in the last 24 hours [Sefa Karacan/Anadolu]

07:30 GMT  Poland faces rising trend of COVID-19 cases: minister

Poland may see a further increase in coronavirus infections, which could reach up to 700 a day during and after this weekend, the health minister said.

On Tuesday, Poland registered its highest daily tally of reported cases at 680.

07:00 GMT  Toyotas Q1 profit nearly wiped out as coronavirus erodes sales

Toyota Motor Corp posted a 98 percent plunge in its first-quarter operating profit as the coronavirus pandemic halved its global sales.

Japans top automaker reported a profit of 13.9 billion yen ($131.73m) for the three months ended June, its worst since the June 2011 quarter. Still, it was better than an average estimate for a loss of 179 billion yen based on a Refinitiv poll of seven analysts.

The bleak results underline the challenges being faced by the global auto industry due to the health crisis that has shuttered factories this year and kept customers out of dealerships, hitting production and sales.

06:25 GMT  Ukraine reports record daily new coronavirus cases

Ukraine reported a record daily high of 1,271 new coronavirus cases on August 4, the countrys council of security and defence said.

The number of new infections has increased sharply in the past two months following the gradual lifting of restrictions that began in late-May.

The total number of cases rose to 75,490, including 1,788 deaths and 41,527 recovered as of August 5.

The total number of cases are 75,490, including 1,788 deaths and 41,527 recovered as of August 5 [Reuters]

06:00 GMT  India reports biggest daily number of deaths

India has recorded the biggest single-day death toll of 904 in the past 24 hours as fresh coronavirus infections surged by another 56,282 cases to reach nearly two million.

The Health Ministry said the total fatalities touched 40,699. India has recorded 20,000 deaths in the past 30 days.

The ministry also said the recovery rate has improved to 67 percent from 63 percent over the last 14 days. Nearly 600,000 patients are still undergoing treatment. The case fatality rate stands at 2.09 percent.

05:45 GMT  Melbourne enters strict new coronavirus lockdown

Australias second-biggest city of Melbourne began the first day of a six-week total lockdown with the closure of most shops and businesses raising new fears of food shortages, as authorities battle a second wave of coronavirus infections.

Shops were boarded shut and streets were deserted in the city of about five million people, the capital of Victoria state, which reported 471 new COVID-19 cases and eight deaths in the past 24 hours.

Australia has now recorded about 20,000 COVID-19 cases and 255 fatalities, still far fewer than many other developed nations, but the Victorian outbreak threatens to ruin that record and spill into other states.

Australia has recorded about 20,000 COVID-19 cases and 255 fatalities [AFP]

Hello, this is Umut Uras in Doha taking over from my colleague Zaheena Rasheed.

05:16 GMT  Outbreak shutters huge Papua New Guinea mine

A coronavirus outbreak has forced the closure of a major copper and gold mine in Papua New Guinea.

Ok Tedi Mining said it had decided to immediately suspend operations for at least 14 days after seven cases were detected at the facility near the Indonesian border.

The mine, which sits in the remote Papua New Guinea highlands, employs thousands of people and accounts for around seven percent of the countrys GDP, according to company figures.

04:58 GMT  Eight patients die in India hospital fire

Eight coronavirus patients died in a fire that broke out in the intensive care ward of a private hospital in Indias western city of Ahmedabad, officials said.

Police stopped angry relatives from entering the Shrey Hospital in the Gujarat state capital after the tragedy which, according to emergency services, was caused by a medical staff members personal protective equipment (PPE) catching fire.

The fire broke out at the Shrey Hospital in Ahmedabad early on Thursday morning [Reuters]

A staffer whose PPE caught fire ran out of the ward to douse it but the fire spread rapidly to the whole ward, said Rajesh Bhatt, additional chief fire officer of the Ahmedabad Fire and Emergency Services.

Five men and three women, who were undergoing treatment for the novel coronavirus were not in a position to escape they died due to smoke and heat caused by the fire, he said.

Read more here.

04:22 GMT  Philippine economy plunges into recession

The Philippines plunged into recession after its biggest quarterly contraction on record, according to data from the countrys Statistics Authority.

Gross domestic product shrank 16.5 percent on-year in the second quarter, data showed, as the Philippine economy reels from one of the worlds longest stay-at-home orders that has wrecked businesses and thrown millions out of work.

It followed a revised 0.7 percent contraction in the first three months of the year and marked the biggest reduction in economic activity since records began in 1981 during the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship.

It is the countrys first recession in three decades.





03:24 GMT  Japan region declares emergency

Hideaki Ohmura, the governor of Japans Aichi Prefecture, announced a regional state of emergency, urging people to stay home at night and businesses to close altogether or close early to curb the coronavirus.

The measures will continue through August 24, a period that coincides with the Obon holidays, when schools and many companies close, he said.

Ohmura said coronavirus cases have been rising in Aichi since mid-July at 100 or more a day. Before that, daily cases had been zero for extended periods.





02:33 GMT  Kim directs aid to North Korean town under lockdown

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un directed his government agencies to act immediately to stabilise the livelihoods of residents in a city locked down over coronavirus concerns, state media reported.

North Korea declared an emergency and locked down Kaesong near the inter-Korean border in late July after finding a suspected virus case there. It has not confirmed yet if the person tested positive.

The Korean Central News Agency said Kim presided over a meeting on Wednesday of the ruling Workers Partys executive policy council where they discussed a special supply of food and funds to Kaesong.

The report did not specify the measures that were to be taken.

01:47 GMT  US adds 1,242 COVID-19 deaths

The US reported 1,262 more COVID-19 fatalities in the last 24 hours, according to data by the Johns Hopkins University, figures that take its total death toll to 157,930.

It also added 53,158 new infections and remained the worst-hit country in the world, with a total caseload of 4,818,328.

President Trump nonetheless remained optimistic, saying This things going away. It will go away, like things go away, and my view is that schools should be open.





01:06 GMT  Twitter hides Trump post over misinformation

Twitter hid a video posted by Trump campaigns @TeamTrump account and shared by the US president for breaking the companys COVID-19 misinformation rules.

The post contained a video clip, from an interview with Fox & Friends in which Trump claimed that children are almost immune to COVID-19.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that while adults make up most of the known COVID-19 cases to date, some children and infants have been sick with the disease and they can also transmit it to others.

A Twitter spokesman told Reuters that the @TeamTrump account owner would be required to remove the tweet before they could tweet again.

Read more here.

00:13 GMT  Facebook removes Trump post

Facebook deleted a post by Trump for the first time, saying it violated its policy against spreading misinformation about the coronavirus.

Facebook said the video includes false claims that a group of people is immune from COVID-19 which is a violation of our policies around harmful COVID misinformation.

00:01 GMT  Brazil court rules government must protect tribes

Brazils Supreme Court ruled that President Jair Bolsonaros government must adopt measures to stop the spread of novel coronavirus to the countrys vulnerable Indigenous communities.

A majority of the justices voted to give the government 30 days to draw up a plan to reduce the threat to Indigenous people from COVID-19, which could wipe out some tribes.

Measures should include sanitary barriers to stop outsiders entering protected tribal lands and the isolation of invaders, but the court stopped short of ordering the immediate expulsion of illegal loggers and miners that Indigenous leaders say are spreading the virus.





The action was sought by Brazils main Indigenous umbrella organisation APIB, which says Indigenous people have died from COVID-19. Some 22,325 cases have been confirmed among Brazils 850,000 Indigenous people, while half of Brazils 300 Indigenous tribes have confirmed infections.

The pandemic endangers Indigenous communities with no access to healthcare in remote parts of the Amazon and whose communal living under large dwellings make social distancing impossible.

Hello and welcome to Al Jazeeras continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. Im Zaheena Rasheed in Male, Maldives.

For all the key developments from yesterday, August 5, go here.
Struggling Australians who have taken out $20,000 from their superannuation accounts using the COVID-19 early-access program will only be one per cent worse off in retirement, research has found.

Since the scheme was announced in March, three million Australians have already dipped into their super and more than 500,000 have completely emptied their accounts.

Applicants can take out $10,000 from their superannuation in the 2019-20 financial year and another $10,000 in 2020-21.

A report has found a 35-year-old earning $60,000 who drew down the full $20,000 would retire with a super balance worth $58,000 less than if they had not withdrawn the funds because of lost earnings on their savings.

Grattan Institute economist Brendan Coates said though with the combination of age pension payments that worker would only be $900 a year poorer.

Two pedestrians wearing face masks look at their phones as they walk in the Melbourne CBD on Tuesday. Australians drawing down their superannuation balances during the COVID-19 crisis will experience a minimal effect on their retirement income, research has found

He explained the decrease in super would be made up for by higher Age Pension payments.

The Age Pension is paid to eligible Australian residents in addition to their superannuation to help them live comfortably during their retirement.

'The median worker earning around $60,000, who takes out $20,000 in super at age 35, would see their replacement rate fall from 89 per cent to 88 per cent,' Mr Coates said.

The replacement rate refers to the percentage of someone's pre-retirement income that is replaced by their income when they retire.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development recommends retirees receive at least 70 per cent of their working life earnings in retirement.

'Even if COVID means they remain unemployed for the next three years, making no super contributions, that worker would still end up with a retirement income of 86 per cent of what they earned in the years before retirement,' the economist said.

This graph shows how withdrawing $20,000 from super accounts effects retirement disposable income. At least 70 per cent of annual working life earnings is recommended for retirement income, but this graph shows just a one per cent drop to about 88 per cent for those in the middle of the employment earnings percentile

Guaranteed superannuation contributions are set to rise gradually to 12 per cent by July 2025, but Mr Coates said a 9.5 per cent increase was sufficient to ensure Australians had adequate retirement funds.

Australians and Kiwi expats have meanwhile been warned if they wrongly withdraw from their superannuation they face a hefty $12,600 fine plus a big tax bill.

Under government rules, workers are only allowed to take out $10,000 from their superannuation if they had lost their job or seen their rostered hours drop by 20 per cent or more.

A waitress wipes down a table at a restaurant in Newtown in Sydney's inner city during the COVID-19 crisis. A 35-year-old earning $60,000 would only be $900 a year poorer, economists have argued

H&R Block director of tax communications Mark Chapman said those who mistakenly withdrew cash from their super could be hit with a $12,600 fine unless they managed to convince the Australian Taxation Office they had made an honest mistake.

'Further down the track, the ATO could come back and ask for some evidence that you met that eligibility criteria,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'If it turns out you didn't, you first of all would have to pay tax on the amount you've taken out and secondly, you could be looking at a fairly hefty penalty.

'The penalties would kick in if there's been some element of culpability on the part of the taxpayer, if they knew that they weren't eligible but applied anyway, they made some kind of false statement.'
The explosions in Beirut have left the residents in a state of complete shock. According to reports, the blasts have killed at least 135 people, injured more than 5,000 people and displaced around 300,000 people. Even hospitals have been damaged by the blasts. The explosion reportedly occurred due to 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate which has been stored in an unsecured warehouse, since the year 2014.

The 'massive' explosion

Reports suggest that Prime Minister Hassan Diab has declared three days of mourning from August 6. For a city that has not been able to come out of the civil war and is facing an economic crisis due to the novel coronavirus, the explosion is considered to be one of the most powerful. The blasts clattered buildings on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, which is about 160km away.

Read: Beirut Explosion: French President Macron To Visit Lebanon To Express Solidarity

According to reports, President Michel Aoun said that the horrors of the blasts which have turned Beirut into a disaster-stricken city cannot be forgotten and the government is determined to investigate as well as expose the reason behind the blast as soon as possible. However, an official source has blamed the blast on "inaction and negligence". Reports suggest that the source for the original blaze that caused the massive explosion have not yet been confirmed. However, a security source said that it was due to welding work happening in the region.

Read: Beirut Blast Death Toll Reaches 113; Nearly 4,000 Injured And 300,000 Displaced

The Australian government has pledged an initial $2 million Australian dollars ($1.44 million US dollars) to the relief effort in Lebanon after the deadly blast that ripped across the Lebanese capital Beirut on August 4. Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters in Canberra on August 6, the aid will be provided to the World Food Programme and to the Red Cross for food, medical care and essential items. Beirut has also received humanitarian assistance from various countries, including Kuwait, Qatar, Iran, and Greece. Health Ministers adviser Reda Al Moussawi is reported to have informed that authorities are also waiting for aid from other countries and the list includes Russia, the UAE, and the UK. Moussawi said that Greece has sent a medical team with the health equipment to help treat those injured.

Read: France Sends Planes With Rescue Teams, Aid To Beirut

Also Read: Beirut Explosion: PM Says Warehouse Stored 2,750 Tons Of Ammonium Nitrate For 6 Years

(Imae Credits: AP)
Coronavirus cases continued to fall after some lockdown measures were eased, a major study revealed today.

Some 123 Britons were diagnosed with the infection out of a sample size of nearly 160,000 people between June 9 and July 8  an incidence rate of 0.07 per cent. This was down by almost half from May, when 159 people out of 120,620 tested positive (0.13 per cent).

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the research showed 'we were able to keep rates of infection low as some restrictions were lifted'.

Non-essential shops were allowed to reopen on June 15, and ministers allowed single-person households to mix with other homes for the first time since the lockdown was introduced on March 23.

But the effect of the changes on July 4  when the two-metre social distancing rule was halved and pubs, restaurants and cinemas reopened  won't be felt until the Imperial College London team's next report.

Cases appear to have slowly crept up since 'Super Saturday', according to the Government's official statistics. Around 800 people are catching the virus a day  up from a four-month low of 546 on July 8.

The same study also found more than eight in 10 people who tested positive for coronavirus in June and July had no symptoms.

Some 123 Britons were diagnosed with the infection out of a sample size of nearly 160,000 people between June 9 and July 8  an incidence rate of 0.07 per cent. This was down by almost half from May, when 159 people out of 120,620 tested positive (0.13 per cent)

The REACT-1 study was carried out by Imperial, its sister NHS trust and the market research firm Ipsos MORI.

It is the largest research of its kind in the UK and involved testing a random 160,000 people with nasal and throat swabs to check for current infection between June 19 and July 8.

The study also found 81 per cent of the latest batch of patients were asymptomatic and showed no signs of the illness.

Normally, experts would expect around half of infected people to suffer from symptoms such a new, persistent cough, fever or a loss of taste or smell.

For comparison, 69 per cent of people who tested positive in the study's first period  from May 1 to June 1  were found to be asymptomatic.

But it is likely a chunk of these asymptomatic patients went on to develop symptoms later because the virus has an average incubation period of five days.

However, the sheer volume of cases without symptoms highlights how difficult it is for public health officials to contain the virus' spread.

The report warned these people were likely 'a source of ongoing transmission' that are helping the disease enjoy a resurgence in the UK.

Thousands of coronavirus deaths 'will be wiped off the government's official toll' Thousands of coronavirus deaths are set to be wiped from the government's official count, it was claimed today. Health Secretary Matt Hancock last month ordered an urgent review into how daily death counts are calculated in England because of a 'statistical flaw'. Academics found a glitch in Public Health England's methods that meant ministers counted victims as anyone who died after ever testing positive for Covid-19  even if they were hit by a bus after beating the disease months later. It would've meant that, technically, no-one could ever recover from the virus and all 265,000 of England's confirmed patients would eventually have had their deaths attributed to the disease. The blunder could see up to 4,000 deaths removed from England's official toll of 41,749, according to reports. Mr Hancock is set to bring the figures in line with Scotland and Northern Ireland, which only attribute deaths to Covid-19 if it occurs within a month of their diagnosis. The Health Secretary is expected to announce the new measurement by the end of the week following the two-week review into the counting fiasco. The statistical flaw was uncovered by Oxford University's Professor Carl Heneghan and Dr Yoon Loke, from the University of East Anglia. Professor Heneghan, director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at the prestigious university, told the Sun: 'It is a sensible decision. There is no point attributing deaths to Covid 28 days after infection. 'All it does is muddy the water. While deaths are falling in Scotland, PHE data suggests matters are worse in England. 'But if it's someone who picked up the virus in a care home in March and recovered, and last week died of a heart attack, what does that actually tell us?' Advertisement

But the study found that there was an 'increased infection intensity in and near London' during the same time period.

The capital had a prevalence rate of 0.15 per cent, which was more than double the national average (0.07 per cent). Twenty-three out of 15,750 Londoners tested positive.

The researchers estimate that, in total, there were 40,000 people in England with Covid-19 at any one time, compared with 74,000 in May.

They found that there were no difference in prevalence of the virus between different age groups or sexes.

But they said that people from black, Asian and ethnic minority (BAME) backgrounds were 'more likely' to test positive, although they did not reveal exact figures.

BAME people have been disproportionately affected by Covid-19, for reasons scientists can't quite pin down.

They believe it may be a mixture of social factors, including the fact BAME people are more likely to live in deprived areas, live in large households and use public transport, where they interact with more potential carriers of the disease

The report also found no difference in infection rates among health and social care workers compared to the general public.

This suggests measures to curb transmission of the virus in hospitals and care homes were working, the researchers said.

Mr Hancock said: 'This research highlights how, thanks to everyones efforts and sacrifice, alongside targeted measures to counter the spread of this virus in health and care settings, we were able to keep rates of infection low as some restrictions were lifted.

'However, we must not be complacent. I urge everyone to get a test if you have symptoms, self-isolate and provide your contacts to NHS Test and Trace so we can continue to keep the virus at bay and get back to normal.'



Professor Paul Elliott, director of the programme at Imperial College London, said: 'Through our community testing programme, were beginning to build a more informed picture of COVID-19 across England.

'This surveillance programme is showing us the prevalence of infection between different demographics, age groups and ethnicities as well as giving us insight into how easing lockdown restrictions are affecting the infection rate.'

Reacting to the findings, Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious diseases expert at the University of East Anglia, said: 'The primary conclusion from this study was that there was a decline in prevalence between the first round (in May) and the second round and within both rounds one and two.

'This finding is not surprising as it fits exactly with the reports of pillar 2 testing positive results that are reported each day.

'There is general agreement that the relaxations in lockdown restrictions in early June were not sufficient to push the R value above 1.

'The REACT-1 study has shown that the rate of decline had slowed between round 1 and 2 suggesting that the relaxations in early June did allow the R value to drift up.

'The study does not enable any conclusions to be drawn about what impact any of the further relaxation from late June onwards may have had.

'Indeed, it is likely that the impact of any relaxation will not be seen in swab data for at least a week or two after implementation.

'The fact that pillar 2 reports are increasing does raise concerns that the R value has increased above 1 at least in some parts of the country.

'The big uncertainty at present is how much of the increase in pillar 2 positive reports is due to a real increase in infections and how much to increased testing. We will need to await the results of REACT-1 round 3 to be able to answer this.'

The figures add to mounting fears of a second wave in Britain, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson understood to be 'extremely concerned' about cases bubbling up in the UK and in other European nations that have relaxed tough lockdown measures.

France has warned it could lose control of Covid-19 'at any moment'.

But the number of patients being admitted to hospital has yet to spike, bolstering claims from top scientists that the outbreak is not getting worse and cases are only rising because more patients are being tested.

Just 109 coronavirus patients were admitted for NHS care across the UK on August 2  a figure which has barely changed throughout July.

During the darkest days of Britain's crisis in April, around 3,500 patients were needing hospital treatment every day.

It comes as Aberdeen became the latest city to be put back into lockdown as pubs, cafes and restaurants were shut on Tuesday.

Officials last week imposed tough new restrictions on 4.5million people living in Greater Manchester and parts of Lancashire and Yorkshire to curb spiralling coronavirus rates.

Meanwhile, Leicester has been in its local lockdown for more than a month after becoming the first region to be hit with the regional restrictions.
Md. governor issues emergency order exempting private schools from shutdowns

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Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on Monday issued an emergency order clarifying that private schools are exempt from a county order mandating the closure of schools until October.

Montgomery County officials had issued an order prohibiting both private and public schools from holding in-person classes until at least Oct. 1 in an attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19.

However, in the emergency order, Hogan exempted private academic institutions, saying they could dictate their own decisions on whether to hold in-person learning.

In an accompanying statement, the governor explained that his recovery plan for schools in the state stresses local flexibility within the parameters set by state officials.

Over the last several weeks, school boards and superintendents made their own decisions about how and when to reopen public schools, after consultation with state and local health officials, stated Hogan.

Private and parochial schools deserve the same opportunity and flexibility to make reopening decisions based on public health guidelines. The blanket closure mandate imposed by Montgomery County was overly broad and inconsistent with the powers intended to be delegated to the county health officer.

The First Liberty Institute and the American Association of Christian Schools expressed their support for Hogan's order in a joint statement emailed to supporters.

We appreciate Governor Hogans efforts to balance the needs for public health while respecting the freedom, and religious autonomy, of private, religious institutions, they stated.

Not only are we committed to following appropriate health and safety guidance from the CDC and other public health agencies, we agree with Governor Hogan that blanket dictates from central planning rarely provide the freedom and flexibility to develop appropriate plans that meet the needs of Marylands private, Christian schools.

Last week, Montgomery County Health Officer Dr. Travis Gayles directed private schools to be closed until October, saying in a statement we have based our decisions on science and data.

At this point the data does not suggest that in-person instruction is safe for students or teachers, Gayles said Friday.

We have seen increases in transmission rates for COVID-19 in the state of Maryland, the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Virginia, particularly in younger age groups, and this step is necessary to protect the health and safety of Montgomery County residents.

As of Tuesday, Maryland has 91,705 COVID-19 infections among a population of more than 6 million. Montgomery County has 17,881 cases and 793 deaths listed as COVID-19 related, among a population of over 1 million.
The White House nominee to a top Pentagon post claimed Thursday to have no knowledge of published allegations that a security firm he worked for may have been involved in training the Saudi hit team that murdered and dismembered Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

"I'm not aware of that" allegation, Louis Bremer testified at his Senate confirmation hearing, adding that it may have slipped past him while serving on the board of the Tier 1 Group, an Arkansas-based security firm that has provided paramilitary training to Saudi nationals.

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The former Navy SEAL told the Senate Armed Services Committee, "I'm involved in a lot of different corporate matters, a lot of different boards, and that particular instance -- I can't recall the specifics about."

Bremer, the nominee to become assistant secretary of defense for Special Operations/Low-Intensity Conflict, was pressed by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, on his lack of recall.

Kaine noted that the allegation about Tier 1 Group and the Saudis was first raised in a March 2019 op-ed by respected Washington Post columnist David Ignatius and was later the subject of published reports nationally and internationally.

"Senator, it's the first time I've heard of this article" by Ignatius, Bremer said. "I was not aware of that  [but] I do know that we train Saudi nationals as part of our engagements with the kingdom."

He also said he could not remember whether the allegation was the subject of an internal investigation by Tier 1 Group. "It's my recollection we have not [looked into the allegation]," he said, "but I may be mistaken."

Bremer said he would have to check his records.

Other senators on the panel were incredulous at Bremer's responses.

"I find it incredibly hard to believe that a five-person board of this company would not have had a fire drill when this allegation emerged," Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, told Bremer.

Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident, columnist for The Washington Post and resident of Virginia, disappeared after entering the Saudi Embassy in Istanbul on Oct. 2, 2018, to obtain documents for his planned marriage.

After initial denials, Saudi Arabia has since acknowledged that Khashoggi was murdered and his body was dismembered by Saudi agents. His remains have never been found.

There was no immediate response from Tier 1 Group to calls asking for comment. The promotional material on the firm's website claims that it provides a range of support and training to the U.S. military, including SEALs and Army Rangers, and federal law enforcement agencies.

"Tier 1 Group is proud to provide world-class multidiscipline, multi-echelon training to the U.S. Military and State Department, Law Enforcement, the Private Security Detail Sector, OGA [Other Government Agency] Specialty Operator Teams, as well as International Allied Forces," the website states.

The nomination of Bremer, who also serves as a managing director for Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity firm, also appeared to be on shaky ground over his social media posts and photos taken with controversial figures such as Milo Yiannopoulos, a far-right commentator and former editor of Breitbart News.

Bremer was challenged by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.: "How do you explain some of your past social media posts and activities, which I think you would agree with me, are not the kind of model we want to hold up to our special operations forces?"

"Listen, those were posts that I regret. They were flippant; they were in my capacity in the private sector," Bremer said.

His associates "know that I'm a serious person. Ethics is a very big thing. I've lived it in uniform, I've lived it outside of uniform," he added.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.

Related: Despite Nomination Withdrawal, Anthony Tata Set to Work at Pentagon
"The Kissing Booth 2" Cast Joey King and Taylor Zakhar are dating? let's not get ahead of ourselves! They're just friends, Zakhar said, although they cooked for each other and lean on one another during the lockdown. They're friends even if Zakhar said he loves Joey King "dearly."

Taylor Zakhar Perez has a load to say about Joey King. All of them good stuff, including the fact that she's the one he leaned on during the COVID-19 lockdown, whoa.

Speaking with ET, the 28-year-old actor addresses rumors that he is dating his "The Kissing Booth 2" co-star, Joey King. According to him, theirs is a very, very strong friendship that is not of the romantic kind. Aw.

He knows that Joey King recently got out of a relationship with another co-star, Jacob Elordi. He also said that the two of them instantly hit it off. When they were both in South Africa, they also had dinner with her. It was not to confuse with a real date, though, regardless of whether Perez shared that they cooked for each other! "We just became kind of like the best of friends." Zakhar said.

Asked how their initial meeting went, Zakhar Perez has nothing but fond memories of that day. "I'm sure it was odd for her to go back into production with someone that she dated," he remarked about Joey King and Jacob Elordi still working together. "And some being this new castmate and Joel [Courtney] being there and Meganne [Young], we kind of just all meshed really well together."

And then, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced people into quarantine, their friendship still held. They leaned each other through the isolation. Perez claimed they lived nearby each other, so it was easy to build their trust for each other. They even joked about who they are seeing!

Perez also said that he loves King so much, but they are not dating at all, regardless of how they come across online, on their pictures. "I love her. I love her dearly. I'd do anything for her," he added, before stating, "We're not dating. I'll end it with that."

On King's birthday, Perez even messaged her a long one, expressing how much he cares for her and feels gratitude towards her. He said that King is the reason he joined "The Kissing Booth 2," since she is one of those who truly welcomed him into the fold and even made him laughed so hard he thought he'd peed his pants.

Apart from this message, the two actually spent the day together on vacation.

According to Refinery29, their friendship is just pure. It does not have to be romantic all the two times when a boy and a girl become really close. Even if they are partnered for the show, the two do not need to be in a relationship. In fact, friendships would probably last longer than a romantic relationship. Fans cannot help but feel that it's such a waste though because their chemistry is genuinely palpable on the second installment of the Netflix series.

But who knows, down the road what would happen? The important thing is that they got each other to lean on!

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Dr Joseph Kapp, 67, a businessman and former mayor of Rensselaer, New York, was killed early Wednesday morning when a food processor being tested for making guacamole blew up

A former upstate New York mayor has been killed and two others injured after a high-pressure food processor being tested for manufacturing guacamole exploded.

Dr Joseph Kapp, 67, local businessman and former mayor of Rensselaer, New York, died at hospital after the explosion on Wednesday morning at Innovative Test Solutions, an engineering firm and test laboratory.

Schenectady Fire Department Assistant Chief Don Mareno told the Times-Union of Albany that the machine was a 'high-pressure vessel.'

Two other people who were present during the testing were sent to Ellis Hospital with less serious injuries, Mareno said, according to News10. The surviving victims have not been named.

Scott Briody, Innovatives CEO and vice president, told the newspaper that Kapp was a client of the firm.

Kapp was the vice chairman of the Board of Trustees for Hudson Valley Community College in Troy and a former mayor of Rensselaer during the 1990s. He was also involved in research and invention.

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The explosion that killed Kapp and injured two others took place at Innovative Test Solutions, an engineering firm and test laboratory in Schenectady, New York

Police are pictured at the scene of the blast on King Road, which damaged the building

Kapp and the other victims were at Innovative Test Solutions on Kings Road in Schenectady at around 7am when the guacamole-making machine exploded.

The blast damaged the facility, but no fire or chemical spill were reported, according to Spectrum News.

The local codes department and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration were reportedly both notified about the incident.

It is unclear at this time why the machinery experienced what has been described as a 'catastrophic failure during trial operational tests.'

Kapp, the vice chairman of the Board of Trustees for Hudson Valley Community College, is survived by his wife, Jolanta, and their children

'As a true friend, a remarkable leader, and the longest serving trustee on our board, Joe Kapp will be greatly missed by our college community,' Dr Roger Ramsammy, President of Hudson Valley Community College, said in a statement.

'Once a student at Hudson Valley, Joe gave back to the college immensely and served admirably as a trustee for two decades. With heavy hearts, we share our deepest sympathies with Joes wife, Yolanta, and the entire Kapp family.'

Kapp is survived by his wife and children, one of whom, a son, is serving in the US Navy.
Failings by the NHS's 111 service were responsible for 'many' deaths during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, bereaved families told MPs yesterday.

Four members of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, who each lost their fathers to the virus, gave evidence to the newly-formed All Party Parliamentary Group on coronavirus.

They said they believed their loved ones would be alive if the Government had provided better medical advice, including via the helpline, locked down the country earlier, shut borders and quarantined travellers sooner.

In moving testimony, the group revealed they have written to the Prime Minister three times but had so far been refused a meeting with Boris Johnson. They accused the Government of ignoring their plight.

They are demanding an urgent independent judge-led public inquiry to prevent more unnecessary deaths in the event of a second wave of coronavirus.

Four members of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, who each lost their fathers to the virus, gave evidence to the newly-formed All Party Parliamentary Group on coronavirus (pictured: Layla Moran hosts the inaugural meeting of an All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus, July 8)

Jo Goodman, founder of the bereaved families group, whose father, Stuart, 72, contracted the virus the week before lockdown and died on April 2, said many of their 1,450-strong members believed their loved ones struggled to get through to 111, or were told not to go to hospital despite being 'in the worst condition of their lives'.

'There is a huge amount of people in our group where the 111 service was telling people to stay at home despite symptoms which were extremely severe,' she said.

'People were passing away with no medical intervention other than paracetamol and bedrest.'

Miss Goodman said families had complained that the 111 lines were constantly busy, call handlers had failed to take medical history into account and symptoms were mis-read or communicated incorrectly, especially where patients did not have English as their first language.

In moving testimony, the group revealed they have written to the Prime Minister three times but had so far been refused a meeting with Boris Johnson. They accused the Government of ignoring their plight

Charlie Williams, whose father Rex, 85, died after contracting the virus in a care home, said the helpline was 'responsible for many deaths'.

He said black and ethnic minority members of the bereaved families group had told him call handlers had made judgments on irrelevant questions, such as whether their loved one's lips had turned blue.

'With a black person, you cannot tell if their lips are blue,' he said.

The cross-party parliamentary group also heard from members of the so-called 'Long Covid' support group, who revealed that as many as 15,000 people who contracted the virus continue to suffer chronic symptoms, including blindness and incontinence, or have been left wheelchair bound months later.

Founder Claire Hastie broke down as she said she used to cycle 13 miles every day to work but now needed a wheelchair to leave the house and has still not returned to her job after contracting the disease in March. The single parent said her three children, aged 16 and twins of 11, had become her carers.
The internationally acclaimed virologist will focus on advancing research in synthetic biology, infectious diseases, chronic diseases, and other emerging areas of Biosciences, and nurturing world-class talent India.

New Delhi based Ashoka University, the leading Liberal Arts and Sciences University in India, has announced the appointment of Dr. Shahid Jameel as the Director of the Trivedi School of Biosciences.

The School was launched earlier in the year with a generous endowment of over Rs. 100 crores by Ashok Trivedi, Founder and Trustee, Ashoka University, and Managing Partner of SWAT Capital. Dr. Jameel's appointment further reinforces Ashoka's commitment to research in emerging areas in Biology and Data Science to address the problems of infectious and other chronic diseases. He will join the University on October 1, 2020.

Dr. Jameel came to Ashoka University after spending over seven years as Chief Executive Officer of the DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance.

Not only this, Dr. Jameel received the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Medical Sciences, India's highest mid-career research award. He is also a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, the Indian Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences, India.

Ashoka University has started its global search for new faculty, it envisions its Biosciences initiative to be the cornerstone of its natural sciences program. The Advisory Board of Trivedi School of Biosciences includes Nobel Laureates Venki Ramakrishnan and Jack Szostack.
The Trump administrations top official for Iranian affairs is stepping down.

US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook has decided to leave his role, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced today.

Hook has been my point person on Iran for over two years, and he has achieved historic results countering the Iranian regime, said Pompeo in a statement.

Hook was an adamant critic of the Islamic Republic and a key part of US President Donald Trumps maximum pressure campaign against the country.

Maximum economic pressure, diplomatic isolation and the credible threat of military force to defend our interests  thats a winning combination, Hook said in an interview on Al-Monitor's On the Middle East podcast last month.

Among Hooks accomplishments was negotiating the release of US citizen Michael White from Iranian custody. Before his departure, Hook also lobbied for the extension of a UN weapons embargo on Iran. The embargo expires in October as part of the nuclear deal.

Trump withdrew the United States from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran in 2018 and reimposed harsh sanctions on the country. The United States believes Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon, which Iran denies. An ally of Israel and Saudi Arabia, the United States is also on the opposite sides of Iran in most regional conflicts. Iran is a major backer of the Syrian government, the Lebanese military and political organization Hezbollah, and the Popular Mobilization Units in Iraq.

Tensions between the United States and Iran are now at a high. The Iranian military conducted several drills late last month focusing on a simulated conflict with the United States. The two countries lack diplomatic relations and communicate through other channels. Hook negotiated the prisoner exchange that secured Whites release through Swiss diplomats.

Hook will enter the private sector, Pompeo tweeted.

US Special Representative for Venezuela Elliott Abrams will replace Hook while continuing his duties regarding the South American country, according to Pompeo. Iran and Venezuela are both sanctioned by the United States and have developed a close economic relationship as a result.
The Dakota Access can stay open and should not be emptied of crude, a U.S. appeals court ruled after a lower court had ordered the oil pipeline shut until a new environmental assessment is made.

Dakota Access doesnt have to shut down, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said on Wednesday. However, the court did order an expedited schedule for the parties to submit briefs over whether a new environmental impact statement will be needed for the pipeline.

A federal judge ruled on July 6 that the Dakota Access Pipeline, in operation since 2017, must be emptied and shut down by August 5, until a new comprehensive environmental review is completed. The United States District Court for the District of Columbia said that the Army Corps of Engineers had violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when it gave a permit to the pipeline to build beneath Lake Oahe.

A week later, a U.S. Appeals Court ruled that Dakota Access could continue to operate while the court considers whether the pipeline should be shut down as ordered by a lower courts ruling.

The appeals court now ruled that the oil pipeline can stay open, but the litigation over the Dakota Access pipeline continues.

The decision about the merits of the appeals from the Army Corps and Dakota Access as to whether an Environmental Impact Statement will be required is expected by the end of the year, Tom Mason, General Counsel at the pipelines operator Energy Transfer, said on the earnings call on Wednesday.



Related: Exxon: 20 Percent Of Global Oil And Gas Reserves May Be Wiped Out

We believe our legal positions are strong, and we are confident that the pipeline will continue to operate, Mason said.

According to Earthjustice, Todays decision found that the government and DAPL were not likely to prevail on the merits of their appeal that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must conduct a full environmental review on the pipeline.

Dakota Access is an affront to Tribal sovereignty and a threat to public health and clean water. Everyone would be safer if operations were halted, Earthjustice attorney Jan Hasselman said.

The pipeline is now operating illegally: we are confident that it will be shut down eventually.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
A family in Migori County is distressed after 48 members contracted Covid-19.

Following the death of one family member, Nakuru-based lawyer Gordon Ogola took to his social media pages to narrate his familys plight.

Good morning great friends. I want to plead with all of us to spread the gospel of the reality of this pandemic-Covid, the former Migori County Speaker wrote.

The last one or so week has been harrowing to the Ogola family and clan. In a span of seven days we have 48 infections in the family including my 80-year-old mum. She has been struggling in the ICU for the last five days, he added.

The lawyer said his mother was the first to contract the virus which soon spread across three generations within one week.

He said his brother, Moses Osoro Ogola, a former senior official in the Ministry of Devolution died from the virus within 24 hours of admission.

My 61-year-old brother Moses Osoro Ogola succumbed within 24 hours of admission. Every one who surrounded my mother including my step mum, her daughters-in-law, grandchildren, cousins and workers have all tested positive, he said.

According to the advocate, Kenyans should heed Health CS Mutahi Kagwes warning.

As Kagwe repeatedly says; Lets not treat this thing normally coz it will treat us abnormally. My worry now is: Is the whole family and village being wiped out? Put us in your prayers, he concluded.
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley has teamed up with the likes of Kylie Jenner and Huda Kattan to explore their make-up empires in a first look at her new beauty series, About Face.

Following on from the launch of her successful online platform Rose Inc. in 2018, the supermodel, 33, has taken on her first executive producer role for the upcoming show.

The six-episode series, which is set to air on Quibi from August 10, will also see the catwalk queen interview her hairstylist, Jen Atkin, as she provides fans with more insight into the multibillion-pound cosmetic industry.

First look: Rosie Huntington-Whiteley has teamed up with the likes of Kylie Jenner (pictured) and Huda Kattan to explore their make-up empires in her new beauty series, About Face

In the trailer, the former Victoria's Secret Angel travels to Dubai to meet up with entrepreneur Huda, 36, who credits her billion-dollar beauty brand to 'working my a** off'.

The mother-of-one later sits down with reality TV star Kylie, 22, with Forbes recently pegging her net worth at $900 million (684 million).

Curious about the secret to her success, Rosie asks: 'How old were you when you launched your first [Kylie Cosmetics] lip kit?', to which the mogul replies: '17, it sold out in three seconds!'

Impressive: Following on from the launch of her successful online platform Rose Inc. in 2018, the supermodel, 33, has taken on her first executive producer role for the upcoming show

Savvy: The former Victoria's Secret Angel travels to Dubai to meet up with entrepreneur Huda (far right), 36, who credits her billion-dollar beauty brand to 'working my a** off'

The media personality sold 51 per cent of her company to Coty in a deal valued at $1.2 billion (912 million) in January.

Celebrity hairstylist Jen, 40, also reveals what encouraged her to launch her OUAI line in 2016.

The businesswoman says: 'The haircare brands I worked with, there were always something that wasn't right.

'That's what fuelled me, people telling me no': The six-episode series, which is set to air on Quibi from August 10, will also see the catwalk queen interview her hairstylist, Jen Atkin

'I started pitching OUAI to men and they were like ''no, you're not famous enough.'' That's what fuelled me, people telling me no.'

Glossier's Emily Weiss, Beyonce's makeup artist Sir John, and South-Korean YouTuber PONY Syndrome also star on the show.

In an interview with Refinery29, Rosie detailed the driving force behind creating About Face.

'knew each of these founders had a story to tell': In a new interview, the Transformers actress detailed the driving force behind creating the series

The Transformers actress, who shares son Jack, three, with fiance Jason Statham told the publication: 'When I launched my beauty website, I was learning more about the people behind these beauty brands by covering their products.

'It quickly became obvious that we were only just scratching the surface. I knew each of these founders had a story to tell that brought a unique perspective to what it means to be an entrepreneur today.

'My goal has always been celebrating these founders, artists, and talent who are making waves in this multi-billion dollar business  and you cant talk about the beauty industry today without talking about the women who are transforming it.'

About Face premieres on August 10 on Quibi.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 6

Trend:

On August 6 in the afternoon, the units of the armed forces of Armenia, using the tactical unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), attempted to carry out a reconnaissance flight over the positions of the units of the Azerbaijan Army in the direction of the Tovuz district on the Armenia-Azerbaijan state border, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry told Trend on Aug. 6.

The enemys UAV was immediately detected and destroyed by Air Defense units of the Air Force of Azerbaijan.
One killed, 2 injured in Tulum broad daylight shooting

Tulum, Q.R.  A man was shot and killed in broad daylight Wednesday afternoon in the city of Tulum outside Plaza Andador. Two others were injured.

The shooting happened when two armed men attacked others inside the square. Upon their escape, they shot at three other men, killing one and injuring two. The deceased has been identified as Heber H.R., the driver for a Tulum city employee. The two injured men are Marco C.D. and Fernado P.A., both of whom were shot, receiving serious injuries.

Herber H.R. attempted to repel the attack, but was shot. He died on scene. The Tulum city employee, Jorge Portilla, released a statement on social media saying that contrary to some media reports, the attack was not against him, adding that he was not at the scene of the event.

Those responsible fled. No arrests have been made. Police continue to investigate.
Meghan Markle receives the best news ever a day after celebrating her 39th birthday.

This was after the High Court of England allowed the Duchess of Sussex to keep the identities of her five friends anonymous after defending her in an article published by People magazine.

Meghan Markle Scorea Temporary Bid to Keep Five Friends Anonymous

Judge Mark Warby considered granting the ex-royal's request "for the time being at least." It is to leave them from the "frenzy of publicity" as her lawsuit against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) is still ongoing.

"The court orders that the identity of the five friends remains confidential in the interests of the administration of justice. This is an interim decision," Judge Warby declared.

Meanwhile, ABC News cited that the former Hollywood actress was "happy" about the update on their case. She reportedly felt that it is essential the identity of her friends remain a secret.

"The Duchess felt it was necessary to take this step to try and protect her friends -- as any of us would -- and we're glad this was clear. We are happy that the Judge has agreed to protect these five individuals," the Sussexes' spokesperson told the news outlet.

Five Friends Spoke About Meghan Markle's Relationship With Estranged Father

In 2019, People released an exclusive cover story titled "Meghan Markle's Best Friends Break Their Silence: 'We Want to Speak the Truth." In the story, the real score between Meghan and her estranged father Thomas Markle was detailed.

"As for Meghan's father, who has said he can't reach Meghan, "He knows how to get in touch with her," one of Meghan's friend said. "He's never called; he's never texted. It's super-painful."

Meanwhile, another source revealed how the former "Suits" star was "heartbroken" by the issue and pleaded her father to "stop victimizing" her "through the social media." Meghan also reportedly asked her dad to mend their relationship in private.

Meghan Markle Lawsuit with Associated Newspapers

The legal battle between Meghan and the British press started when duchess filed a privacy and copyright infringement lawsuit against the parent publisher of The Mail On Sunday and MailOnline.

The said publication reproduced parts of Meghan's handwritten letter to her 76-year-old dad months after her royal wedding with Prince Harry in 2018. Sure enough, Meghan didn't like that her letter -- which was supposed to be private -- was leaked to the press.

The controversial private letters spoke revealed Meghan's sadness about her fallout with her father. She even mentioned that he has broken her heart "into a million pieces."

In her legal case, Meghan Markle accused the Associated Newspapers of taking advantage of her father by "harassing, humiliating, manipulating and exploiting" Thomas -- who was once described by multiple outlets as "vulnerable."

Moreover, the issues they have with the British tabloids also prompted the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to cut ties with four newspapers under their new policy of "no corroboration and zero engagement."

READ MORE: Royal Heartbreak: Why Princess Anne Will Never Replace Queen Elizabeth II as Monarch
A perception gap: There are gaps between agents and customers when it comes to perception of service levels.

Customers want more than just property and casualty support from agents.

Understanding policy coverage and price are shared challenges across all audiences.

The economy is a concern, and customers are looking to agents for guidance.

"Our latest research shows some emerging opportunities in the agent-customer relationship particularly when navigating this current environment and economy," said Jeff Rommel, Senior Vice President of Property and Casualty Sales at Nationwide. "But while the data pinpointed gaps, agile agents will see ways to address their clients' concerns, enhance retention and grow their business."

These and other important insights came out of the summer survey of the Agent Authority research series conducted by Nationwide, which includes samples of independent insurance agents, consumers and business owners. The research was developed to uncover unique challenges property and casualty agents encounter and create subsequent guidance.

A Perception Gap

The Agent Authority research identified a perception gap in the value agents believe they are bringing to their customers. Agents are confident they are meeting the needs of their customers, yet some business owners and consumers have a different perspective on the services agents should provide. In areas where agents gave themselves higher marks than consumers and business owners, agents can lean in and proactively close gaps, effectively strengthening their relationships and improving their brand.

95% of insurance agents believe they are always there when their clients need them but only 79% of customers felt the same.

While 91% of agents said they can offer the best prices, only 74% of customers agreed.

94% of agents reported they are regularly checking in with their customers to make sure their policy fits their needs. However, only 69% of customers reported sufficient check-ins from their agent.

Quick tip for agents:

Set up regular calendar reminders to check in with your top commercial lines clients every six months to understand the challenges their business is facing and evaluate evolving insurance needs. Reach out to all personal lines customers at least once a year to do the same.

What Customers Want:

To support agents in closing this perception gap, the research identified areas where agents can go above and beyond traditional insurance guidance. While most customers seek counsel on conventional insurance, some business owners are looking for help on succession planning, disaster recovery and employee benefits. Additionally, general property and casualty customers are asking agents about retirement and banking advice.

57% of mid-market business owners are asking about employee benefits.

45% of mid-market business owners and 35% of small business owners are asking about safety and loss control.

26% of consumer customers want guidance on retirement planning.

Physical location is something customers value. While there is a desire for digital platforms Small business owners (68%), and consumers (51%) still prefer to have an insurance agent where they are physically located.

Quick tips for agents:

Ask your carrier partners for tools to talk to your clients about employee benefits, loss control, retirement planning.

Nationwide's My Loss Control Services provides a variety of loss control resources.

The Nationwide Retirement Institute offers a wide range or retirement planning resources.

Adjust your social media marketing efforts to reflect more than what you sell. It should reflect you and the hometown community you support. Nationwide's Hearsay program helps independent agents reach clients via social media in new and innovative ways.

A Shared Challenge:

The research identified two consistent challenges across all audiences surveyed  understanding policy coverage and finding the best price.

46% of small business owners, 71% of mid-market business owners and 47% of consumers said it is a challenge to understand what is and what is not covered in their policy.

44% of small business owners, 69% of mid-market business owners and 45% of consumers said it is a challenge to find the best price for protection needs.

Similarly, 55% of agents say they struggle educating clients on the coverage they need and 46% of agents say providing the level of service customers demand is a challenge.

Many customers also wrestle with understanding different types of coverage, the time it takes to settle a claim, insurance terminology and understanding how much coverage they need.

Agents reported it particularly challenging to:

Adopt new technology to keep up with the industry (55%)

Understand the nuances between different industries (53%)

Help clients with disaster prep or mitigation practices (51%)

Quick tips for agents:

When you touch base with clients, brainstorm insurance scenarios together to identify potential gaps and where business continuity and disaster planning may help.

Help your clients understand that price is only one of several important considerations when evaluating insurance. While sometimes there is a better price out there, it is important to weigh the financial commitment against the best protection option.

Look to your carrier partners to share technical expertise and resources to help you advocate for your clients and provide safety resources that mitigate their risks.

Nationwide's Commercial Insight Center offers quick, specialized and actionable information to help elevate agents' expertise and success with mid-market businesses.

An Economic Outlook:

Over half of agents think their clients feel uncomfortable talking about economic uncertainty. However, more than half of business owners and consumers feel like their agent was prepared to have these discussions.

47% of agents are optimistic the economy will recover in the next year but 66% are concerned about making it through this economic climate.

81% of agents say their customers are unsure how the current economy will impact their business and their insurance needs.

Quick tips for agents:

Nationwide offers regular economic updates from the office of our chief economist to help agents have informed conversations about the future of the economy.

Some personal lines clients may be able to reduce auto insurance cost with a telematics policy. Discuss whether a safety-based or pay-by-mile telematics solution is the best option.

Agents can also deliver bottom line impacts and operational insights to commercial clients with telematics and fleet management solutions. Discuss whether your clients' businesses would benefit from leveraging its vehicle data.

Methodology:

Nationwide commissioned Edelman Intelligence to conduct a 20-minute quantitative online survey among a sample of 2,600 U.S. independent insurance agents, small business owners, mid-market business owners, mid-market business owners with fleet vehicles, African American business owners, Hispanic business owners and general consumers between June 9  June 25 to understand what business owners and consumers value when buying or renewing insurance policies, explore the different challenges each audience faces around insurance, gauge perceptions of the economy and how each audience is managing uncertainty, and find out the actions business owners and consumer have taken as a result of COVID-19 and the conversations they're having with agents. As a member of CASRO in good standing, Edelman Intelligence conducts all research in accordance with Market Research Standards and Guidelines.

About Nationwide

Nationwide, a Fortune 100 company based in Columbus, Ohio, is one of the largest and strongest diversified insurance and financial services organizations in the U.S. and is rated A+ by both A.M. Best and Standard & Poor's. The company provides a full range of insurance and financial services, including auto, commercial, homeowners, farm and life insurance; public and private sector retirement plans, annuities and mutual funds; banking and mortgages; excess & surplus, specialty and surety; pet, motorcycle and boat insurance. For more information, visit www.nationwide.com.

Contact:

Mike Switzer

(614) 249-6349

[email protected]

SOURCE Nationwide

Related Links

http://www.nationwide.com


KAMPALA  President Museveni has directed resident district commissioners (RDCs) to deal with Rwanda security forces that cross over to Ugandan territory to kidnap and shoot dead unarmed Ugandans.

In an August 4, 2020 letter to all RDCs, Minister for Presidency Esther Mbayo also directed RDCs to warn residents against illegal entry into Rwanda.

His Excellency the President has sent a directive, especially to you RDCs, especially those in the districts neighbouring Rwanda to inform Ugandans of the Rwanda government criminal policy of shooting smugglers that are not armed, although what they are doing is illegal. Ugandans should stop going to Rwanda or those who go do so at their own risk, the letter reads in part.

As for the Rwandan soldiers infiltrating into Uganda to kidnap people, the concerned security agencies are already briefed on how to deal with them, the letter adds.

It is not immediately clear how the Ugandan army will deal with the Rwandans.

The letter comes amid a stalemate in the ongoing talks between the two countries to resolve the diplomatic impasse that led to the closure of the border by Rwanda.

The virtual meeting of the ad hoc commission for the normalisation of relations between Uganda and Rwanda ended in June 2020 without a position, especially on the opening of the Gatuna border point.

The meeting was the first of the commission since the fourth Quadripartite Heads of State Summit of President Museveni, Rwandas Paul Kagame, Angolas Joao Laurenco, and DRCs Felix Tshisekedi on February 21 at the Katuna/ Gatuna border.

Kagame, 62, accuses his former ally of backing rebel groups and dissidents who want to bring down the government in Kigali. Kigali has also accused Kampala of targeting its nationals, with the government advising Rwandans to avoid Uganda.

Museveni has denied that his country supports the rebel groups and has instead accused Kigali of trying to violate its sovereignty.

Despite Kampala releasing some of Rwanda nationals from jail, signs of resolving the standoff are not near. Instead, Rwanda has been shooting dead Ugandans who are caught smuggling different items to Rwanda.

Related
Emmanuel Macron has promised aid to blast-stricken Lebanon in a flying visit to Beirut, but warned there would be no blank cheque for leaders without reform.

Speaking at a news conference, the French President called for an international inquiry into the devastating explosion that generated a seismic shock felt across the region, saying it was an urgent signal to carry out anti-corruption reforms demanded by a furious population.

Macron, paying the first visit by a foreign leader since the explosion, promised to help organise international aid but said the Government would have to implement economic reforms and curb corruption.

The French leader was swamped by angry citizens as he toured the devastated streets of the Lebanese capital today following the port explosion that killed 145 people.

Emmanuel Macron has promised aid to blast-stricken Lebanon in a flying visit to Beirut, but warned there would be no blank cheque for leaders without reform. Pictured: Macron hugs a distraught woman during his visit to Beirut

In one powerful moment he stopped and offered a hug to a distraught woman furious the Government's inaction.

'You are sitting with warlords. They have been manipulating us for the past year,' shouted the woman.

Macron, also wearing a mask, assured her he understood her concerns. 'I'm not here to help them. I'm here to help you,' he said.

Dozens are still missing after Tuesday's explosion at the port that injured 5,000 people and left up to 250,000 without habitable homes, hammering a nation already staggering from economic meltdown and a surge in coronavirus cases.

Speaking at a news conference, the French President called for an international inquiry into the devastating explosion that generated a seismic shock felt across the region

Macron, paying the first visit by a foreign leader since the explosion, promised to help organise international aid but said the Government would have to implement economic reforms and curb corruption

'If reforms are not carried out, Lebanon will continue to sink,' Macron said after being met at the airport by Lebanese President Michel Aoun. 'What is also needed here is political change. This explosion should be the start of a new era.'

He told reporters later in Beirut that an audit was needed on the Lebanese central bank, among other urgent changes, and that the World Bank and United Nations would play a role in any Lebanese reforms.

'If there is no audit of the central bank, in a few months there will be no more imports and then there will be lack of fuel and of food,' said Macron.

France once governed Lebanon as a protectorate and maintains close ties with the small Middle-eastern country.

'If reforms are not carried out, Lebanon will continue to sink,' said French President Emmanuel Macron during a meeting with Lebanese President Michel Aoun

He told reporters in Beirut that an audit was needed on the Lebanese central bank, among other urgent changes, and that the World Bank and United Nations would play a role in any Lebanese reforms

Earlier, wearing a black tie in mourning, Macron toured the blast site and Beirut's shattered streets where angry crowds demanded an end to a 'regime' of Lebanese politicians they blame for corruption and dragging Lebanon into disaster.

'I guarantee you, this (reconstruction) aid will not go to corrupt hands,' Macron told the throngs who greeted him.

'I see the emotion on your face, the sadness, the pain. This is why Im here,' he told one group, pledging to deliver 'home truths' to Lebanon's leaders.

Dozens are still missing after Tuesday's explosion at the port that injured 5,000 people and left up to 250,000 without habitable homes

He told reporters later at the French ambassador's residence, where a French general declared the creation of the state of Lebanon exactly 100 years ago, Macron said it was no longer up to France to tell Lebanese leaders what to do.

But he said he could apply 'pressure', adding: 'This morning, many people told me, 'Bring back the mandate'. In a way you are asking me to be the guarantor of the emergence of a democratic revolution,' he said.

'But a revolution cannot be invited, the people will decide. Do not ask France to not respect your sovereignty.'
Nearly 70% of the Covid-19 related deaths in West Bengal happened due to delayed hospital admissions, the states top bureaucrat said on Thursday.

We are analysing each and every Covid-19 related death on a daily basis. Nearly 70% of the deaths took place because people delayed in reaching the hospital, said Rajiva Sinha, chief secretary of West Bengal.

Over the past few months multiple allegations have surfaced against both state-run and private hospitals that they have refused to admit patients because of various reasons including shortage of beds, resulting in the death of some patients.

Click here for full Covid-19 coverage.

Sinha, however, said that there is no shortage of hospital beds. At present there are 11,560 beds in 83 Covid-19 designated hospitals out of which 60% are still vacant. In all there are 23,500 beds in hospitals and safe homes.

There is demand for a particular category of hospital which cant be guaranteed in a pandemic situation. What we can guarantee is a kind of hospital where patients would be provided with adequate treatment by the best experts, he said.

The state government said that the case fatality rate has dropped to around 2.2% in West Bengal. The National CFR stands at 2.7%. At present only 1,144 patients in the state are in critical condition while 1,043 and 1,946 are with moderate and mild symptoms.

This means only two out of 100 Covid-19 patients have died. Out of this, 87% of the deaths were because of comorbidity, he added.

The chief secretary was addressing media persons at the state secretariat. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee was also present.

The Covid-1- pandemic has claimed 1,846 lives in Bengal till Wednesday which also saw the highest single-day casualties at 61.

On Thursday West Bengal crossed the 25,000-mark of daily swab tests. The state has already done more than one million tests.

Veteran CPI (M) leader Shyamal Chakraborty, who had tested positive for Covid-19, died in Kolkata on Thursday. Banerjee and West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar expressed their condolences.
Those with smartphones in Vietnam have been advised to download Bluezone, a Bluetooth-based app that helps determine if a person has come in contact with a COVID-19 patient.

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The app is completely confidential, anonymous, and transparent, as it only stores data on the users phone and does not transfer users information or locations to the system.

As of August 3, the app had 2.3 million downloads. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has called for the community to install Bluezone to facilitate the early detection of suspected cases.

He urged the Ministry of Information and Communication and Ministry of Health to enhance communications to promote universal installation before August 8./.VNA
Every ZIP code in Bexar County reported fewer COVID-19 cases in February than in January, according to a new report.

The epidemiological report, released Wednesday by a City of San Antonio data team, found that the winter surge of the virus ended last month. Six percent of the total cases since the beginning of the pandemic occurred in February, compared to 25 percent for January.

The team examined the virus's disproportionate impact on the local community, as well as the lopsided distribution of vaccines.

On Tuesday, officials reported 192 new cases and one death, bringing Bexar County's death toll since the pandemic began to 2,991. There were 206 coronavirus patients at local hospitals.

On ExpressNews.com: FAQ: When and where Texans can get the COVID vaccine

Below is a breakdown of Bexar County data that provides some insight into who is catching the virus and where.

More people have gotten their shots on the north and west sides

A higher proportion of residents on the north and west sides of Bexar County have been vaccinated, the epidemiological report found.

Two maps of vaccination rates by ZIP codes reveal dark-colored bands  signaling more residents have received a shot  from Stone Oak to the Far West Side.

The majority of residents who have received at least one dose are Hispanic (44.8 percent), followed by White (37.9 percent). Only 3.6 percent of Black residents of the county had received at least one dose.

The authors noted that race/ethnicity data was not yet available for 22 percent of the people who had been vaccinated.

More female Bexar County residents (59.5 percent) have been vaccinated than males (40.5 percent).

More women than men have tested positive

As of Wednesday, 53 percent of positive cases in San Antonio were detected in women and 47 percent in men. Statewide, 65.3 percent of cases are men, 33.5 percent are women and 1.2 percent are unknown.

Of the COVID-19 deaths in Bexar County, 57 percent were men and 43 percent were women. Across Texas, 58.2 percent of such deaths were men and 41.8 percent were women.

Young people are seeing the most cases

Over half of all the cases reported in Bexar County residents  57 percent  are under age 39. The category with the highest number of cases is ages 20 to 29 (21 percent), followed by 30 to 39 (18 percent), 40 to 49 (15 percent) and 50 to 59 (13 percent).

"Numbers and rates of infection continue to be highest among young adults, particularly females," the city's data team wrote.

The report found that cases among children who were infectious while physically at school declined in February. Since the onset of the pandemic, there have been 12 total outbreaks with in-school transmission in Bexar County, contributing to only 2 percent of the total school cases.

Of the COVID-19 deaths in Bexar County, 2.9 percent have been people under age 39. Over half of all the deaths  56.1 percent  were people over age 70. The cumulative death toll stands at 138 for assisted living facilities and 362 for nursing homes.

The report noted that 69 percent of the people who died had comorbid conditions. Approximately half of the people who died due to the virus had cardiovascular disease (49.9 percent), 36.7 percent had diabetes and 17.6 percent had kidney disease.

For people with COVID-19 who are 80 years of age or older, the report says, the risk of death is 23 percent for males and 16 percent for females.

Residents in the south and west parts of the city have been the hardest hit

City of San Antonio

Four of the top 10 ZIP codes with the most active COVID-19 cases are on the west side, according to a surveillance map.

The 78228 area on the West Side currently has 84 active cases, more than any other. The ZIP code has had 7,193 cumulative cases since the beginning of the pandemic.

JBSA-Lackland's ZIP code, 78236, has the highest rate of infections per capita. Over 23 percent of the area's residents have tested positive for the virus.

The highest rates of infection overall are in the southern portion of Bexar County, the city's data team found. New infections have consistently occurred at a higher rate in the ZIP codes closest to downtown and on the south and west sides.

One startling map in the report shows COVID-19 rates per capita overlaid with the percent of the population living in poverty.

The chart "shows that those zip codes near downtown and to the south of downtown are experiencing both the highest rates of COVID-19 and highest percentages of the population living in poverty," the authors wrote.

Hispanics make up over three-quarters of COVID-19 cases

Hispanics make up 75 percent of Bexar Countys COVID-19 cases, even though the community makes up 60 percent of the countys total population. Hispanic individuals accounted for 68 percent of all COVID-19 related deaths as of January.

A study published by the Annals of Epidemiology linked structural inequality, including lack of health care and occupational risk, to nationwide surges in Hispanic infections and deaths.

"We found that crowded housing, air pollution, jobs in the meatpacking and poultry industry and other factors put Latinos at high risk of COVID-19 infections and death," said Carlos Rodriguez-Diaz, the study's lead author and an associate professor of prevention and community health at George Washington University.

White residents of Bexar County account for 18 percent of cases, Black 5 percent and Asian 2 percent.

The county's demographic breakdown overall is 60 percent Hispanic, 30 percent White, 7 percent Black and 3 percent other.
An ice rink featuring a frozen waterfall in Beijings Changping district has become a popular destination among climbing enthusiasts and newcomers to ice sports. Located in the Huyu Natural Scenic Area, the rink consists of a 40-meter-high climbing area. With the approach to the Beijing Winter Olympics, ice and snow activities are attracting fans across the country. The China Tourism Academy estimated that 305 million people will visit such venues nationwide this season

Jan 18, 2022 05:36 PM
India has blocked two of the most well known Chinese apps, Baidu Search and Weibo.

Respectively, the apps serve as the Chinese equivalents of Google and Twitter - both of which are blocked in China. Indias Economic Times reports that the countrys government has instructed Google and Apple to remove the apps from their stores and ordered ISPs to prevent them from being accessed.

India is in the midst of a crackdown on Chinese technology firms as tensions between the countries escalate following a skirmish in June this year over a longstanding border dispute.

On 29th June, Indias government publicly added 59 Chinese-made apps to a block list, including TikTok, UC Browser, Helo, Likee, Shareit, Mi Community, WeChat and CamScanner. On 27th July, it added a further 47 apps to this list but did not name the apps in question.

An official government source confirmed that Baidu and Weibo were among the 47 new apps that the government had banned on July 27, and noted that further apps could be added to this list. The government has accused the apps of engaging in activities which are prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order.
Mayor Ted Wheeler and Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell held a press conference Thursday at 1:30 p.m. to address recent demonstrations in the city.

Portland police spoke earlier Thursday to share experiences of responding to Portland protests.

Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell spoke Wednesday as the city marked the 70th consecutive day of protests. Lovell said the police response to those dedicated to just provoking a police response through vandalism or violence is draining police resources and needs to stop.

Watch a replay of the press conference in the video above.

--The Oregonian/OregonLive

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
The 61 year old, who is well known for his massive connect with the people of rural areas, replaced former IAS officer Girish Chandra Murmu who tendered his resignation on Wednesday night.

Srinagar: On Thursday, former union minister and senior BJP leader from Uttar Pradesh, Manoj Sinha, was appointed as the new Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir. He is the first political leader to take charge as the LG of the union territory.

Sinha is likely to be administered the oath of office and secrecy on Friday by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Justice Gita Mittal at the Raj Bhavan, which is located on the foothills of the Zaberwan range.

He was received by advisors to the previous LG including Farooq Khan, Chief Secretary B. V. R. Subrahmanyam and top brass of the police and civil administration. A guard of honour was accorded to him at the Srinagar airport.

Sinha later held an informal meeting with the Chief Secretary, the four advisors and senior police officials.

Ending factionalism within the bureaucracy in the union territory -- with some senior IAS officers recently found to be publicly indulging in verbal spats -- is among Sinha's top priorities.

He will also revisit the state intelligence department which has been failing in anticipating the situation of late. In the past three days there have been two attacks on Panchs and Sarpanchs in South Kashmir's Kulgam district.

Earlier in the day, a Rashtrapati Bhawan communique said Murmu's resignation has been accepted.

Issued by the President's press secretary Ajay Kumar the statement read, "The President has been pleased to appoint Manoj Sinha to be the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir with effect from the date he assumes charge of his office" in place of Murmu.

Fondly known as 'vikas purush' (man involved in developmental work), Sinha is a three-time Lok Sabha MP who held charge of the Communication Ministry as a Minister of State in 2016 when the telecom industry was engaged in spectrum sale.

Armed with a B.Tech in civil engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi, Sinha has been credited with overcoming the menace of call dropping by holding widespread consultations with telecom operators.

Elected to Lok Sabha in 1996 for the first time, Sinha, an agriculturist, is the first politician to be elected as LG of the union territory. Earlier, the Centre had appointed Satya Pal Malik, a politician, as governor of the erstwhile state before it was bifurcated into two union territories -- Ladakh, and Jammu and Kashmir -- on August 5 2019.

Sinha, who was elected to Lok Sabha in 1999 and 2014, was a front-runner for the post of Uttar Pradesh CM after the party walked away with 265 seats in the 403-member assembly.

Sinha was born in Mohanpura of Ghazipur district of eastern UP. Ever since his political career began after being elected as the president of the Banaras Hindu University Students Union in 1982, he has been actively involved in working for the backward villages.

Murmu, a 1985 batch IAS officer, had abruptly submitted his resignation on Wednesday night on the day the Union Territory marked the first anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution thereby scrapping Jammu and Kashmir's special status.

On Wednesday afternoon Murmu had flown in a helicopter to Jammu, cancelling all his appointments including meetings with journalists which were slated on the occasion of one year of the revocation of the special status.

The 60-year-old former IAS officer of Gujarat cadre had, on October 29 last year, taken over as the first LG of the union territory after the state of Jammu and Kashmir was downgraded and split into two UTs.

According to sources, Murmu is likely to be given a new assignment at the Centre.

The recent statements of Murmu, who flew out of Jammu Thursday afternoon in a special plane, on elections and 4G internet had come under the scanner especially after the Supreme Court had remarked about his interview on the subject of high-speed internet to a national daily.

The Centre was asked by the top court to come out with a clear stand after Murmu's interview, in which he stated that the UT administration had no problem in extending 4G to Jammu and Kashmir.

In the last week of July, the Election Commission had taken exception to Murmu's remarks on the timings of polls in the union territory, saying that in the constitutional scheme of things only the EC is authorised to decide on the poll schedule.

Murmu had said the polls would be held after the delimitation exercise was completed in the union territory. The LG had only stated what was enshrined in the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, passed by the Parliament last year.
James Aikins Jr. and Charletta Ayers, two New Jersey physicians who are the husband and wife founders of International Health Care Volunteers. (Photo courtesy of Michelle Bilbao) Read more

In 2001, while on a trip to his native Ghana, New Jersey gynecological oncologist James Aikins Jr. arrived in his hometown of Cape Coast. There he learned of the cause for great family rejoicing: His 21-year-old niece was due to give birth imminently. When Aikins left Cape Coast for a few days to visit with other relatives in the West African country, he expected to return to find a happy new mother and child.

But Aikins came back to tragedy. The infant was born healthy, but the niece had bled to death from a postpartum hemorrhage, a common childbirth complication that typically is treated without negative outcomes. Aikins, who practices at Cooper University Health Care, learned that the hospital where his niece delivered her child had few doctors and only one fully qualified obstetrician. Aikins was heartbroken and angry, which drove him to look for answers.

It made me feel like, what can we do to improve this condition? And the first thing that came to mind was to set up a program to work with the doctors [in Ghana] and [teach them] to manage these cases, Aikins said.

Back in the United States, Aikins  who is also an associate professor at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University  joined with his physician wife, Charletta Ayers, an associate professor and division director at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, to look for solutions. Before the year was up, they had formed International Health Care Volunteers (IHCV), a grassroots nonprofit made up of New Jersey doctors and nurses who would donate their time, expertise, and finances to two-week medical missions to Ghana to treat underserved women and train local physicians how to care for them.

In 2002, Aikins and nine of his Cooper colleagues undertook IHCVs first mission to Ghana. Since then, IHCV has provided medical care to over 15,000 patients  women, men, and children  and has performed thousands of major and minor medical and surgical procedures. In 2009, IHVC launched a similar annual initiative in Jamaica, and last year made its first trip to the Dominican Republic.

My husbands vision is just unbelievable, said Ayers, who is Aikins mission partner. We would be all over the world if it was up to him.

Their care teams now number close to 40 people, including doctors in various specialties, as well as nurses, medical students, pharmacists, and even teachers.

Weve adopted one orphanage, which we go back to in Ghana, Ayers said. Besides providing medical care to the children, the team supplies books. About 15 years ago, one of the little boys tried to return his book to the team when he was done with it. He didnt realize it was his to keep. He had never owned a book before.

Because of that, he went to school to become a teacher, Ayers said of the now young man, who is in the midst of studies and visits the IHCV team whenever they are in Ghana.

In addition to direct care to ill patients, Aikins, Ayers, and their IHCV colleagues in the Ghana mission have instituted screening programs for HIV, colon cancer, and cervical cancer.

When we started going to Ghana, one of the things we quickly saw was there was no organized screening for cervical cancer, which is routinely diagnosed via a pap smear, a simple swab of the cervix, Aikins said.

Few local health-care providers had the funding or technology to perform pap smears. So Aikins said his volunteers began teaching their Ghanaian colleagues to use vinegar, a light source, and a basic piece of gynecological equipment to visually examine the cervix. (The vinegar will make abnormal cells appear to change color.) They were then able to raise funds for another piece of equipment to conduct a higher level of testing in cases where that initial screening warranted it.

An important aspect of IHCVs mission is to support medical colleagues in Ghana through training, mentoring, and education opportunities.

One year, we did CPR training for almost an entire hospital, a total of about 70 individuals, said Ayers. We have a project each year  something sustainable we can leave there.

The couple and their team members have also mentored Ghanaian doctors-in-training. And Aikins and Ayers helped start and now teach in an OB-GYN residency program at Cape Coast Teaching Hospital. The location has special meaning for their family: Its the same hospital where Aikins niece died in 2001.

While COVID-19 has, sadly, canceled IHVCs missions this year, Aikins said the team will return as soon as possible. In the meantime, he and Ayers will use the internet to conduct their residency teaching as well as address Ghanas annual medical conference.

Their hope is to expand their medical education efforts in the West African nation.

As they say, you teach somebody how to fish, and they will eat forever, as opposed to giving them the fish, Aikins said. Thats our basic premise. We would like to teach them how to fish.

The visiting American doctors  those starting their careers and the veterans  have been enriched by their experiences with IHVC.

For Ayers, going into a new culture teaches patience and highlights the need to be an especially careful listener. And I think Ive brought that back as a physician here in the United States.

Aikins said the American medical residents who have gone on the missions have remarked how theyve learned to do more with less, because of not having access to resources theyre become used to in the United States. Ghana and other developing nations often lack the sophisticated technology and equipment that is taken for granted in the United States. Working in low-resource situations forces physicians to hone their diagnostic skills, he said. They also become familiar with diseases they might not otherwise encounter.

We learn from them as much as they learn from us, Aikins said.

Michelle Bilbao, a fellow in womens cancer at Cooper University Health Care, said her time in Ghana with IHCV taught her the importance of developing relationships with a community, as well as how to do more with fewer resources and still wind up with positive results.

It was just a real growth experience for me professionally, surgically, as well as learning to interact with folks not of my background, Bilbao said.

The IHCV missions have held personal significance to Aikins family in Ghana. His grandmother  a matriarch who lived to age 105  would constantly remark on the good that the visiting doctors were doing in memory of the young mother who died in childbirth all those years ago. Its a view the rest of the family shares.

They feel that from something horrible that happened to our family, Aikins said, something great came out of it.
According to a Tweet released by TheElegant055 on August 5, 2020, the first Chinese Type 075 LHD Landing Helicopter Dock will start sea trials. The ship has left the shipyard.

According to a Tweet released by TheElegant055 on August 5, 2020, the first Chinese Type 075 LHD Landing Helicopter Dock will start sea trials. The ship has left the shipyard.

Follow Navy Recognition on Google News at this link

Chinese Navy Type 075 LHD Landing Helicopter Dock ready for sea trials. (Picture source Twitter account TheElegant055)

The Type 075 is an LHD (Landing Helicopter Dock), NATO reporting name Yushen-class landing helicopter assault) designed and build by the HudongZhonghua Shipbuilding company. As for the U.S. WASP-class amphibious assault ship, the Type 75 will be used by the Chinese Navy to launch various types of helicopters to attack naval vessels, enemy ground forces or submarines. The vessels will also be able to deploy landing craft and troops, and house command and control operations.

In September 2019, China has launched its first Type 75 during a ceremony at the CSSCs Hudong-Zhonghua shipyard.

The Type 075 LHD is expected to have a displacement of 36,000 tons. In comparison, a Mistral-class LHD displaces 21,000 tons full load, the Juan Carlos LHD 26,000 tons and the Wasp-class 40,500 tons.

Type 075 LHD should be able to deploy and accommodate up to 30 helicopters (Z-8, Z-9, Z-18, Ka-28, Ka-31) with 6 helicopter spots on the flight deck and the main elevator located at the stern.
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc and German biotech firm BioNTech SE on Wednesday said they had signed a deal to supply Canada with an experimental coronavirus vaccine.

Deliveries of the BNT162 mRNA-based vaccine candidate are planned over the course of 2021, subject to clinical success and Health Canada approval, the two companies said in a statement. They did not reveal financial details.

Separately, the Canadian government said it would make an announcement on the next steps in procuring vaccines at 10 a.m. ET (1400 GMT) on Wednesday.

There are no approved vaccines for the illness caused by the new coronavirus, but 19 vaccines are being tested in humans around the world.

Also read: COVID-19 vaccine: BioNTech, Fosun Pharma launch another trial in China
Patna: Bihar police chief Gupteshwar Pandey on Thursday warned of legal action if an IPS officer, who had gone to Mumbai to probe actor Sushant Singh Rajput death case, was not released from "forcible quarantine" by the end of the day.

Pandey expressed bewilderment over no positive response from the municipal authorities in Mumbai, whom he accused of keeping IPS officer Vinay Tiwari in virtual house arrest, despite being informed about the adverse remarks made by Supreme Court against their action.

Talking to reporters, the DGP said he will consult the state's Advocate General on the matter and, if Tiwari, posted as SP, City (East) in Patna, was not allowed to leave by today, moving the court could be an option.

It is a virtual house arrest. Our officer went to Mumbai after informing his counterparts there in writing and over phone. I too had sent an SMS to my counterpart in Maharashtra informing him that Tiwari will be there for three days and shared with him the details, Pandey said.

Tiwari had requested for an accommodation in the IPS Mess, which was not granted. We let it go. But his forcible quarantine shortly after his reaching Mumbai is unacceptable. The IG, Patna Zone, wrote to the BMC chief quoting the guidelines of the Maharashtra government under which Tiwari could have been exempted from quarantine. It elicited no positive response, he lamented.

Pandey said yesterday when the Supreme Court also frowned upon the treatment meted out to Tiwari and called it unprofessional, the IGP again contacted the municipal authorities, but nothing came of it.

"We shall now be waiting till the end of the day and consulting the Advocate General in the meantime. If all else fails, moving the court could be an option, Pandey added.

The 34-year-old actor was found dead inside his Bandra residence on June 14 last and an FIR was lodged by his father K K Singh, who resides in Patna, at a local police station on July 25.

A tug of war ensued between the governments of the two states with Maharashtra contending that Bihar had no jurisdiction in the matter since the death took place outside the state.

A petition contending the same was also filed in the Supreme Court by actress Rhea Chakraborty, who along with her family members has been named as the main accused in the FIR lodged by Rajputs father. She has been accused of abetting the actor's suicide, keeping him in wrongful confinement, and defrauding him of crores of rupees.

The impasse led the bereaved father to call up Pandey and request that the matter be handed over to the CBI which was followed, the same day, by a recommendation to the effect by the Nitish Kumar government.

The Centre, too, issued a notification approving the recommendation, in an apparent rebuff to the Shiv Sena-NCP- Congress government in Maharashtra that there was no need to hand over the matter to the CBI.
Beirut residents and Lebanese diaspora take part in relief efforts to help repair damage and assist those affected.

Beirut, Lebanon  After Lama Masri felt the shockwaves of the massive explosion that ripped through Beirut on Tuesday, she knew that people in the city would need help.

I went immediately to the pharmacy, grabbed a first aid kit and ran to help. When something like this happens, its your first instinct  youre in crisis mode, the 32-year-old told Al Jazeera.

Masri, a software developer based in Beirut, was among thousands of Lebanese nationals who have been actively taking matters into their own hands to provide aid to those affected by the explosion, which killed 137 people and wounded some 5,000 others according to the government.

I could see literally at least 60 percent of our population on the streets, helping people, whether theyre organisers or just coming in on their own as volunteers, she told Al Jazeera.

I had 11 workers helping out and Id left for a bit to get them sandwiches. [Since] nothing was open  everything was shattered; some people came out on motorcycles to distribute food, said Masri. I ended up with 11 boxes of free food.

The country has been shaken by multiple crises in recent months. Last October, protesters took to the streets to call for a political overhaul as financial and economic crises worsened in the country.

Buildings across Beirut were damaged in Tuesdays massive explosion [Mohamed Azakir/Reuters]

According to ICRC spokeswoman Rona Halabi, there has been increasing concern that the situation will worsen in the aftermath of the explosion, which devastated the port of Beirut  a vital location for food and aid imports.

We usually get all our aid through the port, so this may affect our work, Halabi told Al Jazeera. But we, of course, are here to provide as much as we can to the families of the victims and the injured.

Meanwhile, people are coming together as part of volunteer organisations, and even individually, to assist stricken communities. Halabi says providing medical assistance has undoubtedly been critical.

This city and everyone is shaken to the core, she said. Several hospitals are still damaged; the ones that are still working have been overwhelmed [with people] whove had injuries. And theres still a big need of assistance.

But as hospitals struggled with the influx of wounded people  many had to look for medical treatment elsewhere.

My colleague was injured with her mother and she went to the hospital in Beirut  They were then able to receive medical support in another hospital because there were more serious injuries that needed those hospital beds, said Halabi. A lot of patients were also being treated in parking lots.

Volunteers who have provided assistance on the ground, like Masri, said they used tweezers to help remove glass pieces from peoples wounds.

You cant just sit at home and say, Im safe here, when others have lost everything. I cant see devastation and not react, said Masri.

Global Solidarity Movement

Campaigns focused on spreading awareness of the situation on the ground have since gained international attention. A large number of charity organisations, like non-profit group Impact Lebanon, have put together fundraisers to respond to the crisis. Several initiatives have also been launched to direct potential donors and volunteers to reliable organisations.

Ghida Beydoun, 22, Dania Kharazi, 20, and Nour Abi Fadel, 19, recently came up with the idea of a platform to help spread awareness about the availability of services catering to those in need.

Were creating an Instagram account called VolunteerBeirut outlining the different areas of help, said Abi Fadel.

[Its purpose] is to increase equity in the digital space so everyone is aware of current volunteering initiatives, and they can determine how to help as well.

A student volunteer group focused on environmental clean-up, called GEMs (Green Environment Group) also created a WhatsApp group, to mobilise youth in providing help with recovery efforts in the capital city.

Dear GEMs,

If we haven't turned into ruins, a piece of us has. Our deepest condolences to the families of martyrs, victims, ones with ruined houses and businesses. It's not in our hands, but we can still help control minimal damage. pic.twitter.com/L16t8OvpaK  Green Environment Movement (@GEM_Leb) August 5, 2020

Meanwhile, a Lebanese-American medical student based in Michigan has raised more than $50,000 for medical supplies.

I started the page in July, [at the time] it was mainly for COVID-19 relief. I spoke to so many people, including mosques, even newspapers, to get donations at the time, said Majd Faraj, who noticed that his fundraiser gained momentum shortly after the explosion.

Its overwhelming, but at the same time its so bittersweet that such a disaster like this had to happen in order for people to start donating more.

Faraj has partnered with the World Medical Relief programme, which plans on sending the first shipments by the end of this week.

Ive been getting an abundance of emails from people who I dont know at all, who are offering medication, supplies or anything like that which is very sweet, because even if they cant donate physical money, people all over the world have been contacting me to at least try to help somehow [with their own means], he said.

#OurHomesAreOpen

Up to 300,000 people are estimated to have lost their homes in the explosion and dozens of people have been reported missing. Families have sought to locate loved ones through the help of social media pages, like LocateVictimsBeirut.

Local non-profit organisations like Beit Al Baraka announced that they will be providing assistance to repair homes damaged in the explosion.

Hundreds of social media users in the area have also sought to help those in need of shelter with the hashtag #OurHomesAreOpen, in both English and Arabic.

Christopher Naders family-run hotel was slightly damaged, but none of his staff or guests suffered injuries [Christophe Nader/Al Jazeera]

Others, like Lama Masri, coordinated efforts to get people to immediate shelter.

We provided 20 apartments for free, [from Beirut to Tripoli] to whoever lost their homes, she said.

We assembled a team of about 40 young people who have never really worked in an NGO but have been wanting to do good [for their community] since the thawra [or revolution] started.

Christopher Nader, a 22-year-old hotel manager, also joined in, transforming his familys business into a refuge for victims.

In times like these you cant think about yourself, he said. You cant think about money, you cant think about anything else. Seeing these people struggle, and being able to give them a place to stay and a roof to sleep under just makes me feel so good.

Naders family owns two hotels  one located in Beirut and another farther away from the hospital. The location closer to the explosion had been left slightly damaged, but none of his staff or guests had suffered any injuries.

eden hotel (in jdeideh) and matador hotel (in mansourieh) are open to people whos houses are destroyed and need a place to stay, please contact if you need it: pic.twitter.com/ydYScI3S5q  ares (@8aekho) August 4, 2020

When the explosion hit, Nader began offering free rooms on social media to help victims.

People are telling me that Im a hero, but I think the real heroes are those whove been on the ground, he said.

I feel that its my duty to help people in my country. When things like this happen, you dont think about hate. You dont think about religion. You just think about love.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Wednesday that homes hosting parties in violation of coronavirus social distancing restrictions will have their utilities shut off.

The mayor said he has authorized the citys Department of Water and Power to cut utilities to residences within 48 hours after the LAPD verifies they are hosting parties. The decision, which takes effect on Friday, will target egregious cases where houses are hosting un-permitted large gatherings, Garcetti said.

While we hope that you will avoid gatherings of all sizes, this enforcement is not focused on small and ordinary gatherings in peoples homes, the mayor added. These are focused on the people determined to break the rules, posing significant public dangers and a threat to all of us.

In response to a question about whether it is constitutional to shut off power and water going to private property, Garcetti responded, Youre breaking the law.

This is life and death, he said.

Los Angeles Countys health department afterwards issued an order banning gatherings, including parties, during this pandemic in order to protect the health and lives of county residents.

Early Tuesday morning, a 35-year-old mother of three was shot and killed and three others injured at a party with about 200 people in a Beverly Hills mansion. The shooting is suspected to be gang-related.

California reimposed social distancing and lockdown requirements last month after cases of the virus spiked, including in Los Angeles and San Diego, the states two largest counties. Much of the new surge in virus cases appears to be among younger adults, with those under 50 years old making up 60 percent of new coronavirus cases in Los Angeles County.

California added 2,347 new cases of the virus on Wednesday, and 68 more people died from the infection, bringing the states death toll past 4,800.

More from National Review
Federation of Somali Journalists (FESOJ) is relieved by the release of Hiigsi radio editor Mohamed Abdiwahab Nur known as Abuuja who was acquitted Somalias Military Court on Wednesday 05,2020 after he was deceptively alleged involvement in terrorist murder and being held incommunicado without access to family members and lawyers.

The journalist was arrested on 29 February 2020, by in a NISA detention facility in Mogadishu. He was later released on 2 March 2020 without charge but he was re-arrested again by NISA on 7 March 2020 and was held incommunicado without access to family and lawyers. On June 7 Journalist Mohamed Abdiwahab Abuuja appeared at a military court in Mogadishu the court ordered the journalist to be transferred to Mogadishu Central Prison where he was being held.

On last Monday, August 3, 2020 the Somali Military Court said it has concluded the trial of journalist Mohamed Abdiwahab Abuja and would announce its verdict soon.

Today at 11:00 AM Colonel Hassan Ali Nur Shute, the Chief prosecutor of the military court announced the verdict and said After a long investigation and closely listening to the allegations made by prosecutors and also legal responses of the defence lawyers, the court rules today that the journalist Mohamed Abdiwahab Nur (Abuuja) is not guilty at all and not involved in the crimes he was alleged, therefore the court affirms his innocence orders his immediate release

I am so glad today that the court today proved my innocence and freed me from jail. I would like to thank all the national and the International media groups who have stood by my side in the difficult times during the arbitrary and illegal detention. Let justice prevail.Journalist Mohamed Abdiwahab Nur (Abuuja) said speaking with the press shortly after he was released.

The three lawyers defending the case against Dahir Mohamud Ali, Prof Isse Ahmed Warsame and Anas Shafici Abdirahman have pleaded the journalist is not guilty and rebuffed all the charges the journalist was accused.

The Federation of Somali Journalists (FESOJ) is Relieved by the acquittal of Editor of Hiigsi Radio Mohamed Abdiwahab Nur (Abuuja) . We appreciate the military court for serving justice to the journalist. Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu, FESOJ Secretary-General said withstanding the journalist and his father.

Many people have been criticizing us when we were advocating for the release of journalists Mohamed Abduwahab (Abuja) who he falsely stamped and linked to terror group but confidently we aware of the best interest of the journalist Mohamed Abduwahab Abuja has been innocent and good journalist, thanks to God that justice has worked today. Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu, FESOJ Secretary-General added.

FESOJ asserts that it is not acceptable for a journalist to be detained for five months, as the allegations are baseless, and we demand that the journalist be given adequate compensation during his long arbitrary detention.

Local journalists, led by FESOJ and a number of international organizations, strongly advocated for the journalists release during his imprisonment, which several times sparked protests in Mogadishu.

Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu FESOJ Secretary General and Journalist Mohamed Abdiwahab Abuja.
Among those enjoying an idyllic life in the Oxfordshire countryside, Boris Johnson's sweeping reforms to the planning system today will come as a major concern.

For a four-year battle has been taking place over the proposed Chalgrove Airfield development for a new market town of 3,000 homes and four schools.

But the new draft laws mean developers in some areas will be able to get going quickly once a local plan is agreed, slashing red tape and fast-tracking building.

The Chalgrove development has been held up for four years with not a single brick yet laid amid the intervention of neighbours and political battles.

A four-year battle has been taking place over the proposed Chalgrove Airfield development for a new market town of 3,000 homes and four schools in the Oxfordshire countryside

Planning shake-up to get homes built Local councils will be given two and a half years to draw up plans for building more homes or will face sanctions. Developments that follow locally-agreed pattern books on home design will be fast-tracked, with a requirement for tree-lined streets in all new schemes. Every piece of land in England will be designated as for 'growth', 'renewal' or 'protection'. Residents will be able to access online maps and data to see what is planned in their local communities. Advertisement

The dramatic shake-up - billed as the biggest since the Second World War - vows to slash red tape and fast-track developments, while insisting they must be 'beautiful'.

Computers could be used to screen applications so 'binary' issues can be decided automatically.

It would also strip local councillors of power to decide on individual projects to overcome blocking, and impose binding central targets to force local authorities to allocate land for homebuilding.

The blueprint has been heavily criticised by charities, planning officers and architects who warned they could lead to a 'generation of slums' and kill off affordable housing projects.

Chalgrove resident Simon Reynolds wrote on Facebook today: 'Fast tracking will simply mean the local people get even less of a say than we do at present and we are not really listened to now.

'South Oxfordshire District Council have paid lip service to local objections but its all we can do. Comment on the planning application for the airfield while you can, before September 1.

'Over 200 objections so far, lets make it three times that. Obviously the more detailed the better but even a short objection with relevant points is good.'

And a spokesman for the Campaign to Protect Rural England in Oxfordshire said today: 'As a result of Jenrick's planning overhaul will campaigners be forced to accept Chalgrove development after a four-year battle to stop it?'

The Chalgrove development would feature a town centre, two primary schools, a secondary school and a sixth form college, as well as a bypass for access to nearby villages

One resident replying to a consultation in 2018 said the plans were 'frankly laughable' and urged work to end on the 'blinkered view of a mythical Nirvana'.

Another, Jacky Nabb, told BBC News that the plans felt like 'somebody just twisted my stomach', adding: 'It sounds really dramatic, but it broke my heart.'

The development would feature a town centre, two primary schools, a secondary school and a sixth form college, as well as a bypass for access to nearby villages.

Homes England, which owns the site, leases part of it to ejector seat maker Martin-Baker and could use a compulsory purchase order to get them to leave.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits a site in Ealing, West London, on Wednesday last week

The Prime Minister says that ' The current planning system wastes time and taxpayers money. He has vowed to cut the red tape, overhaul the planning process and build better, greener homes faster

HE has said the plans will help the council 'meet the unmet housing need of the area at the same time as protecting the green belt and safeguarding local jobs'.

It comes as the Housing Secretary today defended his reforms against criticism that the move to speed up building will create slums and ignore local concerns.

Robert Jenrick dismissed allegations the newly-unveiled draft laws for England could create a new generation of low quality homes as 'complete nonsense'.

And he insisted local people will be able to make 'a meaningful contribution', despite confirming there is nothing that can be done to halt disliked projects once an area is designated for growth.

Homes England, which owns the Chalgrove Airfield site (above), leases part of it to ejector seat maker Martin-Baker and could use a compulsory purchase order to get them to leave

Mr Jenrick said the major overhaul would protect green spaces while making it easier to build on brownfield sites despite Labour branding it a 'developers' charter'.

Speaking on Sky News, Mr Jenrick said: 'Today it takes seven years to produce a local plan, we want to reduce that to around two and a half years.

'And it can take five years to get spades in the ground on a housing estate. We believe that can be cut very significantly and everybody will benefit from that - the people who work in the industry and those people who want to get on the housing ladder as well.'

Asked whether the public will have less of a say on planning decisions, he added: 'Well we want to have a meaningful local engagement and that is at the planning making stage. So what our proposals will do, it will mean that when the plan is being produced, there will be a really serious debate in a local community about where they want homes to be built.'

The Royal Institute of British Architects said there was 'every chance they could also lead to the creation of the next generation of slum housing'.

The new process will involve quicker development on land which has been designated 'for renewal', with a 'permission in principle' approach.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said this will balance the need for proper checks with a speedier way of working.

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick, pictured on July 10 outside 10 Downing Street, has insisted 'we will cut red tape, but not standards'

Another new category will see land designated for growth where new homes, hospitals and schools will be allowed automatically to empower development.

The reforms have caused unease within Tory ranks, with fears that local concerns will be ignored in order to build more quickly.

The Local Government Association's Conservative chairman James Jamieson said: 'Any loss of local control over developments would be a concern.'

Mr Jenrick has insisted 'we will cut red tape, but not standards' as he says it currently takes seven years to agree local housing plans and five years to get building.
In a controversial statement, Samajwadi Party MP in the Lok Sabha Shafiqur Rehman Barq on Thursday said the land on which a mosque once stood cannot be used for any other purpose as per Islamic law.

Speaking about the foundation-laying ceremony of the Ram temple at Ayodhya on Wednesday, he said the Babri mosque stood there and as per the Islamic law wherever a mosque is once built, the land always serves that purpose.

Criticising the BJP government, he claimed it will end democracy and secularism.

"Whatever is happening in a democratic country like ours is not right. Their government laid the temple's foundation on the basis of their power," he said.

He said the Muslim community has exercised utmost patience and asked them not to get perturbed.
The five activists arrested in connection with the #RevolutionNow protests in Abeokuta, Ogun State, have been released.

This paper reported how the activists were whisked away by operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) at different locations on Wednesday morning after they disrupted their plans to protest.

The demonstration, staged across major cities in the country on Wednesday, was a protest against bad governance, lack of infrastructure, extra-judicial activities among others.

Those arrested are Bankole Adebayo, a student of Tai Solarin University of Education (TASUED), Babalola Ayoola from Gateway Polytechnic and three others.

PREMIUM TIMES learnt that the activists were released around 8.00 p.m. on Wednesday.

Narrating the incident on Thursday afternoon, Mr Adebayo said they were first taken to the office of the SSS in Oke Mosan before being transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) in Eleweran.

He noted that when they arrived at Eleweran, he was tortured by some police officers and sustained an injury in the head.

We were told to face the wall. After that, two of the officers started beating me. I was beaten till the point that they injured me. The bruise was treated at the clinic afterwards, he told our reporter.

He further disclosed that they were released after a meeting with the Commissioner of Police, Edward Awolowo.

According to Mr Adebayo, the police commissioner questioned their relationship with Omoyele Sowore and the #RevolutionNow movement.

He advised us against joining a protest without involving the police prior to the day of the protest. He said calling for a revolution is an attempt to topple the government of President Muhammadu Buhari.

However, telephone calls put across to the police spokesperson in the state, Abimbola Oyeyemi, to get his reaction were not responded to.

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He had promised to reach out to PREMIUM TIMES on Wednesday but failed.

Scores of protesters who were arrested in Lagos and Abuja on Wednesday were released hours later except for those arrested in Osun, who were detained overnight.

Human rights groups have condemned the harassment and arrest of #RevolutionNow protesters across the country.
The lieutenant general overseeing the Army's hypersonic weapons program said the service will soon accelerate testing of the ultra-fast missile effort to compete with Russia and China in the race to field the deadly new technology.

In a joint effort with the Navy, the Army has been designing the Common-Hypersonic Glide Body, which will be used by all U.S. services, and is preparing to transition it to the defense industry, which will mass produce the technology.

The Army will soon begin ramping up the testing schedule so it can field the first operational hypersonic missile battery by fiscal 2023, Lt. Gen. Neil Thurgood, director of Hypersonics, Directed Energy, Space, and Rapid Acquisition, said Wednesday during a Defense News space and missile defense webinar.

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"The flight test program is very aggressive, and we need to be aggressive in order to keep on case and be competitive with our near-peer competitors, namely Russia and China," he said.

Following a successful test in March, "we will actually accelerate our program; our next flight test will be mid-year of 2021, followed very quickly by two shots later in 2021," Thurgood said, adding that, until now, tests had been completed every three years.

The Pentagon's hypersonics effort is under real pressure to create a new class of ultrafast, maneuverable, long-range missiles capable of flying at five times the speed of sound. The Defense Department made hypersonic technologies a priority, nearly doubling its long-term investment, with almost $5 billion more in fiscal 2020 funding for hypersonics development alone in the next five years.

The increased funding follows advancements made by adversaries such as Russia, which claims to have unveiled a hypersonic glide vehicle capable of traveling more than 20 times the speed of sound.

Over the next 12 to 14 months, the Army will transfer the high-priority glide-body work from government laboratories to Dynetics Technical Solutions, the firm selected last August to produce the first commercially manufactured set of prototype Common-Hypersonic Glide Body systems.

Story continues

"We have to transition the technology ... from the government labs to our commercial industrial partners who can build this kind of weapon system in quantity," Thurgood said.

Over the past year, teams from Dynetics have been based at Sandia National Laboratories, training to build the glide bodies.

The Army has a plan to select and train a second firm if demand goes up for more glide bodies, Thurgood said.

"At the same time, we are about 14 months away from getting our first set of support equipment to the first unit, so it's happening very, very quickly," he added.

If all goes well, soldiers from the unit scheduled to receive the first hypersonics battery -- consisting of four trucks with launchers, hypersonic missile rounds, and a command-and-control system -- will participate in the flight test scheduled for the fall of 2021, Thurgood said.

"It is our intent to use those flight tests not just for engineering work but also for training work for our soldiers," he said.

In a parallel effort, the Army is also working to develop the training and tactics units will need to take this new weapon system into the fight, Thurgood added.

"It's not sufficient to show to a unit and give them a piece of kit; we have to give them the training that goes with it, we have to give them the doctrine that goes with it, the leadership training, the policy -- all of those things have to be provided in parallels to just providing them kit," he said.

-- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.

Related: Navy, Army Flight Test a Common Hypersonic Weapon Glide Body
Farmers with Official Tuberculosis Free status should be allowed to use APHA approved but currently un-validated tests for bovine TB, veterinary experts say.

PBD Biotech, developers of rapid bTB blood test Actiphage, have welcomed the recommendation as it 'empowers' farmers and their vets to improve biosecurity.

The British Veterinary Association (BVA) report includes research showing that farmers feel powerless in the bTB battle and the current blame culture is creating fatigue that is hindering innovation.

It says the impact on the wellbeing of farmers and vets underlines the need for a 'new approach' to bTB management that involves all stakeholders.

The BVA policy states: We support the use of non-statutory testing, particularly for farms that are part of a wider programme of earned recognition.

Actiphage has been approved by the APHA for exceptional private use in areas of chronic TB infection but once the disease is under control the permission is removed, stifling its use by farmers and their vets.

Mark Hammond, CEO of PBD Biotechnology said: We know of farmers and private vets that would like to use Actiphage to accelerate the removal of infected animals and reduce the risk of within-herd transmission.

"Offering this flexibility would empower farmers to feel ownership of the disease management.

Actiphage is the only test that directly identifies the presence of live Mycobacterium bovis, the pathogen that causes bTB, from a sample of blood.

It offers potential as a DIVA test as it can distinguish between live and dead mycobacteria.

Such a test is pre-requisite for a vaccine, and was identified as a priority for government investment by the BVA report.

Mr Hammond said: The success of any system of bTB controls in cattle is dependent on the ability to detect the presence of infection, at herd level but also in individual live animals.

The current skin test SICCT uses an immune response. While it is a good herd level test it only has 50-80% sensitivity so will miss individuals, leaving a reservoir of disease in the herd.

"A combination of approaches is required and encouraging trials of new diagnostics will increase the armoury available to farmers.

The BVA policy report also recommends evaluation of bTB diagnostics for testing potential wild reservoirs of disease as well as non-bovid farmed animals.

Actiphage itself has been shown to be effective in badgers, deer and in total twenty other species of animal.

The speed of the diagnostic could also allow it to be used to test herd animals before and after movement, giving the opportunity to limit potential spread of the disease via a testing and tracing programme.

What recommendations have BVA made?

 Use of tests - The relevant authority should permit the exceptional private use of non-approved tests for bTB on cattle under certain conditions, with reactors statutorily notified and the herd remaining OTFW until the usual two tests.

 Additional testing - Government should build on the success of the rollout of IFN? and encourage research and trials to assess the potential for additional tests or combinations of tests

 Vaccine - Government should continue to prioritise the development of a cattle vaccine and DIVA test (a test that can differentiate between infected and vaccinated cattle).

 TB in other species - Government should seek to evaluate and validate existing bTB tests for susceptible non-bovine farmed species.

 Sharing information with vet - Where possible the results from bTB testing should be automatically shared with a farmers private vet, to allow a swift, coordinated response between all parties.

 Movement - Government should thoroughly evaluate the effect of the introduction of pre- and post-movement test requirements.
Veteran professional wrestler Marty Jannetty has addressed questions surrounding his recent claim that he made a man disappear when he was 13.

Jannetty, 60, a former WWE star, was interviewed for the Boston Wrestling MWF YouTube channel about what appeared to be his confession that he killed a man.

Jannetty said that he didnt kill the man, but he did attack the man, who he says was later reported missing.

The pro wrestler, who has lived in Lakehurst and Toms River, posted the claim about making a man disappear on his Facebook page Wednesday, saying he had fought back after a man allegedly tried to sexually assault him in his native Columbus, Georgia as a teen.

Working at Victory Lanes Bowling Alley buying weed from a (anti-gay slur) that worked there and he put his hands on me, Jannetty said in a now-deleted Facebook post. He dragged me around to the back of the building. You already know what he was gonna try to do.

That was the first time I made a man disappear ... they never found him, Jannetty said. They shoulda looked in the (Chattahoochee) River.

In the Boston Wrestling interview, Jannetty again talked about the alleged attempt at sexual assault.

If I couldnt have handled myself, that dude would have raped me, Jannetty said.

I didnt say I killed him, he continued. I said he disappeared.

Jannetty said he jumped out of a car after the man tried to fondle him. He said the man grabbed him by the hair and shirt and dragged him to the back of the bowling alley, throwing him to the ground.

I wont lie, I was scared, he said.

Jannetty said he picked up a brick from the ground and beat the man in the head.

I cant say he deserved to die but he deserved to get his a-- beat, Jannetty said.

I made my mind up that day: nobody would ever hurt me again, he said.

He said he threw the man in the river, then found out on the news that he was missing.

All I know is that man, no other kids had to worry about him, Jannetty said. Its unclear who the man is and whether or not he died as a result of the encounter with Jannetty.

Previously police in Columbus, Georgia reportedly told TMZ they would investigate Jannettys claim.

The first step will be seeing if we have any missing persons or unidentified remains cases that match the limited information in the post, a police spokesperson told TMZ.

Jannetty and retired WWE star Shawn Michaels were formerly known as The Rockers. After they parted ways in the early 90s, Jannetty became WWF intercontinental champion and WWF world tag team champion. Jannetty, who has continued to make appearances at independent wrestling shows in recent years, was interviewed in the 2012 Star-Ledger documentary The Bottom Rope: Inside the World of Independent Wrestling.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription.

Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Send a coronavirus tip here.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn briefs the media about the developing of the coronavirus crisis test strategy in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2020. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Germany will require people arriving from countries deemed high risk, such as the United States, to take coronavirus tests starting this weekend, the health minister said Thursday, as the country recorded its highest daily tally of new infections in three months.

German officials have voiced alarm over a steady upward creep in the number of new infections over recent weeks. The national disease control center, the Robert Koch Institute, said 1,045 cases were recorded on Wednesdaythe first time since May 7 that it has counted more than 1,000 new cases in a day.

Daily figures can be volatile or distorted by delays in reporting, and the number is still far short of the peak of more than 6,000 reached in early April.

"What we are seeing is a lot of small outbreaks," Health Minister Jens Spahn told reporters. "People are getting infected at family parties, at their place of work or at community facilities."

On top of that, school holidaysthe dates of which are staggered across Germany's 16 statesare ending in some regions, increasing concerns that vacationers could bring home the virus.

Last Saturday, the government started offering free tests for people returning to the country, a move that Spahn said likely contributed to the increase in recorded cases. The rate of travelers testing positive is up to twice as high as the average for tests in Germany, he said.

People entering from countries deemed high-riskcurrently most of the world outside the Europe Union, as well as Luxembourg, parts of northern Spain and the Belgian city of Antwerpare already required to quarantine for 14 days unless they can present a negative test result no more than two days old.

German Health Minister Jens Spahn briefs the media about the developing of the coronavirus crisis test strategy in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2020. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Spahn said that, starting Saturday, people arriving from those countries will also be required to take a test unless they bring a new test result with them.

"I am very well aware that this impinges on individual freedoms, but I believe that this is a justifiable intervention," Spahn said.

The minister dismissed arguments by some politicians that people who can afford a vacation should also have to pay for tests themselves.

He said many returnees from high-risk and other countries "have saved hard for this vacation, put a lot of money aside, don't have a lot in reserveand nevertheless, I want to make it possible for them to get tested."

Travelers who refuse tests could face fines of up to 25,000 euros ($29,600), but the exact amount is up to local authorities, Spahn said.

He suggested airline travelers from outside the EU should provide a recent test before they are allowed to board a plane to the 27-nation bloc, an idea that would need approval by all EU member states.

Germany's COVID-19 response has been widely regarded as relatively successful. The Robert Koch Institute has recorded 9,175 deaths from over 213,000 confirmed casesa lower death rate than in many comparable countries.

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
HEBEI, CHINA - Abusive acts of a cruel nanny circulated online after she was caught throwing a six-day-old baby around like a toy.

According to the father of the six-day-old baby boy, Mr. Tian, he reported the shocking incident right away to the police last week after discovering it on the security footage using his phone.

The 50-year-old domestic worker has been accused of hitting, slapping, and throwing the newborn child that she was supposed to take care of.

According to Mirror, the wife of the 26-year-old Mr. Tian sent the footage of the nanny's cruel act to numerous influential Chinese bloggers in a messaging platform, WeChat.

Living in the Northern part of China, the city of Shahe in the province of Hebei, the mother of the six-day-old boy claimed that the nanny had handled his son violently while looking after him.

This is not the first time that the nanny did this, during an interview the mother made a confession that the domestic worker had been caught beating her son just a few days ago.

Multiple clips circulated online regarding the claims of beating. Filmed on the morning of July 31, one clip shows that the domestic worker put the boy roughly onto the bed.

Read also: Obituary of Man Who Died of COVID-19 Sends Chills to Readers



Taken on the same day, another section of the footage caught the 50-year-old nanny hitting the little boy, who has been crying in the early hours.

In a third video recorded from August 1, instead of singing a lullaby to the baby for him to sleep, the nanny put the baby to sleep impatiently instead.

After the video circulated online and went viral because of so much care for the baby, the Police launched an investigation on Monday to solve the case right away.

Based on the statement gathered by the local police, Mr. Tian claimed to have seen the nanny, Ms. Wang whacking his son's hands, buttocks, and feet on camera, The Sun reported.

Mr. Tian shared that he watched the home surveillance footage using a mobile application at around 6 pm on Saturday.

After witnessing what the nanny has been doing to his son, Mr. Tian argued with the domestic worker on the same day. The next day, Mr. Tian along with his elder brother filed a complaint to the domestic worker's agency about the service that they ate! -'treatment that the nanny showed towards Mr. Tian's son.

Instead of resolving the case, the two parties had an altercation regarding the claims just outside the domestic worker's company.

According to the report of the police, the altercation resulted in the delivery of Ms. Wang to the hospital. Based on the file, Ms. Wang tried to drive her car away and leave the scene in the company building. However, an enraged Mr. Tian used tools to wreck the car, which caused fear to the domestic worker.

The police also said that they are carrying out further investigations to have a full grasp on the story as it becomes bigger and bigger. But based on the gathered evidence for this incident. As of the moment, they are treating the incident as an administrative case but will continue to do their investigation, officers mentioned.

Related article: 16-Year-Old Daughter and Her Boyfriend Slaughters Parents in Home Invasion

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
In 2013, the Rhosus, a Moldovan-flagged cargo ship, was transporting ammonium nitrate from Georgia to Mozambique when it experienced mechanical problems and entered the port of Beirut, according to a 2015 note written by lawyers for the ships creditors. After inspection from port authorities, the ship was prohibited from sailing. At this point, the ships owner, Igor Grechushkin, a Cyprus-based Russian national, abandoned the ship and its cargo. The Rhosus Russian captain and four Ukrainian crew members were left on board with no pay, no way to get to shore due to immigration restrictions, sitting on top of a highly explosive cargo. The vessel quickly ran out of stores, bunker [fuel] and provisions, wrote the attorneys. In the meantime, efforts to get in touch with the owners, charterers and cargo owners to obtain payment failed.

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After almost a year, a judge granted the crewmembers permission to disembark and return home. The lawyers wrote, owing to the risks associated with retaining the Ammonium Nitrate on board the vessel, the port authorities discharged the cargo onto the ports warehouses. The vessel and cargo remain to date in port awaiting auctioning and/or proper disposal. Six years later, that cargo may have caused a catastrophe.

In the aftermath of the devastating explosion in Beirut on Tuesday, Lebanons official corruption and the dire state of the countrys institutions are rightly being blamed for the horrific and bizarre set of circumstances that appear to have caused the disaster. A lot is still unknown but the emerging narrative, according to official statements, is that welding work set off a stockpile of fireworks, which then caused the more than 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate stored at a nearby warehouse to explode. Based on the timeline, this is most likely the cargo taken off the Rhosus. Officials who left this combustible mix sitting in a major city for years will certainly face calls for accountability. But part of the blame lies in a place where regulations and accountability are even weaker than modern-day Lebanon: the sea. The general lawlessness around international shipping and, in particular, the practice of shipowners abandoning their vessels and crew, appears to be a major factor in the lead-up to this explosion.

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Ship abandonments are surprisingly common. There were 44 such cases in 2018 alone, according to the International Maritime Organization. According to Ben Bailey, director of advocacy for Mission to Seafarers, which advocates for sailors rights, There are two very clear reasons why shipowners abandon their vessels. The first is simply down to economics. The business runs into trouble and theyre unable to make their payments. The second, which is related is when it is deliberate on the part of some owners: They just put seafarers down to the bottom of the list and think its easier to just not pay them. Sometimes ships will simply decline in value or no longer meet environmental or safety regulations, and shipowners will decide its cheaper simply to abandon them.

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Usually once a ship is abandoned, it will be arrested by the portthis is what happened with the Rhosusand will be held until the shipowner can make good, or until the maritime courts of the country where the ship is located get involved and auction it off, using some of the proceeds to pay the wages of the crew. But crew members can lose their rights to these wages if they abandon their vessel, leading to extreme cases like the crew of the Azraqmoiah, who were stranded for 18 months off the cost of the United Arab Emirates in 2019 with little food or water. The cargo of these ships is typically not auctioned off, so in cases like that of the Rhosus, where the cargos owner loses interest in it, jurisdiction can be a little hazy.

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In his 2019 book The Outlaw Ocean, New York Times reporter Ian Urbina argues that abandonment is as serious a problem as flashier stories like piracy, writing, if the public discovered that an industry had a de facto policy of looking the other way as workers in factories around the world were routinely locked behind chained doors for weeks or sometimes months, with no freshwater or food, unpaid and given no sense of when they might be permitted to go home, would there be immediate outrage?  Not at sea.

In his reporting, Urbina comes to realize that moving freight by sea is much cheaper than by air partly because international waters are so uncluttered by national bureaucracies and unconstrained by rules. That fact has given rise to all manner of unregulated activity. With overlapping jurisdictions, flags of convenience, and multinational crews, shipowners take full advantage of the legal ambiguities of international shipping. Crew members usually suffer the worst from this ambiguity, something thats become very evident during the COVID-19 pandemic: According to the International Labor Organization, in June, there were between 150,000 and 200,000 sailors stuck aboard ships, forced to work months beyond the ends of their contracts due to lockdown measures onshore. But the rest of us can suffer from these abuses too in the form of maritime pollution, overfishing, smuggling, and human trafficking.

The Beirut disaster appears to have been the result of an unusual situation: not only the ship and its crew, but also its cargo were abandoned, and that cargo was then ignited by a Rube Goldberglike set of circumstances. But the lack of oversight all but guarantees that similar dangers are waiting in storage in other ports around the world.

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The blast, which appeared to have been caused by an accidental fire that ignited a stockpile of ammonium nitrate, rippled across Beirut causing widespread destruction

Beirut: Lebanese army bulldozers plowed through wreckage to reopen roads around Beirut's demolished port Thursday, a day after the government pledged to investigate this week's devastating explosion and placed port officials under house arrest.

The blast Tuesday, which appeared to have been caused by an accidental fire that ignited a stockpile of ammonium nitrate at the port, rippled across the Lebanese capital, killing at least 135 people, injuring more than 5,000 and causing widespread destruction.

It also may have accelerated the country's coronavirus outbreak, as thousands flooded into hospitals in the wake of the blast. Hundreds of thousands have been forced to move in with relatives and friends after their homes were damaged, further raising the risks of exposure.

French President Emmanuel Macron arrived Thursday amid pledges of international aid, and tweeted that Lebanon is not alone. He planned to visit the devastated port and meet with top officials.

But Lebanon, which was already mired in a severe economic crisis, faces a daunting challenge in rebuilding. It's unclear how much support the international community will offer the notoriously corrupt and dysfunctional government.

Losses from the blast are estimated to be between $10 billion to $15 billion, Beirut Governor Marwan Abboud told the Saudi-owned TV station Al-Hadath on Wednesday, adding that nearly 300,000 people are homeless.

The tiny Mediterranean country was already on the brink of collapse, with soaring unemployment and a financial crisis that has wiped out people's life savings. Hospitals were already strained by the coronavirus pandemic, and one was so badly damaged by the blast it had to treat patients in a nearby field.

Dr Firas Abiad, director general of Rafik Hariri University Hospital, the public hospital leading the coronavirus fight, said he expects an increase in cases in the next 10 to 15 days linked to crowding at hospitals and blood donation centers after the blast.

Authorities had largely contained the outbreak by imposing a sweeping lockdown in March and April, but case numbers have risen in recent weeks. A renewed lockdown was to go in effect this week but those plans were canceled after the explosion. The country has reported more than 5,400 coronavirus cases and 68 deaths since February.

There is no doubt that our immunity in the country is less than before the explosion and this will affect us medium- to long-term, Abiad said. We desperately need aid, not only us but all hospitals in Lebanon."

Anger is mounting against the political class that has dominated the country since the 1975-1990 civil war, which has long been seen as hopelessly corrupt and incapable of providing even basic services like electricity and trash collection.

The investigation into the explosion is focused on how 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive chemical used in fertilizers, came to be stored at the port facility for six years, and why nothing was done about it.

The Port of Beirut and customs office are notorious for being among the most corrupt and lucrative institutions in Lebanon, where various factions and politicians, including the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group, hold sway.

Fueling speculation that negligence was to blame for the accident, an official letter circulating online showed the head of the customs department had warned repeatedly over the years that the stockpile of ammonium nitrate was a danger and had asked judicial officials for a ruling on a way to remove it.

The cargo had been stored at the port since it was confiscated from a ship years earlier. Based on the timeline and the size of the cargo, that ship could be the MV Rhosus. The ship was initially seized in Beirut in 2013 when it entered the port due to technical problems, according to lawyers involved in the case. It came from the nation of Georgia, and had been bound for Mozambique.

The stockpile is believed to have detonated after a fire broke out nearby.

It caused the most powerful blast ever seen in the city, which has survived decades of war and conflict. Several city blocks were left littered with rubble, broken glass and damaged vehicles.

Authorities have cordoned off the port itself, where the blast left a crater 200 meters (yards) across and shredded a large grain silo, emptying its contents into the rubble. Estimates suggested about 85% of the countrys grain was stored there.

Lebanon is highly dependent on imports, and the destruction of the port, along with the worsening cash crisis, have raised fears of shortages.

Two planeloads of French rescue workers and aid were sent to Beirut, as Macron offered support for the former protectorate. The countries retain close political and economic ties.

Other countries, including Greece, Qatar, Kuwait, Turkey and the European Union, have dispatched medical supplies, humanitarian aid and search-and-rescue teams.
Not allowing pupils the right to appeal GCSE or A-Level exam grades they think are unfair has been likened to imposing a 'life sentence'.

Students in England will receive their grades next week. They will be assessed using a statistical model after the pandemic halted the exam season. Ofqual, the exam regulator, is only allowing appeals on technical grounds.

There are concerns that results day next week could be chaotic as thousands of teenagers may receive 'unfair' marks.

Headteachers are now asking Ofqual to change the grading system over fears it could punish a generation of students.

Dr Martin Stephen, the former High Master of St Paul's Boys' School told The Daily Telegraph the system was equivalent to 'imposing a life sentence, with no right of appeal'.

There are concerns that results day next week could be chaotic as thousands of teenagers may receive 'unfair' marks (stock image)

He said no appeal system for grades they feel are unfair is against 'natural justice'.

Children in England are due to receive their GCSE and A-level results in the coming weeks following a school year marred by the coronavirus crisis.

Concerns have been raised that the 'narrow' criteria for challenging awarded grades could 'exacerbate existing inequalities' and result in legal action against exam boards.

It comes following outrage in Scotland where the grade moderation process reduced the pass rate of the poorest Higher pupils by more than twice that of the richest.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) downgraded 124,564 pupils' results - over 90% of all moderated grades - despite no exams being sat.

Currently in England pupils are only allowed to appeal against results if they believe the moderation process has not been followed correctly and have 'evidence of bias or discrimination'.

Ian Power, the general secretary of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, warned that exam boards could face legal challenges unless the rules are changed.

'Having the right to appeal a result is natural justice,' he said.

'The appeals process this year is even more narrow than normal.

'Parents will take the action they feel they have to, and if that involves legal action that could happen. That is part of the frustration.'

It comes as Labour ministers wrote to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson asking for reassurance that a 'fair and accessible' process of appeals would be granted to pupils in England.

Shadow education secretary Kate Green said that the current system risked 'baking in inequality' that would continue to harm the most disadvantaged pupils.

Currently in England pupils are only allowed to appeal against results if they believe the moderation process has not been followed correctly and have 'evidence of bias or discrimination' (stock image)

Ms Green said that Nicola Sturgeon had 'failed a generation of young Scots' and that 'the inequality and attainment gap (had) been further entrenched through her failure to act on the injustice of the moderation system'.

'Yesterday's disastrous handling of Highers results in Scotland shows what can go wrong when computer algorithms drive students' grades, and politicians wash their hands of responsibility,' she said in a statement on Wednesday.

'With A-level results just over a week away, and GCSE results due the week after, it's imperative the Government acts now to reassure worried students, teachers and parents.

'Young people deserve to have their hard work assessed on merit, but the system risks baking in inequality and doing most harm to students from disadvantaged backgrounds, those from ethnic minority groups and those with special educational needs and disabilities.

'Ministers must urgently set out how they'll ensure the results next week will not exacerbate existing inequalities, and what extra support they'll give to students who feel they've been unfairly graded to navigate the appeals process.'

An Ofqual spokesperson said 'It is important that students understand their options, including the possibility of an appeal, if they do not receive the grade they expected.

'Students will be able to appeal, through their school or college, if they believe a mistake has been made or that something has gone wrong in their case.

'We are committed to helping students, and their families, understand the options available to them and will be publishing information on how appeals will operate this summer.'
By ANI

NEW DELHI: CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury said on Wednesday that the 'bhoomi pujan' for the Ram Temple in Ayodhya was a "naked exploitation" of people's religious sentiments for partisan, political purposes and it violates the letter and spirit of the Indian Constitution.

Taking to Twitter, Yechury wrote, "This 'bhumi pujan' function is a naked exploitation of people's religious sentiments for partisan, political purposes and brazenly violates the letter and spirit of the Indian Constitution."

The 'bhoomi pujan' function at Ayodhya done by the Prime Minister of India televised globally by the national broadcaster, DD has confirmed all the major points raised by the CPI(M) Polit Bureau yesterday.  Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) August 5, 2020

"The 'bhoomi pujan' function at Ayodhya done by the Prime Minister of India televised globally by the national broadcaster, DD has confirmed all the major points raised by the CPI(M) Polit Bureau yesterday," he wrote in another tweet.

6. Indian Constitution guarantees and our law protects the choice of faith of each citizen. The government must protect the choice of all citizens. State has no religion.  Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) August 5, 2020

The CPI-M general secretary further added that the state take over of the construction of the temple in the presence of the Governor and the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh is a negation of the secular democratic character of the Indian Republic.

"It is also a violation of the Supreme Court verdict that directed the temple construction to be undertaken by a Trust," Yechury tweeted.

"This 'bhumi pujan' provided retrospective legitimisation for the destruction of the Babri Masjid. The SC verdict described this as an "egregious violation of law" and called for punishment of those who committed this act.The construction has begun before any such punishment," he added.

ALSO READ | Modi has laid foundation of Hindu Rashtra by attending Bhoomi Pujan, claims Owaisi

The event as televised is a clear violation of the COVID protocol stipulated by the Union Home Ministry prohibiting religious gatherings, Yechury stated.

"Indian Constitution guarantees and our law protects the choice of faith of each citizen. The government must protect the choice of all citizens. State has no religion," he added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday took part in the 'bhoomi pujan' at Ram Janambhoomi site in Ayodhya.

The Supreme Court, on November 9 last year, had directed the Central government to hand over the site at Ayodhya for the construction of the Ram temple.
All the ceasefire violations were recorded both in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine has recorded over 250 ceasefire violations since the start of the newly-agreed truce in the Donbas zone of hostilities.

"Following agreement reached at the meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) on July 22 regarding additional measures to strengthen the ceasefire, from 00:01 on July 27 until the end of the reporting period, the SMM recorded a total of 251 ceasefire violations, both in Donetsk and Luhansk regions (including 45 explosions, two projectiles in flight, three illumination flares and 201 bursts and shots of small-arms fire)," the OSCE SMM said in a daily report on August 5, 2020.

Read alsoDonbas truce: Ukraine reports enemy provocation on contact line

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.

The new ceasefire regime was enforced at 00:01 Kyiv time on July 27.

However, the Russian Federation's armed formations continue to provoke the Ukrainian military in defiance of ceasefire agreements reached.
NEW DELHI: Indian Railways is soon going to achieve yet another milestone. The Rail Ministry has set up an ambitious target to upgrade the speed of passenger trains operating on Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi- Howrah routes to 160-kmph by March 2022.

In a recent meeting of the Railway Board, the Rail Ministry decided to advance the target of 'MISSION 160' to March 2022. As per the new target, Railway has decided to make both the route, Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah, for running the passenger trains at an average speed of 160-kmph

Currently, these two routes are fit to run trains at an average speed of 130 kmph only. To achieve this target, the Ministry has prepared a roadmap also. From the track maintenance to the fencing of the entire rail route is all part of this plan.

Keeping in mid the lesser number of trains running on these routes, Railways has decided to utilise the situation by faster completion of the ambitious project of raising the speed. The scheduled target for the completion of the project is September 2023. The Railway Ministry has sent a letter to all concerned departments too.

Northern Railway has been asked to start planning out the details for upgrading the infrastructure to operate trains at a speed of 160 kmph so that work starts from the next month.

To ensure that the Indian Railways doesn't miss the ambitious goal, the status of the 160-kmph project would be discussed in the railways weekly coordination meeting.

Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had recently reviewed the project and directed the Board officials and zonal officers to take up the task.

Similar instructions have also been issued by the other zone, North Central Zone has issued the orders to the concerned departments.

Letter to the Zones clearly mentions that currently less number of trains are running on tracks and this opportunity should be utilized to the maximum, by taking maximum and longer duration of blocks for doing the work.

'Mission 160' is very important also in the perspective that Railways has initiated the process of Private Trains and plans to get the first Private Train run on tracks by April 2023.

Work involves track and signaling upgrades, elimination of unmanned level-crossings and fencing along the two major trunk routes of 1384 km Delhi-Mumbai corridor and 1450 km Delhi-Kolkata route.

Sources say that fencing alone will cost about Rs 2,200 crores. After Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah routes, other busy routes of Howrah-Chennai, Delhi-Chennai, and Chennai-Mumbai are likely to be taken up.
New Delhi: Actress Rhea Chakraborty, who is to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday, has been away from her Mumbai home for over a week now, the security guard of her building told Zee News. It is to be noted that no official confirmation on Rhea's whereabouts as of now. Rhea, who was Sushant's girlfriend, has been accused of abetment to suicide in an FIR filed by his father KK Singh in Patna. Following which, she moved the Supreme Court to seek transfer of plea from Patna to Mumbai.

Rhea stays in a society named PrimRose. The security guard said that the actress has not been spotted for 8-10 days and added that a few police officers also came to look for her.

The Bihar Police had over the weekend claimed that its team is unable to "locate" Rhea, who has been named in the FIR by the Sushant's father KK Singh. However, her lawyer Satish Maneshinde maintained that she has been living in Mumbai.

"I would request everyone to stop speculating about the whereabouts of Rhea Chakraborty. She's a law-abiding citizen. The matter is sub judice," Satish Maneshinde said on Wednesday after she was summoned by the ED.

A few days ago, the ED had also registered a money laundering case against Rhea under the Personal Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with the death of Sushant Singh Rajput.

Also, Rhea Chakbraborty's chartered accountant Ritesh Shah was questioning at its office in Mumbai.
Equipping Covid-19 wards with more high-flow nasal oxygen systems, scaling up plasma therapy administration in earlier stages of treatment, early transfer of severe patients to intensive care units (ICUs), and preparing for a ICU bed augmentation strategy for a potential second wave of the pandemic  these are some of the suggestions submitted to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwals office on Wednesday by committees set up by him to monitor Covid-19 mortality rate in hospitals.

The government, however, did not share any data from the findings of the committee. A senior official said that the report is being further analysed and more inputs would be shared in a few days.

Last week, the chief ministers office had shared data which suggested that Covid-19 deaths in the city had dropped by 44.50% between July 1 and 12 compared to the corresponding period in June, citing data summarised from records of the health department.

On July 30, the chief minister set up four committees to look into Covid deaths more specifically covering 10 hospitals  both public and private  that include Lok Nayak Hospital, GTB Hospital, Safdarjung Hospital, Max East & West, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, RML Hospital, Jaipur Golden Hospital, Sir Balaji Action Medical Institute, Escorts, and St. Stephens Hospital.

The CM on Wednesday convened a meeting with the committees which were constituted last month to inspect the 10 hospitals (government and private) in the city with the highest mortality rate, and give hospital-wise recommendations on following standard operating procedures and protocols. In the meeting, each of the four committees submitted their reports and presented recommendations to the CM Arvind Kejriwal, to induce measures for the betterment of Covid patient care services and reducing mortality rate in the hospitals, said Kejriwals office in a statement.

As per the summary of the reports shared by the CMs office specifying hospital-wise recommendations to reduce mortality rate, the GTB Hospital was suggested to equip Covid wards with high-flow nasal oxygen systems and scaling up of convalescent plasma therapy.

High-flow nasal oxygen (HFNO) systems is a supportive facility administered to Covid-19 patients for enhanced oxygen supply and control of the respiratory rate.

For Safdarjung Hospital, which comes under the central government, and Lok Nayak Hospital, which is Delhi governments biggest covid hospital, the committees recommended developing of early warning scorecards to ensure prompt detection and shifting of patients from the wards to the critical areas and high-risk cases to be transferred to ICU at the earliest sign of deterioration.

For Safdarjung Hospital, the committees also opined that the number of covid ICU beds should be increased in case there is a second wave.

For three private hospitals in the city, which include the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Sri Balaji Action Medical Institute and Jaipur Golden Hospital, the committee suggested that they should ensure early detection of complications in patients on prolonged ventilation and management as per protocols and more timely application of HFNO.

The CM reiterated on Wednesday that all steps should be taken to bring Covid deaths to zero. During the inspection by the committees, it was found that the death rate in all these hospitals has decreased as compared to earlier. The CM is personally monitoring all critical Covid-19 patients. Due to the direct intervention of the CM, immediate steps have been taken to reduce the rate of deaths in Delhi. On July 16, a checklist was sent by the health department to the hospitals for Covid patient management which further helped reduce deaths due to Covid. As a result, the deaths in Delhi have come down to just 11 today, the statement issued by the CMs office said.
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A grandmother has claimed she is facing a 'concerted programme of intimidation' by villagers over her plans to build a 400,000 three-bedroom eco-house in a field overlooked by a Saxon-era church.

June Titterton-Fox, 61, wants to create the single-storey 'Field House' home in one of the two fields she owns in the Rutland village of Whitwell - and she has said it would be one of Britain's most energy-efficient properties.

The farmer, who has battled breast cancer and had two heart operations last year, wants the property to help her downsize with husband Andy, 57, from the five-bedroom house they currently own in the village.

But 15 neighbours have raised objections to the new '21st century farmhouse', claiming it would be a 'blot on the landscape' being in full view of the village's Grade II*-listed church and other local 'heritage assets'.

The local church, St Michael and All Angels, which stands on an elevated site in the village, is believed to date back to Saxon times and has existed on the site since at least the Domesday Book of 1086.

An artist's impression of the 400,000 three-bedroom eco-house proposed for a field in the Rutland village of Whitwell

June Titterton-Fox wants the home to help her downsize with husband from the five-bedroom house they own in the village

Neighbours are unhappy about the home being in full view of the village's church and other 'heritage assets'. The house is due to be built within the field (boxed in blue), while the historic St Michael and All Angels Church is circled at the bottom (in red)

Neighbours are unhappy that the eco-home will be in the full view to the rear of the village's Grade II*-listed church, St Michael and All Angels, which has Saxon origins. The view of her field, where the house is due to be built, is circled above

A protest group called 'Whitwell Residents' has instructed solicitors to fight the case amid concerns that it 'could open the floodgates for similar projects gaining approval, thereby diminishing the rural assets of the county'.

Mrs Titterton-Fox, who has been a councillor on Rutland County Council since March 2017, has been left upset by people trying to stop her building the property in the village, which she said she had invested in for two decades.

She told the Stamford Mercury: 'I don't know why you'd object to something you can hardly see. There's been a concerted programme of intimidation through social media. It's really sad.'

Mrs Titterton-Fox, who has two sons and a three-year old grandson, added of her recent health scares: 'Going through that really makes you think about your future.

'We want to downsize to a three-bedroom property that will future-proof our requirements. It's all on one floor so as I get older I don't have to worry about stairs or falling.'

Mrs Titterton-Fox has said the 'Field House' home would be one of Britain's most energy-efficient properties

Fifteen neighbours have raised objections to the new '21st century farmhouse', claiming it would be a 'blot on the landscape'

Mrs Titterton-Fox hopes to create the single-storey 'Field House' home in one of the two fields she owns in Whitwell

Mrs Titterton-Fox has been left upset by people trying to stop her building the property (cross-section pictured) in the village

One resident wrote: 'Field House will... ruin the look of this unassuming village. The design is very innovative, in the correct setting it would not be a problem - but not in keeping with this village.'

And another said: 'The development will not add value, enhancement to the village or local surroundings, indeed quite the opposite. It will devalue all adjoining properties and will become an eyesore.

'The proposed location is totally inappropriate for this modern design building and will create noise and light pollution in addition to a significant loss of privacy to adjoining neighbours.

'The plans lack detail around key issues such as outbuildings, parking, visitor movements, plant and machinery storage and access to key services.'

'No regard has been made to the Heritage Status of the village and the fact the development will be seen from most vantage points of the village.

Mrs Titterton-Fox began renting the two fields in 2002 before buying them in 2004, and is now hoping to build the house

The application is likely to be considered by the council's planning committee in October or November this year

Mrs Titterton-Fox, who is the managing director of an IT company, currently owns this five-bedroom house in the village

Mrs Titterton-Fox, who began renting the two fields in 2002 before buying them in 2004, started farming with sheep before moving onto cattle and pigs  and she now sells surplus meat under the name 'June's Farm'.

Speaking previously to East Midlands website Great Food Club, she said: 'I have always been a fan of the TV series The Good Life so when an opportunity came up to buy a house in Whitwell with some land, we moved.'

But local residents have claimed the council gave Mrs Titterton-Fox preferential treatment by giving her a grant paying for 40 per cent of the 3,000 required for a pre-planning design review of the home.

However, the farmer said anyone in Rutland could get this grant and she did not apply in the end. Her application is likely to be considered by the council's planning committee in October or November this year.

Mrs Titterton-Fox, who has a Master of Business Administration from the Open University, has also been the managing director of IT maintenance company You Systems in Peterborough since 2001.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 6)  A year would have been enough for the head of the embattled Philippine Health Insurance Corp. to address long-standing corruption and other controversies, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said Thursday.

"One year is long enough for a new leader, new manager to find out what is happening in his organization. Matagal na iyon (That's long enough)," Lacson said in an interview with CNN Philippines' The Source.

Lacson was referring to PhilHealth President and CEO Ricardo Morales, who has been in hot water over numerous allegations of fraud and other corrupt practices within the state insurance agency.

The senator stressed that PhilHealth officials who have been repeatedly defending their name, like Morales, have done nothing to address the controversies of the embattled agency. Some even got promoted to higher positions under his term.

"It's amusing to hear all of them. Lahat naman sinasabi, 'we are fighting corruption,' 'we are against corruption,' 'hindi kami myembro ng syndicate,' eh bakit may corruption?" Lacson said.

[Translation: It's amusing to hear all of them. Everybody's saying, 'we are fighting corruption,' 'we are against corruption,' 'we are not members of a syndicate,' then why is corruption still rampant?]

"Ang tagal na nila doon sa PhilHealth. Yung iba naman who are facing charges, they got promoted under Morales. So what can you make of these issues?"

[Translation: They have long been there in PhilHealth. Those who are facing chages even got promoted udner Morales. So what can you make of these issues?]

On Tuesday's Senate hearing, Lacson and a former PhilHealth official named Atty. Rodolfo del Rosario, now Senior Vice President of the Legal Sector; Dr. Israel Pargas, SVP for Health Finance Policy Sector; Corporate Secretary Jonathan Mangaoang; Renato Limsiaco, SVP for the Fund Management Sector; and Dennis Mas, SVP for Management Services Sector, as among those who have been manipulating the financial records of PhilHealth through a "deeply-rooted mafia syndicate" despite changes in leadership.

READ: Whistleblower claims 15 billion stolen by PhilHealth execs in fraud schemes

Lacson stressed that with numerous fraud schemes, Morales either has been "misled" or "co-opted" by the agency's corrupt practices.

Morales earlier denied that he was a "coddler" of the so-called mafia in the agency.

Duterte should reconsider Morales' post

Lacson called on President Rodrigo Duterte to review the issues uncovered in Tuesday's Senate hearing, then decide himself if Morales is still worthy of his post.

Duterte appointed Morales, a retired army general from Davao City, to lead PhilHealth in June 2019.

"It's systemic, going on for the longest time, even with past presidents and CEOs...I hope Palace will take a look at the findings and decide for themselves if there is still wisdom in keeping Morales."

In his State of the Nation Address in 2016, Duterte warned about immediately replacing his designated officials, once he senses "even a whiff" of corruption.

But some of them, who were either reappointed or remain in office, continue to face controversies, including Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, for alleged mismanagement of the country's COVID-19 response.

Duterte himself said in his past speeches that he himself wanted Duque to keep his post despite the Senate and other lawmakers calling for his resignation.

"Kapag nakakarinig ng statement of support sa Malacanang, lumalakas ang loob," Lacson said. "Si Morales ganoon din."

[Translation: When they hear a statement of support from Malacanang, they have more guts to continue. Morales is also like that.]
(Newser)  Five people were found dead Wednesday after an early morning fire destroyed a suburban Denver homea blaze authorities said they suspect was intentionally set. Three people escaped the fire by jumping from the home's second floor, the AP reports. Investigators believe the victims were a toddler, an older child, and three adults, Denver Fire Department Capt. Greg Pixley said. Their bodies were discovered after firefighters extinguished the fire, which was first reported by a Denver police officer at 2:40am Pixley said. The three survivors were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, Denver police spokesman Jay Casillas said. "This is a devastating time for Denver and this community. Our heart and our prayers go out to this community," Pixley said.

story continues below

A police officer attempting to rescue people on the first floor was pushed back by the fires heat, and it appears that those who died were all on the first floor, Pixley said. Police are investigating the fire along with firefighters because there are indications that it was arson, said Joe Montoya, division chief of investigations for Denver police. He would not elaborate on the evidence because he said he did not want to compromise the investigation. Abou Djibril, who said he was a relative of the victims, told the Denver Post the people who died were members of a family that had immigrated from Senegal. Neighbor Maria Mendoza said she was awakened by noise and someone screaming, Get the baby out! Get the baby out! at 2:40am. She ran to a window and saw flames and plumes of smoke rising from the home just down the street. I awoke my husband, and he ran outside to see if he could help but there was nothing he could do. The fire was too big, Mendoza said.

(Read more Colorado stories.)
French President Emmanuel Macron engaged with locals in Beirut on August 6, as his delegation toured a neighborhood badly damaged by the explosion in the city two days previously.

Reporters at the scene said the crowds surrounding Macron were expressing anger with the government. One man in this video can be heard calling to Macron, You are our only hope.

Macron responds saying France will support Lebanon, alongside NGOs and under the supervision of the UN.

Ahead of his trip, Macron said he was going to Beirut to bring a message of solidarity and fraternity from the people of France.

Lebanon declared a two-week state of emergency a day after the blast, which killed at least 137 people and wounded thousands more.

A number of countries were providing aid, personnel, and equipment by August 6, Reuters reported. Credit: Haley Bobseine via Storyful
A 22-year-old man was arrested Thursday morning in connection with a triple shooting in Lawrence that took place in May and left one man dead and two others injured, the Essex District Attorneys office said.

Hector Baez of Lawrence and Haverill was arrested in connection with the murder of 26-year-old Delivs Paulino-Fernandez, who was killed on May 3, authorities said. Two other were injured in the shooting, police said.

Baez is expected to be arraigned in Lawrence District Court on Friday.

His arrest stems from a triple shooting three months ago, authorities said. On May 3, Lawrence police received a report of shots fired just after 9 p.m. at 141 Newton St., police said.

When officers arrived, they found one man, later identified as Paulino-Fernandez, dead, police said. Two other men were also shot and were transported to Lawrence General Hospital, where they were treated and released, the district attorneys office said.
In Hong Kong, Some Activists Fear Academic Freedom Will Suffer Under National Security Law

By VOA News August 05, 2020

When lecturer Shiu Ka-Chun received a letter from his university last week, he was shocked to find that he had been effectively fired.

Shiu, also a legislator, has taught social work at the Baptist University of Hong Kong for 11 years, where his teaching had been consistently rated as excellent. He was jailed last year for "inciting public nuisance" in the 2014 civil disobedience Occupy Central movement and after his release, he was removed from teaching duties pending disciplinary proceedings linked to his conviction.

Shiu said his effective dismissal amounted to "political persecution" but the university gave him no explanation. He said he felt "angry, upset and insulted." The university declined to comment on his case.

Law professor Benny Tai, one of the founders of the 2014 occupy movement jailed last year on public nuisance charges for his role, was also fired by the University of Hong Kong last week.

Tai lamented that academics in Hong Kong are "no longer free to make controversial statements about politically or socially controversial matters."

Shui and Tai's dismissals occurred the same week as the arrests of four students on national security charges, the disqualification of 12 pro-democracy legislative candidates and news of Hong Kong police issuing arrest warrants for six Hong Kong activists abroad.

The incidents took place within a month of the passing of a strict, broadly defined national security law that, among other things, bans acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.

Although Tai's dismissal was widely considered an indicator of the demise of the city's academic freedom, China's liaison office and the Beijing-owned press in Hong Kong triumphantly declared it as "a deed of justice" for an academic who has spread "poisonous" political thinking among youngsters. The Wen Wei Po newspaper compared Tai's dismissal to the removal of "a poisonous cancer" and portrayed Tai in a cartoon as a virus being dusted away by a broom.

Hong Kong and Chinese officials have escalated their rhetoric on the education sector in recent months, accusing teachers of "inciting" anti-China sentiments and encouraging students to oppose the authorities, and blaming them for the mass, anti-government protests last year. The national security law is aimed at stamping out activities like the pro-democracy protests, which turned increasingly violent as frustrations mounted.

Hong Kong's top leader, Carrie Lam, told a forum days after the national security law was passed last month that social movements, from the Occupy movement in 2014 to last year's anti-government movement, indicate that "anti-China forces have infiltrated school campuses."

Citing statistics that some 40% of those arrested in the anti-government protests were students and 45% of them were under 18, she vowed to push national security law in schools and colleges across Hong Kong, saying the law would put education "back on the right track."

The national security law stipulates that the government tighten supervision of schools to "safeguard national security" and prevent terrorist activities.

Hong Kong's security minister, John Lee, a member of the newly formed national security committee, also told the China-owned Ta Kung Pao newspaper last week that his first priority would be to "deal with the schools" and the authorities would get rid of the "bad apples" to "rescue students from being poisoned."

"The national security committee would punish public enemies severely and take preventive measures to obliterate viruses that endanger national security within one or two years," Lee said.

The education authorities have been putting pressure on schools and teachers to increasingly toe the government line.

The education secretary told schools in June to discipline students or teachers who protest the national security law. The authorities also launched new mandatory requirements for new teachers to be trained on professional conduct and national development.

After the law passed, the education chief banned students from singing protest songs, posting political slogans or forming human chains. He also told schools they could call the police if students showed disrespect toward the national anthem. A teacher had her contract terminated after she allowed students to sing protest songs at their music examination.

The education bureau also told schools to review their library books to avoid falling afoul of the new law after public libraries pulled several titles by pro-democracy politicians.

The bureau has also warned that if schools do not cooperate with the bureau's investigation of teachers who had "conduct issues" including advocacy of their political positions, it could revoke the principals' and teachers' licenses.

With some receiving warnings and under the threat of having their contracts terminated, teachers say the atmosphere has been increasingly stifling.

A teacher who taught liberal studies -- a subject widely vilified by officials for supposedly promoting critical views of the authorities -- was given a warning by the education bureau and removed from his duties after airing anti-police brutality rhetoric online. He said he now chooses his words very carefully.

"Self-censorship has become a common practice among many teachers," he said. "Now, we avoid discussing politics. Every single word can be used against us."

Many critics say the restrictions on the freedom of thought and expression will deal a heavy blow to Hong Kong's education.

Kenneth Chan, political scientist at the Baptist University of Hong Kong, said the message that has been sent to academics is "behave and stay within the perimeters of the ivory tower or face the consequences of prosecution."

Ip Kin-yuen, a legislator for the education constituency, said teaching quality will be heavily compromised when teachers cannot air their views freely.

"If teachers are worried about being punished for what they teach and say, the quality of education will suffer," he said. "Just having the national security law there is enough to stifle teachers."

Sociology professor Chan Kin Man, who has also been jailed as a co-founder of the 2014 Occupy movement, said the new law has proven to be an effective tool for silencing free speech as it punishes non-violent acts that supposedly threaten national security.

"This is having a huge impact on speech," he said.

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Note: The Express-News is suspending traditional restaurant reviews until restaurant dining rooms fully reopen.

Doughnuts, fried chicken, enchiladas, lasagna, pancakes. After weeks of seeking emotional comfort from the pandemic with food that made me physically uncomfortable, something had to give. A belt notch.

Atonement, it seems, comes in shades of green.

Shades of green radiate from salads all around San Antonio and beyond, from the shredded iceberg lettuce on a Tex-Mex combo plate to the torn kale that feels more like punishment than redemption. But I was looking for salads that bring the same kind of satisfaction as traditional comfort food. Something with protein, with power, with personality  fulfillment without all that extra filling up.

I found that satisfaction in a custom-built tuna salad at First Course Salad Kitchen and in a bowl of righteous rabbit food with grilled duck at Huisache Grill in New Braunfels. I found it on wheels at a food truck called Sensational Salads and Wraps and in an urban treehouse called Silo Terrace Oyster Bar, where they make one of the best Caesar salads in the city. And I found it in the globe-trotting flavors of a Vietnamese salad at Thyme for Lunch.

Were not out of the woods yet. But at least well have something healthy-ish to eat while were in there.

On ExpressNews.com: 5 San Antonio-area restaurants for great chicken-fried steak

Mike Sutter /Staff

First Course Salad Kitchen

Sure, you can order a Cobb or a Mediterranean salad and let First Course make all the decisions for you. Its what theyve been doing since Diane Cardenas opened the shop four years ago. But even better is to ask salad chefs Orlando Vasquez and Kevin Webb to grab a shiny stainless steel bowl and fill it with whatever you point at as you walk the long line of salad elements.

Not to brag, but heres how they painted my masterpiece: They started with tuna salad blended in-house with cucumber, onion, carrots and Sriracha mayo. Then came the canvas of spinach, strawberries, peas, garbanzo beans, sunflower seeds, roasted red peppers and kale. Yes, kale, because Im evolving.

Even kale tastes tastes good with First Courses luminous and tangy cucumber-lemon vinaigrette. Bob Ross himself couldnt have painted a prettier or happier bowl ($12 for a large salad, plus $4 for tuna salad).

22015 Interstate 10 W. Access Road, Suite 107, 210-698-5200, fcsaladkitchen.com. Dine-in, curbside and third-party delivery available.

Mike Sutter /Staff

Huisache Grill

Without the nearby Comal River packed full of tubers on a weekend, Huisache Grill in New Braunfels isnt as lively these days. Theres plenty of space in the lodge-style dining room, and the shaded, breezy patio isnt backed up with a waiting list.

Its a relaxed place to bring your dog and unwind with a glass of wine. To go with that glass, Huisache Grill offers some nice salads, but the best comes in a big red bowl built around tender slices of grilled duck breast with nicely charred skin.

Its surrounded by a bed of mixed greens and dressed out with an array of elements for color, texture and flavor: diced mango, cashews, crispy fried wonton strips, aromatic herbs and ginger-soy dressing that reinforces the Asian elements without hijacking the salad ($14).

303 W. San Antonio St., New Braunfels, 830-620-9001, Facebook: @huisache.grill. Dine-in, curbside and third-party delivery available.

On ExpressNews.com: 6 great, independent and local San Antonio doughnut shops to wake up your day

Mike Sutter /Staff file photo

Sensational Salads and Wraps

Food trucks make sense for street food. Hot, portable, decadent. But would a truck work for salads?

Trey VanCleave set out to answer that question in 2012 when he left the world of burgers and fries to start Sensational Salads and Wraps with business partner Scott Akin. Spoiler alert: The answer is yes.

Rolling around to business parks and apartment complexes most weekdays, VanCleave offers 15 salads and eight protein options built to order fast and fresh, ranging from buffalo chicken tossed in spicy sauce to beef skirt steak to strawberries with almonds and blue cheese.

The California caught my attention with avocado, feta cheese, diced tomatoes, bacon and walnuts in a bed of mixed greens with a memorable raspberry vinaigrette. The big box of salad costs just $8, and the optional grilled chicken is the best $2 I spent in this report.

Truck dates and locations vary. Check the schedule at sensationalfoodtruck.com or call 210-857-1223. Available for takeout at the truck only.

Mike Sutter /Staff

Silo Terrace Oyster Bar

Just because youre on a salad quest doesnt mean you cant indulge in a nice cocktail, fresh oysters and a killer Chilean seabass at San Antonios best seafood restaurant. But it doesnt hurt that Silo Terrace Oyster Bar also makes a Caesar salad that knows how to bring the Caesar ($10).

Little Gem lettuce is an underused and underappreciated salad green. Its petite leaves do all the work of a Romaine without being chopped to bits. At Silo, the leaves support Parmesan cheese toasted like a cracker, crunchy focaccia croutons, a creamy and understated Caesar dressing and Italian white anchovies that are not understated at all ($10).

22211 Interstate 10 W., in the Dominion Ridge shopping center, 210-698-2002, siloelevatedcuisine.com. Dine-in, curbside and third-party delivery available.

Mike Sutter /Staff

Thyme for Lunch

The globally minded breakfast and lunch cafe started by Anang and Morgan Mehta in 2016 has been through a lot lately. First, it moved from Stone Oak to a bigger space in the Medical Center area last year, then COVID-19 hit.

But the Mehtas have adapted each step of the way, streamlining the array of salads and sandwiches and pumping up breakfast, but staying true to the flavors and techniques they picked up traveling throughout Asia.

That aesthetic comes through with gusto in a Vietnamese salad that incorporates grilled pork, peanuts, Romaine lettuce, pickled carrots, cucumbers, rice noodles, mint, cilantro and spicy nuoc cham sauce ($13.50).

9390 Huebner Road, Suite 104, 210-438-4963, thymeforlunchsa.com. Dine-in, curbside and third-party delivery available.

Note: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Orlando Vasquez, one of the salad chefs a First Course Salad Kitchen.

Mike Sutter is a food and drink reporter and restaurant critic in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Mike, become a subscriber. msutter@express-news.net | Twitter: @fedmanwalking | Instagram: @fedmanwalking
Local Sligo-Leitrim TD and Minister of State at the Department of Health, Frank Feighan, has today, Thursday 6th August, welcomed 25k funding for four youth organisations and projects in counties Sligo and Leitrim.

"I am delighted to confirm along with my colleague the Minister for Children, Disability, Equality and Integration, Roderic OGorman TD, 25,371 for youth organisations and projects in Sligo and Leitrim" Minister Feighan said.

The funding is part of a capital grant for 147 targeted staff-led youth projects/services and 25 national youth organisations across the country.

The four organisations or projects to benefit include :

- Mohill Community Youth Project - 5,342

- Leitrim Youth Project - 3,352

- Sligo Youth Information Centre - 4,118

- Sligo Leitrim Home Youth Liaison - 12,559

Minster Feighan went on to say "as Minister with responsibility for Public Health, Wellbeing and the National Drugs Strategy, I know just how important these youth organisations and projects are to support young people in times of difficulty and to give them a safe space to socialise."

"I recognise that the Covid-19 crisis has been difficult on young people who found themselves unable to meet up with their friends as normal during the school holidays. It is great to see this funding announced today which will support young people right across Sligo and Leitrim. This is on top of 714,000 awarded today to National organisations like Macra na Feirme, The Order of Malta Cadets, Scouting Ireland, SpunOut and Youth Work Ireland who do great work across the North West" Minister Feighan concluded.

The grants provide for youth services to purchase and replace essential equipment to support the running of their services for young people.

Minister O'Gorman said: The grants announced today are part of the Governments commitment to support and enhance youth services right across the country. Young people are facing unique and significant challenges this year, and helping them overcome these challenges is a key priority for the Government.
The Gujarat Police on Thursday detained a trustee and a ward boy of Shrey Hospital in Ahmedabad, where a fire broke out on Thursday killing eight people, news agency ANI reported.

Hospitals trustee Bharat Mahant and a ward boy has been detained by Navrangpura Police, ANI quoted LB Zala, Assistant Commissioner of Police (B-Division), as saying.

This comes hours after Joint Commissioner of Police (Sector 1) Rajendra Asari said that a trustee is being interrogated.

The police said that the fire broke out due to a short circuit in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) on the fourth floor of the hospital.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed sadness and anguish at the incident, and said that Centre is providing all the assistance to the affected.

Saddened by the tragic hospital fire in Ahmedabad. Condolences to the bereaved families. May the injured recover soon. Spoke to CM Vijay Rupani and Mayor Bijal Patel regarding the situation. Administration is providing all possible assistance to the affected, PM Modi tweeted.

He also announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each from Prime Minister National Relief Fund (PMNRF).

Home Minister Amit Shah also expressed his condolences to the affected families and wished for the speedy recovery of those injured.

Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani announced an ex-gratia amount of Rs 4 lakh each to the families of the eight victims. The chief ministers office (CMO) said that Rs 50,000 would be given to those injured in the incident.

Rupani has also ordered a probe in the incident.
Amazon has been accused of 'opting out' of the newly-imposed UK digital services tax after it announced plans to hit small businesses that sell items on its website with higher fees.

The multinational giant, which is valued at $1.5 trillion, has told businesses in the UK that it will increase its referral fees, fulfilment by Amazon fees, monthly FBA Storage fees and multichannel fulfilment fees by two per cent from September.

The internet shopping giant, which made a 4 billion profit in the second quarter alone, said the decision was prompted by the UK's two per cent digital sales tax, which came into force on April 1.

Following their announcement, Lord Leigh of Hurley, Conservative peer and party treasurer, said the company was constantly in a 'fight against good behaviour.'

Amazon has come under fire after it announced plans to hit small businesses that sell items on its website. (Stock image)

He told The Times: 'Amazon are further engendering the risk that they exhibit monopolistic behaviour. And that will have consequences. They constantly fight against good behaviour.'

Meanwhile Darren Jones, chairman of the business, energy and industrial strategy select committee, told the paper: 'Local high street retailers don't get to opt out of VAT or business rates. Amazon shouldn't be able to opt out of fair taxes either.'

The company, which was founded in 1994 by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, currently charges those who wish to sell items on their website a 15 per cent referral fee on every sale.

However its latest move has angered sellers who argued the plans would see small businesses absorb the new digital tax in the UK.

Sharing their frustrations on an Amazon sellers forum, one user wrote: 'Yep - we all get properly shafted yet again. It's not a coincidence that our Jeff is wealthiest man on planet Earth.

'The UK government were supposed to be implementing this additional tax to reflect the disparity between where profits are taxed versus where the value is created. (FAIL). Bottom line is, we all end up paying 2 per cent more to Amazon to cover it on their behalf.'

While another frustrated seller wrote: 'This is Amazon giving the finger to the UK government.'

Another person added: 'The customer will eventually pay the tax, wait and see!'

Elsewhere, one seller wrote: 'They are bleeding us dry. I am seriously considering switching some of my faster moving lines onto eBay.'

The tech giant, which is valued at $1.5 trillion, said the decision was prompted by the UK's two per cent digital sales tax, which came into force on April 1. (Stock image)

The internet shopping giant told its seller that it would be increasing its referral fees, fulfilment by Amazon fees, monthly FBA Storage fees and multichannel fulfilment fees by two percent from September in a message on their website

Mike Cherry, chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: 'Government and Amazon should work together to find a way to resolve this impasse and prevent millions of pounds of extra costs being imposed on the small firms who are only just starting to recover from the biggest crisis for generations.

'The tax is aimed at the profits of multinationals with large revenues. Passing the tax on to their small business customers will hurt them at the worst possible time.'

An Amazon spokesperson told MailOnline: 'Like many others, we have encouraged the Government to pursue a global agreement on the taxation of the digital economy at OECD level rather than unilateral taxes, so that rules would be consistent across countries and clearer and fairer for businesses.

'As we've previously indicated, the way that the Government has designed the Digital Services Tax will directly impact the businesses that use our services.'

The move by Amazon comes after its former UK boss, Doug Gurr, tried to warn the Government off the tax, saying it would be passed on.

In a note to UK sellers, Amazon said: 'While the legislation was being passed, and as we continued our discussions with the government to encourage them to take an approach that would not impact our selling partners, we absorbed this increase.

'Now the legislation has passed, we will be increasing referral fees, fulfilment by Amazon fees, monthly storage fees and multi-channel fulfilment fees by 2 per cent to reflect this additional cost.'

Amazon introduced similar changes in France last year.

The Treasury has said it hopes to raise 500million a year from the digital sales tax.

In April, technology firms including Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon pleaded that they should not have to pay a newly-imposed UK digital services tax.

Trade body TechUK, which represents hundreds of technology companies in Britain including the four giants, said the Government should 'look again' at the new levy.

It also asked for 'a bit more breathing space' by liabilities being delayed for a year.

The two per cent tax came into force in April as the Government tried to clamp down on profits and money being moved to countries with lower tax levels.

It will affect at least 30 firms with more than 500million of global revenues, but TechUK said it feared more companies will be caught by the tax than intended.
Former Vice President Joe Biden will not travel to Wisconsin to accept the Democratic US presidential nomination during the party`s national convention this month because of coronavirus concerns, party officials said on Wednesday.

The decision to pull Biden and other speakers from Milwaukee, where Democrats had once planned to hold a multiday nominating convention in person, ensures the event from August 17-20 will be almost entirely virtual. Biden will accept the nomination and deliver a national address from his home state of Delaware, the Democratic Party said.

Separately, Republican President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would "probably" deliver his nomination acceptance speech later this month from the White House.

The last-minute changes are the latest reminder of how the pandemic has wreaked havoc on traditional campaigning ahead of the country`s November 3 elections. The presidential conventions are typically made-for-television affairs featuring often-raucous speeches in front of thousands of the party faithful.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) said the decision was made to protect Milwaukee residents as well as the vast number of people needed to stage a national convention.

The event will feature two hours of prime-time programming each night with feeds from around the country, the DNC said.

"From the very beginning of this pandemic, we put the health and safety of the American people first," DNC Chairman Tom Perez said in a statement.

The Republican convention was initially set for Charlotte, North Carolina, before Trump moved part of the festivities to Jacksonville, Florida, after North Carolina`s governor warned he might not permit a huge crowd.

But a surge of coronavirus cases in Florida prompted Trump to cancel those plans. Only one night of the convention, a "nomination night," will take place in Charlotte, Trump said in an interview on Fox News on Wednesday.

Trump said the bulk of the convention would be virtual and include live speeches from different locations, including his address on August 27.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Gov. Mike DeWine plans to hold a Thursday news conference to discuss his health status, hours after he tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

DeWine will hold a virtual press conference at 4:30 p.m. today, his staff announced, and will take questions.

The state government-run Ohio Channel is making arrangements to broadcast the governors remarks, according to a spokesman.

About five hours after the news conference, DeWine announced he tested negative for coronavirus. The second round of testing was performed through a more sensitive test called a polymerase chain reaction, or PCR test, which detects genetic material from the new coronavirus, the governors office said. The earlier test, administered as DeWine traveled to greet President Donald Trump in Cleveland, delivers rapid results by testing the blood for antigens, but is a relatively unproven technology.

Here is a live stream, via the Ohio Channels YouTube page. It will become active when the event begins.

DeWine announced earlier Thursday he had tested positive for coronavirus after he was tested as he prepared to greet President Donald Trump at the tarmac in at Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland. Trump is in Ohio to visit the Whirlpool manufacturing plant in Sandusky County and has a fundraiser planned later in Bratenahl.

DeWine has no symptoms, and is returning to Columbus where he will be tested again, as will Ohio First Lady Fran DeWine, the governors office said. He then will head to his home in Cedarville where he plans to self-quarantine for 14 days.

DeWine becomes the second U.S. governor to test positive for COVID-19. Republican Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt tested positive on July 15. He reported to work 12 days later and has declared himself recovered, according to the Tulsa World.
A scorched Dragon capsule swooped from the heavens on Aug. 2 to restore Americas prominence in human spaceflight. Tucked safely inside were two NASA astronauts and one giant piece of baggage for the U.S.-Russia relationship:

Both countries now have a ride to the International Space Station.

This station has housed Americans and Russians, living and working side by side, for nearly two decades. But for the past nine years, Russia alone could fly people there. Its pride and budget were bolstered by the U.S. purchasing rides into space.

No longer. As the U.S. resumes launching astronauts from its own soil  an ability it does not wish to lose again  policy experts are watching to see if this affects the countries relationship.

On HoustonChronicle.com: NASA, SpaceX bring astronauts home in Gulf of Mexico splashdown

Through their civil space programs, Americans and Russians have sidestepped election meddling and economic sanctions to cooperate on a greater good. This relationship has helped bridge the two cultures, with astronauts learning Russian and cosmonauts visiting their counterparts homes in Houston.

Its one of the few areas that have been somewhat immune to the tensions that we see in other areas and domains, said Gregory Miller, an associate professor at the U.S. Air Forces Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. If you take that away or reduce that cooperation, its just one less restraint on further tensions.

To be clear, Miller does not think the U.S. launching astronauts will start a war. Victoria Samson, a space policy expert at the Secure World Foundation, similarly called it a ripple in our relations but not necessarily a catastrophic tidal wave.

NASA said its in active discussions to fly cosmonauts on U.S. spacecraft owned by SpaceX (and later Boeing) and to continue flying astronauts on Russian spacecraft. Its important to have people on both the U.S. and Russian segments of the International Space Station.

Building on our solid relationship with Roscosmos aboard the International Space Station in low-Earth orbit, Im hopeful there are opportunities for NASA and Roscosmos to expand our collaboration farther into the solar system, including the moon, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement.

Associated Press

But Samson and others said the introduction of commercial companies makes Russia uncomfortable. And with NASA no longer buying seats on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, its Roscosmos space agency loses an important source of funding for its space budget thats already a fraction of what NASA receives.

For now, Russia and the U.S. remain interdependent on the International Space Station. But this station will eventually get retired  it's set to operate through 2024, though that will likely be extended  leaving a big question as to what U.S.-Russian relations will look like once astronauts and cosmonauts no longer share a home some 250 miles above Earth.

Large personalities

The SpaceX Crew Dragon didnt just revive U.S. human spaceflight. It introduced a new partner: SpaceX founder Elon Musk, an outspoken billionaire who is eager to show that commercial entities can build, own and operate the vehicles that carry people into space.

On May 30, the day SpaceX launched NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, Musk couldnt help but take a jab at Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Roscosmos.

The trampoline is working, he said.

It was the punchline six years in the making: Rogozin, upset about U.S. sanctions in 2014, suggested that Americans use a trampoline to reach the space station.

Musk called his comment an inside joke, and Rogozin initially said he loved it. He congratulated NASA on the launch.

But a few days later, he released a lengthy op-ed in which he criticized the space shuttle (its 2011 retirement began U.S. dependence on Russias Soyuz spacecraft) for its immense costliness and unforgiveable failure rate. He touted Russia in the piece that ran in Forbes for staying alone for the humanity to support the International Space Station operability and deliver the crews there.

And he did not appreciate the humor.

Christina Koch, HOGP / Associated Press

When our partners finally managed to carry out a successful test of their spacecraft, we didn't get anything but jokes and mockery, Rogozin said, although it would not be out of place to thank our Soyuz, its Soviet developers and Russian engineers who continued modernizing this most reliable spacecraft in the world. It would not be out of place to thank us that despite personal and sectoral sanctions we did not go to pieces and preserved cooperation in space.

Roscosmos did not respond to email requests for comment.

SpaceX, with its ability to replace the Soyuz, makes Russia uncomfortable because it threatens a pillar of Russias culture and identity, said Pavel Luzin, who lives in Perm, Russia, and has a doctorate in international relations. Luzin has studied space policy since 2008.

He said that for Russians, the space program is a yardstick they use to judge the countrys political and economic system  if its doing well they view the government more favorably.

Thats why (the) Kremlin hates Elon Musk: he shows that the freedom of business activity, the market economy and the political freedoms are much more effective, Luzin said in an email.  Therefore, Dmitry Rogozin in his papers and interviews tries to belittle Musks achievements and tries to show that private investments of SpaceX and other commercial space companies are nothing without huge spending of the American government.

A long, complicated history

Russia has long been opposed to a commercial space sector; a sentiment first voiced by the former Soviet Union when drafting the Outer Space Treaty that provided a framework for governing the exploration and use of space.

This treaty was signed in 1967  after the Soviet Union placed the first satellite and man into space in 1957 and 1961, respectively, and before the U.S. put the first man on the moon in 1969.

At that time, the Soviet Union did not want the private sector operating in space, but allowed for a compromise: Governments would be responsible for overseeing any non-government entities.

The relationship slowly moved from competitive to cooperative  cosmonauts and astronauts shook hands in space in 1975  but had its ups and downs. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, former President George H. W. Bush was looking for new ways to collaborate.

Space was an obvious area, said John Logsdon, a retired professor and founder of George Washington Universitys Space Policy Institute. And in particular, the Russians needed money.

On HoustonChronicle.com: International Space Station: an orbiting home and lab for two decades

The U.S. didnt want Russia selling its technology or having its rocket workforce moving to Iran or North Korea, Logsdon said, so America began allowing commercial satellites to launch on Russian rockets.

And then Russia proposed merging its plans for a next-generation space station with Americas plans for Space Station Freedom. Around that time, Russia had more experience operating space stations than NASA.

The Russians involvement in the program was a major factor in order to be successful in the International Space Station, said George W.S. Abbey, senior fellow in space policy at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy and a former director of NASAs Johnson Space Center.

Also important was the countrys tried-and-true Soyuz rocket and spacecraft.

Todays Soyuz-2 rocket (which shares the same name as the spacecraft it propels into space) can directly trace its lineage to the rocket that launched the Sputnik satellite in 1957, said Phil Smith, a space industry analyst at Bryce Space and Technology.

The R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile has been the basis for 25 variants of the Soyuz rocket that have launched more than 1,900 times.

Associated Press

Its a workhorse, Smith said. Its one of the most successful rockets ever built.

There is no equivalent track record in America, he said, as modern rockets dont trace their lineage directly back to the early days of space exploration.

Future relations

Its the future priorities of Russias civil space program that are being questioned. Russia says its building a vehicle to replace the Soyuz spacecraft that has had some 170 successful flights, as well as additional modules for the International Space Station, but both projects are underfunded and behind schedule.

There have been lots of proclamations of Russian future plans, Logsdon said, but not much evidence that theyre following through on those proclamations.

Luzin said Russias focus on maintaining access to the International Space Station, which Roscosmos did without placing enough emphasis on a long-term strategy for space exploration, has weakened its position. As the U.S. develops a new spacecraft, rocket and orbiting facility for the moon, Russia will have little to offer in a partnership, Luzin said.

It was unable to use these years for developing its own manned spacecraft and launch vehicle for replacement of the old-fashioned Soyuz, he said. The main issue in U.S.-Russia relations in space now is how to continue the partnership after the ISS-era.

Bill Ingalls, HOGP / Associated Press

Its lesser budget doesnt help, either. Based off budget documents and his own analysis, Luzin said Russias space budget was roughly $3.2 billion last year. Of that, $1.4 billion was for the countrys civil space program, $1 billion was for its military space program, $437 million was for its global navigation satellite system and $358 million was for its rocket launch sites.

For comparison, NASAs budget was $21.5 billion in fiscal year 2019. Its more than $22.6 billion for the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

In the fall of 2019 and spring of 2020, NASA paid nearly $86 million for each astronaut launched into space (Jessica Meir in September and Chris Cassidy in April). The agency will pay $90.3 million to launch Kate Rubins in October, a fee that also covers training and other services related to launch.

The American payments were highly important for Russias space industry and for Russias civil space program, Luzin said, and now the industry lost the source.

Samson said U.S.-Russia cooperation doesnt have to be in human spaceflight. The countries could partner on science missions, or they could share information for tracking satellites and space debris.

Ultimately, the money NASA saves by flying with commercial companies could be put toward its Artemis program seeking to return humans to the moon. Houston, the home of human spaceflight, would certainly benefit from this, said Bob Mitchell, president of the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership.

It potentially equates to additional people working, he said.

On HoustonChronicle.com: NASA shares its vision for creating sustained human presence on the moon

Andrey Shelepin, HOGP / Associated Press

Miller suggested the U.S. use the money its saving to help subsidize another countrys space program.

He said providing funding for another country, for instance the United Arab Emirates, to fly on the Soyuz would help keep Russias space program funded, preventing its knowledge and technology from being sold to more adversarial countries, while developing U.S. ties with a new international space partner.

We dont want to sever ties in space or do anything that might reduce cooperation when there is this other competitor, for lack of a better term, he said.

That other competitor is China. In June, the U.S. Department of Defense said China and Russia present the most immediate and serious threats to U.S. space operations as they develop counterspace capabilities  which may disrupt, degrade or destroy space systems  and have military doctrines that view space as import to modern warfare.

Samson said she doesnt think Russia and China will get too cozy as partners in space. Like the U.S. and Russia, the two countries have their own complicated relationship. Rather, she said Chinas rise in space capabilities means there are more players that make the U.S. uneasy (in space and elsewhere) that America now has to monitor and manage relationships with in space.

The biggest thing thats changed since the cold war is that this is no longer a bilateral conversation, Samson said. Its multi-lateral.

andrea.leinfelder@chron.com

twitter.com/a_leinfelder
VALLEJO (BCN)

Oakland attorney John Burris filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Vallejo and Vallejo Police Officer Jarrett Tonn on Thursday for the fatal shooting of San Francisco resident Sean Monterrosa in early June.

Burris' law firm, representing the Monterrosa family, filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California in Sacramento.

Burris has previously litigated other high-profile civil rights cases such as those of Rodney King and Oscar Grant, as well as Willie McCoy, who was shot by six Vallejo police officers in 2019.

The lawsuit filed Thursday accuses the Vallejo Police Department of tampering with evidence and acting negligently by not reprimanding or re-training Tonn despite a "shocking history of shooting his gun at civilians."

Tonn shot three other people over a five-year span before fatally shooting Monterrosa, 22, in the early morning hours of June 2.

"The number of shootings is totally outrageous," Burris said during a news conference Thursday. "It is well beyond the pale."

Attorney Ben Nisenbaum noted that, including the shooting of Monterrosa, Tonn accounted for more than a tenth of the department's 32 shootings over the past decade.

A spokesperson for the city of Vallejo did not respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit, but the Vallejo Police Department said in a statement that it respected the Monterrosa family's right to take legal action.

"We know this is a painful step for the Monterrosa family," the department said. "It is our sincere hope that this process will guide the family and our community toward healing."

Tonn and a group of other Vallejo police officers responded to a report of vandalism at a Walgreens on June 2 when they saw Monterrosa retreating from the drug store.

The lawsuit claims Tonn fired an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle five times at Monterrosa through the windshield of an unmarked pickup truck. Vallejo police have claimed that Tonn fired at Monterrosa because he mistook a hammer in Monterrosa's sweatshirt pocket for the butt of a gun.

Tonn was placed on administrative leave following the shooting, which garnered national attention. Vallejo city officials and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have called for an FBI investigation into the shooting.

"It's unfortunate that it took my brother's life to bring more light, national attention to how Vallejo has been doing this for years," Sean's older sister Michelle Monterrosa said.

The lawsuit also alleges that the department destroyed the truck's windshield that Tonn shot through. The truck, Burris said, is now back in service.

"That's a clear destruction of evidence," Burris said. "Any reasonable police officer -- particularly a lieutenant, particularly an investigative person -- would know that there's real value associated with that window."

Michelle and Sean's younger sister, Ashley Monterrosa, said justice would not truly be served until Vallejo Police Chief Shawny Williams fired Tonn and state Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed criminal charges against Tonn for the shooting.

Becerra has already announced an investigation into the alleged destruction of evidence but has declined to involve the state Department of Justice in the shooting investigation.

"It turns out, to them, that destruction of evidence is more important than murdering my brother," Ashley Monterrosa said.

The sisters and Burris also suggested the shooting highlights a culture of misconduct within the Vallejo Police Department.

Michelle Monterrosa cited allegations that more than a dozen officers within the department bent the tips of their star-shaped badges to signify each time they killed a civilian in the line of duty.

"At the end of the day, Jarrett Tonn was just out on that night -- I'm sure other officers were -- looking for a way to bend their badge," she said. "They were looking for a way to assassinate an unarmed Black man or Latino man."

Ultimately, Burris said, city officials have a choice of whether they want the shooting to spur meaningful change within the Police Department or let the opportunity pass.

"This is not a moment," he said. "It could be a movement. This case could be at the center part of that."

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.
She made her name as one of Britain's top fashion models.

But Lisa Snowdon was horrified as she was forced to relive some of her early shoots on This Morning on Thursday.

The star, 49, was shown a number of her old magazine shots by hosts Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford, leaving her mortified.

Embarrassed: Lisa Snowdon was horrified as she was forced to relive some of her early fashion shoots on This Morning on Thursday

Surprising the former Strictly star, Ruth said: 'Guess who used to model in the Argos catalogue? There she is, in the early 90s, that's our Lisa.'

Lisa replied: 'Oh my God it was probably about 25 years ago, maybe even longer, I don't even remember.'

The presenters were looking through old copies of the Argos catalogue after the retailer announced it was coming to an end.

Serving looks: The star was modelling for the Argos catalogue in the early 1990s in some retro clothes

Surprise: The star, 49, was shown a number of her old magazine shots by hosts Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford, leaving her mortified

Farewell: The presenters were looking through old copies of the Argos catalogue after the retailer announced it was coming to an end

Stylish: In the snaps, Lisa can be seen wearing a rather dated trench coat and tinted sunglasses as she flaunted her toned leg

Lisa said: 'Oh my God it was probably about 25 years ago, maybe even longer, I don't even remember'

Laughing: Eamonn and Ruth were happily flicking through old copies of the Argos catalogue when they surprised Lisa

In the snaps, Lisa can be seen wearing a rather dated trench coat and tinted sunglasses as she flaunted her toned leg.

It comes after the star revealed she has 'made peace' with the fact she will never have children with her fiance George Smart during a candid interview last month.

The TV presenter told Ok! magazine that she knows 'being a mum wasn't meant for her in this life', as she discussed her future with George, 41.

The This Morning regular insisted that she doesn't feel 'childless', due to the close nature of the relationships she has with her nieces and nephews.

Candid: Lisa Snowdon has revealed she has 'made peace' with the fact she will never have children with her fiance George Smart during a candid interview

Lisa and George announced their engagement in 2017, after the entrepreneur surprised her with a ring while making her coffee one morning.

When questioned about whether she sees them having children, Lisa replied: 'No, no, no! I'm going to be 49 in January. I can't believe it.'

'I've totally made peace with it now. Being a mum wasn't meant for me in this life. My niece Willow is bonkers, she's just like me. We've got five little nieces and nephews all under the age of eight and they've this little crazy bunch.'

Couple: The TV presenter told Ok! magazine that she knows 'being a mum wasn't meant for her in this life', as she discussed her future with George, 41 (pictured)

Explaining that she doesn't feel 'childless', the star added: 'We get to hug them and then we get to say goodbye. We don't feel childless because Willow is always texting me and we've got a lot of contact with them on a daily basis.'

George agreed that they feel 'very lucky' to have nieces and nephews, before sweetly admitting that Lisa has always been his 'priority'.

Earlier this year, Lisa said she often feels 'sad' seeing families on Instagram after deciding to not have children - but says she enjoys the 'freedom' it brings her lifestyle.

Family: The This Morning regular insisted that she doesn't feel 'childless', due to the close nature of the relationships she has with her nieces and nephews

The model, who is unable to conceive naturally, told Closer she discussed having children through IVF with her fiance, shortly after they became engaged.

They ultimately chose not to go through the 'tough process' of fertility treatment.

While Hertfordshire-born Lisa insisted she couldn't be happier with entrepreneur George, there are times when it's difficult to see other people with their children on social media.

Honest: Earlier this year, Lisa said she often feels 'sad' seeing families on Instagram after deciding to not have children - but says she enjoys the 'freedom' it brings her lifestyle (pictured in 2019)

Speaking about how she decided against going down the route of IVF, she told the magazine: 'I knew I was well into my 40s and it would be a tough process and I very much enjoyed the freedom our lifestyles gave us.

'Although I have moments when I feel sad seeing Instagram pages with pictures of other people's kids, I'm a realist. But I feel so blessed that I've met George and I really couldn't be happier with how things are'.

The TV presenter, who had a fertility test when she was 39 which showed her chances of falling pregnant would be low, admitted she had even considered freezing her eggs.

But after thinking long and hard about children, her Yorkshire-born partner told her he 'just wanted to be with her'.
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The Lebanese cabinet announced on Wednesday a state of emergency in Beirut for two weeks, while the death toll from the deadly blasts at the Beirut port has climbed to 135.

Rescuers search for survivors after the explosions in Beirut, Lebanon, Aug. 5, 2020. The explosions in Lebanese capital Beirut have caused at least 100 deaths and left over 4,000 injured, with many more missing, Lebanese Health Minister Hamad Hassan announced on Wednesday. [Photo/Xinhua]

Two huge explosions rocked Port of Beirut on Tuesday at around 6:10 p.m. local time (1610 GMT), shaking buildings all over Lebanon's capital while causing heavy damage in the city.

Health Minister Hamad Hassan announced that so far the explosions have left 135 people dead and 5,000 others injured.

The state of emergency will be under the supervision of the Lebanese army who will maintain security in the city.

Primary information reveals that ammonium nitrate stored since 2014 in warehouse No. 12 at Port of Beirut may have caused the explosions.

The cabinet decided to put under arrest port officials who were aware and involved in the storage of the 2,700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate at the Port of Beirut.

The cabinet also urged the Public Works Ministry to secure import and export activities through Port of Tripoli, given the destruction inflicted by the accident.

The High Relief Commission will work on opening schools and hotels for people who lost their houses.

Investigations into the disaster are ongoing and the Higher Defense Council promised to reveal some results from investigations within five days.
U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar attends a press conference on the coronavirus at the White House in Washington D.C., U.S., March 2, 2020. /Xinhua

By Tom Fowdy

Editor's note: Tom Fowdy is a British political and international relations analyst and a graduate of Durham and Oxford universities. He writes on topics pertaining to China, the DPRK, Britain, and the U.S. The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Amid an ever growing spree of antagonistic actions undertaken by the Trump administration towards China, on August 5 it was announced that U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar would in "the coming days" visit Taiwan, marking what has been contested by some to be the first presidential cabinet visit to the island, since it adopted the one-China principle in 1979 and opened diplomatic relations with Beijing.

Azar will head to Taipei focusing his visit around the COVID-19, aiming to praise the island's response, as well as to voice support for its inclusion into the World Health Organization. Not surprisingly, it is viewed as yet another growing element of tension in U.S.-China ties.

The move is provocative and it is, of course, endemic of a White House that seeks to lash out at China, disrupt and raise the stake on every front possible, but the move is not as unprecedented as it appears.

The choice of a health secretary to make such a visit has been deliberately calibrated to blunt the political fallout out of such a move and prevent it from being interpreted as sharp on a military or diplomatic sense. Pompeo's own comments to play down the visit, despite his fanaticism of late, also indicated restraint. However, even if not completely breaking the boundaries it is an effort to push against them, one which Beijing will interpret as such, regardless.

It has been obvious for a while now that Washington has sought not to rewrite its position on the one-China principle and the "Taiwan Relations Act," but to certainly reinterpret it in a way, which deliberately presses against the boundaries.

Under the Trump administration, the U.S. has moved from what was otherwise a more conditionally neutral position on the dispute between Beijing and Taipei, towards gradually supporting the latter's position. This has included the passing of the Taiwan Travel Act (2018), which mandates more "unofficial" diplomatic exchanges between the two and the Taiwan Allies International Protection and Enhancement Initiative (TAIPEI) Act (2019), which aims to lobby for its participation in international organizations. The administration has also moved to penalize countries who adopt the one-China principle.

As a result and given the current climate, it is hardly a surprise that a U.S. cabinet official is making a visit to Taiwan. The move, however, is not as drastic as the reporting has made it out to be.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a press briefing in Washington D.C., U.S., April 22, 2019. /Xinhua

First of all, a year ago, U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton met with a Taiwan official who was visiting America. This move was arguably a far graver provocation in real terms given its military dynamic, than the visit of a health official to the island. On the contrary, Azar is not a well-known member of the Trump cabinet, who largely plays a background role and does not show his face on the foreign policy scene. Because of his portfolio, his visit is arguably pressing the boundaries of the one-China issue but he does not carry the personal weight or political baggage to constitute a massive violation. It's quite benign.

This suggests something provocative, but cautious from Washington. This is echoed by comments from Pompeo which sought to play down the significance of the visit. He argued "cabinet ministers have traveled" to the island before and insisted the trip was "consistent with policy of previous times." He then stated, "we're still in a global pandemic" and quickly aimed to cite purported health-related reasons for the visit rather, saying they will talk about" public health issues."

This marked a change from his unusual bombastic style and highly aggressive anti-China statements. It arguably was the most restrained remarks he'd made about an issue relating to China for months. They are pushing against the boundaries, but do not want to give the impression that they are explicitly breaking them.

Nevertheless, Beijing will argue that America's move constitutes a clear violation of one-China provisions. Even if they are not willing to "cross the line" it is arguable that Washington is pursuing a salami-slicing approach to Taiwan relations whereby they move forward just a little bit at a time, but nonetheless the overriding goal is obvious.

Azar's visit is health-related, but on the other hand, China will note it has a clear purpose to try and lobby against the World Health Organization's adoption of the one-China principle, as well as to implicitly politicize the virus by portraying Taiwan as exemplary.

As a result, even though there is a hint of restraint in how this move is being contacted, Beijing can only see it as a provocation and will aim to ensure that the U.S. does not get away with "pushing the boundaries." Thus it is likely to respond to the situation consistently, and will remind Washington of its longstanding diplomatic commitments on this issue.
On Wednesday, Emmy winner Amy Schumer mourned the loss of fellow Netflix star Cat Daisy Coleman, who committed suicide, age 23, on Tuesday night after four prior attempts.

'Daisy Coleman I'm so sorry this world was so unfair to you. You were a warrior a beautiful artist and I'm lucky I got to get to know you and love you,' wrote the 39-year-old Brett Kavanaugh protester, who lost her virginity being raped in her sleep as a teenager.

'This is a gut wrenching loss and we will continue all your incredible work with @safe_bae fighting for survivors. If you want to see Daisy's work you can go to @youngcattattoos the links to some of her work are in her bio. And #audrieanddaisy is on @netflix Rest In Peace angel.'

RIP: On Wednesday, Emmy winner Amy Schumer (L) mourned the loss of fellow Netflix star Cat Daisy Coleman (R), who committed suicide, age 23, on Tuesday night after four prior attempts (pictured in 2017)

The 39-year-old Brett Kavanaugh protester - who lost her virginity being raped in her sleep as a teenager - wrote: 'Daisy Coleman I'm so sorry this world was so unfair to you. You were a warrior a beautiful artist and I'm lucky I got to get to know you and love you'

The SafeBAE co-founder discussed her horrifying rape ordeal in Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk's 2016 documentary Audrie & Daisy, which is still streaming on Netflix.

The other subject of the documentary - Audrie Pott - also committed suicide, age 15, 10 days after her 2012 sexual assault, which had been circulated on social media.

Eight-time Grammy nominee Tori Amos - who was raped a knife point at age 21 and is the spokesperson for Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) - wrote of Daisy's passing: 'Heartbroken. There are no words.'

Public shaming activist Amanda Knox tweeted a snap of the semicolon tattoo Coleman inked on her finger in 2018 and wrote that she was 'devastated.'

Still streaming on Netflix: The SafeBAE co-founder discussed her horrifying rape ordeal in Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk's 2016 documentary Audrie & Daisy

Tragic: The other subject of the documentary - Audrie Pott - also committed suicide, age 15, 10 days after her 2012 sexual assault, which had been circulated on social media

'She was so kind & thoughtful, even as the mob sought to erase her after her assault. She imprinted herself on me, literally, tattooing this semicolon on my hand,' Amanda wrote.

'It's the symbol for suicide survivors. Daisy was brave, a fighter for others more than for herself. I hope she's remembered for the good she did, & not the bad done to her.'

The 33-year-old acquitted murder suspect had interviewed the tattoo artist for an episode of her Facebook Watch series, The Scarlet Letter Reports.

Elizabeth Smart - who was abducted and raped for nine months at age 14 - wrote that she was 'completely heartbroken' over Daisy's death.

Eight-time Grammy nominee Tori Amos - who was raped a knife point at age 21 and is the spokesperson for Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) - wrote of Daisy's passing: 'Heartbroken. There are no words'

'She imprinted herself on me': Public shaming activist Amanda Knox tweeted a snap of the semicolon tattoo Coleman inked on her finger in 2018 and wrote that she was 'devastated'

'I hope she's remembered for the good she did, & not the bad done to her': The 33-year-old acquitted murder suspect had interviewed the tattoo artist for an episode of her Facebook Watch series, The Scarlet Letter Reports

'Rescuing victims doesn't end with their physical bodies being safe': Elizabeth Smart - who was abducted and raped for nine months at age 14 - wrote that she was 'completely heartbroken' over Daisy's death

'I can't believe the cruelty that's directed toward women': Power actor Evan Handler retweeted a Jezebel article on Daisy's passing, which he said 'shook the Hell out of me'

'Rescuing victims doesn't end with their physical bodies being safe. It is a much deeper and longer process,' the 32-year-old child safety activist posted on Instagram.

'Healing and peace is a journey and can often last a lifetime. Please continue to support victims, survivors, and the organizations and resources in place to help them to heal mentally, emotionally, and spiritually as well.'

Power actor Evan Handler retweeted a Jezebel article on Daisy's passing, which he said 'shook the Hell out of me.'

Coleman's mother Melinda broke the sad news via Facebook writing: 'She never recovered from what those boys did to her and it's just not fair. My baby girl is gone'

Sad: Daisy was 14 when she was raped in 2012 by Matthew Barnett at a Missouri house party in the presence of his pals Jordan Zech, Nick Groumoutis, and Cole Forney (pictured October 1)

'I can't believe the cruelty that's directed toward women in this nation, and this world,' the 59-year-old Sex and the City alum wrote. 'It's born from a place beyond my comprehension.'

Coleman's mother Melinda broke the sad news via Facebook writing: 'She never recovered from what those boys did to her and it's just not fair. My baby girl is gone.'

Daisy was 14 when she was raped in 2012 by Matthew Barnett at a Missouri house party in the presence of his pals Jordan Zech, Nick Groumoutis, and Cole Forney.

Melinda, whose house was mysteriously burned down in 2013, wrote: 'Audrie and Daisy would both be alive today if those boys were held accountable'

No justice: Barnett, now 22, only received two years probation after pleading guilty to child endangerment in 2014 after his felony sexual assault charge was inexplicably dropped

Barnett, now 22, only received two years probation after pleading guilty to child endangerment in 2014 after his felony sexual assault charge was inexplicably dropped.

'Matthew Barnett, Cole Forney, Jordan Zeck and Nic Groumoutis killed my daughter by what they did to her,' wrote Melinda, whose house was mysteriously burned down in 2013.

'Audrie and Daisy would both be alive today if those boys were held accountable. Shame on Sheriff White - total sadist and narcissist. You daughters will never be safe If he is sheriff.....destroying evidence and lying!'

For confidential support call the National Suicide Prevention Line on 1-800-273-8255.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 11:34:51|Editor: huaxia

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WELLINGTON, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand and Australia on Thursday reaffirmed the need for the closest possible collaboration to tackle a global environment shaped by COVID-19.

"In these challenging times, our close collaboration with Australia is more vital than ever," New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement.

Peters and Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne met virtually for biannual Foreign Minister Consultations on Thursday and discussed how the two countries are responding to COVID-19 together.

The two ministers covered a range of topics, including Australia and New Zealand's close cooperation in the Pacific, the statement said.

"Trans-Tasman cooperation is always very important to New Zealand, but is even more so during a global pandemic," said Peters. Enditem
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

The New Mexico State Fair at Expo New Mexico wont take place for the first time in its 82-year history, but the staff at the nearby Albuquerque Downs feels obligated to run its horse racing dates, starting on Saturday, said Don Cook, the president of racing.

These horsemen havent been able to run for any money since the middle of March, Cook, who has worked at Albuquerque Downs for 31 years, said Wednesday. We have approximately $6 million in purse money. They need to get some money in their pockets because maintaining these horses every day without getting a shot to run at something is very expensive. Its expensive for us to put this on too. But we feel its something that will help keep the heartbeat in this industry.

Ten races are scheduled with the first post time of 1:30 p.m. After Saturdays opener, the typical schedule will be Sunday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

Cook and the Downs staff have been preparing for the race days and making sure everyone is adhering to the public health order in the attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Weve done every guideline there is, he said.

Jockeys who are from out of state are required to be tested for the coronavirus within 10 days of their race date and they are to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival, following New Mexico guidelines put in place by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

Testing in-state jockeys is not mandatory, but Cook said the Downs encourages those jockeys to be tested, especially since testing is available at the Expo fairgrounds.

Every person entering the barn area will have his/her temperature checked. All the jockeys will have temperatures checked. If any one has a temperature reaching as high as 101.7, theyre not allowed to enter. If that happens a second time, then a COVID-19 test will be required.

No fans will be allowed at Albuquerque Downs, but the Jockey Club and Turf Club on the third floor will be open for food service with patio seating available at 50% capacity. That comes out to about 260 people total, Cook said, and the seating is only available by reservation online at www.abqdowns.com. No more than four people are allowed to a table, and everyone must wear a mask.

Wagering, including simulcast (races on remote tracks), can also be made on the third floor. Online wagering for the Downs races and simulcast is available on a host of websites, including TVG and TwinSpires.

Cook said there were no thoughts of reducing the size of the fields in each race for safety reasons because it was our job to get as many horses in each race as we can.

Snapshots at the winners circle at the Albuquerque Downs should certainly have a unique look, typifying what is happening in New Mexico and across the nation. A maximum of six people will be allowed in the winners circle and masks must be worn.

Jockeys are also required to wear a face covering before and after the race, and encouraged to wear it during the race, Cook said.

The jockey room had to be renovated, Cook said, so that it would be in compliance with public-health-order guidelines. The sauna wont be allowed for use this year.

One trainer and two grooms (stable hands) per horse are allowed in the paddock, the area where the horses are saddled.

Grooms must be seated in the lower bleachers. No one is allowed on the apron, the area near the paddock where people stand to watch the races.

No one is allowed on the rail.

The casino at Albuquerque Downs will remain closed.
Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh minister Balineni Srinivasa Reddy announced that he has tested positive for Covid-19.

Srinivasa Reddy, APs energy and forests minister, allayed fears over his health and said he was under home quarantine at his residence in Hyderabad following mild fever in the last five days.

He said he got admitted in a hospital in Hyderabad as per the advice of doctors after he tested positive Tuesday.

In a message to his followers and YSR Congress leaders, the minister said he was healthy and would return home shortly.

Doctors treating the minister said he was doing fine and there were no complications. Sources close to the minister said chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy spoke to Srinivasa Reddy and also checked about his condition from doctors attending to him.

Anddhra Pradesh once again witnessed the highest single-day spike of new COVID-19 cases by registering 10,128 new cases, raising the overall tally to 10,128, apart from 77 deaths in the last 24 hours, scaling up the death toll to 1,681.

The health department's Covid-19 bulletin on Wednesday reported that 60,576 samples were tested. With this, the state has so far carried out tests on 22,35,646 people. Of them, 1,86,461 have tested Covid-19 positive while 1,04,354 patients have been discharged after recovery.

Some 80,426 patients are undergoing treatment in various hospitals of the state, the health department bulletin said.
Kate Nash lit a candle for John Hume and put it in her window.

She and her sister Linda came together yesterday to watch his funeral at Kate's home in the Brandywell.

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Looking at the funeral on television brought back sad memories for the Nash sisters.

Their brother William (19) was among 13 peaceful protesters shot dead by British paratroopers in the Bogside on January 30, 1972. Their father, Alex, saw his son being shot and ran to help him. He was then shot and wounded himself.

Days later, as he strained to see his son's funeral on the television from his hospital bed, he had visitors.

"Daddy was watching the funerals on TV, and the police came in, and they wanted to interview him in his bed.

"He said, 'Go on away, son, I'm looking to watch my son being buried.'"

The horrific tragedy and the obscene injustice of that time brought many to support the IRA's campaign and Sinn Fein. But not the Nash family.

"Our family always voted for John, even in those early days," says Kate.

"Mummy would almost come into the booth with you at elections to make sure you voted for John," laughs Linda.

"Up in Creggan, he was always there if a family was having trouble with the army or anything like that.

"All he seemed to want to do was help people. And it was genuine concern. He wanted a better world for us," said Kate.

Hume's views on equality and dialogue didn't always sit well with his political opponents and commentators. But Kate says this was not the case locally.

"Ordinary people always respected John Hume, and they knew he had their best interests at heart. He was an honest man.

"Other political forces around at the time wouldn't have appreciated that.

"He was a powerful man and one of the best to come out of this country. He did so much. He was the peacemaker.

"A non-violent man. I'm sure there were times he must have been afraid. He went right up to the British soldiers and remonstrated with them. They could have knocked him clean out - or worse. They didn't care.

"I was sad to miss it, but I haven't been well, and I respected what Pat Hume said.

"I have my candle lighting for him all day.

"We were lucky to have him. He did so much for this town."

And Hume was one of the founding members of the credit union.

"I joined it about 35 years ago, and that is how I have lived my life," says Kate.

"Anything I have needed, that's where I would have got the money. You could afford to go there and get a loan. It was a lifeline for lots of people.

"John Hume was a very special human being. He was non-sectarian, and he never changed. He treated everybody the same.

"And that's the way you would like the whole world to be."

Gerry Murray was taught history by Hume at St Columb's College 55 years ago. They later became friends through the SDLP.

Mr Murray went on to study history at Trinity College Dublin and often travelled with Hume to college debates.

"He was the world's worst driver. He could sit there for hours, saying nothing, but his mind was churning around.

"He would suddenly ask a question like, 'Who do you think was the best American president?'," says Mr Murray. "John thought it was Kennedy," he adds.

"I used to go out campaigning with him in 1973, and he was adored. The people of Derry respected him greatly. There was universality about him. He could talk with anyone.

"If things weren't going well for him politically, he could rely on Derry people for support.

"I was with him one day, and we walked into Da Vinci's bar, and this boy turned to him and said: 'Don't let the bastards get on top of you John, just keep going'.

"And as it transpired the man who said that was a republican but he wanted John to succeed. They admired him.

"That said, some of the people now saying he was a great peacemaker tried to burn his house down. That is what he and his family had to put up with.

"In a historical context, he was a major figure. Unlike O'Connell and Parnell, he achieved what he set out to achieve.

"I watched the funeral, and it was very strange not to be there.

"Seeing Pat and the children, who I would have known growing up, I was half expecting to see John pop into view.

"He almost seemed to be there without being there. You'd half expect him to turn around and say, 'Well, what about ye?'

"It was both heartbreaking and very uplifting watching the funeral.

"There is a great regret in the town, especially after the massive send-off that Martin McGuinness got, that we couldn't do it for John.

"Yet ironically, he got a greater send-off because it was more from the heart, and it wasn't a political funeral.

"It was very poignant seeing all the wee candles lighting in the windows."
According to Credit Suisse, there are still reasons to expect further Bank of England easing which will contribute to Pound Sterling vulnerability, especially given twin deficits. Given the risk of short covering, it is looking for more attractive levels to sell and buy EUR/GBP near 0.8800.

Further Bank of England easing still realistic

The bank looks at three reasons why markets will still look to price-in further monetary easing by the Bank of England which will undermine Sterling.

Firstly, the scale-back and end of the expensive but effective job furlough scheme by October is expected to lead to a rise in unemployment to levels above 10%.

A second reason for concern surrounds Brexit talks with the possibility of failure (odds seen at 25% by CS economists)  it should be much clearer by October how the land lies.

Coronavirus developments will also be watched closely and Credit Suisse comments; A second wave and a material return to lockdown always remains a possibility in the UK, especially given the failures seen in terms of how the government handled the practical side of the first outbreak.

Twin deficits remain a key vulnerability

Although Credit Suisse overall maintains a negative stance on Sterling with particular unease over UK budget and current account deficits, it has been cautious over selling.

But we have also felt unwilling to fade GBP for the time being, given our perception that Brexit trade talks with the EU are more likely to move the dial if they produce a positive surprise breakthrough than if they remain unfruitful.

In this context, the bank wants to wait for more attractive levels to sell.

Before we become willing to actively sell GBP again in this climate characterized by an asymmetric risk of being run over by positive trade talks news, we would need much more attractive trade location  for example levels near 1.3400 in GBPUSD and 0.8800 in EURGBP.

The bank was concerned that a dovish Bank of England statement would weaken Sterling and deprive it the opportunity to fade rallies, although these fears are likely to have been eased by todays statement.

The Euro-to-Pound exchange rate traded just above 0.9000 in European trading.
By Trend

The monument to the victims of the Khojaly genocide, a massacre against Azerbaijani civilians committed by Armenian military forces on Feb. 26, 1992, at the "Nieuw Eikenduynen" cemetery in the Netherlands Hague city, has been moved, the Azerbaijani State Committee on Affairs with Diaspora told Trend.

The monument was erected in 2007 upon the initiative of the Dutch-Azerbaijan Cultural Association with the financial support of the Azerbaijani and Turkish communities. Every year on February 26, an event is held in front of the monument to commemorate the memory of the victims of the Khojaly genocide, the message said.

The Association held talks with the municipality of Hague to move the monument to a more suitable location. Upon reaching an agreement, the monument was moved to a more spacious territory, and the adjacent territory was landscaped. The memorial plaque installed here presents brief information about the Khojaly genocide in Azerbaijani and Dutch languages, Chairman of the Association Ilhan Ashkin said.

Hague is one of the largest political centres in Europe, and such a monument is important from the point of view of bringing the truth about the Khojaly genocide to the international community. We thank the Azerbaijani and Turkish communities for their work, Ashkin said.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
The letter to 171 companies involved in designing and building the light-rail line said the state intends to exercise its step-in rights to take over managing their contracts if no deal on the cost overruns is reached with the private consortium now managing the project. That would keep construction going pending resolution of the parties disputes while the state pursues its rights and remedies against the consortium, the letter said.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 15:10:49|Editor: huaxia

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by Xinhua writer Wang Lei

BEIJING, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- The relationship between China and the United States has arrived at a highly critical juncture after over four decades of generally stable development.

The future of what many consider the world's most important bilateral relationship now hinges upon whether Washington has the much needed rationality and vision to make the right choice.

Over the past few months, a handful of hardliners in Washington have launched a China-smearing campaign over the coronavirus pandemic and human rights in Xinjiang, meddled in China's internal affairs concerning Hong Kong, Taiwan and the South China Sea, cracked down on Chinese tech firms, and deliberately stirred up an ideological confrontation with Beijing. Most recently, Washington abruptly ordered the closure of the Chinese Consulate General in Houston, an unjustified and reckless political provocation.

As a result, the relationship between the world's top two economies now faces what Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi recently described as the most serious challenge since the two sides forged diplomatic ties 40 years ago.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in his recent fact-twisting speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library, claimed that America's policy of engagement with China is wrong and has failed, in a bid to deny the tremendous benefits the two sides have jointly delivered to their peoples and the rest of the world, and legitimize his call to form an anti-China alliance.

In order to navigate the China-U.S. relationship through such uncharted and turbulent waters, it is important for the two sides to set straight misinterpretations from Washington's China hawks about the history of the exchanges and cooperation between the two countries.

In the past 40 years, bilateral trade between China and the United States has increased dramatically, from a negligible 2.5 billion U.S. dollars in the late 1970s to the incredible amount of over 630 billion dollars in 2018.

The robust economic and trade relationship has supported around 2.6 million jobs in the United States across a range of industries, and over 72,500 U.S. companies have investments or business in China.

Moreover, cooperation between the two countries in major global issues, like fighting terrorism, tackling the 2008 financial crisis and coping with the climate change challenge, has made significant contributions to sustaining peace and stability, and promoting development around the world.

To turn the current dangerous tide in the bilateral relationship around and put it back on the right track, the United States needs to immediately stop pushing in the wrong direction and start taking de-escalatory and remedial actions.

Firstly, it should respect China's sovereignty and territorial integrity and stop interfering in China's domestic affairs, just as China respects those of the United States.

And though in the face of Washington's provocation Beijing has always kept maximum restraint, that does not mean that the country will bow to bullying. Indeed, China has every right to make a legitimate and firm response to defend its national interests.

Secondly, China will firmly follow its own path of development and pursue its rightful goal of great national rejuvenation for the Chinese people. Washington should rid itself of the delusion that Beijing will somehow change course and adopt U.S.-style political and social systems.

Thirdly, Washington should join Beijing in reactivating communication at all levels and in all-important sectors such as economy and trade and security, as well as cultural and people-to-people exchanges, so as to avoid any high-risk strategic misjudgement.

The United States should also work with China and the rest of the international community to step up international cooperation, particularly in the ongoing fight against the pandemic, and to support the multilateral system with the United Nations at the center and make it better and more effective, instead of turning against it.

Now, the ball is in the U.S.' court. For the interests of both China and the United States, as well as those of the wider world, China is always ready to work with the U.S. side to boost bilateral ties on the basis of coordination, cooperation and stability, and to maintain global peace and prosperity.

The development of China and of the United States is not a zero-sum game, and the two countries should not reject each other but draw on each other's strength to achieve common development, Wang noted in an exclusive interview with Xinhua on Wednesday.

It is wise for U.S. policymakers to ditch their Cold-War mentality and political shortsightedness, demonstrate wisdom and vision, and meet Beijing halfway for a better, shared future of the two peoples and those worldwide. Enditem
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has directed the Chhattisgarh government to pay Rs 100,000 compensation each to 13 rights activists, including Delhi University professor Nandini Sundar, for being falsely implicated by the state police in two cases in 2016.

The activists were booked for murder after they visited Chhattisgarh for a fact-finding mission about alleged human rights violations in the states left-wing insurgency-hit Bastar region.

NHRC, a statutory public body, on July 7 directed the Chhattisgarh government to submit a compliance report along with proof of payment to the activists within six weeks. The order became public on Thursday when the state government confirmed it had received it. We have received the directives from NHRC. The state government is taking appropriate action, said Chhattisgarhs chief secretary R P Mandal.

As regards to the registration of FIR [First Information Report] against Professor Nandini Sundar and others, the DGP [director general of police DM Awasthi] has submitted that during the investigation, no evidence was found against her, Archana Prasad, Vineet Tiwari, Sanjay Parate, Manju, and Mangla Ram Karma. Hence, their names have been removed from the FIR, the NHRC said in the order, a copy of which HT has seen.

Awasthi said the other seven accused CH Prabhakar, B Durga Prasad, B Rabindranath, D Prabhakar, R Lakshimaiya, Mohammad Nazir and K Rajendra Prasad were acquitted of all the charges by Sukmas chief judicial magistrate in 2018.

Sundar reacted to NHRCs directive and said they were yet to receive any compensation. But, as and when I receive it, I plan to share the sum to support the legal aid for innocent tribals, who are falsely implicated...

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-05 19:54:12|Editor: huaxia

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MANILA, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- A senior Philippine official said Wednesday that there is no basis on which to ban the popular video-sharing app TikTok in the Philippines.

"We have not received any solid evidence or basis for the banning of TikTok, so unless we are presented with solid evidence or basis for the banning of that app, then it will remain status quo," Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles told a virtual media forum on Wednesday.

Nograles echoed the Philippine presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, who said on Tuesday that there is no reason to ban the popular app.

"I don't see any reason why TikTok should be banned in the Philippines," Roque said.

Both Nograles and Roque have joined the TikTok craze, uploading videos on the app, while TikTok's Philippine user base has soared during the country's coronavirus lockdown period. Enditem
A van is trapped in a flooded road in North Korea.



South Korea decided Thursday to provide $10 million for a World Food Programme project to supply food and nutrition to young children and women in North Korea, the unification ministry said Thursday.



The decision, approved by a civilian-government committee on inter-Korean exchanges, marked the first time that the ministry has approved a North Korea aid plan since Unification Minister Lee In-young took office last month.



The fund will be used to provide nearly 9,000 tons of fortified food to children under the age of 7 and pregnant women in 60 counties in the North, and to provide 3,600 tons of food aid, including corn, beans and oil, the ministry said.



"We decided to provide assistance to young children and women in the belief that it would help improve the humanitarian situation of those who need it the most in North Korea," the ministry said in a statement. "We will continue to provide humanitarian assistance regardless of the political and military situation."



South Korea had planned to approve the aid plan in June at the request of the WFP, but the plan was put on hold, as North Korea sharply escalated tensions in anger over anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets and even blew up an inter-Korean joint liaison office.






Missoula first noticed Harold Urey in May of 1915, when the State University announced the winners of the annual C.A. Duniway Scholarship Books.

Urey, a 22-year-old freshman from Indiana by way of a mining camp in the Gallatin Mountains, received the biology award.

There came a different kind of recognition 30 years later. Days after the U.S. bomber Enola Gay unleashed the most destructive weapon known to mankind over Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945, Urey was acknowledged in the Missoulian as one of the scientists who played an important part in development of the atomic bomb.

It was true that Urey, a chemist whose name adorns an underground lecture hall on the University of Montana campus, had played a key role on the Manhattan Project. But even though the bombing 75 years ago of Hiroshima and, four days later, Nagasaki brought an end to World War II, he never wished it to be his legacy.

It was evil, Richard Field said this week. That was his opinion.

Field arrived at UM in 1975 and taught for 33 years at Ureys alma mater, serving as chemistry department chairman from 1990 to 1996. He still has an office as a professor emeritus. He said he became interested in Ureys story while helping organize a memorial to the man in Missoula after Ureys death in January 1981.

"I met him several times, but I don't know that I met him here on campus,"Field said. "He had some problems with the university moving into PhD-level programs and research because he didn't think we had resources to do it well, and for the most part he was right. He was not very popular for awhile with the central administration."

Field crossed paths with Urey while doing post-doctorate research at the University of Oregon. His mentor, Richard Noyes, was a highly respected physical chemist who had been a colleague of Ureys at Columbia University, and the two were personal friends.

"That would have been in the late 60s or early 70s, Field said. One of the things that really impressed me at the time, he seemed to be more interested in knowing what I was doing than talking about himself. That really pleased me that he took that interest.

Urey, he said, should best be remembered for his work in the origins of life, space science and analysis of moon rocks from Apollo 11 or 12 in 1969.

Certainly Ureys discovery of deuterium, or heavy water, figures in.

"You may think there is only one kind of hydrogen, but there are two," the Associated Press reported in February 1932. "Dr. Harold d'Urey (sic) and Dr. G. M. Murphy of Columbia University, together with Dr. F. G. Brickwedde of the U.S. Bureau of Standards, have found a new kind of hydrogen. It is twice as heavy as the ordinary gas and is about 14 times as dense as air."

The discovery earned Urey the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1934. It was also one of the keys that unlocked the secret of atomic energy.

Field said Urey's early work at Columbia also led to the establishment of chemical dating and isotopic tracing, which have had profound influences on geology and biology.

Urey split his Nobel Prize money with Isidor Rabi, a new assistant professor at Columbia, to establish a laboratory.

"Rabi went on to lead the development of radar in World War II," Field said. "His pioneering work on the magnetic properties of atoms led eventually to a Nobel Prize and medical MRI."

Urey was called on to oversee development of the gaseous-diffusion plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where the Manhattan Project was headquartered and the atomic bomb was built.

As far as I know he visited Oak Ridge only once, Field said. He went down to see it, and he went back to New York with the impression that it was not a facility designed to build one bomb to win the war but one designed to build a bomb to rule the world.

He quit, Field added.

I am a frightened man, and all scientists I know are frightened, Urey wrote after the bombs dropped. Political leaders, he said, are extremely reluctant to engage in pioneering work to establish control of the bomb, as the scientists pioneered in winning the atomic-bomb race.

Urey joined the faculty at the University of Chicago in 1945. Along with Albert Einstein and other leading scientists, he expressed vigorous opposition to nuclear warfare that clouded the horizon. Urey wasnt the only one to voice his belief that a one-world government was needed to harness the proliferation of nuclear arms.

He caught the attention of not only the press but the FBI and the House Un-American Activities Committee, which both investigated him. Though he was outspoken against the nuclear threat posed by Soviet Russia, Urey was found to have associations with front groups that together made up the Communist conspiratorial system, biographer Matthew Shindell wrote.

Shindell, curator of planetary science and exploration at the Smithsonians National Air and Space Museum, wrote his doctorate dissertation on Urey at the University of California San Diego, where Urey ended his career after becoming a founding faculty member in 1958.

Shindells The Life and Science of Harold C. Urey was published last December by the University of Chicago. It explains how Urey, who grew up on a farm in an ultra-religious family in northern Indiana, got to Missoula.

His father, the Rev. Samuel Urey, died of tuberculosis in 1899 when Harold was 6 years old. Cora (Reinoehl) Urey remarried in 1903 to Martin Alva Long, and they wound up on a farm near Big Timber, where Harold joined them in 1912 following a stint teaching school in Indiana.

Urey taught one year in a small school south of Livingston and another year in a mining camp in the Gallatins south of Bozeman, Shindell said. He lived with the Wilson family in the latter, and when Brian Wilson decided to go to college in Bozeman, it planted the seed of higher education in Urey. An uncle, Charles Reinoehl, was school superintendent in Helena and later became a state rural schools inspector. He steered Urey to the state university in Missoula.

Urey graduated from UM in 1917 after three years and served on the chemistry department faculty from 1919 to 1921. Biology professor Morton Elrod recalled young Urey as an intense student, highly interested in scientific subjects, a Missoulian story said in 1934. He majored in chemistry and zoology and showed great ability in both subjects.

Elrod said he still had a paper Urey wrote as a young man on the microscopic animals found in a slough near Missoula.

Urey moved from Missoula for good in 1921 to pursue a doctorate degree at the University of California Berkeley. But he returned several times for the public appearances, including on UMs Charter Day in February 1946.

Seven months after the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, Urey told a Monday morning crowd in the auditorium of the old Student Union building that the problem with the bomb is not primarily the problem of that instrument of warfare.

The problem, he said, is war itself.

It is war that drove men to produce this weapon against their wishes and desires and better judgment, for there were few men working on this weapon who did not realize that it was wholly evil, that it would lead to the death of many men, and that it would be a constant threat over all men for all future time.

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As the world marks the Day against trafficking on 30th July, its imperative for us to take our time to reflect on the crime of trafficking and how it has persisted regardless of the global pause on inter-nation human movement.

Self-isolation and social distancing was the parameters on which our safety during this covid-19 pandemic is hinged on and as the world stopped moving during the strict lockdown phase, those concerned were worried on the fate of the people trapped in sexual captivity and its concomitant hazards.

People that their freedoms are already denied them, that had to endure being soiled and taken advantage of during the lockdown, without any hope of freedom and worse without their occasional temporal means of escapism as all social activities and movement grounded to a halt so there werent any distraction or sort of relief for them from their unpleasant realities.

Children, men and women ensnared in harsh labour conditions and forced to work for a pittance without protective gears in very unsafe environments who will need to stay put till the world returns to normal, some had to continuously mine in underground tunnels without access to sunlight and natural air.

Organisers of African Elders and Women Intercultural Dialogue visits Sadia Farouk Nigeria's Minister of Humanitarian Affairs,Disaster Management and Social development (3rd from right)

Organisers of African Elders and Women Intercultural Dialogue visits Sadia Farouk Nigerias Minister of Humanitarian Affairs,Disaster Management (3rd from left)

The Post Covid-19 World Economy situation will spike the rise of Trafficking.

Now as the world continue to struggle with the recent pandemic and the economic uncertainties it has ushered into the human existence, it is apparent that all forecasts on the global economic downturn which will certainly trigger other social uncertainties of a global scale means that there is going to be a rise in trafficking.

Economic hardship is one of the silent factors that influences irregular migration which in turn endangers the desperate migrants out of their frantic effort for survival, as they risk becoming victims of organ and sex trafficking, forced labour among others.

Cultural activists during the African Elders and Women Intercultural dialogue events have consistently hinted on this new culture of African youths resorting to migrating to other parts of the world by all means, with the wrong notion that life anywhere else is better than in the continent of Africa.

Queen Mother Nana Awindor, HE Fatoumatta Jallow,and WOTCLEF Founder Mrs.Titi Abubakar at African Elders and Women Intercultural Dialogue Abuja

Queen Mother Nana Awindor, HE Fatoumatta Jallow, and WOTCLEF Founder Mrs.Titi Abubakar at African Elders and Women Intercultural Dialogue Abuja

An error which they always find out too late on how wrong they were when reality of the dangers of enslavement, Organ and Sex Trafficking they expose themselves to in foreign lands hits them in the face.

There are millions of people trapped in the bondage of slavery around the world. One out of every four victims is a child who has been deceived or kidnapped and has no ability to or means of escape.

Children and adults trapped in slavery face physical, verbal, and sexual abuse daily, and cannot leave to find other work or protect their families. Enslaved people are reportedly beaten, gang-raped, locked in tiny rooms, starved, and even forced to witness murder or forced to kill, especially in cases of child soldiers.

African Elders and Women Intercultural Dialogue Accra that discussed Culture as an underrated element in the rise of trafficking, a policy briefing platform targeted at generating a blueprint to review and re-think socially transmitted beliefs, knowledge, customs, skills, attitudes, languages that weakens the socio-capital values of women in Africa and enhances trafficking.

African Elders and Women Intercultural Dialogue that discussed Culture as an underrated element in the rise of trafficking.

Debt Bondage

Better economic opportunities linked to Debt bondage is going to be one of the seemly innocent ploy traffickers are going to use and lure innocent victims into bondage of trafficking post covid-19 pandemic.

According to www.thenews.com.pk this is how debt bondage works.

Trafficking gangs lure vulnerable people with false promises of escaping poverty and discrimination. Invariably, they will answer job adverts boasting huge wages and assurances that travel and immigration documents will be taken care of.

Migration worries are outweighed by desires for betterment. But on arrival, victims discover the job does not exist  and they have accrued a debt by accepting the transit.

Known as debt bondage, they are trapped in an endless cycle of working under duress with little hope of repaying the sum. Sexual exploitation ranges from escorting and creating pornography to working in strip clubs and forced prostitution.

Pimps will strip women of their possessions and monitor their movements. Associates ferry them between brothels, coercing them into having sex for money with multiple men each day.

They employ control tactics to buy victims silence if they display a flicker of doubt or defiance. This can include violent threats and claims they will be deported if they contact the authorities.

In the past months amidst the lockdown and other social inconsistencies, cases of trafficking and human abuse were reported from all parts of the globe, from Nigeria to USA, Liberia, Thailand, Canada, Mexico and Lebanon ,signaling that trafficking and abuse of victims of trafficking is a daily global occurrence.

Trafficking and Child Labour

Trafficking and Child Labour

Below is some of the disturbing news of trafficking during the Covid-19 pandemic that was in the media space.

Nigeria police rescued workers locked in rice factory

Police in Nigeria have rescued more than 100 people they say were locked in a rice-processing factory and forced to work throughout a coronavirus lockdown. From the end of March the men were allegedly not allowed to leave the mill in the northern city of Kano.

The workers were promised an additional $13 (10) a month on top of their $72 monthly salaries- those who did not accept was threatened with the sack. Five managers at the Indian-owned mill have been arrested.

An Eritrean Asylum Seeker Killed in Libya

UNHCR expressed its deepest condolences over the tragic death of a young Eritrean asylum-seeker in Tripoli and called for renewed action against smugglers and traffickers who continue to inflict unimaginable suffering on refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in Libya

UNHCR also called on the international community to provide more support to the authorities in their fight against human trafficking networks

Ghanaian lady in Lebanon found dead hours after last distress message about her abuse.

A Ghanaian lady in Lebanon was found dead hours after sharing a desperate message about the abuse she was suffering at the hands of her Lebanese employers.

Faustina Tay, 23 years old, had shared her recurrent abuse with an activist group  This Is Lebanon  before she was found dead on March 14, 2020, Aljazeera reports.

Tays body was discovered in a car park under her employers fourth-storey home in Beiruts southern suburbs, between 3 and 4am on March 14. A forensic doctor who examined her body found that her death was caused by a head injury as a result of falling from a high place and crashing into a solid body.

Child Labour

Child Labour

Children rescued from Kidnappers den in Mexico.

Twenty-three children were rescued during a search for a missing 2-year-old in a raid at a house in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas. The missing child was not among them.

Most of the children ranged in age from 2 to 15, but three babies of 3 to 20 months of age were also found. The children, who were being held by three women, all showed signs of significant malnutrition, authorities said.

The focus of the raid, Dylan Esau Gomez, was kidnapped from outside a San Cristobal market by a teenager on June 30.

Authorities said the children were being forced to sell candy and trinkets on the streets and had to meet a sales quota before returning home in order to receive food and a place to sleep, which appeared to be no more than sheets of cardboard and blankets on a cement floor.

The three women found at the scene were arrested and charged with human trafficking.

At least 12,755 children are missing in Mexico, according to the National Registry of Missing Persons (RNPDNO) published by the National Search Commission (CNB), and 1,416 of those are under the age of 4.

Seven children go missing in Mexico each day, abducted for illegal adoptions, forced labor or sexual exploitation, activists say.

African Elders and Women Intercultural Dialogue on Trafficking held in AbujaI

African Elders and Women Intercultural Dialogue on Trafficking held in AbujaI

Chinese Firm Busted for trafficking in Monrovia Liberia.

The raid came a day after FrontPageAfrica reported that Qnet International had allegedly trafficked into the country dozens of teenagers and young adults from Mali, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, among others. The company had brought the country under the guise of providing job, travel, and scholarship opportunities.

Based on the FPA report, the Government ordered the arrest of operatives and officials of Qnet International, a Chinese firm operating in the country.

During the police raid of the firms offices in Paynesville, it was established that the company had closed all its offices in Paynesville except for the ones in Du Port and Pipeline Supermarket community.

Eleven persons were arrested  seven from the Du Port office and four from the Pipeline community. Another person, who was arrested, claimed to be one of those brought into the country by the firm.

dangers of irregular migration

dangers of irregular migration

Police target human trafficking network in raids across Germany

German police have raided 26 premises across the country as reported on 2nd of July during an operation to dismantle human trafficking rings. Three suspects have been detained, who are alleged to have links to a criminal group run by a 65-year-old Kosovan national, who was also arrested.

The alleged Kosovan ring leader is reported to go by the pseudonym of the ambassador among people smugglers. He is accused of providing fake immigration stamps to illegal migrants for money, dealing mostly with Albanians. The dpa news agency reports that he thus made it look like the illegal migrants had been granted permanent residence in Germany.

Human Trafficking

Human Trafficking

The World Needs to Strengthen its Resolve against Trafficking.

It is apparent that despite COVID-19, the human trafficking industry continued, and slowly beginning to increase.

The International Justice Mission a not for profit organisation that partners with local authorities to rescue victims of violence, bring criminals to justice, restore survivors, and repair gaps in the justice systems has explained that the scourge continues because the $150 billion industry turns a generous profit for those involved.

The engines that drive the industry range from the purveyors of sexual exploitation to leaders of businesses who are willing to employ extreme measures to produce goods as cheaply as possible to trade in world markets. Their purposes range from the immoral to the amoral, with the accumulation of wealth as their primary objective.

Nations around the globe are under pressure to implement legislation that specifically brands human trafficking as illegal. But there is a huge gap between the existence of a law and the enforcement of it. In many, many cases, law enforcement agencies are either unable or unwilling to deal with the problem.

All governments of the world and Not for Profits organisation that is in the fight against trafficking should not relent but rather should motivate each other by sharing their enthusiasm and commitment for the fight via networking and exchange of information.

As we were in our homes during the lockdown, traffickers did not shut down. They continued to harm people, finding ways to innovate and even capitalize on the chaos of the pandemic.

The economic situation of the vulnerable are getting worse , Governments needs to step up and create opportunities for the youths in their nations , its important that we all remain resolved in our pursuit of freedom for every victim of human trafficking and bring to book every trafficker regardless of where they are in the world.

Cookey Iwuoha

Cookey Iwuoha

The Author: Cookey Iwuoha-Project Coordinator All Africa Media Network, and Convener African Elders and Women Intercultural dialogue. He is a dialogue facilitator, passionate creative writer, poet and published author. Publisher of Nigerian Eye Newspaper, a Young Africa Leadership Initiative (YALI) Alumni, and has participated in other capacity development programs like United Nation Foundations Virtual Reporting Fellowship, Center for Human Rights Certificate on African Human Right System and Amnesty Internationals Freedom of Expression Certificate program among others.
Thousands of coronavirus deaths are set to be wiped from the government's official count, it was claimed today.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock last month ordered an urgent review into how daily death counts are calculated in England because of a 'statistical flaw'.

Academics found Public Health England's methods meant ministers count victims as anyone who died after ever testing positive for Covid-19  even if they were hit by a bus after beating the disease months later.

It would've meant that, technically, no-one could ever recover from the virus and all 265,000 of England's confirmed patients would eventually have had their deaths attributed to the disease.

The blunder could see up to 4,000 deaths removed from England's official toll of 41,749, according to reports. One of the leading experts who uncovered the flaw told MailOnline his 'best guess' was that more than 1,000 people have had their deaths wrongly recorded as caused by Covid-19.

Mr Hancock is set to bring the figures in line with Scotland and Northern Ireland, which only attribute deaths to Covid-19 if it occurs within a month of their diagnosis.

The Health Secretary is expected to announce the new measurement by the end of the week following the two-week review into the counting fiasco.

The statistical flaw was uncovered by Oxford University's Professor Carl Heneghan and Dr Yoon Loke, from the University of East Anglia.

Professor Heneghan, director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at the prestigious university, told the Sun: 'It is a sensible decision. There is no point attributing deaths to Covid 28 days after infection.

The statistical flaw was uncovered by Oxford University's Professor Carl Heneghan

WHAT OTHER BLUNDERS HAVE PHE MADE IN THE COVID CRISIS? Public Health England has come under fire for the way it has handled the UK's coronavirus testing system, for which it was responsible at the start of the Covid-19 crisis. Its directors have tried to divert blame, explaining that major decisions are taken by Government ministers in the Department of Health, but the body has been accused of being controlling. These are some of the mis-steps for which PHE has been blamed: Stopping mass testing and tracing On March 12 the Government announced it would no longer test everybody who was thought to have coronavirus, and it would stop tracking the contacts of the majority of cases to try and stop the spread of the disease. As a result, Britain effectively stopped tracking the virus and it was allowed to spiral out of control. Conservative MP David Davis said that was 'precisely the wrong thing to do'. Professor Yvonne Doyle, PHE's medical director, told MPs in May: 'It was a decision that was come to because of the sheer scale of cases in the UK.' She added: 'We knew that if this epidemic continued to increase we would certainly need more capacity.' PHE said: 'Widespread contact tracing was stopped because increased community transmission meant it was no longer the most useful strategy.' Lack of contact tracing capacity Papers published by Government scientists on SAGE revealed that PHE only had the capacity to cope with five new cases a week on February 18. Only nine cases had been diagnosed at the time. PHE experts said modelling suggested capacity could increased ten-fold to 50 new cases a week  allowing them to contact 8,000 people a day. SAGE said: 'When there is sustained transmission in the UK, contact tracing will no longer be useful.' Britain's cases jumped started to jump by 50 each day at the beginning of March. Pledged antibody tests in March PHE's Professor Sharon Peacock said on March 25 that the UK was on course to have antibody tests available to the public that month. She confirmed the Government had bought 3.5million of the tests and was evaluating their quality. They could be available to the public 'within days', she said at a Downing Street briefing. Three months later, however, and they are still not a reality. Officials have since decided there are no tests good enough available, and there is no proof that the results will be of any use to the public. Testing efforts slowed by 'centralised' lab approach Scientists in private labs, universities and research institutes across the country said in April that their offers to help with coronavirus testing had fallen on deaf ears. Only eight PHE laboratories and some in NHS hospitals were being used to analyse tests during the start of the crisis. 'Little ship' labs had tools to process tests and could have increased testing capacity rapidly if officials had agreed to work with them, they said. But it took Britain until the end of April to manage more than 100,000 tests in a day. Germany had been managing the feat for weeks by utilising private laboratories. Number 10 was eventually pressured into abandoning the centralised approach and urged the wider science industry to help boost capacity. One top scientist said NHS hospitals could have devised their own coronavirus tests but were 'fearful of upsetting Public Health England'. But PHE says it did not 'constrain or seek to control any laboratory either public, university or commercial from conducting testing for Covid-19'. It claimed that it requested officials changed testing methods in January to allow for any testing facility to conduct diagnostic tests. Advertisement

'All it does is muddy the water. While deaths are falling in Scotland, PHE data suggests matters are worse in England.

'But if it's someone who picked up the virus in a care home in March and recovered, and last week died of a heart attack, what does that actually tell us?'

Professor Heneghan said the 28 day measure employed by the rest of the UK allowed experts to compare the outbreak on previous months with more precision, which helps inform policymakers about what steps need to be taken.

He added: 'If deaths are going down, great. And if they are up, then we need to act. But at the moment, the figures are just confusing.'

The Office for National Statistics, another Government agency, also records Covid-19 deaths, and is considered the most reliable source.

The ONS  which is not affected by the counting method  has confirmed at least 51,596 people have died in England and Wales up to July 24.

Its calculations are based on death certificates with Covid-19 as a suspected contributor.

Public Health England told MailOnline last month that the World Health Organization has not defined a time limit for counting a death as caused by Covid-19, and said it 'continues to keep this under review'.

It admitted that a coronavirus death is one that happens to anyone who has previously tested positive, regardless of how long ago the test happened. It said the 'vast majority' of Covid-19 deaths were correctly identified.

Dr Loke added at the time: 'This statistical flaw arose because PHE chose a quick and easy technique.

'Their statistical method is reasonably accurate at the beginning of the pandemic, when there were not yet many people in the community who had survived Covid.

'However, PHE did not  and have not yet  realised that glaring inaccuracies arise when tens of thousands of frail older people are discharged from hospital, and these Covid survivors unfortunately die from other, non-Covid related causes.'

Ministers are thought to be planning a huge reform of PHE following a series of failings by the beleaguered agency during the crisis.

PHE was blamed for the initially chaotic coronavirus testing regime as well as the decision made early in the epidemic to abandon widespread tracking of the virus.

The move was seen by many scientists as one of the central mistakes in Britain's handling of the pandemic. The UK has the highest number of coronavirus deaths in Europe.

PHE  an executive agency of the Department of Health  was also criticised for refusing the offer of help from universities and private labs to carry out tests.

The Prime Minister has not named PHE specifically, but he told the 1922 Committee of Tory MPs in May that he was planning a review of 'a number of institutions' after the pandemic is over.

The health secretary last month admitted that he didn't realise what the agency's limits were until the crisis exposed them.

Speaking to a committee of MPs, Mr Hancock was pressed on whether he was reforming PHE.

He said: 'There will be a time for that. My priority now is on controlling the virus and preparing for winter... we need a public health agency that isn't only brilliant at science but also able to go to scale quickly.'

Meanwhile, the UK recorded another 65 coronavirus deaths yesterday  taking the official number of victims in Britain to 46,364.

Around 58 Brits are now succumbing to the life-threatening infection each day, on average.

The deaths 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.

And the figure 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 and Northern Ireland are out of sync.

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'.

But the fatality curve is no longer flattening as quickly as it was, with the rolling seven-day average number of daily deaths having been in the sixties since July 18.

It can take infected patients several weeks to die, meaning any spike in deaths won't be immediately apparent in government figures.

It is currently impossible to know how many of the deaths announced by the Department of Health were not actually caused directly by Covid-19.

Separate figures  released on Tuesday  revealed overall deaths in England and Wales are still below the number usually expected at this time of year, based on an average from the previous five years.

Department of Health bosses say 820 Britons are now being struck down with the life-threatening virus every day, on average. The rate has been rising since dropping to a four-month low of 546 on July 8.

The figures add to mounting fears of a second wave in Britain, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson understood to be 'extremely concerned' about cases bubbling up in the UK and in other European nations that have relaxed tough lockdown measures. France today warned it could lose control of Covid-19 'at any moment'.

But the number of patients being admitted to hospital has yet to spike, bolstering claims from top scientists that the outbreak is not getting worse and cases are only rising because more patients are being tested.

Just 109 coronavirus patients were admitted for NHS care across the UK on August 2  a figure which has barely changed throughout July. During the darkest days of Britain's crisis in April, around 3,500 patients were needing hospital treatment every day.
Unfortunately, we were recently notified that the transaction is not likely to go forward as originally anticipated, the notice said.

Separate notices were filed for facilities in Alabama, Arkansas and New York.

About 717 jobs at its plant in Ilion, N.Y., are affected by a potential plant shutdown, according to the Observer-Dispatch of Utica, N.Y.

Remington spokesman Billy Hogue could not be immediately reached for comment on the Madison plants future.

Hogue told the Utica newspaper that the bankruptcy impacts all of our employees at all of our sites: Ilion, Huntsville, Ala., Madison, N.C., Lonoke, Ark.  every single employee.

We have no idea what the outcome will be. Its up for auction, and the courts will determine how its to be sold  whether all in one piece or separately. We have no idea.

The company said it has between 1,000 and 5,000 creditors. It does not plan to have any money available upon exiting bankruptcy to pay unsecured creditors.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 23:24:12|Editor: huaxia

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NAIROBI, Aug. 6 (Xinhua)-- Kenya's total number of COVID-19 cases passed the 24,000 mark on Thursday after 538 more people tested positive from 6,195 samples in the last 24 hours, the ministry of health said.

Rashid Aman, chief administrative secretary in the Ministry of Health told journalists in Nairobi that the east African nation now has 24,411 COVID-19 cases.

Aman revealed that out of the latest infections, 516 are Kenyan nationals while 22 are foreigners.

He said 514 patients recovered from the disease, bringing the total number of those who have been discharged from health facilities to 10,444.

Aman noted that 431 patients recovered from home-based care programs while 83 were discharged from various hospitals in the country.

He, however, said eight people succumbed to the deadly virus, bringing the total number of fatalities to 399 since the outbreak on March 13.

Aman said COVID-19 pandemic has now joined climate change and environmental degradation as the challenges facing the world today.

The ministry of health has so far conducted a total of 335,318 tests. Enditem
The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) is pressing ahead in its collaboration with university managements to inflict cuts to wages, jobs and basic conditions. This is despite a rebellion by union members that led to the collapse of NTEUs national framework that offered managements wage cuts of up to 15 percent at all 39 public universities and still accepted the loss of 18,000 jobs.

In the latest outrage, the NTEU national executive is urging staff members at Adelaide University to take pay cuts of up to 15 percent and still accept the elimination of 200 jobs. The union struck a deal with the management following talks that the universitys grateful acting vice-chancellor described as constructive.

The Adelaide agreement again demonstrates that the union will stop at nothing to assist the employers and governments as they exploit the global COVID-19 pandemic to impose unprecedented attacks on university workers, who already have experienced years of under-funding, soaring workloads and casualisation.

Like workers everywhere, university educators and professional staff members are being forced by the trade unions to pay the price for the failure of global capitalism to protect lives and livelihoods from the pandemic, which is resurging around the world as a direct result of the ruling elites economic reopening program.

The NTEUs collaboration is paving the way for an acceleration of this offensive as the pandemic worsens. Adding to the tidal wave of retrenchments already underway, thousands more university jobs will be destroyed because of the COVID-19 catastrophe in the state of Victoria. The resulting economic hit nationally, and the extension of travel bans and other restrictions, will further devastate universities.

Universities Australia previously predicted up to 30,000 positions would be destroyed in the next three years because of an expected $16 billion of lost revenue, primarily due to the loss of high fee-paying international students. Those estimates are now clearly an understatement.

Melbourne University Vice-Chancellor Duncan Maskell yesterday announced the scrapping of 450 full-time jobs5 percent of the workforceplus an unknown number of casual and fixed-term positions. But he said he would consult the NTEU on how to implement the cuts and university would do everything we can to minimise involuntary redundancieswhich is a means of working with the union to try to stifle resistance.

This is part of an avalanche of job cuts, including 493 at the University of New South Wales, 277 at Monash University, 210 at the University of New England, more than 200 at Charles Sturt University, up to 20 percent of the workforce at Sydneys Macquarie University and still-to-be finalised numbers at Newcastle University.

The NTEU is trying to sidetrack the outrage of university workers and students into a parliamentary petition campaign, imploring Centre Alliance and other right-wing senators to block the Liberal-National governments latest student fee hikes and funding cuts. This serves only to stifle independent action by university staff.

At the same time, the union is joining hands with big business leaders, such as Business Council chief executive Jennifer Westacott, to plead with the government to recognise that universities deliver the kinds of dynamic graduates that employers want. According to NTEU national president Alison Barnes, writing in the August edition of the unions Sentry magazine, this business support shows that everyone looks to the government for a plan to stop Australian universities from sinking beneath the waves.

Alongside this partnership with business leaders, the NTEU is urging university workers and students to sign a sycophantic open letter to university vice-chancellors, asking them to stand with us and oppose the governments measures. These are the same vice-chancellors with whom the NTEU is holding hands as they shut down courses, close campuses, slash wages and axe jobs.

Adelaide University Acting Vice-Chancellor Professor Mike Brooks sent an email to staff welcoming the in-principle deal with the union, endorsed by the NTEU national executive. Clause 19.2 of the agreement states that the total wage reduction can be an amount equivalent to a maximum total of 15 percent of a staff members salary in any given pay period.

These reductions can include three weeks of compulsory leave purchase, a 3.5 percent wage cut over nine months, the deferral of a pay rise and the axing of annual holiday leave loading. From September, for example, an administrative worker on just above the median full-time female wage of $65,000 a year would lose 8 percent$263 per fortnight.

Supposedly, this would save 200 of the 400 full-time jobs currently facing elimination, but there is no real guarantee of this, especially as the health and economic crisis continues.

At some universities, the NTEU has opposed management proposals, but only because they have been drafted without consultation with the union, which is preoccupied solely with retaining its role as the vehicle for policing the requirements of the employers.

At Victorias Deakin University, the NTEU last month appealed to the Fair Work Commission, the federal governments industrial court, over the managements plans to axe 427 jobs. Recognising the value of the unions services, the commission ordered the management to conduct meaningful consultation with the union and staff. The order instructed the university to provide some limited information on its plans to the relevant NTEU officials.

Far from being a protection of jobs, the order permitted the university to continue pursuing voluntary redundancies, with the commissioner encouraging the management to seek some accommodation with the NTEU.

As a result of this supposed victory, the union is imploring the management to come back to the negotiating table in good faith. Similar appeals to the Fair Work Commission have become another means for the NTEU to head off the discontent of university workers.

Likewise, at Brisbanes Griffith University, the NTEU is advocating a no vote to a management plan that the union calls sub-standard, while insisting that NTEU members agree that everyone has to chip in to help in these difficult times. On that basis, it is urging its members to tell the management to negotiate a better deal.

University workers need to reject the ultimatums being put forward by the NTEU, governments and management: accept wage cuts and other concessions or face redundancies. This is the framework created by governments and the financial elite.

The global pandemic is not the only cause of the deep crisis in the universities. It has accelerated what has been happening for years. Billions of dollars have been cut from universities, since massive cuts introduced by the last Greens-backed Labor Party government of 2010-2013.

Yesterdays revelation that universities have illegally underpaid casual workers by millions of dollars over the past decade underscores how far this process had gone, long before COVID-19, all facilitated by enterprise agreements negotiated by the NTEU.

The record demonstrates that university academics, staff and students can defend jobs and fight for free, high-quality education, only through a rebellion against the NTEU and other unions and the entire political establishment.

The NTEUs intensifying collaboration with the employers shows the necessity of the joint call issued on June 15 by the Committee for Public Education (CFPE) and the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) for university workers and students to unite to form independent rank-and-file committees, to prosecute a genuine industrial and political struggle against all the union-enforced attacks.

That requires challenging the capitalist profit system and its grip over society. This means turning to a socialist perspective, based on the total reorganisation of society in the interests of all, instead of the financial oligarchy. We urge all university workers and students who want to take forward this fight to contact the CFPE or IYSSE, both established by the Socialist Equality Party.

Email: cfpe.aus@gmail.com

CFPE Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/commforpubliceducation/

Twitter account: @CFPE_Australia

The author also recommends:

NTEU Fightback aims to block revolt against Australian university trade union

[17 July 2020]

Reject Australian universities-NTEU job and pay cuts!

[15 June 2020]
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San Francisco, 6 Aug 2020: The Report LTCC And HTCC Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Process (LTCC, HTCC), By Application (Automotive, Telecommunication, Consumer Electronics, Aerospace & Defense), By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2020 - 2027

The global LTCC and HTCC market size is estimated to reach USD 3.7 billion by 2027, expanding at a CAGR of 2.5%, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The rising demand from the consumer electronics industry is projected to be the key driver for the growth of the industry over the coming years.

The ceramic substrates including LTCC and HTCC are widely used in the consumer electronics such as laptops and microwaves. The rising challenge to constrict the size of the circuit board while enhancing performance and lowering manufacturing cost is predicted to drive the market over the coming years. The key advantages of employing LTCC and HTCC technology in consumer electronics are that it reduces the physical volume and footprint as compared to other traditional technologies. The product produced using these ceramic substrates has lower weight and enables enhanced electrical characteristics such as thermal permittivity, dielectric constant, and reduced transmission losses. Thus, owing to the aforementioned properties, the product is projected to observe steady demand over the forecast period.

However, due to the ongoing global pandemic, the demand for the substrates is likely to observe slow growth owing to the total shutdown of manufacturing facilities around the globe. The impact of pandemic is projected to reduce trade and production of the substrates over the short term period. Another key challenge for the growth of the industry is due to the downturn in automotive production across Europe. Until this trend overturns, the demand for these ceramic substrates in Europe is projected to remain stagnant over the next few years. Similar trends were observed in the automotive sector of North America. Thus, static growth of end-use sectors mentioned above is expected to hamper market growth in the aforementioned regions over the forecast period.

The industry comprises of multinational vendors as well as few regional vendors. Industry participants are forming joint ventures to enhance their regional presence and to cater to large industrial demand.

Access Research Report of LTCC And HTCC Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/ltcc-htcc-market

LTCC And HTCC Market Report Highlights

The LTCC segment is projected to remain the dominant process segment owing to its efficient capability to reduce transmission and enhance thermal permittivity. The segment accounted for more than 73.0% of the revenue share in 2019

The HTCC segment is expected to observe slower growth compared to its counterpart. The slow growth of the segment is due to the rising prominence of LTCC process in telecommunication and automotive sector, respectively

Automotive application segment is projected to observe slow growth owing to the stagnant production rates of vehicles in North America and Europe

The telecommunication segment is projected to observe swift growth in terms of compounded annual growth rate owing to the upcoming launch of 5G technology around the globe

Asia Pacific is projected to remain the key regional market over the forecast period. Presence of manufacturing power houses such as India, Japan, and China is expected to play a key role in promoting market growth.

Browse more reports of this category by Grand View Research at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry/specialty-glass-ceramic-and-fiber

Grand View Research has segmented the global LTCC and HTCC market on the basis of process, application, and region:

LTCC And HTCC Process Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

LTCC

HTCC

LTCC And HTCC Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

Automotive

Telecommunication

Aerospace & Defense

Consumer electronics

Others

LTCC And HTCC Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Central & South America

Middle East & Africa

List of Key Players of LTCC and HTCC Market

KYOCERA Corporation

Nikko Company

TDK Corporation

Micro System Technologies

Maruwa Co. Ltd.

NGK Spark Plug Co. Ltd.

Yokowo Co. Ltd.

Hitachi Metals Ltd.

KOA Corporation

Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd.

Access Press Release of LTCC And HTCC Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-ltcc-htcc-market

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.

For More Information:www.grandviewresearch.com
Six Syrians have been reported as being killed by the catastrophic blast that ripped through the Lebanese capital reports Zaman Al-Wasl.

At least six Syrians were killed in the massive warehouse explosion in Beirut on Tuesday, with activists and the Lebanese Red Cross saying more than 100 people have lost their lives.

Meanwhile, rescue workers are still digging through the rubble looking for survivors of the warehouse explosion that devastated many parts of Beirut, killing at least 100 people and injuring more than 4,000 in a toll that officials expect to rise.

The size and scale of the Beirut explosion mirrored that of another major disaster involving ammonium nitrate. In 1947, a ship carrying some 2,200 tons of the chemical compound caught fire in Texas City, Texas, and exploded, causing a series of subsequent blasts at nearby oil facilities and a chemical plant. That disaster killed over 575 people and wounded another 4,000.

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.
China's top diplomat has called out the U.S. for attempting to start a new Cold War between the two largest economies, and in the process plunging the world into "chaos and division."

In an interview with state media Xinhua News Agency on Wednesday, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said "today's China is not the former Soviet Union." He added that his country has "no intention of becoming another United States."

"We have no intention of becoming another United States. China does not export ideology, and never interferes in other countries' internal affairs," he said.

The official English translation of the interview transcript was released on Xinhua's website. The interview covered various flashpoints in the U.S.-China relationship, including semi-autonomous Chinese territory Hong Kong, Chinese tech firm Huawei and the disputed South China Sea.

Several American officials have warned that China wants to replace the U.S. as the world's dominant power. Such sentiment in the U.S. culminated in a series of recent speeches by top officials  including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security advisor Robert O'Brien  which called out China for its attempt in upending the global order.
If you do decide to fly, the odds that you will pick up Covid-19 are low, according to one expert analysis. Despite the known dangers of crowded, enclosed spaces, planes have not been the sites of so-called superspreading events, at least so far.

That's not to say flying is perfectly safe - safety is relative and subjective. But as restrictions continue to change, the only way to move forward through this long pandemic is to start thinking in terms of risk-benefit ratios. Very little is without risk, but perhaps some risks - such as flying - are small enough to warrant taking.

Arnold Barnett, a professor of management science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has been trying to quantify the odds of catching Covid-19 from flying. He's factored in a bunch of variables, including the odds of being seated near someone in the infectious stage of the disease, and the odds that the protection of masks - now required on most flights - will fail. He has accounted for the way air is constantly renewed in airplane cabins, which experts say makes it very unlikely you'll contract the disease from people who aren't in your immediate vicinity.

What Prof Barnett came up with was that we have about a one-in-4,300 chance of getting Covid-19 on a full 2-hour flight - that is, about one in every 4,300 passengers will pick up the virus, on average.

The odds of getting the virus are about half that, one in 7,700, if airlines leave the middle seat empty. He's posted his results as a not-yet-peer-reviewed preprint.

The odds of dying of a case contracted in flight, he found, are even lower again - between one in 400,000 and one in 600,000 - depending on your age and other risk factors. To put that in perspective, those odds are comparable to the average risk of getting a fatal case in a typical two hours on the ground.

The numbers all sound low enough, though Prof Barnett says they are still high compared to the one in 34 million odds your flight will end in a deadly crash. He told me he wouldn't fly right now because his age, 72, puts him at higher risk than the average American, and he says you have to consider the risk of adding to the problem by getting the virus and unknowingly passing it on to others.

Other experts have been mixed on whether they, personally, would fly. The Boston Globe recently reported that of 15 epidemiologists and infectious disease experts surveyed, 13 said they would not fly at this time. However, it wasn't clear whether they had any reason to get on a plane.

University of Massachusetts biology professor Erin Bromage says he is flying every week, as he advises federal, state and district courts on how to reopen while minimising risks. Whereas many experts are taking a zero-tolerance-for-risk approach, he's trying to find a middle ground and helping others do it in a rational way.

Prof Bromage says that the air exchange system in planes is better than in hospitals but agrees with MIT's Prof Barnett that it's possible to transmit the disease to or from your close neighbours.

He and Barnett both suggested that customers should, if possible, choose an airline that promises to keep the middle seat open. That cuts way back on the odds of getting or giving the virus.

Real-world data bodes well for flying, too. Australia has been using contact tracing to investigate Covid transmission on hundreds of flights, and has found that while infected people got on planes, nobody got infected on a plane. Worldwide, there have been a couple of individual transmissions possibly linked to flights, but no superspreading-type events.

Assuming we'll be living with this disease for months to come, we will need ways to separate low-risk activities from high-risk ones. Keeping informed of relative risks can help us do that. By worrying less about the relatively safer part of a trip - the actual flight - we can pay more attention to the potentially riskier parts, such as crowds and tightly packed lines at the airport.

What happens at your destination matters too. Traveling around and new contacts can increase the risk of spread.

In the old normal, Bromage would wrap up his advisory duties and have dinner with the people he's working with. Now, he just goes back to his hotel room. "It's quite lonely," he says. Like so much this year, it's a compromise.
Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has called for critical reform of the countrys parliamentary committees, which he says has undergirded the countrys fledgling democracy.



He said the committee system like all human endeavour needed to be occasionally evaluated and renewed where necessary.



I consider an appraisal of our committee system at this point in our history opportune.



Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu made the call at a dialogue organized by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs (MoPA) with the Expanded Leadership of Parliament in Accra.



The meeting, which was on the theme: The Committee System in Ghanas Parliament: An assessment was attended by the Majority and Minority Leadership as well as Chairmen and Ranking Members of the committees of parliament.



Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said the parliamentary committees provided the sharpest tool for the oversight of the Executive.



He said the sheer volume of business in Parliament makes it impossible to transact every business in the plenary, hence, the committee system, which tracks the work of ministries, departments, agencies, and bodies as well as conduct special investigations and inquiries into particular salient aspects of their policy and administration.



He said the committee system offered parliament a good remedy to the deficiencies in the democratic process as well as provide ways to meet public demands for the legislature to be less adversarial and more constructive in developing solutions for societal problems.



He, however, stated that if members quibble and take partisan and entrench positions at committees, that would represent a disservice to democracy and would inflict a severe wound on parliaments strength.



Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu explained that a key feature of the committee system was that they served as arenas where legislators become specialists in a particular area.



He said specialization matters because legislators become knowledgeable and develop expertise useful for drafting, deliberations, and consensus-building around bills. It also provides a continuity that helps in the oversight responsibilities of the committee.



He, however, noted that the necessary condition for specialization was the length of committee members, adding that, the longer the tenure of a committee member in parliament and on a committee the greater the specialization in the area.



Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu indicated that Parliament as an institution was also confronted with issues of high turnover, large committee members, lack of quality human resources in respect of both the Members of Parliament and the staff as well as insufficiency of fiscal resources.



Alhaji Inusah Fuseni, Ranking Member on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs said the committee system had been greatly affected by the way the country had chosen to implement its democracy.



Alhaji Fuseni called on the political parties to set qualification criteria for persons who would want to contest as MPs, adding that even in advance democracies the system of selecting people to contest for elections is controlled.



Dr Evans Aggrey-Darkoh, Chief Director, Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs said the Ministrys objective for organizing the dialogue with the Expanded Leadership of Parliament was to undertake diagnostic analysis of the committee system of parliament and identify innovative ways of enhancing their capacity to deliver on their core mandate and contribute to the development of Ghanas parliament.



He said the interaction also seeks to examine the institutional framework and its effect on the committees of parliament as well as discuss the nature of the relationship between the committees and the legislature.



It was also aimed to evaluate the performance of the committees of parliament, identify and discuss the institutional and operational challenges as well as interrogate the relationships between political parties and their parliamentarians on various committees.



Dr Aggrey-Darkoh noted that the committee system was indispensable to modern legislatures because all the complex organizations operate through delegation of authority.



He said it was the committee rooms where the content of public policy was shaped, various civil society organizations heard and legislation fashioned out.



The committee system he explained provided an increased ability for parliament to scrutinize government policy and expenditure, tap into the expertise of individuals and groups and facilitate increase level of collegiality between members from different political parties.



An empowered and well-functioning committee system builds a resilient foundation for evidence-based legislation, acts as a bi-partisan bridge-builder, and gives members a more stake in ensuring the success of bills.



Dr Aggrey-Darkoh said the introduction of the Private Members Bill would pave way for private members to initiate bills with the hope that even if they do not end at the legislation stage, they would have succeeded in putting a particular issue on the public agenda for future consideration.

Source: GNA









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Live Q&A: Paycheck Protection Program update with Mark Schmidt Were talking to Mark Schmidt, CEO of Syracuse-based FundEX Solutions Group, about the PPP, how its changed and how to qualify for forgiveness. Ask your questions in the comments! Posted by syracuse.com on Wednesday, August 5, 2020

Many small business owners who participated in the federal Paycheck Protection Program might be ready and able to apply to have their loans forgiven soon  but there are good reasons to delay, an expert cautioned.

Mark Schmidt, CEO of the non-bank PPP lender FundEx Solutions Group is predicting there is a very good chance Congress will change the rules of the program, potentially making it as simple as a signature to have loans for less than $2 million forgiven.

There are more reasons to delay than there are to file, Schmidt said during a live Facebook Q&A hosted by Syracuse.com, part of the Back in Business initiative. You can watch the full Q&A above. Schmidts organization, a subsidiary of Syracuse-based Bankers Healthcare Group, has processed more than 1,300 PPP loans.

The PPP was initially established in April as part of the CARES Act, to help businesses that suffered as a result of the coronavirus and subsequent shutdowns around the country. It was designed primarily to ensure employers could pay their employees over an eight-week period at the beginning of the pandemic.

The program, popular for its low-interest, forgivable loans, has since been amended to add flexibility for small business owners still struggling.

The deadline for new applications for loans is Saturday.

Many businesses that participated early on, meanwhile, have spent their funds. The loan amounts were calculated to cover two months of payroll costs. The U.S. Small Business Administration, which has overseen the program, has said it will be begin processing forgiveness applications starting next week.

Schmidt said most borrowers would be wise to take their time with the forgiveness process.

Many banks and lenders are holding off on processing forgiveness applications because they are waiting to see what will happen in Congress, and hoping for more guidance from the SBA, he said. He also noted that businesses that expect to have their 1%-interest loans forgiven will have the interest forgiven too  so there are few reasons to rush. Maybe get it in early if theres an urgent reason to get the loan off the business books, he said.

Schmidt is predicting Congress will save many small business owners from the headache of having to fill out lengthy forms.

From day one there has been a push to simplify the forgiveness process, he said.

Currently, the HEALS Act, proposed by Republican senators, would allow borrowers with loans less than $2 million to apply for forgiveness without having to submit paperwork showing how the money was spent. Borrowers would simply be required to certify they spent the PPP funds on expenses deemed eligible under the program.

Schmidt notes the vast majority of borrowers have loans of less than $2 million. This bill would affect all of them.

Small business owners with loans for less than $150,000 would only have to certify they spent the money on eligible expenses. Those with between $150,000 and $2 million would have their application forwarded to the SBA, potentially for review or audit, though Schdmit said thats unlikely.

All businesses with PPP loans would still have to retain receipts and documentation for how the money was spent, he said. Businesses need to maintain the documentation for three years.

Schmidt said its still not a bad idea for business owners to look over the SBAs forgiveness forms online. The forms can help business owners ensure they are meeting the program requirements and have the proper documents. Schmidt also recommended a free online PPP forgiveness calculator for businesses.

The HEALS Act would expand the list of eligible expenses to include things like personal protective equipment and renovations to make businesses safer. It would allow businesses with fewer than 300 employees and revenues down by 50% to apply for a second PPP loan.

CNY BACK IN BUSINESS

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Small business owners: Have a question or a story to share about how youre coping through the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent shutdown? We want to hear from you. Contact Back in Business reporter Julie McMahon: Email | Twitter | 315-412-1992
By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan's SOCAR Aviation, one of the three largest companies supplying fuel to the Turkish air transport sector, has commissioned its own petrol station at Milas-Bodrum airport, the company reported on August 6.

The petrol station will refuel 3,000 aircrafts per year.

Thus, SOCAR Aviation, which is the brand of SOCAR Turkey, will now supply fuel from its facility to Milas Bodrum Airport. SOCAR Turkey has commissioned the Milas Bodrum petrol station after winning the tender announced by the State Airport Authority under the SOCAR Aviation brand.

The first fuel delivery from the facility was made for Turkish Airlines on July 21, 2020.

The facility has 3 fuel tanks for jet engines with a capacity of 1500 cubic meters. The total area of the facility is 4,105 square meters and the capacity of the facility with the existing infrastructure is 70,000 cubic meters per year, allowing fueling about 3,000 aircraft per year, which is half of the total airport consumption.

It should be noted that SOCAR Aviation has been providing refueling services in the air transport sector since 2013. It began its first jet fuel supply with an agreement signed with Pegasus at Istanbuls Sabiha Gokcen Airport. In 2016, developing its cooperation with global airlines, SOCAR Aviation started to supply Turkish Airlines at Istanbuls Ataturk Airport, Adnan Menderes in Izmir as well as Bodrum airport.

The State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) is involved in exploring oil and gas fields, producing, processing, and transporting oil, gas, and gas condensate, marketing petroleum and petrochemical products in domestic and international markets, and supplying natural gas to industry and the public in Azerbaijan. Three production divisions, one oil refineries and one gas processing plant, a deep water platform fabrication yard, two trusts, one institution, and 23 subdivisions are operating as corporate entities under SOCAR.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
The Defence Ministry said its document on its major activities in June, Chinese aggression has been increasing along the LAC and more particularly in Galwan valley since 5th May 2020.

The Defence Ministry has admitted transgressions by the Chinese Army into the Indian territory in different parts of Eastern Ladakh including Pangong Tso, Gogra and Kungrang Nala areas. The Defence Ministry acknowledged Chinese transgressions in Indian territory in different parts of Eastern Ladakh including Pangong Tso, Gogra and Kungrang Nala areas.

The Defence Ministry said its document on its major activities in June, Chinese aggression has been increasing along the LAC and more particularly in Galwan valley since 5th May 2020. Chinese side transgressed into the areas of Kugrang Nala, Gogra and north bank of Pangong Tso lake on May 17 -18 2020.

After the Defence Ministrys acknowledgement of Chinese troops transgressions into the Indian territory in different parts of Eastern Ladakh, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday asked why the Prime Minister was lying over the issue. A tweet by the Wayanad MP asked that why was the Prime Minister lying, the tweet also had an English newspapers article over the Defence Ministrys acknowledgement embedded, read.

Also read: Indias Covid-19 tally close to 2 million, death toll now at 40,699

Also read: J&K Guv GC Murmu resigns 9 months after assuming charge, Manoj Sinha to take over

The document was uploaded on the Ministrys website very recently and it is the first time that the Rajnath Singh-led Ministry has admitted officially about the transgressions by the Chinese troops. The document mentions that after the interactions at ground level, first Corps Commander level talks were held on June 6 to defuse the situation but a violent faceoff took place on June 15 resulting in casualties of both sides. Discussing the talks between the two sides, the document mentions that the talks are expected to be prolonged.

The document states that while engagement and dialogue at the military and diplomatic level is continuing to arrive at a mutually acceptable consensus, the present standoff is likely to be prolonged. The situation in eastern Ladakh arising from unilateral aggression by China continues to be sensitive and requires close monitoring and prompt action based on the evolving situation.

India and China have, so far, done five rounds of Corps Commander level talks but disengagement has not been done completely. China has stated that it will create an observation post at Finger 5. The Chinese have brought in almost 45,000 troops from various locations and deployed them on the LAC and heavy tank and artillery deployment have also been done in front and depth areas by them.

Also read: As incessant rains pound Mumbai, PM assures all possible support to Uddhav Govt
Patrons dine under umbrellas and other portable shelters on Main Street in Huntington Beach on July 28. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Orange County reported 32 new coronavirus deaths Thursday, a single-day high for the county.

The newly reported fatalities broke the previous one-day record  31, set Saturday, according to The Times' tracker  and pushed the county's total COVID-19 deaths to 697.

Of the latest deaths, eight were residents of either skilled-nursing or assisted-living facilities, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency.

Overall, about 45% of the county's fatalities have been residents in such institutions.

Experts and health officials have said deaths are a lagging indicator of coronavirus spread and probably reflect exposures to the virus that occurred weeks earlier. Confirmed COVID-19 cases began rising sharply statewide in late May, when California reopened many sectors of its economy.

Orange County also announced 580 new COVID-19 cases Thursday, boosting its total to 38,711.

An estimated 28,109 people have recovered from the virus to date, health officials said.

According to the latest available data, 517 COVID-19 patients remain hospitalized countywide, with 171 of them in intensive care.

However, county officials noted that issues with the states CalREDIE electronic system, which collects information from laboratories and feeds it to state and local health departments, "may result in a lower number of daily COVID positive cases received and tests reported."

The ongoing technical problems affect the states ability to track the spread of the virus, potentially resulting in significant undercounts of infections.

Michelle Steel, chairwoman of the county Board of Supervisors, urged the state Thursday to provide timely, transparent information on the status of the system.

Public health officials and policymakers across the state rely on this data to understand COVID spread and make decisions on opening and closing schools, businesses and gatherings, she said during a news conference. It is essential to know the extent of the problems with the CalREDIE system and understand how it is affecting the data we report.
Video: China's Type 075 Helicopter Carrier Sets Sail for First Sea Trials

Sputnik News

20:21 GMT 05.08.2020

China's first amphibious assault ship, the Type 075 landing helicopter dock (LHD), has been put to sea for the first time on Wednesday.

Photos and video on social media showed the warship being escorted away from the docks by the Hudong Zhonghua shipyard in Shanghai by tugboats on Wednesday morning, before steaming away under its own power.

Judged to be between 35,000 and 40,000 tons displacement, the Type 075 is the rough equivalent of the US Navy's Wasp-class amphibious assault ships. This class of warship has both a flight deck for launching helicopters or aircraft capable of vertical takeoff and landing, as well as docking facilities for launching amphibious watercraft and thousands of marines.

Li Jie, a Beijing-based naval expert, told the Global Times that during the ship's maiden voyage, the crew will likely test its main systems, such as propulsion, navigation, and communication.

The lead ship of what is expected to be a class of three vessels, the first Type 075 was launched from the shipyard in September 2019. Since then, it has remained moored at the dock next to the shipyard as fitting out work continued. It was later joined by a sister ship, and a third is under construction in the drydock.

In April, a fire broke out inside the ship, but it was quickly extinguished. The Global Times reported at the time the damage was minor and had not impacted the construction schedule.

According to the Global Times, the lead ship will likely not be commissioned until 2021 or 2022. It's likely the ship will continue to be known as the Type 075 until then, as past warships have not been christened with names until their commissioning, either.

Sputnik also reported recently on a proposed modification of the Type 075, which is being called the Type 076 and would see an electromagnetic aircraft launch system installed on the flight deck for launching drones. It remains unclear if People's Liberation Army leadership will take up the proposal, which was made by the China State Shipbuilding Corporation, the design bureau that created the Type 075.

A Sputnik

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SANTA MARIA, Calif., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Egan Law today announced the opening of FLIC (Family Law & Immigration Center). FLIC's Executive Director and Supervising Attorney M. Jude Egan reports that the center is providing a new model of legal assistance services to those who otherwise may not be able to afford to hire full-service legal assistance or pay retainer fees, or who choose to assert more control over their legal fees and costs. "The need for this center stemmed from the lack of lower-cost legal resources in the areas of family and immigration law. Existing legal aid clinics are often limited by their mandates to only serve people under a certain income threshold or with defined immigration status and are, in any event, limited by available staffing resources," said Egan.

According to the 2010 US census, 64% of households in Santa Maria speak a language other than English and 62% of households subsist within 125% of the poverty line. Additionally, approximately 65% of family law parties are representing themselves in the family court, while data from the American Immigration Council indicates that only 37% of immigrants in removal cases had counsel nationwide, with the number far lower for Central American immigrants.

Egan, who is also a Certified Family Law Specialist certified by the State Bar of California, adds that because "FLIC operates on a clinic or doctor's office model, it is not subject to government limitations on whom it can serve. All are welcome without regard to income or immigration status. An attorney counsels the client, sets forth strategy and advises the client and assigns staff members to draft and submit documents to the Courts or the consulate."

FLIC's access-to-a-lawyer-at-any-time model distinguishes it from Legal Document Assistant and self-help legal services, who can help with legal forms, but are not permitted to dispense legal advice under state law. "While there is a place for Legal Document Assistants in poor communities, they are often pushed to inappropriately dispense legal advice. I've seen this 'advice' cost parties tens of thousands of dollars and even cause them to lose their case so many times. Just a 30-minute meeting with a lawyer could have avoided sometimes tragic results," said Egan. "We are not trying to take aim at LDAs or self-help legal providers, per se, but FLIC can provide accurate legal advice and deliver paperwork on a timely basis for the same or less than the cost of a non-lawyer, leaving clients with the possibility of full-service engagement if they decide to go that route and access to counsel at any time for a fraction of the cost of full-service representation."

Elizabeth Ramirez Barragan, an immigration attorney who also handles family law matters and FLIC's Assistant Director and Staff Attorney says, "One of the biggest challenges of working with full-service law firms is that the lawyer and the client often do not know exactly how much a legal action is going to cost. We help anyone, from those trying to control their legal costs to those who need legal help but can't afford to hire a lawyer to do it all for them; and they know exactly how much it will cost them before the work is done." Furthermore, Ramirez explains, "FLIC lets clients pick and choose the legal services they get from a menu of options each with a set price, from simple consultations and drafting documents to full-service representation. All of this is done so that almost anyone can afford to hire a lawyer to advise them throughout their case"

ABOUT FLIC: FLIC provides legal advice, helps draft divorce, custody and child and spousal support motions and declarations, fee waiver applications and financial disclosures. Our team will fill out proper forms under direction from lawyers, and provide advice on how to handle a case in court, including how to fix problem cases. For immigration, we will assist you with all aspects of immigration law from DREAM Act filings to visa applications. Attorneys may also make limited scope appearances for clients, by mutual agreement, on a case by case basis.

FLIC attorneys and staff are meeting with clients via Zoom. We are licensed across the State of California and can assist people in matters across the State.

For more information, visit www.fliconline.us

SOURCE FLIC - Attorney M. Jude Egan

Related Links

http://www.fliconline.us


Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-07 03:09:17|Editor: huaxia

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Dr. Michael Ryan(L), executive director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Health Emergencies Program, addresses a press conference in Geneva, Switzerland, Feb. 18, 2020. (Photo by Chen Junxia/Xinhua)

The vaccines will be put into the general population for the first time in phase 3, after previous trials have focused on safety, immunogenicity and immune response in a small number of humans.

GENEVA, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Six COVID-19 vaccine candidates, including three from China, have entered phase-3 trials, a senior World Health Organization (WHO) official said on Thursday.

The three Chinese candidates are from Sinovac, Wuhan Institute of Biological Products/Sinopharm and Beijing Institute of Biological Products/Sinopharm, said Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, at a virtual briefing.

The other three are made by the University of Oxford/AstraZeneca, Moderna/NIAID and BioNTech/Fosun Pharma/Pfizer, he added.

A staff member displays samples of the COVID-19 inactivated vaccine at Sinovac Biotech Ltd., in Beijing, capital of China, March 16, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei)

The vaccines will be put into the general population for the first time in phase 3, after previous trials have focused on safety, immunogenicity and immune response in a small number of humans, said the WHO official. The phase-3 trial will test whether the vaccines can "protect large numbers of people over a prolonged period of time."

However, "phase-3 doesn't mean nearly there," he said, as "there is no guarantee that any of these six will give us the answer."

In total, 165 vaccine candidates have started some forms of trials, and 26 of them in clinical trials, according to WHO records. 
ghornephoto/iStockBy the GMA TEAM, ABC News



(NEW YORK) -- One expert says the risk of spread on school busies is low if the right precautions are taken, and that ventilation is key.



School is back in session in some parts of the country, raising major questions about how to transport kids safely to class amid the pandemic.



With 26 million bus-riding students, districts are taking extra precautions to help stop the spread of COVID-19.



A video released by Casey County Schools in Kentucky, shows what a new morning commute might look like for its students.



All students must wear a mask and parents are asked to take their child's temperature before they board the back of the bus. Children are asked to use hand sanitizer as they head to their seats. Once they leave, a team fully disinfects the bus.



Dr. Mary Beth Sexton with Emory University School of Medicine said the risk of spread on buses is low if the right precautions are taken, and ventilation is key.



"The main problem with a bus is that you don't have a lot of circulation," Sexton told "Good Morning America." "There's nothing that happens naturally unless you're in a position where you can open the windows."



The Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommends students wear face coverings and sit one child per row while skipping rows whenever possible.



To achieve that, the National Association for Pupil Transportation said there should be fewer kids on board.



"One of the largest things that's being done is the changing of bell times that will enable school buses to run multiple routes during the day to get students to and from school safely," said Steven Simmons, president of the NAPT.



Some superintendents are encouraging families to avoid the bus altogether if they can, though that may not be an option for working parents.

As more students go back to school amid the COVID-19 crisis, school buses are adapting to keep kids safe during the pandemic. @WhitJohnson has more. https://t.co/v3xKiEi4a7 pic.twitter.com/XWOOkLcgKH  Good Morning America (@GMA) August 6, 2020

"If they have the ability to transport their children to school, we'd ask them to do so," said Chris Piper, superintendent of Troy City Schools in Ohio.



Another proposal is "walking school buses," which is a pre-pandemic program which could be a big help in Kentucky.



The Department of Education said this model could allow groups of kids who live nearby get to school safely by way of an adult chaperone who would pick up children along the way.



Dr. Jennifer Ashton, chief medical correspondent for ABC News, said when it comes to school transportation, it's about lowering the risk as much as possible.



"It's really about ventilation and distance, so there are viral factors, there are human factors," Ashton said.



"It's not a one-size-fits-all approach," she added. "It will have to depend on what's going on in that area, what's going on in that region, what kind of transmission we're seeing and the individual health and risk factors of those students and the people at those students' homes."

Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
By Associated Press

BEIRUT: Switzerland has sent a team of specialists including engineers and logistics experts to Lebanon to help with the aftermath of the explosion in Beirut.

The Alpine nation says it is responding to a request from Lebanese authorities.

The Swiss team, which also includes telecom engineers and a psychologist, will assist in securing the country's damaged embassy and ambassadorial residence.

Switzerland's Foreign Ministry says the experts also will be available to examine the condition of Lebanon's public buildings such as schools and hospitals.

The Foreign Ministry says it has no indication that Swiss citizens were among the victims of Tuesday's explosion.

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Linkedin Benny Mawel and Budi Sutrisno (The Jakarta Post) Jayapura and Jakarta  Thu, August 6, 2020

Residents in Tambrauw, West Papua, have reportedly endured physical and mental mistreatment at the hands of the Indonesian Military (TNI) after a new military headquarters was established in the regency.

The military personnel are said to have used excessive force to maintain public order in the area. In July, there were at least five incidents of TNI members engaging in conflicts with residents as they got involved in peoples drinking habit and local brawls.

Alleged beating of brawlers and drunkards

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It began with deep, violent jolts. Sitting in CNNs bureau in the centre of Beirut I assumed it was an earthquake, and immediately crouched down, Ben Wedeman, Senior International Correspondent, CNN recounts the horror of the Beirut blast this week.

Then, fractions of a second later, the force of the blast reached us. In the two rooms next to mine glass shattered, spilling inside. Steel window frames were torn from the wall, cables and equipment were strewn across the floor.



Peering out into the street I saw the column of reddish smoke, now viewed thousands of times on social media, floating above our building. Beneath me, the sight of rubble and the sound of panicked cries amid the dust.



Outside, the streets thronged with bewildered people, many cut and bleeding or worse. Within hours, open lots became field hospitals, while the search for the many, many missing became ever more earnest and frantic.



Beirut is no stranger to conflict and chaos. Many who heard the noise from afar had initially assumed it might be a car bomb, or perhaps an air strike. But this was a blast the likes of which this most war-weary of cities has never seen, its tremors reportedly felt as far away as Cyprus.



A little over 24 hours later, people are still coming to terms with the scale of the disaster. In many parts of the city, lives have been lost, homes and livelihoods destroyed.



40 years, war, weve seen woes of every kind, but not like this, one man, surveying the wreckage of his electrical store, told us. As if the economic crisis, coronavirus, the revolution were not enough, this tops them all.



The terror of the moment remains fresh, too. The whole house collapsed upon us, a woman told us as she pointed a bloodied, bandaged hand towards the rubble of her ruined home.



The international community has expressed sympathy and is sending medical aid, search & rescue teams and other assistance. But this country was already on its knees before this cruellest of blows knocked it to the ground.



Beirut is also no stranger to struggle, but the feeling of despair in the face of this catastrophe is tangible. Lebanons economy is in a state of collapse. Its currency is in freefall, while prices of food and other necessities have skyrocketed. In recent months it has not been unusual to see people, even the elderly, rummaging through rubbish in search of something to eat.



Were living a curse, one friend told me. In the words of the Lebanese American poet, Kahlil Gibran, pity the nation.



About the author: Ben Wedeman, Senior International Correspondent, CNN


Biden Says He Wants Increased Funding for Police, Opposes Defund the Police Calls

Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden on Wednesday pushed back against remarks from President Donald Trump that he supports the nationwide defund the police movement, by saying that he wants to get police more money.

Former Vice President Biden, 77, made the comments during a virtual fundraiser hosted by Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.

I dont want to defund police, Biden said, addressing growing calls from activists and some Democrats to abolish or defund the police.

The movement has intensified nationwide in recent weeks in the wake of protests against police brutality and riots following the in-custody death of black man George Floyd in Minneapolis. Black Lives Matter activists have chanted the slogan or spray-painted it on buildings and monuments in cities across the country.

Bidens campaign and other top Democrats in Congress have previously said police departments shouldnt be defunded. In June, a campaign spokesperson for Biden stated that he does not believe that police should be defunded, but instead called for reform.

Biden, however, said during a Now This interview last month that he absolutely believes that some funding should be redirected from police departments.

I want to get police more money in order to deal with the things they badly need, from making sure they have access to community policing, that they have also in the departments social workers, psychologists, people who in fact can handle those god-awful problems that a cop has to have four degrees to handle, Biden said Wednesday.

The president has, in a number of tweets and interviews, said that Biden is in favor of defunding the police.

Corrupt Joe Biden wants to defund our police. He may use different words, but when you look at his pact with Crazy Bernie, and other things, thats what he wants to do. It would destroy America!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2020

Corrupt Joe Biden wants to defund our police, Trump said on Twitter last month. He may use different words, but when you look at his pact with Crazy Bernie, and other things, thats what he wants to do. It would destroy America!

Biden said Wednesday that if he were to win Novembers presidential election, he would enact police reforms during his first 100 days in office. He said he would put together a national police oversight commission which could oversee and consider the reforms.

Reform means, at least the beginning, banning chokeholds, stopping transferring military weapons of war to the police departments, creating a model use of force standard and holding all police to the high standard, Biden said.

Biden has also said he supports funding for community policing programs, diversifying police departments, and body cameras.

A spokesman for Biden meanwhile released a statement Monday saying that he does not support the defund the police movement.

He hears and shares the deep grief and frustration of those calling out for change, and is driven to ensure that justice is done and that we put a stop to this terrible pain, spokesman Andrew Bates said.

Instead, the spokesman said, Biden favors the urgent need for reform, including the funding of mental health and substance abuse treatment, summer programs, and public schools to ensure that police officers can focus on the job of policing.

This also means funding community policing programs that improve relationships between officers and residents, and provides the training that is needed to avert tragic, unjustifiable deaths, Bates said.

Trump has made it a focus of his reelection strategy to portray himself as the law and order candidate. He has accused the Democrats of embracing chaos and anarchy during the protests.

Jack Phillips contributed to this report.
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Thursday revised a 14-day self-quarantine mandate for anyone entering New Mexico, adding new exemptions that include one for state residents who have to travel outside the states borders for medical treatment.

However, the revised order, which took effect immediately, leaves in place the heart of a previous travel quarantine mandate that has come under criticism in some quarters for its impact on New Mexicos tourism and hospitality industries.

Unlike other states like New York that have mandatory travel quarantine orders for incoming visitors from certain locations hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak, New Mexicos order applies to anyone entering the state.

That includes New Mexico residents who have traveled outside the states borders to visit family and friends, camp or merely sightsee.

Lujan Grisham spokeswoman Nora Meyers Sackett said the state could consider future changes to the order, but said its current broad scope is intended to make it as effective as possible.

If the virus is anywhere, the virus is everywhere, Sackett told the Journal. COVID-19 is currently widespread nationwide and as such, travelers into the state from anywhere pose a transmission risk.

Exceptions allowed under the travel quarantine order include military personnel, health care workers and those traveling for business purposes.

In addition, the revised order issued by the governor adds two new exemptions  for those who leave the state to obtain medical care and for residents who travel outside New Mexico for less than 24 hours due to parental responsibilities.

Lujan Grisham said during a Thursday news conference that provision is aimed specifically at divorced parents with shared custody who have to travel across state lines to pick up or drop off their children.

We want to make sure were not requiring those parents to quarantine, the governor said.

However, some New Mexicans expressed disappointment that additional changes were not made to the travel quarantine order.

Tania Armenta, president and CEO of Visit Albuquerque, wrote in an email that she was disappointed that there were not more changes made to the states quarantine order regarding out-of-state visitors.

She added that the organization was supportive of a request from U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., that those who test negative for COVID-19 72 hours before coming to the state be exempt from the mandated 14-day quarantine period.

That change was not included in the revised order issued Thursday.

We strongly believe there are ways to ease the restrictions while still protecting the public health, and there are several other states approaches we can model, Armenta said.

In addition, Sen. Pat Woods, R-Broadview, said the travel quarantine order had made things just crazy for residents of eastern New Mexico, who often travel into Texas for work and medical care.

She doesnt think about all of the state  shes thinking about the Rio Grande corridor, Woods said Thursday, saying he had several discussions about the issue with Governors Office staffers.

Adrian Montoya, board president of the Greater Albuquerque Hotel and Lodging Association, said his members will continue to follow both the state mandates and their own best practices to keep guests safe.

With travel from other states limited, Montoya told the Journal that the hotel industry is relying more on travel from other parts of New Mexico, as well as stay-cations, to fill in the gaps.

Lujan Grisham issued her first travel quarantine order on March 27 but has now modified it several times since then.

The Democratic governor has described the order as necessary to slow the spread of COVID-19, especially with recent case spikes in neighboring Arizona and Texas.

After rising for most of July, the rolling seven-day average of new coronavirus cases in New Mexico has steadily declined in recent days.

The states death and hospitalization rates have also decreased, and remain below peak levels from mid-May.
The government needs to meet urgently with Louth County Council to sort out the major cost of servicing loans on land banks owned by the local authority, local Deputy Ruairi O Murchu told the Dail recently.

The Dundalk TD raised the issue with Minister of State Peter Burke and housing minister Daragh OBrien during debates about funding for local authorities and the Residential Tenancies and Valuations Bill.

According to Deputy O Murchu, Louth County Council has already asked the government for a meeting with the executive, Louth TDs and councillors.

The Sinn Fein representative said that if the Local Property Tax (LPT) is raised by ten to 15%, which has been requested last month by council CEO Joan Martin, it would deal only with the cost of the loans on land banks in County Louth that were bought under instruction from Government around 2006 and 2007 in many cases".

Deputy O Murchu added that while some of the around 50 acres of land banks had been dealt with, a significant amount are left.

He said: Last year, Louth County Council spent about 1 million to service the debt. We need the government to meet with Louth County Council, with elected representatives and with the executive about putting solutions in place that deal with the substantial unit cost of these lands. Some of them would be perfect for affordable and social housing and affordable cost rental. We need these meetings and solutions to occur as quickly as possible.

In response, Minister Burke said: We in the Department have to be fair and ensure that local authorities are fully funded. I have given a commitment about the July stimulus package, with the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, that it will be of scale and timely, and that it will respond to the challenge that local authorities face to ensure that they will not lose services or staff.

We also need to ensure that we support our local authorities. I will not be found wanting in that regard and nor will the government.

Speaking after the debate, Mr O Murchu said he had spoken to Minister Burke about the issue following the exchange. He added that he had spoken with Minister OBrien about the specific issues in Louth and the housing minister responded he intends to meet with the council in the coming months.
Making tall turbines 130 feet taller will not endanger passing aircraft, the Federal Aviation Administration has determined.

In a step forward for a proposed wind farm in Botetourt County, the FAA found this week that turbines reaching as far as 680 feet into the sky from the top of a mountain would not constitute a hazard to air navigation.

It was the second time the agency has determined that the renewable energy project, to be located in a remote and rural spot about 17 miles from the nearest airport, would not pose a threat.

In 2016, it cleared plans to build up to 25 turbines, each one as tall as 550 feet. But construction never started as the developer, Apex Clean Energy of Charlottesville, spent the next three years looking for a customer to buy its power.

By the time a deal was reached with Virginia and Dominion Energy, which will purchase the power and then sell it to the state, new technology allowed fewer  although taller  turbines to produce the same electrical output.

Apex then redrew its plans to include up to 22 turbines as tall as 680 feet atop North Mountain, which required a new round of permits.

The Botetourt County Board of Supervisors approved a special use permit in May. Apex must still obtain a permit from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality before it can start construction of what will be the states first on-shore, utility-scale wind farm.

Work could begin this winter, Apex spokeswoman Natasha Montague said Thursday, and be completed by the end of 2021.

A final decision has not been made on the type of turbine Apex will use, which will dictate the exact number and height of the structures. Montague wrote in an email that we are down to a short list of options.

As part of DEQs process to amend a permit first granted in 2017, public comments will be accepted though Aug. 10. Apex will then respond to the comments. After that, DEQ will have 90 days to act.

Dubbed Rocky Forge, the project will convert wind into enough electricity to serve up to 20,000 homes, Apex has said. In the end, though, the power will be sold to Virginia as part of a wind and solar package that will assist the state in reaching its goal of using green energy for at least 30% of the electricity consumed by state agencies by 2022.

Long-term plans call for Virginias two largest utilities, Dominion and Appalachian Power Co., to be completely free of fossil-fuel generated power by 2050.

As a condition for its approval, the FAA said the turbines should be marked with white paint and equipped with synchronized red lights to make them more visible to pilots.

Although thats likely to upset some wind farm opponents  who say the giant windmills will be an eyesore and a threat to the environment  those concerns fell outside of the aviation agencys purview.

DEQs review will focus on the wind farms effect on the surrounding mountainous terrain and the plants and animals that inhabit it. In granting a permit in 2017, DEQ required Apex to turn the turbines off from dusk to dawn in the warmer months, to protect flying bats that might otherwise be killed by the spinning blades.

As part of its evaluation, the FAA called for public comments. There were none. But the Department of Defense did note that the wind farm is near or in an area used for its aircraft training exercises.

While the turbines are not expected to interfere with low-flying military jets, the Defense Department requested that the lighting system be compatible with night vision goggles worn by its pilots.

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The analysis by researchers from Spain and Peru reveals that high altitude confers significant protection from coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infection and death  independent of the distance from the pandemic epicenter, population density, or poverty levels. The study is currently available on the medRxiv* preprint server.

More than 700 thousand people around the world have already lost their lives as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It is evident that some countries have been hit harder by the disease than others.

Although initially spared, COVID-19 cases have recently been rising sharply in Latin American countries. Nonetheless, due to underreporting issues and the relative scarcity of detailed data, only a handful of studies have investigated the dynamics and specific characteristics of the pandemic in South America.

But despite such information shortcomings in the early stages, accumulating data now makes it possible to conduct much more detailed epidemiological analyses, which are necessary to inform policies intended to protect the populations at the higher risk of contracting the disease.

In this new study, researchers from the National Science Council (Barcelona), Instituto Nacional de la Salud Carlos III (Madrid) and Institute for Biocomputation and Physics of Complex Systems (Zaragoza) in Spain, as well as from the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (Lima) in Peru, have taken an ecological approach to describe the current state and dynamics of the pandemic in Peru.

District-level map of case and death rates in Peru, normalized for population density. Cumulative COVID-19 case and death rates per population density [cases or deaths/(persons/Km2)] on each of the indicated cut-off dates are mapped at the district level. Heatmaps and their equivalencies are specific for each date. The numbers indicate the upper limits of value range. Blue circles are indicators of the Lima metropolitan region.

Detailed temporal and spatial analyses

Although prior studies have already hinted that altitude may be a protective factor from COVID-19, this retrospective analysis is the first to utilize an extensive longitudinal national database covering all COVID-19 cases and deaths registered in Peru until July 17, 2020.

In order to correct for population density, which has a tendency to be substantially higher on the coastal lowlands, the researchers have normalized case/death counts by population density and per million inhabitants in all districts.

Moreover, they have taken into account the prevalence of non-transmissible diseases (described by prior surveys) as a proxy for potential co-morbidities associated with the incidence of infections and fatal outcomes.

High altitude as a protective factor

"Our most relevant finding is a significant association between life in high altitude and a lower risk of COVID-19 contagion and death from the disease", study authors state in their medRxiv* paper.

The study also provides evidence that the recent surge of cases in high-altitude districts in Peru may be explained by the inrush of migrants from large urban centers to high-altitude districts via a specific route  overriding, in turn, the shielding effect possibly conferred by high altitude to the inhabitants of those particular districts.

The findings further reveal that the normalized death rate from COVID-19 is significantly correlated with the prevalence of high blood pressure and cholesterol levels, as well as low altitude. However, COVID-19 death rates are not significantly correlated with population density, despite an observed trend.

Finally, the protection by altitude was found to be independent of poverty indexes, which means altitude confers protection from COVID-19 incidence and death that is not counterbalanced even by high poverty levels.

Multisystemic adaptations to hypobaric hypoxia

"We favor the view that long-term high altitude habitation/exposure protects from severe respiratory viral diseases, including COVID-19, through multiple mechanisms prevalent in residents or genetically selected populations adapted to chronic hypobaric hypoxia", study authors put their findings into context.

Such mechanisms include anatomical, physiological, and immune adaptations. Furthermore, it has been argued that environmental factors (high ultraviolet radiation, low temperatures, or low humidity) could contribute to a diminished transmission of SARS-CoV-2 at high altitude.

Still, translating this knowledge to develop effective treatments against COVID-19 will be challenging, as protective effects may necessitate long-term, multisystemic adaptations. At the same time, there may also be manifold downstream consequences of manipulating various components of the hypoxia response.

And caution is still needed, as adaptations to high altitude may indeed confer a degree of protection from SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, but not immunity per se; hence, all appropriate protective steps have to be followed diligently.

*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.
Governor Andrew Cuomo has extended New York's eviction moratorium saying 'there will be no evictions as long as we are in the middle of the epidemic', one day after protesters stormed the Brooklyn offices of landlord attorneys calling for rent to be canceled in the Big Apple.

Cuomo signed the 30-day extension of the executive order Wednesday night, banning landlords from turfing tenants out of their homes through September 4.

This came after dozens of New Yorkers marched through the streets of Brooklyn Wednesday morning before entering two landlord attorney firms buildings and Brooklyn Borough Hall calling for a ban on evictions and cancellation of rent ahead of the residential eviction moratorium's expiration at midnight.

However, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio appeared to be unaware of the state's extension in his Thursday morning press conference in which he demanded action from Albany and vowed that the city would support residents he claimed now face the threat of eviction.

Governor Andrew Cuomo (pictured) has extended New York's eviction moratorium saying 'there will be no evictions as long as we are in the middle of the epidemic'

Cuomo announced his eleventh-hour move to provide much-needed relief to cash-strapped New Yorkers Thursday, hours after the eviction moratorium expired putting 14,000 families at risk of homelessness.

The governor said he will keep extending it for as long as the coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage the livelihoods of New Yorkers.

'I signed the law, and the law is clear,' he said in a media conference call.

'Until when? Until I say COVID is over.'

De Blasio seemed unaware of the extension when he delivered his own press conference Thursday where he urged the state government to send a lifeline to New Yorkers unable to pay their rent.

In the latest in a long line of discrepancies between the two leaders, de Blasio said the state needed to step in to help the 1.3 million New Yorkers who have filed for unemployment insurance since the pandemic began back in March.

'It's not their fault,' de Blasio said of renters struggling to make ends meet.

'They didn't ask for a global pandemic. But if you don't have a paycheck, what are you going to do If you don't have a source of income, how the hell are you gonna pay the rent?'

The announcement came one day after protesters stormed the Brooklyn offices of landlord attorneys calling for rent to be canceled and evictions banned in the Big Apple

People gathered Thursday for a protest outside New York City Civil Court, where legal cases related to evictions are held

He called on the state 'to create a new system to allow those who simply cannot pay for lack of income to be able to have a payment plan model that will take them into next year, allow them to pay the rent over time when they finally have resources.'

De Blasio went on to tell New Yorkers facing an eviction warrant to call the city on 311 for help - something that applies to no one under Cuomo's extension.

While the mayor appeared confused by the state's position on evictions, he added that the long-term solution must come from the White House.

'The best solution resides in Washington DC,' de Blasio added.

'Rental assistance for everyone who has lost their job, so they can keep their home and landlords have the money to keep up their buildings.

Mayor Bill de Blasio seemed unaware of the extension when he delivered his own press conference Thursday (pictured) where he urged the state government to send a lifeline to New Yorkers unable to pay their rent

'But we're in such a broken situation in Washington right now.'

De Blasio himself has fared well from the rental market amid the pandemic, raking in $9,000-a-month from three rental properties in Park Slope, Brooklyn, all the while cash-strapped New Yorkers have struggled to pay rent.

Cuomo's last minute move granted thousands of New York tenants a reprieve from being thrown out of their homes - a danger that was about to become a reality from midnight Wednesday.

Renters unable to pay rent due to financial hardships sparked by the pandemic and who missed payments between March 7 and the full reopening of their county would still have been protected from eviction even after the moratorium expired under the Tenant Safe Harbor Act.

However, thousands of tenants would not have been protected, including those whose landlords brought eviction orders against them prior to the pandemic.

The moratorium put these proceedings on hold but, once expired, these can be carried out.

Protesters storm inside Stern & Stern landlord attorneys building Wednesday as they called for a ban on evictions and cancellation of rent in the Big Apple

Demonstrators inside Brooklyn Borough Hall as they took part in a 'Shut down evictions and cancel rent' protest Wednesday

Crowds marched up the stairs of Brooklyn Borough Hall Wednesday where New York State Senator Brian Kavanagh is based

Several signs called out New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo urging them to extend protections to tenants in the city

This meant more than 14,000 households were at risk of homelessness, according to Legal Aid Society.

Another 200,000 New York City rentals were also at risk, for example households facing eviction for non-payment related reasons, the legal services provider warned.

And even tenants protected by the Tenant Safe Harbor Act could have been taken to court by their landlords to recover missed rent payments.

Cuomo's extension will be reviewed and confirmed by the Office of Court Administration later today.

Swathes of masked protesters gathered in downtown Brooklyn Wednesday daytime to rally against the moratorium expiring.

The demonstration started outside Brooklyn Eviction Court before marching through the streets and storming past security and police to enter two landlord attorney firms buildings as well as Brooklyn Borough Hall, where New York State Senator Brian Kavanagh is based.

People chanted 'no landlords, no cops, all evictions gotta stop' as they gathered in the city.

New Yorkers carried a huge 'Cancel rent' banner as they marched through the streets of New York Wednesday

The crowds stormed the Brooklyn offices of landlord attorneys including Slochowsky & Slochowsky (above)

Inside the Stern & Stern and Slochowsky & Slochowsky real estate law firm offices, dozens of protesters were seen holding banners aloft, before they moved onto Brooklyn Borough Hall where they marched up the stairs.

Many held placards reading 'shut down evictions' and 'cancel rent', while several signs called out de Blasio and Cuomo urging them to extend protections to tenants in the city.

Crowds gathered again Thursday outside New York City Civil Court for a protest calling on New York to cancel rent.

Cuomo first issued a statewide executive order banning landlords from evicting tenants amid the coronavirus pandemic from March through to June, before extending it until August.

New Yorkers were especially hard hit by the pandemic as the state - once the virus epicenter - endured a longer and stricter lockdown than others and thousands lost their jobs overnight when businesses shuttered back in March.

The problem has been exacerbated further by the reality that jobless Americans are now losing out on the $600-per-week enhanced unemployment benefits from the federal government.

Stark research global advisory firm Stout Risius Ross last month found that 40 percent of American renters were unable to pay their rent.

This figure rose even higher in the Big Apple, where 46 percent could not afford to pay rent.

Wednesday's demonstration started outside Brooklyn Eviction Court before marching through the streets and storming past security and police to enter two landlord attorney firms buildings as well as Brooklyn Borough Hall

Security guards grapple to stop the crowds swarming the building of Stern & Stern
The State Department is offering a reward of up to $10 million for anyone providing information on foreign interference in the U.S. elections, as the administration provides warnings to Congress in private about the threat.

The agency's Rewards for Justice program, which offers a similar amount for information on the head of ISIS. It also is used to try to get information on terrorist attacks and bring terror leaders to justice. The payment was issued in a notice posted online.

'RFJ is offering up to $10 million for information leading to the identification or location of any person who, while acting at the direction of or under the control of a foreign government, interferes with any U.S. federal, state, or local elections,' according to a release by the program.

The State Department is offering $10 million for information on U.S. election hacking connected to a foreign government

It cites a statute relating to computer fraud and abuse  indicating a particular interest is election hacking. The program is administered by State's Diplomatic Security Service.

'Persons engaged in certain malicious cyber operations targeting election or campaign infrastructure may be subject to prosecution under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 18 U.S.C.  1030, which criminalizes unauthorized computer intrusions and other forms of fraud related to computers. Among other offenses, the statute prohibits unauthorized accessing of computers to obtain information and transmit it to unauthorized recipients,' it notes.

The intelligence community concluded that the the Kremlin was behind hacking of Democratic emails during the 2016 elections.

The posting comes days after the Trump administration provided a classified briefing to lawmakers about election interference threats. Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe was among those who met with lawmakers.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) demanded the information be made public.

An engineer from the Israeli company "Commun.it" uses his expertise in social media commercial analysis to identify networks of fake users during at the group's office in the Israeli city of Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv on January 23, 2019

The Trump administration has warned of hacking threats by Russia and China

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is demanding the release of more information on threats to U.S. elections

U.S. intelligence concluded that Russia was behind election hacking in the 2016 presidential election

The reward notice went out in Farsi, Arabic, Russian, Chinese, and other languages

'Shocked & appalledI just left a 90 minute classified briefing on foreign malign threats to our elections. From spying to sabotage, Americans need to see & hear these reports,' he wrote this week.

Without revealing what precisely he learned, Blumenthal added: 'Protect our democracy from destruction by declassifying key intel describing the danger of foreign subterfuge to our elections. Congress has been briefed, but sworn to secrecyunacceptably.'

President Trump has acknowledged election interference when pressed but also rails against the 'witch hunt' Russia probe

Senate Democrats who got the briefing Monday say the Intelligence Committee is withholding information from the public even while Homeland Security chair Sen. Ron Johnson, who is probing Hunter Biden, the son of Trump rival Vice President Joe Biden, has received disinformation from Russia.

'There's a clear narrative being perpetuated by Russia and Russia's allies. I don't know everybody that the Homeland Security is talking to, but what I know is the narrative they are working off of is the very same narrative that the Russians are trying to push domestically," Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut Murphy said this week, CNN reported. "So I remain very concerned about the lack of information that the public has and the damage that may do to the election."

Democratic senators wrote in a letter last month that disinformation from a foreign power was being funneled to Johnson's committee, the New York Times reported. Johnson denies it.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, and the two top Democrats on the intelligence committees penned the letter.

The agency posting the reward has a tip line, and its releases are posted in multiple languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, and Russian.
It's already well-known that being overweight is a major risk factor for contracting the novel coronavirus.

But some health experts fear that when a vaccine finally becomes available, it may not protect obese Americans as well as the general population..

Previous studies have found that inoculations for influenza and hepatitis B have been less effective in obese adults, making them more prone to illness and severe complications such as organ failure and death.

Researchers theorize a COVD-19 vaccine may result in similar circumstances, leaving one of the most at-risk populations vulnerable during the pandemic that has already sickened 4.8 million and killed more than 158,000 in the US.

Previous studies have found that vaccines for the fu and hepatitis B are less effective in obese adults than non-obese adults. Pictured: Brazilian pediatrician Monica Levi (right) receives an experimental coronavirus vaccine as part of a clinical trial in Sao Paulo, July 24

Some theorize this is because those who are obese have an impaired T-cell response, a type of immune system cell, to vaccines, and that obese people may not be as protected with a coronavirus vaccine. Pictured: A laboratory technician holds a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate in Thailand, May 23

'It is not a question of not working, it is more of a question of efficacy,' Dr Chad Petit, an assistant professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, told DailyMail.com.

'In other words, the vaccine [could work] but it [may not be] as effective.'

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 42.4 percent of the US adult population is obese as are 18.5 percent of American children.

Obesity is known as a risk factor for several chronic health conditions including type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart attack and even certain types of cancer.

Experts have warned that the proportion of obese adults will only grow as younger generations do.

This also means that it may take longer for severely overweight Americans to return to work or go about their day-to-day lives if they have weakened immune systems.

Among those who are of a healthy weight, the immune system can cause inflammation when it calls on cells to fight bacteria, viruses and other pathogens, but it can also turn inflammation off.

However, obesity increases the immune response, leading to excessive inflammation, which makes the body less able to fight off invaders.

Poor immune responses from obese adults after being vaccinated has been seen in the past.

A May 2017 study found that antibody responses to the hepatitis B vaccine were significantly reduced in obese people compared to non-obese people.

A second study from that year showed that obese adults who were vaccinated against the flu were less likely than non-obese adults to develop the flu or a flu-like illness.

'While it is not certain, it is thought that this may be due to an impaired T-cell response to the vaccine,' Petit said.

'T-cells play a significant role in the adaptive immune response and are necessary for protection against influenza.'

Another hypothesis is that obesity-related chronic inflammation leads to reduced production of macrophages, specialized cells that destroy harmful organisms.

Dr William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, says for those who are obese, the vaccine needle size matters.

An immunization using a standard one-inch needle may provide a weaker effect for severely overweight people than a jab with a longer needle.

'Physicians have to very mindful what needle-length to use so that, if youre giving an intramuscular injection, it can actually reach the muscle,' he told DailyMail.com.

He added that, despite the theories and fears, it is better and safer for obese people - and all Americans - to get vaccinated than to forego shots.

'The answer is a resounding: "Yes" with an exclamation mark,' Schaffner said.

'We want to encourage everyone to get the flu shot. This winter, both Covid and flu will be active. The flu vaccine isn't perfect, but we know it can prevent infection and. even if not, it will be milder.'

Petit agrees and says even if the vaccine doesn't work very well, it's better than nothing.

'Obese adults that received the influenza vaccine in that study were still protected, just not as well as non-obese individuals.' he said.

'In other words, less protection is definitely better than no protection.'
To assist early detection and management of coronavirus, GOQii has launched a smartwatch that measures pulse oximeter and body temperature. GOQii says given the nature of the virus and its rapid spread, the key in controlling its numbers is early detection and confinement of the suspected cases. With the smartwatch, an individual can immediately get a sense of changes in their vitals and co-relate to a bigger health problem.

Lower oxygen rate has been identified as a common concern amongst COVID-19 patients. GOQii Smart Vital's integrated pulse oximeter measures the rate of oxygen in the blood and will give real-time updates of variation in blood oxygen levels. It can also track body temperature, along with heart rate and blood pressure. The watch can also detect sleep, steps, calories and heart rate. The smart-watch can be connected to a centralized dashboard that enables remote monitoring of a large user group. This monitoring is continuous and would require minimal user intervention. However, it is only a screening device and not a medical device.

"We are on the path of innovation with GOQii Smart Vital that will help in detection, isolation and monitoring of coronavirus cases. The key is to understand your symptoms and correlate them to changes in body vitals. As we battle the pandemic, this smart device will enable you to understand your health better while you Keep A Watch on crucial parameters such as blood oxygen levels, body temperature, heart rate & blood pressure. The moment you detect temperature changes coupled with low blood oxygen levels, you know you have to contact your healthcare provider and get tested," says, Vishal Gondal, Founder and CEO, GOQii.

"The GOQii Vital 3.0 was handed over to Mumbai, Jalandhar and Nashik police, and we have seen the impact it has had on our police force. It helped them in quick detection and isolation thus ensuring that the virus does not spread. Using such devices will eventually become a necessity as we are slowly gearing to resume normal life", said Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar in the press release.

Priced at Rs 5,999, the Vital is waterproof and features a 1.3-inch full-screen touch display. Other than tracking sleep, body temperature, SpO2, heart rate and more, it also features eight exercise modes. The watch can be paired with the Goqii app, and receive push notifications such as messages, calls, Whatsapp, Facebook and more.

With increasing concerns about data privacy, GOQii says all data collected is subjected to HIPAA, GDPR and relevant data privacy guidelines.

GOQii has been involved with several projects in the remote health monitoring space across the country and will launch a specialised application and dashboard to enable remote monitoring for COVID-19 care centers and home quarantine solutions for housing societies soon.

GOQii has also partnered with German health tech startup, Thryve, to conduct a clinical study for the early detection of COVID-19 infections based on data collected by its wearables. Thryve focuses on aggregation and analysis of health data generated by wearables, medical devices and other health data sources. The company is working with the German government on preventing COVID-19 spread through wearable devices.Also read: Real GDP growth to remain negative in H1, full fiscal: RBI Gov Shaktikanta Das

Also read:RBI keeps repo rate unchanged at 4%, maintains status quo
This story was published in partnership with The 19th, a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy.

It is no secret to the campaigns of Joe Biden and Donald Trump that the road to the White House runs through places like Michigans Macomb County.

It is a swing county in one of a trio of recently reliably Democratic states  Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin  that shocked Hillary Clintons 2016 campaign by breaking for Trump after backing Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012.

The county, a suburban and exurban area north of Detroit, is the states third-most populous. Eighty percent of its residents are white. Roughly a quarter of adults have college degrees. The median household income in 2018 was about $60,000. Voters there cast ballots at higher rates than the country overall. It is a bellwether that backed the candidate elected president all but three times in the past 50 years.

Simply put, Macomb County is chock-full of people whose demographic and political profiles make them highly sought-after by political strategists from both parties in Washington as potentially persuadable voters.

In the 2020 White House race, top polls show that Biden is widening his lead over Trump in Michigan. The presidents reelection campaign has stopped buying television and radio ads in the state, and studies indicate that white suburban and working-class women are more likely to be having second thoughts about Trump than their male counterparts. Nevertheless, interviews late last month with nearly two dozen Macomb County women fitting this profile show that right now, in this swing county in this swing state, neither candidate has a lock.

As Kristina Gallagher, a 36-year-old married mother of two, put it: Im a realist. Im going to vote for the person who is going to do the best for us.

Gallagher is neither a Republican nor a Democrat, voting for Obama in 2008, Republican Mitt Romney in 2012 and Trump in 2016. She is a waitress who, for the first time in a decade, has a little money in the bank and wants a president focused on jobs, health insurance and education.

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Will she vote for Trump again?

Hes been a little iffy lately, cant keep his mouth shut. Hes derogatory sometimes and it really irks me. Maybe stay off Twitter, Gallagher said as she loaded groceries, and her daughter, into the car outside a Walmart in Roseville.

What about Biden?

Not sure, Gallagher said.

A woman wearing a TRUMP 2020 face mask cheers during a protest rally outside the Pennsylvania Capitol Building regarding the continued closure of businesses due to the coronavirus pandemic on May 15, 2020 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Microcosm of a microcosm

Winning presidential elections is a complex alchemy of driving up turnout among your base and winning over an ever-shrinking pool of persuadable or swing voters, a calculation complicated even further by geography.

To win in November, Biden must energize the younger, more diverse and urban voters that make up the backbone of the Democratic Party while also making inroads with white suburban and working-class voters in key states. Trump must animate the older, whiter, less educated and more rural voters that are the foundation of the Republican Party while also holding on to the type of suburban women who backed him in 2016 but deserted the party in the 2018 congressional elections.

Then theres the geography. There are 538 electors nationwide, and to win, a candidate must get at least a majority, or 270 electoral votes, in the mostly winner-take-all system. Michigan has 16 electoral votes, Wisconsin has 10 and Pennsylvania 20. In 2016, Trump captured all three and beat Clinton 304 to 227.

If just 40,000 people across Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania had changed their minds, I would have won, Clinton later wrote in her book What Happened.

If Michigan is treated by political analysts as a microcosm of white, suburban or working-class voters in manufacturing-rich areas of America, Macomb County is a microcosm of Michigan.

Within Macomb County, the suburban areas closest to Detroit  places such as Eastpointe, Roseville and Warren  skew Democratic and account for a quarter to a third of the countys total vote. Farther north, Macomb Township, Shelby Township and Chesterfield Township, lean Republican and make up another third. In between are suburban swing enclaves such as Sterling Heights, Clinton Township, Mount Clemens and St. Clair Shores that make up the final third.

Trump visited the county repeatedly as a candidate in 2016, holding a rally in Sterling Heights two days before the election, where he predicted he would land a Brexit-style win in Michigan, defying pollsters expectations. When Clinton campaigned in the state, she largely stuck to Detroit or Flint. Trump beat Clinton by just 10,700 votes in Michigan, but he won Macomb County by 48,300 votes.

Kateri Shue, 32, is a mother of two in Mount Clemens who registered to vote for the first time four years ago so she could back Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary to be part of a revolution. Shue voted for Clinton and is pretty certain she will vote for Biden in November. She has become politically engaged on social media but has not noticed her friends or family members changing their minds about the president  or at least not yet.

Why are Macomb County voters so swingy?

It just depends on who is available and if they feel its an important election to vote in, Shue said.

Democrat on this, Republican on that

The Trump and Biden campaigns know that support from women will be key to their chances in November.

Trump has boasted, at times erroneously, about his support among women, saying that 52% of them voted for him. Initial 2016 exit polls showed that roughly 52% of white women chose Trump, but women overall preferred Clinton. A more reliable survey of validated voters showed that about 47% of white women backed the president.

The key to winning over Shues demographic is creating pathways for women who have already made their decisions to talk about it with their friends, families and co-workers  a persuasion tactic that resonates with women specifically, according to strategists.

Some of Trumps most effective surrogates are women, including his daughter-in-law Lara Trump. The Women for Trump bus tour made an early stop last month after a coronavirus-related hiatus in neighboring Wisconsin. Trumps female backers in Michigan say their support for the president is under-reported. Republican National Committeewoman Kathy Berden of Michigan said recently that she believes the polls about Trumps chances in the state are wrong again.

Biden is likewise working to earn every single vote in Michigan, and a huge part of that is speaking to women in the suburbs, said Rose Dady, the campaigns director of coalitions in Michigan.

With the pandemic, neither candidate is campaigning in person much, but both have had virtual events aimed at women, often featuring their female surrogates.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, recently launched Women for Biden in the state, warning supporters not to let our guard down with polls showing the former vice president pulling ahead. The purpose of the group, according to Bidens campaign, is to provide women with the training and tools to talk to their friends and neighbors about the election.

Whitmer is an excellent case in point about how difficult it can be to politically pin down voters in Michigan generally and Macomb County specifically.

Two years after Clinton lost the state to Trump by just a quarter of a percentage point and Macomb County by more than 11 points, Whitmer bested her Republican opponent by nearly 10 points statewide and by more than 3 points in Macomb County. And on a warm July day in Clinton Townships George George Memorial Park, more than a few of the women there said they voted for Trump, then voted for Whitmer and would likely vote for both again. Others who voted for Trump but not Whitmer still praised the governors response to the coronavirus pandemic even though she has tangled with the president on the issue.

Sarah Stecker, a 37-year-old kindergarten teacher and married mother of two, said Trump was the first Republican presidential candidate she supported.

As Steckers children ran on the playground  and high school students posed nearby for pandemic-delayed prom photos  she went through her recent voting history.

Trump in 2016. Whitmer in 2018. Trump looking likely in 2020.

I have to separate who he is from the job that hes doing, said Stecker, who generally approves of the president.

Steckers friend Kathy Parada, a third-grade teacher, described her political leanings as: Im Democrat on this, but Im Republican on this.

Parada, a 45-year-old married mother of two, voted for Trump because she felt the country was financially damaged and needed a leader with business chops, despite what she called Trumps vomit of the mouth.

He may not say it in the right way, but I know where hes trying to go with it, she said. He doesnt support educators enough, but as a parent, Im looking at what is going to be good for my kids future.

Does that mean she will support him again?

Its looking that way, Parada said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Election 2020: Swing state women voters have mixed feelings about Trump
WASHINGTON  At first, it was going to be easy.

President Donald Trump was going to roll into Charlotte, North Carolina, and give a rousing speech to Republican delegates who nominated him for a second term.

COVID-19 derailed that plan.

Then Trump planned to give his acceptance speech Aug. 27 at a sports arena in Jacksonville, Florida  and the pandemic thwarted that event, too.

A little more than three weeks out, the Trump campaign is scrambling to find a fresh option for what will probably be the most-watched speech of Trump's reelection campaign.

Though the White House grounds have emerged as a favorite, advisers are considering historic sites in battleground states, mirroring an event on July 3 when Trump spoke at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, according to aides familiar with the planning.

Trump said in a tweet Monday that he had winnowed the list to the White House and Gettysburg.

"We have narrowed the Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech, to be delivered on the final night of the Convention (Thursday), to two locations - The Great Battlefield of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and the White House, Washington, D.C. We will announce the decision soon!" Trump posted.

We have narrowed the Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech, to be delivered on the final night of the Convention (Thursday), to two locations - The Great Battlefield of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and the White House, Washington, D.C. We will announce the decision soon!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 10, 2020

Republican strategist Scott Jennings said the COVID-19 pandemic has created problems for every event planner, and the president's reelection campaign is no exception.

"A lot of things have been thrown into chaos, so I'm sympathetic," he said.

Trump promoted the virtues of the White House during an interview Wednesday on "Fox & Friends," saying he would "probably" deliver the speech there, noting that the venue would be the "easiest" and least-expensive option.

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Trump said he was not "locked in" on that choice.

"I think it would be a very convenient location; it would be by far the least expensive," Trump told a news conference Wednesday. "It would be very cost-conscious by comparison to any other location."

Trump is pushing for a big event for his acceptance speech Aug. 27. He said Wednesday that other speeches, including by first lady Melania Trump, would be delivered from different locations.

In weeks of meetings, aides said, advisers have tossed around a number of possible backdrops  the Liberty Bell, Gettysburg, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, a military facility  that could provide dramatic television pictures for Trump's speech.

They have talked about a prominent battleground state, such as Florida or Pennsylvania.

Though some advisers are wary of Trump holding his speech in a city with a Democratic mayor such as Philadelphia, all of the potential sites outside the White House are shadowed by a familiar problem: COVID-19.

More: Republicans fear coronavirus will force scaling back Trump's Florida convention

A delegate shows support for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on July 20, 2016, the third day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

Many states have restrictions on crowd sizes and are wary of big events, so aides are looking for a unique way to present Trump's speech. Trump hasn't held a rally since his event in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in June, which drew a lower-than-expected turnout and fueled controversy given the health risks of large gatherings.

More: Trump cancels Jacksonville portion of Republican convention

More: GOP says President Trump's renomination vote to be held in private

The acceptance speech, an opportunity for Trump to lay out a vision for his second term and reset a campaign struggling in battleground states against presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, is separate from the scaled-back convention business meetings scheduled in Charlotte.

Democrats, who announced months ago that most of their convention will be virtual, faced similar logistical challenges. Biden's campaign announced Wednesday that he scrapped plans to travel to Milwaukee to accept his party's nomination and will deliver his speech from his home in Delaware.

Because of COVID-19 restrictions in North Carolina, a limited number of Republican delegates will hold small meetings designed to carry out essential party business, including the formal nomination of the GOP presidential nominee.

Trump is likely to attend the convention Aug. 24, the day of the nomination vote, but only to greet the delegates and thank them for their work, officials said.

Officials close to the president are interested in recapturing the energy they felt the president gained from the Mount Rushmore speech last month, a Republican with knowledge of the planning said on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal details.

President Donald Trump leads a "Keep America Great" campaign rally at Wildwoods Convention Center in Wildwood, N.J., on Jan. 28.

One option that has been discussed is Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, site of a famed Civil War battle as well as the speech by President Abraham Lincoln honoring the dead and sanctifying the Union causes. Trump narrowly won Pennsylvania in 2016; polls show Biden with a single-digit lead there.

Aides plan "surprises" for the week leading up to Trump's speech, including speeches from prominent Republicans such as Melania Trump. Though she enjoys support within the GOP, the first lady has rarely appeared on the campaign trail on her own or alongside the president.

If nothing works, Trump retains the reserve option: the White House.

It wouldn't be a first. In 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt delivered a speech via radio to the Democratic convention that nominated him for an unprecedented third term.

Some ethics groups might object to the idea of using the White House for such a political event. The Hatch Act forbids government officials from engaging in political activity on government property, though the president is exempt from that law.

The White House is considered a residence rather than an office building.

Jordan Libowitz, communications director for the organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said, "Giving a political speech of this magnitude and visibility on the White House grounds creates the appearance that it's a government-sanctioned event, something multiple laws were written to avoid."

Though the Hatch Act does not apply to the president, Libowitz noted that other government employees would likely be necessary to handle the event.

He added: "While many ethics laws, like the Hatch Act, do not apply to the president, they could apply to the other government employees who might be attending or working on the event."

Trump dismissed those concerns Wednesday.

More: Birx slammed by Trump, Pelosi in her role as coronavirus coordinator

More: Trump probe moves beyond hush money to alleged mistresses

Some administration and campaign aides have questions about a White House acceptance speech: Could aides who work for the government legally plan and set up such an event? Or would campaign officials have to do that?

In addition to the closely watched convention speech, aides plan ways to satisfy Trump's eagerness to get back out on the campaign trail. One likely way is an alternative form of the rallies the president enjoys so much, to be held at airports with a limited number of boisterous supporters.

Trump and his team road-tested the airport rally format last week in Tampa, Florida, where the president accepted an endorsement from the Florida Police Benevolent Association.

At Tampa Bay International Airport, a few hundred supporters  appropriately spaced out but few wearing masks  greeted Air Force One as it landed.

After strolling to a podium to the sounds of Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U.S.A.," Trump spent more than a half-hour extolling his record and bashing Biden  a message Trump is eager to deliver, no matter the venue.

Then Republican candidate Donald Trump during rehearsal during the 2016 Republican National Convention at Quicken Loans Arena. Seen at left is Rick Gates.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The White House? Gettysburg? Trump team ponders nomination speech
WASHINGTON  Chad F. Wolf, the acting secretary of homeland security, on Thursday defended his deployment of tactical agents to face protesters in Portland, Ore., after the standoff prompted accusations that the operation had politicized his agency.

Mr. Wolf told the Senate Homeland Security Committee that the local government in Portland had created a security void at the federal courthouse there, forcing him to deploy agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection to support the Federal Protective Service, which provides year-round security at the courthouse.

The tactical teams provoked a national backlash after they used tear gas on crowds and detained protesters in unmarked vehicles. While the agents in front of the courthouse have been replaced with state police officers, Mr. Wolf said the tactical agents would remain in Portland until the agency was satisfied that the violence had subsided.

Mr. Wolf and Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon, a Democrat, agreed last week to replace the federal agents in front of the courthouse with state police officers.
Malaysia's police chief insisted Wednesday investigations into an Al Jazeera documentary are being conducted "professionally" and rejected concerns about worsening media freedom, a day after the broadcaster's office was searched. Authorities are investigating the news network's programme "Locked up in Malaysia's Lockdown", after the government was angered by its critical look at the treatment of migrant workers during the coronavirus pandemic. Officials on Tuesday searched the Qatar-based broadcaster's Kuala Lumpur office and seized two computers, sparking fresh anger from Al Jazeera and rights groups and adding to concerns about media independence in Malaysia. But the country's Inspector-General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador said the search by police and communications ministry officials was carried out "very professionally". "It was not a military kind of action taken by the police," he told AFP in an interview. He added that Al Jazeera staff were "informed earlier of our intent to be there. They were even asked which devices were used. They cooperated." The search came after seven Al Jazeera journalists were questioned by police last month in connection with the documentary. Abdul Hamid said the probe would be wrapped up soon, after which the attorney-general will decide whether to bring charges. But the government insists the documentary -- which focused on alleged mistreatment of migrants when they were rounded up during a coronavirus lockdown in May -- tarnished the country's image. Authorities say the round-up was necessary to protect the public from the virus. Al Jazeera is being probed for alleged sedition, defamation and transmitting offensive content, but it has stood by the documentary and insists the reporting was impartial. Abdul Hamid said the investigation "will be very transparent" and insisted journalists in Malaysia were still free to do their jobs. But he also urged international media to "be responsible", calling them not to "write something... that is inaccurate".
Goldman thinks the market is underestimating the odds of a faster-than-expected coronavirus vaccine

Published Thu, Aug 6 2020 6:48 AM EDT Updated Thu, Aug 6 2020 7:23 AM EDT
To ensure students from civic schools do not drop out due to lack of learning material, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations (BMC) education department has decided to distribute notebooks.

In a circular issued on Wednesday, the department asked schools to furnish details about its staff who will be available to distribute free notebooks to students. This year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there is a possibility that some children might drop out. To avoid this, giving them school essentials in time is important. Hence, books should be distributed from August 10, reads the circular.

Usually, students get notebooks after the BMC completes the tendering process, which often gets delayed by four to five months after the new academic year begins in June. This year, however, students will also receive other school essentials like bags, uniforms, stationery, etc, by October, said officials at the education department.

Its a good thing that students will get these items on time. It will help them study in the current situation, wherein physical classes are not available, said Prashant Redij of the Mumbai Principals Association.

In June, the civic body also distributed textbooks to students, which were delivered as part of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan initiative, to ensure that those without internet access can have access to study material.
The Housing Secretary said he wished he had not sat with Richard Desmond (pictured with Boris Johnson) at an event just weeks before he pushed through the Westferry Printworks scheme

Robert Jenrick today reiterated his 'regret' at his involvement in a 'cash-for access' scandal involving approval for a 1billion property development for a Tory donor.

The Housing Secretary said he wished he had not sat with Richard Desmond at an event just weeks before he pushed through the Westferry Printworks scheme before it became eligible for a local development levy.

The move saved the former Express proprietor and Ukip backer tens of millions of pounds on the scheme to build 1,500 upmarket homes on the brownfield site in Docklands.

Mr Jenrick spoke as he defended his sweeping reforms to the planning system against criticism that the move to speed up building will create slums and ignore local concerns.

Asked why people should trust him over new planning proposals which will give more power to large developers after the controversy over the Westferry development project, Mr Jenrick told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'Well I don't think this does give more power to developers, it creates a much more certain system. It will, for example, fix the challenge of developer contributions once and for all.'

Asked what he learned from the experience of the Westferry development, Mr Jenrick added: 'I've set out the events around that decision and there are definitely lessons to be learnt.

'I wish I hadn't been sat next to a developer at an event and I regret sharing text messages with him afterwards.

Asked what he learned from the Westferry affair, Mr Jenrick said: 'I wish I hadn't been sat next to a developer at an event and I regret sharing text messages with him afterwards.

Mr Jenrick rushed through the approval of Mr Desmond's plan to build 1,500 homes in east London , saving him tens of millions of pounds, after they sat together at a Conservative Party event

'But I don't regret the decision, because I think it was right to get housing built on a brownfield site on a part of London that desperately needs it.

'The system that I've helped to design that is set out in the proposals we're publishing today will actually move us forward significantly on some of the challenges that that case rose.'

It was revealed in May that the Housing Secretary was lobbied about the application by Desmond at a Tory Party fundraiser, when they were seated next to each other.

Mr Desmond later made a 12,000 donation to the Conservative Party and was in text message contact with Mr Jenrick on November 18 last year after swapping numbers at the exclusive dinner.

Mr Jenrick gave the last-minute go-ahead to the project after both the local council and the independent Planning Inspectorate had decided it should be refused.

His decision on January 14 came one day before Tower Hamlets Council approved a 'community levy' on developments that would have cost Mr Desmond's company Northern and Shell between 30million and 50million.

The Cabinet minister later had to quash his own approval for the scheme - which had been recommended against by civil servant - conceding that the decision was 'unlawful' due to 'apparent bias'.

Downing Street, which has distanced itself from the planning decision, said Mr Johnson still has 'full confidence' in Mr Jenrick.
By Dr Mohammad Kamran Ahsan

As hate becomes the fulcrum, and the new normal of Indian polity, various view-points have emerged analysing this institutionalised hatred towards Muslims. A lot has been written by some Ambedkarites, giving this hatred solely a caste dimension thereby creating an impression as if all general category Muslims, by virtue of their castes are protected during the right-wing sponsored communal riots or pogrom and lynching. Homogenising the entire Ashraf (general or upper caste) Muslims is one such premise upon which their arguments are based. As the term Ashraf inherently expresses caste supremacism of general castes of Muslims, henceforth the word General category Muslims is used instead. In essence, these Ambedkarites hold the same flawed view of homogeneity where other liberal elites err. Though, the argument of this write up is not to reject caste dimensions of communal violence vis-a-vis Muslims, nor is it a denial of age-old caste oppression of pasmanda Muslims by general caste Muslims rather it is to add one more angle of the eternal struggle between the oppressor and the oppressed, where the poor and powerless of either side, are butchered mercilessly during the communal violence between Hindus and Muslims.

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This homogenising of general category caste identity is an erroneous notion that does not take into account the poor socio-economic status of the people belonging to general castes. People having poor economic backgrounds are more vulnerable to the communal frenzy. The very nature of Ashraf or general category caste hegemony is not to safeguard the interests of all general castes or to protect them during the time of communal conflagration.

The article seeks to analyse the communal riots bit by bit, unfolding how caste dimensions of communal riots are put on the backburner, attacking the victims solely on religious identity. Recent Delhi riots is a case in point, where masjids were attacked, and people with Muslim identity were butchered without taking into account their caste location.

Irfan Ahmad, in his article  Violence after violence: The politics of narratives over the Delhi pogrom lays bare the hypocrisy of liberal elites and terms their strategy as ditto theory or equalization of communal violence from both sides by giving a misnomer of riots to a well-planned pogrom against the Muslims, irrespective of their caste identity, and socioeconomic status.

The anti-caste pasmanda activists, flaunting their Ambedkarite identity argue that the communal riots is an elitist phenomenon in which general castes of either side hobnob one another, and in their bid to be secular, put the equal onus of communal frenzy on the upper castes of Muslims. By doing this, they forget that the upper caste status of Ahsan Jaffri, the former Congress MP, living in an elite neighbourhood could not save him and his compatriots. The pasmanda activists have been in denial mode of victimisation of Muslims and view Muslim identity as a fissure in the Bahujan movement, and foreground the caste dynamics, forgetting that Hindutva politics encompasses all castes, thus makes them at loss while creating wider support base surpassing parochial boundaries of caste. Some of the activists argue that during any communal riots pasmanda castes are used in the name of Islam, thus essentialise all general castes to be a political entity on the pattern of Hindutva fringe groups. Of course, the statements of general caste politicians, such as Akbaruddin Owaisi, and Waris Pathan legitimise the Hindutva bigotry, but they gain little traction among the voters of general castes.

The article presents inherent Islamophobia of Ambedkarites who problematize the Islamic identity and seek to prove that the scourge of caste system among Indian Muslims is rooted in Islamic scriptures. Any move by a Muslim to counter this fallacious Islamophobic argument is rebuffed as Islamophilia and the people expressing their Islamic identity are described in pejorative terms as Islamists Ashraf Anti-Pasmanda in case the opponent is born in general caste category, or a Pasmanda expressing his Muslim identity is shown in the poor light as gullible stooge of Ashraaf .

The stereotyping of the vulnerable groups by painting them with the same brush is not the sole problem of majoritarian bigots, rather many liberals and Ambedkarites also fall prey to this ploy. This stereotyping innocuously bolsters Hindutva agenda of stereotyping of pasmanda Muslims as puppets in the hands of general caste Muslims, sacrificed at the altar of Islam, and Islam as a regressive and elitist religion similar to Manuvaadi Brahmanism. The liberal frenzy doesnt end with the stereotyping. In order to strengthen their secular credentials, many religious organisations such as Jamaat-e-Islami, Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Hind, Tablighi Jamaat are equated with the belligerent right-wing Hindutva fringe groups known for undermining the constitutional authority. The Muslim religious organisations are described as those dominated by Ashrafs, and are presented as potential threats to the Indian constitution, secularism and democracy. Jamiat-e-Ulemas Halal certification to Patanjali is presented as Ashraf (General caste Muslims) hobnobbing with their Hindutva counterparts, and Jamiat is severely criticised and accused of protecting and strengthening the economic interests of Hindutva elites in the overseas market. Thus, the Ambedkarites unwittingly converge on Hindutva clarion call of economic boycott, becoming oblivious of its ramifications on poor Muslims. Ajit Dovals midnight visit to Nizamuddin Markaz is also equated with Ashraf hobnobbing, neglecting political overtures by the establishment to show its love for Muslims.

To conclude, the pasmanda movement needs to reinvent itself, coming out of the clutches of belligerent Islamophobic elites and must reach out the right-minded people, cutting across caste lines to strengthen OBC reservation for the pasmanda classes. The general caste Muslims must also admit and apologise for the age-old caste bias, and extend their political support for the cause of OBC reservation. For general caste Muslims, any demand for religion-based reservation is untenable and is akin to falling prey to Hindutva binary of religion. After all, the general category Muslims are also entitled to taste the fruits of unconstitutional reservation for Economic Weaker Sections, earning up to Eight Lakh Rupees per annum.

Dr Mohammad Kamran Ahsan is an Assistant Professor (English) at Glocal University, Saharanpur UP. He has worked as a Fulbright Scholar at Yale University USA.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 22:44:00|Editor: huaxia

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KIEV, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that his country is doing its best to maintain a ceasefire and save the lives of servicemen in Donbas, the president's press service said Thursday.

"We are working to ensure that this regime is not violated ... I am sure it would have been a real ceasefire if everything depended only on our side. We would move on to the next stage, to the next step of finishing the war," Zelensky told a briefing in the Donetsk region.

Zelensky said that the ceasefire regime is currently maintained.

The representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe agreed on establishing a complete and comprehensive ceasefire in East Ukraine on July 27 during a Trilateral Contact Group video conference on July 22.

The agreement requests a ban on offensive and reconnaissance actions, the use of firearms, as well as the use of disciplinary measures for violations of the ceasefire.

There have been no major military clashes reported over the past 11 days since the ceasefire began.

The ongoing conflict in east Ukraine, which has claimed some 13,000 people and left as many as 30,000 wounded, started in April 2014. Enditem
Kodugu: Atleast four people were reported missing after a landslide hit near the Bramhagiri mountains at Talakaveri in Karnataka's Kodagu district on Wednesday midnight.

Issuing a statement in the matter, the District Commissioner of Kodagu district, Madikeri informed that two homes of Talakaveri temple priests were damaged in the calamity and atleast four people are missing.

"Two house belonging to the priests of Talakaveri temple is said to have been damaged in the incident. Four people living in one of the houses are said to be missing. Advanced rescue team has been sent to the spot to carry out rescue operations. Further details will be provided after the team reaches the spot," the statement read.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa has directed the Ministers in charge of respective districts to take precautionary measures in the wake of heavy rainfall across the state.

He instructed the ministers to remain in their constituencies and tour the damaged areas. He also directed them to undertake relief distribution and other necessary measures.

The state has alreday released a fund of Rs 50 crores and claimed that if necessary more funds would be released. The ministers can take decisions regarding emergency works, the chief minister further said.

A red alert has been issued in several districts in Karnataka due to heavy rainfall in the state since the last two-three days, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Wednesday.

"Red alert has been announced in Udupi, Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada, Chickamagalur, Shivamogga, Kodagu and Hassan, due to heavy rainfall in the region from last two-three days," CS Patil, Director, IMD Bengaluru said.
BEIJING - China has sentenced a fourth Canadian citizen to death on drug charges in less than two years following a sharp downturn in ties over the arrest of an executive of Chinese tech giant Huawei.

Ye Jianhui was sentenced Friday by the Foshan Municipal Intermediate Court in the southern province of Guangdong. Ye had been found guilty of manufacturing and transporting illegal drugs, the court said in a brief statement.

Another suspect in the case was also given the death penalty and four others sentenced to between seven years and life in prison, it said. Death sentences are automatically referred to Chinas highest court for review.

Ties between Canada and China have nosedived over Canadas late 2018 arrest of Meng Wanzhou, a company executive and the daughter of Huaweis founder, at Vancouvers airport at the request of the U.S., which wants her extradited to face fraud charges over the companys dealings with Iran. Her arrest enraged Beijing, which calls it a political move aimed at constraining Chinas rise as a global technology power.

Yes sentencing came a day after fellow Canadian Xu Weihong was given the death penalty by the Guangzhou Municipal Intermediate Court, also in Guandong province. Convicted Canadian drug smuggler Robert Schellenberg was sentenced to death in a sudden retrial shortly after Mengs arrest, and a Canadian citizen identified as Fan Wei was given the death penalty in April 2019 for his role in a multinational drug smuggling case.

China also detained former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and Canadian entrepreneur Michael Spavor weeks after Mengs arrest, accusing them of vague national security crimes. China has also placed restrictions on various Canadian exports to China, including canola seed oil, in an apparent attempt to pressure China into releasing Meng, who is residing in one of her Vancouver mansions under a form of house arrest.

The court statement gave no further details of the charges against Ye and the others. However, the website of the Yangcheng Evening News based in the neighbouring metropolis of Guangzhou said Ye and co-defendant Lu Hanchang conspired with others to manufacture and transport drugs between May 2015 and January 2016.

Police seized roughly 218 kilograms (480 pounds) of white crystals infused with the designer drug MDMA from a room used by the two, and found another 9.84 grams of the drug in bags and residences used by Lu and others, the newspaper said.

China, like many Asian nations, hands out harsh punishments for making and selling drugs, and the countrys rising wealth and transformation into a centre for world trade has attracted growing numbers of foreigners to its domestic market for illegal substances.

In December 2009, Pakistani-British businessman Akmal Shaikh was executed after being convicted of smuggling heroin, despite calls for clemency on the grounds that he was mentally disturbed.

China is believed to execute more criminals each year than all other nations combined. Although the actual figure is a state secret, estimates put it at around 2,000.

Asked Friday about Yes sentencing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said China is a country under the rule of law and relevant judicial organs handle the case independently in strict accordance with the law.

Wang added that Mengs detention was a serious political incident and again called for her release.

Regarding China-Canada relations, China is not responsible for the difficulties that the current China-Canada relationship is facing, Wang said. The Canadian side knows very well the crux of the problem.

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China urges Australian bilateral 'friendly organization' to abandon anti-China activists

Global Times

Source: Global Times Published: 2020/8/5 19:03:49

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations, a foreign affairs agency set up by the Australian government, should not allow anti-China activists to join in the foundation and urged it to correct its mistakes and show sincerity after reports said that members of the foundation were found to receive financial backing by the US government and have ties with illegal cult.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a press conference on Wednesday that if Australia really wants the foundation to play a positive role in enhancing mutual trust and promoting exchanges and cooperation between the two countries, it should not allow certain anti-China activists to get into the foundation.

"This is not in line with the purpose and original intention of the foundation and sends out a serious wrong signal," Wang said.

China hopes that Australia will correct its mistakes, show sincerity and do more things that are conducive to mutual trust and cooperation between China and Australia, rather than doing the opposite.

"We noticed that some media reports exposed some anti-China institutions and individuals in Australia have received financial support from the US government. He urged Australia to face up to objective facts, discard double standards and ideological bias on so-called "anti-foreign intervention" and "foreign influence transparency," and refrain from political manipulation, selective and discriminatory practices.

The remarks came after the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported on Tuesday that two board members of the foundation recently appointed by an Australian senator receive financial backing from the US government.

One of them, Maree Ma, also runs a Chinese-language newspaper with a strong editorial leaning against the Communist Party of China (CPC).

The report said evidence shows that the publication is closely affiliated with the illegal cult Falun Gong.

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North Country Live: Summer Series on Zoom runs Thursdays in August

North Country Community College, the Adirondack Diversity Initiative and the Adirondack North Country Association are collaborating to present a series of timely and necessary online programs that shine light on Black History in the Adirondacks.

The sessions are part of North Country Live: Summer Series, held via Zoom every Thursday in August at 7 p.m. The presentations are free, although pre-registration is required so invitation details can be sent to participants.

In June and July, the colleges Summer Series programs have focused on wellness, financial literacy, and workplace skills. The lineup for August is as follows:

Aug. 6, The story of Timbuctoo: Black voting rights in the Adirondacks, with Pete Nelson, a co-founder of ADI and an adjunct faculty member at NCCC. Petes presentation will focus on the effort to establish voting rights for free blacks in the North Elba region of the Adirondacks in the 1840s.

Aug. 13, Abolitionist Rising: The Tortured Life of John Brown, with NCCC faculty member Tom McGrath. In the first of two presentations on John Brown, Tom will explore Browns incredible life, which ultimately led to his emergence as a violent abolitionist crusader.

Aug. 20, Hanging from the Beam: Harpers Ferry and the Execution of John Brown, with NCCC faculty member Tom McGrath. This program focuses on Browns failed attempt to start a slave insurrection at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, his trial, and public execution. It will follow Browns body through the Adirondacks to his final resting place in North Elba.

Aug. 27, Place Names in the Adirondacks: A Diverse Past, with Pete Nelson, a co-founder of ADI and an adjunct faculty member at NCCC. The history of life and work in the Adirondacks is much more racially and culturally diverse than people realize. But while this history has been neglected and mostly forgotten, its imprint lives on in place names found throughout the Park. Learn the fascinating stories of some of the names we see in the region and the people whose presence and labors defined them.

Each presentation will be followed by an opportunity to interact with and ask questions of the host.

To register for the Summer Series, visit the colleges North Country Live page at http://www.nccc.edu/live. All of the prior sessions are archived on the same page.

For more information, contact Selina LeMay-Klippel, at slemay-klippel@nccc.edu.
The chief of Portland Police has called for the violence in the city to stop after it saw its 70th night of protests on Wednesday, saying 'enough is enough'.

Meanwhile, Portland police declared a riot Wednesday for the second night running after protesters gathered outside of a police precinct in the south-east of the city.

In a press conference yesterday, Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell said that those 'dedicated to just provoking a police response' through vandalism and violence are draining police resources.

'This is not forwarding the goals' of the Black Lives Matter Movement, he said. Lovell, who is Black, also wrote in the New York Times on Monday that the riots were 'drowning out the voices that need to be heard'.

Lovell said he was concerned that the national attention paid to the ongoing protests and the resources needed to police them were hurting the 'beautiful, vibrant city' of Portland.

Police have arrested more than 400 people since late May, he said. U.S. agents arrested at least 94 people on federal charges through July 30.

'This is not forwarding the goals of things that are going to lead to better outcomes for people of color,' said Lovell. 'This movement is very powerful and I feel like the violence has taken away from it in a really kind of concerning way.'

'I think it's really dependent on Portland as a community to really say we're not going to tolerate this,' he added.

Clashes outside a courthouse in Portland have largely stopped since Democratic Gov. Kate Brown reached a deal that called for the draw down of federal agents sent by the Trump administration to protect the building - but the turmoil is far from over.

Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell (pictured) said that those 'dedicated to just provoking a police response' through vandalism and violence are draining police resources and 'not forwarding the goals' of the Black Lives Matter movement

Pictured: A demonstrator kicks a tear gas canister back at federal officers during a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in Portland

Pictured: Police stand by during a protest in Portland on Tuesday. Police have arrested more than 400 people since late May according to Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell

For the past several nights, Portland police have skirmished with protesters in other parts of city, far from the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse, as residents rally around a call to defund the police force.

Demonstrators are also angry at the use of tear gas by police multiple times over the summer to tamp down unrest.

Late Wednesday, Portland police declared a riot and said they believe an explosive device had been left outside a precinct. People were ordered to disperse, and some streets were closed.

Early Wednesday, police had declared a riot and made three arrests after saying demonstrators set fires, erected barricades in a street and broke into the police union headquarters.

Police said someone also fired a gun during the unrest and a pickup truck accelerated into the crowd while pushing an unoccupied motorcycle in front of it.

No one was injured in either incident. Police have interviewed the driver of the truck but so far have made no arrests. Police did not use tear gas during the demonstration.

The city also said Wednesday it is beginning to monitor for any potential long-term pollution from tear gas that was released by federal agents night after night in a two-block area less than a mile from the Willamette River.

Pictured: A driver in a pickup truck accelerates towards the crowd, hitting and dragging a motorcycle during a protest in Portland on Tuesday, Aug 4, 2020. A riot was declared early on Wednesday for the second day in a row

Residents have protested in Portland for 70 consecutive days since George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis. Demonstrations increasingly focused on the federal courthouse, where protesters broke glass, lit fires and tossed fireworks and other objects at law enforcement. The courthouse was also covered with graffiti.

The clashes prompted President Donald Trump to send federal agents from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Marshals Service and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to guard the courthouse - a move that was intended to quell the unrest but instead reinvigorated demonstrators and created a focal point for the protests each night.

Demonstrators tossed fireworks, flares, rocks, ball bearings and bottles at the federal agents and used power tools to try to bring down a fence protecting the courthouse.

U.S. agents responded each night with multiple rounds of tear gas, pepper balls and rubber bullets in an escalation of violence that led to injuries to demonstrators and federal agents.

On Wednesday, the city cleaned out six storm drains that are in the immediate vicinity of the federal courthouse where tear gas was used almost every night. The area is just a few blocks from the Willamette River.

Pictured: Police stand in front of a group of protesters in Portland on Tuesday night as they gather at Peninsula Park in the north of the city

Workers have taken samples from the sediment in the drains to test for zinc, lead, copper and chromium - all found in tear gas.

The city is also worried about chemical residue washing off trees, grass and office buildings and making its way to the river. Portland will test outflow into the Willamette after the next major rainstorm.

'We know that a certain amount of these chemicals have settled into the city's storm drains. We are going to remove as much as possible to prevent that material from being flushed into the Willamette River,' said Matt Criblez, the city's environmental services compliance manager.

The violent clashes at the courthouse have abated since July 30, when federal agents began drawing down their numbers under a deal between the governor and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

But after a quiet weekend, nightly protests have once more gained steam in other parts of the city. The demonstrators are calling for the city to defund the Portland Police Bureau and are critical of Mayor Ted Wheeler, who is also police commissioner. They also want charges dropped against protesters who have been arrested in earlier protests.
CAIRO  The countdown to catastrophe in Beirut started more than six years ago when a troubled, Russian-leased cargo ship made an unscheduled stop at the citys port.

The ship was trailed by debts, crewed by disgruntled sailors and dogged by a small hole in its hull that meant water had to be constantly pumped out. And it carried a volatile cargo, more than 2,000 tons of ammonium nitrate, a combustible material used to make fertilizers  and bombs  that was destined for Mozambique.

The ship, the Rhosus, never made it. Embroiled in a financial and diplomatic dispute, it was abandoned by the Russian businessman who had leased it. And the ammonium nitrate was transferred to a dockside warehouse in Beirut, where it would languish for years, until Tuesday, when Lebanese officials said it exploded, sending a shock wave that killed more than 130 people and wounded another 5,000.

The story of the ship and its deadly cargo, which emerged on Wednesday in accounts from Lebanon, Russia and Ukraine, offered a bleak tale about how legal battles, financial wrangling and, apparently, chronic negligence, set the stage for a horrific accident that devastated one of the Middle Easts most fondly regarded cities.
- At least 11 companies reaped big from multi-billion tender deals awarded by Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA)

- Some of the companies that secured the controversial tenders were registered between January and February 2020

- The tenders were awarded to friends, families and business associate and were brokered by senior KEMSA officials in total disregarded of procurement policies

The outbreak of coronavirus pandemic has pushed many people to the periphery of their livelihood and destabilised the world's economy.

In Kenya, things are even worse as thousands of families have been left without income after their sole breadwinners were relieved of their duties or had their salaries slashed.

READ ALSO: Kenyan newspapers review for August 4: Doom for Uhuru-backed division of revenue formula as 4 more senators join Sakaja's rebel team

KEMSA officials flag off medical supplies in a past function. Photo: KEMSA.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Baba awakana wanawe kutokana na rangi ya macho yao kuwa samawati

However, as millions continue to decry the misfortunes of the pandemic, a few companies and their directors have been feasting amid the global virus, thanks to the tender deals that followed the outbreak.

According to a report by Daily Nation, at least 11 companies reaped big from multi-billion tender deals awarded by Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) in preparation to contain the viral disease.

READ ALSO: Outgoing Chelsea star Willian rejects 2-year deal, in talks with arch rivals Arsenal

Medical supplies from KEMSA packed for distribution to counties. Photo: KEMSA.

Source: Facebook

The tenders were awarded to friends, families and business associates and were brokered by senior KEMSA officials in total disregarded of procurement policies.

Here is a list of the companies and directors named in the COVID-19 tender scandal:

1. Kilig Limited

The company is owned by a 30-year-old lady only identified as "Ms Onyango."

It was registered in January 2020 and handpicked about two months later to supply 450,000 Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) at a cost of KSh 4 billion.

A full package of PPEs (kit) includes N95 masks, bodysuits, goggles, waterproof shoe covers and gloves.

By the time KEMSA was making the order, the complete kit of PPEs was costing KSh 4, 500 but the company inflated the price of each of the 450, 000 kits by KSh 4, 500, to cost KSh 9, 000.

The actual beneficial owner is said to a vocal Jubilee politician who has been securing government tenders and distributing them to some companies and firms for a 10% cut.

2. Shop N Buy Limited

The company was registered on a Valentine's Day, February 14, 2020, by one James Kipketer Cheluley.

A few months later, it was awarded KSh a tender worth 970 million to supply 100,000 PPE kits, each at an inflated price of KSh 9,000.

The company was also allowed to supply another 100,000 pieces of KN95 masks at an exaggerated price of KSh 700 a piece. Today, the company is said to be selling the same masks at KSh 200.

3. Accenture Kenya Limited

The names of the owners and directors were not available as the name of the company was not found in the registry.

However, reports indicated the firm was awarded a KSh 108 million tender to supply 12,000 PPEs at an approximate unit price of KSh 9,000 a piece.

4. Abyssinia Group of Industries (AGI)

The firm was awarded a contract to supply 30,000 pieces of N95 face masks at an inflated cost of KSh 900 each.

The company would make a cool KSh 27 million from the tender scandal.

Like Accenture Kenya Limited, Abyssinia Group of Industries (AGI) was also not found in the registry of companies.

5. Bell Industries

It was contracted to supply 15,000 PPE kits at a cost of K Sh 135 million, and 5,000 infrared thermometers at KSh 10,000 a piece.

The company would supply goods worth KSh 185 million.

It is owned by Titus Kirea Ibui and Mercy Karambu Ngeera.

6. Medlife Biologicals Limited

The firm was contracted to supply 200,000 KN95 masks and 20,000 disposable masks at a cost of KSh 230 million.

7. Nanopay Limited

It was awarded tender to supply 50,000 pieces of KN95 face masks at KSh 35 million.

The company is owned by Ahmed Rahim Mohamud Mohammed.

8. Light Up Africa Limited

The company is registered under the names of Emma Wanjiku Maina and Martha Wanjiru Thuku.

It got a contract worth KSh 25 million to supply 50,000 pieces of sanitiser in 500ml units.

9. Ginawala Kenya Limited

The company was awarded a contract worth millions to supply 120,000 pieces of KN95 face masks at the inflated price of KSh 700 a piece.

10. Wallabis Ventures Limited

It is owned by Catherine Wanjiku Ndungu and James Njenga Ndungu.

The firm got a contract of KSh 90 million to supply 10,000 PPE kits.

11. Wanderjoy Party World Limited.

The company has been at the centre of Jubilee Party's operations since the 2017 campaigns to date.

During the campaigns, Wonderjoy Party World Limited supplied tents, chairs and snacks.

It has been providing catering services to State House and is reported to have extended its services to the Interior ministry.

It is not clear how much the company has made from the contracts but is listed as one of the major beneficiaries.

Wanderjoy Party World Limited is owned by Isaac Maina Wandere Kiboi and his wife and children.

Do you have an inspirational story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Tuko news

Corona has totally ruined our lives - Walter Waweru | Tuko TV

Source: TUKO.co.ke
BANGALORE, India, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Expanding NB-IoT technology applications, growing industry players' involvement in NB-IoT production, increasing IoT adoption, and increased usage of connected devices are among the factors driving the growth of the NB-IoT market size.

The global Narrowband IoT market size is projected to reach USD 31925.6 Million by 2026, from USD 992 Million in 2019, at a CAGR of 64.2% during 2019-2026.

This report analyses revenue growth at the global and country levels and offers an overview of the latest industry trends from 2019 to 2026 in each of the sub-segment.

Get Detailed Analysis of COVID-19 Impact on Narrowband IoT Market: https://reports.valuates.com/request/sample/QYRE-Auto-24S2153/Global_Narrowband_IoT_NB_IoT_Market

TRENDS INFLUENCING THE NB-IOT MARKET SIZE:

The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting global supply chains and logistics as lockdowns have been imposed geographically. Because of COVID-19, most countries have stopped all imports due to the fear of further spreading the virus. With a decline in the supply of connectivity hardware, the growth of the NB-IoT market is expected to be slightly slower than previously forecasted due to the pandemic.

The NB-IoT market is also driven by the growing demand for navigation, telematics, and in-car infotainment services in the automotive & transport industry. NB-IoT's added benefit, such as low power consumption, excellent penetration coverage, and low component costs, also augments the growth of NB-IoT market size.

In particular, developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI ), Machine Learning (ML), and Big Data Analytics will enable businesses to analyze the large amounts of data collected from tracking and monitoring activities using IoT networks. As such, it is also anticipated that the growing adoption of IoT and connected devices, as well as AI, ML, and Big Data analytics through industrial and commercial applications, will contribute to the growth of the NB-IoT market size.

The lack of consistent, cost-effective network pricing models and sufficient network coverage to sustain major widespread IoT deployments hampers market development. Although NB-IoT solutions' overall module and service costs have plummeted over the past two years in line with aggressive investments in research and development activities and module growth, prices remain a major concern for high-volume NB-IoT deployments. This, in turn, is expected to hinder the market growth during the forecast period.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Auto-24S2153/global-narrowband-iot-nb-iot

NB-IOT MARKET SHARE ANALYSIS

Based on the region, North America is expected to hold the largest NB-IoT market share during the forecast period. Many leading system manufacturers and network service providers are based in North America, concentrating on the development and commercial delivery of consumer and industrial applications. Increasing disposable income, the growing tech-savvy population, and the continued adoption of new technologies for personal and business applications are some of the other major factors driving North America's demand.

The Asia Pacific region is projected to witness the highest growth rate during the forecast period. This rapid growth is attributed to increasing internet penetration, continued high-speed Internet infrastructure network deployment, an increasing number of smart city initiatives, and the rates of disposable income, particularly in economies like China, India, and Japan.

Inquire for Regional Report: https://reports.valuates.com/request/regional/QYRE-Auto-24S2153/Global_Narrowband_IoT_NB_IoT_Market

NB-IOT MARKET SEGMENTATION

The following players are covered in this report:

Huawei Technologies

Vodafone

Emirates Telecommunications

Telecom Italia

Qualcomm

China Unicom

Intel

Ericsson

Nokia Networks

Verizon Communication.

Narrowband IoT Breakdown Data by Type

Security solutions

Real-time streaming analytics

Soil monitoring solutions

Asset tracking solutions

Logistics tracking solutions

Smart parking management solutions

Others.

Narrowband IoT Breakdown Data by Application

Smart governance

Smart metering

Smart buildings

Smart asset tracking.

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NB-IoT (Narrowband IoT) Chips Market Report

The growing acceptance of IoT and the increasing use of connected devices are the major factors driving the growth of NB-IoT (Narrowband IoT) Chips market size. It is expected that the growing demand for connected devices for long-range connectivity will drive the implementation of M2M / IoT devices such as smart meters, smart street lights, livestock tracking devices, and smart parking solutions.

Furthermore, emerging smart cities and smart buildings are expected to fuel the growth of NB-IoT (Narrowband IoT) Chips Market size during the forecast period.

The NB-IoT (Narrowband IoT) Chips Market report offers an exhaustive geographical analysis of the global NB-IoT (Narrowband IoT) Chips market, covering important regions, viz, North America, Europe, China, Japan, and South Korea.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Auto-16I1174/global-nb-iot-narrowband-iot-chips

Cellular IoT Market by Offering (Hardware and Software) Market Report

The global Cellular IoT market size was 2010 Million USD in 2018 and is expected to 5110 Million USD by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of 12.3% between 2019 and 2025.

Growing demand for expanded network coverage and flexibility to support large numbers of connected devices is expected to drive the growth of cellular IoT market size. In addition, growing demand for end-to-end security between connected network devices also contributes to the growth of the cellular IoT market.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Auto-11O2845/covid-19-impact-on-cellular-iot

Smart Parking Solutions Market Report

The Top companies in the Smart Parking Solutions Market include Amano Corporation, Cubic Corporation, Kapsch TrafficCom AG, Swarco AG, 3M, Thales, Siemens, Nortech Control Systems, Scheidt & Bachmann, DESIGNA Verkehrsleittechnik GmbH, HUB Parking Technology, WPS Parking System, Fujica, Xerox Corporation, etc.

This study focuses on the status of global Smart Parking Solutions, future projections, growth opportunities, key players, and industry. The purpose of this study is to present the development of Smart Parking Solutions in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India, and Central & South America.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Auto-15D1185/global-smart-parking-solutions

Track and Trace Solutions Market Report

In 2018, the global Track and Trace Solutions market size was 1380 Million USD, and it is expected to reach 4700 Million USD by the end of 2025, with a CAGR of 16.5% during 2019-2025.

In 2015 North America dominated the global market for track and trace solutions. This region's large share can be due to the presence of existing healthcare systems in the U.S. & Canada and increasing pharmaceutical & biotechnology R & D spending.

Due to the growth in research activities & pharmaceutical manufacturing and growing investment by leading players and respective government agencies in the region, the Asia-Pacific region is expected to register the highest CAGR.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Auto-28G55/global-track-and-trace-solutions

Smart Metering Market Report

The growth drivers of this market are government support and technological advancements in smart grid development, infrastructure development, rise in population, etc. These reasons have led to the installation of more smart meters and are expected to increase the growth of Smart Metering Market size during the forecast period.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Othe-3J284/smart-metering

Facility Management Services Market Report

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Auto-15D2486/covid-19-impact-on-global-facility-management-services

Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) Market Report

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Auto-36A2301/covid-19-impact-on-global-low-power-wide-area-network-lpwan

Internet of Things (IoT) Market Report

In 2018, the Global IoT market size was USD 164 Billion and it is expected to grow with a CAGR of 38.62% between 2018 and 2025.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Othe-3D175/global-iot

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The chief executive of the National Rifle Association and several top lieutenants engaged in a decades-long pattern of fraud to raid the coffers of the powerful gun rights group for personal gain, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday by the New York attorney general, draining $64 million from the nonprofit in just three years.

In her lawsuit, Attorney General Letitia James called for the dissolution of the NRA and the removal of CEO Wayne LaPierre from the leadership post he has held for the past 39 years, saying he and others used the group's funds to finance a luxury lifestyle.

She also asked a New York court to force LaPierre and three key deputies to repay NRA members for the ill-gotten funds and inflated salaries that her investigation found they took.

James accused the NRA leaders of flouting state and federal laws and signing off on reports and statements they knew were fraudulent, while diverting millions of dollars away from the NRA's charitable mission to benefit themselves and their allies.

The attorney general requested that the court bar the four men - LaPierre, general counsel John Frazer, former treasurer Woody Phillips and former chief of staff Joshua Powell - from ever serving in a leadership position for a New York charity in the future.

"The NRA's influence has been so powerful that the organization went unchecked for decades while top executives funneled millions into their own pockets," James, a Democrat, said in a statement.

Photo for The Washington Post by J. Lawler Duggan

Her investigation, which began in February 2019, found a "a culture of self-dealing, mismanagement, and negligent oversight at the NRA that was illegal, oppressive, and fraudulent," according to a statement by the attorney general's office.

The scope of the allegations by the New York attorney general come as a serious blow to the longtime political powerhouse and a top ally of President Donald Trump, which is planning to again spend millions this fall on behalf of him and other Republican candidates.

NRA officials lashed back in response, accusing James of a premeditated plan to take down the organization in a countersuit filed in federal court.

In a tweet, Trump accused the "Radical Left New York" of "trying to destroy the NRA."

Meanwhile, District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine announced Thursday that his office filed a separate lawsuit against the NRA Foundation, which is based in Washington. Racine accused the organization of being a puppet of the NRA, despite legal requirements that it independently pursue charitable purposes. Instead, Racine said his office found, the foundation repeatedly loaned the NRA money to address its rising deficits.

James said at a news conference Thursday that she is seeking to dissolve the NRA because of the brazenness of the group's violations of law.

"The corruption was so broad and because they have basically destroyed all the assets of the NRA," she said. "Enough was enough . . . No one is above the law, not even the NRA."

Her office cited as a precedent its previous action against the Trump Foundation, which led Trump to shut down the charity in 2018 amid allegations that he used it for his personal benefit.

The New York lawsuit against the NRA paints a picture of widespread wrongdoing at the influential gun rights group, and a freewheeling atmosphere in which top officials repeatedly took advantage of their positions for their personal benefit.

In one new revelation, the attorney general said her investigation uncovered that LaPierre recently arranged a post-employment contract for himself with the NRA worth $17 million. He never sought board approval for the deal, the suit claims.

The lawsuit also claims LaPierre failed to report large sums of personal income to the IRS. James's office said it found that the NRA chief funneled personal expenses through an outside public relations firm, allowing him to avoid reporting hundreds of thousands of dollars of personal income.

James said Thursday that she was referring those findings to the IRS. She also said that if her office uncovers criminal activity, it will be referred to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.

In response, the NRA said Thursday that it was filing its own lawsuit against James, alleging that the New York attorney general has violated the group's free speech rights and has been unfairly targeting the gun rights lobby since she began campaigning for the office.

"The NYAG's actions are an affront to democracy and freedom," LaPierre said in a statement late Thursday. "This is an unconstitutional, premeditated attack aiming to dismantle and destroy the NRA - the fiercest defender of America's freedom at the ballot box for decades. The NRA is well governed, financially solvent, and committed to good governance. We're ready for the fight. Bring it on."

NRA officials said they believe James's action was designed to disrupt the group's momentum at a critical time in the 2020 election campaign. The NRA political action arm plans to spend tens of millions of dollars this fall to mobilize its members to defeat Democratic candidates who seek gun restrictions, including putative Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, according to a person familiar with fundraising, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal strategy.

The NRA Political Victory Fund, the group's political action committee, raised $16.8 million through Aug. 4, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. That compares with $21.6 million raised by the PAC in all of 2016.

"It's a transparent attempt to score political points and attack the leading voice in opposition to the leftist agenda," NRA President Carolyn Meadows said in a statement. "This has been a power grab by a political opportunist - a desperate move that is part of a rank political vendetta."

Trump also decried the legal action against the organization, which spent millions on his behalf in 2016, calling it a "terrible thing" as he spoke to reporters Thursday morning at the White House. He said the NRA had been "decimated" by legal expenses and suggested the group should move from New York to Texas.

Advocacy groups that seek gun restrictions said they welcomed the action against the powerhouse gun lobby.

"Thoughts and prayers today to the NRA, which is losing money and political power so quickly that by the end of this case, there might not be anything left to dissolve," said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action.

Experts in tax law said the deep investigation into the NRA's finances showed the potential for state officials to vigorously enforce nonprofit rules.

"It is a watershed moment in nonprofit regulation," said Douglas Varley, who advises nonprofit organizations at the law firm of Caplin & Drysdale.

With a decline in IRS funding and enforcement, there has been a widespread belief that "the locus of nonprofit enforcement is shifting from IRS to the states," Varley said. "Here is the clearest possible evidence of that reality. I think everyone who believes a strong regulator is needed would heartened by this."

The dual suits filed by the attorneys general in New York and Washington punctuate nearly two years of infighting at the NRA over management of the group's funds, a civil war that led to the exodus of many veteran members and top officials.

Longtime NRA member Rob Pincus, a critic of LaPierre's leadership, said Thursday in a statement that "none of us who have been pushing for NRA reform are celebrating today's announcement."

"It is tragic that the NY AG's office is having to step in to clean up the NRA," he added.

The group's bitter internal battle burst into public view in April 2019 at the NRA's annual convention in Indianapolis, when then-NRA President Oliver North was forced out by LaPierre after pressing for an internal financial review.

The Washington Post and other news organizations subsequently revealed how the NRA directed funds to board members and how LaPierre racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in charges at a Beverly Hills clothing boutique and on foreign travel.

The Post also reported how, after a mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla.,Pierre told close associates he was worried about how easily he could be targeted and needed a more secure place to live and sought to buy a $6 million, 10,000-square-foot French-style country estate in Westlake, Tex.

The suit expands on previous allegations that LaPierre improperly charged the NRA for private jet travel and luxury vacations that had no clear business purpose. The filing claims LaPierre billed the NRA more than $500,000 for private charter flights he and his family took to visit the Bahamas eight times over three years.

Last year, a spokesman for LaPierre told The Post his visits to the Bahamas were for NRA business. But the New York attorney general's investigation found the trips were private vacations.

In four years, LaPierre was reimbursed by the NRA for $1.2 million in expenses that were personal trips, golf fees and gifts, the suit claims.

LaPierre also spent $3.6 million of NRA money for private travel consultants to arrange private jets and executive car service for his and his family's use over just two years, the suit says. And he set aside several millions each year for private security for him and his family.

LaPierre also enjoyed the largesse of NRA vendors who hoped to keep their organization's business, the suit said. One vendor gave LaPierre and his wife an all-expense paid trip to Africa for a safari adventure; another frequently loaned LaPierre and his family the use of his 107-foot yacht on his visits to the Caribbean.

Phillips, the former treasurer, is accused in the suit of arranging a NRA deal worth more than $1 million that benefited his girlfriend. The lawsuit also claims that shortly before he retired in 2018, Phillips obtained a contract for himself worth $1.8 million. On paper, Phillips's contract called for him to provide advice and consulting services for the new treasurer; but the new treasurer said he knew nothing of the contract and never received any services from Phillips, the suit claims.

Powell, LaPierre's former chief of staff, had his salary increased from $250,000 to $800,000 in just three years as a reward for his loyalty to LaPierre, the suit states, and allegedly pocketed an additional $100,000 he was not entitled to as a housing allowance. In addition, Powell also arranged for his wife and father to earn money through NRA contracts.

In a statement, an attorney for Powell said he was fired by LaPierre for attempting to correct much of the misconduct James reported in her lawsuit, noting that Powell's compensation was approved by the NRA's general counsel and that his business-related expenses were approved.

"When the NRA's lawyers later complained about those expenses, he submitted his check in payment of the disputed amount," the statement said. "Mr. Powell is confident that - once all the facts are known - the allegations directed at him in this lawsuit will be shown to be the result of false accusations made by Wayne LaPierre and others in their efforts to prevent disclosure of the wrongdoing Mr. Powell sought to correct and to extract themselves from the Attorney General's investigation."

The lawsuit accuses Frazer, general counsel to the NRA, of not ensuring that the nonprofit was governed properly and followed state and federal laws, and it claims he certified false or misleading annual statements.

James said Frazer failed to comply with the rules on board governance, to make sure the board was aware of and voting on major financial transactions and to follow the NRA's conflict-of-interest policy.

In its lawsuit Thursday, the NRA accused James of conspiring with Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun-control organization backed by former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg that has investigated the group's finances.

The group's president, John Feinblatt, said the investigation vindicated Everytown's work.

"Even casual observers of the NRA have seen it turn from a safety-focused non-profit into a front group for gun manufacturers and a personal piggy bank for its leadership," Feinblatt said.

A central fraud embedded in NRA finances, James's suit claims, was a secret agreement to pass questionable expenses through its Oklahoma-based advertising agency, Ackerman McQueen.

Under this agreement, the suit alleges, LaPierre and his inner circle of trusted deputies rerouted millions of dollars in lavish personal expenses for themselves, their families and allies through Ackerman McQueen. The goal was to avoid having the board or other members of the NRA know that the charitable organization was paying so much money for LaPierre's membership fees at golf clubs, private jets and designer suits, the lawsuit said.

Ackerman McQueen then billed the NRA for these large, unexplained sums, calling them "out-of-pocket" expenses, suggesting they were related to the company's advertising work for the NRA.

The attorney general's office said it found that Ackerman McQueen billed the NRA $70 million in just 2017 and 2018 for its public relations work, including "out-of-pocket" expenses.

A very large portion of those hidden expenses were for personal trips and expenses for LaPierre. In a deposition in a separate lawsuit last year, LaPierre acknowledged he did not report any of the NRA-paid expenses as personal income to the IRS and claimed they were business expenses.

In its statement, the attorney general's office said this practice "did not comply with IRS requirements, and, as a result, all such expenses should have been included by the NRA in taxable personal income for LaPierre."

Ackerman McQueen said in a statement that LaPierre claimed to the firm that all his expenses were for business purposes. The company, which said it is cooperating with the attorneys general of New York and Washington, added that after it stopped the reimbursement practice in 2018, LaPierre "initiated an orchestrated scheme to remove Ackerman McQueen as an NRA vendor."

The partnership between the NRA and the public relations firm began to crack after James, then a candidate for New York attorney general, announced in summer of 2018 that she planned to launch an investigation of the NRA if she won. LaPierre hired a new law firm, led by Angus McQueen's estranged son-in-law. That attorney, Bill Brewer, urged that the NRA to audit Ackerman McQueen's bills in preparation for James's probe.

At LaPierre's direction and with Brewer's help, the NRA ejected its in-house lawyer and sued Ackerman McQueen, accusing the firm of concealing details of the nearly $40 million the NRA paid the firm each year.

Last spring, North announced in Indianapolis that he would not seek a second term as president, warning about exorbitant payments to Brewer's firm and reports of financial mismanagement.

"There is a clear crisis," North said in his letter announcing his departure.
Although people in rural areas are killed in police shootings at about the same rate as in cities, victims families and activists say they have struggled to get justice or even make themselves heard. They say extracting changes can be especially tough in small, conservative towns where residents and officials have abiding support for law enforcement and are leery of new calls to defund the police.
Action Against Hunger conducted a mass screening of 1,955 refugee children younger than five years old in Pagak Reception Center from July 13 to 17, 2020, and data released today shows that 23.6 percent were acutely malnourished, including five percent diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition, the deadliest form of hunger. This prevalence is more than double what the UN Refugee Agency considers a serious public health emergency .

After conflict broke out in parts of South Sudan in May, more than 8,200 people sought refuge in neighboring Ethiopia, arriving in the Pagak Reception Center, a temporary station set up in May before the border closed due to COVID-19. Normally, the refugee resettlement process would move new arrivals from the temporary reception center to better-established camps within two to three weeks. Currently, the relocation process has been delayed for months due to COVID-19 restrictions and a lack of testing kits .

Action Against Hunger provides lifesaving nutrition treatment to children in Pagak, but the reception center has no hospital facility, substandard water and sanitation services, and little capacity to provide other essential support. Many refugees need additional medical treatment for malnutrition, COVID-19, or other health issues, yet the nearest health center is 35 miles away, with no reliable transportation system. Malnutrition can complicate illness, with malnourished children 12 times more likely to die than their well-nourished peers.

"We are deeply concerned about the health of these children," said Beza Abebe, Ethiopia Program Director, Action Against Hunger. "This vulnerable population does not have access to enough food, clean water, and health services needed to prevent malnutrition. On top of this crisis, COVID-19 presents a real threat to refugees, host communities, and humanitarian workers alike. People are desperate and afraid. We are facing a true emergency."

High malnutrition rates in Pagak are linked to the low availability of nutritious foods, limited access to water, sanitation, and hygiene, and poor infant and child feeding practices. In April, funding shortfalls in the UN World Food Program cut food rations to refugees in Ethiopia by 30 percent, another factor contributing to hunger rates in Pagak and the wider Gambella region, which hosts more than 750,000 refugees.

Crowded settlements and poor access to water, sanitation, and hygiene services make COVID-19 prevention extremely difficult in Gambella, which is seeing an increased community transmission. With 595 cases currently confirmed in Gambella , Action Against Hunger experts believe the true infection rate may be much higher.

"While all new refugees are now required to be tested for the virus, testing supplies and PPE are limited. We suspect that many people are avoiding testing because of the severe stigma and fear that comes with COVID-19," Abebe said. "We are providing health education to stop the spread of COVID-19 and malnutrition, as well as mental health support to refugees and frontline workers. In recent weeks, we have seen a sharp increase in admissions to our health centers in other parts of the Gambella region."

"Sadly, Pagak is not alone. Across the region, millions of people are hungry," said Hajir Maalim, Horn and East Africa Regional Director, Action Against Hunger . "While it will take months for official data on malnutrition to be released, the early indicators are clear. The global community must come together to fight this war on two fronts, both hunger and the pandemic."

Action Against Hunger is the world's hunger specialist and a nonprofit leader in a global movement that aims to end life-threatening hunger for good. For 40 years, the humanitarian organization has innovated better ways to treat and prevent hunger. It serves more than 20 million people annually across nearly 50 countries and earned a 4-star Charity Navigator rating for its 14th consecutive year.

SOURCE Action Against Hunger

Related Links

https://www.actionagainsthunger.org


First half-year 2020 financial results: Group revenues and other income of 224.6 million Operating loss of 130.8 million Net loss of 165.6 million Cash and current financial investments on 30 June 2020 of 5.6 billion

Positive CHMP opinion for filgotinib in rheumatoid arthritis (RA)

Positive SELECTION Phase 3 results for filgotinib in ulcerative colitis (UC)

Commercial readiness for potential European approval of filgotinib in RA in Q3

On track to report topline results from three patient trials later this year

Webcast presentation tomorrow, 7 August 2020, at 14.00 CET / 8 AM ET, www.glpg.com , +32 2 404 0659, code 8997710

Mechelen, Belgium; 6 August 2020, 22.01 CET; regulated information - Galapagos NV.

"During the past six months, we made substantial progress despite the global pandemic. We ended the period with important achievements, including a positive opinion from the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMPi) for our investigational rheumatoid arthritis (RA) drug filgotinib and positive topline data for the SELECTION Phase 3 program in ulcerative colitis (UC). We added two preclinical candidates to our early stage pipeline and completed preparation for a number of new clinical trials, building further on our innovative pipeline for future growth," said Onno van de Stolpe, CEO of Galapagos.

Bart Filius, COO and CFO added, "We ended the first half of 2020 with a strong cash balance, positioning us well to further grow our pipeline and deliver on operational excellence for the anticipated commercial launch of filgotinib. We maintain our 2020 operational cash burn guidance of 400-430 million."

Key figures first half-year report 2020 (unaudited)

( millions, except basic & diluted loss per share)

30 June 2020 group total 30 June 2019 group total Revenues and other income 224.6 108.5 R&D expenditure (265.9) (177.6) S&Mii expenses (26.9) (5.6) G&Aiii expenses (62.6) (22.9) Operating loss (130.8) (97.6) Fair value re-measurement of warrants (21.1) - Net other financial result (13.0) 1.8 Taxes (0.7) (0.1) Net result for the period (165.6) (95.9) Basic and diluted loss per share () (2.55) (1.76) Current financial investments and cash and cash equivalents 5,566.5 1,147.9

Revenues and other income

Revenues and other income for the first half-year of 2020 increased to 224.6 million compared to 108.5 million in the first half-year of 2019. The impact of the Gilead collaboration on our revenues is 187.7 million and consists of (i) the access and option rights to our drug discovery platform (112.7 million), and (ii) the filgotinib revenue recognition (75.0 million).

As a result of the upfront payment received from Gilead in the third quarter of 2019, our deferred income on 30 June 2020 includes 2.1 billion allocated to our drug discovery platform that will be recognized linearly over 10 years, and 0.7 billion allocated to filgotinib (2015 filgotinib contract and recent revised collaboration combined) that will be recognized over a period of 4 to 5 years.

Results

We realized a net loss of 165.6 million for the first half-year of 2020, compared to a net loss of 95.9 million for the first half-year of 2019.

We reported an operating loss amounting to 130.8 million for the first half-year of 2020, compared to an operating loss of 97.6 million for the first half-year of 2019.

Our R&D expenditure in the first half-year of 2020 amounted to 265.9 million, compared to 177.6 million for the first half-year of 2019. This planned increase was mainly due to an increase in subcontracting costs primarily related to our filgotinib program, our Toledo program and other clinical programs. Furthermore, personnel costs increased explained by a planned headcount increase following the growth in our R&D investments, and increased cost of the subscription right plans. This factor, and the increased cost of the commercial launch of filgotinib in Europe, contributed to the increase in our S&M and G&A expenses, which were respectively 26.9 million and 62.6 million in the first half-year of 2020, compared to respectively 5.6 million and 22.9 million in the first half-year of 2019.

We reported a non-cash fair value loss from the re-measurement of initial warrant B issued to Gilead, amounting to 21.1 million, as result of the increased implied volatility of the Galapagos share price.

Net other financial loss in the first half-year of 2020 amounted to 13.0 million, compared to net other financial income of 1.8 million for the first half-year of 2019, which was primarily attributable to a negative change in (fair) value of current financial investments of 12.5 million.

Cash position

Current financial investments and cash and cash equivalents totaled 5,566.5 million on 30 June 2020.

A total net decrease of 214.3 million in cash and cash equivalents and current financial investments was recorded during the first half-year of 2020, compared to a net decrease of 142.9 million during the first half-year of 2019. This net decrease was composed of (i) 230.5 million of operational cash burniv, (ii) 23.3 million of cash proceeds from capital and share premium increase from exercise of subscription rights in the first half-year of 2020, and (iii) 7.1 million negative changes in (fair) value of current financial investments and unrealized positive exchange rate differences.

Finally, our balance sheet on 30 June 2020 held a receivable from the French government (Credit d'Impot Recherchev) and a receivable from the Belgian Government for R&D incentives, for a total of both receivables of 116.6 million.

Outlook 2020

The remainder of the year will be a newsflow rich period for Galapagos.

Following the positive CHMP opinion for filgotinib in RA, we anticipate the potential approval of filgotinib by the European Commission in 2020. We also expect decisions from the U.S. and Japanese authorities before year-end, and continue full steam ahead with the preparations for commercial launch in the Benelux and EU5, hand in hand with our co-commercialization partner Gilead. We anticipate that Gilead will start with the global Phase 3 program with filgotinib in ankylosing spondylitis (AS) in the second half of 2020.

We expect to report topline results from three patient trials later in 2020. Within our fibrosis portfolio we anticipate reporting topline results from the PINTA Phase 2 trial with GLPG1205 in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and, together with collaboration partner Gilead, from the NOVESA Phase 2a trial with ziritaxestat in systemic sclerosis (SSc). Also in the second half of 2020, we and Servier expect to report topline results from the ROCCELLA Phase 2b trial of GLPG1972 in knee osteoarthritis (OA), and upon successful completion of this trial, Gilead has the option to license development and commercialization rights in the U.S. for GLPG1972.

With regard to Toledo, our novel program in inflammation, we still expect to launch several proof-of-concept patient trials with GLPG3970 in the second half of this year, with topline data expected in the first half year of 2021. Pending the successful start of these trials, we intend to share more information on the Toledo program, including the target and more preclinical data, before year-end.

We retain our 2020 operational cash burn guidance of 400-430 million, which includes $205 million in potential milestone payments subject to regulatory approvals of filgotinib.

First half-year report 2020

Galapagos' financial report for the first half-year ended 30 June 2020, including details of the unaudited consolidated results, is accessible via www.glpg.com/financial-reports .

Conference call and webcast presentation

Galapagos will conduct a conference call open to the public tomorrow, 7 August 2020, at 14:00 CET / 8 AM ET, which will also be webcasted. To participate in the conference call, please call one of the following numbers ten minutes prior to commencement:

CODE: 8997710

USA: +1 323 794 2093 UK: +44 330 336 9105 Netherlands: +31 20 721 9251 France: +33 1 76 77 2274 Belgium: +32 2 404 0659

Or, select the click-to-join link and you'll get connected automatically.

A question and answer session will follow the presentation of the results. Go to www.glpg.com to access the live audio webcast. The archived webcast will also be available for replay shortly after the close of the call.

Financial calendar

5 November 2020 Third quarter 2020 results (webcast 6 November 2020) 18 February 2021 Full year 2020 results (webcast 19 February 2021)





About Galapagos

Galapagos.

Filgotinib and all other drug candidates mentioned in this press release are investigational; their efficacy and safety have not been fully evaluated by any regulatory authority.

Contact

Investors:

Elizabeth Goodwin

VP Investor Relations

+1 781 460 1784

Sofie Van Gijsel

Senior Director Investor Relations

+32 485 19 14 15

ir@glpg.com

Media:

Carmen Vroonen

Senior Director Communications & Public Affairs

+32 473 824 874

Evelyn Fox

Director Communications

+31 6 53 591 999

communications@glpg.com

Forward-looking statements

This release may contain forward-looking statements, including, among other things, statements regarding the global R&D collaboration with Gilead, the amount and timing of potential future milestones, opt-in and/or royalty payments by Gilead, Galapagos' strategic R&D ambitions, theguidance from management (including guidance regarding the expected operational cash burn during financial year 2020), financial results, timing and/or results of clinical trials, mechanisms of action and potential commercialization of our product candidates, interaction with regulators, the timing of the approval process for filgotinib or expectations regarding receipt of regulatory approval, statements relating to the build-up of our commercial organization for filgotinib, the expected impact of COVID-19, and our strategy, business plans and focus. Galapagos cautions the reader that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which might cause the actual results, financial condition and liquidity, performance or achievements of Galapagos, or industry results, to be materially different from any historic or future results, financial conditions and liquidity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In addition, even if Galapagos' results, performance, financial condition and liquidity, and the development of the industry in which it operates are consistent with such forward-looking statements, they may not be predictive of results or developments in future periods. Among the factors that may result in differences are thatGalapagos' expectations regarding its 2020 operating expenses may be incorrect (including because one or more of its assumptions underlying its expense expectations may not be realized), Galapagos' expectations regarding its development programs may be incorrect, the inherent uncertainties associated with competitive developments, clinical trial and product development activities and regulatory approval requirements (including that data from Galapagos' ongoing clinical research programs may not support registration or further development of its product candidates due to safety, efficacy or other reasons), Galapagos' reliance on collaborations with third parties (including our collaboration partner for filgotinib and ziritaxestat, Gilead, and our collaboration partner for GLPG1972, Servier), and estimating the commercial potential of our product candidates and the uncertainties relating to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. A further list and description of these risks, uncertainties and other risks can be found in Galapagos' Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings and reports, including in Galapagos' most recent annual report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC and other filings and reports filed by Galapagos with the SEC. Given these uncertainties, the reader is advised not to place any undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of publication of this document. Galapagos expressly disclaims any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements in this document to reflect any change in its expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based or that may affect the likelihood that actual results will differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements, unless specifically required by law or regulation.

i Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use

ii Sales and marketing

iii General and administrative

iv The operational cash burn (or operational cash flow if this performance measure is positive) is equal to the increase or decrease in our cash and cash equivalents (excluding the effect of exchange rate differences on cash and cash equivalents), minus:

the net proceeds, if any, from share capital and share premium increases included in the net cash flows generated / used (-) in financing activities the net proceeds or cash used, if any, in acquisitions or disposals of businesses; the movement in restricted cash and movement in current financial investments, if any, included in the net cash flows generated / used (-) in investing activities.

This alternative performance measure is in our view an important metric for a biotech company in the development stage.

The operational cash burn for the six months ended 30 June 2020 amounted to 230.5 million and can be reconciled to our cash flow statement by considering the increase in cash and cash equivalents of 523.2 million, adjusted by (i) the cash proceeds from capital and share premium increase from the exercise of subscription rights by employees for 23.3 million and (ii) the net sale of current financial investments amounting to 730.4 million.

vCredit d'Impot Recherche refers to an innovation incentive system underwritten by the French government

Attachment
China urges US to halt official contact with Taiwan island

Global Times

Source: Global Times Published: 2020/8/5 15:47:10

China firmly opposes official exchanges between the US and Taiwan island, and has lodged solemn representations with the US side in Beijing and Washington, the Chinese foreign ministry said, while urging the US not to send wrong signals to Taiwan secessionists.

The Taiwan question is the most important and sensitive issue in China-US relations, and the one-China principle is the political foundation of China-US relations, Wang Wenbin, spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at Wednesday's media briefing.

We urge the US side to abide by the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques, stop all forms of official exchanges with Taiwan, and not send wrong signals to Taiwan secessionists to avoid undermining China-US relations and the stability of the Taiwan Straits, Wang said.

Any attempt to ignore, deny or challenge the one-China principle will end in failure, Wang said.

Wang's remarks came amid reports that US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar will lead a delegation to visit Taiwan island.

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A Chinese H-6K bomber patrols the islands and reefs in the South China Sea. (Liu Rui/Xinhua via AP)

Australia Wont Be Passive Against Coercion, Destabilizing Forces in Indo-Pacific: PM

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has signaled that Australia wont be passive against Beijings destabilizing actions in the Indo-Pacific as the communist regime engages in crude economic or political coercion.

Australia is also working to rebuild the international order in an attempt to strategically balance global competition in the immediate region.

Delivering an address at the Aspen Security Forum on Aug. 3, Morrison noted that the Indo-Pacific had become the epicenter for strategic competition.

Listing the tensions around territorial claims, growing threats from foreign interference, cyberwarfare, and economic coercion, Morrison said, Its fair to say that in 2020, our international society is under strain.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks during a media conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on July 9, 2020. (David Gray/Getty Images)

The configuration of power in global politics has changed, said Morrison, and Australia needs to deal with the world as it is, not as wed like it to be.

The prime minister said Australia wont be a bystander in this new world order and will deploy all elements of statecraft to shape the world we want to see.

We will call it as we see it, he said.

China, US Need to Uphold Common Set of Rules

Singling out China, Morrison said Australia welcomed Chinas economic rise but that global expectations of China are now higher, and Beijing must accept that it has a responsibility to enhance and maintain global stability.

China needs to stop pursuing a narrow national or aspirational interest and instead consider the broader global and regional interest, the prime minister said.

The United States has always been held to such a standard, as it is a major stabilizing factor in the Indo-Pacific region, and its continued focus and engagement in the region was vital to the world.

China and the United States have a special responsibility to uphold the common set of rules that build an international society, Morrison said.

Australian beef is seen at a supermarket in Beijing on May 12, 2020. (Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images)

The federal government has recently pivoted Australias strategic defense and foreign relations focus on security in the Indo-Pacific region. Currently, Australia is working with its allies in the region including India, Vietnam, Japan, and Indonesia to ward off Beijings aggressive expansionist activities in the region, as reported by AAP on Aug. 5.

In recent months, the government has also moved swiftly to counter cybersecurity attacks on the nations institutions and called out disinformation campaigns from Beijing, Moscow, and Turkey. Beijing has also instigated a long-running trade dispute with Australia, placing tariffs on barley imports and banning beef from local abattoirs.

Morrison said that in the face of these challenges, Australia was not being passive.

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do. Now, we are doing in Australia, he said.

He pointed to the July 1 announcement of a new strategic update that would see the country invest a record AU$270 billion (US$187 billion) into the Australian Defence Force (ADF) over the next 10 years, effectively pushing Australias defense spending past 2 percent of the countrys GDP.

Morrison said: Australia already spends more on our defense than most of the United States alliance partners.

Royal Australian Navy warship HMAS Paramatta sails in front of the iconic Sydney Opera House on Oct. 4, 2013. (Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images)

Two percent of our GDP is no longer a target; it is a floor for us, and we will spend even more  We pull our weight, the prime minister said.

In 2019, several major economies in the Indo-Pacific region had defense budgets that fell below the 2 percent mark, including Japan (0.93 percent), New Zealand (1.5 percent), and Canada (1.31 percent).

The prime minister also outlined recent efforts to build trade partnerships with like-minded nations including India, Japan, and Vietnam, as well as strengthening existing relationships.

Australia is resolutely committed to our Five-Eyes partnership, and our evercloser ties with our friends in Europe, he said.

We look to, and share a belief in, the values and institutions that the United States has championed, Morrison said. We respect each other as equal partners with the United States. We do our fair share of the heavy lifting. Weve got each others back.

Speaking on Sky News on Aug. 5, shadow Foreign Minister Penny Wong agreed with the prime minister that Australia needs to generate the sort of region that is not only stable and prosperous, but in which sovereignty is respected.

However, she said that Australia needs to be aware of not just a more assertive, more nationalistic China, but also a U.S. administration which is behaving differently to the way in which we have become accustomed to America behaving in the region.

Wong criticized the prime minister, saying he needed to do more to assist the region, saying there had been an absence of leadership from the government when it comes to the Indo-Pacific.
The holiday island of Cyprus had hoped British tourists would give a badly-needed boost to its pandemic-hit tourism sector, but only a trickle of sun-seekers have arrived. "2020 is a lost season," said beach bar manager Giannis Aggelopoulos in the resort town of Larnaca, which is usually busy with Brits enjoying sandy beaches but now largely empty of foreign tourists. In a normal year, UK citizens make up the largest group of visitors to the former British colony in the eastern Mediterranean, where restaurants offer bacon and eggs for breakfast, pints of ale and televised Premier League games. "It's a home away from home," said one visitor, Paul, who arrived Tuesday on an under-booked Wizz Air flight from London with his partner Nastasha and their young son. "We are here to help a bit," he said. "We like to go to the restaurants, to the bars, to do some shopping. We're going to spend some money." But for Cyprus' hard-hit tourism sector it's all too little too late. Most arrivals from Britain since Cyprus eased bilateral restrictions last Saturday have been individual travellers and dual nationals, not the usual big tour groups. Major package deal operators have delivered very few of the groups that have in the past packed out seaside resorts from Paphos in the west to Ayia Napa in the east. Tourism has all but collapsed in Cyprus, where the sector earned 2.68 billion euros last year -- over 12 percent of gross domestic product, according to official statistics. As Cyprus shuttered its borders for several months because of COVID-19, foreign tourist arrivals fell by 84 percent in the first half of the year to just over 255,000. - 'Prohibitive restrictions' - Brits normally account for 40 percent of arrivals, or 1.2 million people -- more than Cyprus' entire population -- said Philokypros Roussounides, head of the Cyprus Hotel Association. But, even though they are allowed back now, many have been put off by strict health regulations and the need for COVID-19 testing. Cyprus on August 1 upgraded Britain to "Category B" from "C," meaning UK visitors no longer have to quarantine on arrival. But they must still present a negative test that is no older than 72 hours, unlike visitors from "A" countries, which are deemed by Cypriot authorities to be the safest. "The tour operators informed us last week that they will not put Cyprus back (into their catalogues) unless something changes to bring the UK into the A-list," said Polyviou. British low-cost carrier Jet2 announced late last month it was suspending its "flights and holiday programme" to Cyprus until after August 16, citing "prohibitive entry restrictions". Roussounides -- who said barely 20 percent of hotels are open -- predicted that "the only British tourists that will come to the island will be individuals", rather than tour groups. Marios Polyviou, head of the Sunnyseeker Hotels group, said for now only six of the chain's eight hotels on the island are open. "We have no indication that this is going to get better," she said. - 'Why take the risk?' - A recent rise of daily coronavirus infections on Cyprus has alarmed authorities and raised public concerns about the reopening to foreign visitors. At the Ciao Stelio Deluxe Hotel near the Larnaca seafront, masks, gloves and gel are ready for guests on entry. Plexiglass panels protect hotel employees, and markers on the ground indicate physical distancing measures. Guests from "B" countries must show their negative coronavirus test in order to access their rooms, a hotel employee said. British guests usually account for a quarter of the hotel's visitors, the employee said. Polyviou from Sunnyseeker Hotels group said the company had invested heavily in anti-coronavirus measures, but that occupancy rates were "very low". Looking to the future, Polyviou holds a pragmatic view. "We have to learn to live with the virus, to be more responsible... We have to train ourselves until a reliable vaccine comes to the market," Polyviou said. "We cannot close the borders forever." Aggelopoulos, the manager of the Larnaca beach bar, said he expected losses of 40 percent this year compared to 2019. But he said a delay to mass tourist arrivals was not necessarily a bad thing. The return of British tourists, and foreign visitors in general, he argued was "a very big risk for the Cyprus people, and for what? "Two or three months of tourists? It's not worth it. Why take such big a risk now in the middle of the summer?"
NEW YORK The New York prosecutor who has been fighting, unsuccessfully so far, to get President Donald Trumps tax returns had better luck last year getting a bank to turn over his financial records.

The office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance sent a subpoena last year to Deutsche Bank as part of its investigation into Trumps business dealings, The New York Times reported Wednesday, citing four people familiar with the inquiry.

The bank complied with the subpoena, turning over records including financial statements Trump gave the bank when he was borrowing money, two of those people told the Times.

Vances office declined to comment on the report. Attorneys for Trump and for Deutsche Bank didnt immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Manhattan prosecutor, who is a Democrat, was among several authorities in New York who launched investigations last year after Trumps former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, told congress that the president had a practice of misleading business associates and tax officials about the value of his assets.

Vance hasnt disclosed details about his probe, but his lawyers told a federal judge this week that it was a complex financial investigation that followed public reports of extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization.

As part of the investigation, Vance asked Trumps accountants to turn over eight years of his personal and corporate tax records. The accounting firm has yet to comply as Trump and Vance have battled in court over the validity of the subpoena.

Other investigators have requested records from Deutsche Bank, which was one of the few banks willing to lend to Trump after a series of corporate bankruptcies starting in the early 1990s.

Two congressional committees, both controlled by Democrats, subpoenaed the bank for documents related to Trump, who sued to block their release.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, also a Democrat, also subpoenaed the bank for records related to Trump last year following Cohens testimony.

Trump has said the investigations are all politically motivated. Earlier this week, he called Vances investigation a continuation of the witch hunt.

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




(CGTN) Chinese students in the U.S. are now "politicized and marginalized at an unprecedented level," as Washington is sending "very unfriendly signals," said Yingyi Ma, associate professor of sociology at Syracuse University.

The Trump administration canceled visas for 3,000 students they believe have ties to the Chinese military in early June, while a senator even suggested that Chinese students should be banned from studying math and science in America.

According to BBC, the intense bilateral relations have affected public opinion, as a recent survey found that 73 percent of American adults have an unfavorable view of China  a historic high.

Meanwhile, the growing scrutiny over Chinese students and scholars in science and technology has made many feel concerned and pessimistic about their academic future in the U.S.

Ma published a book titled "Ambitious and Anxious" in January, which focuses on Chinese students' experience in America and traces their success and struggles in American higher education. "If I write the book now, I will only keep 'anxious' in the title," she told BBC.

There are also concerns that President Trump's use of the phrases "kung flu" and "China virus "will create discrimination against the Chinese community in the United States, which has seen an increase in anti-Asian sentiment during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Racial discrimination during the pandemic has "burst their bubble," Ma said.

A new paper co-penned by Jennifer Pan, assistant professor of Communications at Stanford University, and three other authors, showed that anti-Chinese racism boosts support for the Chinese government among Chinese students in the U.S., while general criticism against the government's coronavirus handling did not produce the same effects.

According to Pan, the findings suggested that Chinese students in the U.S., whose survey responses are "mature, sophisticated and thoughtful for their age," can rationally process criticism against China.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: Heavy rains over the last few days have disrupted normal life in several districts which are now staring at a flood-like situation as they grapple with the Covid-19 pandemic. The State Government is closely monitoring the situation as rains are likely to continue over the next three-four days.

Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, who is currently under treatment at a private hospital in Bengaluru after testing positive for Covid-19, spoke to Chief Secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar over phone and directed him to release Rs 50 crore for taking up emergency works. In the wake of heavy rains in several parts of the state, I have instructed the Chief Secretary to review the situation and issued instructions to DCs to closely monitor the situation and take necessary measures.

I have also ordered immediate release of Rs 50 crore for emergency relief purposes, Yediyurappa said.

Revenue Minister R Ashoka, who is currently in home quarantine, also spoke to deputy commissioners of the flood-prone districts and senior officers and reviewed the situation.

Govt trying to prevent a repeat of 2019

The CM and Revenue Minister directed the officers to take adequate precautionary measures and put in place a system to provide immediate relief to affected people. Meanwhile, senior officers are coordinating with their counterparts in Maharashtra on the release of water from dams as lack of coordination was one of the major factors that led to the devastating floods in 2019 in North Karnataka. The government has issued a Red Alert in Kodagu, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, Dakshina Kannada, Shivamogga, Chikkamagalur and Hassan districts.

Teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) have been deployed in flood-prone districts, Ashoka said, adding that while the governments focus is on fighting Covid-19, flood preparedness is also a top priority now. As per the forecast by the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC), several parts of the state are likely to receive heavy rain over the next three to four days. We are receiving heavy rains, both overhead rains as well as rains in catchment areas, and the next three to four days will be crucial, said a KSNMDC official.

Local administrations have been asked to take all precautionary measures on priority. The Cauvery catchment has been receiving heavy rainfall and with more rains predicted, huge inflow into the dams in the basin is expected. In Belagavi, rivers Markandey, Malaprabha, Ghataprabha, Doodhaganga and Krishna are brimming and thousands of acres of farmlands along both stretches of the Markandey and Malaprabha rivers have been submerged by the overflowing rivers.

Several houses were damaged and standing crops washed away in parts of Alur and Sakleshpur taluk in Hassan, while Gangavalli river is in spate and the highways connecting Ankola-Hubballi and Sirsi-Banavasi too were waterlogged. The Bedthi river in Yellapur is flowing above the danger mark and locals fear that the flood situation of 2019 might repeat again.

The Revenue Minister said that for the first time, a Gram Panchayat-level flood management plan has been prepared and GP level committees constituted for the purpose. Inter-state coordination mechanism has been evolved with Maharashtra on water release from dams. The KSNDMC is providing basin-wise rainfall and run-off generated to the dam authorities as a support system for making decisions on release of water.

RAINFALL FORECAST FOR NEXT THREE DAYS

The coastal region is likely to receive moderate to heavy rains with strong surface winds at most places; heavy to very heavy rains likely over Uttara Kannada, Udupi and DK districts

Malnad region is likely to receive moderate to heavy rain with strong surface winds at most places; heavy to very heavy rain likely over Shivamogga, Kodagu, Hassan and Chikkamagaluru districts

North-Interior Karnataka is likely to receive scattered to fairly widespread with light to moderate rain at a few places; heavy rain and strong surface winds likely over Belagavi district and light to moderate rains likely over Dharwad, Haveri and Kalaburagi districts

South-Interior Karnataka is likely to receive isolated to scattered light to moderate rains over Davanagere, Mysuru, Chamrajanagar; isolated light to moderate rains with strong surface winds likely over remaining districts

Scholar watches event on mobile

Belagavi: Following incessant rain lashing the Belagavi region for the past few days, scholar N R Vijayendra Sharma, who fixed the muhurta for the Ram Mandir Bhoomi Pujan, watched the ceremony on his mobile phone, sitting outside his flooded house in Jakkinhonda.
IRVING, Texas, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Darling Ingredients Inc. (NYSE: DAR, "Darling") --

Second Quarter 2020

Net income of $65.4 million , or $0.39 per GAAP diluted share

, or per GAAP diluted share Net Sales of $848.7 million

Combined adjusted EBITDA of $195.2 million

Core business EBITDA of $126.1 million , $16 million better than Q1-2020; $24 million better than Q2-2019, excluding the $13.1 million gain on the sale of assets in Q2-2019

, better than Q1-2020; better than Q2-2019, excluding the gain on the sale of assets in Q2-2019 Diamond Green Diesel ("DGD") earned $1.91 EBITDA per gallon on approximately 72 million gallons sold

EBITDA per gallon on approximately 72 million gallons sold In July, Darling received an $80 million distribution from DGD, total distributions received in 2020 is $205 million

Darling reported net sales of $848.7 million for the second quarter of 2020, as compared with net sales of $827.3 million for the same period a year ago. Net income attributable to Darling for the three months ended June 27, 2020 was $65.4 million, or $0.39 per diluted share, compared to a net income of $26.3 million, or $0.16 per diluted share, for the second quarter of 2019.

"We had another solid quarter of execution from our employees worldwide who delivered a strong second quarter financial performance, generating $195 million of combined adjusted EBITDA," said Randall C. Stuewe, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Darling Ingredients Inc. "Our core business navigated through a turbulent second quarter with our feed segment posting its best quarterly EBITDA of $85.2 million in over the last three years. We did benefit from over 40 million pounds of depopulated hog volumes through our processing locations during the quarter."

"Darling's diversification provides our global business platform earnings sustainability as demonstrated in the second quarter. Our DGD JV financial performance was impacted by the sharp decline in the energy sector as a result of the COVID pandemic, but still produced good results which were enhanced by a better performance in our feed segment. Excluding the gain on the sale of assets in the food segment from a year ago, this year's food segment performance was on par to 2019," added Stuewe.

"We did use the DGD distribution proceeds received in April to pay down our outstanding debt in the second quarter, lowering our leverage ratio to 2.39 as measured by our bank covenant. We remain diligent on our capital expenditures, investing approximately $123 million for the first six months of 2020. We continue to target a deferral of 15% to 20% in capital expenditures as the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 persists," commented Stuewe.

The Darling Ingredients Board has approved replenishing the Company's previously announced share repurchase program back to $200 million of availability and have extended the term of the program for an additional two years to August 13, 2022, to be exercised depending on market conditions. The repurchases may be made from time to time on the open market at prevailing market prices or in negotiated transactions off the market. Repurchases may occur over the authorized period unless extended or shortened by the Board of Directors.

In accordance with the distribution policy at Diamond Green Diesel, Darling received an $80 million distribution from DGD in July 2020. Total distributions received in the first six months of 2020 total $205 million.

For the six months ended June 27, 2020, Darling reported net sales of $1.7 billion, as compared with net sales of $1.7 billion for the same period of 2019. Net Income attributable to Darling for the first six months of 2020 was $150.9 million, or $0.90 per diluted share, as compared to a net income of $44.3 million, or $0.26 per diluted share, for the first six months of 2019.

As of June 27, 2020, Darling had $76.2 million in cash and cash equivalents, and $939.7 million available under committed revolving credit agreements. Total debt outstanding at the end of the second quarter of 2020 was $1.6 billion.

Combined adjusted EBITDA was $195.2 million for the second quarter of 2020, compared to $159.4 million for the same period in 2019. On a year-to-date basis, combined adjusted EBITDA totaled $408.5 million for 2020, compared to $292.7 million on a year-to-date basis for 2019.

For More Information, contact: Jim Stark, Vice President, Investor Relations Email: james.stark@darlingii.com 5601 MacArthur Blvd., Irving, Texas 75038 Phone: 972-281-4823

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/647660/Darling_Ingredients_Logo.jpg
Asian giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia). Credit: Matthew L Buffington, ARS.

The first complete genome of the Asian giant hornet has been released by a team of Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists. ARS has made the genome available to the research community in AgDataCommons and the National Center for Biotechnology Information, even before publishing the results in a scientific journal to make the data freely accessible as quickly as possible.

The goal is to produce the genome and make it available quickly after an invasive insect is detected so researchers will have this information immediately to help coordinate an effective response.

Asian giant hornets are the largest wasps in the world, ranging from 1.5 to 2 inches long. Their native range extends from northern India to East Asia. Now, they have been found in western Washington State as well as Vancouver Island and Langley, Canada.

Asian giant hornets concern beekeepers because they can attack honey bee colonies during the late summer and early fall.

The team of ARS entomologists and DNA sequence experts began the task in May in collaboration with the biotechnology company Pacific Biosciences. They were able to rapidly produce the entire genome sequence from the thorax of a single insect frozen from the colony found in the town of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island in September 2019.

Pacific Biosciences' new technology platform Sequel II with HiFi or "High-Fidelity" fragments permitted more genetic information to be extracted more accurately from the single specimen, allowing the team to finish the genome in just two months. This is much faster than a genome is usually completed and from much less source material, demonstrating that genome sequencing can now be part of real-time response to invasive species.

Computational biologist Anna Childers, with the ARS Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, MD, who coordinates the Asian giant hornet genome team, explained it is important to establish the sequence of the current colony in North America. This will help determine if any new finds come from the original source or to potentially signal a separate introduction from their Asian homeland.

Genomic data also are being gathered from populations of Asian giant hornets across its native range so differences in various sub-species can be mapped. Scientists can use the data to try and determine the origin of Asian giant hornets in North America.

"Having this reference genome will help provide a broader biological picture of the Asian giant hornet. It also will help build an understanding of the dynamics of any Asian giant hornet populations in this country and how they may adapt as well as possibly provide information to sharpen the development of controls to prevent them from becoming established," Childers said.

This work is part of the Ag100Pest Initiative, an ARS program to produce reference quality genome assemblies for the top 100 arthropod agricultural pests, including foreign pest species that are potential invasive threats to U.S. agriculture.

More rapid development of reference genomes in response to the appearance of potentially harmful invasive pests is a paradigm shift for invasive species management.

With advances that have been made in DNA sequencing and data preparation as part of the Ag100Pest Initiative, a faster response to new pest detections such as the Asian giant hornet has become possible, removing limits that existed before due to sample size, DNA quality, and complexity.

The Agricultural Research Service is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific in-house research agency. Daily, ARS focuses on solutions to agricultural problems affecting America. Each dollar invested in agricultural research results in $20 of economic impact.

Explore further Another Asian giant hornet found in northwestern Washington
Govt unveils policies to bolster chip industry

From:ChinaDaily | 2020-08-06 07:52

China's latest semiconductor policies will offer a golden opportunity for the chip industry to pursue high-quality development and motivate companies to achieve breakthroughs in crucial technologies, experts said on Wednesday.

The comments came after the State Council rolled out a set of policies on Tuesday, including tax breaks and financing support, to buoy the growth of the integrated circuit and software sectors. The State Council said chip companies of all ownership types, including foreign enterprises, that set up in China can benefit from the new policy incentives.

Wang Peng, deputy head of the China Center for Information Industry Development, said support for semiconductor makers, in what is known as the crown of electronics technologies, will have a profound impact on the industry's development.

"It showcases the government's desire to build a globally competitive semiconductor sector, and it will encourage companies to devote more resources to overcome technological bottlenecks," Wang said.

Semiconductor chips have become a key part of the information technology infrastructure to power the digital economy.

Last year, China, the world's largest semiconductor market, spent about $305.6 billion on chip imports, more than the amount spent on importing crude oil, the General Administration of Customs said. But the number marked a 2.1 percent year-on-year decline, as domestic companies made progress.

Wen Ku, a spokesman for the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China's top industry regulator, said the nation's semiconductor sector maintained relatively sound momentum, with more than 100 billion chips produced in the nation in the first half of 2020, marking a 16.4 percent year-on-year increase.

Mi Lei, founding partner of Casstar, a technology investment company based in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, said the new policies, such as granting a 10-year tax break for certain qualified chip companies, showcase the government's "unprecedented" support for the sector over the next decade.

"It will greatly increase integrated circuit enterprises' profits, and boost the confidence of all employees who work in the sector," Mi said, "The move will also attract more private capital to bankroll promising semiconductor companies."

Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Information Consumption Alliance, a telecom industry association, said that compared with previous policies which chiefly benefit chip design enterprises, the new package of favorable measures is designed to support companies in the entire semiconductor chain, including chip equipment, material, packaging and testing.

"Such change underlines a rational and long-term vision for the sustainable development of the semiconductor sector. The importance of chips has been further underlined by the US government's efforts to contain the rise of Chinese tech companies," Xiang said.

The State Council also said that China will continue improving its business environment for international chip companies to invest and develop in the nation. More efforts will also be made to cultivate talent for the semiconductor sector.

Zhang Wenfeng, an engineer at a Shanghai-based chip startup, said he was encouraged by the new policy incentive. "With strong government support and local companies' growing input into R&D, this is the best time for me to work at a chip company."

Cheng Yu contributed to this story.
Dr. Mandy Cohen, the state's health secretary, said the metrics have become more stable since a face mask mandate began June 26.

However, Cohen cautioned that the stabilizing has come at an elevated level.

Cooper said the current stable levels "are fragile" and can be broken "if we let our guard down."

Cooper said the state's most important reopening involves classrooms but cautioned that "while we want to be done with the pandemic, it is not done with us."

Under Phase Two of Coopers three-part plan to reopen the state, he chose to keep closed several businesses that had been projected to reopen with similar 50% capacity limits that restaurants and personal-care services must observe.

Meanwhile, the Cooper administration reached an agreement in June with the N.C. Craft Brewers Guild to reopen the state's breweries, taprooms, brewpubs, wineries and distilleries as part of Phase Two.

The key element in Cooper's amended executive order is that these establishments produce "alcoholic beverages for commercial sale off-premises and is, therefore, permitted by the ABC Commission" under the General Statutes.
More than 100 students have been sent home to quarantine for 14 days after six students and a staff member at a Mississippi school district tested positive for COVID-19.

The studets and member of staff tested positive with the virus at the Corinth School District, just a week after in-person classes resumed, according to spokesperson Taylor Coombs.

Coombs added that 116 students who had been in 'close contact' with a positive case have been sent home to quarantine, CNN reports.

Six students and one staff member tested positive with the virus at the Corinth School District, a week after in-person classes resumed. Corinth High School is pictured, on July 27, after reopening

The district has a student population of 2700.

In a letter posted to their Facebook on Wednesday, the district shared that an individual tested positive at Corinth Middle School while an employee at Corinth Elementary School also tested positive.

The district notified parents who had children who had been in close contact with the infected people. They have been told to quarantine.

Students who are quarantining are not allowed to participate in school activities, the district said in the letter.

In-person classes resumed in the Corinth School District on July 27.

Parents were able to decide whether to allow their children to return for a traditional attendance schedule or do virtual learning. Those choosing to do the virtual learning model can only do so after nine weeks, according to the district.

Everyone is screened upon entering buildings with daily temperature checks and staff must also disclose whether they have shown symptoms of the virus.

Corinth Elementary School students have their temperature checked by a thermal scanner as they arrive for their first day back to school Monday

The district has a student population of 2700 and has allowed parents to choose whether to send their kids back to school or let them stay home

All staff, parents and volunteers must have on face coverings when in school buildings and teachers must wear one whenever they interact with students

All staff, parents and volunteers must have on face coverings when in school buildings and teachers must wear one whenever they interact with students.

As of Wednesday, Mississippi has 63,444 confirmed cases with 1,804 deaths, according to the state's department of health.

The state has the fifth highest recorded case count per 100,000 people, behind Louisiana, Arizona, Florida and New York.

According to John Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project, the state also has the nation's highest test positivity rate at a weekly average of 25.8 per cent.
Besides, completing the arguments on establishing a prima facie case against Modi, the trial next month will deal with a second extradition request, made by the Indian authorities and certified by UK Home secretary Priti Patel earlier this year.

Fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi, fighting extradition to India, was on Thursday further remanded in custody till August 27 after he appeared via videolink at a regular remand hearing before a UK court on charges over the nearly $2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud and money laundering case.

The 49-year-old jeweller, who has been lodged at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London since his arrest in March last year, appeared via videolink before District Judge Vanessa Baraitser at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London for a regular 28-day call-over hearing.

He was told the next hearing in the case will be a case management hearing ahead of a trial set for five days from September 7.

You will appear via videolink again. Your lawyers may be present in court, said Judge Baraitser, in reference to the part remote setting in operation across UK courts since the coronavirus lockdown.

In May, District Judge Samuel Goozee presided over the first part of Modi's extradition trial, held in partial remote settings, with the second part scheduled between September 7 and 11.

Besides, completing the arguments on establishing a prima facie case against Modi, the trial next month will deal with a second extradition request, made by the Indian authorities and certified by UK Home secretary Priti Patel earlier this year.

The second request brings two additional charges against Modi - of "causing the disappearance of evidence" and intimidating witnesses or criminal intimidation to cause death.

Judge Goozee has already indicated that the two requests are inextricably linked and therefore he would be handing down an overall judgment at the conclusion of the second trial in September.

I hope Mr Modi by the time we get to September, the current restrictions on movement from prisons have been eased and you can be in court in person to follow the proceedings, the judge had told Modi, at the end of a four-day partial hearing of the case on May 14.

Modi had been following the court proceedings from a room at Wandsworth Prison and could be seen taking notes during the course of the trial.

The charges against the diamond merchant centre around his firms Diamonds R Us, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds making fraudulent use of a credit facility offered by the Punjab National Bank (PNB), known as letters of undertaking (LoUs).

Modi's team has sought to counter allegations of fraud by deposing witnesses to establish the volatility of the gems trade and that the LoUs were standard practice.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), arguing on behalf of the Indian government, sought to establish that a number of PNB staff conspired with Modi to ensure LoUs were issued to his companies without ensuring they were subject to the required credit check, without recording the issuance of the LoUs and without charging the required commission upon the transactions.

This resulted in a fraud amounting to nearly $2 billion.

Photograph: Reuters
"Pick something you're passionate about and write a letter to your representatives and let them know how you feel," Howell said during the day's main stage event. "It's not scary. Get out of your comfort zone. It will become your comfort zone."

Howell said it was critical for physicians and future physicians to speak out against inequities and injustice.

"Whether someone is purposely -- or not purposely -- contributing to those inequities, they can't be educated unless we say something," said Howell, a past president of the North Carolina AFP. "We need to speak up and say something so that our patients, our neighborhoods and our world can he healthier."

The main stage session covered numerous topics but was primarily focused on how family physicians can make an impact in their communities beyond their clinics.

Panelist Joedrecka Brown Speights, M.D., is both a pastor and family physician in her community. She said her role as a faith leader aligned with her role as chair, professor and clinician in the Department of Family Medicine and Rural Health at Florida State University College of Medicine in Tallahassee because the school's mission is to produce physicians who can provide high-quality, compassionate care, especially to underserved populations.

Brown Speights said completing a health equity fellowship at George Washington University helped her "solidify and articulate the things I wanted to do."

"If you care about people, poverty, racism -- family medicine is a great fit for you," she said. "It really allows you to have a comprehensive approach to thinking about social determinants of health, healthy equity and how to value people, provide resources according to need and then eliminate some of these historical and modern-day injustices so all people can have the opportunity to achieve good health."

Brown Speights said students and residents shouldn't underestimate their ability to make a difference in their communities.

"Sometimes you may not think you have the power, but you do," she said. "As family physicians -- or future family physicians -- you have the power, so much more than others. People listen to you. You have respect."

Renee Crichlow, M.D., agreed that "family medicine docs have a lot of sway with policymakers."

"They know we come from a community perspective with our patients' best interest," said Crichlow, assistant professor and director of advocacy and policy at the University of Minnesota Department of Family Medicine and Community Health and faculty at the North Memorial Family Medicine Residency.

Crichlow said the comprehensive nature of family medicine makes family physicians well qualified to take leadership roles in addressing patients' social determinants of health. Although some policymakers may not be up to speed on that specific terminology, Crichlow said they will understand if the conversation is focused on how their constituents' surroundings affect their health.

"Where we live, learn, work and play has a greater effect on our patients' health care outcomes than what we do in the clinic," she said.

Crichlow said policy decisions related to issues like housing, education and jobs can influence health outcomes -- for better or worse -- for decades.

"Redlining that happened 60 years ago affects the health of my patients today," she said. "What we have to think about as family physicians is, what is our role in choices being made in our society today? We have to be involved. We have to represent our patients and amplify their voice."

Crichlow said North Memorial is "treating advocacy like OB," meaning that all residents are taught a baseline level of skills -- such as learning to write an editorial. Those who want more skills and experience are given opportunities such as testifying in the state legislature.

Last year, Crichlow took a group of six residents to Washington, D.C., to meet with legislators and congressional staff.

"By the end of the day, they were rolling," she said. "They were elated. They were like, 'That's not that hard.' No, it isn't. And they've continued those relationships."

Moderator Mike Sevilla, M.D., of Salem, Ohio, encouraged students and residents to use social media and news outlets to amplify their message to the public and policymakers.

"Family doctors take care of everything," said Sevilla, president-elect of the Ohio AFP. "When I tell my story on social media and traditional media, I want to convey that. When you do that, you can shape what the public thinks of family medicine. That's why we can go to legislators and say, 'Family physicians are leaders in our communities because we take care of everyone, we touch all areas of our community, and we can help you see why this health policy is needed.'"

Like Sevilla, Crichlow is a frequent source of health-related information for local reporters. She found herself in a different kind of news story this spring when her Minneapolis clinic was ransacked in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd.

She said she was not angry at those who damaged the clinic.

"What you saw was rage," she said. "Martin Luther King said, 'A riot is the language of the unheard.' What we asked ourselves is, what are we not hearing? These people are terrified."

Crichlow said that the day after the damage, activists formed a neighborhood watch to protect her clinic -- which has since reopened -- and other structures from additional damage.

"When you're a family doctor you take care of people, but they also take care of you," she said. "That was powerful."

Two days after the clinic was damaged, a resource drive started in the clinic parking lot in response to other damage at grocery stores and drug stores. North Memorial's residents and Minnesota's medical students were among those who stepped in to help.

"The community brought that together in our parking lot, and we kept supporting that," Crichlow said. "We have been part of our community's healing, and I think that's because we're family docs. I don't think a derm clinic would have had the same response."

Crichlow urged attendees to find their mission and be purpose driven.

"You have to be intentional about your life," she said. "When I was president of the Minnesota AFP, I woke up every Sunday and asked myself, 'What can we do this week to help our members?' Living intentionally, purposefully to serve are values I dearly possess. My family raised me to be like that. If you're not helping, you're hurting. You can't just be here for yourself. Family medicine wrapped that up for me.

"If family medicine is your calling, it will call very loudly to you. It's a wonderful feeling to follow that call."
NEW HAVEN  Southern Connecticut State University officials expressed sorrow at the death of Malcolm Jefferson, a 23-year-old New Haven native and university student of considerable talents and a brilliant mind, in a release.

Jefferson, the son of Pamela R. Augustine-Jefferson and attorney Michael A. Jefferson, graduated from Hillhouse High School at 15, going on to attend Bard College at Simons Rock, Brown University and, most recently, Southern. He died July 20.

University officials said Jefferson was pursuing a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with concentrations in Spanish and English, and had demonstrated a stellar record in courses as diverse as Literary Analysis, Latin American Civilization, and Organic Chemistry over his tenure.

The university community is deeply saddened to learn of Jeffersons death, the SCSU statement said.

The Register wrote about Malcolm Jefferson when he headed to college at 15.

Hillhouse English teacher Benjamin Nelken said at the time that Malcolm was brightest student he has ever had in his then 12-year teaching career.

In his obituary, family members said Jefferson was a prolific writer, avid reader and exceptionally deep thinker, who carried with him a sharp wit, wisdom beyond his years and a gentle, loving spirit.

He enjoyed swimming, hiking, watching movies, listening to music and had a love for the supernatural and wolves, family members said. He believed in the importance of family, and was particularly close to his brother Michael, cousin Miles and Auntie Ang, the family noted.

If there was one word to describe him it would be extraordinary. Malcolm believed in a higher power and that we could transcend time and space. We believe that on July 20, 2020 he did just that. We know he is continuing his journey, making a difference, and has found joy and peace, said family members in the obituary. The family sends thanks to all of those who have expressed their love, offered condolences and prayers during this very difficult time. In the words of Malcolm - much appreciated.

william.lambert@hearstmediact.com
Delhi: As priests in saffron robes chanted hymns, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi sprinkled sacred water and flowers into a small hole, part of a ritual marking the start of construction of a grand Hindu temple.

It was an event for the history books. The ceremony in northern India on Wednesday represents a signal victory for Modi and Hindu nationalists in their quest to transform the nation - a vast, multireligious democracy founded on secular ideals - into a state dominated by the Hindu majority.

For nearly 500 years, a mosque stood at the same spot in the city of Ayodhya. Hindu extremists illegally razed the mosque in 1992, setting off bloody nationwide riots. India's Supreme Court handed control of the site to Hindu groups in 2019 after a protracted legal battle.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, centre, arrives for the groundbreaking ceremony of a temple dedicated to the Hindu god Ram, in Ayodhya. Credit:AP

Modi struck a triumphant tone as he presided over the culmination of India's most bitter religious dispute. "The entire country is emotional and overwhelmed," he said. "Today centuries of waiting are over."
Police officers stand guard outside the Canadian embassy in Beijing on Jan. 27, 2019. (Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images)

Third Canadian Citizen Sentenced to Death in China on Drug Charges

China has sentenced another Canadian citizen to death on drug charges, a move that comes amid a heightened hostile attitude by the communist regime toward Canada in recent months.

This is the third Canadian to be sentenced to death on drug charges in China since Canada detained a top executive of Chinese telecom giant Huawei in 2018.

The Guangzhou Municipal Intermediate Court announced Xu Weihongs penalty on Thursday and said an alleged accomplice, Wen Guanxiong, had been given a life sentence.

Death sentences are automatically referred to Chinas highest court for review.

The brief court statement gave no details but local media in the southern Chinese city at the heart of the countrys manufacturing industry said Xu and Wen had gathered ingredients and tools and began making the drug ketamine in October 2016, then stored the final product in Xus home in Guangzhous Haizhu district.

Police later confiscated more than 265 pounds of the drug from Xus home and another address, the reports said. Ketamine is a powerful painkiller that has become popular among club goers in China and elsewhere.

Relations between China and Canada soured over the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the CFO of Huawei and the daughter of the companys founder, at Vancouvers airport in late 2018. The United States wants her extradited to face fraud charges over the companys dealings with Iran. Her arrest infuriated Beijing, which sees her case as a political move designed to prevent Chinas rise as a global technology power.

In apparent retaliation, Beijing detained former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and Canadian entrepreneur Michael Spavor, accusing them of vague national security crimes.

Soon after, the regime handed a death sentence to convicted Canadian drug smuggler Robert Schellenberg in a sudden retrial, and in April 2019, gave the death penalty to a Canadian citizen identified as Fan Wei in a multinational drug smuggling case. Both men have lodged appeals.

China has also placed restrictions on various Canadian exports to China, including canola seed oil, in an apparent attempt to pressure Ottawa into releasing Meng.

At a press briefing on Thursday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin denied any connection between the sentencing and current Canada-China relations, as he defended Chinas use of the death penalty for drug crimes as a helpful deterrent.

In late June, foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian directly linked the fate of Spavor and Kovrig to the release of Meng, at a time when there were growing calls for Ottawa to intervene in the extradition case.

Such options are within the rule of law and could open up space for resolution to the situation of the two Canadians, Zhao said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report
Officials of Belarus have not yet confirmed their agreement to transfer to Ukraine the members of Wagner private military company, who took part in the hostilities on the side of the militants in Donbas, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

"Yesterday, the conversation between the two presidents was very constructive, both parties gave appropriate orders to law enforcement agencies, but we did not receive official communication that Belarus had already officially agreed to transfer these people to Ukraine. At the moment, it exists from a source in the media," Kuleba said at a briefing on Thursday.

As reported, law enforcement officials of Belarus detained 32 "militants of foreign private military company Wagner" near Minsk, and another person was detained in the south of the country.

State Secretary of the Belarusian Security Council Andrei Ravkov said that the Russians from the Wagner PMC detained near Minsk were testifying.

On July 30, the Security Service of Ukraine announced that it would initiate the issue of extradition of the fighters detained in Belarus.

On July 31, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus has handed over to Ukraine a list of Russian fighters detained in Belarus.

The Prosecutor General's Office reported that 28 persons, of which nine are citizens of Ukraine, were announced suspicious of participation in a terrorist organization (Article 258-3 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). As explained to the agency in the Prosecutor General's Office, Ukraine will ask for the extradition of 28 detainees who are suspected.
Donald Trump's press secretary accused Silicon Valley of 'flagrant bias' after Facebook took down a post from the President's personal page for making claims about children and coronavirus.

Trump had uploaded a video of an interview he gave to Fox News on Wednesday, in which he claimed children are almost immune' to COVID-19.

'The President was stating a fact that children are less susceptible to the coronavirus,' Trump's deputy national press secretary Courtney Parella said in an emailed statement.

'Another day, another display of Silicon Valley's flagrant bias against this President, where the rules are only enforced in one direction. Social media companies are not the arbiters of truth.'

A spokesperson for Trump's campaign also leveled similar accusations of bias against Twitter.

'The Twitter employee who announced why the account was briefly suspended is also Kamala Harriss former press secretary. Silicon Valley is hopelessly biased against the President,' the spokesperson said, according to Breaking911.

In the video, Trump said [Children] have much stronger immune system than [adults], which the official account for his presidential campaign also tweeted.

This was first time Facebook has removed one of his posts for violating its content rules.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Facebook said the president's post was removed for violating the social media platform's 'policies around harmful COVID misinformation'.

Twitter followed suit a short while later, ordering Trump's campaign account, @TeamTrump, to remove its 'misleading' post featuring the same video and banning it from tweeting again until it agreed to do so.

Scroll down for video

Trump had uploaded a video of an interview he gave to Fox News earlier Wednesday, in which he falsely claimed that children are almost immune' from the disease

They have much stronger immune system than [adults], Trump said in the video, which he also tweeted

A link to Trump's Facebook post now diverts to a page that says, 'This content isn't available right now'

ARE CHILDREN IMMUNE TO COVID-19? Children are unlikely to fall seriously ill with Covid-19 and the risk of them dying from the disease is very low, dozens of studies have shown. Scientists warn children are not immune, however. Anyone can get infected with the virus  technically called SARS-CoV-2. But eight months since the pandemic began in China, doctors around the world are still baffled as to why youngsters appear resistant to the disease. Reasons for their resilience to the disease are still unclear, despite a wave of trials devoted to unraveling the truth on the contentious topic. Evidence shows the coronavirus preys on existing ill health and is most dangerous for the elderly. In comparison, the flu poses a big threat to children. Barely any children have died of Covid-19. Only six under-14s have succumbed to the illness in England and Wales, according to official data. Cambridge University's Sir David Spiegelhalter said their risk was 'unbelievably low', adding: 'I don't think any [group] has been safer in the history of humanity.' Statisticians analysing the outbreak in the UK even say youngsters are more likely to be hit by lightning than be killed by the virus. Cambridge academics say the death rate for under-14s is around 0.00068 per cent  the equivalent of seven deaths for every million cases. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine researchers found in June that children often escape the disease without any symptoms. Only 21 per cent of infected 10 to 19-year-olds had symptoms. By contrast, the rate of symptoms among over-70s was three times higher. Getting fewer symptoms and milder illness may make children less likely to spread it, other researchers have claimed. But two major studies last week, from China and Germany, concluded that children are capable of transmitting the virus. Some academics believe youngsters are better protected against Covid-19 because they are used to catching other less harmful coronaviruses. This may then teach their immune system to recognise SARS-CoV-2, allowing them to fight off the infection without getting seriously ill. Other experts say their body may be faster to react or their bodies better able to cope with viral infections because they are younger. Advertisement

Twitter said the Team Trump post was 'in violation of the Twitter Rules on COVID-19 misinformation. The account owner will be required to remove the Tweet before they can Tweet again.'

The Trump campaign account was active again late Wednesday after removing the post. Trumps personal account also retweeted the video but it was removed after the original post was taken down.

In the video in question, Trump was heard speaking in a phone interview with Fox News in which he argued schools across the nation should be re-opening.

'If you look at children, children are almost  and I would almost say definitely  but almost immune from this disease,' Trump said.

'So few, they've got stronger, hard to believe, I don't know how you feel about it, but they've got much stronger immune systems than we do somehow for this.

'And they don't have a problem, they just don't have a problem,' he added.

A link to Trump's Facebook post now diverts to a page that says, 'This content isn't available right now.'

How likely children are to contract or spread the coronavirus has become a deeply contentious issue in the US, with reopening schools essential to enabling many parents to go back to work.

Trump has been calling for both businesses and schools to reopen as part of a push to revive the US economy, whose health will play a major factor in the coming presidential election.

A growing number of US school districts have opted however against in-person classes come September, opting to remain online-only until the pandemic has abated.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has concluded that children appear to transmit COVID-19 less than adults, and that many schools could re-open in the months ahead provided they take precautions such as social distancing and tracking local transmission rates.

Children are known to be far less likely to fall seriously ill or die from the virus: less than one percent of children who test positive for COVID-19 end up dying, according to a Europe-wide study released in June.

The study authors said the true percentage is likely much lower still, since many children with mild or no symptoms would not have been tested at all.

An analysis by the World Health Organization of 6 million infections between February 24 and July 12 found that the share of children aged five to 14 years was about 4.6 percent.

This is the first time Facebook has removed a Trump post for COVID-19 misinformation, and marks a rare instance in which the company has been willing to censor the president.

Trump has been repeatedly accused of spreading misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic - which has killed more than 156,000 Americans -- including the now-infamous musing that virus victims could perhaps be injected with disinfectant.

After a brief change in tone last month, he recently reverted to medical speculation, criticizing his own top virus expert - and praising an eccentric preacher-doctor touting conspiracy theories.

Facebook has previously applied fact-check labels to Trump's misleading posts about various subjects, including mail-in voting.

The move was followed by Twitter short while after, which announced it has ordered Trump's campaign account to remove a post featuring the same video, banning it from tweeting again until it does so

In a statement, a spokesperson for Facebook said the president's post was removed for violating the social media platform's 'policies around harmful COVID misinformation'

In June, the social media giant took down a series of Trump campaign ads that featured a symbol Nazis used to classify political prisoners during World War II.

Facebook has been fiercely scrutinized on both sides of the partisan divide for its handling of Trump's post.

The Mark Zuckerberg-owned company's refusal to take action on posts in which the president appeared to call for violence against Black Lives Matter protesters sparked outrage among democrats, and helped to inspire the #StopHateForProfit boycott campaign that saw over a thousand companies cease advertising on the site.

Amid the fallout, Zuckerberg said in late June that Facebook will now remove posts that incite violence or attempt to suppress voting  even from political leaders  and that the company will affix labels on posts that violate hate speech or other policies.

Twitter has been much more forceful in its efforts to respond to what it deems to be policy violations from politicians, particularly Trump.

Twitter has applied several warning labels to the president's tweets in recent months, identifying his posts as misleading, including on comments he made about 'fraudulent' mail-in ballots.

The president's son, Donald Trump Jr., was also ordered to delete a misleading tweet by Twitter last month after making misleading claims about hydroxychloroquine. He was later suspended from the platform for 12 hours.

Trump's supporters have accused the likes of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, of harboring a liberal bias and unfairly censoring conservatives.

Several Republican lawmakers made similar complaints to Zuckerberg during a high-profile tech antitrust hearing in Congress last month.
While Mike Golic took his farewell tour during his final shows on ESPN Radio last week, his former partner Mike Greenberg began turning the promotional machinery for his upcoming program on the networks new audio lineup. (Hes currently making the rounds on several ESPN Radio affiliates, such as the Big Drew & Jim show in West Michigan.)

Speaking to Varietys Brian Steinberg, Greenberg revealed that his new ESPN Radio show will be titled Greeny, rather than The Mike Greenberg Show which was perceived as too formal for the type of program being developed.

Above all, Greenberg wants his radio program to have a slower pace than Get Up, ESPNs morning television show that hes hosted since its debut in 2018. That show is geared toward hot takes and quick sound bites (which we regularly post on Awful Announcings Twitter account), rather than in-depth discussion.

The average interview on my show in the morning is  a long interview for us is six or seven minutes, Greenberg told Variety. On the radio, I could see us doing 15, 16, 17 minutes when the circumstances call for it.

Listeners probably shouldnt expect that for every conversation, however. And affiliate radio stations concerned with getting to their commercial breaks likely wouldnt be thrilled with longer-form interviews every time out. But according to Greenberg, certain guests and special circumstances might warrant a longer interview, and he doesnt want to miss out on those opportunities.

With Golics departure from radio, many listeners and fans remembered that the enormously successful Mike & Mike ended when Greenberg wanted to move on to Get Up. (His new radio show is presumably another venture that he envisioned doing without Golic as a partner.) Golic himself alluded to that in a podcast interview with Sarah Spain.

Mike Golic on his 2 morning shows reportedly ending because his co-hosts wanted to move on: pic.twitter.com/K29R7m0L0H  The Podcass (@thepodcass) July 30, 2020

Greeny wanted to go do something else, and thats all been well-documented, said Golic. I wish hed have come to me and kind of was a little more upfront about it. But thats obviously in the past.

Greenberg seemed to keep a distance from the well-wishers who were celebrating Golics 22 years on ESPN Radio, which included his 17-year Mike & Mike run. (And Golics wife revealed that ESPN passed on an attempt to reunite for a revival.) But he did eventually post his own tribute to his former radio partner on television two days before Golics final show.

What Greenberg doesnt want to do is repeat Mike & Mike, which is one reason why he favors longer discussions and interviews with a variety of contributors and guests for his new program.

Yet that sounds more like a podcast than a radio show. Podcasts break up conversations for ad breaks as well, but listeners are consuming the content on-demand, rather than tuning in when they get into the car or stream audio through their phone or computer. Someone new is always joining the program, which is why you hear so many resets or repeated topics on radio.

Greeny will debut Aug. 17 along with the rest of ESPN Radios revamped lineup, beginning with a new morning show featuring Keyshawn Johnson, Jay Williams, and Zubin Mehenti. Also among the new additions, Max Kellerman will host a show following Greenbergs. And Mike Golic Jr. will join Chiney Ogwumike for a program that will run in afternoon drive-time in many markets.

[Variety]
River City Drum Corp  the grass-roots community center at the heart of this profile from the filmmakers Marlon Johnson and Anne Flatte  offers drum classes for children from early childhood to their high school graduation. Its founder, White, recalls building the center from the ground up with his late wife, Zambia Nkrumah, in an effort to give children a chance to engage with Black art and history. Shumake wonders in awe at where he might have been without the drum program. And some of the students whom White and Shumake shepherded reflect gratefully as they look ahead to college. By the end of the film, White will pass the leadership of the River City Drum Corp to Shumake, handing over the stewardship of the community they share.

The documentary is shot in a verite style  there are no talking heads, and we learn who the subjects are by spending time with them, simply observing them at home and at the center. Though the movie does include footage of drum performances, it doesnt move at the clip of sticks on snares. Instead, the film listens for this communitys heartbeat, finding its steady pulse just as expected: healthy and strong.

River City Drumbeat

Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. Watch through virtual cinemas.
Samsung has announced the opening of the first Android 11 One UI 3.0 beta. The companys starting with a closed beta, which it calls pre-beta, for its partner developers in South Korea and the US.

Developers with a Galaxy S20 series phone (S20, S20+, or S20 Ultra LTE/5G) can opt-in for this pre-beta program. In South Korea, Galaxy S20 models on KT Corporation, LG Uplus, and SK Telecom, as well as unlocked units are compatible with the Android 11 One UI 3.0 pre-beta. In the US, Sprint and T-Mobile models, and unlocked units are compatible.

Eligible developers can now apply for the pre-beta program here. Samsung will evaluate applications on a case-by-case basis and accept them depending on need and eligibility. The company says it may take up to five business days for the outcome of the application to be confirmed.

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The pre-beta step is to make sure that apps are compatible with the beta software before the public beta release. The Android 11 One UI 3.0 public beta will be open to users in China, Germany, India, Poland, South Korea, the UK, and the US in the due course.

One UI 2.5 is the latest version of Samsungs custom Android skin. The Android 10 based software debuted with the Galaxy Note 20 series. The Galaxy S20 phones are currently running One UI 2.1.

Samsung opens applications for Android 11 One UI 3.0 beta

Android 11 is yet to launch officially but phone makers are already starting to prepare beta builds for the next iteration of the OS. Samsung, a name we dont usually associate with fast software updates, is surprisingly among those leading the pack.

To be fair, Samsung has upped its software game in recent years. Not only the companys new One UI skin feels much more smooth and intuitive than its earlier custom Android skins, but it also now releases software updates much faster than it did a few years back, sometimes even beating Google to monthly security updates.

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On top of it, Samsung is now committing up to three generations of Android OS updates for its Galaxy smartphones. Thats the same level of software support as Google offers for its Pixel phones. It was one of the most exciting announcements the company made at the Galaxy Unpacked event on Wednesday.

The fine print flashed during the announcement reads: Availability of feature and security updates may vary by device and country. Update supported for flagship models from Galaxy S10 (Android 9) or later.

So Samsung flagships starting with the Galaxy S10 series will now get up to three major Android OS updates. This means the Galaxy S10 and Note 10 phones will get updates up to Android 12, Galaxy S20 and Note 20 phones up to Android 13, and so on.

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With this promise, customers of Samsungs Galaxy flagships can hold onto their devices for longer without having to worry about missing out on the newest features, or security. This step is another noteworthy software commitment from Samsung.
A people, a movement, a country, a nation that does not respect its youth, does not deserve its future. - OR Tambo

The Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Nathi Mthethwa

On Tuesday, 28 July, at 11am precisely, Business and Arts South Africa and the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC) kicked off a lively webinar discussion. Graciously facilitated by Metro FMs Rorisang Thandekiso, the digital panel comprised Mr Mphikeledi Mnguni (DSAC deputy director: policy and research cultural development), Charmaine Soobramoney (Basa chairperson), Tumy Motsoatsoe (Basa head of programmes) and Cinga Dyala (former provincial winner and debut ambassador). In addition to discussion among the panel itself, there was a chance for participants to direct questions to the various panel members.Before the conversation was convened, Basa CEO Ashraf Johaardien welcomed everyone present, and extended particular thanks for the attendance of Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Mr Nathi Mthethwa, who (in a special synchronicity of events), once again, opened the Debut Programme officially. The minister contextualised the launch within contemporaneous events, specifically the passing of struggle activist Andrew Mlangeni. In mourning Andrew Mlangeni, Minister Mthethwa remembered his primary goal of freedom for all. The country is suffering under a trifecta of challenges  inequality, joblessness and poverty  and the youth of our country bears the brunt of these ills. It is the perfect time to reiterate and reinforce the original mandate of the Debut Programme, which is to lift the strictures on our artists livelihoods and uplift our amateur innovators into professional creators. In a time when weve all been forced to adjust our attitudes, how we action the Debut Programme will have to be done differently if we are to save lives and sustain livelihoods.Thandekiso mirrored the ministers comments in commencing the panel debate, emphasising the programmes role in positioning young people in the right conversations with the right skills sets, both locally but also internationally. Following on from this comment, the discussion began in earnest, with Thandekiso posing a number of pertinent questions to the panel participants.DSAC deputy director, Mr Mphikeledi Mnguni, restated the Debuts commitment to developing the skills of young creatives ordinarily marginalised, either because of their remote geographical location (in rural and peri-urban areas) or through their lack of access. With Basa, the partnership enables successful capacity building.As Basa head of programmes, Boitumelo Tumy Motsoatsoe reflected on both the successes and the challenges of the Debut Programmes first edition, and the lessons derived to ensure an improved second edition. She acknowledges that any solutions to past problems will have to be confronted through the perspective of the Covid-19 pandemic, platform or approach, to another, is not a case of simple transference. We are exceptionally proud of the impact of the first edition of the Debut Programme on the participants and their communities. This second edition will continue to be underpinned by social cohesion, inclusion and access, as we aim to reach 18 communities nationwide (two from each of the provinces). Beyond the critical funding the participants require, the mentorship and skills development on offer throughout the phases are essential tools to career growth. Access is key  and this extends to our commitment to making sure our programme participants are not handicapped by logistical or administrative concerns. For instance, last year a large contingent struggled with transport issues. This year, with many of the phases planned online via digital platforms, we are certain we can alleviate the bulk of this years challenges through the provision of data (and the necessary resources).This holistic support of the creative sector was echoed in Basa chairperson Charmaine Soobramoneys assessment of the organisations overall support extended to artists during the wholesale closure and cancellation of arts events as a result of the global pandemic. We reviewed the situation, and took decisive steps to repurpose existing funding, as well as raising additional funds through both our business and artistic partners. We also conducted extensive research to ensure our financial assistance was targeted through suitable channels and to those most dispossessed. We knew we would need to make the most of the capital we had if we were to invest in relief measures that could be sustained in the long term. The Debut Programme is a further means of assistance, in that it not only provides much-needed financial support, but also facilitates the growth of success out of poverty, and contributes towards driving the economy. Right now, Basa is wholly focused on helping where it can.The panels final participant was the Debut Programmes first edition Eastern Cape provincial winner and programme ambassador, Cinga Dyala. Cinga was effusive in her praise for the programmes support, both during the process itself, as well as the long-term benefit of having participated. The programme is representative of talented people who just need a break; it provides confirmation that committing to your vision will see it realised. We were exceptionally grateful for the prize money, as it allowed us to buy equipment necessary to allow us licence to pilot our own projects, without relying on others. Weve also been able to pay it forward, in that the money has also been put towards establishing a formal company identity, and to host industry events. What was an unexpected boon was the expert, behind-the-scenes business knowledge we gained. I believe this was crucial to how weve adjusted to the current situation  we were able to adapt our business model accordingly. At present, we are still creating brand awareness through masks weve manufactured, with our company logo and tagline embroidered on them.Basa has opened applications for the second edition of the Debut Programme partnered by DSAC until 31 August 2020. Applications are being facilitated via WhatsApp, as a means to increase access and applicants will be able to apply in English, Afrikaans, Sepedi or isiZulu.
LOBAMBA - At no cost, was what a female MP shouted in the House of Assembly as soon as Jimmy Mandlenkhosi Hlophe was announced as the winner of the Senate elections yesterday.



Hlophe, who has described himself as a senior citizen, beat his competitor, Bongani Comfort Matsebula by 10 votes as the results were announced by Speaker Petros Mavimbela.



The two were the only candidates who eventually contested for the position to replace the late senator Mike Temple after one of the candidates, Sifiso Nkhundleni Mabuza, was disqualified from the race.



Investigations



Clerk to Parliament Ndvuna Dlamini, who was also the returning officer, announced that Mabuza did not meet the taxation requirement following that investigations had uncovered that he had for years been allegedly violating the Income Tax Order 21 of 1975.

It was further revealed that Mabuza had obtained the Tax Clearance Certificate (TCC) on the basis of allegedly giving false information to the Commissioner of Taxes.



For one to qualify for a Senate seat, the person had to be in compliance with Section 96 and 97 of the Constition and Senate Elections Act of 2013.

The requirements, according to the Constitution, are that the candidate should be an Eswatini citizen and qualify to be a voter, that he or she is above the age of 18 years and that person is a registered voter.



Hlophe and Matsebula were, according to the police and vetting report, cleared while Mabuza was disqualified on the basis that he had allegedly given false information on his taxation issues.



As a result, on August 3, 2020, the commissioner general of the Eswatini Revenue Authority (SRA), Dumisa Masilela, revoked the TCC.

Hlophes victory came as a surprise to many following the fact that during the nominations, he and another candidate, Ngomyayona Gamedze, had received only one nomination while Mabuza had led the pack with 26 nominations.



Money



Gamedze alleged that he was withdrawing from the race because some MPs had demanded money in order for them to vote for him. In his letter of withdrawal of Gamedze had described the election as one which would go to the highest bidder.

Another Senate hopeful who was disqualified from the race was Jacques Potgieter, who according to the Elections and Boundaries Commission, was found to be an unregistered voter.



The elections were initially supposed to be held last week Monday, however, the police, through National Commissioner William Tsitsibala Dlamini, had stated that they were not done with the vetting process.



However, yesterday the national commissioner of police said he was pleased to finally submit the vetting report in respect of the three candidates.

Meanwhile, when announcing the results, the Speaker said Hlophe had recorded the majority vote of 40 while Matsebula managed to get 30.



A total of 70 MPs, who included Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini participated in the process which took just a little under an hour.

At first, most of the ballot papers were for those who had voted for Matsebula, however, when he reached 18 votes, the scales started tilting in Hlophes way.
Concrete Surface Treatment Chemical Market Research Report by Product (Curing Compound, Mold Release Agent, and Sealant), by End Use (Commercial Sector, Industrial, Municipal, and Residential) - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19

New York, Aug. 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Concrete Surface Treatment Chemical Market Research Report by Product, by End Use - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913931/?utm_source=GNW



The Global Concrete Surface Treatment Chemical Market is expected to grow from USD 7,543.56 Million in 2019 to USD 10,970.48 Million by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.44%.



Market Segmentation & Coverage:

This research report categorizes the Concrete Surface Treatment Chemical to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets:



Based on Product, the Concrete Surface Treatment Chemical Market studied across Curing Compound, Mold Release Agent, and Sealant.



Based on End Use, the Concrete Surface Treatment Chemical Market studied across Commercial Sector, Industrial, Municipal, and Residential.



Based on Geography, the Concrete Surface Treatment Chemical Market studied across Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The Americas region surveyed across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and United States. The Asia-Pacific region surveyed across Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand. The Europe, Middle East & Africa region surveyed 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 Concrete Surface Treatment Chemical Market including 3M Co., Akzo Nobel N.V., Arkema S.A., BASF SE, Croda International plc, DowDuPont Inc., Henkel AG & Company, KGaA, Laticrete International, Inc., The Euclid Chemical Company, and Wacker Chemie AG.



FPNV Positioning Matrix:

The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Concrete Surface Treatment Chemical 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 the market 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 Concrete Surface Treatment Chemical Market?

2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Concrete Surface Treatment Chemical Market during the forecast period?

3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Concrete Surface Treatment Chemical Market?

4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Concrete Surface Treatment Chemical Market?

5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Concrete Surface Treatment Chemical Market?

6. What are the modes and strategic moves considered suitable for entering the Global Concrete Surface Treatment Chemical Market?

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913931/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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Pastor Ed Young says it's 'critical' churches reopen despite COVID-19

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Ed Young, founding and senior pastor of Fellowship Church, is challenging churches across the U.S. to reopen their doors, warning that the spiritual ramifications of refusing to meet outweigh the hype of the coronavirus pandemic.

Look at our culture. There is so much going on right now spiritually, especially among young people facing depression, anxiety, and attempting suicide, Young, who leads the evangelical megachurch in Grapevine, Texas, told The Christian Post. I have counted the cost of not opening our church versus opening, and I believe that risk and faith go hand in hand. Its critical to reopen churches.

Young, author of The Fear Virus, believes fear is what compels many churches to remain closed. Many pastors, he said, fear theyll face online vitriol, criticism from the media, or their services will be poorly-attended should they reopen. He noted that some pastors have said they'll suspend in-person services until they're able to guarantee the safety of their members.

I understand where these pastors are coming from, but I disagree, Young said. I can't guarantee Ill be in a 100% safe environment when I take my trash down to my street. Its simply not doable.

I just don't want us to lose our boldness and I don't want the church to mail it in. Throughout church history, the church has not mailed it in. We've stood in pandemics, we've stood during wars, and in all sorts of chaos and mayhem. Today, technology has allowed us to take the easy way out.

Several of Fellowship Churchs campuses reopened immediately after Texas Gov. Greg Abbotts stay-at-home order expired, a move Young said had been in the churchs plan from the beginning of the pandemic.

We followed all of the guidelines, all of the protocols, and that's something that we have to do. I think thats wise due to the severity of the pandemic, he said, stressing the importance of using common sense when it comes to reopening.

According to Young, the Fellowship Church sanctuary underwent thorough cleaning before the services and again between each service; congregants were provided with face masks, and social distancing was maintained.

We had to really work in some unique things to make our church COVID-19 ready, and it wasn't easy, he admitted.

But since reopening, the response has been incredible, he said, adding that within the last few months, Fellowship Church has seen an uptick in first-time visitors, conversions, and spiritual engagement.

Acknowledging that there are at-risk groups, Young highlighted the importance of providing options when it comes to worship.

Options are important. I am very much a proponent of having different doors of the church open, whether they be physical doors or digital doors, he said. We want to show love to those who arent comfortable with meeting physically. Thats their prerogative.

The pastor cited Hebrews 10:25 which says, And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near, to encourage congregations to meet physically.

He compared digital services to decaf coffee, noting: It's another option out there. It's like fishing. If you don't cast repeatedly, you're not going to catch a fish, so don't just have one rod and reel, have two or three out there. Were called to be fishers of men, and I believe that by meeting in a physical location, were obeying Hebrews 10:25.

Young admitted Fellowship Church has withstood its own share of criticism for its approach to COVID-19. Several campers tested positive for COVID-19 after attending the churchs Allaso Ranch retreat center, which opened June 13.

Some parents spoke anonymously to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, saying they weren't notified about possible exposure to the coronavirus until later. Photos from the camp showing young campers and volunteers without masks and not practicing social distancing also drew criticism.

Young said, After being made aware of the COVID situation, we alerted parents and quarantined and followed proper protocol, and I think we handled it beautifully. The response from parents and from the church was overwhelmingly positive.

Parents, he said, made a calculated risk sending their children to the camp. He shared the story of one young camper who expressed no regret over attending the camp despite testing positive for the virus.

This young man made a decision during an altar call at the camp to go into the ministry, Young recounted. After he tested positive for COVID, he told his mother, COVID or not, I would do it all again because of what God did in my life at that camp.

But positive stories like this one, he said, wont be publicized by the secular media.

Its amazing how the media can downplay positive stories about the church and focus on the negative, he said. Weve had a lot of positive things happen over the last few months.

Young said there are more questions than answers when it comes to COVID. Still, he believes physical worship is important to God  and so it should matter to the body of Christ.

I want to applaud churches that are reopening and would encourage the ones who aren't to really think through why they arent reopening, he said. Something supernatural happens when we gather physically in a house of worship. I believe the risk of not coming together is greater than the risk of meeting."
The CBI will take up the probe into the alleged suicide of actor Sushant Singh Rajput on a reference of the Bihar government, officials said Wednesday.

Bihar police had registered a case of abetment to suicide, criminal conspiracy, cheating among other charges on a complaint by the family of the deceased actor.

The state government had sought a CBI probe into the matter, they said.

The centre has forwarded the reference to the CBI which has decided to start the probe on its basis, officials said.

According to the procedure, the CBI has the freedom to return the reference in case there are legal issues involved and may seek further clarification but sources in the know said the case will be taken up for investigation.

Rajput, aged 34, was found dead inside his apartment in suburban Bandra in Mumbai on June 14 and since then Mumbai police has been probing the case keeping in mind various angles.

On July 25, Rajput's father had lodged an FIR at Rajiv Nagar police station in Patna against the actor's rumoured girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty and six others, including her family members, accusing them of abetting the his suicide.
New Delhi: Pakistan on Thursday evening offered India unimpeded and unhindered consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav with no mandatory use of English as a medium for conversation. It also invited India to be a part of the case proceedings of Jadhav on September 3 at the Islamabad High Court and conveyed that India can appoint a lawyer of its own choice to fight the case.

The Pakistani government in the proposal for consular access said willing to give "unimpeded" and "unhindered" access without any "glass barrier" and conversation that can happen in any language. This is a departure from its previous stance when it said, the mode of language for talks between Jadhav and Indian diplomats should be only English.

This comes days after the Islamabad High Court order that the Indian government should be "authorized" to arrange a lawyer for the case. The next date of the case is September 3 at 2.30 pm (IST). Pakistani Attorney General Khalid Javed Khan speaking to media outside the court on August 3 (Monday) had said, "Court said, if India wants to engage lawyer, it can do. Federal government also wants that. Only Pakistani lawyers can be allowed."

Earlier on Thursday, India asserted that there has been no communication from Pakistan on the Jadhav case. Addressing a press conference, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Anurag Srivastava stated that Indian officials need unhindered and unimpeded consular access to Jadhav. "Pakistan needs to address basic issues which pertain to effective review, fulfilment and implementation of ICJ judgement. These issues pertain to making relevant documentation available to us and providing unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional consular access to Jadhav," said Srivastava.

In May, Pakistan had come up with an ordinance to implement the International Court of Justice (ICJ) verdict of 2019. Under the ordinance, India on behalf of Jadhav can file review for the case. In fact, India had appointed a Pakistani lawyer to fight the case in Pakistan court but the person was not given relevant legal document.

India did try to file a petition on July 18, just two days before the ordinance expires, but in absence of power of attorney and supporting legal documents, that could not be done. While Pakistan had called Indian diplomats to meet Jadhav terming it "consular access" before the ordinance expires, the Ministry of External Affairs has said that the meet was scuttled by Pakistan authorities.

The MEA said, "The Consular officers were instructed not to hand over any document to Jadhav. Hence, the Indian consular officers could not obtain a power of attorney from Jadhav."

Jadhav was abducted by Pakistani agencies from Iran and New Delhi was first informed about his custody by Pakistani authorities on March 25, 2016, after which in 2017, Islamabad announced that military has awarded death sentence to him.
Toby Antony By

Express News Service

KOCHI: The National Investigating Agency (NIA) on Thursday said Swapna Suresh, the key accused in the high-profile gold smuggling case, admitted to having a "casual association" with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

Opposing the bail plea of Swapna, the agency also told the NIA special court hearing the case in Kochi that M Sivasankar, the former principal secretary to the Kerala Chief Minister, was her mentor. The court has posted the case for further hearing to Monday (August 10).

The NIA submitted that Swapna, a former employee of the UAE consulate in Thiruvananthapuram, went to Sivasankar's flat to request him to intervene after diplomatic baggage containing about 30 kg of gold was seized by the Customs at the Thiruvanathapuram international airport on July 5. However, Sivasankar did not budge, as per her statement to the NIA.

Reading out Swapna's statement to the NIA, Assistant Solicitor General P Vijay Kumar said she has admitted taking advice from Sivasankar from time to time. Swapna's statement of her "casual association" with the CM is mentioned on the 21st page of the 31-page statement.

Later, briefing reporters, Swapna's counsel said she did not claim she had an influence on the Chief Minister's office. "The NIA seems to be saying that Swapna knows the Chief Minister. But that doesn't prove anything. Several people know the Chief Minister. After all, he is the Chief Minister," he said.

The counsel also said the gold in the possession of Swapna was jewellery given to her for her marriage. "120 sovereigns of jewellery is what any well-to-do Hindu family will have. If it were a gold bar, the situation would have been different," the counsel said.
A Canadian citizen has been sentenced to death in China for producing drugs, according to a court.

Xu Weihong was handed capital punishment today at a first trial by the Intermediate People's Court of Guangzhou in Guangdong Province, a statement said.

The news comes against the backdrop of escalating political tensions between Beijing and Ottawa over the arrest of a Huawei executive and her possible extradition to the United States.

Canadian Xu Weihong was sentenced to death today by a court in Guangzhou (pictured)

China has sentenced at least another two other Canadians to death since Huawei's CFO Meng Wanzhou was detained in Vancouver in December 2018, at the request of the United States.

Canada's attorney general said that the requirements for extraditing Meng to the United States on charges of bank fraud had been met, according to a report last week citing documents.

Washington accuses Huawei of using a Hong Kong shell company to sell equipment to Iran in violation of US sanctions - allegations both Huawei and China deny.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin, however, said there was no connection between Xu's sentencing and current China-Canada relations.

'I would like to stress that China's judicial authorities handle the relevant case independently in strict accordance with Chinese law and legal procedures,' Wang said at a daily briefing on Thursday.

'This case should not inflict any impact on China-Canada relations.'

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin (pictured at a press briefing on July 27) said there was no connection between Xu's sentencing and current China-Canada relations

Political tensions between China and Canada have spiked since Huawei's CFO Meng Wanzhou (pictured in May) was detained in Vancouver in December 2018, at the request of the US

The Guangzhou court said on Thursday that Xu and a partner-in-crime, who is Chinese, were found guilty of making 120.56 kilograms (265.89 pounds) of ketamine in October 2016, reported state-run Yangcheng Evening News.

The statement claimed that Xu had purchased raw ingredients and tools before producing the drug in a villa belonging to his accomplice, Wen Guanxiong.

The pair then stored the product in Xu's home in the Haizhu District of Guangzhou, it is announced.

Guangzhou-native Wen, 45, was sentenced to life in prison.

It remains unclear whether or not either defendant will appeal against the ruling.

China issued capital penalties to two other Canadian citizens last year on drug offences in perceived retaliation against Ottawa.

In January 2019, Robert Lloyd Schellenberg was handed the verdict in the north-eastern city of Dalian after the judge had changed his original 15-year jail sentence.

Mr Schellenberg was initially sentenced 15 years in prison in 2018, but a high court deemed the decision 'too lenient' and gave him the death penalty in an open hearing on January 14, 2019

Schellenberg, then 36, was detained in 2014 on suspicion of smuggling crystal meth from China to Australia, according to the Dalian Intermediate People's Court.

He was said to be caught while trying to flee from China to Thailand.

He was initially sentenced 15 years in prison by the intermediate court in November 2018, but a high court deemed the decision 'too lenient' the following month.

In April 2019, the Canadian leader of an international drug-trafficking gang was sentenced to death in the southern city of Jiangmen, a court said.

The Canadian citizen was named Fan Wei, who was said to have led the multi-national criminal syndicate in Guangdong Province together with an individual called Wu Ziping.

Wu Ziping, believed to be a Chinese national, was sentenced to death as well.

The court said in an online statement that Fan and Wu were found guilty of producing and trafficking drugs in March 2012.

The death sentencing comes against the backdrop of Beijing's anger over the arrest of Huawei's CFO Meng Wanzhou (pictured in 2018), who faces being extradited to the US

The US alleges that Meng misled the bank HSBC about Huawei's business dealings in Iran

China detained two Canadians, ex-diplomat Michael Kovrig (left) and businessman Michael Spavor (right), after Meng's arrest. Beijing formally charged them with spying in June this year

Canada's attorney general has said that the requirements for extraditing Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou to the United States on charges of bank fraud have been met, documents submitted in a British Columbia court show.

Meng, 48, was arrested at Vancouver's airport on December 1, 2018, on a warrant from the United States, which alleges that she misled the bank HSBC about Huawei's business dealings in Iran.

Meng has been on house arrest in Vancouver since then, fighting extradition, and has said she is innocent.

Her case has caused a diplomatic row between Canada and China, which has demanded that Meng be released.

China detained two Canadians, ex-diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor, after Meng's arrest. Beijing formally charged them with spying in June - more than 18 months after they were arrested in the diplomatic spat.
Three migrants were rescued from their sinking inflatable kayak by a builder on his way home to Britain after swimming from Dover to Calais for charity today.

Justin Legge, 49, started the 21-mile journey at 1.30am, raising almost 24,000 in memory of a friend who died of leukaemia.

He was on his way back across the Channel in a small passenger boat when he spotted three young men stuffed on to a tiny inflatable blue and white two-person Sevylor Wabash canoe-kayak which was sinking around 3.30pm.

The migrants' inflatable kayak, which sells for 299.99 on Decathlon's website, was brought in by the Border Force vessel Hunter.

It comes after it was reported authorities were involved in the rescue of more than 120 migrants in small boats that took the dangerous crossing this morning.

Justin Legge, 49, was on his way back across the Channel in a small passenger boat when he spotted three young men stuffed on to a tiny inflatable blue and white two-person Sevylor Wabash canoe-kayak which was sinking around 3.30pm

The boys were taken on board the small passenger vessel after their inflatable kayak started sinking in the English Channel

A baby, a heavily-pregnant woman and young children were among the migrants to land on Kent beach earlier today as smugglers tell them to make dangerous Channel crossing before Brexit 'closes the door'.

The migrants spotted by Justin were using their T-shirts to wave for help and were rapidly sinking around 10 miles off Dover.

The pilot of Justin's boat gave them water and face masks before taking them in.

A crowd of family and friends waving Union Jack flags were eagerly waiting for the boat, but it was first diverted to hand the three men over to Border Force officials at the marina shortly before 4pm.

Father-of-two Justin, from the village of Bridge near Canterbury, Kent, said: 'I've just swam the Channel and I'm absolutely knackered.

'Then we saw this dodgy cheap-looking little kayak and they were really sinking.

'We approached them and the pilot was really good. He gave them some water and decided to take them on board because if he left them, they would have drowned.

A crowd of family and friends waving Union Jack flags were eagerly waiting for the boat, but it was first diverted to hand the three men over to Border Force officials at the marina shortly before 4pm

The pilot of Justin's boat gave them water and face masks before taking them in to save them from drowning

The migrants spotted by Justin were using their T-shirts to wave for help and were rapidly sinking around 10 miles off Dover

It comes after it was reported authorities were involved in the rescue of more than 120 migrants in small boats that took the dangerous crossing this morning

The migrants' inflatable kayak, which sells for 299.99 on Decathlon's website, was brought in by the Border Force vessel Hunter

'They were a really long way out - around 10 miles. So he phoned the authorities and brought them back in. They're lucky to still be alive.

'The three of them sat on the edge of the boat for the rest of the ride back.

'One of the guys was watching them but they just sat there quietly and looked a bit embarrassed.

'It was very strange. I know these sorts of crossings are a daily occurrence now but I never thought I'd see something like that first hand.'

His wedding planner wife Charlotte, 35, was also on the boat.

She said: 'We were halfway across the Channel and our pilot spotted them.

'They're constantly looking for migrants and he noticed they were waving the flag of distress.

Father-of-two Justin, says: 'We saw this dodgy cheap-looking little kayak and they were really sinking. We approached them and the pilot was really good. He gave them some water and decided to take them on board because if he left them, they would have drowned'

The migrants used their T-shirts to wave for help and were rapidly sinking around 10 miles off Dover

'He rang the Coastguard and they said he had a duty of care to stay by them until they were rescued.

'But while we were giving them water, we noticed they were going down.

'The Coastguard were nowhere to be seen so the pilot put them on the end of the boat, gave them masks and gloves, and towed their boat back to shore.

'The pilot was quite concerned because they kept trying to get back into their boat but they had what looked like brand new trainers in there so maybe they just wanted to save them.

'All three of them just sat there quietly and looked quite tired. They all looked really young. Probably aged between 18 and 21.'

Justin said: 'It was very strange. I know these sorts of crossings are a daily occurrence now but I never thought I'd see something like that first hand'

A crowd of family and friends waving Union Jack flags were eagerly waiting for Justin's boat (pictured), but it was first diverted to hand the three men over to Border Force officials at the marina shortly before 4pm

The pilot of Justin's boat gave the migrants (pictured) water and face masks before taking them in

It has been reported that authorities have so far been involved in the rescue of more than 100 migrants in small boats that took the dangerous crossing this morning. Pictured: A heavily pregnant refugee arrived on the Kent coast today

A newborn baby is brought into Dover harbour amid the rush of migrants crossing the Channel today

A different groups of migrants, also including young children, was picked up by officials today at Dover

Earlier today, a group of around 16 refugees including 10 young children landed on Dungeness beach in Kent at around 8.30am, and a further cluster of migrants were pictured being rescued at nearby Dover.

A further three were later brought into the town's marina by a small white passenger boat carrying a charity swimmer at 4pm.

In total, 3,643 migrants have made the life-risking Channel crossing this year, nearly double the 1,850-odd who arrived in the whole of last year.

Last Thursday, a single-day record of 202 people in 20 boats landed.
For months, American and Canadian officials have debated whether Canadas rising imports violate that agreement or constitute a surge. Imports of Canadian aluminum have risen since the tariffs were lifted last year, but they remain below levels seen within the last few years.

The American aluminum industry has struggled to compete in recent years with producers in countries like China, Russia, Iceland, the United Arab Emirates and Canada that offer generous state subsidies or benefit from cheap electricity. Today, only a handful of American aluminum smelters, which make raw aluminum out of bauxite, still operate.

Supporters of the tariffs say that they have helped to revive American production, but that imports from Canada and the economic slump that accompanied the pandemic had once again thrown the industry into disarray. In April, the aluminum giant Alcoa idled a smelter in Ferndale, Wash., saying that production there was uncompetitive.

Two American companies with domestic aluminum capacity, Century Aluminum and Magnitude 7 Metals, have lobbied intensely for the tariffs to be reimposed. In a statement Thursday, Michael Bless, the chief executive of Century Aluminum, said the move demonstrates this administrations continued dedication to restoring the U.S. aluminum industry and helps to secure continued domestic production of this vital strategic material.

But the rest of the aluminum industry, which has operations spread around the globe, including in Canada, has fought against the measure. The multitude of industries that use aluminum to make products including cars, beer cans and washing machines, have also argued against the levies, saying they increase their costs and make their products less competitive globally. Even Whirlpool, the appliance maker where Mr. Trump made his announcement on Thursday, has seen its costs for raw materials rise as a result of the metal levies.

In June, executives from more than 15 of the worlds largest aluminum companies, including Alcoa, Constellium and Novelis, sent a letter to the Trump administration arguing against the tariffs.

Fully 97 percent of U.S. aluminum industry jobs are in mid-and-downstream production and processing, the letter read. These jobs depend on a mix of domestic and imported primary aluminum, including from countries like Canada.
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden wants to use Medicaid dollars to launch alternative programs to policing to deal with mental health and substance use crises across the country, based on a program in Eugene.

Wyden introduced a bill Wednesday to provide a 95% Medicaid match for any state, city or county that creates a mobile crisis outreach program separate from police. He was inspired by a visit to Eugenes White Bird Clinic, a health nonprofit that runs the 30-year-old Cahoots program that has been thrust into the spotlight in recent months.

In many ways, the program is one of the nations only examples of how police abolition works in practice. Cahoots pairs a crisis worker and a medic, who form a team dispatched by Eugenes 911 system to calls that normally would be routed to police or even firefighters.

Cahoots fields about 20% of all calls to 911 and the non-emergency line in the greater Eugene area.

In 2018, of the 22,000 calls that Cahoots responded to, less than 150 led to Cahoots requesting police for backup.

Program leaders estimate it saves $7 million annually in medical costs because the so many of the people the non-police teams help would otherwise end up in emergency rooms.

As protests spread across the nation in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd and calls for defunding the police gained steam, Cahoots has been written up by nearly every major publication.

Wyden recently visited and talked with staff to research his bill that incentivizes adapting the model in other states.

Responding to mental health crises does not always require dispatching law enforcement officers, Wyden said.

A bill sponsored by Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Wyden provides 95 cents on each dollar spent establishing a Cahoots-style program, with stipulations it must meet certain metrics, such as building connections to housing, treatment and other social services. That funding would last the first three years of a new program.

The bill also includes $25 million for start-up costs.

For individuals experiencing a behavioral health crisis, the assistance of trained health care and social workers is more effective than interventions from law enforcement in de-escalating the situation and helping to connect those individuals with vital services to address the problems that led to the crisis, said Cortez Masto.

Wyden said he thinks the bill might have more success than a comprehensive racial justice bill that died in the Senate. Republicans are also hearing the cry for police reform and facing a growing mental health crisis in cities everywhere, he said.

Studies show that mental illness is involved in 1 in 10 police interactions and 1 in 4 fatal police encounters.

It shouldnt be criminal to be mentally ill and that is a part of what were trying to do here, Wyden said.

The money would come from Medicaid because it is the largest payer for mental health care in the U.S. Wyden said he wants mobile crisis outreach programs to become part of the DNA of Medicaid and would expand the concept if he become chairman of the Senate Finance Committee in 2021.

Currently he is the senior Democrat on the committee.

He hopes to introduce further legislation that would assist jurisdictions interested in the program to build up their wrap-around services -- the case management support needed to help someone who is struggling with housing, mental health, addiction or other issues to stabilize.

Currently, his proposed CAHOOTS Act requires applicants to prove they can coordinate with existing services and would make that connection part of the mobile crisis outreach team. But the quantity and quality of those services is sorely lacking in most places in the U.S. to keep up with demand, including in Oregon, where mental health and addiction treatment is largely inaccessible and ineffective.

Portland has already designated dollars formerly budgeted for police to expand a yet-to-launch pilot program of Portland Street Response, a local riff on Cahoots. The first team was supposed to hit the streets earlier this year, but is still on hold.

Now, there is enough funding for five additional teams.

-- Molly Harbarger

mharbarger@oregonian.com | 503-294-5923 | @MollyHarbarger

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
(TNS)  San Antonio is in the hunt to be the new home of U.S. Space Command.Mayor Ron Nirenberg said Wednesday the city has survived the initial cut as the Air Force seeks a headquarters for the command, which is now in Colorado Springs, Colorado.Governors from 26 states nominated cities to host the command, which is part of U.S. Space Force.Nirenberg, who said he learned of the development last weekend, didnt know how many cities were originally in the contest or how many had made the cut, but he said Houston and Fort Worth also had been nominated by Gov. Greg Abbott.He said San Antonio was a natural fit for the command because of its quality of life, highly skilled work force that includes military personnel transitioning to civilian life, large veterans community, and specialists who work in space-related fields.We have the largest presence of cyber and intelligence capabilities outside of the national capital region, Nirenberg said. And we have a public-private military and civilian infrastructure thats required, including medical and military support networks, housing, transportation and veteran services, as well as electric, water, gas and telecommunications that are all critically important. And not to mention the proximity to our key allies in North America and the presence of significant private space flight technology thats underway.Space Force was established in December and is the space warfare branch of the armed forces. One of eight uniformed services, it was created with the fiscal year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act and will be stood up over the next 18 months.Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said Wednesday a release announcing criteria for cities seeking to host Space Command was sent out May 15. She said the Air Force had entered the evaluation phase of the selection process and that it would select candidates in mid- to late- November.A decision is expected in January.We expect to select the preferred location in January 2021, Stefanek said. Colorado Springs, Colorado, remains the location for the provisional headquarters for U.S. Space Command headquarters until a permanent headquarters location is selected and facilities are ready in approximately six years.Space Force headquarters is in the Pentagon, as is the case for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines, with Peterson AFB in Colorado Springs serving as the provisional home of the command as the search continues.San Antonio is already home to several major commands. They include the Air Education and Training Command at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, and Army North, Army South, and the Armys Installation Management Command, all at JBSA-Fort Sam Houston.
A tourist has been caught sneaking into the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park after it was closed indefinitely due to protests by Indigenous locals who wanted it shut to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Protesters blocked the park entrance on Monday morning after 42 passengers arrived on a Jetstar flight from Brisbane.

NT Health officials said three of the passengers were from virus 'hotspots' - as declared by local officials - and were transported by bus to Alice Springs for the mandatory two-week quarantine.

The Mutitjulu Aboriginal Community Corporation (MCAC) protested against letting anyone in and Parks Australia chose to indefinitely close the park from noon on Tuesday.

But a woman from the flight managed to sneak into Uluru when she bypassed an official entry point and was later found by rangers on Wednesday.

A tourist has allegedly been caught sneaking into the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park after it was closed indefinitely (stock)

Protesters blocked the park entrance on Monday morning after 42 passengers arrived at 10am on a Jetstar flight from Brisbane

Sources within the park confirmed the allegation to the ABC.

'They want to get in; they want to do whatever it takes to get in,' MCAC chief executive Thalia Bohl-van den Boogaard said.

While three of the 42 passengers were sent to quarantine in Alice Springs, the rest of the tourists were being flown back to Queensland on Thursday.

The decision to fly back was made before the alleged break-in was reported.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Northern Territory Police for comment.

Parks Australia released a statement on Tuesday saying the national park was extending the closure indefinitely.

'At the request of Mutitjulu Aboriginal Community Corporation (MCAC) and following further discussions with MCAC, Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia, the Central Land Council, Central Australian Aboriginal Congress and the Northern Territory Government, the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park will remain closed while re-opening protocols proposed by MCAC are considered,' Parks Australia said.

'We have the utmost respect for Uluru-Kata Tjuta's traditional owners and are continuing to work in good faith with them and all other parties to keep Mutitjulu residents safe.'

The Anangu are the owners of the land contained within the national park but lease it to Parks Australia.

Following the protest by the Mutitjulu Aboriginal Community Corporation (MCAC), Parks Australia chose to temporarily close the park until 12pm Tuesday

The organisation is now pushing for flights from coronavirus hotspots to Yulara, about 30 minutes from the park, to be cancelled, ABC reported.

This would also mean people from declared hotspots in the Northern Territory would not be allowed to fly to Yulara.

Pictures from the entrance to the national park on Monday showed members of MCAC standing on the highway in protest with cars parked across the asphalt.

'We were told this flight would not be going ahead today after the NT declared Brisbane a COVID-19 hotspot on Friday,' Mr Irvine said.

'I watched most of the passengers enter Yulara this morning. This presents an egregious and totally unacceptable risk to the residents of Mutitjulu and the surrounding Lasseter region.'

An email from Parks Australia seen by the NT News revealed the organisation had previously refused to close the national park.

Tourists are no longer allowed to climb Uluru but can still walk around the base of the rock

The email stated Parks Australia's position; that allowing tourists into Uluru would be safer for the local Aboriginal community because there would be less chance of transmission out in the open.

'Closing the park now would result in visitors being confined in Yulara where the opportunity for contact with residents is much greater,' the email reads.

Mr Irvine said traditional owners had been clear they did not want the visitors to enter the park and were left with no choice but to blockade the entrance after they were ignored.

NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner said he respects traditional owners views and said anyone arriving from a hotspot would need to go through mandatory quarantine.

Jetstar told Daily Mail Australia they are operating two flights between Brisbane and Uluru per week to deliver supplies and transport visitors.

The airline added it was following federal and state guidelines.

'We advised all passengers including those from Brisbane, Ipswich and Logan areas they are subject to the travel restrictions that came into force on Saturday. Given these restrictions, we expect it will be largely outbound passengers and freight.'
Published on 2020/08/05 | Source

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CalPERS Chief Investment Officer Ben Meng resigned effective Wednesday August 5. This was less than three days after we exposed Meng having made multiple felonious1 false statements on financial disclosure forms as well as holding investments in private equity firms when CalPERS was making multi-hundred-billion dollar commitments to them.2 Since Meng was seen in the office in routine internal meetings Wednesday morning, it appears his departure was not voluntary.

We were also first to break the story of his resignation, via Twitter; you can read the press release here:

We have from two sources that CalPERS CIO Ben Meng has submitted his resignation, presumably due to: https://t.co/mnfZHyd0eG  Yves Smith (@yvessmith) August 6, 2020

This outcome was a self-inflicted wound. Remember that the Forms 700 that exposed Mengs misconduct went first to CalPERS, which then sends them to the Fair Political Practices Commission. Apparently no one reviewed the documents, much the less suggested Meng correct them, even though CalPERS written policy is that the Form 700 is to be submitted in time so that the employees supervisor, which in Mengs case was CEO Marcie Frost, can review it.

Apparently, no one checked the Form 700 against Mengs trading records, which CalPERS should also have on file. Apparently, no one even told Meng to amend his form when CalPERS was about to post it on CalPERS site. And we will see when we get the results of our Public Records Act request, but it appears likely that CalPERS did not require Meng to recuse himself on private equity investment pitches from the firms whose stocks he held: Ares, Blackstone, and Carlyle.

The people immediately responsible are CEO Marcie Frost, who per CalPERS own policy was tasked to review Mengs Form 700, and the head of compliance, Marlene Timberlake DAdamo. Timberlake oversees the Personal Trading Policy and has, or should have had, records that showed Mengs 2019 Form 700 was incomplete. Timberlake reports directly to CEO Marcie Frost.

CalPERS board is ultimately responsible for not holding Frost, Timberlake, and other key staff members responsible for past compliance failures, such as:

The massive spike in personal trading violations earlier this year The wholesale copyright violation of tens of thousands of news articles, which cost the pension fund millions of dollars to settle The failure to vet the claimed qualifications of Charles Asubonten, the funds former CFO, who was fired after grossly embelishing his work experience The similar failure to vet the claimed educational endeavors of Marcie Frost, who lied by saying she was enrolled in a non-existent joint bachelors/masters degree program, when in fact she had never matriculated anywhere The admission that CalPERS wrote down asset valuations last year, which is tantamount to saying that its past financial statements and its reported investment returns were false

This dramatic development is part of CalPERS slow disintegration. With every passing day, CalPERS is paying a bigger and bigger price for its failure to learn the right lessons from the criminal conviction of its former CEO, Fred Buenrostro, who took bribes that ultimately came from private equity firms including Apollo and perversely, one of the private equity firms Meng invested in, Ares.

Instead of cleaning house, the giant pension fund conducted an investigation designed to be a cover-up. Instead of embracing transparency as the way to restore its damaged credibility and keep the institution on the straight and narrow, CalPERS instead beefed up its PR department and acted as if all it had to do was manage the spin when it got caught misbehaving. Instead of promoting accountability, board members almost to a person impersonate potted plants and defend whatever staff says even when it is patently false or embarrassingly dumb.

CalPERS accelerated its decay when it chose a white-collar defense attorney, Matt Jacobs, as General Counsel in 2014. Despite having sworn an oath to defend the laws of California and having constitutional duties that make protecting beneficiaries paramount, Jacobs clearly sees his job as shielding the executive team. And that has included thwarting board members in making what at any well-functioning institution would be non-controversial inquiries, like getting senior management resignation letters, copies of procedure manuals, minutes of closed session board meetings, and internal audit reports.

Jacobs has repeatedly sullied CalPERS by regularly telling falsehoods in public, which is toxic model for an institutions top compliance officer. The examples are too numerous to catalogue in full, but they include misrepresenting the background of tainted fiduciary counsel Robert Klausner, whod been involved in multiple pay-to-play scandals; brazenly lying about CalPERS policies on public comments, and throwing his weight behind fabricated leaking charges against former board member JJ Jelincic.

Matt Jacobs promoted a culture of casual lying that became institutionalized under CEO Marcie Frost, who joined in October 2016. Frost not only defended flagrant resume fabulist, her CFO Charles Asubonten, in the face of incontrovertible documentary evidence of his falsehoods, but as mentioned above, she herself was caught out having told multiple lies not just during her hiring but also on her official CalPERS bio. When then State Treasurer John Chang wrote a letter to the board demanding an investigation, staff confiscated all copies. When the letter was requested under the California Public Records Act, staff took the position the letter was closed session material and a confidential personnel action.

Confirming it was all-in with dishonesty, the CalPERS board refused even to take the basic step of investigating this controversy. So the message from on high was clear: CalPERS would rather risk having a liar in charge than face embarrassment.

Needless to say, this conduct is deeply corrosive. It telegraphs to employees that something is deeply wrong. People whose job it to tell the truth think there is no payoff for doing the right thing, only punishment. This message has been powerfully reinforced by Frost and Meng forcing out some of the few remaining competent executives: Elisabeth Bourqui, apparently for questioning a private equity new business model that eventually died under the weight of its own contradictions, and then two highly regarded investment professionals, Ron Legnado and Paul Mouchakka.

Yet the CalPERS board, unwilling to look at its own culpability in this run of escalating scandals, chooses to blame commies under the bed, um, supposed pension haters. In fact, as we have catalogued, these transgressions were all unforced errors that merely adequate oversight would have prevented. There would be almost no bad stories about CalPERS if CalPERS didnt keep generating them. Although CalPEERS has some competition from the disastrously underfunded and deeply corrupt Kentucky Retirement System, CalPERS under Marcie Frost has done more to damage the image of public pension funds in the US than any other force.

And our experience is when an institution becomes this rotten, not only do the remaining upstanding and capable people leave, but the ones who remain become increasingly obsessed with watching internal plots and cover-ups and devote their energies to making sure they are on the right side of them, as opposed to doing their jobs.

One of the reasons that this cancer has metastasized is that the press for the most part (with some standout exceptions like Mike Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times) simply parrots CalPERS talking points. Apparently news rooms are stretched so thin that soi-disant journalists and their editors can be bought off with the promise of exclusive interviews with the executives of a visibly failing institution. Will reporters finally wake up and start doing their jobs?

This debacle should also be a wake-up call for organized labor, which bizarrely has been supporting public pensions funds like CalPERS as they stumble all over each other to buy more private equity rope which is being used to hang them via breaking unions and private sector pension funds. And it should be a wake-up call specifically for CalPERS.

Labor has been backing Marcie Frost even as she has led CalPERS from scandal to scandal, virtually all of which were due to her lack of administrative ability. Frost is demonstrating that she reached her level of incompetence in Washington, when she was head of a 250-person back office/call center operation staffed almost entirely by clerk typists. Shes been floundering ever since she took the helm at CalPERS, with nearly 2900 employees and a large investment operation. An intervention is long overdue.

The one bit of good news here is that Mengs exodus presumably also means the end of his bone-headed, desperate reach for all the risk you can find investment strategy of not just increasing private equity stakes and leveraging the entire portfolio, but going whole-hog into a new area, private debt. That would have required, among other things, a fine-honed sense of timing, in-depth fundamental valuation skills, and sharp elbows, none of which CalPERS has heretofore shown.

Nevertheless, turnover among investment staff is strongly correlated with poor results; Ben Mengs apparent effort to make himself indispensable by driving out well-regarded senior level professionals has put CalPERS in unnecessary jeopardy. That aspect of this fiasco is also Frosts doing, since she acceded to his power grab.

It is time for Gavin Newsom to wake up and smell the coffee. It would behoove him to stiffen the spines of his appointees, as well as speak to the two statewide elected officials, Controller Betty Yee and Treasurer Fiona Ma, about the need to leash and collar Marcie Frost before she does even more damage. Ma in particular is in need of what my Jewish attorney called a Come to Jesus meeting. Ma has been shamelessly willing to put her presumed good name on CalPERS bone-headed ideas, like Mengs eat as much risk as we can investment strategy. As you can see in the embedded document at the end of this post, the city of Pasadena took the unusual step, in the context of objecting to CalPERS proposed private debt secrecy bill, AB 2473, that Meng (and by implication Ma, who amplified it) were telling huge howlers with their more assets, better assets palaver.

However, this board is so deeply captured by staff, even an intervention by Newsom may not work. The tendency of connivers like Frost is to placate, pretend the storm has blown over, and go back to their old ways. And with no board elections this year, hoping for or even getting new faces on the board will take too long. So the best move for Newsom to rectify CalPERS deeply deficient governance is to set up a truly independent inspector general to mind the store.

_____

1 California Penal Code section 118 provides that:

(a) Every person who, declares, deposes, or certifies under penalty of perjury in any of the cases in which the testimony, declarations, depositions, or certification is permitted by law of the State of California under penalty of perjury and willfully states as true any material matter which he or she knows to be false, is guilty of perjury. This subdivision is applicable whether the statement, or the testimony, declaration, deposition, or certification is made or subscribed within or without the State of California.

Meng does not have a criminal conflict of interest with respect to his private equity holdings, since amendments to Government Code section 1090, the generally applicable criminal Conflict of Interest statute:

(a) Members of the Legislature, state, county, district, judicial district, and city officers or employees shall not be financially interested in any contract made by them in their official capacity, or by any body or board of which they are members. Nor shall state, county, district, judicial district, and city officers or employees be purchasers at any sale or vendors at any purchase made by them in their official capacity.

However, amendments established carve-outs for public stock ownership that result in a high earner like Meng being subject only to civil penalties, which would have to be administered by the toothless Fair Political Practices Commission.

But Meng may still be subject to criminal liability under GC 1090 for a different reason. A reader pointed out that Meng also showed compensation in the calendar year 2019, after he started working for CalPERS, in the $10,001-$100,000 range from Schwartzman Institute in China. Recall Steve Schwarzman is the CEO of Blackstone. Government Code section 1090 is the generally applicable criminal Conflict of Interest statute

2 While Meng could in theory have recused himself with respect to the investments in Carlyle and Blackstone funds, Meng also had created a general conflict with respect to private equity, that any initiative by CalPERS to bring private equity in house or to reduce its private equity investments would be as powerful a signal as CalPERS decision to exit hedge funds in 2016, which legitimated withdrawals by other major institutional investors. By contrast, Meng looked to be talking his own book when he stated, We need private equity, we need more of it, and we need it now,.
(Bloomberg) -- Nintendo Co. is raising its target for Switch production to around 25 million units this fiscal year, people familiar with the matter said, as the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic keeps lifting demand and component shortages ease.

The Kyoto-based company, which in April hiked orders to 22 million units by March next year, is asking partners to tack on another few million units, said the people, who didnt want to be identified discussing internal goals. Assembly partners plan to work at maximum capacity through December. The new production target suggests Nintendos likely to outperform its Switch sales forecast of 19 million units for the current fiscal year, which analysts have either deemed conservative or blamed on possible Covid-19 supply shocks.

Read more: Nintendo Switch Parts Supply Limited by Lockdowns in Asia

Plans could still change by adjusting output in the January-March quarter if demand begins to taper in the coming months, but production partners expect to at least surpass the 22 million units theyd previously been instructed to assemble, the people said. A Nintendo spokesman declined to comment.

The company has been boosting Switch production since the start of this year, even before hit game Animal Crossing: New Horizons became the breakout success of the novel coronavirus era. Its assembly partners, who also serve major smartphone makers, initially prioritized requests from more lucrative handset contracts, but now find themselves with more capacity as orders level off due to the economic downturn as well as the roiling U.S.-China conflict.

The Switch remains hard to find in major markets including the U.S. and Japan, and Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa told shareholders in June that output should soon normalize.

Nintendo is scheduled to release its April-June results later Thursday, which analysts expect will paint a rosy picture, following strong earnings from compatriot game companies Koei Tecmo Holdings Co., Capcom Co. and Sony Corp., all indicating a strong tailwind from the global stay-at-home trend. The company could revise its sales forecast, though it typically waits until the year-end shopping season before adjusting guidance.

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Animal Crossing was released on March 20 and proceeded to smash records for the company that birthed the Mario and Zelda franchises. Its estimated to have sold 10 million copies in the recently-ended quarter, data from games industry research house Famitsu suggest, taking its cumulative total to around 20 million.

Read more: Nintendos Animal Crossing Is Spawning Real-Life Commerce

Some skepticism about Nintendo sustaining momentum into the latter half of the year has also been lifted with the Wednesday announcement of Pikmin 3 Deluxe, to be released at the end of October. That fills some of the void in an otherwise sparse lineup of big new games for the Switch until 2021.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

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2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Today we will run through one way of estimating the intrinsic value of Electrocomponents plc (LON:ECM) by estimating the company's future cash flows and discounting them to their present value. We will use the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model on this occasion. There's really not all that much to it, even though it might appear quite complex.

We would caution that there are many ways of valuing a company and, like the DCF, each technique has advantages and disadvantages in certain scenarios. For those who are keen learners of equity analysis, the Simply Wall St analysis model here may be something of interest to you.

Check out our latest analysis for Electrocomponents

What's the estimated valuation?

We are going to use a two-stage DCF model, which, as the name states, takes into account two stages of growth. The first stage is generally a higher growth period which levels off heading towards the terminal value, captured in the second 'steady growth' period. To start off with, we need to estimate the next ten years of cash flows. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years.

A DCF is all about the idea that a dollar in the future is less valuable than a dollar today, and so the sum of these future cash flows is then discounted to today's value:

10-year free cash flow (FCF) forecast

2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 Levered FCF (, Millions) UK79.0m UK93.7m UK143.7m UK173.0m UK194.2m UK211.5m UK225.6m UK236.8m UK246.0m UK253.6m Growth Rate Estimate Source Analyst x6 Analyst x8 Analyst x6 Analyst x1 Est @ 12.25% Est @ 8.94% Est @ 6.62% Est @ 5% Est @ 3.87% Est @ 3.07% Present Value (, Millions) Discounted @ 8.4% UK72.9 UK79.8 UK113 UK125 UK130 UK131 UK129 UK125 UK119 UK114

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = UK1.1b

Story continues

The second stage is also known as Terminal Value, this is the business's cash flow after the first stage. The Gordon Growth formula is used to calculate Terminal Value at a future annual growth rate equal to the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield of 1.2%. We discount the terminal cash flows to today's value at a cost of equity of 8.4%.

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF 2030  (1 + g)  (r  g) = UK254m (1 + 1.2%)  (8.4% 1.2%) = UK3.6b

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= UK3.6b ( 1 + 8.4%)10= UK1.6b

The total value is the sum of cash flows for the next ten years plus the discounted terminal value, which results in the Total Equity Value, which in this case is UK2.7b. The last step is to then divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding. Compared to the current share price of UK6.9, the company appears around fair value at the time of writing. Valuations are imprecise instruments though, rather like a telescope - move a few degrees and end up in a different galaxy. Do keep this in mind.

dcf

Important assumptions

We would point out that the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate and of course the actual cash flows. Part of investing is coming up with your own evaluation of a company's future performance, so try the calculation yourself and check your own assumptions. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Electrocomponents as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 8.4%, which is based on a levered beta of 1.032. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business.

Next Steps:

Although the valuation of a company is important, it shouldn't be the only metric you look at when researching a company. It's not possible to obtain a foolproof valuation with a DCF model. Rather it should be seen as a guide to "what assumptions need to be true for this stock to be under/overvalued?" For example, changes in the company's cost of equity or the risk free rate can significantly impact the valuation. For Electrocomponents, we've compiled three relevant aspects you should further examine:

Risks: For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for Electrocomponents that you should be aware of. Future Earnings: How does ECM's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart. Other Solid Businesses: Low debt, high returns on equity and good past performance are fundamental to a strong business. Why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals to see if there are other companies you may not have considered!

PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every British stock every day, so if you want to find the intrinsic value of any other stock just search here.

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.
ARDEN HILLS, Minn. and CAMDEN, N.J., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Truterra, LLC, the sustainability business at Land O'Lakes, Inc., one of America's largest farmer-owned cooperatives, Campbell Soup Company, and The Mill, a Land O'Lakes agricultural retailer, today announced the results from year two of an agricultural sustainability pilot project.

While the adoption of conservation practices needs to be tracked over a longer period of time to assess impact and sustainability, the year-two results suggest important progress. Truterra and The Mill will identify opportunities based on these year-over-year insights, and work with farmers to continue to advance their stewardship and profitability in 2020 and beyond.

Using the Truterra Insights Engine, a best-in-class farm sustainability data tool, participating farmers and project partners tracked, aggregated and reported environmental and economic outcomes of on-farm stewardship practices across 10,000 acres in the Chesapeake Bay region of Pennsylvania and Maryland. The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) was instrumental in building the original pilot structure.

The project focuses on measuring and accelerating stewardship on farms growing wheat in rotation in the supply regions for several Campbell brands such as Pepperidge Farm bakery classics, Pepperidge Farm cookies including Farmhouse and Milano, Goldfish crackers and Snyder's of Hanover pretzels.

Below are illustrative insights from participating project acres.

Participating acres were GHG emissions-neutral. Overall, results tracked in the Truterra Insights Engine show near-zero net on-farm greenhouse gas emissions across all acres. For some acres, net emissions were negative, primarily driven by adoption of conservation tillage and cover crops. As regenerative agriculture  the potential for farming practices to make a net-positive impact on climate and other natural resources  gains greater adoption, this project provides new data showing the positive impacts of farmer-led and farmer-driven stewardship.

Overall, results tracked in the Truterra Insights Engine show near-zero net on-farm greenhouse gas emissions across all acres. For some acres, net emissions were negative, primarily driven by adoption of conservation tillage and cover crops. As regenerative agriculture  the potential for farming practices to make a net-positive impact on climate and other natural resources  gains greater adoption, this project provides new data showing the positive impacts of farmer-led and farmer-driven stewardship. Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE) improved between 2018 and 2019. In 2019, the average NUE across the wheat acres was 1.14 pounds of nitrogen per bushel. For wheat, a basic NUE score is 2.0 or higher, while an advanced NUE score is closer to 1.0 and indicates that farmers have optimized yield while minimizing environmental risk. Using crop nutrients more efficiently saves farmers money and mitigates the risk of nutrient loss into the environment.

In 2019, the average NUE across the wheat acres was 1.14 pounds of nitrogen per bushel. For wheat, a basic NUE score is 2.0 or higher, while an advanced NUE score is closer to 1.0 and indicates that farmers have optimized yield while minimizing environmental risk. Using crop nutrients more efficiently saves farmers money and mitigates the risk of nutrient loss into the environment. Soil erosion declined between 2018 and 2019, a step towards improving soil health. Sheet and rill erosion, which create movement in the topsoil, the most productive asset of farms, declined between 2018 and 2019. Farmers that implement strong practices to boost soil health will see lower erosion. Both diverse crop rotations and an increase to 95% of all acres using no-till management are positive drivers of soil health.

"These data help to provide proof of concept for farmer-led, and ag retailer-supported, stewardship efforts. While the concept has been popular for some time, insights from this project suggest that smart farm management practices can help to slow and mitigate the results of climate change, while supporting greater resilience to the impacts of a changing climate and farm profitability," said Jason Weller, Vice President, Truterra, LLC. "We are energized by this snapshot of data that signals the potential for a real and lasting impact on conserving our natural resources when we bring private sector resources to bear to support farmer-led stewardship."

The goal of the Campbell-Truterra project, launched in 2018, is to assess how working through farmers' most trusted advisor  the agricultural retailer  to deploy precision tools can result in adoption of conservation practices and lead to positive environmental outcomes, including reduced greenhouse gas emissions on farms and improved water quality in the Chesapeake Bay region. Additionally, the tools strengthen farm profitability and the business case for stewardship by modeling the field-by-field return-on-investment of conservation practices, while also equipping growers to benefit from incentives made available through the U.S. Farm Bill and other programs.

"This project has provided an awesome platform for our growers to share their story that is built on the success of conservation with the data to back it up," said Tim Hushon, Truterra Champion, The Mill. "Opportunities to engage more growers about the Truterra Insights Engine excites us and can only drive positive outcomes for the environment. Growers are the stewards of the land and this project has given them a piece of the recognition they deserve."

With a shared vision of making every farm sustainable, Truterra and Campbell are working together to continue to scale this model. Campbell recently announced that it has reached its goal of enrolling 70,000 acres in the Truterra Insights Engine in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio, a year ahead of schedule.

"Our project with Truterra has been essential for achieving our goal to drive sustainable agriculture on 70,000 acres of wheat farmland by 2020. Our partnership links sustainability to financial returns for the farm, which aligns with our sustainable agriculture priorities," reported Dan Sonke, Campbell's Director of Sustainable Agriculture. "We are excited by the potential to drive more regenerative practices on farms in our supply regions."

About Truterra, LLC

Truterra (formerly Land O'Lakes SUSTAIN) is a leading stewardship solutions provider, advancing and connecting sustainability efforts throughout the food system with scale  from farmers to ag retailers to partners like food companies. Truterra positions farmers for success by providing them tools and resources to establish a stewardship baseline and track progress on every field they farm. The Truterra network brings together the best in agricultural technology and on-farm business management to drive sustainability across the food system, feeding people, safeguarding the planet and supporting farmer livelihoods. Truterra was launched in 2016 by Land O'Lakes, Inc., a member-owned cooperative that spans the spectrum from agricultural production to consumer foods.

About Campbell Soup Company

Campbell (NYSE:CPB) is driven and inspired by our purpose, "Real food that matters for life's moments." For generations, people have trusted Campbell to provide authentic, flavorful and affordable snacks, soups and simple meals, and beverages. Founded in 1869, Campbell has a heritage of giving back and acting as a good steward of the planet's natural resources. The company is a member of the Standard and Poor's 500 and the FTSE4Good Index. For more information, visit www.campbellsoupcompany.com or follow company news on Twitter via @CampbellSoupCo.

About The Mill

Since 1986, agricultural retailer The Mill has delivered quality products and services to farmers. Headquartered in Bel Air, Maryland, The Mill has seven retail locations that includes a complete agronomy services team. The company's services spread throughout Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware. The Mill's Agronomy Division began in 2003 and has expanded into a team of five Certified Crop Advisors, two precision ag managers and seven professional fertilizer applicators, offering farmers a combination of practices, products and technologies available to help maintain soil health, improve nutrient use efficiency, and minimize environmental impact. The Mill prides itself on the valuable relationships it has developed and maintained with farmers and other environmental, government and university organizations.

Land O'Lakes

Natalie Long

612-368-5600

[email protected]

Campbell Soup Company

Amanda Pisano

856-342-8590

[email protected]

SOURCE Truterra, LLC
An incredible new weapon in the fight against coronavirus will soon be let off the leash in Australia.

Experts say sniffer dogs that can instantly detect COVID-19 are almost ready to be rolled out, and they will be able to give an immediate diagnosis rather than the days of delay for swab results.

That will make the dogs ideal for working in environments where rapid testing will be crucial, such as airports once international flights resume.

The University of Adelaide is working with numerous government agencies to coordinate the canine training program which is expected to have the dogs ready in a matter of months.

Experts say sniffer dogs that can instantly detect COVID-19 will be able to replace swab testing which can sometimes take days to get a result

'It is not new that dogs have an extremely good noses and are able to screen for some diseases,' Anne-Lise Chaber, a veterinarian and expert in disease detection told Daily Mail Australia.

'It has already been done for Parkinson's Disease and certain types of cancer.'

A ground-breaking French study recently confirmed that search dogs from the national fire department were able to sniff out coronavirus sufferers with an accuracy rating of 100 per cent in some cases.

The dogs were even able to detect the virus in infected patients who are completely asymptomatic.

The success of the findings led Ms Chaber and Australian authorities to seek out search dogs in South Australia to collaborate the data.

'Dogs catalogue things by their odour profile, similar to how our eyesight works,' Alex Withers, canine capability manager for the South Australian urban search and rescue task force, told Daily Mail Australia.

'We will just teach the dogs that this odour profile, which is COVID-19, will equal a success.

Dogs have already been trained to detect Parkinson's Disease and certain types of cancer

Pictured: An Australian sniffer dog demonstrates his abilities to a Chinese customs official

'For dogs, it's like a game of hide and seek with their nose.'

The reward for detecting positive coronavirus sweat samples - or COVID-19 Volatile Olfactory Compounds - will either be a quick game or a delicious treat.

There will be several different breeds of dog trained in South Australia and New South Wales over the coming months, but Mr Withers said the program will mainly consist of Labradors and German Shepherds.

'If we get dogs that are already trained to detect other scents it will take around six to eight weeks to fully train them,' Ms Chaber said.

A drug detection dog enters a New South Wales pub to catch out unsuspecting criminals

'If we take a green dog, that means a dog that has never been trained to detect other scents, it will take up to six months to train them.'

Once man's best friend has undergone the training period and the results have been assessed, the pooches will be ready to assist front line workers in the battle against COVID-19.

'It's likely they will operate in airports and hospital settings and it could also be used in aged care homes,' Ms Chaber said.

'These dogs can work for several hours and they can test and screen a lot of people and the results are immediate.

'We will definitely see them before the end of the year.'
New Delhi, Aug 6 : The Maharashtra government on Thursday opposed the PILs seeking a transfer of the Palghar lynching case investigation to the CBI or a court-monitored probe, telling the Supreme Court that "enough has been done" with charge sheets filed against 300 accused and six police officials suspended already.

In an affidavit, Maharashtra Police's Assistant Inspector General of Police, Vinayak Deshmukh, said that considering the seriousness of the case and large number of accused involved, and in "order to maintain the complete fairness, independence and transparency in the investigation", the case had been transferred to the specialised unit of the state CID on April 20.

A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and R. Subhash Reddy, earlier on Thursday, asked the Maharashtra government about the action taken against the erring police officials as months have passed after the lynching incident, which occurred on April 16.

It asked for inquiry reports, details of investigation and asked the police to submit the charge sheet in the case before it for scrutiny.

The Maharashtra government told the court that the CBI probe is not required as "enough has been done". But the top court insisted on examining the charge sheets, as it heard the PIL filed by advocate Shashank Shekhar Jha.

The Maharashtra Police said the CID, after conducting a thorough investigation into the matter, has filed two charge sheets, and in the case registered with Kasa police station, the charge sheet is the process of being filed against arrested 47 accused.

"A departmental enquiry was ordered against the police personnel who have been, prima facie, found negligent and derelict in the performance of their duties in handling the incident and preventing the commission of crime at and around the time of aforesaid incident," said the affidavit.

The Maharashtra Police informed the apex court that Special Inspector General, Konkan Range, has issued show cause notice against six police personnel in the matter and also 12 riot control police personnel. It assured the top court that after receipt of reply from these police personnel, further appropriate action will be taken against them, and urged the court to dismiss the petition seeking CBI probe into the matter.

The top court will hear the matter after three weeks.

A group of petitioners, all Juna Akhara priests and some of the relatives of two sadhus, who were lynched at Palghar, along with their driver, stated in a petition that they have no faith in the Maharashtra government or the police, and also do not expect a fair and just investigation into the case, as they suspected their involvement in it.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Will a long-term contract between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the People's Republic of China be consistent with Iran's national interests? What will Iran gain out of such a contract? How feasible it is? And what is wrong with the Iranian opposition's reaction to this contract?

Are bilateral cooperation contracts good for the age of globalization?

The fate of various countries are interwoven at the age of globalization. So, cooperation contracts can be good on the condition of legitimacy of the parties to the contract. In other words, such contracts are good if the parties involved represent their citizens and seek their interests in a win-win fashion.

Can Iran benefit from foreign investment?

At the globalization age, capital is stateless. Foreign investment can potentially bring technology and pave the way for development. Foreign investment can be good for Iran if there is a suitable environment for investment. But the Islamic Republic does not have such a potential and it has even wasted its own capitals needlessly.

Can Chinese investment serve Iranians' national interests?

Yes, but only if China acts transparently based on national interests within a win-win frameworks and if there are no unilateralism or exclusive link to China. Despite its non-democratic structure, China has taken long steps toward economic development, has dragged more than hundreds of million of Chinese out of poverty and is the world's second biggest economy. It can now export capital and transfer technology and in spite of what we see in China under Xi Jinping we can expect that economic development would lead to political liberties.

Can the Islamic Republic conclude a contract that serves Iran's interest?

It is highly unlikely. National interests are absent within the frameworks of the Islamic Republic. Its leaders prioritize their "revolution" and those it feeds over everything else. Furthermore, the regime is currently so desperate that that its only preoccupation is its survival. So, there is no likelihood for a good result for Iran. Besides, we are talking about two authoritarian regimes, that give way to corruption and bribery at different levels. Many of contracts between China and poor countries have been facilitated by corrupt rulers in those countries. The Islamic Republic is no exception.

From this perspective, even the 2015 nuclear deal was also the outcome of Iran's desperation as it handed over all the levers of pressure including the trigger mechanism to the other side.

So, why does Iran want a contract with China? Can China be a reliable partner?

Throughout its history, the Islamic Republic has paid the least attention to Iranians' national interests. It only wanted to exercise its supremacy over its people and create wealth to feed its supporters. Its foreign policy has led to a standoff against a large part of the powerful; world community that has a democratic structure and owns knowledge and technology. Chronic inefficiency, systemic corruption and the sanctions which are the outcome of Tehran's enmity with the United States and Israel have led to the Islamic Republic's isolation in the world community.

Entangled in the trap they have created themselves, Islamic Republic's leader are seeking a way out by turning to East in order to save the regime. The justification is that while the West is declining, Iran can rely on the East. The Islamic Republic would resort to anything for its survival and this is what makes us more suspicious. Iran desperately needs hard currency and China is not likely to be helpful in this regard in the short run. Investments on the infrastructure need a lot of time before they can create jobs for citizens.



However, because of the connectivity between Chinese and the Western economies, Iran's over-reliance on China can be a miscalculation. On the other hand, Iran's problem is simply not one of shortage of capitals. Only under President Ahmadinejad Iran sold around one billion dollars of oil and other products, but all that was wasted due to corruption and inefficiency.

What does China gain out if this contract?

China can find an ally through this contract. Xi's strategy is based on strengthening Chinese nationalism inside China and creating a bloc of authoritarian states outside the country in order to confront the Western bloc. Another possibility is that China can use its influence over countries such as Iran in its confrontation with the United States. Nevertheless, because of its intertwined dynamics with the West, China cannot be a reliable security support for Iran.

Is the Chinese model of authoritarian development useful for Iran?

It is neither ideal nor feasible for Iran. The Islamic Republic is haunted by backward ideological illusions. On the other hand it lacks the discipline that exists in the Chinese Communist Party.

Iranian opposition and the Iran - China contract

Although the controversy created by the opposition about this contract is understandable, yet its reliance on facts are questionable. For instance a statement by one opposition group wrongly suggested that the contract "commits" Iran to perform certain obligations while there is no such commitment mentioned for China in the contract.

On the other hand, some economists have accused China of using technologies belonging to others, but this cannot be true as China is a member of the World Trade Organization and is committed to respect others' intellectual property.

Conclusion:

A contract between Iran and China under the current circumstances will not serve Iran's interests.

The Islamic Republic's objective in concluding this contract is political and is meant to ensure its survival. It can even be a move to threaten the West.

The contract has very little chance to be finalized particularly by China as the Islamic Republic is in a unstable situation.

Iran's interests call for impartiality in the conflict between China and the West.

The opinions expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the views of Radio Farda
A close up of a logo Description automatically generated

Hyloris Reports Half-Year 2020 Financial Results and Business Highlights

Successfully raised 80 million through public listing on Euronext Brussels and private placement

Funding of all development portfolio secured up until launch

Funding available for business development opportunities

Management to host a conference call at 2:00pm CEST today

Liege, Belgium  6 August 2020  Hyloris Pharmaceuticals SA (Euronext Brussels: HYL) (Hyloris and/or the Company), an early-stage innovative specialty pharmaceutical company focused on adding value to the healthcare system by reformulating well-known pharmaceuticals, today provides a business update and its consolidated financial results for the first half of 2020, prepared in accordance with IFRS as adopted by the European Union, and an outlook for the second half of 2020. The full interim condensed financial report is available on the Companys website.

Stijn Van Rompay, Chief Executive Officer of Hyloris, commented: Having successfully completed our public listing on Euronext Brussels, we are well positioned to deliver our goal to bring reformulated drugs with added value to the healthcare system to market as quickly as possible. We have a clear strategic vision to accomplish this and look forward to making progress through the development of our existing portfolio of product candidates, the establishment of a commercial team in the United States for our IV Cardiovascular portfolio and the potential organic or acquisition-driven expansion of our pipeline.

First half 2020 operational highlights and relevant post-period events

Hyloris continued to successfully develop its product portfolio over the first six months of 2020. The following elements were identified as key highlights:

IV1 Cardiovascular portfolio

In March, the US FDA approved a Sotalol IV label expansion to include rapid loading of patients starting on sotalol. The commercialization of this new label expansion in the United States will start in H2 2020. Oral Sotalol is a commonly used drug for the maintenance of sinus rhythm in patients with atrial fibrillation with a black box warning requiring patients to be continuously monitored for a period of days when initiating the therapy. This novel Sotalol IV loading indication can decrease the length of hospital admission and potentially significantly decrease overall cost of care, while improving patient satisfaction and safety.



Story continues

Other Reformulation portfolio

Maxigesic IV 2 was launched in Australia, New Zealand and the UAE in June 2020 by Hyloris partner AFT Pharmaceuticals (AFT). Hyloris will receive a part of the margin generated in all countries were Maxigesic IV will be commercialized except in Australia and New Zealand. Launch should support additional market approvals in the coming months.

June  AFT signed an exclusive distribution agreement for the commercialization of Maxigesic IV in four western European countries (Germany, France, Italy and Austria) with Austrias Ever Pharma. Commercialization could start in late 2020 in Germany and Austria.

July  Completion of the enrolment of the open-label, multiple-dose, single arm exposure clinical Phase III trial of Maxigesic IV in 232 patients with acute pain following orthopedic, general or plastic surgery. This second Phase III study was undertaken in New Zealand and the United States and aims at determining the tolerability of repeated doses of Maxigesic IV over an extended period of exposure. An earlier Phase III clinical trial conducted in 276 patients (for the treatment of acute postoperative pain after foot surgery (bunionectomy)) found that Maxigesic IV provided significantly better pain relief than either Paracetamol IV (acetaminophen) or Ibuprofen IV alone at the same doses.

July  AFT signed a license and supply agreement for the commercialization of Maxigesic for Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia with the Cyprus based multinational pharmaceutical company Medochemie. Commercialization in these countries is expected to start in 2021



Established Market portfolio

February - Hyloris sold all rights, titles and interest in the product HY-REF-038 in vial form to Alter Pharma 3 , while retaining all rights to the Prefilled Syringe, for a consideration (of the transferred intellectual property rights) of  1.4 million. The generic vial form is currently already commercially available in the United States.

During the first quarter the ANDA4 application for HY-EMP-016 was submitted by Hyloris partner Perrigo at the FDA. Approval is expected in 2021.

Corporate highlights

Hyloris successfully raised 79.54 million gross proceeds. In March and April, the Company issued convertible bonds totaling 15.15 million. On June 29, the Company completed an Initial Public Offering on Euronext Brussels, raising a total of 61.81 million. All bonds were converted into equity on June 30, at a 30% discount of the IPO price. On July 30, the Company received an additional 2.58 million from the exercise of the over-allotment option, bringing the total gross proceeds of the IPO to 64.39 million.

Hyloris expanded its senior management team with the recruitment of an experienced Chief Legal Officer and Chief Financial Officer, who both bring extensive industry expertise in strategic legal, finance and business development planning and execution.

The Company also expanded its Board of directors with the addition of Leon Van Rompay and three independent directors, namely Carolyn Myers, James Gale and Marc Foidart.

Selected financial information

In  thousand June 30, 2020 June 30, 2019 December 31, 2019 Revenue 82 75 91 Research and development expenses (1,172) (819) (4,577) General and administration expenses (2,454) (316) (808) Other income/(expenses) 20 72 86 Operating loss (3,633) (1,026) (5,274) Loss of the period (3,742) (1,314) (5,768) Net cash used in operations 95 (911) (4,562) Net cash inflow/(outflow) of the period 66,578 (1,539) (2,482) Cash and cash equivalents 66,783 1,147 205

Revenue over the period corresponded to royalties due on the sales of Sotalol IV made in the US by Hyloris distribution partner, AltaThera.

Research and development expenses amounted to 1.2 million for the first half of 2020, an increase of 0.3 million compared to the same period of 2019 resulting from additional outsourced product development, pre-clinical and clinical expenses on our product candidates.

General and administrative expenses amounted to 2.4 million, compared to 0.3 million in H1 2019. The 2.1 million increase was mainly driven by transaction costs associated to fund raises completed in H1 2020 and, to a lesser extent, to expenses associated to the ESOP warrants and to the strengthening of the management structure of the Company.

Net operating cash flow was marginally up for H1 2020 (0.1 million) compared to a cash burn of 0.9 million for H1 2019. Higher operating expenses incurred in H1 2020 were compensated by the proceeds of the sale of the rights of HY-REF-038 (in vial form) to Alter Pharma.

Cash and cash equivalents increased to 66.8 million on June 30, 2020 compared to 0.2 million on December 31, 2019, resulting mainly from the issuance of convertible bonds in March and April 2020 for respectively 10.8 million and 4.4 million, and from the IPO completed on June 29, 2020 for 61.8 million.

Outlook for the remainder of 2020

Management believes that Hyloris is well positioned for the remainder of 2020 and beyond. The successful financing transactions undertaken during the first half of 2020 provide the Company with the required funding for: Development of the existing product portfolio until market release, the establishment of a commercial infrastructure in the United States for the commercialization of the IV Cardiovascular Portfolio under development, and the further expansion of the pipeline, both internally and through business development opportunities.

Hyloris Management anticipates several upcoming key milestones in the near term including:

the commercial launch of Sotalol IV under the new extended label in the US

the first European regulatory approvals of Maxigesic IV

FDA submission for market approval of Maxigesic IV and Tranexamic Acid.

The Companys operations were not materially affected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Audit report

KPMG Reviseurs dEntreprises represented by Olivier Declercq has reviewed the condensed consolidated interim financial statements of Hyloris SA as of and for the six-month period ended June 30, 2020. Their review was conducted in accordance with International Standard on Review Engagements 2410, Review of Interim Financial Information Performed by the Independent Auditor of the Entity and their unqualified review report dated August 5, 2020 is attached to the interim financial information.

Rapport du commissaire

KPMG Reviseurs dEntreprises representee par Olivier Declercq a effectue l'examen limite des etats financiers intermediaires consolides resumes de Hyloris SA pour la periode de 6 mois arretee au 30 juin 2020. Leur examen a ete effectue selon la norme ISRE 2410  Examen limite d'informations financieres intermediaires effectue par l'auditeur independant de l'entite  et leur rapport d'examen sans reserve date du 5 aout 2020 est fourni en annexe aux informations financieres intermediaires.





CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION

ASSETS

(in  thousand) June 30, 2020 December 31, 2019 Non-current assets 2,757 2,245 Intangible assets 2,648 2,138 Property, plant and equipment 28 32 Right-of-use assets 73 66 Financial assets 9 9 Current assets 69,056 3,739 Trade and other receivables 427 333 Other financial assets 6 - Other current assets 1,839 3,200 Cash and cash equivalents 66,783 205 TOTAL ASSETS 71,813 5,983 EQUITY AND LIABILITIES

(in  thousand) June 30, 2020 December 31, 2019 Equity attributable to owners of the parent 59,666 (10,188) Share capital 128 89 Share premium 101,114 23,982 Retained earnings (39,823) (36,081) Other reserves (1,753) 1,822 Non-current liabilities 7,948 22 Borrowings 26 22 Other financial liabilities 7,922 - Current liabilities 4,198 16,149 Borrowings 47 44 Other financial liabilities 409 13,130 Trade and other liabilities 3,694 2,927 Current tax liabilities 47 47 Total liabilities 12,147 16,171 TOTAL EQUITY AND LIABILITIES 71,813 5,983





CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF PROFIT OR LOSS AND OTHER COMPREHENSIVE INCOME FOR THE 6-MONTH PERIOD ENDED JUNE 30

in  thousand 2020 2019 Revenue 82 75 Cost of sales (109) (37) Gross profit (27) 38 Research and development expenses (1,172) (819) General and administrative expenses (2,454) (316) Other operating income 20 72 Operating profit/(loss) (3,633) (1,026) Financial income 620 91 Financial expenses (729) (380) Profit/(loss) before taxes (3,741) (1,314) Income taxes (1) - PROFIT/(LOSS) FOR THE PERIOD (3,742) (1,314) Other comprehensive income - - TOTAL COMPREHENSIVE INCOME OF THE PERIOD (3,742) (1,314) Profit/(loss) for the period attributable to the owners of the Company (3,742) (1,078) Profit/(loss) for the period attributable to the non-controlling interests - (237) Total comprehensive income for the period attributable to the owners of the Company (3,742) (1,078) Total comprehensive income for the period attributable to the non-controlling interests - (237) Basic and diluted earnings/(loss) per share (in ) (0.21) (0.07)











CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN EQUITY FOR THE 6-MONTH PERIOD ENDED JUNE 30, 2020

in  thousand Attributable to equity holders of the Company Equity attributable to owners of the parent Non-controlling interests Total Equity Share capital Share premium Other reserves Retained earnings Share-based payment reserve Cost of Capital Other reserves Balance at December 31, 2018 89 23,982 1,329 - 450 (28,097) (2,246) (2,216) (4,462) Issuance of shares - - - - - - - - - Contribution by shareholder - - - - 28 - 28 - 28 Total comprehensive income - - - - (1,078) (1,078) (237) (1,314) Balance at June 30, 2019 89 23,982 1,329 - 478 (29,175) (3,296) (2,453) (5,748) Balance at December 31, 2019 89 23,982 1,329 - 493 (36,081) (10,188) - (10,188) Initial Public Offering 29 61,784 - (3,656) - - 58,156 - 58,156 Issuance of convertible bonds 4,531 4,531 4,531 Conversion of convertible bonds 10 15,347 - (102) (4,585) - 10,671 - 10,671 Amortized costs on shareholders loans - - - - (5) - (5) - (5) Share-based payments - - 243 - - - 243 - 243 Total comprehensive income - - - - - (3,742) (3,742) - (3,742) Balance at June 30, 2020 128 101,113 1,572 (3,758) 434 (39,823) 59,666 - 59,666











CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS FOR THE 6-MONTH PERIOD ENDED JUNE 30

in  thousand 2020 2019 CASH FLOW FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES Net result for the period (3,742) (1,314) Adjustments for: Depreciation, amortization and impairments 52 51 Equity-settled share-based payment expense 243 - Interest expenses on Convertible Bonds 235 - Interest expenses on shareholders loans 317 193 Change in maturity of shareholders loans (381) - Change in fair value of derivative instruments (81) - Equity transaction costs 1,408 - Income taxes 1 - Other non-cash adjustments (59) 28 Changes in working capital: Trade and other receivables (94) 558 Other financial assets (6) 3 Other current assets 1,361 (1) Trade and Other Payables 723 (976) Other current liabilities - 1 Other financial liabilities 119 549 Cash generated from operations 96 (911) Taxes paid (1) - Net cash generated from operating activities 95 (911) CASH FLOW FROM INVESTING ACTIVITIES Purchases of property, plant and equipment - - Purchases of Intangible assets (487) (603) Proceeds from other financial assets - - Net cash provided by/(used in) investing activities (487) (603) CASH FLOW FROM FINANCING ACTIVITIES Reimbursements of shareholders loans (8,050) - Proceeds from shareholders loans 3,250 - Reimbursements of borrowings (26) (26) Net proceeds from the Initial Public Offering 56,803 - Net proceeds from the Convertible Bonds 14,994 - Interests paid (1) (1) Net cash provided by/(used in) financing activities 66,970 (26) NET INCREASE (DECREASE) IN CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS 66,578 (1,539) CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS at beginning of the period 205 2,687 CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS at end of the period 66,783 1,147







Conference Call Details

Hyloris will host a conference call on Thursday, 6 August at 2:00pm CEST accessible through the following numbers:

Event Plus Passcode: 2533728

Belgium, Brussels 02 793 3847

Belgium 0800 48 471

United States, New York 1 646 741 3167

United States 1 877 870 9135

United Kingdom 08 444 819 752

France 08 0510 1465

Netherlands 0800 023 5015



To ensure a timely connection, it is recommended that users register at least 10 minutes prior the scheduled start timing.

-Ends-

For more information, please contact:

Hyloris Pharmaceuticals

Stijn Van Rompay, CEO

+32 (0)4 346 02 07

contact@hyloris.com





Consilium Strategic Communications

Amber Fennell, Chris Welsh, Ashley Tapp Lucy Featherstone, Taiana De Ruyck Soares

+44 20 3709 5700

hyloris@consilium-comms.com

About Hyloris Pharmaceuticals SA

Based in Liege, Belgium, Hyloris is an early-stage innovative specialty pharmaceutical company focused on adding value to the healthcare system by reformulating well-known pharmaceuticals. Hyloris develops proprietary products it believes offer significant advantages compared to currently available alternatives, with the aim to address the underserved medical needs of patients, hospitals, physicians, payors and other stakeholders in the healthcare system. Hyloris portfolio spans three areas of focus: IV Cardiovascular, Other Reformulations and Established Market (high-barrier generics). Hyloris currently has two early commercial-stage products, Sotalol IV for the treatment of atrial fibrillation, commercialized through its partner AltaThera, and Maxigesic IV, a non-opioid analgesic product for the treatment of pain, developed with the Companys partner, AFT Pharmaceuticals. Additionally, Hyloris has 12 product candidates in various stages of development across the Companys wider portfolio. Read more at www.hyloris.com . Hyloris stands for high yield, lower risk and relates to the 505(b)(2) regulatory pathway for product approval on which the Issuer focuses, but in no way relates or applies to an investment in the Shares.







1 IV stands for intravenous

2 Maxigesic IV is a novel combination of paracetamol (also called acetaminophen in the United States) and ibuprofen in an intravenous form

3 Hyloris and Alter Pharma have some common shareholders which dont have a controlling interest in Alter Pharma

4 Abbreviated New drug Application; application for a US generic drug approval for an existing licensed medication or approved drug








An elderly Houston woman was accused this week of tussling with police officers  squeezing one by the testicles and kicking the other in the head  while she was knowingly infected with COVID-19, according to Harris County court records.

Nkachi Ekeogu, 79, was charged Tuesday with one count of assaulting a peace officer. She remains in Harris County Jail in lieu of a $10,000 bond.

The officer, only identified as J. Zavala, was attempting to detain Ekeogu at her home around noon Monday in the 9700 block of Leawood Boulevard when she scratched him on the forearm, according to an incident report filed by Houston police. The report did not specify the agency for which Zavala worked.

The scratch broke the skin and caused him to bleed, police said. She then reached for the officers testicles, squeezing real hard and pulling down on them, police said.

INTERACTIVE MAP: Houston-area coronavirus testing sites that dont require a doctors referral

Ofc Zavala states that he felt pain in that moment and is still feeling pain hours later, the report states.

The brawl continued even after a Houston police officer responded. According to the report, Ekeogu scratched, punched, spit on and grabbed on both officers. She also kicked the responding Houston police officer in the face. She did so while knowingly infected with COVID-19, police said.

Officer Zavala initially tried to take her into custody with an emergency detention order. The report indicates police planned to take her to the NeuroPsychiatric Center (NPC) at Ben Taub Hospital.

They instead filed charges because police took her to the same hospital last week, the report said. She had been admitted under emergency detention order but later released.

julian.gill@chron.com
CALGARY - Shares in Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. rose Thursday after it reported record production of synthetic crude oil and lower operating costs at its oilsands mining operations in northern Alberta during the second quarter.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 6/8/2020 (530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., at the company's annual meeting in Calgary on May 3, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

CALGARY - Shares in Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. rose Thursday after it reported record production of synthetic crude oil and lower operating costs at its oilsands mining operations in northern Alberta during the second quarter.

Production of synthetic crude  oilsands bitumen that fetches higher prices after being upgraded to a light oil quality  rose to a record 464,300 barrels per day, despite maintenance activities at its Horizon oilsands mine in May.

Meanwhile, Canadian Natural said it cut costs at its mining and upgrading operations to $17.74 per barrel, a 15-per-cent decrease from the first quarter.

"During the quarter, we effectively and efficiently reacted to temporarily curtail production and complete maintenance due to low prices while prioritizing high-margin production," said president Tim McKay on a conference call.

"Then, as prices improved, we quickly reinstated production cost effectively."

He credited the improved performance to "synergies" between Canadian Natural's Horizon mine and the Athabasca Oil Sands Project mine it operates after buying a 70 per cent stake in 2017.

The Athabasca mine supplies the Shell Canada-operated Scotford upgrader near Edmonton  McKay said Canadian Natural is confident it will be able to fill an additional 15,000 to 20,000 bpd of capacity at Scotford when its expansion to 320,000 bpd of capacity opens later this quarter.

The Calgary-based company beat analysts' financial expectations in the three months ended June 30 despite taking a net loss of $310 million on $2.94 billion in revenue, compared with a year-ago profit of $2.8 billion on $5.93 billion in revenue.

Its adjusted loss was $772 million or 65 cents per share, versus expectations of 85 cents per share on $2.84 billion of revenue, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.

In Toronto, its shares closed 2.9 per cent higher at $25.76 as analysts applauded the company's higher than expected second-quarter production and prospects for strong output in the second half of 2020.

The company reduced output at its primary heavy oil operations by 24 per cent and at its thermal oilsands projects by seven per cent in the second quarter compared with the first because their non-upgraded products were harder hit by low crude prices.

It said it expects an acceleration of corporate tax cuts by the province of Alberta from 10 to eight per cent effective July 1 will result in tax savings for 2020 of $35 million, which it said it expects to invest in projects in Alberta.

Canadian Natural said its current break-even West Texas Intermediate price level is US$30 to US$31 per barrel. WTI crude traded at US$42.12 on Thursday morning.

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The company said it will leave its capital spending budget at $2.7 billion this year and expects its net debt at year-end will be unchanged from last year's level.

It produced 1.16 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in the second quarter, including about 922,000 bpd of crude and liquids produced with natural gas.

North American natural gas production averaged 1.4 billion cubic feet per day, a two per cent increase from the first quarter, as Canadian Natural enacted a plan to add about 60 million cf/d of low-cost gas production.

The company consumes the equivalent of about half of its natural gas production in its oilsands operations.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 6, 2020.

Companies in this story: (TSX:CNQ)
An agreement last week between the Trump administration and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) to replace most of the federal forces with state police has shifted the protests away from the federal courthouse. But Wolf said that the city continues to see violent incidents targeting local police and that the full contingent of DHS personnel will remain on standby in the city.
New Mexico Highlands University received a $275,000 grant aimed at preparing underrepresented minority students for water resources science and management careers.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded Highlands the four-year grant with an Aug. 1 start date.

This grant is exciting because it will allow us to recruit, retain and graduate students who are practiced and proficient in water resources science, said geology professor Jennifer Lindline. A lot of New Mexico youth value water as part of their cultural identity and community values, but they dont know what college degree is needed to address water quality and scarcity issues.

Our Highlands students will become leaders in water resources science with both the technical skills theyll learn as well as cooperation and collaboration abilities theyll master, Lindline said.

Lindline wrote the USDA grant and is the principal investigator, or lead researcher, for the grant. It will be implemented within the Natural Resources Management Department at Highlands.

There are many opportunities for water quality scientist positions in New Mexico, the region and nation. Our students will be prepared to help protect our precious water resources in these wide geographic areas, Lindline said.

Lindline said the grant project taps into students intellectual and recreational domains because they will become more strongly connected to the natural world.

The USDA grant includes funding for portable and laboratory instruments for state-of-the-art water quality analysis.

We welcome suggestions for the daily Bright Spot. Send to newsroom@abqjournal.com.
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A 'before and after' photography project in the Patagonian mountains using images taken in 1913 and modern day equivalents exposes the dramatic impact global warming is having on the world.

Explorers Cristian Donoso has dedicated the last 24 years of his life to exposing the dramatic effect of climate change on nature.

As part of a 2018 project called 'Ice Postcards' he, along with co-author Alfredo Pourailly, tracked down locations first captured by explorer Alberto de Agostini in the early 20th century to show how the landscape has changed.

 Slide me  These two pictures were taken at the same location and at the same time of year, but one was in 1913 and one was in 2018. They demonstrate the alarming physical impact of global warming on ice caps around the world

 Slide me  Chilean explorer Cristian Donoso has dedicated the last 24 years of his life to exposing the impact of climate change in a stunning photography project. These pictures in Patagonia reveal the loss of ice since 1913

The personal mission to draw attention to the impact of global warming began for Mr Donoso in 1996 when he was venturing through the wilderness of the Patagonian mountains.

Speaking to CNN, he said: 'When you are on an expedition you must connect strongly with nature, open your senses to the fullest, because your survival depends on it.

'And in that survival, you are deeply aware of the natural world, you marvel, and your soul tells you that this is extraordinary.'

Since that revelation, he has embarked on more than 50 expeditions all around the world to capture the current state of the planet and compare it with yesteryear.

Ice Postcards saw Donoso and Alfredo Pourailly De La Plaza travel to the Cordillera Darwin (a mountain range named after British biologist Charles Darwin) in Tierra del Fuego.

They tracked down locations of images taken by Alberto de Agostini, who regularly frequented the glaciers and took more than 11,000 photos.

Jagged ice flows dominated the early images, but many of these have either vanished or dwindled by 2018.

Patagonia is a harsh environment and is home to the largest body of ice in the southern hemisphere, outside of Antarctica.

Side-by-side comparisons of modern images with their historical equivalents lay bare the horrific impact climate change has had on this region.

'It was much more dramatic than what we believed would be the case,' Donoso told CNN.

'Places that we have yet to really understand, that we haven't explored, that we haven't photographed or that we have yet to chart have been profoundly impacted by humans. The world is a much smaller place than we think.'

The explorers hope that their images will inspire people to tackle climate change and preserve the only planet we have left.

Ice Postcards is a long-term project and a second set of comparative photos on different glaciers in Tierra del Fuego will be produced in an upcoming expedition by the two photographers, courtesy of a Rolex Explorer Grant.

 Slide me  Pictured, the jutting the Negri glacier terminus, captured by de Agostini in 1913 (left) and how the same patch of land looks at the same time of year today

 Slide me  The 2018 image from Donoso and Pourailly (right) of the Marinelli glacier shows the ice has receded more than six miles (10 kilometers) since 1914, when it was captured on film by de Agostini

Climate change 'could wipe out polar bears in 80 years' Most polar bear populations are at risk of dying out by 2100 as their natural habitat of Arctic sea ice is diminished by global warming, a study warns. A damning piece of research claims the predators will be forced to migrate on to solid land, where hunting will be impossible for them. As a result, the bears will be forced to survive on their fat reserves, an unsustainable option for the world's largest carnivore. The study claims that almost all polar bear cubs face some form of starvation by 2040, with many adults also experiencing reproductive stress in just 20 years' time. Advertisement

Donoso is currently on another expedition by kayak, dubbed Forgotten Footsteps, which builds upon the success of his 2018 project.

This started in January and will retrace the expeditions of Rockwell Kent, an explorer who painted the landscape of Tierra del Fuego, Patagonia in the early 20th century.

His trips are designed to minimise his carbon footprint by using modes of transport that are environmentally-friendly, such as kayaking or sailing.

Satellite imagery recently revealed that two ice caps in Canada have disappeared due to global warming.

Images taken by NASA in 2015 and 2020 reveal how they have disappeared in just half a decade.

Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center studied the St. Patrick Bay ice caps in some capacity since the 1980s.

He published a scientific paper in 2017 that stated if greenhouse gas emissions are not curbed, the ice caps would vanish within five years. He was correct.

Earlier this year, Antarctica experienced its hottest temperature on record, with an Argentinian research station on the frozen continent clocking a balmy 18.3C (63.5F).

The reading from the Esperanza base was recorded at midday on Thursday and beats beats the previous record of 17.5C (63.5F) in March 2015 by 0.8C.

Records at the base in Hope Bay, Trinity Peninsula, began in 1961 and the announcement was shared by the World Meteorological organisation (WMO).

The record-high temperature is around the same warmth as an average June day in Nottingham, UK, according to figures from the Met Office.
UPDATE: North Paulding High School reversed course on Friday and will not be suspending the student.

Students at a Georgia high school are being threatened with suspension and other punishments after negative photos of their first day back to class circulated on social media.

One North Paulding High School student has already been suspended after snapping a photo of crowded hallways  with few students wearing masks  upon their return to school Monday, local station WSB-TV reported.

The image was one of many back-to-school photos that went viral this week, sparking criticism amid rising coronavirus cases across Paulding County and the state. As of Thursday, Georgia had over 204,000 cases and nearly 4,000 deaths, data from the state Department of Public Health show.

Paulding County schools officials reportedly warned students they could be punished for posting such photos, but only after the image of the packed hallways drew backlash and thrust the county onto the national stage, CBS46 reported.

#Exclusive recording from North #Paulding High telling kids they will be punished for sharing to social media about conditions. Plus new #COVID19 cases in Cherokee County Schools and a football player in Henry County tests positive... details @cbs46 #Atlanta #backtoschool pic.twitter.com/3o9GFGxlIg  Jamie S Kennedy (@Jamie_S_Kennedy) August 6, 2020

Anything thats going on social media thats negative or alike without permission, photography, thats video or anything, there will be consequences, according to audio of an intercom announcement to North Paulding students obtained by the news station.

Story continues

McClatchy News contacted the Paulding County School District for comment and is awaiting response.

The student behind the viral photo, Hannah Watters, told BuzzFeed News she was handed a five-day, out-of-school suspension for posting the image and a video online. Why? Violating the student code of conduct.

The policies I broke stated that I used my phone in the hallway without permission, used my phone for social media, and posting pictures of minors without consent, Watters, 15, told the outlet.

A second student who didnt give their name said they also were suspended after posting a similar photo, according to BuzzFeed News.

District superintendent Dr. Brian Otott said theres no question the photos dont look good, but argued the images had been taken out of context to criticize the districts plan to reopen, according to WSBTV. He said the districts 33,000-plus students continue to learn in-person and remotely during the pandemic.

Under the COVID-19 protocols we have adopted, class changes that look like this may happen, he said of the photo, especially at a high school with more than 2,000 students.

Georgia Schools Superintendent Richard Woods addressed the student punishments in a statement early Friday, saying disciplinary actions are constitutionally the purview of local boards of education.

With that said, I want to encourage our districts and schools to operate with transparency, and to ensure that students and staff are not penalized for expressing their concerns, Woods said. I recognize that this situation is brand-new for everyone navigating it. Were forging this path together, and the Georgia Department of Education continues to stand in support of Georgias school leaders, teachers, students, parents, and families.
NEW YORK, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- United Minds, a Weber Shandwick consultancy, today announced the launch of (Re)Boot Camp, a customized re-onboarding experience that prepares leaders, managers and employees for new ways of working. (Re)Boot Camp features virtual events, workplace walkthroughs and customized training modules on a core set of topics, including:

Familiarizing employees with changes in strategic direction necessitated by COVID-19

Introducing new operational protocols, like health screening and sanitation procedures, for those who are returning to the workplace

Re-skilling managers to handle new responsibilities, such as fostering mental and emotional well-being for employees and building inclusive teams

Helping hybrid (on-site and remote) teams learn how to work together effectively

Modeling new employee behaviors to build personal resilience or learn new ways of serving customers or clients

Virtual tours provide employees with a see-for-yourself look at the new socially-distanced office environment and safety protocols in action, helping to assuage employee concerns before they return to work. Additional content includes "day in the life" video captures of employees who are first to return. During the first week back, on-site concierge teams can help reduce anxiety and improve the re-entry experience by directing traffic, answering questions and ensuring the seamless adoption of new protocols and processes. Throughout (Re)Boot Camp, participants have on-demand access to experts in organizational change, public health, workforce inclusion and more.

"Leaders across the globe are facing what is arguably the biggest change management exercise in history, and those who navigate it successfully alongside their teams will emerge stronger," said Kate Bullinger, president, United Minds. "Now is the time for leaders to carefully consider what the future of work looks like for their organization from the perspective of their employees first. Businesses are facing high expectations to lead through this crisis, channel their values and rebuild better."

Employee anxiety is running high, according to recent survey data from Weber Shandwick, United Minds and KRC Research. Nearly half of U.S. employees are concerned about the future of their companies and their jobs, and nearly half of those temporarily working from home are afraid their employer will bring them back to the workplace before it is safe. By proactively including leaders and employees in discussion and preparation, (Re)Boot Camp can help organizations acclimate teams to the new spaces, protocols and behaviors required for work going forward.

For organizations that are making changes to business strategy as a result of COVID-19, (Re)Boot Camp also helps businesses introduce new plans so that employees understand and invest in the path forward. As businesses continue preparing for the operational and logistical challenges of re-opening, or settle into longer-term work-from-home arrangements, ensuring both safety and emotional well-being will be crucial. According to the research, 80 percent of employees believe their employers need to make changes before they feel comfortable returning to work.

"Organizations and their people have experienced a dramatic disruption on many levels and risen to the occasion," said Sarah Clayton, executive vice president, United Minds. "By bringing together all of the 'day one' work  across facilities, operations, HR, communications and strategy  into one single, seamless program, (Re)Boot Camp helps employees more easily absorb all of the upcoming change and make the critical pivot from the past to the future. This may be the most important onboarding of their careers."

More and more consumers are paying attention to the employer-employee relationship, suggesting that internal actions also drive reputation. According to the research, a majority of consumers (78 percent) say they prefer to do business with companies that treat employees well during the pandemic and put safety first, which highlights the external stakes to a successful re-entry.

(Re)Boot Camp is part of the Workforce Re-entry specialty United Minds launched in partnership with Weber Shandwick and Powell Tate to help businesses manage the many dimensions of preparing employees for the future of work. For more insights on how businesses can manage teams through COVID-19, visit United Minds: https://unitedmindsglobal.com/workforce-re-entry/

About United Minds

United Minds is a management consultancy that specializes in transformation. Leveraging a deep bench of specialists, the company helps organizations deliver positive, lasting change by combining data-fueled strategy and creative communications solutions, engaging stakeholders in every part of the process. For more information, visit www.unitedmindsglobal.com

About Weber Shandwick

Weber Shandwick is a leading global communications network that delivers next-generation solutions to brands, businesses and organizations in major markets around the world. Data-led, with earned ideas at the core, the agency deploys leading and emerging technologies to inform strategy, develop critical insights and heighten impact across sectors and specialty areas, including brand and B2B marketing, healthcare marketing, change management, employee engagement, corporate reputation, crisis management, data and analytics, technology, public affairs, social impact and financial communications. Weber Shandwick is part of the Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG). For more information, visit www.webershandwick.com

About KRC Research

KRC Research is a global full-service nonpartisan opinion research and strategy firm. A unit of the Interpublic Group of Companies (NYSE: IPG), KRC Research offers the quality and custom service of a small firm with the reach of a global organization. For over 30 years, KRC Research has worked on behalf of corporations, governments, not-for-profits and the communications firms that represent them. Staffed with multidisciplinary research professionals, KRC combines sophisticated research tools with real-world communications experience. For more information, visit www.krcresearch.com

Contact: Jill Tannenbaum

Company: Weber Shandwick

Phone: 212-546-7815

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Weber Shandwick

Related Links

http://webershandwick.com


Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 10:04:31|Editor: huaxia

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Libya's UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez Serraj meets with an Italian delegation in Tripoli, Libya, on Aug. 5, 2020. Libya's UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez Serraj on Wednesday met with Italian Defense Minister Lorenzo Guerini in Tripoli for talks on bilateral cooperation, said a statement from the prime minister's information office. (Photo by Hamza Turkia/Xinhua)

TRIPOLI, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Libya's UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez Serraj on Wednesday met with Italian Defense Minister Lorenzo Guerini in Tripoli for talks on bilateral cooperation, said a statement from the prime minister's information office.

"The Prime Minister reiterated that any ceasefire must ensure that the attackers (east-based army) do not remain in any location that allows a new aggression," the statement said.

Serraj's UN-backed government has been engaged in a deadly armed conflict for more than a year against the east-based army in and around Tripoli.

The meeting also discussed the return of Italian companies to resume suspended projects in Libya, stressing the necessity for resuming Libyan oil exports under the supervision of the UN-backed government's National Oil Corporation (NOC), the statement said.

The east-based army has been blocking oil exports for months, demanding transparency in the distribution of oil revenues.
PHOENIX, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A new, $7.5 million partnership will help the state's K-12 teachers deliver quality instruction and support for online and blended learning environments as Arizona grapples with the challenges of starting a school year during a global pandemic.

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman, Helios Education Foundation and Arizona State University today announced a collaboration to provide training and professional development for every teacher in Arizona. With financial support from the Governor's office, the Arizona Department of Education and Helios, ASU Prep Digital's Arizona Virtual Teacher Institute will provide both group and personal training to help Arizona teachers succeed in delivering online instruction.

Free training programs for schools and teachers begin August 11 with a three-day program, "Thriving as a Digital Teacher." Topics are relevant to all digital learning tools and include best practices in online instruction, Web 2.0 tools, setting up a virtual instruction plan, pace charts, monitoring student progress, teaching time and stress management and more. Synchronous and asynchronous sessions will be available through the school year.

"Arizona teachers have demonstrated dedication and creativity in remaining present in the lives of their students through distance learning," said Governor Doug Ducey. "With funding from the state and both the financial support and expertise of the Helios Education Foundation, we are putting one of the state's strongest assets during this pandemic, Arizona State University, to work to support teachers in elementary schools and high schools from across the state."

The training will get teachers up and running quickly and build their expertise incrementally. After-school sessions, available Monday through Thursday, along with a Saturday morning session, provide tremendous flexibility. Leadership tracks will support school and district leaders in managing instructional programs and supporting teachers at a distance. Professional Learning Communities, facilitated by ASU Prep Digital, offer an avenue for educators to work through specific challenges throughout the year.

"At present, it is unlikely that any Arizona school community will be in a position to begin the new school year in the traditional, in-person, on-campus setting," said Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction, Kathy Hoffman. "As schools look to begin the fall semester in a distance learning mode, they face different challenges. We want to give all schools and teachers access to the tools and training that they need. ASU Prep Digital already excels in this work and this new partnership will expand it."

ASU Prep Digital, already in partnership with more than 150 schools across Arizona, offers a flexible menu of training options to maximize opportunities to participate in multiple sessions each month. School leadership can specify requirements for their staff, allow teachers to make their own choices, request special sessions for their school or offer a combination of required versus "choice" sessions. These trainings were thoughtfully designed to increase confidence in every teacher, regardless of digital competency level, as they continue to personalize education and raise academic achievement for every student - even in the uncertain school environment variables that will define the upcoming school year.

"We have always known that the quality of any ed-tech implementation depends on resourcing and preparing great teachers and leaders to steer the initiative effectively," said Amy McGrath, Chief Operating Officer of ASU Prep Digital. "This training stems from years of work with districts across the globe in a wide variety of implementations. Over the years, we have identified common practices and principles around effective online and blended environments. We are eager to share what we've learned but also to welcome new teacher and leader insights into this growing pool of knowledge for future generations."

Governor Ducey and Superintendent Hoffman shared the sentiment that the partnership would not have occurred without the engagement of the Helios Education Foundation, a philanthropic organization best known for its work in creating opportunities for success in postsecondary education.

"Arizona teachers are facing an unprecedented challenge but their determination, resilience, and commitment to their students is extraordinary," said Vince Roig, Founding Chairman, Helios Education Foundation. "This Institute will help equip teachers to provide instruction in a virtual environment while also ensuring all students  including those in rural and underserved communities  have access to high-quality educational opportunities."

Thanks to the Helios investment and the state funding, training through the Arizona Virtual Teacher Institute will be provided at no cost to Arizona's K12 public schools and teachers. More information about ASU Prep Digital's Arizona Virtual Teacher Institute can be found here .

About ASU

Arizona State University has developed a new model for the American Research University, creating an institution that is committed to access, excellence and impact. ASU measures itself by those it includes, not by those it excludes. As the prototype for a New American University, ASU pursues research that contributes to the public good, and ASU assumes major responsibility for the economic, social and cultural vitality of the communities that surround it.

About Helios Education Foundation

Helios Education Foundation invests resources all along the education continuum to ensure more students in Arizona and Florida connect potential to opportunity by completing a postsecondary degree. Rooted in the principles of Community, Equity, Investment, and Partnership, Helios and our partners improve educational outcomes for first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented students, throughout Arizona, and in Florida's metropolitan regions of Tampa Bay, Orlando, and Miami.

Focused on the limitless opportunities provided by an equitable education system, Helios and our partners seek to change lives, strengthen communities, and close achievement gaps. Since 2004 Helios has invested more than $240 million in partnerships and initiatives focused on improving education outcomes in the two states we serve. Learn more about Helios Education Foundation at www.helios.org.

Contacts:

Patrick Ptak, Governor Ducey's

Office - [email protected]

Morgan Dick, Arizona Department of

Education  [email protected]

Rebecca Lindgren, Helios Education

Foundation  [email protected]

Jay Thorne, Arizona State University

 [email protected]

SOURCE Helios Education Foundation

Related Links

http://www.helios.org/


Aubrey C Dutton, Assumpta Villas, Kildare Town

August 5. Predeceased by his wife Kathleen. Peacefully at Naas Hospital. Sadly missed by his loving sister Muriel, nephews, relatives, neighbours and friends. Due to current government guidelines regarding public gatherings, a private family funeral will take place. Those who would have liked to attend the funeral, but due to current restrictions cannot, please feel free to leave a message in the condolence page at RIP.ie. Aubrey's Funeral Mass in St. Brigid's Parish Church, Kildare Town can be viewed at mcnmedia.tv on Friday morning at 10 o'clock. Cremation afterwards in Newlands Cross Crematorium at 12 noon.

Bro. Maurice Murphy, Patrician Brothers Monastery, Naas Road, Newbridge

August 5. Peacefully in the wonderful care of the staff of Oakdale Nursing Home, Portarlington. Deeply regretted by his sister Mary, his Patrician Community, nephew and nieces, grandnephews, grandnieces, extended family, relatives and friends. A private family funeral will be held for a maximum of 50 people. Reposing at the Patrician Monastery, Naas Road, Newbridge on Thursday from 4 o'clock until 6 o'clock. Removal on Friday morning to arrive in St. Conleth's Parish Church, Newbridge for 11 o'clock Mass. Mass can be viewed on the St. Conleth's Parish webcam https://www.newbridgeparish.ie/webcam/. Funeral afterwards to St. Patrick's Cemetery, Abbeyleix. Those who would have liked to attend the funeral but due to current restrictions cannot, can leave a personal message for the family on the condolence at RIP.ie.

Sinead Nic Eoin, Curragh Plains, Kildare Town

August 2. Formerly of Maryville. Sadly missed by her loving daughter Saoirse, son Rauiri and his father Christopher, parents Brian and Bernadette, sisters Roisin and Lisa, brother Daragh, brothers-in-law Kevin and Fintan, nieces Eimear-Rose, Aria-star, nephews Fionn and Logan, aunts, uncles, cousins, relatives, neighbours and friends. Due to current government guidelines regarding public gatherings, a private family funeral will take place. Those who would have liked to attend the funeral, but due to current restrictions cannot, please feel free to leave a message in the condolence page at RIP.ie. Removal on Saturday morning to arrive at The Carmelites Church, Kildare Town For Requiem Mass at 11o'clock. Burial afterwards in St. Conleth's Cemetery, Kildare Town.

Roy Hopkins, Beech Park, Rathangan

July 31. Predeceased by his father Aidan and sister Debbie. Will be very sadly missed by his loving mother, Catriona and Peter, brothers, Mark, Brian, Ian and Aaron, their wives and partners, nieces, nephews, cousins, Aunts, Uncles, extended family and friends. Following HSE and Government guidelines a private family funeral mass will take place in the Church of the Assumption & St. Patrick, Rathangan at 11 o'clock on Saturday morning (8th August) which can be viewed on Rathangan Parish Facebook page https://www.youtube.com/c/icatholicplayer Internment afterwards in St. Patrick's Cemetery, Rathangan. Those who would like to leave a message may do so on the condolence page at RIP.ie. Family request to adhere to Social Distance guidelines at Church and Cemetery. Family Flowers Only
US Circulates New Text Of Resolution Against Iran To UNSC Members

Radio Farda August 05, 2020

The U.S. has circulated the text of a new resolution to Security Council members calling on them to support the extension of the U.N. arms embargo against Iran, Bloomberg News which obtained a copy of the text reported on Wednesday.

According to Bloomberg the text of the new proposed resolution is almost identical to another one circulated in June to signal that the Trump administration is unwilling to make the changes suggested by U.S. allies.

Iran has been under embargo since March 2007 when the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1747 issued in connection with its ambitious nuclear program banned arms sales to Iran. However, the nuclear agreement with western powers in 2015 stipulated that the embargo could be lifted in October 2020 if Iran abided by the terms of the agreement officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Russia and China, two of the permanent five nations that enjoy veto power on the Security Council, want the UN embargo on selling conventional weapons to Iran to end on October 18 as laid out in the JCPOA.

The new U.S. proposed text calls on the international community to refrain from providing any "technical training, financial resources or services, advice, other services or assistance related to the supply, sale, transfer, manufacture, maintenance, or use of arms" to Iran in addition to stopping all arms trade with the country.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Kelly Craft and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have threatened to invoke the "snapback" mechanism of the nuclear agreement to revive all the U.N. sanctions on Iran. China and Russia which are likely to veto any resolution against Iran and even the European sides of the nuclear agreement contend that the U.S. does not have the authority to invoke the snapback mechanism because of the Trump administration's unilateral withdrawal from the nuclear agreement in May 2018.

On August 2 in an interview with Fox News Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said lifting of the embargo will allow the Chinese and the Russians to sell weapons systems to Iran and then allow Iran to sell those weapons systems and other arms around the world as well.

Source: https://en.radiofarda.com/a/us-circulates- new-text-of-resolution-against-iran-to- unsc-members/30767856.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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SAN FRANCISCO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / August 6, 2020 / UBER has announced the new UBER Application with UBER BNB and UBER BROKER.

Hosts and Guests have been crying for a better Airbnb and VRBO alternative all year. We are giving it to them. It's UBER BNB and it is free to download now.

Hosts just want to be able to make money. UBER is the reliable platform when they need it most and the other company just pulls out the rug from beneath their feet. We do not change the terms of host agreements and put them at financial risk. Guests just want to book a nice place for a great price. We do not beg Guests to give money to Hosts. UBER is a free application and an open marketplace. The power is now in the hands of the users.

The UBER BROKER Application is also inside of the UBER application. Just like ordering a car, it lets users order a highly experienced real estate broker for a massive discount on the commission for the purchase or sale of a property.

Seasoned independent real estate brokers and broker attorneys can sign-up for free, be on application and receive new inquiries from consumers.

UBER is the go-to application for everyone. The Uber Brand has 1.3 Billion annual users worldwide, ten times as much as the nearest competitor in vacation rentals. Uber, an actual word, has been used for hundreds of years in both Europe and the United States. It is the second most recognizable word in the world.

"I helped build Uber Technologies Brand on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park and in Atherton, California, this country's richest zip code. This is where it was all financed and how it grew to where it is today.

"Looking forward, my greatest wish with all of this, was how we could best serve the people of the world and make more efficient markets. They just want great execution and to save money. I think we did a pretty great job building UBER.

"We own the UBER Application and UBER Developer account in the Google Play Store. Uber Technologies owns the UberCab set of applications. They started as Uber Cab and have always been Uber Cab. We also have first use of the UBER brand six years prior to them. Google Android covers 88% of the devices worldwide.

""Uber Technologies should not be representing to the public, markets and to its investors that it exclusively owns the Uber Brand and the Uber Application. It clearly does not. Considerable valuation is on our balance sheet and we own the profitable part of the UBER equation," says Chairman, Brent Ritz.

UBER was first used by our associate in 2006 and is USPTO Trademarked.?

For Hosts, Guests, Customers and Real Estate Brokers: Sign-up and Install the Application.

legal@uberrealestate.com

Google Android Install:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.UBER

Apple IOS Install:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/uberbnb/id1513554765

For media information or investor relations;

Mark Goodman, Esq.

legal@uberrealestate.com

866-440-6700?

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SOURCE: UBER

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/600384/BER--Launches-the-UBER-Application-With-UBER-BNB-and-UBER-REAL-ESTATE
Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar says the unfolding political development in Edo State is a threat to constitutional order.

Mr Abubakar, in his verified twitter handle on Thursday, urged the forces behind the development to reign in their proxies, and abide by the rule of law to allow the people elect who they wanted to govern them.

Nigeria has been on the edge due to the brinkmanship of those charged with the constitutional leadership.

We must, as a nation, not escalate the already tense atmosphere in our polity.

What is happening in Edo is a threat to constitutional order nationwide.

I strongly urge belligerent forces to reign in their proxies, and abide by the rule of law.

As I have previously said, without the rule of law, there will be no rule at all.

READ ALSO:

The current goings-on portend grave danger, not only to law and order in that state, but to the coming Edo elections.

The people of Edo should be allowed to choose who they wish to govern them, and that choice is to be made on Sept. 19.

Pending then, everything legally possible must be done to preserve the status quo, Mr Abubakar said.

(NAN)
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami on Thursday dismissed as baseless opposition claims of under-reporting of Covid-19 deaths in the state, asserting that the government was transparent on disseminating all data, including those related to fatalities.

The government does not stand to gain anything by concealing information related to the illness, including deaths, he said.

On what basis are they making the allegation? data on death and those related to people being treated are being released transparently, he told reporters here when asked about the DMKs charge that actual deaths were not reported.

There is no need to hide. What is the gain for the government? he asked adding such accusations were not true, unfounded and baseless. DMK chief and Leader of Opposition in Assembly M K Stalin had alleged that the government suppressed information on Covid-19 deaths.

Recently, 444 deaths were added to Chennais list of virus deaths after a death reconciliation committee recommended it following scrutiny.

Till date 4,571 people have died, including 110 reported today.

Giving an illustration on how delayed reporting happened, Palaniswami said a few people die after going home following treatment and such cases do not get accounted for in time. Such a trend was not seen in Tamil Nadu alone but also in states like Maharashtra and the national capital region of Delhi, he said.

Tamil Nadu is the state to have done maximum testing. When we do more testing, we prevent the chances of the spread of the virus by treating the infected...

They (opposition) dont have a heart to appreciate (the efforts of the government), the opposition will talk only like that, have they ever spoken the truth? he asked, adding the disease spread was seeing a dip.

During these challenging times, it has become a regular feature (for opposition) to level charges, he said.

To a question on the high number of positive cases in Tamil Nadu, where the tally stood at 2,79,144, he said it only reflected aggressive testing while other states did not detect cases rapidly.

The cases might appear to be on the higher side now, but Tamil Nadu would not be affected with more cases in future in view of a slew of measures, including testing, he said.

Also, the positivity rate in the state was low while in states like Andhra Pradesh it was high, he said.

If 25,000 people are tested about 10,000 turn positive in Andhra Pradesh, if we test about 60,000 how many people test positive for coronavirus? he asked.

In recent days, less than 6,000 samples turn positive out of about 60,000 (average) specimens in Tamil Nadu.

On the absence of details on tests in districts, he said, district wise data has been released thrice adding data collation was a time consuming exercise.

Test results are now being released in about 24 hours.

This is an improvement, he added.

The chief minister hit out at the opposition saying posing questions alone was their task while only those who worked in the government had responsibility and understood the difficulties involved.

To a question on e-passes for inter-district travel, he said issuance of the passes has been simplified and an additional team deployed for the task.

The restriction mandating e-pass is only to see that people do not travel unnecessarily, he added.

Stalin has urged the government to do away with the e-pass system, saying it was causing difficulties to people.
COLUMBIA, S.C.  Five more coronavirus deaths in Florence County were reported Wednesday, the most of any county in South Carolina.

The state is only a few days away from reaching the 100,000 mark of coronavirus cases.

On Wednesday, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) announced 1,175 new confirmed cases and 23 new probable cases of the novel coronavirus COVID-19, 45 additional confirmed deaths and 5 new probable deaths.

This brings the total number of confirmed cases to 94,837 probable cases to 635, confirmed deaths to 1,819 and probable deaths to 75.

A total of 54 new cases were reported in Florence County, bringing its total to 3,182. Its death total rose to 105, which ranks fifth in the state behind Greenville (189), Charleston (172), Richland (145) and Horry (138) counties. Two of the Florence County deaths announced Wednesday involved middle-aged people.

In Darlington County, 24 new cases and one death were announced Wednesday, bringing the totals to 1,172 cases and 33 deaths.

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One death  a middle-aged person  was announced Wednesday in Marion County, bringing the death toll there to 13.
Almost five months after schools across the state were shuttered due to the coronavirus pandemic, students in St. Charles Parish returned to classrooms Thursday morning, the first public school district in the New Orleans area to resume in-person instruction.

About 7,500 students, 80% of the children enrolled in the district, are expected to come back to campuses, St. Charles Parish schools Superintendent Ken Oertling said. The other 20% opted for at-home instruction through the district's eLearning program, which begins on Aug. 12.

"We are running two completely different school systems with the same resources and staffing," Oertling said. "We have been working night and day and weekends to put these things together for our families."

Across the metro area and state, the usual excitement of a new school year has been replaced in many places by trepidation and protests. Noting the worries of some teachers and parents, the St. Tammany and Orleans parishes school districts delayed in-person classes until after Labor Day. St. John the Baptist Parish public schools are slated to open Aug. 17.

Meanwhile, in Jefferson Parish, where in-person classes are scheduled to begin Aug. 12, teachers have been vocal in their criticism of districts leaders refusing to delay the start.

None of that was evident Thursday morning as 9-year-old Brennan Binnings, sporting a Minecraft backpack and black face mask, caught the bus outside of his St. Rose home for his first day of fourth grade.

The classes were smaller, the desks had more space between them, and Brennan could only play with the students in his class at recess, instead of all the other kids, said his mother, Karen Binnings, 33.

He had a really good day, Binnings said, noting that Brennan would have to take home all of his school supplies  notebooks, folders, loose leaf paper, etc.  every day, another COVID-19 precaution.

It's a great start to the new school year in St. Charles Parish Public Schools. We love  seeing our students and employees back on campus! Welcome back, SCPPS! #SCPPS20201stDays pic.twitter.com/fCfeHLrov4  SCPPS (@SCPPS) August 6, 2020

Students also returned to the classrooms at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic School in Destrehan and De La Salle High School in New Orleans on Thursday, according to Sarah McDonald, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

Each individual Catholic school has set its own calendar, McDonald said. On Wednesday, Mary, Queen of Peace Catholic School in Mandeville had been the first Archdiocese school to open its doors to students.

Parents in St. Charles Parish were allowed to choose between in-person instruction or virtual learning, a difficult decision for moms and dads who found themselves torn between safety concerns, work demands and the health and education of their children.

Returning to school in metro New Orleans: A coronavirus Q&A for parents Going back to school in fall 2020 in metro New Orleans will be a learning experience for everyone as the state continues its fight against cor

Misty Coupel opted to send her daughters, Savannah, 7, and Vivian, 5, back to Norco Elementary School.

My kids thrive on structure and schedule, said Coupel, 37, who works full-time from home. I have to be at the computer. I have deadlines to meet. I dont have the ability to spend the time to teach them, and to work. And they just needed a little bit more normalcy back.

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The district has implemented a number of new pandemic-related procedures. Staffers will perform temperature checks for all students as they exit buses and private vehicles. Anyone with a temperature of 100.4 or above after a 10-minute recheck will be sent home, according to school officials.

"Everything we're doing is completely new. We want to make sure we take appropriate measures to get it right," Oertling said.

Students in 3rd-12th grades must wear face coverings in classrooms, hallways and on buses. Masks are "suggested" for younger children. Teachers are required to wear face coverings at all times.

If a student or staffer is exhibiting symptoms or received a presumptive positive test for COVID-19, the person must quarantine for at least 10 to 14 days and cannot return to school until symptoms have improved, theyve been fever free for at least 24 hours and/or they test negative for the virus, Oertling said.

The school will identify anyone who has been in close contact -- defined as being less than 6 feet apart for 15 minutes or longer  with the person. They, too, must quarantine for 10 to 14 days depending on whether they are exhibiting symptoms.

The entire school will get a courtesy notification that there was an identified case, Oertling said.

Any further decisions on whether classrooms or a school would have to close after a positive case will depend on consultation with the Louisiana Department of Health, he said.

Bus routes usually handled by one driver will now have more buses with fewer students on board. Drivers are also required to clean their buses between runs, Oertling said.

The changes are expected to create delays.

"We're asking our families to be patient," Oertling said. "Now, more than ever, it's going to be a much longer process."

St. Charles public schools staggered its start-days for students in order to work out any bugs in the procedures.

Only students with last names that begin with A-K began classes Thursday. Students whose last names begin with L-Z will have their first day of school on Friday. All students will return to campus on Monday.

Elementary and middle school students will attend in-person classes five days a week. High school students will be split into two groups and follow a hybrid schedule with alternating days of at-home and in-person instruction.

Hahnville High School freshman Cadence Cheek, 14, was delighted to learn that most of her friends will be with her in the schools Gold group, according to her mother, Ingrid Cheek. But Cadence was disappointed that one of her best friends was assigned to Hahnvilles Purple group, meaning theyll be at school on different days.

Ingrid Cheek said she trusts the protocols put together by the school district. And she has confidence in Cadence and son Donavin, 11, to follow most of the safety precautions like hand-washing and the use of face masks. But she admits the social distancing may be a bit of challenge for all students.

They want to socialize. They want to hang out. They want to be with their friends and have all of those normal school activities. Theyre teenagers, she said.
Beijing: Ninety per cent of a sample group of coronavirus-recovered patients from a prominent hospital in China's Wuhan city where the pandemic broke out have reported lung damage and five per cent of them are again in quarantine after testing positive for the virus, according to a media report on Wednesday.

A team at the Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University led by Peng Zhiyong, director of the hospital's Intensive Care Unit, has been conducting follow-up visits with '100 recovered patients' since April.

The first phase of this one-year programme finished in July. The average age of the patients in the study is 59.

According to the first phase results, 90 per cent of the patients' lungs are still in a damaged state, which means their lungs ventilation and gas exchange functions have not recovered to the level of healthy people, state-run Global Times reported.

Peng's team conducted a six-minute walking test with the patients. They found that the recovered patients could only walk 400 metres in six minutes while their healthy peers could walk 500 metres in the same period.

Some recovered patients have to rely on oxygen machines even three months after being discharged from the hospital, Liang Tengxiao, a doctor from the Dongzhimen Hospital, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, was quoted as saying by the report.

Liang's team is also conducting follow-up visits with recovered patients aged above 65.

The results also showed that antibodies against the novel coronavirus in 10 per cent of the 100 patients have disappeared.

Five per cent of them received negative results in COVID-19 nucleic acid tests but positive results in Immunoglobulin M (IgM) tests, and thus have to be quarantined again, the report said.

IgM is usually the first antibody produced by the immune system when a virus attacks. A positive result in an IgM test usually means that a person has just been infected by the virus.

It is still unclear if this means these people have been infected again.

The 100 patients' immune systems have not fully recovered as they showed a low level of B cells -- - a primary force for killing viruses in the human body -- but a high level of T cells which only recognise viral antigens outside infected cells.

"The results revealed that the patients' immune systems are still recovering," Peng said.

The patients also suffered depression and a sense of stigma. Most of the recovered patients told the team that their families were not willing to have dinner with them at the same table, the report said.

Less than half of the recovered patients have returned to work, it said.

The findings are significant as the coronavirus first emerged in Wuhan city.

Hubei province for which Wuhan is the provincial capital has reported a total of 68,138 confirmed COVID-19 cases till now. The disease has claimed 4,512 lives in the province, according to the official data.

China reported 27 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, including 22 locally-transmitted cases, the National Health Commission (NHC) said on Wednesday.

All locally-transmitted cases were reported in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the NHC said.

On Tuesday, five new imported cases were also reported. Of the cases, two were reported in Shanghai and one each in Beijing, Sichuan and Shaanxi, the commission said.

As of Tuesday, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases had reached 84,491, including 810 patients who were still being treated, with 36 in severe condition.

Altogether 79,047 people had been discharged after recovery, and 4,634 had died of the disease in the mainland, the NHC said.




Haiti - News : Zapping...





Beirut : Message from President Moise

"Beirut, the capital of Lebanon was severely shaken by two violent explosions on Tuesday August 4th. The human losses and material damage are immense. I sympathize with the pain of this friendly country and express my solidarity with the Lebanese community living in Haiti ," President Jovenel Moise. [HL note : latest provisional toll: at least 137 dead, over 5,000 injured and over $3 billion in damage].



IBC Airways : Resumption of flights to Haiti

"Welcome back to the IBC Airways airline on the Fort Lauderdale / Cap Haitien route, may this new departure contribute to the revival of tourist and economic development in the entire region," former Senator of the North, Dieudonne Luma Etienne.



Banditry : Remarks by the Head of State

"The acts of banditry perpetrated in the country saddens us all deeply. Formal instructions have been issued to the competent authorities to strengthen security measures and crack down on those responsible for these heinous acts," Jovenel Moise.



OEA : Chancellor Joseph discusses elections

As part of his official working visit to Washington DC, Chancellor Claude Joseph met with Nestor Mendez the Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) together they discussed issues of regional interest. In addition, Chancellor Joseph met with Luis Almagro the Secretary General of the OAS to discuss the upcoming elections in Haiti. After this meeting Almagro said, "I have met with Chancellor Claude Joseph to discuss cooperation between the OAS and Haiti. We welcome the initiative to undertake consultations for a new CEP and urge all sectors to participate in view of the upcoming elections," Luis Almagro



The PNH is preparing new strategies

Rameau Normil, the Commander-in-Chief of the National Police of Haiti (PNH) is active alongside the senior executives of his command, in the development of new strategies as well as their appropriate application in the field, in order to suppress banditry, crime and restore public peace.



Construction of the Saint-Martin learning center

Dikel Delvariste, Director General of the National Institute for Vocational Training (INFP) accompanied by the General Coordinator of the Coordination Unit of Vocational Training Programs (UCPFP), carried out a supervisory visit to the construction site of the first phase of the Saint-Martin Learning Center, the inauguration of which is scheduled for March 2021.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















The dramatic series, produced by WTFN for Nine Network in Australia, follows a team of real-life medical heroes as they fight to save patients suffering life-threatening injuries in one of Australias biggest and busiest emergency hospitals, The Royal Melbourne.With its combination of unprecedented behind-the-scenes access, and a filming and narrative style that has much in common with scripted medical shows, Emergency is attracting a lot of interest from broadcasters keen to see new takes on flashing light shows, commented Fred Media COO Roger Vanderspikken.The Covid-19 pandemic has heightened global fascination for the work of people on the frontline in hospitals and the continued challenges they face while often putting their own lives at risk. We are excited to see the response from UK audiences and will watch with interest as the series rolls out in Sweden, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Brunei, as well as those other territories close to finalising deals.The series premiered on Nine Network in early July to what were said to be impressive ratings and critical acclaim. Emergency has been the Australian factual hit of 2020. The show has brought the real lives of the frontline doctors and nurses in to our loungerooms, and audiences have loved what theyve seen, remarked Adrian Swift, Nines head of content, production and development. Emergency more than doubled the previous slot average and achieved a free-to-air primary commercial channel share of 42.2% in total people and 33.5% share of 16-39s. It has won its time slot against Big Brother and Bachelor in Paradise on rival networks. Emergency is factual programming at its best: raw, authentic stories beautifully told.Discovery UKs Really channel will premiere the series on 10 August with more deals pending in Europe and North America.
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Linkedin Brian Imawan (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, August 6, 2020 15:42 530 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c0debc 3 Lifestyle GDP-Venture,cafe,coffee,coffee-maker Free

In recent years, Indonesia has seen rapid growth in coffee consumption. From less than 0.5 kg per capita in 2013, the number reached more than 1.1 kg per capita in 2019. Thousands of coffee shops were popping up across the country on a yearly basis. Then COVID-19 struck and changed completely the way we drink coffee.

For Indonesians, coffee has always been more than just a simple caffeine-kick. Sipping coffee is a social ritual meant to be shared on the table with family and friends. Indonesians love to hangout and a coffee shop, be it in the form of Instagram-able artisan joint or warung kopi (street-side peddler), is the perfect place to sit for hours and chat. Especially in rural cities like Bengkulu or Pontianak in West Kalimantan where life may not be as hectic as in the capital city, residents can gather in kopitiam, traditional coffee shops commonly found in Southeast Asia, for up to three times a day: in the morning, after lunch and in the evening. Even coffee shop brands that thrive as takeaway coffee in big cities have had to reassess their strategy to enter the market by providing sitting spaces.

Six months into the outbreak, coffee shop visitors are scarce. Even when the large-scale social restrictions were partially eased by the government and with health precautions implemented by coffee shops, at best the recovery has only reached 30 percent of the levels seen in the pre-COVID era. If we put aside the economic impact of customers' spending and focus on their behaviors, there are two noticeable things: (1) those who view coffee as a social tool might stop or reduce their coffee purchases and (2) those who have adopted coffee as a daily need will seek an alternative for their coffee supply.

The most obvious option is on-demand coffee delivery. This business model works better in Indonesia due to the fact that logistics costs here are very affordable. Delivery fees for up to around 3 kilometers can be less than US$1 versus the US$4-5 charged in developed countries, such as our neighbor Singapore. Local e-commerce giants have also dedicated a special page in their marketplaces for coffee orders. In light of product innovation, coffee shops introduced the 1-liter bottle for customers to consume at home. For the first few months of the pandemic, the method worked wonderfully.

Another option is brewing coffee at home. Home-brewed coffee such as Dalgona coffee became such a hype back in March. Among the many brewing methods, from instant coffee to having an automatic espresso machine, one of the most popular choices is drip coffee, which is very easy and promises the freshness that instant coffee lacks. People soon realized how much they could save by brewing their own coffee. A single serving of freshly brewed coffee can cost less than Rp 10,000 (less than US$1), compared to Rp 40,000 or Rp 50,000 commonly charged by coffee shops.

In office settings, it is slightly different. In a bid to protect their employees safety, many companies have installed coffee vending machines. Employees can make purchases on their own expense instead of having to queue in an exposed public area. The idea is to reduce any unnecessary social interaction in the working environment. Like brewing coffee at home, a cup of freshly brewed coffee from such machines typically costs around Rp 10,000, making it a much more affordable option.

With so many behavioral changes and alternative coffee options, what remains to be seen is whether coffee shops can continue to charge premium prices to customers. A coffee shop is a business that sells experiences. The smell of coffee being grounded, the sound of steaming milk to the cozy ambience one dreams to have at home; these are why customers are willing to pay premium prices. Such experience was also the unique selling point that propelled Starbucks to becoming the biggest coffee chain in the world. In Q2 2020, Starbucks reported a decline of more than US$3 billion in revenue and is on track to close down 400 stores across the United States. In turn, it plans to expand its number of pick-up stations and drive-thru only outlets. If the entire coffee experience is reduced to nothing else but the taste itself, the question that remains is: how much are customers willing to pay for a cup of coffee? (wng)

***

The writer is a cofounder of Jumpstart Coffee, a start-up that combines technology with traditional coffee brewing methods. Before founding Jumpstart in 2017, he was a national business analyst for Semen Merah Putih.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
According AIT report, 17 APC members of the Edo State Assembly has elected Emmanuel Agbaje representing Akoko Edo 2 as new speaker Extempore for the state.

The election process took place at undisclosed location.

At the venue, the 17 APC members of the Edo state house of Assembly held parallel session and also inaugurated 12 members not earlier inaugurated.



Breaking: 12 @OfficialAPCNg members-elect "take over" Edo House of Assembly | AIT LIVE https://t.co/KtzJegXlaw  AIT (@AIT_Online) August 6, 2020



Breaking: 17 APC members of the Edo state house of assembly holds parallel session, elects Emmanuel Agbaje representing Akoko Edo 2 as speaker protempore. The session also inaugurated 12 members not earlier inaugurated. pic.twitter.com/LesuNiM31W  AIT (@AIT_Online) August 6, 2020
Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government on Wednesday decided to increase the remuneration of the National Health Mission (NHM) employees both on contract and on a daily basis in addition to incentives and risk allowances.

The state cabinet announced also a financial assistance package for non-resident Keralites who could not go back to their place of work abroad and are stranded in the state since the lockdown.

Since the remuneration of NHM employees involved in COVID-19 work is limited, those on contract and also those employed on a daily basis would be provided additional benefits. Incentives and risk allowances have been introduced, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told reporters. This would incur an additional expenditure of Rs 22.68 crore per month, he said.

The cabinet decided to allot Rs 50 crore from the Chief Minister's Disaster Relief Fund (CMDRF) to NORKA (non- resident Keralites affairs) Roots to provide assistance of Rs 5,000 to each of the expatriates, he said.

This is in addition to the Rs 8.5 crore given earlier, the Chief Minister said.

The minimum wage for Grade-I (medical officers and specialists) would be raised from Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000 per month with a risk allowance of 20 per cent.

Grade-II (senior consultants, dental surgeons and Ayush Doctors) would be given a 20 per cent risk allowance.

The minimum monthly salary of Grade-III (staff nurses, junior health inspectors, pharmacists and technicians) would be increased from Rs 13,500 to Rs 20,000 along with a 25 per cent risk allowance, he said.

The last grade employees would be given a 30 per cent risk allowance in addition to their daily wages.

The Chief Minister further said the incentives and risk allowances would be given to all newly hired employees engaged in the virus-related work.

The COVID-19 Health Policy packages for various ailments would also be provided to employees who are not covered under the Karunya Arogya Suraksha Padhathi (KASP) scheme.
Girl Scouts of the Southern Appalachians announces Cindee McBride is being promoted to director of Tennessee Valley and North Georgia Region.

Ms. McBride brings marketing, media, and sales development experience to GSCSA. Before joining GSCSA, she was the director of marketing at several firms, including iHeartMedia Group in Birmingham, Al. She was the account executive for Brewer Media Group in Chattanooga. Ms. McBride also processes a background in budget management, public relations, human resources, and paralegal tasks.

Ms. McBride is very involved in the community, having served in numerous roles on diverse charitable boards and organizations, including Susan G. Komen, Breast Cancer Research Foundation of Alabama, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, March of Dimes, Salvation Army, American Heart Association, Childrens Miracle Network, Ronald McDonald House, St. Jude Childrens Hospital Telethon, and Alabama Childrens Hospital.
The BJP leader who is on a three-day visit to his parliamentary constituency Barmer, also said the state government has lost the confidence of the people

Jaipur: Union minister Kailash Chaudhary on Thursday said the Congress government in Rajasthan, led by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, will collapse and its countdown has begun.

With this, he said, the Congress's politics too would come to an end in the state.

Chaudhary, who is on a three-day visit to his parliamentary constituency Barmer, said the state government has lost the confidence of people and the chief minister has to confine MLAs to hotels.

"The Gehlot government will fail to prove its majority in the floor test in the Assembly. Not only have the people of Rajasthan lost faith in the government, ministers and MLAs too are not happy with the chief minister," he said.

Interacting with the locals of Lakha, Jhinjhinyali, Devikot and other villages of Jaisalmer, the Union minister of State for Agriculture said the Centre has introduced many schemes and programmes for public welfare.

He also pointed out that the provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution were abrogated in Jammu and Kashmir and the foundation for the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya was laid during the rule of the current government.

Amid a political crisis in Rajasthan, the MLAs supporting Gehlot are staying in hotels in Jaisalmer as the chief minister is trying to save his government, following a revolt by his former deputy Sachin Pilot and 18 other Congress legislators.
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has vowed to stop building Donald Trump's Mexico border wall if he is elected president in the up-coming November election.

However, the former Vice President has said that he won't tear down parts of the wall that have already been built.

'There will not be another foot of wall construction in my administration,' Biden said in an interview series broadcast on Yahoo! News.

'I'm going to make sure that we have border protection, but it's going to be based on making sure that we use high-tech capacity to deal with it. And at the ports of entry  that's where all the bad stuff is happening.'

Biden also went on to say that if elected, he would put an end to land confiscations along the border wall that had been carried out in order to build it.

When asked about the land confiscations, he said 'End. Stop. Done. Over. Not going to do it. Withdraw the lawsuits. We're out. We're not going to confiscate the land,' Biden said.

The intention to build a border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border was one of Trump's signature campaign promises in the 2016 national election, and has caused much conflict between his administration and the opposing Democratic party during his presidency.

Joe Biden fielded questions from journalists representing the National Association of Black Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists during a virtual conference (pictured), covering immigration, and said that while he would not knock down any of the border wall that has already been built, 'not another foot' would be build were he to be elected president in November

So far, just 277 miles of the border wall have been completed. However, less than 4 miles of the barrier was new, rather than replacement materials.

The entire length of the border shared by the U.S. and Mexico is 1,974 miles, but despite having only completed roughly 14 per cent of the wall, Trump on Tuesday promised that 'it will be almost finished by the end of the year.'

The cost of building the wall has been more than $15 billion so far, although Congress only authorized $5.1 billion of that total figure, with much of the money having been raised raised by diverting money away from the Pentagon.

In the hour-long interview during which Biden fielded questions from journalists representing the National Association of Black Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists, a number of other topics were also addressed.

Biden reiterated that he would end other key immigration initiatives brought in by the Trump administration which critics say have sparked a humanitarian crisis along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The intention to build a border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border was one of Trump's signature campaign promises in the 2016 national election, and has caused much conflict between his administration and the opposing Democratic party during his presidency. Pictured: Trump holds a rally in 2019 with supporters holding up 'Build the wall' and 'Finish the wall' signs

Biden said during the interview that he would stop the 'Remain in Mexico' program which has resulted in thousands of asylum seekers from Mexico stuck in large camps in Mexico waiting for their asylum hearings to be held

He said that he would put a stop to the Remain in Mexico program which requires thousands of people seeking asylum at the southern U.S. border to wait in Mexico while their claims are judged.

This has meant that many people are stuck in large camps where medical care has been unable to keep up with poor health conditions, while others are forced to stay in hotels taking cash jobs waiting for a hearing date.

Biden said that he would exit the program cautiously by first putting an 'infrastructure' in place to replace it by hiring enough lawyers, judges and grassroot organisations.

'We have to make sure that we build up the infrastructure to be able to accommodate Trump's cruel and inhumane border policies ... ripping children from their mother's arms and Trump's migrant protection protocols, you know: Remain in Mexico program,' Biden said.

'I mean, all of this is going to take time, not a long time, but it's going to take, you have to be prepared, so we don't create another crisis.' Biden also said that he would stop 'jailing' families seeking asylum, adding 'There's ways to monitor without putting them in jail.'

The entire length of the border shared by the U.S. and Mexico is 1,974 miles, but despite having only completed roughly 14 per cent of the wall (pictured being built on July 21, 2020) Trump on Tuesday promised that 'it will be almost finished by the end of the year'

So far, just 277 miles of the border wall have been completed. However, less than 4 miles of the barrier was new, rather than replacement materials

The former Vice President was also questioned about the Department for Homeland Security which has come under criticism for tactics used by its agents when overseeing Trump's immigration policies.

Once journalist asked how he would hold the agency - which now extends itself beyond the borders to cities like Portland - to account, Biden said 'You hold it accountable by being president and acting accountable. I will have someone heading that department that listens to what we say.

'It's outrageous, what's being done now,' he said. 'This is about families, families, and you have so many young children, so many young children under enormous pressure and psychological pressure, wondering whether or not they're going to come home and there's no one there. We need to do so much more.'

A video surfaced recently from 2006 of then-Senator Biden of Delaware advocating for fencing along the shared border.

'Folks, I voted for a fence, I voted, and unlike most Democrats - and some of you won't like it - I voted for 700 miles of fence,' he said, in the video unearthed by CNN.

'But, let me tell you, we can build a fence 40 stories high - unless you change the dynamic in Mexico and -- and you will not like this, and - punish American employers who knowingly violate the law when, in fact, they hire illegals,' Biden added. 'Unless you do those two things, all the rest is window dressing.'

A spokesperson for Biden's campaign said that the former vice president's position hasn't changed but that a border wall wouldn't 'address the real issues.'

Donald Trump was invited to participate in the virtual interview series set up through the NABJ/NAHJ 2020 Convention, but his organization declined the offer.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday congratulated his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa on the conduct of parliamentary elections, saying early results indicate an impressive performance by the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party.

The two leaders agreed to remain in close touch as both countries address the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and also to take bilateral relations to newer heights in the coming days, according to a readout from the external affairs ministry on a phone conversation between Modi and Rajapaksa.

The counting of votes began on Thursday and SLPP has said it is confident about a historic victory with a two-thirds majority in Parliament.

Modi commended the government and the electoral institutions of Sri Lanka for effectively organising the elections despite the constraints of the pandemic. He also appreciated the Sri Lankan peoples participation in the elections, and said this reflected the strong democratic values shared by both countries.

Prime Minister Modi noted that the incoming results of the elections indicate an impressive electoral performance by the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party, and conveyed his congratulations and best wishes to...Mahinda Rajapaksa in this regard, the readout said.

The two leaders reiterated their shared commitment to strengthen the multi-dimensional bilateral relationship, and stressed the significance of early progress in all spheres of bilateral cooperation, the readout added.

PM Modi also informed Rajapaksa about the establishment of an international airport in the Buddhist pilgrimage city of Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh, and said the city looked forward to welcoming visitors from Sri Lanka.
TikTok is planning to build its first European data centre in Ireland as part of a 375 million investment.

Until now, the popular video sharing site has stored all of its user data in US, with a back-up copy in Singapore.

It comes after the company has reportedly set its sights on opening a London HQ in a move approved by ministers.

The move highlights Chinese-owned TikTok's efforts to remain active outside of the U.S. amid threats of a ban on the app by President Donald Trump. Trump has threatened to ban the app in the U.S. on national security grounds.

TikTok is planning to build its first European data centre in Ireland as part of a 375 million investment

TIkTok's parent company ByteDance, which is headquartered in Beijing, announced that it has singled out Ireland as the location for its third data centre, meaning information on British and European users would be hosted on Irish servers.

'This is an important symbol of our commitment to the long term in Europe and it shows the importance of Ireland for us,' said Theo Bertram, TikTok's director of public policy in Europe.

'You can look in Europe and see that there are concerns about data transfer [to the US], I think one could perceive a gradual movement towards how that might shake out over time and this will give our users more confidence in Europe to know its on European servers,' Mr Bertram told The Times newspaper.

TikTok is the first Chinese app to have become an international hit and has 100 million users in the U.S. alone.

The move highlights Chinese-owned TikTok's efforts to promote its protection of data amid threats of a ban on the app by President Donald Trump

TikTok has come under fire from U.S. lawmakers and the administration over national security concerns as months-long tensions between Washington and Beijing intensified.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday: 'With parent companies based in China, apps like Tiktok, WeChat and others are significant threats to personal data of American citizens, not to mention tools for CCP (Chinese Communist Party) content censorship.'

TikTok currently faces a deadline of September 15 to either sell its U.S. operations to Microsoft Corp or face an outright ban.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (pictured) said TikTok poses a significant threat to the personal data of American citizens

U.S.-China ties are at the lowest ebb in decades with relations strained over the global coronavirus pandemic, China's military buildup in the South China Sea, its treatment of Uighur Muslims and Beijing's massive trade surpluses

Pompeo also said the United States was working to prevent Huawei Technologies Co Ltd from pre-installing or making available for download the most popular U.S. apps while protecting the sensitive information of U.S. businesses, including COVID-19 vaccine research, from being accessed via cloud-based systems run by companies including Alibaba and Baidu.
Viruses that are contained within a lipid membrane or enveloped viruses such as coronaviruses and rhinoviruses can remain active for long periods in cool, dry conditions, which can lead to increased rates of respiratory infections.

However, these viruses, which include severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) are sensitive to heat, and temperatures tolerable to humans, can be enough to destroy the lipid envelope and deactivate them.

Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 Transmission electron micrograph of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles, isolated from a patient. Image captured and color-enhanced at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland. Credit: NIAID

All mammals use fever as a way to manage infection, and historically, heat has been used in the form of hot springs, saunas, hot mud and sweat-lodges to treat and prevent respiratory tract infections.

The relatively low cost, convenience, and ease of access to heat-based therapy, along with its multiple physical and psychological beneficial effects, make this type of therapy a desirable option for helping to fight respiratory infections.

Heat is also often used to deactivate the viruses included in vaccines, with temperatures of 55 to 65C having been shown to inactivate various types of enveloped viruses, including coronaviruses.

However, no clinical protocols are currently in place for the use of heat treatments in cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), as heat has not yet been proved effective as a means of treatment or prevention.

Now, Dr. Mark Cohen, Founder of the Extreme Wellness Institute* in Melbourne, Australia, has reviewed some of the evidence supporting the use of heat in the treatment and prevention of viral infections, as well as some of the proposed underlying physiological and psychological mechanisms of action.

The first line of defense following viral infection

One of the first lines of defense during the initial phase of respiratory viral infection is the upper airways, which provide a mucosal barrier that traps virions and enables them to be recognized by the immune system. Virions are also moved by the mucocilia towards the throat, where they can be swallowed or expelled from the body through coughing or sneezing.

Cohen says the ability of cool, dry conditions to enhance viral infection has been demonstrated in a study of mice. Compared with a humidity of 50%, a humidity of around 20% slowed mucociliary clearance in the animals, impaired their innate antiviral defense mechanisms, and reduced tissue repair, leading to more severe illness.

During the initial phase of a viral infection, the inhalation of hot, humid air can support the immune systems first line of defense, by directly inhibiting or deactivating virions lodged in the upper airway and by aiding mucociliary clearance.

This can also be further enhanced by inhaling steam, says Cohen.

Writing on the Open Research publishing platform F1000Research, Cohen says, the inhalation of steam with added essential oils with antiviral, decongestant, anxiolytic and other properties, may further assist in facilitating mucociliary clearance and reducing viral load as well as providing physical and psychological relief.

The second line of defense

Next, Cohen talks about the bodys second line of defense, saying that if respiratory viruses manage to survive the first line of defense, they will then encounter the effects of fever, which is part of the bodys acute phase response.

Heat applied to the whole body mimics fever, thereby enhancing this second line of defense and activating multiple cellular responses regulated by the immune system, inflammation, and the heat shock response pathway.

Febrile temperatures have been demonstrated to make the membranes of immune cells more fluid, which increases their proliferation and the effectiveness of their response to viral threats.

The psychological benefits of heat-treatment

Cohen also discusses the psychological benefits heat-based treatments provide by helping people focus, relax, and sleep. In the context of lockdown measures, sauna bathing, for example, can divert attention from stress-inducing media reports and relieve the boredom that can manifest as a result of self-isolation. Sauna bathing has also been shown to enhance sleep, which in turn, supports immune function.

The challenges faced

Although there is evidence to support the use of heat-based treatments for the prevention and treatment of viral respiratory infections, no clinical protocols currently exist that are relevant to COVID-19. Nevertheless, a long history of traditional use and a wide range of traditional practices could help to inform their development, says Cohen.

However, implementing heat-based therapies would be challenging, he adds: The current pandemic has seen the fear of infection lead to the widespread closure of public facilities such as bathing facilities, commercial hot springs, spas, gymnasiums, hotels and fitness centers that offer saunas and heat treatments.

On the other hand, some moves are in place to start re-opening facilities as quarantined areas where people can receive heat treatments and where medical staff can relax. It may also be possible to incorporate saunas and steam rooms within hospital buildings and rehabilitation centers for both staff and patients to use. In addition, simple, home-based protocols would provide isolated or quarantined individuals with guidance about using heat-based treatments.

Crowdsourced, citizen-science platforms could help optimize strategies

Cohen suggests that such protocols could be assessed using crowdsourced, citizen-science platforms, which could help to develop, test, and optimize heat-treatment strategies for current and future pandemics.

While there are significant challenges in implementing heat-based therapies during the current pandemic, he writes these therapies present an opportunity to integrate natural medicine, conventional medicine and traditional wellness practices, and support the wellbeing of both patients and medical staff, while building community resilience and reducing the likelihood and impact of future pandemics.

Competing Interests

Dr. Marc Cohen is a medical doctor who is a Board Member of the Global Wellness Summit and a shareholder in Maruia Hot Springs, which is a boutique hot springs resort in the Southern Alps of New Zealand. He is also a Member of the Global Thermal Think Tank, Co-Founder of the Bathe the World Foundation and Founder of the Extreme Wellness Institute.
SAO PAULO, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- QINTESS, one of the top ten major IT companies in Brazil, announces an investment of R$ 10 million over the next five years to support and foster entrepreneurship, diversity, and social innovation in Brazil. Vale do Dende, an entrepreneurial innovation center based in the city of Salvador, will be the first organization to receive funding. Resources for training and seed capital will be provided to young Afro-descendant-led startups and businesses focused on cultivating diversity and creating growth in this area.

This national initiative, spearheaded by Qintess, seeks to increase the number of entrepreneurs in the tech industry who are of African descent, who are from the LGBTI+ community and who are disabled, as well as from other marginalized communities. It also seeks to help small businesses make the transition to digital in order to remain viable during and after the Coronavirus pandemic. Collaborative businesses, gaming companies and digital startups will be supported with training, with global and national mentorship, as well as with access to seed capital.

Qintess has selected Vale do Dende as their strategic partner in the social business space because of their successful track record with regard to organizing and supporting entrepreneurs from marginalized communities. They are one of Brazil's leaders among businesses focused on social impact. Vale do Dende focuses on the Northeast of Brazil, one of the regions currently in the most need of investment. Furthermore, this partnership will result in the establishment of new innovation hubs mirroring the ones currently in place at Vale do Dende. These will exist in every capital where Qintess is located, including Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Curitiba and Fortaleza.

As part of this strategic partnership, Qintess will be sponsoring Vale do Dende to ensure that the organizational culture and vision created by its founders is cultivated and given the opportunity to grow and expand. "This initiative is coherent with my philosophy. It is fundamental for the companies to develop and implement concrete actions instead of only talking about diversity and inclusion", says Nana Baffour, CEO, Chairman and Culture Chief Officer of Qintess.

Qintess' aims to have 2,000 young people from marginalized communities virtually trained in coding (Java, .Net, and Python) within the next five years. The company also looks to accelerate 500 companies by leveraging professional mentors with great market experience as well as their relationships with investors. Fifty of these companies will have access to Qintess' company fund of R $2.5 million as seed capital to scale their businesses.

According to Lauro Chacon, Vice-President of Qintess Human Capital, this initiative meets the company's strategies in considering ESG practices in order to promote sustainable growth. "We are an organization oriented to people and we use best environmental, social and corporate governance practices to guide our business. When establishing a partnership such as this one, it is important to reinforce our commitment to promoting diversity, to speeding up innovation and to contributing to all of our clients, collaborators and stakeholder ecosystems, as well as to society as a whole.", he says.

Qintess' executives and its team of collaborators will bring new digital technologies and management techniques to increase Vale do Dende's scalability. Valde do Dende has been operating an acceleration program since 2018. This initiative, which operated out of a physical hub inside one of the biggest bus and subway stations in Salvador, has already benefitted 90 startup companies.

"It is a moment of celebration and pride! I have no doubts that all of the legacy built by Vale do Dende for Salvador and Brazil's ecosystem will be strengthened by this partnership.", says Itala Herta, Vale do Dende's co-founder.

"This partnership with Qintess confirms our bet on the importance of Salvador's outskirts in particular, and of the Northeast in general, in the development of a creative economy and of innovation in Brazil. I believe the country will not fulfill its destiny of being a great nation if it is not capable of integrating young Afro-Brazilians into sustainable development", says Rosenildo Ferreira, co-founder and Innovation and Marketing Director of Vale do Dende.

"We are very happy to be entering in this agreement with Qintess. We believe that because Qintess is a great technology company with great investment capacity, it can support our dream and allow it to thrive for many years, expanding on the work we have started," says Paulo Rogerio Nunes, co-founder and Executive Director of Vale do Dende.

Teams involving Qintess' and Vale do Dende's executives and collaborators are beginning their joint activities this month. The plan is to implement more than one round of acceleration and of training courses in the technology sector for young people, which will be in operation until the end of the year.

According to Roberto Silva, Qintess Regional Director for The Northeast and Minas Gerais, that partnership makes Vale do Dende the protagonist in digital transformation for the region. "We are very proud of this partnership because we are going to bring together social entrepreneurship and cutting-edge technology to promote responsible practices."

SOURCE Qintess
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 03:27:11|Editor: huaxia

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A prisoner looks through a door after an attack in Jalalabad city, Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, Aug. 3, 2020. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

The council members underlined the need to hold perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice.



UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council on Wednesday condemned Monday's terrorist attack that took place at a prison complex in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, which resulted in at least 29 people killed, for which the Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility.

In a press statement, the members of the Security Council expressed their deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims and to the government of Afghanistan, and they wished a speedy and full recovery to those who were injured.

Photo taken on Aug. 3, 2020 shows a damaged building near the site of an attack in Jalalabad city, Nangarhar province, Afghanistan. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

The council members underlined the need to hold perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice, and urged all states to cooperate actively with the government of Afghanistan and all other relevant authorities in this regard.

They said terrorism in all forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security, and stressed the need for all states to combat by all means threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts. 
Albert and Gonzalo Cano Lapuente cool off in a Bestway Above Ground Pool in Premia de Mar

By Joan Faus and Timothy Aeppel

BARCELONA/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Locked down, hot and desperate for a dip? If you live in Indianapolis and fancy putting a pool in your back yard there's a three-week wait - but that's just for an appointment to order one for next year.

Across the United States and Europe, manufacturers and distributors of swimming pools and hot tubs are scrambling to meet a wave of demand as consumers cocoon at home to escape the coronavirus pandemic.

Frustrated by the long lead times and worried about a second wave of infections, some U.S. consumers have even resorted to fashioning home-made pools out of metal livestock tanks despite the health and safety concerns.

"I've been in this industry for 35 years and I've never seen anything like this," said Thomas Epple, chief executive of Only Alpha Pool Products in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Epple said orders for its steel and composite pool walls surged 200% in 60 days after a lacklustre March and April and he has now doubled output by taking on more workers, adding shifts and paying lots of overtime.

"The shortage of materials in the industry is great - pumps, heaters, above-ground pools have been sold out for some time."

The swimming pool boom illustrates how the health crisis has altered consumer habits in favour of stay-at-home businesses as the world struggles to contain new outbreaks and some people avoid beaches, pools and lakes to vacation at home.

In Indianapolis, Tyler Hermon, sales director at Pools of Fun, said his phone hasn't stopped ringing after an initial lull and sales are now up 43% from a year ago.

"I 100 percent attribute this to people quarantined at home," he said, adding that customers faced a three-week wait for an appointment just to talk about installations for 2021.

"The race is now on to get on the schedule for next year because everyone's anticipating there will be another round, another wave."

Story continues

About 45% of members of the Pool & Hot Tub Alliance, the main U.S. industry trade group, forecast revenues would rise 10% or more this year.

"We're hearing from members that have contracts booked out to late 2021 and even into early 2022," said the alliance's president Sabeena Hickman.

A HOME OASIS

It's a similar story in Spain, a country known for its sizzling summer temperatures which imposed one of Europe's toughest lockdowns to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Spain's Fluidra <FLUI.MC>, the world's largest swimming pool equipment maker, initially furloughed employees in anticipation of a slump in demand but it soon put them all back to work, and hired more people.

In May, Fluidra ran out of stock and production capacity for the year for its above-ground pools, despite the extra staff. Sales of those models, which cost about 1,300 euros ($1,531), jumped over 50% in early July from the same period of 2019.

But sales at its community pools division, which supplies pools and equipment for clients such as hotels, dropped 11.7% in the first half of the year due to the impact of lockdowns.

"People want more property, larger houses because they are working from home, and want their environment to be an oasis in case they are confined again," said Fluidra chief executive Bruce Brooks.

"I think that will continue until there's a vaccine and a return to normal," he said, adding that the pool industry trend was being replicated across the Western world as the "cocooning effect" offset the economic downturn.

Sales of easy-to-build pools by the home equipment distributor Leroy Merlin in Spain soared more than 200% in the first six months of 2020 from a year earlier and stores are now out of stock, said head of products Ines Egea.

Laila Dagali, 36, splashed out on an inflatable pool for the terrace of her house near Barcelona in May as she shunned the beach and a neighbourhood pool because of "the fear of being with unknown people" during the pandemic.

In Germany, demand for home pools has been on the rise for a few years but has "significantly intensified" with the pandemic, said a spokeswoman for manufacturer Hornbach Holding <HBH.DE>.

The big question for pool manufacturers now is how long the trend will last.

Carles Torrecilla, marketing professor at Esade business school in Barcelona, said it was too early to tell because new consumer habits can take years to consolidate.

"Only if the coronavirus lasts 10 years, behaviour and habits will change."

($1 = 0.8489 euros)

(Reporting by Joan Faus in Barcelona and Tim Aeppel in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Christoph Steitz in Frankfurt; Writing by Joan Faus; Editing by Andrei Khalip and David Clarke)
5 highlights from Senate hearing on anarchist violence: Cruz slams Dems for not denouncing Antifa

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Solutions to curb the violence caused by Antifa and radical anarchist groups were discussed in a U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing this week, with one prominent Democrat walking out after being challenged to denounce Antifa.

The hearing of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, chaired by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was titled The Right of the People Peaceably to Assemble: Protecting Speech by Stopping Anarchist Violence.

During the hearing, Cruz denounced Antifa, a far-left movement comprised of organized militant groups who claim to oppose fascism but instead commit violent assaults, vandalism, arson and other criminal activity to thwart free speech. Recently, they've been seen committing violent acts in protests nationwide, including in Seattle and Portland.

Cruz accused Antifa of stealing the protests of minorities searching for racial justice, and denounced Democrats on the subcommittee, such as Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, for refusing to denounce Antifa by name.

The following pages list five highlights from the hearing.
Luxembourg's student union (DAssociation des Cercles dEtudiants Luxembourgeois) proposes a new platform allowing students to request coronavirus tests prior to taking exams abroad.

Many of Luxembourg's students are enrolled at universities abroad, which poses some issues with current restrictions.

Due to the current increase in cases, many countries have imposed either a fortnight's quarantine or require a negative test prior to allowing students to return to their places of study.

In order to support these students, the Ministries of Education and Health have joined together with the ACEL union to offer a new procedure.

A new platform will now allow students to request a voucher in order to be tested for free. In order to benefit from this document, certain conditions must be met:

- the student must be registered with a university or place of higher education

- the applicant must participate in a university event (exam, compulsory course)

- the country in which the university is based must require a negative test on arrival

Information concerning this new screening procedure is available on the acel.lu website and in their official statement.
A for sale sign is seen next to a house in Arlington, Virginia on May 6, 2020.

Mortgage rates fell to another record low this week, the eighth record set this year. But home affordability is weakening as the housing shortage, high demand from buyers and rising home prices negate the benefits of lower rates.

Only 59.6% of new and existing homes sold in the second quarter of this year were considered affordable to families earning an adjust median income of $72,900, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index. That's down from 61.3% in the first quarter of 2020 and is the lowest reading in 18 months. NAHB did make an adjustment to median income estimates to account for the coronavirus pandemic.

The index based its calculations on the national median home price jumping to a record $300,000 from $280,000 and average mortgage rates falling 27 basis points.

The inventory of existing homes for sale at the end of June was down 18.2% annually, according to the National Association of Realtors, leaving just a four-month supply available. Supplies of newly built homes also fell 14.5% annually, according to the U.S. Census.

"The number of homes for sale has reached some of the lowest levels since online platforms began tracking inventory, leading to a frenzied environment of multiple bids, price escalation clauses and inspection waivers," said George Ratiu, a senior economist at realtor.com.

While lower mortgage rates certainly give buyers more spending power, they also support higher home prices, and price gains reaccelerated in June after slowing in May, according to CoreLogic.

"Even with attractive rates and rising demand, banks have continued to tighten lending standards in July, further restricting available credit. At this pace, tighter lending standards and low inventory will squeeze housing activity and we will see a substantial slowdown in sales in the second half of this year," added Ratiu.

Looking locally, the Scranton-Wilkes Barre-Hazleton, Pennsylvania, market was rated the nation's most affordable major housing market, defined as a metro with a population of at least 500,000, in the NAHB index. More than 89% of new and existing homes sold in the second quarter were affordable to families earning that area's median income of $66,600.

San Francisco-Redwood City-South San Francisco, California, was the nation's least affordable major housing market. Just 8.5% of the homes sold there were affordable to families earning the area's median income of $129,200.
TEL AVIV/SINGAPORE Beware, Singaporeans standing too close, automated drones might be keeping an eye on you from above.

Singapores police have been trialling two pilotless drones developed by Israels Airobotics to help enforce social distancing measures aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19.

The small machines weigh 10 kg (22 pounds) and are programmed to track anomalies such as gatherings and stream footage to the police.

The three-and-a-half-month trial, over an industrial estate in the west of the city, is the first time automated commercial drones have been approved to fly over a major metropolis, according to Airobotics.

Specifically for COVID, what we are doing is helping them maintain normal operations, CEO Ran Krauss told Reuters. The pandemic created a situation where it might be difficult for police to maintain operations.

Singapore governments Home Team Science & Technology Agency (HTX) said it had trialled the drones with police.

They can pinpoint locations and zoom into areas that might not be visible to police officers on foot or in vehicles, Senior Engineer Low Hsien Meng from HTXs Robotics, Automation & Unmanned Systems Centre, said.

Airobotics, which has raised $120 million in funding, said it had invested some $100 million to develop the drones. It was leasing them to HTX and also for business and industrial use in Israel and the United States, it said.

Airobotics and HTX have begun the next, year-long stage of the project to explore further capabilities, including using the drones to deliver defibrillators where needed, the company said.

Airobotics said the social distancing aspect of the trial was still ongoing. HTX did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.

The tiny island nation, known for its strict laws and widespread surveillance, initially won global praise for containing virus spread before mass outbreaks in cramped migrant worker dormitories saw its caseload climb sharply.

Krauss said Airobotics is in talks with other cities to deploy the drones.

(Editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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
Even when a business is losing money, it's possible for shareholders to make money if they buy a good business at the right price. For example, although Amazon.com made losses for many years after listing, if you had bought and held the shares since 1999, you would have made a fortune. Having said that, unprofitable companies are risky because they could potentially burn through all their cash and become distressed.

So should TP Group (LON:TPG) shareholders be worried about its cash burn? For the purposes of this article, cash burn is the annual rate at which an unprofitable company spends cash to fund its growth; its negative free cash flow. First, we'll determine its cash runway by comparing its cash burn with its cash reserves.

View our latest analysis for TP Group

When Might TP Group Run Out Of Money?

You can calculate a company's cash runway by dividing the amount of cash it has by the rate at which it is spending that cash. As at December 2019, TP Group had cash of UK6.6m and no debt. In the last year, its cash burn was UK4.3m. Therefore, from December 2019 it had roughly 18 months of cash runway. That's not too bad, but it's fair to say the end of the cash runway is in sight, unless cash burn reduces drastically. You can see how its cash balance has changed over time in the image below.

Is TP Group's Revenue Growing?

Given that TP Group actually had positive free cash flow last year, before burning cash this year, we'll focus on its operating revenue to get a measure of the business trajectory. It's nice to see that operating revenue was up 49% in the last year. Of course, we've only taken a quick look at the stock's growth metrics, here. This graph of historic revenue growth shows how TP Group is building its business over time.

Can TP Group Raise More Cash Easily?

Notwithstanding TP Group's revenue growth, it is still important to consider how it could raise more money, if it needs to. Issuing new shares, or taking on debt, are the most common ways for a listed company to raise more money for its business. Many companies end up issuing new shares to fund future growth. We can compare a company's cash burn to its market capitalisation to get a sense for how many new shares a company would have to issue to fund one year's operations.

Story continues

TP Group's cash burn of UK4.3m is about 7.7% of its UK56m market capitalisation. That's a low proportion, so we figure the company would be able to raise more cash to fund growth, with a little dilution, or even to simply borrow some money.

Is TP Group's Cash Burn A Worry?

The good news is that in our view TP Group's cash burn situation gives shareholders real reason for optimism. Not only was its cash burn relative to its market cap quite good, but its revenue growth was a real positive. Considering all the factors discussed in this article, we're not overly concerned about the company's cash burn, although we do think shareholders should keep an eye on how it develops. On another note, we conducted an in-depth investigation of the company, and identified 3 warning signs for TP Group (1 makes us a bit uncomfortable!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

Of course TP Group may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of companies boasting high return on equity, or this list of stocks that insiders are buying.

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.
"By launching the Social Impact Pitch Competition, we hope to aid entrepreneurs in solving important problems in our region and inspire the next generation of business leaders to build their companies with a culture of community and social impact as the foundation.

The Ann Arbor Entrepreneurs Fund (A2EF), in partnership with the University of Michigan Social Venture Fund (SVF) and A2 Startup Garage, announced the launch of their upcoming A2EF Social Impact Startup Pitch Competition, inviting select startup teams to share their business plan with a panel of expert judges to earn startup capital, co-working space and mentorship from the A2EF founder community and the SVF team.

The last several months have been extremely challenging for individuals and businesses, but there is no shortage of entrepreneurs looking for ways to make a difference, explains Trista Van Tine, A2EF Director. We have seen startups pivoting their businesses or products specifically to address needs that have arisen as a result of the pandemic, and by doing so, are not only helping their communities, but also seeing increased revenue and company growth. By launching the Social Impact Pitch Competition, we hope to aid entrepreneurs in solving important problems in our region and inspire the next generation of business leaders to build their companies with a culture of community and social impact as the foundation.

The Ann Arbor Entrepreneurs Fund is a network of entrepreneurs and investors in Washtenaw County who have made a commitment of 1% of company equity, investment carry or annual profits back to the community. As an initiative led from the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation, it provides a platform for founder engagement and support in achieving success with their ventures and a simple mechanism for young companies to build a culture of giving back into their business, making it easy for them to support their community. Launched in 2019, with a $1 million gift from the Song Foundation, A2EF already has 18 pledged members.

"We are proud to support the Ann Arbor Entrepreneurs Fund in its mission to align business success with community benefit. Businesses are made stronger by the communities that support them - and we hope that with A2EF's help, every founder can grow a culture of community engagement, service, and giving for their organization," said Dug Song, former Co-founder/CEO of Duo Security and President of the Song Foundation.

Dug Song also serves on the A2EF Steering Committee along with other prominent local leaders Doug Neal, eLab Ventures, Adrian Fortino, Mercury Fund, Bhushan Kulkarni, InfoReady and Jeff Rinvelt, Renaissance Venture Fund. All of whom have made personal giving pledges to the fund.

The A2EF Social Impact Competition takes place on September 24, 2020 as part of the A2Tech360 week-long series of programming hosted by Ann Arbor SPARK. Applications are now open to eligible companies at A2entrepreneursfund.org.

If you are a for-profit startup based in Washtenaw County or the surrounding region that:



Has a team of at least 2 people

Can demonstrate a measurable social/community need that is being addressed by your business in Washtenaw or Wayne County

Can demonstrate commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Have a scalable business model with a large addressable market

And are still at the seed stage or earlier in your venture

Please go to A2entrepreneursfund.org to apply for the chance to pitch your startup during A2Tech360 and secure $20,000 in funding. Applications will be open until 11:59 pm on August 31, 2020. Six finalists will be selected and invited to pitch their business.

Additional benefits to the winner, include:

12 months of free co-working space for three people at A2 Startup Garage, which includes access to all of the benefits that A2 Startup Garage offers to its members

12 months of mentorship from the University of Michigan Social Venture Fund team

12 months of ongoing support and access to the A2EF entrepreneurial network

12 months of corporate legal services provided by Bodman PLC

For more information about the unique opportunities available to entrepreneurs through the Ann Arbor Entrepreneurs Fund and how to become a member, please visit A2entrepreneursfund.org where you will see details on upcoming programs and events.

***********************************************************************

About The Song Foundation

The Song Foundation was founded in 2019 by Dug and Linh Song to invest in the innovative people and organizations who are improving the quality of life for all in Southeast Michigan, and helping to build a more just and equitable world.

About the Ann Arbor Entrepreneurs Fund and the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation

Ann Arbor Entrepreneurs Fund (A2EF) was founded in 2019 to foster startup and community growth in Washtenaw County. A2EF serves as a platform for founder-to-founder peer exchange by offering unique programming opportunities that aid entrepreneurs in building their ventures while connecting them more closely with their community. The platform for A2EF is the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation, a local nonprofit that stewards over $140 million in charitable assets, grants millions of dollars every year to Washtenaw County nonprofits, and can help interested entrepreneurs become effective community changemakers.

For more information, visit:

Website: http://www.A2entrepreneursfund.org

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/ann-arbor-entrepreneurs-fund
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 6) The head of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. on Thursday refuted allegations that its senior officials have stolen some 15 billion from the agency.

In a statement, PhilHealth President and CEO Ricardo Morales denied "in strongest terms" that its senior officials have pocketed such hefty amount from the state insurance agency, as claimed by resigned anti-fraud legal officer Thorrsson Keith during Tuesday's Senate hearing.

READ: Whistleblower claims 15 billion stolen by PhilHealth execs in fraud schemes

Morales reasoned that Keith, who was only hired as a job order contractor to do staff work under the Office of the President, "is in no position to discuss office matters" with only a nine-month stay within PhilHealth.

"I have no reason to doubt the people working at PhilHealth," said Morales.

Rodolfo Del Rosario, PhilHealth senior vice president for legal, said members of the agency's executive committee will file libel charges against Keith for spreading false claims to the media.

"Hindi pwede i-invoke [He cannot invoke] legislative immunity because he went around media stating those lies, those fabrications," Del Rosario told reporters.

The PhilHealth chief made the same line of defense during the congressional deliberations in the last two days, claiming that Keith was just being vengeful due to a rejected promotion.

During the hearing by the Senate Committee of the Whole, Keith bared that the 15 billion covers the unauthorized release of interim reimbursement mechanisms or IRM, funds allocated for "fortuitous events" such as the pandemic, to hospitals with no recorded COVID-19 cases.

The amount also includes the alleged "bloated" budget for IT equipment, which Morales had supposedly endorsed multiple times  a claim which he earlier dismissed as mere "inconsistencies" in figures.

Other senior officials also addressed the supposed overpricing saying the projected figure of over P300,000 per unit includes other "technical specifications" such as delivery services, value-added tax and training, compared to the market price that senators found online.

Fraud is not in PhilHealth

Morales believes if there is fraud, it would be in the hospitals.

"We have fraud analytics trying to detect outliers," he said. "That is where we think this fraud is occurring, not in PhilHealth."

This claim was also backed by Del Rosario and Renato Limsiaco, senior vice president for fund management, both of whom were tagged by Keith as possibly involved in the PhilHealth "mafia."

"In 2019, we have received reports from MIDAS (which) contained possible fraud amounting to 4.7 billion and these particular hospitals and doctors that are considered highly improbable ang claims have been given to PhilHealth regional offices to conduct investigation," said Del Rosario, referring to the Machine Learning Identification, Detection and Analysis System.

Will Morales resign?

Morales said there are still things that have to be done in response to calls for his resignation.

On whether he thinks he still has the trust of President Rodrigo Duterte or not, the PhilHealth chief said he has received messages telling him to remain in his post.

"I'm here at the pleasure of the President," he said.

CNN Philippines' Digital Producers Glee Jalea and Janine Peralta contributed to this report.
A POP-UP cafe, bar and restaurant is being set up by the River Thames near Henley.

The Lockdown Lodge, which will open tomorrow (Saturday), is made from four converted shipping containers placed by the Thames Path on the south bank near Hambleden Lock.

They were refurbished at the Woodyard industrial estate in Binfield Heath by gap year student Minna Hughes, of Hambleden, and her father Chris, then driven to the site on Copas land on two lorries.

The containers were put in place on Wednesday using a crane. They have been laid end-to-end in two rows to form one building with a takeaway cafe downstairs and a terrace with a restaurant on the roof. The former will sell takeaway street food like burgers and hot dogs and will also have a bar while the latter will serve a set fine-dining menu at 49.50 per head.

This will be provided by chef Jimmy Garcia and there will also be a steak day on Sundays. Suppliers include Honeys of Henley, Mr Hobbs Gin and Lawlors the Bakers and Red Lion Farm at Britwell Salome. The venue will be open from 8am to 11pm daily until August 31, with street food served from midday.

Hobbs of Henley will offer an hourly river taxi service from Red Lion Lawn in Thames Side.

Speaking on Wednesday, Miss Hughes said: It has gone pretty well so far  there has been a lot of paperwork to get through, which has been the most time-consuming aspect of the business, but its all finished now.

Our alcohol licence was one of the last things to sort out but Wokingham Borough Council was easy to work with. Weve just taken the keys from Copas and Im feeling confident.

We have had so much interest, which was great to hear. We know the upstairs restaurant is going to do well but the cafe is still a bit nerve-wracking because we cant predict how popular it will be. Im crossing my fingers that the weather will be lovely as that will make a huge difference to the footfall on the path.

Miss Hughes, 19, said the reaction was largely positive when she announced her venture last month but some neighbours expressed concern about noise and increased foot traffic.

She said: They were very respectful but explained their situation and were asking politely how I planned to deal with any issues that might come up. Ive contacted them and assured them that we want to be responsible.

Miss Hughes came up with the idea after her gap year travel plans fell through because of the coronavirus pandemic. She had to race home from Botswana in March before air travel shut down.

She has previously run a mobile catering firm while her father is managing director of Event Kitchens in Binfield Heath, which supplies kitchens for large-scale functions
Just after 6 p.m., Virginia State Police responded to the crash at the 89 mile marker on southbound Interstate 95, near the exit for Lewistown Road. Police said a 2013 Subaru Impreza ran off the left side of the road and struck a highway sign post in the median.
The board voted Wednesday to move up the deadline to request a mail-in ballot, after the general counsel for the U.S. Postal Service warned in a letter to elections officials that there was a risk that ballots requested near the deadline under state law will not be returned by mail in time to be counted.
The letter serves as formal legal notice.

U.S. Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas), member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) on August 5 sent a letter to Fahrhafen Sassnitz GmbH, which operates Mukran Port, alerting them to their exposure to sanctions related to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project.

Mukran Port provides services to vessels that Russia has indicated will be used for the project, and reportedly stores pipes to be installed as part of the pipeline, Cruz said in a press release on his website.

Read alsoPoland fines Gazprom $57 mln over Nord Stream 2

"There is a bipartisan, bicameral, and intra-agency consensus in the United States government that has produced a range of sanctions authorities and mandates that will be leveled against any company that participates in the project," the press release said.

In the letter, the Senators wrote: "This letter serves as formal legal notice that these goods, services, support, and provisioning risk exposing Fahrhafen Sassnitz GmbH and Mukran Port, as well as your board members, corporate officers, shareholders, and employees, to crushing legal and economic sanctions, which our government will be mandated to impose. These sanctions include potentially fatal measures that will cut off Fahrhafen Sassnitz GmbH from the United States commercially and financially. The only responsible course of action is for Fahrhafen Sassnitz GmbH to exercise contractual options that it has available to cease these activities."

They added: "Your provisioning of the Fortuna or Akademik Cherskiy will certainly have become sanctionable the instant that either vessel dips a pipe into the water to construct the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, or engages in any pipe-laying activity relevant to the project, but your exposure extends to any activities related to goods, services, or support of the pipeline. The law requires that 'the President shall' issue the designations."

In June 2020, Sens. Cruz, Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H), Tom Cotton, Ron Johnson, and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), introduced new legislation clarifying and expanding the sanctions of their bipartisan 2019 bill, the Protecting Europe's Energy Security Act, which advanced out of the Foreign Relations Committee with overwhelming support and was signed into law in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2020 last year. The new legislation clarifying these sanctions was also recently included in the Senate passed FY21 National Defense Authorization Act.

Mukran Port is the corporate master brand of Fahrhafen Sassnitz GmbH with the following shareholders: the town of Sassnitz owns 90%, while Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, a state of Germany, has 10%.

A spokesman for the company said that its management would not comment on the letter as its content was within the competence of the state and federal governments, according to Deutsche Welle's Russian service.
Millennials + Gen-Z make up more than half the worlds population, and theyre using social to post billions of messages, stories, and images about their life, their concerns, and their views. Organizations must adopt these channels as their primary communications medium in order to reach their customers and stakeholders.

The good news is Customer Experience Management platform (CXM) leader, Sprinklr now enables ServiceNow Customer Service Management (CSM) integration, helping companies decrease case resolution time, cut costs and reduce customer churn by leveraging the latest channels.

Companies can use Sprinklrs AI capabilities to automate the creation of customer service cases and respond to customers on 30+ social media and messaging channels without leaving ServiceNow. This integration is generally available today to all Sprinklr Modern Care and ServiceNow CSM customers.

Tehranis Law of Customer Service, which Yours Truly coined in January 2001, states, In the Internet era, it takes 100 times more money to attract a new customer than it does to keep an old one.

The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on customer service volumes is tremendous. Now more than ever, companies need to have a seamless, digital-first customer care strategy.

With Sprinklr + ServiceNow companies can leverage the following capabilities:

Auto-create customer service cases in ServiceNow from social posts and messages.

Create automated or personalized responses to customers on social and messaging channels such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and YouTube without leaving ServiceNow.

Enrich case and contact data with customer-controlled social media and messaging details in ServiceNow for a complete view of past interactions and conversation history.

Social and AI are huge macro trends in customer service and this integration is great news for companies looking to improve their service levels and make them more relevant to todays customers.

See the ONLY UCaaS, CRM, Contact Center, Tech and Communications companies that matter at the ITEXPO #TECHSUPERSHOW.

This Event has been called the BEST SHOW in 5 YEARS and the Best TECHNOLOGY EVENT of 2020.

2020 participants included: Amazon, Cisco, Google, IBM, ClearlyIP, Avaya, Vonage, 88, Comcast Business, BlueJeans, CoreDial, Dell, Edify, Epygi, FreeSWITCH, Fuze, Grandstream, Granite, Intrado, Frontier Business, Fujitsu, Jenne, West, Konftel, Intelisys, Martello, NetSapiens, OOMA, Oracle, OpenVox, Peerless Network, Phone Sentry, Phone.com, Poly, QuestBlue, RingByName, Sangoma, SingTel, SkySwitch, Spracht, Spectrum, Sprint, Tallac, Tech Data, Telarus, TCG, Teledynamics, Teli, Telinta, Telispire, Telstra, TransNexus, Unified Office, Vital PBX, VoIP Supply, Voxbone, VoIP.MS, Windstream, XCALY, XORCOM, Yealink, Yubox, and ZYCOO. Full List.

Join 8K others with $25B+ in IT buying power who plan 2021 budgets! Including 3,500+ resellers!

A unique experience with a collocated Future of Work Expo, SD-WAN Expo, and MSP Expo

June 22-25, 2021, Miami, FL. Register now.
Tanisha Kalia attends the virtual DrupalCon Global conference from India. For the last 15 years, DrupalCon has served as a platform for forward-thinking open source discussion, which in todays current climate, seemed too important to shy away from.

The Drupal Association held its first-ever fully virtual DrupalCon for over 2000 attendees from July 14 - 17, 2020. Originally planned as an in-person event for April 2020 in Minneapolis, MN, the Association pivoted to the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic, and jumped at the opportunity to use a virtual event to expand the breadth of speakers and attendees in a brand new way.

The Drupal Association and our DrupalCon events strive to fuel the Drupal Project and the community of open source as a whole, said Heather Rocker, Drupal Associations Executive Director. For the last 15 years, DrupalCon has served as a platform for forward-thinking open source discussion, which in todays current climate, seemed too important to shy away from. It was important for us to face the challenge of building a virtual community-driven experience that so many of our attendees look to participate in, and use its capability to broaden our audience and reach under-represented communities in ways that were unable to with an in-person event.

162 Scholarships Awarded; Virtual Results in increased Representation from Underrepresented Communities

Committed to growing the participation of underrepresented communities in tech and the Drupal community, the Drupal Association used the transition to virtual to expand scholarship opportunities to DrupalCon by five times. Ticket holders to the Minneapolis event were given the option to donate all or a portion of their refund to the scholarship fund. The funds donated, in addition to lower costs associated with hosting scholarship recipients at a virtual event, resulted in 162 scholarships being granted through partnerships with 29 Drupal local associations around the world, as well as Drupal Diversity & Inclusion, TechUpWomen, SheCodeAfrica, WomenTech Network, Semicolon, Pehia, Proga{m}aria, WoMakersCode, WitU, FOSSASIA, AfriLabs, OSCAfrica, and Black Women in STEM 2.0. Forty percent of DrupalCon Global attendees identify as part of an underrepresented community within tech.

Ethics, Diversity & Inclusion, COVID-19 Lead Featured Programming

Taking place in the middle of a global pandemic, and amidst increasing awareness surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion, DrupalCon Global organizers took advantage of the additional time gained in the move to a virtual event, broadening the landscape of experts, and adding sessions and speakers to drive the discussion forward around Open Source.



Mitchell Baker, CEO of Mozilla, presented her thoughts on the future of open source and the importance of balancing ethics in moving forward.

Ayodele Odubela of SambaSafety spoke on Combating Bias in Machine Learning.

Digital Equity Advocate & Software Engineer Jacqueline Gibson, of Microsoft, drove the discussion Addressing Digital Equity for the Black Community.

COVID-19 was a hot topic as well, with a panel discussion discussing how Drupal software and its community are building solutions to help combat the effect of COVID-19, and Grace Francisco of MongoDB delivered a talk on the importance of fostering community in the time of coronavirus.

The Right Virtual Event Technology: Maintaining Connection and Networking Under Isolation

Like any other event organizer today, the Drupal Association faced the daunting task of creating connection and community in a 100% virtual space. Finding the right partner to enable the community-driven aspects of the event was a key task in the early stages of planning.

There was a lot of discussion surrounding the must-have vs. nice to have elements of the event in adapting to the virtual environment. Aside from captivating content, what brings people to our event year after year? Time and time again, the conversation kept coming back to networking and community engagement. A big part of our focus became finding creative solutions and the right platform to give our attendees outlets to replace in-person roundtable discussions, BoFs - Birds of a Feather, networking opportunities, in DrupalCon lingo, The Hallway Track, and Social events, said Rocker.

DrupalCon Global offered a way for attendees to meet old friends and welcome new faces in a way that was different, but no less valuable than an in-person conference. By leveraging technology partners like Hopin and OpenSocial, the Drupal Association was able to take the homecoming of the community online.

With Hopin, we were able to facilitate our plenary and standard sessions, exhibit hall, roundtable discussions, and offer the Hallway track experience with their 1:1 Networking. Participants were randomly matched with other active participants for 4 minutes at a time, with the option to continue contact/discussion, said Tim Lehnen, Drupal Association CTO. These features, plus global channels for informal interaction between attendees enabled us to provide the key pillars of interactivity and community. More than 80% of those surveyed felt that interaction between speakers and attendees was enhanced by the platform, compared to an in-person event.

The OpenSocial platform created virtual contribution spaces so that the community could begin to execute on the new initiatives for Drupal that were announced by Drupal founder Dries Buytaert during the event. OpenSocial, a distribution built on Drupal, enabled the community to rapidly organize around virtual contribution topics, ensuring that attendees could come together to help advance the project.

Lessons learned, and an eye to the future of events in Tech

More DrupalCon events are always on the horizon for the Drupal Association. For years in advance, DrupalCon Europe 2020 has been planned to be held in Barcelona. The next North American event would be DrupalCon Boston, with planning currently underway for April 2021. Consideration of the role of virtual events in the future is at the forefront of organizers minds coming off of the huge success of DrupalCon Global.

At the moment, the intent to hold in-person events is still a primary focus of the Association in championing our efforts to provide human connection and a vibrant community around open source. Though the pandemic challenged us to translate the in-person event to a virtual experience, the transition to virtual resulted in significant gains made toward our goals as an association, and wed be remiss as organizers to turn away from an expanded global audience and farther reach to underrepresented communities moving forward, said Rocker. Whether it be by adding additional virtual events to our calendar year, or hybridization of our in-person events moving forward, we wont be ignoring the potential that going virtual has for our association.

ABOUT DRUPAL AND THE DRUPAL ASSOCIATION

Drupal is the most powerful enterprise open source content management software used by millions of people and organizations around the world, made possible by a community of 100,000-plus contributors and enabling more than 1.3 million users on Drupal.org. The Drupal Association is the non-profit organization dedicated to accelerating the Drupal software project, fostering the community, and supporting its growth.

###

For more information contact Heather Rocker, heather@association.drupal.org
Alabama State Rep. Will Dismukes, R-Prattville, who last week came under fire for attending a birthday party for the Ku Klux Klans first leader, has been charged in connection with a theft at a business where Dismukes worked.

Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey made the announcement of the first-degree theft of property charge at a press conference this afternoon.

Bailey said his office launched an investigation after a May 20 complaint from the owners of Weiss Flooring about alleged theft of a large sum of money by an employee.

After countless hours of investigation, which consisted of witness interviews, obtaining bank records and gathering other evidence, a decision was made by myself and prosecutors in my office, along with these investigators, that probable cause existed that a crime had been committed, Bailey said.

A few minutes ago, a warrant for theft of property in the 1st degree, was signed by a representative of that business and issued by a Montgomery County magistrate for the arrest of Alabama state representative Will Dismukes.

Bailey said he was limited in what he could say about the circumstances of the alleged theft. He noted that the arrest is only an allegation.

Dismukes could not immediately be reached for comment.

Bailey said Dismukes attorney had been notified of the charge.

We are giving him until late this afternoon to turn himself in, Bailey said.

This afternoon, the Montgomery County jail inmate search log showed Dismukes was arrested for first-degree theft with a bond amount of $5,000.

State Rep. Will Dismukes arrives at the Montgomery County Jail to turn himself in on felony theft charges. His attorney said he did not have any comment at this time. #alpolitics pic.twitter.com/u2aBSj7Z0c  Todd Stacy (@toddcstacy) August 7, 2020

Bailey did not disclose the amount of the alleged theft but said the charge of first-degree theft applies to amounts exceeding $2,500.

I will tell you that the alleged amount is a lot more than that, Bailey said.

Bailey said the time frame of the alleged theft was 2016-2018.

If convicted of the crime, a felony, Dismukes would automatically be removed from office. He was first elected to the seat in 2018.

Dismukes entered the race for Congress in Alabamas 2nd District last year, but dropped out in October.

Gov. Kay Ivey issued a statement after todays arrest.

Everyone is innocent until proven guilty, and this is a process that will need to play out, Ivey said. However, if true, it is disappointing when a public official, elected with the confidence of the people, abuses that trust. I support the letter of the law, and no one is above it  especially those in public office.

Last week Dismukes stepped down as pastor of a Baptist church after a controversy over his recent speaking appearance at a birthday party for the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

Dismukes resigned as pastor of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Prattville after backlash resulting from a Facebook post highlighting his attendance at the birthday party for early KKK leader Nathan Bedford Forrest, who was grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan from 1867-69.

Dismukes gave the invocation at the party held July 25 at Fort Dixie in Selma, an event that coincided with ceremonies honoring the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis, an Alabama native and longtime Georgia congressman who was a leader in the civil rights movement and was badly beaten at the Bloody Sunday march in Selma in 1965.

The Alabama Democratic Party called for Dismukes to resign over the Forrest celebration incident, as did Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville. The Republican Party called the appearance improper.

As Alabama honored the late Rep. John Lewis, state Rep. Will Dismukes attended a birthday party for the founder of the KKK.

We present to you State Representative Will Dismukes in all his mugshot glory. Dismukes is an embarrassment to this... Posted by Alabama Rally Against Injustice on Thursday, August 6, 2020

This is a breaking story and will be updated.
The Armenian government said on Thursday that it will send humanitarian assistance to Lebanon coping with devastating consequences of a massive explosion in Beirut which killed at least 135 people and injured thousands of others.

Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian said that an Armenian transport plane carrying foodstuffs, medical supplies and other vital items will likely fly to the Lebanese capital on Saturday.

I think that we will ascertain the quantity and type of the assistance and time frames by the end of the day, Avinian told Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and fellow cabinet members.

The government expressed readiness to provide the relief aid immediately after Tuesdays explosion at Beirut port warehouses. Pashinian communicated the offer to Lebanese President Michel Aoun during a phone conversation on Wednesday.

The prime minister described Lebanon as one of Armenias closest friends, alluding to the existence of a sizable and influential Armenian community in the Middle Eastern state.

Beirut was the capital of the Armenian Diaspora of the 20th century  At this difficult moment, we cannot stay indifferent to the needs of the brotherly people of Lebanon and the Armenian community of Beirut, he said at the start of a weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan.

It was also announced that Zareh Sinanyan, Armenias high commissioner of Diaspora affairs, will fly to Beirut on board the plane to be loaded with the aid. Sinanyan will meet with leaders of the Lebanese-Armenian community to discuss ways of helping its members gravely affected by the blast.

The blast reportedly left 11 ethnic Armenians dead and about 250 others injured. It also destroyed or severely damaged many homes in Beiruts Armenian-populated neighborhoods.

Samvel Karapetian, a Russian-Armenian billionaire and philanthropist, pledged on Wednesday to give $10,000 to each of the families of the 11 Lebanese Armenian victims. Karapetians Moscow-based Tashir charity said it will also donate $200,000 to Beiruts main Armenian church also damaged by the devastating blast wave.

Pashinian said that other individuals in Armenia and its worldwide Diaspora can also donate cash to the community through the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund Hayastan. The government-backed charity headquartered in Yerevan has opened special bank accounts for that purpose.
Taliban militants and Afghan civilians have been killed in attacks and clashes across Afghanistan amid peace efforts aimed at ending the nearly 19-year war.

Defense Ministry spokesman Fawad Aman said at least 16 Taliban militants were killed in two separate clashes with government forces in the eastern province of Ghazni on August 6

It was the first direct fighting between the Taliban and government security forces since a recent cease-fire was announced.

Aman did not comment on casualties suffered by government forces.

In one attack near the provincial capital, Ghazni city, Afghan forces called in an air strike on Taliban fighters who stormed a military facility where about 300 government troops were based

Aman said Taliban fighters also attacked a military convoy in the Gilan district of Ghazni Province late on August 5.

Officials said seven civilians were killed when their vehicle struck a land mine in the Khash Rod district of the western province of Nimroz late on August 5.

There was no immediate claim of responsibly for the land mine, although similar cases in the past have been blamed on the Taliban.

Meanwhile, officials said clashes erupted between Taliban fighters and government forces along a highway in the northern province of Baghlan, leaving four militants dead.

Officials said the militants torched two oil tankers that were traveling along the highway.

The Taliban and government forces agreed a three-day truce to mark the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha which started on July 31.

The truce came ahead of proposed peace talks between the Taliban and authorites in Kabul aimed at ending their long-running war.

Based on AFP, Khaama, and Tolo News
There's no way former President John Mahama will win the upcoming December 7 elections according to the Central Regional Minister, Kwamena Duncan.



The Regional Minister who has been an ardent critic of the Mahama administration says based on the track record of the NDC flagbearer he has nothing to offer in his second coming.



You can call him a doomsday prophet or a soothsayer, but Kwamena Duncan contributing to a panel discussion on Peace FM's morning show 'Kokrokoo' says Mahama will never be President of Ghana again.



" . . Former President Mahama . . . he will continue to remain so for the rest of his life," he predicted.



Listen to him in the video below





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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L ondon is set to sizzle again this weekend: its going to be 35C tomorrow. Still, we all know the dangers of sun damage, so theres really no excuse for getting burnt to a crisp.

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La Roche-Posay Anthelios Ultra-Light Invisible Fluid SPF 50

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YEREVAN.  On Saturday I will leave for LebanonBeirut, and I will get acquainted with the situation much more realistically on the spot. Zareh Sinanyan, High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs of Armenia, on Thursday said this in a conversation with journalists, referring to the issue of Armenians in Lebanon wishing to come to Armenia after Tuesdays powerful and deadly explosion in Beirut.

"At the moment, it seems that the number of people who want to come to Armenia is really very large, but there is no objective, numerical calculation of those people, which makes our job a little more difficult," Sinanyan said.

According to him, there is an actual problem of coming to Armenia for people who do not have Armenian citizenship, or residency status in Armenia. "We must find a way for them, too, to be able to come to the homeland; it is not an absolute legal right, but it is an absolute moral right for any Armenian," the diaspora commissioner added.

When asked how many people from Lebanon have applied to come to Armenia at the moment, Sinanyan responded that there are direct applicants, but there are more indirect applicants, whose final picture will be clear after his visit to Beirut.

And to the question how the residency issues of the Armenians who came to Armenia from Lebanon will be resolved, Sinanyan said: "No Armenian coming to Armenia shall be left without a place to live; so, we are working in that direction."
Independent Election Monitors Detained In Belarus During Early Voting

By RFE/RL's Belarus Service, Current Time August 05, 2020

MINSK -- Independent observers who've been monitoring early voting in the Belarusian presidential election have been detained across the country after documenting numerous violations of the election law.

An election-monitoring campaign called Honest People said on August 5 that their observers had registered 2,056 violations of the election law in Minsk and other cities on August 4 -- the first day of early voting.

It said the violations included blocking independent observers from polling stations and from monitoring whether voting boxes are properly sealed before being taken away for the vote count.

The Human Rights Defenders for a Fair Election campaign said on August 5 that police detained independent observers at polling stations across the country.

The group said election officials had been calling the police and claiming that the observers "meddled" in the election process.

Detained observers include activists Inna Dabratvor and Natallya Mankouskaya in Minsk, as well as Andrey Kyashanyuk, Halina Mahuchaya, and two other unidentified independent observers in the eastern city of Vitsebsk.

Election observer Yaralsau Nyadasekin was also detained in the town of Smalyavichy near Minsk.

A monitoring group called Right To Vote -- 2020 said its observers were blocked from entering polling stations in Minsk and other cities.

Observers in the eastern city of Mahilyou were also briefly detained on August 4 while trying to monitor early voting.

The Minsk-based Vyasna (Spring) human rights center said one of the organizers and leaders of the Honest People campaign, Illya Shapatkouski, was detained on August 4 -- with the authorities claiming he was suspected of being involved in an embezzlement case launched against Belgazprombank.

The Honest People campaign was initiated by former Belgazprombank chief Viktar Babaryka, who along with his son Eduard was arrested in June after he expressed his intention to run for president.

Babaryka was viewed as a potentially strong rival of incumbent President Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

Babaryka was charged with money laundering, bribery, and tax evasion. He rejects the charges as politically motivated.

Lukashenka's 26 years of authoritarian rule looks increasingly vulnerable ahead of the August 9 vote.

But many analysts say he is likely win through a combination of fraud and the repression of an energized opposition.

The Central Election Commission said on August 5 that turnout on the first day of early voting was just under 5 percent of the country's 6.8 million eligible voters.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/independent -election-monitors-detained-in-belarus- during-early-voting/30767918.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 new share classes reduce upfront selling costs, which allows us to accommodate a wider array of advisorstransactional, fee-based, and registered investment advisors, said Gian Craparo, Managing Director  Central and East.

The new share classes were created to provide investors and their broker dealers and financial advisors with greater choices and more flexibility to meet the needs of the investors, said Al Hartman, Chairman and CEO.

The new share classes reduce upfront selling costs, which allows us to accommodate a wider array of advisorstransactional, fee-based, and registered investment advisors, said Gian Craparo, Managing Director  Central and East.

These new share classes are in addition to existing Class A and Class T shares and will be offered upon any necessary additional FINRA and state regulatory approvals. The offering prices for each share class will be as follows: Class A shares: $11.44, Class S shares, $10.67, Class I shares, $10.30 and Class T shares, $10.95.

Current Portfolio

The programs follow-on offering is up to $185 million in any combination of four classes of shares of our common stock. As of March 31, 2020, the company owned ten properties: a retail shopping center; a flex/R&D property and eight office properties. In addition, the company currently owns a 2.47% ownership interest in an affiliated special purpose entity which holds 39 office, retail and light industrial properties located in Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio, Texas, which is referred to in our financial reporting as the Hartman SPE interest. The company also owns 700,302 shares of common stock of Hartman Short Term Income Properties, XX, Inc., a public, non-listed REIT also sponsored by our Sponsor.

About Hartman vREIT XXI

Hartman vREIT XXI is a Texas-centric real estate investment company formed to acquire, develop and operate a diverse portfolio of value-oriented commercial propertiesthose with significant potential for growth in income and value from re-tenanting, repositioning, redevelopment, and operational enhancements. For additional information about these investments, please visit HartmanREITs.com.

About Hartman-

Hartman has extensive experience acquiring, owning, managing and leasing commercial office, retail, light industrial and warehouse properties located in Texas. Since 1983, Hartman and its affiliated entities (including founder, Allen R. Hartman) have sponsored 23 programs and acquired interests in more than 90 real assets totaling approximately $660 million as of December 31, 2017.

This material contains forward-looking statements regarding the business and financial outlook of Hartman vREIT XXI and its advisors that are based on managements current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections and are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in these statements, and you should not place undue reliance on any such statements. A number of important factors could cause actual results to differ from the statements contained in this material. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which such statements were made and we undertake no obligation to update any such statements that may become untrue as a result of subsequent events.

THIS IS NEITHER AN OFFER TO SELL NOR A SOLICITATION OF AN OFFER TO BUY ANY SECURITIES DESCRIBED HEREIN OR DESCRIBED ELSEWHERE. AN OFFERING IS MADE ONLY BY PROSPECTUS FILED WITH THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION (SEC) OR PURSUANT TO A VALID EXEMPTION. A COPY OF THE CURRENT PROSPECTUS OR OFFERING DOCUMENT MUST BE MADE AVAILABLE TO YOU IN CONNECTION WITH ANY OFFERING AND SHOULD BE READ IN ORDER TO MORE FULLY UNDERSTAND THE IMPLICATIONS AND RISKS OF THE OFFERING TO WHICH IT RELATES. NON-TRADED REIT INVESTMENTS ARE NOT SUITABLE FOR ALL INVESTORS. INFORMATION ABOUT INVESTING IN A SPECIFIC NON-TRADED REIT MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY A PROSPECTUS, WHICH SHOULD BE READ PRIOR TO INVESTING.

Neither the SEC nor any other U. S. state or federal regulator has passed on or endorsed the merits of any offering or securities described herein or confirmed the adequacy or accuracy of the prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is unlawful.

All information contained in this material is qualified in its entirety by the terms of a current prospectus. Investors should consider a programs investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses before investing. The achievement of any goals is not guaranteed. For more complete information about investing in any program, including risks, charges and expenses, refer to the programs prospectus. Securities offered through D.H. Hill Securities, LLLP, Member FINRA/SIPC, 1543 Green Oak Place, Suite 100, Kingwood, TX 77339. 800.880.2212.

Hartman- refers to Allen R Hartman and subsidiaries and affiliates.
Actor Vijay Varma has said that after the success of Gully Boy, big Bollywood producers have been chasing after him for negative roles in their projects, but he would like to reinvent himself. The journey to success, he said, has seen its share of ups and downs, and Vijay said that at one point, he was very angry and frustrated.

Recalling a story of how he lost out on a part in Sacred Games, he told Mid-Day in an interview, They had locked me for one of the parts, one of the significant parts, and Netflix and Mukesh (Chhabra, casting director), and everyone had zeroed in, but Anurag (Kashyap, co-director) changed his mind last minute and he threw me out.

Vijay said that he also came close to starring in Love Sex Aur Dhoka and 3 Idiots, back when they were looking to cast unknowns in the lead role.

All seems to be well between Vijay and Anurag though. In a recent interview to India Today, the actor said, I cant call him a mentor or a friend, it is just that he is one director I admire the most. I look up to his work. I think this industry owes a lot to his mind and his capabilities. The way he finds talent is incomparable. He has been a well-wisher. He has promised that he will work with me soon as a director, but that is yet to be fulfilled.

Also read: Vijay Varma says only one person is criticising Gully Boy: If they bought all awards, why wouldnt they buy for me?

Anurag, in turn, praised Vijays performance in the film Bamfaad, which Anurag presented. Vijay and I started our careers with the same films like Chittagong and Monsoon Shootout, in which he was the lead and I was the producer. When I saw the first cut of Bamfaad, I immediately called up Vijay and told him that with this role, a new aspect of him has come out. I think its one of the best approaches to a performance by an actor, he told IANS.

Vijay was most recently seen in the Zee5 film Yaara, which was shot several years ago. He also played a goon in Netflixs She, created and co-written by Imtiaz Ali. Sacred Games, co-directed by Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap, was Indias first Netflix original. The series starred Saif Ali Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in lead roles.

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A New Jersey landlord allegedly blackmailed his tenants so they would give him oral sex when they couldn't afford the rent, according to a lawsuit.

Joseph Centanni - who owns hundreds of properties within 18 buildings in and around Elizabeth - threatened to evict or initiated evictions of the low income residents who rejected his advances, the Wednesday filing states.

It's claimed Centanni  who receives approximately $102,000 a month in Housing Choice Voucher payments under the federal Housing Choice Voucher Program - has subjected tenants to sexual harassment on multiple occasions from 2005 to 2019, violating the Fair Housing Act.

The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability and familial status.

Joseph Centanni, 73, allegedly demanded sexual favors so people could get or keep housing, and offered benefits like reduced rent in exchange for sex favors. A property on North Broad Street is pictured

Centanni, 73, has 120 tenants using the vouchers and has been involved in showing the properties to prospective tenants, collecting rent, receiving maintenance requests, inspecting completed maintenance work, communicating with tenants regarding difficulties paying rent, and initiating eviction proceedings.

In 2019, a female tenant approached Centanni about anticipated difficulty in paying her rent. Centanni offered to connect her to rental assistance and allegedly asked what she would do for him in exchange.

'He then brought her to an empty apartment. There, he asked her for a massage and exposed himself,' the lawsuit states.

'He then subjected her to unwanted sexual touching by using his hands to move both of hers to touch his testicles and penis as she said words to the effect of 'no,' and 'don't do that.' After this incident, Centanni helped the tenant apply for rental assistance.'

The same year a female tenant who had agreed to move out approached Centanni and asked him if she could stay because she was having a hard time finding a new apartment.

'Centanni asked her words to the effect of "how bad do you want your apartment?" and took her to an empty storage room,' according the lawsuit.

'There, Centanni exposed himself and asked for oral sex. Because she felt like she had no choice, the tenant submitted to Centanni's sexual demand. After this incident, Centanni allowed her to stay in her apartment.'

A lawsuit filed Wednesday claims he touched tenants and applicants in a way that was sexual and unwelcome, and made unwelcome sexual comments. A property on West Jersey Street is pictured

He receives approximately $102,000 a month in Housing Choice Voucher payments and has 120 tenants using the vouchers. A lawsuit claims he has denied people of their right not to be sexually discriminated against since 2005

Allegations against Joseph Centanni Demanding that prospective tenants provide him with sexual favors, including oral sex, in order to obtain housing Demanding that actual tenants provide him with sexual favors, including oral sex, in order to not lose housing Offering to grant tangible housing benefitssuch as reducing rent, helping to obtain rental assistance, or excusing late or unpaid rentto tenants in exchange for sexual favors, including oral sex Subjecting actual and prospective tenants to unwelcome sexual touching Exposing his genitals to actual and prospective tenants Making unwelcome sexual comments and sexual advances to actual and prospective tenants Taking adverse housing actions, such as initiating eviction actions, or threatening to do so, against tenants who objected to or refused his sexual advances Advertisement

A woman who was a prospective tenant in 2017 claims that she was denied an apartment after she declined to give him oral sex.

During that alleged incident he took her to an empty laundry room and she claims he asked her words to the effect of, 'if I give you an apartment, what will you do for me?' and stated words to the effect of, 'when I call on you, it's a favor for a favor.'

The woman claims that when she didn't immediately respond, Centanni stated words to the effect of, 'I want you to go down on me.'

The lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice seeks monetary damages to compensate the victims, civil penalties to vindicate the public interest, and a court order barring future discrimination.

'No one should ever be forced to provide sexual favors, or otherwise endure sexual harassment, as a condition to keep or obtain housing,' US Attorney Craig Carpenito said.

'Sexual harassment in housing is illegal under the Fair Housing Act, and we will vigorously enforce this federal law to end this depraved type of behavior.'

Since launching the Sexual Harassment in Housing Initiative in October 2017, the Department of Justice has filed 17 lawsuits alleging sexual harassment in housing.

Carpenito and the Attorney General William Barr recently directed the Justice Department to deploy all available enforcement tools against anyone who tries to capitalize on the COVID-19 crisis by sexually harassing people in need of housing.

'The Fair Housing Act protects the right of all persons in our nation to rent a home without suffering sexual exploitation at the hands of abusive landlords. Demanding sexual favors from tenants, especially those who are financially vulnerable, is illegal,' said Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband of the Civil Rights Division.

'The Fair Housing Act protects tenants from sexual harassment and retaliation by their landlords, and the Justice Department will hold accountable those who engage in such cruel, depraved, and illegal conduct and will work tirelessly to obtain relief for their victims.'

It's unclear how many people may have fallen victim but six buildings in Elizabeth owned by the landlord are mentioned in the complaint; 707 North Broad Street, 1263 Clinton Place, 249 West Jersey Street, 147 West Jersey Street, 132 Orchard Street, and 516 Cherry Street.

Individuals who believe that they may have been victims of sexual harassment or other types of housing discrimination at rental dwellings owned or managed by Centanni, or who have other information that may be relevant to this case, can contact the Housing Discrimination Tip Line, at 1-800-896-7743,and select option number one to leave a message.
A Winnipeg-area Indigenous entrepreneur might hold the key to Indigenous peoples controlling their response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 6/8/2020 (530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

A Winnipeg-area Indigenous entrepreneur might hold the key to Indigenous peoples controlling their response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

His experience also underscores why its so important to unshackle the Indigenous business community and entrepreneurial sector from restrictions imposed by the Indian Act, as well as other non-legislative barriers.

Josh Giesbrecht is president and co-founder of Exchange PPE, a new business-to-business venture that distributes personal protective equipment (PPE) to Indigenous businesses, non-governmental organizations, and First Nations within Canada and the U.S.

While the company offers its services broadly to businesses in Manitoba, its primary focus is First Nation and Native American peoples. The company is fully Indigenous-owned and is named after the historic Exchange District in Winnipeg. "We are not a regular business-to-business company," said Giesbrecht in a phone interview.

The Exchange PPE team also tends to the needs in Indigenous communities south of the border, where problems are much worse in many communities.

Giesbrecht has Anishinaabe ancestry and is part of the Sixties Scoop generation. State agencies took Indigenous children from their families and communities, placing them in foster homes or up for adoption. He was raised by a Mennonite family in Steinbach but originates from the Roseau River Anishinaabe First Nation.

Previously, he was a broker in the legal cannabis industry. He conducted business in Akwesasne, Tyendinaga, and Mohawk territories in Ontario, Quebec and New York, where he witnessed First Nations closing their territories owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the Mohawk Territory of Tyendinaga, he saw some Indigenous ingenuity. The business community closed for four days to retool, and when they reopened most businesses had converted to a drive-through service or had shields in place. They also followed strict social distancing.

Giesbrecht refused to accept reports that there were too few PPE resources. "There is no shortage of masks, ranging from N95 to non-medical and surgical ones," he said. "It is heartbreaking to see government penny pinch their way through this." He noted the limited PPE resources the federal government provided to Indigenous communities.

A group of Saskatchewan First Nations recently asked Indigenous Services Canada to help them acquire PPE to build up their stockpiles in case of a second virus wave. Rather than rely on Indigenous Services Canada and other government departments, Giesbrecht started his business to meet the PPE needs of these communities, especially the most remote ones.

Indigenous community members see needs and opportunities in their own surroundings and think of ideas and ways to meet them, all while thinking how this process can be monetized to make it sustainable.

A major study also discovered that Indigenous entrepreneurs think how their business opportunities can advance people in their communities.

There are many talented, ambitious and resourceful Indigenous people  like Giesbrecht. But those who live on reserves continue to face systemic obstacles to start these businesses. Even in 2020, many First Nation communities on the Prairies have very underdeveloped private sectors. They lack good business role models and mentors.

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First Nations members still lack access to equity and capital . Most First Nation communities dont have mainstream banks. Restrictions imposed by the Indian Act prevent band members from leveraging their land as collateral. Many entrepreneurs seeking access to financial institutions often have bad or no credit.

There are public institutions that seek to provide financing to First Nations, but its never enough. And while First Nation governments or larger enterprises can get support, individual entrepreneurs seeking to set up small or medium-sized businesses often cant. Many communities also lack the solid business networks needed to get them inspired and started.

And many potential Indigenous entrepreneurs dont want to leave their communities to pursue these opportunities. They want to service their own communities. Other barriers exist as well, such as the lack of a skilled and educated workforce, lack of reliable internet and inferior public infrastructure.

If the federal government really wants to help Indigenous communities face COVID-19 and so many other issues, it needs to liberate on-reserve Indigenous entrepreneurs.

Joseph Quesnel is a research associate with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy .

 Troy Media
LAS CRUCES  Two more Catholic priests were accused this week of child sexual abuse in southern New Mexico.

Civil complaints were filed against the two priests, as well as the Las Cruces and El Paso dioceses and the parishes where the alleged sexual abuse occurred. Priests Roderick Nichols and Damian Gamboa were named in the alleged abuse of John Doe and Jane Doe.

According to court documents, John Doe alleges Nichols abused him in the early 1990s when the alleged victim was about 13 years old. At the time, Nichols was the pastor and administrator of St. Vincent De Paul Parish in Silver City. He was formerly listed as a chaplain for jail and prison ministry, but according to the diocese directory for 2020, Nichols is a retired diocesan priest.

Jane Doe alleges Gamboa abused her in the early 1980s, according to court documents. The alleged victim was about 13 or 14 years old. At the time, Gamboa was serving as the pastor and administrator of St. Francis de Paula Church Inc. in Tularosa. The church was formerly under the El Paso Diocese, but has since been reassigned to the Las Cruces Diocese.

The complaints name the diocese, parishes and the Order of Friars Minor  Province of St. Barbara for imbuing the two priests with power over the children and not supervising them. Both complaints outline requests for payment of compensatory damages, punitive damages and a jury trial to address the issues in the cases.

Any time we are dealing with new priests like these two, we wonder whether there are additional victims, Levi Monagle, the attorney who represents both plaintiffs, said in a news release. It is so incredibly difficult for any abuse survivor to be the first on record against an accused perpetrator, but these two survivors have bravely stepped forward to make their voices heard.

The lawsuits were filed early this week and further action has yet to be taken. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces could not be reached for comment.

The Las Cruces Diocese, in February 2019, released thousands of pages of files involving 28 priests who face credible allegations of sexually abusing children.

The diocese, at that time, said that it has voluntarily shared personnel files with the New Mexico Attorney Generals Office. Diocese officials, at the time, also identified 13 additional priests who have been the subject of credible allegations while serving in another diocese.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 6)  A lawmaker said he may reject the proposed budget of embattled Philippine Health Insurance Corp. if reforms are not carried out amid fraud allegations.

"Would they expect me  personally, I am addressing this to myself  to support their budget for Philhealth? I don't think so," Senator Ping Lacson said Thursday during his interview with CNN Philippines' The Source.

"We have to seek first some serious reforms in Philhealth before we do that," he added.

Lawmakers will also be ready to conduct fresh budget deliberations with government agencies in September to December. However, Lacson said with fresh controversies unearthed from Tuesday's hearing, senators will not be easy on the government corporation.

"I think he (Philhealth CEO Ricardo Morales) is just offering an excuse for the senators to be convinced that there's really need to enhance the computerization, the IT system of PhilHealth, and there is no argument," said Lacson, referring to the "bloated" budget that the PhilHealth chief allegedly endorsed for the agency.

"If they only showed us that they only spent the money judiciously, economically, probably we can continue supporting PhilHealth along this line," Lacson said.

In a separate statement, Lacson said he and many senators will have "second thoughts" to pour in more funds for the Universal Health Care program this time around.

PhilHealth is still finalizing its proposed 2021 budget, but its officials said it will likely go bankrupt the following year due to significant loss in revenues brought by the pandemic.

The Senate previously increased PhilHealth's budget for UHC appropriations from 67 billion to 74 billion under the 2020 National Expenditure Program.

Philhealth Acting Senior Vice President Nerissa Santiago told the Senate Committee on the Whole on Tuesday that PhilHealth expects a net operating loss of 90 billion in 2020, and 147 billion more in the next.

She said an increase in the government's annual 71-billion subsidy would keep the agency afloat. She added the corporations actuarial life was initially more than 10 years before the crisis.

Senator Ralph Recto questioned this "deficit" as the agency still has more than 110 billion worth of reserve funds.

'Moratorium' on corruption

Meanwhile, Lacson appealed for a "moratorium" on corruption amid the pandemic.

"Simple lang ang panawagan ko sa PhilHealth: Doon sa mga corrupt, baka pwedeng moratorium muina tayo sa corruption," he said.

[Translation: I have a simple appeal to PhilHealth: To those who are corrupt, maybe we can have a moratorium on corruption.]

The Senate will hold another round of deliberation on the controversies hounding the agency soon, he said, in hopes of uncovering more details previously bared by PhilHealth's key witnesses.

READ: Whistleblower claims 15 billion stolen by PhilHealth officials in fraud schemes

He also urged officials and other employees to "fight corruption in their own little way" by providing them information and documents that could further address the issue.

Lacson and Sotto said the Senate can grant legislative immunity to anti-fraud legal officer Thorrsson Keith, board member Angelo Cabading, and former executive assistant Estrobal Laborte, who have previously expressed security concerns about testifying before the hearing.

Laborte backed out last minute due to "threats."
By Trend

Amendments to the state budget of Azerbaijan for 2020 were discussed at an extraordinary meeting of the Azerbaijani parliament held on August 6, Trend reports.

Based on calculations carried out given the updated macroeconomic forecasts for the current year, the revised state budget revenues for 2020 are envisaged in the amount of 24.124 billion manats ($14.19 billion), which is 35.3 per cent of GDP.

After the proposed changes, the consolidated budget revenues will be nearly 5 billion manats ($2.94 billion) less than the current ones, and the consolidated budget deficit will amount to 8.436 billion manats ($4.96 billion). The decrease in the state budget deficit is due to the reduced domestic demand for petroleum products, as well as the introduction of incentives on some taxes.

As many as 600 million manats ($352.9 million) has been allocated from the state budget for the implementation of support programs. Extra-budgetary revenues of the state budget on taxes and fees shall be reduced by 890.5 million manats ($523.8 million), and the transfer of the State Oil Fund to the state budget and other state budget revenues shall be increased by 850 million manats ($500 million).

Given the above, the revised state budget expenses for 2020 will amount to 27.492 billion manats ($16.17 billion), of which 190 million manats ($111.7 million) will be allocated for placement of bonds in the domestic market.

Following the discussions, the amendments were put to a vote and adopted in the second reading.

($1 USD = 1.7 manat on Aug.6)

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
NEW YORK, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Telehealth claim lines1 increased 5,680 percent nationally from 0.15 percent of medical claim lines in May 2019 to 8.69 percent in May 2020, according to new data from FAIR Health's Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker. Although substantial, that increase was less than the year-to-year increase the previous month, when telehealth claim lines increased 8,336 percent nationally from 0.15 percent of medical claim lines in April 2019 to 13.00 percent in April 2020.The data represent the privately insured population, excluding Medicare and Medicaid.

Against the backdrop of the year-to-year increase, telehealth claim lines fell 33 percent nationally from 13.00 percent of medical claim lines in April 2020 to 8.69 percent in May 2020.

The four US census regions (Midwest, Northeast, South and West) all showed trends similar to the nation as a whole. In each region, there were large percent increases in volume of claim lines from May 2019 to May 2020, but these increases were smaller than the increases from April 2019 to April 2020. In addition, in each region, there was a drop in volume of claim lines from April to May 2020. The biggest drop was in the South, where the decrease from April to May was 40 percent, from 9.81 percent of medical claim lines to 5.87 percent.

Higher telehealth utilization from March to May 2020 by comparison with the same months in 2019 suggests the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In March and April, many states prohibited elective procedures and non-emergency medical care when rendered in person, making telehealth an attractive alternative. Many of these prohibitions expired in May as states began to open up, perhaps accounting for the drop in the telehealth share of total medical claim lines that month relative to April. Nevertheless, the pandemic continued and telehealth usage remained high by comparison with 2019.

Other notable findings of the Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker concern the top five telehealth diagnoses:

Mental health conditions, already the number one telehealth diagnosis nationally and in every region in April 2020 , accounted for an even larger share of telehealth claim lines in May 2020 . Nationally, this diagnosis increased from 34 percent to 40 percent of telehealth claim lines from April to May 2020 . In May 2020 , it constituted 40 percent or more of telehealth claim lines in every region but the South, whereas in April 2020 it did so only in the Midwest.

, accounted for an even larger share of telehealth claim lines in . Nationally, this diagnosis increased from 34 percent to 40 percent of telehealth claim lines from April to . In , it constituted 40 percent or more of telehealth claim lines in every region but the South, whereas in it did so only in the Midwest. In May 2020 , developmental disorders ranked among the top five telehealth diagnoses in all regions and nationally, whereas in April 2020 this diagnosis was in the top five in only one region (the West). In May 2019 , it was not in the top five in any region. The COVID-19 pandemic appears to be driving the movement toward more use of telehealth in this area.

Launched in May as a free service, the Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker uses FAIR Health data to track how telehealth is evolving. An interactive map of the four US census regions allows the user to view an infographic on telehealth in a specific month in each region, or in the nation as a whole. In addition to data on the volume of claim lines and on diagnoses, each infographic includes findings on urban versus rural usage and the top five telehealth procedure codes.

FAIR Health is a national, independent nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing transparency to healthcare costs and health insurance information. FAIR Health President Robin Gelburd stated: "COVID-19 is having a pronounced impact on telehealth, but the specifics of that impact vary from month to month. FAIR Health's Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker is showing in detail how this venue of care is evolving."

For the Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker, click here.

Follow us on Twitter @FAIRHealth

1 A claim line is an individual service or procedure listed on an insurance claim.

About FAIR Health

FAIR Health, a national, independent nonprofit organization that qualifies as a public charity under section 501(c)(3) of the tax code, is dedicated to bringing transparency to healthcare costs and health insurance information through data products, consumer resources and health systems research support. FAIR Health possesses the nation's largest collection of private healthcare claims data, which includes over 31 billion claim records contributed by payors and administrators who insure or process claims for private insurance plans covering more than 150 million individuals. FAIR Health licenses its privately billed data and data productsincluding benchmark modules, data visualizations, custom analytics and market indicesto commercial insurers and self-insurers, employers, providers, hospitals and healthcare systems, government agencies, researchers and others. Certified by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as a national Qualified Entity, FAIR Health also receives data representing the experience of all individuals enrolled in traditional Medicare Parts A, B and D; FAIR Health includes among the private claims data in its database, data on Medicare Advantage enrollees. FAIR Health can produce insightful analytic reports and data products based on combined Medicare and commercial claims data for government, providers, payors and other authorized users. FAIR Health's systems for processing and storing protected health information have earned HITRUST CSF certification and achieved AICPA SOC 2 compliance by meeting the rigorous data security requirements of these standards. As a testament to the reliability and objectivity of FAIR Health data, the data have been incorporated in statutes and regulations around the country and designated as the official, neutral data source for a variety of state health programs, including workers' compensation and personal injury protection (PIP) programs. FAIR Health data serve as an official reference point in support of certain state balance billing laws that protect consumers against bills for surprise out-of-network and emergency services. FAIR Health also uses its database to power a free consumer website available in English and Spanish and an English/Spanish mobile app, which enable consumers to estimate and plan for their healthcare expenditures and offer a rich educational platform on health insurance. The website has been honored by the White House Summit on Smart Disclosure, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), URAC, the eHealthcare Leadership Awards, appPicker, Employee Benefit News and Kiplinger's Personal Finance. FAIR Health also is named a top resource for patients in Dr. Marty Makary's book The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Careand How to Fix It and Elisabeth Rosenthal's book An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back. For more information on FAIR Health, visit fairhealth.org.

Contact:

Dean Sicoli

Chief Communications Officer

FAIR Health

646-664-1645

[email protected]

SOURCE FAIR Health

Related Links

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(Newser)  China has sentenced a third Canadian citizen to death on drug charges amid a steep decline in relations between the two countries. The Guangzhou Municipal Intermediate Court announced Xu Weihong's penalty on Thursday and said an alleged accomplice, Wen Guanxiong, had been given a life sentence, per the AP. Death sentences are automatically referred to China's highest court for review. The brief court statement gave no details, but local media in the southern Chinese city at the heart of the country's manufacturing industry said Xu and Wen had gathered ingredients and tools and began making the drug ketamine in October 2016, then stored the final product in Xu's home in Guangzhou's Haizhu district. Police later confiscated more than 266 pounds of the drug from Xu's home and another address, the reports said.

story continues below

Relations between China and Canada soured over the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, an executive and the daughter of the founder of Chinese tech giant Huawei, at Vancouver's airport in late 2018. The US wants her extradited to face fraud charges over the company's dealings with Iran. In apparent retaliation, China accused two Canadians of vague national security crimes. It then handed a death sentence to convicted Canadian drug smuggler Robert Schellenberg in a sudden retrial, and in April 2019, gave the death penalty to Canadian Fan Wei in a drug smuggling case. Chinese foreign ministry rep Wang Wenbin stressed Thursday that there was no connection between Xu's sentencing and current China-Canada relations. "China's judicial authorities handle the relevant case independently in strict accordance with Chinese law and legal procedures," he said.

(Read more China stories.)


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Germany will require people arriving from countries considered high-risk to take coronavirus tests starting this weekend, the health minister said Thursday, as the country recorded its highest daily tally of new infections in three months.

German officials have voiced alarm over a steady upward creep in the number of new infections over recent weeks. The national disease control center, the Robert Koch Institute, said 1,045 cases were recorded on Wednesday  the first time since May 7 that it has counted more than 1,000 cases in a day.

Daily figures can be volatile or distorted by delays in reporting, and the number is still far short of the peak of more than 6,000 reached in early April.

What we are seeing is a lot of small outbreaks, Health Minister Jens Spahn told reporters. People are getting infected at family parties, at their place of work or at community facilities.

On top of that, school holidays  the dates of which are staggered across Germanys 16 states  are ending in some regions, increasing concerns that vacationers could bring home the virus.

Last Saturday, the government started offering free tests for people returning to the country.

People entering from countries deemed high-risk  currently most of the world outside Europe, as well as Luxembourg and parts of northern Spain  are required to quarantine for 14 days unless they can present a negative test result no more than two days old.

Spahn said that, starting Saturday, people arriving from those countries will be required to take a test unless they bring a new test result with them.

I am very well aware that this impinges on individual freedoms, but I believe that this is a justifiable intervention, Spahn said.

The minister dismissed arguments by some politicians that people who can afford a vacation should also have to pay for their tests.

He said many returnees from high-risk and other countries have saved hard for this vacation, put a lot of money aside, dont have a lot in reserve  and nevertheless, I want to make it possible for them to get tested.

Germanys Covid-19 response has been widely regarded as relatively successful. The Robert Koch Institute has recorded 9,175 deaths from over 213,000 confirmed cases -- a lower death rate than in many comparable countries.




Shamima Opoku Amankwah

A brilliant girl who grew up in Ghana, left Wesley Girls SHS when she was in year one, flew abroad and ended up becoming the best graduating student at the Our Lord Secondary School in Canada has been praised.

The girl identified as Shamima Opoku Amankwah in an interview with YEN.com.gh, said she is originally Canadian but spent most of her formative years in Ghana.

Shamima attended Ridge school from inception to junior high school after which she went to Wesley Girls and left Ghana the next year.

The young ladys education has always been characterised by high performance as she indicates that there was never a moment when she placed second when she was in junior high school in Ghana.

At the Our Lord Secondary School in Canada, she graduated with a whopping 94% average and swept three academic gold medals for Philosophy, Changes in Society and Canadian Family Studies.

Currently, Shamima is on the way to becoming a certified insurance agent and is also an honours student at Ryerson University pursuing a degree in criminology.

At the same time, the smart lady is about to complete a law course at Yale University. Shamima mentions that her journey has not been completely rosy as some might think.

There were tough moments including suffering anaemia, facing societal challenges of being a young woman and lacking the support of some vital people in her life.

Yet, through it all, she has thrived to achieve her goals and ambitions.
COVID-19 has upended the school year for many public school students, but in Richmond, theres one private school that might not reopen for concerns outside of the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The administration of the Orchard House School, on North Allen Avenue near the Robert E. Lee statue on Monument Avenue, told parents in an email late last month that the school might not reopen over fears about activity in the adjacent circle.

Our primary concern has to do with guns and other weapons observed at the encampment on the median directly in front of the school, the internal email obtained by the Richmond Times-Dispatch states. We want to be clear that the physical and emotional safety of students and faculty and staff is paramount, and OHS cannot reopen our doors at 500 N. Allen under these circumstances.

The school has not made a decision on whether or not theyll reopen for in-person instruction, said Head of the School, Laura Haskins.

In a world and neighborhood facing daily changes and challenges amidst a global pandemic and social justice reform, we continue to weigh options for the best method to fulfill our educational mission, she said in a statement.
The Burlington County corrections officer charged with killing a medical office staffer and injuring a patient July 24 will remain jailed while he awaits his murder trial.

Superior Court Judge Mark P. Tarantino in Burlington County agreed with the county prosecutors argument that Bruce W. Gomola Jr., 52, of Burlington Township, is too dangerous to release from jail given his alleged attack in the Delaware Valley Urology office in Mount Laurel, among other reasons.

Prosecutors say that Gomola was angry over the scheduling of an appointment for his elderly father when he shot staff member Stephanie A. Horton in the chest and fled, though he returned to the office at 15000 Midlantic Avenue to confess and turn himself in to police.

He fired his gun in anger over the current treatment of his father. Thats not much of a reason, Tarantino said.

Horton, 44, of Willingboro, died at Cooper University Hospital. The bullet also ricocheted into the knee of a patient, Bonita Liebe, 57, who was at the office because she is recovering from bladder cancer surgery. She was hospitalized for six days and is recovering.

In a detention hearing held virtually due to the coronavirus, Tarantino acknowledged that Gomola had led a law-abiding life until this incident, and was unlikely to flee or obstruct the case if he was released. But Gomolas alleged actions that day  which the judge called puzzling and really hard to understand given his background  show that Gomola could be a danger to anyone, Tarantino ruled.

These were unpredictable, volatile, deadly actions with little or no provocation or reasons, and that they could easily reoccur, the judge said.

Gomola, who is jailed in Camden because he worked in the Burlington County jail, remained mostly silent during the virtual hearing. His attorney, Mark W. Catanzaro, argued unsuccessfully that his client could be safely released with conditions like electronic monitoring, given Gomolas lack of criminal history, the removal of weapons from his home, and his willingness to cooperate with authorities.

He said Gomola has the support of his family, including his wife of 19 years, and worked as a volunteer police and fireman for most of his adult life, in addition to 12 years in corrections.

If we look at Bruce Gomola in the abstract, away from that one offense, and just look at his history and say is this someone that we would be concerned would cause harm to anyone, the answer would be a resounding no, Catanzaro said.

Assistant Prosecutor Jamie Hutchinson argued that the incident itself was proof enough of his dangerousness, given video and witness accounts that show he did not shoot in self-defense or accidentally, but instead shot Horton in a calculated way, out of anger and frustration.

Whos going to say that he wont get pissed off or upset at a 7-Eleven attendant, or a neighbor that isnt raking their leaves the right way? Hutchinson said. Theres no rhyme or reason to why Mr. Gomola committed such a heinous act in this case, and whos to say he wont do it again?

According to the criminal complaint and Hutchinsons account of the incident, Gomola went to the urology office about an appointment for his father, whom he left in the vehicle. He exchanged words with Horton, who was manning a COVID-19 screening station at the office door to the buildings hallway, Hutchinson said.

Surveillance video footage shows Gomola step towards Horton, pushing her back out of view of the camera, authorities wrote in court documents. He then steps back and draws his handgun before advancing out of frame again, the video shows. Moments later he can be seen picking up the shell casing and running to his SUV, Hutchinson said.

Liebe told NJ Advance Media she heard Horton say, Get your hands off of me or Im calling security, and turned around to see Gomola shoot Horton. The bullet exited and ricocheted into Liebes leg, shooting pain all the way up to my brain, she said. A woman helped her hide in the office in the chaotic aftermath of the shooting.

Bonita M. Liebe was struck by a bullet that killed an employee at a medical office in Mount Laurel July 24.(Provided photo)

Hutchinson said after Gomola fled, he returned at the urging of his father and confessed to police, who found the gun and spent shell casing on him.

In addition to murder, hes charged with two counts of aggravated assault and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.

Horton, whose funeral was Saturday, was remembered in her obituary as a history-buff and avid reader who was devoted to family, friends and her faith.

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.

Friends have also set up a GoFundMe to help Liebe, a waitress who has been out of work due to cancer treatments, with medical bills and other expenses.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
Premier Daniel Andrews has admitted that he does not know which government ministers and departments are responsible for Victoria's botched hotel quarantine program behind most, if not all, of the state's second wave of coronavirus infections.

In a combative 90-minute press conference on Thursday, Mr Andrews made clear his refusal to provide information on the quarantine hotels would continue until an inquiry is finished in November, despite the retired judge running the investigation declaring on Wednesday that there was no legal reason preventing the Premier answering questions.

Premier Daniel Andrews on Thursday refused to discuss how he and his ministers organised the quarantine hotels program. Credit:Joe Armao

Responding to a barrage of questions about what he knew and when, the Premier - who organised the quarantine hotels program in March together with his seven most senior cabinet ministers - said he would not go into detail.

"The lines of authority and accountability and exactly what has gone on here, it is not clear," Mr Andrews said.
WASHINGTON  When Vice President Mike Pence traveled to an event in Florida on Wednesday, he was not accompanied on his plane by a member of the White House press corps, as is typically the case.

Instead, seated on Air Force Two in a space normally reserved for a White House reporter was the vice president for communications at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that has helped the Trump administration fill jobs throughout the government and influenced policy decisions.

The foundation official, Robert B. Bluey, is also the executive editor of The Daily Signal, a news site run by the foundation to offer conservative commentary and analysis.

On Wednesday, he joined Mr. Pence, who spoke at a Faith in America event in Clearwater. Mr. Bluey filled the role of the pool reporter, one of the journalists who travel with the president or the vice president, filing reports on their movements and activities throughout the day, and providing the rest of the White House press corps with a first cut of any news of the day.
LUXEMBOURG, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Globant (NYSE: GLOB), a digitally native technology services company, today announced it will release results for the second quarter ended June 30th, 2020 on Thursday August 13th, 2020 after the close of regular market hours.

Following the release, Martin Migoya, Globant's CEO & co-founder, and Juan Urthiague, Globant's CFO, will discuss the results in a conference call beginning at 4:30pm ET.

Conference call access information is:

US & Canada +1 (888) 346-2877

International +1 (412) 902-4257

Webcast http://investors.globant.com/

About Globant (NYSE:GLOB)

We are a digitally native company where innovation, design and engineering meet scale. We use the latest technologies in the digital and cognitive field to empower organizations in every aspect.

We have more than 12,500 employees and we are present in 16 countries working for companies like Google, Rockwell Automation, Electronic Arts and Santander, among others.

We were named a Worldwide Leader of Digital Strategy Consulting Services by IDC MarketScape report. We were also featured as a business case study at Harvard, MIT, and Stanford. We are a member of the Cybersecurity Tech Accord.

For more information, please visit www.globant.com

Investor Relations Contact:

Paula Conde & Amit Singh, Globant

[email protected]

+1 (877) 215-5230

Media Contact:

Wanda Weigert, Globant

[email protected]

+1 (877) 215-5230

SOURCE Globant

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In Highland Park, waves carved out caverns under the boardwalk at Rosewood Beach and exposed the foundation of the Interpretative Center, only a few years after the beach reopened to the public following a $12 million renovation. A survey showed the sand had been carried out past the breakwaters and was permanently lost to the park district, meaning it would not reappear as lake levels dropped.
OTTAWA The Canadian government says it has signed two deals to purchase millions of doses of promising vaccine candidates against COVID-19 but wont say how much it will cost or how many doses it will buy, citing ongoing negotiations with multiple international suppliers.

With the global drive to develop a vaccine in full gear, a senior cabinet minister suggested Wednesday Ottawa would likely not make a COVID-19 vaccine mandatory  the first indication of how a national vaccine rollout might be conducted if and when an effective immunization becomes available.

Minister of Public Services and Procurement Anita Anand said Ottawa has signed procurement agreements with Pfizer Canada working with BioNTech in Germany, and separately with U.S.-based Moderna, each of which have advanced to stage three of clinical trials of their vaccine candidates.

Anand said the agreements demonstrate our aggressive approach to secure vaccine candidates now so that Canadians are at the front of the line when a vaccine becomes available.

Any potential vaccine will have to pass Health Canada regulatory approval before distribution to Canadians, she said.

Anand suggested vaccination against COVID-19 would not be mandatory, but said its likely that vulnerable populations would be at the top of the list for immunization.

But her cabinet colleague, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Navdeep Bains, said it is too early to say whether a vaccine would be mandatory.

Both said the government would be guided by public health authorities and the advice of an independent vaccine task force.

Anand, citing remarks a day earlier by Canadas chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam, characterized a vaccine as just one layer of additional protection.

The minister leading Canadas international procurement efforts told reporters that Tams remarks show there is not one solution to carry Canadians and the Canadian economy out of the pandemic. Multiple efforts on multiple fronts must be made and followed, and so in terms of the vaccination, that would likely not be mandatory, as Dr. Tam has mentioned.

It is an added protection that would hopefully be available to Canadians who are taking monumental efforts now to wear PPE (personal protective equipment), to stay at home, to social distance even as we enter additional phases of the pandemic, said Anand. We all want a silver bullet. But unfortunately, thats not the case.

Contrary to Anands assertion, however, Tam did not state that a vaccine would not become mandatory.

Nor has Prime Minister Justin Trudeau indicated what approach his government would take.

We still have a fair bit of time to reflect on that in order to get it right, Trudeau said on April 28, saying there are important decisions to take around the COVID-19 vaccine when it comes.

On Tuesday, Tam did caution Canadians against putting all their hopes in a vaccine, pointing out that many questions remain. Tam repeated warnings issued last week by the WHO that there is no silver bullet on the horizon against the coronavirus  warnings Anand and Bains echoed.

The ministers on Wednesday said Ottawa is also spending millions to boost domestic vaccine production capacity  and to ensure an adequate supply of syringes, alcohol swabs and needles  in order to be able to manufacture and distribute a vaccine here.

A vaccine tracker published by the Vaccine Centre at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, identified 226 potential vaccine candidates in the development pipeline around the world.

So far, Health Canada has approved clinical trials in Canada to test the safety and effectiveness of just four possible vaccines here.

As of Wednesday, the federal Public Health Agency was reporting the disease has killed nearly 9,000 Canadians and infected at least nearly 118,000.

Tam said Tuesday questions need to be answered through clinical trials of vaccine candidates including the degree and the duration of the immunity. How many doses of vaccine do we need? Do we need a booster later on?

Tam said even when a successful vaccine is identified, there will be ongoing challenges to develop, manufacture and distribute enough of it, and the success of any vaccination program will also depend on how the virus is undergoing evolution. Will it change? Will the current vaccine need to be adapted if the virus should change?

With those questions in play, Tam said, public health authorities foresee having to manage the pandemic certainly over the next year but maybe planning for the longer term, the next two to three years during which the vaccine may play a role but we dont know yet

On Wednesday, the ministers faced questions raised by at least one Canadian company that says it has heard nothing back from Ottawa on its request to begin human clinical trials despite early promising results from animal tests of its vaccine candidate.

Providence Therapeutics said in a news release that after two blinded preclinical studies at the University of Toronto and Mount Sinai Hospital, it was able to stimulate the production of antibodies in mice that were injected with the coronavirus, suggesting their vaccine candidate could produce possible long-lasting immunity.

Its study had not yet been peer-reviewed, but the company is eager to move to the stage of conducting human clinical trials.

Bains said while he applauds the passion of many Canadian scientists, the government will take its guidance from the two task forces it has appointed to review and recommend most promising vaccine and therapeutic treatment candidates.

He said more announcements would follow as the task forces do their work.

In a statement, Pfizer and BioNTech said the terms of the deal with Canada are based on the timing of delivery and the volume of doses. As requested by the Government of Canada, deliveries of the vaccine candidate are planned for over the course of 2021.

BioNTech executive Sean Marett said the company is working to advance its lead vaccine candidate through clinical development in order to seek regulatory review as early as October. At the same time, Pfizer and BioNTech continue to scale up manufacturing capacities to be able to produce up to 100 million doses in 2020 and more than 1 billion doses in 2021.

The U.K. and the U.S. have similarly struck deals with Pfizer to purchase doses of a successful vaccine. Anand said on Wednesday Pfizer has at least four vaccine candidates in trials now. The U.S. inked a deal with Pfizer and BioNTech to purchase 100 million doses with an option of buying another 500 million of a vaccine, subject to regulatory approval.
Personal protective equipment (PPE) kits, used by healthcare workers attending to coronavirus disease (Covid-19) patients, can be seen littered on the campus of the Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH), ringing alarm bells about the spread of the contagion and underlining the blatant violation of the latest state governments guidelines.

The thunderstorm that struck Patna on Wednesday evening did not help the cause either, as the litter flew all over the place on the hospital campus.

HT has sourced pictures of disposable PPE kits lying strewn in the open such as outside the autopsy room of the forensic medicine and toxicology department, PMCH, on Wednesday morning, barely two days after the Bihar health departments principal secretary, Pratyaya Amrit, gave a pep-talk to the state medical college and hospital administrative authorities on Monday (August 3).

Safe disposal of medical waste related to Covid-19, sterilisation of waste and incineration are among the 21-point guidelines that the state health department has recommended to tertiary healthcare institutions and medical colleges treating Covid-19 patients.

The guidelines suggest a separate set-up for the disposal of PPE kits for private ambulance drivers ferrying Covid-19 patients to the hospital.

It has been specifically instructed to keep separate rooms for wearing PPE kits for the hospitals nurses, ward boys, and hospital attendants.

However, the photographs conveyed contrary to what Amrit has prescribed.

I have personally seen drivers of private mortuary vans, who ferry bodies for autopsy, discard their PPE kits at the corner of the autopsy room. We have discussed the issue with the probationary IAS (Indian Administrative Service) and IPS (Indian Police Service) officers deputed for the control room at PMCH and have requested them that armed police personnel is deployed there. I have also urged the medical superintendent to persuade the civic authorities to lift the garbage from there twice a day, said Dr. Vidyapati Chaudhary, principal, PMCH.

At present, the PMCH incinerator, where PPE kits are to be disposed of, is dysfunctional.

We have asked the private agency, which operates the incinerator, to repair it soon. Else, we will dock its charges, Dr. Chaudhary added.

Dr. Bimal Karak, superintendent, PMCH, was not available for comments.

On August 2, the state government had sanctioned Rs 252.54 crore as an incentive  equivalent to a months basic salary for doctors and employees of the healthcare department, who are at the frontline battling the Covid-19 pandemic.

This (incentive) will boost the morale of the doctors, healthcare, and frontline workers and its good effects will be visible, said a communique of the state information and public relations department (IPR), quoting Anupam Kumar, secretary, IPR.

The PMCH, which is Bihars oldest medical college, has earmarked 100 isolation beds for Covid-19 patients.

Besides, the hospital has another 1,900 beds for non-Covid-19 patients.

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The in-vehicle payment services market is expected to grow by 8,212.81 K units during 2020-2024. The report also provides the market impact and new opportunities created due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We expect the impact to be significant in the first quarter but gradually lessen in subsequent quarters with a limited impact on the full-year economic growth.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200805005790/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global In-vehicle Payment Services Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire)

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Organizations across the world are increasingly shifting to cloud-based M2M platforms to reduce capital expenditure and the time-to-market for products or services. This enables companies to assemble, manage, and develop various services. In addition, cloud-based platforms allow telecommunication service providers to integrate, develop, and support M2M connectivity and cloud services across segments such as retail and automotive. For instance, Axeda and Jasper Wireless jointly developed M2M cloud-based services to help multinational organizations efficiently manage the services offered to their customers to maximize revenue. These solutions can also be used specifically for the collaborative development of new autonomous vehicle development platform (AVDP) ecosystem components. Many such developments are expected to have a positive impact on the growth of the global in-vehicle payment services market.

To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR43893

As per Technavio, the rising demand for smartphone integration will have a positive impact on the market and contribute to its growth significantly over the forecast period. This research report also analyzes other significant trends and market drivers that will influence market growth over 2020-2024.

In-vehicle Payment Services Market: Rising Demand for Smartphone Integration

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the time spent by consumers on personal mobile devices. With the evolution of in-vehicle connected systems, consumers are now able to connect their smartphones and tablets to their vehicle's infotainment systems. However, lack of certain features such as web-based services, navigation systems, internet connectivity, and social networking applications have restricted the growth of the existing automobile infotainment systems. With changing consumer demands, automotive OEMs are collaborating with smartphone and tablet manufacturers to offer in-vehicle products and services. For instance, Microsoft is partnering with Harman to launch an infotainment system that will mirror windows devices on a car infotainment system. The company is also planning to launch Office on the car infotainment system. Thus, the demand for smartphone integration will have a positive impact on the growth of the market.

"High correlation between consumer electronics and connected car solutions and rising OEM partnerships with hardware, software, insurance, telecom, and other service aggregators will further boost market growth during the forecast period," says a senior analyst at Technavio.

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In-vehicle Payment Services Market: Segmentation Analysis

This market research report segments the in-vehicle payment services market by product (Car and Van) and geography (Europe, North America, APAC, South America, and MEA).

The European region led the in-vehicle payment services market in 2019, followed by North America, APAC, South America, and MEA respectively. During the forecast period, Europe is expected to register the highest incremental growth due to the increased adoption of ADAS systems in new vehicles in the region.

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Some of the key topics covered in the report include:

Market Drivers

Market Challenges

Market Trends

Vendor Landscape

Vendors covered

Vendor classification

Market positioning of vendors

Competitive scenario

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 6)  Accusing the US of seeking to disrupt the negotiations for a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea, the Chinese government is calling for the resumption of talks with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Under the current situation, China proposes that we remove all disturbances to restart as soon as possible the Code of Conduct consultation, and agree as early as possible on a set of rules for maintaining long-term peace and stability in the region, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi told state-run Xinhua News Agency on Wednesday.

Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs released the transcript on Thursday.

The Code of Conduct will determine actions that countries can take in disputed areas of the South China Sea where claimants, especially Beijing, have made aggressive moves for over three decades. The Philippines is country coordinator for ASEAN-China Dialogue Relations until 2022.

President Rodrigo Duterte in June said negotiations for a COC between the 10-member regional bloc and China were facing "real constraints in dealing with the deliverables" amid the coronavirus pandemic, but stressed that both parties were working towards the early conclusion of an effective and substantive" Code.

Critics have noted the slow progress in the talks due to resistance from China, which insists on its sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea despite a 2016 international arbitral ruling invalidating its sweeping claim.

On Wednesday, Wang hit what he described as provocative actions by the US in the global waterway.

[T]he US keeps increasing and showing off its military presence in the South China Sea. In the first half of this year alone, the US sent military aircraft there more than 2,000 times, he pointed out.

While the US does not claim any part of the South China Sea, it conducts freedom of navigation operations there and calls most of Beijings claims as unlawful.

The US Department of State issued a strongly-worded statement in July, supporting the Philippines and other Southeast Asian coastal states in protecting their exclusive economic zones in the contested waters and territory.

Wang said the US should adhere to its longstanding commitment of not taking sides in the dispute. Aside from the Philippines and China, Taiwan and ASEAN member states Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei have competing claims in the resource-rich waters.

The US is seeking to drive a wedge between China and ASEAN countries, and disrupt the consultation process of the Code of Conduct, Wang charged.

All regional countries should be vigilant, and prevent this region's hard-won peace and development from being sabotaged by the US, he stressed.

He reiterated that disputes should be settled through dialogue, a stance shared by the Duterte government.

China lauded Dutertes fifth State of the Nation Address last month where he pushed for an independent foreign policy and non-confrontational stance on the maritime dispute. But critics slammed Dutertes statement that he could not go to war against China, pointing out that the government could assert the countrys sovereign rights without resorting to arms.
Markets and other public places in the Mpohor District were disinfected on Tuesday, 4th August 2020. This exercise is one of the national programmes the Government of Ghana through the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development has executed in combat of the coronavirus.

Before the exercise commenced, Mr. Evans Mark Andoh, the Mpohor District Coordinating Director, admonished the workers, to act professionally to ensure fruitful exercise.

He cautioned the sprayers and the environmental officers, who were leading the execution of the exercise to avoid any act that intends to provoke them and patiently explain to the people the rationale behind the exercise.

After addressing the team, Mr. Douglas Quayson, the Mpohor District Manager for Western Waste Ltd, a subsidiary of the Zoom Lion Ltd, and Mr. Prosper Donkoh, the head of the Sanitation and Environmental Health Unit for the district, briefed their workers on the specific areas that should be disinfected. They included gutters, refuse dumps, toilets, lorry stations, health centers, and police stations.

Consequently, three teams were dispatched to Adum Banso, Manso, and the Mpohor Business Center to disinfect the designated places of these towns and their suburbs. In all, 33 towns and villages were attended to. The exercise went on smoothly without any frustrating challenges.

The exercise was led by Mr. Evans Mark Andoh, the Mpohor District Coordinating Director, Mr. Prosper Donkor, the head of the Sanitation and Environmental Health Unit for the district, Mr. Douglas Quayson, the District Manager for Western Waste Ltd and Madam Naomi, Western Regional representative of Western Waste Ltd for the exercise. Ishaq Sulemana, a district NADMO officer, was also part of the team.
Message: My first week as Emorys 21st president While there is a lot of hard work ahead of us, I am strengthened, and inspired, that I am now a part of the Emory community and that your energy, passion and creativity will elevate all we do together, President Fenves writes. Read the full message.

Emory President Gregory L. Fenves began his first week in office connecting with the campus community, through visits both in-person and virtual.

After participating in a series of socially distanced drop-in campus visits, complete with face coverings, Fenves joined the larger community on Monday, Aug. 3, for an online forum dubbed 21 Questions with Emorys 21st President.

A higher education leader and civil engineer by training  his scholarship focuses on structural engineering for earthquakes  Fenves joins Emory following a 12-year tenure at the University of Texas at Austin, where he served as dean of the Cockrell School of Engineering, provost and, for the past five years, president of the states flagship university.

Speaking through a Zoom format with nearly 1,400 participants, Fenves said that he was honored and excited to begin his role as president of Emory University, and proceeded to answer questions presented in a public forum moderated by Anita Paye, director of Emorys finance Compass support.

Many questions stemmed from decisions that COVID-19 has required for institutions of higher education. From weighing how students can safely return to campus to answering queries about the quality of online instruction, Fenves fielded each question with assurances that, despite changes this semester, Emorys mission and goals remain unwavering.

Universities exist to educate students, Fenves said. And so to our Emory students  from the first-year students who will be starting their education here soon to returning students to our graduate and professional students  our mission has not changed. Our goal to prepare you for the future, to provide the highest quality education, has not changed.

But we all face a unique situation in history, its unique for every one of us, he noted. Were going to work together to continue that mission So your goals shouldnt have changed either  your goals to learn, to become experts in a field or a discipline, and your goal to graduate from Emory, and really change the world as a result.

Returning to campus

Though the nation continues to grapple with a pandemic, Fenves said that Emory is as well prepared as any university in the country to address the challenges posed by COVID-19.

And with the help of a deep bench of Emory medical, nursing and public health experts, researchers and community partners, we are managing that crisis and we will continue to monitor it, he said. We know what is needed for us to get through this.

After talking with students, Fenves said it is clear they want to continue their education with an eventual return to campus. Our goal has been to try and bring as many students as we can back to Emory, but to do it safely, he explained.

Its also going to require your work, he said. We have to be masked, we have to maintain social distancing, we have to watch personal hygiene.

At this point, it all depends on each and every one of us. I think the university is prepared, and you all need to be prepared as we start to come back to campus.

Among the many factors that attracted him to Emory, Fenves noted that the strength, contributions and expertise of the Woodruff Health Sciences Center, Emory Healthcare and Emorys schools of medicine, nursing and public health have been especially impressive during the current pandemic.

Emory is one of the worlds leaders in the innovation thats taking place in laboratories, the innovation thats taking place in the hospitals right now in advanced clinical care, and some of the best outcomes in the world in treating COVID-19 patients, he said. Its an example of what a great university does and it is a really excellent example of what Emory is doing for the world right now.

Creating connections

In adapting to changes across Emorys campuses and classrooms for the new academic year, Fenves acknowledged that this years fall semester will look different.

In March, Emory faculty  along with faculty at universities across the country  had to quickly pivot to continue the semester, he said. Its amazing what Emory faculty have done with a lot of hard work in a short period of time, to be able to provide a quality education through distance learning using technology. And weve all been adapting  our faculty and our students.

Over the summer, knowing that the pandemic would still be with us, our faculty have worked very hard in re-examining their pedagogy, re-examining how to teach through distance learning, how to make it as effective as possible, he said.

Make no mistake  Emory is moving forward. Humans are adaptable, theyre creative. And were figuring this out, he said.

When it comes to building campus connections, Im going to be looking at doing the same thing with just different means, for the moment, and relishing when the time comes that we can spend more time in face-to-face interactions and working together, he said.

Fenves noted that he has been impressed with how students are using technology to continue these fundamental relationships that individuals have that are so important to college, but also important to life.

We will continue to work on that; we will provide the support for students. Were going to re-imagine student activities, how student organizations function. Because we must adapt, we must be flexible, to be able to get through this pandemic.

Moving into a new semester

While Fenves made a decision to come to Emory before the dimensions and the depth of this pandemic were known, hes already been able to observe and participate in many decisions made in the wake of COVID-19.

And he expressed gratitude to former Emory President Claire E. Sterk and her executive leadership team for guiding a smooth course through uncertain times  ongoing work that has been strengthened by the dedication, humanity and hard work of Emory faculty, staff and students.

Every unit of this university has had to adjust and make major changes, Fenves said. I just want to say thank you for the work that you are doing.

Over the summer, Fenves also began engaging with Emory students, including a coalition of Black student organizations, who were moved to stand for justice and against racial violence after the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and Rayshard Brooks, among many others.

There are too many Black men and women whove been killed by racist and hate-filled violence, Fenves said. This is a struggle that America has had to deal with, and continues to need to deal with, since its founding. And here in Atlanta, with its special role as the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement more than 50 years ago, Emory plays an important role.

In response to those conversations, Fenves said that next week, hell announce the steps that the university will be taking on issues that include policing, spaces for student organizations and Emorys history  how we recognize our history, how we understand our history and what we decide to celebrate, he said.

Fenves also looks forward to sharing more dialogue with the Emory community as the semester advances. The immediate business at hand is re-starting the fall semester over the next couple of weeks, and were going to get that underway, he said.

But soon after that, I want to start some conversations across the university, with our faculty, department leaders, deans and academic leaders  to re-think how we can be more effective, how we can make the college experience even more significant for our students and open up more opportunities for our faculty, both in the classroom and through their research.

We are just getting started, he said. Lets work together to make Emory one university and achieve our path to eminence.
The board had commissioned Zachary Fardon, of the Chicago-based law firm King & Spalding and a former U.S. attorney in Chicago, to undertake an investigation related to Ingrams unspecified performance issues. The findings were presented during executive session of the boards Friday meeting, prior to the unanimous vote to place Ingram on administrative leave, Urbanek said.
(Newser)  At least one US citizen was among those killed in the devastating Beirut explosion Tuesday night, and several others were injured. The death toll so far stands at 135, with another 100 still missing and search and rescue efforts continuing, ABC News reports. Another 5,000 were wounded, and as many as 300,000 were left homeless when the explosion flattened parts of the Lebanon capital. The cause remains unknown, but more than 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate that was being stored in a warehouse at the port appears to be to blame; some of the managers of the warehouse, which officials say was unsafe, are being held under house arrest as authorities investigate. US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Wednesday that based on information coming in, "most believe it was an accident, as reported." But CNN notes that at a briefing later Wednesday, President Trump repeated unsubstantiated claims that "perhaps it was an attack."

story continues below

CNN also has an explainer on how the highly explosive agricultural fertilizer apparently got from a Russian cargo ship to the warehouse, where it ended up remaining for years. The ship made an unplanned stop in Beirut in 2013 and was then abandoned and ultimately confiscated by Lebanese authorities. Though officials warned that the ammonium nitrate was dangerous, it was unloaded into the port the following year and never disposed ofdespite the fact that the warnings continued. "This is a catastrophic regulatory failure because regulations on the storage of ammonium nitrate are typically very clear," an expert says. "The idea that such a quantity would have been left unattended for six years beggars belief and was an accident waiting to happen." Newly released video of a bridal photo shoot shows the moment the blast rips through an otherwise peaceful moment. (Read more Beirut stories.)
By analysing the oral cells of adult mice, scientists have found that a protein which the novel coronavirus uses to enter host tissue is not present in the taste buds, a finding which suggests that the loss of sense of smell reported by many Covid-19 patients might be due to inflammation triggered by the disease, and not directly caused by viral infection.

According to the study, published in the journal ACS Pharmacology & Translational Science, while the ACE2 receptor protein, used by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 to enter host tissue, was enriched in cells that give the tongue its rough surface, they couldn't be found in the cells of the taste buds.

The researchers, including those from the University of Georgia in the US, also showed that other viruses that affect taste, including the flu virus, might infect different tongue cell types.

They said viruses cause infection by invading specific cells in the body and reproducing, often damaging or killing those cells in the process.

While previous research had shown that SARS-CoV-2 enters human cells through the ACE2 receptor on the surface of some cells, including those of the human tongue, the current study found that this protein was not expressed specifically in taste bud cells by studying mice as a model organism.

Although the mouse version of ACE2 is not susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, the scientists said studying where it is expressed in mice could help clarify what happens when people become infected and lose the sense of taste.

When they analysed data from oral cells of mice at three developmental stages, the scientists found ACE2 in newborn mice but not in fetuses.

According to the researchers, previous studies in humans that were not focused on oral cells suggest ACE2 could be expressed at an early fetal stage and then again at a later stage.

They speculate that fetuses could have distinct susceptibilities to SARS-CoV-2 infection at different stages, adding that more work is needed to determine the timing and location of human ACE2 expression.
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Al Wakrah, Qatar  Thu, August 6, 2020 07:25 531 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066be16cf 2 World Qatar,Lebanon,Beirut,blast,explosion,aid,field-hospital Free

Qatar began flying field hospitals and medical aid to Beirut Wednesday, AFP correspondents saw, to ease pressure on Lebanon's strained medical system after the previous day's devastating explosions.

Crews at Qatar's Al-Udeid airbase loaded collapsible beds, generators and burn sheets onto an Emiri Air Force C17 cargo plane, which subsequently took off for Lebanon.

It was one of four due to fly from the Gulf to the Mediterranean country Wednesday.

Officers estimated at least 7,000 pounds (3,175 kilograms) of aid would be flown on the inaugural flight, with two hospital units equipped with up to 550 beds due in Beirut by day's end.

Tens of thousands of people were left homeless and thousands more crammed into Beirut's overwhelmed hospitals for treatment following Tuesday's catastrophic incident.

Qatar's ruler Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani said on Tuesday that he spoke to Lebanese President Michel Aoun in the wake of the explosions at Beirut's port and offered the medical aid.

Qatar was ready "to provide immediate support following the explosion at the port," he tweeted.

Workers placed personal protective equipment kits on the seats of crew bound for Rafic Hariri airport in Beirut, which was already in the midst of a medical crisis amid a resurgence of coronavirus cases.

"If there's news about humanitarian stuff, there's a high probability we'll be on one of the flights," said one of the pilots on the first of the aid relays to Lebanon from behind the controls of the Globemaster aircraft.

Around him crew and loadmasters secured the frames that will form the field hospitals that Lebanese media reported will be erected at strategic points around the capital Beirut.

Pilots at Al-Udeid, the largest airstrip in the Middle East and also the United States' biggest airbase in the region, have been involved in COVID-19 relief flights in recent months.

Gas-rich Qatar has sent extensive medical aid to its allies including China and Italy throughout the coronavirus pandemic as it uses its logistical clout and deep pockets to cement diplomatic ties.

Commanding officers "started calling last night, giving orders to prepare. It's not a normal flight, but it's part of the job," said a second pilot on the first flight to leave.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-07 00:42:39|Editor: huaxia

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NAIROBI, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's exports to African countries, particularly in the East African Community and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) markets, are resurging as more nations reopen amid the battle against COVID-19, the country's apex bank said in a report released on Thursday.

New economic data from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) shows that while the exports slowed down in March when the pandemic broke out in many countries in Africa, they rose from April.

The African countries covered in the data from the CBK include Tanzania, Somalia, Zambia, Egypt, Rwanda, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia, with Uganda leading as the top export destination for goods from Kenya.

Kenya in March exported to Uganda goods worth 684 million shillings (6.4 million U.S. dollars), and in April, the exports fell by more than half to 2.5 million dollars before resurging in May to 4.4 million dollars, according to the apex bank.

To Egypt, Kenya in March exported goods worth 1.4 million dollars, falling to 1.2 million dollars in April and then resurging to 1.3 million in May.

Exports to Rwanda fell to 831,775 dollars in April from 1.3 million in March before resurging to 1.34 million in May.

A similar trend was witnessed across the other export destinations with total shipments standing at 15 million dollars in May, up from 12.6 million dollars in April and 23 million dollars in March.

Kenya's exports to various African countries include coffee, tea, sugar, confectionery, pharmaceutical products, cement, alcohol, vehicles and iron and steel products. The country on the other hand imports cereals, milk and dairy products, beans, animal feeds and eggs. Enditem
Livingstone Etse Satekla popularly known as "Stonebwoy" has stressed the need for artistes to use their mileage to help fight the Coronavirus pandemic.



The "Nominate" hitmaker has partnered with his fellow act Shatta Wale in a campaign drive against Covid-19 through a virtual concert set to be staged in the coming weeks.



Speaking to the media at the launch of the maiden "Asaase Sound Clash" the multiple award winner, emphasised the need to devise creative ways to entertain and inform their fans despite the ban on large public gatherings.



"The music industry has been hit very hard by the Coronavirus, just like anyone else but ours is even worse because we can't travel nor organize concerts due to the ban on large public gatherings.



"So this is very tough for us and we can only depend on streaming and some businesses we own to make some earnings.



"But out of this situation there would be the need to develop initiatives to entertain our fans and create public awareness on Covid-19 considering our vast reach not only in Ghana but across the world,'' he told pressmen.



He urged corporate entities to come on board and join this good course and hopefully it would be beneficial to the public.

Source: GNA









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When it comes to the common areas, I dont have any control over that, she said. I just try to do the best that I can. But I cant risk getting sick because if I get sick, I just dont think that I am gonna make it. I just want to feel safe at work. I love my job. I love what I do.
With little aid expected from bankrupt state, weary shop-owners say they do not know how they will recover.

Beirut, Lebanon  I think Ive just had enough, says Naila Saba as she stands among the debris of her eviscerated Beirut business.

I felt the blast, I saw the news, and I was unable to be any more moved. I am exhausted. I have no more tears, said the 42 -year-old co-owner and chef at Aaliyas Books, a fixture of the citys historic Mar Mikhail neighbourhood.

Her thoughtfully arranged bar and bookstore was no more. The steel and glass-panel doors that made up its exterior had been ripped from their hinges in the massive explosion that tore through Beirut on Tuesday, killing at least 137 people, injuring 5,000 and displacing up to 300,000.

Shards of glass shot through the bars cosy interior like bullets, some embedding in the books that line its back wall. Tables and chairs lay upturned while shattered vases left pink and white flowers on the wooden floor, powdered in crystalline dust.

The large, red air conditioning vents were crushed or flayed open, hanging precariously from the ceiling. So strong was the blast that it peeled some of the navy blue tiles off the bars walls.





The damage to Aliyas Books is mirrored across much of Beiruts Mar Mikhail and Gemmayze neighbourhoods, once lively areas of the capital, centred on a long street that cuts from downtown to the citys eastern edge.

The street is about 500 metres (550 yards) away from  and runs parallel to  Beirut port, the epicentre of Tuesdays blast.

For nearly a year, bars, restaurants, art galleries and stores in this neighbourhood struggled to make ends meet due to Lebanons unprecedented economic crisis, which has seen its currency lose 80 percent of its value.

Then, a three-month lockdown aimed at preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus worsened their plight.

Dozens of volunteers clean up debris inside shops in the historic Mar Mikhail neighbourhood after Tuesdays explosion [Timour Azhari/Al Jazeera]

For many of them, the explosion that rolled through their Bohemian community  scarring the iconic colourful street stairs and pulverising century-old buildings  is almost certainly a deathblow.

Its really tiring, said Saba, who was also on the front lines of a massive anti-establishment uprising that rocked Lebanon last October, the biggest-ever expression of public anger at the countrys political class.

I am a revolutionary. I was on the streets from October to January, then the lira [Lebanese pound] depreciation hit, our money got stuck at the bank, and we are left paying black market rates, she said.

Saba had to let go eight of her 20 staff in the past few months, those who remain are working fewer hours than before.

We were scrambling to get salaries for the next month, and then the store blew up, and I am so tired, I thought, Excellent. F*** it. Lets not open again. Why would we?

In the aftermath of the destruction, little aid has been forthcoming from the bankrupt state.

We dont want their help

Rescue and clearance efforts in Mar Mikhail and Gemmayze were led by civil defence volunteers and an army of good neighbours wielding brooms, dustpans and shovels.

At Aliyas Books, at least a dozen volunteers helped move the books to a storeroom, pile up the mangled white doors and clear the seemingly endless piles of glass.

Saba offered them shots of whiskey and, even though it was well before noon, they readily accepted.

Out on the street, many said they felt like they had been attacked by their own politicians, who knew that 2,750 tonnes of highly explosive ammonium nitrate was stored at Beiruts port for over six years, but did nothing until it exploded.

They have declared war on us, this corrupt state, and its up to us to clear up the mess. We know theyre not going to help. We dont want their help, Roy Rached, a 30-year-old unemployed man wearing a high-visibility vest and thick gloves, told Al Jazeera.

Naila Saba hands out shots of whiskey to volunteers who arrived to clear the rubble from her bar and bookstore [Timour Azhari/Al Jazeera]

So high is the animosity between the people and the state that successive groups of civilian cleaners cheered as they walked past the destroyed skeleton of a building housing state-run power company, Electricite du Liban.

Protesters had gathered outside the structure for months to denounce chronic power cuts and more than $40bn in losses the company has accrued over the past three decades, saddling the nation with debt.

May God prevent your recovery, a woman draped in a Lebanese flag shouted at the buildings ashen facade, a symbol of corruption now in tatters.

For the inhabitants of a ruined city, the initial devastation from the blast has quickly turned to rage.

The fact that the state officials  known for their eye-watering corruption and lax approach towards the publics interest  were aware about the dangers but didnt do anything makes perfect sense in retrospect.

But its an offence even the Lebanese people, jaded by years of explosions and injustice, cant let slip.

I am horrified this could have been sheer negligence and corruption versus a straight-up, honest terrorist attack, which I could understand, a furious Saba said.

We can understand the fundamentalists. But this idea that for six years we could be blown up at any moment, and no one did anything about it? No whistleblower? Thats shocking.
Two people died when Isaias spun off a tornado that struck a North Carolina mobile home park. Another person died in Pennsylvania when their vehicle was overtaken by water and swept downstream. The 5-year-old girl had gone missing from her Philadelphia-area home during the height of the storm Tuesday and was found dead Wednesday. Authorities said they believed she was swept away by floodwaters in the creek behind her house.
The mother of television star Caroline Flack has accused a senior police officer of prosecuting her daughter because of her celebrity status.

Chris Flack said her daughter killed herself as a consequence of Detective Inspector Lauren Batemans personal decision to appeal against the plan to hand the former Love Island host a caution for allegedly assaulting her boyfriend, Lewis Burton.

Flack admitted hitting Mr Burton when officers were called to her home in London in December 2019, saying she did so because she found out he was cheating on her.

Prosecutors decided to charge Flack with assault after Ms Bateman, the Metropolitan Police inspector on duty at the time, contested their initial decision.

Expand Close Caroline Flack, pictured leaving court in December after pleading not guilty to assaulting boyfriend Lewis Burton (PA) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Caroline Flack, pictured leaving court in December after pleading not guilty to assaulting boyfriend Lewis Burton (PA)

Flacks mental health deteriorated and she killed herself in February 2020, weeks before she was due to stand trial.

In an impassioned examination of Ms Batemans evidence during the inquest at Poplar Coroners Court, Mrs Flack said she felt even more upset now than I did at the start of the inquest, after the detective said she would not have acted any differently.

She told Ms Bateman: You took her (Flack) away, he (Mr Burton) was allowed to take pictures of the blood of Caroline, send them to friends, and they appeared in the press.

You didnt investigate it.

If it had been an ordinary person, you wouldnt have prosecuted.

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I just think you should be disgusted with yourself so there is nothing we can do to bring Caroline back.

I hope in hindsight you do regret this.

This girl killed herself because you put an appeal through.

Coroner Mary Hassell asked Ms Bateman whether she was motivated by Flacks celebrity status to charge her.

All I can say is I was not biased and I treat everyone the same Detective Inspector Lauren Bateman

The coroner said: (Flacks) family feel that she was being taught a lesson in a way that a non-celebrity would not have been  that this was motivated by treating a celebrity in a way that a non-celebrity would not have been treated.

Is it the case that you were motivated in part by Carolines celebrity status?

Ms Bateman replied: No absolutely not, I would have done exactly the same if it had been anyone.

All I can say is I was not biased and I treat everyone the same.

The inquest heard Flack was found naked and covered in blood with a self-imposed cut to her wrist when police arrived on the scene, and told officers: I hit him (Mr Burton), he was cheating on me.

But Ms Bateman said Flack had not made it clear in her police interview later what she was admitting to.

The inquest heard that in her police interview, Flack said she flicked Mr Burton to wake him up, and she did not believe she caused his injury.

The coroner suggested Ms Bateman was splitting hairs in what she considered to be Flacks admission of guilt.

Ms Bateman replied: In my view, it wasnt a clear admission of what had happened.

Expand Close The inquest is taking place at Poplar Coroners Court in London (Jonathan Brady/PA) / Facebook

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Whatsapp The inquest is taking place at Poplar Coroners Court in London (Jonathan Brady/PA)

A lack of admission meant the case could not be dealt with through a caution, the inquest was told.

On Wednesday, friends described how Flack had serious concerns about her trial in March, but had met with her lawyers on February 14 when she thought the case might be dropped.

However, it was then that her legal team outlined the CPSs decision  made the previous day  to go ahead with court action.

Flack took a non-fatal overdose of tablets later that night, telling loved ones she was going to kill herself.

Worried friends attended her flat and called for an ambulance, but Flack refused to go to hospital.

Her friends stayed with the television star overnight and left mid-morning, but said they were aware Flack was angry with them for calling the emergency services and therefore risking the episode being made public.

Flack was found hanged at her home in the mid-afternoon.

On Wednesday, prosecutor Lisa Ramsarran said the CPS looked at Flacks mental health when the case was first reviewed, including evidence that the television personality self-harmed at the crime scene when she allegedly assaulted Mr Burton.

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Whatsapp Floral tributes were left outside the door of Flacks home in February following her death (PA)

However, it was decided it was in the public interest to authorise a charge of assault by beating, particularly considering the domestic violence allegation.

Mr Burton said he did not support the charge, and said Flack was not in a good place emotionally.

No members of Flacks friends and family were present in court for the two-day hearing.

Flacks mother, twin sister, and two close friends joined the hearing by video link, although Mr Burton was absent.

Flacks death prompted an outpouring of sorrow from celebrity friends, colleagues and fans, who referenced one of the former Strictly winners social media posts from December in which she urged people to be kind.

Her death was the latest connected to Love Island, following the deaths of contestants Mike Thalassitis, 26, in March 2019 and Sophie Gradon, 32, in June 2018.

Ms Gradons boyfriend Aaron Armstrong, 25, died three weeks after he found his girlfriend had died.

To contact the Samaritans, call 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org or visit https://www.samaritans.org/
The adolescent who reportedly infiltrated former US President Barack Obama's , Tesla CEO Elon Musk, among others Twitter accounts noted personalities in July had started by convincing the social platform employee that he was a staff member, as per the Wall Street Journal.

The teenager who allegedly hacked the Twitter accounts of former US President Barack Obama, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, among other noted personalities in July had started off by convincing an employee of the microblogging platform that he was a co-worker, according to authorities as per The Wall Street Journal.

The crime committed by 17-year-old Graham Ivan Clark had an element of hacking combined with social engineering, said Hillsborough County, Florida, State Attorney Andrew Warren. Apart from this, Clark, who has been charged with compromising over 100 accounts and scamming the account holders as well as hundreds of people who allegedly sent him money, had also seized control of phone number through SIM-swapping, and set up numerous fake phishing pages.

In March, the microblogging platform had announced work from home facility for all employees, giving the accused an ideal environment for the kind of attacks in which Clark allegedly specialised, according to security researchers.

Also Read: US charges three in Twitter mega Bitcoin hack

Once inside Twitter, Clark allegedly gained the ability to bypass the companys security protections, setting the stage for an hours-long hack on July 15 that captivated the worlds attention and held hostage the main communications tool of some of the most powerful people on the planet, as per The Wall Street Journal.

Investigators and security experts, as per the article, have said that the tricks used by the accused are those which are increasingly being used by online gamers in todays day and age and have resulted in over tens of millions of dollars in losses and affecting thousands.

Clark, meanwhile, spent a lot of time online playing video games and had been accused in online forums of reneging on business deals. Two others  19-year-old Mason Sheppard, of Bignor Regis, United Kingdom and Nima Fazeli (22) of Orlando, Florida have also been charged in connection with the hack.

An online forum called OGUsers.com had played a central role in the crime, as it is on this platform that Clark had reached out to brokers claiming to work for Twitter and said he could help sell control of Twitter accounts to buyers.

Another user of the forum, had then reached out to Sheppard, who after seeing a demonstration agreed to act as a broker, and on July 15 morning, brokered as many as eight deals between buyers and Kirk (alleged username of Clark on the forum) with some going for as high as USD 10,000.

However, Clark increased the nature of the scam by taking over accounts of high-profile personalities such as Microsoft and Amazon founders. Sheppard and the other broker, after realising the seriousness of the crime, had tried to reach out to reporters to clear their names.

Sheppard now faces up to 45 years in federal prison if convicted on fraud and hacking charges. Fazeli faces up to five years in prison if convicted, according to the criminal complaint. Clark faces 30 felony counts, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Earlier, Twitter announced the strengthening of security measures during the investigation of the hacker attack, significantly restricting access to its internal systems.

Among the victims of the hack were former US Vice-President Joe Biden, Former President Barack Obama, Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, billionaires Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg and Warren Buffett, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, rapper Kanye West, many others. The hackers used the account to call on followers to send money to a bitcoin account.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 03:07:29|Editor: huaxia

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Members of Jordanian Military Field Hospital prepare to board a plane heading to Beirut at Marka Military Airport in Amman, Jordan, Aug. 6, 2020. King Abdullah II of Jordan on Wednesday instructed that a military field hospital be sent to Lebanon as a rescue unit. (Photo by Mohammad Abu Ghosh/Xinhua)

AMMAN, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- King Abdullah II of Jordan on Wednesday instructed that a military field hospital be sent to Lebanon as a rescue unit.

The instructions for Royal Medical Services and the armed forces come in response to the tragic explosions that hit the port of Lebanon's capital Beirut on Tuesday, according to a Royal Court statement.

With the capabilities of conducting surgery and all medical specialties, the field hospital will be dispatched on Thursday to mitigate the burden on Lebanese medical facilities.

Earlier in the day, the Jordanian king expressed condolences to the victims of Beirut's explosions and wished the injured a speedy recovery in a phone call with Lebanese President Michel Aoun.

He also highlighted Jordan's readiness to provide any support needed.
NEW YORK CITY  New York City will contact and offer assistance to 14,000 renters at-risk of getting kicked out of their homes if an eviction ban's lapse, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

The moratorium got a last-minute renewal by Gov. Andrew Cuomo as de Blasio and city officials pledged to help New York City renters going forward.

De Blasio on Thursday said ending the moratorium would be a "huge problem" that needs to be addressed by the state amid a coronavirus pandemic that caused 1.3 million New Yorkers to file for unemployment.

"If you dont have a source of income, how the hell are you going to pay the rent?" he said.



Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged to help renters threatened with eviction. (NYC Mayor's Office)

The eviction moratorium was due to end Wednesday night but Cuomo gave it a reprieve. A new state law does protect New Yorkers who couldn't pay rent because of the pandemic, but it doesn't cover those facing eviction from before the coronavirus crisis.



That translates to roughly 14,000 New York City households who could be kicked out of their homes.

No actual evictions will forward because of a local court order, said Steve Banks, the city's Department of Social Services commissioner.

But the city still moved forward and contacted the 14,000 at-risk renters with offers of assistance, he said.

De Blasio said attorneys are looking into whether state law allows the city to order marshals not to carry out evictions. He said New York lawmakers should also pass a bill that allows tenants who missed rent to pay back landlords what is owed on an installment plan.

This article originally appeared on the New York City Patch
How many kids can ride on a school bus during the coronavirus pandemic?

It seems like a pretty simple question. Apparently its not.

School superintendents have been trying to get the answer for the past couple of weeks as they prepare reopening plans and submit them to the state. They have been asking the county and the state for clarification of the rules.

Theres been no clear answer to that,' said Robert Lowry, deputy director of the New York State Council of School Superintendents. And its a pivotal consideration.

Many school officials are confused.

Can a district put a child in each seat? Do they have to leave a seat empty between each child? Can children sit in seats behind each other, or do they have to sit a row apart to space six feet apart?

The answers are key because they will determine how many kids can be put on each bus and how many bus runs a district might need to make to get kids to school.

When we are reopening schools, we have to get the kids here,' said Fabius-Pompey School Superintendent Tim Ryan. Its a fundamental question we need to know the answer to, so we can move forward. What are the rules for seating kids on the buses?

The rules are clear that kids have to wear masks on the buses and they need to social distance.

Beyond that it gets murky fast.

It does seem to allow for some flexibility, but how to interpret that isnt clear,' Lowry said.

There is conflicting guidance: State education rules say students who are able must wear masks and social distance on the bus. The department defines social distance as six feet apart.

But state health department guidelines say masks are required and individuals should maintain appropriate social distancing, unless they are members of the same household. The health department requires districts to detail in their plans how social distancing will be conducted on the buses.

Both the governors office and Onondaga County Health officials said state health department rules supersede state education rules, which leaves officials to ask how much social distance is required.

Unable to get a clear answer from the state or county, several Central New York superintendents even asked if Syracuse.com | The Post Standard could reach out to the county and state for clarification.

The countys interpretation is that kids can be seated within six feet of each other on the bus, but the county is awaiting verification they are correct, said Justin Sayles, speaking for Onondaga County. He wasnt sure if that means one child per seat or two per seat - thats a question for the state, he said.

Jason Conwall, a spokesman for the governors office, on Wednesday said school superintendents need to figure out for themselves how far apart kids should be on the bus based on the state guidelines. The state provided a framework, and superintendents are to use that in designing their plans.

If there appears to be some flexibility in the rules, then the schools should make the decision they feel is best for their schools and their students,' he said. if the state has an issue with (their plan), they will hear about it.

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
Teenage tourist is believed to have been climbing waterfall

A teenage boy has died after an apparent climbing accident at the Powerscourt waterfall in Co Wicklow yesterday afternoon.

The boy, who is understood to have been a 15-year-old tourist visiting the area, was pronounced dead at the scene after he fell at around 2.30pm.

The teenager's body was taken to the mortuary at St Columcille's Hospital, Loughlinstown.

An official with the Irish Coast Guard said it received a request for assistance to retrieve another male who was stuck at the top of the waterfall.

The Dublin Coast Guard Rescue 116 helicopter was dispatched and the second male was airlifted to safety and did not need additional assistance, the official said.

It is understood the dead boy may have tried to climb part of the 121-metre high waterfall when he slipped and fell.

Terrible

Local Sinn Fein TD John Brady, from Bray, tweeted his condolences, writing: "Terrible news this afternoon from Powerscourt. RIP," he wrote.

Higher Education Minister TD Simon Harris paid tribute on Twitter last night.

"Thoughts of all our community are with the family and friends of the teenager. Thank you @IrishCoastGuard."
Michigan voters made their choices on the state House candidates theyd like to see on their November ballots this week.

All 110 state House seats are up for grabs this general election cycle in addition to Michigans 14 U.S. House seats, one U.S. Senate seat and the presidency.
More than half of prisoners released from Irish jails go on to reoffend within three years, a report has shown.

The study, compiled using data from the Irish Prison Service and gardai, shows nearly 80pc of young people who enter the prison system under the age of 21 will re-offend within a three-year period.

However, re-offending rates have fallen over time, with 40pc of inmates released in 2017 re-offending within one year, compared with 46pc of those released in 2011.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) results show 55pc of male prisoners released in 2014 re-offended within three years, compared with 58pc of female prisoners.

The study notes 93pc of inmates were males.

CSO statistician Felix Coleman said younger inmates were "much more likely" to re-offend than older ones.

"In 2014, 55pc of prisoners released from custody were linked to a re-offending incident within three years of their release," he said.

"The data also indicates that younger age groups of released prisoners are much more likely to re-offend, with almost 80pc of released prisoners aged less than 21 at the time of entering prison re-offending within three years of release.

"In contrast, just 29.5pc of prisoners who were over 50 years old re-offended within three years of release.

"Re-offending rates are falling over time whether one looks at three-year or one-year windows for re-offending following release from custody.

Service

"A little more than 40pc of prisoners released in 2017 re-offended within one year, compared to just over 46pc of prisoners released in 2011 who re-offended within one year of release."

Separately, the 2019 Probation Service report shows it dealt with 16,607 offenders in the community and 2,689 offenders in prison. There were also 2,791 Community Service Orders made last year compared with 2,499 in 2018.

This, the report said, totalled 379,815 hours work in lieu of 1,247 years in prison and equated to over 3.5m worth of unpaid work for the benefit of communities nationwide.
Cooper's new order is actually more of the same: Bars, gyms, movie theaters and amusement parks  places where people are usually in closer contact  will now be closed for nearly six straight months. Gatherings are still limited to 10 people indoors and 25 people outdoors, with some exceptions.

As many university campuses and K-12 public schools begin fall classes this month with some classroom instruction, Cooper said it's important to keep the same social-distancing restrictions in place. He said retaining the other restrictions will help counterbalance the higher risk associated with bringing together students.

There are key openings already occurring this month, Cooper said at a media briefing, and with the hustle and bustle of opening schools, people will move around more, and so will the virus.

North Carolina's daily increase in new coronavirus cases has been slowing. According to the N.C. Department of of Health and Human Services, 1,127 new infections were reported Wednesday. That number had been hovering around 2,000 for several days in July.
America is a land of deepening social crisis and political turmoil, in which the vast majority of the population opposes President Trump and his ultra-right policies and seeks an alternative. But this reality is almost completely obscured by a corporate-controlled two-party system which suppresses and distorts these popular sentiments.

Democratic and Republican primaries in five states on Tuesday, August 4, provided yet another demonstration of this political reality. These statesMichigan, Missouri, Kansas, Arizona and Washingtonaccount for 45 seats in the House of Representatives, about 10 percent of the total, split nearly evenly, 22 Democrats and 23 Republicans.

Only 10 of the 45 seats are considered even remotely competitive, five for each party. In the remaining 35 seats, the party nomination is considered the equivalent of election, as the other capitalist party does not wage a serious campaign, and all other challengers are effectively excluded by the two-party monopoly.

Four incumbent representatives did not seek renomination, either retiring from politics or running for higher office. Two of the remaining 41 were defeated, which passes for a political upheaval in the staid precincts of official American politics: Democrat William Lacy Clay of Missouri and Republican Steve Watkins of Kansas.

Clay had held his seat for 20 years, succeeding his father, William Lacy Clay Sr., who held the seat for 32 years and was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus. The First Congressional District of Missouri covers the entire city of St. Louis and its northern suburbs, including the town of Ferguson, where 18-year-old Michael Brown was murdered by a local cop in 2014.

Cori Bush, a nurse and pastor, became active in Black Lives Matter and campaigns against police violence, and came to prominence during the protests against Browns murder. She ran against Clay in 2018 with the support of Senator Bernie Sanders and then-candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but was swamped by Clays financial and organizational advantages and lost by 20 percentage points.

In 2020, Bush was better financed and supported again by Sanders and the Justice Democrats group, but not by Ocasio-Cortez, who after working with Clay in Congress announced she would remain neutral. In the course of the campaign, Bush played a prominent role in the protests that followed the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. She also contracted coronavirus but recovered.

In the week before the primary, the new prosecutor of St. Louis County, an African-American, announced there would be no charges brought against Darren Wilson, the former Ferguson cop who shot Michael Brown to death, further inflaming popular sentiments over police violence.

Bush defeated Clay by 49 percent to 46 percent, on a turnout that increased slightly from 2018, despite the impact of the pandemic. Bush rolled up a large margin in the city of St. Louis, while Clay won more narrowly in the suburban portion of the district.

While Missouri is considered a red state in capitalist politics, having voted for Republican presidential candidates for the past 20 years, with two Republican US senators, a Republican governor and state legislature, voters Tuesday approved an expansion of the Medicaid program that was vehemently opposed by the Republican Party. The referendum to expand Medicaid and incorporate the expansion into the state constitution, making it difficult to overturn or repeal, passed by 53 to 47 percent, with huge margins in St. Louis, Kansas City and their suburbs. Missouri is the sixth Republican-controlled state to expand Medicaid by ballot measure in the past three years. An estimated 200,000 families will be added to the program as a result.

Once Cori Bush enters Congress, a virtual certainty in the heavily Democratic district, she will be considered the fifth member of the squad, the group of left-talking, female, minority members which now includes Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley. This group has been used to give the Democratic Party a left face, even while policy is set by multi-millionaires like Nancy Pelosi and former military-intelligence operatives like Elissa Slotkin, who are far more numerous and influential.

In Michigan, the most populous of the states holding primaries August 4, Tlaib won renomination easily, defeating Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones. With about 90 percent of the vote, Tlaib had a 2-1 lead, 63,650 to 32,582. Turnout was much heavier than in 2018, when Tlaib defeated Jones by fewer than 1,000 votes in the contest to succeed John Conyers in the westside Detroit seat. The increased turnout was largely due to mail ballots, which were made available by the state on request because of the coronavirus pandemic.

It is notable that Jones had little success with an openly race-based appeal, claiming that the predominately African-American district should be represented by a black congresswoman rather than a Palestinian-American like Tlaib. Jones received nearly the same vote as in 2018, while Tlaibs vote more than doubled.

While Bernie Sanders and Justice Democrats celebrated the victory, virtually the entire Democratic political establishment also backed Tlaib, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Michigan AFL-CIO, and the United Auto Workers. She was also backed by the Wayne County Democratic Black Caucus.

In the Grand Rapids-based seat left open by the retirement of Republican Justin Amash, who left the party and supported the impeachment of President Trump, Peter Meijer won the Republican primary. A grandson of the founder of the supermarket chain bearing his name, Meijer is a 32-year-old Army veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, a Republican version of the CIA Democrats who played a major role in the outcome of the 2018 congressional elections.

Statewide, mail-in ballots contributed to a significant increase in turnout. Some 2.1 million voters requested absentee ballots for the primary, four times the total for the 2016 primary, and nearly 1.6 million ballots were returned, more than in the 2016 general election. Both the counting of the mail ballots and the in-person votingmuch reduced and conducted on the basis of social distancingwere carried out without significant problems, according to press reports and state officials.

The other representative defeated for renomination Tuesday, Republican Steve Watkins of the Second Congressional District in Kansas, was effectively removed by his own party establishment because he was viewed as vulnerable due to erratic personal behavior. He has been charged with four counts relating to vote fraud because he gave a UPS store as his home address when he registered to vote last year.

Given the phony claims of vote fraud emanating from the White House and the Trump reelection campaign, having a Republican candidate indicted for vote fraud was a political embarrassment. State Treasurer Jake LaTurner challenged Watkins for renomination and won the primary easily, 49 percent to 34 percent, with a third candidate taking the balance. LaTurner will face the Democratic mayor of Topeka, Michelle De La Isla, for a seat that Watkins won only narrowly in 2018.

Also in Kansas, Representative Roger Marshall won the Republican Senate nomination, defeating the fascistic former state official Kris Kobach, who lost the states gubernatorial election in 2018 to Democrat Laura Kelly. The Senate seat, held by the retiring Pat Roberts, has been held by the Republican Party for a century. Marshall will face a well-financed Democratic opponent, Dr. Barbara Bollier, a longtime Republican state legislator who recently switched parties.

One other political event of August 4 was the announcement of final results of a handful of close races from the June 23 primaries in New York state, where the counting of mail-in ballots was delayed by legal challenges. In one of the wealthiest congressional districts, covering the Upper East Side of Manhattan, 14-term incumbent Carolyn Maloney was declared the Democratic winner over challenger Suraj Patel. In the poorest congressional district in America, in the south Bronx, city councilman Ritchie Torres won a 12-way race for the Democratic nomination.

President Trump had repeatedly cited the delay in determining the winner of the Maloney-Patel contest as evidence that mail balloting would lead to months of delay in declaring a winner in the November 3 presidential election.
This is a bit of a wormhole, so bear with me. But I think it illuminates some deeply concerning stuff about the right-wing Boomer propaganda machine.

I saw a link on Twitter with the headline, "Colorado to strip its police force of qualified immunity: Countless officers discussing resigning." Naturally, I was intrigued at the suggestion of police officers throwing public tantrums over having the slightest accountability in their supposed duties to serve and protect their communities. So I saved the link to read later. When I opened it, I found a terribly cheap right-wing propaganda website called Law Enforcement Today, with a poorly written article that linked to a Denver Post article from a few weeks back about Colorado SB-217, which is supposed to restrict the use of tear gas and projectiles on civilians and introduce criminal charges for cops who don't intervene when they witness another officer exercising excessive force. The Law Enforcement Today coverage is long and meandering and doesn't even have an author listed; at the top of the article, however, there is an editor's note saying:

Law Enforcement Today has received countless messages over the past few days from officers in Colorado. Many have asked for resources finding police jobs out of Colorado  many others have said they plan on leaving the field altogether. This is just the beginning. Here's why.

And that is the extent of information available at police threatening to resign over losing qualified immunity. So what was supposedly the main focus of the article  based on the headline  was just some hearsay tacked onto the top of it.

I scrolled down for some more information on the site, since it apparently has nearly a million followers on Facebook. There was no information on who writes, edits, or funds the page  but I did find this screenshot embedded at the bottom of the article, encouraging readers to follow them:

"In unity there is strength" is a slogan derived from the original Fasces symbol, which inspired Mussolini's National Fascist Party. While I certainly knew there was an overlap of pro-police propaganda and fascists, I didn't expect this mysterious shitty website with a million followers to be openly boasting about fascism.

So of course, I kept digging.

It was hard to find any information about the LLC behind Law Enforcement Today, but I did eventually find some details on their founder/CEO Robert Greenberg. I was able to confirm that Greenberg started the "online community" in 2008, so I felt mostly confident that at least it's probably not a Russian or Macedonian troll op.

But I did notice that Greenberg claims to be a police captain, with 30 years of experience. Surely this information would be public, and I could find out more, or at least confirm it, right? Just to be sure it's not a troll op?

Greenberg, it turns out, is indeed a police captain. He works for the Public Safety Department of Indian Creek Village in Florida.

Here's how the Miami Herald describes Indian Creek Village:

Tucked off the shores of Surfside in Biscayne Bay, Indian Creek Island has become known as a "billionaire bunker." Its 86 residents include four of America's top 500 richest people, according to Forbes: activist investor Carl Icahn; hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert; car dealership owner Norman Braman. and mutual fund mogul Charles Johnson. [] Taken together, the village of 86 residents boasts a net worth in excess of $37 billion.

The most expensive property on the island belongs an unnamed Russian billionaire hiding behind an LLC. Prior to that $50 million dollar sale, the next-most expensive property  also sold to an unnamed Russian billionaire.

For what it's worth, one of the 35 houses on the island once belonged to Jay-Z and Beyonce as well.

Knowing all of this, it's perhaps unsurprising that the captain of the 13-person police department that protects these 35 mansions is so under-stimulated in his day job that he spends all of his time running an openly fascist police propaganda website.

At least, after all that, I'm confident in saying it's a troll farm.

Inside The Dangerous Online Fever Swamps Of American Police [Jesselyn Cook and Nick Robins-Early / Huffington Post]
The colossal explosion in Lebanons capital this week was apparently caused when more than 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly volatile chemical, detonated.

The stockpile had been left for years at the city's port in a densely populated neighborhood, according to government officials, who are still investigating. Ammonium nitrate is commercially available and is often used in fertilizers and explosives.

Although some port officials have been placed under house arrest, it was still unclear Thursday what exactly triggered a blast that flattened the area and sent a cloud of orange smoke mushrooming across the city, blowing out windows and decimating homes. The explosion was so loud it was heard nearly 140 miles away in Cyprus. At least 137 people were killed and more than 5,000 injured as of Thursday.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab said it was "unacceptable" that that amount of ammonium nitrate had been in a warehouse for six years without "preventive measures" to protect it.

What is ammonium nitrate and how dangerous is it?

Its a very common chemical that anybody that has used fertilizer has dealt with routinely and doesnt think anything about it," said Nathan Lewis, a chemistry professor at the California Institute of Technology. Just give it a little fuel and youre asking for trouble, and thats what apparently happened.

Lewis said the chemical can be safely stored in its pure form by itself.

Image: Dealer holds fertilizer containing ammonium nitrate (Khalid Tanveer / AP file)

On the other hand, either inadvertently or deliberately, if you mix a fuel with the ammonium nitrate, then its a very dangerous explosive, he said. There are protocols for storing it safely: Dont let it get near fuel, dont let it be in a confined space."

Karthish Manthiram, an assistant professor of chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said that what causes such a dangerous explosion is the rapid expansion of ammonium nitrate from a solid to a gas.

This amount of ammonium nitrate is about enough to fill half an Olympic-size pool, and that amount of ammonium nitrate expanded would then be enough to fill half of AT&T Stadium or half of the Dallas Cowboys Stadium, he said. So, its just an enormous increase in volume.

Story continues

How should ammonium nitrate be stored?

Manthiram said the United States has quite a few regulations for storing ammonium nitrate in certain quantities.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Department of Homeland Security both regulate the substance, Manthiram said. OSHA stipulates that if you have more than 1,000 pounds of fertilizer-grade ammonium nitrate, it has to be stored in a one-story building with adequate ventilation in case of a fire and a sufficient water supply and fire hydrants to fight a potential fire, he said.

Then there are additional regulations from DHS, the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards, which applies to hundreds of chemicals that could be misused under the context of terrorism, he said.

This is certainly an enormous safety threat that would have been dealt with quite differently in the U.S., Manthiram said of the amount of material stored in Beirut.

Jimmie Oxley, a chemistry professor at the University of Rhode Island, said that some 200 factories produce the chemical around the world and that it is a very valuable commodity, both as a fertilizer and as an explosive.

If youre doing mining of any type, youre going to be using this material to make your explosive, she said.

Oxley said that no manufacturer would have stored the material the way it was held at the port in Beirut.

Generally such storage sites are near mines and thus not close to large population centers, she said. There are only two plants in the U.S. that make fertilizer-grade ammonium nitrate, both in the South and neither in the middle of large residential areas, Oxley said.

Have there been previous incidents involving ammonium nitrate?

The chemical has been involved both in terror attacks and in accidents leading to hundreds of deaths in the past.

The U.S. faced certain disasters long ago of this sort, Manthiram said.

In 1947, at least 581 people were killed when more than 2,000 tons of the chemical exploded on a cargo ship that had docked at a port in Texas City, Texas.

That same year, in Brest, France, a Norwegian ship that contained about 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded, causing 29 deaths.

These were among a number of early incidents that led to the emergence of regulations, he said. With 70 more years of experience at handling chemicals of this sort, I think theres really no good reason for something like this to happen."

Timothy McVeigh used two tons of ammonium nitrate to bomb a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, leading to the deaths of 168 people. It was also used in a 1970 bombing on the University of WisconsinMadison campus that led to one death and several injuries.

Virtually every day can go by seeming as if this is an innocent molecule, because its a fertilizer, which makes it sound like its harmless in a way," Manthiram said, "and then one incident of this sort can completely change ones perspective."

What about the origins of the 2,750 tons of chemical in Beirut?

The ammonium nitrate arrived in Beirut in the fall of 2013 on a Russian-owned cargo ship, the Rhosus, the ship's then-captain, Boris Prokoshev, told NBC News. It was en route from the Georgian Black Sea port of Batumi to Mozambique, where it was to be used as fertilizer, he said.

It stopped off in Beirut but was impounded for safety reasons because it was overloaded and listing, Prokoshev said.

"The ship couldn't take it," he said of the weight.

The ship's Russian owner, Igor Grechushkin, abandoned the ship, refusing to pay docking fees, fines, and even salaries and food for the crew, according to the captain and Natalia Sokolova, a representative for the Seafarers Union of Russia, which represented the crew during its dispute with the owner.

NBC News tried but was not able to reach Grechushkin for comment.

"The Beirut port authority would not give them permission to abandon a ship carrying this type of cargo," Sokolova said. "In the end, a court seized the vessel to sell it as a means to pay off the ship owner's debts, and a port agent found locals to unload the cargo and the crew went home."

The governor of Beirut, Marwan Abboud, backed up this account, telling the country's LBCI television station that the chemical was kept in the port under "judicial order" and that "there was nobody who took the responsibility to make a decision to remove it."

"Those responsible will be held accountable whomever and wherever he is," Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi told reporters Wednesday after he inspected the port, adding that the investigation will take a maximum of five days.
A 34-year-old 'radicalised' attacker who took six people hostage in a bank in Le Havre has been arrested after turning himself in.

A bomb squad rushed to the BRED bank in Boulevard de Strasbourge after the man allegedly told officers there were explosives in a bag.

A representative of the national police told Reuters the hostage-taker had initially seized six people.

Negotiators were eventually able to secure the release of five hostages, with the last captive set free shortly before the hostage-taker turned himself in, a police official said.

Members from the French elite tactical police unit RAID gather outside a bank in the port city of Le Havre

Crowds flocked to the scene despite a warning from police that urged spectators to keep away

The man emerged slowly from the building wearing a balaclava and with his hands turned palms-up, before officers with their weapons raised moved in and handcuffed him.

What appeared to be a green-coloured flag was draped around his shoulders as he left the building.

The police representative said the hostage-taker had a history of mental health problems.

He is believed to be known to authorities and is on a security service watch list.

The hostage-taker is believed to have Islamist sympathies, two police union officials said, but there was no official confirmation of this.

'We know that he has been radicalised and suffers a serious psychiatric illness,' Yves Lefebvre, head of the SGP Unite police union, said.

A senior police official said the man holding the hostages had made statements in support of the Palestinian cause.

French police patrolled the area near the bank in the port city as they negotiated the release of hostages

French Chief Prosecutor Francois Gosselin addresses media outside the bank

Police officers secure the area near the bank where an armed man held hostages

He added that the man had also requested a motor scooter and access to social networks.

Police cordoned off the area and urged the public to keep away from the area.

The hostage-taker was apparently armed with a handgun, but it was not immediately clear whether the weapon was real or fake.

'The hostages have been freed, safe and sound,' Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said, hours after an elite RAID police unit had been deployed.

'Very proud and grateful,' former prime minister Edouard Philippe, now Le Havre's mayor, wrote on Twitter in praise of the police.
New Aug 6 : An Indian citizen has been sentenced to prison for his role in a fraud run with accomplices in India that ripped off about 200 Americans, according to a federal prosecutor's office.

Anikkhan Yusufkhan Pathan, 29, who came to the US on a student visa, was sentenced on Tuesday by senior federal judge Liam O'Grady to 15 months, the Eastern Virginia federal prosecutor's spokesperson said.

The judge at the federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, also ordered him to pay $149,854 in restitution.

Federal prosecutor Zachary Terwilliger said: "Pathan's conspirators located in India exploited victims who were trying to pay mortgages and apply for loans. Individuals should not have to be worried about being scammed when trying to complete basic, and essential, financial tasks." According to court documents, the accused found out financial dealings of the victims like bank loan applications, home mortgage and other business transactions and then tricked them into sending money to fictitious identities.

Pathan had set up at least 67 fake IDs under different names to collect about $150,000 and after keeping some for himself sent to rest to conspirators in India or deposited them into bank accounts of unknown people, according to prosecutors.

A string of cases of such fraud linked to India is being uncovered by law enforcement in the US dealing a blow to the country's reputation among theApublic.

Last month, an Indian-origin couple was charged with phone scam money laundering to the tune of $400,000, while another man was sentenced two years for picking up $140,000 in a scam.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter at @arulouis)
They have been at the center of split rumors for weeks now after their opposing political beliefs came to light once again.

But Becca Kufrin and Garrett Yrigoyen fueled even more speculation they were done for good on Wednesday after eagle-eyed fans noticed something was missing from Garrett's Instagram account.

Followers of Garrett, 31, noticed he had removed a highlight reel of Becca, 30, entitled 'Becca Spills,' which contained clips of his fiancee.

Is it over? Becca Kufrin and Garrett Yrigoyen fueled even more speculation they were done for good on Wednesday after eagle-eyed fans noticed something was missing from Garrett's Instagram account

Interestingly, today also marks the two year anniversary of Becca's season finale on The Bachelorette, which saw Garrett propose to her in the Maldives.

Neither Becca or Garrett have said anything about the episode anniversary on their accounts, however they did not mark the occasion last year either.

While Garrett may have deleted his Becca reel, photos of his fiancee still remain on his account, with the last photo being from their actual two-year anniversary.

Becca also still has highlight reels featuring her fiance on her Instagram account, including one titled 'G-Cam.'

Interesting timing: Today also marks the two year anniversary of Becca's season finale on The Bachelorette, which saw Garrett propose to her in the Maldives

She has also left up photos from their relationship.

Fans have been wondering for weeks now if the couple had split after Garrett sparked controversy yet again for his political views.

On Black Out Tuesday, which saw countless Instagram users post a single black square in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, Garrett posted both a black square and a black square with a thin blue line, demonstrating his support for the police force.

She said yes! Kufrin accepted Garrett's proposal on The Bachelorette

Divisive: On Black Out Tuesday, which saw countless Instagram users post a single black square in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, Garrett posted both a black square and a black square with a thin blue line, demonstrating his support for the police force

'The Thin Blue Line represents each officer protecting protestors, properties, and businesses while being threatened, attacked, shot, shot at, hit with vehicles, and other forms of brutality,' he wrote in the lengthy caption.

'There have been over 300 injured, shot, or killed in just one week. They are suffering the consequences over an act they didn't commit. They continue to put in overtime away from their families, stay silent while being threatened, hated, and assaulted. We can't judge an entire group of people by the actions of a few.'

The posts did not sit well with fans, who had not forgotten how Garrett had 'liked' various homophobic and racist Instagram posts on Instagram back in 2018.

The couple were able to move past the controversy at the time, but the thin blue line post may have been the last straw.

'It's something we are trying to work through': On her podcast, Becca admitted she did not agree with Garrett's post, and that their relationship was at a standstill

On her podcast, Becca admitted she did not agree with Garrett's post, and acknowledged they were trying to 'work through' their problems.

'For those who are curious about my relationship with Garrett at this point, all I can say right now is that I don't know,' she said on Bachelor Happy Hour podcast in June.

'I can't give anything more than that. It's something that we are trying to work through and discuss and do work on at home at this time and that's where the work will remain and that's really the best I can give you at this point.'

After the controversy, Becca left the home they share in Carlsbad to quarantine with her family in Minnesota, and did not join Garrett at his friend's wedding in July.

Garrett has been spending time with his friends in the woods as of late, based on his Instagram posts.

Just the boys: Garrett has been spending time with his friends in the woods as of late, based on his Instagram posts

Happier times: The couple share a smile on their engagement day
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 21:57:53|Editor: huaxia

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KABUL, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Six civilians were killed and one civilian was wounded after a roadside bomb struck a van in Afghanistan's western Nimroz province on Wednesday, the country's Defense Ministry confirmed Thursday.

"The Improvised Explosive Device (IED) explosion occurred in Khash Rod district when the innocent civilians were travelling on the van in the desert region. The pressure-plate IED was planted by the enemies of the peace," the ministry said in a statement.

Militants in Afghanistan have been using home-made IEDs to make roadside bombs and landmines to target security forces, but the lethal weapons also inflict casualties on civilians.

More than 800 civilians were killed and over 2,330 others wounded in IED explosions in 2019 in the central Asian country. Enditem
RBI Governor on Thursday defended the easy liquidity stance of the central bank, asserting that the private sector entities have benefitted out of the policy.

Das said the measures, which got adopted with deep rate cuts, have also ensured faster transmission of the policy rates into the actual lending by banks, in turn helping the economy. At present, the overall excess liquidity is at over Rs 5 trillion.

There has been a criticism that the excess liquidity framework helps lower the cost of borrowing for the government as the yields on bonds go down. Among others, former deputy governor Viral Acharya had recently advocated keeping the system in small liquidity deficit.

"I thought it necessary to point out some of these aspects which are known, which are obviously available in the public domain, but I often hear questions being raised in the public space," Das said while reading out his policy statement on Thursday.

"Transmission of the rate cuts by the MPC would not have been possible to the extent achieved so far without creating comfortable liquidity conditions," he added.

He said large amounts of liquidity were infused in and out of the system through injections and absorptions through the liquidity adjustment facility and added that easing of financial conditions has enhanced monetary policy transmission and also effectiveness of the Monetary Policy Committee's actions.

"It is worthwhile to see who is benefiting from RBI's actions," Das said, listing out the benefits of the measures to the non-bank lenders segment which was starved of liquidity following the IL&FS crisis.



He said the long-term repo operations and the 'operation twist' carried out by the RBI have helped narrow the spread between corporate bonds and government securities of the same tenor as the illiquidity premia dissipated.

Borrowing costs in the financial markets dropped to a decadal low on abundant liquidity, and the lower costs led to a record primary issuance of bonds at Rs 2.09 trillion in April-June, he said.

In particular, market financing conditions for NBFCs, which had become challenging, have largely stabilised in the wake of targeted policy measures, he added.

Although non-food bank credit has slowed to 5.6 per cent (as on July 17), credit to grew at 25.7 per cent in June, loans to services at 10.7 per cent, and to housing at 12.5 per cent, Das said adding that monetary transmission has also improved considerably.

The weighted average lending rate (WALR) on fresh rupee loans sanctioned by banks declined by 1.62 per cent between February 2019 and June 2020 (as against policy cuts of 2.50 per cent), of which 0.91 per cent transmission was witnessed during March-June 2020, Das said.

Abundant liquidity has also supported other segments of the financial market, particularly, the mutual funds which have "stabilised" since the Franklin Templeton episode earlier this year, Das said.

In his recently released book on financial stability, Acharya writes, "In fact, once sufficiently fiscally dominated, the liquidity policy can control most of the government bond yield curve and prices, rendering the rate-setting process of monetary policy authority effectively irrelevant."



Acharya, who quit six months ahead of the end of his term, has said that there was "intense pressure" on the RBI to open up "liquidity and credit taps" to help the economy when he was at Mint Road.

"We shall remain alert and watchful and collectively do whatever is necessary to revive the economy and preserve financial stability. Courage and conviction will conquer Covid-19," Das said on Thursday.
For more than 25 years, Lori and Jack Grigg have trained dogs to provide services like detecting bed bugs or alerting diabetics of drops in their insulin levels.

In recent months, theyve taken on a new trial -- teaching dogs coronavirus detection.
Support Early Case Identification with READY Contact Trace We knew that READY Contact Trace needed to combine end-to-end anonymity for users with the ability for staff to automate the contact tracing process.

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The Trump campaign's Twitter account was temporarily blocked from tweeting Wednesday for spreading misinformation.

JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images

Twitter briefly blocked the Trump campaign's account from tweeting Wednesday after it violated the company's policies against COVID-19 misinformation, a company representative told Business Insider.

The campaign tweeted a Fox News interview in which President Donald Trump falsely claimed children were "almost immune" to the disease.

Trump himself also tweeted a link to the video, which has since been blocked, but the company did not take action against the president's account.

In an apparent first, Facebook took down a similar post by Trump earlier for violating its own COVID-19 misinformation policies.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Twitter temporarily blocked the Trump campaign's account from tweeting Wednesday after it posted a video of the president spreading COVID-19 misinformation, a company representative told Business Insider.

The campaign tweeted a video, which has since been removed, of President Donald Trump giving a Fox News interview in which he falsely claimed children were "almost immune" to the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

"The Tweet you referenced is in violation of the Twitter Rules on COVID-19 misinformation," the representative said. "The account owner will be required to remove the Tweet before they can Tweet again."

A growing body of research suggests that children can transmit COVID-19 like anyone else, though researchers believe their infection rates are often underreported because they are frequently asymptomatic and have been largely excluded from clinical trials.

"Another day, another display of Silicon Valley's flagrant bias against this president, where the rules are only enforced in one direction," Courtney Parella, the Trump campaign's deputy national press secretary, said in a statement. "Social-media companies are not the arbiters of truth."

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Trump also posted his own tweet linking to the campaign's tweet containing the video, which has been viewed more than 30,000 times.

Twitter, however, said it would take any action against only the campaign's account and not the president's.

"Our enforcement action is specific to Tweets, not accounts that may have amplified it. The video was posted by @TeamTrump and shared via @realDonaldTrump, which is why we're taking action on that account specifically," a representative told Business Insider.

President Donald Trump tweeted a link to a video in which he made false claims about COVID-19.

Screenshot/Twitter

Facebook took down a similar post from Trump earlier Wednesday for violating its own policies against "harmful COVID misinformation," apparently the first time the social-media giant has removed a post by Trump for spreading false information about the virus.

Pressure has mounted on social-media companies recently to take stronger steps to address the spread of misinformation on their platforms, particularly around the coronavirus pandemic, hate speech, and elections. Earlier this year, Twitter applied a fact-check label to Trump's tweets falsely claiming mail-in voting caused widespread election fraud.

At the same time, Trump has become increasingly enraged at social-media platforms, particularly Twitter. In recent months, Trump has suggested that Twitter's trending topics are "illegal" because they make him look bad, and he singled out the company in a legally dubious executive order seeking to crack down on platforms' authority to moderate content on their platforms.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Michelle and JJ McPhillips. JJ was stabbed to death in 2017. The case remains unsolved. (Michelle McPhillips)

For Michelle McPhillips, its the simple tasks that bring back the horrors of her sons unsolved knife killing three-and-a-half years ago.

Simple tasks such as cooking a roast dinner.

Theres many a time Ive stood in the kitchen with a roll of beef and tried to stick a knife in it, she says. You have to put some force in when youre trying to get a knife in a piece of flesh.

When JJ was stabbed, the knife broke his fifth rib, went through the heart and pierced the left lung. The impact of that upward thrust is amazing when you sit and think about it.

So the impact of that strike is forever troubling.

No one held accountable

Jonathon JJ McPhillips was stabbed while on a night out in Islington, north London, in February 2017.

JJ, described as a lover, not a fighter, had intervened after a fight erupted involving a boy he knew.

He suffered three cardiac arrests and sustained severe brain damage. His life support machine was switched off three days later.

JJ was 28. He had two daughters described as his best friends who would follow him everywhere.

His mother is speaking to Yahoo News UK two years to the day since a murder trial into his death collapsed.

Michelle McPhillips and her son, JJ. (Michelle McPhillips)

Michael Dyra, then 22, was due to stand trial at the Old Bailey on 6 August, 2018, but the court heard there was no realistic prospect of a conviction due to an issue with facial mapping evidence in the case.

Prosecutors entered no evidence and all charges were dropped.

Three-and-a-half years since JJ gasped his last word  mum  to McPhillips as she sat beside him in an ambulance, no one has been held accountable for his death.

Justice system has failed me

According to the Metropolitan Polices homicide dashboard, 27 homicides from 2017 remain unsolved.

The fact no one has been caught for my sons killing shows me a failing in the justice system of Great Britain, McPhillips says.

It gives me no hope that if anyone in this country commits a crime, they are going to be caught for it.

Story continues

There were plenty of witnesses, plenty of people around that night [JJ was stabbed in Upper Street, Islingtons popular shopping, restaurant and nightlife destination]. I dont feel the whole case has been conducted as well as it could have been from the moment of the impact.

Police at the scene of the stab death of Marcel Campbell in Upper Street, Islington, in May 2018. He was killed across the road from where JJ McPhillips was knifed in February 2017. (PA)

It shows me a failing, all over, in the whole system.

McPhillips divides her time between Clacton-on-Sea and Islington. Its when shes walking in the streets of Islington that she is haunted by her sons unsolved case.

Im thinking to myself: Have I just walked past my sons killer? I believe I know the person who murdered my son, I believe Ive looked in that persons eyes and spoke to that person.

But I need the justice system to get behind me and help to prove, 100%, thats who it was.

I cant get past the brutality

Islington has a wealthy image. In the past, Boris Johnson has lived in houses close to the scene of JJs stabbing. Rich people, from barristers to actors, populate the boroughs plush Georgian townhouses.

At the same time, this is a misleading image. There are also pockets of huge deprivation in Islington, a place which has long-standing issues of violent crime.

Fifteen months after JJ died, another young man  30-year-old Marcel Campbell  was stabbed to death across the road from where JJ was knifed.

Last month, 22-year-old Imani Allaway-Muir was shot dead in broad daylight, and near a childrens playground, less than a mile away.

Imani Allaway-Muir was killed less than a mile away from JJ last month. (Met Police)

Campbells killer, Reece Williams, is currently serving a 12-year jail sentence for manslaughter. Meanwhile, four men have been charged with murdering Allaway-Muir.

McPhillips, by contrast, remains in agonising limbo while JJs killer, or killers, continue to walk free.

Of the impact it continues to have on her life, McPhillips says: You never have a normal life, youve lost your child.

Because of the brutality of the actual incident, thats the part I cant get past. My son wasnt that type of person, didnt live that type of street life. Therefore he didnt deserve that brutality.

Michelle McPhillips says the justice system has 'failed' her as JJ's killing remains unsolved. (Michelle McPhillips)

His young daughters are also unable to process his death.

They still ask questions, McPhillips says.

Last night, I was on the beach with his five-year-old. We had a full moon. It lit up the sea and she said my daddy has lit up the sea. We get little sayings like that all the time, and thats the heartbreak.

They are growing up trying to puzzle together why somebody robbed them of their father.
Sallie Nixon Zimmons (center), widow of Isaiah Nixon, poses with her daughter Dorothy Nixon Williams and Emory professor Hank Klibanoff.

Buried Truths, the award-winning podcast led by Emory College professor Hank Klibanoff, released a special episode this week honoring Sallie Nixon.

Nixon, who saw her husband Isaiah killed in 1948 for voting, died from COVID-19 on July 25. She was 96.

Known by her family as Sallie Mama, she and her daughter, Dorothy, were central to the first season of the podcast that explores racially motivated killings in Georgia during the civil rights era. The podcast, and Klibanoffs undergraduate Georgia Civil Rights Cold Cases Project course on which its based, seeks to understand how and why such crimes went unpunished in the Jim Crow South.

Shes the one who, when the white men started firing their guns at her husband, started yelling Fall, Isaiah, fall, says Klibanoff, a Pulitzer Prize-winning professor of practice in Emorys creative writing program. She was something, to never break from all the insults and brutalities inflicted upon her.

The special episode serves as an update of the podcasts first season, which recounted the story of Isaiah Nixon, an African American husband and father of six who exercised his right to vote in rural Georgia in 1948 and was killed for doing so. When his family fled to Florida in the wake of the killing, his grave was lost to time, until it was discovered by a student in Klibanoffs cold cases class in 2015.

The first season of the podcast, produced by Atlanta NPR station WABE, won a Robert F. Kennedy Award in 2019 and the prestigious Peabody Award in 2018. The second season, focused on the killing of A.C. Hall, won a regional Edward R. Murrow award in 2020.

Buried Truths will next investigate the February murder of Ahmaud Arbery in Glynn County, Georgia. The two-part series is scheduled to air later this summer. Following that, the podcast will take an in-depth look at the 1958 killing of James Brazier, due in 2021.
Mobile phones have the power to change the lives of women living in remote communities by reducing barriers to information and increasing access to local economies. However, the introduction of new technologies can hamper efforts to empower women by increasing disparities in power dynamics.

Video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=YOgYpR5cb5w&feature=emb_logo

Associate Professor Timothy Baird of the College of Natural Resources and Environment and Kelly Summers, who earned a master's degree in geography from Virginia Tech in 2019, led a National Science Foundation-funded study examining the impact that mobile phones are having in Maasai communities in Tanzania. Their findings, published in the Journal of Rural Studies, reveal crucial insights into the ways that technology impacts social dynamics in a distinct community in Africa.

A nomadic people adapt to a changing world

The Maasai are an ethnic group of approximately 2 million people, living primarily in Kenya and Tanzania. As one of a number of indigenous groups in Africa to practice pastoralism, which involves the rearing of livestock, the Maasai have traditionally been nomadic, traversing the continent's Great Rift Valley to find grazing land for their animals.

This way of life, which has sustained Maasai for centuries, is evolving rapidly with the widespread expansion of western society and the ideas and technologies that come with it.

"Maasai are moving into a world some might call 'modern,'" noted Baird, a faculty member in the Department of Geography who has been researching Maasai communities since 2005. "Already there are aspects of our own 'western' lives that are evident in their lives. For example, several developments in Maasai society, from the growth of formal education to the spread of organized religion, have led to changes in the traditional structures that shape Maasai lives. From my vantage, mobile phones have been a kind of steroid for accelerating those changes."

For a population that herds livestock across wide stretches of wild savanna, mobile phones are a boon to their economy and life. But few studies have investigated how this new technology is impacting the lives of women in Maasai communities, which are traditionally patriarchal. In family units where men exert significant control, often over multiple wives, it is important to understand how phones have impacted gender dynamics.

"As a man, it's difficult -- and really not appropriate -- for me to have meetings with individual women or groups of women," Baird explained. "Maasai men may be quite uncomfortable with such a setup, and Maasai women may have no experience engaging with a man who is not a relative. So I needed help."

Enter Kelly Summers, who received bachelor's degrees in natural resources conservation and in forestry from Virginia Tech in 2014.

"While I was serving as an agriculture Extension agent with the Peace Corps in Tanzania, I read an article about Tim's research and reached out to him about doing graduate work in Tanzania," said Summers, who is currently working as an environmental protection specialist for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "Because I had experience interacting with women while living in and traveling to remote communities in Tanzania, it was a good fit."

Summers, working with collaborators, including Maria Elisa Christie, director of women and gender in international development for Virginia Tech's Center for International Research, Education, and Development, was able to conduct interviews with Maasai women, trying to puzzle out the difficult question of what women's empowerment might look like in a cultural context bounded by traditions but also stimulated by an expanding world.

"I don't want to paint a monolithic picture of a whole group of people," Summers said. "All of the women I spoke with had multiple identities within their communities: some women owned businesses, and some took on the work of tending to livestock. They were mothers and wives. Some were teachers and some were active in churches. There are a range of identities, and phones impact those identities for better or worse, or both."

Understanding the contexts of empowerment

To understand how a new technology like mobile phones could potentially support women's empowerment, it was important for researchers to understand what empowerment would look like within the specific contexts of Maasai life.

"To unpack this idea of empowerment, we had to characterize our terms and then look for examples of those characterizations," Baird said. "We had to ask: what are the aspects of your social world, what are the physical materials, and what are your own personal assets that allow you to make decisions and then act on those decisions. From that, we could develop more targeted questions about issues that embody empowerment and the factors that promote or obstruct it."

For Maasai women, the barriers to using mobile phones to gain empowerment vary: from access to reliable electricity to technological fluency and literacy, to having the financial resources to pay for data, their ability to use phones is shaped by a broad array of issues that are themselves in a state of radical flux. The study results show that some concerns are unique to Maasai communities, while others seem universal.

"One observation we made was that Maasai women are very much addicted to their phones," Summers explained. "If they can't get a charge or they can't purchase minutes, the feeling they have is very similar to our own anxiety when our phones lose power. We all want to communicate, we all want to be in a community, and phones are becoming a major tool to do that among Maasai women. Those who don't have access to a phone very much feel that they're missing out."

To work around some of the challenges pertaining to access, Maasai women have found cooperative solutions. Baird and Summers cite the important role that informal village community banks play in allowing women to develop business relationships with other women outside their family units, increasing the women's economic autonomy.

While mobile phones are a positive motivator in seeking these burgeoning opportunities, the authors stressed that mobile phones can also reinforce inequalities. For Maasai women, who typically have multiple roles within family and community structures, mobile phones can simultaneously empower an individual in one role while disempowering her in another.

"The same power dynamics that already existed are now playing out with phones," Baird said. "We found that men, the traditional gatekeepers in this society, are the ones who often control women's phones. They can use them as a reward or a punishment, a carrot or a stick."

Summers added that one of their findings is that Maasai men and women used phones differently: "Men will use their phones to talk to people outside their immediate social circle, but women will primarily talk to people they already know: mothers and sisters and other people in their family unit. They are rarely using their phones to reach out to new people."

While mobile phones can be used in ways that empower women, the researchers stress that it is more realistic to view this technology as a new arena where tensions between traditional cultural norms and the growing aspirations to engage in a broadly interconnected world continue to play out. Future efforts aimed at using mobile technologies to advance women's empowerment need to better understand what empowerment would look like within the specific contexts of a distinct culture, and what consequences -- positive and negative -- are risked when new technologies take root.

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Boris Johnson needs to be more realistic and pragmatic if he wants a Brexit trade deal with the EU, Germanys foreign minister has said.

Michael Roth said he was disappointed with the UKs lack of flexibility in negotiations so far, with just five months left to sign a deal and EU officials warning an agreement looks unlikely.

Both sides are still at loggerheads over fisheries, regulatory alignment, the role of the European Court of Justice, police and judicial cooperation, and the overall shape of any deal.

Mr Roth told the AFP news agency he was disappointed that London is shifting further and further away from the political declaration agreed between us as a reliable basis for negotiations  previous commitments made the prime minister during the first stage of talks.

I would like those responsible in London to be more realistic and pragmatic. The Brits are known for the latter, he added.

The prime minister refused to extend the transition period for negotiations despite the coronavirus pandemic and has shown little sign of varying the UKs red lines, which appear incompatible with Brussels.

There has been little progress to report since trade negotiations kicked off at the start of the year despite a resumption in face-to-face meetings after the Covid-related interruption.

Brussels has previously accused the UK of backsliding on its commitments, not only on principles around what a trade deal should look like, but on implementing already-agreed legal provisions for Northern Ireland.

The UK wants to water down border controls between Northern Ireland and Great Britain included in the EU customs code signed up to by Mr Johnson, but the EU says this is not acceptable and that the PM has already legally committed to them.

Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Show all 37 1 /37 Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Pro-Brexit supporters celebrating in Parliament Square, after the UK left the European Union on 31 January. Ending 47 years of membership PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Big Ben, shows the hands at eleven o'clock at night AFP via Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Pro Brexit supporters attend the Brexit Day Celebration Party hosted by Leave Means Leave Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage smiles on stage AFP/Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square People celebrate in Parliament Square Reuters Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square A Brexit supporter celebrates during a rally in Parliament square AP Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Police form a line at Parliament Square to prevent a small group of anti-Brexit protestors from going through to the main Brexit rally PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Nigel Farage speaks to pro-Brexit supporters PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square JD Wetherspoon Chairman Tim Martin speaks as people wave flags Reuters Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Brexit supporters wave Union flags as they watch the big screen AFP via Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Brexit Party leader, Nigel Farage arrives Reuters Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Brexit supporters gather AP Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Ann Widdecombe speaks to pro-Brexit supporters PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Brexit supporters wave Union flags as they watch the big screen AFP via Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square People wave British Union Jack flags as they celebrate Reuters Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Pro-Brexit demonstrators celebrate on Parliament Square on Brexit day Reuters Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square A pro-Brexit supporter jumps on an EU flag PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square AP Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square A man waves Union flags from a small car as he drives past Brexit supporters gathering AFP via Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square A pro-Brexit supporter pours beer onto an EU flag PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square An EU flag lies trampled in the mud Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square Getty Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square PA Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square AFP via Getty

There was further pressure from senior Tories on the prime minister to drive a hard bargain this week after Brexiteer and former party leader Iain Duncan Smith called for a cut in the financial liabilities Britain has with the EU under the agreement struck before the 2019 election.

The next official round is due to take place in Brussels on 17 August, with meetings already expected well into October  leaving little time for ratification by the end of the year. Mr Johnson previously said he wanted an agreement to be done in July.
Adding to the destructive fires and explosions that happened this week, more than 1,000 hectares of vegetation was burnt to the ground in a forest fire that blazed Southern France.

More than 3,000 people from camping sites near Marseille and several homes were evacuated are the fire tore through the forest. Around 1,800 firefighters were sent out to battle the blaze that engulfed the forests.

Strong winds fanned the fire which made it even more difficult to contain, leading to 14 firefighters sustaining minor injuries. Officials also confirmed that no civilians were hurt in the fire.

According to ABS-CBN, as flames engorged the pine tree-lined area bordering Martigues and Marseille, known as Blue Coast, tourists, locals and several occupants of an old people's home were rescued. In addition, as a preventive measure, eight campsites and several homes were also evacuated from the area where the blaze first lit up. While some people has to be evacuated from campsites and beaches through boats.

In a statement by one of the firefighters who battled the fire, Jean-Eric Lepine, he described the fire as exceptional and unheard of. He also said that the blaze advance at a speed comparable to a tornado. He also added that there were gas explosions every three-minute interval due to the bottles of gas installed in the bungalows that were eaten by the fire. He also expressed relief that no casualties were reported and around 15 houses were spared.

Meanwhile, one victim who lost her mobile home identified as Parisian Luisa Amoura described the scene as if it was from a movie. She recalled the events while watching the remains of what was previously her mobile home that was burnt down after the fire reached Lou Cigalou caravan park.

Read also: Ammonium Nitrate: What is This Chemical Culprit Behind the Deadly Beirut Blast

The site next to the caravan park, Tamaris was also burnt to the ground. Amoura recalled how people panicked while packing their bags. She also said that in order to stay safe from the fire, they took refuge in some rocks on the beach.

The said fire broke out late afternoon on Tuesday and spread easily as strong winds which blew at a speed of 8 kilometers per hour worsened the situation.

Eighty-three-year-old Maryse Escuder, a tourist who was at the La Source campsite with her family stated that they had to evacuate to the beach since they could already see flames coming closer to their site as panic began to fill the air. Escuder's family along with other evacuees spent the night in a gymnasium in Martigues.

Meanwhile, some who were affected by the fire were taken in by some locals whose homes were spared.

According to Aljazeera, by Wednesday, as the winds started to ease, the blaze was brought under control by firefighters in the area. Several businesses, homes, and about 130 hectares of property near Marseille-Fos which is an industrial port were destroyed by one of the fires.

The total worth of damaged properties destroyed by the fire has not yet been evaluated.

Related article: Caught on Cam: Lightning Bolt Caused Massive Fireball Above City in China

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n a recent media interaction, director Venkat Prabhu has revealed that the shoot of his upcoming film Maanaadu demands a huge crowd as the prominent portions are set in the backdrop of a large political gathering.

The makers are planning to resume the shoot once the Government grants permission to the film industry. Produced by Suresh Kamatchi, Venkat Prabhu has revealed that the songs composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja have come out well.
Statistics on the economy are, to most people, just a remote and abstract jumble of numbers  right until the moment they are the one to have lost their job.

It happened to my father in the 1980s and it is happening to hundreds of thousands of people right now.

Yet there seems to be a collective failure to grasp the threat to our way of life. We need to face two facts immediately.

Emergency measure: Working from home is not a bread-baking, middle-class nirvana that can continue forever

The first is that mass working from home is an emergency measure that needs to end as quickly as possible.

It is not a bread-baking, middle-class nirvana that can continue forever. Just ask the staff at WH Smith, who have lost their livelihoods because the commuters who kept their shops in stations busy are now cocooned with their laptops at home.

The second is that extending the furlough, which has created a false sense of security, is throwing good taxpayer money after bad. Many jobs being lost in hospitality and on the High Street are not coming back.

So where does that leave us?

Rebuilding the economy will need creative thinking and what Nigel Wilson, the chief executive of Legal & General, calls 'inclusive capitalism'.

In practical terms, he is putting his money where his mouth is by investing in projects that will directly benefit local communities and, he hopes, deliver a good return to pension savers.

If it works, it is a win-win formula. It is certainly a departure from the kind of debt-driven vulture capitalism that has scarred too much of the British High Street, and landed companies such as Debenhams and the AA in deep trouble.

Traditional shopping streets, where landlords charge high and escalating rents, need to change their practices so that new tenants, including small independent shops and start-ups can move in.

As John Lewis has realised, some stores could be turned into offices or affordable homes.

This is happening close to my home in London, where L&G has embarked on a 500million rental home development on the site of a B&Q and a Homebase store.

L&G is also ploughing 100million into a project to regenerate the former Vaux Brewery site in Sunderland and providing finance to develop a major studio for Sky. These could deliver up to 5,000 jobs.

There are many areas in which the UK could excel with the backing of patient investment, from green tech to gene therapy.

The way to come back from this pandemic is not to cower at home, rely on Rishi, or to stand by as prowling venture capitalists buy more companies at bargain prices.

Why is it left to an insurance company to make the case for inclusive capitalism, when the Government should be shouting it from the rooftops?

Detecting hope

News on the economic front is often so grim that colleagues have nicknamed me The Angel of Doom.

But might it turn out not to be so bad after all? Martin Beck, of Oxford Economics, thinks the Cassandras might be overdoing it a touch. He suspects his peers fail to appreciate how adaptable and resourceful we Brits are  those of us who have taken the reality pills, at any rate.

He draws a parallel with the three-day week in 1974, when companies' energy use was curbed, there were power cuts, most pubs were closed, and non-essential travel was discouraged.

I'm too young to know, but he says around 1.5m people were laid off and national income suffered the biggest fall ever, until this year.

Armageddon was confidently predicted, but did not materialise: the rebound was far stronger than most experts expected.

This unhappy episode is not an exact parallel with now. The remainder of the 1970s was hardly an economic success story but it is still thought-provoking.

I'm favourably disposed towards the Oxford economist for the admittedly whimsical reason that he shares a name with Martin Beck, protagonist of ten Scandi noir crime novels and countless radio, TV and film adaptations.

Here's hoping his instincts are as sound as the fictional detective's.

Good bet

The Daily Mail has led the way in exposing the gambling industry's faults, from lavish pay to executives to basing themselves in tax-efficient havens like Gibraltar.

William Hill, though, has done the right thing by promising to repay 24.5million of furlough cash to taxpayers, and set an example to others. Credit where it's due.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 21:51:18|Editor: huaxia

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KABUL, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- A Loya Jirga, or the Grand Assembly, is expected to be held in Kabul to decide on the fate of a controversial group of Taliban inmates, as release of the 400 prisoners becomes a prerequisite for start of long-delayed peace negotiation.

"I welcome the release of 5,100 Taliban prisoners since March, including 500 Taliban prisoners, who were not on the list of Taliban but were freed by President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani in a goodwill gesture during Eid al-Adah festival over the weekend. I think this is a good step for bringing about peace after decades of war," Farhad Sediqi, a Kabul resident, told Xinhua on Thursday.

"I heard a Loya Jirga is going to be held on Friday and over 3,200 elders and local leaders will gather from across Afghanistan. But it is a matter of sorrow as it will cost much money for the gathering. It will cost 4.3 million U.S. dollars as local TVs reported. It is huge money for a poor country," Sediqi said.

A U.S.-Taliban peace deal agreement in February required Afghan government to free 5,000 Taliban inmates in exchange for Taliban's release of 1,000 security forces or government employees.

The government set free 5,100 Taliban but did not release 400 prisoners as they were convicted of crimes against humanity.

On Friday, Ghani said in a televised speech that the government under the country's constitution has no authority to release the 400 prisoners listed by the Taliban.

"But this doesn't mean we give negative response to the release of all Taliban prisoners. I have to confer with the nation by convening Loya Jirga to make decision on the fate of the 400 prisoners," he said.

The Taliban should consider a reduction in violence after the peace deal. But contrary to the Afghans' desire, the Taliban militants have increased violence and launched attacks all over the country over the past four months, Ghani noted.

Under the agreement, about 10,000 U.S. and NATO-led coalition forces would leave Afghanistan by July next year depending on whether the Taliban meets the conditions envisaged in the agreement, including severing ties with foreign terrorist groups.

Hajji Mohammad Musa from eastern Wardak province told Xinhua Thursday that Afghans have no other choice but to find a solution for the current crisis.

"Precious lives are lost during fighting and clashes. We are losing our sons and daughters. The Jirga should find ways and manners to solve the problems and kick start an intra-Afghan peace talks between the government and Taliban to end the 19-year-old fighting and war," he said.

Sayed Naqibullah Behishti, another Kabul resident, told Xinhua that he believed the president could find easier ways, including voting by mobile phone's massaging, instead of holding the Jirga to solve any problem in the peace process.

"When we have parliament, holding Jirga seems a little old practice, especially when the county is facing crisis and insurgency. The parliament could decide on the matter," he said.

Mohammad Daud, a Kabul University student, did not agree with Behishti.

"We are waiting for peace and we are looking for peace no matter how it comes, either by releasing the rest of Taliban prisoners through convening Loya Jirga. We have to welcome any decision that ensure peace and stability,"

"So we support Jirga and hope to lead to a meaningful result," he said.

To ensure security for the two-day Jirga, the government deployed hundreds of security forces and declared Saturday as a holiday only in the capital of Kabul. Enditem
Photos: China Tests 'Carrier Killer' Ballistic Missile as US Fires Off Minuteman III ICBM

Sputnik News

19:23 GMT 05.08.2020

The United States and the People's Republic of China have both recently test-fired long-range ballistic missiles. Although the US has nearly 20 times the number of nuclear weapons as China, the Trump administration has insisted Beijing be included in any new arms control treaties.

Chinese Nuclear Response Test

On Monday, the People's Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) announced it had test-fired two ballistic missiles during a recent drill: one was a short-range Dongfeng-16 missile and the other was a Dongfeng-26, an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) designed to strike targets thousands of miles away.

"We are in a highly alert state for combat, to ensure our actions are prompt and precise," Liu Yang, the commander of the brigade that carried out the tests, was quoted as saying in a story on PLA news site 81.cn.

The Dongfeng-26 has a range of some 2,500 miles and has been touted as a "carrier-killer" capable of endangering US battle fleets in the region. It has the range to strike US installations on Guam from the Chinese coast.

According to the report, the drill was to test how quickly PLARF soldiers could respond to an incoming nuclear attack. In the video, they are seen donning protective gear as they rush to their mobile missile launchers, then driving them to a platform on a plain that appears to be prepared for launching missiles. The report did not say when the drill occurred.

US Launches Minuteman ICBM

Meanwhile, just after midnight on August 4, the US Air Force's Global Strike Command fired off an unarmed LGM-30 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) equipped with three reentry vehicles. In a real nuclear strike, each would carry its own nuclear warhead and go on to strike a separate target.

The missile flew some 4,200 miles from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the California coast to Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, US Strategic Command said in a news release.

An Air Force Global Strike Command unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile launches during an operational test at 12:21 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time 4 August 2020, at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.

"The Minuteman III is 50 years old, and continued test launches are essential in ensuring its reliability until the 2030s when the Ground Base Strategic Deterrent is fully in place. Most importantly, this visible message of national security serves to assure our allies and dissuade potential aggressors," 576th Flight Test Squadron commander Col. Omar Colbert said in the release.

A US Navy E-6 Mercury "doomsday plane" airborne command post and communications aircraft also used the drill to test its own ability to take charge of an ICBM in the event that ground command is interrupted during the missile's flight.

Arms Control, But Whose Arms?

In just six months, on February 5, 2021, the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) between the US and Russia will expire, and the rush is on to either extend or replace it.

The United States has some 5,800 nuclear weapons - roughly 20 times China's arsenal - but New START limits the US to just 1,550 deployed at any one time. Russia's arsenal is slightly larger at 6,800 weapons, but is subject to the same limitations. China, meanwhile, has just 300 nuclear warheads. Despite this, the US has insisted that China be involved in any new arms control treaty.

On July 5, Fu Cong, the head of the arms control department of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said Beijing would "be happy to" join the US and Russia in such talks - provided the US reduces its own arsenal to the size of China's, which Beijing says serves no purpose except deterrence.

The US State Department seemed to accept the prospect of talks, but not of arms reduction, suggesting the Chinese begin talks with their Russian counterparts first.

However, Chinese Ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui blasted the US response in comments on July 30, saying, "the US has repeatedly made proposals on arms control for China, Russia and the US and promoted the 'China factor' to distract international attention, pursuing to justify its withdrawal from the US-Russian New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and pursuing 'self-liberation' and achievement of absolute strategic advantage. China and Russia see this very clearly."

"China's refusal to participate in trilateral arms control negotiations does not mean that China refuses to participate in international nuclear disarmament efforts," Zhang continued.

Several days earlier, US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin reaffirmed at least the principle of a bilateral arms treaty between them due to their "special responsibility for maintaining international peace and security" as the world's largest nuclear powers, according to a Kremlin press release.

The US has withdrawn from several key treaties designed to reduce war tensions, including the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty that banned missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers, and, more recently, the Treaty on Open Skies, which provided for flyover inspections of each member's territory in the spirit of openness. Many fear New START may be the next treaty shed as the US prepares for "inter-state strategic competition" with Russia and China, as Pentagon strategy statements indicate.

A Sputnik

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Tripura is one of those few Indian States that has moved from a few cases to being declared Corona-free. But back again to a steep rise in the number of cases.

The latter made Tripura the northeastern state with maximum prevalence and deaths (after Assam that is going through an added burden of calamities in the face of the pandemic). After the first case was detected on 6th April, 2 more cases got detected and all recovered by 23rd April- making Tripura Corona-free. Only to surge soon after, from 2nd May onwards, in the form of a BSF battalion outbreak in ...
14 Baptist church members killed during suspected Fulani massacre in Nigeria

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Fourteen members of a Baptist church in the Kogi state of Nigeria were reportedly killed during a raid by suspected Fulani radicals last week. Residents have since fled the area as farming communities in Nigerias Middle Belt continue to be targeted.

As alleged genocide has reportedly claimed the lives of more than 1,400 Christians in Nigeria this year, the attack last Wednesday is the latest reported massacre of Christians in Nigeria.

Kogi State Command Commissioner of Police Ede Ayuba told the nonprofit persecution news outlet Morning Star News that an attack was carried out in the Agbadu-Daruwana area of the Kogi state around 2 a.m. on July 29.



Ayuba explained that killed in the incident were 13 members of one family, leaving only one surviving member.

The survivor lost his wife, mother, all of his children and the rest of his extended family, including an aunt, uncle and sister-in-law.

According to Morning Star News, leaders of the All Africa Baptist Fellowship posted on the groups Facebook page that the victims in the Agbadu-Daruwana attack are all congregants of Bethel Baptist Church, a member of the Lokoja Baptist Association.



They have since been buried, the All Africa Baptist Fellowships Facebook post is quoted as explaining. All the community members, mainly Christians, have all fled. Please pray for Gods intervention against antichrist in the land.



According to a resident of the area, a Fulani language was spoken during the attack.

The Fulani people group, which consists of millions across Africa, are predominantly Muslim cattle herders. Some have been radicalized to carry out heinous attacks on farming villages across Nigeria's fertile Middle Belt states in recent years as land resources have become increasingly scarce.

The attack took place in a predominantly-Christian village, near other villages that have been victims of attacks.

They invaded the village armed with guns and riding motorcycles, the resident named Rachael Nuhu claimed. They were speaking in the Fulani language as they attacked our people. This is not the first time theyre attacking our communities, as other villages around us had been attacked in a similar way by these herdsmen.

The attack comes as human rights groups have sounded the alarm that the atrocities committed against Christians in Nigeria  both by Fulani herdsmen and Islamic extremist groups in Nigeria's northeast  are reaching the standard for genocide.



On Jan. 30, Christian Solidarity International issued a genocide warning for Nigeria after the Jubilee Campaign issued a similar warning last year in a report to the International Criminal Court.

The U.S. State Department placed Nigeria on its special watch list of countries that engage in or tolerate severe violations of religious freedom last December.

Last week, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law estimated that no less than 1,421 Christians have been killed in the first seven months of 2020, with Fulani radicals reportedly responsible for 1,027 deaths. Meanwhile, extremist groups like Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province in the northeast Lake Chad region are responsible for 310 deaths.

The Intersociety report provides a state-by-state breakdown showing that 54 have been killed in Kogi state this year. Violence has hit harder in other states as 363 Christian lives were taken in the Kaduna state, 158 in Pleatue state and 152 in Benue state.



Thousands of defenseless Christians who survived being hacked to death have also been injured and left in mutilated conditions with several of them crippled for life, Intersociety stated in a July report. Hundreds of Christian worship and learning centers have been destroyed or burnt; likewise thousands of dwelling houses, farmlands and other properties belonging to Christians.



Intersociety, which is headed by Christian criminologist Emeka Umeagbalasi and based in Anambra state, also reported a rapid increase in young women being abducted in Nigeria. Sometimes, women are forced into sex slavery and rarely returned to their communities.

Intersociety estimated in July that 1,000 Christian citizens have been abducted in Nigeria this year.

Nigeria ranks as the 12th-worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USAs 2020 World Watch List.



According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide, 10 women, an infant and an elderly man were reported to have burned to death inside a home during a suspected Fulani attack in settlements close to Chibwob in early July.



All the areas under Jihadist Herdsmen attacks are Christian communities, as to date," Intersociety explained in its July report. "There are no pieces of evidence anywhere showing killing of Muslims and taking over of their lands, farmlands and houses or destruction or burning of Mosques by the Jihadist Herdsmen."



The frequency and severity of attacks towards Christians reached the level of genocide in Nigeria more than a year ago, according to the Jubilee Campaign, which advocates on behalf of religious minorities across the globe.
The fragile cease-fire in Idlib - in place since early March when a Turkish-Russian deal ended a violent escalation  seems to be teetering on the brink of collapse amid growing signs that the Syrian regime is gearing up for a fresh thrust to capture the rebel stronghold.

The truce has largely held despite sporadic violations, but appears doomed mainly because southern Idlib remains far from being stabilized. In their meeting in Moscow on March 5, the presidents of Turkey and Russia agreed to establish a security corridor 6 kilometers (nearly 4 miles) deep on either side of the M4 highway to reopen the key road to traffic. Turkish and Russian forces have conducted more than 25 joint patrols along the route since then, but failed to fully take it under control. The road has yet to reopen to transport and trade. The failure of the plan owes to radical elements who skillfully disguise themselves among the regions people and enjoy the support of some locals.

Under its deal with Moscow, Ankara promised to moderate the armed rebels in Idlib and purge the region from the radical ones. But despite Ankaras efforts and the joint patrols, the radicals remain in the region.

For almost a month, the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have been increasing their military buildup to Idlib from the southeast and Deir ez-Zor. Many see this as the omen of a forthcoming onslaught to purge radical factions from the Ghab Plain and Zawiyah Mountain, which dominate southern Idlib, and establish a firm grip over the cleared area.

In what appeared as the harbinger of an impending ground offensive, Russian jets targeted several areas in northeastern Latakia province and at Binnish in eastern Idlib on Aug. 2-3, coupled with artillery fire and rockets targeting the Ghab Plain and Zawiyah Mountain. Russian and regime forces have frequently used air and artillery attacks to pave the way for ground offensives and force civilians to flee.

A potential ground operation to secure the M4 highway might unfold in three stages.

The operation would surely start from the south and aim to cleanse and hold the Ghab Plain and Zawiyah Mountain in its first stage. Without cleansing and securing the Ghab Plain and Zawiyah Mountain, Assads forces cannot advance farther to the north.

In the second stage, the operation is likely to expand northwest to Akrad Mountain and Jisr al-Shughur, rather than to the northeast. By capturing Jisr al-Shughur, Assad forces would aim to cut the radicals connection to Turkey. Unless they cut this route, which the militants use for logistical, financial and recruitment purposes, the regime forces cannot fully seal the border with Turkey and initiate siege warfare. The capture of Jisr al-Shughur would be critical also to secure the high ground dominating the northeast of Latakia.

In the third and final stage, the offensive is likely to expand northeast to Arbain Mountain and Ariha, a direction that leads directly to Idlib city. Arbain Mountain is a critical area dominating the south of Idlib city, while Ariha is a key town connecting Idlib to the south and southeast.

Will Turkey acquiesce to such an operation? Arguably, Moscow might persuade Ankara to keep calm, yet the Ariha-Saraqeb axis is critical in this respect. Turkish countermoves along this axis  highly likely in the first stage to disrupt and slow down the Russian-backed Assad forces  would mean that the offensive has started without Ankaras consent. In such a scenario, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham  the dominant armed group in Idlib  and its allies are likely to mount counterattacks along the Ariha-Saraqeb axis with Turkish support.

Local sources contacted by Al-Monitor say they believe Ankara might acquiesce to regime forces taking control of the Ghab Plain and Zawiyah Mountain in return for certain gains in Libya, where Turkey needs tacit Russian support at the very least. This scenario is the biggest concern in Idlibs rebel-held areas because, once this line of defense falls, there is no other high ground to shield Idlib city.

For Ankara, meanwhile, the real concern appears to be the prospect of regime forces advancing to the second and third stages described above, emboldened by a successful completion of an assault on the Ghab Plain and Zawiyah Mountain.

The radicals retreat from those two areas would mean the automatic fall of a very mountainous and well-defended pocket. This would be a huge setback for the armed rebels in Idlib because, as a result, the western front of Jisr al-Shughur and the eastern front of Ariha would be easily separated, facilitating the Assad forces capture of the southern high ground dominating Idlib city.

Losing Zawiyah Mountain and the Ghab Plain  an area with only two major roads  would leave the rebels totally exposed to indirect fire by regime forces, including with artillery, howitzer and multiple rocket launchers, as well as massive air bombardments. This could force the militants to retreat northward to positions near Akrad Mountain without much resistance.

Once those objectives are achieved, a brief cease-fire of one or two months is likely to ensue, allowing Assads forces to prepare to march to the south of Jisr al-Shughur for the second stage and then to Akrad Mountain and Ariha for the third one.

All in all, Idlib appears headed for a critical juncture in September and October. Among those on edge are the 1.3 million civilians in Idlib city, who keep an eye both on the south, from where the regime forces would come, and on the north, where the Turkish border is their route for escape.
Today we'll do a simple run through of a valuation method used to estimate the attractiveness of PrairieSky Royalty Ltd. (TSE:PSK) as an investment opportunity by taking the expected future cash flows and discounting them to today's value. Our analysis will employ the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. Don't get put off by the jargon, the math behind it is actually quite straightforward.

We generally believe that a company's value is the present value of all of the cash it will generate in the future. However, a DCF is just one valuation metric among many, and it is not without flaws. If you want to learn more about discounted cash flow, the rationale behind this calculation can be read in detail in the Simply Wall St analysis model.

Check out our latest analysis for PrairieSky Royalty

What's the estimated valuation?

We're using the 2-stage growth model, which simply means we take in account two stages of company's growth. In the initial period the company may have a higher growth rate and the second stage is usually assumed to have a stable growth rate. To start off with, we need to estimate the next ten years of cash flows. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years.

A DCF is all about the idea that a dollar in the future is less valuable than a dollar today, so we discount the value of these future cash flows to their estimated value in today's dollars:

10-year free cash flow (FCF) estimate

2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 Levered FCF (CA$, Millions) CA$141.6m CA$177.0m CA$188.0m CA$193.0m CA$197.2m CA$201.2m CA$205.1m CA$208.8m CA$212.6m CA$216.3m Growth Rate Estimate Source Analyst x7 Analyst x1 Analyst x1 Analyst x1 Est @ 2.18% Est @ 2.03% Est @ 1.92% Est @ 1.84% Est @ 1.79% Est @ 1.75% Present Value (CA$, Millions) Discounted @ 8.1% CA$131 CA$152 CA$149 CA$142 CA$134 CA$126 CA$119 CA$112 CA$106 CA$99.7

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = CA$1.3b

Story continues

We now need to calculate the Terminal Value, which accounts for all the future cash flows after this ten year period. The Gordon Growth formula is used to calculate Terminal Value at a future annual growth rate equal to the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield of 1.7%. We discount the terminal cash flows to today's value at a cost of equity of 8.1%.

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF 2030  (1 + g)  (r  g) = CA$216m (1 + 1.7%)  (8.1% 1.7%) = CA$3.4b

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= CA$3.4b ( 1 + 8.1%)10= CA$1.6b

The total value is the sum of cash flows for the next ten years plus the discounted terminal value, which results in the Total Equity Value, which in this case is CA$2.9b. To get the intrinsic value per share, we divide this by the total number of shares outstanding. Relative to the current share price of CA$8.8, the company appears a touch undervalued at a 28% discount to where the stock price trades currently. Remember though, that this is just an approximate valuation, and like any complex formula - garbage in, garbage out.

dcf

The assumptions

Now the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate, and of course, the actual cash flows. Part of investing is coming up with your own evaluation of a company's future performance, so try the calculation yourself and check your own assumptions. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at PrairieSky Royalty as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 8.1%, which is based on a levered beta of 1.064. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business.

Next Steps:

Although the valuation of a company is important, it is only one of many factors that you need to assess for a company. The DCF model is not a perfect stock valuation tool. Rather it should be seen as a guide to "what assumptions need to be true for this stock to be under/overvalued?" For example, changes in the company's cost of equity or the risk free rate can significantly impact the valuation. What is the reason for the share price sitting below the intrinsic value? For PrairieSky Royalty, we've put together three fundamental factors you should consider:

Risks: We feel that you should assess the 3 warning signs for PrairieSky Royalty (2 don't sit too well with us!) we've flagged before making an investment in the company. Future Earnings: How does PSK's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart. Other Solid Businesses: Low debt, high returns on equity and good past performance are fundamental to a strong business. Why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals to see if there are other companies you may not have considered!

PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every Canadian stock every day, so if you want to find the intrinsic value of any other stock just search here.

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.
New Delhi, Aug 6 : The Enforcement Directorateis conducting searches at 17 locations in Punjab, Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir, including inthe premises of former J&K Finance Minister and senior NC leader Abdul Rahim Rather's son Hilal Ahmed Rather.

The searches are in connection with its probe into the Rs 177 crore J&K Bank loan fraud case, a top ED official said.

The ED has registered a case of money laundering on the basis of a CBI FIR and a charge sheet. The CBI had registered the case on March 4.

Rather was arrested by the anti-corruption branch of the J&K Police on January 16.

The ED official said that the agency wants to collect the details of foreign assets of Rather, which will be treated as proceed of crime. After identifying the assets, the ED will attach them.

The CBI had named Rather and two others in a charge sheet filed before the court on March 14 in connection with the fraudulent withdrawals.

The CBI found that Rather had entered into a criminal conspiracy with J&K Bank officials to get a Rs 177.68 crore loan sanctioned in violation of the rules and guidelines. The loan were sanctioned for building flats but it was allegedly misappropriated by the accused using the bank accounts of his employees.

Rather also submitted forged certificates and bills to the bank. The account was classified as a non-performing asset on December 31, 2017. The bank officials didn't verify the documents submitted by Rather and also helped in siphoning off and laundering the money.

Rather's partners in the firm -- Rizwan Raheem Dar, Ghulam Mohd Bhatt, Daljeet Wadhera and Deepshikha Jamwal -- are also being probed by the agency.

-- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed
(CNN)  New satellite images from NASA show that Canada's c ice caps have completely disappeared.

"I can't say I was terribly surprised because we knew they were going, but it has happened really fast," Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center, told CNN. Serreze co-authored a paper in 2017 estimating the ice caps would be gone within five years.

The two ice caps were located on the Hazen Plateau of northeastern Ellesmere Island in Nunavut. Data from 1959 suggests the area of the larger cap was 3 square miles and the smaller one 1.1 square miles, declining ever since.

Scientists estimate the glaciers, which likely formed around 5,000 years ago, would have been significantly larger between the 16th and the 19th centuries, a time frame known as the "Little Ice Age."

The very hot temperatures in the summer of 2015 reduced the longevity of the St. Patrick's Bay ice caps. "You could really see they got hit. But that heat has really just not stopped. It's just getting too warm," Serreze told CNN.

There are other glaciers near the now gone St. Patrick's Bay ice caps, such as the Murray and Simmons ice caps, which sit at a higher elevation. They have also been shrinking significantly.

"I'll make another prediction that they're gone in a decade," Serreze said.

RELATED: Global temperatures could exceead crucial 1.5 C target in the next five years

The effects of climate change in the Arctic

Small ice caps in the Arctic are very sensitive indicators of the effects of climate change, according to Serreze.

"There's something called 'Arctic amplification,' which refers to the observation -- not the theory -- that the Arctic is warming up at a much faster rate than the rest of the globe, anywhere from two to four times faster," Serreze said.

Hotter heat waves and cold waves that are not as cold as they were in the past are contributing factors.

"We are starting to see all these things come together." Serreze told CNN.

The disappearance of the St. Patrick's Bay ice caps is "an exclamation point of what's happening in the Arctic," Serreze added.

Tom Neumann, chief of the Cryospheric Sciences Lab at NASA Goddard, further explained the 'Arctic amplification' phenomenon and its impact on rising temperatures.

"As Arctic sea ice has retreated over the past decades, that ice cover, which is very reflective and bounces sunlight back to space, has melted off and exposed ocean water, which is much darker and absorbs that solar energy, so the ocean gets warmer," Neumann told CNN.

That in turn causes the atmosphere to get warmer, in what is essentially a feedback cycle, according to Neumann.

Neumann, who studies the Earth's ice cover through satellites, told CNN that the melting of Northern Hemisphere glaciers has been an ongoing process that has worsened in recent years.

"Since about 1990, the rate at which those glaciers are shrinking has really accelerated," Neumann said.

Last year, the disappearance of the Okjokull glacier in Iceland marked the first time that a glacier was lost to climate change.

Neumann told CNN the St. Patrick's Bay ice caps won't be the last glaciers to disappear, and even though they were relatively tiny, their loss is cause for concern.

"We should care because even though this is a little glacier somewhere in Arctic Canada, collectively all of these glaciers contribute to sea level rise," he told CNN.

Neumann noted how significant advances in satellite monitoring technologies are allowing scientists to learn so much more about the changes occurring on Earth as a result of global warming.

"We have much better tools now to make better predictions about how these ice caps will change," Neumann said.

RELATED: Patagonia's glaciers: a century of climate change

A scientist's personal journey

During his conversation with CNN, Serreze at times referred to the St. Patrick's Bay ice caps with terms of endearment such as "my little ice caps."

The scientist's connection to the now gone glaciers goes far back.

Serreze visited the ice caps in person as a graduate student in 1982. The visit cemented his desire to study the Arctic.

He reminisced about first landing there.

"It was just after a snow, and it was one of the rare kinds of clear days you have up there."

He told CNN about glistening snow crystals, the "perfect blue sky" and the "absolute pristine white" he found after landing.

"Once the airplane that dropped us off left, it's the only place in the world I can ever remember there was absolute silence."

His visit to the area predates the more recent concern with global warming among scientists. "At the time, there was even some talk of global cooling," Serreze said.

Visiting the ice caps as a young scientist made following their demise over just a few decades that much more personal for Serreze, but witnessing this process left him with an important message for the climate change doubters.

"I can tell you, it's very real. I have been there, I have watched it," Serreze said.

He told CNN how he feels we're at an inflection point in the conversation about the climate, as the country wrestles with the coronavirus pandemic and with a reckoning around racial injustices.

This moment, Serreze said, "is forcing us to look at ourselves in the mirror and realize that we're all in this together. The world is a different place, and we need to be better stewards of it."

"If the little story of my little ice caps helps to help to let us look in the mirror, then in that sense, it's got a silver lining," he added.

This story was first published on CNN.com Two Canadian Arctic ice caps have completely disappeared, satellite imagery shows
It is rather unfortunate that as a country, we have decided to stoop this low because it is politically expedient.

How does stopping Togolese nationals or any foreign national from getting on Ghanas electoral roll become a tribal agenda?

Are all Togolese even Ewes? There are several tribes in Togo. There are various tribes spread across Ghanas frontiers in the north to Burkina Faso, to the west by La Cote d' Ivoire and to the east by Togo. There are very porous borders and people walk in and out freely on a daily basis.

But the fact that people walk in and out of a country freely does not make them citizens of a country. This, therefore, means that the rights of citizens can only be accorded to citizens who qualify according to our laws and hold the right documentation.

Once again, it is an election year and you see and hear elements in the opposition NDC run amok accusing the President and his party of discrimination against MY TRIBE and that an illegality amounts to tribal bigotry. As if the NDC is the official party for people from the Volta Region. Why am I not NDC?

Furthermore, one can follow a trend led by the flagbearer of the NDC, former President John Mahama, and the General Secretary, Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketia, doing pure political mischief and hoping to gain by swaying a tribe to solidarise and register to vote for them. Even when it is pure political propaganda, some people unfortunately seem to be buying into this and the media also giving this agenda mileage. How does the general secretary of the largest opposition party break the law by assembling people in open trucks without observing Covid-19 protocols and claim they are entitled to register and must be allowed to register? Is it not against the law to bus people to register in the first place?

This trend is dangerous. It is unacceptable. It is callous and irresponsible. If anyone in my own party makes such comments, it is dangerous, unacceptable and irresponsible.

Every foreigner in Ghana today has become an automatic Ewefrom Adidome, Atorkor or Tetekope. And it is the NDC that knows these people suddenly and they must acquire a voter ID card and choose our leaders at all cost. How pathetic!

From Denu to Banda, everyone who is a foreigner is automatically from Keta, Battor or Mepe? Why would any Ghanaian with requisite identification or family in any community not be recognized as such but have issues proving their Ghanaian identity?

There are Ewes in every region of Ghanafrom Anloga in Kumasi to various towns up north, the Bono area, in the west, east and on the coast beyond Ada to Axim. How come there is an agenda by Akufo-Addo, and yet Ewes everywhere have registered?

My fellow tribesmen, what we should continue to seek is our share of the national cake. That means the development for our region and governments commitment to delivering that. If I may ask, did Akufo-Addo discriminate against us in the implementation of Free SHS? What is the single government intervention that has targeted our region during the term of John Mahama? Lets stop this. We are wiser and smarter than this. And this must STOP NOW!

Volta Region CANNOT BE a 'Voter Region' for a party to lay claim to when they need votes. People in a democracy can decide where they want to belongand that is the beauty of democracy. But this evil agenda must stop. I am not writing this because I am an appointee in the Akufo-Addo administration, I am writing this because I am appalled at how low some political leaders are willing to go just to win an election and in this case to an office they occupied just four years ago. So how desperate can this get?

A foreign national is not entitled to be on our register; Ewes are not foreigners. If youre a Togolese Ewe and you hold dual citizenship, it is not written on one's forehead; it is proven with documentation, just prove it.

I am a proud Ewe man and I am Ghanaian, I dont subscribe to an Ewe who is a Togolese to be given the right to vote in Ghana. I dont have the right to vote in Togo or Benin and I am still Ewe. That should tell you being Ewe does not make you an ECOWAS citizen with an inalienable automatic rights to register and vote in all countries that have the Ewe tribe. Likewise, an Ewe man in Aflao is not entitled to register to vote in Togo and Benin. We are two different countries. It cannot be the case that Lome and Aflao have become part of Ghana.

LETS STOP THIS.

My two cents. We have weightier matters to discuss. We dont deserve this.

By Curtis Perry Kwabla Okudzeto

Deputy Minister of Sports
Jonathan Tsai, head pastor at Abundant Life Ministries in Los Angeles, California was arrested on July 21 following child abuse claims but was released days later on $1.4 million bail

A pastor in LA's Hacienda Heights has been arrested on suspicion of child abuse after a woman claimed she was sexually assaulted by the church leader when she was a child.

The allegation came in to the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department (LASD) on January 9 and the victim said she and her family were members of what was known as Home of Christians Eastern Los Angeles Church at the time.

The anonymous accuser told police that Jonathan Tsai, now 40, regularly visited her home because his family became close to her relatives.

She alleges the abuse lasted six years from when she was 12 until she was 18 years old.

Tsai was a youth pastor at the time.

The LASD say it has identified two other women who have reported similar claims of sexual assault by the suspect when they too were minors.

Incidents stem back to the year 2000 according to prosecutors. Tsai would have been 20 years old at the time.

Tsai is currently Head Pastor at the church which is now named Abundant Life Ministries.

The website for the church displayed a message that it was undergoing maintenance on Thursday.

The place of worship has a largely Mandarin Chinese congregation.

He was arrested at his home on July 21 and was held at Walnut Station on a bail amount of $1.4million. However he was released three days later on July 24.

The Abundant Life Ministries church in Los Angeles County, California, is seen above

The DA has charged Tsai with four counts of Lewd Acts on a Child Under 14 years Old, one count of Oral Copulation of a Person Under 16, and one count of Sexual Penetration of a Person Under 16.

His next court date is August 26, 2020.

Police believe there are more victims and have urged them to come forward.

West Covina Police Department is also investigating the suspect for sexual assault cases that occurred in the city of West Covina.

'It's an ongoing investigation,' Lt. Michael Burse, of the Special Victims Bureau told the LA Times.

'We feel there are probably more victims because these are crimes that occurred over a long period of time.'

Anyone with information regarding this case is urged to contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Special Victims Bureau toll free tip line at (877) 710-5273 or by email at specialvictimsbureau@lasd.org.

If you prefer to provide information anonymously, you may call 'Crime Stoppers' by dialing (800) 222-TIPS (8477), or use your smartphone by downloading the 'P3 Tips' Mobile APP or 'P3 Mobile' for the hearing impaired on Google play or the App Store, or by using the website lacrimestoppers.org.
Renato has always demonstrated his dedication to building trust and collaboration among our global trading team.

Smith, a global distributor of electronic components and semiconductors, today announces the appointment of Renato Souza to the position of Vice President of Business Development. Renato previously served as Vice President, Latin America of Smith since 2017.

In this role, Renato will support Smiths trading department in managing key opportunities and challenges. He will also help facilitate customer-account collaboration among Smiths 16 global offices.

Renato has always demonstrated his dedication to building trust and collaboration among our global trading team, said Todd Burke, President, Americas at Smith. His focus on growing relationships will be a critical asset that will help us capture new business opportunities.

Before taking on his role as Vice President, Latin America, Renato served as an Account Manager and Assistant General Manager for Smith. He then stepped away from the company to work in a business development role for a major contract manufacturer for several years before rejoining Smiths team. Renatos previous experience in growing major global accounts and facilitating cross-cultural business relationships will be instrumental in his new position.

Smiths deep market knowledge and strategic alignments across the industry position us for significant growth, said Renato. I am excited to lead Smiths business development team as we continue to reach new heights as a company.

Renatos market expertise and commitment to developing deep and solid connections have prepared him for success in his new role.

Marc Barnhill, Smiths Chief Trading Officer, commented, I look forward to seeing Renato take on leadership over Smiths business development activities. His experience in electronic component distribution and his vast network of long-term relationships will help us cultivate new avenues for innovation and maintain our drive to advance the industry.

About Smith

Founded in 1984, Smith sources, manages, and distributes the electronic components that go into everything from mobile phones and computers to appliances and directional drilling systems. In 16 cities around the world, Smiths legion of employees communicates in 50 languages and dialects and buys and sells components 24 hours per day, with global annual sales in excess of $1.35 billion. Smith is always moving: helping manufacturers navigate market shifts; customizing supply chain solutions; testing components using cutting-edge technology. The support of Smiths flexible Intelligent DistributionTM model optimizes customers supply chains from beginning to end, including offering customized options for IT asset disposition that deliver maximum ROI, sustainability, and security. Smiths testing and logistics hubs in Houston, Hong Kong, and Amsterdam cover critical areas like quality management, counterfeit prevention, and environmental safety. Smiths operations, purchasing, and sales worldwide are seamlessly integrated with the companys global IT infrastructure, offering real-time, global inventory and logistics visibility. Smith is the leading independent distributor of electronic components and ranks number nine among all global distributors. For more information, please visit https://www.smithweb.com or reach out to a Smith representative any time of day at +1 713.430.3000.

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The Barotse Floodplain in Zambia is one of Africa's largest wetlands, representing varied ecotypes and high biodiversity conservation value. However, the Lozi People who live in the region face an intense "hungry season" from November to January when accessibility to food is very limited. This means that year-round nutrition and food security are consistently top priorities.

Conventional intensive agriculture is not well-suited for the Barotse landscape. Over-expansion of agriculture would have cascading negative effects on local people, wildlife, downstream ecosystems, and economic sectors such as hydropower.

To help improve livelihoods through sustainable agricultural development and environmental protection, researchers from the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT worked with Lozi communities to identify locally relevant strategies. They published some of their findings in a recent study in the International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability.

Why identify ecosystem services?

Ecosystem services encompass a plethora of benefits to humans that come from natural and managed lands. However, researcher and co-author Natalia Estrada-Carmona says, only a small fraction of these tend to be considered, valued, and measured (e.g., CO2 or crop yields) in economic and agriculture development agendas.

The research team used a gender-sensitive ecosystem services approach to work with three local communities. Focus group participants (separated into men and women) used 1,992 coded cards in English and the local language Silozi to assess 17 ecosystem services, from fishing to erosion control.

Questions such as "Where do you go to get water for consumption?" and "What eco-types are important for controlling floods?" identified services according to provisioning, regulating, and cultural uses and benefits.

"The activities carried out with the local communities helped to visualize all the benefits from the different eco-types present in the floodplain. It was very interesting to see that many of the most important ecosystem services for both women and men come from native vegetation eco-types," explains Estrada-Carmona. "Additionally, this exercise facilitated discussing and visualizing the trade-offs associated with converting natural vegetation to cultivated eco-types. Those trade-offs are often invisible in agriculture development agendas and programs. This research confirms that assuming that agricultural expansion can occur everywhere without consequences is a pretty biased perception."

Implications from applying a gender lens

The study suggests several differences between how men and women access their ecosystems: for example, women go to shallower river areas for smaller fish and cultivate diverse crops, including neglected and underutilized species (NUS), that complement household nutrition security.

The dynamic nature of the floodplain also translates into seasonal changes in human migration, and labor shortages. Estrada-Carmona elaborates: "Communities in the uplands are settling more as access to schools, roads, and electricity increases. Women tend to stay caring for kids, elders, and land during the dry season while men migrate to the plains in the hunt for fish and cash. Therefore, agricultural practices or activities that ignore women's reality in the uplands during the dry season would either add a burden or exclude them from implementing those practices or activities."

Agroecological intensification - multifunctional agricultural land

Although the study revealed that forests in the uplands and grasslands in the plains provide the bulk of ecosystem services, these fertile lands are often converted to agricultural land. The authors point out that rather than monocultures focused on cash crops, such as hybrid maize and rice, local food security and livelihoods would benefit most from agroecological intensification. Approaches such as multiple cropping, conservation agriculture, and agroforestry could restore and maintain the identified ecosystem services in cultivated lands while reducing the pressure on natural lands.

Local people and the Zambian government already recognize the value of crop diversity in mitigating environmental, food security, and market risks, with researchers finding that at least 17 NUS are currently being planted. However, maize is the most common crop, and there is a lack of support for experimentation and innovation that can identify the cultivation system best suited to ensure year-round, long-term production and other benefits.

"Agricultural land is seen as a source of yields or calories only," says Estrada-Carmona. "In reality, it is the most malleable land that can contribute to maintaining soil fertility, erosion or flood control, water quality, wildlife connectivity/habitat, etc. Hence, identifying the cropping systems and crop diversification strategies at the farm and landscape level that generate those multiple benefits is vital for sustainable and holistic development."

The study concludes: "The intertwined drivers of change and the complex trade-offs between ecosystem services demand looking beyond 'agriculture' and 'conservation' as two separate challenges... All stakeholders' agendas could be better articulated by integrating the traditional place-based knowledge for jointly planning a sustainable future of the Barotse Floodplain for livelihoods, well-being, and conservation."

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For further information, please contact study author Natalia Estrada-Carmona: n.e.carmona@cgiar.org
The United States is joining other countries around the world in sending humanitarian aid to Lebanon in response to the catastrophic explosion that decimated Beirut earlier this week.

A US C-17 carrying water, food and medical supplies to the Mediterranean country took off today from al-Udeid air base in Qatar, bound for Beirut. Two further flights are scheduled, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said.

Seven pallets of bottled water, as well as pallets of food and medical supplies were on the first flight, Hoffman said. A US military official told Al-Monitor that some logistical details of the shipments are still being worked out.

The assistance follows pledges from Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, France, Israel and many other countries to provide for material humanitarian aid to Beirut.

The US shipment was announced after the head of American forces in the Middle East, Central Command chief Gen. Kenneth Frank McKenzie, spoke today with the head of Lebanons armed forces, Gen. Joseph Aoun.

McKenzie expressed condolences for those lost as a result of the blast and pledged continued US support for Lebanons armed forces, which have been placed in charge of Beiruts security by the Lebanese parliament as part of a two-week state of emergency.

The United States considers Lebanon's military to be a valuable bulwark against Hezbollah, which Washington views as an proxy of Iran.

Hoffman emphasized to reporters today that the military was not sending financial aid to Lebanon and that the Defense Department is working with USAID and the State Department to ensure the assistance is delivered appropriately to the Lebanese people, amid concerns of widespread corruption.

Lebanon is facing an economic crisis on top of Tuesdays deadly blast, which killed some 149 people and injured 5,000.

Last year the Trump administration moved to freeze $105 million in aid to Lebanon's armed forces, but then reversed the decision after word leaked to the press amid Trumps impeachment inquiry, which centered on the president withholding aid from Ukraine for political gain.

McKenzie told Aoun that the United States will continue to work with Lebanon to identify and expedite support for the countrys recovery, CENTCOM spokesman Capt. Bill Urban told reporters in an emailed statement.

Hoffman today also tried to smooth over a contradiction between Defense Secretary Mark Espers comment Wednesday about the cause of the Beirut blast, and President Donald Trumps remark on the matter the day prior.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we saw different information come to light, Hoffman told reporters.

The secretary and the president have both been consistent that weve reached no definitive cause for the explosion and that as information is still coming in were going to continue to assess it, he said, after mentioning the United States would defer to the Lebanese governments investigation.

Hoffman declined to discuss any potential conclusions so far by the US intelligence community about the cause of the blast.

Lebanese officials have said that repair work on a dockside warehouse holding 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, seized from a ship in 2014, led to the detonation. Prime Minister Hassan Diab has vowed to hold those responsible for the negligence to account.
Bangladesh will construct a monument in the memory of the Indian soldiers martyred in the 1971 Liberation War against Pakistan, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the country's independence, Liberation War Affairs Minister Mozammel Haque said in Dhaka on Thursday.

He made the comments when outgoing Indian High Commisisoner Riva Ganguly Das paid him a farewell visit. "We are constructing the monument coinciding with the 50th anniversary of our independence" crucially backed by India, a ministry spokesman quoted Haque as saying.

The minister recalled with gratitude the cooperation of Indian government and its people during the Liberation War. Das said that Bangladesh and India were tested friends.

"Some people are out to spread misleading information purposely to worsen the relations between the two next-door neighbours but the Bangladesh-India ties are not so fragile," she said.

Das requested the minister for taking up initiatives for translating the books on the Liberation War in Hindi.

Das also expressed India's willingness to become a part of the golden jubilee celebrations of Bangladesh's independence in 2021. An official familiar with the monument project said the government has selected 3.5 acres of land at frontier Ashuganj of Brahmanbaia district bordering Agartala.

"The site which has been selected has historic significance . . . Indian army fought Pakistanis some decisive wars in 1971 along with our freedom fighters in Ashuganj," the official said.

He said the construction of the monument was expected to begin by this year and is expected to complete in the next two years while its abstract architectural design was aimed to reflect the bonding between the two neighbours.

Haque congratulated Riva on her next posting as Secretary (East) in the External Affairs Ministry, saying the relations between the two nations will reach a different dimension during her tenure. Bangladesh earlier felicitated Indian soldiers and veterans and posthumously honoured the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and several other distinguished Indians for their role in 1971.

Bangladesh has National Martyr's Memorial on the outskirts of Dhaka where ceremonial homage is paid for all the 1971 martyrs. The war in 1971 began after the sudden crackdown at midnight on March 25 that year in erstwhile East Pakistan by Pakistani troops and ended on December 16 as Pakistan conceded defeat and unconditionally surrendered in Dhaka to the allied forces comprising Bengali freedom fighters and the Indian Army.

Officially three million people were killed during the nine-month-long war.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 19:10:11|Editor: huaxia

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KUNMING, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Police in southwest China's Yunnan Province have recently busted a drug trafficking case, capturing three suspects and seizing more than 80 kg of drugs.

Border police in Honghe Hani-Yi Autonomous Prefecture received a tip-off on July 27, saying that drugs would be transported from overseas to the county of Jiangcheng, Pu'er City. The police then dispatched a task force to investigate the case.

On July 28, three suspects were nabbed in Pu'er. Two vehicles involved in the case were intercepted, with 80.2 kg of drugs found on the spot, including 41.8 kg of methamphetamine, 37 kg of heroin and 1.4 kg of opium.

Further investigation is underway. Enditem
A father-of-four struggling to feed his family has documented his lockdown struggles in Melbourne through a series of photographs at his local supermarkets.

Val Athanassiou began taking pictures of stripped supermarket shelves during Victoria's initial lockdown in March.

Images showed nothing but a handful of meat scattered across the empty aisles in the Coles and Woolworths.

A father-of-four struggling to feed his family has documented his lockdown struggles in Melbourne through a series of photographs at his local supermarkets. Mel Athanassiou (left) Val (right) Harper-Lee and Ruby-Jade (middle left and right) and Serafina (back left) and Marco (back right) all wearing masks before Stage 4 restrictions announced this week

Items like toilet paper, pasta and pasta sauce have been taken out by panic buyers but Mr Athanassiou says he can always get his hands on Coles wholemeal organic pasta (pictured) which his children love

Now, after the state was plunged back into Stage 4 lockdown, the dad has taken similar pictures to show his family's struggles.

Items like toilet paper, pasta and pasta sauce have been taken out by panic buyers but Mr Athanassiou says he can always get his hands on Coles wholemeal organic pasta, which his children love.

He told Daily Mail Australia: 'Toilet paper is well and truly gone again.

'We buy the 15 or 20 pack when its available and it generally lasts us a couple of weeks.

'We have two older children, 16 and 13, that we can communicate the effective bottom wiping strategy to but the six-year-old and the seven-year-old, well its not that easy.'

Victoria reported its highest daily total of COVID-19 infections on Wednesday with 725 new cases and 15 deaths.

Premier Dan Andrews introduced Stage 4 restrictions and stay-at-home orders this week. Only one person per household is allowed to go out to shop once each day, within a 5km radius.

Mr Athanassiou (pictured on June 26) finally found some toilet paper in Woolworths after panic buyers struck again at his local shops

There were only a few packets left of the Coles brand organic pasta when Mr Athanassiou went shopping on August 5

Mr Athanassiou says he has four stores he can visit and said he has to shop in a circular pattern because Coles and Woolworths have often run out of meat, toilet paper, pasta and pasta sauce, so he has to go to IGA or Aldi afterwards to look for meat.

He has been documenting his shopping trips since March to try and show his children how to stay positive throughout the experience and teach them to make the best with what they've got and 'that this too shall pass'.

August 4: No toilet paper left at Mr Athanassiou's local Coles in Rowville (pictured) during Melbourne's stage 4 restrictions this week, with shoppers unable to travel more than 5 km to pick up supplies

August 4: The meat isle at Woolworths (pictured) was empty during Mr Athanassiou's shopping trip to buy food for his 4 children on Tuesday

August 4: Chicken, pork and beef were all gone at Coles (pictured) but there were plenty of whole hams, plant-based burger patties and kangaroo left on the shelves

The frugal father said his mother taught me how to stretch out a meal and the skill is coming in handy.

He is careful with his budgeting as he had to dip into his superannuation to help look after his family.

'Thank goodness I had relatively good training thanks to Mum, in making the meals stretch, its just a matter of Maths and science. A couple of chicken breast fillets will feed four kids if I load it up with sauce and vegetables.'

His wife Mel works in retail and is still driving to work, Mr Athanassiou said the fluctuating petrol prices are a concern and his wife is conservative when she fills up.

'Shes called me and said the petrol light is orange, its $1.40 do I just risk it? It plays mind games with families out there, especially ones who are completely and utterly out of work. Its amazing how when you get down to your last dollar, that 10 cents can make a real difference.'

Mr Athanassiou is surprisingly upbeat and said despite the coronavirus lockdown being 'one of the biggest challenges we've ever faced' the most important thing now is he is surrounded by family.

Pictured: Petrol prices on August 4 were between $1.09 and $1.23 but by August 5 prices had shot up to 137.9 a litre
Almost half of shielders, and 39% of parents or carers, said they have lost their jobs in the last three months. Photo: Getty

Parents, carers and those who were shielding because they are clinically vulnerable during the coronavirus pandemic are more than twice as likely to lose their jobs than the general population, research by Citizens Advice suggests.

Almost half (48%) of shielders, and 39% of parents or carers, said they have lost their jobs in the last three months, compared with one in six (17%) of adults of working age, according to a poll of 6,015 people.

Over a quarter (27%) of disabled people said they had experienced or were facing redundancy during the pandemic, rising to 37% of adults whose disabilities affect their daily lives.

Citizens Advice has seen demand for advice on redundancy increased almost seven-fold since February, with advisers giving one-on-one sessions to 6,353 people since the start of the coronavirus lockdown. Citizens Advices frontline advisers provided support to 2,508 people with redundancy selection issues in July, compared to 368 in February.

Visits to the Citizens Advice redundancy discrimination web page doubled from 7,000 in May to 14,000 in July, in what the charity believes could be just the tip of the iceberg.

READ MORE: Competition grows for low-paid jobs as lay-offs mount

Jamie McGlynn, a contact centre manager at Citizens Advice in Manchester, said: Were seeing a lot of redundancy issues, but it gives you a sinking feeling when someone whos been shielding, is a carer or has young kids, tells you theyve been picked as the first to go.

People are absolutely wracked with worry. One lady with underlying health conditions told her employer she felt unsafe about returning to work as another worker had Covid symptoms but wasnt isolating. The next week she had her redundancy notice through.

Were retraining some of our advisers on employment rights because we know what were seeing now could be just the tip of the iceberg.

There are six national organisations that enforce workers rights, but employees who have lost their jobs or been treated unfairly often cant call for their situation to be investigated. The charity is calling for a single watchdog to enforce employees rights  something the government committed to establishing in 2019.

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In the meantime, the charity is calling on the government to give emergency funding to the six existing employment enforcement bodies.

Although workers are protected by law against discrimination, at the moment they have no guarantee these laws will be enforced. While they could take their issue to an employment tribunal, there was already a backlog of 400,000 employment tribunal cases when the coronavirus crisis hit the UK, according to Citizens Advice.

READ MORE: Over 70% of UK workers reassessing their career options due to COVID-19

Dame Gillian Guy, Citizens Advice chief executive, said: Employers face difficult choices but there are worrying signs disabled workers, people who shielded, parents and carers are being pushed to the front of the queue when it comes to redundancy.

As tough as these times are, they cannot be used as an excuse to break the rules.

If someone is facing an unfair redundancy, the odds of getting redress under the current system are stacked against them. Workers need a watchdog that will be a one-stop shop to protect their employment rights.

Rebecca Hilsenrath, chief executive at the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said: We know that employers are facing an unprecedented situation and may have to make profoundly difficult and unenviable decisions, but equality law still applies during the crisis, regardless.

This above all is the time to ensure decision-making is lawful and helps to build a fairer future.
Sumi Sukanya Dutta By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Convalescent plasma seems to be inducing an almost magical effect in some COVID-19 patients but does not give much benefit to others. The answer to the tricky question of which category of patients medically qualify to benefit from this therapy could be a few weeks away.

A group of researchers attached with ID&BG hospital and the Centre for Scientific Research-Indian Institute for Chemical Biology in Kolkata have undertaken a comprehensive randomised control trial (RCT) to assess the efficacy of plasma therapy and its immunological aspects in COVID-19 patients.

An interim analysis based on 20 moderate to severe patients10 of whom received plasma therapy while the other half received standard careprepared by these researchers and submitted to the state government a few days back says that the therapy looked promising.

Early results are promising and I hope that it continues as the trial with a total of 80 patients progresses, immunologist Dr Dipyaman Ganguly who is the principal investigator in the trial told The New Indian Express.

Importantly, we are not only looking at clinical outcomes but also for immune system changes in the plasma recipients - to generate data on how and why plasma is or is not making a difference in COVID-19 patients, he said.

Dr Ganguly said that the trial is likely to be completed by September end.

The findings of the crucial trial could have major policy implications and will help firm up the scientific basis on which doctors could decide which patients qualify to benefit from the treatment.

Convalescent plasma therapy involves transfusing antibodies from the blood of people who have recovered from COVID 19 -- at least 14 days after their complete recovery -- into people who are very ill with the infection or even people who are at high risk of contracting the virus.

So far there is no clear evidence to prove that it works but trials at several sites across the world, including in India, have suggested that it could help some COVID-19 patients in advanced stages of illnesses.

In the country, the Union health ministry and the Indian Council of Medical Research, which is also leading a multi-centre RCT on the therapy whose results are awaited, have indicated that the treatment is only for investigational purposes but the therapy is rampant in hospitals across states.

A meta-analysis of RCTs on plasma therapy in the US made public a few days back showed that hospitalized COVID-19 patients who received transfusions of blood plasma rich with antibodies from recovered patients had their mortality rate reduced by about 50%.

An interim analysis by doctors at AIIMS, Delhi, undertaking the RCT, however, reportedly did not find any mortality benefit in patients who received the treatment. Early analysis from some other centres in the country, on the other hand, have thrown results to the contraryfurther strengthening medical views that patients with certain biological markers are more likely to benefit from this treatment.
by Vladimir Rozanskij

The slogans "Russia, wake up!" and, in Belarus, "We are tired!", are signs that the neo-Soviet phase in Russian and Belarusian politics is running out of steam. In Minsk, 60,000 people protested in favour of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya against Lukashenkos 26 years in power. In Russia, support for Putin has dropped to 23 per cent. Still, the age of "eternal leaders might be at an end, censorship and arrests continue.

Moscow (AsiaNews)  Protests, which began in Russias Far East in July, have spread across the country, reaching neighbouring Belarus, where elections are scheduled for next Monday.

Belarusian President Aleksander Batka (godfather) Lukashenko is expected to be re-elected for the seventh time, but after 26 years, his hold on power is being seriously challenged, and this despite the exclusion of many opponents.

In a show of support for Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the woman who has dared to face down the godfather (picture 1), some 60,000 people filled a square in Minsk.

Support for Putin also seems to be draining fast. According to the Levada Center, a leading Russian sociological research organisation, the presidents approval rating is now 23 per cent, down from 80 per cent during the Crimea takeover in 2014. In a major attempt at crackdown on media, the Presidents Office issued an advisory not to publish such data.

In Khabarovsk, where large crowds of protesters have gathered every day for a month (pictures 2a and 4), Alexey Romanov, a YouTuber with 300,000 subscribers, was arrested for covering the protests. In Moscow, a ban has been imposed on the lone picketers who stand or walk alone with protest signs. Yulia Galyamina, a Moscow municipal councillor, now faces up to five years in prison for violating such a regulation. The well-known political analyst and journalist Fedor Krasheninnikov was also arrested in Yekaterinburg on charges of insulting the authorities.

Khabarovsks former governor, the charismatic Sergei Furgal, has been under arrest for a month on serious accusations. However, his popularity is growing steadily every day, and is now considered one of Russias top 10 political leaders. Some believe that if he is released, he could follow the path undertaken Boris Yeltsin who opposed Gorbachev in the early 1990-1991.

In all likelihood, this is why the authorities have not yet used force to suppress the protests, except for a few arrests. From Khabarovsk, but also in nearby Komsomol-on the Amur and Vladivostok, the protest could spread. The protests are over the poor state of the economy, but also a desire for a more open political and social life.

Slogans like "Russia, wake up!" and, in Belarus, "We are tired!" are signs that the neo-Soviet phase in Russian and Belarusian politics is running out of steam. Until recently, the two regimes had close political ties, even though Lukashenko has tried to show greater independence from Moscow, arresting even some little green men, i.e. members of Russias unofficial forces involved in military action in Ukraine, and often deployed in Belarus.

Broadly speaking, "eternal leaders" appear to be no longer very popular, and Putin's highly centralised control  following constitutional changes  is having the opposite effect to what desired.

Lukashenko's case is not much different. When he came to power in 1994, he said that the only dictatorship would be the "dictatorship of the law". The following year, he won a referendum to rewrite the constitution giving the president full powers over parliament and law enforcement agencies. Subsequently, he used other referendums to further boost the presidential position, but now he seems to have run out of popular support.

In the past two years, Belarus has cracked down and arrested numerous journalists, placing the country in 153rd position (out of 180) in terms of freedom of the press. Only in the last month, before the elections, 25 members of the opposition media ended up in detention, including some presidential candidates.
(Natural News) Appearing on a recent episode of the Fox News program Bill Hemmer Reports, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told viewers that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) knew about person-to-person transmission of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) long before it told the rest of the world about it.

Further, the CCP conspired with the World Health Organization (WHO), or rather was co-opted to quote Pompeo, into likewise hiding this knowledge for the purpose of fulfilling the goals and agenda of communist China with its global plandemic.

[I]t is the case that the Chinese Communist Party was aware of human-to-human transmission before they shared this with the world, Pompeo is quoted as saying.

And that the World Health Organization itself was co-opted into the same effort to deny the world the knowledge it needed to respond to this threat, to this threat from the virus that emanated from Wuhan, China.

In accordance with his earlier promise to hold the CCP accountable for its crimes against humanity, Pompeo reiterated that the Trump administration is currently taking steps to hold the communist Chinese regime responsible for assaulting the rest of the world with a biological weapon.

Part of this involves restructuring Americas economic and territorial relationships with China, which for the past 40 years has been allowed to sway in Chinas favor under every previous administration, both Democrat and Republican.

In other words, Chinas bad behavior has been overlooked or ignored entirely, allowing the communist country to repeatedly take advantage of the United States and other nations for political, financial and territorial gain.

Had previous administrations done something earlier, they could have prevented so much of this tragedy, Pompeo says. The good news is that now there is a unified response among many nations to hold the Chinese government accountable for unleashing the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) upon the world.

Pompeo says no more looking away from Chinas crimes against humanity

During his most recent rant against the CCP, Pompeo specifically called out Hong Kong-based virologist Dr. Yan Li-Meng, who recently fled to the U.S. Yan reportedly knew that the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) could transfer between humans well before the rest of the world did, but chose to keep this information private at the behest of Beijing.

I can see nations who are doing business in China who are rethinking about how to do that, Pompeo further stated.

If you are buying products that are a result of the slave labor thats happening in the western part of China; if youre a country thats bent the knee to China because they tried to come fish in your waters that are rightly yours  I can see nations all around the world that are reasserting their claims, their sovereignty.

Pompeo added that China is going to pay a price for its crimes against humanity, adding that President Trump is fully motivated to take whatever action is necessary to remedy this scourge upon the world.

Already, both Japan and Australia have indicated their support for a U.S. plan to reject most of Beijings territorial claims in the South China Sea. There are also changes being made all across Asia that defy the CCP in accordance with Pompeos statements.

Countries, not only in Southeast Asia, but in Asia more broadly  have come to understand the threat that the Chinese Communist Party presents, Pompeo noted.

For democracies and freedom-loving people around the world, it is an imperative that we push back against the challenge that the Chinese Communist Party presents to us all, he concluded, adding that the age of looking the other way in response to Chinas crimes and abuses is no more.

The latest news stories about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) can be accessed at Pandemic.news.

Sources for this article include:

Breitbart.com

NaturalNews.com

NYPost.com
Rio De Janeiro, Aug 6 : Photodynamic therapy can be an efficient ally to combat secondary infections in Covid-19 patients, according to a new study.

The use of this technique combines light and a photosensitizing chemical substance to kill microorganisms in the respiratory tract, the findings, published in the journal Photodiagnosis and Photodynamic Therapy, reported.

"Covid-19 can lead to complications that go beyond the virus, and we should also strive to find treatments for these other problems," said study researcher Vanderlei Bagnato from Optics and Photonics Research Center (CEPOF ) in Brazil.

"Treating coinfections and secondary infections can improve the prognosis in severe cases, above all for patients who are intubated and face a higher risk of infection by other microorganisms such as the bacteria that cause pneumonia," Bagnato added.

The compounds used in photodynamic therapy interact with light to produce singlet oxygen, a highly reactive oxygen species that kill viruses and bacteria by oxidizing their membranes.

"When the patient inhales these substances, the drug can be activated with extracorporeal light, which then attacks pathogens in the airways," Bagnato said.

Photodynamic therapy cannot be used to attack the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 directly since it does not eliminate harmful microorganisms present in the bloodstream (only in the airways). However, researchers stress the importance of developing techniques to combat Covid-19 coinfections caused by bacteria and other viruses, avoid the need for intensive medical care, and minimize transmission of the disease to other people.

CEPOF has conducted several studies on the use of photodynamic therapy to treat pneumonia, skin cancer, and other diseases. "The propagation of opportunistic pathogens occurs mainly through the upper respiratory tract owing to natural colonization of the oropharynx and that photodynamic therapy can help not only to reduce the number of these microorganisms present in the oropharynx but also to prevent their penetration into the mucosal barrier and hence their proliferation," the authors wrote.

"We're about to begin a study to evaluate the use of photodynamic therapy in cases of pneumonia in pigs. This stage precedes clinical trials in humans," Bagnato said.

"We hope it will be fast-tracked because, although we don't know for sure yet, it's quite likely that people who survive COVID-19 may be more prone to respiratory complications such as pneumonia because of the severe inflammation," Bagnato added.

The research team said they need to develop novel techniques and alternative treatments.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Authorities have released the name of a teen killed in a shootout in southwest Birmingham earlier this week.

The Jefferson County Coroners Office on Thursday identified the victim as Cyrus Montez Abrams Jr. He was 17.

Midfield High posted this about the teen on Facebook: It is with deepest sympathy that we bring this message. We lost of one of our beloved students, Cyrus Abrams. We are hurting as a Patriot family. Please pray for his family and friends.

The shooting happened late Tuesday in the 1000 block of 15th Way S.W., Tuesday, said Sgt. Rod Mauldin. The 911 center was notified by Shot Spotter, Birminghams gunfire detection system, that 20 rounds had been fired in that area.

Cyrus Abrams Jr. (Midfield High)

When police arrived, they found two people wounded by gunfire. Abrams was pronounced dead on the scene at 11:29 p.m.

The second victim was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Police learned that two other people suffering from gunshot wounds had shown up at area hospitals. Mauldin said their injuries are not life-threatening.

The preliminary investigation indicates that gunfire was exchanged between those who were wounded. No suspects are in custody.

Anyone with information is asked to call Birmingham homicide detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.
A man sexually assaulted a staff member at a city hospital by pinching her bottom as she locked up her bike after arriving for work, it has been alleged.

A court heard that Patrick O'Connor (39) was stopped and held at the scene by another hospital worker who witnessed the alleged assault.

Judge Michael Walsh granted the accused bail despite garda objections and adjourned the case at Dublin District Court for the directions of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Mr O'Connor, of no fixed address, is charged with sex- ually assaulting the woman on July 30.

Objecting to bail, the prosecuting garda cited the seriousness of the allegations.

Innocence

Outlining the prosecution's case, he said it was alleged the accused approached a female member of staff outside the A&E department at 7.20am.

She had cycled to work and was putting her bike in a rack.

"He approached from behind and pinched her buttocks with his right hand," the garda said.

The accused tried to leave the area, but was stopped by another staff member.

Gardai arrived and Mr O'Connor was arrested and charged.

On the strength of the prosecution evidence, the garda said the incident was captured on CCTV and the accused could be "clearly seen assaulting the female".

Mr O'Connor was arrested while wearing the same clothing as was seen in the footage, the garda said.

The accused accepted it was a serious charge, but he was entitled to a presumption of innocence, his barrister Garrett Casey said.

Applying for bail, Mr Casey said he did not believe the gardai had made adequate grounds for a refusal.

Judge Walsh said the charge was serious, although it app-eared to be at the "lower end" of the scale for sexual assault.

Although the CCTV evidence "appears to be overwhelming" and the court had been told the accused could be clearly seen touching the woman, Mr O'Connor was presumed innocent and the onus was on the prosecution to show bail should be refused.

He said the purpose of bail was to ensure an accused turned up for trial and did not engage in criminal behaviour pending that.

"I think it's a case that can be dealt with by very strict conditions," the judge said.

He granted bail in the acc-used's own bond of 500, with no cash lodgment required.

Mr O'Connor must sign on daily at a garda station, have no contact directly or indirectly with the alleged victim or her family and stay away from St James's Hospital.

The judge said this last condition applied except for bona fide, pre-arranged appointments, after the accused said he had to go back for a scan.

Judge Walsh remanded the accused on bail, to appear in court in November.
The NIA on Thursday questioned social activist Stan Swami at his residence here in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence, an official said.

A team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) reached his house in Ranchi's Namkun area and questioned him for over two hours, an NIA spokesperson said.

Swami was questioned in the case in the past as well.

In 2018, a police team from Maharashtra had raided his residence and seized his computer in connection with the probe into 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, the official said.

During the 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.
(Natural News) For weeks, the disgusting mainstream media has been doing its level best to ignore or downplay the abject lawlessness and anarchy permeating Americas largest cities.

As crime rates and murders soared, the shameless propagandists who seemingly work for the Marxist Democrat Party tried to convince Americans that what was really taking place in these cities were peaceful protests dominated by people concerned about social justice following the George Floyd incident.

The reality is, ever since the incident in Minneapolis, riots and looting have dominated most protests. If you doubt that, then ask yourself how it is that ordinary citizens in that beleaguered city are forming armed vigilante groups to protect their businesses and neighborhoods from the law of the jungle. Police there have been so neutered that they are no longer reliable.

In other cities like Portland, thug Antifa and Black Lives Matter types as well as other Left-wing groups have besieged a federal courthouse, attacking it and the federal officers protecting it nightly for the past two months.

The only images of the attacks that youre likely to see outside of Fox News and One American News are on social media; independent journalists are on the ground every night capturing images and video of what resembles life in a war zone.

DESTRUCTIVE PROTESTS: Vandals targeted a federal building (DHS/DOJ) last night. Twitter chatter labeled the damage as an effort to stand in "solidarity" with the "Freedom Fighters" of Portland, where protestors have repeatedly clashed w/agents guarding a federal courthouse. pic.twitter.com/7VNhhsli5Q  Emilie Ikeda (@EmilieIkedaFOX5) July 26, 2020

During his opening segment Monday, Fox News host Tucker Carlson lamented all of the violence, as well as the fact that almost no one in the mainstream media is being honest about whats going on  in Minneapolis, in Portland, in Seattle, and beyond:

You may have a Glock in your hand, but on Election Day, you have precisely as many votes as the little old lady who disagrees with you. Thats our system. The weak are supposed to have as much power over the government as the strong, and that is the basis of our equality as Americans, something that we should cherish and protect.

Political violence immediately short circuits this. It ends democracy. Violence instead returns us to the most primitive of all systems, one in which might makes right. People who hurt others get to do exactly what they want. Everyone else has to obey them. There is no greater threat to civilization than this and we used to understand that because its obvious.

The liars of The New York Times described the riots as quote, protests, as if the violence was justified or could be justified, Carlson continued.

Because no lie is too absurd for CNN to tell, the network described violence against police as quote, a demonstration against police violence. Got that? Its a perfect inversion of the truth worthy of 1984. Ignorance is strength. Freedom is slavery. War is peace, he added. They repeat it because they expect you to believe it and no doubt some do.

Clip of the shooting at the protest in Austin Texas from Hiram Gilberto on FB pic.twitter.com/VFbzqfoSff  Anthony Martino (@anthonyfartino) July 26, 2020

But the lie  the media narrative  is collapsing. Americans are more digitally connected today than at any time in our history. (Related: Armed BLM rioter learns the hard way what happens when you open fire on a civilian vehicle in TEXAS (graphic).)

Every night that another protest/riot/melee takes place, those images are posted on social media somewhere, by someone. Many of those clips go viral; its fast becoming impossible for the liars at CNN, the Times, the Washington Post, and the broadcast and cable news networks to look us in the eye and tell us were not really seeing what were seeing.

Over the weekend, hundreds in Eugene, Ore., a small city with a large antifa presence, targeted the federal courthouse & numerous businesses. They started fires & smashed windows. They attacked responding @EugenePolice w/rocks. Only 7 adults arrested. https://t.co/0k2cg4mGVp pic.twitter.com/3iTBWci3VC  Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) July 28, 2020

No doubt Democrats are aiding and abetting this violence because they believe if they allow the heat to be turned up enough, a majority of Americans will vote for change in November, that change being their party and the figurehead president, Joe Biden.

But in reality, whats likely going on is that each new act of violence, especially against police and federal agents, is turning more Americans back towards the law-and-order president, Donald Trump.

Not even the dishonest media can stop that.

Sources include:

FoxNews.com

NaturalNews.com
With less than three months until the election, President Donald Trumps supporters need a Supreme Court boogeyman. Given the high courts primacy for Republicans at the voting booth, one reliable campaign message has inevitably cropped up every presidential election in the past five decades: that the court teeters on the brink of liberal control. Thats why the conservative legal movement invents a new villain or turncoat at the Supreme Court seemingly every election cycle. Whether it was Harry Blackmun, David Souter, Sandra Day OConnor, or Anthony Kennedy, the fastest way to mobilize an evangelical base that cares almost exclusively about overturning Roe v. Wade is to pretend that the court is always mere seconds away from sanctioning late-term abortions on the front steps of the court building itself. After a term in which the conservative-controlled court punted on abortion and gun control, and even expanded certain LGBTQ rights, this years designated villain is shaping up to be Chief Justice John Roberts.

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In a four-part series of extraordinary, exclusive pieces published on CNN.com last week (disclosure: one of us serves as CNNs Supreme Court analyst), our colleague Joan Biskupic reported on details about the case conferences and dispositions of various opinions at the end of this recent term. Its evident that at least one justice talked to Biskupic, who had three sources. Nobody on the outside knows who leaked or why, but the leaks (and the messaging around them) make it clear that repurposing arguments about John Roberts as a faithless conservative is central to the election project. But it might not work this time.

One example, this week, came in a cough-out-the-nose funny piece in Newsweek, in which law professor Josh Blackman, a highly visible conservative legal commentator, demanded that the chief justice accept responsibility for the leaks and step down. Roberts, in Blackmans view, is responsible for the damage done to the court by this reporting. Unless he can rise to the occasion, and plug these leaks, the Roberts Court will tear itself apart, he wrote. A Supreme Court divided cannot stand. If Roberts cannot unite the Court, he must leave it. The logic appears to be self-fulfilling. If whoever leaked to Biskupic did so to make Roberts look bad, calling for his resignation based on those leaks is in precisely as much bad faith as the leaks themselves. Indeed, there have been leaks out of the high court for as long as theres been a high court, and nobody has demanded that the chief justice resign for the good of the court, unless they want the chief justice to resign for the good of themselves.

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For Republicans, messaging around Americas secular church simply works. Voters who care about ending abortion, protecting phantom assaults on their gun ownership, and restricting LGBTQ rights above all else need to keep believing the courts been lost, not captured. Thats why conservatives were so delighted to bury Roberts and Neil Gorsuch as closet leftists at the close of this term, even as progressives pointed out just how unprogressive their handful of surprising votes actually were.

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But this started long before John Roberts signed on to an abortion decision in June Medical and Neil Gorsuch held that employers cant discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or transgender status. Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz campaigned in 2016 on unseating Roberts, freshly deemed a liberal for upholding Obamacare, while Senate Republicans crowed about refusing to seat Merrick Garland that same year. The playbook hasnt changed for decades. Fake a Supreme Court on the brink of being lost forever, gin up the dark money ads, and the evangelical vote is a lock. Its a win-win tactic because you can stir up heaps of money and voters when you face the loss of a potential seat, and you can stir up money and voters when you fill a contested seat. You can even stir up money and voters after youve prevented a seat from being filled.

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Trumps problem is that, having seated two staunch conservatives, thereby rendering the court definitively conservative in a way it has not been since at least the 1930s, he may now be losing the argument. Evangelical support for him has dropped. Some of the vestiges of a decades-old conservative legal movement is in retreat from him. And just as importantly, John Roberts refuses to play the part of coherent jurisprudential villain. While the chief justice has remained a reliably conservative fifth vote for expansive claims of religious liberty (and against efforts to expand access to voting) this term, he also managed to steer the court through partisan divisions this year in ways that both kept the court out of the news this summer and took serious conversations about court packing off the table before the 2020 election. Gallup polling shows that, not two years removed from the bitterly acrimonious confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the courts approval rating is at the highest rate in a decade. Roberts has rather masterfully dodged Donald Trumps swipes and tantrums, as well as occasional threats from the conservative legal movement that has tasted a hard-fought victory at the high court, yet found that its still made of tofu, or perhaps just Styrofoam. Roberts remains in command of the court and the media narrative.

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This hasnt stopped many stalwarts in the conservative legal establishment from fundraising on Roberts perceived squishiness. Look no further for increasingly transparent examples than Sen. Josh Hawley, who now promises an abortion litmus test to end all abortion litmus tests. Look to an ever-more ghoulish Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who cant stop thinking about replacing a still-living Ruth Bader Ginsburg to goose the vote, or to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, who wants to see where the market is before making a call on filling the not-yet-empty Ginsburg seat. But this is all small ball, because Roberts and the court must be made into an election-year issue this year.

Meanwhile, mainstream Democratic politicians still havent figured out how to run against the court, a source of increasing frustration to progressives. They still cannot conjure a message about the court or a theory of the court. Its been more than a half-century since a majority of the justices have been appointed by Democratic presidents. And even when Anthony Kennedy consistently swung rightward, or when Elena Kagan or Stephen Breyer threw in with the courts conservatives, as they did in several high-profile cases this term, Democrats dont target them for impeachment, or call for replacing them with truer hearts. The Democratic primary may have briefly touched on hypothetical structural reforms to the court, but those discussions quickly subsided. Liberals seem, in short, willing to embrace the moderate representatives on the court that they have had for years, while Republicans refuse to accept that theyve already won.

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Blackman himself even coined a termBlue Juneto describe both the surprisingly nonconservative bent of many of the courts major end-of-term decisions and his own emotional reaction thereto. In that respect, the irony of his critique is that precisely the same conservative frustration with this terms rulings is almost certainly what precipitated these leaks in the first place. And after the chief justice turned away a churchs request to block a Nevada COVID-related occupancy limit, Georgetown law professor Randy Barnett lamented it as proof of what weve known since at least 2012: 5 is not enough.

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Five is not enough. Well then. Weve been on the record for some time now arguing that you cant claim to be out fighting for judicial independence while youre also trashing the judiciary. Demanding that justices who fail to meet your purity tests step down on the transparent pretext that youre fighting for the prestige of the judicial branch is just old wine moldering in really old bottles. Even before he became the courts median vote upon Kennedys retirement, John Roberts has seemingly struggled to preserve both his own prestige and that of the entire judiciary, and yet hes managed to do something in this two-front war that few could have predicted. Not only did he rope-a-dope a president who could never manage to take yes for an answer, he may also have saved the court from a conservative legal juggernaut that can similarly never be satisfied.
WASHINGTON, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Republican and Democratic senators will introduce legislation as soon as Thursday that would block international sales of American-made drones to countries that are not close U.S. allies, a Senate aide said.

Reuters broke the news in June that President Donald Trump's administration planned to reinterpret the Missile Technology Control Regime, a Cold Wars arms agreement between 35 nations, with the goal of allowing U.S. defense contractors to sell more drones to an array of nations.

Republican Senator Mike Lee, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy and Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, are introducing the measure, the aide said.

U.S. lawmakers have tried before to rein in Trump administration plans for arms sales, particularly to Saudi Arabia for use in the war in Yemen. The measures have passed with bipartisan support, but failed to get enough Republican support to override Trump's vetoes.

The New York Times first reported the lawmakers' plan to introduce the bill on Thursday. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
Ontarios education minister is weighing in on what he calls deeply disturbing allegations of racism involving Hamilton public school board trustees.

On Saturday, Ahona Mehdi, a Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) student trustee whod just wrapped up her one-year term, posted a string of allegations on Twitter regarding racist incidents she said she witnessed or was subjected to while serving as a student trustee. Mehdi said in one incident, an unnamed trustee used the N-word in reference to Serena Williams, and in another, a different trustee spoke about how Muslims and Arabs were evil, anti-Semitic and violent and how Black leadership was too prevalent in the board.

The board is launching a third-party investigation into the complaints.

The allegations made by Ms. Mehdi are deeply disturbing, said Education Minister Stephen Lecce in a statement to The Spectator on Wednesday. No student or student leader should face this type of discriminatory experience, yet this continues to happen in our schools.

Lecce said the ministry has already taken action on such issues by mandating compulsory anti-discrimination training for all elected trustees and board staff.

Clearly, there is more to do to rid our schools of this pervasive reality for racialized students, he said. I have asked my officials to watch closely to ensure a fulsome investigation is completed and actions are taken ... Our kids deserve better.

His comments come a month and a half after Lecce fired the Peel District School Boards director of education following a review of the boards handling of anti-Black racism and dysfunction. The review, ordered by Lecce in late 2019, found consistent accounts of traumatic experiences in schools and school communities. It criticized board leaders for being paralyzed by inaction for years in the face of complaints.

Asked for response to Lecces Wednesday comments, HWDSB spokesperson Rob Faulkner said there was no update from the statement the board released on Monday.

The board has asked the ministry and the Ontario Anti-Racism Directorate to recommend a third-party investigator to oversee an investigation.

We plan to announce when the investigator is named, and when there are timelines for the investigation, he said. The code of conduct investigation is a transparent process in which the alleged breaches and sanctions will be openly reviewed at a board meeting.

The Spectator reached out to all 11 trustees for comment on the allegations Wednesday. Most trustees who responded declined comment, citing the investigation.

Trustee Cam Galindo pointed to a statement he made on Facebook this week, in which he said he stands in solidarity and support with Mehdi.

It breaks my heart to learn of her experience at HWDSB, he said. No student should ever have to face racism, oppression, tokenism, homophobia, microaggressions, or ever feel unsafe.

There are legitimate questions around how we hold trustees and staff accountable and what happens next. There is also a lot of self-reflection needed.

Trustee Becky Buck called Mehdis allegations alarming and said she supports the investigation. Trustee Christine Bingham called the concerns deeply disturbing.
Cuba has provided Vietnam with a batch of medicine and sent its experts to the Southeast Asian country to support the fight against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic.

Cuban Ambassador to Vietnam Lianys Torres Rivera formally handed the support to Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh, Vietnamese Deputy Minister of National Defense, during a ceremony in Hanoi on Wednesday.

The medicine, Interferon Alfa 2B produced by Cuba, helps stimulate the bodys production of anti-virus antibodies, which plays a significant role in treating serious COVID-19 cases.

Vietnamese Deputy Minister of National Defense Nguyen Chi Vinh speaks at an aid handover ceremony in Hanoi, August 5, 2020. Photo: Hong Quan / Tuoi Tre

The whole batch was immediately transferred to Da Nang City and Quang Nam Province in central Vietnam, the countrys current outbreak epicenters.

A group of Cuban health experts was also sent to the two Vietnamese localities to support the pandemic response efforts.

They are undergoing a quarantine period in accordance with regulations, but are still able to share their knowledge and experience via online meetings.

Speaking at the ceremony, Sen. Lt. Gen. Vinh expressed gratitude to the Cuban people for their special sentiment to Vietnam, especially in this difficult time, and affirmed that this is a fine tradition in their bilateral solidarity and friendship.

Cuban Ambassador to Vietnam Lianys Torres Rivera speaks at an aid handover ceremony in Hanoi, August 5, 2020. Photo: Hong Quan / Tuoi Tre

Ambassador Lianys Torres Rivera said the handover of the medicine affirmed Cubas desire to boost cooperation with Vietnam in medical and pharmaceutical sectors, which will contribute to bilateral relations.

The two nations are poised to mark their 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties on December 2 this year, she added.

Vietnam previously provided Cuba with three metric tons of medical supplies including rapid-result test kits, medical masks, protective clothing, and several types of medicine.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Portland police officers pursue a crowd of about 200 after forcing the group to disperse from a law enforcement precinct in Portland, Ore., late Aug. 1, 2020. (Nathan Howard/Getty Images)

Rioting in Portland Spreads to Residential Areas as Woman Confronted at Her Home

Rioters in Portland confronted a woman at her home late Wednesday as rioting continued in Oregons largest city with no end in sight.

Video footage from the scene showed a group of about a dozen, many clad in all-black, repeatedly shouting expletives at the woman while shining lasers into her eyes.

The group was mad that the woman was wearing what appeared to be a swastika armband.

Take it off you Nazi [expletive]! one man shouted. The woman said she would not while cursing back.

Go back inside your house before you get [expletive] up! one of the males in the crowd told her. Another man opened the door to the womans house and tried shoving her inside. When she refused, he grabbed her arm and tried to rip the armband off.

It wasnt clear how the incident ended.

After they were sent links to the videos and asked whether the incident was under investigation, a Portland Police Bureau spokesman told The Epoch Times that officers arent sure whether the woman called the police and filed a report.

Rioters gathered around 8 p.m. at Floyd Light Park and began walking about an hour later, blocking both lanes of traffic, according to the bureau. After arriving at the departments East Precinct, the mob tried tearing a surveillance camera from the building. Some spray painted the camera and the precincts front doors.

The crowd then began tampering with the doors and ripping down boards that were put up to protect the precincts glass windows.

Several people in the group began to ram a large 2 by 4 piece of wood in to the front glass doors in an effort to shatter them. Other members of the group slammed different heavy large objects into the glass doors as well. The objects included large rocks, the bureau said in an incident summary.

Rioters refused to comply with requests to leave the area. They cracked the precincts glass doors, causing significant damage, and started a fire after barricading the entrance.

When officers moved to disperse the crowd, rioters hurled projectiles and shot commercial-grade fireworks at them. Officers responded with tear gas and crowd control munitions.

While dispersing efforts continued, a truck associated with the group attempted to run over several officers, the bureau said.

The mayhem continued for hours as officers repeatedly dispersed the mob, which kept returning to the East Precinct.

Several arrests were made, including 38-year-old Davis Beeman of Vancouver, Wash., who was charged with reckless driving and interfering with a police officer. According to his Twitter account, Beeman is a member of Antifa, a far-left anarcho-communist group, and often goes to protest and uses his truck to block traffic.

Rioting has continued on a near-nightly basis in Portland since late May with no signs of slowing down.

A demonstrator burns an American flag in front of the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse in the early morning in Portland, Ore., on Aug. 1, 2020. (Nathan Howard/Getty Images)

City officials have no concrete plans on how to end the violence.

Portland Mayor and Police Commissioner Ted Wheeler didnt respond to a request for comment.

Oregon state troopers were seen helping police officers quell the violence as part of an agreement reached between the state and the federal government.

City and state officials grew angry with the Trump administration for increasing the number of officers at the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse, a federal building, last month after rioters targeted the building and police officers didnt intervene.

The agreement resulted in the courthouse being left alone, but the riots have continued. On Tuesday night, a mob set fire to the Portland Police Associations building for the second time in two months.

Some others arrested in recent weeks in Portland self-identify as members of Antifa, in addition to Beeman.

Independent journalist Andy Ngo warned members of Congress in Washington on Tuesday that the group plans to spread violence across America.

Unless we take action, what is happening in Portland today will soon be happening in cities across the country, he said.
With people everywhere spending more time at home these days in the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, viewers are firing up Netflix on a regular basis. One of the streaming platforms most anticipated new shows is Worlds Most Wanted, a series that showcases a few of the worlds most dangerous criminal suspects that remain at large. The series, which is set to begin streaming in early August, is already getting a lot of attention  especially when it comes to the segment featuring the notorious White Widow.

A view of a laptop computer screen showing the Interpol website which features a Red Notice for the arrest of Samantha Lewthwaite | Oli Scarff/Getty Images

Who is the White Widow?

One of the worlds most feared women was born in ordinary enough circumstances. Samantha Lewthwaite was born in Northern Ireland in 1983 and was raised by working-class military parents before moving to England with her family. Lewthwaite received a good education, studying religion and politics at the University of London before ultimately dropping out, according to The Sun. After her parents separated in the early nineties, Lewthwaite struggled to find her footing, reportedly finding solace in the religion and lifestyle of Islam.

Around the age of seventeen, Lewthwaite converted to Islam. In the early 2000s, she met and married a man named Germaine Lindsay. Three years after their wedding, Lindsay committed suicide when he blew himself up on a train, killing himself and twenty-six other people. In the days following the bombing, Lewthwaite gained notoriety when she was accused of selling her story to tabloids. This prompted people to accuse Lewthwaite of attempting to profit off of terrorism. However, the years following the bombing would make Lewthwaite a household name, as she reportedly became embroiled in several other terrorist attacks.

The White Widow is featured in Worlds Most Wanted

RELATED: Netflix August Releases: 5 Shows Youll Want to Binge-Watch

Within the past ten years, Lewthwaite has been named as a suspect in multiple terrorist attacks, including the Mombasa grenade attack, and the Westgate shopping mall incident, which left seventy-one people dead and hundreds injured. Samantha Lewthwaite became known as the White Widow due to her British nationality and the way that her husband died. These days, no one knows where Lewthwaite is hiding. Her whereabouts, as well as the extent of her involvement in terrorist activities, remain a mystery.

In the new Netflix show Worlds Most Wanted, Samantha Lewthwaites story is laid bare in one of the most exciting series segments. While features like these help to bring to light some truly terrifying incidents and can help to ensure that more people are aware of the atrocities committed on a daily basis, making such notorious people more visible can have some unintended consequences.

A teenager was recently mistaken for the White Widow

Several years ago, well before the advent of the Worlds Most Wanted Netflix series, a teenager traveling to Kenya from the United States received the scare of her life when Kenyan police reportedly harassed the teenager for looking like the White Widow, Samantha Lewthwaite. The fifteen-year-old was traveling with her family when police detained her for an unspecified period of time, report The Guardian, eventually allowing them to resume their travels, presumably very shaken.

In response to the incident, the Kenyan government reached out to the teen and her family, offering her a fully paid holiday in recompense for the inconvenience of being detained. There is no word on whether the teenager accepted the holiday, or if she decided to simply stay at home for a while. One thing is likely, however  that particular young woman probably isnt looking forward to binge-watching episodes of Worlds Most Wanted, in particular the episode featuring the notorious White Widow.
Three of the seven persons arrested in Osun State during #RevolutionNow protests on Wednesday have regained their freedom.

The released protesters are Olowolafe Dunsi, Martins Jesuloni and Gift Martins.

PREMIUM TIMES gathered they were released to their parents on Thursday evening.

Others left in the SSS custody are Olawale Bakare, Abiodun Sanusi, and two others. Mr Bakare is a co-defendant in the treason charge against the founder of the movement, Omoyele Sowore,

Speaking with PREMIUM TIMES, the protesters lawyer, Alfred Adegoke, confirmed the release of the three. We have been able to secure the bail of three of the protesters while the other four are in SSS custody.

It is sad for SSS to say they wont release them except they see their parents. Thats dehumanising. We will be there again tomorrow, he said.

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The activists were protesting against bad governance, lack of infrastructure, extra-judicial activities among others.

Similar protests were held in other states and the Federal Capital Territory. Those arrested during the protests in Lagos, Ogun and Abuja were released yesterday.

PREMIUM TIMES recalled that #RevolutionNow protest, which took place last year, led to the arrest of Messrs Sowore and Bakare who were detained for several months.

A court had earlier ruled that the disruption of last years protest by the police was against the right to freedom expression and assembly of the arrested individuals.
Telangana has joined other states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in insisting that private industries in the state should provide reservations to locals for employment.

A new draft policy to this effect was approved by the state Cabinet at its meeting held till late on Wednesday. The Cabinet felt that the locals should have more opportunities in the industries being set up in the state. The cabinet decided to extend incentives to the industries which provide more job opportunities to locals, an official release from the chief ministers office said.

At present, in Maharashtra, 50 per cent of the jobs among the supervisory staff and 80 per cent of the total jobs in private industries are reserved for locals. Similarly, the reservations for locals in all jobs in private industries are 75 per cent in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and 70 per cent in Madhya Pradesh.

However, the Telangana Cabinet decided to adopt a two-pronged strategy to create a favourable environment to ensure that the local youth are employed in industries. First, the government shall ensure availability of skilled manpower through institutions like the Telangana Academy of Skill and Knowledge (TASK), tagging core industries with industrial training institutes (ITIs) and polytechnics to ensure continuous availability of skilled man power.

Secondly, the industries are classified into two categories-- in category-1, industries could employ 70 per cent of the semi-skilled manpower and 50 per cent of skilled manpower from locals; and in category-II, industries could have 80 per cent of the semi-skilled manpower and 60 per cent of the skilled manpower from locals.

It was decided that industries established in the state need to be facilitated with the employable local manpower through synergy between the government, industry and the academia, the official note said.

The Cabinet proposed that industries which followed this policy of reservations to the locals would be extended additional incentives like VAT, GST, SGST, and lower electricity tariffs and investment subsidies, among others.

The Cabinet also decided to decentralise the IT industry in Hyderabad and adopt a grid policy so that the IT companies could spread all over the city. It was decided to give incentives to the IT companies being set up in other areas other than only in Cyberabad in the western parts of Hyderabad.

The Cabinet also decided to encourage and promote the use of electrical vehicles to decrease the air pollution in Telangana. It was also decided to encourage the production of electric vehicles in the state by giving them incentives. The Cabinet approved the Telangana State Electronic Vehicle and Energy Storage Solution Policy.

The Cabinet has also approved the construction of the New Secretariat Complex and approved the designs.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Srinivasa Rao Apparasu Srinivasa Rao is Senior Assistant Editor based out of Hyderabad covering developments in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana . He has over three decades of reporting experience. ...view detail
GT2s with bezel. Im excited to get the GT2s in the field to allow our government partners to leverage the long-life promised by solar-power with the rugged, maintenance-free utility Geoforce devices provide heavy industry.

Geoforce, a leading global provider of satellite and cellular-based tracking and monitoring solutions, today announced that it has reached agreements with multiple government contracting partners to field test its new Iridium Connected satellite asset tracking device, the GT2s. The GT2s is the revolutionary next generation of solar powered asset tracking technology, ideal for government applications like In-Transit Visibility (ITV), as it is purpose-built to operate reliably and autonomously for years around the globe, even when sunlight is scarce. The GT2s is the latest addition to the proven GT asset tracking family.

The ultra-rugged and secure satellite-based GT2s is designed to reliably perform in variable and low-light conditions in a variety of harsh, rugged environments. The earliest working GT2s prototypes were shown to the US Army in April 2019 and deployed to support a demonstration for the 8th Army during TechNet Korea 2019. Since then, the GT2s has achieved the most stringent environmental testing to military standards, validating industrial operating temperatures (-40C to +85C / -40F to +185F), water ingress (IP68/69+), shock, thermal shock, operational vibration, salt fog, component reliability, and more. Geoforce continues to seek additional federal and other government entities and distribution partners to take delivery of units for field testing.

Solar-powered asset tracking devices have typically promised to provide a low-maintenance way to track and gain operating data from non-powered equipment in outdoor locations due to their ability to continually recharge their batteries. However, solar-powered devices have demonstrated reliability issues in industrial settings from dirty or obstructed solar panels, failed packaging, limited operating temperature and degraded battery capacity over time. For these reasons using solar power for asset tracking has been limited to commercial and consumer applications.

The GT2s solves these problems as it can operate reliably and provide data consistently in variable lighting conditions for up to 10 years without maintenance through the use of an innovative dual-power system where solar rechargeable batteries are supplemented as needed by a separate high-capacity battery. The Covid-19 pandemic caused a delay in the 2020 GT2s production schedule, but were thankful that the hard work of our team here at Geoforce has put us back on track, said James Maclean III, CEO of Geoforce. Im excited to get the GT2s in the field to allow our government partners to leverage the long-life promised by solar-power with the rugged, maintenance-free utility Geoforce devices provide heavy industry.

The GT2s will be available for government and authorized customers to use on the US governments dedicated Iridium gateway through the EMSS contract managed by Air Force Space Command. Iridiums latest EMSS contract, awarded in September of 2019, enables users to implement global tracking solutions through the dedicated DoD gateway with unlimited satellite airtime included.

Manufactured to the highest ISO 9001:2015 quality standards, the GT2s consistently delivers both the expected performance longevity and reliability from device to device. This means the GT2s is the first solar-powered asset tracking device to satisfy a wide swathe of military, government and industrial uses, particularly for in-transit visibility and situational awareness.

Potential partners and government agencies with interest in the GT2s, as well as the companion GT2c (cellular) and GT2h (hybrid cellular and satellite) should contact Miranda Solutions Group (703-239-3862 or info@mirandasolutionsgroup.com). Miranda coordinates Geoforces activities in the global Government/Defense space, managing distribution to primes and subcontractors, as well as all EMSS-related activities.

About Geoforce

Combining a cloud-based software platform with ruggedized GPS tracking devices and global satellite and cellular networks, Geoforces Track and Trace solutions bring control to often chaotic field operations. With over 1,300 customers tracking more than 160,000 assets in over 90 countries, the company operates the worlds largest network of connected field equipment within the oil & gas industry, and its solutions are used in many other field operations intensive industries, including government & defense, agriculture, construction, mining, transportation & logistics, and rail. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Geoforce has R&D offices in Bozeman, Montana, sales and support offices in Houston, Texas, Denver, Colorado, Arroyo Grande, California, Macae, Brazil, Melbourne, Australia, and Calgary, Canada, and sales and service professionals in West Texas and South Louisiana. For more information, visit http://www.geoforce.com.
The police did not allow a protest in front of the government building against the exploitation of the Amulsar mine.

Law enforcement officers began to apprehend the protesters when they were just starting to gather in front of the Government building.

By the order of the Deputy Chief of the Yerevan Police, everyone, including two human rights defenders, was apprehended.

The Amulsar gold mine has been in development by Lydian International since 2016. According to the company, the project meets all the requirements both legal and environmental and could open hundreds of jobs and generate millions of dollars in tax revenues.

However, local residents and environmental activists are protesting the decision and blocking roads leading to the site.
OTTAWA, ON / ACCESSWIRE / August 6, 2020 / Tetra Bio-Pharma Inc. ("Tetra" or the "Company") (TSX-V:TBP) (OTCQB:TBPMF), a leader in cannabinoid-derived drug discovery and development, is pleased to announce that the Corporation is set to accelerate its European activities. The Corporation has received support from Malta Enterprise and will be creating a subsidiary in Europe to expand its clinical and regulatory activities as well as its future commercial operations for QIXLEEF, in Europe. Malta Enterprise, the national economic development agency of the Government of Malta, has supported the launch of the project of Tetra in Malta, and is now also working together with our team to implement this project.

In Q4 2020, Tetra will open its European office in Malta. The jobs created in Malta will offset consultant and other associated costs. Dr. Guy Chamberland, CEO and CRO stated "We are extremely pleased that our European expansion project has received the approval and support from Malta Enterprise. It is anticipated that this support will allow Tetra to quickly and efficiently launch QIXLEEF in the five Major European Markets, notably Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the UK."

The Malta-based activities will involve regulatory filings with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for all of Tetra's investigational new drugs and European-based clinical trial operations. This includes accelerating the Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) for QIXLEEF in Europe and performing a Phase 3 Plenitude trial, as detailed in the May 2020 supplemental filing and overnight financing.

Tetra had a first meeting with the Malta Medicines Authority, which was facilitated by Malta Enterprise, and resulted in clarifications and identification of the milestones to complete a clinical trial application compliant with the requirements of the local and European Authorities. Tetra intends to submit the Plenitude clinical trial as a Phase 3 study in Q4 2020 as the first step in initiating a clinical trial program in Malta. This trial will be performed in Europe to expand the claims associated with the prescription of the medicinal product QIXLEEF. The Corporation is advancing its MAA filing strategy in Europe and will continue regulatory discussions with the Malta Medicines Authority.

Dr. Guy Chamberland, CEO and CRO commented, "The decision to choose Malta was simple. Our scientific and regulatory team recognized and appreciated the professionalism and guidance from Malta Enterprise and the Malta Medicines Authority. Furthermore, Aphria's ARA-Avanti Rx Analytics, the Aphria One facility in Canada, and its subsidiary, ASG Pharma Ltd. which is based in Malta, have all received European Union Good Manufacturing Practices (EU-GMP) certification from the same Competent Authority (Malta Medicines Authority) for the production of cannabis, which will allow for a pharmaceutical GMP compliant trial. These certifications include cannabis flower supply, processing the flower into finished goods, to the ability to ship finished dried flower throughout the European Union. Aphria's GMP quality system will enable Tetra to meet its European market objectives including the ability to perform a Phase 3 trial. The Plenitude trial is designed to prove the efficacy and safety of QIXLEEF for the relief of pain in cancer patients. These pain claims will allow expansion of the market size for QIXLEEF in Europe."

"We are pleased to have partnered with Tetra in the development of QIXLEEFO. Since 2014, Aphria has been a leading, trusted choice for Canadian patients seeking high quality pharmaceutical-grade medical cannabis and, today, our EU-GMP certified operations will allow Tetra to expand its drug development and commercial activities to Europe," said Denise Faltischek, Chief Strategy Officer, Aphria, Inc.

Kurt Farrugia, CEO of Malta Enterprise commented, "Malta is placing the areas of life sciences and particularly research and development at the forefront of its foreign direct investment efforts. We welcome the addition of Tetra to Malta's portfolio. Malta Enterprise is delighted to support Tetra to set up its European office in Malta and carry out significant value adding activity to our life sciences sector."

Dr. Guy Chamberland, added, "We will continue to keep shareholders informed as we progress with the commercial strategy for QIXLEEF. We see tremendous value and potential for our botanical-based medicine. The recent financing allowed us to accelerate QIXLEEF to the market and we are pleased to provide our shareholders with an update."

About Tetra Bio-Pharma

Tetra Bio-Pharma (TSX-V: TBP) (OTCQB: TBPMF) is a biopharmaceutical leader in cannabinoid-based drug discovery and development with a Health Canada approved, and FDA reviewed and approved, clinical program aimed at bringing novel prescription drugs and treatments to patients and their healthcare providers. The Company has several subsidiaries engaged in the development of an advanced and growing pipeline of Bio Pharmaceuticals, Natural Health and Veterinary Products containing cannabis and other medicinal plant-based elements. With patients at the core of what we do, Tetra Bio-Pharma is focused on providing rigorous scientific validation and safety data required for inclusion into the existing bio pharma industry by regulators, physicians and insurance companies.

For more information visit: www.tetrabiopharma.com

About Malta Enterprise

Malta Enterprise is the country's economic development agency, tasked with attracting new foreign direct investment as well as facilitating the growth of existing operations. In operation under various guises since the 1950s, which is almost since the beginning of Malta's industrial development, the Corporation contains within it a great deal of accumulated experience in the field. Furthermore, it acts as an adviser to government on economic policy due to its close and constant interaction with the main economic players in the country. Malta Enterprise is also the national contact point for the Enterprise Europe Network through which companies based in Malta can develop links with counterparts in over 60 other countries.

For more information visit: www. maltaenterprise .com

Source: Tetra Bio-Pharma

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-looking statements

Some statements in this release may contain forward-looking information. All statements, other than of historical fact, that address activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future (including, without limitation, statements regarding potential acquisitions and financings) are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by use of the words "may", "will", "should", "continue", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "believe", "intend", "plan" or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's ability to control or predict, that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, without limitation, the inability of the Company to obtain sufficient financing to execute the Company's business plan; competition; regulation and anticipated and unanticipated costs and delays, the success of the Company's research and development strategies, including the success of this product or any other product, the applicability of the discoveries made therein, the successful and timely completion and uncertainties related to the regulatory process, the timing of clinical trials, the timing and outcomes of regulatory or intellectual property decisions and other risks disclosed in the Company's public disclosure record on file with the relevant securities regulatory authorities. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results or events not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements included in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company does not undertake an obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect new information, subsequent events or otherwise unless required by applicable securities legislation.

For further information, please contact Tetra Bio-Pharma Inc.:

Investor Contact:

Alpha Bronze, LLC

Mr. Pascal Nigen

Phone: + 1 (646) 255-0433

tetra@alphabronze.net

Media Contact:

energi PR

Ms. Carol Levine APR, FCPRS

Phone: + 1 (416) 425-9143 ext. 226

Mobile: + 1 (514) 703-0256

carol.levine@energipr.com

SOURCE: Tetra Bio-Pharma

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/600594/CORRECTION-FROM-SOURCE-Tetra-Bio-Pharma-Provides-Update-on-QIXLEEFTMs-European-Activities
06.08.2020 LISTEN

A research conducted by the College Of Health And Wellbeing, Kintampo in the Bono East region, has shown that even though there is an extremely high level of awareness about COVID-19, most people do not adhere to the various preventive protocols.

The study revealed that 98.1% of the study participants were aware of COVID-19 with 94% of the figure failing to adhere to the various WHO and Ministry of Health recommended preventive protocols.

The research revealed that only 24.2% of the study participants used nose-masks while 92% did not observe good cough etiquette (cough without using tissue or do not cough into their elbow).

Seventy percent (70%) did not ensure social distancing. More than half (53%) of the people said they will visit the health facility rather than calling the COVID-19 hotlines for medical attention.

It is however relieving that irrespective of the above findings, 82% of the people studied adhered to the appropriate greetings protocols  they either wave, elbow or verbally greeted their folks.

Research objectives

Among others, the Kintampo College of Health and Well-being undertook the research as part of its contributions toward containment of the pandemic in the Kintampo Municipality.

It was primarily meant to assess the knowledge level of residents of Kintampo North on COVID-19, assess attitudes of the residents of Kintampo North Municipal about the pandemic and also delve into practices in the area towards COVID-19 prevention.

The research was based on a cross-sectional study population involving adults of 18 years and above in Kintampo North Municipality Sample Size covering all the seven Sub-districts were used for the study.

In all, 21 communities were studied with a sampling size of 320; simple random sampling for community, household and participant selection in household and systematic sampling technique for house selection.

The study further established that 28.3% of the participants did not have any knowledge about the signs or symptoms of COVID-19.

Improvised treatment of covid-19

Seventy-one percent (71%) of the respondents believed that drinking lemon/ginger and garlic will treat them if infected with COVID-19 while 20% believed that drinking alcohol may reduce their risk of getting infected with COVID-19.

It came to light that though 82.2% of the participants indicated they wash their hands under running water, almost all (81.9%) did not follow the correct hand washing procedure

Statistical significant association was found between practicing hand washing under running water and education, marital status and religion.

Recommendations

In view of its finding, the College is recommending to the Kintampo Municipal Health Directorate through the Municipal COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Committee and NCCE to intensify education of the public on the need to wear nose masks, ensure social distancing, observe good cough etiquette and follow the recommended hand washing steps.

This would go a long way to interrupt the transmission of COVID-19 at homes, workplaces and in the community.

The College further appealed to the Municipal Health Directorate to regularly update the public on the signs and symptoms of the disease to increase the knowledge of the population to improve case detection, reduce complications and possible death due to late reporting.

The Municipal Health Directorate and NCCE should educate the public to avoid home remedies and consumption of alcohol as COVID-19 preventive measure that are circulating through the media, friends and relatives.

About the College

Established in 1969, the College of Health and Wellbeing at Kintampo is the largest health training institution in Ghana and currently runs 14 programmes, including BSc in Physician Assistant and BSc in Community Mental Health.

The College constantly liaises up with stakeholders to work hand-in-hand towards a common goal of promoting health and development and also contributes to knowledge through research works.
Nancy Pelosi stressed Thursday that Democrats will not agree to a temporary measure for unemployment insurance benefits as negotiations close on a second week of no progress toward reaching an agreement on another coronavirus stimulus package.

'We're not having a short term extension,' the House Speaker told reporters before stepping away from the podium during a Thursday briefing with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Schumer made a medical analogy in claiming Republicans are looking to apply a 'bandaid' to the economy when he claims the country really needs 'surgery' to get out of the hole it was dug into due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In a previous stimulus package, Americans were awarded a $600-per-week boost in unemployment benefits in the midst of the crisis as millions were left jobless due to lockdowns and other economic strife.

That benefit expired last Friday.

Republicans' version of the next coronavirus stimulus bill, which was proposed last Monday by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, lowered the boost to $200-per-week. But Democrats said they would not budge on the $600.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that Democrats will not agree to temporary measure to extend a $600-per-week boost in unemployment benefits, which expired last week, during negotiations on another coronavirus relief package

'We're not having a short term extension,' Pelosi said during a press briefing along side Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who accused Republicans of trying to put a 'bandaid' over the issue

The duo also claimed Republicans have a 'condescending' view of American workers if the GOP thinks Americans would rather stay home and collect a check instead of going to work

Senator Martha McSally, a Republican, proposed last week a temporary one-week extension of the benefits while negotiations continued. Democrats did not jump on board.

During talks this week, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, along with Republican lawmakers, moved to meet Democrats in the middle at a $400-per-week boost.

Pelosi and Schumer said during their press conference Thursday that this was unacceptable.

'We have said that we're going to have the $600,' Pelosi told reporters. 'This is necessary.'

'They know that we want the $600,' she said of Republican negotiators.

Schumer added: 'The $600 has kept, by economic estimates, at least 1 million  and probably many more  people out of poverty.'

The duo also slammed the GOP for having a 'condescending' perspective on Americans' work ethic.

'They say all these people are staying home because they get more money than if they go to work. That is not the American people I know. They want to work,' Schumer insisted. 'And if they have a job, or are offered a job, and with the benefits and with the dignity of work, they take it.'

Mnuchin and Meadows have repeated their argument that $600-per-week extra unemployment, on top of typical benefits, is too much.

Fiscal conservatives agree, claiming it incentivizes workers to keep collecting checks since many are making more with the enhanced benefits than they were at their pre-coronavirus jobs.

Meadows said Wednesday night that Republicans and Democrats are trillions of dollars apart in the amount of the bill's price tag, signaling the parties are no closer to reaching a deal then they were when negotiations commenced two weeks ago.

'We have to think big,' Pelosi said Thursday of the next package.
HIROSHIMA, Japan - Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui on Thursday called for unity in the battle against nuclear weapons and the novel coronavirus at a memorial ceremony to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

About 800 people attended the ceremony, which started at 8 a.m. in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in the city. Participants mourned the victims and renewed a pledge that the horror of nuclear weapons should never be repeated.

In his peace declaration, Matsui described nuclear weapons and the novel coronavirus as a "threat to human beings." He said, "Civil society must reject self-centered nationalism, and unite against all threats."

As part of efforts to prevent the spread of the virus, entry to the venue was limited only to invited people from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m.

The city reduced the number of invitees, which usually reaches about 11,000 every year through atomic bomb survivor groups and other organizations. Seats for general attendants were not set up, and the seats that were put out were positioned 2 meters apart on each side.

In addition to atomic bomb survivors and representatives of bereaved families, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and representatives from the Delegation of the European Union to Japan and 83 countries, including such nuclear states as the United States and Russia, also attended the ceremony.

The number of representatives of bereaved families was a record low of 23 from 23 prefectures.

At 8:15 a.m., the time the atomic bomb was dropped, representatives of victims' families sounded the peace bell, followed by a minute of silence.

"Rumor at the time had it that 'nothing will grow here for 75 years.' And yet, Hiroshima recovered, becoming a symbol of peace," Matsui said in his declaration.

Matsui stressed unity against threats to humanity and avoiding the reoccurrence of such a tragedy. "No country can live in peace alone. The world is connected," he said, quoting Sadako Ogata, who served as U.N. high commissioner for refugees and died at the age of 92 last year.

He also referred to the July ruling by the Hiroshima District Court regarding exposure to so-called black rain, which recognized people outside the designated area at the time of the bombing as hibakusha sufferers of the bombing.

Matsui called on the central government to provide generous assistance for the survivors, saying, "I demand the political decision to expand the 'black rain' areas."

The names of 4,943 victims whose deaths were confirmed in the past year were added to the list of deceased at the cenotaph for the atomic bomb victims. This brought the total number registered at the cenotaph to 324,129.
Ed-tech company BYJUS has acquired Mumbai based ed-tech start-up and coding platform with a revenue run rate of $150 million, WhiteHat Jr. With coding fast emerging as a key skill for the future, this integration will help BYJUS further expand its offerings in India. This acquisition will also accelerate BYJUS US expansion plans. This partnership is timely with the Government of India pushing skills such as coding from early classes with the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

After the acquisition, BYJUS will make significant investments in WhiteHat Jr.s technology platform, product innovation while expanding the teacher base to cater to demand from new markets. WhiteHat Jr. Founder Karan Bajaj will continue to lead and scale this business in India and the US.

We started WhiteHat Jr. to make kids creators, instead of consumers of technology, explained Bajaj. Technology is at the centre of every human interaction today and we had set out to create a coding curriculum that was being delivered live and connected students and teachers like never before. Integration with a visionary company such as BYJUS will help take this idea to new heights and help unleash the remarkable creative potential of kids at a global scale.

Also Read: BYJUS partners with Kannada superstar Kichcha Sudeep

WhiteHat Jr. is the leader in the live online coding space. Karan has proven his mettle as an exceptional founder and the credit goes to him and his team for creating coding programs that are loved by kids. Under his leadership the company has achieved phenomenal growth in India and the US in a short span of time, said Byju Raveendran, Founder and CEO, BYJUS.

Empowering children with the right future skills has always been part of our vision at BYJUS and coding fits well into this. WhiteHat Jr.s coding product capabilities, combined with our pedagogy, expertise and scale, will help expand our learning offerings for school students, Byju added.

WhiteHat Jr. had recently announced their plans to expand to other global markets like Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) after a stellar growth in the US for its one-to-one online coding classes. After launching their courses in the US, since February this year, the company is growing at more than 100% MoM in the country.

Founded in November 2018, WhiteHat Jr. helps kids aged 6 to 14 years build commercial-ready games, animations and apps online using the fundamentals of coding. WhiteHat Jr. offers four levels of courses  Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced and Professional  for students in grades 1-9. Kids create complex games, animations and apps using logic, structure, sequence, commands and algorithmic thinking  in a live 1:1 online classroom. Early graduates of the course have created professional-ready apps downloadable on the App Store at ages as young as seven years old.

Launched in 2015, BYJUS is the leader in offering personalised learning programs for school students in India. With 64 million students cumulatively learning from the app, 4.2 million annual paid subscriptions and an annual renewal rate of 85%, BYJUS has witnessed phenomenal growth. The app creates personalized learning programs for individual students based on their proficiency levels and capabilities which help them learn at their own pace and style. BYJUS doubled its revenue from Rs 1,430 crore to Rs 2,800 crore in FY19-20.

Since the lockdown, BYJUS has seen over 15 million new students start learning from its platform. With temporary closure of schools due to the ongoing pandemic, BYJUS has become one of the only ways for students to continue learning. Last month, the company launched BYJUS Classes, a comprehensive online tutoring program that addresses the need for personalised after-school learning solutions with scheduled engagement from Indias top teachers, live doubt solving and personalised mentoring. The company also launched learning programs for History, Civics and Geography. The company did over Rs 500 crore in revenue last month.
WASHINGTON  They met virtually on Zoom, four days over two weeks in June, to hold simulations known in the military and intelligence communities as "war games."

There were 67 players  many of them high-profile critics of President Donald Trump  including law professors, retired military officers, former senior U.S. officials, political strategists and attorneys.

Instead of mapping out a geopolitical conflict, the group peered ahead to the Nov. 3 election, now less than 90 days away, and explored how the race between Trump and Joe Biden could turn into a post-election crisis.

John Podesta, a former top aide to President Barack Obama and President Bill Clinton's former chief of staff, played Biden. Two outspoken Republican critics of Trump, David Frum and Bill Kristol, portrayed the president.

After gaming out various scenarios, the group said its conclusions were "alarming:" In an election taking place amid a pandemic, a recession and rising political polarization, the group found a substantial risk of legal battles, a contested outcome, violent street clashes and even a constitutional impasse.

"We assess with a high degree of likelihood that November's elections will be marked by a chaotic legal and political landscape," the Transition Integrity Project, which organized the "war games," said in a report this week.

Get ready: Register to vote or check your status

"The winner may not, and we assess likely will not, be known on 'election night' as officials count mail-in ballots," the report said. "This period of uncertainty provides opportunities for an unscrupulous candidate to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the process and to set up an unprecedented assault on the outcome."

Trump predicts 'election disaster'

In the six weeks since the tabletop exercises, the group's organizers said their fears of a messy outcome have only grown. Last week, Trump floated the idea of delaying the election, though he was quickly rebuffed by both Democrats and Republicans. And as several states look to expand mail-in voting because of the coronavirus pandemic, Trump has repeatedly warned of fraud, suggesting this year's presidential race will be the "greatest election disaster in history."

Story continues

"He's trying to create as many possible pre-narratives for claiming that the results are not legitimate," said Nils Gilman, who co-founded the Transition Integrity Project last fall along with Rosa Brooks, a professor of law and policy at Georgetown University.

"He wants to create fear, uncertainty and doubt so that people feel frozen and paralyzed, and then the man of action, Trump himself, can ride in and seize the day," said Gilman, a scholar at the Berggruen Institute, a think tank focused on governance.

President Donald Trump

In its 22-page report, the Transition Integrity Project warned of tactics Trump could deploy to halt counting of mail-in ballots: lawsuits seeking injunctions, shutting down the U.S. Postal Service, or ordering the censure and sequestration of ballots deemed fraudulent.

And yet, while concerns mostly centered on actions Trump might take, the project found that a scenario in which Biden narrowly loses the electoral college while winning the popular vote could lead to outrage on the left, resulting in mass protests challenging the election outcome and perhaps impasse as well.

In addition to Podesta, Frum and Kristol, the participants included former Democratic National Committee chairwoman Donna Brazile, former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele and former Democratic Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

How will the candidates, the media and the bureaucracy react?

The participants role-played the aftermath of four scenarios: a decisive Biden win, a narrow win for the Democratic candidate, a close electoral win for Trump but a 5-percentage point popular-vote loss, and the possibility that the outcome remains in doubt for weeks because of a deluge of mail-in ballots.

They divided into groups  representing the Biden campaign, the Trump campaign, the media, the federal bureaucracy including military, Democratic officials and Republican officials  and forecast how they thought each might react after the election.

Each scenario except for a Biden landslide win ended in violent protests and a constitutional crisis.

The goal was to illuminate what could happen, said Brooks, a former Defense Department official. We don't have the ability to say, is there a 1% chance that these bad outcomes occur or an 80%? But the collective wisdom is they are sufficiently high probability that we can't afford not to be thinking about them at least."

In this June 6, 2019, file photo, Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks in Atlanta.

Describing one of the more dire scenarios, the group said a constitutional impasse could result if either the Trump or Biden campaign were to exploit legal ambiguities in battleground states such as Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan and North Carolina that have Democratic governors and Republican-controlled state legislatures.

If opposing state branches certified competing slates of electors, it would lead to a situation with no precedent in modern U.S. history.

Revisiting the election of 1876

Legal experts compared such a scenario to the 1876 election, when Rutherford B. Hayes, a Republican, beat Democrat Samuel Tilden after both parties in three states, Florida, South Carolina and Louisiana, initially claimed victories. Hayes emerged the winner after he appeased Southern Democrats by agreeing to pull federal troops out of the South and ushering in the end of Reconstruction.

Under federal law, electors meet Dec. 14 to provide their states' votes for president and vice president. Congress then convenes Jan. 6 to count them. Historically, it's a formality, but conflicting slates would put Congress squarely in the middle of a fight.

Edward Foley, a legal consultant for the war games, said the "real risk" would arise if Congress is divided, as it is today. He envisioned a situation where Vice President Mike Pence, as president of the Senate, says the vote is complete and Trump has been re-elected and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says it is not.

"If it turns out that there's real partisan fighting in the battleground states after election night, that could become very complicated," said Foley, an election law professor at Ohio State University.

The date to watch: Jan. 6

Left-leaning circles often ponder what would happen if Trump outright refuses to leave the White House even if he is deemed the loser.

The Transition Integrity Project predicted the military or Secret Service would escort the president out on Jan. 20 if Congress on Jan. 6 named Biden the winner and Trump refused to accept the result. But the war games never reached this point. The bigger issue, the group said in its report, is getting past Jan. 6 without a stalemate.

If there's a standoff over the outcome of the Nov. 3 presidential election, Congress could be forced to play a role in resolving it.

"Out of this war game, we witnessed role-players exercise power nakedly," said Retired Maj. General Paul Eaton, a military officer of 30 years and a senior advisor for Vote Vets, a progressive-aligned group that advocates for military veterans.

He said he felt like "a naive guy" because he expected "political protocols" and normal behavior to regulate the outcome. "But we have seen anything but normal behaviors from the president of the United States over the last three and a half years."

Attorney General William Barr, who has echoed Trump's concerns about mail-in-voting, told the U.S. House Judiciary Committee last week that he himself would leave office if "the results are clear." But Barr said he has "no reason to think" the election will be rigged.

Are the dire warnings overblown and 'divisive'?

Ari Fleischer, former press secretary for President George W. Bush, slammed one scenario circulated by the Transition Integrity Project  that Trump, enlisting help from the Justice Department or the postmaster general, could try to seize ballots in the mail.

It strikes me in the era of Trump to be one of the most irresponsible statements Ive ever heard, said Fleischer, who was not part of the war games. Im perfectly willing, and I do so often, to criticize Donald Trump, but this is pernicious. This is beyond the call. You talk about being divisive.

He called the suggestion that Trump might not accept election results "dangerous."

Wheres the evidence that this is what Trump is going to do according to his accusers? If the results are clear, the results are clear, Fleischer said.

Fleischer said not accepting results is different than not conceding in the event of an extremely close race, such as the 2000 when Bush defeated Democrat Al Gore. The biggest risk facing the 2020 election, he said, is not Trump rejecting an outcome  but that the race boils down to absentee ballots in a handful of states not accustomed to mail-voting on a large scale.

Study shows voters fear election illegitimacy

A study from the Democracy Fund Voter Study Group found nearly 1 out of 4 voters  22% of Democrats and 21% of Republicans  said some amount of "violence" would be justified if the candidate they oppose wins the White House.

Nearly-one third of Americans, 29%, said it would be appropriate if Trump loses but refuses to leave office because he claims he has credible evidence of illegal voting. An ever greater number of Democrats, 58%, said it would be appropriate to call for an election do-over if Biden wins the popular vote but loses the electoral college.

"It indicates the illegitimacy that would surround the election," said Larry Diamond, a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution who helped lead the study.

Brooks acknowledged the simulations were "totally artificial in a million ways." For starters, she said it's possible the players, by taking part in a game with no stakes, may have pushed limits further than would happen in reality. But she said it was the best they could do to simulate actual circumstances under real time.

"More likely than not," she said the U.S. will have a "more or less normal election" in November with the loser conceding.

But Brooks said: "Events are likely to unfold really fast after Election Day. Those who have thought through what can be done and what the legal options are, and so on, are in a much better position than those who think, 'Oh that probably won't come up.'"

Reach Joey Garrison on Twitter @joeygarrison.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Election 2020: 'War games' on Trump vs. Biden race show risk of chaos
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UPDATE: LA Mayor Says City Will Shut Off Water And Power For Party Throwers 'Flagrantly' Violating Health Orders

District 4 Councilman David Ryu introduced a motion today that aims to "crack down" on rowdy COVID-19 parties in Los Angeles.

For years now, residents of L.A.'s ritzy hillside neighborhoods have objected to so-called "party houses." They're usually rental or Airbnb spots that become makeshift nightclubs and host hundreds of people.

"The proliferation of it has become out of control, especially now during the pandemic because of the bars being closed," said Anastasia Mann, president of the Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council.

There is a party house ordinance already on the books, passed in 2018, that imposes thousands of dollars in fines for violations. And an existing L.A. County order that prohibits gatherings during the pandemic applies to the City of L.A. as well.

But members of neighborhood councils in areas that regularly see the wild parties say many wealthy party organizers and homeowners are undeterred by fines.

Ellen Evans, vice president of operations with the Bel Air Beverly Crest Neighborhood Council, said it was galling to see people disregard public safety in her neighborhood.

"It's completely an outrage, because anybody who's sitting at home really trying hard not to come in contact with others feels that others should have the same obligation," she said.

A 35-year-old woman was killed at a house party in the Beverly Crest area earlier this week. Guests were seen arriving in party buses and there was a food truck on site. LAPD officers responded to noise and traffic complaints, but said they lacked the authority to shut down the party. Hours later, shots rang out, hitting several people.

Amid the increased scrutiny of party houses, Councilman Ryu wants the Department of Building and Safety, Water & Power and others to come together to figure out what "deterrence tools," can be used, including utility shut-offs.

And at his Wednesday afternoon Covid briefing, Mayor Eric Garcetti said he is "authorizing the city to shut off Los Angeles Department of Water and Power service in the egregious cases in which houses businesses and other venues are hosting unpermitted large gatherings.

"Starting on Friday night, if the LAPD responds and verifies that a large gathering is occurring at a property, and we see these properties reoffending time and time again, they will provide notice and initiate the process to request that DWP shut off service within the next 48 hours."

Last weekend, a gathering at Sassafras Saloon in Hollywood got the attention of City of L.A. officials. City Attorney Mike Feuer's office said it "referred the community complaints we received to [the Department of Public Health] for investigation. If they refer a case to us we will review it for possible criminal prosecution."

At her regular briefing today, County Health Director Barbara Ferrer said:
MEXICO CITY Ecuadors biggest city, Guayaquil, was a pandemic hellscape of makeshift morgues, hundreds dying at home, bodies left in the street.

That was in March and April, when the countrys economic hub on the Pacific coast suffered as much as anywhere in the world from the new coronavirus and the disease it causes, COVID-19. Guayaquil later stabilized, sending medical teams and equipment elsewhere in Ecuador and taking in virus patients from outside the city.

Guayaquil officials partly attribute the turnaround to a strict lockdown and the adaptability of a population that, through history, endured epidemics of malaria, yellow fever, dengue and bubonic plague in a place whose tropical climate, crowded neighborhoods and exposure to foreign travelers seemed geared for infection.

Some medical experts caution against seeing Guayaquil as a model for others, even if authorities adjusted well after initially being overwhelmed.

The contagion was so massive, so rapid, and so many people died, that the number of people who are particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus in Guayaquil is much lower today, said Dr. Esteban Ortiz, research director of a health program at the Universidad de las Amricas in Quito, Ecuadors capital.

Additionally, Ortiz said, the more rigorous use and implementation of respiratory masks, facial masks, facial shields, social distancing and hand washing slowed contagion there.

So far, Ecuadors health ministry lists more than 1,600 COVID-19 deaths in Guayas province, which includes Guayaquil. Thats nearly one-third of the official death toll nationwide from the disease, a figure widely acknowledged to be an undercount.

Other Guayaquil data indicate the number of daily deaths recorded in parts of March and April was hundreds higher than for the same days in past years, suggesting many were coronavirus-related. Thousands certainly died of COVID-19 in the city of 2.7 million, and some relatives still dont know exactly where their dead were buried in that chaotic period.

Guayaquil promises to punish anyone who violates health guidelines. The city warns of $60 fines for people who dont wear masks on public transport, and bus drivers who let passengers ride without masks can get $200 fines as well as points docked from their licenses.

Hotels and restaurants are banned from hosting parties. Gatherings for baptisms and weddings are out. The citys Veradero beach remains closed while beaches open up in other parts of Ecuador.

The city helps citizens with food handouts and mobile clinics. The private sector got involved in aid efforts. Military and national health authorities assisted, though municipal officials say the government in Quito lagged in providing resources and sharing information.

Given the tremendous burden Guayaquil felt during March and April, I believe that they learned a lot, both from their successes and their shortcomings," said Bernardo Gutirrez, a researcher at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito. He wrote in an email to The Associated Press that the merits of Guayaquil specifically lie in their efforts to organize and coordinate efforts between the local government and different civilian actors" to implement health measures.

But Gutirrez said there is no guarantee that Guayaquils particular protocols would work elsewhere because of the unpredictability of any outbreak and the fact that the specific situation of a city will be very different from others."

With its crisis abating, Guayaquil sent doctors to several areas including Quito, which is experiencing its own COVID-19 surge. Guayaquil accepted virus patients from other regions, to the point where Mayor Cynthia Viteri, herself recovered from a light case of COVID-19, has warned that available ICU beds are again scarce.

On July 25, Viteri marked Guayaquils foundation by Spanish colonizers in the 16th century with an emotional speech on Carmen hill, which overlooks the city.

We were simply left to our fate" at the pandemics peak, she said. But, the mayor said, Guayaquil residents got back on their feet.

The small group of invited guests masked, their chairs spaced well apart clapped.

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
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump on Wednesday continued to suggest that the massive explosion that killed at least 135 people in Lebanon might have been a deliberate attack, even as officials in Lebanon and his own defence chief said its believed to have be an accident.

Whatever happened, its terrible, but they dont really know what it is, Trump insisted. Nobody knows yet.

Investigators probing the deadly blast that ripped across Beirut on Tuesday are focused on possible negligence in the storage of tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive fertilizer, in a waterfront warehouse. The Lebanese government ordered the house arrest of several port officials in connection with the explosion, which killed at least 135 people and injured 5,000 more.

On Tuesday, Trump called the explosion a terrible attack and said American generals told him it was likely caused by a bomb. They seem to think it was an attack, Trump said. It was a bomb of some kind, yes.

Defence Secretary Mark Esper contradicted the president Wednesday, saying most people believe the explosion was an accident, as reported.

But later in the day, Trump insisted nobody knows for sure.

How can you say accident if somebody left some terrible explosive-type devices and things around perhaps  perhaps it was that. Perhaps it was an attack, Trump told reporters during a White House briefing. I dont think anybody can say right now. Were looking into it very strongly right now.

Some people think it was an attack and some people think it wasnt. In any event, it was a terrible event and a lot of people were killed and a tremendous number of people were badly wounded, injured. And were standing with that country. 

But whether it was a bomb intentionally set off -- it ended up being a bomb, he said. But no, Ive heard it both ways. It could have been an accident and it could have also been something that was very offensive.

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows defended the president, saying Trump only told reporters on Tuesday what military officials had told him. The president shared with the American people what he was briefed on, with 100% certainty I can tell you that, Meadows told CNN.

But U.S. officials on Wednesday couldnt identify any generals who delivered any such Beirut message to the president. And while none would comment publicly, some noted that defence and intelligence officials didnt have enough information about the explosion to make any statement about the cause on Tuesday evening.

This is not the first time defence officials have been caught off-guard by Trump or scrambled to try to explain something he said without appearing to contradict their commander in chief.

Early in his presidency, Trump announced on Twitter that he was going to ban transgender service members, a move Pentagon leaders didnt know about. And many were caught by surprise when he suddenly announced he was pulling all troops out of Syria.

More recently, defence officials struggled to explain what Trump meant when he suggested the military was planning to play a role in distributing the coronavirus vaccine, something they had no plan to do. And they openly split with the president when he said he wanted to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy troops to tamp down protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd.

From video and other evidence, experts suggest that fireworks and ammonium nitrate were the fuel that ignited the explosion that rocked the Lebanese capital. The scale of the damage  from the area of the explosion at the port of Beirut to the windows blown out miles away  resembled other blasts involving the chemical compound commonly used as an agricultural fertilizer.

The compound typically does not detonate on its own and requires another ignition source. That likely came from a fire that engulfed what initially appeared to be fireworks stored at the port. The Lebanese government said it was putting an unspecified number of Beirut port officials under house arrest pending an investigation into how 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate came to be stored at the port for years.

The U.S. Embassy in Beirut said at least one American citizen was killed and several more were injured in the explosion. We are working closely with local authorities to determine if any additional U.S. citizens were affected, the embassy said in a statement Wednesday. The embassy said all its employees are safe and accounted for.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke Wednesday with Lebanons Prime Minister Hassan Diab to convey U.S. condolences to the Lebanese people, according to State Department deputy spokesperson Cale Brown. The U.S. was preparing to provide humanitarian aid and medical or other supplies to the Lebanese people, Esper said online during this years Aspen Security Forum.
Scientology is a controversial religion that is created by L. Ron Hubbard that involved training and study to reach enlightenment. The religion is also known to target celebrities as their followers, which is why the organization has built a celebrity center.

There are some celebrities, like Tom Cruise, who will be linked to the name of the church forever. However, there are some celebrities that you may not know also practiced Scientology. Here are some of the celebrities that you did not know were Scientologists.

Laura Prepon

The star of "That '70s Show" and "Orange Is The New Black" is also a Scientologist. Since her name in Hollywood has been steadily rising through the years, she was on the cover of the church's magazine, Celebrity Magazine, where she talked about how she got into the religion.

Also Read: Fact Check: Is Julia Roberts Starving Herself Because of Her Failing Marriage?

Prepon said that when she first got into Scientology, she did Personal Values and Integrity and then Overcoming Ups and Downs in Life. The courses talked about the observations that shew as aware of when she was younger and she said that it was amazing that she finally found something that "speaks her language."

Elisabeth Moss

The "Mad Men" actress is also a Scientologist and has defended the religion. In an interview with The Advocate, Moss was asked about the stance of Scientology against homosexuality. Moss said that the church practices personal freedom and rights as human beings, and that includes homosexuality. She added that it is an important concept in the religion that translates to sexual orientation.

Michael Pena

The Hollywood actor has been in many movies including "End of Watch" and "The Martian." However, only a few people know that he is a part of the church. In fact, the actor is so involved that he has done an interview with the Celebrity Center.

Pena talked about how he got into Scientology. He said that despite having all of the privileges when he was younger, he wasn't happy. He then saw actress Jenna Elfman on TV and watched her interview, in which the actress said that Scientology enables people to be real. He said he found it amazing and connected to it.

Danny Masterson

Another alum of "That '70s Show" is a Scientologist. The actor was raised as one. In his interview with Paper, Masterson talked about reading "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health" when he was 15 years old.

Masterson said that the book "blew his mind" because of its depth and how it explained why people think the way they feel or behave a certain way when something happens. He added that Dianetics was the answer to most of life's questions and that is why he decided to stay with the religion.

Alanna Masterson

Danny Masterson's sister and "The Walking Dead" star Alanna Masterson is also a Scientologist. It is reported that the religion tore their family apart. Joe Reaiche, her father, claimed that Scientology brainwashed his children, as reported by Vanity Fair.

Reaiche was a Scientologist himself and he was one of the highest ranks of the organization, but he decided to leave. However, his children remained in the organization.

Related Article: Did Taylor Swift Come Out as Bisexual? Fans Analyze Meaning of Her Songs in 'Folklore' Album

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According to police reports, an estimated 20,000 participants gathered in Berlin last Saturday to protest against Germanys Corona protection measures. The protest was a predictable, put-up job, which closely resembled the scenario of the Pegida demonstrations held five years ago.

Far-right figures and organisations that pull the strings behind the scenes and maintain close links to the Verfassungsschutz (Germanys domestic secret service), the police and the right-wing extremist Alternative for Germany (AfD) called the protest, and mobilised a broad coalition of confused, frustrated and eccentric individuals. Political circles and the German media then inflated the whole issue, took the moral high ground and criticised the crude slogans of the demonstrators while declaring at the same time that those taking part were concerned citizens whose concerns had to be taken seriously. In so doing they were able to divert attention from their own reactionary policies and push the political climate further to the right.

The Pegida demonstrations were used in a similar way to sabotage the welcoming culture, whereby broad sections of the German population welcomed refugees from war-wracked countries in the Middle East and North Africa, and to intimidate all those supporting the refugees.

Journalists worked their fingers to the bone with articles which concluded thatin the words of the right-wing extremist historian Jorg Baberowskiit naturally ends in aggression  wherever many people come from foreign contexts and when the population is not involved. According to this logic, the refugeesi.e., the victims of the far rightwere responsible for the growth of right-wing extremism.

The Corona demonstration in Berlin followed the same pattern. Many of those agitating behind the scenes were among the same people behind the Pegida demonstrations, i.e., neo-Nazis, far-right Reichburger, supporters of the AfD, the neo-Nazi NPD and the conspiracy theorist QAnon movement, who travelled from all over Germany to Berlin. These forces were joined by opponents of vaccination, Corona deniers and so-called angry citizens, together with members of Berlins party crowd.

The police watched patiently as the participants disregarded Corona distancing and mask regulations, waved illegal Reich flags and displayed unconstitutional symbols. In contrast to the G20 protests in Hamburg or the recent demonstrations against the murder of George Floyd, where police resorted to the use of pepper spray and water cannons at the slightest opportunity, not a single police officer could be seen along broad stretches of the march. Only after half an hour of the final rally had passed did police officially declare that the protest was ended due to non-compliance with hygiene rules. At the same time, police made no move to break up the demonstration.

Afterwards, leading politicians and the media frothed at the mouth regarding the non-compliance with official hygiene regulations. Demonstrations should be possible, also in a period of Corona  but not like this, twittered the German Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU). Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) declared she had no sympathy for demonstrators who high-handedly ignored Corona precautions. Economics Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU) called for tougher penalties: Those who deliberately endanger others must expect serious consequences. SPD leader Saskia Esken angrily referred to covididiots.

These expressions of outrage were aimed at diverting attention from the policies of these very same politicians. The anti-social behaviour of the demonstrators last Saturday pales in comparison with their own criminal response. Germanys federal and state governments, run by various coalitions involving the CDU, CSU, SPD, Greens, FDP and Left Party, are all pursuing a policy of opening up society and the economy that threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands.

As the worldwide number of infected persons approaches 20 million, with the number of fatalities now exceeding 700,000, the number of cases in Germany is again rising significantly. Currently tens of thousands of holiday makers are returning home, having been encouraged to travel abroad by the lifting of travel warnings. At airports in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where almost half of the returnees voluntarily applied for a Corona test, 2.5 percent proved positive, an extremely high figure.

Despite this, schools are opening up across the country, starting with Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania next week, although it has been proven that schools, with their cramped classrooms and dilapidated infrastructure, are an ideal environment for mass infections.

The Viennese research group Complexity Science Hub, which has statistically evaluated Corona data from 76 regions, concluded that the closure of schools, kindergartens and universities was an extremely effective means to limit infection. According to an analysis published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, school closures saved more than 40,000 lives and prevented 1.3 million infections in the US alone.

Conversely, a study by the Technical University of Berlin shows that aerosol concentration in the air of a classroomcritical for transmissionis reached just two minutes after a single infected person in the room coughs. Despite this fact, schools are once again commencing operations at full capacity.

The hygiene measures that have been put in place, which vary from state to state, are risible. For example, the obligation to wear masks, which Federal Education Minister Anja Karliczek (CDU) is now advocating after initially rejecting the proposal, only applies from the school gate to the classroom, but not in the classroom itself, where the risk of infection is highest.

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) also estimates the risk of infection to be high in a full classroom where minimum distance rules are not observed. This information is contained in a letter to the Rheinische Post. The prerequisites for maintaining this distance in classrooms are almost non-existent.

The RKI also warns against studies that attribute a significantly higher resistance on the part of children to coronavirus infection. It may well be that the alleged resistance of children is merely due to the fact that they had less social contact during the closure of kindergartens and schools, the RKI notes on its website.

Meanwhile, the media are trying to portray the Berlin demonstration staged by far-right manipulators as an expression of a broad mood within the population. In its lead commentary on Monday, the Suddeutsche Zeitung claimed that when a five-figure number of people take to the streets in Berlin, one must fear that what was being expressed were issues concerning hundreds of thousands, at least.

Opinion polls prove the opposite. A recent survey conducted by the opinion research institute Civey for the Tagesspiegel newspaper concluded that 77 percent of those questioned would accept a tightening of contact restrictions if the number of infections rose again significantly. Only around 20 percent were opposed. According to the current Politbarometer, 77 percent also expect a second wave of coronavirus infections to occur soon.

The pressure to lift contact restrictions and open schools does not come from the population, but rather from business and finance interests together with their cronies in the media and political circles. Having transferred hundreds of billions of euros to the corporations and banks to guarantee the profits and fortunes of the rich, the government is seeking once again to squeeze these sums out of the working class. The opening up of schools is a basic condition for parents to be fully available to the labour market and able to work. The drive for profits is being placed above the lives of millions of children and their families.

The neo-Nazis and right-wing extremists who set the tone at the Berlin demonstration have been deliberately encourage to create the necessary political climate for this policy. They are closely linked to the state apparatus, as was revealed most recently by the NSU murders, the murder of the politician Walter Lubcke and the uncovering of various far-right terror networks in the German army (Bundeswehr) and police.

Protecting the health and livelihoods of the population against the effects of the Corona pandemic is first and foremost a political task. It is only possible on the basis of a socialist programme that puts human and social need above the profit interests of big business.

One can only resolve the urgent problem of education and training within such a framework. It is perfectly possible to provide education in compliance with appropriate safety measures, but this requires that the huge funds currently being diverted into the accounts of the wealthy must be redirected to renovate dilapidated schools, rent additional rooms, purchase computers and IT technology, employ more teachers to instruct small groups, etc.

There is no shortage of ideas and initiatives from committed teachers and parents, but they are being rejected on the grounds of cost or blocked by bureaucratic means.

The Socialist Equality Party (SGP) advocates the establishment of action committees in educational institutions and residential areas that function independently of the trade unions and establishment parties. Such committees are necessary to coordinate resistance to the life-threatening policy of opening up the economy.

Resistance to a system that subordinates every sphere of life to the profit interests of big business and finance is developing in factories, hospitals, transport and public services around the world. The SGP and its sister parties in the International Committee of the Fourth International are fighting to build a broad socialist mass movement.
Announces First Shipments to Saskatchewan

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO NEWSWIRE SERVICES IN THE UNITED STATES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES. ANY FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH THIS RESTRICTION MAY CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF UNITED STATES SECURITIES LAWS.

TORONTO, Aug. 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MPX International Corporation (MPX International, MPXI or the Corporation) (CSE:MPXI; OTCQX:MPXOF), a multinational diversified cannabis company, is pleased to announce the launch of its Canadian recreational brand, Strain Rec  by its wholly-owned subsidiary Canveda Inc. (Canveda) with initial shipments made to the Province of Saskatchewan. For additional information on Strain Rec  visit the website www.strainrec.ca.

Canveda has introduced its unique Canadian recreational brand Strain Rec . Brand recognition is pivotal to success in the marketplace and we are pleased to have been able to develop a brand concept which will be representative of the recreational market, said Michael Arnkvarn, Chief Operating Officer, Canada of MPXI. We received positive initial feedback on our first shipment and have since followed up with a second shipment which was sent to the distributor in July.

The initial Strain Rec  offering by Canveda consists purely of flower and was introduced to eight (8) Saskatchewan retailers during the last week of June by its Saskatchewan-approved distributor.

This is our initial salvo into the Canadian recreational marketplace and we believe that we are in a strong position to succeed. The adult use market demands differentiated products that contain high THC levels and our Canveda facility is able to offer unique strains that meet that demand, noted W. Scott Boyes, Chairman, President and CEO of MPX International. Saskatchewan is a relatively small market with only a little over 50 stores, making this province a great place for MPXI to test the waters. As we expand our offerings to include extracts, topicals and edibles, the revenues generated by the recreational market will become an integral component of MPXIs Canadian growth strategy.

MPXI is also developing distribution channels for the Strain Rec brand with additional provincial cannabis marketing boards and will inform its shareholders of these developments in due course.

About MPX International Corporation

MPX International Corporation is a multinational diversified cannabis company focused on developing and operating assets across the global cannabis industry with an emphasis on cultivating, manufacturing and marketing products which include cannabinoids as their primary active ingredient.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release includes certain forward-looking statements under applicable Canadian securities legislation that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results, performance, prospects, and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, MPX Internationals objectives and intentions. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based on a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause 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 and social uncertainties; litigation, legislative, environmental and other judicial, regulatory, political and competitive developments; delay or failure to receive board, shareholder or regulatory approvals; those additional risks set out in MPX Internationals public documents filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com , including its audited annual consolidated financial statements for the financial years ended September 30, 2019 and 2018 and the corresponding annual managements discussion and analysis; and other matters discussed in this news release. Although MPX International believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on these statements, which only apply 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. Except where required by law, MPX International disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

For further information, please contact:

MPX International Corporation

W. Scott Boyes, Chairman, President and CEO

T: +1-416-840-4703

info@mpxinternationalcorp.com

http://mpxi.tv

For additional information on MPXI visit our website www.mpxinternationalcorp.com or http://mpxi.tv .

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/45008bc6-0183-4ccb-b79b-f19754d25823
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-07 05:44:54|Editor: huaxia

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BEIRUT, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- A total of 16 employees at Port of Beirut have been detained over deadly explosions that rocked the port on Tuesday, Government Commissioner to the Military Tribunal Judge Fadi Akiki announced on Thursday evening.

Akiki said that more than 18 people have been questioned so far, including port and customs officials as well as people in charge of maintenance at the hangar where explosive materials have been stored for years, the National News Agency reported.

Meanwhile, Beirut's First Investigative Judge Ghassan Oueidat issued a decision prohibiting the travel of seven port officials.

Two huge explosions rocked Port of Beirut on Tuesday evening, killing at least 137 people and injuring nearly 5,000 others, while causing massive damages in the city. Enditem
SPRINGFIELD  After a Logan County judge ruled Monday that the Illinois Department of Corrections must accept transfers from county jails, the state filed court documents aiming to reverse the temporary order.

While the Logan County court is scheduled to consider a motion temporarily staying the order Friday, the state also filed an appeal to 4th District Court of Appeals asking for a stay from the higher court. The request had not been granted as of Thursday afternoon.

At the center of the lawsuit filed by Illinois sheriffs is whether the governor and the state have statutory authority to delay transfers into IDOC facilities. In March, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed an executive order citing the COVID-19 pandemic as reason to delay transfers into state facilities.

On July 27  one day before a scheduled Logan County court appearance  Pritzker filed another executive order resuming admissions to IDOC facilities at the discretion of the IDOC director as long as certain safety measures relating to the pandemic are followed.

Those include quarantine, social distancing, masking and testing requirements.

On Monday, Aug. 3, however, Logan County Judge Jonathan Wright issued a temporary injunction requiring the state to accept transfers at the IDOC facilities. In the decision, he wrote, IDOC does not have authority under the Illinois Uniform Code of Corrections to deny acceptance of a person committed to IDOC by the courts of this State.

This Court hereby enters a preliminary injunction in favor of Plaintiffs ordering that the Illinois Department of Corrections, by and through its agents, accept transfer from any Sheriff of all offenders for whom the IDOC is statutorily required to accept, he wrote.

Jim Kaitschuk, a spokesperson for the Illinois Sheriffs Association, said sheriffs have been able to deliver some inmates to state facilities in the two days following the order, although the state said at least two intake facilities reached capacity.

Thats because inmates transferred in are held in isolation for 14 days in single cells as a quarantine measure aimed at mitigating spread of the novel coronavirus and there is limited capacity for such holdings.

While the ISA spokesperson said the state has been difficult to work with, a spokesperson for Pritzker said sheriffs have disregarded COVID-19 precautions put in place to ensure safe transfers.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Pritzker administration has prioritized protecting the health of inmates, the staff who work with them, and the surrounding community, Jordan Abudayyeh, Pritzkers press secretary, said in an email. IDOC worked closely with (the Illinois Department of Public Health) and other health experts to develop protocols that would allow local sheriffs to safely transfer inmates from their jails to IDOC facilities.

Those guidelines have been disregarded and despite IDOCs willingness to provide county sheriffs with monetary and operational support during the pandemic, that aid has been rebuffed. By refusing assistance and ignoring COVID-19 health guidelines, sheriffs are jeopardizing the surrounding communities as well as lives of the men and women trusted to their care.

Wright, however, wrote that county sheriffs have a greater hardship in housing inmates than the state during the COVID-19 pandemic, as IDOC has options such as releasing an inmate on parole, offering diversion programs or providing a system of supervision and guidance for committed persons in the community.

Sheriffs in the state, the judge wrote, have no option but to house a person committed to IDOC until the transport of said person to IDOC can be achieved.

In a statement, IDOC spokesperson Lindsey Hess said the department has been closely monitoring other state prison systems where there have been major COVID-19 outbreaks due to offender transfers.

The Department learned from their experiences and developed strict guidelines to prepare for the resumption of intra-agency transports and new admissions. Mondays ruling will make it significantly more difficult for IDOC to follow these guidelines going forward, Hess said in an emailed statement. As of Tuesday, despite this ruling, IDOC is making every effort to follow the guidelines as closely as possible to ensure the health and safety of staff, the incarcerated population and the surrounding community.

She said IDOC, with the assistance of the IDPH, is testing all new admissions and appropriately quarantining them upon arrival.

Kaitschuk, however, argued last week that some of the safety requirements are difficult for county jails to meet, because COVID-19 test results must have been received within three days before the transfer, and tests results often take longer than that. If an inmate has to leave a facility for a test, that restarts the requirement of 14 days of quarantine as well.

Based on the sheriffs that I have talked to across the state, the average time is between five and seven days (for a test result) unless it's an instant test that they have access to. And no one does he said in an interview last week. They've set this up in such a way that it's a virtual impossibility to meet.

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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author: Anthony Russo

The Chinese biotech firm Jacobio Pharmaceuticals Co. is planning an IPO in Hong Kong that could bring in up to $400 million as soon as this year.

Goldman Sachs and China International Capital Corp. are working with Jacobio on the listing, as Bloomberg reported late Wednesday, citing a person familiar with the matter. The company is also readying a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange, the report said.

This year, Hong Kong's financial hub has been a hot destination for health-care and biotech players. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, firms operating in those sectors that have gone public this year have raised roughly $4.5 billion, which nearly as much as 2019's total.

One of the latest to make its debut was the Chinese surgical instrument maker Kangji Medical Holdings Ltd., (HKEX: 09997) which raised $381 million in Hong Kong late June. So far it's been a successful run for Kangji, whose stock has surged 121% past its IPO pricing HK$13.88 per share. One firm seeking a listing in Hong Kong is the clinical trial and research firm Hangzhou Tigermed Consulting Co. Ltd., (SZ: 300347), aiming to raise at least $1 billion.

In August 2018 Jacobio raised $55 million in a Series C funding that was led by Qiming Venture Partners and Hillhouse Capital. In February, it completed a Series C+ Financing, led by Lilly Asia Ventures.

Based in Beijing, the company focuses on cancer treatments. Currently, its leading drug candidate, JAB-3068, a SHP2 inhibitor, is undergoing Phase IIa clinical trials for patients with "solid tumors," according to Jacobio. The drug has been green-lighted orphan drug designation from the food drug administration for the treatment of those with esophageal cancer. The company has conducted clinical trials in 25 research institutions in the United States and China.




A reduction in cancer services due to Covid-19 restrictions is "unacceptable", the Irish Cancer Society has said.

It follows a report from the Irish Independent today which revealed details contained in a briefing document for Health Minister Stephen Donnelly outlining the "challenges of a 'New Normal'" for cancer care.

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The "throughput" of cancer services is said to be at a lower rate overall than would have been the norm pre-Covid, with medical oncology at about 70pc of previous figures, radiation oncology at 80pc, and surgery in the region of 50pc.

Irish Cancer Society Director of Advocacy Rachel Morrogh is now urging the Minister to "commit the necessary funding to cancer services."

It is clear that the double whammy of chronic underfunding and Covid restrictions could lead to delayed diagnosis and treatment for cancer patients. Anything less than the full resourcing and investment needed to avoid this situation is unacceptable. Cancer patients need to be diagnosed and treated at the earliest opportunity so they stand the best chance of survival and having a good quality of life," Ms Morrogh said.

The warnings from Department of Health officials to the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly TD, echo calls made by the Irish Cancer Society over recent years that cancer services are extremely vulnerable and have been unable to meet demand for referrals, leading to long waiting lists well before Covid.

However, with significant and immediate investment in physical space and resourcing it may be possible to prevent this prediction from becoming a reality.

He continued: "The Programme for Government says that the National Cancer Strategy will be fully implemented. If significant investment is not made this year, the National Cancer Strategy will not be implemented and cancer patients will continue to experience worse outcomes than other European countries.

"We are currently in the lower half of the OECD league table of cancer deaths in the EU. We need to move from laggard to leader in the area of cancer care. Only investment in the National Cancer Strategy will achieve that.

The document also highlighted fears patient waiting lists will spiral by as much as 130pc.

The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has expressed its "grave concerns" over the impact an increase on hospital capacity this winter will have on the nations health if funding is not prioritised.

IHCA President, Donal OHanlon said the IHCA said: If government does not urgently prioritise the funding, development and implementation of practical plans towards addressing consultant recruitment and hospital capacity, what we all know may happen this winter, will happen.

"We simply cannot entertain the possibility of a more than 100 pc increase on acute hospital waiting lists in 2020, with over 800,000 people already waiting months, in some cases years, to see a consultant or receive treatment.

"We have grave concerns about the reduced health outcomes for these people, and the wider long-term side effect on our nations health."

He added that more consultants, beds and measures to free-up capacity are desperately needed to tackle the increasing waiting lists.

"There is no time to lose. We need early, fully-funded decisions with cross government backing. If we adopt the same approach as before with no clarity on funding until December, then it is simply too late," he said.
KIGALI  Rwanda on Wednesday unveiled an electronic auctioning system aimed at facilitating transparency in the auctioning process of loan defaulters property.

The platform was launched by the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) in partnership with the Ministry of Justice. The new platform will help eradicate malpractices such as corruption and undervaluation of property in the auctioning process by eliminating physical contact with brokers, Rwandan Minister of Justice Johnston Busingye said while speaking at the launch event in the Rwandan capital city Kigali. The system will reduce the time and steps taken to finalize an auction. It will further increase transparency and eliminate malpractices caused by human interaction, said Clare Akamanzi, the chief executive of the Rwanda Development Board.

Akamanzi also said the platform is part of Rwandas reforms aimed at improving the business environment for the private sector to thrive. Private sector contribution to the economic development of Rwanda is primary. We cannot talk about development without developing the private sector; activities such as this help the private sector to thrive in our economy. The net outcome of the electronic system is to improve the quality of auctions and recovery rate. We hope that this system will help banks and the private sector in general to thrive, she said.

Under the portal interested bidders within the country or abroad will be able to participate in the bid process after paying refundable bid security of 5 percent of the quoted price of the property. The prospective bidder would be able to bid and to see the bidding results at the opening time online. Prospective bidders will also be able to visually assess the details of the property including checking images of the assets to be auctioned. The system also provides a possibility for the property owner to object to the price if it is less than 75 percent at the first and second rounds of auction.

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A leading sex workers rights group was told it could not access government funding unless it accepted that "prostitution is inherently exploitative of vulnerable people".

Sex Workers Alliance Ireland enquired about emergency funding from the Department of Justice after it gave similar funding to the leading "End Demand" advocate organisation in Ireland.

In reply to its inquiry, a Department spokesperson said: "I want to make it clear that funding is not available for NGOs whose objectives and philosophy is opposed to these values and principles.

"If your organisation considers that you do share our understanding of prostitution as inherently exploitative of vulnerable people, then it is of course open to you to submit a formal application for funding.

The group says "this culturally entrenched position" from the government has "no place in decision-making within the DoJ in regards to policy-making".

The decision from the department also flies in the face of The World Health Organisation (WHO), which has advised the inclusion of sex workers in the development and implementation of health measures during Covid-19.

Ireland adopted the Nordic Model on March 27 2017, criminalising the purchase of sex, not the selling of sex, which the Government says is aimed at tackling trafficking and protecting vulnerable people in prostitution.

Sex worker organisations have railed against the change since it was implemented, saying the laws make workers more vulnerable.

SWAI says more than 160 new sex workers have come to its group for support this year alone.

The group says street work increased during this time, but for some, demand did decrease significantly.

Half of the workers SWAI spoke to were still taking clients, with 80% still getting requests from clients, who were sometimes offering twice the amount in rates to try and cajole workers out, other times threatening that if they didn't give a booking the client wouldn't see them after lockdown.

"We were the one place sex workers got financial assistance during the pandemic, as sex workers were explicitly excluded from DoJ funding and from PUP payments," said Coordinator Kate McGrew.

"This is what it looks like when the economic activity you rely on for survival is refused to being recognized as work. The pandemic gave us a dry run for what as close to "end demand" as possible would look like.

"Though even a global pandemic could not eradicate the sex industry when some workers faced a decrease in clients, there was no support whatsoever from the state.

"We were forced to crowdfund during this emergency, to help workers with small payments to help flatten the curve and to cushion the financial blow of lockdown, so that sex workers didn't have to risk their health by going back to work."

The concerns from SWAI comes as the terms of reference for the review of Part 4 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 was published by the Department of Justice last month.

SWAI say they have had little response from the department on their submissions, and despite not being contacted, have been told the review is "well underway".

A spokesman for the Department of Justice said: "Funding is made available for projects that are aligned with wider Government policies.

"The Departments understanding of organised prostitution in Ireland is also informed by strong evidence from An Garda Siochana that this activity is inextricably linked with organised crime involved in human trafficking."
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has adopted a resolution with amendments to the current model of imposing public service obligations regime (PSO) on electricity market players, which, in particular, provide for the sale of electricity to the State Enterprise Guaranteed Buyer by National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom in the amounts necessary for households at a price of 10 UAH per MWh, and an increase in the volume of sales of electricity generated by NPPs in the market of bilateral contracts.

The decision was made at a government meeting on Wednesday with a three-day revision.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that this is a very important step towards stabilizing the electricity market, since about 50% of the electricity produced by Energoatom will be directed to the needs of households, and Energoatom will be able to sell about 40% of its electricity on the market of bilateral contracts.

"This means that the Ukrainian business will receive electricity at a better price than it is now," the prime minister said.

He added that the draft resolution has been agreed with the EU Energy Community Secretariat.
Nigeria needs new ideas and innovative approaches to address operational inefficiencies in its extractive industry and unleash its potential, the Director-General of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), Abubakar Sulaiman, has said.

Mr Sulaiman, who was a former Minister of National Planning, said the countrys approach to managing its petroleum and mineral resources has not substantially improved over the years, because of the operational inefficiencies, opaqueness, and corruption in the system.

He made the observations on Wednesday at the virtual validation session of a toolkit developed for the National Assembly. The event was organised by NILDS in partnership with the Nigeria Natural Resource Charter (NNRC).

Mr Sulaiman said as non-renewable resources decline in many parts of the world and global demand grows, African countries, including Nigeria, can potentially earn increasingly high profits from the sector.

Oil and gas, and increasingly, solid minerals which make up the extractive industries in Nigeria, occupy preeminent positions in the Nigerian economy  primary economy depends mostly on natural resources for nearly all of its government revenue, he said.

He said that if properly managed, revenues from the export of oil and mineral resources could help alleviate poverty and spur economic growth and social development in Nigeria.

The Toolkit

According to its promoters, the NILDS Toolkit for The Nigerian Parliament to Support Engagement with The Extractive Industry provides templates for conducting an independent analysis of laws, sectors, and issues within the natural resource space.

The toolkit is a standalone tool developed to assist parliamentary committees with oversight, representation, and law-making responsibilities for the governance of the extractive industries.

It will guide lawmakers to understand the nature of the extractive industries, the key actors in the sector, including the international oil companies (IOC) and state-owned companies, and the value chains in the extractive industries.

NILDS said while the toolkit was designed to enable legislators, including new ones, to understand how to engage the industries.

In his keynote message, the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, represented by the Chairman House Committee on Petroleum Resources(Upstream), Bassey Akpan, said lawmakers, policy-makers, and even activists are hamstrung in their efforts to evaluate, analyse and oversee issues related to the extractive industries because of the complicated nature and opacity of the industries.

As a result, the lack of technical knowledge limits their ability to engage on these complex issues and creates a psychological barrier that often discourages effective oversight. This Toolkit can significantly bridge this knowledge gap as it provides legislators with a basic primer on the extractive industries in Nigeria and details avenues for legislative intervention, he said.

Nigerian Natural Resource Charter

The toolkit principally draws from the Natural Resource Charter (NRC) that reflects global best practices of parliamentary oversight of the extractive industries, including what parliaments can do together with the executive, civil society, communities and the extractive companies (private and public) for the promotion of the public good, Mr Lawan said.
Napa County reported 18 additional COVID-19 cases on Thursday, while acknowledging that there is a backlog at laboratories that prevents quick test results.

There have been 1,025 confirmed cases among county residents since March, including nine deaths.

The Register has received numerous calls from people saying theyve been waiting two weeks or more for results that would tell them if they should be self-quarantining. One frustrated caller said Thursday that shes been waiting for 19 days.

Molly Rattigan, a deputy county executive officer, said Thursday that the clogged system may be distorting the number of confirmed cases that the county reports every weekday.

Napa County has posted a message on its website, saying that the countys leadership understands and shares the publics frustration over the delay in test results, while noting that the county does not have control over the labs that process tests taken by Verily at Napa Valley Expo.

Napa County continues to engage with the State of California on seeking solutions to the backlog of test results. However, given the nationwide demand for tests, this is a challenge that requires solutions beyond the State of California.

People who suspect they may be infected are urged to stay home, leaving only for essential purposes while keeping a 6-foot distance between themselves and others, county health officials said.

They should wear face coverings outside their homes, wash hands and disinfect frequently touched surfaces and avoid touching their faces.

If they have symptoms, they should not go to work. Households should delay visits or outings.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 40% of coronavirus transmission is occurring before people feel sick, the county noted.

Napa County experienced a surge of COVID-19 cases in July, with the number of cases doubling between July 7 and Aug. 1.

The surge contributed to Napa County being placed on the states County Monitoring List and forced a variety of businesses, including indoor dining, barber shop and hair salons, to reclose last month.

Nearly 90% of Napans testing positive for the coronavirus are younger than 65, according to data from the county Health and Human Services agency. People between the ages of 30 and 49 comprise 34% of the cases, followed by those age 50 to 64 (22%), 18 to 29 (21%), children 17 and younger (13%) and those over 64 (11%).

Men comprise 54% of cases. Among racial and ethnic groups, Hispanics are 54% of cases, non-Hispanic whites are 19%, while 17% are unknown and 11% are other.

Napa County coronavirus demographics can be found online at countyofnapa.org/coronavirus.

To see how the county is measuring up under other criteria, including hospital capacity, go to: https://bit.ly/3ixWgDo.

Napa County is encouraging people with exposure risk to be tested for the coronavirus. To complete a screening and schedule a test, visit projectbaseline.com/study/covid-19.

Editors note: Because of the health implications of the COVID-19 virus, this article is being made available free to subscribers and non-subscribers alike. If youd like to join us in supporting the mission of local journalism, please visit napavalleyregister.com/members/join

You can reach City Editor Kevin Courtney at kcourtney@napanews.com or at 707-256-2217.

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.
India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T S Tirumurti said that many other members of the Security Council underlined that Jammu and Kashmir was a bilateral matter between India and Pakistan and also stressed on the importance of the Simla Agreement.

New Delhi : Pakistan's attempt to internationalise the Kashmir issue through the United Nations has again "come to naught", after a UN Security Council meeting, convened by China to discuss the matter, ended without any outcome, a top Indian diplomat said on Thursday.

"The attempt of Pakistan to internationalise this issue through the United Nations has again come to naught," Tirumurti said.

"Another attempt by Pakistan fails! In today's meeting of UN Security Council which was closed, informal, not recorded, and without any outcome, almost all countries underlined that J&K was bilateral issue & did not deserve time and attention of Council," Tirumurti tweeted.

China, Pakistan's 'all-weather ally', called for a discussion on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir in the Security Council under 'Any Other Business' on Wednesday, when India marked the first anniversary of ending special status to Jammu and Kashmir and its bifurcation into two union territories--Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

Sources told media that the US took the lead, and many other council members also joined and made it clear that the Kashmir issue was not a matter for the UN body to discuss and is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan.

Pakistan has been unsuccessfully trying to drum up international support against India for withdrawing Jammu and Kashmir's special status and bifurcating it into two Union territories.

India has categorically told the international community that the scrapping of Article 370 was its internal matter. It also advised Pakistan to accept reality and stop all anti-India propaganda.

In January this year, China, on behalf of Pakistan, had made a similar attempt to raise the Kashmir issue under "other matters" during closed consultations in the Security Council Consultations Room. Then too, China stood alone in the Pakistani corner to get the Security Council to focus on the Kashmir issue.

The January attempt had failed as other member countries felt that Kashmir was a bilateral matter between India and Pakistan.

Earlier on Wednesday, Tirumurti said that contrary to what Pakistan may claim, Islamabad has not been successful in trying to put Jammu and Kashmir on the UN agenda.

"Frankly, the attempt by Pakistan to try and internationalise, what is a bilateral issue, is nothing new. A lie repeated a hundred times will not become truth," he said.

He said that contrary to what Foreign Minister of Pakistan Shah Mahmood Qureshi has asserted, there has been "no formal meeting of the Security Council on the India-Pakistan issue even once for the past 55 years, let alone three times!"

Tirumurti said what had come up earlier was in a closed-door completely informal meeting under what is called Any Other Business'.

"This is a category where literally any item could be brought for discussion by anyone. Even China, being a permanent member, had to face discussion on Hong Kong in the Security Council under AOB earlier this May. These meetings have no records, and there is no outcome, he said.

India had on Wednesday slammed China for describing the reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019 as "illegal and invalid", and advised Beijing not to comment on the internal affairs of other nations.

In a sharp reaction to China's comments on the first anniversary of India's decision on Jammu and Kashmir, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said China has no locus standi on the matter.

"We have noted the comments of the Chinese MFA spokesperson on the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The Chinese side has no locus standi whatsoever on this matter and is advised not to comment on the internal affairs of other nations," Srivastava said, replying to a question on China's comments that any unilateral change to the status quo of Jammu and Kashmir was illegal and invalid.

In New York on Wednesday, the spokesperson of China's Permanent Mission to the United Nations said on the Security Council's discussion on Kashmir that Chinese Ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun pointed out that "India and Pakistan are both China's friendly neighbours and big developing countries at a critical stage of development".

"China is committed to growing friendly relations with both countries and calls on the two countries to focus on national development, set store by peace and stability in South Asia, properly handle historical grievances, abandon the zero-sum thinking, avoid unilateral actions, resolve disputes peacefully through dialogue and consultation, and jointly uphold peace and stability of the region," the official said.
Real Housewives of Sydney star Nicole O'Neil has shared some heartbreaking images of the devastation caused by Tuesday's deadly blast in Beirut.

The reality star, who is of Lebanese heritage, posted photographs of homes belonging to her family and friends, which were left completely destroyed by the explosion.

Nicole also revealed that her uncle, 72, was injured after being 'blown six metres into the air' and left 'covered in glass.'

Devastating: On Wednesday, Real Housewives of Sydney star Nicole O'Neil (pictured) shared some heartbreaking images of her family's home in Beirut after it was destroyed in the blast - and revealed her uncle was 'blown six metres into the air'

'These are photos sent by family and friends in Beirut today,' Nicole captioned her post.

'The devastation is heartbreaking.'

In the images, shards of broken glass can be seen scattered everywhere while some balconies were left completely destroyed.

The reality star, who is of Lebanese heritage, posted photographs of some of the homes belonging to her family and friends, which were left completely destroyed by the explosion

In the images, shards of broken glass can be seen scattered everywhere while some balconies were left completely destroyed

She also shared a video of the blast site, saying that her 'thoughts and prayers are with the people of Lebanon.'

'My heart breaks for my homeland,' Nicole wrote.

'My poor 72 year old uncle was blown six metres in the air and covered in glass. He is okay, but the hospitals are overflowing with casualties and the situation is devastating,' she added.

'These are photos sent by family and friends in Beirut today,' Nicole captioned her post

'There are bodies scattered all over the city and they are helpless. One explosion did more destruction in the country than 30 years of civil war. Pray for Lebanon.'

At least 135 people have now been confirmed to have died in the blast, with more than 5,000 others injured.

The explosion was triggered when a warehouse filled with dangerous chemicals caught fire in the city's port area and erupted with the force of a small nuclear bomb.

Nicole explained how her uncle was injured in the blast. 'My poor 72 year old uncle was blown six metres in the air and covered in glass. He is okay, but the hospitals are overflowing with casualties and the situation is devastating,' she said

Lebanon Health Minister Hamad Hassan says he expects the number of fatalities to continue to rise, with many still missing as emergency services continue to pull bodies out from beneath the rubble.

The enormous explosion, which leveled a large portion of the city, has also left up to 300,000 people homeless, local officials said. Lebanon was already grappling with a severe coronavirus outbreak, poor governance and an economic crisis before the devastating blast rang out.

Beirut's hospitals reached capacity a short time after the explosion, forcing hundreds of the wounded to travel as far at 50 miles north, to Tripoli, to receive treatment. At least three hospitals were damaged in the blast.

The exact cause of the explosion is still under investigation, however its thought to have been triggered after a welder caused a fire that spread to an adjacent warehouse where 2,750 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate was being stored without adequate safety precautions.
In this new series, were spotlighting our towns great neighbourhoods, while checking in on some of our local restaurants as they deal with COVID-19. This week we head to the heart of the West End, looking at the resto-dense strips of Sargent and Ellice, as well as a new outpost on Wall.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 5/8/2020 (531 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In this new series, were spotlighting our towns great neighbourhoods, while checking in on some of our local restaurants as they deal with COVID-19. This week we head to the heart of the West End, looking at the resto-dense strips of Sargent and Ellice, as well as a new outpost on Wall.

This area is packed with international flavours. You can eat your way around the world on these demographically diverse streets, home to Salvadoran, Ethiopian, Greek, Vietnamese, Punjabi and Portuguese grocery stores, bakeries, take-out joints and small mom-and-pop cafes.

Cheap and cheerful: Sargent Taco Shop (698 Sargent Ave., 204-505-1121, sargent-tacoshop.com) specializes in small but mighty tacos, fresh and packed with vivid flavours, and sold at bargain prices. Tasty options like chorizo, al pastor and chicken mole are available at three for $7.50, and even premium flavours like beef tongue and huitlacoche (often called Mexican truffle) are only three for $9.

Chicken mole tacos at Sargent Taco Shop are a sure bet. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press files)

The shop has expanded its menu since opening, now offering more street food-style options, from Mexican poutine to churros with dip. Theres no dine-in  this tiny spot offered only a couple of chairs pre-pandemic, and now theres just no room  but the takeout operation is going strong and delivery is available through DoorDash.

First Nation feast: Located on a busy corner across from the West End Cultural Centre, Feast (587 Ellice Ave., 204-691-5979, feastcafebistro.com) serves up a modern take on traditional First Nation foods. This Indigenous-owned business also acts as a warm and welcoming community hub, something thats needed now more than ever.

The traditional bison dip (left) and pickerel dinner with wild rice are both popular choices at Feast. (Mike Sudoma / Winnipeg Free Press files)

You can still dine in, with social distancing, but Feast is currently offering a "grab-and-go market" so you can take some of their most popular menu items home. (Curbside pick-up is available.)

Pizzas on a crispy-thin bannock crust are available, either hot to-go or frozen to bake up at home. The butternut squash option  with a maple-chipotle sour cream drizzle and some chopped green onions for adding after cooking  was terrific, as was Feasts meaty, satisfying ever-reliable bison chili.

We also got a whole bannock, rich and still warm, with a slightly salted crust on the top. I left it sitting on our kitchen counter and family members kept cutting off little slices all day. It was that good.

Night out: Barn Hammer Brewing Co. (595 Wall St., barnhammerbrewing.ca) has all the necessaries for an artisanal taproom, with good beer, good beer names and good design. Go for popular signature brews like the crowd-pleasing amber lager Lousy Beatnik, the velvety-dark oatmeal stout Grandpas Sweater or the crisp Le Sneak Belgique witbier. Or check out the brewmasters latest experimental beer, Uncertain Times, which seems made for the pandemic era.

Barn Hammer's Uncertain Times seems made for the pandemic era. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Theres no kitchen at Barn Hammer, but patrons are encouraged to order in, with plenty of options available in this up-and-coming Wall Street neighbourhood.

Try our Dish The latest on food and drink in Winnipeg and beyond from arts writers Ben Sigurdson and Eva Wasney. Dish arrives in your inbox every other Friday. See sample. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

Barn Hammer is also offering contactless home delivery.

Stocking up: For 30 years, Tindahan Food Mart (906 Sargent Ave., 204-783-3946, tindahanfoodmart.com) has been a magnet for shoppers looking for Filipino favourites  or just anyone who is interested in food. Along with all sorts of pantry goods, this busy grocery store has a nose-to-tail butcher section, a teeming fish and seafood section and lots of produce, including hard-to-find ingredients like banana flowers.

Tindahan Food Market has a butcher and seafood sections, fresh baking, produce and prepared dishes for takeout. (Sarah Taylor / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Alongside the far wall, you can pick up prepared dishes for takeout. Theres pancit, sisig and a delicious pork adobo, with unrepentantly fatty meat and a rich, dark sauce, a hint of vinegar cutting the richness.

For sweets, theres a freezer case filled with ice cream, with flavours like purple yam and young coconut, as well as fresh baking, including buchi, red bean paste encased in wonderfully chewy-crisp dough finished with sesame seeds, and bitso-bitso, tender and stretchy doughnut twists.

alison.gillmor@freepress.mb.ca
A Florida judge has set the date for the manslaughter trial Mexican Netflix actor Pablo Lyle, who is accused of fatally punching a 63-year-old Miami man during a traffic incident in 2019.

Florida 11th Circuit Judge Marlene Fernandez-Karavetsos said Thursday the 33-year-old actor's trial will begin March, 15, 2021. The announcement was made via a Zoom video conference court hearing.

Lyle is best known for his work in Mexican soap opera 'My Adorable Curse' and the Netflix series 'Yankee'.

The Mazatlan native was hit with manslaughter charges after surveillance video showed him punching Juan Ricardo Hernandez in the middle of a busy Miami street the afternoon of March 31.

The blow sent Hernandez crashing to the pavement. He suffered a fracture to the right side of the skull and internal bleeding from the fall, and was declared dead April 4 after his family gave the order to have his life support turned off.

SEE VIDEO BELOW

Mexican soap opera star Pablo Lyle will go on trial in March 2021 for a manslaughter charge after he was involved in a fight in which he punched 63-year-old Juan Ricardo Hernandez on March 31, 2019 in Miami before he died four days later at a hospital

Juan Ricardo Hernandez (pictured) suffered a fractured skull and internal bleeding following the March 31, 2019 road-rage incident with Mexican actor Pablo Lyle. He was declared dead four days later when his family gave the order to have his life support turned off.

Lyle is under house arrest and has been staying in Miami with his family. He is required to wear an ankle monitor which allows the court to track his whereabouts 24 hours a day.

He appeared before Fernandez-Karavetsos in January when his legal representatives asked her to allow the actor to travel to Mexico so that he could visit his family and possibly return to work.

However, Fernandez-Karavetsos shot down the request and told Lyle and his attorneys that there would be no guarantees that the actor would come back to Miami.

Pablo Lyle (center) charges at Juan Ricardo Hernandez before he punched him during a traffic altercation March 31, 2019 in Miami. Hernandez fractured his skull and suffered internal bleeding before he died four days later at a hospital

According to the extradition treaty in place between Mexico and the United States, the Mexican government can decided against handing Lyle over if he purposely decided not show up for his court hearings in Miami.

The road rage incident was captured on video and shows the moment the unarmed Hernandez confronted Lucas Delfino, Lyle's brother-in-law.

Delfino was behind the wheels of an SUV that allegedly cut off Hernandez on a highway.

Delfino then hopped out and then turned away from Hernandez when he noticed the car started to roll across the intersection.

Lyle then appears to come out of the car and rushes towards Hernandez, knocking him out and sending him crashing to the ground.

Hernandez died less than a week later from his injuries.

The trial was set to start in February but the judge allowed to postpone it because one of the prosecutors would be on maternity leave.

Fernandez replaced Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Alan Fine, who in August shot down Lyle's request to have the case thrown out on under Floridas Stand Your Ground immunity law.

Fine then ruled that the law did not apply to Lyle because he charged at Hernandez as he was walking away and then assaulted him.

Lyle has argued in court that he acted in self defense because Hernandez threatened him and his family. An appeal of Fine's decision was made.

Lyle is due back in court in October for a hearing to analyze the case.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- All 55 state, American territory, and commonwealth governors represented by the National Governors Association voted on Wednesday for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to head their organization going forward.

Cuomo is the first governor from New York to chair the organization founded in 1908 and succeeds Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan who was named chair last year.

In his address to the association during its virtual 2020 Summer Meeting, Cuomo outlined the important role governors will play in Americas coronavirus recovery efforts, and continued his call for aid from the federal government.

All major economists agree that without providing financial assistance for state and local governments, the economy will not rebound as quickly as it would otherwise, Cuomo, who will become the longest-serving governor in the nation next year, said.

The NGA is united in telling our Washington colleagues that they must include $500 Billion in unrestricted state funding in the upcoming COVID response legislation. It is a top NGA priority, he continued.

Cuomo had served as the associations vice-chair over the past year -- position that will now be held by Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, Cuomo has thrust himself into a national leadership position attempting to form regional approaches to deal with the virus, and repeatedly called for more federal aid to states and localities.

On Wednesday, Cuomo also made a call for more federal funding to help states rebuild infrastructure.

This is the moment to invest in infrastructure. We need to reinvigorate the economy and we need to replace aging infrastructure, Cuomo said. We have all talked about it for decades. This is the moment to do it. The Federal Government should provide the funds and the states will build it.
The price the UK government was prepared to pay to save lives during the COVID-19 pandemic was far lower than in many other developed nations, a study has revealed.

In a cross-country comparison across nine nations -- Belgium, the US, Germany, Korea, Italy, Denmark, China, New Zealand and the UK -- researchers used epidemiological modelling to calculate how many lives were lost through delaying lockdown, estimating that a UK lockdown date just three days earlier would have saved 20,000 lives.

They then linked those policy decisions to the financial cost lockdown had on GDP, resulting in a 'price of life' estimate -- the amount of money governments were willing to pay to protect their citizens' lives, reflected in the economic activity sacrificed.

The price of life in the UK was among the lowest at around $100,000, and lower still once under-reporting of COVID-19 deaths is accounted for. In contrast countries that were quicker to go into lockdown, such as Germany, New Zealand and South Korea, put a price on life in excess of $1million.

"Price of life estimates are of critical importance given that government intervention has the ability to save life, yet trades off against other goods," said lead author Ben Balmford, from the University of Exeter Business School.

"Comparing across countries those who pursued an early lockdown strategy reveal themselves to be willing to pay a high price to save their citizen's lives, only rejecting prices above $1m.

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"However, some countries, those which imposed lockdown relatively late-on in their respective pandemics, were clearly only willing to pay far less."

The study addressed why countries have suffered such huge variations in death tolls and established how the timing of lockdowns impacted on mortality rates, complementing the official Covid-19 statistics with excess mortality data and taking into account socio-economic and demographic factors such as age, population density and income inequality.

Modelling mortality across the countries before simulating changes in the date of lockdown, the researchers calculated that 20,000 lives in the UK would have been saved by imposing lockdown three days earlier.

Even further delays would have cost yet more lives: 32,000 extra people would have died had lockdown come in three days later than it did; while a delay of 12 days would have cost more than 200,000 extra lives.

Similarly high figures were observed in other countries that acted relatively late -- such as Italy -- highlighting how earlier governmental action would have saved many more lives.

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Price of life was then calculated using estimates of the financial cost of lockdown on GDP, comparing IMF forecasts pre-lockdown to the most recent figures and teasing apart the amount of GDP loss that comes from the effects of lockdown policy, as opposed to other factors.

Imposing lockdown earlier on in a country's outbreak means saving more lives, but at a higher cost to the economy. This means countries that delayed their lockdowns such as the UK, US and Italy are revealed to price the lives of their citizens relatively low (at around $100,000) whereas the price of life in Germany, a country very similar to the UK in terms of GDP per capita, was $1.03m -- around an order of magnitude higher.

For those countries whose governments acted quickest -- South Korea and New Zealand -- and whose response to date has been deemed most successful, the price of life was $6.7m and $11.6m respectively.

"Seemingly, much like a bird in the hand, cash flowing through the market is worth much more than value passing through wellbeing, at least to some countries," said Balmford.

"By choosing not to impose lockdowns three days earlier, governments rejected saving more lives when the price was relatively high.

"The same logic reveals them to have accepted the implied price of life from a delay -- they would rather bear the cost in terms of GDP than as further human lives lost."

The study is published in the journal Environmental and Resource Economics.
The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is "co-opting" foreign nationals via friendship associations to expand its overseas influence in Europe, amid growing concerns over Beijing's intensive lobbying and propaganda campaigns far beyond its borders, according to a recent report.



An Aug. 4 report published by the Washington-based think-tank, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), said Beijing uses foreign nationals in a number of ways to promote its views in the corridors of power overseas.



"This study finds that the coopted foreigners, who enjoy influence, convening power, and connections, serve the CCPs aims in several ways, subtle and otherwise," the report said.



Such people "parrot the partys talking points, deflect narratives harmful to Beijings image, host public events that showcase the partys virtues, promote trade and investment, encourage technology transfers, and voice support for changes in European policies favorable to China," it said, citing case studies of the EU-China Friendship Group, the ItalyChina Friendship Association, and the Czech-China Chamber of Collaboration.



While the organizations concerned have no obvious formal connection to the Chinese government, they are a part of the "united front" system through which the CCP maintains its grip on power at home and seeks to further its agenda abroad, the report said.



"United front work seeks to ... coopt and neutralize its targets to obtain support or to reduce resistance to the CCPs domestic and foreign goals," it said.



According to the report, friendship groups are associations comprising political, business, and other elites within a defined foreign territory that seek to promote closer bilateral relations with China.



"This report contends that friendship associations are front organizations [that] rely on co-opted elites drawn from Europes political class and business community to lead and to fill their ranks," it said, adding that the groups claim to be "homegrown organizations."



'China Bridge'

The report, which called for greater cooperation across Europe to measure and research such groups, came after concerns were raised over "China Bridge," an association set up earlier this year to promote "understanding" between China, Germany and the EU.



"We are very concerned that the network is not acting transparently," Ulrich Delius, director of the Society for Threatened Peoples, wrote in a letter to Barbel Kofler, the German Federal Government's Human Rights Commissioner, according to the Handelsblatt newspaper.



Delius asks Kofler to encourage "well-known members of the network to be more transparent," adding that a refusal to do so would draw criticism that they were connected to Beijing's ruling party and security services, the paper said in a report.



One of China Bridge's board members is vice-president of the German Bundestag.



Friedrich has denied any secret agenda, telling the Handelsblatt: "There are no secret actions, we have nothing to hide. Nevertheless, we are constantly suspected of doing something disreputable."



He said the organization was intended as a way to "open up communication channels to the Chinese leadership ... given that China is an essential factor shaping the global situation."



German legal scholar Qian Yuejun told RFA that there is evidence linking the group to the CCP, however.



Friedrich was recently lauded as a "friend welcomed by the Chinese government" in an interview published by the CCP's official newspaper, the People's Daily.



Vested interested

He and other China Bridge members were also praised for their public cheerleading of China's efforts in fighting the coronavirus.



"The CCP will pay any price to exert its influence on European and American society and politics," Qian told RFA. "There are still politicians who are inextricably linked with the CCP regime, and once there are vested interests, many people give the CCP a platform."



He said claims that China Bridge had received no funding from the Chinese government were dubious.



"There is a difference between direct and indirect money, and there are many ways to fund something indirectly," Qian said. "It is not easy to use Western concepts to understand how the CCP invests money in these political circles."



He said CCP support can often take the form of traded favors to individuals in unrelated areas, making it hard to track.



Andreas Fulda, a sociologist who teaches at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, said there is no evidence that China Bridge and organizations like it have any connections with civil society in the countries in which they operate, and remain mute on controversial topics like China's human rights abuses in Tibet, Xinjiang and Hong Kong.



"The CCP doesn't want to see such exchanges," Fulda said. "Those in charge at China Bridge say they are neutral and they just want to establish partnerships, but this is impossible."



He said any level of cooperation with China involves cooperating with the ruling party in some way.



"The moment they claimed to be neutral, they [made it clear that they have] chosen the Chinese Communist Party," he said.



Reported by Chen Pinjie for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Ng Yik-tung and Sing Man for the Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Social media giant Facebook, for the first time, has removed a post from US President Donald Trump in which he claimed that children were "almost immune" to COVID-19, saying it violated its policy against spreading "misinformation" about the novel coronavirus. The post in question was a video clip of a Trump interview on Fox News Channel uploaded by the Trump campaign on Wednesday.

The US President claims in the clip that children are "almost immune" to COVID-19. While much remains unknown about the novel coronavirus, children can contract COVID-19 and are believed to be able to spread it to others, even without symptoms.

"This video includes false claims that a group of people is immune from COVID-19 which is a violation of our policies around harmful COVID misinformation," Andy Stone, a Facebook policy spokesperson said in a statement. A link to the post now diverts to a page that says, "This Content Isn't Available Right Now."

It is the first time that Facebook has removed a post from Trump entirely, rather than labelling it, as it has done in the past, making it a rare instance in which it has been willing to censor the president. In June, Facebook removed ads that the Trump campaign posted that featured a symbol Nazis used to classify political prisoners during World War II.

Twitter also removed a link to the same video clip, which the official Trump Twitter account @TeamTrump shared earlier on Wednesday. Links to the tweet now point Twitter users to a message that the tweet violated Twitter's rules and is no longer available.

The Trump campaign accused Facebook of "flagrant bias." "The President was stating a fact that children are less susceptible to the coronavirus," Courtney Parella, the campaign's deputy national press secretary, said in an emailed statement.

"Another day, another display of Silicon Valley's flagrant bias against this President, where the rules are only enforced in one direction. Social media companies are not the arbiters of truth," Parella said. A US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study involving 2,500 children published in April found that about one in five infected children were hospitalized versus one in three adults; three children died.

Two months ago, Facebook faced a backlash both inside and outside the company for not taking any action against Trump's May 29 comment, posted on Facebook and Instagram, in which he said about Minneapolis protests and civil unrest in the wake of George Floyd's killing by police: "Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!"

Twitter hid the same "looting and shooting" message behind a warning label saying that it violated its policy banning the glorification of violence.

Also read: Donald Trump's demand for US cut in Microsoft-TikTok deal is unprecedented
Every quilt, as they say, has a story. With gold metallic thread, this one links all the way to Jordan from a dot on the map in the Pioneer Valley.

I was commissioned to make a quilt for King Abdullah II in Jordan by Bill Schenker, explains Brenda Knight, of Granby.

Schenker, who is the retired police chief in South Hadley, was among the group of law enforcement members from across Western Massachusetts who were part of a security team for Jordans king, Abdullah II, decades ago. The team provided security to the king and his brother when they attended the Eaglebrook School and Deerfield Academy.

Through the whole school year, he would guard him from Friday night through Sunday, every weekend, Knight explains. Bill got to know him really well over the years. They had him and his brother over to their home for barbecues and ball games. They are still very good friends. He went to visit him in Jordan a few times. They even went to his wedding.

More than a year ago now, Schenker thought hed like to get a quilt made for his old friends birthday. Someone mentioned Knights name, and thus began the story of the quilts creation.

Measuring a little over 7-feet square, the quilt, now en route to the king, is composed of star blocks, the colors chosen from a jelly roll which is a collection of fabric strips with complementary colors and patterns. It features tan shades that Knight says represented the desert and blues which reflect the sky. I also wanted to depict the ancient ruins (of Jordan), she added.

In the center, on a large square, were sewn the royal crown, a map of Jordan showing its major cities, and the flag of Jordan. The border and backing is royal blue, though upon close inspection there is royal purple as well.

The fabric is batik, says Knight, manufactured in Indonesia.

Once the squares were sewn together, she passed the project on to her daughter, Selena Krajewski, in Pennsylvania. Krajewski machine quilted the piece with the gold thread. She did a masterful job, said Knight. It came out very well.

Knight herself is masterful. As a child she learned to sew from her mother. She didnt pick up quilting until she was a young mother. I went to a lot of quilting classes, explains the long-time member of the Hands Across the Valley Quilters Club.

She has tried her hand at basket weaving. In addition, in her home hangs a number of paintings reflecting her love of the countryside in which she lives. She has tried oils and acrylic, but likes watercolor the best.

Quilting remains her favorite craft. Sewing I Spy quilts for the children at the Shriners Hospital gives me joy. But I was a bit stressed while working on the Kings quilt, she admits. I wanted everything to go right.

The first priority in quilting is planning. When Knight met with Schenker, she had the initial idea of something Americana, reminiscent of the kings years in New England. But Schenker had an idea of his own. How about two quilts? One to represent Deerfield Academy and the other to represent King Abdullahs new Kings Academy in Jordan?

Schenker told Knight he knew that the new academy, designed much like Deerfield and built in 2008, was close to the kings heart. That seemed a bit of a reach with Knights time constraints, so she brought quilt samples and he brought literature about Jordan. Together, they came up with a plan.

Before being sent to Jordan, the completed quilt hung in the Granby Public Library for a few hours. Many quilting friends and curious townsfolk came, said Knight.

It was the Schenkers first time seeing the completed quilt. It was emotional, she adds. I was happy that they were so pleased with it.

The quilt is en route to Jordan, where, Knight has been told, it will hang in a place of honor in a government building near the kings office.
This is the moment a fisherman in Alaska was robbed of his dinner when a bear came and snatched it right off his hook.

The man was standing on a riverbank fishing for salmon, in a remote part of Alaska when the terrifying encounter with nature happened.

A video shows the bear approaching the man from the shallow water, coming within a few feet of him.

The video shows the bear approaching the man in the shallow water, who has a salmon caught on the end of his fishing line in remote park of Alaska

The fisherman, who has his line cast out with a salmon hooked on the end, remains still as the bear comes closer.

The animal then appears to change its mind, and runs back towards the woods, before suddenly turning around again.

It approaches the man once more, heading towards the salmon which is floundering in the shallows.

The man crouches down as the hungry bear pounces on the salmon and pulls it off the fisherman's line

With the stolen fish firmly in his mouth, the bear makes a break for the woods to eat its dinner

The woman who is videoing the footage breathes a nervous sigh and says: 'Oh my god, it stresses me out.'

The hungry bear pounces, grabbing the salmon with both front paws, before snatching it in its mouth and pulling it off the fisherman's line.

It runs off into the woods to eat its catch of the day - albeit a stolen one.

The fisherman, now empty handed, runs back towards the onlookers as they laugh with relief.

The man and his companions, who captured the encounter on video, laugh with relief following the hairy exchange

The video was captured on July 26 and was published online recently with the caption: 'While fishing for sockeye salmon in remote Alaska a brown bear took my catch.

'The end result, everyone was safe.'

In Alaska, most sockeye salmon, also called red salmon, return to spawn in June and July.

Peak season for salmon fishing in Alaska is from May until September.
India is planning to set up the 13th Japanese industrial township in Assam, a move aimed at promoting domestic manufacturing and strengthening economic ties between the two countries, a top government official said on Thursday.

Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Guruprasad Mohapatra said they are working on a Geographic Information System-enabled database of industrial areas and clusters across the country.

"In terms of infrastructure, India has 12 Japanese industrial townships across nine states, a 13th is being planned in Assam. These are integrated industrial parks with ready to move in infrastructure facilities, with world-class infrastructure, plug and play factories, pre-approved licences and investment incentives exclusively for Japanese companies," he said.

The secretary was speaking at the Invest India Exclusive Investment Forum - Japan Edition, through video conference.

He also said a fast track system is being worked out with the objective to identify and solve problems faced by Japanese companies and investors with their operations in India in an effective and time-bound manner.

India, Mohapatra said, is removing regulatory compliances like zero liquid discharge to encourage investments in sectors like semiconductors.

"In this regard, we are holding a high-level meeting on August 13 to review and discuss the way forward on India's zero level discharge policy," he added.

The secretary hoped that by April 2021, an investment clearance cell to provide facilitation and support to the business on a one-stop digital platform would be launched.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech proposed to set up an investment clearance cell for entrepreneurs to provide pre-investment advisory, information related to land banks and facilitate clearances.

Speaking at the event, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said both the nations are looking to have trusted partners from authentic investors.

"I think it is important that Japan and India expand trade and business relationships...Japan is one of most important and trusted trading partners and the fourth largest contributor of FDI to India and the current partnership will certainly expand through the proposed India-Japan Industrial Competitiveness Partnership (IJICP)," Goyal said.

Under IJICP, trade and industry ministries of both the countries will jointly work towards enhancing India's industrial competitiveness through discussion in areas such as development and utilization of industrial zones to promote foreign direct investment, lowering cost of logistics, and facilitating smooth governmental procedures.

Japanese Vice Minister for economy, trade and industry Shigehiro Tanaka said that in this partnership both the countries have been discussing sectoral and also company specific issues.

Citing a survey, he said many of the Japanese companies are of the view that India has a high potential to be a global export hub and it has to work to remove obstacles such as price competition, quality issues, and weakness in logistics systems.

On price competition, he said "we have been hearing" that increasing labour cost and stringent rules of origin sometimes prevent companies to utilise the benefits of a free trade agreement.

On quality issues, Tanaka said goods and services that do not meet standards of MNCs were posing problems and under logistics, time-consuming customs procedures are often cited as problems.

According to a survey by the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), some of these issues raised by Japanese companies were not clearly unique to Covid-19, but actually most of them are typical issues regarding the general business environment and solving these matters will attract more foreign companies and would strengthen India's industrial competitiveness.

"In the partnership, we are also discussing company-specific issues such as appropriation of land, and also late payments in some cases," he said adding solving them will also help improve the image of India as a favourable investment destination.
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse)  Thu, August 6, 2020 17:34 530 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c199b0 2 Entertainment Worlds-Most-Wanted,documentary,Netflix,fugitive,crime Free

Who are those perpetrators of horrific crimes who continually manage to escape police surveillance? How do they manage to vanish into thin air when the world's highest authorities have been hunting them for years?

The documentary series World's Most Wanted, co-produced by Nova Production and Premieres Lignes, is out on Aug. 5 on Netflix.

The streaming platform continues to develop a rich catalogue of true crime documentaries which fascinate as much as they horrify.

While many of these productions focus on the investigation of sordid tales such as that featured in Don't f** with cats, Netflix also has a line of shows dedicated to the criminals themselves. This is where World's Most Wanted fits in. Nova Production and Premieres Lignes introduce us to the planet's most-hunted outlaws via 52-minute episodes.

Who is Semion Mogilevich, the top boss of the Russian mafia? He's accused of human trafficking, arms trafficking, fraud, smuggling... The Russian gangster is one of the FBI's 10 most wanted suspects.

Read also: 'Money Heist' part 5 now being written, creator reveals

Matteo Messina Denaro, for his part, has been on the run for 27 years. He's the Sicilian mafia's 'last godfather.'

Ismael Zambada Garcia has never seen the inside of a cell for the crimes he's accused of. Contrary to his predecessor Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the current head of the Sinaloa cartel has repeatedly slipped through the grasp of the police thanks to his low profile.

Felicien Kabuga is the only criminal featured on World's Most Wanted to have been captured by the authorities. The financier of the Rwandan genocide was caught after 26 years in hiding.

Only one woman features in the series: Samantha Lewthwaite, the "White Widow", who emerged in 2005 as the widow of one of the London suicide attackers. Six years later, the British woman reappeared at the head of a terrorist cell in Kenya. She's still one of the world's most-wanted terrorism suspects.

The documentary series World's Most Wanted has been translated into 150 languages.
Vietnam receives medicine from Cuba to fight COVID-19

A ceremony was held in Hanoi on August 5 to receive a batch of medicine from Cuba to help Vietnam fight the COVID-19 pandemic.









At the ceremony (Photo: VNA)

The medicine, interferon Alfa 2B produced by Cuba, is of special importance in treating the COVID-19 heavy cases. The whole batch was immediately transferred to Da Nang and Quang Nam.



Besides, a group of Cuban health experts has been sent to Vietnam to support the fight.



Speaking at the ceremony, Sen. Lt. Gen. Nguyen Chi Vinh, member of the Party Central Committee and Deputy Defence Minister, expressed gratitude to the Cuban people for their special sentiment to Vietnam, especially in this difficult time, and affirmed that this is a fine tradition in the bilateral solidarity and friendship.



The official also said he hopes for coordination from offices and units in implementing cooperation activities with Cuba in the time to come.



For her part, Cuban Ambassador to Vietnam Lianys Torres Rivera said the handover of the medicine to assist Vietnam in the fight against the pandemic helps affirm the desire to boost bilateral cooperation in the medical and pharmaceutical fields with Vietnam, contributing to the bilateral relations of comprehensive cooperation.



The diplomat expressed her hope that the two sides will continue their efforts to maintain and intensify the fine traditional relations, showing to the world the strength of solidarity and cooperation in effectively fighting the common challenges of the mankind.
Two former solicitors are to face trial over an alleged conspiracy to defraud a number of financial institutions.

The accused, one a former Fine Gael election candidate, appeared before Judge Olann Kelleher at Cork District Court on a single charge.

It arose from a garda investigation into the attempted fraud of sums amounting to hundreds of thousands of euro from financial institutions.

Keith Flynn (46), and Lyndsey Clarke (37), both of Blarney Street, Cork, appeared before the court.

Gardai confirmed that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had ruled that the matter be dealt with on indictment before Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

Both accused face a single charge that between January 1, 2016 and June 26, 2018, they conspired with each other to defraud Ulster Bank, AIB, Bank of Ireland and other financial institutions by creating false identities to be used for the purpose of obtaining credit dishonestly.

The effect of this was all- egedly to cause potential financial loss to the institu- tions involved.

Family

Judge Kelleher remanded Mr Flynn and Ms Clarke on bail to appear again before Cork District Court on September 2.

The hearing took only a couple of minutes, and the defendants sat beside each other in court.

Garda Sergeant Gearoid Davis confirmed the DPP has instructed the matter be dealt with before a judge and jury.

Graham Hyde, defending Mr Flynn and Ms Clarke, app-lied for free legal aid for his clients.

He said Ms Clarke was on a back-to-work scheme and was earning 217 a week. The former solicitor is a mother-of-two.

Mr Flynn is now working in the catering industry and earning around 500 a week, but is supporting a family of four children.

In light of the submissions, Judge Kelleher granted free legal aid to both.

Ms Clarke became a solicitor in 2012 and unsuccessfully contested the local government elections for Fine Gael in Cork six years ago.

Mr Flynn was a solicitor from 2006 and, for a time, was based in Dublin.

Both are former solicitors who practised as Keith Flynn & Co, Capel Building, Mary's Abbey, Dublin.

The matter was adjourned to September 2 to allow for the service of the book of evidence.
D onald Trump questioned Joe Biden's faith in God as he launched a deeply personal attack on his presidential rival.

Even for a US leader known for his blunt criticism, Mr Trump's remarks stood out and they signalled how contentious the campaign may get over the coming months.

"He's against God. He's against guns. He's against energy, our kind of energy. I don't think he's going to do too well in Ohio," he said on a visit to the state.

Former vice president Mr Biden's campaign spokesman responded, saying his faith is "at the core of who he is".

The president was expected to promote the economic prosperity that much of the nation enjoyed before the coronavirus pandemic, and to make the case that he is best suited to rebuild a crippled economy.

TODO: define component type apester

But Mr Trump's handling of the outbreak has weakened his bid for a second term, causing him to spend time and resources in a state he won easily in 2016 but now could be in danger of slipping away.

Covid-19 already altered the trip even before President Trump landed, with word that Republican governor Mike DeWine had tested positive for coronavirus.

Mr DeWine had planned to meet with Mr Trump and join him on a visit to the Whirlpool factory in north-west Ohio. Mr DeWine's office said the 73-year-old governor had no symptoms and was returning to Columbus.

Mr Biden's campaign spokesman Andrew Bates responded to President Trump's comments by saying: "Joe Biden's faith is at the core of who he is; he's lived it with dignity his entire life, and it's been a source of strength and comfort in times of extreme hardship."

Mr Bates also accused President Trump of using a Bible "for his own cynical optics as he sought to tear our nation apart at a moment of crisis and pain", a reference to when federal law enforcement officers drove protesters out of Lafayette Square shortly before a photo opportunity in which the president held a Bible.
Billy Graham statue closer to replacing segregationist NC gov. in US Capitol

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A statue of the famed evangelist the Rev. Billy Graham is one step closer to being installed at the U.S. Capitol to replacing that of a former North Carolina governor who was a racial segregationist.

North Carolinas Statuary Hall Selection Committee unanimously approved a model of the late evangelist last week, with its official approval pending a vote from a congressional committee.

The approved statue design was by Chas Fagan, who has created multiple notable sculptures including former President Ronald Reagan in the Capitol, The Charlotte Observer reported.

If approved, Graham will replace a statue of Charles Aycock, a former governor of North Carolina whose statue has been represented at the Capitol since 1932.

A lawyer by profession, Aycock was elected governor of North Carolina in 1900 and served until 1905. He died in 1912 while campaigning to become a U.S. senator.

Although Aycock was known for his support of education reform, he also advanced white supremacist agenda items such as racial segregation and black voter disenfranchisement.

The National Statuary Hall Collection in the U.S. Capitol Building has 100 statues, two from each state meant to honor notable figures.

Last month, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee announced the draft fiscal year 2021 funding bill, which called for removing the statue of Aycock and others from the Capitol.

The bill includes language directing the Architect of the Capitol to remove statues or busts in the U.S. Capitol that represent figures who participated in the Confederate Army or government, as well as the statues of individuals with unambiguous records of racial intolerance, stated the committee in July.

The Architect is instructed to work with the States who contributed Confederate statues to return them to the donor State.

Efforts to add a statue of Graham to the Capitol to replace Aycock go at least as far back as 2015, when North Carolina lawmakers first passed a bill calling for the replacement.

We are talking about someone who has affected positively millions and millions of Americans and people around the world, said state Rep. John Blust, who supported the legislation, in 2015. What more could you want out of someone to represent our state in the United States Capitol?

The effort in support of the Graham statue gained more traction in 2018, following the death of the famed evangelist several months before his 100th birthday.

If approved, Graham would not be the only clergyman honored in the Capitol. One of Hawaiis two statues is that of Father Damien, a 19th century Catholic missionary who ministered to lepers.
The United States will submit a UN Security Council resolution next week to extend an arms embargo on Iran despite opposition from Russia and China, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday. A ban on conventional weapons sales to Iran ends on October 18 and the United States has threatened to try to force a return of UN sanctions if it is not extended. Pompeo said the United States would submit the long-awaited resolution next week and said he was alarmed at indications that China was already preparing arms sales to Iran. "There are nations lining up to sell weapons that will destabilize the Middle East, put Israel at risk, put Europe a risk, risk American lives as well," Pompeo told reporters. "We're not going to let it happen. And so we're using every diplomatic tool we have in the tool-kit," he said. Russia and China wield veto power on the Security Council and want the embargo to expire as laid out under a 2015 resolution. That resolution had blessed a denuclearization deal with Iran negotiated by then US president Barack Obama from which President Donald Trump pulled out, denouncing it as a blunder. But Pompeo has offered the contested argument that the United States remains a "participant" in the accord as it was listed in the 2015 resolution -- and therefore can force a return to sanctions if it sees Iran as being in violation of its terms. Pompeo pointed to Iranian support to Yemen's Huthi rebels, who are under assault from US ally Saudi Arabia, as an example of an arms violation. Even European allies of the United States have been skeptical on whether Washington can force sanctions and warn that the attempt may delegitimize the Security Council. The Europeans support extending the embargo but say the priority should be to preserve the nuclear accord -- which is backed by Joe Biden, Trump's presumptive Democratic rival in November elections. Pompeo ran into wide skepticism when he directly pressed the Security Council on the arms embargo in June. Iran says it has the right to self-defense and that a continuation of the ban would mean an end to the nuclear deal. Iran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said last month that his government was negotiating a 25-year accord with China, the main country that has been willing to defy unilateral US sanctions on Tehran.
Skeljungur hf. will publish its Q2 2020 financial results after market have closed on Wednesday, August 12, 2020.

Skeljungur will host an open meeting for investors, analysts and the press on Thursday, August 13, at 8:30 am at Skeljungurs headquarters, Borgartun 26, 8th floor, 105 Reykjavik. Light refreshments will be served from 8:15 am.

CEO Arni Petur Jonsson and CFO Olafur or Johannesson, will give an overview of the financial results and operational highlights. After the presentation attendees will have opportunity to further discussion with Skeljungurs management.

The presentation will be available on Skeljungurs website, https://www.skeljungur.is/fyrir-fjarfesta after the meeting.

For further information please contact Arni Petur Jonsson, CEO, investors@skeljungur.is.

Skeljungur is an energy company with operations in Iceland and in the Faroe Islands. Skeljungur sells fuel and oil to consumers and businesses in fisheries, agriculture, transportation, aviation and construction under the brands Skeljungur, Orkan, and Magn. Skeljungur is also in the retail market under the brand Kvikk. The company also sells fertilizer and other chemical products and is on the retail market. In Iceland the Company runs 65 gas stations and 4 oil depots. Magn P/F, Skeljungurs subsidiary in the Faroe Islands, runs 11 retail and gas-stations and 2 oil depots. Magn also serves and sells oils for house heating to individuals and companies in the Faroe Islands. Skeljungurs goal is to serve the energy needs of consumers and businesses in an efficient and safe way and in harmony with the environment.

www.skeljungur.is

https://www.linkedin.com/company/skeljungur-hf/




Once close allies, Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond have fallen out - Jane Barlow/PA

MSPs investigating how complaints of sexual misconduct against Alex Salmond were investigated by civil servants have become embroiled in a new row with officials after they refused to hand over key documents.

The Scottish Government cited legal privilege in withholding advice it received regarding Mr Salmonds successful court challenge to the internal government probe against him, which resulted in him being awarded more than 500,000 in legal costs.

A Holyrood committee is investigating the botched investigation, after the Scottish Government's actions were found by a judge to have been "unlawful in respect that they were procedurally unfair" and had been "tainted with apparent bias".

Mr Salmond was subsequently charged by prosecutors with 14 counts of sexual assault, but was cleared of all charges.

The Holyrood committee is examining the Scottish Government investigation and has requested several documents. However, officials said yesterday that some information could not be released as it concerned legal advice and was therefore legally privileged.

Alex Cole-Hamilton, the Liberal Democrat MSP and a member of the committee, called for the information to be provided.

He said: This evasiveness on the part of the Scottish Government does not serve them, or the people of Scotland, well.

"This saga has already cost the taxpayer more than 500,000. It is a slap in the face to not allow the parliamentary inquiry access to unredacted versions of these documents.

"The First Minister should acknowledge where the public interest lies and order unredacted versions of these documents to be handed over."

While it is a convention that legal advice is not released, this is not binding. The committee is to start taking evidence this month. Among those who will be called are Nicola Sturgeon and her husband, Peter Murrell, who is the SNPs chief executive, as well as Mr Salmond.

The former First Minister believes there was a plot against him, something dismissed as nonsense by Ms Sturgeon. The pair, once close, have fallen out spectacularly since the allegations against Mr Salmond emerged.

Story continues

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "We remain committed to working with the committee.

"We welcome the opportunity the parliamentary inquiry will bring to address issues which have been raised - and we will not pre-empt that process.

"We are providing all the relevant information requested by the committee, taking account of the confidentiality, data protection and other restrictions that apply."
The former manager of the College Street Bar told a pack of lies in court, and is guilty of sexually assaulting a female employee, a judge ruled Thursday afternoon.

Superior Court Justice Robert Goldstein also found Enzo DeJesus Carrasco, 35, guilty of voyeurism for using a surveillance camera in the basement office to film the sexual assault without the womans knowledge, so that it could be watched later by the bars former owner Gavin MacMillan.

This is exactly the type of exploitation that the offence of voyeurism is intended to address, Goldstein said, noting that the recent Supreme Court of Canada decision in R. v Jarvis found that context is important in determining a persons reasonable expectation of privacy.

It is reasonable that (the employee) had an expectation that her boss would not grope her in a basement office so her ultimate boss could watch, he said. She had no idea she was being filmed in a sexual context.

The womans identity is covered by a publication ban.

DeJesus Carrascos testimony that he did not pull down the female employees pants and sexually assault her, and instead gave her a consensual and non-sexual massage is directly contradicted by his own text message exchange with MacMillan the next day, Goldstein found.

From the messages it is clear he considered the interaction to be sexual and he bragged about getting the womans pants down, the judge said. DeJesus Carrasco also admitted that the surveillance cameras were to used to, in the words of the Crown, kiss-and-show, Goldstein said.

Goldstein found that the woman, who testified via video-link from another room in the courthouse, was a credible witness and rejected the defence assertion that she was fabricating the sexual assault and that her memory was unreliable. He accepted as truthful that she could not remember much about what happened on a night when she ended up at DeJesus Carrascos home, which she believes was because she may have been drugged. No charges were laid linked to anything that took place at DeJesus Carrascos home.

MacMillan is not charged in connection with this case. However, both men were convicted of gang sexual assault and drugging another woman at the now-closed bar last year. They were each sentenced to nine years in prison but were released on bail pending appeal due to possible errors in jury selection.

The Crown did not request that DeJesus Carrascos bail be revoked upon the convictions Thursday, noting that hed been compliant with his bail so far and that sentencing would be done shortly, but Goldstein said he was deeply disturbed by the misogyny in the evidence.

I see genuine threat to the community here, to the safety of women, Goldstein said. Everything in the evidence I heard about this case about Mr. DeJesus says to me: sexual predator.

Ordering DeJesus Carrasco to be taken into custody, Goldstein said a reasonable member of the community would find it surprising that DeJesus Carrasco would still be on bail after such a conviction.

I think the reputation of the administration of justice would be adversely affected if Mr. DeJesus remained at large after being convicted on yet another sexual assault, he said.

DeJesus Carrasco was acquitted on a charge of transmitting an intimate image without consent. Another employee at the bar had taken a photo during the sexual assault, which he later shared with DeJesus Carrasco. DeJesus Carrasco testified that he texted the photo to another person by mistake, intending to send a different photo. Goldstein said the text exchange, in which DeJesus said, sorry I ment this one after sending the image, left him with a reasonable doubt.

A sentencing hearing has been set for next week.
Beirut

The death toll from explosions that devastated central Beirut has reached 135, Health Minister Hamad Hassan announced Wednesday after residents across much of the city woke in shock, after the devastation of the previous evening.

The blasts occurred at a warehouse in Beirut's port area that apparently housed massive quantities of explosive materials. The initial explosion Tuesday evening ignited a fire; a second blast enveloped the skyline as a mushroom cloud of pastel-colored smoke billowed upward, and a shock wave coursed out across the Lebanese capital, devastating buildings and wounding thousands.

The Lebanese government said it was putting an unspecified number of Beirut port officials under house arrest as it began an investigation into how 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate came to be stored at the port for years.

The losses were staggering. The Lebanese Red Cross said any additional bodies found in the rubble must be taken to Beirut's morgues directly, because hospitals could no longer cope. Marwan Abboud, the city's governor, said as many as a quarter of a million people have been left homeless and that the destruction could take up to $5 billion to repair.

As the sun rose, the scene at the port was almost apocalyptic, with smoke hanging above a crater gouged from the land running down to the sea, and only one side of the warehouse still standing. A silo that provided most of Lebanon's wheat supply was ripped open.

Red Cross workers were still scouring the wrecked and deserted streets in neighborhoods adjoining the port early Wednesday, calling out for residents who might be trapped and injured. At least 4,000 people were wounded, the organization said.

There are bodies in the rubble and in the waters of the port. Families put out frantic calls for missing loved ones across social media.

In residential neighborhoods near the port, the atmosphere was one of shell shock. Historical arched facades were piles of rubble and rebar. Dazed residents were staggered amid the ruin. Young volunteers who had arrived from outside Beirut to aid in the cleanup appeared stunned at the devastation.

There were many indications that the blasts may have been a tragic accident. Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi said it appeared that stocks of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer that can be used in bombmaking, had ignited.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab linked the explosions to 2,700 tons of the dangerous chemical that had been stored at the port since 2014, despite warnings from port officials that it was not safe.

In the central Martyrs Square, protesters gathered shortly after midday, some of them in tears. On social media, there were calls for larger demonstrations Wednesday evening.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

On a nearby road linking eastern and western Beirut, a man walked past the backed-up cars holding a sign demanding the execution of the country's head of customs, Badri Daher.

"I promise you that this catastrophe will not pass without accountability Those responsible will pay the price," Diab said in a televised speech the night before. "Facts about this dangerous warehouse that has been there since 2014 will be announced, and I will not preempt the investigations."

Lebanon was already in the throes of economic collapse, accelerated by nationwide protests over a government viewed as corrupt and incompetent. Bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund have repeatedly broken down, and senior Lebanese officials have resigned, claiming that negotiators are not serious about meeting the conditions for a deal.

In the Rosary Sisters' Hospital, patients had been evacuated in the darkness after the blasts shook its walls. Remnants of the scramble were strewn across the sidewalk.

One member of the hospital staff had been killed, and 10 were injured.

As the tiny nation reeled, Diab appealed for global help to staunch the suffering. French President Emmanuel Macron was scheduled to arrive in Beiruton Thursday. The European Union said that it was activating its civil protection system to round up emergency workers and equipment from across the 27-nation bloc.
The CBI on Thursday took over investigation into the actor Sushant Singh Rajput death case and re-registered the Patna police FIR related to alleged criminal conspiracy and abetment to suicide against his rumoured girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty and her family members, officials said Thursday.

The case will be probed by a special investigation team under Superintendent of Police Nupur Prasad and will be supervised by DIG Gagandeep Gambhir and Joint Director Manoj Shashidhar, both senior IPS officers from the Gujarat cadre, they said.

Sources said the case will monitored at the top level in the agency on a daily basis.

While the Mumbai Police had registered an Accidental Death Report (ADR) into the death of Rajput, the Patna police had registered a case on a complaint from Rajput's father K K Singh against Chakraborty, her parents Indrajit Chakraborty and Sandhya Chakraborty, brother Showik Chakraborty, and common friends Samuel Miranda and Shruti Modi.

The Patna police had filed the FIR under the IPC sections related to criminal conspiracy, abetment to suicide, wrongful confinement, criminal breach of trust, theft and criminal intimidation which was forwarded to the Centre for a CBI probe.

A state government cannot directly give a case to the CBI. It is routed through the Department of Personnel and Training, the nodal ministry for the CBI.

Following the book, the agency after receiving the reference from the central government, re-registered the Patna Police FIR as its own case on Thursday taking over the investigation.

In tweets from her official handle, the bollywood actress, while denying any role in Rajpur's death, had requested Union Home Minister Amit Shah a fortnight ago for a CBI probe.

"I'm Sushant Singh Rajput's 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.... I only want to understand what pressures prompted Sushant to take this step," she tweeted on July 15.

However, her lawyer told the Supreme Court later that the Bihar government cannot recommend a CBI probe when the police from that state do not have any jurisdiction to even investigate the case.

In his FIR, Rajput's father had alleged that Chakraborty developed intimacy with the actor to use his contacts and started interfering in his work.

Chakraborty and her family members influenced him to leave the house where he used to stay citing the presence of ghosts and took him to a resort near Mumbai airport, Singh alleged in the FIR of the Patna police, which now forms the case of the CBI.

The Chakraborty family allegedly convinced him that he was mentally disturbed and needed good treatment, he alleged.

"When we came to know about it, my daughter went to meet him in Mumbai and tried to bring him back but Rhea Chakraborty and her family pressured him to stay and get treatment in Mumbai. They did not let him return," he alleged.

They gave him medicines in overdose, told people that he was suffering from dengue which was a lie, changed all trustworthy employees of Rajput, took control of all his credit cards and bank documents and cut him off from his immediate family, Singh alleged.

"Sometimes I managed to speak to Sushant on a phone taken by Rhea on the ID of her close aide Samuel Miranda. He used to say that these people want him to be put in a mental asylum and he was not able to do anything," he alleged in the FIR.

He said that Rajput wanted to leave films and wanted to do organic farming in Coorg but she allegedly did not let him leave.

Singh alleged that Rhea took away all his credit cards, bank documents, cash, jewellery, medical reports and other documents on June 8 and threatened him that she would announce that the actor was mentally unfit which would spoil his career.

Chakraborty had appointed Disha as the manager of Rajput who had committed suicide on the same night when Chakraborty left following which he was in extreme mental stress, Singh alleged.

Rajput allegedly feared that Chakraborty would frame him in the case and tried to contact her but she had blocked his number as result contact could not be established which accentuated his stress levels, he alleged.

The actor's sister visited him to talk to him and comfort him but after she left he allegedly committed suicide within two days, he alleged.

Rajput, aged 34, was found hanging from the ceiling of his apartment in suburban Bandra in Mumbai on June 14 and since then the Mumbai Police has been probing the case keeping in mind various angles.

The Maharashtra government has raised objection to the move as Bihar does not have jurisdiction to start a probe in a different state.

The Mumbai Police had registered an Accidental Death Report (ADR) and a probe is underway in the case. Till now, the Mumbai Police recorded statements of 56 people, including Rajput's sisters, Chakraborty and some other film personalities.

The Mumbai Police has recorded the statements of Bollywood directors like Aditya Chopra, Mahesh Bhatt and Sanjay Leela Bhansali.
Colombo, Aug 6 : Counting of votes cast in Sri Lanka's 16th general elections was underway on Thursday, a poll official announced.

Election Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya said that the the overall voter turnout in the polls to elect a new 225-member Parliament held on Wednesday amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, stood at 71 per cent, reports the Daily Mirror newspaper.

The counting started a day later due to the COVID-19 health regulations, unlike in previous years when it used to begin on the same night of the polling day.

According to Deshapriya, the winner will be announced on Friday morning.

More than 7,000 candidates contested the elections and over 12,000 polling booths were set up across the country.

An estimated 16.2 million people were eligible to cast their ballots.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had dissolved Parliament in March, paving the way for the 16th general elections which were initially scheduled for April 25, but were postponed twice due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The President's Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party has to win majority (113 seats) in the house in order to secure the government's full control in the semi-presidential representative democracy.

A day ahead of the polls, Rajapaksa had announced that the new Parliament will convene on August 20.

Last week, Deshapriya told the Daily Mirror newspaper that Wednesday's polls would be the most expensive in the history of the island-nation, "as we have to deploy additional staff along with face masks, sanitizers and all other health guidelines".

He said the EC was trying to keep the cost at 10 billion LKR and not exceed it.
I am in the area of early embryonic development. More precisely, I am dealing with the process of implantation of the embryo in the Uterus, a developing step, of the beats for thirty percent of all human pregnancies to fail. We are only just beginning to understand the underlying mechanisms.

As the eruption of the Corona epidemic has influenced your work?

He threw it on the pile. Our lab had to close, and we had to kill almost all of our mice we use as a model organism. Now the labs to do it again, but before we can start our research again, we need to breed our mouse lines high. What lasts for approximately three months. My research, therefore, is thrown around six months back.

The sounds dramatically. How is your funding?

I am Marie Skodowska-Curie fellow of the European training network Image-In-Life, which is funded by the EU Horizon 2020 Grant. Since my doctoral work is three years, running from my scholarship in December. I run five different projects, all of which illuminate a different part of the process of implantation. Due to the Lockdown and the associated delays, it is impossible for me, my projects until December to finish.

What were you told, as you have asked for a renewal of your scholarship?

it was not possible to obtain a paid-for extension of the scholarship, and that is also not an emergency pot would be established, in which young researchers to transition scholarships to finish their research. There is no precedent, I was told. As a result, I filed a formal complaint with the Ombudsman of the EU and an open letter to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote in which I ask you to be a paid extension of all EU-funded PhD fellowships to three to six months. I published the letter on Twitter and Facebook and was able to determine that I am not an isolated case, but that many of the PhD students in Europe just the same as me. I received letters from PhD students from Germany, the Netherlands, Greece, France, Spain and the UK, the insured, all that you have the same Problem.

the result was something like a solidarity movement between European PhD students?

at Least I was able to collect in an anonymous Online Petition already has several hundred signatures. At the same time be shy, but also a lot to write, because you fear, only then to get right no support any longer, or because they think that we will not be heard by the policy anyway. the

you Would be in a different situation, if you had a German or British scholarship?

All the scholarships that are awarded by British foundations, were extended for six months, in Germany various foundations have extended their scholarship also. Many other European countries have introduced, to my knowledge, to programs, to help their fellows. However, as an EU scholarship holders, we are sitting between all chairs.

Updated Date: 06 August 2020, 06:21
India has banned some mobile apps of Chinese companies such as Xiaomi Corp and Baidu Inc, three sources told Reuters on Wednesday, in New Delhi's latest move to hit Chinese companies following a border clash between the neighbors.

India in June outlawed 59 Chinese apps for threatening the country's "sovereignty and integrity," including ByteDance's video-sharing app TikTok, Alibaba's UC Browser and Xiaomi's Mi Community app.

Another ban was imposed in recent weeks on about 47 apps which mostly contained clones, or simply different versions, of the already banned apps, the sources said.

Unlike its June move, the government did not make its latest decision public, but there are a few new apps that have made it to that list, including Xiaomi's Mi Browser Pro and Baidu's search apps, the sources said. It wasn't immediately clear how many new apps have been affected.


BRECKSVILLE, Ohio  The Cuyahoga River in Brecksville is free-flowing and open for recreation for the first time since the Pinery Dam was built in 1827.

Crews have removed the dam and the Brecksville Diversion Dam, so paddlers can now travel the Cuyahoga River from Cuyahoga Valley National Park into Cleveland, the National Park Service announced Thursday.

The areas above and below the dams had been closed during removal, but since have reopened. A section of the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail closest to the river remains closed, but a parallel section of trail is still open.

Dam removal began in May, about 14 years after an initial feasibility study first considered it. The project was a joint effort between the National Park Service, the Ohio EPA, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Cleveland Metroparks and Friends of the Crooked River, and it was funded in part through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

Organizations and individuals throughout the region have been working for decades to rewrite the narrative about the Cuyahoga River - from a source of shame and a symbol of environmental degradation to a source of pride and a symbol of renewal, said CVNP Superintendent Craig Kenkel. We made it a point to align our goals with the phenomenal work that has made the Cuyahoga River the success story that it is today.

Removing the dams has already improved water quality, wildlife habitats and recreational access, according to the park service. It also puts the Cuyahoga one step closer to receiving recognition as a Wild and Scenic River by the U.S. Forest Service, and getting the river removed from the U.S. EPAs list of Areas of Concern.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park began a five-year effort in 2016 to restore the rivers condition and reputation, about 50 years after the last fire on the Cuyahoga. The fires spurred decades of grassroots clean-ups, nonprofit work, municipal policies and federal enforcement to make the river an environmental and recreational asset to the region. In October 2019, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources designated the Cuyahoga River as the states 13th official water trail with 24 access points, signs, maps and educational materials for paddlers on nearly 100 miles of river.

Although the dams are removed, the project isnt quite finished. The Pinery Feeder Dam used to provide water to the Ohio & Erie Canal, so the next step is to design and install a pump to connect the canal to river water. The canal section between Wilson Feed Mill and Rockside Road in Valley View is designated as a National Historic Landmark, and includes Lock 38 in front of the Canal Exploration Center.

The canal will remain dry until the pump is installed in 2021. CVNP plans to improve the conditions of the canal until the water source is restored, the park service said.

Read more:

Brecksville Dam removal begins, thanks to forward-thinking, healthy partnerships

Pinery Dam removed from Cuyahoga River after standing 193 years

EPA awards Akron $1 million to remove Gorge Dam, gives Toledo money to keep trash out of Lake Erie
CAMBRIDGE  Two men from Cambridge are among the 16 people arrested in connection to a year-long investigation that involved multiple police forces.

In August 2019, a multi-jurisdictional investigation called Project OSWORDTAIL was launched, focusing on organized criminal groups operating within the GTA.

The Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit led the investigation, made up of the Ontario Provincial Police, the RCMP, Canada Border Services Agency and several other GTA police services.

During the investigation, more than 35 kilograms of cocaine; five kilograms of fentanyl, heroin, opium; 30 kilograms of an unidentified white powder, and 275 cartons of illegal cigarettes were seized.

Police also seized three vehicles that had been modified with hidden compartments, and more than $200,000 in cash as offence-related property.

The 16 people  12 males and four females  arrested are believed to be leaders in the organized crime cells that were investigated.

Two men from Cambridge, a 42-year-old and a 48-year-old, are facing charges of conspiracy to traffic cocaine, contrary to both the Criminal Code and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

The 42-year-old is also facing a trafficking charge.

A 38-year-old man and a 35-year-old woman from Guelph are also facing charges.
Donald Trump - Alex Wong/Getty Images North America

The Manhattan district attorney's office, which has been seeking US President Donald Trump's tax records, subpoenaed his longtime lender Deutsche Bank last year, suggesting its criminal investigation into Trump's business practices is more wide-ranging than previously known, the New York Times reported.

The prosecutors issued the subpoena last year, seeking financial records that the Republican president and his company had provided to the bank, the Times said, citing four unnamed people.

The office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance declined to confirm or deny the report.

Deutsche Bank and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The New York Times said Deutsche Bank complied with the subpoena and provided prosecutors with "detailed records, including financial statements and other materials" that Trump had provided to the bank as he sought loans.

Mr Vance this week suggested a grand jury subpoena for Trump's tax returns was part of an investigation of "possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organisation", including alleged insurance and bank fraud.

Mr Vance's investigation into Trump and the Trump Organisation was spurred by disclosures of hush payments to two women who said they had had sexual relationships with Trump before he became president. Trump has denied the claims.

Mr Vance, who is seeking to dismiss Trump's latest challenge to the subpoena for eight years of personal and corporate tax records, raised the scope of the probe in court papers filed in federal court in Manhattan on Monday.

While Deutsche Bank's response to the subpoena "reinforces the seriousness of the legal threat" the investigation poses for the Republican president and his business, the inquiry is still at an early stage, the newspaper said, citing an unnamed source.
Detail, the famed music producer who won a Grammy for co-writing Beyonce and Jay-Zs Drunk in Love, was arrested Wednesday on more than a dozen counts of sexual assault.

The 41-year-old producer, whose real name is Noel Christopher Fisher, has been charged with 15 sexual assault charges and five felony assault-related charges, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department.

The alleged assaults spanned from 2010 and 2018, according to detectives, but the sheriffs department said there may be more victims and asked them to come forward.

Multiple women have come forward in the last few years to accuse Detail of misconduct, including Jessie Reyez, Bebe Rexha and Tinashe.

In May 2018, Reyez, whose song Gatekeeper shared chilling stories of sexism in the music industry, retweeted a report about two women accusing Detail of rape with her own experiences.

One night, over 6 years ago Noel Detail Fisher tried this on me, she tweeted.

I was lucky and I got out before it got to this, she wrote on Twitter. I didnt know what to say or who to tell. I was scared. Fear is a real thing. The girls that came out are brave as hell.

Bebe Rexha said the producer tried the same thing with me before she ran out of the studio crying.

Detail is being held on a $6,290,000 bond.

His attorney did not immediately return a request for comment.



2020 New York Daily News

Visit New York Daily News at www.nydailynews.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Massive backlogs for basic treatment and diminished cancer services will be left in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The true state of Irelands Covid-19-hit health system is laid bare in a briefing for the new Health Minister Stephen Donnelly.

The Irish Independent can reveal details from the document which the Department of Health did not intend to make public, including the potential scale of another HSE bailout.

Read More

Redacted sections of a 209-page briefing show the stark nature of the challenges ahead.

Today, we can reveal:

Fears patient waiting lists will spiral by as much as 130pc;

A warning that a further 1bn in extra funding could be needed to fight the virus;

Work on the second cath lab in Waterford has been delayed due to the pandemic.

Other sections which werent blacked out set out the difficulties of getting cancer care back to pre-Covid-19 levels. And theres a warning of an estimated 180m shortfall in funding for the National Childrens Hospital (NCH).

Some non-Covid-19 elements of the briefing were also redacted.

However, a full version of the document, seen by this newspaper, shows how just 6.3m of a planned 46m tranche of funding as part of the National Cancer Strategy was allocated in recent years.

And it also outlines concerns over the split system for emergency calls in Dublin which officials warned could lead to delays in "life-threatening situations".

All ministers in new governments are presented with briefing materials when they begin their jobs. The documents prepared for Mr Donnelly were drawn up in June and much of their contents are, unsurprisingly, dominated by the coronavirus pandemic.

The HSE has been working on how to deliver non-Covid-19 services safely during the pandemic. A redacted section of the department briefing outlines a "high-level analysis" of a scenario that sees HSE activity return to 50pc from June and the National Treatment Purchase Fund's (NTPF) work running at 100pc from July.

It would see inpatient and day case waiting lists grow by 83pc, from 66,563 at the end of 2019 to 121,957 at the end of 2020.

The waiting list for gastrointestinal scopes will increase by 130pc from 22,244 to 51,281.

And outpatient waiting lists would be up 40pc from 553,434 to 776,333.

The ability of the HSE and NTPF to run at 50pc and 100pc respectively for the rest of the year was said to be under examination. "Indications to date are that HSE activity is running significantly below 50pc," the briefing states.

Extra funding of 2bn has already been approved to help the HSE fight Covid-19.

But the officials warn: "There is a risk in excess of 1bn could be required in the form of a supplementary estimate, bringing the net Health Vote increase from 2bn to over 3bn in 2020."

The briefing says work on a second cath lab for University Hospital Waterford has been delayed due to Covid-19.

It says the project was due to go to tender in July, with an October start date for the construction which could take up to a year.

An unredacted section of the briefing outlines the "challenges of a 'New Normal'" for cancer care.

The "throughput" of cancer services is said to be at a lower rate overall than would have been the norm pre-Covid, with medical oncology at about 70pc of previous figures, radiation oncology at 80pc, and surgery in the region of 50pc.

The officials were advised that "it will not be possible to get the numbers back to where they were while implementing physical distancing and associated precautionary measures without further space and resources".

Hospital groups have been asked to identify capital works "where these are feasible" to alleviate the situation and to set out staffing and other resources required.

Another section of the briefing provides an overview of the National Cancer Strategy 2017-2026.

Officials say it had been projected that "new development funding of 46m would be required in 2018-2020 to progress implementation of the strategy".

"However, the actual allocation across those three years is 6.3m," they add.

The issue of costs for the controversial National Children's Hospital (NCH) is also raised.

Costs for the 1.7bn project have spiralled, mostly due to a rise in construction costs to 1.4bn, and the project has been beset with difficulties and delays.

Work halted due to coronavirus restrictions. Then a row between the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board and the main contractor, BAM, about the cost of Covid-19 safety measures delayed a return of builders. Work began again on July 13.

The document says further additional funds to contribute towards the increased costs are provided in 2020 and 2021.

But officials add: "Based on the most recent cashflow projections for the project, there is an overall shortfall of 180m over the years 2020-2022 of additional cash required to meet the increased costs which will need to be funded from within the existing health capital allocation."

Separately, officials brief the minister on the ambulance call and dispatch system in Dublin. Officials say a number of reports since the 1990s have raised concerns about the existence of two separate call and dispatch centres in Dublin; one operated by the National Ambulance Service and the other by Dublin Fire Brigade.

"Current call-taking arrangements represent a patient safety risk and give rise to delays in the allocation of ambulance resources to patients, including in potentially life-threatening situations," they say.

The department's preferred option is said to be a joined-up integrated service from a shared location.

A Department of Health statement last night said that redactions in the briefing document "reflect exemptions provided for in the Freedom of Information Act".

It also referred to the estimates for spending on the health service this year, saying: "As has been previously publicly acknowledged, the delivery of the Plan for 2020 has been severely affected by Covid-19..."

"One of the most pressing tasks is to resume the operation of health and social care services in light of a thankfully much-reduced level of Covid-19 infection.

"Capacity in many services will be reduced and demand is likely to be higher than normal, both because elective activity was postponed during the crisis, and because demand for many services may be higher than pre-Covid levels."
Children were forced to work 14 hours-a-day and given no days off, according to Tamil Nadus child welfare committee.

Efforts to tackle child labour in garment factories in southern India are being ramped up after the rescue of 35 children from a spinning mill, officials said on Thursday, amid concerns of an increase in trafficking as coronavirus restrictions are eased.

In one of the first cases of child labour reported in India since the pandemic, 32 girls and three boys were rescued in Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu state last week following a tip-off to staff at Childline, a toll-free emergency helpline for children.

The children were forced to work 14 hours-a-day and given no days off, according to the districts child welfare committee.

Tiruppurs top official K Vijayakarthikeyan said the local administration had since been carrying out more factory visits in the garment hub to search for cases of child labour.

We are conducting an inquiry and have instructed all our staff to update us on a daily basis, Tiruppurs district-in-charge told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by telephone.

A probe against the mill has been initiated and all efforts are being made to ensure this rare case doesnt happen again.

As India slowly opens up after months of lockdown to control the spread of COVID-19, activists are concerned that more child workers will be recruited and exploited as industries reopen.

Adolescents are likely to be aggressively recruited as industries unlock and the focus is on getting the economy restarted, said Prithviraj Sinnathambi, director of charity Community Awareness Research Education Trust (CARE-T).

Indian labour laws ban the employment of anyone aged below 15 but children are permitted to support family businesses outside of school hours. This provision is widely exploited by employers and human traffickers, child rights campaigners say.

Indias Ministry of Home Affairs last month issued an advisory asking state governments to protect children from traffickers and help identify and rescue missing residents.

The rescue in Tiruppur prompted social worker CM Sivababu to file a legal action asking authorities to identify and help other victims of child labour in garment factories in the area.

Azir Mulla, 14, working at a tailors shop in Guwahati, India, in December 2014 [File: Anupam Nath/AP Photo]

He said labour agents had taken advantage of schools being closed and job losses leaving families on the brink of poverty.

The Madras High Court responded on Thursday by directing police and labour officials to inspect local garment factories and present their findings at the next hearing in the case.

Tiruppur officials said this week they received letters from parents asking them to bring home their children from factories.

One of the girls who was rescued and went back home has shared details of her work conditions with other families, said Bhaskaran Mahalingam, project manager at charity Centre for Social Education and Development.

This has caused alarm and more parents are reaching out for help to bring back their children home safely.

About 2,400 human trafficking cases were reported in India in 2018, with nearly half of the victims aged below 18, according to the latest available government crime data.
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Qualcomm on Wednesday announced its Robotics RB5 platform, with 5G and 4G connectivity, on-device AI and machine learning, superior computing and intelligent sensing capabilities.

The platforms Qualcomm QRB5165 processor, which is customized for robotics applications, offers a heterogeneous computing architecture coupled with the 5th-generation Qualcomm AI Engine  with its new Hexagon Tensor Accelerator  that delivers 15 Tera Trillion Operations Per Second (TOPS) of AI performance.

The QRB5165 has an octa-core Qualcomm Kryo 858 matched with an Adreno 650 GPU and a digital signal processor, Ray Wang, a principal analyst at Constellation Research, told TechNewsWorld.

This makes it super fast, Wang remarked. Its processing rate is 2 Gigapixels per second, it can perform 8K video recording at 30 fps, and handle 200-megapixel photos.

When paired with the AI engine, it has the speed to improve industrial robots, military applications, and even retail and hospitality scenarios, Wang added. You get seven concurrent video cameras that can do things like object detection and classification, self-navigation, and path planning.

Interest in the RB5

At least 20 companies, including LG, drone maker Skydio, security robot maker NXT Robotics, and Chinas delivery robot and drone maker Meitun, had an early look at the technology and will likely use it, Qualcomm said.

More than 30 hardware and software companies are working on ancillary technology to enable various robotics applications. They include drone mapper AirMap; Canonical, which publishes Ubuntu; robot fleet manager InOrbit; and Intel with its RealSense technology for depth and tracking cameras.

Commercial products based on the RB5 platform are expected to be available in 2020, said Dev Singh, head of Qualcomms robotics, drones and intelligent machines business.

This is realistic because theyve been working with over 50 OEMs and partners well before the announcement, Francis Sideco, a senior analyst with Tirias Research, told TechNewsWorld.

Qualcomm is pretty reliable in their predictions, Rob Enderle, principal analyst at The Enderle Group, told TechNewsWorld. Theyre used to a smartphone cadence and this timeframe would easily fit within the 6-month smartphone window.

The RB5s main selling point is that it has low power consumption for an SoC with such high capability, remarked Chris Taylor, a research director at Strategy Analytics.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

In terms of total cost of ownership, the RB5 probably hits a sweet spot for many of the applications Qualcomm talks about compared to existing solutions using more conventional chips, Taylor told TechNewsWorld.

The platform is available with multiple options, and has an option for extended lifecycle until 2029, Singh stated.

The battle for the autonomous enterprise starts with robotics platforms in hardware, Constellation Researchs Wang remarked. Qualcomm has done a good job assembling an ecosystem for the RB5.

Robotics development platforms will be key to accelerate edge computing, the Internet of Things, and automation, he noted. The post-pandemic playbook shows a huge interest in improving robotics, customer facing automation, and ambient experiences.

RB5 Hardware Dev Kit

Thundercomm, a joint venture between Chinese firm Thunder Software Technology Co. Ltd. and Qualcomm (Guizhou) Investment Co. Ltd., is taking pre-orders for the Qualcomm Robotics RB5 hardware development kit, based on the QRB5165 processor.

The kit consists of a robotics-focused development board that complies with the 96Boards open hardware spec to support a range of mezzanine-board expansions for developing proof-of-concepts and rapid prototyping.

Qualcomm Robotics RB5 Development Kit

It supports Linux, Ubuntu and Robot Operating System (ROS) 2 and has pre-integrated drivers for various cameras, sensors and connectivity.

The board supports the 5th generation Qualcomm AI engine. It can operate between -340 degrees and +105 degrees Celsius. It communicates through industrial protocols such as EtherCAT and time-sensitive networking (TSN), and supports security at almost every layer.

The kit will be available in late July.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Thin Competition

The main competitor to the RB5 is Nvidias ISAAC SDK.

Nvidias is the best known, Enderle said. Their Jetson offerings are similar in concept.

Intel has the making of one used in their drone swarms, but they havent packaged it up as well yet, Enderle remarked.

However, the mix of low-power AI and connectivity is unique to Qualcomm, Kevin Krewell, a principal analyst at Tirias Research, told TechNewsWorld.

Robotics is compute-intensive so CPU vendor platforms have the home court advantage, noted Holger Mueller, a principal analyst at Constellation Research.

That said, The main problem is the lack of common standards for robotic automation at present, Mueller told TechNewsWorld.

Potential Market

Theres a lot of interest in 5G in robotics and drones, Krewell said. 5G has lower latency and higher bandwidth, which can reduce connectivity lag.

There is some debate, however, about whether 5G will take off here in the United States.

The United States Federal Communications Commission has a plan to boost 5G, but there are conflicting reports about the market for the technology.

One of the impacts of COVID-19 is the need for more remote interactions, observed Tirias Researchs Sideco. Robots and drones help with this demand and those with 5G and AI even more so.

Some believe the pandemic will push the demand for 5G but others point out that building out 5G networks is not proceeding as rapidly as hoped.

The pandemic slowed manufacturing and some wrongly concluded it spread COVID-19, which has delayed deployment and resulted in the destruction of some 5G towers, Enderle said.

However, We should have decent coverage of major cities and some rural areas in the U.S. by year end.

Lack of coverage wont be a problem because 5G robotics can use 4G, WiFi or no connectivity at all, Strategy Analytics Taylor added.
Security personnel stand guard on a street during the restrictions imposed on the first anniversary of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, at Bhaderwah in Doda district. (PTI)

United Nations: The U.N. Security Council discussed disputed Kashmir at Pakistan's request Wednesday for the third time since India's Hindu nationalist government decided to end the Muslim-majority region's semi-autonomy a year ago.

The U.N.'s most powerful body did not take any action or issue a statement after the virtual meeting behind closed doors.

Nonetheless, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said afterward that holding the meeting signified that Jammu and Kashmir is an international dispute firmly on the agenda of the Security Council and has nullified, yet another time, the Indian self-serving claim that it is an internal matter.

On Aug. 5, 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government stripped Jammu and Kashmir's statehood, scrapped its separate constitution and removed inherited protections on land and jobs. India's action and harsh security clampdown has sparked anger and economic ruin in the region.

Qureshi said in remarks circulated by Pakistan's U.N. Mission that the international community should exercise its moral, legal and political authority to call out India to reverse the tide of impunity and stop genocide of the Kashmiri people.''

He urged India to reverse its unilateral actions, stop human rights and cease-fire violations, remove restrictions on communications, movement and peaceful assembly and immediately release Kashmir's leaders.

The Pakistani minister expressed gratitude to the 15 Security Council members, especially China, for their support in organizing the meeting in the face of India's desperate attempts to prevent this discussion.'' When it went ahead, Qureshi said India tried to minimize the importance and significance of the meeting.''

India's new U.N. Ambassador T.S. Tirumurti tweeted after the meeting: Another attempt by Pakistan fails!''

In today's meeting of UN Security Council which was closed, informal, not recorded and without any outcome, almost all countries underlined that J&K (Jammu and Kashmir) was bilateral issue & did not deserve time and attention of Council,'' he wrote.

Kashmir became an issue at the end of British colonial rule in 1947 when the Indian subcontinent was divided into predominantly Hindu India and mainly Muslim Pakistan and its future was left unresolved. India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over control of Kashmir, which had been a Muslim-majority kingdom ruled by a Hindu maharaja.

The first war ended in 1948 with a U.N.-brokered cease-fire that left Kashmir divided, with the promise of a U.N.-sponsored referendum on its final disposition'' that has never been held.

The U.N. sent military observers to supervise the cease-fire in January 1949 and, following renewed hostilities in 1971, the U.N. mission has remained in the area to observe and report to the secretary-general - not to the Security Council as other peacekeeping missions do.

The Security Council held its first closed consultations on Kashmir since 1971 following India's surprise action in August 2019 to change the Himalayan region's status.

India accuses Pakistan of arming and training insurgents fighting for Kashmir's independence from India or its merger with Pakistan. Pakistan denies the charge and says it offers only diplomatic and moral support to the rebels.
On June 2, Justin LaFrancois attended a protest against police violence and racism in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina, where he planned to livestream the event for his alternative newspapers website.

Shortly into the march, police, who reported that water bottles and rocks were being thrown at them, unleashed a volley of tear gas on the entire crowd, including those who were marching peacefully. The protesters tried to run. But hemmed in by tall buildings and desperate for an escape route, they tugged at the closed gate of a parking garage, pulling it up just high enough so they could slip inside to escape the pepper balls and exploding flashbangs.

Oh, my God, LaFrancois said in a video that captured him wheezing hard and coughing from exposure to the gas. My face is on fire. My eyes are on fire.

At dozens of protests around the country  including repeatedly here in Portland  police have unleashed tear gas on peaceful protesters. Tear gas has commonly been used as a defensive tool by law enforcement to make rioters disperse.

But during the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests, federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies have sometimes been using it offensively, including against peaceful protesters, children, and pregnant women, without providing an escape route or piling on excessive amounts of gas, witnesses and human rights advocates say.

Law enforcement officials say tear gas, if used properly, is an effective tool for crowd control.

Without it, the only thing left to do is physical force  shields and batons, said Deputy Police Chief Jeff Estes of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. Estes said hes been exposed to tear gas and pepper spray many times.

So, I know the effects. I would rather have that than see what weve seen in other places where people who are violently assaulting other people have to get hit with sticks and shields, Estes said.

But interviews by the Associated Press with medical researchers, federal regulatory agencies, and a review of U.S. government-funded scientific studies raise questions about the safety of the gas, especially its use on individuals in confined spaces, in excessive quantities, and when its fired directly at protesters. Medical professionals interviewed by the AP said the use of tear gas is particularly concerning during the COVID-19 epidemic. The AP also found that there is no government oversight of the manufacture and use of tear gas. Instead, the industry is left to regulate itself.

I think this is deeply problematic because theres no transparency around the manufacture or the sale of these weapons, said Rohini Haar, an emergency room physician and researcher at the University of California School of Public Health in Berkeley who has published studies on tear gas. The U.S. has an obligation to protect its citizens. We regulate so many other things. This is an actual chemical weapon.

Haar said her research shows that tear gas has also been getting stronger over the years. She said she is particularly concerned about the unknown health effects of silicon that is sometimes added to tear gas to make it last longer in the air and on surfaces.

Portland environmental officials say theyll likely learn later this month whether traces of tear gas got into the citys stormwater system, following what they called the unprecedented amount of tear gas used by local and federal law enforcement agencies since May. OPB reported that dozens of protesters believe their regular exposure to tear gas during Portland demonstrations led to irregularities within their menstrual cycles. The Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research plans to study the effects of tear gas on local protesters, with researchers saying there isnt at lot of data on how it might affect people with menstrual cycles.

The AP reached out to the five leading tear gas producers in the United States. Four never responded to repeated requests for comment. A fifth, the Safariland Group, declined an interview request through a public relations firm but noted that the company was divesting Defense Technology, its tear gas maker, to its current managers in the third quarter of this year.

Tear gas was developed around World War I and is banned in warfare by the Chemical Weapons Convention, ratified by almost every country in the world including the United States. But it allows chemicals classified as riot control agents, including tear gas, to be used for law enforcement.

However the provisions of the agreement dont regulate what counts as a riot-control agent, said Anna Feigenbaum, author of the book Tear Gas: From the Battlefields of World War I to the Streets of Today.

And they ignore or fail to address offensive use of such agents by law enforcement, Feigenbaum told AP.

Tear gas works by using a host of chemicals that render individuals unable to function by causing irritation to the eyes, mouth, throat, lungs, and skin.

But despite its widespread use, medical experts say there are few studies on the health effects of tear gas, and many focus on the impact of crowd control irritants on military personnel, a population that tends to be healthier and in better physical condition than the general public. The U.S. Army even moved to protect its own troops after a study published in 2014 showed that recruits exposed to tear gas in basic training had a nearly 2.5-times greater risk of being diagnosed with acute respiratory illness. The Army reacted by lowering concentrations of tear gas and shortening exposure times for the training.

A 2014 study funded by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Defense, and the National Academy of Sciences did try to specify levels of tear gas concentrations that can cause irreversible damage or death.

But Sven Eric Jordt, an associate professor and researcher at Duke Universitys School of Medicine, who has long studied tear gas, is critical of the study, saying it merely recommended levels that should not be exceeded and relied heavily on research thats a half-century or more years old.

Thor Eells, executive director of the non-profit National Tactical Officers Association, said in a telephone interview the substances are so safe that even if a police department used its entire inventory at one time, no one would be killed or sustain serious injury. Eells has taught tear gas use with a Colorado police department and with Defense Technology.

An agency will not have enough of the chemical munitions in their current inventory to come even close to being dangerous, he said.

The American Thoracic Society is calling for a moratorium on tear gas, citing the the lack of crucial research, the escalation of tear gas use by law enforcement, and the likelihood of compromising lung health and promoting the spread of COVID-19.

-- The Associated Press, staff reports
Gemma Collins has shared her experience of suffering a "very sad" miscarriage during lockdown.

The 39-year-old, who has recently split with boyfriend James 'Arg' Argent, appeared on Loose Women on Thursday where she discussed how her ability to have children has been affected by polycystic ovary syndrome.

It was really difficult for me in isolation because, as you know, with my condition of PCOS, its not easy to fall pregnant and I did suffer a miscarriage which was really sad during the lockdown period, she told the ITV panelists as she spoke via video call.

Read more: Gemma Collins shocked to discover shes paying for 6 phone bills

She added: I have suffered with it for the last 10 years. I started to gain weight when I was 28, my periods were all over the place. Ive suffered miscarriages.

Gemma Collins at the Dancing On Ice red carpet launch at the Natural History Museum Ice Rink. (Photo by Keith Mayhew/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

I did go through a very sad miscarriage in lockdown. Due to PCOS I just thought that I was having an unusually heavy period. I actually left it 10 days. I can remember thinking the month before, Ooh, my boobs seem really perky! Its been no secret recently that Ive found my boobs so heavy in my life, Im turning 40 this year, I will not be taking them into the next decade with me. So, I thought, Oh, maybe I wont have the operation, Ive been working out, maybe theyre lifting up a bit.

"Then 3 or 4 days into a heavy period really realising its not like a usual period but thinking theres been a lot going on lately, maybe my bodys been a bit stressed."

James Argent and Gemma Collins attends the National Television Awards held at the O2 Arena on January 22, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images)

After experiencing heavy bleeding Collins shared her concerns with her sister-in-law before contacting her doctor, who told her to head straight to the hospital.

"It was very sad. But it does make me realise that, potentially there is hope there for me for the future," she added before stating she would consider having a baby with help from a sperm donor.

It comes as Collins only recently opened up about experiencing a miscarriage at four months in 2012.

The TOWIE star said the baby had "died in front of her" after she miscarried at home without realising she was pregnant.
The compounded economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic are felt especially by women and girls who are generally earning less, saving less, holding insecure jobs, or living close to poverty.

Ntombi Mhangwani

...if everyone in businesses recognise the value that gender mainstreaming brings, they would not only help solve underlying societal issues but also accelerate and drive their innovation agenda.

Now more than ever, businesses should be aggressive in their adoption of gender mainstreaming as a core business principle. About eight years ago, Business Engage initiated the Gender Mainstreaming Awards (GMAs) to celebrate gender mainstreaming and encourage the private sector to buy-in to achieving more meaningful representation of women in the mainstream of business.Celebrating gender mainstreaming is a priority, now more than ever. As the current pandemic deepens the prevailing economic and social stress, women are facing many stages of anxiety having to juggle numerous responsibilities of the home, and of the workplace where they often face unfair treatment, says Ntombi Mhangwani, Africa Director for Integrated Marketing and Communications, and Womens Forum Lead.Accolades such as the GMAs encourage the private sector to move beyond tabling the issue at boardroom level, to implementing it into their core business practices. This is why we have committed ourselves as a partner in the annual GMAs which are set to take place in September this year, states Mhangwani.The GMAs seeks to encourage the private sector to buy-in to achieving a more meaningful representation of women in the mainstream of business. Gender mainstreaming has been on the agenda worldwide for several years, yet we understand that many companies are just starting on their journey. The awards, therefore, act as a springboard to further their achievements, says Colleen Larsen, CEO at Business Engage.So far we have received nominations from both the private sector and government under various categories. We are currently in the final adjudication and shortlisting stages, leading to the virtual awards ceremony on 3 September 2020. The entire process has been done online, states Larsen.According to Larsen, progress has been made in recent years to implement policies that favour diversity and gender equality in the workplace, but many of the gains are now at risk of being rolled back due to the widespread Covid-19 pandemic and resultant grim economic outlook. It is for this reason that we are advocating more aggressively for gender mainstreaming in the workplace. We are doing so by  among others  celebrating companies that embrace the representation of women in the workplace to encourage wider adoption of gender equality policies in the private sector, she says.Accenture states that their support of the initiative is aligned to their core business goals. Several years ago, we set two clear goals: to achieve a gender-balanced workforce by 2025 and to increase the diversity of our leadership by growing the percentage of women managing directors to at least 25% by the end of 2020.Today, our workforce is 44% women and the percentage of women managing directors is 24%, states Mhangwani. Treating our gender goals  like any other business priority  we hold leaders accountable, collect data, measure progress and publish workforce demographics across key geographies, she adds.For companies looking to embark on their adoption of gender mainstreaming policy, Business Engage developed a comprehensive, widely researched document that provides best practices for Gender Mainstreaming in the South African private sector. We encourage the private sector to consider these best practices and to implement the chosen best practices in their Gender Mainstreaming endeavours, Mhangwani concludes.
Photograph: Stefani Reynolds/EPA

New York prosecutors investigating Donald Trumps finances previously issued a subpoena to Deutsche Bank, one of the foremost lenders to the presidents business, as part of their inquiry  and the bank complied, according to the New York Times.

The office of the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance, is seeking eight years of the presidents personal and corporate tax records, but has disclosed little about what prompted the prosecutor and his team to request the records beyond payoffs to women to silence them about alleged affairs with Trump in the past.

Lawyers for Vance told a judge in New York on Monday that he was justified in demanding the records from Trump, citing public reports of extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization.

Related: Prosecutor says Trump investigation is broader than hush-money payoffs

A report emerged on Wednesday that Vances office subpoenaed the German lender last year in what the New York Times said was a sign that their criminal investigation into Trumps business practices is more wide-ranging than previously known.

The report noted that this appeared to be the first instance of a criminal inquiry involving Trump and his dealings with Deutsche Bank.

The German bank, which has been a longstanding source of financing to Trumps real estate empire, obeyed the subpoena and handed over records supplied by Trump to the bank during the course of applying for loans, the report said, citing unnamed sources with knowledge of the investigation.

Trumps lawyers last month said the grand jury subpoena for the presidents tax returns was issued in bad faith and amounted to harassment.

In a court filing on Monday, though, attorneys for Vance said Trumps arguments that the subpoena was too broad stemmed from the false premise that the investigation was limited to so-called hush-money payments.

They said public reporting demonstrates that at the time the subpoena was issued there were public allegations of possible criminal activity at plaintiffs New York county-based Trump Organization dating back over a decade.

Story continues

They added: These reports describe transactions involving individual and corporate actors based in New York county, but whose conduct at times extended beyond New Yorks borders. This possible criminal activity occurred within the applicable statutes of limitations, particularly if the transactions involved a continuing pattern of conduct.

Vance sought the tax records in part for an investigation of how Michael Cohen, Trumps former fixer and now convicted felon, arranged to keep the adult film producer and actor Stormy Daniels and the model Karen McDougal from airing claims of extramarital affairs with Trump during the 2016 presidential race. Trump has denied the affairs.

On Wednesday, the New York Times further reported that the subpoena to Deutsche Bank sought any materials that might point to possible fraud and that Deutsches cooperation contrasted with numerous other attempts to access Trumps financial records over the years that have been blocked by successful legal challenges.

Other investigators have requested records from Deutsche Bank, which was one of the few banks willing to lend to Trump after a series of corporate bankruptcies starting in the early 1990s.

Two congressional committees, both controlled by Democrats, subpoenaed the bank for documents related to Trump, who sued to block their release.

The New York attorney general, Letitia James, a Democrat, also subpoenaed the bank for records related to Trump last year following Cohens testimony.

Trump has said the investigations are all politically motivated. Earlier this week, he called Vances investigation a continuation of the witch-hunt.
Schools across Texas will be beginning the school year in the coming weeks, making adjustments to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, and many private schools across northwest Harris County are making adjustments as well.

Frassati Catholic High School in Spring will be reopening Aug. 12, providing two different options for their returning students to either come in person or learn remotely for the first quarter of the school year, which ends Oct. 9.

Tomball ISD to start school Sept. 8: School district approves revisions to 2020-21 instructional calendar

We do have the majority of our students coming back in person, and since May, we have worked out a set of protocols and procedures for really mitigating the inherent risks of COVID-19 spread, Frassati High School Director of Marketing and Communications Tim Lienhard said. As we understand from the science, its impossible to make a completely safe environment, but we put additional health and safety practices in places to help us promote health and safety around campus.

Much like public schools, Lienhard said Frassati would also be practicing social distancing inside of their school and said its easier to spread out students in classrooms because they have a smaller student population. Masks will also be mandatory inside the school and hand sanitizer stations have been installed throughout the building.

On HoustonChronicle.com: COVID and the flu: Gov. Abbott warns Texans of dangerous convergence this fall

Were making sure our students and their families operate out of a sense of caution, Lienhard said. If theyre sick, we ask them to stay home and do remote learning.

Additionally, Lienhard said they would be extending transition time between class periods to 15 minutes to allow for staggered dismissals in order to prevent congestion. Teachers will also have disinfectant sprays in classrooms and a cleaning vendor would disinfect the entire campus at the end of each school day.

For those students who learn from home, Lienhard said they would be using a synchronous learning model, where students will be watching the class from their computers via a webcam installed in each classroom. They can also chat during class to ask questions to the teachers.

Northland Christian School, covering Klein and Spring, will be beginning their new school year Wednesday, and are also offering live online classes for students whose families choose to stay home.

Spring ISD relays back-to-school plans: Spring ISD holds virtual town hall to answer reopening questions

We have some advantages being a small school generally, Northland Christian School Director of Special Projects Elizabeth Chavez said. We already have small classroom sizes, a lot of available space to spread out, and flexibility in adjusting schedules to minimize crowds.

Chavez said every classroom has been adjusted for social distancing, with some minor construction done over the summer to move walls to make a safer environment inside the school.

Other adjustments include similar measures seen in other public and private schools, including mask mandates indoors, and a regular cleaning schedule to keep classrooms germ-free.

The decision to reopen the school came from a large number of the schools parents who said they couldnt continue with online learning, Chavez said.

Because they feel ill-equipped to support their students or no longer have the option, Chavez said. We figured the best way to serve our entire community was to offer a significantly different format of on-campus learning to protect our teachers, but also do online learning. And parents can make that adjustment throughout the year.

Students can switch to online learning when they want, she said, and added that Northland is discouraging students from coming to campus if theres even a hint of exposure or symptoms of COVID-19.

Concordia Lutheran High School in Tomball will be reopening Aug. 25 with both remote and in-person learning available for families to choose from. The schools director of advancement, Jonathan Schleicher, said about 88 percent of the schools 560 students would be learning on campus, while the other 12 percent would be learning from home. Families can decide every six weeks whether they want to continue learning in person.

Almost all of our classrooms are over 800 square feet and we only have about 18 to 20 kids per class, so were able to kind of spread them out compared to schools where there can be upwards of 25 to 30 kids, Schleicher said.

The school is following similar social distancing procedures as other schools and would also be providing three different places for students to spread out during lunch, as well as adding a third lunch period. Social distancing would also be enforced during this time, requiring students to stay six feet apart.

Schleicher said theyve also seen a slight increase in enrollment over the summer, with more than 560 students enrolled, compared to less than 550 at the end of the year last year.

Its hard to do those organic chemistry classes at home, or the physics II AP classes where you need to be here for the labs, otherwise, when theyre just on Zoom and writing the reactions, its not the same, Schleicher said. They want to make sure their kid isnt getting out of alignment for college prep.

At Covenant Academy in Cypress, Head of School Leslie Collins said parents surveyed overwhelmingly wanted to restart school in person, particularly for younger students, but said they would be offering remote learning options for students grade 7 and above.

That is primarily because we anticipate a higher number of absences throughout the year as parents exercise the caution we are asking of them, Collins said.

Collins said they have enhanced cleaning protocols at the school and found ways to limit the number of people in one place at any one time, but said they are focused on equipping parents with the tools and information they need. Students will be eating with their classes during lunch hours, and she said their campus layout would allow for students to eat outdoors and socially distanced.

The Banff School in the Cy-Fair and Klein area will start school again Aug. 19, but classes will be online only through Labor Day, Admissions Director Josh Harbour said, based on recommendations from the Harris County Health Department.

Were still a little bit on the fence of how were gonna progress from that point, Harbour said. Obviously, if the health department doesnt come back and extend their recommendation we will definitely come back on campus.

Harbour said they would come back to school with regular hours five days a week, but also still provide an online option for those who dont want to come in or have a sick family member. If the recommendation is extended, he said they would either continue with online-only classes or possible look at having only elementary school-level grades coming to school, as he said those students require more parental involvement when learning from home.

We had previously surveyed our parents prior and up until that order came out, almost 85 percent of parents wanted kids to come back on campus, Harbour said. We dont want to fly in the face of what the health department says but were trying to make a balance there.

paul.wedding@hcnonline.com
The funeral cortege of the former SDLP leader John Hume leaves St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry following his funeral service

The Maiden City mourned John Hume in dignity and solemnity as Ireland's great peacemaker was laid to rest.

The silence spoke loudest in the spattering rain as ordinary people stood outside Derry's St Eugene's Cathedral, the proceedings inside not even piped by loudspeaker to those who stood in vigil on the pavements beyond.

Inside were the dignitaries and VIPs, hearing messages of condolence and remembrance from the famous and far-trumpeted. Not a word came to the mute shoals who continued their watch beneath umbrellas, faithful to the last moment for their brother and neighbour.

Many of the mourners, on both sides of the street, wore masks as they watched. One or two listened to live audio feeds with headphones, while one old man had a tinny transistor pressed to his ear. They peered through the railings; old and young women in headscarves and anoraks, drifting in their talk to mundane topics as they awaited the end of the requiem and promised sight of the wicker casket of an international hero.

Ushered

Undertakers, drivers and others were inside the grounds, also masked, standing apart in accordance with family wishes for Covid-19 compliance, in bitter irony for a man most famous for bringing people together. The crowd focussed its gaze on the Great West Door, wondering when the occasion would conclude, occasionally looking to the statue of St Eugene high above on the spire... ordered from the firm of Pearse & Sons in Dublin, one of those sons, christened Patrick, being the man who had most dramatically ushered the gun into Irish politics over a century ago.

Inside the cathedral, a poem by John Hume's son Aidan insisted that patriotism was borne of sweat, not blood; its sentiment rhyming that 'the gun' was a dud. Instead, his father, "a wee boy from the Glen," could dismantle power with his words from a pen.

Occasionally, on the pavements, they perceived ripples of applause - and some applauded in common cause, not knowing the precise reason why.

But it echoed other public applause in this city, from a decade ago when the Saville verdict was handed down in the Guildhall that innocent civilians had been murdered on Bloody Sunday by the British army. Cheers of happiness had then been the order of the day on the square outside.

Applause

Only the bell tolling its orisons told the eyewitnesses yesterday that the ceremony was coming to a close. A woman dabbed her eyes, and afterwards declined to comment. "It's just myself," she said, but her demeanour showed it really was what he had meant to her.

People were pleased to see Arlene Foster there. "She had to come, but it's good to see her all the same," said one.

Faint strains of 'The Town I Love So Well' drifted out and they felt silent and strained to listen.

Then the wicker coffin emerged, and the outside admirers burst into a ripple of applause. It was lifted into the hearse, and the ovation continued for the family as they followed out and watched it lifted into the hearse.
Washington D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - August 6, 2020) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that World Acceptance Corporation, a South Carolina-based consumer loan company, has agreed to pay $21.7 million to resolve charges that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

The SEC's order finds that from at least December 2010 through June 2017, World Acceptance Corporation's former Mexican subsidiary, WAC de Mexico S.A. de C.V., paid more than $4 million in bribes to Mexican government officials and union officials to secure the ability to make loans to government employees and ensure that those loans were repaid in a timely manner. According to the SEC's order, WAC Mexico paid the bribes in a variety of ways, including by depositing money into bank accounts linked to the officials and by hiring an intermediary to distribute large bags of cash among the officials. The SEC's order finds that these bribes were inaccurately recorded in World Acceptance Corporation's books and records as legitimate business expenses. The SEC's order further finds that World Acceptance Corporation lacked internal accounting controls sufficient to detect or prevent the payments of such bribes and that management lacked the appropriate tone at the top regarding internal audit and compliance, thereby undermining the effectiveness of those functions.

"This long-running bribe scheme did not happen in a vacuum. Through a lack of adequate internal accounting controls and a culture that undermined its internal audit and compliance functions, World Acceptance Corporation created the perfect environment for illicit activity to occur for nearly a decade," said Charles E. Cain, Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division's FCPA Unit.

Without admitting or denying the SEC's findings, World Acceptance Corporation consented to the entry of an order requiring that the company cease and desist from violating the anti-bribery, books and records, and internal controls provisions of the FCPA, and pay $17.826 million in disgorgement, $1.9 million in prejudgment interest, and a $2 million penalty.

The SEC's investigation was conducted by Jennifer T. Calabrese of the FCPA Unit and supervised by Ansu N. Banerjee. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Department of Justice Criminal Division's Fraud Section, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Nonetheless, questions regarding migrant workers rarely come up. Most estates are small enough, 10 to 30 acres, to be farmed with a local labor force. For harvests, vineyard owners typically find the necessary hands among friends and family.

But Ms. Passalacqua farmed 80 hectares, almost 200 acres, making her an outlier in natural wine as well as a sort of unicorn for importers.

They saw a rare opportunity to scale up their businesses, to buy in quantity and sell bottles that would retail in the moderate $20-to-$30 range, especially important at a time when most wines from France, their prime source for natural wine, have been subject to a 25 percent tariff.

When you throw an 80-hectare winery onto the market all of a sudden, it fills these critical holes in natural wine, said Zev Rovine of Zev Rovine Selections, which imported her Valentina Passalacqua wines, one of several Passalacqua brands, until mid-July. Very few natural wines are cheap, and she filled that hole with as much wine as you might want.

The question of whether to continue doing business with Ms. Passalacqua fell squarely into the larger discussion of social and economic privilege. While some people scoffed at Ms. Passalacquas efforts to distance herself from her father, others pointed to benefits that she enjoyed as a result of the wealth he created over many years in businesses that may not have always been above the law.

In a sense, her case could be likened to that of white American families in the 20th century who were able to build wealth by buying real estate in areas that racially discriminated against Black people, creating economic advantages that extended for generations. Though perhaps descendants of those families have done nothing wrong personally, they have still benefited from past injustices.

I do believe Valentina in her heart is a really good person, that she sees injustice and wants to change things, Mr. Rovine said. She says shes fought her father all her life, and that she doesnt believe in her fathers way of business.
The Defence Headquarters says farmers in the North Western part of the country have returned to their farms as the troops of the Armed Forces of Nigeria have continued clearance operations in the zone.

The Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, John Enenche, a major general, disclosed this while giving updates on military operations across the country on Thursday in Abuja.

Mr Enenche said troops scaled-up kinetic and non-kinetic operations in the general areas of Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto and adjoining states leading to gradual restoration of overall human activities in the zone.

He said activities of armed bandits, cattle rustlers and kidnappers and other sundry crimes had made life unbearable for locals in those areas.

However, through the concerted efforts of Operations Hadarin Daji, Katsina, Accord and Sahel Sanity, farmers have returned to their farms while other economic activities are gradually picking up across the zone.

Additionally, within the period under review, troops continued to dominate the general area with clearance patrols, aggressive fighting patrols, raids, ambushes and confidence-building patrols.

This is additional to several air bombardments of identified bandits locations and hideouts, which has made it possible for the conduct of farming and other activities in the zone.

These operations also resulted in the rescue of kidnapped victims, recovery of rustled livestock, arrest of suspected armed bandits informants and collaborators in addition to the recoveries of large cache of arms and ammunition, among others within the period, he said.

In the North-central Zone, Mr Enenche said troops continued to conduct Civil Military Cooperation (CIMIC) activities in addition to reconciliation efforts among various ethnic groups in the zone.

He added that the troops had continued to support the non-kinetic efforts with ambushes, raids, and clearance operations at various locations within the period under review.

He said between July 30 and August 1, Headquarters Operation Safe Haven commenced a survey for the drilling of boreholes at Shimlang community in Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau state.

He added that two other solar powered boreholes were inaugurated at Messiah College and Gana Ropp communities in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area.

He added that Operation Safe Haven had also held a series of reconciliatory meetings with various ethnic groups in Sanga and Jamaa Local Government Areas of Kaduna State and Barkin Ladi and Bassa Local Government Areas of Plateau.

Mr Enenche said all meetings were held with the leaders of the various ethnic groups including Hausa, Fulani and Berom among others.

Issues discussed centred on habitual and peaceful coexistence among the various ethnic groups.

Similarly, Headquarters Operation WHIRL STROKE held peace meetings in the Katsina-Ala Local Government Area of Benue State between the Ardo of the Fulani community and the Tiv leaders in the general area, he said.

Mr Enenche further disclosed that troops also conducted a drug raid operation to Unguwar Mata and New Market in Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau on August 4 following credible intelligence on the activities of drug peddlers in the area.

He said seven suspects were arrested at the scene, adding that a large quantity of substances suspected to be Cannabis Sativa and other illicit drugs were also recovered.

He said the suspects were subsequently handed over to police for further action.

The Military High Command commends all the gallant troops of the Armed Forces and personnel of other security agencies involved in various operations across the country for their commitment and professionalism.

Troops are further encouraged to remain resolute and decisive in curtailing the activities of terrorists, armed bandits and other criminals.

The High Command of the Armed Forces also reassures the general public of its commitment to securing the country for all human activities to strive.

Members of the general public are, as always, enjoined to continue providing timely information on the activities of criminals in their various localities to the nearest military and other security agencies location for prompt and effective action, he said.

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Uber just reported second quarter results including revenue that beat analysts' expectations but declined by about 29% from $3.17 billion during the same period last year. The stock dipped more than 2% in after-hours trading. Here's how the ride-hailing and food delivery company did versus what Wall Street expected: Losses: $1.02 per share vs. 86 cents per share (adj.) expected, according to a consensus of analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.

$1.02 per share vs. 86 cents per share (adj.) expected, according to a consensus of analysts surveyed by Refinitiv. Revenue: $2.24 billon vs. $2.18 billion, as per Refinitiv. Here's how the business units performed versus what analysts expected for the quarter: Rides (gross bookings): $3.05 billion vs. $3.47 billion expected, according to estimates compiled by StreetAccount

$3.05 billion vs. $3.47 billion expected, according to estimates compiled by StreetAccount Eats (gross bookings): $6.96 billion vs. $6.57 billion expected, as per StreetAccount.

During the period ending June 30, 2020, the coronavirus pandemic continued to limit people's travel and commuting, and to weigh heavily on Uber's core ride-hailing business, sending gross bookings down 73% in constant currency measurements. The pandemic did drive demand for Uber's food delivery business, however, and bookings were up 113% there. On an earnings call Thursday, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said, "The Covid crisis has moved delivery from a luxury to a utility." He believes Uber users will continue to order food and other items through Uber delivery services even after the pandemic subsides, and stay-at-home orders are lifted. Among other new delivery services the company is offering, Uber Connect lets users send small packages via UberX drivers to local destinations. The service has made 3 million trips globally since it launched in early June, the CEO said. He also said that the ride-hailing business was recovering at different rates in different parts of the world. Khosrowshahi said, "When cities move again so does Uber." Rides were down 50% to 85% in top U.S. markets during the second quarter, he said, but in top European markets, including France, Spain and Germany, rides were only down about 35% year-over-year.

The company was able to narrow its net losses to $1.8 billion, a major improvement from last year when stock-based compensation contributed to a net loss of $5.24 billion.

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Tuesday's blast at Lebanon's Beirut port has been as much of a shock to Iran as anywhere else in the world. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted condolences in Arabic and English and spoke with Lebanese Foreign Minister Charbel Wehbe. Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei tweeted condolences as well. Iran flew in three airplanes of aid to the country immediately after the explosion.

Hossein Salami, commander of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, also vowed to help Iran. The Lebanese people are the great stars of resistance in the Islamic world and have always faced events with patience and endurance, Salami said. All of our abilities will be mobilized to help the people of Lebanon.

Salamis reference to the resistance is to the group Hezbollah, which Iran has funded since its early stages. Irans close links to Lebanon and Hezbollah is certainly one reason why so many Iranian newspapers covered the blast on their front pages. The port was one of the main entryways for food and other goods into the country, and in addition to the billions in damages done to the country, it also displaced hundreds of thousands of citizens from the capital.

Mashregh News talked about some of the possible political scenarios that could unfold as a result of the blast. Comparing the blast to the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri  for which Hezbollah members have been the prime suspects  the article said that the explosion could be used as an excuse to bring more foreign interference into the country that is even more dangerous. The article talked about the anti-corruption protests and the calls to form a new government, saying the explosion may open the door for the United States to politically exploit the situation in helping to shape the new government.

The article stated that given this port imported approximately 70% of Lebanons needs, the financial assistance that will be necessary will force concessions against Hezbollah. The article said the media  aligned with the United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel  will work hard to paint Hezbollah as being responsible for the explosion.

In other news, Iran recorded its lowest confirmed daily death toll from the coronavirus since July 10. According to Health Ministry Spokesperson Sima Sadat Lari, 174 people died in the last 24 hours. The lowest daily death toll had been 142 on July 10. The total death toll is now almost 18,000. The Health Ministry, however, has said previously that the actual number of deaths is certainly higher because certain individuals who had symptoms of the virus, were treated at hospitals and had died before testing positive were not accounted for in the official numbers according to World Health Organization protocols.

President Hassan Rouhani today reiterated that Iran will continue to go ahead with the Muharram religious holiday ceremonies later in August despite the health concerns of dealing with the pandemic. At the meeting of the National Headquarters for Combatting Coronavirus, Rouhani said that local headquarters for combatting the virus will issue safety and health guidelines for conducting the religious ceremonies, and it will be up to the custodians of the mosques and shrines to make sure those guidelines are followed.
The General Overseer of Believers Love World (also called Christ Embassy), Chris Oyakhilome, has berated President Muhammadu Buhari and other African leaders for seeking medical care and COVID-19 vaccines in foreign countries.

Mr Oyakhilome said this during a live broadcast to his congregation on Sunday, charging the leaders to wake up for the development of the continent.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr Buhari was a frequent visitor to the United Kingdom for medical care  an action that has been met with criticism from good governance advocates and opposition parties.

On June 6, 2016, Mr Buhari left Nigeria for his first medical vacation. The president took a 10-day medical trip to London to treat an ear infection. He returned from that journey on June 19, 2016.

In 2017, President Buhari spent nearly four months of medical leave in London.

In 2018, Mr Buhari left Abuja on a four-day medical trip to the UK. He had stayed in London for two days prior to that week.

However, during his sermon of Sunday, Mr Oyakhilome said it is a shame that leaders of Africa still have to travel to Europe and America to get medication when they get sick.

You should be ashamed, the pastor said. At this time of your life, you should have grown up, What are all the universities you have built, what are they for? It is about time you started thinking.

Speaking further, Mr Oyakhilome decried the reliance of African countries on foreign countries for COVID-19 vaccines.

The viral respiratory disease has ravaged the globe and its economies for more than five months. Nigeria has recorded over 44,000 infections so far and with no end in sight.

READ ALSO:

Meanwhile, the country is not participating in the ongoing clinical trials on COVID-19 vaccines.

It would be a shame and this time of your life and history if vaccines have to be imported to Africa to help Africa. Its a shame and a failure on the part of all the leaders, Mr Oyakhilome said.

Your great-grandfather was helped. Your grandfather was helped. Now you want to be helped when you ought to come up with your own vaccines. If you need vaccines, whatever medicines you need, it is a shame that leaders of African nations still have to travel.

Also, the clergyman alleged that foreign countries take Africas best to improve their nations.

I look at the brain drain. They take the best of Africa, take them away to Europe, take them away to America and now to Asia to China

Borrowing

Mr Oyakhilome also lamented the spate of borrowings from foreign countries amongst African countries.

Nigerias debt profile has raised concerns in recent times, particularly with the furore resulting from the controversial loans obtained from China.

According to the Debt Management Office (DMO), total loans from the Chinese government and affiliate agencies to Nigeria is about $3.121 billion.

It added that in terms of external sources of funds, Chinese loans account for about 11.28 per cent of the countrys external debt stock of $27.67 billion by the same date.

At this time, every nation in Africa that is still calling for help from another country, the leadership is a shame. You have more than enough resources to help your country. Why are you borrowing money from Nations that dont have it? Europe doesnt have enough resources to borrow your money nor does China. They only borrow you the money that they got from you, Mr Oyakhilome said.
GRAND BLANC, MI -- Grand Blanc Community Schools is ready to provide online, hybrid or in-person learning options to students returning to class this year.

The districts board approved a back-to-school plan Wednesday, July 29.

The plan took careful consideration and collaboration with staff and families, Superintendent Clarence Garner said in a letter to parents. The process of developing multiple back to school scenarios began in May.

We know that many are unsure about about sending children back into the classroom setting at this time, Garner said. Certainly, some of our staff have concerns and reservations about their own safety and that of their loved ones. We value every member of our community and truly seek to keep all as safe as possible while providing the bet educational options we can.

The plan includes all-online, blended instruction or fully open options based on what phase of Gov. Gretchen Whitmers five-phase back-to-school roadmap the region is in by the time class starts.

Most school districts are currently in Phase 4.

However, many districts are unsure if by fall the region will remain in Phase 4, which allows in-person instruction. If the region is dropped to Phase 3 or lower by the time class starts, districts will be required to teach online.

If in Phase 4, the Grand Blanc district is offering hybrid learning. This means classrooms will only be half-full, allowing for 6-foot spacing between students.

Students who do not opt for the online option will attend school in shifts. Students in grades 4-12 will be split into two groups with half attending class in-person Monday and Thursday and half attending Tuesday and Friday.

Students in grades K-3 will meet face-to-face on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

On Wednesdays and days they are not attending in-person instruction, students will work remotely.

If the region is in Phase 5, full time face-to-face instruction resumes.

More than 300 students are already signed up for only virtual learning so far, according to Garner. The district asks that parents who would like their student in the online only option register by Monday, Aug 10.

Read more about the plan here.

To help you navigate this complicated fall, were pleased to offer you a simpler way to get all of your education news: Our new Michigan Schools: Education in the COVID Era newsletter delivered right to your inbox. To receive this newsletter, simply click here to sign up.

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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Hard talk on the hotline: India snubs China on step back suggestion

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Aug 06: In a snub to the Chinese, India has conveyed that it will not move back from its current military position north of Pangong Tso. China had on Sunday suggested this step and said that this would break the deadlock in the disengagement process.

However India made it clear to China that until the dis-engagement process as discussed by the military commanders of both sides is complete, there will be no moving back.

Following the meeting that was held between the two military commanders, a high powered panel headed by National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval reviewed the Chinese response. Following the meeting, India conveyed to Beijing on hotline that it is in no hurry to de-escalate, unless and until the Chinese dis-engage as agreed by the military commanders.

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During the meeting on August 2, China had suggested that India move back in order to break the deadlock. The west of Finger 4 was under India's control and the suggestion by China that India moves back here is not acceptable, officials familiar with the developments told OneIndia.

The high powered committee also known as the China Study Group held discussions on Tuesday and analysed the response by the Chinese. The meeting that lasted three hours was also attended by Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh, Foreign Minister, S Jaishankar and Army Chief General M M Naravane.

The fifth meeting of the commanders was held on August 2. The panel headed by NSA Doval is informally known as the China Study Group.

The source said that India reiterated to China for complete disengagement and de-escalation. India also sought for full restoration of peace and tranquility in the border areas as had been agreed upon during the earlier meetings.

RBI: Repo rate unchanged at 4%, Reverse Repo Rate unchanged at 3.3% | Oneindia News

The Indian side also sought for restoration of status quo ante along the Line of Actual Control, the source also added. The official cited above said that the Doval led panel would analyse China's response during the talks.

During the meeting of the military commanders on Sunday, India said that it wanted immediate disengagement at patrolling point 17 (Gogra) and Pangong Tso fingers. While the de-escalation at these points would be a short term solution, diplomatic channels are looking at a long term solution as well which would ensure that the soldiers of both sides are kept apart.

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Story first published: Thursday, August 6, 2020, 8:44 [IST]
Lebanese authorities categorially dismissed on Wednesday rumors about subversive action or an Israeli trace in a powerful blast in Beirut on Tuesday, Trend reports citing TASS.

Lebanese Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi dismissed the possibility of Israels role in the tragedy, Lebanon 24 television reported. Commenting on journalists saying that people had seen Israeli planes shortly before the blast, he said "You know, there is such a thing as fake news".

According to LBCI television, the army command also denied allegations about premeditated detonation, calling them false rumors in a communique and asking to wait for the official results of the probe in the blast.

The interior minister pledged that the probe would be transparent and would take five days.

Shortly after the blast rocked the port area of Beirut, Arab users of social networking systems engaged in active discussion of Israels possible involvement in the tragedy, coming up with numerous conspiracy theories.

However, Israeli authorities stated immediately after the blast that Israel had nothing to do with it. The Israeli Foreign Minsitry said on Tuesday that at the direction of Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi and Defense Minister Benjamin Gantz, Israel had offered humanitarian medical assistance to the government of Lebanon via security and international channels.

Israels Kan public radio station said Israel had also expressed readiness to receive people hurt in the blast for medical treatment. "This is the time to transcend conflict," Israel Defense Forces tweeted on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the head of the Jewish states National Security Council Meir Ben Shabat to discuss ways of sending aid to Beirut with UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov.

A powerful blast rocked the Beirut seaport area near the Lebanese Navys base on August 4, sending a shockwave through residential neighborhoods of the Lebanese capital. The shockwave destroyed and damaged dozens of buildings and cars. Local authorities say the blast was caused by the detonation of 2,700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, stored in the port after being confiscated by the customs services in 2015.

According to latest updates, at least 135 people were killed and over 4,000 were injured. Dozens are still missing. Over 300,000 people were left homeless.
The Calcutta High Court made the observation while allowing an anticipatory bail plea moved by an ETV reporter whose story on bribery among police officials earned him an FIR.

The Calcutta High Court, allowing the anticipatory bail plea of an ETV reporter whose story on bribery among police officials resulted in an FIR against him, observed that it is a "fundamental right of a press reporter to publish any news which may not be palatable to the administration."

The police filed an FIR against ETV Bharat journalist Avishek Dutta Roy who reported that he witnessed police officers indulging in bribery and rash and negligent driving, resulting in the death of a person. The police filed the complaint against the journalist on 2 June, 2020, Bar and Bench reported.

A Calcutta High Court bench comprising Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Bibek Chauduri found prima facie the complaint to be ill-motivated and noted that the police seemed to have taken cognisance of the journalist's report that implicated some of its own personnel.

"It is the fundamental right of a press reporter to publish any news, which may not be palatable to the administration. It cannot be denied that incidents of the police taking bribes from vehicles are being frequently noticed and reported. We feel in order to stifle and muzzle the voice of the reporter this case has been registered against the petitioner," the bench observed.

The court also directed the police to initiate inquiries regarding the journalist's report of bribery on the part of the police personnel and the registration of the FIR against the reporter.

The journalist on 3 August took to social media to highlight the case:
This is the shocking moment a fugitive tries to evade capture during a 70mph police chase before escaping on foot.

Patrick Jones, 28, from Liverpool, who headed the high-speed pursuit after carrying out a spate of burglaries in Wiltshire, was spotted making his way north along the A500 in Cheshire in November 2018.

Jones, who was involved in a 'well planned and highly sophisticated operation' which targeted commercial properties, was eventually stopped by police after they successfully deployed a stinger to deflate the tyres to his red Audi A5.

The fugitive then fled on foot across the dual carriageway and was on the run until he was identified and arrested in the West Midlands last month.

Patrick Jones, 28, from Liverpool, speeds along the A500 in a red Audi A5 in November 2018

Several police cars follow the speeding vehicle as it continues along the dual carriageway and try to ram into the burglar's car

Patrick Jones, 28, from Liverpool, was jailed for two years for taking part in a string of burglaries across Salisbury and Wiltshire and also disqualified from driving for eight years and three months

At Winchester Crown Court today Jones was jailed for two years for taking part in a series of high-value burglaries at commercial premises across Salisbury and south Wiltshire.

He was also disqualified from driving for eight years and three months and handed another six months behind bars for dangerous driving, which will run consecutively.

During the dash-cam footage, Jones, who is spotted driving the red Audi A5, speeds along the dual carriageway as several police cars follow him and try to ram his car.

He then veers off to the side of the road into an embankment and runs away from the scene on foot across the carriageway.

Sentencing, Judge Andrew Barnett said that Jones 'continued to drive at colossal speed', which was 'one of the worst cases of driving' he had seen.

The other occupants of the car were detained at the scene and have since been given custodial sentences for their involvement in the burglaries, which targeted high value premises.

Police said the thieves made off with 45,000 after one such 'job'.

Jones was later identified after police searched the abandoned vehicle and found a receipt from a McDonald's restaurant near Birmingham which was time stamped just prior to the pursuit.

The red car begins to veer to the side of the road as police continue to chase the burglar

Jones emerges from his car after veering off into an embankment and flees the scene on foot

Officers were then able to retrieve CCTV of the Audi pulling up and the driver walking into the restaurant.

A police officer from Liverpool was subsequently able to identify him as Jones.

Det Con Cerys Powell, of Wiltshire Police, said: 'We welcome the fact that Jones has been brought to justice thanks to the skill and dedication of officers from Wiltshire Police with the support of colleagues from neighbouring forces.

'We hope this sentence sends out a clear message that Wiltshire is not an easy target.

'We have the skill, dedication and resources to bring offenders to justice and will not hesitate to do so.'
Presidente @MartinVizcarraC, junto al titular de la @pcmperu, @WalterMartosR, encabeza sesion del Consejo de Ministros en Palacio de Gobierno. #GabineteMartos pic.twitter.com/27kT948lIW
While speaking to a leading daily, IPS Vinay Tiwari, who is leading the Bihar Police team in the Rhea Chakraborty case investigation after actor Sushant Singh Rajput's sudden demise, slammed BMC for forcibly quarantining him when he arrived in Mumbai.

While lashing out at BMC, he told Mid-day, "I am on essential duty but the BMC has put me under house arrest in an illegal manner. Thousands of people are travelling to Mumbai but the civic officials have selectively targeted me for their vested interests."

Calling BMC's move unconstitutional, he said, "This forceful home quarantine has definitely hampered our investigation. I am exploring all options and if needed, we will definitely go to the Supreme Court against the BMC, as their order is unconstitutional."

The Director-General of Bihar Police, Gupteshwar Pandey also informed the daily that he has written to the BMC commissioner requesting them to free Vinay Tiwari, but his request was not accepted.

Sushant Couldn't Sleep For 4 Nights During #MeToo Allegations, Reveals Director Kushal Zaveri

"There is no transparency in the investigation by the Mumbai police in the Sushant Singh Rajput case. We had written a letter to the BMC commissioner requesting him to move Tiwari out of home quarantine because according to the rule, 'local district/municipal administration will be authorised to give exemption from home isolation for contributing to an office or for other important work after checking the passengers'. But the BMC has turned down our request," said Pandey.

Meanwhile, many netizens also criticised Mumbai Police for putting Vinay Tiwari under home quarantine. They are also very upset with Mumbai police's investigation, and want to learn the truth about Sushant's death as soon as possible, without any discrepancy.

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
Authorities have charged a Vineland resident in connection with a shooting on a South Jersey highway that left a man in critical condition with a head wound.

Marese Washington Jr., 27, was arrested Thursday morning in the July 24 shooting of Kesean Bey, 26, of Millville, the Cumberland County Prosecutors Office announced.

Multiple shots were fired from another car into Beys vehicle shortly after midnight as he drove northbound on Route 55 in Millville.

New Jersey State Police troopers responding to a report of a car accident found Bey in his crashed vehicle with a gunshot wound to the head. He remains hospitalized.

Video surveillance revealed that Washingtons white Kia Optima was spotted following Beys vehicle out of the parking lot at the Wawa on North 2nd Street in Millville just minutes before the shooting.

Investigators were able to link Washington and his car to the crime.

The state police previously said the shooting may have stemmed from an incident between the victim and someone else on July 23 in Millville.

Washington was charged with first-degree conspiracy to commit murder and jailed pending a detention hearing. The state plans to file for his pre-trial detention, the prosecutors office stated.

Anyone with information related to the shooting is asked to contact state police Detective Rigoberto Onofre at 609-610-6268, the state police Port Norris barracks at 856-785-0036, or prosecutors office Detective Chris Johnson at 609-579-1431.

Anonymous tips may be sent using the prosecutors office tip app, by texting 847411 with CCPOTIP and your tip in the message line or by going to the prosecutors office Facebook page or website (njccpo.org).

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com.
Latinos constitute a more diverse community than African Americans, Joe Biden said on Tuesday in an interview with members of the National Association of Black Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

Unlike the African American community, with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community with incredibly different attitudes about different things, Biden told NPRs Lulu Garcia-Navarro. You go to Florida, and you find a very different attitude about immigration in certain places than you do when youre in Arizona.

Biden was responding to a question on whether he would slow deportations of Cuban asylum seekers.

President Trump slammed Bidens remarks after watching footage of the interview.

Joe Biden this morning totally disparaged and insulted the black community, Trump told reporters. I dont know whats going on with him but it was a very insulting statement he made.

Biden has a history of verbal gaffes, including in this years election campaign. During the same interview on Tuesday, Biden was asked by an African American journalist if he had taken a cognitive test.

Come on, man! Thats like saying you . . . before you got in this program, youre take [sic] a test whether youre taking cocaine or not. What do you think? Huh? Are you a junkie? Biden responded.

Biden apologized in May after saying in an interview that African Americans who vote for Trump arent black.

If you have a problem figuring out whether youre for me or Trump, then you aint black, Biden told radio DJ Charlamagne tha God on an episode of The Breakfast Club.

More from National Review
" " Members of the pop group Duran Duran, plus actresses Grace Jones (in hood) and Tanya Roberts pose at a photo shoot for the 1985 James Bond movie "A View to a Kill." Jones and Duran Duran were famous for their androgynous loooks. Sunday People/Mirrorpix/Getty Images

In Fall 2019, The New York Times ran an article titled, "Beyond Androgyny: Nonbinary Teenage Fashion," which referenced the style of teenage musician Billie Eilish. In the story, the author refers to Eilish's "androgynous" oversized, baggy clothes, her statement that gender roles are "ancient," and her position as "the anti-Britney Spears, the anti-Katy Perry." But the author also notes that Perry herself said in 2017 that she was ready to trade in "cutesy" for more "androgynous, architectural" looks herself. While you may be familiar with the term "androgyny," and even how it's represented through fashion, can you conflate it or interchange it with some of the other terms it often stands beside, like "nonbinary" and "genderfluid"?

Rose Bell is a Ph.D. candidate and teaching associate in the department of philosophy at Syracuse University who uses the pronoun "they." They are careful to point out that while they identify as androgynous, genderfluid and nonbinary, they can't speak on behalf of everyone who identifies as any one or more of these descriptors  which, for the record, are entirely distinct things.

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"These are very different; someone can be one of these things without being the others, or they could be all of them!" they write via email. "Androgyny can mean a number of things. I most often hear it used to refer to gender presentation. In this sense, it means someone whose appearance does not fit either masculine or feminine norms  who doesn't look or dress like a man or a woman. But some people also identify as androgynous, which isn't the same as looking androgynous. And both of these things are different from 'nonbinary,' although there is definitely some overlap."

The term "cisgender" refers to someone whose actual gender is the same as the gender they were assigned at birth, and "transgender" refers to a person whose assigned gender at birth differs from their actual gender. While many societies tend to recognize and acknowledge just two genders  male and female  nonbinary individuals may experience a gender identity that's neither one or the other. People who identify as nonbinary may also identify as gender fluid, agender (without gender), third gender or otherwise.

" " Dave Castiblanco, an androgynous model, holds up a Pride flag in Bogota, Colombia. Daniel Garzon Herazo/NurPhoto via Getty Images

"Nonbinary is an umbrella term that describes anyone who has a gender identity that is not strictly one of the 'big two' binary categories," Bell says. "There are many different identities under that umbrella." But according to Bell, while some people who identify as androgynous may also identify as nonbinary, one doesn't equal the other  especially in terms of physical appearance. "It's important to remember that not all nonbinary people have androgynous gender presentation!" they say. "Nonbinary is about who you are, not about how you look."

While genderfluidity may fall under the nonbinary umbrella, the two terms are not equivalent (and neither is equivalent to androgyny). "Genderfluid is a gender identity," Bell says. "If someone is genderfluid, that means their gender isn't fixed. It might shift from day to day. But they don't necessarily shift between 'male' and 'female'  they might shift between 'woman' and 'agender' for example. Genderfluid people are often under the nonbinary umbrella, but not always. The same is true of androgynous people."

Androgyny in the Past

Historically, there hasn't been a ton of media representation for people who fall into any one of the categories described above, but there are a few celebrities often cited as examples of pop culture representations of androgyny, including David Bowie and Annie Lennox, who defied gender norms in the '70s and '80s.

" " David Bowie performs at Shinjuku Kosei Nenkin Hall, Tokyo, April 8, 1973. Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty Images

"Physical androgyny was creative in the '80s because it was actually innovative. It did challenge gender stereotypes. It got people to think differently about stereotypical male and female roles. It wasn't the superficial physical aspects of androgyny that made it so creative, it was the psychological aspects that it represented," wrote Scott Barry Kaufman in Scientific American. He defined psychological androgyny as crossing "sex-typed standards of desirable behavior," a concept developed by Sandra Bem, a psychologist who did pioneering work in gender studies. For instance, an androgynous person could be both assertive and gentle  depending on what the situation called for.

"Celebrities can do a lot for queer and trans people," Bell says. "I think that both David Bowie and Annie Lennox pushed a lot of boundaries and made it 'OK' for a lot of people to express themselves and to not visibly fit neatly into a strict binary role. At the same time, both of them are cisgender (not trans) and thin and white, and that projects a very specific image of what it means to be androgynous that leaves a lot of people out.

"That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with being androgynous in that way, of course. There's no wrong way to be androgynous. But for a lot of people it's more than just pushing gender norms or presenting in a certain way, and especially for those who don't fit that thin white cis image, it can be really hard, or dangerous, to not fit a binary gender. We need more and better representation."

As the world continues to catch up and learn about the varieties and nuances of gender identity that have existed for centuries, it's important to remember that each individual experiences of gender is unique and while terminology is certainly helpful and important, it doesn't always capture every person's reality.

"Androgyny as a presentation isn't always connected to gender identity," Bell says. "Many people who are nonbinary also look androgynous. But not everyone. And the opposite is also true; not everyone who appears androgynous is nonbinary. A nonbinary gender identity can be a very personal thing  you don't always have to wear it on the outside. And sometimes there is no good way to wear it on the outside, because what the world expects in terms of gender is often restrictive and confusing and self-contradictory.

"There should be space to be whoever you really are. I want people not to expect things from me based on what they think my gender is and putting 'nonbinary' or 'androgynous' in a box is just another way of doing that," Bell adds.

Now That's Interesting: There have been a number of research studies demonstrating associations between androgyny and a variety of positive outcomes for issues like self-esteem, life satisfaction, marital satisfaction and more.
Amid Mercedes' dominance, an interesting weekend nonetheless lies ahead at Silverstone.

Firstly, the stewards - having summoned Racing Point officials on Wednesday - are set to rule on the legality issue surrounding the team's 'pink Mercedes' car on Friday.

Sources report that the decision is due before first practice.

Also significant this weekend will be the Pirelli issue, after multiple cars - including both Mercedes - suffered tyre failures or problems last weekend.

Mercedes' strategy boss James Vowles denied that the reigning champion team's new DAS system - which is used by the drivers in part to heat up the tyres - was a contributing factor.

"I can categorically say the answer is no," he insisted.

"(Carlos) Sainz also experienced a failure," Vowles said, referring to the McLaren driver. "Clearly, they are not using a DAS system, and a number of other competitors complained of the vibration that Valtteri had.

"This wasn't contained to us but clearly we were on the worse side of the problem," he added.

To help the teams and Pirelli get to the bottom of the problem, the scheduled test on Friday of the official supplier's 2021 development tyres has been scrapped.

Pirelli boss Mario Isola said the decision was made in order to "give the possibility to the teams to use all of FP2 for their testing, their long runs, and so on".

However, the problems experienced at Silverstone could influence Pirelli's next steps for 2021.

"It's something that we have to consider for 2021, considering that we are currently using a product that was designed for 2019 cars," said Isola.

(GMM)
The provinces lack of transparency when it comes to COVID-19 cases has become a running theme in this weeks editorials, but its a topic that keeps on giving so heres another.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 6/8/2020 (530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The provinces lack of transparency when it comes to COVID-19 cases has become a running theme in this weeks editorials, but its a topic that keeps on giving so heres another.

In todays edition of the newspaper, youll find an article about a COVID-19 case at Brandons Maple Leaf Foods plant. No, it wasnt the province that broke the news. Like many cases reported thus far in the pandemic, it was an anonymous source who forwarded an internal company memo to us on Tuesday, which we verified the authenticity of on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, I also received a tip that a health-care worker at Prairie Mountain Health had tested positive.

A reporter phoned the health regions media relations department to find our go-to person was on vacation. The reporter was forwarded to another communications staff member, who was also on vacation. Thankfully, we were at least able to reach her by email, and we asked whether a health-care worker had tested positive for COVID-19, alongside other key details in the tip wed received.

Her non-answer response to multiple questions was as follows:

"Thanks for your inquiry. At this time, The Province is only releasing the geographical health region where a person lives. We will not be providing specifics about individual cases beyond what is provincially reported on the Manitoba Government website. This is to protect patient privacy and to prevent potential identification of patients who may reside in smaller communities. Anyone who is considered a close contact of a positive case and therefore at greater risk of contracting COVID-19 will be notified directly by public health officials.

"Please visit the Manitoba Government website at https://www.gov.mb.ca/covid19/updates/index.html for the most up-to-date information."

From this response, I deduce that if a health-care worker in Prairie Mountain Health tests positive for COVID-19, they will not make the case known publicly unless the province tells them to.

I pressed the spokesperson further in a strongly worded email in which I wrote it was "extremely troubling that Prairie Mountain Health would not reveal whether a health-care worker has contracted COVID-19, considering their very public position." In response, they issued the following statement:

"A health-care volunteer in the Prairie Mountain Health region tested positive for COVID-19 on July 23. This individual has now recovered. Acquisition has been linked to close contact."

Why did it take an admittedly snarky email from me, several days after the fact, for Prairie Mountain Health to share this information? A number of followup questions and a handful of unanswered questions posed in the reporters original email were not responded to by Wednesdays print deadline.

As we noted in recent editorials, theres no consistency when it comes to whether the province shares location information about COVID-19 cases.

Last week, for example, health officials identified the locations of two Westman COVID-19 cases  one at Asian Spices in Brandon and one at Blazers Mini Mart in Minnedosa. Earlier in the pandemic, the province didnt think it necessary to identify the location of a cluster of cases at a Brandon workplace, nor did they share Brandons health care-related Daughter on Call case.

Were not looking for the names or home addresses of the people who test positive. This isnt some witch hunt where were looking to name and shame people who test positive. Theyre victims in all this, and its troubling to learn that some people have been harassed either after testing positive or for their links to people who have tested positive.

Rather than restrict the information the province shares about new COVID-19 cases to the name of the health region they were found in, we want what Manitoba NDP Leader Wab Kinew advocated for earlier this week  the name of the municipality. Further, when its a public setting like a business or health-care facility involved, we think the public should know about said location  as the province has sporadically been sharing already, in their seemingly arbitrary manner.

Well have to learn to live with COVID-19, and as clear an understanding of the risks as we can get, the more likely it is we take the necessary precautions.

 Tyler Clarke, night editor
By ANI

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Government has sent a proposal to Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal recommending to reopen hotels, gyms, and weekly markets, citing fall in the number of COVID-19 cases in the national capital, Delhi Government sources told ANI.

Earlier, Baijal had overruled the Delhi government's decision to re-open hotels and weekly markets on a trial basis as part of Unlock 3.

The Delhi Chief Minister's Office on Thursday had announced that hotels and weekly bazaars would be allowed to function on a trial basis for a week while maintaining social distancing and all necessary precautionary measures in view of COVID-19.

In the Unlock 3' guidelines, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) allowed Yoga institutes and gymnasiums to open from August 5.

As many as 1,299 COVID-19 new cases and 15 deaths were reported in Delhi on Thursday.

The total number of cases in the national capital is now at 1,41,531, including 1,27,124 recovered, 10,348 active cases and 4,059 deaths, according to the Delhi Health Department.
06.08.2020 LISTEN

A 38-year-old man Angmor Teye has been arrested by the Bepoase Police near Begoro for the murder of 27-year old Kwame Albert at Dadatsunya, a village near Ahiamankyene in the Fanteakwa North District of the Eastern Region.

The Deputy Eastern Regional Police Public Relations Officer, Francis Gomado told the Ghana News Agency (GNA), that the Bepoase Police had information that, Kwame Albert, the deceased, was found in a pool of blood with multiple cutlass wounds on his body near the villages riverside.

Tetteh Lawer and William Kwao who informed the police about the incident, said that the deceased disclosed to them that, the said wounds were inflicted on him by suspect, Angmor Teye of the same village.

He said a medical form was prepared for the victim to be sent to the Begoro District Hospital for treatment but he died shortly on arrival.

The body was deposited at the same hospital morgue for preservation and autopsy.

Mr Gomado said the youth of the village arrested and brought to the Bepoase Police station the suspect Angmor with a blood stained cutlass.

---GNA
The maiden Founders' Day Made-in-Ghana Fair would be held on August 4, 2021 in Ghanas foreign missions abroad.



The Fair, which would be held on the theme: Fostering National Independence with Made-in-Ghana Products is to promote the social and economic development of the country and project art concepts for the achievement of economic emancipation.



It would be organised by the African Art and Culture Development Company (AACD-African Market), a Ghanaian-owned company developing art concepts and marketing authentic handicrafts, in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts.



Other collaborators are the Ghana Chamber of Commerce, Ghana Export Promotion Authority, Ghana Tourism Development Company, trade associations, and embassies in Ghana and abroad.



Mr Stanley S. Felten, the Chief Executive Officer of the AACD-African Market, disclosed this at the launch of the fair in Accra.



He noted that the theme dovetailed into President Akufo-Addos Founders Day commemorative statement in 2019 that; We must make concerted efforts to break away from the neo-colonial structure of the raw material producing and exporting economy, which has largely been our lot.



The fair would showcase collections of beads and beaded materials, wood carvings, painting works, African clothing, antiques and products made by designers, artisans and suppliers from Ghana and Africa.

Source: GNA









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China hails the Philippines for rebuffing attempts of some countries to incite tensions in the South China Sea, according to a foreign ministry spokesperson Wednesday.

Spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the comment at a press briefing in response to a question on Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana's recent remarks on the South China Sea and bilateral relations. Calling such attempts unpopular, Wang said some countries outside the region are trying to stir up trouble and create tension in the region, which go against the will of the regional countries.

Reportedly, citing an order by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Lorenzana said the Philippines would not join navies of other countries in maritime drills in the South China Sea for fear of raising tension in the area.

The Philippines advocates peaceful settlement of relevant disputes through legal means, Lorenzana said.

The Philippines and China have carried out many exchanges in epidemic control, people-to-people exchange and military, said Lorenzana, adding that it is believed that the two countries will gradually resume exchanges in various fields after the pandemic is overcome.

Wang said this statement is yet another proof of the Philippines' independent foreign policy, which embodies the common aspiration of the regional countries to pursue peace and development.

China and ASEAN countries, including the Philippines, are currently focusing on the fight against COVID-19 and resuming economic activities, which call for solidarity, coordination, peace and stability, Wang said.

He added that with joint efforts of China and ASEAN, two-way trade and investment grew in the first half of this year, and fast-track lanes for personnel and logistics exchanges have been established to facilitate resumption of work and production, as well as the smooth operation of industrial and supply chains.

"China is confident in working with countries in the region to overcome the challenges posed by the COVID-19 epidemic, maintain development momentum and safeguard common well-being of the people in the region," he said.
Rochelle Humes has described the emotional experience she had filming this week's Channel 4 documentary The Talk.

The programme, which aired on Tuesday night, saw high-profile black Britons share their stories of the conversations parents have to help their children face racism.

The documentary saw Rochelle break down as she talked with her husband Marvin about her childhood experiences of racism, with the star telling The One Show on Wednesday that filming felt like 'a therapy session'

Conversations: Rochelle Humes described the emotional experience she had filming this week's documentary The Talk, during an appearance on Wednesday's The One Show

The One Show shared a clip of Rochelle emotionally explaining on The Talk about how she reacted to racism as a child: 'My legs were red, because I'd tried to scrub my skin off,' she tearfully admitted.

'I'm not upset for me, I'm just upset because I think my little girl is the same age. I just don't know how I would handle that.'

Describing the experience of filming to The One Show's Alex Jones and Gethin Jones, Rochelle admitted: 'I didn't realise it would go there when I was talking. It was almost like a therapy session.'

Emotional: The Channel 4 documentary saw Rochelle break down as she talked with her husband Marvin about her childhood experiences of racism

She went on to reiterate the importance of having open conversations about race with children, saying: 'We were talking honestly and openly and I think that is what is so important when it comes to a topic about race.'

'It was so emotional. The experiences I had as a little one, if I think of my kids coming home and saying the same thing I can't even imagine having to have those conversations.'

Rochelle also spoke about her new children's book during her BBC appearance. The Mega Magic Teacher Swap is the star's second book, and helps kids navigate moving into a new school year.

Multi talented:Rochelle also spoke about her new children's book. The Mega Magic Teacher Swap is the star's second book, and helps kids navigate moving into a new school year

Rochelle explained she was inspired by the experience her eldest daughter Alaia-Mai, six, had.

'When I was writing the book it was a couple of years ago when my daughter was moving up a year and like most little ones she was really apprehensive about leaving her old teacher and the change that came with it,' she said.

'She was devastated and would cry about this teacher that she adored. I really wouldn't have predicted a global pandemic but now it's become really poignant because kids haven't been at school and now it's taken on new meaning.'

Family: She went onto admit she is looking forward to September when Alaia-Mai, six, and her younger sister Valentina, three, will be back at school and nursery

She went onto admit she is looking forward to September when Alaia-Mai and her younger sister Valentina, three, will be back at school and nursery, saying:

'It's getting back into the old routine, kids adjust and adapt so quickly which has meant they've really got used to being at home with us. I'm very much looking forward to them going back!'

It's set to be a busy autumn for the Humes family as Rochelle and Marvin's third child, a baby boy, is due in October.
New head of Main Directorate of Intelligence of Defense Ministry intends to restore 'spirit' of Ukrainian intelligence service, reform it based on NATO standards

Newly appointed Head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine and appointed Kyrylo Budanov plans to reform Ukrainian intelligence and implement NATO standards in it.

"I will do everything to restore the integrity and indivisibility of Ukraine, to strengthen our power. My course towards reforming the system will remain unchanged, based on the principles and standards of NATO. We will restore the very spirit of Ukrainian military intelligence," he told Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday.

As reported, on August 5, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky by his decrees on Wednesday dismissed Vasyl Burba from the post of Head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine and appointed Kyrylo Budanov to this position.

Budanov was educated at Odesa Institute of Ground Forces in 2007, and after graduation began serving in the special forces of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine, where he held various positions. He participated in hostilities in Donbas from 2014 and is a full holder of the Order for Courage. From 2020, he served as Deputy Director at the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine.
The New Orleans Saints released fullback Ricky Ortiz, the team announced earlier this week.

Ortiz, the former Oregon State star, appeared in one game with the Saints during the 2019 season. He signed with the Saints in December and appeared in the Saints 42-10 win over the Carolina Panthers during Week 17.

Ortiz, originally signed with the Baltimore Ravens as an undrafted free agent in 2017, but did not appear in a regular season game. He signed with the Atlanta Falcons in 2018 and appeared in 12 games with nine starts.

-- Geoffrey C. Arnold | @geoffreyCarnold
Kazumi Matsui, right, mayor of Hiroshima, and the family of the deceased bow before they place the victims list of the Atomic Bomb at Hiroshima Memorial Cenotaph during the ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of the bombing at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on Thursday. Read more

HIROSHIMA, Japan  On the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of his city, the mayor of Hiroshima warned the world about the rise of "self-centered nationalism" and appealed for greater international cooperation to overcome the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking at a Thursday morning ceremony in Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park  near the center of the Aug. 6, 1945, blast  Kazumi Matsui renewed a "Peace Declaration" on behalf of the city and appealed to Japan's government to ratify a 2017 U.N. treaty proposing the elimination of nuclear weapons.

Seventy-five years after the bombing of Hiroshima, humanity struggles against a new threat: the novel coronavirus, Matsui said. "However, with what we have learned from the tragedies of the past, we should be able to overcome this threat."

"When the 1918 flu pandemic attacked a century ago, it took tens of millions of lives and terrorized the world because nations fighting World War I were unable to meet the threat together," he said. "A subsequent upsurge in nationalism led to World War II and the atomic bombings.

"We must never allow this painful past to repeat itself. Civil society must reject self-centered nationalism and unite against all threats."

The memorial events have been drastically scaled back this year because of the pandemic. Crowds usually reaching in the tens of thousands were kept away. Just 880 seats, spaced six feet apart, were placed on the lawn of the park, reserved for dignitaries, children, survivors of the bomb attack and families of those killed.

Flowers were laid at a cenotaph dedicated to the victims, a bell tolled as the audience bowed their heads in prayer, and children sang a song for peace.

The traditional release of hundreds of doves was canceled after the pandemic prevented the birds from being trained to return home. Also called off to avoid crowds: a public ceremony to float thousands of paper lanterns on Hiroshima's Motoyasugawa River, Japanese media reported.

Last year, Matsui also warned against rising nationalism, but his latest appeal takes on an added significance  the New START, or Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty between the United States and Russia, is due to expire in February, and there is speculation it may not be renewed, unwinding decades of efforts to limit nuclear arsenals.

That follows the U.S. decision to pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces, or INF, treaty in 2019, accusing the Russians of cheating. Meanwhile, North Korea's nuclear arsenal continues to grow after the collapse of U.S.-led efforts to strike a disarmament deal with Kim Jong Un.

"The web of arms control, transparency and confidence-building instruments established during the Cold War and its aftermath is fraying," U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned in a video message. "Division, distrust and a lack of dialogue threaten to return the world to unrestrained strategic nuclear competition."

Survivors of the Hiroshima blast also found common links between the threat of nuclear radiation and global fears of COVID-19.

"People around the world must work together, must fight this disease, must learn together," said Keiko Ogura, who was 8 when the atomic bomb struck 1.5 miles from her home in the north of the Hiroshima. "That's the kind of sentiment that we had when we were calling for elimination of nuclear weapons."

Ogura was knocked unconscious by the blast and awoke to find houses gutted or engulfed in fire, and a line of burned and injured people gradually emerging from the city center.

She has spent her life calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons, and she says she sees encouraging signs that young people are taking up the campaign. But she warned that complacency could easily see the world sliding rapidly downhill toward nuclear war.

Its very much like the fear of the second or third wave of COVID-19, she said. I feel the same sense of crisis.

Ogura, 83, is one of a dwindling band of survivors, marking a new challenge in preserving memories of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which took place three days later on Aug. 9, 1945, and preceded Japan's surrender in World War II.

Kai Bird, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian at the City University of New York, laments America's inability to have a national conversation about the need for the bombings. "It's verboten, we are still in love in the bomb it seems," he said.

In an online briefing organized by the Institute for Public Accuracy, Bird and other historians argued that U.S. leadership knew Japan was about to surrender as the Soviet Union entered the war against Japan by invading Manchuria in August 1945.

Many senior U.S. military figures shared that view, including Adm. William H. Leahy, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who called the bombing of Hiroshima "barbarous" and "of no material assistance" in ending the war.

But other historians differ, arguing the bombings had a decisive impact in persuading Emperor Hirohito to surrender, and that delay would have cost more innocent lives.

In Japan, the memory of Hiroshima has fueled a national sense of the country as victim rather than perpetrator of the war, diminishing the memory of the intense militaristic nationalism that led it down such a destructive path.

Indeed, the reluctance of many Japanese people to confront its militaristic past in Asia continues to sour relations with its neighbors. In Japan, the government has been criticized for helping obscure the memory of Japan's war crimes, including removing some references from school textbooks.

Speaking at the ceremony, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spoke of the "inhumanity of nuclear weapons" but made no mention of Japan's own wartime past.

The anniversary of the bomb being dropped has a very significant meaning for Japanese people to develop self-awareness as victims of the war, said Hiroshi Tanaka, professor emeritus at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo. That makes it very difficult on such a day to become aware of the other side, as a perpetrator.
Covid-19, ci sono 3 nuovi positivi in Sardegna

Si tratta di una coppia e di un uomo che ha avuto contatti con un contagiato
Microsoft was exploring a takeover bid for TikToks American operations. On August 2, 2020, Satya Nadella, Microsofts CEO, and Mr. Trump discussed over this matter, which has allowed Microsoft chief time to flesh out the potential acquisition.

Fremont, CA: In late July, President Trump stated that the social media platform, which his administration considers a national security risk, could be banned in the US due to its Chinese ownership.

While this was taking place, Microsoft was exploring a takeover bid for TikToks American operations. On August 2, 2020, Satya Nadella, Microsofts CEO, and Mr. Trump discussed over this matter, which has allowed Microsoft chief time to flesh out the potential acquisition.

The conclusion of the conversation between the US President and CEO Nadella Microsoft has six weeks to seal a deal for TikTok. The company claims that it has 100 million users in the U.S. Microsoft stated that it would act rapidly to generate a deal Beijing-based ByteDance, poised to wrap it up by Sept. 15. The security review would be left up to Microsoft, and the company has guaranteed to keep all American users data within the U.S. and cut off any connections to technology that remain in China.

How much would TikTok Cost Microsoft?

Both companies ByteDance and Microsoft have shown interest in negotiating a deal. If the 6-weeks pass, and there is no deal, Microsoft would just step back. Although the company would lose out on a social media platform that has already gained huge popularity, it will not lose as much as ByteDance. TikTok, after 6-weeks, would be banned in the US, and the company will have to divest its US assets. This could work, but making sure that it cuts off its data would be a big task, and without having a champion in the US, TikTok could be fated. The company's value is steep, and it will be interesting to see what TikTok will cost. In the last week of July, a group of investors, including General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital, floated a $50 billion bid for TikTok. Right now, TikTok is not a public company, but Microsoft is active in online trading across the globe.

See also: Top Photonics Technology Companies in APAC
A Vineland man was arrested Thursday in a July shooting in Millville, the Cumberland County Prosecutors Office said.

Marese Washington, 27, was charged with conspiracy to commit murder, Prosecutor Jennifer Webb-McRae said in a news release. Washington was arrested by members of the State Police Major Crimes Unit South and the U.S. Marshals Service Regional Fugitive Task Force.

Shortly after midnight July 24, numerous rounds were fired into the vehicle of 26-year-old Kesean Bey, of Millville, on Route 55, Webb-McRae said. Prior to the shooting, a white Kia Optima owned by Washington was seen at the Wawa on North Second Street, which then followed Beys vehicle.

Bey suffered a gunshot wound to the head and remains in critical condition, Webb-McRae said.

Anyone with information related to the shooting can call State Police Detective Rigoberto Onofre at 609-610-6268, the State Police Port Norris barracks at 856-785-0036 or Prosecutors Office Detective Chris Johnson at 609-579-1431.

Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.
IDEMIA launches iCube, an innovation and incubation program to support and assist Indian startups that leverage Augmented identity. In a fast-changing digital environment, Identity has become an indispensable building block for making businesses and cities safer and smarter in a vast range of environments and usages including financial services, healthcare, education, food sustainability, smart cities, IoT, e-Governance, e-commerce, travel & mobility, telecom, defence and more.

IDEMIA addresses these new challenges and needs with the launch of iCube, a program designed to assist and speed up start-ups and innovators in their product development and commercial roll-out.

Pierre Barrial, President & Chief Executive Officer at IDEMIA, said, IDEMIA has always been at the cutting edge of innovations in making the world a smarter and safer place. We are delighted to enable start-ups and developers to leverage the innovations we originally developed for corporations and governments across the globe. I am thrilled that the IDEMIA Innovation and Incubation program  iCube  is launched in India, one of our most vibrant markets globally. Not only do I look forward to help start-ups to succeed in India, but I am equally excited about taking some of their solutions to our customers across the world. I look forward to this mutually rewarding and exciting journey of co-creation.

Sanjeev Shriya, Managing Director IDEMIA India, said, Innovation is the core of IDEMIAs identity. Over time, we have developed cutting edge solutions with a global impact in domains like Financial services, Citizen Identity, Telecom, IoT or M2M. Thus, we are delighted to announce the launch of iCube  the IDEMIA Innovation and Incubation program that will help build compelling solutions for a safer and better world. This program is designed to assist startups and innovators by providing them access to our expertise and technology. It aims to speed up their product development and help them get to market faster.

To further support developers and innovators, IDEMIA has opened its application program interfaces (APIs) and launched a credit program. In addition, IDEMIAs engineers and its industry experts will share their insights and knowledge during several sessions and talks.

iCube will also work closely with corporations in curating and co-creating solutions that may be mutually beneficial.

IDEMIA will engage with startups and innovators through the following programs:

Startup Assistance Program: An ongoing program providing eligible startups credits to use IDEMIA and partner organizations technologies and products, APIs, SDKs, and other support

Accelerator Program: A curated 3-month program to help developers and startups become better prepared for market

Developer Program: A selected opportunity for startups to co-create solutions with IDEMIAs technology teams and business teams

Scale Fast-Track Program: A selected access for startups to IDEMIAs global client base and opportunity to jointly go to market with IDEMIA

iCube may also provide selected startups with office space in their world class incubation facility located in Noida, India. iCube has already partnered with Lumis Partners Supply Chain Labs and Freshworks to reach out to a wider range of startups and support them in their journey.
NORWOOD  The first major franchise fast-food outlet in the Norwood area is now up and running.

Construction on the A&W restaurant located just east of the village on Highway 7 began last year.

Asphodel-Norwood Mayor Rodger Bonneau said its awesome that its now open and that hes already had a Buddy Burger there himself.

Were looking forward to more franchises coming in here shortly too, for the fact that in the next five years were probably going to have about 600 homes built, he said.

More than 350 new homes have already been constructed since last year in the new Norwood Park Estates subdivision on County Road 40 at the north end of the village.

Theyre basically done and sold, and now theyre starting on the third phase which is another 125 houses, and the infrastructures going in the ground as we speak, so like the water, sewer, gas, hydro all that stuff. They probably are going to dig their first foundation in the spring, I would imagine, Bonneau said.

More new homes are going to be constructed in the Mill Pond Estates subdivision in the south end of the village, he said.

So when you come into town and you hit the railway bridge where the pond is, if you were to turn right right there and go south, theres about 600 more homes that are going to go in there, Bonneau said.

The little village is going to double in size in the next five years, he said.

Its crazy. But if we dont have this new stuff that keeps the city folks around to keep them attracted to staying, they wont stay, he said.

While hes unsure if any more fast-food outlets will come with the housing boom, Bonneau said theres another gas station and a Circle K convenience store thats currently being built in the former J. J. Stewart parking lot where one could locate.

It could be a Subway, it could be a Pita Pit, I could only guess, he said. But the gas tanks are in the ground, theyve got the pillars up for the overhead canopy, the building just hasnt actually started being built yet.

However, the construction likely wont be finished until next year, Bonneau said.

They were hoping to have it done by this fall, but itll probably be late spring by the way its going. But its hard to say, he said.

All their paperworks done as far as the ministrys concerned and the highways concerned, so the approvals are all there ready to go. They have the building permit and now theyre starting, so its big for us.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 23:17:06|Editor: huaxia

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RAMALLAH, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- The World Bank signed Thursday an agreement to support Palestine with 30 million U.S. dollars for aiding low-income families and unemployed workers, according to WAFA news agency.

The report said that the Palestinian Authority Minister of Finance Shukri Bishara and the World Bank's Director in Palestine Kanthan Shankar signed the agreement at the office of Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye in Ramallah.

"Under the agreement, 6 million U.S. dollars will go for supporting needy families, 19.9 million dollars will support workers on daily wages," said Ishtaye, adding that the aid will help 68,000 unemployed Palestinian workers.

Ishtaye noted that 10 million dollars will be used to support small businesses in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

"This project is to be executed through ten Palestinian humanitarian associations and will serve around 3,100 Palestinian families in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip," said the prime minister.

For his part, Shankar said that the World Bank "is so glad to provide this financial support to help low-income and needy families to help the Palestinians overcome their crisis." Enditem
AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Compeat, the most comprehensive restaurant accounting, back office, workforce and intelligence management software, has partnered with Buyer's Edge Platform, the nation's largest Group Purchasing Organization for restaurants, to offer customers the benefits of being a part of a group purchasing organization with $12 billion in purchasing power.

"We are excited to partner with Buyer's Edge Platform (BEP) to provide additional cost saving options for our customers which is needed now more than ever," states Brendan Reidy, Chief Executive Officer of Compeat. "Every penny matters for our customers, and using Compeat with BEP's group purchase capabilities gives them instant savings across over 350 supplier contracts and rebates on over 165,000 line items."

BEP offers an entire suite of services that help restaurants to implement new strategies that optimize purchases, streamline contracts and reduce spend on ancillary services. BEP's cutting edge technology makes it easy for operators to clean and normalize purchasing data, process rebates, and audit contracts.

"Restaurant operators do not have time to identify the best cost-savings options on the hundreds of line items they buy every day. We take the burden off them by providing a myriad of savings opportunities," stated John Davie, Chief Executive Officer of Buyers Edge Platform. "With Compeat's focus on improving restaurant's profitability with their best in class accounting and back office software, it is a natural partnership."

BEP offers services for operators of all sizes through two group purchasing organizations for restaurants, Dining Alliance for restaurants with under 10 locations and Consolidated Concepts for restaurants with greater than 10 locations. There is no cost for operators to join BEP's group purchasing organizations.

About Compeat

With over 20 years of industry experience, Compeat is the leading provider of innovative accounting, back office, workforce and business intelligence solutions designed specifically for restaurants. Compeat's solutions are designed to maximize restaurant profitability and control prime cost through actionable business intelligence. Compeat's product portfolio includes business intelligence, operations reporting, accounting, inventory, logbook, labor, schedule, employee and management mobile apps and third-party integrations with over 80 point of sale and solution partners. Compeat serves over 1600 restaurant customers with over 16,000 locations ranging from high volume independents to large chains. For more information, visit www.compeat.com.

About Buyers Edge Platform

The Buyers Edge Platform is a network of GPO, Supply Chain and Technology companies that serves stakeholders throughout the foodservice supply chain. They leverage purchasing volume, data, contracts, expertise and technology to deliver value to stakeholders throughout the foodservice industry, including: Operators, Manufacturers, GPOs, Distributors, Service Providers, and Data Management Companies.

Contact: Amy Dardinger, 574.286.5629, [email protected]

SOURCE Compeat

Related Links

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In August 1945, a Japanese newspaper sent a photographer from Tokyo to two cities that the United States military had just leveled with atomic bombs.

The photographer, Eiichi Matsumoto, had covered the firebombings of other Japanese cities. But the scale of the calamity that he encountered in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he later recalled, was on another level.

At a Red Cross hospital near Hiroshimas ground zero, he met victims dotted with red spots, a sign of radiation sickness. And on the desolate, rubble-strewn streets of Nagasaki, he watched families cremating loved ones in open-air fires.

I beg you to allow me to take pictures of your utmost sufferings, Mr. Matsumoto, who was 30 at the time, said he told survivors. I am determined to let people in this world know without speaking a word what kind of apocalyptic tragedies you have gone through.
He secretly arrived in Ukrainian-controlled territory.

Ukraine's SBU Security Service has detained a member of the Russia-controlled notorious "Vostok Battalion," who was involved in battles near Donetsk airport in 2014.

According to investigators, a local resident of the Ukrainian-controlled city of Mariupol in Donetsk region, voluntarily joined the so-called Vostok Battalion in 2014, the SBU's press service reported on its website on August 5.

Read alsoIdentifying persons linked to MH17 downing: fresh report by Bellingcat

"He was a machine gunner of a militant unit deployed near Donetsk Airport, as well as the town of Avdiyivka and the village of Pisky," it said.

In 2015, the suspect left the war zone and fled to Russia, where he has been hiding from justice.

Ukrainian law enforcers detained the former militant after he had secretly arrived in the territory controlled by the Ukrainian authorities.

The SBU investigators informed the defendant that he is facing charges under Part 1 of Article 258-3 (participation in a terrorist group or terrorist organization) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

Investigative actions are under way.
Dico systems, a Ghanaian owned company has donated a disinfection chamber machine to the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR). The disinfestation chamber provides fully automated processes that sanitise the whole body of a person and his luggage without any direct contact.



The machine thus seeks to help eliminate the spread of the novel coronavirus through contact with contaminated surfaces.



Presenting the machine, yesterday, Director of the Dico Disease Control Systems, Kwaku Apeadu, noted that the donation is to help reduce the level of exposure in the nations number one facility that is at the forefront of the Covid-19 fight.



He indicated that it is also the organizations own support for the nations Covid-19 fight.



Behaviour change



Director of the NMIMR, Prof Abraham Kwabena Anang, receiving the machine on behalf of the institute stated that the machine has come at the right time since it will promote behaviour change among Ghanaians at a time that campaign on the virus has dwindled.



He stated that by human nature, it is sometimes normal for one to forget to use the Veronica bucket saying when people use this new system for a period of time, it will build their self-consciousness to always look for available running water to wash their hands.



Expressing appreciation to Dico systems, Prof Anang noted that the kind gesture will strengthen the partnership between Noguchi and the company.



The system



The system, wholly made in Ghana, has fully automated handwashing component, hand sanitising component as well as body sanitising component. A person using the system touches nothing. When one gets into the system, he only places his/her hand under a sensor built liquid soap dispenser which dispenses the soap unto the persons palm. He then moves to the sensor-built water dispenser to wash the hand and then dry the hands under another sensor-built hand dryer. From there, his/her whole body and luggage are automatically sanitised by a three percent concentrated Hydrogen per Oxide gas.



Explaining how it works on the side-lines of the event to the Daily Statesman, Dr Dennis Daary, a consultant for Dico systems stated that a system is built beside the main chamber that houses the water and the Hydrogen per Oxide gas. He said the chamber automatically draws them as one goes through it. He noted that when the gas and the water get finished, they are refilled to ensure that the system continues to work.



According to Dr Daary, the system can be connected to a pipe-born water for easy access. He explained that when one is sanitised, the gas stays on the person for only six seconds but protects the person for six hours adding that it is not harmful to the skin. He added that the Hydrogen per Oxide does not also react with any body care system, such as pomade or powder, to cause any harm to the human being.



He added that the system uses both electricity and solar.



Explaining the rationale behind the system, Dr Daary stated that the company thought of building a Ghanaian based system like what is in Europe, America and other advanced countries that will help prevent the spread of the virus.



He said, the system is out for sale and called on organisations and corporate bodies to consider getting some to minimise the spread of novel coronavirus in the country.

Source: Kwasi Frimpong









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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Many Mekong Delta provinces, including Bac Lieu, Long An and Tien Giang, are saying 'no to coal-fired thermopower plants.

The boiler of the Song Hau 1 Thermal Power Plants electricity generation unit No 1 in Hau Giang province burned with oil fuel on July 28. Song Hau 1, with the capacity of 1,200 MW, is located on the Hau River side, 12 kilometers away from Can Tho City.





As such, the provinces in Mekong Delta will have one more coal-fired thermopower plant, expected to connect to the national grid by the end of 2020 or early 2021 and become commercially operational in 2021.



However, this is not good news for Mekong Deltas people.



According to Le Anh Tuan, deputy head of the Institute for Climate Change Studies, an arm of Can Tho University, if the plant uses the most advanced technology, this will burn coal thoroughly and reduce the amount of fly ash. However, CO2 emissions that cause the greenhouse effect will still be the same, or maybe even bigger because of complete combustion.



Meanwhile, the water to be discharged into the environment after it is used to cool the boiler will have an adverse impact on biodiversity, production and peoples health.

Many provinces in Mekong Delta have decided to reject coal-fired thermopower projects in their localities. Bac Lieu province has given up Cai Cung thermopower project. Long An and Tien Giang decided that they will develop gas-fired power plants instead of coal-fired ones.

The water to reach the environment is not good for organisms, because there is almost nothing in it. Living organisms need suspended sediment, Tuan said.



Many provinces in Mekong Delta have decided to reject coal-fired thermopower projects in their localities. Bac Lieu province has given up Cai Cung thermopower project. Long An and Tien Giang decided that they will develop gas-fired power plants instead of coal-fired ones.



Tran Dinh Sinh, deputy director of GreenID, said investors still want to develop coal-fired thermal power because they think the required investment rate is low, 7.5 cent per kwh.



However, he said that the investment rate is not low if counting the impact on the environment, society and economy. The real total production cost is no less than 12.5 cent per kwh. If so, coal-fired thermal power is more expensive than solar power, 9.35 cent per kwh.



He emphasized that the emissions of coal-fired power plants will have serious impact on peoples health. When fine dust particles go into lungs and alveoli, it will cause cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.



Sinh believes that it would be better to develop gas-fired rather than coal-fired thermal power, though both of them emit polluting gases.



With coal-fired power, for every kwh of electricity generated, 1 kilogram of CO2 and other toxic gases (SO2, NOx) will be produced. With gas-fired power, there would be 0.5 kilogram of CO2 and there would not be fine dust, SO2, NOx and other toxic gases.

Thanh Mai

Coal-fired power plants ash and slag: hazardous waste or resource? Coal-fired power plants with the total capacity of 18,000 MW produce 16-17 million tons of ash and slag each year in Vietnam, according to GreenID.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 6

By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:

The value of trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Canada amounted to $119.3 million over first five months of 2020, compared to $154.03 million during the same period of 2019, Trend reports with reference to Kazakhstans Statistics Committee.

The share of Canada in total value of Kazakhstans trade turnover stood at less than 0.3 percent during the reporting period compared to 0.4 percent during the same period of 2019.

Kazakhstans export to Canada amounted to $62.8 million over the period from January through May 2020, compared to $52.8 million during the same period of 2019.

Canadas share in total volume of Kazakhstans export amounted to less than 0.3 percent during the reporting period of 2020 compared to 0.2 percent during the same period of 2019.

In turn, Kazakhstans imports from Canada amounted to $56.5 million over the reporting period, compared to $101.1 million during the same period of 2019, indicating an almost two-times decrease.

Canadas share in total volume of Kazakhstans import amounted to 0.4 percent during the reporting period of 2020 compared to 0.7 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 in 2019).

---

Follow the author on twitter: @nargiz_sadikh
" " Walter Winchell wasa premier gossip columnist.

Walter Winchell was not only the forefather of gossip columnists, but he also dished the dirt with such style and wit that even the libel attorneys couldn't touch him. He did so by making up his own words and by delivering his scoops at an average of 197 words per minute! Here are just a few terms from the American vernacular created by Winchell.

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1. Scram

This means to make a quick getaway. Here's an example of how underworld mobster speak was brought to the mainstream, thanks to Winchell's column.

2. G-Man

This is slang for an FBI agent. The G stands for government.

3. Pushover

Mobster Dutch Schultz wasn't too pleased when Winchell wrote about his personal liaisons with blonde women, describing Schultz as a "pushover" for fair-haired beauties.

4. Uh-Huh; Pashing It; Garboing It; Trouser Crease Eraser

Do you give up? This is how Winchell referred to people who were falling in love!

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5. Cupiding; Making Whoopee

Not to be confused with falling in love, these were Winchell's code words for making love. Although "Making Whoopee" was a 1928 song written by Gus Kahn, it is believed that Winchell used the term first.

6. Middle Aisle It; Altar It; Sealed; Handcuffed

It stands to reason, at least in some cases, that those who have "Garboed it" or have been "making whoopee" for a while would likely get married. These are the interesting terms that Winchell had for that sacred event.

7. Blessed Event; Infanticipate; Get Storked

This is how Winchell described couples who were about to have a

baby. He had three children, so he "infanticipated" a few times, too.

8. Reno-vated; Tell It to a Judge; Curdled

In 1929, a divorce was granted in America every two minutes. So it's only natural that Winchell would eventually coin a phrase for that phase in life as well.

9. Keptive

Maybe there were so many divorces because husbands had mistresses! This is what Winchell called the women who waited for their married lovers to call.

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10. Orange Juice Gulch

The next time you watch the ball drop in Times Square on New Year's Eve ponder this: Winchell used to call this famous block "Orange Juice Gulch." Vendors such as Orange Julius and Nedick's (a hot dog and orange drink joint) populated the area in Winchell's day. Had he been in the biz a generation later when strip clubs littered the Square, surely he would've coined a more colorful phrase!

11. A New York Heartbeat

You've heard the phrase "a New York minute" used to imply a very short period of time. Winchell edited the phrase to include the beat of New York, implying a more frenzied pace.

12. Giggle Water

Booze!

13. Flicker

A horse? A ballpoint pen? A lighter? Nope, it's a movie!

14. Swaticooties; Pink Stinkos; Chicagorillas

Stay away from this crowd. These are the bad guys.

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15. Ratzis

These are the worst "pink stinkos" of all. This was Winchell's term for the Nazis. Much to the dismay of his network and sponsors, Winchell would not allow censorship! He simply coined his own phrases in order to discuss Adolf Hitler and his "swastinkas."

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS:

Helen Davies, Marjorie Dorfman, Mary Fons, Deborah Hawkins, Martin Hintz, Linnea Lundgren, David Priess, Julia Clark Robinson, Paul Seaburn, Heidi Stevens, and Steve Theunissen
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The three hero firefighters pictured desperately trying to force their way into the doomed Beirut warehouse to put out the flames can be named by MailOnline today.

Jo Noon, Methal Hawwa and Najib Hitti were part of a 10-person rapid response team. Nine of them are still missing while their female colleague, 25-year-old Sahar Faris, a paramedic specialist, has been confirmed dead. She was buried today in an emotional funeral in her hometown of Qaa.

Ms Faris, who has since been dubbed 'the bride of Beirut' on social media, was engaged to be married in June next year. Yesterday, her fiance, Gilbert Karaan, posted a tribute saying, 'You're my life. You burned my heart'.

The three firemen were photographed in an iconic picture putting their lives on the line to prevent the catastrophe. One of them, Najib Hitti, did not even have time to put on his uniform.

They had been dispatched with another colleague, thought to be Ms Faris, from the fire station in La Quarantaine, northeastern Beirut, in an emergency response vehicle and were first on the scene, fire chiefs told MailOnline.

The six other firefighters followed in a fire engine. 'As the fire service, we have the authority to open any door without the approval of any ministry or military,' a fire service official, who asked not to be named, said.

'When the smoke first started gathering, we sent a unit of 10 people. Six were in the fire engine and four in the emergency response car. The three men in the famous photograph were first on the scene trying to unlock the door to Warehouse 12.

'Following them were the colleagues in the other vehicles. The blast hit all of them. Nine are still missing and one, Sahar Faris, has been found and declared dead. Her family mourned her yesterday. Her fiance is devastated.'

An iconic picture shows the final moments of a fire crew sent to tackle a blaze at warehouses in Beirut's port, shortly before chemicals stored inside exploded with the force of a small nuclear bomb

MailOnline can reveal that the three hero fireman pictured opening the door were Jo Noon, left, Methal Hawea, centre, and Najib Hitti, right

Ms Faris, who was one of the 10-person rapid response team, has since been dubbed 'the bride of Beirut' on social media

Ms Faris was engaged to be married in June next year. Yesterday, her fiance, Gilbert Karaan, posted a tribute saying, 'you broke my back, you broke my heart'

Locals posted pictures on social media purporting to show shredded firefighters' uniforms lying on the floor after the blast

A selfie of eight members of the 10-person team that was taken before the tragedy struck, with Sahar Faris in the centre

The ten firefighters who were first on the scene. All of them are missing, with one, Sahar Faris, top centre, confirmed dead. Top left to right: Ralf Mallahi, Sarah Faris, Najib Hitti. Middle left to right: Ellie Khuzami, Charbel Hati, Jo Noon, Charbel Karam. Bottom left to right: Jo Bou Saab, Methal Hawwa, Rami Kaaki

Hero Methal Hawwa, front left, is seen here posing with fellow firefighters in this group photograph

Video taken of the area around the same time shows fire crews at the scene along with heavy grey sliding doors. Beirut's governor has confirmed that 10 firefighters are missing following the blast

An image of the warehouse taken some time before the blast shows the same sliding doors and white patch - though without writing on it - along with what appear to be the chemicals that exploded stored inside

In a moving online tribute to his fiancee, Mr Karaan wrote in Arabic: 'We were due to get married on 6th June 2021. You were preparing our house an buying furniture that you liked.

'You got promoted too fast in your job, from a medic firefighter to a national martyr. Your wedding date will remain the same. Everything you wanted will be there, except me gazing at you in your white gown.

'You broke my back. You're my life, you burned my heart. I've lost the will to live since you've been gone. May whomever took you from me be cursed, may they have their hearts broken.

'They robbed me of your smile and tenderness. I love you and I will always love you until we meet again and continue our journey together.'

The tragic photo, which has since gone viral, shows the final moments of firefighters sent to tackle a blaze at Warehouse 12 in Beirut's port before the chemicals stored inside exploded with the force of a small nuke - killing at least 137.

The image, verified by MailOnline, shows Mr Noon, Mr Hawwa and Mr Hitti trying to prise the lock off a door beneath a sign that reads 'entrance 12', along with signs warning of hazardous chemicals inside.

The person who took the photo has been confirmed dead with the photo found on his phone. Beirut's governor has said 10 firefighters are missing after the blast, sparked when 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in the warehouse caught fire.

The image was being widely-circulated on Arab-language twitter accounts on Wednesday as people paid tribute to the firefighters, who are assumed to have perished.

The fire chief who sent the team out to their deaths, who did not want to be named, told MailOnline: 'I can say the same thing about all the crew. They were all good people, they were always willing to be first on the front line.

'What can be said of someone who sacrifices himself for the safety of others? They are all heroes and we are indebted to them.'

Details from the image - such as the heavy grey sliding doors and white sign with Arabic writing - were also visible in a video taken outside the flaming warehouses as a fire, thought to have been sparked by a welder, took hold.

The video shows firefighters in similar uniforms to those seen in the photo as they assess the scene, seemingly unaware of the danger.

More footage taken from the roof of a building across the street shows identical warehouse buildings being consumed by smoke and flames, along with similar-looking signs on the warehouse doors.

That footage can be verified as genuine because it features a large metal support strut, that can be seen on the roof of a building opposite the warehouse in Google Satellite images.

Meanwhile a photo taken of the warehouse some time ago shows the same grey sliding doors, high square windows and white sign, though without an writing on it. That photo also purports to show sacks filled with ammonium nitrate that caused the explosion.

The second video also features other corroborating details seen in multiple pieces of footage from around Beirut, such as small explosions from what appear to be fireworks moments before the main blast takes place.

That video also features the moment the blast happens, obliterating the warehouse, badly damaging grain silos opposite, and sending out a shockwave that flattened nearby buildings and blew out windows across the city.

2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate stored within the burning warehouse exploded shortly after the images and footage were taken, leaving behind little more than a watery hole in the ground

The blast sent out a shockwave that pulverized nearby warehouses (pictured), shredded the interior of nearby buildings, and blew out glass panes across the city

An aerial image showing the devastation caused to Beirut's port by the blast, with costs estimated at up to $5billion

The blast almost completely destroyed the port along with a grain silo (pictured centre), which were an economic lifeline for Lebanon which was already suffering through an economic crisis

At least 5,000 people were wounded in the explosion which also left 300,000 homeless and caused damage estimated at up to $5billion, with half of Beirut's buildings affected.

Lebanon has placed every official responsible for the security of Beirut's port for the last six years under house arrest as it investigates a massive explosion which has devastated the city.

The country's political leaders vowed those responsible for the tragedy would 'pay the price', but customs officials pointed the finger of blame back at them - saying they were repeatedly warned of the danger but failed to act.

The dangerous load is understood to have been abandoned by Russian businessman Igor Grechushkin in September 2013 before eventually being transferred to the port where it remained for six years.

A ship carrying the load was detained en route from Batumi, in the ex-Soviet republic Georgia, to Mozambique, and never recovered.

On Tuesday evening a fire that started in Warehouse 9 before spreading to Warehouse 12, where the chemicals were being stored, igniting them and causing the blast.

Raghida Dergham of the Beirut Institute yesterday said: 'Storing Ammonium Nitrate in a civilian port is a crime against humanity that must not go unpunished.

'Condemnations are not enough. I'm safe but devastated. I lost friends. I lost my apartment. Had I been home, I would have lost my life.'

A view of the destroyed grain silo is visible through a blown-out window close to Beirut's port on Wednesday

Destroyed warehouses are seen near the port area in the aftermath of a massive explosion in downtown Beirut

Workers remove rubble from damaged buildings near the site of an explosion which brought devastation to central Beirut

People pick their way through the remains of their destroyed office building after a massive explosion in Beirut

An official source familiar with preliminary investigations blamed the incident on negligence. Lebanese citizens directed anger at politicians who have overseen decades of state corruption and bad governance that plunged the nation into financial crisis.

Director General of Lebanese Customs Badri Daher said the country's judiciary was told six times about the hazardous chemicals stored in a warehouse in the Lebanese capital.

Customs officials are understood to have asked authorities to move the dangerous substance from Hangar 12 due to the danger they believe it posed to the city and given to the army or sold to an explosives company.

'We requested that it be re-exported but that did not happen. We leave it to the experts and those concerned to determine why,' Daher said.

Another source close to a port employee said a team that inspected the ammonium nitrate six months ago warned that if it was not moved it would 'blow up all of Beirut'.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab vowed those responsible will 'pay the price' as he declared a two-week state of emergency to deal with the crisis, urging all world leaders and 'friends of Lebanon' to donate aid to the country, adding: 'We are witnessing a real catastrophe.'

Documents published online suggested it could be given to the army or sold to an explosives company, but did not receive any replies, leaving the explosive cargo languishing in the now destroyed port area of the capital.

Ammonium nitrate is a chemical used in fertiliser bombs and is widely used by the construction industry but also by insurgent groups such as the Taliban and the IRA for improvised explosives.

Authorities have cordoned off the port itself, where the blast left a crater 200 meters (yards) across and shredded a large grain silo, emptying its contents into the rubble. Estimates suggested about 85 per cent of the country's grain was stored there.

Lebanon is highly dependent on imports, and the destruction of the port, along with the worsening cash crisis, have raised fears of shortages.

Two planeloads of French rescue workers and aid were sent to Beirut, and Macron was to arrive Thursday to offer support for the former protectorate. The countries retain close political and economic ties.

Other countries, including Greece, Qatar, Kuwait, Turkey and the European Union, have dispatched medical supplies, humanitarian aid and search-and-rescue teams.
Surge in terrorist activities across the globe and government regulations for effective and enhanced security drive the growth of the global explosive detector market. Europe contributed the highest share in 2019, and will maintain its dominance throughout the forecast period. Amid lockdown, the explosive detector manufactrurers across the globe have halted their production activites due to disrupted supply chain of raw components.

Portland, OR, Aug. 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to the report published by Allied Market Research, the global explosive detector market generated $5.96 billion in 2019, and is estimated to reach $11.10 billion by 2027, registering a CAGR of 8.2% from 2020 to 2027. The report offers an extensive analysis of changing market dynamics, key winning strategies, business performance, major segments, and competitive scenarios.

Surge in terrorist activities across the globe and government regulations for effective and enhanced security drive the growth of the global explosive detector market. However, inability in detecting improvised explosives devices (IEDs) is anticipated to restrain the market growth. Furthermore, growing adoption of handheld explosive devices is expected to provide new growth opportunities during the forecast period.

Download Full PDF Brochure: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/2387

Covid-19 scenario:

Amid lockdown, explosive detector manufactrurers across the globe have halted their production activites due to disrupted supply chain of raw components.

Due rise in military tension among the developing economies such as China and India, there is a surge in demand for explosive detectors to detect the land mines planted in specific areas.

In addition, surge in terrorist activites across the countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria in the Middle East region has led to increased demand for explosive detectors, and the demand will continue to rise.

The report offers a detailed segmentation of the global explosive detector market based on product type, technology, end-user, and region.

Story continues

Based on product type, the handheld segment contributed to the largest share in 2019, accounting for more than two-fifths of the total share, and is estimated to maintain its dominant position during the forecast period. However, the robotics segment is estimated to portray the highest CAGR of 9.3% during the forecast period.

Based on technology, the bulk segment accounted for the largest share in 2019, holding nearly three-fifths of the total share, and is expected to maintain the largest share throughout the forecast period. However, the trace segment is expected to register the highest CAGR of 8.7% from 2020 to 2027.

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Based on region, Europe contributed the highest share, accounting for more than one-fourth of the total market share in 2019, and will maintain its dominance throughout the forecast period. However, Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at the highest CAGR of 9.8% from 2020 to 2027.

Leading market players analyzed in the research include Analogic Corporation, Westminster International Ltd., FLIR Systems, Chemring group PLC, L-3 Technologies, Inc., NOVO DR Ltd., Nuctech Company Ltd., Cobham PLC, Smiths Detection, and OSI Systems, Inc.

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TikTok is investing $500 million to set-up its first European data centre in Ireland, Bloomberg has reported.

The centre is expected to be operational by 2022 and promises to shorten the load times for users in Europe. Data from European user will be stored here once the centre opens. The Chinese video-sharing social networking service currently stores data from international user on servers in the United States and Singapore.

The company has said it would create hundreds of jobs and improve the safeguarding and protection of TikTok user data, the Bloomberg report suggests.

Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.

This comes at a time when TikToks parent company, ByteDance, is working to distance itself from Chinese operations in a bid to placate regulators elsewhere. The video sharing application was among the Chinese applications banned in India in June. In the US, President Donald Trump has threatened to do the same.

Also Read | Explained: What would a US ban on Chinese-owned app TikTok mean?

The worlds most valuable startup has been accused by US legislators and the Trump administration of pick user data, which they claim is creating a national security risk. The Beijing-based parent company has been given a six-week deadline to conclude a deal with an American company for the sale of its US operations. It is in advanced talks with Microsoft.

Also Read: How the TikTok phenomenon democratised online space in India

ByteDance launched TikTok in 2017, before purchasing popular video service Musical.ly. The two properties were subsequently merged. TikTok has hundreds of millions of users globally.

The platforms fun, goofy videos and ease of use has made it popular. In the US, tech giants like Facebook and Snapchat see it as a competitive threat.
PITTSBURGH, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- "It was very expensive to rent a thatch machine which I did not think did an effective job and required constant cleaning," said an inventor from Milltown, New Jersey. "This inspired me to develop a versatile lawn care tool."

He developed the KC FOUR STEP GRASS TREATMENT that combines several pieces of lawn equipment to save time, energy and money. This efficient invention would seed, fertilize and thatch. It would eliminate repetitive paths over the same areas of the lawn for various procedures. Additionally, it would be lightweight as well as easy to use.

The original design was submitted to the New Jersey sales office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 18-NJD-2114, 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


A 25-year-old attendant showed presence of mind and unflinching courage as he saved the lives of three elderly patients from a raging fire that broke out early on Thursday at an Ahmedabad-based hospital, where he works.

IMAGE: Forensic experts interact with police personnel while inspecting Shrey hospital in Ahmedabad after a major fire broke out in it. Photograph: PTI Photo

Eight other patients -- five men and three women -- who were being treated at the ICU ward of the COVID-19 designated Shrey Hospital in Navrangpura area of the city, died in the blaze, fire brigade officials said.

The fire broke out around 3.30 am on the fourth floor of the four-storey facility, which is one of the 60-odd private hospitals authorised by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation to treat coronavirus patients.

When the fire broke out, there were 11 patients on the fourth floor.

According to police, a special ICU chamber was created on the fourth floor for critical COVID-19 patients.

Hospital attendant Chirag Patel, who risked his own life and saved three elderly patients from the blaze, said the fire was first spotted by another attendant on the fourth floor around 3 am.

"When I went to the fourth floor after that, I saw flames coming out from a monitor of some medical equipment near a patient's bed. Soon, that patient's hair caught fire. I doused it immediately," Patel told reporters after giving his statement to the police.

"Just as I pulled the bed away from the monitor, another attendant's PPE suit caught fire. Luckily, a doctor came upstairs with a bucket of water and poured it on the attendant and saved him.

"Suddenly, there was a blast inside the ICU ward. Though we went up again to rescue patients, it was not possible to go inside due to thick smoke and extremely low visibility," he added.

According to Patel, since other attendants and doctors were feeling uneasy due to the smoke, he decided to stay there and ask others to go downstairs for their own safety.

Meanwhile, the hospital staff alerted the fire brigade.

Patel added that there were 11 patients on the fourth floor at that time and their rescue was a difficult task.

"I was the only one left on the fourth floor and I decided to save as many as possible. I first lifted an elderly woman patient, who could not walk, in my arms and took her downstairs," he said.

Patel returned to the spot even as thick smoke had engulfed the area. He helped another elderly woman, who had fallen down and could not walk, in climbing down safely along with a male patient.

"Since the smoke was getting very dense and my oxygen level was dropping, I couldn't go inside again. I then climbed the fourth floor using outside pipes and tried to rescue the patients from windows, but couldn't break them," he claimed.

"I am glad that I was able to save three critical patients. For me, a patient's life is more important than my own life," the attendant said.

Ravindra Patel, DCP Zone 1, said that the police have recorded the statements of the hospital staff as part of the probe.

"We also recorded the statement of the attendant, who said he has saved the lives of three elderly patients," the official said.
Performers with the National Ballet of China rehearse their new production, Against the Wind, in Beijing on Tuesday. [For China Daily/Jiang Dong]

Ballerina Ning Long stood en pointe. Arms spread like wings, she fixed her gaze somewhere in the distance. Suddenly, the soft music changed into powerful beats and dozens of dancers walked from the sidelines onto the stage. Ning relaxed her pose and joined them. The sound of their footsteps resounded in the rehearsal room.

That's one scene from the original ballet production, titled Against the Wind, by the National Ballet of China, which is being premiered at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing on Thursday and will be staged again on Friday.

The 18-minute piece, choreographed by Fei Bo, is dedicated to the health workers who fought against the coronavirus pandemic. Health workers, who worked in Hubei Province hospitals during the pandemic, once the hardest-hit area of China, will be invited to watch the show on Friday.

According to Fei, the latest piece depicts the role of a nurse, who had to be apart from her family as she joined in the battle against the pandemic. She witnessed many touching moments despite the hardship of the work, such as the support from her colleagues, greetings from her patients and respect from strangers.

"The nurse symbolizes all the health workers and we want to show our respect to them with this piece," says Fei. "The wings displayed by the dancers represent dream and belief."

During rehearsal, dancers shared the emotions portrayed in the piece since "all of us went through a difficult time and suffered from complicated emotions," Fei says.

"We want to build up this new piece into something timeless. Years later, when you watch it, you should still feel the power from it. It marks a special year for all of us," Fei adds.

He notes that the music is developed from an original song, titled Because of You, written by Wang Shuyi, principal cellist of the National Ballet of China. Its aim was to lift the spirits of people struggling during the viral outbreak and was released in February. Wang has expanded the song into a symphonic score for the ballet.

Besides the latest production, classic Western and original Chinese ballet pieces are being staged on Thursday and Friday at the NCPA, including romantic the ballet, La Sylphide, traditional ballet, Pas de Quatre (Step for Four) and The Red Detachment of Women, one of the first original Chinese ballets.

"It will be the first live performance by the National Ballet of China since the breakout of the coronavirus pandemic. We are eager to meet the audience in theaters and we've been preparing ourselves for this since February," says Feng Ying, president of the company, adding that was when dancers of the company returned to the theater to resume rehearsals. The company also launched online programs to stay in touch with its audience.

"Audience participation is an important part of a live performance. It will be two unforgettable shows for all of us," Feng says, adding that the company is working on another original ballet, which will center on the Miao ethnic group and its story of poverty alleviation. Western ballet techniques and Miao ethnic group dance will be combined in the show.

According to the NCPA, more shows will be staged, covering a variety of art forms, such as Peking Opera, drama and music, but only a limited audience will be allowed to watch the shows for safety reasons.

At the same time, the Taihu Theater of the National Center for the Performing Arts, located in Tongzhou District of Beijing, will present 28 performances by 14 art troupes from August 1 to December 12, including the China Acrobatic Troupe, the Northern Kunqu Opera Theater and Beijing Chinese Orchestra.

According to Zhang Haijun, president of Beijing Artists Management Corp, one of the organizers of the ongoing performances at Taihu Theater of the National Center for the Performing Arts, the venue will open 30 percent of its seats to the audience.

"All the art troupes we have invited are devoted to their performance since they've not been face-to-face with an audience for half a year. It will start the gradual recovery of the performing arts market," says Zhang.

"The sudden outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic forced us to cancel 84 performances and postpone 10 performances during the past six months," says Cui Di, vice-president of Beijing Quju Opera Troupe, which will stage its classic work, Long Xu Gou (Dragon Beard Ditch), adapted from renowned Chinese writer Lao She's novel of the same title, this November.

The art troupe has expanded its fan base through online streaming on popular platforms, such as Kuaishou and Douyin.

(Source: China Daily)
The city of Conroe is set to adopt its fiscal year 2021 budget next week following a few adjustments in the proposed budget, including mitigating a hefty sewer rate hike for residents.

Following an almost three-hour budget retreat and direction from council members, the city staff is now proposing a $236.5 million budget for the upcoming year, about $1.6 million more than what the staff originally presented to council July 16 of $234.9 million.

The $236 million fiscal year 2020-21 budget is still a .04 percent decrease from the citys actual fiscal year 2019-20 budget of $237 million. The city is proposing the same tax rate of 43.75 cents per $100 property valuation.

The council will meet 9:30 a.m. Aug. 13 to adopt the budget and tax rate.

During the citys retreat, council members balked at a proposed 16 percent sewer rate increase. While Chief Financial Officer and Assistant City Administrator Steve Williams cautioned the council on reducing the rate too much, Mayor Pro Tem Duke Coon pushed to lower it.

We are going to have to do something with this 16 percent increase, he said. There was no appetite for it last year. We are going to need a plan to get that reduced. I dont know if our citizens can bare that increase this year.

According to information provided by Williams, the staff, along with Councilmen Seth Gibson and Raymond McDonald were able to reduce the increase to 7 percent, more than half of the proposed 16 percent.

Coon thanked the staff and fellow council members.

Thats a substantial decrease, Coon said. It gives us an opportunity to re-evaluate this again next year.

Gibson and McDonald agree.

I feel real comfortable with this, Gibson said during the councils special meeting Thursday. It will definitely keep our citizens from a big hit on their water and sewer bill.

One key part of the citys budget for 2021 is $1.9 million in step, merit and cost of living raises for all staff including fire and police personnel.

I understand the movement around the country is to defund police and service departments, Powell said in a statement last month. I want to send a strong message to our police department, fire department, staff, and others. As mayor, I will stand beside our police department, fire department and our staff and will not support cutting their funding or reducing step, merit or COLA payments.

Powell noted the current pandemic has created challenging times, but city staff continued to do their jobs while balancing their families.

The citys fiscal year begins Oct. 1.

cdominguez@hcnonline.com
French aid flights left Paris to Lebanon on Wednesday, following a massive blast in Beirut the previous day that killed at least 135 people and wounded about 5,000, according to authorities.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced he would fly to the shattered Lebanese capital, and two planeloads of French rescue workers and aid were expected to touch down on Wednesday afternoon.

Macron's office told The Associated Press that the French leader will meet with Lebanese political leaders but provided no further details.

Lebanon is a former French protectorate and the countries retain close political and economic ties.

The Paris prosecutors office says a first assessment has established that 21 French nationals were among those injured in the deadly explosion.

In Paris, a special vigil will be held Wednesday for blast victims in the Notre Dame Maronite Church, and the Eiffel Tower will go dark at midnight to mourn them.

(Representative Image)
Islamabad, Aug 6 : Police in Islamabad has submitted a report to the Pakistan Supreme Court regarding the kidnapping case of a journalist, who was abducted in the capital city last month and released hours later the same day, it was reported on Thursday.

As the Supreme Court is scheduled to resume hearing a contempt of court case against the senior journalist Matiullah Jan on Thursday, the capital police furnished the report conceding that they were still waiting for replies from different departments the assistance of which they had sought to unearth the kidnapping incident, reports Dawn news.

"But efforts are underway to trace the culprits involved in the incident and in this regard the reports of various departments is awaited to carry out further investigations," stated the 52-page report furnished on Wednesday by the deputy inspector general (operations) on behalf of Inspector General of Islamabad Amir Zulfikar Khan.

In its last order issued on July 22, a three-judge apex cour bench headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed had ordered recording by the relevant police station of Jan's statement about the kidnapping incident.

The journalist was kidnapped from Islamabad in broad daylight on July 21, a day ahead of his appearance before the Supreme Court in the contempt of court case, but was released later in the night.
Beijing:

At least 38 workers have died in two separate coal mine explosions in China this week, said officials on Saturday.



In the latest incident, 17 people were confirmed dead andmany others remained trapped after a blast at a coal mine in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Saturday, officials said.

The explosion took place around midday at Baoma Mining Co Ltd in Yuanbaoshan district in the city of Chifeng, state-runXinhua news agency reported. The government has launched a search and rescue operation.

In another incident, 21 workers trapped in a coal mine in China after an explosion on Tuesday were on Saturday declared deadwhile search is on for one survivor still trapped underground.

They had been declared dead, Xinhua quoted local officialsas saying. The workers were trapped after an explosion on Tuesday atthe private coal mine in Qitaihe City, Heilongjiang province.

State-run CCTV reported the workers could not be reachedby rescuers due to presence of poisonous gases even asinsurance firms began contacting the families of the workersto settle claims.

Meanwhile, Chinese police on Saturday arrested four persons,including the owner of the private coal mine and threemanagers, the emergency rescue headquarters said. Initial enquiries showed that the blast was an accidentand the mine was unlicensed, police said.

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Winnipeg Harvest and Rogers Step Up to the Plate to help more than 18,000 Manitobans

Rogers employees in Winnipeg volunteered at Winnipeg Harvest as part of the Step Up to the Plate initiative with Food Banks Canada. Through food hampers provided to local area food banks, the initiative will see more than 393,000 local meals for 18,000 Manitobans in need. The Rogers team was joined by MLAs Audrey Gordon, Janice Morley-Lecomte and Andrew Smith.

Rogers employees in Winnipeg volunteered at Winnipeg Harvest as part of the Step Up to the Plate initiative with Food Banks Canada. Through food hampers provided to local area food banks, the initiative will see more than 393,000 local meals for 18,000 Manitobans in need. The Rogers team was joined by MLAs Audrey Gordon, Janice Morley-Lecomte and Andrew Smith.

Manitoba food hampers will provide more than 393,000 local meals to support increased demand at food banks



Rogers employees in Manitoba volunteer to help organize, fill and distribute hampers

WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Aug. 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Stepping up to help address food insecurity facing many Canadian families, Rogers Communications Step Up to the Plate initiative with Food Banks Canada has arrived in Manitoba, delivering food hampers that will provide more than 393,000 meals for local food banks. These hampers will help fill the plates of more than 18,000 Manitobans across the province.

Manitobans are part of our extended family at Rogers, and when our family needs help, its our responsibility to step up and pitch in, through food donations, volunteering, and more, said Larry Goerzen, President of Alberta and Prairies, Rogers Communications. Rogers has a long legacy of supporting our communities and giving back. This is our 60th year as a company  certainly a year like no other  and we are here to roll up our sleeves and get to work so we can come through this together.

The Step Up to the Plate initiative started in June at Rogers Centre in Toronto, with Rogers employee volunteers and their families filling food hampers with non-perishable food items that provide an individual with a weeks worth of meals. Now, trucks loaded with hampers and pallets of food are on the move, destined for communities across Canada, where an unprecedented 8 million meals will be provided to Canadians when the initiative is completed this summer. On arrival in Manitoba, local Rogers employee volunteers, are working with Winnipeg Harvest to organize and continue stuffing thousands of food hampers for distribution to local food banks to help those who need it most.

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This is an outstanding initiative by Rogers, said Heather Stefanson, Manitobas Deputy Premier and Minister of Families. The Manitoba government is very grateful for the donation that will provide nutritious meals to more than 18,000 people in our province. The leadership and corporate generosity shown by Rogers will help families struggling with meal disruption due to COVID-19. This substantial gift will have a meaningful impact for many Manitobans.

As the country begins to reopen, the economic impact of the pandemic continues to be significant, affecting food insecurity and demand at food banks. According to Food Banks Canada, which supports over 3,000 food banks and community agencies from coast-to-coast-to-coast - including Winnipeg Harvest  many local food banks have been severely impacted by COVID-19, from decreased volunteers and donations to having to adapt their operations, making it more challenging to meet their clients needs.

When COVID-19 struck Manitoba in March, Winnipeg Harvest distributed more food than any month in our 35-year history. Though we are slowly moving toward recovery, food insecurity and empty food bank shelves are still realities we face every day, said Keren Taylor-Hughes, CEO, Winnipeg Harvest. The arrival of these Step Up to the Plate trucks and Rogers volunteers is an incredible sight. This support will help us feed hard-working families, children, and adults, who are struggling through our provincial re-opening and economic recovery period. Thank you for stepping up to the plate to nourish our communities  and our sense of community.

Step Up to the Plate is part of The 60 Project , a year-long initiative to mark Rogers 60th anniversary by giving back and building a stronger Canada  from donations of time, money and fundraising support, to investing in Canada and the networks that connect our customers from coast-to-coast-to coast. We are bringing this commitment to life by partnering with community organizations like Food Banks Canada, Womens Shelters Canada, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and Pflag; investing in a 100% Canadian-based Customer Service team and in our networks to help Canadas economy thrive and grow; and connecting the next generation to education and the support they need to build a bright future. The 60 Project is about making hope possible, right here, in the Canadian communities we call home.

And with Step Up to the Plate and other initiatives this year, our Rogers family  all 25,000 strong, including here in Manitoba  will come together to give back an unprecedented 60,000 volunteer hours. With action, we will stand together with those who need us most, to ensure that all Canadians have an opportunity to move forward to discover a new normal that is better than the one that came before.

About Rogers

Rogers is a proud Canadian company dedicated to making more possible for Canadians each and every day. Our founder, Ted Rogers, purchased his first radio station, CHFI, in 1960. We have grown to become a leading technology and media company that strives to provide the very best in wireless, residential, sports, and media to Canadians and Canadian businesses. Our shares are publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: RCI.A and RCI.B) and on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: RCI). If you want to find out more about us, visit about.rogers.com .

About Food Banks Canada

Food Banks Canada provides national leadership to relieve hunger today and prevent hunger tomorrow in collaboration with the food bank network from coast-to-coast-to-coast. For 40 years, food banks have been dedicated to helping Canadians living with food insecurity. Over 3,000 food banks and community agencies come together to serve our most vulnerable neighbours who  last year  made 1.1 million visits to these organizations in one month alone, according to our HungerCount report. Over the past 10 years, as a system weve sourced and shared over 1.4 billion pounds of food and Food Banks Canada shared nearly $70 million in funding to help maximize collective impact and strengthen local capacity  while advocating for reducing the need for food banks. Our vision is clear: create a Canada where no one goes hungry. Visit www.foodbankscanada.ca to learn more.

Media Contacts

Rogers  media@rci.rogers.com , 647-747-5118

Winnipeg Harvest - Kiersten Haight, kiersten@winnipegharvest.org , 204-229-9660

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/89ea1106-6198-4246-992f-6c296060b4ee




90 Day Fiance star Nicole Nafziger made the questionable choice of flying off to Morocco to visit Azan Tefou just as the coronavirus situation started heating up. As a result, Nafziger wound up trapped in Morocco when the country closed its borders following the outbreak. Since then, fans have been criticizing the TLC reality star for leaving the country without her daughter, while others have been wondering if Nafziger is even staying with Tefou in Morocco. Now, it seems like Nafziger is getting desperate to leave the country, based on a Facebook post.

Morocco preparing to kick foreigners out

RELATED: 90 Day Fiance Fans Call Out Nicole Nafziger for Post About Paul Staehle and Karine Martins

Whether or not Nicole Nafziger made an irresponsible choice by flying to Morocco, it seems as if the 90 Day Fiance star is on the verge of overstaying her welcome.

As reported by Morocco World News, non-resident foreigners within Moroccos borders will be expected to depart the country by August 10.

The news outlet reported, According to Moroccos Ministry of the Interior, as cited by the US embassy in Morocco, non-resident foreigners who were unable to leave Morocco within the normal 90-day limit will be permitted to exit without penalty until the end of Moroccos state of emergency on August 10. Those who do not leave before the specified time may need to go through a legal process of fixing their immigration status and could be subject to fines or imprisonment.

Nicole Nafziger posts about her situation on Facebook

Given the fairly severe punishments for not leaving the country by August 10, it perhaps comes as no surprise that the 90 Day Fiance star is starting to feel worried about how she can exit the country.

90 Day Fiance blogger John Yates captured a Facebook post made by Nicole Nafziger in a page entitled US Citizens trapped in Morocco. Nafziger wrote, Has anyone traveled from a different city to Casablanca for their flight since they closed Casablanca from traveling in or out? What did you have to get to travel to Casablanca? Something from the police or from American embassy? Thanks.

Another post by Nafziger read, Has anyone bought a ticket from royal air Maroc for today, tomorrow, or the Wednesday (3th, 4th, 5th of August) that had their flights canceled [sic]?

Regardless of the details of her visit, it seems as if Nicole Nafziger is scrambling to get her ducks in a row in order to leave the country. Her posts seem to suggest that this might be the first time during her entire stay that shes trying to figure out how to successfully leave the country.

90 Day Fiance fans react to Nicole Nafzigers concerns

Nicole Nafziger and Azan Tefou of 90 Day Fiance | alwayssnicole via Instagram

As usual, 90 Day Fiance fans seemed unimpressed with Nicole Nafzigers efforts to find her way out of Morocco.

One user pointed out that Nafziger has had ample time to work out how to leave the country. They wrote, For the amount of time shes been there she should have figured this sh*t out. Shes such a child.

Maybe she should have come home months ago just like myself when the embassy was helping people instead of leaving her child. Stay there Nicole and wait for the Moroccan police to teach you a big lesson. Then maybe just maybe she will learn, suggested another user.

Meanwhile, some folks seem convinced she never went to Morocco in the first place. One user wrote, Lies! Shes probably in the U.S but wants to stay relevant and lies about being stuck in Morocco!
US introduces anti-Iran resolution to extend arms embargo on Tehran

Iran Press TV

Wednesday, 05 August 2020 9:39 PM

The Untied States has introduced an anti-Iran resolution in the UN Security Council in an attempt to extend a soon-to-expire arms embargo on the country.

"We have tabled a resolution that we think accomplishes what we think needs to be accomplished," said Brian Hook, the hawkish US special representative for Iran, at the virtual Aspen Security Forum on Wednesday.

He further claimed that, "The easy way is to do a rollover of the arms embargo," he said. "It's not difficult. There's all the reasons in the world to do it. But we will do this, one way or another."

He further repeated the longtime US allegation that Tehran is pursuing atomic bombs by its nuclear program.

"For as long as Iran is allowed to enrich, we're going to be having this discussion: How close is Iran to a nuclear breakout? ... We need to restore the UN Security Council standard of no enrichment," Hook alleged.

Russia and China have vowed to use their veto power at the Security Council in case Washington can secure at least nine votes in favor of the anti-Iran measure, a scenario touted as unlikely.

US hawkish Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also told reporters that the measure is "eminently reasonable," alleging that "one way or another we will do the right thing."

"The Security Council's mission is to ensure international peace and security," claimed the former CIA chief. "The council would make an absolute mockery of that mission if it allowed... [Iran] to buy and sell weapons freely."

He also threatened Tehran with more sanctions through a mechanism embedded within the Iran nuclear deal, from which the US has unilaterally withdrawn.

"We're deeply aware that snapback is an option that's available to the United States, and we're going to do everything within America's power to ensure that that arms embargo is extended," he claimed. "I am confident that we will be successful."

Washington has stepped up calls for the extension of the UN arms embargo on Iran, which will expire in October under UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorses Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The Trump administration has threatened that it may seek to trigger a snapback of all sanctions on Iran if its attempts to extend the arms embargo fail.

Tehran, however, has firmly rejected Washington's plans as the US is no longer a party to the nuclear deal ever since it withdrew from the multilateral agreement in 2018.

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As part of an international collaboration, researchers from Aarhus University and University of Leicester have succeeded in developing a dynamic 3D CT scanning method that shows what happens inside the body during simulated heart massage.

Rapid first aid during cardiac arrest makes the difference between life and death. But what happens to the heart and the internal organs when people come running and begin to give well-meaning but heavy-handed heart massage as they attempt to keep the person who has suffered a cardiac arrest alive?

A research collaboration between the Department of Forensic Medicine at Aarhus University, Denmark, and the East Midlands Forensic Pathology Unit at the University of Leicester in the UK now offers an answer to this question.

Using a new CT scanning method, the researchers show how the chest and abdominal region of a deceased person move during simulated heart massage.

"Specifically, we've simulated heart massage by compressing the chest of a deceased person in a controlled manner in precisely the same way as would happen with heart massage. Though with the difference that this was done gradually and in slow motion while the whole process was CT scanned at the same time," explains Kasper Hansen, assistant professor at the Department of Forensic Medicine at Aarhus University and the lead author of the study, which has been published in the scientific journal Resuscitation.

The method can be compared with a stop motion video production, but where each image in the video has been replaced by a complete 3D CT scan. The method reproduces the organs movements during heart massage in a very detailed way and makes it possible to perform advanced imaging analysis on the volumetric dynamic CT dataset.

According to the Danish Heart Foundation, in Denmark 5,400 people suffer cardiac arrest outside of the hospitals every year, with approx. 16 per cent of them surviving. Although more people than previously survive thanks to stronger efforts in general resuscitation training and improved rehabilitation, there is still room for improvement in resuscitation techniques and procedures. Kasper Hansen hopes that this is where the new CT scanning method will prove useful.

"The goal of heart massage is blood circulation, but we don't know enough about how the blood is pumped onwards, and why certain characteristic heart massage injuries such as lesions on the internal organs occur," he says.

"There are many unknowns in connection with resuscitation. The new technique makes it possible to examine different aspects of heart massage. Using the method allows us to directly study the organ movements, and may help to clarify the basis for important physiological mechanisms. Because the scans have been carried out on a deceased person, it hasn't been possible to measure the blood flow directly. However, the method clearly demonstrates how, for example, the heart is affected during heart massage, and we can therefore gain a better understanding of the critical mechanisms during heart massage," says Kasper Hansen.

In connection with the scientific publication, the study presents five videos that have been exported with so-called predefined display settings from the specialised imaging software.

"Specialised radiological software is needed to be able to utilise and show the full potential of the method and what it can deliver. In the article we therefore use the videos as a practical and known format to communicate how our new method is able to contribute to creating new insight into different elements of heart massage for experts within the field. Furthermore, we believe that anyone who has completed a first aid course will be able to relate to the videos. So we also hope that these videos will be fully utilised in the general first aid courses," says Kasper Hansen.

"Our results are a fine example of how research on the deceased can help the living, which is a mantra within forensic medicine research all over the world. The relatives of the deceased person used in this study have agreed to the experiment being carried out and to the publication of the results." This is of invaluable importance for this type of research, emphasises Kasper Hansen.

"It helps to bring us closer to our goal, which is for the method we present in the study to contribute to the development of better and more effective procedures for the treatment of cardiac arrest - and in this way to more people surviving a cardiac arrest," says Kasper Hansen.

About the study

The study is experimental novel method basic research.

The project was carried out in a collaboration between researchers from Aarhus University and the University of Leicester, UK.

The study was supported by a scholarship from the "Resuscitation Council (UK)".

###
VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria's foreign ministry on Thursday warned against trips to Spain except for the Balearic and Canary Islands, as concerns grow that holidaymakers could catch the coronavirus and spread it once they return.

The measure will take effect from Monday, and people returning to Austria will be required to present a negative test for COVID-19, the ministry said.

Austria's measures are the latest blow to Spain's tourism-dependent economy after Britain, Germany and Switzerland recently warned their citizens against summer holidays on Spanish beaches or at least in certain regions of the country.

The spread of the disease in Spain slowed after the government imposed one of the strictest lockdowns in Europe. However, new cases have started rising again and hit a post-lockdown record of 1,772 new cases on Wednesday.

Austria has weathered the coronavirus crisis quite well so far but also saw infections increase with the summer holiday season.

The state of 8.9 million has reported 21,689 COVID-19 cases and 719 deaths as of Thursday. It counted 148 new cases on Wednesday, the highest increase since July 30.

Austria already imposed tight testing requirements for arrivals from the Balkans after it saw an increase in infections among people returning from the region.

It has travel warnings for Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia in place, as well as for European Union member states Bulgaria and Romania.

(Reporting by Kirsti Knolle; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Lisa Shumaker)
"Burns & McDonnell strives to enhance collaboration with diverse business partners who help meet our mission  make our clients successful," says Jennifer Trotter , diverse business manager for Burns & McDonnell in California. "Partnering with diverse suppliers and our employee-owners brings unique perspective and innovative ideas to every solution. We are honored to highlight our California Community of Inclusion recipients who embody a dedication and commitment to our clients and the community."

The 2020 California Community of Inclusion honorees:

Alt Spec UAS ( Escondido, California ): Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), inspection, surveying and photography firm utilizing unmanned aircraft and sensors for infrastructure inspection, 2D and 3D mapping, creative and project support.

( ): Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), inspection, surveying and photography firm utilizing unmanned aircraft and sensors for infrastructure inspection, 2D and 3D mapping, creative and project support. Bayen Group ( Torrance, California ): Provides SharePoint and Microsoft 365 services with experience in migration, process automation and system integration.

( ): Provides SharePoint and Microsoft 365 services with experience in migration, process automation and system integration. Civetta Design ( Ramona, California ): Offers professional distribution design training, quality assurance and consulting services for overhead and underground electric distribution designs and construction work order packages.

( ): Offers professional distribution design training, quality assurance and consulting services for overhead and underground electric distribution designs and construction work order packages. E.K. Associates ( Cerritos, California ): Serves as a technology integration company delivering solutions for enterprises, service providers and public-sector companies in California .

( ): Serves as a technology integration company delivering solutions for enterprises, service providers and public-sector companies in . Ferreira Construction ( Rancho Cucamonga, California ): Works as a construction contractor with experience in utility, electrical, guardrail and fencing projects.

( ): Works as a construction contractor with experience in utility, electrical, guardrail and fencing projects. Paxon Energy & Infrastructure ( Pleasanton, California ): Provides professional management services in the field of oil, gas, and utilities.

( ): Provides professional management services in the field of oil, gas, and utilities. SCA Environmental ( San Francisco, California ): Offers services in the fields of hazardous materials management, geo-environmental investigation and remediation, industrial hygiene services, asbestos, lead management and environmental engineering.

( ): Offers services in the fields of hazardous materials management, geo-environmental investigation and remediation, industrial hygiene services, asbestos, lead management and environmental engineering. ZHarrison & Associates (Zeldesign) ( Culver City, California ): Provides branding and communications consulting for businesses, government agencies and community groups.

Recipients have supported Burns & McDonnell on electrical transmission and distribution, aviation, environmental, community engagement, manufacturing and construction projects.

In 2019, Burns & McDonnell spent $400 million with small and diverse suppliers, including minority-, women-, Veteran-, and LGBT-owned businesses across the U.S. Additionally, the firm hosted a Community of Inclusion & Equity Symposium, reaffirming its commitment to support small and diverse businesses in 2019. The two-day event brought employee-owners, small and diverse business advocacy organizations, and leading California project owners together to share best practices on advancing business diversity in their organizations and throughout the region.

Burns & McDonnell has more than 55 offices across the globe, with more than 220 employees working in offices in Brea, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco, California.

For photos and support materials, please visit our MEDIA KIT.

About Burns & McDonnell

Burns & McDonnell is a family of companies bringing together an unmatched team of 7,600 engineers, construction professionals, architects, planners, technologists and scientists to design and build our critical infrastructure. With an integrated construction and design mindset, we offer full-service capabilities with more than 55 offices, globally. Founded in 1898, Burns & McDonnell is a 100% employee-owned company and proud to be on Fortune's 2020 list of 100 Best Companies to Work For. Learn how we are on call through it all.

Contact: Lydia Schroeder, Burns & McDonnell

812-630-0796

[email protected]

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Admitting that its impossible to make housing in Luxembourg more affordable, officials are instead asking everyone who already owns a home to shut up about it.

The housing market is out of our control, said Ministry of Housing and Social Blights spokesperson Felix Oberpries. Its too strong. Its like those bodybuilders who used to play bad guys in 80s action movies, all pumped with steroids, veins bulging out of their necks.

The only solution, says Oberpreis, is for property owners to stop making other people feel bad about not having bought a home when prices were lower.

If someone who pays a fortune every month to rent a studio in Differdange starts complaining to you, just keep your mouth closed, Oberpreis said. Theres no need to tell her about the two-bedroom flat in Eich you brought for 220k only 10 years ago that has already doubled in value.

Better yet, just lie. Say youve lost money on your investment. Use your acting skills. Start crying.

Still, not everyone agrees that its in the best interest of society to ask property owners to deceive others.

Luxembourg City resident Herman Steeraich says that while he sympathizes with those who will never own a place within 50 kilometers of their place of work, bragging about how little you paid before the market exploded is a local tradition.

Take my grandparents, for example, Steeraich said. In 1972, they bought a mansion in the Pfaffenthal for 100 Luxembourgish francs, a pair of old socks, and a really pretty blue rock my grandad found in the Alzette.

A generation later, the house was worth 20,000 francs and a hundred pairs of new socks, he continued. My grandfather would tell his barber, the rubbish collector, and anyone whod listen about his good fortune.

Am I not allowed to carry on the tradition? he added. Must I keep it a secret that weve just sold that same house for 10.4 million euros and that my siblings and I are thinking of using the money to buy an entire province in Italy?

Read more at wurst.lu
Ministers, port officials and judges trade blame as Lebanon begins probe into cause of deadly explosion.

Beirut, Lebanon  A government-led investigation is under way in Lebanon to probe the cause of the massive explosion that ripped through the capital, Beirut.

The government announced on Wednesday that those responsible for guarding and storage at Beiruts port  the epicentre of the blast  would be placed under house arrest as soon as possible, after the disaster left at least 137 dead and 5,000 wounded.

Damages from the explosion, which officials have linked to some 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored at the port, may be worth up to $15bn, Beirut Governor Marwan About said.

As the debris is cleared, anger has turned to rage after revelations that officials knew the highly volatile material had been stashed at Beiruts port for more than six years.

A top-trending hashtag in Lebanon on Wednesday was #_ (prepare the gallows).

Ramez al-Qadi, a prominent TV anchor, tweeted: Either they keep killing us or we kill them.

As heat rises around the countrys decision-makers, some have sought to deflect blame onto other branches of the state  including Lebanons judiciary.

Aftermath of the explosion at a port in Beirut on Tuesday [Timour Azhari/Al Jazeera]

Public Works Minister Michel Najjar told Al Jazeera that he had only found out about the presence of the explosive material stashed in Beiruts port 11 days before the explosion, through a report given to him by the countrys Supreme Defense Council. He had taken over the post six months earlier.

No minister knows whats in the hangars or containers, and its not my job to know, Najjar said.

The minister said he followed up on the matter, but in late July, Lebanons government imposed a new lockdown amid a rapid increase in new COVID-19 cases. Najjar eventually spoke the general manager of the port, Hasan Koraytem, on Monday.

He said he asked Koraytem to send him all the relevant documentation, so that he could look into this matter.

That request came too late. The next day, just after 6pm (15:00 GMT), a warehouse at the port exploded, gutting the harbour and wrecking large parts of Beirut.

Najjar said he learned on Wednesday that his ministry had sent at least 18 letters to the Beirut urgent matters judge since 2014, asking for the goods to be disposed of. Najjar declined to provide the documents to Al Jazeera, citing a continuing investigation into the cause of the explosion.

The judiciary didnt do anything, he said. Its negligence.

But Nizar Saghieh, a leading Lebanese legal expert and founder of NGO Legal Agenda, said the primary legal responsibility here is on those tasked with overseeing the port  the port authority and the public works ministry, as well as Lebanese Customs.

It is certainly not up to a judge to find the safe place to house these goods, he told Al Jazeera.

Popular scepticism

Many angry Lebanese are demanding accountability and answers as to how and why 2,750 tonnes of highly explosive material was stored near residential Beirut for more than six years.

Management of the port has been split between a range of authorities. The port authority runs the operation of the port, and its work is overseen by the public works and transport ministry.

Lebanons customs agency nominally controls all goods that enter and exit the country, while the Lebanese security agencies all have bases at the port.

Few Lebanese feel confident they will see justice for this latest disaster in the countrys history, pointing to the lack of official accountability for the period of rampant corruption and mismanagement in the years after the countrys civil war.

People inspect their car that was damaged in Tuesdays enormous explosion in Beirut [Bilal Hussein/AP]

Prime Minister Hassan Diab has promised this time will be different.

He is heading an investigation committee that includes the justice, interior and defence ministers and the head of Lebanons top four security agencies: the Army, General Security, Internal Security Forces and State Security.

The committee has been tasked with reporting its findings to Cabinet within five days, and Cabinet, in turn, will refer those findings to the judiciary.

In the meantime, officials in the executive authority, including Najjar, a minister in Diabs government, have attempted to cast suspicion on Lebanons judiciary.

The case against the judiciary

The ammonium nitrate that blew up on Tuesday arrived in Beirut, reportedly by chance, on board a vessel facing technical issues in September 2013.

By 2014, the cargo had been unloaded and stored at Hangar 12 at Beiruts port  now a deep crater filled with turquoise seawater.

Public documents verified by Al Jazeera show that Lebanese Customs sent six letters to the Beirut Urgent Matters Judge between 2014 and 2017, urging the judge to get rid of the dangerous material by either exporting it, re-selling it or handing it to the Army.





Badri Daher, the director-general of Lebanese Customs, said on Wednesday that the judiciary did not act, and blamed the institution and the port authority for failing to get rid of the goods.

Najjar echoed Daher, saying it was the judiciary, the port authority and, perhaps, security forces who were to blame.

There is no negligence from the public works ministry, he said of the portfolio that has been held by the Marada Movement since 2016.

Im surprised that they (the judiciary, port authority and security forces) didnt find a way to deal with this for almost seven years. It was an accident waiting to happen, he said.

Muddying the waters

Melhem Khalaf, the independently elected head of the Beirut Bar Association, said officials were undertaking a pre-emptive attack to vilify the judiciary and muddy the waters on this case.

Since when are officials the ones who lay down verdicts? Khalaf told Al Jazeera.

He said the governments response to the disaster  forming a committee headed by establishment-backed politicians, and security forces who ultimately answer to those same politicians  is no way to find justice.

A man pushes his belongings along a street as he evacuates his damaged house [Aziz Taher/Reuters]

Lebanons Judges Club, a body independent of establishment political parties, also said justice should remain firmly in the courts.

Investigating the Beirut explosion is not within the powers of any committee, no matter what it may be, the club said in an implicit criticism of the governments investigative committee.

On Tuesday, Khalaf filed a complaint with the highest judge in the land, Public Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat, calling for him to seek the expertise of local and international experts  including engineers, explosives and chemicals experts  to assess the cause of the Beirut explosion.

The time has come for officials to stop misleading the Lebanese people  there are dead and injured and missing, and the country has been burned, Khalaf said.

After all they have done, they are now coming to us and determining whos responsible?
An exterior view of the former Charter High School for Architecture and Design. The building has been sold to private investment group Lubert-Adler for $11.8 million. Read more

Leaders of a closed Philadelphia charter school have sold its building at Seventh and Sansom Streets to an affiliate of investment group Lubert-Adler for $11.8 million, most of which will be used to pay off a bond that had been issued to pay for the property and its renovation.

A subsidiary of the foundation that owns the building of the defunct Charter High School for Architecture and Design sold the five-story, roughly 125,000-square-foot building on July 30, according to records filed with the city.

Dean Adler, a Lubert-Adler partner, said Thursday that his group had not yet settled on a plan for the site.

The sale by the subsidiary of Designing Futures Foundation, the nonprofit that owned the school building on the charters behalf, came about a year after the school was closed in a deal with the School District of Philadelphia as it faced the possible nonrenewal of its charter to operate.

CHAD, as the school is known, opened in 1999 with the goal of sending more African American students into architecture. But a district evaluation in 2018 found declining test scores and attendance, noncompliance with special-education requirements, and financial issues.

Proceeds from the buildings sale last month were used to pay off $7.67 million still owed against tax-exempt bonds authorized in 2012, which had been used to refinance the original mortgage for the purchase of the property at 105-17 S. Seventh St., according to the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Redevelopment.

The nonprofit owed an additional $787,000 in other debt as of June 30, 2018, the last date for which its tax documents are publicly available.

Lance Rothstein, president of CHADs board of trustees, was on vacation Thursday and not immediately available to discuss what it plans to do with those proceeds.

Nonprofits are legally obligated to use proceeds from any asset sales in ways that are consistent with their stated purpose when they were formed, said Kathleen M. Thomas, a lawyer specializing in nonprofit law at High Swartz LLP in Doylestown. If they dissolve, they are required to transfer any funds they have on hand to another nonprofit with a similar mission, she said.
The former Minister of Communications, Dr. Edward Omane Boamah, is sweating over claims that he is one of the 'Babies with sharp teeth' that Professor Kwamena Ahwoi and co groomed to attack ex-President Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings.

The former Minister of Local Government and Rural Development has made mind-blowing admissions in his new book entitled: Working with Rawlings that he 'groomed' the likes of Felix Kwakye Ofosu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Kwadwo Twum Boafo, Omane Boamah, and others to 'attack' the founder of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), former President Rawlings, whenever he criticized the late President John Evans Atta Mills publicly.

According to him, this was part of a strategy to 'tame' Mr. Rawlings, who had become a thorn in the flesh of the late President, who was going to announce his resignation as a result of the constant public criticisms he received from the NDC founder.

Mr. Rawlings coined the term 'Babies with Sharp Teeth' in reference to young NDC office holders who were ready to 'devour' anyone who dared to criticize the NDC administration.

It worked and the strategy proved effective. Rawlings toned down on his public criticism of President Mills. Instead, he turned his anger on the young 'boys and girls' who were talking back at him whenever he criticized President Mills publicly, Prof. Ahwoi had said.

The revelation, which is contained on page 211 of his book, has since stoked fire in the main opposition party, with former President Rawlings serving notice that he would soon deal with the callous agenda of bile by the likes of Kwamena Ahwoi.

Prof. Ahwoi revealed that he, Captain Kojo Tsikata (rtd) and Kofi Totobi-Quakyi, who were trusted advisors of President Mills, sat and planned the so-called taming 'strategy', explaining that the strategy we adopted to achieve this objective was simple enough.

However, Omane Boamah, who did not appear to countenance dissenting views and was always ready to 'attack' opponents when he was minister, has come back strongly denying Prof. Ahwoi's claims.

In a disclaimer, he said, I have read excerpts of the Prof. Kwamena Ahwoi's Book, 'Working with Rawlings' that appear to suggest I was among a group of young politicians, who were purposely engaged by him and others to respond to and talk back at former President Rawlings for the latter's attacks on the personality of the late President of Ghana, His Excellency John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills. Respectfully, I need to place on record that this claim is wholly and completely inaccurate and untrue (sic), he stated.

As a young man and politician with core convictions, I was never engaged nor could I have allowed myself to be used by anyone to talk back at former President Rawlings (sic).

Rather, he said my principled stand in defending the late President Atta Mills, without insults, against attacks I thought were underserved was borne out of my respect and appreciation of the personality of the late President Mills  the Asomdwehene, his pureness of heart and other sterling and unique qualities that he possessed to a fault (sic).

Omane Boamah insisted that the suggestion (by Prof. Ahwoi) that my defence of the late President was part of a deliberate 'strategy' by elders is irksome to me, stressing it does not reflect my personality as a politician of conviction and not of convenience.

For the record, I state emphatically and unequivocally that any claim that I was a recruited participant in any such grand agenda could only be the result of an inadvertent error in recollection and not founded on anything that remotely resembles the truth (sic), he added.

---Daily Guide
David McGuire, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the 2001 case, said the ACLU is concerned that the virus is being used as a justification for exclusionary beach policies that in decades past were used as a tool for racial injustice.

Im not saying thats happening now, but we cant allow the pandemic to be an excuse for unfair treatment of people, Mr. McGuire said. Capacity limits are important, but a resident-only scheme doesnt address the issue of social distancing. What they really ought to do is put a cap on how many people can be on the beach, and allow people in on a first-come-first-serve basis. That is a policy grounded in science.

Further, he said, policies that reserve the beach for residents on weekends while opening it up to nonresidents on weekdays are clearly designed to give preferential or exclusive access to residents during certain periods, which is unfair and unconstitutional.

But municipal officials do not want to have to turn away their own residents on busy weekends.

Our taxpayers pay for lifeguards, Department of Public Works employees for maintenance of the beaches, law enforcement  its a lot of money, Ms. Kupchick said. To say to your residents who pay that, you cant go  it doesnt seem right.

Mr. McGuire said his office will scrutinize all residents-only ordinances and their enforcement to determine if they comply with the 2001 Supreme Court decision.
The 2020 election has strangely felt both more and less present a part of life than itd have seemed likely on January 1: Its more with us because of the heightened tensions stoked by our president, with his supporters and detractors feeling a sense of urgency about how theyll vote, and its less with us because of everything else. It can be easy to forget this is an election year when thinking about all the other things that make 2020 itself  a somewhat startling way in which COVID-19, the economic devastation it has wrought, and a simultaneous awakening around racial justice have worked in tandem to break TV newss addiction to the endless campaign.

Which makes On the Trail: Inside the 2020 Primaries, HBO Maxs new documentary feature about embedded journalists reporting on the events of past months, feel something other than urgent at this moment, because it doesnt feel of this moment at all. Its not that the story it tells  of women reporters doing their best to balance it all against a political backdrop that has tended to punish women candidates  isnt interesting on its face, or told well. Its just that political realities have shifted such that this story seems to be about a different election than the one happening in November.

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What the film  which is made by CNN Films and focuses on journalists from CNN, HBO Maxs corporate partner  does well is depict the difficulty of the embeds job, from logistical to philosophical. We get a crystalline sense of just how wearying it is to follow candidates from place to place, to hear a remarkably similar stump speech repeatedly and to attempt to wring it for news value. Daniella Diaz, a producer embedded with the Elizabeth Warren campaign, says that she attends three events a day, a mind-numbing prospect no matter which candidate is speaking. Whats difficult, too, is the goal  perhaps a false one  of objectivity or not allowing ones own experience to enter into ones mind while working. Diaz is the daughter of Mexican immigrants; elsewhere, we meet Jasmine Wright, a Black woman who notes, while covering Amy Klobuchar, Of course the only Black embed at CNN would get the candidate with no Black support. Which is probably not a benefit for them, because I will notice.

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Wright laughs ruefully as she says this, but her point is well-taken, doubly  both that Klobuchar had little Black support, which is part of why she lost, and that CNN has in her eyes little diversity among its reporting talent, which is not likely to yield such direct consequences. More on this topic from Wright would have been welcome, but the CNN-produced film doesnt go there.

These are issues that will outlast the moment in which On the Trail was filmed. But the effective end of that trail  with the winner of the Democratic Partys primary running his campaign without leaving the state of Delaware  does mean that they were voiced in a context that is already gone. Obviously things can be learned from the very recent past, but On the Trail feels, like many works forged in the heat of a campaign, as though it were designed to comment on a present that slipped away from it. Even had COVID-19 never happened, this film may live on HBO Max for years to come; the times when reporters speak a bit more globally about their work are the ones that feel likeliest to matter in the future, but those are somewhat sparser than would be ideal.

Frequent montages of news events from only, say, six or so months ago, meant to situate us within our protagonists reality and to remind us of what exactly happened at when feel, instead, like jarring and unpleasant reminders of a campaign that is now effectively over. (Thats not to say that the election has been won or lost by either side, but simply that the portion of 2020 involving in-person electioneering by candidates seems concluded.) They tie the film relentlessly back into whatever news cycle is happening in its protagonists present, rather than allowing them to consistently address wider-ranging concerns. Its easy to care about the women in On the Trail, and the issues they face. But the film around them doesnt feel built to last  or to exist in a moment beyond the one for which it was intended, one in which a summer has been spent watching two candidates battle it out as a national spectacle and pastime. That our time has been spent in other ways doesnt make race and gender among journalists less important. But it suggests there might have been more timeless ways to address them.

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An international pilot who was forced into hotel quarantine despite having initially been assured he could self-isolate at home has complained about the staggering bill he faces - and the quality of food he's paying $60-a-day for.

The international pilot, who had been on a roster working out of Asia and has not seen his family in five months, is now in quarantine at the five-star Intercontinental Hotel in Perth.

'We knew he wouldn't be able to come home when it first started, so I thought I might see him in May or June, but then the international borders shut and if he came home he wouldn't be able to work at all,' his partner and mother-of-two Lindsay told Daily Mail Australia.

Mother-of-two Lindsay said her partner (pictured together) is in quarantine at the five-star Intercontinental Hotel in Perth after returning home

A pilot who was forced into hotel quarantine after being told he could self-isolate at home has complained about having to pay $60 a day for food at a five-star hotel

'He stayed in Asia until July until they closed the operation of the company he was working for to expat pilots, so they're only using local pilots now.'

Lindsay and her partner had been told he would be allowed to self-isolate at home as he was returning home from work.

But when he got to the gate after landing in Perth, the pilot was told he'd have to fork out $2,520 to stay in the five-star hotel.

'At the gate they said he couldn't go into self-isolation despite being on the phone to health officials the day before and being told he could,' Lindsay said.

Lindsay said he is paying $60 a day for food and has been disgusted at the quality of meals he has been getting for that price.

On his first morning the pilot was given a plastic container with a small amount of scrambled eggs and baked beans.

Another breakfast was two Weetbix, milk and an apple, and that was meant to keep him satisfied until lunch.

Lindsay said he is paying $60 a day for food and has been disgusted at the meals he has been getting

Another breakfast was a packet of weetbix, milk and an apple to keep him satisfied until lunch

'It just arrives to the room, there's no schedule,' the mother-of-two said.

'You can't choose anything it's literally just in a paper bag with plastic cutlery. There's also no hot water in the room so he's been having cold showers.'

When her partner found out he would have to stay in Asia to continue to work, Lindsay packed up her house in just one week and moved from Perth to Queensland to stay with her parents.

'I'm not working because I have a newborn baby and now that he's not working as well we couldn't afford it,' she said.

The family pictured together at Perth airport's international departure gate the day he flew out

The mother-of-two said the thing that makes her the most frustrated about the situation is the 'keyboard warriors' who want to keep borders closed.

'They don't think about anyone's mental health,' she said.

'He's sitting in a tiny hotel room after being away for five months and we have to pay for it - it's really cruel. I don't think people think about it when they slam on the keyboard.'

'People are doing stupid things like not wearing masks and coming into Queensland and everyone else has to suffer because they are just stupid.'

If he wants to go to work, the pilot will have to quarantine each time he returns to Australia, which will take up his entire two weeks off.

'We can't leave the country so we can't see him, and he can't stay overseas because most countries have restrictions on foreigners entering,' Lindsay said.

'So he either works and never sees us, spending his 'time off' in hotel quarantine which we have to pay for or he stays at home on Jobseeker.'

'He is a highly skilled pilot but that unfortunately means he has limited skills to do another job.'
Beirut Governor Marwan Abboud on Wednesday, August 5 said the damages from the huge explosion that rocked the Lebanese capital a day before could be worth more than previously estimated and amount to as high as $15 billion.

According to the reports, the authorities had earlier announced that the estimated amount of damage from the explosion could be around $3-5 billion.

READ: Beirut Blast Death Toll Reaches 113; Nearly 4,000 Injured And 300,000 Displaced

300,000 people homeless

Governor Abboud had earlied informed that the Beruit blast has left nearly 300,000 people homeless. As per reports, the powerful blast was caused by improper storage of approximately 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate at a warehouse near the city port. Lebanese Health Minister Hamad Hassan is reported to have updated that the catastrophic blast killed at least 113 people and left 4,000 injured.

READ: Beirut Blast: Australia Pledges $1.4 Million In Humanitarian Assistance To Lebanon

Half of the citys buildings have been severely damaged and hospitals are overwhelmed because of the soaring number of blasts victims. An investigation to find the exact trigger of the explosion is underway, however, officials are blaming tons of ammonium nitrate stored inside the safe house for the destruction.

Lebanon has received humanitarian assistance from various countries, including Kuwait, Qatar, Iran, and Greece. Health Ministers adviser Reda Al Moussawi is reported to have informed that authorities are also waiting for aid from other countries and the list includes Russia, the UAE, and the UK. Moussawi said that Greece has sent a medical team with the health equipment to help treat those injured.

(With agency inputs)

READ: France Sends Planes With Rescue Teams, Aid To Beirut

READ: German Search And Rescue Workers Leave For Beirut
AIB joined rivals in pointing to some recovery as the economy emerges from lockdown after posting a 909 million first-half pretax loss, mainly due to provisions for customers affected by the pandemic.

Ireland's largest mortgage lender took a 1.2 billion charge and, like its rivals, said it expected that to represent the significant majority of its provisions for the year as a whole, before returning to more normalised levels in 2021.

Chief Financial Officer Donal Galvin said AIB had extended 25% of the 64,000 payment breaks introduced since March for those hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, 27% had returned to normal repayments and 48% were still in the initial three-month phase.

He said that outcome was a little better than expected and that there was also slightly more business activity than anticipated during the pandemic, despite a 27% year-on-year fall in new lending.

"Card spend (by AIB customers) in 2020 is now above this time last year and has been since June. As a proxy for overall activity, that's reason for optimism," Galvin told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"Between June and July, mortgage applications were in line or higher than 2019 and that's a very positive sign. What we are hearing from that industry is that things look to be normalising quite quickly."

Ireland's other dominant lender, Bank of Ireland, said it was seeing signs of recovery from the crisis in mortgage applications and business loan volumes in July, sending it and AIB's shares higher on Wednesday.

AIB's shares opened 4.5% lower at 1.14 on Thursday, erasing the gains.

The bank said its core Tier 1 capital ratio - a key measure of financial strength - rose slightly to 16.4% from 16.2% at the end of March, the highest of any Irish lender.

A day after a new Bank of Ireland voluntary redundancy scheme was met by political and trade union opposition, AIB said it had suspended a similar scheme announced just before the pandemic hit for the rest of the year.

Reuters
Harish Murali By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Thursday issued a notice to the Centre on the plea moved by a fishermen association seeking to translate the draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification into the vernacular language and provide sufficient time to make objections.

The counsel for the petitioner also pointed out that the Karnataka High Court had restrained the Centre from publishing the final version of the draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification.

ALSO READ: Karnataka HC restrains Centre from publishing final notification based on draft EIA

Recording the submissions, the two-member bench of justices MM Sundresh and R Hemalatha adjourned the plea to Friday for a detailed hearing.

According to the petitioner, most of the people confined to rural villages and forest fringe villagers are still ignorant about the present EIA Notification 2020 since there was no substantial publicity by the central government in any publication.

"The central government ought to have seen that the general public are unable to make their suggestions and objections with respect to the draft EIA Notification 2020 in so far as the country and the people have vigorously fought against COVID-19 till now," said the petitioner.

The state has a population of 8.5 crore of which only a section of people understand Hindi and English. The majority of people confined to rural areas of Tamil Nadu especially the villagers would not understand either English or Hindi which makes it difficult to understand the draft order, the petitioner contended.
Global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP represented Shopoff Realty Investments (Shopoff) in securing final approvals to construct the San Gorgonio Crossing industrial project, a 1.8 million square foot logistics center located off Interstate 10 in the Cherry Valley area of Riverside County.

We were pleased to represent Shopoff in connection with this significant project, said Greenberg Traurig Shareholders Ellen Berkowitz and Brady R. McShane, who represented Shopoff in connection with the County entitlements. The project is well-positioned to serve both the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports, benefit the surrounding community, create jobs, and stimulate the local economy.

In October 2017, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors certified an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and approved discretionary entitlements for the project. Two groups subsequently challenged the project in court, alleging that it failed to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and was inconsistent with the Riverside County General Plan.

The Superior Court heard the case in February 2019, and the judge ruled favorably for the project by upholding the project entitlements and certified EIR. Out of the 39 claims by the project's opposition, the judge required Shopoff to further evaluate only two limited issues, which pertained to the incorporation of solar panels and analysis of transportation energy use.

To properly address the two remaining project concerns, the County prepared a supplemental environmental impact report (SEIR), which included additional technical studies that maximized the use of solar panels and evaluated strategies for transportation energy use requirements. Based on the revised design, according to a press release by Shopoff, the buildings will offset 100% of their electric use with clean solar energy. The Riverside County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved certification of the SEIR in May 2020. On July 7, 2020, the Superior Court affirmed the Countys supplemental analysis and dismissed the case.

In addition to Berkowitz and McShane, Greenberg Traurig Shareholder Matt Gershman represented Shopoff and the County during the litigation.

About Greenberg Traurig's Real Estate Practice: The Greenberg Traurig Real Estate Practice is a cornerstone of the firm and recognized leader in the industry. The firms real estate attorneys deliver diversified and comprehensive counsel for property acquisition and investment, development, management and leasing, financing, restructuring, and disposition of all asset classes of real estate. The team draws upon the knowledge and experience of more than 400 real estate lawyers from around the world, serving clients from key markets in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia. The groups clientele includes a broad range of property developers, lenders, investment managers, private equity funds, REITs, and private owners. The firms real estate team advises clients on a variety of matters across a broad spectrum of commercial, recreational, and residential real estate, including structured equity and debt and the hybrids.

About Greenberg Traurigs Litigation Practice: Greenberg Traurigs Litigation Practice includes a team of more than 600 attorneys. The firms trial lawyers regularly appear in state and federal courts throughout the country, as well as in appellate courts and before international arbitration panels. They work closely with in-house counsel to develop a strategy that best fits a litigation cost and proficiency model appropriate to the clients unique needs and goals.

About Greenberg Traurig, LLP: Greenberg Traurig, LLP (GT) has 2200 lawyers in 41 locations in the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. GT has been recognized for its philanthropic giving, diversity, and innovation, and is consistently among the largest firms in the U.S. on the Law360 400 and among the Top 20 on the Am Law Global 100. Web: http://www.gtlaw.com Twitter: @GT_Law.
French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Lebanon Thursday, the first world leader in Beirut after the port blast that wreaked destruction across the capital, as France seeks to provide its former colony with urgent disaster aid.

The blast on Tuesday  blamed on an unsecured store of ammonium nitrate at the Beirut port  devastated entire neighbourhoods, killed over 100 people and left up to 300,000 without homes.

It was the latest blow to a country already reeling from an unprecedented economic crisis and political turbulence.

And there is growing exasperation with the powerful elite across Lebanon's different confessional communities.

"I will go to Beirut tomorrow to bring the Lebanese people a message of fraternity and solidarity from the French," Macron wrote on Twitter.

"We will discuss the situation with the political authorities," he added.

The president's Elysee Palace office said Macron will "meet all political actors", including President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Hassan Diab.

Both sides will be hoping the visit goes more smoothly than a trip last month by France's top diplomat Jean-Yves Le Drian, who scolded Lebanon's political elite for being too "passive" in the face of an economic crisis compounded by the coronavirus pandemic.

In the aftermath of that visit, Foreign Minister Nassif Hitti resigned in protest at his government's lack of crisis management.

Paris prosecutor Remy Heitz said Wednesday at least 21 French citizens were injured in the blast and prosecutors had opened a probe into "negligent injury" using their jurisdiction to investigate acts committed abroad.

Two French planes were expected to arrive on Thursday with specialist rescue personnel and equipment .

Three days of mourning

Prime Minister Hassan Diab declared three days of mourning from Thursday as early investigations blamed negligence for Tuesday's explosion at Beirut port, which has left tens of people missing and injured more than 5,000 others.

Story continues

Up to a quarter of a million people were left without homes fit to live in, officials said, after shockwaves smashed building facades, sucked furniture out into streets and shattered windows miles inland.

The death toll, which currently stands at 137 according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, was expected to rise from the blast, which officials blamed on a huge stockpile of highly explosive material stored for years in unsafe conditions at the port.

The explosion was the most powerful ever in Beirut, a city still scarred by civil war that ended three decades ago and reeling from an economic meltdown and a surge in coronavirus infections. The blast rattled buildings on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, about 100 miles (160 km) away.

"No words can describe the horror that has hit Beirut last night, turning it into a disaster-stricken city," President Michel Aoun said in an address to the nation during an emergency cabinet session.

Aoun said 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, used in fertilisers and bombs, was stored for six years at the port after it was seized.

The government was "determined to investigate and expose what happened as soon as possible, to hold the responsible and the negligent accountable," he said.

An official source familiar with preliminary investigations blamed the incident on "inaction and negligence", saying "nothing was done" by committees and judges involved in the matter to order the removal of hazardous material.

The cabinet ordered port officials involved in storing or guarding the material to be put under house arrest, ministerial sources told Reuters.

Officials have not confirmed the origin of an initial blaze that sparked the explosion, although a security source and local media said it was started by welding work.

'Collapse of Lebanon'

For many, the blast was a dreadful reminder of the 1975-1990 civil war that tore the nation apart and destroyed swathes of Beirut, much of which had since been rebuilt.

Ordinary Lebanese, who have lost jobs and watched savings evaporate in the country's financial crisis, blamed politicians who have overseen decades of state corruption and bad governance.

"This explosion seals the collapse of Lebanon. I really blame the ruling class," said Hassan Zaiter, 32, a manager at the heavily damaged Le Gray Hotel in downtown Beirut.

Relatives gathered at a cordon to Beirut port seeking information on those still missing as the search continued. Many of those killed were port and custom employees, people working in the area or those driving nearby during the Tuesday evening rush hour. Some victims were hurled out to sea by the powerful blast.

The Red Cross was coordinating with the Health Ministry to set up morgues as hospitals were overwhelmed. Health officials reported that hospitals were running out of beds and equipment to attend to the injured.

Beirut's Clemenceau Medical Center was "like a slaughterhouse, blood covering the corridors and the lifts," said Sara, one of its nurses.

Beirut Governor Marwan Abboud told Al Hadath TV that collective losses from the blast might reach as high as $15 billion, including indirect losses related to business.

"This is the killer blow for Beirut, we are a disaster zone," said Bilal, a man in his 60s, in the downtown area.

The World Bank Group said on Wednesday it would work with Lebanon's partners to mobilize public and private financing for reconstruction and recovery. It was unclear what effect the disaster would have on the country's difficult negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, however.

Offers of international support poured in.

Gulf Arab states, who in the past were major financial supporters of Lebanon but recently stepped back because of what they say is Iranian meddling, sent planes with medical equipment and other supplies.

Turkey said it would send 20 doctors to help treat the injured, as well as medical and relief assistance. Iraq pledged fuel aid, while Iran offered food and a field hospital.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei tweeted: "We sympathise with the dear Lebanese citizens and stand by them in the painful tragedy of the Beirut port explosion ... Patience in the face of this incident will be a golden leaf of honour for Lebanon."

The United States, Britain and other Western nations, which have been demanding political and economic change in Lebanon, also offered aid. Germany, the Netherlands and Cyprus offered specialised search and rescue teams.

Food security

"This is a catastrophe for Beirut and Lebanon," Mayor Jamal Itani told Reuters while inspecting damage.

The port district was left a tangled wreck, disabling the nation's main route for imports needed to feed a nation of more than 6 million people.

The country's main grain silo at the port was destroyed in the blast and Beirut Governor Abboud said a crisis might develop without international intervention.

Lebanon was already struggling to house and feed refugees fleeing conflict in neighbouring Syria and has no trade or other ties with its only other neighbour Israel.

"On a scale, this explosion is scaled down from a nuclear bomb rather than up from a conventional bomb," said Roland Alford, managing director of British explosive ordnance disposal firm Alford Technologies. "This is huge."

The blast also prompted the Special Tribunal for Lebanon on Wednesday to postpone its verdict in the trial over the 2005 bombing that killed ex-Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri to Aug. 18. The tribunal's decision had been expected this Friday.

The UN-backed court put on trial four suspects from the Iranian-backed Shi'ite Muslim group Hezbollah. Hariri and 21 others were killed by a big truck bomb in another area of the Beirut waterfront, about 2 km (about one mile) from the port.

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said the US government had not totally ruled out the possibility that Tuesday's explosion was an attack, and said it is still gathering intelligence on the blast.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)
With more than 500,000 residents still without power Thursday, two days after Tropical Storm Isaias tore through the state, Gov. Ned Lamont activated the Connecticut National Guard to help with power restoration efforts.

Rough estimates, based on numbers released by Eversource and United Illuminating on Thursday, indicate about 1 million combined customers of those utility companies lost power because of the storm.

In a statement Thursday afternoon, Lamont said he approved the deployment of members of the states National Guard to help utility companies with the ongoing cleanup and repairs.

Eversource reported 476,570 customers without power as of about 9:30 p.m. Thursday. United Illuminating reported 73,947 outages as of around 2:30 p.m., when the sites outage numbers were last updated.

Lamont declared a state of emergency Wednesday in response to the damage and outages.

When the storm hit Tuesday, it brought heavy rains and roaring winds that knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of Eversource and United Illuminating customers in Connecticut and caused hazardous road conditions with wires, trees and debris coating the roadways.

The governor said the initial phase of the National Guard deployment will involve four route clearance teams, which will help state and local authorities clear large debris from the roads. Each team will have three vehicles, including an excavator, and seven personnel.

In the beginning stages, Lamont said, two teams will help UI and two will help Eversource. He said more teams could be added in the next few days.

Connecticut Army and Air National Guard units will also be used to help the route clearance efforts, the governor said.

Maj. Gen. Fran Evon, adjutant general and commander of the Connecticut National Guard, said in a statement Thursday that the members are ready to help.

When called out to support in a time of need, we arent just performing a mission, were helping our families, our neighbors, our coworkers and our friends, Evon said. We are proud to train for missions just like this in an effort to remain always ready and always there to support our fellow residents during times of need.

In a statement Thursday, UI said it finished its storm damage assessment and expected to restore power by Saturday to almost all of its customers, with significant gains expected in the next few days.

UI said some customers could still be without power through the weekend, with restoration expected to be substantially complete by the end of the day Monday.

We understand it may not be welcome news that some customers may still be without service this weekend, said a statement from Tony Marone, UI president and CEO. We ask customers to plan accordingly.

Additional crews, including personnel from sister company to UI Central Maine Power, will arrive in Connecticut soon to help the roughly 580 UI crews already working on getting power back.

Estimates indicate more than 100,000 UI customers lost power as a result of Tuesdays storm. Marone said about 50,000 customers have had their power restored while more than 73,000 remained without power still Thursday.

Marone said UIs response to the storm was consistent with the plans filed with the state for a storm of Isaias magnitude.

The storm we got was the storm we planned for, and we will continue to work that plan night and day until every last customer is restored, Marone said.

On Thursday, Eversource said crews worked through the night clearing blocked roads and clearing downed trees as the assessment of damage continued.

The company indicated Thursday morning that power had been restored to more than 332,000 customers as roughly 541,000 remained without power. By late Thursday afternoon, another roughly 40,000 customers had power back.

Still, restoration efforts are expected to continue for days.

Eversource released an estimate late Thursday night that indicated it expects to have power restoration substantially complete by 11:59 p.m. Tuesday.

Craig Hallstrom, president of regional electric operations for Eversource, said estimated restoration for individual towns are expected sometime Friday, likely in the evening.

Im very confident we will have a large, very large jump in customers restored by the end of this weekend, he said. And then well start working on the smaller neighborhoods.

Hallstrom said Eversource had 450 repair crews working Wednesday. More than 700 electrical restoration crews were on the roads Thursday.

Right now, Hallstrom said more than 48 hours after the storm hit, were really starting to ramp up.

Lamont on Wednesday took issue with the response to the outages by the states utility companies and requested that the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority launch an investigation. He called the response by these companies wholly inadequate.

Leaders in some communities have voiced similar frustrations with the response by utility companies.

Wilton First Selectwoman Lynne Vanderslice noted in a message on the town website just before 11 p.m. Wednesday that Eversource canceled the crews it had promised to send to the town that night. DPW crews were waiting for their arrival.

This is completely unacceptable. We are pushing to get them back, she said.

A furious Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim demanded Wednesday evening that UI work harder and faster to return power to thousands of constituents, particularly those living in older senior housing.

UI, turn the power back on in the city of Bridgeport, Ganim said while standing outside a senior living complex on North Avenue. We need it.

If not, Ganim threatened that his administration would take the utility provider to court  civil or criminal.

Michael Hayhurst, vice president of electric operations in Connecticut for Eversource, said the impact of Tropical Storm Isaias was greater than Superstorm Sandy in terms of power outages.

A possible waterspout  a typically funnel-shaped cloud that occurs over a body of water; known as a tornado over water  was seen approaching land from the (Long Island) Sound shore in Westport at about 1:40 p.m. Tuesday, according to a National Weather Service summary of major incidents during the storm.

Hayhurst said the fierce winds caused widespread power outages and historic damage.

He said Eversource crews are headed to the skies to assess the overhead equipment across the state, while using patrols on the ground. He said this will let the company efficiently deploy our resources to get power restored for all of our customers.

Staff Writer Luther Turmelle contributed reporting to this story.
Sukuk issuance in the GCC is set to fall 5% this year to about $170 billion because of the coronavirus crisis, after four years of rapid growth, said Moodys in a new report.



"The decline will be partly limited by the financing needs of GCC countries because of lower oil prices and the pandemic," said Nitish Bhojnagarwala, VP-Senior Credit Officer at Moody's. "We expect issuance will rally in the second half of the year to around $90 billion, led by sovereigns in the Gulf."



Key points:



 Despite the decline, 2020 will still see the second highest sukuk issuance total ever, following a 36% increase in 2019.



 Total issuance in the first six months of 2020 dropped to $77 billion, down 12% from the same period last year, as activity in Malaysia and Indonesia flagged.



 Issuance in southeast Asia dropped by 25%, while volumes in the Middle East rose 7%.



 Volumes are likely to rebound in the second half of 2020, as governments raise money to finance their responses to the coronavirus crisis.



 Persistently low oil prices could also increase deficits and financing needs among oil-exporting issuers, primarily in Gulf countries.



 Moodys expects some African sovereigns and corporates to enter the market, following the lead of Egypt and Nigeria earlier this year.



 Though the green sukuk market is in its infancy, issuance is likely to accelerate as efforts to combat climate change gain traction.  TradeArabia News Service


Lebanese-Canadians who watched in horror as an explosion tore through Beirut turned their attention to helping their homeland on Wednesday, even as they struggled to process their grief at the tragedy.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 5/8/2020 (531 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

People clean up after a massive explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020. Massive explosions rocked downtown Beirut on Tuesday, flattening much of the port, damaging buildings and blowing out windows and doors as a giant mushroom cloud rose above the capital. Witnesses saw many people injured by flying glass and debris. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Lebanese-Canadians who watched in horror as an explosion tore through Beirut turned their attention to helping their homeland on Wednesday, even as they struggled to process their grief at the tragedy.

In Montreal's tight-knit Lebanese community, almost everyone knows someone overseas who has been injured or killed in the tragedy, according to Lamia Charlebois, who runs a Facebook page for the community.

The blast flattened Beirut's busy port area, sending glass flying and collapsing walls, floors and balconies for kilometres, killing at least 135 people and wounding about 5,000, according to Lebanese officials.

"We all have someone who is wounded, who is still not found, who is dead," said Charlebois, who had a friend who was killed and another who lost an eye in the blast.

"The community is extremely sad. There's anguish and despair," she said. "But at the same time we're mobilized, and we want to help every way we can."

She said many in the Lebanese community have been donating to the Lebanese Red Cross, which is forced to handle the tragedy amid a COVID-19 crisis that has already left emergency rooms overcrowded. The Canadian Red Cross has also announced a support fund to help the country.

Mohamad Moati of Vaughan, Ont., cited fundraising as one of the few ways to feel useful from the other side of the world.

Moati was on the phone with his siblings in Lebanon's capital when Tuesday's blast levelled part of the city and heard the boom and the panic that followed.

"There's a sense of mixed emotion, of guiltiness for being grateful that we're in a great country like Canada, and at the same time feeling very guilty that we can't be back home with family members and friends and actually help out with the disaster," he said.

Moati said he and others in the "Lebanese in Canada" Facebook group he founded are working to raise money in hopes they can make things a little easier for those in Lebanon.

"Everybody has been has been trying to help in their own way, whether it's supporting with words, or supporting financially, or sharing information that can help other people that are back home," he said.

Investigators in Lebanon began searching through the wreckage for clues to the cause of Tuesday's explosion, and the government ordered port officials put under house arrest amid speculation that negligence was to blame.

Though Lebanese emergency responders were still combing through the rubble in search of survivors and victims on Wednesday, some details about the extent of the damage are already known.

Long-time Montreal resident Nizar Najarian was among the at least 135 who were killed, a city councillor confirmed, and the Canadian Armed Forces said one of its members was among the thousands who were injured.

Ahmad Araji, president of the Lebanese Club of Ottawa, said he was still in shock a day after the incident and found it hard to put the magnitude of the tragedy into words.

"There's so little you can do from abroad," he said. "And the country has been going through a lot. This is the last thing the people needed right now, especially with the economic crisis, poverty peaking, the currency crash, COVID."

He said his first cousin, his wife and their young daughter live in downtown Beirut and were hit by glass that shattered during the explosion.

His group has started an online fundraiser that had raised thousands of dollars by early Wednesday afternoon for the Lebanese Red Cross and for hospitals.

Charlebois said members of the community are supporting each other and have been comforted by the calls and messages of condolence from friends and strangers from across Canada.

Montreal lowered its flag to half-mast, while the city's Lebanese consulate announced a candlelit vigil for Thursday night.

Charlebois urged the Canadian government to help by sending disaster response teams, environmental experts, and eventually building materials, "because the houses were blown up at a very big radius," she said.

Later Wednesday, the federal government said it was pledging up to $5 million in humanitarian aid to help people affected by the deadly explosion.

Development Canada said an initial $1.5 million is going to organizations such as the Red Cross to help meet urgent needs.

In a post on Twitter, the department said Canada's support will help provide emergency medical services, shelter and food.

It said Canada will continue to closely monitor the situation and stands ready "to provide additional assistance to respond to this terrible tragedy."

New Democrat international development critic Heather McPherson said the humanitarian aid is gravely needed and the Lebanese people will require significant international support.

McPherson said beyond assisting with immediate food, medical, and other needs, "the federal government must take concrete action to assist the international community's long-term humanitarian efforts."

Charles Aboukhaled, president of a Canadian-Lebanese business association, said discussions are already underway with the federal government to send emergency food and medical aid.

He noted that a large portion of Lebanon's grain reserves were decimated by the blast and that Beirut's hospitals have been damaged and may lack medicine.

The tragedy struck as Lebanon was already experiencing a severe economic crisis that has ignited mass protests in recent months. Its health system is confronting a surge of COVID-19, and there were concerns the virus could spread further as people flooded into hospitals.

Aboukhaled, like several other Lebanese-Canadians who spoke to The Canadian Press, pointed out that the country's people have been shaped by decades of tragedy, including war and sporadic terrorist attacks.

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"We're really in a state of shock and incredulity, asking, 'When will this nightmare end?'" he said.

While the immediate attention remains on the humanitarian effort, Aboukhaled said longer-term recovery needs to include meaningful answers about what really happened.

Currently, the investigation is focusing on how 2,500 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive chemical used in fertilizers, came to be stored at the port facility for six years.

"How can it be there were products like that, that this happened with these products, and who is responsible?" he asked.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 5, 2020.

 With files from The Associated Press
Drugmaker's ceaseless R&D investment bears another fruit



Hanmi Pharmaceutical has succeeded in exporting new drug technology that could lead to another blockbuster. The Korean drugmaker entered into an exclusive licensing agreement recently with its U.S. partner MSD to commercialize a dual agonist, a candidate for a new hepatitis treatment, for 1.02 trillion won ($860 million). If the medicine hits the market, Hanmi will receive additional payments in royalties.



The contract was a victory for Hanmi's perseverance. The company initially developed the dual agonist for insulin secretion and obesity control. Hanmi licensed it to Janssen Pharmaceutical during its Phase 1 clinical trial in 2015 in a deal worth 1 trillion won. Because of some problems, however, the Belgian-based company returned the license in July last year, giving up its down payment. Yet, Hanmi has finally opened a new way for the efinopegdutide candidate material to treat nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).



Korea's history of developing new drugs largely overlaps with the path Hanmi has taken. Discussing it isn't easy without mentioning Lim Sung-ki, founder and chairman of Hanmi, who passed away recently. Starting as a pharmacist on the outskirts of Seoul, he established Hanmi at 33 and made it a global pharmaceutical company with annual sales of 1 trillion won. The domestic pharmaceutical industry at the time focused on making generic drugs. Still, Hanmi managed to sign export contracts totaling 8 trillion won in 2015. The record-high export performance paved the way for the current Korean biotech boom.



There were times the company suffered setbacks due to the abrupt cancellation of contracts. However, it did not stop its investments in research and development. The company invests 20 percent of its annual sales into R&D and has spent 2 trillion won for that purpose over the past decade. "Pharmaceuticals without R&D are dead corporations," the late magnate used to say.



Many of the nation's flagship industries are now struggling to survive amid the unprecedented pandemic. The quantum jump made by the biopharmaceutical sector has reaffirmed the potential of the Korean economy while emphasizing the need for a more favorable policy to foster promising firms. That also shows why the government should play a more active role in its promotion instead of leaving it only to private businesses.






Kenny Burrows prepares a seafood platter at his home in Philadelphia's West Oak Lane section on Friday, July 24, 2020. He and his wife, Kindle Burrows, run their cooking business, Pleasure Platters, and remain busy despite the coronavirus pandemic. Read more

When you open a platter, youre getting more than just a takeout meal. Often sold out of home kitchens, food trucks, and vendor carts, the orders often include meat and two or three sides. Or perhaps, the side dishes are a salad and fries. Sometimes, those plates will feature different kinds of rice and tostones, and the napa  that extra portion of meat, or rice the vendor gives away  to thank the customer.

They also signal the restrictions, the precautions, and the transformation needed for food businesses.

Kindle Burrows, 41, who runs Pleasure Platters out of her West Oak Lane kitchen, prepares and sells 60 to 75 platters offering crab, mussels, shrimp, and so on, on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

When the lockdown began, her business improved, some days selling as many as 100 platters. Burrows suspects that diners who couldnt eat out were instead ordering from her.

I couldnt keep food in the house, Burrows recalled. I had to literally shut down early every day. Like, Listen guys, I got four burners in this house. Its only but so much I can do.

Burrows is like many at-home food vendors, many of them women and people of color, who have cultivated successful businesses without a brick-and-mortar restaurant.

Many home cooks continue as takeout-only vendors because of the financial pressures, lengthy bureaucracy for paperwork and licensing, and struggles acquiring capital.

In Philadelphia, explained Psyche Williams-Forson, chair of the American Studies Department at the University of Maryland College Park, Black women encountered both employment discrimination and lack of access to licensing after enslavement, and have thus worked as informal food vendors for centuries.

Without opportunities in other parts of the economy, people across the U.S., often migrants and immigrants, Williams-Forson said, have turned to serving takeout platters, providing a service for their community, and offering cultural sustainability on the plate.

Chef Jose Luis Reynoso and Ana Roque, who own the food truck Alta Cocina, have seen orders for takeout platters surge 200% since their reopening in late May. The Dominican-European fusion food truck sells platters of seafood paella, mangu with salami and boiled eggs, fish ceviche, carnitas and tostones, stuffed eggplant with ham and cheese, in Hunting Park.

They added five employees in two shifts and still need extra hands to serve as many as 400 meals on Saturdays, mainly for takeout. Roque, 51, said food trucks are a perfect experiment for the restaurants of the future, as she thinks that pandemic regulations will affect the industry for a long time.

I feel that we get to experience the best of the moment, because the food truck is easier to clean and sanitize, it isnt as formal as the indoor dinning is, and guarantees social distancing, Roque said.

Here are three spots where you can grab a whole meal on a platter.

 READ MORE: Philly has a new pound cake contender, and it has Filipino flair

Blk Grl Rolls: Instagram-powered sushi in Northeast Philly

Amanda Smith was inspired to start her business Blk Grl Rolls after watching internet celeb Tabitha Brown make plant-based sushi. Smith decided to give it a try.

During quarantine, I was cooking a lot of different dishes, but never thought about sushi, said Smith, 19. She made some, then shared the results in an Instagram story.

When I posted it, I had a lot of people DMing me like Hey! Oh my God! That looks so good. Whered you get it from? If you made it, are you going to be selling it?

So Smith, a Temple student who was working as a cashier at 7-Eleven before the pandemic, launched Blk Grl Rolls in late May, an Instagram-powered sushi service. Shes expanded beyond Browns vegan special to shrimp tempura rolls, spicy tuna rolls, California rolls, and other classic variations.

Blk Grl Rolls doesnt have designated hours. Smith announces sushi days through @blkgrlrolls, accepts orders through DM, making sushi available for pickup or delivers to the city herself. Single rolls with a side of rice cost $13, sushi bowls sell for $13, and three-roll sets are $20. Delivery fees vary.

 READ MORE: Lemonade kid Micah Harrigan has a new spot and will get sweet gifts from Splenda

Alta Cocina: From YouTube to Hunting Park Avenue

Jose Luis Reynoso and Ana Roque learned to become entrepreneurs through YouTube after starting the Alta Cocina brand online in 2018. Reynoso publicized his cooking through weekly video segments.

Their channel gave them the exposure necessary to engage with customers after they were forced to shut down their food truck on March 16. Philadelphia was the only city in Pennsylvania that temporarily banned food trucks in its COVID-19 mandates, with food trucks getting the go-ahead to return to business in late May.

Reynoso and Roque worked through the hardship by preparing platters of carne guisada and moro de frijoles at their Olney home on the weekends.

We didnt want to lose the few clients that we started to engage with after opening the food truck, so we kept offering the service from home, he said. Reynoso has returned to full-time operations and has focused on engaging his @altacocinaphilly followers on Instagram.

Alta Cocinas food truck has a schedule: Tuesdays through Sundays, 1 p.m. until 2 a.m., making a total of 23 platters, including pasta, sandwiches, grilled vegetables and tacos, that come with french fries, sweet potato fries, tostones or rice, available for pickup. WhatsApp or delivery through Uber Eats and DoorDash. Eight chicken wings are $8, chicharron mofongo is $12, and seafood paella is $25.

Pleasure Platters: Instagram-worthy seafood

Kindle Burrows has been having a hard time finding a restaurant space, hoping to land in North or Northwest Philadelphia. All shes waiting on is the right location at the right price, so she can take Pleasure Platters to the next level. She has been working out of her home kitchen since she started the business in May 2019.

Pleasure Platters caught on after Burrows reached out to Philly Instagram heavyweights, including Country Cookin owner Saudia Shuler and Milano di Rouges Milan Harris, to try her No. 7, which includes snow crab clusters, shrimp, and mussels. It worked.

Pleasure Platters has more than 14,000 followers on Instagram. Burrows thinks her fans can see the effort. You earn the respect of people, acknowledging and seeing that youre pushing from the muscle.

Platters on the menu range from $16 to $44, with crab clusters, shrimp, mussels, and lobster available. Burrows serves seafood over potatoes, broccoli, and corn-on-the-cob, and with pleasure sauce, her buttery Old Bay sauce that gives heat with a hint of sweet.

This is not what my dream was, but it turned out being something beautiful, she said.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 09:03:26|Editor: huaxia

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Aerial photo taken on April 9, 2020 shows an unmanned tractor navigated by BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) working on a paddy field at an intelligent agriculture demonstration zone in Tawan Village of Litong District, Wuzhong City, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Feng Kaihua)

BEIJING, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- With the commissioning of China's self-developed BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), the concept of "BDS plus" is catching on. The navigation system's wide application in agriculture, transportation, and environmental protection is leading ordinary Chinese people to a better life.

Over the past 10 years, the total output value of China's satellite navigation and location service industry has increased by more than 20 percent annually. The output value reached 345 billion yuan (about 49.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2019, and was expected to exceed 400 billion yuan in 2020.

In Beijing, tens of thousands of taxis have been equipped with BDS-enabled devices that can work together with ride-hailing platforms to raise efficiency and lower the empty-loading ratio. The device also enables traffic authorities to receive transport conditions in real-time, effectively improving urban traffic congestion and air pollution.

After years of market cultivation, the BDS has facilitated the informatization and modernization of China's transportation, and is significant in the establishment of a smooth, efficient, safe, and green transportation system.

The Ministry of Transport has released a roadmap to further promote the application of BDS in the country's railway, highway, waterway, civil aviation, and postal services.

The BDS also has wide prospects in the agricultural and fishery sectors. It helps fishermen in China's coastal regions by providing services such as fishing boat navigation, early warning of marine disasters, and short message communication.

Aerial photo taken on Jan. 8, 2020 shows staff members on the sea patrol ship "Haixun 172" deploying a buoy installed with a telemetry and telecontrol unit based on Beidou Navigation Satellite System and Beidou AIS (Automatic Identification System) physical navigation mark in Qiongzhou Strait, south China. (Xinhua/Yang Guanyu)

In sea areas without mobile communication signals, the BDS allows fishermen to report their safety to their families through its distinctive short message function.

Thanks to the high-accuracy positioning provided by the BDS, driverless farm machinery can carry out high-precision farming tasks such as ridging and sowing on a Nenjiang farm in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

The BDS-based navigation terminal used on the farm was developed by a company under the China Academy of Space Technology. The company also applies BDS in precision agriculture by integrating satellite remote sensing, 5G, and the Internet of Things to evaluate soil moisture content and crop growth.

Peng Tao, chairman of the company, said they will expand the use of BDS in more areas, such as forest ecology construction and conservation.

With the help of a BDS-based terminal, rangers in the Shennongjia Forestry District in Hubei Province can report their location and path to the command center when they are patrolling the forest.

The application of BDS has no boundaries, and more efforts will be made to develop new satellite navigation technologies to provide better navigation, positioning, and timing services for mankind, said Xie Jun, chief designer of the BDS-3 satellite system. 
A 31-year old security man, Joseph Kodua, has been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in hard labour by an Accra circuit court for defiling his 12-year-old daughter.



The court presided by Mrs. Christiana Cannhasr, also convicted Kodua for issuing death threats to her daughter.



The Accra Regional Police Command Public Relations Officer (PRO), Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Effia Tenge, disclosed this to the Ghanaian Times in Accra, yesterday.



She said Kodua went to take her daughter, who was living with her aunt at Agbogba to his duty post without the consent of her aunty.



DSP Tenge said Kodua with the excuse that it was late for him to return his daughter to his auntys house kept the victim overnight.



The Police PRO said during the night, Kodua made several sexual advances at his daughter and threatened to kill her with a hacksaw blade and a knife if she resisted him or failed to comply with his sexual demand.



DSP Tenge said convict forcibly had sexual intercourse with the daughter before taking her to the aunty the following morning.



She said Kodua went to his daughters school to take her, but the school authorities denied him access and reported the abuse to the victims aunty, who informed the Madina Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU), leading to his arrest.

Source: The Ghanaian Times









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India and United States on Thursday discussed recent destabilizing actions in the region in a call between external affairs minister S Jaishankar and his American counterpart Michael R Pompeo, the State Department said in a statement.

The phrase destabilizing actions was a clear reference to Chinese aggression in eastern Ladakh and it was part of an ongoing discussions on the border conflagration between two sides and on which the US has been extremely supportive of India. We remain united to advance peace in Afghanistan, and to a secure and sovereign Indo-Pacific in which all countries can prosper, Pompeo followed up in a tweet.

Also read: India-China expand border talks, to revisit patrolling protocol to avoid skirmishes

Pompeo has hinted at American role in the Indian ban on Chinese apps in retaliation for the Galwan clashes.

The two leaders also discussed ongoing bilateral and multilateral cooperation on issues of international concern, including efforts to combat the Covid-19 pandemic and the Afghan peace process in Afghanistan, a State Department spokesperson Cale Brown stated.

 Secretary Pompeo and Minister Jaishankar reiterated the strength of the United States-India relationship to advance peace, prosperity, and security in the Indo-Pacific and around the globe, the spokesperson added.

Also read: China calls article 370 move illegal; keep out of our internal affairs, says MEA

The two leaders agreed stay in touch in continue close cooperation on an entire range of regional and international issues and look forward to Quadrilateral consultations with Australia and Japan and the US-India 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue later this year.
Zynga Inc raised its full-year bookings forecast after topping quarterly estimates on Wednesday, encouraged by strong engagement from stuck-at-home players and its recent acquisition of Turkish mobile-game maker Peak.

The companys shares jumped nearly 10% in extended trade, after gaining about 64% this year through Wednesdays close.

Zynga said it would also acquire an 80% stake in Istanbul-based hyper-casual game maker Rollic for $168 million in cash, about two months after its $1.8 billion acquisition of Peak, the maker of games like Toon Blast" and Toy Blast".

It is a great way to acquire users," Zynga Chief Executive Officer Frank Gibeau told Reuters, noting that hyper-casual is the fastest growing category on mobile right now.

Rollic, known for games like Go Knots 3D" and Tangle Master 3D", will also add to Zyngas ad sales. The mobile game maker said it would acquire the remaining 20% of Rollic at valuations based on specific profitability goals over the next three years.

The FarmVille"-maker has been strengthening its hold on the fast-growing mobile gaming market through a slew of acquisitions and licensing agreements with media outlets to publish themed games of popular franchises.

Besides games like Empires & Puzzles" and Merge Dragons!", Zynga is also known for its portfolio of social casino games like Game of Thrones Slots Casino".

User spending on mobile games surged in the past few months along with broader videogame sales, as people turned to games to keep themselves entertained and connect virtually with friends while under coronavirus-led lockdowns.

Zynga raised its full-year 2020 bookings to $2.2 billion from $1.8 billion, above analysts estimate of $1.85 billion, according to Refinitiv IBES data.

It reported bookings of $518.1 million for the second quarter ended June 30, beating estimates of $503.2 million.

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Ive been hearing for 3 1/2 years that our democracy is in danger. Thats what you hear if you listen to the constant dribble from the lying, fact-holding, agenda-driven media, who have joined the lefts resistance all at the cost of damage in America. They have refused to report anything positive and replaced it with nonstop one-way journalism. Hollywood elites and the majority of Congress have used every weapon to divide and gain control. Democracy should allow conservatives to protect 1st and 2nd amendment rights. It should allow someone to wear a MAGA hat without being attacked verbally, or physically. It should allow supporters of President Trump protection from boycotts, doxing being discriminated against or fired. Pepes Pizza and Goya are a few examples.

Democracy means equal accessibility to social media platforms. George Floyd trying to breathe and crying out for his mother was heart-wrenching. The 18-year-old college student robbed and murdered in Central Park and the 85-year-old couple murdered visiting their sons grave didnt produce protests and violence; as a matter of fact, hardly anyone heard about this on the news. It did not fit the agenda-driven narrative. Protests for George Floyd and equal justice were warranted. However, the destruction that is still happening is no longer a protest, it is criminal. Monuments and statues have nothing to do with this. The mob now controls all Democrat-run cities and the limp mayors who have abandoned law-abiding citizens businesses and property.
Shirley Ann Grau during a 2003 interview at her home in Metairie, La. (AP)

New Orleans: Shirley Ann Grau, a Pulitzer Prize-winning fiction writer whose stories and novels told of both the dark secrets and the beauty of the Deep South, has died. She was 91.

Grau died Monday in a New Orleans-area memory care facility of complications from a stroke, her daughter Nora McAlister of Metairie said Wednesday. She said the family is not planning a funeral or memorial service for her.

Grau won the 1965 Pulitzer Prize for her fourth book, The Keepers of the House.''

I came home from kindergarten to a house full of reporters and I didn't know what was going on,'' McAlister recalled.

The book drew critical praise but also threatening phone calls for its depiction of a long romance between a wealthy white man and his black housekeeper in rural Alabama.

Grau said Ku Klux Klansmen, angry over the book amid the heat of the civil rights movement, tried to burn a cross on her yard in Metairie, a New Orleans suburb.

They apparently forgot to bring a shovel, and couldn't drive the cross into the ground, so set it on fire flat on the lawn, she told The Associated Press in 2003.

It scorched a few feet of grass and it scared the neighbours, but I wasn't even here. I was at Martha's Vineyard. It all had kind of a Groucho Marx ending to it,'' she said.

Her six novels and four short story collections were all set in the Deep South, from New Orleans to north Louisiana and Alabama.

McAlister said that as a young teenager she once wandered into the kitchen of their summer home on Martha's Vineyard and found her mother chopping vegetables and talking _ apparently to nobody.

Startled, McAlister asked what her mother was doing. Grau replied, My characters are talking. I'm working out dialogue.''

That made perfect sense to me and I now understood what my mother was doing. She was working,'' McAlister said.

Author Kurt Vonnegut came to lunch in Metairie and publisher Alfred Knopf came to dinner. Cocktail party guests at Martha's Vineyard included New York Times sportswriter Red Smith, painter Thomas Hart Benton and opera star Beverly Sills.

It was fun to be the waitress at those cocktail parties,'' McAlister recalled.

But she said conductor Guy Harrison was the guest who most impressed her mother, who loved music and originally wanted to be a musician - a violinist.''

She was amazed he was there in her home,'' McAlister said.

Grau was born in New Orleans and grew up in Mobile, Alabama, the daughter of a physician. In the 2003 interview, she recalled that she was fascinated as a child with Greek and Latin, but also loved roaming the woods. Critics would later note in her fiction meticulous descriptions of flowers, plants and trees.

Grau attended a private high school in New Orleans, then Tulane University's Newcomb College. She said she pondered careers as a classics professor or lawyer, but found sexism too pervasive in academia and the law.

She settled on writing instead, and her first book, The Black Prince and Other Stories,'' was published in 1954, when she was 26.

Critics often pointed to the short stories for praise, and the author said she agreed with the assessment.

The only unfortunate thing about Grau's stories is precisely that they are short - each is a glimpse of landscapes both interior and exterior that ends too soon,'' said a brief 2003 New York Times review of ``Collected Stories.''

Grau said she had little interest in what was written about her work and grew tired of both the label Southern woman writer'' and the frequent comparisons of her work to that of fellow Southerner Flannery O'Connor.

Many of Grau's stories deal with sudden, unexplained events and their aftermath. The Hunter'' tells of what happens to a woman who miraculously survives a small plane crash. The Man Outdoors'' is about what happens to a family when the father moves out, then disappears completely, after having a vision that's never explained.

Grau's husband, James Kern Feibleman, a businessman and chairman of Tulane's philosophy department, died in 1987 at 83.

They also are survived by daughter Katherine F. Miner of Houston; sons Ian J. Feibleman of Georgetown, Texas, and William L. Feibleman of Metairie; and six grandchildren.
I understand why there has been daily protesting over the ongoing police mistreatment of people of color, but what I dont understand is the ongoing rioting and looting taking place in our cities. A protest is one thing but what is happening in this country right now is not a protest and most of those doing the looting and rioting have nothing to do with Black Lives Matter.

I remember lots of police violations but I also see the needless killing/attacking of our officers out there, doing the job few want to keep us all safe. This de-funding the police is the dumbest thing I have ever heard of in my life. Yes, there are some bad officers but the good outnumber the bad and we need them to keep all lives safe.

How many more children need to be killed needlessly in Chicago? How many babies of all races are lost through abortion? How many more Bibles, flags and buildings need to be burned in Portland? How will these businesses, many owned by people of color, ever come back after having been looted?

Protest all you want until the cows come home, but stop the gangs from taking away the purpose of the protest, which is dividing this country even more.

Judy Garrison

Phillipsburg
DALLAS, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Evolution Academy Charter School System has announced open enrollment for its online program. In a historic move, the district has now been approved to enroll students for the online program from all over the state of Texas.

Evolution Academy Richardson Campus Evolution Academy Leadership Team

Evolution Academy originally rolled out a pilot version of its online high school program for eligible students during the Spring 2019 school semester. Since then, Evolution Academy has had great student success since shifting online. The district also partnered with Sprint's 1 Million Foundation to provide devices and hotspots to address the needs of students who don't have computers or Wi-Fi at home. This partnership will continue during the 2020-2021 school year. The 1Million Project Foundation launched in August 2017 with a mission to help one million high school students achieve their full potential by ensuring they have the digital tools and connectivity they need to succeed in school. During the past two school years, the initiative has connected a total of 226,000 students at over 1,900 high schools in 33 states with internet access and devices.

Under the leadership of Cynthia Trigg, founder and superintendent of the Evolution Academy Charter Schools, the district addressed barriers that students were facing, such as access to Internet and devices to complete assignments. Then, teachers were assigned a student caseload to help ease classroom management as the full, robust online learning system was presented and implemented.

All these elements combined allowed students to thrive and continue progress, despite abrupt changes and shifting completely to online learning. In May, Evolution Academy hosted drive-in graduation ceremonies for students across all three campuses and had record graduation numbers.

When it comes to overcoming obstacles and hardships, Evolution Academy students consistently prove that nothing is impossible, including succeeding with online learning. One student, Maricela Castillo, was struggling with coming to physical classes, as she is also a young mother. With the online learning platform, she logged on every day and successfully completed multiple courses online. Another student, Sheanna Black, had great success with online courses, despite a hefty course load, which included dual credit courses. Michael Ortiz worked hard in the classroom and online and was able to graduate high school in two years.

Founded in 2002, Evolution Academy focuses on innovative educational models and computer-based instruction, which enables students to earn 2 or more credit hours every nine weeks, allowing them to catch up or graduate early. The school also offers multiple career and technical education courses that prepare students for certificates in professional fields.

To date, Evolution Academy has graduated more than 3000 students. Evolution Academy has campuses in Richardson, Beaumont and Houston, Texas and has open enrollment year-round for all three campuses. Students can enroll online at www.evolutionacademy.org .

About Evolution Academy

Cynthia Trigg is a veteran educator with more than 28 years of experience. She is the founder and Superintendent of Evolution Academy Charter Schools, with campuses in Dallas, Houston, and Beaumont. Founded in 2002, Evolution Academy offers one-on-one attention with a mix of traditional and computer-based instruction, which enables students to earn 2 or more credit hours every nine weeks, allowing them to catch up or graduate early. The school also offers multiple career and technical education courses that prepare students for certificates in professional fields. To date, Evolution Academy has graduated more than 3000 students. Evolution Academy has campuses in Richardson, Beaumont and Houston, Texas and has open enrollment year-round for all three campuses.

www.evolutionacademy.org .

MEDIA/B-ROLL OPPORTUNITIES

Cynthia Trigg, superintendent and founder of Evolution Academy Charter Schools, is available for interviews. Please contact Kayla Tucker Adams, KTA Media Group, [email protected], 214-403-9852 .

SOURCE Evolution Academy

Related Links

http://www.evolutionacademy.org


Since 1978, when China started a series of policy and economic reforms known as Reform and Opening-up, it achieved rapid economic growth and steadily improved overall agricultural production capacity. More than 850 million people have been lifted out of poverty.

China was the first developing country to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goal 1  halving poverty by 2015. Today, less than 1 percent of the population lives in extreme poverty. The year 2020 is expected to mark Chinas achievement of eradicating absolute poverty in the country. This is a milestone. China will become the first country to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1  ending poverty  10 years ahead the global target.

It is an extraordinary achievement if we consider that in the 1980s Chinas GDP was only one-third of that of Sub-Saharan Africa. No other country has managed to bring such a large number of people out of poverty in such short period of time  in just two generations.

By reducing the absolute number of people living in poverty, China is not only contributing to global poverty reduction efforts, it is also setting an example for other developing countries.

What is remarkable  and often overlooked  is that poverty reduction has not only been achieved through increases in the income level of the population, but it has also been accompanied by improvements in all dimensions of human development. For example, life expectancy has increased and access to education improved while malnutrition and undernourishment rates have dropped.

Lifting 850 million people out of poverty is linked to a series of factors: economic and policy reforms, a multi-sectoral and integrated approach to development, and precise targeting. Lastly, but perhaps more important, a consistent focus on poverty reduction, which started from a long-term vision and political commitment, and translated into intermediate results, adequate allocation of resources, and a clear responsibility and accountability system.

It is also important to mention the mobilization and engagement of almost every sector of the Chinese society to achieve poverty reduction.

IFAD has accompanied the Government of China in this journey. 2020 marks the 40th anniversary of IFAD-China cooperation. IFAD was the first international financing institution that provided a loan to China in 1981. Since then, IFAD has worked in the most remote and poor areas supporting the Government in its poverty reduction efforts, increasing the income and food security of about 20 million rural people, half of which are women.

I visited the IFAD-funded Liupan Mountain Area Poverty Reduction Project in Northwest Chinas Qinghai province in 2017, a few months after I was elected President of IFAD. I was impressed by how the project helped increase the income of poor farmers by better linking them to markets and providing additional livelihoods for rural women.

I would like to highlight the governments strategy of rural revitalization which aims to achieve the modernization of agriculture and rural areas, strengthen the agricultural industry, improve rural living conditions and the environment and increase farmers incomes  putting the development of rural areas at the centre of Chinas future.

In this regard, I believe that IFAD can continue to accompany China in its efforts to revitalize rural areas and pursue a more environmentally sustainable development in order to achieve a more prosperous and equitable society.

Chinas success in eradicating poverty offers valuable lessons and experiences that can be shared with other countries that are striving to reduce and ultimately eliminate poverty. I believe the most important lesson that China can share with the rest of the world is that poverty eradication is not a utopia: it can be achieved.

I would like to highlight Chinas contribution to recent replenishments as one the top donors to IFAD, and the strong commitment to further strengthen the strategic partnership with IFAD in the context of eradication of extreme poverty in China and globally, and ultimately, in achieving SDGs.

China has been actively promoting its poverty reduction experience through international cooperation and bilateral and multilateral engagement. As an example of this cooperation, China and IFAD established the China-IFAD South South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) Facility in February 2018 with a $10 million supplementary fund contribution from China. The Facility pursues the overarching goal of exchanging and mobilizing knowledge, technologies and resources to accelerate poverty reduction, enhance rural productivity, advance rural transformation and promote investments among countries of the Global South. Since its establishment, the Facility has approved 15 grant projects, awarding a total of $6.7 million. These grants strongly support the agricultural and rural development of developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

China and IFAD share the common goal of a world free of poverty and hunger and we both believe that SSTC provides innovative solutions to development challenges, such as poverty reduction.

Gilbert F. Houngbo is the President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
Since early spring, Facebook has donated nearly $830,000 to area schools, nonprofits and businesses. That figure includes $475,000 for grants to small businesses and nonprofits through partnerships with organizations like ChamberRVA and the Community Foundation for a Greater Richmond.

Also, Facebook donated $280,000 to Henrico County Public Schools to make sure Wi-Fi hotspots are available so all students can participate in distance learning and to support food needs for students who rely on school for meals.

With record unemployment in the U.S. and Virginia due to COVID-19, were excited Facebook will be creating high-paying technical job opportunities in the Henrico area. The data center requires at least 200 people to keep it running. So far, the building of the data center also has supported 1,500 construction jobs, as well as numerous local partners and suppliers to build its new facility.

Facebooks investment of more than $1 billion is evidence that Henrico is Virginias premier place for businesses. From a talented, capable workforce to dedicated community members and organizations, we are glad Facebook recognized the positive spirit in Henrico and the Greater Richmond region.
But the use of these boxes  which often look similar to a mailbox and are typically under video surveillance or guarded  has come under attack in states newly adopting them this year. Some skeptics worry the boxes may not be properly monitored to prevent tampering, or that voters will not know how to use or find them. In the battleground state of Pennsylvania, these drop boxes are now in the center of a Trump campaign lawsuit raising similar concerns.
Skeptical Science New Research for Week #31, 2020

Posted on 5 August 2020 by Doug Bostrom

100 Articles

Physical science of global warming & effects

Analyzing the Arctic Feedback Mechanism between Sea Ice and Low-Level Clouds Using 34 Years of Satellite Observations

Observations of global warming & effects

Sea?Level Rise Driving Increasingly Predictable Coastal Inundation in Sydney, Australia (open access)

The recent state and variability of the carbonate system of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and adjacent basins in the context of ocean acidification (open access)

Remote Tropical Western Indian Ocean Forcing on Changes in June Precipitation in South China and the Indochina Peninsula (open access)

Instrumentation and observational methods of climate & global warming

The tipping points and early-warning indicators for Pine Island Glacier, West Antarctica (open access)

Validation of reanalysis Southern Ocean atmosphere trends using sea ice data (open access)

Differences in tropical high clouds among reanalyses: origins and radiative impacts (open access)

Evaluation of a New Carbon Dioxide System for Autonomous Surface Vehicles (open access)

CLASSnmat: A global night marine air temperature data set, 18802019 (open access)

Modeling & simulation of global warming & global warming effects

Analysis of CMIP6 atmospheric moisture fluxes and the implications for projections of future change in mean and heavy rainfall

Global Pattern Formation of Net Ocean Surface Heat Flux Response to Greenhouse Warming

RCP8.5 tracks cumulative CO2 emissions (open access)

Twenty-first century-end climate scenario of Jammu and Kashmir Himalaya, India, using ensemble climate models

A regional hindcast model simulating ecosystem dynamics, inorganic carbon chemistry, and ocean acidification in the Gulf of Alaska (open access)

On the contribution of internal climate variability to European future climate trends (open access)

Arctic and Antarctic sea ice mean state in the Community Earth System Model Version 2 and the influence of atmospheric chemistry

Global river water warming due to climate change and anthropogenic heat emission

Downscaling of climate extremes over South America  Part I: Model evaluation in the reference climate

Projected climate change in the Karkheh Basin, Iran, based on CORDEX models

Climate model advancement

The sources of uncertainty in the projection of global land monsoon precipitation

Large difference in aerosol radiative effects from BVOC-SOA treatment in three Earth system models (open access)

Contrasting transition complexity between El Nino and La Nina: Observations and CMIP5/6 models

High sensitivity of Arctic black carbon radiative effects to subgrid vertical velocity in aerosol activation

North Pacific Upper-Ocean Cold Temperature Biases in CMIP6 Simulations and the Role of Regional Vertical Mixing (open access)

Representation of Modes of Variability in Six U.S. Climate Models

Improving the ocean and atmosphere in a coupled ocean?atmosphere model by assimilating satellite sea surface temperature and subsurface profile data

Cryosphere & climate change

Anthropogenic warming forces extreme annual glacier mass loss

Climate change and Northern Hemisphere lake and river ice phenology (open access)

The contrasting response of outlet glaciers to interior and ocean forcing (open access)

Historical Northern Hemisphere snow cover trends and projected changes in the CMIP6 multi-model ensemble (open access)

Biology & global warming

Climate change and perishable food hoards of an avian predator: Is the freezer still working?

Changing spring snow cover dynamics and early season forage availability affect the behavior of a large carnivore

Decreasing phytoplankton size adversely affects ocean food chains

A century of fish growth in relation to climate change, population dynamics and exploitation

Impacts of climate-induced permafrost degradation on vegetation: A review

Phenological changes in herbaceous plants in Chinas grasslands and their responses to climate change: a meta-analysis

Extinction risk assessment of a Patagonian ungulate using population dynamics models under climate change scenarios

Examining land surface phenology in the tropical moist forest eco-zone of South America

Climate change models predict decreases in the range of a microendemic freshwater fish in Honduras (open access)

Temperature and precipitation at migratory grounds influence demographic trends of an Arctic?breeding bird

Effects of multiple drivers of ocean global change on the physiology and functional gene expression of the coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi

Spruce beetle outbreak was not driven by drought stress: Evidence from a tree?ring iso?demographic approach indicates temperatures were more important

Low phosphorus supply constrains plant responses to elevated CO2: A meta?analysis

Half a century of Scots pine forest ecosystem monitoring reveals long?term effects of atmospheric deposition and climate change

Epiphytes provide micro-scale refuge from ocean acidification

Foraging strategy mediates ectotherm predatorprey responses to climate warming

Drought shrinks terrestrial upland resilience to climate change

Predicted alteration of surface activity as a consequence of climate change

Warm temperatures increase population growth of a non?native defoliator and inhibit demographic responses by parasitoids

GHG sources & sinks, flux

Partitioning the $$\hbox {CO}_2$$ CO 2 Flux Mediated by Droplets Released from Breaking Waves

The impacts of fossil fuel emission uncertainties and accounting for 3-D chemical CO 2 production on inverse natural carbon flux estimates from satellite and in situ data

Identification of optimum temperatures for photosynthetic production in subtropical coastal ecosystems  implications for CO2 sequestration in a warming world

The sponge effect and carbon emission mitigation potentials of the global cement cycle (open access)

Global patterns and climatic controls of belowground net carbon fixation (open access)

Changing characteristics of atmospheric CH4 on the Tibetan Plateau, records from 1994 to 2017 at Mount Waliguan station (open access)

Representing methane emissions from wet tropical forest soils using microbial functional groups constrained by soil diffusivity (open access)

Temporary and net sinks of atmospheric CO2 due to chemical weathering in subtropical catchment with mixing carbonate and silicate lithology (open access)

Exploring Constraints on a Wetland Methane Emission Ensemble (WetCHARTs) using GOSAT Satellite Observations (open access)

Methane transport in plants (open access)

The Effect of Antarctic Sea Ice on Southern Ocean Carbon Outgassing: Capping versus Light Attenuation

Vegetation affects timing and location of wetland methane emissions

Influence of vertical heterogeneities in the canopy microenvironment on inter?annual variability of carbon uptake in temperate deciduous forests

Response to concerns and uncertainties relating to methane emissions synthesis for vegetated coastal ecosystems

CO2 removal science & engineering

Increased carbon capture by a silicate-treated forested watershed affected by acid deposition (open access)

Can biomass supply meet the demands of BECCS?

Geoengineering climate

A specialised delivery system for stratospheric sulphate aerosols: design and operation (open access)

Differing responses of the quasi-biennial oscillation to artificial SO2 injections in two global models (open access)

Black carbon & aerosols

Long-term (20082017) analysis of atmospheric composite aerosol and black carbon radiative forcing over a semi-arid region in southern India: Model results and ground measurement

Source attribution of Arctic black carbon and sulfate aerosols and associated Arctic surface warming during 19802018 (open access)

Weakening aerosol direct radiative effects mitigate climate penalty on Chinese air quality

Climate change communications & cognition

Climate Change Adaptation: Limited media narratives (open access)

Aquaculture farmers perceptions of climate-related risks in the Mekong Region

A Call to Arms for Climate Change? How Military Service Member Concern About Climate Change Can Inform Effective Climate Communication (open access)

No glory without sacrifice  drivers of climate (in)action in the general population

Paying attention to climate change: Positive images of climate change solutions capture attention

Agronomy & climate change

Evaluating Cropland N2O Emissions and Fertilizer Plant Greenhouse Gas Emissions with Airborne Observations

Preference heterogeneity, neighbourhood effects and basic services: logit kernel models for farmers climate adaptation in Ethiopia

Economics & finance of climate change impact adaptation, climate mitigation

Special to Research News*: Valuing the Global Mortality Consequences of Climate Change Accounting for Adaptation Costs and Benefits

Economic valuation of climate changeinduced mortality: age dependent cold and heat mortality in the Netherlands (open access)

Climate finance justice: International perspectives on climate policy, social justice, and capital (open access)

Climate shocks and adaptation strategies in coastal Bangladesh: does microcredit have a part to play? (open access)

The political economy of coal in Poland: Drivers and barriers for a shift away from fossil fuels

What explains the emergence and diffusion of green bonds?

Towards zero carbon and zero poverty: integrating national climate change mitigation and sustainable development goals (open access)

Mobilising private climate finance for sustainable energy access and climate change mitigation in Sub-Saharan Africa (open access)

A dual-track transition to global carbon pricing (open access)

Humans dealing with our global warming

Factors behind CO 2 emission reduction in Chinese heavy industries: Do environmental regulations matter?

Mapping the evidence of climate change adaptation policy instruments in Europe

Enhancing New York City's resilience to sea level rise and increased coastal flooding

Identification of local water resource vulnerability to rapid deglaciation in Alberta

Flood risks in sinking delta cities: time for a re?evaluation? (open access)

Contrasting development trajectories for coastal Bangladesh to the end of century (open access)

What Policies Address Both the Coronavirus Crisis and the Climate Crisis? (open access)

Adaptation planning in France: inputs from narratives of change in support of a community-led foresight process

En route to China's mid-century climate goal: comparison of emissions intensity versus absolute targets (open access)

Other

Future greening of the Earth may not be as large as previously predicted

A meta-analysis of the life cycle greenhouse gas balances of microalgae biodiesel

Informed opinion & nudges

A Precautionary Assessment of Systemic Projections and Promises From Sunlight Reflection and Carbon Removal Modeling

Past perspectives on the present era of abrupt Arctic climate change

Five Lessons from COVID-19 for Advancing Climate Change Mitigation (open access)

*Working paper, not peer-reviewed by formal journal editorial process but nonetheless reviewed by a lot of peers.

Obtaining copies of papers

We know it's frustrating that many articles we cite here are not free to read. One-off paid access fees are generally astronomically priced, suitable for such as "On a Heuristic Point of View Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light" but not as a gamble on unknowns. With a median world income of $US 9,3733, for most of us $US 42 is significant money to wager against a small marginal cost.

Economists of a scientific bent may someday help scientific publishers bring science to their business activities as reflected in rational a la carte article disclosure fees. Meanwhile there are several possible paths to equality of information access short of paying an objectively and crushingly large fee for the unveiling of a single article:

Here's an excellent collection of tips and techniques for obtaining articles, legally.

Unpaywall offers a browser extension for Chrome that automatically indicates when an article is freely accessible and provides immediate access without further trouble. Unpaywall is also unscammy, works well, is itself offered free to use. The organizers (a legitimate nonprofit) report about a 50% success rate

If you're interested in an article and it is not listed here as "open access," be sure to check the link anyway. Due to time constraints open access articles are identified by us via imperfect machine analysis. Compared with Unpaywall statistics we successfully identify roughly 2/3rds of open access articles. There's definitely gold left in the ground.

Suggestions

Please let us know if you're aware of an article you think may be of interest for Skeptical Science research news, or if we've missed something that may be important. Send your input to Skeptical Science via our contact form.

Journals covered

A list of journals we cover may be found here. We welcome pointers to omissions, new journals etc.

Previous edition

The previous edition of Skeptical Science New Research may be found here.
The government's plans to build over 130,000 new affordable homes in the Seoul metropolitan area have so far failed to calm real-estate market jitters.

In other drastic measures, Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki on Wednesday warned that people who buy apartments worth more than W900 million will face probes into the sources of their money (US$1=W1,189).

But according to KB Kookmin Bank, the median apartment price in Seoul already stood at W927.87 million as of July, which means half of all apartment owners in the capital who sell their homes from now on will face an investigation.

Market analysts said it was bizarre for the finance minister to threaten homeowners just after the announcement of a major housing supply plan.


43 new cases of Covid-19 have been identified in Northern Ireland (Andrew Milligan/PA)

Face coverings willl be mandatory in shops and enclosed spaces from Monday (Andrew Milligan/PA)

Face coverings are to become mandatory in shops and enclosed spaces from Monday, the Executive has confirmed.

Pubs that do not serve food - 'wet pubs' - will also not be allowed to open from Monday as planned, and instead have been given an indicative reopening date of September 1.

The Executive agreed the moves during a meeting on Thursday.

In a statement, the Executive said: "We have a collective duty and a personal responsibility to protect each other, and everyone who can wear a face covering should do so. It should not be viewed as an optional extra; it is a vital defence in our ongoing battle against Covid-19.

"Face coverings should be worn in shops and other enclosed spaces and no one should delay adopting this crucial measure. It will help to protect you and others."

It comes after another 43 cases of Covid-19 have been identified in Northern Ireland, the Department of Health has announced.

That compares to 10 new cases identified in Wednesday's update.

There have been no further deaths from the virus and the death toll remains at 556.

The new cases were diagnosed after 3,614 tests were carried out on 2,753 people. There have been 6,049 confirmed cases of the virus since the pandemic began.

A total of 118 people have tested positive for the virus in the last week, with 38 in the Newry Mourne and Down council area, 19 in Mid and East Antrim and 17 in Belfast.

There are currently two Covid-19 inpatients in Northern Ireland's hospitals with two in intensive care units.

In care homes there are currently three active outbreaks of the virus, with 173 having been closed after the virus was found to no longer be present.

The Public Health Agency has also announced there are 11 active Covid-19 clusters in Northern Ireland.

Since May 25, 23 clusters have been identified in total. 168 cases of Covid-19 have been associated with these clusters. Nine clusters have had five or more cases associated with them.

Read More

In addition, there have been 14 clusters across Northern Ireland with fewer than five people. Cases in a smaller cluster may also be associated with a larger cluster, for example, a common geographic location or common social setting.

Of the nine clusters with more than five people affected there were four clusters in the Newry, Mourne and Down Council area, three in Mid and East Antrim, one in Ards and North Down and one in Causeway Coast and Glens.

A cluster is defined as two or more laboratory-confirmed cases of Covid-19 among individuals associated with a key setting, with illness onset dates within a 14 day period.

Places which have seen a cluster develop include workplaces, retail or hospitality premises, domestic gatherings, and sporting settings.

Read More

Check out our live blog below to see how Thursday's coronavirus developments unfolded:
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 19:11:24|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

CHANGSHA, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- By the vast Yanzhi Lake, villagers cut the roots of mushrooms and put them into sorted baskets in preparation for sale.

These mushrooms are nothing out of the ordinary, yet they grow out of something special: fermented reeds.

The lake is located in the city of Yuanjiang, central China's Hunan Province. The city is next to the Dongting Lake, China's second-largest freshwater lake. Thanks to rich water resources, the city is home to huge areas of reeds.

In the past, reeds were used to manufacture paper, and paper-making was once a major industry in the city. However, paper-making pollution saw the industry shut down in Yuanjiang in late 2018.

To dispose of the huge number of reeds, the local government came up with a novel idea: to turn them into the base materials for mushroom growth.

This year, about 30,000 tonnes of reed mushrooms will be turned out, the government said.

"Reeds contain about 15 amino acids, and are perfect for mushroom cultivation," said Yang Xiangguang, who heads a mushroom-making company in Yuanjiang.

PAPER-MAKING POLLUTION

The abundance of reeds in Yuanjiang once gave rise to a sprawling paper-making industry.

According to official figures, Yuanjiang produces about 370,000 tonnes of reeds each year, accounting for about 50 percent of all reed production around the Dongting Lake.

Since the 1970s, paper-making from reeds was one of the biggest industries in the city. The industry was so powerful that it allowed Yuanjiang to become one of the top 10 county-level economies in Hunan Province in the 1990s.

But paper-making took its toll on the environment.

Paper-making required many chemicals. Wastewater discharged into rivers and lakes without proper treatment can cause underwater animals such as fish and shellfish to die because of anoxia. The small particles in the water can block the gills of fish and cause them to die too. The wastewater also blackens water and threatens local people's health.

To protect the environment of the Dongting Lake, local authorities phased out paper-making production in Yuanjiang completely in December 2018, as the country enhanced the protection of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.

The water of the Dongting Lake flows into the Yangtze, China's longest waterway.

But how to dispose of the excess reeds became a pressing issue.

MUSHROOMING BUSINESS ON REEDS

In August 2019, the local government in Yuanjiang proposed the idea of growing mushrooms using fermented reeds.

"Reeds were once a source of prosperity, but it later became a burden for us," said Huang Yuwen, secretary of the Yuanjiang City Committee of the Communist Party of China. "We decided to turn the burden into prosperity again, but in an environmentally friendly way."

Local authorities pooled resources and capital, and invited agricultural experts to teach locals how to grow mushrooms on the reed bases.

With the support of the government, the industry began to take shape.

Currently, Yuanjiang has eight enterprises and seven rural cooperatives focusing on reed mushroom cultivation, with more than 20 hectares of mushrooms already planted.

Yang Xiangguang's company is located in Yuanjiang's Gonghua Township. His mushroom plantation covers an area of seven hectares. Yang plans to invest a total of 50 million yuan (about 7.2 million U.S. dollars) by the end of this year.

"I have conducted research with experts of Guangxi University for years and we have the most unique technology," Yang said.

Gonghua Township can churn out about 22,000 tonnes of reeds annually. Local authorities have introduced several reed mushroom-making companies, including Yang's.

Yang's company has generated job opportunities in the locality, employing more than 1,000 farmers.

Yang is also looking at turning used reed bases into natural cellulose.

"After picking up the mushroom strains from the reed bases, what is left is natural fiber," he said. "Typically, natural fiber is quite expensive, because it is very difficult to extract. But as the mushrooms absorb nutrients from the bases, they easily become natural fiber."

Support for the reed mushroom industry is rising. The city government is currently asking the public to come up with advertising slogans to promote the Yuanjiang reed mushrooms. The slogans need to be concise, creative and representative of the unique mushrooms, with the winning entries receiving awards, the government said.

By 2022, Yuanjiang will be able to produce 200,000 tonnes of mushrooms from the reed bases and dispose of 300,000 tonnes of reeds each year, according to the city government. The industry is expected to generate 16,800 jobs, and its production value will reach 10 billion yuan.

"I am confident in the market of Yuanjiang's reed mushrooms," Yang Xiangguang said. Enditem
Rep. Rodney Davis Tests Positive for COVID-19

Another U.S. representative has tested positive for COVID-19, the new disease from China.

Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) announced Wednesday that he tested positive for the disease, which is caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

Since the pandemic started, the lawmaker has been taking his temperature twice a day in an attempt to catch a positive case early. On Wednesday morning, the temperature was higher than normal, prompting both Davis and his wife to get tested.

While my test came back positive, my wifes test came back negative. My staff who Ive worked with in-person this week have received negative tests as well. Other than a higher-than-normal temperature, I am showing no symptoms at this time and feel fine, Davis said in a statement.

Staffers are contacting anyone who came into contact with the lawmaker in the 48 hours leading up to the diagnosis.

My staff and I take COVID-19 very seriously. My wife is a nurse and a cancer survivor, which puts her in an at-risk category like so many Americans. My office and I have always followed and will continue to follow CDC guidelines, use social distancing, and wear masks or face coverings when social distancing cannot be maintained, Davis said, urging Americans to wear a mask and social distance, or keep 6 feet between themselves and non-household members.

Davis plans on postponing public events until he tests negative. He is quarantining at home, where he will continue to do his job virtually.

Two members of Congress tested positive for COVID-19 last week: Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas).

Grijalva suggested his contracting of the disease was due to Republicans who dont wear masks, while Gohmert suggested his diagnosis could be from repeatedly handling a mask.

While public health officials now say people should wear masks out in public, earlier this year they said wearing masks wasnt a good idea in part because not wearing them correctly could actually lead to higher rates of transmission of the virus.

According to one tracker, 10 members of Congress have tested positive for COVID-19, not including Davis. Dozens of others self-quarantined after coming into contact with a confirmed COVID-19 patient but did not test positive themselves.

Following Gohmerts diagnosis, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced she was requiring all members and staffers to wear masks.

The chair would also like to remind members that the speaker has the authority to direct the sergeant at arms to remove a member from the floor as a matter of decorum, she said on the House floor. To reiterate, the chair views the failure to wear a mask as a serious breach of decorum.

Jack Phillips contributed to this report.
Man killed by coconut tree

PHUKET: A 37-year-old man died of severe head injuries yesterday (Aug 5) after a coconut tree he was hired to help cut down fell on him.

accidentsdeathagriculturepolice

By The Phuket News

Thursday 6 August 2020, 05:11PM

Rescue workers recover the body of Eakkapong Lonsiew, 37, originally from Sakon Nakhon, from the roadside grove. Photo: Sakoo OrBorTor rescue

The incident occurred in a roadside gully near Banana Beach, along the coastal road from Surin to Nai Thon (Route 4018), explained Lt Phatsawat Wongwassana of the Cherng Talay Police.

Officers were called to the scene at 3:30pm, Lt Phatsawat noted.

Police together with rescue workers from Sakoo Tambon Administration Office (OrBorTor) arrived to find the body of Eakkapong Lonsiew, 37, originally from Sakon Nakhon, beside the felled trunk of the tree.

He had suffered fatal head trauma and was dead when rescue workers arrived, Lt Phatsawat said.

Mr Eakkapong and a friend had been hired to cut down coconut trees in the grove, which was some 15 metres below the level of the road, Lt Phatsawat explained.

The friend told police that he was responsible for chopping down the trees while Eakkapong pulled on a rope to guide which direction the tree would fall.

While pulling down the tree down that ended his life, Eakkapong was slowly walking backwards and slipped into a small ditch, which prevented him from getting out of the way of the falling tree, the friend said

Mr Eakkapongs wife and family have accepted the death as accidental, Lt Phatsawat added.

However, Lt Phatsawat also noted that Mr Eakkapongs body had been taken to Thalang Hospital for further examination while police continued their investigation into the death.
by Nirmala Carvalho

The Archbishop of Bombay (Mumbai) prays for world peace, remembering the visits to Hiroshima and Nagasaki by Pope Francis (2019) and Pope John Paul II (1981).

Mumbai (AsiaNews)  Card Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay (Mumbai), celebrated a memorial Mass this morning to mark the 75th anniversary of the first atomic bomb dropped on the city of Hiroshima (Japan).

"May nuclear weapons never again be used, [after causing] so much so much devastation, destruction, loss of lives, suffering, and tragedies, he said during the service, which could only be followed via streaming because of the pandemic.

Card Graciass celebrations are among the most popular in the English-speaking world. Speaking from a country that is a nuclear power, along with its neighbour Pakistan, the prelate called on the faithful to pray for peace, peace in the world".

In his homily, he mentioned Pope Franciss visit to Japan in November of last year, during which the pontiff visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki, both struck by atomic bombs on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively.

At that time, the pontiff said that the use of atomic energy for the purpose of war was " a crime not only against the dignity of human beings but against any possible future for our common home. The pope called "immoral" even the mere possession of nuclear weapons.

After the final blessing, the Archbishop of Bombay invited everyone to recite a prayer that John Paul II had composed and recited at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on 25 February 1981:

And to the Creator of nature and man, of truth and beauty, I raise a prayer:

Listen to my voice because it is the voice of the victims of all wars and violence between individuals and nations;

Listen to my voice, because it is the voice of all the children who suffer and will suffer whenever peoples put their trust in weapons and war;

Listen to my voice, when I pray to You to instill in the hearts of all human beings the wisdom of peace, the strength of justice, and the joy of friendship;

Listen to my voice, because I speak for the multitudes of every country and every period of history who do not want war and are ready to walk the path of peace;

Listen to my voice and give us the ability and strength to always be able to respond to hatred with love, to injustice with a complete dedication to justice, to need with our own participation, to war with peace.

O God, listen to my voice and grant the world your peace forever.
Midland County Attorney Russell Malm requested Thursday for the court to dismiss District Attorney Laura Nodolfs lawsuit against County Judge Terry Johnson that resulted from a disagreement over the timeline for filing the county budget.

Nodolf filed a civil suit Wednesday alleging Johnson failed to fulfill his public duties to prepare and file the county budget. She asked for the budget to be filed immediately with the county clerk and that a mandate be set by the court ordering the budget to be filed by July 31 in future years.

She cited the Texas Local Government Code, which states that the county judge must prepare a county budget in the seventh or 10th month of the fiscal year (the month is determined by the commissioners court) to cover all proposed expenditures for the upcoming fiscal year.

In an official response to the lawsuit and motion to dismiss, Malm argues that while the county judge is required to prepare a budget in July, the 10th month of the fiscal year, he is not obligated to file the budget by the end of July.

RELATED: DA sues county judge after disagreement over county budget

[Local government code] does not require or mandate that the Proposed Budget be filed in July; it merely requires the preparation of the Proposed Budget, he states in the motion.

Malm states that a mandate to file the budget by July 31 would misappropriate the pen of the Texas Legislature and enforce an arbitrary requirement not found in state law.

He also argues that the filing of a county budget cant be enforced through a lawsuit, citing previous court cases that appear to show that precedent.

The county budget has been filed in the beginning of August for the past 10 years, according to the motion. County records show the budget was filed on Aug. 8 last year.

Nodolf requested an expedited hearing on the suit but no time was set for the hearing as of Wednesday evening. The hearing was delayed after the judge first assigned to the case recused himself. It has now been assigned to Ector County 385th District Court Judge Stacy Trotter.

Johnson told the Reporter-Telegram the budget would be filed with the county clerks office on Thursday, at which point it would be available for inspection by any party and published on Midland Countys website. The proposal was not yet published on the countys website as of Thursday afternoon.
A homicide Friday morning east of Benson, Nebraska, appears to be legally justified, according to a press release from the Nebraska Attorney General's Office.

Frank Williams, 69, of Omaha died from a single puncture wound in an incident near 45th and Miami Streets, according to the release.

Omaha police were called to the area just before 9:40 a.m. on a report of disturbance. While en route, officers were told that an individual was down in a driveway.

When officers arrived at the home they found Williams fatally wounded in the driveway. He was taken by ambulance to the Nebraska Medical Center, where he was declared dead.

Omaha police are investigating the death, which was referred to the Nebraska Attorney Generals Office for consideration of charges due to a conflict of interest, the press release stated.

A spokesperson for the Nebraska Attorney Generals Office said one of the parties was related to a Douglas County Attorney's office employee, but couldn't say which party. Normally, it is the county attorney that decides charges based on the results of a police investigation.
San Francisco and San Mateo were the last Bay Area counties to land on the states coronavirus watch list, which monitors counties for troubling patterns in virus data and adds restrictions to reopening. While cases are surging in hot spots bordering the Bay Area, San Francisco and San Mateos numbers paint a different, if still troubling picture  one thats true for much of the Bay Area: At least a few of the numbers consistently hover just above most of the data thresholds that indicate the spread of the virus is under control, preventing them from coming off the watch list.

California is looking for counties to keep their 14-day case rate, or the number of confirmed cases per 100,000 people, under 100.

In San Joaquin County, which borders the Bay Area, the case rate is 308, and the county is reporting a positive test rate of 17.5%. Kern County farther south has a case rate of 429 and a positive test rate of 19.2%. By comparison, San Franciscos case rate stands at 106, and it is posting a positive test rate of 3.9%.

Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert with UCSF, said that while all Bay Area counties should be on the watch list according to the states strict guidelines, he doesnt think the measurements are as finely tuned as they could be.

Being on the watch list is a crude measure of risk, he said. What might be more useful is a traffic light designation: red, amber and green.

He said California is basically three separate countries now: Southern California, which was initially the states hot spot; the Central Valley, whose worrying surge is comparable to states such as Texas and Florida, and the Bay Area, which was doing well at the beginning of the pandemic but has worsened overall.

Heres a look at the data showing how San Francisco and San Mateo counties compare on the states key data benchmarks, and other factors that determine whether cases are increasing.

Cases

As of July 30, according to the DataSF.org dashboard, San Franciscos 7-day average of new daily cases per population of 100,000 is 10.4, which translates to about 91 new daily cases. Anything above 6 per 100,000 is considered a level 4 high alert, and the goal is to decrease the number to 1.8. At its peak, that number was 14.3 for San Francisco, so it is declining but still high according to the countys measurements. In San Mateo County, the latest reported rate is 9.8, or about 75 new daily cases. Both are well below the state average of 20.4.

San Francisco was added to the states watch list on July 17 because of elevated coronavirus infections and hospitalizations, with the citys Latino population disproportionately affected. Increased social gatherings, especially among people in different households, increases in economic activity, and continuing infections in low-income housing and among low-wage essential workers have all been cited as drivers of the increase in cases.

San Mateo County joined the list amid rising infections and hospitalizations. The county unsuccessfully tried to negotiate with the state to avoid restrictions, but on Aug. 1 was forced to shutter indoor operations of salons, gyms and churches.

The state has tied the rise in community transmission in San Mateo to social gatherings where participants didnt wear face coverings or practice social distancing, workers coming more frequently into contact with others, and crowded home living conditions. On Tuesday, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to impose fines on individuals who refuse to wear masks.

Hospitalizations

San Franciscos 7-day average of hospitalizations per population of 100,000 is 11.7, according to the California COVID-19 Assessment Tool. The countys hospitalizations have been increasing gradually since June 19, hitting a pandemic high of 109 hospitalizations on July 29.

But according to the rate of weekly change in COVID-19 positive hospitalizations, which reflects the demand on hospitals for acute and intensive care, San Francisco is at 9%, within the target of less than 10%. San Mateo County reports a rate of 7.6%. Both counties fall well below the state average of 16.9%.

Deaths

San Francisco most recently reported a total of 62 deaths since the pandemic began. The county has seen eight new deaths over the course of two weeks, based on the most recent data reported on Aug. 2.

San Mateo County has reported 120 total deaths, and recorded six new deaths in the past two weeks, based on the most recent data reported Aug. 4.

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.

Positive test rate

San Francisco maintains a low positive test rate, meaning the percentage of tests showing coronavirus. The latest number is 3.9%, according to the city dashboard, compared with the state average of 5.5%.

San Mateos positive test rate is higher at 7.7%, but still within the 8% threshold that the state wants counties to stay below.

Chin-Hong said with the mobility of Californians and San Mateo Countys geographic area, its unsurprising it eventually landed on the watch list, especially because it was the last Bay Area county still allowing services including haircuts and the use of indoor gyms.

Unless San Mateo County magically put a fence around them, they were not going to stay off the watch list, he said. This is what happens when one place becomes a sanctuary. It becomes a magnet for surrounding counties to visit, and you bring the risk of your county with you.

R0 Score

In epidemiology, the so-called R0 score (pronounced R-naught) shows the expected number of people an infected person will transmit the virus to. So an R0 of 1 means each infected individual will pass the virus on to one person. To slow down spread, the R0 needs to drop below 1.

According to the state COVID Assessment Tool, San Mateos R0 score is 1.02  just above the critical threshold of 1. San Francisco's is 1.1, which is defined as indicating the virus is likely increasing. Californias R0 is just below 1.

Kellie Hwang and Mike Massa are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com, mmassa@sfchronicle.com
Amazon has cleared a major regulatory hurdle in its quest to deliver Internet service to unserved and underserved areas of the earth.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has approved, with some conditions, Amazons Kuiper Project, a US$10 billion low-orbit constellation made up of more than 3,000 satellites.

We conclude that grant of Kuipers application would advance the public interest by authorizing a system designed to increase the availability of high-speed broadband service to consumers, government, and businesses, the FCC stated in an authorization order issued July 30.

That approval came on the condition that Kuiper submit a final orbital debris mitigation plan with the commission.

The FCC requires applicants for a space station authorization to submit a description of the design and operational strategies that they will use to mitigate orbital debris, including a statement detailing post-mission disposal plans for space stations at the end of their operating life.

Kuiper has submitted a preliminary plan to the regulators that calls for deorbiting satellites in no more than 355 days following completion of their mission, a shorter time frame than the 25-year standard established by NASA.

A final plan, however, wont be available until the final constellation design is completed.

Because the design of Kuipers satellites is not completed, and because Kuiperconsequently did not present specific information concerning some required elements of a debris mitigation plan, we condition our grant of the Kuiper application on Kuiper presenting, and the Commission granting, a modification of this authorization to provide for review of the final orbital debris mitigation plan, the FCC wrote in its order.

Uncertain Payoff

In addition serving individual households, schools, hospitals, businesses and other organizations operating in places without reliable broadband, Amazon stated Kuiper will also provide backhaul solutions for wireless carriers extending LTE and 5G service to new regions.

We have heard so many stories lately about people who are unable to do their job or complete schoolwork because they dont have reliable Internet at home, Amazon Senior Vice President Dave Limp said in a statement.

There are still too many places where broadband access is unreliable or where it doesnt exist at all, he added. Kuiper will change that. Our $10 billion investment will create jobs and infrastructure around the United States that will help us close this gap.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

That $10 billion was questioned by one retail industry expert. It seems like a lot of money to be investing in this, observed Mark William Lewis, CEO of Netalico Commerce, an e-commerce development agency based in Raleigh, N.C.

Investing $10 billion in space is pretty significant and the payoff really isnt certain, he told TechNewsWorld.

It could be that Jeff Bezos wants to build a space company like Elon Musk, he added. Maybe Bezos plans to launch the satellites himself with his company.

Speculative Venture

Amazon isnt alone in the low-orbit satellite Internet delivery business.

Elon Musk, of Tesla fame, won approval for a SpaceX venture called Skylink, which already has more than 300 birds circling the earth and is nearing a critical mass to switch on the system and provide some minimal service to the United States.

Space Xs plans call for offering North America broadband coverage in 2020 and worldwide coverage in 2021.

Initially, Starlink received approval from the FCC for one million fixed-earth stations  the hardware consumers and businesses will use to connect to the network  but it has since asked for an increase to five million based on initial interest from consumers to the project.

The earth stations  called UFOs On A Stick by Musk  are less than half a meter in diameter and contain motors that allow the units to track Skylinks satellites. According to Musk, instructions for setting up the hardware are simple: plug in socket, point to sky.

Meanwhile, a third player, OneWeb, is set to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy after being bought by the government of the UK and Bharti Enterprises, who each have pledged to invest $500 million into the venture.

Additional players in the mix adds risk to Amazons network. Its risky because no one knows how well this will work, or if there is a sufficient market to support one of these networks, let alone more than one, said Michael Calabrese, director of the wireless future program at the New Americas Technology Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Thats especially true of SpaceX because Amazon could offset the cost of its network by being an anchor tenant of its own network, he told TechNewsWorld.

Business Benefits

While shining the light of the Internet on dark areas of the world with little or no online service may be one factor behind Kuiper, there are some business benefits to Amazon, too.

Amazon is an e-tailer. If you cant connect to the network, you cant buy anything from them, said Rob Enderle, president and principal analyst with the Enderle Group.

Think of it as a retailer opening up branch offices, he told TechNewsWorld. In this case, though, theyre creating connectivity so people can buy their products. Its a case of opening up new markets and allowing for expansion.

Netalicos Lewis added that satellite networks can be an easy way for Amazon to spread the Internet.

You dont have to work with the local governments to expand the Internet, he said. You just fly your satellites into space, and everyone has the Internet, and they can order from Amazon.

Amazon could also benefit from providing business services through Kuiper. That could mean tracking the assets of both Amazons and others. It could also mean fleet management and providing connectivity to remote locations like mines, farms, campgrounds, pipelines and offshore wind facilities.

Additionally, it could mean better Internet service for moving platforms, like planes, trains, automobiles and cruise ships.

Amazon is increasingly starting to do its own delivery and moving away from UPS and the postal service, observed New Americas Calabrese.

Itll want to manage its fleets, including fleets of drones, he continued. It makes sense to use a satellite network to control drones because they depend on line-of-sight.

Amazon, like Google and Microsoft, benefits from having everybody connected because theyre selling cloud services, through AWS, and video, through Prime, he said.

Companies that use Amazon Web Services will be happy with more people having access to the Internet, added Lewis, because it means more people will have access to those companies services, too.
Collaboration Tools

MIT Develops Open Source Tool to Support Spontaneous Online Conversations

Researchers at MIT's Sloan School of Management have developed a new software platform for having private, on-the-spot conversations online. Called Minglr, the open source tool is designed to replicate the kinds of interactions people might have before and after meetings, in the lobby during breaks of conferences and around the office coffee machine, in a virtual environment. "By making these interactions possible online, systems like Minglr can further boost the desirability and feasibility of remote work, learning, and professional networking," the university said in a news announcement.

The research team was led by Thomas W. Malone, Patrick J. McGovern Professor of Management at MIT Sloan and founding director of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence. "I think ad-hoc interactions  those 'hallway conversations'  are among the most important things that people miss in today's work-from-home environment," said Malone, in a statement. "From a collective intelligence standpoint, lots of research suggests that those random encounters are key to creative innovations in cities, research labs, companies and elsewhere. And we know from our own personal experiences that they are also critical to making new professional connections, forming social bonds and building camaraderie in a group. But most people don't realize how straightforward it is to create videoconferencing software that supports these ad-hoc interactions. We want to demonstrate what is possible, and we hope that all major videoconferencing systems will implement functionality like that in Minglr."

Built on the open source videoconferencing system Jitsi, Minglr allows users to log on via a web browser and see a list of people who are available to talk, select who they want to talk with, accept or deny chat requests, and enter a private video room for those impromptu conversations. In a pilot at the June MIT Collective Intelligence 2020 meeting, held online, reception to the tool was positive, with 86 percent of participants who used the Minglr system reporting in a survey that they thought future online conferences should employ something like it.

"The positive feedback we received on Minglr has helped us see new pathways for its functionality," said Jaeyoon Song, an incoming MIT Sloan PhD student and researcher on the project. "We knew that the system could be valuable at virtual business meetings and professional conferences, but now we see potential uses in virtual classes, parties and other kinds of social engagements. Minglr allows you to meet new people, chat with folks you already know and spark different kinds of conversations. With Minglr, we see a future that involves much richer and deeper online interaction."
When Dr Suranjit Chatterjee, 55, thought of returning to work after recovering from the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), he realised that he could not walk even small distances without his heart rate increasing.He had to be readmitted in hospital for an echocardiogram to check his heart health.

Chatterjee has a family history of heart disease, but did not have a pre-existing condition. He had borderline diabetes and hypertension.

The echo was okay, but a cardiac MRI revealed that I had developed myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscles), said Dr Chatterjee, who has now recovered and has gone back to Covid-19 duty. He is a senior consultant of internal medicine at Indraprastha Apollo hospital.

He says he is not alone. Some of his recovered Covid-19 patients have come back to the hospital emergency ward with complaints of variable heart rates, breathlessness and chest pain.

After recovering from Covid-19, some of the patients come in with reduced heart function and heart attack or even stroke. This could be owing to the damage to the small vessels caused by Covid-19 that leads to excessive clotting during the course of the disease, said Dr Yatin Mehta, critical care specialist at Medanta Hospital, .

Covid-19 is known to attack the endothelial cells that line the blood vessels, leading to clotting across the body.

Now that the disease has been in the country for five months, we need to start looking at post-Covid rehabilitation. After the acute phase of Covid-19 is over, patients come back to hospitals with symptoms such as lethargy, body aches and itchy throats even four to six weeks later. Some even get heart attacks or strokes, although a scientific link on Covid-19 causing it is yet to be established. Patients also have psychiatric disorders like anxiety and depression, said Dr Chatterjee.

Tiredness, lethargy, loss of weight, and psychiatric issues because of remaining in isolation at hospitals have been reported from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) as well, said Dr Anjan Trikha, professor of critical care at the hospital.

Dr Chatterjee said doctors should look out for neurological symptoms such asthe guillane barre syndrome wherein the bodys immune system attacks the nerves, leading to weakness and tingling in the extremities. Reports of the syndrome being linked to Covid-119 have come from Italy, China and Austria.

Lung disease

Doctors from hospitals across the city have reported patients who have recovered from coronavirus disease (Covid-19) coming back to the hospitals with low oxygen saturation and secondary infections.

A recovered Covid-19 patient in his mid-fifties had to be rushed back with low oxygen saturation to the emergency department of Max hospital, Saket a day after his discharge. The patient had been admitted to the hospital for almost 20 days and had been discharged after he was doing well and all his symptoms had been resolved. Yet, just a day after he had been discharged he was brought back to the hospital emergency with respiratory failure and died. Since his symptoms were the same as Covid-19, we got him tested again, but the report was negative, said Dr Sandeep Jain, head of the department of emergency medicine at Max Super Speciality hospital.

He has seen about 1 to 2% of the Covid-19 patients treated at the hospital returning back after being discharged. The recovered patients come back to the hospital emergency with a whole spectrum of lung diseases  from fibrosis (formation of hard fibrous tissues as the lung heals from an injury) to secondary infections and pneumonia. This is more likely in patients who have had severe symptoms of Covid-19 and needed either ventilator support or non-invasive ventilation like Bipap, he said.

The most common sequelae  or a condition caused by another disease -- that doctors have seen in patients who have recovered from severe symptoms of Covid-19 is residual lung fibrosis, wherein the lung capacity decreases as the lung tissues harden after healing from an injury.

Residual lung fibrosis is not restricted to Covid-19 and has been seen in other viral infections as well. This is something we have found in our patients too resulting in inadequate oxygenation. Various drugs are being tried  like a longer course of steroid or anti-fibrosis drugs but nothing is definitive. There is a need for pulmonary rehabilitation in such patients. Usually the fibrosis caused by other disease improves over time but Covid-19 is a very new disease and we do not know what will happen, said Dr Trikha.

His team is trying to analyse CT scans of patients taken six weeks after discharge to assess the extent of fibrosis.

Secondary infection

Again, a direct link hasnt been established, but doctors have seen recovered Covid-19 patients return back with secondary infections.

The patients with moderate to severe symptoms of Covid-19 infection are administered steroids and sometimes medicines like Tocilizumab  both of which can suppress the immune system leading to secondary infections. Sometimes patients come out of the ICU {intensive care unit} and then deteriorate because of an infection, said Mehta.

As in the case of measles, Covid-19 may weaken immunity and result in reactivation of dormant infections such as tuberculosis, said Dr PS Narang, associate director of paediatrics at Max hospital, Shalimar Bagh.

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August 06 : On Wednesday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Supreme Court that the Union of India has in principle accepted the recommendation by Bihar government to order a CBI inquiry into the case.

Mehta, appearing for the Centre, submitted before Justice Hrishikesh Roy that the notification for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will be issued soon, preferably by the end of the day.

The top court, in its order, gave three days to all parties to put on record their respective stands. It also noted that the Mumbai Police must submit its records of investigations so far.

Uddhav Thackeray, Nitish Kumars counterpart in Maharashtra, where the actor died, and the western states home minister Anil Deshmukh had both earlier ruled out a CBI probe.

Sushant Singh Rajputs sister Shweta Singh Kirti has reacted to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) taking over the case of the actors death. She said it was not a coincidence that the latest development coincided with the Ram Mandir bhoomi pujan on Wednesday and thanked God for helping them in their fight for justice.

Shweta shared several screenshots of a news channel showing the Ram temple foundation stone laying ceremony with the news of a CBI probe into Sushants case running in the ticker below. She wrote, This definitely Cannot be a co-incidence. As the mantras were chanted...Steps towards Justice were taken! I love you God... I know ur with us. We are one step closer to finding the truth Bhai...#justiceforsushantsinghrajput #cbienquiryforsushant #faith @sushantsinghrajput.

Actress Ankita Lokhande is also happy about the Centre agreeing to a CBI inquiry into the Sushant Singh Rajput death case.

"The moment we've waited for has finally arrived," tweeted Ankita, who was in a relationship with Sushant for almost seven years. As a caption, she wrote: "Gratitude".

Meanwhile, actor Rhea Chakraborty has been asked to appear before the Enforcement Directorate on Friday in an investigation into suspected money laundering surrounding Sushant Singh Rajput's death. The 34-year-old had died by suicide last month, the Mumbai Police had said.

The Enforcement Directorate, which investigates financial crimes, had filed a money laundering case last week over "suspicious transactions" worth Rs 15 crore in connection with the death of the Bollywood actor.

The case was filed after the agency took note of a First Information Report or FIR by Bihar Police, which was investigating the actor's death and financial transactions based on a complaint by his family.

At this point, three agencies - the Mumbai Police, the Enforcement Directorate and the CBI - have been tasked with investigating Sushant Singh Rajput's death and events leading up to it.

Latest updates on Sushant Singh Rajput Death Mystery
Thunder Bay, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - August 6, 2020) - ZEN Graphene Solutions Ltd. (TSXV: ZEN) ("ZEN" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that a recent peer reviewed research article clearly demonstrates that ZEN's Albany Graphite exfoliates more easily than other commercially available flake graphite test samples. Significantly, this article provides quantitative data that ZEN's Albany PureTM Graphite has the highest exfoliation rate constant of the materials tested, indicating that it exfoliates more easily than the other materials.

This study was recently published in the peer reviewed journal, Carbon and utilizes an interfacial trapping exfoliation process which is spontaneous and driven by the spreading of graphene at a liquid-liquid interface between two immiscible fluids (e.g. oil and water) and thus lowering the free energy of the system. The article reported "the time to reach full emulsion for the Albany PureTM material was much shorter than for other graphite reference material (Figure 1). The paper also concluded that "the source of the graphite plays a role in the exfoliation in addition to the flake size". This advantage will likely translate into a more efficient and economic exfoliation process as the company advances towards commercialization. Additional testing was also conducted to compare the purified East Pipe and West Pipe material and confirmed very similar exfoliation rates for the two pipes as shown in Figure 2 below.



Figure 1: Plot showing ZEN vs. other Graphite

(Zenyatta7 = Zen_W1016F)

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

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/1429/61207_e7c004a7c44f5858_002full.jpg





Figure 2: Plot showing East vs. West Pipe

To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/1429/61207_e7c004a7c44f5858_003full.jpg

Francis Dube, ZEN CEO commented, "We have known for a long time that our material exfoliated into graphene faster and better than flake graphite but quantifying it so clearly was a significant confirmation. I want to thank Prof. Douglas Adamson at UConn for his excellent research!"

These results provide additional third-party confirmation that Albany PureTM Graphite exfoliates more easily than other commercially available graphite material and supports the results that were published by Dr. Yoshihiko Arao, Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Tokyo Tech and reported in an October 16, 2018 news release. In this article, it was reported that the particle size was linked to the ease of producing graphene from graphite through exfoliation - the smaller the feed graphite particle, the easier to exfoliate. The researchers further concluded that, due to the size of its flakes, the exfoliation productivity of graphite derived from ZEN's Albany PureTM Graphite performed up to 1500% better than the researchers' reference flake graphite materials. Interestingly, in the UConn study, the ZEN samples had a slightly larger flake size than the other graphite samples, yet still showed faster exfoliation. The company surmises that the turbostratic nature along with the slightly larger d-spacing between the layers were the reason why Albany PureTM Graphite performed better in this study.

ZEN Graphene Solutions is also seeking advanced applied graphene-related research projects where ZEN could support this research by providing customized graphene materials and, in some cases, funding in exchange for some commercialization rights to be negotiated. Please submit your proposals in confidence to researchproposals@ZENGraphene.com.

Mr. Peter Wood, P.Eng, P.Geo., President of ZEN Graphene Solutions Ltd., is the "Qualified Person" for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed, prepared and supervised the preparation of the technical information contained in this news release.

About ZEN Graphene Solutions Ltd.

ZEN is an emerging graphene technology solutions company with a focus on the development of graphene-based nanomaterial products and applications. The unique Albany Graphite Project provides the company with a potential competitive advantage in the graphene market as independent labs in Japan, UK, Israel, USA and Canada have independently demonstrated that ZEN's Albany PureTM Graphite is an ideal precursor material which easily converts (exfoliates) to graphene, using a variety of mechanical, chemical and electrochemical methods.

For further information:

Dr. Francis Dube, Chief Executive Officer

Tel: +1 (289) 821-2820

Email: drfdube@zengraphene.com

To find out more about ZEN Graphene Solutions Ltd., please visit our website at www.ZENGraphene.com. A copy of this news release and all material documents in respect of the Company may be obtained on ZEN's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.ca.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Although ZEN believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. ZEN disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/61207
A group of Austin protesters who were participating in the march in which Garrett Foster was killed last month joined local activists during a vigil in his memory Wednesday evening at Travis Park.

More than 90 people gathered to mourn Foster, who was fatally shot by a motorist on July 25 while marching at 4th Street and Congress Avenue in Austin.

Activists dressed in black shirts and pants lit candles and lined them around the brick flowerbed at the center of the park where a Confederate monument once stood.

The vigil began with an organizer reading the facts of Fosters death to the group and a moment of silence in his name.

Foster who, was legally carrying a rifle, was struck three times by a motorist at the intersection. He died at the scene, police said.

The man who shot Foster was identified as U.S. Army Sgt. Daniel Perry, who has claimed self-defense for killing Foster.

Some mourners held a fist in the air, while others consoled one other as they recalled what Foster, who was white, meant to the cause of Black Lives Matter.

Hiram Gilberto Garcia, an independent journalist covering the protests, said Foster was an inspiring individual whose intentions were cemented in his belief in the fight for black equality.

He didnt seem aggressive whatsoever, Gilberto said. He was a very peaceful person that hardly even chanted in Austin.

Jill McCafferty, 40, an activist with the protest group PEACE in Austin, was moved to tears as she spoke.

Garrett said he was willing to die for this movement, and he did, McCafferty said.

She remembered running up to the scene and noting a third wound that was not compressed as first responders worked on Foster.

She and other protesters from Austin shared their memories of Foster, who left the military to take care of his fiancee Whitney Mitchell, who is a quadruple amputee.

Protesters said they felt safer when Foster was around.

McCafferty and other speakers who either witnessed the incident or were nearby when the shots rang out said they were still traumatized by the event.

Other groups who had participated in local protests came out in support of Foster, including Reliable Revolutionaries and Young Ambitious Activities.

Jourdyn Parks, an organizer with Reliable Revolutionaries, said it was amazing to hear from people who knew Foster best.

Because he was a fighter, they stepped forth and were willing to speak about him, Parks said, which is one of the things that I admire about our generation, which is our resiliency.

At the end of the vigil, organizers of the gathering issued a call to action, urging people to comment on their demands for the city budget ahead of todays council meeting.

They asked that people urge city leaders to abolish San Antonio police, and that funds be redirected to health care, housing and education.

Jacob Beltran is a reporter covering San Antonio and Bexar County. To read more from Jacob, become a subscriber. jbeltran@express-news.net | Twitter: @JBfromSA
Kenyas Health Minister, Mutahi Kagwe, has reiterated his plea to Kenyans to stop traveling upcountry and putting their parents at risk of contracting coronavirus.

In an impassioned address Wednesday, the CS confirmed the case of a Migori family where 48 members contracted the deadly virus.

My information regarding this particular situation is that somebody came from Nairobi and went to Migori, and there started the whole thing within the family, Mr Kagwe said.

The CS further cited a separate incident where someone travelled to Siaya County to visit their mother only to transmit the virus to the mother and other family members.

In addition to that, we also have somebody who came from Nairobi went to Siaya to say hello to the mother. Took the disease to the mother, he then brought the mother back to Nairobi to be treated. He died, unfortunately, and the mother is still being treated, said Kagwe.

Consequently, Kagwe once again urged Kenyans to heed the Ministrys warning against traveling from urban areas to the rural areas.

COVID-19 is real. We have said it for a long time since March. We have warned people that they will take the disease to their parents but some have already.

The only thing we can do now is to urge those who have not please dont do so. If you were sceptical before, if you were not sure before at least now you know for a fact that people are dying, added the CS.

The easiest way to kill your parents is you go to them without a mask, without caring at their age and knowing the statistics we have been reading. Ni lazima jameni tuchunge wazazi wetu, ni lazima tuchunge familia zetu.
The Ministry of Jal Shakti has asked the National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee to take up the study of salinity of river Mahadayi in view of the concerns raised by the Goa government that Karnatakas Kalasa Banduri River Diversion project will adversely affect the availability of fresh water in the state

Taking into account the concerns raised by you regarding the issue of salinity in Mahadayi River, this Ministry has assigned National Institute of Hydrology. Roorkee to take up the study of salinity of river Mahadayi and submit a report to this Ministry, Minister for Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, said in a letter to Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant.

Sawant had written to Shekhawat in March expressing apprehensions about Karnatakas plan to fast track the Mahadayi project and had asked Shekhawat not to process any permissions until the matter was finally decided by the Supreme Court where it is now pending.

Karnataka may attempt to seek your approval for such diversion outside the basin relying upon the Award of the Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal dated 14.08.2018 In this regard. We wish to state that the Award dated 14.08.2018 is pending before the Hon. Supreme Court of India, Sawant said in his letter.

Such proposal should not be considered in view of above-mentioned reasons as the same is going to have far reaching consequences on the State of Goa. In any case, if any proposal is submitted by Karnataka, we must be given a copy of the same and our objections should also be considered. Kamataka is likely to submit the proposal which may not be even in consonance with the Award of the Tribunal, Sawant also said.

Shekhawat has, however, declined to specifically assure Goa that no permissions will be processed.

The Government of Karnataka has recently submitted feasibility report of Kalasa Nala Diversion Scheme and Bhandura Nala Diversion Scheme to Central Water Commission (CWC), and these are under appraisal as per the existing CWC guidelines and as per the directions given in the Report cum decision of MWDT (Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal), Shekhawat said.

Quoting the Tribunal itself, Shekhawat said that the upper riparian States of Karnataka and Maharashtra, though do require requisite clearances and approvals, as required by law and from the Central Government, and the Planning Commission (Now Niti Aayog), but they do not require any prior consent of the lower riparian State of Goa.

But he agreed to share Karnatakas proposal with Goa since any project proposed in the river basin for which no tribunal award or inter State agreement exists, will be circulated to the co-basin States by the Project Authority Central Water Commission (CWC).

Goa has opposed any diversion of waters of the River Mahadayi which originates in the Western Ghats in Karnataka takes a detour via Maharashtra and enters Goa as the Mandovi. The Mahadayiriver basin drains an area of 2,032 sq.km., out of which an area of 375 sq.km. lies in Karnataka, 77 sq.km. in Maharashtra and rest in Goa.

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The iconic Emirates A380 will begin serving travellers on flights to Toronto starting August 16. The airline has so far resumed A380 operations to Amsterdam, Cairo, Paris, London Heathrow and Guangzhou (August 8)  taking its A380 network to six cities.

The Emirates A380 experience remains a favourite amongst travellers for its spacious and comfortable cabins and the airline will continue to gradually expand its deployment in line with market demand and operational approvals.

Customers can fly the Emirates A380 from Dubai to Toronto five times a week. Flights can be booked on emirates.com or via travel agents. Emirates flight EK 241 will depart Dubai at 9:10 and arrive in Toronto at 15:05 local time. The return flight, EK 242 will depart Toronto at 21:45 and arrive in Dubai at 18:30 local time, the following day.

With safety as a priority, Emirates is gradually expanding its passenger services to 70 cities in August, returning to over 50 per cent of its pre-pandemic destination network. Passengers travelling between the Americas, Europe, Africa, Middle East, and Asia Pacific can enjoy safe and convenient connections via Dubai. Customers from Emirates' network can stop over or travel to Dubai as the city has re-opened for international business and leisure visitors.

Covid-19 PCR tests are mandatory for all inbound and transit passengers arriving to Dubai (and the UAE), including UAE citizens, residents and tourists, irrespective of the country they are coming from. - TradeArabia News Service
As a group of roughly 40 people began to gather outside of Walker Plaza at 1 p.m. Aug. 6, Indy10 Black Lives Matter organizer Jessica Louise was reflective. With the group speaking among themselves ahead of the upcoming march, Louise kneeled by the V in the newly created Black Lives Matter mural.

Created by local artist Deonna Craig, the letter incorporated the names of Black Hoosiers killed by police, including Dreasjon Reed, 21, and McHale Rose, 19. A bundle of flowers had been placed by each name. For a few moments, Louises hands were pressed against Reeds painted name. As Louise stood up, the march began.

This protest, like the ones that have been taking place for months, called for justice in the deaths of Reed and Rose, who died within hours of one another on May 6 and May 7.

Were doing this for Dreasjon, Louise told the group just before they began marching. He was killed three months ago today.

On Aug. 5, after pushback from the community and authorization from the Marion County Superior Court, Reeds autopsy report was released to his family, 90 days after his death following a chase with Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) officer Dejoure Mercer.

As the group began to move downtown, chanting No justice, no peace and Defund the police, activists  several on bicycles and one in a car marked Black Lives Matter Medical Team  blocked off roads to traffic.

The group was particularly vigilant after a June incident, when Diane Goebel  perhaps better known as Minivan Karen  struck protesters with her car on Monument Circle.

When protesters arrived at the WRTV-6 building on North Meridian Street, they stopped for a few minutes to air their grievances with the news station.

After it was originally announced that an interview with a witness to Reeds death would be aired at 11 p.m. on Aug. 5, WRTV-6 pulled the segment, sparking outrage from some members of the community.

Air the interview! the crowd chanted, Tell the truth! After roughly 10 minutes of the group being stationed outside the building, a Lawrence police vehicle pulled up to the group, but the officer never got out of the vehicle and drove away a few minutes later.

When an ambulance appeared to be heading toward the group, they moved out of its way and continued their march. Underneath the I-65 bridge, tension mounted between several members of the protest and a driver.

While members of the group tried to redirect traffic, a driver in a blue truck revved the engine, sending protesters scrambling to the sidewalk. One protester, who only identified himself as Icon, pulled a gun on the driver.

I was scared he was going to kill me, he said. I stepped in front of a little girl when he revved his engine, but, yes, I absolutely drew a gun to defend myself.

After a few minutes, the driver turned around, and the protesters continued toward Monument Circle. A group of roughly 10 cars trailed behind the group heading toward Monument Circle. Some honked in solidarity with the protest, others in frustration.

The group stopped just before reaching Monument Circle to voice the demands of Indy10. Among them: release the 911 call Rose allegedly made on the night of his death  which IMPD said was in an attempt to ambush officers  and to open a federal investigation into his and Reeds death, as well as to charge Mercer with murder in Reeds death.

News was spreading among the group as they walked back to the plaza from Monument Circle that the four officers involved in Roses death had returned to active duty, according to an IndyStar report.

As the group arrived back at Walker Plaza, met by a small group of people taking photos of the mural, organizers told them to prepare for hell week, but didnt elaborate what that meant.

Noting theres a long road ahead, Louise is hopeful the fight will be worth it in the long run, despite what some may view as setbacks in the investigation of Roses death.

Be encouraged, Louise said, referencing the release of Reeds autopsy report. This is a long fight for us.  Follow us on social media to stay updated, you never know when well have to wake up for Black lives.

Contact staff writer Breanna Cooper at 317-762-7848. Follow her on Twitter @BreannaNCooper.

Protesters marched downtown Aug. 6, demanding information and transparency from IMPD regarding the deaths of Dreasjon Reed and McHale Rose. (Photo/Breanna Cooper)
(Natural News) An automated error supposedly led the state of Texas to massively over-inflate its Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) death count, according to new reports.

The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) now admits that hundreds of deaths it attributed to the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) were actually not linked to the virus at all. This is a similar scenario to what recently happened in Florida after it was discovered that testing facilities all across the state had been churning out false positives.

DSHS corrects COVID-19 fatality counts for the week of July 27, the Texas agency announced in a tweet. An automation error caused 225 fatalities to be included even though COVID-19 was not listed as a direct cause of death on the death certificate.

In what appears to be a common abnormality all across the country, DSHS has been relying upon false death certificate data to count alleged Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) fatalities in the Lone Star State. Many of these deaths involved people who died with the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19), as opposed to from it.

As DSHS shifted to using death certificate data to count fatalities this week, an automation error caused approximately 225 fatalities to be included that did not have COVID-19 listed as a direct cause of death, the agency indicated. A manual quality check revealed the issue late Wednesday.

Your chances of dying from coronavirus are literally one in a million; and youre up to 10 times more likely to die from normal flu

In lieu of an available Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine at this time, the federal government is urging all Americans to get flu shots this year. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventions (CDC) Robert Redfield, this will help to ensure that the health system does not become overburdened.

If there is COVID-19 and flu activity at the same time, this could place a tremendous burden on the health care system related to bed occupancy, laboratory testing needs, personal protective equipment and health care worker safety, Redfield stated during a recent testimony before the House Select Subcommittee.

Redfield is also urging public schools to reopen, having stated during a recent Buck Institute Webinar that the risk of young children contracting the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) is exceptionally low.

More children are likely to die from suicide or drug overdose from having to stay home, he says, which is why it remains critical from a public health perspective to open things back up and let people live their normal lives.

Its not risk of school openings versus public health, he is quoted as saying. Its public health versus public health.

When we look at, right now, the mortality of this particular COVID virus, in the first almost 218,000 people we looked at February to July, there was 52 individuals under the age of 18. And if I recollect, about 35 were actually school age. Some of them were younger than school age. Were looking critically at those individuals. And, you know, clearly, theres an increase in comorbidities related to significant medical conditions.

Another thing Redfield brought up that you are unlikely to hear much about from the mainstream media is the fact that ones chances of dying from the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) are about one in a million. You are up to 10 times more likely to catch seasonal influenza and die from it than you are from catching the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) and dying from it, which puts the whole thing into perspective.

Now, Im not trying to belittle that, Redfield further explained. Im just trying to make sure we look at it proportional.

More related news about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) is available at Pandemic.news.

Sources for this article include:

DailyWire.com

NaturalNews.com
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 17:01:01|Editor: huaxia

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LONDON, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- British Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Robert Jenrick said Thursday that due to the coronavirus pandemic, the number of new housing starts in the country could decline by 40 percent in 2020, according to media reports.

"As a result of the pandemic, the number of starts this year will be well down on 240,000 ... it could be as much as 30 or 40 percent less than that," Jenrick told Sky News.

The minister made the remarks as the British government outlined plans to reform the country's planning regime to accelerate homebuilding.

"We'll have to see how quickly the economy can bounce back," he added, noting that the years 2020 and 2021 will be "challenging" for the industry. Enditem
Lori Vallow is set to be arraigned by a district court on charges relating to the hiding of the remains of her two children after waiving her preliminary hearing next week.

In a brief court appearance via Zoom on Thursday, the 47-year-old 'cult mom' said she will give up her right to the hearing on Monday, after consulting with defense attorney Mark Means.

The move means Vallow's case will automatically move to a higher court, where a trial date will be set if she pleads not guilty to the felony charges, KTVB reported.

Vallow is facing two felony counts of conspiracy to destroy or conceal evidence. She previously pleaded not guilty to three misdemeanors charges for contempt, resisting and obstructing and criminal solicitation to commit a crime.

Lori Vallow (pictured on Thursday) has waived her right to a preliminary scheduled for next week a brief court appearance via Zoom

The move comes days after a two-day hearing in which a judge ruled husband Chad Daybell (pictured left on Tuesday) will stand trial

A date for her arraignment is yet to be announced.

It comes days after an Idaho judge ruled that husband Chad Daybell will stand trial, following a two-day hearing.

Daybell, 52, who married Vallow last year, has pleaded not guilty to charges related to hiding the remains of seven-year-old Joshua 'JJ' Vallow and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan.

Investigators found their bodies during a search in June, months after they were last seen in September. Authorities have yet to file charges related to the deaths of the children.

They also have yet to say how or when the children died, but the prosecuting attorney on Tuesday during closing arguments called both deaths homicides based on the condition of the bodies.

The two-day hearing included graphic testimony about unearthing the duct-tape bound body of the boy and the charred and dismembered remains of the girl.

The bodies of seven-year-old Joshua 'JJ' Vallow (left) and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan (right) were found in June, nine months after they had disappeared

JJ's grandfather Larry Woodcock raised his arms and hugged prosecutors following the decision on Tuesday

Vallow (pictured in March) previously pleaded not guilty to three misdemeanor charges

A friend of Lori Daybell, Melanie Gibb, testified how people involved in the case became acquainted through a doomsday belief system that led them to 'preparedness' meetings loosely affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

An FBI analyst who reviewed cellphone records testified that on September 9 Chad sent a text to his then wife, Tammy Daybell, saying he was burning debris and that he had also shot and buried a large raccoon on his property.

The analyst said that was notable because Tylee Ryan was last seen alive on September 8 in Yellowstone National Park.

Prosecutors also said cellphone location records indicated that the day after JJ Vallow was last seen alive in late September, Lori's brother, Alex Cox, showed up at Chad's property just as he had shown up at Tylee Ryan's grave site the day after she disappeared.

Magistrate Judge Faren Eddins said probable cause was shown by the state, allowing the case to proceed to an arraignment before a district judge on August 21

Cox died in December, and the former spouses of both Chad Daybell and Lori Daybell also died last year.

Police started investigating a missing child case last year and eventually arrested Lori on charges she abandoned her children.

She called Chad from jail on June 9, the day authorities arrived to search his property with at least five cadaver dogs, according to testimony at Tuesday's hearing.

'I love you so much,' Chad said somberly after telling her police were searching the field behind the house.

'I love you,' she responds. 'Should I try to call you later?

'I don't know,' he said. 'You can try.'

Chad Daybell was taken into custody later that day after searchers found one of the bodies.

Investigators said they found the bodies by tracking Cox's cellphone movements.

Police said Cox was involved in the conspiracy to hide the children's remains. He died of an apparent blood clot in his lung at his Arizona home last December.

The remains of Lori's children Tylee Ryan (left) and Joshua 'JJ' Vallow (right) were discovered on the property of her husband Chad Daybell on June 9 - nine months after they went missing

In this aerial photo, investigators search for human remains at Chad Daybell's residence in the 200 block of 1900 East in Salem, Idaho on June 9

Court documents in Lori's criminal case include claims that the couple believed dark spirits, or 'zombies,' would possess people.

Gibb said Lori told her at different times last year that both children had become zombies and that the couple believed the only way to rid a person of a dark spirit was by killing them.

Much of Gibb's testimony revolved around a phone conversation she recorded with the couple after she became suspicious and confronted them about the missing children and accused them of multiple lies.

Gibb acknowledged to Chad's attorney, John Prior, that she initially lied to police about having JJ Vallow with her because she was persuaded to lie by Lori.

Gibb said she became concerned that she could be blamed for the children's disappearance, leading her to call the couple and record the conversation, which she shared with police.

The strange case also includes the shooting death of Lori's estranged husband, Charles Vallow, in suburban Phoenix by Cox. He asserted the shooting was in self-defense.

Charles had been seeking a divorce, saying Lori believed she had become a god-like figure who was responsible for ushering in the biblical end times.
August 5, 2020

News

By TERRI MOON CRONK , DOD News

Defense.gov

Esper Discusses COVID-19, Inclusion, National Defense Strategy

Defense Secretary Dr. Mark T. Esper discussed the National Defense Strategy and U.S. great-power competition, the challenges COVID-19 brought to the Defense Department and his initiatives on diversity and inclusion in a virtual address to the Aspen Security Conference.

"When I was confirmed over a year ago,  one of the things I made clear is my top priority would be implementing the National Defense Strategy," the secretary said in today's remarks. "As you know, the NDS says we are now in an era of great power competition, [and] our chief competitors are China and Russia, in that order."

A second tier of countries must be addressed, he added, such as North Korea and Iran, and the enduring threat of violent extremist organizations also figures into the equation.

Since Esper took office, DOD has been moving out for nearly 13 months in terms of implementing the NDS and its three lines of effort:

To build a lethal and ready force; To continue to strengthen U.S. alliances and to build partners; and To reform the department and find greater efficiency.

"I translate that into freeing up time, money and manpower to put into other priorities," the secretary explained, noting that he and his leadership team came up with 10 goals to guide DOD over successive months:

To review, update and approve all of DOD's China and Russia plans; To implement immediate response force contingency and dynamic force employment and enhanced readiness; To reallocate, reassign and redeploy forces in accordance with the NDS; To achieve a higher level of sustainable readiness; To develop a coordinated plan to strengthen allies and build partners, To reform and manage the Fourth Estate, those DOD agencies and organizations that are not part of the services; To focus DOD on China; To modernize the force with game-changing technologies; To establish realistic war games and exercises in training; and To develop a modern, joint warfighting concept and, ultimately, a doctrine.

"We've made considerable progress on those 10 objectives," Esper said. "Our goal was to complete many of them this year, and we're on track."

One of the challenges DOD has faced over the previous seven months is the impact of COVID-19, which hit the department in January, the secretary said.

"I've been tracking this since mid-January, and the department received its first U.S. citizens from China in late January," he said. DOD put its global defense plan into effect Feb. 1.

"We've been at this for seven months, and I'm really proud of the Department of Defense," Esper said. "I think at our high point, there were over 60,000 service members on the streets of America, in many of the hot spots  particularly the National Guard  whether it was medical professionals helping out in hospitals to [those] distributing supplies."

"I'm very proud of what the United States military did  often putting themselves at risk," the secretary said.

And during that challenging time, the secretary outlined three priorities: to take care of DOD's people and their families, ensure the department could maintain our readiness to execute the national security mission and to support the whole-of-government effort.

On top of that, he noted, DOD dealt with civil unrest in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. "Our service members again did extremely well in serving their state governors  making sure that Americans had the right to exercise their First Amendment right of freedom of speech and assembling to protest, and to do that peacefully, so I've been very proud of our Guard in that manner," Esper said.

The civil unrest led the secretary to pursue three initiatives to address racial discrimination, diversity and inclusion in the military ranks.

"Clearly, while the U.S. military has been a leader in dealing with discrimination in its ranks and making sure it is not part and parcel of our force, we are not immune to what's happening in broader society, so we're taking a number of actions to do that for two reasons," the secretary said.

"First, it's the right thing to do. But secondly, it's important to our readiness," he said. "We need to be able to recruit the best and the brightest and to make sure they all feel respected, regarded and have all the opportunities that everybody else does in our force. And that applies not just to persons of color, but to ethnic differences, gender, sexual orientation, you name it. We want to represent the American people that we've sworn an oath to protect and defend."

DOD is focused inward and is helping inward and at the same time, maintaining its national security capabilities and defending the country, Esper said. "And we see that as our top priority," he added, "and [we] are committed to continue to do so as we move forward."

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New Delhi, Aug 6 : Trade shows and exhibitions remain critical for businesses and potential clients and partners, especially in times when doors seem to be shutting for new and small enterprises. According to an industry expert from a German-based trade fair and event organiser, on-ground exhibitions and expositions remain irreplaceable for business networking and must be pulled off with enough care and digital interventions.

Raj Manek, Executive Director and Board Member Messe Frankfurt Asia Holding Ltd, in conversation with IANSlife. Excerpts: Q: Exhibitions are not just business events, but also boost tourism and to some extent, cultural exchange. Your views.

A: Exhibitions in general are important economic, social and political catalysts that can open doors for domestic and international trade, tourism, job creation, and cultural exchanges. However, Exhibition Business travel is changing the dynamics for the tourism industry and is an important tool that can draw in tourist visitors for its host cities; making way for inter-cultural exchanges.

Our headquarters in Frankfurt is one of the best examples for this, which has an entire city running on the exhibition model - and clearly demonstrates the potential of our trade shows in attracting high international component of business travelers that boost the region's travel and tourism industry.

Q: Could you comment on the financial hit the exhibition industry has taken due to COVID? A: If you see the latest figures from UFI, globally, there are approximately 32,000 exhibitions each year, bringing in 4.5 million exhibiting companies that potentially attract over 303 million visitors. Exhibitors and visitors combined spend around EUR 116 billion (USD137 billion US) every year on exhibitions. These numbers are astounding and make exhibitions a significant global industry.

Equally significant is the impact in India where the size of exhibition industry is Rs 23,800 crore. More than 550 events are conducted annually in the organised sector. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, India's exhibition sector has taken a hit and the impact has been unprecedented with multiple global and national events being postponed or cancelled in the country. The resultant loss as indicated by IEIA is around Rs 3,570 crore for the entire sector which we feel may further escalate if the crisis lingers on.

Q: Almost all industries look to B2B exhibitions for their products and services; and the impact of restarting exhibitions and expos will be cross-industry. Do you agree? A: To quantify the economic significance or impact of exhibitions is challenging - because besides supporting trade and transactions, or enabling knowledge and technology exchange within individual economic sectors, exhibitions play a significant role in supporting trade and employment opportunities for many allied sectors such as service providers, hospitality sector including restaurants, bars hotels, public transport sector including local cabs and taxis in the case of Tier-I cities in India, and the incredibly hard hit aviation sector as business travel gets activated together with MICE tourism.

The backbone of the exhibition industry are these allied industries and the lack of business is putting many of these at immediate risk. The current scenario underlines the critical importance that exhibitions can play in generating the necessary stimulus for the economy which is the primary reason why nations such as Germany, China and Korea have classified exhibitions as 'Organised Gatherings' rather than 'Mass Gatherings', and permitted the opening of trade exhibitions under strict safety guidelines.

There is no doubt that exhibitions will be mission-critical in rebuilding the economy even in India. It will not only generate incredible opportunities for the business community to promote their products and services, but will generate a domino effect across multiple sectors thereby re-building supply chains, creating employment, and opening up the service industry sector which will in turn facilitate domestic and international business visitations.

Q: You have mentioned how digital interventions can help us minimise physical contact. Can you take us through how a post-COVID exhibition would look like online and on-ground, with all safety protocols in place? A: Digital intervention is not new to the events and exhibitions Industry but what we will see next will be an enhanced technology integration in everyday exhibition processes. For on-ground exhibitions, we see a strong possibility in the growth of pre-show registrations than on-site registrations at exhibitions going forward. Buyers and traders want to confirm, plan and fix their meetings in advance. Therefore, tools to maximise online registrations and buyer-seller meetings will be strongly adopted. Digital self-registration processes and cashless transactions will be the new normal for the Exhibition Industry.

Exhibition apps that will help set-up and schedule visits and meetings in advance, Digital scanning and exchange of data which can replace visiting cards, brochures, catalogues, reference material at exhibitions will become more prominent over time. As organisers, we look at our role as creating an ambience that can provide the "personal touch" of professional interaction without the need for "physical contact".

The local government's track and trace app will be made mandatory for all people at the venue, meticulous temperature checks will screen all participants entering the hall on set up as well as show days. Visitors will be required to wear masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) in line with local health guidelines. Isolation chambers for suspected visitors and tie ups with nearby hospitals for thermal check-up and immediate medical assistance are being planned to ensure prompt response to any plausible risks.

As a group that has been into the trade fair business since centuries, we strongly believe that business relations and personal encounters at exhibitions will be irreplaceable but offering a hybrid platform will become a standard feature at our physical events, so that we continue to enable our customers to expand reach and transform virtual connections into face-to-face interactions. So in terms of online or virtual exhibitions - while we are actively looking at entering the digital space, we don't see it as a replacement to our traditional business, rather an enhancement that can complement our existing trade shows, and ensure business continuity in the economic sectors we are present in.

Q: What is the current status of Messe Frankfurt across the globe - where have operations have restarted? What's in the pipeline? Where do exhibitions seem most likely to take place first? A: This July 2020, Messe Frankfurt celebrated its 780th birthday by getting straight back to business. The global resumption of our event operations started with Intertextile Shenzhen Apparel Fabrics and the Yarn Expo Shenzhen that took place at the brand-new Shenzhen World Exhibition and Convention Centre in China from 15 to 17 July. A total of 42,000 visits were recorded at the event.

The trade fairs not only demonstrated the importance of personal encounters, but also highlighted the increased need for face-to-face meetings to ensure business continuity in the current situation. Trade fairs are also resuming business in Germany as we are gearing up for the 2020 Frankfurt Book Fair and working in close cooperation with the Health Department of the City of Frankfurt to intensify safety and hygiene measures.

Talking about India, we are currently working in consultation with industry stakeholders on two of our major textile sector trade fairs and are waiting for a green signal from the government for re-opening exhibitions in the country.

(Siddhi Jain can be contacted at siddhi.j@ians.in)
Minneapolis, MN, Aug. 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

Today, Cambria Company LLC, the leading producer of American-made quartz surfaces, announced that it filed and settled a patent infringement lawsuit in federal court against Quartz Master LLC, a distributor of quartz surface products.

The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, alleged unauthorized use and sale of Cambrias patented Brittanicca design, which are prohibited by law.

As part of the confidential settlement of the lawsuit, though not admitting liability, Quartz Master agreed to stop selling the accused product (Calacatta Blois) and pay damages to Cambria for past infringement.

We are pleased to have resolved this dispute regarding the copying of our Brittanicca design, said Rebecca Shult, Executive Vice President, General Counsel at Cambria. Cambria will continue to defend its intellectual property rights and invest in innovative designs and technology.

As a leader in quartz surface products, Cambria holds dozens of issued patents and patent applications worldwide, as well as other extensive intellectual property rights covering its designs and technology.

# # #

About Cambria

Cambria Company LLC, headquartered in Le Sueur, MN, is the leading domestic producer of quartz surface products. It is a family-owned, American-made company that employs approximately 2,000 people across North America.
By PTI

WASHINGTON: Former US president Barack Obama has endorsed Indian-origin Democratic senatorial candidate Sara Gideon in Maine state, which is seen as one of the most high profile Senate races in the November presidential polls.

Gideon, 48, is currently the Speaker of the Maine State Assembly and is giving a tough fight to Republican incumbent Senator Susan Collins.

The Maine Senate is seen as one of the most high-profile Senate races in the November polls.

The Democrats are banking on Gideon to gain a majority in the US Senate.

According to a recent poll, Gideon, whose father is an Indian and mother an Armenian, led Collins with 44 percent to 39 percent.

Several other polls have now started showing Gideon maintaining a narrow lead over Collings, who is one of the most powerful Republican Senators.

Obama, in a statement on Monday, endorsed Gideon for the Senate race.

"I'm proud to endorse this diverse and hopeful collection of thoughtful, empathetic and highly qualified Democrats," said Obama in a statement as he released the list of his nationwide endorsed candidates that included Gideon.

"Together, these candidates will help us redeem our country's promise by sticking up for working people, restoring fairness and opportunity to our system, and fighting for the good of all Americansnot just those at the top," he said.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has also endorsed Gideon.

Gideon's father immigrated from India and worked as a pediatrician in Rhode Island, where Gideon, the youngest of four children, grew up.

She moved to Maine after meeting her husband Ben Gideon, a personal injury trial lawyer.

If elected in November, she will be the second Indian American women to be elected to the US Senate. Kamala Harris from California is the first Indian origin Senator to be elected to the US Senate.

Two other Indian American candidates are running for US Senate, Dr Manny Sethi from Tennessee and Rik Mehta in New Jersey. Both are from the Republican party.
Michael Petruzzello

Qorvis Communications, a Washington, DC-based strategic communications agency with a client roster that includes Saudi Arabia, CDC, the British Embassy and AAMCO, will celebrate its 20th anniversary on Aug. 10. Founded by Michael Petruzzello in 2000, the firm became part of the Publicis Groupe in 2014. It provides clients with services including issue advocacy, crisis & issue management, media training and research & polling. During a time when it is easy to feel isolated, we feel very fortunate to be able to remain connected and celebrate this milestone as a team. The success of the past two decades would not have been possible if it werent for our loyal clients, our friends in the media, and our brilliant team members, said Petruzzello.

United Minds, a Weber Shandwick consultancy, has launched (Re)Boot Camp, a re-onboarding program that employs virtual events, workplace walkthroughs and customized training modules to prepare an organizations team for the new ways of working made necessary by the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the topics covered are: familiarizing employees with changes in strategic direction, introducing new operational protocols for those returning to the workplace, re-skilling managers to handle new responsibilities, helping hybrid (on-site and remote) teams learn how to work together effectively and modeling new employee behaviors. "By bringing together all of the 'day one' workacross facilities, operations, HR, communications and strategyinto one single, seamless program, (Re)Boot Camp helps employees more easily absorb all of the upcoming change and make the critical pivot from the past to the future," said United Minds executive vice president Sarah Clayton.

Propulsion PR has launched a vegan/plant-based team, intended to align with the firm's commitment to representing businesses that work to reduce environmental risks and aim for sustainable growth. PR services that Propulsion will offer to vegan clients include messaging and positioning, media relations, initial public offering media strategy, market expansion and visibility campaigns, content creation, sponsorships and partnerships, event planning, digital media, thought leadership and speaking opportunities. Propulsion says the launch is in response to a continuing plant-based food boom and an increase in demand for vegan. Propulsion PR's founder, Lucas Seiler, has been vegan for several years and does not publicize non-vegan products in the food and beverage space.
Johnny Depp named Leonardo DiCaprio as one of the men that Amber Heard allegedly had affairs with, something that the 45-year-old actor reportedly didn't take lightly.

Depp recently ended his 16-day legal battle against The Sun's publisher, News Group Newspapers (NGN), and editor Dan Wootton over the outlet's claims that he is a wife-beater.

Cheating Allegations

During the court hearings, the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star accused his ex-wife of cheating on him during their short-lived marriage.

The actor claimed that Heard had a three-way affair with SpaceX founder Elon Musk and Cara Delevingne. The "Aquaman" star allegedly with Musk after the tech entrepreneur was seen entering the building of Depp's penthouse.

Depp added James Franco's name to Heard's affairs list after footage showed that he was talking to Heard a day after her blowout fight with Johnny.

However, the accusations got even more intense after Heard said that Depp accused her of having relationships with all her co-stars -- including Leonardo DiCaprio.

"He accused me of having affairs with each of my co-stars, movie after movie: Eddie Redmayne, James Franco, Jim Sturgess, Kevin Costner, Liam Hemsworth, Billy Bob Thornton, Channing Tatum; even women co-stars like Kelli Garner," the actress said.

She added that Depp nicknamed Leonardo a "pumpkin-head."

Following the statement, an unnamed source reportedly told New Idea that DiCaprio was upset with what Depp did, especially since he was never close to Heard at all.

Since the "Titanic" actor is already happy with his girlfriend, Camila Morrone, the rumor claimed he dislined the idea of getting involved with Depp and his case.

Leonardo DiCaprio to Destroy Johnny Depp's Career?

Previously, Depp lost his Captain Jack Sparrow's role in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" after Heard penned a derogatory article about domestic violence for Washington Post.

Now, the same New Idea source said that DiCaprio pledged to ruin Depp's career in Hollywood further.

"Leo is livid. He's banned all his associates, as well as anyone who wants to work with him ever again, from dealing with Johnny. He can't believe Johnny's thrown him into his mess like it's no big deal," the unnamed source revealed.

According to the source, the two -- who are the most popular artists of their generation -- were once very close. Unfortunately, they drifted apart and DiCaprio developed a closer bond with Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Bradley Cooper in the end.

"Johnny is going to find himself almost unemployable after all this is over. He did himself no favors by revealing the childish nicknames he'd saddled a lot of them with, either," the source warned. "In his blind determination to destroy Amber, he's pretty much cut his nose off to spite his face."

Neither DiCaprio nor his representative has spoken about the rumor yet, but if proven true, the warning that the insider shared might truly happen.

READ MORE: Johnny Depp-Amber Heard Trial: 5 Most Intense Moments in Their 16-Day Legal Battle
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US to Give Extra $140M to Aid Syrian Refugees in Lebanon

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The United States will give Lebanon an extra $140 million to help Syrian refugees and the communities hosting them, the State Department said during a U.S. state visit by Lebanon's Prime Minister.

Lebanon is hosting at least 1.5 million Syrian refugees who have fled the more than six-year conflict there and who now make up about a quarter of the country's population.

The latest grant means the United States has given Lebanon more than $1.5 billion in humanitarian assistance since the start of the conflict in 2012, the State Department said.

In its 2017-2020 Crisis Response Plan, the Lebanese government said it needed $2.8 billion to address the challenges of hosting refugees.

The U.S. money will be used for food, shelter and medical assistance for Syrian refugees and Lebanese host communities. It will also support water and wastewater infrastructure projects, the State Department said in a statement.

U.S. President Donald Trump said this week after meeting Prime Minister Saad Hariri that the United States will continue to support the Lebanese army in its fight to stop Islamic State and other militant groups gaining a foothold inside the country.

"We encourage other donors to join us in providing additional humanitarian assistance for those affected by the crisis in Syria, including fulfilling not yet funded previously made pledges," the State Department said.
OVER 100,000 air passengers have flown into Ireland over the last fortnight, including nearly 15,000 from the Green List countries and nearly 28,000 from the UK.

The figures represent a significant increase on the corresponding numbers for passenger arrivals into airports in Dublin, Cork and Shannon in early July.

For the last two weeks, an average of just over 7,300 passengers have been arriving into the States three main airports every day.

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The figures released by the Department of Transport on Thursday night show that between July 20 and August 2 exactly 103,009 people arrived into the States three main airports.

This is up on the figure of 73,223 air passengers who arrived into the three airports for the two week period between July 6 and July 19.

The figures for the last fortnight includes 91,750 passengers arriving into Dublin; 7,648 arriving into Cork Airport; and 3,611 arriving into Shannon Airport.

The figures show that 14,590 of these passenger arrivals were from countries on the Green List, which was announced by the Government on July 22. Over a third of those arriving from countries on the list (5,221) came from Italy.

Those travelling to Ireland from countries or territories on the Green List do not have to restrict their movements for 14 days. However, the Government continues to advise people in Ireland against holidaying abroad.

The Green List also includes Finland (where 78 people arrived into Ireland from), Norway (198), Hungary (1,552), Estonia (490), Latvia (1,393), Lithuania (2,337), Slovakia (789), Greece (1,213) and Greenland, where there are no direct flights to Ireland from.

The list included 15 destinations up until Tuesday when five of them - Malta, Cyprus, Gibraltar, San Marino and Monaco - were removed over concerns about a spike in the virus in those destinations.

The figures show that 1,002 people travelled to Ireland from Malta in the two-week period leading up to its removal from the list, while 317 people arrived into the country from Cyprus.

The United Kingdom accounts for the most arrivals of any one country with 27,738 air passengers arriving into Ireland over the last fortnight. There was however a small decline in the numbers arriving into Dublin and Cork last week compared to the previous week.

The Department of Transport said: "Transfer passengers are not included in the arrivals statistics for airports as Ireland is not the final destination for these passengers, who do not leave the airport before travelling onwards to their final destination.

"A breakdown of arrivals into Ireland of Irish residents returning home or foreign residents visiting Ireland is not available. All statistics are provisional figures provided by the airports and are subject to change."
Oneida Castle, N.Y.  A man has been charged with fatally shooting another man Tuesday inside an Oneida County apartment.

Travon D. Golden, 22, of Canandaigua, was arrested Wednesday by the New York State Police. He been charged with murdering Tyler A. McBain, 21, of Oneida Castle.

The homicide happened Tuesday afternoon.

An assault was reported at 1:39 p.m. Tuesday at 91 Seneca Ave. Witnesses and neighbors heard an argument in the upstairs apartment, troopers said. Witnesses then saw a man run out of the apartment, troopers said, and flee in a dark-colored SUV.

When troopers and EMS arrived, they found McBain dead on the floor of his apartment, troopers said. McBain had been shot once in his upper torso, troopers said.

Golden has been charged with second-degree murder. He is being held in the Oneida County Jail without bail.

Staff writer Samantha House covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, a story idea, a question or a comment? Reach her at shouse@syracuse.com
MILAN Italys UniCredit posted higher than expected second-quarter results and stuck to its profit goals, saying commercial activity was recovering but it would keep writing down loans to anticipate the hit from the COVID-19 crisis.

Robust trading gains and cost cuts helped UniCredit top market expectations with a second-quarter profit of 420 million euros ($499 million), down 77% from a year earlier but above a 347 million euro forecast in a consensus provided by the bank.

Shares in UniCredit rose 0.7% in early trade, outperforming a slightly lower Italian banking index.

The bank booked 937 million euros in loan writedowns in the quarter, further increasing overlay" provisions on performing loans that could turn sour after the end of debt holidays in an economy ravaged by the pandemic.

CEO Jean Pierre Mustier told a media call the bank would continue to book overlay provisions in the second half to maintain its cautious approach to virus-related losses.

He said this would lead to an underlying net profit, which strips out one-off items, in line with the first half, when it totalled 368 million euros, despite improving revenue trends.

UniCredit, which has 10% of its loan book exposed to sectors worst hit by the virus crisis such as such airlines, shipping and tourism, wrote down loans for 1.3 billion euros in the first quarter after slashing its macroeconomic projections due to COVID-19.

That and other one-off charges led to a quarterly net loss of 2.7 billion euros in the period, the biggest in three years.

CAPITAL BUFFERS

UniCredit confirmed a 2021 goal for an underlying profit of between 3.0 billion euros and 3.5 billion, after reducing that target earlier this year by up to a quarter to take into account of the COVID-19 fallout.

Contagion hit just as UniCredit was reaping the fruits of a years-long restructuring.

Regulatory demands that banks preserve capital buffers in the pandemic have thrown a spanner in the wheels of Mustiers plan to boost returns for investors through dividends and buybacks.

UniCredit plans to resume its policy from 2021 to pay out 50% of underlying net profit to investors.

It said that, depending on market conditions, it may review the current split between paying 30% of profit as cash dividends and using 20% for buybacks.

Core capital strengthened in the quarter to 13.85% of assets, up from 13.44% at the end of March.

Revenue totalled 4.2 billion euros, a touch ahead of expectations, helped by a strong rebound in the banks commercial operations after lockdowns to contain contagion eased in the markets where UniCredit operates.

Results showed resilient core revenues and better than expected loan-loss provisions," Citi analysts said in a note. Capital was stronger than expected and this should provide support for  capital return when allowed by the regulator."

($1 = 0.8418 euros)

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
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In our Money Pit Stop series, we ask financial experts to give This is Money readers a free portfolio makeover.

Mike lives in London and is a marketing executive earning 32,000 per year. He started investing in funds in 2017 and now has a portfolio worth around 80,000 -most recently making a 15,000 profit after the market downturn caused by coronavirus.

Now he is about to swap his job for teacher training and is wondering whether to continue investing or buy another property for rental income.

Mike is considering buying a second property in Portsmouth, where he went to university, as he believes he would get more for his money than in London

The 27-year-old was lucky enough to get on the property ladder in 2016, when he bought his first home worth 270,000.

He paid a 130,000 deposit with the help of a non-repayable gift from his parents and took a five-year fixed rate mortgage of 2.18 per cent on the remaining 140,000, which is due to end in November 2021.

He has an outstanding mortgage of 94,000 and is in no rush to pay it off due to the attractive rate. The mortgage term is 25 years.

Mike is due to start a teacher training programme in September so will see his salary drop to 21,000 for a year, but says he has always been good at saving and also has an income through letting his spare room for around 650 per month.

Of his investments, around 45,000 sits in low-cost funds directly through Vanguard, and the remaining 35,000 is in shares using trading platform eToro's CopyTrading service, where investors can mirror the moves of the platform's top traders. He also has 10,000 in bitcoin.

He said he has no need for these savings just yet and would like to have as much as possible for when he eventually has children - hopefully, within the next five to ten years.

Mike's goals are simply to maximise returns, be that through further investment in funds, stocks or even a second property.

If he chooses the latter option, he is considering buying somewhere in Portsmouth, where he went to university, as he believes he would get more for his money than in London.

Mike's savings and investments Risk appetite: Medium to high Time horizon: Five to ten years Shares: 35,000 through 'copy trading investing' via eToro Funds, investment trusts and ETFs 25,000 in Vanguard LifeStrategy 60% Equity fund 20,000 in Vanguard LifeStrategy 80% Equity fund Cash: Always keeps between 2,000 and 4,000 in his current account for emergencies Properties: Home worth 270,000, outstanding mortgage 94,000 Premium bonds: 5,000 Other: 10,000 in Bitcoin

EQ Investors' Jeannie Boyle suggests Mike keeps his capital liquid so he can access it easily

Jeannie Boyle, director and chartered financial planner for EQ Investors, writes:

I would divide Mikes savings into short, medium and long-term pots in order to protect him financially and achieve his goals.

His short-term savings will serve as his emergency fund, ready to access in case of unexpected expenses.

He should work out what he spends every month and keep six months of spending in an account where he can get at it easily.

He already has 5,000 in Premium Bonds. These are effectively instant access, but he could consider the National Savings & Investments Direct Saver account which pays 1 per cent.

If Mike has other plans for the next three years for which he thinks he might need access to capital I would also recommend keeping this in cash. This makes sure he doesnt have to sell investments during a market downturn.

The advantage of ready-made portfolios

His medium-term money will be the money he intends to use in the next five to 10 years. He has already started investing by using Vanguard and eToro.

The Vanguard LifeStrategy funds offer access to ready-made portfolios of passive investments. These are a great option for investors who do not want to worry about asset allocation or stock selection themselves and both Mike's holdings have consistently outperformed the sector average.

There was no real difference in performance in March when global markets were in freefall.

Mike could supplement his Vanguard investments by using a different style of ready-made portfolio. Various investment services offer this.

As an example of how it would work, our own Simply EQ service offers a ready-made portfolio of investments selected because of their potential for good financial returns and their positive impact on the environment or society. Investing in this type of portfolio would diversify Mikes overall portfolio.

Be cautious of high-risk trading

eToro is best known for cryptocurrency and contract-for-difference trading. You are often not buying an actual share, but a derivative that allows you to bet on the value of the share rising or falling without taking ownership of it.

It is also possible to buy and hold shares through eToro.

If you are an experienced investor, trading with money you are happy to lose this might work well for you. The CopyTrading service is designed to help those with less experience, but it can be hard to be sure what exactly you are copying.

Mike has more than 20 per cent of his assets invested with eToro  a very high proportion to hold in such a high-risk environment. If he enjoys using the site, I suggest he carries on, but reduces his exposure to a maximum of five per cent of his assets.

Mike has made 15,000 since the March downturn by 'copy trading' via the eToro platform

Think earlier about later life

Over the long-term, Mike needs to think about his pension. Any money he can contribute now will benefit from compounded investment growth over the next 40 or so years.

Retiring might not be at the forefront of Mikes mind now but switching some money into his pension might take the pressure off his income in the future. Many people find their expenditure is peaking at the same time they are starting to think seriously about retirement.

I would suggest he checks what options he has via his employer pension. Some companies will match increased personal contributions. This would be a good way for Mike to use some of his surplus income each month.

Most company pension schemes have a default option plus some other funds you can select for yourself. It is worth investing a few hours looking at these options to make sure they are right for you.

People like Mike who have many years until retirement are best served by investing a high proportion of their pension fund in shares. The default fund your employer has selected may not take this into account.

In terms of consolidating his pensions once he starts his teacher training, if Mike had previously been a member of a public service pension scheme, he might have been able to transfer this into the Teachers Pension Scheme. Otherwise, hell have to keep his new teachers pension and personal pension separate.

To buy-to-let or not to buy-to-let?

Fittingly for someone who works for an investment firm, Jeannie believes Mike is better off keeping control of his capital by investing rather than buying a second property.

Jeannie says: Buy-to-let can be a good way to generate additional income in addition to capital growth, but tax changes have reduced yields for most landlords.

It can also be difficult to extract your capital once it is tied up in property which may not suit Mike.

He is hoping to start a family in the next five to 10 years but the arrival of a family is notoriously difficult to time, so I would suggest Mike keeps his capital liquid so he can get at funds when he needs them.

If he decides he wants to take a year out or his family arrives sooner than expected, he will still have access to his money.

Mike is thinking about buying a second property in Portsmouth, where he went to university

Alternatively, Josh Memour, director at independent mortgage advisor Eternity Home Finance thinks homeowners looking to buy a rental property should make the most of the recently announced stamp duty holiday.

However, it is also worth noting that while this can save a prospective landlord a maximum of 15,000, almost all forecasters, including the Office of Budget Responsibility and Bank of England, predict house prices to fall over the next couple of years as the impact of lockdown on the economy and job losses bite.

Josh says: The recent stamp duty changes are not only affecting homebuyers, landlords can save money too. The three per cent surcharge still applies but so does the recent discount on the original charge, reducing the up front cost of starting your property portfolio.

Purchasing additional rental property can be an excellent investment, especially in areas of the country where there is not enough housing to go around. Whilst rental income may not be as profitable as it once was, one should not let the great be the enemy of the good.

The key is to invest in property in the right area where the property price can look likely to be upwardly mobile in the medium-to-long term, and where rent is not proportionately cheap compared to the cost of the mortgage.

Popular investment areas over recent years have been in coastal towns and cities which have good train links into London.

Brighton especially has seen major house price growth over the last decade as those seeking to move out of London look for desirable places to live that are still accessible from their workplace.

Other areas such as Eastbourne and indeed Portsmouth are now being looked at by investors as the next place that could pull off the same trick.

Property prices are currently much lower in these areas and rental yields can be good if the property is well located.

The information provided by our expert is for the purposes of this article and is not personal advice.

If you are at all unsure of the suitability of an investment for your circumstances please seek advice.

Nothing in this response constitutes regulated financial advice. Published questions are sometimes edited for brevity or other reasons.
At least 126 kilograms of Hilsa fish were seized by the Border Security Force (BSF) personnel late at night on Wednesday, while the consignment was being smuggled from Bangladesh into India.

This is the single-largest consignment of Hilsa seized in the last few years and the first this year. The truck driver, the vehicle, and along with the consignment, were handed over to West Bengal Police, said SS Guleria, deputy inspector-general (DIG), BSF, (South Bengal Frontier).

The seizure comes at a time, when millions of Bengalis are facing an acute shortage of their favourite fish. Hilsa is often tagged as the Queen of Fish and the Bangladeshi variant is considered to be tastier than their Indian counterparts.

In 2012, though Bangladesh had imposed a ban on the export of Hilsa to India, the prohibition was lifted last year.

It was during a routine vehicle check at Petrapole late at night on Wednesday that the consignment was seized. The consignment was hidden in nine bags inside the drivers cabin of the truck. The driver didnt have any Customs clearance, said a BSF official.

Many had thought that with cleaner rivers because of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19)-induced lockdown restrictions, there would be a bumper Hilsa catch this year.

Experts had said that since pollution in the Ganges and its tributaries was less this year because of the lockdown, chances were high that schools of Hilsa would migrate upstream to breed.

Over two months have passed since the fishermen ventured into the Bay of Bengal after the lockdown, but a good catch is still elusive. However, we have received reports that Bangladeshi-fishermen are reaping a bumper catch this year, said Pradip Chatterjee, convener, National Platform for Small Scale Fish Workers.

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NuPTH is the third biosimilar announced by the organization in the past one month

Ahmedabad-based Cadila Pharmaceuticals Limited has announced the launch of NuPTH an Osteoporosis biosimilar of Forteo in India. The Forteo biosimilar is used for the treatment of osteoporosis and in patients with increased risk of fracture.

India is the Osteoporosis capital of the world. It is a very common problem. As per a study in 2003 the number of osteoporosis patients in India were approximately 26 million. It is estimated that by 2050, half of the world's fractures will occur in Asia.

Difficulty in use and early drop-outs is often cited as a common reason for non-compliance of osteoporosis medication. The medication is primarily used by people of 50 years and above. We realized that if the delivery system is complex, people stop using it. The ease of use of delivery device is as important as the development of new drugs. The biosimilar NuPTH aims to be a cost-effective solution for patients and will be sold as an easy to use, pre-filled disposable pen, shared Amit Ajmera, Vice President, Cadila Pharmaceuticals Limited.

Cadila has always been committed to quality and affordable care. With the launch of NuPTH, we intend to strengthen our orthocare portfolio and help increase choice, and access for osteoporosis care to patients in the Indian Market. NuPTH builds new bones with ease, and we want all patients to have access to it. Biosimilars market is a focus area for us and we will continue to strengthen our portfolio, said Mr. O.P. Singh, President -Sales and Marketing, Cadila Pharmaceuticals Limited.

NuPTH is the third biosimilar announced by the organization in the past one month. The pharma giant has recently launched Rituximab and Bevasizumab biosimilars, recommended in multiple indications under the brand names Ritucad and Bevaro respectively.
Famous mukbang YouTubers including Moon Bo-ki have come under fire for hiding paid advertisements. / Korea Times File



By Lee Hyo-jin



Famous "mukbang" YouTubers with millions of subscribers have come under fire for hiding the fact that they were being paid to advertise certain products.



Starting Tuesday, a number of YouTubers began issuing apologies admitting that they deliberately or "accidentally" failed to notify viewers about paid advertisements in their videos.



YouTuber "Eat with Boki", better known by her real name, Moon Bo-ki, uploaded an apology to her YouTube community, Tuesday. "I admit and apologize for not mentioning paid promotions in some of my videos." Moon has more than 4.6 million subscribers and hundreds of mukbang videos on her channel.



Tzuyang, another YouTuber with 2.67 million subscribers, uploaded a video Wednesday saying, "I am sorry that I did not fully inform viewers about commercial sponsorship, and promise to notify viewers of all advertisements from now on."



However, as internet users speculated that she could have been involved in tax evasion and fraud, Tzuyang announced plans to quit YouTube the next day.



This was followed by a statement from Yang Pang, an online content creator, who has more than 2.48 million subscribers. With an apology, she immediately added an "includes paid promotion" banner to 20 videos and deleted two from her channel.



Other popular mukbang YouTubers with more than a million subscribers such as Mbro, Fran and Hamzy have also admitted such promotional activities and apologized to subscribers.



But it seems that apologies are not enough for the disappointed subscribers who are expressing their anger through comments. Many have already unsubscribed.



One comment under Yang Pang's apology read, "I feel deceived that you have been lying to your fans. I will never watch your videos again."



The sudden confessions and apologies of YouTubers seem quite timely as the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has recently announced revised advertising rules for social media, effective Sept. 1.



Under the new guidelines, YouTubers and social media influencers must disclose paid advertisements in an easily visible manner. Ambiguous phrases such as "Thanks to," and "In collaboration with" will be banned.



Lee Eun-hee, a professor of consumer science at Inha University told The Korea Times, "Hiding paid advertisements is obviously a violation of consumer rights. It is important to let the viewers know when they are watching a video based on advertisements."



Also, stricter penalties will be needed for content creators who violate the guidelines. "Other than losing subscribers, there should be more specific punishment measures in order to raise YouTubers' awareness," Lee said.
Hisham issued compound after vaping in Dewan Rakyat

The Health Ministry has issued a compound against Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussien for vaping in the Dewan Rakyat chambers.

Yes, it was a mistake and I admitted it. I have always maintained that no one should be above the rules.

The Health Ministry has compounded me, and I will pay the fine, he said on Twitter today.

He did not reveal the quantum of the compound.

Previous offenders had been compounded up to RM500, and failure to settle the amount could result in an additional RM10,000 fine or two months imprisonment, or both.

Earlier today, Hishammuddin apologised after being pinpointed by a netizen vaping during Parliament session this week.

Sorry, I didn't realise - it's a new habit.

I apologise to the Dewan (Rakyat) and promise to not do it again, he said.

Umno's Sembrong MP issued the apology on Twitter in response to the video of the House session, in which Hishammuddin could be seen taking a puff as he was seated behind Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong, who was speaking during proceedings.

The video has since been making its rounds on social media. It is believed the incident took place on Monday as Wee was delivering his winding-up speech.

Sorry, I didn't realise - it's a new habit. I apologise to the Dewan and promise to not do it again  https://t.co/2BdUl6D9K2  Hishammuddin Hussein  (@HishammuddinH2O) August 6, 2020

Addressing the matter in the august House today, DAP's Kluang MP Wong Shu Qi said Hishammuddin should be made to apologise to the House.

This is especially since he has apologised publicly on Twitter, she added.

Deputy speaker Mohd Rashid Hasnon merely replied that the House noted the fact and would assess the matter.

According to the Dewan Rakyat standing order, no member shall smoke in the chamber during a sitting. The order is unclear on the matter of vaping.

Malaysia has been mulling on legislation to regulate vaping even since the BN administration in 2015.

During the Pakatan Harapan rule, enforcement on vaping ban was still being studied. This comprised the ban on the sale of electronic cigarettes (E-cigarettes) or vape that uses liquid solutions (e-liquid) without nicotine.
G overnment outsourcer Serco today pledged not to take state support after posting a surge in revenues.

The company, which handles immigration, defence and IT contracts, intends to pay back 48 million in deferred taxes, principally VAT, early, by the end of the year.

Boss Rupert Soames told the Standard: The government is doing all it can to make sure companies did not run out of cash. We are fine on cash and when we feel we are out of the woods we will pay that back early, all being well by the end of the year.

Serco, which received 5 million of support through the furlough scheme, also wont be using the Government's 1000 job retention bonus, saying it doesnt want to take money from taxpayers to fund services paid for by then. The company said: "We do not intend to take advantage of the UK government's 1,000 per person re-employment incentive as we do not think it right that we should take money from the taxpayer to employ people who will be delivering services paid for by the taxpayer."

Soames said investments in recent years had allowed the company to mobilise rapidly to respond to the crisis across the gloobe. "We commissioned the UK's first drive-through test centre in two days; in Australia accommodation was provided for more than 1,300 quarantined travellers on one week's notice; and as part of the NHS Test & Trace programme we mobilised 10,500 contact tracers in a four-week period," he said.

Revenues rose 24% to 1.8 billion in the first-half, with profits up 53% to 77.6 million. Soames said Covid had had a net zero effect on profits  it has picked up contracts including helping with virus testing, but has seen revenues fall in its leisure centres and rail businesses, and added costs in its health arm.

Serco apologised in May after it accidentally shared almost 300 email addresses of new recruits to the Governments coronavirus contract-tracing programme.

Serco shares, up strongly since the outbreak, fell 22p to 147p on a cautious outlook for 2021.

In a Buy note, Peel Hunt analyst Christopher Bambury said: "With FY20 guidance similar to pre-Covid levels, this reflects the resilience of the business. Serco has good headroom against both leverage covenants and facilities, and forecast leverage is low."
For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL  August 6,2020  Zacks Market Edge is a podcast hosted weekly by Zacks Stock Strategist Tracey Ryniec. Every week, Tracey will be joined by guests to discuss the hottest investing topics in stocks, bonds and ETFs and how it impacts your life. To listen to the podcast, click here:

Which Semiconductor Stocks Should You Buy?

Welcome to Episode #235 of the Zacks Market Edge Podcast.

Every week, host and Zacks stock strategist, Tracey Ryniec, will be joined by guests to discuss the hottest investing topics in stocks, bonds and ETFs and how it impacts your life.

This week, Tracey is joined by Zacks Senior Stock Strategist, Kevin Cook, to talk about the semiconductor stocks.

They arent all the same. They each have their own niche in the semiconductor eco-system.

Which one should you buy? Or should you buy more than one?

What about buying the semiconductor ETFs in order to buy a basket of the stocks?

AMD v Intel

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. AMD shares are soaring after a solid earnings report and news out of competitor Intel Corporation INTC that they are behind on their development of the 7nm chip.

To find out more about the impact on AMD, check out Kevins recent Cooks Kitchen video talking about it all here.

Analysts believe this gives AMD a distinct business advantage and theyve raised price targets.

But AMD is now trading at 70x forward earnings. Is it too hot to handle or should you jump in?

The 5G Trade vs. Gaming

Investors may want to invest in emerging technologies like 5G or in the hot gaming industry.

QUALCOMM Incorporated QCOM is one of the names that will benefit from the rollout of 5G. It has a forward P/E of just 28.

On the gaming side, NVIDIA Corporation NVDA is almost untouched but youll have to pay a high price for the shares as it trades with a forward P/E of 55 and a PEG of 3.3.

The Building Block Stocks

Or maybe you should buy one of the foundry companies like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited TSM which manufactures chips for the other companies like AMD.

Story continues

It is the building block of the entire industry.

Taiwan Semi trades with a forward P/E of 25.2 and a PEG of just 1.3.

What else should you know about the various companies and ETFs in the hot semiconductor industry?

Tune into this podcast to find out.

5 Stocks Set to Double

Each was hand-picked by a Zacks expert as the #1 favorite stock to gain +100% or more in 2020. Each comes from a different sector and has unique qualities and catalysts that could fuel exceptional growth.

Most of the stocks in this report are flying under Wall Street radar, which provides a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor.

Today, See These 5 Potential Home Runs >>

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Click to get this free report NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) : Free Stock Analysis Report Intel Corporation (INTC) : Free Stock Analysis Report Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) : Free Stock Analysis Report QUALCOMM Incorporated (QCOM) : Free Stock Analysis Report Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (TSM) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research
New Delhi on Thursday rejected Islamabads condemnation of the construction of the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya, with the ministry of external affairs (MEA) saying Pakistan should not interfere in Indias internal affairs and refrain from communal incitement.

Pakistans foreign ministry had on Wednesday condemned the building of the temple and described the judgement by Indias Supreme Court (SC) that paved the way for the construction as flawed.

Responding to these remarks, MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said: We have seen the press statement by the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on a matter internal to India. It should desist from interfering in Indias affairs and refrain from communal incitement.

Also read: Ayodhya basks in Diwali-like glow after temple ceremony

He added, While this is not a surprising stance from a nation that practices cross-border terrorism and denies its own minorities their religious rights, such comments are nevertheless deeply regrettable.

The development came against the backdrop of Pakistan mounting a campaign on the Kashmir issue on the first anniversary (August 5) of Indias move to scrap the special status of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) and to split the erstwhile state into two union territories (UTs).

India-Pakistan ties have been at an all-time low since last years stand-off over Pulwama terror attack on February 14 blamed on the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), an outlawed outfit.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Pakistans Foreign Office had said: The flawed judgement of the Indian Supreme Court paving the way for construction of the temple not only reflected the preponderance of faith over justice but also the growing majoritarianism in todays India, where minorities, particularly Muslims and their places of worship, are increasingly under attack.

Also read: Ayodhya marks the twilight of the first Republic | Opinion

The statement said the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) had passed resolutions condemning the demolition of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was constructing the Ram temple as part of an agenda of converting India into a Hindu Rashtra .

It criticised the haste in starting construction of the temple amid the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic and the controversy over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019, and the National Register of Citizens (NRC), as well as measures that demonised, dispossessed, marginalised and subjected Muslims to targeted violence. It also criticised what it described as Indias systematic human rights violations in J&K and a design to change the demography of the region.

India and Pakistan have had several testy exchanges in recent months over the treatment of minorities in both countries.
Damaged buildings are seen after the explosions near the Port of Beirut in Lebanon, Aug. 5, 2020. The explosions in Lebanese capital Beirut have caused at least 100 deaths and left over 4,000 injured, with many more missing, Lebanese Health Minister Hamad Hassan announced on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)

BEIJING, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping sent on Wednesday a message of condolence to his Lebanese counterpart, Michel Aoun, over the huge explosions in the Lebanese capital Beirut.

In his message, Xi said he was shocked to learn about the huge explosions in Beirut, which caused heavy casualties.

On behalf of the Chinese government and people and in his own name, Xi extended profound condolences to the victims, conveyed heartfelt sympathies to the bereaved families and the injured, and wished the injured a quick recovery.
(Newser)  Its code name was "Little Boy," but its impact was anything but small. Thursday marks the 75th anniversary of the dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945. By the end of that year, 140,000 deathsmostly of civilianswere tied to the blast and radiation-related injuries and illnesses. Media all around the world are marking the occasion with looks at the event from a variety of angles. Among the best reads:

For a refresher on the world's first nuclear attack, read this Q&A from the AP, which answers questions ranging from why Hiroshima was selected as the target (it was a military hub complete with factories and ammunition facilities) to the impact of the radiation on those who survived. One standout detail: The US chose not to fire bomb the city prior to the attack so it could better assess the bomb's impact.

The "morality and legality of those nuclear attacks was hardly the subject of public debate" when the bomb was dropped, reports NPR, which takes a look at the debate that dogs the mission today. Specifically, should it be considered a war crime? Under the current laws of war, absolutely, say experts, but in 1945, perhaps not. They explain why, and point out that those factories and military bases the US cited as the reason for selecting Hiroshima were located "quite far" from where the bomb was dropped. This article from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists digs even deeper into the question.

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For a survivor's story, read this 2016 NPR interview with Setsuko Thurlow, who was 13. Among her recollection of the aftermath: "In the darkness, I could see some dark moving object approaching to me. They happened to be human beings ... they just didn't look like human beings. I called them ghosts, ghost-like people because their hair was standing up. They were covered with blood and burned and bludgeoned and swollen, and the flesh was hanging from the bones. Parts of their bodies were missing, and some were carrying their own eyeballs in their hands. And as they collapsed, their stomach burst open, intestines stretching out."

The Knoxville News Sentinel takes a look at the failed effort by some top Manhattan Project scientists in July 1945 to get President Truman to call off the bombings. Their effort didn't fail because Truman disagreedit failed because their plea never reached him. "Two of the administration's top officials schemed to keep the president in the dark about objections raised by the scientists," the paper explains. Read the full story here.

As far as US coverage of the bombing's aftermath goes, it mainly focused on the destroyed landscape, not the people who survived and lived amidst it, reports the Wall Street Journal. One man wanted to change that and erode Americans' apathy to the reality of what had been done: World War II journalist/New Yorker writer John Hersey. The Journal explains how he managed to get into the country and "gathered the testimonies of six Hiroshima residents whose names and stories would soon become world-famous" thanks to his article "Hiroshima," which comprised the bulk to the magazine's Aug. 31, 1946, edition.

For a profile of one of the men involved, read the New York Times Magazine's piece on Maj. Claude Eatherly, who as a 26-year-old flew the advance weather plane that assessed visibility over the city. Per the piece, "one of the 90 servicemen who flew the atomic bombing missions," Eatherly was the only one who "came forward to publicly declare that he felt remorse for what he had done."

(Read more Hiroshima stories.)
WASHINGTON  California Democrats in Congress are increasing pressure on their leaders to get all Americans to wear masks to fight the coronavirus pandemic  including by mailing them to every household.

Reps. Ro Khanna of Fremont and Adam Schiff of Burbank wrote a letter this week to House and Senate leaders, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, asking them to include a free-masks-for-all program in a coronavirus relief package that is now the subject of intense negotiations on Capitol Hill. Khanna and Schiff have proposed similar bills to distribute free masks through the Postal Service.

They held a live talk Wednesday night on Instagram to promote their efforts, acknowledging they face a tall task but expressing some optimism their provisions could make it into a legislative deal.

And Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has been pushing for legislation to make federal coronavirus relief funds to states contingent on whether they have imposed requirements to wear masks in public. She has written a letter to Senate leaders Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., calling for such a provision, and she wrote an opinion piece asking for a national mask mandate.

Khanna has teamed up with Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders to propose mailing three masks to every American, along with creating free distribution sites in communities. The bill would set aside $5 billion for the effort. Its a small sum in relation to the more than $3 trillion in relief Democrats are seeking, but Republicans are fighting to pass a slimmed-down bill for less than one-third of that price tag.

Schiffs bill would direct the Health and Human Services Department to establish a program that would mail free masks to Americans who ask for them, without putting an appropriations figure behind it.

But its not clear how such efforts would succeed. While McConnell has encouraged the use of face masks and President Trump has endorsed wearing them when distancing is impossible, after months of describing them as voluntary, a handful of Republicans have remained staunchly against mask-wearing. Republicans are also generally critical of expensive government programs and forcing states to adopt policies through federal mandates.

Pelosis office did not respond to questions about whether shes including the proposals in her negotiations on the coronavirus relief package with Schumer and the Trump administration. Schumer is one of dozens of Democratic co-sponsors of Khanna and Sanders bill, but his office wouldnt say whether he has brought it up in negotiations.

Feinstein has brought up her proposals with colleagues, her spokesman told The Chronicle, and will continue looking for ways to get a mandate passed.

Republicans and Democrats also remain far apart on more pressing issues in the coronavirus relief talks, including over whether to include hundreds of billions of dollars of state and local aid that could make or break Californias budget and renew $600-a-week jobless benefits that expired last month. After a week of negotiations, a deal remained far off Thursday.

Schiff acknowledged the challenge in his Instagram conversation with Khanna, saying, There are a lot of competing and other urgent priorities. But he also argued there was a real shot at inserting a mask provision into the package.

There are so many priorities that the speaker has to bring to the table, and obviously a lot of opposition to doing anything  probably more than half of the Senate GOP conference doesnt want to do anything, Schiff said. They think theyve done too much anyway.

But he added, Im a little more optimistic, frankly, than I was, because of the  although not particularly consistent  but the change in tune by the president on mask-wearing.

The Burbank Democrat also noted the continuing mask skepticism among some Republicans including Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, who tested positive for the coronavirus after attending committee hearings without consistently wearing a face covering. After his diagnosis, Gohmert went to his Capitol office to tell his staff and record a social media video in which he speculated he could have caught the virus from his mask. Scientific consensus is that mask-wearing substantially reduces the risk of transmission of the virus.

We obviously have our work cut out for us when we have our own colleagues like Louie Gohmert running around the Capitol after testing positive and others that still refuse to wear a mask and are undoubtedly pushing that anti-science message back home, Schiff said.

Khanna agreed: What was so frustrating about that situation was that he (Gohmert) put staff at risk. ... The fact that people would be taking risks not just with other members of Congress but with staff and exposing them, I just thought that was outrageous.

Tal Kopan is The San Francisco Chronicles Washington correspondent. Email: tal.kopan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @talkopan
LaPierre, who has been in charge of the NRAs day-to-day operations since 1991, is accused of spending millions of dollars on private travel and personal security, accepting expensive gifts such as African safaris and use of a 107-foot (32-meter) yacht from vendors and setting himself up with a $17 million contract with the NRA, if he were to exit the organization, without board approval.
Curfew was imposed in areas under two police stations in North Assam's Sonitpur district, where violence broke out during a bike rally organised without permission to celebrate the foundation stone laying of Ram temple at Ayodhya on Wednesday.

Deputy Commissioner Manvendra Pratap Singh clamped the curfew in areas under Thelamora and Dhekiajuli police station from 10 pm of Wednesday until further order. Singh, who rushed to the spot after violence broke out on Thursday afternoon was also attacked with stones breaking the front windscreen of his official vehicle.

Sources said violence took place when bikers reportedly belonging to Bajrang Dal were going to a Shiv temple at Bhorahingori village under Thelamara police station in a procession playing loud music and shouting 'Jai Shree Ram' slogans.

Violence broke out after another group objected to it. Several vehicles were set on fire but security forces rushed to the spot to control the situation.

An order issued by the district administration said a group was trying to indulge in violence in the name of protest and so there was the possibility of great risk and danger to human life and property if permissions are given for free movement of people.
YEREVAN.  Pashinyan must mediate so that we can go to Russia by car. Davit Harutyunyan, a Russian citizen and human rights activist, said this Thursday in front of the Armenian government building.

Harutyunyan and many other Russian citizens had come to Armenia some time ago, but now they are unable to return to their families in Russia.

He noted that for a long time they have addressed this matter to Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan, who promised to solve the problem, but it has not been resolved yet.

According to Harutyunyan, they can drive to Russia via Georgia, but this can happen only if the Armenian PM mediates in this regard. "We only need permission [for this]. We will solve all the other financial problems ourselvesobserving all the safety as well as anti-epidemic rules. If we go with our cars, then the probability of the spread of the [COVID-19] infection will be less," Davit Harutyunyan concluded.
Sarah Palin was characteristically candid when she was asked during an ABC News interview on Wednesday whether she thinks women in politics face more scrutiny than men.

"Heck yeah," said the former Alaska governor, adding that she believes the 2008 Republican ticket  which she made history by joining as the vice presidential candidate alongside presidential nominee John McCain  made a mistake by focusing too much on her personality rather than her track record.

"Women face so much more scrutiny," Palin, 56, told ABC.

"In a lot of sense, it was a lot about looks  you know, the physicality involved in serving in public office  which was ridiculous to me," she said. "Whereas men, even today, aren't under that kind of microscope."

Palin said the "roll out" for the 2008 campaign "was pretty screwed up."

"I was asked so often, 'How are you going to do this with children?' And, granted, I had just had a baby and another son who was heading off to war, and my daughter  my teenage daughter  who was pregnant," she said.

"Yeah, we had kind of some typical family issues going on," Palin said, laughing, before lamenting: "But I was asked so much about that."

RELATED: Inside the Obamas' Quarantine Routine: Dinner Together (and Games) and an 'Unburdening' for the Girls

Kiichiro Sato/AP From left: Sen. John McCain and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin during the 2008 presidential campaign

McCain picking Palin as his running-mate instantly made her one of the most famous politicians in the country. But that rapid rise, from unknown to possible vice president, had its downsides: Her record as the governor of a small state was dissected in public and her folksy demeanor and frequent verbal gaffes fueled many a takedown or parody  including Tina Fey's infamous version on Saturday Night Live.

What had meant to be a boost to McCain's conservative campaign, at a time when much of the country had soured on the Republicans in the White House, came to be seen as a dead weight at the same time that the Great Recession loomed.

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That November, McCain and Palin lost by a lopsided margin.

Speaking with ABC this week, Palin sounded as though she still had problems with how she was treated.

"People weren't able to know my accomplishments, who I was, my experience, what I stood for or what I could add to the ticket," she said. "Instead, the rollout of the campaign just went along with media, letting it be more about personality and just the personal aspects of who I was, instead of what I represented."

She added that "women just inherently have gone through that more than men."

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party's 2016 presidential nominee, has similarly spoken out about how women in politics are treated differently since her own losing campaign.

Practically every day started with me doing hair and makeup, Clinton said in a recent Hulu docuseries. There were 600 days, give or take, on the campaign and it was an hour to an hour and a half  so being really conservative, an hour doing hair and makeup. I calculated it, and I spent 25 days doing hair and makeup. I knew that the man I was running against didnt have to do any of that.

RELATED: Sarah Palin Says Going on The Masked Singer Was a 'Walking Middle Finger to the Haters'

Al Grillo/AP Sarah Palin in 2009

Palin told ABC that the woman who 2020 Democratic candidate Joe Biden picks to be his running mate "has really got to be strong and be vocal when it comes to those trying to shape them, mold them, tell them what to say," referencing campaign aides who advise politicians on everything from policy to clothes.

"That candidate had better be strong and stand up for what she knows is right," Palin said.

As for herself, Palin said she would run for office again "in a heartbeat" and that she planned to run for an elected position again at some point.

She said she would take more control of her public image the next time around, however.

"I would've gone rogue a lot earlier," she said, when addressing what she would do differently in a future campaign. "I would've fought back against those who were running the campaign who, you know, weren't in touch with the American people and what the American people wanted."

She continued: "I'd do it again in a heartbeat, and I want to do it again. I want to be back in there in public service."
Pilot Dead After Air Force Fighter Crashes in Central Argentina

Sputnik News

15:43 GMT 05.08.2020(updated 16:14 GMT 05.08.2020)

The plane belonged to the Fifth Villa Reynolds Air Brigade of the Argentine Air Force. The causes and circumstances of the crash are not immediately clear.

An Argentine Air Force A4AR ground attack fighter has crashed during a training flight south of the city of Cordoba in central Argentina, the force stated via Twitter.

According to the Air Force, the pilot was found dead in the vicinity of the town of Villa Valeria after he ejected himself from the aircraft.

In a follow-up post, the Air Force said the deceased pilot was Captain Gonzalo Fabian Britos Venturini.

The Air Force added that they have initiated the established protocols for an investigation into the incident.

 Sputnik

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A huge mushroom cloud after the port explosion that reduced much of the city to rubble

A Wicklow man was among the 5,000 people injured in the horrific explosion that killed at least 135 people in Beirut on Tuesday.

Rescue teams pulled out bodies from the wreckage yesterday, as investigators blamed negligence for the warehouse explosion that sent a devastating shock wave across Beirut.

More than 5,000 people were injured in the explosion and up to 250,000 were left without homes fit to live in.

The Wicklow man told Kathryn Thomas on RTE Radio One's The Ray D'Arcy Show yesterday how he and his bride - who were only just married last week - were in their apartment a kilometre away from the port when he heard a loud blast and thought: "Oh my God, is a war starting?"

Despite suffering cuts to his head from shards of glass, he said he and his wife miraculously escaped the blast that blew out a wall in their apartment.

"Of all the people in the radius, we were the luckiest," he said.

Read More

Shock waves from the blast smashed building facades, sucked furniture out into streets and shattered windows miles inland.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab has declared three days of mourning from today.

The death toll was expected to rise from the blast, which officials blamed on a huge stockpile of highly explosive material stored for years in unsafe conditions at the port.

The explosion was the most powerful ever to rip through a city scarred by a civil war that ended three decades ago and has been reeling from an economic meltdown and a surge in coronavirus infections.

The blast rattled buildings on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, about 100 miles (160 km) away.

President Michel Aoun said 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, used in fertilisers and bombs, had been stored for six years at the port without safety measures, after it was seized.

In an address to the nation during an emergency cabinet session, Aoun said: "No words can describe the horror that has hit Beirut last night, turning it into a disaster-stricken city".

He said the government was "determined to investigate and expose what happened as soon as possible, to hold the responsible and the negligent accountable".

The cabinet announced a two-week state of emergency in Beirut and ordered port officials involved in storing or guarding the material since 2014 to be put under house arrest.

Ordinary Lebanese citizens blamed politicians who have overseen decades of state corruption and bad governance.

"This explosion seals the collapse of Lebanon. I really blame the ruling class," said Hassan Zaiter, a manager at the heavily damaged Le Gray Hotel in downtown Beirut.

Relatives gathered at the cordon to Beirut port seeking information on those still missing.

The Red Cross was coordinating with the Health Ministry to set up morgues as hospitals were overwhelmed.

Beirut's Clemenceau Medical Center was "like a slaughterhouse, blood covering the corridors and the lifts," said Sara, one of its nurses.

Beirut Governor Marwan Abboud said the blast had caused damage worth up to $5 billion, and possibly more, and left up to 250,000 people without homes.

Supplies

Offers of international support have poured in. Gulf Arab states sent planes with medical equipment and other supplies, while Iran offered food and a field hospital.

The US, Britain and France, which have been demanding political and economic change in Lebanon, also offered help. Germany, the Netherlands and Cyprus offered specialised search and rescue teams.
WINFIELD  A Colorado man has pleaded guilty to a defiant trespass charge for flying a drone into a silo in Snyder County where it crashed.

Cassidy Kohl, 38, of Littleton, entered the plea Wednesday to the summary charge and District Judge John Reed fined him $125.

State police have released little information except that drone flew onto a properly in the 6100 block of New Berlin Highway in Jackson Twp. about 4 p.m. Saturday and into an opening in a silo where it crashed.

No information was available as to why Kohl was in Pennsylvania and whether the drone was damaged.
A heartbroken father has screamed in court at the man who murdered his daughter, asking: 'What was the reason? Why? Why? Why?'

'Our only daughter had been murdered, our family has suffered a serious disaster and our family was destroyed,' Zhihe Yu said on Thursday as he faced his daughter's killer in the NSW Supreme Court.

'We have not only lost our only daughter, but also lost our support, hope and motivation to live.'

Qi Yu's wrapped body was found in bushland in Sydney's north almost seven weeks after her disappearance

He was reading out a victim impact statement written by him and his wife Qin He at the continued sentence hearing of Shuo Dong.

The 21-year-old has pleaded guilty to murdering Qi Yu, 28, on June 8, 2018, the day she was last seen at her Campsie unit, which she shared with him and another woman.

Her wrapped body was found in bushland in Sydney's north almost seven weeks after her disappearance.

Dong remained stony-faced in the dock as his victim's father became emotional, shaking at one stage and looking directly at the killer.

'On 8th June 2018, our daughter was murdered, after which her body was disposed in the Ku-ring-gai National Park, where it remained unfound in the wilderness for 47 days,' Mr Yu said.

'The precious life of our daughter was ruthlessly taken away.

'Her 10 years of hard work suddenly ended in vain and a bright future was ruined.'

Shuo Dong has pleaded guilty to murdering Qi Yu, 28, on June 8, 2018, the day she was last seen at her Campsie unit, which she shared with him and another woman

Unable to accept the loss of their daughter, his wife grieves inconsolably.

'(She) often dreams our daughter or herself is being chased, often cries in a dream, wakes up from heart pain almost every night,' he said.

'She wanted to depart from this world herself and join our daughter.'

According to documents tendered at his sentence hearing, Dong spent the evening of June 8 bickering with Ms Yu over cutting his lease short and the bond money he owed her.

Ms Yu's parents, who were speaking to her from China via WeChat, could hear the argument in the background when the power to the unit was shut off.

They later contacted a neighbour who lived nearby to check on their daughter.

Blood-like stains were found through the home and car, which was parked a few kilometres away.

Two days before the murder, Dong did an internet search for 'how would homicide be sentenced in Australia' and visited related web pages including 'criminal offence sanction between China and Australia'.

Ms Yu's parents said she was an 'intelligent, beautiful, lovely, lively and innocent girl' who came to Australia in 2009 as an international student.

She obtained her bachelor degree in electrical engineering, a master's degree in telecommunications and joined an electronics company, On-Track Technology.

The sentencing hearing is continuing before Acting Justice Peter Hidden
E ngland's first wild breeding population of beavers for 400 years have been given the permanent right to stay in their Devon river home.

Conservationists welcomed the "groundbreaking decision" by the Government to allow the mammals to remain on the River Otter where they have been living wild for some years.

It means the future is secure for the first ever reintroduction of an extinct native mammal to England, Devon Wildlife Trust said.

But the wildlife experts urged the Government to make decisions on the wider future of beavers in England that will enable them to return to other rivers to create wetlands, boost wildlife, reduce flooding and improve water quality.

And they want to see funding to support land managers to make space for the animals, who engineer their landscape through building dams and can cause damage to trees and flood parts of fields.

Conservationists have welcomed the "groundbreaking decision" / PA

The Government said the beavers on the River Otter would be allowed to remain permanently and continue to expand their range naturally. And the Environment Department will consult later this year on the management of beavers in the wild and a national approach for any further releases.

The move comes after the first official Red List of British Mammals listed beavers as an endangered native species.

Beavers were hunted to extinction four centuries ago in Britain for their meat, fur and gland secretions used for medicine and perfume, but a family of beavers were found to be living on the River Otter in Devon in 2013.

After the animals were threatened with removal by officials, Devon Wildlife Trust stepped in to lead a five-year trial to examine the impacts of wild beavers on the river, landscape and community.

A report on the trial earlier this year found their dam-building helped reduce flooding for some at-risk homes, created wetlands which supported fish, insects, birds and endangered water voles, and improved water quality.

There were localised problems for some landowners, but they were successfully managed with support and intervention from the trust, the conservationists said.

Their presence on the river catchment, which runs from the Blackdown Hills down to the south coast at Budleigh Salterton, has even boosted local tourism, the trial found.

Peter Burgess, director of conservation at Devon Wildlife Trust, said of the move to let them stay: "This is the most groundbreaking government decision for England's wildlife for a generation.

"Beavers are nature's engineers and have the unrivalled ability to breathe new life into our rivers and wetlands. Their benefits will be felt throughout our countryside, by wildlife and people."

Devon Wildlife Trust's Mark Elliott said it was "brilliant news", but added: "It's now vital that decisions are made on the national status of beavers that allows them to be reintroduced into other river systems in England.

"There also needs to be funding to support landowners who wish to allow beavers to restore wetlands on their land, and to assist landowners who do not wish beavers to affect their farming practices.

"This is vital if we are to see beavers welcomed back into the English landscape after such a long absence."

There are thought to be other beavers living wild on English rivers, having escaped or been released without licence, and a number of pairs are in enclosures to help manage flooding or create wetlands in nature reserves.

The species has been given protected status in Scotland, where it returned through an official trial and illegal releases or escapes.

Environment Minister Rebecca Pow said the reintroduction trial in Devon had been highly successful.

"We are firmly committed to providing opportunities to reintroduce formerly native species, such as beavers, where the benefits for the environment, people and the economy are clear.

"But we also understand that there are implications for landowners, and take care to ensure that all potential impacts are carefully considered, and today we can confirm a new Government consultation on our national approach and management will open later this year," she said.

Natural England chairman Tony Juniper said: "Reintroductions of iconic species like the beaver will be an important part of the nature recovery network.

"We now look forward to working towards the next stages of management of beaver more widely across England."
The appointee will be responsible for law enforcement.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has appointed Oleh Tatarov as Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.

"Oleh Tatarov's tasks will include the formation of national policy in the field of law enforcement, expert and analytical support for the operation of the Office of the President of Ukraine, ensuring national security guarantees in the areas of law enforcement, combating corruption and protecting human rights," says the respective presidential decree signed on August 5.

Read alsoYanukovych's interior minister wanted to use 50,000 policemen to disperse Maidan in Feb 2014  general

Oleg Tatarov is Doctor of Law, Professor, Honored Lawyer of Ukraine, attorney. For a long time he worked in the internal affairs bodies, in particular, he held the position of deputy head of the Main Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, and since 2014 he has been engaged in law practice and headed the bar association. He is fluent in English.

According to the lb.ua news outlet, Tatarov worked as deputy head of the Main Investigation Department when the Interior Ministry was headed by Vitaliy Zakharchenko during Viktor Yanukovych's presidency. Ukrainian investigators are probing Zakharchenko's role in Maidan dispersals.

In April, the Initiative Group of Maidan Victims demanded that Zelensky explain the possible appointment of Tatarov as deputy head of the President's Office. "According to our information, preparations for the appointment of one more ally of Yanukovych and Zakharchenko, who was deputy head of the Interior Ministry's Main Investigation Department at that time, Oleh Tatarov, are under way at the Presidents Office," the group said then.
Photo: The Canadian Press

A Hamilton-area homeowner who gunned down a would-be car thief seconds after confronting him in the dead of night succeeded on Thursday in getting the country's top court to hear his case.

The Supreme Court agreed to weigh in at the request of Peter Khill, who was initially acquitted of second-degree murder in the killing of Jon Styres on Feb. 4, 2016. However, the Ontario Court of Appeal ordered him to stand trial again, prompting him to seek leave to appeal.

Khill, of Binbrook, Ont., successfully argued at trial he was acting in self-defence when he twice shot Styres, of Ohsweken, Ont., outside his semi-rural home.

He maintained his four years of training as an army reservist had kicked in when he instinctively grabbed a loaded Remington shotgun in his bedroom, and went barefoot outside into the frigid darkness wearing a T-shirt and boxers to confront Styres.

Within seconds of spotting Styres leaning into his 15-year-old pickup truck, Khill yelled, "Hands up!" and opened fire twice from just a few metres away. He hit Styres, 29, squarely in the chest. Styres had no gun but may have had a screwdriver.

Only then did Khill's girlfriend call 911 to the property on the edge of Hamilton.

Khill, who was 26 at the time, testified in his own defence that he had no choice but to open fire on the father of two from the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve, about 30 minutes away.

"It was a real-life threat assessment," Khill testified. "I felt that I was being threatened and I felt that I was not in control of the situation."

A person is allowed to use reasonable force to alleviate a threat to themselves or others.

On initial appeal of the June 2018 acquittal, the prosecution argued that Superior Court Justice Stephen Glithero had failed to instruct the jury properly about Khill's role in the confrontation that led to the shooting.

The Court of Appeal agreed, saying Khill's actions were a potentially significant factor in whether his opening fire was reasonable.

"The trial judge failed to instruct the jury to consider Mr. Khill's conduct during the incident leading up to the shooting of Mr. Styres when assessing the reasonableness of that shooting," Justice David Doherty wrote for the appellate court. "(It) left the jury unequipped to grapple with what may have been a crucial question in the evaluation of the reasonableness of Mr. Khill's act."
Poseidon Water wants to build a seawater desalination plant next to the AES Huntington Beach Generating Station. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

As Poseidon Water pursues the final government approvals needed to build one of the countrys biggest seawater desalination plants, the company still cannot definitively say who will buy the 50 million gallons a day of drinking water it wants to produce on the Orange County coast.

Thats one of several questions that continue to dog the $1-billion Huntington Beach project as Poseidon tries to seal an ironclad deal more than two decades after it first proposed the ocean desalter.

During two long days of online hearings last week, a regional board that is about to vote on a key Poseidon permit challenged proponents on a number of fronts.

Board members asked whether Orange County needs the costly supply. They questioned the use of 17-year-old data in gauging the plants potential harm to marine life. And they expressed doubts about whether Poseidons wetland restoration plans meet state environmental requirements to offset that harm.

While it is doubtful that the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board will deny the permit when it continues the hearing Friday, the panels skepticism could further slow the much-delayed project. The private company faces still more hurdles at the California Coastal Commission, its next stop after the water board.

During its long quest for approval, Poseidon has cultivated political support with lobbying, campaign contributions and the lure of drought-proof water supplies. Its promise of several thousand construction jobs and new tax revenue has rallied labor support.

But environmental groups have fought the company, arguing that it is privatizing a public resource and has failed to adapt an old proposal to new state ocean protections.

Backers have pitched ocean desalination as an inexhaustible, local supply for a region that imports much of its water from increasingly unreliable, distant sources. Yet the Huntington Beach project has been unable to shake criticisms that Poseidon is trying to fill a need that doesnt exist.

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How can you tell us you have an identified need for water when what youre going to do with it is entirely speculative? regional water board member Daniel Selmi asked an official of the Orange County Water District, Poseidons prospective customer.

Board vice chair William von Blasingame previously raised similar concerns. It looks like you guys kind of want to go out and see where you can find a home for this water. And it doesnt seem like you have a home, he said at a May workshop.

Need is one of the aspects that regional water boards are required under state law to consider when reviewing plans to construct desalination facilities on the California coast. It factors into the size and location of a project  and thus its impact on the marine environment.

During last weeks hearing, Von Blasingame expressed frustration that the Orange County agency has signed only a nonbinding term sheet to buy the plants annual deliveries of 56,000 acre-feet of scrubbed seawater. (One acre-foot typically serves two to three Southern California households a year.)

This says you can walk away.  It seems like youre giving yourself an out, he said.

District officials say they cant sign a final purchase agreement with Poseidon until they know the price of the water, and Poseidon says it cant provide a definite price until it has obtained all the necessary permits.

The company has also made it clear that it wont build the Huntington Beach plant  its second big coastal desalter in California after one in Carlsbad  unless it has a firm contract with a public agency to buy all the supplies over the expected 50-year life of the project.

Those supplies will be among the most expensive in the state. At roughly $2,250 an acre-foot, including distribution, the desalted water would be twice as costly as treated imported supplies from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

And if cities dont step up to buy the Poseidon supplies from the Orange County district, officials say they would inject it into the regional groundwater basin that is the primary source for north and central Orange County residents. That would drive up groundwater costs.

Board members questioned district officials about why they wanted to replace imported deliveries with much more expensive desalinated supplies that would inevitably push up residential and commercial water rates.

Board Chair William Ruh said household water bills were bound to rise more than district estimates of $3 to $6 a month and worried about the impact on working-class families and small businesses.

John Kennedy, executive director of engineering and water resources for the Orange County district, responded that he expects the cost of imported water will catch up with desalination prices in coming years.

More fundamentally, he told the board his agency wants to reduce the countys reliance on Metropolitan imports from the north, which are subject to cuts related to drought and environmental regulation.

Another stumbling block for Poseidon is state requirements to mitigate the projects harm to the marine environment.

The company plans to build the desalter on the grounds of the AES Huntington Beach Generating Station, which will soon cease operation, and use the power plants exisiting ocean cooling pipes to tap the Pacific.

Poseidon would draw 106 million gallons a day of seawater through the huge offshore intake pipe, which would be screened, and use reverse osmosis membranes to rid the seawater of salt and impurities.

That process would produce 56 million gallons a day of brine concentrate  roughly twice as salty as the ocean  which would be dumped back into the Pacific via a 1,500-foot discharge pipe equipped with outfall diffusers to promote mixing and dilution.

The intake and discharge operations will take a toll on plankton, which plays a crucial role in the marine food chain, killing an estimated 300,000 microscopic organisms a day.

That estimate is based on a 2003 study of Huntington Beach waters that was supplemented with more recent ocean sampling. Water board members questioned why a new study wasnt conducted and expressed doubts about the adequacy of Poseidons environmental mitigation plans.

The company proposes to conduct 112 acres of environmental work at the nearby Bolsa Chica wetlands, Southern Californias largest saltwater marsh. Most of the efforts would consist of dredging to maintain the inlet that allows ocean water to circulate in and out of the marsh. Only about 6 acres of wetlands would be restored.

I dont think this mitigation comes close to meeting state requirements to fully offset the loss of marine life, board member Selmi said.

Proponents argue that without the long-term funding for dredging that Poseidon would provide, Bolsa Chicas survival is threatened. The inlet could close within a few years, choking off the estuary.

But Coastal Commission senior environmental scientist Tom Luster recommended that the water board require additional mitigation elsewhere. Sea level rise, he warned, will reconfigure Bolsa Chica, making it unlikely that the inlet dredging could continue for the life of the desalter.

The Coastal Commission, which next reviews the project, has the final say on mitigation. And Luster indicated his agency wont be satisfied with the Bolsa Chica plan.
Pipeline

6 August 2020

Cotton Court Hote l, a retro-inspired urban retreat with an emphasis on creating authentic guest experiences, is slated to open early Fall 2020. The latest Court-property offering from Texas-based hospitality industry leader Valencia Hotel Group , Cotton Court Hotel is situated in Lubbock's Downtown Business District , just one mile east of Texas Tech University, and features 165 thoughtfully designed guest rooms opening onto sweeping outdoor porches, a relaxing courtyard, masterfully planned outdoor gathering spaces with a variety of outdoor amenities, plus 3,500 square feet of indoor meeting and event space.

Valencia Hotel Group once again partnered with international architecture and design firm Rottet Studio , the ideal choice to provide the artistic vision that helps define this innovative project-relaxed, midcentury modern sophistication steeped in uncomplicated West Texas hospitality.

Cotton Court Hotel looks to pay homage to the rich history of Lubbock, a city that serves as one of the region's financial and agricultural capitals, as well as a cultural touchstone for live music. Lubbock has long been a stop for touring country-western and rock 'n' roll acts-some of the most notable among them being Elvis Presley, Waylon Jennings and Lubbock's own Buddy Holly .

The Reception Area & Boardroom

Guests will be welcomed into a lobby reminiscent of a historic cotton exchange with all the deconstructed luxury of the exchange trading floor. The double height space will be anchored by a large chalkboard similar to an old futures board with numeric patterns rearranged into a portrait of Buddy Holly. In a playful nod to the notion that this original function of the building has morphed, the backside of the exchange dissolves from interior to exterior lounge space, defined by a rusted metal frame planter to bring new life to the trademark red dirt.

A four-story exterior stair leads to the four-story, cotton-mill-inspired structure that houses the boardroom and presidential suite. The classic rock 'n' roll vibe echoes through the corridors with custom carpet inspired by LP record labels and an antique turntable and record collection. Guests using the boardroom will also have access to the exterior rooftop terrace with views overlooking Downtown Lubbock.

The Midnight Shift

The Midnight Shift, a reimagined old corrugated-metal cotton gin converted into a restaurant/bar and live music venue, will be the perfect place for guests to enjoy a bite to eat and a cold beverage to wash the road away. A large factory skylight will dominate the ceiling directly above the large bar, the backdrop of which is composed of rusted metal panels from an old cotton gin machine, repurposed for 15 beer taps. The bar face and banquettes will be playful reimaginations of rustic wood crates and the slatted sides of stake trucks used to move cotton bales. The double-sided industrial fireplace will provide a cozy place for guests to settle in.

The Ballroom

Channeling the electrifying energy of an old Texas dance hall, the ballroom will be reminiscent of the Lubbock spaces in which Buddy Holly honed his craft before hitting the road to entertain the world with songs like "Peggy Sue" and "Rave On." Wood floors, exposed stud walls, wood trusses and a proudly hung Texas flag will be a few of the key features that define this gathering space. The large ballroom can be divided into two seperate rooms to accommodate gatherings of any size and two verandas resembling the concrete loading docks of industry provide an outdoor space into which the party gathering can flow out from the bar and dance hall.

Guest Buildings

The remainder of the buildings contain the 165 locally inspired guest rooms, constructed to resemble historic, corrugated-steel warehouses used to store cotton along the railspur. Guests will enter their rooms from the loading dock that's warmed by a cedar wood facade. Guests staying on level two will enjoy the added ambiance of the vaulted ceiling of the sawtooth roof of the building. Once inside the room, eclectic appointments abound with furniture sourced from a multitude of sources for a collected feel-a desk inspired by antique sewing tables, a wardrobe influenced by antique factory lockers, an iron bed frame similar to one that may have been shipped from an old Sears mail order catalog, seating that is a charming blend of wood-frame sofa and antique cotton-stuffed, quilted mattress, and a pendant light influenced by old cotton weaving bobbins wound with colorful string. A wood shiplap wall and sliding barn door lead toward the oversized bathroom appointed with a mosaic floor and green-and-black tiled walls. Luxury and comfort abound with custom Valencia Hotel Group Sealy plush pillow-top beds with Egyptian cotton linens, branded bathrobes and custom-created bath amenities. Each room is equipped with a retro SMEG refrigerator with local and regional beer and cocktails.

The Courtyards

The same hot days and cool nights that make Lubbock the cotton production epicenter of West Texas, can be enjoyed in the courtyard spaces. The internal courtyard will spill over to the external courtyard with the ceremony space and outdoor dining terrace. This space is defined by the pool and cabanas, both influenced by old agro-industrial equipment sheds and water tanks.

Additional information regarding Cotton Court Hotel development and construction milestones, will be made available as it is confirmed.

Rottet Studio is an international architecture and interior design firm with an extensive portfolio of more than 65 million square feet of corporate, hospitality, residential and maritime experience for the world's leading companies and brands. We are a Women's Business Enterprise Alliance (WBEA)-Certified company and our Founding Principal & President, Lauren Rottet, is the first woman in history to be recognized as a Fellow member by both the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the International Interior Design Association (IIDA). She also ranks among members of the Interior Design Hall of Fame, "Designer of the Year" by Interiors magazine and Lifetime Appointee to the U.S. Government Services Administration's National Register of Peer Professionals for Design Excellence. According to a jury of their peers and the readers of Interior Design magazine, Rottet Studio is recognized as one of the Top 3 Most Admired Design Firms in the World. Rottet Studio is known in the marketplace as innovators, not followers. Reflecting a desire to improve the human experience through the built environment, Rottet Studio provides innovative architectural solutions characterized by precise attention to detail with a direct response to the client's brand and project goals. The broad range of services offered includes architecture, interior architecture, furniture design, graphic design, product design, branding and art selection. With best of class design professionals in Houston, Los Angeles and New York, Rottet Studio is ideally positioned to exceed clients' expectations.
By Fayaz Bukhari SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - With a heavy deployment of troops and curbs on public movement, Indian authorities kept a tight lid on potential protests in Kashmir on Wednesday, the first anniversary of the revocation of the disputed region's semi-autonomy. Local politicians were not permitted outside their homes, likely to prevent them from calling street demonstrations or even from holding meetings, in the strictest lockdown seen in months. Last August, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government stripped Jammu and Kashmir - India's only Muslim-majority state - of its special rights and split it into two federally administered territories

By Fayaz Bukhari

SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - With a heavy deployment of troops and curbs on public movement, Indian authorities kept a tight lid on potential protests in Kashmir on Wednesday, the first anniversary of the revocation of the disputed region's semi-autonomy.

Local politicians were not permitted outside their homes, likely to prevent them from calling street demonstrations or even from holding meetings, in the strictest lockdown seen in months.

Last August, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government stripped Jammu and Kashmir - India's only Muslim-majority state - of its special rights and split it into two federally administered territories. The government said the change was necessary to develop the revolt-torn region and integrate it with the rest of India, but it infuriated many Kashmiris as well as neighbouring Pakistan.

Kashmir is claimed in full by India and Pakistan, which have gone to war twice over it, and both rule parts of it.

"One year later the authorities are still too afraid to allow us to meet, much less carry out any normal political activity," former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir state Omar Abdullah said on Twitter. "This fear speaks volumes about the true situation on the ground in Kashmir."

The U.N. Security Council was briefed behind closed doors on the situation in Kashmir on Wednesday at the request of China.

"China is seriously concerned about the current situation in Kashmir and the relevant military actions. We oppose unilateral actions that will complicate the situation," China's mission to the United Nations in New York said in a statement.

Modi's move last year was accompanied by a total communication blackout and mass detentions. Some rights groups have been critical of the government's handling of Kashmir, particularly ongoing internet curbs.

"This has been compounded by a censored media, continuing detention of political leaders, arbitrary restrictions due to the pandemic with little to no redressal," Amnesty International said in a statement on Wednesday.

New Delhi has long accused Pakistan of assisting militant groups in Kashmir - a charge that Islamabad denies, saying it only provides moral and diplomatic backing to Kashmiris seeking self-determination.

On Wednesday, militants hurled grenades at security forces in south Kashmir's Shopian in two separate attacks, police said. There were no casualties.

Lieutenant General B.S. Raju, the top Indian military commander in the Kashmir valley, said the situation had been largely normal for most of the past year.

"If you look back you will realise that it was not easy, but the security forces have done well to avoid loss of civilian lives under trying conditions in the last one year," Raju told Reuters.

Raju said his troops had kept the heat on militant groups who have been fighting Indian rule in its part of Kashmir since 1989, in a conflict that has killed at least 50,000 according to official figures.

"Terrorists are short of weapons and funds which primarily come from Pakistan," Raju said, pointing to a sharp drop in militant attacks in the last 12 months.

Pakistani government officials led rallies in support of Kashmiris on Wednesday, and Prime Minister Imran Khan spoke at the legislature of the portion of Kashmir under his country's control.

"I give its credit to my government which raised this issue internationally. But more than that it was because of the Kashmiris themselves. India had thought they would give up, but they didn't," Khan said.

(Additional reporting by Sheree Sardar and Umar Farooq in Islamabad, Tariq Naqash in Muzaffarabad, Devjyot Ghoshal in New Delhi and Michelle Nichols in New York; Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by Robert Birsel, Hugh Lawson and Leslie Adler)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
We thank our sponsor for making this content possible; it is not written by the editorial staff nor does it necessarily reflect its views. Walking around or standing while working all day can be tasking on the feet, but taking care of them can improve blood circulation along with many other health benefits. While investing in some shoe alternatives can be READ THE REST
The Supreme Court Thursday asked the Maharashtra government to apprise it of the inquiry and action taken against the errant police personnel in the alleged lynching of three people, including two seers, in Palghar district in April.

A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan and R Subhash Reddy asked the state government to also file the charge sheet before it, saying it would like to examine the report.

Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said media reports suggest that the Charge sheets filed in the case comprised more than 10,000 pages.

He said whether there was any policemen involved in the offence or was there any dereliction of duty calling for disciplinary action, that has to be considered by the court.

The bench posted the matter after three weeks.

On June 11, the top court had sought a response from the state government on two petitions seeking separate probes by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the National Investigation Agency into the alleged lynching.

The bench was hearing petitions including the one filed by sadhus of 'Shri Panch Dashban Juna Akhara' and relatives of the deceased seers.

Their plea alleged the investigation by the state police was being conducted in a biased manner.

The other plea, seeking an NIA probe into the incident, has been filed by Ghanshyam Upadhyay.

Besides the Maharashtra government, one of the petitions has arrayed the Centre, the CBI and the director general of police of Maharashtra as respondents in the matter.

The three victims from Kandivali in Mumbai were travelling in a car to attend a funeral at Surat in Gujarat amid the COVID-19 nationwide lockdown when their vehicle was stopped and they were attacked and killed by a mob in Gadchinchile village on the night of April 16 in the presence of police.

The victims were identified as Chikne Maharaj Kalpavrukshagiri, 70, Sushil Giri Maharaj, 35, and Nilesh Telgade, 30, who was driving the vehicle.

While hearing a separate plea seeking a CBI probe in the case, the top court had on May 1 directed the Maharashtra government to submit a status report on the investigation in the matter.

The plea filed by 'sadhus' of 'Shri Panch Dashban Juna Akhara' has sought transfer of the probe to the CBI, claiming that there is "reasonable apprehension of bias" if Maharashtra police proceeds with the investigation.

"Several video clippings have emerged on social media and news reports which very clearly demonstrate the active involvement of the police present, who can be seen handing over the three persons to the unlawful assembly of persons gathered," the plea has claimed.

The police has arrested over 100 people in connection with the case.
The observance of elaborate burials is increasing the burden of coronavirus (COVID-19) in rural communities in Enugu State, Ikechukwu Oke, Chairman, Igboeze South Traditional Rulers Council, has said.

The traditional ruler made the observation when the Labour/Civil Society Situation Room on COVID-19 paid an advocacy visit to the council on Thursday.

Mr Oke, therefore, urged the Enugu State Government to come up with a burial legislation that would outlaw the keeping of corpses in the morgues.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the state government had, at the onset of the COVID-19, suspended public gatherings including burials, in order to contain the spread of the virus.

Following a reappraisal of the situation, the government recently lifted the ban on burials and limited such to immediate family members of the deceased.

However, the monarch said that the situation had not helped the matters as the COVID-19 safety protocols were hardly observed during burials.

The royal father said that keeping corpses in the mortuaries increased the chances of a large number of people attending such burials.

In the interim, the government should place a ban on keeping corpses in the mortuaries.

Anybody who dies should be buried immediately to curtail the number of people who troop to rural communities from urban centres, he said.

The monarch said the state government needed to act in order to contain mysterious deaths in the state.

Earlier, leader of the delegation, Simon Onah, said the group was in the area to sensitise the people of the council on the need to take the COVID-19 outbreak seriously.

Mr Onah, who is the Vice-Chairman, National Association of Nurses and Midwives, Enugu State chapter, remarked that it was sad that the pandemic was on the increase since the ease of the lockdown in the state.

He blamed the situation on the flouting of safety protocols recommended by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and government regulations.

He said that it was gratifying that two additional test machines were being installed at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) Enugu, to increase the daily number of COVID-19 tests.

He said the only machine currently in use in the hospital had the capacity to conduct 10 tests daily but each of the new ones, being installed, can carry out 200 tests daily.

Mr Onah appealed to the people to improve on their personal hygiene, wear face masks and use hand sanitisers.

Also, the representative of the Civil Society Organisation (CSO), Onyinyechukwu Mammah, charged leaders of women associations in attendance to disseminate the information to their peers in the villages.

The Secretary to the Council, Nnamani Vitus, commended the group for embarking on the advocacy.

READ ALSO:

Mr Vitus said that the council had made a series of efforts to contain the spread of the virus in the area.

He added that the council had also assisted many indigent residents of the area to cushion the effect of the pandemic.

NAN reports that participants in the sensitisation campaign included, traditional rulers, president generals of town unions, religious leaders, leaders of market associations and transport unions. (NAN)
Jon Shapley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

Texas' positive COVID-19 test rate saw a sharp increase Wednesday, from 13.88 percent to 15.58 percent, according to a Houston Chronicle analysis of state data.

The increase comes as the state's seven-day rolling average for new cases jumped to 8,568.1. A day after reporting 10,039 new infections, Texas saw an increase of another 9,571 cases, bringing the statewide total to 475,847.
Our team is proud to have earned the opportunity to continue our partnership with the GSA which provides our customers greater access to our organizations technical services. - Jennifer Felix

ASRC Federal today announced its NetCentric subsidiary has been awarded two OASIS small business contracts by the General Services Administration (GSA). OASIS, an acronym for One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services, is a multiple award, Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract that provides flexible and innovative contracting solutions for federal agencies.

Under the OASIS Pool 1 and Pool 3 contracts, designated as a Best in Class (BIC) solution by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the ASRC Federal NetCentric team will be eligible to provide a wide range of professional, scientific and technical services (Pool 1), as well as engineering services (Pool 3) to federal agencies.

Our team is proud to have earned the opportunity to continue our partnership with the GSA which provides our customers greater access to our organizations technical services, said Jennifer Felix, ASRC Federal president and CEO. We look forward to expanding the reach of our offerings through OASIS and supporting the missions of our federal customers.

About ASRC Federal

ASRC Federal comprises a family of companies (including ASRC Federal NetCentric) that deliver software and application development, advanced analytics, digital operations and IT modernization, engineering solutions, professional services, and facilities and base operations to U.S. civil, defense and intelligence agencies. Our employees are committed to achieving successful mission outcomes and providing enduring value. ASRC Federal is a wholly owned subsidiary of Arctic Slope Regional Corporation. For more information, please visit: http://www.asrcfederal.com


Michigans relatively low coronavirus numbers are creating a safer environment for nursing-room residents, according to a new report from the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living.

Michigan is one of 17 states where nursing-home residents are at lower risk of coronavirus right now because of lower community transmission rates of the virus, the report said.

State-by-state breakdown of COVID-19 testing positivity rates among the general population as July 26. States in green have a rate under 5%; those in pink are between 5% and 9.9%, and those in red are 10% and over.

All 17 states had a positivity rate of less than 5% on coronavirus tests as of the end of July. Michigans current rate is 3.2%.

The report also analyzed data from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services looking at the percentage of nursing homes that lacked a weeks supply of personal protective equipment. In that analysis:

14% of Michigans 441 nursing homes lacked a weeks supply of N95 masks. Twenty-four states had a higher percentage.

5% of Michigan nursing homes lacked a weeks supply of surgical masks. Thirty-seven states had a higher percentage.

11% of Michigan nursing homes lacked a weeks supply of surgical gowns. Twenty-six states had a higher percentage.

Nationally, its estimated more than 40% of coronavirus deaths involve nursing-home residents and staff. In Michigan, residents and staff at long-term care facilities account for 14% of the states coronavirus cases and 33% of COVID-19 deaths.

States handling of COVID in nursing homes worthy of critique, but GOP lawmakers miss mark, experts say

PPE supplies and coronavirus positivity rates are very concerning in relation to our efforts to protect our long term care residents and caregivers from outbreaks, a press release said.

Since July 26, there are 33 states with a positive test rate of over 5%, underscoring the urgent need for increased testing and PPE to keep the virus from spreading, the press release said.

It noted that as of July 22, CMS is requiring that all nursing homes with a 5% positivity rate or higher test all nursing home staff each week.

The continued shortage of vital PPE supplies for nursing homes across the U.S. is a major concern especially for states with recent spikes in new COVID cases, Mark Parkinson, President and CEO, American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living, said in the press release.

Whitmer vetoes GOP-backed bill to house nursing home coronavirus patients in separate facilities

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:

Whitmer and Trump have different ideas about if and how to reopen schools. But in Michigan, plans are ultimately local.

Michiganders are bitterly divided on the coronavirus response. Could Whitmer have done more to win Republicans over?

How accurate is Michigans COVID-19 death total?

Are masks bad for your health?, plus 8 other coronavirus myths and truths

Latest on coronavirus antibodies and immunity: What we know and what we dont at this point
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It's 1973, and Bill (John Goodman) is wow classic gold for sale taking a pair of scientists (Corey Hawkins and Jing Tian) to an uncharted island to verify reports of prehistoric creatures before the Russians can get there first. En route, they stop in Vietnam to collect a mercenary adventurer (Tom Hiddleston), a photojournalist (Brie Larson) and a helicopter squadron led by Packard (Samuel L. Jackson).

Kgomotso uses the Standard Bank Stash app to save into a tax free savings account (TFSA). We have written about this great investment tool on these pages before. Stash is an app available to anyone, you do not have to bank with Standard Bank, and can be downloaded through Google Play or Apple App Store..

Adrian took early retirement about a decade ago and, being a bit handy with keyboard and mouse, it wasn't long before people were asking for help in mastering their computers. It was fun. "All four grandparents were teachers the grandfathers both headmasters but I never thought of myself as a teacher.".

Waverly Woodson Jr. Was a corporal and a medic with the battalion. Although Woodson did not live to see this week's 75th anniversary he died in 2005 he told The Associated Press in 1994 about how his landing craft hit a mine on the way to Omaha Beach..

The Google+1 button on our journals can be found in the social bookmarking section of the navigation bar at the side of every article (see screenshot to the left). When you do a Google search you will also see the little +1 button next to each search result. You can then click this button to recommend search listings that you found useful.

We know that star formation involves gravitational collapse, but in fall motions forming a new star have yet to be found. To observe certain evidence of collapse, we require a high velocity spatial resolution (to map the velocity field across small structures)that is highly sensitive (to take full advantage of the high velocity spatial resolution). Furthermore, this observation must be available at a wavelength at which the collapsing object emits, and at which the surrounding material is transparent.

Mme eux n'ont pas toujours russi, c'est dire. Comme si travailler quelques heures par mois allaient suffire pour vivre, comme si aller faire quelques heures de mnages de ci, de l, avec sa propre voiture pour quelques euros, c'tait le saint Graal. D'ailleurs, pourquoi on ne donne pas de voitures de fonction ces travailleurs l ! D'accord, parce que les assos n'ont pas de fric et que l'Etat, les voitures de fonction, il se les garde.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, August 6 2020

When Indra Rudiansyah first arrived at the University of Oxford in 2018 to pursue a doctorate in clinical medicine, he never thought he would be working on the worlds most sought-after vaccine.

The 28-year-old was supposed to be testing malaria vaccines at the universitys Jenner Institute earlier this year when news suddenly broke out of a highly contagious strain of coronavirus spreading in China.

When the situation later escalated into a full-blown pandemic, all research activities related to malaria vaccines were immediately put on hold as the laboratory shifted its focus to the development of a vaccine for the novel coronavirus and the disease it causes, COVID-19.

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. . . are you reading now?

Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers, a very fine book set in Fifties suburbia, about a lonely journalist who thinks she may have discovered a virgin birth. Its witty and sharp and reads like something by Barbara Pym or Anita Brookner, without ever feeling like a pastiche.

Also Strange Flowers by Donal Ryan, one of my favourite writers. Touching and beautifully written, its a family saga set largely in rural Ireland, and full of twists and turns  I guarantee youll have no idea where it ends up.

Ive enjoyed all of Donals novels and this is no exception.

Novelist David Nicholls, whose latest book Sweet Sorrow is out now in paperback (Hodder, 8.99)

. . . would you take to a desert island?

I love Charles Dickens, always have, and have read nearly all of his novels more than once (though Barnaby Rudge defeated me).

Bleak House remains my favourite  its so rich, dark and complicated; brilliantly funny then heart-breaking on the next page. Its his best work, I think  a book to get lost in.

But perhaps its a waste to take something with which Im already familiar. If I had to fill a hole, it would be Tolstoys Anna Karenina, a great novel that I pretend to know but have never got round to reading.

In fact, now I think about it, there are all kinds of fine books that have passed me by  Joseph Hellers Catch-22, Middlemarch by George Eliot, most of Jane Austen.

Is there some wonderful, 2,000-page compendium of classics that I could take to the island?

. . . first gave you the reading bug?

The Moomins and The Chronicles Of Narnia. I was obsessed with both  C. S. Lewiss Narnia for the adventure, Tove Janssons Moomins (pictured) for their strange, weirdly pleasurable sense of sadness. I swallowed them all, one after another.

Asterix, too, was a great pleasure  so witty and clever. But I was a library kid, always taking out the maximum number of books allowed, and read fairly indiscriminately.

Id often choose stories on the strength of their covers, an instinctive feeling that seemed to work pretty well  The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier, The Last Of The Dragons by E. Nesbit, the Molesworth Books by Geoffrey Willans all burned themselves into my memory.

. . . left you cold?

I tried and tried to enjoy J. R. R. Tolkien as a kid. It seemed tailor-made for me, and yet the writing was so flat. How could an adventure story about dwarves, trolls and dragons be so hard to get through? Perhaps I should have persevered.

I love a great many 19th-century novels but  and Im wary of admitting this because I know its much loved  I think Emily Brontes Wuthering Heights is a very eccentric book, and not in a good way.

Weirdly structured, relentlessly gloomy, grim and repetitive with truly horrible characters, its reputation as a great love story is a complete mystery to me.
The poll says 20% of Ukrainians believe that in general, Ukraine is developing in the right direction, while 68% think opposite.

Four political parties could win seats in the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, if snap elections were to be held next Sunday.

The ruling Servant of the People Party is at the top of popular rating among those who have made up their choice and intend to vote (26%), that's according to a survey by the Rating Sociological Group.

The Opposition Platform  For Life Party are runners-up with 17.6%, then go the European Solidarity Party (15.7%), and the Batkivshchyna Party (10.4%).

Some 4.8% would support the Radical Party, 4.6% would vote for the Syla I Chest' (Strength and Honor) Party, while nearly 3.2% would back the Ukrainian Strategy Party.

Read alsoZelensky remains Ukrainians' favorite at top post, poll says

Half of the respondents who have picked their favorites say they were absolutely sure of their choice, 38% are more likely confident, and 15% remain unsure.

The poll says 20% of Ukrainians believe that in general, Ukraine is developing in the right direction, while 68% think opposite.

UNIAN memo. The poll, conducted on August 5 via phone interviews, covered 2,000 Ukrainian respondents aged 18 and older in all regions but Crimea and the occupied areas in Donbas.

The margin of error is within 2.2%.
Cross-border drug trafficking ring busted

Border officers in Quang Tri Province and Laos announced on August 4 that they had raided a large drug trafficking ring.







Five Laotian men detained





At 3 pm on August 4, the drug and crime prevention force in Quang Tri worked with the border guards at Lao Bao Border Gate and the anti-drug police in Savannakhet to successfully bust the trafficking ring and detain five Laotian men with 60,000 amphetamine tablets.



This is an important link in the trafficking ring spanning from the northern Lao provinces to Savannakhet. The drugs will be brought into Vietnam before they were transferred and sold in the third country.



Colonel Le Van Phuong said they had had many difficulties due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Thanks to close co-operation between the two countries, they had monitored all movements and activities and successfully carried out the raid. Phuong said they had ensured the safety for all personnel as well as legal procedures.



On June 28 and 29, the drug and crime prevention force in Quang Tri also worked with the police force in Laos to catch four men while they were transferring and trading 419,000 amphetamine tablets from Laos to Vietnam.
B ritain's biggest factory-built council homes programme since the prefab construction boom of the Forties has been launched in east London.

Greenwich council has signed a 300 million contract for the delivery of up to 750 new modular homes to help address the chronic housing shortage in the borough.

Two sites at former garages have already been granted planning permission for the houses, which can be built in less than two weeks compared with a typical six-month construction period.

Greenwich has more than 20,000 people on the housing waiting list with an average wait time of nearly three years.

Greenwich cabinet member for housing Anthony Okereke said: Employing modular techniques as part of our Greenwich Builds programme is allowing us to quickly deliver the high quality and sustainable council homes so badly needed in our borough.

With plans for construction on 750 new homes to be under way by 2022, were excited to be at the forefront of delivering innovative zero-carbon council properties, making good on Royal Greenwichs commitments to tackling the housing crisis and climate change.

The houses have been designed by Clerkenwell-based architects shedkm, manufactured by Ideal Modular Homes, which has its production line in Liverpool, and will be constructed on site by Lewisham-based A&E Elkins.

The first homes are expected to be ready by the end of the year.

Ideal Modular Homes founder Luke Barnes said: Councils are under constant pressure to deliver affordable housing at a reduced cost, while still delivering on quality. This joint venture will see that beautifully designed high-quality homes can be delivered in half the time that traditional methods would.

Alex Flint, director at shedkm, said: The new homes look to change the perception towards off-site manufacturing, through carefully crafted and long-lasting materials, and considered internal layouts. In addition, we will work alongside the landscape architects to ensure that we create new neighbourhoods with identity and a sense of place, providing the residents with a sense of belonging.

Modular homebuilding in Britain has struggled to shake off the image of the postwar prefabs, many of which suffered from damp and other defects 

although some are still lived in. Of the roughly 200,000 homes built each year in Britain, only about 15,000 are modular, despite their speed of delivery.

Across London as a whole almost quarter of a million households are waiting for council housing, but Mayor Sadiq Khan has admitted he will not hit this years target for building new affordable homes because of the coronavirus lockdown.
A Sydney policeman 'procured' a schoolgirl at a train station while on duty before he and another officer filmed themselves sexually assaulting her during an attempted rape, police allege.

Senior Constables James Delinicolis, 29, and Angelo Dellosa, 30, from Bankstown Police Transport Command, are at the centre of the alleged sex crime against a 17-year-old girl.

The pair were arrested after a series of raids across Sydney in the early hours of Wednesday and were later charged with a string of offences.

Police allege in court documents that while on duty, Delinicolis 'used his position and authority as a NSW police officer' to engage the teenager at a train station 'for the purpose of procuring a sexual relationship', The Daily Telegraph reported.

The on-duty officer arranged to meet the girl at a later date, court documents allege.

NSW Police Senior Constable Angelo Dellosa (pictured) is one of two officers behind bars

Father-of-two Dellosa allegedly incited Delinicolis to sexually assault the girl at the meeting.

The pair were charged with filming the alleged sexual assault with the intention of viewing the footage later.

Police allege the officers 'did produce child abuse material by filming 17-year-old  engaging in sexual activity, with intention that the material would be accessed by (the men)'.

Both men allegedly knew the girl 'was not consenting in circumstances of aggravation', court documents state.

The incident allegedly occurred on March 13 at Cabramatta in Sydney's south-west.

Father-of-two Angelo Dellosa (pictured) allegedly incited his NSW Police colleague to sexually assault the girl, police allege in court documents

Police set up Strike Force Bensbach after receiving an anonymous complaint about the officers in June, prompting an investigation by the Professional Standards Unit.

Dellosa, from Moorebank, has been charged with incite aggravated sexual assault, attempted aggravated sexual assault in company and produce child abuse material.

Delinicolis, from Concord West, was charged with attempted aggravated sexual assault in company, produce child abuse material and misconduct in public office.

Police alleged they 'seized several items' at the men's homes.

The officers were suspended without pay and will remain behind bars until their next appearance at Central Local Court on September 15.
Integrity Industrial Equipment currently provides its surrounding communities with new & used forklifts and material handling equipment, rentals, and highly valued service & repair.

In joining forces, Kensar Equipment is able to expand its footprint further into Ohio, providing even more businesses with an expanded range of new & used forklifts and material handling equipment, service, parts, rentals, training, and more.

Additionally, the acquisition broadens the product portfolio which Integrity Industrial Equipment offered, with the addition of Kion North Americas Linde and Baoli lines of electric, gas, and LP forklifts, as well as Doosan Industrial Vehicles line of forklifts and material handling equipment.

Strength of material handling expertise and product portfolio plays a critical role in the growth of warehouse, distribution, and manufacturing facilities across Ohio to reduce costs and minimize downtime, explains Jerry Weidmann, President of Wolter Group LLC. Its vital that were able to rapidly identify and support the needs of our customers so their focus can remain on their business.

About Integrity Industrial Equipment

Integrity Industrial Equipment is a veteran-owned and operated forklift and material handling equipment supplier supporting businesses throughout the Dayton, Ohio area. With over 55 years of combined experience in the material handling industry, Integrity Industrial Equipment provides superior sales, service, and parts support to customers through a highly-trained team of experts.

About Wolter Group LLC

Wolter Group LLC is a family-owned and operated group of companies consisting of Wisconsin Lift Truck Corp., Illinois Material Handling, Kensar Equipment Company, Wolter Power Systems, Bohnert Equipment Company, Fleet Services, and Ellis Systems. Through these businesses, the Wolter Group provides parts, rentals, service, and training as well as new and used sales of forklifts, aerial lifts, railcar movers, industrial engines & generators, pallet rack systems, automated material handling solutions as well as fleet management services. The Wolter Group has a highly trained staff of over 460 employees with an average tenure of 14 years of service who take pride in delivering superior service to over 15,000 customers. Visit: woltergroupllc.com or contact the Chief Marketing Officer, kristin.lelewicz@woltergroupllc.com
HELSINKI, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Caverion has today expanded its existing cooperation with the Norwegian Government Security and Service Organisation G.S.S.O. through a second framework agreement. Caverion is providing, installing and maintaining certain security solutions for Norwegian government's locations in Oslo, on top of an existing agreement covering other security solutions.

Three other suppliers are awarded the same framework agreement.

"We are happy to expand our relationship with our long-term customer G.S.S.O," says Knut Gaaserud, Executive Vice President, Caverion Norway. "As the Norwegian government's buildings are secured by Caverion, we will continue to ensure added value through our long-term sustainable security solutions, tailored to the customer's needs throughout the whole life-cycle," he continues.

Norwegian Government Security and Service Organisation (G.S.S.O) is a Norwegian Government Agency located in the centre of Oslo. It has approximately 700 employees. The main purpose of G.S.S.O is to provide synergy for the ministries with cost-effective and reliable shared services.

For Caverion, G.S.S.O belongs to Public Customer segment.

For more information, please contact:

Helene Johansen

Head of Marketing & Communications

Caverion Norway

tel. +47-404-99-922

helene.johansen@caverion.com

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/caverion/r/norway-s-government-buildings-to-be-secured-by-caverion-through-expanded-cooperation,c3164344

The following files are available for download:
A campaign aide has pleaded guilty to killing former Arkansas Senator Linda Collins before trying to recruit female inmates to kill the victim's ex-husband, as well as a judge and prosecutor linked to the murder trial.

Rebecca Lynn O'Donnell, 49, pleaded guilty on Thursday to first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse in the June 2019 death of Collins.

O'Donnell also pleaded no contest to two counts of criminal solicitation in a separate case where she was charged with asking fellow inmates to kill Collins' ex-husband and two others while she was in jail.

She was sentenced to 50 years in prison under a deal with prosecutors.

Rebecca Lynn O'Donnell, 49, (left) pleaded guilty on Thursday to first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse in the June 2019 death of former Arkansas Senator Linda Collins (right)

Collins, who went by Collins-Smith in the Legislature, was found stabbed to death last year outside her home in Pocahontas, which is about 130 miles northeast of Little Rock.

The victim's son and father found her body wrapped in a blanket under a tarp in her driveway.

Prosecutors in April said O'Donnell killed Collins for money.

O'Donnell was originally charged with capital murder and prosecutors last year said they planned to seek the death penalty.

She initially pleaded not guilty but changed her plea during the court hearing on Thursday before being sentenced.

O'Donnell admitted to intentionally killing her friend and then hiding her body.

She had worked on Collins' unsuccessful reelection campaign in 2018 and was a witness in the former lawmaker's divorce proceedings.

Collins divorced retired Circuit Judge Philip Smith in 2018.

O'Donnell and Collins were known to be friends before the slaying.

O'Donnell on Thursday admitted to intentionally killing her friend and then hiding her body. She had worked on Collins' unsuccessful reelection campaign in 2018 and was a witness in the former lawmaker's divorce proceedings

Video footage from Collins' security system showed O'Donnell (above) removing security cameras from inside the former lawmaker's residence on May 28 - the day she was last seen alive

After Collins' body was discovered, investigators determined that she had last been seen alive on May 28 - just days before she was found.

Video footage from Collins' security system showed O'Donnell removing security cameras from inside the former lawmaker's residence that same day.

After O'Donnell was arrested and jailed, she was accused of trying to recruit female inmates at her prison to help kill prosecutor Henry Boyce and judge Harold Erwin.

After O'Donnell (above in a mugshot) was arrested and jailed, she was accused of trying to recruit female inmates at her prison to help kill prosecutor Henry Boyce and judge Harold Erwin

Boyce and Erwin had been overseeing the trial but both recused themselves from the case.

'No amount of punishment will ever fill that void that Rebecca O'Donnell made in our lives the day she killed our mother,' Tate Williams, Collins' daughter, said after the hearing.

'Today we find some shred of peace that Rebecca O'Donnell will be put away in prison for a very long time, unable to hurt anyone else.'

Collins' son, Butch Smith, who found his mother's body outside her home, said: 'The plea deal was not what my first choice would have been, but at least we do have a guaranteed amount of time that she will be imprisoned for and we will have the ability as the victim's family to argue against her release at her parole hearings.'

Collins served one term in the state House and was originally elected as a Democrat in 2010.

She switched parties and became a Republican in 2011, a year before the GOP won control of both chambers of the Legislature.

She was elected to the state Senate in 2014 and was one of the most conservative lawmakers in the majority-GOP chamber.
We say that we want a new president, and the government answers that there will be a Maidan, said Tikhanovskaya, clad in a white suit, referring to Ukraines upheavals. We say that a majority of Belarusians want to live in a free, rich country, and the government threatens us with Maidan. So who is it here who wants to organize a Maidan? Him or us?
Together, Griffith Foods, Persall Fine Foods and k2MILLING will focus on researching and developing new plant-based protein ingredients such as flours and texturized protein blends. The partners will work with food processors to ensure the ingredients complement pre-existing manufacturing infrastructure, while still tasting great and having a pleasing texture for consumers.

Approximately $1.2 million is being invested in the project: $611,000 from Protein Industries Canada and $611,000 from the partners collectively. It is Protein Industry Canada's first Ontario-based project.

"The demand for plant-based protein is expanding both in Canada and internationally," said the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry. "This investment from Protein Industries Canada will expand our ability to be a global leader in the production of plant protein. It will make it easier for Canadian firms to capitalize on this trend, grow their businesses, and create good jobs."

The project is strengthened by the experience and connections brought by each of the partners. Griffith Foods is a large-scale supplier of high-quality ingredients, k2MILLING is an artisanal miller with significant experience creating flavourful flours from unique sources and Persall Fine Foods specializes in producing gourmet cold-pressed oils from Canadian-grown crops. Together, the companies have more than 200 years of experience.

Other plant-protein businesses and research organizations along the value chain will also be involved in the project. This includes the National Research Council of Canada, which will aid by providing analytical testing solutions of the raw and finished ingredients for nutritional purposes.

"This project truly exemplifies a strengthening of our agrifood ecosystem," Protein Industries Canada CEO Bill Greuel said. "Together the consortium will develop ingredients that work for other companies wanting to enter the growing flexitarian market. They are contributing to Canada's food and ingredient sector and bringing value to a wide array of companiesincluding meat processors, a group many don't always associate with the plant-protein sector. As the demand for diverse protein options increases, it is an opportunity for innovative companies like these to become global leaders and set Canada apart in the protein market."

The ingredients developed by Griffith Foods, k2MILLING and Persall Fine Foods will allow food and meat processors to enter the plant-protein market, expanding and diversifying Canada's plant-based protein ecosystem. Final products will be sold as new vegan, vegetarian and/or flexitarian meal options to foodservice and retail locations throughout Canada and the United States.

"For the past century, Griffith Foods has been forefront in bringing food science discipline to the processed meat industry," said Joachim Baur, Director of Product and Process Innovation at Griffith Foods. "By collaborating with our consortium partners and PIC, we look forward to advancing Canada's plant-protein industry with innovative, functional ingredients. It is a project that encompasses our purpose driven strategy in the many ways in which We Blend Care and Creativity to Nourish the World."

"We are excited to bring more plant-protein flour options into the Canadian marketplace," k2MILLING owner Mark Hayhoe said. "There is plenty of opportunity for innovation in this area. Between Canada's supply of high-quality plant-protein crops, this partnership with Griffith Foods and Persall Fine Foods, and our experience milling a wide variety of flours, we're uniquely qualified to move that innovation forward."

"Partnering with Griffith Foods and k2MILLING gives us the opportunity to be part of a great team," Persall Fine Foods owner Jason Persall said. "All of the players are focused on plant protein, innovation and adding value all the way through the supply chain. It will open up some new opportunities not only for our own cold-pressed oils, but also for the processing sector as a whole."

To date, Protein Industries Canada and consortium members have invested more than $163 million into Canada's plant-protein sector. Expressions of Interest (EOIs) for research and capacity building projects are currently being accepted through PIC's third open call. This is the eighth project announced by Protein Industries Canada.

About Griffith Foods

For food companies around the world, Griffith Foods is the caring, creative product development partner whose people help our customers meet the evolving needs and desires of consumers in ways that respect and sustain the planet. Established in 1919 and now in our fourth generation of family leadership, Griffith Foods is a global developer and manufacturer of customized food ingredients. Using our vast industry expertise, we develop culinary-inspired, on-trend products to exacting specification and ensure cultural authenticity, great taste and improved food safety.

About k2MILLING

k2MILLING's history and experience in Ontario goes back to 1935, when owner Mark Hayhoe's grandfather entered the business. As an artisanal flour mill, k2MILLING uses its unique mk2 mill to supply Ontario with a flavourful selection of flours. The mk2 milling system uses a kold milling process to retain the flavour of k2MILLING's flour in a way unlike other milling methods, allowing the company to provide customers with such offerings as blueberry flour, hemp flour, barley flour and sunflower flour.

About Persall Fine Foods

Persall Fine Foods is a circular integrated food company based on the Persall family's fourth-generation Ontario farm, and focused on adding value to sunflower, canola, soybean and pumpkin oilseeds through cold-press technology. Persall Fine Foods gained respect in the broad food community through its brand Pristine Gourmet and its exceptional cold-pressed virgin oils. Persall Fine Foods continues to grow in size, seeking new markets for oil and protein that bring quality and value to customers.

SOURCE Protein Industries Canada

For further information: Miranda Burski, Protein Industries Canada, Regina, SK, 306-581-1340, [email protected]
Biopharmaceutical New Technologies (BioNTech Mainz, Germany) and Fosun Pharma (Shanghai, China) have initiated a Phase 1 study to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of their mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate in Chinese participants to support potential regulatory approval pathway in China.BioNTech and Fosun Pharma are jointly developing the COVID-19 vaccine candidate in China. The trial is part of BioNTechs global development program aimed at supporting a global supply upon regulatory approval. The companies have already dosed the first 72 participants with BNT162b1 following IND approval by the Chinese regulatory authority, National Medical Products Administration (NMPA).Following on from the ongoing Phase 1/2 studies in Germany and the US, the Chinese study will initially evaluate nucleoside-modified messenger RNA (modRNA) candidate BNT162b1, one of two vaccine candidates based on BioNTechs proprietary mRNA technology to have received FDA Fast Track designation in the US. The study is designed to support the regulatory approval process for the Chinese market and intends to confirm that the safety and immunogenicity profile observed in participants from the German and US trials is comparable to that of Chinese participants.The randomized, placebo-controlled, observer-blinded Phase 1 clinical trial in China will enroll 144 healthy subjects to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine as well as to confirm dose selection. The first group of subjects immunized in Stage 1 of the study will be healthy adults aged 18 to 55 years, followed by elderly healthy participants (>55 years). As part of the two-dose cohort design, subjects will receive two injections (prime-boost), 21 days apart, of 10g or 30g of the vaccine candidate or placebo. The dose range selection was determined based on early data from clinical trials conducted in Germany and the US. The ongoing clinical studies conducted in Germany and the US will continue to support studies in China.We are proud to be among the first international biopharmaceutical companies to initiate a clinical trial of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate in China as part of our effort to make our vaccine available globally, if approved. This is an important step toward our goal to reach marketing authorization and ensure vaccine supply in China to help prevent new COVID-19 outbreaks in the most populous country in the world, said CEO and Co-founder of BioNTech, Ugur Sahin.Dosing the first Chinese subject with BNT162b1 marks a milestone of the global co-development program in China. We are closely working with BioNTech and regulatory authorities to evaluate the safety and efficacy of BNT162b1 and other mRNA vaccine candidates, in order to synchronize the development process in China with other countries, and to bring the vaccine to public as soon as possible, if the vaccine succeeds, added Ai-Min Hui, President of Global R&D, and Chief Medical Officer of Fosun Pharma.
The city was a major Japanese military hub with factories, military bases and ammunition facilities in the Second World War and the uranium bomb killed around 140,000 people and hastened Japans surrender.

Survivors, politicians and others took part in a ceremony to remember the tragedy of August 6 1945 when the US struck the city in western Japan.
TRACY, Calif., Aug. 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The California Milk Advisory Board (CMAB) announced today the return of its dairy product innovation competition with the launch of the Real California Milk Snackcelerator to inspire new ideas integrating the flavor and functionality of California dairy into snack formulations that meet the needs of today's consumers.

With more than $450,000 in awards, the Real California Milk Snackcelerator taps into the $605 billion global snack food market1 while combining two of California's great natural resources: High quality, sustainable dairy products and the insatiable California entrepreneurial spirit. The competition aims to inspire innovation and investment in dairy-based snack products, packaging and capacity within California by connecting the dots between processors, producers, investors, ideas and entrepreneurs.

Research shows that consumers are snacking more than ever before. According to Mondelez International2, 59% of adults worldwide prefer snacking to meals with that number increasing to 70% for millennials. The Real California Milk Snackcelerator aims to uncover healthy, natural options to satisfy these cravings.

"Dairy and snacking are natural partners. Not only do dairy foods make the perfect snack on their own, the flavor, nutritional profile and functionality of milk and other dairy products as ingredients are hard to duplicate. As consumers look for snacking options with natural ingredients that deliver something extra  whether a specific flavor profile or a boost of quality protein or other essential nutrients  product developers appreciate what dairy brings to the table," said John Talbot, CEO of the CMAB. "The goal of this competition is to tap into our global obsession with snacking to inspire new ideas and help clear the hurdles to bringing these products to market."

The inaugural Real California Milk Accelerator event in 2019 brought nine innovative fluid milk startup finalists to a live pitch event and built the model for dairy product competitions. The 2019 winner, Bears Nutrition , will launch its ready-to-drink milk-based nutritional shakes for children at retail test markets this fall along with companion "Immunity Nourishment" and "Brain Booster" milk powder-based nutritional shake mixes online.

Through the Real California Milk Snackcelerator, the CMAB is seeking high-growth potential snack product concepts, with cow's milk dairy as their first ingredient and making up at least 50% of their formula. The startups will need to commit to producing the product in California, with milk from California dairy farms, should they win the competition.

Up to eight (8) startups will receive $10,000 worth of support each, to develop an edible prototype, while receiving a suite of resources including graphic design, lab or kitchen time and elite mentorship from global marketing, packaging, and distribution experts. They also will receive a business development trip (or virtual equivalent) to tour dairy farms and production facilities and to meet with industry leaders to help drive success of their new venture. The winner will receive up to $200,000 worth of additional support to get their new product to market. The value of the competition prize is $450,000.

VentureFuel, Inc. , the leading corporate innovation consultancy, is again partnering with CMAB to run the program and to identify the best emerging opportunities from their global network of investors, founders and academics. "Our first program with CMAB proved the value of marrying innovation and dairy as we were able to bring delicious and diverse products to market quickly, while providing founders unprecedented mentorship and access to accelerate their success," said Fred Schonenberg, Founder of VentureFuel, Inc. "CMAB's continued commitment to product innovation now will inspire great new snacks for consumers to enjoy and further increase the demand for California Dairy."

Competition rules and application documents are available at https://www.venturefuel.net/snackcelerator and the deadline for application is August 28, 2020.

California, known for innovation, has a reputation for quality dairy products. As the number one producer of fluid milk in the nation, California also leads the nation in sustainable dairy farming practices. More than 1200 family dairy farms produce the California milk found in fluid milk, cheese, butter, yogurt, ice cream and other dairy products identified by the Real California Milk seal.

About Real California Milk/California Milk Advisory Board

The California Milk Advisory Board (CMAB), an instrumentality of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, is funded by the state's dairy farm families who lead the nation in sustainable dairy farming practices. With a mission to increase demand for products made with Real California Milk, the CMAB is celebrating 50 years promoting California's sustainable dairy products in the state, across the U.S. and around the world through advertising, public relations, research, and retail and foodservice promotional programs. For more information and to connect with the CMAB, visit RealCaliforniaMilk.com , Facebook , YouTube , Twitter , Instagram and Pinterest .

About VentureFuel, Inc.

VentureFuel helps established companies around the world unlock growth and discover efficiencies by partnering with emerging startups and breakthrough technologies. Our innovation programs solve specific challenges with tangible results, discover first-to-market opportunities and help large organizations develop a repeatable innovation mindset. We are 100% independent, sourcing from our global network of the best investors, scouts, founders and academics. Learn more at: www.venturefuel.net , Linked-In , Twitter and Instagram . You can hear The VentureFuel Podcast on Apple , Spotify or Messy .

SOURCE California Milk Advisory Board
TAIPEI (dpa-AFX) - Taiwan's consumer prices declined for the fifth straight month in July, albeit at a slower pace, data from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics showed on Thursday. The consumer price index fell 0.52 percent year-on-year in July, following a 0.76 percent decrease in June. Economists had expected a 0.44 percent decline. Prices of fuels and lubricants fell 18.41 percent as the international oil prices plummeted. On a month-on-month basis, consumer prices rose 0.14 percent in July. Excluding fruits, vegetables and energy, core consumer prices increased 0.14 percent annually in July and rose 0.10 percent from the previous month. Data showed that the wholesale prices declined 9.15 percent annually in July, following a 10.36 percent fall in the preceding month. On a monthly basis, wholesale prices rose 0.62 percent in July. 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.
President Trump's Iran envoy, Brian Hook, is stepping down, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed Thursday. He will be replaced with Venezuela envoy Elliott Abrams, a noted Iran hawk who will serve in both roles.

Why it matters: Hook had been tasked with executing Trump's "maximum pressure" policy toward Iran, working closely with Pompeo. That strategy has deepened tensions and thus far failed to force Iran back to the negotiating table, as Trump had hoped.

Hook insisted to the Times that Iran is now weaker: Deal or no deal, we have been very successful.

In June, Hook told Axios contributor Barak Ravid that the Trump administration would be willing to use military force if that's what it takes to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

What they're saying: "Special Representative Hook has been my point person on Iran for over two years and he has achieved historic results countering the Iranian regime," Pompeo said in a statement.

"He successfully negotiated with the Iranians the release of Michael White and Xiyue Wang from prison."

"Special Representative Hook also served with distinction as the Director of Policy Planning and set into motion a range of new strategies that advanced the national security interests of the United States and our allies. He has been a trusted advisor to me and a good friend."

Context: Abrams, who was tapped as Trump's special envoy for Venezuela in January 2019 as the administration looked to force President Nicolas Maduro from power, pleaded guilty in 1991 as part of the Iran-Contra affair. He was later pardoned by President George H. W. Bush.
The Senate passed a veteran suicide prevention bill Wednesday that aims to expand vets' access to mental health programs outside the Department of Veterans Affairs and improve health care for troops transitioning out of the military.

Named for a Navy SEAL who died by suicide in 2018, the Cmdr. John Scott Hannon Veterans Health Care Improvement Act would require the VA to hire additional suicide prevention coordinators, give grants to organizations that focus on veterans' mental health and conduct several studies on vets' mental well-being and various approaches to suicide prevention.

Read Next: Senate to Take Up 'Deborah Sampson' Landmark Bill on Female Veterans Health

The bill had been stalled in the Senate for more than a year, but it came to the floor quickly this week after a last-minute push before the chamber adjourns for its August recess.

"This bill will make necessary investments in suicide prevention. It will improve and support innovative research. It will make improvements and increase the availability of mental health care," said Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, when introducing the bill in the Senate on Wednesday night.

Hannon, a former leader of SEAL Team Two who also served on SEAL Team Six, was actively involved in helping other veterans with their war-related physical and mental trauma. He volunteered with the National Alliance for Mental Illness in Montana and helped develop a group therapy program with the VA and Montana Wild, working to rehabilitate injured birds of prey.

Hannon died Feb. 25, 2018, having been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress, bipolar disorder and a traumatic brain injury, according to Moran and Montana Sen. Jon Tester, the ranking Democrat on the Senate committee and champion of the proposal.

The measure passed by voice vote and may be considered by the House Veterans Affairs Committee in September when Congress reconvenes. But members of that committee also have their own ideas of what should be included to address veteran suicide, including measures to improve suicide prevention training among VA and non-VA health care providers, body cameras and de-escalation training for VA police, and an expansion of the VA's telemedicine programs to ensure that more rural veterans have access to services.

House Veterans Affairs Chairman Rep. Mark Takano said Wednesday that the cluster of suicide prevention bills "support the committee's [framework] to prevent veteran suicide by examining every angle, factor, and intersection that can lead to a veteran dying by suicide."

"From increasing access and delivery of care to identifying and supporting veterans at risk, the bills introduced in July offer evidence-based solutions to help veterans in crisis," Takano said.

After the Senate's passage of the Hannon bill, Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., ranking Republican on the House committee, urged his committee and the chamber to pass the legislation.

The portion of the bill on VA grants for community organizations honors one of Roe's constituents, Army Staff Sgt. Parker Fox, who died July 21 from suicide.

"While we cannot bring Parker and the thousands of other lives already lost back, we can solemnly honor them and all of our nation's veterans by delivering this bill to President Trump's desk without any further delay," Roe said.

According to the VA, more than 6,000 veterans die by suicide each year, or roughly 20 veterans a day. From 2005 to 2017, the number of suicides among veterans increased by 6.1%, despite massive efforts within the department and across the country to reverse the trend.

The focus on the issue in the House and the Senate would build on an effort introduced earlier this year by the Trump administration, the President's Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End a National Tragedy of Suicide, or PREVENTS.

That effort includes an increased emphasis on prevention training across professions, a public awareness campaign, community partnerships, and promotion of safe storage of firearms to prevent suicide.

According to the VA, firearms were the method of suicide in nearly 71% of suicides among male veterans and 43% of female suicides in 2017.

The Veterans Crisis Hotline is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at 800-273-8255, press 1. Services also are available online at www.veteranscrisisline.net or by text, 838255.

-- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Monster.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime.

Related: Air Force Saw Record Breaking Number of Suicides in 2019
China has sentenced a third Canadian citizen to death on drug charges amid a steep decline in relations between the two countries.

The Guangzhou Municipal Intermediate Court announced Xu Weihongs penalty on Thursday and said an alleged accomplice, Wen Guanxiong, had been given a life sentence.

Death sentences are automatically referred to Chinas highest court for review.

The brief court statement gave no details but local media in the southern Chinese city at the heart of the countrys manufacturing industry said Xu and Wen had gathered ingredients and tools and began making the drug ketamine in October 2016, then stored the final product in Xus home in Guangzhous Haizhu district.

Police later confiscated more than 120 kilograms (266 pounds) of the drug from Xus home and another address, the reports said. Ketamine is a powerful pain killer that has become popular among club goers in China and elsewhere.

Relations between China and Canada soured over the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, an executive and the daughter of the founder of Chinese tech giant Huawei, at Vancouvers airport in late 2018.

The U.S. wants her extradited to face fraud charges over the companys dealings with Iran. Her arrest infuriated Beijing, which sees her case as a political move designed to prevent Chinas rise as a global technology power.

In apparent retaliation, China detained former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and Canadian entrepreneur Michael Spavor, accusing them of vague national security crimes.

Soon after, China handed a death sentence to convicted Canadian drug smuggler Robert Schellenberg in a sudden retrial, and in April 2019, gave the death penalty to a Canadian citizen identified as Fan Wei in a multinational drug smuggling case.

China has also placed restrictions on various Canadian exports to China, including canola seed oil, in an apparent attempt to pressure Ottawa into releasing Meng.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said there was no connection between Xus sentencing and current China-Canada relations.

I would like to stress that Chinas judicial authorities handle the relevant case independently in strict accordance with Chinese law and legal procedures, Wang said at a daily briefing Thursday. This case should not inflict any impact on China-Canada relations.

Like many Asian nations, China deals out stiff penalties for manufacturing and selling illegal drugs, including the death penalty. In December 2009, Pakistani-British businessman Akmal Shaikh was executed after being convicted of smuggling heroin, despite allegations he was mentally disturbed.

Death sentences for drug-related crimes that are extremely dangerous will help deter and prevent such crimes, Wang said. Chinas judicial authorities handle cases involving criminals of different nationalities in accordance with law.

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Storm Model Agency, known for discovering iconic models like Kate Moss, Lily Cole, Cara Delevingne, and Jourdan Dunn has partnered with viral media and music platform, Triller, BritAsia TV and RIKA Records to find the New Face of Asia. The competitions entry period begins on August, 1st at 9am BST and will end on August, 31st at 23:59 BST.

Aspiring models will be invited to submit their catwalk audition video through the Triller app with the hashtag, #newfaceofasia. The video should be filmed to Believe In Ya from the pop artist, RIKAs debut EP Doses. Entrants must be between the ages of 16 and 24 years old and have no current contract with a model agency or company. The competition is open internationally and all genders are welcome.

Judges include Storm Model Agencys Sarah Doukas, Trillers VP Marketing and Rohan Tyagi, BritAsia TVs Tony Shergill, and RikaRecords own, Rika. The two chosen winners will be signed by Storm Model Management Ltd. on the Companys standard terms.

Were delighted to be working with a stellar cast of partners on this project and look forward to showcasing new modeling talent as it is discovered, said Mike Lu, CEO of Triller.

Storm has discovered and nurtured the careers of some of the greatest models and we are thrilled to be joining forces with Triller, BritAsia TV and RikaRecords, and to discovering the next generation of Asian stars, said Founder and Chair of Storm Model Agency, Sarah Doukas.

CEO of BritAsia TV, Tony Shergill added, BritAsia TV has been at the forefront of British Asian Music for over a decade and has been proudly flying the flag for British talent around the World. We are now proud to be working alongside Triller, the iconic Storm Model Agency and RIKA Records, to find the New Face of Asia within the World of mainstream fashion. The New Faces challenge offers a unique opportunity for young Asian male & female models to become stars of the future.

Artist and judge of the competition, RIKA said, "It will be fantastic to see Asian talent highlighted in the global scenario for fashion and modeling."

For more information on the competition, please visit https://stormlegal.wpcomstaging.com/new-face-of-asia/
WALLDORF, Germany, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced aesthetic laser maker Cynosure LLC and agriculture sciences company FMC Corporation are among the latest enterprises to have either selected or gone live with SAP SuccessFactors solutions, part of human experience management (HXM) solutions from SAP. Despite the challenges of the global pandemic, more than 400 companies in the first half of 2020 have gone live with SAP SuccessFactors solutions.

"From empowering employees in the rapid transition to remote work, to driving meaningful improvement around diversity, equity and inclusion, it's never been more important that people are at the center of business," said Jill Popelka, president, SAP SuccessFactors. "Organizations around the globe, including 43 percent of Fortune 500 companies, continue to leverage SAP SuccessFactors HXM solutions to remain agile, innovative and confident that they can tackle their most pressing business challenges."

Other companies to have selected or gone live with SAP SuccessFactors solutions in the first half of 2020 include:

Bechtle AG , one of Europe's largest IT suppliers, chose SAP SuccessFactors solutions to consolidate and unify HR processes for all entities and to shift to a data-driven HR model while delivering a high-quality and digital experience for all employees.

one of largest IT suppliers, chose SAP SuccessFactors solutions to consolidate and unify HR processes for all entities and to shift to a data-driven HR model while delivering a high-quality and digital experience for all employees. BRK Ambiental S.A. , Brazil's largest private sanitation company serving 15 million people in more than 100 cities, runs its business on SAP solutions, including SAP SuccessFactors solutions. Having gone live within an unusual business environment, the water and sewage company is now entirely digital. It consolidated multiple public concession operations into one integrated structure to reduce costs and improve transaction synergies.

, largest private sanitation company serving 15 million people in more than 100 cities, runs its business on SAP solutions, including SAP SuccessFactors solutions. Having gone live within an unusual business environment, the water and sewage company is now entirely digital. It consolidated multiple public concession operations into one integrated structure to reduce costs and improve transaction synergies. Cantu Pneus , the largest tire importer in Brazil , is looking to boost its business through a digital transformation with SAP as its key partner. Its workforce will benefit from the fast and modern interface and services of SAP SuccessFactors solutions integrated with software from Qualtrics, an SAP company, to track work sentiment.

, the largest tire importer in , is looking to boost its business through a digital transformation with SAP as its key partner. Its workforce will benefit from the fast and modern interface and services of SAP SuccessFactors solutions integrated with software from Qualtrics, an SAP company, to track work sentiment. Commission de la construction du Quebec (CCQ) , which enforces construction laws and regulations, purchased SAP S/4HANA, SAP SuccessFactors solutions, the SAP Analytics Cloud solution, SAP Cloud Platform, SAP Customer Experience solutions, SAP Concur solutions and Experience Management solutions from SAP and Qualtrics. As an intelligent enterprise running SAP software, CCQ will see improved system reliability and security, increased process efficiency, greater innovation across various lines of business and better communication and services for its customers.

, which enforces construction laws and regulations, purchased SAP S/4HANA, SAP SuccessFactors solutions, the SAP Analytics Cloud solution, SAP Cloud Platform, SAP Customer Experience solutions, SAP Concur solutions and Experience Management solutions from SAP and Qualtrics. As an intelligent enterprise running SAP software, CCQ will see improved system reliability and security, increased process efficiency, greater innovation across various lines of business and better communication and services for its customers. Duratex S.A. , the largest South American producer of manufactured wood panels, continues to transition to the digital economy with SAP software. The company already has SAP S/4HANA, SAP Ariba solutions, SAP Cloud Platform and SAP Concur solutions. It is now adopting SAP SuccessFactors solutions to engage its workforce of more than 11,000 employees. Duratex also added the SAP Master Data Governance application, which provides important and strategic information about competitors; a single, trusted data view; and addresses head on digital, analytical and operational challenges.

, the largest South American producer of manufactured wood panels, continues to transition to the digital economy with SAP software. The company already has SAP S/4HANA, SAP Ariba solutions, SAP Cloud Platform and SAP Concur solutions. It is now adopting SAP SuccessFactors solutions to engage its workforce of more than 11,000 employees. Duratex also added the SAP Master Data Governance application, which provides important and strategic information about competitors; a single, trusted data view; and addresses head on digital, analytical and operational challenges. Erste Group Bank AG , one of the largest financial service providers in Central and Eastern Europe , selected the SAP SuccessFactors Human Experience Management Suite. The software enables it to harmonize HR processes and services across the group and to deliver a unified, high-quality experience for all employees. With remote support from SAP, the company went live with SAP SuccessFactors solutions during the COVID-19 lockdown.

one of the largest financial service providers in Central and , selected the SAP SuccessFactors Human Experience Management Suite. The software enables it to harmonize HR processes and services across the group and to deliver a unified, high-quality experience for all employees. With remote support from SAP, the company went live with SAP SuccessFactors solutions during the COVID-19 lockdown. Etihad Airways PJSC is committed to transforming the aviation industry through creativity and innovation, and it knows that an engaged workforce is key to its success. To drive HR transformation, the airline implemented the SAP SuccessFactors HXM Suite to deliver an unparalleled employee experience from hire to retire and to empower people to achieve their full potential.

is committed to transforming the aviation industry through creativity and innovation, and it knows that an engaged workforce is key to its success. To drive HR transformation, the airline implemented the SAP SuccessFactors HXM Suite to deliver an unparalleled employee experience from hire to retire and to empower people to achieve their full potential. Grupo Zaragoza , the fastest growing company in Brazil's retail sector, turned to SAP to support its digital transformation. With brands wholesaler Spani Atacadista and retailer Villarreal Supermercados, the company adopted a combination of SAP S/4HANA, SAP Cloud Platform and SAP Analytics solutions to have one robust platform with real-time information and a reliable procurement solution This allows the company to consolidate operations, improve management and make better decisions. Grupo Zaragoza's 5,000 employees will rely on SAP SuccessFactors solutions as their fast and reliable go-to HR services destination.

, the fastest growing company in retail sector, turned to SAP to support its digital transformation. With brands wholesaler Spani Atacadista and retailer Villarreal Supermercados, the company adopted a combination of SAP S/4HANA, SAP Cloud Platform and SAP Analytics solutions to have one robust platform with real-time information and a reliable procurement solution This allows the company to consolidate operations, improve management and make better decisions. 5,000 employees will rely on SAP SuccessFactors solutions as their fast and reliable go-to HR services destination. Jiangsu Hengshun Group Co. Ltd. , the largest vinegar producer in China , chose SAP S/4HANA, SAP SuccessFactors solutions, and the SAP Sales Cloud, SAP Marketing Cloud and SAP Analytics Cloud solutions to help it achieve its digital transformation. The support will enable its business development to realize its vision.

, the largest vinegar producer in , chose SAP S/4HANA, SAP SuccessFactors solutions, and the SAP Sales Cloud, SAP Marketing Cloud and SAP Analytics Cloud solutions to help it achieve its digital transformation. The support will enable its business development to realize its vision. Hyundai Motor Europe GmbH aims to change the OEM industry by becoming a global mobility provider and leader in zero-emissions technology. To achieve this, Hyundai intends to be more agile to focus on various aspects of mobility. Hyundai selected SAP SuccessFactors solutions to consolidate and streamline HR processes, provide self-services to employees and support fact-based decisions underpinned by workforce data and analytics.

aims to change the OEM industry by becoming a global mobility provider and leader in zero-emissions technology. To achieve this, Hyundai intends to be more agile to focus on various aspects of mobility. Hyundai selected SAP SuccessFactors solutions to consolidate and streamline HR processes, provide self-services to employees and support fact-based decisions underpinned by workforce data and analytics. Mageline Biotechnology Co. Ltd. is a high-end Chinese skincare brand. In order to support the fast business expansion in domestic and overseas market, Mageline selected SAP S/4HANA Cloud, SAP Concur solutions, SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP SuccessFactors solutions to enhance the enterprise's digital capabilities.

is a high-end Chinese skincare brand. In order to support the fast business expansion in domestic and overseas market, Mageline selected SAP S/4HANA Cloud, SAP Concur solutions, SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP SuccessFactors solutions to enhance the enterprise's digital capabilities. Migros Group , Switzerland's largest retailer and private employer, selected SAP SuccessFactors solutions to digitalize and harmonize HR processes and to align the technology architecture with the HR target image.

, largest retailer and private employer, selected SAP SuccessFactors solutions to digitalize and harmonize HR processes and to align the technology architecture with the HR target image. Ottobock SE & Co KGaA , which develops medical technology products for people with limited mobility, selected SAP SuccessFactors HXM Suite to streamline and standardize HR processes, increase transparency and drive fact-based decisions. Part of the HXM solutions from SAP, the suite will empower the HR team to support business expansion while attracting the best talent and increasing employee experience and employer brand.

which develops medical technology products for people with limited mobility, selected SAP SuccessFactors HXM Suite to streamline and standardize HR processes, increase transparency and drive fact-based decisions. Part of the HXM solutions from SAP, the suite will empower the HR team to support business expansion while attracting the best talent and increasing employee experience and employer brand. Qatar International Islamic Bank (QIIB) selected SAP SuccessFactors solutions to automate HR and payroll processes, offer self-services and gain transparency into its workforce. SAP SuccessFactors solutions will also enable QIIB to deliver a modern and simple HR experience.

SAP SuccessFactors HXM Suite helps organizations take charge of change by adapting how they deliver HR services.

For more information, visit the HR and People Engagement area of sap.com and the SAP News Center. Follow SAP on Twitter at @SuccessFactors and @SAPNews.

About SAP

SAP's strategy is to help every business run as an intelligent enterprise. As the market leader in enterprise application software, we help companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: 77% of the world's transaction revenue touches an SAP system. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers' businesses into intelligent enterprises. SAP helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want  without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables business and public customers across 25 industries globally to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, SAP helps the world run better and improve people's lives. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "predict," "should" and "will" and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.

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Ancient 'hell ants' had deadly scythe-like mandibles that they used in a vertical motion to pin prey against their horn-like appendages, a fossil has revealed.

The 99 million-year old insect stunningly preserved in amber from Myanmar was trapped just as it embraced its final victim  an ancient relative of the cockroach.

Alongside revealing just how prehistoric hell ants used their mandibles, the specimen is also helping experts discern how the killer features first evolved.

The 99 million-year old insect stunningly preserved in amber from Myanmar was trapped just as it embraced its final victim  an ancient relative of the cockroach, pictured

There are 16 known species of hell-ants  including one dubbed Linguamyrmex vladi, after the 15th Century Romanian ruler Vlad the Impaler, which was formerly named by entomologist Phillip Barden and colleagues in 2017.

According to Dr Barden, the hell ants' fearsome, integrated head and mouth weaponry  which allowed them to clamp their prey in their grasp  would have first evolved from the ability to move their mouthparts vertically.

This, in turn, would have allowed the mouthparts and the ants' heads to work together in a way that is unique to this now-extinct lineage.

'Integration is a powerful shaping force in evolutionary biology,' said Dr Barden, who works at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

'When anatomical parts function together for the first time, this opens up new evolutionary trajectories as the two features evolve in concert,' he added.

'The consequences of this innovation in mouthpart movement with the hell ants are remarkable.'

'Vlad', in particular, had a nasty form of attack  with the team believing that it used a metal-reinforced horn on it head to impale prey, an ability which may have been used to feed on the internal liquids of other insects.

'While no modern ants have horns of any kind, some species of hell ant possess horns coated with serrated teeth,' Dr Barden added.

'Others, like Vlad, are suspected to have reinforced its horn with metal to prevent its own bite from impaling itself.'

The researchers compared the heads and mouthparts of hell ants with those of other fossil and living ant species  alongside reconstructing the evolutionary relationships between them all. The team concluded that the hell ants belong to one of the earliest branches of the ant evolutionary tree  and that they have a unique configuration of integrated weaponry

According to the researchers, the discovery of the new fossil demonstrating the hell ant's feeding mode helps to explain the ancient insect's unusual morphology.

Furthermore, the find highlights a key difference between modern ants  whose mouthparts all grasp from side-to-side  and some of their earliest relatives.

As with many other early ant lineages, the hell ants are believed to have become extinct around 65 million years ago during a period of ecological change.

'Fossilised behaviour is exceedingly rare, predation especially so,' said Dr Barden.

'As palaeontologists, we speculate about the function of ancient adaptations using available evidence, but to see an extinct predator caught in the act of capturing its prey is invaluable.'

'This fossilised predation confirms our hypothesis for how hell ant mouthparts worked,' he continued.

'The only way for prey to be captured in such an arrangement is for the ant mouthparts to move up and downward in a direction unlike that of all living ants and nearly all insects.'

There are 16 known species of hell-ants  including one dubbed Linguamyrmex vladi, after the 15th Century Romanian ruler Vlad the Impaler, pictured, which was formerly named by entomologist Phillip Barden and colleagues in 2017. 'Vlad' had a nasty form of attack  using a metal-reinforced horn on it head to impale prey

The new specimen could finally clear up why hell ants are so different from their modern-day counterparts  a mystery which has puzzles biologists and palaeontologists ever since the first hell ant was found around a century ago.

'This fossil reveals the mechanism behind what we might call an "evolutionary experiment",' explained Dr Barden.

'Although we see numerous such experiments in the fossil record, we often don't have a clear picture of the evolutionary pathway that led to them.'

To explore further, the researchers compared the heads and mouthparts of hell ants with those of other fossil and living ant species  alongside reconstructing the evolutionary relationships between them all.

The team concluded that the hell ants belong to one of the earliest branches of the ant evolutionary tree  and that they have a unique configuration of integrated head and mandible weaponry.

The new find has finally provided Dr Barden and colleagues with answers as to how this long-lost class of deadly ants reigned for nearly 20 million years.

However, questions still remain  such as exactly why these and other lineages went extinct while modern ants flourished.

With their initial study complete, the team is now looking to describe other ants from new fossil deposits to learn more about how extinction impacts groups differently.

'Over 99 per cent of all species that have ever lived have gone extinct,' Dr Barden commented.

'As our planet undergoes its sixth mass extinction event, it's important that we work to understand extinct diversity and what might allow certain lineages to persist while others drop out.'

'I think fossil insects are a reminder that even something as ubiquitous and familiar as ants have undergone extinction.'

The full findings of the study were published in the journal Current Biology.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 06, 2020 | 11:31 AM | CHRISTIAN COUNTY

A man charged with the attempted murder of a Christian County Sheriff's Deputy was found dead in jail Thursday morning.The Christian County Coroner's Office reports 32-year-old Bradley Dunning of Dawson Springs was found dead just before 8 am Thursday after an apparent suicide.WKDZ says that on June 6 Christian County Sheriff's Deputy Brandon Myers was on routine patrol by Eagle Way Bypass and Pennyrile Parkway when he saw an ATV that had crashed.Deputy Myers went to help the driver, who was later identified as Dunning, who was claiming that he was injured. According to WKDZ, when Deputy Myers tried to help the driver, Dunning pulled out a handgun to shoot the Deputy in the head. The weapon malfunctioned and did not fire.Deputy Myers arrested Dunning and called for backup.Dunning was charged with three counts of attempted murder of a police officer, possession of a handgun by a convicted felon, receiving stolen property under $10,000, first-degree burglary, first-degree criminal mischief and first-degree persistent felony offender.

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The health of wallabies and kangaroos is being affected by the herbicide, atrazine, which is used widely in Australia on cereal crops and in forestation to prevent weeds, according to new research.

Atrazine, which has been banned in the European Union since 2003, may be impacting reproduction in marsupials, the University of Melbourne study found, published today in Reproduction, Fertility and Development.

"Exposures to atrazine is causing major abnormalities in the male reproductive system in many animals, triggering male sterility or even male-to-female sex reversal in frogs," Professor in Genetics Andrew Pask said.

"With the marsupial's unique mode of reproduction and the young completing their development in the pouch, mothers are unknowingly passing the toxins on in their breast milk, exposing their young to environmental toxins."

The study is the first time the impacts of pesticides have been investigated in any marsupial and show that they are able to affect reproductive development.

The research found that concentrations of atrazine have been recorded at disturbingly high levels in Victorian rivers and Tasmanian streams immediately after forestry spraying.

Kangaroos and wallabies are at high risk because they eat the sprayed crops and drink from contaminated water resources where chemicals such as atrazine accumulate from run off.

Atrazine affects a broad range of animals from mammals such as rats to amphibians, reptiles and even fish.

With marsupials already experiencing devastating population declines across Australia, and 21 per cent of native mammals currently threatened with extinction, researchers say the potential impacts of environmental toxins are of major concern.

Researchers exposed the adult female tammar wallabies to atrazine contaminated water throughout pregnancy, birth and lactation to help establish the extent of harm being caused by the chemical.

They then examined the reproductive development of their young by assessing their growth and development.

Lead author on the research and PhD student Laura Cook said it is hoped the study will lead to more stringent guidelines around the use of atrazine in Australia.

"Endocrine-disrupting chemicals, such as atrazine, have the ability to impact development and increase disease susceptibility," she said.

"With increased habitat destruction, marsupials are being pushed onto farmland, attracted to the food resources and rare permanent water sources where they may be vulnerable to agricultural contaminants, such as pesticides."

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Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick today angrily denied that his planning revolution will create 'slums' in order to hit the government's target of 300,000 new homes a year.

The dramatic shake-up - billed as the biggest since the Second World War - vows to slash red tape and fast-track developments, while insisting they must be 'beautiful'.

Computers could be used to screen applications so 'binary' issues can be decided automatically.

It would also strip local councillors of power to decide on individual projects to overcome blocking, and impose binding central targets to force local authorities to allocate land for homebuilding.

The blueprint has been heavily criticised by charities, planning officers and architects who warned they could lead to a 'generation of slums' and kill off affordable housing projects.

But in a round of interviews this morning, Mr Jenrick dismissed the barbs as 'complete nonsense'.

Speaking on Sky News, Mr Jenrick said: 'Today it takes seven years to produce a local plan, we want to reduce that to around two and a half years.

'And it can take five years to get spades in the ground on a housing estate. We believe that can be cut very significantly and everybody will benefit from that - the people who work in the industry and those people who want to get on the housing ladder as well.'

Asked whether the public will have less of a say on planning decisions, he added: 'Well we want to have a meaningful local engagement and that is at the planning making stage. So what our proposals will do, it will mean that when the plan is being produced, there will be a really serious debate in a local community about where they want homes to be built.'

Under the plans, every area in England will be designated for either 'growth', 'renewal' or 'protection'. In growth areas individual developments will not require planning permission, so the default position will be that homes can be built

In a round of interviews this morning, Robert Jenrick dismissed claims his planning overhaul could lead to 'slums' as 'complete nonsense'

Mr Jenrick also took aim at the Royal Institute of British Architects' description of the proposals as 'shameful'.

'That I'm afraid is complete nonsense. I saw those comments and they were put out before we'd even published the document.'

The proposals include fast-tracking approvals of housing projects that are 'in keeping with local character and design'.

Developers will be able to skip stages of the planning process if buildings are based on designs in official pattern books drawn up by local authorities.

There will also be a requirement for all new streets to be tree-lined unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Under the plans, every area in England will be designated for either 'growth', 'renewal' or 'protection'. In growth areas individual developments will not require planning permission, so the default position will be that homes can be built.

Renewal areas will have 'permission in principle' to build, but all developments will have to be approved. In protected areas such as green belt land, most new developments will be banned.

There will also be a requirement for all new streets to be tree-lined unless there are exceptional circumstances. Pictured, a row of newly built houses in central Scotland

Local councillors will be stripped of power to decide on individual developments in an attempt to get the country building. Pictured, an unfinished housing estate in Bordon, Hampshire

Local councils will decide how to designate all the land in their area. All planning applications will be registered online via an interactive map, intended to help local residents participate in decision making.

However, there are concerns that those living in 'growth' areas could be confronted with huge new developments they will get little say over.

Planning shake-up to get homes built Local councils will be given two and a half years to draw up plans for building more homes or will face sanctions. Developments that follow locally-agreed pattern books on home design will be fast-tracked, with a requirement for tree-lined streets in all new schemes. Every piece of land in England will be designated as for 'growth', 'renewal' or 'protection'. Residents will be able to access online maps and data to see what is planned in their local communities. Advertisement

As part of the overhaul all councils will be given two-and-a-half years to draw up plans for the building of more homes or will face sanctions that are yet to be decided.

In what is likely to be a particularly controversial move, there will be a 'standard requirement' for local authorities to provide land for new homes.

Central government will decide how to 'distribute' the 300,000 a year national housebuilding target.

The White Paper suggests making all the rules 'machine-readable'.

'We want to move to a position where all development management policies and code requirements, at national, local and neighbourhood level, are written in a machine-readable format so that wherever feasible, they can be used by digital services to automatically screen developments and help identify where they align with policies and/or codes,' the proposals state.

'This will significantly increase clarity for those wishing to bring forward development, enabling automation of more binary considerations and allowing for a greater focus on those areas where there is likely to be greater subjectivity.'

The document adds: 'This will help automate routine processes, such as knowing whether new applications are within the rules, which will support faster and more certain decision-making.'

The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) condemned it as disruptive and rushed, saying there are currently up to 1million unbuilt permissions.

Alan Jones, president of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) described the proposals as 'shameful', adding 'there's every chance they could also lead to the development of the next generation of slum housing.'

The Government insisted that there would be no lowering of building standards as a result.

Mr Jenrick also said the changes would provide a 'major boost for small building companies across the country' by making it easier for them to navigate through the planning process.

Thirty years ago small builders were responsible for 40 per cent of new build homes compared with 12 per cent today.

Mr Jenrick will also replace the community infrastructure levy used by councils to secure money from developers to pay for amenities such a new roads with a standard national levy.

But campaigners voiced concerns about how much say residents would have about developments.

Tom Fyans of the Campaign to Protect Rural England said: 'The key acid test for the planning reforms is community involvement and it's still not clear how this will work under a zoning system.

'We also need robust legal guarantees that the public are consulted regarding new development.'

Nikki Williams of The Wildlife Trusts said: 'It's critical that government weaves nature into the heart of every housing development. Proposals for 'tree-lined streets' are nothing like enough.'
In the 1940s, the village of Sanford, Michigan, had one main street called Railway. Businesses stretched out on both sides.

As you drove into town, on the left, there was the post office with Barbara Miller in charge. (Her husband Ed built it.) Then a coffee shop owned by Bob Hildebrandt, where all the business men went for their morning coffee. There was a building with part of it being Maticka Construction owned by Tom Maticka, Jr. The other half of the building was Sanford Plumbing & Heating owned by Bill Schweitzer and Floyd Nilles. Allen Coles Garage and Wrecker Service came next. There was an empty space and then Dick Marcys barbershop and Bigelows Drug Store, a couple of garages. One owned by Clarence Tigner and one owned by Bye Gordon.

On the right of Railway, as you drove into town, there was a Chemical Bank, Bill Meyers Insurance office, then a house, a street and then a building that later became J & D Plumbing. There was a hardware store owned by Judd Keppel and a young woman named Jean Sorg worked there. Later, they married and had a successful business in Midland (Judds Rental). Then Dancers Department Store and a grocery store on the corner of Railway and Center Street.

A house on the right hand side of Center Street was the telephone company operated by Johnny Bacon. The switchboard for the telephone company was on the porch of the house. A cot was opposite the switchboard for the convenience of the telephone operator who ran the switchboard at night. Vera Sullivan was one of the operators. I typed up the phone bills each month for Johnny Bacon who gave me a dollar for my work. (Later it became The Wolverine Telephone Company.)

Center Street followed the curve of Sanford Lake with houses on both sides of Center Street until you got to the Sanford Dam and then private homes dwindled off for awhile before Tom Matickas home on the left came into view on the lake side. Tom had a Chris Craft boat, drove a convertible and was a sort of legend in Sanford. Then houses were on both sides of Center Street all the way to M-30. Duff Hubbard lived in one and Bud Melchi lived in one close by. I knew them both because they came into Toms office where I kept books, wrote receipts, answered the phone and tried to look busy.

Coming into Sanford was a sign with large letters proclaiming: Sanford The Best Little Town by A Dam Site.

Emily Smith had a beauty shop at the edge of town. George Pontious had a business. Harold Gay was the owner of the Sanford Coal and Lumber Company. His father-in-law Tom Maticka, Sr. had started the business. But an accident which almost severed his arm gave him an early retirement.

Francis Grove was a favorite spot for swimming. On the other side of Sanford Lake was Flanders Beach. Cottages dotted the area around Flanders Beach and there was a small grocery store catering to the people who came to swim and to the people who lived around the area.

How Francis Grove began is a story that could only happen in a small town blessed with benefactors like the Francis family. The original Francis farm stood on what was called The Flats. In 1924 Frank Wixom successfully completed the Sanford Dam forming a man-made lake that would eventually make Sanford a popular recreational area. The Francis family had to move their home to higher ground. The barns that were on the property were torn down.

Billy Francis and his wife, Mary, decided to open up three acres of their lake front property for public swimming in 1929. There was a sandy beach, The water was shallow enough that an adult could walk out 150 feet before getting into deep water. There was room for a parking lot dotted with 50-year-old shade trees. The Red Cross provided lifeguards and eventually swimming and boating lessons were given by the young men hired to work at Francis Grove.

Bob Bowland was one of the young men hired as a lifeguard and he saved the log books that painstakingly recorded the weather, how many people used the facility each day and who the lifeguards were. Lifeguards over a period of time included Bill Dixon, the Haney brothers, Warren Phemister, Rex Inman, John Smallwood, Bill Shepherd. Ken and Fred Sovia, Art Sauve, Jim Pontious, Darl Pochert, Dick Betron and Bob Bowland.

Parking was informal with cars parking wherever there was room. Amazingly enough, there were few problems. Blankets were spread on the grass for picnics. A total of 40,387 people enjoyed swimming at Francis Grove in 1946. Today, a house stands where Francis Grove was located. Nothing of the beach area or the parking lot or the picnic area remains.

Martha Thomas held church services in her home for those of the Lutheran faith until St. Pauls Lutheran Church was built across the street from the Conservation District Office where Carl Hermann was the Conservation Office for years. The beautiful home once owned by the Adams family became the Lutheran parsonage.

There was a Catholic church, a Baptist church, a Seventh Day Adventist church, a Church of God and a Methodist church.

Small in size, the village of Sanford nevertheless had two local sons serve in the Michigan Senate in Lansing, Michigan: William Allswede was elected in 1912 and Lynn O. Francis served in the 1950s.

The Depression of the Thirties and World War II in the Forties found Sanford on the cusp of a spurt of great growth. Lynn Francis and his sister, Detta, formed the Dean-Francis Subdivision in Sanford, creating three new streets: Birchview, Lynn and Crescent. New homes were being built around Sanford Lake. Lake lots were selling for the unheard of price of $10,000 for a lakefront piece of property at Francis Shores. Businesses were thriving. And in 1958, the Meridian School District came into existence with Charles Mayer hired as superintendent of the new school district.

The Old Guard, the men and women who had settled the village of Sanford had passed on the reins to their children and grandchildren. Men and women who could trace their lineage back to the 1870s when Sanford was incorporated, left descendants to carry the family name on. New names were added as an influx of property owners stretched the boundary lines of the village.

Sanford was living up to the sign proclaiming: Sanford The Best Little Town by a Dam Site.

Editor's note: Part II will appear in two weeks.
A man who allegedly raped two women on separate occasions in Sydney after meeting them on dating site Tinder has been granted strict conditional bail.

In May and December last year Joshua Rini allegedly 'continued and forced sexual intercourse' on two women 'after they declined to participate in that activity', according to magistrate Clare Farnan.

Rini surrendered himself to Surry Hills Police Station after a friend told him he had seen a warrant out for his arrest on Crime Stoppers.

Joshua Rini allegedly raped two women on separate occasions in Sydney after meeting them on dating site Tinder

Defence lawyer Richard Cummins argued Rini - who appeared via video link in Central Local Court on Thursday - was going about his life as a carpenter and had been oblivious to the charges.

He said Rini would be arguing that the sexual intercourse with both women was consensual.

The prosecution opposed his bail application, saying Rini is not an Australian citizen and might fail to reappear, and pointed to the serious nature of the charges which come with a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.

'Your Honour these are very serious offences ... It's not one, it's two over a course of time,' Sally Little told the court.

But Mr Cummins said Rini was not a flight risk as his passport had been cancelled, and he would not be contacting his former Tinder dates and alleged victims.

In granting Rini bail, Ms Farnan imposed strict conditions including reporting to police three times a week from his cousin's Bondi Junction residence.

Rini will only be able to use one mobile phone which police will have free access too, and he is 'not to use any dating application or service on any platform whatsoever'.

The matter is due to appear in the Downing Centre on September 22.
Terming the New Educational Policy (NEP) illogical and irrational, renowned scholars and academicians in West Bengal feel that the NEP will lead to more number of school dropouts, creating two classes of citizenship.

The state government on Monday formed a six-member committee to study and share observations on the NEP which was approved by the Union Cabinet on July 29. The new policy has replaced the 34-year-old National Policy on Education, 1986.

The six-member committee was constituted of Vice-Chancellor of Jadavpur University, Suranjan Das, well-known educationist Pabitra Sarkar, scholar and Indologist, Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri, West Bengal syllabus committee, Aveek Majumdar.

The NEP restructured the school education by setting outage 3-6 years as pre-school while giving less importance to the traditional board examinations. The policy has also decided to go for an SAT-like university entrance test and offers the option of a four-year bachelors degree for students.

Those who prepared the NEP are America-return and they are simply trying to slap this burden on the students. Do you think an American model of education is possible in India where the population is around 130 crore. How many of us can afford to sustain the financial burden of learning under the NEP?, Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri told News 18.

Sorry to say, but I didnt expect this draft from those (well known) who prepared the NEP. The final draft is disappointing and absolutely rubbish. Do you think we have the infrastructure to follow the NEP in India? We have a good number of first-generation learners and most of their parents are not educated. How come those who prepared the draft overlooked this ground reality?, Bhaduri added.

Adding to it, well-known academician, Pabitra Sarkar, said, The illogical semester systems under the NEP will lead to more drop out in schools. Students will lose interest in education because of financial burden while availing it due to the financial autonomy of the educational institutions in India. Scarcity of adequate teachers and infrastructure will be another problem.

This new education system will create two classes of citizenship in India. One will be poor and another will be rich. This will be a major problem as this will have an adverse effect on students. As far as mother language clauses is concerned, there are many grey areas. It seems to be an attempt towards a vested interest. What will happen to the children of those who are having transferable jobs? What language will his/her children learn? he added.

On paving the way for foreign universities to set up campuses in India, he said, You tell me, how many people have the money to send their children to these foreign universities.

Education Minister Partha Chatterjee termed it as a copy of the western education system with no realisation of ground realities.

The Chairman of the West Bengal syllabus committee, Aveek Majumdar said, I cant imagine that a national education policy which is directly related to our children was simply passed in a cabinet meeting ignoring suggestions from the state governments.

In India nearly 77 per cent people are economically lacking behind. How will they afford to avail foreign education in foreign universities? Already, we are struggling with the existing education framework in India and bringing the new education policy without improving the infrastructure will be disastrous, Majumdar added.

Vice-Chancellor of Jadavpur University, Suranjan Das, had said, I think this will create a major problem for the students while implementing. It was done in haste with no future planning.
CDC director agrees hospitals have monetary incentive to inflate COVID-19 data

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U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield acknowledged during a House hearing Friday that COVID-19 data could be inflated because hospitals receive a monetary gain by reporting COVID-19 cases.

Republican Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer of Missouri questioned Redfield during a House Oversight and Reform subcommittee hearing on coronavirus containment. He asked about the perverse incentive for hospitals to classify deaths as being coronavirus related when the virus didnt cause the death.

Luetkemeyer voiced concern about how an automobile accident-related death could be recorded as a COVID-related death. In this scenario, the death was recorded as COVID-related because the virus was in the victims system, even if the car accident was the major factor.

As long as you have COVID in your system you get to claim it as a COVID death, which means you get more money as attending physician, hospital, whatever, Luetkemeyer said during the hearing. Would you like to comment on that, about the perverse incentive? Is there an effort to try and do something different.

Redfield responded by telling the congressman, I think youre correct in that and weve seen this in other disease processes too.

In the HIV epidemic, somebody may have a heart attack but also have HIV, Redfield explained. The hospital would prefer the DRG [death report] for HIV because theres greater reimbursement. So I do think there is some reality to that.

.@RepBlaine Luetkemeyer (R) suggests, without evidence, that US coronavirus deaths are inflated because hospitals are conspiring to get more money



"I think there's some reality to that," responds CDC Director Redfield pic.twitter.com/eSLS1LCvF0  Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 31, 2020

Redfield said that death reporting comes down to what a physician thinks and how he or she classifies a death in a death certificate. He also said the National Center for Health Statistics reviews all those death certificates.



I think it is less operable in the cause of death although I wont say there are not some cases, he said. I do think, though, when it comes to hospital reimbursement issues for individuals that get discharged, there could be some play in that for sure.



Luetkemeyer previously posed a similar question to Adm. Brett Giroir, Department of Health and Human Services assistant secretary for health, in a July 2 hearing. However, the discussion was halted due to time constraints.



In the July 2 hearing, the legislator also asked about the discrepancy in COVID-19 reporting that saw an automobile death recorded as a COVID-19 death.



The CDC that gathers the statistics is completely dependent on the reports of the local coroners, Giroir responded. Yes, there appear to be some misincentives to over-code.



On Friday, Luetkemeyer referenced a Colorado study that found COVID-19 reporting data to be inflated.



Earlier this year, the Colorado Health Department reported that nearly a quarter of the coronavirus-related deaths in state statistics did not have the virus listed on their death certificates. The discrepancy caused the state to change the way it reports COVID-19 deaths.



[Giroir] acknowledges that the statistics hes getting from the states are inflated, Luetkemeyer said Friday. We found that the governor of Colorado, who was a Democrat, actually did research on this and found he had to get rid of 12% of the deaths that were recorded in the state.



While Luetkemeyer, Redfield and Polis suggest that data shows inaccurately high numbers of COVID deaths, others have come to an opposite conclusion.



A July study by Yale University concluded that there could be substantially more deaths from COVID-19 than reported.



The conclusion came after researchers compared the number of excess U.S. deaths from any cause with the reported number of weekly COVID-19 deaths from March 1 through May 30 using National Center for Health Statistics data.



The numbers were then compared with deaths from the same period in previous years.



Our analyses suggest that the official tally of deaths due to Covid-19 represent a substantial undercount of the true burden, Dan Weinberger, an epidemiologist at Yale School of Public Health and a lead author of the study, told CNBC.



Fridays House panel discussion was titled The Urgent Need For A National Plan To Contain The Coronavirus. Subcommittee Chairman Jim Clyburn, D-S.C, discussed hospitals in his remarks and said experts predict 150,000 more Americans could die of the virus at the current rate.

Clyburn contended that hospitals could soon have to choose who to treat and who to turn home to die.

President Donald Trump, however, said in a press briefing last Wednesday that the country has made proactive partnerships to build the greatest medical arsenal in history.

Weve contracted with companies  to produce over 200,000 ventilators by the end of this year, nearly seven times more than we normally would, the president said. Weve contracted  to increase U.S. production of N95 masks.

The reason for the switch was to obtain more complete and transparent data.

Despite this reasoning, the new database has experienced delays and discrepancies when it comes to the reporting of available hospital beds and ventilators when the exact number for each hospital is crucial, according to NPR.

If the information is not accurate, it could cost time and lives," Lisa M. Lee, former chief science officer for public health surveillance at CDC, told NPR. "If all the ICU beds are taken up, emergency medical personnel need to take [new patients] to the next town over or to the next county."

Some hospitals have followed the same protocol of sending data for 15 years, then abruptly changed the process on July 10.

Michael Caputo, HHS assistant secretary for public affairs, told NPR that the CDC could not keep up with the old system of reporting data.

Redfield told reporters in mid-July that the CDC agreed to remove the CDCs National Healthcare Safety Network from the collection process in order to speed up the reporting process.
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The contractor working on the Tema-Mpakadan Rail Project has assured President Nana Akufo-Addo that the project will be completed on schedule even though the COVID-19 pandemic is still around.



AFCONS Infrastructure Limited is the company working on the Tema-Mpakadan rail project.



Vice President of AFCONS Infrastructure Limited, Udai Veer Singh, gave the assurance in a welcome remark at a ceremony held on Wednesday, August 5, 2020, at Old Akrade.



President Akufo-Addo was at Old Akrade to inspect the construction of a bridge across the Volta River and Tema-Mpakadan Rail Project.



According to Mr Singh, the outbreak of the coronavirus caused a slow down in the project for three months.



However, he said, the pandemic was not peculiar to Ghana and as such there cannot be an excuse to delay the project.



He noted that 65 kilometres out of the total 97 kilometres making up the project have been completed.



He said in the coming month, 10 more kilometres will be completed.



The contract for the Tema-Mpakadan initially Tema-Akosombo rail project was signed on November 18, 2016.



The project started in July 2018 with a stipulated three years completion time frame (July 2021 completion date).



President Akufo-Addo who was led by Minister of Railways Development, Joe Ghartey, to inspect the project, thanked AFCONS Infrastructure Limited for carrying out significant work on the track.



Recounting his tour of the rail project a year ago, Mr. Akufo-Addo said significant advances have been made.



He noted that the assurance from the AFCONS group about completing the project on schedule was the most comforting statement he had heard in a long time.







Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Railways Development Authority, Richard Diedong Dombo, assured that the project would be completed by March 2021.



The construction of the rail project was conceived as a port-to-port project in 2007 under former President Kufuors administration.



As a result, in 2007, a contract was signed for a feasibility study to be conducted for a Tema to Buipe multimodal transport system via Akosombo.



In furtherance of this, in November 2016, an agreement was approved by Parliament for a Tema to Akosombo railway line.



Minister for Railways Development, Joe Ghartey, giving a brief history of the project, said upon assumption of the Akufo-Addo government in January 2017, the agreement approved by Parliament was reviewed for three reasons.



The reasons included a possible effect on the Akosombo Dam since the project involved drilling a tunnel through the rock to the Akosombo Port. The tunnel, he said, was only going to be 60 meters away from the Akosombo Dam at one point.



According to him, another reason was Security concerns.



He added that a third reason was the desire to create economic activity at the project completion site.



He said the Paga rail project has started, noting that it is only under the Akufo-Addo Government that a standard gauge railway line has been constructed in Ghana.



He stated that re-electing President Akufo-Addo will lead to massive development in the railway sector.



He stressed that Mr. Akufo-Addo remaining in power would result in more works being done in the rail sector than there have ever been since Independence.





Source: Daily Guide









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Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 17:24:47|Editor: huaxia

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Horgos, a major land pass in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region bordering Kazakhstan, saw a robust increase in freight volume from January to July this year. According to the Horgos customs, from January to July, the total freight volume passing through the border via the Horgos station to central Asia or Europe reached 3.3 million tonnes, up 55.3 percent year on year. Among them, the imported freight volume reaches 1.1 million tonnes, up 333.9 percent year-on-year.
When Spains coronavirus lockdown ended in late June, one thing was at the top of Teresa Silvis priority list - to sell her apartment and find somewhere more suitable for her family to live now they were spending far more time at home.

Three months of remote working with a toddler and a husband was a challenge, especially given the lack of dedicated workspace, the university researcher told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

I cant concentrate if I see toys or dirty dishes lying around. It is really important to be able to carve out a working space so you can have your own separate identities, said Silvi, who lives in Barcelonas upscale Sant Antoni neighbourhood.

When my baby was crying, I just had to sit there with these noise-cancelling headphones on trying to work.

As city dwellers around the globe rethink how they want to live following months of lockdown, architects are reflecting on how flats can be redesigned to suit remote working, for instance, with sliding walls and hideable office space.

If people now are going to be able to work from home on a far more regular basis they need to have the ability to have a real work-life space and structure at home, said Greg Verabian, design director at architecture firm HKS in Los Angeles.

I dont think you feel comfortable sitting in your kitchen all day long taking conference calls, he said in a phone interview.

Silvi said her family wants an open-plan home with flexible areas that can be closed off or opened up, to serve as office space or playrooms, depending on their needs that day.

It is important to make apartments more adaptable, especially for families and people living in medium or high-density blocks, said Andre Brumfield, a Chicago-based director at global design firm Gensler.

Flexibility is key, especially for multi-family units. The question is how can you allow a family to be together but also have their moments of refuge on their own within that unit, he said.

EVERY INCH IS UTILISED

HKS is trying to blend the technology and structure of the office environment into apartments without increasing square footage, to keep the price down, Verabian explained.

The firms new designs include a height-adjustable workspace that can be used variously by an adult working, a child playing or a teenager doing homework.

It has a storage area beneath and the option to conceal the desk behind moveable panels at the end of the day.

The prototypes were in part inspired by Japanese apartments where every inch of space is utilised, he said.

French-Moroccan architectural design practice Studio Belem has taken the concept of flexible spaces further, with sliding panels instead of walls and integrated furniture systems to make living as fluid as possible.

Their aula modula apartment block concept is aimed at young families and flatshares, where the number of inhabitants may vary, said Edouard Bettencourt, one of the firms co-founders.

There are no corridors, as this is wasted space, he said. The bedrooms are all set next to each other. You use slidable panels, which can completely open or close rooms as you like.

A room could be used as a yoga space or a childrens playroom in the morning, then turned into a bedroom at night, or a living room could be enlarged by sliding back the doors of a bedroom, if guests are coming for dinner, he said.

Although initially designed for Paris, the concept would work in any city and the firm is currently adapting it for Morocco, said Bettencourt.

We would need to analyse the context of the place and the way that people live there, but this model can be modified and thats actually part of the concept, he said.

While wealthier city dwellers rethink home living, cities in both the developed and developing world are grappling with a dire shortage of affordable housing.

For example, a surge of coronavirus cases in foreign-worker dormitories across Singapore and in the slums of India has drawn attention to the squalid housing conditions of migrant labourers.

The pandemic has exposed the growing gap in wealth inequality globally, but it has always being difficult balancing design, policy and market forces in building affordable housing, said Brumfield.

BRINGING OUTSIDE IN

Spanish architecture firm Estudio Lamela unveiled a post-pandemic apartment prototype in June based around six concepts: air, light, greenery, safety, connectivity and flexibility.

The design removes all unnecessary doors and walls, and the rooms are placed in a line, to cut down on unused space, improve ventilation and let in as much light as possible.

These light and plant-filled apartments aim to bridge the gap between interior and exterior for city dwellers deprived of outdoor space, the firm said on its website.

The concept is fairly experimental... and all about well-being. I think these elements will be incorporated into apartments little by little, said Carlos Lamela, a leading Spanish architect and owner of the firm.

The pandemic will have a lasting impact on residential building design, he added, with flats evolving to feel closer to nature - but not immediately.

There will be a very gradual revolution, he said. The pandemic has given us time to reflect and mature, and accelerate these changes, like more outdoor space, fresh air and natural elements.

For example, balconies have become more important than ever, said Verabian at HKS.

Balconies should be a right and not a privilege, especially for families in a multi-family environment... but they have to be useable, he said.

That means they should be about 6 feet (1.83 metres) deep and at least 8 feet (2.44 metres) wide to make sure there is space for a table and chairs even with the door swung open, Verabian noted.

In medium and high-density housing blocks, often situated downtown where access to parks is scarce, more communal green space is also essential, said Brumfield at Gensler.

We need to think about how we can provide these other safe havens or moments of refuge so people feel theyre in a very safe, controlled environment that is accessible from where they live in their unit and also part of the development, he said.

Sprinkling smaller outdoor spaces throughout the grounds of a building, rather than just one large green area, would provide better protection against the spread of viruses, the architect noted.

But it will take time to make these adjustments, he said.

Were all still trying to understand what the world is going to be like  not only through this pandemic, but on the other side of it as well, Brumfield 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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SCHENECTADY  A day after a Schenectady mother of six was shot and killed Sunday night on the porch of her Mont Pleasant home, police arrested and charged a man and teenager with her slaying.

Family and friends of Roscoe Foster, a father of five gunned down 18 months ago in the Central State Street neighborhood, are hoping that his killer will likewise be caught and brought to justice.

"I feel like they're catching everyone else's killer. What about Roscoe? We want justice too," said Jennifer Bacon, the mother of three of Foster's biological children. The Schenectady woman said he raised her oldest daughter and consider her his.

A group of about 50 people, including Foster's sisters gathered Thursday night - a few blocks from where he was shot and killed - at a busy high-traffic corner of State Street and Brandywine Avenue for a candlelight vigil in his memory. It took place in the shadow of a billboard of his likeness offering a reward of $5,000 asking for anyone with information on his murder to contact police at (518) 788-6566.

Many donned neon green T-shirts with what Amanda Patterson, the long time girlfriend and mother of Foster's namesake and his youngest child, described as Infinity symbol of love with an anchor on the front to symbolize that "we're still here," the words written on the back of the shirts.

"We're just trying to plead with them because the children suffer every day, we're still here, and we're not gong to leave him behind," said the Glenville woman. "We feel it's time to be out here and make some noise,"

At nightfall, the group lit votive candles spelling out R-O-S-C-O-E before a prayer for him and against gun violence was read aloud by a woman who said she herself was the victim of gunfire.

The billboard, which went online Aug. 3., will remain up for 30 days.

Patterson said Foster's family and friends managed to raise the reward money through a GoFundMe page.

Earlier: Man, 38, killed in Schenectady shooting

Police: Arrest expected soon in Schenectady fatal shooting

Earlier Thursday, Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney and Sgt. Nick Mannix, a city police spokesman, said the investigation into the killing is ongoing.

On Monday, police charged Joel Johnson, 21 and a 17-year-old youth with criminal possession of a weapon in the death of 31-year-old Jennifer Ostrander Sunday night. Police and prosecutors have said she was not the target. Its unclear who was.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Ostranders death comes amid a wave of gun violence that has resulted in four homicides in Schenectady in 2020.

In 2019, there were three homicides in Schenectady, with only Foster's being a gun-related killing. The year before, there were no fatal shootings in the city.

At Thursday's vigil, Bacon and Patterson bemoaned the gun violence that robbed their children of their father.

"We just hope (the vigil) brings attention to gun issues in Schenectady because these five children should not be without their father," she added.

He died at Ellis Hospital on Jan. 25, 2019 shortly after being shot near the intersection of Becker and Linden streets.

At the time, a witness told the Times Union that he heard two shots, then saw Foster's car move slightly before stopping. Foster got out of the car and fell motionless in the street, the man said. He said another person ran from the scene toward Elder Street.

In the days after Foster's death, police said they were making progress in the case but since then the trail has seemingly gone cold.

Foster, who was born and raised in Schenectady, was passionate about his children as well as cooking and fishing, according to his family.
To stop its raging coronavirus outbreak, which is currently spreading at a rate of about 60,000 new cases per day, the United States can do one of two things.

Either it can lock everybody down completely  or it can test everybody constantly.

The lockdown approach works because if infected people cant get close to noninfected people, the chain of transmission is broken, even if we dont know who is actually infected.

The testing approach works because it lets us identify infected people and isolate them from noninfected people without forcing everybody else to stay home.

The problem with lockdowns, however, is that after enduring a big national one this spring  and suffering the economic fallout with little to show for it  Americans have zero appetite for even targeted, localized sequels.

That leaves testing.

Krystal Rumenos, a registered nurse with the Whittier Street Health Center in Roxbury, Mass., performs a COVID-19 test on Monday. (Matt Stone/ MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images)

Unfortunately, the latest data shows that testing is falling across much of the U.S. According to Johns Hopkins University, the average number of COVID-19 tests conducted per 1,000 people declined in the past week in 30 states  more than half the country. Nationally, the average number of daily tests dropped by 8.75 percent during the same period, from 822,470 on July 29 to 750,517 on Aug. 4.

And while a few of the states where testing has slipped have been affected by Hurricane Isaias, most havent. Most are states  22 in all  where a high percentage of COVID-19 tests are still coming back positive, which indicates theyre not casting a wide enough net to track (and control) their outbreaks.

In short, although President Trump is correct that the U.S. has conducted more tests than any other country, its not testing enough, given the scale of its outbreak. And the testing it is doing, for reasons well explain, isnt helping as much as it should.

The good news is that there might be a simple solution: new tests that prioritize speed over sensitivity.

Storms aside, the main reason U.S. testing is going down instead of up is that the type of testing were doing  PCR (polymerase chain reaction)  seems to have reached its limit. PCR tests are the gold standard for diagnosing COVID-19, and rightly so: They correctly identify more than 98 percent of positive cases.

Story continues

But theyre also slow, and getting slower. As the virus spreads, more and more potentially exposed Americans are demanding tests, forcing overwhelmed U.S. labs to compete with other countries for the supplies required to process so many samples. Often, labs run out. As a result, crippling backlogs have been delaying test results for so long theyve essentially become worthless.

According to a new national survey by researchers from Harvard University, Northeastern University, Northwestern University and Rutgers University, Americans tested for COVID-19 in July reported waiting an average of four days for their results. About 10 percent of people reported waiting 10 days or more.

Yet public health experts say results that take more than 24 to 48 hours to arrive defeat the purpose of testing. By the time people get a positive result, they may have already infected others. By the time they get a negative result, they may have been infected by others.

Americans seem to be getting the message. Long wait times and long turnaround times means people are just giving up, Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, tweeted Tuesday.

The collapse of U.S. testing has, in short, exposed its fatal flaw. Costly and cumbersome PCR tests are fine when an outbreak is relatively modest; in that situation, you can afford to invest in a slower, labor-intensive test that wont miss any positive cases because you want to stop the virus from spreading before its too late.

But when its already too late  when more than 4.8 million infections have been reported and nearly 160,000 people have died  the PCR infrastructure cant keep up.

Thats why experts such as Dr. Michael Mina, an assistant professor of epidemiology at both Harvard Medical School and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, are suggesting we scrap it and start over.

We need to change the whole script of what it means to test people, Mina recently explained.

Imagine a $1, at-home, paper-based test thats as easy to distribute and use as a pregnancy test. Imagine waking up in the morning, adding saliva or mucus to a tube of chemicals, waiting 15 minutes, dipping a paper strip in the tube and reading your results  instantly.

Now imagine every single person in America doing this every couple of days.

So-called rapid antigen tests arent science fiction. In fact, they already exist. Two such tests, made by BD and Quidel, have received emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration, though both still require instruments to run. (The governors of six states announced this week a joint bid to purchase a total of 3.5 million of these antigen tests.) Another $1 antigen test has been put to use in Senegal. And U.S. companies such as E25Bio and Sherlock Biosciences have developed at-home tests as cheap and easy as the one described above.

These are not the same thing as the antibody tests you might have heard of, which detect virus-fighting substances in the blood of people who were infected previously (and may therefore have immunity). Rapid antigen tests are meant to detect ongoing, active infections.

So why isnt the U.S. government mass-producing antigen tests and distributing them freely to everyone? The major hurdle, so far, has been what news stories tend to describe as accuracy. But sensitivity is a better way to think about it.

PCR tests make thousands of copies of the viruss RNA and thus can detect it at very low levels. Antigen tests rely on a molecule that binds to the coronaviruss protein spikes; at very low levels of infection, there may not be enough viral particles in a sputum sample to trigger a positive result.

The fear is that if we rely on antigen tests, well miss many cases. But there are two reasons this fear may be unfounded.

Respiratory therapist Diana Vega of the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada collects coronavirus tests during a preview of a new testing site on Monday. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

The first is that were already missing tons of cases. According to CDC antibody data, our current PCR system is testing only enough people to detect about 10 percent of the total number of infections. If everyone took an antigen test today  even identifying only 50 percent of the positives  we would still identify 50 percent of all current infections in the country, Jha has explained. Thats five times more than the 10 percent of cases we are likely currently identifying because we are testing so few people.

The second is that the amount of coronavirus in the body increases exponentially in the early days of infection. At first, during the incubation period, no test would be sensitive enough to detect it. About three to five days later, a PCR test would pick it up. After another eight to 24 hours, according to Mina, a rapid antigen test would show a positive result.

So the question isnt whether an antigen test would detect an infection. Its when.

This is a crucial distinction. Say the PCR test delivers a positive on day four, and the antigen test delivers a positive on day five. As best as experts can tell, both day four and day five are before or near the beginning of the window when people can transmit the virus to others. But if the person who takes the PCR test doesnt find out whether he or she is positive until day eight, or even day 14, while the person who takes the antigen test finds out on day five, the antigen test is far more useful for stopping the spread of the virus, even though its less sensitive.

What if your viral load was too low on day five for the antigen test to detect it? Your infection probably wouldnt be very transmissible yet. Then the next test you take, on day seven, would pick it up. And the person who took the PCR test still wouldnt have the results.

The vast majority of PCR positive tests we currently collect in this country are actually finding people long after they have ceased to be infectious, Mina recently explained. All were doing with all of this testing is clogging up the testing infrastructure, and essentially finding people for whom we cant even act because they are done transmitting.

Current FDA guidelines stipulate that any new coronavirus test vying for emergency clearance must perform nearly as well as a PCR test. But as fall approaches  and with it colder weather, increased indoor activity, a return to school and the potential for even larger waves of infection  the time may have come to rethink those regulations.

Rapid antigen tests have their challenges. Equitable distribution on a mass scale would probably require billions of dollars in government investment; cheap and easy at-home tests would work only if everyone takes them conscientiously.

But experts say theyre starting to make more sense than the status quo.

If you had asked me this a couple months ago, I would have said we just need to be doing the PCR tests, Susan Butler-Wu, a clinical microbiologist at the University of Southern California, told the New York Times Wednesday. But we are so far gone in this country. It is a catastrophe. Its kitchen sink time.

_____

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Portland police held a press conference Thursday at 12:30 p.m. to share experiences responding to Portland protests.

Three officers shared experiences.

Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell spoke Wednesday as the city marked the 70th consecutive day of protests. Lovell said the police response to those dedicated to just provoking a police response through vandalism or violence is draining police resources and needs to stop.

Watch the press conference live in the video above.

--The Oregonian/OregonLive
Will the stories on police brutality ever make sense? Police officers have a duty to protect and serve, but sometimes, it seems as if the police only harass the innocent.

The latest story on police brutality comes from Aurora, Colorado. In a video that went viral, a group of officers held a African American family at gunpoint in a 'high-risk' stop. The driver of the vehicle, Brittany Gilliam, was taking the group of girls to the nail salon when officers surrounded the car.

Gilliam said that she, her sister, and 17-year-old niece were handcuffed while police verified that the car Gilliam was driving was not stolen, as reported by CNN. According to Vice, the youngest of the family was a 6-year-old girl.

The officers had believed that the vehicle was stolen. The Aurora Police Department has released a statement, apologizing for their carelessness.

"We have been training our officers that when they contact a suspected stolen car, they should do what is called a high-risk stop. This involves drawing their weapons and ordering all occupants to exit the car and lie prone on the ground," the statement reads. "But we must allow our officers to have discretion and to deviate from this process when different scenarios present themselves."

The issued apology doesn't appease me. Social media was in an uproar over the incident, and many Twitter users expressed their thoughts, including Gabrielle Union.

Among all of the other violent, and sometimes fatal run-ins Black people have with the police, what disturbs me the most here is drawing a loaded weapon on children. The children can be heard crying in the video.

I can't begin to imagine the trauma these children will have to deal with for the rest of their lives. It's situations like these that distort perceptions of police officers.

There has to be another way. Driving while Black has proven to be deadly for African Americans. When I see those lights in my rearview, I can only imagine if I'll be the next hashtag.
Court will not hear appeals of men convicted of beating DeAndre Harris after the 2017 far-right Unite the Right rally.

The Supreme Court of Virginia has denied the appeals of two men convicted over the brutal beating of a Black man in a Charlottesville parking garage on the day of a violent white supremacist rally.

The court denied Jacob Scott Goodwins petition for appeal on Wednesday and denied Alex Michael Ramoss petition for appeal in early May, according to Virginia Attorney General Mark Herrings office. Both were convicted of malicious wounding for their roles in the 2017 beating of DeAndre Harris, which was captured in photos and videos widely shared online.

Goodwin was sentenced in 2018 to serve eight years in prison and Ramos was sentenced to serve six for their roles in the attack by a group of men. Harris was punched and hit with weapons and left with a spinal injury, a broken arm and head lacerations that required eight staples.

Prosecutors said Ramos hit Harris in the back of the head and bragged about the attack on Facebook.

Hundreds of white supremacists gathered in Charlottesville in August 2017 in part to protest against the planned removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee.





They clashed with counterprotesters during a day of violence in which a white supremacist rammed his car through the crowd of people, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer.

The violence, mayhem, injury and death caused at the hands of the racists and white supremacists who descended on Charlottesville for the Unite the Right rally can never be forgotten, but we can make sure that the individuals who broke the law or incited violence are brought to justice, Herring said in a statement.

Two other men were also charged and sentenced to prison for the attack on Harris.

Harris was also charged with assault after Harold Ray Crews, a member of the white nationalist League of the South, alleged he was injured by Harris.

The attack was alleged to have taken place shortly before Harris was beaten by the mob.

A Charlottesville court found Harris not guilty in March 2018. The ruling was met with support by local organisers.
Capital One Financial Corp has been fined $80million by a top banking regulator for a 2019 hack that comprised the personal information of 106million credit card holders and applicants.

The Federal Reserve Board announced Thursday a cease and desist order against Capital One, based in McLean, Virginia, for the 'significant data breach'.

The Board also demanded the company enhance its risk-management program and related governance and controls around cybersecurity and information security.

The hack took place when the bank transferred information-technology operations to the public cloud. It was one of the largest-ever data breaches of a big bank.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said the bank failed to 'establish effective risk assessment processes' before the cloud transfer and failed to 'correct the deficiencies in a timely manner.'

Capital One Financial Corp has been fined $80million by a top banking regulator for a March 2019 hack that comprised the personal information of 106million credit card holders and applicants

The bank said it has already beefed up its cybersecurity and made many of the federal required changes.

Prosecutors accused alleged hacker Paige A. Thompson of breaking through the banks firewall to access data it stored on Amazons cloud service

'In the year since the incident, we have invested significant additional resources into further strengthening our cyber defenses, and have made substantial progress in addressing the requirements of these orders,' Capital One said in a statement to the Wall Street Journal.

Prosecutors accused alleged hacker Paige A. Thompson of breaking through the banks firewall to access data it stored on Amazons cloud service.

The hack exposed addresses, dates of birth, self-reported incomes of indivuduals and small-business owners that applied for Capital One credit cards between 2005 and early 2019.

Some Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, credit scores, payment histories and credit-card spending limits also were compromised in the hack.

The bank said it had controls in place before the hack and helped authorities catch the alleged hacker.

Thompson has pleaded not guilty to charges of wire fraud and computer fraud and abuse. Her trial is slated for next year.

She allegedly began attempting to access the banks information in March 2019.

Capital One only learned about the hack months later from an outside researcher.

Before the breach was exposed to the public Capital One employees raised concerns about high turnover in its cybersecurity unit and the failure to quickly install software to help search for and defend against hacks.
The Oyo State Government says it has commenced investigations into the circumstances surrounding the death of Richard Gbadebo.

Mr Gbadebo, a 300-level student of the Department of European Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Ibadan, died last month at a factory in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, Bashir Olanrewaju, disclosed this on Thursday when he led a state government delegation on a condolence visit to the residence of the bereaved family in Ibadan.

Mr Gbadebo died after falling into a soap-making machine at a factory owned by Henkel Nigeria Limited, manufacturers of WAW detergent and bar soap, The Cable reported.

He was said to have enrolled for the holiday job as an operator at the company, amid the coronavirus pandemic which had led to closure of schools.

The 21-year-old, who was on night shift at the company located at Oluyole in Ibadan, allegedly fell into the machine, which crushed him to death in the process.

It was gathered that his colleagues at work were not aware of the situation until they saw blood gushing out from one end of the machine.

According to a statement by Taiwo Adisa, the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Seyi Makinde, the state government has begun a safety audit of the factory and would ensure that necessary sanctions are meted out on the company upon completion of investigations.

The state government also assured that compensation will be given to the bereaved family.

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Mr Olanrewaju equally emphasized that the current administration under Mr Makinde remained committed to ensuring that no resident of the state suffers injustice or undue exploitation irrespective of social status.

He said, We are here to condole the parents of the deceased and to inform the family that measures are being taken by the government to ascertain the cause of Richards death.

The administration of Engr. Seyi Makinde will ensure that justice is served so as to prevent the recurrence of an event like this in the future. So, the government will get to the roots of this gruesome incident and give due compensation to the family of the deceased.

While receiving the government delegation, the father of the late Richard, Shola Gbadebo, demanded for the CCTV footage of the scenes where his son died, noting that a thorough investigation must be conducted in order to truly ascertain the cause of his death.

Mr Gbadebo insisted that before any attempt to initiate talks with the family by management of the soap factory, the family must be assured that there was no foul play or conspiracy in his death.

The father of the deceased expressed grief over the demise of his son, noting that he had endured harsh economic realities just to ensure the late Richard and his elder sister concluded their university education before the unfortunate incident.

What I want to say is, the issue of compensation does not arise now. My son could become Governor or President in future if he is alive. So, I dont care about what they will offer me.

My appeal is that the government should assist me to pressurize the company to show its CCTV footage so that the whole world will see how my son died, Mr Gbadebo stated.
Clawing at the exterior walls of the former Misericordia Education and Resource Centre, an excavator began the demolition of the building Thursday in preparation of construction of a new assisted-living centre.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 6/8/2020 (530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Clawing at the exterior walls of the former Misericordia Education and Resource Centre, an excavator began the demolition of the building Thursday in preparation of construction of a new assisted-living centre.

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"Were really excited. Were moving forward with an exciting project for assisted living," said Caroline DeKeyster, Misericordia Health Centre president and chief executive officer.

"Looking at what the community needs are and what older adults need, housing is a definite one. The demand for assisted living and independent living in the community is big right throughout Canada, Winnipeg, and this particular area doesnt have that."

DeKeyster said demolition should finish by the end of September or early October; construction of the assisted living centre at the 691 Wolseley Ave. site is to begin right after. Work on the new 10-storey, 97-room building will take about two years.

As Misericordia is non-profit, DeKeyster said the new housing will be more affordable once available.

"We will be offering assisted living at 20 per cent below the comparable assisted living sites," she said. "Were trying really hard to target even lower than that, to have at least 30 per cent of those suites be at affordable levels... 30 per cent less in terms of rates... People that really need it have it, and its a safe space to be."

kellen.taniguchi@freepress.mb.ca
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Thursday it was exploring all possible ways to support the Lebanese people following the powerful port warehouse explosion that rocked Beirut, while urging authorities to move on reforms.

Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, in a statement, also urged the international community and friends of Lebanon "to step up to help the country".

"The IMF is exploring all possible ways to support the people of Lebanon," she said. "It is essential to overcome the impasse in the discussions on critical reforms and put in place a meaningful program to turn around the economy and build accountability and trust in the future of the country."

The Lebanese government entered talks with IMF in May after defaulting on its foreign currency debt, but the negotiations have stalled in the absence of reforms and amid a row between the government, banks and politicians over the scale of the country's vast financial losses.

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The deal is a response to a similar agreement between Turkey and Libyas Tripoli-based government last year that has spiked tensions in the East Mediterranean region. The Turkey-Libya deal was widely dismissed by Egypt, Cyprus and Greece as an infringement on their economic rights in the oil-rich sea. The European Union says its a violation of intentional law that threatens stability in the region.
Guo Juan shows the traditional craft shoes on the entrepreneurship and innovation competition. [Women of China/Fan Wenjun]

Shoes woven with straw or hemp have been a craft passed from generation to generation in Gangu, a county in Tianshui, in Northwest China's Gansu Province. Guo Juan, a woman from Central China's Henan Province, began developing her interest in the shoes when her boyfriend (now her husband), Niu Junjun, from Gangu, gave her a pair of the shoes when they were college classmates. Today, Guo and Niu have a shoe plant in Gangu. Guo leads women in the county in making a fortune, and in walking in happiness by making and selling the traditional craft shoes.

Surviving Hardships, Starting a Business

Niu met Guo, who was two years younger, when they were in college in 2008. Niu's hometown is Gangu. Once, he returned home during a vacation, and he bought a pair of hemp-woven shoes to give to Guo as a gift. "The shoes looked ordinary, but I felt very comfortable when I was wearing the shoes in summer. I was moved by the gift. Later, I fell in love with Niu, who is my husband now," Guo says.

In 2008, Guo began selling the craft shoes made in Gangu on her online shop. Her best sales income was 2,000 yuan (US $286) per day. However, her supplier could not provide enough shoes to keep up with demand. As a result, Guo had to stop selling the shoes. In 2011, Guo and Niu decided to open their own shoe plant, in Gangu.

Guo and Niu endured hardships during the early days of their business. "We borrowed 50,000 yuan (US $7,143) and we used the money to rent a house, which we built into a plant. It was not easy to turn an idea into an actual company. There were so many hardships to overcome," Guo says. She invited experienced craftsmakers to teach traditional weaving techniques. She tried on the shoes, and took photos, as a model for her brand.

At first, Guo's company sold only two types of straw- or hemp-woven slippers. As Guo continued to find handy craftsmakers, who explored innovative designs, her company expanded its line of shoes to also include cotton shoes and sandals. By opening both online and offline shops, and by using livestreaming platforms, Guo has expanded her sales channels. Last year, their plant produced more than 80,000 pairs of shoes and the sales reached more than 8 million yuan (US $1.14 million).

Women workers make the traditional craft shoes on the entrepreneurship and innovation competition. [Women of China/Fan Wenjun]

Rural Revitalization Efforts

Given the success of Guo and Niu's business, Guo has become a well-known person in Gangu. She believes firmly that one should never forget to encourage himself/ herself when going through hardships. She also believes one should never forget to lend a helping hand to others in need after he/she becomes successful. For years, Guo has done her best to receive more and more orders, so women in her plant can have work and earn a stable income.

When Guo participated, as a candidate, in the final round of the China Women's Craft Entrepreneurship and Innovation Contest, held in November last year, she explained her career goal. "Shoes woven with straw or hemp, which represent a craft born in the countryside of Gangu, can also be a component of our efforts to advance rural revitalization. To date, with support from women's federations, at all levels, my company has set up 16 'poverty-alleviation workshops' in places such as Xihe County and Zhangxian County, in Gansu Province. In the coming three to five years, I hope the annual production output of my company will reach 200,000 pairs of shoes. I want to help more than 5,000 women in Gansu to find jobs. They can work in their hometowns. They have flexible time to look after the young and old in their families."

Different from normal workshops, the "poverty alleviation workshops" allow employees to work at home. That allows the employees to balance their time spent on making shoes and taking care of their families. More and more women desire to work for these special workshops.

Guo uses three "mores" to describe her plan for the future: "Develop more craft-shoe products, help more women find jobs and help them create more wealth on their search for a happy and prosperous life."

(Women of China English Monthly June 2020 issue)
Pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong registers as a candidate for the upcoming Legislative Council election in Hong Kong on July 20, 2020. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

At Least 24 Hong Kong Democracy Activists Charged Over Attending Tiananmen Massacre Vigil

Hong Kong was the only city in China to hold a large-scale annual vigil commemorating the Tiananmen Massacre this year. Despite 30 years of annual Tiananmen memorials, the Hong Kong government banned this years event, citing COVID-19 concerns.

In spite of the ban, thousands of Hong Kong residents flooded Victoria Park in protest. Now, more than two months after the event, pro-democracy activists have been charged for taking part.

Hong Kongers flock to Victoria Park to honor #TiananmenMassacre anniversary with a candle light vigil  despite governments cancellation of the annual event for the first time in 31 years. pic.twitter.com/8ad4VZTfyp  The Epoch Times Hong Kong (@EpochTimesHK) June 4, 2020

At least 24 activists are charged with knowingly taking part in an unauthorized assembly, reported pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong. Members of the Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, including Chairman Lee Cheuk-yan, were additionally charged with inciting others to participate in an unauthorized assembly. The activists were informed of their charges by police on Aug. 6.

The prominent 23-year-old activist, Joshua Wong, was also charged with taking part in the assembly.

Clearly, the regime plans to stage another crackdown on the citys activists by all means, Wong wrote in response to the charges on Twitter.

[I was prosecuted by the Government again just because of commemorating Tiananmen Square Massacre] 1/ Months after the Tiananmen Square vigil this year, I was just informed by Hong Kong Police that they will charge me with knowingly taking part in an unauthorized assembly. pic.twitter.com/jBQiwXjLtc  Joshua Wong   (@joshuawongcf) August 6, 2020

Hong Kongs Tiananmen Vigils were a byproduct of the citys civil freedoms under its one country, two systems agreement with mainland China. Its basic law promised civil liberties such as the right to vote, gather in protest, and speak freely. Hong Kongs Annual Tiananmen Vigils were the largest in the world.

This years cancellation of the Tiananmen vigil was announced the same day Hong Kongs legislative council passed the National Anthem Law. The controversial law also criminalizes disrespect for the Chinese National Anthem. Soon after, the Chinese Communist Party passed the National Security Law, criminalizing any perceived act of secession, subversion, terrorism, or collusion with foreign forces.

Critics of the law voice concern over the government employing the law to quash dissent after a year of protests. Last week, the Hong Kong government charged six pro-democracy activists under its National Security Law, including a U.S. citizen currently residing in the United States.
Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak waits for the arrival of U.S. Secretary for Defence Mark Esper prior to a meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on Feb. 12, 2020. Virginia Mayo/Pool via Reuters)

US Establishes New Military Headquarters in Poland

The U.S. Army Chief of Staff announced on Wednesday that the V Corps forward command post would be located in Poland and manned by 200 U.S. troops on a rotational basis.

Gen. James McConville went to Poland to promote Maj. Gen. John Kolasheski, V Corps commanding general, to the rank of lieutenant general and officially unfurl the V Corps flag there, according to a statement by U.S. Army Europe.

The main mission of the new forward headquarters of V Corps will be to conduct operational planning, mission command, and oversight of the rotational forces in Europe, the statement said.

The Fifth Corps headquarters was re-established in February after several years of inactivity in Fort Knox, Kentucky, where about 630 soldiers will be stationed.

Approximately 200 of them will man the new forward command post in Poland on a rotational basis and the first rotation is expected in 2021, according to the statement.

The activation of an additional Corps headquarters provides the needed level of command and control focused on synchronizing U.S. Army, allied, and partner nation tactical formations operating in Europe. It will enhance U.S. Army Europe and U.S. European Command as they work alongside allies and partners to promote regional stability and security, said McConville.

It will support allies and partners in the region and will also participate in military exercise DEFENDER-Europe 21 which will be held next year.

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, speaks during a news conference in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Feb. 29, 2020. (Mohammad Ismail/Reuters)

The United States and Poland have already completed negotiations on the enhanced defense cooperation agreement, U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said in a statement Monday.

The agreement will allow the United States to increase its military presence to 1,000 troops on a rotational basis including the new V Corps Headquarters, division headquarters, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities in addition to 4,500 U.S. personnel already on rotation in Poland.

The move will enhance deterrence against Russia, strengthen NATO, reassure our Allies, and will strengthen the defense capabilities on NATOs Eastern flank with Russia, Esper said.

Polands Minister of Defense Mariusz Blaszczak welcomed the decision to establish forward headquarters of the V Corps in Poland.

MinDef @mblaszczak: we confirm V Corps HQs (Forward) location in Poland. The endured US presence in Poland is tangible proof of the policy of both presidents  aimed at strengthening cooperation. Congratulations to US LTG John Kolasheski promoted here at #Kosciuszko Mound pic.twitter.com/Wikcp5630S  Poland MOD  (@Poland_MOD) August 4, 2020

This is a decision that concludes our efforts to increase the presence of American troops in Poland, Blaszczak said during the ceremony in Krakow, Poland. It is important that this presence is permanent, not temporary, he added.

Last week, Esper unveiled plans to partially relocate U.S. troops that would be withdrawn from Germany to other parts of Europe, following President Donald Trumps announcement to reduce the military personnel stationed in Germany from roughly 36,000 down to 24,000.

Various United States headquarters will be consolidated in locations in Europe, outside of Germany, including in some cases, co-locating at the same locations as their NATO counterparts in Belgium and Italy, said Esper. This will strengthen NATO and improve the operational efficiency and readiness of over 2,000 service members in these headquarters.

Simon Veazey contributed to this report.
Coronavirus outbreaks are bound to occur in schools this fall despite the best preventative measures, Dr. Junda Woo, medical director of the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District, said during a virtual town hall Wednesday.

The town hall, livestreamed on the citys website, drew thousands of residents interested in how to safely reopen schools, and as many as 3,000 responded remotely to poll questions.

The town hall conversation included six members of the citys advisory committee for opening schools and Woo.

She said she wanted feedback from the community as she advises school district leaders about reopening schools, which have been closed to on-campus learning since mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Woo is expected to release a set of safety indicators in the next day or two.

It will replace a directive she signed July 17 that prohibited schools in Bexar County from opening for in-person learning until after Sept. 7, Labor Day.

She had to scrap that approach after Gov. Greg Abbott said local health districts do not have authority to close schools pre-emptively. They can do so only in response to an outbreak, which Woo predicts San Antonio will have.

Most Bexar County school districts already have decided to delaying in-person reopenings until the week of Labor Day, if not later. At least two districts  South San Antonio and Edgewood  decided to remain in full remote learning until October.

Woo compared schools to nursing homes, which have been hot spots for the virus. In April, local nursing homes did not have any COVID-19 cases, but by the end of July almost every nursing home in the county had cases no matter how good their prevention methods, Woo said.

Outbreaks will happen, she said at the start of the town hall.

Required Reading: Get San Antonio education news sent directly to your inbox

Woo unveiled the metrics the citys advisory panel will track to determine when its safe to phase in students into buildings.

The measures include the percentage of people testing positive for the virus, the number of days it takes for San Antonios cumulative case total to double and a decline in new cases for 14 consecutive days.

Although the average number of new coronavirus cases has fallen over the past two weeks, San Antonio only has seen a drop in new cases for up to two consecutive days at a time.

Woo has said schools should not reopen until the countys positivity rate is down to 5 percent. It was 15 percent as of Wednesday.

Panelists also hope to include more specific pediatric data, Woo said.

Earlier in the evening, San Antonio leaders discussed the most recent information showing the effects of the virus on children.

About 12 percent of the countys positive cases have been children, a statistic that has been pretty consistent, Mario Martinez, assistant director of the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District, said during the citys daily COVID-19 briefing. But he noted that 81 children were hospitalized with COVID-19 this week, up from 62 children last week.

As we move into schools opening, it is an important indicator that were monitoring, Martinez said.

The citys current indicator bar also uses a hospital system stress score and factors like capacity for case investigation and contact tracing, which take longer to update. The metrics for reopening schools will be more nimble, Woo said.

Each school district should create its own panel, Woo said, to deliver feedback to superintendents and trustees who decide when and how to reopen. The panels should include a medical person who will be a liaison to Metro Health and will be tasked with reporting to the health district weekly, Woo said.

On ExpressNews.com: Heres what going back to school will look like in Bexar County this fall

The issue of whether and how in-person learning can be made up later was a dividing issue among the panelists.

Natalie Clifford, a high school teacher, said educators can make up for the learning loss and are concerned about the trauma students will experience from the loss of family members and teachers who may die from the virus. She pointed to three people who died this summer who worked in schools: two teachers in San Antonio ISD and a cafeteria worker in Northside ISD.

Although there are concerns on academics, we can never give back someone's life and I think that has to be centered, the sacredness of human life, in every decision, said Clifford, who also is the high school director for Harlandale ISDs teachers union.

It really would weigh so hard on the educators conscience to know that our students would come to school and be infected and share that with their family, Clifford added.

Superintendents Brian Woods of Northside ISD and Pedro Martinez of San Antonio ISD said that for some student groups, virtual learning just is not sufficient.

While I agree that learning loss can be ameliorated over time, I hear it said like it can be fixed in a couple of weeks. That is just not true, Woods said. And every amount of learning loss that we experience will take months in order to fix. I dont want to ignore  the public health needs of our city, but at the same time I dont think we can just completely downplay the need for some students to be back in buildings as soon as it is safe to get them there.

Alejo Pena Soto, an incoming junior at Jefferson High School in SAISD, said he didnt have confidence in the district to safely bring kids back into buildings.

I want to go back myself, but it just isnt at this time rational this isnt something that we can even consider until the metrics are so much lower than they are right now and Im just really concerned hearing the conversations happening with decision makers right now, Pena Soto 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
"For decades, SAS has combined corporate social responsibility and innovation with our software to address economic, social and environmental issues," said SAS CEO Jim Goodnight. "While we all are trying to adapt to our new normal during COVID-19, SAS' values still hold true  we treat people like they matter and work together with each other and our customers to make a better, safer world and create a more sustainable future."

By advocating for the environment to giving back through free educational offerings and resources to assist during the coronavirus outbreak, SAS strives to support the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) to make the world a better place.

Environmental initiatives

By prioritizing the creation of environmentally friendly workplaces, SAS fosters a sustainable business model and encourages employee creativity. The company's path to zero carbon requires continued investments in research, the highest-efficiency AI-enabled energy technologies, smart sensors, renewable energy, electric vehicle infrastructure and LEED best practices. It also includes the application of advanced analytics to make decisions about how best to reduce SAS' footprint and operate more sustainably. SAS uses its own software to manage and report environmental performance. The company is committed to establishing science-based targets and aligning with the UN Global Compact and We Mean Business coalition to embrace a "green growth" strategy.

In 2019, SAS' top environmental achievements included:

Being featured in the Business Roundtable CEO Embracing Sustainability Challenge.

Achieving 2020 goal of adding 50% more charging stations at SAS headquarters.

Earning LEED certifications for its Toronto location (Platinum) and for its largest and newest office building at world headquarters (Gold).

location (Platinum) and for its largest and newest office building at world headquarters (Gold). Reducing absolute emissions another 3.9%  23.5% lower than the 2011 baseline year.

Exceeding 2025 goal of improving carbon use intensity for US office buildings by 50%.

Decreasing energy use intensity for office buildings another 6.1% to 14.5 kWh per square foot.

Installing numerous sensors on campus beehives where a dedicated IoT team uses the data to improve understanding of bee behaviors.

Diverting 49% of operational and construction waste from landfills globally.

Contributing to the greater good

In addition to participating in a variety of local and global volunteer events and giving activities, SAS makes a difference by using its analytics to benefit humanity. As part of SAS' efforts to support the UN SDGs, the company is using GatherIQ to introduce young learners to data through the lens of the world's biggest problems. Through these 17 global goals for a better world, this free app aims to educate and inspire students to turn those insights into action within their own communities through interactive data visualizations, quizzes and other multimedia activities.

The company also continues to invest in Data for Good projects as part of its social innovation initiative by finding creative ways to accelerate global progress and move the world toward a more sustainable future. From helping to protect biodiversity and bee populations to tackling deforestation in the Amazon, SAS is applying cutting-edge technology and expertise to help solve some of society's biggest challenges. These programs would be impossible without the passion, knowledge and willingness of SAS employees to contribute to the greater good.

This commitment to a creating a brighter future for all includes educating the next generation of data scientists. In fact, education was a key pillar of the company's $1 billion AI investment, announced in 2019. From preschoolers to graduate students, SAS supports countless educational programs to help students from all backgrounds reach their full potential as future leaders and innovators. For preschool-12, SAS offers free digital tools, resources and apps which were used by more than 2.5 million educators and students in 2019. For higher education and adult learners, downloads and registrations of free SAS software for academics topped 2 million in 2019. Also, more than 130,000 people registered for free e-learning courses in statistics and programming.

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New Delhi: India slammed China for making yet another attempt to raise Kashmir issue at the UN Security Council, the Ministry of External Affairs issued a statement calling it an "interference" in India's internal affairs.

"We have noted that China initiated a discussion in the UN Security Council on issues pertaining to the Indian Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir," the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement, adding, "This was not the first time that China has sought to raise a subject that is solely an internal matter of India. As on such previous occasions, this attempt too met with little support from the international community."

The MEA asked China to draw proper conclusions from such "infructuous attempts". "We firmly reject China's interference in our internal affairs and urge it to draw proper conclusions from such infructuous attempts," it said.

India's reaction came hours after a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson in Beijing said that any unilateral change to status quo of Jammu and Kashmir is illegal and invalid. Notably, the Chinese action coincides with the first anniversary of the revocation of special status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

On Wednesday, India`s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T S Tirumurti accused Pakistan of singularly, unsuccessfully trying to making inroads into the United Nations on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.

Taking to Twitter he said: "Another attempt by Pakistan fails. In today`s meeting of UNSC which was closed, informal, not recorded and without any outcome, almost all countries underlined J&K was bilateral issue & did not deserve time & attention of Council,"

Tirumurti had earlier said that almost all the countries at the meeting had agreed that Kashmir was a bilateral issue of India and Pakistan.

China at the behest of Pakistan has in the past  August 2019 and January 2020, raked the Kashmir issue informally at the UNSC. Pakistan has used these developments to spread propaganda while not explaining that these meets are informal and without outcome.

The latest development comes amidst China's growing aggressiveness with India at the Line of Actual Control in the union territory of Ladakh. In the Galwan incident as many as 20 Indian soldiers lost lives while China has been quiet about the number of casualties on its side.
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Beijing, China  Thu, August 6, 2020 17:00 530 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c1473e 2 World China,legal-system,justice,murder Free

A Chinese court has overturned the murder conviction of a man who spent 27 years behind bars for the crime, in a high-profile case that has thrown a spotlight on police torture in the justice system.

Zhang Yuhuan, 52, was jailed for the murder of two young boys in 1993 but always maintained he was tortured by police and forced to confess.

After serving nearly three decades in prison, a court in east China exonerated Zhang on Tuesday, citing insufficient evidence to support his conviction.

"After we reviewed the materials we found there is no direct evidence that can prove Zhang's conviction," the Jiangxi High People's Court said in a statement.

"So we... have declared Zhang innocent."

Zhang was China's longest-serving wrongfully convicted inmate, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

He was originally given a death sentence in 1995 but it was commuted to life imprisonment after he served two years in jail.

Following several unsuccessful appeals, the Jiangxi court in March last year finally agreed to retry the case.

It then concluded it was not possible to prove that sacks and hemp rope found at the murder scene and identified as tools in the crime were connected to Zhang.

After a tearful reunion with his family, Zhang ate glutinous rice balls and braised eggs as part of his first home-cooked meal in nearly three decades, Xinhua reported.

The court apologized to Zhang for the wrongful conviction.

Zhang's lawyer Wang Fei told state-run China Daily that his client will seek compensation.

"We're also planning to ask that those who committed judicial miscarriages in the case be held accountable," Wang said.

Observers have regularly raised concerns about due process in China, where the courts have a conviction rate of about 99 percent.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-07 01:57:17|Editor: huaxia

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Palestinian children hold candles and a Lebanese flag to show solidarity with Lebanese people in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on Aug. 5, 2020. (Xinhua/Khaled Omar)

Lebanon continues to receive donations and support from foreign countries including tons of medicines, food items and medical equipment to help the country get over the aftermath of the deadly explosions at the port of the Lebanese capital.

BEIRUT, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon continued on Thursday to receive foreign donations and support through Beirut's airport following the two huge explosions that rocked the city two days earlier, the National News Agency reported.

Italy and Russia sent two aircraft with medical equipment while Jordan sent a medical team with a field hospital.

A medical team also arrived earlier in the day from Tunisia along with food products.

Members of Jordanian Military Field Hospital prepare to board a plane heading to Beirut at Marka Military Airport in Amman, Jordan, Aug. 6, 2020. (Xinhua/Mohammad Abu Ghosh)

A Polish Airlines aircraft arrived from Poland carrying rescue teams to help the Lebanese Red Cross and Civil Defense teams in removing victims through the rubble.

The team brought trained dogs to help in rescuing missing people at Port of Beirut and in other areas.

Meanwhile, Turkey sent an aircraft carrying medicines, medical equipment and advanced machines that can be used in rescuing missing people through the rubble.

The Kuwaiti embassy in Lebanon handed over humanitarian assistance including medical equipment and food while it had sent a day earlier 35 tons of medicines and food products.

French President Emmanuel Macron visits the Port of Beirut in Beirut, Lebanon, Aug. 6, 2020. (Dalati & Nohra/Handout via Xinhua)

Germany has also sent a number of doctors and a team specialized in helping Lebanese Civil Defense teams in their rescue efforts.

Moreover, Egypt sent medical equipment while Iran sent a field hospital in addition to necessary medical materials.

Lebanon is also expected to receive from Morocco later in the day eight aircraft carrying donations for the country including 295 tons of basic food items, 10 tons of medicines, 10 tons of medical equipment and 11 tons of medical materials dedicated to the fight against COVID-19.

Meanwhile, Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid al-Bukhari held a meeting on Thursday with a Lebanon's committee dedicated to receiving humanitarian assistance from the kingdom.

People light up candles to show their solidarity with Lebanese people in front of the Lebanese embassy in Tehran, Iran, Aug. 5, 2020. (Xinhua/Ahmad Halabisaz)

The Lebanese army announced in a statement released earlier in the day that donations will be distributed among hospitals in cooperation with the health ministry.

Two huge explosions rocked Port of Beirut on Tuesday at around 6:10 p.m. local time (1510 GMT), shaking buildings all over Lebanon's capital while causing heavy damage in the city.

Pieces of shattered glasses covered most of the areas in Beirut.

Primary information reveals that Ammonium Nitrate stored since 2014 in warehouse No. 12 at Port of Beirut may have caused the explosions in Beirut.

Investigations into the disaster are ongoing and the Higher Defense Council promised to reveal some results from investigations within five days from the day of the explosion. 
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August 6, 2020 Drilon says recession shows grim reality: Filipinos are hungry, jobless and with no savings

The veteran lawmaker bats for bigger budget for SAP, increased funding for Bayanihan 2 Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon said the worse-than-expected pandemic-induced recession should be an eye-opener for the Inter-Agency Task Force and the country's economic managers as he underscored the need to revive the demand side of the economy by restoring the people's confidence in the ability of the government to handle the COVID-19 pandemic. "Nobody expected it to be this severe. This is the result of the 'shotgun' approach in handling COVID-19. This shows the grim reality: gutom ang tao - walang trabaho, walang pera at ubos na ang ipon," Drilon said in a statement on Thursday. Drilon noted that the 16.5 percent decline in the country's GDP is worse than what the government expected it to be, citing Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Benjamin Diokno's projection of around 5.7 to 6.7 percent decline in the second quarter. Drilon said this means the Philippines is now in recession following two consecutive declines in our gross domestic product (GDP). The GDP declined further to 16.5% in the second quarter from 0.7% in the first quarter. The minority leader said that "the government must take swift and decisive actions" within the remaining months of the year to help the poor and revive the demand side of the economy, noting how household consumption in Q2 declined by 15.5%. "We need to do a second round of social amelioration program. We should expand it but we must retain those families who received the first tranche because they are the ones who are badly hit by the pandemic," Drilon said. "There is no sense that they were included in the first tranche but were delisted in the second tranche. Their lives did not become better after receiving the first tranche. They are the ones who continue to experience hunger every day. The government should provide for them until the pandemic is over," Drilon underscored. He said there is a need to increase the stimulus fund under the Bayanihan 2. The House of Representatives passed the measure on second reading yesterday containing a P162 billion-stimulus fund. Drilon further stressed that the government should take a look at strategies on how to arrest the increasing COVID-19 cases, saying the rising cases shatters people's confidence. "The people's confidence is shattered and the corruption and incompetence issues against government officials playing a key role in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic make things even worse," Drilon stressed. "The key is to revive demand but that will only happen when the people feel safe to go out. People will feel confident when they see that the government is doing the right thing, effective measures are in place and the healthcare system is not collapsing," he explained. "Thus, it all boils down to our ability to control the pandemic," he added.
Much like his predecessor GC Murmu, Sinha's greatest challenge will be to remove the sense of alienation keenly felt in the Valley.

The Centre's choice of Manoj Sinha as Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir is an intriguing one. Much like his predecessor GC Murmu, Sinha's greatest challenge will be to remove the sense of alienation keenly felt in the Valley.

That sense of alienation, some have argued, was only compounded under ex-governor Satya Pal Malik under whose tenure the Valley saw the 'fax pas' saga in 2018 and then saw the state bifurcated into two Union Territories by the Centre.

Murmu, a bureaucrat described as hands-on and low-profile, was seemingly the perfect pick to follow Malik in the months after the abrogation of Article 370. But Sinha is a career politician in the vein of Malik.

Sinha, 61, a senior BJP leader from Uttar Pradesh and former Union minister, was part of the Narendra Modi government from 2014 to 2019. As per News18, Sinha, thought to be close to Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, was considered a front-runner for the post of Uttar Pradesh chief minister after the BJP won the 2017 Assembly elections.

Born on 1 July, 1959, in Mohanpura of Ghazipur district of eastern Uttar Pradesh, Sinha started his political career when he was elected the president of Banaras Hindu University Students Union in 1982. He was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in 1996 and again in 1999. He has been actively involved in working for the backwards villages of the region.

Sinha, a member of the BJP national council from 1989 to 1996, was elected to the Lower House for a third term in national politics when the BJP swept the Lok Sabha elections in 2014. He was former minister of state for railways and later held an Independent charge of Ministry of Communication.

Numerous challenges on horizon

For Sinha, who is said to have a clean image and a focus on development, the first task will be establishing a good working relationship with Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam, a senior IAS officer who hails from Andhra Pradesh, who tussled with both Malik and Murmu.

As per this piece in The Print, The tussle between (Malik and Subrahmanyam ) became common knowledge. The government machinery was divided into two. There was a campaign in which officials spread the news that the chief secretary would be removed due to the Pulwama attack. But in the end, the chief secretary prevailed and so did the bureaucrats loyal to him, said a government official.

When the new L-G (Murmu) arrived, some in the bureaucracy thought it would be business as usual. The L-G however had different plans, the official told The Print in June 2020.

Some say the appointment of Sinha instead of a bureaucrat in the vein of Murmu hints at impending polls. As per this News18 piece, the choice of Sinha, combined with the release of select political leadership in the Valley, could signal the possibility of creating conditions to restart the electoral process in the Union Territory where Assembly polls are pending.

But it won't be easy. A year after the abrogation of Article 370, the situation in the Valley is far from normal, even though the Centre insists otherwise. Former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti is under house arrest, high speed internet is a distant dream and the less said about mobile connectivity the better.

Meanwhile, the politicians that have been released  like Omar Abdullah  have been carped at by critics and condemned by their followers and other political parties for climbing down on the demand to restore Article 370.

"We have to atone for our sins, and then devise a strategy to fight our own battle. We relied on India at the behest of our leadership. In return, they stabbed us in 1947 and they are doing so again and again," Hafeez-ud-Din, a longtime National Conference activist and staunch supporter of Omar Abdullah, said recently.

This is the situation Sinha finds himself walking into Jammu and Kashmir. Much like a river that looks calm on the surface, but which has a fast undercurrent. Only time will tell if he sinks or swims.

With inputs from PTI
Using stem cells to restore lost functions due to spinal cord injury (SCI) has long been an ambition of scientists and doctors. Nearly 18,000 people in the United States suffer SCIs each year, with another 294,000 persons living with an SCI, usually involving some degree of permanent paralysis or diminished physical function, such as bladder control or difficulty breathing.

In a new study, published August 5, 2020 in Cell Stem Cell, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine report successfully implanting highly specialized grafts of neural stem cells directly into spinal cord injuries in mice, then documenting how the grafts grew and filled the injury sites, integrating with and mimicking the animals' existing neuronal network.

Until this study, said the study's first author Steven Ceto, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Mark H. Tuszynski, MD, PhD, professor of neurosciences and director of the Translational Neuroscience Institute at UC San Diego School of Medicine, neural stem cell grafts being developed in the lab were sort of a black box.

Although previous research, including published work by Tuszynski and colleagues, had shown improved functioning in SCI animal models after neural stem cell grafts, scientists did not know exactly what was happening.

"We knew that damaged host axons grew extensively into (injury sites), and that graft neurons in turn extended large numbers of axons into the spinal cord, but we had no idea what kind of activity was actually occurring inside the graft itself," said Ceto. "We didn't know if host and graft axons were actually making functional connections, or if they just looked like they could be."

Ceto, Tuszynski and colleagues took advantage of recent technological advances that allow researchers to both stimulate and record the activity of genetically and anatomically defined neuron populations with light rather than electricity. This ensured they knew exactly which host and graft neurons were in play, without having to worry about electric currents spreading through tissue and giving potentially misleading results.

They discovered that even in the absence of a specific stimulus, graft neurons fired spontaneously in distinct clusters of neurons with highly correlated activity, much like in the neural networks of the normal spinal cord. When researchers stimulated regenerating axons coming from the animals' brain, they found that some of the same spontaneously active clusters of graft neurons responded robustly, indicating that these networks receive functional synaptic connections from inputs that typically drive movement. Sensory stimuli, such as a light touch and pinch, also activated graft neurons.

"We showed that we could turn on spinal cord neurons below the injury site by stimulating graft axons extending into these areas," said Ceto. "Putting all these results together, it turns out that neural stem cell grafts have a remarkable ability to self-assemble into spinal cord-like neural networks that functionally integrate with the host nervous system. After years of speculation and inference, we showed directly that each of the building blocks of a neuronal relay across spinal cord injury are in fact functional."

Tuszynski said his team is now working on several avenues to enhance the functional connectivity of stem cell grafts, such as organizing the topology of grafts to mimic that of the normal spinal cord with scaffolds and using electrical stimulation to strengthen the synapses between host and graft neurons.

"While the perfect combination of stem cells, stimulation, rehabilitation and other interventions may be years off, patients are living with spinal cord injury right now," Tuszynski said. "Therefore, we are currently working with regulatory authorities to move our stem cell graft approach into clinical trials as soon as possible. If everything goes well, we could have a therapy within the decade."

Co-authors of the study are Kohel J. Sekiguchi and Axel Nimmerjahn, Salk Institute for Biological Studies and Yoshio Takashima, UC San Diego and Veterans Administration Medical Center, San Diego.
A hospital nurse for 33 years, Nanette Miller would call her husband Frank at the end of each shift to let him know she was coming home. On Dec. 7, 2018, the phone call came with a somber declaration: I cant do this anymore.

Miller had to help on another hospital floor that day. She didnt know how to get back.

Several months later, she was diagnosed with what she and her husband had feared early onset Alzheimers disease.

But now, not even a year removed from her official diagnosis, Miller is already on a road to potential recovery due to the expansion of a groundbreaking technique crafted by the West Virginia University Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute.

Using focused ultrasound, Dr. Ali Rezai, executive chair of the RNI, and his team successfully opened the blood-brain barrier in a clinical trial with Miller, 54, of Mill Run, Pennsylvania.

By opening the blood-brain barrier, which separates the bloodstream from the brain tissue and restricts medicines, immunotherapy, gene therapy and other therapeutics from entering the brain, researchers hope it can reduce plaques and lessen Millers symptoms.

Rezai and his team previously made waves by being the first in the world to open the hippocampal blood-brain barrier in Alzheimers patients. With Miller, doctors took it a step further by targeting other parts of the brain, namely the parietal lobe, insula and precuneus.

Because our first trial, which targeted the hippocampus, was successful, the FDA allowed us to expand it to treat larger parts of the brain, Rezai said. This is an area of the brain 10 times larger than what the FDA allowed previously. These other parts of the brain, broadly the parietal lobe, are involved in knowing where you are within your environment and surroundings, and in thinking and processing of memory.

During this study, doctors injected microscopic bubbles into the patients bloodstream, and exposed the bubbles to focused ultrasound from a treatment helmet attached to the MRI, temporarily causing the blood brain barrier to open.

The gradual decline

Forgetting how to return to her work floor was not the only memory setback for Miller. She struggled with number combinations to secure areas of the hospital containing medicines

A coconut cake she made mistakenly wound up in a cupboard. By the time, they found it, it had molded.

And, as an organist at Indian Creek Baptist Church in Mill Run for several years, Miller can no longer play the instrument.

According to the Mayo Clinic, Alzheimer's disease is a progressive disorder that causes brain cells to waste away and die. It is the most common cause of dementia  a continuous decline in thinking, behavioral and social skills that disrupts a person's ability to function independently.

But because of Millers relatively young age at 54 (most Alzheimers patients first experience symptoms after 60), her family and doctors are hopeful they caught it early enough to effectively stabilize or weaken her symptoms. There is currently no cure for Alzheimers.

If I can at least stay on a level plain like I am right now, Id call that a success, Miller said.

Frank Miller finds it quite a coincidence that his wife helped countless people over the years as a nurse, and now the tides have turned.

She helped so many patients, he said. And years ago, she and her mother would bake 400 dozen cookies for people for Christmas. Now shes relying on the help of others and her doctors.

We do realize this is a study. Nothings guaranteed. But we feel were helping them out just as much as theyre helping Nanette.

RNI doctors will monitor Miller for five years as part of the study. They also plan to conduct the trial on additional patients.

In our first trial, weve seen a reduction in the decline from Alzheimers in terms of memory, cognition and overall function, Rezai said. Given the fact that were able to treat larger parts of the brain gives us better opportunities to see improvements in symptoms of Alzheimers. I would say if youre stable, youre good. If you improve, thats fantastic.

About the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute

We are improving lives by pioneering advances in brain health. With the latest technologies, an ecosystem of partners, and a truly integrated approach, we are making tangible progress. Our goal is to combat public health challenges ranging from addiction to Alzheimers, benefiting people in West Virginia, neighboring states, and beyond. Learn more about the RNIs first-in-the-world clinical trials and the top caliber experts joining us in our mission.

Find out more about the Rockefeller Neuroscience Center.

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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Eighteen unions filed a lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court on Wednesday against the City of New Yorks new controversial chokehold law.

The NYPD, Port Authority, State police, MTA, courts and city district attorneys offices were among the unions that filed the suit, the New York Post reported.

Mayor Bill de Blasio signed a package of police accountability laws last month, including the chokehold legislation, which criminalizes use of a chokehold and bans methods of police restraint, like kneeling on a persons neck, when cops conduct arrest.

Prior to de Blasio signing the legislation, NYPD brass pushed back and asked the language of the bill to be changed.

Councilmen Joe Borelli (R-South Shore) and Steven Matteo (R-Mid-Island) voted against the bill.

As someone who voted no on the bill, there is also a simple fix. Amend the law to strike out the diaphragm clause. https://t.co/XzZ10OzKGM  Steven Matteo (@StevenMatteo) August 6, 2020

The bill was introduced shortly after Eric Garners July 17, 2014 death on Bay Street after his last words I cant breathe became a rallying cry for a nationwide anti-police brutality movement. Officer Daniel Pantaleo wrestled him to the ground using an apparent chokehold on him before he died.

The diaphragm clause of the chokehold law gives district attorneys the power to charge an officer with a misdemeanor if the officer uses any restraint that could limit breathing.

District Attorney Michael McMahon previously called on the City Council to include an exemption to the chokehold ban that would allow officers to offer a justification defense in the event that the use of force was necessary to protect their lives.

The lawsuit says the legislation stands to criminalize the lawful use of force, (and) threatens both police and public safety, according to the Post.

The unions lawsuit challenges the city, stating the states less restrictive law supersedes the local law.

Cuomo signed the states legislation on June 12.

The Mayor and the City Council took a big gamble with this law. It was pure politics, said Hank Sheinkopf, a spokesperson for the union delegations, according to POLITICO.

When asked about the lawsuit on Thursday, de Blasio said he wouldnt comment on the lawsuit but felt the state law clearly states that the criminal justice system must take into consideration whether or not a person or an officers life is in danger.

That is a very important and appropriate protection for all officers, de Blasio said.

FOLLOW KRISTIN F. DALTON ON TWITTER.
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Disclosure of total number of voting rights and number of shares forming the capital

as of July 31, 2020

CLICHY  August 06, 2020

Article L 233-8-II of the French Code de Commerce and Article 223-16 of the General Regulations of the French Autorite des Marches Financiers.

As of July 31, 2020, the total number of issued shares of SOCIETE BIC is 45,532,240 shares, representing:

66,973,870 voting rights,

66,428,881 voting rights excluding shares without voting rights

ABOUT BIC

BIC is a world leader in stationery, lighters and shavers. For more than 75 years, the Company has honored the tradition of providing high-quality, affordable products to consumers everywhere. Through this unwavering dedication, BIC has become one of the most recognized brands and is a trademark registered worldwide. Today, BIC products are sold in more than 160 countries around the world and feature iconic brands such as Cello, Conte, BIC FlexTM, Lucky Stationery, Made For YOUTM, Soleil, Tipp-Ex, Wite-Out and more. In 2019, BIC Net Sales were 1,949.4 million euros. The Company is listed on Euronext Paris, is part of the SBF120 and CAC Mid 60 indexes and is recognized for its commitment to sustainable development and education. It received an A- Leadership score from CDP. For more, visit www.bicworld.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube.

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Sophie Palliez-Capian  VP, Corporate Stakeholder Engagement - sophie.palliez@bicworld.com Investor Relations Contact Press Contacts Sophie Palliez-Capian + 33 6 87 89 33 51 sophie.palliez@bicworld.com Albane de La Tour dArtaise +33 1 45 19 51 51 Albane.DeLaTourDArtaise@bicworld.com Isabelle de Segonzac : +33 1 53 70 74 85



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BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Encompass Health Corp. (NYSE: EHC) today announced it has placed land under contract and plans to build a freestanding, 40-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital in Cape Coral, Florida, to be named Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Cape Coral.

Complementing local acute care services, the hospital will care for patients recovering from debilitating illnesses and injuries including strokes and other neurological disorders, brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, amputations and complex orthopedic conditions. The hospital will provide physical, occupational and speech therapies that aim to restore functional ability and quality of life and 24hour care by registered nurses, many of whom are certified in rehabilitation nursing.

The medical staff will be comprised of physicians experienced in physical medicine and rehabilitation as well as other specialties such as internal medicine, cardiology, infectious disease and nephrology to assist in the medical management and support a complex patient population.

"The Cape Coral and Fort Meyers areas continue to grow, and with that comes the need for additional healthcare services. Given our long tenure operating hospitals in Florida for over 30 years, we've watched the need for intensive rehabilitation services increase in those communities," said Linda Wilder, president of Encompass Health's southeast region. "Our new, stateoftheart hospital will be designed based on our experience treating almost 190,000 physical rehabilitation patients annually in our hospitals throughout the country. We look forward to becoming part of a strong, wellmanaged healthcare network augmenting the continuum of care through this new hospital."

The hospital will feature all private patient rooms, a spacious therapy gym with advanced rehabilitation technologies and an activities of daily living suite, cafeteria, dining room, pharmacy and therapy courtyard.

The planned hospital, once opened, will become part of Encompass Health's national network of inpatient rehabilitation hospitals and home health and hospice agencies. The Company's Florida footprint currently includes 12 inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, 19 home health locations, one hospital under construction in north Tampa and one hospital under construction in Pensacola.

About Encompass Health

As a national leader in integrated healthcare services, Encompass Health (NYSE: EHC) offers both facility-based and home-based patient care through its network of inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, home health agencies and hospice agencies. With a national footprint that includes 136 hospitals, 245 home health locations, and 83 hospice locations in 39 states and Puerto Rico, the Company is committed to delivering high-quality, cost-effective, integrated care across the healthcare continuum. Encompass Health is ranked as one of Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For. For more information, visit encompasshealth.com, or follow us on our newsroom, Twitter and Facebook.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements contained in this press release which are not historical facts, such as those relating to the likelihood, timing and effects of the completion of this hospital project, are forward-looking statements. In addition, Encompass Health may from time to time make forward-looking public statements concerning the matters described herein. All such estimates, projections, and forward-looking information speak only as of the date hereof, and Encompass Health undertakes no duty to publicly update or revise such forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Such forward-looking statements are necessarily estimates based upon current information and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Encompass Health's actual results or events may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors. While it is impossible to identify all such factors, factors which could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated include, but are not limited to, the regulatory review and approval process, any adverse outcome of various lawsuits, claims, and legal or regulatory proceedings that may be brought by or against the Company; the possibility this project will experience unexpected delays; the ability to successfully complete and integrate this project consistent with Encompass Health's growth strategy, including realization of anticipated revenues, cost savings, and productivity improvements arising from the related operations and avoidance of unforeseen exposure to liabilities; the continued spread of COVID-19, including the speed, depth, geographic reach and duration of the spread; the actions to be taken by Encompass Health in response to the COVID-19 pandemic; changes in the regulation of the healthcare industry at either or both of the federal and state levels; competitive pressures in the healthcare industry and Encompass Health's response thereto; the hospital's ability to maintain proper local, state and federal licensing; potential disruptions, breaches, or other incidents affecting the proper operation, availability, or security of Encompass Health's information systems; Encompass Health's ability to attract and retain nurses, therapists, and other healthcare professionals in a highly competitive environment with often severe staffing shortages and the impact on Encompass Health's labor expenses from potential union activity and staffing shortages; changes, delays in (including in connection with resolution of Medicare payment reviews or appeals), or suspension of reimbursement for Encompass Health's services by governmental or private payors; general conditions in the economy and capital markets; and other factors which may be identified from time to time in Encompass Health's SEC filings and other public announcements, including Encompass Health's Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2019 and Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2020 and June 30, 2020.

Media Contact:

Hillary Carnel | 205 970-5912

[email protected]

Investor Relations Contact:

Crissy Carlisle | 205 970-5860

[email protected]

SOURCE Encompass Health Corp.

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In her Instagram Story, Ariana posted a photo of the fragrance bottle, revealing that it's called R.E.M., after the song of the same name from her album Sweetener. The box the bottle comes in includes a comic book version of the intergalactic space warrior that Ari played in the 2014 video for her hit with Zedd, "Break Free."

"In my dreams...i'm always the version of myself I was in break free tbh...REM...coming this month @ultabeauty :)," Ariana captioned one of the images. "I always wanted to spend more time as this character/in this world...so maybe that's just what i'll do...so much to look forward to."

When teasing the new fragrance, Ariana described it as seductive n sweet .... dreamy and said shes been wearing it herself every day since March. When asked to sum up the perfume using emojis, she tweeted some cloud emojis along with the bed, thought bubble, water gun, Saturn and UFO emojis.

R.E.M. joins Ariana's other perfumes, which include Thank U, Next, Moonlight, Ari, Frankie, Sweet Like Candy, and Cloud.

In other Ariana news, she posted a series of photos and videos from a vacation she and her boyfriend Dalton Gomez recently enjoyed. According to Hollywood Life, they went to Canyon Point, Utah and stayed at the Amangiri resort there.

By Andrea Dresdale

Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
More funding for JetClosing

JetClosing, the digital escrow and title platform, was spun out of Pioneer Square Labs about four years ago. Now the startup has secured $9 million in Series B funding, it recently announced. The firm now has about $35 million raised. The new financing came from T. Rowe Price-advised funds, Pioneer Square Labs and Trilogy Equity Partners (which was also an original investor). CEO Dan Greenshields founded the cloud-based home closing service, and said in a statement, In light of the current economy, this funding demonstrates unequivocally that there is a real market need for a digital workflow to facilitate home closings for resale and refinancing transactions. Pandemic or not, consumers expect a technology-first closing process that's catered to their fast-paced, on-demand, and mobile lifestyles. The company's services are now available in our state, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Texas.




Mayor Bill de Blasio has dismissed rich New Yorkers who fled the city as 'fairweather friends' and said their taxes should be raised - days after Governor Cuomo begged the city's top 1 percent to return to prop up its ailing finances.

Swarms of wealthy residents fled New York when the city went into lockdown in March and became the coronavirus epicenter of the world.

Despite the city reopening and bringing the outbreak under control, New York has failed to lure back its richest residents with many upping sticks altogether for areas where they can enjoy lower rent and taxes.

Residential and commercial properties now lie abandoned across the city, crime is soaring with shootings up a staggering 201 percent compared to the same time last year, homelessness is rife and the streets are overflowing with rubbish following budget cuts to essential services.

But while fears mount the Big Apple is headed back to the dark days of high crime and poverty seen in the 70s and 80s, De Blasio, who has a personal net worth of $2.5 million, has added yet another nail to New York's coffin by calling for a spike in taxes for the wealthiest which could wave goodbye to this much-needed tax base for good.

'It's time to look it in the face and say you know what? Wealthy New Yorkers can afford to pay a little bit more so that everyone else can make it through this crisis,' de Blasio said Thursday.

Mayor Bill de Blasio (pictured at Thursday's press conference) has dismissed rich New Yorkers who fled the city as 'fairweather friends' and said their taxes should be raised - days after Governor Cuomo begged the city's top 1 percent to return to prop up its ailing finances

Speaking at his press briefing from City Hall, the mayor insisted the city will 'not make decisions based on the wealthy few' and blasted wealthy residents saying that 'as everyone else is suffering the rich are getting richer'.

De Blasio himself has fared well amid the pandemic, raking in $9,000-a-month from three rental properties as an ample side hustle to his $258,000 salary as mayor, all the while cash-strapped New Yorkers have struggled to pay rent.

'I was troubled to hear this concept that because wealthy people have a set of concerns about the city that we should accommodate them, that we should build our policies and approaches around them,' he said.

'That's not how things work round here anymore.'

He continued: 'This city is for New Yorkers, this is for people who live here, work here, fight to make this place better, fight through this crisis.

'There's a lot of New Yorkers who are wealthy, who are true believers in New York City, who will stand and fight with us and there are some who may be fair weather friends but they will be replaced by others.'

Swarms of wealthy residents fled New York when the city went into lockdown in March and became the coronavirus epicenter of the world. Pictured, the village of Sag Harbor

Popular destinations among so-called 'coronavirus refugees' include Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod, Rhode Island, the Hamptons, Hudson Valley, the Jersey Shore and southern Florida

NYC VIOLENCE IN THE LAST MONTH COMPARED TO THE SAME TIME IN 2019: Shooting victims +165%

Shooting incidents +201%

Murders +50%

Burglary +29%

Grand larceny auto +52%

Rape -3.5%

Robbery -1.3%

Felony assault -2.1% Advertisement

De Blasio insisted the mass exodus from the city and the dire spike in crime is only a short-term challenge sparked by a 'perfect storm of temporary problems'.

'I think you'll see a certain number of people who leave and after an appropriate time, after a vaccine will come back,' he said.

'I think you'll see some people who decide they want a different kind of lifestyle and I think a lot of those people will be replaced by other people coming in.'

He brushed off the uptick in crime saying 'you're going to see that turn around... because the coronavirus crisis will be over soon'.

New York City's wealthiest neighborhoods have been rocked by a spike in violent crimes in the last month, with Manhattan's Upper East Side recording an alarming 286 percent increase in robberies compared to the same period last year.

Robberies on the Upper East Side have also increased by more than 200 percent.

NYPD data for the city also revealed murders are up 50 percent in the last month compared to the same time last year, shootings are up 201 percent and burglaries up 29 percent.

NYPD Police Commissioner Dermot Shea this week described the current crime crisis as 'challenging' but De Blasio, who cut $1 billion from the NYPD's budget in June, insisted the city is bringing it under control and that this will not deter people from returning to the city in the long term.

'I do not hear people making the decision on that - I think there's a pretty strong understanding out there that people are paying attention that this is a temporary reality caused by a perfect storm of temporary problems,' he said.

De Blasio's attack on the rich and unwavering optimism over the future of the city comes in direct opposition to comments made by Cuomo days earlier, who issued a plea to New Yorkers to return to the Big Apple and save it from economic ruin.

A man washes a Mercedes G- Class on a deserted street on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Many of New York City's wealthiest residents left the city in March and have not returned

Retail on the UES has taken a hit along with the rest of the city. The state of NY is now staring down the barrel of a $30billion deficit over the next two years

NYC MILLIONAIRES FLEE FOR SMALLER TOWNS Nearly 420,000 New York City residents left between March 1 and May 1

Neighborhoods such as the Upper East Side and SoHo saw populations drop by at least 40%

People mostly fled to Long Island, upstate New York like the Catskills and Florida, all of which are popular summer home destinations

Residents who left were in neighborhoods made up of mainly whites with household incomes of more than $100,000 per year Advertisement

At a press conference Monday, Cuomo said he has spoken with some of New York City's wealthiest residents and fears upping taxes will drive them out for good.

'I literally talk to people all day long who are in their Hamptons house who also lived here, or in their Hudson Valley house or in their Connecticut weekend house, and I say, "You gotta come back, when are you coming back?" he said.

"'We'll go to dinner, I'll buy you a drink. Come over, I'll cook."

'They're not coming back right now. And you know what else they're thinking? If I stay there, I pay a lower income tax because they don't pay the New York City surcharge.'

It is not unusual for Manhattan to clear out for the month of August, when temperatures between the skyscrapers soar and send many fleeing to Long Island's beaches or further afield.

But this summer, with the ongoing lack of appeal in the city and after many have already set up permanent roots in their second homes in the Hamptons or upstate, the likelihood that people will come back in the fall is shrinking.

The huge exodus sparked by the pandemic was compounded further by the chaotic riots and looting in some of the wealthiest parts of the city in the wake of the Memorial Day 'murder' of George Floyd by a Minneapolis cop.

A whopping 80 percent of some commercial real estate tenants didn't pay rent in April and May which takes a huge chunk out of the city's tax revenue base. Retail has resumed but it remains unclear just how many stores have been able to reopen

An analysis of data reveals that robberies are also on the rise in other affluent New York City neighborhoods - despite the fact thefts are down citywide - which is not likely to draw residents back

FACEBOOK ANNOUNCES FIRST MAJOR REINVESTMENT FOR NYC Facebook has announced the first major reinvestment in New York City real estate since the coronavirus lockdown Monday by signing a lease in the landmark Farley building. The social media giant has leased all of the 730,000-square-foot office space at the 1912 Beaux Arts former post office in Manhattan, in a deal that marks a major expansion of the company's business operations in the city. According to AMNY, the move could boost the number of Facebook employees in NYC to 10,000. It comes as much of the Big Apple's office space lies empty with many employees still working from home and wealthy New Yorkers having fled the city. NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio heralded the company's investment in the city as 'part of our economic rebirth', despite smaller businesses in the Big Apple continuing to go out of businesses post-lockdown. Advertisement

Cuomo said he is resisting mounting calls from lawmakers to boost taxes on the city's highest earners to try to plug the $30billion deficit that was left by the pandemic.

'A single per cent of New Yorks population pays half of the states taxes and theyre the most mobile people on the globe,' he said.

He wants the federal government to step in with help in the final stimulus bill that is due to pass soon, and has warned that unless more financial aid is given, the country is on track for a 'real recession'.

'If they dont make this bill right, frankly, they shouldnt pass it because it will be the last bill.

'If this bill does not have funding for state and local government you will see a real recession, not just in New York but across the country [by] forcing state and local governments to lay off people,' he said.

The state's tax base has taken a beating from the sheer number of tenants who failed to pay rent, and with almost no retail or dining occurring for the best part of three months during lockdown.

Tourism has also been all but depleted with international travel bans rumbling on and travelers from 35 states now required to undergo a 14-day quarantine on arrival into New York.

With a gaping deficit in the city and state's budget, essential services like garbage collection are suffering.

The city's sanitation budget was cut by $106million to try to reduce outgoings. It resulted in trash piling up all over the city.

The NYPD also faced a $1 billion chop to its budget, despite the city already recording more shootings in 2020 than there were by the end of the year in 2019.

Homelessness is rife across the city, with stark images last week showing a growing crowd of drug addicts shooting up in broad daylight in Manhattan's upmarket Midtown neighborhood.

Former NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly warned last month that the future for New York City is 'very bleak' and that crime could increase further to levels not seen since the 70s and 80s.

Soho, Manhattan: Cardboard boxes and black trash bags line a sidewalk on Broadway and Bleecker Street on July 31

Chelsea, Manhattan: An overflowing garbage can is pictured on W. 21st Street and 7th Avenue Friday

Gravesend, Brooklyn: Overflowing trash waiting for pick up covers the sidewalk near 86th Street under the El train
Three teenagers fleeing police while carrying a semiautomatic weapon in a backpack jumped a wall at Mar-a-Lago on Friday.

President Donald Trump was not in residence at the time, and authorities say that the teens probably didnt know thats where they were.

Palm Beach Police spokesman Michael Ogrodnick said the 15-year-old boys were arrested shortly after they entered the grounds of the Florida resort on 31 July.

They dumped the backpack, which contained a Mini Draco 7.62 calibre AK-47 with a loaded 14-round magazine. They claimed to have found the weapon.

He said the three are lucky that neither the president nor any family members were there, because Secret Service agents might have shot them. The club is closed for the summer.

They had no idea where they were, Mr Ogrodnick said.

According to a police report, an officer spotted the teens sitting in a parked car early on Friday morning about two miles north of the resort. When he turned on his overhead lights, the vehicle sped south towards Mar-a-Lago.

As they approached the club, the teens spotted a second officer who was conducting an unrelated traffic stop and abruptly stopped their car. It is believed that they assumed it was a roadblock set up to catch them.

The three teens bolted from the vehicle, jumped Mar-a-Lagos nearby wall and hid on the resorts grounds.

Officers surrounded the club and a helicopter and police dog were used to locate them. They did not try to get inside any of the resorts buildings.

The teens are charged with trespassing with a firearm, burglary with a firearm and resisting arrest without violence.

They are being held at the Juvenile Assessment Centre in West Palm Beach. while prosecutors decide whether to charge them as adults.

This is not the first intrusion at Mar-a-Lago since Mr Trump became president in 2017, with most incidents seemingly involving people just walking onto the premises.

Recommended Secret Service told to reveal how much it spends at Trump properties

In 2018 a University of Wisconsin student walked in having mingled with a group of members as they entered, even passing through metal detectors. On another occasion, a Chinese national was charged with loitering and resisting an officer after trespassing and taking photos at the club, having entered through a service entrance.

In March 2019, Yujing Zhang, a Chinese businesswoman gained access to the club by saying she was there to use the pool. The cellphones and computer she carried sparked fears of attempted espionage. She was found guilty of trespassing and lying to the Secret Service and was sentenced in November to time served.

As recently as January, Brandon Magnan, a former marine discharged for sex offences, got past two checkpoints claiming to be part of the presidents helicopter crew.

Causing most alarm, in January the Secret Service opened fire when Hannah Roemhild, an opera singer from Connecticut, crashed an SUV through a checkpoint while fleeing police. She was unhurt and has since entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.

With reporting from The Associated Press
Secondary schools across Kwara State on Wednesday reopened in preparation for the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) beginning from August 17.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) correspondent, who monitored the reopening of the schools in Ilorin, reports that only SS3 students resumed for classes to prepare for the external examination.

Some of the schools visited complied with COVID-19 protocols through provision of hand washing materials at the entrance.

The students were sighted in classes receiving lectures with use of face masks and physical distancing.

Teachers in the schools visited were on the ground taking classes ahead of the examination.

The Vice Principal Academic, Government Secondary School, Alore, Grace Ayodeji, said the school was fully prepared for resumption.

The principal, Okelele Secondary School, Ilorin, Zuaib Adebayo, said the authority has fumigated the school premises to curtail the spread of COVID-19.

According to Mr Adebayo, about 118 students registered for this years WASSCE, adding that out of the figure, 90 per cent has resumed.

Also the chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers in Ilorin-East Local Government, Danmaigoro Idris, commended the state government for the measures put in place for students.

Mr Idris appealed to the government to provide nose masks, sanitiser and other items for the teachers.

However, the Vice Principal Academic of Banni Community Secondary School, Alore, Afusat Akanke,called on parents to ensure that their children always put on nose masks at all times to prevent COVID-19 spread.

The Principal of Al-Adabiya Kamaliyah Senior Secondary School, Foma-babalaje, Abayawo, Ilorin, Belawu Umar, commended the state government on the palliative provided for the schools.

Mrs Umar urged Governor AbdulRahman Abdulrasaq to assist in renovating the schools.

NAN recalls that the state government had distributed 65,000 face masks to SS3 classes as part of efforts to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 in the state. (NAN)
Tesco Ireland has announced it will distribute over 20 million in vouchers to over 750,000 Irish households in its latest Clubcard mailouts.

This works out at an average of around 25 per shopper - due to increased shopping levels during the Covid-19 lockdown.

The retailer said this represents the most generous rewards-based return to its customers to date.

The latest Clubcard statement is being issued this week just in time for households readying themselves for the back to school season.

The vouchers being delivered to households throughout Ireland as part of the latest Clubcard statement, will range in value from 1.50 to a whopping 300.

Cathal Deavy, Customer Director, Tesco Ireland said With this Clubcard mailout distributing over 20million in vouchers, as well as the latest round of savings for our customers in stores and online, we believe we have created true value with our customers in mind.

"We believe that the price reductions we are implementing on a range of family favourites like cooking sauces and lunchbox essentials, will be a welcome saving for anyone balancing a household budget.

"By following the red bubbles in stores our customers will discover real and tangible value throughout their shopping experience with us.

Clubcard customers throughout Ireland who qualify, have shopped in a Tesco store within the first half of this year and hold a valid Clubcard, will receive great money-off vouchers as part of Tescos value-led campaign.

As part of its recently launched Value with You in Mind campaign, Tesco said it is also implementing a range of price drops across hundreds of products in stores and online this Autumn, to help families manage their household budget.

These price reductions will enable customers to get more for their money where, for example, a family of four can buy the ingredients for their favourite Spaghetti Bolognese for just 5.

A spokesperson said: "As families throughout Ireland prepare for back to school that is set to be a little different to previous years, these rewards couldnt come at a better time.

"The back to school period can be an especially challenging and expensive time for families, with Tesco Clubcard vouchers and price reductions on hundreds of products, customers will hopefully have one less thing to worry about."
SALEM, Ore. - On June 2, Justin LaFrancois attended a protest against police violence and racism in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina, where he planned to livestream the event for his alternative newspapers website.

Shortly into the march, police, who reported that water bottles and rocks were being thrown at them, unleashed a volley of tear gas on the entire crowd, including those who were marching peacefully. The protesters tried to run. But hemmed in by tall buildings and desperate for an escape route, they tugged at the closed gate of a parking garage, pulling it up just high enough so they could slip inside to escape the pepper balls and exploding flashbangs.

Oh, my God, LaFrancois said in a video that captured him wheezing hard and coughing from exposure to the gas. My face is on fire. My eyes are on fire.

The Charlotte protest was one of the dozens around the country during the past few months where police unleashed tear gas on peaceful protesters. Tear gas has commonly been used as a defensive tool by law enforcement to make rioters disperse.

But during the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests, federal, state and local law enforcement agencies have sometimes been using it offensively, including against peaceful protesters, children, and pregnant women, without providing an escape route or piling on excessive amounts of gas, witnesses and human rights advocates say.

Law enforcement officials say tear gas, if used properly, is an effective tool for crowd control.

Without it, the only thing left to do is physical force  shields and batons, said Deputy Police Chief Jeff Estes of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. Estes said hes been exposed to tear gas and pepper spray many times.

So, I know the effects. I would rather have that than see what weve seen in other places where people who are violently assaulting other people have to get hit with sticks and shields, Estes said.

But interviews by The Associated Press with medical researchers, federal regulatory agencies, and a review of U.S. government-funded scientific studies raise questions about the safety of the gas, especially its use on individuals in confined spaces, in excessive quantities, and when its fired directly at protesters. Medical professionals interviewed by the AP said the use of tear gas is particularly concerning during the COVID-19 epidemic. The AP also found that there is no government oversight of the manufacture and use of tear gas. Instead, the industry is left to regulate itself.

I think this is deeply problematic because theres no transparency around the manufacture or the sale of these weapons, said Rohini Haar, an emergency room physician and researcher at the University of California School of Public Health in Berkeley who has published studies on tear gas. The U.S. has an obligation to protect its citizens. We regulate so many other things. This is an actual chemical weapon.

Haar said her research shows that tear gas has also been getting stronger over the years. She said she is particularly concerned about the unknown health effects of silicon that is sometimes added to tear gas to make it last longer in the air and on surfaces.

The AP reached out to the five leading tear gas producers in the United States. Four never responded to repeated requests for comment. A fifth, the Safariland Group, declined an interview request through a public relations firm but noted that the company was divesting Defence Technology, its tear gas maker, to its current managers in the third quarter of this year.

Tear gas was developed around World War I and is banned in warfare by the Chemical Weapons Convention, ratified by almost every country in the world including the United States. But it allows chemicals classified as riot control agents, including tear gas, to be used for law enforcement.

However the provisions of the agreement dont regulate what counts as a riot-control agent, said Anna Feigenbaum, author of the book Tear Gas: From the Battlefields of World War I to the Streets of Today.

And they ignore or fail to address offensive use of such agents by law enforcement, Feigenbaum told AP.

Tear gas works by using a host of chemicals that render individuals unable to function by causing irritation to the eyes, mouth, throat, lungs, and skin.

But despite its widespread use, medical experts say there are few studies on the health effects of tear gas, and many focus on the impact of crowd control irritants on military personnel, a population that tends to be healthier and in better physical condition than the general public. The U.S. Army even moved to protect its own troops after a study published in 2014 showed that recruits exposed to tear gas in basic training had a nearly 2.5-times greater risk of being diagnosed with acute respiratory illness. The Army reacted by lowering concentrations of tear gas and shortening exposure times for the training.

A 2014 study funded by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Defence, and the National Academy of Sciences did try to specify levels of tear gas concentrations that can cause irreversible damage or death.

But Sven Eric Jordt, an associate professor and researcher at Duke Universitys School of Medicine who has long studied tear gas, is critical of the study, saying it merely recommended levels that should not be exceeded and relied heavily on research thats a half-century or more years old.

Furthermore, officials arent going out and measuring tear gas concentrations in the streets, Jordt said.

He said the development of highly concentrated pepper extract resin, or OC, which is deployed in spray cans or canisters, are touted as being safer than the more common version of tear gas  known as CS  but there is no research backing this up.

The American Thoracic Society is calling for a moratorium on tear gas, citing the the lack of crucial research, the escalation of tear gas use by law enforcement, and the likelihood of compromising lung health and promoting the spread of COVID-19.

Thor Eells, executive director of the non-profit National Tactical Officers Association, said in a telephone interview the substances are so safe that even if a police department used its entire inventory at one time, no one would be killed or sustain serious injury. Eells has taught tear gas use with a Colorado police department and with Defence Technology, a tear gas manufacturer.

An agency will not have enough of the chemical munitions in their current inventory to come even close to being dangerous, he said.

In Portland, Oregon, which has been an epicenter of Black Lives Matter protests, several people exposed to tear gas have reported severe reactions.

Samira Green, who was pregnant, and her husband Andy found themselves trapped between spewing canisters fired by Portland police on June 2.

They tried to run through the clouds of tear gas, which is actually a powder that hangs in the air. Green then sat down on the pavement, unable to move.

Literally, you cannot breathe anything. It is clenched, Green later told AP while making a fist near her sternum, showing how her lungs seemed to seize up. I was coughing and coughing and throwing up. Im like, this is how Im losing my kid. Thats it.

Green and her husband are suing the city of Portland. Despite their fears, she didnt go into early contractions or miscarry.

The only way as a citizen that we can hold them to account is to file a lawsuit and hopefully inflict enough financial damage on them that theyre forced to make changes to these types of things, Andy Green said.

Kat Mahoney, a legal observer with the ACLU of Oregon, was also exposed to tear gas during the June 2 demonstration in Portland.

She had previously been exposed numerous times and is certain the version used this time was much stronger.

Driving home after the protest on her motorcycle, she began involuntarily convulsing and couldnt shift gears. Once home, she said was barely able to open her door, couldnt count past six, and was unable to open a tube of toothpaste, according to her separate lawsuit.

Asked if Portland police deployed more powerful tear gas, spokeswoman Lt. Tina Jones declined to comment, citing the litigation.

Protesters arent the only ones impacted by tear gas.

Brendan Deiz, a 33-year-old teacher and musician, was at home in bed when Portland police fired tear gas several blocks away in the predawn hours of June 26.

All of a sudden I started choking and my eyes started watering, my throat started burning in the middle of the night, and I realized that I was smelling tear gas coming up through my window AC unit, Deiz said in a telephone interview.

He aired out the house and cleaned the filters in his air conditioner, but that wasnt enough. The room still smelled of tear gas and he would wake up with a sore throat, coughing up phlegm and feeling dizzy. He had to sleep on a couch downstairs until professionals cleaned the bedroom, including ozone treatment, at a cost of $3,000. He is trying to get reimbursed from the city and his insurers.

Clearly this is an excessive use of chemical weapons, as its coming into peoples windows that are blocks away in the middle of the night, Deiz said.

Hannah Waller, who lives in a Seattle neighbourhood that was occupied by Black Lives Matter protesters for three weeks, said tear gas also seeped into her apartment.

Because of where my apartment is located, tear gas got into my apartment on numerous occasions and covered surfaces, leaving residue that would continue to affect me for days, Waller told AP by email.

Thirteen U.S. senators, concerned about federal officers using tear gas, rubber bullets, and other so-called less-lethal weapons, have called on the Government Accountability Office to study the use and safety of tear gas.

To what extent have Federal agencies assessed the safety, appropriateness, and effectiveness of the use of less-lethal weapons and tactics to respond to civil disturbances? the senators, all Democrats, wrote in a June 9 letter to the head of the GAO, Comptroller General Gene Dodaro.

The Senators also asked the GAO to review policies and procedures federal law enforcement agencies have in place regarding the use of less-lethal weapons and tactics for civil disturbances. The GAO is set to begin studying the matter later this month when staff becomes available, GAO spokesman Chuck Young told AP.

Its unclear exactly who in the U.S. government is overseeing the production of tear gas and its use by domestic law enforcement.

The federal government regulates everything from lawn pesticides to labels on beer, but the AP could find no agency that regulates the manufacture or the use of tear gas.

In its attempt to find an oversight body, the AP contacted numerous federal agencies: the Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The effort devolved into a cross between alphabet soup and a game of hot potato. The EPA punted to the CDC, which passed the ball right back to EPA. The ATF referred questions to the Department of Justice. No agency claimed oversight.

Eells, who served for more than 30 years with the Colorado Springs Police Department with SWAT team oversight, was ambivalent about whether there should be government oversight. He feels the manufacturers are doing well enough in policing themselves.

I do know that there are some manufacturers that do a concerted effort to ensure that some of the ingredients, for example that are used in OC, are FDA approved, biodegradable ingredients, Eells said. But thats strictly done on a volunteer self-regulated basis.

U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Oregon, and Oregon state Rep. Karin Power last week called for an immediate investigation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality into what chemical agents were used against protesters in Portland and their potential impacts on health, wildlife, and local air and water quality.

Gases have been deployed on peaceful protesters with little or no prior notice, resulting in exposure to unknown chemical agents, Blumenauer and Power wrote to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler and Oregon Department of Environmental Quality Director Richard Whitman.

In the absence of federal oversight, states are now moving to establish some control over the use of tear gas. A new law in Colorado says that before tear gas or pepper spray can be used, police must ensure that an order to disperse is heard and that people have enough time to move and an exit route to comply. The legislatures of Michigan, New York state, and Ohio all have bills in committee that curtail or prohibit the use of tear gas by law enforcement.

In Philadelphia, city officials are conducting an independent review into a June 1 march where police fired tear gas at dozens of protesters who were trapped by a steep embankment topped by a concrete wall and a fence alongside a highway. Video shows demonstrators screaming in terror as more canisters land in their midst.

Mayor Jim Kenney and Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw apologized. The city is also conducting an independent review of a second incident.

Back in Charlotte, amid an outcry stemming from the June 2 use of tear gas, North Carolinas State Bureau of Investigation conducted a review and concluded the protesters were not boxed in by police when they deployed tear gas.

But video shot by LaFrancois shows the officers behind the protesters deploying more tear gas and some type of device that detonates repeatedly in small explosions while spewing out smoke.

Theyve got everybody trapped here, LaFrancois says in his video. Were trapped in tear gas.

After the incident, the Charlotte City Council banned the purchase of tear gas for a year.

I dont think chemical agents should be used on other humans by human beings anywhere in this world, said Braxton Winston, a council member who was gassed four years ago while protesting the fatal shooting of a black man.

___

AP reporters Allen Breed in Charlotte, North Carolina; and Gillian Flaccus in Portland, Oregon, contributed to this story.

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Contact APs global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org.

___

Follow Andrew Selsky on Twitter at https://twitter.com/andrewselsky
In the face of a persistent global pandemic, disinfectants are more important than ever. These products sometimes rely on quaternary ammonium compounds, or "quats," to kill bacteria and viruses on surfaces.

However, some scientists have started to examine these compounds for their possible toxicity in cells and animals. A new story in Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, explores the safety of quat-containing disinfectants.

Quats are a family of several hundred compounds that have at least one positively charged nitrogen atom, typically linked to four alkyl or benzyl groups. These compounds kill bacteria and viruses by disrupting the structures of proteins and lipid membranes, writes special correspondent Xiaozhi Lim.

Quats have been in use since the 1930s, and today they can be found in disinfecting sprays and wipes, hand soaps and hand sanitizers. They're also used as preservatives in eye drops and as surfactants in shampoo.

In recent years, concerns have mounted regarding potential toxicity of quats. In animal and cell experiments, scientists have found links between the compounds and fertility and developmental problems, as well as disruption of other cellular processes.

However, industry experts are skeptical about health risks in humans, as test doses given to animals in studies far exceed typical exposures in people. Some experts say that skin irritation is the biggest concern with the disinfectants, and that only a small amount of the compounds are actually absorbed by the body. The COVID-19 pandemic has provided a unique opportunity to further explore quat safety, according to researchers.
Death seemed to have stalked some tourists in Puerto Morelos, Quintana Roo on the weekend gone by, asking them to stay at home as Mexico noticed a spike in coronavirus infections lately.

Even though the beaches in Quintana Roo continue to be shut for visitors, some locals and tourists decided to break rules and sneak in to enjoy a bit of sun, surf and sand.

To curb this, in a bizarre (and morbidly humourous) initiative, a man dressed as the Holy Death decided to walk the beaches as a friendly reminder to help people follow health protocols laid out by the government.

Covered from head-to-toe in a skeleton suit, the unidentified young man carried a pole to the likening of Deaths traditional scythe. He surely surprised sunbathers on the beach with his reminders to take more precautions and help avoid spreading the disease.

#Mexico

A young man disguised as the death walks at the beach of Puerto Morelos inviting tourists and locals to return to their homes -as the beaches are still closed to visitors- in Puerto Morelos amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.



 Elizabeth Ruiz #AFP pic.twitter.com/AvLYgTTsJT  AFP Photo (@AFPphoto) August 2, 2020

He was also spotted sitting atop a lifeguard chair surveying the beach. At a few other times, he advised the people chilling on the beach to wear masks, maintain a safe social distance, and take recommended measures amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking of bizarre customs, one of Mexicos biggest celebrations, Dia de Muertos or the Day of the Dead sees families visit graveyards and pay respect to lost loved ones. The festival is vibrant with skeleton-themed decorations along the streets. All Saints Day, a day to remember the patron saints and dead infants, is observed on November 1, and the Day of the Dead follows the next day.

A Florida-based lawyer too protested the beach reopening back in May 2020 by dressing up as the Grim Reaper and haunting people.

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A 30- year old, Francis Ayivi, a Private Security Officer, has been sentenced to 11 years imprisonment in hard labour by a Cape Coast Circuit Court for defiling an 11-year old girl.



The Court presided over by Mrs. Dorinda Smith Arthur, convicted Ayivi on his own plea of guilty to the charge of defilement.



Prosecuting, Chief Inspector John Asare Bediako, said the complainant (name withheld) who is an Aunt to the victim, is a Seamstress and lives in the same house as the convict at Twifo Eduabeng in the Central Region.



He said in March this year, the girl who lived in Accra came for a vacation and was staying with the complainant.



Sometime in June the convict's girlfriend sent the victim to go for some fruits from Ayivi and on reaching there, he forcefully had sex with her in his room.



After the act, the Prosecutor said the convict threatened to harm her if she dared disclosed what had transpired to anybody.



He took advantage of the situation and on Friday, July 17, the convict went to the girl's room while the complainant was away and again had sex with her.



On Monday, July 20, Chief Inspector Bediako said, the complainant noticed some changes in the sitting position of the girl and after some interrogations, she disclosed her sexual ordeal to her Aunt.



According to the Prosecutor, the woman made a report to the Domestic Violence and Victim support Unit (DOVVSU) at Twifo Praso where Police report forms were issued for the girl to be sent to the Twifo Praso Government Hospital for medical examination and treatment.



The Prosecutor told the Court that the medical report indicated that the girls hymen was missing and the convict was arrested and arraigned.

Source: GNA









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* Uganda shut schools, stopped large gatherings before first case

* It has recorded five fatalities since March

* Low case load contrasts with South Africa

* Number of COVID-19 cases in Africa approaches one million

By Elias Biryabarema

KAMPALA, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Uganda's crumbling public hospitals, doctors' strikes and corruption scandals make its success in the fight against the new coronavirus all the more unlikely.

But the nation of 42 million people has recorded just over 1,200 cases and five deaths since March, a strikingly low total for such a large country.

As the number of cases in Africa approaches one million, Uganda's experience shows what can be accomplished when a government with a firm grip on power acts quickly and enforces a strict lockdown. But its success came at a cost, critics say.

Jobs were lost, and economic growth is set to plunge to as low as 0.4% in 2020, from 5.6% last year, according to the World Bank.

Some pregnant women died in labour, unable to reach hospitals because of travel restrictions. Security forces - criticised by rights groups for abuses - beat and arrested some rule-breakers.

Opposition leaders accuse the government of using the pandemic as an excuse to restrict political gatherings and arrest opponents, charges the government denies.

"A jobless person is better than a dead person," state minister for health Robinah Nabbanja told Reuters. "The lockdown was completely justified."

LOCKDOWN

Uganda's approach contrasts with that of many other African countries, which did not impose such strict measures and began easing them long before infections peaked to protect their fragile economies and mostly poor populations.

Some now face rapidly accelerating outbreaks that could overwhelm their public health systems, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.

Uganda's stringent measures bought the government time to prepare its health system and learn lessons about the disease, said Tim Bromfield, regional director for East and Southern Africa at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, a U.K.-based think-tank.

"All governments are balancing lives versus livelihoods."

Story continues

Uganda closed schools and banned large gatherings three days before confirming its first case on March 21. By the end of March, most businesses were shut, vehicle movement was banned, and an overnight curfew was in force. Masks became mandatory in public in May.

The East African nation's response was shaped by battling deadly infectious diseases like Ebola and Marburg virus, public health experts said.

The country was already on alert because of an Ebola outbreak in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo when COVID-19 hit, said Alex Ario, director of the government-affiliated National Institute of Public Health.

Teams were in place to educate the public and trace those infected. Passengers were already being screened at airports. Isolation wards were ready to receive patients, and anyone infected was hospitalized.

"Uganda knew where to conduct their surveillance," said John Nkengasong, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. "The lesson from them is you should know your pandemic."

Uganda - like China - could enforce aggressive containment measures with little domestic opposition.

In March, local media carried images of a paramilitary force beating fruit vendors and pedestrians for breaking work and travel restrictions. Military spokeswoman Brigadier Flavia Byekwaso said they were "overzealous in enforcing the measures."

Bruce Kirenga, who heads the Makerere University Lung Institute, said strong public health measures likely reduced the amount of virus in circulation.

He noted that around 95% of Uganda's cases are asymptomatic or very mild. Some scientists suggest that patients exposed to a higher number of pathogens develop more severe cases.

HUNGER BITES

Neighbouring Rwanda, which also took an aggressive approach, has recorded five deaths in a country of 12 million. Other countries with low fatalities include the small island nation of Seychelles, which quickly closed its borders and had no deaths, and Botswana, which has fewer than 2.5 million people and two deaths.

South Africa imposed one of the world's strictest lockdowns when it had just 400 cases. But the measures battered its struggling economy, and the government began easing some of them within weeks, under pressure from business leaders, trade unions and opposition parties.

It now faces a runaway epidemic that accounts for roughly half the continent's 975,000 cases and 21,000 deaths.

Public health experts believe the number of infections and deaths in Africa is higher than official figures suggest, noting low levels of testing in most nations. But with a few exceptions, countries have not reported hospitals being overwhelmed.

Uganda's figures are considered more reliable than most: it has carried out more than 250,000 tests and works closely with international institutions, said Dr Peter Waiswa, a public health expert at Makerere University College of Health Sciences.

Uganda is now easing its lockdown, but people like Wilson Munyakayanza want it lifted. The father-of-three has not worked since losing his job as a bar manager in March.

"I go hungry sometimes and eat only once in a day," he said. "Coronavirus hasn't killed us but the hell of going hungry is not that far from death." (Additional reporting by George Obulutsa and Katharine Houreld in Nairobi and Giulia Paravicini in Milan; editing by Katharine Houreld, Alexandra Zavis and Mike Collett-White)
Miami-Dade County households can now apply for up to $2,000 in direct assistance through the local Pandemic Assistance Program.

Applications for the program, which opened Wednesday, are now available online in English, Creole and Spanish.

The county partnered with United Way of Miami-Dade, which will distribute $20 million in federal funds from the CARES Act through the program.

The main two criteria are that applicants are Miami-Dade County residents and that they have been impacted by COVID in some way, Vanessa Benavides told the Herald. Benavides is associate vice president of United Way and is leading the program.

Households of two or fewer will receive $1,000 if their applications are approved. Households with three or more people will get $2,000.

To be eligible, applicants must prove they have lost income, have become unemployed or have experienced unexpected expenses as a result of COVID-19.

Applicants will be asked to provide supporting documents, including proof of residency in Miami-Dade and last years tax returns to help determine eligibility.

Benavides stressed that applicants will be evaluated on a case by case basis, noting that gig economy workers may not have income documentation. Approved payments will be processed in about two weeks, she added.

The program is designed to help county residents who are on the ALICE threshold. ALICE, which stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed, measures the number of people with a regular income who are not in poverty but that still live paycheck to paycheck.

In Miami-Dade, five out of 10 households are living in or near poverty, according to the United Ways ALICE report.

People were in need before COVID hit and they were in more need once COVID hit. Now were several months into this, so we have compound issues where people are struggling in ways we cant even imagine, Benavides said. These funds are going to be a huge relief that will allow people to fill in some gaps and get them through some rough spots.
Throwing their weight behind India-US relationship which enjoys the bipartisan support, two top American lawmakers have said that close partnership between the two countries assumes significance in view of the "aggression" that New Delhi faces from Beijing.

Writing jointly to demonstrate the strong bipartisan support for the US-India relationship, the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in a letter to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said members of both the parties recognise the impact that a strong US-India partnership will have on the trajectory of the 21st century.

"As Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi said in February of this year, our ties 'are no longer just another partnership. It is a far greater and closer relationship'", said the letter signed by Eliot Engel, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Michael T McCaul, its Ranking Member.

"This closer relationship is all the more important as India faces aggression from China along your shared border, which is part of the Chinese government's consistent pattern of unlawful and belligerent territorial aggression across the Indo-Pacific," the two powerful Congressmen said.

Their remarks came amid the border face-off between India and China in eastern Ladakh. Twenty Indian army personnel were killed during the clashes with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley on June 15. The Chinese side also suffered casualties in the clashes but it is yet to give out details.

The number of casualties on the Chinese side was 35, according to a US intelligence report. The United States will remain steadfast in support of India's efforts to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity, said the letter dated August 5 and was tweeted by the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

"As champions of the US-India relationship, we have been delighted to see our countries' close cooperation on issues from defense to climate change. It is because of our support for the bilateral relationship that we note with concern that conditions in Jammu and Kashmir have not normalised one year after India's repeal of Article 370 and the establishment of Jammu and Kashmir as a Union Territory," they wrote.

"We acknowledge the ongoing serious security and counterterrorism concerns in the region and look forward to working with your government to address these concerns while upholding our shared commitments to the democratic values and freedoms on which our countries' bond was built," the lawmakers wrote.

"As Prime Minister Modi said earlier this year, 'Unity in diversity and unity's vibrancy is the key to a strong relationship between India and America'. We look forward to working with you to continue to strengthen and advance this vibrant and consequential relationship," Engel and McCaul wrote.

Also read: US likely to scale up arms sales to India amid clashes with China
Seniors in Ontario long-term-care homes receive a staggeringly low level of hands-on nursing care  barely half the time they actually need, according to a vice-president of Ontario Nurses Association.

Angela Preocanin was one of several health-care workers and representatives who met with Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath in St. Catharines Wednesday to discuss long-term care in the province.

Currently, we have six minutes allotted per patient per hour, said Preocanin, a registered nurse. Thats the time they get, so 2.7 hours a day is actually what the nursing care is for the present time.

Her association is calling on the province to increase that to four hours a day per patient.

Long-term care in Ontario is a broken system, said Horwath, that went from extremely bad to unbelievably worse when COVID-19 hit.

After meeting privately with the health-care workers, Horwath said in an interview Premier Doug Ford should scrap the three-member commission he appointed to study the spread of COVID-19 in long-term-care homes.

Such a limited investigation, she said, insulted and slapped in the face seniors who suffered or died during the pandemic as well as their families.

Instead, he should launch a full public inquiry to investigate seniors care in Ontario with an aim to fixing the overall system.

Noting nearly 1,900 seniors have died during the pandemic, Horwath said health-care workers are falling ill and dying as well.

We know Mr. Ford does a great job of standing in front of the microphone and praising our health-care heroes, but what we are not seeing is any action to show these heroes what they deserve in terms of support.

She said the Tory government needs to hire more full-time workers and provide decent pay, to have proper sick time, to have an ability not to have to move from one place to another and cobble two or three jobs together just to put food on the table.

What she heard in St. Catharines and at other stops, she said, is that personal support workers feel overworked, short-staffed and underpaid.

Folks today were talking about leaving their shifts in tears, she said.

We need some kind of funded strategy for retention of PSWs as well as recruitment of PSWs. That has to happen.

Lisa Frame, a personal support worker at Radiant Care Pleasant Manor in Niagara-on-the-Lake, echoed that.

Due to chronic understaffing  with personal support workers spread thin, seniors in long-term care can wait days and days for help with basic hygiene like bathing and shaving, Frame said.

Seniors in long-term care suffer, and so do personal support workers who are burnt out to begin with and have been working overtime during this pandemic.

Last month, responding to questions from St. Catharines NDP MPP Jennie Stevens in the legislature, Long-Term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton denied the government is dragging its feet on improving long-term care.

The government has promised to open 15,000 new long-term-care beds and redevelop another 15,000 over the next five years.

Fullerton said it is addressing the last 15 years of neglect.

That is no small piece of work, let me tell you.

On Wednesday, Horwath called on the government to operate all long-term-care homes and eliminate for-profit ones.

Its really clear that the death rate is higher in the for-profit homes, the outbreak rate was higher in the for-profit homes, she said.

It highlights  that health care should not be for-profit, and long-term care is an extension of our health-care system.

She said its not about stricter regulations or doing anything at all in terms of trying to knuckle down on the for-profit homes.

The bottom line is, their priority is profit. And thats just the way it works in the for-profit system.

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Ivanka Trump made a bold sartorial statement on Thursday morning when she left her D.C. home in a pretty pink pantsuit, hours after netting an impressive $4 million for her father's re-election campaign during a virtual fundraising event.

And judging by her vibrant choice of outfit, it seems the First Daughter was in a bright mood as she headed into the office, perhaps using her stylish ensemble as an expression of her excitement over the financial triumph.

Ivanka, 38, also sent another message with her choice of accessories - namely the floral face mask that she used to cover her mouth and nose in a nod to the CDC's recommendation that everyone wear the protective gear in public to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Strut your stuff! Ivanka Trump made a bold sartorial statement on Thursday when she stepped out in a vibrant pink pantsuit

Chic: The 38-year-old's ensemble was cinched at the waist with a burgundy sash

In recent weeks, Ivanka has become accustomed to coordinating her outfits with her choice of face covering, having clearly built up an impressive wardrobe of options since the pandemic began.

For her latest pick, the mom-of-three plumped for a white fabric that was printed with pretty red flowers, which perfectly matched the bold crimson color of the sash around her waist.

To top off the outfit, Ivanka added a pair of nude pointed-toe heels, and she carried a white clutch.

Clearly ready to seize the day, the First Daughter also ensured her glam was on par with the rest of her look, styling her hair in loose waves, and adding several layers of mascara to her lashes.

Ivanka has had a busy week filled with events - not least the online fundraiser for her father - and Thursday was no different, with the special adviser to the White House revealing on Instagram that she was set to start her day with a U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) event.

There, Ivanka and DFC CEO Adam Boehler discussed new targets for the Women's Global Development and Prosperity Initiative, a project that was established by the President in February 2019 and has since been spearheaded by his daughter.

Speaking at the event, Ivanka revealed that the W-GDP is aiming to raise $6 billion in capital that will be used to fund women-owned and women-led projects around the world.

'The Trump Administration is committed to ensuring that women have an equal opportunity to participate in the economy at home and around the world,' Ivanka said in a statement.

Safety first: The First Daughter also added a white floral face mask to her ensemble, matching the color of the flowers to the sash of her power suit

Final touches: She topped off the look with a white clutch and a pair of nude pointed-toe heels

Glam: Ivanka had her blonde hair styled in chic waves, and she'd added layers of mascara to her lashes before leaving her D.C. home

'W-GDP's 2X initiative is taking bold action with a new goal of $6 billion in capital to support women-owned, women-led, and women-supporting projects across the world. Through W-GDP, we are addressing the systemic barriers that women face in the developing world.'

Ivanka has set her financial sights high this week, announcing the new W-GDP goal just hours after raking in $4 million for Trump's re-election campaign.

Work: On Thursday morning, Ivanka announced a new W-GDP initiative that will aim to devote $6 billion to women-led and women-focused projects around the world

The First Daughter appeared on the Zoom event with Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, a source with knowledge of the fundraiser told DailyMail.com.

During the fundraiser, President Trump even made a surprise phone call to Ivanka and spoke briefly to her and the more than 70 donors on the call.

The money from the fundraiser went to the Trump Victory fund - a joint fundraising committee benefiting the president's campaign, the RNC, and roughly two dozen state parties.

Ivanka, who serves as an unpaid adviser in the White House, is the second highest requested fundraiser next to the president, according to the source.

Her $4 million haul tops the $1.7 million that Elizabeth Warren raised for Joe Biden last Friday. But, in June, Warren brought in $6 million for Biden in his largest single-event to date.

And that is not all that Ivanka has achieved this week.

On Tuesday, she spoke out against human trafficking during an event at the White House, calling it the 'gravest of human rights violations,' while celebrating the Trump administration's pledge to issue more than $35 million in grants to survivors.

Busy! On Tuesday, Ivanka co-hosted a roundtable discussion about the Department of Justice's Housing Assistance Grants for Victims of Human Trafficking

Go-to look: She donned floral number by Andrew Gn that features billowing sleeves and a matching belt with an intricate buckle

Surprise: It was announced at the event that the Trump administration will issue $35 million in grants to 73 organizations across 33 states to house victims of human trafficking

Ivanka joined Attorney General William Barr in hosting a roundtable discussion about the Housing Assistance Grants for Victims of Human Trafficking in the Indian Treaty Room of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C.

She looked elegant in a floral number by Andrew Gn that features billowing sleeves and a matching belt with an intricate buckle. She wore the frock a number of times last year, including her speech at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in the Netherlands.

The human trafficking event was attended by other administration officials, survivors of human trafficking, and organizations that serve them.

'In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, combating human trafficking in the U.S. and abroad is critical work,' Ivanka said in a statement. 'DOJs grant recipients are on the frontlines of this fight, ensuring that survivors across our country are afforded safe and stable housing and empowered with the support and resources they need to rebuild their lives.

'I am incredibly honored to join Attorney General Barr to highlight these organizations and their tireless and vital work.'

In his opening remarks, Barr called human trafficking an 'evil scourge' and thanked Ivanka, the president, and all of the participants for their work to end human trafficking and help survivors.

He went on to announce the Department of Justice's Housing Assistance Grants for Victims of Human Trafficking.

The $35 million in grants will be issued to 73 organizations across 33 states to house victims of human trafficking. The program is the 'largest federal investment of its kind.'
U.S. Special Representative for Iran, Brian Hook, speaks during a briefing at the US Department of State January 17, 2020, in Washington, DC.

WASHINGTON  Brian Hook, the Trump administration's top diplomat for Iran, is stepping down from his post as Washington tries to rein in Tehran with its "maximum pressure" campaign.

"Special Representative Hook has been my point person on Iran for over two years and he has achieved historic results countering the Iranian regime," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a Thursday statement. "He has been a trusted advisor to me and a good friend. I thank him for his service," Pompeo added without giving a reason for Hook's departure.

Pompeo said that Hook will be succeeded by Elliott Abrams, an Iran hard-liner who is currently the State Department's special representative for Venezuela. It was also not immediately clear when Hook would leave his role.

The latest revelation comes at a critical time for U.S. diplomatic relations with Iran, which the Trump administration considers a rogue state. Tensions between Washington and Tehran have soared after Trump's withdrawal from the landmark Iran nuclear deal brokered by the Obama administration.

Next week, the United Nations Security Council will vote on whether global powers should extend an international arms embargo on Iran. The arms embargo on Iran is currently set to end on Oct. 18 under Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

The 2015 nuclear agreement lifted sanctions on Iran that crippled its economy and cut its oil exports roughly in half. In exchange for sanctions relief, Iran accepted limits on its nuclear program and allowed international inspectors into its facilities. Tehran has said it will not negotiate with Washington while sanctions are in place.
YEREVAN.  The epidemic situation associated with the novel coronavirus is easing in Armenia, but the number of new cases detected daily remains high. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan noted about this at Thursdays Cabinet meeting of the government.

"We have some confidence that the detection of cases has increased. In this regard, we have received the opportunity to change the tactics somewhat, and if in the past the flows were high, now the Ministry of Health will be more proactive, and will go to risky places, groups, factorieson its own initiative, and will make a diagnosis, and this will allow to overcome the epidemic in some way," he added.

The Prime Minister noted that there are currently 68 COVID-19 patients in critical condition, 300 patients in severe condition, and the peak of critical cases was 178. "The numbers have decreased, but our analysis shows that we have been able to record such a decline mainly thanks to the introduction of rules for the mandatory wearing of face masks; and our message is clear that anti-epidemic rules must be strictly adhered to," he said.

Minister of health Arsen Torosyan, in turn, noted that there is a steady decline in COVID-19 cases in Armenia, and noted that from now on if the coronavirus is detected in a personwhether in a factory, bank or supermarketthey will not wait for the symptoms to appear, but will test everyone. "We examined one of the mental health centers350 people at oncein a few days, and detected 25 positive cases that did not have any complaints," he said.
Belarus Leader Warns of Violence Ahead of Weekend Presidential Elections

By Charles Maynes August 05, 2020

In a winding state of the nation speech before lawmakers on Tuesday, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko warned that political enemies at home and abroad were planning violence ahead of the country's upcoming presidential elections  and vowed his government would not tolerate a street revolution.

"So far there is no open warfare, no shooting, the trigger has not yet been pulled. But an attempt to organize a massacre in the center of Minsk is already obvious," said Lukashenko, 65, the only president Belarusians have known ever since the nation of 9.5 million gained independence following the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Lukashenko's speech came just days before a Sunday vote that looks to be the most serious challenge to a more than quarter century rule that has earned the Belarusian leader the undesirable nickname "the last dictator of Europe."

Now seeking a sixth straight term in office, the Belarusian leader has run into an unexpectedly strong opponent in Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, a political novice who stepped in as a placeholder candidate after authorities arrested her husband  the political blogger Sergei Tikhanovsky  on trumped up charges she says were intended to keep him out of the election.

Backed by the wives of other male would-be challengers banned from the race, Tikhanovskaya has drawn huge crowds in speeches across the country  a fact that Lukashenko mocked in his speech before a grim unsmiling audience of loyalists who broke out into occasional applause.

"They found those three unhappy girls. They don't even understand what they're reading, what they've written for them," said Lukashenko, who added the women were controlled by "puppet masters" abroad without elaborating.

Moscow's hand

Adding another layer of uncertainty in the elections are Belarus' increasingly strained relations with its larger neighbor, Russia.

"Russia has always been and will always be our close ally irrespective of who takes power in Belarus or Russia," assured Lukashenko.

Yet Lukashenko said the relationship had shifted from "brotherly" to "partner-like" as Belarus has chafed with Russia over issues such as gas politics, Lukashenko's response to the coronavirus, and a long-stalled plan to create a joint union with Belarus as the lesser partner.

"Russia fears losing us because it has no really close allies left except us," said Lukashenko, while noting that the "West has shown increasing interest."

A more immediate irritant has been the arrest of 33 alleged Russian mercenaries by Belarus security agents during a raid of a resort compound outside the capital last week.

Minsk has since charged the Russians with working with Lukashenko's political opponents to launch "terrorist acts" and destabilize the country ahead of the vote.

"These people gave testimony that they were sent specially to Belarus. Their orders were to wait," said Lukashenko.

Russia argues the men were in Belarus after missing a flight to Turkey  an explanation Lukashenko labeled as a patent "lie" and "legend."

Lukashenko also claimed additional Russian mercenaries were still operating on Belarusian soil.

"Today we heard of another unit sent into the south," said Lukashenko. "We will have to run through the forests to catch them but we will get them all,"

Critics argue the timing of the plot suggested the Belarusian leader was desperate to create a pretext for a crackdown against political opponents out of fear of losing the election.

Speculation has also centered on Moscow's role and whether it had helped stage the standoff or truly been caught off guard by the detentions.

On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called Lukashenko's latest accusations "a theater performance"  adding Belarusian authorities had provided no evidence of the detained Russians' guilt.

The threat of violence

Indeed, for weeks, the Belarusian leader has suggested dark forces were at play ahead of the election.

Hundreds of supporters of opposition candidates have faced arrest. Journalists have been detained. Campaign staffers and advisors have been thrown in prison.

Human rights groups have condemned what they say is an oppressive state trying to determine the outcome of elections that international observers say are neither free nor fair.

Following Lukashenko's speech there were reports of dozens of detentions by state security forces at scheduled rallies.

But Valer Tsapkala, a would-be challenger to the Belarusian leader who was barred from participation in the race, said winning what was essentially a fixed election was not the point of the race.

If fellow citizens could not have their votes counted by Lukashenko's government, suggested Tspakala, then at least they could have their voices heard.

"If we have some 20,000 people going out [to protest] on election day, then it is possible that the resources he has at his disposal  by which I mean the Interior Ministry  will be sufficient to disperse the crowd," said Tsapkala in an interview with "Current Time", a partner project of VOA and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

"But if we have 100,000 people out," Tsapkala said, "Lukashenko will simply board a plane and fly away somewhere."

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Linkedin Mardika Parama (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, August 7, 2020 10:51 530 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c137d4 1 Business tourism-industry,reopening,health-protocol,COVID-19,Bali-Airport,Bali-tourism Free

Indonesia is the second most confident nation in Southeast Asia about reopening its tourism sector with 71 percent of Indonesians saying their country is well prepared, a recent survey shows.

The result is part of a joint survey conducted by social research agency Blackbox Research, data provider Dynata and translation company Language Connect, titled Unravel Travel: Fear & Possibilities in a Post Coronavirus (COVID-19) World, that examines the sentiments, preferences and expectations of around 10,000 people in 17 countries regarding travel in a post-COVID-19 world.

Overall, Indonesias travel confidence score stands at 65 out of 100, higher than the global average of 61. Indonesia trailed behind neighboring Thailand.

Our study has reinforced the fact that international tourism is a crucial pillar for Indonesias economy. Most operators are ready to restart, with safety and cleanliness protocols firmly in place, Blackbox Researchs chief operating officer Saurabh Sardana said in an official statement on Thursday.

Tourism is among the sectors hit hardest by the coronavirus outbreak as people stay at home and limit travel to avoid catching the virus. The pandemic so far has taken away around Rp 85 trillion (US$5.87 billion) from Indonesias tourism revenue so far this year, according to data from the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI).

In a bid to aid tourisms recovery during the pandemic, Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto signed on June 19 a decree on health guidelines for public facilities, including hotels, restaurants, and tourist destinations, among others.

Read also: Health protocols welcomed as tourist spots reopen

Indonesians optimism regarding travel also provides a favorable outlook for the countrys tourism destinations such as Bali, which recently reopened its borders for domestic tourists last week and plans to welcome foreign tourists on Sept. 11.

As Bali reopened for domestic tourists on July 31, an estimated 4,000 passengers reportedly arrived at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport. A representative of the Airport Authority Office Area IV, Puguh Lukito, said that Ngurah Rai airport served 28 takeoffs and 28 landings on the day.

With tourism suffering a huge decline, the majority of Indonesians expect the government to boost its promotional efforts to attract tourists as they understood the importance of tourism to the countrys overall economy, the survey data showed.

According to the survey, 96 percent of Indonesian respondents regard tourism as an important contributor to the local economy, the highest percentage globally.

However, while local sentiment about restarting tourism has been encouraging, Indonesia could face challenges in regaining travelers trust given that Indonesia has recorded the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia, according to Sardana.

Balis reopening will be the litmus test for Indonesia, and will greatly influence the countrys efforts to reinvigorate tourism as a whole, Sardana said.

The Indonesian government will need to play a key role in convincing travelers from around the world that it is safe to travel to their desired destinations.

As of Wednesday, Indonesia had recorded 116,781 cases of COVID-19, with 73,889 recoveries and 5,452 fatalities.

National Development Planning Minister Suharso Monoarfa said on Tuesday that Bali was safe to visit and the local administration and businesses were taking unprecedented steps to prevent COVID-19 transmission.

While we should remain vigilant with regard to the virus, we shouldnt be paranoid. It is safe to visit Bali, but please adhere to the health protocols implemented on the island, he said during an online discussion held by the ministry.

He also urged tourists to take a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test prior to their visit to Bali, although the island accepts rapid test result as a requirement to enter.

Read also: Enjoy Bali responsibly, minister urges tourists as resort island reopens
WASHINGTON  By a 5-to-4 vote, the Supreme Court on Wednesday sided with officials at a California jail in a dispute over the adequacy of its response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The courts brief order was unsigned and gave no reasons, which is typical when it acts on emergency applications. The four more liberal justices noted their dissents, and Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, filed an eight-page dissent that accused the majority of failing to safeguard the health of thousands of detainees.

The order temporarily stayed an injunction issued by Judge Jesus G. Bernal of the Federal District Court for the Central District of California that required officials at the Orange County Jail to allow detainees to maintain social distancing, be tested if they show symptoms and have access to cleaning supplies. (Judge Bernal denied a request to release all medically vulnerable and disabled individuals.)

In an emergency application asking the Supreme Court to lift the injunction while appeals moved forward, the officials said Judge Bernal had engaged in unwarranted judicial meddling in the internal affairs of the jail, which currently houses about 3,000 detainees. The officials said they had already released more than half of the jails population and had taken adequate steps to address the pandemic.
According to a statement issued by the cabinet on Thursday, the test result should be dated within 72 hours of the persons arrival

Egypt has said that some travellers wishing to enter the country are now required to present a negative PCR lab test result certificate for the coronavirus.

According to a statement issued by the cabinet on Thursday, the test result should be dated within 72 hours of the persons arrival.

Prime Minister Mostafa Madboulys decision does not apply to Arab and foreign tourists who arrive by direct flight to the airports of Sharm El-Sheikh, Taba, Hurghada, Marsa Alam, and Marsa Matrouh.

However, it prohibits the transportation of these tourists from the above-mentioned governorates to the rest of Egypt, unless they have a PCR certificate showing a negative result issued no more than 72 hours prior to the journey.

Egypt reopened its airports to international flights on July 1, having closed them in March in the wake of the pandemic.

The tourism industry is a vital source of foreign currency for the country.

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BROOMFIELD, Colo.Adult products distributor Eldorado Trading Company has named Derek DalPiaz as director of sales.

In his new position, DalPiaz will be responsible for driving business sales by working with customers, suppliers and the Eldorado sales team.

Dereks business knowledge and experience will be a tremendous asset to the company, said Eldorado CEO Wanda Garland. His Six Sigma expertise will be influential to employee morale, customer service, and of course, revenue.

A Colorado native, DalPiaz graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in Business and Computer Information Systems. He also earned an MBA in Management and Operations from the University of Colorado, Denver. He comes to Eldorado with extensive professional experience in both manufacturing and wholesale distribution. DalPiaz is Six Sigma certified, which means he is considered an expert in process analysis, reducing costs and increasing profits. Six Sigma is a set of business tools and techniques used by companies to improve production processes, eliminate defects and guarantee quality.

DalPiaz said he looks forward to getting to know the sales team and seeing which best practices will work well for Eldorado and the industry.

Working for a smaller, family-oriented company makes it easier to make decisions that effect meaningful change. Learning how Eldorado best fits into the supply chain will show us how we can better serve both manufacturers and retailers.

DalPiaz will be working at the companys headquarters in Broomfield, Colo.

For more information, visit www.Eldorado.net.
2020 Honda CR-V Hybrid Review By Larry Nutson

Hondas first electrified SUV

By Larry Nutson

Executive Editor and Bureau Chief

Chicago Bureau

The Auto Channel

The 2020 Honda CR-V Hybrid was in the news recently. Its on the list of eligible vehicles for consideration as the 2021 North American Utility Vehicle of the Year. And, the CR-V Hybrid ranked number 52 out of 91 vehicles that are assembled in the U.S. and was named to the Cars.com 2020 American-Made Index.

I recently had the opportunity to live with the CR-V Hybrid for a week. This fell on the heels of a recent week of driving its sister, the 2020 CR-V powered by a conventional 190-horsepower 1.5-L turbo engine.

The ideal way to compare two vehicles is back-to-back on the same day and driving on the same roads. This doesnt happen to often. I was pleased to have my drive in the CR-V fresh in my memory when the CR-V Hybrid came along.

The 2020 CR-V Hybrid is a new addition to the Honda lineup and the first electrified SUV from the Honda brand in America. The CR-V's advanced two-motor hybrid powertrain, the third-generation of Hondas two-motor hybrid system and shared with the current Accord Hybrid, combines two electric motors with a 2.0-liter, 16-valve DOHC Atkinson cycle engine for 212 total system horsepower.

The CR-V Hybrid is offered in all-wheel drive onlythe non-hybrid is both front- and all-wheel drive. It rides on a new platform with longer wheelbase and wider track. For 2020 the CR-V had been completely redesigned with more style and flair. The interior had been revised and made more spacious.

Up front theres an updated look featuring a new grille and fascia. In back theres new taillights, and new 19-inch wheels as well as new designs for the 18-inch wheels to round things out. The CR-V Hybrid features unique front and rear bumper designs to distinguish it from its CR-V sibling.

Hybrids are all about lower fuel consumption, especially in lower speed, city-type driving. In the case of the CR-V Hybrid not only do you get better fuel economy but also more power under the hood.

EPA test-cycle fuel economy ratings are 38 combined mpg with 40 city mpg and 35 highway mpg. Note the higher city rating compared to the highway. On a couple jaunts around by Chicagoland home of about 25 miles round trip with speeds averaging 35 mph I was getting 44 mpg. Nice!

Hybrid powertrains have improved tremendously over the years. I was quite pleased with the overall refinement and responsiveness of the CR-Vs. While driving the transition from using both gas and electric power to electric-only driving is barely perceptible. It all happens seamlessly. I recall driving early-generation hybrids where it was required to modify driving style to get good economy. Not anymore. Theres a new push button gear selector that is easy to use and cleans up the space on the center console very nicely.

The Touring model I drove was nicely equipped with leather trimmed seats, heated front seats as well as heated steering wheel, power moonroof, hands free power rear hatch, and 9-speaker audio all making for a pleasant driving experience. The cabin is nicely finished with good looking material and trim bits.

Theres plenty of room and good seat comfort up front. The rear seat is nicely large for grown adult size people. A combination of mechanical and digital controls are used for audio, HVAC, Nav system and the like. Steering wheel controls make it easier for the driver.

The CR-V Hybrid has 33.2 cu.ft. of rear cargo volume the increases to 68.7 cu.ft. with the rear seat folded. Due to packaging for the Hybrid system, this is a bit less than the non-Hybrid. Storage cubbies, trays and pockets abound.

Theres a complete array of advanced driver-assist safety (ADAS) features that now come standard on the CR-V Hybrid.

More details and specifications on the 2020 CR-V Hybrid can be found at www.automobileshonda.com. Honda makes it simple with choices being trim levels and colors. There is an accessory program that allows for some customization and personalization.







The CR-V Hybrid is available in LS, EX, EX-L and Touring trims. Pricing starts at $27,750 and runs up to $35,950 for the top trim. Destination charge is $1,120.

Looking at Hondas pricing, the up-charge for the CR-V Hybrid is $1,200 over the non-hybrid. AWD adds $1,500 on the non-hybrid. Youll have to do you own math to figure out what pays off for you. If I were buying, the Hybrid would be my choice for the increased power, better fuel economy and less frequent visits to the gas station. Convenience does have some value.

The freshened 2020 Honda CR-V and the CR-V Hybrid have been named the 2020 Green SUV of the Year by Green Car Journal, the second time Honda has won Green SUV of the Year, and the sixth time a Honda vehicle has earned recognition from Green Car Journal.

As we move forward in this decade of the 20s, well see more and more electrified vehicles coming to market. In many vehicle models a hybrid may be the only power train offered. Hybrids are a win all around with more performance, lower fuel consumption and lower emissions.

 2020 Larry Nutson, the Chicago Car Guy
First-grade teacher Caitlin Hicks talks with student Sid Solomon at Center Street Elementary in El Segundo as last school year ended. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)

Across America, the back-to-school season is nearly upon us. Yet for millions of children, that won't necessarily mean returning to their classrooms.

School administrators, public health officials and epidemiologists are still working to understand what it will take to make school campuses safe in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The health and safety of all in the school community is not something we can compromise on, said L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner, head of the second-largest district in the country. Our goal is to have students back in schools as soon as it is safe and appropriate to do so.

But what exactly does safe and appropriate mean?

The answer depends on the priorities, resources and risk tolerance in a particular community.

Quite frankly, the context of COVID-19 transmission and spread is so different across communities that a one-size-fits-all solution is not appropriate, said Kenne Dibner, an education researcher at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine who served as the staff director for a report on reopening schools that has been downloaded more than 300,000 times.

Dibner and other experts spoke to The Times about how to think through the complex, controversial and multi-pronged problem of reopening.

What the COVID-19 data can  and can't  tell us

COVID-19 statistics are everywhere. All you need is a smartphone to see the number of people who have tested positive for the coronavirus, how fast it is spreading, how many ventilators are available in hospitals near you, and whether the number of deaths reported each day is rising or falling.

Despite the abundance of data, there is no magic number that automatically means it's safe for schools to reopen.

We cannot offer zero risk, said Dr. Neha Nanda , the medical director of infection prevention at Keck Medicine of USC. "The best we can do is combine a concoction of imperfect measures to come up with an optimal strategy."

Story continues

For example, decision makers at L.A. Unified School District will pay special attention to the number of new cases per day and the proportion of coronavirus tests that come back positive as the two leading indicators of when we can consider bringing students back, Beutner said.

California guidelines require that a county's test positivity rate be no higher than 8% for two consecutive weeks in order for schools there to even consider reopening. As of Wednesday, the seven-day average positivity rate in L.A. County was 8.3%.

Beutner noted that the World Health Organization recommends keeping schools closed until the positive rate drops to 5%.

Having two weeks of less than 5% positivity seems a little difficult to achieve any time soon, unless we learn something more about the virus between then and now, Nanda said.

To help educators think through the health risks, Lauren Ancel Meyers , a professor of integrative biology at the University of Texas at Austin, created a tool that estimates how many kids and teachers would be likely to bring the coronavirus with them to campus if schools in their county were to reopen. Those estimates are based on the prevalence of the virus in the area and the size of the school, among other factors.

The tool is imperfect, since there's still so much uncertainty about how likely it is that a single student or teacher with the virus would infect others in the school. Researchers suspect that age makes a difference, though they're not sure how much. Preventive measures in place at a school, such as the ability to social distance and adequate ventilation, matter too.

I am by no means for keeping schools closed, Ancel Meyers said. The point of doing these calculations is to provide information that can help deciders make the best decisions

Keeping schools closed poses health risks too

Most of the debate is focused on the health risks of opening schools, but children's health can suffer when schools are closed as well. That's something decision-makers should keep in mind, according to a recent editorial published in the Journal of the American Medical Assn.

Weighing these competing health risks is a challenge, however. Compared with other types of data, the health risks associated with keeping schools closed are typically more diffuse, accrue over longer periods of time, and are more difficult to measure.

But that doesnt mean they dont exist.

Einstein said Not everything that counts can be counted, said Julie Donohue, a professor of health policy and management at the University of Pittsburgh and co-author of the JAMA editorial. We are massively experiencing that quote right now.

Schools provide an array of benefits to children and families in addition to education  meals, physical and mental health services, support for students with learning difficulties and other special needs, and essential childcare that allows parents to work. Take these away and student health could suffer, Donohue said.

We need to ask ourselves, are we trying to maximize health outcomes, or are we trying to maximize COVID health outcomes, she said.

Ensuring everyone is at the decision making table

COVID-19 has not affected everyone equally, and school closures wont either.

Students from families with more advantages  including parents who can work from home and access to high-speed internet connections  will likely fare better with remote learning. Meanwhile, students who rely on school for meals and health services will be giving up more when school buildings are closed.

In addition, younger students, particularly those learning to read, are expected to get less out of virtual school than older children.

Teachers, administrators, public health workers, physicians, social workers and others should all be invited to offer their thoughts on whether to reopen schools. But the families who will feel the greatest impact of school closures must be at the decision-making table too, experts said.

The risk associated with coming back to schools really varies from family to family, and so we need to hear peoples real authentic experience, said Keisha Scarlett , chief of equity, partnerships and engagements for Seattle Public Schools and a contributor to the National Academies report.

That's why Scarlett and her co-authors recommend that the decision of when and how to reopen schools be made by a broad coalition that can assess the resources a community has to support students staying at home, or safely returning to school.

Different communities rely on schools in different ways, and that needs to be considered in the process, said Dibner, director of the report.

Staying flexible, learning from others

It often feels as though weve been dealing with the coronavirus forever, but it's been less than a year since it first infected humans, and scientists still have a lot to learn.

For instance, children under 18 make up just 5% of reported cases, which may be a sign that they're more likely to carry the virus without developing symptoms. However, it is unclear how effective kids are at transmitting the virus, especially in a school setting.

Some countries in Europe have been able to reopen schools without seeing massive increases in case numbers. But when Israel reopened, cases spiked.

Learning from others, and learning from other countries, may be the best we can do right now, Nanda said. We have to be very conscientious about what is happening across the world and have an open mind.

We can also expect that circumstances here will change. Imagine the arrival of a COVID-19 test that worked like a pregnancy test, which would enable students and teachers to painlessly test themselves weekly or even daily.

Or perhaps a new treatment will be found that would make the virus less deadly. That would be a game-changer, Ancel Meyers said.

I wouldnt be respecting the virus if I said there wasnt more to learn, Nanda said. This thing has taught us humility very well.





This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
DETROIT, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Stratview Research announces the launch of a new research report on Smart Temperature Transmitters Market by Product Type (Low-Tier, Mid-Performance, and Premium), by Mount Type (Field Mount, Head Mount, and Panel Mount), by End-Use Industry Type (Chemical, Energy & Power, Metal & Mining, Pharmaceuticals, Food & Beverages, and Others), and by Region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World), Trend, Forecast, Competitive Analysis, and Growth Opportunity: 2020-2025.

Stratview Research continues its voyage towards publishing extremely niche market subjects containing disruptive growth potential. This time, we have come up with another such report on the SMART TEMPERATURE TRANSMITTERS, a relatively new technology with greater performance than their transmitter counterparts. Despite an extremely niche market, the report addresses most of the industry stakeholders' concerns regarding market competition, future market directions, low-hanging fruits, key emerging trends, the Pandemic's possible impact, key strategies of market participants, and high-growth regions. The team has conducted more than 15 detailed primary interviews across the supply chain including component manufacturers, transmitter companies, tier players, OEMs, end users, as well as industry experts, to portray a 360-degree view of the market. Also, 1,000+ reliable secondary sources were exhaustively leveraged to comprehend the market insights to the next level. This 200-page lucid study comprises over 200 tables and figures providing different market angles and insights.

Smart Temperature Transmitters Market: Highlights from the Report

A smart temperature transmitter is a type of transmitter which provides several benefits including wireless data transmission, maintenance indicator, device health indicator, increased safety, dual input facility, along with conversion of temperature signals received from various temperature sensors. It amplifies and converts the temperature signals received from thermocouples, resistance temperature detectors (RTD), negative temperature coefficient (NTC) thermistors, or from any other temperature sensors.

Smart temperature transmitters currently account for <20% of the overall temperature transmitter market but have been efficacious in registering a greater market growth than other temperature transmitters. Key market stakeholders are leveraging their years of industry experience and R&D capability to develop cost-effective smart temperature transmitters for wider adoption in various end-use industries.

Impact of COVID-19

The outbreak of the pandemic has severely impacted all the major markets of smart temperature transmitters, crushing the overall market to the below 2014-market value. The impact of COVID-19 pandemic is anticipated to be severe than the one registered during the Great Recession during 2008-2009. However, contemplating past recovery trends coupled with the combined results of more than 15 detailed primary interviews, Stratview Research anticipates that the demand for smart temperature transmitters is estimated to start its recovery from the year 2021 onwards. Several market fundamentals including growing acceptance of smart temperature transmitters with end-users acknowledging the importance of operational excellence and adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies (automation, implementation of IOTs, etc.) may aid the industry stakeholders to bring back the market sparkles, ultimately driving the market to cross US$ 0.5-billion-mark by 2025, a feat that has never been touched before by the market.

Click Here and Run Through the TOC of the Report: https://www.stratviewresearch.com/toc/1010/smart-temperature-transmitters-market.html

Smart Temperature Transmitters Market Share Analysis

Based on the product type, the mid-performance segment is likely to remain the growth engine of the market during the forecast period, mainly driven by rising demand for transmitters which will provide more functionality at an excellent price vs performance ratio.

Based on the mount type, the field mount segment is likely to maintain its dominance in the market during the forecast period. Field mount transmitters usually deliver greater accuracy and offer excellent performance. In addition to that, the field mount transmitters also provide real-time monitoring of temperature in applications through a LED screen attached to it.

Based on the end-use industry type, the market is segmented as chemical, energy & power, metal & mining, pharmaceuticals, food & beverages, and others. Energy & power is projected to remain the dominant as well as the fastest-growing segment of the smart temperature transmitters market during the forecast period. Continuous shift from conventional sources to renewable sources of energy to generate electricity is likely to remain the major factor for its highest growth in the market during the forecast period.

Register Here for a Free Sample of the Detailed Report: https://www.stratviewresearch.com/Request-Sample/1010/smart-temperature-transmitters-market.html

In terms of region, North America is projected to remain the largest market for smart temperature transmitters during the forecast period, mainly driven by the USA. The USA holds irrefutable lead not only in North America but also in the world. A strong supply chain with the presence of a large number customers from various end-use industries as well as presence of various smart temperature transmitter manufacturers, such as Emerson Electric Co., Honeywell International Inc., and Omega Engineering Inc., is the key why and wherefore behind the country's dominance in the world.

The USA's market has been hugely impacted by the pandemic, having the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world. Various governmental measures to contain the pandemic is triggering a massive decline in the country's market in 2020. The country's market is expected to bounce back from 2021, ones the headwinds of the pandemic turns into tailwinds.

In the post-pandemic scenario, Asia-Pacific, a relatively small market in front of humongous North America, is expected to heal at the fastest pace from 2021 onwards, with China depicting early signs of recovery from the pandemic. China is the leading metal & mining and chemical producer in the world. Most of the major players, both local as well as international, prefer to have their manufacturing plants in Asia, more preferably in China, to take the advantage of low cost as well as to tap the growth potential.

There are a handful of players in the market manufacturing smart temperature transmitters. All the players have similar products with marginal differences in their specifications including different material coverings such as plastic, aluminum, or stainless steel. Some of the key players in the smart temperature transmitters market are ABB Group, Emerson Electric Co., Endress+Hauser Group Services AG, Honeywell International Inc., Krohne Ltd., OMEGA Engineering Inc., Siemens AG, and Yokogawa Electric Corporation. Major players are focusing on product development, R&D, and advancement in technologies to address the emerging market requirements, such as development of cost-effective and high-performance smart temperature transmitters.

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 smart temperature transmitters market and has segmented the market in four ways, keeping in mind the interest of all the stakeholders across the value chain. Following are the four ways in which the market is segmented:

Smart Temperature Transmitters Market, by Product Type

Low-Tier (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Mid-Performance (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Premium (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Smart Temperature Transmitters Market, by Mount Type

Field Mount (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Head Mount (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Panel Mount (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Smart Temperature Transmitters Market, by End-Use Industry Type

Chemical (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Energy & Power (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Metal & Mining (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Pharmaceuticals (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Food & Beverages (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Others (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Smart Temperature Transmitters Market, By Region

North America (Country Analysis: The USA , Canada , and Mexico )

Europe (Country Analysis: France , Germany , the UK, Russia , and Rest of Europe )

Asia-Pacific (Country Analysis: China , Japan , India , and Rest of Asia-Pacific )

Rest of the World (Sub-Region Analysis: The Middle East , Latin America , 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: [email protected]

Direct: +1-313-307-4176

SOURCE Stratview Research
MENLO PARK, California, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ensighten, the leader in client-side website security and privacy compliance enforcement, today announced increased investment into threat intelligence powered by machine learning. The new threat intelligence will focus specifically on client-side website threats with a mandate of discovering new methods as well as actively monitoring ongoing attacks against organizations.

Client-side attacks such as web skimming are now one of the leading threat vectors for data breaches and with a rapid acceleration of the digital transformation, businesses are facing a substantially increased risk. With privacy regulations, including the CCPA and GDPR, penalizing organizations for compromised customer data, online businesses of all sizes are facing significant security challenges due to the number of organized criminal groups using sophisticated malware.

"We have seen online attacks grow in both intensity and complexity over the past couple of years, with major businesses having their customers' data stolen," said Marty Greenlow, CEO of Ensighten. "One of the biggest challenges facing digital security is that these attacks happen at the client side in the customers' browser, making them very difficult to detect and often run for significant periods of time. By leveraging threat intelligence and machine learning, our customers will benefit from technology which dynamically adapts to the growing threat." Ensighten already provides the leading client-side website security solution to prevent accidental and malicious data leakage, and by expanding its threat intelligence, not only will it benefit its own technology, but also the security community in general. "We are a pioneer in website security, and we need to continue to lead the way," said Greenlow.

Ensighten's security technology is used by the digital marketing and digital security teams of some of the world's largest brands to protect their website and applications against malicious threats. This new threat intelligence initiative will enable further intelligence-driven capabilities and machine learning will drive automated rules, advanced data analytics, and more accurate identification. "Threat intelligence has always been part of our platform," said Jason Patel, Ensighten CTO, "but this investment will allow us to develop some truly innovative technological solutions to an issue that is unfortunately not only happening more regularly but is also growing in complexity."

Additional Resources

Guide to Ensighten's threat intelligence and why it's important: https://www.ensighten.com/15-minute-guide-to-threat-intelligence

Ensighten threat intelligence: https://www.ensighten.com/threat-intelligence

Ensighten online skimming protection: https://www.ensighten.com/online-skimming

Learn more at www.ensighten.com or email info@ensighten.com

About Ensighten

Ensighten provides security technology to prevent client-side website data theft to the world's leading brands, protecting billions of online transactions. Through its cloud-based security platform, Ensighten continuously analyzes and secures online content at the point where it is most vulnerable: in the customer's browser. Ensighten threat intelligence focuses on client-side website attacks to provide the most comprehensive protection against web skimming, JavaScript Injection, malicious adware and emerging methods.
Telangana: Gay couple enter into wedlock, say it has sent out a message

Telangana BJP slams CM KCR for making crucial decisions in state without Opposition party's inputs

India

oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P

Hyderabad, Aug 06: Telangana BJP has strongly objected to the ever growing unilateralism of state Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao in making crucial decisions in the state, without any consultation with opposition party floor leaders or opposition party's presidents.

BJP has condemned the unilateral confirmation and passing of new secretariet building designs without taking opposition parties into confidence, in the cabinet meeting chaired by CM KCR.

Trumps post claiming children are almost immune to COVID-19 deleted by Facebook

Speaking to OneIndia, Telangana BJP Chief Spokesperson K Krishna Saagar Rao said, "In a parliamentary democracy, it's a tradition and best practice to involve opposition parties while making decisions which have far reaching impact on a state. It gives opportunity for the opposition parties to put forward voice of the people and extend advice to the government."

RBI: Repo rate unchanged at 4%, Reverse Repo Rate unchanged at 3.3% | Oneindia News

"BJP believes, the new secretariat building design resembles Nizam era architecture, it looks more like a mosque than a state government administrative building," the BJP spokesperson said.

Fire breaks out at COVID-19 hospital in Ahmedabad, 8 patients dead

"CM KCR is indulging in building his personal political legacy and muslim appeasement, when he builds this completely unwarranted secretariat building, spending over 400 crores of public exchequer, while demolishing an existing functional secretariat building," he added.

It can be seen that modern state government administrative buildings are built keeping in view of functional requirements. Telangana State Secretariat building must reflect the current generation, contemporary Indian architecture and aspirations of a free Telangana State in the Indian union, than representing enslaved era of a foriegn oppressor Nizam.

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Story first published: Thursday, August 6, 2020, 10:57 [IST]
<! Nigerian Air Force first A-29 Super Tucano fighter plane off the production line in Florida >

The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) said it is expecting the delivery of 12 additional combat aircraft to be deployed in the fight against Boko Haram.

The Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, made this known Wednesday while on operational visit to the 407 Air Combat Training Group (407 ACTG) Kainji, Niger.

We are expecting additional aircraft paid by the Federal Government, he said.

Abubakar, after inspecting the projects, also said the Service is expecting the delivery of the Super Tucano aircraft.

He said that the Super Tucano is particularly important in the fight against insurgency.

The CAS was also briefed on the progress of work on the ongoing Periodic Depot Maintenance (PDM) of the Alpha Jets, the activation of the aircraft and the Engine.

The air chief expressed satisfaction with the progress of the Alpha Jet PDM, as well as with the technicians working on the aircraft.

We are working to get the aircraft out as quickly as possible to add value to what we are doing, he said.

The CAS also inspected ongoing infrastructural development projects aimed at improving the operational environment and enhancing the welfare of personnel and their families.

The projects inspected include the ongoing re-construction/re-modeling of two blocks of 10 x single-bedroom flats for Single Quarters, Married Officers quarters and Airmen Transit accommodation.

Abubakar who was accompanied on the visit by Branch Chiefs and Directors from Headquarters NAF, was received, upon arrival in Kainji, by the Air Officer Commanding Air Training Command, AVM Musa Mukhtar as well as the Commander 407 ACTG, Sqn-Ldr Kingsley Igwegbe.

Related
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday will submit a bill to raise the minimum wage to UAH 5,000 this year to the Verkhovna Rada, Deputy Head of the President's Office Yulia Kovaliv has said.

"Today, the president will submit a bill, which provides for an increase in the minimum wage to UAH 5,000 from September 1, to the Verkhovna Rada. This is the first step to improve social and economic guarantees for Ukrainian employees," Kovaliv said at a briefing on Thursday.

She said that the parliament may consider the document at an extraordinary meeting in August.

"In accordance with the proposed changes to the budget, the main source for financing this increase in the minimum wage will be, first of all, savings on servicing the public debt," the deputy head of the President's Office said.

She recalled that the macroeconomic forecast approved by the government provides for a two-phase increase in the minimum wage in 2021 to UAH 6,000 and UAH 6,500.

"On this basis, the budget for 2021 will be planned, which, in accordance with the law, the government will submit to parliament before September 15 of this year," Kovaliv said.
(PHOTO: Getty Images)

SINGAPORE  A woman who wanted to get back at her husband for divorcing her refused to put out a cigarette that she had mistakenly flicked onto the mans bed.

She then left the unit as the mattress began to catch fire. The ensuing blaze resulted in 20 homes from the same HDB block having to be evacuated. Nearly $17,000 in damage was caused to the unit and the buildings facade.

At the State Courts on Thursday (6 August), Malisah Mohammad Said was jailed five months after pleading guilty to to one count of committing mischief by fire by failing to extinguish a cigarette which she flicked onto a bed within the master bedroom.

Prior to the incident, the 31-year-old Singaporean had lived separately from her husband. Things came to a head on 15 July last year when the husband told Malisah via a voice message that he wanted to divorce her.

Malisah was alone in the flat that she co-owned with her husband at the time. She replied to her husbands message to say she would move out from the unit with her eight-year-old daughter from a previous marriage.

Before leaving the flat to pick up her daughter from school, Malisah smoked a cigarette in the flats master bedroom. Once she was done, she flicked the still-lit cigarette towards the en suite bathroom, which instead landed on the bed. At the time, the bed was covered with her daughters paper drawings.

Despite observing that smoke was rising from the mattress as it began to catch fire, Malisah did not extinguish the cigarette as she wanted to get back at her husband over the impending divorce.

At around 5pm, Malisah left the flat without contacting the authorities. Some ten minutes later, the police and the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) were alerted that Malisahs flat was on fire.

SCDF officers were deployed to put out the fire and residents from 20 units  between levels 10 and 14  of the HDB block were forced to evacuate from their homes.

The fire was put out at about 5.43pm. It damaged the bed, an air conditioning unit above it, the ceiling, walls, windows and other appliances, as well as other parts of the home and the buildings facade. The total damages amounted to $16,820 and Malisahs husband was able to claim $15,000 from his insurers.

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Damage was also caused to the air conditioning unit belonging the unit above Malisahs flat, costing $300 to repair. No one was injured in the incident.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Samuel Chew said that while Malisah did not intentionally flick the lit cigarette onto the bed, she had seen the smoke and had chosen not to react.

In seeking six months jail for Malisah, the prosecution considered multiple aggravating factors, including how major inconvenience had been caused to her neighbours, Malisahs motive for the act and the damage she caused.

Malisahs lawyer Jonathan Cho said that although the prosecution framed the incident as an act of revenge, it was really a lapse of judgment arising from a tragic case of domestic dispute, adding that it was a common experience.

The lawyer said that his client wished to put the episode behind her and has taken steps to curb her smoking habit as well as focus on being a good mother to her daughter.

Cho sought a jail term of not more than two or three months for the woman.

For committing mischief by fire, Malisah could have been jailed up to seven years and fined.

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Chandigarh: Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday said that the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir is an internal matter of India and other countries have no business interfering.

Other countries have no business interfering or commenting on our internal matters. Every country is expected to take care of its citizens, safeguard its interests and focus on internal problems, Naidu said while delivering the first Sushma Swaraj Memorial Lecture organised by Panjab University, Chandigarh, via video-conference.

Without naming Pakistan, Naidu said, I advise not only our neighbour, who made this comment, but also all countries that they should not interfere in the internal affairs of others. We are a democratic country and we have a track record that we discuss issues, understand their pros and cons and then take decisions in the larger interest of the country.

On August 5, 2019, the Centre had revoked Article 370, which granted special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. It (Article 370) was an issue that concerned the countrys unity, integrity, safety and sovereignty, said Naidu, who is the chancellor of Panjab University.

REMEMBERING POPULAR SUSHMA

Sushma Swaraj, the former external affairs minister who died in August last year, had graduated from the universitys department of laws in 1973.

The vice-president said that she was the most popular external affairs minister India has had in recent times. She used to articulate the position of India on all issues in an efficient manner. She had the ability to convey everything in a sweet manner but she was firm on commitments, he said.

He recalled her contribution to parliamentary debates and contribution to public service.

Naidu advised Panjab University to organise lectures every year to remember the great leader it has produced. She is an ideal personality worth remembering every year.

Besides organising the memorial lecture every year, Panjab University plans to set up a chair in Sushma Swarajs name.
The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) authorities have rescued 16 fisher folks after their fishing boat, Dev Sandesh, was caught in choppy waters on the high Arabian Sea off the Arnala coast.

ICG diverted their offshore support vessel (OSF) in the vicinity and rescued all the fishermen following a timely alert on Tuesday (August 4) evening.

An ICG official said the vessel, Dev Sandesh, is registered in Thane.

The boat was caught in the rough sea because of the prevailing inclement weather following which the stranded fisher folks from Uttan sent alert messages to the Yellow Gate police station on Tuesday evening.

The message was immediately conveyed to ICGs Maritime Search & Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC), Mumbai.

Soon, MRCC, Mumbai, personnel ascertained the exact location of Dev Sandesh and also activated the international safety net.

They continuously relayed the message for all the ships in the area, especially the transiting vessels to render assistance to Dev Sandesh, said Commandant RK Singh, spokesperson, ICG.

The MRCC, Mumbai, authorities successfully identified an OSV, Greatship Asmi, in the vicinity of Dev Sandesh while tracking the traffic at sea and diverted the vessel for the rescue operation, Singh said.

Dev Sandesh had suffered on-board flooding because of the inclement weather on high seas, as OSV Greatship Asmi kept a strict vigil on the vessel.

Meanwhile, ICG authorities coordinated with another OSV, Colonel SP Wahi, in the vicinity and directed the vessel to pick up all the fishermen from Dev Sandesh.

All 16 fisher folks were rescued after a six-hour well-coordinated rescue operation. They are heading towards the coast and will reach Mumbai soon, Singh added.
Lord Jesus Christ, You are the Messiah and Saviour of the world, the hope of Israel and the hope of all the nations. Be the ruler of our hearts and the King of our homes. May there be nothing in our lives that is not under your wise rule and care, in the mighty name of Jesus, amen.

I pray that the hands of God Almighty will unlock every door of success and breakthrough that has been locked against us, in the mighty name of Jesus, amen.

Every spiritual criminal in charge of our cases is hereby arrested and judged, in Jesus mighty name, amen. R

emember that to walk with Jesus is heaven but to turn aside from him is hell.

Good morning, and have a fantastic day.


Greater Vancouver, Central Okanagan Food Banks and Rogers Step Up to the Plate to help more than 63,000 British Columbians

Rogers employees volunteered at the Greater Vancouver Food Bank as part of the Step Up to the Plate initiative with Food Banks Canada. Through food hampers provided to food banks across the province, the initiative will see more than 1.3 million meals for 63,000 British Columbians in need.

Rogers employees volunteered at the Greater Vancouver Food Bank as part of the Step Up to the Plate initiative with Food Banks Canada. Through food hampers provided to food banks across the province, the initiative will see more than 1.3 million meals for 63,000 British Columbians in need.

British Columbia food hampers will provide more than 1.3 million local meals to support increased demand at food banks

Rogers employees in B.C. volunteer to help organize, fill and distribute hampers

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Stepping up to help address food insecurity facing many Canadian families, Rogers Communications Step Up to the Plate initiative with Food Banks Canada has arrived in British Columbia, delivering food hampers that will provide more than 1,343,000 meals for local food banks. These hampers will help fill the plates of more than 63,000 British Columbians across the province.

The Step Up to the Plate initiative started in June at Rogers Centre in Toronto, with Rogers employee volunteers and their families filling food hampers with non-perishable food items that provide an individual with a weeks worth of meals. Now, trucks loaded with hampers and pallets of food are on the move, destined for communities across Canada, where an unprecedented 8 million meals will be provided to Canadians when the initiative is completed this summer. On arrival in B.C., local Rogers employee volunteers, including the mobile retail Pro On-the-Go team, are working with the Greater Vancouver Food Bank in Burnaby and the Central Okanagan Food Bank in Kelowna to organize and continue stuffing thousands of food hampers for distribution to local food banks to help those who need it most.

British Columbians are part of our extended family at Rogers, and when our family needs help, its our responsibility to step up and pitch in, through food donations, volunteering, and more, said Rick Sellers, President of B.C., Rogers Communications. Rogers has a long legacy of supporting our communities and giving back. This is our 60th year as a company  certainly a year like no other  and we are here to roll up our sleeves and get to work so we can come through this together.

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As the country begins to reopen, the economic impact of the pandemic continues to be significant, affecting food insecurity and demand at food banks. According to Food Banks Canada, which supports over 3,000 food banks and community agencies from coast-to-coast-to-coast - many local food banks have been severely impacted by COVID-19, from decreased volunteers and donations to having to adapt their operations, making it more challenging to meet their clients needs.

The food hampers through Rogers Step Up to the Plate initiative have been a wonderful addition to our food distribution for our clients. With 20 non-perishable items and food for a week for an individual, we have been able to supplement the hampers with fresh food such as eggs, bananas, mushrooms, tomatoes and bread, which means our clients are taking home a very well balanced and generous supply of groceries for the week, said David Long, CEO, Greater Vancouver Food Bank. Our staff and volunteers are loving the amount of food we are able to give to our clients as a result of this initiative, and were excited to have the Rogers team on site with us on August 6th.

We are proud to partner with Rogers and are incredibly thankful for their support with their Step Up to the Plate initiative, said Tammie Watson, Chief Development Officer for the Central Okanagan Food Bank. These pre-made hampers are going to go a long way in helping us provide more meals to children, seniors and families struggling with hunger from the Columbia-Shuswap all the way through to the Okanagan and the Kootenay Boundaries, and for that we couldnt be more grateful.

Step Up to the Plate is part of The 60th Project, a year-long initiative to mark Rogers 60th anniversary by giving back and building a stronger Canada  from donations of time, money and fundraising support, to investing in Canada and the networks that connect our customers from coast-to-coast-to coast. We are bringing this commitment to life by partnering with community organizations like Food Banks Canada, Womens Shelters Canada, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and Pflag; investing in a 100% Canadian-based Customer Service team and in our networks to help Canadas economy thrive and grow; and connecting the next generation to education and the support they need to build a bright future. The 60th Project is about making hope possible, right here, in the Canadian communities we call home.

And with Step Up to the Plate and other initiatives this year, our Rogers family  all 25,000 strong, including here in B.C.  will come together to give back an unprecedented 60,000 volunteer hours. With action, we will stand together with those who need us most, to ensure that all Canadians have an opportunity to move forward to discover a new normal that is better than the one that came before.

About Rogers

Rogers is a proud Canadian company dedicated to making more possible for Canadians each and every day. Our founder, Ted Rogers, purchased his first radio station, CHFI, in 1960. We have grown to become a leading technology and media company that strives to provide the very best in wireless, residential, sports, and media to Canadians and Canadian businesses. Our shares are publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: RCI.A and RCI.B) and on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: RCI). If you want to find out more about us, visit https://about.rogers.com/.

About Food Banks Canada

Food Banks Canada provides national leadership to relieve hunger today and prevent hunger tomorrow in collaboration with the food bank network from coast-to-coast-to-coast. For 40 years, food banks have been dedicated to helping Canadians living with food insecurity. Over 3,000 food banks and community agencies come together to serve our most vulnerable neighbours who  last year  made 1.1 million visits to these organizations in one month alone, according to our HungerCount report. Over the past 10 years, as a system weve sourced and shared over 1.4 billion pounds of food and Food Banks Canada shared nearly $70 million in funding to help maximize collective impact and strengthen local capacity  while advocating for reducing the need for food banks. Our vision is clear: create a Canada where no one goes hungry. Visit www.foodbankscanada.ca to learn more.

For more information:



Rogers, media@rci.rogers.com , 647-747-5118

Greater Vancouver Food Bank, reception@foodbank.bc.ca , 604-876-3601

Central Okanagan Food Bank, info@cofoodbank.com , 250-768-1559

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a5dd3054-febc-4f4f-b26c-d03f24d9fa41




Donald Trump was stating a fact when he said that children are less susceptible to Covid-19, a White House official has said after Facebook removed a post in which the president made false claims about the virus.

Courtney Parella, deputy national press secretary, accused Facebook and Twitter of flagrant bias after the tech giants penalised Trump and his campaign team for promoting a video in which the president claimed children are almost immune from the disease.

The president was stating a fact that children are less susceptible to the coronavirus, Ms Parella said in a statement. Another day, another display of Silicon Valleys flagrant bias against this president, where the rules are only enforced in one direction. Social media companies are not the arbiters of truth.

The row relates to comments Trump made in a call in with Fox News on Wednesday. If you look at children, children are almost  and I would almost say definitely  but almost immune from this disease, he told the network.

So few, theyve got stronger, hard to believe, I dont know how you feel about it, but theyve got much stronger immune systems than we do somehow for this, he added. And they dont have a problem, they just dont have a problem.

A recording of the interview was uploaded to Trumps Facebook page. But officials at the firm later removed the post, saying it had violated the social media platforms policies around harmful COVID misinformation. It is the first time Facebook has made such a move.

The @TeamTrump Twitter page also posted a clip from the interview, which was later retweeted by the presidents offical account. Twitter subsequently banned @TeamTrump from tweeting until the post had been removed.

A spokesperson for Twitter said the post violated its rules on coronavirus misinformation. @TeamTrump later removed the tweet and was posting again on Wednesday evening  the post also disappered from the presidents official account.

YouTube also said it had pulled down a video containing the presidents false claims.

In his interview with Fox News, Trump had been discussing the reopening of schools in America, a topic that is being fiercely debated.

The comments came as many schools throughout the US announce reopening plans and prepare for students to return, with some already returning to classrooms beginning this month.

The president on Wednesday also reiterated his claim that virus is going away, despite a surge of new infections in a number of states, particularly in the south and west.

Itll go away, like things go away, he told reporters at his daily news briefing. No question in my mind, sooner rather than later.

Meanwhile, Dr Anthony Fauci, a White House coronavirus task force member, said he thinks the disease may never be eradicated.

I dont think were going to eradicate this from the planet because its such a highly transmissible virus that that seems unlikely, he told Reuters.

But what I think we can do with the combination of a good vaccine and attention to public health measures  by attention I dont mean shut down, I mean things that are just prudent  then I think we can get behind this.

We may need to go through a season of it and then by next season, if we have a vaccine, it wont be a pandemic, it wont be immobilising the world, it wont be destroying the economy, he added.

As of Thursday morning, the US had reported 4.8 million infections and recorded 159,000 deaths  the highest number of cases and fatalities in the world.
James Corden and Stephen Colbert will regain a sense of normalcy when they begin filming in a studio again.

Corden, 41, and Colbert, 56, are set to return to sound stages next week, though the hosts will be filming without an audience present, according to Deadline.

Their move back to the studio follows Jimmy Fallon's return to the Tonight Show set two weeks ago.

Back at it: James Corden, 41, and Stephen Colbert, 56, will return to filming their CBS late night shows on sound stages next week, according to Deadline

Taking precautions: Colbert, who hosts The Late Show, and Corden, who hosts The Late, Late Show, will both film without live audiences due to the coronavirus pandemic

ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish revealed the end of their at-home filming on Thursday morning during the company's earnings call.

'Colbert and Corden will be returning to their buildings next week, albeit with no audience,' he said.

All of the late night hosts began filming from home in March as the coronavirus began to spread throughout the United States.

Colbert hosts CBS' flagship late night series The Late show, while Corden is on just after him with The Late, Late Show.

On July 24, the former Daily Show correspondent said he wouldn't 'be in the Ed Sullivan Theater, but I also wont be sleeping where I work,' just before he went on a two-week vacation.

From the top: 'Colbert and Corden will be returning to their buildings next week, albeit with no audience,' ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish revealed on an earnings call Thursday

Back to work: Jimmy Fallon became the first host to return to his studio two weeks ago, while Conan O'Brien (pictured) has been filming at LA's intimate Largo at the Coronet

In addition to Fallon, Conan O'Brien has moved his late-night show out of his home, though he has been filming at the intimate Los Angeles theater Largo at the Coronet, before he eventually moves back onto his sound stage.

Colbert, who normally filmed in New York, has been shooting his show from his New Jersey home with the help of his wife Evelyn McGee-Colbert.

Meanwhile, Corden has been making a more straight-laced attempt at hosting from home in LA with his usual suit and tie.

Prim and proper: Corden has been appearing form his LA home in his usual suit and tie, while Colbert has been more casual from his New Jersey home

He's out: Corden was reportedly eyed as a potential replacement for Ellen DeGeneres after she was accused of creating a toxic work environment, but sources with her production company denied that he was in the running; pictured in January

The Cats star was recently the subject of speculation after it was suggested he might get his own daytime talk show to replace Ellen DeGeneres, who has come under fire for fostering an alleged culture of workplace misconduct.

DailyMail.com reported exclusively that Corden would not take over her time slot.

'James Corden is definitely not under consideration as he has a long term deal with CBS and if he was interested in a daytime show, CBS would develop one for him. Regardless, he's busy enough in late night so it's not going to happen,' said an insider with Telepictures, the company that produces The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

The Into The Woods star has been beset by his own rumors of workplace rudeness in the past.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 02:18:55|Editor: huaxia

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UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council on Wednesday condemned Monday's terrorist attack that took place at a prison complex in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, which resulted in at least 29 people killed, for which the Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility.

In a press statement, the members of the Security Council expressed their deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims and to the government of Afghanistan, and they wished a speedy and full recovery to those who were injured.

The council members underlined the need to hold perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice, and urged all states to cooperate actively with the government of Afghanistan and all other relevant authorities in this regard.

They said terrorism in all forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security, and stressed the need for all states to combat by all means threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts. Enditem
Katie Price has left fans horrified after showing off what her real teeth look like with her veneers removed.

The 42-year-old media personality uploaded a new video to her YouTube account, where she gave fans a behind-the-scenes glimpse of her recent trip to Turkey.

Fans have been left horrified by Katie Price's real teeth. Photo: YouTube/Katie Price

Katie flew to Turkey to get her veneers redone, revealing that she thought why not? about taking a holiday to get more tanned and just have a laugh.

The UK star and her new boyfriend Carl Woods are thought to have got his and hers dentist work done in Turkey.

RELATED:

Showing fans a teaser of the procedure she got done in the dentists chair, Katie revealed her natural teeth, with many taking to social media to call them terrifying.

That video of Katie Prices teeth will haunt my memories for quite some time, one person said.

The TV star flew to Turkey to have her teeth redone. Photo: YouTube/Katie Price

Saw a picture of Katie Price teeth earlier and oh my god! Its pure nightmare. Why the hell would anyone do that to their natural teeth? I winced so hard while on the train when I saw those pictures, another person said.

Others said it would put them off getting veneers for life, however this isnt Katies first time having work done on her teeth.

Back in 2017, she revealed that she had suffered an allergic reaction after getting dental work in Turkey.

"They gave me antibiotics. And on my way home I was really ill, she said on the talk show, Loose Women.

"I'm allergic to penicillin and [I discovered the pills contained penicillin]..."

Katie Price flew to Turkey with her new boyfriend. Photo: YouTube/Katie Price

The star broke both of her feet after jumping over a wall. Photo: Instagram/Katie Price

While she explained that her mouth was left bruised and stitches were required, she said she was happy with her new million dollar smile.

While on holiday in Turkey this time, Katie also caused shock when she broke both her feet after jumping over a wall.

Her 13-year-old daughter, Princess, told her Instagram followers in a live this week that her mum might not be able to walk for the next year.

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Shell be in a wheelchair for three to six months  but she wont walk for a year, she said.

Click here to sign up to our daily newsletter to get all the latest news and hacks. Or if you have a story tip, email us at lifestyle.tips@verizonmedia.com.
Tik Tok logo seen displayed on a smartphone. (Omar Marques/SOPA Images/Sipa USA/PA Images)

TikTok will spend 420m (378m, $497.5m) opening its first European data centre in Ireland, it has announced.

The centre, which will store videos, messages and other data generated by European users, is expected to be operational by 2022.

Currently, all TikTok data is stored at centres in the US and Singapore. This includes users' ages, passwords, email addresses, phone numbers, stored contacts, GPS coordinates, IP addresses, device information, web browsing and search histories, anything posted online, payment information, keystroke patterns and screen tap rhythms, among other things.

TikTok has vowed to improve the safeguarding and protection of TikTok data at this base, following evaluation of security practices that were implemented when the platform was smaller but may no longer work at its current scale.

READ MORE: TikTok's UK headquarters in doubt as US considers ban

Companies get into trouble when they assume that systems, technologies, policies, and practices that were sufficient at one point in time will work forever, chief information security officer Roland Cloutier said in April.

TikTok previously launched its EMEA Trust & Safety Hub in Dublin at the start of the year, making the country a key player in its European expansion, and solidifying its long-term commitment to Ireland, the company said.

IDA Ireland CEO Martin Shanahan said: TikToks decision to establish its first European data centre in Ireland, representing a substantial investment here by the company, is very welcome and, following on from the establishment of its EMEA Trust & Safety Hub in Dublin earlier in the year, positions Ireland as an important location in the companys global operations.

Meanwhile, ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns the video-sharing app, is set to move its headquarters from Beijing to London, after talks with the UK government, several media outlets reported earlier this week.

READ MORE: Highest earning TikTok influencers 2020

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This comes as US president Donald Trump considers banning the app in the US unless it is bought by an American firm and gives the government a sizable portion of the purchase price.

Trump has accused TikTok and other Chinese companies of providing data to the Chinese government.

While ByteDance denies this, it is in talks to sell its US, Canada, New Zealand and Australian business to Microsoft.
A police officer was caught in a sting operation at Cheltenham Festival by colleagues after stealing money from a lost wallet that was handed in to him, a court has heard.

Matthew Rollason, 38, who served with Gloucestershire Police, was on duty and in uniform when he was given the wallet with two wads of cash inside by a member of the public at the races in March 2019.

Bristol Crown Court heard he removed one of the bundles of cash, believed to be around 100, before handing the item in to lost property at the festival.

Two days later, undercover officers from his force's anti-corruption unit carried out an 'integrity test' on Rollason, handing him a purse containing 200 in cash.

Matthew Rollason, 38, was handed 12-months in prison suspended for two years after pleading guilty to two counts of theft at Bristol Crown Court. Rollason stole cash from a wallet handed to him by a member of the public and then 200 from a purse used in a sting by fellow officers

CCTV footage revealed Rollason removed the notes, which had been marked, before bringing the purse to the event's lost property area.

Rollason was later arrested and resigned from the force after admitting he had stolen the money on both occasions.

Judge Michael Longman sentenced Rollason, who pleaded guilty to two counts of theft, to 12 months in prison suspended for two years and ordered him to pay 300 of compensation and 300 in prosecution costs.

'These offences were as inexplicable as they were inexcusable,' the judge told Rollason.

'At the time, you were on duty at Cheltenham Races. Someone lost a wallet and it was handed to you.

'You took it to lost property but you stole, it seems, about 100 from it.

'An integrity test was carried out which you failed, stealing 200 from a purse handed in by someone who was in fact another police officer.

'It is difficult to think of a more egregious breach of trust than a police officer, on duty, in uniform, stealing money entrusted to him by one member of the public and belonging to another.'

The judge ordered Rollason to carry out a rehabilitation activity for 18 months and adhere to a curfew between 11pm and 7am for six months.

Rollason, who pleaded guilty to the theft charges at the earliest opportunity, had no financial reason to take the money, the court heard.

He had joined the force as a PCSO in 2005 before becoming a police officer in 2007, serving his community 'blamelessly' until the thefts, the judge said.

Judge Longman told Rollason there was 'strong personal mitigation' in the case.

Prosecuting, Mary Cowe told how racegoer Stephen Gooch lost his wallet containing two bundles of cash - one of 15 and the other of about 100 - at the races on March 12 last year.

A member of the public handed the wallet to Rollason, who took it to lost property.

When Mr Gooch collected it, the larger bundle of money was missing.

Rollason was on duty and in uniform at the Cheltenham Festival (pictured) when a member of the public handed him a wallet full of cash which had been misplaced by its owner

On March 14, anti-corruption officers at Gloucestershire Police posed as members of the public and handed a purse containing 200 to Rollason.

When Rollason was interviewed, he admitted it had been 'a moment of absolute stupidity', Ms Cowe said.

'He said he thought whichever drunk person dropped it wouldn't know the difference,' she told the court.

Fiona Elder, representing Rollason, said her client was of previous good character but had 'pressed the self-destruct button' while working at the races by stealing the money.

'It was almost a release of pressure. Whether he was trying to wreck his career, he certainly achieved that,' she said.

'He acted in a way which was entirely out of character and pressed a button he couldn't go back from.'

Ms Elder said her client was currently holding down three jobs and had given many hours of service as an NHS volunteer responder during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Hiroshima

The dwindling witnesses to the world's first atomic bombing marked its 75th anniversary Thursday, with Hiroshima's mayor and others noting as hypocritical the Japanese government's refusal to sign a nuclear weapons ban treaty.

Mayor Kazumi Matsui urged world leaders to more seriously commit to nuclear disarmament, pointing out Japan's failures.

"I ask the Japanese government to heed the appeal of the (bombing survivors) to sign, ratify and become a party to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons," Matsui said in his peace declaration. "As the only nation to suffer a nuclear attack, Japan must persuade the global public to unite with the spirit of Hiroshima."

His speech highlights what survivors feel is the hypocrisy of Japan's government, which hosts 50,000 American troops and is protected by the U.S. nuclear umbrella. Tokyo has not signed the nuclear weapons ban treaty adopted in 2017, despite its non-nuclear pledge, a failure to act that atomic bombing survivors and pacifist groups call insincere.

The U.S. dropped its first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, destroying the city and killing 140,000 people. The U.S. dropped a second bomb three days later on Nagasaki, killing another 70,000. Japan surrendered Aug. 15, ending World War II and its nearly half-century of aggression in Asia.

Survivors, their relatives and other participants marked the 8:15 a.m. blast anniversary with a minute of silence.

Thursday's peace ceremony at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park was scaled down because of the coronavirus pandemic. The fewer than 1,000 attendees was one-tenth of those attending in past years.

Some survivors and their relatives prayed at the park's cenotaph before the ceremony. The registry of the atomic bombing victims is stored at the cenotaph, whose inscription reads "Let all the souls here rest in peace for we shall not repeat the mistake."

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, at the ceremony, said Japan is committed to nuclear weapons ban but a nuclear free world cannot be achieved overnight and that it has to start from dialogue between opposite sides.

"Japan's position is to serve as a bridge between different sides and patiently promote their dialogue and actions to achieve a world without nuclear weapons," Abe said. Nuclear policies are divided amid a harsh security environment, so it is necessary to create common ground first, he said.

An aging group of survivors, known as hibakusha, feel a growing urgency to tell their stories, in hopes of reaching a younger generation.

On the 75th anniversary, elderly survivors, whose average age now exceeds 83, lamented the slow progress of nuclear disarmament.

They expressed anger over what they said was the Japanese government's reluctance to help and listen to those who suffered from the atomic bombing.

"Abe's words and actions don't seem to match," said Manabu Iwasa, 47, who came to the park to pray for his father, a survivor who died at age 87 in March. "Japan apparently sides with the U.S. and make more effort toward nuclear weapons ban," he said. "It's frustrating, but there is not much we individuals can do."
Three men have fronted court accused of murdering and stealing drugs from a 43-year-old man while armed with a rubber mallet in Melbourne's east almost a year ago.

Benjamin Nagy, 23, Jake Oldis, 23, and Tomas Cugurno-Pfabe, 26, were arrested on Friday morning and charged with murder and armed robbery.

The 43-year-old man was found dead in the caravan on September 15, 2019. Credit:Tate Papworth

The arrests came 11 months after the body of Bradley Crawford was discovered inside a caravan which was parked in the driveway of a home on Borg Crescent in Scoresby on September 15 last year.

A fourth person, a 29-year-old Mornington woman, was arrested at Melbourne Airport on Thursday over the death and also charged with murder and armed robbery. She faced court on Thursday where she was remanded in custody.
TDT | Manama

Bahrains fight against Irans terrorism financing is not simply a battle of ideals waged in the shadows, but also an ongoing campaign for transparency and global stability, the Kingdoms Ambassador to the US Shaikh Abdulla bin Rashid Al Khalifa has stressed. In a commentary he wrote for US News and World Report, Shaikh Abdulla highlighted how Bahrain is fighting terror through transparent banking laws.

The US government rightly labels Iran as the worlds leading state-sponsor of terrorism, he wrote. Its clerical regime exercises direct or indirect control over most of the countrys largest financial and commercial institutions to allegedly train, finance and equip a global network of proxy forces in the Middle East, South Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Iran has had historical claims over Bahraini sovereignty and the Kingdom continues to be a target of Irans efforts to expand its sphere of influence and hegemony since the revolution, he added. More ominously, the Iranian regime has consistently used all the tools of its national power to destabilise our nation, which, though territorially small, serves as a critical linchpin in the security architecture of the Middle East, he said.

In partnership with US agencies, Bahrain recently took down a key node of Irans global money laundering network. Future Bank was established in 2004 by two Iranian state-owned banksBank Melli and Bank Saderatand a local Bahraini bank, Ahli United Bank. However, by 2008, the US Treasury Department designated Future Bank as being controlled by an entity linked to Irans proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) placed Future Bank under administration following its own investigation into its activities and required time in order to examine the banks accounts. Following a comprehensive audit, the CBB found that Future Bank had engaged in systematic and wholesale violations of Bahrains banking laws and regulations.

There was widespread large-value international financial activity found to be in violation of anti-money laundering and anti-sanctions proliferations laws of numerous countries, including those of Bahrain. The modalities of Irans fraud offer useful insights into how the worlds number one sponsor of international terror operates.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 22:16:35|Editor: huaxia

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LUSAKA, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Zambia on Thursday reported 23 COVID-19 deaths in a single day, the health ministry said on Thursday.

This brings the death toll to 199 since the outbreak of the pandemic in March this year.

Ministry of Health Spokesperson Abel Kabalo told a daily COVID-19 briefing that the country recorded 142 new cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the cumulative cases to 7,164.

The new cases were picked from 724 tests conducted, he added.

The country also discharged 118 patients from isolation facilities in the last 24 hours, bringing the total recoveries to 5,786.

He expressed concern that disregard of preventive measures has continued in the country, adding that this will make the fight against the pandemic difficult. Enditem
Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Thursday ordered a probe by the director general of police into the communal clash in Sonitpur district over the 'bhoomi pujan' for the Ram temple at Ayodhya as an indefinite curfew was clamped and the Army conducted flag march in the troubled areas.

The indefinite curfew has been clamped in areas under Thelamara and Dhekiajuli police stations in the district after the clashes took place at Bhora Singori and Goruduba villages under Paschim Borgaon panchayat on Wednesday after a bike rally by Bajrang Dal activists to celebrate the foundation laying of the temple at Ayodhya, officials said.

The Army conducted the flag march at the request of the district administration and the situation is "fully under control", the police said.

"The DGP has been asked to probe the incident. At the same time, I appeal to all to maintain peace and calm. We should live as brothers," Sonowal said at a police function in Guwahati.

Sonitpur Additional Superintendent of Police Numal Mahata said the Army conducted the flag march at the request of the district administration during the midnight of Wednesday in the areas under Thelamara police station.

"We have already detained two persons for questioning. There is no report of any untoward incident since last night.The situation is fully under control," he said.

Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Gyanendra Pratap Singh visited the affected areas to assess the situation and hold discussions with senior officials ofthe district.

"As per our preliminary investigation, the clash first took place at Bhora Singori and then at Goruduba. We have registered three cases at Thelamara police station and are questioning the two detained persons," he told reporters.

Two cases were registered in regard to the clashes at the two villages, while the third one is related to the attack on the vehicles of the officials, including the deputy commissioner.

"We are trying to collect mobile phone recordings of the clash to identify the culprits. I have instructed the DIG and SP to establish the sequence of events and proceed accordingly," he said.

The ADGP said that around 12 people from both sides were injured in the clash. Their injuries were, however, "very minor". "Additional forces have reached the spot, the Army conducted a flag march and four new police pickets have been posted in the troubled areas. The situation is under control now," Singh said.

Sonitpur Superintendent of Police Mugdhajyoti Dev Mahanta is camping in the area since Wednesday evening and is monitoring the situation.

The clash took place on Wednesday afternoon when a large number of bikers of the Bajrang Dal shouting 'Jai Shri Ram' and playing loud music went to a Shiv temple at Bhora Singori under Thelamara police station in a procession without any permission.

A senior official said that local people had objected to the group playing loud music and protested against the holding of a large rally during the pandemic which led to heated arguments that turned ugly.

As the news of the clash spread, people of neighbouring Goruduba village blocked the road by placing logs and even dug it up to stop the movement of the bikers. Both sides clashed there too.

Sonitpur Deputy Commissioner Manvendra Pratap Singh, who rushed to the spot, was attacked by both groups who threw stones at him and smashed the windscreen of his official vehicle.

"To control the situation, which had turned into a communal clash, police first lathicharged and then fired in the air. We have deployed additional forces after many bikes and other vehicles were burnt The bikers did not have any permission for the procession," Singh had said.

The Bajrang Dal activists were equipped with sharp weapons and several bikes and a four-wheeler belonging to them were set on fire during the clash, he had added.

Assam Congress spokesperson Apurba Kumar Bhattacharjee questioned the government on how "BJP supporters" took out a rally violating all regulations. "The clash took place because of the administration'sfailure. We demand a judicial probe into the clashes," he added.

BJP spokesperson Hemanga Thakuria alleged that the clash is the outcome of a nexus between a section of theCongress, AIUDF and the Left, which instigated the people.
A Togolese civil society coalition on Wednesday accused the government of spying on the public after it was reported that six critics of President Faure Gnassingbe, including Catholic leaders, had been victims of a hacking campaign. According to an investigation published on Monday by the French daily Le Monde and Britain's Guardian newspaper, individuals in Togo were alerted by WhatsApp last year that their mobile phones had been targeted in a spyware attack. "We are in a police state that uses and abuses espionage against its own citizens," David Dosseh, spokesman for the FCTD, an umbrella organisation of civil society groups, told AFP. Quoting from a lawsuit filed by WhatsApp against the Israeli firm NSO Group, the newspapers said 1,400 users around the world had been targeted by a sophisticated eavesdropping tool called Pegasus. According to details in the lawsuit, the technology would have potentially given access to emails, texts and images, and could also have been used for recording by remotely operating a phone's camera and microphone. In Togo, the software was reportedly used against opponents, civil society activists and Catholic clerics, including the president of the Togolese Bishops' Conference, Benoit Alowonou, who is known for his activism. Elliott Ohin, a former government minister who is in the opposition party, and Raymond Houndjo, a close associate of a leading opposition politician were also named in the report. The investigation "confirms and provides material evidence of a situation that many suspected," said Dosseh. "Many Togolese are afraid of being followed, especially spied on, when they are members of civil society or opponents," he said. Gnassingbe, who was re-elected this year for a fourth term, has led the country of eight million people since taking over in 2005 after the death of his father Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled with an iron fist for 38 years. The government, contacted by AFP, did not comment on the international investigation, which also found targets of the attacks included journalists in India and Morocco, political activists from Rwanda and Catalan separatist politicians in Spain. "Faure Gnassingbe's regime exceeds all the limits of political decency," Nathaniel Olympio, president of the opposition Togolese People's Party, told AFP. "Weapons intended to fight terrorism have been turned against opponents, clerics and human rights defenders," he said.
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse)  Thu, August 6, 2020 10:06 531 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066bee599 2 Science & Tech astronauts,space,robot,sex-toys Free

Although they are trained to live in isolated spaces for long periods, astronauts are still human beings, and some human needs become difficult to ignore over time.

Among these are emotional and sexual needs, and a solution for this may be found in erobots, an inventive new technology in the sexual domain.

Researchers Simon Dube (Concordia University) and Dave Anctil (Laval University) are pioneers in the field.

Erobotics: Robotics in service of human sexuality

Sex toys have long existed as an aid for sexual satisfaction.

According to the two researchers, however, the social dimensions of human sexuality cannot be satisfied by these objects. This is where erobots' come in.

The term is a combination of the words "erotic" and "robot", and refers to all robotic technologies developed around human sexuality. Examples of these are sex robots, erotic chatbots, and even virtual or augmented reality partners.

They are intended to provide enough physical and/or emotional intimacy to calm astronauts' impulses and anxieties stemming from their isolation.

Immersive and interactive experiences could even be made possible by combining erobots and sex toys. The researchers consider erobotics a potential entirely new field of study.



Read also: Space explorers wanted: NASA seeks next generation of astronauts

Emotional and sexual needs are far from trivial

When confronted with the many taboos surrounding sexuality, the researchers point to science, which has demonstrated that sexual and emotional needs are a fundamental part of human nature.

These needs could even compromise a mission if they are not taken into account by space research.

Simon Dube and Dave Anctil argue that abstinence may not work for everyone and that erobotics are still the best solution to the question of human sexuality in space.

Necessary ethical considerations

Other researchers go further and are imagining further benefits which erobotics could provide.

This interdisciplinary field could benefit the astronauts' overall health, for example by monitoring their vital statistics.

Erobotics could also be used for education and research. No fewer than 18 scientists have examined these considerations in the MIT Press' publication Robot Sex.
When Tyla-Simone Crayton was a kid, her mom would have "wings and wine Wednesdays" with her aunts in their apartment in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. On one Wednesday, when Crayton was 8, her mother realized she had no sauce for the homemade chicken wings. Crayton, who calls herself a "curious kid" who was "always making inventions," decided she would try to recreate the unique, sweet-tasting sauce of her favorite wing restaurant, which had recently closed. Crayton and her mom "threw a bunch of random things" together and the resulting sauce was hit. "What I ended up making was totally different and so much better," Crayton says. "It's been history since then." Indeed, the concoction became Crayton's "signature sauce," one that the now 17-year-old sells for nearly $10 a bottle and in 70 stores across the U.S. Called Sienna Sauce, the barbecue-style sauce sells at big name stores like Walmart, and in 2019, the business brought in $192,000 in revenue, according to Crayton.

'People love the sauce!'

For years after they invented it, Crayton and her mother, Monique Crayton, made the sauce for family gatherings. And for years, Crayton begged her mom to let her sell it. After all, Monique, who had multiple side hustles to make ends meet (like selling handmade hats and baskets online), "shaped me and taught me about entrepreneurship and always allowed it to be an option," Crayton says. But it wasn't until Crayton was a teen that Monique relented. In 2017, the Craytons were living in Sienna Plantation, Texas (where they moved when Crayton was 9), and they decided to open a pop up restaurant night in their home. Crayton had pitched the idea to her mom in order to prove that her sauce could capture a customer base. Monique agreed, and Crayton and Monique went to the local meat house to buy chicken wings and spent the day preparing the food and sauce. Crayton used social media and handed out fliers to get the word out. "We were set up in the kitchen with four deep fryers with an extension cord running in the house and outside to the backyard for power," Crayton says. "We turned our front dining room into our waiting area for customers and we took orders and payments there." Crayton and Monique set up a menu on a dry erase board, charging between $12.95 and $30.95 per meal. "It was amazing," Crayton says. "Friends, family and local neighbors [all came to] support our first night." It was so successful, Crayton and Monique decided to make it a regular gig. From that April through December, the pair sold anywhere from 700 to 1,000 wings every Friday night, Crayton says  and brought in $48,000. "Initially, we didn't know if people would come to our house to pick up food from strangers," Monique says. But "people love the sauce!" Based on the success of their makeshift restaurant, Monique agreed to let her then-14-year-old daughter bottle and sell Sienna Sauce, which they named after their town, starting in 2018. "I saw the dream in her and she was committed to her brand and I respected her for that," Monique says.

From a $1,500 loan to a business making 6 figures

To launch the business, Monique gave Crayton $1,500 "to buy my first couple of bottles and get my labels from Office Depot," Crayton says. "I would hand-make [the sauce] in the kitchen every Sunday morning," says Crayton, then "sell a couple of bottles" to former customers of her home restaurant, who she reached out to because she knew they liked the the sauce. Then they would "buy some more," she says. The first sauce Crayton bottled and sold was called Tangy, which has a zesty taste and retailed for $9.95 for a 12-ounce bottle (the same price it sells for now). Business began to pick up after Sienna Sauce caught the eye of a local television station and Crayton made her TV debut. At that point, customers began to ask for more options. Crayton experimented in her kitchen and developed two more flavors: Spicy and Lemon Pepper. All three flavors are gluten free and have no high fructose corn syrup, she says. Sienna Sauce flavors: Lemon Pepper, Tangy and Spicy. Courtesy of Tyla-Simone Crayton and Monique Crayton "If you listen to people, they'll tell you exactly what they want," Crayton says. To spend more time on her business, Crayton, who is home-schooled, took extra lessons on Mondays and Tuesdays so she could spend Wednesday through Friday working on the business as CEO. And in June 2018, Monique quit her job as a human resources operations manager to become Sienna Sauce's full-time COO. She also invested her life's savings  $10,000  in the business. "She's my daughter and the goal is to help bring her dreams to life," Monique says. By the end of 2018, Crayton was able to afford a manufacturer and ramp up production of her sauce. By 2019, Crayton's Sienna Sauce started winning competitions: that August, Crayton won $25,000 from a Good Morning America side hustle contest; in October, she won $10,000 at the Revolt Summit Pitch Competition; and in April, she won another $10,000 at the Essence and New Voices Target Accelerators Pitch Competition. Tyla-Simone Crayton in her kitchen. Courtesy of Tyla-Simone Crayton and Monique Crayton Along with the money, Crayton's brand got attention from investors  including Grammy-award winning rapper and investor Hakeem "Chamillionaire" Seriki. Crayton set up an investment campaign for Sienna Sauce on crowd-funding platform Republic, and Seriki invested an undisclosed amount in February. (The Craytons declined to share the amount.) "Sienna Sauce was a runner up in my pitch competition and I really liked tracking this company," Seriki wrote on Republic. "I invested in Sienna Sauce because I back startups that have domain expertise, resiliency, and a roadmap that I believe could potentially lead to success." (Seriki did not immediately respond to CNBC Make It's request for comment.) "It was amazing," Crayton says of the investment. "Since then, we've gotten a bunch of investors that we're so grateful for and blessed for  over 1,000 investors," Crayton says. "And with Covid-19, I was even more grateful because all of us, in some way, are going through something. The fact that these people still invested in me, my company, my dream, during this hard time, it was amazing." In total, through Republic, Sienna Sauce raised about $200,000 from outside investors. Soon Crayton's business also caught the attention of none other than Beyonce. On Juneteenth, Beyonce announced that all proceeds from her single "Black Parade" would benefit dozens of Black-owned businesses, including Sienna Sauce. "It's all coming together," Crayton says of the nod. With this support, Crayton built out the Sienna Sauce website, which accounts for the largest bulk of sales. "Our biggest selling platform is our e-commerce, our website," she says. "We also are in 70 stores [like Wegmans supermarket], so that's the next bulk of revenue. And then, we have Amazon, Walmart.com and other e-commerce platforms to be added this year." In 2021, the business got a bit bigger  on Friday's episode of ABC's "Shark Tank," Crayton and Monique landed a $100,000 investment from guest Shark Kendra Scott, CEO of her namesake jewelry line, in exchange for 20% of their company. "It's amazing. Now we have a deal with a Shark," Crayton said during the episode. "This is going to take our company to another level and the future is endless."

Becoming 'the new ketchup'
Researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Jilin University in Changchun/China investigated a highly promising anode material for future high-performance batteries  lithium lanthanum titanate with a perovskite crystal structure (LLTO).

As the team reported in the Nature Communications journal, LLTO can improve the energy density, power density, charging rate, safety, and cycle life of batteries without requiring a decrease of the particle size from micro to nano scale. (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17233-1)

The demand for electric vehicles is increasing, accompanied by a growing need for smart grids that ensure a sustainable energy supply. These and other mobile and stationary technologies require suitable batteries. Storing as much energy as possible in the smallest possible space with the lowest possible weight  lithium-ion batteries (LIB) still meet this requirement best. The research aims at improving the energy

density, power density, safety, and cycle life of these batteries. The electrode material is of major importance here. Anodes of lithium-ion batteries consist of a current collector and an active material applied to it that stores energy in the form of chemical bonds. In most cases, graphite is used as the active material.

However, negative electrodes made of graphite have a low charging rate. Moreover, they are associated with safety issues. Among the alternative active materials, lithium titanate oxide (LTO) has already been commercialized.

Negative electrodes with LTO present a higher charging rate and are considered to be safer than those made of graphite. The drawback is that lithium-ion batteries with lithium titanate oxide tend to have a lower energy density.

The demand for electric vehicles is increasing, accompanied by a growing need for smart grids that ensure a sustainable energy supply. These and other mobile and stationary technologies require suitable batteries. Storing as much energy as possible in the smallest possible space with the lowest possible weight  lithium-ion batteries (LIB) still meet this requirement best.

The research aims at improving the energy density, power density, safety, and cycle life of these batteries. The electrode material is of major importance here. Anodes of lithium-ion batteries consist of a current collector and an active material applied to it that stores energy in the form of chemical bonds. In most cases, graphite is used as the active material.

However, negative electrodes made of graphite have a low charging rate. Moreover, they are associated with safety issues. Among the alternative active materials, lithium titanate oxide (LTO) has already been commercialized. Negative electrodes with LTO present a higher charging rate and are considered to be safer than those made of graphite. The drawback is that lithium-ion batteries with lithium titanate oxide tend to have a lower energy density.

The team around Professor Helmut Ehrenberg, head of the Institute for Applied Materials  Energy Storage Systems (IAM-ESS) of KIT, now investigated another highly promising anode material: lithium lanthanum titanate with a perovskite crystal structure (LLTO). According to the study, which was carried out in collaboration with scientists from Jilin University in Changchun (China) and other research institutes in China and Singapore, LLTO anodes have a lower electrode potential compared to commercialized LTO anodes, which allows for a higher cell voltage and a higher capacity.

Cell voltage and storage capacity ultimately determine the energy density of a battery, explains Ehrenberg. In the future, LLTO anodes might be used to build particularly safe high-performance cells with a long cycle life. The study contributes to the work of the research platform for electrochemical storage, CELEST (Center for Electrochemical Energy Storage Ulm & Karlsruhe), one of the largest battery research platforms worldwide, which also includes the POLiS excellence cluster.

Besides energy density, power density, safety and cycle life, the charging rate is another determining factor for the suitability of a battery for demanding applications. In principle, the maximum discharge current and the minimum charging time depend on the ion and electron transport both within the solid body and at the interfaces between the electrode and electrolyte materials. To improve the charging rate, it is common practice to reduce the particle size of the electrode material from micro to nano scale.

The study, which was published in the Nature Communications journal by KIT researchers and their cooperation partners, shows that even particles of a few micrometers in size in LLTOs with a perovskite structure feature a higher power density and a better charging rate than LTO nanoparticles.

The research team attributes this to the so-called pseudocapacitance of LLTO: Not only are individual electrons attached to this anode material, but also charged ions, which are bound by weak forces and can reversibly transfer charges to the anode. Thanks to the larger particles, LLTO basically enables simpler and more cost-effective electrode manufacturing processes, explains Ehrenberg.

###

Original publication (Open Access):

Lu Zhang, Xiaohua Zhang, Guiying Tian, Qinghua Zhang, Michael Knapp, Helmut Ehrenberg, Gang Chen, Zexiang Shen, Guochun Yang, Lin Gu & Fei Du: Lithium lanthanum titanate perovskite as an anode for lithium ion batteries. Nature Communications, 2020. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17233-1

More about the KIT Energy Center: http://www. energie. kit. edu

Further material:

Publication in Nature Communications:

https:/ / www. nature. com/ articles/ s41467-020-17233-1

Being the Research University in the Helmholtz Association, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 9,300 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 25,100 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.

This press release is available on the internet at http://www. sek. kit. edu/ presse. php
Gandhinagar, Aug 6 : Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, on Thursday ordered a probe into the fire incident at a Ahmedabad Covid hospital which claimed eight lives on Thursday morning.

The Chief Minister ordered the Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), Home Sangeeta Singh and ACS Urban Development Mukesh Puri to submit a report within 3 days.

The CM has also announced an aid of Rs 4 lakh to the next of the kin of the deceased and Rs 50,000 to those injured, from the CM relief fund.

A major fire in the ICU ward of a private dedicated Covid hospital in Ahmedabad claimed the lives of eight patients, including 5 men and 3 women in the wee hours on Thursday. The fire broke out in the ICU ward of 'Shrey hospital', a dedicated Covid-19 hospital in Navrangpura area in Ahmedabad at around 3 a.m. on Thursday.

The prime Minister Narendra Modi has also expressed his condolences for the tragic incident and had a telephonic conversation with the Gujarat CM and Ahmedabad Mayor.

The prime minister tweeted, "Saddened by the tragic hospital fire in Ahmedabad. Condolences to the bereaved families. May the injured recover soon. Spoke to CM @ vijayrupanibjp Ji and Mayor @ibijalpatel Ji regarding the situation. Administration is providing all possible assistance to the affected." The PMO has also announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh for the victim's families and Rs 50,000 for the injured.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has confirmed that 1st Prime Minister of Ukraine (1990-1992) Vitold Fokin will join the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group.

As Zelensky told journalists during a visit to Donbas, 1st Ukrainian president (1991-1994) Leonid Kravchuk, 1st Prime Minister of Ukraine (1990-1992) Vitold Fokin, Vice Prime Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, and First Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Ruslan Demchenko will work in the Trilateral Contact Group.

"We have a fairly powerful group, and I see now increasing number of talks and meetings," the President said, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

According to Zelensky, the first president of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk was appointed as head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group for the peaceful settlement of the situation in Donbas because he has prestige with the population throughout Ukraine, including in the temporarily occupied territory of Donbas.

"Why has Leonid Kravchuk led the delegation? We considered several candidates. I believe that the delegation should be led by a strong, wise, educated person who has prestige with the population throughout Ukraine and in the temporarily occupied areas as well," Zelensky said.

At the same time, he thanked the previous head of the Ukrainian delegation to the TCG, Leonid Kuchma, noting that "he really did a great job, which clearly remains unnoticed by the society as these meetings are closed."

"People only see the report released after the subgroups meetings. But these meetings last many hours in a row. And I am grateful to him [Kuchma] for this work, he got really tired. There is no other reason [for Kuchma to leave the TCG]," Zelensky said.

On July 30, President Zelensky dismissed by decree the second president of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma from the position of head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group and appointed the first president Leonid Kravchuk.

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, August 6, 2020 16:23 530 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c1358d 1 City COVID-19,coronavirus,Aeon-Mall Free

Shopping center AEON Mall BSD City in Tangerang, Banten, will be closed for the next seven days, until Aug. 12, after two of its employees tested positive for COVID-19.

Authorities will sterilize the facility and conduct rapid tests on 1,200 of the mall's employees and tenants.

"We will finish the rapid tests within three days," Tangerang regency secretary Moch. Maesal Rasyid said as quoted by kompas.id on Thursday.

The sterilization process, meanwhile, would take longer than three days, Maesal added.

The employees who tested positive apparently worked in the management room, but authorities have decided to disinfect all parts of the four-story building, inside and outside, including the parking area.

The mall will reopen after the sterilization process complete.

Tangerang COVID-19 task force spokesperson Hendra Tarmizi said the cases were revealed after one of the infected employees visited a local hospital after experiencing symptoms.

"He was suffering from a cold and a headache. His swab test result showed he had contracted COVID-19," Hendra said. (vny)
Amsterdam and the port of Rotterdam on Wednesday made face masks compulsory in certain busy areas including the Dutch capital's Red Light district, as coronavirus infections showed a worrying spike. The new measures come as the number of infections doubled in a week in the country, where more than 55,000 people have now been infected and some 6,150 have died. "We're starting this experiment because we're worried about the increasing number of coronavirus infections," the Amsterdam city council said. "Face masks are compulsory in crowded and busy areas and where other measures didn't work or have adverse economic effects," it said in a statement. Despite council workers handing out free face masks, a mobile van with loudspeakers and police warning people, not everybody heeded the new measures, especially in the Red Light district. Many walked around maskless and law officers said they were only warning people and not handing out fines. "Unfortunately it fits in a bit with the profile of the city," said one Red Light District resident who asked not to be named and who was wearing a multi-coloured mask. "Everything is possible and nothing is ever enforced here," he said. "We are from Germany and I was like... 'what the hell' when I saw people were not wearing masks where its compulsory," added Soph Schaller, 20, a nursery school teacher from Cologne in Germany. "There we are quite used to it and have been wearing masks for a while now," she told AFP. In the port city of Rotterdam, police stopped a group of demonstrators who wanted to march against the enforced wearing of face masks, Dutch media said.
P rosecutors have ruled out bringing homicide charges over the death of a Victorian Station worker Belly Mujinga.

The 47-year-old died with coronavirus two weeks after reportedly being spat at by a passenger claiming to have the disease.

The Crown Prosecution Service's decision came after medical tests confirmed the suspect had not been infected with Covid-19.

Mrs Mujinga left behind her husband and 11-year-old daughter.

British Transport Police (BTP) interviewed a 57-year-old man over the incident.

However, they said there was not enough evidence a crime had taken place, following a review of statements from key witnesses, including colleagues, and CCTV footage.

Belly Mujinga, 47 (left), died of coronavirus after being spat at while on duty / PA

Detectives found there was insufficient evidence of spitting or another action that could lead to infection and concluded Mrs Mujinga's death did not occur because of that incident.

But they asked the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to review the evidence and look into whether there were any further lines of inquiry, following a wave of public anger over Mrs Mujinga's death.

Belly Mujinga, 47 (left), died of coronavirus after being spat at while on duty / PA

Deputy chief Crown prosecutor Suzanne Llewellyn said on Thursday: "Belly Mujinga's death from Covid-19 aged just 47 in April was a heartbreaking event that shocked the country.

"At the request of BTP, following their decision to take no further action in this case, the CPS has now independently reviewed the evidence and advised on any further lines of inquiry that might support a prosecution.

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

"We considered whether charges could be brought in relation to homicide, assault or public order offences.

"As part of this review, we studied enhanced CCTV, forensic materials and witness statements.

"CCTV and witness evidence was insufficiently clear and consistent to substantiate allegations of deliberate coughing or spitting, meaning no charges can be brought for assault or public order offences.

"Medical tests confirmed the suspect had not been infected with coronavirus, which together with the lack of other evidence rules out any charges in relation to homicide.

"Therefore after careful consideration and with all lines of inquiry explored, we have advised BTP no further reliable evidence has become available to change their original decision in this case.

"We have met with the family of Ms Mujinga to explain our reasoning, which we know will be disappointing for them. Our deepest sympathies remain with the family."
If it depended only on Ukraine, there would be principled ceasefire regime, it would be possible to move to next stages of ending war  Zelensky

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky hopes that the regime of a sustainable ceasefire in Donbas will continue, and notes that Ukraine, for its part, is doing everything for this.

"It is hard for me to say and it is difficult to answer in detail in one minute, because we would talk about the ceasefire regimes that were before and that are happening now. Everything can be in life, and we are fighting so that this regime is not violated. However, everything can be, as this is life, you perfectly understand. If everything depended only on our side, then I am sure that now it would be a principled ceasefire regime, and we would move on to the next steps, the next stages of ending the war," he said at a briefing in Thursday in Chasiv Yar in Donetsk region.

Zelensky said that one can talk for hours about violations of the ceasefire regime, and there are many questions and problems.

"We are grateful to our servicemen. The most important thing is that we want to endure this ceasefire regime, and every day just not to lose our soldiers. This is very important for us. I cannot guarantee anything. However, I will tell you that we are doing everything, we are doing a lot of things, both in Ukraine and at meetings in the Minsk format, "he said.
By Akbar Mammadov

The Azerbaijani Armed Forces have stated summer trainings in line with the combat training plan for 2020, the Defense Ministrys website reported on August 5.

The new training period will cover troops, army corps, formations and military units of the Azerbaijani Army.

The training process in the Army will be organized and conducted in accordance with the requirements of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, the orders of the Minister of Defense, taking into consideration the risks and real threats on land, at sea and in the air to increase the level of combat readiness of troops, the ministry said.

In connection with the beginning of the summer training period, a number of inspections were held in military units, the condition of the material and educational base was checked.

The combat readiness training showing its high efficiency and quality on the first day of the training period began in all military units.

---

Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Philadelphia police are seeking a Darby Borough resident and another man in connection with the fatal shooting of 7-year-old Zamar Jones on Saturday.

Jones was shot in the head while playing on his front porch in the 200 block of North Simpson Street in West Philadelphia Saturday evening and was pronounced dead Monday at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia.

Philadelphia police have already arrested Christopher Linder, 27, who faces charges including attempted murder, aggravated assault, and weapons and theft charges for the Aug. 1 shootout.

Linder reportedly drove onto the 200 block of Simpson Street at about 7:30 p.m. and unloaded a hail of gunfire at a group of people standing outside, prompting two others to fire back. Jones was struck and killed as a result of that exchange. Linder allegedly stole another vehicle to make his getaway and was later arrested when he returned for his own car.

Police are still looking for two other gunmen allegedly involved in the shootout: Damar Bashier Jones, 27, whose last known address was in the 2000 block of South Salford Street, and Michael Banks, 30, whose last known addresses include the 2100 block of South Dagget Street in Philadelphia and first block of North 10th Street in Darby.

Both men should be considered armed and dangerous, Philadelphia police have warned. If seen, do not approach the men, but instead contact police at 215-686-TIPS, phillypolice.com, or 911. A $20,000 reward is being offered for their arrest and conviction.
(Bloomberg) --

The coronavirus pandemic is hampering efforts by Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa to sell a stake in Africas largest fiber company.

Masiyiwa is seeking buyers for 20% to 34% of Liquid Telecommunications Holdings Ltd. for as much as $600 million, according to four people with direct knowledge of the matter. He needs the money to repay a $375-million loan that was backed by Public Investment Corp., the continents largest money manager, they said.

The PIC, which oversees the equivalent of $135 billion mainly on behalf of South African government workers, is demanding the issue be resolved by the end of August after granting an extension on the payment earlier this year, the people said. The loan it backed was used to fund a pay-TV venture, which failed last year because Zimbabwes economic woes and currency shortages meant the company couldnt pay suppliers.

The 59-year-old tycoon had pledged shares in Liquid Telecom to the PIC as security for the loan, which had been taken out with Deutsche Bank AG. Masiyiwa was planning to repay the debt from the proceeds of an initial public offering in Liquid Telecom, which was scrapped because of volatile equity markets, the people said.

Read more: PIC Poised to Take Stake in Fiber Company After Deutsche Loan

The founder of Econet Global Ltd., which has interests in mobile-phone network operators and digital-banking operations across the continent, would rather sell part of his 66% stake in Liquid Telecom to avoid surrendering shares in the company at a discount to the PIC, one of the people said.

Masiyiwa hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. earlier this year to sell the stake, but talks with potential investors started unraveling after the Covid-19 outbreak intensified in March, the people said. Buyers wanted more time to assess the economic fallout of lockdowns to contain the virus on Africas economies, they said.

Representatives for the PIC, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and Econet declined to comment.

Story continues

Read more: Zimbabwe President in Fight With Tycoon Over Economy Crash

Liquid Telecom operates in 13 countries in East, Central and southern Africa with data centers in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Nairobi. It also offers cloud-based services from Microsoft Corp., according to its website. U.K. development finance institution CDC Group Plc in December 2018 bought almost 10% of Liquid Telecom for $180 million.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

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2020 Bloomberg L.P.
This article is part of the On Tech newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it weekdays.

Theres a certain type of technology personality that automatically leaps into our imagination. You know him. (Its almost always a him.)

Its the audacious, maybe slightly off kilter, sharp-elbowed technology genius who makes all the magic happen. People like Steve Jobs, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.

Many of us  including journalists like me  are fascinated by these tech geniuses, and we can be quick to turn against them if they make catastrophic mistakes. The fall of singular geniuses is often blamed on their personal flaws. How could he, we ask?

The problem, though, isnt only personal failure. Its the mythmaking that creates the singular genius in the first place. When a person is imbued with the power and confidence that he can do no wrong, should we be really surprised when he does wrong?
President Xi Jinping meets with President of the European Council Charles Michel and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen via video link in Beijing, on June 22, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua]

While the trajectory of the pandemic and its economic and political fallout remain unclear, it can be outlined that COVID-19 has posed unprecedented political and social challenges, ratcheted up the risk of a global recession, and pressed the pause button on interaction between peoples and countries for a while.

Through "cloud diplomacy" in the form of phone calls, correspondence, video summits and conferences, China endeavors to boost international efforts of joint response to the unprecedented global public health crisis, out of the belief that the pandemic will not impede the progress of human civilizations, nor can it arrest the world's determined march towards realizing common dreams of peace and prosperity.

Busy diplomatic agenda on the cloud

President Xi Jinping has held over 60 phone calls with more than 50 foreign leaders and heads of international organizations, including Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, the Republic of Korea (ROK), South Africa, Ethiopia, Brazil, Chile and the United Nations.

Xi sent messages of sympathies to and exchanged letters with foreign leaders and heads of regional organizations, including the ROK, Italy, Iran, France, Germany, Spain, Serbia, Argentina and the European Union, among others, to extend his sympathy to the people of epidemic-affected countries, express China's support for their efforts in curbing the virus and further strengthening bilateral ties.

Xi has also attended a series of virtual multilateral events, including the Extraordinary G20 Leaders' Summit, the opening of the 73rd World Health Assembly, hosted the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity Against COVID-19, and sent congratulatory messages to the High-level Video Conference on Belt and Road International Cooperation, and the ninth China-Arab States Cooperation Forum ministerial conference.

Premier Li Keqiang has met, via video link or talked on the phone, with multiple foreign leaders, attended the Special ASEAN Plus Three Summit on COVID-19, addressed the Global Vaccine Summit 2020 in a virtual conference, chaired video symposium on New Fiscal Funds to Benefit Businesses and People, and co-chaired via video link the 22nd China-EU Summit with European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The Chinese State Councilor and foreign minister Wang Yi has had over 100 phone calls with foreign counterpart, held special foreign ministers' meetings with Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN) members, Lancang-Mekong countries, Japan and the ROK, BRICS countries, and Shanghai Cooperation Organization members, addressed the High-Level Video Conference on Belt and Road International Cooperation, the ninth China-Arab States Cooperation Forum ministerial conference, the video conference of China, Russia and India Foreign Ministers. Chinese diplomats and missions abroad are actively reaching out to the international community by receiving interviews, making speeches, writing articles and attending international conferences on virtual platforms.

Highlighting solutions to collective victory

Through "cloud diplomacy", China has proposed the world for keeping to the right strategic direction with a broader international vision, for making strategic cooperation with a greater sense of historical urgency, for strengthening connectivity to provide a solid underpinning for the economic recovery, and for learning from each other to make the most of comparative strength and advantages to forge greater synergy and enhance joint strength to make a final victory against COVID-19.

Addressing the Extraordinary G20 Leaders' Summit on COVID-19, Xi called on the international community to be resolute in fighting a global war against COVID-19, make a collective response for control and treatment at the international level, leverage and coordinate international macro policies to counteract the negative impact of the contagion and prevent the world economy from falling into recession.

On May 18, Xi addressed the opening of the 73rd World Health Assembly, calling for a joint effort on the part of all countries to overcome the virus and build a global community of health for all. Six proposals were put forward: to do everything we can for COVID-19 control and treatment, to support the WHO in leading the global response, to provide greater support for Africa, to strengthen global governance in public health, to restore economic and social development, and to strengthen international cooperation.

While hosting the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity Against COVID-19 on June 17, Xi announced an array of measures to support African countries in curbing the epidemic and promoting socioeconomic development, including cancellation of the debt of relevant African countries in the form of interest-free government loans that are due to mature by the end of 2020 within the framework of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.

Xi sent written message to the High-level Video Conference on Belt and Road International Cooperation, stressing that the people and their lives have always been put front and center in China's virus combat. China will do what it can and contribute its share to an early global victory against COVID-19 and to the recovery of the global economy. China will work with its partners to develop the Belt and Road into a model of cooperation, a model of health, a model of recovery and a model of growth.

In his meeting with President of the European Council Charles Michel and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen via video link on June 22, Xi pointed out three directions for the two sides to work along: China and the EU have to be two major forces for world peace and stability, two major markets for world development and prosperity, and two major civilizations for upholding multilateralism and improving global governance.

In the Congratulatory Message sent to The Ninth China-Arab States Cooperation Forum Ministerial Conference via video link on July 6, Xi emphasized that China and Arabs states need more than ever to step up cooperation to navigate this trying time and move forward together, calling on both sides to increase strategic communication and coordination to deliver more benefits to our peoples.

A responsible major global player

China will never forget that when China bore the brunt of the initial COVID-19 outbreak in January this year, 77 countries and 12 international organizations donated emergency medical supplies. Leaders of more than 170 countries, heads of 50 international and regional organizations, and more than 300 foreign political parties and organizations expressed solidarity and support for China through phone calls, letters, and statements.

In the face of a growing pandemic spread in the world, China empathized with the world and reciprocated in concrete actions.

China wasted no time in releasing information to the WHO and other relevant countries and regional organizations.

China organized video conferences to share its control and treatment experience.

China conducted more than 70 exchanges with international and regional organizations including the ASEAN, the European Union, the African Union, the APEC, the Caribbean Community, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, as well as the ROK, Japan, Russia, Germany, and other countries.

China sent teams of experts to the affected countries, according to consensus built on the video conferences of multi-layered level, mobilized manufacturers to produce, at full speed, protective gear badly needed and shipped medical supplies to the world.

China provided two batches of cash support totaling US$50 million to the WHO, assisted the organization in purchasing personal protective equipment, and in establishing reserve centers of supplies in China. It has also participated in the WHO's "Access to COVID-19 Tools (act) Accelerator" initiative, aiming to speed up the development, production and equitable distribution of new tools.

China announced a series of major measures that China would take in supporting the global fight, including US$2 billion of international aid over two years, the establishment of a global humanitarian response depot and hub in China in cooperation with the United Nations, the establishment of a cooperation mechanism for Chinese hospitals to pair up with 30 African hospitals, the decision to make COVID-19 vaccine a global public product once it is developed and deployed in China, and the implementation of the Debt Service Suspension Initiative for the poorest countries together with other G20 members.

In the spirit of mutual assistance, the Chinese people have worked with the world an epic of international humanitarianism, a manifestation of building a community with a shared future for mankind.

Promoting globalization &Enhancing global governance

The outbreak has taken its toll on every aspect of global production and demand, triggered fluctuations on the financial market, and delivered a blow on both the industrial and supply chains. Yet it in no way has reversed the trend of economic globalization.

China stays on the course of enhancing coordination on macroeconomic policies, safeguarding an open world economy, and ensuring open, safe and stable global industrial chains.

Through "cloud diplomacy", China has made clear its belief that the international community should proceed with globalization, safeguard the multilateral trading system, cut tariffs, remove barriers, facilitate the flow of trade, and keep international industrial and supply chains secure and smooth.

China advocates that countries need to implement strong and effective fiscal and monetary policies, better coordinate financial regulations, keep global industrial and supply chains stable, promote trade and investment liberalization, and cast eyes on a "post-COVID-19 era" with a balanced and sustainable growth.

The pandemic has revealed that our global institutions have not kept up with the challenges of our 21century global reality, and has exposed the weaknesses and deficiencies of the health systems and the emergency management system.

The research and understanding of new infectious diseases are to be strengthened. The preparedness and early warning mechanism for joint prevention and control of infectious diseases are to be improved. The dire shortage of international public health resources are to be addressed.

In various occasion on virtual diplomatic platform, China calls on the international community to draw lessons from this pandemic, establish sound mechanisms including financing mechanism, monitoring mechanism, early warning and joint response mechanism, and a mechanism for reserving and allocating resources to build a global community of health for all, and work to increase the voice and representation of developing countries in global governance.

At a time of increasing uncertainties, pragmatic joint efforts could be pivotal to spurring global pandemic control and recovery.

China is working with the world to make progress out of setbacks, to turn crises into opportunities, and in both vision and action, to shape the broader global context for common good.
Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Wednesday questioned the state government why it was not taking action against Apollo Hospital at Jubilee Hills and the Basavatarakam Indo-American Cancer Hospital and Research Institute at Banjara Hills which were given prime land at concessional rates on the condition that they would provide free treatment to the poor but were now refusing to extend medical treatment to Covid-19 patients hailing from economically weaker backgrounds.

A division bench comprising chief justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy was dealing with a PIL filed Omim Manekshaw Debara, president of the Confederation of Voluntary Associations (COVA), an NGO, seeking a direction to the state government to initiate action against the two hospitals for not extending treatment to poor Covid-19 patients.

Gandra Mohan Rao, counsel for the petitioner, said these hospitals were leased prime land at concessional rates by the government after assuring that they would reserve 15-25 per cent of beds for the poor, and extend free consultation to 40 per cent of out-patients. However, these hospitals were violating GO no. 517 of 1981 and GO no. 484 of 1989 which specifically stated that the hospitals must extend free treatment to patients from poor economic backgrounds.

Chief justice Chauhan said, This court is surprised that private hospitals are collecting phenomenal amounts from Covid-19 patients towards treatment. Newspaper reports highlighted a case where a private hospital refused to hand over the body of a Covid-19 patient to the relatives as the bill was not paid. Private hospitals are behaving as if they have a lien over the bodies. People in Telangana state are wondering as to what type of private hospitals are being permitted to run.

Why is the state government is not initiating any action against these hospitals?In fact more stringent action should be initiated against these two hospitals by cancelling their lease agreement and the government should take back the land allotted to them for violations, the CJ commented.

Issuing notices to the government and to the hospitals to respond to the PIL, the court directed the High Court Registry to tag the PIL along with 18 other PILs on Covid-19 treatment.
HOUSTON, Aug. 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- VAALCO Energy, Inc. (NYSE: EGY, LSE: EGY) today reported operational and financial results for the second quarter of 2020.



Highlights and Recent Key Items:

Exceeded production guidance for the quarter by producing 5,410 net revenue interest (NRI) (1) barrels of crude oil per day (BOPD), or 6,218 working interest (WI) (2) BOPD in Q2 2020;

Sold 631,000 barrels of oil in Q2 2020 compared with 294,000 barrels in Q1 2020 due to a combination of four liftings in Q2 2020 compared with two liftings in Q1 2020 and higher production;

Reported net income of $0.6 million ($0.01 per diluted share), Adjusted Net Income (3) of $5.3 million ($0.09 per diluted share) and generated Adjusted EBITDAX (3) of $10.1 million;

Decreased Q2 2020 per barrel production expense, excluding workovers, by 17% to $19.31 per barrel compared to $23.39 per barrel in Q1 2020;

Managed through COVID 19 challenges with no material disruptions in operations;

Increased midpoint of full year production guidance to 4,850 NRI BOPD despite planned maintenance activity and temporary production curtailment during Q3 2020 to support OPEC+ cuts; and

Maintained strong balance sheet with no debt, a cash balance of $44.8 million, including $9.3 million in joint venture owner advances, working capital of $11.7 million and Adjusted Working Capital(3) of $24.1 million as of June 30, 2020.

(1) All NRI production rates and volumes are VAALCOs 31.1% WI less 13% royalty volumes.

(2) All WI production rates and volumes are VAALCOs 31.1% WI.

(3) Adjusted EBITDAX, Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted Working Capital are Non-GAAP financial measures and are described and reconciled to the closest GAAP measure in the attached table under Non-GAAP Financial Measures.

Cary Bounds, VAALCOs Chief Executive Officer commented: While the current pricing environment remains volatile, it has improved from the lows we saw in April 2020, and we believe that the current prices have enabled us to generate positive cash flow at current production levels. We have taken measures over the past few years to strengthen VAALCO operationally and financially, including eliminating all debt and growing our production base, which allow us to better navigate cyclical energy markets and leave us uniquely placed to consider growth opportunities. We remain focused on operational excellence, which was demonstrated in our second quarter 2020 results. We continued to grow our net revenue interest production to 5,410 BOPD, a 9% increase over the first quarter of 2020, and above the high end of our guidance range, and weve increased the mid-point of our full-year production guidance range from 4,700 to 4,850 NRI BOPD. We generated $10.1 million of Adjusted EBITDAX, and our cash balance remained strong at $44.8 million, which includes $9.3 million in joint venture owner advances. Additionally, higher sales volumes and proactive measures to manage costs helped drive down our unit production costs by 17% compared to first quarter 2020. As a reminder, approximately 90% of our estimated operating expense is fixed, so the higher production in recent quarters has lowered our unit costs and increased our profit margins per barrel.

We remain confident in our strong asset base and to date our operations remain largely unaffected by recent global developments which we believe is a testament to the commitment and professionalism of our operations team. Following the completion of our successful 2019/20 drilling campaign, VAALCO does not have any material non-discretionary capital expenditure requirements on the near-term horizon, allowing us to focus on cash flow generation while preparing for the right market conditions to begin planning the next drilling campaign at Etame. Additionally, we will continue to evaluate opportunities that are consistent with our inorganic growth strategy. We believe that we are well positioned to deliver long-term growth, in line with our strategic objectives.

Operational Update

Gabon

Given the current volatile pricing environment, the Company continues to evaluate all uses of cash and is managing both operating expenses as well as capital expenditure levels in view of the existing and expected pricing environment.

As previously announced, VAALCO completed the 2019/2020 drilling campaign in early April with no safety or environmental incidents, and achieved a 100% success rate prior to releasing the Vantage drilling rig. In mid-April 2020, the South Tchibala 2H well stopped producing due to a downhole mechanical failure not related to the electric submersible pump. The well was producing approximately 830 gross BOPD, or 225 BOPD NRI to VAALCO prior to ceasing production. The Company may not be able to address this well failure until the next drilling campaign when a rig is on location.

Third quarter 2020 production from the Etame Marin license will be slightly reduced as a result of a planned six-day full field shutdown to perform maintenance on the Nautipa FPSO and on the production platforms, as well as an OPEC+ mandate to reduce production through September 2020. To assist Gabon in meeting its OPEC+ production quota, the Minister of Hydrocarbons has requested that VAALCO temporarily reduce the production at Etame through September 2020. Taking into consideration the combination of the planned maintenance turnaround as well as the impact of deferred production from the OPEC+ mandate, the Company expects average production for the third quarter of 2020 to be between 4,200 BOPD and 4,600 BOPD net to VAALCO. However, due to the strong performance in the first half of 2020 VAALCO narrowed the range for its 2020 annual production guidance provided earlier this year of 4,400 to 5,000 BOPD to 4,700 to 5,000 BOPD net to VAALCO, assuming the OPEC+ mandate to reduce production is not increased or extended beyond September 2020.

Equatorial Guinea

VAALCO has a 43% WI in Block P offshore Equatorial Guinea. The Equatorial Guinea Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons (EG MMH) approved VAALCOs appointment as operator of Block P on November 12, 2019.

The Company acquired an additional working interest of 12% from Atlas Petroleum, thereby increasing its working interest to 43% in 2020, in exchange for a potential future payment to Atlas Petroleum of $3.1 million if there is commercial production from Block P. The EG MMH has approved this assignment. The Company is currently waiting on production sharing contract amendments reflecting VAALCO as operator and the updated participating interest to be executed by the EG MMH.

VAALCO is in commercial discussions with Levene HydroCarbon Limited (Levene) where VAALCO would assign a portion of the Block P interest to Levene and Levene would potentially cover all or substantially all of VAALCOs cost to drill an exploratory well on Block P. Levene and VAALCO have not executed any binding agreements, and there can be no certainty a transaction will be completed. Further, approval of the assignment by the EG MMH must be obtained prior to any transaction being completed. As of June 30, 2020, the Company had $10.0 million recorded for the book value of the undeveloped leasehold costs associated with the Block P license.

VAALCO and its joint venture owners are evaluating the timing and budgeting for development and exploration activities under a development and production area in Block P, including the approval of a development and production plan. The production sharing contract for Block P provides for a development and production period of 25 years from the date of approval of a development and production plan.

Financial Update  Second Quarter of 2020

Net income of $0.6 million ($0.01 per diluted share) for the second quarter of 2020 reflected the impact of lower realized crude oil prices of $28.31 per barrel for the quarter. The impact of lower prices was partially offset by higher sales volumes for the quarter as a result of four liftings. The quarter also included a loss on derivatives of $0.8 million ($0.01 per diluted share) and an income tax benefit of $2.2 million.

In comparison, the net loss of $1.0 million ($0.01 per diluted share) for the second quarter of 2019 benefitted from higher realized crude oil prices of $68.62 per barrel while sales volumes were 43% lower. The quarter also included a derivative gain of $1.9 million and income tax expense of $9.2 million. With respect to the first quarter of 2020, the net loss of $52.8 million ($0.91 per diluted share) also benefitted from higher realized crude oil prices of $59.54 per barrel while sales volumes were 53% lower; however, due to the lower crude oil prices at March 31, 2020, the quarter included gains on derivatives of $7.3 million ($0.13 per diluted share), non-cash charges for impairment of proved properties of $30.6 million ($0.53 per diluted share) and deferred income tax expense of $35.6 million ($0.61 per diluted share).

Adjusted Net Income for the second quarter of 2020 decreased to $5.3 million ($0.09 per diluted share) from $8.0 million ($0.13 per diluted share) for the second quarter of 2019 primarily as a result of lower revenues which were impacted by lower realized crude oil prices and an increase in production expense as a result of higher sales volumes. This impact was partially offset by an increase in realized derivative gains and a decrease in current income tax expense. The reduction in second quarter Adjusted Net Income compared with $6.9 million in the first quarter of 2020 was primarily the result of a decrease in revenues because of lower realized crude oil prices, an increase in production expense as a result of higher sales volumes and an increase in current income tax expense. This was partially offset by an increase in realized gains on derivatives.

Adjusted EBITDAX totaled $10.1 million in the second quarter of 2020 compared with $12.9 million in the same period of 2019. In the first quarter of 2020, Adjusted EBITDAX was $6.0 million. Adjusted EBITDAX for the second quarter of 2020 was lower than the same period in the prior year primarily due to lower revenues which were impacted by lower realized crude oil prices and an increase in production expense as a result of higher sales volumes. This impact was partially offset by an increase in realized derivative gains. Adjusted EBITDAX for the second quarter of 2020 was higher than the first quarter of 2020 primarily due to an increase in realized gains on derivatives. This was partially offset by lower revenues and an increase in production expense as a result of higher sales volumes.

Revenue and Sales Q2 2020 Q2 2019 % Change Q2

2020 vs. Q2 2019 Q1 2020 % Change Q2

2020 vs. Q1 2020 Production (NRI BOPD) 5,410 3,664 48 % 4,944 9 % Sales (NRI BO) 631,000 357,000 77 % 294,000 115 % Realized crude oil price ($/BO) $ 28.31 $ 68.62 (59) % $ 59.54 (52) % Total crude oil sales ($MM) $ 18.0 $ 25.2 (29) % $ 18.4 (2) %

During the first quarter of 2020, VAALCO had two liftings, one in January and one in February, but the next lifting of 85,000 barrels of oil that was scheduled for March 2020 was delayed to April 1, 2020 due to poor weather conditions. Consequently, VAALCO had four liftings in the second quarter of 2020 which resulted in total sales volumes of 631,000 barrels compared with 294,000 barrels in the first quarter of 2020. In addition, volumes available to lift increased in the second quarter of 2020 due to the higher production rate resulting from the new wells. Second quarter 2020 realized pricing fell 52% from the first quarter of 2020 due to sharply lower prices received due to the COVID-19 pandemic and OPEC-related pricing issues.

Costs and Expenses Q2 2020 Q2 2019 % Change Q2

2020 vs. Q2 2019 Q1 2020 % Change Q2

2020 vs. Q1 2020 Production expense, excluding workovers ($MM) $ 12.2 $ 9.8 24 % $ 6.9 77 % Production expense, excluding workovers ($/BO) $ 19.31 $ 27.45 (30) % $ 23.39 (17) % Workover expense ($MM) $ (0.1 ) $  N/A $ 2.9 (103) % Depreciation, depletion and amortization ($MM) $ 2.8 $ 1.9 47 % $ 3.1 (10) % Depreciation, depletion and amortization ($/BO) $ 4.44 $ 5.35 (17) % $ 10.55 (58) % General and administrative expense, excluding non-cash compensation ($MM) $ 2.3 $ 2.8 (19) % $ 3.3 (30) % General and administrative expense, excluding non-cash compensation ($/BO) $ 3.64 $ 7.93 (54) % $ 11.30 (68) % Stock-based compensation expense (benefit) ($MM) $ 0.7 $ (0.1 ) (799) % $ (2.6 ) (128) % Current income tax expense (benefit) ($MM) $ 1.2 $ 3.3 (64) % $ (2.1 ) (157) % Deferred income tax expense (benefit) ($MM) $ (3.4 ) $ 5.9 (158) % $ 35.6 (110) %

Total production expense, excluding workovers, increased primarily due to higher sales volumes resulting from the significant decrease in crude oil inventory during the quarter. The per-unit production expense, excluding workovers, decreased significantly in the second quarter of 2020 as compared to both the second quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of 2020 as a result of higher sales volumes. Production expense for the second quarter of 2020 included approximately $0.8 million in additional costs related to proactive employee-related measures taken in response to the pandemic. No workovers were performed during the second quarters of 2020 and 2019. Workover expense for the first quarter of 2020 included costs related to two workovers.

Depreciation, depletion and amortization (DD&A) expense in the second quarter of 2020 on a per NRI barrel of crude oil sales basis decreased from the comparable prior year quarter and the first quarter of 2020 as a result of higher sales volumes as well as the reduction in depletable costs as a result of the impairment charge that was recorded in the first quarter of 2020 due to lower oil prices.

General and administrative (G&A) expense, excluding non-cash stock-based compensation, was lower in the second quarter of 2020 as compared to the second quarter 2019 and the first quarter of 2020 as a result of lower professional fees, travel expenses, and accounting and audit fees. Non-cash stock-based compensation expense (benefit) was impacted by the change in the SARs liability as a result of changes in the Companys stock price during the quarter.

Income tax was a benefit for the three months ended June 30, 2020 of $2.2 million. This is comprised of a $3.4 million deferred tax benefit and a current tax expense of $1.2 million. Foreign income taxes are attributable to Gabon and are settled by the government taking their crude oil in-kind. Current income tax expense included a $0.9 million favorable crude oil price adjustment as a result of the change in value of the governments allocation between the time it was produced and the time it was taken in-kind. After excluding this impact, current income taxes were $2.1 million for the period. The deferred income tax benefit included a $4.1 million benefit to decrease the valuation allowances on U.S. and Gabonese deferred tax assets offset by a $0.7 million deferred tax expense.

Income tax expense for the three months ended June 30, 2019 was $9.2 million. This was comprised of $5.9 million of deferred tax expense and a current tax provision of $3.3 million and was impacted by $4.4 million in non-deductible expense related to joint venture owners audits.

In the first quarter of 2020, current income tax expense included a $3.4 million favorable crude oil price adjustment as a result of the change in value of the governments allocation between the time it was produced and the time it was taken in-kind. After excluding this impact, current income taxes were $1.9 million for the period. Deferred income tax expense for the first quarter of 2020 included a $46.9 million charge to increase the valuation allowances on both the U.S. and Gabon deferred tax assets offset by an $11.8 million deferred tax benefit.

Financial Update  First Six Months of 2020

Production for the first six months of 2020 was higher by 45% at 942 MBbls net crude oil compared to 648 MBbls net crude oil production in the first six months of 2019. The increase in production was related to the three new wells brought onto production and successful workovers associated with the 2019/2020 drilling campaign. The first half of 2020 saw sales volume increase 41% to 925 MBbls net crude oil compared to 654 MBbls for the first half of 2019. Crude oil sales are a function of the number and size of crude oil liftings in each quarter and do not always coincide with volumes produced in any given period.

The average realized crude oil price for the first six months of 2020 was $38.24 per barrel, representing a decrease of 43% from $66.60 realized in the first six months of 2019. This sharp decline in crude oil prices reflects the downward pressure resulting from the COVID pandemic as well as supply and demand imbalances.

The Company incurred a net loss for the six months ended June 30, 2020 of $52.2 million, which compares to net income of $5.5 million for the same period of 2019. The decrease in operating results for the six months ended June 30, 2020 compared to the same period in 2019 was primarily due to charges of $30.6 million for impairment of proved crude oil and natural gas properties and $42.8 million to increase to the valuation allowance on deferred tax assets. Also contributing to the decrease were lower revenues as a result of receiving lower crude oil prices partially offset by higher sales volumes. The net income for the six months ended June 30, 2019 was inclusive of income from discontinued operations of $5.5 million.

Response to COVID-19 Pandemic and Current Pricing Environment

VAALCO remains committed to the health and safety of all its employees and contractors. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the current pricing environment, VAALCO has taken the following measures:

Implemented stay-at-home initiatives for all but critical staff and put into place social distancing measures;

Actively screening and monitoring employees and contractors that come onto the Companys Gabon facilities including testing and quarantines with onsite medical supervision;

Engaged in regular Company-wide COVID-19 updates to keep employees informed of key developments;

Implemented cost cutting measures with vendors;

Implemented sharing certain costs, such as support vessels, helicopter, and personnel with other operators in the region;

Temporarily reduced director, executive and certain non-executive employee compensation; and

Ceased or deferred discretionary capital spending.

VAALCO expects to continue to take proactive steps to manage any disruption in its business caused by COVID-19 and to protect the health and safety of its employees. As of August 6, 2020, VAALCO has experienced no material impact on its Gabon operations directly associated with COVID-19; however, the Company has incurred higher costs related to proactive measures taken in response to the pandemic. These were approximately $0.8 million during the second quarter and were primarily related to additional personnel-related costs to support enhanced health and safety measures. The situation surrounding COVID-19 remains fluid and unpredictable, and VAALCO is actively managing its response and assessing potential impacts to its financial position and operating results, as well as any adverse developments that could impact the Companys business.

Capital Investments/Balance Sheet

For the second quarter of 2020, net capital expenditures totaled $8.1 million on a cash basis and $1.2 million on an accrual basis. Capital expenditures are primarily related to the 2019/2020 drilling program at Etame. As a result of the current crude oil price environment and the significant economic disruptions caused by COVID-19, VAALCO has ceased or deferred discretionary capital spending, and there are no remaining material non-discretionary capital expenditures for the balance of 2020. Any capital expenditures made during the remainder of 2020 are expected to be funded by cash on hand and cash flow from operations. The Company intends to manage future capital expenditure levels in view of the existing and expected pricing environment.

At the end of the second quarter, VAALCO had an unrestricted cash balance of $44.8 million. The unrestricted cash balance includes $9.3 million of cash attributable to non-operating joint venture owner advances. Working capital at June 30, 2020 was $11.7 million compared with $13.4 million at March 31, 2020, while Adjusted Working Capital at June 30, 2020 totaled $24.1 million, compared with $25.8 million at March 31, 2020.

Hedging

On May 6, 2019, the Company entered into commodity swaps at a Dated Brent weighted average of $66.70 per barrel for the period from and including July 2019 through June 2020 for an approximate quantity of 500,000 barrels. These swaps settled on a monthly basis. The Company does not have any derivatives for periods after June 30, 2020.

2020 Guidance

To date, VAALCOs operations have not been materially impacted by the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic and the Companys guidance assumes that there are no material changes to the impact of the pandemic on the Companys operations for the remainder of 2020 and that the OPEC+ mandates to reduce production are not increased or extended beyond September 2020. VAALCO currently estimates that the full year 2020 NRI production range will increase to between 4,700 and 5,000 BOPD due to strong performance in the first half of 2020. For the third quarter of 2020, forecasted NRI production is expected to be between 4,200 and 4,600 BOPD. The decrease in production for the third quarter as compared to the second quarter reflects reductions imposed by the State of Gabon in response to production cuts agreed to as a member of OPEC. In addition, third quarter production reflects a planned six-day full field shut-in for scheduled maintenance. Sales NRI volumes for 2020 increased in line with production to at an estimated average of 4,700 to 5,000 BOPD. The Companys production expense guidance (excluding workovers) for full year 2020 is $37 to $39 million or $20.00 to $22.00 per NRI barrel of crude oil sales, with production expense for the third quarter of 2020 projected to be between $9 and $10 million or $20.00 to $24.00 per NRI barrel of crude oil sales. The Company forecasts between $10 and $12 million in cash G&A expense for full year 2020. Capital expenditures for the full year 2020 are currently expected to be between $10 million and $12 million.

Conference Call

As previously announced, the Company will hold a conference call to discuss its second quarter financial and operating results August 7, 2020, at 8:00 a.m. Central Time (9:00 a.m. Eastern Time and 2:00 pm London Time). Interested parties may participate by dialing (877) 270-2148. Parties in the United Kingdom may participate toll-free by dialing 08082389064 and other international parties may dial (412) 902-6510. Participants should request to be joined to the VAALCO Energy Second Quarter 2020 Conference Call. This call will also be webcast on VAALCOs website at www.vaalco.com . An archived audio replay will be available on VAALCOs website.

About VAALCO

VAALCO, founded in 1985, is a Houston, USA based, independent energy company with production, development and exploration assets in the West African region.

The Company is an established operator within the region, holding a 31.1% working interest in the Etame Marin Block, located offshore Gabon, which to date has produced over 116 million barrels of crude oil and of which the Company is the operator.

For Further Information

VAALCO Energy, Inc. (General and Investor Enquiries) +00 1 713 623 0801 Website: www.vaalco.com Al Petrie Advisors (US Investor Relations) +00 1 713 543 3422 Al Petrie / Chris Delange Buchanan (UK Financial PR) +44 (0) 207 466 5000 Ben Romney / Kelsey Traynor / James Husband VAALCO@buchanan.uk.com

Forward Looking Statements

This document includes 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. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, included in this document that address activities, events, plans, expectations, objectives or developments that VAALCO expects, believes or anticipates will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. These statements may include statements related to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the recent sharp decline in the global demand for and resulting global oversupply of crude oil and the resulting steep decline in oil prices, production quotas imposed by Gabon, disruptions in global supply chains, quarantines of our workforce or workforce reductions and other matters related to the pandemic, well results, wells anticipated to be drilled and placed on production, future levels of drilling and operational activity and associated expectations, the implementation of the Companys business plans and strategy, prospect evaluations, prospective resources and reserve growth, its activities in Equatorial Guinea, expected sources of and potential difficulties in obtaining future capital funding and future liquidity, its ability to restore production in non-producing wells, future operating losses, future changes in crude oil and natural gas prices, future strategic alternatives, future acquisitions, capital expenditures, future drilling plans, prospect evaluations, negotiations with governments and third parties, timing of the settlement of Gabon income taxes, expectations regarding processing facilities, production, sales and financial projections and reserve growth. These statements are based on assumptions made by VAALCO based on its experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors it believes are appropriate in the circumstances. Such statements are subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond VAALCOs control. These risks include, but are not limited to, crude oil and natural gas price volatility, the impact of production quotas imposed by Gabon in response to production cuts agreed to as a member of OPEC, inflation, general economic conditions, the outbreak of COVID-19, the Companys success in discovering, developing and producing reserves, production and sales differences due to timing of liftings, decisions by future lenders, the risks associated with liquidity, lack of availability of goods, services and capital, environmental risks, drilling risks, foreign regulatory and operational risks, and regulatory changes.

Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and that actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. VAALCO disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Inside Information

This announcement contains inside information as defined in Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 on market abuse (MAR) and is made in accordance with the Companys obligations under article 17 of MAR.





VAALCO ENERGY, INC AND SUBSIDIARIES

Consolidated Balance Sheets (Unaudited)

June 30, 2020 December 31, 2019 ASSETS (in thousands) Current assets: Cash and cash equivalents $ 44,841 $ 45,917 Restricted cash 1,090 911 Receivables: Trade 9,521 14,335 Accounts with joint venture owners, net of allowance of $0.0 million and $0.5 million, respectively 134 2,714 Other 2,350 1,517 Crude oil inventory 853 1,072 Prepayments and other 3,445 3,292 Total current assets 62,234 69,758 Crude oil and natural gas properties and equipment - successful efforts method: Wells, platforms and other production facilities 442,665 422,651 Work-in-progress  7,378 Undeveloped acreage 21,476 23,771 Equipment and other 10,184 11,157 474,325 464,957 Accumulated depreciation, depletion, amortization and impairment (432,977 ) (396,699 ) Net crude oil and natural gas properties, equipment and other 41,348 68,258 Other noncurrent assets: Restricted cash 925 925 Value added tax and other receivables, net of allowance of $1.9 million and $1.0 million, respectively 3,812 3,683 Right of use operating lease assets 27,918 33,383 Deferred tax assets  24,159 Abandonment funding 11,420 11,371 Total assets $ 147,657 $ 211,537 LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY Current liabilities: Accounts payable $ 9,250 $ 15,897 Accounts with joint venture owners 9,259  Accrued liabilities and other 16,299 29,773 Operating lease liabilities - current portion 12,274 11,990 Foreign taxes payable 3,368 5,740 Current liabilities - discontinued operations 48 350 Total current liabilities 50,498 63,750 Asset retirement obligations 16,643 15,844 Operating lease liabilities - net of current portion 15,631 21,371 Deferred tax liabilities 8,098  Other long term liabilities 56 852 Total liabilities 90,926 101,817 Commitments and contingencies Shareholders equity: Preferred stock, $25 par value; 500,000 shares authorized, none issued   Common stock, $0.10 par value; 100,000,000 shares authorized, 67,819,242 and 67,673,787 shares issued, 57,456,139 and 58,024,571 shares outstanding, respectively 6,782 6,767 Additional paid-in capital 73,739 73,549 Less treasury stock, 10,363,103 and 9,649,216 shares, respectively, at cost (42,419 ) (41,429 ) Retained earnings 18,629 70,833 Total shareholders' equity 56,731 109,720 Total liabilities and shareholders' equity $ 147,657 $ 211,537

VAALCO ENERGY, INC AND SUBSIDIARIES

Consolidated Statements of Operations (Unaudited)

Three Months Ended Six Months Ended June 30, June 30, 2020 June 30, 2019 March 31, 2020 2020 2019 (in thousands except per share amounts) Revenues: Crude oil and natural gas sales $ 17,974 $ 25,230 $ 18,389 $ 36,363 $ 44,995 Operating costs and expenses: Production expense 12,126 9,819 9,749 21,875 18,038 Depreciation, depletion and amortization 2,801 1,909 3,103 5,904 3,462 Impairment of proved crude oil and natural gas properties   30,625 30,625  General and administrative expense 3,019 2,728 754 3,773 7,167 Bad debt expense and other 179 5 810 989 (24 ) Total operating costs and expenses 18,125 14,461 45,041 63,166 28,643 Other operating expense, net (815 ) (4,399 ) (31 ) (846 ) (4,436 ) Operating income (loss) (966 ) 6,370 (26,683 ) (27,649 ) 11,916 Other income (expense): Derivative instruments gain (loss), net (756 ) 1,911 7,339 6,583 (1 ) Interest income, net 11 201 116 127 388 Other, net 47 (145 ) (31 ) 16 (383 ) Total other income (expense), net (698 ) 1,967 7,424 6,726 4 Income (loss) from continuing operations before income taxes (1,664 ) 8,337 (19,259 ) (20,923 ) 11,920 Income tax expense (benefit) (2,249 ) 9,208 33,478 31,229 11,961 Income (loss) from continuing operations 585 (871 ) (52,737 ) (52,152 ) (41 ) Income (loss) from discontinued operations, net of tax 11 (162 ) (63 ) (52 ) 5,509 Net income (loss) $ 596 $ (1,033 ) $ (52,800 ) $ (52,204 ) $ 5,468 Basic net income (loss) per share: Income (loss) from continuing operations $ 0.01 $ (0.01 ) $ (0.91 ) $ (0.90 ) $ 0.00 Income (loss) from discontinued operations, net of tax 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.09 Net income (loss) per share $ 0.01 $ (0.01 ) $ (0.91 ) $ (0.90 ) $ 0.09 Basic weighted average shares outstanding 57,456 59,801 57,975 57,716 59,716 Diluted net income (loss) per share: Income (loss) from continuing operations $ 0.01 $ (0.01 ) $ (0.91 ) $ (0.90 ) $ 0.00 Income (loss) from discontinued operations, net of tax 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.09 Net income (loss) per share $ 0.01 $ (0.01 ) $ (0.91 ) $ (0.90 ) $ 0.09 Diluted weighted average shares outstanding 57,594 59,801 57,975 57,716 59,716

VAALCO ENERGY, INC AND SUBSIDIARIES

Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (Unaudited)

Six Months Ended June 30, 2020 2019 (in thousands) CASH FLOWS FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES: Net income (loss) $ (52,204 ) $ 5,468 Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by (used in) operating activities: (Income) loss from discontinued operations 52 (5,509 ) Depreciation, depletion and amortization 5,904 3,462 Impairment of proved crude oil and natural gas properties 30,625  Other amortization 121 121 Deferred taxes 32,271 7,667 Unrealized foreign exchange (gain ) loss (19 ) 21 Stock-based compensation (1,849 ) 1,620 Cash settlements paid on exercised stock appreciation rights  (261 ) Derivatives instruments (gain) loss (6,583 ) 1 Cash settlements received on matured derivative contracts, net 7,216 1,563 Bad debt (recovery) expense and other 989 (24 ) Other operating loss, net 46 37 Operational expenses associated with equipment and other 1,077 (60 ) Change in operating assets and liabilities: Trade receivables 4,814 (1,921 ) Accounts with joint venture owners 11,783 4,291 Other receivables (857 ) 158 Crude oil inventory 219 232 Prepayments and other (779 ) (1,175 ) Value added tax and other receivables (695 ) 718 Accounts payable (5,819 ) (730 ) Foreign taxes payable (2,386 ) (2,865 ) Accrued liabilities and other (3,333 ) 3,858 Net cash provided by continuing operating activities 20,593 16,672 Net cash used in discontinued operating activities (354 ) (91 ) Net cash provided by operating activities 20,239 16,581 CASH FLOWS FROM INVESTING ACTIVITIES: Property and equipment expenditures (20,097 ) (1,163 ) Net cash used in continuing investing activities (20,097 ) (1,163 ) Net cash used in discontinued investing activities   Net cash used in investing activities (20,097 ) (1,163 ) CASH FLOWS FROM FINANCING ACTIVITIES: Proceeds from the issuances of common stock  107 Treasury shares (990 ) (352 ) Net cash used in continuing financing activities (990 ) (245 ) Net cash used in discontinued financing activities   Net cash used in financing activities (990 ) (245 ) NET CHANGE IN CASH, CASH EQUIVALENTS AND RESTRICTED CASH (848 ) 15,173 CASH, CASH EQUIVALENTS AND RESTRICTED CASH AT BEGINNING OF PERIOD 59,124 46,655 CASH, CASH EQUIVALENTS AND RESTRICTED CASH AT END OF PERIOD $ 58,276 $ 61,828

VAALCO ENERGY, INC AND SUBSIDIARIES

Selected Financial and Operating Statistics

(Unaudited)

Three Months Ended Six Months Ended June 30, June 30, 2020 June 30, 2019 March 31, 2020 2020 2019 NRI SALES DATA: Crude oil (MBbls) 631 357 294 925 654 NRI PRODUCTION DATA Crude oil (MBbls) 492 333 450 942 648 Average daily production volumes (bbls/day) 5,410 3,664 4,944 5,177 3,581 AVERAGE SALES PRICES: Crude oil (per Bbls) $ 28.31 $ 68.62 $ 59.54 $ 38.24 $ 66.60 COSTS AND EXPENSES (PER BBL OF SALES): Production expense $ 19.22 $ 27.50 $ 33.16 $ 23.65 $ 27.58 Production expense, excluding workovers* 19.31 27.45 23.39 20.61 27.38 Depreciation, depletion and amortization 4.44 5.35 10.55 6.38 5.29 General and administrative expense** 4.78 7.64 2.56 4.08 10.96 Property and equipment expenditures, cash basis (in thousands) $ 8,117 $ 375 $ 11,980 $ 20,097 $ 1,163

*Workover costs excluded from the three months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019 and March 31, 2020 are $0.1 million, none and $2.8 million, respectively.

**General and administrative expenses include $1.14, $(0.29) and $(8.74) per barrel of oil of sales of stock-based compensation expense in the three months ended June 30, 2020, and 2019 and March 31, 2020, respectively.

NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES

Adjusted EBITDAX is a supplemental non-GAAP financial measure used by VAALCOs management and by external users of the Companys financial statements, such as industry analysts, lenders, rating agencies, investors and others who follow the industry, as an indicator of the Companys ability to internally fund exploration and development activities and to service or incur additional debt. Adjusted EBITDAX is a non-GAAP financial measure and as used herein represents net income before discontinued operations, interest income net, income tax expense, depletion, depreciation and amortization, exploration expense, non-cash and other items including stock compensation expense and unrealized commodity derivative loss.

Management uses Adjusted Net Income to evaluate operating and financial performance and believes the measure is useful to investors because it eliminates the impact of certain non-cash and/or other items that management does not consider to be indicative of the Companys performance from period to period. Management also believes this non-GAAP measure is useful to investors to evaluate and compare the Companys operating and financial performance across periods, as well as facilitating comparisons to others in the Companys industry. Adjusted Net Income is a non-GAAP financial measure and as used herein represents net income before discontinued operations, deferred income tax expense, unrealized commodity derivative loss and non-cash and other items.

Management uses Adjusted Working Capital as a measurement tool to assess the working capital position of the Companys continuing operations excluding leasing obligations because it eliminates the impact of discontinued operations as well as the impact of lease liabilities. Under the lease accounting standards, lease liabilities related to assets used in joint operations include both the Companys share of expenditures as well as the share of lease expenditures which its non-operator joint venture owners will be obligated to pay under joint operating agreements. Adjusted Working Capital is a non-GAAP financial measure and as used herein represents working capital excluding working capital attributable to discontinued operations and current liabilities associated with lease obligations.

Adjusted EBITDAX and Adjusted Net Income have significant limitations, including that they do not reflect the Companys cash requirements for capital expenditures, contractual commitments, working capital or debt service. Adjusted EBITDAX and Adjusted Net Income should not be considered as substitutes for net income (loss), operating income (loss), cash flows from operating activities or any other measure of financial performance or liquidity presented in accordance with GAAP. Adjusted EBITDAX and Adjusted Net Income exclude some, but not all, items that affect net income (loss) and operating income (loss) and these measures may vary among other companies. Therefore, the Companys Adjusted EBITDAX and Adjusted Net Income may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies.

The tables below reconcile the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures to Adjusted Net Income, Adjusted EBITDAX and Adjusted Working Capital.





VAALCO ENERGY, INC AND SUBSIDIARIES

Reconciliations of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

(Unaudited)

(in thousands)

Three Months Ended Six Months Ended June 30, Reconciliation of Net Income (Loss) to Adjusted Net Income June 30, 2020 June 30, 2019 March 31, 2020 2020 2019 Net income (loss) $ 596 $ (1,033 ) $ (52,800 ) $ (52,204 ) $ 5,468 Adjustment for discrete items: Discontinued operations, net of tax (11 ) 162 63 52 (5,509 ) Impairment of proved crude oil and natural gas properties   30,625 30,625  Unrealized derivative instruments (gain) loss 7,254 (1,479 ) (6,621 ) 633 1,564 Deferred income tax expense (benefit) (3,367 ) 5,925 35,638 32,271 7,667 Other operating expense, net 815 4,399 31 846 4,436 Adjusted Net Income $ 5,287 $ 7,974 $ 6,936 $ 12,223 $ 13,626





Three Months Ended Six Months Ended June 30, Reconciliation of Net Income (Loss) to Adjusted EBITDAX June 30, 2020 June 30, 2019 March 31, 2020 2020 2019 Net income (loss) $ 596 $ (1,033 ) $ (52,800 ) $ (52,204 ) $ 5,468 Add back: Impact of discontinued operations (11 ) 162 63 52 (5,509 ) Interest income, net (11 ) (201 ) (116 ) (127 ) (388 ) Income tax expense (benefit) (2,249 ) 9,208 33,478 31,229 11,961 Depreciation, depletion and amortization 2,801 1,909 3,103 5,904 3,462 Impairment of proved crude oil and natural gas properties   30,625 30,625  Non-cash or unusual items: Stock-based compensation 720 (103 ) (2,569 ) (1,849 ) 1,620 Unrealized derivative instruments (gain) loss 7,254 (1,479 ) (6,621 ) 633 1,564 Other operating expense, net 815 4,399 31 846 4,436 Bad debt expense and other 179 5 810 989 (24 ) Adjusted EBITDAX $ 10,094 $ 12,867 $ 6,004 $ 16,098 $ 22,590




SINGAPORE Singapores residual fuel oil inventories climbed 3% in the week to Aug. 5 as export volumes plummeted to a near four-month low, official data showed on Thursday.

Onshore fuel oil stocks rose 642,000 barrels, or about 101,000 tonnes, to a three-week high of 24.234 million barrels, or 3.816 million tonnes, according to Enterprise Singapore data.

Residual fuel stocks were up 11% from a year earlier.

Net import volumes were up 96% from the previous week to a five-month high of 1.412 million tonnes, well above the 2020 weekly average of 694,000 tonnes. Weekly figures, however, are volatile.

The net import volumes were boosted by falling exports which declined to 97,000 tonnes during the week. This compared to the 2020 weekly average of 272,000 tonnes in exports.

Singapores exports to China, a typical importer of fuel oil, have fallen this year as China increased its output of residual fuels following new government tax and export rules.

Singapores only fuel oil net exports in the week to Aug. 5 went to Hong Kong at 38,000 tonnes and 34,000 tonnes to Bangladesh.

The largest net imports into Singapore were from Malaysia at 699,000 tonnes, followed by Bahamas with 164,000 tonnes, Brazil with 158,000 tonnes and the United Arab Emirates with 153,000 tonnes.

Net imports from Malaysia and Bahamas for the week were at their highest since at least end-2015, or as far as available data shows.

Imports from Malaysia were boosted by suppliers moving fuel oil cargoes from floating storage in Malaysian waters into Singapore onshore tanks, trade sources said.

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
AUBURN HILLS, MI / ACCESSWIRE / August 6, 2020 / Unique Fabricating, Inc. (the "Company") (NYSE American: UFAB), a leader in engineering and manufacturing multi-material foam, rubber, and plastic components utilized in noise, vibration and harshness management, air/water sealing, and other applications for the transportation, appliance, medical, and consumer markets, today announced that it will release its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2020 on Thursday, August 13, 2020 prior to the opening of the market.

Doug Cain, Unique Fabricating's President and Chief Executive Officer and Brian Loftus, Chief Financial Officer, will host a conference call and live webcast to review the quarterly results and provide a corporate update on the same day at 9 a.m. ET. To access the call, please dial 877-407-8133 (toll free) or 201-689-8040 and if requested, reference conference ID 36529. The conference call will also be webcast live on the Investor Relations section of Unique Fabricating's web site at http://ir.uniquefab.com/.

Following the conclusion of the live call, a replay of the webcast will be available on the Investor Relations section of the Company's website for at least 90 days. A telephonic replay of the conference call will also be available from 12 p.m. ET on August 13, 2020 until 11:59 p.m. ET on August 27, 2020 by dialing 877-481-4010 (United States) or 919-882-2331 (international) and using the passcode 36529.

About Unique Fabricating, Inc.

Unique Fabricating, Inc. (NYSE American:UFAB) engineers and manufactures components for customers in the transportation, appliance, consumer, medical and consumer markets. The Company's solutions are comprised of multi-material foam, rubber, and plastic components and utilized in noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) management, acoustical management, water and air sealing, decorative and other functional applications. Unique leverages proprietary manufacturing processes including die cutting, thermoforming, compression molding, fusion molding, and reaction injection molding to manufacture a wide range of products including air management products, heating ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC), seals, engine covers, fender stuffers, air ducts, acoustical insulation, door water shields, gas tank pads, light gaskets, topper pads, mirror gaskets, glove box liners, PPE, and packaging.. The Company is headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. For more information, visit http://www.uniquefab.com/.

Investor Contact:

FNK IR

Rob Fink

646-809-0408

rob@fnkir.com

SOURCE: Unique Fabricating, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/600600/Unique-Fabricating-to-Announce-Second-Quarter-2020-Results-and-Hold-Conference-Call-on-August-13-2020
Unification Minister Lee In-young speaks during a meeting of the Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Promotion Council at the Seoul Government Complex, Thursday. / Yonhap



By Kang Seung-woo



The government has decided to donate $10 million (11.9 billion won) to North Korea via a World Food Programme (WFP) aid project, under which it will provide essential food and nutrition for hundreds of thousands of young children and women, the Ministry of Unification ministry said Thursday.



The ministry made it clear that the provision did not breach international sanctions imposed on the North for its nuclear and missile programs.



The decision, made during a meeting of the Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Promotion Council, marked the first humanitarian aid to the North since the inauguration of Unification Minister Lee In-young in July, who is pursuing more projects between the two Koreas.



"This decision will serve as a starting point for the government to consistently provide humanitarian aid to the North regardless of the political and military situation," Lee told the council.



Last year, the South made a donation of 50,000 metric tons of rice and $4.5 million in cash to cover 10 million people suffering from hunger in the drought-hit North.



This year's money will be used to provide 9,000 tons of fortified food to 143,000 children under the age of 7 and 31,500 pregnant and nursing women in 60 counties in the North (WFP figures), and 3,600 tons of corn, beans and cooking oil, the ministry said.



According to a ministry official, the WFP requested the aid earlier this year and relevant discussions began in earnest in March.



"We have reached the conclusion that it is the right time to step up with humanitarian aid," the official said.



He added: "The money will be remitted to the WFP next week and the aid is expected to arrive in the North around the end of the year, meaning that North Korean people will benefit starting next year."



In response to speculation that the aid may either be diverted to the military or fund the nuclear weapons and missile programs, the official said that the food-assistance branch of the United Nations is well equipped with a monitoring system, having an office in Pyongyang.



The aid program comes two months later than initially planned due to escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula, highlighted by the North's unilateral demolition of the inter-Korean liaison office in its border city of Gaeseong to express its anger at anti-North propaganda leaflets sent by North Korean defectors and activists.



Along with the WFP aid, the government will spend nearly $2.4 million during the remainder of the year as part of a three-year project to turn the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) into a cultural zone.



The ministry plans to utilize facilities in the inter-Korean transit office near Gaeseong and remodel disabled guard posts into places for cultural exchanges.



"We hope to recover national unity between the two Koreas through the peaceful use of the Demilitarized Zone," the ministry said.


LONDON  Museums are having an identity crisis.

Answering the question of What is a museum? might seem easy to anyone whos visited one, but it has provoked a furor at the International Council of Museums, a Paris-based nonprofit that aims to represent the interests of museums worldwide.

In recent months, several people working on the committee to revise the bodys definition of what a museum is have resigned, and there have been accusations of back-alley political games. The Councils president has also quit her post.

For some, these disagreements reflect a wider split in the museum world about whether such institutions should be places that exhibit and research artifacts, or ones that actively engage with political and social issues.

It is easy to characterize this as a huge furor over the notion of museum definitions, Rick West, the president of the Autry National Center of the American West, said in a telephone interview. But that is erroneous. What it really reflects are fundamental, transformational earth-moving changes that are taking place in museums.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, August 6, 2020 17:23 530 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c1874f 1 City TrafficCongestion,Jakarta-police,odd-even-license-traffic-policy,traffic-management,vehicle,Trafficcontrols Free

The Jakarta Police is to reinstate the odd-even traffic policy on Aug. 10, following a two-day extension to the trial period that was originally scheduled to end on Wednesday.

"Our initial plan was to end the trial period on Wednesday and start ticketing violators on Thursday. However, considering that there are still many violations, we decided to extend the trial period until tomorrow," Jakarta Police traffic law enforcement head Sr. Adj. Comr. Fahri Siregar said on Thursday as reported by kompas.com.

He expressed hope that extending the trial period would give officers extra time to make the public aware about the policy and its enforcement measures.

"Starting today [Thursday], we will educate the residents more intensely about the policy, so we can [start] enforce ticketing on Monday," Fahri said.

From Aug. 10, the odd-even policy will be reinstated on 25 roads from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The odd-even policy restricts travel on certain roads, allowing entry to cars with odd-numbered license plates on odd-numbered dates only, and vice versa. Jakarta lifted the policy in the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak in March, before the large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) was implemented in April to ban all but essential travel.

In an earlier announcement on July 31, the Jakarta administration said it was reinstating the odd-even traffic policy on Aug. 3 in a bid to restrict unnecessary travel by private car amid the continuing rise in COVID-19 cases.

Jakarta Transportation Agency head Syafrin Liputo said last Friday that the administration had decided to reinstate the policy as traffic had increased following the city's gradual transition from the PSBB.

From our analysis, the traffic volume in some parts of the capital has increased beyond normal [levels] before the pandemic, Syafrin had said at the time. (nal)
Underground Printing Moves to Vic Village.

And finds a Covid silver lining in charity T-shirts.

by Micheline Maynard

From the August, 2020 issue

Underground Printing has been located somewhere on South University since 2006--originally on the north side of the street, where two ATMs now stand, then on the south side, next to Good Time Charley's, and, since this summer, on the north side again in the new Vic Village North student high-rise.



In a normal year, the Ann Arbor-based printer and retail chain would be ramping up to make school-themed swag and fill custom orders from university departments, clubs, and student organizations, says Rishi Narayan, who started printing T-shirts with fellow U-M engineering student Ryan Gregg in 1992. Now they have a major production facility on Jackson Rd. and more than twenty stores around the country. This year, with college life up in the air, they're filling the void with another specialty: charity T-shirts.



"Fundraising and online orders are something we've been doing for years and years," Narayan says. "In this time of Covid, it definitely turned into getting gear and swag and being able to virtually participate in events. We were doing that almost exclusively to a degree the past few months."



This spring, Underground Printing made T-shirts for the Ann Arbor Hospitality Fundraiser, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to staff members from sixty area restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and other small businesses. They also made shirts for a similar fundraiser supporting Chicago hospitality workers that showed the iconic John Hancock Building (now called 875 North Michigan Avenue) with a towel over its "arm," toting a tray. More than 27,000 of the $25 shirts were purchased in less than twenty-four hours, according to Block Club Chicago, an online news site. "I was excited to be part of it," Narayan says. They also made the shirts for Zingerman's 2020 Reuben Tour.



Narayan estimates that custom orders make up about 80 percent of Underground Printing's business, depending on location, which is why he's fine with the new store being about half the size of the previous one across the street.



Narayan isn't too worried about the uncertain academic schedule. "We know nothing about what's going to happen," he says, but "we don't expect a huge drop [in sales]. It varies market to market." And he figures the pandemic can't last forever. "If not this fall, then next fall," he says, "there will hopefully be a big push" to draw customers.



Underground Printing, 1107 South University, Ste. C. (734) 929-6648. Mon.-Fri. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Closed Sat. & Sun. undergroundshirts.com



[Originally published in August, 2020.]








Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday condoled the loss of lives in a fire that broke out at a Covid-19 hospital in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. At least eight patients have been killed in the accident.

Saddened by the tragic hospital fire in Ahmedabad. Condolences to the bereaved families. May the injured recover soon, the prime minister tweeted.

Saddened by the tragic hospital fire in Ahmedabad. Condolences to the bereaved families. May the injured recover soon. Spoke to CM @vijayrupanibjp Ji and Mayor @ibijalpatel Ji regarding the situation. Administration is providing all possible assistance to the affected.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 6, 2020

The prime minister said he has spoken to chief minister Vijay Rupani regarding the situation and assured all possible assistance to the affected. Chief minister Vijay Rupani has ordered a probe which will be led by Additional chief secretary (home department) Sangeeta Singh. The CM has asked for a report on the matter within three days. Rupani also announced an ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakhs each to the family of the deceased and Rs 50,000 to the injured.

Union home minister Amit Shah also expressed grief on the accident and prayed for the speedy recovery of the injured.

Deeply anguished by the loss of lives due to a tragic fire accident at a hospital in Ahmedabad. My condolences and thoughts are with the affected families in this hour of grief. Praying for the speedy recovery of those injured.  Amit Shah (@AmitShah) August 6, 2020

Deeply anguished by the loss of lives due to a tragic fire accident at a hospital in Ahmedabad. My condolences and thoughts are with the affected families in this hour of grief. Praying for the speedy recovery of those injured. Shah tweeted.

The Prime Ministers Office has announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each from the Prime Ministers National Relief Fund (PMNRF) to the next of kin of those who have lost their lives. Rs 50,000 as compensation will be given to those injured in the accident.

Eight patients in the ICU ward of private Covid-19 designated hospital in Ahmedabad died after a fire broke out on Thursday, a fire official said.

The fire broke out at Shrey Hospital in Navrangpura area of Ahmedabad during the early hours of Thursday, the official said.

Around 40 other Covid-19 patients at the facility were rescued and moved to a civic hospital in the city, the official added. The cause of the fire is being ascertained.

Rajiv Kumar Gupta, Additional Chief Secretary, Gujarat , said that the hospital has been sealed and around 41 patients have been moved to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Hospital. The bodies of the deceased have been sent for postmortem.
As political tension heightens in Edo state, there was mild drama on Thursday at the Edo State House of Assembly as some men were seen pulling down the iconic mace mounted at the roof of the Assembly.

According to a video shared by Channels Television, the men were seen removing the iconic legislative mace on top of the building. The video also showed trucks offloading gravels at the entrance of the Assembly Complex.

Reports say that Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, may have ordered the immediate renovation of the state House of Assembly.

Shortly after Obaseki and the Speaker, Frank Okiye, addressed PDP supporters at the complex, it was learnt that the governor ordered the heaping of sand at the front of the Edo State House of Assembly complex.

Several artisans were also seen removing the roof of the complex as at Thursday afternoon.

We earlier reported that policemen on Thursday surrounded the Assembly complex in Benin City, the state capital. It was gathered that the Police action was in a bid to prevent an
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - August 6, 2020) - Gold Rush Cariboo Corp. (TSXV: GDBO) (OTC: SGRWF) ("Gold Rush" or the "Company") is pleased to announce a non-brokered private placement of up to 39,000,000 units of the Company (the "Units") at a price of $0.015 per Unit, for gross proceeds of up to $585,000 (the "Offering"). Each Unit is comprised of one common share in the capital of the Company (each, a "Common Share") and one Common Share purchase warrant (each, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant entitles the holder thereof to acquire one Common Share at a price of $0.05 per Common Share for a period of three (3) years from the date of issuance. The proceeds of the Offering will be used to satisfy accounts payable and for general working capital purposes.

Closing of the Offering is subject to receipt of all necessary corporate and regulatory approvals, including the approval of TSX Venture Exchange. All securities issued in connection with the Offering will be subject to a hold period of four months plus a day from the date of issuance and the resale rules of applicable securities legislation.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons as defined under applicable United States securities laws unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

Conan Taylor

President

1-877-497-0528

We Seek Safe Harbour

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 Statements

Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, the timing of future exploration work or drilling, and the expansion of the mineralization. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of Gold Rush Cariboo Inc.., including, but not limited to, the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions, volatility of commodity prices, risks associated with the uncertainty of exploration results and estimates, currency fluctuations, dependency upon regulatory approvals, the uncertainty of obtaining additional financing and exploration risk. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. This press release is not, and is not to be construed in any way as, an offer to buy or sell securities in the United States.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/61255
A medical student from the University of NSW told a hospital patient he was her doctor before practising invasive physical examinations on her, without wearing gloves and without her consent, a Sydney court has heard.

Zhanyi Png, 28, is charged with aggravated sexual intercourse without consent, aggravated sexual touching without consent and common assault, following an incident in a ward of St Vincent's Hospital on May 1, 2019.

Medical student Zhanyi Png is accused of sexual assault after carrying out an unwarranted physical exam. Credit:Louise Kennerley

It's alleged Mr Png, who also goes by the first name "Jonathan", presented himself as a doctor to a cognitively impaired female patient while doing a placement at the hospital and did not obtain her consent before penetrating her, vaginally and anally, with his bare hands.

Mr Png denies penetrating the woman with his fingers but admits he examined her anal and genital area from the outside  without gloves, and without a medical reason to do so.
Industrial property was hit far less than other segments by COVID-19

Real Capital Analytics data show Asia-Pacific office transaction volumes fell by 59 per cent year to date (June, 2020) compared with the same period in 2019. Retail dropped by 68 per cent by the same metric. However, industrial and logistics transactions fell by only 24 per cent, suggesting the segment has proved more resilient in the face of the COVID-19 crisis.

According to Simon Smith, Savills Asia-Pacific head of Research and Consultancy: Industrial and logistics properties, especially warehousing, have been at the top of many investor lists for a while now. The sector taps into megatrends such as the growth of online retail and almost every market in the region is undersupplied with modern logistics space.

The segment continues to grow in appeal to global investors as a stable and secure asset class. Industrial and logistics property have been resilient across most of Asia-Pacific real estate markets, especially in Vietnam.

Vietnam  supply urgency

According to Focus Economics, Vietnams index of industrial production (IIP) in June 2020 was up 7 per cent on-year, largely driven by manufacturing and electricity production. Manufacturing and industrial output is estimated to grow 2.71 per cent overall in 2020, with 9.2 per cent growth forecast in 2021.

Manufacturing PMI was 51.1 points in June 2020, up from 42.7 points in May, marking the first growth above the 50-point threshold since January. This rebound is attributed to a solid increase in new orders, increased overall purchasing activity, while pre-production inventories were at their highest since November 2018.

In June 2020, Vietnam had 336 IPs over a total of approximately 97,800 hectares. Of these, 261 IPs are operational while 75 are under site clearance or construction. Operating industrial park average occupancy is now 76 per cent nationwide.

John Campbell, Savills Vietnam manager of Industrial Services, emphasised: Demand continuing to outpace supply underscores the need for more segment supply in key industrial provinces. Occupancy rates in key hubs such as Binh Duong, Dong Nai, Long An in the south and Bac Ninh, Hung Yen, and Haiphong in the north, have all risen significantly since 2018.

Most lease transactions in the first half of 2020 were derived from discussions which started last year, while many others were confirmed from companies in Vietnam looking to expand production facilities. The travel restrictions have limited "market entry" enquiries, postponed site inspections from key international investors, in turn, reducing executed lease volumes with local developers, he said.

While there are no guarantees for next year, Vietnams Industrial Sector reliance on continued supply chain migration out of China is increasingly apparent. Many landlords are anticipating a great year once travel restrictions are lifted.
Skeleton of a mutant (top) and normal zebrafish, showing the structural differences with the jaw. Credit: Tetsuto Miyashita

Zebrafish are a common aquarium species, of value to hobbyists and scientists alike. Researchers have now engineered an unusual change in them that has echoes of Jurassic Parkbut looks alone are deceiving.

A research team studying jaw evolution in the earliest known vertebratesfishes from around 400 million years agohave found that a single-gene mutation in the toe-sized zebrafish produced a surprising lookalike of species long extinct.

The phenomenon revealed in their experiments, called developmental plasticity, explains why a real Jurassic Park will continue to remain a distant concept, best suited for cinematic storytelling rather than scientific reality.

"The plasticity we found in the mutants is a key to the great mystery," says Dr. Tetsuto Miyashita, now a palaeontologist at the Canadian Museum of Nature and formerly postdoctoral scholar at the University of Chicago. He led the research team that also included scientists at the Universities of Alberta and Southern California. The results are published today in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

Miyashita is interested in the evolution of key characteristics in vertebrates, of which jaws were one of the first critical developments. "We generally think evolution adds new things. For example, the first jaws evolved in fish 450 million years ago, giving them the ultimate competitive edge over other living creatures. Today, we would starve and suffocate without jaws. But sometimes evolution goes the opposite way. Take away something that's been there for millions of years, and it suddenly opens up new evolutionary directions. My idea is to see it in action."

Skull of an anaspid, a 430-million-year-old fossil jawless fish that resembles mutant zebrafish. This specimen comes from Cornwallis Island, Nunavut, Canada. Credit: Tetsuto Miyashita

To do this, Miyashita bred zebrafish that had a mutation in a gene that instructs cells to form a hinge joint of the jaw. The mutant zebrafish are born without a jaw joint so the upper and lower jaws fuse into onecreating a gaping mouth that cannot close. With their wide eyes and gaping mouth, Miyashita reckons they resemble the figure in Edward Munch's artwork "The Scream".

Surprisingly, Miyashita observed that these mutants swimming in the aquarium were able to survive and thrivedespite the lack of a hinged jaw with which to bite. "Instead of gulping for food, the fish chase it until the food ends up in their great gape," says Miyashita. "They seem unable to move the lips or close the mouththese fish literally have their jaws dropped, fixed in that position."

The researchers observed that the skulls of the jawless mutants were remodelled with a shortened face, expanded cheeks, and massive neck musclessimilar features that first appeared in some of the earliest known jawless fishes during the Silurian and Devonian Periods nearly half a billion years ago.

Known as anaspids and thelodonts, these long-extinct fish that swam in ancient oceans are far removed from the zebrafish's line of ancestry. But like the mutant zebrafish, the fossils of these creatures show that they also lacked biting jaws and presumably had a similar feeding strategy.

It seems like a Jurassic Park moment, as if Miyashita created Devonian jawless fish out of modern ones. But, he explains, there is a more nuanced answer. "The resemblance is more a coincidence than by design. Anaspids and thelodonts are distant cousins half a billion generations removed, " he says. "Zebrafish didn't come from them, so cannot 'go back' to them."

A normal zebrafish (left) and mutant zebrafish with gaping mouth (right). Credit: Tetsuto Miyashita

In essence, the mutant zebrafish experiments suggest that genetic engineering does not enable restoring an ancestor. It only allows superficial convergence of characteristics that mutants develop by necessity. "The finding sets an unrealistically high bar for a Jurassic Park-like scenario. Engineered similarities are skin-deep, but origins and contents are completely different."

Miyashita notes the scientific phenomenon of developmental plasticity is why features of extinct organisms sometimes appear in lab-made mutants, as in the highly publicized case of 'dino-chickens.' Although these types of mutants are sometimes referenced as a rewinding of the evolutionary clock, plasticity means they are no more than coincidences.

That said, these initial experiments do offer insights for future scientific researchespecially for how extinct jawless fishes (the predecessors of today's fishes) might have fed, breathed, and swam. The mutant zebrafish can be studied by biologists to explore further why evolution makes an occasional "leap". Understanding how jaw fusion occurs in the mutants may also break a path for a new treatment of certain joint diseases.

Miyashita started his new position at the Canadian Museum of Nature April 1, 2020 during the COVID pandemic. This followed post-doctoral work at the University of Chicago where he completed the zebrafish experiments. Scientists at the University of Alberta contributed CT scans and analysis of the skull morphology. Miyashita plans to carry on his work with the mutant zebrafish by establishing another working "Devonian" aquarium at the museum.

Explore further How the zebrafish got its stripes

More information: Tetsuto Miyashita et al, nkx3.2 mutant zebrafish accommodate jaw joint loss through a phenocopy of the head shapes of Paleozoic jawless fish, The Journal of Experimental Biology (2020). Journal information: Journal of Experimental Biology Tetsuto Miyashita et al, nkx3.2 mutant zebrafish accommodate jaw joint loss through a phenocopy of the head shapes of Paleozoic jawless fish,(2020). DOI: 10.1242/jeb.216945

Provided by Canadian Museum of Nature
The Executive Director of the Centre for Plant Medicine Research, Dr Kofi Bobi Barimah has been recognised as one of the Top Ten Chief Executives of the pharmaceutical industry at the recently held Ghana Pharma Awards 2020.

The award was the climax of a resoundingly successful night for the Centre. The Centre had earlier been awarded as one of the Top Ten pharmaceutical organisations in Ghana.

The awards organised by Globe Productions in collaboration with the Pharmacy Council, Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana, Ghana Standards Authority and Graphic Business brought together leading players in pharmacy practice, pharmacy manufacturing, academia and research to deliberate on the capacity of the industry in the era of COVID-19.

Receiving the award, the Executive Director of the Centre for Plant Medicine Research, Dr Kofi Bobi Barimah acknowledged the key players from within and without the Centre who have contributed so far to researching herbal solutions in the fight against COVID-19.

It is critically important for us, as a country, to widen as much as possible, our search for solutions as we seek to defeat this dreadful disease. We, at CPMR, are utterly determined to make plant medicine relevant in this enterprise. I, therefore, would humbly yet urgently invite pharmaceutical organisations to partner us to explore this promising field said Dr Barimah.

Meanwhile, earlier in the week the Ghana Pharma Summit was held under the theme COVID-19: The Capacity of the Pharma Industry, What Lies Ahead

The Deputy Executive Director of CPMR, Dr Alfred Ampomah Appiah addressing the participants said the Centre was making efforts to ensure the safe production of herbal products.

We are working hard to develop products that can support the immune system; to develop a product that can act as an antioxidant to manage the disease condition. Treatment will take some time because well have to do a series of test and ensure that whatever you have is active against the virus, he added.

He revealed that the Centre is working to standardise the usage of plants with anti-viral properties to check their abuse on the market.

These things will have to be standardised. You hear that people have gone for these herbs and are boiling and drinking them; they are medicines and if you take beyond a certain quantity they can harm you.

Therefore, we will have to formulate standard dosage forms to avoid harm to consumers or patients. That is our responsibility, but we need this to be done with research before we can move it into the industry for large-scale production.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI  Every student at Grand Rapids Public Schools will need a device and sufficient internet access for virtual learning this fall, and the district is ready to make that happen.

School administrators shared the plan to outfit students with the necessary devices and other details about what virtual learning will look like this fall during a town hall-style event online Wednesday night.

Grand Rapids students will need a device and sufficient internet access during the first nine weeks of virtual classes this fall. School administrators previously announced the plan for online-only education to start the 2020-21 school year. Classes are scheduled to begin Aug. 25.

What makes this year different from the spring is we are going 1:1 with computer and Internet access for all students, said GRPS Assistant Superintendent Ron Gorman. We are going to maximize access for our students.

While students are able to use their own technology for virtual learning, Gorman said the district is prepared to provide devices for all GRPS students. GRPS is projecting 15,343 students this fall.

The district will not need to purchase any new devices for virtual learning, district spokesperson John Helmholdt told MLive Wednesday. GRPS will mostly be using devices that were previously purchased with funds from a $175 million improvement bond passed by Grand Rapids voters in 2015.

However, the district is budgeting about $2.5 million in costs related to device replacement and repair and internet connection. GRPS administrators are estimating $717,000 in replacement and warranty costs for grades 2-12, and $852,000 in those same costs for pre-kindergarten through first grade, Helmholdt said.

Administrators are also planning to spend about $953,000 to provide adequate internet access for families, Helmholdt said. Students in need will receive hotspots for reliable internet access this year.

Gorman said GRPS staff and administrators will work together to identify families struggling with connectivity barriers as the district tackles virtual learning.

Were going to be working very closely with our teachers, our principals, assistant principals, secretarial staff to ensure that those folks who do not have devices get devices, and to really address any challenges that families may be having, he said.

GRPS will offer an extended device distribution period from Aug. 17 until Oct. 23 so families can receive their needed devices. A letter has been mailed to district families with more information, administrators said.

The device distribution sites will be open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Parents should call 616-301-1111 for further instructions. A list of the regional distribution sites is available here.

Superintendent Leadriane Roby is recommending teaching be online through the first marking period, which ends Oct. 21. During that time, she said district leaders will assess the decision and continue to prepare for a potential in-person or hybrid return to school.

The Board of Education is expected to vote on the plan at its Monday, Aug. 10 meeting.

Fall virtual learning will look a lot different than it did in the spring, GRPS administrators said. There will be mandatory attendance and grading this year, compared to the spring when participation was only monitored.

Kristin Hedges, who has three kids in the district, said she had a lot of relief when she heard about the virtual-only plan.

I feel a lot of gratitude that GRPS is making the decision based on safety, she told MLive. I also appreciate them making the decision now. It gives teachers and parents in the schools time to create a plan for what to do. We would be in a worse position if were making that call a week before school which I think is what a lot of other school districts are going to have to do.

Darenda Smith, another GRPS parent with four in-district students, said she feels the virtual-only learning should be extended throughout the entire school year.

I am a front line worker, so the less risks I have to worry about the better, she told MLive. Until this virus stuff is over, putting families at risk is not a good answer. I want my children safe and free from any contagion.

The district this summer surveyed parents and teachers, who said distance learning was the most preferred option among hybrid or in-person classes.

When asked to rank in-person, hybrid and virtual learning as most preferred or least preferred, 48% of parents said virtual school was most preferred while 25% said they would most prefer in-person learning, according to district data. When asked what option they would least prefer, 57% said in-person learning.

Among teachers, 57% said virtual school was the most preferred option and 61% said in-person learning was least preferred.

During Wednesdays virtual town hall, one parent asked administrators why the district chose to hold virtual-only learning this semester. The parent said she decided to leave GRPS because the district decided not to have in-person classes.

Why are other districts ready to start back in person but not GRPS? the parent said.

Roby responded by saying the districts decision was a safety issue, not a political one.

We have repeatedly said that safety, health, and the well being of our students and staff are and will continue to be the top priority for our decision making, she said. Any reopening for hybrid or 100% in-person will be informed by federal, state and county health officials, as well as the governors office, using science and data to drive our decisions.

Were going to closely monitor whats happening and other districts and trend lines, particularly those in our region to see whats working, what may not be working and what may be the appropriate evolution for rolling out in-person learning for Grand Rapids Public School students.

Families can expect to receive teacher assignments by next week, administrators said at Wednesdays meeting.

To help you navigate this complicated fall, were pleased to offer you a simpler way to get all of your education news: Our new Michigan Schools: Education in the COVID Era newsletter delivered right to your inbox. To receive this newsletter, simply click here to sign up.

More on MLive:

Grand Rapids superintendent recommends starting school year online-only

First day of school looks different this year as Flint students start class online

Kalamazoo schools will start the year online-only
The police said that about 144 minor boys were also detained last year for indulging in violence, but currently only 17 remain in remand homes set up under the Juvenile Justice Act

As many as 504 separatist leaders, who had been detained following the abrogation of Article 370 provisions a year ago, were released after they signed bond of "good behaviour", Jammu and Kashmir Police chief Dilbag Singh said on Thursday.

Singh also said out of the 350 separatist leaders and stone pelters who had been sent to jails in other states, only 50-60 continued to remain behind bars and the rest were released.

"A total of 504 separatist leaders belonging to Hurriyat Conference and Jamaat-e-Islami (JK) and others have been released so far after they signed good behaviour bond," he told PTI here.

Those who sign "good behaviour bond" are bound to maintain peace and not indulge in any violent or separatist activities after being released from jails or home detention.

The Director General of Police (DGP) said after the abrogation of Article 370 provisions on August 5, 2019, a total of 5,500 youths were detained by security forces and all of them were let off after three-four days following counselling and taking assurance from their parents that they would not indulge in any violent acts like stone pelting in future.

However, he said, cases were against 1,200 other youths for indulging in violent acts.

Singh said about 144 boys, who were under 18 years old, were also detained last year for indulging in violence and currently just 17 of them are in remand homes set up under the Juvenile Justice Act.

He said at least 16 youths, who joined the ranks of the militants, have returned after persuasion of police and family members and no action has been taken against them as they were not involved in any violence so far.

Referring to those who were sent to jails outside Jammu and Kashmir, the police chief said about 300 were released as their custody period under the Public Safety Act (PSA) was over and it was felt that their further detention was not required.

"We will review the cases of other 50-60 people when their prison terms come to an end," he said.

Talking about the future strategy to deal with militancy in Jammu and Kashmir, Singh said there was a need to enhance technical surveillance along the border with Pakistan so that terrorists could not enter India and efforts should be made for de-radicalisation of the youth.

In addition, there should be programme for skill development for the youth and all development aspirations gaps should be filled, he said.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The CBI on Thursday took over investigation into the actor Sushant Singh Rajput death case and re-registered the Patna police FIR related to alleged criminal conspiracy and abetment to suicide against his rumoured girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty and her family members, officials said Thursday.

The case will be probed by a special investigation team under Superintendent of Police Nupur Prasad and will be supervised by DIG Gagandeep Gambhir and Joint Director Manoj Shashidhar, both senior IPS officers from the Gujarat cadre, they said.

Sources said the case will monitored at the top level in the agency on a daily basis.

While the Mumbai Police had registered an Accidental Death Report (ADR) into the death of Rajput, the Patna police had registered a case on a complaint from Rajput's father K K Singh against Chakraborty, her parents Indrajit Chakraborty and Sandhya Chakraborty, brother Showik Chakraborty, and common friends Samuel Miranda and Shruti Modi.

The Patna police had filed the FIR under the IPC sections related to criminal conspiracy, abetment to suicide, wrongful confinement, criminal breach of trust, theft and criminal intimidation which was forwarded to the Centre for a CBI probe.

A state government cannot directly give a case to the CBI.

It is routed through the Department of Personnel and Training, the nodal ministry for the CBI.

Following the book, the agency after receiving the reference from the central government, re-registered the Patna Police FIR as its own case on Thursday taking over the investigation.

ALSO READ | Sushant Singh Rajput death: ED questions staffer working at late actor's house

In tweets from her official handle, the bollywood actress, while denying any role in Rajpur's death, had requested Union Home Minister Amit Shah a fortnight ago for a CBI probe.

"I'm Sushant Singh Rajput's 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. I only want to understand what pressures prompted Sushant to take this step," she tweeted on July 15.

However, her lawyer told the Supreme Court later that the Bihar government cannot recommend a CBI probe when the police from that state do not have any jurisdiction to even investigate the case.

In his FIR, Rajput's father had alleged that Chakraborty developed intimacy with the actor to use his contacts and started interfering in his work.

Chakraborty and her family members influenced him to leave the house where he used to stay citing the presence of ghosts and took him to a resort near Mumbai airport, Singh alleged in the FIR of the Patna police, which now forms the case of the CBI.

The Chakraborty family allegedly convinced him that he was mentally disturbed and needed good treatment, he alleged.

"When we came to know about it, my daughter went to meet him in Mumbai and tried to bring him back but Rhea Chakraborty and her family pressured him to stay and get treatment in Mumbai.

They did not let him return," he alleged.

They gave him medicines in overdose, told people that he was suffering from dengue which was a lie, changed all trustworthy employees of Rajput, took control of all his credit cards and bank documents and cut him off from his immediate family, Singh alleged.

"Sometimes I managed to speak to Sushant on a phone taken by Rhea on the ID of her close aide Samuel Miranda. He used to say that these people want him to be put in a mental asylum and he was not able to do anything," he alleged in the FIR.

He said that Rajput wanted to leave films and wanted to do organic farming in Coorg but she allegedly did not let him leave.

Singh alleged that Rhea took away all his credit cards, bank documents, cash, jewellery, medical reports and other documents on June 8 and threatened him that she would announce that the actor was mentally unfit which would spoil his career.

Chakraborty had appointed Disha as the manager of Rajput who had committed suicide on the same night when Chakraborty left following which he was in extreme mental stress, Singh alleged.

Rajput allegedly feared that Chakraborty would frame him in the case and tried to contact her but she had blocked his number as result contact could not be established which accentuated his stress levels, he alleged.

The actor's sister visited him to talk to him and comfort him but after she left he allegedly committed suicide within two days, he alleged.

Rajput, aged 34, was found hanging from the ceiling of his apartment in suburban Bandra in Mumbai on June 14 and since then the Mumbai Police has been probing the case keeping in mind various angles.

The Maharashtra government has raised objection to the move as Bihar does not have jurisdiction to start a probe in a different state.

The Mumbai Police had registered an Accidental Death Report (ADR) and a probe is underway in the case.

Till now, the Mumbai Police recorded statements of 56 people, including Rajput's sisters, Chakraborty and some other film personalities.

The Mumbai Police has recorded the statements of Bollywood directors like Aditya Chopra, Mahesh Bhatt and Sanjay Leela Bhansali.
SRT Alliance Surpasses 400 Members as Grass Valley, Evertz, Xilinx, and Primestream Join the SRT Open Source Project

SRT adoption skyrockets, satisfying the growing need for low latency video connectivity to support broadcast cloud contribution and distribution workflows

Montreal, Canada( )

Montreal, Canada  August 4, 2020  The SRT Alliance, established by Haivision to support the SRT Open Source project, announces that Grass Valley, Evertz, Xilinx, and Primestream have joined the SRT Alliance to show their support and adoption of the SRT open source protocol. Over 50 industry-leading organizations have turned to SRT and joined the SRT Alliance over the last few months, bringing the total number of members to more than 400 companies.

SRT (Secure Reliable Transport), originally developed and open sourced by Haivision, is a low latency video streaming protocol which enables remote and cloud-based high-performance video workflows by overcoming packet loss and adding security with sophisticated encryption techniques. SRT is helping broadcasters and streamers to solve todays challenges including real-time newsgathering, remote production, and the broadcasters at-home workforce.

Were excited to join the SRT Alliance to support SRT as a widely adopted industry standard, said Neil Maycock, SVP Strategic Marketing & Playout, Grass Valley. SRT is a perfect fit for our strategy at Grass Valley as we continue to innovate and focus on future-proofing our customers workflows as they transition from SDI to IP and adopt cloud-based solutions, where latency, security, and connectivity are key.

As remote work is now a global reality, Evertzs customers are demanding flexible and powerful solutions that can help them continue to be successful during these times, said Jatinder Barmi, Compression Systems Product Manager, Evertz. The addition of the SRT protocol to our end-to-end portfolio of broadcast production solutions for content creation, distribution, and delivery enables low latency video throughout the broadcasters workflow.

The increase in demand for real-time live streaming applications, fueled in part by COVID-19, is driving the industry to provide more intelligent network-aware video processing solutions, said Sean Gardner, Director, Business Development, Video Solutions at Xilinx. We are excited to unite with the SRT Alliance to collaborate on open-source technologies that will provide the industry with solutions that will reduce end-to-end latency, increase network security, and improve the overall QoE for consumers.

IP based stream production workflows are the wave of the future for all types of media enterprises, but a critical success factor is the ability to transport high-quality, low-latency video in a secure and reliable manner, said Claudio Lisman, President and CEO, Primestream. Thats why we are happy to be working with the SRT Alliance in its groundbreaking efforts to create an open-source video transport protocol and to introduce SRT solutions like Media IO.

SRT has proven itself to be one of the most powerful technologies driving the industry and it has become a critical component for addressing todays challenges associated with remote production and broadcasting, said Jesus (Suso) Carrillo, Director of the SRT Alliance for Haivision.

SRT optimizes streaming performance across unpredictable networks with low latency secure streams. SRT, royalty free and available on GitHub, is the fastest growing open source video streaming movement. In addition to its more than 400 alliance members, SRT is also supported within other open source projects widely used within the streaming industry such as OBS (Open Broadcaster Software the main streaming engine for Twitch), VideoLANs VLC, Wireshark, FFmpeg and GStreamer. The SRT Alliance members list can be found at srtalliance.org/members.

SRT 2020 Vision Webinar

Hosted by the SRT Alliance, and sponsored by Microsoft and Haivision, the SRT 2020 Vision webinar gives updates on the latest SRT developments and technology roadmap. To watch, visit: https://www.srtalliance.org/plugfest/.

About the SRT Alliance

The SRT Alliance is a collaborative community of industry leaders and developers striving to achieve lower latency internet video transport by continuously improving SRT, an open source video transport protocol and technology stack. Originally developed and pioneered by Haivision, SRT optimizes streaming performance across unpredictable networks with secure streams and easy firewall traversal, bringing the best quality live video over the worst networks. Haivision was awarded an Emmy for Technology and Engineering from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for developing the SRT protocol. For more information about the project and how to join the SRT Alliance, visit srtalliance.org.
Mauritanian Prime Minister Ismail Ould Bedda Ould Cheikh Sidiya tendered his resignation on Thursday, according to the Saharan state's official news agency.

Mohamed Ould Bilal, a former political advisor, has been appointed his successor, said an official at the presidency, who declined to be named.
New Delhi: The four-member Bihar Police team which was formed to investigate actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death in Mumbai returned to Patna on Thursday. The team included two Bihar Police inspectors and two sub-inspectors. Upon their arrival in Patna, the officials said that the Mumbai Police cooperated during their investigation and added that the team questioned 10 people in the case.

On July 25, Sushant's father KK Singh had filed an FIR in Patna accusing the actor's girlfriend of abetment to suicide, besides other offences. Following the FIR, the team was constituted to probe the case. The Bihar Police set up a parallel investigation in Mumbai. However, the probe by Bihar Police didn't go down well with Maharashtra and turf intensified on Monday after IPS officer Vinay Tiwari was quarantined by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) as he landed in Mumbai to head the case.

Vinay Tiwari will remain in quarantine till August 15. The Bihar Police had requested the BMC to relieve him of quarantine, but the application was rejected.

Meanwhile, Sushant's death case has now been handed over to the CBI on Bihar government's recommendation. The CBI is likely to file an FIR today.
In April, Rohit Shetty was among the several celebrities from the film industry who came forward to help the daily wage workers amid the nationwide lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Filmmaker Rohit Shetty will share a major portion of his remuneration from the new season of his reality show Khatron Ke Khiladi with Hindi film industry's daily wage workers.

He recently started the shoot of the new season of adventure-based reality series, a statement from the filmmaker's team read.

Shetty, known for movies such as Golmaal series, Singham and Simmba, will provide financial aid to support junior artists, background dancers, stunt men, light men among others. He will directly transfer the money into the accounts of these individuals.

Producer Ashoke Pandit, who is chief advisor to Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE), took to Twitter on Thursday to laud the filmmaker for the gesture.

Here is the post

. @fwicemum & @DirectorsIFTDA thanks film maker #RohitShetty Ji from d core of their hearts fr sharing major portion of hs remuneration 2 support #JuniorArtistes #Backgrounddancers #Stuntmen #Lightmen etc

He is a true #Singham of our industry.

Wishing you great success.

 pic.twitter.com/nf4olb5ZWw  Ashoke Pandit (@ashokepandit) August 6, 2020

In April, Shetty was among the several celebrities from the film industry who came forward to help the daily wage workers amid the nationwide lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

He had donated Rs 51 lakh to FWICE in order to support the daily wage workers.

The filmmaker had also facilitated 11 hotels across the city for on-duty policemen to rest and have meals for 100 days.

(With inputs from Press Trust of India)
Home Minister Amit Shah has paid his tribute to former foreign minister and senior BJP leader, late Sushma Swaraj, on her death anniversary by calling her an outstanding parliamentarian and a brilliant orator who dedicated her life in the service of the nation.

Shahs tribute comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi remembering Swaraj as an articulate voice for India at the world stage.

Tributes to Sushma Swaraj ji on her punyatithi. She was a towering figure of Indian polity, an outstanding parliamentarian & a brilliant orator who dedicated her entire life in service of the nation. Her ideals will continue to inspire the generations to come, Amit Shah tweeted on Thursday.

Sushma Swaraj was just 67 years old at the time of her death last year following health complications that made her stay away from taking any ministerial responsibility in the second term of the Narendra Modi government. The Prime Minister had earlier today said that Swaraj served India selflessly recalling her tenure as the external affairs minister in the first term of his government between 2014 and 2019.

Remembering Sushma Ji on her first Punya Tithi. Her untimely and unfortunate demise left many saddened. She served India selflessly and was an articulate voice for India at the world stage, PM Modi tweeted earlier today.

Also Read: PM Modi remembers Sushma Swaraj on her death anniversary

Hours before she died of cardiac arrest, Swaraj had tweeted her praise for Centres decision to abrogate Article 370, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

Vice President Venkaiah Naidu threw light on her helpful nature and said she was a wonderful human being.

Sushma ji was a member of our family. We used to turn to her for advice & help when we first came to New Delhi. She was a wonderful human being, who was prompt in her responses for any request or solution, Naidu tweeted on Sushma Swarajs first death anniversary.

He added that Swarajs wit, human nature and prompt response to any problem were in full display on social media when she was the minister. Naidu also called her one of the most popular Indian foreign ministers in recent times.

Sushmas successor to the post, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said she was remembered fondly. Today, more than ever, remember her fondly. Always an inspiration, he tweeted and posted a picture with the former minister.

Swaraj was the youngest cabinet minister in the Haryana government who later became the first woman chief minister of Delhi and the first woman spokesperson of a national political party in the country.

She was the information and broadcasting minister in the first BJP government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1996 and also later in 1998.

Her speeches in the parliament as the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha between 2009 and 2014 are often remembered for its sharpness, wit and impact.

Swaraj was a seven time MP and was thrice elected as an MLA.
A bus is caught in floodwaters in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday. Yonhap





Firefighters rescue a woman from a flooded road in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday. Yonhap



By Jung Min-ho



Five people have been rescued from a bus caught in a flash flood in Paju, Gyeonggi Province.



Firefighters said Thursday that they rescued four passengers and the driver from the vehicle, which was caught in floodwaters.











Yonhap



No one was seriously injured in the incident.



As heavy rain continues to wreak havoc in Korea's central regions, including the city and the Seoul metropolitan area, the death toll rose to 16 as of Thursday morning.




The United States has accused Russia of developing a sophisticated ecosystem to spread disinformation and propaganda about the coronavirus and other issues.

In a new report published on August 5, the State Department said Russias online operations use five main pillars to amplify false narratives and conspiracy theories in a bid to sow confusion and fear.



Russia is playing a significant role in creating and spreading misinformation and propaganda around many topics, said Lea Gabrielle, head of the State Departments Global Engagement Center.

The report does not mention Russian disinformation operations around the 2016 U.S. presidential election or if it is waging another online influence campaign ahead of Novembers election. The Global Engagement Centers mandate is to examine propaganda outside the United States.

Instead, the report mainly focused on the Kremlins recent efforts to spread disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic using a mutually reinforcing web of disinformation.

The ecosystem consists of five main pillars: official government communications, state-funded global messaging, cultivation of proxy sources, weaponization of social media, and cyberenabled disinformation, the report said.

The Kremlin bears direct responsibility for cultivating these tactics and platforms as part of its approach to using information as a weapon, it said.

Most of the report examined websites acting as proxies used to proliferate Russian disinformation and propaganda. The State Department described these news sites or research institutions as critical connective tissue within the broader ecosystem.

We found that they promote disinformation in support of the Kremlins goals, theyre often promoted directly by the Russian government, and they push specific disinformation narratives that are picked up by other parts of the ecosystem, Gabrielle said.

Russia tries to hide its affiliation with these different proxy sites. Thats what makes them effective, is that its difficult for just an average person who is online to look at these sites and know that its actually Russian disinformation, she said.

Chinese, Iran, and Russian disinformation operations often echo each other and use similar tactics.

The report profiled seven such proxy sites, although it said that there are many more of varying size and influence. The websites have peddled conspiracy theories and fringe thoughts on a range of topics, including the coronavirus.

One such proxy is the Strategic Culture Foundation, an online journal directed by Russias external SVR intelligence agency. The report said the journal gives a voice to Western fringe thinkers and conspiracy theorists to spread anti-U.S. and anti-Western views while obscuring ties to the Russian government.

Another website is New Eastern Outlook, which the report describes as a pseudo-academic publication tied to the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Oriental Studies that promotes disinformation and propaganda about the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.

The State Department identified the Canadian-based Global Research as the largest proxy website, describing it as deeply enmeshed in Russias broader disinformation and propaganda ecosystem.

It said the website has sought to frame the coronavirus pandemic as a Western conspiracy, publishing articles claiming the virus originated in the United States and was developed for the global elite to control the world. One coronavirus article was republished or linked to by more than 70 websites and publications.

In a statement on its Facebook page, the Russian Embassy in Washington said the report was intended to derail cooperation with the United States and discredit alternative sources of information.

"The U.S. State Department is not very fond of the existence of alternative sources of information. Serious resources are employed to discredit them. Any voice that contradicts Washington is dubbed disinformation in the service of the Kremlin and Russian intelligence, it said.
When we dream, our brains are filled with noisy electrical activity that looks nearly identical to that of the awake brain.

But University of California, Berkeley, researchers have pulled a signal out of the noise that uniquely defines dreaming, or REM sleep, potentially making it easier to monitor people with sleep disorders, as well as unconscious coma patients or those under anesthesia.

Each year, hundreds of thousands of people undergo overnight studies to diagnose problems with their sleep, most of them hooked up to an electroencephalogram (EEG) to monitor brain activity as they progress from wakefulness to deep, slow-wave sleep and on into REM sleep. But EEGs alone can not tell whether a patient is awake or dreaming: Doctors can only distinguish REM sleep by recording rapid eye movement -- hence, the name -- and muscle tone, since our bodies relax in a general paralysis to prevent us from acting out our dreams.

"We really now have a metric that precisely tells you when you are in REM sleep. It is a universal metric of being unconscious," said Robert Knight, UC Berkeley professor of psychology and neuroscience and senior author of a paper describing the research that was published July 28 in the online journal eLife.

"These new findings show that, buried in the electrical static of the human brain, there is something utterly unique -- a simple signature," said co-author and sleep researcher Matthew Walker, UC Berkeley professor of psychology and neuroscience. "And if we measure that simple electrical signature, for the first time, we can precisely determine exactly what state of consciousness someone is experiencing -- dreaming, wide awake, anesthetized or in deep sleep."

The ability to distinguish REM sleep by means of an EEG will allow doctors to monitor people under anesthesia during surgery to explore how narcotic-induced unconsciousness differs from normal sleep -- a still-unsettled question. That's the main reason first author Janna Lendner, a medical resident in anesthesiology, initiated the study.

"We often tell our patients that, 'You will go to sleep now,' and I was curious how much these two states actually overlap," said Lendner, a UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow in her fourth year of residency in anesthesiology at the University Medical Center in Tubingen, Germany. "Anesthesia can have some side effects. If we learn a little bit about how they overlap -- maybe anesthesia hijacks some sleep pathways -- we might be able to improve anesthesia in the long run."

Sleep soothes the brain

Sleep, as Walker wrote in his 2017 book, "Why we Sleep," "enriches a diversity of functions, including our ability to learn, memorize, and make logical decisions and choices. Benevolently servicing our psychological health, sleep recalibrates our emotional brain circuits, allowing us to navigate next-day social and psychological challenges with cool-headed composure."

Disrupted sleep interferes with all of this, increasing the risk of medical, psychiatric and neurological diseases.

Most sleep research focuses on the synchronized, rhythmic waves that flow through the neural network of the brain, from the slow waves that signal deep sleep, typically in the first few hours of the night, to the higher frequency waves typical of dream sleep. These waves pop out above a lot of general activity, also called the 1/f, that has typically been dismissed as noise and ignored.

But Knight and his lab have been looking at this "noise" for a decade and found that it contains useful information about the state of the brain. In 2015, for example, he and Bradley Voytek, a former doctoral student now on the faculty at UC San Diego, discovered that the amount of high frequency activity increases with age. Lendner has now found that a faster drop-off of high-frequency activity, relative to low-frequency activity, is a unique signature of REM sleep.

"There is this background activity, which is not rhythmic, and we have overlooked that for quite a long time," Lendner said. "Sometimes, it has been called noise, but it is not noise; it carries a lot of information, also about the underlying arousal level. This measure makes it possible to distinguish REM sleep from wakefulness by looking only at the EEG."

Since slow waves are associated with inhibition of activity in the brain, while high frequency activity -- like that found during wakefulness -- is associated with excitatory behavior, the sharper drop-off may be an indication that many activities in the brain, including those related to muscle movement, are being tamped down during REM sleep.

The new measure quantifies the relationship of brain activity at different frequencies -- how much activity there is at frequencies from about 1 cycle per second to 50 cycles per second -- and determines the slope, that is, how fast the spectrum drops. This 1/f "drop-off" is sharper in REM sleep than in wakefulness or when under anesthesia.

Lendner found this characteristic measure in the nighttime brain activity of 20 people recorded via EEG scalp electrodes in Walker's UC Berkeley sleep lab and in 10 people who had electrodes placed in their brains to search for the causes of epilepsy as a necessary prologue to brain surgery to alleviate seizures.

She also recorded brain activity in 12 epilepsy patients and 9 other patients undergoing spinal surgery with the common general anesthetic Propofol.

Lendner is now reviewing brain recordings from coma patients to see how their brain activity varies over the course of a day and whether the 1/f drop-off can be used to indicate the likelihood of emergence from coma.

"More importantly, I think it is another metric for evaluating states of coma," Knight said. "1/f is very sensitive. It could resolve, for instance, if someone was in a minimally conscious state, and they are not moving, and whether they are more alert than you think they are."

###

The work was funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and National Institute of Mental Health. Other co-authors of the eLife paper are Randolph Helfrich of the University Medical Center in Tubingen, Bryce Mander and Jack Lin of UC Irvine and Luis Romundstad and Pal Larsson of the University of Oslo Medical Center.
A flagbearer hopeful of the Peoples' National Convention (PNC), Samson Asaaki Awingobit is asking the party's council of Elders to intervene in the disagreement between the various factions.

Mr. Awingobit who has been meeting PNC leadership in parts of the country says their members are clamouring for a united front ahead of the December polls.

The electoral fate of the PNC hangs in a balance due to internal party wrangling.

While a faction led by the Chairman, Bernard Mornah, says there's no preparation for an internal election towards the selection of a flagbearer; the other faction steered by a former flagbearer of the party, Edward Nasigiri Mahama, has a different plan.

However, in an interview with Citi News, Mr. Awingobit pleaded with the partys Council of Elders to find a lasting solution to the challenges hindering the conduct of the congress for the selection of a flagbearer and other national executives.

After the declaration, I started meeting interest groups in our party. I met, Mr. Edward Mahama, the national executives, all the 16 regional chairmen of the party, and the regional secretaries. I went on a tour of the Upper East Region. I will want to implore by appealing to our Council of Elders to take the opportunity to step in and take leadership of the party and form an ad-hoc committee and let them go with the EC officials to affirm by popular acclamation to those that are contesting to be executives and move ahead to conduct the congress to elect the flagbearer for the party because there is no time on our side. It is not because of their challenges that my ambition will be in vain.

Meanwhile, General Secretary of the PNC, Attik Mohammed says with barely five months to the 2020 election, the processes for the congress should be finalised by the end of August.

At the congress, we hold the two activities concurrently whereby we elect the flagbearer and the next set of national executives who will be running the affairs of the party for the next four years. So hopefully, by the end of August, we should be heading towards congress. If anyone accuses me of not wanting the party, is lying; to put it bluntly. This is because, I have said that, the tenure of all the current executives has expired and we should have renewed our mandate through Congress by December last year.

On his part, the PNC's youth organizer, Awudu Ishak, is oblivious of any such plan to elect a flagbearer for the December polls.

The leader of the party who is Edward Mahama serving as an Ambassador-at-large serving under Akufo-Addos government seems not to be interested in the forward march of the PNC. On a number of occasions when the constitution has given the Chairman of the party the necessary powers to convene a national executive committee meeting in consultation with the leader of the party for all of these matters to be discussed, the leader usually shoots down such proposals insisting that at an appropriate time, he will call for that particular meeting as far as the reorganizational plan is concerned because he does not want to hear anything about the national executive committee meeting that will set the motion and propel the PNC for the election of 2020. All the dates that have been set have elapsed so effectively, there is no date. Everything is now in limbo, he complained.

PNC and elections in Ghana

Aside from Mr. Awingobit who is Executive Secretary of the Importers and Exporters Association, former PNC Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central, David Apasara, has also served notice to contest in the polls to change the dwindling fortunes of the party.

The PNC has contested all national elections since the inception of the Fourth Republic apart from the 1992 parliamentary election, which was boycotted along with other opposition parties.

The last time the PNC elected new officials was in 2015 when Edward Mahama became its presidential candidate for the 2016 elections.

---citinewsroom
Several automakers are considering assembling their best-selling models in Viet Nam due to the Governments policy of zero import tariffs on components and a 50 per cent reduction in registration fees.

Mazda model assembled at Truong Hai Auto Corporation in Chu Lai Open Economic Zone in Quang Nam Province. Automakers were eyeing to assemble their best-seller models in Viet Nam to capture the opportunities from the Governments policy of zero import tariff on components.

On July 20, Honda Viet Nam introduced the fifth-generation CR-V 2020 and will start selling cars built here from August 11 after three years importing completely built-up units from Thailand for distribution in Viet Nam.

Mitsubishi Viet Nam on the same day also introduced its best-seller Xpander assembled at its plant in the southern province of Binh Duong and started selling to customers in August after nearly two years importing fully built-ups from Indonesia.

Domestically-assembled Mitsubishi Xpanders will cost VND30-40 million (US$1,300-1,720) less than imported versions due to registration fees being cut in half.

Previously, in mid-2019, Toyota Viet Nam moved to assemble Fortuner models in Viet Nam while other models remained imported.

Teh Kim Hwa, general director of TC Services Vietnam that distributes products of British automobile company MG Motor in Viet Nam, was quoted by Vietnam News Agency as saying that MGs SUV MG HS and MG ZS models would be imported fully built-ups from China first then from Thailand from November this year to enjoy the zero import tariffs.

He added that some MG models were to be assembled at a plant in Da Nang from 2021.

Although the 50 per cent reduction in registration fees for domestically-produced cars is only set to last until the end of this year, the policy has encouraged automakers to assemble models in Viet Nam. The policy was launched amid the COVID-19 pandemic to promote sales of domestically-produced cars.

The policy took effect from July 10, meaning import tax would be zero for automobile components which could not be produced domestically.

According to statistics of the Viet Nam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA), there are about 30 models with sales from 1,000 to more than 27,000 units per year, 24 of which had sales from 3,400 units per year, eligible for the policy of zero import tariffs on components for assembly in Viet Nam.

The best-seller was Toyota Vios with annual sales of 27,000 units, followed by Mitsubishi Xpander with 20,000 units, Hyundai Accent with 19,700 units and Hyundai Grand i10 with 18,000 units.

Among the 24 models with sales from 3,000 units per year, six were imported, namely Mitsubishi Xpander, Toyota Fortuner, Ford Ranger, Honda CRV and Ford Everest. Now, Mitsubishi Xpander and Honda CRV are assembled in Viet Nam.

Automakers with the minimum output of 8,500 units per year and 3,500 units per year for each model are eligible for the policy of zero import tariffs on components for assembly in Viet Nam.

The minimum output figures must be raised to 13,500 and 5,000, respectively by the end of 2022.  VNS
Antony Fernando By

Express News Service

KARAIKAL: A 26-year-old woman from Karaikal has achieved an all-India rank of 36 in the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) results declared on Tuesday. The former government school pass-out was top-ranked in Puducherry.

R Saranya cleared the all-important exam in her third attempt. Speaking to TNIE, Saranya said. "I was sure of clearing this time. It was a pleasant surprise to finish so high. I was not a class topper at any level and was only an above-average student. I did my higher secondary education in a government school. I am glad about this career-high academic achievement." Saranya was supported in her journey by her parents A Ramachandran and R Punitha.

Her father works for a shipping company in Qatar. Saranya has an older sister and younger brother. She went to high school up to Class 10 in ONGC Public School in Neravy in Karaikal and Class 12 in Annai Theresa Government Higher Secondary School in Karaikal. She studied Electronics and Communication Engineering at Pondicherry Engineering College in Puducherry. She started preparing for the UPSC exams after completing Engineering and had appeared twice before. "I owe my success to a lot of people. Since I have also missed out twice, I would like to convey to my fellow civil services aspirants who have missed out they should stay strong and be focussed till they succeed," Saranya said. Saranya stated she is looking forward to working for the people and rural development in the country.

Puducherry Education Minister R Kamalakannan and Karaikal District Collector Arjun Sharma felicitated Saranya at the district collectorate on Wednesday afternoon in the presence of district administration officials. Kamalakannan lauded Saranya's family as well for encouraging and providing her with an atmosphere conducive to studies. He said, "Saranya has made Karaikal proud. She is a government school pass-out. Her accomplishment is worthy of mention as the standards of our government school education have come under criticism, recently.

Many are choosing private schools. Her achievement is proof our government schools can churn out such students." He added the Puducherry government is ready to help aspiring civil service candidates in future.
Passengers arriving into Britain from Belgium, the Bahamas and Andorra will need to quarantine for 14 days due to concerns over rising COVID-19 infection rates, transport minister Grant Shapps said on Thursday.

"Data shows we need to remove Andorra, Belgium and The Bahamas from our list of #coronavirus Travel Corridors in order to keep infection rates DOWN," Shapps wrote on Twitter.

"If you arrive in the UK after 0400 Saturday from these destinations, you will need to self-isolate for 14 days."

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Unfortunately, the virus rages on, the governor said. Two weeks ago, 10, of our 11 Restore Illinois regions had seven-day rolling positivity rates below 5 percent. ... By last week that had dropped to only five regions below 5 percent. As of yesterday's data update, we now have just four regions with a positivity rate below 5 percent.

The Metro East and southern Illinois lead the 11 regions at 7.2 and 7.1%, respectively, while only Region 6 in eastern Illinois (3%); Region 11, which includes all of Chicago (4.9%); Region 1 in northwest Illinois (4.4%); and Region 8, which include Kane and DuPage counties (4.4%) remain below 5%.

If that number in any region is above 8% for three days, or if it increases for 7 of 10 days along with a sustained seven-day increase in hospital admissions, the state will put mitigations in place, Pritzker said. Those can include several of the actions seen in previous phases of the reopening plan.

Pritzker took other questions at the news conference and said he does not plan to put in place a state mandate for vaccinations once they are available, although he said they are necessary if the population is ever to achieve herd immunity.
AstraZeneca PLC has signed an exclusive framework agreement with China's Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products to supply its COVID-19 vaccine candidate in mainland China, the British pharmaceutical giant said on Thursday.

To meet market demand in China, Shenzhen Kangtai is obliged to make sure it has an annual production capacity of at least 100 million doses of the experimental shot AZD1222, which AstraZeneca co-developed with researchers at Oxford University, by the end of this year, and a capacity of at least 200 million doses by the end of next year, AstraZeneca said in a statement on the Chinese social media site WeChat.

The two companies will also explore the possiblity of cooperation on the vaccine candidate in other markets, AstraZeneca said.
Foreign nationals against whom criminal proceedings are pending in India for attending the Tablighi Jamaat congregation during mid-March in Delhi, are free to leave India after tendering an apology, the Central government told the Supreme Court on Thursday in a plea by 34 foreign nationals seeking deportation to their home countries.

The pendency of criminal cases in India will not bar them from returning to their home countries but it will be subject to orders passed by the concerned trial court where the criminal case against them is pending, the Central government through Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted.

Solicitor General has, in all fairness, submitted that if the concerned petitioners tender an apology in the concerned criminal case, they can be permitted to leave India despite the pendency of the criminal case but subject to such orders that may be passed by the concerned trial court, the apex court recorded in its order.

The petitioners had approached the top court challenging revocation of their visas and praying that they be deported to their home countries. Criminal cases had also been slapped against them for violation of visa conditions.

On July 27, the Central government had informed the apex court that out of 34 petitioners, 10 had decided to contest the criminal cases against them while the rest had opted for plea bargaining.

The procedure called plea bargaining allows the accused to plead guilty in exchange for lesser punishment. The foreign nationals who agreed to plea bargaining have been let off with nominal fines and there is no embargo on them to leave India, Mehta had told the court on July 27. However, no solution was reached as regards the remaining petitioners who had not opted for plea bargaining.

The court had adjourned the case that day asking Mehta to work out a mechanism with regard to the 10 petitioners who were not ready to go for plea bargaining.

Mehta informed the court, on Thursday, that look-out notices against the 10 petitioners have been withdrawn.

Solicitor General has fairly submitted that as of today only 10 petitioners have decided to contest the criminal cases pending against them and are not willing to exercise the option of plea bargaining. In that case, we deem it appropriate that the criminal cases concerning these ten petitioners pending in different trial courts in the NCT of Delhi be brought before the same court so that all the cases can be disposed of expeditiously, the bench headed by justice AM Khanwilkar said.

The court then proceeded to direct the transfer of criminal cases pending before different trial courts in Delhi to one single court and also ordered completion of trial within 8 weeks.

We direct transfer of stated cases to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, South-East Delhi, Saket Court Complex, Saket and direct the said court to dispose of all the cases expeditiously preferably within eight weeks from today, the bench which also comprised Justice Dinesh Maheshwari ordered.

The Centre, in its affidavit filed before the Supreme Court in June, had claimed that the foreign nationals who participated in the Tablighi Jamaat event violated the provisions of visa rules and the Foreigners Act since they had arrived in India on limited tourist visas and Tablighi Jamaat activities were not covered by tourist visas.

The Nizamuddin area in Delhi was sealed on March 30 after it came to light that several people, who had attended a religious event held in March at Nizamuddin by a Muslim organisation called Tablighi Jamaat, were found to be infected with Covid-19. At least 16,500 people had visited Tablighi Jamaats headquarters in Nizamuddin between March 13 and 24.

The Union Home Ministry (MHA) had initially, in April, blacklisted 960 foreign nationals who had attended the religious event.

It was later submitted by the Centre that 205 FIRs were filed against foreign Tablighi Jamaat members in eleven states and 2,765 foreigners had been blacklisted.
Phu Quoc island, located in the southern province of Kien Giang, has been named among the worlds Top 7 new attractive destinations for the year by Tripadvisor, the worlds largest travel platform.

Phu Quoc island features in seventh place in Tripadvisor's list of emerging destinations. Indeed, the hotel-booking website describes Phu Quoc as featuring "white sand and crystal-clear tropical beach", with the island being considered as an attractive destination for ocean lovers from across the world. (Photo: Vu Kim Ngan)

Germany's largest island Rugen tops the prestigious list. Rugen is a site famous for its beautiful beaches and magnificent limestone cliffs. In addition, the island is also home to many towns and old villages, some of which have been recognised by UNESCO as World Natural Heritage sites. (Photo: Tripsavvy)

Naoussa in Greece comes in second, with the village being famous for its maze-like streets and countless stalls which sell local specialties. Upon a visit to the village, tourists are able to enjoy a cup of coffee with a splendid sea view, or alternatively they can sample fresh seafood at local restaurants. (Photo: iStock)

Third position goes to Luxor city in Egypt. (Photo: Global Castaway)

The Lebanese capital of Beirut is renowned for historically serving as an intersection of Eastern and Western culture. Tourists to the city can experience the hustle and bustle of daily life, new fashion trends, and the friendliness of local people. (Photo: Wenda Travel)

Saranda in Albania ranks in fifth place. "It is hard to forget the beautiful white sand beaches or the vast olive forest facing the famous Greek island of Corfu," according to Tripadvisor. (Photo: Ionian Cruises)

Sixth place goes to Kaliningrad, a province known as the "amber heart" of Russia. In Kaliningrad, tourists are able to pay a visit to a huge amber museum. (Photo: iStock)

VOV
TORONTO, Aug. 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Thentia, a global leader in regulatory software, has closed Series A equity financing from the Business Development Bank of Canada's Industrial, Clean and Energy Venture Fund. Thentia, which has a major presence in the regulatory and licensure market, will use this equity financing to expand its sales and marketing activities worldwide and further innovate its Thentia Cloud platform for its rapidly growing number of clients.

"Thentia's mission is to bring best-in-class technological capabilities, such as internet-scale, high-performance records management, predictive analytics, machine learning, data science and graph-based data exploration to its customers," said Julian Cardarelli, CEO of Thentia. "The regulatory industry is strongly rooted in academics with many visionary leaders working tirelessly to protect the public. Thentia is equally tirelessly focused on providing the technology platform and tools needed to fully realize this vision."

Founded in Canada with clients all-across North America, Thentia was created by technology experts with a strong alignment on the principles and values associated with public protection. Because of this alignment, Thentia has become a leader in providing B2B software-as-a-service solutions to the regulatory industry in support of this mission. Regulatory bodies, licensees, and registrants have come to rely on Thentia for its innovative software technology, its highly knowledgeable and sympathetic on-boarding and success teams, and its unrivaled ability to streamline regulatory operations for its clients in accordance with best-in-class methodologies such as Right Touch Regulation.

"Thentia has established itself as a leading provider of cloud software solutions for regulated industries," said Sean Brownlee. "We were impressed by the team's ability to develop innovative solutions which solve customer challenges while increasing productivity. Our investment will help to propel Thentia to the next level as it continues to deliver world class solutions."

The equity financing from BDC will help Thentia continue to develop Thentia Cloud, which is Thentia's software-as-a-service platform. Thentia Cloud provides a comprehensive collection of regulatory modules. These include modules to track licensing or registration issuance and renewals, continuing education, public complaints, investigation and enforcement, auditing, data analytics, governance and much more.

About Thentia:

Based in Toronto, Canada, Thentia Corporation is an industry leader in using proprietary technology to help regulatory bodies efficiently fulfill their regulatory obligations. Thentia services a wide variety of clients throughout Canada and the United States using cutting-edge software and industry-leading expertise in regulatory standards.

About BDC:

The Business Development Bank of Canada is a Crown corporation wholly owned by the government of Canada. Founded in 1944, BDC provides financing through complementary lending, equity, and venture capital, as well as advisory services to small and medium-sized businesses based in Canada. BDC is committed to supporting Canadian entrepreneurs at all stages of business development.

For more information, please contact:

Julian Cardarelli

CEO, Thentia Corporation

T: (800) 961- 1549

E: investor@thentia.com

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Thentia closed their Series A with the BDC's Industrial, Clean and Energy Venture Fund

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Haiti - Security : United States deeply concerned about gang-related violence in Haiti





In a statement, the American Embassy in Haiti expresses its deep concern at the loss of human life of residents of marginalized communities linked to armed violence by gangs, such as Cite Soleil, La Saline, Bel Air, Martissant and Village de Dieu...



Statement by the American Embassy in Haiti :



"The United States is deeply concerned by the loss of life in marginalized communities as a result of gang-related violence. We note that armed gangs systematically violate the human rights of residents of communities such as Cite Soleil, La Saline, Bel Air, Martissant, and Village de Dieu.



The United States urges the Haitian government to protect its most vulnerable citizens by countering the proliferation of gangs and by holding the perpetrators of violence and their accomplices accountable. Violence, corruption, and impunity have impeded Haitis development goals and the Haitian peoples aspirations for a better life for far too long.



The United States continues to call for accountability for human rights abuses and corruption, and we reiterate the need for the Government of Haiti to investigate and prosecute those responsible for these acts of gang-related violence. The Haitian National Police (PNH) continues to face increasing operational pressures and budget constraints; the United States remains committed to working with the HNP to strengthen its capacity to respond to growing security challenges. Without timely and sufficient funding, the HNP cannot fulfill its public safety mandate to protect citizens.



The United States also continues to provide assistance to promote the development of an independent, credible, and effective judicial sector and to advocate for the strengthening of the rule of law in Haiti."



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Centre renames 2 prominent institutes after Sushma Swaraj on the eve of her birth anniversary

A year gone: Remembering Sushma Swaraj

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Aug 06: Messages poured in from several quarters remember former external affairs minister, Sushma Swaraj, who passed on August 6 last year.

Swaraj passed away a year back at AIIMS at the age of 67. In the evening, hours before she had passed away, she had tweeted praying the decision of the government to abrogate Article 370, which was done on August 5 2019. "Narendra Modi ji - Thank you Prime Minister. Thank you very much. I was waiting to see this day in my lifetime," she had said.

Swaraj had a kidney transplant in 2016 and had opted out of contesting the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Remembering Smt. Sushma Swaraj garu on her 1st Punya tithi.

Its been a year since Sushma ji left for the heavenly abode but her affection, innate nature and her memories are always with us. pic.twitter.com/BQ9pnlkJMF  G Kishan Reddy (@kishanreddybjp) August 6, 2020

On August 3, Vice President, M Venkaiah Naidu had said that he missed his dear sister, Sushma Swaraj on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan. Dear sister Sushma, missing you a lot today," Naidu tweeted in Hindi and English, along with an old picture of the late BJP leader tying him a 'rakhi'. Swaraj''s daughter Bansuri also shared an old picture of her mother tying a ''rakhi'' to Naidu. "A sweet memory of Rakshabandhan," she captioned.

Swaraj was replaced by S Jaishankar as the foreign minister in 2019 after she opted out of contenting the elections due to health reasons. She left behind a legacy of an easily-accessible minister who helped the diaspora in distress with her revolutionary social media outreach.

Several path-breaking measures such as the passport infrastructure expansion and enhanced engagement with the East were the highlights of her tenure as the external affairs minister.

She was only the second woman to hold the portfolio after Indira Gandhi, who briefly kept the external affairs ministry under her while being the prime minister.

Swaraj had many firsts to her credit such as being the youngest cabinet minister in the Haryana government, first woman chief minister of Delhi and the first woman spokesperson for a national political party in the country.

She started her political life with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the RSS' student wing, and later joined the BJP.

RBI: Repo rate unchanged at 4%, Reverse Repo Rate unchanged at 3.3% | Oneindia News

She was the Information and Broadcasting Minister in the 13-day Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 1996 and got the Cabinet portfolio again after he led the BJP to power in 1998.

Always eager to take on a challenge, Swaraj contested against the then Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Bellary in 1999 Lok Sabha polls. Though she fell short of votes, she grew in stature.

Long seen as a protege of veteran BJP leader L.K. Advani, she also was the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha between 2009-14.

Swaraj, a law graduate who practised in the Supreme Court, was elected seven times as a member of Parliament and three times as a member of the legislative assembly.

Swaraj has also held the portfolios of Telecommunications, Health and Family Welfare, and Parliamentary Affairs in the Union Cabinet.

She was married to Swaraj Kaushal, a designated senior advocate of the Supreme Court of India who served as Governor of Mizoram from 1990 to 1993. Kaushal was also a Member of Parliament from 1998 to 2004.

Swaraj was also the recipient of the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award.

During her tenure as the external affairs minister, she handled several strategically-sensitive issues, including Indo-Pak and Sino-India relations.

Her role in resolving the prickly Doklam standoff between the Indian and Chinese sides will be remembered.

Though known to be a tough fighter in the political battlefield, Swaraj was admired and respected across party lines.

(With PTI inputs)

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Story first published: Thursday, August 6, 2020, 10:20 [IST]
(Newser)  The threat of spreading a potentially deadly disease hasn't been enough to stop house parties in Los Angeles, hence the city's latest strategy: turning off the power. Mayor Eric Garcetti said Wednesday that he would allow water and power services to be shut off to residents who hold large gatherings, though these often occur at vacant homes or short-term rentals. With the closure of bars, "these large house parties have essentially become nightclubs in the hills," Garcetti said, per the Los Angeles Times. Parties are a major reason the COVID-19 case rate has quadrupled among those aged 18 to 29 since June 9, and tripled among those 30 to 49, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health director Barbara Ferrer said Wednesday, per Deadline. "If people are getting together at parties  it is almost impossible to prevent transmission of this virus."

story continues below

Beginning Friday evening, police can request that the city shut off utilities to homes that have repeatedly hosted large gatherings, per the Times. Anyone found violating the public health order banning such gatherings may also face a fine, jail time, or both. Ferrer described thousands of complaints each week and said officials were "working hard" at enforcement. But "we will not be able to arrest our way out of the pandemic," she added, putting the onus on partygoers. Some 200 people were gathered at a mansion on Mulholland Drive Monday when police arrived following complaints from neighbors. Officers impounded illegally parked vehicles but did not disperse the group, per the Times. Hours later, officers responded to a gang-related shooting near the property. Three people were injured, one of whom later died. (Read more coronavirus stories.)
Instagrams algorithm suffered an error where the related hashtags for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden were either negative or in favour of president Donald Trump.

Mr Trump, meanwhile, suffered no negative consequences from the bug as hashtags about the president resulted in no related hashtags being recommended.

When a user searches Instagram for a hashtag, the platform automatically generates related hashtags directing the user to other, similar content.

Hashtags including #donaldtrump, #trump, #trump2020, #maga, #draintheswamp and #keepamericagreat did not direct users to other content.

But hashtags including #joebiden, ridinwithbiden, and #nomalarkey  the name of a Biden campaign bus tour  directed users to related content including #joebidenpedophile, #creepyjoebiden, and #joebidenisaracist.

Recommended How the pandemic could lead to a 2020 US presidential election scandal

The study was carried out by the Tech Transparency Project which looked at 20 popular terms associated with the Trump and Biden campsigns, and shared its findings with Buzzfeed News.

In response to the investigation, an Instagram spokesperson told Buzzfeed that a technical error caused a number of hashtags to not show related hashtags. We've disabled this feature while we investigate.

The spokesperson also pointed out that thousands of innocuous hashtags including #artofdrinks and #menshair had also been prevented from recommending related hashtags.

In a tweet following the publication of the report, Instagram insinuated that Buzzfeed was cherry-picking content in order to fit a sensational narrative.

This isn't about politics. Tens of thousands of hashtags were affected, and your story cherry-picked a handful of those thousands to fit a sensational narrative. The bug was also not partisan, as you note #democrats was impacted, the company tweeted to Buzzfeed reporter Ryan Mac.

The Tech Transparency Project found no mention in Instagrams policy website, help centre or Facebooks hashtag guidance offering campaigns or brands the ability to turn off related hashtags".

Beyond the Trump campaign, it appears to have been done on an ad hoc basis for some politicians, celebrities and Instagram executives, it also said.

While the bug does not appear to be intentional, and covered a wide variety of hashtags, it comes amid increasing scrutiny of Instagram and other platforms ahead of the November 2020 presidential election.

Facebook, the company which owns Instagram, has remained a point of contention with regards to election interference since the 2016 presidential election and the subsequent Cambridge Analytica scandal.

At the time, researchers broke Facebooks code of conduct to gather data about users, because said users did not provide content to share their data, and utilised that information to tip the election in favour of president Trump.

Instagram has also said that its algorithm has exhibited bias before, with CEO Adam Mosseri saying the company needs to look into how its policies, tools, and processes impact black people.

The Tech Transparency Project states that Instagram is an increasingly vital tool used to reach young voters, citing research that describes how the majority of people aged 18 to 29 in the United States use Instagram  67 percent  and of those 76 percent visit the site on a daily basis.

Facebook is also conscious of the platforms impact in elections. Last year, it introduced new rules for political advertisers on the platform that would force organisations to disclose details of who they are to prevent election interference.

A study from New York University found that Instagram would play he largest role of any social platform in 2020 disinformation campaigns, yet is is one of the untold stories, or inadequately told stories, out of this whole thing, according to professor Paul Barrett who authored the research.

"All the attention focused on Facebook and Twitter. Instagram deserved more attention," Barrett told NBC News. He said that he would absolutely expect Instagram to be a magnet for disinformation in 2020".
Coronavirus kills behind hospital curtains, in private, where nobody can see

On August 6, 1945, the United States detonated two nuclear bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Experts estimated about 150,000 people died in Hiroshima alone.

On July 30, 2020, 75 years later, the United States reported 150,000 deaths from COVID-19

The atomic attacks on Japan changed the course of history. Horrific images of the aftermath revealed a blast that leveled a city. Human suffering and death from radiation shocked the world. Its the stuff of nightmares.

So is the coronavirus. Its not as flashy. And it didnt strike with an attention-getting mushroom cloud. Daily, the virus steals lives behind medical curtains. In private. Where nobody can see.

Its effects are frightening: Loved ones, isolated, dying, slowly, alone.

The move to return to more traditional ways of eating started long before #COVID19. But the #Coronavirus pandemic has further exposed food and economic insecurity issues in Indian Country. #FoodSovereignty https://t.co/3og147WyAf  indianz.com (@indianz) August 5, 2020

Other than the obvious differences between the epic tragedies there is one major different between the two. The atomic bomb killed everything in its wake. The coronavirus, on the other hand, picks its victims carefully: older folks, diabetics and those with heart conditions, liver disease, asthma and high blood pressure.

Unfortunately, the group with many of those pre-existing conditions include American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN). Their poor living conditions, remote reservations, overcrowded homes and poor healthcare opportunities combine for the perfect coronavirus cocktail.

In other words, COVID-19 is a selective atomic bomb. Its killing more Native people when proportionately compared to other populations.

For example, Native Americans make up just 11% of New Mexicos population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But they account for 35.7% of the states cases of COVID-19 and half the deaths. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studies show death rates are nearly 50% higher for AI/AN than non-Hispanic whites.

Targeting everyone

A recent John Hopkins University study shows the coronavirus stalking younger, overweight or obese people.

Thats a punch to the gut. What once targeted mainly elders, now infects everyone -- grandparents, parents and children.

On our tribal lands, we must take precautions at a higher level because of our higher level of health disparities, Dr. Tami Jollie-Trottier said.

A member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians in North Dakota, Jollie-Trottier is a licensed clinical psychologist. Shes a provider of mental health services in her rural reservation community in Belcourt, North Dakota She also wrote the University of North Dakota dissertation Correlates of Overweight and Obesity in American Indian Children.

For Immediate Release: Executive Order - Mask Mandate Posted by Turtle Mountain Tribe on Friday, July 31, 2020

Obesity and diabetes are some of our major concerns that put our people at risk, Jollie-Trottier said. We have to look out for ourselves and hold ourselves to a higher standard. Im not surprised that overweight and obese individuals are at higher risk for suffering medical complications.

I think our communities are missing the point that our children are at extreme risk for developing chronic conditions. And theyre developing them earlier, the doctor said. The children are getting hypertension and diabetes at an earlier age and suffering greater consequences from their bodies having to deal with fighting off a disease.

Tribal response

Many tribes are cautious. Theyre tip-toeing through an unfamiliar area with virus land mines. Many have curfews or have suspended non-essential travel to stem the tide of the coronavirus. Spirit Lake Indian Reservation tribal leaders in North Dakota are requiring residents to wear masks, even though there is no state directive to do so. Tribes throughout Montana are also requiring mask wearing.

NativeWellness.Life is a monthly publication published by a Native-owned company for American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Virus also causes economic hardship

The coronavirus attacks with a one-two punch. First, it endangers peoples health. Then, it attacks their livelihoods.

Reservation economies were delicate before the virus. The poverty rate on reservations was 28.4%, the U.S. Census Bureau said in 2010. By comparison, the national average was at 12.7% in 2016, according to another census study.

Reservation economies are depressed with poor healthcare, low employment and substandard housing.

And, many people work for tribal governments. But when the virus struck, it forced everyone to stay home. People couldnt believe it but their remote reservations became even more remote. Its like being single, but when your boyfriend or girlfriend leaves, youre somehow more single than before.

With no jobs or paychecks, the virus brought more poverty to an already impoverished place.

Visit our website for more data on housing and homeownership in Indian Country: https://t.co/0C5i6W5lVQ https://t.co/OdLGRzANnq  Center for Indian Country Development (@FedIndianCenter) July 28, 2020

In addition, a Center for Indian Country Development study found that one of three Native employees work in the service industry, like food, health, cleaning and personal services. In other words, occupations hardest hit by the virus.

To make matters worse, tribes had to close their gaming operations. No jobs and no tribal income.

For many tribes, Indian gaming is first and foremost about jobs, Ernest Stevens, the National Indian Gaming Association chairman, said in a recent new release. In 2019, Indian gaming generated over 312,000 direct American jobs, an added 468,000 indirect jobs, and $40 billion in tribal government revenue. For more than two months, COVID-19 has forced a temporary suspension of Indian Countrys economic engines.

While many tribes have cautiously opened casinos, safe-distancing rules have dramatically reduced their normal income.

More than 36 million Americans have been put out of work, and tribal, state, and local government budgets have been devastated, Stevens said.

LEGISLATIVE ALERT: Indian Country United: Tribes Calling for $20 Billion in Direct Tribal Government Covid-19 Relief, https://t.co/Se7FUhBk5k  National Indian Gaming Association (@IndianGaming85) August 4, 2020

Death toll continues to rise

By September, the COVID-19 death toll for the United States will have climbed to near 200,000, or more. That will be close to the estimated 226,000 killed when America dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on those fateful days in 1945. The United States has just 4% of the worlds population but a quarter of its confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering. Thousands continue to die every day. America seems destined to surpass the horrific toll nobody wants to pass.

Orville Desjarlais is the managing editor of NativeWellness.Life, a monthly health and wellness print publication for Native Americans and Alaska Natives. Hes co-owner of Keya LLC, which publishes the magazine. Keya is a Native-owned company he started with his sister more than a year ago. They are tribal members of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians in North Dakota. Visit their website at NativeWellenss.Life

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India on Thursday became the third country in the world, after the US and Brazil, to report more than two million coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases -- the second million coming in exactly three weeks since the country hit a million infections on July 16, with 42% of the new cases coming from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar.

With a total of 62,088 new cases on Thursday taking the national tally to 2,022,730, the doubling rate  the number of days it takes for number of infections to double  in the country now stands at 22.7 days. This is significantly higher than it was in the US (60.2 days) and Brazil (35.7 days) on the day they crossed two million cases -- suggesting that Indias caseload could surpass the tallies in these two countries unless the trend reverses or a vaccine is developed.

If cases in the country continue to grow at the same rate they have till now, which is likely considering how new states such as Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh have emerged as hot spots, experts estimate that the next million cases may take just a little over two weeks.

Also read: 70% Covid-19 related deaths in Bengal due to delayed admission in hospitals

The US total now stands at 4,993,508 cases and Brazil is at 2,873,304 million.

With 898 new fatalities reported on Thursday, 41,633 people have died due to the disease in the five months of the outbreak in the country. The silver lining is that the countrys case fatality rate (CFR) is 2.06%  not only better than the global average of 3.75%, but also significantly better than the CFR in the US (5.72%) and Brazil (3.81%) when these countries had the same number of cases.

Also read: Donald Trump says coronavirus vaccine possible before November 3

Experts say the focus of the battle against Sars-Cov-2  the virus that causes Covid-19  now needs to shift to the hinterland and the peninsula, both high population density regions with, in the case of the former, significant rural populations and relatively inadequate health care systems.

On July 16, when the country touched a million cases, nearly 56% of all cases could be traced to the three regions that were the original hot spots of the disease in India  Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Delhi. In the last three weeks, however, this trend has shifted.

Delhi, which was responsible for nearly 12% cases in the first million, has reported less than 3% of the new cases in the second million.

The gains from the reduction in cases in Delhi, however, were undone with the outbreak spreading to new regions. States such as Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar, which together reported less than 19% of cases in the first million, reported nearly 42% of new cases since July 16.

There are reports of cases coming from rural areas but the advantage that we have there is that population density is low because of which cases can be identified, isolated and treated early. In these areas surveillance can be far better and also compliance, and that is instrumental in controlling spread of the disease effectively, says Dr VK Paul, member, Niti Aayog, who also chairs one of the National Task Forces on Covid-19 management.

Health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said during a briefing on Tuesday that even though infections had spread to newer areas, there was no cause for concern because almost 82% of the caseload was limited to 10 states. Fifty districts account for about 66% of the current caseload, therefore, theres no need to panic as the disease spread is limited, he said.

Indias journey to two million cases took 158 days, with at least 90% of these cases coming after the lifting of the hard nationwide lockdown that was announced at the end of March  a strategy that officials and experts said bought the country precious time to set up isolation centres, add hospital beds, and strengthen testing infrastructure. With crippling economic costs piling up, the country began unlocking in June, when the outbreak was on a sharp upward trajectory.

On Thursday, during a virtual meeting of the regional director of World Health Organization (WHO) for South-East Asia with ministers of health of the member nations, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan said that the lockdown was effective in slowing down the rate of growth of cases and gave the government time to augment health infrastructure and testing facilities.

From one lab (for Covid-19 testing) in January, India has 1,370 laboratories at present. Indians anywhere can access a lab within three hours travel time and 33 of the 36 states and UTs exceed WHOs recommendation of testing 140 people per million per day, he said.

Indias proactive and graded multilevel institutional response to Covid-19 made it possible to have very low cases per million and deaths per million in spite of having a high population density and low fractional GDP spending and per capita doctor and hospital bed availability as compared to other developed countries, he was quoted as saying in a statement from the health ministry.

Doctors also say that the number of severely ill patients is low, and most of those needing hospitalisation are recovering faster.

Most positive cases do not require hospitalisation, and those needing intensive care is actually a minuscule number. Most people in hospitals have moderate disease with good chances of recovery. The need is to take care of our old and vulnerable population with co-morbidities that is at high risk of developing severe illness, says Dr Rommel Tickoo, senior consultant, department of internal medicine, Max Healthcare.

In the last week, India has added an average of 53,955 cases a day -- up from 30,076 a day in the week when it crossed a million cases. This increase in daily cases has been consistent with the rate at which testing has been ramped up across the country. In the last week, 565,000 samples on average were tested for Covid-19 every day, against 292,000 a day for the week ending July 16.

At least some of the testing gains can be attributed to a decision by several states to rely on antigen tests instead of the Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction, or RT-PCR test, which is considered by scientists to be the gold standard. An antigen test, also known as a rapid test, has become popular with many governments as it offers tests within the hour as opposed to the RT-PCR tests whose results reach the subject 24 to 48 hours. Since the former can possibly lead to false negatives, several cases can slide under the radar. But experts say it can be used in small areas of hot spots to test every resident and quickly isolate as many patients as possible. In contrast, the RT-PCR test is the most definitive test currently available and experts say it should be used as often as possible.

Indias average weekly test positive (or positivity) rate has risen from 6.5% in early June to 10% at present, but the aggregate level statistics mask sharp differences in testing performance across the country. Maharashtra, the state with the highest number of infections, at 479,779, has a test positive rate of 17% in the last week, while for Uttar Pradesh, this number is less than 5%.

The WHO identifies 8-12% as the ideal range for test positive rate in a country with an active outbreak. A number too low or too high implies that volume as well as targeting of Covid-19 testing is inadequate to accurately detect the spread of the disease.

The Covid situation is quite dynamic and the numbers change on a daily basis, and same goes for the positivity rate. However, if you look at the overall trend, Indias current positivity rate is on the lower side, even in comparison with other countries. Same goes for the case fatality rate which is probably one of the lowest in the world. We have been able to manage the disease quite effectively so far, says Dr GC Khilnani, former head, pulmonology department, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi.

The number of people who have recovered from Covid-19 in India touched 1,375,797 on Thursday, bringing the proportion of recoveries to 68.01%, against the global average of 64.2% of all cases recovered. To be sure, Indias recovery rate is expected to eventually soar to over 90%  since current trends indicate the final fatality rate could lie between 2-3%  once the outbreak nears its end.

This also means that a total of 605,300 cases (29.91% of total infections) in the country remain active. The number of active cases has been steadily increasing in the country, which may be a cause of concern for officials. It was 96,970 at the start of June, and 227,298 on July 1. Active cases -- those still under treatment -- is a crucial metric because it directly reflects the pressure on the health care system in any region.

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Last week, $5 trillion strode into the US Congress. That they did so virtually, through technology that some of them helped create, was perhaps an ironic coincidence. Googles Sundar Pichai, Amazons Jeff Bezos, Apples Tim Cook and Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg represented Big Tech, and their companies were worth a total of about $5 trillion, the size of Japans economy. While members of Congress were masked, the Tech Titans seemed to wear masks of contrition.

Just a few years back, these men (and they are almost always men) could do no wrong. They were the new idols, creators of new technologies and untold wealth. Their companies and campuses were the new wonders of the world, and it was the tools they were building that would enrich our lives and save our planet; even take us to other planets.

A few years later, while a large part of the adulation remains, their sheen is rapidly wearing off. Google is accused of monopolizing all of search globally, stifling competition as well as small merchants, and suffocating publishers. Amazon is seen as an apex predator, monopolizing e-commerce and driving small retailers into the ground. Apple makes most of the devices Americans use, and is a single, monopolistic gateway to the apps that power them. Facebook is perhaps the most reviledfor allegedly fuelling hate speech, ruining newspapers, swallowing startups that threaten it, and even swinging the US elections and the UK Brexit vote.

There are many reasons for this tech-lash. Monopoly power is one of them. The US antitrust laws were created more than a century ago to break the oil and steel monopolies Esso and US Steel. The basic idea of those laws was to keep producers from using their monopoly power to jack up consumer prices. This is where US regulators ran into a conceptual difficulty with tech giants. Their products were either free, or (in the case of Amazon) extremely cheap, and therefore presumably serving consumers well. The other reason for the backlash has been the use, or misuse, of datathe fact that many of these companies are making money off the free information we voluntarily give them. This data is sliced, diced, massaged and sold to advertisers for gobs of money, with the consumer getting nothing. This is the primarily business model of Google and Facebook, and its dangers were highlighted starkly by the Cambridge Analytica scandal; this firm had used the Facebook data of millions of Americans to influence the 2016 presidential polls. Then, there is also the onslaught of fake news, the amplification of hate speech, and the concentration of unimaginable wealth in the hands of a few. While the companies are still hugely admired, a citizen backlash has only just begun. And, predictably, politicians and regulators have started taking note.

The EU was first off the block with its General Data Protection Regulations, which prioritized consumer privacy. In the US, in response to a clamour to break Big Tech up, members of its antitrust subcommittee realized that while these firms might not raise user prices, their practices could lower the quality of products (on privacy, for example). Facebook and Twitter have been forced to hire thousands of people to weed out the hate spewed on their networks. Amazon is under scrutiny across the world, including India, for being anti-competitive to small traders. Facebook suicide", or getting off the network, has become common among people who do not want to be chased across the virtual world by marketers and spammers.

These companies started as forces for good, created by idealistic founders who wanted to change the world for the better. Google promised never to be evil", Zuckerberg wanted to connect people across the world, Jeff Bezos wanted to deliver stuff at low prices. Along the way, they grew big, and needed ever more money to fuel their ambitions. All of them went public, investors clamoured for stratospheric growth every quarter to maintain their insane valuations, and idealism gave way to capitalism. Creating cool technology took second place to ratcheting up the financial rewards for investors, employees and themselves, it seems.

I do believe, however, that these companies are smart enough to learn from this impasse and transform themselves. They do not have far to look. Just two decades ago, one of them was accused of monopoly, fought the battle, changed itself, and emerged ever stronger. It is still highly valued today, far better respected, and was not a part of the $5 trillion that beamed into the US Congress last week. That company is called Microsoft.

Jaspreet Bindra is the author of The Tech Whisperer, and co-founder of Unqbe

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Yu Ben Meng, the chief investment officer of Californias public pension, resigned Thursday after less than two years in the position, during which he came under heavy scrutiny for his ties to China and several investment decisions.

Meng resigned effective Wednesday, citing a desire to focus on his health and family, California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) said in a statement Thursday.

Since becoming CIO of the nations largest public pension fund in January of last year, Meng has come under fire from board members of the $371 billion pension fund for failing to seek approval for his decision to sell off three hedge funds just before the March market crash that was catlayzed by the coronavirus pandemic. The sell off prevented the pension fund from cashing in on a payday of potentially upwards of $1 billion.

Meng has also come under scrutiny for his alleged ties to Chinas Communist Party. He was deputy CIO for Chinas State Administration of Foreign Exchange before serving as CIO for Californias pension fund.

In 2017, Meng expressed a willingness to serve Chinese interests, saying in an interview with one of Chinas state-sponsored newspapers that, in human life, if there is an opportunity to serve the motherland, such responsibility and honor cannot be compared to anything.

Representative Jim Banks, an Indiana Republican, has repeatedly called out Meng for what the congressman says is his long and cozy relationship with China.

In a February letter to California Governor Gavin Newsom, Banks called for an investigation into Meng, saying he was recruited to his position as chief investment officer by the Chinese Communist Party as part of the Thousand Talents Program, which the FBI has labeled non-traditional espionage against the U.S.

Californias pension fund invested $3.1 billion in Chinese companies, some of which have been blacklisted by the U.S. or have ties to Chinas military, Banks said.

What is unusual is that many of these companies are companies that weve blacklisted, that make Chinese military equipment or are responsible for technologies like Hikvision, which is the equipment thats used by the Chinese for surveillance on the Uighur Muslim population that theyve been abusing in their own country, Banks wrote.

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It is unclear, however, whether Mengs resignation is related to his China ties.

A spokesman for Banks said that CalPERS appears to be acting hush hush about the resignation, but while their statement is vague, it is hopefully a first step towards the pension fund addressing Bankss concerns with investments in companies tied to the Chinese military.

Taxpayers shouldnt be forced to fund our adversarys military. With Yu Ben Mengs departure, CalPERS now has the opportunity to correct its course and divest from companies within Chinas military-industrial complex, Banks said in a statement provided to National Review. The United States government must do more to stop the flow of U.S. capital to companies affiliated with the Chinese military.

Banks has also introduced a bill that would block U.S. investments, including those from pension funds, in Chinas military industrial base.

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Nirav Modi had been following the court proceedings from a room at Wandsworth Prison and could be seen taking notes during the course of the trial. (PTI)

London: Fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi, fighting extradition to India, was on Thursday further remanded in custody until August 27 after he appeared via videolink at a regular remand hearing before a UK court on charges over the nearly USD 2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud and money laundering case.

The 49-year-old jeweller, who has been lodged at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London since his arrest in March last year, appeared via videolink before District Judge Vanessa Baraitser at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London for a regular 28-day call-over hearing.

He was told the next hearing in the case will be a case management hearing ahead of a trial set for five days from September 7.

"You will appear via videolink again. Your lawyers may be present in court, said Judge Baraitser, in reference to the part remote setting in operation across UK courts since the coronavirus lockdown

In May, District Judge Samuel Goozee presided over the first part of Modi's extradition trial, held in a partial remote settings, with the second part scheduled between September 7 and 11.

Besides, completing the arguments on establishing a prima facie case against Modi, the trial next month will deal with a second extradition request, made by the Indian authorities and certified by UK Home Secretary Priti Patel earlier this year. The second request brings two additional charges against Modi of "causing the disappearance of evidence" and intimidating witnesses or criminal intimidation to cause death.

Judge Goozee has already indicated that the two requests are inextricably linked and therefore he would be handing down an overall judgment at the conclusion of the second trial in September.

"I hope Mr Modi by the time we get to September, the current restrictions on movement from prisons have been eased and you can be in court in person to follow the proceedings," the judge had told Modi, at the end of a four-day partial hearing of the case on May 14.

Modi had been following the court proceedings from a room at Wandsworth Prison and could be seen taking notes during the course of the trial.

The charges against the diamond merchant centre around his firms Diamonds R Us, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds making fraudulent use of a credit facility offered by the Punjab National Bank (PNB), known as letters of undertaking (LoUs).

Modi's team has sought to counter allegations of fraud by deposing witnesses to establish the volatility of the gems trade and that the LoUs were standard practice.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), arguing on behalf of the Indian government, sought to establish that a number of PNB staff conspired with Modi to ensure LoUs were issued to his companies without ensuring they were subject to the required credit check, without recording the issuance of the LoUs and without charging the required commission upon the transactions. This resulted in a fraud amounting to nearly USD 2 billion.
Seabird species such as gulls and pelicans are often overlooked when it comes to conservation and can struggle to capture the public eye. To raise awareness of their importance to people and the ecosystems we depend on, a Science & Society article appearing August 6 in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution looks at something that most of us find off-putting: their poop. The researchers say that the poop, which is also known as guano and serves as a source of fertilizer and a key contribution to coastal and marine ecosystems, could be worth more than $470 million annually. By calculating this direct benefit to people, they hope to quantify the importance of seabirds and illustrate the monetary cost of declining populations.

"Guano production is an ecosystem service made by seabirds at no cost to us -- I can go to an island, collect the guano, and sell it at market price as fertilizer," says co-author Marcus V. Cianciaruso, ecology professor at the Federal University of Goias in Brazil. While few seabird species produce guano that is currently commercialized, the rest provide important nutrients to the ecosystems where their guano is deposited. "Because there is this scientific and biological importance, it's possible to quantify seabird ecosystem services in a language that the general public and policymakers can begin to understand," he says.

To do this, Cianciaruso and Daniel Plazas-Jimenez, a PhD student at the Federal University of Goias, began by gathering data about global seabird populations producing commodifiable guano. "Because guano is a commodity, we used its market price to estimate the added value of guano produced by seabirds each year," says Plazas-Jimenez.

For the species that do not produce commodifiable guano, the researchers then estimated the value of nitrogen and phosphorus deposited every year in their colonies by calculating the cost to replace these nutrients with inorganic versions. The result is staggering: when combined, the nutrient deposition and the commodifiable guano could be worth an estimated $473.83 million per year.

Although not all guano can be commodified, these nutrients that it deposits are important to ecosystems such as coral reefs, where guano's presence can increase reef fish biomass by up to 48%. "We made a very conservative estimate that 10% of coral reef fish stocks depend on seabird nutrients," says Plazas-Jimenez. "According to the United Nations and the Australian government, the annual economic returns of commercial fisheries on coral reefs is over $6 billion. So, 10% of this value is around $600 million per year." When added to the previous figure, the value of nutrients deposited by seabirds increases to an estimated $1 billion.

Much of this value comes from threatened or endangered species. "The example of coral reefs is just for a little group of seabirds," says Plazas-Jimenez. "A huge amount of nutrient deposition happens in Antarctic ecosystems: penguins contribute half of the nitrogen and phosphorus deposited by seabirds every year. However, 60% of this contribution is made by penguin species with declining populations, and these contributions will decrease in the future if no conservation activity is taken."

The researchers hope this paper will shed light on how valuable these species are at a global scale. "Seabirds have a lot of importance to people," says Plazas-Jimenez. "Being able to calculate a monetary value of an ecological function made by a particular species is just another tool in the conservation toolbox."

Only a fraction of the value of seabirds to ecosystems and to people is represented by this estimate -- among other functions, they contribute to vast birdwatching and tourism industries around the world. "If you start to look into every function that seabirds have and try to monetize this, the value is going to be much, much higher," says Cianciaruso.

Their estimate also doesn't account for the local importance of the birds. For many coastal communities, the direct and indirect benefits of living with them are essential. "In some areas, fishermen follow seabirds to find places to fish," says Plazas-Jimenez. "To that fisherman, seabirds are everything."
Sonys WH-1000XM3 noise-canceling headphones have been our top pick since their debut in 2018. The company continued to improve its powerful ANC (active noise cancellation), sound quality and design in the third-gen version of its flagship over-ear model. It really is a complete package -- or so we thought. As it turns out, Sony had more tricks up its sleeve, and a few new upgrades make the WH-1000XM4 ($350) even better.

Sony WH-1000XM4 review Sony has made the best even better. You wont find a more feature-packed set of headphones right now, and its unlikely you will until Sony updates these again.

The first change youll notice is the exterior: The M4 has a tactile matte coating where the M3 was a slicker plastic. The change doesnt really alter the overall look, but the M4 does feel a bit more premium. Sony also slimmed down the headband cushion and tweaked the curve, so the newly shaped version offers a better fit. On previous versions the headband was a more oval shape, so it looked somewhat boxy -- especially for people like me with huge heads. The company made some changes here between the WH-1000XM2 and M3, but the new design takes things a step further.

Sony also redesigned the earpads so that 10 percent more surface touches the side of your head. This helps relieve some of the pressure that ANC headphones need to create a good seal on your dome. Indeed, I can tell a big difference there as I had no issue wearing the M4 for hours on end without ever feeling the dreaded vise sensation. Aside from those three key updates, the exterior to the M4 resembles its predecessor. From the earcup shape to the bronze accents on the black version, Sony kept the overall aesthetic of the M3 intact.

That includes the location of the on-board controls. The power and Custom buttons are still on the edge of the left cup. While the power button doubles as the pairing control, the Custom option handles noise cancellation by default. The button allows you to cycle through ANC on, ANC off and ambient sound mode right on the headphones. A press and hold will run the Noise Canceling Optimizer: a feature that tailors the noise cancellation to account for things like head size, glasses, hair and atmospheric pressure (for air travel). You can also opt for one-touch access to Google Assistant or Alexa here if youd rather have that. Simply reassign the Custom button in Sonys app.

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Sony has made the best even better. You wont find a more feature-packed set of headphones right now, and its unlikely you will until Sony updates these again.

The core controls are accessible on the outside of the right ear cup. As weve seen before in the 1000X line, these are all touch gestures. A swipe down lowers volume while swiping up increases it. Swipe from back to front to skip tracks forward and do the opposite to go back. A double tap will pause the audio or receive/end a call. And lastly, tap and hold on the center of the touchpad to access your voice assistant. These controls frustrated us on previous models, but I didnt have any issues from the start on the M4. They work reliably and I dont remember ever having to repeat an action. Even with wet hands from cooking or washing dishes, I had no trouble with the M4 receiving my gesture-based commands.

Quick Attention mode returns here as well. Simply place your hand flat against the touchpad to lower the volume and activate ambient sound quickly. Its a great feature when you need to hear an announcement or have a quick conversation. However, you dont actually have to raise a hand in order to do this anymore.

On the M4, Sony is debuting a Speak-to-Chat tool that automatically pauses whatever youre listening to when you start talking. No more scrambling to hit pause when your co-worker (or family member in todays work-from home world) walks up to your desk. I was skeptical about how well this would work, but I was pleasantly surprised that it does a solid job picking up my voice. Its not perfect, though: You have to speak rather loudly for the M4 to hear you when you first begin, so my family all wondered why I was almost yelling at them. Speak-to-Chat is also sometimes activated by a cough or sneeze, and it takes 30 seconds to resume the audio after you finish talking. You can speed things up by double tapping the right earcup like you would to pause, but the long wait for the hands-free option is a bit much. Basically, the feature can come in handy, but it needs some fine-tuning. Even if I could adjust the time before the audio resumes, that would go a long way. But if you dont like it, you can disable it completely in the Sony Headphones app.

Sony also added wearing detection to the M4. A motion sensor on the inside of the left earcup determines when you take off the headphones and automatically pauses the music or podcast youre listening to. Ditto for when you put it back on: the M4 will resume where you left off without you having to push a button or reach for your phone. During my tests, this worked as advertised. Its useful when you need to have a chat and you dont want to keep the headphones on. The M4 pauses quickly when you remove it, and the audio resumes as quickly as you put it back on your ears.

Sony Headphones app

Sonys Headphones app is the control center for the M4. Its here that you can adjust nearly every feature available on the headphones. Most notably, you can dial in your presets for Adaptive Sound Control just like the M3 and other Sony headphones and earbuds. With this powerful feature, you can opt for the M4 to automatically change the level of noise cancellation and ambient sound based on your activity (Staying, Walking, Running and Transport). Sony introduced automatic switching based on location earlier this year, and thats available on the M4 as well. You can either manually set a spot for a specific sound profile on a map (Home or Office, for example), or you can entrust the app to learn locations you frequent. This all works very well, but you have to keep location sharing on so the app can do its thing. Not everyone will be comfortable with Sony knowing their every movement.

The biggest addition to the app is the ability to connect to two devices at once. With this new feature, Sony is addressing a key criticism of previous models. And the company has made switching nearly seamless. If Im listening to music on my MacBook Pro, I can easily answer a call with no issues, or make changes in the Headphones app, without having to re-pair with my phone. I did run into occasional issues going back to my laptop after calls, but Sony says a firmware update will improve performance of this feature in mid-August -- around the time the M4 starts shipping.

In terms of noise cancellation, Sony already excelled at customization and ANC that adjusted automatically based on your location or activity. The company went a step further on the M4 with a new Bluetooth Audio SoC (system on chip) that detects outside noise over 700 times per second. And a new algorithm for the dedicated QN1 noise canceling processor applies its computing power in real time. Sony says all of that leads to better noise blocking across the frequency curve. While I couldnt put that claim to the test on a flight, I can attest that the M4 does a masterful job of cutting the commotion at home. Whether its voices or the TV, these headphones have allowed me to focus on being productive at a time when my entire family is at home all day and distractions abound.

Sony has made the best even better. You wont find a more feature-packed set of headphones right now, and its unlikely you will until Sony updates these again.

While you can choose from a selection of audio presets, or manually adjust both the EQ curve and level of Clear Bass, the M4 sounds amazing right out of the box. Depending on the genre, I might make some tweaks. But more often than not, I rode with the default tuning. Theres plenty of punchy bass when songs demand it, so Run The Jewels RTJ4 has all the boomy low-end tone the artists intended. Even with ample bass, theres no loss of detail as the M4 offers an immersive sound stage and excellent clarity with tracks from Spotify. That attention to individual instruments and sonic subtlety makes the acoustic duo Watkins Family Hour a joy to listen to. Layered atmospheric post-rock compositions from Caspian feel like youve ventured inside the studio.

With the M4, Sony updated its spin on digital sound processing (DSP), the Digital Sound Enhancement Engine (DSEE). The previous version of the tech DSEE HX upscales compressed music files to bring them closer to the original high-res versions. With the new DSEE Extreme, the company says it made the upscaling more accurate, thanks to Edge-AI that analyzes music in real time. That process can detect instruments, genres and individual elements to make the audio restoration. As with most features, you can turn it off in the Sony app, but it does make a noticeable difference. Tracks have more presence, depth and detail with DSEE Extreme enabled.

And then theres 360 Reality Audio. As was the case with the M3, the new M4 works with Sonys immersive sound format. If you havent tried it before, youll have to take some awkward ear selfies with the Headphones app so the software can create a profile specifically for you. In my case, I had already done it, so I was spared. From there, you just need a high-res streaming subscription that gives you access to 360 Reality Audio tracks. Amazon Music, Tidal, Deezer and Nugs.net offer that luxury, but its more expensive than a regular plan.

Sony has made the best even better. You wont find a more feature-packed set of headphones right now, and its unlikely you will until Sony updates these again.

This fall will mark a year since Sony launched the platform in earnest, and the selection on most of these services is still very limited. Tidal, for example, has a collection of playlists, but its a lot of older music (David Bowie, Miles Davies, etc.). You probably wont be able to find a lot of what you want to listen to available in the format -- especially if its a new release. And for that reason, the extra monthly cost still isnt worth it yet. The tracks sound a lot better, and they are indeed more immersive and dimensional than the standard counterparts on Spotify. But until the content library is more robust, I cant justify splurging just for 360 Reality Audio. Those plans do offer high-res streaming of other tracks, but if youre solely looking for that 3D-esque sound from Sony, youll probably be disappointed.

Like the M3, Sony says the M4 will last for 30 hours on a charge. Thats plenty of time for a feature-packed set of noise-canceling headphones. And thankfully, the companys claims are right on. Ive been using it for a few hours a day for about a week and I havent had to plug it in yet. And Ive still got juice in the tank. Ive been using ANC, ambient sound, Speak-to-Chat and other features constantly, so my experience is certainly normal use. If you do find yourself in a pinch, a quick-charge feature will give you five hours of play time in 10 minutes. Essentially you can get enough battery life to get through most of a work day in the time it takes you to make a quick breakfast.

The direct competitor to the M4 is the Bose 700. Bose had its work cut out for it when Sony debuted the M3, and the company answered. The 700 has Boses trademark noise cancellation that does a great job in nearly any environment. The key difference is in the features. Sony simply allows you to customize the ANC and a host of other factors to make the M4 fit all your preferences. Bose lets you make changes, but not nearly to this extent. And there are so many things on the M4 that are automatic. At launch, the 700 was a pricey $399.95, but now the company has it for $339.95, as do most retailers. If $350 is too much for you, Sonys WH-CH710N is a great budget pick. It has only been around for a few months, but its currently available for $128 at Amazon and Best Buy (originally $200). The 710N doesnt have all the flashy features as the 1000XM4, but it does offer solid audio and respectable noise cancellation. Plus, the 710N is lightweight and super comfy.

It seemed like there wasnt much to improve after the WH-1000XM3. Perhaps thats why Sony waited so long to introduce a new model. At any rate, the company has added a bunch of small changes that combine to make a big difference. The M3 was already a near-perfect set of ANC headphones, and the M4 edges closer to the pinnacle. A refined design, improved audio and new features firmly plant WH-1000XM4 at the top of our best headphones list right out of the gate. Now well wait and see if anyone can dethrone the king.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 22:35:10|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese mainland spokesperson on Thursday denounced Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authority for obstructing mainland students from returning to the island to continue their studies.

Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesman for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, said this has severely harmed the legitimate rights and interests of the students.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the mainland has supported its students in safeguarding their legitimate rights and interests, and helped them solve problems in returning to Taiwan for study, Ma said.

He added that out of selfish political interests, the DPP authority deliberately adopted discriminatory practices against mainland students and repeatedly obstructed them from returning to the island for study.

The DPP authority's moves to create confrontation across the Taiwan Strait have been criticized on the island, Ma said, urging the DPP to face up to the public opinions and protect the mainland students' legitimate rights and interests to continue their studies in Taiwan. Enditem
Hong Kong, China -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/05/2020 -- Hong Kong's financial sector is an innovative space where disruption has been constant in recent times, whether as a result of changes in regulation or the influence of technology. COVID-19 has created an additional set of challenges that have required an intuitive and insightful approach to team building, driven by the recognition that it's the people within the business that determine its resilience in the long term. Selby Jennings HK works with individuals and organisations across Hong Kong, Kowloon, Tsuen Wan and Yuen Long Kau Hui, making key connections and transforming the way that recruitment is handled within the restrictions of the new normal.



"During uncertain times, Selby Jennings HK offers reassurance. Crises come in many different forms  financial crashes, oil gluts, and now a global pandemic". commented Andrew McNeilis, Managing Director of APAC at Selby Jennings HK. He went on to say, "Yet, whatever the challenge, we remain steadfast in our service. We continue to offer guidance to clients in the finance sector and help them secure top talent."



Selby Jennings HK partners with businesses in the financial services sector looking to navigate the current conditions and move forward positively and proactively. The firm has more than 15 years experience when it comes to financial services jobs in Hong Kong, Kowloon, Tsuen Wan and Yuen Long Kau Hui and extensive insight and knowledge with respect to both the local and global markets. As part of the Phaidon International group, Selby Jennings HK is a preferred recruitment partner for 70+ world-leading companies. The firm's reach extends across more than 60 countries with 750+ staff worldwide.



As a leading specialist recruiter to the financial services sector in Hong Kong, and beyond Selby Jennings HK is committed to helping firms within this space solve the number one key challenge of talent. This means investing in people internally too - Selby Jennings HK consultants are not just passionate but also knowledgeable and highly trained. The team has experience across the sector, including with respect to risk management and corporate investment banking, FinTech, private wealth management and legal and compliance financial services roles. A range of permanent, contract and multi-hire recruitment solutions provide options no matter what individual challenges organisations currently face.



Financial services jobs in Hong Kong have a lot to offer talented individuals who are keen to take the next step in a fruitful career. From traders to consultant positions there are a variety of roles available at different levels and within a broad spectrum of organisations, from the small and agile to large and well established global brands. The team at Selby Jennings HK not only has the experience to ensure the right connections are made but has developed key networks to make this simple and straightforward, reimagining the way that hiring is handled for this sector as it looks towards the future.



To find out more information about financial services jobs in Hong Kong visit https://www.selbyjennings.hk.



For any media enquiries please contact Gary Elliott at Iconic Digital  020 7100 0726.



For all other enquiries please contact Selby Jennings HK: +49 30 72 62 11 444.



For more information about Selby Jennings HK services, please go to https://www.selbyjennings.hk.



About Selby Jennings HK

Selby Jennings HK is a leading specialist recruiter to the financial services sector committed to supporting businesses in solving the number one challenge of talent. The firm's reach extends to 60+ countries and a network of 750+ employees worldwide.
Technavio has been monitoring the data center security solutions market and it is poised to grow by USD 5.0 billion during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of over 9% 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/20200806005678/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Data Center Security Solutions Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire)

Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please Request Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impact

Frequently Asked Questions-

What was the value of the data center security solutions market in 2019?

Technavio says that the value of the market was USD 9.59 billion in 2019 and it is projected to reach USD 14.59 billion by 2024.

At what rate is the market projected to grow during the forecast period 2020-2024?

Growing at a CAGR of over 9%, the market growth will accelerate in the forecast period.

What is the key factor driving the market?

The growing threat of cyberattacks is one of the key factors driving the market growth.

Who are the top players in the market?

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., Cisco Systems Inc., Honeywell International Inc., Intel Corp., International Business Machines Corp., Johnson Controls International Plc, NortonLifeLock Inc., Robert Bosch GmbH, Siemens AG, and Thales Group are some of the major market participants.

Which region is expected to hold the highest market share?

North America

What is the year-over-year growth rate of the global market?

The year-over-year growth rate for 2020 is estimated at 8.55%.

The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., Cisco Systems Inc., Honeywell International Inc., Intel Corp., International Business Machines Corp., Johnson Controls International Plc, NortonLifeLock Inc., Robert Bosch GmbH, Siemens AG, and Thales 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 growing threat of cyberattacks has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market.

Data Center Security Solutions Market 2020-2024: Segmentation

Data Center Security Solutions Market is segmented as below:

Type Logical Security Physical Security

Geography North America APAC Europe 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=IRTNTR43543

Data Center Security Solutions 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 data center security solutions market report covers the following areas:

Data Center Security Solutions Market size

Data Center Security Solutions Market trends

Data Center Security Solutions Market analysis

This study identifies the growing popularity of software-defined data centers (SDDC) as one of the prime reasons driving the data center security solutions market growth during the next few years.

Data Center Security Solutions Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of vendors operating in the data center security solutions market, including some of the vendors such as Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., Cisco Systems Inc., Honeywell International Inc., Intel Corp., International Business Machines Corp., Johnson Controls International Plc, NortonLifeLock Inc., Robert Bosch GmbH, Siemens AG, and Thales Group. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the data center security solutions market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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Data Center Security Solutions Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist data center security solutions market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the data center security solutions market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the data center security solutions market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of data center security solutions 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 Force 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

Logical security Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Physical security Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by Type

Customer landscape

Customer landscape

Geographic Landscape

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

North America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

APAC Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Europe 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

Competitive scenario

Vendor Analysis

Vendors covered

Market positioning of vendors

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.

Cisco Systems Inc.

Honeywell International Inc.

Intel Corp.

International Business Machines Corp.

Johnson Controls International Plc

NortonLifeLock Inc.

Robert Bosch GmbH

Siemens AG

Thales Group

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 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/20200806005678/en/

Contacts:

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: media@technavio.com

Website: www.technavio.com/
Nearly 1.2 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, the 20th consecutive week in which new filings topped a million as a pandemic-battered economy continued to struggle to find its footing.

Some of those newly jobless now face eviction and hunger, along with the threat of the coronavirus, which at once has drastically cut the jobs available and heightened the risk of the work that is offered.

Their economic woes may soon be shared with others. A $600-a-week federal boost to state unemployment payments ran out in July. That money, which many unemployed spent on food, rent and other necessities, injected a stimulus into other businesses, and without their spending the economy faces further contraction.

Congress continues to disagree on a second rescue package, with Democrats and Republicans trillions of dollars apart, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told reporters this week.

Department of Labor data show that 1.19 million Americans filed for unemployment insurance benefits in the week that ended Saturday, joining the 16.1 million on the rolls as of late July. A hopeful sign in the numbers is that it represents a 17% drop from the 1.4 million Americans who filed for unemployment two weeks ago and a reversal of a trend of rising filings that started in mid-July.

Some 238,530 Californians filed for unemployment benefits in the week that ended Aug. 1, a slight decrease from the previous week. The state has processed more than 9.7 million claims since the onset of the pandemic in mid-March, paying a total of $59.8 billion in benefits, according to the Employment Development Department.

California may seek to replace lost federal benefits for the unemployed if Congress fails to act to extend them, state lawmakers said in July. The plan proposed by state Democratic legislative leaders last week would fill any gaps in the $600-a-week payments if Congress decides to continue them at a smaller amount, ultimately aiming to pump $100 billion in stimulus money into the states economy.

Negotiations continued on Capitol Hill on Thursday over the second rescue package with both sides still far apart. Republicans previously proposed cutting weekly payments to $200 while the Democrat-dominated House passed a bill in May that would extend the $600 payments into January. Republicans believe the payments are too generous and discourage the unemployed from seeking jobs, while Democrats argue that there are not enough jobs for the millions who might seek work.

The steady stream of filings may have been bolstered by businesses that attempted to open their doors only to be stymied by rising coronavirus cases, according to Michael Bernick, former head of Californias Employment Development Department and now a lawyer at Duane Morris in San Francisco.

With the new lockdowns have come more business closures and layoffs, Bernick said in an email. Especially workers initially furloughed who are now being laid off.

A recent report from UCLA found that more than half of claims filed in the second-to-last week of July were filed by workers who had found new jobs or gone back to work, only to have their hours cut or again lose their job as the reopening faltered statewide, forcing them to refile for benefits.

The precariousness of this situation is I think difficult to exaggerate, said David Wilcox, a former Federal Reserve Board economist now with the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Wilcox said Congressional wrangling over whether to extend the expired benefits, and if so at what level, has left millions of Americans exposed to a range of problems from food insecurity to the inability to pay rent and utilities.

The scale of the damage is proportional to the length of time it takes Congress to enact a replacement, Wilcox said.

He was skeptical of efforts at the state level to replace the expiring federal benefits.

The financing of those added benefits would be difficult for most states to undertake, Wilcox said. As a practical matter, the only realistic pathway here is to have the Congress return and enact some sort of a replacement for the $600 a week.

Economic benefits from the more than $2 trillion pumped into the economy from the federal Cares Act at the outset of the pandemic are also running out, with consequences for businesses and jobs.

Many small businesses have all but burned through the money they received through the Paycheck Protection Program that allowed them to keep paying employees during shelter-in-place orders, Wilcox said. Applications for that program end Saturday.

Eviction protections in the Cares Act have also expired and landlords in much of the country can begin to serve notices to renters who cannot pay.

Nicholas Javier had to give up his rent-controlled apartment in his native San Francisco not long after he was laid off in March from his job as a server at the Oak Room restaurant at the Westin St. Francis hotel on Union Square.

Javier said he applied for unemployment a few weeks after the shock of losing his job, but that even with the expanded federal payments he couldnt get by on unemployment in San Francisco.

The $600 (per week) allowed me to be able to breathe, said Javier, who has since moved in with his partner. You take away that extra $600, and I dont know if Ill be able to breathe.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

Javier said he counts himself lucky that he still has health care through his union, Unite Here Local 2, but said that will expire in October.

Its also on a timer just like unemployment, Javier said. During this pandemic you would think it would be basic to have health care guaranteed.

The ownership of the hotel did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

Javier said he has spent his time while out of work sending letters to Congress and working through his union in an effort to organize and not agonize over his difficult situation.

With increased benefits no longer flowing to unemployed people like Javier, spending could plummet further than it already has and further pummel a limping economy.

It could be a shock to the economy, said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at MUFG Union Bank, a subsidiary of the Japanese financial group. Rupkey said the expired federal benefits worked out to roughly $75 billion each month, most of which is being spent instead of saved as the unemployed scramble to cover the essentials.

Spending in the second quarter of the year had already dropped by 34%, Rupkey said, as restaurants, bars, shops and other businesses closed for fear of the virus.

He said while the payments represented a small portion of consumer spending, you get a lot more bang for the buck in distributing dollars this way, because many people are desperate and the money is quickly put back into circulation.

Rupkey said he believed were over the hump with the job losses but said cutting off the benefits now takes money out of peoples hands and could delay the recovery and cause additional unemployment.

That could mean further pain for unemployed people like Javier. He said his partner still works one of the two jobs she had before the pandemic, which helps them to squeeze by. To lose that as well would make surviving even harder.

Javier said the job market is difficult and he is worried about exposure to the virus if he finds a job in another essential position.

My life is all still up in the air, he said. I dont know when Ill be able to reclaim my life.

Chase DiFeliciantonio is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: chase.difeliciantonio@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ChaseDiFelice
SG Tushar Mehta, appearing for Centre, said court must consider 'whether there were any policemen involved in the offence or if there was any dereliction of duty'

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Maharashtra government to apprise it of the inquiry and action taken against the errant police personnel in the alleged lynching of three people, including two seers, in Palghar district in April.

A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan and R Subhash Reddy asked the state government to also file the charge sheet before it, saying it would like to examine them.

"A further affidavit dated 29 July, 2020 has been filed by the State of Maharashtra which mentions in paragraph 3 that two chargesheets have been filed in July 2020. Let the State bring the charge sheets on record," the bench said.

The top court added, "It has further been stated that a departmental enquiry against the police personnel was ordered and show-cause notices have been issued. Let details of the enquiry, including the action taken against the police personnel as well as enquiry report, are also brought on the record."

The bench asked Maharashtra to file an affidavit and posted the matter after three weeks.

The bench was hearing a batch of petitions including the one filed by members of 'Shri Panch Dashban Juna Akhara' and relatives of the deceased seers.

During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said the media reports suggest that the chargesheets filed in the case comprised more than 10,000 pages.

He said it has to be considered by the court as to whether there were any policemen involved in the offence or was there any dereliction of duty calling for disciplinary action.

Counsel appearing for one of the petitioners said that the "two seers were virtually handed over to the mob and it was a massacre".

Advocates Rahul Chitnis and Sachin Patil, appearing for the Maharashtra government, told the top court that two chargesheets have been filed in the alleged lynching case.

Chitnis said the third chargesheet will be filed by next Monday relating to attack on policemen when they went to arrest the accused persons.

He said this case was not directly related to the alleged lynching incident.

Mehta suggested that the third chargesheet should be filed before the top court as well and the court should decide whether it's relevant or not.

Advocate Shashank Shekhar Jha, appearing in-person, said that unless the Centre looks into the matter, seers will continue to be killed in Maharashtra and NIA should investigate the matter.

He said the incident happened in April and now it's August, but still no action has been taken against any policeman.

The three victims from Kandivali in Mumbai were travelling in a car to attend a funeral at Surat in Gujarat amid the COVID-19 nationwide lockdown when their vehicle was stopped and they were attacked and killed by a mob in Gadchinchile village on the night of 16 April in the presence of police.

The victims were identified as Chikne Maharaj Kalpavrukshagiri, 70, Sushil Giri Maharaj, 35, and Nilesh Telgade, 30, who was driving the vehicle.

The state government in its affidavit filed in the top court by Assistant Inspector General of Police (Law and order) said that investigation of the incident was carried out by the district police up to 20 April.

It said that considering the seriousness of the incident, number of accused involved and in order to maintain complete fairness, independence and transparency in the investigation, the case was transferred to the specialised unit of State Criminal Investigation Department with effect from 20 April.

The affidavit said two chargesheets were filed in the cases by the CID on 15 July, in which 126 persons each were made as accused.

"A departmental enquiry was ordered against the police personnel, who have been prima-facie found negligent and derelict in the performance of their duties in handling the incident and preventing the commission of crime at and around the time of incident," it said.

The affidavit said that after completion of the departmental inquiry against the delinquent police personnel, Special Inspector General of Police, Konkan range has issued show cause notice to six police personnel out of which five are suspended.

It said that after receipt of replies from the suspended police personnel to the show cause notice, further action will be taken against them.

On 11 June, the top court had sought a response from the state government on two petitions seeking separate probes by the CBI and the NIA into the alleged lynching.

The plea filed by members of 'Shri Panch Dashban Juna Akhara' and relatives of the deceased seers has alleged that the investigation by the state police was being conducted in a biased manner and sought transfer of the probe to CBI.

"Several video clippings have emerged on social media and news reports which very clearly demonstrate the active involvement of the police present, who can be seen handing over the three persons to the unlawful assembly of persons gathered," the plea has claimed.

The other pleas, seeking probe by central agencies into the incident, has been filed by Ghanshyam Upadhyay and Shashank Shekhar Jha.

The top court had on 1 May, directed the Maharashtra government to submit a status report on the investigation in the matter. The police has arrested over 100 people in connection with the case.
The Acting Chief Medical Officer has urged people in Laois, Offaly and Kildare to be vigilant after another grim day for increases in Covid-19 cases.

Laois has recorded another eight cases, bringing the total so far in the county to 322 cases.

Offaly has recorded 22 and Kildare 18.

Dr Ronan Glynn, Acting Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, said this evening, Over the past fourteen days, 226 cases have arisen in Kildare, Laois and Offaly. These represent almost half of all cases in Ireland over that time period.

While the majority of these cases can be accounted for by outbreaks, this volume of cases is significant and our main priority now is to ensure that these outbreaks do not lead to widespread community transmission in the region.

NPHET continues to monitor the situation closely. I urge people in these counties to remain vigilant to stop the further spread of COVID-19 in these areas.

Its also understood that GPs in the three counties have been written to in an effort to underline concerns.

Dr Glynn said, Everyone in those counties needs to pay particular attention to symptoms.

It is strongly recommended if youre medically vulnerable or older than 70 that you limit the number of people you meet to a small number,maintain distance of 2 meters and if at all possible avoid public transport.

Asked about a local lockdown in Laois, Offaly and Kildare he said, Everyone needs to double down their efforts. Im not going to prejudge further information we get on these cases this evening and tomorrow. Weve been monitoring these closely.

He added that he cant rule out localized restrictions in Laois, Offaly and Kildare but NPHET needs more information.

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been informed that 5 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in Ireland have died.

There has now been a total of 1,768 COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland.

As of midnight Wednesday 5th August, the HPSC has been notified of 69 confirmed cases of COVID-19. There is now a total of 26,372 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland.

Of the cases notified today;

37 are men / 31 are women

65% are under 45 years of age

39 are confirmed to be associated with outbreaks or are close contacts of a confirmed case

2 cases have been identified as community transmission

22 cases are located in Offaly, 19 in Kildare, 8 in Laois, 6 in Dublin, and 14 are spread across eight other counties (Clare, Cork, Donegal, Galway, Limerick, Louth, Meath and Wexford).

The HSE is working to identify any contacts the patients may have had to provide them with information and advice to prevent further spread.

Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said, We have seen a significant increase in the incidence of COVID-19 over the past week. The reproduction number for the virus is now estimated to be 1.8. A reproduction number of almost 2 is a serious concern, and although we have not yet seen a significant increase in community transmission, there is a significant risk this could develop over the coming days and weeks emphasising the need for each of us to be extremely cautious that we do not contribute to the transmission of the virus.

Dr Colm Henry, Chief Clinical Officer, HSE said; Public Health teams have been informed of the locations of these outbreaks as is routine and contact tracing and testing is taking place as appropriate. Our focus now is on controlling these outbreaks and taking action as necessary.

We also need people to continue to follow our public health advice and avoid crowds, especially indoors, and limit the number of people you meet. The Department of Health and HSE launched the next phase of our communications campaign today encouraging people to keep up the protective behaviours of physical distancing, washing our hands regularly, wearing a face covering where appropriate and downloading the COVID-19 Tracker app.

The county by county breakdown is given two days after national figures and so refers to Tuesday night, August 4.

Other nearby counties had some or no new cases.

Carlow - 180 - up one

Dublin - 12,564 - up 9

Kildare - 1,661 up by 10

Kilkenny - 357 - No change

Longford - 288 - No change

Offaly - 500 - no change.

Tipperary - 546 - up 1

Westmeath - 681 - no change



The advice remains as follows:

Everyone should be aware of the risk factors for getting COVID-19:

 Distance  the risk of getting COVID-19 increases as the distance between you and others gets smaller. Keep 2 metres apart where possible

 Activity  How you spend time with people and what you do with them can increase your risk. Follow the governments Stay Safe Guidelines when spending time with others

 Time  The more time you spend in close contact with other people can increase your risk of getting COVID-19. Keep track of who you spend time with and how

 Environment  Being outdoors is safer than being indoors. Where possible, meet with others outdoors. If this is not possible, keep windows and doors open when meeting others inside

 Symptoms  Know the symptoms. If you have them self-isolate and contact your GP immediately
PokerStars Stadium Series Round-Up: Over $52M Paid Out; Twitch Record Shattered

August 06, 2020 Matthew Pitt

PokerStars paid out more than $52 million during the Stadium Series Heats, Weekly Finals, Grand Finals and the handful of side events. That figure is set to rise with the creation of the Stadium Series After Party on August 16 that has more than $1 million guaranteed.

The $5,200 buy-in Stadium Series Grand Final took place under the watchful eyes of the PokerNews Live Reporting team.

Our team was on hand to watch the $5 million guaranteed $5,200 Freezeout Grand Final - High end in a three-way chop with Maxime Daghemuneguu Chilaud finish third for $570,220, Vlada Vlada2108 Stojanovic bust second for $553,932 and Fernando fviana Viana collect the $721,235 top prize.

You can read all about the massive Stadium Grand Finals in their own separate article, here.

Look at the size of these gigantic prizes!

There were some other massive scores enjoyed by players from around the world since we last caught up with the goings-on in the series. Here are some of the highlights.

Scott Margereson Wins the $5,200 NLHE 6-Max

Scott \"Aggro Santos\" Margereson

Scott Aggro Santos Margereson turned $5,200 into a cool $119,483 by triumphing in the Stadium Series Heat 26-H: $5,200 NLHE 6-Max event. The field, as youd expect, was ridiculously stacked, especially when the tournament progressed to the final table.

Everyone here was guaranteed almost $32,000 for their efforts and the pay jumps were quite substantial. By the time Fedor CrownUpGuy Holz crashed out in third place, the prize money swelled to $70,429.

Heads-up pitted Margereson against Simon C. Darwin2 Mattsson and it was Margereson who came out of the one-on-one battle unscathed. Victory weighed in at $119,483 with Mattson banking a still-impressive $91,733.

"tonkaaaa" Banks $216,000!

Talbot Wins Another Stadium Series Event

Parker tonkaaaa Talbot helped himself to $261,489 in the $2,100 Weekly Final last week and went on to take down the Stadium Series Heat 29-H: $5,200 NLHE Progressive Knockout for an additional $151,916, with bounties included.

Talbot locked horns at the final table with the likes of Rui RuiNF Ferreira, and Mike SirWatts Watson before taking on Thomas WushuTM Muehloecker heads-up for the title. Talbot brushed aside Muehloecker and resigned him to a consolation prize worth $77,853.

Astedt Takes Home $230K

Niklas Astedt

Niklas Lena900 Astedt is one of the most feared and respected tournament grinders of all-time. He added to his already glowing reputation, if thats even possible, by winning the Stadium Series Heat 30-H: $10,300 NLHE event.

Exactly 100 players bought in and they all now lay in Astedts wake. The final table was packed tight with the best poker talent in the world. Nobody shone as brightly as Astedt, however, and he secured another $230,434 after sending Jon apestyles Van Fleet home in second-place, which saw Van Fleet pad his bankroll with $176,979. Just look at this final table and its payouts.

Place Player Country Prize 1 Niklas Lena900 Astedt Sweden $230,434 2 Jon apestyles Van Fleet Canada $176,979 3 despedespi33 United Kingdom $135,924 4 Sam Lrslzk Kelopuro Finland $104,393 5 Jason JASON.MAC100 McConnon United Kingdom $80,176 6 Vyacheslav VbV1990 Buldygin Russia $61,577 7 Konstantin krakukra Maslak Russia $47,293 8 Pieter XMorphineX Aerts Belgium $36,322 9 girafganger7 United Kingdom $27,896

You don't need to spend a lot to win big at PokerStars

Germanys TheRealKnossi Smashes Twitch Poker Viewers Record

German entertainer Jens "Knossi" Knossalla cheered his buddy Frank "Knueppel" Stockhaus on during a deep run that drew over 90,000 viewers.

Nobody really expected someone to break Lex Veldhuis Twitch viewer record other than Veldhuis himself. The Dutch PokerStars Pro drew in as many as 50,000 viewers during his deep run in the SCOOP Main Event.

That record was blown out of the water when Frank Knueppel Stockhaus made a deep run in a $1,000 Stadium Series event. "Knueppel" was railed by Jens TheRealKnossi Knossalla, a German entertainer with more than one million Instagram followers.

"Knueppel" managed to hit a miraculous river twice on the final table bubble before going on to finish in second place for a huge $117,425. Their viewers topped more than 92,000 as they railed them to Knueppels largest career score! That is going to take some beating!

Massive congrats to @TheRealKnossi for breaking my TwitchPoker viewer-record. Actually... he smashed it, from 58.53 https://t.co/kbDCVOhFP5  Lex Veldhuis (@LexVeldhuis)

Get Involved in the Stadium Series After Party!

PokerStars has created a quartet of After Party Phased events to bring the curtain down on the Stadium Series.

These have buy-ins of $1.10, $11, $109, and $105 with guaranteed prize pools worth $100,000, $250,000, $500,000, and $1,000,000 waiting to be won. There are plenty of Phases to enter, survive your Phase 1 by reaching the final 10% of the field to progress to the Phase 2 where the juicy prize pools are awarded.

The Stars Group is a majority shareholder in Oddschecker Global Media, the parent company of PokerNews.
Donald Trump lambasted Joe Biden Thursday for 'totally disparaging' black people in a slip-up where the presumed Democratic nominee says the Latino American community is more diverse than the African American community.

'Wow! Joe Biden just lost the entire African American community. What a 'dumb' thing to say!' Trump tweeted along with a link to a right-wing news website with coverage of the gaffe.

Before departing from the White House for a trip to Ohio, Trump ripped into Biden for the comments, which were aired Thursday during a pre-recorded interview with the National Association of Black Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

'I just watched the clip, and Joe Biden, this morning, totally disparaged and insulted the black community,' Trump told reporters gathered on the South Lawn.

'What he said is incredible,' the president continued. 'And I don't know what's going on with him, but it's a very insulting statement he made.'

Biden is heads and shoulders above the president when it comes to popularity among the black community, with almost every poll on the matter showing the presumed Democratic nominee ahead by several dozen percentage points.

National Public Radio's Lulu Garcia-Navarro asked Biden if he would stop Cubans from being deported if he became president. It sent Biden into a confusing comment about race in America.

'And by the way, what you all know, but most people don't know, unlike the African American community, with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community, with incredibly different attitudes about different things,' Biden said, receiving a slew of backlash for his wording.

President Donald Trump said before departing the White House Thursday that Joe Biden 'totally disparaged and insulted the black community' with his comments that aired earlier

'What he said is incredible,' the president said. 'And I don't know what's going on with him, but it's a very insulting statement he made.'

In a follow-up tweet to his White House remarks, Trump claimed Biden 'just lost the entire African American community' with those comments

'What you all know, but most people don't know, unlike the African American community, with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community, with incredibly different attitudes about different things,' Biden said during an interview

His response came after he was asked by NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro if Biden would put a stop to deporting Cubans from America if he became president

The interview, which aired in full on Thursday, was conducted by different journalists part of the National Association of Black Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists

'You go to Florida, you find a very different attitude about immigration in certain places than you do when you're in Arizona,' he continued. 'It's a very different  a very diverse community.'

In Florida, Hispanic Americans make up 27 per cent of the population.

During that same interview, Biden stunned Garcia-Navarro's co-interviewer CBS News' Errol Barnett when he made the comment 'Are you a junkie?'

The remarks came after the former vice president said he would not take a cognitive test despite goading from Trump that his Democratic rival wouldn't be able to beat his score.

'Mr. Vice President, your opponent in this election, President Trump, has made your mental state a campaign topic,' Barnett posed. 'Have you taken a cognitive test?'

'No, I haven't taken a test. Why the hell would I take a test?' Biden said to Barnett during the interview, which aired in full Thursday, but clips were released Wednesday.

'Come on man. That's like saying, before you got in this program, did you take a test where you're taking cocaine or not. What do you think? Huh? Are you a junkie?,' the presumed Democratic nominee added with a laugh.

Barnett appeared confused by the response.

'What do you say to President Trump, who brags about his test and makes your mental state an issue for voters?' Barnett asked.

'Well, if he can't figure out the difference between an elephant and a lion, I don't know what the hell he's talking about,' Biden said.

The Montreal Cognitive Assessment, the test in question, is a ten-minute test of cognitive abilities, which includes a question where it has the taker identify an animal such as an elephant, lion or camel  but the president assured that the further along the test goes, the harder it gets.

Biden also told the panel that he would not take a cognitive test despite goading from President Donald Trump that he should do so. Why the hell would I take a test?' Biden questioned

Trump has bragged he has 'aced' a cognitive test and said Biden should take one

Trump bragged he has 'aced' the cognitive test and has challenged Biden to take it, claiming he wouldn't pass.

'Joe should take that test, because something's going on. And, and, I say this with respect. I mean  going to probably happen to all of us, right? You know? It's going to happen,' he told Fox News last month.

The president's test was given at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in early 2018 by Navy Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, who was then a White House physician but is not running for a Texas House seat as a Republican, The Washington Post reported.

Biden said he is looking forward to meeting the president in their three debates, where voters would be able to judge both candidates' mental fitness for themselves.

His confirmation that he will participate comes as some Democrats have suggested Biden should set them out.

'I'm so forward looking [sic] to sit with or stand with the president in debates. There's going to be plenty of times,' Biden said. 'I am very willing to let the public to judge my physical as well as my mental fitness and, well, you know, to make a judgement about who I am.'

In an interview with 'Fox News Sunday' last month, host Chris Wallace told the president he also took the test and it wasn't the 'hardest.'

'Well, it's not the hardest test,' Wallace said. 'They have a picture and it says, 'What's that?' And it's an elephant.'

Trump shot back: 'Yes, the first few questions are easy, but I'll bet you couldn't even answer the last five questions.'

'I'll bet you couldn't,' Trump challenged. 'They get very hard, the last five questions.'

Trump often brags about his mental prowess and has called himself a 'very stable genius.'

Medical experts said the test does not measure a person's IQ or intellectual abilities but is designed to flag the beginning of cognitive decline that could come with age or a medical condition such as Alzheimer's or a stroke.

And the White House has not said why the president needed to take a test of his cognitive abilities.

Trump and his campaign have pushed for questions of Biden's mental abilities - at age 77 Biden is three years old than Trump - but it's the president who has faced health questions, particularly after his commencement speech at West Point in June where he had difficulty walking down a ramp and had to use two hands to lift a glass of water.

President Trump defended his score on a cognitive test last month in an interview with Chris Wallace on 'Fox News Sunday'

Jill Biden dinged President Donald Trump for criticizing her husband's cognitive ability during an interview with Fox News

Meanwhile, Jill Biden has come to her husband's defense, dinging the president for questioning Joe Biden's cognitive abilities.

She told Fox News on Tuesday that it was 'surprising' the president would say that and argued the two men are close in age.

'I think Donald Trump is really about Joe's age right? I think there's like two or three years difference. It's surprising that he would say Joe wouldn't be up to it and made those comments,' Jill Biden said.

She also disputed Trump's characterization that Joe Biden is hiding in the basement. Trump has repeatedly gone after Biden for hiding in his basement after Biden cut down on his campaign rallies because of the coronavirus pandemic.

'You know, Joe is anything but that characterization. You know we've been campaigning, we've been listening to the experts, the scientists, and the doctors, and they have told us stay home and be safe,' she said.
Kamala Harris is on Joe Bidens vice-presidential shortlist. But leading up to his pick, the California senator has spent time promoting her progressive collaborations with Bernie Sanders, their old rival for the Democratic nomination.

The strategy isnt as unexpected or unusual as it might at first seem. Biden himself often consults with Sanders, his longtime friend, on areas where they can unite. With his running-mate selection looming, Harris is making moves in the same, leftward direction, and allies in both camps have taken note.

Harris has, in recent weeks, put her name behind bills that would give Americans $2,000 stipends, provide masks universally across the country, and send supplemental food-stamp benefits to communities in need. Those closest to her say shes operating from a sincere ideological position and that the public perception of her as a non-progressive has always missed the mark.

Kamala has always been a progressive despite what a few loud old white men have said, said a source close to Harris familiar with her thinking. These bills fit with the type legislation that she always supported while in the Senate.

But the timing of the legislative output has political implications that extend into the presidential campaign. And it has gotten the notice of some committed Sanders fans.

Those are good issues and we need more members of the Senate to sign on, Nina Turner, who formerly served as Sanders campaign co-chairwoman, said about Harris involvement. People need help. In moments as critical as these, we need folks to unite, we need allies. Youve got to give credit where credit is due on that.

Harris has long been thought of as a top contender to be Bidens running mate due to her work as a high-profile senator, former attorney general, and enthusiastic following of grassroots support. At 55, she is also more than two decades younger than Biden, who is 77, and would be the nations first Black vice president.

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But in recent weeks, questions and criticisms have surfaced about her potential as his No. 2. Politico reported that one member of Bidens VP vetting committee, former Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), reportedly told a donor that Harris had no remorse when she landed a successful line of attack against Biden during the first primary debate. Two days later, CNBC reported that a few of his top donors had been plotting ways to prevent Harris from being selected. CNN followed up with a story quoting former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, who said Kamala can rub some people the wrong way.

Beyond a few Biden loyalists, not everyone in Sanders circle views Harris recent work as a persuasive case that shed help the ticket move leftward. Some note that she abandoned her support for Medicare for All midway through the primary, after being the first Democrat to sign onto it in Congress nearly three years ago.

Harris memorably put her hand up when a debate moderator asked who on stage supported eliminating private insurance, which Sanders does. She later backtracked, stating to donors that she was not comfortable with parts of his plan, and eventually outlined her own proposal that wouldnt come into full effect for 10 years. The move ended up prompting a torrent of negative press for the senator.

Kamala Harris was a supporter of Bernies Medicare for All bill, the Senate version, then walked away from it, said Larry Cohen, the chairman of the Sanders-aligned group Our Revolution who is supporting Warren in the vice presidential contest. And that is, for our folks, one of the most critical issues, given the pandemic and the disaster that we have of the healthcare system.

But those in her corner feel her willingness to embrace parts of Sanders agenda sends a strong signal about how committed she remains to progressive issues, and how she could round out the Democratic ticket at a time when Biden faces mild concerns about his progressive bona fides.

I do think it is a good reminder to folks [about] the things she prioritizes, especially since this veep search has turned into more Hunger Games than anything, the Harris confidant said.

Harris was among the first to sign on to Sanders Masks for All Act, which would send no-cost masks to every person across the country through the U.S. Postal Service. We tell people to wear a mask but many communities do not have access to the protective gear they need to keep themselves and others safe. Yesterday I joined @BernieSanders on the Masks for All Act to change that, Harris wrote on Twitter last Wednesday, linking to an article detailing her involvement with the legislation in CBS News local Sacramento affiliate.

Kamala Harris Was in Biden Circle of Trust. Then Came Debate Night.

Harris is just one of dozens of Hill Democrats, from moderate Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) to progressive Jeff Merkley (D-OR) to join the bill. But shes promoted it more publicly than others, especially those mentioned as possible vice-presidential contenders such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who also signed on to the bill.

There should be no mistake that Kamala Harris is an intelligent, strategic politician, even if you dont agree with her, said Cooper Teboe, a progressive Democratic consultant in California who advises both the pro-Biden Unite the County super PAC and top Sanders ally Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA). What shes trying to do is show that she can be a team player.

In May, Harris introduced a bill with Sanders and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) that pushed the economic-stimulus conversation in Washington in a more progressive direction. The Monthly Economic Crisis Support Act, which she detailed in a video for the left-leaning media company NowThisNews, would send $2,000 a month in the form of a rebate to people who earn less than $120,000 to help alleviate their financial burdens.

Congress must immediately pass my bill with @BernieSanders and @EdMarkey to get $2,000 a month in Americans' hands, Harris tweeted this past Sunday, resurfacing the effort. Both tweets were sent from Harris campaign account, which, at 4 million followers, reaches nearly four times more people than those who follow her Senate handle. She also posted a clip addressing the initiative on MSNBC to her well-trafficked Instagram page. On Tuesday afternoon, Harris sent a list-building email to supporters detailing the plans importance.

Harris, along with Sanders and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), introduced a proposal in April called Closing the Meal Gap Act, which would stretch the countrys existing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to more individuals suffering during the coronavirus pandemic.

Emmy Ruiz, a Democratic strategist who was a senior adviser to Harris during her presidential campaign, said her movements are helpful in showing shes doing whats best for Americans. Others in Harris inner circle told The Daily Beast they feel similarly about her motivations, and note that she has a well-telegraphed track record of working with elected officials of all political stripes, especially during urgent moments.

The duo have indeed worked constructively together in the Senate before. Since January 2019, congressional records show that Harris has signed on to 18 bills Sanders introduced, while Sanders has similarly added his name on 20 pieces of legislation put forth by Harris.

One current Harris adviser said that she often seeks out opportunities to partner with elected officials to the ideological left of her, as well as occasionally those to the right when appropriate. In February, for example, she celebrated with Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) over successfully getting anti-lynching legislation passed in the House. Those moments of Harris work history track with Bidens own approach, who repeatedly talks about the need to bring Republicans into the fold just as much as progressive Democrats.

Meanwhile, those on the right, including on President Donald Trumps campaign, have sought to group Harris and Sanders together in a negative fashion this week. The latest attempt came over the issue of voting rights for felons, where the presidents re-election team on Monday tried to paint Sanders and Harris together as extremists who Joe Biden will be taking orders from!

Trumps War Room cut a clip of Sanders responding to an audience members question during a town hall in the primary about whether terrorists should be able to vote from prison by saying yes, even for terrible people like Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the architect of the Boston Marathon bombing. Asked a version of the same question by CNN moderator Don Lemon, Harris said I think we should have that conversation.

In the intervening months following the primary, however, Harris has turned her political focus to getting Biden into office, defending him from Trump, and working on pandemic policy measures in the Senate.

Shes been consistent, they have a relationship and a record together, the adviser said about Sanders. When its their Senate duties, theres actual shit that needs to get done.

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BP now says it will reduce its oil and gas production by 40 percent by 2030 as part of its pivot to low-carbon operations. But many will wonder why natural gas--the bridge between our fossil fuel present and renewable energy future--is being included on the chopping block.

Despite its much lower emissions footprint, natural gas is also under threat not only by the bare fundamentals, but by the trends shaping energy policies.

The EU Green New Deal is perhaps the best example of these trends and their effect on future fossil fuel demand, including natural gas. The deal is pretty ambitious and targets emission reductions of between 50 and 55 percent from 1990 levels by 2030 and 100 percent by 2050. According to Wood Mackenzie analysts led by Massimo Di Odoardo, this will result in the loss of some 45 billion cubic meters of natural gas demand, or 12 percent from current annual demand, by 2040.

Currently, Europe consumes about 500 billion cubic meters of natural gas. This is already lower than the peak of gas demand on this continent, which occurred a decade ago, when demand was 10 percent higher, Wood Macs chairman and chief analyst Simon Flowers notes. There is some good news, though: new gas demand will come from maritime transport, thanks to new emissions regulation from the International Maritime Organisation, and from road transport as public transit switches from oil-derived fuel to compressed natural gas.

But Europe is building new import terminals for liquefied natural gas, isnt it?

Europe plans to ramp up its imports of the fuel to diversify its supply of gas. And Europes biggest economy, Germany, is bent on completing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that will double Gazproms export capacity specifically to the benefit of Germanys energy needs. So it seems Europe is preparing for more gas demand, not less.

Related: Natural Gas Has Replaced Over 100 U.S. Coal Plants In The Last Decade

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As true as this might be, Europe is also preparing to become a leader in clean hydrogen production as an alternative to fossil fuels. Clean hydrogen is produced through electrolysis using electricity produced by renewable sources such as wind or solar. The plan is ambitious: from 1 GW in clean hydrogen electrolysis capacity currently, the EU plans to go to 6 GW in just four years, increasing this to 40 GW by 2030, which translates into annual production of ten million metric tons. In other words, whatever gas demand growth is in the cards for Europe will be limited.

But who cares about Europe when there is Asiathe worlds biggest gas demand growth driver. Asia imports 340 billion cu m of gas equivalent in LNG, according to Wood Mac, and these imports are set to double by 2040. This is certainly good news for gas exporters.

Except its not the whole news.

The markets of developing Asia hold enormous potential, but gass growth is far from assured, writes Wood Macs Flowers. Many countries lack infrastructure, and affordability is a challenge where imported gas must compete with domestic coal. India is a case in point. Gas has a market share of just 6%, well short of the government target of 15%, and is struggling to compete with coal and the rapid roll-out of renewables.

Interestingly enough and likely for the above reasons, Asia was not the biggest growth region for gas demand last year, according to BPs latest Statistical Review of World Energy. That was the United States, where demand grew by 27 billion cubic meters. In Asia, demand grew by 24 billion cubic meters last year. BP noted in its report that total global gas demand growth in 2019 was weaker than the ten-year average and sharply lower than the growth rate recorded just a year earlier. This year, with the Covid-19 pandemic, its anyones guess exactly how badly gas demand will be hurt.

Related: Oil Prices Soar After EIA Reports Large Crude Draw



But looking forward, can the U.S. continue to support solid growth in gas demand? Not according to Wood Mac analysts. Growth in demand will be weaker and weaker in the coming years as the market gets saturated with competing technologies such as solar. According to the Energy Information Administration, in 2021, gas consumption by both commercial and residential users in the U.S. will inch up by 1.6 percent. This year, however, consumption will slump by 6.8 percent from 2019 because of Covid-19 and the lockdowns.

So, there are threats to gas demand growth in all the key markets. These wont blow up in producers facesnot all at once. But these threats are of the insidious kind, and they will gradually increase the pressure on gas demand over years and even decades. There is no immediate danger for global gas demand, except from the resurgence in coronavirus infections that could prompt new lockdowns. But there is a danger, and producers would be wise to keep that in mind. Alternative sources of energy are getting increasingly cheaper, and this is not a trend that is about to get reversed.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:

Read this article on OilPrice.com
The coronavirus rate of infection could be as high as 1.8 in Northern Ireland - as the country records 43 more cases within 23 clusters.

The Department of Health said the R-rate rose from between 0.5 and one last week, to between 0.8 and 1.8 this week, in a dramatic escalation of Covid-19 in the region.

R represents the number of individuals who, on average, will be infected by a person with the virus.

It comes as more than 20 coronavirus clusters have been identified in Northern Ireland.

Of the 23 pinpointed in the region since May 25 when the test and trace programme went live, 11 clusters remain open, according to the Public Health Agency (PHA).

First Minister Arlene Foster at a press confrerence at Dublin Castle for the first summit of the North South Ministerial Council on July 31, 2020. More than 20 coronavirus clusters have been identified in Northern Ireland

It means the planned reopening of pubs and bars that don't sell food has been pushed back to September 1.

First Minister Arlene Foster said: 'Because of the concern around the level of community transmission and the desire to frankly prioritise the reopening of our schools... we have decided that it is prudent to pause the reopening of our public houses.'

Some 168 cases of Covid-19 have been associated with the clusters, with nine areas connected to five or more cases.

Earlier this week, two businesses in Newcastle, Co Down, closed temporarily following outbreaks among their staff.

It means the planned reopening of pubs and bars that don't sell food has been pushed back to September 1. Pictured, a closed pub in Belfast

The statement from the PHA came on Thursday as the Department of Health's daily updates showed 43 more positive cases of coronavirus have been detected in the region, bringing the total to 6,049.

No new deaths were recorded on Thursday, leaving the total in the region at 556, according to departmental figures.

The PHA has defined a cluster as two or more laboratory-confirmed cases of Covid-19 among individuals associated with a key setting, with illness onset dates within a 14-day period.

Key settings which have seen a cluster include workplaces, retail or hospitality premises, domestic gatherings, and sporting settings, however the PHA said the transmission risk is highest in a household setting.

Key settings which have seen a cluster include workplaces, retail or hospitality premises, domestic gatherings, and sporting settings. Pictured, parishioners wearing face masks in Armagh on June 29

Since July, the average number of close contacts linked to cases has more than doubled.

The rise may be attributed to the gradual easing of lockdown measures, but may also be explained by the relaxing of attitudes to social distancing.

Dr Gerry Waldron, head of health protection at the PHA, said: 'Clusters are managed through the contact tracing programme, and where we need to advise or inform the public of any increased risk to public health we will do so in a timely manner.

'In the past seven days, five clusters have been identified. Thirty-five cases have been associated with these clusters, with 239 close contacts.

'This should act as a timely reminder that we must not become complacent - coronavirus remains in circulation and we have seen an increase in cases in recent weeks. It is therefore essential that we remember the key advice to help keep ourselves and those around us safe.

'Maintain social distancing, wash your hands regularly, and get tested if you display any symptoms of coronavirus.

Prison officers wearing PPE clothing as they await new committals at HMP Maghaberry in Lisburn, Co Antrim

'Speculation around current clusters of Covid-19 across Northern Ireland is not helpful.

'We will not be commenting on individual cases of Covid-19 or going into the detail of every incident that emerges, as this could lead to people being identified, create stigma, and focus attention on individuals, families or groups, and therefore deter others with symptoms coming forward to be tested.'

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said while community transmission remains low in Northern Ireland, the number of positive tests per day has increased three-fold from early July.

Chief scientific adviser Professor Ian Young said: 'The most recent data for Northern Ireland underlines the need for continued vigilance.

'There are five key steps each of us can take to keep ourselves and others safe - rigorously maintain social distancing; wash our hands well and often; wear face coverings in enclosed spaces where social distancing is difficult; co-operate fully with the Test, Trace and Protect programme, and download the Stop Covid NI app.'
SOUTHAMPTON, NY  A flurry of activity at Southampton High School Wednesday seemed to be an indication of preparations for President Donald Trump's fundraising visit to the Hamptons this week, as a number of United States Marine Corps helicopters were seen landing at the field.

Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman said he believed the helicopters  at least five were visible in a video  were participating in a "practice run" for Trump's arrival.

The information, however, could not be immediately confirmed.



An official at the field this afternoon told someone that it was a practice run, Schneiderman said. He described a "giant, green Osprey helicopter" that flew closely near his home, "giving new meaning to helicopter noise."





Lisa Votino, who lives in Southampton, was also at the field and said she too was told by someone there the goings-on might be connected to Trump's impending visit.



Southampton Fire Department members and EMTs were also seen at the field.

For the second time this summer, a "TrumpStock" boat parade will be held on local waters, this time on the East End. A flotilla will head from Orient Point to Montauk on Friday, one day before political fundraising events in the Hamptons for the president.

Helicopters landing at Southampton High School. / Courtesy Lisa Votino.





Trump's visit will begin with a dinner Thursday attended by Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., and his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, according to CNBC. Tickets are reportedly slated to cost up to $50,000. On Saturday, tickets to the Hamptons fundraiser include a photo opportunity, roundtable and an event where tickets will fetch up to $500,000 per couple, with proceeds benefitting the Trump Victory Committee and Republican National Committee, CNBC reported.

The events will be held amid social distancing protocols and a statewide ban on gatherings of more than 50 people put in place by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Guilfoyle tested positive for the coronavirus in July, according to an NBC report.

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Thousands of boats are expected at TrumpStock, with at least 15,000 attending on the water and thousands on land. It will be the second TrumpStock boat parade on Long Island in recent months; the first was held in June with separate routes in Patchogue and Massapequa.

"The Trump family will be attending, you don't want to miss out!" a Facebook post promoting the event said. "The best patriotic decorated boat along with the highest donator towards President Trump's campaign will have the honor to meet president Trump in person for a photo."

Boaters are asked to turn out to show their support not only for Trump but to "back the men in blue."

The event is hosted by Boaters for Trump New York, Businesses for Trump and others.

"For all of our Eastern Long Island boating enthusiasts, we are so excited to announce that we will be bringing the first Trump parade to the East End of Long Island called 'TrumpStock' with the Trump family in attendance to support President Trump in his home state," the post said.

Those attending are asked to meet south of the Orient Point Lighthouse at 12:30 p.m. before heading to Montauk at 1 p.m. The parade is slated to begin with a Pledge of Allegiance over VHF Channel 11.

"We will take it nice and slow heading southeast towards the Montauk Lighthouse," the post said. "There will be two lead boats leading this very special parade, 'Team Deplorable' and the most well known boat in America, Carlos Gavidia's 'The Official Trump Boat' in which everyone attending the TrumpStock Parade will follow to the TrumpStock Flotilla to show everyone our support for our GREAT President, Donald J. Trump! Take your boat or get on your friend's boat, bring all of your flags and Trump gear to show everyone in NYC how much we love and support our President!"

Contest held to meet Trump

In addition, a contest is being held in advance of the fundraiser and dinner; the winner will fly to Southampton to meet and take a photo with the president. Donations will benefit the Trump Make America Great Again Committee, a post said.



A Trump boat parade is set for the Orient to the Hamptons; thousands are expected and a contest winner will take a photo with the president. / Courtesy George L.

This article originally appeared on the Southampton Patch
A carrier rocket carrying the last satellite of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) blasts off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province, June 23, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua]

As a satellite navigation system is a public infrastructure belonging to the world, China has always ensured its BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) is open to the world.

Members of ASEAN, countries in South Asia, Eastern Europe, West Asia and Africa have successively joined BeiDou's "circle of friends," sharing achievements and promoting mutual cooperation in the area of satellite navigation systems.

BeiDou ambition: Win-win cooperation

It is China's consistent position to make peaceful use of space and conduct in-depth international cooperation and exchanges there.

As a core supplier of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), the BDS system has injected new thinking, new concepts and new impetus into the development of global navigation system.

After the completion and official launch of the BDS-3 system, the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) issued a congratulatory video acknowledging the great contribution of BDS to global socioeconomic development, peaceful use of outer space and its engagement in U.N. international space cooperation.

The BDS system has also offered joint R&D results, industrial cooperation as well as education and training opportunities among higher learning and scientific research institutions of the world.

The satellite navigation experience BeiDou has accumulated offers a short cut for other countries to develop their own satellite navigation systems. For instance, as the first overseas center of BDS, the China-Arab States BDS/GNSS Center has not only cultivated a large number of international talents, but also actively participated in the construction of regional cooperation mechanisms such as the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum, sparing no effort to contribute Chinese wisdom and solutions to the world.

BeiDou responsibility: Benefiting mankind

It is the bounden duty of BeiDou to safeguard peace and security for all humanity and to underpin the development of the global society.

In recent years, with the better services provided, the BDS system has actively taken part in world affairs, fulfilled its international obligations and provided services to a number of international organizations.

It has also been recognized by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as one of the four core constellations of GNSS.

The first international standard for mobile communication supporting the BDS-3's upgraded signals has been issued. The first BDS shipping terminal test standard also has been released to the world by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

The International Satellite System for Search and Rescue has recognized the BDS system as part of its global radio navigation system. Work is now underway on a standard document and accession test of BDS-3 in regard to maritime search and rescue.

The BDS system is sure to play an increasingly important role in contributing to the wellbeing of humanity and the building of a community with a shared future for all.

BeiDou: A world-renowned brand

The BDS system is actively responding to the Belt and Road initiative and is providing the customized services needed by various industries of different countries, thus gradually becoming a world-renowned brand.

In 2013, the use of more than 500 high-precision BeiDou terminals in Myanmar indicated the first large-scale application of BeiDou high-precision products in agricultural data collection and land precision management in Southeast Asia.

In 2015, the BDS-based high-precision receiver was applied to the construction of the 300-meter headquarter building of the National Bank of Kuwait, ensuring the vertical measurement error was held at the millimeter level during the building process. This was the first time that BeiDou had been used for monitoring high-rise building construction overseas.

In 2018, the BDS system contributed to the offshore pile-driving project in Heritance Aarah, Maldives by providing all-weather and high-precision services, realizing intelligent monitoring, visual operations and high-precision construction of offshore piling.

The BDS system has also been applied in Singapore, Cambodia, Laos, Russia and many parts of Europe to facilitate high-precision and high-speed piling, provide high-precision government services, support cadastral survey and land management, ensure the safety of transmission and distribution lines and the stability of power systems, and track the trains in real time to facilitate logistics development.

In addition, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand are among others actively utilizing the BDS system to explore the development of smart cities. So far, the basic products based on BeiDou have been exported to more than 120 countries and regions and have been successfully applied in ASEAN, South Asia, Eastern Europe, West Asia, Africa and so on.

Content created in partnership with Science and Technology Daily.
PHILIPSBURG:--- United St Maarten Party (USP) Member of Parliament (MP) Claudius Buncamper sent a letter to the Minister of Justice, the honorable Anna Richardson on Thursday recommending the instituting of a tolerance policy on the usage of soft drugs and cannabis plants.

In his letter to the Minister, the MP outlined the uphill battle in dealing with the review and amendments of the laws pertaining to the legalization of the use of soft drugs and the use of medicinal cannabis. I have reviewed various draft legislations in the Dutch Kingdom, particularly in Curacao and Aruba, of which the objective is to create a legal basis to develop an alternative income-generating revenue stream for the country, Buncamper stated in his letter to the minister.

Taking into account the time required to draft and complete the legislation to legalize the use of cannabis, MP Buncamper proposes that we consider adopting a tolerance policy similar to that which is accepted in the Netherlands. The MP feels that such a policy will avoid the unnecessary prosecution and possible incarceration of soft drug users. In addition, the policy will facilitate the establishment of coffee shops, which can be considered a welcomed boost to our economy and diversification in the tourism industry while raising much-needed tax revenue.

The MP proposed that a workgroup be established to further look into adopting the tolerance policy and the feasibilities of legalizing the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes.
A 48-year-old village council head was on Thursday shot dead near his home at Vessu in South Kashmirs Kulgam district in the second such attack on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers in the Kashmir Valley in three days.

Inspector general of police (Kashmir) Vijay Kumar said unidentified terrorists killed Sajjad Ahmad Khanday, who was Vessus sarpanch, 20 metres from his home. Kumar added he was staying at a high-security residential complex along with several other sarpanchs and had left it on Thursday morning to visit his family. He later succumbed to his injuries, said Kumar.

Dozens of local bodies members, especially those affiliated with the BJP, were shifted to safer locations following intelligence inputs that they may be targeted on the eve of the first anniversary of the nullification of the Constitutions Article 370 that stripped Jammu & Kashmir of its special status in August last year, officers aware of the matter said. They added security forces have launched an operation to track down Khandays attackers.

Khanday was killed two days after another sarpanch, Arif Ahmad Shah, was shot in his neck in Akhran village of Kulgams Devsar area. Police said he was fighting for his life in a critical condition at Srinagars Sher-I-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences.

The attack on Shah triggered panic and prompted three BJP functionaries from Kulgam, Nisar Ahmad Wani, Sabzar Ahmad Paddar and Ashiq Hussain Palla, to announce their disassociation from the party.

BJPs youth wing leader, Marouf Bhat, was among two activists to resign from the party in July after its former Bandipora district president, Sheikh Waseem Bari, was killed along with his father and brother. Jammu & Kashmir police have said Lashkar-e-Taiba members were involved in the killing of Bari and his kin. Ajay Pandita, another sarpanch, was also killed in South Kashmirs Larkipora in June.

BJP spokesman Altaf Thakur condemned Khandays killing and sought security cover for sarpanchs and panchs (village council members) under threat. Killing of Sajad is very unfortunate. He was our constituency president for Vessu. Attack on him is the second incident in the same area in the past three days, Thakur said.

He appealed the administration to look into the issue and work out a security cover model for the vulnerable sarpanchs and panchs, especially those affiliated with the BJP. The list of sarpanchs, panchs, and other activists who are vulnerable to militant attacks has already been submitted to the police, he said.

Jammu & Kashmir Apni Party chief Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari condemned the killing. Todays cowardly attack on a grassroots level representative has added to the fear psychosis among the Panchayat representatives and other political activists who witnessed three such attacks in the last 10 days, said Bukhari. He urged the government to take cognizance of this incident.




A HARARE magistrate has ruled that charges levelled against former Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko are vague and embarrassing.





Mphoko is facing criminal abuse of office charges, where he allegedly unlawfully caused the release of former Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) officials from police custody in 2016 when he was Acting President.





The former VP, who is out on $1 000 bail following his arrest by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission, had applied for exception to the charges at the Harare Magistrates Court.





In his ruling, magistrate Trynos Utahwashe said the right to fair trail was absolute in terms of section 186(3)( e) of the Constitution.





"All essential allegations to be proved by the State in order to sustain a guilty verdict must be contained in a charge sheet," Utahwashe said.





"The charge sheet must contain the relevant elements of the crime that has been omitted and the manner in which the offence was committed. The charge, therefore, should not be vague and too broad, but specific. Only then can an accused person be required to answer to the charge."





He concurred with Mphoko's lawyer, Zibusiso Ncube that the State could not completely charge any public officer in terms of section 174 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 9:23.





"I, therefore, would disagree that section 174 does not contain any definition of conduct that is unlawful for a public officer," he said.





The magistrate said the State made reference to section 106, which regulates the conduct of the VPs, ministers and deputy ministers in government, adding that the State could not, therefore, deny that the conduct alleged against Mphoko was defined in section 174 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, alone and, therefore, could not stand.





"If the conduct complained against the accused by the State is in subsection (2) of section 106 of the Constitution, the conduct must be alleged in the charge sheet...," Utahwashe ruled.





"The present charge omits the essential allegations of the conduct complained of by the State."





Mphoko faced an alternative charge of defeating or obstructing the course of justice.





Utahwashe said the charge sheet has to essentially name particular officers who were obstructed to do their work, and not generalise.





Charges were that on May 6, 2016, Zacc received a report of allegations of fraud and criminal abuse of office against Zinara officials. Investigations led to the arrest of Zinara acting chief executive Moses Juma and non-executive director Davison Norupiri and Mphoko ordered their release.





Mphoko's defence submitted that their client had no authority to issue orders to police officers as that was only reserved to the President and thus whatever he said at the police station on the day, did not constitute a lawful order to the officers.




On Tuesday, Colombia's Supreme Court ordered the detention of the country's ex-president, Alvaro Uribe, a longtime giant in the history of the nation's political scene. The move comes amid an investigation as rivals accuse the ex-president of fraud, bribery, and witness tampering.

Fraudulent president

According to The New York Times, the order marks a historic moment for a country that had become used to having its politicians conduct back door deals who were rarely ordered to attend court for their actions.

Despite other countries in America moving forward to find and punish acts of corruption within its political scene in recent years, including the prosecution of presidents, Colombia had rarely moved to indict significant political figures.

Uribe is considered to be the most powerful Colombia politician within the last two decades and had previously been the subject of investigation for several years. However, the court's decision to detain the former president has been the closest he has come to facing a panel of judges. Many Colombians called him the "Teflon president" due to his ability to avoid prosecution.

The order also has the potential to change Colombia's political landscape drastically. It would also make Uribe the first president in recent Colombian history to be detained. It places the ex-president under house arrest. Despite being laxer than time in prison, Uribe stated he disliked the order.

Also Read: Trump Funnels $35M Grants to Provide Housing for Human Trafficking Survivors

In a post on Twitter On Tuesday, Uribe wrote that deprivation of his freedom caused him great sorrow. The ex-president also noted that the order affected his wife, family, and citizens who still believed in his righteousness.

Uribe had been president of Colombia between 2002 and 2010 and has since continued to remain influential with his position as senator. The country's current president, Ivan Duque, had a little following before the ex-president supported him. Duque won the 2018 elections as he promised to restore the legacy of the former president, as reported by The Guardian.

Bribery and witness tampering

The current investigation into Uribe originated from Senator Ivan Cepeda's accusations. The claims say the ex-president was a founding member of a paramilitary group which were based in his hometown during the civil conflict which lasted for decades.

The conflict involved government forces, leftist rebels, and right-wing bands that resulted in the death of several hundreds of thousands and many others to be displaced or have gone missing.

In response, Uribe accused Cepeda of slander for his claims. However, the Supreme Court dismissed the ex-president's allegations and instead ordered to open investigation on him. The court said Uribe had worked to bribe witnesses to sway them into not testifying against him.

According to Aljazeera, several critics and civil rights groups supported the Supreme Court's decision in a country where the powerful and infamous have continued to escape legal punishment for their unjust actions.

In a virtual news conference, Cepeda said there is no Colombian citizen, no matter their connections and influence, who has more power or authority over the law.

Supporters of Uribe, on the other hand, including current President Duque, criticized the Supreme Court for its decision which they claim has political origins.

Related Article: President Trump Says Lebanon Explosion Was "Possibly an Attack" and Not An Accident

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Aryzta is best known here for the Cuisine de France brand. Photo: Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland.

Frederic Pflanz, the chief financial officer at troubled Swiss-Irish food group Aryzta, is to step down from his role.

Mr Pflanz, who became CFO of the group in January 2018, is moving to an unrelated business, according to a statement from Aryzta.

He will finish up at the company in December and a search process for the position of group CFO will now be initiated.

Kevin Toland, chief executive of Aryzta, said: "We are naturally disappointed to see Frederic leave and we recognise his substantial positive impact on Aryzta generally and to the finance function specifically. Both as CFO and as a valued colleague, Frederic has contributed significantly to the overall business."

Expand Close CEO Kevin Toland thanked Mr Pflanz / Facebook

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Whatsapp CEO Kevin Toland thanked Mr Pflanz

Last week it was reported that Canadian bakery giant George Weston was exploring a potential deal to buy Aryzta.

Aryzta has been heavily tipped as a takeover target amid a proxy battle between its board and biggest shareholder.

George Weston is part of a business group with a focus on food and clothing, including Penneys and Brown Thomas, owned or dominated by descendants of the original businessman after whom the company is named, although the companies are independent of each other.

In July Aryzta said a number of third parties had made unsolicited takeover approaches for the company.

Aryzta, best known here for the Cuisine de France brand, is a global supplier of buns for burgers to McDonald's.

The company hired investment bank Rothschild in April for a strategic review that effectively put the business on the market, and last month chairman Gary McGann said he will stand down if a deal had not been lined up by an extraordinary general meeting in September.

However, this has not been enough to appease disgruntled shareholders, who last month warned they would take legal action if the company's extraordinary general meeting does not take place on September 16 as planned.

The activist group owns more than 20pc of Aryzta and is led by Swiss asset management company Veraison. It had requested an EGM take place on May 20.

The activists also said they found it "disconcerting" that a strategic review of the company announced in May by the board has "apparently failed to reach any conclusions."

Shares in Aryzta rose just over 1pc in Dublin yesterday.
Ranger Ready Repellents, a leader in premium insect repellents and hand sanitizers, has appointed digital marketing agency, Zero Gravity Marketing, to support Ranger Readys growing U.S. e-commerce businesses.

Ranger Ready Repellents is a privately held business founded in 2016 with a mission to save lives from serious diseases caused by mosquitos, ticks, biting insects and, as of 2020, via human-to-human transmission. Premium products include Ranger Ready Picaridin 20% Body-Worn Repellents, Ranger Ready Permethrin 0.5% for clothing application, and Ranger Ready Hand Sanitizer 80% ethanol alcohol topical hand sanitizer. Ranger Ready is wholly owned by the PiC20 Group, LLC, a privately held company based in Norwalk, CT. Visit www.rangerready.com for more information.

Ranger Ready Repellents is a privately held business founded in 2016 with a mission to save lives from serious diseases caused by mosquitos, ticks, biting insects and, as of 2020, via human-to-human transmission. Premium products include Ranger Ready Picaridin 20% Body-Worn Repellents, Ranger Ready Permethrin 0.5% for clothing application, and Ranger Ready Hand Sanitizer 80% ethanol alcohol topical hand sanitizer. Ranger Ready is wholly owned by the PiC20 Group, LLC, a privately held company based in Norwalk, CT. Visit www.rangerready.com for more information.

Ranger Ready Repellents announces the engagement of Zero Gravity Marketing as its lead digital marketing agency to advance Ranger Readys mission of preventing illnesses caused by biting insects and via human-to-human contact.

Ranger Ready Repellents announces the engagement of Zero Gravity Marketing as its lead digital marketing agency to advance Ranger Readys mission of preventing illnesses caused by biting insects and via human-to-human contact.

NORWALK, Conn., Aug. 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ranger Ready Repellents announces the engagement of Zero Gravity Marketing as its lead digital marketing agency to advance Ranger Readys mission of preventing illnesses caused by biting insects and via human-to-human contact.

Ranger Ready launched its flagship tick and insect repellent in 2018 with the mission to stem the alarming increase of vector-borne diseases in the US, using the active ingredient Picaridin 20%, the safe and effective alternative to DEET. The company optimized its presence as a lifestyle brand born in a digital age by engaging directly with its fans to quickly develop a national following. And now, with e-commerce an even more essential part of business, the company has elevated its digital presence by engaging an innovative, leading-edge agency in Zero Gravity Marketing.

Were connecting with tens of thousands of fans who use our products to protect themselves from serious illnesses like Lyme disease, West Nile virus, EEE virus and Dengue fever, said Chris L. Fuentes, Founder & CEO of Ranger Ready. Our goal is be sure everyone is aware of how to take personal protective measures; Zero Gravity Marketings experts will guide our brand communication to accomplish this mission. Both companies are proudly founded in and are thriving in Connecticut, added Fuentes.

Story continues

Founded in 2013, Zero Gravity Marketing is an industry-leading digital agency in Madison, CT that specializes in building brand digital marketing services such as organic and paid search engine marketing, social media engagement, email marketing and e-commerce driven web design.

Were excited to work with a category innovation leader like Ranger Ready, said Keith Atchinson, Zero Gravity Marketings CMO. Not only do they produce high-quality products that fight deadly diseases, but also their approach to creating Ranger Ready products prioritizes the safety and education of consumers as well as the environment  goals we love to stand behind.

***

About Ranger Ready Repellents

Ranger Ready Repellents is a privately held brand founded in 2016 with a mission to save lives from serious diseases caused by mosquitos, ticks, biting insects and, as of 2020, via human-to-human transmission. Premium products are made in USA and include Ranger Ready Picaridin 20% Body-Worn Repellents, Ranger Ready Permethrin 0.5% for clothing application, and Ranger Ready Hand Sanitizer, 80% ethanol alcohol topical hand sanitizer. Ranger Ready is wholly owned by the PiC20 Group, LLC, a privately held company based in Norwalk, CT. Visit www.rangerready.com for more information or email info@rangerready.com.

About Zero Gravity Marketing

Zero Gravity Marketing is a full-service digital marketing agency located in Madison, Connecticut. Through services such as Marketing Strategy, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay-Per-Click (PPC), Campaign Management, Website Design, Email Marketing, Social Media, Content Marketing, eCommerce strategy, Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), Creative Services, Video Production & Animation, and Interactive Development, we help businesses and brands get ahead of their competition and stay there. Our continued growth and client success have allowed us to expand in our service offerings and provide clients with uniquely tailored strategies built for their brand. To learn more about Zero Gravity Marketing, visit us at www.zerogravitymarketing.com, by phone at 203-533-2808, or by email at info@zerogravitymarketing.com.

Attachments

CONTACT: Teddy DeRosa Ranger Ready Repellent 203-695-3889 teddyd@rangerready.com




Its hard to remember that Beirut was once called the Paris of the Mediterranean. The Lebanese Civil War that dragged on from 1975 until 1990 decimated the city. In the years since then, although the city has been rebuilt, its also become a home for Hezbollah and, therefore, a staging area for terrorism. Thats why, when a giant explosion rocked the city on Tuesday, numerous theories instantly appeared.

This footage gives you a good idea about the enormity of the explosion:

Beirut explosion: death toll rises to 135 as about 5,000 people are wounded  as it happened #Lebanon #LebanonExplosion pic.twitter.com/v2sFD3rL5t  Infocus News (@news_infocus) August 6, 2020

The blast is known to have wounded approximately 5,000 people. The current death toll is 135, but that number can be expected to rise as some of the wounded do not survive. Moreover, as the satellite photos show, the blast was so complete at Ground Zero that many people would, quite disturbingly, have been vaporized:

In addition, the blast is estimated to have left as many as 300,000 people homeless.

The story that the Lebanese government is sticking with is that the warehouse that exploded with such devastating effect housed ammonium nitrate  a fertilizer ingredient  that should have been removed long ago:

An undisclosed number of officials at the Port of Beirut are being placed under house arrest while authorities probe the deadly explosion in Lebanon. The move was a decision made by the countrys parliament after it was determined that some 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate had been stored in the port, which was the epicenter of the blast, since it was taken off of a ship in 2013, according to the Associated Press. Ammonium nitrate is a fertilizer product and component in some forms of explosives used in mining and construction.

Others agree that ammonium nitrate is consistent with the blast zone.

But was it really just negligence that caused this explosion? Donald Trump says otherwise. During a press conference, he stated, It looks like a terrible attack. When pressed, he doubled-down:

Are you confident that this was an attack and not an accident? a reporter later asked the president. Well it would seem like it based on the explosion. I met with some of our great generals and they just seem to feel that it was, Trump said. This was a, seems to be according to them, they would know better than I would, but they seem to think it was an attack, it was a bomb of some kind, the president explained.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Hezbollah has a habit of stockpiling ammonium nitrate:

Hezbollah kept three metric tons of ammonium nitrate, the explosive thought to be behind the mega blast in Beirut this week, in a storehouse in London, until MI5 and the London Metropolitan Police found it in 2015. The Lebanese terrorist group also stored hundreds of kilograms of ammonium nitrate in southern Germany, which were uncovered earlier this year.

Hezbollahs Lebanese leader, Hassan Nasrallah, giddily explained years ago that they would blow up Israel using so much ammonium nitrate it would have the force of a nuclear bomb:

Lebanese #Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah explained in a 2016 speech a nuclear explosion that could come detonate in #Israel, using a description that matches the #BeirutBlast which shook the capital.https://t.co/Zk8N7zIncv pic.twitter.com/zRjMlTuID3  Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) August 5, 2020

Jake Novak has an interesting thread positing that someone within the Iranian regime ratted it out and that an unknown entity is slowly disposing of Iranian weapons wherever they can be found. (Hezbollah is an Iranian-backed terrorist group.)

2/ A key revelation in the above article was the fact that there are no now longer any Iranian secret ops. The U.S. & Israel now know where every Iranian weapons site and Iranian-backed militia weapons site is & how to attack them thanks to those informants...  Jake Novak (@jakejakeny) August 5, 2020

4/ ... It is now known that it was a massive store of just that kind of explosive that caused that massive blast in #Beirut yesterday: https://t.co/jIg2b5GLux  Jake Novak (@jakejakeny) August 5, 2020

6/ ... This is also just another example of how independent journalists like me & many others much better than I are the only way to get reliable information these days  Jake Novak (@jakejakeny) August 5, 2020

One extremely dubious report, based upon an unnamed Israeli source, claims that Israel caused the explosion but didnt mean to cause so much damage:

A confidential highly-informed Israeli source has told me that Israel caused the massive explosion at the Beirut port earlier today which killed over 100 and injured thousands. The bombing also virtually leveled the port itself and caused massive damage throughout the city. Israel targeted a Hezbollah weapons depot at the port and planned to destroy it with an explosive device. Tragically, Israeli intelligence did not perform due diligence on its target. Thus they did not know (or if they did know, they didnt care) that there were 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a next-door warehouse. The explosion at the arms depot ignited the fertilizer, causing the catastrophe that resulted.

I strongly doubt the storys veracity. It comes from a hard-left, pro-Iranian, pro-Palestinian, anti-Netanyahu site that hopes to undermine Benjamin Netanyahus premiership.

Its highly unlikely that Israel would engage in such a major operation so carelessly. Its never done so before, so this currently sounds like crude misinformation, not information. Both Israel and the United States are always scrupulously careful to avoid unnecessary civilian harm.

Despite what Trump said, my money is on this being an accident flowing from Beirut's giving a home to Hezbollah. And if it was not an accident, the attack almost certainly originated with a rogue actor other than Israel.

Image: Twitter screengrab
A paper published today in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society reported results of an initiative designed to enhance implementation of hospital mobility programs aimed at improving quality of care and outcomes for older patients.

Sharon K. Inouye, M.D., M.P.H., Director of the Aging Brain Center in the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew SeniorLife, headed the effort and is the paper's senior author, and her mentee, Songprod Jonathan Lorgunpai, M.D., Division of Geriatric Medicine, Mount Auburn Hospital, is the paper's lead author.

Research shows that keeping older hospitalized patients confined to their beds often does more harm than good.

Immobility contributes to poor patient outcomes, including increased risk of injurious falls, delirium, aspiration pneumonia, pressure ulcers, functional decline, prolonged length of stay, institutionalization, readmissions, increased healthcare costs, and mortality.

Despite this reality, older adults are largely immobilized throughout their hospital stay. According to estimates in 2009 and 2013, patients spent more than 95 percent of their time in a bed or chair.

Protocols in place to prevent falls are a driving force behind this statistic. In 2008, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services enacted new payment provisions that would no longer reimburse hospitals for diagnosis-related groups resulting from hospital-acquired conditions, including falls with injury.

As an unintended consequence, many hospitals routinely use bed and chair alarms that discourage mobility as part of their fall prevention programs, despite large randomized clinical trials that have clearly demonstrated bed and chair alarms are ineffective at reducing falls.

As part of a 2016-2017 Health and Aging Policy Fellowship, Dr. Inouye worked with the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) to develop a new care delivery model designed to promote quality improvement related to mobility in hospitals participating in CMMI's bundled payment programs.

The overarching goal of the initiative was to improve mobility and decrease use of bed and chair alarms with hospitalized older adults. To achieve this goal, Dr. Inouye and her team developed a Mobility Action Group (MACT) Change Package that provides a conceptual framework, roadmap, and step-by-step guide to help hospital mobility teams set and meet their mobilization goals.

The MACT Change Package provided more than 40 participating hospitals of varying sizes across the United States with an innovative framework of peer support, expert faculty, and resources to create a successful culture of mobility in the care of hospitalized older adults.

The Change Package was an essential tool and starting point for each hospital, while the peer support and assistance they received through the group meetings proved to be another key factor in their success." Sharon K. Inouye, M.D, M.P.H, Director of the Aging Brain Center, Hebrew SeniorLife Hinda and Arthur Institute for Aging Research

Results indicate that successful implementation of mobility programs was achieved at most (76 percent) participating sites in medical, surgical, and intensive care units, with 43 percent of mobility programs fully implemented and an additional 33 percent partially implemented by the end of the active initiative.

Most (54 percent) reported a high likelihood that their mobility program would continue long-term. There was a more than twofold increase in the proportion of patients who received at least three walks per day and a 1.8-fold reduction in the use of bed or chair alarms across sites.

"I'm greatly encouraged by the results of this effort," said Dr. Lorgunpai, who is also an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

"While additional study is needed to determine if this approach can improve patient outcomes such as decreased falls, functional decline, and readmissions, this initiative demonstrates that emphasizing system-wide change through a flexible approach can catalyze a culture of mobility in hospitals and improve care of older adults."
As businesses large and small assess whether to move more permanently to Work from Home policies and practices, many credit union leaders are wondering how this business trend might be turned into an opportunity as opposed to a possible productivity threat.

By now, were all aware that most of the world is more familiar with zoom, teams and webex meetings than they are with how to find their way around the old office. And experimenting with fun virtual backgrounds has gone from a novelty to an accepted practice and back to the realization that maybe we should just create a clean, well-lit real background for these meetings.

As leaders, we may actually feel more connected than ever to our team members because of the ease of using video calls for individual and group meetings with ease and efficiency. And the COVID crisis has served to require and justify the almost universal move to remote work, communication, sales and service support. The longer-term question is, what will we do after the COVID crisis is contained. What will we have learned and where will we head with office and remote work dynamics?

While most credit unions have at least partially reopened their branches and service centers, virtually all credit union leaders are assessing whether, and when to allow or require employees to come back to both service centers and administrative offices. In the case of those who have made a recent investment in either branch networks or administrative offices, there may be a tendency to lean toward business as usual. For those who have not done so, it may be easier to assess the societal trend toward and expectation for remote work opportunities. And with this comes the necessary long-term facility and company culture planning exercises.

For smaller credit unions with one office or even a few branches, there will be a tendency to lean toward the status quo also, and most mid-size and larger credit unions will be somewhere between where Big-Tech companies like Twitter and Facebook are going with permanent work from home practices versus small retail businesses who feel compelled to keep their physical storefronts as their main service differentiator.

Among larger companies, including those in financial services, this is what were hearing:

Mondelez CEO has said, we can work in different ways, and as a result, the company does not need all its global offices.

Nationwide announced a permanent transition to a hybrid model with working-from-office in four main corporate campuses and working-from-home in most other locations.

Barclays CEO said that offices with thousands of people may be a thing of the past.

Both customers and employees are poised to accept and embrace the new normal of service-from-home and work-from-home. The question for credit union leaders is, what will work best for their members and employees? And attracting, managing and retaining a talented workforce in this environment will be among the most challenging strategies to address.

While these trends will certainly lead to harder times for the commercial real estate industry, they create huge opportunities for cost savings and more productive and satisfied employees.

In a March 18, 2020, Harvard Business Review article, three professors of management and human resources suggested a guide to managing newly remote workers. Professors Larson, Vroman and Makarius laid out the major challenges and possible solutions for managing a remote workforce.

Maintaining engagement and productivity requires an understanding that the common challenges include, the lack of face-to-face supervision, lack of access to information, the effects of social isolation, and distractions at home that affect productivity.

The authors suggest that some simple remedies might include, structured daily check-ins, enabling several communication technology options, establishing rules of engagement, providing opportunities for remote social interaction, and offering encouragement and emotional support.

CU Solutions Group and the Michigan Credit Union League uses biweekly one-hour zoom calls for our 130 staff. We also use biweekly calls for our leadership team. Each division holds at least monthly zoom calls and all supervisors are encouraged to do daily check-ins whether by video call or email. We recently asked our employees how we were doing on meeting frequency and effectiveness and while we have many areas needing improvement, many staff were appreciative of the biweekly zoom calls that made them feel more connected and a part of the team, much more so than before we worked remotely.

While we have all moved quickly to enable and support remote work. All of us should be re-visiting the need for improved policies and practices for the long-term.

Larson, Vroman and Makarius suggest a wide spectrum of employee reactions to the lack of face-to-face supervisor and team interaction. Some staff need little support and others feel out of touch, unsupported, and under-appreciated. Like with all facets of management, leaders need to use a contingency approach and modify their supervision style based on each unique situation.

Reliance on primarily email exchanges vs face-to-face interaction can lead to misinterpreted messages that can create conflict. Workers need to be encouraged to use video calls as a preferred option so that facial expressions in communication can help avoid these misunderstandings.

Managers and co-workers should not underestimate the prevalence of loneliness and feelings of isolation. Extroverts may suffer more in the short-run, but over time, isolation can cause any employee to feel less belonging or connected. This can affect job satisfaction, even leading to possible departure from the company.

Distractions at home can be affected by family situations, workspace inadequacies, and in todays world, whether kids are allowed back to school in the Fall. Credit unions should work quickly to adopt properly tolerant and understanding policies that are uniquely suited to the crisis environment. Longer-term, good policies that encourage the removal of and management of distractions will be critical.

Software like Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Webex are critical for daily check-ins and group collaboration. Calls should be regular and predictable and meeting agendas should be properly managed so that all feel a sense of accomplishment. This is obviously a challenge for any meeting, whether virtual or face-to-face.

Maximizing the use of cloud-based file sharing, email and video conferencing are basic necessities. However, care needs to be given to encouraging and enabling proper standards for reliable internet connections, good lighting for video calls, expertise in managing group chats and screen sharing and other such skills that need more universal attention. And for all of these technologies, appropriate data security is a crucial factor. All staff should be required to be properly equipped for productive work, whether tools are provided by the company or not.

Establishing the rules of engagement entails senior management agreeing to the frequency, means and ideal timing of communication for teams. For instance, videoconferencing is best for daily check-ins and other group meetings. Instant messaging is better for urgent communications. Do all staff have access to shared mobile numbers for this? File sharing protocols should also be established and understood by all. And in a remote work world, supervisors need to be clear about when and how they can be available for collaboration and support.

Providing opportunities for remote social interaction is also often overlooked. Structuring virtual social calls and even optional, small in-person gatherings with proper social distancing can go a long way toward addressing the need for social time. In these settings, even greater care should be given to focusing on non-work topics. An option to consider is to schedule group meetings with an extra time allotment and allow for strictly non-work items on the front of the call. Another consideration is to send care packages in advance that could even be opened simultaneously at the beginning of the meeting.

Finally, offering encouragement and emotional support is something that leaders can and should do whether in-office or remotely. For some of us, this doesnt necessarily come easy and it requires self-awareness, compassion, and structured thinking to accomplish it. A good way to achieve this is with short, one-on-one calls of even 10-15 minutes. Simple questions like, How is this remote work situation working out for you so far? and Are we having the right frequency and format for meetings in the company?, will invite input and opportunities for listening and learning.

As credit unions look beyond the current focus on crisis response focused on service and employee care, a longer-term and more strategic view should be considered for how the new normal of Work-from-Home can become an opportunity for improving the work culture, productivity and cost-effectiveness of the credit union. To do this will require the sharing of best practices, some experimentation and a lot of thoughtful collaboration as leaders.

One thing is for sure. We all recognize that talent acquisition and retention will require us all to watch these trends and plan for the policies and practices that will make credit unions and credit union organizations not just the preferred choice for members and customers, but also a great place to work for our talented employees.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the United States had made progress with Russia on nuclear arms control recently.



"In the last handful of months, weve been working diligently to get the three nations that have the largest nuclear capabilities - the United States, Russia and China - to have strategic dialogue about how we move forward together to decrease the risk to the world," Pompeo told reporters.



"Weve made progress with the Russians; weve had two good gatherings. I hope well have one before too long, and were hopeful that the Chinese will choose to participate," Reuters cited Pompeo as saying.

"I hope theyll participate in that. We hope the Russians will urge them to participate in that and we hope the whole world will come to understand that its very important that those three nuclear powers with significant resources and capabilities will all come together to create a more robust, more stable strategic situation with respect to the risks not only of the use of nuclear weapons, but on their proliferation as well," he added.



The New START Treaty will expire at the beginning of 2021 unless Moscow and Washington agree to renew it. The Treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (the New START Treaty) entered into force on February 5, 2011. The document stipulates that seven years after its entry into effect each party should have no more than a total of 700 deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) and strategic bombers, as well as no more than 1,550 warheads on deployed ICBMs, deployed SLBMs and strategic bombers, and a total of 800 deployed and non-deployed ICBM launchers, SLBM launchers and strategic bombers.



The New START Treaty will remain in force for 10 years, until February 5, 2021, unless it is replaced before that date by a subsequent agreement on the reduction and limitation of strategic offensive arms. It can also be extended for no longer than 5 years (that is, until 2026) by the parties mutual consent.



Moscow has repeatedly called on Washington not to delay prolongation of the treaty it describes as a golden standard in the area of disarmament.
The Institut Balear de la Natura, or Ibanat, which is part of the Ministry of the Environment & Territories, has been given 5 new B3 helicopters to replace the old Sokol model, three for Majorca, one for Ibiza and one for Minorca.

The B3s have less cargo capacity than the Sokol, but they are more modern, faster and can act in pairs, so they can drop more water in less time. The B3s have a capacity of 910 litres, are fully loaded in about 15-20 seconds and can manoeuvre in places that the Sokol couldn't.

The B3s also have three Air Tractor planes, 2 in Mallorca, which also cover Minorca and 1 in Ibiza; a Gavina coordination plane and the Canadair of Port de Pollenca. Air Tractor aircraft have a capacity of 3,000 litres.

The Minister for the Environment & Territories, Miquel Mir, General Director of Spain, Naturals & Biodiversity, Llorenc Mas and Ibanat Manager, Joan Ramon, visited the Son Bonet aerodrome on Wednesday to see the helicopters in operation against fires.

So far this year, fire has affected a total of 33 hectares, compared to 100 hectares at the same time last year but statistics can change from one day to the next, said Minister Mir.

He highlighted the new measure that prohibits controlled burning within 50 meters of forest land, stressed the need for a sense of responsibility and prevention and reminded home owners who live on forest land that they must create a 30-metre protection strip around their property.

Covid-19

Minister Mir also learned first-hand about the measures that are being taken to prevent the spread of Covid-19 at the Ibanat facilities in Son Bonet, to guarantee the health safety of workers.

Minister Mir also recognised the work of 112, Civil Protection Workers and Palma Firefighters.
BEIRUT  It was one of the most powerful moments of Emmanuel Macrons lightning visit to devastated Beirut: confronted by a distraught woman in a sea of enraged residents, the French leader stopped and offered her a hug.

On a tour of the destruction, Macron got a first-hand glimpse of the public fury toward the Lebanese leadership, who are widely blamed for corruption and neglect that allowed 2,750 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate to ignite in a massive blast that killed more than 130 people and left tens of thousands homeless.

A large crowd gathered around Macron and began chanting anti-government slogans.

You are sitting with warlords. They have been manipulating us for the past year, shouted the woman, wearing a mask.

Macron, also wearing a mask, assured her he understood her concerns. Im not here to help them. Im here to help you, he said.

The crowd cheered as moments later, Macron comforted the woman with a warm embrace.

The gesture was characteristic of Macron, who is known at home for engaging the public and even giving strangers handshakes and polite kisses on the cheek.

France once governed Lebanon as a protectorate and maintains close ties with the tiny Mideast country. During his visit, Macron promised the crowd he would speak to Lebanons political leaders and vowed to protect against corruption as aid money is delivered.
(Alliance News) - Glencore PLC on Thursday posted a swing to loss for the first half of 2020 and said it will not pay a dividend but instead focus on reducing its net debt.

Shares in the Swiss-based miner were trading 3.2% lower at 189.98 pence each on Thursday morning in London. In Johannesburg, Glencore shares were down 0.2% at ZAR43.41 each.

Glencore said that for the six months ended June 30, it swung to a net loss of USD2.60 billion from a USD226 million profit last year, as revenue fell to USD70.96 billion from USD107.43 billion. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation dropped 13% to USD4.83 billion but was ahead of market expectations of USD4.29 billion.

The company booked impairments of GBP3.2 billion as a result of lower commodity prices related to the uncertainty arising from the coronavirus pandemic.

Glencore said it will not pay its deferred dividend, saying the economic outlook is too uncertain due to the coronavirus. The dividend was put on hold earlier this year due to the pandemic. It stated that it would instead focus on reducing its net debt to less than USD16 billion by the end of 2020.

Net debt as at the end of June was USD19.70 billion.

Looking ahead, Chief Executive Ivan Glasenberg said: "The outlook remains uncertain in the short term. Over the longer term, our diversified commodity portfolio, positions us well to play a key role in the next upward economic cycle, benefiting in particular from the commodities required for the transition to a low-carbon economy. We remain focussed on creating sustainable long-term value for all stakeholders."

Available liquidity as at the end of June was GBP10.2 billion.

By Ife Taiwo; ifetaiwo@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
By ANI

NEW DELHI: Border Security Force (BSF) constable, who was recently arrested by Punjab Police for allegedly facilitating Pakistani smugglers bring drugs and weapons into the country, has been dismissed from service, an official said on Thursday.

According to the BSF officials, constable Rajendra Prashad who was posted along the Pakistan border in Tarn Taran district was dismissed from service.

The BSF constable and two people were arrested by the Punjab Police on July 26 for allegedly smuggling drugs and weapons in the country from across the border.

Director-General of Police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta informed that Jalandhar Rural Police, which unearthed the racket, had recovered a .30 Bore Pistol (Made in China), along with 5 live rounds and Rs 24.50 lakhs as drug money from the three arrested accused.

According to Punjab Police, the accused persons during interogation revealed that they were working with a cross-border smuggler Satnam Singh alias Satta, a resident of village Naarli in Taran Tarn district, who was closely linked with Pakistan-based smugglers for smuggling of heroin and weapons from Pakistan, read the release.

Earlier, another BSF constable identified as Sumit Kumar was arrested for his alleged involvement in smuggling activities, connivance with anti-national elements and trans-border criminals. He was also dismissed from service by the BSF.
Rolls-Royce is not a brand to take uncalculated risks. Thus, before the British luxury marque debuted the Goodwood Ghost 11 years ago, the company did its due diligence to understand the vehicles target marketcar buyers who who held the marques relentless pursuit of perfection in high esteem and sought a slightly smaller, less ostentatious entry to the Rolls-Royce brand.

Indeed, the Ghost owns by far the cheapest price range in the Rolls-Royce family (that is, if you can consider a PHP19-million starting price as cheap), and with that fact comes a car thats simpler and smaller in scale than the rest of the brands lineup, but nevertheless embracing what the marque is known for. All these qualities helped the Ghost become the brands bestselling outing in its 116 years of existence.

https://www.press.rolls-roycemotorcars.com/

But Rolls-Royces due diligence for the supposedly entry-level vehicle didnt end with its launch. As more Ghost units got sold, the brands Luxury Intelligence Specialists kept on observing customer behavior as to how Ghost owners used their motor car. These specialists went on to then use the data gathered to inform the design and engineering direction of the new-generation Ghost.

Rolls-Royce is showcasing all these consumer-related discoveries in a four-part film series that demonstrate the underlying substance of the highly progressive new Ghost in preparation for its official reveal in the third quarter of this year.

The success of the first Goodwood Ghost taught Rolls-Royce a huge amount about itself, said Stephen Finch, Rolls-Royce Product Manager. We became aware of an entirely new group of people who used and commissioned their cars in ways that we hadnt seen before. The new Ghost meets their demands with alacrity, and we look forward to learning what this exceptional car will teach us about this layer of clients in the future.

To convey these insights in the most appealing way, Rolls-Royce chose renowned illustrator Charlie Davis, whose signature animated illustrations have grown in popularity as of late. Rendered first by Davis, the illustrations were then animated using the latest modelling technology to cohesively and beautifully represent these findings in a way that suits the new Ghost like a glove.

Story continues

https://www.press.rolls-roycemotorcars.com/

In addition to four-part animated series of short films, Rolls-Royce is also launching a series of five long-form podcasts relating to the marques findings. The podcasts are hosted by Johanna Agerman Ross, Curator of Twentieth Century and Contemporary Furniture and Product Design at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

People may now view the animated series as well as the podcasts on Apple, Google, Spotify and Deezer.

Deep-pocketed Noypis who want the new Ghost for themselves can get in touch with Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Manila to make their reservations. Price is made available upon request.

Photo/s from Rolls-Royce

Also read:

Rolls-Royce CEO pens open letter on eve of new Ghost reveal

Rolls-Royce launches the Ultra Limited Edition Wraith Luminary Collection
Researchers hope that new materials help to build safe and durable high-performance cells. (Photo: Julia Maibach, KIT)

Researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Jilin University in Changchun/China investigated a highly promising anode material for future high-performance batteries  lithium lanthanum titanate with a perovskite crystal structure (LLTO). As the team reported in the Nature Communications journal, LLTO can improve the energy density, power density, charging rate, safety, and cycle life of batteries without requiring a decrease of the particle size from micro to nano scale. (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17233-1)

The demand for electric vehicles is increasing, accompanied by a growing need for smart grids that ensure a sustainable energy supply. These and other mobile and stationary technologies require suitable batteries. Storing as much energy as possible in the smallest possible space with the lowest possible weight  lithium-ion batteries (LIB) still meet this requirement best. The research aims at improving the energy density, power density, safety, and cycle life of these batteries. The electrode material is of major importance here. Anodes of lithium-ion batteries consist of a current collector and an active material applied to it that stores energy in the form of chemical bonds. In most cases, graphite is used as the active material. However, negative electrodes made of graphite have a low charging rate. Moreover, they are associated with safety issues. Among the alternative active materials, lithium titanate oxide (LTO) has already been commercialized. Negative electrodes with LTO present a higher charging rate and are considered to be safer than those made of graphite. The drawback is that lithium-ion batteries with lithium titanate oxide tend to have a lower energy density.

Schematic representation of the perovskite crystal structure of lithium lanthanum titanate. (Illustration: Fei Du/Jilin University)

The team around Professor Helmut Ehrenberg, head of the Institute for Applied Materials  Energy Storage Systems (IAM-ESS) of KIT, now investigated another highly promising anode material: lithium lanthanum titanate with a perovskite crystal structure (LLTO). According to the study, which was carried out in collaboration with scientists from Jilin University in Changchun (China) and other research institutes in China and Singapore, LLTO anodes have a lower electrode potential compared to commercialized LTO anodes, which allows for a higher cell voltage and a higher capacity. Cell voltage and storage capacity ultimately determine the energy density of a battery, explains Ehrenberg. In the future, LLTO anodes might be used to build particularly safe high-performance cells with a long cycle life. The study contributes to the work of the research platform for electrochemical storage, CELEST (Center for Electrochemical Energy Storage Ulm & Karlsruhe), one of the largest battery research platforms worldwide, which also includes the POLiS excellence cluster.

Besides energy density, power density, safety and cycle life, the charging rate is another determining factor for the suitability of a battery for demanding applications. In principle, the maximum discharge current and the minimum charging time depend on the ion and electron transport both within the solid body and at the interfaces between the electrode and electrolyte materials. To improve the charging rate, it is common practice to reduce the particle size of the electrode material from micro to nano scale. The study, which was published in the Nature Communications journal by KIT researchers and their cooperation partners, shows that even particles of a few micrometers in size in LLTOs with a perovskite structure feature a higher power density and a better charging rate than LTO nanoparticles. The research team attributes this to the so-called pseudocapacitance of LLTO: Not only are individual electrons attached to this anode material, but also charged ions, which are bound by weak forces and can reversibly transfer charges to the anode. Thanks to the larger particles, LLTO basically enables simpler and more cost-effective electrode manufacturing processes, explains Ehrenberg.

Original publication (Open Access):

Lu Zhang, Xiaohua Zhang, Guiying Tian, Qinghua Zhang, Michael Knapp, Helmut Ehrenberg, Gang Chen, Zexiang Shen, Guochun Yang, Lin Gu & Fei Du: Lithium lanthanum titanate perovskite as an anode for lithium ion batteries. Nature Communications, 2020. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17233-1

Further material:

Publication in Nature Communications:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17233-1

More about the KIT Energy Center: http://www.energie.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.
Audi Apologises For Advert Showing Little Girl Eating A Banana

German carmaker Audi has apologised for an insensitive advert showing a little girl leaning on the front of a high-performance car while she eats a banana.

The advert, promoting the Audi RS 4 Avant, was posted on the companys official Twitter account and attracted criticism from some social media users who described it as sexually suggestive, strange and creepy.

Critics also suggested the advert glorifies dangerous driving and shows a child at risk of being run over.

Audi said the advert was a mistake, tweeting that such mistake would not be made in future.

Their Twitter Statement Read;



We hear you and lets get this straight: We care for children. The Audi RS 4 is a family car with more than thirty driver assistance systems including an emergency break system. Thats why we showcased it with various family members for the campaign.

We hoped we could convey these messages, showing that even for the weakest traffic participants it is possible to relaxingly lean on the RS technology. That was a mistake! Audi never intended to hurt anyones feelings.

We sincerely apologize for this insensitive image and ensure that it will not be used in future. We will also immediately examine internally, how this campaign has been created and if control mechanisms failed in this case. 

However, other social media users said they could not see what was offensive or provocative about the advert.

See More Reactions Below;

@Holly__Storm: Right, so for all the banally, but thankfully morally minded people saying you need yer head lookin at if anyone sees this as wrong etc, theres something called cultural conditioning. You see it with things which seems mildly offensive or inappropriate, but are overlooked a

@FoxxysTweets: The problem is not with the advert or a girl eating a banana, its the friggin sickos who see a young girl eating a banana and their minds go to sex.

@DipBrig11: Apologised? How the hell us this sensitive? Its a child eating a banana.

What sickos see anything else??

@Calvinroche1: Im offended by thishow dare people not be offended by this contentutterly disgracefulAudi should be liquidated for this behaviour
Jakarta:

Authorities have recovered body parts and debris in waters where an Indonesian plane carrying police went missing, officials said on Sunday, fearing the fate of the flights passengers and crew.

The M28 Skytruck plane carrying 13 people lost contact with air traffic control yesterday during a flight from Pangkal Pinang, Bangka Belitung province to Batam in the Riau Islands province in western Indonesia.

Airplane seats and suitcases along with body parts were recovered by fishermen off Riau Islands Saturday afternoon rescue officials told.

We sent three body bags last night, the body parts were not intact... they are now in the Bhayangkara hospital in Batam, said Bambang Soelistyo, the head of Indonesias search and rescue agency.

He added that search and rescue efforts would continue for another week.

Indonesia has a poor aviation safety record and has experienced several air disasters recently.

But Indonesias police insisted today that the plane was in good condition and the pilot was experienced.

It was carrying five crew and eight passengers.

Last week, an Indonesian army helicopter crashed on

Borneo island leaving three crew dead, while in November a cargo plane crashed in Papua region killing four.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Representative Image

The ambitious bullet train project between Ahmedabad and Mumbai is set to be a test of the credentials of the countrys infrastructure prowess and with a lot riding on the project, it is no wonder that the government and the entities involved in executing the project are leaving no stone unturned to ensure it takes off without any major hiccups.

The implementing agency  National High Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRCL)  has its task cut out as land acquisition woes and estimates of cost escalation are proving to be a spanner in the works.

In India, acquisition of land crops up as a major issue for infrastructure projects.

So, how is the NHSRCL planning to deal with the issue?

Land acquisition is a lengthy and complicated process for any infrastructure project and we are no different. NHSRCL has been trying to convince project affected families to come forward and handover their land through a consent mechanism. We are also working with local communities in solving their day to day problems like providing health facilities, providing skill and entrepreneurship training to at least one member of the family through Income restoration plans. All these efforts are already giving us results and we are progressing well, as Joint measurement survey for the land required for the project is almost complete and more than 61 percent land has been acquired, Sushma Gaur, NHRSCL spokesperson, told Moneycontrol.

She said NHRSCL believes it has an important role to play in the development of the infrastructure sector in the country.

Also Read | Bullet train project: Railways up against a stiff deadline, says expert

"Infrastructure sector has the potential to boost economy, employment opportunities, develop skilled manpower and develop opportunities for local businesses. Each country has its own set of challenges and opportunities but NHRSCL sees a lot more opportunities than challenges," she said.

NHRSCL will also prepare detailed project reports for seven new high speed rail corridors  Delhi-Varanasi, Varanasi-Howrah, Mumbai-Nagpur, Delhi-Ahmedabad, Chennai-Mysore, Delhi-Amritsar, and Mumbai-Hyderabad.

Speaking about these projects, NHRSCL believes India' chances of matching up to bigger economies can get a boost with the completion of Bullet Train project as it will not only put India at a higher pedestal of technology and connectivity, but also open doors for more foreign investment and development of new businesses.

On the impact of COVID-19 on the operations of NHRSCL, she admitted that the pandemic has affected the land acquisition process, finalisation of some crucial tenders and other on ground activities.

Follow our coverage of the coronavirus crisis
A fly-in, fly-out worker who had been facing a criminal investigation after police rescinded his permission to enter Western Australia when he stepped off a plane has been flown back interstate.

Police arrived at his hotel room during the night and told him they were taking him to the airport.

The man, who asked to remain anonymous, said he was treated like a prisoner after police interrogated him over the exemption he received last week to WA's 'hard border' restrictions.

An excerpt from an exemption received by a FIFO worker to enter WA.

He said he was held by police for several hours on Wednesday night before they sent him to a hotel under mandatory quarantine orders.
Americans with Christian nationalist views more likely to flout COVID-19 precautions: study Religious commitment 'completely unrelated' to incautious behaviors during pandemic

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A new study suggests that Americans who embrace Christian nationalism ideology are more likely to refrain from wearing a mask and social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic.

The study published July 26 in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion was co-authored by Samuel Perry, an associate professor at the University of Oklahoma and author of the recently released book Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States, and two other scholars.

Christian nationalist ideology tends to make people really distrustful of scientists and science generally, Perry told The Christian Post in an interview. We suspected that  people who are scoring higher on Christian nationalism would be less likely to follow the advice of medical experts.

The study analyzed data from the Public and Discourse Ethics Survey in which respondents were asked how often they engaged in incautious behaviors such as eating inside a restaurant, attending gatherings of 10 or more people and going to work outside of their home.

At the same time, respondents were asked how frequently they engaged in the precautionary behaviors of washing their hands more often than usual, avoiding touching their faces, wearing a mask and the frequent use of hand sanitizer.

The authors conclude that at the bivariate level, Christian nationalism ideology is positively associated with Americans frequency of engaging in incautious behaviors and negatively associated with engaging in precautionary behaviors.

According to the study, Christian nationalism is the leading predictor that one engaged in more frequent incautious behavior related to COVID-19 and the second strongest predictor that Americans took fewer precautions like wearing a mask or sanitizing/washing one's hands.

Perry, who has studied the topic of Christian nationalism for six years, was joined in authoring the report by Andrew L. Whitehead, associate professor of sociology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and co-author of Taking America Back for God; and Joshua B. Grubbs, associate professor Bowling Green State University.

The study was conducted in three waves, with the first begging collected in August 2019, the second in February 2020 and the third in May 2020 to gather data on experiences and interpretation of the COVID19 crisis.

The survey waves were designed by the authors and fielded by YouGov, an international research data and analytics company. Due to sample attrition between waves and a very modest amount of missing data, the scholars report a final analytic sample for their study of 1,255 respondents.

The study measured Christian nationalism based on respondents indications as to whether they agreed with or disagreed with certain statements.

Those statements include: the federal government should declare the United States a Christian nation, the federal government should advocate Christian values, the federal government should enforce strict separation of church and state (reverse coded), the federal government should allow prayer in public schools, the federal government should allow religious symbols in public spaces, and the success of the United States is part of Gods plan.

If respondents indicated that they strongly agreed with the aforementioned statements, they would score highest on the Christian nationalism scale while those who claimed to disagree with the statements would score much lower.

Perry did not find the results of the study surprising at all.

In an interview with The Christian Post, Perry defined Christian nationalist ideology as one in which adherents want to institutionalize our religious beliefs and values and view religion more as something that is like a cultural marker of identity.

Christian nationalist ideology is associated with a whole lot of really negative views and values, he said.

Christian nationalism tends to make Americans more racially prejudiced, more fearful of immigrants to an irrational degree, and hold views that are unequivocally xenophobic or racist."

According to Perry, the ideology of Christian nationalism has a profound impact on how people view the coronavirus. Perry argues that, because Christian nationalism seems to make people inclined to Donald Trump and Donald Trump, wasnt really encouraging a lot of precautions regarding coronavirus early on, it should not come as a surprise those identified as having a Christian nationalist ideology are less likely to take precautions during the pandemic.

Perry also cited a reluctance to trust the media among reasons for their reluctance to follow recommended coronavirus precautions. He also said that there is a belief that the United States has a protective relationship with God and that if God punishes us with this disease, its not because were not social distancing, its because  weve slid morally.

The professor said that some believe the solution to coronavirus is not necessarily to wash your hands more or use hand sanitizer, or wear masks or social distance." Rather, he said, they think the solution is to "repent  of our  immorality publicly.

While people who scored higher on the Christian nationalism scale were less likely to abide by recommended precautions for stopping the spread of the coronavirus, those who attend church more or pray more or think religions more important to them were more likely to do things like social distance or wear a mask once Christian nationalism was accounted for, Perry said.

The study states that "religious commitment was completely unrelated to incautious behaviors in our full models."

Findings document that Christian nationalism, not religious commitment per se, undergirded the farright response to COVID19 that disregarded precautionary recommendations, thus potentially worsening the pandemic, the report reads.
Victoria has recorded 471 new cases and eight more deaths from COVID-19 as Melbourne suffers its fourth day of stage-four lockdown.

The figure marks a dramatic decrease from the record 725 cases on Wednesday.

Premier Daniel Andrews announced on Thursday afternoon four of the deaths were connected to aged care facilities - which were also linked to 1,533 of the state's 7,449 active cases.

The deaths were made up of one woman in her 90s, two women and three men in their 80s and two men in their 60s.

He added 107 of the new infections were from community transmission and called 'mystery cases'.

The Victorian premier also provided further details on the reduction in capacity for the state's meat processing facilities - with red meat expected to go down to 66 per cent of normal operations and poultry to 80 per cent.

The announcement comes after government modelling, leaked to The Australian newspaper, reportedly showed that case numbers would hit 1,100 next week and stay at a similar level for a further eight days.

But Mr Andrews said he was skeptical of the modelling, adding no-one in the state or federal government had seen data showing the infection rate go that high.

Secret Victorian government modelling reportedly predicts coronavirus cases will peak in mid to late August, with average daily new cases hitting 1,100 per day

'Calling it "modelling" might not necessarily be the most accurate term. But the bloke who's in charge of the modelling has never seen it,' he said.

'Brendan Murphy [secretary of Department of Health] has never seen it.'

The modelling estimates daily new cases will reach 693 by this Saturday, and then increase to more than 700 by Sunday.

It predicts cases will rapidly surge at the start of next week before hitting 800 new cases per day on Thursday and 900 by Friday, and then 990 on August 15.

The state will record an average of 1,000 new cases each day for eight days, peaking at 1,100 from August 17 to August 22, according to the forecast.

High case numbers will persist well into September and October, at around 300 a day when the state's stage four lockdown is due to end in September, the modelling reportedly predicts.

On Thursday morning, thousands of businesses were scrambling to operate under strict new rules which limit the number of staff allowed on site in a bid to slow the virus spread.

The state government only released a full list of businesses which are allowed to continue operating at 11pm last night, just one hour before the rules kicked in.

Premier of Victoria Daniel Andrews provides his daily COVID-19 update on Thursday. Victoria has recorded 471 new cases from the respiratory illness

The forced closure of companies in the entertainment, retail, travel and other sectors is expected to put 250,000 people out of work.

Health Minister Jenny Mikakos tweeted a public link to the updated guidelines at 1am Thursday.

'It's still a bit of a disaster,' Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox told Nine's Today show on Thursday.

'We're now on the first morning of the new lockdown, and businesses still aren't clear on what they can and can't do.'

Mr Willox said businesses were 'flying blind', particularly on issues like warehouses, noting that 'reducing numbers of staff in warehouses would impact on food supplies, among many other things', he told ABC radio.

Victoria has confirmed eight more deaths from coronavirus as Melbourne suffers its fourth day of stage-four lockdown. Pictured: Commuters on Thursday

Premier Daniel Andrews had warned earlier this week the new restrictions, which would see normal staffing levels at food warehouse and meat production outlets reduced to one-third, would impact food supply.

Retail stores across the city will largely be closed to customers from Thursday, while construction and manufacturing work will also been scaled back in a bid to slow the spread of the virus.

Employees allowed to work on-site now have to show a permit or official work ID if they are by stopped police to prove they can leave their homes, or face fines of up to $99,123 for businesses and up to $19,826 for individuals.

A police car is pictured parked outside Flinders Street Station in Melbourne on Thursday morning

Permitted workers and those working from home who cannot supervise their kids must fill out separate forms to send them to child care, kindergarten or primary school.

The rules kicked in a day after Victoria recorded its deadliest day of the COVID-19 pandemic with 15 fatalities, including that of a man in his 30s, and 725 new cases.

Victoria has reported 471 new cases of coronavirus. Pictured: A cyclist in Albert Park, Melbourne on Wednesday

Melbourne has been in stage-four lockdown since Sunday with schools shut, weddings banned, and citizens restricted to within a 5km radius of their homes.

Between 8pm and 5am, residents are only allowed to leave their house for work and essential health, care or safety reasons.

The state suffered its worst day of the COVID-19 outbreak on Wednesday, with 725 new cases and 15 fatalities, including Australia's youngest victim - a man in his 30s.

There are now 7,227 active cases in Victoria, 2,280 of which have no known source.

Health authorities are betting on the six-week lockdown and city-wide 8pm curfew causing cases to 'decline quite rapidly'

What is open in Melbourne Stage 4 Supermarkets, bottle shops, petrol stations, pharmacies, post offices, banks Retailers working onsite to fulfill online orders Hardware, building an garden supplies for trade Specialist stationery for business use Motor vehicle parts for emergency repairs, mechanics Locksmiths, laundry and dry cleaners, maternity supplies Disability and health services and equipment, mobility devices Farms and commercial fishing Vets, pounds and animal shelters Supermarkets will stay open Construction of critical infrastructure and services to support those projects Critical repairs to homes where required for emergency or safety Cafes and restaurants for takeaway Media Critical service call centres Medicare Law enforcement and courts for urgent matters Prisons, facilities for parolees, adult parole board, youth justice facilities Emergency services Essential maintenance and manufacturing FULL LIST Advertisement

What is closed in Melbourne Stage 4 Furniture wholesalers Personal care including hairdressers Car washes Pubs, taverns, bars, brothels and prostitution services, clubs, nightclubs Food courts, restaurants, cafes, etc Architectural, engineering and technical services Travel and tour agencies Non-emergency call centre operations Non-urgent elective surgery Museums, parks and gardens, ski resorts Gambling Places of worship except what is required to stream services or provide soup kitchens and food banks Manufacturing of non-metallic mineral and fabricated metal products, furniture, wood, textile, leather fur, dressing knitted, clothing and footwear, domestic appliances All office-based and professional businesses, except those delivering critical services, must work from home OPERATING BUT LIMITED Building sites of more than three storeys - 25 per cent of workforce Less than three storeys- five workers on site at a time only Meat processing - workers cut by a third Shopping centres for access to permitted retail only Public transport, ride share and taxis only to support access to permitted services for permitted workers Thoroughbred, harness and greyhound racing with minimum number of essential participants to operate safely FULL LIST Advertisement




Tina and Rick Newman, left, and their neighbor Dennis Reale try to start an electrical generator in front of the Newmans' Drexel Hill home on Wednesday night. The neighborhood's power was restored Thursday afternoon. Read more

More than 60,000 customers in the Philadelphia area remained without electrical power Thursday as additional out-of-state repair crews arrived to help regional utilities recover from Tropical Storm Isaias.

Peco reported that 26,000 customers were still powerless, less than 10% of the 425,000 it says were impacted by Isaias. Most of the customers were in hard-hit Chester and Bucks Counties. Peco earlier reported that outages peaked at 307,000 during the storm, but revised its total to include all customers who lost power at some point during the event.

Public Service Electric & Gas, which has 2.3 million customers in New Jersey, said Thursday it had restored power to 475,000 of the 575,000 customers who lost it. About 11,000 customers in South Jersey are among the 100,000 still without power.

PSE&G said that Isaias was the fifth-most-severe storm in its history and the second most severe, to Hurricane Sandy, in the last eight years. It said it expected to have at least 85% of the outages restored by Friday night.

Peco, which has 1.6 million customers in Philadelphia and surrounding Southeastern Pennsylvania counties, said it expected to have 95% of outages restored Thursday. But some more troublesome outages will take longer to repair, and the company has told some customers not to expect their power to be restored before Sunday.

Some customers have been surprised after Peco restored power ahead of schedule.

Rick Newman, who fussed Wednesday night with a borrowed generator at his home on Roberts Avenue in Drexel Hill, said Peco restored power Thursday afternoon to the 22 houses knocked out on his block when an uprooted tree took out a power line. The lights came back on three days earlier than the Sunday target initially set by the utility.

I have to say, Im really impressed by that, Newman said. He and other neighbors had complained on social media about the duration of the outage because one of their neighbors without power is on home hospice care.

Peco said it anticipates almost 2,000 additional field employees and contractors to be available to support restoration efforts. Crews from Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, North Carolina, and as far away as Texas are traveling to Southeastern Pennsylvania to assist.

Atlantic City Electric, which said that nearly 40% of its 525,000 customers lost power during the storm, has restored power to all but 23,000 customers Thursday. It expected that all customers, including those in the most heavily damaged areas, will have their service restored by Saturday night.

We know that an extended outage is frustrating for our customers, and is even more challenging during this difficult time, Gary Stockbridge, region president of Atlantic City Electric, said in a statement.
Consumer organisation CHOICE has revealed the best and worst budget buys from Kmart after trialling dozens of popular items.

The Australian experts examined a range of popular household items from the department chain's own brand Anko.

In its latest findings, the experts found a mix of 'duds' and 'high performers' after testing products such as a microwave, heater, air fryer and pie maker.

Consumer organisation CHOICE has revealed the best and worst budget buys from Kmart after trialling dozens of popular items (picture of the microwave, heater, food processor, air fryer, pie maker and a bassinet)

Poll What is your favourite Kmart product? Air fryer Microwave Heater Coffee machine Pie maker Bassinet Food processor Other What is your favourite Kmart product? Air fryer 139 votes

Microwave 30 votes

Heater 8 votes

Coffee machine 12 votes

Pie maker 35 votes

Bassinet 7 votes

Food processor 21 votes

Other 35 votes Now share your opinion





BEST BARGAIN BUYS

If you're in the market for a new microwave, CHOICE recommended the $48 20L microwave, saying the cheap model 'certainly delivers bang for your buck'.

The experts was rated appliance as 'excellent' for cooking performance and received perfect scores for defrosting mince and heating vegetables.

'If you are looking for a basic compact microwave that reheats well and is great for cooking and defrosting, then the Anko 20-litre model is all you need,' CHOICE kitchen expert Fiona Mair said.

However she pointed out the model is just 700W so the reheating times may take a 'little slower' than a 900W or 1000W microwave.

For smoothies or meal prepping, the experts said the $69 food processor can do the job in no time.

'The Kmart food processor is a very good performer that's great for chopping, slicing, mixing and emulsifying,' Ms Mair said.

However, she noticed the device can be 'relatively noisy in operation'.

To make your own brew at home, CHOICE found the $89 coffee machine outperformed a $949 high-end coffee machine on flavour and pumped out consistently hot coffees.

If you're in the market for a new microwave, CHOICE recommended the $48 20L microwave (left) while experts found the $69 food processor (right) can do any job in no time

Tick of approval: The experts recommended the $89 coffee machine and $29 pie maker

The $29 pie maker has taken the cooking world by storm for taking just minutes to create four golden pies with your choice of filling, no oven required.

'It's easy to use and gives good results, cooking four pies fairly evenly to lightly golden in eight minutes,' Ms Mair said.

'It takes five minutes to preheat, which is quicker than an oven, and once the pies are cooked you can simply pop them out with a spatula.'

PRODUCTS TO AVOID

What to avoid buying: Surprisingly, the experts named the $69 air fryer (right) and the $59 convection heater with timer (left) as some of the 'worst' products at Kmart

For those looking to heat up their space during the colder nights, the experts advised against buying the $59 convection heater with timer after receiving the lowest score of 45 per cent.

CHOICE director of reviews and testing Matthew Steen suggested the retailer 'could have at least added a fan to help distribute the heat'.

A Kmart spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia: 'Our Convection Heaters provide instant heat to smaller spaces, while our radiant heaters are better suited to larger rooms. We would not expect the same results for these two heater types, as they are essentially designed for different areas of the home.

'So while we are disappointed with Choice's findings - our product ranging decisions are actually largely based on customer feedback and sentiment.'

Despite its affordable price tag, the experts said the $99 bassinet scored the lowest rating of just 44 per cent

Despite its legion of fans who swear by the $69 air fryer, the experts weren't impressed with the popular device.

Of the 18 air fryers tested, Kmart's product scored the lowest rating of 64 per cent.

The experts said while the air fryer is significantly cheaper than most brands on the market, the model featured similar functions a traditional oven already offers.

'Not only did it receive a low score in our testing, but the Kmart air fryer is also fairly large and heavy, and not very easy to use,' Ms Mair said.

However, the Kmart spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia: 'Our $69 Air Fryer is also one of our most popular appliances. It has a five-star customer rating and a dedicated fan page on Facebook.

'We love seeing the clever and creative recipes our Kmart communities share on Facebook and are so pleased that our customers love our $69 Air Fryer as much as we do,' she added.

The experts claimed another product to avoid is the $99 bassinet after it scored the lowest rating of just 44 per cent due to its 'lack of continuous breathable zones around the edge of the bassinet, which could be a suffocation risk'.
Police on Thursday pulled out the body of a 16-year-old girl from pyre in Kaithals Badsikri village on suspicion that she was murdered by her family.

Her mother, a brother and a cousin were arrested, who during questioning confessed that they strangled the girl as she used to talk to a boy over phone, the police said.

Kaithal superintendent of police Shashank Kumar said the police had got a tip-off about the girls murder and a team lead by DSP Ravinder Sangwan reached the spot only to find her body being cremated.

In the presence of duty magistrate Hardev Singh, police officials pulled out the girls body from the pyre and sent it to PGIMS in Rohtak for the postmortem examination.

The accused have been charged with murder and a probe has been launched.
I am from a small village in North Croatia and when I studied English and German language and literature in Osijek in 1995. It was right after the four-year civil war and the eastern part of the country was quite affected. It was an emotional time to be there and everyone had a story.

After my degree I worked in a bar in Nottingham for a year and then moved back to North Croatia for two years translating for Canon photocopiers and teaching English and German at a language school.

I wanted to move into education or tourism so decided on a Masters in Dublin as I had been to Ireland on a girls' trip when I lived in the UK and was taken with this place, it felt a bit like Croatia, had a similar population and same mentality of the people.

Aged 24 I married my childhood sweetheart, Sino, also from my home village of Kotoriba, and we moved to Dublin where I started my Masters in tourism at DIT.

Anti-throwaway

I liked the course but in 2005 an appealing job in House of Fraser at the Ted Baker concession in Dundrum turned up and two years later I was promoted to store manager of the new shop on Grafton Street. There was a lot of trust put in me; from hiring to deciding where to put the cash register. The place was a building site when I started.

I like hiring and I'm good at spotting potential, both in people and in trends. In retail you often spend more hours on the shop floor with colleagues than you do with those you live with and it's crucial you click and get on very well. In the restaurant business it's the same. This is how to get a low turnover of staff.

I went on to open the Ted Baker outlets in Singapore and Berlin in 2011 during the successful days of fashion. It is in an awful place now. Covid has created problems with stock, especially for those that have not shifted online, but pre-existing problems that started six years ago have just been speeded up.

When I left retail to set up the restaurant I could see the sustainable revolution was the next challenge as younger people don't like such a capitalist edge that appears to be soulless and revenue driven.

Taking the plunge

Sino's English was not great when we moved here so though he was working as a mechanical technician back home, he took a job as a kitchen porter in Odessa restaurant. He has always been a great cook and worked his way up to chef and then switched to Bewleys for ten years.

We often talked about opening our own place, and when Bewleys closed in 2014 this seemed like a sign. The manager of Bewleys, Victor, came along with us and we had quite a rocky start. The restaurant is in a basement, it had previously been an office space and was a listed Georgian building so we had to get planning permission and that took nine months.

There was very little signage but we were refused planning permission.

I was about to reapply but then thought why not use this hidden gem quirk? The restaurant is named after track 61, a secret underground railway that went right into the Waldorf Astoria hotel. That fits in with our tucked away image.

Funnily enough the pandemic has brought us one good thing which is new outside seating as part of the pedestrianisation trial of South William street.

We are so grateful to Dublin City Council for this as it has given us more space and visibility and the customers are really enjoying it.

Parking your worries

It is expensive to go out for a meal and in return customers should get a pleasurable experience. The minute someone walks in the door they need to feel welcome. People eat out for many reasons and while the food is very important, it is never just about this.

When working in the restaurant business you need to put your worries aside to provide great service. It's the same with retail. You open the shop, open the restaurant; it is like theatre.

We would usually have two crowds, the bottomless brunch clientele and the a la carte menu later and we also now offer summer bites and cocktails as people who are coming on a date at 7pm want to go on for a drink elsewhere but a plate of chicken wings in a pub won't appeal after a three course meal.

So we are trying to adapt. The social distancing measures need to be carried out but we try to minimise the clinical feel. We have fun signs and try to make the best of it. People need an escape more than ever.

Sustainable swag

We banned single use straws in 2016 -and customers loved it, so I got brave and banned take away coffee cups. I hated the waste even though at the time compostable ones were not there yet.

Some people got annoyed they could not get a takeaway but I thought what's the rush? The European way is to sit down and take 15 minutes to drink a proper cup of coffee.

People still wanted takeaway which gave me the idea of producing sustainably produced, attractive keep cups which would give them the option and make them consider using fewer takeaway cups. In 2018 I set up my sustainable business Edamame - I have been vegetarian since aged 16 and love them.

I hired graphic artists and the cups took off. At first I sold them in the restaurant and at pop up events and when I was asked to produce some branded stuff for Press Up this job led to another and another and I moved into the corporate promotional products market.

I worked with companies like Diego, Kerry group, Volkswagen and branched into things like water bottles, Pens, name badges and lanyards (the cord or strap) made from seed paper; so after the conference you could plant your name badge. Even the bag you received your gifts in could be planted to grow something nice like basil or wildflowers. This idea really took off.

Companies were looking for green credentials and this corporate gift market would have previously caused a lot of waste but now people are so turned off by products destined for landfill. During the pandemic business went quiet so I moved into promotional hand sanitiser and cloth face masks made by a factory in Croatia.

Labour of love

My mornings are Edamame-focused and at the moment that is just me. I get to the restaurant around 2pm and stay until 11pm.

The restaurant is closed on Monday - we usually work Saturday and Sunday. We live next to Phoenix Park so will be over there at some stage. There is a real community feel among the restaurants on South William Street and we eat out a lot and support places that have just opened.

We head back to Croatia two or three times a year where I have two wonderful nieces. We don't have kids and our work takes a lot of our energy but we take pleasure in it. We feel as though we are living our lives fully.

The restaurant industry is a labour of love. It is impossible to make it work unless you enjoy it.

Our landlord was very supportive during the lockdown period and gave us a rent holiday but we felt anxious being closed for so long, we still are. The future is so uncertain.

Two of our employees decided to move back home but we brought everyone else back. With Edamame, business is slowly coming back but I will have to see what the next six months brings.
Dilday, a member of a longtime Long Beach family, died unexpectedly of a heart attack in his sleep at his home Jan. 10, according to his wife, Diane.
Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: The Trust constituted by the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board (UPSCWB) for the construction of a mosque on five acres of land allocated to it in Raunahi in Ayodhya is in the process of setting up an office in Lucknow, an official said on Thursday.

The 15-member trust -- Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF) -- announced on July 29 by UPSCWB will become functional in 10 to 12 days, said the source.

According to IICF secretary and spokesman Atahar Hussain, the trust has applied for a PAN in its name and awaiting its delivery, after which the trustees would meet through video conferencing to pass a resolution for opening a bank account of the trust.

We had met last month online. As of now, we have identified the office space and the renovation work is going on there. It will take 10-12 days for the work to complete. After which our office will be functional, he said.

Notably, Uttar Pradesh government had allocated five-acre land to UP Sunni Central Waqf Board in Raunahi, a township, 20 km away from Ram Janmabhoomi premises in Ayodhya for construction of a mosque in compliance of the Supreme Courts November 9, 2019 order.

While settling the age-old vexed issue involving a title suit pertaining to disputed 2.77 acre land on Ramjanmabhoomi premises, the apex court had handed it over the Hindu parties for temple construction while directing the UP government to allocate five-acre alternative land to Sunni Waqf Board in and around Ayodhya for construction of a mosque.

The five-acre land allocated to the Sunni Waqf Board falls in Dhannipur village under Sohawal tehsil in Ayodhya district. The IICF will oversee the construction of a mosque, Indo-Islamic research centre, library and hospital on the land.

Meanwhile, Ayodhya District Magistrate Anuj Kumar Jha has formally handed over the possession of the land for the mosque to the trust members. They have been given a certified copy of the revenue record.

The residents of Dhannipur, where the land has been allotted, are eagerly waiting for the trust to start construction of a mosque. They feel that owing to mosque construction, the fate and fortune of the village will look up.

The trust is a 15-member body, of which names of nine have been declared and rest will be finalised soon.

Notably, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday laid the foundation of a Ram temple in Ayodhya. The programme was organised by the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust.
By ANI

WASHINGTON: A US-based Sindhi organisation will hold a protest outside the Pakistani ambassador's house here against enforced disappearances of Sindhi community members on August 14, the independence day of Pakistan.

The Sindhi Foundation has appealed to all Sindhis, Baloch, Pashtuns, people of Gilgit-Baltistan and other human rights organisations to join the protest at 5 pm (EST) on August 14.

In 2017, the Sindhi Foundation started the "where is" campaign when Punhal Sario, Convener of Voice of Missing Persons Sindh, was abducted. The initiative has now turned into a movement and people from all walks of lives including US representatives have participated in the movement.

Thousands of people are sharing on social media "where is" videos with the names of victims of enforced disappearances on social media.

During a protest against enforced disappearances on August 1, outside Pakistani ambassador's house here, Munawar Laghari, Executive Director of Sindhi Foundation said, "I want to tell the people in Sindh who are being tortured, suffering and fighting for their basic human rights, that 'you're not alone, I am with you.' I also want to tell the families of the victims of enforced disappearances, that we are not weak, we are very strong and if we all stand united for Sindh, we will get all our people freed."

Enforced disappearances of hundreds of Sindhis have been a cause of concern for the Sindhi community. While interacting with the media recently, some of the victims' families narrated how they were brutally thrashed before their respective members were forcibly being taken away.

Frequent protests are being held in different cities and towns of Sindh province to highlight the atrocities committed by the security agencies in the knowledge of the federal government.
State-owned lender Punjab National Bank (PNB) has classified its loan exposure worth Rs 80 crore to Reliance Home Finance Ltd (RHFL) as "fraud account", and the same has also been informed to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The decision was reportedly taken after a forensic audit of the RHFL transactions with other group companies, LiveMint reported citing sources. The initial forensic probe didn't find any evidence of diversion of funds but later it was found that funds were transferred to group entities to repay loans, the report said.

Though no conclusive fraud was established in the second report too, the lender still decided to classify the loan as "fraud".

Notably, RHFL, in its January 12 statement to the stock exchanges, had said no proof of diversion was reported in the forensic probe.

Now since the loan has been declared as "fraud", PNB will have to set aside 100 per cent of the loan amount as "provision" as per the RBI rules. This can either be done in four quarters or one go.

Other lenders of RHFL are Bank of Baroda (BoB), Axis Bank, Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra, Canara Bank, State Bank of India and Federal Bank.

The lenders of the company had entered into an Inter-Credit Agreement to arrive at the debt resolution plan. The lenders also appointed resolution advisors, cash flow monitoring agencies, forensic auditors, valuers and legal counsel to carry out the resolution process. The company's total outstanding loans as on July 3, 2019, stood at around Rs 7,109 crore. Only PNB has so far declared the RHFL loan as "fraud".

Also read: Reliance Capital's NBFC portfolio shrinks to just insurance
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 6)  A senior official at the embattled Philippine Health Insurance Corporation who was allegedly tied to the procurement of overpriced equipment for the agency tendered his irrevocable resignation on Thursday.

Senior Vice President for Operations Augustus De Villa sent his letter to PhilHealth CEO and President Ricardo Morales without elaborating on his reason for the resignation, adding that the chief was already briefed on the matter in an earlier meeting.

"Be assured that I will make myself available for the ongoing investigations in aid of legislation in both Houses of the Congress of the Philippines," his letter stated.

Morales later confirmed this in a press conference, saying De Villa "wanted to spend more time with his family."

In the Senate hearing on Tuesday, whistleblower and former anti-fraud legal officer Thorrson Montes Keith accused De Villa of ripping out the pages of the procurement documents for new information technology systems that supposedly could cost the government millions.

De Villa said he did not remember tearing out the pages but keeping them hidden, prompting the upper chamber to issue a subpoena to summon the documents.

Morales said documents will be provided to the Senate, and operations will remain unhampered without De Villa.

"There are business continuity plans in place," he told reporters.

Senator Ping Lacson said he noticed De Villa was "uneasy and embarrassed" over talks of corruption in PhilHealth.

"I can only hope that he will be part of an advocacy group within PhilHealth and contribute in exposing shenanigans based on his personal knowledge," the senator said in a statement.

Senator Tito Sotto said De Villa "must have a very good reason" for leaving his post while Senator Kiko Pangilinan said all senior officials must also resign "out of delicadeza."
I t may not be as flashy as Spotify or Apple Music but Googles OG streaming app, Google Play Music, has a solid following across the world. Unfortunately, this wont be for much longer.

After launching YouTube Music in 2018, Google has been aiming to wind down Google Play Music and this week the tech giant gave listeners a deadline: YouTube Music will become the only Google streaming app by December 2020 and Google Play Music will be relegated to the Google graveyard.

YouTube Music, if youve never used it before, combines music streaming and videos, whether thats a music video or a live performance on the app.

The Video Hotlist selects trending videos depending on your location, whilst personalisation is also a major factor: the app provides recommendations for playlists based on what youre doing such as at work or going to the gym.

The service is 9.99 a month, just like Spotify, but you can upgrade to YouTube Premium for 11.99 a month which combines the streaming service and ad-free YouTube.

For Google Play Music fans, heres how to make the switch so you dont lose all your carefully curated playlists come December.

How to switch from Google Play Music to YouTube Music

YouTube Music is set to become Google's only music streaming service (YouTube ) / YouTube

Though Google Play Music will be officially obsolete in December this year, it will stop working from September for those in New Zealand and South Africa, and October for the rest of the world.

However, Google has launched a handy transfer tool for those making the jump. You will probably have received an email on how to do this, but heres the information in case you deleted it.

Start by downloading the YouTube Music app.

Click on the transfer button in YouTube Music and everything will transfer over: including uploads, purchases, added songs, personal and subscribed playlists and curated stations.

You will receive an email from Google when its all been transferred over.

For podcast listeners, you can transfer all your subscriptions and episodes over to Google Podcasts. Download the app, and hit this link to begin the transfer process.

Music services come and go but the important thing is to keep all the tracks and playlists together before it ends.
B en Shephard has praised his Good Morning Britain co-presenter Kate Garraway while clarifying hell be back on the show in September.

On Wednesday, Shephard confirmed he would be taking a break from Good Morning Britain - but cleared up rumours that the exit was permanent in a post on Instagram today.

Ahh theres nothing quite like working with @kategarraway, he wrote, sharing a selfie of the two presenters behind-the-scenes in the GMB studio.

Have loved having her back in the studio - although still not sure about her a warm Shephard oozing all over you comment.

Thank you for all your messages, despite Kate trying to get us both sacked, he continued. And a few very random online reports - Im not leaving @gmb (sorry!) just off to catch up with series 11 of @itvtippingpoint which was put on hold because of Covid.

Anyway will be back with Kate in the GMB studio in September for more of the same!!

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

Shephard has made the most of having Garraway back in the studio, sharing a number of hilarious selfies with his co-presenter - including one in which they donned alarming face masks designed to look like faces.

"These arent weird at all," he wrote. "The no face mask, face mask!! A screen print of your mouth and nose, on the face mask??!?! Certainly made us smile.

"Great to be with @kategarraway again this morning - you never know whats going to happen!!"

Shephard has presented Tipping Point for ITV since its debut in 2012.

Garraway and Shephard began presenting Good Morning Britain together again in July, after Garraway had taken three months off to care for her husband Derek Draper.

Draper fell seriously ill with Covid-19 in March, and despite now testing negative for the virus, Garraway said it has caused "extraordinary damage" to his entire body.
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Linkedin Sausan Atika (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, August 6, 2020

Severe traffic congestion has prompted the government to improve urban mobility in Greater Jakarta by encouraging more people to switch from private vehicles to mass transit.

But the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak is undeniably hindering this agenda, with demand for public transit slumping in recent months as a result of social distancing and fears of contagion.

Yet, despite the unforeseen impacts, the authorities are sticking with their plan to increase ridership by 2029.

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Statewide

All information from the Iowa Department of Public Health, except where noted. (In parentheses: Change from yesterday.)

Cases of coronavirus: 47,141 (+649)

The total number of people who have ever tested positive for active novel coronavirus infection since testing began March 8, 2020.

Average number of cases per day: 350 (-23)

As of yesterday, over a seven-day average.

Percent change in cases over 14 days: -12.5% (+1.8%). National average: -15.8% (-4.5%). (Info: KFF.org)

Rate of spread: 1.00 (-0.04)

The average number of people who currently become infected by an infectious person. Over 1.0 means the virus will spread, and below 1.0 means it has stopped spreading. (Info: Rt.live)

Positive testing rate on previous day: 6.8% (+1.1%)

As of May 12, the World Health Organization recommends a positive testing rate of less than 5% or lower for at least 14 days before an area reopens.

Deaths: 906 (+13)

The total number of people whose deaths were attributable to the novel coronavirus since IDPH began tracking such deaths March 8, 2020.

Average number of deaths per day: 3.9 (+1)

As of yesterday, over a seven-day average.

Fatality rate: 1.9%

National ranking in cases per capita in last 7 days: 20th (no change) (Info: kff.org)

National ranking in deaths per capita in last 7 days: 26th (-1; Nevada now 25th) (Info: kff.org)

Recoveries: 35,469 (+809)

As of June 30, IDPH now classifies anyone not hospitalized or deceased after 28 days to be recovered.

Recovery rate: 75.2% (+0.6%)

Positive serology tests: 2,805 (+13)

The number of people with no current infection who tested positive for antibodies of the novel coronavirus.

Hospitalized patients with COVID-19: 237 (-11) Hospitalized in NE Iowa (RMCC Region 6): 56 (+2)

Patients admitted in last 24 hours: 28 (-16) Last 24 hours in NE Iowa: 9 (+1)

Hospitalized in intensive care units: 68 (-9) In ICU in NE Iowa: 15 (+1)

Hospitalized on a ventilator: 32 (-2) On ventilator in NE Iowa: 6 (no change)

Long-term care facility outbreaks: 25 (no change)

An outbreak is added when a facility has three or more residents test positive, and removed when no new cases appear.

Deaths attributable to long-term care facility outbreaks: 486 (+7). Percentage of total deaths: 53.6% (no change)

------------------

Black Hawk County

Cases: 3,067 (+34)

Average cases per day (7-day average): 16.9 (+0.9)

Recoveries: 2,419 (+43)

Deaths: 63 (+1)

Number currently infected: 585 (-10)

Percent currently infected of total infections: 15.5% (-0.4%)

Average deaths per day (7-day average): 0.1 (+0.1)

Fatality rate: 2.1% (+0.1%)

Serology positive: 700 (no change)

Total population currently infected: 0.4% (-0.1%)

Total population ever infected: 2.8% (no change)

Data below from blackhawkcovid19.com:

14-day average positive testing rate: 9.0% (+1.2%)

Reported cases by sex:

Male: 54.7% (no change)

Female: 45.3% (no change)

Reported cases by age:

0-17: 5.1% (no change)

18-40: 53.2% (no change)

41-60: 30.1% (no change)

61-80: 9.3% (no change)

80+: 2.3% (no change)

Reported cases by race:

Asian: 10.6% (no change)

Black: 25.0% (no change)

Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 2.3% (no change)

White: 62.1% (no change)

Reported cases by ethnicity:

Hispanic/Latinx: 16.3% (no change)

Non-Hispanic: 83.7% (no change)

Hospitalization rate: 4.3% (no change)

------------------

Bremer County

Cases: 199 (+6)

Average cases per day (7-day average): 3.4 (+0.1)

Recoveries: 106 (+3)

Deaths: 7 (no change)

Number currently infected: 86 (+3)

Percent currently infected of total infections: 42.0% (+0.3%)

Average deaths per day (7-day average): 0 (no change)

Fatality rate: 3.5% (-0.1%)

Serology positive: 6 (no change)

Total population currently infected: 0.4% (+0.1%)

Total population ever infected: 0.8% (no change)

-----------------

Buchanan County

Cases: 122 (+7)

Average cases per day (7-day average): 3.9 (+1.0)

Recoveries: 62 (+1)

Deaths: 1 (no change)

Number currently infected: 59 (+6)

Percent currently infected of total infections: 46.8% (+2.3%)

Average deaths per day (7-day average): 0 (no change)

Fatality rate: 0.8% (-0.1%)

Serology positive: 4 (no change)

Total population currently infected: 0.3% (no change)

Total population ever infected: 0.6% (no change)

------------------

Butler County

Cases: 119 (+4)

Average cases per day (7-day average): 2.4 (+0.3)

Recoveries: 101 (+4)

Deaths: 2 (no change)

Number currently infected: 16 (no change)

Percent currently infected of total infections: 13.0% (-0.5%)

Average deaths per day (7-day average): 0 (no change)

Fatality rate: 1.7% (no change)

Serology positive: 4 (no change)

Total population currently infected: 0.1% (no change)

Total population ever infected: 0.8% (no change)

---------------

Fayette County

Cases: 81 (no change)

Average cases per day (7-day average): 0.8 (-0.5)

Recoveries: 59 (+4)

Deaths: 0

Number currently infected: 22 (-4)

Percent currently infected of total infections: 23.9% (-4.4%)

Average deaths per day (7-day average): 0 (no change)

Fatality rate: 0%

Serology positive: 11 (no change)

Total population currently infected: 0.1% (no change)

Total population ever infected: 0.5% (no change)

----------------

Floyd County

Cases: 133 (+2)

Average cases per day (7-day average): 4.6 (-0.1)

Recoveries: 91 (no change)

Deaths: 2 (no change)

Number currently infected: 40 (+2)

Percent currently infected of total infections: 28.6% (+1.1%)

Average deaths per day (7-day average): 0 (no change)

Fatality rate: 1.5% (no change)

Serology positive: 7 (no change)

Total population currently infected: 0.3% (+0.1%)

Total population ever infected: 0.9% (no change)

--------------------

Grundy County

Cases: 76 (+2)

Average cases per day (7-day average): 0.9 (-0.1)

Recoveries: 47 (+2)

Deaths: 1 (no change)

Number currently infected: 28 (no change)

Percent currently infected of total infections: 34.6% (-0.8%)

Average deaths per day (7-day average): 0 (no change)

Fatality rate: 1.3% (-0.1%)

Serology positive: 5 (no change)

Total population currently infected: 0.2% (no change)

Total population ever infected: 0.7% (+0.1%)

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The world has seen China become "more aggressive" during the Covid-19 pandemic, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper has said, asserting that the country has deployed troops along the Line of Actual Control with India and is acting out in a way that is "inconsistent" with international norms.

Esper said Beijing was trying to use the coronavirus tragedy to their advantage for "propaganda purposes". "What we have seen with regard to what happened in the last seven months coming as part of Covid, if you will, we've seen China become more aggressive, ...
Eighteen foreigners who allegedly entered the country illegally to engage in cybercrime have been put before the Wa Circuit Court.



The accused, believed to be Nigerians, were arrested last Saturday after they had duped unsuspecting people of various sums of money.



The accused persons are facing three counts of obtaining electronic medium falsely, possession of illegal devices and failing to comply with the imposition of a ban on travel into the country.



They are Emmanuel Ogunoyibo, 24; Emmanuel Ukoh, 21; Chigozirim Adindo, 24; Rex Chigozie, 23; Anthony Chukwuma, 25, and Chukwu Chinonso, 22.



Others are Simon Daniel Tochukwu, 23; Dickson, 29; Uwazie Christogonus, 22; Joshua Chigozie, 21; Anthony Chukwuma, 28, and Bright Chiadighikaobi, 35.



The rest are Henry I Dey With You, 25; Wisdom Ejmadu, 25; Ekene Okoro, 26; Victor Ejike, 26; Peter Emeka, 20, and Abana Udochukwu, 25.



Their pleas were not taken and they were remanded in police custody to reappear today.



Prosecution case



According to the prosecutor, Superintendent Mr R.A. Boateng, the 18 Nigerians claimed they entered the country somewhere in April this year through unapproved routes at the time the borders had been closed due to the COVID -19 pandemic.



He said upon their entry, they travelled to Wa where they rented two houses at Dobile, a suburb of Wa, from where they operated their cybercrime activities.



Upon intelligence gathered, a team of security personnel swooped on the two houses in the early hours of Saturday to arrest them.



During the search conducted in their rooms, the police retrieved items including 22 laptop computers and their accessories, 11 mobile phones and a camera which were believed to be used to commit the crime.







Source: Graphic.com.gh









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Geddes, N.Y.  Another drive-through food and milk giveaway is set for Tuesday for the New York State Fair grounds, part of a program helping families in need during the coronavirus pandemic.

More than 8,000 gallons of milk and 85,000 lbs of food will be given away for free. That will include produce, meat and other dairy products.

Each vehicle will get two gallons of milk and 20 lbs of food, according to a news release.

The drive-through giveaway begins at 11 a.m. No registration or paperwork is required.

Drivers and passengers must remain in their vehicle and will be asked to open their trunk or back window to receive the groceries. No walk-ups are permitted.

The last giveaway from the American Dairy Association North East here happened in mid-July at the Abundant Life Christian Center in East Syracuse, when 4,200 gallons of milk were given free to families who needed them.

The upcoming event is part of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program. The dairy association helped provide milk and organize the event, along with Dairy Farmers of America, Renzi Foodservice, the fairgrounds and other community organizations.

Contact Syracuse.com reporter Patrick Lohmann at (315)766-6670 or PLohmann@Syracuse.com.
As more states in the U.S. push for increased reliance on variable renewable energy in the form of wind or solar power, long-term energy storage may play an important role in assuring reliability and reducing electricity costs, according to a new paper published by Caltech researchers.

Graduate student Jackie Dowling, who works in the lab of Nathan Lewis (BS '77), the George L. Argyros Professor and professor of chemistry, has collaborated with Ken Caldeira at the Carnegie Institution for Science and others to examine energy-storage options and multiple decades of data about wind and solar availability. Dowling and her collaborators determined that currently available battery technology is prohibitively expensive for long-term energy storage services for the power grid and that alternative technologies that can store a few weeks' to a month's worth of energy for entire seasons or even multiple years may be the key to building affordable, reliable renewable electricity systems.

Energy storage is needed with renewable energy because wind and solar energy are not as reliably available as fossil fuels. For example, wind power is often at its lowest during the summer in the United States, which is when the electrical grid is strained the most by the demand for air conditioning in homes and businesses.

"This research is motivated by the fact that laws in several states have mandated 100 percent carbon-free electricity systems by midcentury," says Dowling, lead author of a paper about the work. "Within these mandates, a lot of states include requirements for wind and solar power. Both wind and solar are variable from day to day, or even year to year, yet high reliability is mandatory for a viable electricity system. Energy storage can fill in for the gaps between supply and demand."

Dowling looked at short-duration storage systems, such as lithium-ion batteries, and long-duration storage methods, such as hydrogen storage, compressed-air storage, and pumped-storage hydroelectricity.

To see how to optimize the use of those storage technologies at the lowest energy cost, Dowling built a mathematical simulation of each and incorporated historical electricity-demand data and four decades of hourly resolved historical weather data across the contiguous U.S. The Macro Energy Model, as she calls it, reveals that adding long-duration storage to a wind-solar-battery system lowers energy costs. In contrast, using batteries alone for storage makes renewable energy more expensive.

Dowling says that the extra expense associated with batteries occurs because they cannot cost-effectively store enough energy for an entire season during which electricity is generated in lower amounts. That means an electrical grid would require many costlier solar panels or wind turbines to compensate and would result in wasteful idling of electricity-generation equipment for much of the year.

Currently available battery technology is not even close to being cost effective for seasonal storage, Dowling says.

"The huge dip in wind power in the summer in the U.S. is problematic, and batteries are not suitable for filling that gap. So, if you only have batteries, you have to overbuild wind or solar capacity," she says. "Long-duration storage helps avoid the need to overbuild power generation infrastructure and provides electricity when people need it rather than only when nature provides it. At current technology costs, storage in underground caverns of green hydrogen generated by water electrolysis would provide a cost-effective approach for long-duration grid storage."

Other researchers have built renewable energy models, but the team's data-driven approach is the first to incorporate four decades of historical wind and solar variability data, thus factoring in variability from year to year and periodic episodes of rare weather events that affect power generation, such as wind and solar droughts.

"The more years of data we use in our models, the more we find a compelling need for long-term storage to get the reliability that we expect from an electricity system," she says.

Dowling suggests her findings may be helpful to policy makers in states with 100 percent carbon-free electricity laws and high wind/solar mandates and to other U.S. states considering the adoption of similar laws. In the future, she plans to extend her research to take an in-depth look at the roles that specific types of energy storage, such as hydrogen or redox flow batteries, can play in renewable energy systems. For instance, some types of batteries might effectively serve as medium-duration energy storage, she says.

###

The paper, titled "Role of long-duration energy storage in variable renewable electricity systems," appears in the September issue of Joule. Co-authors are Lewis and Katherine Rinaldi, chemistry graduate student, of Caltech; Tyler Ruggles, Mengyao Yuan, and Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution for Science; Steven Davis of UC Irvine; and Fan Tong of the Carnegie Institution for Science and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Support for the research was provided by the Resnick Sustainability Institute at Caltech, through which Dowling is a Zeller-Resnick Fellow; the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; a fellowship from the Southern California Gas Company; and through a gift from Gates Ventures LLC to the Carnegie Institution for Science.
Murmu served as the first Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir after it was made a Union tTerritory last year

New Delhi: A day after he stepped down as Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Girish Chandra Murmu was on Thursday appointed as Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG).

A Finance Ministry notification on Thursday said that Murmu has been appointed CAG by President Ram Nath Kovind from the date he assumes charge of his office. He will take oath on Saturday.

Murmu replaces Rajiv Mehrishi who is scheduled to complete his term this week.

A Rashtrapati Bhawan communique said earlier in the day that the President has accepted the resignation of Murmu as LG of Jammu and Kashmir.

Murmu was appointed as the first LG of Jammu and Kashmir after it was made a Union territory last year.
WASHINGTON - A North Carolina man who threatened to shoot a Black family in 2014 for renting a home pleaded guilty Thursday to violating the Fair Housing Act, federal prosecutors said.

Douglas Matthew Gurkins, 34, entered his plea in federal court in the Eastern District of North Carolina, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release. It didnt give a hometown for Gurkins, and didnt say where the incident occurred.

Court officials couldnt be reached for additional comment Thursday afternoon.

According to court documents, Gurkins drove to the familys home, yelled racial slurs at them and told them they didnt belong in the home. According to the documents, Gurkins threatened to shoot the mother and four children and any other Black people who entered the property. He then threatened the family with a metal rod, prosecutors said. The family moved out a few days later.

Within the next four years, the defendant made similar threats toward two other Black families living in the same neighbourhood, according to the news release.

Gurkins faces up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000. No date for sentencing was announced.
The Rajasthan political crisis comes to an end with Ashok Gehlot-led government winning the vote of confidence. Sachin Pilot rebellion, whose rebellion started this saga, returns to Congress, marking the end of a turbulent phase for the party in state.
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Washington, United States  Thu, August 6, 2020 11:07 530 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066bf5012 2 World Donald-Trump,Lebanon,Beirut,blast,explosion Free

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday the deadly Beirut explosion may have been an accident, after raising eyebrows earlier suggesting it was an attack.

Trump said it is still unclear what happened, although Lebanese officials have blamed the massive eruption on a poorly secured stockpile of highly volatile fertilizer ingredient ammonium nitrate.

On Tuesday he said it appeared to have been caused by a "bomb of some kind," citing unnamed US "generals" for the information.

"It looks like a terrible attack," he said.

But on Wednesday the US leader said the question was still unanswered, as he pledged US support to Lebanon.

"I can tell you whatever happened, it's terrible. But they don't really know what it is. Nobody knows yet," he said.

"How can you say accident? Somebody ... left some terrible explosive-type devices and things around perhaps. Perhaps it was that. Perhaps it was an attack. I don't think anybody can say right now."

"I've heard it both ways," he added.

Trump's comments came after the Pentagon declined to confirm his "generals" claim and Defense Secretary Mark Esper supported the accident explanation for the explosion, which left at least 113 people dead, including at least one American, and thousands injured.

"I'm still getting information on what happened," Esper told the Aspen Security Forum.

"Most believe that it was an accident as reported," he said.

Trump said the United States stands by Lebanon, a longstanding ally in the Middle East but whose powerful political and paramilitary group Hezbollah is designated a terrorist group by Washington.

"We're standing with that country. You know, we have a very good relationship with that country, but it is a country under a lot of turmoil and a lot of problems. We stand with them," he said.

Earlier Secretary of State Mike Pompeo offered assistance in a phone call with Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab, the State Department said.

Pompeo voiced "our steadfast commitment to assist the Lebanese people as they cope with the aftermath of this terrifying event," according to a statement on the call.

He "further stressed our solidarity with and support for the Lebanese people as they strive for the dignity, prosperity and security they deserve."

Pompeo later told a news conference that the United States would unveil measures to support Lebanon "in the coming days."
Back row fifth from left, SK Global Chemical President & CEO Na Kyungsoo, pose for a picture with the staff at SK GC Americas' during the second year anniversary in Houston, Texas. / Courtesy of SK Innovation



By Kim Hyun-bin



Jose Manuel Sanchez-Mandez, global business director of SK GC Americas, believes the "Hi !nnovation" initiatives at SK Innovation have become a great means to diversify the corporation and helps overseas employees to feel increasingly included in the SK Group culture.



Mandez says Koreans' teaming up to achieve a single goal with passion has become a foundation for great transformation for the corporation.



"I had the first interaction with SK Global Chemical during the management presentations in New York City in December 2016 when I was responsible for selling the Acid Copolymers business," Mandez said. "I was inspired to see the commitment, energy, happiness and passion of all the Koreans that participated in the meeting with a single objective: to start a great transformation to become one of the largest solution providers for the Flexible Packaging Industry through the acquisition of Primacor from the Dow Chemical Company."

?

In September 2018, Mandez joined the SK GC Americas and he did not feel difficulty adapting to the new environment.



"Since my first day working here, I have been witnessing all the efforts of our corporate office to make us feel at home, to be part of the SK family as a united team," he said.



SK GC Americas is a very diverse organization with staff from many countries around the globe, including Brazil, China, Egypt, France, India, Mexico, Pakistan, South Korea, Spain, the U.S., Venezuela, and Vietnam.



Strong teamwork helps them find their success which Jose says the corporation is full of.



"The members and I often tell ourselves to collaborate with each other with 'One Heart, One Beat,' that is, if the company is compared to a human body, every staff member should work together as if we share only one heart, with the same beat," Mandez said.



The COVID-19 pandemic was a new challenge where businesses have needed to practice social distancing with the understanding that communication is key to prevent the spread of the virus as well as to enhance corporate connectivity around the world.



"I could see the efforts that SK Innovation is making to keep us connected around the globe, even during the challenging times that we all are currently facing. So I decided to put Hi !nnovation into my email signatures, hoping that the message will be delivered to everyone that I communicate with," he said.?



"Along with the launching of Hi !nnovation, English SKinno news is an effective way to connect all global members, and at the same time a perfect tool to share our initiatives toward sustainability and social values."


Manoj Sinha, former union minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader from Uttar Pradesh, was on Thursday appointed as the new Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir. He is the first political leader to take charge as the LG of the union territory.

The 61-year-old, who is known for his massive connect with the people of rural areas, comes in place of former IAS officer Girish Chandra Murmu who hurriedly tendered his resignation on Wednesday night.

Sinha arrived in a state plane and was likely to be administered the oath of office and secrecy on Friday by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Justice Gita Mittal at the Raj Bhavan, located on the foothills of the Zaberwan range.

He was received by advisors to the previous LG including Farooq Khan, Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam and top brass of the police and civil administration. A guard of honour was accorded to him at the airport.

Later he held an informal meeting with the four advisors, the chief secretary and senior police officials.

Among the priorities in hand for Sinha would be to end factionalism within the bureaucracy in the union territory, with some senior IAS officers recently found to be publicly indulging in verbal spats.

The other aspect would be to revisit the state intelligence department which has been failing in anticipating the situation off late. In the last three days there have been two attacks on panchs and sarpanchs in South Kashmir's Kulgam district.

Earlier in the day, a Rashtrapati Bhawan communique said Murmu's resignation has been accepted.

The communique issued by the President's press secretary Ajay Kumar said, "The President has been pleased to appoint Manoj Sinha to be the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir with effect from the date he assumes charge of his office" in place of Murmu.

Known as 'vikas purush' (man involved in developmental work), Sinha is a three-time Lok Sabha MP who held charge of the communication ministry as a minister of State in 2016 when the telecom industry was engaged in the sale of spectrum.

A BTech in civil engineering from the Institute of Technology (now known as IIT-BHU), Sinha has been credited with overcoming the menace of call dropping by holding widespread consultations with telecom operators.

Elected to Lok Sabha in 1996 for the first time, Sinha, an agriculturist, is the first politician to be elected as LG of the union territory. Earlier, the Centre had appointed Satya Pal Malik, a politician, as governor of the erstwhile state before it was bifurcated into two union territories -- Ladakh, and Jammu and Kashmir -- on August 5 last year.

Sinha, who was elected to Lok Sabha in 1999 and 2014, was front runner for the post of Uttar Pradesh chief minister after the party walked away with 265 seats in the 403-member assembly.

Born in Mohanpura of Ghazipur district of eastern UP, he began his political career after being elected the president of the Banaras Hindu University Students Union in 1982, and has been actively involved in working for the backward villages.

Murmu, a 1985 batch IAS officer, had abruptly submitted his resignation on Wednesday night on the day the Union Territory marked the first anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution thereby scrapping Jammu and Kashmir's special status.

On Wednesday afternoon Murmu had flown in a helicopter to Jammu, cancelling all his appointments including meetings with journalists which were slated on the occasion of one year of the revocation of the special status.

The 60-year-old former IAS officer of Gujarat cadre had on October 29 last year taken over as the first LG of the union territory after the state of Jammu and Kashmir was downgraded and split into two UTs.

Highly-placed sources said Murmu was likely to be given a new assignment at the Centre.

The recent statements of Murmu, who flew out of Jammu Thursday afternoon in a special plane, on elections and 4G internet had come under the scanner especially after the Supreme Court had remarked about his interview on the subject of high speed internet to a national daily.

The Centre was asked by the top court to come out with a clear stand after Murmu's interview, in which he stated that the UT administration had no problem in extending 4G to Jammu and Kashmir.

The Election Commission had in the last week of July taken exception to Murmu's remarks on the timings of polls in the union territory, saying that in the constitutional scheme of things only the EC is authorised to decide on the poll schedule.

Murmu had said the polls would be held after the delimitation exercise was completed in the union territory.

The LG had only stated what was enshrined in the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, passed by the Parliament last year.
A six-year-old Tennessee girl who tested positive for coronavirus has died after a doctor told her parents 'she had a viral bug and to let her eat as many popsicles and slushies as she wanted'.

Gigi Morse died Tuesday, making her the first child killed by the virus in Madison County as well as one of the youngest fatalities across the whole of the US.

Her devastated parents told of their heartache after they put their adopted daughter, who suffered from epilepsy and had autism, down for a nap and she never woke up again.

The tragedy comes as COVID-19 cases continue to soar across Tennessee and it marked a grim record for the highest number of deaths in a single day Thursday.

Gigi Morse (pictured), a six-year-old Tennessee girl who tested positive for coronavirus, has died after a doctor told her parents 'she had a viral bug and to let her eat as many popsicles and slushies as she wanted'

Gigi's distraught mom Priscilla Morse announced the little girl's death in a blog post where she said she had been ill for several days, reported the Jackson Sun.

Morse said she took her daughter to a doctor's appointment Tuesday and was told she had a 'viral bug' and needed to rest.

She said she put Gigi down for a nap when they returned.

'The doctor said she had a viral bug and to let her rest and eat as many popsicles and slushies as she wanted,' she wrote.

'She went to sleep and she died and I don't even want to breathe anymore without her.'

The little girl was found unresponsive by her older sibling who performed CPR on her before the emergency services arrived and took her to the hospital where she died.

David Morse, Gigi's father, paid tribute to his daughter in a heartbreaking Facebook post where he told how the couple had adopted her from Ukraine at the age of three and 'showed her a love like no other'.

Gigi Morse (pictured) died Tuesday, making her the first child killed by the virus in Madison County as well as one of the youngest fatalities across the whole of the US. Her devastated parents told of their heartache after they put their adopted daughter, who suffered from epilepsy and had autism, down for a nap and she never woke up again

The tragedy comes as COVID-19 cases continue to soar across Tennessee and it marked a grim record for the highest number of deaths in a single day Thursday

'She had such a rough start to her short life, living unloved, unwanted in an orphanage in Ukraine,' he wrote.

'Severe medical issues. We found her and knew immediately that she had to be our daughter. We brought her home and showed her a love like no other.'

'She learned her own version of English, but we understood. She would sing Disney songs and nursery rhymes perfectly.

'She would give me kisses and then say 'more,' and we would kiss again and she would say 'more' again.

He added: 'I got to kiss my Gigi yesterday on the last time I would see her alive and we did the 'more.' I just love her so much. We are all so devastated. She now walks with Jesus. No more epilepsy, no more autism. She is my heart.'

Jackson-Madison County School System Superintendent Marlon King paid tribute to Gigi, a student at East Elementary School, in a news release saying she had an 'unmistakable spirit' and was 'adored and cherished by us all'.

Jackson-Madison County School System Superintendent Marlon King paid tribute to Gigi, a student at East Elementary School, saying she had an 'unmistakable spirit' and was 'adored and cherished by us all'

The little girl is one of the youngest Americans to be killed by COVID-19, with data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recording that 45 children aged under 15 have died since the pandemic touched down on US soil.

Her death comes as cases continue to surge across Tennessee, with another 2,252 infections announced Thursday taking the tally to 116,350.

Another 42 people have been killed by the virus in the last day, marking the deadliest day on record for the state and taking the death toll to 1,186.

Across the US, 159,000 people have died and more than 4.8 million have been infected.
Banda : , Aug 6 (IANS) A 19-year-old woman and her lover were allegedly burnt to death by her family members in a village in Banda district of Uttar Pradesh.

The police claims that it is a case of honour killing.

According to reports, the incident took place on Wednesday evening in Karcha village in Mataundh area when the family members allegedly caught the couple in a compromising position.

Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mahendra Pratap Singh said, "It is alleged that the family locked the couple in a hut and set it on fire." Both of them were rushed to a local hospital in serious condition where Bhola, 23, died while the woman, Priyanka, who suffered 80 per cent burns and was referred to another facility in Kanpur, succumbed on the way.

An FIR has been lodged against nine members of the woman's family and three of them have been arrested, the ASP said.

Singh said efforts are on to nab the other accused.

The post-mortem of the bodies will be done later on Thursday, he said.
A Supreme Court (SC) bench on Thursday (August 6) ordered the Maharashtra government to produce the charge sheets filed in the FIRs related to the Palghar mob lynching case. The order was passed by a SC bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan and R Subhash Reddy while hearing a plea filed by an advocate demanding a CBI probe into the incident.

The apex court has also asked the Maharashtra government to bring on record the enquiry conducted against the policemen allegedly involved in Palghar lynching case and the action taken against them. The SC bench has now posted the matter for hearing after 3 weeks.

On June 11, the SC had issued a notice to Maharashtra government seeking response on a petition demanding a CBI probe into the lynching of two sadhus by a mob in Palghar.

The relatives of two Juna Akhara priests who were lynched had filed the plea in the top court seeking a CBI probe into the incident. In the plea, they mentioned that they have no faith in the Maharashtra government or police. The petitioner also said that they do not believe that a fair and just probe would be conducted in this matter by Maharashtra police as they suspect their involvement in the incident.

The mob lynching of three men, including two saints Kalpavriksha Giri Maharaj, Sushil Giri Maharaj, took place in Palghar on April 16 upon rumours that they were kidnapping children to harvest organs, including kidneys.

The two saints and their driver Nilesh Yalgade were going to Surat in a Maruti Eeco van to attend the funeral of a saint from their Kandivali ashram in Mumbai when they were attacked by the mob.
The Duchess of Sussex will take part in a virtual summit next week, it has been announced.

Meghan Markle, 38, will appear at The 19th* Represents 2020 Virtual Summit, which features a series of conversations with prominent women in US politics, civic engagement, journalism and the arts.

The Duchess, who lives in Los Angeles with Prince Harry and their 15-month-old son Archie, will interview Emily Ramshaw, the co-founder and CEO of The 19th*, a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom focused on gender and politics.

The discussion next Friday will close the summit. It will take place three days after the publication of the Duke and Duchess of Susssex's biography, Finding Freedom.

Meghan Markle, 38, will appear at The 19th* Represents 2020 Virtual Summit, which features a series of conversations with prominent women in US politics, journalism and the arts. Pictured, Meghan's address to young women around the world for the UN initiative Girl Up

In a statement to Glamour, Meghan said: 'The 19th*'s commitment to reporting and storytelling that lifts up those who are too often underrepresented in the media has never been more important.

'Im looking forward to asking the co-founder what it means to build a media outlet with gender equity, diversity, and community at its core.'

Ramshaw said the Duchess 'reached out' to the organisation after learning of its work. 'She [Meghan] told us that our vision for The 19th*building a truly diverse and representative newsroom that covers women with nuancespoke to her immediately.'

The 19th*, which launched last week, describes itself as 'a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom reporting at the intersection of gender, politics and policy'.

Its website description reads: 'We aim to empower women  particularly those underserved by and underrepresented in American media  with the information, community and tools they need to be equal participants in our democracy.'

The 19th* summit features an impressive line-up including US Senator Kamala Harries, Melinda Gates, Hillary Clinton and Meryl Streep.

Each day is themed around a topic like 'On Race and Gender', 'Electability*' and 'The Future is Female'.

In the months since moving to Los Angeles at the start of lockdown, the Duchess of Sussex has made only a handful of virtual appearances. In July joined Prince Harry for a virtual roundtable discussion with young leaders from around the Commonwealth, pictured

Many of the sessions will take the form of conversations or panel discussions. Streep will be joined by Zoe Saldana for a performance titled Voices of Suffrage.

It will mark Meghan's second appearance at a virtual summit in recent weeks, following her address to young women around the world last month for the UN initiative Girl Up.

On this occasion the Duchess will be flexing her interviewer muscles. Meghan previously conducted a high profile interview with First Lady Michelle Obama for her Forces For Change issue of British Vogue.

Ramshaw admitted the idea of being interviewed by Meghan is 'surreal'.

In the months since moving to Los Angeles at the start of lockdown, the Duchess of Sussex has made only a handful of virtual appearances.

In the immediate wake of the death of the Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the death of George Floyd, Meghan delivered a speech to the graduating class of her former high school about racial equality and justice.

She also joined Prince Harry for a virtual roundtable discussion with young leaders from around the Commonwealth.
China has allocated 300 million yuan (about 43 million U.S. dollars) in disaster relief funds for east China's Anhui Province that was hit by floods, the Ministry of Emergency Management (MEM) said on Wednesday.

The funds, earmarked by the MEM and the Ministry of Finance, will be used to help flood diversion areas in the province relocate affected residents and reconstruct damaged houses.

The MEM said it has sent two working teams to Anhui and Jiangxi to aid in local disaster relief work. Enditem




(Natural News) A new Gallup poll has revealed that a majority of African Americans in the country would prefer the police presence in their area to stay the same.

According to the poll, the respondents, which included White, Black, Hispanic and Asian American adults, were asked if they prefer that the police spend more time, the same amount of time or less time as they currently spend patrolling their neighborhoods.

The survey showed that 61 percent of Black Americans want the police to spend the same amount of time in their area, 20 percent want the police to spend more time patrolling their neighborhoods, while only 19 percent want the police to spend less time in their area.

A majority of all three other racial groups wanted the police to spend the same amount of time patrolling their neighborhoods. Asian Americans are the most likely to want less police presence, with 28 percent saying this; White Americans are the most likely to want the same level of police presence, with 71 percent saying this; and Hispanic Americans are the most likely to want more police patrols in their area, with 24 percent saying this.

When taken together, only 14 percent of all U.S. adults would prefer fewer police patrols in their area, while the percentage of people who want the police presence to either stay the same or increase is at 67 percent and 19 percent, respectively.

Most Americans want police presence to remain in their neighborhoods

The Gallup poll, which was conducted online from June 23 to July 6 by the newly established Gallup Center on Black Voices, asked the respondents several other questions regarding the police presence in their neighborhoods.

One of the other questions attempted to estimate how often adults in the U.S. encounter police officers in their neighborhoods. In this question, they found that Black Americans were only slightly more likely to encounter local police, with 32 percent saying that they saw the police often or very often, 41 percent saying they saw the police only sometimes and 27 percent saying they rarely or never saw cops.

While this statistic may look like it reinforces the beliefs held by the Black Lives Matter movement, it does not impact the preferences of Black Americans with regards to changing how little or how much they see their local police units.

Only 34 percent of the Black Americans who said they saw the police often in their neighborhoods believe that the police should spend less time in their area. Fifty-six percent of believe that the police should spend the same amount of time in their area, while the remaining 10 percent want the time spent by the police in their neighborhoods to increase.

While a majority of Black Americans do want to keep police presences the same, these same respondents are less certain that their interactions with local law enforcement will be positive. When asked, If you had an interaction with police in your area, how confident are you that they would treat you with courtesy and respect? only 18 percent of African Americans responded by saying that they were very confident. Forty-three percent said they were somewhat confident, 27 percent said they were not too confident, and 12 percent said they were not confident at all.

According to Gallup, this could come from either personally negative experiences with police officers or from knowing of somebody who has had a negative encounter with law enforcement.

Bottom line: Some improvements necessary for quality of interactions with police

While its clear from the results of the survey that a majority of Black Americans would either like to maintain or increase the time police officers spend in their area, some work can be done to make sure African Americans have more positive interactions with police officers. Gallup itself asserted that a majority of Black Americans value the need for the service that police provide.

These results reinforce data previously gathered by Gallup that showed that very few Black Americans actually want to abolish their police departments. In this previous survey, only 22 percent of African Americans polled were in favor of police abolition. However, a large majority also believe that police reform is necessary, with 88 percent stating that they believe major changes are needed, and another 10 percent believing only minor changes are needed.

Reform ideas that have a broad base of support among Black Americans include requiring police officers to have good relations with the communities they serve (83 percent in favor); changing management practices so that individual cases of officer abuses can be effectively punished (91 percent); making sure officers with multiple incidents of abuse are no longer allowed to serve (92 percent), and promoting community-based alternatives that can work alongside police officer such as family services and violence intervention programs (72 percent).

Antifa and the Black Lives Matter movement are trying to get people to believe that they have a broad base of support for their desires to defund and abolish police departments across the country. Learn more about why they are wrong at PoliceViolence.news

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

News.Gallup.com 1

FoxNews.com

News.Gallup.com 2
Over the last 15 years, Ken Doctor has made his living as a critic of the news industry. A onetime media executive who started out as a publisher and editor of an alt weekly, Mr. Doctor regularly warns against hedge-fund ownership of news outlets in a column he writes for Harvard Universitys Nieman Journalism Lab. Media companies hire him as a consultant, and he is often quoted in articles on the dismal state of local news coverage in America.

Now, at age 70, Mr. Doctor is leaving his life as an armchair expert and starting a local news company, Lookout Local, he said on Thursday. Its flagship site, Lookout Santa Cruz, will cover the California county where he lives, an area he likens to a news desert because it does not have enough journalists covering it.

I came to the epiphany of putting both sides of my brain together, Mr. Doctor said. Im an analyst. I understand the business. At the same time, I realized I lived in a worsening and worsening news desert.

Image Ken Doctor, a longtime media analyst, is heading back into the journalism arena. Credit... Ken Doctor

The new role will put Mr. Doctor in direct competition with Alden Global Capital, a New York hedge fund that he has often criticized in his column. Alden controls MediaNews Group, the parent company of The Santa Cruz Sentinel, which will be the main rival of Lookout Santa Cruz.
By Park Moo-jong





Seoul, the capital of South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a megacity that has an official history of 628 years, and is considered the historical center of the country.



Ranked as an "alpha city," Seoul, with a population of almost 10 million, is the fourth-largest metropolitan economy in the world after Tokyo, New York City and Los Angeles, even larger than London and Paris.



Seoul is undisputedly one of the most favorite tourist destinations in the world, especially for Chinese, Japanese and Southeast Asians, though the coronavirus pandemic is stopping them for now.



In October 1998, the editor of Hemispheres, the monthly inflight magazine of United Airlines, asked me to write an article titled "15 Fascinating Facts about Seoul." I accepted without hesitation and sent it overnight.



The 15 things I boasted of included, among others: Seoul is one of the safest cities in the world where foreign visitors, irrespective of gender, can walk in the streets even in the dead of night alone and it has numerous cultural assets like the four old palaces of the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910) in its heart.



In particular, I wrote that Seoul is surrounded by mountains that citizens can reach in less than 30 minutes by car or subway for hiking or climbing. The editor sent a question immediately: "Is it true?" I answered: "Seeing is believing." And he okayed it and sent a $400 payment by FedEx.



Such a global metropolis has abruptly become a "tasteless" or "vulgar" city. The mighty leader of the magnificent ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) branded the world city as a cheap one.



Rep. Lee Hae-chan, 68, chairman of the ruling party, dropped a "bombshell" remark during a forum held in Sejong City on July 24 about his party's resolute plan to move the administrative capital of South Korea from Seoul in a unilateral bid to solve the ever-worsening housing shortage in Seoul.



Rep. Lee, elected six times to the National Assembly in Seoul and Sejong, said we should not build a tasteless city like Seoul only interested in the prices of apartments along the Han River, explaining kindly that the Seine in Paris is lined with historic sites like Notre Dame.



What a coincidence! Sejong is the constituency of the ruling party leader.



He served as deputy mayor of Seoul (1995-96) thanks to his contribution as the chief campaigner in the election of Seoul Mayor Cho Soon of the then opposition Democratic Party of Korea, and kicked off an ambitious project to remodel the megacity. He also served as prime minister from 2004 to 2006 in the government of the late President Roh Moo-hyun.



Lee's absurd remark fueled the rage of citizens protesting the radical property policies of the Moon Jae-in government. If Seoul is a tasteless city as Lee says, the DPK which has been in charge of the municipal administration of the capital city for 15 years and Lee should take responsibility for the dishonor.



It is no wonder at all that big cities of the world have their own merits and demerits. Of course, many citizens, including me, have been critical of the expensive apartments of uniform design lining the Han River like square match boxes.



However, as I wrote for Hemispheres, Seoul is praised worldwide for its convenient traffic system, security and urban infrastructure, not to speak of the natural environment featuring the mountains besieging the city and the Han River crisscrossing it.



As a Seoul resident since 1953 after fleeing to the South from the North in 1951's Jan. 4 Retreat following the Red Chinese Army participation in the Korean War (1950-53), I feel insulted by Lee's remark along with 10 million Seoulites.



Earlier, during the April 20 parliamentary election campaign in Busan, Lee stirred up the anger of citizens of the nation's second-largest city, by saying, "Why is the city (Busan) so poor?"



As it happened, the mayors of the two cities of Seoul and Busan, the targets of Lee's absurd expression, were dishonored by their alleged sexual harassment of their city officials. One committed suicide and the other is standing trial.



I don't think Lee made a slip of the tongue. His said so intentionally with regard to the plan of the ruling camp to transfer the capital to Sejong City. It's not the first time that Lee invited public furor and criticism for his absurd and radical remarks as a politician.



I hope he will keep deep in mind remarks by former French President Charles de Gaulle: "Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word. Silence is the ultimate weapon of power."



Seoul may be a tasteless city for Lee for his political purposes. But Seoul is a tasteful city for me and I believe many other residents think so. I've been living well in the global city for 67 years as an ordinary citizen.





Park Moo-jong (emjei29@gmail.com) is a standing adviser of The Korea Times. He served as the president-publisher of the nation's first English daily newspaper from 2004 to 2014 after working as a reporter since 1974.


The maiden N10 billion bond issue by Nova Merchant Bank was oversubscribed by over 300 per cent, its Chief Financial Officer, Ifeanyi Chukwuonye, has disclosed.

Mr Chukwuonye said despite the negative impact of COVID-19 on the global economy, including Nigerias, investors still swooped on the seven-year subordinated unsecured bond issuance.

He said the decision by the management of the bank to invest in the bond issue was part of its N50 billion debt issuance programme.

The N10 billion bond issue was in line with the corporate strategy of the bank to raise long term funding to create long-term corporate loans, he said.

The bond issue, which was restricted to qualified financial institutions and high net worth individuals, was the first in the series of bond issues conceived as part of the banks strategy to grow its balance sheet amidst the ravaging impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr Chukwuonye who said the bank was not deterred by the COVID-19 pandemic, said in the midst of the prevailing turbulent situation in the global economy, it identified opportunities it decided to exploit.

He said the response of the market to the opportunities was not only receptive, but was also impressive.

With the performance of the bank with the latest issue, Mr Chukwuonye said the bank, which is barely three years in existence, was already contemplating going back to the market any time soon for more funding.

The issuance is the first in the series as part of the banks strategy to grow its balance sheet. It is another addition to the catalogue of successes as a bank, he said.

He said the proceeds of the bond issuance would be used to create long-term corporate loans to build a more efficient balance sheet and increase the earning capacity of the banks assets

Highlighting the banks performance within the short period it has been in existence, Mr Chukwuonye said its impressive performance numbers were some of the factors that convinced investors to take their investment decisions.

Since becoming operational, he said the bank has remained very profitable, with its gross earnings growing by 121 per cent in 2017 and 2018 financial year, and about 111 per cent in 2018 and 2019.

Also, he said profit after tax grew by 43 per cent between 2018 and 2019, while total assets grew by 156 per cent in the corresponding period.

The CFO said the debt-income ratio of the bank has considerably come down consistently for the last three years as a demonstration of the banks management operating efficiency.

He expressed confidence of the banks future, saying it has high prospects of better performance.

The bank, he noted, has already taken steps to ensure it takes its place in the merchant banking space in Nigeria, adding that its long term goal was to build a viable and sustainable merchant banking institution that would be a pride of its investors

The bond issuance is part of the banks strategy to realise our long term goal, he said.

Nova Merchant Bank, which focuses on wholesale and investment banking, is owned by Nigerian and foreign institutional investors interested in financial services and the real sector.

Its services include Corporate Banking, Investment Banking, Advisory Services, Securities, Wealth & Asset Management targeted at private and public sector clients in addition to private individuals in the Oil & Gas sector, Commodity & Agricultural business, Utility & Infrastructure, Fast Moving Consumer Goods, Trade & Services and Financial Institutions.
Over 73 killed, 3,000 injured as huge explosions rock Lebanon's capital

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 13:31, August 05, 2020

Two huge explosions rocked Lebanese capital Beirut on Tuesday, leaving at least 73 people dead and 3,000 others injured.

The blasts hit the Port of Beirut at around 6:10 p.m. local time (1610 GMT), shaking buildings all over the city while causing massive casualties and damage.

The number of casualties is expected to rise as the counting continues. Local media outlets have been announcing the names of hundreds of people still missing, in the hope of helping their families find them.

The causes of the blasts remain unknown, but Lebanese Interior Minister Mohammad Fahmi said the explosive chemicals stored at Port of Beirut may have led to the explosions.

"Customs authorities must be asked about the reasons behind storing such chemical materials at Port of Beirut," Fahmi said.

Investigations into the explosions are expected to reveal the real causes of the disaster within five days.

Following the explosions, Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab immediately declared Wednesday a national mourning day for the victims of the explosions.

Meanwhile, Diab urged friendly countries to help Lebanon overcome the repercussions of the disastrous explosions.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun also called an emergency meeting of the Higher Defense Council, which later on Tuesday declared Beirut as an afflicted city while urging the Lebanese cabinet to announce a state of emergency in the city for two weeks.

The council also urged the cabinet to allocate funds for hospitals to help them treat the injured, and to contact all friendly countries to seek support and set up a fund to provide compensations for those affected by the disaster.

It recommended hosting the families whose houses were destroyed in schools, while importing glass and controlling the prices of all materials needed to fix the damaged houses.

During the meeting, Diab insisted that those responsible for the disaster be punished, noting that it is unacceptable to store 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate, the explosive chemicals, which have put people's lives at great risk.

The Lebanese cabinet is expected to hold a meeting on Wednesday to look into the proposal by the Higher Defense Council and announce new measures to deal with the current crisis.

Many countries have expressed solidarity and sympathy with Lebanon over the explosions that have dealt a further blow to the country already plagued by the COVID-19 pandemic and an economic crisis.

The Al-Jadeed TV reported that Iraq and Qatar will send field hospitals to Lebanon on Wednesday, while French President Emmanuel Macron, in a phone call with Aoun, promised to send support for Lebanon on Wednesday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Tuesday via his official Twitter account that Iran is ready to offer help to Lebanon.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the great and resilient people of Lebanon," Zarif tweeted. "As always, Iran is fully prepared to render assistance in any way necessary."

"Stay strong, Lebanon," he added.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi also expressed sympathy with the Lebanese government and people over the incident, while announcing Iran's readiness for providing help to the Arab country.

Iran is following the news on the incident with "deep grief" and "expresses solidarity with the Lebanese nation and government at this difficult time," Mousavi said in a statement.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry on Tuesday expressed sorrow over the massive casualties and damages caused by the huge explosions, during which two Turkish citizens were slightly injured.

"We wish God's mercy on those who lost their lives in this incident, urgent healing to those who were injured, and condolences to the Lebanese people, friends and brothers," the ministry said in a written statement.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi extended his condolences to Lebanon over the deadly explosions, and wished speedy recovery for those injured in the blasts.

"My sincere condolences and sympathy go to the government and people of Lebanon, over the tragic explosions that happened today in the Lebanese capital Beirut," Sisi wrote on his official Facebook page.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Tuesday that his country is ready to provide any support it could to Lebanon to help it recover from the tragedy, while sending his condolences to the families of the victims.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye said in a press statement that Palestine is "ready to put all its capabilities" for the service of Lebanon and provide any needed assistance immediately.

Member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's Executive Committee Hanan Ashrawi also expressed sorrow over the "devastating tragedy" and her wishes for Beirut to overcome the calamity.

In the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Islamic Hamas movement, phoned President Aoun to express his support for Lebanon amidst the grave situation.

In a rare move, Israel on Tuesday offered humanitarian aid to Lebanon over the explosions.

"Israel addressed Lebanon through international security and political elements and offered the Lebanese government medical humanitarian assistance," Israel's Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry said in a joint statement.

Israel and Lebanon have no official ties and tensions have been rising on the Israel-Lebanon border recently.

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Aamir Khan Plans To Shoot Laal Singh Chaddha In Turkey, Georgia; Shakun Batra's Next With Deepika Headed To Sri Lanka
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 19:15:54|Editor: huaxia

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NEW DELHI, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- At least 34 people were killed due to drowning as three boats capsized in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, state-run broadcaster - All India Radio (AIR) said Thursday.

The boats capsized in swollen Gandak and Kosi rivers in Khagaria, Saharsa districts. The third incident of boat capsize was reported in Darbhanga.

"Thirty-four people have lost their lives in flood-related incidents, mostly due to drowning. Most of the casualties were from Khagaria and Saharsa districts," the broadcaster said.

According to officials, a boat carrying 25 people was headed towards Ekania Diara, when it was caught in a severe storm.

Five persons including boatmen swam to safety, while as rest went missing.

Reports said some bodies have been recovered from the river.

In the second incident in Saharsa, a boat carrying 14 people capsized near Sahuri village near eastern Kosi embankment.

The third incident took place in Darbhanga.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has expressed his condolences to the aggrieved families and directed district officials of Khagaria, Saharsa and Darbhanga to extend help to the victim families.

Bihar is currently reeling under floods and has affected over 6.6 million people in 16 districts.

The authorities have pressed in 20 teams of National Disaster Response Force and 13 teams of State Disaster Response Force to carry out rescue operations.

Officials said 480,884 people were evacuated in the affected districts.

The floodwater has breached two embankments in Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga.

On Wednesday Bihar Chief Minister made an aerial survey of flood-affected areas of the state. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-07 00:58:17|Editor: huaxia

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ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Vera Songwe, on Thursday emphasized the need to boost intra-Africa trade in order to augment Africa's share in the global trading platform.

The ECA chief made the urgent call during a virtual meeting on African perspectives on the World Trade Organization (WTO) and prospects for regional trade cooperation on Thursday, as she emphasized the need to strengthen trade among African countries.

"Africa's trade in the global community was 2 percent two decades ago. We are still at 2 percent despite having joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) and having more countries that trade outside the continent more," Songwe told the virtual event.

"Let's develop our productive capacity to transform our goods from raw commodities," the ECA Executive Secretary added.

According to Songwe, when Africa trades with itself, it creates more value, and whenever it creates more value, it creates more wealth and reduces poverty.

"The Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement offers countries opportunities to develop regional value chains and increase competitiveness in the global markets," she said.

Songwe also noted that African countries are "driving a solidified trade voice and a resoluteness to implement the AfCFTA."

"This renewed and reinvigorated approach to trade is necessary for economic growth and job creation on the continent," she stressed.

The AfCFTA offers a new hope and continental exhilaration in terms of boosting intra-African trade, facilitating Africa's development and industrialization.

According to the ECA, once in operation, the African free trade accord has the potential of boosting intra-Africa trade by more than 52 percent by 2022.

Initially scheduled for July, the implementation of the AfCFTA agreement was postponed due to COVID-19, and experts and analysts are expressing their doubts whether the African continent could benefit from its ambitious flagship initiative.

Speaking to Xinhua recently, Antonio Pedro, director of the UNECA Sub-regional Office for Central Africa, stressed the need to tap into the AfCFTA as "a much more dependable" option to realize Africa's major economic development and industrialization aspirations amid growing pressure on multilateral platforms.

The African Union (AU) Commissioner for Trade and Industry, Albert Muchanga, also told Xinhua that Africa is contributing positively to the global multilateral system. Enditem
Beach closures as a result of COVID-19 push people to some of the more dangerous spots along the Lakefront Trail, Benjamin said. But despite the closures, were pretty much on par in terms of number of fatal drownings in Lake Michigan this year compared with previous years, with 31 recorded by this time in 2019 and 18 by early August in 2018, he said.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 5, ARMENPRESS. Mayor of Yerevan Hayk Marutyan has offered condolences to the Mayor of Beirut Jamal Itani on the devastating blast which claimed more than 100 lives and injured around 5000 people in the Lebanese capital on Tuesday.

On behalf of the Yerevanites, I expressed my deepest condolences over the disastrous explosion in Beirut, Marutyan said in a statement. Together with the Beirutis we mourn the loss of many lives. We are sure that Yerevans sister city Beirut will overcome this disaster and will emerge from this challenge stronger and firmer, the mayor of the Armenian capital said.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
PULLMAN, Wash. - A rare, transmissible tumor has brought the iconic Tasmanian devil to the brink of extinction, but new research by scientists at Washington State University and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle indicates hope for the animals' survival and possibly new treatment for human cancers.

The study, published in Genetics on Aug. 1, found a single genetic mutation that leads to reduced growth of a transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils in the wild.

"This gene is implicated in human prostate and colon cancers," said Andrew Storfer, professor of biological sciences at WSU. "While the findings hold the most immediate promise to help save the world's few remaining Tasmanian devils, these results could also someday translate to human health."

The research team, led by Storfer and Mark Margres, now a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, studied the genomes of cases of devil facial tumor disease, or DFTD, that regressed spontaneously -- that is, the cancer began disappearing on its own.

They were surprised to find the mutation contributing to tumor regression doesn't change the gene function but instead, turns on a gene that slows cell growth in the tumor. At least, it behaves that way in the lab.

Current human cancer therapies focus on removing every trace of a tumor, often through toxic or debilitating treatments, said David Hockenbery, a cancer biologist at Fred Hutch who contributed to the study.

"If there were ways that tumors could be tricked into regressing without having to administer cytotoxic drugs or deforming surgeries, it would be a major advance," he said.

While infections cause up to 20 percent of all human cancers - such as gastric cancer from Helicobacter pylori and cervical cancer from human papillomavirus - for Tasmanian devils, the cancer is the infection.

DFTD spreads between the animals when they bite each other during common social behaviors. Since the mid-1990s, the disease has decimated the natural population of the carnivorous marsupials, which are now found only on the island state of Tasmania, off the southeastern coast of Australia.

Storfer's lab leads a National Institutes of Health-funded team of researchers from the U.S. and Australia to improve conservation efforts for Tasmanian devils and increase understanding of the co-evolution of the tumor and its host.

Though ferocious with each other, Tasmanian devils take mild handling by people without much fuss, making it easy for investigators to humanely capture the animals, collect tissue samples and tag them for monitoring before release back into the wild.

As the researchers work to save the devils, they also have an unprecedented opportunity to watch tumors naturally evolve and sometime regress without drugs or surgery.

"Although this disease is largely fatal, we're seeing tumors just disappear from an increasing number of individual animals," Storfer said.

The team is looking at the effects of other promising mutations in regressed tumors as well.

"We hope to learn something that could be applied to understanding and possibly treating a number of human cancers in the future," Storfer said.

###

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Washington Research Foundation.
India took timely action against the Covid-19 pandemic and gave a graded response to the evolving situation of the virus spread, Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan noted during the virtual meeting with regional directors of WHO South-East Asia on Thursday.

India has had a graded response to Covid-19 from the start and issued advisories and restrictions even before the first case was reported in January, the health minister said.

Vardhan informed the WHO team about various measures that the government took to battle the Covid-19 pandemic and challenges that lie ahead.

Also read: Over 56,000 cases in last 24 hours push Indias Covid-19 tally closer to 2 million

#WatchNow!! @WHO Executive Board Chairman & Hon'ble Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan participating in a virtual meeting with RD, @WHOSEARO & Health Ministers of Member States @PMOIndia @MoHFW_INDIA https://t.co/e39e3Me2NJ  DrHarshVardhanOffice (@DrHVoffice) August 6, 2020

He said that India started screening passengers at countrys four main airports from January 18. All passengers were being screened at various airports from March 6 while incoming flights were suspended by 22nd March, he added.

The worlds biggest, severest lockdown was put in place on 25th March, Dr Vardhan stated.

The minister noted that India has a high population density and less support in terms of GDP expenditure on healthcare. Yet we have been able to keep the number of deaths due to Covid-19 well below as compared to other countries, he stated.

India was able to create 10,000 beds for Covid-19 patients from just 1,000 previously in the matter of 10-20 days with the help of the DRDO, he said.

We are ensuring mental well being of the populace amid pandemic, Dr Vardhan added.

He said that the lockdown is being lifted in a graded manner starting June 1, while ensuring social distancing and restrictions on mass gatherings.
A Belfast solicitor and ex-Belfast Harbour chairman are to be prosecuted for fraud over Project Eagle - the sale of Namas property loans in Northern Ireland.

Ian Coulter (49), a former managing partner of commercial firm Tughans, and Frank Cushnahan (78), former chairman of Belfast Harbour, are to be charged over the 1.2bn sale of the toxic property loans which had been held by the Republics bad bank, Nama.

Solicitors for the two men have said they will be contesting the charges.

Joe Rice, who is representing Frank Cushnahan, said: "We are extremely disappointed that the PPS has decided to prosecute. We will be pleading not guilty to both allegations at any forthcoming trial."

John Finucane, who is acting for Mr Coulter, told the BBC that has his client faces "what will undoubtedly be a lengthy court process lasting years... he will maintain his innocence to the offences alleged, as he has throughout this drawn out process".

The sale to US fund Cerberus Capital Management had been Northern Irelands biggest-ever property transaction.

Mr Coulter will also face two counts of the offence of concealing criminal property.

Mr Cushnahan will be charged with two counts of fraud, while Mr Coulter faces three counts of fraud - including one joint count with Mr Cushnahan.

The Public Prosecution Service announced on Thursday the decision against the two men after it took over investigations into the deal from the National Crime Agency.

However, another six people who were also investigated by the PPS under the same file will not face charges.

The PPS said: After consideration of a complex and substantial file submitted by NCA investigators, it has been decided that there is sufficient evidence to prosecute two suspects in connection with alleged activity around the property deal known as Project Eagle.

A 78-year-old man is to be charged with one count of the offence of fraud, contrary to Section 1 of the Fraud Act 2006 involving a failure to disclose information between 1st April 2013 and 7th November 2013.

The 78-year-old and a 49-year-old man are also to be jointly charged with one count of fraud, contrary to Section 1 of the Fraud Act 2006 involving a false representation made on or around the 3rd April 2014.

Its understood Mr Cushnahan is the 78-year-old referred to by the PPS, while Mr Coulter is the 49-year-old.

The PPS added that the 49-year-old is also charged with two more counts of fraud. One count of fraud, contrary to Section 1 of Fraud Act 2006 involves a false representation made on or around September 11, 2014 while another count involves making an article in connection with a fraud on or about August 13.

There are a further two counts of the offence of concealing criminal property, contrary to Section 327 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 involving concealing, disguising or transferring criminal property between the 15th September 2014 and 1st December 2014.

A total of nine individuals have been considered by the PPS over the sale and attempted sale of Namas Northern Ireland property loan book to two US investment firms in 2014.

The PPS said there was not enough evidence to prosecute the six other individuals. A decision was previously taken not to prosecute one suspect in November 2018 arising out of the Project Eagle investigation.

PPS Assistant Director Ciaran McQuillan said: We have been working in close partnership with the National Crime Agency in respect of its wide-ranging investigation into the sale of Namas property loan book in Northern Ireland.

"We would like to take this opportunity to recognise the diligence of the NCA in this investigation and the comprehensive nature of their enquiries.

"A considerable volume of evidence submitted to the PPS has been painstakingly examined by a team of experienced and senior prosecutors, with the benefit of advice from two Senior Counsel. As a result, it has been concluded that there is sufficient evidence for two of those reported to be prosecuted for a number of serious charges.

Whilst the test for prosecution was met in respect of two suspects, it was considered not met on evidential grounds in respect of seven further individuals with regard to the Project Eagle investigation. All decisions were taken in full accordance with the PPS Code for Prosecutors and only after a thorough consideration of all issues.

As criminal proceedings will commence in due course and each defendant has the right to a fair trial, it is extremely important to protect the integrity of any future trial that there should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice those proceedings.
Kolomoisky and Boholiubov were the two major owners of PrivatBank before it was nationalized in response to the fraud, the Justice Department said, and the men basically used it as a personal account to build a business empire in the United States. They requested money from PrivatBank  which they always received because they were owners  then moved the funds through a network of companies to thoroughly disguise their nature, source, ownership, and control, the Justice Department alleged.
06.08.2020 LISTEN

The Management of GCB Bank Limited has approved a donation of GHc100,000.00 for the fight against cerebrospinal meningitis (CMS) and COVID-19 in the Upper West Region of the country.

The amount will be used for the improvement in health infrastructure and other uses for the benefit of the people of the Upper West Region.

Presentation of the cheque to the Upper West Regional Health Directorate will be done by the Tamale Regional Manager of GCB early next week.

The approval/donation to the Regional Health Directorate forms part of the Bank's activities marking the 67th anniversary of the Bank.

The donation is being done under GCB's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) towards the health segment and community development as part of activities to mark the bank's 67th-anniversary celebration.

GCB, Ghana's largest bank, established in May 1953, has three branches and an Agency in the Upper West Region.

These include Wa, Tumu and Lawra branches and Hamile Agency
Who owns this raw and undeveloped man-made 39-acre island just off Key West called Wisteria Island?

The federal government does, a U.S. District Court judge has ruled, and not a local developer.

Judge Jose Martinez granted the U.S. government summary judgment in a 2011 lawsuit brought by developer Roger Bernstein who lay claim that the island belonged to his corporation, F.E.B.

The governments interest in the case, however, only arose after two Key West journalists, Naja and Arnaud Girard, dove into the history of Wisteria Island after seeing Bernsteins plans to develop it.

My husband and I had a lot to do with it, Naja Girard said. All the research convinced the government.

Wisteria Island ruling, July 31, 2020. by Gwen Filosa on Scribd

In 2011, the Girards, who own a Key West marine assistance and boat salvage company, made three trips to the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and pored through records.

It was sort of a passion, Naja Girard said. We asked for what you have about the Navy and the Key West area and they brought out all these boxes. We sat there for days.

They hit the jackpot: documents that suggested the Bernsteins could not own the island because the Navy had not given up title to Wisteria until 1982. And when it did, it transferred it to the U.S. Department of the Interior, not the state of Florida.

By the time the couple had compiled their evidence that Wisteria belonged to the government, they had persuaded the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to write to them in November 2011 that, because Wisteria was built by the Navy, it was public land.

The lead attorney for F.E.B. did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday. The corporation could still appeal Martinezs decision.

Wisteria Island in Key West Harbor has so far been left undeveloped as the city has become a major tourist destination.

The Bernstein family in 2012 said they were stunned the feds disregarded the warranty deed their late father, Ben, obtained for $155,000 in 1967, the four decades worth of property taxes theyve paid, and the Submerged Lands Act of 1953, which they believe confirms their ownership.

Story continues

This is a land grab by the federal government of epic proportions, Roger Bernstein told the Miami Herald in 2012.

Wisteria sits across from another island, the ultra-developed luxury community of Sunset Key.

Wisteria, which some Key Westers call Christmas Tree Island, sits in the Gulf of Mexico. Over the years its been home to hippies, outcasts, the homeless and even at times thieves who used it as a chop shop.

Naja Girard guesses that about 20 people call it home today. She has led various cleanups of the island over the years and says that before Hurricane Irma, Wisteria was pristine.

But Irma trashed lots of boats people called home in the harbor and some people built camps on Wisteria, she said.

Sometimes tourists venture out to it. Violence happens every once in a while. In 2018, a couple said they were assaulted by people who live on Wisteria who didnt take to outsiders.

A man was stabbed in the stomach last month, but police havent found the culprit.

Wisteria is not a natural island. It was formed as a result of dredging done under the Navy in nearby Key West Harbor during the first half of the 19th century.

A significant dredging project in 1943 made the island what it is today, according to undisputed facts listed in the case records.

In 1951, the state decided to sell Wisteria. That drew an objection from the federal government, which said it was their property. But a year later, Florida sold it to a private party through a quitclaim deed that included no warranties of title.

The title passed from private owner to private owner until F.E.B. bought it in 1967. The federal government appeared to defer to F.E.B. and entered into licensing agreements with the corporation to use Wisteria as a Navy training ground from 2004 to 2006.

Martinez quoted some case law on the legal dispute: Wisteria Islands origin is undisputed: It was built up by Navy contractors, who used the land for the governments purpose and benefit of storing fill accumulated from nearby dredging operations.

Then Martinez wrote, Creation was not the use. Dredging was the use.

The Girards were pleased with the decision, of course. They hope the property can remain development-free and perhaps become a recreational area for locals.

It was pretty amazing the government took it on, Naja Girard said. You have this personal advocacy for something and the U.S. government takes on your battle, and then you win. That doesnt happen every day. 
CHICAGO, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Sterling Bay, Chicago's premier real estate investment and development firm, and Evozyne, LLC, a Chicago-based, privately held, molecular engineering technology company, today announced the signing of a 30,000-square-foot lease at 2430 N Halsted. Recently acquired as the first asset of Sterling Bay's life sciences division, The Labs, 2430 N. Halsted was redeveloped to meet today's standards for state-of-the-art lab space. 2430 N Halsted is now more than 50 percent leased to Evozyne, Exicure, Inc. and Vanqua Bio.

"Evozyne moving into 2430 N Halsted is yet another sign that Chicago is an emerging leader in life sciences," said Andy Gloor, chief executive officer of Sterling Bay. "Sterling Bay is committed to developing leasable, high-quality lab space so that forward-thinking life science companies like Evozyne have a place to grow and can continue to attract talent to the City of Chicago to make lasting scientific advancements."

Founded by Jeff Aronin in 2019, Evozyne is a portfolio company of Paragon Biosciences that is combining breakthroughs in computational modeling, artificial intelligence, and machine learning with science that is informed by the laws of nature to create novel, uniquely functioning synthetic proteins with new precision and efficiency. Developing synthetic proteins at scales necessary to address global needs represents a major advance in life science and materials research with profound implications for many key industries including agricultural, biopharmaceutical, and environmental.

"Evozyne's new laboratory facility in Lincoln Park is part of a growing life sciences hub in Chicago that is driving so many meaningful innovations," said Jeff Aronin, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Paragon Biosciences. "Alongside partners like Sterling Bay that are investing in the City's future as a leader in life science research, Evozyne is positioned to elevate Chicago's status by addressing today's most pressing challenges across a variety of industries including agricultural, biopharmaceutical, industrial, energy, and environmental."

Evozyne's new facility is scheduled to complete construction in early 2021 and is expected to deliver hundreds of new jobs to the local life science community as it continues to grow. CBRE Executive Vice President David Saad represented Sterling Bay in the transaction.

"The expansion of our operational capacity to 2430 N Halsted is driven by commercial demand for our data-driven molecular engineering technology," said Aris Theologis, chief business officer of Evozyne. "We have assembled top life science talent from across the country and look forward to expanding our footprint in Chicago  both in Lincoln Park and at Lincoln Yards  in the years to come."

Featuring fully integrated wet lab space for both emerging and established life science companies, 2430 N Halsted is Sterling Bay's first foray into the life science sector. The company is in active discussions to acquire and develop best-in- class research facilities across the United States.

As its first step in the development of an expansive medical innovation district at Lincoln Yards, Sterling Bay has today announced its first on-site life science building. Designed by Gensler, this 300,000-square-foot development will provide Chicago's rapidly growing life science community with much-needed lab space along the North Branch of the Chicago River.

Building off of the success of Sterling Bay's leasing momentum at 2430 N Halsted, the new lab space at Lincoln Yards will house industry-leading companies that seek to develop groundbreaking medical solutions and also create a sense of community within their workplace.

Featuring state-of-the-art amenities and conference areas, large outdoor open spaces and seating areas along the Chicago River, the location will foster an environment of growth where tenants can exchange ideas and build relationships to advance their work in a convenient, connected urban research environment.

"This new life sciences building will serve as a cornerstone at Lincoln Yards, creating good jobs, providing vital resources to the city's growing biomedical research community, and transforming the North Branch Corridor into an inclusive urban environment positioned for future growth," said 2nd Ward Alderman Brian Hopkins.

About Sterling Bay

Sterling Bay is a Chicago-based real estate investment and development company with expertise spanning all aspects of real estate ownership. Known for creating world-class urban campuses for companies such as Google, McDonald's, WPP, Pinterest, Dyson and Tyson Foods, Sterling Bay is consistently recognized for award-winning projects that transform space, enhance communities and strengthen a company's culture and brand. Sterling Bay's team of more than 200 professionals is responsible for a portfolio exceeding $5 billion, and a development pipeline of more than $9 billion. For more information, visit www.sterlingbay.com.

About Evozyne

Evozyne is passionate about solving problems, from molecular scale to global. The company's mission is to unlock the potential of novel proteins to solve complex human and societal challenges by revolutionizing protein design. By combining computational modeling, artificial intelligence/deep learning, and science informed by the laws of nature, Evozyne creates novel, uniquely functioning proteins with previously unachievable precision and efficiency. For more information, visit https://evozyne.com/ .

About Paragon Biosciences

Paragon is a life science innovator that creates, invests in and builds life science companies in artificial intelligence, cell and gene therapy, synthetic biology and biopharmaceuticals. The company's current portfolio includes Castle Creek Biosciences, Emalex Biosciences, Evozyne, Harmony Biosciences, Qlarity Imaging, Skyline Biosciences, and a consistent flow of incubating companies created and supported by the replicable Paragon Innovation Capital model. Paragon stands at the intersection of human need, life science, and company creation. For more information, please visit https://paragonbiosci.com/.

Media Contact:

Julie Goudie

Sterling Bay

312-202-3471

[email protected]

Adam Daley

Berry & Company Public Relations

212-253-8881

[email protected]

SOURCE Evozyne, LLC

Related Links

https://evozyne.com


Editors note: This part of a series of profiles on cannabis brokers, in which Insurance Journal explores why and how these folks got into the business, the ups and downs of insuring cannabis, as well as a few tips for those interested in a little professional development.

Curtis Prince, CEO and founder of Flux Insurance Services LLC, has been focused on cannabis now for a little over a handful of his 20 years in the insurance industry.

Prince, who founded another firm, Integrated Underwriters in 2016, said he got into cannabis when he realized there was a tremendous amount of opportunity in the space for a vertically centric insurance and human capital management brokerage.

So, he launched Flux, a wholesale broker headquartered in Folsom, Calif. Flux is short for Influx, which Prince said is aimed at helping to protect, streamline and grow the emerging cannabis market.

Prince spoke with Insurance Journal about his experience as a cannabis broker.

Insurance Journal: Why did you get in the cannabis and insurance space?

Prince: To be honest It was almost by accident. My wife and I were having dinner with some friends of ours and we came to find out that my friend owned and operated 15 cannabis operations nationally.

Our conversation continued in subsequent meetings and my friend asked if I could help him with his insurance and human capital management needs. I was not really interested because I had not kept up with the cannabis insurance space and didnt feel I could provide the value and oversight he needed.

He ultimately twisted my arm and told me he didnt trust anyone else, so I decided to take it upon myself to dive into the market and was shocked to find that the insurance marketplace for cannabis was a bit like the wild West.

In reviewing many of his policies it appeared he had huge gaps in coverage and he really didnt know what he had and if he was overpaying or underpaying for adequate coverage. To top it off his exposure and liability as an employer was growing and he didnt have a grip on how to manage and scale a workforce in the cannabis environment.

IJ: Has this been a good financial decision so far?

Prince: Most definitely. Apart from the monetary ROI we are excited to be involved and advocate for cannabis industry.

IJ: Whats the hardest thing about the cannabis industry to deal with?

Prince: Where to begin? Apart from the lack of insurance carriers offering viable solutions, we feel the lack of viable banking solutions is a real barrier to entry for most operators. The lack of banking forces operators to use cash to process payroll and this leaves them open to all kinds of employer-related exposures.

IJ: What insurance product is the most difficult to obtain for your cannabis industry clients? Why?

Prince: I wish there were only one coverage to mention here, but to be honest the industry is lacking in viable insurance products for auto, outdoor crop, D&O, keyman life, supplemental disability and even event liability.

We hope to develop a product over the next year with a carrier partner to solve this problem, which is only growing as the marketplace expands nationally.

IJ: What two or three tips do you have for brokers entering the business of insuring cannabis?

Prince: As with any niche market you can only bring value if you have the depth on the bench and the experience required to be a trusted advisor. Thankfully new agents dont have to go it alone.

Topics Agencies Cannabis
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Linkedin Yunindita Prasidya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, August 6, 2020 12:12 530 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066bfabf9 1 Business COVID-19,GDP-growth,government-spending,Sucor-Sekuritas,budget-disbursement,Mirae-Asset-Sekuritas,stimulus-package Free

The governments slow budget realization has hindered the countrys economic recovery, as the COVID-19 pandemic puts continuous pressure on peoples purchasing power, experts have warned.

Sucor Sekuritas head of research Adrianus Bias said that while market players welcomed the governments budgeting and funding for the COVID-19 relief programs, the key factor was still budget realization.

What we are actually waiting for is the budget absorption from the government, Adrianus told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Adrianus noted that many companies had seen improvements over the past months as the large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) were gradually relaxed beginning in June. Going into August, several companies have already reported running at a 75 to 80 percent capacity against pre-COVID-19 levels, he said.

Its a bit frustrating, really, looking at the current conditions but then the bureaucracy is still dragging out the [budget] realization. Hence, the economy cannot recover to its full potential, he added.

The government has earmarked Rp 695.2 trillion (US$47.2 billion) in stimulus measures to strengthen the countrys healthcare response and boost the economy amid the ongoing health crisis.

However, the budget disbursement has only reached Rp 145.4 trillion of the total COVID-19 response funds, equal to 20.9 percent, dominated by spending on social protection and the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) stimulus, while other kinds of stimulus such as for health care and corporate financing, among others, have lagged.

The countrys gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 5.32 percent year-on-year (yoy) during this years second quarter, significantly lower than the growth in the first quarter at 2.97 percent, Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data showed.

While household spending, which makes up more than half of GDP, fell by 5.51 percent, government expenditure, expected to boost the economy while peoples purchasing power faltered, dropped by 6.9 percent in the second quarter.

President Joko Jokowi Widodo has repeatedly urged his Cabinet to disburse funds quicker, pushing government officials to operate with a sense of crisis considering the wide-ranging impact of the pandemic on the Indonesian population.

This shows that ministries and government institutions still do not have a sense of urgency. Officials are still fixated on their day-to-day duties, Jokowi said prior to a limited Cabinet meeting on Monday.

On Wednesday, Indonesia confirmed 1,815 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the number of infections to 116,781 nationwide, with more than 5,400 deaths, official data showed. The country surpassed the 100,000 figure on July 27 following the gradual reopening of the economy.

Mirae Asset Sekuritas Indonesia economist Anthony Kevin told the Post on Monday that the governments social assistance had yet to reach the layer of the population that needed the funds the most.

The government is not proactive enough in trying to spread its social safety net. This is what is hindering Indonesias economic recovery, Anthony said.

Reaching the middle- to low-income segment was necessary for an economic recovery, Anthony noted, as they represent more than 50 percent of Indonesias economy and have a greater marginal propensity to consume in comparison with the middle- to upper-income segment.

In a report published on Tuesday, Anthony wrote that the problem with the reopening of the economy was that the demand side often failed to catch up with the supply side.

As for Indonesia, we believe the situation is much more severe, as high levels of fear over weak demand eventually discourages producers from boosting production in the first place, he noted.
A North Carolina great-grandmother is suing Disney World in a $18million lawsuit after she was arrested for having CBD oil in her bag at the park.

Hester Burkhalter, 69, was arrested on April 15, 2019 when Disney security found a vial of cannabinoid oil, or CBD oil, in her purse when she handed it to be searched at Magic Kingdom, where she was visiting with her two adopted children.

The new lawsuit was announced Wednesday by prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who also represents the cases of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, against Disney, the Orlando Police Department and Orange County Sheriffs Department.

They allege Burkhalter was wrongfully arrested and detained for the oil, which was for medicinal purposes for her arthritis and did not contain THC.

North Carolina great-grandmother Hester Burkhalter, 69, is suing Disney World after she was arrested for having CBD oil in her bag in April 2019 in a $18million lawsuit. In the incident she was arrested and booked in a Florida jail on a state felony charge of possession of cannabis concentrates. Pictured right with husband Art

Burkhalter was arrested on April 15, 2019 when Disney security found a vial of cannabinoid oil, or CBD oil, in her purse when she handed it to be searched at Magic Kingdom, where she was visiting with her two adopted children

Burkhalter said she was traumatized by the arrest where she was handcuffed In front of her eight-year-old and 10-year-old children, taken to jail, and forced to strip for a cavity search.

She said she also had a panic attack while in police custody and vomited.

'It was the most humiliating day of my life,' Burkhalter said Wednesday.

'I even told them that I could not breathe before I finally got out,' she added.

Shes seeking more than $18million in damages citing assault and battery, false arrest, imprisonment, and emotional distress among other claims.

The suit requests $6million in compensatory damages and $12million in punitive damages for Burkhalter, as well as millions of additional dollars for her family, according to the July 29 complaint.

The arrest was recorded on bodycam footage by Orange County Sheriffs Office deputies.

Video of Burkhalter's arrest shows her say 'I've never done this before' as Orange County Sheriff's Office deputies cuff her and place her in a squad car

She was arrested for possession of hashish and trespassed from Disney property. Those charges were later dropped

Burkhalter said she was traumatized by the arrest where she was handcuffed In front of her eight-year-old and 10-year-old children, taken to jail, and forced to strip for a cavity search

She was arrested for possession of hashish and trespassed from Disney property. Those charges were later dropped.

Burkhalter said she has arthritis and her doctor told her to try the oil because it would help.

However, it is illegal to possess CBD oil in the state of Florida without a medical marijuana card.

Federally the oil, which is extracted from the flowers of marijuana plants but doesnt produce a high, is legal.

When asked if her substance contained THC, Burkhalter said she did not know, although the bottle read 0 percent THC, according to the complaint.

Burkhalter's CBD oil prescription (above) claims to have no THC content, but Orange County Sheriff's deputies tested the oil and alleged that there were traces of THC

'Disneys stated mission is to make everyones dreams come true. Instead, they turned a harmless grandmothers expensive Disney vacation into a nightmare by treating her like a criminal,' her attorney Ben Crump said. Crump pictured July 15

An Orange County deputy tested the bottle of her oil twice using a marijuana presumptive drug test kit and got a first negative result then a positive result for the presence of THC, according to CNN.

Crump said they have asked Disney for an apology but it has not given.

Disney is yet to respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment.

Crump said the Orange County Sheriff's Office has been mostly silent except in trying to 'defend their indefensible actions.'

'Disneys stated mission is to make everyones dreams come true. Instead, they turned a harmless grandmothers expensive Disney vacation into a nightmare by treating her like a criminal with the full participation of the Orange County Sheriffs Office,' Crump said in a statement shared with DailyMail.com..

'We have given Disney and Orange County several chances to own their mistakes and make this right. The arrogance, complacency and lack of corporate responsibility demonstrated by these organizations demand correction and justice,' he added.
A 9-year-old boy was seriously injured after being hit by a car in Hingham while crossing the street Wednesday, police said.

The child was struck by a car in front of the Plymouth River School at 200 High St. around 5:31 p.m., according to a statement from the Hingham Police Department.

He and another 9-year-old boy were leaving the school and waiting at a marked crosswalk to cross High Street when an SUV drove around the stopped cars and struck one of the boys. The other child was not hit, the statement said.

The boy was found by officers in the road and flown by medical helicopter to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, according to police.

The SUV stopped at the scene, and the driver, a 61-year-old Scituate woman, has since been cited for negligent driving, failing to yield to a pedestrian on a crosswalk and a marked Lanes Violation, authorities said.

A warning sign is posted near the painted crosswalk on High Street, police noted.

The driver is expected to appear at a hearing at Hingham District Court at a future date.
Andrzej Duda takes the oath of office for a second five-year term amid silent protests against his policies.

Polish President Andrzej Duda has taken the oath of office for a second five-year term amid coronavirus precautions in Parliament and silent protests against his policies.

Usually full with parliamentarians and guests during a presidential inauguration, the parliaments plenary room had many empty seats on Thursday after numerous legislators from the centrist opposition alliance Civic Coalition (KO) decided not to come.

The parties forming KO wanted to protest Dudas infringements of the constitution, Borys Budka, the leader of Civic Platform, the largest party in the coalition, wrote on Twitter.

Parliamentarians from the Left parliamentary caucus came to the inauguration, but held up copies of the constitution to protest what they view as the head of states disregard for the countrys supreme law.

They also wore face masks in rainbow colours in an apparent protest at Dudas recent comments hostile to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) community and temporary detention of LGBTQ activists by the police for placing rainbow flags on public monuments.

The Lefts female legislators came to the inauguration in colourful dresses to form a rainbow as they sat in their seats.

Duda recently made hostile comments against the LGBTQ community [Kacper Pempel/Reuters]

Against this background, President Duda called in his inaugural address on the National Assembly for unity and cooperation despite political differences.

Polish matters are the most important for me, Duda said, pointing to family, security, employment, investments and dignity as his priorities.

Duda also praised the high voter turnout in the recent presidential election, saying democracy in Poland is stronger than ever.

Duda won the second term by a two-percentage-point margin over the liberal mayor of Warsaw, Rafal Trzaskowski, in a runoff election on July 12.
Lets be honest: when push comes to shove, nobody wants their kids hanging around at home after Labour Day.

After three months of last springs in-home disaster  or as its officially known, distance learning  theres little appetite among parents to continue this failed experiment in virtual schooling for another year.

As the mother of all pandemics extends its reach toward fall, kids are going stir crazy, parents are whacking their heads against the wall and no one is learning anything, other than new ways to eat up bandwidth and misplace the remote.

Which makes a return to full-time classroom teaching not just the preferred option for parents, but in many cases, the only one.

But theres a catch, and as usual, it has to do with money.

When the government announced the plan to reopen schools I was shocked! notes Kitcheners Kristina Bertrand, a Grade 1 teacher and parent of three kids under six who worked as a nurses aide and knows all about infection control.

What theyre doing is treating these children like guinea pigs. Do they know the long term side effects? No! Have any of these governing parties set foot in a school setting in the past few years? No! We have individuals making education decisions based on health professionals recommendations for mental health.

Well, let me throw this out there: what good will social interaction be if a child gets sick and dies? Or a teacher? How will these childrens mental health be then? How will students be able to deal with the fact they may bring COVID home and cause a parent, sibling or grandparent to get sick or die?

Typically, when I send out a social media request for comments I get one response, maybe two.

In midsummer, when everyone is on vacation or wilting on the back deck like a rain-starved sunflower, its even less.

But within two hours of my calling all parents post this week my inbox was filled with outraged missives accusing the government of throwing kids (and teachers) under the bus in what is perceived as a cost-cutting attempt to kick-start the economy without proper regard for safety measures.

I have to be honest: when the government announced its back-to-school plan last week with a big song and dance about personal protective gear and more money for cleaning, I thought they might actually get away with it.

As a parent of two school aged kids I knew it was a bunch of baloney, because I hear stories at the dinner table of kids eating pencil shavings on a dare and grinding milk cartons into pizza slices during lunch break.

Social distancing? Proper mask protocol? You gotta be kidding.

And yet, most early reviews, written by stentorian journalists who, Im guessing, dont have young kids, were cautiously optimistic: its not perfect, was the consensus, but give the government points for trying. Masks on kids in Grades 4-12 are a great idea! As long as they go back to class, how bad can it be?

But a funny thing happened over the long weekend as parents realized their boisterous, nerve-racking offspring  who they feel an instinctive need to protect  would be returning to a hornets nest of corona germs with a mask that would likely end up as a slingshot.

Their elation over what, at first glance, seemed like a viable back-to-school plan turned to furrowed concern, then anguished doubt, and by the time I sat down to write this column, something approximating boiling outrage.

I have read, and reread, the documents from the school board and province, notes Alecia Juvatopolos, a Cambridge parent of three who resents the boards insistence that she choose between distance and in-class learning options by next week.

It seems like what matters is saving money and honouring collective bargaining agreements. It doesnt seem like children matter. Theres a lot of to the best of our ability statements. That is NOT good enough.

The main sticking point? The plans embedded poison pill, which calls for unreduced class sizes for elementary school students, despite experts insistence that smaller classes should be a priority strategy.

I havent spoken to a single educator or parent whos feeling confident and safe about this plan, insists Janet McLaughlin, a Wilfrid Laurier University health studies prof and mother of two young children, one with special needs.

For elementary students, it appears to be basically school as normal with masks for some and some increased sanitizer and other protocols. But the fundamentals of class sizes and structures havent changed, which means physical distancing cant be realistically maintained.

Like many parents, McLaughlin suspects an ulterior motive behind a plan some argue offers less stringent safety measures than those in place for restaurants and grocery stores.

It almost seems like the government is counting on everyone with means pooling together to home-school, then hoping (public) schools will have fewer kids and expenses, she says, noting this is exactly whats happening in her own social circle.

It will create two-tiered education with exposure to health risks based on income. Even for those who can home-school, the stress will continue, having to juggle competing responsibilities or involve major career or financial sacrifices.

Today I fielded three calls in a row from different moms madly trying to figure out what to do.

For kids who do head back, there are a lot of loose ends.

What about the kids who cant abide by rules? muses Juvatopolos, referring to those with special needs or behavioural issues.

My neurotypical 8-year-old, who pre-COVID would touch everything despite reminders, wears his mask in the store with me. He knows he isnt supposed to touch it. In the car last week I asked him to keep it on between stores since it was a two minute drive. In those two minutes, he had it over his eyes, his whole face, his chin.

Kids at school are going to want to trade masks. Can you imagine when Sally shows up with one with those flippy sequins? Kids will touch it. Or Jimmy has a cute Fortnite mask? Trading time. Some kids will lick, chew, blow their noses into the mask. They will get dropped on the floor. Just the tip of what will go on.

Bertrand, currently on maternity leave, agrees:

Were in a pandemic. We have social circles of 10 people. Think of that! Now children will be with 30 or 24 other people exposed to their social circles, with teachers exposed to countless others. If you have one child, thats now a social circle of 300 or 240 depending on the age group. If youre like me, if I was returning to work, my social circle would be 600 plus! How is that safe?

And so, as Fords education team pats itself on the back for a job well done, there are petitions, and social media posts, and a growing groundswell of opposition, not just by teachers, but by those who want their old lives back, with kids back in school, but cant square reality with the governments bargain basement good luck with the social distancing! plan.

I definitely think not reducing class sizes is a huge mistake, insists Kitcheners Jessica Shott, one of many working parents who feel torn between two unpalatable options.

But I just want things to be as normal as possible, if that makes sense. My seven-year-old is going back to school anyways  reduced classes or not.

For Chris Steingart, its a case of be careful what you wish for.

Its so tough because full-time school is what we were hoping for, notes the Kitchener father of two.

But it seems like too much, too quickly. I get the sense there are a lot of people scratching their heads. I get my work day back, but at what cost?

The plans big flaw, he insists, is its lack of internal logic.

Were limited to gatherings of no more than 50 indoors. The province is concerned about multiplex theatres reopening. So why is their advice to have schools with hundreds of kids different? Not to mention that theres a mask mandate for everyone five and older in Waterloo Region (versus Grade 4 students in schools). Which mandate overrules which?

He sighs. If I were the Conservatives I would have leaked the idea of full time school and listened to the online backlash  which seems to be the majority  and then walked the idea back. Instead, they announced it and want to let two million students verify it for them.

My guess, based on previous walk-backs over autism funding and other failed initiatives, is that this story isnt over yet.
By Express News Service

MADIKERI: Heavy rainfall has triggered a massive landslide at Bramhagiri Hills in Talacauvery which washed off two houses while five people  including the chief priest of Talacauvery Temple  are missing and are feared to be dead.

The NDRF team has reached the spot and is carrying out a search operation for the missing persons.

The landslide from the Bramhagiri Hills is feared to have taken place during midnight. Other temple staff who are residing at Talacauvery confirmed to The New Indian Express that they had spoken to the temple chief priest Narayana Achar on Wednesday evening and they confirmed that there were four others  the priests wife, his brother and two assistants who were residing inside the house.

NDRF has reached the landslide spot at #Talacauvery in #Kodagu and the search operation for the missing five persons will begin. @XpressBengaluru pic.twitter.com/jbNZ8Sxw84  Prajna G R (@prajna_gr) August 6, 2020

When the chief priest did not visit the temple on Thursday morning, the other temple staff who inquired only found debris of massive landslide in place of the priest's house.

Sources confirmed that the puja materials that were washed off in the landslide were found near Cherangala village.

It is said that the temple priest had been sent a notice to shift out of the house by the Bhagamandala PDO.

However, the priest and the family are said to have chosen to stay back. Another priest who was residing in the same area had shifted out of the house earlier to a safer place in Bhagamandala.
Former Cathlamet resident Andrew Weiler has returned to town and joined the staff of The Wahkiakum County Eagle as a product developer.

Weiler graduated from Wahkiakum High School in 2010, earned a bachelor degree at the University of California/Santa Cruz, and this year, a master's degree in media development and innovation.

As a part-time employee of The Eagle, he will focus on business development and provide local resources and news coverage of COVID-19 on The Eagle's website. Readers will also see his byline on some news articles.

Weiler is an entrepreneur who has specialized in digital story producing for commercial, documentary and feature films. His core focus is to advance civic engagement and strengthen community identity through innovative journalistic methods. He believes that a human-centric approach to business and audience development is how independent newsrooms can sustainably provide desirable, viable and feasible offerings.

In 2016, Andrew graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz with Bachelor of Arts in Film and Digital Media. His interest in non-fiction storytelling in particular inspired his pursuit of documentary filmmaking in Chicago. A summer internship with Kartemquin Films, a powerhouse documentary producer and incubator, provided Andrew opportunities in a variety of roles to tell human-centric and social-impact stories.

Weiler was hired as an operations manager for another documentary producer, Kindling Group, where he started an immersive internship program and oversaw all organizational functions. However, Weiler said that three years in the documentary industry was surprisingly unsatisfactory because of the inaccessibility of the medium  its technology, funding and process  to independent filmmakers.

In response to documentary's limitations and because of a personal interest in serving underrepresented and underserved communities, Weiler has shifted to journalism. He believes that the medium of journalism can more efficiently address the information needs and be a watchdog for small towns.

Weiler's master's degree program at Northwestern University's Media Entrepreneurship and Innovation through the Medill School of Journalism focused on media product management, start-up business models, web development and design for local news. He interned with an online local newsroom and start-up, Berkeleyside, performing market research, business development support and human-centered design to supplement the newsroom's planned expansion into other cities. He has returned to that job as well as his position at The Eagle.
As the economy is slowly picking up after it was shut down three months ago, a lot of Americans who are still looking for jobs are hoping for another round of stimulus payments from the government.

Delayed checks

Unfortunately, if Congress can't pass their proposals and make them into a bill, the stimulus checks will not be hitting the banks anytime soon and there will be little chance to get to the millions of Americans that need them. The now target month of another round of stimulus payments has been pushed to September.

Both Democrats and Republicans on Capital Hill continue to argue over the latest proposed stimulus bill that will give checks to all American taxpayers who are in need. The Democrats and Republicans have not come to an agreement yet about assisting the unemployed.

Republicans in Congress want to cut the $600-per week pandemic jobless benefit that is now expired and wanted to reduce it to $200 or less. Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress want to extend the help until the end of 2020, as reported by CNBC.

Also Read: Stimulus Check: Differences from First Round of $1200 Relief, Expanded Dependent Eligibility

Other points regarding the checks include the funding for states and cities, funding for the Postal Service, and eviction protections for homeowners and renters.

According to a report by News 10, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said that there are a lot of issues that are still outstanding. But he thinks that there is a desire to get something done as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, a Republican, also said that there are some areas that the two sides can agree on, but on other issues, Democrats and Republicans are fighting over them.

There may be a desire to get something done, however, time is of the essence. Lawmakers only have at least a week before they leave on a month-long recess in Congress. If a deal about a second stimulus payment does not strike soon, Americans will have to wait until the Congress gets back on from their month off.

That means that Congress will have to start negotiations once again after putting it off for a month. If that happens, the stimulus checks will be pushed to the holiday season, as reported by Q105.7

One thing looks pretty certain though is that the second round of stimulus checks would copy the first round of stimulus checks given, with the possibility of increased payment for dependents.

American taxpayers who are earning a gross adjusted income of up to $75,000 per year will get a stimulus check of $1,200. Couples who are earning a gross adjusted income of up to $150,000 per year will get a stimulus check of $2,400.

The stimulus checks will be reduced by $5 for every $100 in income, phasing out completely at $99,000 for individuals and $198,000 for couples.

Those with no income and individuals who rely on benefits like Social Security are eligible for the $1,2000 check payment. One plan from the Congress calls for the $500 dependent payments to include any dependent.

So that means it would include older children who are living at their parent's home and college students that might not have been included in the last round of stimulus checks.

Related Article: $1,000 Stimulus Check: When Will It Be Given and Who Are Qualified

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

COVID testing, room-service style.

New Mexico State University on Wednesday announced it is offering out-of-state students free COVID-19 tests, which the school is delivering directly to the students dorm rooms.

The school said 100 students can get tested Wednesday and Thursday this week. Many out-of-state students have already moved into their dorms to begin a 14-day quarantine that is required of anyone who travels into New Mexico under public health orders, according to NMSU.

We are sending trained collections staff to each students dorm room to make it quick and convenient, Lori McKee, executive director of NMSUs Aggie Health and Wellness Center, said in a statement. Its been easy for students to register for the free COVID-19 test online, thanks to the New Mexico Department of Health. We are doing everything possible to create a safe space for our students coming back to campus this semester.

Minerva Baumann, an NMSU spokeswoman, said it is possible a similar testing effort could be organized in the future but there are none currently planned.

The school sent out pictures of medical professionals in protective gear making the rounds to student dorm rooms on Wednesday. There are five teams comprised of wellness center staff, Department of Health employees and NMSU police involved in the testing effort, according to NMSU.

If a student tests positive, NMSU says it has a system to provide them with medical, emotional and physical care, which will include telehealth visits, meal delivery services and other types of support.

At the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, officials are preparing for out-of-state students to begin arriving.

The school is only allowing one student in each on-campus bedroom. Out-of-state students will start moving in Friday through Sunday and in-state students will move in Aug. 13-16.

A reentry plan the school has created says officials are still making decisions about testing on campus.
French President Emmanuel Macron warned that without serious reforms Lebanon will continue to sink (Bilal Hussein/AP)

Lebanese officials targeted in the investigation into the massive blast that tore through Beirut have sought to shift blame for the presence of explosives at the citys port.

It comes as visiting French President Emmanuel Macron warned that without serious reforms the country will continue to sink.

The blast on Tuesday, which appeared to have been caused by an accidental fire that ignited a warehouse full of ammonium nitrate at the citys port, rippled across the Lebanese capital, killing at least 135 people, injuring more than 5,000 and causing widespread destruction.

It also may have accelerated the countrys coronavirus outbreak, as thousands flooded into hospitals in the wake of the blast.

Tens of thousands of people have also been forced to move in with relatives and friends after their homes were damaged, further raising the risks of exposure.

Mr Macron visited on Thursday amid widespread pledges of international aid.

But Lebanon, which was already mired in a severe economic crisis, faces a daunting challenge in rebuilding.

It is unclear how much support the international community will offer the notoriously corrupt and dysfunctional government.

Mr Macron, who viewed the devastated port and was to meet senior Lebanese officials, said the visit is an opportunity to have a frank and challenging dialogue with the Lebanese political powers and institutions.

He said France will work to co-ordinate aid but warned if reforms are not made, Lebanon will continue to sink.

Later, as he toured one of the hardest-hit neighborhoods, an angry crowd vented its fury at Lebanons political leaders, chanting revolution and the people want to bring down the regime, slogans used during mass protests last year.

Mr Macron said he was not there to endorse the regime and vowed French aid will not fall into the hands of corruption.

Expand Close Lebanese soldiers stand guard at the blast scene (Hussein Malla/AP) / Facebook

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Losses from the blast are estimated to be between 7.6 billion to 11.4 billion, Beirut Governor Marwan Abboud told the Saudi-owned TV station Al-Hadath on Wednesday, adding nearly 300,000 people are homeless.

The head of Lebanons customs department meanwhile confirmed in an interview with LBC TV late Wednesday that officials had sent five or six letters over the years to the judiciary asking the ammonium nitrate be removed because of the dangers it posed.

But Badri Daher said all he could do was alert authorities to the presence of dangerous materials, saying even that was extra work for him and his predecessor.

He said the port authority was responsible for the material, while his job was to prevent smuggling and collect duties.

The judiciary and the port authority could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Government said on Wednesday that an investigation is under way and that port officials have been placed under house arrest.

The investigation into the explosion is focused on how 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive chemical used in fertilisers, came to be stored at the port facility for six years and why nothing was done about it.

The cargo had been stored at the port since it was confiscated from a ship years earlier.

Based on the timeline and the size of the cargo, that ship could be the MV Rhosus.

The ship was initially seized in Beirut in 2013 when it entered the port due to technical problems, according to lawyers involved in the case. It came from the nation of Georgia, and had been bound for Mozambique.

The stockpile is believed to have detonated after a fire broke out nearby in what appeared to be a warehouse holding fireworks.

Mr Daher said he did not know if there were fireworks near the ammonium nitrate.

Expand Close A Lebanese man stands next to his damaged house in Beirut (Hussein Malla/AP) / Facebook

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Whatsapp A Lebanese man stands next to his damaged house in Beirut (Hussein Malla/AP)

Another theory is that the fire began when welders were trying to repair a broken gate and a hole in the wall of Hangar 12, where the explosive material was being stored.

Local news reports say the repair work was ordered by security forces who investigated the facility and were concerned about theft.

Security officials have declined to comment while the investigation is under way.

Port officials have rejected the theory in interviews with local media, saying the welders completed their work long before the fire broke out.

Dr Firas Abiad, director general of Rafik Hariri University Hospital, which is leading the coronavirus fight in the country, said he expects an increase in cases in the next 10 to 15 days linked to crowding at hospitals and blood donation centres after the blast.

The explosion was the most powerful blast ever seen in the city, which has survived decades of war and conflict.

Several city blocks were left littered with rubble, broken glass and damaged vehicles.

Authorities have cordoned off the port itself, where the blast left a huge crater and destroyed a large grain silo.
Kansas City Shares COVID Cash For Community Survival

UMKC, Kauffman launch $100K resiliency grant fund for minority-owned businesses hit by COVID Editor's note: The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a financial sponsor of Startland News. This report was produced independently by Startland News' nonprofit newsroom. A new $100,000 fund is expected to help minority-owned Kansas City businesses - left out of initial rounds of COVID-19 relief - to build resiliency and come back stronger as the pandemic persists.

Fundraiser For Fam

Metro woman selling signs to help show support for 3-year-old Olivia Jansen ROELAND PARK, Mo. - A metro woman is selling signs to show support for the 3-year-old who prosecutors said died at the hand of her dad and his girlfriend. Her death motivated a stranger to begin a movement in her memory. Tragic, depressing, disturbing - those are some of the words Erica McNease used to describe Olivia's death.

Tigers Drop Standards

University of Missouri System temporarily eliminating SAT, ACT requirements KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The University of Missouri System will make standardized test scores optional in admissions applications for the 2021-22 academic year. The temporary shift in policy is in response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has caused many testing dates to be delayed or canceled.

Masks Working In Kansas

Kansas counties with mask mandate show steep COVID-19 drop by: AP Wire Posted: / Updated: BELLE PLAINE, Kan. - Kansas counties that have mask mandates in place have seen a rapid drop in cases, while counties that only recommend their use have seen no decrease in cases, the state's top health official said Wednesday.

Adriana Endures

Adriana Lima Is A Bikini Thirst Trap On Instagram, Fans Warn 'Atomic Bomb' 39-year-old Brazilian model Adriana Lima just blasted Instagram with the sultriest summer mood picture of hers, and Instagram is wondering what to do with all the heat. Best known for being the longest-running Victoria's Secret Angel, from 1991 to 2018, Lima is not slowing down and definitely not looking her age.

Social Media Juggernauts Discipline Prez Trump

Facebook Removes Trump Post Over False Claim About Children And COVID-19 Facebook removed a post shared by President Trump on Wednesday for breaking its rules against spreading harmful misinformation about the coronavirus. The post on Trump's personal Facebook page included a clip from a Fox News interview from Wednesday morning, in which the president urged schools to reopen, falsely claiming that children are "almost immune from this disease."

We All Make Mistakes

Washington Post issues major correction after botching Trump-Twitter post The Washington Post sparked massive confusion Wednesday evening after erroneously reporting that President Trump was banned from tweeting because of a claim he made about the coronavirus. Both Facebook and Twitter were cracking down on clips that were shared from the president's interview on "Fox & Friends" earlier in the day, where he continued his push for schools to be reopened in the fall.

Tech Crackdown Starts

TikTok, WeChat and 'untrusted' Chinese apps should be removed from U.S. app stores, Pompeo says The United States wants "untrusted" Chinese apps removed from U.S. app stores, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday, calling out popular Chinese-owned apps TikTok and WeChat. He also called for companies to limit their apps from phones made by Huawei Technologies.

No mas

Mexico state bans sale of sugary drinks and junk food to children The southern Mexican state of Oaxaca has banned the sale of sugary drinks and high-calorie snack foods to children - a measure aimed at curbing obesity. The bill to reform the state's children and adolescents' rights law proposed fines and the possible closure of stores for selling soft drinks and sweets to children.

Atomic Tragedy Remembered

75 years after Hiroshima, they're still feeling its impact Regular nosebleeds, three bouts with cancer and blinding cataracts. It's been 75 years since the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima - marking the end of World War II and the dawn of the nuclear age - but survivors like Masaaki Takano still live with the consequences.

Local Park Redux

New City Beautiful Movement: Restoring KC's Parks and Boulevards The 2019 Family Fun Day was coming to a close, but the kids were not ready to leave just yet. Esther Kershaw remembers them trying to buy more time on the inflatable bounce house, despite their parents telling them it was time to go.

Summer Returns To KC

Thursday will feel more like August Hide Transcript Show Transcript TO WORRY ABOUT FLOODING. GRILLING IS A GOOD IDEA. 77 BY 6:00 P.M. DOWN ONE DEGREE AN HOUR. FINITE :00, 72. WE SET A RECORD FOR THE LOWE'S THIS MORNING, IN THE 50'S, BUT WITH THE WIND TURNING TO THE SOUTHEAST, WE ARE NOT FALLING MUCH TONIGHT, CERTAINLY NOT IN THE 50'S.

Right now hottieinspire our early morning news collection . . . Take a peek:is the #TBT song of the day and this is thefor right now . . .
Anger is mounting against the various political factions, including the Hezbollah militant group, that have ruled the country since the 1975-1990 civil war.

Beirut: Lebanese officials targeted in the investigation of the massive blast that tore through Beirut sought to shift blame for the presence of explosives at the city's port, and the visiting French president warned Thursday that without serious reforms the country would continue to sink.

The blast on Tuesday, which appeared to have been caused by an accidental fire that ignited a warehouse full of ammonium nitrate at the city's port, rippled across the Lebanese capital, killing at least 135 people, injuring more than 5,000 and causing widespread destruction.

It also may have accelerated the country's coronavirus outbreak, as thousands flooded into hospitals in the wake of the blast.

Tens of thousands have been forced to move in with relatives and friends after their homes were damaged, further raising the risks of exposure.

French President Emmanuel Macron visited Thursday amid widespread pledges of international aid. But Lebanon, which was already mired in a severe economic crisis, faces a daunting challenge in rebuilding. It's unclear how much support the international community will offer the notoriously corrupt and dysfunctional government.

Macron, who viewed the devastated port and was to meet with senior Lebanese officials, said the visit is an opportunity to have a frank and challenging dialogue with the Lebanese political powers and institutions.

He said France will work to coordinate aid but warned that if reforms are not made, Lebanon will continue to sink. Losses from the blast are estimated to be between USD 10 billion to USD 15 billion, Beirut Gov. Marwan Abboud told the Saudi-owned TV station Al-Hadath on Wednesday, adding that nearly 300,000 people are homeless.

The head of Lebanon's customs department meanwhile confirmed in an interview with LBC TV late Wednesday that officials had sent five or six letters over the years to the judiciary asking that the ammonium nitrate be removed because of the dangers it posed.

But Badri Daher said all he could do was alert authorities to the presence of dangerous materials, saying even that was extra work for him and his predecessor. He said the port authority was responsible for the material, while his job was to prevent smuggling and collect duties.

The judiciary and the port authority could not immediately be reached for comment. The government said Wednesday that an investigation was underway and that port officials have been placed under house arrest.

The investigation into the explosion is focused on how 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive chemical used in fertilisers, came to be stored at the port facility for six years, and why nothing was done about it.

The cargo had been stored at the port since it was confiscated from a ship years earlier. Based on the timeline and the size of the cargo, that ship could be the MV Rhosus.

The ship was initially seized in Beirut in 2013 when it entered the port due to technical problems, according to lawyers involved in the case. It came from the nation of Georgia, and had been bound for Mozambique.

The stockpile is believed to have detonated after a fire broke out nearby in what appeared to be a warehouse holding fireworks. Daher, the customs official, said he did not know if there were fireworks near the ammonium nitrate.

Another theory is that the fire began when welders were trying to repair a broken gate and a hole in the wall of Hangar 12, where the explosive material was being stored. Local news reports say the repair work was ordered by security forces who investigated the facility and were concerned about theft.

Security officials have declined to comment while the investigation is underway. Port officials have rejected the theory in interviews with local media, saying the welders completed their work long before the fire broke out.

Anger is mounting against the various political factions, including the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group, that have ruled the country since the 1975-1990 civil war.

The country's long-serving politicians are widely seen as being hopelessly corrupt and incapable of providing even basic services like electricity and trash collection.
US-China war no longer inconceivable: Australia PM

Iran Press TV

Wednesday, 05 August 2020 8:16 PM

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison says a war between the United States and China is "no longer inconceivable."

He made the comments in an online address from the Australian capital, Canberra, on Wednesday amid rising tensions between Washington and Beijing.

"We've acknowledged that what was previously inconceivable and not considered even possible or likely in terms of those types of outcomes is not considered in those contexts anymore," Morrison said at the Aspen Security Forum.

The Australian premier further asserted that finding allies in the region is a "critical priority" for Canberra.

"Today, the Indo-Pacific is the epicenter of strategic competition. Tensions over territorial claims are growing," he said. "We have to take an optimistic attitude but not an unrealistic or naive attitude. We've got to set out and wed ourselves to the objectives here and that is not the suppression or containment of any one state, it's about the productive and strategic balance that can be achieved," he added.

Morrison voiced hope that, despite tensions between the US and China, the Canberra-Beijing economic relationship could be pursued.

"What matters is that the trading relationship, the economic relationship is able to be pursued. That is occurring. It has its frustrations from time to time."

The US and China have been at odds over a range of issues; but recently, Washington has taken a markedly more aggressive posture against Beijing.

Washington's aggressive posturing against Beijing comes shortly before the US presidential election in November.

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A Beirut port worker has been pulled from the sea 30 hours after being blown into the water by Tuesday's massive explosion in Lebanese capital.

At least 137 people are known to have died in the blast, with more than 5,000 injured. Damage caused by the shock wave from the explosion is believed to have left at least 300,000 people homeless.

Multiple search and rescue teams, including those from the Lebanese Red Cross, continue to work through the rubble to find anyone who has been trapped.

On Thursday a missing port worker was plucked out of the Mediterranean by rescuers more than 30 hours after the explosion, according to local news reports.

Lebanon: Beirut explosion aftermath - In pictures 1 /90 Lebanon: Beirut explosion aftermath - In pictures The scene of an explosion in Beirut AFP via Getty Images A man reacts at the scene of an explosion at the port in Lebanon's capital Beirut AFP via Getty Images Firefighters spray water at a fire following an explosion in Beirut's port area, Lebanon REUTERS A helicopter puts out a fire at the scene of an explosion at the port of Lebanon's capital Beirut AFP via Getty Images An aerial view of ruined structures at the port Getty Images A Lebanese couple drive past the debris of a building in the damaged neighbourhood of Mar Mikhael AFP via Getty Images An aerial view of ruined structures at the port Getty Images Lebanese activists take part in a campaign to clean the damaged neighbourhood of Mar Mikhael AFP via Getty Images An aerial view of ruined structures at the port, Getty Images A statue representing the Lebanese expatriate is seen in front of a building that was damaged by an explosion that hit the seaport of Beirut, Lebanon AP A fireball exploding while smoke is billowing at the port of the Lebanese capital Beirut MOUAFAC HARB/AFP via Getty Image Lebanese firefighters work at the scene of an explosion in the Lebanese capital Beirut AFP via Getty Images The scene of an explosion at the port in the Lebanese capital Beiru AFP via Getty Images A helicopter puts out a fire at the scene of an explosion at the port of Lebanon's capital Beirut AFP via Getty Images TALAL TRABOULSI via REUTERS A view shows the aftermath of yesterday's blast at the port of Lebanon's capital Beiru AFP via Getty Images Lebanese soldiers search for survivors after a massive explosion in Beirut, Lebanon AP A man walks by an overturned car and destroyed buildings on August 4, 2020 in Beirut, Lebano Getty Images Lebanese soldiers search for survivors after a massive explosion in Beirut, Lebanon AP A view shows the aftermath of yesterday's blast at the port of Lebanon's capital Beiru AFP via Getty Images Smoke rises after an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon via REUTERS A drone picture shows the scene of an explosion that hit the seaport of Beirut, Lebanon AP People gather outside American University of Beirut (AUB) medical centre following an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon REUTERS People ride past a car destroyed after a building wall collapsed after a large explosion in Beirut Getty Images Damaged church and vehicles are seen following yesterday's blast that shook the Lebanese capital Beirut AFP via Getty Images A drone picture shows the scene of an explosion at the seaport of Beirut, Lebanon AP The scene of an explosion at the port of Lebanon's capital Beirut AFP via Getty Images Buildings and cars are partially destroyed in the neighbourhood of Mar Mikhael following an explosion at the port of Beiru AFP via Getty Images A rescue worker tends to an injured man following an explosion at the port of Beirut AFP via Getty Images Smoke rises from a port facility after large explosions Getty Images The destroyed silo sits in rubble and debris after an explosion at the seaport of Beirut, Lebanon AP Smoke is seen after an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon GABY MAAMARY via REUTERS Civilians help an injured man at the explosion scene that hit the seaport of Beirut, Lebanon AP Smoke rises as people walk near the site of an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon REUTERS Lebanese soldiers stand outside American University of Beirut (AUB) medical centre following an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon REUTERS Smoke rises from a port facility after large explosions Getty Images Damaged vehicle and buildings are pictured near the site of Tuesday's blast in Beirut's port area, Lebanon REUTERS A general view shows the damage near the site of Tuesday's blast in Beirut's port area, Lebanon REUTERS People stand near damaged cars following an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon REUTERS Smoke rises from a port facility after large explosions Getty Images People inspect the damage near the site of Tuesday's blast in Beirut's port area, Lebanon REUTERS A view shows the damaged facade of a building following Tuesday's blast in Beirut's port area, Lebano REUTERS A wounded man walks next to a damaged car on a street, following an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon via REUTERS Damaged buildings are seen after an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon via REUTERS Smoke rises over destroyed structures following large explosion Getty Images A view shows the aftermath at the site of Tuesday's blast in Beirut's port area, Lebanon REUTERS Smoke rises from a port facility after large explosion Getty Images AFP via Getty Images AFP via Getty Images AFP via Getty Images AFP via Getty Images AFP via Getty Images AFP via Getty Images REUTERS AFP via Getty Images AFP via Getty Images AFP via Getty Images AFP via Getty Images AFP via Getty Images AFP via Getty Images REUTERS REUTERS AFP via Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images REUTERS REUTERS Getty Images

Bloodied but alive, Amin al-Zahed was rushed to Rafic Hariri University Hospital, al Arabiya reported.

However, his family have said they were unable to locate him at the hospital, and his current condition is unknown.

The explosion came as Lebanon experiences an economic crisis which has been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.

Lebanon President Michel Aoun said that 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate being stored unsafely in a warehouse caused the explosion.

Amin al-Zahed was pulled bloodied but alive from the Mediterranean / AFP via Getty Images

Ammonium nitrate is an industrial chemical used widely in fertilisers as it is a good source of nitrogen that help plants grow.

It is also one of the main ingredients in explosives used for mining, quarrying, and civil construction.

A team from the University of Sheffield calculated the strength of the blast as being the equivalent of 1,000 to 1,500 tonnes of TNT.

This is about a tenth of the intensity of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb but far bigger than any blast from a conventional weapon.
The government's announcement on Tuesday to free up state-owned land in the Seoul metropolitan area for 33,000 affordable homes has triggered strong opposition from locals and administrators.

They complain that they are being made to pay the price for the government's failed efforts to tame soaring real estate prices, especially in the flash Gangnam area.

Many locals plan to protest. One 33-year-old resident of Nowon in northeastern Seoul complained, "Do you think that forested parts of Gangnam should remain untouched while my neighborhood should be sacrificed to build public housing?"

Around 500 angry residents of Nowon plan a rally.

Mapo district office head Yoo Dong-gyun, who is affiliated with the ruling Minjoo Party, in a statement Wednesday broke rank to oppose the housing plan. The government plans 6,200 starter homes in Mapo on state-owned land.

And Gangseo district office chief Roh Hyeon-song, who is also affiliated with the MP, said plans to build 1,200 new public apartments in his district are "unacceptable."


Ferguson Councilwoman Fran Griffin met Bush in the Ferguson protests in 2014. Last year, Griffin unseated longtime incumbent Councilman Keith Kallstrom to win her seat on the council.

It became very clear to both of us at that point in time that we had to take protest to a different level, Griffin said.

Now we have people on the ground all the way up to the federal level that understand the people in our community. Cori winning tied that last portion up  now we have a voice on a larger platform to really talk about the injustice, to try to create change not just for Ferguson, not just in the state of Missouri but for people around the country.



Toppling a giant

Bush and Clay were both largely progressive Black candidates in a majority Black district, Warren said, and it came down to campaign messaging about the type of candidate they were.

Hes faced such little competition, including Cori Bush in 2018 ... so he probably wasnt ready for this, Warren said. She was. She knew that in order to topple, essentially, a giant, that she had to really do everything possible to maximize her vote potential.
Technavio has been monitoring the heavy fuel oil market and it is expected to decrease by USD 52.68 billion during 2020-2024. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200806005697/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Heavy Fuel Oil Market 2020-2024 (Photo: Business Wire)

Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please Request Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impact

Frequently Asked Questions-

What is the key factor driving the market?

Rising seaborne trade activities is one of the key factors driving the market growth.

Who are the top players in the market?

BP Plc, Chevron Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp., Indian Oil Corp. Ltd., Neste Oyj, PetroChina Co. Ltd., Qatar Petroleum, Rosneft Oil Co., Royal Dutch Shell Plc, and TOTAL SA. are some of the major market participants.

Which region is expected to hold the highest market share?

Europe

What is the major trend of the market?

The adoption of scrubber technology is a major trend driving the market growth.

The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will decelerate during the forecast period. BP Plc, Chevron Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp., Indian Oil Corp. Ltd., Neste Oyj, PetroChina Co. Ltd., Qatar Petroleum, Rosneft Oil Co., Royal Dutch Shell Plc, and TOTAL SA are some of the major market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments.

Rising seaborne trade activities have been instrumental in driving the growth of the market.

Heavy Fuel Oil Market 2020-2024: Segmentation

Heavy Fuel Oil Market is segmented as below:

End-user Shipping 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=IRTNTR40330

Heavy Fuel Oil 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 heavy fuel oil market report covers the following areas:

Heavy Fuel Oil Market size

Heavy Fuel Oil Market trends

Heavy Fuel Oil Market analysis

This study identifies the adoption of scrubber technology as one of the prime reasons driving the heavy fuel oil market growth during the next few years.

Heavy Fuel Oil Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of vendors operating in the heavy fuel oil market, including some of the vendors such as BP Plc, Chevron Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp., Indian Oil Corp. Ltd., Neste Oyj, PetroChina Co. Ltd., Qatar Petroleum, Rosneft Oil Co., Royal Dutch Shell Plc, and TOTAL SA. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the heavy fuel oil market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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Heavy Fuel Oil Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist heavy fuel oil market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the heavy fuel oil market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the heavy fuel oil market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of heavy fuel oil 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 END-USER

Market segmentation by end-user

Comparison by end-user

Shipping Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Others Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by end-user

PART 07: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE

PART 08: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

APAC Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Europe Market size and forecast 2019-2024

MEA Market size and forecast 2019-2024

North America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

South America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Key leading countries

Market opportunity

PART 09: DECISION FRAMEWORK

PART 10: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES

Market drivers

Market challenges

PART 11: MARKET TRENDS

Development of scrubber technology

Adoption of modular mini refineries

Usage of additives to improve the combustion of heavy fuel oil

PART 12: VENDOR LANDSCAPE

Overview

Landscape disruption

Competitive scenario

PART 13: VENDOR ANALYSIS

Vendors covered

Vendor classification

Market positioning of vendors

BP Plc

Chevron Corp.

Exxon Mobil Corp.

Indian Oil Corp. Ltd.

Neste Oyj

PetroChina Co. Ltd.

Qatar Petroleum

Rosneft Oil Co.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc

TOTAL SA

PART 14: APPENDIX

Research methodology

List of abbreviations

Definition of market positioning of vendors

PART 15: EXPLORE TECHNAVIO

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis 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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New York attorney general Letitia James sued to dissolve the National Rifle Association on Wednesday, accusing senior members of the organization of fraud stretching over a period of decades.

The lawsuit alleges that four senior current and former officials at the organization, including Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, engaged in a culture of self-dealing, mismanagement and negligent oversight. James accuses the officials of using NRA funds for private expenses including meals, flights, and vacations.

The NRAs influence has been so powerful that the organization went unchecked for decades while top executives funneled millions into their own pockets, James said in a statement. The NRA is fraught with fraud and abuse, which is why, today, we seek to dissolve the NRA, because no organization is above the law.

The NRA slammed the lawsuit, with the organizations president, Carolyn Meadows, saying we will confront it and prevail.

This was a baseless, premeditated attack on our organization and the Second Amendment freedoms it fights to defend, Meadows said in a statement. You could have set your watch by it: the investigation was going to reach its crescendo as we move into the 2020 election cycle. Its a transparent attempt to score political points and attack the leading voice in opposition to the leftist agenda.

President Trump also weighed in on the lawsuit.

Thats a very terrible thing that just happened, Trump told reporters. I think the NRA should just move to Texas and live a great and beautiful life.

James began an investigation into the NRA in 2019 just as the organization was going through a leadership dispute. In a 2018 interview with Ebony, James said that while the NRA presents itself as a charitable organization, in fact, [it] really [is] a terrorist organization.

The lawsuit accuses LaPierre of routinely abusing his authority as Executive Vice President of the NRA to cause the NRA to improperly incur and reimburse LaPierre for expenses that were entirely for LaPierres personal benefit, including private jet travel, trips to the Bahamas to vacation on a yacht owned by the principal of numerous NRA vendors, and gifts to friends.

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Similar allegations of self-dealing are made against the NRAs general counsel, John Frazer, as well as former chief of staff Joshua Powell and former chief financial officer Woody Phillips. James also accuses the organization itself of failing to report compensation for senior employees.

The NRAs filings included false or misleading statements relating to compensation and benefits conveyed to top employees and officers, the lawsuit states.

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The Uttarakhand jail administration in a bid to curb the spread of Covid-19 in jails has written to the State Legal Services Authority to grant bail and parole to a few inmates so as to ease the congestion in jails, officials said.

The bail and parole would be granted to those inmates who are not dangerous criminals and pose no danger to society, officials said.

There have been about 100 cases of Covid-19 infection among the jail inmates so far.

PVK Prasad, Additional Director General (Jail), said, We have written to the State Legal Services Authority to seek their permission to initiate the process for the same. It is being done to ease the congestion in the jails which at present have about 5,000 inmates against the total capacity of 3,800.

Once we get permission from the authority, we will initiate the process of identifying the suitable inmates for parole and bail. In this, only those inmates who are not dangerous criminals and are not a danger to society, would be considered, Prasad said.

He said the jail administration is looking to include 500-1000 inmates for the bid to decongest jails.

It will somewhat ease the number of prisoners in jails which is important for proper implementation of the Covid-19 precautions to curb the spread. So far, 100 inmates have tested positive for the virus. We are taking all precautionary measures to prevent the infection from spreading, Prasad said.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday filed a case in the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput naming his girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik Chakraborty and four other family members or known associates apart from unknown persons as accused, officials said.

The investigation has been handed over to the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is currently investigating the high profile AgustaWestland scam and bank fraud case against fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya.

The SIT, also known as Anti-Corruption-6, is headed by Gujarat cadre IPS officer Manoj Shashidhar. It was formed in June 2016 in the CBI under then Special Director Rakesh Asthana to expedite probe against Mallya and in VVIP Chopper scam.

A team of SIT will station itself in Mumbai to begin questioning people connected with the late actor including Rhea Chakraborty, Bollywood producers and others who have given statements after his death or know about the circumstances related to his death of June 14, officials familiar with development said.

The decision to hand over the probe to the SIT was taken as CBIs Special Crimes unit, which usually investigates such cases, currently has its hands full. The Special Crimes unit is currently probing high profile cases related to custodial death of father-son duo of P Jayaraj and J Bennicks in Tamil Nadu in June as well as the suicide of SHO, Vishnudutt Vishnoi in Churu, Rajasthan, on May 23. In the SHO case, the CBI had last month questioned Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlots OSD  Devaram Saini, an official said requesting anonymity.

Also, around eight officials of CBIs special crimes unit who had gone to investigate Tamil Nadus custodial deaths are in quarantine right now as a couple of them contracted Covid-19 disease last month.

Known for thorough probes in mysterious death cases, suicides, murders and custodial deaths, the CBI is likely to take the help of medical experts from reputed institutions to study the post mortem report of Sushant Singh Rajput, another official said, explaining the investigation techniques and procedures in the agency. If it feels at a later stage that Rhea Chakraborty or others are misleading, then it may even consider conducting lie-detection tests on them as has been seen in the past in several high profile cases investigated by CBI, the officer added.

The case was handed over to the CBI by Bihar government after Sushants father K K Singh and Bihar police alleged a cover-up by Mumbai police to save influential people. They have accused Mumbai police of destroying evidence and deliberately ignoring leads in the case in an attempt to derail it, an allegation rejected by the Maharashtra police even as it questioned the jurisdiction of Bihar police in the matter.

K K Singh has alleged that Rhea Chakraborty and her family drove his son to suicide and embezzled his funds.

Apart from Rhea and her brother Showik, CBI has named her family members  Indirajeet Chakraborty, Sandhya Chakraborty, Shruti Modi and Sushants house manager, Samuel Miranda - as accused for criminal conspiracy, cheating and abetment to suicide.

Rheas lawyer Satish Maneshinde didnt respond to HTs calls.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is also investigating the case as it suspects there has been money laundering by some suspects. The ED questioned Samuel Miranda on Thursday while Sushants former chartered accountant Sandeep Sridhar was examined on Tuesday.

Rhea Chakraborty has been asked by the ED to appear before it on Friday 11 am.

The Mumbai police has been probing the death since Sushants body was found at his apartment on June 14 but it is yet to register a case.
Europe has the motivation, but not the means, to break up Big Tech. For the US, the inverse is true. That's bad news for anyone hoping for a full regulatory reckoning with Silicon Valley's and Seattle's giants over their monopolistic tendencies.

Washington lawmakers see their job as protecting the consumer first and foremost, while Brussels wants to make sure other companies are allowed to compete with the incumbents. Sadly for Europe, the Americans have all the power but their approach is unlikely to produce radical change.

The effort to rein in the power of the tech giants faces a lot of hurdles. Credit:Bloomberg

That isn't to say the European Union is wasting its time in leading the charge against Big Tech. Congress's grilling last week of the chief executives of Apple, Amazon.com, Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Facebook showed that the "Brussels Effect" is in full force. The EU plays an outsized role when it comes to regulation because other regions - even the Americans - tend to follow its lead. Up to a point, at least.

As US lawmakers made the case against the West Coast giants, time and again their arguments echoed efforts already well underway in Europe. When the Democratic Representative David Cicilline tackled the way Google displays news snippets in search results without reimbursing the publishers, he evoked new copyright laws proposed by the EU last year.
In actuality Soros, whose father, Tivadar, had previously changed the familys last name from Schwartz to Soros so as to be less obviously Jewish in an increasingly anti-Semitic Budapest, disguised himself as a Christian during the Second World War. His father procured identity papers for his own family and others. As Soros pointed out, the man with whom young Soros was hiding out did once bring him along when he went to take inventory of a Jewish persons house, but Soros was not involved in the confiscation of Jewish goods. Likewise, while Soros was, as a student, sent to run errands at the Judenrat, a council of Jews whom the Nazis forced to do their bidding, he did not round up Jewish people. In fact, per Soross recollection, when he was given a list of names, with instructions to tell them to report to a location from which they would be deported, his father said he should not tell them to go.
(Newser)  Luis Archuleta escaped from prison before shooting and injuring a rookie Denver police officer on Oct. 3, 1971. He was convicted of assault of a police officer with a deadly weapon in 1973, but escaped from prison again the following year, per the Santa Fe New Mexican. It was the start of a 46-year life on the run, which finally came to an end Wednesday with his arrest in Espanola, New Mexico, where he'd been living under the name Ramon Montoya, per ABC News. It was largely thanks to the officer Archuleta shot. Over the years, Daril Cinquanta had reached out to family, friends, and acquaintances of the fugitive in the hope of locating him. On June 24, "I get a call from a person I had talked to previously," he tells the New Mexican. Less than a week later, a new federal arrest warrant for Archuleta was issued.

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Cinquanta had uncovered the 2011 arrest of a man named Roman Montoya on a drunk driving charge in Rio Arriba County. The case was later dismissed, but Montoya's mugshot, importantly, remained. Cinquanta forwarded it to Espanola police and the FBI, who began a monthlong investigation. It ended Wednesday with Archuleta's arrest at the home he shared with his wife. "This arrest should send a clear signal to violent offenders everywhere: The FBI will find you, no matter how long it takes or how far you run, and we will bring you to justice," FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge Michael Schneider says in a statement. The 77-year-old Archuletaalso known as Lawrence "Larry" Pusateriwill now be returned to Colorado, from which he long ago escaped a Department of Corrections facility. (Read more fugitive stories.)
GEORGETOWN, Cayman Islands, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - CoinPayments, the world's leading cryptocurrency payments processor, today announced the launch of its global business development and partnerships team, intended to drive growth across key North American and European markets. Sam Fagin joins as head of North America and Simon Bowles as European head. David Hunter, current chairman of the Emerging Payments Association will continue to serve as a CoinPayments advisor working directly with the business development team. Key initiatives include a significant push to increase the CoinPayments merchant base as well as a focus on services aimed at the intersection of capital markets and cryptocurrencies.

"CoinPayments is already a global company with merchants in more than 180 countries, but now is the time to build bridges to local merchant communities and increase the types of offerings our existing community has asked for," said CoinPayments CEO Jason Butcher. "Sam and Simon bring a complementary set of skills and will serve as the cornerstones of our expansion strategy in key European and North American markets."

Mr. Bowles joins CoinPayments with decades of experience as an entrepreneur and finance professional. He started his career as a trader before transitioning to leadership positions across several cryptocurrency and blockchain companies including D-Core and PayMachine. He also currently serves as an advisor to BaseTwo, a quantitative digital asset hedge fund and KMG Capital Markets, an asset manager specializing in blockchain and digital assets.

Focused on North America, Mr. Fagin will build relationships with a diverse set of payment service providers and merchant organizations. Previously he was CEO of OmniCash, a digital wallet rewards app and held senior positions at Roc Nation and TIDAL.

"Our goal is to educate and engage businesses of all sizes during a time of significant transformation as ecommerce shifts to a primary revenue stream and digital payments become the standard, not the outlier," explained Mr. Fagin. "At CoinPayments, stay tuned for a range of new partnerships and product offerings that will further strengthen our position as the easiest way to accept crypto as a form of payment."

CoinPayments' global business development and partnerships team is already active and pursuing several key initiatives.

About CoinPayments

CoinPayments is the easiest, fastest and most secure way for merchants worldwide to transact in cryptocurrencies. It is the first and largest cryptocurrency payments processor with more than US $5 billion in total transactions to date, while supporting more than 1,900 coins, and is the preferred cryptocurrency payment solution for merchants and eCommerce platform providers worldwide. Founded in 2013, CoinPayments is dedicated to providing clients with fast, secure and user-friendly crypto payment APIs, shopping cart plugins, digital wallets, and a host of other solutions supporting cryptocurrency payment applications. Learn more at: https://www.coinpayments.net/

SOURCE CoinPayments
Islamabad, Aug 6 : Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will partially resume flights to the UK from August 14, a spokesman for the flag carrier said.

PIA spokesman Abdullah Hafeez said on Wednesday that it would operate flights with an Airbus A330, having a seating capacity of more than 300 passengers, reports Dawn news.

"The PIA has hired a plane and crew from a European company to operate flights using PIA call sign and slots," he said, adding: "Due to public demand, the national flag carrier is resuming its flights." Hafeez said that passengers would be able to travel to London, Manchester and Birmingham from Pakistan under the new arrangement.

He said that social distancing would be strictly observed in all the flights.

The spokesman said a PIA flight, PK-9702, would depart for Islamabad from Manchester with 250 passengers on August 14.

The next day, PIA flight PK-9785 will depart from Islamabad for London.

The development comes after the UK's Civil Aviation Authority said on June 30 that it was withdrawing PIA's permit to operate from the three airports following the revelation of pilots holding "dubious" licences.
Kate Nash lit a candle for John Hume and put it in her window.

She and her sister Linda came together yesterday to watch his funeral at Kate's home in the Brandywell.

Looking at the funeral on television brought back sad memories for the Nash sisters.

Their brother William (19) was among 13 peaceful protesters shot dead by British paratroopers in the Bogside on January 30, 1972. Their father, Alex, saw his son being shot and ran to help him. He was then shot and wounded himself.

Days later, as he strained to see his son's funeral on the television from his hospital bed, he had visitors.

Expand Close The funeral of John Hume at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Stephen Latimer/PA Wire PA / Facebook

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Whatsapp The funeral of John Hume at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 5, 2020. Hume was a key architect of Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the pivotal role he played in ending the region's sectarian conflict. He died on Monday aged 83, having endured a long battle with dementia. See PA story FUNERAL Hume. Photo credit should read: Stephen Latimer/PA Wire

"Daddy was watching the funerals on TV, and the police came in, and they wanted to interview him in his bed.

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"He said, 'Go on away, son, I'm looking to watch my son being buried.'"

The horrific tragedy and the obscene injustice of that time brought many to support the IRA's campaign and Sinn Fein. But not the Nash family.

"Our family always voted for John, even in those early days," says Kate.

"Mummy would almost come into the booth with you at elections to make sure you voted for John," laughs Linda.

"Up in Creggan, he was always there if a family was having trouble with the army or anything like that.

"All he seemed to want to do was help people. And it was genuine concern. He wanted a better world for us," said Kate.

Hume's views on equality and dialogue didn't always sit well with his political opponents and commentators. But Kate says this was not the case locally.

"Ordinary people always respected John Hume, and they knew he had their best interests at heart. He was an honest man.

"Other political forces around at the time wouldn't have appreciated that.

"He was a powerful man and one of the best to come out of this country. He did so much. He was the peacemaker.

"A non-violent man. I'm sure there were times he must have been afraid. He went right up to the British soldiers and remonstrated with them. They could have knocked him clean out - or worse. They didn't care.

"I was sad to miss it, but I haven't been well, and I respected what Pat Hume said.

"I have my candle lighting for him all day.

"We were lucky to have him. He did so much for this town."

And Hume was one of the founding members of the credit union.

"I joined it about 35 years ago, and that is how I have lived my life," says Kate.

"Anything I have needed, that's where I would have got the money. You could afford to go there and get a loan. It was a lifeline for lots of people.

"John Hume was a very special human being. He was non-sectarian, and he never changed. He treated everybody the same.

"And that's the way you would like the whole world to be."

Gerry Murray was taught history by Hume at St Columb's College 55 years ago. They later became friends through the SDLP.

Mr Murray went on to study history at Trinity College Dublin and often travelled with Hume to college debates.

"He was the world's worst driver. He could sit there for hours, saying nothing, but his mind was churning around.

"He would suddenly ask a question like, 'Who do you think was the best American president?'," says Mr Murray. "John thought it was Kennedy," he adds.

"I used to go out campaigning with him in 1973, and he was adored. The people of Derry respected him greatly. There was universality about him. He could talk with anyone.

"If things weren't going well for him politically, he could rely on Derry people for support.

"I was with him one day, and we walked into Da Vinci's bar, and this boy turned to him and said: 'Don't let the bastards get on top of you John, just keep going'.

"And as it transpired the man who said that was a republican but he wanted John to succeed. They admired him.

"That said, some of the people now saying he was a great peacemaker tried to burn his house down. That is what he and his family had to put up with.

"In a historical context, he was a major figure. Unlike O'Connell and Parnell, he achieved what he set out to achieve.

"I watched the funeral, and it was very strange not to be there.

"Seeing Pat and the children, who I would have known growing up, I was half expecting to see John pop into view.

"He almost seemed to be there without being there. You'd half expect him to turn around and say, 'Well, what about ye?'

"It was both heartbreaking and very uplifting watching the funeral.

Expand Close Mourners lined the streets as John Hume's coffin leaves St Eugene's Cathedral. Pic Alan Lewis - Photopress Photopress / Facebook

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Whatsapp Mourners lined the streets as John Hume's coffin leaves St Eugene's Cathedral. Pic Alan Lewis - Photopress

"There is a great regret in the town, especially after the massive send-off that Martin McGuinness got, that we couldn't do it for John.

"Yet ironically, he got a greater send-off because it was more from the heart, and it wasn't a political funeral.

"It was very poignant seeing all the wee candles lighting in the windows."
The South China Sea is the shared home for the countries in the region and should not be a wrestling ground for international politics, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Wednesday in an exclusive interview with Xinhua.

The United States has recently taken a number of provocative actions in the South China Sea, breaching its longstanding commitment of not taking sides, and blatantly interfering in the territorial disputes, Wang said.

Moreover, the United States keeps increasing and showing off its military presence in the South China Sea, he said. In the first half of this year alone, it sent military aircraft there more than 2,000 times.

The United States is also seeking to drive a wedge between China and countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and disrupt the consultation process of the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea, Wang added.

The U.S. purpose is to destabilize the South China Sea, and hijack regional countries onto its chariot to serve U.S. domestic politics and geopolitical agenda, Wang noted, urging all regional countries to be vigilant, and prevent this region's hard-won peace and development from being sabotaged by the United States.

Facts have proved that settling disputes through dialogue is the right way that best serves the interests of regional countries, and countries in the region have a shared responsibility to keep the South China Sea peaceful and stable, he said.

Under the current situation, China proposes removing all disturbances to restart as soon as possible the Code of Conduct consultation, and agreeing as early as possible on a set of rules for maintaining long-term peace and stability in the region, Wang said.

In the meantime, China is prepared to strengthen maritime cooperation with other littoral countries, deepen mutual security confidence, and advance joint development, so as to make the South China Sea a sea of peace, friendship and cooperation, he added.
Jarrett Kratchman, left, chief financial officer off Classic Cake, talks with Kianna Veal, a former medical assistant student, during a "Hire Hahnemann" job fair at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia in 2019. Employers in the city may no longer ask job applicants their salary history as part of an ordinance aimed to cut the wage gap for women and people of color. Read more

In a win for the wage-equity movement in Philadelphia, city officials announced Thursday that as of Sept. 1, they will begin enforcing a ban on employers asking job applicants their salary history.

The idea behind the ordinance, passed by Philadelphia City Council in 2017, is that pay inequities due to gender and racial discrimination snowball over time if wages at new jobs are based on how much new hires made at a past one. Studies suggest women on average make about 80 cents for every dollar a man does, a gap that is even bigger for women of color.

Some corporate leaders initially balked at the Wage Equity Ordinance, and the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce sued the city over it, claiming it violated the commercial-speech rights of businesses and saying there was little evidence a salary-history ban would put a dent in the wage gap.

Years-long litigation ensued. In February, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit partly reversed a 2018 lower-court decision in the case and said the city could ban employers from asking about salary history and from relying on it to set wages.

 READ MORE: Court rules in favor of Philadelphias ban on asking job applicants their salary history

The Chamber didnt appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, instead electing to collaborate with the city on how the ordinance would be regulated, effectively ending the court battle.

Then in June, just as the police killing of George Floyd sparked an uprising over racial justice, researchers at Boston University published one of the first major studies examining salary-history bans in about a dozen states. They found that following such bans, pay increased a year later for people who changed jobs by about 5% overall. For women, the increase was 8%, and for Black workers it was 13%.

Salary histories, the researchers wrote, appear to account for much of the persistence of residual wage gaps.

The Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations approved the final regulations last week, including a clarification that the salary-history ban applies only when an employer is interviewing a job applicant for a position located in Philadelphia  the location of the employers headquarters or where the interview is conducted arent considered.

The ban also doesnt apply to applicants for internal transfer or promotion within their current place of work.

There are other ways for companies to set wages. The employer can rely on market data for salaries, ask about competing offers, and may also ask the job applicant about salary expectations, so long as the candidate is not asked whether that expectation is tied to a salary history at other places of work.

 READ MORE: How slow-to-act Philadelphia came to pass some of the most cutting-edge worker laws in the nation

Job applicants who are asked their salary history can report a violation to the Commission on Human Relations, a process that could include filing a formal complaint. The commission could then award the job candidate damages, and the employer could face litigation and fines.

Rue Landau, executive director of the commission, said in a statement that while enforcement can begin soon, its the citys preference that businesses voluntarily comply by revising their procedures in accordance with the law.

Rob Wonderling, president of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement that the group is grateful to have had ample time to draft and review the regulations ahead of the enforcement date as a result of the pandemic and the dramatic and negative impact that it has had on the business community.

It is our hope that the wage-equity ordinance will help in closing the gender pay equity gap, Wonderling said, while at the same time not placing a difficult regulatory burden on the business community.

Salary-history bans have taken effect in states and municipalities across the country over the last decade, including in New Jersey, where officials last year put in place similar rules.
The World Health Organization's top official said Thursday he hopes the United States will reconsider its decision to leave the United Nations' health organization, saying the coronavirus can't be defeated "in a divided world."

"The problem is not about the money. It's not the financing that's the issue. It's actually the relationship with the U.S. that's more important and its leadership abroad," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during an interview with NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt hosted by the Aspen Security Forum.

In early July, the Trump administration notified the U.N. secretary-general of its intent to withdraw from the World Health Organization by July 6, 2021. Trump has cited what he called the WHO's misuse of funding and its cozy relationship with China as primary reasons behind his decision.

"If there are issues with the WHO or the U.N. system at large, you know, we're very open for any evaluation or assessment, and the truth can be known," Tedros said. "This can be done from inside without leaving the organization."

Tedros said during the interview that officials from the U.S. are still collaborating with the organization in its response to the pandemic and have been "participating actively."

"We still have communication, we're working together and we appreciate that, but I hope the relationship will return to normal," Tedros said.

Tensions between the U.S. and the WHO have escalated in recent months over the organization's relationship with China, where the virus emerged late last year. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has claimed China "co-opted" the WHO. Tedros said the remarks were untrue and a distraction from the global coronavirus pandemic response.

The U.S. is the largest funder of the WHO and most of the money goes toward the agency's emergencies program, designed to assist the world's most vulnerable populations, WHO officials have previously said. They said the loss of support from the U.S., if the nation does in fact withdraw from the WHO and cut funding, could cost lives.

Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO's health emergencies program, praised the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, calling it "one of the greatest scientific institutions on this planet."

Trump has previously criticized CDC guidelines on reopening the nation's schools as too tough and expensive. Some former directors of the CDC have criticized the Trump administration for dismissing advice from public health officials in its pandemic response.

"I don't know if Americans realize just how important CDC is not just to Americans, but to every citizen on this planet," Ryan said during the interview. "The politics of these things will never shake the bonds that scientists have around the world and the urge, the desire, to work together to save lives."
Investigators in the Madeleine McCann case breathed a sigh of relief today after the EU's top court moved to block suspect Christian Bruekner's bid for release.

The 43-year-old tried to overturn his conviction and seven-year jail term for the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Praia da Luz.

He argued that he had been extradited from Portugal to Germany in 2017 on the basis of a drugs charge, not the rape, making the case against him invalid.

But the European Court of Justices Advocate General today gave legal advice that Bruekner's argument should be dismissed.

Legal expert Michal Bobek said that Brueckner had left Germany to travel to Italy in 2018, after he had been extradited from the Algarve the previous year.

He was then arrested in Milan and extradited to Germany a second time, under a different warrant that allowed him to be prosecuted for the rape of the pensioner.

It means that the child abuser, who has been convicted several times, is unlikely to be released on 7 January 2021, buying Madeleine McCann detectives valuable time to build the case against him.

German authorities did not follow correct procedures when they extradited a German man from Italy for a rape charge whom investigators also suspect of murdering British toddler Madeleine McCann, an adviser to Europe's top court said on Thursday

Madeleine McCann (pictured) went missing from her parents holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal in 2007

While the opinion is not binding on ECJ judges, they usually follow the assessment of the Advocate General.

It follows a day of drama in which the Advocate General at the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) gave a non-binding opinion that Brueckner's extradition was unlawful, raising fears that he would be freed.

Brueckner is currently serving a sentence for drug dealing in the prison in Kiel in the north of Germany but could have been freed immediately, as he had already served two-thirds of his sentence.

This now looks unlikely, which will boost hopes that enough evidence can be gathered to allow the 43-year-old to be charged with the murder of Madeleine McCann.

Brueckner was extradited from Portugal to Germany in 2017 where he was jailed for sex offences against children.

He was released in August 2018 but was put under 'surveillance' and required to meet with a probation officer once a month.

But he fled the country  first to the Netherlands and then on to Italy  and was arrested in Milan and extradited back to Germany and jailed for drug offences dating back to 2011.

His lawyer told the court last month he had simply 'gone on holiday' and that there had been no requirement for him to inform the authorities he was leaving the country.

He said: 'In the framework of the supervision order he was not required to remain on German territory.'

Last month German police named the serial sex offender as their prime suspect in the kidnap and murder of three-year-old Madeleine who vanished on May 3rd 2007 while on holiday in Praia da Luz with parents Kate and Gerry McCann.

Mobile phone data showed Brueckner was in Praia da Luz when the little girl - who was just days away from turning four - was taken.

German investigators also allege that records show he received a 30-minute phone call on the night of the crime.

Detectives in northern Germany have spent months making desperate appeals for information to link Brueckner to the youngster's abduction but have not so far secured the vital evidence they need.

Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters, who is leading the investigation, has told the McCanns they have concrete evidence that Madeleine is dead, in the biggest break-through in the 13-year-old case.

He said he hoped to be able to charge Brueckner within the next two months  but has added that their investigation will not drag on forever.

Wolters has said the outcome of the ECJ hearing could result in Brueckner's rape conviction being quashed.
New Yorks attorney general sued the National Rifle Association on Thursday, seeking to put the powerful gun advocacy organization out of business over allegations that high-ranking executives diverted millions of dollars for lavish personal trips, no-show contracts for associates and other questionable expenditures.

Attorney General Letitia James lawsuit, filed in state court in Manhattan after an 18-month investigation, highlighted misspending and self-dealing allegations that have roiled the NRA and its longtime leader, Wayne LaPierre, in recent years  from hair and makeup for his wife to a $17 million post-employment contract for himself.

Simultaneously, the Washington, D.C., attorney general sued the NRA Foundation, a charitable arm of the organization designed to provide programs for firearm safety, marksmanship and hunting safety, accusing it of diverting funds to the NRA to help pay for lavish spending by its top executives.

The troubles, which James said were long cloaked by loyal lieutenants and a pass-through payment arrangement with a vendor, started to come to light as the NRAs deficit piled up and it struggled to find its footing after a spate of mass shootings eroded support for its pro-gun agenda. The organization went from a nearly $28 million surplus in 2015 to a $36 million deficit in 2018.

James, a Democrat, argued that the organizations prominence and cozy political relationships had lulled it into a sense of invincibility and enabled a culture where non-profit rules were routinely flouted and state and federal laws were violated. Even the NRAs own bylaws and employee handbook were ignored, she said.

The NRAs influence has been so powerful that the organization went unchecked for decades while top executives funneled millions into their own pockets, James said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. The NRA is fraught with fraud and abuse, which is why, today, we seek to dissolve the NRA, because no organization is above the law.

A message seeking comment from the NRA about the lawsuit was left Thursday.

James is taking aim at the NRA after her office last year dismantled President Donald Trumps charitable foundation and fined him $2 million to settle allegations he used donations meant for worthy causes to further his own business and political interests. Though it is headquarters in Virginia, the NRA was chartered as a non-profit in New York in 1871 and continues to be incorporated in the state.

James also named LaPierre and three other current and former executives as defendants: corporate secretary and general counsel John Frazer, retired treasurer and chief financial officer Wilson Phillips, and LaPierres former chief of staff Joshua Powell. While the lawsuit accuses all four men of wrongdoing and seeks fines and remuneration, none of them have been charged with a crime.

LaPierre, who has been in charge of the NRAs day-to-day operations since 1991, is accused of spending millions of dollars on private travel and personal security, accepting expensive gifts such as African safaris and use of a 107-foot yacht from vendors and setting himself up with a $17 million contract with the NRA, if he were to exit the organization, without board approval.

The lawsuit said LaPierre, 70, spent millions of the NRA's dollars on travel consultants, including luxury black car services, and hundreds of thousands of dollars on private jet flights for himself and his family, including more than $500,000 on eight trips to the Bahamas over a three-year span.

Some of the NRA's excess spending was kept secret, the lawsuit said, under an arrangement with the organization's former advertising agency, Ackerman McQueen.

The advertising firm would pick up the tab for various expenses for LaPierre and other NRA executives and then send a lump sum bill to the organization for out-of-pocket expenses, the lawsuit said.

Frazer, the corporate secretary and general counsel, is accused of aiding the alleged misconduct by certifying false or misleading annual regulatory filings, failing to comply with governance procedures, failing to enforce a conflict of interest policy, and failing to ensure that board members were reviewing transactions or that the the organization was following the law.

Phillips is accused of overseeing the pass-through arrangement. The lawsuit said he ignored or downplayed whistleblower complaints and made a deal to enrich himself in retirement -- a bogus $1.8 million contract to consult for the incoming treasurer and a deal worth $1 million for his girlfriend.

Powell, the former LaPierre chief of staff, is accused of getting his father a $90,000 photography gig through an NRA vendor, arranging a $5 million contract for a consulting firm where his wife worked and pocketing $100,000 more in housing and relocation reimbursements than the organizations rules allowed. He was fired after 3 years for allegedly misappropriating NRA funds.

The lawsuit comes at a time when the NRA is trying to remain relevant and a force in the 2020 presidential election as it seeks to help President Donald Trump secure a second term.

There has been an ongoing factional war within organization, pitting some of its most ardent gun-rights supporters and loyalists against one another. The NRA has traded lawsuits with Ackerman McQueen, which crafted some of its most prominent messages for decades, eventually severing ties with it last year and scrapping its controversial NRA-TV, which aired many of its most controversial messages.

The internal battles reached a fevered pitch at its 2019 annual meeting where its then-president, Oliver North, was denied a traditional second term amid a tussle with LaPierre as he sought to independently review the NRAs expenses and operations. He accused LaPierre of exerting dictatorial control.

Chris Cox, the NRAs longtime lobbyist and widely viewed as a likely successor to LaPierre, left after being accused of working behind the scenes with North to undermine LaPierre.

-- The Associated Press
Many Lebanese expats are helping their compatriots in Beirut individually or have started online fundraisers.

Lebanons diaspora, estimated at nearly three times the size of the tiny countrys population of five million, has stepped up to provide assistance following the massive explosion that laid waste to the capital Beirut.

Lebanese expats rushed to wire money to loved ones who lost their homes or were injured in the blast on Tuesday that killed at least 135 people, while others worked to create special funds to address the tragedy.

Ive been on the phone all morning with  our partners in order to put together an alliance for an emergency fund in light of the explosion, said George Akiki, co-founder and CEO of LebNet, a non-profit based in Californias Silicon Valley that helps Lebanese professionals in the United States and Canada.

Everyone, both Lebanese and non-Lebanese, wants to help.

Akiki said his group, along with other organisations such as SEAL and Life Lebanon, have set up Beirut Emergency Fund 2020, which will raise much-needed money and channel it to safe and reputable organisations in Lebanon.





Many Lebanese expats, who almost all have loved ones or friends affected by the disaster, are also helping individually or have started online fundraisers.

As a first step, my wife Hala and I will match at least $10,000 in donations and later on we will provide more help towards rebuilding and other projects, Habib Haddad, a tech entrepreneur and member of LebNet based in Boston, Massachusetts, told AFP news agency.

He said many fellow compatriots are doing the same, channelling their grief and anger towards helping their stricken homeland, which before the explosion was already reeling from a deep economic and political crisis that has left more than half the population living in poverty.

Theyre asking Lebanese emigrants around the world to try and help, said Maroun Daccache, owner of a Lebanese restaurant in Sao Paulo, Brazil, a country that has an estimated seven million people of Lebanese descent.

Im trying to help with something but here the business is not very good because of the pandemic. Still, we are much better off than those over there, Daccache said.

Terrible and heartbreaking





Even before the tragedy, Lebanon heavily relied on its diaspora for cash remittances but these inflows had slowed in the last year given the countrys political crisis.

Expats also usually visit home every summer, injecting much-needed cash into the economy. But the diaspora this year has largely been absent because of the COVID-19 pandemic and many had become increasingly sceptical and reluctant to send aid to a country where corruption is widespread and permeates all levels of society.

People are outraged by the mismanagement of the country and they want to help, but no one trusts the people in charge, said Najib Khoury-Haddad, a tech entrepreneur in the San Francisco area, echoing the feeling of many Lebanese leery of giving money to a dysfunctional government.

I heard that the government has set up a relief fund but who would trust them? he asked.

Ghislaine Khairalla, 55, of Washington, DC, said one idea being floated was to pair a needy family in Beirut with one outside the country that could provide a safe and direct source of assistance.

We [the diaspora] are the financial bloodline especially since the economy is not going to recover anytime soon, Khairalla, whose brothers home was reduced to rubble by the blast, said. And we are lucky to have a kind of stable life here. We are physically outside Lebanon but our hearts and emotions are there.

Nayla Habib, a Lebanese-Canadian who lives in Montreal, said she planned to help in whatever way she can and expressed outrage at reports that the blast was caused by more than 2,700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored at the Beirut port, which is located in the heart of the densely populated city.

My God, the state of our country is terrible and heartbreaking, Habib told AFP. I donated before the blast to a lady that helps feed the poor and I will donate again.

Whatever I give is like a drop in the ocean but its necessary. I live in Canada but part of my heart is still there.
The latest QV data for Tauranga shows an average increase in residential property prices of 2.5 per cent over the past quarter and 7.5 per cent annually, bringing the average house price up to $794,004.

The number of new building consents issued by the Tauranga City Council has rebounded to pre COVID-19 lockdown levels.

Almost 60 per cent of the building consent value was issued in the Papamoa and Mount Maunganui suburbs and just over 25 per cent of consent value was issued in the Otumoetai and Bethlehem suburbs.

Tauranga is one of the cities likely to appeal to the many New Zealanders returning from overseas, says QV Property Consultant Derek Turnwald.

Employment prospects are strong and the city offers housing that is comparatively more affordable than Auckland.

This is likely to ensure sales are strong particularly in the mid to high value range.

He notes that Tauranga still had a lack of listings while property owners wait to see what the future will hold with the uncertainty around COVID-19.

Nationally, the average value increased just 0.4 per cent over the past three month period, down from 1.3 per cent in June, with the average value now sitting at $739,151.

This represents an increase of 7.5 per cent year on year, almost unchanged from annual growth of 7.4 per cent last month.

The average value in the Auckland Region sits at $1,077,237, down 0.2 per cent over the last quarter, with annual growth at 5.1 per cent, down slightly from Junes year-on-year growth of 5.4 per cent.

QV General Manager David Nagel says the QV House Price Data continues to reflect a gradual decline in quarterly growth in July, with the vast majority of the big towns we monitor showing a reduction in the rate of growth since June.

But more importantly three of the locations have actually shown a decline in value levels since the end of April.

Auckland, Queenstown and Dunedin all showed values had fallen back over the past three months with Queenstown Lakes hit by the biggest fall losing 4.2 per cent over the past quarter.

Dunedin is probably the biggest surprise, recording a 0.3 per cent decline over the past three months. However, it needs to be read in context given values have increased 20 per cent over the past year.

Theres been plenty of hype around demand and were still seeing well attended auctions and open homes, especially for the more affordable housing stock. This has resulted in strong transaction numbers in the past few weeks, leaving limited stock. But theres also a lot of properties that arent selling as buyers exercise both caution and patience as they search for a suitable property.

Unfortunately first home buyers are competing head-on with the more buyer savvy investors and this has created a bottleneck of demand in the more affordable locations and property types.

However, this has provided a level of confidence for developers to continue to feed the supply pipeline with the creation of new developments.

Cashed up investors will also be keeping a close eye on the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill, with anecdotal evidence of some investors holding back from adding to their portfolios until greater certainty of the political landscape. This has helped first home buyers more than hold their own in gaining their share of the market, particular at the affordable end.

Were seeing some predictable value trends mixed with unusual data as the market tries to adjust to the uncertainty of the market, especially with an election looming. Reductions in value for tourist towns like Queenstown were forecast early, however the strength of towns like Rotorua were more surprising and likely a reflection of strong local tourism demand.

A lot of commentators are looking at the strong annual value growth which is tracking well at 7.5 per cent however, what people need to be aware of is that most of that growth occurred in late 2019 and early 2020. The QV HPI quarterly data provides a better market barometer and the steady declines were seeing in value growth even before the economic stimulus initiatives come to an end, creates some concerns.

With an ounce of luck, including keeping our borders secure, we may get away with just a 5 per cent correction in property values by the end of 2020.

That would be a great result given the exceptional value growth experienced throughout most of the country over the past two years. But theres still a lot that can go wrong over the next few months and were not out of the woods yet.

A full breakdown of the QV House Price Index figures for July 2020 is available by clicking here
Edmonton, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - August 6, 2020) - Benchmark Metals Inc. (TSXV: BNCH) (OTCQB: CYRTF) (WKN: A2JM2X) (the "Company" or "Benchmark") - is pleased to announce results from drill-hole 20CCRC003 that intersected, from surface, broad mineralization that yielded 57.91 metres (m) of 1.90 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 91.96 g/t silver or 3.05 g/t gold equivalent* (AuEq). Within this mineralized envelope higher-grade intervals include 33.53 metres of 3.17 g/t gold and 152.28 g/t silver or 5.07 g/t AuEq*. This result is the first assays received from over 20,000 completed metres from 117 holes as part of our planned 50,000 metre drill program. The Company anticipates disclosure of additional results from August through to November 2020 in support of a new Mineral Resource Estimate. Benchmark's flagship gold-silver project is located in a road accessible area of the Golden Horseshoe in north-central British Columbia, Canada.

John Williamson, CEO, commented, "This drill hole was targeting a zone of limited historical drilling east of the Cliff Creek main zone and outside of the modeled mineralization. This significant result of both high-grade and bulk-tonnage mineralization is very encouraging as it will provide additional tonnage, better strip ratio and improved gold and silver grades for the Cliff Creek resource potential. Benchmark is rapidly advancing the project with near-term drill results and milestone events in the context of record gold prices."

Table #1: Selected results for drill-hole 20CCRC003

Drill-Hole 20CCRC003 From (m) To (m) **Interval (m) Gold (g/t) Silver (g/t) *Au-Eq (g/t)

0.00 57.91 57.91 1.90 91.96 3.05 Including 24.38 57.91 33.53 3.17 152.28 5.07 Including 35.05 47.24 12.19 6.33 329.01 10.44

*Gold equivalent (AuEq) calculated using 80:1 gold to silver ratio.

**Intervals are core-length. True width is estimated between 80 to 90% of core length.

The mineralized zone included high-grade intervals within a broad zone of bulk-tonnage mineralization (see Image #1) hosted in the hanging-wall of a steeply northwest dipping fault, typical of the Cliff Creek zone and analogous to the 2019 eastern zone discovery of 2.09 g/t gold and 87.83 g/t silver or 3.19 g/t AuEq across 36.30 metres core length.

The new result indicates mineralization begins at surface and remains open in all directions. The mineralization occurs in a multi-phase hydrothermal breccia which contains fine grained sulfosalts, native silver, and is associated with strong potassic alteration and faulting. Ongoing drilling across the entire Cliff Creek Zone, Dukes Ridge to Phoenix and AGB zones is focused on expanding and defining new mineral resources.







Image #1 - Cliff Creek Zone Drill Section

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

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Quality Assurance and Control

Results from samples were analyzed at ALS Global Laboratories (Geochemistry Division) in Vancouver, Canada (an ISO 9001:2008 accredited facility). The sampling program was undertaken by Company personnel under the direction of Rob L'Heureux, P.Geol. A secure chain of custody is maintained in transporting and storing of all samples. Gold was assayed using a fire assay with atomic emission spectrometry and gravimetric finish when required (+10 g/t Au). Analysis by four acid digestion with 48 element ICP-MS analysis was conducted on all samples with silver and base metal over- limits being re-analyzed by atomic absorption or emission spectrometry. Rock chip samples from outcrop/bedrock are selective by nature and may not be representative of the mineralization hosted on the project.

The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Michael Dufresne, M.Sc, P.Geol., P.Geo., a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

About Benchmark Metals

Benchmark Metals Inc. is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on proving and developing the substantial resource potential of the Lawyer's Gold-Silver Project, located in the prolific Golden Horseshoe of northern British Columbia, Canada. The Company trades on the TSX Venture Exchange in Canada, the OTCQB Venture Market in the United States, and the Tradegate Exchange in Europe. Benchmark is managed by proven resource sector professionals, who have a track record of advancing exploration projects from grassroots scenarios through to production.

Benchmark is part of the Metals Group portfolio of companies. Metals Group is an award-winning team of professionals who stand for technical excellence, painstaking project selection, uncompromising corporate governance and a unique ability to pan through the rubble to discover and develop golden opportunities.





To view an enhanced version of this logo, please visit:

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www.metalsgroup.com

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

s/ "John Williamson"

John Williamson, Chief Executive Officer

For further information, please contact:

Jim Greig

Email: jimg@BNCHmetals.com

Telephone: +1 604 260 6977

NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

This news release may contain certain "forward looking statements". Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this news release and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/61198
The COVID-19 pandemic has been challenging for everyone. No matter what, our lives have been impacted and changed forever. The way we do business has changed. The way we shop has changed. If so many things have changed, we must also consider changing how our government operates.

It is time we change the way we manage unemployment in Florida.

There is no proven playbook for a worldwide pandemic of this magnitude, and Floridas unemployment system was not built for an overnight increase of millions of Floridians. Our system should be rebuilt using modern-day solutions, like a scalable, functional and secure website that provides Floridians with the system they deserve. For one, people should be able to use any device to access their unemployment claim, not only a certain web browser or cell phone. It is 2020 and this is not an unreasonable expectation for a software program of this magnitude.

But, this is not just about an inadequate system. The state agency that oversees unemployment in Florida, and the contractor who did the work on the system, absolutely could have and should have done a better job and been better prepared to handle this level of emergency. The state should explore options to make the system and the people of Florida whole, and this could include working with the Office of Attorney General, Ashley Moody.

So many elected leaders would rather fire off partisan bumper sticker messages than work together to help their constituents, but that just wont do. We need bold solutions that work, and thats why we must revamp the way unemployment works in our state. Floridas current system was designed to help people get back to work after the 2008 recession. Our world has changed, with increases in costs of living and adding gig workers, such as Uber and Lyft drivers and food and grocery delivery drivers, to our society. It is time that we increase the amount of weekly benefits available for everyone, including making our unemployment system more accessible to these workers. There should be a formula that is based on the cost of living, because current rates do not even cover minimal rent. The national average rent in 2019 was $1,465. Fort Lauderdales average was more than $1,900. We must also extend how long Floridians can collect unemployment benefits, not just how much. As we have seen during the past five months, tough economic times can last much longer than 12 weeks.

Story continues

My office has fought to help more than 600 people, within our district or not, secure the benefits they deserve. Imagine if all 120 members of the Florida House of Representatives came together to address the problem and commit to changing how the system works?

For far too long, both political parties have been pushing agendas and virtue signaling along the way. When one side supports an issue, the other side becomes staunchly opposed. This is just plain foolish and accomplishes nothing. Life doesnt work that way, and neither should public service.

We see divisiveness too often in our society today. Now we are seeing it as COVID-19 has affected our residents, put people out of work and shuttered a once-booming economy. There shouldnt be anything political about a pandemic. This especially rings true for our unemployment system. Those who have applied, received or are still waiting for benefits are real people, not pieces on a chessboard to advance one person or one partys political agenda.

Here are the facts: As of Aug. 5 when I wrote this letter, there were 3.44 million claims submitted to DEO. Of those claims, 1.91 million Floridians are eligible based on current Florida unemployment laws and the state has paid 95 percent of those, approximately 1.82 million people. But, these numbers do not tell the whole story. There are thousands of Floridians who have slipped through the cracks of our fragmented unemployment system. We clearly can do better for Florida families.

As a lifelong Floridian, I am confident that most of us know what it is like to experience natural disasters  how to be resilient and recover. COVID-19 has been a worldwide category-five hurricane making direct landfall and has lasted for nearly four months. This virus is nonpartisan and does not see red or blue, so it is about time we all stop counting political points. We are all in this together.

Chip LaMarca is the state representative for District 93, which largely includes all of Broward County east of Dixie Highway and north of Port Everglades.



2020 the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)

Visit the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) at www.sun-sentinel.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
WASHINGTON  By a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court on Wednesday sided with officials at a California jail in a dispute over the adequacy of its response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The courts brief order was unsigned and gave no reasons, which is typical when it acts on emergency applications. The four more liberal justices noted their dissents, and Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, filed an eight-page dissent that accused the majority of failing to safeguard the health of thousands of detainees.

The order temporarily stayed an injunction issued by Judge Jesus G. Bernal of the Federal District Court for the Central District of California that required officials at the Orange County Jail to allow detainees to maintain social distancing, be tested if they show symptoms and have access to cleaning supplies. (Bernal denied a request to release all medically vulnerable and disabled individuals.)

In an emergency application asking the Supreme Court to lift the injunction while appeals moved forward, the officials said Bernal had engaged in unwarranted judicial meddling in the internal affairs of the jail, which currently houses about 3,000 detainees. The officials said they had already released more than half of the jails population and had taken adequate steps to address the pandemic.

The district courts injunction, the officials told the justices, seizes the role of administration of the jail, prevents nimble responses to the virus in an ever-changing landscape and puts focus on compliance with the order and avoiding contempt, rather than squarely on combating the contagion.

In response, the detainees, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, told the justices that more than 300 residents had tested positive for the virus. They said detainees were packed into day rooms sharing the same air and bathrooms without social distancing and were given watered-down disinfectant and makeshift masks made from bloodstained sheets.

In her dissent, Sotomayor said the officials had misled Bernal. The jail claimed that it had already achieved proper social distancing, provided inmates enough soap for frequent hand washing, and isolated and tested all symptomatic individuals, she wrote, adding that sworn statements from dozens of detainees told a different story.

Inmates described being transported back and forth to the jail in crammed buses, socializing in day rooms with no space to distance physically, lining up next to each other to wait for the phone, sleeping in bunk beds 2-3 feet apart, and even being ordered to stand closer than 6 feet apart when inmates tried to socially distance, Sotomayor wrote.

This court normally does not reward bad behavior, she wrote, referring to the officials litigation tactics.

Sotomayor said the officials deserved no solicitude from the Supreme Court, and she faulted the majority for acting before an appeals court had ruled.

The district court found that, despite knowing the severe threat posed by COVID-19 and contrary to its own apparent policies, the jail exposed its inmates to significant risks from a highly contagious and potentially deadly disease, she wrote. Yet this court now intervenes, leaving to its own devices a jail that has misrepresented its actions to the district court and failed to safeguard the health of the inmates in its care.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Were working with Steer to explore the use of driverless technology in the parking lot of our next building, the Marlow, says Greg Fitchitt, president of the Howard Hughes Corp., developer of the Juniper apartments in the Merriweather District of downtown Columbia, Md. Residents will be able to get out of their cars in the lobby and text the car to come back when they need it without anyone else touching the car.
LONDON, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Fimatix has launched a track and trace kit developed especially for schools, in time for the start of the autumn term. Shield for Schools uses Bluetooth wristbands linked to a desktop control system to allow schools to immediately detect and isolate anyone in school who has been in contact with infected students or staff members.

Buckswood School in East Sussex is the UK's first leading independent boarding school to implement an independent track and trace system of this kind. Shield for Schools will be available to roll out to other interested schools across the UK and around the world.

Tim Howarth, Managing Director for Financial Services, at Fimatix said: "We created Shield for Schools to play a positive role in the management of risk and to give pupils, families and schools additional reassurance and peace of mind during these challenging times. By allowing real time contact tracing of the entire school community, we're helping to ensure that everything possible is being done to make the most of a COVID-19 free learning environment."

Kevin Samson from Buckswood commented: "We believe that this technology provides a key component in our school's ability to manage COVID-19, enabling us as a school to instantly identify and isolate students who have been in close contact with anyone who tests positive. Additionally, Shield for Schools is an extremely useful tool in being able to quickly provide important information to Public Health England and the NHS should there be a need to track and trace individuals outside of our school community. It allows us to minimise wider isolation of staff and students, thus minimising the impact on education for all whilst at the same time providing an extra layer of reassurance for parents."

Mark Taylor, Executive Director of Taylor Education, who are closely involved in Shield for Schools, added: "We have worked in partnership with independent schools over the last 10 years - assisting in their strategic planning. This is certainly the most challenging time schools have ever experienced. Working with the Boarding School's Association, independent schools have developed policies and procedures that can give students, parents and staff confidence that independent schools are doing everything possible. A robust strategy of testing for the virus coupled with Fimatix's track and trace Shield for Schools, complements and builds on the BSA guidance and allows schools to demonstrate that they are creating the most virus free learning environments possible. By introducing the track and trace systems, schools are given the edge in making risk based decisions, based on clinical assessment."

With students, teachers and staff wearing Bluetooth wristbands from the first day of term, and having been trained on the new system, Shield for Schools follows three steps. Should a student or member of staff report feeling ill or have positive COVID-19 test results, the system administrator will be notified, log the data and the individual will be isolated as part of the first step. Step two involves cross checking the wristband ID with other wristband IDs on the Shield for Schools dashboard. The school will then perform isolation, retesting and safety protocols as part of the third step, helping to protect the wider school community and minimise disruption to learning.

The Shield for Schools algorithm is designed by medical experts to comply with latest Public Health England guidance on social distancing and contagion prevention and only the schools themselves will have access to, and manage, data relating to pupils and staff.

While the first phase of Shield for Schools is being implemented in leading UK independent boarding schools, the system is also being made available to other interested schools. Fimatix are also implementing bespoke test, track and trace solutions for businesses and workplaces looking for additional reassurance and risk management as teams return to work in offices.

Fimatix is a leading Fintech and Govtech business. With a team of over 150 staff, partners and associates, Fimatix Group's purpose is to enhance the productivity of business, governments and organisations to the benefit of economies, communities and people around the world.

https://www.fimatix.com/
Afghanistan officials say a traditional consultative council will convene Friday to decide whether the last 400 Taliban prisoners will be released as part of a peace agreement, even as its Health Ministry says half of Kabul's residents are infected with the coronavirus.

The Taliban have rejected any changes to the deal they signed in February with the US.

The deal calls for 5,000 Taliban prisoners to be freed by Kabul and the Taliban to free 1,000 government personnel, including security officials, ahead of the start of intra-Afghan negotiations to map out a framework for a future Afghanistan.

The release of the 400 prisoners is the final hurdle to the start of negotiations.

The Taliban have freed the 1,000 prisoners they were holding, and US and NATO soldiers have already begun withdrawing troops in line with the agreement.

But Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has refused to free a final 400 Taliban prisoners, saying he needs a wider authority from a loya jirga, or traditional grand consultative council.

The 3,200 people who will be attending the meeting are the same elders and political leaders invited to a similar council meeting held last year.
Islamabad has not reached out to New Delhi after the Islamabad high courts order on Monday to the Pakistani government to give another chance to India to appoint a counsel for former Indian navy commander Kulbhushan Jadhav who is on death row.

We havent received any communication from Pakistan on Kulbhushan Jadhav case. Pakistan needs to provide unhindered, unimpeded consular access to him, external affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said on Thursday.

The Islamabad high court on Monday had directed the government to inform India to appoint a lawyer for Jadhav in order to file a review petition against his conviction. He is facing a death sentence for alleged spying.

A two-judge bench of the Islamabad high court headed by chief justice Athar Minallah also directed the Pakistan government to again inform Jadhav, 50, of his rights under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and the International Court of Justices (ICJ) order of 2019 staying his execution and calling for a review of his conviction.

India had recently said Pakistan had blocked all its efforts to seek remedies in the case of Jadhav, who was arrested by Pakistani security agencies in Balochistan in March 2016 and charged with spying.

India maintains Jadhav is not a spy was kidnapped by Pakistani operatives from the Iranian port of Chabahar, where he was running a business.
New Delhi: The stunning 'Student Of The Year 2' actress Tara Sutaria and rumoured actor boyfriend Aadar Jain have finally made their love Instagram official. Tara recently took to the social media handle and posted a gorgeous picture of the two, wishing Aadar on his birthday.

And guess what? Doting boyfriend Aadar replied with an 'I Love You' message which Tara was quick to acknowledge with 'I Love You ' note. Check out the post and the screengrab here:

There have been rumours of her dating Aadar Jain, younger brother of the recently married Armaan Jain for quite some time now. In fact, several videos of Tara and Aadar's foot-thumping dance at latter's brother Armaan Jain 's wedding celebrations flooded the internet some time back. However, the duo has never really spoken about it in public.

More recently, when the Kapoors met for Raksha Bandhan celebrations if Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt came as a couple then Aadar Jain and Tara Sutaria at a family do turned heads too.

Tara Sutaria made her sensational debut in Karan Johar's 'Student Of The Year 2' and ever since making waves for her personal and professional life.
A federal appeals court Thursday upheld the dismissal of an indictment in Nevada against Cliven Bundy, his sons Ryan and Ammon Bundy and a fourth defendant, finding ample evidence that they suffered substantial prejudice because of evidence withheld by prosecutors before and during their trial.

The U.S. District Court in Nevada didnt need to show that the prosecutor misconduct was intentional, only that it was reckless and flagrant, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found in a 54-page ruling.

Cliven Bundy, his sons and Ryan Payne, a militia leader from Montana, were indicted on conspiracy and other allegations, accused of rallying armed supporters to stop federal officers from impounding Bundy cattle near Bunkerville. Government authorities were acting on a court order filed after Cliven Bundy failed to pay grazing fees and fines for two decades. The outnumbered federal contingent retreated and halted the cattle roundup on April 12, 2014.

Their trial in Nevada was closely watched in Oregon, where Cliven Bundy was arrested as he traveled to visit his sons during a separate standoff in January 2016 in eastern Oregon. Ammon and Ryan Bundy led the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

In January 2018 in Las Vegas, U.S. District Judge Gloria M. Navarro found that prosecutors engaged in a deliberate attempt to mislead' and made several misrepresentations to both the defense and the court about evidence related to a surveillance camera and snipers outside the Bundy ranch in early April 2014, as well as FBI threat assessments made in the case.

The appeals court found Navarro acted appropriately and that her dismissal of the indictment with prejudice -- meaning permanently -- also reflected a need to impose a sanction that will serve to deter future prosecutions from engaging in the same misconduct as occurred here.

The ruling stated: We note the governments failure to acknowledge and confess any wrongdoing during the course of this case  especially as to material misrepresentations to the district court about the presence of snipers. Rather than accepting responsibility, the government blamed the defense for not requesting more specific information. Even in its motion for reconsideration, the government continued to maintain that it never had an obligation to turn these documents over and that any omission on the governments part was the fault of the defendants for not doing a better job of showing why this information was relevant. Only on appeal has the government admitted that it should have turned these documents over.

The 9th Circuit found, for example, that an argument by the government that evidence divulging the presence of snipers around the Bundy home was somehow irrelevant and not Brady material was preposterous and reckless, the court found. The information would have undermined the governments accusations and opening statement to jurors that the defendants had recruited armed supporters by lying to them about snipers surrounding the family ranch.

Lawyers for the federal government argued that the dismissal was unwarranted and there was no intent by federal prosecutors to withhold evidence.

During oral arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth White told the appeals panel that prosecutors worked tirelessly and tried diligently to comply with all of its obligations' and reviewed and produced hundreds of thousands of pages of documents, including 400 FBI reports. Prosecutors also kept an 87-page log itemizing tens of thousands of documents that they turned over, she said.

We missed a few things,' White told the appeals panel. We overlooked a document here or didnt appreciate the relevance of a document there. What is clear is we fell short.

But she said the lapses didnt warrant the extreme sanction of dismissing the entire indictment, ending the case for good.

In a separate ruling Thursday, the 9th Circuit threw out the conviction of a co-defendant Todd Engel, finding the district judge in Nevada had improperly refused to allow him to represent himself during the trial and appointed a standby counsel to assist in his defense.

Engel wasnt defiant and didnt engage in blatantly outrageous conduct, such as threatening a juror or taunting the judge, but merely asked a question prejudicial to the government and should have been allowed to continue to represent himself, the appeals court found.

Engel was convicted of obstruction of justice and interstate travel in aid of extortion and was sentenced in July 2018 to 14 years in federal prison stemming from the first of three trials in the Bunkerville case. The appeals court ordered a new trial.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212

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A $2.8 million grant seeks improved treatment for acute ischemic stroke patients to let them recover faster with fewer long-term complications. It hinges on delivering statins to the brain, where their neuroprotective properties may save damaged tissue

TUCSON, Ariz.  Every year in the United States, about 800,000 people experience a stroke. Many are left with neurological complications such as paralysis on one side of the body, speech and language problems, vision issues, behavioral changes, and memory loss. Researchers at the University of Arizona Health Sciences aim to reduce these devastating effects by developing therapeutic treatments for acute stroke using a commonly prescribed class of drugs  cholesterol-reducing statins.

Using a $2.79 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), a unit of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Patrick T. Ronaldson, PhD, hopes to solve one of the main challenges when it comes to post-stroke treatments  the effective delivery of neuroprotective drugs, specifically statins, into the brain.

An associate profesor in the UArizona College of Medicine  Tucsons Department of Pharmacology, Dr. Ronaldson studies ischemic stroke, which occurs when blood supplied to the brain is obstructed by a clot. Current treatments, which focus on removing the blockage, are limited by time and treatment options. Many patients dont arrive at the hospital in time to undergo surgery or receive the one drug that is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of ischemic stroke.

Research dating back to the mid-2000s offers clinical evidence that statins are effective in providing neuroprotection to stroke patients. When given to patients at high-risk for stroke, statins reduce the incidence of stroke. In post-stroke patients, statins decrease risk of recurrent strokes and improve functional outcomes.

If you can get statins to the brain at effective concentrations, they actually are protective in the setting of stroke, Dr. Ronaldson said.

For years, the development of therapeutic drugs to treat ischemic stroke has been stopped, literally, by the blood-brain barrier, which is a network of blood vessels that run through the brain and protect it from toxins. Because the blood-brain barrier plays a major role in preventing things from getting into the brain in the first place, Dr. Ronaldson said, it creates a challenge for doctors who need to get therapeutic drugs across the barrier to specific targets in the brain.

There have been about 2,000 neuroprotective compounds that have been identified in pre-clinical studies over the past 20 years, and none of them have even made it to a Phase 3 clinical trial, Dr. Ronaldson said. Most of the research in drug discovery and stroke has focused on trying to identify something that works and then worrying about how to get it into the brain. We're taking something that we know works  statins  and figuring out exactly how to get it into the brain. If you appreciate that from day one, that's going to lead you to toward more effective therapies for stroke.

To that end, Dr. Ronaldson and his team are studying drug uptake transporters, which are proteins that carry drugs into tissues or organs, such as the brain, liver or kidneys. In prior research published in Molecular Pharmacology, he identified the specific family of transporters  organic anion transporting polypeptides (Oatps)  that can efficiently carry statins across the blood-brain barrier.

In the new study, Dr. Ronaldsons hypothesis is that Oatps can be targeted specifically for the purpose of delivering statins to the brain. He hopes to show that Oatp-mediated transport is the primary reason why statins work as a therapeutic treatment in stroke.

This is the critical step in determining whether a statin works for stroke therapy, Dr. Ronaldson said, adding that some clinicians already give statins to stroke patients based on anecdotal evidence of improved outcomes. Our research will be able to inform treatment options for stroke so that clinicians can use that knowledge to try to make those treatments and statins more effective.

The research team also will be investigating ways to regulate Oatp transporters by manipulating the signaling pathways that control them. If researchers can control how and when the transporters work, they might be able to extend the narrow window of time that doctors have to effectively administer stroke treatments.

Eventually, Dr. Ronaldson would like to formulate statins that could be administered intravenously, which would allow medical professionals to deliver these drugs even earlier. Currently, statins are only sold in tablet form for oral delivery. That can be problematic for stroke patients, many of whom cannot swallow in the 24 hours immediately following a stroke.

Not only do we want to target a transporter and deliver the drug, but we want to control the playing field, Dr. Ronaldson said. If we can extend that therapeutic window and give first responders or emergency room clinicians a safe and effective tool that can reliably protect the brain, that's one of the best ways that we can make a contribution in terms of improving stroke therapy.

The study is supported by the NINDS/NIH under award number 2R01NS084941-06A1.

# # #

Another version of this article appeared originally on the UArizona Health Sciences Connect website.

NOTE: Photos and video available at  https://arizona.box.com/s/8hxedbums2yrf2ibixkz1hsrl9d03pft.

About the University of Arizona College of Medicine Tucson

The University of Arizona College of Medicine  Tucson is shaping the future of medicine through state-of-the-art medical education programs, groundbreaking research and advancements in patient care in Arizona and beyond. Founded in 1967, the college boasts more than 50 years of innovation, ranking among the top medical schools in the nation for research and primary care. Through the university's partnership with Banner Health, one of the largest nonprofit health care systems in the country, the college is leading the way in academic medicine. For more information, visit medicine.arizona.edu (Follow us: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn).

About the University of Arizona Health Sciences

The University of Arizona Health Sciences is the statewide leader in biomedical research and health professions training. UArizona Health Sciences includes the Colleges of Medicine (Tucson and Phoenix), Nursing, Pharmacy, and the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, with main campus locations in Tucson and the Phoenix Biomedical Campus in downtown Phoenix. From these vantage points, Health Sciences reaches across the state of Arizona, the greater Southwest and around the world to provide next-generation education, research and outreach. A major economic engine, Health Sciences employs nearly 5,000 people, has approximately 4,000 students and 900 faculty members, and garners $200 million in research grants and contracts annually. For more information: uahs.arizona.edu (Follow us: Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | LinkedIn | Instagram).
As the State receives more palliatives support from private sector

Kano State Deputy Governor Dr. Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna has disclosed that to this end, the State has donated not less than N425m as palliative to ease the hardship caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dr. Gawuna who is the Chairman Kano State Taskforce Committee on Covid-19 made the disclosure today while launching the 3rd phase of the palliative distribution programme, held at Farm Centre, Tarauni Local Government Area.

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He explained that under the palliative programme, over 300,000 households are expected to benefit from the exercise, stressing that the 3rd phase distribution covers 1050 households as beneficiaries.

 Kano State Government has to commit N140b at this phase in order to achieve what we are doing today and it is on this note, I crave the indulgence of all the beneficiaries to ensure full utilization of the items given  he urged

Gawuna announced with pleasure that Kano State is winning the war against covid-19, as in the last 3 days no single case of corona virus was recorded in the State.

 There is continuous downfall in the case of covid-19 pandemic in Kano. On 28th July, we submitted 2945 sample where only 37 came out as positive, on 29th July, we submitted 1120 sample only 18 came out as positive, on 30th July 586 sample were submitted and 7 came out as positive  Said Gawuna

The Deputy Governor added that out of the 223 sample submitted by the State on the 31st of July, only 6 came out as positive while the sample sent on 1st, 2nd and 3rd August 2020 of 50, 340 and 317 people respectively all came out to be negative, a clear indication of the success being recorded so far.

Earlier, the State Chairman on palliative distribution, Professor Muhammad Yahuza Bello reported that in the 1st and 2nd round of the palliative distribution exercise, 100,000 households were given the palliative support, adding that the 3rd round would equally cover 50,000 households respectively.

He said at the 3rd round palliative exercise, 28kg bags of Maize, 27,000 cartons of spaghetti, 40,000 Gallons of cooking oil among others, would be distributed to the vulnerable in the State while the 4th,5th and 6th round would come up soon.

In another development, the State Deputy Governor Dr. Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna has today received food items under the covid-19 palliative programme from the Private Sector Coalition against Covid (CA COVID) at Kumbotso Local Government, in the State Capital.

Receiving the food items on behalf of the State Governor Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, Gawuna extended the appreciation of the State Government to the Coalition for the donation, recalling that  this is not the first palliative support by the coalition as Abubakar Rimi Urology Isolation Centre was renovated and equipped by this group 

In his address, the representative of the CA COVID, Alhaji Abdulkadir Sidi explained that the CA Covid Food Palliative Programme is an attempt by the Private Sector Coalition to support the State Governments effort in providing relief to the Nigerian Populace toward cushioning the hardship caused by the effect of corona virus.

Items donated by the Coalition according to Abdulkadir, include rice, Samolina, Masa flour, Sugar,Noodles, Macaroni and Salt among others.

Others who spoke at the programme were the Chairman Kano State Palliative Committee, Professor Muhammad Yahuza Bello, the representative of the Emir of Karaye, Magaji Garin Karaye, Alhaji Shehu Ahmed and the Chairman Kumbotso Local Government Area Alhaji Kabiru Ado Panshekara.
As millions of new traders sign up for the investment app Robinhood, the company is facing scrutiny for enabling some inexperienced users to make risky bets. WSJ spoke with a financial education professional and two Robinhood traders about how the app is shaking up the brokerage industry.
KAWKAWLIN TWP, MI  A northern Michigan man has been arrested in Bay County after allegedly going on a multi-county burglary spree, with stolen weapons and cremains found in his possession.

At 8:07 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 6, the owner of a home in the 400 block of South Linwood Beach Road called Bay County Central Dispatch to report a breaking-and-entering in progress. The resident wasnt home at the time, but saw live camera footage of his garage being broken into, said Bay County Sheriffs Lt. James Chlebowski.

The caller gave a description of the culprits vehicle as a red Chevrolet Silverado.

A short while later, a sheriffs sergeant was patrolling the area when he spotted a truck matching the description. The sergeant pulled over the truck at the Turkey Roost restaurant, 2273 S. Huron Road (M-13), Chlebowski said.

The suspect exited the truck and fled on foot, heading west across M-13. The sergeant chased after him, but lost him in Docketts Home Center, 2248 S. Huron Road, Chlebowski said.

Additional deputies responded and set up a perimeter. The sheriffs offices K9 was also brought in and tracked the suspect to a pole barn or garage on nearby Debra Court. Deputies found the man hiding there and he surrendered without further incident, the lieutenant said.

The man, a 32-year-old Lewiston resident, was in custody by about 10:30 a.m., Chlebowski said.

The Silverado the man had been driving had been reported stolen out of Lewiston, located in Montmorency County. In it, deputies found two handguns, a Taser, a knife, cremains in a decorative wooden container, and a large sum of cash, all believed to have been stolen.

One of the guns had been stolen out of Lewiston, the other from Fenton in Genesee County, Chlebowski said.

The man is also suspected in at least two break-ins in Bay County, the lieutenant added.

The mans name is being withheld pending arraignment in Bay County District Court.

Read more:

Couple who won $500,000 lottery, now facing burglary charges, owe thousands in back property taxes

New police dog named Lincoln joins Bay County Sheriff's Office

Series of daytime burglaries reported in Bay County
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Published Aug. 6, 2020

After a delay in the Doctor of Physical Therapy program at the University of Louisiana Monroe, the program is on track to accept its first class in 2022.

Leading the DPT program through the accreditation process, curriculum development, and welcoming the inaugural class are two experts in the field of functional mobility, health disparities, and rural health, Lisa VanHoose, Ph.D., MPH, PT, and Ashanti Jones, DPT, PT.

In 2018, the Louisiana Board of Regents approved the DPT program at ULM.

The opening of ULMs program was delayed due to a reduction in programs accredited annually (from 18 to 12) by the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education.

Because of ULMs extensive preparation, the university was able to accept an invitation into a CAPTE pilot program to advance ULMs accreditation.

To learn more about DPT at ULM, visit https://www.ulm.edu/dpt/program/.

Lisa VanHoose, Ph.D., MPH, PT

Lisa VanHoose, Ph.D., MPH, PT, was named Director of the Doctor of Physical Therapy program and Associate Professor in June 2019.

Vanhoose earned a B.S. in Health Science and an M.S. of Physical Therapy from the University of Central Arkansas. VanHoose holds a Ph.D. in Rehabilitation Science and a Master of Public Health from the University of Kansas Medical Center. Before coming to ULM, VanHoose served as a physical therapy faculty member and director of the Cancer Rehabilitation and Wellness Laboratory at UCA.

VanHoose has practiced oncologic physical therapy since 1996. She is a Board-Certified Clinical Specialist in Oncologic Physical Therapy.

VanHooses research investigates socioecological models of cancer-related side effects, emphasizing minority and rural cancer survivorship. VanHoose has led research into qualitative investigations into community-identified risk factors of cardiovascular disease in Black men.

VanHoose serves on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion staff workgroup for the American Physical Therapy Association. She was recently recommended by the APTA as a nominee to serve on the Advisory Committee on Minority Health under the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health.

She currently serves on the Special Populations: Nursing Home subcommittee for Gov. John Bel Edwards Louisiana COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force. VanHoose is an advocate for all persons' movement, including eliminating social policies and practices that are barriers to movement-friendly environments.

"We are excited to partner with the community to develop the DPT program. The program will create practitioners who are committed to rural health and wellness, advocacy, and research. We are currently working with local physical therapists to design the curriculum and instructional spaces, stated VanHoose.

Ashanti Jones, DPT, PT

ULM recently named Ashanti Jones, DPT, PT, Director of Clinical Education and Assistant Professor for the DPT program.

Jones is a native of Lake Charles, and graduated with honors from Dillard University of New Orleans, with a Bachelor of Science in 2003. She attended the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, where she obtained a masters degree in Physical Therapy. Jones went on to further her education with a Doctorate in Physical Therapy from the University of the Incarnate Word of San Antonio, Texas.

Upon graduation, Jones worked in acute rehabilitation settings where she was hands-on in helping individuals regain neurological and functional mobility which, was deemed lost and/or damaged.

Jones brings 15 years of physical therapy experience to ULM. She served in numerous physical therapist positions at Kindred at Home  Gentiva Healthcare, Ridgecrest Community Care Center, Reliant Rehabilitation, Synergy Care, and St. Francis Medical Center and Outpatient Rehabilitation.

Jones will assist VanHoose in completing the application for candidacy and accreditation process with CAPTE accreditation agency. Jones will participate in developing the DPT curriculum and securing affiliation agreements with clinical sites for DPT students.

I am looking forward with much enthusiasm to inspiring and educating the bright minds of future Doctors of Physical Therapy. I am beyond honored and extremely elated to be a part of constructing a program that will create opportunities to enhance the lives of our students as well as our community, stated Jones.



The Monroe Chamber of Commerce recently recognized Jones, the Northeast Louisiana Young Professionals, and Bayou Life Magazine as a top 20 under 40 Young Professionals award recipient.




SHANGHAI and DUNDALK, Ireland, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- WuXi Vaccines, a global leading company with world-class vaccine contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) capabilities, is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Jian Dong as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). WuXi Vaccines is a joint venture established between WuXi Biologics and Shanghai-based Hile Bio-Technology.

"We are delighted to announce Jian's new appointment. He is a highly regarded leader with over 30 years of bio-pharmaceutical experience, including vaccine production, process development, as well as the design, construction, qualification and operation management of cGMP manufacturing facilities," said Dr. Chris Chen, Chairman of WuXi Vaccines, "We are confident that Jian will lead the company to establish a global high-quality system with outstanding vaccine CDMO capabilities. With a vision to accelerate and transform vaccine development and production, WuXi Vaccines will make substantial contributions to expedite vaccine development and ensure a robust supply chain."

"I am excited for the opportunity to lead WuXi Vaccines. By leveraging our robust capacities and state-of-the-art technologies, the company will further increase its unique presence in the vaccine industry to enable global partners and benefit patients worldwide." Commented Mr. Jian Dong.

Mr. Jian Dong joined WuXi Biologics in 2014, and had been responsible for global biomanufacturing, global engineering, and the overall operations of Wuxi site since 2015. Under the excellent leadership of Mr. Jian Dong, Wuxi site became the first GMP biologics Drug Substance (DS) and Drug Product (DP) facilities in China certified by both the US FDA and EMA. Prior to WuXi Biologics, Mr. Jian Dong spent decades in various roles with increasing responsibilities at Eli Lilly & Co. in the US, Shanghai United Cell Biotechnology and Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products Co., Ltd. With extensive experience in vaccine manufacturing and facility qualification, he had made significant contributions to the tech transfer and large scale commercial production of recombinant hepatitis B vaccine in China.

In February, WuXi Vaccines completed modular lab installation of its vaccine manufacturing facility in Ireland, which represents a great milestone since the announcement of 240 million USD investment last November. With smooth progress made in the site construction, this integrated vaccine manufacturing facility is expected to be operational in 2021.

About WuXi Vaccines

WuXi Vaccines is a joint venture established between WuXi Biologics (stock code: 2269.HK) and Shanghai-based Hile Bio-Technology (stock code: 603718.SH). The business model of WuXi Vaccines is to build world-class integrated platforms and Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) model to enable global companies to develop and manufacture vaccines.

SOURCE WuXi Biologics

Related Links

http://www.wuxibiologics.com.cn


Families across the nation grappling with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic can breathe a little easier thanks to a mutual aid fund set up by one woman from Milwuakee.

Mother-of-three Chamieka House-Osuya, 30, has created a fund called The Snack Sack where she collects donations used to send snacks, hygiene products and other basic necessities to families struggling financially during the pandemic.

Chamieka, who said she's known as the 'resource lady' in her community, has sent Snack Sacks to 600 families across 30 states since launching in April after schools shut down and she realized how pricey feeding children full-time would get.

Speaking to DailyMail.com, Chamieka said: 'Children are feeling the effects and trauma of this just like anybody else. This is community care; the community at large looking out for each another.

'We're providing direct care and access for individuals and families in need right now.'

She explains that what started as sending non-perishable snacks, has expanded to diapers, hygiene products and anything else that families request on their $50 wish-lists.

Mother-of-three Chamieka House-Osuya has created a mutual aid fund called The Snack Sack to send snacks, hygiene products and other basic necessities. She's pictured with her three adopted daughters

Families can anonymously fill out a wish-list for up to $50 and the orders get fulfilled within days via Amazon, Walmart or other retailers. One happy family is pictured with their Snack Sack order

Chamieka collects donations and then uses them to send items to families struggling financially during the pandemic. Two children are seen smiling after receiving their box of goodies through Chamieka's fund

Chamieka experienced the stress many families had once schools closed in April and all three of her young daughters ages 7, 9 and 15, were home full-time.

'I'm a mom of three girls that I adopted, they're all sisters. When the pandemic hit it was crazy. Nothing like this has ever happened in our lifetime,' she said in an interview with DailyMail.com. 'I think as a society we were not prepared for the level of lockdown and restrictions that would come soon thereafter.

Chamieka has sent Snack Sacks to 600 families across 30 states since launching in April and has raised more than $30,000

'Like many other families we had to move quickly and we went into fight or flight mode.'

Chamieka said she waited in long lines wrapped around grocery stores and began to stock pile because 'we feared the unknown'.

'Throughout all of that panic I began to think about families that didn't have the luxury to get the items, whether it's food or personal items or household items to be prepared for something like this,' she said. 'So I sat down one day and thought about how I could help.'

Chamieka used her background as an administrator for family and community engagement at Milwaukee Public Schools to kick start Snack Sack.

She started at the grassroots level, using a Facebook fundraiser on her personal page to collect donations. She raised $8,000 and then moved to different platforms like CashApp, Venmo and PayPal to collect funds.

In all, the fund has raised over $30,000.

Families who participate fill out a wish-list form with items up to $50. Chamieka then takes the donations to the fund to fulfill the orders that get mailed to them via Amazon, or get ordered to their nearest Walmart or other retailers for pickup.

'We've helped over 600 families and about half are regulars and they get help bi-weekly. They provide their wish-list and we fulfill them,' Chamieka said.

'In the beginning it was snacks. But I had a recipient write me in May and say ''I need help, my kids need diapers, we have not left the house in days.'''

Chamieka said she immediately got onto Facebook and asked for a diaper subscription, food and other non-perishables and the order was fulfilled within days.

'We've helped over 600 families and about half are regulars and they get help bi-weekly. They provide their wish-list and we fulfill them,' Chamieka said

Chamieka experienced the stress many families have once schools closed in April and all three of her young daughters ages 7, 9 and 15, (pictured in a family photo) were home full-time

A happy little boy is seen smiling with his Snack Sack. One family from Mount Laurel, New Jersey, who wishes to remain anonymous, praised the Snack Sack. 'When COVID-19 started, we had to cut back severely, and snacks were the first thing to go. It made my kids so excited and just made things feel 'normal' to 6 kids,' they said

'We provide non perishable food items that can be sent through Amazon or be picked up as well as personal care items, hygiene products, shower gels, deodorants and shaving kits.

'Nobody gets turned away. If there's something we can help with, we will help,' she said.

Chamieka did stress that with the influx of orders and families signing up, she and her team prioritize marginalized families, but emphasized again that no one is turned away.

Nobody gets turned away. If there's something we can help with, we will help

She added that recipients' identities stay confidential to allow for families to receive the help they need without fearing the stigma that comes with it.

'Confidentiality is very important to us. No one should have to put their integrity on the line to get help,' she said. 'Our culture has made it embarrassing to ask for help.'

'It is not charity. This is community care,' she added. 'This is a matter of basic human rights at this point.'

One family from Mount Laurel, New Jersey, who wishes to remain anonymous, praised the Snack Sack.

'When COVID-19 started, we had to cut back severely, and snacks were the first thing to go. It made my kids so excited and just made things feel 'normal' to 6 kids,' they said.

And as far as what goes into the kits, she says she leaves it all up to the families.

'You give people the autonomy to decide for themselves what they need. Some may want kale chips and peanut butter and others might want chips and pretzels and fun snacks.

'That's up to the families to decide because at the end of the day people want the best for their children across the spectrum.'

Chamieka, from Milwaukee, told DailyMail.com, 'Nobody gets turned away. If there's something we can help with, we will help'. She's pictured with two of her daughters

'I can't fix everyone problems and solve everything. But I think about what I can do as an individual to help the community at large and go from there,' Chamieka said. One child is seen posing with their snacks

Chamieka has brought on a team of three women, all volunteers, who help keep the fund going.

Moving forward, Chamieka says she has thought about turning The Snack Sack into a non-profit organization, however she's hesitant because right now 100% of the funds go straight to families and she wants to keep it that way.

For now she has moved her family to Texas, where she's pursuing a Master's degree in Houston and hopes to continue to send Snack Sacks across the country.

'I can't fix everyone problems and solve everything. But I think about what I can do as an individual to help the community at large and go from there,' she said.
Home  Just In  10 more at Nepal Police Headquarters test coronavirus positive

Kathmandu, August 6

Nepal Police says 10 more officials and personnel at its headquarters have contracted Covid-19 on Thursday. Along with this, the number of coronavirus positive staff at the headquarters located in Naxal of Kathmandu has reached 85.

Nepal Police spokesperson SSP Kuber Kadayat informs their swab samples were tested at Nepal Police Hospital in Maharajgunj. Preparations are underway to hospitalise them, according to him.

Across the country, 319 Nepal Police staffers have been infected so far. Of them, 119 have recovered.
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Patient Access Solutions Market Size, Share, key Trends, Top Leaders and Analyzed information by Global Patient Access Solutions Market  Service (Support & Maintenance and Implementation), Software (Eligibility Verification Software and Medical Necessity Management Software,), End User & RegionGlobal Forecast till 2024

Patient access solutions can be used by patients to gain access to their records, prescriptions, reports, and bills in a centralized location. The software helps in identification, management, and collection of data. The global patient access solutions market report by Market Research Future (MRFR) uses industry insights accumulated from experts by analysts for the compilation of pertinent drivers and challenges in a comprehensive manner.

Market Overview

The global patient access solutions market is predicted to accrue revenues at a CAGR of 7.5% during the forecast period (2019-2024). The market can thrive by minimizing the amount of staff required for management of patient data. The increase in healthcare expenditure by nations globally can drive the adoption rate by hospital chains globally and provide the market a much-needed boost. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the total healthcare expenditure was reported to be USD 831.5 billion.

Technological advances in software which have culminated in accuracy, portability, and affordability can ramp up the adoption rate significantly. The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into the software to assist patients in their search can bode well for the global Patient Access Solutions Market growth. Additional functions of health economics management and patient record management, as well as integration of real-time management models, can influence the growth patterns of the market.

Segmentation

The global patient access solutions market is segmented by delivery mode, software, service, and end-user.

By delivery mode, it is segmented into on-premise solutions and web & cloud-based solutions.

By software, it is segmented into eligibility verification software, pre-certification & authorization software, payment estimation software, medical necessity management software, medical claims payment processing software, claims denial & appeal management software, and others.

By service, it is segmented into training & education, support & maintenance, and implementation.

By end-user, it is segmented into laboratories & research institutes, hospitals & clinics, and healthcare providers.

Regional Analysis

The Middle East & Africa (MEA), Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), and North America are the main regions considered during the compilation of the market report.

The Americas accounted for the lions share of the market due to presence of well-established hospital chains, reputed personnel, sophisticated infrastructure, and high healthcare expenditure.

Europe accounted for the second-largest market share due to increased support for research and development. Furthermore, the integration of the latest technology as well as upgradation of current equipment can drive the global patient access solutions market demand till 2023. Investment of capital as well as the large healthcare expenditure allocated for the well-being of patients can augur favorably for the market in the region.

The APAC region is estimated to grow at a robust pace due to rapidly growing economies as well as the large patient pool. Awareness among patients of mobile applications as well as large disposable income levels has led to the integration of the latest automated solution at major hospitals. This can prove fruitful for the market looking to expand in the region. Furthermore, the improving economies other than large ones of China and India can be lucrative areas for investment.

Competition Outlook

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Optum, TeleTracking Technologies, Inc., TransUnion LLC, SCI Solutions, Inc., GAFFEY Healthcare, Experian Information Solutions, Inc., Genentech USA, Inc., PokitDok, Inc, nThrive, Inc, Stericycle Inc, Cardinal Health, McKesson, Availity, LLC, UNITED BIOSOURCE LLC, KYRUUS, Cerner Corporation, MEDHOST, and FormFast are prominent names in the global patient access solutions market.

Industry News

Patient Access Solutions, Inc., has decided to try out a new strategy of acquiring local clinics in order to expand its services. It will establish Integrated Health Centers in its place and focus on patient care.

Table Of Contents:

Chapter 1. Report Prologue

Chapter 2. Market Introduction

2.1 Definition

2.2 Scope Of The Study

2.2.1 Research Objective

2.2.2 Assumptions

2.2.3 Limitations

Chapter 3. Research Methodology

3.1 Overview

3.2 Primary Research

3.3 Secondary Research

3.4 Market Size Estimation

Chapter 4. Market Dynamics

4.1 Drivers

4.2 Restraints

4.3 Opportunities

Continued

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'It is surprising that such [Turkish] statements and allegations were issued by a party who had not originally seen the agreement and its details'

Egypt's foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez said on Thursday that the Turkish foreign ministry's response to an Egyptian-Greek maritime demarcation deal that defines an exclusive economic zone between the two countries is "surprising."

"It is surprising that such [Turkish] statements and allegations were issued by a party who had not originally seen the agreement and its details," Hafez wrote on his official Twitter account.

Egypt and Greece signed the maritime demarcation deal establishing an exclusive economic zone between the two countries on Thursday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and his Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias announced at a televised press conference in Cairo.

Turkey's foreign ministry subsequently said that the area falls in the borders of Turkey's continental shelf.

Reuters reported Ankara as saying that Turkey considers the agreement to be null and void, and that the deal also violates Libya's maritime rights.

In 2019, Turkish officials and the prime minister of Libyas Government of National Accord (GNA) Fayez Al-Sarraj signed a memorandum of understanding on maritime boundaries in the Mediterranean Sea.

At that time, five countries, including Egypt, Greece, and Cyprus, called on the United Nations not to register the maritime boundary deal, describing it as "illegal." The speaker of the Libyan House of Representatives, Aguila Saleh, in his letter to the UN, rejected the agreement.

Egypt, a close ally of Greece and Cyprus, has had strained relations with Turkey since the 2013 ouster of Egypts late Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, a close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans government.

Relations further deteriorated over Turkeys intervention in Libya and a signalled military intervention by Egypt in the war-torn country.

The two countries support rival sides in the oil-rich country; Ankara stands by the GNA, based in the west, while Cairo backs the Libyan National Army led by Khalifa Haftar.

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Cannabis is bad for the heart and may trigger heart attacks and strokes, doctors have warned.

The American Heart Association (AHA), who reviewed the available evidence, now recommend avoiding cannabis to protect the heart.

In a scientific statement, it said smoking cannabis has some of the same harms as tobacco, which is known to be a leading cause of death worldwide.

Research has shown the recreational drug may have health benefits  but smoking cannabis has been linked with a slew of damaging heart problems.

Chemicals inside the drug can cause heart rhythm abnormalities within an hour of smoking, studies show.

The toxins can alter blood pressure, heart rate and trigger inflammation, all of which are underlying culprits of heart disease and strokes.

The AHA warning applied to people who use the drug recreationally, as well as and for medicinal purposes.

Cannabis is bad for the heart and may trigger heart attacks and strokes, doctors have warned

Study author Professor Robert Page, from the University of Colorado, said the review found cannabis has 'the potential to interfere with prescribed medications'.

He added studies have also suggested it may 'trigger cardiovascular conditions or events, such as heart attacks and strokes'.

Professor Page also warned attitudes towards cannabis have changed rapidly', with US states and countries legalising it for medical or recreational use.

He added: 'Health care professionals need a greater understanding of the health implications of cannabis.'

Professor Page and AHA colleagues examined existing research on the connection between cannabis and the heart.

Their findings were published in the AHA journal Circulation.

Dr Rose Marie Robertson, the deputy chief science and medical officer for the AHA, said: 'The AHA recommends that people not smoke or vape any substance, including cannabis products, because of the potential harm to the heart, lungs and blood vessels.'

The statement said the a full understanding of how use of cannabis affects the heart and blood vessels is limited by a lack of adequate research.

THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THC AND CBD Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) are both derived from the cannabis plant. Together, they are part of the cannabinoid group of compounds found in hashish, hash oil, and most strains of marijuana. THC is the psychoactive compound responsible for the euphoric, 'high' feeling often associated with marijuana. THC interacts with CB1 receptors in the central nervous system and brain and creates the sensations of euphoria and anxiety. CBD does not fit these receptors well, and actually decreases the effects of THC, and is not psychoactive. CBD is thought to help reduce anxiety and inflammation. Advertisement

The debate around marijuana and its claimed medicinal properties is rife.

But the AHA applied their statement against cannabis to people who use it for both recreational and medicinal purposes.

It added: 'Cannabis may have therapeutic benefits, but few are cardiovascular in nature.'

Medical marijuana is legal in 33 US states and Washington, DC, where it is prescribed for pain management, anxiety and depression.

Washington DC, as well as 11 other US states, have already legalised recreational cannabis use.

Only people with specific conditions are able to get cannabis-based medicine with THC in it in the UK. However, it is difficult to get a prescription.

The most common chemicals in cannabis include THC, the component of the plant that give a 'high', and CBD, which does not produce a 'high' or intoxication.

Existing studies have found that within an hour after cannabis is smoked, THC may cause heart rhythm abnormalities.

These include tachycardia, premature ventricular contractions, atrial fibrillation and ventricular arrythmias.

THC also appears to stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for the 'flight or fight' response.

It can result in a higher heart rate, greater demand for oxygen from the heart, higher blood pressure while laying down and dysfunction within the walls of the arteries.

On the other hand, studies on CBD found links with reduced heart rate, lower blood pressure, increased vasodilation which helps arteries to open up, lower blood pressure and potentially reduced inflammation.

It's for these same reasons that people chose to use CBD products with the aim of reducing anxiety, depression, chronic pain conditions and more.

CANNABIS: WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS AND DRAWBACKS? Cannabis is an illegal Class B drug in the UK, meaning possession could result in a five year prison sentence and those who supply the drug face up to 14 years in jail. However, the drug is still widely used for recreational purposes and can make users feel relaxed and happy. But smoking it - the most common way to consume the drug - can also lead to feelings of panic, anxiety or paranoia. Scientific studies have shown the drug can alleviate depression, anxiety and stress, but heavy use may worsen depression in the long term by reducing the brain's ability to let go of bad memories. It can also contribute to mental health problems among people who already have them, or increase users' risk of psychosis or schizophrenia, according to research. Marijuana can be prescribed for medical uses in more than half of US states, where it is used to combat anxiety, aggression and sleeping problems. Researchers are also looking into whether it could help people with autism,eczema or psoriasis. Cannabis oil containing the psychoactive chemical THC, which is illegal in the UK, is claimed to have cancer-fighting properties, and a host of patients claim to have recovered from the disease by taking the drug. Cannabis-based medicine with THC in it was legalised in the UK in November 2018. However, it is difficult to get a prescription. Very few people in England are likely to get a prescription for medical cannabis. Currently, it is only likely to be prescribed for children and adults with rare, severe forms of epilepsy, and adults with vomiting or nausea caused by chemotherapy. Studies have shown cannabis-based medicine could halve the number of seizures suffered by children with a rare type of epilepsy called Dravet syndrome. Advertisement

Inflammation is an underlying culprit of the narrowing of the arteries that can lead to heart disease and strokes.

Therefore, CBD alone may be beneficial  but the AHA did not say this.

Smoking and inhaling cannabis, regardless of THC content, has been linked with a number of heart problems.

Cardiomyopathy, or heart muscle dysfunction, angina, or chest pain, heart attacks, heart rhythm disturbances, sudden cardiac death and other serious cardiovascular conditions have all been discussed in the scientific literature.

Professor Page said: 'Many consumers and health care professionals don't realise that cannabis smoke contains components similar to tobacco smoke.'

Smoking and inhaling cannabis, regardless of THC content, has been shown to increase blood concentrations of carbon monoxide, a poisonous gas, five-fold.

And blood levels of tar increase three-fold, similar to the effects of inhaling a tobacco cigarette. Tar is a sticky black liquid that is residue from burning tobacco and other plant material, like cannabis.

Chest pain, heart attacks, heart rhythm disturbances and other serious heart conditions are associated with carbon monoxide intoxication, the statement said, whether from tobacco or cannabis.

For anyone with existing heart disease, risks go up.

Smoking cannabis has triggered heart attacks, a higher risk of strokes and heart failure in people with underlying heart disease, studies show.

The review also found cannabis has the potential to interfere with prescribed medications, therefore the AHA urged for a better understanding of the risks among doctors.

Some studies suggest cannabis use, both CBD and THC, may be safe and effective for older populations.

Older adults, although the least likely to use cannabis, often use it to reduce neuropathic pain, improve quality of life and decrease prescription drug use such as opioids.

And it's been reported cannabis can have benefits for patients with age-related diseases, including Parkinson and Alzheimer disease.

Some two million Americans with heart disease currently use marijuana or have used it in the past, according to a recent report in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

But concern about them using the drug include the potential of how it could interact with other medications including blood thinners, anti-depressants, antipsychotics and statins.

Existing studies on marijuana and the heart are short-term, observational and retrospective studies. This means they can spot a trend, but cannot say for certain there is cause and effect.

There is an 'urgent' need for 'carefully designed, prospective short- and long-term studies regarding cannabis use and cardiovascular safety,' Professor Page said.

However, this could be challenging given that marijuana is classified as a Schedule I drug by the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), which limits scientists from studying it.

Professor Page said anyone planning to use marijuana should discuss possible risks with their health professional first.

But if people do choose to use cannabis for whatever reason, it is vital they only use legal cannabis products.
New Springer book deals with the use of cannabis in medicine and provides an evidence-based approach as well as different perspectives on this controversial issue

Cannabis is a drug that is illegal in large parts of the world. But the laws have been changing for a few years and more and more countries are starting to legalise hashish and marijuana. The book Cannabis in Medicine: An Evidence-Based Approach by pain medicine specialist and editor Dr. Kenneth Finn is a comprehensive compilation of the many facets of cannabis recommendation, use, and effects from a variety of different medical perspectives.

This edited volume comprises invaluable contributions from medical experts and is dedicated to separate fields of medicine that outline the current data as well as the need for further study. Dr. David W. Murray, Senior fellow at Hudson Institute, where he co-directs the Center for Substance Abuse Policy Research, states in the foreword: "Marijuana use far outstrips the self-reported use of any other 'illicit' substance." Murray concludes that "the full scope of the potential negative effects of increased marijuana use, particularly as accelerated by commercial legalization, is now emerging, and the damage affects many domains of national life".

Starting with a general overview of the neurobiology and pharmacology of THC and hemp, Cannabis in Medicine covers various medical issues from different disciplines of medicine such as psychiatry, cardiology, as well as gastrointestinal and neurology, and finally addresses non-medical concerns such as public health and safety, driving impairment and legal implications for medical providers.

The book provides clinicians with a concise and evidence-based guide to various health concerns related to the use of marijuana. Since the book also covers non-medical concerns in addition to providing case studies and meta-analyses, it is also a useful resource for professionals working in the public health and legal fields.

###

About the editor

Dr. Kenneth Finn, MD is a voluntary clinical instructor for the University of Colorado Medical School in Colorado Springs and has over 30 years of experience in the medical field. He is Board Certified in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Pain Management, and Pain Medicine, and is a member of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and the American Academy of Pain Medicine. He is President-Elect to the American Board of Pain Medicine and since 2001, has been on their Exam Council. He has helped Colorado Medical Society, El Paso County Medical Society, and the Colorado Pain Society develop their position statement on cannabis. He served on the Colorado Governor's Task Force on Amendment 64, which legalized marijuana for recreational use, Consumer Safety and Social Issues Work Group and served 4 years on Colorado's Medical Marijuana Scientific Advisory Council. In 2018, he was invited to testify to the Canadian Senate on their marijuana bill and recently, was invited to speak to British Parliament, but cancelled due to COVID.

Kenneth Finn (Ed.)

Cannabis in Medicine: An Evidence-Based Approach

2020, 585 p., 39 illus., 32 illus. in color

Softcover 79,99  | 69.99 | $99.99

ISBN 978-3-030-45967-3

eISBN 978-3-030-45968-0
McConnell: Democrats, GOP Will Reach Virus Relief Deal In the Near Future

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in an interview on Thursday that he is optimistic a pandemic relief bill will be crafted in the near future, following nearly two weeks of talks over expanded unemployment benefits and more.

McConnell said both Republicans and Democrats have a desire to stimulate the economy amid months of high unemployment numbers and jobless claims. Numerous states shut down businesses in an attempt to curb the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, a coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and broke out in China before turning into a worldwide pandemic.

Exactly when that deal comes together I cant tell you, but I think it will at some point in the near future, the Kentucky Republican said in a televised interview.

His statement comes in contrast to ones made by White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who told reporters on Wednesday that he isnt optimistic a deal will be made at all.

I think at this point were either going to get serious about negotiating and get an agreement in principle or Ive become extremely doubtful that well be able to make a deal if it goes well beyond Friday, Meadows told reporters after a meeting with top Democrats. Weve been spending so much time together that if youre not making progress, theres no sense to continue, he added.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) have repeatedly said there is progress being made in daily meetings with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Meadows.

President Donald Trump, meanwhile, said that he might take direct action on addressing evictions and payroll tax cuts, saying he could issue an executive order to postpone payroll taxes for Medicare and Social Security, as well as extending a federal moratorium on evictions that expired last month.

President Donald Trump talks to reporters while hosting (2nd L-R) Vice President Mike Pence, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Republican congressional leaders in the Oval Office at the White House on July 20, 2020. (Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images)

Unemployment benefits worth $600 per week, which expired on July 31, have been perhaps the most contentious issue. Democrats say they want to extend those benefits until next year or until the jobless rate drops, while Republicans have offered a program to pay $200 per week and later, 70 percent of wage replacement.

The two parties are also at odds over providing aid to state and local governments. Republicans, in their HEALS Act, offered no funding while Democrats are seeking $1 trillion in aid.

McConnell said on Thursday, The argument is over how much [aid] is appropriate at this particular juncture. McConnell, meanwhile, said that he will have to rely on Senate Democrats and some Republican senators to pass a bill because some GOP lawmakers oppose even a $1 trillion bill.

Ive got members  who think weve done enough, but thats not my view, he said.
New Delhi, Aug 6 : The Centre on Thursday informed the Supreme Court that foreign nationals, against whom criminal proceedings are pending in connection with the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in New Delhi, are free to leave the country after tendering an apology.

The submission was made by the Centre during the hearing of a plea by 34 foreign nationals seeking deportation to their home countries.

A bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari noted that Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, on instructions, submitted that the look-out notices issued against the petitioners stand withdrawn.

"In other words, the concerned petitioner(s) will be free to leave India, subject to any other pending proceedings including order passed by the court requiring his/her presence in the stated proceedings," it noted.

Mehta contended before the bench that in all fairness, if the petitioners concerned tender apology, as envisaged by the Madras High Court in the criminal case concerned, they can be permitted to leave India despite the pendency of the criminal case but subject to such orders that may be passed by the trial court concerned.

He also informed the bench that so far only 10 petitioners have decided to contest the criminal cases pending against them and are not willing to exercise the option of plea bargaining.

At this, the top court said that the criminal cases concerning these 10 petitioners pending in different trial courts in Delhi be brought before the same court hearing criminal case arising out of FIR number 63 of 2020, so that all the cases can be disposed of expeditiously.

"Accordingly, we direct transfer of stated cases to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, South-East Delhi, Saket Court Complex, as suggested and direct the said court to dispose of all the cases expeditiously, preferably within eight weeks from today," said the top court.

The bench has scheduled the matter for further hearing after eight weeks.

More than 30 petitioners, who moved the top court, submitted that they had to forfeit their passports to the administration after the registration of the FIRs, which led to deprivation of personal liberty, without following procedure established under law.

Initially, the Ministry of Home Affairs had blacklisted 960 foreign nationals who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event. Later, the Centre said 2,765 foreigners have been blacklisted.
The United Nations human rights chief called on all parties in Yemen to release their detained journalists, warning today that attacks against the men and women documenting the conflict may amount to war crimes

"Journalists are under attack from all quarters, said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet. They are jailed and sentenced to death for merely trying to shine a light on the brutality of this crisis."

Since the start of April, the UN Human Rights Office has documented one assassination, one abduction, three cases of arbitrary arrest and detention, the sentencing of four journalists to death in violation of international human rights law and jailing of six others, three physical assaults and threats of physical violence.

Yemen has been embroiled in civil war since 2014, when the Iran-backed Houthi movement seized the capital, Sanaa, and captured large swaths of the country. The next year, Saudi Arabia led a military coalition that intervened on the governments behalf.

Journalists have come under attack by all parties to the conflict, including foreign governments and terrorist groups, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. The constant intimidation and detention of journalists contributes to Yemen's ranking  167th out of 180 countries  in Reporters Without Borders' press freedom index.

Since the start of the conflict, the United Nations has documented 357 human rights violations and abuses against journalists in Yemen, including 28 killings. Most recently, unidentified gunmen killed prominent photojournalist Nabil al-Quaety outside his house in the southern city of Aden in June.

In Houthi-held Sanaa, a court in April sentenced four journalists to death on spying charges that Amnesty International described as trumped up. The journalists' lawyer says they were subjected to brutal torture while in detention.
A huge mushroom cloud after the port explosion that reduced much of the city to rubble

Australian residents of the city of Newcastle, 163 km (101 miles) north of Sydney, have called for a large ammonium nitrate plant, stockpiling up to four times the amount reportedly detonated in Lebanon, to be relocated.

Lebanese authorities have blamed a huge stockpile of the highly explosive material stored for years in unsafe conditions at Beirut's port for Tuesday's explosion, which killed at least 145 people and injured more than 5,000.

It is estimated about 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate were involved in the explosion.

By comparison, Australia's Orica stores between 6,000 to 12,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate (AN), on average, at its Kooragang Island plant in the port of Newcastle, the company said in a statement.

The stockpile has led resident groups to campaign for the plant to be relocated, according to several local media reports.

"It's a totally inappropriate place to have such a dangerous material produced and stored, and it's something we've been complaining about for many, many years," chemical engineer and community campaigner Keith Craig told the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC).

He is one of 300 residents in the Stockton Community Action Group campaigning for the Orica plant to be relocated, or its stockpiles to be significantly reduced, the ABC reported.

In a statement, Orica said it followed all international standards and local regulations to ensure safety at every stage of the manufacturing supply chain.

"AN storage areas are fire resistant and built exclusively from non-flammable materials," Orica said.

"...we take a rigorous, best-practice approach towards safety in the production, storage and transport of all our products."

"You have to be extremely negligent with AN for it to explode," it said. It said video footage of the Beirut explosion suggested fireworks had been stored close by. Some reports say a welder started a fire.

"This cannot be compared to the responsible and heavily regulated production, storage and transport of AN by Orica and others in Australia," Orica said.
Coronavirus cases in Sonoma County may be underreported by up to one-third due to a glitch in the state electronic data system, according to the Press Democrat.

County officials said this week the technology issue is creating a lag in new cases being added to the county's online COVID-19 dashboard that's reporting 3,208 total cases as of Wednesday.

"Some of you may have noticed recently the report hasn't been as quick to update as quickly as in the past," said Dr. Sundari Mase, the countys health officer, in her weekly video update posted on Facebook Wednesday.

"Problems with the system could go as far back as a week," the Press Democrat reported.

Mase assured the community that patient care and test results have not been effected or delayed by this issue. She is more concerned about the impact on the county's ability to receive all the lab reports in order to investigate cases and contact trace to the extent that we've been doing and as quickly as the county has been doing in the past. Contact tracing is a key tool in stopping the spread of the virus.

A major reporting issue with California's coronavirus data is impacting the entire state and county health officials no longer have a clear idea of how cases are trending.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday the state has seen a 21.2% drop in the seven-day infection rate from the week before.

The next day, the governor's statement was brought into question. Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said in a Tuesday press briefing California hasn't received full counts on the number of tests conducted for days, nor the number that came back positive for COVID-19. In other words, the state doesn't have a clear idea of whether cases are going up or down.

"Just as we had back in February and March when we didn't have enough testing, we felt blind. I would say right now were back to feeling blind. We dont know how the epidemic is trending," Santa Clara County Health Officer Sara Cody said Wednesday. "Its not just inconvenient. This lack of data doesnt allow us to know where this epidemic is heading, if its growing."

The California Reportable Disease Information Exchange (CalREDIE) is where the data breakdown occurred. The state system electronically receives COVID-19 test data from individual labs.

"Theres a specific component that feeds information from labs to both the states system and the local public health system," Ghaly said. "That may actually be the place where data is getting stuck."

As a result, not all the confirmed positive cases are in the state database.

The daily tally posted Tuesday on California's COVID-19 data page showed 4,526 additional confirmed positives, the lowest total in more than six weeks and a precipitous drop from the record of nearly 13,000 reported two weeks ago. Many counties individually reported to the state that they think their case numbers are being underreported or delayed.

The state has deployed an emergency team from the state's Department of Technology to fix the data glitch. Meanwhile all laboratories in the state are manually reporting cases to county health officials until the problem is corrected.

While contact-tracing efforts are impacted, Mase reminded the Sonoma County community that if you test positive, you are required to notify all close contacts and quarantine. "It is even more important given the data reporting delays from the state," she said.

SFGATE Managing Editor Katie Dowd and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Amy Graff is the news editor for SFGATE. Email her: agraff@sfgate.com.
The town of West was partly levelled in 2013 by a similar blast; today, its mayor feels no lessons have been learned.

The shocking videos coming out of the Lebanese capital are grimly familiar to Tommy Muska as he sits thousands of miles away in the US state of Texas: a towering blast, a thundering explosion, and shock waves demolishing buildings with horrifying speed.

The mayor of West, Texas, lived through the same thing seven years ago when one of the deadliest fertiliser plant explosions in US history partly levelled his rural town. Muska has a feeling that, yet again, no lessons will be learned from this tragedy.

I dont know what people were thinking about storing that stuff, Muska, a volunteer firefighter at the time of the West explosion, told The AP news agency.

The 2013 disaster at the West Fertilizer Company was a fraction of the size of Tuesdays explosion at Beiruts port. Authorities say the Beirut explosion killed at least 137 people and wounded about 5,000.

Both blasts involved massive stockpiles of ammonium nitrate, a common but highly explosive chemical, and swift allegations that negligence and weak government oversight were to blame.

Few significant crackdowns on chemical storage came in the wake of the West explosion, which killed 15 people. Late last year, US President Donald Trump scaled back industrial safety and disaster regulations enacted in direct response to the West tragedy.

This April 18, 2013, photo shows the remains of a nursing home, left, apartment complex, centre, and fertiliser plant, right, destroyed by an explosion in West, Texas [File: Tony Gutierrez/The Associated Press]

In Beirut, the investigation into Tuesdays blast is focusing on how a reported 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate came to be stored at the facility for six years and why nothing was done about it.

The chemical had been stored at the citys port warehouse since it was confiscated from a ship in 2013. On Tuesday, it is believed to have detonated when a fire started nearby.

We dont seem to learn

In West, the authorities suspected arson, but no arrests were made. The explosion had the force of a small earthquake, flattening homes within a five-block radius and destroying a nursing home and leaving its residents, some in wheelchairs, trapped in the rubble. Ten of those killed in the blast were firefighters or first responders.

We dont seem to learn that that chemical is deadly, Muska said. I feel for those people in Beirut, I surely do. It brought back a lot of memories.

Among the stipulations in the Chemical Disaster Rule (CDR) scaled back by the Trump administration was a requirement that plants provide information about chemical risks to the public.

The Obama-era CDR is one of several regulations meant to lessen the risks of major industrial disasters that experts say have been weakened under Trump. The regulations included safety facilities to prevent disasters such as the one that struck the nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan.

The Environmental Protection Agency, which has trimmed scores of environmental and public health protections that the Trump administration sees as unfriendly to business, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the rollback.

Elena Craft, a Texas-based senior director with the Environmental Defense Fund, cited the CDR among a series of other proposals weakening protections for communities  often lower-income, and disproportionately Black or Hispanic  living around dangerous industrial sites.

Even the West disaster, with its toll on first responders, failed to change the regulatory picture much after the headlines faded away, Craft said. Its always been sort of the constant story  it gets to be accepted business in Texas.





Six major blasts since March 2019

In 1989, Juan Flores was in the sixth grade when an explosion at a Phillips 66 plastics plant near Galena Park, Texas, outside of Houston killed 23. The blast shook Floress school and blew out windows.

That area bordering Houstons Shipping Channel is the nations hub for oil and gas and petrochemicals.

Yet Houstons lack of zoning means the yards of residents homes in poorer and minority neighbourhoods often butt up against looming chemical and petroleum storage tanks or industrial sites working with hazardous materials.

Six major chemical explosions have rocked the Houston area since March 2019 alone.

To see that happen in Beirut, it was the worst-case scenario for already worried people in his community, said Flores, a community activist and former Galena Park mayor. Theres one or two plants here. If they ever go, theres a chance we could wind up in that situation.

In West, street images on Google Maps still show photos of crumpled buildings that were taken shortly after the blast that shook the town of 3,000.

But ammonium nitrate is not stored in the town any longer. Its got its useful places in the farming community, Muska said. But its also, like we saw yesterday, it can just be devastating.
Asia Dengue at Record High in Singapore Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

A worker checks a vial containing a dengue mosquito. / Kyodo

SINGAPORESingapore is grappling with a record number of dengue cases this year, and the fact that workers are being encouraged to work from home to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic is one of the main factors in the increase, the National Environment Agency said Wednesday.

As of Tuesday, there have been 22,403 reported dengue cases this year, compared with nearly 16,000 cases for the whole of last year, the agency said on its website. The number surpasses the previous record of 22,170 set in 2013.

Read more.

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The family of a mentally ill man who died in an Ontario jail after several guards allegedly pepper-sprayed, restrained and beat him say they are shocked by the OPPs decision to close its investigation without laying any criminal charges.

Soleiman Faqiri, 30, who had schizophrenia and had previously been repeatedly apprehended under the Mental Health Act, died on Dec. 15, 2016, while in solitary confinement at the Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay, Ont. He was awaiting a mental health assessment.

Tragic, preposterous, sad, shock, his brother Yusuf Faqiri said Wednesday, describing his familys reaction. The message the decision sends is that Soleimans life was cheap because he had a mental illness.

He added: Were finding it hard to maintain faith in the justice system. It seems like that system only works for some people.

In a statement Thursday, an OPP spokesperson confirmed the case was closed on July 7.

In consultation with the Crown and after a thorough assessment of available evidence, it has been determined that there is no reasonable prospect of conviction on any criminal offences, spokesperson Gosia Puzio said.

This is the second time police investigators have decided against charging any of the jail staff involved in Faqiris death.

The Kawartha Lakes Police Service initially declined to lay charges. The OPP later agreed to re-investigate amid public outcry.

In a news release, the Faqiri family said they have been told investigators could not be assured of a successful prosecution against any of the individual guards.

The OPP says that they cant lay charges because they dont know which of the guards put their knee on Soleimans neck, which of the guards put the spit hood on his head, or which of the guards delivered the fatal blow, said the Faqiri familys lawyer, Nader Hasan, in the release.

This is a profoundly troubling interpretation of the criminal law and one that is completely unfamiliar to me and every lawyer I know. If youre participating in a group beating, youre liable for the acts of your accomplices. Thats always been the law in this country.

Speaking to the Star, Yusuf Faqiri questioned the independence of the OPP investigation, asking why the police force consulted with Crown attorneys who had been involved in the earlier Kawartha Lakes investigation that came to the same conclusion.

Three guards were later fired over the case. One has since been reinstated; the other two are suing for the province for refusing to defend them as part of ongoing litigation launched by the Faqiri family.

Faqiri, who did not have a prior criminal record, was arrested in December 2016 on charges of aggravated assault, assault and uttering threats. He was kept in solitary confinement at the Lindsay jail awaiting his mental health assessment.

A report prepared by the Kawartha Lakes police and obtained by the Star in February 2018 through a freedom of information request described how six officers forced handcuffs and leg shackles on Faqiri as they returned him to a segregation cell.

According to the report, Faqiri began to display aggressive behaviour and spat at the guards in the hallway near his cell. As he continued to display aggressive and assaultive behaviour, he was pepper-sprayed, an officer delivered a knee strike and another forced his right lower leg on his back, the report said.

During a struggle that lasted 10 minutes, Faqiri repeatedly tried to get up and the guards continued to hit him to keep him restrained, the report said.

After this, the report continued, a code blue was called and 20 to 30 officers came to the cell to assist.

The report states that these new officers began to tap out the guards who were exhausting themselves in the struggle.

Faqiri was later left alone handcuffed in his cell, after which he was observed to be possibly not breathing and he was dead by the time paramedics arrived, the report said.

The Kawartha Lakes police investigation found no grounds exist to process criminal charges against anyone who was involved with (Faqiri) prior to his death.

A coroners report in 2017 found Faqiri suffered more than 50 injuries, including a bruised laceration on his forehead and multiple bruises and abrasions on his face, torso and limbs, from a three-hour confrontation with prison officers.

The report said it was unknown what injuries were from his struggle with the officers, and it couldnt determine his cause of death.

The family says its now waiting for a mandatory coroners inquest in the case, and are calling on politicians to step in.

At the inquest, a jury will hear the truth about those last, horrific, moments of Soleimans life, Hasan said. When the facts are finally made public, the inquest jury will have the power to return a verdict of homicide. We are confident that they will do so.

The Faqiri family has filed a $14.3-million lawsuit against the province in the case. The lawsuit names the Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, the superintendent of the Central East Correctional Centre and several individual correctional staff members.

Anita Szigeti, a lawyer who frequently represents clients with mental health issues, said a decision not to charge anyone involved in a group assault because it was unclear who dealt a fatal blow is bizarre from a legal standpoint. There is no basis for that approach in law, so I am puzzled by it, she said.

Faqiri was particularly vulnerable in jail, both as a person with mental illness and as a racialized person  two groups that are significantly overrepresented in jail populations, Szigeti noted. Both groups are also more often subjected to force and violence by authorities, including both police and jail guards, she said.

There is a real and palpable fear among my clients with mental health issues and who are also racialized about going to prison, she said.

She said an inquest will be effective in identifying problems and will likely produce useful, practical and important recommendations  but the issue lies with the implementation of those recommendations.

We need a culture shift within corrections and the ill-treatment of mentally ill people in corrections has long been identified as a huge problem, she said, pointing to past cases, including the death of Ashley Smith, a 19-year-old woman with serious mental illness, in a prison in Kitchener. These are all terrible tragedies and they are all preventable.

Justin Piche, an associate professor of criminology at the University of Ottawa and an advocate for prison abolition, said the decision to close the investigation with no charges shows a continued failure to hold jails and prisons accountable.

The situation is fundamentally unjust but unsurprising given that we have an injustice system that normalizes state violence and lets it continue on with impunity, Piche said. The Faqiri family continues to grieve and they need a measure of healing. For them and for us all, we must do better.

Faqiris family is planning a rally outside the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services in downtown Toronto on Aug. 15, Yusuf Faqiri said.

With files from Fatima Syed
As the COVID-19 crisis continues to rage on in hard-hit California, actress Ashley Benson headed out on a coffee run in Hollywood on Wednesday.

The Pretty Little Liars star, 30, rocked a casual, sporty look during her quick excursion, all while adhering to health and safety protocols by wearing a protective mask while out in public spaces.

And on this day, Benson also had made her feelings on social distancing more than apparent when she wore a black sweatshirt that read, 'Aloha from 6 feet away,' on the front of it.

COVID-19 crisis: Ashley Benson, 30, wore a black sweatshirt that read, 'Aloha from 6 feet away,' on the front of it, in a reference to the social distancing recommendation that has been in place since COVID-19 was deemed a pandemic in March

The message for people to keep a six-foot distance between each other to help stop the spread of the virus also had images of a thumbs-up and the middle-finger bird on the front.

To help show off her amazingly toned figure, Benson also wore black, skin-tight sweatpants that had a white line down each leg.

The Anaheim Hills, California native made sure to wear her mask during her time in the Starbucks store, and didn't take it off until she reached her vehicle in the parking lot.

Making a COVID-19 statement: The Pretty Little Liar star's sweatshirt message to social distance six feet also had images of a thumbs-up and the middle-finger bird on the front

Benson appeared to be alone during her coffee run, considering she hopped in her SUV and drove off solo.

She has been dating rapper G-Eazy for a couple of months, which was sparked shortly after her split with girlfriend and top-model, Cara Delevingne.

The former couple has been in a relationship for about two-years.

Along with her breakout role in Pretty Little Liars (2010-2017), Benson has also appeared in the daytime soap Days Of Our Lives ( 2004-2007) and the fantasy series Eastwick (2009-2010).

Her film career includes Spring Breakers (2012), alongside Selena Gomez, James Franco and Vanessa Hudgens and the comedy-drama Elvis & Nixon (2016) that starred Michael Shannon, Kevin Spacey and Colin Hanks.

Moved on! Benson and Cara Delevingne broke up in early May after about two-years together

With infection rates still at an alarming rate in Los Angeles, the city remains in a partial-lockdown mode with closure of bars, clubs, among others, and elimination of indoor dining.

In recent days, health officials in LA County have revealed that those closures have helped slow the illness's spread with a drop in hospitalizations, although they are still cautiously optimistic' things are getting back on track.

As of Wednesday, Los Angeles County has recorded a total of 197,912 coronavirus cases and 4,825 deaths linked to COVID-19  though those numbers could be even higher due to a technical issue with the state s lab reporting system has resulted in an undercount, according to a report by KTLA.
The activation of an additional Corps headquarters provides the needed level of command and control focused on synchronizing U.S. Army, allied, and partner nation tactical formations operating in Europe, Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville said in a statement.

The plan builds off of talks a year ago about cost-sharing with Poland to fund a greater U.S. troop presence, as it keeps an eye on deterring Russian incursion.

Last June, President Donald Trump announced a 1,000-troop plus-up, largely from a division headquarters rotation and the addition of the MQ-9 Reaper squadron, but stopped short of unveiling a rumored Fort Trump, or another standalone U.S. base in Poland.

When Esper announced a plan July 29 to withdraw just under 12,000 troops from Germany and partially redistribute them around Europe, he alluded to co-locating some of those troops in existing European countries facilities, including in Belgium and Italy.

That would include these new projects in Poland, which will house U.S. troops on Polish bases.
A Walker County drug operation led to the arrests of nearly 20 people.

The Walker County Sheriffs Office narcotics, K-9 and SWAT divisions, along with the Oakman Police Department, the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Parole (State Probation), and the Department of Corrections K-9 Tracking Unit fanned out across Oakman and other areas to arrest drug dealers, said Sheriff Nick Smith.

During the operation, investigators discovered people that had other outstanding warrants and found some to be in possession of narcotics. Investigators seized methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia. Two of those charged were already in jail prior to Mondays operation.

The Walker County Sheriffs Office narcotics, K-9 and SWAT divisions, along with the Oakman Police Department, the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Parole (State Probation), and the Department of Corrections K-9 Tracking Unit fanned out across Oakman and other areas to arrest drug dealers, said Sheriff Nick Smith. (WCSO)

Those arrested were:

-Lefty Willcutt, 57 of Oakman, distribution of a controlled substance

-Aaron Clay Sartain, 28 of Oakman, distribution of a controlled substance, attempting to elude, and possession of drug paraphernalia

-Kayla Shae Worley Davenport, 29 of Cordova, distribution of a controlled substance

-David Earnesto Mcannally, 27 of Oakman, distribution of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia

-Richard Josh Taylor, 56 of Oakman, distribution of a controlled substance. Taylor also had a warrant for failure to appear on unlawful possession of a controlled substance, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

-Felicia Jean Willcutt, 23 of Oakman, distribution of a controlled substance and probation violation

-Russell Lewis Miller, 34 of Parrish, unlawful possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia

-Ashley Marie Warren Davis, 32 of Patton Hill Road, distribution of a controlled substance, unlawful possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia

-Stewart Eugene Pope, 37 of Patton Hill Road, unlawful possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia

-Tanya Michelle Seybert England, 44 of Jasper, unlawful possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia and second-degree possession of marijuana

-Johnny Vaden Jones, 33 of Oakman, probation violation and unlawful possession of a controlled substance

-William Jacob Martin, 30 of Oakman, probation violation and possession of drug paraphernalia

-Freddie Delane Courington, 43 of Gibson Hill Road, failure to appear on DUI and two counts of driving while revoked

Joshua Ray Boteler, age 30 of Saragossa, was charged with Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.

-Tiffany Jane Ender, 24 of Pineywoods, possession of drug paraphernalia

-David Heath Brown, 41 of Oakman, was arrested on a warrant with the Jasper Police Department.

The two already in custody were:

-Cedrick Maurel Harris, 53 of Oakman, distribution of a controlled substance. Harris was already in the county jail for probation violation, unlawful possession of a controlled substance and illegal possession of prescription medication.

-Kacilyn Paige Hunter, 23 of Quinton, distribution of a controlled substance. Hunter was already in the county jail for unlawful distribution of a controlled substance, unlawful possession of a controlled substance, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Another person was arrested on a warrant with a different agency but had to be released to paramedics after experiencing a medical condition while on the way to the jail.
PLA brigade improves battlefield support efficiency via data flow

PLA Daily

Source: China Military Online

Editor: Chen Lufan

2020-08-05 18:01:05

BEIJING, Aug. 5 -- In a recent live-fire exercise, the logistic support department of a brigade under the PLA 79th Group Army greatly reduced the fuel supplement time for troops in maneuver, through coordinated multi-dimensional supply.

With the help of real-time data flow, the brigade's logistic support department only dispatched part of its personnel to respond to the troops' demands in the exercise for materials, fuels and equipment and achieved a high efficiency.

According to Zhang Guo, a quartermaster of the brigade, the logistics and armament supply data of the whole brigade is updated in real time during the exercise, providing the quartermasters with various information on hydrological situation, weather conditions, transportation and terrain conditions in battlefield, as well as the updates on equipment performance, material consumption and battle damage.

It's said that to ensure precise deployment of resources and efficient supply delivery in the battlefield, the brigade in recent years conducted in-depth research on its various battlefield support demands, established data link allowing information exchange among all logistics and armament support commanding platforms, combat units and support units, and realized multilayer integration of various links and elements.

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Naira Marley

Azeez Fashola, the Nigerian artiste who is also known as Naira Marley, has been taken to the Lagos State Special Offences Court at Ikeja, The PUNCH reports.

As of press time, it was learnt that the police had filed charges against him for violating the COVID-19 order banning interstate travels earlier put in place to curb the spread of coronavirus.

The controversial artiste left Lagos for the Federal Capital Territory for a concert on Saturday, July 13.

The concert, which held at the Jabi Lake Mall, drew public outrage.

The government thereafter shut down and mall and stopped the operation of the airline whose plane he chartered.

The Inspector-General of Police was said to have ordered Naira Marleys arrest.

The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Bala Elkana, said Naira Marley presented himself at the command headquarters on Thursday.



We are in court as we speak. He will be arraigned for violating the interstate travel order. That is the aspect that concerns Lagos State, he added.
Prevention of alcoholism is a set of measures aimed at preventing the formation of painful physical and psychological addiction to alcohol. It is necessary to eliminate all risk factors for the development of the disease, to prove in evidence the harm that the consumption of beer, vodka, table wines causes to the body.

Many alcohol users eventually ask themselves the question: how to completely abandon the bad habit? Before taking drastic action, it is important to examine various alcoholism treatment options for quitting this bad habit. By eliminating alcohol from your life, you can significantly improve its quality. However, you need to choose the right strategy.

Prevention of alcohol dependence among young people is especially effective. At this age, alcoholic beverages have not yet become part of the usual way of life, a kind of substitute for positive emotions - joy, happiness, and love for loved ones.

Main Tasks of Alcoholism Prevention

The higher the standard of living of the population, the more widespread alcohol dependence is. All diseases, including alcoholism, are easier to prevent than to cure them for a long time along with the complications that have already arisen. Therefore, so much attention has recently been paid precisely to the implementation of preventive measures in schools, colleges and institutes, hospital institutions. Their main task is to form a negative attitude of a person to alcohol of any strength.

Principles of Alcoholism Prevention

This disease develops gradually. The provoking factors include mental characteristics, social environment, national and family traditions, genetic predisposition. Children with alcohol abusers are much more likely to become alcoholics than non-drinking parents. When determining prevention methods, all factors that predispose to the emergence of addiction must be taken into account:

The presence of problems with physical health, psycho-emotional instability

Inability to withstand the pressure of the people around them, who are persuading to drink alcohol

Personality traits, for example, low intelligence, self-doubt, a gloomy vision of life prospects

Constant domestic conflicts, the desire to be at home as little as possible among family members

Relatively low standard of living, constant lack of money

Poor academic performance, frequent conflicts with peers in adolescents

Lack of career growth, inability to provide for the family

During the prevention of alcoholism, convincing arguments are necessarily used to raise self-esteem. The emphasis is on the possibility of obtaining both basic and additional education. This will increase income, travel, and practice your favorite hobby. People who find themselves in a difficult life situation will be offered the necessary help, including psychological.

Types of Alcoholism Prevention

Secondary prevention is a set of measures among adults aimed at reducing the craving for alcohol in people who are already drinking, regardless of the level of personality degradation. They tend to justify their need for alcohol, shift responsibility for their drinking to family members or bosses. Some use energy drinks too and mix alcohol in it and they do not let others know. It is required to break these stereotypes, to help the person independently make a decision to quit drinking.

Primary preventive measures are used among children and adolescents. Many of them have not yet consumed alcohol, so strong evidence of its harm can make him disgusted. The solution to this problem only seems easy. At any time, provoking factors can make adjustments like pressure from authoritarian peers or difficulties in communicating with parents.

Difficulties in Quitting Alcohol

It is worth consulting with your doctor about how to properly stop drinking. Even if the addict believes that, the task is feasible for him. Sometimes the patient is mistaken; he cannot correctly assess his condition, the stage of dependence. To check how much the body is accustomed to the constant use of alcohol, you should take a short pause.

For example, if you managed to restrain yourself within 28 days, the situation is under control. Sometimes this break is enough to form a habit. Preparing for complete rejection is important. Often a break of 1 month is too long; the patient is not able to withstand it. In this case, it is worth starting with shorter periods. For example, 5 or 7 days in a row. This method will help maintain self-confidence.

Bottom line

A complete alcoholism treatment is a long and complicated process. It is important not to stop half way; usually it takes at least 5 years. According to statistics, only 1 in 10 people relapse.
GEORGETOWN, Cayman Islands, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- CoinPayments, the world's leading cryptocurrency payments processor, today announced the launch of its global business development and partnerships team, intended to drive growth across key North American and European markets. Sam Fagin joins as head of North America and Simon Bowles as European head. David Hunter, current chairman of the Emerging Payments Association will continue to serve as a CoinPayments advisor working directly with the business development team. Key initiatives include a significant push to increase the CoinPayments merchant base as well as a focus on services aimed at the intersection of capital markets and cryptocurrencies.

"CoinPayments is already a global company with merchants in more than 180 countries, but now is the time to build bridges to local merchant communities and increase the types of offerings our existing community has asked for," said CoinPayments CEO Jason Butcher. "Sam and Simon bring a complementary set of skills and will serve as the cornerstones of our expansion strategy in key European and North American markets."

Mr. Bowles joins CoinPayments with decades of experience as an entrepreneur and finance professional. He started his career as a trader before transitioning to leadership positions across several cryptocurrency and blockchain companies including D-Core and PayMachine. He also currently serves as an advisor to BaseTwo, a quantitative digital asset hedge fund and KMG Capital Markets, an asset manager specializing in blockchain and digital assets.

Focused on North America, Mr. Fagin will build relationships with a diverse set of payment service providers and merchant organizations. Previously he was CEO of OmniCash, a digital wallet rewards app and held senior positions at Roc Nation and TIDAL.

"Our goal is to educate and engage businesses of all sizes during a time of significant transformation as ecommerce shifts to a primary revenue stream and digital payments become the standard, not the outlier," explained Mr. Fagin. "At CoinPayments, stay tuned for a range of new partnerships and product offerings that will further strengthen our position as the easiest way to accept crypto as a form of payment."

CoinPayments' global business development and partnerships team is already active and pursuing several key initiatives.

About CoinPayments

CoinPayments is the easiest, fastest and most secure way for merchants worldwide to transact in cryptocurrencies. It is the first and largest cryptocurrency payments processor with more than US $5 billion in total transactions to date, while supporting more than 1,900 coins, and is the preferred cryptocurrency payment solution for merchants and eCommerce platform providers worldwide. Founded in 2013, CoinPayments is dedicated to providing clients with fast, secure and user-friendly crypto payment APIs, shopping cart plugins, digital wallets, and a host of other solutions supporting cryptocurrency payment applications. Learn more at: https://www.coinpayments.net/

Media Contact: John Cook, Rally Point Media Strategies, john@rallypointms.com, +1.585.737.7546
President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani has claimed Black Lives Matter is a "domestic terrorist group," despite the group never being tied to a single terrorism event in a global database of almost 200,000.

"These are killers, and these are people who hate white people. They're people who hate white men in particular. And they want to do away with a mother-father family," Mr Giuliani said on Fox and Friends on Thursday, although ample evidence debunks that claim.

While the US State Department has a list of foreign terror organisations, the government does not legally denominate domestic terror groups.

In two separate incidents on 7 July 2016, two black US military veterans allegedly invoked the phrase "black lives matter" as they opened fire on police and civilians in Dallas, Texas, and Bristol, Tennessee.

Investigators determined both men had acted alone, and that the Black Lives Matter political organisation was in no way involved.

"That's not to suggest that no one associated with BLM  or any particular movement  never engages in some criminal behavior," Joshua Geltzer, a counterterrorism expert who has worked on the national security council, told PolitiFact in July. "But the relevant question is whether the organization itself engages in the type of activity laid out by statute. And, on that, there's been no evidence provided to indicate as much."

Mr Trump has never gone as far as Mr Giuliani in labelling Black Lives Matter a terrorist organisation, though he said the organisation "started off very badly" when demonstrators at a march in Minnesota in 2015 chanted "Pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon," referring to police.

The group that organised that 2015 march is not affiliated with the national Black Lives Matter organisation, according to reports.

"That was the first time I ever heard of Black Lives Matter," Mr Trump said in a recent interview with Axios.

The president  who often claims he has done more for black Americans than any other president with the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln, under whose presidency millions of black people were freed from enslavement  said he would meet with a Black Lives Matter activist if the opportunity arose, but that "nobody has asked for a meeting."

The White House could not immediately be reached for comment on this story.
Press Release

August 6, 2020 Villar Takes Closer Look at ACEF Disbursement Status Similar to RCEF Monitoring

ACEF money can help farmers and fisherfolks deal with setback caused by pandemic Senator Cynthia Villar, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, intends to closely monitor the disbursement of the Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (ACEF) and is urging the Department of Agriculture (DA) to report out its status, similar to what is currently done with the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF). "ACEF is another source of support for farmers, just like RCEF, so we would like to know if the funds are being distributed and utilized for their intended purposes and beneficiaries. The Senate Committee which I chair has oversight authority over ACEF, so we would like to look into it and get regular updates from the DA," said Villar. The senator is the primary author and sponsor of Republic Act (RA) No. 10848 or "An Act Further Extending the Period of Implementation of the ACEF" until 2022. It amended RA No. 8178 that originally created ACEF in 1996, when it replaced quantitative import restrictions with tariffs on agricultural products, except rice. To recall, ACEF expired and its utilization was discontinued in 2015 due to anomalies. "ACEF was mishandled and misused before, we don't want a repeat of that. The loans were extended to big corporations and influential people instead of to small farmers and fisherfolks. It's been almost five years since ACEF utilization was extended, we want to see how effective it has been in uplifting the lives of farmers and fisherfolks," cited Villar. ACEF was aimed at helping Filipino farmers and fisherfolks to be more competitive amidst increased regional competition when the ASEAN Economic Community took effect five years ago. Thus, RA 10848 identified where the funds should be channelled. Eighty percent (80%) of the fund is in the form of credit with minimal interest, which shall not exceed five million pesos (Php5,000,000) per project loan, for the acquisition and establishment of agri-based production and processing machineries, equipment and facilities to achieve modern agricultural practices to be managed by the Land Bank of the Philippines. Out of the remaining twenty percent (20%), ten percent (10%) will be extended as grants for research and development of agricultural and fishery products, and the commercialization of such, including the upgrading of research facilities, of qualified state universities and colleges (SUCs), which again shall not exceed five million pesos (Php5,000,000) per project; and the other ten percent (10%) will be used for the funding of a comprehensive scholarship and attractive grant-in-aid program for agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and veterinary medicine education, to be implemented by the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd). It likewise provided for the accounting of duties collected from the Minimum Access Volume (MAV) and for the report to be submitted to the ACEF Executive Committee or Execom and the COCAFM composed of the Senate and the House Committees on Agriculture and Food, Appropriations and Finance. The law directed the Bureau of Customs to report duties collected from the MAV; the Bureau of Treasury to report on the funds remitted and credited to ACEF Special Account 183; and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for Fund Releases to DA to implement the ACEF. Villar added that her committee will also look into complaints from farmers groups that ACEF funds remain unreleased by the DBM. The DA itself is requesting DMB to release PhP2.1 billion as it recently transferred ACEF money of about P1.44 billion to the Land Bank. According to the DA, it has a total portfolio of about PhP6 billion that farmers, fisherfolks and agri-preneurs can borrow under the ACEF. "We are in a crisis right now, so farmers need all the support they can get to deal with setbacks caused by the ongoing pandemic. If the funds are there, then it should be released to the farmers and fisherfolks."
Chouhan asked people not to hide coronavirus symptoms and consult a doctor and follow the guidelines

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was on Wednesday discharged from a private hospital where he was admitted on July 25 after testing positive for coronavirus.

He was advised to be home-quarantined for a week.

A health bulletin issued by the hospital on Wednesday said Mr Chouhan had been asymptomatic and all his clinical parameters were within normal limits.

They (doctors) advised discharge as per ICMR policy dated May 8, 2020 wherein patients can be discharged after ten days of symptoms onset and no fever for three days. There will be no need for testing prior to discharge, the health bulletin said.

Mr Chouhan later thanked the hospital staff and said there was no need to panic, but people should be careful.

He asked people not to hide coronavirus symptoms and consult a doctor and follow the guidelines.

One of his ministerial colleagues Arvind Bhadoria who also tested positive for the virus on July 28 was still recuperating in the hospital.

Senior Congress leader and former minister P C Sharma has also been admitted in the hospital last week after testing positive for the virus.
As bars and restaurants struggle to stay open during the COVID-19 pandemic, Republican state Senate candidates are proposing a "menu" of options to help the businesses.

Angi Renna, the Republican candidate in the 50th state Senate District, and Sam Rodgers, the GOP nominee in the 53rd district, joined Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt last week for the unveiling of the GOP's "Menu of Success." The plan focuses on three proposals: Tax cuts and deductions for businesses, families and farms, regulatory relief for small businesses and COVID-19 relief, including protecting businesses from lawsuits and unemployment insurance increases.

Ortt, Renna and Rodgers released the plan after meeting with bar and restaurant owners in Syracuse. It's named the "Menu of Success," in part, because of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's executive orders and state guidance for restaurants.

Cuomo recently misspoke and said that chicken wings weren't considered "substantial" food that could be served with alcoholic beverages. The state is attempting to prevent people from mingling by requiring them to order food with alcoholic beverages. The State Liquor Authority lists chicken wings as an acceptable food option.

"Bars and restaurants were hit hard," Ortt, R-North Tonawanda, said. "Now, they have to worry about whether a bag of Cuomo chips or wings is going to cost them their livelihoods. It's clear that Democrats aren't listening to our small businesses at all, and didn't before this crisis came to New York. Not only can we not tolerate any more of these edicts, but we need tax cuts and less regulation to make this state business-friendly."

The effect of the pandemic on residents and businesses will be a major issue in federal and state races this year. Unemployment soared and while some of those jobs came back, millions remain jobless. Businesses are either permanently or temporarily closed because of the economic and health crises.

Renna, R-Manlius, said small businesses are struggling to survive amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"To open their doors, they've invested heavily in safety measures to keep customers and employees safe," she said. "Despite the major efforts of our small businesses, Governor Cuomo makes doing business difficult at every turn by changing the rules and threatening massive fines and closures. That is why it is important to stand with our small businesses and to be a voice for them not only to survive, but to thrive in the months and years ahead."

Renna is vying for the 50th district seat, which includes parts of Cayuga and Onondaga counties. The seat has been vacant since Bob Antonacci's resignation at the end of 2019. Antonacci was elected to serve as a state Supreme Court judge.

Renna's opponent is John Mannion, a Democrat who narrowly lost to Antonacci in 2018.

Politics reporter Robert Harding can be reached at (315) 282-2220 or robert.harding@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @robertharding.

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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Panama will take control of the situation with illegal entry of ships under the Panamanian flag into the closed ports of Russia-occupied Crimea and will apply sanctions against violators, Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Yevhen Enin said after intergovernmental consultation with Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Panama Federico Alfaro Boyd.

"The Foreign Ministry of Panama will take control of the situation on the facts of violations of the rules of entry into the closed ports of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea by ships under the Panamanian flag, violators will face severe sanctions," Enin wrote on his Facebook page late on Wednesday evening, August 5.

The Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine also said that the parties agreed to intensify economic cooperation, in particular in the field of shipbuilding, air transportation, hydropower, etc., as well as to strengthen the partnership between the countries within international organizations, including the United Nations.

"Surely, I expressed appreciation to my colleague for the effective interaction with Panama on the issue of issuing VIP fugitives," he said.
In affront to China, US announces highest-level visit to Taiwan in decades

Iran Press TV

Wednesday, 05 August 2020 5:48 AM

The United States says Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar will travel to Taiwan in the coming days, marking the highest-level visit to the self-ruled island in decades, amid escalatory posturing toward China.

The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), the de facto US embassy in Taipei, made the announcement on Wednesday.

"This marks the first Cabinet member to visit in six years, and the highest level visit by a US Cabinet official since 1979," it said.

The last trip by an American cabinet-level official to Taiwan was in 2014, when the then-head of the Environmental Protection Agency visited.

The AIT said Azar would be accompanied on the "historic" trip by Mitchell Wolfe, the chief medical officer of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other members of the administration.

"Taiwan has been a model of transparency and cooperation in global health during the COVID-19 pandemic and long before it," Azar said in a statement. "I look forward to conveying President [Donald] Trump's support for Taiwan's global health leadership and underscoring our shared belief that free and democratic societies are the best model for protecting and promoting health."

Taiwan has won praise for its response to the coronavirus pandemic, having kept its case numbers low due to effective and early prevention steps.

In a separate statement on Wednesday, Taiwan's foreign ministry confirmed the trip, adding that Azar would meet with president Tsai Ing-wen. The ministry further described Azar's upcoming trip as "ample evidence of the solid foundation of mutual trust" between Washington and Taipei.

China has sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan, and under the "One China" policy, almost all world countries recognize that sovereignty.

The US, too, recognizes Chinese sovereignty over the island but has long courted Taipei in an attempt to counter Beijing.

Washington, which has no formal diplomatic relations with Taipei by law, is the island's largest weapons supplier and an avid backer of Taiwan's secessionist president Tsai, causing increasing tensions with Beijing over trade and a host of other issues.

China has pursued reunification with Taiwan ever since the island broke away from the mainland during a civil war in 1949.

US cabinet official's visit to Taiwan to endanger peace: China

Later on Wednesday, China expressed strong opposition to Azar's planned visit to Taiwan, saying the trip would endanger "peace and stability" in the region.

"China firmly opposes official exchanges between the US and Taiwan," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular briefing in Beijing.

"We urge the US to abide by the one-China principle stop all forms of official exchanges with Taiwan and refrain from sending any wrong signals to the Taiwan independence forces," he added.

China and the US are also at odds over a growing number of issues, including the origin of the new coronavirus, Hong Kong, and the South China Sea, besides Taiwan.

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Providing relief to union minister in a cooperative society scam case, the on Wednesday stayed the ADJ court order that directed the magistrate court to send a criminal complaint for further investigation to the Special Operations Group (SOG).

The complaint had named Shekhawat and others as the alleged accused in the scam and sought further investigation by the SOG into their role.

A single judge bench of Justice Satish Chandra Sharma while passing the interim directions also admitted the criminal miscellaneous petition filed by one Keval Chand Dakaliya, who is a co-accused along with Shekhawat.

Dakaliya's counsel Mahesh Jethmalani argued that there were specific allegations against the accused and they were required to be heard when the lower court passed the order.

The bench admitted the petition and granted an interim order.

A city additional district judge (ADJ) court last month had directed that a private complaint be investigated by the SOG with relation to the money trail that ended at Navprabha Buildtech Pvt Ltd. in the Sanjeevani cooperative credit society scam case.

Dakaliya is the shareholder director of Navprabha Buildtech Pvt Ltd which is said to be linked with Shekhawat.

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 900 crores.

The Jaipur unit of the SOG has been probing the scam case since last year. An FIR was registered on August 23, 2019.

Shekhawat was not named an accused in the chargesheet filed by the SOG in connection with the case. In the investigation, the money trail was found to be linked to Navprabha Buildtech Pvt Ltd.

Later, a magistrate's court also rejected an application to include him in the chargesheet.

The applicants then approached the ADJ court, which issued directions that their complaint should also be probed.

The SOG has already sent a notice to the minister in connection with a probe into a separate case pertaining to audio clips which purportedly indicate efforts to lure MLAs away from the Congress.

(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.)
Vietnam attends 33rd ASEAN-US Dialogue

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Quoc Dung, Head of Vietnam's ASEAN SOM, attended the 33rd ASEAN-US Dialogue, which was held via video conference on August 5 to discuss cooperation orientations between the two sides in the coming time and exchange views on regional and international issues of mutual concern.









Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Quoc Dung speaks at the event (Photo: VNA)







David Stilwell, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said the US always attaches great importance to relations with ASEAN and supports the blocs central role in the regional architecture. The US also highly evaluated Vietnams role as ASEAN Chair 2020 in coordinating and leading ASEAN to overcome difficulties and challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.



The two sides agreed to further deepen the bilateral strategic partnership and cooperation in the coming time, as well as implementing effectively current cooperation programmes and initiatives such as ASEAN-US Trade and Investment Framework, ASEAN-US Connect Initiative, ASEAN-US Smart Cities Partnership, and Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative.



ASEAN agreed to strengthen coordination with the US to implement the ASEAN-US action plan for 2016-2020 and soon adopt the bilateral cooperation action plan for 2021-2025.



The two sides pledged to actively work together to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic, especially enhancing preparedness to cope with new waves of infections, supporting each other to minimise the impact of the disease, maintaining regional and global supply chains, and promoting sustainable recovery.



The US announced that it has provided about 87 million USD for ASEAN countries to cope with the pandemic, and affirmed its continued assistance to the regional countries to improve their capacity to respond to diseases, with the priority given to the implementation of the ASEAN-US Health Futures Initiative, training health experts and building pandemic control mechanisms.



ASEAN welcomed the USs timely financial assistance in curbing the pandemic and called on the US to actively support and contribute to ASEAN's initiatives on the COVID-19 Response Fund and Regional Reserve of Medical Supplies.



The US applauded ASEAN's efforts to promote its role in stepping up cooperation, dialogue and trust building in the region, as well as advocated the bloc's endeavours to implement fully and strictly the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and build an effective Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) in line with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).



Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Quoc Dung affirmed that amid the complicated developments of COVID-19, ASEAN has upheld its Cohesive and Responsive spirit and promoted solidarity, unity and efforts to overcome difficulties and challenges.



The Vietnamese official highly appreciated the US's timely assistance to ASEAN in coping with the epidemic right from the beginning of the outbreak.



He proposed the US continue supporting ASEAN to improve its capacity to cope with, reduce the impact of the disease, and promote sustainable economic recovery.



ASEAN welcomed and was willing to create optimal conditions for US businesses and investors to operate in the region, Dung affirmed.



He applauded the US proposal on building the Mekong-US Partnership, supporting the promotion and harmonisation of subregional development efforts, including the Mekong subregion in the overall development of ASEAN.



The Deputy Minister shared the views of other countries that in the current context, countries need to promote dialogues, build trust and hold responsible for building the East Sea into a sea of peace, friendship and cooperation.



He reiterated ASEAN's stance at the 36th ASEAN Summit on ensuring peace, security, stability, safety and freedom of aviation and navigation in the East Sea. The related parties should refrain from taking actions that complicate the situation and not carry out militarisation activities, Dung said.



Any disputes should be resolved via peaceful measures in accordance with international law, including the 1982 UNCLOS, while continuing to implement fully and effectively the DOC and soon resuming negotiations to complete an effective COC, contributing to the maintenance of peace, security and stability in the East Sea, he added.



The official also announced plans to hold ministerial meetings and summits between ASEAN and the US as part of Vietnam's ASEAN Chairmanship in 2020.



Founded in 1967, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) groups 10 member countries, namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
PDI (www.pdisoftware.com), a global provider of ERP, fuel pricing, supply chain logistics, and marketing cloud solutions for the convenience retail and petroleum wholesale industries, announced the opening of its office in Hyderabad, India. The software company, which already has an office in Chennai, is continuing to expand its geographic footprint in the region and strengthen its engineering capacity.

The new office can hold up to 70 team members and will help accelerate PDIs development of high quality, cloud-based products, mobile-first experiences, and analytics solutions with its agile engineering teams. So far, PDI has hired nearly 40 people in the cityall of which were onboarded remotely. The companys engineering leadership and coordinated HR and operations efforts are focusing on building a highly engaged and productive remote workforce. With the addition of the Hyderabad office, PDI now has nearly 200 team members in India.

We are excited to add Hyderabad to the list of PDIs regional locations, said Ravi Sankar Mocharla, vice president of engineering and site leader, PDI. As one of the most tech-savvy markets in the world and with hundreds of engineering colleges in the vicinity, Hyderabad has a diverse and highly-skilled workforce. During these challenging times, and as a people-first company, our employees well-being remains top-of-mind as we take care of our customers needs. PDI continues to support a remote work policy for its employees and new hires worldwide.

PDIs office inauguration was conducted today by Sri Jayesh Ranjan, principal secretary, IT Telangana, and Sri Amarnath Reddy Atmakuri, chief relations officer, IT Telangana.

On this occasion, during his inauguration speech, Mr. Jayesh Ranjan added that, We, the Telangana government and team, are happy to see existing, well-known companies starting to open their facilities in Hyderabad, Telangana. Were glad that PDI, a 37-year-old company in the U.S., started operations in Hyderabad with 40-60 people now and has future growth plans.

We are happy to see that PDI is creating opportunities for the local youngsters and talented, experienced engineers who could take the Telangana name and fame across the world by creating quality software.

I am happy, personally, to inaugurate the PDI office in Hyderabad, as I have learnt that PDI will expand their operations in Hyderabad and create employment for Telangana and India software professionals.

In spite of COVID-19, we want to encourage product-based companies like PDI to create operations, and we are here to provide support every way possible to expand their business opportunities, added Mr. Amarnath Reddy Atmakuri.

About PDI

Professional Datasolutions, Inc. (PDI) helps convenience retailers and petroleum wholesalers thrive through digital transformation and enterprise software that enables them to grow topline revenue, optimize operations and unify their business across the entire value chain. Over 1,500 customers in more than 200,000 locations worldwide count on our leading ERP, logistics, fuel pricing and marketing cloud solutions to provide insights that increase volume, margin and customer loyalty. PDI owns and operates the Fuel Rewards loyalty program that is consistently ranked as a top-performing fuel savings program year after year. For more than 35 years, our comprehensive suite of solutions and unmatched expertise have helped customers of any size reimagine their enterprise and deliver exceptional customer experiences. For more information about PDI, visit www.pdisoftware.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200806005174/en/
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A leading Lebanese opposition figure has blamed Hezbollah, along with the country's 'corrupt' government, for the devastating explosion in Beirut which capsized a cruise ship and has so far claimed 137 lives.

Bahaa Hariri, whose father, Prime Minister Rafiq, was assassinated in 2005, said last night everyone in the city knew Hezbollah controlled Beirut's port and airport and it was inconceivable that the authorities did not know the deadly ammonium nitrate was stored in a warehouse there.

Speaking for the first time Mr Hariri, 54, said: 'The question we have to ask is how come for six years this combustible material was allowed to remain in the middle of this city of two million people?'

'It is crystal clear Hezbollah are in charge of the Port and the Warehouse where the ammonium nitrate was stored.

'Nothing goes in and out of the Port or the Airport does so with them knowing. Nothing.

'Their decision to put it there in the middle of a city of two million people was an utter disaster. And now we have a destroyed city centre.'

The explosion on Tuesday night, which was the size of a small nuclear bomb, has left at least 137 people dead and a further 5,000 wounded.

There are now thought to be 300,000 left homeless and wide-spread damage estimated at up to $5billion - including a 120-metre long cruise ship which capsized as a result of the blast.

A military judge leading the investigation into Tuesday's blast said 16 employees of Beirut's port, where the explosion took place, had been detained. He said 18 had been questioned, including port and customs officials, according to the state news agency.

But while investigators focus on port officials, many Lebanese put the blame squarely on the political elite and the corruption and mismanagement that even before the disaster had pushed the country to the brink of economic collapse.

Cypriot police say they have questioned a Russian man over alleged links to a ship and its cargo of ammonium nitrate said to have caused the devastating explosion.

The explosion has threatened to reignite anti-government protests in Lebanon that have been ongoing since last year amid allegations of entrenched incompetence and corruption.

Emmanuel Macron offered France's support for the Lebanese people as he visited Beirut on Thursday, but warned the country would 'continue to sink' unless its leaders carry out reforms.

A leading Lebanese opposition figure has blamed Hezbollah, along with the country's government, for the devastating explosion in Beirut on Tuesday which capsized a cruise ship (pictured) and has so far claimed 137 lives

Bahaa Hariri, whose father, Prime Minister Rafiq, was assassinated in 2005, said last night everyone in the city knew Hezbollah controlled Beirut's port and airport and it was inconceivable that the authorities did not know the deadly ammonium nitrate was stored in a warehouse there

Dozens of funerals have now begun across the city after the explosion killed at least 137. Pictured: Carole Helou hugging the coffin of her sister Nicole, 25, who was killed in the massive blast two days ago

There are now thought to be 300,000 left homeless and wide-spread damage estimated at up to $5billion - including a 120-metre long cruise ship which capsized as a result of the blast

The comments from Mr Hariri today echoed warnings given to the UN by the Israeli ambassador Danny Danon last year. At the time, the ambassador said: 'Israel found that Iran and the Quds Force have begun to advance the exploitation of civilian maritime channels, and specifically the Port of Beirut.'

Speaking to the 15-member Security Council, he added: 'The Port of Beirut is now the Port of Hezbollah.'

Hezbollah is designated as a terrorist organisation in many countries, including Britain and the United States. In January Britain acknowledged its political wing was also part of the terrorist group, alongside its military wing.

Mr Hariri, whose younger brother Saad was also Prime Minister, said: 'I cannot speculate as to the exact events at the Port that day, but Hezbollah is a known terrorist organisation and I think the more destruction they inflict the better off they are.

'Their symbiotic relationship with the Government gives them full confidence to do what they want.

'We need an urgent international investigation into this tragedy. You can't trust the Government or Hezbollah to carry out a proper investigation. We must have an external one and fast.

Emmanuel Macron (pictured visiting the Gemmayzeh neighborhood) offered France's support for the Lebanese people as he visited Beirut on Thursday, but warned the country would 'continue to sink' unless its leaders carry out reforms

France has long sought to support its former colony and has sent emergency aid since the blast, but is worried about endemic corruption and has pressed for reforms as a financial crisis deepened in the Middle East country. Pictured: President Macron arriving to inspect the site

The explosion on Tuesday night, which was reportedly the size of a small nuke, has left at least 137 people dead and a further 5,000 wounded. Pictured: Wreckage of a ship devastated in the explosion

'There is a bankrupt relationship between these two warlords and they have to go. History shows warlords don't grow a country, they abuse them. We need to take Lebanon from a country to a Nation.'

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which has been investigating the assassination of Rafiq Hariri for the last 15 years, was due to announce its judgment on Friday. This has now been postponed until August 18.

The explosion has 137 people dead, at least 5,000 people wounded and 300,000 homeless as dozens of funerals begin across the city.

Photographs have recently emerged of a cruise ship, the Orient Queen, which capsized in the port of Beirut as a result of the blast.

The 120-metre long vessel, which had capacity for up to 300 passengers, was not carrying any passengers on board at the time after summer cruising operations had been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

One of the ship's crew was killed with another still missing. Several other members of the crew remain in hospitals across the city, according to the ship's operator Abou Merhi Cruises.

'It's a sad, sad day for all of us,' said the cruise operator on social media.

'Abou Merhi Cruises has lost a precious soul in the tragedy that took place at the port of Beirut. Heilemariam Reta (Hailey) from Ethiopia.

'Our prayers and thoughts are with the family of Mustafa Airout from Syria who was at the port and is still missing'.

There are now thought to be 300,000 left homeless and wide-spread damage estimated at up to $5billion - including a 120-metre long cruise ship which capsized as a result of the blast. Pictured: A soldier walks at the devastated site of the explosion at the port of Beirut

The explosion has 137 people dead, at least 5,000 people wounded and 300,000 homeless as dozens of funerals begin across the city. Pictured: Men carry the coffin of Nicole Helou, 25, a Lebanese woman killed in the blast on Tuesday

The explosion has threatened to reignite anti-government protests in Lebanon that have been ongoing since last year amid allegations of entrenched incompetence and corruption (aftermath of the blast pictured)

The blast threatens to reignite anti-government protests in Lebanon that have been ongoing since last year amid allegations of entrenched incompetence and corruption.

The dangerous load of ammonium nitrate is understood to have been abandoned by Russian businessman Igor Grechushkin in September 2013, according to two letters issued by the director general of Lebanese Customs.

A ship carrying the load was detained en route from Batumi, in the ex-Soviet republic Georgia, to Mozambique, and never recovered.

For reasons that are unclear, dockworkers unloaded the chemical, which can be used to make fertilisers and explosives, and put it into storage at the port where it remained for six years.

CAPTAIN OF SHIP THAT CARRIED EXPLOSIVES SOUNDED ALARM The captain of a Russian ship carrying a cargo of ammonium nitrate which was impounded in Beirut said he regularly sounded the alarm over the 'power keg', years before it exploded and destroyed large parts of the city. Boris Prokoshev, who was at the helm of tanker Rhosus in 2013 when it had to make an emergency stop in Lebanon, said he wrote to Vladimir Putin regularly about the dangerous vessel after it was impounded. Prokoshev, now 70, said Igor Grechushkin, the owner of the vessel and the ammonium on board, had 'washed his hands' of the vessel, leaving the crew and cargo stranded for months. The crew were freed the following year and the ammonium placed in a warehouse where it sat for six years, until it was ignited by a fire earlier this week - causing a blast that has killed at least 137 people and wounded 5,000. Prokoshev explained that the Rhosus was en route from Batumi, in Georgia, to Mozambique with its dangerous cargo when it had to make an unscheduled stop in Beirut due to trouble with its radar and engine. The vessel spent more than a year in port, with Prokoshev and a handful of Ukrainian sailors aboard, as the Lebanese tried to extract fees and fines from Grechushkin. Prokoshev claims that he wrote to Putin 'every month' while the ship was being held, adding: 'The vessel's owner abandoned it. 'The owner abandoned the cargo, ammonium nitrate. It is an explosive substance. And we were abandoned too. 'We were living on a powder keg for ten months without being paid.' Advertisement

It was being kept in Warehouse 12 next to a series of other structures where Customs kept commercial cargo and personal belongings of people who had shipped them to Lebanon.

It has been reported that in order to retrieve any belongings from the port bundles of money were needed to pay off different factions among the port's bureaucracy.

Lebanon has placed every official responsible for the security of Beirut's port for the last six years under house arrest as it investigates the explosion.

But the head of the Beirut port, Hassan Koraytem, told pro-government broadcaster OTV that the Customs department, as well as state security, had wanted the material to be exported or removed, but that 'nothing happened'.

The country's political leaders vowed those responsible for the tragedy would 'pay the price', but customs officials pointed the finger of blame back at them - saying they were repeatedly warned of the danger but failed to act.

Raghida Dergham of the Beirut Institute yesterday said: 'Storing Ammonium Nitrate in a civilian port is a crime against humanity that must not go unpunished.

'Condemnations are not enough. I'm safe but devastated. I lost friends. I lost my apartment. Had I been home, I would have lost my life.'

Emmanuel Macron has since offered France's support for the Lebanese people as he visited Beirut on Thursday, but warned the country would 'continue to sink' unless its leaders carry out reforms.

France has long sought to support its former colony and has sent emergency aid since the blast, but is worried about endemic corruption and has pressed for reforms as a financial crisis deepened in the Middle East country.

After landing in Beirut, Macron said France's solidarity with the Lebanese people was unconditional, but said he wanted to tell some 'home truths' to political figures.

'Beyond the blast, we know the crisis here is serious, it involves the historic responsibility of leaders in place,' Macron told reporters.

'We can't do without telling each other some home truths,' he added. 'If reforms are not carried out, Lebanon will continue to sink.'

An official source familiar with preliminary investigations blamed the incident on negligence. Lebanese citizens directed anger at politicians who have overseen decades of state corruption and bad governance that plunged the nation into financial crisis.

Director General of Lebanese Customs Badri Daher said the country's judiciary was told six times about the hazardous chemicals stored in a warehouse in the Lebanese capital.

Customs officials are understood to have asked authorities to move the dangerous substance from Hangar 12 due to the danger they believe it posed to the city and given to the army or sold to an explosives company.

'We requested that it be re-exported but that did not happen. We leave it to the experts and those concerned to determine why,' Daher said.

Another source close to a port employee said a team that inspected the ammonium nitrate six months ago warned that if it was not moved it would 'blow up all of Beirut'.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab vowed those responsible will 'pay the price' as he declared a two-week state of emergency to deal with the crisis, urging all world leaders and 'friends of Lebanon' to donate aid to the country, adding: 'We are witnessing a real catastrophe.'

Documents published online suggested it could be given to the army or sold to an explosives company, but did not receive any replies, leaving the explosive cargo languishing in the now destroyed port area of the capital.

Ammonium nitrate is a chemical used in fertiliser bombs and is widely used by the construction industry but also by insurgent groups such as the Taliban and the IRA for improvised explosives.

The explosion on Tuesday night, which was reportedly the size of a small nuke, has left at least 5,000 people were wounded in the explosion which also left 300,000 homeless and caused damage estimated at up to $5billion, with half of Beirut's buildings affected

The blast threatens to reignite anti-government protests in Lebanon that have been ongoing since last year amid allegations of entrenched incompetence and corruption (aftermath of the blast pictured)

Lebanon is highly dependent on imports, and the destruction of the port, along with the worsening cash crisis, have raised fears of shortages. Pictured: Buildings demolished in the explosion at the port of Beirut

Authorities have cordoned off the port itself, where the blast left a crater 200 meters (yards) across and shredded a large grain silo, emptying its contents into the rubble. Estimates suggested about 85 per cent of the country's grain was stored there.

Lebanon is highly dependent on imports, and the destruction of the port, along with the worsening cash crisis, have raised fears of shortages.

Two planeloads of French rescue workers and aid were sent to Beirut, and Macron was to arrive Thursday to offer support for the former protectorate. The countries retain close political and economic ties.

Other countries, including Greece, Qatar, Kuwait, Turkey and the European Union, have dispatched medical supplies, humanitarian aid and search-and-rescue teams.

It comes after a tragic photo emerged showing the final moments of firefighters sent to tackle a blaze at Warehouse 12 in Beirut's port before the chemicals stored inside exploded with the force of a small nuke

It comes after a tragic photo emerged showing the final moments of firefighters sent to tackle a blaze at Warehouse 12 in Beirut's port before the chemicals stored inside exploded with the force of a small nuke.

The image - verified by MailOnline - shows firefighters trying to pry the lock off a door beneath a sign that reads 'entrance 12', along with signs warning of hazardous chemicals inside.

The person who took the photo has been confirmed dead with the photo found on his phone, while Beirut's governor has said 10 firefighters are missing after the blast, sparked when 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in the warehouse caught fire.

The image was being widely-circulated on Arab-language twitter accounts on Wednesday as people paid tribute to the firefighters, who are assumed to have perished.

Jo Noon, Methal Hawwa and Najib Hati were part of a 10-person rapid response team. Nine of them are still missing while one female colleague, 25-year-old Sahar Faris, has been confirmed dead.

Ms Faris, who has since been dubbed 'the bride of Beirut' on social media, was engaged to be married in June next year. Yesterday, her fiance, Gilbert Karaan, posted a tribute saying, 'you broke my back, you broke my heart'.

Video taken of the area around the same time shows fire crews at the scene along with heavy grey sliding doors. Beirut's governor has confirmed that 10 firefighters are missing following the blast

More footage of the burning warehouses taken from the roof of the building opposite shows the same warehouses on fire before they are blown to smithereens

An image of the warehouse taken some time before the blast shows the same sliding doors and white patch - though without writing on it - along with what appear to be the chemicals that exploded stored inside

Sahar Fares, who was one of the 10-person rapid response team, has been confirmed as killed during the blast and has since been dubbed 'the bride of Beirut' on social media

The ten firefighters who were first on the scene. All of them are missing, with one, Sahar Fares, top centre, confirmed dead. Top left to right: Ralf Mallahi, Sarah Faris, Najib Hati. Middle left to right: Ellie Khuzami, Charbel Hati, Jo Noon, Charbel Karam. Bottom left to right: Jo Bou Saab, Methal Hawwa, Rami Kaaki

IRAQ TAKES STOCK OF CHEMICALS AFTER BEIRUT BLAST Iraq announced Thursday it will create an inventory of all hazardous materials at ports and airports after the ignition of ammonium nitrate fertiliser at a portside warehouse levelled swathes of Beirut. An emergency committee chaired by the head of Iraq's border agency said it had been tasked with carrying out the work and had given itself 72 hours to complete it. The goal was to 'avoid any repetition of what happened in Lebanon' in Iraq, the panel said. Lebanon's government, already seen as incompetent and corrupt, is now facing renewed protests as anger turns on politicians for failing to store the explosive chemicals properly. Iraq has also seen mass protests over the past year against a political system based on confessional quotas that is seen as corrupt and incompetent. The searing summer heat in Iraq makes it even more vulnerable to the danger of accidental explosions of poorly stored hazardous materials. The accidental ignition of munitions stocked in residential areas has caused deadly explosions in Iraq in the past. Advertisement

The three firemen were photographed in an iconic picture putting their lives on the line to prevent the catastrophe. One of them, Najib Hati, did not even have time to put on his uniform.

They had been dispatched with another colleague, thought to be Ms Faris, from the fire station in La Quarantaine, northeastern Beirut, in an emergency response vehicle and were first on the scene, fire chiefs said.

The six other firefighters followed in a fire engine. 'As the fire service, we have the authority to open any door without the approval of any ministry or military,' a fire service official, who asked not to be named, said.

'When the smoke first started gathering, we sent a unit of 10 people. Six were in the fire engine and four in the emergency response car. The three men in the famous photograph were first on the scene trying to unlock the door to Warehouse 12.

'Following them were the colleagues in the other vehicles. The blast hit all of them. Nine are still missing and one, Sahar Faris, has been found and declared dead. Her family mourned here yesterday. Her fiance is devastated.'

Details from the image - such as the heavy grey sliding doors and white sign with Arabic writing - were also visible in a video taken outside the flaming warehouses as a fire, thought to have been sparked by a welder, took hold.

The video shows firefighters in similar uniforms to those seen in the photo as they assess the scene, seemingly unaware of the danger.

More footage taken from the roof of a building across the street shows identical warehouse buildings being consumed by smoke and flames, along with similar-looking signs on the warehouse doors.

That footage can be verified as genuine because it features a large metal support strut, that can be seen on the roof of a building opposite the warehouse in Google Satellite images.

Meanwhile a photo taken of the warehouse some time ago shows the same grey sliding doors, high square windows and white sign, though without an writing on it. That photo also purports to show sacks filled with ammonium nitrate that caused the explosion.

The second video also features other corroborating details seen in multiple pieces of footage from around Beirut, such as small explosions from what appear to be fireworks moments before the main blast takes place.

That video also features the moment the blast happens, obliterating the warehouse, badly damaging grain silos opposite, and sending out a shockwave that flattened nearby buildings and blew out windows across the city.

Hero Methal Hawwa, front left, is seen here posing with fellow firefighters in this group photograph

2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate stored within the burning warehouse exploded shortly after the images and footage were taken, leaving behind little more than a watery hole in the ground

The blast sent out a shockwave that pulverized nearby warehouses (pictured), shredded the interior of nearby buildings, and blew out glass panes across the city

An aerial image showing the devastation caused to Beirut's port by the blast, with costs estimated at up to $5billion

The blast almost completely destroyed the port along with a grain silo (pictured centre), which were an economic lifeline for Lebanon which was already suffering through an economic crisis

Port worker is found bloodied but alive 30 hours after being blown into the sea by Beirut blast A man who was blown into the sea when a devastating chemical blast tore through downtown Beirut yesterday has been found alive after 30 hours. Port of Beirut worker Amin al-Zahed, whose photo was posted on an Instagram page dedicated to locating missing residents, was found in the Mediterannean sea, 30 hours after the blast which rocked the city yesterday. An image posted on social media shows a member of a rescue team holding a man covered in blood, who is said to be al-Zahed, on the deck of a ship. Ameen Zahid who was reported missing for 30 hours was found in the sea and he is still alive. He was caught in the Beirut explosion and thrown into the Mediterranean Sea The port worker was rushed to Rafic Hariri University Hospital in Beirut after his rescue, Al-Arabiya reported. Port of Beirut worker Amin al-Zahed Al-Zahed's condition, and how he managed to survive his ordeal, is currently unknown. Shortly after the explosion, an Instagram page was set up to try to help locate missing persons in the aftermath of the blast, which shows hundreds of people whose family's are unaware as to their whereabouts. One young girl, who was missing, was found alive in Beirut after spending 24 hours under the rubble. As a frantic hunt for missing people continued in the Lebanese capital tonight, footage emerged of rescue workers finding the child lodged between debris. By torchlight, the crew are seen trying to shift the rubble from around the girl, whose head pokes out from what appears to be the debris from a collapsed building. Local media report the video was from tonight and that she spent 24 hours buried following yesterday's massive blast. Dozens are still unaccounted for in Beirut, which officials have called a 'disaster city' following the huge blast at the city's port after 2,700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate went up in flames. At least 135 people have died, although this figure is expected to rise, and 5,000 have been wounded, the health minister said tonight. By torchlight, the crew are seen trying to shift the rubble from around the girl, whose head pokes out from what appears to be the debris from a collapsed building Advertisement

A view of the destroyed grain silo is visible through a blown-out window close to Beirut's port on Wednesday

Destroyed warehouses are seen near the port area in the aftermath of a massive explosion in downtown Beirut

Workers remove rubble from damaged buildings near the site of an explosion which brought devastation to central Beirut

People pick their way through the remains of their destroyed office building after a massive explosion in Beirut

Emmanuel Macron arrived in Lebanon, a former French colony, where he met with senior officials and was taken to the site of the blast (pictured), where French rescue teams are helping with the cleanup

Mr Macron told Lebanese leaders that France would stand alongside the country, but warned that unless necessary reforms are carried out the situation will continue to deteriorate

'Lebanon was a heaven, they made it hell': Anger mounts in Beirut as activists vow anti-government protests after blast which killed at least 137

Anger is mounting against Lebanon's government following the massive blast in Beirut which has killed at least 137 people and wounded more than 5,000 as activists vowed to take to the streets as soon as the clean-up is over.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab has vowed that those responsible for the explosion - triggered when 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate being stored at the port caught fire - would 'pay the price', but the blame is increasingly being turned against the political class.

Lina Daoud, 45, a resident of the Mar Mikhail which was all-but destroyed in the explosion, described politicians as 'enemies of the state', saying: 'They killed our dreams, our future. Lebanon was a heaven, they have made it hell.'

Politicians were viewed as corrupt and incompetent even before the explosion, with tens of thousands taking to the streets in demonstrations that started in October last year - and now threaten to return with fresh intensity.

But marches will have to wait, at least for now, since many activists are busy cleaning up their city, rehousing the homeless and repairing damaged buildings amid a near-total absence of state support.

A massive cleanup operation is underway in Beirut after a massive explosion at the port levelled the surrounding neighbourhoods and left half of city's buildings with damage

An army of volunteers have taken to the streets to sweep up glass, clear away rubble, rehouse the homeless and repair buildings amid a near-total absence of state support

Activists have vowed to restart anti-government protests which have been ongoing since last year, once they have finished cleaning up a city that was once known as the Paris of the Middle East

People donate items of clothing, water and food in Martyrs Square in Beirut in an attempt to help those who were injured and left homeless following the huge explosion

Youth volunteers inspect damage to buildings in neighbourhoods close to the site of the blast, triggered when a warehouse filled with 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate caught fire

'What state?' scoffed 42-year-old Melissa Fadlallah, a volunteer cleaning up the hard-hit Mar Mikhail district of the Lebanese capital.

The explosion, which hit just a few hundred metres (yards) away at Beirut's port, blew all the windows and doors off Mar Mikhail's pubs, restaurants and apartment homes on Tuesday.

By Wednesday, a spontaneous cleanup operation was underway there, a glimmer of youthful solidarity and hope after a devastating night.

Wearing plastic gloves and a mask, Fadlallah tossed a shard of glass as long as her arm at the door of the state electricity company's administrative building that looms over the district.

'For me, this state is a dump - and on behalf of yesterday's victims, the dump that killed them is going to stay a dump,' she told AFP.

The blast killed more than 110 people, wounded thousands and compounded public anger that erupted in protests last year against a government seen as corrupt and inefficient.

Volunteers help remove fridges from a destroyed store as a massive cleanup operation gets underway in Beirut

A young man armed with a broom and a rake walks down a destroyed street in Beirut, amid a massive cleanup operation

Military personnel stand amid debris from nearby structures, caused by an explosion at Beirut's port late on Tuesday

'We're trying to fix this country. We've been trying to fix it for nine months but now we're going to do it our way,' said Fadlallah.

'If we had a real state, it would have been in the street since last night cleaning and working. Where are they?'

A few civil defence workers could be seen examining building structures but they were vastly outnumbered by young volunteers flooding the streets to help.

In small groups, they energetically swept up glass beneath blown-out buildings, dragging them into plastic bags.

Others clambered up debris-strewn stairwells to offer their homes to residents who had spent the previous night in the open air.

'We're sending people into the damaged homes of the elderly and handicapped to help them find a home for tonight,' said Husam Abu Nasr, a 30-year-old volunteer.

Macron's moment amid cheering crowds in devastated Beirut

White shirt sleeves rolled up, Emmanuel Macron waded through cheering crowds in the devastated streets of Beirut earlier today where disaster survivors pleaded with him to help get rid of their reviled ruling elite.

Doing what no senior Lebanese leader had done since the deadly explosion at Beirut port two days earlier, the French president allowed himself to be thronged by residents of one of the capital's worst-hit neighbourhoods.

Dozens of people chanting 'revolution' and pleading with him for help pressed against his phalanx of bodyguards as he walked through the Gemmayzeh area for around 45 minutes.

White shirt sleeves rolled up, Emmanuel Macron waded through cheering crowds in the devastated streets of Beirut earlier today where disaster survivors pleaded with him to help get rid of their reviled ruling elite

Long simmering anger against Lebanon's leaders has flared since the blast, which appears to have been caused by negligence and is widely seen as the most tragic manifestation yet of the corruption and incompetence of the ruling class.

Some welcomed Macron like a saviour, while only a few heckled him, arguing that his mere presence in Lebanon would only serve to legitimise a political system they want to kick out wholesale.

'Help us, you are our only hope,' one well-wisher shouted as Macron stopped to meet residents, while neighbours applauded from flats with broken windows and crumbling balconies.

A woman wearing a face mask and heavy duty gloves cut through the crowd to catch the attention of the French head of state before clenching his hands firmly to make an impassioned plea for help.

Under the nervous gaze of his suited bodyguards, Macron hugged her in a prolonged embrace that triggered wild cheers from the crowd.

Throughout the dramatic walkabout, Macron appeared to savour the moment. His moment.

Doing what no senior Lebanese leader had done since the deadly explosion at Beirut port two days earlier, the French president (pictured waving centre) allowed himself to be thronged by residents of one of the capital's worst-hit neighbourhoods

The scene was reminiscent of Jacques Chirac's legendary 1996 walk through the Old City of Jerusalem, a moment that came to define his style as a president and contributed greatly to his popularity.

'My home in Gemmayzeh has vanished and the first person to pay me a visit is a foreign president,' well-known actor Ziad Itani wrote on social media, telling Lebanese leaders: 'Shame on you.'

'It seems this is more than a visit. What's happening on the streets of Gemmayzeh is historical.'

Clamouring around Macron, people chanted slogans made popular during the country's October popular uprising, launching insults at the political leaders he was to meet hours later.

Macron, when pressed by residents - some bearing the bandaged wounds of the cataclysmic explosion that disfigured their neighbourhood - vowed to be tough and push for reforms.

'I understand your anger. I am not here to endorse ... the regime,' Macron assured the crowd. 'It is my duty to help you as a people, to bring you medicine and food.'

Some welcomed Macron like a saviour, while only a few heckled him, arguing that his mere presence in Lebanon would only serve to legitimise a political system they want to kick out wholesale

One woman implored Macron to keep French financial assistance out of the reach of Lebanese officials, accused by many Lebanese of rampant graft and greed.

'I guarantee you that this aid will not fall into corrupt hands,' Macron said.

He promised to pitch a 'new political deal' to the country's leaders, and to press them to deliver sweeping change.

'I am going to talk to them ... I will hold them accountable,' Macron said before getting into a black limousine headed for the presidential palace.
It will be some time before the new Indian High Commissioner to London can get to feed the Queens horses. Its one of those quaint rituals in London that continues for the reason that everyone finds it quaint. As the new arriving envoy, Her Excellency Gaitri Issar Kumar would be due to be taken by a horse-driven carriage to Buckingham Palace to present her credentials to the Queen. After thanking the Queen, she must thank the horses upon return for their strenuous efforts towards launching her new role.

In coronavirus times, this horse-led, and horse-fed start to a diplomatic assignment is on hold. Face-to-face interactions are, of course, sharply curtailed even though the Queen has maintained two metres and more of social distance from just about everyone all her life, and always worn gloves if not a mask. So the horses sit in their stables, most people rest at home, but the High Commissioner has been invited to bypass that ritual start to get to work. Which she did the day after arriving in London.

That could hardly have waited. Boring as Brexit is, its coming into effect soon enough at the start of the next year. Both the Indian and the British governments are accelerating a push towards even a limited trade deal between the two countries. How much business follows the line of the governments is another, and proportionately a far lesser matter.

Kumars departure and destination ports form a neat axis of new rivalry. Coming from Brussels, Kumar was engaged in dealing with the European Union over that elusive trade deal. She will now be in the lead in negotiations from the other side of the dividing Channel thats beginning to look more and more like a wall.

An India-EU trade deal has been negotiated for years but never did happen. Among the biggest blocks were those put up by the British government as a part of the EU. It wanted more marked access for many of its own goods, with lower tariffs. What will Britain now give up on that it wanted so much earlier through the EU? We should hear soon enough what worked, if anything did.

Trade issues come and go, but any Indian high commissioner in London will have much to do by way of dealing with Pakistan. Britain has a large numbers of Indians and Pakistanis concentrated into quite small space. Party candidates need their vote to survive politically. Hardly surprising then that subcontinental matters should be so heavily politicised in Britain. Add Londons position as a buzzing media centre for both India and Pakistan, and internationally, and the politics gets amplified, which makes it that much bigger to deal with. Not a time for an arriving envoy to hold her horses.

Muted protest over Article 370

The August protest season in London has been unexpectedly muted at a time when a more than full and more than shrill calendar was expected. To the annual protests outside India House in London, add the August 5 anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370. Some of the Pakistani media was overflowing with projections over past weeks of a massive protest to take place at India House, as the Indian High Commission building in London is called. Indian officials were prepared, and so were the police.

That preparation took on an urgency beyond routine arrangements put in place under a protest protocol. Protesters had pelted the Indian High Commission offices with stones, eggs and tomatoes at a protest last year. Window panes were smashed, the facade of the building defaced. In symbolic, and to an extent actual response, former high commissioner Ruchi Ghanshyam picked up a broom along with her staff to launch a clean-up of the building. It was a visible message to the British government: this is what a foreign envoy is pushed to do when the government of the host country cannot protect her offices against vandalism.

India had made its point. Come that next anniversary in the Kashmir protest calendar on October 27 that marks the accession of Jammu and Kashmir state to India, and the police put up a security ring outside India House tighter than ever seen before. Protesters were walled in by police carrying shields and batons, police convoys patrolled the roads around, and waited poised at every corner. With support from helicopters and horses (the British do seem strong on horses).

Minus the helicopters the police threw a ring around India House again on Aug 5 that anyone could see was not to be fooled with. Protesters were barricaded into a pen on the further of the two-section road. Again, police vans packed with officers waited and watched all around. Mounted police officers faced the protesters, and rode past them every now and then. Not a tomato was in sight, or egg, never mind stone.

It helped that the protesters were no more than 150 or so, a trickle before the few thousand who had gathered last year. Covid had something to do with this no doubt. The Pakistan-heavy areas around Bradford are under a lockdown that blocked any departing buses. The reluctance to use public transport, the high cost of driving into town on a week day, the fear of infection that has begun to rise again meant that fewer people would turn up, and so fewer police officers needed to be around, with little to do.

But the turnout was still smaller than expected under the circumstances. It does appear that anger over Article 370 among those with reason for it has lost some steam. Jammu and Kashmir isnt exactly normal, but it would have taken strong optimism to have forecast on Aug 5, 2019 that a year on matters could be where they are today. The protesting is of course not over by any means. These protests are in any case only fractionally spontaneous. The ISI that operates actively from the Pakistani high commission in London is no doubt keeping its buses, and its budgets, for another day.
75 years after Hiroshima bombing, it's falling to descendants to keep survivors' stories alive

Toshiko Ishikawa saw a blinding flash of light and heard a "pop" before the ground started shaking. Moments later, she and a friend were buried under wood and concrete  the remains of nearby buildings in Hiroshima.

Momentarily knocked unconscious, she awoke to screaming, realizing her friend was trapped beside her and her stepmother was above her, shouting to dig.

Emerging from the debris on Aug. 6, 1945, the 12-year-old was forever changed.

"I looked to see my house, but it was gone," Ishikawa later told her daughter, Kathleen Burkinshaw. "Out of the corner of my eye, I could see fires and they looked like they were twirling. And ... I knew that's where my papa was."

Like many others exposed to the world's first atomic bombing, Ishikawa and her closest relatives are not alive to see the 75th anniversary of the tragic events. She died five years ago at the age of 82, after witnessing the deaths of nearly all her immediate family members.

Official records indicate hibakusha, the name given to survivors of the atomic bombs the U.S. dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, now total fewer than 140,000. Hiroshima City says more than 325,000 people have lost their lives as a result of the bombs and their aftermath, including nearly 5,000 who died in the past year. The average survivor is at least 83 years old.

Submitted by Kathleen Burkinshaw

Many hibakusha viewed this year's memorial events in Japan as their last big chance to share their stories. But the COVID-19 pandemic forced organizers of the annual ceremony in Hiroshima Memorial Peace Park to scale back attendance to 800 guests, a 90 per cent drop from previous years. Travel restrictions made it impossible to welcome people from overseas.

The declining number of survivors is one reason Burkinshaw continues to share her mother's story, an action that arms control experts say is key to adequately portraying the true horror of nuclear destruction.

Kyodo/via Reuters

Ishikawa didn't speak much about the bombing, not even telling her daughter she was from Hiroshima until she turned 11.

Story continues

"That was because of the nightmares she would have," said Burkinshaw, 51, from her home in Charlotte, N.C. "I remember being woken up with her screaming, every beginning of August."

Later, Burkinshaw learned the bomb made her mother an undesirable prospect for arranged marriage, as the families of prospective husbands worried survivors would be unable to have children. Like many hibakusha, she faced intense stigma, as people in the country knew only that the bomb caused residents to become sick, but not why.

Haunted by the loss

But that wasn't the only reason why Ishikawa left Hiroshima, first going to Tokyo and then to the United States with her American serviceman husband, nor is it why she told her daughter she contemplated suicide as a young adult.

Burkinshaw believes her mother was haunted by unimaginable loss: her classmates, who were near where the bomb fell while she stayed home sick; her friend who she couldn't pull from the rubble and her father, whom she and her stepmother found lying on the floor of a train station, nearly dead, with a wound in his chest that made it seem as if he were burning from the inside out.

Submitted by Kathleen Burkinshaw

"The war didn't end the effects of the bombing. It didn't end for my mom," said Burkinshaw. "It stayed with her forever."

No time to grieve

Sachi Komura Rummel was with a friend playing under a tree outside her school in the southwestern area of the city on Aug. 6, 1945, when she saw that same flash of light. She was blinded again by what she describes as a sandstorm.

She found her home, 3 kilometres from the blast's epicentre, tilted and full of shattered glass, but still standing.

Submitted by Sachi Komura Rummel

"We are lucky. And I am also lucky because I was in the shade of the tree," Rummel, now 83, said from her Vancouver home. She said she feels the tree likely saved her from the horrible burns suffered by many survivors.

For a few weeks after the bombing, the eight-year-old stayed at home, away from the dangerous levels of radiation close to the blast site.

"My father was at almost the centre of Hiroshima," she said. Later on that day, he arrived home, describing how the streets were full of bodies. After 10 days of nausea, diarrhea and extreme pain, he died.

Submitted by Sachi Komura Rummel

Later, she watched as his body was covered in twigs and gasoline and set aflame at a nearby park that had become a crematorium.

For a self-described "daddy's girl," it was the worst moment of her life.

"My father died and Japan surrendered, and for everyone it was so difficult to live," she said. "I don't think we had a time to think about sadness or tragedy. We [had] to keep going."

'No family' should go through that

Both Rummel and Burkinshaw are trying to make sure English audiences continue to hear the stories of Japanese hibakusha.

Rummel began speaking out about nuclear dangers after a massive earthquake and tsunami triggered a triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in 2011. She eventually published Memoirs of a Survivor, a book that tells her life story.

Burkinshaw, who has a chronic pain condition doctors believe may be linked to her mother's radiation exposure, has written The Last Cherry Blossom, an historical fiction book recounting her mother's story.

"[Mom] didn't think her voice mattered," said Burkinshaw. "She said: 'No one's going to care about what happened to a little girl in Hiroshima.' And I hope she's looking down now and she can see they do. They do."

Submitted by Sachi Komura Rummel

Burkinshaw visits U.S. schools and speaks to children who have read her book.

She said today's youth, who grew up outside the Cold War's shadow, seem more willing to look beyond the textbook explanation that the bomb saved American lives, and see that there is more to the story.

Kyodo/via Reuters

The goal of her book was to show Ishikawa was like any 12-year-old today "who didn't like homework and didn't keep her room clean."

"We need to feel it in our heart and we need to realize that could be our family. And no family should have to go through that."

Arms reduction agreement at risk

Arms control advocates say personal stories are the most effective way to express the horror of nuclear war and push for change.

In 2017, Setsuko Thurlow, a hibakusha based in Toronto, accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons for its work advocating for a UN treaty to ban the weapons.

To date, 40 countries have ratified it. None of the world's nuclear powers or major allies, like Canada and Japan, have signed on.

"When that ban process was happening, there was an effort by NATO countries, particularly the United States, to boycott those talks," said Matt Korda, a research associate for the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists (FAS). "They had no real interest in engaging."

April Brady/Arms Control Association

The global nuclear arsenal has substantially shrunk from a peak of 70,300 in 1986, at the height of the Cold War, according to the FAS, thanks to bilateral agreements between the world's largest nuclear powers: the United States and Russia.

But there have been recent setbacks.

U.S. President Donald Trump has abandoned the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and expressed concerns about renewing the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty unless China agrees to join the pact.

Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association in Washington, D.C., worries there's no guarantee Trump will pick up Russia's offer to extend New START by five years.

"If the treaty is not extended, if there are no follow-on talks, we could see a period of unconstrained nuclear arms racing the likes of which we haven't seen in decades, not since the 1960s," he said.

Global nuclear arsenal tops 13,400

According to advocates, international disarmament efforts have stalled in recent years, with FAS estimating that more than 13,400 nuclear warheads are still in existence.

"Nuclear weapons are out of sight and out of mind for most people," said Kimball. "But the risk that they pose is still there, and in some ways it is a more complicated and dire risk than in the Cold War years."

WATCH | Daryl Kimball describes the significance of the memories of the hibakusha:

Denuclearization talks between the United States and North Korea have broken down and the Iran nuclear deal, a landmark pact under which the country set limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of crippling economic sanctions, seems poised to collapse.

"We are seeing leaders more interested in just walking away from those [agreements] entirely, or some blaming and shaming of their arms control partners," said Korda.

Max Desfor/The Associated Press

"It's kind of frustrating that the leaders of arms-control states are generally sort of seeing disarmament as a type of chore, rather than actually a global security imperative or a humanitarian imperative."

Sowing seeds of hope

But even in the darkest moments, there is hope.

After the bomb was dropped, people in Hiroshima were told it would be at least 75 years until trees bloomed again.

Rummel said when blossoms appeared the following spring, it showed the city and its people had a future  a message she hopes to have a small hand in passing on.

"I'm just planting seeds, small seeds, to peace. But that seed will grow in the future and then it will spread to create a peaceful world. That's my dream."
Lebanon's President Michel Aoun, right, welcomes French President Emmanuel Macron upon Macron's arrival at the airport in Beirut, Lebanon, Aug. 6. Reuters



French President Emmanuel Macron visited shell-shocked Beirut Thursday, pledging support and urging change after a massive explosion devastated the Lebanese capital in a disaster that has sparked grief and fury.



"Lebanon is not alone," he tweeted on arrival before pledging Paris would coordinate international relief efforts after the colossal blast killed at least 137 people, wounded thousands and caused billions of dollars in damage.



But Macron also warned that Lebanon  already mired in a deep economic crisis, in desperate need of a bailout and torn by political turmoil  would "continue to sink" unless it implements urgent reforms.



Macron visited Beirut's harborside blast zone, now a wasteland of blackened ruins, rubble and charred debris where a 140 meter (460 feet) wide crater has filled with sea water.



Macron's visit to the small Mediterranean country, France's Middle East protege and former colonial-era protectorate, was the first by a foreign head of state since Tuesday's unprecedented tragedy.



Two days on, Lebanon was still reeling from a blast so huge it was felt in neighboring countries, its mushroom-shaped cloud drawing comparisons with the Hiroshima atom bomb.



"Apocalypse", "Armageddon"  Lebanese were lost for words to describe the impact of the blast, which dwarfed anything the country had experienced in its violence-plagued history.



The provisional death toll stood at 137 but, with dozens missing and 5,000 wounded, the number of victims was expected to rise as rescue workers continued to comb through the rubble.



Offering a glimmer of hope amid the carnage, a French rescuer said there was a "good chance of finding... people alive", especially a group believed to be trapped in a room under the rubble.



"We are looking for seven or eight missing people, who could be stuck in a control room buried by the explosion," the colonel leading a rescue team told Macron as he surveyed the site.



'Shock to anger'



Paris has spearheaded international mobilization in support of Lebanon, where flights carrying medical aid, field hospitals, rescue experts and tracking dogs have been arriving since Wednesday.

Beirut's governor estimated up to 300,000 people may have been left temporarily homeless by the destruction, which he said would cost the debt-ridden country in excess of 3 billion dollars.



According to several officials, the explosion was caused by a fire igniting 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer stored for years in a ramshackle portside warehouse.



Even as they counted their dead and cleaned up the streets, many Lebanese were boiling with anger over a blast they see as the most shocking expression yet of their leadership's incompetence.



"We can't bear more than this. This is it. The whole system has got to go," said 30-year-old Mohammad Suyur as he picked up broken glass in Mar Mikhail, one of the worst-hit city districts.



Many questions were being asked as to how such a huge cargo of highly explosive material could have been left unsecured in Beirut for years.



Prime Minister Hassan Diab and President Michel Aoun have promised to put the culprits behind bars, but trust in institutions is low and few on Beirut's streets held out hope for an impartial inquiry.



The disaster could reignite an unprecedented cross-sectarian protest movement that erupted last October and had looked briefly like it could topple what activists consider a hereditary kleptocracy.

The euphoria faded as real change failed to materialize and the combination of economic hardship and the coronavirus pandemic left the revolution in tatters.



But since the disaster, social media has again been rife with calls for a new push to remove Lebanon's widely reviled political leaders.



"Lebanon's political class should be on guard in the weeks ahead," Faysal Itani, a deputy director at think tank the Center for Global Policy, wrote in The New York Times.

"Shock will inevitably turn to anger."



Spontaneous solidarity



The group Human Rights Watch supported mounting calls for an international probe into the disaster as the only credible option.



"An independent investigation with international experts is the best guarantee that victims of the explosion will get the justice they deserve," the watchdog said.



In France, prosecutors on Wednesday opened a probe into the blast over injuries suffered by 21 French citizens.



Besides the international emergency effort, the aftermath of the terrible explosion has yielded countless uplifting examples of spontaneous solidarity.



Business owners swiftly took to social media, posting offers to repair doors, paint damaged walls or replace shattered windows for free.



Much of the cleanup was being handled by volunteers who improvised working groups, bringing their own equipment and making appeals for help on social media.



"We're sending people into the damaged homes of the elderly and handicapped to help them find a home for tonight," said Husam Abu Nasr, a 30-year-old volunteer.



"We don't have a state to take these steps, so we took matters into our own hands." (AFP)


LWA/Dann Tardif/Getty Images

If you're on Medicare and are planning a move to another state, be sure to review what your coverage will look like once you're in your new home. There are various rules that apply to such moves, and costs may be different in your new state. Often, the process of making the switch is fairly straightforward, experts say. In other cases, it may require some legwork and comparison shopping to see what makes the most sense coverage-wise and financially for you.

The basics

Original (or basic) Medicare consists of Part A (hospital coverage) and Part B (outpatient care and medical equipment). About a third of beneficiaries choose to get those benefits through a Medicare Advantage Plan (Part C). In that case, prescription drug coverage (Part D) is typically delivered through those plans, as well. They may come with their own premium on top of what you pay for Part B and, if applicable, Part A, as well as their own deductibles, copays or coinsurance. They also have out-of-pocket maximums (which basic Medicare does not) and may offer extras like basic dental and vision coverage.

The remaining two-thirds of enrollees stick with original Medicare. Of those, many pair it with a standalone Part D prescription drug plan, as well as a supplemental plan  aka "Medigap." Those policies cover some of your costs associated with Medicare, including copays or coinsurance associated with Parts A and B. They, too, limit what you'll pay out of pocket each year.

Your Medigap policy

Your Part D prescription drug plan

If you have a standalone Part D plan for prescription drug coverage, you'll need to sign up for a new one in your new state of residence. "The Part D benefits may be different in another state," Roberts said. "Even if the plan has the same name, you still have to switch because those plans are state-specific." You get two months to do that  otherwise you would need to wait until the next open enrollment (in the fall) and could be penalized for having no acceptable prescription drug coverage. Those penalties are 1% of the national base premium ($32.74 for 2020) for each full month that you didn't have coverage.

Your Advantage Plan
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Ba Ria-Vung Tau Provine in southern Vietnam on Tuesday approved in principle a plan to spend approximately VND4.9 trillion (US$213 million) building a bridge connecting an expressway with its seaport.

The bridge, named Phuoc An, is projected to serve as an important link between Cai Mep  Thi Vai International Port in Ba Ria-Vung Tau and Ben Luc  Long Thanh Expressway, which connects Long An Province in the Mekong Delta with southern Dong Nai Province and is part of a planned national north-to-south expressway.

The bridge is expected to measure 3.5 kilometers in length, with a vertical clearance that allows ships with a tonnage of up to 30,000 metric tons to pass through, and include a total of 848 meters of linked roads.

Nearly VND2.9 trillion ($126 million) of the investment capital of the bridge will come from the provincial budget, while the other VND2 trillion ($87 million) will be allocated from the state budget.

Construction of the bridge alone will cost VND3.75 trillion ($163 million).

An architects impression of Phuoc An Bridge connecting Ba Ria-Vung Tau and Dong Nai Provinces, Vietnam

The new bridge will facilitate transport between the Mekong Delta and the eastern part of southern Vietnam and help the Cai Mep  Thi Vai seaport reach its designed capacity.

The Phuoc An Bridge project has been discussed for more than ten years but has faced different difficulties regarding the source of investment, the form of investment, and the location of the bridge.

It was not until a field inspection by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc to the planned location of the bridge in May and a meeting between leaders from Ba Ria-Vung Tau and Dong Nai Provinces and the Minister of Transport in July that the difficulties were finally resolved.

With the in-principle approval from the provincial Peoples Council and readily available capital, the next steps are merely procedural, said Nguyen Van Trinh, director of the management board for Cai Mep-Thi Vai transportation projects  the projects developer.

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Under a plan announced Thursday, 35,000 Philadelphia families with schoolchildren who lack internet access will get connected to the internet for free. Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. hailed the plan. Read more

With the start of the school year just weeks away, city officials on Thursday announced a plan to provide free internet access for 35,000 low-income families that currently lack it.

Under the plan  which will cost $17 million, paid for with a mixture of philanthropic, school, and local CARES Act funding  some households will be wired for free broadband access via Comcasts Internet Essentials program, and other families will receive at no charge wireless hot spots purchased by the city from T-Mobile.

Families with children enrolled in the Philadelphia School District and charter schools are eligible for internet access, as are children in Catholic or other private schools; district and charter schools have provided or will provide laptops or tablets for each student. Under the plan, families will also have access to digital navigators charged with providing technology support.

Families will be guaranteed free access for two years, but city officials said they mean to continue the program given adequate financial support.

Mayor Jim Kenney called the announcement a transformational moment triggered by the pandemic. He said the program will make a powerful impact on lessening the digital divide.

Thursdays announcement comes amid growing public concern and pressure  including two rallies outside the Comcast Center this week  after the district recently announced plans to begin the school year online only starting Sept. 2. But the city has been working with the district, Comcast and others on the project since COVID-19 forced school online in March, officials said.

 READ MORE: Philly public schools will stay all-online at least until November

As the pandemic continues, the need for connectivity for all is urgent, said Mark Wheeler, Philadelphias chief information officer; those without internet access are unable to effectively participate in not just education, but health care, employment and other endeavors.

This is an immediate need, Wheeler said. An equitable recovery is not possible if we dont tackle this.

The city is coordinating the digital equity effort, and will use $2 million in local CARES Act funding to pay for it, but no money from its general fund; instead, private donors including the William Penn Foundation, the Neubauer Family Foundation, the Philadelphia School Partnership, and others will fund the bulk of the project. The largest donor, chipping in $7 million, is Comcast itself, officials said; in all, $11 million has been pledged to date.

Officials estimate they will spend $7.2 million over the two years on wired internet access, $5.1 million on hot spots and $1.7 million on the digital navigator program.

 READ MORE: Why the CEO of Comcast and his family gifted $5M for computers to help Philly kids learn during coronavirus school closures

It wasnt immediately clear how much the district and charters would be required to pay, but Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said the school system has already had offers of funds to cover its portion of the cost.

The city did not seek competitive bids for the broadband service because Comcast is citywide, Wheeler said. We dont have another provider who has complete 100% coverage.

In the tight time frame officials have to work with, piecing together coverage from other providers was not possible, Wheeler said; in future years, the city hopes to seek a more open, competitive process and serve low-income Philadelphians beyond those with school-age children.

Hite praised what Maari Porter, Kenneys deputy chief of staff for policy and strategic initiatives, called a bold and urgent citywide initiative, and said Philadelphias role was especially key as the district prepares for fully remote instruction that will last until at least November.

Schools and district staff are now identifying families who lack internet access to get as many online as quickly as possible, Hite said. The superintendent said the digital navigators will aid in that process, and will be equipped to help families whose children are English-language learners or require special-education services.

Those types of resources are critically important, Hite said. Thats work that we were also trying to do on the fly while we were also trying to do other things  feed children, instruct them.

Thirty percent of Philadelphia households with schoolchildren lack internet access, according to census data; 58% of households making under $70,000 do not have access. And there are racial disparities  50% of Black households have internet access, while 74% of white households do.

The School District estimates thousands of students were unable to engage in remote learning in the spring because they lacked reliable internet access, despite the Internet Essentials program, which Comcast offered needy families free in the spring. Some district families reported difficulty accessing the program.

Mobile hot spots will be more appropriate for some families, including those with unstable housing situations, city officials said, and the digital navigators will help smooth the way for those who have had trouble gaining broadband access.

Months ago, Hite said he asked all city internet service providers to open up residential hot spots to students, but was told such hot spots were not engineered for broad public use. (Comcast did open up public and small business hot spots, as well as pledging to not disconnect service or charge late fees if bills are not paid on time.)

 READ MORE: Philly schools chief says internet providers refuse to open their networks so students can access education

Wheeler said broadband internet was a much better solution in terms of capacity and reliability.

Dalila Wilson-Scott, president of the Comcast NBCUniversal Foundation, said the digital divide was too vast a problem for any entity to conquer alone.

It took everyone to come together to make this happen, Wilson-Scott said. We are appreciative of that type of collaboration.

Porter, the city strategic initiative official, hailed Comcasts role in the digital equity effort.

Theyve been a really strong partner with us as weve been building this initiative at a very rapid pace, she said of Comcast, which has connected about 300,00 low-income city residents to the internet through its Internet Essentials program since 2011.

With Sept. 2 the first day of school for 125,000 children in the Philadelphia School District, the clock is ticking to get families enrolled; Wheeler said the city and its partners would work as quickly as possible to get as many students online as quickly as possible, but said an exact timeline was not clear.

Its going to be a process, Wheeler said, and were still putting it together.

The nonprofit Movement Alliance Project, which has pushed Comcast to do more to get families online, said the plan was a notable win for Phillys students, educators, and the community members who have been organizing and advocating to close the digital divide ahead of the upcoming school year but said that it did not go far enough and that some students might still lack access.

Staff writer Laura McCrystal contributed to this article.

The Philadelphia Inquirer is one of more than 20 news organizations producing Broke in Philly, a collaborative reporting project on solutions to poverty and the citys push toward economic justice. See all of our reporting at brokeinphilly.org.
GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) - India's defence ministry has warned, in a statement since removed from its website, that a military standoff with China that began with border fighting in June is likely to be a long one, despite multiple rounds of talks between the nuclear-armed rivals to defuse the tension.

The ministry said in an update for June - which has now been removed - that Chinese forces had breached the border in the Kugrang Nala and Gogra areas and the north shore of Pangong Tso lake in the northern Indian territory of Ladakh on May 17-18.

New Delhi says a "violent face-off" that followed the intrusion killed 20 of its soldiers in the western Himalayas.

It was the worst outbreak of violence between the giant Asian neighbours in decades. China accuses the Indian side of crossing the de facto border and provoking its soldiers.

"While engagement and dialogue at military and diplomatic level is continuing to arrive at mutually acceptable consensus, the present standoff is likely to be prolonged," the Indian defence ministry said in the now-removed statement, which was posted to Twitter by Reuters partner ANI https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1291225755762831361/photo/2 and others on Thursday.

A ministry spokesman did not respond to a call and a text message asking for comment on the document.

Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said the government was not being candid about the situation on the border, especially after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement in June that "nobody has intruded into our border, neither is anybody there now, nor have our posts been captured".

"Forget standing up to China, Indias PM lacks the courage even to name them (Chinese)," Gandhi tweeted. "Denying China is in our territory and removing documents from websites wont change the facts."

(Reporting by Krishna N. Das; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Senate Bill 793: Whats worsethe tobacco policy or the puff?

On July 23, Greater Zion Church Family head pastor, Michael Fisher, hosted a Facebook Live conversation via Zoom which discussed the topic of criminalizing menthol.

This Zoom call featured a distinguished panel of guests that had interest and knowledge in discussing Senate Bill 793, which directly affects the flavor menthol.

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SB 793 is a bill that would prohibit the sale of flavored tobacco products and/or having the product with the intention of selling it. This bill stems from the Stop Tobacco Access to Kids Enforcement (STAKE) Act, which was made effective Jan. 1, 1995 to stop the selling of tobacco products to persons under 21 years of age.

As the Zoom call commenced, a theme that became recurring throughout the conversation was no one is in support of any using tobacco products but there is an argument as to whether legislation can create harm for the Black community. Senior pastor at Weller Street Missionary Baptist Church, K.W. Tulloss, started off the argument by being opposed to the bill since he believes it will increase the criminalization of Black people. A bill that is prohibiting and possibly criminalizing our community is a bill that we cannot support, said Tulloss.

Tulloss acknowledges that smoking has been a problem in the community for long time but efforts should be poised toward educating people instead of unwanted attention by authorities.

The American Lung Association reports that nearly 17 percent of smokers in this country come from the African-American community, making them the second largest ethnic population of smokers. Out of this ethnic population, roughly 3 in 4 smokers use menthol cigarettes which can make the smoking process easier yet harder to quit. Carson Councilmember, Jawane Hilton, expressed how this ban is targeting menthol and people within the community will be negatively affected by this.

I think it has a few consequences in it that we need to rethinkwe have a broad brush and we need to paint the brush back just a little bit to make sure out community is healthy, said Hilton.

Pastor William D. Smart Jr. of Christ Liberation Ministries, also added to the argument by making this a civil rights issue. You cannot deny us a cigarette but not deny it to White people and their predominant choiceto me thats racism and discrimination, said Smart.

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He argued that White people predominately smoke Newport cigarettes which have no flavor and hookah tobacco retailers are exempt from this bill which took the Mediterranean population into consideration. Others in this discussion felt that this is not a matter of race but instead this bill help save Black lives in the long run.

ES Advisors Group President, Edward Sanders, supports the bill getting passed since he believes it will help not only the Black community but all communities. If there is one thing you can do to save Black lives, it is moving menthol off the marketits not a question of racism and special treatment, said Sanders.

The CDC reports that tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States with more that 480,000 deaths annually. Sanders argues that 45,000 of those deaths are African-Americans with tobacco being a major contributor to heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes. Co-Chairperson of the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council, Carol McGruder, also supports SB 793 and argues that racism doesnt play a role in this specific bill.

The FDA in two different reports said it would be in the best interest of the public to take menthol off the marketwe want to take off a product that kills 45,000 Black people every year in this country, said McGruder.

The African American Tobacco Control Leadership council is suing the FDA since they believe they have not protected Black people and racism can be found on their end. Councilwoman Michelle Chambers of District 1 in the City of Compton, also gave her input on where resources and attention should be directed which is healthcare.

Give us some money for cessationhelp us with cancer research and help us with mental therapy, said Chambers. As someone who is against the bill, she argues that if this bill passes another George Floyd or Eric Garner incident could ensue and the criminal justice will be affected. As this bill continues to make its way through the legislature, the debate still remains if this will help reduce tobacco use across the board or marginalize the Black community even more.

The California Senate has already passed the bill and it will make its way to the Assembly for consideration.
A man died and another was hospitalized from two separate shootings in New Orleans, according to a release from police.

Both shootings happened early Wednesday evening, but the New Orleans Police Department could not determine either location of the shootings until 9:50 p.m. Wednesday.

Woman dies in car wreck after hitting 18-wheeler at Poland Avenue and North Miro Street: NOPD A woman was killed when her car crashed into the back of an 18-wheeler at Poland Avenue and North Miro Street on Wednesday afternoon, accordin

In New Orleans East at Curran Boulevard and Buffalo Road, a man with a gunshot wound to the back arrived at a hospital via private car around 7:35 p.m.

Nearly an hour later, he died from his injuries. Authorities have not released his identity or any information on possible suspects or a motive.

Another man went to the hospital around 6:40 p.m. after being shot in his leg in the 2800 block of St. Andrew Street, according to police. His condition is unknown at this time, and the investigation is ongoing.

Watch: 4 people, including 2 children, rescued from water near Venice after boat capsizes Four people, including two children, were rescued from the water several miles away from Venice, Louisiana after their boat capsized on Wednes

Stay with NOLA.com for more updates.
Rajesh Abraham By

Express News Service

KOCHI: The banking sector employees are in a state of fear and anxiety after several of them have been infected with Covid-19 in recent days, forcing the co-workers and customers to go into quarantine and bank branches to shut down.At least 25 employees have been infected in Kerala so far, which has led to the shutdown of branches of both private and public sector banks.

Recently, an SBI branch at Mullaringad at Vanappuram near Thodupuzha in Idukki, was shut down for a week after an employee got infected. The branch was reopened only after the test results of other staff came negative.

In Kasaragod, five employees of Kerala Gramin Bank, Melparamb, tested positive for Covid. The Health Department has asked the customers who went to the bank from July 25 to go into self-quarantine. The branch has been shut till further orders.

We are now allowing only five persons into the branch at a time. Still, people just come to enquire about bank balance or other things which can be easily done through a phone call, said an SBI officer.

Bank branches that were shut in Kerala after the employees tested positive include Federal Bank (4 employees), South Indian Bank (2), SBI (2), IDBI (2), Kerala Gramin Bank (6), Kerala Bank (1), Bank of Baroda (1), Canara Bank (2), Union Bank of India (1), Malappuram DCB (2). HDFC Bank (1) and Bank of India (1).

Josson said the Kerala Gramin Bank branches at Trikkanad, Melparamb, Uppala, Kunjathur, Meeyappadav and Pavoor in Kasaragod were closed after six persons tested positive for Covid-19.The All Kerala Bank Employees Federation (AKBEF) on Monday said the federation had written to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan urging him to allow the banks to reduce the timings to 10am to 2pm across the state with the employees attendance restricted to a maximum of 50 per cent.

The number of bank employees getting infected in the workplace is rising. This is worrying employees and their families, said C D Josson, AKBEF general secretary.K S Krishna, national joint secretary, AIBEF, said the banking sector employs about 40,000 people in nearly 6,500 branches in Kerala. Its not practical to work without air-conditioners as there will be no air circulation otherwise. The branches have become highly vulnerable and employees are working earnestly in a very precarious condition when asymptomatic cases are on the rise, said Krishna.

Some of the suggestions put forward by the federation include state-wide uniformity by allowing banks to close branches in critical/containment zones, keeping ATMs open and advising customers to enter bank premises only for essential transactions.

Suggestions

Reduce timings to 10am-2pm

Restrict attendance to 50%

Allow customers into branches only for essential transactions

Employees in containment zones should not be asked to work outside the zone

Keep branches in critical/containment zones closed and ATMs open
Twitter, YouTube and Facebook posts by Donald Trump have been removed, in a decision that could further escalate tensions between the president and social media sites. But rather than indicating an increased willingness to sanction Mr Trump for misleading posts, the decision to remove them may in fact be in keeping with a longstanding position taken by all of the major social media companies on coronavirus misinformation.

Posts on each of the platform were removed for promoting coronavirus misinformation by suggesting that children are "almost immune" to Covid-19. The claims came from an interview the president conducted with Fox News, in which he made the claims, and included clips of that discussion which were then shared onto Mr Trump's official pages.

The decision has brought claims of "flagrant bias" from the Trump campaign, which argued that the president was simply stating a fact. "Social media companies are not the arbiters of truth," said Courtney Parella, a spokeswoman with the campaign.

It has also led to suggestions from onlookers that Facebook and Twitter could be launching a more proactive approach towards the president's posts, especially with the election growing near, and the Trump campaign expected to rely heavily on social media to mobilise its supporters.

Facebook particularly has received sustained criticism from lawmakers and even its own employees for the relatively lax approach it has to Mr Trump's posts, even when they are judged particularly inflammatory or misleading. That the newly removed posts appear to be the first time that Facebook has removed Mr Trump's posts in line with its misinformation policies led some to claim that Facebook might be making an effort to respond to that criticism, and do more to censure and limit the president's posts.

But the sites appear to actually be acting within relatively long-standing rules that were established soon after the coronavirus outbreak spread widely across much of the world. The deletions are in line with rules on both sites that specifically prohibit the sharing of coronavirus misinformation, for fear that it could cause real-world harm.

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube each referenced such rules when announcing the removal.

"This video includes false claims that a group of people is immune from COVID-19, which is a violation of our policies around harmful COVID misinformation," a Facebook spokesperson said. Twitter and YouTube gave similar statements, referencing public rules that ban misinformation about the disease.

All of the social media sites have made explicit that they see misinformation about coronavirus as belonging to a specific category of post, which will attract more strict censure than other posts that break its rules, even those that propagate falsehoods about other issues. As such, the decision by all three sites to remove the recent remarks by Mr Trump may simply be a result of those specific policies.

Both sites have in the past appeared to give the president extra leeway within their rules, because of his high-profile and the newsworthy nature of his posts. As such, they may have been expected to take a similar tactic with coronavirus posts, but some of the sites have already indicated that they will treat Mr Trump's posts on the issue more critically than they might with other topics.

Protests at Trump visit to Mount Rushmore Show all 19 1 /19 Protests at Trump visit to Mount Rushmore Protests at Trump visit to Mount Rushmore Activists and members of different tribes from the region block a road as they protest in Keystone, South Dakota, ahead of a visit by Donald Trump to mark Independence Day AFP via Getty Images Protests at Trump visit to Mount Rushmore A protester faces off with police during protests against the visit of Donald Trump to Mount Rushmore in Keystone, South Dakota AFP via Getty Images Protests at Trump visit to Mount Rushmore Donald Trump at Mount Rushmore for an Independence Day event REUTERS Protests at Trump visit to Mount Rushmore Activists and members of different tribes from the region protest in Keystone, South Dakota, ahead of a visit by Donald Trump to mark Independence Day AFP via Getty Images Protests at Trump visit to Mount Rushmore Activists and members of different tribes from the region block the road to Mount Rushmore National Monument with vans as they protest and confront police and military personnel in Keystone, South Dakota, ahead of a visit by Donald Trump to mark Independence Day AFP via Getty Images Protests at Trump visit to Mount Rushmore Activists and members of different tribes from the region block the road to Mount Rushmore National Monument with vans as they protest and confront police and military personnel in Keystone, South Dakota, ahead of a visit by Donald Trump to mark Independence Day AFP via Getty Images Protests at Trump visit to Mount Rushmore A man shelters behind a sign as activists and members of different tribes from the region block the road to Mount Rushmore National Monument with vans as they protest in Keystone, South Dakota, ahead of a visit by Donald Trump to mark Independence Day AFP via Getty Images Protests at Trump visit to Mount Rushmore Activists and members of different tribes from the region block the road to Mount Rushmore National Monument with vans as they protest and confront police and military personnel in Keystone, South Dakota, ahead of a visit by Donald Trump to mark Independence Day AFP via Getty Images Protests at Trump visit to Mount Rushmore Activists and members of different tribes from the region hold a US National flag upside down and a Lakota flag during a protest in Keystone, South Dakota, ahead of a visit to Mount Rushmore by Donald Trump to mark Independence Day AFP via Getty Images Protests at Trump visit to Mount Rushmore An activist and member of a tribe from the region wears a hat reading "America Was Never Great" attends a protest in Keystone, South Dakota, ahead of a visit to Mount Rushmore by Donald Trump to mark Independence Day AFP via Getty Images Protests at Trump visit to Mount Rushmore Activists and members of different tribes from the region block the road to Mount Rushmore National Monument with vans as they protest and confront police and military personnel in Keystone, South Dakota, ahead of a visit by Donald Trump to mark Independence Day AFP via Getty Images Protests at Trump visit to Mount Rushmore A protester faces a row of police as activists and members of different tribes from the region block the road to Mount Rushmore National Monument in Keystone, South Dakota, ahead of a visit by Donald Trump to mark Independence Day AFP via Getty Images Protests at Trump visit to Mount Rushmore Members of the Cowboys for Trump group demonstrate their support for the president in Keystone, South Dakota, ahead of the president's visit to Mount Rushmore to mark Independence Day AP Protests at Trump visit to Mount Rushmore Activists and members of different tribes from the region take a break in the shade as they protest in Keystone, South Dakota, ahead of a visit by Donald Trump to mark Independence Day AFP via Getty Images Protests at Trump visit to Mount Rushmore Donald Trump at Air Force Base Andrews in Maryland on his way to an Independence Day event at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota REUTERS Protests at Trump visit to Mount Rushmore Tiffany Trump, daughter of Donald Trump, and her boyfriend Michael Boulos arrive at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota to attend an Independence Day event at Mount Rushmore REUTERS Protests at Trump visit to Mount Rushmore Marine One flies past Mount Rushmore as Donald Trump arrives to make a speech marking Independence Day AFP via Getty Images Protests at Trump visit to Mount Rushmore A man washes the eyes of a protester after he was pepper sprayed by police as activists and members of different tribes from the region block the road to Mount Rushmore National Monument with vans in Keystone, South Dakota ahead of a visit by Donald Trump to mark Independence Day AFP via Getty Images Protests at Trump visit to Mount Rushmore Donald Trump is seen in front of Mount Rushmore as he and first lady Melania Trump attend South Dakota's Independence Day event Reuters

Twitter has already been swift in removing other posts by Mr Trump containing misinformation about coronavirus  such as when he pointed to a misleading post about the disease and masks  and made reference to those policies at the same time.

Twitter and Facebook have however left some of Mr Trump's controversial coronavirus posts online. When the president posted about using light or disinfectant to clean coronavirus from patients, drawing ire from experts, Twitter left those posts live because it said they represented a wish for a way to treat the disease, rather than a literal call to action or outright misinformation.
HICKORY, N.C., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Incredible Edibles is pleased to announce its first retail store in Hickory, North Carolina. The store celebrated its soft opening this past March just before the onset of COVID-19, and now its female ownership team made up of local entrepreneurs Heather Joyner and Fran Paradine are taking advantage of their opportunity to deliver healthy products to their community via the new store located at 883 Highland Ave SE, Hickory, NC 28602.

Joyner and Paradine are long-time Hickory residents who bring to this inaugural location exceptional retail management and authentic health and wellness experience. Under their ownership, Incredible Edibles - Hickory features all-natural, healthy and tasty food items that deliver nutritional value and benefits. Included in the store's vast offerings are Frozen Yogurt and Healthy Treats, as well as a high-quality, diverse and fully traceable assortment of CBD, including CBD oils, topicals, edibles, pet products and more.

"We are thrilled to have Heather and Fran join the Incredible Edibles family," said Bill Sluben, Senior Director of Incredible Edibles. "Heather is respected throughout the restaurant industry due to successfully owning and operating multiple McDonald's units in the region. Fran is a seasoned and successful owner and operator in her own right, having opened and run a di'lishi frozen yogurt concept for several years in Hickory."

With Incredible Edibles' roots traced back to the entrepreneurial success of Tariq Farid, who borrowed money to open a single flower shop and built it into the $500 million business, supporting aspiring entrepreneurs like Joyner and Paradine is a value the business was built on. Having these two owners leading the first Incredible Edibles retail location is especially noteworthy as there is a lack of access and parity for women entrepreneurs in the CBD industry, with a leading industry publication reporting in 2019 that women only account for about one-third of all cannabis industry executives.

Each brings Incredible talents and are proponents of the health benefits of CBD as an alternative treatment to anxiety, chronic pain and sleep deprivation.

"As someone who is interested in fitness and healthy eating, it is important to me that what we are providing to residents of Hickory through our Incredible Edibles store can make a positive impact on people's health and well-being," said Paradine. "As a company, we work to ensure that every item in the store has some nutritional benefit - from the probiotic-rich frozen yogurt, to the third-party tested CBD products, to the freshest fruit used in the fruit arrangements."

In light of health concerns surrounding COVID-19 and to improve community access to health and wellness solutions during this pandemic, Incredible Edibles  Hickory features abundant consumer education and consultative assistance, online ordering, curbside and contactless pickup, home delivery and a unique, one-stop health and wellness shopping experience.

For more about the Incredible Edibles store now open in Hickory, visit Incredibleedibles.com, or call 828-578-6083.

About Incredible Edibles

Incredible Edibles is focused on the benefits of natural health and wellness and traces its' roots back to the entrepreneurial success of Tariq Farid, who borrowed money to open a single flower shop and built it into the $500 million business. Incredible Edibles believes in offering the best tasting, highest quality and fully traceable Hemp CBD, Superfoods (and soon to be low-THC) consumable products. Their roots and commitment run deep: from planting over 20 acres of hemp seeds in Connecticut (in partnership with the Connecticut Hemp Research Pilot Program) in 2019, to leveraging over two decades of food innovation at Edible Brands, Incredible Edibles will meet the growing consumer demand for Hemp CBD, Superfoods and low-THC exceptional products.

SOURCE Incredible Edibles

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In his autobiographical middle-grade novel Everything Sad Is Untrue (Levine Querido), Nayeri, who is also publisher of Macmillans Odd Dot imprint, writes about being a young refugee from Iran. He spoke with PW from Asheville, N.C., a stop on his socially distanced, two-and-a half-month book tour, which hes doing as a road trip with his wife and eight-year-old son. Bookstores have been on top of their game, very conscientious, he reports. Sometimes I stay in the parking lot and staff come out and take a selfie with me, or a shop might have me sit in their stock room signing books. Before he returns to his home in Jersey City, N.J., hell have visited stores nationwide, including Texas, New Mexico, California, and Oklahoma, where he settled with his family at the age of eight.

The authors note to this book says you began writing it when your grandfather died 13 years ago. What was it about his death that propelled you into writing it? And why do you think it took more than a decade for you to tell this story?

Ive been doing this book ever since I got to this country, thinking about it since I was 10 years old. I became a writer because when you come to Oklahoma from Iran, youre constantly being asked: What are you doing here? You have to explain yourself a lot. I was an impatient little kid, talking as fast as I could because one question always led to another. And the facts always stayed the same but the order in which I told them changed all the time. I learned the power of storytelling early on from having to tell my story over and over.

I studied writing at NYU, and was working on some other books when my grandfather died. I was living in an apartment in Brooklyn with three other guys. I was in the bathroom when my father called with the news because that was the only place to get any privacy in that apartment. I broke down right away, because I had only the one memory of himthe one that opens the bookand I realized I would never have another. I started to do an accounting of which memories of my grandfather were mine and which were told to me and realized I only have that one. The other one I have was told to me by my father. He said, Your grandfather has a photo of you on his mantel and he prays to it every day that you will come back. And of course I am filled with guilt that I never did make it back to Iran. I didnt actually start writing the day that I learned of his death, but thats when I started counting my memories.

When I started to write the book, I was a 20-something adult. I tried writing it first as an adult novel and then as an essay collection, but neither one really worked. Im lucky that I had time to process what happened to me in childhood, but when I told it from an adult point of view it was a bit removed. I had spent about eight years, off and on, struggling through adult versions of my story when my good friend Stacey Barney [executive editor at G.P. Putnams Sons], finally said: You know this is a middle-grade novel? So then I put it in the voice of a 12-year-old. When I wrote in the voice of a raw young narrator trying to be oblique, trying to talk around thingswell, his failure produced a more transparent voice with more transparent emotions.

Much of the book is presented in the form of Daniel responding to his teachers writing prompts. Did you write any of these storiesor similar onesat that age, for school assignments? How did you come up with this format?

I built that structure of the writing prompts for the book as a way of portraying me and my willingness to crash and burn so many times in class. I didnt actually tell the stories in a formal setting as often as the character does. More often it was informally: on the playground with other kids, or waiting for class to start, I would say something about my childhood in Iran and Id be quickly shut down by the others, who didnt believe me. I was a kid who was trying to be important.

Daniel is reporting all these stories he has been told to the kids, testing their patience, using a fundamental aspect of the oral tradition. Its what storytellers might call the crowd work, trying to make all the threads weave together with aplomb.

When I was writing it as an adult book, I was thinking of it being like One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Midnights Children by Salman Rushdie. But that didnt work. So then I tried writing it as individual essays, with each themeeach threadtold in a separate essay. But I finally realized the story was neither a linear epic nor a collection of individual essays.

The book has no chapters; instead it is made up of many short stories. Why did you make this choice?

The concept of chapters never came into play. I wanted to create the feeling for the reader of When is this kid going to pause for breath? He never does. He never takes a breath; hes desperate to tell everything. Hes racing against timemeaning hes racing against you losing interest in him. Hes got you by the scruff and he has to hold on.

One of the striking aspects of your book is the juxtaposition of Persian history, traditional folk tales and Daniels family stories with a 12-year-olds life in contemporary Oklahoma. Did you grow up hearing the older stories? When you started writing, did you plan that they would be an integral part of the book?

Because my father chose not to leave Iran with us, after I was six years old, he became a voice on the phone. There was precious little I wanted to talk to him about in terms of my life. I never talked about school. He was a great memorizer and he would say something in Old FarsiOld Farsi and Modern Farsi are two different languagesand I would have no idea what he said. He would laugh at me and scold me for not knowing Old Farsi. Then he would explain what he had said in great detail. If it was something about a fox, for example, he would explain that in Persian literature a fox is a coward. I would tell him that in America a fox is cunning and smart. And he would retort that Persian literature is 10 times older than America.

On these calls he would be reconstituting Persian poetry for me inch by inchall those old stories came from him by phone. (I checked back with him on some of them while I was writing.) He would talk about why Iran retained Farsi after the Muslim conquest around 750 AD, when other countries like Egypt and Syria all switched to Arabic. Its because of the Shahnameh, he would tell mehe was referring to the Iranian national epic, which tells the history of the Persian people. According to my father, the language of the Shahnameh is so beautiful that it preserved the language. I didnt actually read it until college, but I learned about the merging of Persian history and mythology from my dad talking about the Shahnameh over and over. I couldnt write about my father without writing about the Shahnameh.

I learned from those stories that you cant map where history turns into mythology: that border is usually very foggy. In writing this book, I wanted to go back that far into my familywhere history morphs into mythology. I wanted the narrator to present readers with that level of honesty. Daniel is so obsessed with giving the truth that he goes all the way back to when history becomes myth. He holds himself to a higher account. The first sentence of the book is always hanging over his head: All Persians are liars.

Why havent you been back to Iran?

When I was 18 I had to declare my faith and I did not choose Islam. Muslim law, as interpreted in Iran, says if you convert to Judaism or Christianity, this is a capital crime. I wish this were not a hindrance to my traveling to Iran.

How did you make your way from Oklahoma to a career in publishing in New York City?

I knew I wanted to be a writer, and I got a scholarship to the NYU Writing Program. While I was in school, I got an internship at Carol Manns literary agency. Carol Mann is one of the greatsa wonderful agent from whom I learned that I would make a terrible agent. I got to watch her work and negotiate and came to understand how bad I would be at it. While I was interning with Carol, her foreign rights agent abruptly left to get married and move to China and Carol asked me to step into his job. So I was lucky enough to spend my junior and senior years of college also working fulltime.

When I graduated, I already had three years of publishing experience, which got me a job with Regan Books. Thats where I was working when my grandfather died. It was a rough place to work, but Judith Regan was incredible at acquiring books. I worked with celebrity books, books by punditsa lot of books that made me sad, and I decided I was way too young to be this sad all the time. So I made a list of the four best jobs I could think of: international spy (my mom said no, too dangerous), Royal Mountie (but I wasnt Canadian), a skydiving instructor (thats how stressful working for Regan Books wasI spent my weekends jumping out of planes), and pastry chef. Somehow, in spite of having no experience, I managed to get a job as a pastry chef and did that for five years, while copyediting and proofreading for Simon & Schuster, which kept my hand in publishing.

Eventually I landed a job at Clarion Books working for the great Dinah Stevenson. I learned to acquire books from Judith and to edit books from Dinah. At Clarion I worked with amazing authors like Katherine Paterson and Linda Sue Park. Eventually I became editorial director of the digital division at HMH. Then I worked at Workman for four years until I created the Odd Dot imprint for Macmillan three years ago.

You also wrote The Marlowe School books [Candlewick, 20092012] with your sister, Dina Nayeri. How did you and your sister come to write together?

My sister was in business school and transitioning into writing, so she and I were batting around ideas. We came up with the idea of a series of YA retellings set in a posh New York City private school, where every student and teacher is a proxy for a character from a classic novel.

Next you wrote several books on your own: Straw House, Wood House, Brick House, Blow [Candlewick, 2011] and the Elixir Fixers series [Albert Whitman, 20192020]. Do you see a connection between your other works and Everything Sad Is Untrue?

The Elixir Fixers is a fantasy chapter book series about a girl who lives with her father, a well-meaning but mediocre alchemist. He keeps selling potions to their neighbors, but she only believes in science. So its up to her to manufacture the magic in order to keep the family business alive.

Im most proud of Straw House, Wood House, Brick House, Blow: its a collection of four novellas, each one in a different genrewestern, hardboiled detective story, swashbuckling romance, and sci-fi. I really enjoy the short form of the novella. I think that the connective tissue between all my work is a constant filtering of and responding to stories being told and retold. I have an obsession with the conventions of how stories function in the East vs. the West.

In a 2012 interview you talked about novels getting fatter, and that as an editor you always ask for major cuts. Everything Sad is Untrue is a pretty long book! How did you reconcile your position about long books with the heft of this one?

(Laughs.) Im an inveterate hypocrite! I do believe in the novella size. Everything I write now is aggressively shorter. I will take my punishment for that statement.

Can you talk about the process of getting this book published? When did you meet Arthur Levine, and how involved was he in the creation of your book?

I met Arthur at a conference. I tend to be very shy at conferences and retire to my room as soon as the events are over. But this time, a friend insisted I come along to a dinner and Arthur was across the table from me. We spent the evening telling family stories and he said, You should write these stories down. This exchange happened about two years before my book was ready, so when it was ready, my agent, Joanna Volpe, sent it exclusively to Arthur. I thought he would really understand it since he had also experienced a childhood as an outsider.

He was a very strong editor, giving me play-by-play reactions to the various stories. He wanted to make sure that the Iran/Oklahoma balance was equal. I initially had more material on Iran, so I added more scenes about Oklahoma for a better balance.

Have any members of your family read this book?

My mom read it early enough that I could make changes to details. There wasnt much we disagreed on, but she was my fact-checker. Sometimes when she corrected me, we agreed to keep my version and chalk it up to a 12-year-olds perspective. She was surprised by a lot of what she read because I had been a pretty private child. My father and sister havent read it yet.

What are you working on now?

Im working on a middle-grade comic adventure set on the 11th-century Silk Road, in the Taklamakan Desert. The book hasnt been announced yet, so thats all I can say right now.

Everything Sad Is Untrue (A True Story) by Daniel Nayeri. Levine Querido, $17.99 Aug. 25 ISBN 978-1-64614-000-8
ATHENS (Reuters) - Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya said on Tuesday she hopes the will shown by Turkey to open a dialogue on oil drilling in the Eastern Mediterranean will be followed by action.

Turkey is at loggerheads with Greece and Cyprus over overlapping claims for offshore reserves. EU members Greece and Cyprus, along with France, have rejected Turkey's plan to explore between Cyprus and Crete.

The EU is keen to keep a lid on any tensions between a member state and Turkey. Last week German Chancellor Angela Merkel held separate discussions with both Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.

"This has to be put into action. It's not enough to say you want to talk," Gonzalez Laya told a new conference in Athens following a visit to Turkey, where she said her counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, mentioned a will to pause exploration in the area for at least a month.

Following her visit, a top Turkish official said Erdogan had requested any operations be put on hold as a constructive approach to negotiations with Greece.

"I hope this message will materialise," Gonzalez Laya said.

Her Greek counterpart, Nikos Dendias, said Greece was open to dialogue but not under not under threats.

It was not immediately clear what the basis of a dialogue between the two sides would be since they hold fundamentally different views on where their continental shelves begin and end.

(Reporting by Renee Maltezou and Inti Landauro; Editing by Alex Richardson and Nick Macfie)
Azerbaijan announced that it will send $1 million in financial aid to Lebanon to help eliminate the damage caused by yesterdays deadly explosion at Beirut Port.



According to the decision signed by Prime Minister Ali Asadov, the amount determined for the aid will be obtained from the reserve fund of the 2020 state budget.



In a condolence message sent to his Lebanese counterpart Michel Aoun, President Ilham Aliyev expressed his country's solidarity with the Lebanese people on this difficult day, Anadolu Agency reported.



Beirut and its surrounding suburbs were rocked Tuesday by a massive explosion that left at least 135 people dead and nearly 5,000 injured. Following the blast, Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab declared Wednesday a national day of mourning.



Lebanese Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi said the investigation into the blast will be transparent and last for five days and those responsible will be held accountable.
Bungled medical records given to the family of a man who died following treatment in a western NSW hospital mistakenly contained confidential notes belonging to another patient, listed the wrong surgeon and were missing a key blood report.

These mistakes come amid revelations a ministerial review team investigating the patient's death interviewed his family the day before their reporting deadline and were then denied requests for more time to "adequately investigate" concerns raised at the meeting.

A ministerial review has been ordered into the death of Allan Wells after he was treated at hospitals in Dubbo and Cobar.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard has now intervened after the Herald put questions to his office this week asking for an explanation of the pressing time constraints that prevented the review teams deadline from being extended.

The patients family say Mr Hazzard telephoned on Tuesday evening and reassured them directly he would look into their concerns.
University of Science and Technology of China

Photothermal therapy (PTT) is a promising alternative method for cancer treatment due to advantages of non-invasiveness, precise temporal and spatial control, strong specificity and high tumor destruction efficiency.

At present, the clinical evaluation of cancer treatment mainly relies on cytology, histopathology and imaging. Meanwhile, tumor therapy and its therapeutic efficiency evaluation are conducted separately.

Recently, a research group led by Prof. LIANG Gaolin from University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of Chinese Academy of Science, collaborating with Dr. WANG Longsheng from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, reported an "intelligent" strategy of using organic nanoparticles to evaluate PTT efficiency on tumor in real time.

The study was published online in ACS Nano on July 27.

Via a CBT-Cys click condensation reaction, the researchers designed a small molecular near-infrared probe Cys(StBu)-Asp-Glu-Val-Asp-Lys(Cypate)-CBT (Cy-CBT) and prepared an intelligent nanoparticle Cy-CBT-NP, which is a fluorescence-quenched photothermal nanoparticle.

After tumor cells' uptake of Cy-CBT-NP, the tumor was treated with photothermal therapy under 808nm laser irradiation. During the PTT, the tumor cell eventually died and the Caspase 3 (Casp 3) was activated.

Casp 3 specifically recognized and cleaved DEVD substrates in the Cy-CBT-NP to yield Cy-CBT-NP-Cleaved which was accompanied by near-infrared fluorescence (NIF), turning the fluorescence "On".

Because the PTT efficiency, Casp3 activity, and the turned "On" NIR fluorescence intensity are positively correlated, this intelligent nanoparticle Cy-CBT-NP can be used to evaluate the tumor photothermal efficiency in real time.

Compared with the traditional tumor efficiency evaluation method, the strategy is real-time and can help doctors adjust the treatment plan in time.

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Affluent areas will be forced to build more new homes in a radical shake-up of the planning system that will see computers decide on applications.

Boris Johnson last night admitted the controversial reforms will be seen by some as too much change too fast and too much of a break from what has gone before.

But the Prime Minister insisted it was important to take big, bold steps so the country can finally build the homes we all need.

Under the proposals, ministers will dictate how many homes have to be built each year in local areas, with mandatory figures set by central Government for councils.

Mr Johnson said the overhaul of the outdated and ineffective planning system was to give the people of this country the homes we need in the places we want to live at prices we can afford

A new system for dividing the nationwide annual target of 300,000 homes across the country will see the burden fall most heavily on desirable locations, such as well-to-do market towns.

Local residents and councillors will get to have their say on which bits of land in their area should be designated. But once this is done, they will no longer get to decide on individual applications.

A drive to digitise the planning process will mean that computers are used to judge whether some applications should be approved.

National, local and neighbourhood planning specifications will be inputted so they can automatically screen developments to identify if it meets requirements.

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said: We are moving away from notices on lampposts to an interactive and accessible map-based online system  placing planning at the fingertips of people. The planning process will be brought into the 21st century'

Local residents and councillors will get to have their say on which bits of land in their area should be designated. But once this is done, they will no longer get to decide on individual applications

This will significantly increase clarity for those wishing to bring forward development, enabling automation of more binary considerations and allowing for a greater focus on those areas where there is likely to be greater subjectivity, the Government said in a document setting out its reforms.

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said: We are moving away from notices on lampposts to an interactive and accessible map-based online system  placing planning at the fingertips of people. The planning process will be brought into the 21st century.

Communities will be reconnected to a planning process that is supposed to serve them, with residents more engaged over what happens in their areas.

The decision to publish the proposal during the summer recess will fuel suspicions that ministers fear a revolt from Tory backbenchers whose leafy constituencies are likely to bear the brunt.

Mr Johnson said the overhaul of the outdated and ineffective planning system was to give the people of this country the homes we need in the places we want to live at prices we can afford.

One of the most contentious parts of the new system is likely to be the new nationally determined, binding housing requirement for local authorities.

It would involve making sure a greater share of development was in the least affordable places where historic under-supply has been most chronic.

In what appeared to be a recognition of the battle that will lie ahead over the reforms, which will now be consulted on, Mr Johnson added: Getting homes built is always a controversial business.

A new system for dividing the nationwide annual target of 300,000 homes across the country will see the burden fall most heavily on desirable locations, such as well-to-do market towns

Any planning application, however modest, almost inevitably attracts objections and I am sure there will be those who say this paper represents too much change too fast, too much of a break from what has gone before. But what we have now simply does not work.

The reforms yesterday caused unease within Tory ranks, with fears local concerns will be ignored in order to build more quickly.

The Local Government Associations Conservative chairman James Jamieson said: Any loss of local control over developments would be a concern.

Cotswolds MP Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, treasurer of the backbench 1922 committee, said: Whilst Im all in favour of building more houses, they need to be good quality houses. We have got to be really sure that we are not building slums of tomorrow by building today at low quality.

GEOFFREY LEAN: Free-for-all plans that will build a revolt in the shires

By Geoffrey Lean for The Daily Mail

More than 200 summers have passed since William Blake extolled Englands green and pleasant land and  as successive governments have found to their cost  there are few things that its people are more determined to protect.

Any attempt to promote the interests of development  and wealthy developers  above those of the countryside, its residents and visitors, has protesters reaching for their spears and bows of burning gold, or at least their placards.

That, I fear, is about to happen again, following yesterdays announcement  which I predicted in these pages five weeks ago  that ministers will take an axe to the planning system, depriving residents of much of their say, to give a major boost to construction firms.

Already opposition is rapidly mounting  and not just from the usual suspects, environmentalists and planners.

Best laid plans: UK's building policy is being fully overhauled

Leading developers may be predictably delighted, but many planning consultants and lawyers who advise them have voiced disquiet.

So too have architects (who have no great love for restrictive planners), homelessness campaigners (whose aim is normally to get more houses built) and even one of the most senior Conservative MPs.

The continued (and to date successful) preservation of the beauty of this small, crowded country since Blake  inspired by the Sussex countryside  wrote Jerusalem is certainly worth defending.

Not for us the sprawling concrete and heedless urban expansion that has so disfigured the United States and other countries.

That is due to deliberate policy, stemming from how both Conservative and Labour governments set up and developed the planning system after the Second World War.

Yet, as it nears its 75th anniversary, the system is showing its age. It is often slow, at times downright sclerotic.

At present, elected councils draw up local plans and then decide whether or not to give planning permission. At each stage the public has a say. Now the Government wants to replace this with a US-style zoning system, where councils decide what areas can be developed, but have no say over what is built (file photo)

Meanwhile, the country is sinking ever deeper into a housing crisis with millions of young adults unable to afford a home.

Boris the Builder Johnson is determined to construct hundreds of thousands of new homes and kickstart the economy in the process.

They are both admirable aims and are desperately needed.

But I fear hes launched a free-for-all for greedy developers  deeply alienating his core voters.

At present, elected councils draw up local plans and then decide whether or not to give planning permission. At each stage the public has a say.

Now the Government wants to replace this with a US-style zoning system, where councils decide what areas can be developed, but have no say over what is built.

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick insists it will have local democracy at its heart. But, in fact, two opportunities for democratic participation will be cut to one.

Once the zones have been decided  often many years before specific proposals come forward  that will be the end of it. Indeed, so dehumanised will the process become that some decisions will be taken by computer.

In practice there will be three zones. The first  what Mr Jenrick calls the places, views and landscapes we cherish most  will be protected against development.

In a second, designated for growth, developers will be automatically allowed to build without any need to seek approval.

As a Green Belt resident myself, who has campaigned for these supposedly protected areas both before and while living in one, I should welcome the new plans

In the third, they will be given permission to build in principle while checks, such as on the design, are carried out.

The scheme broadly follows a report, published by the think-tank Policy Exchange earlier this year, which speaks of the rights of developers and landowners, while condemning local resistance as the noisy minority.

Mr Jenrick says the proposals will reduce red tape, speed up planning, result in more and cheaper houses, improve quality and design, and place planning at local peoples fingertips.

Objectors retort that they are being shown the back of his hand, while developers  who, it is calculated, have given over 11million to the Tories since Boris Johnson took office  get everything they desire.

Thats not to say it is all bad news. By law, all new streets will have to be lined with trees.

Mr Jenrick says Green Belts  which are under unprecedented threat  will be protected, and there will be more building on previously developed, brownfield land.

As a Green Belt resident myself, who has campaigned for these supposedly protected areas both before and while living in one, I should welcome the new plans.

Yes, the planning system needed improvement, but it is not the overarching problem ministers make it out to be. Nine out of ten applications for planning permission are granted

But I fear that they come with a high risk of unattractive, unrestrained, unregulated developments elsewhere, and that they will not achieve their aims.

More to the point, I believe millions of people will come to the same conclusion, causing widespread revolt.

Yes, the planning system needed improvement, but it is not the overarching problem ministers make it out to be. Nine out of ten applications for planning permission are granted.

The real drag on development is not the planning system but the developers.

They are sitting on sites, with planning permission, for a million homes  while they benefit from rising land values. When they do build, they do so slowly, so as not to bring prices down.

So if Boris really wants to build Jerusalem, he should focus on todays equivalent of the mill owners  and let Englands pleasant pastures remain just that.
Mumbai, Aug 6 : Television actor Sameer Sharma has allegedly ended his life by committing suicide. He was 44.

Sharma was found hanging on Wednesday night from the kitchen ceiling of his residence in Ahinsa Marg, Malad west. A police complaint has been lodged at Malad Police Station.

"A case of accidental death has been registered and the body has been sent for autopsy," Malad police station senior inspector George Fernandez told mid-day.com.

No suicide note has been recovered.

As per report, the actor had moved in the rented apartment in Malad in February this year. His body was first discovered by the watchman of the society on Wednesday night who immediately alerted Sharma's neighbours.

Looking at the condition of the body the police have suspected that the actor probably died two days ago.

Sameer Sharma was a popular face on television. He has featured in daily soaps like "Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi", "Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii", "Left Right Left", "Woh Rehne Waali Mehlon Ki" and several others. He last featured in the ongoing daily soap "Yeh Rishtey Hain Pyaar Ke" in the role of Shaurya Maheshwari.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
An astonished couple found two illegal migrants under their van after they returned from a trip to France.

Dean Darke and wife May, both in their 60s, caught the men crawling out on their driveway in Basildon, Essex, after the journey last Wednesday.

The stowaways had boarded the van as it arrived at the port city of Caen, ahead of the Darkes' 225-mile drive home from Brittany via Portsmouth.

They got out on the couple's driveway and waited beside the van until police came to arrest them.

They said they were trying to get to Manchester where they had family - and Mrs Darke said they were happy to wait for authorities.

It comes as boatloads of migrants are illegally travelling to Britain everyday, with 120 making it to the UK on Tuesday.

Dean Darke, 60, and wife May caught the men crawling out on their driveway in Basildon, Essex, after the journey last Wednesday

The migrants sitting calmly as they wait for police to arrive after the force was alerted by a startled Mr Darke

Mrs Darke's stunned neighbours watched on as officers led them away to be questioned by immigration officials.

Mrs Darke told MailOnline: 'We hired a van to take to France as my sister and her husband had sold their house was returning to live in the UK and we're helping to bring their possessions back to Essex.

'Initially we were booked on a ferry at St Malo. When arrived at the port they were on strike so we had to get the over night ferry from Caen.

'We saw the young men at Caen port before we boarded and the van was checked 4 times in France and again at Portsmouth.

'We are not sure whether they got under our van in the port or whether they boarded on another vehicle and changed to our van during the journey.

'When we arrived at our house in Essex my husband reversed onto our drive and once he turned the engine off these guys crawled out from under the van.'

Essex Police officers arresting the migrants on suspicion of immigration offences after they managed to evade detection by border officials

She added: 'I was in total shock and my sister who was in another vehicle called the police who came almost immediately.

'In this current climate I was concerned about if they tested positive for Covid and it doesn't bear thinking about the carnage they may have caused on the motorway if they had fallen off the van causing other vehicles to swerve to miss them.'

Mrs Darke slammed port authorities in Britain and France for failing to spot them when they checked their vehicle.

She said: 'I am disgusted with the port authorities both sides of the channel for not checking the van sufficiently to discover these unwanted passengers.'

The couple had travelled to France to help May's sister, Kathy Hopkins, and her husband Kevin, to relocate from France back to England.

Mr and Mrs Darke arrived home on July 29 - with Kathy and Kevin in a car behind them - when the two young men emerged.

Ms Hopkins said it is a 'complete mystery' as to how the two men had managed to smuggle themselves out of the French port of Caen in France, attached to May and Dean's van.

The two immigrants, who had come to France from Sudan, had somehow travelled the 326 miles from the port of Caen, across to Portsmouth - and then on to Basildon, where the couple live.

Ms Hopkins, 61, added: 'The main shock was how they managed to do it. It's a complete mystery as to how they managed to hide themselves under there.

'They must have done it while we were on the ship - as the underneath of the vans were checked several times with torches by authorities in the port of Caen.

'It was an overnight ferry, so they had probably been clinging on to the underside of the van all night - and then for the 100-plus miles from Portsmouth to Basildon.

'The youngest one told us he was 16, and I think the other one was in his 20s. They had come from Sudan to France two weeks ago.

'They were trying to get to Manchester, because one of them had a sister who lived there.

'I think they were quite happy for us to call the police - they seemed to want to be taken into custody and looked after.'

Meanwhile, May urged others to see this as a warning to check their vehicles themselves when travelling back from France - and not just relying on port authorities to do it.

Dozens more migrants - including a heavily-pregnant woman - reached Britain by small boat today, after 13 landed yesterday.

The group, who were Afghan, Iranian, Iraqi, Eritrean and Sri Lankan, were picked up at 8.30am by a lifeboat off the Kent coast.

Thirteen more migrants reached Britain by small boat yesterday, with dozens more including a heavily pregnant woman landing today (pictured)

The group, who were Afghan, Iranian, Iraqi, Eritrean and Sri Lankan, were picked up at 8.30am by a lifeboat off the Kent coast

The 10 men and three women were taken into Dover to be medically checked and questioned by immigration officials.

It means 3,643 migrants have made the life-risking Channel crossing this year - nearly double the 1,850 who arrived last year.

Meanwhile, a group of around 16 refugees including 10 young children landed on Dungeness beach in Kent around 8.30am today.

It is thought they were all on one small boat. Several more vessels are thought to have been detected off Kent.

One of the children, a boy aged around four, looked exhausted as he laid back on the pebbles with his arms spread out.

The children all wore coats and one of the girls had a fluffy red onesie on.

The pregnant woman - thought to be eight months along - was wearing a black dress and face mask as she held the hand of a child.

She looked weary and had her head in her hand at one point.

Amateur photographer Susan Pilcher, who saw them on the beach, said: 'I could hear the Border Force workers asking how many months pregnant she was and she said eight.

'They didn't speak much English at all. When you think that she's doing such a risky crossing over the Channel when she's heavily pregnant, that says how much they've been through.

It means 3,643 migrants have made the life-risking Channel crossing this year - nearly double the 1,850-odd who arrived in the whole of last year. Pictured: A child being checked by officials

'It must be such a frightening thing to do. One of the kids was playing with an empty hand sanitiser bottle, filling it up with stones from the beach.

'It's heartbreaking - you can't imagine what they've been through, but for them it's just like a day out.

'It was good to see them wrapped up warm - they don't always have coats on and it must be really cold out at sea at night. I feel so sorry for all of them.'

Border Force, police and paramedics were at the scene and the migrants had their temperatures taken.

Conditions were perfect for crossing with a calm sea and good visibility.

The heavily-pregnant migrant woman was wearing a black dress as she strolled across the grass

Minister for Immigration Compliance and the Courts Chris Philp said: 'We are determined to make this route unviable and therefore give migrants no reason to gather on the northern coast of France.

'France is a safe country with a well-functioning asylum system and there is no need for migrants to leave and attempt to come to the UK illegally.

'We have offered to work with the French on safe returns at sea and we will continue work to return anyone who attempts the crossing.

'We are continuing to go after the heinous criminals and organised crime networks putting people's lives at risk.'

Police said of the Essex incident: 'We were called to reports of two people found in a van in Basildon Drive, Basildon at around 9.20am on 29 July.

'Officers attended and two people were arrested on suspicion of immigration offences.'
Board Certified Dermatologist Dr. Titilola Sode Im excited to have Dr. Sode join our team. She has an impressive combination of a stellar education, well-rounded dermatology experience (with added special expertise), and an easy-to-talk to personality. Shell be a great addition to US Dermatology Partners and our office, said Dr. Howard Rubin.

U.S. Dermatology Partners is excited to welcome Board-Certified Dermatologist and Fellowship-Trained Dermatopathologist, Dr. Titilola Sode, to the Dallas Presbyterian and Hillcrest offices.

Dr. Sode originally hails from Miami, Florida. She earned her medical degree from Georgetown University and completed a prestigious research fellowship at the University of Miami. Dr. Sode completed her Internal Medicine internship and Dermatology residency at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. During her residency, she utilized her leadership skills to manage a free Dermatology clinic for the surrounding underserved communities. After residency, Dr. Sode completed a fellowship in Dermatopathology at Propath in Dallas, Texas.

Throughout her career, Dr. Sode was very fortunate to work with world leaders in skin of color and is very comfortable treating patients of all ethnic backgrounds. In addition to treating a diverse patient population, Dr. Sode has considerable expertise in dermatopathology, hair loss, and cosmeceuticals. Additionally, she strongly believes in wholistic Dermatologic care, recognizing that skin issues can affect patients in ways that are not always outwardly visible. She strives to be compassionate to the psychosocial issues affecting her patients, and consider all related concerns in her treatment plans.

Im excited to have Dr. Sode join our team. She has an impressive combination of a stellar education, well-rounded dermatology experience (with added special expertise), and an easy-to-talk to personality. Shell be a great addition to US Dermatology Partners and our office, said Dr. Howard Rubin.

Dr. Sode will practice in Dallas, Texas, and is currently accepting new patients. She will join Dr. Howard Rubin in the Hillcrest office and Dr. Jay Wofford, Dr. Valerie Truong, Dr. Trisha Patel, and Dr. Abraham Kuruvilla, MD, PhD at the Presbyterian office. To request an appointment, call 972-386-9600 for the Hillcrest office, or 214-373-3376 for the Presbyterian office.

About U.S. Dermatology Partners

As one of the largest physician-owned dermatology practices in the country, U.S. Dermatology Partners patients not only have access to general medical, surgical, and cosmetic skin treatments through its coordinated care network, but also benefit from the practices strong dermatology subspecialty thought leaders and medical advisory board. To be the best partners to its patients, U.S. Dermatology Partners is fervently focused on providing the highest level of patient-first care, and its team, therefore, includes recognized national leaders in areas such as clinical research, psoriasis, and Mohs Surgery. To learn more, visit usdermatologypartners.com.


Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the country's leading disease expert, admitted that COVID-19 will no longer be eradicated but it can only be controlled.

The World Health Organization recently said that the fight against COVID-19, even if the vaccine arrives sometime this year, does not mean the battle is already over. In fact, the health agency described COVID-19 as the virus of the decade.

This time, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the country's leading disease expert, recently admitted that the world would forever live with COVID-19. However, he said that it could be controlled.

As the days progressed, the number of COVID-19 infections and the death toll continues to increase. The official tally of Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center has already recorded over 18.8 million infected individuals worldwide, with more than 700,000 deaths as of this day.

The United States still leads the world with the highest infections and deaths. According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, the country has recorded more than 4.8 million infections and nearly 160,000 deaths.

Following the new report of infections and deaths in the country, Dr. Anthony Fauci said that the world could no longer eradicate COVID-19, but it can only be controlled according to a report published in CNN News. His statement is in contrast with Pres. Trump's belief that the virus can go away.

Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has been a very significant person in the U.S. since the pandemic began also added that the country can only reduce infections and death rates through vaccine and strict observance of health and safety measures.

Dr. Fauci said, "We may need to go through a season of it, and then by next season if we have a vaccine, it won't be a pandemic. It won't be immobilizing the world. It won't be destroying the economy," It can also be remembered that the spike of infections began when the lockdown was lifted in the country, making the virus highly transmissible to others.

Since the virus resurgence began in June, around 40 states in the country mandated the use of masks. Meanwhile, the country is hoping that the vaccine will be available before the year ends or early next year. At the same time, Dr. Fauci admitted that there no guarantee for a safe and effective vaccine last month. as

State officials are taking control also by having their measures to mitigate the spread of the virus. These measures include testing, contact tracing, masks, and social distancing. Other states also decided to shut down operations of non-essential businesses.

On Tuesday, governors from Maryland, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, and Virginia reached an agreement to run a total of 3 million rapid antigen tests to ramp up production tests that can give results in 15 to 20 minutes.

Check these out!
BOGOTA - Colombian leader Ivan Duque is facing criticism for personally opining on the judicial proceedings against his mentor, the powerful ex-President Alvaro Uribe, who has been placed under house arrest while being investigated for witness tampering.

In the two days since publication of the Supreme Courts decision  which has galvanized the nation and exposed simmering tensions over the countrys peace process  Duque has repeatedly come out in Uribes defence and stood by his right to do so.

But civil rights groups warn he is crossing a dangerous line and politicizing the judicial process in one of the most high-profile cases in decades.

He is undermining the rule of law, Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director for Human Rights Watch, said on Thursday. He is weakening the democratic process in Colombia.

The Supreme Court is probing claims that Uribe was involved in bribing witnesses to withdraw or retract information linking him to a paramilitary group. Such groups were organized by landlords, sometimes with the complicity of the state, to fight guerrillas who espoused a leftist ideology while often resorting to kidnapping and extortion.

The violent conflict between the state, rebels and paramilitary groups left hundreds of thousands dead, displaced or missing.

Uribe has not been charged and denies the accusations against him.

The two-time president is one of the nations most enduring political voices but his legacy is divisive. Many Colombians hold him up as a near-saviour who turned the tide on the conflict with rebels through a strong military offence that pushed them to the negotiating table. Others say he should be remembered as an iron-fisted leader who escaped accountability for the human rights abuses that took place during his administration.

Uribe has been dogged by allegations of ties to drug cartels and paramilitaries throughout his career, though he has never been charged and decries such accusations.

In an online meeting with international journalists Thursday, Duque said there is a great imbalance when former leftist rebels who signed a 2016 peace accord are allowed to remain free as they go before a tribunal or face criminal charges while Uribe, who is still under investigation, is ordered detained.

I have been, am and will be a believer of his innocence, Duque said.

Sergio Guzman, director of Colombia Risk Analysis, said that such strong personal statements call into question the judiciarys decisions, and I think that erodes the rule of law in the country.

However, he also noted that Duques criticisms reflect the frustrations of many Colombians who are upset at what they see as a slow and lenient judicial process for ex-rebels. As part of the accord, former guerrillas who confess their crimes and co-operate with the peace process will avoid any jail time. In addition, 10 seats in congress have been guaranteed for ex-combatants.

Duque in particular has brought up the case of Seuxis Paucias Hernandez, alias Jesus Santrich, who was freed from detention despite facing U.S. charges for drug trafficking while the courts examined his case and weighed his possible extradition. He has since fled and is now a fugitive.

Duque ran on a platform that was critical of the peace deal and his party has been keen to change certain aspects, including reforming the peace tribunal process.

That a person who has served Colombia is not allowed to defend himself in freedom, but we have convicted criminals against humanity in congress... who are also guaranteed not to go to jail if they tell the whole truth seems a great imbalance to me, he said.

Duque is not the only one facing scrutiny for his quick backing of Uribe.

Members of the anti-socialist opposition in neighbouring Venezuela have also been expressing solidarity with Uribe and recalling his support for their cause. Uribes time in office concurred with that of the late President Hugo Chavez, who installed nations current socialist system.

Juan Guaido, who is recognized by the Trump administration and over 50 other nations as Venezuelas rightful president, wrote on Twitter that he appreciates Uribes great support for Venezuela and that we express our solidarity.

Uribe is much more like Chavez than you think, Vivanco wrote on Twitter. They have styles and ideological positions that are different, but the government of Uribe was riddled with brutal human rights abuses and attacks against the rule of law. The democrats of Venezuela should not support him.
BASEL (dpa-AFX) - Novartis said that Phase III ASCLEPIOS trials demonstrated superior efficacy of ofatumumab in patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis. ASCLEPIOS I and II studies evaluated the safety and efficacy of ofatumumab 20 mg monthly subcutaneous injections versus teriflunomide 14 mg oral tablets taken once daily in adults with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis or RMS. Both studies met the primary endpoints where ofatumumab showed a significant reduction in the number of confirmed relapses, evaluated as the annualized relapse rate or ARR. The US Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency are currently reviewing ofatumumab for the treatment of relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis in adult. If approved, ofatumumab will be the first B-cell therapy that can be self-administered at home and has the potential to become a first-choice treatment for use in RMS patients, the company 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 Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) in the Sissala East Municipality of the Upper West Region is demanding justice for a Community Health Nurse who was allegedly assaulted.

The victim, stationed at Tarsor in the Municipality, was allegedly assaulted at the facility by a relative of a patient for not being readily present to attend to the patient.

A statement signed by Mr Bentor Francis Donyor, the Sissala East Municipal President of the GRNMA, and copied to the Ghana News Agency at Tumu, said the victim left the facility at about 0930 hours for a voter registration centre, where she was scheduled to screen registrants when she was called to attend to patients at the facility.

The statement said her other colleague at the facility left for Bichemboi for a programme.

It said when the victim rushed back to the health centre to attend to patients, she was allegedly assaulted by a young man from the community for the delay.

The statement commended the Municipal Health Director for swiftly closing down the facility, taking away the vulnerable nurses from that community and leading the arrest of the accused.

The statement implored stakeholders to continuously involve the Association throughout the trial of the case.

It also urged the Health Directorate to ensure that the facility remained closed until justice was served to the victim and to also institute measures to curb such incidents.

Nurses have for some time now come under attack from a section of the public as they were either robbed of their personal belongings or beaten with the recent incidence at Gbal in the Sissala West District, where some nurses were beaten over COVID-19.

---GNA
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 23:39:15|Editor: huaxia

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ROME, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Two aircraft of the Italian Air Force left for Lebanon in the early hours of Thursday, bringing with them first humanitarian aid and rescue teams to help the country cope with the fallout from massive blast occurred at a port in its capital Beirut on Tuesday, Italy's Defense Ministry stated.

The two C-130J aircraft carried teams of the army and of the Fire Department who are experienced in dealing with chemical, bacteriological, radiological and nuclear threats, the Defense General Staff explained in a statement.

The teams also include experts in assessing damages and stability of the buildings involved in the explosion.

The first flight reached the Lebanese capital on Thursday morning, while the second would land later in the day, bringing also eight tonnes of medical equipment with it, the Italian Civil Protection Department coordinating the national effort specified.

According to the Defense Ministry, the two military planes were equipped for carrying out emergency medical flights. If necessary, they can transport patients in critical conditions.

The operation falls under the European Union (EU) Civil Protection Mechanism.

It was set up by the Italian government following a request for international assistance by the Lebanese authorities.

The Defense Ministry confirmed on Tuesday that an Italian soldier with the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was slightly injured in the explosion.

In a message to his Lebanese counterpart Michel Aoun on Wednesday, Italian President Sergio Mattarella expressed "the solidarity of the Italian people...and the most heartfelt condolences of the entire country" to all the Lebanese for the tragedy. Enditem
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Clay Township Board meeting moved

The Clay Township Board of Trustees Aug. 17 meeting has been rescheduled and moved to 6 p.m. at Brownes Field.

The change was because of the governors (executive order) on inside meetings and COVID-19, officials said on the townships Facebook page. We wanted to keep the meeting on the island. Thanks to the (Harsens Island St. Clair Flats Association) for allowing us to use Brownes Field.

Back to School 2020 dates set

Back to School 2020, a community-sponsored event to help children from low-income families in St. Clair County have a successful start to school, will take place on several dates in August.

Provided items include backpacks filled with school supplies for elementary and middle school children and preschool packets containing a reading book, coloring book and crayons.

Quantity is limited and will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. Everyone will stay in their cars, as they will be drive thru events. For those wishing to participate, proof of St. Clair County residency is required and children must be present to receive supplies.

The dates and locations are as follows:

* East China area: 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 11 at the East China Administration Building, located at 1585 Meisner Road in East China Township. The event is organized by the East China School District.

* Capac area: 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Aug. 12 at Capac Elementary School, located at 351 West Kempf Court in Capac. The event is organized by the McLaren Port Huron Foundation.

* Port Huron area: 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Aug. 12 at Blue Water Community Action, located at 3403 Lapeer Road in Port Huron. The event is organized by Blue Water Community Action.

* Yale area: 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Aug. 19 at Yale Elementary School, located at 200 School Drive in Yale. The event is organized by the Yale School District.

For more information, call Blue Water Community Action at 810-982-8541 or visit bwcaa.org.

Grant supports Bridge To Bay Trail maintenance projects

The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, through the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Trails Maintenance Fund, has awarded a $147,500 grant to rehabilitate and reconstruct over 2.5 miles of the Bridge to Bay Trail in St. Clair County.

We are so thankful for the support of the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan to give attention to our existing trail infrastructure, Sheri Faust, chairwoman of the Regional Trails board, said in a news release. Communities along the St. Clair River are rallying around the vital importance of our trails, and funding for maintenance is always an issue, especially since some segments are 20 years old.

The Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Trails Maintenance Fund was established with a $10 million gift in 2018 to the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan. The goal of the fund is to provide maintenance support to already developed trails and greenways throughout southeast Michigan.

The grant requires a dollar-for-dollar match. Clay Township will receive $20,000; Marysville will receive $20,000; Port Huron will receive $10,000; St. Clair will receive $10,000; Fort Gratiot Township will receive $17,500; East China Township will receive $20,000, and the Blue Water River Walk in Port Huron will receive $50,000.

Work is expected to begin this summer on the trail projects. The Bridge to Bay Trail concept began in the early 1990s and stretches from Lakeport State Park on the north, to Anchor Bay along the shores of Lake St. Clair on the south.

The Community Foundation of St. Clair County is the fiduciary for the grant funds and is one of several regional stakeholders who began work in 2018 to complete the remaining gaps of the Bridge to Bay Trail.

Formed in fall 2019, the Regional Trails Board is a 14-member appointment of stakeholders invested in the direction, development and oversight of the Bridge to Bay Trail.

Friends of the St. Clair River is the trail coordinator for the project.

For more information, contact Faust at 810-730-5998 or info@scriver.org.

 Emily Pauling, MediaNews Group
The Prince of Wales plans to extend his summer holiday at the Queen's Balmoral estate 'for an extra week because the fly fishing is so good', according to a royal photographer.

Prince Charles, 71, and the Duchess of Cornwall, 73, apparently kicked off their break at their Scottish residence of Birkhall this week after he paid a visit to Caithness General Hospital in Wick on Friday to thank frontline workers, Hello! reported.

And the heir to the throne already plans to stay for seven days longer than planned so he can continue to pursue one of his favourite hobbies.

Taking to Twitter on Wednesday, royal photographer royal Tim Rooke claimed a local told him Charles 'has decided to stay up for an extra week because the fishing is so good'.

The Queen is also in Balmoral with the Duke of Edinburgh, 99, after the couple spent the last four months isolating at Windsor Castle.

Prince Charles, 71, and the Duchess of Cornwall, 73, kicked off their break at their Scottish residence of Birkhall this week after he paid a visit to Caithness General Hospital in Wick (pictured) on Friday to thank frontline workers, Hello! reported

And the heir to the throne already plans to stay for seven days longer than planned so he can continue to pursue one of his favourite hobbies. Pictured, the royal previously enjoying a day of fly fishing

Mr Rooke wrote on Twitter: 'I may be having difficulty actually being able to photograph the royals during the pandemic.

'However, out walking the dogs and the Prince of Wales drove past me with fishing rods on his car. Good fishing in this part of Scotland #royals #PrinceCharles #flyfishing.

'Apparently according to a local he has decided to stay up for an extra week because the fishing is so good,' he added.

MailOnline has contacted Clarence House for comment.

Fly fishing is a favoured pastime of several members of the royal family, with the late Queen mother a fan of the sport, while Prince Philip has also been known to take part in the activity while at Balmoral.

Prince Charles has previously been pictured teaching the hobby to his sons Prince William and Prince Harry when they were younger.

Taking to Twitter on Wednesday, royal photographer royal Tim Rooke claimed a local told him Charles 'has decided to stay up for an extra week because the fishing is so good' (above)

Balmoral: The Royal Family's summer retreat A group of aides have already travelled up to the Scottish home of the Royal Family to prepare the castle for the couple's arrival. The Queen and Philip will stay in the main castle, pictured Balmoral Castle has been the Scottish home of the Royal Family since it was purchased for Queen Victoria by Prince Albert in 1852, having been first leased in 1848. In the autumn of 1842, two and a half years after her marriage to Prince Albert, Queen Victoria paid her first visit to Scotland. They were so struck with the Highlands that they resolved to return. A further visit to Perthshire and then Ardverikie encouraged them to seize the opportunity to purchase Balmoral. After Queen Victoria bought the Castle in 1852, plans were made to build a new castle about 100 yards north-west of the old building designed by the city of Aberdeen architect William Smith. On 28 September 1853 the foundation stone of the new Castle was laid by Queen Victoria. Prince Albert took a great interest in the design and construction which was completed by 1856, also in the Scottish Baronial style. The Castle is constructed from local granite, which was precision cut using the modern machinery of the day, producing a much smoother finish to the building than usual. Prince Albert set about landscaping the area, starting a programme of improvements lasting several years, which was done in accordance with a model he had constructed in sand. The main works were completed by 1859 and included new houses, stables, workshops and schools. Royals continue to make improvements to the castle and the ruggedly beautiful surroundings have captivated generations of royals since. The Queen has visited Balmoral almost every year of her reign and it holds a special place in her heart. Advertisement

He also took on the role of patron of the Salmon and Trout Association from his grandmother.

Traditional fly fishing is an angling method that uses an artificial 'fly' to catch fish. The fly is cast using a fly rod, reel, and specialized weighted line and can be used in fresh or saltwater.

The Queen arrived in Balmoral on Tuesday, with many other royals enjoying their summers at the estate - including her son Prince Charles and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

The Queen is also in Balmoral with the Duke of Edinburgh, 99, after the couple spent the last four months isolating at Windsor Castle. Pictured, the couple in the quadrangle of the royal residence in a photo shared to mark Philip's birthday in June

But it's feared their plans could be jeopardised if the Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon follows through with her threat to enforce tougher COVID-19 related restrictions throughout Aberdeenshire.

Yesterday, the city of Aberdeen was put back into lockdown as pubs, cafes and restaurants were shut and its population of more than 200,000 people were banned from travelling more than five miles from their homes.

It came a day after the Queen and Prince Philip landed at Aberdeen Airport where they were met by a driver and whisked off to Balmoral Castle, which is roughly an hour away.

Their staff in Scotland have been quarantined for two weeks to minimise the Covid risk, and the couple are expected to stay there until early October as they enjoy a delayed summer holiday.
Hamiltons Catholic school board says its looking into reducing class sizes in elementary schools amid growing concerns from parents and teachers about reopening from the pandemic, but acknowledged that space and lack of funding may be an obstacle.

Were looking at all our options, said Pat Daly, chair of the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board (HWCDSB), on Wednesday.

There are obviously a number of significant factors, mostly concerning space in classrooms and funding. But were looking into it for sure.

In the time since the Ontario government released its school reopening plans last week, parents and teachers unions have sounded the alarm over the decision to allow elementary schools to host full-sized classrooms, which in some schools can amount to over 30 students in one class.

Some health experts and educators have warned that less physical distancing among students could heighten the risk of transmitting COVID-19 and prompt an outbreak that could shut down schools.

Ontarios Ministry of Education has said that the decision is based on the advice of medical experts and that children under the age of 10 are less likely to spread COVID-19.

Within days of the announcement, however, all four provincial teachers unions issued a statement saying the government is jeopardizing the safety of students, educators and all Ontarians by severely underfunding the reopening.

Daly said the Catholic school board will release more information this week or early next week regarding the boards plans for class sizes and other reopening logistics.

He acknowledged that reducing class sizes simply isnt possible in some of its schools.

In some schools there just isnt additional space to create smaller classrooms. But we have many, many schools and classrooms and were seeing whats possible.

There are 46 elementary schools in the HWCDSB hosting thousands of students.

The Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) has not indicated if its also looking at ways to reduce class sizes for September.

In a statement, HWDSB spokesperson Robert Faulkner said the board will not provide details of its reopening plan until its presented at the next board meeting, scheduled for Aug. 10.

We appreciate that there are many questions about the return to school, but we want to share clear, accurate information with families about school reopening, Faulkner said.

Premier Doug Ford told reporters on Tuesday that he understands parents are nervous.

Students have the option to learn remotely rather than attend school in-person, and some parents have already opted to keep their children home.

A report released by the Hospital for Sick Children last week recommended a one-metre separation between desks for elementary school students. Other recommendations included proper ventilation, cohorting and general physical distancing.

Andrea Horwath, leader of the provincial NDP, told reporters that she was horrified to hear Doug Ford dig in his heels and refuse to reconsider his plan to send kids back into jam-packed classes in September.

Time is running out, but its not too late. We need smaller, safer classes in September, she said.

Hamiltons school boards will contact parents regarding their final plans for reopening schools in the coming weeks.
OCEAN SPRINGS, Mississippi -- Bonita Coleman has been in education for about 25 years.

She has worked for the Mississippi Department of Education, spent several years as a deputy superintendent for Prince George County Schools in Maryland and is has just started her ninth year as superintendent of Ocean Springs schools.

With all that in mind, Coleman was asked if Thursdays first day of school for her district was the most unusual she had ever experienced.

Yes -- and thats an understatement, she said.

Ocean Springs schools, along with those in the Jackson County school district, welcomed students back to school Thursday. There were smiles and palpable excitement, but there were certainly visual evidence of the unique times, living in the age of the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Students arriving either by bus or car wore masks and their temperatures were checked immediately upon arrival by teachers and staff members who also wore masks and had their temperatures taken when they arrived earlier in the morning.

As is typical for a first day of school in Ocean Springs, the car rider lines were long, as many parents, particularly those of younger students, opt to bring their children via car rather than put them on the bus.

But, given the unique circumstances coupled with the normal chaos which accompanies a first day of school, Coleman was pleased with the process.

I thought it went exceptionally well, she said. We were up at 4 this morning and at 6:15 people were already in car lines. I think folks probably lined up earlier because they new we had the additional safety protocols. I worked the upper elementary car rider line. I got there at 6:45 and left right at 8 and people were smiling across the board.

I was holding up a welcome back sign. We were all just so excited to have the kids back.

Coleman was particularly pleased to see that faculty, parents and students all seemed well-prepared for what was expected.

Masks were on. We had disposable masks on all of the buses but didnt have to give out a single one because everyone was prepared, she said. It looked like everyone was prepared and happy to be back.

Included in the safety protocols -- both those mandated by the state and those instituted by the district -- included mandatory temperature checks for everyone entering the school, masks on everyone, with the exception of students when on the playground or eating, students -- once in class -- are asked questions relative to anyone testing positive in their home or with whom they might have come in contact, 2500 social distancing decals on floors throughout each school, and isolation rooms set up in conjunction with Singing River Hospital System for anyone found to have a fever.

Thursday morning, however, no one was turned away due to a fever or other symptoms.

Weve asked parents to check them them before they leave for school each day, Coleman said, and then we check them when they arrive. We have isolation rooms set up in each building. We worked with the hospital systems HVAC specialist to set up those rooms. The nurses were on point this morning.

But we did not have anyone with a temperature show up this morning.

In fact, rather than having to turn anyone away, there were actually more students than expected arriving. Coleman explained that a number of parents who had signed their children up for the Greyhound Virtual Academy online learning program had a change of heart once the first day of school arrive.

We were right at 11 percent of students signed up for the virtual academy, she said. I can tell you this morning we had people show up who had signed their kids up for the virtual academy, but said they saw the buses rolling and the kids getting excited and changed their minds.

Today was the last day we published the application for those who wanted to change their minds. We had a bunch show up this morning who had changed their mind and were working to get those students on a regular schedule.

Gov. Tate Reeves last week mandated masks for all students, faculty and staff. Ocean Springs had already beaten him to the punch nearly two months ago by announcing protocols including masks for all faculty and staff and for students when in hallways, on buses and other common areas.

Buses are being sanitized between each route and 600 hand sanitizer stations have been placed in the schools. Communal water fountains have been turned off, there is limited sharing of objects and supplies and students are eating lunch in their classrooms rather than the cafeteria. Recess times are staggered and cleaning protocols are in place for high-touch items in classrooms and playgrounds.

In the elementary schools, rather than having students move from their homeroom to other classrooms during the day, the teachers are using rolling carts to move from classroom to classroom.

There is also a reporting tool on the district website where parents can inform the district if their child has a fever or has possibly been exposed testing positive for COVID-19.

Despite the months of preparations and the unique circumstances, Coleman said Thursdays school opening felt, in many way, normal.

It really felt like a normal day, other than everyone was wearing masks and everyone was trying to pay attention to social distancing, she said. Knock on wood, everythings going well.

Im anxious to see what happens at dismissal, because thats another peak time for us moving a lot of students at once. We think we have that pretty well synchronized, because weve been running through these plans for week.

A message was left for Jackson County superintendent John Strycker seeking comment on his district first day of school, but the message had not been returned by mid-afternoon Thursday.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 20:38:28|Editor: huaxia

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RAMALLAH, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- A senior Palestinian official said on Thursday that Palestine will address official letters to the United Nations over the Israeli violations against the Palestinian people in their territories.

Omar Awadallah, head of public administration for UN human rights organizations with the Palestinian Foreign Ministry, accused Israel of expanding the cycle of its violations against the Palestinian people.

"We will brief the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Israel's plan of annexation and the increasing illegal construction of settlements," Awadallah told reporters.

Awadallah did not say when the Palestinian side will send the official letters to the UN.

Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will chair a meeting of the Executive Committee of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Ramallah later on Thursday, according to Azzam el-Ahmad, a committee member.

"The Palestinian leadership is in a status of open-end meetings to follow up the dangerous situation that threatens the Palestinian cause, mainly the Israeli plan of annexing parts of the West Bank," he told the Voice of Palestine. Enditem
India has slammed China for initiating a discussion on Jammu and Kashmir in the UN Security Council and calling its reorganisation as illegal and invalid. Ministry of External Affairs released a statement on August 6 saying the government firmly rejects Chinese interference in Indias internal affairs and also urged it to draw appropriate conclusions from infructuous attempts. The MEA also noted that this was not Beijings only attempt to raise the subject that is entirely Indias matter.

The MEA statement, We have noted that China initiated a discussion in the UN Security Council on issues pertaining to the Indian Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir. This was not the first time that China has sought to raise a subject that is solely an internal matter of India.

As on such previous occasions, this attempt too met with little support from the international community. We firmly reject Chinas interference in our internal affairs and urge it to draw proper conclusions from such infructuous attempts, it added.

Read - India's Strategic Partnership With US Will Be Central To Times Ahead: Says Ambassador Sandhu

This came after Chinas Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in Beijing that any unilateral change to status quo of Jammu and Kashmiris illegal and invalid. According to reports, the Chinese official made the remarks following the question by Pakistani correspondent on the completion of one year of Jammu and Kashmir without its special status and its bifurcation into two union territories, that is, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

Read - India Scorches China For Trying To Rake Up Kashmir At UNSC: 'No Locus-standi Whatsoever'

Pakistans failed attempt

MEAs official statement came a day after Indias permanent representative to the United Nations, TS Tirumurti called another failed attempt by Pakistan. He elaborated that the session at UNSC was closed, informal and did not have any outcome. Tirumurti said that all member nations underlined Jammu and Kashmir to be a bilateral issue and agreed that it did not require the attention of the entire Council.

Indias permanent representative to UN, Another attempt by Pak fails. In todays meeting of UNSC which was closed, informal, not recorded & without any outcome, almost all countries underlined J&K was bilateral issue & did not deserve time & attention of Council.

Read - China & Pakistan's Plot To Raise Kashmir At UNSC Fails Again; Global Community Backs India

Read - Andhra Govt Signs MOU With Indian School Of Business For Post-COVID Economic Recovery
Nelson Oliveira New York Daily News (TNS)

The FBI was executing a federal search warrant Wednesday morning at the home of YouTube star Jake Paul in California, according to the agency.

The search at Pauls home in Calabasas is related to an ongoing investigation, but the FBI could not immediately disclose any details because the affidavit in the case is sealed, a spokesman for the agencys Los Angeles office told the Daily News.

The 23-year-old vlogger and social media influencer has not publicly addressed the incident and could not immediately be reached for comment.

Wednesdays search comes two months after he was accused of participating in looting and riots at a mall in Arizona. He was charged with misdemeanor criminal trespassing and unlawful assembly.
Chron.com is following the latest headlines on the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the Houston area.

3 p.m.: Abbott, Astros, TDEM announce new testing site at Minute Maid Park

Beginning this Saturday, the home of the Houston Astros will serve as the city's newest COVID-19 testing site.

Minute Maid Park will operate as a free COVID-19 testing site with the ability to process 2,000 tests per day seven days a week, according to a release from Gov. Greg Abbott's office. The governor, Houston Astros and Texas Division of Emergency Management have teamed up to offer the new site.

"The state of Texas continues to work diligently to increase access to testing in communities that need it most," Abbott said in the release. "We are proud to partner with the Houston Astros to provide more testing in the city of Houston."

The site will offer eight drive-thru lanes and four walk-up lanes 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Spanish-speaking staff will be available on-site and no healthcare provider is required to receive a test, per the release.



To book an appointment visit Texas.curativeinc.com.

9 a.m.: Surge testing begins at two Houston COVID-19 test sites

Two Harris County COVID-19 test sites will switch to surge testing Thursday, allowing for increased testing capacity and faster lab turnaround times.

Harris County Public Healths Ken Pridgeon Stadium and San Jacinto College Central Campus locations will offer the surge testing for two weeks or until the 30,000 test samples sent by the federal government have been used. Each site will be able to offer 1,250 tests per day with results delivered within three to five business days.

The test sites are open 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Evening hours have been extended at the sites to offer residents more flexibility to get tested. Testing will be available from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. every Tuesday at Pridgeon and every Thursday at San Jacinto, according to a release from HCPH.

Surge testing in Harris County marks an important milestone in our efforts to mitigate COVID-19 locally and we are grateful to our federal and state partners for this opportunity, HCPH Executive Director Umair Shah said in the release. It is vital that our residents have access to free testing, but this partnership also helps address the need of increasing our testing capacity and residents getting their results faster.

Residents can sign up for surge testing directly at one of the test sites by visiting doineedacovid19test.com or ReadyHarris.org or by calling 832-927-7575. To register at another test site, visit www.hcphtx.org or call 832-927-7575.

HCPH's mobile testing sites are also offering testing at four rotating locations. Each unit can test 200 residents per day and deliver results within four days. To sign up for testing, call 832-927-7575 or visit www.covidcheck.hctx.net/.

Mobile locations for the week of August 3-August 8 include:

Inspire Church: 11727 E Sam Houston Pkwy N, Houston, TX 77044

Bay Area Community Center: 5002 E NASA Pkwy, Seabrook, TX 77586

Mission Bend Islamic Center: 6233 Tres Lagunas Dr, Houston, TX 77083 (Closed Thursday, August 6)

Jesse Jones Park: 20634 Kenswick Dr, Humble, TX 77338 (Closed Friday, August 7)

8:30 a.m.: The latest Houston, Texas numbers

As of Wednesday evening, the number of COVID-19 deaths in Texas increased by 246 to 8,003 total, marking the fourth-highest day for new deaths since the pandemic began, according to a Houston Chronicle analysis of state data.

The state reported 9,571 new cases yesterday and is now at 475,847 cases total, marking the 14th highest day for new cases. The state's rolling average for new cases is now at 8,568.1 and the positive test rate is at 15.58 percent, a sharp increase from Tuesday's 13.88 percent.

In the Houston region, cases increased by 2,365 to 114,202 cases total, while Harris County cases increased by 1,371 to 80,914 cases total. The Houston region added 58 new deaths and is now at 1,866 deaths total.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a Wednesday Twitter post that the city's positive test rate is currently at around 15 percent. Local health officials want that number to dramatically decline to 5 percent.

NOTE: The numbers included in this report represent a one-day change in data from Tuesday, August 4 through Wednesday, August 5. It is still unclear how many of the state's new cases can be attributed to jail inmates from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The Houston Chronicle's analysis of COVID-19 case data now includes probable and pending cases. This change is based on interviews with multiple public health officials and epidemiologists, as well as in line with CDC guidelines on reporting. DSHS is now using death certificate data for its counts of COVID deaths, leading some Texas counties to have dramatically higher counts than others and some counties to have higher numbers than state figures.

rebecca.hennes@chron.com
Insurtech was once the Wild West of the insurance industry. Many of insurtechs early players came from outside insurance after observing the industry struggle to deliver what was, in their view, a competitive customer experience.

Led by ambitious entrepreneurs from outside insurance, backed by Silicon Valley and focused on industry disruption, early insurtech initially promised to displace incumbents and usher in a new era of insurance offerings and tech-driven solutions.

Nearly 10 years since its inception, the reality of insurtech has evolved.

The messaging about supplanting industry giants is gone. In its place is a more collaborative environment led by insurance industry leaders partnering with tech solution providers. The simple reality is technology cannot do everything. The integration of experienced insurance professionals and tech is needed to manage across the insurance value chain.

Insurtech is creating buzz through mergers and acquisitions, further integrating innovative technologies with insurance industry leaders.

There are powerful drivers of change toward greater automation: insurance professionals aging out of the industry, consumer expectations changing, the transformation of risk itself through the Internet of Things, the continued fragmentation of the industry and legacy systems that dont talk to each other. Startups and incumbents alike are embracing these challenges through innovative methods designed to drive change across the value chain. Customer journey mapping, design thinking, lean process mapping and intelligent automation all have become increasingly part of the industrys response to evolving customer service needs.

The new promise  the modern concept of insurtech  is the embrace of a strategy driven by collaboration and innovation rather than disruption.

The Era of M&A Is Here

Currently, insurtech is creating buzz through mergers and acquisitions, further integrating innovative technologies with insurance industry leaders.

Last years acquisition of Indio Technologies by Applied Systems is one such example. Applied saw the acquisition as an opportunity to bring Indios digitized commercial insurance application and renewal process to Applieds agency management system, Epic, which serves thousands of agency and brokerage customers.

According to Applied CEO Taylor Rhodes, the integration of Indio reduced double entry for customers at the point of renewal or application within the companys Epic system. It also allowed for a more productive application of Applied personnel elsewhere in the renewal and application process while improving customer experience.

Another example of this M&A era is the 2017 deal between Vertafore and RiskMatch. The latter is a business intelligence and analytics company serving insurance brokers and carriers. The deal allowed Vertafore, an insurance technology firm, to better compete with competitors like Applied Systems for analytics and risk placement services by substantially enhancing Vertafores data and market insights to improve efficiency and profitability.

In both examples, as seen elsewhere across the industry, standalone technology solution companies are either being acquired or are partnering with industry leaders to apply those tech solutions to operational capabilities with existing reach into the insurance space in an effort to reduce complexity, create efficiencies and maximize the productivity of insurance professionals. And the numbers back up this assertion.

Deloitte Center for Financial Services reported in September that insurtech investments for the first half of 2019 were on the rise at $2.2 billion at the mid-year mark, while the number of insurtech startups had declined. (Editors Note: In a recent update, Deloitte reported an increased figure of $3.3 billion.) Additional examples of big carriers investing in digital platforms that support their core and ancillary business markets are ample, such as Chubbs 2018 investment in Bunker, Munich Res 2016 partnership with Slice Labs, Prudentials $2.35 billion acquisition of Assurance IQ. There is a veritable laundry list of insurance leaders investing in or partnering with technology startups to apply digital solutions to their established processes to maximize the customer experience.

The Challenge

The reality is simple: Technology alone will not fully eliminate the challenges that surround key processes like claims, which is the foremost area the insurance industry is moving to address.

The combination of innovative technology solutions and startups with more established industry players offers exciting promise for the industry  assuming we dont lose sight of the need to ensure a solution that serves humans must also be driven and populated by humans.

Put simply, there is no general artificial intelligence (AI).

Algorithms, bots and other technologies are not end-to-end solutions. These tools are highly localized and offer a narrow focus.

As part of a process, they offer greater efficiency and a streamlined manner to consumer data analytics. However, as technology in the insurance industrys past has proven, technology alone is not a solution. In fact, adoption of technology without an underlying strategy can create tremendous inefficiency to insurance processes, adding complexity and creating more costly issues for companies in terms of time, personnel and customer service.

Algorithms, bots and other technologies are not end-to-end solutions. These tools are highly localized and offer a narrow focus.

There is tremendous emotion around claims and losses. Technology can help in managing the claims process, but humans with customer service skills will remain a critical part of the process, allowing for insight, empathy and creative thinking that no algorithm can yet replicate.

With a hard market on the horizon, the complexity of applications and claims will grow. As this more complex situation evolves, standalone AI solutions will likely fail to adapt, while integrated technology solutions driven and overseen by insurance professionals who have lived through prior hard markets and know what to expect can help best guide their companies and their customer service experiences.

Advice for the Future

Companies that will succeed in this new industry landscape will be those whose leaders think big but start small. The temptation is to chase the big, shiny objects. This was an early mistake of many insurtech startups. The reality is that so much can be gained from small, incremental improvements.

Start by taking a close look at existing processes through the eyes of the customer. Design thinking and customer journey mapping ought to be part of the daily conversation of management looking to insurtech for solutions. Insurtech is the culmination of a lot of these things. Look outside of the insurance industry for inspiration.

Look for companies that can help alleviate some of the more complex pieces of digital transformation. Some of the most successful advances in insurtech to date have come from organizations that took an honest look at their tech and innovation deficits and identified an effective partner to maximize what they do best with new thinking and processes. By freeing up time to focus on the core business pieces, they seek to drive growth and success.

As we move into a harder market, additional burdens will be placed on agents and carriers to manage submission flow, markets will become more restrictive, submission volume will go up along with exceptions and exclusions. Insurtech alone cannot solve for these realities.

In the hard market to come, there will be a premium on customer service and customer satisfaction. Technology can certainly help mitigate some of the burden agents and carriers will face. Addressing coverage needs and solving claims challenges, however, is a big part of what will be needed.

This will require both a tech-based and a human-centric solution.

This article first appeared in Carrier Management magazine, Insurance Journals sister publication.

Topics Trends Agencies InsurTech Tech Market Startups
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell slightly to 0.5428% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond fell to 1.2161%. Yields move inversely to prices.

Treasury yields traded slightly lower as investors assessed the progress on the next virus relief package and digested the latest employment data.

Weekly jobless claims hit their lowest level of the pandemic area, totaling 1.186 million last week. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for 1.42 million.

"The insured unemployment rate remains north of 10%, serving as a reminder of how far the jobs profile needs to go before it could be considered 'healthy'," Jon Hill, BMO's rates strategist, said in a note. "That said, this latest print should calm nerves that a W-shaped labor market recovery is a foregone conclusion."

Meanwhile, Congress and the Trump administration are struggling to strike an agreement on the next coronavirus relief bill after the enhanced unemployment benefits expired on Friday.

The White House has threatened Wednesday to act on its own to provide pandemic relief after another day of talks with Democrats yielded no agreement.

The Treasury is set to auction on Thursday $30 billion in 4-week bills and $35 billion in 8-week bills.

 CNBC's Silvia Amaro contributed reporting.
A trained software engineer, Sachin Sanghe spends most of his free time sculpting sticks of chalk into beautiful artworks, from portraits of celebrities, to depictions of Hindu gods.

As a high-school student, Sachin Sanghe was always called to the front of the class to write notes on the blackboard, so its no surprise that he formed a special connection to the humble chalk. He started carving sticks of chalk with his geometry tools as a hobby, and as time went by, he got better at it. But then he got into an engineering college, and his art had to take a backseat to his academic responsibilities. However, after finishing school and getting a job, Sachin was free to return to his special hobby again. He did so, and became so good at it that the self-taught artist is now being hailed as one of the worlds best chalk sculptors.

In school, I always had dividers, a compass, a sharpener and also safety pins in my geometry box. I gradually started carving letters and then names, and would gift it to friends and relatives, Sanghe told The News Minute. There was no Google at the time, nor had I seen anyone making micro-sculptures then. I had to start from scratch.

Sachin says that his simpler chalk sculptures take anywhere between five to six hours to complete, while the more intricate one can take up to 130 hours. He has created more than 200 chalk miniatures, from Indian celebrities to a breathtaking miniature replica of the Taj Mahal, with the latter reportedly taking him 80 hours to finish.

Sachin Sanghe has been making his tiny chalk sculptures for 15 years now, but says he still has much too learn and it still honing his skills. To see more of his chalk masterpieces as well as his pencil tip sculptures, check out his official Facebook page, Sachin Sanghes Chalk & Lead Sculptures.
The old voters identity card is still valid for identification related to socio-economic transactions until the Electoral Commission finishes the compilation of the the new voters' register.



Mr Samuel Tettey, Deputy Chairman in Charge of Operations at the Commission, who told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview, said the Commission usually shared data with the relevant institutions, including banks, to enable them to verify the authenticity of the cards presented to them as part of their transactions.



Mr Tettey said the Voters ID card also served as an identification card to support financial transactions and filling different application forms.



As our major stakeholders, the Commission will communicate accordingly when the process is done and when the new card becomes operational, he said.



As soon as we are done with the ongoing registration and the register is compiled and legitimised by the Court, the old card becomes invalid.



But until then, Mr Tettey explained that applicants who had successfully registered and received their cards could only use them to vouch for prospective applicants they knew as Ghanaians.



The GNA gathered that some individuals had been presenting their new Voters ID cards to institutions to transact business and became frustrated when they were told they could not be accepted now.



An official at a bank located in the Ministries area, who pleaded on anonymity, told GNA that some clients had been presenting their new card as proof of their identity but the bank did not have the data base yet to validate their authenticity.



He, therefore, advised clients to present other identifications cards which could be authenticated.

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
Phuket people petition for debt relief for COVID-affected businesses

PHUKET: About 100 people gathered at Phuket Provincial Hall this afternoon (aug 6) to file a petition calling for debt relief for businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

economicsCOVID-19tourism

By Eakkapop Thongtub

Thursday 6 August 2020, 06:06PM

The group called for debt relief and more support for businesses suffering from the COVID economic crisis. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

The group called for debt relief and more support for businesses suffering from the COVID economic crisis. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

The group called for debt relief and more support for businesses suffering from the COVID economic crisis. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

The group, calling themselves the COVID-19 affected people club, carried placards urging the Prime Minister and other leading officials to help.

The petition submitted today featured about 4,600 signatures, said Thipsukhon Thongtan, president of the club.

The petition requested the government take action in three specific areas to help support businesses suffering during the current economic crisis

The first action requested was to provide more support through soft loans.

We want relevant officers to change the criteria for soft loans, as at this stage a lot of affected people cannot fulfill the criteria. Additionally, we want low-interest loans free from repayments for at least one year, Ms Thipsukhon explained.

The second request was for a moratorium on all outstanding bank loans and a guarantee that that property will not be seized for failing to make repayments.

We want relevant officers to order financial institutions, and finance companies that are and are not under the control of the Bank of Thailand, to extend the period for repaying loans for one year and to exempt [COVID-affected business] from property seizures, Ms Thipsukhon added.

Therefore, business owners will still have their accommodations and equipment to run their business in order to make income and pay taxes, she said.

The third request was for top-level support in creating a good image of Phuket and build confidence of tourism on the island.

We want the Phuket Government to promote a good image of Phuket, especially in terms of safety, in order to attract more tourists, Ms Thipsukhon explained.

The petition today was addressed to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, the Deputy Prime Ministers, and other relevant Ministers.

Another petition of about 5,000 signatures will be submitted later, addressed to the Senate Standing Committee on Economics, Monetary, and Finance, Ms Thipsukhon said.

We also plan to go to Parliament next week, she added.

Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew met the group and received the petition, and invited the group inside Provincial Hall to continue talks.

We [the Phuket Government] will solve the problems that we can under our authority, but for the bigger issues such as tax and soft loans, we will inform the higher levels [of government], Governor Narong said.

On behalf of the Phuket Government, I have to thank the club for informing us about the problems, and we will solve them together as best we can, he added.
The Chinese-owned social media company is planning a 420 million euros (373 million) data centre in Ireland amid US government claims about how it was handling users' personal information.

The tech firm said that the facility will store data generated by European users, and will become its third such repository alongside the US and Singapore.

It came after President Trump threatened TikTok with being banned in the US, claiming the firm posed a national security risk.

This charge is denied by its Beijing-based parent company Bytedance, which is reportedly in talks with Microsoft to sell its operations in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

President Trump wants to ban the video-based social media app

Australias Prime Minister Scott Morrison said their own security review found no evidence to support the claim of such risk.

The new Irish facility, which could take up to two years to build, will process and archive data such as videos and messages generated by TikTok users.

The announcement also comes days after it was revealed TikTok had set its sights on relocating its headquarters to from the US to London, a move the government has said it will not block.

TikTok, which exploded in popularity among teenagers with its lip-syncing music videos, has been downloaded more than two billion times.

Its growth has concerned Facebook, which introduced its own clone called Instagram Reels in an attempt to entice back young audiences.

Facebook is trying to win back young audiences with its Instagram Reels clone / Amanda Vick / Unsplash

TikTok collects a trove of user information to target them with ads and makes its algorithms more accurate.

The personal data it collects is very similar to that hoovered up by Facebook, and includes contact numbers, GPS coordinates, web browsing data via outside app cookies, keystroke patterns and also other information obtained from third-party sources.

However, critics of the app say its ownership structure means Chinas ruling Communist Party could easily demand access to people's personal details under national intelligence laws.

Theo Bertram, TikToks director of public policy for Europe and a former advisor to Tony Blair, told the BBC: "It's a symbol of our long-term commitment to Europe, and I think that's an important message for our users and our creators at this time.

He added: "We welcome scrutiny. If the way that we're judged is for the security services to carry out a factual review of what we are doing, we're happy with that.

Mr Bertram said TikTok would be happy to release its source code to security services for review.
(Reuters) - Zynga Inc raised its full-year bookings forecast after topping quarterly estimates on Wednesday, encouraged by strong engagement from stuck-at-home players and its recent acquisition of Turkish mobile-game maker Peak.

The company's shares jumped nearly 10% in extended trade, after gaining about 64% this year through Wednesday's close.

Zynga said it would also acquire an 80% stake in Istanbul-based hyper-casual game maker Rollic for $168 million in cash, about two months after its $1.8 billion acquisition of Peak, the maker of games like "Toon Blast" and "Toy Blast".

"It is a great way to acquire users," Zynga Chief Executive Officer Frank Gibeau told Reuters, noting that hyper-casual is the fastest growing category on mobile right now.

Rollic, known for games like "Go Knots 3D" and "Tangle Master 3D", will also add to Zynga's ad sales. The mobile game maker said it would acquire the remaining 20% of Rollic at valuations based on specific profitability goals over the next three years.

The "FarmVille"-maker has been strengthening its hold on the fast-growing mobile gaming market through a slew of acquisitions and licensing agreements with media outlets to publish themed games of popular franchises.

Besides games like "Empires & Puzzles" and "Merge Dragons!", Zynga is also known for its portfolio of social casino games like "Game of Thrones Slots Casino".

User spending on mobile games surged in the past few months along with broader videogame sales, as people turned to games to keep themselves entertained and connect virtually with friends while under coronavirus-led lockdowns.

Zynga raised its full-year 2020 bookings to $2.2 billion from $1.8 billion, above analysts' estimate of $1.85 billion, according to Refinitiv IBES data.

It reported bookings of $518.1 million for the second quarter ended June 30, beating estimates of $503.2 million.

(Reporting by Ayanti Bera in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 6

By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:

Kazakhstan has exported a total of 22,241 tons of crude oil and gas condensate to Russia over the period from Jan. through May 2020, Trend reports with reference to the statistics data of Eurasian Economic Commission.

The value of the exported oil and gas condensate amounted to $4.2 million. This is 35.9 percent less in volume, and 64.9 percent less in value compared to the same period last year.

During the reporting period, Kazakhstan has exported petroleum products worth $30.6 million to Russia, which is 59 percent less than during the same period of last year.

Furthermore, Kazakhstans export of natural and liquefied gases to Russia stood at $70.7 million during the reporting period, which is 37 percent less than during the same period of 2019.

Kazakhstans electricity export to Russia amounted to 403.6 million kWh over the period of Jan. through May 2020, whereas electricity export value was $6.3 million. The volume decreased by 30.9 percent, whereas value decreased by 42.4 percent.

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 in 2019).

---

Follow the author on twitter: @nargiz_sadikh
Countries dispatched emergency medical aid, pop-up field hospitals, rescue experts and tracking dogs to Lebanon on Wednesday as the world reacted to the vast explosion that devastated Beirut.

The blast centred on the city's port caused massive destruction and killed at least 113 people, heaping misery on a country already in crisis.

Gulf states were among the first to respond, with Qatar sending mobile hospitals to ease pressure on Lebanon's medical system, already strained by the coronavirus pandemic.

A Qatari air force plane delivered hundreds of collapsible beds, generators and burn sheets in the first of a convoy of flights to Beirut.

Kuwait also sent medical supplies as the Lebanese Red Cross said more than 4,000 people were being treated for injuries after the explosion, which sent glass shards and debris flying.

A Greek C-130 army transport plane bearing a dozen rescuers landed at Beirut's airport, itself damaged in the catastrophic explosion.

READ: Anger mounts as Lebanon's 'Armageddon' death toll tops 113

Lebanon's Prime Minister Hassan Diab has called on "friendly countries" to support a nation already reeling from its worst economic crisis in decades as well as a coronavirus outbreak that has infected over 5,000 people and killed 68.

As emergency crews hauled survivors from the rubble of demolished buildings, France said it was sending search and rescue experts aboard three military planes loaded with a mobile clinic and tonnes of medical and sanitary supplies.

President Emmanuel Macron is to travel to Lebanon on Thursday, the first world leader to do so after the disaster, as France seeks to swiftly push reconstruction in its former colony.

"France is at the side of Lebanon. Always," Macron tweeted in Arabic.

Prosecutors in France also opened an investigation into the blast, which wounded 21 French citizens.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II sent a message of condolence to the president of Lebanon, saying she was "deeply saddened" by the blast.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in a phone call with Diab, offered Washington's assistance and stressed "our solidarity with and support for the Lebanese people as they strive for the dignity, prosperity and security they deserve".

Cyprus, just 240 kilometres (150 miles) away and close enough for residents to see and hear the blast, said it was sending eight police tracking dogs and their handlers aboard two helicopters to help in the search for victims trapped under rubble.

From Europe, authorities in the Netherlands, Czech Republic and Poland offered an array of assistance including doctors, police and firefighters, together with rescue experts and sniffer dogs.

Italy said it had sent 14 firefighters specialised in assessing chemical risks and damaged structures to provide technical support.

President Hassan Rouhani of Iran, itself battling the Middle East's deadliest coronavirus outbreak, said Tehran stood "ready to offer medical and medicinal aid and help treat the injured".

The World Health Organization said it was sending trauma and surgical kits from its Dubai base after the "shocking event" that comes at a "particularly difficult time in Lebanon".

READ: Lebanese PM Hassan Diab appeals for help after Beirut blast

"Many hospitals are overwhelmed with casualties and people are still looking for the injured and the dead, so it's a very sad day," the UN agency's emergencies director Michael Ryan told an online session.

Unusually, neighbouring Israel offered humanitarian aid -- to a country with which it is still technically at war -- via international intermediaries.

In the coastal city of Tel Aviv, Lebanon's flag was projected onto the city hall on Wednesday evening.

US President Donald Trump, who said the explosions looked like "a terrible attack", without giving any evidence, said: "Our prayers go out to all the victims and their families... The United States stands ready to assist Lebanon."
The Baby

An unknown parent has dumped a two-year-old baby in a bush in Umueshi Village, Nnokwa, Idemili South LGA of Anambra State.

The Anambra State Police Commands Public Relations Officer, SP Haruna Mohammed disclosed this to journalists in a press statement.

Haruna said, On the 4/8/2020, the Commander Nnokwa Vigilante group in Umueshi Village, Nnokwa, Idemili South LGA of Anambra State reported at Nnobi Police Station that a baby girl of about 2 year old was abandoned by unknown person inside Nnokwa bush and left crying.

Following the report, police operatives visited the scene, rescued the baby alive but very sick and rushed her to Chukwu Nonso Hospital for medical attention.

The state police command called on members of the public to help identify the parent of the child.

Haruna added that the baby was gradually responding to treatment and will be handed over to the Social Welfare for proper care while effort is ongoing to trace the parent.



We are making efforts to find the parent of the baby in order to unravel the circumstances surrounding the action.

Anyone with useful information about the child should report at Nnobi Divisional Police Station or contact PPRO Anambra State Police Command, he said.
Photographs taken immediately after the explosion show smoke formations absolutely new to experienced photo-observers. Credit:REUTERS/U.S. Army/Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum/Handout via Reuters TPX Photographs taken immediately after the explosion show smoke formations absolutely new to experienced photo-observers. From the base of black smoke, like a rugged mountain, a graceful mushroom column of white smoke soars upward to 20,000 feet. At the top of the column, before it billows out into a mushroom effect, air currents have seemingly decapitated it and left a smokeless space of nearly 1,000 feet. Yesterday, General Spaatz, Commander of the Strategic Air Forces, explained to correspondents that, if it had been desired to drop the equivalent of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 4  before the new bomb was ready  it would have been necessary to send 2,000 Super-Fortresses over the city at a precise moment. This, because of the area covered by 2,000 Super-Fortresses in formation, would have been impossible. The planes would have had to come over in waves, and it would probably have taken at least two hours for them to drop enough bombs to secure the explosive effect which the atomic bomb releases in a split second. If it was desired or was possible to send 1,000 Super-Fortresses over Japan with an atomic bomb each it would mean that Japan would rock to a blast of death and destruction possible, only a short week ago, by the explosion of 20,000,000 tons of T.N.T.  probably more than the world's combined supply.

Even the men who worked for years on the perfection of the bomb and the crew of "Enola Gay," which dropped it, have no conception of the weapon they are using. They do not think of death caused by the bomb, but prefer to take comfort from the fact that Japan brought this destruction upon herself, uninvited and with her eyes open. The ground crew of the Enola Gay B29 bomber which bombed Hiroshima stands with pilot Col. Paul W. Tibbets, center, in the Marianas Islands. Credit:US Army Air Force Airmens Story Only three of the 11 men in the Super-Fortress which dropped the bomb had any idea what they were carrying. They were Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, jun., the commander and officer in charge of the special atomic bomb section, Captain W. Stirling Parsons, naval weapon expert, charged with the safety of the crew, and the bombardier, Major Thomas W. Ferbee. Beyond the issue of dark glasses to the crew, which was specially selected, they had no inkling of the historic and terrifying import of their mission. The dark glasses were to protect their eyes from the stupendous brightness of the initial explosive flash, which attains stellar temperature.

Colonel Tibbets, describing the attack, said: "The trip into the target was uneventful, and was not opposed by fighters or flak. On the bomb run Hiroshima lay below us, outlined in dazzling sunshine. "The bomb was away at exactly 9.15 a.m. (Marianas time). What we saw then was hard to believe. A minute after the bomb exploded the city was obscured by black cloud, which eventually reached 40,000 feet. "Around the perimeter of the smoke fires were burning, but the smoke was too thick to see what went on inside. At the base of the smoke were enormous clouds of billowing boiling dust. "A little after the bomb hit  and we were speeding from the target area as fast as we could  the plane rocked twice. I said: 'Anti-aircraft,' but I then realised that the concussion had reached us. "Everyone else in the crew was astounded and could only breathe, 'My God.'

"When the flash came it gave us a visual shock, though competing with the brilliant sunlight." Photographs taken four hours after the bomb exploded, Major-General Lemay, Chief of Staff to General Spaatz, told us, showed that the smoke was still far too thick and intense to permit any indication of the extent of the destruction. Instead of being called "The Mighty Atom," the aircraft was named after Colonel Tibbet's mother, Enola Gay. Those with Colonel Tibbets were Captain W. Stirling Parsons, Major Thomas W. Ferbee, Captain Robert A Lelis, Captain Theodore J. van Kurk (navigator), Staff-Sergeant Wyatt E. Duzenbury (flight engineer), P.F.C. Richard H. Nelson (radio operator), Staff-Sergeant George R. Caron (gunner), Sergeant Hoe Stiborik (radio operator), and Sergeant Robert Schumard (gunner). Right On Schedule
MEXICO CITY A meeting of ministers from a trans-Pacific trade bloc will discuss measures aimed at reviving economic growth after the coronavirus pandemic, the Mexican government, which is chairing the virtual conference, said on Wednesday.

Top officials from the 11-member Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) are due to hold a video conference on Wednesday evening Mexican time, coinciding with Thursday morning in East Asia.

The economy ministry of Mexico, which as president pro tempore of the group will chair proceedings, said ministers will discuss strategies to achieve a rapid economic recovery" as well as compare notes on how to deal with the pandemic.

Earlier, Japanese Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said the meeting would be a good time to stress that encouraging free trade will be an important part of the recovery.

The CTTPP, which came together after U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal in 2017, comprises Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

In June, the United Kingdom said it was seeking to join the bloc.

Mexican Economy Minister Graciela Marquez said in an interview with Mexican media on Wednesday that the possibility of accepting new members would be analyzed during the meeting.

Ahead of the meeting, 15 committees held sessions to look at different aspects of the accord, including goods trade, state-owned enterprises, regulatory coherence, rules of origin, financial services and the environment, Mexico said.

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
A study led by researchers at the University of Toronto, Canada, has found evidence that immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody responses to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection are sustained for at least three months.

The team reports that SARS-CoV-2-specific IgG responses were sustained both at the site of infection and systemically in most patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and could be detected in both saliva and serum samples.

Anne-Claude Gingras and colleagues say the findings suggest that saliva samples could be used as an alternative biofluid for monitoring immune responses to SARS-CoV-2.

Characterizing the nature and kinetics of salivary antibodies as soon as possible among infected, contact-traced individuals will also be critical to establishing any correlates of protection that might impact COVID-19 disease progression, they add.

A pre-print version of the paper is available on the sever medRxiv*, while the article undergoes peer review.

Antibodies play a vital role in virus neutralization

The antibodies generated following a viral infection play a vital role in neutralizing the pathogen and can protect re-infection in the future.

Understanding their durability and their system compartmentalization across a diverse population are critical pieces of information informing our ability to monitor seroprevalence in communities, to select plasma donors for treatment, and to design vaccines against COVID-19, write Gingras and team.

In the case of COVID-19, the antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 in the blood has been widely studied. Still, comparatively little is known about the mucosal immune response and how this relates to the systemic antibody response.

Whether the antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 lasts is an extremely important issue

The antibody response to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein is particularly important because this protein harbors the receptor-binding domain (RBD) for the human host cell receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2).

Neutralizing antibodies have been shown to target this RBD, and many studies have reported that IgG antibodies against spike and the RBD can be detected in most patients 10 to 11 days following symptom onset.

However, whether this SARS-CoV-2-specific IgG response is long-lasting remains unclear and is a subject of ongoing debate.

Examination of different biofluids from multiple cohorts, and attention to the antigens tested, is required to resolve this extremely important issue that has high relevance to vaccine design, said Gingras and colleagues.

IgG and IgA levels against SARS-CoV-2 antigens in the saliva of cohort 1. A pilot cohort of COVID-19 patients was tested for the presence of IgG and IgA antibodies to SARSCoV- 2 spike and RBD antigens in the saliva, comparing with age- and sex-matched unexposed negative controls collected locally. (A-D) Antigen-specific (anti-spike, anti-RBD) IgG levels normalized by total IgG or albumin. (E-H) Antigen-specific (anti-spike, anti-RBD) IgA levels normalized by total IgA or albumin. Yellow bars denote saliva samples collected at an unknown dilution. Solid bars denote the median. Mann-Whitney U test for significance was performed. **** = p < 0.0001.

Little is known about antibody responses in the oral cavity

Furthermore, very little is known about the antibody response that occurs locally, at the infection site, the authors add. However, since the virus initially replicates in the naso- and oro-pharyngeal tracts of the upper airway, the antibody response in the oral cavity is probably important in terms of influencing the course of infection.

Still, despite the oral cavity being a known site for SARS-CoV-2 replication, the authors say studies examining the antibodies generated at this site have been limited.

To investigate, the researchers developed enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays to detect SARS-CoV-2 antibody responses to the full-length spike protein and its RBD in serum and saliva samples taken from acute and convalescent patients. The participants had been diagnosed with COVID-19 between three and 115 days following symptom onset.

Antibody stability levels in 496 serum samples and 90 saliva samples were compared with stability levels in SARS-CoV-2-negative control samples.

IgG antibodies levels were still stable in both biofluids after three months

The team reports that antigen-specific IgG antibodies were readily detected in both types of biofluid, with peak levels observed at 16 to 30 days following symptom onset.

The SARS-CoV-2-specific IgG levels were still relatively stable in both sample types up to 115 days following symptom onset (when the study period ended).

Importantly, the IgG responses against both full-length spike and its RBD were strongly correlated, suggesting that saliva could serve as an alternative to serum for monitoring the systemic immune response to SARS-CoV-2.

Characterize salivary antibodies in the future will be critical

Our data show that a durable IgG response against SARS-CoV-2 antigens is generated in both the saliva and serum in most patients with COVID-19, write the researchers. Given that SARS-CoV-2 initially replicates in the oro- and nasopharyngeal tracts, in the future it will be critical to characterize the nature and kinetics of salivary antibodies at the earliest time points post-infection in contact-traced individuals in order to determine if there are correlates of protection that impact viral setpoint and COVID-19 disease progression, concludes the team.

*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.
When it comes to making good business decisions, representation matters. Always. The acknowledgement of this truth is what has led to the wide-ranging racial transformation of businesses across South Africa over the past 20 years, albeit with significant regulatory and investor prompting in terms of equitable-ownership and black economic empowerment commitment.

Janade du Plessis, head: alternative equity investments, Nedbank CIB

VC funding

Reinvesting back into society

Kashira Naidoo, analyst: alternative equity investments, Nedbank CIB

Funding mandates

Seat at decision-making table

Bridging the gap

But in its concerted drive to secure racial equality, South Africa and Africa as a whole appear to have overlooked another aspect of representation that is just as important, namely gender. It is a concerning, and somewhat confusing, truth that while there have been significant efforts made by many organisations to achieve appropriate levels of female representation and ownership, the will to do so simply does not seem to be nearly as strong as has been the case with racial equality.Unfortunately, a large portion of the responsibility for this gender transformation inertia seems to lie at the feet of investors  not just in South Africa, but globally. The statistics bear this out. In 2019, only 2% of all global venture capital (VC) investments was allocated to female-founded or co-founded businesses, and just 12% of global VC went towards supporting companies where at least one woman was in a senior management role. Interestingly, the figures for Africa are marginally better, but still dismal. On the continent, less than 5% of all VC funding went to businesses with female founders last year.Of course, the blame is not entirely with investors, especially given that even the most forward-thinking of them would have been hard-pressed in 2019 to find compelling women-owned businesses to invest in. Within the sought-after tech investment space, just three of the 46 leading tech startups that were funded with more than $1m in Africa last year had women on their founding teams.It is a puzzling situation given that extensive evidence exists that businesses with strong female ownership, representation or even just leadership input enjoy a competitive advantage. In Africa, research shows that females in startup founding teams are often more experienced and educated than their male counterparts. And the typically higher empathy levels of female founders mean that they tend to establish businesses with stronger social and developmental mandates, which are vital components for success in emerging economies.Furthermore, research done by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) found that female founders are more likely to reinvest up to 90% of revenues into the development of the societies in which they operate, while for their male counterparts this is typically around only 50%. When females invest back into their societies, research shows that their beneficial investment extends to children, the disabled, the elderly and society at large. This chain reaction will unlock exponential benefits for future generations. This social-development focus is not just a feel-good aspect of female leadership. In the African context, it is an important enabler of sustainable success, given the extent to which the survival of businesses on the continent is dependent on the upliftment and support of the communities in which they operate.And various global studies have shown that the value of female ownership and leadership in the tech startup space goes far beyond the social imperative. Research by the Kauffman Foundation found that private technology companies led by women are more capital-efficient, achieving 35% higher return on investment and, when venture-backed, 12% higher revenue than startups run by men. And an American study based on First Round Capitals portfolio found that women-founded companies outperformed those founded by men by 63%. These findings were confirmed by another BCG study in 2018, which found that venture capitalists could have made an additional $85m over five years if they had simply invested equally in women- and men-founded startups.Which begs the question: Given that female representation is such an obvious driver of sustainable value, how can the VC community drive up the levels of female representation in businesses in Africa? There are a number of ways.For one, the funding mandates given to institutional investors need to begin requiring them to allocate a significant portion of their capital towards companies with strong female representation. Not just female ownership and management, but also broad-based female employee representation and even high proportions of females in their customer bases.This mandate transformation in turn requires a significant paradigm shift within the broader business startup ecosystem, where, according to a 2016 World Bank report, the majority of product design mandates are still being defined by men, with the expectations and requirements of males in mind. Shifting this design mindset to focus more on women will almost certainly result in more inclusive, innovative, executable and 'investable' technology.It is also high time that women are given real opportunities to own their rightful places at business decision-making tables. Research points to around 65% of funding into businesses where women are included as key decision-makers outstripping funding of companies where only men have a say. Small wonder that Goldman Sachs has now instituted a policy not to fund any company that cannot demonstrate high levels of female leadership representation.Finally, a key component required in leveraging investment to transform gender representation in business is to ensure a similar transformation among investors first. The good news is that such a gradual shift is becoming evident in Africa, where the historically male-dominated investment ecosystem is now welcoming growing numbers of female investors, analysts and researchers.Given the amount of evidence that already exists on the value of women-owned and influenced businesses, it is clear that there is a gap between knowing the facts and acting on them that needs to be bridged. Hopefully, as the shared value and benefits of greater levels of racial equality in boardrooms and investment houses become increasingly evident, more conversations will start happening about the urgent need for the same transformation from a gender perspective. And the results already being achieved by investors and businesses that are prioritising the role of women make a compelling case for venture capitalists to move quickly to fund the shift to a more female-focused, and driven, digital African economy.
A screenshot from a video taken by Merdan Ghappar that purportedly shows himself in detention in Xinjiang's Aksu province, in January 2020.

A young Uyghur man who risked severe punishment to take a video of himself in detention in Chinas Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) and his aunt, who sent the video out of the country, have both disappeared, according to the mans uncle.

On Tuesday, the BBC published a nearly five-minute video showing Merdan Ghappar, a 31-year-old Uyghur model for Chinese online retailer Taobao, shackled to a bed in filthy living conditions while political slogans are played over a loudspeaker outside his barred window.

The video, and several text messages Merdan sent, appears to show some of the best evidence yet of Chinas continuing policy of mass incarceration of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in a vast network of internment camps in the XUAR. This contradicts a government narrative that all detainees have graduated from the facilities that officials refer to as vocational schools. Up to 1.8 million people are believed to have been held in the camps since April 2017.

Merdan was initially held in a police jail with dozens of other detainees after being made to return from where he lived in Guangdong provinces Foshan city to his ancestral home in Kuchar (in Chinese, Kuche) city, in the XUARs Aksu (Akesu) prefecture, to register with authorities in January.

But 18 days after his detention, amid reports of an outbreak of the coronavirus in the region and with Merdan exhibiting signs of illness, he was moved to an individual cell, where restrictions were slightly looser and he was able to gain access to his phone amongst other personal items, which he used to take the video.

He sent the video to his aunt, Ayshemgul Ghappar, who then forwarded it to his Netherlands-based uncle, Abdulhakim Ghappar, in early March. Abdulhakim said he and Merdan exchanged text messages relayed by Ayshemgul over the course of several days, discussing his situation in detention before all communication suddenly ceased with his nephew and sister.

We exchanged messages for a week  [and for the last time] around March 9 or 10, I cant remember exactly, he said.

He sent me a message and then he and my sister were just gone. Ive heard nothing from my sister since.

Abdulhakim said that while it was unclear what happened to the pair, guards at the facility where Merdan was being held undoubtedly took his phone away.

It seems clear that he got in even worse trouble after sending the videoI think this is why he disappeared, he said.

Attempts to contact Chinese government officials to confirm the whereabouts of Merdan and Ayshemgul, as well as the reason Merdan was placed in detention, have gone unanswered.

Taobao, the online retailer that had hired Merdan as a model, no longer has any record of him on its website, while any mention of him has been scrubbed from Baidu, Chinas most popular search engine.

A map shows Kuchar county in Xinjiang's Aksu prefecture. Credit: RFA Conditions in detention

Abdulhakim told RFA he initially posted Merdans video on Facebook in March but removed it as the BBC proceeded with an investigation of his nephews case.

The British broadcaster published it Tuesday along with texts Merdan sent detailing his experience in the police jail, which he said included being hooded and shackled on both his hands and feet, held in a 50-square-meter cell with 50-60 others, and regularly hearing screams coming from a nearby interrogation room.

In the video, taken after he was moved to solitary confinement, Merdan records himself shackled by his left wrist to a bedthe only furniture in the roomwhile a prerecorded message in Mandarin Chinese and Uyghur denouncing separatism blares from a loudspeaker outside of his window. He appears to be wearing dirty clothes and seems noticeably anxious.

Merdan also sent a photo of a communique he said he found on the floor of one of the facilitys bathrooms, calling on Uyghur children as young as 13 to repent and surrender to authorities for acts of religious extremism.

Since their last communication in March, Abdulhakim said a Han Chinese friend of his nephews traveled to Kuchar to find him, but authorities went to great lengths to stop her  after they knew shed come for Merdan.

He said the young woman was able to enter a police station where Merdan is believed to be held but was treated rudely and told by officers that they had no responsibility to inform her about his case.

They didnt dispute that he was being held there, they only said that they wouldnt tell her anything, Abdulhakim said.

Beijing describes its three-year-old network of camps as voluntary vocational centers, but reporting by RFA and other media outlets shows that detainees are mostly held against their will in poor conditions, where they are forced to endure inhumane treatment and political indoctrination.

Evidence of Merdans detention and other reporting by RFA challenges claims made in early December by Shohrat Zakir, Xinjiangs Uyghur governor, that people at the centers had all graduated and are living happy lives. Zakir made the statement a week after U.S. Congress approved the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act, which allows for sanctions against Chinese officials deemed responsible for abuses in the XUAR and has since been signed into law.

Last week, the Trump administration sanctioned the quasi-military Xinjiang Production and Construction Corp (XPCC) and two of its current and former officials over rights violations in the XUAR.

The move followed similar sanctions in July against several top Chinese officials, including regional party secretary Chen Quanguo, marking the first time Washington targeted a member of Chinas powerful Politburo.

A screenshot from a video taken by Merdan Ghappar that purportedly shows his hand shackled to a bed while in detention in Xinjiang's Aksu province, in January 2020. Courtesy of Abdulhakim Ghappar Successful but not immune

Merdans case also shows that even Uyghurs who live their lives according to the Chinese governments expectations of their ethnic group are not immune to persecution by authorities.

Merdan graduated from the dance program at the Xinjiang Arts Institute in Urumqi in 2007 and was invited to work for a company in Beijing before being discovered by an online clothing retailer, which hired him to be a model and relocated him to Guangdongs Guangzhou city. He later began modeling for other companies as well, including Taobao, and was earning up to 10,000 yuan (U.S. $1,440) per day, according to his uncle.

However, Merdan soon found that even with his high-profile career and newfound wealth, he was still often treated as a second-class citizen by majority Han Chinese, who regularly discriminate against Uyghurs.

Merdans employers told him not to identify himself by his ethnic group and instead claim he had European ancestry so that nobody would question him, which he agreed to do.

He had to make a living, after all, and its certainly hard to carve out a space for yourself among the nearly 1.5 billion people in China, so he went along with it, Abdulhakim.

Merdan kept his head down and worked hard, his uncle said, noting that hes not really interested in religionhes not very interested in politics, either.

At some point, he bought a large apartment for around 800,000 yuan (U.S. $115,000), although he was forced to register it in the name of a Han Chinese friend because he was told that, as a Uyghur, he couldnt do so in his own name, Abdulhakim said.

But despite his success, Merdan was arrested in August 2018 and sentenced to 16 months in prison for selling marijuana, a charge which his friends have denied.

Its unclear whether Merdan was guilty of the charges against him, but reports suggest that Uyghurs are more likely to face conviction in Chinas judicial system than Han Chinese, and those who have served prison sentences are also seemingly at higher risk of later detention in the camp system.

Upon his release from prison in November, Merdan tried to resume work, but two months later some Uyghur police officers [from Xinjiang] showed up along with local police who said they were taking him back to the region, where he was detained on his return.

Ultimately, I see the fact that hes Uyghur as the primary reason for his detention, Abdulhakim told RFA.

When he went to Guangzhou, his agent told him not to openly advertise that he was Uyghur in his business dealings, he added.

People in China think like this: if youre Uyghur or from Xinjiang, it doesnt matter how talented you are, you cant be successful. So those were the grounds for his modeling career.
Dr. Michael Noffze, Oral Surgeon in Fargo, ND, Offers Same-Day Dental Implants Same-day dental implants enable patients to walk into the office with missing teeth and leave with implants and provisional restorations in just one day.

Board-certified Fargo, ND oral surgeon Dr. Michael Noffze is now welcoming new patients for same-day dental implants with or without a referrala rare advantage among many dental specialists. This means patients of all kinds are able to receive same-day dental implants, whether single or full mouth, with greater convenience than many practices offer. Dental implants can fully restore patients quality of life and significantly boost their self-confidence after tooth loss.

Same-day dental implants enable patients to walk into the office with missing teeth and leave with implants and provisional restorations in just one day. These enable them to eat, speak, and smile comfortably while their implant sites heal. Most patients already qualify for this life-changing care however for those who need preliminary treatment to qualify, Dr. Noffze also offers expert tooth extractions and bone grafting treatments within the same office. Alongside the convenience, the advantage of same-day teeth offers patients greater peace of mind during the COVID-19 pandemic. Same-day treatment means patients can have fewer face-to-face appointments.

As a board-certified oral and maxillofacial surgeon, Dr. Noffze practices the full scope of his specialty, including reconstructive surgery, oral pathology, cosmetic treatments, and trauma surgery. He completed his oral and maxillofacial surgery training from the renowned Mayo Clinic and earned his medical degree as well as a certificate in preliminary general surgery from the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. Before beginning his specialty residency program, he earned his dental degree with highest distinction from the Indiana University School of Dentistry.

Exceptional credentials, in combination with same-day results, limited office visits, and access to treatment with or without a referral, make Dr. Noffze and the Facial & Oral Surgery Center a strong choice for many Fargo, ND-area patients. Those seeking the services of an oral surgeon can book an appointment with Dr. Noffze by calling 701-232-9565 or visiting http://www.tfaosc.com.

About the Practice

The Facial and Oral Surgery Center is a leading oral and maxillofacial surgery practice in Fargo, ND. Dr. Michael Noffze is a board-certified oral and maxillofacial surgeon who received his medical degree and certificate in preliminary general surgery from the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. Dr. Noffze is the director of one of the largest dental study clubs in the United States, was recognized by Cambridge Whos Who as the 2010 Professional of the Year for Dental Surgery, and continually speaks internationally on the topic of dental implants. Dr. Noffze is specially trained to treat medically compromised patients and his advanced and unique digital workflow streamlines complex dental implant cases. To learn more about The Facial and Oral Surgery Center and the advanced services that Dr. Noffze provides, call 701-232-9565 or visit the website at http://www.tfaosc.com.
India and Pakistan are just part of a larger  fraught  landscape. Every nation-state to acquire nuclear weapons after the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council is in Asia

"The time has come again for India's Bheema to tear open the breasts of these infidels," an editorial declaimed, as war raged on the Kargil heights "and purify the soiled tresses of Draupadi with blood. Pakistan will not listen just like that. We have a centuries-old debt to settle with this mindset. It is the same demon that has been throwing a challenge at Durga since the time of Mohammad Bin Qasim. Arise Atal Bihari! Who knows if fate has destined you to be the author of the final chapter of this long story? For what have we manufactured bombs? For what have we exercised the nuclear option?"

A little over two years later, jihadists fought their way into Indias Parliament, seeking to annihilate the country's political leadership. As then-prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee ordered what would turn into the largest mobilisation of military forces since the Second World War, it's likely he had the exhortation delivered by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's journal, Panchjanya, on his mind.

In the event, Vajpayee held back from war. So too did former prime minister Manmohan Singh after 26 November, 2008. Prime Minister Narendra Modi struck across the Line of Control in 2019 but, his message sent, did not escalate further when Pakistan Air Force jets struck back across the Line of Control, targeting an Indian Army base in Rajouri.

Today, as the as the world marks Hiroshima Day, Indians and Pakistanis inhabit countries where public discourse around nuclear weapons  and war  has become ever more casual. For the publics, it's important to know the story of what would have happened if those prime ministers had chosen otherwise.

***

From 2003, small groups of Indians and Pakistanis  former military and civilian officials intimately familiar with the nuclear arsenals and command systems, as well as independent experts and theorists  began to meet behind closed doors, to discuss what nuclear war in South Asia might look like. In hotel rooms and conference centres spanning the globe, from Monterrey to Bangkok, the groups carefully gamed the circumstances that would provoke war, the courses the fighting could take, and the circumstances that would lead the adversaries to use nuclear weapons.

Learning from the war of 1999 and the crisis of 2001-2002, New Delhi had begun considering new concepts of limited war, intended to punish Pakistani support for terrorism through military force  but at intensities it believed would not provoke nuclear war.

Islamabad, in turn, began investing in tactical nuclear weapons  small warheads, with explosive yields up to five kilotons of trinitrotoluene. Generals in Pakistan believe their use on Pakistani soil would defeat India's superior conventional forces without inviting full-blown nuclear retaliation with large strategic nuclear weapons, the kinds designed to target infrastructure and population centres.

The exercises, with few exceptions, showed both sides were probably engaging in wishful thinking. The results of one exercise, published in 2013, emphatically predicted "a limited war in South Asia will escalate rapidly into a full war with a high potential for nuclear exchange".

Among the most sophisticated exercises was published last year by scholar Owen Toon and others. Following a major terrorist attack, the authors had India stage a successful armoured offensive deep into Pakistan. Flailing in the face of superior conventional force, Pakistans army used 10 five kiloton tactical weapons. That didnt halt the progress of the dispersed Indian armoured formations, though  deployed in anticipation of such an attack  forcing them to unleash another 15 tactical weapons the next day.

New Delhi, in response, targeted the Pakistani garrison at Bahawalpur with two strategic nuclear weapons, and dropped another 18 strategic weapons on airfields and known nuclear-weapons facilities. Faced with the prospect of India's strategic strikes could end up costing it its nuclear arsenal altogether, Pakistan struck against military bases and storage facilities in 30 Indian cities, using weapons with a yield of between 15 and 100 kilotons. New Delhi responded with 10 similar strikes.

The fourth day of the war saw an escalation to unrestrained nuclear warfare: Pakistan's urban areas were hit with 100 nuclear warheads, and India's urban areas with 150.

In the most optimistic scenarios, Toon and his co-authors calculated, the exchange resulted in tens of millions of fatalities. In the worst, they ran up to the hundreds of millions.

Firstpost's simulation of nuclear strikes on the nine biggest cities in India and Pakistan, created using expert Alex Wellersteins NukeMap tool, involves just ten 40 kiloton warheads each  the largest yield from the weapons both countries tested in 1998. Yet, it resulted in over six million dead.

Because of its larger urban population, simulations suggest, India would suffer considerably more loss of life and damage  but as a percentage of urban population and assets, Pakistan would lose more. This isn't counting long-term, but hard-to-model, consequences, like radiation-related illnesses; poisoned soil, water and air; even global-level climate impacts.

Even Firstpost's unrealistically small nuclear war, created only to give a sense of what a nuclear weapon landing on readers' cities might look like, makes this conclusion inescapable: A small nuclear exchange would ensure both countries ceased to exist as viable nation-states.

***

Nuclear weapons, publics in both India and Pakistan haven't been taught to understand, are different from all other kinds of weapons: Their use makes the very concepts of victory or defeat irrelevant. This is precisely why nuclear weapons deter adversaries from considering going to war in the first place. Yet, nuclear arsenals are growing. India and Pakistan are both estimated to have 140 to 150 warheads, with yields ranging from just five kilotons all the way up to 100 kilotons. Experts assess that both will have around 250 warheads each by the middle of the decade.

The logic beyond the growth of Asia's nuclear arsenals isn't hard to understand. New Delhi needs more warheads to guarantee its arsenal will survive a first strike by China  whose far-larger stockpile is designed to deter the United States  and still deliver assured annihilation. India, thus, is investing in missiles it can launch from its new nuclear submarines, which can lurk, undetected, on the seabed, almost indefinitely.

Faced with the growth of India's nuclear arsenal, though, Pakistan feels pressure to expand its own, a competition fuelled by the asymmetry in the sheer physical sizes of the two countries.

Islamabad has reason, moreover, to be concerned by New Delhis pursuit of missile-defence. Indias purchase of the Russian-made S-400 air-defence system will give it to defend strategic theatres like Mumbai or New Delhi  or an armoured strike corps  against short-range and intermediate-range ballistic missiles. There is no such thing, outside of Star Wars, as a shield against ballistic missiles, but the S-400 will act like a sieve  destroying, at least, a percentage of incoming warheads.

India is simultaneously working on its own ballistic missile defence system with the Prithvi Air Defence missile and the Advanced Air Defence coupled with the Swordfish radar, which some in government hope will become operational some time in the next decade.

Even the best missile-defence systems, though can be overwhelmed by sheer numbers of incoming warheadsone key reason for Islamabad to grow its arsenal. Interceptors cant, for example, distinguish between missiles carrying real warheads and dummies. In one study, experts George Lewis and Theodore Postol showed even Iranian and North Korean ballistic missiles can defeat the United States' Standard Missile 3 and Ground-Based Midcourse Defence interceptors using simple techniques.

The United States' Government Accountability Office, in one damning study, concluded that just nine percent of Scud warheads launched during the Iraq War had been engaged and destroyed. Even Israel's much-advertised Iron Dome, recent studies have suggested, intercepted just 32 percent of threatening rockets in the 2012 Gaza crisis preventing  at most  two deaths, 110 injuries and $7 million in damage.

Islamabad is also working to defeat India's anti-ballistic missile systems by engineering multiple independently-targetable re-entry vehicles, or MIRVs, which release several warheads from a single missile. This obviously increases the number of interceptors needed for each offensive missile, making missile defence ever-more cost-ineffective.

***

Imagining the apocalypse has proved the key to avoiding one: As the scholar Kenneth Waltz famous argued, when it comes to nuclear weapons, "more may be better". The capacity of nuclear weapons to cause annihilation, he wrote, "lessen the intensity as well as the frequency of war among their possessors. For fear of escalation, nuclear states do not want to fight long or hard over important interests  indeed, they do not want to fight at all. Minor nuclear States have even better reasons than major ones to accommodate one another peacefully and to avoid any fighting".

Through the Cold War, the fearful symmetry imposed by nuclear weapons ensured that, while the United States and Soviet Union warred through proxies, neither directly confronted the other. Indeed, the world has, since 1945, lived through a great historical anomaly, a span of decades with no general war among great powers.

From the fact that nuclear weapons kept the peace, however, we cannot be certain that they will always do so. Nuclear deterrence works well, but only until it doesnt. The exercises conducted by Indians and Pakistanis from 2003 showed that misjudgments about an adversarys intentions, miscalculations of the outcomes of ones own actions, and the inherent uncertainties of war, often spiralled into uncontrolled escalation.

In 1999, 2001-2002, 2008 and 2019, political leaderships stepped back from the edge, but that in itself is no guarantee they will always be able to do so.

The history of the Cold War, moreover, we know the world more than once almost embraced the apocalypse through accidents. In 1962, the crew of the Soviet nuclear submarine B59 considered the use of nuclear weapons when forced to surface by an unsuspecting United States Navy destroyer; the world owes its existence to its second-in-command Vasili Arkhipov, who insisted on seeking orders from Moscow. From 1979 to 1983, both NATO and Soviet computer systems falsely reported nuclear-missile launches by the other side  risking triggering a response.

India and Pakistan are just part of a larger  fraught  landscape. Every nation-state to acquire nuclear weapons after the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council is in Asia. Like Europe on the eve of the First World War, the region is in the midst of profound transformation. Nationalism, economic change and geopolitical contestation are reordering the relationships of power between nation-states across the region. Incalculable risks lie ahead.

Apocalypse need not be our shared destinybut only if we beware that it, only too easily, could be.
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Stoking diplomatic deadwood in the hope that the embers may catch fire is a parlour game at the United Nations. One of our neighbours  Pakistan  has indulged in this for years. The India-Pakistan Question, inscribed on the United Nations Security Council (SC)s agenda on January 6, 1948, was last considered by SC on November 5, 1965. Yet, on the annual requests of Pakistan, the item has remained an inert part of the Councils formal agenda. These requests are followed by sundry communications, in a bid to stir the pot. They are circulated and filed. No one is bothered. Then, in August 2019, following changes to Jammu and Kashmir (J&K)s special status provided in the Indian Constitution, China weighed in favour of its iron brother and initiated what was akin to a diplomatic two-front war.

Using its perch on the Council, China took over the drivers seat of this venture. Since China did not have the requisite majority to call for a formal meeting, it requested an informal consultation. China proposed a draft outcome statement and lobbied for support. The tussle was transformed into one between a Permanent Member of the Council  China; and a non-member of the Council  India. Pakistan was the cats paw in the equation.

The duo threw everything into the fray. They argued along the following three axes. Contrary to previous Council decisions, India changed the status quo, violating international law. The change resulted in large-scale human rights violations, leading to a serious humanitarian situation. This, along with Indias military assertiveness along the Line of Control constituted a threat to international peace and security. The Council, which is responsible for maintenance of international peace and security, needed to respond.

The same talk that we hear now on India-China issues was voiced then. Can India take on an economy five times its size? Can actions evoking criticism domestically be shielded from global scrutiny? Will a global power, which had sewn up vast swathes with its Belt and Road Initiative, not get broad support against a mid-sized delegation with limited resources?

A blow-by-blow account is left for another time. Suffice it to say that then, as now, hubris of global overreach was on display. Then, as now, quiet diplomacy was in play. Then, as now, despite the disparity in the power equation, some stay silent. Then, as now, key partners weigh in our favour. The closed-door outcome was better than expected. The public diplomacy victory was the icing on the cake.

More efforts  including one earlier this week  have been made. These follow a slightly different tack. Pakistan writes a letter to the president of the Council. China follows up to raise the matter during closed, informal consultations under Any Other Business. The pinprick doesnt yield anything, as overwhelmingly, others arent interested. The rubric Any Other Business can be used by anyone, to raise anything. Some have used it to prick China about Hong Kong, and in course of discussions also referred to the treatment of Uighurs. Others target Russia by raising matters not on the active agenda. In short, failed pinpricks are par for the course. Our overcoming such efforts provides useful lessons learnt.

First, in August 2019, the Peoples Republic of China took the unprecedented step of trying to extricate an agenda item that it had historically never engaged with. When the item was last considered in 1965, it was the Republic of China whose representative sat on the Council. China invalidated the oft-repeated shibboleth that it will handle differences through peaceful discussion bearing in mind sensitivities and concerns. Despite not succeeding, China keeps trying in other ways. Try, try and try again seems their theme song; never letting our guard down needs to be ours.

Second, China, an authoritarian autocracy averse to invoking human rights concerns in Council discussions, opportunistically masqueraded as a champion of human rights in J&K in August 2019. China used a double-edged weapon against us. When those who partner us in thwarting Chinese efforts accuse China of violating human rights, we need to consider whether to continue the approach of keeping our distance or work with them on such issues.

Third, when China initially pushed for a discussion on J&K, it cloaked itself as a concerned member of the international community. Chinas interests in owning a suitable piece of real estate in the region were not obvious to all. Chinas actions this summer are increasingly viewed as of a full-fledged party to a dispute. Should it keep treading this path, someone or the other can raise concerns about Chinas role, which can lead to China attracting UN provisions that apply to parties to a dispute.

Fourth, when confronting wolf warriors, we need to better understand the wolf totem too. Chinas manoeuvres on one front tend to presage, at times, other interventions and may possibly be a precursor to developments on other fronts. We, therefore, require greater coherence in our approach to China, across the board.

Fifth, the broader takeaway is that in a fast-evolving multipolar order, bilateral differences among the poles are best addressed appropriately, rather than taken to multilateral platforms and nurtured as disputes. If a pole still persists, then, at best, it would be a pinprick, nothing more. No pole, irrespective of its weight relative to the others, can easily sway the rest to the detriment of another pole. The de facto realities of a multipolar world are resetting the de jure world of multilateralism.

Syed Akbaruddin is a retired diplomat who served as Indias Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York

The views expressed are personal
The All Ireland Institute of Hospice and Palliative Care (AIIHPC) is calling on people in Longford to learn more about the benefits of palliative care as part of Palliative Care Week. Now in its seventh year, Palliative Care Week takes place from the 13th to 19th September.

Palliative Care Week 2020 aims to raise awareness throughout the island of Ireland about the positive difference palliative care can make to people with life-limiting conditions, their carers and their families.

This years theme is Palliative Care: In This Together. In these extraordinary times, this reflects the community response to Covid-19 but also the range of supports mobilized by health and social care professionals, and the wider community, to help people with palliative care needs and their loved ones to live as well as possible.

This personalised network of support can involve a broad range of professionals from primary care (such as GPs and public health nurses), support from family and friends and the wider community, and support at home, in hospitals, nursing homes and hospices. The support is for all ages and life-limiting conditions and can be for days, weeks or years.

Karen Charnley, AIIHPC Director, said;

Palliative care improves the lives of those living with a life-limiting illness and those who matter to them. It puts the individual at the centre of care and supports their physical, social, psychological and spiritual health needs. Weve all seen this year how something like Covid-19 has brought out the best in people, especially in our communities, and while we cant hold events to mark Palliative Care Week 2020 we hope we can reignite some of that community spirit to help those closest to us to get better informed about palliative care and its benefits.

Ultimately, we want as many people as possible in Longford to have a greater understanding of palliative care. So if people can help by sharing this knowledge or the Palliative Care Week leaflet, or even by sharing their story on social media, together we can help to remove any stigmas or misconceptions about palliative care.

We might need to remain socially distant for some time to come but we can still feel close to our family and friends by having conversations about things like palliative care and understanding each others future care wishes.

To get informed:

Visit thepalliativehub.com/public- awareness to find out more about palliative care and Palliative Care Week 2020 and test your knowledge of palliative care by taking a short True or False quiz

Talk to your GP or any healthcare or social care professional about palliative care and its benefits.

For those with an interest in promoting a better understanding of palliative care:

Download the leaflet from thepalliativehub.com/public- awareness and share it with your family, friends, colleagues, fellow members of local groups, or your online community

Talk to your family and share your wishes in the event that you have palliative care needs in the future, and encourage others to do the same

Share your own palliative care experience story on social media during Palliative Care Week 2020 using #pallcareweek.

AIIHPC is encouraging people to get informed and to share this information with their family and friends, and any local groups they are in, during Palliative Care Week 2020.

Any groups or individuals wishing to obtain leaflets and/or posters can contact AIIHPC by calling +353 1 4912948 or by emailing info@aiihpc.org.
Would that I could be the peacemaker in your soul, that I might turn the discord and the rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody. But how shall I, unless you yourselves be also the peacemakers, nay, the lovers of all your elements.

 Khalil Gibran

With the tragic explosion and destruction in Beirut yesterday, questions abound on the future of this fragile nation. In Lebanon there is a feeling that this battered country has hit a dead end in every way. But who cares for Lebanon? Maybe this is a reminder we all should.

I care because of my Lebanese heritage, but we all should, because, while this ancient land has had a mostly unlucky recent history, this little speck on the Mediterranean has contributed much to civilization, including the birthplace of humanitys first city, Jbail (Byblos) and has been an inspiring source of innovation and beauty over its long history. Even past wars did not extinguish Lebanese passions for all things beautiful as, before yesterday, any trip to Beirut would still expose a reverence for style, great food and fun.

The land of the Phoenix deserves to rise again not only for the sake of its suffering people, but its potential to contribute beautiful things to a world in need.

For Canadians, the reason to care relates to our national interests in Lebanon. On the national security front, with the global social, political and economic issues surrounding migration coming out of the war in Syria, there is a clear Canadian national security interest that Lebanon is serving as a potential source of stability and openness in a troubled region and world.

Lebanon has the highest per capita refugee population in the world. As such, a failed Lebanon will not make us safer.

On the economic development front, there are Canadian economic interests that can be served to provide opportunities for growing our modern Canadian economy. Despite all of its problems, Lebanon has an educated and cosmopolitan youth and a renowned entrepreneurial culture with good universities that can be a strong partner for innovation and future economic development.

Finally, Lebanon with its progressive and open culture can be a critical base for Canada to further advance the cause of womens rights in the Arab world and Asia. There are many extraordinary women in Lebanon to support and promote the advancement of women. Amal Clooney is the most famous example.

But where to start? Lebanon needs to make the first move and take a cue from their younger Swiss friends and declare Lebanon neutral to all conflicts and disputes in the Middle East and pledge there will never be any offensive military operation launched from Lebanese soil, ever by anyone, and where no government asks or cares for your religion but worships service to its people.

This old land is scarred from conflict and too tired to bear more. It needs to help itself to again be a source of beautiful things and heed the words of those who took the streets under the banner One Lebanon. Then friends like Canada can truly help beyond aid in the wake of another needless tragedy.

Again in the words of Khalil Gibran:

Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror. But you are eternity and you are the mirror.
Marie D. De Jesus, Staff / Houston Chronicle

NRG Energy, one of the state's biggest generators and retailers of power, reported higher profits in the second quarter, reflecting its acquisition of Stream Energy last year, lower fuel prices and reduced operating costs.

The Houston and Princeton, N.J.-based company, whose brands include Reliant Energy, Green Mountain Energy and Cirro Energy, said it made $313 million during the second quarter, compared with $202 million during the same period last year.
CFA Institute, the global association of investment professionals, announces that it will transition to Computer-Based Testing (CBT) for all three levels of the CFA Programme in 2021.

Level II and Level III examinations for 2021 will be administered via CBT, along with the already-announced transition for Level I. The December 2020 administrations will therefore be the final paper-based tests for any CFA Programme exam.

The decision to accelerate the move to CBT for Levels II and III is in response to the impact of Covid-19. CFA Institute had been planning this transition as part of a broader effort to deliver exams via computers in secure test centers vs. on paper in large testing spaces; this shift is already underway for Level I. This change allows CFA Institute to provide smaller exam settings, more exam dates, and easier scheduling with more locations.

This natural evolution also responds to how global testing and credentialing practices have changed and the recognition that the investment profession operates in a digital world. Offering the exams and learning experience in a digital environment will allow CFA Institute to better model the tasks and work experience of todays investment professionals.

As with the Level I exams, CFA Institute will work with Prometric as its primary collaborator to administer CBT, with British Council serving as collaborator in India and Africa.

While the last paper-based test marks the end of an era for CFA Institute, technological advances in computer-based testing enable us to meet the growing global testing demands of candidates and will improve their experience with a wider selection of test venues and more flexible scheduling options, said Margaret Franklin, CFA, President and CEO of CFA Institute. We are working diligently to ensure a seamless transition and superior exam experience for our candidates. It goes without saying that we will uphold the rigor of the passing standard to earn the CFA charter.

August 20, 2020 will mark the opening of registration for all 2021 CBT exams. There are several key changes that offer candidates greater flexibility and an enhanced examination experience:

The Level I computer-based exam will be offered four times per year, beginning in 2021. The Level II and Level III computer-based exams will be offered two times per year, starting in 2021. To earn the charter, a candidate must pass all three levels in sequential order. As part of the move to CBT in 2021, candidates will be offered windows of up to 10 days for scheduling their exams at a secure test center (testing will be in-person only, not remotely) as opposed to the current single-day testing. The schedule for 2021 follows:

February: Level I only

May: All Levels

August: Level I and Level II

November: Level I and Level III

In consideration of Covid-19, CFA Institute is offering all currently registered December 2020 candidates the opportunity to keep their exam date or to postpone their date to one of the CBT dates in 2021. Please see our FAQs for more details about changes to the exam cycle, information on computer-based testing, and exam policies.

CFA Institute intends to hold the December 2020 exams for all levels in every location globally where it is possible with the relevant health measures in place and in line with local government and health regulations. CFA Institute is following local health policies across the globe, tracking developments closely, and will adapt examination plans as needed. -- Tradearabia News Service
Two additional suspects have been charged with trying to set a Trenton police car ablaze during the rioting May 31 that followed a peaceful protest of the killing of George Floyd, authorities said.

On Wednesday, FBI agents arrested Killian F. Melecio, 20, of Columbus in Mansfield, and Kadeem A. Dockery, 29, of Trenton, New Jersey U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced in a statement.

Investigators identified Melecio and Dockery through their distinctive tattoos seen on the video footage, the statement said.

Each was charged with one count of attempting to damage or destroy by fire a vehicle owned or possessed by an institution receiving federal financial assistance and one count of attempting to damage or destroy by fire a vehicle used in and affecting interstate commerce.

Both men appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Tonianne J. Bongiovanni via teleconference. Dockery was released, Melecio was detained.

Four people have now been charged with trying to light the police car aflame during riotous outbursts of violence in downtown Trenton that followed the protest.

After the protest in solidarity with Floyd - who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer who kneeled on Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes - a group of people gathered on East State Street downtown and began to smash store fronts, loot businesses and attack marked Trenton police vehicles parked nearby.

Already charged are Earlja J. Dudley, 27, of Trenton, who was arrested after a street camera allegedly caught him and a then-unidentified man working together to stuff a flaming object into the engine well of a marked Trenton police cruiser.

And Justin Spry, 21, of South Plainfield, who was arrested at the scene of the rioting on May 31. A street camera recorded Spry and another person trying to stuff a piece of cloth into the gas tank of a marked police vehicle and ignite it, federal prosecutors said.

According to the updated criminal complaint in the case, city street camera footage captured Dockery trying to light an explosive device while standing by the drivers side door of a Trenton police car. Video of the scene published by a media outlet then showed Dockery lighting the explosive device and throwing it through the open front drivers side window of a Trenton police car, the complaint said.

At 8:20 p.m. May 31, a city street camera also caught Dockery take off his shirt and hand it to Melecio, along with a folder full of papers, the complaint said. Melecio is then see stuffing the shirt into the gas well of the car, the complaint said. Melecio tried to light the shirt on fire, but wasnt able to, the complaint said.

It was then that Spry, also caught on street camera footage, came to help Melecio, the complaint said. Spry then tries once more to light the bundle of shirt and papers as Melecio stayed near the gas tank to help him, the complaint said. Soon, police officers approached the two men and Melecio fled, the complaint said.

Although Spry also tried to run, officers were able to apprehend and arrest him, the complaint said. As officers were arresting Spry on the sidewalk behind the car, Dockery was seen on camera footage crouching on the other side of the car, lighting another explosive device and throwing it over the car at the officers, the complaint said.

The device exploded at the officers feet and Dockery took off, the complaint said.

The night of May 31 was a pock mark on a wave of mostly peaceful protests that went through New Jersey and across the country. Hours earlier, a protest remained peaceful with at least 1,000 protesters marching in the city, ending the march at a city police station. There, many officers took a knee in solidarity with the protesters.

But later, violence and destruction coursed through downtown Trenton, as thousands of people caused an estimated hundreds of thousands of dollars in property damage, officials previously said. Vandals smashed store windows, stole merchandise and threw bricks and filled water bottles at police, a city spokesman previously said.

On June 1, the city said 60 businesses had been damaged.

The turmoil permeated the Trenton police department, with city Police Director Sheilah Coley being accused of preventing a group of police officers from responding to a report of people trying to light Tony Liquor bar, on East Hanover Street, on fire.

According to a police officers bodycam, Coley asked officers at the scene Can you stop anybody from pouring gas on a building? No, right? So thats not your mission. Thats the fire departments mission.

The Mercer County Prosecutors Office had said it was examining Coleys actions after receiving two complaints of her actions during the riot.

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.
(Natural News) Last weeks explosively successful conference by Americas Frontline Doctors group, that exposed a massive disinformation campaign against the life-saving ability of Hydroxychloroquine to cure the Chinese coronavirus, was totally shut off the Internet by the tech giants. The group was in D.C. July 27 for its White Coat Summit event, which was organized and sponsored by the Tea Party Patriots and Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.). It kicked off with a full-day agenda and finished up the next day with a second press conference and congressional lobbying.

(Article republished from LifeSiteNews.com)

A Facebook representative gave as a vague excuse that the event was taken down for allegedly sharing false information about cures and treatments for COVID-19. As usual, Facebook refused to give any specifics. In reality, the tech companies themselves may be guilty of a crime against humanity and criminal spreading of false information that could have resulted in numerous deaths because infected patients and their physicians were denied crucial life-saving information provided during that event.

You will understand the severity of what the tech giants did as you read below some excerpts from Conference organizer Dr. Simone Golds White Paper on Hydroxychloroquine.

Most of the talks given during the day-long full conference can be seen here. I would strongly recommend viewing what these experts had to say that credibly contradicts the lies and misinformation that the public has been fed for months about hydroxychloroquine and other issues related to the Wuhan virus.

This is incredible material and you will likely be quite angry after watching these when you realize how badly the public has been deliberately misled about the issues covered in the talks so that the pharma giants can make billions on their alternative, far more costly, much less effective meds and vaccines. They would not even be necessary if hydroxychloroquine had not been so badly misrepresented and withheld from doctors and patients since the beginning of the pandemic.

The Americas Frontline Doctors (AFD) website has been restored after also being suddenly shut down by the organizations web hosting company to conform with the social media censoring. A crucial part of the website is the References page with two exceptional documents. They present well-documented evidence that a hydroxychloroquine protocol, given at the right time and with the right dosage, will dramatically help most COVID-infected patients to rapidly recover from what too many mistakenly think, thanks to media-generated hysteria, is a death sentence.

The website also presents the video of the second, short press conference that was held in front of the Supreme Court on July 28. However, the full, original press conference, held at the end of the first day, and the one that was seen by 17 million as a Facebook live-stream, is much better to watch and can still be seen here, thanks to the OANN network.

Even today, when Facebook users attempt to share the video of the AFD press conference, they are confronted with a pop-up such as seen below when a Latin American reader tried to share the video with friends. It falsely indicates there is information in the post from the board-certified physicians  who have been treating covid patients  that is misinformation that could cause harm and that they dont allow false information about covid-19 that could contribute to physical harm. Facebook has not provided any evidence whatsoever to substantiate these serious, false charges.

World-famous pop star Madonna was also censored by Instagram for posting a video of the Frontline Doctors. In her post, Madonna praised Dr. Stella Immanuel, the Houston physician who stated that she has successfully treated 350 coronavirus patients with hydroxychloroquine. Dr. Emmanuels animated talk was the big hit of the press conference as she very passionately called to account all those who have been suppressing the use of HCQ to the detriment of the lives of infected patients.

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube remove video of doctors who support hydroxychloroquine -> https://t.co/2jjw97qFfD Madonna censored by Instagram -> https://t.co/98zRCI7KNy pic.twitter.com/V6jdecUZNd  Megan #FREEAssange (@GraffitiExpert) July 29, 2020

I personally hope the Frontline Doctors will launch lawsuits and encourage criminal charges against Google, YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo and the web hosting company for the great harm that they caused not just the AFD, but more importantly, to numerous covid-infected patients who may have died because of the false claims that were made about the information given during the conference. The social media giants have to finally be held accountable. This deadly censoring cant be permitted to go on.

The following excerpts from Dr. Simone Golds White Paper reveal the shocking, deep corruption and deception that has resulted in desperately needed life-saving COVID infection treatments being suppressed since the pandemic began:

***

Excerpts from White Paper on Hydroxychloroquine By Dr. Simone Gold, MD, JD

In France, HCQ had been sold over the counter for many years, but on January 15, 2020, then Health minister Buzyn reclassified it as list II of poisonous substances. Three days after Trump endorsed it, the next Health Minister Veran said that HCQ was only to be used for severely ill hospitalized patients and could not be used early or prophylaxis (three). Then two months later he terminated using it at all. All this time, esteemed virologist Professor Raoult continued his clinical trials and in his hospitals the mortality rate was 0.52% compared to the rest of France 19.12%. Because this was so mishandled, resulting in so many unnecessary deaths, the former French Prime Minister and two Ministers of Health are now being criminally investigated.

Former French Prime Minister, health ministers to be investigated for pandemic response A French court will investigate former French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and two health ministers following complaints about the governments handling of the coronavirus pandemic, Prosecutor General Francois Molins said today. Philippe, former Health Minister Agnes Buzyn and outgoing Health Minister Olivier Veran will have to respond to accusations of abstaining from fighting a disaster.

In The Netherlands, Dr. R. Elens, has filed suit due to his being blocked from prescribing HCQ, which is contrary to his lifelong practice as a physician. He was sanctioned and could face a fine of Euro 150,000. He filed this petition to clarify the status of HCQ and will pursue to The Hague if necessary as a crime against humanity.

***

The Lancets boss  said  the pharmaceutical companies are so financially powerful today and are able to use such methodologies as to have us accept papers which  in reality manage to conclude what they want  I have been doing research for 20 years of my life. I never thought the boss of The Lancet could say that. And the boss of the NEJM too. He even said it was criminal.

In the case of the JAMA study, the scientists gave up to 2.5x lethal dosage of the medication. Unsurprisingly so many patients died they halted the study early. They also cherry-picked patients and had no proof that there was the standard ethics oversight of the study. JAMA knew of these problems and published the study anyway. Various scientists have demanded its retraction, and even now, with civil and criminal investigations into these deaths, the study is still is [sic] not retracted. And the headlines around this study blame the drug, not the fact that old, sick, hospitalized, compromised patients were given toxic dosages of a drug.

***

At the very least, the efficacy assassination of HCQ must be reversed immediately. Doctors must be able to prescribe HCQ as a treatment and as a prophylaxis. It is absolutely unacceptable that doctors are not being able to communicate responsibly and with compassion with their patients. That must be remedied. Period.

***

We speak in support of immediately reversing the massive, irresponsible disinformation campaign that is literally preventing doctors from dispensing HCQ, advocating as well that it be made available over the counter in the United States. This is logistically easy to do in a manner that ensures the supply and appropriate dispensation.

***

Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) has been FDA approved for over 65 years and has been used billions of times throughout the entire world without restriction. For many decades it has been given to: pregnant women, breastfeeding women, children, elderly patients, immune compromised patients and healthy persons.

In the USA it is used most often in three situations: systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and as malaria prophylaxis for travelers.

***

The physicians who prescribe HCQ the most are rheumatologists. Patients who need HCQ typically are on the medication for years or decades.

***

Prominent Los Angeles cardiologist Dr. Daniel Wohlgelernter states:

Over the last 30 years I have had several hundred patient visits specifically to discuss the toxicity of hydroxychloroquine. During that time, not a single patient has been taken off of this drug for cardiac toxicity. The largest meta-analysis published in 2018, revealed only 50 cardiac deaths attributed to hydroxychloroquine in 60 plus years.

***

In an interview with Laura Ingraham, Dr. Richard Urso, ophthalmologist said this: I have had several thousand patient visits to specifically discuss the toxicity of this drug over my last 30 years. Its a super safe drug. Its safer than Tylenol, aspirin, Motrin.

***

It is self-evident that HCQ is safe from the fact that it has been FDA approved for 65 years and has been used many billions of times all over the world and it is over the counter in most of the world, certainly pre-2020. It is the #1 most used medication in India, the second most populous nation on the planet with 1.3 billion people. If an American travels to a location where malaria is endemic, per the CDC, they would start HCQ before they left for their trip. There has never been an allegation that HCQ is not safe until 2020.

***

In the largest study to date on the subject, HCQ has been shown to not increase heart (cardiac) risk. This study was across a multinational, distributed database network. It studied all the data for 20 years, from January 9, 2000  2020 on patients who were prescribed HCQ.

***

The FDA database shows a total of 640 deaths attributable to HCQ over fifty years. To put this in context Each year the FDA receives over one million adverse event reports associated with the use of drug products This concerns the entirety of HCQ use over more than 50 years of data, likely millions of uses and of longer-term use than the five days recommended for Covid-19 treatment.

***

The CDC has an information sheet about HCQ. That sheet includes the following questions/answers

Q: Who can take hydroxychloroquine?

A: Hydroxychloroquine can be prescribed to adults and children of all ages. It can also be safely taken by pregnant women and nursing mothers.

Q: Who should not take hydroxychloroquine?

A: People with psoriasis should not take hydroxychloroquine.

Q: How should I take hydroxychloroquine?

A: Both adults and children should take one dose of hydroxychloroquine per week starting at least one week before traveling They should take one dose per week while there, and for four consecutive weeks after leaving. The weekly dosage for adults in 400 mg.

Q: What are the potential side effects of hydroxychloroquine?

A: Hydroxychloroquine is a relatively well tolerated medicine. The most common adverse reactions reported are stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, and headache. These side effects can often be lessened by taking hydroxychloroquine with food. Hydroxychloroquine may also cause itching in some people.

Q: How long is it safe to use hydroxychloroquine?

A: CDC has no limits on the use of hydroxychloroquine for the prevention of malaria. When hydroxychloroquine is used at higher doses for many years, a rare eye condition called retinopathy has occurred. People who take hydroxychloroquine for more than five years should get regular eye exams.

***

Efficacy

There are only two things that must be considered regarding a medication: is it safe and does it work? HCQ is amongst the safest of all prescription drugs in USA and that is why across much of the world it is sold over the counter. And at a time when the world has become seized with panic over a virus without a specific cure, the question of effectiveness is almost moot. If a drug is safe and might work, and if there are no other options, we must try it.

The safety record of HCQ is indisputable. But now seven months into the pandemic there is overwhelming evidence accumulating that HCQ is also effective for Covid-19. There are dozens of studies demonstrating its effectiveness from all around the world. From China to France to Saudi Arabia to Iran to Italy to India to New York City to Michigan to Brazil. This is not surprising. As far back as, chloroquine (CQ) the first cousin of HCQ and previously known to be effective against SARS-CoV-1, was stated by China to be a treatment for Covid-19.

***

Corruption of the Scientific Journals

It is well known that The Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) had to retract their studies. It was well documented in a series published in The Guardian starting with the headline: The Lancet has made one of the biggest retractions in modern history. How could this happen? The sheer number and magnitude of the things that went wrong or missing are too enormous to attribute to mere incompetence.

The data upon which these studies were based were so ridiculously erroneous that it only took two weeks for an eagle-eyed physician to publicly demand an explanation. Whats incredible is that the editors of these esteemed journals still have a job  that is how utterly incredible the supposed data underlying the studies was. The company that gathered the alleged data (Surgisphere) is now wiped clean from the Internet.

The Lancet and The NEJM have at least been exposed, but the third premier journal, as yet unexposed, is the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA.) While the first two journals published fraudulent studies, the JAMA study seems criminal in its utter disregard for human life.

***

Dr. Dousty-Blazy, the former French Health Minister, Under Secretary General of UN, and candidate for Director of WHO has publicly stated that The Lancet and the NEJM Editors admit to being pressured by pharmaceutical companies to publish certain results.

***

Censorship of the Public Town Square

The clearest example of physician free speech censorship is what happened to James Todaro, MD. Dr. Todaro, who up until these events was a mere private citizen, tweeted his thoughts about HCQ including a link to a public Google doc six days before the President endorsed HCQ. Dr. Todaros apolitical scientific commentary was his opinion of a scientific study that appeared to be fabricated, despite being published in a world-class journal. It turns out Dr. Todaro was so spot-on correct, that the study, which unfortunately had enormous worldwide influence, was retracted which is exceedingly rare. But before the public could read Dr. Todaros prescient words, the President happened to endorse HCQ, and Google scrubbed the document within hours.

And by scrubbed we mean that Google didnt want you to think it was missing, they wanted you to not know such a thing ever even existed.

***

Excessive & Punitive Regulations at the State Level & Off-Label Prescribing

There is obviously a tremendous disinformation campaign going on in the United States of America claiming that HCQ is neither safe nor effective. This is quite remarkable for a medication that has been FDA approved for 65 years and having already been dispensed billions of times all across the world with only 57 serious adverse events (heart) noted by the FDA in their own database over the past fifty years. In many countries it is available over the counter, like aspirin and Tylenol.

Nonetheless, with the negative pressure being applied, state Governors have ordered, through their state licensing boards that physicians stop using it, and pharmacists stop dispensing it. Their wording is often more cautious, but doctors are told that they could be charged with unprofessional conduct (a threat to their license) or be sanctioned if they prescribe.

***

COVID-19 is an acronym for SARS-CoV-2. It is so named because it turns out there was a SARS-CoV-1. Reading the scientific literature related to the first SARS is so eerily similar that excerpts are copy/pasted on the next page. In 2002 there was a new coronavirus, originating in China, which rapidly spread to dozens of countries, within a few months, leading to worldwide efforts to contain it. The scientists discovered that CQ had a strong antiviral effect on this SARS-CoV virus, whether the CQ was used before or after infection. It was concluded that CQ had both prophylactic and therapeutic use.

The study Chloroquine is a Potent Inhibitor of SARS Coronavirus Infection and Spread by Vincent, Bergeron, Benjannet, et. al., was published by the official publication of the National Institutes of Health when Dr. Fauci was NIH Director: Given that CQ was demonstrated to be very effective against a 78% identical coronavirus less than 15 years ago during a very similar situation, it is very curious that there was a multinational effort to restrict it starting in mid-January.

***

On January 13, 2020 France quietly changed the status of HCQ from its years long over-the- counter status to List II poisonous substance. This was an unprecedented demotion. And in the USA: Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday that data shows HCQ is not an effective agent for the coronavirus, disputing use of the drug to fight the deadly virus even as President Donald Trump touts it as a potential cure.

It is unclear when Dr. Fauci came to believe the opposite of what the NIH published when he was the NIH Director. What we do know is that 70,000-100,000 excess American lives have been lost due to lack of access to HCQ. So why did a medication that had been over the counter for decades, suddenly but quietly get pulled from the shelves, in the midst of a pandemic, due to a virus that is so similar it shares a name?

It is well known that newly patented drugs can be extremely profitable if there is demand and no other supply. The demand for Gileads Remdisivir, which is used late in the disease, obviously will plummet if the disease is stopped by HCQ early. Remdisivir is sold for $3200-$5700 per treatment and the federal government has already purchased all or most of it. The generic HCQ is ~$10 per treatment.

***

It is interesting to note that many over the counter drugs, probably the majority, are less safe than HCQ. For example Tylenol, and aspirin are listed as more risky. Most doctors would attest to the frequent problems people have with Motrin/Ibuprofen/Aleve. Tylenol toxicity is the most common reason for liver transplant in the USA and anti-inflammatories account for an enormous number of GI bleeds/pain/distress.

***

As a result, not only are patients not being treated promptly, effectively, and safely, some patients die. And as the fear of the pandemic has overtaken the virus itself and it is impossible to change public and physician opinion quickly enough to save lives, we must make the medication available to the public directly.

Dr. Harvey Risch, MD, PhD, Professor of Epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health and published in affiliation with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Risch who has 39,779 citations on Google Scholar, notes that:

US cumulative deaths through July 15 are 140,000. Had we permitted HCQ use liberally, we would have saved half, 70,000 and it is very possible we could have saved 3/4, 105,000.

It is relevant that the problem that the USA has with accessing hydroxychloroquine is a first-world problem. Curiously the people who cannot get HCQ typically live in first-world democracies. Speaking generally, HCQ or its progenitor CQ, was freely available over the counter in most of the world Africa, Asia, South America, even Canada and Mexico, prior to Covid. Long before President Trump endorsed HCQ on March 20, 2020, the drug was quietly removed from pharmacy shelves in Canada and it was banned outright in France. These two actions were taken in January 2020. It is speculation as to why but one must consider who benefits if HCQ is not accessible.

It cannot be overlooked that right now, all over the world, patients who want to buy HCQ simply do. Iran, Costa Rica, Italy, Panama; many others.

***

This chart was posted in Dr. Golds White Paper SOURCE: Dr. Simone Gold, White Paper on Hydroxychloroquine

No matter the reason, there is an obvious relationship between access to HCQ and mortality rates from Covid-19. While it is true that such a relationship does not prove cause/effect, but it is also true that it would be lunacy to assume no relationship.

Country by country data is also available and access to HCQ is strongly linked to lower mortality. We can see that even very poor countries have much lower case fatality rates than wealthy countries, which of course, is typically the opposite of what we would expect of a respiratory disease that could end up in an ICU admission. Kazakhstan, Bangladesh, Senegal, Pakistan, Serbia, Nigeria, Turkey, Ukraine, Honduras  the list goes on. Wealthier democracies or countries with especially abusive HCQ protocols such as are doing terribly: Ireland, Canada, Spain, The Netherlands, UK, Belgium, France  Of note, Italy and Spain switched mid-stream and now HCQ is easily available.

The limitation or outright ban on HCQ worldwide has begun to crack. It will soon collapse because the evidence of its safety and efficacy is so overwhelming. The countries that have less flexibility to tolerate fatal policies have already reversed themselves. South of us, Honduras, Panama, Costa Rica have, or earlier had, made HCQ available. Brazil is trying but faces many of the same political problems as the USA. Some countries have started going door to door to facilitate its availability.

In Honduras their national policy now is: The patient that presents for the first time to a First Level of Care facility, if so, treatment should be started with: Acetaminophen, Hydroxychloroquine 400 every 12 hours, Ivermectin, Azithromycin, Zinc 

Read more at: LifeSiteNews.com
Opinion Article

6 August 2020

Reopening the Borders with New Protocols

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The top priority for all islands in the region has been a focus on residents and the public health issues at hand. Upon knowledge of the COVID-19 pandemic, each island immediately closed its borders, which allowed for a very low number of cases in the region so that the islands could focus on containing the virus transmission without any additional entrants. Given that the Caribbean is the most tourism-dependent region in the world, it was essential to develop new protocols for entry, which had never been implemented before, once the virus spread was under control in each country.

Photo: HVS

Per Honorable Dominic Fedee, Chair of the Caribbean Tourism Organization and Minister of Tourism for St. Lucia, "Revenues in St. Lucia went from $110 million a month to $15 million a month with over 15,000 jobs lost." Therefore, understanding the importance of tourism and the safety of their residents, St. Lucia and many other islands unleashed a set of entry protocols, such as the health screening of individuals, including temperature checks; the requirement of face masks in public; and the reduction of restaurant capacity.

In addition, all visitors to the island are required to arrive with a negative COVID-19 test. "Travel restrictions, increased protocols, and management of the COVID-19 situation pose a significant challenge to the reopening of the Caribbean," per Honorable Fedee. Despite a stringent set of protocols in St. Lucia, other islands have struggled with developing these protocols, which has caused a range of confusion for consumers. Per Alex Zozaya, Executive Chairman of Apple Leisure Group, "We should not try and make the protocols a competitive advantage of a destination and of a company. The protocols should be unified, and, currently, they are not." Furthermore, Honorable Fedee noted that the Caribbean Travel Organization (CTO) has been working on generally standardizing protocols for hotels and airports, with some wiggle room for pre-entry testing varying from country to country given the different situations on each island.

Reactivating Air Travel

Unlike other destinations, island destinations are 100% dependent on airlift, as there are no drive-to markets. Delta Air Lines, and many other carriers, restarted air travel concurrent with the borders reopening. St. Thomas and San Juan have had continuous yet reduced service during the pandemic given their territory and commonwealth statuses with the United States.

In the Caribbean, Jamaica was the first island to resume airlift in June, followed by the Bahamas, St. Lucia, Punta Cana, and Aruba in July. Plans are in the works to return to previously served destinations, such as St. Maarten, Bonaire, and Turks & Caicos, depending on demand and, most importantly, government regulations.

Dale McKinney of Global Sales at Delta Air Lines noted that air travel has changed given the impact of the pandemic. "Delta has invested in resources to add layers of protection through the travel journey and to keep surfaces clean, giving customers more space and offering personal care at all points of the journey." With so many travelers concerned about their safety and cleanliness, airlines are working to regain consumer trust with cleanliness protocols and education about the safety inside of an aircraft. "Aircraft air is recirculated every two to five minutes with fresh outside air or through a HEPA filter, which extracts 99.99% of the particles, including viruses such as the coronavirus." Delta is changing HEPA filters, the same filters that are used in hospital rooms, twice as regularly as recommended, and all flights are sanitized before boarding with high-grade spray, all high-touch surfaces are wiped down, and all customers are required to wear masks. Without air travel, the Caribbean would be unable to function; therefore, it is crucial to educate travelers on the cleanliness protocols on all airlines.

The Challenges for Reopening Resorts

The Caribbean region is predominately driven by the leisure segment, which was immediately shut down at the onset of the pandemic in March 2020. As hotels and resorts slowly begin to reopen on an island-by-island basis, some not until late 2020 and into 2021, hoteliers are facing significant reopening challenges, both operationally and financially. Hoteliers now need to have a significant amount of working capital for any reopening expenses and the implementation of new safety and cleanliness protocols. Per Alex Zozaya, "Business has been expensive, and the working capital necessary to reopen the hotels is similar to when the hotel opens from scratch."

In addition to that, the cost of the protocols makes it more expensive to operate. Running all-inclusive hotels with low occupancy becomes a very expensive operation. Mr. Zozaya noted that his resorts are not trying to make money in the short term but are trying to lose as little as possible as they begin to reactivate the industry and encourage travelers to board planes to Caribbean destinations.

Aside from the operational challenges, financial obligations have been a stress point for many owners. Nicholas Hecker, Executive Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer at Sculptor Real Estate, noted that "For assets that had issues going into COVID-19, the pandemic was the nail in the coffin. Many owners had over-leveraged their assets, had ongoing development delays, or were challenged by budget and operational issues; thus, they are now facing significant issues." Both Mr. Zozaya and Mr. Hecker believe that the recovery for the region will be protracted given the issues, but the historical resiliency of the region will shine through.

Closing Thoughts

The Caribbean region has historically displayed resiliency, with strong recoveries from each challenge faced over the last decade, including the global recession in 2009, the impact of the Zika virus in 2016, and the devastation caused by the 2017 hurricane season. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has posed new challenges for the region, including how to unify testing, safely open resorts, and have travelers feel comfortable on airplanes.

The recent spikes of COVID-19 cases in select areas of the United States are negatively affecting the recovery in the short term, and hotel operators are struggling to obtain future bookings. As said best by Mr. Zozaya, "Efforts need to be done between private and public sectors to reactivate the Caribbean in five steps. First, islands need to standardize protocols and speak a common language to avoid confusion. Second, investment needs to be spent in promoting the Caribbean region and uniqueness of each island. Third, operators need to be careful with pricing, as demand levels will take time to rebuild. Fourth, island destinations need to reduce dependency of cruise-ship tourism, and, finally, reduce bureaucracy in the Caribbean to move the recovery faster."

With Thanks

We would like to thank the Honorable Dominic Fedee, Chair of the Caribbean Tourism Organization and Minister of Tourism for St. Lucia; Mr. Alex Zozaya, Executive Chairman of Apple Leisure Group; Mr. Nicholas Hecker, Executive Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer at Sculptor Real Estate; and Mr. Dale McKinney of Global Sales at Delta Air Lines for sharing their valuable insights. For more on their panel discussion, please watch the video below.

CHICOS 2020

Powered by HVS, the Caribbean Hotel Investment Conference & Operations Summit (CHICOS) is the premier industry conference for the region. CHICOS 2020 will welcome governmental representatives, opinion leaders, developers, bankers and other lenders, tourism officials, investment funds, hotel brand executives, individuals/companies seeking investors for their tourism projects, franchise and operations companies, public and private institutions, consultants, advisors, architects, and designersall to discuss the region's markets and possibilities. The 2020 event is slated to take place November 8-10 in Nassau, Bahamas, at The Grand Hyatt Baha Mar. We continue to monitor the ongoing situation and remain optimistic that we will be able to meet in person safely. Updates can be found on the conference website.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 23:22:17|Editor: huaxia

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ISTANBUL, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Turkey on Thursday launched a comprehensive inspection across the country to monitor compliance with the COVID-19 rules.

Police and local officials took to the streets in all the 39 districts in Istanbul to inspect the control measures, Istanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya announced on twitter.

Inspections have been carried out in markets, workplaces, grocers, public transport vehicles, shopping areas, restaurants, cafeterias, commercial taxis, and all other living spaces.

Around 5,000 personnel have taken part in the controls in Istanbul to examine whether the COVID-19 rules, including social distancing, wearing masks, and hygiene, are being implemented.

Meanwhile, inspections were conducted in popular resort towns along the Aegean coast to control the social distancing rule on the beaches, according to press reports.

Turkish people flocking to shores to spend the four-day holiday of Eid al-Adha last week had raised the concerns of health officials over the further surge of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

The total COVID-19 cases reached 236,112 on Wednesday, and the death toll to 5,784, according to the latest official data. Enditem
~Calling for Mingos resignation or forceful removal.~

AIRPORT:--- Almost 100 staff members of the Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIAE) wrote a letter to the Chairman of PJIAE holding Board Dexter Doncher calling on him to either have the Chief Executive Officer Brian Mingo resign or to forcefully removing him from the position.

The staff members outlined a number of grievances they have against CEO Mingo. One of those differences is the late payment of their remuneration for the years 2017 to 2019. The staff stated in their letter that ever since Mingo took office his main attention was to secure funding for the reconstruction of the airport from the World Bank and the European Investment Bank.

Another issue addressed is the alleged sidelining of the Chief Operations Officer Michel Hyman.

The workers also alleged that Mingo has conducted several audits looking to find out if there any type of misspending of money prior to him taking up the CEO position.

Further details of the letter that was also sent to the parliament of St. Maarten can be found below.

SMN News contacted Mingo for a reaction to the 10-page letter however, he said he did not see the letter and as such he will not comment. Mingo said there are a number of persons that were directly involved with PJIAE that are after his position while some politicians are also involved in what he described as a scheme.

Click here to view the letter sent to Doncher and the Parliament of St. Maarten.
German backpackers who were thought to be missing after going on a remote journey a month after their wedding have been found.

Benjamin Kress, 29, and Nathalie Kress, 26, are currently travelling together in the Kimberley region in the north-west of the state.

The couple were last heard from by family friends at 80 Mile Beach between Broome and Port Hedland on July 21.

Benjamin Kress, 29, and Nathalie Kress (pictured together), 26, are currently travelling together in the Kimberley region in the north-west of the state

The couple were last heard from by family friends at 80 Mile Beach between Broome and Port Hedland on July 21

Police put out an alert on Wednesday before they made contact with police to confirm they were alive and well.

A Western Australia Police spokesman confirmed to Daily Mail Australia the couple had been in contact and were safe.

'They phoned police to let us know they were OK,' the spokesman said.

'The pair said they would touch base with the next police station they arrived at as well.'

The 'Gibb' is a 660km stretch of road that travels from Derby on the west coast to Kununurra on the Northern Territory border and is considered one of the most spectacular overland trips in Australia.

The route traverses through amazing waterfalls, rock pools, Indigenous sites, national parks, broad open ranges and dramatic gorges.

A Western Australia Police spokesman confirmed to Daily Mail Australia the couple had been in contact and were safe

Rare flora and fauna can be seen along the scenic roadway along with geological formations with major attractions including the Windjana Gorge National Park, Manning Gorge and King Leopold Ranges.

The roadway is incredibly remote, with accommodation available in various cattle stations along the route.

Only highly experienced four wheel drivers and campers recommended to tackle the challenging terrain.
WASHINGTON - Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill told negotiators for President Donald Trump on Wednesday that preserving funding for the U.S. Postal Service and removing new rules that have slowed delivery times are essential ingredients of a new coronavirus relief bill in a year when millions of Americans plan to vote by mail.

"Elections are sacred," Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters after a meeting with Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. "To do cutbacks when ballots, all ballots, have to be counted - we can't say, 'Oh, we'll get 94 percent of them.' It's insufficient."

Schumer said he and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told DeJoy, along with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, that their demands regarding the Postal Service are necessary to striking a deal on a broader relief bill that may also include new unemployment benefits and a payroll tax cut.

"It was a heated discussion," Schumer said, adding that the demand is a "sine qua non for us. We told that to the postmaster."

DeJoy declined to take questions as he left the Capitol. Meadows suggested that Schumer is looking at the Postal Service as a "fall guy" to blame if ballots are delayed.

"I don't know that it's the postmaster general's position to assure him what's going to happen with the elections," he said.

"It's not a post office problem," Meadows added. "It's a secretary of state problem in each state."

That contradicted a statement from Trump earlier Wednesday, when the president said that part of his opposition to mail balloting is that the USPS is ill prepared to handle it.

"I'm sure the post office doesn't have enough time," Trump said in the Oval Office during a meeting with Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican. "Millions of ballots, all of a sudden, coming out of nowhere."

The exchange over the USPS came on a day when Trump escalated his attacks on mail balloting, announcing a federal lawsuit seeking to block a new Nevada law that expands the practice and promising to scrutinize new rules in other states where officials are scrambling to help voters cast ballots during the coronavirus pandemic.

The lawsuit, filed by the Trump campaign late Tuesday in federal court, offered evidence of the president's growing effort to curtail voting laws in some states while defending the practice elsewhere.

On Wednesday, Trump championed mail balloting in Florida, where he is registered to vote, as well as in Arizona, saying both systems are secure in part because they are controlled by Republicans.

"Nevada has ZERO infrastructure for Mail-In Voting," Trump tweeted Wednesday. "It will be a corrupt disaster if not ended by the Courts. It will take months, or years, to figure out. Florida has built a great infrastructure, over years, with two great Republican Governors. Florida, send in your Ballots!"

Trump lost in Nevada in 2016 by less than three percentage points. His comments about Arizona came during a White House meeting with the state's governor, Ducey.

The president's strategy could further complicate his message on mail balloting, which has shifted in recent days amid growing concern among his own advisers that he has threatened Republican turnout with his blanket attacks on absentee voting.

Now, in addition to arguing without evidence that mail balloting invites widespread fraud, Trump is making the case that the practice is only problematic in those states that do not have substantial experience with absentee voting.

Trump's deputy campaign manager, Justin Clark, said there is nothing contradictory about the president's messaging, which he said is to prevent a "power grab" by Democrats in states that are not prepared to expand mail voting.

Nevada, Clark said, required a robust response because the new law "egregiously" violates the Constitution by sending "live ballots" in a state that's never done that before and by allowing ballots to be cast after Election Day. He promised more litigation "wherever people's rights are infringed."

"It's all about safeguarding free and fair elections," Clark added.

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, declined to comment. But when he signed the legislation on Monday, he defended it as necessary to allow Nevadans to vote without risk of coronavirus infection.

"Nevada is widely recognized as being a leader in election administration, and this bill will enable election officials to continue to support the safest, most accessible election possible under these unprecedented circumstances," the governor said at the time.

Voting rights advocates also defended Nevada's new law, noting that the disqualification of ballots delayed by post office delivery is a far greater risk than a ballot being counted if it is filled out after Election Day.

"People haven't even gotten their absentee ballots in time to return them, or, once they do receive them, they have very little time to get the ballot back," said Sophia Lin Lakin, with the American Civil Liberties Union's Voting Rights Project.

Trump has also claimed that states lack the resources to implement the practice safely or complete counting on election night - and that the U.S. Postal Service won't be able to handle the crush of ballots. Yet the president has done little to help states or the Postal Service avert chaos, even as officials have pleaded for more funding.

"Must know Election results on the night of the Election, not days, months, or even years later!" he tweeted last week.

Meanwhile, Democrats are increasingly focused on new U.S. Postal Service policies put in place by DeJoy, a logistics executive and top Trump donor, that have delayed mail and ensnared prescription medications, pay checks and absentee ballots in days-long backlogs.

The Postal Service has said that the policies are aimed at cutting costs. But postal carriers have warned they are slowing the delivery of mail ballots in key states across the country.

Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which has oversight of the Postal Service, said in an interview Wednesday that he will launch an inquiry into the Postal Service's recent operational "pivot," as the agency has called it, under DeJoy, who took office in July.

The policies bar postal employees from working overtime, a crucial method of resolving staffing shortages during the coronavirus pandemic, and instructs workers to leave mail behind at post offices and processing plants if they run late. Other procedures being piloted at some postal facilities instruct workers to leave the bulk of a day's mail behind to be sorted in the afternoon instead of delivering it the day it was received, according to postal employees and memos obtained by The Washington Post.

The new law in Nevada includes two striking provisions: a requirement that election officials mail a ballot to every active registered voter in the state, and another requiring the counting of ballots with no postmark if they are received up to three days after Election Day.

Only a handful of states will mail ballots directly to all voters this year whether or not they apply for a ballot, and unlike Nevada, most have extensive experience conducting mail elections. In states without up-to-date voter rolls, the practice can lead to ballots being sent to voters who have moved or died, inviting ballot theft or fraud.

Trump's suit cited instances in Nevada's spring primary in which loose ballots were discovered in apartment building mail areas in Las Vegas.

The three states that have been conducting virtually all-mail elections for the longest, Colorado, Washington and Oregon, regularly remove voters from their rolls who have moved or died, and have had tiny rates of potential fraud.

California also plans to send ballots to all active voters this fall. The Republican National Committee initially sued California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, after he sought to make the change through an executive order. But the party dropped the suit after Newsom proposed legislation instead, which he signed into law earlier this summer.

The Trump campaign is challenging other aspects of Nevada's new law, arguing that the postmark rule raises the potential that ballots filled out after Election Day could be counted.

"The only objective indicator of whether voters have timely cast their ballots before Election Day will be whether election officials received them on or before Election Day," the suit argues.

The suit also seeks to block requirements for a minimum number of polling locations on Election Day and during early in-person voting.

Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican, who is named in the lawsuit, declined to comment.

The state's requirement that all ballots with no postmark be counted if they are received by Friday after Election Day is also unusual, given the likelihood that some of those ballots could be cast after Election Day and mailed on Wednesday or Thursday.

The Supreme Court ruled in April, in a case over Wisconsin's election rules, that allowing ballots cast after Election Day to be counted "would fundamentally alter the nature of the election."

The Nevada law also puts a spotlight on a tricky situation facing election officials as more and more Americans say they plan to vote by mail: how to enforce rules allowing the counting of ballots postmarked by Election Day.

Such rules are intended to give voters more time to submit their ballots, and to allow the counting of all ballots that are actually cast by Election Day, even in the event of postal delays.

But the Postal Service doesn't always use postmarks - including on prepaid envelopes, such as those the Nevada law calls for in the November election. By allowing unmarked ballots to be counted up to three days after the election, the law allows ballots to be counted that were cast after Election Day.

Some states with "postmarked-by" rules discard all ballots with no postmark received after Election Day. Some allow such ballots to be counted only if they are received by the next day.

The ongoing legal fights over ballot delivery have increased the pressure on the Postal Service, which has been struggling financially.

Democrats and the White House have been at loggerheads over funds for both the Postal Service and local election officials since April, when USPS leaders forecast dire declines in mail and projected the agency would run out of money by September.

The House passed a $25 billion emergency postal appropriation in its version of the Cares Act, but the Senate whittled the amount down to $13 billion in a bipartisan agreement. The Trump administration intervened to scrap that deal, telling lawmakers Trump would veto the entire package - worth $2 trillion and packed with money for stimulus checks, small-business loans and bailout funds for vital industries - if the final version included a grant to the nation's mail service.

Instead, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin offered a $10 billion loan, to be made on Treasury's terms, and lawmakers took the deal.

The Cares Act also included $400 million in state and local funding for expenditures related to election security, but Democrats including Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., believe a total of $4 billion is needed and are pushing for the remaining $3.6 billion to be included in the new stimulus bill.

- - -

The Washington Post's Erica Werner and Karoun Demirjian contributed to this report.
The state of New York introduced a bill on Wednesday that would make easier for the state to sue companies if they are seen to be unilaterally violating antitrust issues.

The bill comes on the heels of the House's antitrust hearing when Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Alphabet CEO Satya Nadella, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified.

"Our antitrust laws are about a century old and were built for a different economy," Senator Michael Gianaris, D-NY., the sponsor of the bill, told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Thursday. "In some ways, what we're trying to do is match what the federal government has the power to do."

Gianaris was outspoken against Amazon's HQ2 move to Long Island City in 2019, his district, a move that earned him the nickname "The Amazon Killer."

He argued existing antitrust laws aren't equipped to tackle the ways tech companies like Google and Amazon interact with their competition today.

"You have behavior that was not contemplated when this law was originally written," Gianaris said. "No one could see a search engine which could prioritize one's own products over competitors, or incentivizing people or punishing them based on the relationship the search engine has."

"We want to give our Attorney General the power, in this new economy, to stifle anti-competitive behavior that is often the result of a single actor acting alone," Gianaris said.

New York can't currently take action against an anti-competitive move unless two companies are collaborating and conspiring to stifle competition. Those actions typically manifest in price-setting or a merger between two companies.

The proposed bill, titled the 21st Century Antitrust Act, would update those laws, so that legal action can be taken against a company if it's shown to be acting in an anti-competitive manner. It would also allow for class-action lawsuits to be brought against companies.

"Federally, you can bring action for unilateral behavior. We're trying to give New York the tools to do the same thing," Sen. Gianaris said.

The bill would also update the penalties: a violation would be classified as a Class C felony, rather than a Class E felony as it currently stands. The maximum fine would also be changed from $100,000 to $1 million, and the maximum prison sentence from four years to 15 years.

The 21st Century Antitrust Act is unlikely to pass before the end of the year, as the state senate is currently in recess, but it already has the support of New York's Attorney General, Letitia James. "While our state's antitrust laws remain essential to these protections, we support legislation to strengthen them further to meet the challenges of today's economy," James said.
If youve been eager to get your hands on the next big macOS update without having to run a developer build, nows your chance. The public beta of macOS Big Sur is now live.

Apple has redesigned many aspects of the OS this time around, and it has described Big Sur as the biggest upgrade since it introduced Mac OS X. Youll get to try out significant updates to the likes of Messages, Maps and Safari. The latter includes biometric sign-in options for website sign-ins, along with 4K HDR support for Netflix playback. Apple has overhauled the Notifications Center with support for more customizable widgets, while the new-look Control Center takes its cue from iOS.

As ever, since this is a beta, theres an element of risk as there might be some bugs. So be sure to back up all of your data before installing it.
Rating Action: Moody's affirms one and downgrades five CMBS classes of JPMCC 2018-MINN

Global Credit Research - 06 Aug 2020

Approximately $137 million of structured securities affected

New York, August 06, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service, ("Moody's") has affirmed one and downgraded ratings on five classes in J.P. Morgan Chase Commercial Mortgage Securities Trust 2018-MINN ("JPM 2018-MINN"), Commercial Mortgage Pass-Through Certificates, Series 2018-MINN as follows:

Cl. A, Affirmed Aaa (sf); previously on Dec 12, 2018 Definitive Rating Assigned Aaa (sf)

Cl. B, Downgraded to A1 (sf); previously on Dec 12, 2018 Definitive Rating Assigned Aa3 (sf)

Cl. C, Downgraded to Baa2 (sf); previously on Dec 12, 2018 Definitive Rating Assigned A3 (sf)

Cl. D, Downgraded to Ba2 (sf); previously on Dec 12, 2018 Definitive Rating Assigned Baa3 (sf)

Cl. E, Downgraded to B2 (sf); previously on Dec 12, 2018 Definitive Rating Assigned Ba3 (sf)

Cl. F, Downgraded to Caa2 (sf); previously on Dec 12, 2018 Definitive Rating Assigned B3 (sf)

RATINGS RATIONALE

The rating on Cl. A was affirmed because the transaction's key metrics, including Moody's loan-to-value (LTV) ratio, are within acceptable ranges. The ratings on Cl. B, Cl. C, Cl. D., Cl. E, and Cl. F were downgraded due to an increase in Moody's LTV as a result of immediate decline in performance due to the coronavirus outbreak and the uncertainty on the timing of and extent to the recovery. We have assumed a significant drop in net cash flow (NCF) in 2020, followed by two or more years of improvement in the loan performance, resulting in a lower than previously assumed Moody's NCF levels. The subject property's heavy reliance on group segment (69%) will delay the recovery timing compared to those that cater to leisure and individual corporate traveler.

The rapid spread of the coronavirus outbreak, the government measures put in place to contain it and the deteriorating global economic outlook, have created a severe and extensive credit shock across sectors, regions and markets. Our analysis has considered the effect on the performance of commercial real estate from the collapse in US economic activity in the second quarter and a gradual recovery in the second half of the year. However, that outcome depends on whether governments can reopen their economies while also safeguarding public health and avoiding a further surge in infections. As a result, the degree of uncertainty around our forecasts is unusually high. We regard the coronavirus outbreak as a social risk under our ESG framework, given the substantial implications for public health and safety. Stress on commercial real estate properties will be most directly stemming from declines in hotel occupancies (particularly related to conference or other group attendance) and declines in foot traffic and sales for non-essential items at retail properties.

Story continues

FACTORS THAT WOULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OR DOWNGRADE OF THE RATINGS:

The performance expectations for a given variable indicate Moody's forward-looking view of the likely range of performance over the medium term. Performance that falls outside the given range can indicate that the collateral's credit quality is stronger or weaker than Moody's had previously expected.

Factors that could lead to an upgrade of the ratings include a significant amount of pool paydowns or amortization, an increase in defeasance or an improvement in loan performance.

Factors that could lead to a downgrade of the ratings include a decline in the performance of the loan or increase in interest shortfalls.

METHODOLOGY UNDERLYING THE RATING ACTION

The principal methodology used in these ratings was "Moody's Approach to Rating Large Loan and Single Asset/Single Borrower CMBS" published in May 2020 and available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBS_1227875. Alternatively, please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.

DEAL PERFORMANCE

As of the July 15, 2020 distribution date, the transaction's aggregate certificate balance remains unchanged at $180 million from securitization. The 5-year (including three one-year extensions), interest only, floating rate loan is secured by leasehold interests in the Hilton Minneapolis.

The property is an AAA Four Diamond rated full-service hotel with approximately 60,500 SF of meeting and event space with a 24,780 SF grand ballroom, the largest ballroom in the state of Minnesota. It's also the largest hotel in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area in terms of room count (821 guestrooms) and meeting space. The hotel caters to large groups as well as accommodate spillover needs and room demand for the Minneapolis Convention Center located three block away. The property was constructed in 1992 and is subject to a 100- year ground lease with the City of Minneapolis expiring in October 2091. However, starting 2019, the property was not obligated to pay any ground rent for the duration of the ground lease.

The property's 2019 NCF was approximately $16.8 MM, up from $14.3 MM in 2018 mostly due to expiration of payment-in-lieu of taxes (PILOT). In January 2019 and thereafter, the sponsor is obligated to make normal real estate tax payments based on the assessed value as there is no ground rent liability. Since 1993, the subject property has made a consolidated PILOT to the City of Minneapolis that covers both the scheduled ground lease payment and the subject's real estate tax liability. However, for full year 2020 NCF, we expect a significant drop due to coronavirus outbreak induced property closures and travel restrictions as well as cancellation of groups that will more than outweigh any gains in cash-flows from the expiration of the PILOT. Due to the length and the magnitude of the disruption, we do not expect large hotels that cater to group demand and convention business to return to pre-COVID levels within the next 24 to 36 months, and the pace of recovery to vary depending on the property's market segment and location.

The loan status is 90+ days delinquent as of the July distribution date and there is outstanding cumulative advances of approximately $5.0 million. The first mortgage balance of $180 million represents a Moody's stabilized LTV of 177%. Moody's first mortgage stressed debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) is 0.66X. However, these metrics are based on return of group demand which would lag segments such as leisure and individual corporate transient travel. The downgrades take into account volatility and uncertainty of the loan's performance and the longer recovery anticipated of large group demand. There is outstanding interest shortfalls totaling $88,751 affecting Cl. HRR and no losses as of the current distribution date.

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.

The analysis includes an assessment of collateral characteristics and performance to determine the expected collateral loss or a range of expected collateral losses or cash flows to the rated instruments. As a second step, Moody's estimates expected collateral losses or cash flows using a quantitative tool that takes into account credit enhancement, loss allocation and other structural features, to derive the expected loss for each rated instrument.

Moody's did not use any stress scenario simulations in its analysis.

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.

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.

EunJee EJ Park VP - Senior Credit Officer Structured 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 Deryk Meherik Senior Vice President/Manager Structured 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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Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green attend a screening of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" in 2014. (Andreas Rentz / Getty Images)

There's an achingly awkward love triangle playing out on Instagram right now.

And in case there was any doubt, actor Brian Austin Green for sure saw estranged wife Megan Fox's public declaration of love for new beau, Machine Gun Kelly. But instead of giving it a double tap, he savagely clapped back.

The "Beverly Hills, 90210" alum's response was prompted Wednesday by a nearly nude selfie that Fox posed for with MGK. In the snapshot, shared with her 9 million followers, she and the rapper posed side by side wearing little more than towels. She captioned the shot: "Achingly Beautiful Boy... My heart is yours."

Green apparently saw the post and didn't want to miss out on the action. He posted a nearly identical caption on his account, but with pictures of the former couple's three sons  Noah Shannon, 7, Bodhi Ransom, 6, and Journey River, 3  as well as an image of his son Kassius, 18, whom he shares with ex Vanessa Marcil.

"Achingly beautiful boys...... My heart is yours," the actor quipped.

Wednesday's posts align with Kelly's from last week further parading his and Fox's romance, which reportedly began last May. The two met on the set of their upcoming film, "Midnight in the Switchgrass," which is filming in Puerto Rico, they said in a joint interview last month.

The "Transformers" actress and Green have been linked since meeting in 2004. They married in 2010 but have separated on and off since. They seemingly called it quits for good last year.

In a recent podcast, Green said he became complacent in his marriage and asked fans not to vilify Fox or Kelly. However, fans ate up his Wednesday post with comments that varied from praise for his good humor to an epic burn and claims of severe pettiness.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Several Muslim organisations, including the All India Muslim Personal Law Board and Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, said Prime Minister Narendra Modis participation in Ram Mandir shilanayas ceremony on Wednesday was a violation of the Constitution of India.

Questioning Modis participation in the event, they called it a violation of Indias secular ethos. The way the event was organised and telecast from the site will deepen the polarisation between communities, said senior Muslim leaders.

The resources of the government were being utilised with impunity, said the organisations. It called the Supreme Court verdict on Babri Masjid as a festering wound for the community and the nation. The leadership appealed to the Muslim community to remain patient and wise as it has been in the past.

The Babri masjid was a masjid and will always remain a masjid - is our present position and shall remain so in the future too, the statement said.

We have been appealing to the conscience of the people in the past and shall continue to do so... We hope that the people with conscience in our country shall not condone this tendency of violating the secular ethos of our nation, it added.

The organisations said that it was unfortunate that despite the Supreme Court giving evidence in favour of the mosque, ruled in favour of the temple. However, Muslims have respected the verdict, said the Muslim leaders.

Representatives from Muslim Ittehad Parishad, All India Muslim Majlis Mushawarat, All India Milli Council, All India Shia Council, Jamiat Ulema Hind, Delhi, and Zafarul Islam Khan, a former chairperson at Delhi Minorities Commission, among others signed the statement.
Carel Richter, the Netherlands Consul General and newly appointed Dean of the Consular Corps in Ho Chi Minh City

You have just assumed the position of Dean of the Consular Corps in Ho Chi Minh City. How do you feel about your tasks at this important organisation?

It is an honour to be appointed as the new Dean of the Consular Corps in Ho Chi Minh City and I hope to meet the expectations of the diplomatic community and the local authorities.

Before, the Hungarian Consul General, Tibor Baloghni did an excellent job and I look forward to sustaining the work that he did.

Apart from the official tasks, the Consular Corps is also a platform for cooperation, sharing ideas, and dialogue. I will do my best to facilitate this platform and suggest relevant content.

What are your interests in the development of trade, investment, and diplomatic relation between Ho Chi Minh City and the members of Consular Corps? Which fields should be focused on regarding the partnership between the Ho Chi Minh City government and the international community?

Ho Chi Minh City is a dynamic financial hub with a fast-growing economy with its opportunities and challenges. With more than 50 representatives of countries present here, it shows us how important Ho Chi Minh City is to the world.

Having said that, the city has been affected by the COVID-19 crisis, not only from the local but also from the international market perspective.

The Consular Corps is a unique and important platform for countries that have a special relationship with Ho Chi Minh City to exchange knowledge, complement each other when it comes to cooperation, and in finding drivers for much-needed socioeconomic recovery because of the COVID-19 crisis.

I will do my best to bring together all the members of the Consular Corps who have a wealth of knowledge and capacity to boost cooperation and business in Ho Chi Minh City.

How can we strengthen the relationship between Vietnam and members of the consular corps in Ho Chi Minh City in the coming year?

The relationship between Ho Chi Minh City and the representatives of the Consular Corps has always been very constructive and solid. I want to build on that strong fundament.

Today, this platform of dialogue and cooperation is even more important due to the big socioeconomic challenges.

As there are representatives from all over the world sitting at the table, there is a wealth of knowledge, economic power, and cooperation opportunities for Ho Chi Minh City, and I will try to help bring all these important world players together to find solutions to the existing and new challenges and capitalise on emerging opportunities. I am looking forward to it!
Rolls-Royce signs MoU for mya platform

 Major industry player joins initiative for digital data integration  Goal is to optimize fleet and asset management service for customers

Andreas Schell, CEO of Rolls-Royce business unit Power Systems, and Dr. Uwe Lauber, CEO of MAN Energy Solutions, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on mya, the open asset-and-fleet-management-system enabling the integration of Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), asset owner and operator data across the marine, power and energy industries, among others. Dr. Uwe Lauber said: Im very happy that a major player such as Rolls-Royce has chosen to join the mya organisation and to support the platforms development. With the launch of mya, we want to reduce complexity for our customers, and other OEMs alike, and to lower the hurdles for getting payback from data. Members of mya will have the opportunity to access all of their digital assets via a single interface that integrates all data-streams from OEMs, asset owners and operators and enables a complete system-view. Andreas Schell added: Our mission is to work together to further develop and promote the mya platform in support of our own digital products and services. Using mya technology, we'll be able to provide data for our customers within a single platform. And we're very keen to move forward on this because we see it as a major milestone in our development. At the same time, this initiative can only take off if other suppliers and industry actors also decide to join up. The hope is that other providers, customers and industry actors will participate in the development and use of the platform. Per Hansson, Head of Digital and Strategy at MAN Energy Solutions, said: Solution providers offer a plethora of digital solutions for system-performance optimisation, resulting in a complicated, uncoordinated view of the various equipment that vessel and plant operators maintain. Essentially, mya helps solve this problem by simplifying the retrieval of relevant data from these solutions. Jurgen Winterholler, Vice-President of Digital IT at the Rolls-Royce business unit Power Systems, explained: It is our goal to have the best fleet and asset management service for our customers based on the highest data security standards. We will focus on delivering this service through our MTU Go! platform, by cooperating with mya to set standards across the industry. We are endeavoring to build an open, collaborative culture where asset related data can be shared easily and securely between organisations and companies. We feel the day of technology vendors and manufactures trying to lock customers into their proprietary digital platforms by holding data hostage, is over.




A doctor posted at a Covid-19 Care Centre of Govind Ballabh Panth (GBP), the only dedicated Covid-19 hospital in Tripura, was suspended on Tuesday. The move invited protests from the doctors and medical staff.

Dr Uttam Bhattacharjee, an assistant professor of Ophthalmology department of the Agartala Government Medical College (AGMC), was suspended under sub-rule (I) of Rule 10 of the Central Civil Service (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1965 and a disciplinary action is contemplated against him, according to an order served by joint secretary Debasish Das. Dr Bhattacharjee was asked not to leave the capital city without permission of the concerned authority.

Doctors from Indian Medical Association (IMA), Tripura chapter, AGMC Teachers Forum and All Tripura Government Doctors Association (ATGDA) termed the suspension as unjustified. They demanded immediate withdrawal of the suspension order.

We dont know why Dr Bhattacharjee was suspended. But this kind of decision is an attack on the medical community. His suspension is unjustified, said Dr Rajesh Choudhury, secretary of ATGDA.

However, he added that there was a rumour that Dr Bhattacharjee was suspended in connection to a recent visit of a legislator to the Covid care centre. We have heard about the rumour. But we dont know whether it is true or not, he said.

A case was lodged against BJP legislator Sudip Roy Barman for entering a Covid care centre in Agartala on Sunday without any authorisation and thus violating Epidemic Diseases Act and under Section 3 of Tripura Medical Service and Protection of Property Damage Act.

Dr Bhattacharjee could not be contacted for his reaction, but an official of hospital claimed that he is yet to receive his suspension order.

Moreover, Dr Bhattacharjee was on duty at the Covid care centre entire day on Sunday, the official said on the condition of anonymity.
A Chinese city has built a highway bridge around a tiny house after its owner refused to sell it to the government for a decade.

The building is one of many examples of 'nail houses' in China - or 'dingzihu' in Mandarin - where homeowners reject compensation from a developer for its demolition.

Footage released by local media shows the property tightly wedged between two wings of the newly opened Haizhuyong Bridge in the metropolis of Guangzhou in Guangdong province.

Footage released by local media shows the so-called 'nail house' situated in a pit in the middle of the newly opened Haizhuyong Bridge in the city of Guangzhou in Guangdong province

The owner said she had not agreed to move because the government had failed to offer her a replacement property in an ideal location. An insider claimed she had demanded four flats

The one-storey house contains a 40-square-metre (430-square-foot) flat and is situated in a pit in the middle of the four-lane traffic link, according to Guangdong TV station.

The owner, known by her surname Liang, said she had not agreed to move because the government had failed to offer her a replacement property in an ideal location.

She added that she was happy to deal with the consequences and did not mind what other people thought of her.

'You think this environment is poor, but I feel it's quiet, liberating, pleasant and comfortable,' she claimed.

The building is one of many examples of 'nail houses' in China - or 'dingzihu' in Mandarin

Officials earmarked the plot on Huandao Road for demolition in 2010 to build the bridge

An insider told the station that Ms Liang had demanded the government give her four apartments, but the government had only agreed to two.

According to another interview recorded by Pear Video, she claimed the government had offered her substitute accommodation next to a morgue, and that was why she hadn't settled.

The 'nail house' has sparked an internet sensation in China after footage and images of it emerged on social media.

The government of Haizhu district said on Thursday that officials earmarked the plot on Huandao Road for demolition in 2010 to build the Haizhuyong Bridge, reported Guangzhou Daily.

The 'nail house' (left) has sparked an internet sensation in China after footage and images of it emerged on social media. Residents of Guangzhou have flocked to take pictures of it (right)

Ms Liang is the only person out of a total of 47 households and seven firms that still lives there. All of the others had moved away by last September, officials said.

Authorities claimed to have offered the resident many flat candidates as well as cash compensation schemes, but she had rejected them all.

They added that engineers had studied the relevant safety issues before constructing the overpass.

The government promised to carry on communicating with Ms Liang.
Customs authorities on Thursday sought to allay fears over safety regarding the storage of nearly 700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate at a container freight station near Chennai.

The storage became a cause for serious concern in the backdrop of the explosion of the chemical in the Lebanese capital city of Beirut on Tuesday, which killed 135 people and injured around 4,000.

The chemical worth Rs 1.80 crore was seized from a Tamil Nadu-based importer in 2015 who had allegedly declared it as fertiliser grade although it was an explosive grade, a Customs official said.

But the consignment, imported from South Korea, was safe and an e-auction process was on to clear it, he said.

Later on Thursday, the Customs Department said the e-auction has been completed. "The disposal process of the cargo taken promptly and e-auction has already been completed. The disposal will be done within a short period following all safety measures," it said.

Meanwhile, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs has directed field offices to verify within 48 hours that all explosive materials lying in Customs warehouses and ports meet safety and fire standards and pose no danger to people's lives.

"CBIC has urgently directed Customs and field formations to immediately confirm and verify within 48 hours that any hazardous and explosive material lying in warehouses and ports across the country meets all safety and fire standards and presents no danger to life and property," the CBIC said in a tweet.

The Customs' clarification comes in the wake of reports that huge quantities of the chemical substance being stored in Chennai could be a risk even as political party Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) asked the government to ensure its safe disposal.

"The goods are safe and pose no danger," said a senior Customs department official when asked about the fears of safety in the backdrop of the devastating Beirut explosion.

On condition of anonymity, the official said the sleuths in November 2015 had seized 697 tonnes of ammonium nitrate in 37 containers valued at Rs 1.80 crore from the importer.

"The importer had misdeclared the goods as ammonium nitrate of fertiliser grade whereas on examination it was found to be of explosive grade and that (the importer) had not followed the Ammonium Nitrate Rules, 2012," he said.

The containers were seized and have been since lying at a container freight station in the city while the licence of the importer had been cancelled.

While seven tonnes of the chemical got spoiled during the deluge in December 2015, the remaining 690 tonnes were under process of e-auctioning, he said.

Earlier on Thursday, PMK founder S Ramadoss urged the government to take immediate steps to safely dispose of the ammonium nitrate, saying a possible Beirut-like incident should be avoided.

Expressing concern over the reported huge quantity of the seized chemical kept at the freight station here since 2015, he said the uncleared substance could be a risk and that it should be safely disposed of and utilised for purposes like composting.

Tuesday's explosion in Lebanon's port city of Beirut killed 135 people and injured about 4,000. Buildings were damaged for miles around the city after 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive chemical used in fertilisers, stored at the facility for six years, reportedly caused the explosion.

(With inputs from PTI)
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Linkedin News Desk (Reuters) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia  Thu, August 6, 2020 22:29 530 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c25b93 2 SE Asia Malaysia,graft-suspect,corruption-case Free

Malaysia's former finance minister Lim Guan Eng was arrested on Thursday in connection with corruption allegations over a $1.5 billion undersea tunnel project, state news agency Bernama reported.

Lim, a senior opposition leader, will be charged in court on Friday, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission said in a statement, although it did not immediately comment on the arrest.

His arrest follows a months-long investigation into graft allegations over an undersea tunnel project in the state of Penang, which he led as chief minister from 2008 until his appointment as finance minister in 2018.

Lim was part of the Mahathir Mohamad-led administration that collapsed in February.

He was one of the key leaders from the Mahathir administration who was involved in Malaysia's efforts to recover billions allegedly stolen from state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

In 2016, Lim was charged with two counts of abuse of power for approving a land deal and in the purchase of a bungalow at a below market price, a move critics said was part of a crackdown on those opposed to then Prime Minister Najib Razak's administration.

The charges were dismissed after Najib was ousted in the 2018 election by the Mahathir-led coalition.
Newspaper political endorsements are almost meaningless in the internet era, but this one is different. The StarTribune is the largest newspaper in Minnesota and s with almost all metropolitan dailies, the Strib is progressive and supports Democrats. The paper has distinguished itself by largely ignoring the many irregularities in the personal and political history of Rep. Ilhan Omar, who represents Minneapolis, where the paper is located.

Scott Johnson of Powerline has distinguished himself with his best-in-the-nation coverage of Omars scandals and the abandonment of most of these stories by her districts largest newspaper.

The abdication of the Star Tribune is perhaps the most notable element of this whole matter. The papers most read story of 2019 documented the deep fraudulence and dishonesty on which Omars career is predicated, yet the Star Tribunes coverage of the primary race and related issues has been cursory at best. Minneapolis is at a tipping point and yet the papers editorial voice has remained silent on the madness in the DFL, of which Omar is the foremost proponent. The editors dont want to be hated by Omars hateful fans. They want to be liked. Their cowardice is total.

Id like to think that Scotts truthful accusation stung the papers editors, but perhaps it is just their inability to stomach her channeling of vast amounts of campaign cash to her third husband whose firm serves as her campaign consultant and books its advertising, on which healthy commissions are paid. But whatever the reason, the paper has just endorsed her primary opponent in the lection slated for next Tuesday.

The DFL primary contest between first-term Rep. Ilhan Omar and Antone Melton-Meaux for Minnesotas Fifth Congressional District has become one of the fiercest in the country. After careful consideration and interviews with both, the Star Tribune Editorial Board recommends Melton-Meaux, a first-time candidate with strong progressive values that align well with the district, as well as consensus-building skills honed as a professional mediator. Melton-Meaux brings a different sensibility to this race, one grounded in helping resolve disputes to move forward  a skill this country is much in need of. His thoughtful approach holds out the promise of building common ground. Whether its health care, criminal justice or affordable housing, Melton-Meaux appears progressive, but pragmatic. While Omar wants to lead a movement, Melton-Meaux seeks to serve the Fifth District. On law enforcement, Melton-Meaux told the Editorial Board regarding the death of George Floyd: Ive had my own issues with police, even being detained as a law student by two white officers. I know that could have been a knee on my neck but for a few circumstances. But instead of Omars calls to defund and even dismantle the police, Melton-Meaux would work to create a system in which police are held accountable for their actions.

The editors cite other issues with Omars radicalism:

On health care, Omar and Melton-Meaux both support universal coverage. How they get there differs. Omar supports the purist proposal championed by Sen. Bernie Sanders that would dramatically shift the entire system to the federal government. Melton-Meaux more pragmatically builds on the Affordable Care Act by embracing the logical next step, a public option that would offer a government-run insurance program for consumers to voluntarily choose.

The editors generalize Omars extremism (my word, not theirs) and inability to compromise:

There are many ways to fight for change, few of them easy when tackling entrenched systems and interests. Omar says she will fight hard for big ideas. But the point of the fight, after all, is the change. And that often requires the ability to forge alliances and persuade.

They also note what they gingerly term her comments on Israel widely regarded as anti-Semitic.

Omars 2018 victory launched her into the national spotlight as the first Muslim woman and first refugee elected to Congress. But her time has been marred by missteps, including remarks on Israel widely regarded as anti-Semitic, an outsized number of missed votes, and campaign-finance issues.

And they use a spokesman for Melton-Meaux to raise the awkward question of Omars self-enrichment via campaign donations:

Lee Hayes, a spokesman for Melton-Meauxs campaign, [had] a chance to note that Omar has sent more than $1.6 million to her husbands D.C. political consulting firm, E Street Group, and is herself the target of a Federal Election Commission complaint regarding travel expenses.

Omar constant evasions of responsibility and embrace of victim status are also noted.

In the Editorial Board interview, Omar took little responsibility for her rocky start, instead largely blaming her critics and saying her failing was perhaps in not realizing what a special unicorn she would be in Congress.

Will the endorsement make a difference? My guess is that on its own, it will not. But it may well represent a widely held view among the voters of Minnesotas Fifth District that Omar is an embarrassment, too slippery, self-righteous, and dodgy to represent the district in such a high-profile manner. Then there is the issue of the vast destruction wreaked on some of the poorer neighborhoods of Minneapolis following the death of George Floyd. Have some voters had enough of radicalism?

Unfortunately, the district is so far left that the very appealing Republican running for the seat has no chance at all. As Powerlines Johnson notes:

The Fifth District is at least a D+26 district. Whoever wins the DFL primary on August 11, I am sorry to say, will win election to Congress on election day in November.

Fellow Squad member Rashida Tlaib won re-nomination in her primary election last Tuesday by a 20 point margin, as compared to her narrow primary victory in 2018, evidence that the Democrat electorate has moved leftward. So, if Omar is defeated next Tuesday it will be on the basis her of shadiness in politics and her personal life. While I am anxi9us to see her defeated, I am not terribly hopeful.
- The growth of the building & construction industry is one of the significant factors influencing the market growth

- Market Size - USD 13.81 Billion in 2019, Market Growth - CAGR of 5.3%, Market Trends - Increasing demand from emerging nations in the APAC region

NEW YORK, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Global Plasticizers Market is expected to reach USD 20.96 Billion by 2027, according to a new report by Reports and Data. Plasticizers find widespread usage in the production of vinyl flexible or polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and are pliant. It finds extensive applications in various products in hospitals, homes, businesses, and cars. It is extensively used for softening vinyl due to its stability, durability, and robust performance. Due to its strength, durability, and ability to withstand high temperatures, it is used in resilient flooring, PVC coatings, and wall coverings, among others. Factors like the expansion of the construction and automotive sectors and the escalating necessity for flexible PVC are fostering the growth of the sector.

Factors like the expansion of the construction sector and the escalating necessity for flexible PVC is supporting the sector growth. The construction sector is a significant contributor to the increase in the sales of the plasticizers attributed to the continuous expansion of the construction sector and the diverse applicability of this plasticizer in this industry, like in wire & cable and flooring & wall coverings.

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Though various supporting factors are propelling the industry growth, adverse market factors like strict regulatory norms about the usage of plasticizers may hinder market growth.

COVID-19 Impact Analysis

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a significant impact on the plasticizer industry. Demand for the product is suffering severe shocks across various end-use markets, worldwide supply chains are upset, and the competitive order of manufacturers/producers has witnessed a change. The shortage of demand has fast-tracked the global chemical sector into an oversupply situation. Movement restrictions appear to be a direct and immediate effect, and once the compulsory social distancing ends, it is expected things would get back to normal conditions.

To identify the key trends in the industry, click on the link below:

https://www.reportsanddata.com/report-detail/plasticizers-market

Further key findings from the report suggest

By type, phthalate plasticizers contributed to a larger market share in 2019. Phthalates segment is attributed to the rising demand for PVC in various industries where it finds applicability in plasticizing PVC. Its traits like durability and permanency result in its extensive use in applications like wires/cables, automobile applications, and roofing, which also contributes to the market share held by this segment.

By distribution channel, the offline segment held a larger market share in 2019. The polyglycolic acid industry is very offline-intensive and witnesses transparency. The offline channel necessitates the requirement of substantial investment of time by the buyer and high selling costs, along with considerable knowledge of the market on the seller side.

By application, the film & sheet segment is projected to witness the fastest growth rate of 6.1% during the forecast period. The growth rate seen by the Film & Sheet segment is associated with the continuous expansion of the e-commerce sector, growing food & beverage industry that is resulting in rising demand for these plasticizers for packaging purposes contributing to the growth rate witnessed by this segment.

The market in the Asia Pacific region dominated the market in 2019 and is likely to grow at the fastest rate of 5.9% in the forecast period. This is owing to the swift urbanization, development of infrastructure projects, and the robust growth of the automotive and construction industry in this region. Furthermore, the surging demand for the product from the packaging, and consumer goods industry is estimated to spur the market growth in the region.

region dominated the market in 2019 and is likely to grow at the fastest rate of 5.9% in the forecast period. This is owing to the swift urbanization, development of infrastructure projects, and the robust growth of the automotive and construction industry in this region. Furthermore, the surging demand for the product from the packaging, and consumer goods industry is estimated to spur the market growth in the region. Key participants include BASF, ExxonMobil, Evonik Industries, UPC Technology, Eastman, LG Chem, Aekyung Petrochemical, Lanxess AG, Polyone Corporation, and Shandong Hongxin Chemicals, among others.

In July 2017 , BASF, a leading market player, had started the manufacturing of Palatinol DOTP plasticizer at its Texas facility. The focus of this expansion was to cater to the growing requirements phthalate plasticizers in the North American region.

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For the purpose of this report, Reports and Data has segmented the Global Plasticizers Market on the basis of type, distribution channel, application, and region:

Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Million; 2017-2027)

Phthalate Plasticizers

Non-Phthalate Plasticizers

Distribution Channel Outlook (Revenue, USD Million; 2017-2027)

Online

Offline

Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Million; 2017-2027)

Flooring & Wall Covering

Wire & Cable

Coated Fabrics

Consumer Goods

Film & Sheet

Others

Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million; 2017-2027)

North America

U.S



Canada

Europe

Germany



U.K



France



Benelux



Rest of Europe

Asia Pacific

China



India



Japan



South Korea



Rest of Asia Pacific

Latin America

Brazil



Rest of Latin America

Middle East and Africa

and Saudi Arabia



UAE



Rest of Middle East and Africa

Browse more similar reports on Materials and Chemicals category by Reports And Data

Polyglycolic Acid Market: https://www.reportsanddata.com/report-detail/polyglycolic-acid-market

Trivalent Chromium Finishing Market: https://www.reportsanddata.com/report-detail/trivalent-chromium-finishing-market

Silica Gel Market: https://www.reportsanddata.com/report-detail/silica-gel-market

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As COVID-19 runs rampant across the world, the World Health Organizations surge team arrived in South Africa to help the country to battle the ongoing pandemic. The country has recorded a total of 530,000 cases, the fifth-highest in the world, and reported nearly 9,298 fatalities.

As per several international reports, WHO has deployed a surge team of 43 experts from various fields to help South Africa in containing the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak. In a recent statement, WHO stated that the first 17 health experts will be arriving on August 6. The team of 17 health experts includes key experts from epidemiology, surveillance, case management, infection, prevention and control, procurement, as well as community mobilization and health education.

One of the experts is Dr David Heymann, an infectious disease epidemiologist and public health expert. He has also headed the response to the SARS epidemic in 2003, working with his team to combat the spread of the pandemic. As per several reports, the deployment of experts came after discussions with the countrys health ministry. The surge team will observe the health departments response management to the ongoing crisis.

They will also overlook how the countrys health department is supporting state COVID-19 activities. The surge team will also offer support in four of the worst-affected states: Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, Kwazulu Natal, and Mpumalanga. Reportedly, the country's health minister Zweli Mkwize recently said that the cases in Gauteng, Western Cape, and Eastern Cape have slowed down in recent weeks, but it's too soon to say if the nation has reached its peak.

Read: COVID-19 Infects 24,000 Health Workers In South Africa Including 181 Fatalities

Read: South Africa Sees Dip In New Virus Cases But Warns Of Return

Current situation in South Africa and worldwide

According to several reports, ever since the pandemic hit the country, unions have prompted fears over the safety and availability in hospitals. They have also raised concerns about the quality of the service that the medical outlets are providing to its citizens. Reports suggest that the overall caseload has risen rapidly in the country in the past few weeks. However, the daily increase has slowed down.

South Africa has been the first epi-center for COVID-19 in Africa, and health experts have warned that the rest of the continent may see a similar outbreak of the virus. Meanwhile, the coronavirus cases worldwide have surpassed 18.5 million and now stand at 18,635,877. The death toll globally has topped 700,000, recording 702,903 deaths. The US, which is the worst-affected nation by the virus, accounts for 157,690 of these fatalities.

Read: Virus Keeps Tourists From Africa's Great Wildlife Migration

Read: In Africa, Stigma Surrounding Coronavirus Hinders Response

(Image credit: AP)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 09:39:40|Editor: huaxia

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WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday the United States would present a resolution in the United Nations Security Council next week to extend an international arms embargo on Iran despite lukewarm support for the bid.

"We're not going to let the arms embargo expire on Oct. 18 of this year," Pompeo said at a press briefing.

He also threatened to trigger the snapback mechanism in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal to reimpose UN sanctions against Tehran.

Despite his threats, the United States appears to be isolated on the issue. Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, said in late June that the United States is no longer a participant of the Iran nuclear deal, thus has no right to trigger the snapback mechanism at the Security Council.

Foreign ministers of Britain, France, and Germany also noted in June that they would not support any unilateral attempt to trigger UN sanctions snapback.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last month that any attempts to extend the arms embargo against Iran indefinitely are illegitimate.

Under UN Security Council Resolution 2231, the arms embargo will be lifted this October. Tehran said it would not accept a renewal of the embargo. Enditem
Tamil Nadu's Directorate of Government Examinations (DGE) is expected to announce the Tamil Nadu SSLC class 10th results 2020 in a few days. Tamil Nadu Minister of Education K.A Sengottaiyan on Wednesday (August 5) said that all steps are being taken to provide the examination results of the 10th class students as soon as possible.

Once declared, the results will be available on DGE's official websites - dge.tn.gov.in, dge1.tn.nic.in, tnresults.nic.in. The results will also be displayed on alternative websites like - dge2.tn.nic.in, manabadi.co.in, schools9.com.

Here's how you can check your 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

The Tamil Nadu SSLC Result 2020 will also be accessed via an app. In order to access the results via the app the students will have 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.

The Tamil Nadu Class 10 exams that held between March 27 to April 13 and around 9 lakh students appeared for the exam.

The Tamil Nadu's DGE has decided that 80% weightage will be given to marks in quarterly and half-yearly assessment tests, 20% weightage will be given to attendance. It may be recalled that Tamil Nadu Board Class 12 Results 2020 was announced on July 16.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- While hundreds of thousands of Ohioans remain out of work, the state saw a drop in both new and continued unemployment claims in the latest weekly jobless data, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

Ohio reported 25,952 initial unemployment claims filed over the past week and 404,334 continued unemployment claims. Thats compared to 27,415 initial and 423,452 continued from last week, or a drop of around 5% for each.

Continued unemployment claims are for anyone whos filed a weekly claim more than once, while initial claims measure those who are filling the first time.

Meanwhile, initial unemployment claims nationwide came in at nearly 1.2 million, compared to roughly 1.4 million the week before, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Continued claims were 16.1 million, a decrease of 844,000 from the week before. The new numbers were better than economists expected, according to CNBC.

The newest numbers, reported Thursday, are the first to come out since enhanced federal unemployment benefits expired. The federal share, which had been worth $600 a week, lapsed at the end of July as the federal CARES act expired. The Democrat-controlled House and Republican-led Senate are currently negotiating over whether to pass a second stimulus bill.

Some Republicans, including Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, have argued the $600 in unemployment provides a disincentive for people to return to their jobs. Portman instead has proposed a temporary $450 weekly bonus good for six weeks for those who go back to work. Meanwhile, Ohio Democrats say the $600 isnt enough, with Niles Rep. Tim Ryan proposing a $2,000 payment until employment numbers are back to pre-COVID numbers.

Overall, nearly 1.6 million Ohioans have filed for unemployment claims over the past 20 weeks, as the coronavirus pandemic led state officials to close businesses and take other steps to restrict state residents daily lives. Thats more than the previous four years combined, according to state officials.
She is back in the UK after recently enjoying an idyllic holiday to St Tropez.

And upon her return, Georgia Harrison headed for dinner with her gal pals at celebrity hotspot Sheesh in Chigwell, Essex, on Wednesday night.

The former Love Island contestant, 25, showcased her svelte frame in a corset-style crop top, which highlighted her assets and teased her honed midriff.

Stepping out: Georgia Harrison headed for dinner with her gal pals at celebrity hotspot Sheesh in Chigwell, Essex, on Wednesday night

She styled the look with a pair of showstopping glitzy flares, which had been completely adorned with sequins and teamed with bejewelled stilettos.

The Celebrity Ex On The Beach starlet heavily accessorised her evening attire with a pearl headband, hoop earrings and a delicate necklace.

She wore her locks swept back in the headband, but kept them loose as they cascaded down her back, while also sporting a heavy coat of make-up

Wow! The former Love Island contestant, 25, showcased her svelte frame in a corset-style crop top, which highlighted her assets and teased her honed midriff

Georgia toted her night out essentials in an eye-catching Gucci bag, as she added a designer edge to her glamorous ensemble.

Georgia's trip away came after she revealed she was made homeless at one point during her late teens when she lived in Marbella.

Speaking to The Sun about her experience last month, she said: 'I was living in Marbella with a friend and this guy who would have really crazy parties with strangers coming in and out of our room in the night. It was scary.

Sensational: She styled the look with a pair of showstopping glitzy flares, which had been completely adorned with sequins and teamed with bejewelled stilettos

'In the end after a massive argument we had to leave but we had just given him a whole month's rent. We didn't have enough money to live somewhere else, so we literally moved into my car.

'We had to wash in a nearby hotel. At one point security even caught us and said "we know you don't stay here" and they chased us out, it was crazy.

Adding: 'I would go to work in a club all night, it was so stressful. One time I came back to the car to sleep and it had been towed with everything we owned inside.

'That's the point I was at but I turned my whole life around within a year.'

The TV personality said she ended up using a self-help book, The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, to turn her life around.

Georgia first found fame with a brief stint on The Only Way Is Essex in 2014 before becoming a household name with an appearance on 2017's Love Island.

Pretty: The Celebrity Ex On The Beach starlet heavily accessorised her evening attire with a pearl headband, hoop earrings and a delicate necklace
Changing the design, which had first represented the landscape of Eisenhowers boyhood in Abilene, Kan., was crucial to convincing the family to support the memorial. In the end, Gehry sketched the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc freehand, in his characteristic drawing style  a herd of frenetic squiggles, like a jazzy, elongated Rorschach blot. For years, critics of Gehry have singled out his supposed egotism, repeating the canard that he wants to be an artist rather than an architect and that his buildings are too subjective and driven by creative whim to be useful. And yet, in the end, after a long process of revising the tapestry, it ended up looking more like a giant abstract painting than a traditional, representational rendering of the landscape. In her email, Susan Eisenhower singled out the change of theme to The Beaches of Normandy in Peacetime,  as key to her support.
A destroyed silo at the scene of an explosion at the port in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on Tuesday.

STR/AFP via Getty Images

Lebanon's capital, Beirut, was devastated by a huge explosion Tuesday that has upended the lives of its residents.

Two people caught up in the blast told Business Insider about their experience.

One was driving near the center of the blast at Beirut's port. She felt the explosion in her body before seeing or hearing it.

The other was a medical resident at a Beirut hospital that was overwhelmed with injuries. He worked to 2 a.m.

"We saw so much pain in people's eyes," he said.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

BEIRUT  As on any ordinary day, Rayane left her office in Beirut at 6 p.m.

A few minutes after getting in her car, she felt numbness and pressure in her body. It was the first she knew of the explosion that devastated the Lebanese capital on Tuesday.

"I felt a pressure in my ears and my stomach," she told Business Insider. She asked that only her first name be used.

"I then heard a large bang and my car jump from one side to the other."

Rayane was a stone's throw away from the Beirut port where the blast took place. At least 100 people have been killed and 4,000 others wounded by the explosion.

The blast began with a smaller explosion, soon followed by the enormous blast that devastated much of the city.

Firefighters evacuating a wounded man from the scene of the explosion in Beirut on Tuesday.

ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images

Between the first explosion and the second, from her car Rayane saw workers running away, and she decided to flee. "I knew something was up, and the first thing that immediately comes to mind is that it's an explosion," she said. "Cars around me started to honk and speed as well."

A former journalist, she was reminded of reporting on a twin suicide bombing in Beirut's southern suburbs several years ago, where one blast was soon followed by another.

She took no chances, and left. "At that point my ears had popped and my fingers went numb  but I kept driving," she said.

Story continues

"There were so many car accidents because of people speeding and panicking," Rayane recalled.

Soon she got to the Zalka district where she lives, just north of the port.

Residential buildings, factories, and storefronts were damaged, with a blanket of glass shards on the streets.

A helicopter putting out a fire at the scene of Tuesday's explosion in Beirut.

STR/AFP via Getty Images

"I turned around and saw the red plume of smoke," she said. At first it seemed to her as if the color were from the sunset over the Mediterranean.

But preliminary findings from the Lebanese government said the explosion was caused by the explosive chemical ammonium nitrate, which produces a red color when it combusts.

Before the government's announcement, the social-media feeds and media reports across Lebanon were full of rumors: everything from internal bombing plots to targeted Israeli airstrikes.

And with Lebanon no stranger to conflict and civil strife, many thought the blast could be the start of a war.

"I thought it might be an explosion from a shipment or fuel or something," said Rayane, who at that point was anxiously waiting outside her damaged apartment building, which she worried could collapse.

A wounded man being helped by a firefighter near the scene of the explosion on Tuesday.

ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images

As she called family members and friends to see whether they were OK, she was shocked at how the first thought on everyone's mind was violent conflict: "My friend told me, 'Pack your bags, and get ready to become a refugee.'"

Several hours later, Rayane felt more at ease and went upstairs. She and her family were not hurt.

At about the same time, Beirut's emergency rooms were chaotic. Some of the capital's hospitals were hit so hard by the blast that they could no longer operate.

The remaining hospitals struggled to handle the influx.

Families at the American University of Beirut Medical Center scuffled with security forces as they frantically tried to make their way in.

A view of the damaged Beirut neighborhood of Mar Mikhael on Wednesday in the aftermath of the explosion.

PATRICK BAZ/AFP via Getty Images

A medical resident at another Beirut hospital said the scene before him was apocalyptic.

He spoke with Business Insider anonymously because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

"I have never seen a tragedy so huge, with so many people dying at the same time," he said over the phone, his voice trembling.

"Med school does prepare us for these horrific scenarios, but one would never expect to see anything like this."

Patients covered in blood rushed to the hospital in droves, he said. Many were treated and stitched on the spot in any available corner.

"We were scared  we didn't know what to do at first," he said at the end of a shift that had continued until 2 a.m.

"We saw so much pain in people's eyes. It makes you question in this life."

Lebanon's hospitals, most of which are private, were already on their last legs.

The country's financial crisis has left them paralyzed, struggling to import medical supplies from basic protective equipment to live-saving medicines.

The aftermath of the blast seen Wednesday.

ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images

Just last week, the head of the government-run Rafic Hariri University Hospital said its intensive-care unit was almost full because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"You see three patients who had all suffered from cardiac arrest," the medical resident said. "Then all of a sudden you need to jump to someone who is suffering from severe head trauma at the same time."

"We didn't have the capacity to properly admit and register everyone coming into the hospital," he added.

As a result, many of the wounded went missing. Those fearing for the lives of their loved ones took advantage of an ad-hoc Instagram account called "Locating Victims."

"We are not made to go through this," the distraught man said. "There is enough tragedy in this country."

Read the original article on Business Insider
The Bihar Police chief said on Thursday that its officer Vinay Tiwari has still not been exempted from home quarantine and that the department may consider taking the legal route on the issue.

Tiwari had gone to Mumbai in connection with an FIR registered by actor Sushant Singh Rajputs father KK Singh. But as soon as he landed at Mumbai airport, Tiwari was quarantine.

IPS Vinay Tiwari has still not be exempted from quarantine, it is like house arrest. Well decide what action to take after consultation with the advocate general. Going to the court is also an option, Bihars Director General of Police (DGP) Gupteshwar Pandey said.

Mumbai polices move of quarantining Bihar Police officer is unprofessional. The Supreme Court has given its observation in the matter, he added.

The BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had defended its decision to quarantine the IPS officer because of the spread of Covid-19. But Pandey said he has been forcibly quarantined.

He had appealed to the Maharashtra Police on Wednesday to exempt the IPS officer from quarantine.

We will wait for one more day, after which we will be taking action against them (Mumbai Police). We are taking advice from the Bihar government and might even pursue court in this regard, he said.

An FIR was filed by the Patna Police against Rhea Chakraborty on a complaint filed by KK Singh under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) including abetment of suicide. A team of Bihar Police is in Mumbai to probe the case.

Rajput was found dead at his Mumbai residence on June 14, after which Mumbai had registered a case and are investigating the matter.

The Bihar government has already given its nod for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and the recommendation has been acepted by the Centre.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  If you hadnt already realized that Ohios political system is broken, your eyes should have been opened last month by a federal complaint that laid bare scheming and scumbaggery that investigators describe as the worst public corruption case in Ohio history.

On July 21, federal prosecutors in Cincinnati charged then-Ohio House of Representatives Speaker Larry Householder, an aide and lobbyists in a racketeering conspiracy, in which Householder and his pals are accused of accepting more than $60 million in bribe money from FirstEnergy Corp. in exchange for securing the company a $1.3 billion public bailout.

According to an FBI affidavit, the plot involved getting Householder and a slate of cronies elected in 2018, then ramming through a bill to bail out two aging nuclear power plants and then aggressively sabotaging an effort to repeal that legislation via voter referendum. Add to those details allegations of money-laundering and kickbacks that, if true, constitute an unprecedented betrayal of the public trust worth a couple decades in a federal prison.

Jaw-dropping as it is in its audacity, corruption on this scale is merely a manifestation of much deeper problems festering within Ohios political system.

From gerrymandering to the death of home rule to the lopsided influence of rural lawmakers over policy in the states urban centers, Ohio politics have spiraled into dysfunction. But just as recent racial injustice has given way to a national conversation about meaningful police reform, so too could the Householder scandal set the stage for bold ideas on reforming our political system and restoring democracy to our state. Might we be on the verge of a movement that could -- (dare I say it?) -- make Ohio government functional again?

To stoke that flame, here are some of the ways Ohio needs fixing and a few ideas on how to do it.

Gerrymandering and the one-party state

In any conversation about Ohios flawed political system, partisan redistricting is -- pun intended here -- the elephant in the room. In 2018, Republicans won about 50 percent of the vote in 116 statehouse races, but they took 63 percent of the seats. Similarly, in Ohios 16 congressional districts, Republicans won 75 percent of the seats with just 52 percent of the overall vote.

Thats because state law leaves it to the General Assembly to redraw legislative district maps, and during the last round of redistricting a decade ago, Republicans controlled the General Assembly. So, cities, counties and regions were split largely for political reasons to create as many Republican safe seats as possible. And Democrats were concentrated in a disproportionately small number of districts or diluted in others with Republican majorities.

Its hard to imagine a scenario less in keeping with the ideals of democracy, but that could  and should - change for the better next year. Since 2015, Ohioans have overwhelmingly approved changes to the state Constitution to give the minority party a greater say in drawing maps for General Assembly races and congressional districts. Both click into place in 2021, after the U.S. Census is complete.

In the meantime, Ohio is dealing with the consequences of a carefully designed power imbalance -- a one-party system that doesnt accurately reflect the politics or values of the electorate or work in the public interest, especially if you happen to live in one of the states urban centers. Republican legislators from rural Ohio dominate the statehouse and function as overlords of urban districts, dictating what the cities can and cannot do, while depending almost entirely on them for tax revenue.

The death of home rule

It goes without saying that the needs of citizens living in inner-city Cleveland are dramatically different from those in, say, Householders hometown of Glenford, population 173. That understanding is at the heart of the home-rule provision of the Ohio Constitution, which is supposed to allow communities to enact local rules and regulations, so long as they dont conflict with general state laws. But the largely rural Republican caucus, and Ohios courts, have steamrolled home rule in Cleveland.

One of the most notorious examples involved a Cleveland charter amendment that voters approved in the 1980s, requiring all city workers to be city residents, too. The idea was that living within the city naturally leads employees to feel invested in its welfare, and in turn, improves the quality of life in the neighborhoods.

But in 2006, state Republicans passed a law forbidding municipal residency rules. Some cities, including Cleveland, filed suit, arguing that the statute violated the home-rule provision. Three years later, the Ohio Supreme Court upheld the state law, and hundreds of city workers fled to the suburbs.

That case began a slow and systematic unraveling of home rule in Ohio, through a combination of state laws and Supreme Court decisions backing them up.

When Cleveland wanted to control the circulation of guns on the streets, the effort ran up against the ideologies of rural lawmakers, who see any attempt to legislate gun ownership as an attack on the 2nd Amendment. They passed legislation banning municipalities from enacting gun laws that go further than the states lenient ones.

But it was the demise of the Fannie M. Lewis Cleveland Employment Law that was the most painful and personal for city leaders and seemed to signal the extinction of the most meaningful aspects of the home rule provision. The ordinance, enacted in 2003 and named after a revered city councilwoman who died in 2008, required companies with big public improvement contracts to hire city residents for at least 20 percent of the total construction hours or face a cut in payment. Within a decade, the program had put about $230 million into the pockets of hardworking Clevelanders and did its part to end disparities, lift people out of poverty and help them establish careers.

Right on cue, however, the General Assembly passed House Bill 180 in 2016, prohibiting those local requirements, and the Ohio Supreme Court upheld the state law in a 4-3 opinion last September, with four of the courts Republicans making up the majority.

The Blob

Heres yet another way that rural lawmakers are ruining it for the rest of us: Each year, a sci-fi like blob of pea-green putrescence congeals along our North coast, growing ever stronger with rising temperatures and threatening to sicken humans and wildlife alike.

Unfortunately, the annual cyanobacteria bloom  a blue-green toxic algae  is the reality of Lake Erie, arguably our states most precious resource. And the failure of state lawmakers to rein in the nutrient pollution that feeds the algae has emerged as a gross and dangerous manifestation of Ohios political dysfunction.

Its well established that the source of the pollution is animal manure and phosphorus-based fertilizer that washes from Ohios megafarms into streams and tributaries to the lake. And yet, taxpayers, rather than the industry at the heart of the problem, have been forced to invest millions of dollars to protect their water supplies. To avoid opposition from influential agriculture trade groups, Republican leaders downstate have stopped short of effective regulations and penalties for farmers who reject practices that limit nutrient runoff. Instead, the states new plan for addressing the problem is to pay farmers who voluntarily follow a 10-step phosphorus reduction program. Meanwhile, the animal population on Ohio farms continues to boom.

As a result, the crisis compounds almost every year. In 2014, Toledo residents were unable to drink their tap water because of the contamination; 110 people fell ill. Last summer, Lake Eries western basin saw one of the most severe algal blooms in recent history, stretching across 620 square miles of the surface  an area nearly eight times the size of Cleveland.

Voter suppression

In Ohios long history of dabbling in voter suppression, youll find aggressive, albeit failed, attempts to require voters to show photo identification at the polls, a roadblock to low-income voters. Youll also find the so-called use-it-or-lose-it provision that allows the state to purge the rolls of thousands of voters for inactivity -- a practice found to disproportionately disenfranchise the poor, the young and the transient, who are more likely to vote for Democrats.

But the most recent impediment to free and fair elections in Ohio is House Bill 680, which passed the Republican-controlled Ohio House in June on a party-line vote and awaits approval from the Republican-controlled Senate. The bill would prohibit Gov. Mike DeWine or other future public officials from setting an election day plan that deviates from the one outlined in the Ohio Revised Code  even during the coronavirus pandemic, when adaptation is necessary to protect citizens from viral transmission at the polls.

The bill also shortens the absentee ballot request deadline by four days, and it bans the Ohio secretary of state from including prepaid postage on absentee ballot applications.

Both the ACLU of Ohio and the Human Rights Campaign have condemned the bill for making it more difficult to vote during a public health crisis.

Where do we go from here?

So, how do we restore accountability to state government? How do we improve transparency and correct inequities that arise when power is concentrated into one party and corporations brazenly buy political support?

The voter-approved gerrymandering reforms must be part of any solution, though it could take decades before redrawn district maps achieve the kind of political balance were talking about here.

In the meantime, the Householder scandal underscores the need for legislation requiring the disclosure of corporate donors feeding so-called dark money groups, such as the one, investigators say, Householder used to funnel millions of dollars through a matrix of campaigns, political consultants and personal pockets.

Even political commercials should clearly identify not only the organizations behind the ads, but their top donors, too, says Catherine Turcer, executive director of the government watchdog group Common Cause Ohio.

But lets not stop there. Lets make it easier for voters to rescind a bill by reducing the number of signatures required to place a referendum on the ballot, Turcer suggests. Lets consider lengthening term limits in the statehouse so legislators arent so focused on securing their next gig that they lose sight of the objectives of public service.

Lets also consider bold approaches to funding campaigns. Public policy experts at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law suggest an ambitious, but workable system in which small private donations are publicly matched and multiplied to encourage politicians to seek the support of ordinary citizens. While neutralizing corporate influence in politics, the model also makes for more competitive races by encouraging newcomers to run.

In a healthy political system, competition is everything.

In a recent conversation, former Ohio Gov. Dick Celeste, a Democrat who served in the Ohio House in the 1970s and went on to a career in diplomacy and higher ed, said districts were far more competitive in his day. As a result, legislators were less ideological and had more pragmatic concerns for the welfare of the state. By contrast, in the gerrymandered districts of today, the only real competition occurs during primaries, in which partisan extremism is rewarded, he said.

He echoed many of Turcers calls for reform, adding that any Ohioan should be dismayed and determined to change the system.

Ah, theres the crux. All of this requires citizens to react. And the time is ripe.

Householders colleagues already have stripped him of his speakership, and many are seeking to repeal the corrupted nuclear bailout bill he promoted. Just a month ago, that would have seemed highly unlikely.

Now lets use that momentum to demand change beyond this one scandal -- to stand against the corruptive forces of corporate money with the kind of intensity and conviction weve seen for social justice causes. We can do this, too. Its time to reclaim our cities, our natural resources, our democracy from the undue influences of special interests and the seductive appeal they have for legislators more concerned with self-preservation than with serving the public.

You can reach columnist Leila Atassi at latassi@cleveland.com.
Have you heard the news? The epidemic is largely over in Sweden, the country that has been criticized for not imposing lockdowns. Sweden chose the commonsense approach of protecting the elderly and those with pre-existing health challenges and allowing people at low risk to circulate, contract the virus, and develop natural immunity.

Mike Whitney, writing about Swedens approach and success over at The Durden Dispatch, put it like this: Common sense has prevailed. Another article at Durden provides truly amazing graphs that vividly illustrate Swedens success. America and most of Europe tried one approach, the Swedes tried another, and the results are now in. Going with common sense worked; going against common sense failed.

Anthony Fauci claimed we could stop the spread of the virus by imposing generalized house arrests. This had never before been tried. Then, in a bizarre progression, the restrictions went from a 15-day lockdown in order to flatten the curve to the ever-lengthening lockdown we are in now. There is no clear exit strategy for us, no end in sight, except apparently we are to wait patiently for a vaccine to appear, who knows when and who knows with what effects.

In the meantime, the lockdown is keeping children out of school, causing the failure of countless businesses, creating vast losses of savings and capital, and shutting down normal life. Meanwhile, life goes on quite normally in Sweden. And Swedens economy is doing better, much better, than its neighbors.

There are at least two general observations to be made.

First, you and I are fortunate that national independence still exists to the extent that Sweden could follow its own policy. If the corruptocrats at the World Health Organization had been able to impose their mandates on every country and every city, the common sense approach could not have been tried, and the correct policy could not have been demonstrated by its results.

Thats important because in a general sense, human progress is made by the process of trial and error. Centralized authority shuts down the process of discovery. That is why American federalism provides better results than were ever achieved by the Politburo of the Soviet Union. Had a centralized authority been able to impose the coronavirus lockdown on every country, we would have missed the opportunity to learn from experience what actually works. No doubt there is even wisdom yet to be gained from studying the differences in the way the policy was applied in different areas here in America. If we ever get an honest assessment of the different outcomes for the different approaches, for example, in New York City and cities in Texas, well learn a lot.

Second, the disadvantages of centralization also apply to the goings-on in the so-called news media. The near unanimity in the media about the virus and, for that matter, everything else of importance to the globalist elite means that the people in the media are for the most part no longer playing their traditional role in the process of learning by trial and error. In a true free press environment, people in the press would have been interested in following developments in Sweden because Sweden was taking a different course. Instead, the press has been nearly unanimous in holding Sweden up to scorn. Political correctness has replaced actual reporting.

For the most part, the people in the press are not interested in finding out what is happening and reporting it to you. The model for the press has become Walter Duranty or Nikole Hannah-Jones. Duranty was the Moscow bureau chief of The New York Times during Stalins rise to power and some of the most murderous years of Stalins rule by terror. Duranty painted a glowing picture of Stalin and of life in the Soviet Union, winning Stalins favor and a Pulitzer Prize in 1932. Hannah-Jones is the creator of the 1619 Project at the Times. The purpose of the 1619 Project is to convince Americans that America is a racist country. Hannah-Jones was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 2020.

Today, if you rely on the Times or ABC or PBS, what you are being told may not be factually correct, but you can be certain it is politically correct.
Turkeys Health Ministry has refuted media allegations about coronavirus outbreaks in the country's resorts.



"Reports about coronavirus outbreaks in Turkeys resort regions are not true. Growths of new cases were registered only in Ankara, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Konya, and Istanbul," TASS cited a ministry spokesperson as saying.



A number of Russian mass media outlets reported earlier citing Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca that outbreaks of the coronavirus infection had been registered in the countrys resort areas. The minister however spoke about the situation in the country in general.



On Wednesday, Koca expressed hope that celebrations of the Kurban Bayram holiday last week would not entail a surge in the coronavirus cases.



The first coronavirus case was confirmed in Turkey on March 10. By now, the coronavirus tally exceeds 236,000 cases. As many as 5,784 patients have died, and 219,506 have recovered.
The British government says it wont be using 50 million face masks it bought during a scramble to secure protective equipment for medics during the coronavirus outbreak because of concerns they might not be safe.

The admission sparked calls from the political opposition for an urgent inquiry into the way contracts for essential supplies were handed out.

The masks were part of a 252-million-pound ($332 million) contract the government signed with investment firm Ayanda Capital in April. Papers filed in a court case reveal that the masks wont be distributed because they have ear loops rather than head loops and may not fit tightly enough.

The papers, published Thursday, are part of a lawsuit against the Conservative government by campaigning groups the Good Law Project and EveryDoctor. They want the courts to review contracts signed by the government for personal protective equipment, which they say were not properly scrutinized.

As the coronavirus outbreak accelerated across the U.K. in March, it became clear that the country lacked enough masks, gloves, gowns and other protective gear for health care workers and nursing home staff. That sparked a race to buy billions of pieces of equipment from suppliers around the world.

Jolyon Maugham, director of the Good Law Project, said the government had signed three contracts worth more than 100 million pounds each with respectively a pest control company, a confectioner and a family hedge fund.

Each of those contracts has revealed real cause for alarm, he said.

The government said in its response to the lawsuit that the offer to supply the 50 million masks came from Andrew Mills, a businessman who is both an adviser to the governments Board of Trade and to Ayanda Capital. Mills has denied there was any conflict of interest.

The government says another 150 million masks of a different type supplied by Ayanda are still being tested.

It said in a statement that there is a robust process in place to ensure orders are of high quality and meet strict safety standards, with the necessary due diligence undertaken on all government contracts.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was very disappointed that the shipment was unusable. But he said Britain had achieved a colossal race against time to obtain supplies of equipment and stockpile it in case of a second wave of coronavirus in the fall and winter.

Keir Starmer, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, called for an urgent investigation into the way personal protective equipment was acquired.

Its just not good enough to people who need that protective equipment that we find ourselves in this position, he said.
WIESLOCH, Germany Florian Mehler last saw his girlfriend in late January, when she left Germany for her native Brazil. His plans to join Renata Alves in late March were scuttled when the borders slammed shut as the coronavirus pandemic spread worldwide.

We talk via FaceTime every day. But thats just virtual," Mehler, 41, said in an interview at home in Wiesloch near Frankfurt.

We cant hug each other. We cant kiss. We cant wake up together, have coffee together, go into town together."

After meeting online a year ago, Alves visited Mehler in Germany twice, and he flew to see her in Brazil once. She has the necessary documents to move to Germany and look for a job.

Brazil last week reopened international air travel to all foreign tourists with health insurance for the duration of their trip, even as the countrys coronavirus outbreak ranks as the worlds second worst.

Germany has a travel warning in place for most countries, including Brazil, which may mean health and cancellation insurance are invalid for trips there.

And most European Union borders are closed to non-EU travellers, unless they are essential workers or married to an EU resident.

So Alves blows Mehler kisses on her tablet screen, and he tells her how much he misses her. On Sundays, they sometimes take virtual walks outdoors together.

The worst thing is that we dont know when we will see each other because the borders are still closed," Mehler said.

On social media, separated couples have been lobbying under the hashtags #LoveIsEssential and #LoveIsNotTourism for governments to allow them to reunite.

A few European countries including Austria, Norway and Denmark, have heeded the call, introducing sweetheart visas" that exempt couples from the travel ban.

Mehler joined a Frankfurt rally on Aug. 1, organised by the association of binational families and partnerships, urging Germany to issue such visas.

However, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer prefers a common European solution, given that Germany just assumed the EU presidency last month, a ministry spokesman said on Monday.

Alves, 40, said it was unfair that Germans can travel abroad for fun at the risk of catching COVID-19, while she is barred from entering Germany when she has more compelling reasons.

Im totally healthy, my family is totally healthy," she said in Recife, Brazil, noting that she would take a coronavirus test and undergo quarantine for love.

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
North Alabama officials on Wednesday broke ground on a sprawling new industrial building that will cover more than nine acres and signals more economic growth for the region despite the economic woes of the coronavirus pandemic.

The facility  which will be the largest speculative building in north Alabama -- will be developed by The Hollingsworth Companies at the SouthPoint Business Park at I-65 and I-565 in Huntsville.

No tenant has been announced for the facility, which will have 404,738 square feet. According to the announcement, it will be the 11th facility developed by Hollingsworth at SouthPoint.

With the new facility, the SouthPoint Business Park will have 1,962,606 square feet of industrial space suitable for high growth manufacturing and distribution companies located along the I-65 corridor in north Alabama, the announcement said.

Glad to participate in groundbreaking of huge new building by Hollingsworth Companies in HSV, Limestone Co yesterday. Over 9 acres (400,000+ sq ft) under one roof! pic.twitter.com/PLRsVaB5CW  Senator Arthur Orr (@SenatorAOrr) August 6, 2020

In spite of the economic pressure of Covid-19 and this being an election year, we are very bullish on the north Alabama market, Joe Hollingsworth, CEO of The Hollingsworth Companies, said in the announcement. We have successfully grown our business on the belief that American manufacturing will continue to prosper and the southeastern United States will lead this growth. I would like to thank the community for being willing to invest time, effort, and money into being a true partner in making this park successful. It is my belief that the next 8 years will be the best economic period of our lives.

Though the business park is about 21 miles from downtown Huntsville, its part of annexations into the Rocket City over the years. Huntsville has made significant economic gains in annexed land located in neighboring Limestone County, such as the under-construction Mazda Toyota Manufacturing facility and the Polaris plant.

Over the past 10 years, weve been able to announce new and expanding companies in our community that have created 30,000 jobs, Mayor Tommy Battle said in the announcement. To do that requires many assets. You need a workforce, you need access to markets, and you need sites and buildings. Todays groundbreaking gives us another tool to help us in our continuing efforts to diversify our economy and to make sure that anyone in Huntsville who wants a job can get a job. We thank the Hollingsworth Companies for its continued investment and belief in our community.

Said Limestone County Commission Chair Collin Daly, The groundbreaking of the largest speculative industrial building in North Alabama, despite being in the middle of a pandemic, is positive news for our county. We look forward to this new location assisting with the demand for industrial facilities needed for the continued growth in our county.
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Coronavirus impact: Banks, NBFCs to face asset quality distress, says ICRA

India's banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) will continue to face elevated asset quality risks even as most of them reported a decline in the loans under moratorium provided by the Reserve bank of India (RBI) to borrowers on their loan repayments, as per a latest report. This was attributed to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on borrowers' repayment capabilities.

US crude oil stockpiles tumble sharply as refining rates peak

U.S. crude oil stockpiles fell sharply last week as refining rates hit their highest since March, while gasoline and distillate inventories rose, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. Crude inventories fell by 7.4 million barrels in the week to July 31 to 518.6 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 3 million-barrel drop.

Per-country Green Card quota punishes Indian immigrants, says Senator Mike Lee

The per-country cap on legal permanent residency punishes immigrants from India and the wait for the coveted Green Card for Indians runs into 200 years, a top American senator has said, terming the "discrimination" as "inconsistent" with the principles of a merit-based immigration system.

Novavax signs COVID-19 vaccine supply deal with India's Serum Institute

Novavax Inc said on Wednesday it has entered a supply and license agreement with the Serum Institute of India for the development and commercialization of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate. The Indian drugmaker will have exclusive rights for the vaccine in India during the term of the deal and non-exclusive rights during the "Pandemic Period" in all countries other than those designated by the World Bank as upper-middle or high-income countries.

Overdose of immunity-related food products a marketing gimmick in COVID times

Food brands today are riding the wave of 'immunity boosting products' led by consumer demand. As the world waits for a COVID-19 vaccine, people are trying to cope by what they can do best - by building their body's resilience. The word immunity has captured consumers' imagination and the category awareness has increased dramatically in the last few months. A recent Nielsen report said that immunity was one of the key factors that influenced consumers' purchasing decisions.
An outreach worker at the Richmond safe injecting room was allegedly involved in almost a hundred drug-related transactions near the facility, a court has heard.

Matthew Honey, 50, appeared via videolink at the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Thursday accused of trafficking, selling and purchasing heroin for customers, friends and himself between September 5 and October 25 last year.

Matthew Honey Credit:Nine

He was arrested alongside four co-accused in October last year during a drug raid on the area.

Mr Honey is yet to enter a plea, with defence and prosecution lawyers to wrangle over the specifics of the alleged offending and its duration.
The Telkom Kenya merger with Airtel Africa is off after lengthy regulatory delays have apparently contributed to both parties abandoning the deal.

According to Reuters, Telkom Kenya said earlier this week that it was no longer looking to merge its business with the Kenyan unit of Indias Bharti Airtel. The reason given was the difficulty of getting the regulatory approvals required for the deal.

Its certainly been a long time since Bharti Airtel announced that Airtel Networks Kenya had agreed to buy Telkom Kenya: in fact the announcement came in February 2019. Telkom Kenya is partly state-owned; the state has a 40 per shareholding, after a majority stake was sold in 2007. The company is 60 per cent owned by Helios Investment Partners, through a special investment vehicle.

Among the sticking points delaying the merger has been planned job cuts; these were strongly opposed by employees and will now not take place. That said, an Airtel-Telkom merger would have given the market a much more powerful rival to Safaricoms dominance. The lead operator is said to control more than 60 percent of the market.

It might also have put the company into a better position to take advantage of a growing demand for internet services, after lockdowns during the coronavirus crisis forced many Kenyans to work and learn from home.

Why the approvals took so long and what the hurdles were is not clear. We reported that the Competition Authority of Kenya had approved the move as long ago as last December, although at the time an investigation by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission had still to take place.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- CAMO LEVER, part of the CAMO family of innovative products to help build a better deck, has received a Golden Hammer Award from HBS Dealer magazine for its innovative time and labor-saving design. When used with other CAMO innovations, CAMO LEVER speeds deck installations up to 5X time faster than traditional methods.

This year, HBS Dealer's Golden Hammer Awards honor 27 of the best new products in the home improvement industry, focusing on innovation, best values and shelf appeal. LEVER was recognized for its ease of use, locking in place with one turn of the handle, and versatility as it can go from job-to-job. It also allows one- or two-person installationan added benefit for keeping workers safe on socially-distanced jobsites.

"We're delighted to be recognized by HBS Dealer's 2020 Golden Hammer Award for LEVER," said W. Scott Baker, CEO, National Nail. "CAMO LEVER represents our commitment to creating innovative products that keep contractors profitable and give them a better deck-building experience."

CAMO LEVER can be used with CAMO innovations like the versatile DRIVE stand-up tool for any decking type and CAMO EDGE and EDGEX Clips for grooved boards, locking multiple rows of boards and clips in place with one turn for quick fastening. LEVER adjusts to single, double and even steel joists while keeping board spacing consistent to deliver an aesthetically pleasing, fastener-free deck surface.

With an MSRP of $99.95, CAMO LEVER helps contractors work smarter, with less labor to help them build a better deck.

Learn more about CAMO LEVER at www.camofasteners.com and visit HBS Dealer's list of Golden Hammer Winners at https://www.hbsdealer.com/golden-hammer-strikes-2020

About CAMO

CAMO exists to provide the best deck fastening installation experience for hardworking folks who take pride in their work and value their wallet. That's you. Whether you install decks for a living, offer to help build them with a buddy, or maybe build just one in your lifetime, CAMO products are engineered to save you time and ensure your work looks and performs as you expect it should. CAMO. The Better Way to Build a Deck.

For more information or to locate a dealer, visit camofasteners.com or call 1-800-968-6245. Be sure to "Like" @camofasteners on Facebook and @camodeckfasteners on Instagram. Search CAMO Fasteners on YouTube to find our channel or check us out on Pinterest.

SOURCE National Nail

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Bengaluru, Aug 6 : Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister C.N. Ashwath Narayan on Thursday launched eight startup-developed products to help in the fight against coronavirus.

"These technologies and products add to the list of earlier products launched and developed by the startups at the Bangalore Bioinnovation Centre (BBC). This shows that Karnataka has emerged as a leading state in developing solutions to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, which is a result of the robust innovation ecosystem present here," said Deputy Chief Minister C.N. Ashwath Narayan.

These products have been developed by various startups at BBC, an initiative of Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society (KITS), Department of Electronics, IT, BT and S & T, Government of Karnataka.

Padma Vitals+, Malli's Cordytea, CD4 Shield, BemaRoti, Immune booster daily drops, VegPhal, Water Sanitiser and Anti-Microbial HVAC module are the eight products that have been launched.

Padma Vitals+ is a centralized monitoring system for ECG, respiration, SpO2 and body temperature. It can measure the vitals continuously and send information through telemetry.

This device helps in contactless monitoring of Covid patients and has been validated by Narayana Hrudayalaya.

Malli's Cordytea is an immunity boosting tea prepared with mushroom cordyceps, and is known to have anti-viral properties. It helps in boosting immunity levels and has been approved by the FSSAI.

CD4 Shield is a chewable tablet containing curcumin and vitamin B12. Both ingredients are known to fight inflammation and infection.

"The product (CD4 Shield) ensures activation of innate immunity by activating CD4+, CD8+ and IFN1 to virus specific effect and has immunomodulatory properties. It also reduces cytokine storm in response to viral infection," said the official.

BeamRoti is an immunity boosting chapati (Indian bread), laced with herbs recommended by the Ayush ministry.

"The chapatis are easy to store with good shelf life and a Patent application has also been filed," he said.

Immune booster daily drops boost immunity, possessing a mixture of Ayush ministry recommended herbs.

"The ingredients have been prepared using supercritical fluid extraction technology to ensure that an optimum concentration of herbal extract reaches the body by mixing just one drop of the product in a glass of hot water," the official said.

VegPhal is a fruit and vegetable sanitiser. It is made using edible ingredients effective against microbes and removal of pesticides. It is both chlorine and alcohol free.

Water sanitizer - Kitchen Tap is a miniature version of an ultraviolet purifier that can be attached to a water tap to kill microbes and viruses such as phages.

Anti-microbial HVAC module can be fitted to a HVAC system to ensure circulated air is sanitized.

"This is especially useful during Covid times as many enclosed, air-conditioned spaces may be contaminated. Based on UV-silver titanium dioxide technology, the product is patented and has been validated," he said.

Professor K. Vijay Raghavan, principal scientific advisor to the Prime Minister said that the development of products at bio-incubators such as BBC is a positive step in the direction of AtmaNirbhar Bharat - a clarion call given by Narendra Modi.

m Meanwhile, BBC has signed an agreement with the Indian Institute of Management - Bangalore (IIM-B) to scale up the startup products and also find venture capital.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
SSLC Result 2020 Karnataka DECLARED | The Karnataka board has declared results of Class 10 exams for over eight lakh students today

SSLC Result 2020 Karnataka DECLARED | The much-awaited Karnataka Class 10 board exam results were announced by the Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB) today (Monday, 10 August) 2020 on official websites kseeb.kar.nic.in or karresults.nic.in at 3 pm.

Follow LIVE updates on Karnataka SSLC results 2020

The Karnataka education minister S Suresh informed about the same through his official Twitter handle.

As it has been observed in the past, the official websites may become slow or fail to load as a result of heavy online traffic due to students rushing to check their scores.

They may also face issues with internet connectivity. In such a situation, students can check their results through their mobile phones by sending an SMS.

Students should type  KSEEB10 ROLLNUMBER  and send it to 56263 to receive their scores on their mobile phones via SMS.

Students can later download their marksheet using the following steps:

Step 1: Visit the official websites  karresults.nic.in or kseeb.kar.nic.in

Step 2: Select 'SSLC result' on the homepage

Step 3: Key in your login details such as roll number or hall ticket number

Step 4: Your result will be displayed on the screen

Step 5: Download the KAR SSLC result sheet and take a printout

Earlier, Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar told news agency PTI that SSLC result will be announced by the first week of August.

About KSEEB

The Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB) was formed in 1966. Besides the Class 10 exmas for schools affiliated with it, it also conducts 12 other examinations such as the Karnataka open school exam, Diploma in Education, Music and so on. It also governs other activities such as devising courses, prescribing syllabus, granting recognitions to schools. The Board is headquartered at Bengaluru.
Despite repeated requests from to hold a foreign ministers' meeting on Kashmir, the has shown reluctance to convene such a conference, prompting an upset Islamabad to threaten that it may call a separate gathering on the issue.

has been pushing the 57-member organisation, which is the second largest intergovernmental body after the UN, for the foreign ministers' meeting since India revoked the special status of the in last August.

However, there has not been any positive response from the OIC, the biggest bloc of Islamic countries in the world, to Pakistan's request so far.

"I am once again respectfully telling OIC that a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers is our expectation," Qureshi said during a talk show on ARY News on Wednesday.

If you cannot convene it, then I'll be compelled to ask Prime Minister Imran Khan to call a meeting of the Islamic countries that are ready to stand with us on the issue of Kashmir..," he threatened.

A major reason behind the OIC's inaction has been Saudi Arabia's reluctance to accept Pakistan's request for one specifically on Kashmir. Riyadh's support is crucial for any move at the OIC, which is dominated by Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries.

During a virtual meeting of the OIC Contact Group on held "on the request of Pakistan" on June 22 also, Qureshi had urged the grouping to "step up its efforts" to resolve the Kashmir issue.


WATERLOO, Iowa, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- MercyOne is partnering with LucidHealth to expand its radiology and imaging capabilities to patients throughout Northeast Iowa. Longtime radiologists with strong ties to MercyOne - Dr. Meg Krishnan, Dr. Kevin He, Dr. Emil Hurst and Dr. Robert Filippone  will continue to provide high quality imaging care throughout these communities with the support of their tenured colleagues at MercyOne and in collaboration with LucidHealth's innovative technology solutions.

Together, these organizations will continue to deliver best-in-class patient care with a commitment to 24/7 subspecialized imaging, rapid turnaround times and a robust vascular & interventional radiology program. The shared dedication to clinical excellence is further defined by our aligned strategic and operational focus on population health.

"The transition to a new partnership with LucidHealth required both teams to work seamlessly to meet the needs of our patients and community," said Kris Messner, Director of Imaging at MercyOne Northeast Iowa. "The experience, subspecialization and advanced technology that LucidHealth brings to our organization is extremely important as we aim to be the first choice for radiology and imaging services in the communities we serve."

"Our ability to seamlessly integrate our technology with MercyOne's key hospital systems (EMR, PACs, Voice Recognition) enables our radiology specialists to provide rapid turnaround times regardless of the study location," said Mark Alfonso, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, LucidHealth. "Our shared commitment to providing optimal healthcare for every patient, every time has made the decision to partner with MercyOne a simple one."

About MercyOne

MercyOne is a connected system of health care facilities and services dedicated to helping people and communities live their best life. At more than 20,000 colleagues strong, MercyOne makes health the highest priority. The system's medical centers, clinics and affiliates are located throughout the state of Iowa and beyond. Headquartered in central Iowa, MercyOne was founded in 1998 through a collaboration between Catholic Health Initiatives (now CommonSpirit Health) and Trinity Health  two of the country's foremost, not-for-profit Catholic health organizations. For more information, please visit www.MercyOne.org.

About MercyOne Northeast Iowa

MercyOne's northeast Iowa region is a faith-based 511-bed, not-for-profit health care provider with medical centers in Waterloo, Cedar Falls, and Oelwein. Services in the region also include more than 40 primary care and specialty care clinics. After 140 years of service to northeast Iowa, the region became part of MercyOne in 2016 to continue the tradition of providing personalized care.

About LucidHealth

LucidHealth is a technology-enabled radiology services company providing the highest quality of subspecialized imaging care to hospitals and health systems. With more than 200 radiologists servicing care sites across 5 states, LucidHealth utilizes proprietary software, RadAssist, to integrate radiology workflow that directs imaging studies to the appropriate subspecialized radiologist. This solution enables real-time access to comparative studies across disparate hospitals and health systems, affords on-the-spot access to full quality images and provides a host of imaging data analytics that increase productivity, decrease turnaround times, and enhance patient care. For more information, please visit http://www.lucidhealth.com.



SOURCE LucidHealth

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Lessons from early peak state of Michigan could inform hospitals in other areas; more studies needed on how visitor limits and remote communication affect patients, families & care teams

Four months ago, Michigan glowed red on COVID-19 maps. Hundreds of patients packed hospital intensive care units in the southern part of the state, and hospitals statewide rapidly put strict new visitor policies in place to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. ICU teams had to scramble to connect with the families of critically ill and dying patients in new ways.

Now, a new study documents how 49 of those hospitals reacted, and how those efforts varied. It finds that virtually all hospitals put in place a "no visitors" blanket policy. But 59% of hospitals did allow some exceptions to this rule, most often for end-of-life visits, even at the pandemic's regional peak in April and early May.

Meanwhile, ICU teams that had spent years increasing the involvement of family members in care decisions and patient support turned to telephones and video chats, including on newly purchased tablets and critically ill patients' own smartphones.

The new findings may hold lessons for hospitals in current and future COVID-19 hotspots, as they try to strike a balance between safety and human connection. The study, performed by a University of Michigan team, appears in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

The authors say that as the pandemic continues, more studies are needed on how visitation and communication changes affect patients, families and care team members -- especially when patients can't communicate by themselves. They also point to the potential for restrictive visitor policies and virtual presence options to widen already stark health disparities.

Looking back

Lead author Thomas Valley, M.D., M.Sc., remembers all too well what those intense weeks of Michigan's peak were like, when the state had the fifth-highest ICU occupancy in the nation and hospitals stopped providing all but the most essential care.

He's an intensive care physician who was one of the first to work in a special COVID-19 ICU opened by Michigan Medicine, U-M's academic medical center.

On his first day, he took care of a patient who was clearly about to die, and whose daughter might have been able to come visit under Michigan Medicine's policy. But the daughter didn't want to risk exposure, so Valley found himself holding the patient's smartphone so the daughter could see her parent. She didn't want the patient to be without a family presence, even a virtual one, as they died.

"Talking with her was one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do as a physician, and I can't imagine what her family and so many others affected by this situation are going through," he says. "Conversations with families about critical care and the end of life are never easy, but it's so much harder to have them over the phone. For instance, I never thought about how important nonverbal cues are to these discussions."

This experience is what prompted him and colleagues, including U-M medical sociologist Katie Hauschildt, Ph.D., to perform the study by surveying ICU leaders in hospitals in urban, suburban and rural areas across the state by phone and computer in April and May.

More findings

While one hospital maintained a policy of allowing one visitor per ICU patient throughout, the rest of the state's hospitals cracked down hard on visitation. Nineteen of the hospitals surveyed were not allowing any visitors, without exception, at the time of the survey.

Of the 29 hospitals that allowed exceptions, 15 let visitors in to see patients at the end of life only. In another 13 hospitals, there were a few other exceptions besides end-of-life, including births, surgery and pediatric patients. One hospital considered each case individually.

Nine of the hospitals that allowed visitors only allowed one per patient, while 20 hospitals allowed more, often within a certain limit. A few hospitals required visitors to wear PPE or test negative for COVID-19 before coming to see their loved one.

More than 80% of the hospitals changed the way that ICU clinicians communicated with family members of critically ill patients. For the 17 hospitals that provided information about exactly what had changed, most said they were focusing on telephone - but 6 had started using video conferencing.

In addition, ICU leaders from two-thirds of all surveyed hospitals said they were encouraging video communication between patients and their family members using the patient's own tablets or smartphones.

As the pandemic continues, Valley and his colleagues continue to do research, even as Michigan's hospitalized COVID-19 cases remain much lower than in spring.

"These rules were put in place for good reasons, to keep patients, family and health care workers safe in the face of a new virus," he says. "But now we have the opportunity to reexamine and see if these restrictions really kept us safe, to see how common infection is when family comes to visit, and to evaluate what the other impacts were."

If hospitals implement exceptions to their no-visitation rules, or set other conditions, it's also important to be transparent and even-handed about how they're applied to each patient. For instance, defining which patients are now at the 'end of life' is not clear cut. And implicit biases may affect how clinicians decide to offer or grant visitation options to some families over others.

As visitor restrictions continue, and hospitals ramp up care for patients who do not have COVID-19, the importance of virtual communications facilitated by hospital teams will continue, says Valley.

"In normal times, most of our serious conversations except the most time-sensitive ones would be in person, and we might wait for the visitors to arrive before initiating the communication," he says. "In our study, we found that many hospitals were proactively calling their ICU patients daily, just to give updates."

Valley notes that previous studies have shown that more than a third of family members of ICU patients experience depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress symptoms - and the inability to be with their loved one in person may make that more likely, whether or not their loved one has COVID-19. The same may be true for care team members who are used to speaking with families in person, especially if they need to communicate to a family member they've never seen that their loved one is near the end of life and discuss their wishes.

###

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (HL140165). Valley is an assistant professor of internal medicine at the U-M Medical School, and a member of the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation and the Center for Bioethics and Social Sciences in Medicine. Hauschildt, who recently completed her doctorate in the U-M Department of Sociology, is now a postdoctoral fellow in the VA Center for Clinical Management Research. Other authors are Amanda Schutz, PhD, Max T. Nagle, MD, MPH, Lewis J. Miles, Kyra Lipman, Scott W. Ketcham, MD, Madison Kent, Clarice E. Hibbard, BAS and Emily A. Harlan, MD, MA.
More than 150 state and federal law enforcement were deployed in Bardstown, Kentucky early Thursday morning following an announcement that the FBI is taking over a high-profile disappearance.

FBI Louisville said it is now the lead investigative agency on the Crystal Rogers case.

Rogers, 35, was reported missing by her mother five years ago; she hasn't been heard from since July 3, 2015. Two days later, her car was found abandoned with a flat tire on the Bluegrass Parkway with her keys, phone and purse still inside.

Since the mother of five disappeared, the only suspect ever named has been her boyfriend at the time, Brooks Houck, with whom she shares a child. He has never been charged.

Now, federal agents are stepping in to help get answers and are starting by searching Brooks' home and other properties.

I have committed publicly and privately that delivering long-sought justice in Nelson County is the highest priority case of the United States Attorneys Office, said U.S. Attorney Russell Coleman in a news release. Todays efforts by our stalwart FBI, Internal Revenue Service and Kentucky State Police partners is a major step in honoring that promise.

Law enforcement officers began executing nine federal search warrants early Thursday and will be conducting more than 50 interviews in Bardstown.

"By utilizing federal resources and expertise and by bringing a fresh perspective to the case, those responsible for Crystals disappearance will be brought to justice," the FBI said.

So far, we know of three places where officers are searching Thursday: Brook Houck's home, his brother Nick Houck's home and the Houck family farm -- all of which have been searched before.

The FBI has also launched a new website to help share information about Rogers' case: www.crystalrogerstaskforce.com

There is currently a $25,000 reward for information leading to her whereabouts, the FBI said.

Since Rogers disappeared, her mother, Sherry Ballard, hasn't given up hope.

More background on the investigation

Authorities believe Houck, her boyfriend, was the last person to see her alive. Within the first year of Rogers' disappearance, Brooks' brother, Nick Houck, was fired from the Bardstown Police Department for interfering with the investigation.



Officials said Thursday they are conducting searches at both of their homes.

Early on, friend and employee of Brooks Houck, Danny Singleton, faced 38 counts of perjury for lying to detectives during the investigation, but pleaded guilty to lesser charges of false swearing.

At one point, investigators zeroed in on Houck's grandmother, Anna Whitesides.

The state believed her car may have been used to dispose of Rogers' body. Whitesides, who had previously talked to investigators, later invoked her Fifth Amendment right, refusing to testify when called to court.

Just about a year ago, a new detective took over the case when Det. Jon Snow left the Nelson County Sheriff's Department. Chief Deputy Joedy Gilliland then became the lead until the feds stepped in.

Over a week ago, human remains were discovered near the border of Nelson and Washington County, and FBI in Virginia are investigating that. No word on if there is any connection to the Rogers case.
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Linkedin Dzulfiqar Fathur Rahman (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, August 6, 2020 13:54 530 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066c05acb 1 Business foreign-direct-investment,FDI,COVID-19,response,corruption,reopening-economy Free

To attract investment in the post-COVID-19 period, Indonesia needs to step up its handling of the pandemic to ensure the economy can be reopened safely and quickly and also strengthen its corruption eradication efforts, experts have said.

John Gardner, a former general counsel at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), said Tuesday that how countries responded to the pandemic would be a consideration in investment decisions as the pandemic was changing how supply chains operated.

I believe that how countries are responding to this pandemic will clearly be a part of future investment decisions, he said in a virtual discussion.

International investors want strong and effective responses to avoid production shutdowns, such as we saw in other countries in the region earlier this year, he added.

President Joko Jokowi Widodos administration is pushing forward with the relaxation of pandemic restrictions to prevent bringing the economy to a complete standstill, despite rising numbers of COVID-19 infections.

According to official records, more than 116,700 people had caught the coronavirus as of Wednesday afternoon with around 73,800 recoveries and 5,452 deaths. The number of confirmed cases has increased by more than 1,000 per day since June after the government began it moves to reopen the economy.

Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) data show that foreign direct investment (FDI) realization fell 6.9 percent year-on-year (yoy) in the second quarter to Rp 97.6 trillion (US$6.7 billion) as the pandemic hit the global economy. The figure reflects a continued downward trend for a second consecutive quarter.

Fadhil Hasan, a senior economist at the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef), said Tuesday the government needed to address corruption, inefficient government bureaucracy and improve access to financing to attract investment as the three issues were the most-concerning factors hindering investment.

[Corruption] is the most concerning issue that we face in attracting investment, especially foreign direct investment, said Fadhil. So this is one of the areas that the Indonesian government has to tackle with respect to attracting foreign investment.

Indonesia managed to improve its score in the Transparency Internationals Corruption Perception Index (CPI) to 40 out of 100 last year, an increase of two points from 2018. The improvement put Indonesia in the 85th place out of 100 countries, climbing up from 89th place the previous year.

Fadhil added that the government should resolve the different perceptions and interests among stakeholders with regards to the omnibus bill on job creation, which is expected to improve Indonesias regulatory framework and attract investment in the post-COVID-19 era.

The government and the House of Representatives are deliberating the omnibus bill on job creation to revise 79 existing laws and more than 1,200 articles considered to hamper investment.

The government initially expected the House to complete the deliberations of the bill this month but the Houses Legislative Body (Baleg) expects it to take longer as lawmakers have not resolved half of the bills inventory problem list (DIM).

Meanwhile, the government is planning to develop an industrial park in Subang, West Java, in an effort to lure more investment into the country, said Muhammad Khayam, the director general of chemical, pharmaceutical and textile industries at the Industry Ministry during the discussion.

The BKPM recently announced investment commitments from seven companies relocating from China, one of which began construction in Subang in July.

According to the national mid-term development plan (RPJMN) for the 2020-2024 period, the government plans to develop 27 industrial parks, some of which have begun the construction phase.

Only two industrial parks are located in Java as the government seeks to place businesses closer to resources and raw materials and reduce regional disparities in development, according to Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita.

The ministry also made efforts to prevent businesses from shutting down production completely during the pandemic by issuing operational permits that exempt them from the restrictions imposed by several regional administrations.

We have issued these policies since the very beginning and we believe they have helped to prevent further declines in the economy, Agus said in the discussion.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 14:19:13|Editor: huaxia

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MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- An Afghan army press officer on Thursday said 50 Afghan Regional Amy (ARA) newly trained officers were deployed in northern Balkh province to strengthen security forces as fighting rages in the country.

The officers received a six-week training in Afghan National Army's Corps 209 Shaheen in Balkh province, Hanif Rezai, spokesman of Corps Shaheen said in a brief statement.

Regional Army is a local security entity composed of villagers to defend their community where the presence of the national army is slim to ensure security.

The new officers will be deployed in the desert province, which has been the scene of heavy clashes between Taliban militants and security forces for years.

Scores of security force members have been killed and wounded in Taliban attacks in Shortepa, Dawlat Abad, Balkh, Chimtal, and Sholgara districts of Balkh, in the region some 300 km north of Afghanistan's Kabul. Enditem
Toronto Mayor John Tory is calling for a speedy investigation into the cause of a crane collapse in the citys downtown  the second such incident in less than a month.

Tory says that while hes thankful nobody was seriously injured in either incident, its important that investigators get to the bottom of why the cranes collapsed.

Police have said Thursdays incident happened at about 10:30 a.m., when a crane fell in Regent Park at Dundas and River Streets.

On July 16, a crane smashed into a building near Simcoe and Wellington Streets, prompting evacuations of nearby towers.

Officials have said nobody was injured in that case either.

Tory says hes encouraging the construction industry to take all precautions possible to keep their sites safe, and is pushing for the provinces Ministry of Labour to send instructions to the industry as soon as possible.

This is the second crane collapse in our city in less than a month and so we will want to know what exactly happened in both cases and how it can be prevented, he said in a written statement.

Road closures were ongoing in the area, Toronto police said. Pedestrians and vehicles are asked to avoid the area.
China Enters Martial State; Chinas Tofu buildings hit by Typhoon; Fake Next-Gen Jet

The typhoons now hitting China have brought attention to another disaster: the infamous tofu buildings. The phrase is meant to suggest buildings have the structural integrity of tofu, and is often used when shoddy construction is exposed in China  often a product of Party officials embezzling construction funds, low quality construction materials, and other issues.

Meanwhile in Hong Kong, police issued an arrest warrant for a US citizen, as the Chinese regime cracks down on pro-democracy activists. This is after China implemented sweeping new national security laws that extends mainland Chinese law into the formerly autonomous Hong Kong, and through that, the rest of the world.

And the China has entered a wartime state, with air rad drills, billboards alerting former military staff of possible conscription, and military shows to rally people behind the Party.

These stories and more in this episode of Crossroads.

Crossroads is an Epoch Times show available on Facebook and YouTube.

Join Patreon to Support Crossroads: https://www.patreon.com/Crossroads_Josh
Finding the perfect stock shouldnt be a chore. After all, the information you need is out there, just waiting for you. The trick is knowing how to parse it, how to connect it, and how to interpret it.

TipRanks offers a Smart Score that collects and collates datapoints on every stock from across the TipRanks database, bringing together 8 separate factors that are commonly used to assess the strength of an investment. Some of these are well known, such as the simple moving average or the return on equity, others are bit more esoteric, like the hedge fund activity or the insider sentiment, and still others, like the blogger sentiment and news coverage, are only measured by TipRanks. Taken together, these disparate datapoints add up to an invaluable trove of information.

The Smart Score is the distillation of this data, a single-digit score that tells you briefly whether a stock is likely to rise or fall in the coming months. The scale is simple, with 1 at the bottom and 10 at the top.

Weve pulled three Perfect 10 stocks out of the TipRanks database, investments that present a compelling case for market traders. Lets look behind the curtains, to find out what makes them stand out.

Cowen Group (COWN)

First on this list is Cowen Group, a name that deserves a higher profile than it has. Cowen is an investment bank, based in New York and operating primarily in the US and UK. The banks financial services are offered through two divisions, broker-dealer and investment management, and include a full range of investment services.

Despite the corona crisis, Cowen reported record-beating earnings in Q2, with EPS of $5.50. This was more than 11 times higher than the year-ago number, and beat the forecasts by a significant margin. Revenues were up 26% year-over-year, to $369.6 million.

Cowens share price has risen steadily during the market recovery since late March, and COWN is now trading within its February pre-crash level. This puts the stocks performance in line with the S&P 500.

Story continues

Sumeet Mody, 4-star analyst with Piper Sandler, takes a simple, upbeat, stance on COWN shares. He rates the stock a Buy and writes, We remain positive on COWN following the record results of 2Q20 earnings. We believe COWN will continue to perform well in its core brokerage and banking businesses as activity levels remain robust and expect the company will hit its comp expense targets for the year (56 - 57% range). We are increasing our 2020 and 2021 operating EPS estimates from $4.69 and $3.01 to $4.91 and $3.28, respectively, to reflect the beat in the quarter as well as higher brokerage and banking revenues and the current mark-to-market of the Nikola stake.

Modys price target, at $20, indicates the extent of his confidence with a 30% upside potential for the next 12 months. (To watch Modys track record, click here)

With 4 Buy ratings from Wall Streets analysts, Cowen has a unanimous Strong Buy consensus rating. The stocks $20.75 average price target suggests it has room for 22% upside growth from the current share price of $16.81. (See Cowen stock analysis on TipRanks)

Switch, Inc. (SWCH)

Next up is Switch, a major player in the data center industry. The companys services include cloud computing, collocation, and connectivity. Switch designs, builds, and operates advanced data centers. The company is based in Las Vegas, Nevada, and includes major data hubs in Reno, Atlanta, and Grand Rapids. Switch boasts a market cap over $4.4 billion, and annual revenues over $460 million.

Switchs results in the first half of 2020 have been remarkably stable, given the health and economic crises which have rocked the world. In the first quarter, SWCH reported 40 cents EPS against a forecast of 50 cents, the same results as Q4, and looking ahead, the company is expected to report the same for Q2. The share price recovered from the February/March market collapse within one month, and is now trading above its February peak.

Credit Suisse analyst Sami Badri writes of SWCH, It has shown strong signings recently, with over $10M of incremental annualized recurring revenue in 1Q20; its Connectivity bundling can save customers between 30% and 50% of connectivity costs, which can be a meaningful driver in winning business; and SWCHs new national sales team, an experienced group of industry experts which should help drive top line growth outside of its Las Vegas Campus."

Badri gives SWCH stock a Buy rating, and his price target of $23 is bullish, implying a 24% one-year upside potential. (To watch Badris track record, click here)

At $20.93, the average price target on SWCH shares implies an upside of 13% for the next 12 months. The analyst consensus rating is a Strong Buy, based on 6 Buys versus only 1 Hold, and the stock is selling for $18.50. (See Switchs stock analysis on TipRanks)

PPG Industries (PPG)

Last on our Perfect 10 list is PPG Industries, a major industrial player on the international scene. Pittsburgh-based PPG is the worlds largest supplier of paints, coatings, and other specialty finishing materials. PPG saw some $15 billion in net sales last year, but has seen a drop-off in revenues in 1H20 due to the economic downturn. Along with slipping sales and earnings, PPG shares have underperformed in the current cycle.

All of this, however, does not change the fundamental strengths that PPG features. The companys net sales, even in the current environment, are nearly 50% higher than its largest competitor.

Covering the stock for Deutsche Bank, analyst David Begleiter writes of PPG, We believe investor concerns are misplaced while PPG does not expect DIY paint demand to be as strong in Q3 as it was in Q2, it should still be a strong Q3 and PPG is more than holding its own in this market. We would also note that the larger-than-expected temporary cost savings highlight the higher level of variable costs in PPG's cost structure (a good thing) versus the last recession.

To this end, Begleiter rates PPG a Buy along with a $126 price target. This figure indicates a 13% growth potential from current levels. (To watch Begleiters track record, click here)

All in all, PPGs Moderate Buy consensus rating is based on 14 reviews, including 9 Buys and 5 Holds. The shares are selling for $111.66, and the average target price of $125.79 is in line with Begleiters, suggesting a one-year upside of 13%. (See PPG stock analysis on TipRanks)

To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.
Two cousins were arrested for allegedly smuggling two people who were in the country illegally, states an arrest affidavit filed on Tuesday.

Edlin Josue Lopez and Alberto Lopez Jr. were arrested and charged with transport, attempt to transport and conspire to transport immigrants who were in the country illegally.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- About 16,000 Staten Island homes may not have power restored until late Sunday evening, according to an updated Con Edison estimate.

As a result of Tropical Storm Isaias, there were over 300,000 outages across New York City, a spokesperson for Con Edison told the Advance/SILive.com.

Approximately 120,000 had been restored as of Wednesday afternoon.

A screenshot from the Con Edison website shows the estimated time of restoration for Staten Island.

Con Edison states that Staten Islanders should expect to have all power restored by 11 p.m. on Sunday.

The spokesperson for the utility company confirmed that the estimated time of restoration listed on the companys outage map is accurate.

Meanwhile, Manhattan, which has 72 homes without power as of Wednesday evening, currently has an estimated restoration time of 7 p.m. Wednesday.

The other outer boroughs do not currently have an estimated time of restoration.

As a result of the damage caused by the storm, Gov. Andrew Cuomo put several New York counties under a state of emergency Wednesday afternoon.

He has also launched an investigation into six utility companies, including Con Edison, for apparent lack of adequate planning.

LOCAL POLITICIANS EXPRESS DISAPPOINTMENT

Councilman Steven Matteo (R-Mid-Island), who has been active in trying to restore power to his constituents, expressed his frustration about the news on Twitter.

Is Con Ed serious? Aug 9 for SI restoration? That is completely unacceptable pic.twitter.com/hLQttiIm6z  Steven Matteo (@StevenMatteo) August 5, 2020

Is Con Ed serious? the politician wrote. Aug 9 for SI restoration? That is completely unacceptable.

Wednesday afternoon, Matteo explained that officials confirmed the restoration would be a multi-day effort.

This is extremely frustrating, were going to keep pushing, Matteo told the Advance/SILive.com.

Borough President James Oddo expressed similar disappointment with Con Edison.

This is not to say that at 11 p.m. on Sunday, 15,000 people are going to get their lights turned on, he told the Advance/SILive.com. Obviously, more and more Staten Islanders will get powered up. But, if you are in the universe of folks without power until 11 p.m. on Aug. 9 -- I mean, youre in a world of hurt.

Even if Con Edison is doing everything possible, the biggest downfall by the utility company has been the lack of communication, Oddo believes.

The largest amount of people they can power up at one individual job is only 300 people,' he explained. Its a lower yield process. You have to go wire to wire. Obviously that takes time, I get it.

Local politicians are only being briefed once a day in the morning, he says. He and Matteo tracked the numbers personally all day by using the Con Edison website.

For Staten Islanders particularly, he says, being informed is essential.

Youve got to communicate, particularly with the borough of Staten Island that is such an enclosed location, he said.

Information such as how many people are working, how long each job takes, if additional trained personnel are being brought in, and more is essential for Islanders to know, he said.

Theres a ton of locations, were bringing on as many people as possible, its going to take this amount of time. Thats the message, Oddo said. And we may not like it, but we need to hear it from them. At least we can digest it and on some level and use this to brace ourselves to live with life over the next few days. Theyve done a poor job of informing Staten Islanders.

Advance staffer Joseph Ostapiuk contributed to this article.
Acting Energy Minister of Ukraine Olha Buslavets discussed investments in the alternative energy sector with Andriy Zhovner, Director of H2 LLC, and Walter Komarek, CEO of Yom Capital Ltd.

The parties discussed potential projects for the construction of data centers and a hydrogen plant to keep domestic generating capacities fully occupied. In particular, investors are interested in the southern region, where a significant surplus electricity production is observed, cooperation with National Nuclear Energy Generating Company of Ukraine "Energoatom" and Ukrhydroenergo PJSC [the largest hydro-generating company in Ukraine], the press service of the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine informs.

As noted, the creation of new electricity consumers will help to load idle generating capacities and lessen the burden on transmission system elements.

Acting minister Buslavets expressed readiness to support promising projects.

"We [the Ministry of Energy] welcome and support innovative ideas to develop domestic energy, in particular, to increase electricity consumption. The Ministry is ready to provide the necessary support within our powers," she said.

In July 2020, the European Commission presented two energy strategies, including optimization of the existing system of energy production and consumption and the introduction of industrial production of clean and renewable energy sources based on the use of hydrogen technologies.

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The shock waves from a massive explosion that devastated Beirut this week are a tragic echo of a deeper implosion that has engulfed all of Lebanon over the past year.

The difference is that a sudden tragedy grabs the worlds attention, whereas a slow suffocation slips under the radar. More than 100 are dead and 4,000 injured after ammonium nitrate stored in the port unexpectedly detonated  casualties of internal incompetence, not external conflict (according to initial reports).

Beyond the blast, an entire country remains on the precipice  imperilled by internecine strife and ingrained corruption that long predate this weeks carnage. The economic stasis and political deadlock had already placed Lebanon in a death spiral now compounded by a global pandemic.

Last years shock wave emanated from massive street protests that toppled a corrupt government  triggering the chain reaction of a plummeting currency, a run on the banks, and an economic upheaval that has reduced people to paupers, literally begging for food and medicine. The implosion before the explosion.

In an eerie convergence of pathos, there is more fallout still to come from explosions of the past. This week, the United Nations was scheduled to deliver its final verdict on the last major blast to rock the capital city, 15 years ago, when a massive hidden bomb incinerated the armoured car of ex-prime minister Rafik Hariri in his motorcade.

In the aftermath of the latest explosion, the UN tribunal has delayed its announcement until mid-August. But the episode hangs over Lebanon like a curse.

The early evidence, according to a Canadian prosecutor heading the UN team, pointed to a conspiracy orchestrated by Hezbollah  the heavily armed, Iranian-backed movement long designated a terrorist group by Canada and other Western countries. More than a mere militia, Hezbollah is a powerful political player with deep roots as a provider of social welfare to the countrys Shia Muslims, wielding the clout to make and break coalition governments by demanding seats at the cabinet table.

The assassination of Hariri plunged the country into years of chaos, with Hezbollah not only planting the bombs but calling the shots. It fell to the slain PMs precocious son, Saad Hariri, to lead coalition governments of his own  dancing with his late fathers assassins in Hezbollah, while consorting with his familys long-standing patrons in Saudi Arabia (as the oil sheikhdom sought to counter Iranian influence by bankrolling Lebanons moribund economy).

With a population of less than 7 million, Lebanon has long been a fault line for foreign powers and a battleground for religious groups. Colonized by the French, invaded by the Israelis, occupied by the Syrians, manipulated by Iran, it remains overrun by outsiders and riven by internal rivals.

It has long served, ironically, as a sanctuary for others fleeing conflict  first millions of Palestinians, and now millions of Syrians. Refugee influxes created financial burdens but also sectarian tensions in a country whose constitution divvies up major leadership roles along religious lines  Christian, Sunni Muslim, Shia Muslim, Druze, and dozens of faiths and denominations.

After the 1975-1990 civil war, Syrias army moved in and Hezbollahs heavily armed militia shored up its arsenal. Both claimed to be keeping the peace (while allied with Iran) even as every other religious militia agreed to give up its weapons.

When I interviewed the elder Hariri in his prime ministerial office in the late 1990s, I asked how he could govern a country with Hezbollahs militia fighters openly wielding weapons in one part of the country (flanked by billboards of Irans Ayatollah Khomeini), and the Syrian army occupying the rest of it (alongside posters of their then-president Hafez Assad). He had no good answer, because all he could do was balance the competing factions  external and internal.

When I visited Lebanon again last year, the divisions were deeper, each tribe dependent on its own kingmaker to divide the spoils  purveyors of protection and dispensations. The country still could not agree to update its decades-old national census, lest anyone be disadvantaged by changing demographics and refugee dynamics.

In cabinet, rival factions came together in corruption to divide the spoils. In the street protests that erupted last October, people rose up against their government, but also against each other when Hezbollahs defenders tried to break up demonstrations.

A new coalition has made no headway in stabilizing the economy. Foreign lenders and the International Monetary Fund have no faith in a corrupt banking system, an incoherent governing system, and an incompatible military system in which two separate armed groups  Hezbollah and the Lebanese Army  claim authority over security.

Meanwhile, Beiruts port authority, like the rest of the governing apparatus, marked time while the Lebanese people languished. Which is how it came to be that a massive stash of explosive materials, confiscated from a wayward foreign vessel in 2015, remained unsecured for so many years alongside fireworks.

Such is the curse of Lebanons political powder keg, where ammonium nitrate and fireworks can coexist beside each other for years  until the moment of detonation or assassination creates yet another explosion.
Whatever was left of an in-person 2020 Democratic National Convention evaporated Wednesday as organizers announced Joe Biden won't travel to Milwaukee to give his presidential acceptance speech.

Neither will any of the other speakers who will address the convention Aug. 17-20.

As the coronavirus pandemic paralyzes politics, Democrats will hold a virtual convention. Biden will accept the party's presidential nomination from his home in Delaware.

In a statement, organizers said, "After ongoing consultation with public health officials and experts  who underscored the worsening coronavirus pandemic  the Democratic National Convention Committee announced today speakers  will no longer travel to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in order to prevent risking the health of our host community as well as the conventions production teams, security officials, community partners, media and others necessary to orchestrate the event."

Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez said, "From the very beginning of this pandemic, we put the health and safety of the American people first. We followed the science, listened to doctors and public health experts, and we continued making adjustments to our plans in order to protect lives. Thats the kind of steady and responsible leadership America deserves. And thats the leadership Joe Biden will bring to the White House."

Not sure if youre registered to vote?: Check your status.

Biden's decision is one more blow to the idea that the convention could provide an electoral boost to Wisconsin.

Biden hasn't campaigned in Wisconsin at all this year, although he made appearances on behalf of Democratic candidates in Wisconsin in 2018.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton campaigned there during the primaries but did not make an appearance during the general election.

The Milwaukee convention is just a shell of what was originally envisioned.

When the city landed the convention more than a year ago, it was hoped that 50,000 people would travel to Milwaukee for four nonstop days and nights of politics.

Story continues

The coronavirus pandemic upended plans. The original convention dates were moved back a month. Delegates were told to stay away.

Now, there won't even be any speakers.

While we wish we could move forward with welcoming the world to beautiful Milwaukee in two weeks, we recognize protecting the health of our host community and everyone involved with this convention must be paramount, Joe Solmonese, the convention's chief executive, said in a statement.

Solmonese said, This convention will look different than any previous convention in history. It will reach more people than ever before, and truly be a convention across America for all Americans, regardless of which party you belong to or who youve voted for in previous elections. This 'unconventional convention' will launch Joe Biden to victory in November."

Wow, was the reaction of political scientist Byron Shafer, a retired University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and a scholar of conventions.

That was really all that was left of a traditional convention, Shafer said of Bidens plans to accept the nomination in Milwaukee.

The question looming for both parties is whether they can command anything approximating a normal audience as they remotely nominate their presidential candidates this month.

The president himself isnt going to Charlotte. Hes not going to Jacksonville. Now the Democratic nominee is not coming to Wisconsin, Shafer said. If you were an audience member with a mild interest in politics, that might signal to you this isnt worth it all, (that) youre not going to spend five hours the week of the convention watching the (video) feed.

Contributing: Craig Gilbert

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Joe Biden will not travel to Milwaukee for 2020 DNC
President Muhammadu Buharis spokesperson, Femi Adesina, has been criticised for justifying the harassment and arrest of #RevolutionNow protesters by security operstives across the nation on Wednesday.

Mr Adesina, who appeared on Channels Television Sunrise Daily programme on Thursday, said the protest was a mere childs play and an irritation.

He also stated that if the clampdown on protesters is considered the best to maintain orderliness in Nigeria, the government will do whatever is right, whatever is required to maintain peace.

Mr Adesina said:  by my estimation, it (protests) just seemed like a childs play because protests by their very nature are spontaneous things, mass things. These are just a sprinkle of people trying to be funny. As far as I am concerned, it is nothing to worry about.

A revolution is always a mass thing, not a sprinkle of young boys and girls you saw yesterday in different parts of the country. I think it was just a funny thing to call it a revolution protest.

Asked why the government failed to take the rally seriously, he simply replied saying: In a country of 200 million people and if you see a sprinkle of people saying they are doing a revolution, it was a childs play.

Revolution is something that turns the normal order. What happened yesterday, would you call it a revolution? It was just an irritation, just an irritation and some people want to cause irritation in the country and what I will say is when things boil over, they boil over because you continue to heat them.

When you see pockets of heating up in the country, eventually they culminate in a boiling over. So, Nigerians need to know that the country we get is what we use our hands to build.

Arrests

PREMIUM TIMES reported how scores of protesters were arrested in different states as security agencies forcefully stopped the largely peaceful #RevolutionNow protests on Wednesday.

The protesters were demanding better governance in Nigeria, an end to corruption and improvement in the security and welfare of citizens.

The actions of the security agencies have been condemned by civic groups and many Nigerians.

In Lagos, journalist Agba Jalingo and 18 other protesters who were arrested during the protest were released Wednesday evening. Inibehe Effiong, a lawyer and activist, told PREMIUM TIMES that all the 19 protesters that were arrested in Lagos had been freed.

In Abuja, Deji Adeyanju, one of the organisers of the protest confirmed that all the arrested protesters had been released. Also, Festus Ogun, another activist in Ogun, confirmed the release of five protesters arrested in the state.

But it was a different story for seven protesters in Osun who were kept in custody after their arrest.

Olawale Bakare and six others arrested at the #RevolutionNow protest in Osun State spent the night at the State Security Service custody, PREMIUM TIMES learnt.

Mr Bakare was arrested alongside Dunsi Olowolafe, Abiodun Sanusi, Gift Martins, Martins Jesuloni, and two others in Osogbo on Wednesday.

On Wednesday evening, this newspaper spoke with one of the arrested protesters, Mr Olowolafe, who confirmed that they were still in SSS custody and would be spending the night there.

A lawyer to the Osun protesters, Alfred Adegoke, also narrated his experience in trying to secure bail for his clients as he claimed that the secret police had obtained an order to detain them for 14 days

PREMIUM TIMES could not obtain the details of the remand order allegedly obtained by the SSS.

Mr Adegoke said he would return to the SSS office on Thursday to demand bail for the protesters.

Outrage

Not pleased with the position of Mr Adesina on the illegal arrest, Nigerians have stormed the social media to condemn the former Guild of Editors president.

PREMIUM TIMES gathered some reactions to Mr Adesinas comments below:

Femi Adesina does not know theres is life beyond 2023. Posterity will judge him harshly.   Y Ds H (@AyanfeOfGod) August 6, 2020

According to Femi Adesina, what happened yesterday was just an irritation. #RevolutionNow pic.twitter.com/IL7ZEFIczn  SAPIOSEXUAL (@Mazimum_) August 6, 2020

Femi Adesina can make all the noise because he knows the youth will sit at home watch him on TV and latter come to Twitter to rant but will never dare come out for protest.  UndisputeDChampioN (@JohnAshas) August 6, 2020

Watching Femi Adesina speak can ruin your entire mood for the day.  Ozor Isaac (@Batiago99) August 6, 2020

Femi Adesina is justifying police, army, and DSS attacking and molesting protesters. Ki Olorun ma fi ounje wa si ibi to ha  AuxanoSparkles (@Adegboyega__) August 6, 2020

https://twitter.com/SankaraofNaija/status/1291267028360335362?s=19

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Femi Adesina always talk like someone that doesn't have home training. I wonder what he will be teaching his children  ENDSARS (@MakinzSam) August 6, 2020

Tope Akinyola schooling Femi Adesina on channels, is so disgraceful when you try to defend this government, I think is an easier job defending Hushpuppi  Nathan (@Nathanielc17) August 6, 2020

Femi Adesina is known to talk with alot of arrogant, I'm surprised if a public servant is making such statement on a national TV. https://t.co/HaEiNiKp8Y  Oluwa Samuel (@oluwa_samuel) August 6, 2020

who knows Femi Adesina. @femishina tag him to this post and tell him I said hes a fool, cretin, opportunist and a bastard. He should look for me wherever I am. He referred to as peaceful protesters as kids, and some set of people. May peace of mind be far away from him pic.twitter.com/Rh4QJncFHa  OLAMIREWAJU ISIDACHOME AYODELE-YUSUF  (@Olamirewaju22) August 6, 2020

I see nothing wrong Tope Akinyode's assertions so far on @sunrisedailynow . He has been civil in his utterances as far as I'm concerned. Femi Adesina is simply trying to wriggle out of the entanglement with their usual intimidation ploy @channelstv  D-Great (@Itsdozy) August 6, 2020

The most interesting thing is that when Buhari finally leaves office (very soon), we will struggle to quote him insulting Nigerians. We will however find numerous quotes from Femi Adesina, Tolu Ogunlesi, Garba Shehu & other senseless slaves who shamelessly defend evil.  Babasola Kuti (@RealSolaKuti) July 28, 2020

Tope akinyode should be occupying Femi adesina seat if we have had a working govt.

Femi shld thank his star it was not me cos I wld have returned d favor of insulting my personality on air but akinyode chose otherwise.

Agbaya jatijati  Femi Samuel, (@wollybreeze01) August 6, 2020

The #RevolutionNow protest was a distraction & carried out by irritants  Femi Adesina on Channels TV Nigerians are protesting insecurity, unemployment & corruption & you call them a distraction & irritants? Was Buhari an irritant when he protested against Jonathan govt?  Miz Cazorla (@MizCazorla1) August 6, 2020

Anytime i see Femi Adesina trending, one very omini senseless person. pic.twitter.com/uod4q8UDEs  Oloye Ayo Gbadebo (@holudaray) August 6, 2020




The mother dug a tunnel just to rescue her son from jail

A Ukrainian woman has been arrested after authorities in the country discovered she had been digging an underground tunnel near a prison, in a failed attempt to help her convicted son escape.

The 51-year-old woman who reportedly hails from Nikolaev in Ukraine had rented a house near the Zaporizhia maximum security prison where her son was serving a life sentence for murder.

The mother drove a silent electric scooter every night to an empty field near the prison and used rudimentary tools to dig a 10-foot-deep tunnel toward the penal colony.

She worked only at night, using an improvised trolley to take the dirt out of the narrow tunnel.

The determined woman had been working for at least three weeks and had almost reached the prison walls when she was discovered and arrested.

According to reports, the loving mother stayed inside the rented house during the day and only came out at night, so as to avoid attracting unnecessary attention or later be identified by locals.

That part of her plan proved successful, as none of the neighbours recognized her when showed pictures after her arrest.

Ukrainian media reports that at the time of her arrest, the woman had single-handedly dug a 35-foot-long tunnel at a depth of about 10 feet, which even police applauded as being impressive.

She was said to have carried the dirt near an abandoned garage, close to where the dig site was located.

During the three weeks of work, she managed to move three tons of soil.

Although the date of her arrest is unclear, local news sources reported that digging tools were also found inside the rented house and the mother admitted her guilt, adding that she was only trying to break out her son.

She has been taken into police custody and now risks doing prison time.

Despite technically committing a crime, the daring womans actions have earned her praises from the public.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- President Donald Trump returns to Cleveland Thursday for a fundraiser as a new poll now shows him also trailing Joe Biden in Ohio as he has been nationally.

The poll by Your Voice Ohio, in conjunction with the University of Akron and the Center for Marketing and Opinion, has Biden up by 4 points in Ohio. Trump has been trailing Biden across the nation and by double digits in some areas. Those voting for Biden in the poll cited his response to Covid-19, in contrast to Trump, who has now returned to saying the pandemic is and will be just going away.

Trumps campaign fundraiser will be held at the Shoreby Club in Bratenahl. Basic entry starts at $5,600 per person. Entry and photo with the president will cost $35,000. $100,000 gets entry, a photo and a seat at the roundtable. All workers and guest will undergo a rapid Covid-19 test on the house.

While the 2016 Republican National Convention was held in Cleveland, Trump lost badly to Hillary Clinton in Cuyahoga County. Clinton also beat Trump in all of northeast Ohio. In Cuyahoga County, Clinton won 398,271 votes, Trump 184,211. In Summit County, Clinton received 134,251 votes, Trump 112,026. Lorain County had 66,949 votes for Clinton, 66,818 for Trump.

Trump supporters would have you believe he won the 2016 election in a landslide. In fact, he only won the electoral college by taking Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan by just 77,744 votes. All states Trump is now trailing in far worse than Ohio. The campaign has reportedly given up on Michigan, pulling advertising. That should at least help it win over some Buckeye fans.
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

As one of the victims in the $6.8 million embezzlement at the Desert State Life Management trust company in Albuquerque, Andrew Graham hoped to find closure after former company CEO Paul Donisthorpe was sent to prison for 12 years.

On Wednesday, Graham himself was sentenced to a stint in federal prison for threatening to kill the very people trying to help him and some 75 other special needs and vulnerable former clients recoup their stolen money. His trust lost an estimated $100,000 in the scheme.

The targets of his threats: A top state financial regulatory official and an Albuquerque attorney hired by Grahams family to file a class action lawsuit on behalf of victims.

Graham, 40, pleaded guilty earlier this year to the federal crime of threatening interstate communications via emails, voicemail and phone calls transmitted from his home in Aspen, Colorado, in late 2018 and early 2019.

At sentencing in Albuquerque, U.S. District Judge Kea W. Riggs rejected defense requests for no prison time and imposed a 15-month sentence to be followed by two years of supervised release.

Graham, who has been on pretrial release since his arrest in 2019, has 60 days to surrender.

Court records show Graham was found competent to stand trial after submission of a now-sealed psychiatric report. His defense recommendations for sentencing were also sealed by the court.

But a U.S. Attorneys Offices recommendation stated that Grahams parents set up a trust to benefit him and ensure the family resources were maintained judiciously. Through no fault of Defendants, that trust money was stolen by Paul Donisthorpe.

Donisthorpe, who comes from a prominent Republican family that included a state legislator and pollster, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering in the bilking of Desert State client investment accounts from at least 2009 to 2016. He was ordered to pay more than $6.8 million in restitution.

Donisthorpe spent client money on business ventures, mortgages for his home and a vacation home in Angel Fire, vehicles, credit card expenditures and IRS debts, federal records show.

The state uncovered the scheme through an audit of the nonprofit corporation ordered in late 2016 by Christopher Moya, director of the financial institutions division of the state Regulation and Licensing Department.

While the criminal prosecution of Donisthorpe proceeded, Moyas agency and a legal team at Freedman, Boyd, Hollander, Urias and Ward law firm filed legal actions to help recover money for the victims.

Those efforts met with limited success, the U.S. Attorneys Office stated in a sentencing recommendation.

Frustrated, Defendant began to accuse those working to get the trust money back of being involved in some conspiracy to do the opposite, the recommendation stated. Graham threatened not only Moya, but also an attorney on his private legal team who is African American.

Grahams phone calls to Moya started out relatively normal, but escalated over time to include rambling and, later, accusations that financial institution division personnel were somehow complicit in the Desert State fraud.

Defendant escalated  to sending very graphic pictures of people who had been killed violently, which FID personnel took as an implied threat of violence, the U.S. Attorneys Office wrote.

The sentencing hearing was supposed to be broadcast online, but because of technical difficulties, was not. Grahams defense attorney couldnt be reached on Wednesday.

In its filing, the U.S. Attorneys Office disputed what it said were Grahams defense assertions that his threats were jokes, rhetorical flourishes, or otherwise unserious.

According to federal prosecutors, Graham sent an email to Moya on Dec. 21, 2018, that stated in part, If this continues I will come down there and start killing people  Chris Moya  I will hunt you down and kill you if you continue to willingly participate in this fraud.

Graham also showed up at Moyas office under the guise of having an appointment and was threatening enough to convince Moya to implement new security procedures to protect his staff.

Defendants purpose in issuing his threats was clear: He wanted the money stolen from his trust returned to that trust so it could benefit him as his parents originally intended. His threats were each designed to produce conduct that Defendant preferred  he wanted FID to achieve greater success in recovering his trusts money and he wanted the private legal team to be staffed only with white attorneys (because he subjectively believed that would make it more successful somehow), the U.S. Attorneys Office stated.

Before U.S. District Judge James Browning sentenced Donisthorpe in February 2019, Graham wrote the judge a letter lamenting the innocent victims of the scheme, describing them as Our citizens that have no voice.

He wrote that he hoped for closure to what has been years of trauma and urged the state of New Mexico and Congress to set a gold standard for oversight of financial institutions that repeatedly fail to police themselves.

Moyas agency, as receiver of the now-closed company, told the Journal on Wednesday that it has found few assets of Donisthorpes that could be liquidated for victim compensation. The Angel Fire home, for instance, was heavily mortgaged.

Desert Life had insurance policies that could potentially pay victims claims. But two insurers are seeking declaratory judgments that could result in those companies not being required to provide coverage. A third has issued a preliminary letter indicating that the identified claims arent covered, Moyas agency told the Journal.

An update on the federal governments efforts to recover funds for the payment of the criminal restitution judgment against Donisthorpe was not available on Wednesday.
Johannesburg, August 6: Botswana, the southern Africa country, has banned the sale of alcohol and has suspended all liquor licences until further notice. According to reports, the authorities in Botswana informed that the reason for the ban was that alcohol had 'negative impact' on adherence to coronavirus protocols. A gazette notice stated that the reason given for the suspension and ban of alcohol in the country was that it had "negative effects on adherence to COVID-19 protocols"

A gazette notice said: "The ban is based on evidence that consumption of alcohol increases the risk posed by COVID-19 due to its -ve effects on adherence to COVID-19 protocols". China: 90% of Recovered COVID-19 Patients in Wuhan Suffering from Lung Damage, Says Report.

Here's the tweet:

Gov. of Botswana has banned the sale of alcohol & suspended all liquor licences, until further notice. A gazette notice said the ban is based on evidence that consumption of alcohol increases the risk posed by COVID19 due to its -ve effects on adherence to Covid19 protocols". pic.twitter.com/zapE7nMeXP  Regina Sondo (@ReginaSondoM) August 6, 2020

Botswana has seen a surge in coronavirus cases, especially in cities. The southern Africa country, which has about 2 million inhabitants, has recorded 804 coronavirus cases, 2 deaths and 63 recoveries so far. On July 31, Botswana's capital city, Gaborone, was placed under total lockdown for a period of 14 days amid the rising cases. Reports informed that authorities in Gaborone closed schools and restricting movements after local COVID-19 transmissions doubled.

South Africa has witnessed a dip in new coronavirus cases, its health minister said on Wednesday, adding that vigilance must continue "to prevent a renewed surge." According to reports, overall South Africa reported an average of more than 10,000 new cases per day at the end of July, and now new confirmed cases have dropped to below 5,000 per day. The World Health Organization is sending a team of experts to South Africa to help it contain the pandemic.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 06, 2020 12:45 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
A third county Kildare meat processing company is dealing with a coronavirus outbreak among employees.

RTE News is reporting that the food factory has suspended all processing operations following confirmation of 80 Covid-19 cases.

Read more County Kildare news

O'Brien Fine Foods in Timahoe said they took the decision to test all of its employees following a confirmed case of the virus on 30 July. The company said this was their third case at the facility at that point.

In a statement the food company said it engaged with the HSE and a private testing provider to "expedite" testing, RTE News reported.

"Of 243 tests completed, 80 have been confirmed as positive for Covid-19. Of the 80 confirmed, the level of asymptomatic infectivity appears to be very high."

A further 42 employees are to be tested.

The company has strong links with Kildare GAA through a major sponsorship deal.

On July 29 the Irish Dog Foods plant in Naas has shut its doors temporarily due to an outbreak of Covid-19 among its workers.

The individuals concerned are self-isolating, and a deep clean is being carried out on the premises at the Naas Industrial Estate.

The company would not be drawn on how many employees were affected, or when the factory will reopen.

In a statement to the Leinster Leader/KildareNow, Irish Dog Foods said that it had been informed that a number of its Naas employees have tested positive for Covid-19, and they remain in contact with the affected employees.

Meanwhile the Kildare Chilling Company in Kildare town yesterday issued a statement on the reported cluster of Covid-19 cases at its factory in Kildare town.

The firm has not confirmed the number of confirmed cases at the plant on the Dublin Road.

It's understood that the cluster is confined to a specific section of the sprawling factory.

The gates remained open this morning to the premises.

The short statement from the firm said:

"Kildare Chilling Company is working closely with the HSE following confirmation of a number of Covid-19 cases.

"Full contact tracing has been undertaken, affected staff are isolating and further testing is being undertaken in line with HSE recommendations."

It is understood the Kildare Chilling company was initially dealing with 19 cases.
August 1945 was the first  and only  time that atomic bombs were used in warfare.

On Aug. 6, the United States dropped one on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, the U.S. dropped another one on Nagasaki, Japan.

The bombings combined killed almost 200,000 people.

As World War II was entering its sixth year, Nazi Germany had surrendered in May but the Japanese refused to accept the terms of surrender.

The United States called for the unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces on July 26, 1945. Failure to comply would result in prompt and utter destruction, according to history.com.

A uranium atomic bomb called "Little Boy" was dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. The "Fat Man" plutonium bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on Aug. 9.

Thousands were killed instantly. Thousands of others died within months from burns and radiation sickness.

On Aug. 15, 1945, Japan surrendered to the Allies.

From The Evening News, Monday, Aug. 6, 1945:

"Atomic Bomb Used First Time"

"Truman Reveals Secret of Miracle Explosive Equal to 20,000 Tons of the Deadliest TNT"

The United States has unleashed against Japan the terror of an atomic bomb 2000 times more powerful than the biggest blockbusters ever used in warfare.

President Truman revealed this great scientific achievement today and warned the Japanese that they now face 'a rain of ruin from the air the like of which has never been seen on this earth.'

The new atomic bomb was used for the first time yesterday. An American plane dropped one on the Japanese army base at Hiroshima.

From The Patriot on Aug. 7, 1945

The most terrible destructive force ever harnessed by man  atomic energy - is now being turned on the islands of Japan by United States bombers. The Japanese face a threat of utter desolation, and their capitulation may be greatly speeded up.

Existence of the great new weapon was announced personally by President Truman in a statement issued through the White House at 11 a.m., Eastern War Time. He said the first atomic bomb, invented and perfected in the United States, had been dropped on the Japanese army base of Hiroshima 16 hours before.

That one bomb alone carried a wallop more violent than 2000 B-29 Superfortresses normally could hand an enemy city, using old-type TNT bombs.

Secretary of War Stimson followed through with a report that the blast stirred a cloud of smoke and dust so impenetrable as to make immediate, accurate observation of results impossible. The power of the bomb, Stimson said, is such as to stagger the imagination and he asserted it would prove a tremendous aid in shortening the Japanese war.

From The Patriot, Aug. 9, 1945

Japanese perished by uncounted thousands from the searing, crushing atomic blast that annihilated 60 percent of the 343,000-population city of Hiroshima Monday, photographic and other evidence indicated today.

Tokyo radio, which said that all living things, human and animals, were literally seared to death, reported that authorities were still unable to check the total casualties.

From The Patriot, Aug. 10, 1945

The city of Nagasaki, blasted yesterday in the wars second atomic bomb attack, was left covered with a 20,000-foot pall of smoke, it was announced today, as the United States high command solemnly warned the enemy that it would continue to use the pulverizing bomb again and again unless the Japanese stop the war.

A commemoration for the 75th anniversary will be held in Japan but will be scaled back because of the coronavirus pandemic.

14 Hiroshima and Nagaski now

READ MORE

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A new print edition of the AZERNEWS online newspaper was released on 6 August

The new edition includes articles: Businesses affected by COVID-19 to receive financial support; 85,000 tons of oil transported via Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline in July; Azercosmos joins International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing; Armenian community members attack two Azerbaijanis in Canada and etc.

AZERNEWS is an associate member of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).

The online newspaper is available at www.azernews.az.
By Trend

A Turkish military plane carrying humanitarian aid for Beirut took off from capital Ankara, the Defense Ministry announced, Trend reports citing Daily Sabah.

According to the ministry, the plane heading to Lebanese capital was loaded with medical supplies, various search equipment and personnel.

The move comes after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke with his Lebanese counterpart Michel Aoun following the massive blast that has killed more than 135 people, injured thousands and left Beirut in ruins.

Erdogan extended his condolences and vowed to help the people of Beirut in any means necessary.

"I offer my condolences to the relatives of those who have lost their lives in the explosion at the port of Beirut and I pray Allah gives them patience and stamina, Erdogan said.

"I wish immediate healing to the injured. We will always stand by Lebanon and our Lebanese brothers," he added.

Following the incident, a series of top Turkish officials also expressed condolences and pledged support for Lebanon.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Chinese pastors ordered to praise Xi Jinping, slander US from pulpit or risk closure

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China's state-approved churches that were forced to close due to COVID-19 are only permitted to reopen if they praise the Chinese Communist Party in sermons and extol President Xi Jinping, according to a new report.

Religious liberty magazine Bitter Winter reports that the Religious Affairs Bureau of Zhengzhou, the capital of the province of Henan, released in mid-June a list of 42 prerequisites for churches that sought to reopen. Among the requirements, churches were ordered to intensify patriotic education and study Chinas religious policies, Bitter Winter reported.

Additionally, churches were ordered to promote the four requirements, a nationwide campaign launched in 2018 to promote the sinicization of religion. The campaign involves requiring religious communities to ritually raise the national flag; promoting the Chinese Constitution and laws, core socialist values, and "Chinas excellent traditional culture.

Instead of a normal sermon, the preacher talked about the patriotism of medical workers during the epidemic, and their sacrifice to the state, a member of a Three-Self church told Bitter Winter. These things are important, but political things were discussed for half of the time. Many believers complained afterward.

Churches that refused to comply with the CCPs demands were not permitted to reopen. In Henan, one church was not allowed to reopen because officials didn't approve the pastors sermons.

None of the 11 places of worship in our area was approved for reopening, a deacon in the church told Bitter Winter. We were busy preparing to meet the requirements for reopening, but the government made things difficult for us in every respect.

Also in June, the government of Yucheng, a county in the prefecture-level city of Shangqiu in Henan, demanded the preachers of state-run churches praise President Xi for the right way to lead people in defeating the epidemic and praise China for its single-party rule. They were also ordered to slander the United States and other countries, the report adds.

The government said that churches must preach about national affairs if they want to reopen, a church member in Henan told Bitter Winter. With Xi Jinpings speeches as the main content, its better for churches not to reopen.

An elderly believer from Henan said that the Religious Affairs Bureau would ban anyone from preaching if they refuse to cooperate with the new requirements.

Those preachers who agree to preach politics just want their churches to be reopened as soon as possible, the believer explained. But they are secularized instead. They have no way to retreat and become politicized.

The CCPs efforts to sinicize Christianity, or bring it under its absolute control are well-documented.

It was previously reported that Communist authorities converted a number of state-approved Three-Self churches into cultural centers promoting Xi's socialist values.

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, poor Christian villagers in several provinces were ordered to renounce their faith and replace displays of Jesus with portraits of Chairman Mao and Xi or risk losing their welfare benefits.

In recent years, hundreds of Christians have also faced arrests, detentions, imprisonments, and church attacks.

In Yugan county, authorities shut down at least 48 Three-Self churches and meeting venues between April 18-30, according to Bitter Winter.

The magazine reported that countless number of churches were also ordered to remove their crosses in Jiujiang, Fuzhou, Fengcheng, Shangrao, and a few other cities in the province in April.

Scholars estimate that of China's 60 million or so Christians, about half attend unregistered house churches rather than their state-sanctioned counterparts.

Persecution watchdog Open Doors ranks China 23rd on its list of 50 countries where it's most difficult to be a Christian. The organization notes that all churches are perceived as a threat if they become too large, too political, or invite foreign guests.
MILWAUKEE, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- More than one-fourth of Milwaukee's Black residents, regardless of household income, live in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty. Northwestern Mutual believes that collaboration with residents and local organizations is essential to understanding the challenges and opportunities facing not only its hometown, but communities nationwide. Through its Foundation, the company today announced a donation of nearly $2 million in grants to foster safe neighborhoods, healthy and thriving youth, strong families and quality education in Milwaukee.

As a company, Northwestern Mutual has taken a strategic and long-term approach to drive sustainable change in historically underserved Milwaukee neighborhoods. Since 2013, Northwestern Mutual has supported neighborhoods of predominantly Black and Hispanic residents, partnering with more than 25 nonprofits on an ongoing basis to provide funding and support in alignment with each neighborhoods' revitalization plan and vision for the future.

"Supporting neighborhoods in achieving community-driven change is key to addressing deep-rooted challenges and building a stronger city one block, one resident at a time," said Eric Christophersen, president, Northwestern Mutual Foundation. "Our commitment to our diverse neighborhoods, which began more than seven years ago, is grounded in the belief that improving the quality of life for all Milwaukee residents will produce a positive and lasting impact."

Nearly 30,000 residents living in these areas benefit from the programming these organizations provide. This investment is part of the company's long-term efforts to foster inclusion and equality in communities nationwide. In total, the Northwestern Mutual Foundation has granted $26 million to Amani, Metcalfe Park and Muskego Way to improve housing, education, and safety.

"Community-led change takes time, as well as capacity," said Danell Cross, executive director, Metcalfe Park Community Bridges. "With Northwestern Mutual's partnership, we've seen tremendous growth within our organization. This support has helped us to continue making real progress toward our goals."

Spotlight: Neighborhood Anchor Organizations

To catalyze its efforts to enhance three local communities, Northwestern Mutual adopted the Building Neighborhood Capacity Program (BNCP) framework in 2013 to address systemic challenges with integrated solutions. Following this adoption, the company tailored its own approach to place-based investment.

Through the BNCP, three organizations were designated as the neighborhood "anchor" organization to lead the revitalization efforts for each Milwaukee neighborhood the company supports. The company has continued to partner with each of these nonprofits through its adjusted model.

Amani : The Dominican Center works with Amani residents to build a better future, serving as a resource in the areas of adult education, housing and building neighborhood capacity.

: The Dominican Center works with Amani residents to build a better future, serving as a resource in the areas of adult education, housing and building neighborhood capacity. Metcalfe Park : Metcalfe Park Community Bridges is building a robust and thriving neighborhood in which residents are safe, connected to each other and celebrate the diversity and culture of the area. Its priorities include civic engagement; safety and placemaking; connectedness and cultural vibrance; intergenerational wealth and opportunity; and health and wellness.

: Metcalfe Park Community Bridges is building a robust and thriving neighborhood in which residents are safe, connected to each other and celebrate the diversity and culture of the area. Its priorities include civic engagement; safety and placemaking; connectedness and cultural vibrance; intergenerational wealth and opportunity; and health and wellness. Muskego Way: Milwaukee Christian Center is a multi-service organization that works to build strong neighborhoods full of opportunity. It focuses on four core areas: housing, youth development, older adults and food security.

Northwestern Mutual recently funded updates to each organization's revitalization plans, which highlight the neighborhoods' refined priorities, goals and strategies. This effort included pairing each organization with a technical assistance provider, as well as connecting them with resources for data, research and communications support. These plans, which were developed in partnership with residents, will continue to guide each neighborhood in its collective actions toward reinvestment and sustainable change.

With the company's support, the anchor organizations convene other community and neighborhood partners, including those listed below, in ongoing efforts to achieve resident goals.

2020 Neighborhood Grant Recipients ACTS Housing Artists Working in Education Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee COA Youth & Family Centers Community Warehouse Data You Can Use Dominican Center Ex Fabula Ezekiel CDC Feeding America Greater Milwaukee Foundation Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center Imagine MKE Journey House Junior Achievement of Wisconsin Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee Local Initiatives Support Corporation Metcalfe Park Community Bridges Milwaukee Christian Center Milwaukee Community Business Collaborative Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity Milwaukee Repertory Theater Pathfinders PEARLS for Teen Girls Riverworks Development Corporation Running Rebels Community Organization Safe & Sound Sixteenth Street Community Health Center Sojourner Foundation The Board of Regents, University of Wisconsin System The Bowery Mission (New York) The Parenting Network We Grow Greens Wisconsin Black Historical Society Wisconsin Voices YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee

All grant recipients are required to demonstrate measurable impact and results of their programs.

Locally, the company also collaborates with partners to improve education and make Milwaukee a great place to live. Nationally, the company supports research to find better treatments and a cure for childhood cancer. To learn more, visit the Foundation website.

About Northwestern Mutual Foundation

The mission of the Northwestern Mutual Foundation is to improve the lives of children and families in need. The Foundation has given more than $386 million since its inception in 1992 and is designed to create lasting impact in the communities where the company's employees and financial representatives live and work. We accomplish this by combining financial support, volunteerism, thought leadership and convening community partners to deliver the best outcomes. Our efforts are focused nationally on curing childhood cancer, and locally on education, neighborhoods and making our hometown of Milwaukee a great destination. Visit Northwestern Mutual Foundation to learn more.

About Northwestern Mutual

Northwestern Mutual has been helping people and businesses achieve financial security for more than 160 years. Through a holistic planning approach, Northwestern Mutual combines the expertise of its financial professionals with a personalized digital experience and industry-leading products to help its clients plan for what's most important. With $290.3 billion in total assets, $29.9 billion in revenues, and $1.9 trillion worth of life insurance protection in force, Northwestern Mutual delivers financial security to more than 4.6 million people with life, disability income and long-term care insurance, annuities, and brokerage and advisory services. The company manages more than $161 billion of investments owned by its clients and held or managed through its wealth management and investment services businesses. Northwestern Mutual ranks 102 on the 2020 FORTUNE 500 and is recognized by FORTUNE as one of the "World's Most Admired" life insurance companies in 2020. Northwestern Mutual also received the highest score among individual life insurance providers in the J.D. Power 2019 U.S. Life Insurance Satisfaction Study.

Northwestern Mutual is the marketing name for The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company (NM), Milwaukee, WI (life and disability insurance, annuities, and life insurance with long-term care benefits) and its subsidiaries. Subsidiaries include Northwestern Mutual Investment Services, LLC (NMIS) (securities), broker-dealer, registered investment adviser, member FINRA and SIPC; the Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company (NMWMC) (fiduciary and fee-based financial planning services), federal savings bank; and Northwestern Long Term Care Insurance Company (NLTC) (long-term care insurance).

SOURCE Northwestern Mutual

Related Links

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WASHINGTON, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Steward Partners Global Advisory, LLC, an employee-owned, full-service independent partnership associated with Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. (member FINRA/SIPC), today announced that it has been named to the 2020 Financial Times (FT) 300 Top Registered Investment Advisers list, which recognizes the top independent RIA firms within the United States.

"We are honored to be included in the Financial Times' 300 Top RIAs list this year," said Jim Gold, Chief Executive Officer at Steward Partners. "Ever since we started the firm in 2013, we've remained dedicated to our core values of putting clients first and creating a unique culture where each employee has a voice, and we feel this recognition is an affirmation of those values and all that our team does."

Steward Partners is one of the fastest-growing wealth advisory firms since its founding in 2013. With 23 offices across 13 states and the District of Columbia, the firm manages over $10 billion in advisory assets.

"We've had a terrific quarter in terms of recruiting and we couldn't be more proud of our entire team for ensuring our clients continue to receive the highest level of service," added Hy Saporta, Steward Partners' President and Chief Operating Officer. "By leveraging our technology and remaining focused on driving the business forward, our firm has been able to continue to grow and expand, and this award is something that we feel reflects our team's ongoing commitment to make Steward Partners the leading independent firm for advisors."

This is the seventh annual FT 300 list to be produced independently by the Financial Times in collaboration with Ignites Research, a subsidiary of the FT that provides business intelligence on the asset management industry.

To qualify for the FT 300, firms were required to have a minimum of $300 million in assets and no more than 75% of the practice's assets could be institutional. Qualified RIAs filled out an online application and were scored on several factors, including assets under management (AUM), AUM growth rate, years in existence and compliance records. This ranking is not indicative of advisor's future performance, is not an endorsement, and may not be representative of individual clients' experiences. Neither Raymond James nor any of its Financial Advisors or RIA firms pay a fee in exchange for this award/rating.

A growing number of advisors seeking an advisor and client-centric company have shown strong interest in Steward Partners to date. To accommodate this interest, the firm unveiled a new 1099 affiliate model in late 2019, which offers advisors the ability to run their own office and local profit and loss statement, while maintaining a connection to the firm's robust infrastructure. This new model came in response to increased advisor requests for an employment option offering both local autonomy and the significant resources and equity opportunity that are unique to Steward.

For more information, visit www.stewardpartners.com.

About Steward Partners Global Advisory

With offices in Newtown, CT., Washington, D.C., Clearwater, FL., Andover and Boston, MA., Baltimore and Bethesda, MD., Portland, ME., St. Louis, MO., Hendersonville, NC., Keene, Manchester and Portsmouth, NH., Paramus and Morristown, NJ., Albany and New York City, NY., Conshohocken, PA., Austin, Dallas and Houston, TX., and Norfolk and Richmond, VA., Steward Partners Global Advisory, LLC, is an employee-owned, full-service independent partnership catering to family, institutional and multigenerational wealth. For more information, visit us at www.stewardpartners.com.

About Raymond James Financial Services, Inc.

Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. is a financial services firm supporting independent financial advisors nationwide. Since 1974, Raymond James Financial Services Inc., member FINRA/SIPC, has provided a wide range of investment and wealth planning related services through its affiliate, Raymond James & Associates, Inc., member New York Stock Exchange/SIPC. Both broker/dealers are wholly owned subsidiaries of Raymond James Financial, Inc. (NYSE-RJF) a leading diversified financial services company with approximately 8,100 financial advisors throughout the United States, Canada and overseas. Total client assets are approximately $896 billion as of 12/31/19.

Steward Partners Holdings, Steward Partners Global Advisory, LLC maintain a separate professional business relationship with, and our registered professionals offer securities through, Raymond James Financial Services, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Steward Partners Investment Advisory, LLC, 1776 I Street NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20006. Toll Free: (844) 801-8268.

The Financial Times FT 300 Registered Investment Advisors 2020 award had about 39.5% of the 760 advisor applicants being recognized as a Registered Investment Advisor. The FT used the database of RIAs who are registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and selected those practices reporting to the SEC that had $300 million or more in assets under management, and no more than 75% of the AUM with institutional clients. Additionally, the firm must be independent (not the RIA arm of a broker dealer for example). Qualifying RIA firms filled out an online application and questionnaire that gave more information about their practices. That information was augmented with their own research on the candidates, including data from regulatory filings. The FT generated an internal score for each applicant based on six broad factors: advisor assets under management, AUM growth rate, the firm's years in operation, advisors' industry certifications (CFA, etc.), compliance record, and online accessibility. AUM and asset growth comprise roughly 80 percent to 90 percent of each RIA's score. Additionally, to provide a diversity of advisors, the FT placed a cap on the number of RIA's from any one state that's roughly correlated to the distribution of millionaires across the U.S. The ranking may not be representative of any one client's experience, is not an endorsement, and is not indicative of advisor's future performance. Neither Raymond James nor any of its Financial Advisors or RIA firms pay a fee in exchange for this award/rating. The FT is not affiliated with Raymond James.

Media Contact:

Water & Wall

[email protected]

212-343-2363

SOURCE Steward Partners Global Advisory, LLC

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CHICAGO: A new breast cancer study brings reassuring findings for women with early-stage breast cancer who were forced to delay their cancer operations because of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. A longer time from diagnosis to surgical treatment does not lower overall survival of women with early-stage breast cancer who underwent delayed operations before the pandemic, according to the study results, which are published as an "article in press" on the Journal of the American College of Surgeons website in advance of print.

The researchers also found no survival decrease with operative delays in women with estrogen-sensitive, early-stage breast cancer who received neoadjuvant endocrine therapy (NET). NET is preoperative hormone treatment with anti-estrogen drugs such as tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors.

Patients with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer, whose cancer is fueled by estrogen, typically receive anti-estrogen therapy after surgical removal of the tumor or breast. However, endocrine therapy was recommended nationwide as the initial treatment of ER-positive breast cancer during pandemic-related surgical delays, said lead study author Christina Minami, MD, MS, an associate surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston.

"Usually we take these patients with very small tumors directly to surgery, so it is a big change in practice to first put those patients on tamoxifen or an aromatase inhibitor," Dr. Minami said. "What we can say from our findings is that despite the delay in surgical therapy, because you were on neoadjuvant endocrine therapy, we do not think that your survival will at all be impacted."

The study included data from nearly 379,000 patients in two groups. One group had ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), the earliest form of breast cancer, also called stage 0 or noninvasive. The other group had small invasive tumorsstage I and limited stage IIthat had not spread to nearby lymph nodes and were ER-positive.

Surgical intervention delays due to COVID-19

These groups, Dr. Minami said, represent most breast cancer patients who needed to postpone their nonurgent operations early in the COVID-19 outbreak according to the surgical prioritization recommendations of the COVID-19 Pandemic Breast Cancer Consortium. In March, the Consortium recommended NET for patients with ER-positive DICS and ER-positive, invasive early-stage breast cancer while they waited for their operations. At that time, the Consortium included the American Society of Breast Surgeons, National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers, National Comprehensive Cancer Network, American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer, and American College of Radiology.

To better understand the ramifications of these surgical delay tactics, the researchers conducted this study using the National Cancer Database and analyzed data for 378,839 patients with early-stage breast cancer treated from 2010 to 2016. Cosponsored by the ACS and the American Cancer Society, this database includes information on more than 70 percent of newly diagnosed cancer cases in the United States and is the largest cancer registry of its kind.

The researchers evaluated whether longer time to surgical treatment up to one year after diagnosis had an association with final pathologic staging of the cancer or with five-year overall survival.

Association between Time to Operation and Pathological Stage in DCIS & ER+ Breast Cancer Credit: American College of Surgeons

Increased "upstaging"

In women with invasive early-stage breast cancer, a longer time to the initial cancer operation showed no association with pathologic upstaging, the researchers reported. Upstaging is a change to a higher cancer stage based on surgical and pathologic findings, compared with the clinical stagewhat a surgeon determined from physical examination and imaging results.

Women with ER-positive DCIS, however, had a slightly increased odds of pathologic upstaging with a surgical delay exceeding 60 days, the researchers reported. Patients whose DCIS was ER-negative (not estrogen-fueled) had a higher risk of upstaging only if they underwent an operation more than 120 days after diagnosis; they had an odds of 1.36 to 1 compared with patients who underwent surgical treatment within the first 60 days, according to the article.

This increase in upstaging among DCIS patients had no impact on their overall survival, Dr. Minami said.

She stressed, however, that the patient population in their study differs from the patients who received NET during the pandemic. Before the pandemic, NET was not in wide use for U.S. patients with early-stage, ER-positive breast cancer. Study participants who received NET from 2010 to 2016 did so for specific reasons, such as older age and coexisting illnesses, whereas in the pandemic, NET recipients were "almost an unselected population," Dr. Minami explained.

She added that although the researchers used "the best data currently available to study the possible outcomes of oncologic surgical delays," determination of the actual impact of COVID-19-related surgical delays requires study in patients treated during this time.

Despite this study limitation, senior study author Elizabeth Mittendorf, MD, Ph.D., FACS, professor of surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital, said she has found the study findings helpful to share with her patients who experienced surgical delays.

"We can tell our patients they can still expect an excellent prognosis from their early-stage hormone receptor-positive cancer and that their excellent prognosis is not negatively impacted by this delay they have experienced," Dr. Mittendorf said.

Explore further Surgical delay associated with increased risk in some gastrointestinal malignancies

More information: Christina A. Minami et al, Association between Time to Operation and Pathological Stage in Ductal Carcinoma in Situ and Early-Stage Hormone Receptor-Positive Breast Cancer, Journal of the American College of Surgeons (2020). Journal information: Journal of the American College of Surgeons Christina A. Minami et al, Association between Time to Operation and Pathological Stage in Ductal Carcinoma in Situ and Early-Stage Hormone Receptor-Positive Breast Cancer,(2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2020.06.021
MIAMI (AP) - Until recently, Robert Lewis had never heard of Karen Bass, the California congresswoman in contention to be Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's running mate. But the recent college graduate had long heard stories from his grandfather recounting the days of oppression in Cuba under Fidel Castro.

When he learned that Bass had called Castro's death "a great loss," the 22-year-old considered it a disregard for the plight of those who suffered at the hands of Castro's government.

"Through the stories from my grandparents and because of my upbringing, it makes me feel like their experiences were my own," said Lewis, a political independent who is still weighing his choices ahead of the presidential election.

Lewis' reaction is a blow to Democrats who in recent years have tried to pull young Cubans in Florida away from the Republican Party, the political home of many of their parents and grandparents. The next generation is less focused on the past and open to change, Democrats argued, as President Barack Obama embraced engagement with Cuba and in 2014 declared he would "bury the last remnant of the Cold War."

But Bass' comments provide fresh evidence to the contrary. While polling shows young Cubans in Florida open to new policies, they also remain skeptical of the Cuban government and, experts note, wary of politicians who aren't. Even for some young Cubans, the congresswoman's remarks are troubling - and a reminder that Castro still stirs strong passions.

"Say it aint so, Joe," said one poster on a Facebook community called "Cubanos Con Biden," a 6,000-member group partially run by the Biden campaign. It has been dominated by discussion about Bass in recent days.

In this photo provided by Robert Lewis, Lewis takes a selfie in the Little Havana neighborhood in Miami, Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020. Until recently, Lewis had never heard of Karen Bass, the California congresswoman in contention to be Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's running mate. But the recent college graduate had long heard stories from his grandfather recounting the days of oppression in Cuba under Fidel Castro. (Robert Lewis via AP)

Hispanics account for one-fourth of the population of Florida, a critical presidential battleground, and 1 in every 5 of its 13.8 million voters. The Pew Research Center estimates that nearly a third of Floridas Hispanic voters have roots in Cuba.

Republicans have long dominated with those voters, in part by taking a hard line on maintaining the embargo meant to isolate the island and its now-deceased leader. But shifting views on the embargo have given Democrats hope.

A 2018 poll of Cuban Americans in Miami-Dade County showed a massive generational and age divide in the county in their views about U.S.-Cuba policy. The poll by Florida International University poll found that among those who migrated to the United States before 1980, about 3 in 5 opposed establishment of diplomatic relations, while about 70% of those who were born in the U.S. or arrived after 1980 were in favor.

But the same poll found evidence that Trump, who opposes the Obama-era policies, may have hardened views. Support for the embargo has grown among those who migrated before 1980 with 68% in support in 2018, up from 57% in 2016.

That's not necessarily evidence that Bass and her comments would hurt Bidens chances in Florida, noted Guillermo Grenier, the poll's lead researcher. Rather, he said, it's likely that many Cuban American voters have already solidified around Trump.

"The folks who are pro-Trump are going to stay pro-Trump. There is a small number of undecided, but if they are swayed by the selection of Bass as VP, they really werent undecided," he said.

Still, Democrats are clearly worried about the risks.

Bass has walked back her remarks made after Castros death in 2016 - that "the passing of Comandante en Jefe is a great loss to the people of Cuba."

No offense was intended, Bass said on NBCs "Meet the Press" on Sunday.

"Lesson learned. Wouldn't do that again," she said. "Talked immediately to my colleagues from Florida and realized that that was something that just shouldnt have been said."

She didn't consider herself a Castro sympathizer, she added. "My position on Cuba," she said, "is really no different than the position of the Obama administration."

The apology wasn't helped by trips Bass took to Cuba as a member of Congress to learn about the countrys health care system and as a young activist in the 1970s.

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a Cuban American, has called the congresswoman a "Castro sympathizer."

Bass is hardly the only Democrat to be hit with the charge. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., earlier this year came under fire for a television interview in which he lauded Castro for a literacy program and asserted that it was "unfair to simply say everything is bad" in Cuba. Sanders lost Florida by nearly 40 percentage points in the Democratic presidential primary in March, with Biden garnering 62% of the vote.

Such comments are not just a problem with Cuban Americans, said Fernand Amandi, a Miami political consultant who is a Democrat and is of Cuban descent.

Bass' comments could peel away support among other Latinos, especially those from Nicaragua and Venezuela, who fled the oppressive conditions of their native countries.

"The litmus test in Florida is: Do no harm, because its a state that is always decided by the thinnest of margins. Just taking off the table any segment of the Florida electorate could prove fatal," he said.

If chosen as Bidens running mate, Bass could become the first woman and first African American elected vice president. She is on a short list of women, including U.S. Rep. Val Demings of Orlando, who are said to be finalists for the job.

For some Democrats of Cuban descent, Bass' past remarks aren't enough to determine their vote.

"I would still support Biden regardless of who he chooses as the VP," said Adam Schwartzbaum, a 35-year-old attorney in Coral Gables whose father and grandparents arrived in Miami after the Cuban revolution in 1961.

"We celebrated when Fidel Castro passed away. We still see him as a dictator who really impoverished the island," he said. But his real worry is that Republicans would use Bass' remarks as distraction from what he called the more important goal of electing Biden.

"Right now the focus is to move Trump out of office," he said.

--

Calvan reported from Tallahassee, Fla. Associated Press writer Emily Swanson in Washington contributed to this report.
(Newser)  In 1979, Louisiana man Fair Wayne Bryant was involved in a robbery in which his accomplice shot a taxi driver. But the crime that put him away for life was the 1997 theft of a pair of hedge clippers, for which he has served 23 years and counting. The Louisiana Supreme Court has rejected the 61-year-old's request for a review of his life-without-parole sentence, which was issued under habitual offender laws, the Washington Post reports. The only dissenter was Chief Justice Bernette Johnson, the court's only Black justice, who likened the harsh sentence to the "Pig Laws" introduced during Reconstruction, which brought in extremely harsh penalties for petty theft as a way to "re-enslave African Americans," she wrote, per NPR.

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Bryant, who is Black, is serving his life sentence at the Angola maximum-security prison. "Mr. Bryant has already spent nearly 23 years in prison and is now over 60 years old," Johnson wrote. "If he lives another 20 years, Louisiana taxpayers will have paid almost one million dollars to punish Mr. Bryant for his failed effort to steal a set of hedge clippers." Bryant had four previous felony convictions, but the 1979 conviction was the only violent one, she noted. He was convicted of possessing stolen property in 1987, attempted forgery of a $150 check in 1989, and the burglary of a home in 1992. "Each of these crimes was an effort to steal something," Johnson wrote. "Such petty theft is frequently driven by the ravages of poverty or addiction, and often both." The life sentence, she said, is "grossly out of proportion to the crime and serves no legitimate penal purpose." (Read more Louisiana stories.)
NSW has become the first jurisdiction in Australia to pass a suite of defamation law reforms, ratcheting up the pressure on the other states and territories to follow suit.

The changes, which passed the NSW upper house on Thursday, include a "serious harm" test aimed at weeding out minor claims before a costly trial and a new public interest defence, both modelled on British law.

NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman spearheaded a push to reform national defamation laws. Credit:Sydney Morning Herald

The national reforms, spearheaded by NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman, are also aimed at reducing the size of defamation payouts. It follows a series of record awards including the historic $2.9 million actor Geoffrey Rush received following his defamation fight with The Daily Telegraph.

The new laws clarify the cap on damages for non-economic loss, which is currently $421,000. A plaintiff may still receive a higher payout in some cases, including if damages are awarded for economic loss as in the Rush case.
Biden Surrogates Tout Plan for America

President Donald Trumps failure to control the coronavirus pandemic has worsened a long list of challenges facing American families, according to presumptive Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe Biden.

Among those challenges are caregivers, parents struggling to find childcare, and those in nursing homes, Biden and his campaign team said as they rolled out the former vice presidents Plan for Mobilizing American Talent and Heart to Create a 21st Century Caregiving and Education Workforce.

Staging frequent media briefings where surrogates tout Bidens message remains a regular occurrence of the campaign. On Tuesday, July 21, former Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.), Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles, and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, championed Bidens plan.

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In a media briefing, the four African American women leaders said Bidens plan prioritizes caregivers, and it would lend needed assistance to families of color, particularly Black women.

Im a grandmother of three beautiful young girls, and what I do every day is hope they have caregivers who know that I respect the work they are doing very much, Lyles said.

That means we need to pay people. We need to provide them with benefits. We need to make sure the people who are taking care of our children dont have to worry about how they are going to get home on a bus, and that they are certain that they have an adequate wage to live in our cities.

Each agreed that even before the pandemic, the U.S. experienced a caregiving crisis.

They echoed Bidens campaign message that some care needs were going untended.

Other care needs were filled by Americans serving as unpaid caregivers lacking the financial support or respite care they needed, and sometimes putting their careers on hold.

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Often, families made caregiving decisions that came with significant financial, professional, physical, and emotional costs, the surrogates each agreed.

Caregivers and early childhood educators  disproportionately women of color  have been underpaid, unseen, and undervalued for far too long, they stated.

I dont know if President Trump has even met a caregiver, or that he would even understand the role of caregivers, and their importance in our society and our economy, said Rawlings-Blake.

When I take a look at [Bidens] plan, it is very comprehensive, and it is focused on standing in the gap for a healthcare system that the president is trying to dismantle.

Bidens plan includes:

Expanding access to a broad array of long-term services and supports in local settings, including closing the gaps in Medicaid for home- and community-based services and establishing a state innovation fund for creative, cost-effective direct care services.

It ensures access to high-quality, affordable childcare, and offers universal preschool to three-and four-year olds through more significant investment, expanded tax credits, and sliding-scale subsidies.

Building safe, energy-efficient, developmentally appropriate childcare facilities, including in workplaces, so that parents and guardians never again have to search in vain for a suitable childcare option.

Treating caregivers and early childhood educators with respect and dignity, and giving them the pay and benefits they deserve, training and career ladders to higher-paying jobs, joining a union and bargain collectively, and other fundamental work-related rights and protections.

The campaign estimates that the plan would cost $775 billion over ten years and would be paid for by rolling back unproductive and unequal tax breaks for real estate investors with incomes over $400,000 and taking steps to increase tax compliance for high-income earners.

The plan in every way is set out to really support those who are making it possible for our society to work, Rawlings-Blake stated. Im particularly interested in the support that is given to in-home caregivers, because I know how precarious their jobs are, particularly in this COVID-19 crisis.
MILWAUKEE, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- MGIC Investment Corporation (NYSE: MTG) (the "Company") announced today that it has commenced a public offering of its Senior Notes due 2028.

The Company also announced today by separate press release the commencement of a tender offer (the "Tender Offer") to purchase any and all of the Company's $425 million aggregate principal amount of outstanding 5.750% Senior Notes due 2023 (the "2023 Senior Notes").

The Company intends to use a portion of the net proceeds from the senior note offering to finance the Tender Offer. The Company also intends to use a portion of the net proceeds from the senior note offering to purchase a portion of the Company's 9.000% Convertible Junior Subordinated Debentures due 2063 (the "2063 Debentures"). To the extent the net proceeds from the senior note offering exceeds the amount used to repurchase the 2023 Senior Notes in the Tender Offer or repurchase the 2063 Debentures, the Company intends to use the net proceeds for general corporate purposes.

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC will act as joint book-running managers.

The Company has filed a registration statement (including a prospectus and related preliminary prospectus supplement for the senior notes offering) with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") for the offering to which this communication relates. Before you invest, you should read the preliminary prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus for more complete information about the Company and this offering. You may obtain these documents free of charge by visiting the SEC website at www.sec.gov. Alternatively, you may obtain copies from Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, 200 West Street, New York, NY 10282, Attention: Prospectus Department, by telephone at 1-866-471-2526 or by emailing [email protected]; Citigroup Global Markets Inc., c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions at 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717 or by telephone: (800) 831-9146 or Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, at 180 Varick Street, New York, NY 10014, Attention: Prospectus Department, or by email at [email protected].

This press release is not an offer to sell these securities and is not soliciting an offer to buy these securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of such jurisdiction.

About MGIC

Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corporation ("MGIC"), the principal subsidiary of the Company, serves lenders throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, and other locations helping families achieve homeownership sooner by making affordable low-down-payment mortgages a reality.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward looking statements. Forward looking statements consist of statements which relate to matters other than historical fact, including matters that inherently refer to future events and involve certain important risks and uncertainties, any of which could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed in our forward-looking statements. More information about the risks, uncertainties and assumptions affecting the Company can be found in the risk factors included as Exhibit 99 to our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2020, and in other filings we make with the Securities and Exchange Commission. No investor should rely on the fact that such statements are current at any time other than the time at which this press release was issued.

SOURCE MGIC Investment Corporation
New Delhi: A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi performed Bhoomi Pujan for Ram temple at Ayodhya, a few Muslim leaders, claiming to be representatives of their community in India, has started a campaign against PM Modi's participation in the historic ceremony for which majority Hindus waited for several generations.

Terming the Prime Minister's participation as against the spirit of secularism enshrined in the Constitution, these hatemongers are trying to provoke people to spoil the peaceful atmosphere in the country when a temple of harmony is being built after a wait of 500 years. The DNA analysis today exposes such leadership which for serving their interests cites Constitution but when it goes against them they don't bother even to defy the Supreme Court.

For crores of Hindus, it was an occasion to celebrate Diwali as it was a dream come true. They had lost hope that their dream of Ram Temple in Ayodhya would ever come into reality in their lifetime. Their celebration was the outcome of 500 years of wait and the sacrifice of 25 generations. The majority of Hindus in the country now feel that Lord Rama's exile has actually ended.

On the contrary, a handful of Muslim leaders in the country feel that Indian secularism is in danger now. Some of these even stated that Babri Masjid was, Babri Masjid is still there and it would continue to remain. Some even stated that what the Prime Minister said in Ayodhya on August 5 was against the history. Some went ahead even to the extent of saying that history will be repeated again, and the mosque will be rebuilt after desecrating the temple.

Among those who made such statements included Samajwadi Party MP Shafiqur Rahman Burke, Senior Advocate Zafaryab Jilani, President of All India Imam Association Sajid Rashidi and officials of Muslim Personal Law Board, along with were some Liberal intellectuals and journalists. These are the same people who have hailed the Constitution for 70 years and also appreciated secularism, but when the Supreme Court settled the Ayodhya dispute they are now disillusioned.

Earlier these liberals vowed to respect the Supreme Court decision, but these people are saying that the top court gave its verdict under the government pressure. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has worked against the Constitution by visiting Ram temple in Ayodhya, they added.

If the Supreme Court gives a decision in their favour then the democracy and the Constitution are intact, but if the top court decision does not suit them then they start questioning it. Five months ago, protesters in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh showed copies of the Constitution in their hands, but the same people are now insulting the Constitution.

Notably, the original copy of the Constitution depicts Lord Shri Ram returning to Ayodhya with Sita and Lakshmana after the victory of Lanka.

A complaint has been filed against the All India Muslim Personal Law Board in Delhi today, urging Delhi Police to file a case against the AIMPLB under sections 153A, 153B, 295A, sections 298, 504, 505 of IPC for inciting communal hatred, violence, and riots and for contempt of the Supreme Court.

A day before the Bhumi Pujan of Ram temple, the AIMPLB had tweeted to say that there was Babri Masjid and will always be there. Citing the example of Turkey's Haya Sophia, it stated that the conditions would not remain the same, and asked followers to keep patience. The Tweet was later deleted, but the thinking of such organizations can not be deleted.

The anger against Muslim Personal Law Board is visible among people as the demand for suspending is coming from different parts of the country. These are the people who are opposed to the Ram temple and have incited Muslim society from time to time to radicalise them.

Such people are also against Indian tradition and culture. Earlier, they have opposed writers like Salman Rushdie and Taslima Nasreen, and always try to bar their entry into India, because these writers write and speak against radical ideology.

The DNA will make you understand the intention of such people, opposing the Ram temple, and the mistakes they are committing in 4 points:

1. These people have disobeyed the Supreme Court decision therefore action should be taken against them.

2. These people have also insulted the Indian Constitution.

3. With their provocative statement, they have tried to break the Hindu-Muslim brotherhood.

4. They are least interested in solving the issue of Ram temple in Ayodhya, They rather want it to continue for the next 500 years.
Emmalee Skinner was named Distinguished Young Woman of Wyoming at the conclusion of a statewide scholarship program Saturday.

Skinner was awarded $3,600 in cash scholarships and will represent the state as its Distinguished Young Woman through 2021.

She is the daughter of Bradlee and Melissa Skinner.

Skinner was one of seven girls competing to represent the state. A virtual program was hosted through video conferences and submissions during the week of July 27, with the finals taking place Aug. 1.

Participants were graded in five categories: Scholastics, Interview, Talent, Fitness and Self...
The U.S. is creating an interlinked network of weapons that will fight smartly. It is possible to guide missiles in asymmetrical attack patterns that is beyond visual range.

As China and other threats are upping their presence, the U.S. Navy has the F-35 and Super Hornet as its front-liners that will synch in the Navy's connected battle network.

The 4thgeneration F-18 Super Hornet will now have sensors and networks that will link with the F-35 Lightning in connected combat. Conversion of the 500 Super Hornet and 116 new Block III Super Hornets will be on U.S. flat tops soon. For the F-35C, it might be a light carrier, or the bigger one, for F-18 it will be the catapult equipped carriers, reported Breaking Defense.

Once considered the F-35C alternative, now both are liked in beyond visual range attack spheres. Both complement each other in a wartime situation that needed multiple systems that works synergistically.

How the two combat systems complement each other

The F-35C is the tip of the spear into hostile territory, which spots airborne enemies with tracking data linked to E-2D Hawkeye command plane safe in CAP patrol radius and enemy fire. Keeping the Hawkeye safe from enemy detection is the EA-18G Growler radar-jamming planes. Data is linked and sent over the network to F/A-18 Super Hornets, with improved cockpit equipment.

Radar may not be enough, so the Hornets use Infra-Red Search & Track sensors to see the jet exhaust. Next two F-18 will use the data and center the target and fire beyond visual range. Underslung on the fuselage are missiles up to eight in all. The oncoming bogeys are shot down in this scenario.

Also read: Chinese Air Force Sends Bold Warning to US Navy, Declares They Are Not Afraid

Initially, it was a toss-up of what to get, the F-35C or the F-18 but it was resolved that both systems are ready to complement each other in an interlinked network.

The Super Hornet is not just a brawler

This is not the same as the current F-18 in service with the U.S. Navy, not only does it have offensive capacity but it has 10% less radar cross-section in this iteration.

Dan Gillian, the Boeing program manager, said the Navy needs more offensive strength than stealth. The Block III Super Hornet is for fighting

This ain't just any F-18, it's SUPER

Modernized systems are important as well as avionics, inside an F-18, is the Lockheed Martin MUOS (Mobile User Objective System) satellite communications link that interlinks with the network beyond sight.

Add-ons like the Rockwell Collins, Tactical Targeting Network Technology that is installed on the Growler and E-2G Hawkeye links data to all these combat systems in interdicting Chinese fighter planes. The TTNT is part of the Naval Integrated Fire Control - Counter-Air, an umbrella that commands these three systems at the hands of naval commanders.

Several systems like the Distributed Targeting Processor-Networked that manages data on the Hornets, with Infrared Search and Track sensor that combines on the TTNT. This cobweb of systems will allow more asymmetrical attacks that will confound all adversaries.

More extras to give the Hornet advantages is the Advanced Cockpit System that drop tanks with less radar visibility, adding 120 nautical miles to the range, plus a 10% less visible redesign that will be useful.

Between the F-35 Lightning and Super Hornet enemy sorties, they hardly put to score attacks on ships or planes.

Relate article: US Air Force Sends Spy Drones as Eyes Over South China Sea

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Samsung Life Insurance's headquarters in southern Seoul. / Korea Times file



By Kim Bo-eun



Insurers have remained unaffected by the latest series of scandals involving private equity funds (PEFs), as the products were distributed mainly by banks and brokerages. However, Samsung Life Insurance has come under scrutiny after it notified investors of a gold-related derivative-linked securities (DLS) product last week redemptions have been suspended.



Samsung Life sold the bulk of the product that incorporated a letter of credit between firms importing and exporting gold as the underlying asset. Redemptions for products that reached maturity at the end of last month were halted after NH Investment & Securities, which drew up the product, notified the insurer of liquidity issues triggered by COVID-19. The investments were managed by the Hong Kong-based Universe Asia Management.



Samsung Life notified investors last month that they would be able to redeem their investments that reach maturity at the end of July by May next year, based on the notifications from NH.



The issue for Samsung Life as a distributer of the product is whether it was involved in mis-selling. Reports have cited investors who claim Samsung Life promised they would be able to redeem their investments in seven months.



Regarding the issue, a Samsung Life official said, "We are aware that, as the entity that was in charge of the process of investors signing up for the product, we do have the duty to protect customers' assets. We provided detailed explanations including about the risks related to the investments."



The official did not explain which entity was responsible for the delay in fund redemptions. Samsung Life has requested NH to provide further details involving the fund.



The country's top insurer has seen its reputation tarnished over the years, based on repeated episodes of misconducts. The main issue with the insurer is its refusal to comply with orders by the financial authorities to make payments to claimants.



The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) in 2018 directed Samsung Life to provide payments to holders of its cancer policy. Cancer patient holding the policy had requested payments for nursing home fees, but the life insurer stated it could not make the payments because it does not consider the fees to be expenses for cancer treatment.



Policyholders referred to the terms of the policy, which state the insurer would cover expenses for admission to an institution for cancer treatment. Some hospitals do not allow cancer patients to be hospitalized for more than a week after surgery, and patients are admitted to specialized nursing homes for treatment for this reason.



A suit is ongoing between Samsung Life and its policyholders over the case. Cancer patients holding the policy have been staging a protest at Samsung Life since January. They are demanding the FSS revoke approval for Samsung to operate an insurance business.



The insurer is notorious for defying orders by financial authorities to provide payments to policyholders. Samsung Life only provided 100 percent payments in 62.8 percent of the cases it was ordered to last year, according to the FSS. The figure for other life insurers exceeds 90 percent. Figures for Hanwha and Kyobo, the two other major life insurers, were 90.9 percent and 95.5 percent, respectively.



Samsung Life also saw its reputation marred after authorities issued warnings in May for entrusting the management of its assets to Samsung's asset management unit.



Internal guidelines had stated contracts with asset managers are subject to change based on performance, but Samsung Life allocated its assets to Samsung Asset Management, despite its poor performance.



The insurer was found to have revised the criteria for assessing the investment firm's performance to give it an advantage in an evaluation.


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She was at the beach days earlier soaking up some sun and meditating by the surf as she makes the most of a summer during lockdown.

And reality TV star Farrah Abraham was back at the beach in Malibu, California on Wednesday afternoon for a relaxing day out with her 11-year-old daughter Sophia.

The 29-year-old Teen Mom star showcased her curves and striking physique in a baby blue string bikini that matched the cool water.

Fun in the sun: Farrah Abraham, 29, was back at the beach in Malibu on Wednesday for a relaxing day out with her 11-year-old daughter Sophia

Stellar figure: She stepped out of her white shorts to reveal matching low-slung string bottoms. The skimpy outfit revealed Farrah's flat tummy and toned arms, along with her pert derriere

Farrah and Sophia both arrived at the beach wearing black lace masks to help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, though it wasn't clear if they included some kind of filter.

The 5ft7in reality star looked festive a white crop top tied off over her midriff and decorated with multicolored butterflies, along with high-waisted matching shorts.

Sophia looked casual in a black tank top and gray and white leggings, and she had on gloves as an extra safety precaution.

Blue mood: The reality TV star, who has let her personal life play out for MTV, stripped off her top to reveal her lustrous blue halter bikini top, which looked a bit small for her prominent bust

Tough time: 'I'm having some real situations. And I was trying to make a decision, because I cannot focus,' she said. 'I've been having monumental headaches. Like when I say this, I wake up out of my sleep, I can't sleep, I can't focus on my work.'

Luscious locks: She ran her fingers through her long caramel-colored locks, which whipped about in the sea breeze

On the run: Farrah showed off her winning smile and impeccably made-up face while frolicking in the waves, but last week she suffered complications from Botox shots

Farrah stripped off her top to reveal her lustrous blue halter bikini top, which looked a bit small for her prominent bust.

She stepped out of her white shorts to reveal matching low-slung string bottoms.

The skimpy outfit revealed Farrah's flat tummy and toned arms, along with her pert derriere.

Safety measures: Farrah and Sophia both arrived at the beach wearing black lace masks to help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus

She ran her fingers through her long caramel-colored locks, which whipped about in the sea breeze.

Farrah showed off her winning smile and impeccably made-up face while frolicking in the waves, but last week she suffered complications from Botox shots.

The 16 And Pregnant star revealed she'd been dealing with a serious case of lockjaw and had been experiencing debilitating headaches, presumably as a result of injecting the neurotoxin, which is a popular wrinkle smoother.

Revealing: The 5ft7in reality star looked festive a white crop top tied off over her midriff and decorated with multicolored butterflies, along with high-waisted matching shorts

Back in black: Sophia looked casual in a black tank top and gray and white leggings, and she had on gloves as an extra safety precaution

She and Sophia visited her regular plastic surgeon, Dr. Sheila Nazarian, in Beverly Hills on Friday in order to address the side effects with Sophia in tow.

Abraham said in a video from the appointment: 'I'm having some real situations. And I was trying to make a decision, because I cannot focus. I've been having monumental headaches. Like when I say this, I wake up out of my sleep, I can't sleep, I can't focus on my work.'

She added: 'But I cannot get rid of this lockjaw situation and these headaches. So, I asked Dr. Nazarian to help me out today.'

Ouch: The 16 And Pregnant star revealed she'd been dealing with lockjaw and had been experiencing debilitating headaches as a result of injecting the neurotoxin Botox

Getting a fix: She and Sophia visited her regular plastic surgeon, Dr. Sheila Nazarian, in Beverly Hills on Friday in order to address the side effects with Sophia in tow

Though Farrah has been open about her cosmetic procedures in the past, she's used her quarantine as an opportunity to take a break and exercise caution due to the novel coronavirus.

'This is all natural. I am still going natural,' she told Us Weekly in July. 'I probably need to do something since Im turning 30 soon, but everything, it kind of holds. I really need to be safe.'

The social media star defended herself last month after she came under fire for a TikTok video featuring her daughter that some fans found inappropriate.

The two joined a social media trend of filming a video in which one person smacks someone else with a bag or other items as if it was an accident while sitting in a car.

Slow going: Though Farrah has been open about her cosmetic procedures in the past, she's used her quarantine as an opportunity to take a break and exercise caution due to the novel coronavirus

Farrah playfully stuck her handbag in Sophia's face without actually smacking her, then sat their puppy on her head and picked other items from the backseat to lay on her, including some breadsticks from a pizza box.

But while grabbing for things in the backseat she also held up a box with a brand-new vibrator, which incensed some viewers, though it didn't come into contact with her daughter.

'That was an online trend  about doing quirky things and hitting people in the face with [stuff],' she defended herself to Us Weekly last month.

'I dont really feel like I can be shamed when I protect my child,' she continued. 'I educate my daughter. We have so much fun on TikTok.  I think Im doing pretty great.'
York police are searching for suspects after one person was shot in Richmond Hill on Wednesday night, police say.

Police got the call about a shooting at Blyth Street, near Parker Avenue, in Richmond Hill around 10 p.m.

A person with gunshot wounds was located by the police and transported to hospital.

Police are looking for three male suspects, and a dark coloured sedan.

Anyone with information or video is being asked to call 905-830-0303.

Abhya Adlakha is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star's radio room in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @AbhyaAdlakha

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French President Emmanuel Macron toured heavily damaged Beirut neighbourhoods on Thursday - AFP

Angry Lebanese mobbed French President Emmanuel Macron in Beirut on Thursday, demanding his help in overthrowing their reviled leaders, as outrage grew over a devastating explosion caused by thousands of tons of dangerous chemicals that were stored in the capital for years despite repeated warnings.

The visiting French leader warned that without structural reform the country would "continue to sink", as the death toll rose to 145 and over 5,000 injured by the port blast that damaged half of Beirut, the capital of a country already facing economic collapse.

Touring a heavily damaged Beirut neighbourhood, Mr Macron was met by an angry crowd chanting "Revolution" and "The people want to bring down the regime," slogans used during nationwide protests last year.

Surrounded by traumatised demonstrators pleading for help, Mr Macron pushed past bodyguards to hug a woman, something no Lebanese leader has done since the disaster on Tuesday.

"Don't give money to our government, we dont trust them," one woman called to the French leader.

Mr Macron said he would ask Lebanon's leaders to accept "a new political deal" and "to change the system, to stop the division of Lebanon, to fight against corruption".

He said he was not there to endorse the "regime" and vowed that French aid would not fall into the "corrupt hands.

As foreign governments consider aid for Lebanon -- including the UK which has pledged 5 million -- some Lebanese are demanding it not be channeled through their own government, who they blame not just for Tuesdays explosion but for decades of corruption and mismanagement.

A British military team was expected to arrive in Beirut on Thursday to help coordinate the British response but the Lebanese government reportedly turned down an offered search and rescue team, saying it had sufficient capacity already.

Since the blast, Beirut streets have been filled with civilian volunteers sweeping up rubble and broken glass but precious few government workers. Why do we have more Palestinian civil defence workers helping us out than the government? one man asked. We have more Syrian refugees helping us than the government.

Story continues

Not a single dime should go to this government, said Fady, a Beirut resident whose home was destroyed in the explosion. They have no competence to respond to anything.

All theyre good for is to beg for money from foreign governments so they can steal it and splurge it on their castles and fancy weddings, he said, withholding his surname because of his job with an international aid organisation.

In this climate, foreign aid to the government may be interpreted as an endorsement of a political oligarchy that for decades has pillaged Lebanon an endless cycle of graft and dysfunction.

The international community is partially responsible because theyve supported these same warlords for the past 20 years because they didnt want to see the country return to the civil war, Fady said. Id rather go back to a civil war than to live with these inhuman warlords in power.

No Lebanese leader has yet resigned over the disaster, even as officials acknowledged that despite repeated warnings from port authorities, an estimated 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate had been left in a warehouse in the port since it was seized in 2014.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun has promised accountability, while Prime Minister Hassan Diab has vowed those responsible will pay the price for this disaster.

Many skeptical Lebanese believe that promises of justice are more likely to result in scapegoating though, and are demanding that heads roll now, with the Arabic hashtag Prepare the nooses trending on Twitter.

Already, leaders have begun deflecting.

"It's not my job to know," Public Works Minister Michel Najjar told Al Jazeera when asked about dangerous materials stored at the port.

Claiming his ministry had repeatedly warned of the danger posed by the stored ammonium nitrate, he blamed the courts. "The judiciary didn't do anything," he said. "It's negligence."

Amid the blame-shifting, Prime Minister Hassan Diab is leading an investigation committee staffed by ministers and the heads of the countrys security agencies.

But few have faith in the government to investigate itself. Amnesty International has called for an international mechanism to probe the disaster free from any potential domestic political interference.

The Lebanese state and judiciary has an abysmal record when it comes to investigating incidents like these and thats in large part because theyre the criminals themselves, said Anthony Elghossain, a Lebanese American lawyer.

Lebanese leaders have killed a country, buried it and pissed on its grave, he said. Thats what people are feeling right now. For 30 years people have been telling themselves it cant get much worse but look at it now They played hot potato with a megabomb.
Migrant workers wearing protective face masks queue in line to receive sim card top up cards given by volunteers in a factory-converted dormitory on April 17, 2020 in Singapore. (Photo by Ore Huiying/Getty Images)

SINGAPORE  More than three weeks after the sudden death of his older brother, Govindaraj Murugesan is still trying to find the answers.

My friend called me about 830, 845am. He said, your brother (Govindaraj Veerasamy) is hanging in the kitchen area, said the 32-year-old, who hails from Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu and has been working in Singapore for a decade.

Veerasamy, 37, was found motionless in the early hours of the morning on 24 July at Sungei Tengah Lodge, where he was pronounced dead at the scene by a paramedic. This is the largest purpose-built dormitory in Singapore, housing some 25,000 workers in 10 residential blocks at Old Choa Chu Kang Road.

Police have classified the case as unnatural death and do not suspect foul play. Investigations are ongoing.

Murugesan, who lives in an HDB flat, told Yahoo News Singapore that he called the dorm but was not allowed in due to ongoing lockdown measures. He eventually saw his older brothers body at a hospital mortuary.

I try and send him back home to India, but they say cannot because of Covid-19. Veerasamy was later cremated and his ashes are currently resting in a columbarium in Mandai.

Murugesan last spoke to his brother, who was a site supervisor in the construction industry and married with two children, over the phone three days before his death. The brothers, who spoke regularly, discussed family matters and Veerasamy seemed fine.

My friends say a few days before, his mind (was) very upset. I also dont know why he go and hanging (sic). He is very strong man, how can he go and hanging? He never inform me.

Veerasamys death came amid a recent spate of incidents of attempted suicide involving migrant workers residing in dormitories, who have been living under lockdown, partial or otherwise, since 21 April. On the day of his death, videos circulated on social media of separate incidents at Sungei Tengah Lodge and another dorm at 29 Senoko South Road, where workers had to be pulled away from the edge of elevated areas.

Story continues

In one incident, a worker allegedly slit his throat on the morning of 2 August at a dormitory in Sungei Kadut. Police later apprehended the 36-year-old man under the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) Act. He is said to be in stable condition. In response to the incident, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said, "MOM advises all workers not to put themselves in harm's way if they encounter problems. If they act rashly, it will make it more difficult for MOM to be able to assist them or to help solve their problems sooner."

And on 31 July, dramatic footage emerged of a worker standing on the 8th floor ledge of a block at The Leo, a dormitory in Kaki Bukit. The 27-year-old man was eventually pulled to safety and also apprehended under the mental health law.

Two other cases of unnatural death in the dorms were also reported in April and May.

On Thursday (6 August), MOM told CNA, The Ministry of Manpower is aware of the recent spate of suicides and attempted suicides involving migrant workers living at the dormitories.

While we have not observed a spike in the number of migrant worker suicides compared to previous years, we are monitoring the situation and are working closely with our partners and NGOs to enhance our mental health support programmes for the workers.

The ministry added that its Forward Assurance and Support Teams (FAST) - public officers stationed at the dormitories  will continue to proactively look out for residents whom they assess may benefit from speaking to a mental health counsellor.

We have also worked with IMH to train and better equip frontline staff with the knowledge and skills to help workers who may require support.

Movements heavily controlled

A 19-year-old migrant worker perched atop a block at Sungei Tengah Lodge on 24 July 2020, who was later apprehended under the Mental Health Act. SCREENCAP: Singapore to Bangladesh Facebook page

More than 300,000 migrant workers are currently living under restricted conditions at purpose-built dormitories and factory-converted dormitories, in a bid to control the spread of the coronavirus.

From 21 April, authorities began a lockdown of the dorms in response to the massive outbreak of the virus among migrant workers. As of 6 August, migrant workers living in dorms account for some 94 per cent of Singapores 54,555 cases.

Some 273,000 workers staying in dorms have either recovered or been tested and found to be free of the virus, as of 5 August.

Education Minister Lawrence Wong, who co-chairs the multi-ministry taskforce on COVID-19, earlier said that all foreign worker dorms will be cleared by 7 August, save for 17 standalone blocks in eight purpose-built dormitories that serve as quarantine facilities. They presently house some 9,700 workers who are still serving out their isolation period.

In a press release on Tuesday, the MOM stressed again that it has made progress over the past weeks in progressively allowing more foreign workers to resume work.

However, the movements of those who are allowed to go to work are heavily controlled. For example, they are required to download three apps: TraceTogether, FWMOMCare and SGWorkPass, which enable authorities to account for their whereabouts, monitor their health and facilitate contact tracing. They are not allowed to socialise and must return to the dorms immediately after work.

Dorm operators must adhere to stringent measures such as ensuring regulated exit and entry points, and using dedicated transport to get the workers to and from work. Employers must also apply to the relevant ministries such as the Building and Construction Authority for permission to deploy their workers.

Within the dorms, intermingling between different blocks and even different floors is heavily restricted, with many only allowed to leave their rooms to collect food or go to the toilet, depending on their health status.

Anxiety, uncertainty, disquiet

Migrant workers and non-governmental organisations told Yahoo News Singapore that there has been an uptick in stress and anxiety levels among those residing in the dorms, as the prolonged effects of isolation and financial, family and employment worries take their toll. There have been multiple reports of physical and verbal altercations, as well as self-harm and suicide ideation.

The migrant worker NGO Healthserve has reported a tripling in the number of cases of suicide ideation in the past two weeks.

A construction supervisor from India, who has been working in Singapore for more than 15 years, said, They are stuck in the dorm for more than three months. A lot of people (have) mental health problems, he said. They fight in the dormitory. Pandemic really very difficult time, because they cannot go and meet their friends. They want to go drinking and smoking, (but they cannot, so) they become very stressed.

In one incident, a worker at a dorm in Bidadari ended up assaulting a security officer when he was not allowed to leave the premises. Police were called in and the worker was sent for counselling. Another incident saw a worker standing outside the railing of his room at a dorm in Senoko South Road until he was persuaded to come down, said the supervisor, who declined to be named.

He added that only about a quarter of his companys 400 workers have been allowed to resume work. The ones who are working, they are able to move about, then their mindset different. But before this, they can only sweep the room. They cannot even go to other levels. Some cannot send money to their families.

Lawyer Dipa Swaminathan is founder of migrant worker advocacy group Itsrainingraincoats, which continues to reach out to the workers. While the NGO does not offer counselling services, it has close to 700 volunteers doing English language sessions who have become buddies to many of the workers. Through this, we have heard about workers feeling stressed, anxious, cooped up. There is a certain level of uncertainty and disquiet among many of them. A lot of these guys live on the fringe of desperation, and they might react in certain ways.

On one recent occasion, volunteers stayed up till midnight because a worker had told his teacher he would do something but didnt specify what it was. Police were called because the worker stopped responding, and he was taken to hospital. He has since returned to his dorm and is doing much better.

Swaminathan said that people would understand what the migrant workers are going through if they were in their shoes, adding that these workers are feeling the strain of not knowing when the restrictions would end.

If you are in a comfortable room with a TV and easy access to food and drinks, its okay. But even with those luxuries, try locking yourself in for 20 days without the ability to go out and take a walk freely: you might want to open a window and scream.

As such, it is important to consider how to alleviate the anxiety of the workers. We might be labouring under a false sense of security to think that there wont be any more cases. It is only realistic to expect that anxiety levels will continue to persist the longer they stay indoors.

What is being done to help?

Healthserve personnel engaging migrant workers who are currently quarantined or isolated at hotels. PHOTO: Healthserve Facebook page

In response to queries, the MOM referred Yahoo News Singapore to official advisories, as well as Manpower Minister Josephine Teos written answer on 5 June to a parliamentary question on mental healthcare provided to workers living in the dorms.

Teo noted that the MOM partners with NGOs such as the Migrant Workers Centre (MWC) and Healthserve to meet the mental well-being of migrant workers. Additionally, FAST teams and MWCs network of 5,000 ambassadors proactively look out for residents who may need help and refer them to a mental health counsellor.

Workers can also call the MWCs 24-hour helpline for assistance on any issues or a listening ear. And in April, Healthserve launched a dedicated mental wellness hotline where workers can access important medical information and submit requests for tele-counselling sessions in their native languages.

The Ministry of Health has yet to respond to Yahoo News Singapores query on its assessment of the impact of the multiple restrictions on workers mental health.

According to Healthserves head of communications and engagement, Suwen Low, from April to July, the NGO engaged with over 700 participants virtually through counselling clinics and group sessions - all related to the COVID-19 crisis. It has also been training between 80 and 100 volunteers to help out with engagement activities and focus group discussions.

But recently we have had more referrals coming to us for high risk cases such as self harm and suicide ideations. Our teams are active in various ways in more than 15 dorms/facilities," said Low, who added that her mental health team is activated every few days, while a virtual counselling clinic is held every week.

Being stuck in lockdown for about four months is causing a lot of frustration for the workers, Low said. When overnight, you take people away from their jobs and you ask them to stay in an area for their own good, they can understand it, but theres only so much they can take.

She noted that many had been isolated in hotels or isolation facilities for about one to two months. Some have not seen a human being on a regular basis for two months. That sort of isolation is not good for anyone. Even if you put someone in a nice hotel room, they are still in isolation.

And while conditions have improved slightly, with more freedom of movement, the key issues remain: anxiety from feeling trapped and wanting to go back to their home countries, but not being able to do so, as well as a fear of losing their jobs. Many have asked for grief counselling as they lost family members back home but are stuck in Singapore.

The anxiety sometimes manifests itself in aggression, said Low. Other lose their appetite or are unable to sleep because they are unable to process what is happening. They start to be more vocal and angry, or they act like they are going to harm themselves. They dont really want to but they dont know how else to express it. I have seen someone shave their head, just as a way of taking control of their situation.

Foreign workers are seen in the compound of a dormitory on April 21, 2020 in Singapore. (Photo by Suhaimi Abdullah/Getty Images)

Low conceded that the various stakeholders involved  dorm operators, employers, the healthcare system and authorities  are having a hard time adapting to an ever-evolving situation. Fatigue is setting in and affecting many people, particularly the workers.

The only way this can resolve is if you give them what they want, which is very difficult now: the freedom to go out of the dorms and go back to work and move around freely.

If you know of migrant workers in distress or in need of assistance, they can call the following helplines:

Healthserve: 31384443 (WhatsApp or call)

Migrant Workers Centre: 6536-2692

Samaritans of Singapore: 1800-221-4444

Institute of Mental Healths Mobile Crisis Service: 6389-2222

Related stories

COVID-19: 581 of 908 new cases in S'pore linked to Acacia Lodge cluster

MOM: About 89% of migrant workers recovered or tested free from COVID-19

COMMENT: Singapores treatment of foreign workers is a stain we can do without
KITCHENER  A man accused of killing a fellow migrant worker last month in Wilmot Township appeared in court by video on Thursday.

Alex Lopez-Noriega, 33, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Luis Gabriel Cahuec Moran, 35. His body was found July 29 in a farm field on Erbs Road near St. Agatha. Police said he had significant head trauma.

Both the victim and accused were migrant workers who came here from a small town in Guatemala.

Lopez-Noriega, speaking through a Spanish interpreter, addressed the court from Maplehurst jail in Milton. The court appearance was brief. He returns to court on Aug. 27.
BASEL, Switzerland, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- BaseLaunch, the Basel Area-based biotech venture accelerator and incubator, today announces that CSL Behring, a leading global biotechnology company focused on discovering, developing and delivering medicines for people with rare and serious diseases, becomes the fifth partner in BaseLaunch Phase II, the next phase in BaseLaunch's company building activities.

CSL Behring, which has a leading R&D and operations presence in Bern, Switzerland, joins recently announced pharma, venture fund and biotechnology partners - Roche, BB Pureos Bioventures, Roivant Sciences and Bridge Biotherapeutics - in supporting BaseLaunch's investment in life sciences innovation, with additional partners to be announced over the coming weeks and months.

"BaseLaunch has successfully served as a growth platform for early stage ventures developing cutting-edge therapeutics," said Dr. Adrian Zuercher, Vice President, Research Europe and Head of Plasma Protein Research, CSL Behring. "This partnership will help us identify and build relationships with potential external collaborators from throughout Europe as we look to continue to grow our leading-edge scientific capabilities in our three strategic platforms - plasma fractionation, recombinant protein technology, and cell and gene therapy -- to, ultimately, develop and deliver innovative medicines that address unmet medical needs."

Neil Goldsmith, Director of Strategy at BaseLaunch, added: "We are very pleased to welcome CSL Behring as a partner in BaseLaunch Phase II. We have witnessed the great innovation and forward-thinking of this well-established company through recent years and believe they will be instrumental in the development and success of many promising therapeutic ventures. As one of the largest biotech companies in the world, CSL Behring brings decades of biologics expertise and we look forward to helping them to explore further partnerships and opportunities."

BaseLaunch serves as an accelerator and incubator for early stage ventures developing cutting-edge therapeutics. BaseLaunch helps build companies from inception through to Series A funding, providing financing and supporting all aspects of business development. During 2018 and 2019, BaseLaunch supported nine early therapeutic ventures which have raised a total of more than USD 100 million in equity capital from US and European venture funds, thereby contributing to the life sciences ecosystem of the Basel Area. Recently, BaseLaunch has added another four ventures to its portfolio, and has been instrumental in contributing to the development of six more ventures in the Basel Area. Building on the success of its first phase, BaseLaunch Phase II will increase funding per venture to a maximum of USD 0.5 million (versus USD 0.25 million previously) and will accept applications all year round, establishing BaseLaunch as a permanent initiative and the premier partner of choice for scientists and entrepreneurs that want to build potentially life-saving biotech ventures.

BaseLaunch is operated by Basel Area Business & Innovation, the investment and innovation promotion agency of the Basel Area. During its first phase (2017-2019), BaseLaunch was supported by Roche, Novartis Venture Fund, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Roivant Sciences. Having entered its second phase, BaseLaunch is gearing up with new commitments, which will be announced soon, harnessing the Basel Area's unique position as a global life sciences hub, as well as its rising popularity among investors, to attract the next generation of breakthrough companies. BaseLaunch Phase II is now open for applications. Interested groups can find information at www.BaseLaunch.ch/apply/.

About BaseLaunch

BaseLaunch is the Basel Area-based incubator and accelerator that helps scientists and entrepreneurs launch exceptional biotech companies. BaseLaunch serves as a growth platform for early stage ventures developing cutting-edge therapeutics. BaseLaunch helps build companies from inception through to Series A funding, providing financing and supporting all aspects of business development. Operationally run and financed by Basel Area Business & Innovation, the investment and innovation promotion agency of the Basel Area, BaseLaunch partners with leading global pharma companies and venture funds, which also aliment the pool out of which BaseLaunch funds ventures. Regional and domain partners include the cantons of Basel-Landschaft, Basel-Stadt and Jura as well as KPMG, SpiroChem, Vossius & Partner and Infors HT. Since 2018, BaseLaunch supported ventures have raised in total over USD 100 million. Harnessing Basel Area's unique position as a global life sciences hub, as well as its rising popularity among investors, BaseLaunch is looking to attract the next generation of breakthrough companies. Interested groups can find more information at www.baselaunch.ch

About Basel Area Business & Innovation

Basel Area Business & Innovation is the investment and innovation promotion agency dedicated to helping companies, institutions and startups find business success in the Basel Area. The organization targets and attracts companies to settle, supports founders of innovative ventures, and drives high growth initiatives in order to establish the region as the Swiss business and innovation hub of the future. The non-profit agency focuses on growing the area's cutting-edge industries life sciences, healthcare and production technologies and manages the Switzerland Innovation Park Basel Area which houses the organization's accelerator programs. The agency serves the cantons of Basel-Landschaft, Basel-Stadt and Jura. www.baselarea.swiss

SOURCE BaseLaunch
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-07 05:47:27|Editor: huaxia

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LONDON, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced Thursday that travelers returning to the country from Belgium, the Bahamas and Andorra will have to quarantine at home for 14 days from Saturday, citing rising COVID-19 infection levels in the three countries.

Shapps, in a tweet, said the measures would come into force in England from Saturday at 0300 GMT. He said that the three countries have been removed from the so-called travel corridors which meant arrivals were exempt from self-isolating.

In Wales, the restrictions will come into force from midnight Thursday.

People who do not self-isolate when required can be fined in Britain.

At the same time, the British Foreign Office has updated its travel advice to warn against all but essential trips to Andorra, Belgium and the Bahamas.

Nearly 1.8 million British nationals visit Belgium every year while 150,000 visit Andorra. The Bahamas, meanwhile, received more than 36,000 visitors from Britain in 2018. Enditem
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 6

By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:

The value of trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Vietnam amounted to $86.2 million over first five months of 2020, compared to $193.9 million during the same period of 2019, Trend reports with reference to Kazakhstans Statistics Committee.

The share of Vietnam in total value of Kazakhstans trade turnover stood at less than 0.2 percent during the reporting period compared to 0.5 percent during the same period of 2019.

Kazakhstans export to Vietnam amounted to $1.3 million over the period from January through May 2020, compared to $67.9 million during the same period of 2019.

Vietnams share in total volume of Kazakhstans export amounted to less than 0.1 percent during the reporting period of 2020 compared to 0.5 percent during the same period of 2019.

In turn, Kazakhstans imports from Vietnam amounted to $84.8 million over the reporting period, compared to $126.02 million during the same period of 2019, indicating an almost two-times decrease.

Vietnams share in total volume of Kazakhstans import amounted to 0.7 percent during the reporting period of 2020 compared to 0.9 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 in 2019).

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T he UK is facing an unemployment crisis on a scale not seen for generations, Sir Keir Starmer has warned as he steps up calls for a targeted extension of the Government's furlough scheme.

The Labour leader will visit North Wales - an area hit hard by job losses at Airbus but also a political battleground where his party lost out to the Tories at the general election - as part of his effort to put pressure on Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

Sir Keir said the Labour-led Welsh Government had put in place a 1.7 billion package of support for struggling businesses but decisions on furlough were a matter for Mr Sunak and Boris Johnson.

The furlough scheme finishes at the end of October, but Sir Keir has called for it to be extended for sectors badly hit by the coronavirus lockdown.

Plane manufacturer Airbus announced in July that 1,435 jobs will be cut at its site in Broughton, North Wales, and 295 at Filton, Bristol.

Sir Keir will be joined by Wales' First Minister Mark Drakeford and shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds on his visit to an aerospace research and manufacturing facility supported by the Welsh Government on Thursday.

He said: "Labour is fighting for jobs across the country. The UK Government's blanket withdrawal of the furlough scheme is a historic mistake which threatens Welsh jobs.

"The devastating job losses announced at Airbus show how high the stakes are.

"We face a jobs crisis on a scale not seen for generations. But it is not too late for the Government to act.

"The Welsh Government has done a huge amount to support struggling businesses, but the action needed on the furlough scheme can only come from Westminster.

"Welsh Conservative MPs must also play their part in getting their Chancellor to change course. This is a major test of the Conservative Party's commitment to North Wales."

Official figures show 378,400 people in Wales have been furloughed, making up 29 per cent of the eligible workforce and including around 3,200 Airbus workers.

Mr Drakeford said the 1.7 billion fund was "the most generous and comprehensive package of support to business anywhere in the UK".

He said: "Coronavirus is still with us and it will continue to impact on our economy in Wales for a long time to come.

"The vast majority of people in Wales have followed the rules and made significant sacrifices to help us get coronavirus under control.

"I believe they would expect the UK Government to support the economy and make sure people have jobs to go back into."
The Syrian President and Foreign Minister have sent their condolences to Lebanon following the horrific blast that devastated the city reports SANA.

On Tuesday, President Bashar al-Assad sent a cable to Lebanese President, Michel Aoun, in which he expressed sorrow over the grave incident that hit Beirut Port, which left a large number of victims and wounded persons.

On behalf of myself, and the Syrian people, we offer deep condolences to you and to the Lebanese people, asking God to have mercy on the victims and a speedy recovery for the wounded, President Assad said in the cable.

President Assad added, we affirm our support to brotherly Lebanon and our solidarity with its resistant people, and we are confident that you are able to overcome the repercussions of this tragic incident and rebuild what has been damaged as soon as possible.

For his part, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem spoke with his Lebanese counterpart, Charbel Wahbeh, and expressed Syrias sympathy and solidarity with fraternal Lebanon and expressed its willingness to help Lebanon to overcome the effects of this tragic incident.

Muallem said during the call, the Syrian Arab Republic was deeply affected by the horrific explosion at the Port of Beirut, which claimed the lives of a number of innocent people and injured others and caused enormous damage to public and private buildings and facilities.

Muallem also expressed, deep sympathy and sincere condolences to the brotherly Lebanese people, the families of the bereaved victims, and wishes for a speedy recovery for the wounded.

SANA added that, the Lebanese Foreign Minister expressed gratitude for this fraternal position, which reflects the true relationship between the two brotherly peoples.

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.
NEW YORK, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Airbus SE ("Airbus" or the "Company") (OTCMKTS: EADSY; EADSF) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, and indexed under 20-cv-10084, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons and entities other than Defendants who purchased or otherwise, acquired Airbus securities in the U.S. between February 24, 2016, and July 30, 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 Airbus securities during the class period, you have until October 5, 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]

Airbus was founded in 2000 and is based in Leiden, the Netherlands. The Company is a multinational aerospace corporation, operating through its Commercial Aircraft, Defense and Space, and Helicopters divisions. The Company's American Depository Receipts ("ADRs") trade in the U.S. on the over-the-counter market (the "OTC") under the ticker symbol "EADSY," and the Company's foreign ordinary shares ("foreign ordinaries") trade in the U.S. on the OTC under the ticker symbol "EADSF."

In August 2012, the United Kingdom ("U.K.") Serious Fraud Office ("SFO") announced that it had opened a formal criminal investigation into one of Airbus's subsidiaries, GPT Special Project Management Ltd. ("GPT"), which Airbus acquired in 2007. The allegations called into question a service contract entered into by GPT prior to its acquisition by Airbus, relating to activities conducted by GPT in Saudi Arabia.

Unbeknownst to investors and the public, however, Airbus was at an increased and foreseeable risk of facing significant potential liabilities for other alleged illegal activities that would later be investigated by governmental authorities around the world. These activities, combined with the investigation into GPT, implicated all three of Airbus's divisions, calling into question the sustainability of the Company's reported earnings during the Class Period.

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: (i) that Airbus's policies and protocols were insufficient to ensure the Company's compliance with relevant anti-corruption laws and regulations; (ii) that, consequently, Airbus engaged in bribery, corruption, and fraud in order to enhance its business with respect to its commercial aircraft, helicopter, and defense deals; (iii) that, as a result, Airbus's earnings were derived in part from unlawful conduct and therefore unsustainable; (iv) the full scope and severity of Airbus's misconduct; (v) that resolution of government investigations of Airbus would foreseeably cost Airbus billions of dollars in settlements and legal fees and subject the Company to significant continuing government investigation and oversight; and (vi) that, as a result, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

On August 8, 2016, Reuters reported that the U.K. had opened a corruption probe into Airbus. Specifically, the SFO announced that it had "opened a criminal investigation into allegations of fraud, bribery, and corruption in the civil aviation business of Airbus," which "relate to irregularities concerning third party consultants." The investigation followed Airbus's flagging of "misstatements and omissions" involving outside contractors in certain export financing applications to U.K. regulators and the European Export Credit Agencies earlier in the year, which the Company had found through an internal probe.

On this news, Airbus ADRs fell $0.21 per share, or 1.49%, to close at $13.86 per share on August 8, 2016, and Airbus foreign ordinaries fell $0.82 per share, or 1.45%, to close at $55.58 per share on August 8, 2016.

France and the U.S. later opened their investigations into the subject of the SFO's allegations in 2017 and 2018, respectively. On January 31, 2020, media outlets reported that Airbus had agreed to a deal with U.S., U.K., and French prosecutors to settle bribery and export-control violations against the Company for 3.6 billion ($4 billion). Pursuant to the settlement, Airbus also agreed to appoint an external compliance officer for at least two years to monitor the Company's handling of its defense-related sales and disclosures.

On this news, Airbus ADRs fell $0.72 per share, or 1.93%, to close at $36.68 per share on January 31, 2020, and Airbus foreign ordinaries fell $2.21 per share, or 1.48%, to close at $147.00 per share on January 31, 2020.

Then, on March 15, 2020, the Wall Street Journal reported that Airbus executives had previously raised red flags about fees paid to a number of middlemen working with its helicopter division, led at the time by the Company's current Chief Executive Officer ("CEO"), Defendant Guillaume M.J.D. Faury ("Faury"), that may have violated global bribery and corruption rules, according to internal documents related to Airbus's $4 billion bribery settlement, which were not previously made public and/or reported.

On this news, Airbus ADRs fell $3.44 per share, or 15.71%, to close at $18.46 per share on March 16, 2020, and Airbus foreign ordinaries fell $7.97 per share, or 9.3%, to close at $77.75 per share on March 16, 2020.

Finally, on July 30, 2020, the Wall Street Journal reported that the SFO had charged GPT and three individuals with corruption in connection with a defense contract the U.K. had arranged with Saudi Arabia. These charges were the culmination of the investigations initiated by the SFO back in August 2012.

On this news, Airbus ADRs fell $0.67 per share, or 3.56%, to close at $18.13 per share on July 31, 2020, and Airbus foreign ordinaries fell $2.85 per share, or 3.8%, to close at $72.10 per share on July 31, 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


Gannett headquarters in McLean, VA.

USA TODAY owner Gannett reported a net loss of about $437 million in the second quarter as businesses cut back on advertising amid the COVID-19 pandemic and significant accounting charges took a toll on the bottom line.

The company, which cut expenses aggressively during the quarter to offset a decline in revenue, said $393 million of the net loss was attributable to a "non-cash goodwill and intangible impairment" charge, while $66 million was attributable to depreciation and amortization.

Revenue fell 28% from a year earlier to $767 million, though the company said it posted an increase in revenue from month to month during the second quarter as business conditions gradually improved.

The media company, which owns more than 260 daily publications, reported adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $78 million, reflecting a profit margin of 10.2%.

"We see a clear path to significant upside over the next several years," Gannett CEO and Chairman Michael Reed said on an earnings call with analysts and investors.

He also hailed the companys journalism during the second quarter, which included reports on the COVID-19 pandemic, economic distress and widespread protests of police brutality and racism.

"At no time in our history has the value of high quality journalism been as clear as it is right now at this intersection of a global pandemic and a nation in turmoil over systemic racism and inequality. Our journalists have worked tirelessly and doggedly to help keep our communities safe and informed, while exercising the crucial role of holding officials accountable, Reed said in a statement.

Used car prices spiking: COVID-19 pandemic shakes up the market

Walmart launching drive-in movies: Here's how to reserve a parking space

The companys second-quarter earnings report reflects the combination of New Media Investment Group and Gannett after their merger in November, a deal that created the largest U.S. media company by print circulation and one of the largest by digital audience.

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The journalism industry is grappling with a sharp reduction in advertising due to COVID-19, which has hurt key spenders like restaurants, stores and travel companies. The industry also continues to deal with the advertising shift from print to digital.

To offset a sudden drop in revenue from the coronavirus fallout, Gannett suspended its dividend on April 1, cut capital expenditures and implemented more than $125 million in second-quarter cost cuts in addition to previously planned savings tied to the merger.

The reductions have included furloughs, job cuts, pay cuts for senior managers and the suspension of nonessential travel and spending. The company also recently announced the suspension of its 401(k) match beginning later this month. Many other news outlets have taken similar steps.

Overall, operating expenses fell 26% for the period, compared with a year earlier.

Temporary cost cuts will be phased out after the third quarter and the company will be "replacing them with permanent cost reductions" due to the slumping economy, Reed said on the call.

Gannetts print advertising revenue fell 45% to $188 million in the second quarter, compared with the same period a year earlier. Digital advertising and marketing services revenue was down 27% to $104 million. Circulation revenue declined 14% to $342 million.

Paid digital subscriptions rose 31% from a year earlier to 927,000. Online subscriptions are viewed as critical to the success of media companies in the digital age as newspaper dollars decline.

Gannett is obligated to pay off a five-year, $1.8 billion loan owed to Apollo Global Management, which helped finance the transaction between GateHouse Media parent company New Media and the old Gannett.

The company said it is highly confident in its ability to pay off the debt on schedule.

Following the merger, Gannett continues to cut overlapping costs. The company said it has already achieved more than $160 million in annualized savings due to the merger.

Reed said Gannett believes it will exceed its goal of $300 million in annualized savings by the end of 2021.

Gannett's stock was down 9.9% to $1.50 in early trading Thursday.

"We believe our company is undervalued right now," he said.

Gannetts publications include the Arizona Republic, Detroit Free Press, Columbus Dispatch, Austin American-Statesman, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Louisville Courier Journal and hundreds of other daily and weekly news properties.

Follow USA TODAY reporter Nathan Bomey on Twitter @NathanBomey.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Gannett earnings: USA TODAY owner posts decline in revenue, expenses
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Algernon Pharmaceuticals Inc. (CSE: AGN) (FRANKFURT: AGW) (OTCQB: AGNPF) (the Company or Algernon) a clinical stage pharmaceutical development company, is pleased to announce that the first patient has been dosed in its Phase 2 idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and chronic cough clinical study of its re-purposed drug NP-120 (Ifenprodil). The patient was enrolled and dosed at the Waikato Hospital located in Hampton, New Zealand.



Phase 2 Study Summary:

The purpose of this proof-of-concept Phase 2 human trial is to determine the efficacy of Ifenprodil in the preservation of lung function in IPF patients (including biomarkers of fibrosis) and its associated cough. There are 5 sites in total participating in the study with 3 located in Australia and 2 in New Zealand.

Ifenprodil has been shown to mediate anti-inflammatory responses and reduce pulmonary fibrosis in a murine model of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF). In addition, Ifenprodil significantly reduced both cough frequency and onset in a guinea pig acute cough model.

The Company would like to thank its Medical and Scientific Advisory Board Members, Dr. Martin Kolb and Dr. Jacky Smith, for their collective contributions to the Phase 2 study design. Dr. Kolb is the Moran Campbell Chair and Professor in Respiratory Medicine and Director of the Division of Respirology, McMaster University, and is a leading global scientific expert and clinician in the area of IPF. Dr. Jacky Smith is a Professor of Respiratory Medicine, University of Manchester, and is a leading global scientific expert and clinician in the area of understanding the mechanisms underlying cough in respiratory diseases and the testing of novel anti-tussive therapies.

Ifenprodil showed very promising results in our IPF and cough pre-clinical studies and so I am very pleased to announce our first patient in and the formal start of our clinical program, said Christopher J. Moreau, CEO of Algernon Pharmaceuticals. As the study progresses, the Company will make an assessment of the enrollment rate and will provide an update to the market on a projected completion date as well as when the data will be expected.

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About NP-120 (Ifenprodil)

NP-120 (Ifenprodil) is an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist specifically targeting the NMDA-type subunit 2B (Glu2NB). Ifenprodil prevents glutamate signalling. The NMDA receptor is found on many tissues including lung cells, T-cells, and neutrophils.

Additional:

The Company announces that since the financing that closed on May 13, 2020, the Company has issued 5,300,000 common shares upon the exercise of common share purchase warrants, for net proceeds to the Company of $636,000.

About Algernon Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Algernon is a drug re-purposing company that investigates safe, already approved drugs for new disease applications, moving them efficiently and safely into new human trials, developing new formulations and seeking new regulatory approvals in global markets. Algernon specifically investigates compounds that have never been approved in the U.S. or Europe to avoid off label prescription writing.

Algernon has filed new intellectual property rights globally for NP-120 (Ifenprodil) for the treatment of respiratory diseases and is working to develop a proprietary injectable and slow release formulation.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Christopher J. Moreau

CEO

Algernon Pharmaceuticals Inc.

604.398.4175 ext 701

info@algernonpharmaceuticals.com

investors@algernonpharmaceuticals.com

www.algernonpharmaceuticals.com

The CSE does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. The Canadian Securities Exchange has not in any way passed upon the merits of the proposed transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.

CAUTIONARY DISCLAIMER STATEMENT: No Securities Exchange has reviewed nor accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this news release. This news release contains forward-looking statements relating to product development, licensing, commercialization and regulatory compliance issues 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 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. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Companys expectations include the failure to satisfy the conditions of the relevant securities exchange(s) and other risks detailed from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulations. The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company will update or revise publicly any of the included forward-looking statements as expressly required by applicable law.




Credit: www.shutterstock.com

With COVID-19 vaccine developers reporting promising results, it is probable we will one day face a major public health question: can the government compel New Zealanders to be vaccinated?

Just as inevitably, some people will refuse a vaccine. As we have seen overseas with debates over the wearing of masks, and more generally with anti-vaccination activists everywhere, compulsion is not a simple matter.

There are competing rights and duties on both sides. Forcing an individual to be vaccinated is a violation of their fundamental right to personal autonomy, which informs the more specific right to bodily integrity.

Basically, those rights mean every person can make decisions for themselves and what can and cannot be done to their bodies.

The state's duty to protect

While international human rights treaties support this, they do not specifically talk about the right to refuse medical treatment. Rather, they state that everyone has the right not to be subjected to medical experimentation without free consent.

And here we see how quickly the stakes are raised. These rights are part of the broader right to be free from torture, cruel and inhuman degrading treatment or punishment. The specific reference to medical experimentation is a response to what happened under the Nazi regime during the second world war.

But it's the fundamental right to life that throws the COVID-19 vaccine issue into stark relief, because it also means governments must make some effort to safeguard citzens' lives by protecting them from life-threatening diseases.

Although everyone has the right to the highest attainable standard of health, this includes the right to be free from non-consensual medical treatment. But this in turn may be subject to the state's obligation to prevent and control disease.

The right to be free from non-consensual treatment can only be restricted under specific conditions that respect best practice and international standards.

The introduction of mass immunisation programs therefore requires quite a balancing act.

In New Zealand, the courts and their English predecessors have long recognised and protected the right to bodily integrity. The New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 also clearly states that everyone has the right to refuse medical treatment.

Public health can trump individual rights

Any restriction of that right, any intrusion into the individual's bodily integrity, would require explicit statutory authorisation. Such legislation would have to be interpreted very strictly and, wherever possible, consistently with the Bill of Rights Act.

There are examples of how this would work in practice. A recent decision from the Supreme Court of New Zealand addressed whether the fluoridation of water as a public health measure was a violation of the right to refuse medical treatment.

The court found it was. Butand it's an important butthe court decided some public health measures could override the right to refuse medical treatment where these measures are clearly justified.

Clear justification would mean there must be a reasonable objective to compulsory vaccination that justifies the limits placed on the right to refuse medical treatment.

Such limits must be no more than are reasonably necessary to achieve the desired public health outcome, and they must be proportionate to the importance of mandatory vaccination.

Consequences for refusing vaccination?

In the end, should a COVID-19 vaccine become available, New Zealanders would have the right (but not the absolute right) under international and domestic law to refuse to be vaccinated. And the government couldand might even be obliged tooverride that right.

So, no definitive answer. Furthermore, just because the government could make vaccination compulsory doesn't mean it should.

It might not even have to. A person could still exercise their right to refuse vaccination but the government could then impose limits on other rights and freedoms.

In practical terms, this could mean no travel or access to school or the workplace if it placed the health and lives of others at risk. Similarly, a refusal to be vaccinated could limit jobs or social welfare benefits that depend on work availability.

But, again, the government would have to present clear justifications for any such restrictions.

Public consent is vital

Without a doubt, this would be highly controversial and the government would need to engage in another balancing act.

But a purely voluntary approach can have mixed results, too, as the 2019 measles outbreak showed. The main problem appears to have been a poorly designed immunisation program that missed various ethnic, socioeconomic and regional targets.

The success of a voluntary approach will be dependent on a highly performing vaccination program that is accessible to all New Zealanders and backed up by a strong public education campaign.

Ultimately, as the collective effort of the "team of 5 million" has already shown, the effectiveness of any law really depends on each one of us and the decisions we make.

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Nurses in Kenya have threatened to go on strike next week over poor working conditions and unpaid allowances.

The Kenya National Union of Nurses Secretary General Seth Panyako Wednesday said health care workers will down their tools from Monday, August 10.

Panyako noted that both essential and frontline workers are facing serious delays in the implementation of the presidential directive to pay risk allowances.

From Monday it will not be business as usual in this country. You cant work when you dont have food, you have children in the house and you cant pay your rent, Panyako said.

According to the nurses, they are seriously demoralised over the lack of payments that also includes responsibility allowances and insurance covers.

Panyako also called for all health care workers especially in Western and Nyanza regions to be tested, saying these areas were supplied with substandard PPEs.

He also declared that nurses wont go to work without N95 masks.

Mr Panyako also took issue with the lack of isolation facilities for infected health workers despite the governments pledge to put them up.

WHO has said that this virus is a work injury hazard hence treatment of all frontline health workers should be free, added the SG.

County workers union Secretary-General Roba Duba added that workers are yet to receive their June and July salaries.

There is a big crisis. We can no longer exercise any more resilience. Provision of quality PPEs is mandatory. Health care workers need physical protection because they are killed from and on their way to work, Roba said.
John Ortbergs resignation statement as senior pastor of Menlo Church, given all that transpired, provoked more sadness than surprise. I never knew Ortberg personally. Professionally, I appreciated his contributions as a writer and thinker and ministry leader. Many pastors aspire to the kind of reach Ortberg enjoyed, though few of us ever achieve it. This is perhaps its own blessing.

The cause behind Ortbergs resignation was disconcertingly public. Ortberg allowed his son, who admitted being attracted to children, to serve as a volunteer with children. Social media furiously fluttered, drew hard lines, and lobbed rocks. Some cited 1 Timothy 3 expectations for leaders. The story has it allfamily conflict, high profile missteps and miscalculation, obfuscation, and blind loyalties. As Menlos motto on its homepage reads, Nobodys perfect. Anythings possible.

The fierce reactions found fuel from the combustibility of call-out and cancel culture. Its been painful to read. As a pastor for 35 years with my own laundry list of mistakes, I recall Jesus words. Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone (John 8:7). Nevertheless, actions have consequences. Pastors are sinners to be sure, but when we consent to our calling we assent to a high standardpublic obedience atop pedestals and in fishbowlson display not for show (Matt. 6:1), but as examples to imitate, like it or not (1 Cor. 4:16, 2 Thess. 3:9, Heb. 13:7). High, public standards mean certain failure, an opportunity in itself to exhibit the high calling of humble repentance and recommitment. We do not lower standards for the sake of preserving and performing a fake righteousness. As sinners, we embrace grace as pardon and as incentive. To recall Jesus words against stone-throwing, one must likewise recall his words to the sinner caught but no longer condemned: Go and sin no more (John 8:11, KJV). In doing so, we aspire to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13).

The path to such fullness depends on honest self-suspicion and truth both spoken in love and heeded. Christianity teaches that even our best motives come tinged with self-interest (Jer. 17:9; Rom. 7:15). Called to be shepherds, we choose to lead by going first and somehow showing the path as possible, in both its hardships and joys.

Ortberg acknowledged, I want to express again my regret for not having served our church with better judgement. In his final sermon on Sunday, Ortberg confessed his was a broken story. It was hard for him and hard to watch but also hard not to imagine church lawyers had a hand in it. In his statement, he wrote,  I did not balance my responsibilities as a father with my responsibilities as a leader. I wondered whether the concern should have been more about boundaries than balance. As shepherds of congregations, pastors primary responsibility is care for their flock, watching over, serving with love, being an example (1 Pet. 5:23). A congregations safety and well-being is paramount. Whenever the real strain of ministry on families emerges, it must be focused on and addressed rather than balanced, which sometimes may mean handing over responsibility and leadership to trusted others for a season. This models faithfulness and love.

Given his high profile and ministerial accomplishments, perhaps Ortberg felt he knew best at the time. We do not know of anyone who suffered abuse, but if there are victims, then our compassion should be firstly for them. Perhaps Ortberg sought counsel, but if he did, the counsel was misguided or went unheeded. If the counsel came primarily from loving friends, did their love discount the severity of the danger? Friendly counsel often supplies more support and even rationalization than the confrontation and rebuke that may be required. This is why I think its always good to check in with a few detractors. They care less about your feelings and tend to shell out truth with no sugar (another reason to love your enemiesLuke 6:27).

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Thinking back on my own spectacular sins, my church leadership would intervene to surround me with loving truth-tellers who shined necessary light onto my oblivious blind spots. We pastors tend to polish our personas to a sparkling sheen and then grow bedazzled with our own reflections. Thinking back to Paul before he was Paul on that road to Damascus (Acts 9:28), Jesus indictment against him was not against his wickedness as a reverend as much as against his goodness. Self-made and assured, Paul (as Saul) had been a first-rate Pharisee, successful and strong, in need of nobodys grace. On his way to take down a few heretics, a light from heaven stopped Saul in his tracks. This was no spotlight from God for being so faithful, but the blinding, hot light of Jesus on account of Sauls arrogance. Prestige had been his poison. Success can be prelude to failure. Confidence can sour into arrogance. Jesus exposed Pauls spiritual deficiency as a spiritual necessity. The grace that saves us first shows us our need for salvation.

Out of this brokenness, finally filled with the Spirit, Paul found his true purpose and power. The Lord always prefers broken pots to porcelain perfection (2 Cor. 4:7). We always carry in our body the death of Jesus, Paul learned and applied, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body (2 Cor. 4:10; Rom. 6:10-11). And this too for people to see, to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us (2 Cor. 4:7).

Even in pieces, we are not cursed or unlovable or worthless. On the contrary, in Christ, to be broken is to be ripe for redemption by a crucified Savior whose body was broken for us. Ortberg said he doesnt know what happens next or yet what hes learnedexcept that his story is broken. The late Catholic mystic Henri Nouwen went so far as to equate being broken with being blessed. In a strange way, he wrote, the spiritual life isnt useful or successful. But it is meant to be fruitful. And fruitfulness comes out of brokenness.

Daniel Harrell is Christianity Todays editor in chief.
New Delhi: The country woke up of yet another unfortunate news of TV actor Samir Sharma's unnatural death at his Malad residence. Samir, who was last seen in the popular television show 'Ye Rishtey Hain Pyaar Ke' was found dead at his house.

According to Malad police, Sameer had rented the apartment in February this year. While on a round during night duty, the watchman of the society saw the body and alerted the society members. Looking at the condition of the body, the police suspects that the actor committed suicide at least two days back. However, no suicide note was found at the spot.

Samir, who was an active face on social media, also happened to be a writer and poet, as says his Instagram bio 'Actor.Writer.Poet'. We scrolled through his last few posts which he shared on July 27, 28 and 29 respectively. Take a look:

After reading his poetry, you surely feel numb.

His sudden and untimely demise has shocked the celebrities and fans alike. Condolence messages have been pouring in on social media for his family and friends.

After TV actor Manmeet Grewal, Preksha Mehta, Disha Salian and Sushant Singh Rajput's shocking deaths, Samir Sharma's death by alleged suicide is yet another shocker for the loved ones.

May his soul rest in eternal peace!
US Health Secretary to Visit Taiwan, Prompting Angry Response from China

By VOA News August 05, 2020

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar will visit Taiwan "in the coming days," a move that has angered China, which considers the self-ruled island a part of the Chinese mainland.

In a statement released late Tuesday, the U.S. agency said Azar's "historic visit will strengthen the U.S.-Taiwan partnership and enhance U.S.-Taiwan cooperation to combat the global COVID-19 pandemic." Azar praised Taiwan's "remarkable success battling COVID-19 as a free and transparent democratic society."

Azar will hold talks with Taiwan health experts about the island's COVID-19 response and its role as a reliable global supplier of medical equipment and critical technology. He held a rare telephone conference back in April with his Taiwan counterpart, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung.

Taiwan's representative office in Washington told VOA in an emailed message that it "looks forward to robust engagements on ways democracies can jointly respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, while further strengthening Taiwan-U.S. cooperation in areas of medical research, supply chain security, and global health."

Taiwan's foreign ministry said Azar will also meet with President Tsai Ing-wen during his visit.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters in Beijing Wednesday that Taiwan was "the most important and sensitive issue in China-U.S. relations" and urged Washington to end all forms of official contact with the island to avoid damaging bilateral relations between the world's two largest economies. Weng said the ministry has filed a strong protest with officials in Washington.

China and Taiwan split after the 1949 civil war after Chaing Kai-shek's Nationalist forces were driven off the mainland by Mao Zedong's Communist forces and settled on the island.

But Beijing considers Taiwan a breakaway province and has vowed to annex it by any means necessary, including a military invasion.

Secretary Azar will become the highest-ranking U.S. cabinet member to visit the self-ruled island since 1979, when Washington formally switched diplomatic ties from Taipei to Beijing. He will also be the first cabinet-level official to visit Taiwan since then-Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy visited in 2014.

His planned visit is the latest move by President Donald Trump's administration to build stronger ties with Taiwan, and is sure to further inflame tensions over trade, technology, China's tightening grip on Hong Kong, and the administration's accusations over the coronavirus outbreak, which was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.

Taiwan has had surprising success in limiting the coronavirus outbreak to just 476 confirmed cases and seven deaths. But Taiwan is neither a member of the World Health Organization nor the United Nations because of opposition from Beijing.

VOA's Natalie Liu contributed to this story.

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(Newser)  Maryland State Trooper John Sollon belonged to an elite DUI unit, and his stats showed why. In 2019 alone, he logged a record 50-plus arrests, reports the Baltimore Sun. But now Sollon's secret to success is out, and it's one that nearly landed him in prison. The 36-year-old was convicted of making at least six false DUI arrests. And that doesn't mean he made up bogus charges against drivers: It means he made up the drivers entirely. None of the fictitious defendants appeared for their scheduled court dates because they did not exist, the office of Attorney General Brian Frosh explains in a statement, per the Washington Post. Fellow troopers were the ones who got suspicious and turned him in.

story continues below

In some of the cases, police officers wasted time attempting to track down Sollon's fictional people to serve them warrants. Sollon pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges of perjury and misconduct in office. Technically, he received six-year sentences for each charge, but a judge suspended the prison time, fined him $3,000, and ordered him to perform community service. For now, Sollon is still a trooper. But now that the criminal case is resolved, a disciplinary review will begin. (This Arizona State University professor didn't exist, either.)
Two contact tracing apps have been successfully launched recently in Canada and Ireland. The open-source code underlying these apps has contributed to a newly launched initiative. The aim is to help other countries and U.S. states in the fight against the pandemic.





LFPH aims to help public health officials fight coronavirus pandemic and future epidemics

On July 20, 2020, The Linux Foundation launched a new project, the Linux Foundation Public Health initiative. LFPH uses open-source software to help public health authorities (PHAs) worldwide fight against COVD-19 and future epidemics.

The new Linux Foundation Public Health initiative was launched with seven Premier members: Cisco, doc.ai, Geometer, IBM, NearForm, Tencent, and VMware. The first effort of its kind, LFPH, brings together industry, open-source technologies, public health, academia, and government. The initiative aims to further the contact tracing, which is critical to safely restarting and reopening of economies.

"To catalyze this open-source development, Linux Foundation Public Health is building a global community of leading technology and consulting companies, public health authorities, epidemiologists and other public health specialists, privacy and security experts, and individual developers," LFPH general manager, Dan Kohn, said.

"While we're excited to launch with two critical open source projects, we think our convening function to enable collaboration to battle this pandemic may be our biggest impact," Kohn added.

Initially, the initiative will focus on exposure notification applications that utilize the Google Apple Exposure Notification (GAEN) system. Eventually, the LFPH initiative will expand to support all aspects of PHAs testing, tracing, and isolation activities.

LFPH's first hosted exposure notifications projects, COVID Shield and COVID Green, are now deployed in Canada, Ireland, and some U.S. states. Both apps are available for other PHAs and their I.T. partners to use and customize.

COVID Shield was developed by a team of more than 40 volunteers at Shopify and the members of Ontario and the Canadian Digital Services. The technology is made up of a mobile app, a server, and a web-based results portal. The COVID Alert mobile app has been rolled out and made available to Canadians for free download last July 30, 2020.

Read also: Apple and All iPhones and MacBooks to Completely Be Carbon Neutral by 2030





COVID Shield volunteer, Aaron Olson, said that they welcome contributions from other developers that will make it as easy as possible for PHAs to get started with exposure notifications.

COVID Green was developed by Irish developer NearForm. Approximately 1.3 million residents have downloaded the contact tracing app within 36 hours of launch on July 7, 2020. The app uses Bluetooth technology that was developed by Google and Apple.

Fran Thompson, Chief Information Officer of Ireland's Health Service Executive, said they are pleased to contribute COVID Green to LFPH. He said that the app is an excellent demonstration of innovation within the Irish health sector combined with the I.T. capabilities of the Irish software industry.

Check this out: Microsoft to Continue Discussions on a Possible Purchase of TikTok in the U.S.





Meanwhile, the TCN Coalition, an earlier cross-industry collaboration effort, is merging into LFPH. The TCN Coalition is a community of technologists from around the globe. They support the development of privacy-preserving and cross-compatible exposure notification apps. All these during the coronavirus pandemic.

TCN Coalition Executive Director Jenny Wanger believes that collaborating with Linux Foundation is a logical next step for the work they have been doing since their inception. Wanger now serves as the Head of the Implementer's Forum for LFPH.

Read next: Buildots Raises $16 Million as It Brings A.I. Computer Vision to Construction
Donald Trump wants the first presidential debate with Joe Biden to be moved up before a mass amount of early voters mail in their ballots in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

'How can voters be sending in Ballots starting, in some cases, one month before the First Presidential Debate,' President Trump questioned in a tweet Thursday morning.

'Move the First Debate up,' he demanded. 'A debate, to me, is a Public Service. Joe Biden and I owe it to the American People!'

While Trump wants the first of three debates, which will be held September 29 in Cleveland, Ohio, rescheduled, his campaign is pushing for a fourth debate to be added earlier in September.

Rudy Giuiliani, who is the president's personal attorney and represents his reelection campaign, sent a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates on Wednesday requesting a fourth debate be held at the beginning of the month.

The request, Giuliani outlines, is an attempt to ensure Trump and Biden face off before people start casting ballots in states that allow early voting, which will be observed in much higher quantities due to concerns over contracting COVID-19 when voting on time in-person.

'Simply put, the Commission's current approach is an outdated dinosaur and not reflective of voting realities in 2020,' Giuliani argued in the letter.

President Donald Trump again argued Thursday morning that the presidential debate schedule be moved around so the first one is held in early September  before millions of Americans have the opportunity to send in early voting ballots

'Move the First Debate up,' he demanded, claiming it is a 'public service' to debate before Americans cast their ballots

Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal attorney, sent a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates Wednesday requesting a fourth debate be added to the schedule. 'Simply put, the Commission's current approach is an outdated dinosaur and not reflective of voting realities in 2020,' Giuliani argued

'I think there's a good chance it will happen,' Giuliani told Fox & Friends Thursday morning of the efforts. 'We've been negotiating this for four weeks now and we wrote the letter really because we have been through a number of different possibilities'

'For a nation already deprived of a traditional campaign schedule because of the COVID-19 global pandemic, it makes no sense to also deprive so many Americans of the opportunity to see and hear the two competing visions for our country's future before millions of votes have been cast,' he continued.

The letter details that by the time the first debate is held, 8 million Americans in 16 different states will have already begun voting and sending in their ballots.

There have historically always been three presidential debates after the nominating contests. Usually the incumbent president is not so keen on participating.

Trump, however, is looking forward to the face-offs as his aides and advisers  and the president himself  feel he will bode well against the former vice president, who Trump has dubbed as 'sleepy' and 'creepy.'

The president has also called into question Biden's mentally stability, claiming the presumed Democratic nominee wouldn't be able to hold his own in a debate against him.

Vice President Mike Pence weighed in on Biden's mental state in an interview released Thursday.

'I knew Joe Biden over the years, and I can't speak to some of what's being discussed about him today,' Pence told Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody in an interview. 'But the antidote is to be on that stage, to square up and be willing to debate President Donald Trump.'

Brody mentioned that Biden's mental stability has been brought into question and made reference to his reputation as a gaffe-prone candidate.

Pence said Biden and Trump should absolutely debate, claiming the president will win all three.

Giuliani, the former New York City Mayor, told Fox & Friends Thursday morning that he thinks the campaign will get its way on this.

'I think there's a good chance it will happen,' he said of either rescheduling the debates or adding a fourth to the lineup.

'We've been negotiating this for four weeks now and we wrote the letter really because we have been through a number of different possibilities,' he said.

Giuliani also floated a list of names of journalists in his Wednesday letter that he believes should moderate the additional debate.

The 24-name list ranges from Fox News anchor Bret Baier to 'Today' co-host Hoda Kotb and even includes lesser-known conservative, pro-Trump commentators.

Giuliani included in the letter a list of names of potential journalists that could moderate the additional debate. He also said if a fourth were not added, the campaign wants the last debate to be moved to early September instead

If a fourth debate is not added, Giuliani compromised, he wants the third debate  currently scheduled for October 22 in Nashville, Tennessee  to be moved to earlier in September instead.

Trump lamented Wednesday that his debates with Joe Biden won't hold any weight since thousands of Americans would have already cast their ballots due to early and mail-in voting measures.

'We should have the debates. The one problem I have, the debate's very late. It's at the end of September and a lot of ballots will already be cast by that time,' Trump told Fox & Friends during a call-in interview Wednesday morning. 'They want to make the debates as late as possible.'

Trump also suggested that Biden has not said he wants to participate in the three scheduled debates.

'I'm ready to debate, I don't care,' the president told the Fox News morning show panel. 'I hear he wants to get out. But he has  in all fairness to him, he has not said that.'

But the presumed Democratic nominee has directly, and through his surrogates and campaign aides, said he will debate Trump.

'I'm so forward looking [sic] to have an opportunity to sit with the president, or stand with the president and debates,' Biden said in an interview with the National Association of Black Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

Trump told Fox & Friends during a call-in interview Wednesday morning that the debates won't hold as much weigh considering the coronavirus-era mailing measures

Portions of the interview were released Wednesday, and the full conversation is set to air on Thursday.

The president feels the debates won't hold has much gravitas as in previous election years since they won't take place until thousands of Americans have already sent in their early mail-in forms.

Trump is pushing for the commission that schedules, moderates and holds the debates to schedule at least one for earlier so he can face off with Biden before early voters send in their ballots.

'Why are they putting the first debate so late? The first debate should be before the first  at least before the first ballots go out,' Trump argued. 'And they have it a month later, almost a month later. It's ridiculous.'

The first presidential debate is scheduled for September 29, a Tuesday in Cleveland, Ohio.

The second is scheduled for October 15 in Miami, Florida and the third and final debate is expected to take place October 22 in Nashville, Tennessee.

The president suggested Biden doesn't want to face off in the three debates, the first of which is scheduled for September 29 in Cleveland, Ohio  with two more in October in Miami, Florida and Nashville, Tennessee

Biden, however, has said he is looking forward to debating Trump and his campaign has committed that he will participate in all three debates

T.J. Ducklo, a spokesman for Biden, said, 'the Trump campaign and their allies have constructed an entirely fictional storyline' in pushing for an early debate and claiming Biden will not engage in the debates, which is a cornerstone of presidential election seasons.

He said the narrative is 'to distract from Donald Trump's failure to protect American lives during a once-in-a-generation pandemic, and now they're evidently confused about which lie they're supposed to be telling.'

'Unlike Donald Trump, Joe Biden has accepted the commission's invitation for three debates, and looks forward to holding Donald Trump accountable for the worst failure of presidential leadership in modern history,' Ducklo said.

During his interview with Fox & Friends, Trump also railed against the Commission on Presidential Debates, which has been running the debates since 1987.

The independent commission is jointly sponsored by the Democratic and Republican parties.

'This is a commission that's a very left-leaning commission,' Trump asserted. 'I frankly wouldn't have even used it. And I could have done that, except it's been used for years.'

'But this is a Clinton, Obama type commission,' he continued. And, you know, they call it a beautiful name, but I'm not happy with it.'
Supreme Court of India

To ensure that there is no further delay in execution of the approved resolution plan of NBCC and homebuyers get possession of their homes, the Supreme Court - on August 6 - transferred to itself all the appeals pending before National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT). The next date of hearing is on August 31.

IRP Anuj Jain has been directed to continue to manage the affairs.

The Wish Town project by Jaypee has been under the supervision of the interim monitoring committee since April 23. NBCC had moved NCLAT against NCLTs order in March as it was unhappy with the modifications made in its resolution plan.

As many six Jaypee homebuyers associations had moved Supreme Court last week against the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal April order that gave conditional nod to state-owned-NBCC to implement its proposal to acquire debt ridden Jaypee Infratech and complete over 20,000 stalled flats.

Homebuyers Associations are represented by senior advocate Jaideep Gupta, assisted by advocates from P&A Law offices, namely Amit Kumar Mishra, Partner, Shashank Manish among others.

The Supreme Court in its wisdom has transferred all appeals pending before NCLAT before the Supreme Court. It would now hear the matter on August 31. Our primary prayer before the SC is to save the order, start construction and deliver possession of units. No construction work has taken place on the site for the last five to six months, advocate Shashank Manish told Moneycontrol.

Homebuyers are elated and are hopeful that construction work will begin soon. They are hopeful that the apex court would pass a favourable order, he said.

On July 30, a bench led by Justice AM Khanwilkar issued notice to NBCC, Jaypee Infratechs Interim Resolution Professional Anuj Jain, IDBI and others on a joint appeal filed by homebuyers seeking immediate implementation of the NBCCs resolution plan which had been approved by the Committee of Creditors and the National Company Law Tribunal on March 3.

Homebuyers through their associations had said that NCLAT had directed the IRP to constitute the Interim Monitoring Committee (IMC), despite there being no provision for the same in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016.

A five-member interim monitoring committee was constituted by NCLAT to oversee the implementation of the resolution plan and ensure that the transition plan gets underway.

On March 3, NCLT had approved NBCC's bid to acquire JIL through an insolvency process. NCLT had also ordered that the Rs 750 crore deposited by Jaypee Infratech's parent firm Jaiprakash Associates Ltd (JAL) with the registry of the Supreme Court would be part of the resolution plan.

In the same month, NBCC had moved the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) seeking reliefs on certain conditions related to farmers' compensation for land acquisition in Noida and Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh. It had also sought relief on payments to be made to some dissenting financial creditors like ICICI Bank.

In its resolution plan, NBCC had proposed to complete over 20,000 pending flats in the next three-and-a-half years.

NBCC offered 1,526 acres of land to lenders under a land-debt swap deal. Apart from this, the state-owned firm has proposed to transfer the road asset to lenders.

More than 10,000 homebuyers and major lenders of Jaypee Infratech, including IDBI Bank and State Bank of India, had voted in favour of the resolution plan submitted by the government's construction arm NBCC to acquire the embattled real estate firm.

NBCC has proposed to complete over 20,000 pending flats in the next three-and-a-half years. In its bid in December, NBCC had offered 1,526 acres of land to lenders under a land-debt swap deal. On Yamuna Expressway, NBCC has proposed to transfer the road asset to lenders but before that it would take a loan of around Rs 2,500 crore against toll revenue to fund construction spend.

The December round of voting was the third round of bidding process to find a buyer for Jaypee Infratech, which went into Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) in August 2017.
MEXICO CITY - Ecuadors biggest city, Guayaquil, was a pandemic hellscape of makeshift morgues, hundreds dying at home, bodies left in the street.

That was in March and April, when the countrys economic hub on the Pacific coast suffered as much as anywhere in the world from the new coronavirus and the disease it causes, COVID-19. Guayaquil later stabilized, sending medical teams and equipment elsewhere in Ecuador and taking in virus patients from outside the city.

Guayaquil officials partly attribute the turnaround to a strict lockdown and the adaptability of a population that, through history, endured epidemics of malaria, yellow fever, dengue and bubonic plague in a place whose tropical climate, crowded neighbourhoods and exposure to foreign travellers seemed geared for infection.

Some medical experts caution against seeing Guayaquil as a model for others, even if authorities adjusted well after initially being overwhelmed.

The contagion was so massive, so rapid, and so many people died, that the number of people who are particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus in Guayaquil is much lower today, said Dr. Esteban Ortiz, research director of a health program at the Universidad de las Americas in Quito, Ecuadors capital.

Additionally, Ortiz said, the more rigorous use and implementation of respiratory masks, facial masks, facial shields, social distancing and hand washing slowed contagion there.

So far, Ecuadors health ministry lists more than 1,600 COVID-19 deaths in Guayas province, which includes Guayaquil. Thats nearly one-third of the official death toll nationwide from the disease, a figure widely acknowledged to be an undercount.

Other Guayaquil data indicate the number of daily deaths recorded in parts of March and April was hundreds higher than for the same days in past years, suggesting many were coronavirus-related. Thousands certainly died of COVID-19 in the city of 2.7 million, and some relatives still dont know exactly where their dead were buried in that chaotic period.

Guayaquil promises to punish anyone who violates health guidelines. The city warns of $60 fines for people who dont wear masks on public transport, and bus drivers who let passengers ride without masks can get $200 fines as well as points docked from their licenses.

Hotels and restaurants are banned from hosting parties. Gatherings for baptisms and weddings are out. The citys Veradero beach remains closed while beaches open up in other parts of Ecuador.

The city helps citizens with food handouts and mobile clinics. The private sector got involved in aid efforts. Military and national health authorities assisted, though municipal officials say the government in Quito lagged in providing resources and sharing information.

Given the tremendous burden Guayaquil felt during March and April, I believe that they learned a lot, both from their successes and their shortcomings, said Bernardo Gutierrez, a researcher at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito. He wrote in an email to The Associated Press that the merits of Guayaquil specifically lie in their efforts to organize and co-ordinate efforts between the local government and different civilian actors to implement health measures.

But Gutierrez said there is no guarantee that Guayaquils particular protocols would work elsewhere because of the unpredictability of any outbreak and the fact that the specific situation of a city will be very different from others.

With its crisis abating, Guayaquil sent doctors to several areas including Quito, which is experiencing its own COVID-19 surge. Guayaquil accepted virus patients from other regions, to the point where Mayor Cynthia Viteri, herself recovered from a light case of COVID-19, has warned that available ICU beds are again scarce.

On July 25, Viteri marked Guayaquils foundation by Spanish colonizers in the 16th century with an emotional speech on Carmen hill, which overlooks the city.

We were simply left to our fate at the pandemics peak, she said. But, the mayor said, Guayaquil residents got back on their feet.

The small group of invited guests  masked, their chairs spaced well apart  clapped.

Read more about:
With every new release, actor Janhvi Kapoor finds herself with a target on her back and its no different this time around, with Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl  only the second feature of her career. I havent made my peace with it, Janhvi told Hindustan Times about being forced, again and again, to prove herself. But the sentiment has been fuelled and amplified in the last month, she said. I hope its not something that I have to deal with with every release.

In the last month, several prominent film personalities have found themselves at the receiving end of vicious online attacks. After the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, those in the inner circle of Bollywood  like Janhvi, the daughter of the late screen icon Sridevi and film producer Boney Kapoor  have been bullied because a vocal corner of the internet believes theyve robbed outsiders like Sushant of their deserving place in the industry.

Ive kind of fast-tracked into this system already, Janhvi admitted. Ive skipped many steps that many people have had to fight for. Ive gotten chances that many people wouldnt have gotten easily. Im here already through a much easier route than most people have had. So from now if the journey is a little bit of an uphill climb and its a little bit harder for people to accept me then Ill accept it. If Ive skipped a certain portion of the journey that people are subjected to then this is my journey from here on, and Ill embrace it.

But people seem to have forgotten that her co-star in the film, the illustrious Pankaj Tripathi, is living, breathing proof of the theory that true talent, regardless of where it comes from, will find its place. Pankaj said that it is not OK for people to have been so quick to judge Gunjan Saxena. Right now, it is as if the book is being judged by its cover, he said.

The film, a biopic of the Indian Air Forces first female combat pilot, like its star and producer (Karan Johar), has been caught in the crossfire of the ongoing insider-outsider debate. Its trailer has received over 225000 likes on YouTube, but also over 125000 dislikes. I know that we live in a democracy and everyone has the freedom to express themselves, but it would be better if they watch the film first. That would be more fruitful. Right now people are shooting in the dark, Pankaj said.

Janhvi Kapoor and Pankaj Tripathi in a still from Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl.

Janhvi said that she isnt actively trying to navigate through the unfortunate situation, but is going about it in the way that she would have if this wasnt the sentiment on social media. She said that now is the time to exercise a little bit of sensitivity  both for the sake of the film and for the sake of what people are feeling right now. To take away from what (people are) feeling, she said, would be slightly demeaning. But at the same time, the actor said, I know Im confident of what Ive done, and Im confident of the film and the story I dont think theres any reason for us to be apologetic for what weve done.

Also read: Angad Bedi defends Gunjan Saxena biopic against online backlash, says people are spitting fire against one another

Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl is slated for an August 12 release on Netflix, which debutant director Sharan Sharma said he was more than excited about, despite the film having been obviously intended for a theatrical release.

Follow @htshowbiz for more

The author tweets @RohanNaahar
Businessman holding tablet and showing a growing virtual hologram of statistics, graph and chart with arrow up on dark background. Stock market. Business growth, planning and strategy concept

Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) is one of the most flexible investment options Canadians have. The following three top TSX stocks will give greater stability to your TFSA, along with stable dividends and decent growth in the long term.

Royal Bank of Canada

Canadian bank stocks are some of the high-quality investments in the Canadian broader markets. But one of them notably stands out is the Royal Bank of Canada (TSX:RY)(NYSE:RY).

Royal banks credit portfolio is one of the best among peers that will likely weather the crisis faster. The banks exposure to the most susceptible businesses amid the pandemic stands at just 7%. This contains highly volatile energy markets as well as the hardest-hit retail sector.

This will ensure a relatively lower loss due to loan defaults in the next few quarters, particularly due to the pandemic.

Royal Bank generates one of the highest profit margins among peers. Higher deposit growth and diversified earnings base will likely support a faster recovery than its peers.

Royal Bank yields nearly 5% and has grown its dividends by 8% in the last five years. Interestingly, its dividend growth for the next few years looks unscathed, mainly driven by its strong balance sheet and stable earnings.

Even if Royal Bank faces a near-term weakness driven by the pandemic, it is a solid investment for the long-term because of its dividend stability.

AltaGas

When it comes to dividends, stability is more important than yield and growth. A power and utility company AltaGas (TSX:ALA) addresses this concern. It yields 5.5% at the moment, notably higher than TSX stocks at large and pays monthly dividends.

Its non-cyclical nature of the business delivers secure earnings, even during economic downturns, rendering it a safe stock for long-term investors. Thats why they generally outperform during depressed times.

It released second-quarter earnings last week. AltaGas reported a net income of $17 million in Q2 2020 from a loss in the same quarter last year.

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AltaGas stock is currently trading 25% lower than its pre-pandemic levels. The discounted valuation in an expensive broader market makes it an apt bet right now. Its superior yield and above-average earnings stability will likely outperform broader markets in the long-term.

Hydro One

Utilities are some of the safest investments among equities. Toronto, Ontario-based Hydro One (TSX:H) offers an additional layer of safety than peers. It is not occupied in power generation and works as a transmission and a distribution company.

This avoids a big upfront capital investment, which makes its balance sheet comparatively lighter, ultimately a safe bet for investors.

Hydro One stock yields 4%, higher than that of Canadian broader markets. Utilities normally generate stable earnings and thus pay steady dividends. That means an investment of $10,000 in Hydro One stock would make $400 in dividends every year.

Notably, Hydro One intends to increase its dividends by 5% per year for the foreseeable future.

Defensive stocks such as Hydro One generally exhibit faster recovery amid broad market uncertainties. It has soared almost 50% in the last four months, beating top TSX stocks at large.

Interestingly, despite this rally, Hydro One stock does not look overvalued and could continue to climb higher.

The post 3 Top TSX Stocks for Greater TFSA Stability appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.

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Fool contributor Vineet Kulkarni has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends ALTAGAS LTD.

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
The Karnataka high court has directed the Centre against notifying the draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), 2020, notification till September 7 as it was not publicized in local languages. A bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and justice Ashok S Kinagi passed the interim order on Wednesday on a United Conservation Movements plea, which sought extension of time to file objections to the draft notification, published in English and Hindi, till December 31.

In New Delhi, Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar on Thursday said the draft has not been finalized yet as the public consultation is still underway and the process of finalization may take more time. He said this in a letter to former environment minister Jairam Ramesh.

I have taken note of your suggestions and objections to the Draft EIA notification, 2020 and your suggestions and objections along with other suggestions and objections received from stakeholders will be considered on merit before finalizing the notification, wrote Javadekar.

On Rameshs concerns that the draft EIA notification would lead to ex-post facto approval to the cases involving violations, Javadekar said previous actions resulting in violations will be made liable to stringent penal action as per the statutory provisions. The main purpose of this provision is to bring all violators under the regulatory regime by imposing a heavy penalty. You will also agree that we should not allow such companies in perpetual unregulated status, he wrote. Javadekar said a decision can be taken after discussing concerns.

In a tweet, Javadekar also said: Today morning only I had sent you a detailed response to your July 25, 2020 letter, which was delivered at your residence office, still you chose to write this letter and make it public through twitter...

The high court has restrained the Centre from finalizing the draft unless wide publicity was given to it in local languages.

The environment ministry had initially given two months to the public to file their objections after publishing the draft on March 23. But later due to the Covid-19 lockdown, the deadline was extended till August 11.

The court cited the lockdown and language issues and said many people may have been unable to respond to the draft. It granted the ministry liberty to file an application for vacating the stay once the orders are compiled with.

Ramesh earlier asked Javadekar not to proceed with EIA until Parliaments environment panel completes its deliberations. In a tweet, Ramesh said, Our Parliamentary Standing Committee has been inundated with requests from various stakeholders to give them an opportunity to present their views on draft EIA 2020. Notification may be kept in abeyance until the Committee completes its deliberations.

After repeated protests against EIA 2020, Ramesh, who chairs the panel on the environment, scheduled a meeting on August 7 on the issue.

Recommendations of House panels are not binding upon the government. But any critical report on EIA 2020 can be construed as institutional disapproval and remain as a reference for the future debate or policy-making. A panel can also seek action-taken reports from the ministry on its recommendations.

The critics claim the draft EIA legitimises post-facto environment clearance, excludes major industries from the EIA process, subverts the public hearing process, reduces the scope of citizens to report violations, and fails to address a projects impact on wildlife, and habitats.
Taysha Gene Therapies Announces Oversubscribed $95 Million Series B Financing to Bolster Initial Clinical Studies in GM2 Gangliosidosis and Advance Pipeline of Gene Therapies for Monogenic CNS Disease in Both Rare and Large Patient Populations

Details Category: More News Published on Thursday, 06 August 2020 11:20 Hits: 1190

Financing led by Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC

Participating investors include funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, GV (formally Google Ventures), Invus, Casdin Capital, Franklin Templeton, Octagon Capital, Perceptive Advisors LLC, Sands Capital, ArrowMark Partners, Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners, PBM Capital and Nolan Capital

Four INDs expected to be filed by the end of 2021, with first gene-therapy candidate for GM2 Gangliosidosis anticipated to initiate clinical studies later this year

DALLAS, TX, USA I August 05, 2020 ITaysha Gene Therapies, a patient-centric gene therapy company with a mission to eradicate monogenic CNS disease, today announced that it has closed an oversubscribed $95 million Series B financing with a premier syndicate of life science investors, led by Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC. Additional new investors include funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, GV (formerly Google Ventures), Invus, Casdin Capital, Franklin Templeton, Octagon Capital, Perceptive Advisors LLC, Sands Capital, ArrowMark Partners and Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners. Also participating in the round were founding investors PBM Capital and Nolan Capital. Proceeds from the Series B financing will be used to advance the initial cohort of lead programs into the clinic, accelerate progress on anticipated IND submissions, build a commercially scalable GMP manufacturing facility and continue development of the companys extensive portfolio of potentially curative gene therapies in partnership with the UT Southwestern Gene Therapy Program.

This significant investment from premier, long-term investors will allow us to advance our mission of eradicating monogenic CNS disease for the thousands of patients who suffer from these devastating disorders, said RA Session II, President, CEO and Founder of Taysha. We remain on track and expect to file four Investigational New Drug (IND) applications by the end of 2021, with TSHA-101 initiating clinical studies later this year for the treatment of GM2 Gangliosidosis.

Taysha is currently developing a deep and sustainable pipeline of 17 gene therapy product candidates, with exclusive options to acquire four additional programs across three distinct franchises, including neurodegenerative diseases, neurodevelopmental disorders and genetic forms of epilepsy. TSHA-101 is expected to initiate clinical studies later this year for the treatment of GM2 Gangliosidosis, followed by TSHA-102 for the treatment of Rett syndrome, TSHA-103 for the treatment of SLC6A1 haploinsufficiency disorder and TSHA-104 for the treatment of SURF1 deficiency. Taysha expects to file INDs for each of these four product candidates by the end of 2021.

We have brought together experts in gene therapy with leading healthcare and institutional investors to create a company that is uniquely positioned to advance the development of potentially curative gene therapies for CNS disease in rare and large patient populations, said Sean Nolan, Chairman of the Board of Taysha. We believe this financing provides significant validation of our corporate strategy and will enable us to continue to rapidly translate programs from preclinical development into the clinic.

About Taysha Gene Therapies

Taysha Gene Therapies is a patient-centric gene therapy company with a mission to eradicate monogenic CNS disease. We are focused on developing and commercializing AAV-based gene therapies for the treatment of monogenic diseases of the CNS in both rare and large patient populations. We were founded in partnership with The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, or UT Southwestern, to develop and commercialize transformative gene therapy treatments. Together with UT Southwestern, we are advancing a deep and sustainable product portfolio of 17 gene therapy product candidates, with exclusive options to acquire four additional development programs. By combining our management teams proven experience in gene therapy drug development and commercialization with UT Southwesterns world-class gene therapy research capabilities, we believe we have created a powerful engine to develop transformative therapies to dramatically improve patients lives. More information is available at www.tayshagtx.com.

SOURCE: Taysha Gene Therapies
India Reaching a 'Blind Alley' in Kashmir, Asserts Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan

Sputnik News

12:48 GMT 05.08.2020

New Delhi (Sputnik): Prime Minister Imran Khan addressed the legislature of Pakistan-administered Kashmir on Wednesday to express solidarity with the people of India-administered Kashmir on the first anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370, changing the temporary status of Jammu and Kashmir.

Addressing the legislature of Pakistan-administered Kashmir on Wednesday, Prime Minister Imran Khan claimed that New Delhi has been "trapped" by its Kashmir policy and that the region would be free from "India's reign of terror".

"As far as my analysis is concerned, India is entering a 'blind alley'. The repression of Kashmiris by Modi government would result in the independence of the region from India", said Khan.

Pakistan's prime minister claimed that New Delhi made a blunder by stripping Jammu and Kashmir of its special status. He said that Prime Minister Modi made the decision based on four assumptions  to appease the Hindu lobby; India thought Pakistan would remain silent; the world would back India and stay silent as the West wanted to use India as a counter force to China; and Kashmiris would surrender with the presence of 800,000 soldiers in the territory.

"Let me tell you, nations have made huge blunders in the past based on arrogant leadership like the Nazis of Germany", said Imran Khan.

Earlier, Imran Khan said "Indian-occupied Kashmiris have been subjected to a brutal fascist military siege by India since its illegal actions of 5th August last year followed by efforts to change the demography of IIOJK Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir)".

Pakistan has been on a diplomatic offensive against India since New Delhi stripped the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir of its temporary status by abrogating Article 370 of the constitution and divided the state into two federally administered territories.

Pakistan claims to be a stakeholder in Kashmir and objected to India's decisions. It also suspended diplomatic, trade, and communication links with India.

Imran Khan made several attempts to garner international support over Kashmir at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), where Pakistan was only supported by Turkey and China.

Kashmir has been a bone of contention between the two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours since they gained freedom from British colonial rule in 1947. Both govern part of the region, but claim it in full. They have also fought two wars over Kashmir.

 Sputnik

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A day after a minor was brutally raped and critically injured in Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday visited the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), where she is battling for life, and met her family and the doctors treating her. He announced an aid of Rs 10 lakh to the family of the 12-year-old child.

CM Kejriwal said that after meeting the doctors, he was told that the next 48 hours are crucial for the girl. He asserted that he also spoke to Police Commissioner S N Srivastava, adding that the perpetrators of this heinous crime will receive the harshest punishment.

Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter, he tweeted in Hindi saying, "AIIMS mein doctors aur parivaar se milkar bachi ka haal jaana. Doctors ne bataaya ki agle 48 ghante aham hai. Maine police commissioner se bhee baat kee. Is jaghanya vaardaat karne vaale aparaadhiyon ko sakht se sakht saza dilavaenge. Parivaar ko sarkaar Rs 10 lakh sahaayata raashi de rahee hain. (Came to know about the condition of the girl by meeting doctors and family in AIIMS. Doctors said that the next 48 hours are important. I also spoke to the police commissioner. The perpetrators of this heinous crime will will receive harshest punishment. The government is giving 10 lakh rupees aid to the family.)"

AIIMS                48                          10        pic.twitter.com/6VM00SsvSg  Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) August 6, 2020

CM Kejriwal was also accompanied by Delhi Commission For Women (DCW) Chief Swati Maliwal on his visit to AIIMS. In a video on Twitter Maliwal said, "The girl has multiple head fractures and bite marks all over her body. She has been brutally assaulted to the extent that every body part has injury marks."

She accused the police of delay in arresting the accused. Despite the brutal nature of the assault, two days have passed since the incident and the police have not arrested the accused yet, she pointed out. "I am summoning the DCP. I am going to ask him about the investigation," Maliwal said.

DCW Chief @SwatiJaiHind 's statement after meeting the 12 year old rape survivor's family earlier at AIIMS today. pic.twitter.com/DPD9HxHLUV  Delhi Commission for Women - DCW (@DCWDelhi) August 6, 2020

The Delhi Police said that it has taken the case registered under POCSO at PS Paschim Vihar "seriously". "It is a sensitive case. Delhi Police is making all efforts to catch the culprit. Delhi Police has already scanned through CCTV's and is questioning suspects on the basis of the same. Delhi police is hopeful for making headway in the case," said a police official.

In a gruesome incident, the girl was raped and injured with a sharp weapon in Paschim Vihar area of the national capital. She was admitted to the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital on August 4 evening by the Delhi Police in a blood-soaked condition.

The body of the child has deep wounds and there was constant bleeding from her private part. Her whole body was soaked with blood and there were injury marks, of a sharp weapon, on the back of her head and body. The team of doctors referred her to AIIMS after initial treatment.

Currently, the child is undergoing treatment at AIIMS and her condition is said to be critical. According to the police, the incident took place with the girl at a time when she was alone. The police have started an investigation by registering a case against the unknown under POCSO and attempt to murder. Till now the police has not been able to trace the accused.
Zoe Kravitz shared a thank you message with fans after it was reported her TV adaptation of High Fidelity had been cancelled after one season (Matt Crossick/PA)

Zoe Kravitz shared a thank you message with fans after it was reported her TV adaptation of High Fidelity had been cancelled after one season.

The series was a reimagining of the 2000 movie starring John Cusack  which was based on Nick Hornbys novel  and told from a female perspective.

Kravitz starred as pop culture-loving record shop owner Rob. High Fidelity premiered on US streaming platform Hulu in February and was a critical favourite.

However, it was reported on Thursday it had not been renewed for a second season.

Apparently responding to the news, Kravitz shared behind-the-scenes pictures from the show on Instagram and said: i wanna give a shout out to my #highfidelity family. thank you for all the love and heart you put into this show. im in awe of all of you. and thank you to everyone who watched, loved and supported us.

Kravitz, 31, is the daughter of rocker Lenny Kravitz and the actress Lisa Bonet, who played an ex-girlfriend of Cusacks character in the High Fidelity film.

British author Hornby had welcomed the fresh spin on his novel.

I thought it was really cool, especially when I found out who the woman was going to be, Hornby told the New York Post.

I never thought it was about guys particularly. I thought it was about music and relationships.

Kravitz is set to star opposite Robert Pattinson in the upcoming Batman film as Catwoman.
Funding to Support U.S. Pivotal Trial of CLAAS Stroke Prevention Technology

NASHUA, New Hampshire, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Conformal Medical, Inc., a medical device company focused on reducing stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation (AFib), today announced it has secured $85 million in Series C financing. The financing syndicate included participation from new investors Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC and an undisclosed strategic investor, as well as Catalyst Health Ventures (CHV) and many returning Series A and B investors. Funds will be used to support the company's U.S. pivotal trial of its novel CLAAS Technology, a next-generation solution for sealing the left atrial appendage in patients with atrial fibrillation.

"We are extremely pleased with the strong support of our investment partners, validating the potential of our next-generation technology in the growing LAAC market," commented Andy Levine, president and CEO of Conformal. "With this significant raise, we look forward to initiating our pivotal trial and taking the next step to establish the CLAAS implant as a cornerstone stroke reduction strategy for patients with AFib."

"Conformal's innovative approach has the potential to provide tremendous clinical benefit to a large patient population that suffers from AFib and therefore is at an increased risk of stroke. Current risk-reduction strategies have significant limitations and leave a clear unmet need in this space," stated Joshua Phillips, managing partner at Catalyst Health Ventures. "The CLAAS technology provides a differentiated solution and we are excited to strengthen our partnership with this proven team and welcome our new funding partners."

The CLAAS system features a proprietary foam-based architecture designed to accommodate most anatomies with only two sizes and simplified delivery without the need for procedural transesophageal echo (TEE) allowing physicians to perform LAAC without general anesthesia. Conformal's randomized pivotal trial is expected to enroll over 1,300 patients at multiple sites globally beginning in early 2021, to investigate the safety and effectiveness of the CLAAS technology as compared to Boston Scientific's Watchman products.

"The left atrial appendage, or LAA, is a pouch off the left atrium where clots associated with stroke form in patients with AFib. First generation technology has demonstrated effectiveness compared to oral anticoagulation and fueled early market growth, despite procedural limitations," commented Aaron V. Kaplan, M.D, professor of medicine at Dartmouth and Conformal's co-founder and chief medical officer. "The CLAAS technology aims to address these limitations and enable physicians to routinely close the LAA without general anesthesia."

More than six million people in the United States suffer from AFib, placing them at an increased risk of stroke.1 Current standard of care for stroke prevention is chronic oral anticoagulants, which are not well accepted by patients due to concern about associated risk of bleeding. Left Atrial Appendage Closure (LAAC) is emerging as an important alternative to blood thinners for preventing strokes in patients with AFib. Currently, first-generation LAAC devices are an estimated $600M global market and are expected to grow to over $1B in the next five years.

About Conformal Medical

Founded in 2016, Conformal Medical, Inc. is a medical device company to develop devices to prevent stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation. The company's proprietary technology is intended to make left atrial appendage closure achieve its true potential. For more information, visit https://conformalmedical.com/.

1. https://www.cdc.gov/dhdsp/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fs_atrial_fibrillation.htm

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1224425/Conformal_Medical_CLAAS_Device.jpg
A Neptune Township police officer admitted Thursday that he used a department database for personal reasons and a judge ordered that he can never hold a public job in the state again, authorities said.

Syessence Davis, 27, of Neptune Township, who worked as a special class 1 officer for the department, pleaded guilty to computer theft. He also faces probation when he is sentenced on Oct. 2, according to a statement from the Monmouth County Prosecutors Office.

Every law enforcement officer has a responsibility to the general public to maintain a level of professional conduct, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni said in a statement. Accessing personal information of a citizen without a law enforcement need is unacceptable and will result in appropriate penalties, including loss of employment.

An investigation by the prosecutors office and police department showed that in May, Davis contacted the Monmouth County Sheriffs Office Communications Center and asked them to run a drivers license through the New Jersey Criminal Justice Information System, officials said.

Davis inquiry, called a lookup, was made on the police departments booking telephone line, and later determined to not be related to any work he was doing for the department, and considered personal in nature, the office alleges.

The office did not elaborate on the lookup, or identify the holder of the drivers license.

We were made aware of the infraction and immediately informed the Monmouth County Prosecutors Office about the actions of one of our officers, Neptune Township Police Chief James Hunt said in a statement.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription.

Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com.
Ljubljana, Slovenia, Aug. 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rafarma Pharmaceuticals, Inc. OTC:(RAFA) presents the following letter to Rafarma shareholders from CEO Vladimir Dolgolenko:



To Our Shareholders:

During these exciting times I wanted to reach out to our shareholders and clarify some questions I have received. As recently announced, there will be a change in control forthcoming for Rafarma. The change in control will not affect the current share structure of the company. There has been no dilution and there are no current plans for dilution or issuance of additional shares as part of this acquisition. Our acquirer, R&D Biocogency Laboratories Inc. (Biocogency), brings an enormous amount of potential and an already proven business model. As stated in our previous release, Biocogencys 2019 revenues were approximately $73 million with profits at approximately $17 million. We intend to both harness and grow these profits and further our expansion throughout Europe and Asia.

Thailand operations are continuing as planned and will only be improved with this new infusion of capital and more research opportunities. Our strategic partners are extremely excited with the progress that has been made in recent months.

This is also the first of what we believe will be several merger and acquisition activities. As we acquire additional companies and facilities, we believe shareholder value will increase immensely. As CEO I want to thank shareholders for their patience and their trust in Rafarma. I believe we are building a strong company with unlimited potential as we move forward.

Kinds regards,

Vladimir Dolgolenko,

CEO, Rafarma Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Forward-Looking Statements: This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Except for historical matters contained herein, statements made in this press release are forward-looking statements. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, words such as may, will, to, plan, expect, believe, anticipate, intend, could, would, estimate, or continue, or the negative other variations thereof or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risk, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Also, forward-looking statements represent our managements beliefs and assumptions only as of the date hereof. Additional information regarding the factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements is available in the Company's filings with OTC Markets. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly 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.

Story continues

For more information contact:

RAFARMA

(307) 429-2029




Kerala: Stringent protocol for fishing

August 06,2020 | Source: The Hindu

Fishing operations will start on August 7 with stringent COVID-19 protocol given the spike in cases along the coast. Although the 52-day trawling ban ended on the midnight of July 31, fishers are allowed to go to sea only from Friday in view of weather warnings.



As per Fisheries Department guidelines, fishing and marketing-related activities in harbours will be managed by harbour management societies. Peoples committees, with a Matsya Bhavan officer as convener, have been formed for the fish-landing centres and other jetties where the catch will be offloaded. Boats will be allowed to go out on alternate days. Those with registration numbers ending in odd numbers could operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and those with registration numbers ending in even numbers, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.



Boats from other States and crew have been banned from entering the harbours and fishing-landing centres in Kerala. Boats leaving the Kerala shores are banned from visiting harbours/landing centres elsewhere. Fishing crew from other States currently in Kerala should be quarantined and tested and they should be allowed on board on production of a COVID-19-negative certificate.



A maximum of five men will be allowed in each of the two 32-ft boats that use boat seine nets. In the case of shore-seine fishing, a maximum of 12 people will be allowed on either end of the net. The crew should maintain physical distancing and use sanitiser and face masks. Between three and seven boats will be allowed inside the harbour at a time to avoid crowding. Fisheries auctions stand banned. The price will be fixed by the harbour management societies and peoples committees. Matsyafed will be responsible for the marketing aspects. Entry of trucks to the harbours for the transportation of catch will be regulated with passes.
(Natural News) Business has never been better for the vaccine industry, which is raking in billions of dollars from the federal government to produce new vaccines for the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19). And footing the bill, as usual, is the American taxpayer.

President Donald Trumps Operation Warp Speed (OWS) initiative, which promises to unveil fast-tracked Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19 vaccines at warp speed, is doling out taxpayer cash at an unprecedented rate and volume, enriching Big Pharma while further impoverishing the American people.

Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) have both scored a $2.1 billion federal contract to produce 100 million doses of their vaccines, with the option to add another 500 million doses later on down the road. Sanofis profits, by the way, currently total about $38 billion.

Pfizer and BioNTech have likewise been awarded a $1.95 billion federal contract to produce another 100 million doses of their vaccine, which has yet to be developed. Pfizer, the worlds largest pharmaceutical corporation, has a profit total of about $53 billion.

Other pharmaceutical corporations that are being handed taxpayer cash by the Trump administration include:

Moderna, which has been given nearly $1 billion

Johnson & Johnson (J&J), which has been given about $420 million

AstraZeneca, which has claimed $1 billion

Novavax, which received $1.6 billion

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, which has claimed $450 million

All in all, this amounts to nearly $9 billion in American taxpayer cash that has been divvied up to the wealthiest and most influential corporate behemoths in the entire world and all at Trumps directive.

Big Pharma says only a radical would oppose enriching drug companies during a global pandemic

Many who are actually paying attention are mortified that Big Pharma is raking in gobs of taxpayer cash, even as the taxpayers funding this cash party are struggling simply to survive.

But Big Pharma says that people who have a problem with such corporate fascism are radicals, at least this was the word that Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, a multi-millionaire, used during a recent interview with Barrons.

I think its very wrong, Bourla stated about people being upset about the crony capitalism that is taking place before their very eyes.

You need to be very fanatic and radical to say something like that right now, he added. Who is finding the solution? The private sector found the solution for diagnostics, and the private sector found the solution for therapeutics and is along [the] way to find more solutions for therapeutics and vaccines. So how can you say something like that? Doesnt make sense.

If all goes as planned, Pfizer alone could profit to the tune of about $13 billion from the plandemic, assuming its Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine ends up selling at about $19.50 per dose, which is considered affordable.

Many libertarians are also lauding Big Pharma for supposedly coming up with the solutions to this plandemic, though few, if any, of them are making any mention whatsoever of Trumps OWS program or its being funded by American taxpayers.

Vaccine progress is coming at record speed  and its the result of the free market, boasted corrupt crony capitalist and deep state whore Nikki Haley in a recent social media post.

About 2 dozen companies are competing to find a cure or treatments to the pandemic. While govt supports, theyre rightly letting innovators and entrepreneurs drive the vaccine process.

As of this writing, there are about 165 Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines currently in development. Many experts believe that the first ones to become commercially available will hit the market by the year 2021, though some say that the earliest vaccines for the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) could be released before years end.

The latest news about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) plandemic is available at Pandemic.news.

Sources for this article include:

Breitbart.com

NaturalNews.com
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

The spread of the novel coronavirus is accelerating in Finland, health officials warned on Thursday, as the country introduced new controls on arrivals from some EU countries.

Belgium, the Netherlands and Andorra were removed from Finland's green travel list, putting a stop to tourists arriving from those countries and imposing a 14-day quarantine on other returnees.

Further containment measures within Finland would be unveiled next week, officials said.

According to new estimates, the reproduction rate of the virus has now risen above 1, to between 1.1 and 1.4, the health ministry's strategic director Liisa-Maria Voipio-Pulkki told a press conference.

"The situation is extremely delicate," Voipio-Pulkki said, adding that "some sort of second stage has begun."

"Whether we can expect a smaller wave or a larger wave depends on how we respond."

Autumn roadmap

Despite the upturn in cases, Finland still has Europe's lowest incidence rate, reporting two new cases per 100,000 people in the last 14 days.

So far 7,532 COVID-19 infections and 331 deaths have been reported in the Nordic nation of 5.5 million people, and the number of new cases slowed to a trickle during June and early July.

Most of the springtime lockdown restrictions have been lifted, with large indoor and outdoor gatherings permitted, restaurants and bars open as normal and children due to return to in-classroom teaching next week after the summer holidays.

Officials said an "autumn roadmap" will be published next week, setting out the new measures to be introduced if the virus continues to spread.

These may include localised lockdown measures, and for the first time a recommendation to wear face masks.

Authorities have so far opposed face coverings, arguing that there is insufficient evidence of their effectiveness.

Although the rise in new cases is still comparatively small, the new phase of the virus appears to be affecting under-30s much more than in the spring, when it was most prevalent among older people, figures show.

This is partly due to younger people having spent more time socialising over the summer, officials said.

Nordic neighbours Norway and Denmark have also both seen an uptick in new cases in recent weeksbut like Finland from low levelswith local clusters detected.

On Thursday, Sweden's Public Health Agency said they had seen a small uptick in new cases in the last few days.

State epidemiologist Anders Tegnell said they were not sure why they were seeing and uptick but added it was "clear that young adults that account for a large part of that increase."

Sweden, which famously avoided a lockdown, has seen a reduction in new cases over the last few weeks, although both its caseload and death toll are far above those of any of its neighbours.

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

 2020 AFP
T his Morning viewers have hit out at Pimlico Plumbers boss, Charlie Mullins, after he called for an end to the government's furlough scheme - from his Marbella home.

On Thursday's show, Mr Mullins told hosts Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford that the scheme needed to be shuttered "as quick as possible".

"Let's not kid anyone - the majority of people now are in a position to go back to work but unfortunately they don't want to go back," he said.

"If you're paying anybody to sit at home and do nothing, then that's what they're going to do."

Pimlico Plumbers boss Charlie Mullins

Speaking from the grounds of his home in southern Spain, Mr Mullins went on: "Most people's workplace is too far from the beach for them.

"We need to end it, it's had its day. We needed to do it at the time, we now need to move on, get the economy going, get people back into the workplace and stop this stupid culture of people thinking that they can sit at home and just be paid for it."

Since, many viewers have reacted with anger to Mr Mullins' claims, with one saying: "I got made redundant from sitting at home and being 'paid for it' I haven't had my normal income and 80 per cent of my wage meant my bills were only just getting paid. It must be so easy to say that from all the way over in [Marbella] living an easy life."

Another added: "A lot of people would love to go back to work Charles, but if their employers are following government guidelines then there's nothing the employee can do, and if they want to sit at home and relax then fine, they've probably been worked to the bone on minimum wage up to now."

Others took issue with Mr Mullins discussing the scheme from his holiday home in Marbella.

However, some viewers supported Mr Mullins' comments, saying: "Why are so many people so furious at the guy? He owns the company and can run it from anywhere he likes. Hes offering people the chance to get back to work and have full pay again. Jealousy is a horrid trait."

Another agreed: "Yes, people will actually only start to realise the restrictions being forced on their lives when they are made to get off their sofas and go back to work, everywhere needs to open up and people make their own choices, not moan about everyone elses!"

Around 9.6 million workers in the UK had been furloughed as of August 2, according to Government figures. That means the Treasury is paying 80 per cent of the wages of those people, up to 2,500 per month.

Since August businesses have had to pay National Insurance and pension contributions for furloughed staff - coinciding with a spate of new redundancies. From September they will pay 10 per cent of wages, rising to 20 per cent in October. The scheme is currently planned to stop at the end of October.

About 1.2 million firms have used the furlough scheme, at a cost of around 33.8 billion so far. This is expected to rise to around 80 billion, the Government has said.

While the furlough scheme has cost a significant amount of money, some economists argue that extending it past October would be in the public interest.

Garry Young, deputy director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, said: The planned closure of the furlough seems to be a mistake, motivated by an understandable desire to limit spending.

"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.
A Pakistani court on Thursday indicted Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shahbaz in a corruption case.

Separately, the Lahore Accountability Court issued bailable arrest warrant against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, currently in London for treatment, in a land allotment case involving Geo Media Group owner Mir Shakilur Rehman.

The accountability court in Lahore indicted Shahbaz, 68, on the charges of using taxpayers' money to construct a drain in Chiniot (250 km from Lahore) in (2010-2013) which allegedly benefitted a business run by his sons.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) alleged that the Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president used his position at the time as chief minister of Punjab to approve the drain's construction at a cost of Rs 36 crore, benefitting the Ramzan Sugar Mills which is owned by his sons Hamza and Salman.

"The public funds were misused for the benefit of a family business. The people getting benefits from the drain were few in number," the court said.

Salman is absconding in London and Hamza is in jail on judicial remand. Hamza is the Punjab Assembly's Opposition Leader.

Sharif told the court that wrong charges were framed against him and his son. The 70-year-old PML-N chief said he had saved billions of rupees in different development projects in the province. The court adjourned the hearing till August 27.

In the other land case, the accountability court issued bailable arrest warrants against three-time premier Nawaz Sharif.

Special Prosecutor Haris Qureshi said the suspect (Nawaz Sharif) was not brought to the court in the light of the government's COVID-19 standard operating procedures.

The judge directed the prosecutor to treat the case as 'special' and ensure the appearance of the suspect at the next hearing.

The prosecutor also submitted a report about non-service of the court's summons to Nawaz Sharif at his Lahore address. The report said the suspect was in London.

At this, the judge issued bailable warrants for the arrest of the former premier and adjourned the hearing till August 20.

Sharif had left for London in November last year after getting bail in a money laundering case, and the Al-Azizia case in which he was convicted for seven years. He left for the UK to treat a heart ailment.

The former prime minister recently submitted his medical reports to the Lahore High Court stating that because of coronavirus doctors had advised him not to go outside, therefore he could not return.

(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.)
The spread of the coronavirus in Oregon continues unabated, with state officials announcing 299 new cases Wednesday and five new deaths.

Governor Kate Browns office on Tuesday told lawmakers that she is considering potential travel restrictions between states in recognition of the continued spread of the disease. Its unclear whether that will happen or what specific restrictions she would put in place, but the mere fact that Brown is considering the idea reflects Oregons struggle to contain the pandemic.

The total case count is inching towards 20,000, certain to exceed that milestone by Thursday.

The case and death counts the Oregon Health Authority announced Wednesday are more or less in line with trends seen in recent weeks. Daily averages for new cases have stayed above 300 since mid-July, deaths have averaged four or more per day, and Oregons hardest-hit county  Umatilla  continues to see spread of the disease.

Brown ordered Umatilla County to go back on lockdown last week.

Lincoln County, meanwhile, saw a modest resurgence of the virus. The county announced a 14-case outbreak at Hillside Place, an assisted living facility in Lincoln City licensed for 37 beds. Nine of the people who tested positive are residents and five are workers.

Where the new cases are by county: Baker (1), Benton (2), Clackamas (20), Clatsop (1), Columbia (2), Coos (1), Deschutes (8), Douglas (1), Hood River (4), Jackson (12), Jefferson (9), Josephine (1), Klamath (2), Lane (5), Lincoln (19), Linn (8), Malheur (7), Marion (42), Morrow (10), Multnomah (59), Polk (2), Tillamook (2), Umatilla (26), Wasco (1), Washington (48) and Yamhill (6).

New fatalities: Oregons 334th coronavirus death related to coronavirus is an 87-year-old Clackamas County woman who had underlying conditions. She tested positive July 8 and died at her home. State officials are confirming the day she died.

Oregons 335th death is a 74-year-old Umatilla County man who had underlying conditions. He tested positive for the virus July 17 and died July 28 at Trios Health Southridge Hospital in Kennewick, Wash.

Oregons 336th fatality is a 74-year-old Umatilla County man who tested positive July 12. He died Aug. 1 at Saint Anthony Hospital. State officials are confirming if he had underlying conditions.

Oregons 337th death is a 67-year-old Washington County man with underlying conditions who tested positive July 20. He died August 3 at Kaiser Westside Medical Center.

Oregons 338th coronavirus death is an 83-year-old Josephine County man. He tested positive July 19 and died Aug. 3 in his residence. He had underlying conditions.

The prevalence of infections: State officials on Wednesday reported 282 new positive tests out of 6,890 people tested, equaling a 4.1% positivity rate.

Who got infected: State officials reported new confirmed or presumed infections among the following age groups: 0-9 (10); 10-19 (38); 20-29 (54); 30-39 (41); 40-49 (45); 50-59 (42); 60-69 (26); 70-79 (13); 80 and older (18).

Whos in the hospital: The state reported 163 Oregonians with confirmed coronavirus infections are currently in the hospital, up four from Tuesday.

Since it began: Oregon has reported 19,979 confirmed or presumed infections and 338 deaths, among the lowest totals in the nation. To date, 425,759 Oregonians have been tested.

Mark Friesen contributed to this report.

-- Fedor Zarkhin

fzarkhin@oregonian.com|503-294-7674
Apple has greenlit a straight-to-series order for a brand new drama from Robert Downey Jr. and Team Downey, his production company with wife, Susan Downey.

The Downeys are teaming with Adam Perlman (Billions, The Good Wife, The Newsroom) for the untitled project that may include Robert playing a supporting role.

Team Downey and Amanda Burrell (Hot Cities, Perry Mason, Sweet Tooth) will serve as executive producers alongside Pearlman, who will be one of the writers, according to Variety.

New deal: Robert Downey Jr. and his Team Downey production company with wife, Susan Downey, have signed on with Apple for a brand new drama series that may include Robert playing a supporting role

The series is based on the Toronto Life article The Sting, written by Michael Lista, who will also co-executive produce.

It follows a frustrated Canadian detective who decides to investigate a decades-old cold case in hopes of winning a confession and becoming a hero.

As the drama begins to play out, the case quickly spirals out of control when the undercover officer attempts an elaborate sting, adding playacting cops, taxpayer resources, and an unexpected friendship with the peculiar target.

Making waves: Team Downey currently produces the HBO drama Perry Mason, starring Matthew Rhys, that premiered in June: and has already been renewed for a second season

If Downey Jr. does in fact sign on for a role in the new drama, it would be his first regular TV role since he played Larry Paul in comedy-drama series Ally McBeal (2000-2002) nearly two decades ago; he is pictured with Alley McBeal star Calista Flockhart

If Downey Jr. does in fact sign on for a role in the new drama, it would be his first regular TV role since he played Larry Paul in comedy-drama series Ally McBeal (2000-2002) nearly two decades ago.

So far there's no word on when production will kick-off or who will star in the upcoming series.

Team Downey currently produces the HBO drama Perry Mason, starring Matthew Rhys, that premiered in June and has already been renewed for a second season.

The cast also includes Juliet Rylance, Chris Chalk, Shea Whigham, Stephen Root, Gayle Rankin, Nate Corddry, Veronica Falcon, Jefferson Mays, Lili Taylor, Andrew Howard and Eric Lange.

The show is a reboot of the Perry Mason TV series that starred Raymond Burr as the title character, which ran for nine seasons between 1957 and 1966.

Teen dream: Originally, Downey Jr. made a name for himself in Hollywood working in several teen films with the group of young actors known as the Brat Pack in the 1980s; he is pictured with co-star Andrew McCarthy in the 1987 film Less Than Zero

The Downey's production company is also producing the upcoming Netflix drama series Sweet Tooth, which was ordered to series earlier this year.

Originally, Downey Jr. made a name for himself in Hollywood working in several teen films with the group of young actors known as the Brat Pack in the 1980s. In more recent years he's best known to fans for his performances in the Iron Man franchise and other films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Susan Downey is a prolific film producer whose credits include Gothika (2003), The Brave One (2005), House Of Wax (2005) and Orphan (2009), Iron Man 2 (2010) and Doolittle (2020).
Guinea's ruling party on Thursday urged President Alpha Conde to seek a third term in elections due this year, a scenario that has sparked clashes in the West African state.

Under Guinea's constitution, presidents may only serve two terms.

Conde, 82, was elected president in 2010 and again in 2015. But this year he pushed through a revamped constitution that opponents say was crafted to reset the term counter, enabling him to run again.

His Rally of the Guinean People (RPG) party announced that it wanted Conde to run again at a convention in the capital Conakry.

Party members are issuing a "plea to President Alpha Conde to accept the will of the people to be the RPG's sole candidate," MP Diakagbe Kaba told delegates.

The president has yet to formally respond to the request. He has previously said that "the party will decide" who goes forward to the poll.

Guinea's electoral commission has proposed the presidential election be held on October 18, but Conde has yet to sign off on a date.

Thursday's announcement is likely to incense Guinea's embattled opposition, which has staged mass rallies since October against the possibility of Conde running for a third term.

Guinea /  AFP

Security forces in the former French colony repeatedly cracked down on the protests, in which several dozen civilians were killed.

Opposition figures also attempted to organise a boycott of the referendum in March, but the vote went ahead despite protests.

According to the official results, the constitution was approved by 91.59 percent of those voting, with a turnout of 61 percent

Conde is a former opposition figure himself who was jailed under Guinea's previous iron-fisted regimes.

Hopes of a new political dawn flowered when Conde became Guinea's first democratically elected president in 2010, but critics say he has become increasingly authoritarian.
MIAMI  The Biden campaign is hoping Republican commentator Ana Navarro, a Trump foe known for her salty quips, can help drive Latino and other voters to the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Navarro was born in Nicaragua and came to the United States after the 1979 Sandinista revolution "when my family fled communism and we settled in Miami."

"I became a Republican at the age of 8 because it was a party that was fighting communism ... that did not kowtow to communist dictators, she said.

She called this an essential part of being Republican.

That's one of the biggest messaging points the Trump campaign has been pushing to solidify and energize GOP Latino voters in the critical swing state of Florida  calling Biden and other Democrats communists, socialists and communist sympathizers.

But by collecting the support of Navarro and others like her, the Biden campaign is not only trying to puncture that thinking, but get others to galvanize never-Trump voters.

Living in Miami, Navarro said she has been represented by Republicans like former Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz-Balart, former Gov. Jeb Bush and former Sen. Mel Martinez. She called them people who understood and prioritized the interests of the community, who were not afraid of bucking the party and standing up for their community.

Navarro said she voted for a Democrat for the first time in 2016, when she cast her ballot for Hillary Clinton, not Trump.

It still hurts my heart every time I think of him coming down the escalators and calling Mexicans rapists and criminals, she said, referring to when Trump launchd his presidential campaign in June 2015.

Trump won Florida in 2016 by 1 percent, but recent polls show Biden holding a slight lead in the state.

Navarro joined the campaign in a Latino-focused virtual event aimed at ramping up voter enthusiasm in the midst of a pandemic that has shut down campaign rallies and other events that bring large groups of people together.

Story continues

The online event touched upon an array of topics, including COVID-19s disproportionate effect on Latinos, health care and Temporary Protected Status, or deferrals from deportation and permission to work given to immigrants from countries experiencing natural or political turmoil.

Florida is a pivotal battleground state and one that is seen as a "must-win" for Trump's re-election.

Latinos make up 20.5 percent of eligible voters in Florida, according to the Pew Research Center, and both campaigns are vying for their vote.

With Florida on our side, there is little to no chance that Trump will be re-elected, said Biden senior adviser Cristobal Alex, who hosted the event.

Democrats are banking on disenchantment with Trump's response to the coronavirus pandemic to help Biden and other candidates prevail, as well as the disproportionate impact COVID-19 has had on Latinos, both in terms of infection rates and the economy.

The Palm Beach Post recently reported that although COVID-19 kills predominantly white, older Floridians, two thirds of people under 60 who are dying from COVID-19 are black and Latino, according to its analysis of state medical examiner records.

Image: Joe Biden (Andrew Harnik / AP file)

Democratic Rep. Darren Soto, the first Puerto Rican to be elected to Congress in Florida, said the most important issue of the election is COVID-19, a pandemic that is plaguing our community and the nation and the resulting economic crisis.

Hispanics have been infected with COVID-19 at disproportionate rates, and Soto said the U.S. needs a federal response like those of other industrialized nations that have fared better.

Soto, whose district is nearly a quarter Puerto Rican, also talked about making sure relief from Hurricane Maria arrives on the island, which is still recovering from the 2017 storm. He also addressed a need for rising wages and affordable housing.

Democrats are working to generate votes in all of Florida's Puerto Rican communities.

Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, who represents a diverse district in South Florida and is the first Ecuadorian member of Congress, criticized Trump for his silence on the arrest of former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on witness tampering charges.

She drew comparisons between the governing styles of Trump and Uribe, who is considered a caudillo, or strongman.

There are steps Trump has taken that make him more of a caudillo than a democratic president. He has been using the pain of Venezuelans and Cubans for political points, Mucarsel-Powell said.

She criticized Trump for cutting back on aid to Central America and said that has led to an increase in violence in the region. She said Biden understands Latin America and Latin American politics.

She shared her experience coming from Ecuador as a young girl and working at a doughnut shop growing up.

Mucarsel-Powell is up for re-election against the Republican mayor of Miami-Dade County, Carlos Gimenez. The race has been rated a toss up by the Cook Political Report.

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Campaign curbs should apply to all, PM Modi must lead by example: Sena's Raut

Shiv Sena tests pulse of farmers as it plans foray in UP

Shiv Sena terms it a conspiracy to link Aaditya Thackeray to Sushant case

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Mumbai, Aug 06: Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Wednesday alleged a conspiracy to link stateminister and Yuva Sena president Aaditya Thackeray to actor Sushant Singh Rajput death case.

Though Raut didn't take any name, he said the Opposition still cannot digest the fact that the Sena-led government is in power in the state.

"What has Aaditya Thackeray got to dowith the Sushant Singh Rajput case? It seems the Opposition still cannot digest that the Shiv Sena-led government has come to power in the state," Raut told reporters.

Sushant Singh Rajput death case handed over to CBI, Centre tells Supreme Court

Those conspiring to link Aaditya Thackeray to the case will have to pay a heavy price for it, he said.

Aaditya, son of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, had clarified on Tuesday that he was nowhere related to actor Sushant Singh Rajput death case, and that he and his family are being targeted for no reason.

RBI: Repo rate unchanged at 4%, Reverse Repo Rate unchanged at 3.3% | Oneindia News

He had said dirty politics has been played following the death of the Bollywood actor and without naming anyone, added that the allegation being levelled is political stomach-ache stemming from frustration.

Rajput, 34, was found hanging at his apartment in suburban Bandra on June 14. The Mumbai Police had registered an Accidental Death Report (ADR) and an investigation is underway.

Patna Police had registered a case of abetment to suicide against Rajput's girlfriend and budding actress Rhea Chakraborty on the complaint of the late actor's father K K Singh.

CBI registers FIR in Sushant Singh Rajputs case; ED summons Rhea Chakraborty

The registration of the case led to a turf war over jurisdiction of investigation between Mumbai Police and Bihar Police.

The Bihar government on Tuesday recommended a CBI probe in the case.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, August 6, 2020, 8:55 [IST]
Austria's foreign ministry on Thursday warned against trips to Spain except for the Balearic and Canary Islands, as concerns grow that holidaymakers could catch coronavirus and spread it once they return.

The measure will take effect from Monday, and people returning to Austria will be required to present a negative test for Covid-19.

New cases of coronavirus in Spain reached 1,772 on Wednesday, the most since the lockdown ended.

Austria has weathered the coronavirus crisis quite well but has also seen infections increase with the summer holiday season.

There have been 21,689 cases in all and 719 fatalities. There were 148 new cases on Wednesday, the highest increase since July 30.

Austria already has tight testing requirements for travellers arriving from the Balkans. There are travel warnings for Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia, as well as for two EU states - Bulgaria and Romania.
All Spanish and foreign tourists visiting the Canary Islands will have any potential coronavirus-related costs covered by the regional government, it said on Wednesday, in an attempt to rescue the tourist season after a new spike in infections in Spain.

Such costs include health expenses or the extension of holidays in case of a compulsory quarantine while on the islands.

The move will take effect this week and is the first of its kind in Spain as the tourism-dependent nation seeks to reassure visitors after Britain dealt a blow to the sector by imposing a compulsory quarantine for anyone coming from Spain.

The travel policy will be managed by French insurer AXA and will include health-related repatriations, the Canary Islands regional government said in a statement. It will last for one year and will exclude health conditions that were known of before the traveller concerned came to the islands.

"It will help the economic recovery of the archipelago," Yaiza Castilla, the regional official in charge of tourism, said in a video published on Twitter.

In a relief for the Canary Islands, Swiss health authorities on Wednesday excluded the archipelago, as well as the Balearic Islands, from its decision to add Spain to its list of countries from which arriving passengers must enter a 10-day quarantine.

Spain reported 1,772 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday, marking the biggest daily jump since a national lockdown was lifted in June following a sharp drop in contagion rates.
Jaipur:

Army would follow a revised pattern for recruiting soldiers in different categories through Army recruitment rallies under which only those candidates who qualify for a written exam would be called for further tests, said a senior official.

Maj Gen J K Marwal, officiating DG (Recruitment) Army Headquarters, said that the proposal was under consideration at the government-level. It has been proposed that the written examination will be held first and qualified candidates would be called for further tests.

"This will be a major change in the recruitment process which will reduce administrative arrangements and requirements. It will be more convenient," he told reporter son the sidelines of an Army recruitment rally. He said that Jaipur, Ambala and Chennai Zones have been selected for the pilot project under the proposed system.

The written test is presently held after the candidate clears physical fitness test and medical tests. Marwal said that the entire recruitment system is onlinewhich has no chances of any irregularities and candidates should also be aware of the fact that no one can help them in getting recruited in the Army except themselves.

He also interacted with the candidates who turned up inlarge number to participate in the recruitment rally at CISF ground in Amber area located on the outskirts of the city.

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By PTI

BANDA: A 19-year-old woman and her lover were allegedly burnt to death by her family members in a village in Uttar Pradesh's Banda district in a suspected case of honour killing, police said on Thursday.

The incident took place on Wednesday evening in Karcha village in Mataundh area when the family members allegedly caught the couple in a compromising position, they said.

"They allegedly locked them in a hut and set if on fire," Additional Superintendent of Police Mahendra Pratap Singh said.

Both of them were rushed to a local hospital in serious condition where Bhola (23) died while the woman, Priyanka, who suffered 80 per cent burns and was referred to another facility in Kanpur, succumbed on the way, he said.

An FIR has been lodged against nine members of the woman's family and three of them have been arrested, the official said.

Singh said efforts are on to nab the other accused.

The post-mortems will be done on Thursday, he said.
The title, None of us knows how long this will be, could be the latest newspaper headline. However, it was believed to have been written when Jerusalem was under Babylonian attack in about 586 BC. The Psalmist is expressing his uncertainty when he writes, We are given no signs from God; no prophets are left, and none of us knows how long this will be (Psalm chapter 74 verse 9 NIV).

Today we face the uncertainty of living through a pandemic and none of us knows how long our current situation will continue. Some people are content to go about their lives in a restricted way while others are becoming increasingly angry and frustrated.

Uncertainty can make us angry

Most of us dont like uncertainty. We expect shops to open at regular hours and public transport to take us where we want to go. We assume that we will get to appointments with the minimum of fuss. We dont like being delayed or inconvenienced and when we are, we feel irritated.

Anger comes from having our goals blocked. Our goal might be as simple as getting to work on time, buying regular supplies, meeting up with friends and family. Yet in our current situation, even these simple things may be blocked and we feel a growing sense of annoyance.

Uncertainty reminds us that we arent in control

Uncertainty is good for us because it reminds us that we arent in control of most things in our lives. We regularly make plans for tomorrow, for our next holiday, for our retirement as if we have control over our future. But none of our plans may come to pass. Not only cant we control a medical emergency, but we also cant control the economic climate or even the weather. In fact, were so dependant on God we cannot even take our next breath unless he allows us to do so. Its in uncertainty, we realise we arent as powerful and as self-sufficient as wed like to think.

James writes to his fellow believers, Now listen, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, If it is the Lords will, we will live and do this or that (James chapter 4 verses 13 to 15).

Our lives are like a mist and when you are in the middle of a pandemic, this reality is confronting.

Uncertainty is meant to teach us to trust God

God is the only one we can trust in times of uncertainty. He is the only one who knows how long the pandemic will be with us. We will find comfort in our faith if we remember that God is not only sovereign, but he is also good. God has good outcomes in mind. Not necessarily outcomes that will bring us the most ease, but outcomes that will bring us the most good.

God is wanting to make us more Christ-like. When Jesus was on earth he lived with a great deal of uncertainty. One time, he planned to stay at a Samaritan village but had to move on to another (Luke chapter 9 verses 52 to 56). Many times, he didnt know where he would lay his head at night (Luke chapter 9 verse 58). He didnt know when he would find time to mourn the death of his cousin (Matthew chapter 14 verses 12 to 14). Yet he continued with his God-appointed task. When his plans were blocked, he simply moved on to the next village, the next opportunity, the next person to teach about the kingdom.

As he told Nicodemus, The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit (John chapter 3 verse 8).

If youre feeling angry about your goals being blocked during this current situation, consider whether your goals are worth getting angry about. Perhaps change your goal to something that is within your control, such as, to be the best version of yourself.

God is calling us to be more Christ-like and to learn to live with uncertainty.
Rhea Chakraborty has been named as an accused in the FIR filed by the CBI in the Sushant Singh Rajput death case. A day after the Centre asked the agency to probe the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday registered a case against six persons, including Rhea Chakraborty and her family members, on the basis of the FIR filed by Bihar Police on his family's complaint.

The CBI has named Rhea, her father Indrajit Chakraborty, mother Sandhya Chakraborty, brother Showik Chkaraborty, Sushant's house manager Samuel Miranda, Shruti Modi and unknown others. They have been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code including abetment of suicide, criminal conspiracy, wrongful restraint/confinement, theft, criminal breach of trust, cheating and other offences.

A CBI spokesperson said that the agency has registered the case on the request of Bihar government and further notification from the Central government and taken over the investigation of the Bihar Police case registered at police station Rajiv Nagar in Patna.

The official said that the Bihar Police FIR was registered against six accused and others.

The CBI has handed the case over to its Special Investigation Team (SIT) branch, which earlier investigated the high profile cases like Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal, and liquor baron Vijay Mallya bank fraud case.

SIT member Superintendent of Police Nupur Prasad, as Supervising officer under the DIG Gagandeep Gambhir, was also probing the alleged role of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav in an illegal mining case. She is currently also handling the Srijan scam and journalist Upendra Rai case.

CBI Joint Director Manoj Sridhar will be leading the probe.

The development comes a day after the Department of Personnel and Training issued a notification, paving the way for the central investigative agency to register a case.

Sushant was found dead in his flat in Mumbai's Bandra on June 14. On Tuesday, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar recommended a CBI probe on the request of Sushant's father K.K. Singh. Many political leaders have also called for a CBI probe into Sushant's death.

On K.K. Singh's complaint, the Bihar Police registered a case against Rhea on July 25. Sushant's father had lodged an FIR against Rhea in Patna, accusing her of cheating and threatening his son. Sushant's family has also accused her of keeping him away from them.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also initiated a money laundering probe on the basis of the Patna Police's FIR and has summoned Rhea for questioning on Friday.

Earlier, a verbal duel erupted between the governments of Maharashtra and Bihar over the investigation by the Bihar Police in the case.
New Delhi:

Pakistan has lodged a strong protest with India over its diplomats in the high commission in Delhi allegedly not being allowed to withdraw their salaries, which is paid in dollars, by the bank.

Asserting that not allowing its officials to withdraw their salaries was in breach of Vienna Protocol, Pakistan has also threatened that in case the matter is not resolved soon, it may consider retaliatory action against salary disbursal for Indian diplomats in Islamabad.

RBL Bank, an Indian private bank, holds the salary account of the Pakistan high commission staff.

"We are not allowed to withdraw our own salary. It is not a demonetisation issue. It appears that it is done more at the instructions of the Indian government," a senior Pakistani official said.

While there was no official reaction to Pakistan's protest from Indian side, officials here maintained that the matter is between the bank and the depositor and government has no role to play. Diplomats can draw their tax free salaries in dollars and only have to give reason for the withdrawal beyond 5,000 dollar.

According to the high commission officials, they are not being allowed to withdraw their salaries and have been asked for 'letters of purpose' for withdrawal of any dollar amount. Incidentally, demonetisation has led to a sharp spike in demand for dollars and other foreign currency, making it scarce.

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Actor Amitabh Bachchan, for the second day in a row, wrote about the trolls that he seems to have been affected by. The actor shared a poem about the true nature of those who spread negativity about others.

Yesterday did I shed tears over my weakness; today my spell of mirthful laughter sheds bountiful tears, he wrote, perhaps making a reference to his previous post, in which hed shut down a troll whod questioned his charitable efforts.

In his poem, he wrote:

there are some that are in habituate to talk

there are some that take the talk out of the talk;

they that talk have but no habituate with the issue

they take the talk out of the talk , because they have no name on any issue;

axed in hand they set out to cut the renowned respected icon

it is but ludicrous laughable, when they axe the very branch they sit on!!

On Wednesday, the actor responded to a comment on his Facebook post, in which a person had asked him why he doesnt donate his extra wealth to the needy. Amitabh proceeded to list his charitable efforts, while stressing that publicising it had driven him to tears. The actor wrote in his blog, I weep as I put this out .. because somewhere today this lady has destroyed by belief and stand that I shall NOT talk of my charity .. only DO it .. it needs to be done not talked of ..

Also read: Amitabh Bachchan shuts down troll who asked why he doesnt donate, lists his every charitable effort: I weep as I put this out

In recent weeks, the actor has been responding to several trolls. He recently responded to a woman on Facebook who accused him of advertising for the hospital where he was admitted for Covid-19 treatment and said that she had totally lost respect for him. He also hit back at a person who suggested that he had paid for an Amul advertisement that featured him.

The actor has moved back home and is in self-quarantine after testing negative for the coronavirus. His son, Abhishek Bachchan, remains in hospital as he is still Covid-19 positive. Abhishek recently provided an update for fans, and said that prospects of him being discharged remain slim, even after 26 days in hospital.

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The first group to depart Athens, 134 Iraqis, is the biggest voluntary return of migrants Greece has ever carried out.

A first flight voluntarily returning economic migrants to their home country has departed from Greece, launching a European Union-funded scheme aimed at relieving pressure on the state where most new arrivals reach the bloc.

The first group to depart Athens, comprising of 134 Iraqis, is the biggest voluntary return our country has ever carried out, and the biggest in Europe this year, Greek government spokesman Stelios Petsas told reporters on Thursday.

About 5,000 economic migrants will be offered incentives of 2,000 euros ($2,400) per person to return home.

Applicants must have crossed into Greece prior to January 1, 2020, and still be present on the islands of Leros, Samos, Lesbos, Kos and Chios. They will have a month to apply.

The deadline can be extended by another month to make up the required number in the event of a low turnout, the migration ministry has said.

Delayed by the pandemic

Announced in March, the EU scheme was inactive until now because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The money is designed to help asylum seekers start afresh in their countries of origin, EU home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson, said at the time.

More than a million migrants and refugees arrived in Greece in 2015 and 2016, according to the UN refugee agency. There are now about 120,000 refugees and migrants in the country.

More than 25,000 asylum seekers live in camps on the five Aegean islands that were originally built to handle just 6,095 people.
After Enforcement Directorate Grilled Sushants CA, Rhea Chakraborty To Be Interrogated About Bank Transactions
Police in Boston are investigating a fatal shooting that occurred Thursday morning in Mattapan, authorities said.

Officers responded to a report of gunshots in the area of Hazelton Street and Blue Hill Avenue just after 9 a.m., police said. After arriving, police found a man suffering from a gunshot wound, authorities said. Boston EMS arrived on scene and pronounced the victim dead.

Police didnt release any further information about the victim. No information was provided regarding possible suspects.

The Boston Police Department continues to investigate the incident and is seeking the publics help. Anyone with information relative to this investigation is asked to contact Boston Police Homicide Detectives at 617-343-4470.

Tips can be provided anonymously by calling the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1 (800) 494-TIPS or by texting the word TIP to CRIME (27463).

Anyone in need of emotional support or simply needing to talk to someone about distressing events can contact the Boston Neighborhood Trauma Team (NTT) for free private support 24/7 at (617) 431-0125 or by visiting BPHC.org/trauma.
Nancy Pelosi railed against President Donald Trump's announcement that he is looking to make his Republican National Convention acceptance speech from the White House later this month.

'You don't have political events at the White House,' Pelosi said in an interview with MSNBC Wednesday. 'You can't do it.'

'Yeah, it's very wrong,' the House Speaker told MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell. 'For the president of the United States to degrade once again the White House as he has done over and over again by saying he's going to completely politicize it, is something that should be rejected right out of hand.'

'Again, it's notion-mongering, not serious thinking,' she said, suggesting the move is another attempt to distract from the coronavirus pandemic.

'It won't happen, let's put it that way,' she argued. 'Whether it's legally wrong or ethically out of the question, it shouldn't have even been something that was expressed.'

Some members of Trump's own party have also pushed back against the new plans.

Republican Senator John Cornyn, of Texas, called it 'problematic.' And Senator John Thune questioned the legality of holding political events at the White House.

'Is that even legal?' he asked when reporters brought up the president's suggestion to the South Dakotasenator.

'I assume that's not something that you can do,' he continued. 'I assume there's some Hatch Act issues, or something.'

Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican from Wisconsin, suggested that other plans should be made.

'Probably not allowed,' he told reporters at the Capitol. 'Probably shouldn't do it.'

Donald Trump said Wednesday that he will likely give his Republican nomination speech from the White House after he was forced to shake up convention plans several times due to coronavirus restrictions.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi railed against Donald Trump's suggestion that he may give his Republican Convention acceptance speech from the White House

'You don't have political events at the White House,' Pelosi said in an interview with MSNBC Wednesday, adding that it's 'wrong' and, You can't do it'

Members of Trump's own party also questioned the move. 'Is that even legal?' Republican Senator John Thune said when asked about his thoughts on the president's plans. 'I assume that's not something that you can do'

'Probably not allowed,' Republican Senator Ron Johnson told reporters at the Capitol Wednesday. 'Probably shouldn't do it'

President Trump pushed back against those comments during a press briefing Wednesday evening, claiming 'it is legal' and assuring it is the most 'cost conscious' option

'If I use the White House, we save tremendous amounts of money for the government in terms of security, traveling,' he said, adding that the White House option is most convenient

'We're going to do virtual and we're going to do some live speeches from different locations,' Trump detailed to Fox & Friends during a Wednesday morning call-in interview. 'And I'm going to do mine on Thursday night, and that will be live.'

'I'll probably do mine live from the White House,' Trump said of the speech, confirming reports that he is considering moving the main event of the convention to Washington, D.C.

When asked Wednesday evening about Republican pushback, Trump assured, 'It is legal,' claiming the Hatch Act does not apply to presidents.

He also said during a press briefing from the White House that holding the events there would be very 'cost conscious.'

'If I use the White House, we save tremendous amounts of money for the government in terms of security, traveling,' Trump told reporters in the James S. Brady Briefing Room. 'If we go to another state or some other location, the amount of money is, you know, very enormous.'

'That's something to consider,' he added. 'I think it would be a very convenient location. It would be, by far, the least expensive location. There'd be very little in terms of that tremendous travel and security in terms of airplanes and everybody flying all over the place.'

Trump said earlier Wednesday that he is open to giving his speech from a different location if any problems arise with the new plans, he feels the White House is the 'easiest, least expensive' and 'very beautiful' location.

His campaign also said they are looking at options to reimburse the government for any costs incurred as part of the events at the White House.

Several Democrats have raised concerns over violations of the Hatch Act, which prohibits executive branch employees from engaging in specific forms of political activity.

Democrats, and some Republicans, have suggested that could include using the White House as a venue for political or campaign-related functions.

The president told Fox & Friends during a call-in interview Wednesday morning that he will 'probably' give his Republican Convention acceptance speech 'live from the White House'

Trump has been forced to change plans a few times due to coronavirus restrictions in North Carolina and Florida  two previous locations for his acceptance speech

While the House Speaker condemned the president from his decision, she commended Joe Biden for deciding to skip out on traveling to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for the Democrat Convention and giving his speech from his home state of Delaware.

'It's going to be a great convention. People will see it virtually and we're very proud of him,' the California Democrats said of the presumed Democratic nominee.

Biden announced Wednesday, as well, that he won't be traveling for his convention speech.

When Senator Mike Rounds was asked about the president's announcement, he said, 'Well, he lives there. What are his options?'

Trump also revealed that first lady Melania Trump, 'warrior congressmen,' like his Capitol Hill allies Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz, among others will also be making speeches as part of the Republican National Convention nominating events.

The first night of the four-day convention will still take place on August 24 in Charlotte, North Carolina  the original site of the quadrennial event.

That Monday will be the nomination voting night, which will be live streamed.

Reports indicated over the weekend that the media would be barred from attending the convention in Charlotte in-person  but Trump said those reports were not true.

'We're going to let the press go in to watch it,' Trump told the Fox & Friends panel. 'But you know, socially distanced.'

The convention initially was scheduled to take place in Charlotte but the president pushed the committee to change the events to Jacksonville, Florida after North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper restricted attendance numbers due to concerns over coronavirus.

Florida, at the time of the change had much looser lockdown orders, which would have allowed for the president to have his desired crowd for his nomination acceptance speech.

Due to a surge in cases in the Sunshine State, however, lockdown orders were reinstated and the president gave up on moving his speech  and other major convention events  to Florida.

Since then, the official plans have been up in the air with no final decision being announced.

Several hundred Republican delegates will gather in Charlotte on August 24 to nominate Trump as the Republican presidential candidate.

There will then be three more days of speeches and programming from sites that are still undetermined, ending with Trump's speech August 27  likely at the White House.
Paving a Brazilian highway that runs through the Amazon without environmental studies could lead to massive deforestation and release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, two scientists warn in a letter published in Science Thursday.

State of play: Brazil's administration is facing a rampant COVID-19 pandemic, the probability of its worst recession ever and criminal investigations. Estimates of soaring illegal deforestation has led to a global backlash over not protecting the Amazon.

The backstory: The BR-319, sometimes called "Brazil's worst highway," is a 800 km mostly dirt road from Porto Velho through the Amazon forest to the city of Manaus in the middle.

The letter says it traverses 63 official Indigenous areas plus five other areas containing Indigenous communities.

The highway was built by the military in 1973 but mostly abandoned in 1988 and is difficult to navigate as less than one-third is paved now. It's been the subject of dispute for decades.

While a judicial decision had previously ruled that environmental studies must be carried out before paving the highway, President Jair Bolsonero has started moving forward, according to co-author Lucas Ferrante, a post-graduate student at the National Institute for Research in Amazonia (INPA).

Why it matters: These moves will "likely accelerate anthropogenic climate change" and negatively impact Indigenous communities, per the letter, which was co-authored by Philip Martin Fearnside, professor in the Department of Environmental Dynamics at INPA.

Planned reconstruction includes many secondary roads, including some the authors consider "illegal," which together are projected to lead to more than 138,000 square kilometers of deforestation by 2100  an increase of cumulative deforestation of 1,291%, when compared with the area cleared by 2011, Ferrante says.

The historical process of opening roads in the Amazon is marked by intense social conflicts involving squatters, farmers, ranchers, rubber tappers and Indigenous people. If these Indigenous peoples are not consulted about the highway, there is a chance that we will see a genocide here, Ferrante tells Axios. Already, concerns have risen over exposing Indigenous communities to the coronavirus.

What they're saying: John Miller, a carbon scientist at NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory, says the letter describing the situation is "concerning" and the overall point is true.

But he adds further data should be presented behind some of the "grand statements that are not necessarily supported," such as the 1,291% increase from 2011.

"The Amazon holds a lot of carbon both in its trees and in the soil. If you go through processes of deforestation, two things happen."

"One is that the carbon that is locked away and stored in those trees that the ecosystems have been sucking in ... that sometimes literally goes up in smoke. Or, it either decomposes slowly or goes up in a fire. But it returns to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. And, that's certainly not what we need now when we have so much carbon dioxide already coming out of power plants and cars, etc."

"The other thing that happens when you denude a forest is that you lose the future capability for the forest to absorb carbon. So there's really two simultaneous effects that you have through deforestation. And, that's the spirit of their statement."

 John Miller

What's next: Ferrante says they hope to accomplish three steps:

Cancel the paving bidding and suspend maintenance. Carry out environmental studies requiring an external opinion to avoid approval by pressure from the government. Ensure consultation of the 68 indigenous areas impacted by the highway, as established by ILO Convention 169.

Go deeper:
The pushback came as Trump indicated publicly for the first time that he preferred speaking from the White House at the end of four nights of convention programming, from Aug. 24-27, that will be a mix of live speeches from around the country and prerecorded video. In an interview Wednesday on Fox & Friends, he described the White House as a beautiful setting that is greatly representative of our nation where the logistics would be easy and inexpensive to arrange.
US cargo plane lands in Israel in support of the regime's Iron Dome

Iran Press TV

Wednesday, 05 August 2020 7:29 PM

US Army Futures Command has confirmed that a cargo plane has landed in Israel to support the regime's so-called Iron Dome system.

The Antonov An 225 arrived at Israel's Ben-Gurion international airport on Monday evening, carrying US military trucks to be equipped with Iron Dome air system.

"The Iron Dome system will be used to defend US military troops against a wide range of ballistic and aerial threats," the Israeli military said.

The measure followed the purchase of two Iron Dome batteries last year.

"The Iron Dome will be assessed and experimented [with] as a system that is currently available to protect deployed US military service members against a wide variety of indirect fire threats and aerial threats," the US army said at the time.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has hailed the US decision as a "great achievement for Israel" and "further proof of our solid bond with the US."

American firm Raytheon Technologies and Israeli-based Rafael Advanced Defense Systems have reportedly formed a joint venture to build the Iron Dome missile system in the United States.

The Iron Dome has been co-developed by American company Raytheon and Israeli firm Rafael. It is partly manufactured in the United States. It is claimed to be capable of detecting, assessing and intercepting a variety of shorter-range targets such as rockets, artillery and mortars.

The system was originally developed to counter small rockets that Hamas and other Palestinian resistance groups fired into Israeli occupied territories in retaliation for the regime's crimes against Palestinians. However, it has proven largely ineffective in serving that purpose.

Ever since US President Donald Trump appeared in office, Israel has increased not just grabbing land but also its militarization to further destabilize the region.

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Microsoft is reportedly chasing a deal to buy TikTok's entire global business as it makes a bid to purchase the US arm of the video-sharing app following President Donald Trump's threats to ban it.

According to a Financial Times report on Thursday, the deal to buy TikTok globally includes its operations in India and Europe, five people with knowledge of the talks said.

However, a source familiar with the discussions told Reuters that Microsoft had not raised the prospect of buying all of TikTok in its ongoing negotiations with the video app's parent company ByteDance.

Microsoft refused to confirm or deny the reports when contacted by DailyMail.com.

According to a Financial Times report on Thursday, the deal to buy TikTok globally includes its operations in India and Europe, five people with knowledge of the talks said

TikTok has been banned in India since June following a bloody border clash between Indian and Chinese troops in the northeast.

The company said on Sunday it was in talks to buy the assets of TikTok in North America, Australia and New Zealand and address Trump's concerns about data security in light of claims that the social platform could become an espionage tool.

TikTok denies that it would send US user data to the Chinese government.

Trump has said he is likely to approve such a deal between TikTok and Microsoft but said any deal had to be done by mid-September deadline or he would ban the in the US.

One of the Financial Times sources said Microsoft was exploring the option to buy TikTok globally because it would be difficult to manage HR and other functions if only a portion of the company was bought.

A global purchase would also mean that TikTok users could be guaranteed use across the world, the source added.

Trump on Monday had said it was likely easier if Microsoft bought all of TikTok rather than the 30 percent that would cover the US arm.

Microsoft added $77 billion in market value on Monday less than 24 hours after confirming it was in talks to buy the US arm of the popular Chinese-owned social media app TikTok

Trump has said he is likely to approve such a deal between TikTok and Microsoft but said any deal had to be done by mid-September deadline or he would ban the in the US. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is pictured above on the right

Another source said it would be difficult to meet Trump's September deadline, saying it could take between five to eights years to fully separate software from ByteDance.

Despite Microsoft emerging as a contender to purchase its services in the US, TikTok this week restated its plan to become a 'global company' and to re-establish its headquarters outside the US.

'TikTok has always operated as a global enterprise with its leadership team operating out of multiple markets around the world outside of China,' a company spokeswoman said.

'We expect that to continue for the foreseeable future.'

Trump said Monday to reporters that the US 'should get a very large percentage of that price because we're making it possible,' adding that 'we want and we think we deserve to have a big percentage of that price coming to America, coming to the Treasury.'

But White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow appeared to walk back the idea of a payment to the Treasury on the Fox Business Network the following day, saying 'I don't know if that's a key stipulation.'

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany sidestepped a question Tuesday about what authority the federal government had to collect a portion of proceeds from the potential sale of TikTok, saying 'I'm not going to get ahead of the president on any official action.'

Treasury did not reply to questions about what legal precedent Trump is relying on to get a payment for the TikTok deal.
A specific appeal has been issued to people in Offaly, Kildare and Laois as cases of Covid-19 in the three counties rise putting them at the epicentre of Covid-19 in Ireland.

Just today there have been 22 confirmed cases in Offaly, 19 in Kildare and eight in Laois accounting for 49 out of a total of 69 confirmed cases.

Dr Ronan Glynn, Acting Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health is urging people in the three counties to be extra vigilant and extra careful.

Speaking at today's National Public Health Emergency Team briefing, Dr Glynn said," over the past fourteen days, 226 cases have arisen in Kildare, Laois and Offaly. These represent almost half of all cases in Ireland over that time period.

READ NEXT: BREAKING: Massive jump in confirmed Covid-19 cases in Offaly

While the majority of these cases can be accounted for by outbreaks, this volume of cases is significant and our main priority now is to ensure that these outbreaks do not lead to widespread community transmission in the region.

NPHET continues to monitor the situation closely. I urge people in these counties to remain vigilant to stop the further spread of COVID-19 in these areas.

Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said; We have seen a significant increase in the incidence of COVID-19 over the past week. The reproduction number for the virus is now estimated to be 1.8. A reproduction number of almost 2 is a serious concern, and although we have not yet seen a significant increase in community transmission, there is a significant risk this could develop over the coming days and weeks emphasising the need for each of us to be extremely cautious that we do not contribute to the transmission of the virus.

Dr Colm Henry, Chief Clinical Officer, HSE said; Public Health teams have been informed of the locations of these outbreaks as is routine and contact tracing and testing is taking place as appropriate. Our focus now is on controlling these outbreaks and taking action as necessary.

We also need people to continue to follow our public health advice and avoid crowds, especially indoors, and limit the number of people you meet. The Department of Health and HSE launched the next phase of our communications campaign today encouraging people to keep up the protective behaviours of physical distancing, washing our hands regularly, wearing a face covering where appropriate and downloading the COVID-19 Tracker app.
This dramatic photo shows the wreckage of a vintage British fighter plane after it crashed during a routine flight - leaving the pilot and a passenger injured.

The Hawker Sea Fury aircraft came down in a field at around 5.15pm on Tuesday, after having to make a forced landing, leading to the plane sustaining a fuel leak.

The shocking photo shows the serious damage to the front of the plane, which appears to have been severed in two by the cockpit as it seemingly struck a tree on its way down.

The Hawker Sea Fury, pictured, broke into several pieces after it crash landed on Tuesday

The aircraft struck a tree as it tried to land in a field some five miles from Duxford aerodrome

The pilot and passenger were able to escape from the aircraft with minor injuries

The pilot and a passenger both received medical attention at the scene, in Button End near Duxford, Cambridgeshire, after sustaining minor injuries in the crash.

And the Imperial War Museum in Duxford confirmed yesterday afternoon that the plane had taken off from Duxford.

In a statement, IWM Duxford said: 'There has been an incident involving a Sea Fury aircraft which departed from Duxford airfield this afternoon on a routine flight.

'The aircraft had to undertake a forced landing, the pilot and passenger are receiving medical attention for minor injuries.

'The aircraft sustained significant damage and a fuel leak.

'An IWM Duxford fire team with specialist equipment and knowledge assisted Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service at the scene.'

The Hawker Sea Fury T.20 G-INVN 'Invincible' is operated by the Norwegian Spitfire Foundation.

The Air Accident Investigation Branch has begun trying to determine what caused the crash

The aircraft, which was manufactured in 1951, suffered extensive damage in the crash

The aircraft suffered engine failure shortly after take off in July 1990 and made a wheels-up landing before it was repaired

The Hawker Sea Fury was manufactured in 1951 and sold to the German Ministry of Defence in 1957 to tow targets

The Sea Fury operated out of Duxford Aerodrome and offered members of the public an opportunity to fly in a historic war bird

Police secured the crash scene until accident investigators could arrive at the site

The aircraft took off from Duxford aerodrome and flew for around 13 minutes until it crashed some five miles from the runway

According to the Foundation's website, the aircraft was manufactured in 1951 - and this is not the first crash the aircraft has suffered.

In July 1990, it suffered engine failure shortly after take-off and made a wheels-up forced landing in a field near Castle Cary, Somerset.

The fuselage broke into three sections on collision with tree.

The remains initially went to New Zealand, and then later to Wisconsin, USA and then California, USA.

The aircraft was shipped back to Duxford in May 2009 - and was re-registered with a new engine and propeller in July 2018.
With theaters closed around the country, some companies are making their productions available online. Below, you'll find our weekly update of productions, videos, and other theater-related streaming content from across the US and elsewhere. Some streams are free, while others may charge a fee or request a donation. Either way, you're sure to find something to scratch your theater itch. Theaters may be dark, but the shows go on.

This Weekend



* PBS's Great Performances is streaming the Public Theater's 2019 Shakespeare in the Park production of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. This bold interpretation of Shakespeare's comedic masterpiece features Danielle Brooks and Grantham Coleman as the sparring lovers Beatrice and Benedick. Tony Award winner Kenny Leon directs, with choreography by Tony Award nominee Camille A. Brown. To watch, click here.

Grantham Coleman and Danielle Brooks star in Shakespeare in the Park's 2019 production of Much Ado About Nothing.

( Joan Marcus)





* Dule Hill and Jennifer Mudge will re-create their performances from the 2007 Cherry Lane Theatre revival of Amiri Baraka's Dutchman on Play-PerView on Saturday, August 8, at 7pm ET. Chris Myers will co-star, with Robert Barry Fleming directing. To purchase tickets, click here. Before you watch the show, check out our interview with Hill and Mudge here.

Dule Hill and Jennifer Mudge

( David Gordon)





* Virtual event venue Looped is hosting #Ham4Change, a series of fundraisers organized by the original cast of Hamilton to benefit organizations that are working to end systemic racism. The first event took place on Saturday, August 1, 1pm-4pm ET. Benefiting Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective, Law Enforcement Accountability Project, and When We All Vote, tickets can be purchased here. Future events will take place August 9 at 1pm and on August 15. Watch highlights from the August 1 event below:

Upcoming

* A slate of starry special guests has been added to Tony Award winner BD Wong and videographer Richert Schnorrs imaginative, video-driven interpretation of the theatrical song cycle Songs From an Unmade Bed. The collection of immersive music videos will stream at 8pm ET on Monday, August 10, as a benefit for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Special guest hosts include Awkwafina, John Lithgow, John Cameron Mitchell, Billy Porter, Keala Settle, and more. To watch, click here.

BD Wong



Streaming Channels

* The documentary We Are Freestyle Love Supreme is currently streaming on Hulu. To subscribe to Hulu and Disney Plus, click here.

* Lin-Manuel Miranda's blockbuster musical Hamilton streams on Disney Plus, featuring the original cast, led by Miranda as Hamilton, Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr, Daveed Diggs as Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson, Renee Elise Goldsberry as Angelica Schuyler, Christopher Jackson as George Washington, Jonathan Groff as King George, Phillipa Soo as Eliza Hamilton, Jasmine Cephas Jones as Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds, Okieriete Onaodowan as Hercules Mulligan/James Madison, and Anthony Ramos as John Laurens/Philip Hamilton. To find out how to watch, click here.

* In Dominique Morisseau's play Pipeline, a public school teacher (Karen Pittman) must face the trauma of her son (Namir Smallwood) as a young black man when an incident threatens to get him expelled from a prep school. Pipeline streams on BroadwayHD. Read our critic's review here.

Namir Smallwood and Karen Pittman in Pipeline.

( Jeremy Daniel)





* Spike Lee directs a filmed version Antoinette Nwandu's provocative play Pass Over, which tells the story of two young black men (Jon Michael Hill and Julian Parker) dreaming of escape from a racist world. A startling and disturbing riff on Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, Pass Over now streams on Prime Video. Read our critic's review here.

* Tony and Pulitzer Prize nominee Anna Deavere Smith wrote and stars in Notes From the Field, her solo play in which she probes the lives of students, parents, and teachers caught in the school-to-prison pipeline. The show streams on HBO.

Available for a Limited Time



* Transport Group's filmed performance of its world premiere musical Broadbend, Arkansas began streaming Monday, July 20 for four weeks. An original cast recording will be released by Broadway Records in July. Audiences can view the stream, hosted by Tony Award winner Chuck Cooper, free of charge here. In lieu of a ticket fee, the company encourages contributions be made to the Black Theatre Network.

Danyel Fulton in Broadbend, Arkansas.

( Carol Rosegg)





* Bette Davis Ain't for Sissies streams through September 24. Written and performed by Jessica Sherr, this new 80-minute live streaming version is directed for the small screen by Karen Carpenter. Tickets are $19.50 each and are available here.

* PBS streams of Anna Deavere Smith's drama Twilight: Los Angeles through August 7. Filmed by Marc Levin in 2001, Smith stars in a solo show that explores the aftermath of the 1992 Rodney King riots in Los Angeles. To watch, click here.

* Geffen Playhouse has extended The Present, its world-premiere live, virtual, and interactive theatrical experience written and performed by master illusionist, storyteller, and Geffen alum Helder Guimaraes. The show will now run through October 10. A mystery package will be sent to you inside a USPS Priority Mail box before the show, so you must purchase tickets at least seven days in advance. To purchase tickets, click here.

* The world premiere of The Gifts You Gave to the Dark, written by Darren Murphy specifically for digital media in reaction to the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis, premiered on Wednesday, May 27 at 6pm ET and will remain online through October 2020. For more information, click here.
Description

GIS 06 August 2020:The Government of Japan has agreed to provide a grant of 300 million Japanese Yen to Mauritius, under the Japans Grant Aid Economic and Social Development Programme, for the procurement of medical equipment to mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and consolidate the health system of Mauritius. To this effect, a Grant Agreement was signed, yesterday, by the Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development, Dr Renganaden Padayachy, and the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Mauritius, Mr Yoshiharu Kato. The signing ceremony was held at the seat of the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development, in Port-Louis. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, Mr Nandcoomar Bodha, was present. In his address, Minister Padayachy spoke about the longstanding diplomatic and friendly ties between Mauritius and Japan which were established since 1969. He expressed his gratitude towards Japan for being a strong development partner for Mauritius owing to their continuous unflinching support especially in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to him, the grant of 300 million Japanese Yen to the Government of Mauritius, is yet another demonstration of the commitment of the Japanese Government to support Mauritius in these testing times. Dr Padayachy reiterated the commitment of the Republic of Mauritius to further strengthen its strategic partnership with Japan. On this score, he underpinned the interest of the Government to engage with the Japanese authorities for the signing of a General Economic Cooperation Agreement and a Double Tax Avoidance Agreement (DTAA). For his part, the Minister Bodha, highlighted how Mauritius has managed to contain the Covid-19 pandemic and is now a Covid-free nation. He expressed appreciation towards the friendly countries, in addition to Japan, that have provided support to Mauritius in terms of financial aid and equipment to help Mauritius mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. He also mentioned that besides the 300 million Japanese Yen, Japan is envisaging to grant another 100 million Japanese Yen to Mauritius which is at the stage of approval by the Japanese authorities. As for Ambassador Kato, he evoked the determination of Japan in promoting universal health coverage and minimising the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, which he qualified as a human security crisis. He further stated that as the traffic in goods and movement of people became global scale, today, it is of utmost importance that the international society tackle the issue of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Ambassador further reiterated Japans willingness to work collaboratively with the international community in order to overcome the current health crisis. Mauritius-Japan relationship Japan has set up its Embassy and appointed its first Ambassador in Mauritius in 2017 to consolidate the strong ties and cooperation between the two nations. Since 1969, Mauritius has benefited from the support of Japan in various sectors including maritime security, climate change mitigation, and weather forecasting. Furthermore, the Government of Japan has extended a grant of 300 million Japanese Yen to Mauritius, last year under its Economic Social Development Programme, for the purchase of High-Speed Patrol Boats for the National Coast Guard. Mauritius has also benefited extensively from assistance from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Japan has also helped Mauritius in the Project for the Improvement of the Meteorological Radar System. Under this project, the S-Band Doppler Solid State Radar was purchased and installed, and a new tower at Trou-aux-Cerfs was constructed for which a non-refundable grant to the tune of up to 1.34 billion Japanese Yen was provided to Mauritius. Moreover, the Mauritian Prime Minister, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth also inaugurated an office of the Economic Development Board in Tokyo last year to promote trade and investment between the two countries in various sectors. These sectors are: information and communication technology, ocean economy, business process outsourcing, life science, healthcare, tourism, real estate development and financial sector. Government Information Service, Prime Ministers Office, Level 6, New Government Centre, Port Louis, Mauritius. Email: gis@govmu.org Website: http://gis.govmu.org Mobile App: Search Gov
Sooraj Pancholi has criticised reports that have been linking his name to Disha Salian death case. Responding to the rumours that he partied with Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput the night before his death, Sooraj Pancholi has said that he is being falsely implicated in the case and his mother is worried about his well-being. Sooraj, who is also an accused in the Jiah Khan death case, added that Sushant may or may not have died by suicide but these people will definitely drive me to commit suicide.

Sooraj told India Today in an interview, I am trying to stay positive right now. You know, as strong and as positive as I can be, I dont discuss this with my family because I know they are already in a lot of stress because of me, thinking about me all the time. In fact, my mother thinks that Im going to harm myself. And she has spoken to me a couple of times. Even after Sushants death, she spoke to me saying, Sooraj, whatever it is, if theres anything in your heart please come and talk to us. Dont be quiet. Im not a very talkative person when it comes to my problems. I dont discuss with my family because I know theyre stressed because of me.

Also read: TV actor Sameer Sharma found dead at Mumbai home, suicide suspected

Adding that he did not get his first film served on a platter because of his family connections, Sooraj further said, I am trying to make my living in this industry. And I dont want to give up on that soon. Because this is my dream. It is my passion. It is what I have worked for. People think I have just gotten out of bed and walked on a film set which is not true. I have worked very hard. Starting as an assistant director in two films. I have done my acting course, I have my acting degree. I have done everything possible to get my first film. So, this is my passion and Im not going to give up that easy. And these people who are talking about me should have some sense and should have some kind of humanity. Because yeh fair nahi hai. They are destroying my life.

Also read: TV actor Sameer Sharma found dead at Mumbai home, suicide suspected

On Wednesday, Sooraj shared a screen shot of one such a report and another, an actual picture from the said party, and wrote: Complete bullsh*t!! #F*ckYouFakeMEDIA Is this the media we are supposed to trust?? That girl in the picture which was clicked in 2016 is not Disha Salian that is my friend @agaur21 (Anushri Gaur) who doesnt even live in India .. Please stop brainwashing people and PLEASE stop harassing me and dragging me into this ! Start being responsible of your actions as it can ruin someones life ! I have said this before and Im saying it again I have never met or spoken to Disha Salian in my life Seriously F*CK YOU AND F*CK YOUR FAKE NEWS! Ive had enough.

Over past few days, Sooraj has been named in Sushants case in various claims doing the rounds online. Sushant was found dead at his Mumbai residence on June 14.

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A life-changing treatment for the devastating autoimmune condition, multiple sclerosis (MS), may be on the horizon after signs of the disease completely disappeared from nine out of 10 patients treated with an experimental drug.

More than 900 volunteers with a common form of recurrent MS were given shots of ofatumumab, an drug designed to alter the immune system, over the course of about one-and-a-half years, on average.

Within the first year of treatment, patients were having fewer flare-ups and their blood work showed far fewer signs of inflammation.

By the second year of treatment, nearly 90 percent had no symptoms at all.

MS is not technically fatal, but there is no cure and for many people flare-ups get worse over time and can become debilitating.

The newly-released results of the University of California, San Francisco-led trial for Novartis's drug suggest that relief from the crippling pain of MS could be less than a year away, if the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepts the company's application for approval.

A new drug called ofatumumab targets immune B cells, believed to trigger the attacks on nerve coatings that make the autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis debilitating. In the second year of treatment with the new drug, 90% of patients had no relapses

More than 2.3 million people around the world live with MS, including nearly one million in the US.

Up until the last 20 years, nothing really stood in the way of the progression of the disease.

Now, there are a handful of treatments that can help reduce the number and severity of relapses, but many still need a cane, walker or other assistance to walk within 15 years of diagnosis.

The immune systems of people with MS go haywire, attacking the protective covering of nerves, called the myelin sheath.

Like the plastic the insulates wires so that nothing interrupts the flow of electrical signals through them, myelin ensures smooth, uninterrupted communication between the body and brain via nerves in the brain and spinal cord.

Attacks on this protective covering disrupt these signals, leading to pain and lost mobility.

The irregular activity of the immune system also seems to cause inflammation, further exacerbating the aches and nerve pain of MS.

Attacks from misguided immune cells damage the nerves, leaving scar tissues, or lesions, in their wake.

These lesions are a hallmark of the disease.

MS has three primary types: relapsing, primary progressive and secondary progressive.

WHAT IS MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS? Multiple sclerosis (known as MS) is a condition in which the immune system attacks the body and causes nerve damage to the brain and spinal cord. It is an incurable, lifelong condition. Symptoms can be mild in some, and in others more extreme causing severe disability. MS affects 2.3 million people worldwide - including around one million in the US, and 100,000 in the UK. It is more than twice as common in women as it is in men. A person is usually diagnosed in their 20s and 30s. The condition is more commonly diagnosed in people of European ancestry. The cause isn't clear. There may be genes associated with it, but it is not directly hereditary. Smoking and low vitamin D levels are also linked to MS. Symptoms include fatigue, difficulty walking, vision problems, bladder problems, numbness or tingling, muscle stiffness and spasms, problems with balance and co-ordination, and problems with thinking, learning and planning. The majority of sufferers will have episodes of symptoms which go away and come back, while some have ones which get gradually worse over time. Symptoms can be managed with medication and therapy. The condition shortens the average life expectancy by around five to 10 years. Advertisement

People with primary progressive MS (PPMS) don't have relapses, but instead only get worse and worse after their symptoms first emerge. It only effects 15 percent of all people diagnosed with MS, and progresses at different speeds for different patients.

Relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) is far and away the most common for, affecting 85 percent of all people diagnosed. This form comes and goes, with flare-ups, or 'attacks,' that subside.

Some people's attacks become progressively worse, while others remain about the same over time.

Some people with RRMS will eventually develop secondary progress MS (SPMS) which eventually stops remitting, and only progresses.

Ofatumumab is designed to treat RRMS, the most common form.

It targets B cells, immune cell that scientists believe are involved in the attacks on myelin in several ways.

Ofatumumab modifies the way that B cells behave, and appeared in the newly published phase 3 trial to largely or entirely stop MS activity.

The trial was led by UCSF but conducted at 385 sites across 37 countries worldwide, comparing the new drug to teriflunomide, an approved drug commonly prescribed to MS patients.

Ofatumumab far outperformed teriflunomide, a daily pill.

The new drug, which patients can give themselves with an auto-injector pen once a month, cut the number of relapses the patients on it had in half, compared to the pill.

The patients were kept on their respective regimens for an average of 1.6 years. In the second year, the nine out of 10 of the more than 900 patients on ofatumumab didn't seem to be having any disease progression.

Plus, they had fewer brain lesions and less inflammation.

'Given the effectiveness we saw in this study with near-complete elimination of inflammation and scarring in myelin-rich areas of the brain, along with the minimal side effects, the use of either of these therapies is most attractive as first-line treatment for most MS patients,' said corresponding study author Dr Stephen Hauser, a UCSF neuroscientist who has worked on MS treatments for decades.

On the heels of the study, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, Novartis is seeking FDA approval for their new drug.

'While there is not yet a cure, a generation ago MS patients typically became cane- or crutch-dependent within 15 or 20 years, but now they often are spared from significant disability,' Dr Hauser said.

'The improvement in MS treatment, especially with drugs that specifically target B cells, is one of the great success stories of medicine.'
China and America are at wat, at least as far as the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) is concerned. The basis of CCP rule in China is economic prosperity. Chinese tolerate the police state antics of the CCP as long as the economy keeps growing. Now the foreign victims of Chinese aggression (economic, Internet based espionage and theft and more) are fighting back. This comes after years to demanding that China back off with the illegal behavior. Sometimes China said it would but did little or nothing. Often China denied there was any misbehavior. Now the foreign victims have gone from ask to attack. This comes at the worst possible time because the Chinese economy is already suffering from covid19 problems (internal quarantines and worldwide recession) as well as massive corruption, an aging population and a labor shortage. All this brings China closer to an even bigger economic disaster; a banking system collapse brought on by a massive real-estate bubble.

Destroying Hong Kong autonomy and economic benefit, which is a loss to all of China, is seen as another example of the CCP sacrificing the welfare of all Chinese in order to maintain the power of the CCP. Just another corrupt dynasty according to Chinese history and CCP leaders as well as most Chinese know how that usually ends.

The CCP has been trying to use nationalism to improve their image with most Chinese. That worked for a while, but it eventually helped turn trading partners into enemies. While many Chinese are still angry over century (or centuries) old injuries China suffered, Chinese trading partners are dealing with very recent, and often ongoing injuries.

China is increasing its military pressure over territorial claims in the South China Sea and on the Indian border. In addition, there is widespread Chinese misbehavior everywhere else. This often involves theft of trade secrets and whatever else can be taken via Internet hacking. Chinese trade and investment practices are increasingly condemned and rebuffed.

China is suddenly on the defensive but does not want to admit it.

August 4, 2020: Chinas first 40,000-ton Type 075 LHD (Landing Helicopter Dock) amphibious ship began sea trials. This ship is designed to carry 30 helicopters as well as landing craft operating out of the well dock in the rear. These would move up to a thousand marine infantry troops carried on the ship to landing zones ashore. At present it appears that three Type 075s are planned and how many more are built will depend on how well the first Type 075s perform in service. These ships appear to be 250m (820 feet) long and 30m (99 feet) wide. The Type 75 is similar to the eight American 41,000-ton LHD helicopter carriers that are capable of carrying up to twenty F-35B vertical take-off fighters. The design of these American mini-carriers began with the eight Wasp class LHDs. The last of these amphibious assault ships (Makin Island, LHD-8) entered service in 2009 and was followed by two more that had some drastic modifications that led them to be designated LHAs because they were a bit larger (45,000 tons) and did not have the internal dock for landing craft. The additional space was devoted to more fuel, weapons storage and aircraft maintenance. The first of these ships (LHA-6) entered service in 2014 and the U.S. Navy would like to have six of these LHAs but that depends on money being available.

August 2, 2020: China has made a sale of one of its air defense systems to a European nation; Serbia. The air defense system is the FK-3, which is the export version of the relatively recent HQ-22. Described as similar to the American Patriot System, HQ-22 was introduced in 2016 by a Chinese competitor of the firm that developed and produced the HQ-9. China encourages this kind of competition and it pays off. Neither the HQ-9 not the HQ-22 have any combat experience.

The HQ-9 was always described as roughly equivalent to the U.S. Patriot. Most of the current Chinese long-range antiaircraft systems are the Chinese designed and manufactured HQ-9. China began introducing the HQ-9 in 2001. It was a much less capable system back then. Over a decade of development was believed to have benefitted from data stolen from similar American and Russian systems. A version of the HQ-9 is deployed in ships as well.

China has been cultivating Serbia for nearly a decade. In 2011 China was expanding military cooperation with Serbia. This was part of China's "Partners With Pariahs" (not the official name) program. China will hook up with anyone who might be useful, no matter the judgment of world opinion. China does business with Zimbabwe, Libya, Burma, North Korea, Iran and numerous other international bad boys. It's just business and it paid off with Serbia in a substantial sale of air defense equipment.

August 1, 2020: Hong Kong lost its bid for autonomy and is now seeing its freedoms and economic strength dismantled. It is still unclear how many residents will flee China. It could be several million. China seems inclined to let them go and accuse nations that accept the refugees as interfering in Chinese internal affairs. The nations involved point out that China is the outlaw in this situation, blatantly violating the 1997 treaty it signed with Britain. About half the seven million Hong Kong residents could accept the British offer passports and use those passports to move anywhere in the West, most likely to Singapore, Australia, Taiwan, America or Europe. China is forcing this decision by arresting, and moving to China, more and more protest leaders and prominent protesters in general. There is now censorship in the media and bookstores. Western nations are curbing or cutting their economic connections with Hong Kong. For the locals, Hong Kong isnt Hong Kong anymore.

July 30, 2020: Major investors in China, like Japan, Taiwan and the United States, are encouraging manufacturing operations to either return home or move to another country in Asia. Apple is moving iPhone manufacturing to India. Japan is spending over a billion dollars to help Japanese firms move their operations out of China. Taiwan is doing the same. China is seen as an increasingly hostile and unpredictable place to do business and the move out of China, which began a few years ago, is accelerating.

July 28, 2020: In the southwest (Tibet border with India) China and India are not withdrawing their forces before the six month deep freeze descends on the region. Both sides are providing cold-weather shelter for their troops and stockpiling food, fuel and other supplies. Earlier in 2020 China revived the border war over Pangong Lake, which is largely in Tibet and patrolled by a small Chinese naval force. Commercial satellite photos (something China has not managed to censor yet) showed what was really going on. Throughout July China spread out its forces on the lake coast and did not withdrawn any of them as they had assured India they would.

Pangong is the longest lake in Asia and part of the 134-kilometer long lake extends 45 kilometers into the Indian Ladakh region. China is using its usual sneak, grab and stay tactics to slowly move the border into territory long occupied by India. The portion of the lake shore in dispute has no native population. The only people who visit the area are Indian or Chinese soldiers China has moved several commercial and military ships into the area of conflict. The satellite photos show a floating dock that had been towed to one location, making it easier for China to being in supplies and more troops. By September the cold weather will begin freezing over the lake surface. This freeze usually lasts from October to March or April. For at least three months the ice is thick enough for light vehicles (SUV and pickup truck size) to move across the ice.

By the end of June Chinese troops have occupied about eight kilometers of Indian territory along the north coast of Pangong Lake. Chinese troops have erected large signs on the shoreline indicating the newly occupied area is now Chinese territory. China has moved another 20,000 troops, including light tanks and other armored vehicles to the Ladakh sector. Another 10,000 troops are kept about a thousand kilometers away, in Chinese lowland territory where altitude sickness is less of a problem. China has most of the high ground and that limits the number of combat capable troops it can bring to its side of the border. Both sides have moved more warplanes and helicopters to nearby airbases and these aircraft are regularly flying over Pangong Lake.

July 24, 2020: Efforts to enforce sanctions against North Korea are now paying attention to the secret 2017 deal whereby North Korea sold Chinese companies the fishing rights for certain valuable species, like squid, that are valuable mainly as export items. This was tough on North Korean fishermen, but the North Korean government needed the foreign currency and selling fishing rights to Chinese firms was the easiest way to get the cash. Since then the Chinese fishing boats enter North Korean fishing grounds and take squid and other seasonal and exportable species. The sale of fishing rights was never a secret but it was never officially acknowledged by those buying and selling. Now questions are being raised and accusations made. The sanctions also banned selling fishing rights but that has proved hard to enforce.

July 23, 2020: China has gone public with its criticism of Russia for not delivering more missiles for the S-400 air defense batteries China purchased from Russia. The second shipment of Chinese S-400 equipment arrived by ship in December 2019, about a year after the first shipment. Another shipment, of missiles, was supposed to arrive in February but did not. Russia offers no explanation or a new delivery date. China already has some S-400 missiles but not enough for the S-400s to be used in a major conflict.

July 22, 2020: According to official data trade between North Korea and China declined 70 percent during the first five months of 2020. 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 20, 2020: Five Australian Navy ships passed through the South China Sea on their way to a joint training exercise with American and Japanese warships. Unlike 2019, this time the Australian ships did not get close than 22 kilometers to a Chinese claimed island, or artificial island. That is what the U.S. Navy considers a FONOP (freedom of navigation operation). In one 2019 FONOP American and Australian warships together carried it out. China issues warnings and accuses the Americans of troublemaking because of these FONOPS. There were seven American South China Sea FONOPs in 2019, five in 2018, six in 2017 and three in 2016. Since 2015, when Chinese South China Sea claims became a major issue, the Americans have carried out more FONOPS in the South China Sea each year.

China lays claim to two million square kilometers of open water, which is 57 percent of the South China Sea. China continued its policy of not interfering with FONOPS but does sent warships to follow the foreign ships. There are two ways China can enforce its sovereignty and exert control over its territorial waters. The traditional response is to attack intruders with gunfire or missiles. Then there is the preferred Chinese method of swarming around the intruder with commercial, coast guard and even navy warships and combat aircraft. This has included causing collisions (often just bumping). China does not want a war with the United States, mainly because of the economic risks which could lead to more unrest inside China. Interference with seaborne trade and trading relationships in general would disrupt the Chinese economy and threaten CCP control. What China has demonstrated is a willingness to do everything short of war, especially if they can reasonably claim victim status. Australia and China are engaged in a major diplomatic and economic dispute. Australia accuses China of trying to use trade restrictions (reducing purchases from Australia) to coerce Australia into doing what China wants. Even though China is the largest customer for Australian exports, this coercion is not well received in Australia. One response from Australia was to repeat its accusations that Chinese claims in the South China Sea are illegal. At the same time Australia acknowledges that China has militarized its bases in the South China Sea and that makes it riskier for foreign warships that carry out FONOPS there. Australia has increased its military spending because of the growing threat of attack by China.

July 19, 2020: Only 147 North Koreans made it to South Korea during the first six months of 2020. Nearly all of them followed the traditional route through China and that was the problem. Much tighter security on the North Korean border and covid19 related movement restrictions inside China (and North Korea) reduced the number of defectors (compared to 2019) by over 80 percent. This is part of a trend because increased border security imposed since Kim Jong Un became the hereditary dictator in North Korea in 2011 has soon had the number of North Korean defectors reaching South Korea decline 52 percent (to 1,396) in 2014 from the peak year (2,914 in 2009). This was accomplished with the cooperation of China. To make it all the way to South Korea requires getting to a country, like Thailand, that has South Korean embassy and local police who tolerate North Korean refugees arriving to visit the embassy for sanctuary and transportation to South Korea. For many escapees it is easier and cheaper to stay in China or go to some other country. China tolerates this as long as the North Korean illegals behave and, if caught, provide useful information about what is going on inside North Korea. While the cost of hiring a people smuggler to get you into China has doubled (and doubled several more times) since 2011 there are a growing number of relatively wealthy people in North Korea (because of the legalized markets) and many of them are getting out. There are about 35,000 North Korea refugees in South Korea and about three times as many in China and a smaller, but growing number showing up, often illegally, in other countries.

July 16, 2020: Off the north coast of Somalia warships from Japan, South Korea and Spain took part in two days of naval exercises. The ships are part of the anti-piracy patrol. Pirate activity is way down and some nations have their anti-piracy ships spend of their time watching the coast of nearby Yemen (where some pirates have been operating) and the entrance to the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, where there has been a lot of arms smuggling (to Shia rebels in northwest Yemen) by Iran.

July 13, 2020: The U.S. took a stronger stand against Chinese aggression in the South China Sea by declaring Chinese claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea completely unlawful, as is its campaign of bullying to control these resources. In 2016 an international court ruled against China and stated that occupying uninhabitable rocks and building artificial islands did not confer an EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone). Ownership of rocks gets you, at best 22 kilometers of territorial waters from the edge of each rock rather than 360 kilometers for EEZ rights. Before this change the U.S. merely called for China to comply with the court ruling, something China said it would not do even before the court completed its deliberations. The Americans did continue to carry out aerial and naval FONOPs to assert the right of innocent passage. This annoyed the Chinese, who claimed most of the South China Sea was under Chinese control and no foreign ship or aircraft could enter without permission.

The FONOPS will continue, and probably become more frequent. More importantly the U.S. will now actively oppose all illegal Chinese claims that the 2016 court ruling agreed were invalid and not legally enforceable by China. The U.S. has already increased aerial reconnaissance over the South China Sea, which not only monitors what the Chinese are doing but also documents ongoing Chinese violations of international law.

Before this change in American policy China was confident it could bully the nations bordering the South China Sea that were suffering from the Chinese aggression. That bullying will be more difficult if the victims can call on the Americans for backup. Japan is now more confident in continuing its support for the South China Sea victims.

July 11, 2020: In the South China Sea an American destroyer conducted another FONOP, the first since May and the sixth one for 2020.

July 10, 2020: Russia and China both vetoed UN efforts to extend aid shipments to Islamic terrorist held Idlib province in northwest Syria via Turkey. Russia, Syria and Iran want the Islamic terror groups in Idlib destroyed. Turkey opposes this because many of those Islamic terrorists as well as civilians seen by Syria as supporters (and subject to punishment or death) will seek asylum in Turkey. Russia is willing to allow aid to come in via Syria but that would enable the Syrians to manipulate aid deliveries to favored factions and make it easier for Syria to shut down all rebel/Islamic terrorist activity in Idlib. Russia already got the Idlib aid coming in via Iraq and Jordan halted. Shutting down the aid via Turkey means air groups have to deal with the Syrian government, which is considered an outlaw operation and guilty of war crimes. Russia believes that if it becomes the most useful foreign supporter of the Assad government Russia will have a reliable foothold in the Middle East for a long time. That only happens if Russia can work things out with Turkey and maintain their traditional good relations with Israel. China also seeks to improve ties with Turkey and votes with Russia in situations like this.

Chinas new KZ (Kuaizhou)-11 solid-fuel satellite launcher failed about a minute after its first commercial launch when the third stage motor failed to ignite. This first launch was supposed to have been in 2018 but there were technical delays. A second KZ-11 launch was already scheduled for late in 2020 and it is not yet known if that will be delayed. The 78-ton KZ-11 is a larger commercial version of the military LM (Long March) 11. KZ-11 is operated by a commercial launch service company and offers a cheaper (about half the current price) way to get satellites in orbit. The KZ 11 takes much less time to get ready and thats because the KZ 11, like the LM 11, uses three solid fuel rockets. The LM-11 and KZ-11 are both based on the DF-31 ICBM and are launched from a TEL (transporter erector launcher) truck that moves the rocket to the launch site. China has set up a separate company (Expace) for KZ 11 commercial launches that enable customers to get a satellite into orbit in less than 24 hours.

July 9, 2020: China has become the ultimate fiscal lifeline for Pakistan. Decades of deficits, growing corruption, excessive defense spending and military domination have left Pakistan broke and few willing to give or lend enough cash to keep Pakistan solvent. A recent example of how this works was seen when despite economic recession and a public debt crisis (no one will lend to Pakistan anymore), the Pakistani defense budget was increased twelve percent for 2020, with annual spending now $7.85 billion. Spending on dealing with covid19 has averaged about $100 million a month and by the end of the year military spending will be at least five times what was spent on covid19. The India defense budget is also up (13.6 percent more) in 2020 to $66 billion.

The only economic relief available to Pakistan is China and CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic corridor). CPEC is a vast Chinese investment and construction effort that depends on vigorous support of the Pakistani military to succeed. China needs the Pakistani military to keep Islamic terrorists and tribal separatists from attacking the Chinese construction projects. Pakistan also helps China by keeping Indian forces occupied in Kashmir and the northwest Indian portion of the Pakistani border.

July 8, 2020: The United States has agreed to Japanese terms for Japan to obtain another 105 F-35 stealth fighters. This will cost $23 billion and include spare parts, including 110 engines and additional electronic and other accessories. With earlier purchases this new order will give Japan 147 F-35s. That large force of stealth fighters wont be in service until the mid-2020s because of production for about five years because of growing demand for F-35s and limited production capability. Japan will help by manufacturing some components and assembling their F-35s in Japan.

All this Japanese F-35 news was not welcome in China. Combined with South Korean F-35s China now has to deal with over 300 F-35s operating near their northern borders. In the 1990s Chinese support for an aggressive and unpredictable North Korea prompted South Korea to become a major developer, manufacturer and exporters of modern weapons. Now Japan, with a larger population and industrial base than South Korea has followed South Korean in an arms race with China.

July 7, 2020: In Iran a draft of a 25-year economic/political/military agreement with China was leaked. Some details of the agreement are still being worked on, but the draft document indicated Iran was willing to make a lot of concessions to become a close economic partner of China. That would mean China would have an incentive to protect Iran diplomatically and militarily. The document makes Iran the major supplier of petroleum to China and China the major source of foreign investment as well as becoming Irans largest trading partner. It also included Iran reducing economic cooperation with India.

July 6, 2020: In the southwest (Tibet border with India) China began withdrawing additional troops it had brought up to the India/Tibet border and into Indian Ladakh State. It is unclear how much additional territory in the Galwan Valley and along Pangong Lake China now controls. As part of this temporary peace deal each country agreed to pull its forces back about a mile (1,500 meters) from the scene of the hand-t0-hand battles that left over fifty Chinese and Indian troops dead and many more wounded. During the negotiations for the Galwan River Valley ceasefire and withdrawal China revealed that it now claimed territory extending 800 meters into India that China had never claimed before.

In June China has, for the first time, claimed ownership of the Indian Galwan River Valley. As is the Chinese custom, a major show of force attempts to push back Indian border forces without triggering a shooting conflict. China then reinforces the area with more troops, agrees to negotiate, withdraws some of its troops to keeps some of them occupying small bits of territory that China has never held before. This is an ancient Chinese strategy that worked in the South China Sea and to a lesser extent on the Indian border. China tried it against the Russians in the early 1970s and almost triggered a nuclear war. China does not want to repeat that sort of thing with India. As a result all you see as slow-go advances.

July 3, 2020: In the south (Burma) fighting between tribal rebels and the Burmese army has intensified over the last few weeks and over 40,000 villagers have fled their homes. In Shan State many are fleeing into China. Burmese army leaders have become more outspoken about foreign support the tribal rebels are receiving. The generals wont come right out and name China, but it is no secret that China has done little to curb Chinese weapons dealers from selling all manner of military small arms to tribal rebels and getting it across the border into Burma. That cannot be done without the acquiescence of the Chinese government. In this way the Chinese are sending a message to the Burmese generals, who the Chinese see as equally responsible for the violence in the north, sometimes right on the Chinese border. Both the rebels and the army are often using Chinese weapons and ammo against each other. There are not a lot of casualties and most of them are from army convoys being ambushed or the army firing into pro-rebel villages to drive the civilians, and any rebels, out and into the bush. The army does not have enough troops to occupy all the territory they push tribal rebels, and civilians, out of. Often the rebels, if not the civilians (at least not right away) come back and resume attacking convoys and patrols.
An admirer, friend and disciple of William F. Buckley, the conservative author and television commentator, he held several posts in Mr. Bushs administration, including as an adviser to the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations  John R. Bolton, with whom he would later clash on Iran policy. He also kept teaching at Duke University during his tenure, and said that he would continue in that role.

Mr. Hook joined the Trump administration in early 2017, under Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, as director of the State Departments office of policy planning. Mr. Tillerson gave that office increased influence over all the departments initiatives, and Mr. Hook became one of his closest advisers.

It was Mr. Tillerson who introduced him to Jared Kushner, the presidents son-in-law and senior adviser. The White House at the time had, in essence, no foreign policy at all  just a series of Mr. Trumps pronouncements. Mr. Kushner said in an interview on Wednesday that Mr. Hook helped us develop an approach to the world that we are now executing.

Brian was the traveling companion who could help guide some very fluid meetings with foreign leaders, giving updates on Iran to King Salman of Saudi Arabia, among others. And it was Mr. Hook who had the idea of having Twitter posts sent out from Mr. Trumps account in Farsi, to address the Iranians.

He had his critics inside the State Department, who saw him as a political player. Last November, a State Department inspector general report found that in early 2017, Mr. Hook played a role in the reassignment of a nonpartisan career official in his office after conservatives accused her of sympathy to Mr. Obama and the Iran nuclear deal. Mr. Hook denied any political motivation in the reassignment.

His record of diplomatic success was mixed. As Mr. Trump threatened to scrap the Iran deal in 2018, Mr. Hook met regularly with Western European officials in an ultimately futile effort to convince them  especially the Germans  to reopen the accord and toughen its terms. The effort failed, and Mr. Trumps decision to exit the accord led to a rift with the European powers, Russia and China on Iran policy that remained to this day.

He was among the few top department employees to survive the transition after Mr. Tillerson was ousted and replaced with Mr. Pompeo, then the C.I.A. director. Mr. Pompeo gave Mr. Hook the Iran file on a full-time basis, a job he pursued doggedly, including when he personally emailed the captain of an Iranian tanker carrying oil to Syria in violation of U.S. sanctions, offering him millions of dollars in federal rewards if he piloted the ship into the hands of a U.S. ally.
The Commission on Presidential Debates on Thursday denied the Trump campaign's request to add a fourth debate in the first week of September or move up one of the existing debates in order to get ahead of an expected surge in early voting.

The bottom line: Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are set to debate on Sept. 29 in Cleveland, Oct. 15 in Miami, and Oct. 22 in Nashville. "If the candidates were to agree that they wished to add to that schedule, the Commission would consider that request," the organization wrote in a statement.

What they're saying: "In your letter, you express the Trump campaigns interest in a presidential debate in early September. You state that such a debate is necessary because some states begin sending out mail-in ballots before the first scheduled debate," the commission says in a letter to Rudy Giuliani, who sent the request on behalf of the Trum campaign.

"There is a difference between ballots having been issued by a state and those ballots having been cast by voters, who are under no compulsion to return their ballots before the debates."

"In 2016, when the debate schedule was similar, only .0069% of the electorate had voted at the time of the first debate. While more people will likely vote by mail in 2020, the debate schedule has been and will be highly publicized. Any voter who wishes to watch one or more debates before voting will be well aware of that opportunity."

Worth noting: In response to the campaign providing a list of proposed moderators for the debate, the commission said it would make its choice "with great care, as always, to ensure that the selected moderators are qualified and fair."
The weekend shooting death of a 21-year-old Gadsden woman in Birmingham has been ruled justifiable.

The Birmingham Police Department said Thursday no criminal charges will be filed in the Saturday-night slaying of Keanna Shabree Kelley. The shooting happened shortly after 9 p.m. at a home on Kawanda Lane in east Birmingham.

Birmingham police received a 911 call at 9:11 p.m. that someone  later identified as Kelley - was trying to kick in a door at a home in the 1100 block of Kawanda Lane. Moments later, they received a second call of a person shot at the same location.

When East Precinct officers arrived at the home, they found Kelley unresponsive just outside the front door of the residence. She was pronounced dead on the scene at 9:28 p.m. The preliminary investigation suggests Kelley attempted to force her way into the residence and a physical altercation ensued prior to the victim being shot. Police said the incident was domestic in nature.

One resident said he heard at least two shots fired. Mauldin said he does not know if anyone else was in the home at the time.

Sgt. Rod Mauldin said investigators presented their evidence to the Jefferson County District Attorneys Office for review and they ruled the shooters actions justifiable.

So far in 2020, there have been 73 homicides in the city. Todays ruling marked the ninth homicide that has been ruled justifiable so far this year. Additionally, one of the homicides has been ruled accidental. Birmingham police are not required to include justifiable and accidental homicides in their year-end tally.
JACKSON, MI  The lunch break for employees at Henry Ford Allegiance Health was extra eventful on Thursday, Aug. 6.

Workers lined up along East Michigan Avenue to watch a parade of eight NASCAR haulers, which took a detour through Jackson on their way to Michigan International Speedway for race weekend. The trucks blew their horns as employees waved and cheered.

Employees were also treated to a free boxed lunch from four Jackson-area eateries, compliments of Verizon.

It really means a lot for those folks who can come out and take a break from managing these sick patients, said Dr. Mark Smith, chief medical officer at HFAH. They work tirelessly.

The haulers were carrying various equipment for the NASCAR races this weekend, although none of the haulers in attendance were the ones that carry the race cars.

Henry Ford Health System is the sponsor of Fridays NASCAR Truck Series race at MIS, dubbed the Henry Ford Health System 200. The race starts at 6 p.m. on FS1. No fans are allowed to attend any of the races this weekend in person due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The health system also runs the tracks infield care center, which typically treats fans and NASCAR personnel alike during race weekend.

HFHS staffs the health center on race weekends and Faster Horses week  although employees will not handle the coronavirus health screenings at the track this weekend, Smith said.

NASCAR does not test drivers and other employees for COVID-19, but does do temperature checks and a basic health screening for everybody in attendance.

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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Shoppers are being being urged to get tested for coronavirus after a scare at one of Sydney's busiest shopping centres.

New South Wales Health has issued a public health warning after a man who tested positive for COVD-19 visited the Penrith Plaza, in western Sydney.

He spent around two hours at the shopping centre on Saturday between 10.30am and and 12.00pm.

The man in is 20s also dined at the Master Hot Pot restaurant at Canley Vale between 1pm to 2pm, and the BBQ City Buffet in Bankstown from 7.00pm to 8.30pm.

New South Wales Health has issued a public health warning after a man who tested positive for COVD-19 visited the Penrith Plaza, in Western Sydney (pictured)

A cleaner wearing a face mask and rubber gloves disinfects a hand rail inside a Sydney shopping centre

Another seven venues across the city are on high alert after a second man was diagnosed with COVID-19.

He was infectious during visits to a string of pubs and restaurants in the city's inner west and CBD.

They include the Jambo, Jambo African restaurant in Glebe which he visited from July 31 from 7pm to 8.30pm.

NSW Health said anyone who attended the restaurant during this time is considered a 'close contact' and should immediately self-isolate for 14 days and get tested even if they have no symptoms.

He also attended the Eveleigh Hotel in Redfern the Warren View Hotel in Enmore, Mary's restaurant at Macquarie Place, Burrow Bar in Sydney and Woolworths Marrickville Metro.

People who visited these venues during the below times are being urged to watch out for symptoms, get tested and self-isolate.

SYDNEY VENUES UNDER HIGH ALERT Eveleigh Hotel Redfern: July 31: 8.30pm-10pm Warren View Hotel Enmore August 1: 4pm to 4.20pm Marys in Macquarie Place, Sydney August 1: 6.45pm to 7.15pm Cubbys Kitchen in Sydney August 1: 7.35pm to 9.30pm Burrow Bar in Sydney August 1: 9.35pm to 11.15pm Woolworths Marrickville Metro August 2: 7pm to 7.20pm. Penrith Plaza - 1 August from 10.30am to 12.00pm Master Hot Pot, Canley Vale - 1 August from 1.00pm to 2.00pm BBQ City Buffet, Bankstown - 1 August 7.00pm to 8.30pm Advertisement

Woolworths Marrickville Metro (pictured) was also visited by the covid positive male in his 20s

The Warren View Hotel at Enmore in Sydney's inner west is one of ten new venues on high alert after a man with COVID-19 visited while infectious

New South Wales Health has also issued an urgent warning for a string of venues in Newcastle, north of Sydney.

A male in his 20s was infectious while visiting four pubs, a sushi restaurant and an NRL match at a local sporting arena.

Three venues have been closed and will undergo cleaning while health authorities race against the clock to conduct contract tracing for close contacts.

They include the Bennett Hotel in Hamilton, Bar 88, Wests New Lambton and the Sydney Junction Hotel in Hamilton.

A total of 12 new cases were detected in New South Wales overnight, bringing the state's total case numbers to 3,643.
DELHI: India on Thursday (August 6, 2020) strongly rejected Pakistan's criticism of the commencement of construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, and asked the neighbouring country to refrain from "communal incitement." New Delhi also reminded Pakistan how it treats its own minorities and engages in cross-border terrorism.

We have seen the press statement by the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on a matter internal to India. It should desist from interfering in Indias internal affairs and refrain from communal incitement, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said.

The MEA official added, While this is not a surprising stance from a nation that practices cross-border terrorism and denies its own minorities their religious rights, such comments are nevertheless deeply regrettable.

Anurag Srivastava said this while responding to media queries on the press statements issued by Pakistan on the construction of the Ram Temple in the holy city of Ayodhya.

It may be recalled that Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) has recently said that the commencement of the construction of Ram Mandir at Ayodhya was condemnable. It also called the Supreme Court verdict in the matter 'controversial.

The MoFA spokesperson took to Twitter and said, ''While the world is grappling with unprecedented COVID-19, the RSS-BJP combine is busy unabashedly advancing the Hindutva agenda. The commencement of construction of a mandir at the site of Babri Masjid is another step in this direction and the Govt and people of Pakistan condemn it in the strongest terms.''

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday laid the foundation stone of Ram Temple in Ayodhya, which marks the formal beginning of the construction of the temple in the holy city. With this, the PM also laid the foundation of a ''New India' and called it a new beginning for the country and its people.

While addressing an august gathering of 175 distinguished guests in Ayodhya, PM Modi said, A grand temple will now be built for our Ram Lalla who had been staying in a tent. Today, Ram Janmbhoomi breaks free of the cycle of breaking and getting built again - that had been going on for centuries.

The PM went on to say "Ram Mandir will become the modern symbol of our traditions. It'll become a symbol of our devotion, our national sentiment. This temple will also symbolise the power of the collective resolution of crores of people. It will keep inspiring future generations.''

While stressing that ''Ram is omnipresent and belongs to all humanity,'' the PM said, ''I believe that this grand Ram temple, like the name of Shri Ram, will reflect the rich heritage of Indian culture. I believe it will inspire the entire humanity till eternity.''

PM Narendra Modi, RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat, UP CM Yogi Adityanath, Ram Temple trust president Nritya Gopal Das and a group of chief priests performed the foundation stone laying ceremony amid chants of the Vedic Mantras.

The Prime Minister also unveiled the plaque of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya in the presence of Ram Mandir Trust president Nitya Gopal Das, UP CM Yogi Adityanath, UP Governor Anandiben Patel and RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat and many others. He also released a commemorative postage stamp on the 'Shree Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir'.

The Bhoomi Pujan' of the Supreme Court-mandated Ram temple in Ayodhya brought to fruition the BJP's mandir' movement that defined its politics for three decades and took it to the heights of power.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that Ukrainian First Prime Minister Vitold Fokin (1990-1992) will work in the Ukrainian delegation in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) on resolving the situation in Donbas.

"We have invited Leonid Makarovych [Kravchuk]. Mr. Fokin, our Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Reznikov and Mr. Demchenko [First Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Ruslan Demchenko], who is here, will work with him. We have a rather powerful group. I see now only an increase in the number of negotiations and meetings," he said at a briefing on Thursday in the town of Chasiv Yar in Donetsk region.

Zelensky said that first President of Ukraine Kravchuk was elected Head of the Ukrainian delegation to the TCG, since he is a wise, experienced, educated person who has authority throughout Ukraine, and even in the temporarily occupied territories.

The president said that former Head of the delegation to the TCG, second President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma really did a great job, which was not always visible to the public, because the TCG meetings are closed, and people only see reports after these meetings, which last for hours. "He is really tired. There is no other reason. We are grateful to him again," he said.

As reported, on July 31, Kravchuk said that first Prime Minister of Ukraine (1990-1992) Vitold Fokin could join the Ukrainian delegation to the TCG.
Egypt's prosecution ordered on Thursday the release of Mohamed El-Qassas, a prominent activist and deputy head of the Strong Egypt opposition party pending investigation.

The prosecution is accusing El-Qassas of joining an illegal group that aims to obstruct the law and the constitution and preventing state institutions and public authorities from performing their duties.

El-Qassas was arrested in February 2018.

In January 2017, El-Qassas was placed by a court on Egypt's terrorist list, which has around 2,000 names including former president Mohamed Morsi; and the Brotherhoods spiritual leader Mohamed Badie.

El-Qassas who announced his resignation from the Brotherhood during the 2011 revolution, has been a prominent activist and member of the political bureau of the Strong Egypt Party, which was founded in July 2012 by its current head and former presidential candidate Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh.

In December 2013, the Egyptian government designated the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation.

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The exit of former Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) will affect the anti-corruption profile of Nigeria in the international community, notable transparency groups said on Thursday.

The groups, Re:common, The Corner House and Global Witness based in Italy and the United Kingdom, said in a letter to the Chairman, Presidential Panel of Inquiry on allegations against Mr Magu, Ayo Salami, that Nigerian partners abroad are deeply concerned that Mr Magus exit may have been orchestrated by those against the fight against corruption.

The three groups have assisted Nigeria in many ways to retrieve stolen funds and assets running into billions of dollars and are currently behind the prosecution of oil giants said to have swindled Nigeria of billions of dollars in the infamous OPL245 scam. The petition signed by Lucas Manes, Re:Common, Nicholas Hildyard for The Corner House and Simon Taylor for Global Witness said while it admits the rule of law, the antics preceding the exit of Magu raised basic questions about the prospect of fair trial.

They said this is also not just a matter of improving the democratic process but also critical to ensure that international community partners also continue to see Nigerias fight against the corrupt as credible.

The international partners also called on Mr Salami to ensure public access to the trial of Mr Magu to provide the bastion of credibility and public trust.

We can report that as things stand, these apparent failures of due process have already seriously dented the confidence of a number of key international partners in Nigerias fight. If this situation is not radically and urgently changed, some may well conclude that the Presidents fight against the corrupt was merely a token gesture, a passing phase, to be discarded when the going got too tough, the groups cautioned in the letter.

They said in their view, such a conclusion would only ensure Nigerias efforts to hold the corrupt to account and bring back stolen assets from abroad becomes much more difficult.

In recent years, the groups have been committed to providing help where appropriate to President Buharis anti-corruption drive, including efforts to hold those engaged in corrupt activities to account and to repatriate stolen assets to Nigeria from abroad.

During this time, they have had the pleasure of working with Nigerias anti-corruption agencies, including and especially the EFCC. The groups said under Mr Magu, they have been enormously impressed with their tenacity, skills and performance.

The groups said in the case of the EFCC, it is impossible to overstate the contrast between its efficacy today with that of the timid and sclerotic, in effect, defanged agency that was the EFCC during the administration of President Buharis predecessor  a matter we referred to in our recent letter to the President.

They said that for an effective anti-corruption fight, no one should be beyond the law. They referenced reports linked to President Muhammadu Buhari when his Senior Special Assistant, Garba Shehu, said the proper procedure, when allegations are made against the Chief Executive, is to step down from his post and allow for a transparent and unhindered investigation.

Mr Shehu had said We must realize that the fight against corruption is not a static event, but a dynamic and ever evolving process [] and as we continue to work towards improving our democratic process so shall every institution of ours also embark on that journey of evolution. What is however important is that there must be accountability and transparency and our people must realize that they would be held to account. This is the building block in the fight against corruption, the establishment of the concept of accountability and the recognition of the rule of law.

The groups said they agreed with Mr Shehu but that such expressions also suggested the presidency appeared to have made up its mind to nail Mr Magu.

The partners raised concerns about the flaws in the trial of Mr Magu. They cited the detention of Mr Magu and subsequent denial of the action by both the panel and the police; the failure to serve Mr Magu with a copy of the complaint against him for several weeks; the suspension of 12 officials (investigators and prosecutors) of the EFCC without query, interrogation or any other expected standard treatment for such an action; the appearance of several conflicting allegations in the media without any official statement from your committee; appearances of those under trial for corruption before the panel; and the predictions of the panels conclusions in the media by both politicians and aides of the president.

They said this and the previous point indicate potential leaks from the panels proceedings, which are having the unfortunate effect of adding to the apparent deliberate trial of Mr Magu in the media.

The groups question the contrast between public claims that Mr Magu has been subjected to due process  whereas, in reality, he has frequently been brought to attend the panel, only to spend 12 hours alone with his lawyer not engaged with the operation of the panel at all adding that this would appear again to stand in stark contrast to any semblance of due process.

They expressed worry about the failure to allow Mr Magu to cross-examine his accusers and witnesses and the failure of the panel to reveal its mandate, terms of reference and the timeline in which it expects to be operating.

The above factors combine to give an impression that something is very wrong in the action that has been taken against Mr Magu, and they could even be seen to imply a process that has already been determined, wrote the groups.

Mr Shehus protestation in support of the need for transparency and the rule of law, when the available evidence suggests the opposite as the reality, according to the groups, is sufficiently troubling to have a whiff of 1984 about it, in a veiled reference to when President Buhari was the Military Head of State, an era associated with draconian laws made by fiat.

The groups said the impression that one of Mr Magus predecessors, Nuhu Ribadu, may well have been correct, when he stated, When you fight corruption, corruption fights back, noting that to ensure the integrity and credibility of all such investigations, they must also be seen to be credible.

As we write to you, this is profoundly not the case. For that to happen  just as the President has referred to  transparency is key they said.

Justice Salami was asked to confirm the logistics of when the panels deliberations will be open to the public, as the groups intend to monitor and report on efforts to establish the facts in these matters.

They reminded Mr Salami that the proceedings against Shell and Eni continue in public, in the Milan criminal courts, as do court cases in the UK and beyond. In conclusion, the groups wrote, We appreciate that the extraordinary conditions imposed on us all by the COVID-19 pandemic make public processes more difficult, but the use of the internet together with a number of excellent applications, has demonstrated that this can easily be overcome, and for next to zero cost. As such, we would be very grateful if you would inform us about when meetings are taking place and how we may access online the procedures such that we can monitor and report on your on-going deliberations.

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In the midst of the global Covid-19 pandemic this spring, entrepreneurs Rebecca Cahua and Vivian Qu joined forces, skills, and teams to create and bring to production an innovative new product  the O2 Nano Mask, a reuseable nanofiltration mask that combines a high level of filtration with unique breathability and comfort.

Together, Cahua and Qu founded a O2 Brands, Inc., and the two used their combined skills and experience in textiles and technology to bring the O2 Nano Mask to Kickstarter in May. The campaign was successful, and the mask is currently in production.

Before they joined forces, the two women had been running their own successful companies  Cahuas DaD Sewing House and Qus Viaex Technologies. Their experience with these companies inspired and continues to inform their vision for O2 Brands.

02 Nano Mask CreatorsVivian Qu (L) and Rebecca Cahua (R)

The E-Commerce Times spoke with Cahua and Qu to hear their story, learn about the impulse behind their new mask, and get a glimpse into their plans for the future.

E-Commerce Times: Could you describe your career trajectory? How did you get to where you are today?

Cahua: I started in the fashion industry, and when I left college, my first project was providing merchandising to nonprofits. Thats when I got the idea of designing for a difference, and ultimately creating employment in the Bay Area and sustainable domestic manufacturing in San Francisco. Thats been my business for the last three years, working with small brands to large corporations.

Vivian met me through my business. She came in right before the shelter-in-place order happened here, and we quickly decided to collaborate, since we were both separately working on a mask project. People were reaching out to me since I had the ability to sew. We both had people reaching out to us to figure out how to make masks. We thought we would partner together and start O2 Brands Inc. to create products together.

Qu: My background is in material science engineering. We have been very interested in using biopolymers in new products. Viaex Technologies has been working on biopolymer solutions for anti-microbial applications in water and air.

The main thing about working together with Rebecca is that we have good synergy, since she has specific textile experience and is used to sourcing materials from all over the world. On our end, weve been looking for good applications for our materials. Were able to piece that together and do something greater with it, which has cumulated in our initial product.

ECT: Where did the idea for O2 Brands, Inc. come from? What inspired you to start this company?

Qu: For us it was clear that we could make premium PPE  not in the medical sense, but something everyone could use to protect themselves. We thought that if we wanted to do this, instead of doing it in a rushed or oversimplified way, we could do a better job by combining our backgrounds in technology and design to make a better product. The products available today are not all that comfortable, and we thought there needed to be a better product, and thats why we created it.

Cahua: We wanted to produce a product that we could be proud of. We couldnt do it alone, but when we worked together, we were able to make a premium product that could really protect and help people during this time.

Before Covid-19 happened, we never would have done this. Weve basically launched a company and a brand in a month, which is amazing. We trust each other and believe in what were doing.

Our goal is to grow O2 Brands, and thats our newfound passion. Right now, our focus is to see where this path takes us. Its something we both wanted, to get behind a product we really wanted. It was exciting for both of us to find someone to work with.

ECT: What is your companys mission?

Qu: Our mission is to integrate materials, technology, and the supply chain to create amazing products that focus on sustainability. Because of these unique times, were doing the Good Mask Project, where were donating masks. Thats been part of our DNA, even before we met. Its something that drives us, and were excited to work more on the social responsibility side.

ECT: What makes the masks your company is producing unique?

Qu: It has to do with our design and technology. A lot of the cloth masks and bandanas we see arent that effective, but if you have a premium filter inside, the material will block much more.

The efficiency of our mask is around 80 percent. Our goal was to create a product that has the fit and comfort of a casual mask, with premium filtration material inside.

What we want to do for our customers is to maximize their protection. Even though N95 masks are very good, theyre created for professionals, and theyre not very comfortable to wear for the entirety of a day. That prevents people from doing so. We wanted to bring that much higher level of protection to the average user.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Cahua: What makes our product unique is the science that went into creating it. In particular, the higher filtration level makes it unique. At a time when you couldnt find filters on the market, for Vivian to have that kind of filter accessible made me jump on this project right away.

Anyone can make a cloth mask, but the combination of the two is what takes it to a higher level. We did at least fifty samples of the mask, testing for breathability and fit. We feel like weve achieved one of the highest levels of filtration and comfort that weve seen, and the response has been amazing.

Each mask almost looks like its handmade, with the detail it has, and you can be heard and seen while you speak through the mask. We put a lot of thought into the mask, and we worked hard to make sure our mask is a premium mask that we can really be proud of.

ECT: Why did you decide to launch the Kickstarter campaign for your masks?

Qu: We found that we have a story that is uniquely suited to Kickstarter. The fact that we were still iterating and making this a better product made it especially good for Kickstarter. Kickstarter is very supportive of human-made products that are in a pre-product phase.

Weve enjoyed communicating with the community, as well as having the chance to improve the product before we send it out.

Cahua: Kickstarter was a great platform that we both understood would be the best way for us to respond at the highest capacity to get masks out to the market as quickly as possible. We understood there was a need for consumers and essential service workers.

Our Buy One Give One project, we figured, would be effective using Kickstarter, since we are able to engage the community through that platform.

ECT: How would you describe the response to the Kickstarter campaign? Has it been successful?

Qu: Its been successful in many ways, but a couple that are especially meaningful. Its meaningful to interact with the community and hear from future users about what their needs are, and weve heard a lot of things from them. It gave us the courage to incorporate that right away, and we continued to improve the product.

Cahua: The human-to-human interaction was great, since its not very often that you get that kind of community engagement when youre developing a product at this level.

ECT: How do you see your business evolving? Whats in the future?

Qu: We have a good vision of where we want the next set of masks to be. Broadly, we want to integrate our own materials into the next major product. What we mean by that is using some sort of recycled biowaste fibrous materials. Thats something were excited to do, and we have a customer base that cares about the same things.

We will still be focused on consumer protection and textile products, and we will make premium and user-friendly version of those products and incorporate our sustainable materials into them.

Were also looking forward to increasing the convenience of our products for customers. If youre going to wear something anyway, we want to make this experience better. Were not ready to launch those ideas formally, but we know, for instance, that people like bandanas and scarfs, and those are things were interested in.

We also found that lot of masks represent something, almost like a piece of real estate. Were interested in helping customers make masks more their own. We also want to have the similar attention to detail before launching our next product, so its even more sustainable and user-friendly, and we hope that by being successful with this product we can reinvest to make a good next product.

ECT: In what ways has the coronavirus pandemic changed the world of business and technology? How can innovators and entrepreneurs most effectively respond to these changes and be successful in this new era?

Qu: For us, its about being able to dig down on our locally-based supply chain. A locally-based supply chain is better for the environment, because it reduces our carbon footprint.

Now because of the fact that Covid-19 hit the entire globe in phases, the global supply chain has been affected. A lot of our focus has been to shed light on the fact that we have a globalized supply chain and not much recourse if something disrupts that supply chain. Thats one thing well focus on.

As a small company, we will continue to invest in our locally-based supply chain to ensure that were providing a premium product and will continue to be able to do so.

Cahua: For designers or other entrepreneurs, my advice to pivot is to listen to the consumer  pay attention to societys needs and be aware of any gaps. The supply chain has been disrupted, so theres someplace your business.

Qu: Another major point that Ive thought about is how weve been relying on essential workers during this time. Hopefully in the future, the business community will be more appreciative of these essential workers, acknowledging the fact that it is those people who make everything possible.

We want to find ways to support that community in the short term and continue to play a role in helping service workers in the future.
Chandigarh, Aug 7 : A joint delegation of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday urged Punjab Governor V.P. Singh Badnore to dismiss the Amarinder Singh-ked Congress government and recommend an inquiry by a sitting judge of the high court or the CBI into the hooch tragedy.

Also they demanded an Enforcement Directorate probe to recover the ill gotten wealth acquired by Congress leaders from illicit liquor trade.

The SAD-BJP delegation , which was led by SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal and BJP leader Manoranjan Kalia, also urged the Governor to direct confiscation of properties of all those involved in the illicit liquor trade, however, big they may be besides stopping smuggling of denatured spirit and extra neutral alcohol (ENA) from distilleries.

It also demanded that murder cases be registered against all those named by the victim families particularly Khadoor Sahib Legislator Ramanjit Singh Sikki.

It urged that all 118 victim families as well as those who were severely affected after imbibing spurious liquor be rehabilitated.

The joint delegation, which was accompanied by a victim family, while handing over a memorandum to the Governor, said the hooch tragedy was the direct result of state patronage and this was why people across three districts of Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur were affected by the same lot of contaminated liqour.

The delegation said this level of distribution had happened due to the nexus established between Congress leaders and legislators, police and excise officials.

Tragedy victim family member Kamajit Kaur told the Governor that she was being threatened ever since she recorded a complaint against the Khadoor Sahib MLA.

She said she was even being denied the Rs two lakh compensation for the death of two family members which had been given to other victim families.

Meanwhile, stating that the chief minister had failed to perform his duty as the Excise and Home minister, Sukhbir Badal told the Governor said no action was taken after two illegal distilleries cum bottling plants were unearthed at Rajpura and Khanna towns.

He said no action was taken against two Congress legislators Madan Lal Jalalpur and Hardyal Singh Kamboj despite the fact that they were accused of patronizing the main culprits.

He said the government had also denied access of the case files to the ED despite repeated requests indicating that it did not want the money trail in the case to the exposed.

The delegation said action should be taken against two distilleries run by Congress associates including that of the family of the Chief Minister's Religious Advisor Paramjit Sarna and legislator Rana Gurjit Singh who were being accused of indulging in liquor smuggling and release of ENA and denatured spirit into the market illegally.

It said denatured spirit was behind the hooch tragedy. It said earlier also truck loads of illicit liquor were seized from the premises of the Sarna family's sugar mill but no action had been taken in the matter.

Both Sukhbir Badal and Kalia said attempts were being made to divert attention from the role of distilleries in the hooch tragedy by conducting raids against bootleggers making country liquor despite knowing that it was denatured spirit procured from distilleries which was behind the 118 deaths.A Stating that the illicit liquor trade had already caused a loss of Rs 5,600 crore to the state treasury, the delegation said the former chief secretary had also accused ministers of causing a massive loss to the treasury before there was a compromise between the two.

It said the night curfew during the extended lockdown in Punjab was also used to transport illicit liquor freely from one place to another.
India has joined a long list of countries in which concerns have been raised about whether such institutes are propaganda arms of the Chinese State

Amid heightened tensions along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh, the Centre is reviewing the presence of China's Confucius Institutes in universities, media reports have said.

The reports have sparked a prompt reaction from China, which has asked India to "avoid politicising normal cooperation and maintain healthy and stable development of China-India people-to-people and cultural exchanges."

India has joined a long list of countries in which concerns have been raised about whether such institutes are propaganda arms of the Chinese State. The first Confucius Institute in the world was opened in 2004, and the institutes have acquired global prominence and attracted fierce criticism in a relatively short span of time.

What are Confucius Institutes?

Deriving its name from the renowned Chinese educator and philosopher Confucius, who lived from 551 BCE to 479 BCE, the Confucius Institutes are non-profit institutions affiliated with China's Ministry of Education.

Their mission is primarily to promote Chinese language and culture at schools and universities throughout the world projecting China's soft power. China had opened 500 Confucius Institutes and 1,000 Confucius classrooms in 135 countries as of the end of 2015, according to the latest annual development report released by Hanban.

According to BBC, there were 548 Confucius Institutes, also known as Hanban, around the world by the end of 2018, as well as 1,193 Confucius classrooms based in primary and secondary schools. The institutes are joint ventures between the host university or school, a partner university in China, and Hanban, a controversial agency under China's education ministry.

The 'Constitution and By-Laws' of the Confucius Institutes mention that they "devote themselves to satisfying the demands of people from different countries and regions in the world who learn the Chinese language, to enhancing understanding of the Chinese language and culture by these peoples, to strengthening educational and cultural exchange and cooperation between China and other countries, to deepening friendly relationships with other nations, to promoting the development of multi-culturalism, and to construct a harmonious world."

Controversies

While China claims that these institutes are aimed at helping people better understand the country's culture, many around the world are convinced.

In 2019, a report by Human Rights Watch noted, "Confucius Institutes are extensions of the Chinese government that censor certain topics and perspectives in course materials on political grounds, and use hiring practices that take political loyalty into consideration."

An article in Foreign Policy notes that there is "mounting evidence" that the institutes learning materials distort contemporary Chinese history and omit "catastrophes" such as the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, which happened during the reign of Chinese Communist Party, entirely.

There have been several instances of the institutes exerting undue influence and imposing censorship. For example, at a conference in Portugal in 2014, the head of Hanban, Xu Lin, reportedly told her staff to remove references to Taiwan from a programme document before it was distributed to participants. Similarly, in 2018, a keynote speaker at Savannah State University in the US had a reference to Taiwan deleted from her bio at the request of the co-director of the university's Confucius Institute.

Global concern

Given this background, it is little surprise that in many quarters, Confucius Institutes are not seen merely as benign attempts to expand China's soft power.

According to Reuters, some major US colleges, including Pennsylvania State University and the University of Chicago, have cut ties with the institute after professors complained its programmes were Chinese propaganda wrapped in culture and language education.

In February 2019, US Senate investigators released a report saying the centres have acted as tightly controlled propaganda arms for Beijing and should be changed - or shut down, as mentioned in another Reuters article.

The Senate report said China's government controls nearly every aspect of the institutes in the United States, including their funding, staff and programming. It also can veto any programme or speaker.

The investigators did not find evidence that staff at the Confucius Institutes were involved in espionage or other activity that would need reporting to law enforcement. However, according to the report, they did find many staff had obtained the wrong type of visa and that 70 percent of US colleges and universities that received at least $250,000 per year from the Chinese government did not report it as required by the Department of Education.

In August 2019, the Australian state of New South Wales shut the Confucius Institute programme from the state's public schools due to fears of potential foreign influence. Notably, the New South Wales government was the first government body in the world to host such an institute within its own Department of Education in 2011  as opposed to the usual process where institutes are set up in universities, a report in ABC News said.

Sweden closed all Confucius Institutes in the country in May 2020 amid deteriorating ties between China and the Scandinavian nation. The decision was said to have been taken due to concerns of security and human rights violations.

In India, the University Grants Commission (UGC) had in 2019 asked universities to seek approval from the central government, including the home and foreign ministries, before entering into any agreement for setting up a Confucius Institute, as reported by The Times of India.

The recent review of such institutes by the Centre appears to be an extension of the same cautious approach. With Beijing taking a more confrontational approach in its ties with India, such caution certainly appears warranted.

With inputs from PTI
Amritsar:

Pakistan Prime Ministers Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz on Sunday met Afghan President Ashraf Ghani during which they discussed ways to bring peace and stability in Afghanistan.

The meeting took place on the sidelines of the Heart of Asia conference. Both Ghani and Aziz had arrived here last evening.

The bilateral meeting came amid Afghanistan expressing its anguish over Islamabads not so cooperative approach towards the peace process in the war-ravaged country.

Afghan government has also been critical of Pakistan over rising terror attacks on Afghanistan by militant groups operating from Pakistani soil.

They discussed prospects of peace, development and stability in Afghanistan, a Pakistani source said.

Ahead of the conference, Afghanistan had called terror emanating from Pakistan as the greatest threat to regional peace and stability and pressed for adopting a regional counter-terror framework at the Heart of Asia conference to effectively deal with terrorism.

The Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process was launched in 2011 and the participating countries include Pakistan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and the United Arab Emirates.

The platform was floated to encourage security, political and economic cooperation between Afghanistan and its neighbours.

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06.08.2020 LISTEN

Popular Ghanaian "comic" boxer, Ayitey Powers has together with his numerous crew members declared their support for former President John Dramani Mahama for the upcoming 2020 general elections.

The boxer; whose birth name is Michael Okine is captured in a new video with his friends extolling the good works of the NDC flag bearer.

The group were spotted in the video saying "2020, we go show Nana".

This simply means they will vote against President Akufo-Addo despite his achievements which include the implementation of the Free SHS.

They were also heard saying repeatedly in Twi; "JM, Sankofa" which literally means Ghanaians should vote to bring John Mahama back to power in 2021.

Watch the video below;

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The timer was ticking from six years ago, when 2,700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate were taken from an impounded ship and stored in the port of Beirut.

It was a massive bomb just waiting to go off: a disaster equivalent to an earthquake of 3.5 on the Richter scale.

And all because the Russian owner of the Rhosus ship, carrying the deadly cargo to Mozambique, declared bankruptcy on an unscheduled stop seven years ago.

The cargo was transferred to a warehouse in 2014. It was reported yesterday that they had asked for judicial assistance in selling the Rhosus's cargo, and had sent several letters asking for action.

One source close to a port employee said a team that inspected the material six months ago warned it could "blow up all of Beirut" if not removed.

Ammonium nitrate, used in farming as a powerful fertiliser, was the explosive of choice for the IRA. The London bombings at the Baltic Exchange and Bishopsgate in the City in 1992 and 1993, and the blast at South Quay in February 1996 were fuelled by it.

The most potent of those devices was just one five-thousandth of the size of the Beirut blast.

Ammonium nitrate can be safely stored. It is stable, under the right conditions. There are international protocols on how much can be held, where, and under what precautions.

But leaving it dumped in one place and in such quantity was always likely to end badly.

Philip Ingram, an explosives expert, said: "Ammonium nitrate can degrade over time, all the more so if it is stored badly. If it starts to degrade, it gives off heat, and that tends to self-perpetuate. Pressure builds."

All it needs then is an appropriate spark. It came when a welder was making repairs to the warehouse. When the explosion ripped through the port, the firefighters trying to contain the initial blaze were incinerated.

Mr Ingram explains: "There are two effects: blowing and sucking. The over-pressure wave blows everything over in its way, and then there's a big following dip in pressure. That sucks everything back in.

"Floors rise on the over-pressure wave, and fall on the under-pressure, and it explains why high rise buildings can collapse."

And the effect on people close to the blast?

"As the over-pressure wave passes over, the individual would feel the air being sucked from his lungs," Mr Ingram said. "And if very close, it is possible that their organs would explode.

"But most casualties will have been hit by falling buildings or debris, and glass and shrapnel are responsible for such a massive toll of injuries."
Reshoevn8r Day 2020 is officially set to take place on Saturday, August 8th at 12:00 p.m. PST with quite a different look than fans and clientele are accustomed to amid the coronavirus pandemic. The upcoming virtual event is a free, all-day digital experience in partnership with SneakerCon and Many Worlds that will feature live events and some highly anticipated giveaways. With a full day of digital activations, this years Reshoevn8r day will also celebrate a milestone for the brand  its 10th anniversary.

RE-Day will continue to grow year after year and 8/8 will always be a date to remember, according to Jenesis Laforcarde the brands Marketing & Partnerships Manager. We are proud of the exclusive content, massive giveaways, and partnerships that we are able to share with the community, especially during a world pandemic. This is really a celebration for us all and our way of saying thank you to our supporters.

Reshoevn8r owner Steve Grear will begin the celebration by detailing the days events, including the special giveaways and deals. One of the initial activations of the day will include brand ambassadors Vick Almighty and Jonny Bubbles in what calls for an epic pancake cooking battle. The two will compete in a cooking contest and find out who can replicate the best-looking Air Jordan 1 in the form of a pancake. Participants can tune in to the live feed and vote on who they think won the battle. Guests will enjoy notable appearances from the likes of menswear designer Daniel Patrick with the rare opportunity to get to know him on a personal level.

The Reshoevn8r events will run from noon to 6:35 p.m. and range from sessions featuring some of Reshoevn8rs favorite customizers and influencers, to a tour of Phoenixs newest sneaker store, Many Worlds. The store  which opens in three days  will be the most exclusive sneaker store in Phoenix. Participants will get an in-depth first look at the 700+ pairs of sneakers on display, never before seen Many Worlds gear, and Reshoevn8rs new sneaker laundry drop-off service.

The majority of the sessions will end with a giveaway in which participants can win a wide range of prizes most of which are exclusive kicks from Many Worlds sneaker inventory, Vick Almightys best custom sneakers, and gift cards. Some of the giveaways will require some action prior to Reshoevn8r Day, such as commenting on a YouTube video or social media posts. For a list of ways to enter giveaways, attendees can sign up for the Reshoevn8r newsletter on their website before August 8th.

About Reshoevn8r

Reshoevn8r was founded in 2011 and has sold more than one million units, making the company one of the top premium shoe care brands in the world. Reshoevn8r is 100% all-natural, made with non-toxic ingredients like coconut, jojoba, and other natural oils. Reshoevn8r can be purchased directly on its website and retailers that sell the products include Urban Outfitters, Nohble, Restock, KicksUSA, and many small sneaker boutiques around the country. For more information about Reshoevn8r, visit reshoevn8r.com

To register for the event: (This is how participants will receive reminders), visit: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/re-day-digital-experience-tickets-114177493958

For the YouTube Channel Live Stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCA_qtlkGcs&feature=youtu.be
The intent of the coronavirus-focused surveys is to home in on infection-control issues that could contribute to the spread of the virus. Common mistakes include failure by staff members to properly wash their hands or to separate patients who had tested positive for the coronavirus from those who tested negative, according to public records reviewed by The Washington Post for Maryland and Virginia.
Comedy. The final frontier.

Star Trek: Lower Decks, the latest Trek extension from CBS All Access (following Discovery and Picard), goes where no series in the franchise has gone before, at least not intentionally: full-time laughs. The Trek shows have had their playful elements from the start. But when your primary source of humor over the years has been making fun of Vulcans or androids who have no sense of humor  well, you see the issue.

Lower Decks, whose 10 episodes appear weekly beginning Thursday, also stands out for being animated, but thats not a first. The earliest Star Trek spinoff, back in 1973, was Star Trek: The Animated Series, a straightforward continuation of the original for which most of its cast supplied voices. (Its two seasons are also available from All Access.)

The new show goes its own way, in keeping with the somewhat freewheeling vibe the television side of the franchise has exhibited under the supervision of Alex Kurtzman. Developed by Mike McMahan, a specialist in animated, adult-oriented science-fiction comedy  he was a creator of Hulus Solar Opposites and an executive producer of the categorys ne plus ultra, Rick and Morty  its about half Star Trek fan service and half smutty workplace sitcom.

Apparently, thats not an easy formula. Through four episodes, Lower Decks feels caught in between. Its a smooth and zippy package, but it doesnt register very strongly as either a geekfest or a transgressive satire. Which is another way of saying its not all that funny. Wherever its going, its not doing it very boldly.
What did it mean? The Tribune suggested that these terrible engines of death had the potential to reorder world power. Whole cities now could be annihilated far more efficiently than conventional bombs had done. If the Nazis had won the race to harness the atom, Hitler could have won the war. In time, entire continents would exist under the shadow of potential annihilation. Might the Soviet Union become Americas next foe? The secret of the weapon is being shared with Britain and Canada, the Tribune reported, but is not to be imparted to Russia, France and other countries pending a survey of the imagination-baffling implications of its uses for war and peace.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Caitlin Hawkins, known as Prema777 in the music world, needed to find a way to make a living when the coronavirus (COVID-19) forced a global lockdown.

Soon after the New Springville resident learned how the virus was affecting those with underlying health conditions, Hawkins, who is the mother of a 1-year-old son and is pregnant with her second child, said she wanted to come up with a way to keep people healthy.
Police have warned refugee advocates planning to block Brisbane's Story Bridge at the weekend the action will not be tolerated and the Premier has not ruled out legal action to stop the protest.

More than 3000 people have already indicated interest in attending the "mass sit-in" on Saturday to call for the release of about 120 men held in a Kangaroo Point hotel.

Police said they were looking at "every legal action" available to stop the event from happening, but acknowledged such action had failed to stop people turning up to similar events in other states.

Protesters have been warned they will face arrest as soon as they step on the road.
Under the legislation passed by Parliament, the functions of these multiple dispute resolution bodies will be transferred to PIC on March 01, 2021. That means the dispute resolution systems of the workers compensation and compulsory third party (CTP) insurance schemes will be merged into one independent tribunal.

Making a compensation claim is already stressful enough, and this new Commission will put the claimant at the centre of the dispute resolution process, stated Minister for Customer Service Victor Dominello.

The new single tribunal will help thousands of customers resolve their disputes each year. In 2019, around 7,000 applications were lodged in the Workers Compensation Commission and around 10,000 CTP applications were also lodged.

According to Dominello, hours of consultation with scheme providers and industry stakeholders were completed to come up with PIC, which is aimed at delivering the best possible experience for claimants.

The commission will have two specialist divisions to deal with workers compensation and motor accidents, with an independent judicial head, noted the minister. The purpose of the commission is to simplify the dispute resolution process and deal with disputes justly, quickly, and as cost-efficiently as possible.
Few will dispute that the GSAs latest Streamlined Technology Acquisition Resource for Services contract, better known as STARS II, has been a big success for the Section 8(a) community, and one of the GovCon communitys most coveted GWACs. STARS II is still active through August 2021 and the STARS III solicitation was recently released but with an unspecified award date only projected by GSA to be sometime late next year and with no orders issued for at least a year, according to GSA.

Recently, in cooperation with SBA, GSA decided for the third time to increase the STARS II ceiling. Both GSA and SBA telegraphed increasing the STARS II pot this May. There was at that time no public mention about any other changes to the STARS II contract other than an increase in the ceiling amount, and none of the STARS II awardees (at least the ones I know and represent) anticipated that there would be any other changes. By most accounts the move by GSA was intended only to provide more runway to STARS II until STARS III is awarded.

On June 24, GSA announced that it was going to modify STARS II to add an additional $7 billion to the ceiling amount, raising the total ceiling amount to $22 billion. Great news, especially with the upcoming busy government buying season. Again, nothing else was said, at least publicly.

But then on June 26, GSA surprisingly issued a bilateral modification (yeah, the one where both parties must voluntarily sign) that indeed definitized the ceiling increase. But to many, GSA pulled a fast one by also modifying the STARS II contract language itself to reduce the remaining period that task orders can be completed from four years to two years starting July 1, 2020. Under the existing contract, a task order awardee could continue to perform task orders after STARS II ends on August 21, 2021  and as late as August 30, 2024.

So, what GSA did was to convert a four-year task order completion deadline to a two-year deadline in a way that is completely inconsistent with the original STARS II contract terms. Actually, its less than two years since the clock already started on July 1 so not even two-year task orders are possible going forward.

Im told by a number of STARS II holders that many of the task orders awarded have a performance period of well over two years, with many of them having at least a three to five-year period. In effect, the modification restricts awardees from enjoying the fruits of many STARS II task orders contrary to the contracts stated terms.

GSA knew there would be a potential competitive impact on its decision to shorten the task order completion date, especially given that ordering agencies would likely revert to using other contracting vehicles to the detriment of the STARS II holders. Thats why GSA felt it was required to issue a formal and legalese-laden document called a Justification and Approval, also known as a J&A, to justify the potentially anti-competitive impact resulting from this change. And they are correct as this type of contracting action would require such a J&A under the federal Competition in Contracting Act and FAR Subpart 6.3. On July 9, GSA did indeed publish a J&A on SAMbeta.gov, 19 days after it issued the modification and without any advance public statement.

But heres the problem  GSA forgot to do something essential to the J&A process. It forgot to follow the law, let alone common sense. And I know more than a few STARS II holders who are furious about this, not to mention several members of Congress who recently asked GSA to explain its decision.

Under the FAR, a J&A must rely on one of seven enumerated reasons to restrict full and open competition. In this case, GSA selected the justification based on the governments need to maintain suppliers and the flow of supplies and services during a national emergency  here, the COVID-19 pandemic. Fair and lofty enough as disrupting critical IT services during the pandemic would hurt the public. But was shortening the task order completion deadline because of COVID a rational decision? Thats what the J&A was required to address, only it didnt.

The FAR requires that a J&A must contain sufficient facts and rationale to properly support this kind of contract action  in this case, how reducing the completion date furthered the need to maintain IT services in the wake of COVID. The scant excuse offered by GSA in the J&A was that the ceiling increase without adding to the completion date. . . provides all vendors on the [STARS II] Contract with the opportunity to receive new task orders through the end of the contract term. That tells us nothing.

Of course, one shouldnt need a J&A to raise a government contracts dollar ceiling, and who would complain other than the fiscally obsessed? But GSA went well beyond just raising the ceiling; it materially altered the Contracts terms resulting in a loss of competitive bidding opportunities for a big part of the 8(a) community, which has nothing to do with keeping services flowing in the wake of COVID. In fact, it stands to reason that the modification would actually reduce the number of available vendors under STARS II during this critical national emergency because an ordering agency cannot issue a task order after July 1 that would exceed a two-year performance period, forcing the agency to scramble for other similar contracting vehicles.

So, while the J&A provides ample (albeit an unnecessary) rationale for raising the ceiling due to increased demand for services in response to the pandemic, it provides no rationale as to how the pandemic justified a reduction of the completion date or how such reduction would maintain available STARS II suppliers of these services during the pandemic.

The J&A is further flawed by the wholly inconsistent reasons for the reduced completion date provided by GSA and SBA during a Virtual Industry Event held on July 13 via Zoom. There, GSA and SBA suggested its true reasons for reducing the completion date which were unrelated to the need to maintain suppliers during a national emergency but rather a desire to filter out graduated 8(a) contract holders for the remainder of the STARS II performance period while preserving opportunities for current 8(a) firms under STARS III.

For example, in noting that raising the ceiling may take away opportunities for remaining ungraduated 8(a) firms, GSA stated during this event that it and SBA needed to: (a) ensure a rapid response to [COVID-19] pandemic needs; (b) keep the [STARS II] contract going; but (c) do that in a way that would not take opportunities from the new 8(a) firms.

Whats strange here is that according to GSA itself, about 78 percent of the 787 STARS II awardees are graduated 8(a) firms. Many of these companies were awarded a STARS II contract well within their nine-year term as a certified 8(a) contractor. In addition, it took about two years for STARS II to be awarded. Thus, given that the STARS II contract had a 10-year total period of performance, its no surprise that a vast majority of the awardees have already graduated. And GSA and SBA were undoubtedly aware at the time STARS II was awarded that this would be the case.

It seems quite evident, therefore, that its in the governments interest  and awardees fully and reasonably expected  that the STARS II completion deadline would not change especially during an 8(a) firms so-called transitional stage - which SBA considers critically important during the last four years of the 8(a) term.

The bottom line is that GSAs required justification for shortening the STARS II completion date is completely lacking, and GSA provides conflicting reasons between its J&A and statements made at the Virtual Industry Event that completely call into question the validity of its action.

And heres the topping: the GSAs email to contract holders accompanying the June 26 STARS II modification stated: Sign the attached contract modification and return it to s2@gsa.gov no later than June 30, 2020. Once the signed modification is returned, and on or after July 1, 2020, you can accept new task order awards.

In other words, GSA curtly instructed awardees to sign the modification or else!

With the June 26 email sent in the late afternoon on a Friday, that gave holders just two business days to respond. That is not the definition of a bilateral modification and not a fair example of how that process is supposed to work. Rather, its more like economic duress. And I know plenty of lawyers (including me) who would love to litigate this issue.

Stay safe.
Companies in the retail industry are faced with the challenge of adapting to the rise of the digital era, personalized offerings, and eCommerce options. As omnichannel marketing and personalized products become preferred and more effective, customer churn is increasing for brick-and-mortar stores. Retail companies need to adopt digitization and personalization to mitigate the risk of losses and supply-demand mismatch. This has caused many retail companies to leverage market intelligence solutions. With over 16 years of experience, we offer customer intelligence solutions to retail companies that enable them to provide targeted marketing and personalized offerings, and help them enhance customer experiences. To learn how to overcome the challenges of digitization in the retail industry, request a free proposal.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200806005867/en/

Market Intelligence Solutions for a Specialty Retail Industry Client (Graphic: Business Wire)

"Although the rising disposable income and changing lifestyle of consumers have boosted demand throughout the retail sector, small specialty retail stores are facing increasing competition from top specialty retailers, e-commerce and department stores," says an industry expert at Infiniti Research.

Business Challenge:

The client is a specialty retail store based out of the United States. As consumers increasingly moved to online shopping, they sought to adopt an omnichannel approach to reduce customer churn. The specialty retail client also wanted to understand the cause for customer churn, gain detailed insights into their customers, devise new marketing strategies, and revamp their supply chain structure before investing heavily in the new business model. The client approached Infiniti Research to leverage our expertise in offering market intelligence solutions. In a span of 6 weeks, the specialty retail industry client also sought to focus on product and service personalization and enhance the customer experience both in-store and on digital platforms.

Our Approach:

Infiniti's market intelligence experts developed a comprehensive approach to assist the specialty retail industry client. This three-phased approach included the following:

A customer intelligence study to analyze target customers' needs, preferences, and satisfaction

A market scanning and monitoring analysis to identify factors affecting product demand, and to identify cost-effective tools to map the customer journey

An inventory management solution to plan supply chain activities following forecasted product demand

For more comprehensive insights into our recent successful market intelligence engagement, read the complete article here

Business Outcome:

By leveraging Infiniti's market intelligence solutions, the client was able to identify the root causes for customer attrition and identify best practices to reduce customer churn. The specialty retail industry client was also able to revamp marketing strategies according to customers' needs and preferences. Further, the client was able to revamp their supply chain model and reduce inventory costs. The client implemented dynamic pricing strategies, and prevent loss of market share to competitors. Additionally, the new business model enabled the client to increase sales by 39% within eight months.

For detailed insights into our market scanning and monitoring solutions for the specialty retail industry, speak to our industry experts.

About Infiniti Research

Established in 2003, Infiniti Research is a leading market intelligence company providing smart solutions to address your business challenges. Infiniti Research studies markets in more than 100 countries to help analyze competitive activity, see beyond market disruptions, and develop intelligent business strategies. To know more, visit: https://www.infinitiresearch.com/about-us

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200806005867/en/

Contacts:

Infiniti Research

Anirban Choudhury

Marketing Manager

US: +1 844 778 0600

UK: +44 203 893 3400

https://www.infinitiresearch.com/contact-us
By Laman Ismayilova

Young sculptor Tabriz Soltanli has made a memorial plaque in memory of Colonel Ilgar Mirzoyev.

"The glory of the Azerbaijani heroes and martyrs who died for the independence of Azerbaijan and the liberation of Karabakh from the Armenian aggressors are always highly respected among our people. And we -young people also pay tribute to their eternal memory. Each of us must do something in the name of the Motherland and the people. May the memory of our heroes and be a blessing," he said.

A fourth-year student of the Azerbaijan State Academy of Fine Arts also created a bust of Major General Polad Hashimov who was killed in armed clashes on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border.

His diploma work at Azim Azimzade Art School was dedicated to the National Hero of Azerbaijan Mubariz Ibrahimov.

Over the years, talented sculptor also created several busts of Azerbaijani poets Mikayil Mushfig and Ahmad Javad as well as actor Samandar Rzayev.

The cross-border clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia started on July 12 noon after Armenian troops fired artillery at Azerbaijani military post in Tovuz region.

Azerbaijani armed forces retaliated destroying a stronghold, bombshells, vehicles and servicemen on the territory of the Armenias military unit by using artillery, mortars and tanks during the night leading to July 13. Azerbaijan has also downed three Armenian UAVs.

Azerbaijan lost 12 servicemen, including an army general, during cross-border clashes from July 12 till July 16. Armenian forces have also been shelling civilians in villages in Tovuz. An Azerbaijani civilian in Tovuzs Aghdam village was killed as a result of artillery shelling by the Armenian armed forces on July 14.

---

Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Video Appears to Confirm Reports of Deadly Blasts in North Korea's Hyesan City

2020-08-05 -- A video showing a series of explosions in North Korea's Hyesan city earlier this week has emerged, appearing to confirm South Korean media reports and defector accounts of blasts that claimed more than a dozen lives in the city on the border with China.

A China-based activist that assists refugees fleeing North Korea recently provided RFA's Korean Service with what he claimed is footage of the blasts filmed on Monday from across the Yalu River in China's Changbai city. The 14-second video shows black smoke rising into the sky in Hyesan as several explosions are heard in the background.

"I heard that a fire started at a place where gasoline was stored, moved to a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) container, and caused a series of explosions," said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the nature of his work.

"I know the North Korean authorities were trying to deal with the accident, but I don't know what they managed to do."

The activist's account is similar to those in reports by the Seoul-based Daily NK and other South Korean news outlets, which said the incident is believed to have occurred after gasoline stored in a home in the city's Tapsong neighborhood caught fire at around 6:10 p.m. on Monday, causing a nearby LPG cylinder to explode and setting off a chain of blasts of similar cylinders attached to other homes. Hyesan is a city of 192,000 people.

The Associated Press published a similar video on Wednesday it said was obtained from a Chinese travel agent who had previously visited Hyesan. The travel agent said he shot it from a park in Changbai and that the blast had occurred near Hyesan's orphanage and tourism office.

The Daily NK said Wednesday that at least 15 were killed in the explosions and that the death toll could continue to climb, while other South Korean media have suggested "dozens" had been killed or injured. RFA's Korean Service was unable to independently confirm the numbers.

As with most deadly incidents inside North Korea, the country's state media has not reported on the blasts. Neither have news outlets in China.

Seo Jae-Pyoung, the secretary general of the Association of the North Korean Defectors, told RFA that residents of Changbai said they "heard that a big explosion killed several North Koreans" but "could not confirm whether LPG was the cause of the explosion."

Gasoline and LPG

South Korea's Unification Ministry spokesman Yeo Sang-gi told reporters during a press briefing in Seoul on Wednesday that "we only know it was an accident involving gasoline and LPG," while the ministry had seen "reports of several casualties."

Yeo expressed South Korean condolences over the incident but urged patience as more details emerge.

"A fact-checking process should take priority" before any conclusions are made, he said.

Yeo said the Unification Ministry will "take the time to more closely monitor the situation."

Last month, a fire at a train station in the North Korean city of Sinuiju destroyed a freight train carrying hundreds of tons of cooking oil from China, as well as a warehouse full of cargo, witnesses who watched the blaze from across the Yalu in China's Dandong city told RFA at the time.

While the cause of the fire was unclear, sources said firefighters had failed to put it out because extinguishers at the train station were empty.

Reported by Yongjae Mok for RFA's Korean Service. Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Copyright  1998-2016, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. For any commercial use of RFA content please send an email to: mahajanr@rfa.org. RFA content August not be used in a manner which would give the appearance of any endorsement of any product or support of any issue or political position. Please read the full text of our Terms of Use.

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Music producer Detail, whose real name is Noel Fisher, is being investigated for multiple sexual assault allegations. (Paul A. Hebert / Invision)

A Grammy-winning music producer known as Detail has been arrested on 15 sexual assault charges and five additional felony assault-related charges, authorities said Wednesday.

The producer, whose real name is Noel Fisher, was arrested Wednesday by the L.A. County Sheriffs Department and is being investigated for incidents that occurred between 2010 and 2018, the department said in a media release.

Detectives submitted the case to the L.A. County district attorneys office in January. They were notified in late July of the charges filed against Fisher and an arrest warrant was issued with a bail of $6.29 million.

More details about the charges were not immediately available. The Sheriffs Department asked for the publics help to identify any possible additional victims; anyone with information should call the Special Victims Bureau tip line at (877) 710-5273.

According to the Associated Press, in 2019 a model who alleged in a lawsuit that she had been raped and sexually and emotionally abused by Fisher was awarded $15 million in Los Angeles Superior Court. Fisher, the news agency reported, won a Grammy for co-writing the Beyonce and Jay-Z hit duet Drunk in Love.
Vice President Mike Pence described Chief Justice John Roberts as a disappointment to conservative voters, explicitly seeking to cast the Supreme Court as a campaign issue ahead of the November election.

Look, we have great respect for the institution of the Supreme Court of the United States, Pence told the Christian Broadcasting Networks David Brody on Wednesday. But Chief Justice John Roberts has been a disappointment to conservatives  whether it be the Obamacare decision, or whether it be a spate of recent decisions all the way through Calvary Chapel.

The vice presidents criticism of the chief justices jurisprudence comes after Roberts sided with the high courts Democratic appointees on several occasions in recent months, dealing the Trump administration defeats on issues including LGBT workplace discrimination, immigration and abortion.

Roberts, an appointee of President George W. Bush, also joined his Democratic-appointed colleagues two weeks ago when the court rejected a Nevada churchs request to block the states cap on attendees for religious services amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Pence argued Wednesday that those decisions are a reminder of just how important this election is for the future of the Supreme Court.

We remember the issue back in 2016, which I believe loomed large in voters decisions between Hillary Clinton and the man who would become president of the United States, he said. And some people thought that it wouldnt be as big an issue these days. But I think thats all changed.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, arrives before President Donald Trump delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020. (Leah Millis/Pool via AP)

The vice president specifically cited the courts ruling in June striking down a Louisiana law requiring abortion providers to have admitting privileges at local hospitals, which critics said could have forced all but one of the states abortion providers to close.

Thats a very modest restriction on abortion providers, but a narrow majority in the Supreme Court still said it was unacceptable, Pence said. And I think its been a wake-up call for pro-life voters around the country who understand, in a very real sense, the destiny of the Supreme Court is on the ballot in 2020.

Story continues

The courts public information office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Roberts on Pences interview.

Following the courts rejection of his attempt to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programs protections for roughly 650,000 immigrants, President Donald Trump pledged in June to unveil a new list of potential justices ahead of Novembers general election.

The announcement by the president represented a reprisal of a campaign tactic that helped him shore up conservative support during his 2016 White House run, when he issued a list of candidates he said he would consider appointing to the Supreme Court in an effort to win over evangelical voters.

He did that in 2016. He kept his word, Pence said Wednesday of Trumps list. Hes going to do that in the fall of 2020, and in the next four years, hell keep his word and appoint more principled conservatives to our courts.

Since assuming office, Trump has routinely touted his presidencys rapid rate of judicial confirmations  including the hard-won installations of Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh on the high court  to energize his base in public remarks and at political rallies.

But it was Gorsuch who sided in June with Roberts and the courts Democratic appointees in the landmark LGBT anti-discrimination case, authoring the majority opinion ruling to protect gay, lesbian and transgender employees from being disciplined, fired or turned down for a job based on their sexual orientation.
San Antonio-based asset management firm Victory Capital Holdings Inc. registered a significant outflow of assets in the second quarter that was partly related to a deal involving USAAs brokerage business.

Victory Capital, which last year acquired USAA Asset Management Co. and relocated to San Antonio, had $11.9 billion in outflows in the three months ended June 30 following Charles Schwab Corp.s May acquisition of the USAA brokerage business. The transaction was valued at $1.8 billion.

One part of the outflow involved brokerage clients who chose to transfer their accounts to competitors and liquidated some or all of their USAA mutual fund holdings, Victory Chairman and CEO David Brown said during a conference call with analysts Thursday.

This impact on flows was one-time in nature, Brown said, adding that the level of movement was slightly higher than expected.

On ExpressNews.com: Victory Capital plans to expand on heels of USAA deal

Victory last year acquired 47 mutual funds, six exchange-traded funds and a college savings plan from USAA in a deal that could be valued at about $1 billion based on additional payouts.

Victory also experienced $8 billion in net outflows from its money market funds as they transitioned to Schwab, Brown said.

These assets were subject to a revenue-sharing arrangement and were therefore not profitable for us, he said.

In addition, USAAs decision to discontinue its trust service business and provide its members the opportunity to transition their accounts to Schwab resulted in about $500 million in long-term net outflows for Victory.

We believe this is merely a speed bump in our ability to generate (internal) growth over the longer term, Brown said. Overall, our outlook on flows for the remainder of the year, and especially into 2021, is trending positive as we work our way through some of the one-time items.

Victory Capital reported $129.1 billion in assets under management as of June 30, up from $123.8 billion on March 31. The company attributed the $5.3 billion increase to market gains of $17.2 billion, which were partially offset by the outflows.

For the second quarter, Victory Capital earned $44.7 million, or 61 cents a share, on $181.9 million in revenue. It earned $57.2 million, or 77 cents a share, on $204.4 million in revenue in the first quarter.

A comparison with last years second-quarter results wouldnt be particularly enlightening because Victory had yet to close on the USAA deal.

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The company attributed the drop in revenue to a lower average for the assets it had under management. The average fell to $128.9 billion in the second quarter from $144.1 billion in the first quarter.

Brown told analysts Victory has made substantial progress since closing on the USAA acquisition a little more than a year ago.

Victory has focused on creating a foundation replicating the high level of service that USAA members are accustomed to receiving, Brown said. Later this year, it will be launching a state-of-the-art digital platform for USAA members.

It has gained 79,500 USAA mutual fund and college savings plan account registrations since July 2019, without doing much promotion, Brown said.

Victory continues to partner with USAA to market products to about 12.5 million USAA customers who dont have an account with Victory, he said.

Victory has reduced its debt to about $860 million from $1.1 billion in July 2019, setting itself up for potential acquisition opportunities.

Were having a lot of conversations, Brown said. Historically, we have done an acquisition every year or so. We have USAA integrated. We have our debt paid down, happening pretty aggressively.

So when we look at it right now, we think our platform is ready for another acquisition, he said.

Victorys shares rose about 21 cents to close at about $18.23 Thursday.

Patrick Danner Patrick Danner covers banking, insurance, business litigation and bankruptcies. To read more from Patrick, become a subscriber. pdanner@express-news.net | Twitter: @AlamoPD
WASHINGTON The United States is negotiating the sale of at least four of its large sophisticated aerial drones to Taiwan for the first time, according to six U.S. sources familiar with the negotiations, in a deal that is likely to ratchet up tensions with China.

The SeaGuardian surveillance drones have a range of 6,000 nautical miles (11,100 km), far greater than the 160-mile range of Taiwans current fleet of drones.

While the sale of the unmanned aerial vehicles has been tacitly authorized by the State Department, two of the people said, it is not known whether the U.S. officials have approved exporting the drones with weapons attached, one of them said.

The deal has to be approved by members of Congress who may receive formal notification as soon as next month, two of the people said. Congress could choose to block a final agreement.

It would be the first drone sale after President Donald Trumps administration moved ahead with its plan to sell more drones to more countries by reinterpreting an international arms control agreement called the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR).

While Taiwans military is well-trained and well-equipped with mostly U.S.-made hardware, China has a huge numerical superiority and is adding advanced equipment of its own.

Taiwan submitted its request to buy armed drones early this year, one of the people familiar with the talks said. The United States last week sent Taiwan the pricing and availability data for the deal, a key step that denotes official approval to advance the sale. It is, however, non-binding and could be reversed.

A deal for the four drones, ground stations, spares, training and support could be worth around $600 million using previous sales as a guide. There could also be options for additional units in the future, one of the people said.

The island is bolstering its defences in the face of what it sees as increasingly threatening moves by Beijing, such as regular Chinese air force and naval exercises near Taiwan

Relations between Beijing and Washington - already at their lowest point in decades over accusations of spying, a trade war, the coronavirus and Hong Kong - could fray more if the deal gets the final go-ahead from U.S. officials. The Pentagon has said arms sales to Taiwan will continue, and the Trump administration has kept a steady pace of Navy warships passing through the Taiwan Strait.

China claims Taiwan as its own territory, and Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring the self-ruled island under its control. Beijing has denounced the Trump administrations increased support for Taiwan.

A A A Chinas sophisticated air defenses could likely shoot down a handful of drones, according to Bonnie Glaser, the director of the China Power Project at CSIS, a Washington think tank. But she still expects China to scream about even the smallest arms sale that the U.S. makes to Taiwan because any sale challenges the aOne Chinaa principle."

A A A A They get particularly agitated if they think its an offensive capability," she said, adding that she expected the Trump administration to be less cautious than its predecessors.

The Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States did not respond to a request for comment.

As a matter of policy we do not comment on or confirm proposed defense sales or transfers until they have been formally notified to Congress," a State Department spokesman said.

ONLY FOR FEW U.S. ALLIES

The U.S. has been eager to sell Taiwan tanks and fighter jets, but the deal to sell drones would be notable since only a few close allies - including Britain, Italy, Australia, Japan and South Korea - have been allowed to purchase the largest U.S.-made drones.

Currently, the Taiwanese government has a fleet of 26 Albatross drones made by Taiwans National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology, a quasi-defence ministry research agency, that can fly 160 nautical miles (300 km), or 80 before returning to base, according to records kept by the Bard Center for the Study of the Drone.

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Incs SeaGuardian has an airframe that can handle carrying weapons - but only if contractually allowed by the U.S. government.

The United States has sold France unarmed MQ-9 Reapers which are similar to SeaGuardians, and gave permission to arm them.

Last year, the United States approved a potential sale to Taiwan of 108 General Dynamics Corp M1A2 Abrams tanks worth around $2 billion as well as anti-tank and anti-aircraft munitions. A separate sale of 66 Lockheed Martin-made fighter jets also made it through the State Departments process.

In recent weeks, China said it will sanction Lockheed Martin Co for involvement in the latest U.S. arms sale to Taiwan.

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
MIAMI, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Care Resource has received a $246,280 grant from Health Foundation of South Florida (HFSF) to fund the purchase of medical and pediatric equipment for the renovated and expanded Midtown Miami Health Center and Administrative Headquarters. HFSF's investment will allow Care Resource to provide expanded and enhanced access to primary care and other support services to uninsured, underinsured, and underserved patients in Miami, reducing barriers to care.

Care Resource's renovations will increase medical exam rooms from 10 to 24, and pediatric exam rooms from 3 to 5. HFSF's support will outfit all 29 exam rooms with vital medical equipment, strengthening the health center's ability to meet the unique health care needs of the most vulnerable in South Florida, who often have fragmented, uncoordinated, and discontinuous care. The renovated health center will integrate an array of comprehensive preventative and social services to address the holistic needs of children, adolescents, and adults, and will feature the Food for Life Network Food Pantry and Nutritional Center on the first floor. The health center is expected to open by mid-2021. To learn more about the Capital Fund visit capitalfund.careresource.org.

About Care Resource:

Care Resource is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization and a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) with four locations located in Midtown Miami, Little Havana, Miami Beach, and Fort Lauderdale. We provide comprehensive health and support services to address the full health care needs of our pediatric, adolescent, and adult populations. For more about Care Resource, visit https://CareResource.org.

About Health Foundation of South Florida:

The mission of Health Foundation of South Florida is to invest in and be a catalyst for collaborations, policy and systems change that improves the health of South Florida communities, with a focus on vulnerable, low to moderate income populations. Established in 1993, the nonprofit foundation has awarded over $131 million to nonprofits providing programs and services in Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties. For more information, visit hfsf.org and follow @HealthSFL.

SOURCE Care Resource

Related Links

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JOHANNESBURG, Aug 5 (Reuters) - South African miner Gold Fields said on Wednesday half-year profits could rise by more than 300%, thanks mostly to an increase in global gold prices.

The company said headline earnings per share - the main profit measure in South Africa - for the six months to June 30, were likely to be between US19.5 and 20.5 cents - an up to 310% increase on the 5 cents per share reported last year.

(Reporting by Emma Rumney, editing by Mfuneko Toyana)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.
Devetry logo "Portland is an exciting, emerging market that continues to advance its reputation as a rising tech hub in the U.S."

Devetry

Brett Truka

720-580-1192

marketing@devetry.com

Software consulting and engineering company, Devetry, has chosen Portland, Oregon for its new hub. Currently located in Denver, Colorado, this expansion comes after five years of client growth in the Colorado and Arizona markets.

This second location is a continued investment in Portlands technology community and will bring new design, development, and analyst jobs to the area.

Brett Truka, CEO of Devetry, on why he selected Portland responded, "Portland is an exciting, emerging market that continues to advance its reputation as a rising tech hub in the U.S. We've also found that there are many cultural similarities between Denver and Portland with regards to how business is conducted. We're thrilled to become part of the growing tech community.

Devetry acquired its first Portland-based client, Intel, earlier this year. They are partnering with Intels SmartCities program to create cloud-based applications for government agencies.

Devetry is a software consultancy that provides technology solutions ranging from organizational strategy and product management to custom software development and DevOps. Devetrys diverse expertise allows its partners to rapidly develop software products, optimize internal processes, and create new revenue streams with technology.
Saravoot Yoovidhya has several attachments to China. The CEO of Thailand's TCP Group, a major player in the energy drink market, says Hainan in southernmost China is his family's ancestral home. Also, China is the largest market for his company's products and to nurture the potential, TCP is building a manufacturing plant in Beijing that will become operational next year. In the next three years, the group will invest over $150 million in China to grow its market share and launch new products for its global portfolio, creating local jobs in the process.

The TCP Group is among several foreign investors whose faith in the Chinese market has been buoyed by the resumption of production and normal life while other investment destinations in Europe and the United States still remain uncertain due to unchecked spread of the novel coronavirus.

The new Foreign Investment Law came into effect in China on January 1. In addition, new reforms like scrapping the cap on the shares foreign investors can hold in certain joint ventures and a new negative list in July that has further reduced the sectors off-limits for foreign investors from 40 to 33 have combined to make China retain its luster for overseas capital.

Against this backdrop, despite transnational investment having been hit hard globally, according to figures released by the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), China's foreign trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) have stabilized. Paid-in foreign capital in June reached 117 billion yuan ($16.72 billion), up 7.1 percent year on year. It signified positive growth for three months in a row and much better performance in the second quarter of the year than in the first.

From January to June, the utilized capital totaled 472.18 billion yuan ($67.55 billion). Though a year-on-year decrease of 1.3 percent, it was 9.5 percentage points lower than the decrease in the first quarter. In the second quarter, FDI inflows surged 8.4 percent year on year.

"China has continued to advance investment facilitation, issued a series of policies and measures to ensure stable foreign investment, and enlarged market access for foreign investors, all of which have produced positive effects," Sang Baichuan, Director of the Institute of International Economy at the Beijing-based University of International Business and Economics, told China Business Journal. "China leads the world in resumption of work and production, underscoring the safety and stability of investment and unleashing a great amount of liquidity. Foreign investors will find that China is one of the best destinations for investment."

Recovery factors

He Manqing, Director of the Foreign Investment Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said the rapid recovery of foreign investment can be attributed to three reasons: the Chinese economy remains promising with its steady recovery; effective control of the novel coronavirus attracted various resources into the Chinese market, enhancing the confidence of foreign investors; and finally, the policies issued by the government to ensure stable foreign investment and trade, such as significantly reducing the negative list and giving pilot free trade zones (FTZs) more power to reform and opening up.

According to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics, in the second quarter, the economy reversed the negative growth of 6.8 percent in the first quarter to register a positive growth of 3.2 percent.

Gao Feng, MOFCOM spokesperson, said at an online press conference on July 16 that in the first half this year, foreign investment performed better than expected, and foreign investors' expectations and confidence have been improving.

The 10-member ASEAN has become China's biggest trading partner, overtaking the U.S. and the EU, as well as becoming the key driver for FDI. In the first half, investment from ASEAN expanded by 2.9 percent over the same period a year ago. Singapore alone invested 7.8 percent more. Other countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative were another stimulus, with their collective FDI in the same period expanding by 5.9 percent.

Despite the tensions with the U.S. Government, investment from the U.S. grew by 6 percent in the first half. "The U.S. is pushing its overseas investment back home, but the spread of the coronavirus in the country has made its investors panic and look for new investment opportunities," Sang said.

He also said that while the U.S. decreased 32.9 percent year on year during the second quarter, China has achieved the world's highest growth in that period, which will make "foreign investors be more optimistic about the prospects of the Chinese economy."

An attractive destination

"While global investment opportunities are shrinking, China has furthered its opening up and cut the negative lists, which will create more opportunities for global investors," Liu Xuezhi, a senior researcher with the Financial Research Center of Bank of Communications, told Financial News. "This will not only help China attract more high-quality foreign investment, but also contribute to global economic recovery."

Besides the national negative list, a second one for FTZs has cut the restricted sectors from 37 to 30.

Looking ahead to the second half, Liu forecast that since China has been the first country to realize economic recovery, it will attract more foreign investors and foreign investment will maintain its growth momentum. In addition, the measures taken to further opening up this year will promote sustained growth of foreign investment.

Wang Jingwen, a senior researcher with the Pangoal Institute, a Beijing-based think tank, told Financial News that as China is both a core and hub on the global industrial chain, foreign-invested businesses will still rely on China's enormous market, efficient industrial chain and sound infrastructure.

Wang listed three advantages China enjoys. As it continues to intensify opening up and optimize its investment environment, the policies to ensure stable foreign investment will prove to be further effective. China, with the world's most efficient and flexible supply chain, can realize mass production of new items rapidly. In addition, considering the increase in per-capita income, the Chinese market is one of the markets with the most potential in the world.

However, the improved conditions do not mean that the situation in the second half will be a bed of roses.

According to the World Investment Report 2020 released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, global FDI flows are forecast to decrease by up to 40 percent in 2020 from their 2019 value of $1.54 trillion. This would bring FDI below $1 trillion for the first time since 2005.

Pressure remains

"Global cross-border investment will be seriously hit," He said. "Uncertainties and exchange rate fluctuations brought by the epidemic and trade frictions will spread globally. Improvement of China's hard and soft environments and industry-supporting environment is key to attract and retain both Chinese and foreign businesses and prevent or postpone transfer of industrial chains."

An article posted on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' website outlines some of the future measures and targets. The article by Chinese Ambassador to Afghanistan Wang Yu says the base of foreign trade and foreign investment has to be stabilized. China, while further opening up the manufacturing sector, will also open the service sector wider, especially high-end services.

The export tax rebate mechanism will be improved and financial institutions will be steered to increase financing support through credit, credit insurance and guaranty to ease the liquidity difficulties of foreign trade enterprises. Also, reforms to facilitate customs clearance will continue to optimize services for those enterprises. The development of cross-border e-commerce, online transactions and other new forms of foreign trade will gain speed and lead to new growth points.
West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Wednesday celebrated the groundbreaking ceremony of the Ram temple at Ayodhya by lighting lamps at Raj Bhawan and wondered whether the "silence" of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the occasion is because of her "appeasement" politics.

The temple complex at Ayodhya "will become a symbol of modern India based on the ideals of Ramrajya", Dhankhar said adding that the groundbreaking ceremony would be a moment of pride and honour for every Indian.

"The Bhoomi Pujan at Ram Mandir is a matter of pride and honour for all Indian. Long wait over-thanks to historic judicial verdict. Appeasement Silence Stance @MamataOfficial resonates," Dhankhar tweeted.

"Ram Sita in our Constitution," he said in the Twitter post sharing an illustration on a page of the Part III of the Indian Constitution. The illustration shows Ram, Sita and Lakshman. In the evening, Dhankhar along with his wife lit 'diyas' (earthen lamps) inside Raj Bhawan.

"By lighting earthen ghee diyas shared joy with millions all over the world on the historic occasion of bhoomi poojan of Ram Mandir. A proud moment for every Indian," he

said in another tweet.

He also urged the state's police administration to work within the limits of the law and "stop behaving like cadres of a political party".

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday performed the 'bhoomi pujan' of a Supreme Court-mandated Ram temple in Ayodhya.
McGilly said he attempted to work with Gibson in the spring as closely as his teachers once did in the classroom, but their foster son didnt want his parents to also be his teachers. Heinegg said it was a full-time job to keep her son on top of his assignments and paying attention in class. Duran cant log on to the computer or type for himself, and his mother, Abby Duran, was worn down by facilitating all of his assignments and classes each day.
New Orleans, LA -- Research led by Nicolas Bazan, MD, PhD, Boyd Professor and Director of the Neuroscience Center of Excellence at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine, and Ludmila Belayev, MD, LSU Health New Orleans Professor of Neuroscience, Neurology and Neurosurgery, has unlocked a key fundamental mechanism in the communication between brain cells when confronted with stroke. They report that DHA not only protected neuronal cells and promoted their survival, but also helped maintain their integrity and stability. The discovery provides potential new clinical targets and specific molecules for the treatment of ischemic stroke and other cardiovascular diseases. Their findings are published online in CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics, available here.

Brain cells talk to one another. This synchronized cell-to-cell crosstalk regulates neuroinflammation and the immune system, which are activated in the brain at the onset of stroke, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and other diseases. The researchers found that in the model of stroke, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) affects the levels of two proteins crucial to communication between brain cells -- mesencephalic astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor (MANF) and triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-2 (TREM2). They discovered that treatment with DHA reduced the size of the damaged brain area, initiated repair mechanisms and greatly improved neurological and behavioral recovery. These findings provide a major conceptual advance of broad relevance for neuronal cell survival, brain function and, particularly, stroke and neurodegenerative diseases.

DHA is made from omega-3 very long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (VLC-PUFAs,n-3). It is found in fatty, cold-water fish like salmon. Among other benefits, DHA is essential for normal brain function in adults and for the growth and development of the brain in babies.

"Our findings contribute greatly to our understanding of cellular interactions engaging neurons, astrocytes, and microglia to sustain synaptic circuitry, set neurogenesis in motion, and initiate restoration to pathological derangements," notes Dr. Bazan, who also holds the Ernest C. and Ivette C. Villere Chair at LSU Health New Orleans.

These findings advance the understanding of how the complexity and resiliency of the human brain is sustained, mainly when confronted with adversities as in stroke. A key factor is how neurons communicate among themselves. These novel molecules participate in delivering messages to the overall synaptic organization to ensure the accurate flow of information through neuronal circuits.

"We know how neurons make synaptic connections with other neurons; however, these connections have to be malleable in order to change to the appropriate strength through experience," explains Dr. Belayev.

"It's like an orchestra," says Bazan. "You need a conductor, and this is the role that DHA plays. Such a large-scale complexity first requires violinists, or in this case, synapses, which are highly sensitive sites of stroke injury that become messengers to target vulnerable cells."

###

Co-authors include Sung-Ha Hong, Raul S. Freitas, Hemant Menghani, Shawn J. Marcell, Larissa Khoutorova, Pranab K. Mukherjee, and Reinaldo B. Oria. Dr. Menghani was supported by the Department of Pediatrics Hematology-Oncology Section at LSU Health New Orleans and Children's Hospital of New Orleans. Raul S. Freitas is a graduate student from the Laboratory of the Biology of Tissue Healing, Ontogeny and Nutrition, Department of Morphology and Institute of Biomedicine, School of Medicine, Federal University of Ceara, Fortaleza, Brazil. Shawn J. Marcell is an LSU Health New Orleans medical student.

The research was supported by grants from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke 1R01NS109221 and 1R01NS104117.

LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans educates Louisiana's health care professionals. The state's flagship health sciences university, LSU Health New Orleans includes a School of Medicine with branch campuses in Baton Rouge and Lafayette, the state's only School of Dentistry, Louisiana's only public School of Public Health, and Schools of Allied Health Professions, Nursing, and Graduate Studies. LSU Health New Orleans faculty take care of patients in public and private hospitals and clinics throughout the region. In the vanguard of biosciences research in a number of areas in a worldwide arena, the LSU Health New Orleans research enterprise generates jobs and enormous economic impact. LSU Health New Orleans faculty have made lifesaving discoveries and continue to work to prevent, advance treatment, or cure disease. To learn more, visit http://www.lsuhsc.edu, http://www.twitter.com/LSUHealthNO, or http://www.facebook.com/LSUHSC.
The counting of votes in Sri Lankas twice-postponed parliamentary election began on Thursday with the powerful Rajapaksa family-run Sri Lanka People's Party (SLPP) saying it is confident of recording a historic victory by securing a two-thirds majority. The election, conducted amidst COVID-19 pandemic fears, concluded in a peaceful manner on Wednesday, with a voter turnout of over 70 per cent, according to Chairman of the National Election Commission Mahinda Deshapriya.

As the counting of votes began, SLPP founder and its National Organiser Basil Rajapaksa - who is the younger brother of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa with the eldest being Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa said that the party is all set to form a new government, News 1st Channel reported. He said that his party would make history as the only party to come into power within a short span of time since its formation, defeating other old political parties.

"We are confident of the SLPP recording a historic victory. We hope for a two-thirds majority at the election but it is up to the people to decide," he said.

He said he is confident that the economy can be revived under the leadership of President Gotabaya and Prime Minister Mahinda. The results would be announced by Thursday evening, Deshapriya said. President Gotabaya voted in his Colombo suburb polling station while his elder brother and the prime ministerial aspirant Mahinda voted in his home constituency in the southern district of Hambantota.

"We are hopeful of winning two-thirds support," Mahinda, 74, told reporters after voting.

He said his younger brother Gotabaya's election as president was endorsed by 6.9 million voters last December and that he was hopeful of securing the same support. Former prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said that only his party, the United National Party, was capable of turning around the economy which is currently in poor state due to COVID-19 and mishandling by the current government.

Mahindas SLPP is expected to win control of the 225-member assembly by a comfortable margin, according to analysts. President Gotabaya hopes for a two-thirds majority for the SLPP so that he can amend the Constitution to restore presidential powers curbed by a 2015 constitutional change. The president is not a candidate while Mahinda is running from the north western capital district of Kurunegala.

Poll stations were manned by over 8,000 health officials who supervised the maintenance of health guidelines to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The election, which was postponed twice due to the coronavirus, is to elect a 225-member Parliament for a 5-year term. Over 16 million people were eligible to vote to elect 196 out of a total of 225 lawmakers for the next five years. Twenty-nine others will be named from a national list according to the number of votes received by each party.

The election, originally scheduled for April 25, was put off until June 20 as the COVID-19 outbreak hampered the preparations. The August 5 date was later fixed as the health authorities issued guidelines for holding the poll. Some 20 political parties and 34 independent groups are in the fray with over 7,200 candidates from 22 electoral districts. Former president Maithripala Sirisena is running from the north central region of Polonnaruwa under the SLPP banner while former prime minister Wickremesinghe and former leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa are running from the Colombo district.

(Image Credits: AP)
ARCHIVED - 1683 new cases in Spain on Thursday 6th, cases increase by 4,088



The total number of cases has risen by 24,425 during the last 7 day period

Image1: A new initiative from Barcelona council in which the "Barcelona Civic Guard" patrol the streets of the city in an educational role, encouraging the public to comply with mask-wearing rules

The row over when is a wave, a wave, continues

The number of new covid infections is still high in Spain on Thursday 6th August according to the latest daily figures presented, although slightly lower than the number registered yesterday.



In the last 24 hours, 1,683 new cases have been diagnosed, compared to 1,772 on Wednesday.



This brings the total number of cases reported by the Spanish Ministry of Health to 309,855.



Herein lies the point which causes the greatest confusion when discussing the rate of increase of Covid-19 in Spain, as yesterday the official total given by the government was 305,767, so the difference between the two days is actually 4,088.



The figures given daily are those cases actively diagnosed day by day, whereas the overall total represents the figures as they are verified and added into the national system on an ongoing basis; many cases are reported to the national system without being accompanied by verified data; this is checked and added in on an ongoing basis so feeds into the system over a period of days.



If that same principle is applied for the last 7 days, from Thursday to Thursday for example, the figures are 285,430 to 309,855, a weekly increase of 24,425 cases.



(Column 1 shows the region, column 2 the total number of cases to date and column 3 the number of cases diagnosed within the last 24 hours)

The largest number of new cases was Aragon with 329, but the situation in the Basque Country is rapidly deteriorating and with 322 new infections it moves into second place.



The pandemic is hitting hard in the Basque Country, where a spike in infections is being registered with figures that have not been seen since April 28th, when 392 cases were recorded. The Basque Health Service is particularly concerned about the level of infections in large cities such as Bilbao, which reported 126 new cases; Barakaldo (28) and Vitoria (38) due to the great mobility of their residents, many of whom work in sectors which require travel from place of residence.



The Basque Minister of Health, Nekane Murga, clashed with Fernando Simon, who has consistently been the face of the Covid crisis for the Spanish Health Ministry throughout the crisis by warning the Basque population that the high rate of infections represented a second epidemic wave of the virus and "that a new normal is not possible."

A clear picture of the evolution of the number of new cases daily in Spain, with a large wave during lockdown, a deep trough as the country worked through de-escalation and then the rising number of cases following the conclusion of the state of emergency. Is it a second wave? Not according to the Ministry of Health.

Simon denied this, saying: "I have a different perception, 81% of the cases in the Basque Country are asymptomatic," Simon told the media. "Qualifying it as a second wave has a technical component, it requires an uncontrolled community transmission," he added, while also reporting that there are currently 580 coronavirus outbreaks in Spain, representing 6,900 cases.



He has consistently denied in the last few days that the current rise in cases is a second wave, although the media are increasingly querying this stance and highlighting the significant rise in case numbers. When does a wave become a wave they are asking increasingly.

UK figures for Thursday

New cases on Thursday 950, bringing the total to 308,134

Deaths on Thursday 49, bringing the fatalities total to 46,413


The American website Business Insider ranked Tunisia in the 4th place among the 20 democratic countries where Americans could settle after the coronavirus pandemic.

The website described Tunisia as a welcoming country, where the climate is pleasant and where life is affordable.

Business Insider also selected the 20 countries according to health security, saying that Americans wishing to leave their country, once travel from the United States to other countries is allowed, can settle in Tunisia, ranked 4th best country, where it is good to live.

This North African country tops our list because of its ideal annual temperature, low cost of living and also the low average number of new coronavirus cases per capita (as of mid-July), the website added.

The site also points out that Tunisia has a migrant acceptance index of 6.47, which is higher than the overall score of 5.34.

You will have to get a residence permit if you plan to stay for more than 90 days, otherwise you can travel without a visa. If you seek to become a permanent resident in this country, you will have to live here for five consecutive years with temporary residence, Business Insider said.

It will be recalled that last June, the American magazine Forbes cited Tunisia among 7 countries that have the potential to become major tourist destinations, or the rising stars of travel in a post-Covid world.
Dr. Tomas Hudlicky has been publicly excoriated and threatened with sanctions by the administration of Brock University.

What did he do? In a short essay titled Organic synthesisWhere now? is 30 years old. A reflection on the current state of affair, he expressed opinions deemed offensive. The journal Angewandte Chemie has come under fire.

The journals editor-in-chief, Dr. Neville Compton, has in a public statement outlined a number of extraordinary steps that include withdrawing Dr. Hudlickys article, apologizing, repudiating his work and sternly rebuking his judgment. Some editorial board members have resigned in protest and, assuredly, many colleagues are distancing themselves from him. Dr. Hudlickys distinguished and long career is in shambles and his reputation tarnished.

I believe Dr. Hudlicky should be defended because academic freedom must be defended.

I certainly do not agree with Dr. Hudlickys comments that associate declining outputs in chemistry with gender-sex and racial diversity or, expressed in very coded ways, that white males, being more meritorious, are being given short shrift because of employment equity and affirmative action.

Indeed, that he provides zero evidence for such an assertion is both highly problematic and dubious. He also makes old guard, but I think accurate, statements about the master and apprentice relationship in the guild-like structure of chemistry and the sciences. Today such blunt language is papered over with the term mentoring.

There is much, however, in the essay that is interesting and worthy of serious attention. These include the growing corporatization and continued expansion of upper level university administration, the rippling effect these have on the pursuit of grants, the hiring of contract faculty and the limited time to mentor junior professors and students.

To be sure, when awareness of previously tolerated patterns of discrimination at universities are subjected to heightened scrutiny it is proper the pendulums swing should bring into question how values have been used to defend status quo inequities. But is it not the case that a value, academic freedom, limited by another value, security from discrimination, is a false choice? Is it not the case that one of the best means of securing freedom from discrimination is academic freedom and free expression?

Debate, discussion, reason and evidenced-based refutation, rather than appeal to the sword and coercion are themselves the hard-won victories against the tyranny of majorities and minorities alike. I do not think I stretch the point in asserting democracy is only as good as the exercise and protection of the right to academic freedom and free expression.

Because so much is at stake then, now is a moment for calm appraisal. Now is the time to test our theories and to embrace critical re-examination of the facts upon which our identities are based.

It is time, contrary to Stephen Harper, to commit sociology and resist what is called confirmation bias. Contra Donald Trump and Kellyanne Conway at their Orwellian best, this does not mean there is actually such a thing as alternative facts or that truth is in the eye of the beholder. Only that it is wise to reserve a space of doubt because it opens us to hearing others, seeing other possibilities, questioning power and guards against moral rectitude that thrills on scapegoating and the performance of rituals of degradation.

Be it the Inquisition, McCarthyism or Stalinism, usually going along with pitchforkism works, in the end, to advance participatory totalitarianism and benefits a small and powerful coterie of elites.

Finally, let me add this: I count among my ancestors Africans who were deprived and criminalized for reading and writing; who, for talking back to anyone in the master class, were muzzled (literally), their mouths smashed, beaten to death or had their tongues cut out.

All of this to say, I do not regard academic freedom and free expression as trifling matters to be parsed by whether I agree or disagree with another scholars argument or terms of reference. For reasons that are biographically and socially relevant, rather than doctrinal, I believe academic freedom and free expression are values necessary for the betterment of humanity and must be defended on that ground, if no other.
The big supermarkets have hammered out a compromise with the Victorian government in an effort to keep the state's food supplies flowing during the strict stage four COVID-19 lockdown.

Coles and Woolworths have been given several more days to organise their distribution depots  which are vital to keeping supermarket shelves stocked  to adhere to new government restrictions.

Restocking an empty fridge at a Coles supermarket.

The companies will still have to reduce their workforces drastically but will be able to meet those requirements by standing down employees who are not essential to the supply chain for food and other groceries.

The compromise, which was announced on Thursday afternoon, came after an intervention by the federal government amid fears that Victorias stringent restrictions might hit the national supply chain and disrupt the states food supply.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said China opposed the U.S. proposal to extend an international arms embargo on Iran.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said yesterday that the United Nations Security Council will vote next week on a U.S. bid to extend an international arms embargo on Iran

"The United States will put forward a resolution in the Security Council to extend the arms embargo on Iran," Pompeo told reporters. "The proposal we put forward is eminently reasonable. One way or another we will do the right thing. We will ensure that the arms embargo is extended," Reuters cited him as saying.

The arms embargo on Iran is currently set to end on Oct. 18 under Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which U.S. President Donald Trump's administration quit in 2018.

The U.S.-drafted resolution needs at least nine votes in favor to force Russia and China to use their vetoes, which Moscow and Beijing have signaled they will do.
The Belfast Chamber of Trade and Commerce has highlighted the problems faced by the city centre. The issue of vacant shops is not unique to Belfast, or indeed to Northern Ireland. It is an issue that is faced by town and city centres across the United Kingdom and further afield.

The growth of internet shopping has had a major impact on city centres everywhere and, more recently, the situation has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The accidental fire at the Bank Buildings in 2018 caused major disruption for traders and, on top of that, Belfast city centre has never fully recovered from the IRA's economic war, when so many shops and offices were bombed and burned.

So, how can we improve the city centre? Well, the James Connolly Historical Society has come forward with a proposal to rename Castle Street "James Connolly Street", after the Irish republican rebel James Connolly. They have got some of the traders to sign a petition and it has been lodged with Belfast City Council.

For those not familiar with the James Connolly Historical Society, there is no point in resorting to the internet, because a quick search with a popular search engine revealed nothing apart from the recent demand for a James Connolly Street.

However, we do know that the key person is their chairman, Jim McVeigh, a former IRA bomber, who became the leader of the Sinn Fein group on Belfast City Council and then left to work for a trade union.

Prior to that, Jim McVeigh, who has the nickname "Flash" McVeigh, was jailed twice on bombing charges during the Troubles and became officer commanding the IRA prisoners in the Maze. He was jailed for 31 years in 1992 for conspiring to murder soldiers.

There is already a James Connolly Museum with a James Connolly statue outside it and Sinn Fein's head office is Connolly House. Now, republicans want to badge the city centre entrance to west Belfast as Connolly Street. I suppose they may think it is more permanent than painting the kerbstones.

It is of course a particularly perverse proposal, since Castle Street is one of the street names that help us to understand the geography and history of Belfast.

The old medieval castle is long gone, but the name Castle Street is a reminder of where it was.

In the same way that the bridge over the Farset is gone, but Bridge Street reminds us of where it stood.

Fountain Street is a reminder of the "fountains" that distributed water from a well in the 19th century and Bank Street, Chapel Lane and many other names help to tell the story. To wipe out such historic names would be an act of gross vandalism.

Jim McVeigh may talk about inclusion and equality, but I can't think of any other street name in the city centre that identifies a particular iconic individual.

There are family names such as Waring Street, or Donegall Street, but there is no James Craig Avenue and neither is there a Sir Edward Carson Place.

So, why is there now a demand for a James Connolly Street in the centre of the city?

No one should imagine that this is some new idea dreamed up by a local historical society.

Members of Sinn Fein have been talking about this for some time and they will see this as a new initiative that they can replicate time after time in town after town across Northern Ireland.

Sinn Fein think long-term and they think strategically; reassuring their base, this is about showing dissidents that they are still real red-blooded republicans.

Sinn Fein show no interest in building a shared society. Their aim is to create division and this is just another example.

Time will tell how other parties in the City Hall react to this and whether or not non-unionist parties are prepared to show leadership.

We should be aiming to make Belfast city centre a warm and welcoming place, not turning it into another cultural battleground.
Marcionism is a heresy, but I understand why Marcion did it.

Disgusted with the evil that plagues our world and struggling with confounding portrayals of God in Scripture, the second-century theologian sliced up the Bible to his liking by excluding all the Old Testament and even some of the New. I cant follow Marcion in his editing project, but I certainly get the tension that prompted it: The Old Testament is a difficult book full of difficult stories and difficult people. In many ways, it would be easier to safely scuttle its strange and grim passages out of the canon.

I suspect Marcions end product possessed a clarity the unabridged version frankly lacks. But I also suspect it would leave Christians far less equipped to grapple with the moral ambiguity we cannot edit out of our societys pastor its present.

This has been a summer of iconoclasm. Protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers have picked up the purgatorial impulse of previous demonstrations against police brutality and racial inequality. Protestors demanded the removal ofor, in many cases, simply vandalizedConfederate statues and flags. Then the scrutiny broadened. A mere three years ago, President Donald Trump was roundly mocked for his musing that progressive iconoclasts eventually would come after George Washington or Thomas Jefferson. This year they did exactly that. Monuments of other historical figures (including Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Ulysses S. Grant) were torn down, voted down, or became the subject of contentious debates.

What do we make of someone like Thomas Jefferson? Should he be honored or deplored?

These conflicts are not easy to resolve. What do we make of someone like Jefferson? Should he be honored or deplored? He wrote about the inherent rights of all humanity in words that have inspired movements for freedom the world overbut at the same time he enslaved hundreds and raped Sally Hemings, impregnating her when she was about 15.

Jefferson condemned slavery but did not act to end it, even rejecting, as columnist Noah Millman describes, a large bequest from his old friend, the Polish nobleman and Revolutionary War hero Thaddeus Kosciusko, intended for the purchase of slaves to give them their freedom, along with land, livestock, and farm equipment to enable them to live the life of yeoman independence that Jefferson claimed to favor over all others. And yet, for all that, abolitionist Frederick Douglass deemed Jeffersons Declaration of Independence the ring-bolt to the chain of [our] nations destiny, a document of saving principles to which we should be true on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost.

There is a pleasing ethical simplicity in the idea of taking Marcions sharp knife to historical figures like Jefferson (who was, funnily enough, something of a Marcionite himself). Toss him entirely on account of his grossest sins, or paper them over with his wonderful words? We dare not settle for less than ideological purity. A flawless hero is the most comfortable kind.

Christians can do better. The Old Testament has trained us for it. If Jefferson is the archetypal difficult figure of American history, his biblical analogue is surely King David: the passionate and poetic psalmist who raped Bathsheba. What do we make of someone like David? Theres no option here to keep the words and dispense with the man, because the man is all over the Bible. Again and again the Gospels reiterate that Jesus is the son of David long awaited, born in Davids village and destined to sit on Davids throne. David appears in the Apostle Pauls great argument on justification in Romans, and he makes the Hebrews 11 roster of (very flawed) heroes of the faith. In Revelation 22:16, Jesus confirms his testimony with a self-description as the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star. To take a high view of Scripture forces us to confront the moral complexity of David along with so many other scriptural characters, neither tossing them for their sins nor papering over those sins with their faithful achievements. Such confrontation serves as practice for similar discernment of more recent history.

Article continues below

Moreover, we are not the first Christians to contend with complicated people, stories, and ideas. The early church dealt with this often. Many of the first Christian apologists employed the religion and philosophy of the surrounding pagan culture to help make sense of the new Christian faith. Pauls sermon on Mars Hill in Acts 17 referenced Athenian monuments he wouldnt otherwise honor and incorporated insights of Greek poets whose whole body of thought he wouldnt otherwise endorse. Similarly, Augustine advised Christians to claim  for our own use whatever we find that is true and in harmony with our faith, wherever we find it. All truth is Gods truth, the Augustinian logic affirms. We can examine our national history with a similar eye: critical and distant on the one hand, but also receptive to whatever goodness and truth we find on the other.

Finally, basic Christian anthropology prepares us for dealing with historical tension, too. The culture warriors want to avoid  cognitive dissonance by seeing the [American] Founders as flawless saints or irredeemable sinners, former CT editor Skye Jethani recently wrote. They were neither, he continued, which we ought to know well. The first two things the Christian story says about humanity (Gen. 13) is that we are made in Gods image and we are subject to the Fall. We are created for good but, without Christ, we are captive to evil (Rom. 6:1723). Any understanding of human beings with this beginning will not be shocked to find real good and great evil in the same life, as indeed we find both in our own hearts (Rom. 7:19).

Bonnie Kristian is a columnist at Christianity Today, a contributing editor at The Week, a fellow at Defense Priorities, and the author of A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (Hachette).

[ This article is also available in Portugues. ]
The court's Judgement in favor of Celgard not only granted the injunction against Senior, it also held that Celgard had established a serious issue to be tried that Senior had used its trade secrets in developing and manufacturing battery separators and that England was the proper forum for the importation dispute. Celgard intends to fully pursue its trade secret case against Senior.

On April 30, 2020, Celgard filed an application for an urgent injunction against Senior in the High Court of Justice in London, England. On May 7, on an ex parte basis, the UK court granted an interim injunction to prevent Senior from importing certain battery separators into the UK.

Earlier, on March 2, Celgard filed a Complaint against Defendants Shenzhen Senior Technology Material Co. Ltd. (Senior-China), Shenzhen Senior Technology Material Co. Ltd. (US) Research Institute (Senior-California), Xiaomin (Steven) Zhang, Sun Town Technology, Inc., Global Venture Development, LLC, and Global Venture Development, Inc. (collectively, Global Venture) (collectively, WDNC Defendants) in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina (WDNC) for trade secret misappropriation, unfair and deceptive trade practices and unfair competition, civil conspiracy, unjust enrichment and conversion.

Additionally, Celgard filed a Second Amended Complaint against Defendants including Shenzhen Senior Technology Material Co. Ltd. (US) Research Institute (Senior-California) and others (collectively, NDCA Defendants) for patent infringement, breach of contract and breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (NDCA).

The WDNC Complaint alleges the WDNC Defendants, including a former Celgard employee, Xiaomin (Steven) Zhang, now CTO of Senior-China who changed his name to Bin Wang at the request of Senior-China, purposely and unlawfully misappropriated Celgard's trade secrets and confidential information and continue to do so. Several other violations of the law are also alleged.

The NDCA Second Amended Complaint alleges the NDCA Defendants infringe Celgard's United States Reissued Patent RE47,520 (the '520 patent), formerly United States Patent 6,432,586 (the '586 patent), and Celgard's United States Patent No. 6,692,867 (the '867 patent). See Release .

In December 2019, Celgard filed a First Amended Complaint in the NDCA adding to the suit the Defendants Farasis,Sun Town, and Global Venture. See Release.

In September 2019, Celgard filed suit against Senior who sells separators globally that they make in Shenzhen, China. Celgard's Complaint alleged Senior had infringed Celgard's U.S. '520 and '867 patents, and has unlawfully misappropriated and misused Celgard's trade secrets and confidential information, among other violations and seeks compensation for damages. See Release .

In September 2019, Celgard successfully settled a patent infringement lawsuit against Targray International. See Release . Celgard also successfully settled two suits in June 2019, against MTI Corporation. See Release .

The UK Judgement and the successful outcome of the Targray and MTI cases further solidifies the integrity of Celgard's intellectual property (IP) regarding coated and uncoated separators for lithium-ion batteries. Celgard will continue to prevent the unfair exploitation of its technology and IP to safeguard its assets and customers.

About Celgard and Polypore

Celgard specializes in coated and uncoated dry-process microporous membranes used as separators that are a major component of lithium-ion batteries. Celgard's battery separator technology is important to the performance of lithium-ion batteries for electric drive vehicles, energy storage systems and other applications.

Celgard, LLC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Polypore International, LP, an Asahi Kasei Company.

Polypore is a global company with facilities in nine countries specializing in microporous membranes used in electric and nonelectric vehicles, energy storage systems and specialty applications. Visit www.celgard.com and www.polypore.com .

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1224376/Celgard.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/798399/PolyPore_Logo.jpg

Related Links

https://polypore.com



SOURCE Polypore International, LP
YEREVAN, AUGUST 6, ARMENPRESS. The number of Lebanese-Armenians who were killed in the powerful explosion in Beirut has reached 11, and several dozens of representatives of the community are injured, Armenias High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs Zareh Sinanian said in a statement. He said the figures may change further.

He said he is in constant contact with the Armenian community of Lebanon and Ambassador Vahagn Atabekyan and a preliminary assessment of needs has been done.

Among the top priority needs mentioned by the Armenian community are the following: provision or assistance in buying medication (especially for people with chronic illnesses), first necessity food and water, financial assistance for rebuilding apartments, shops, churches and public centers in Armenian-populated districts, and the facilitation and support for those desiring to repatriate.

Sinanian says he maintains contact with Catholicos Aram I of the Great House of Cilicia, who is expected to hold a meeting with community leaders tonight for further assessment of damages.

More than 130 people were killed and over 5000 wounded in the blast.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
 Flash

China hails the Philippines for rebuffing attempts of some countries to incite tensions in the South China Sea, according to a foreign ministry spokesperson Wednesday.

Spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the comment at a press briefing in response to a question on Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana's recent remarks on the South China Sea and bilateral relations. Calling such attempts unpopular, Wang said some countries outside the region are trying to stir up trouble and create tension in the region, which go against the will of the regional countries.

Reportedly, citing an order by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Lorenzana said the Philippines would not join navies of other countries in maritime drills in the South China Sea for fear of raising tension in the area.

The Philippines advocates peaceful settlement of relevant disputes through legal means, Lorenzana said.

The Philippines and China have carried out many exchanges in epidemic control, people-to-people exchange and military, said Lorenzana, adding that it is believed that the two countries will gradually resume exchanges in various fields after the pandemic is overcome.

Wang said this statement is yet another proof of the Philippines' independent foreign policy, which embodies the common aspiration of the regional countries to pursue peace and development.

China and ASEAN countries, including the Philippines, are currently focusing on the fight against COVID-19 and resuming economic activities, which call for solidarity, coordination, peace and stability, Wang said.

He added that with joint efforts of China and ASEAN, two-way trade and investment grew in the first half of this year, and fast-track lanes for personnel and logistics exchanges have been established to facilitate resumption of work and production, as well as the smooth operation of industrial and supply chains.

"China is confident in working with countries in the region to overcome the challenges posed by the COVID-19 epidemic, maintain development momentum and safeguard common well-being of the people in the region," he said.
New Delhi: Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, in an exclusive chat with Zee News, has alleged politics in handing over Sushant Singh Rajput's case to the CBI. The Centre approved of a CBI inquiry in the actor's death case after a recommendation from the Bihar government while the Mumbai Police was still investigating the matter.

Of which, Raut said, "This is politics of pressure under the pretext of CBI."

He said that despite the CBI probe, Mumbai Police will continue with its investigation.

"People can say whatever they want to. Mumbai Police has a reputation across the world. There was no laxity from its side in investigating the case. As it is a high-profile case, the department investigated it carefully in every direction," the senior Sena leader added.

Meanwhile, Raut also questioned the Bihar government's move in the case and said, "Mumbai gave Sushant all the fame. He was a Mumbaikar. Why is Bihar so concerned?"

Of cabinet minister Aaditya Thackeray's explanation of reports claiming his alleged involvement in Sushant's death case, Raut said that it wasn't a wrong step by him as people had flooded social media with questions.

Aaditya broke his silence on allegations of his involvement in the case and dismissed all the reports calling it 'dirty politics'. Calling the allegations against him as 'baseless', the minister said he is unnecessarily being targeted by opposition parties. He said if anyone has evidence of any charges, then it should be handed over to Maharashtra Police as they are investigating the matter.

He also said that the Maharashtra government's law department will submit its report before the Supreme Court in a couple of days time. The apex court, while hearing Sushant's girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty's plea to transfer Patna FIR to Mumbai on Wednesday, has asked the Maharashtra government to place all the investigation steps taken in the case before it.
Harry McKeaveney from The Hatfield House bar, wearing a face mask and gloves, poses for a photograph as he delivers pints of Guinness to customers' front doors, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on April 16, 2020. (Paul Faith/AFP via Getty Images)

Northern Ireland Pauses Pub Reopening After Coronavirus Spike

BELFASTNorthern Ireland halted its plan to reopen all pubs and ordered citizens to wear face masks indoors on Thursday after reporting its highest daily number of coronavirus cases since May.

The British region reported 43 new cases on Thursday compared to a total of 18 in the previous five days, although it has not reported a death related to COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, since July 14.

Because of the concern around the level of community transmission and the desire to frankly prioritise the reopening of our schools  we have decided that it is prudent to pause the reopening of our public houses, First Minister Arlene Foster told reporters.

While bars operating as restaurants are allowed to open, those serving only alcohol will likely have to wait until September at least, she said.

Forty three people tested positive in this past 24 hours. People might say thats not a huge number, but its indicative of a trend, and thats why we have to take action now, because we want schools to open in September, she said.

The move comes days after reopening of pubs was postponed in the neighbouring Republic of Ireland, which has seen the average number of daily cases double in recent weeks.

Foster said Northern Ireland would also make masks mandatory from Monday in enclosed spaces where social distancing is not possible, with light touch enforcement planned.

I regret that. I wish people would wear them from a voluntary basis, she said.

By William James, Ian Graham, and Conor Humphries
The Arleigh Burke-class, guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78), a P-8A Poseidon Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) from Patrol Squadron VP-47, four F-16 Fighting Falcons from the 31st Fighter Wing, Aviano Air Base, Italy, KC-135 Stratotankers from the 100th Air Refueling Wing, Mildenhall, England, and an MQ-9 Reaper assigned to the 52nd Expeditionary Operations Group Detachment 2, Miroslawiec Air Base, Poland, conducted a joint training mission in the Black Sea, Aug. 2, 2020.

The Arleigh Burke-class, guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78), a P-8A Poseidon Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) from Patrol Squadron VP-47, four F-16 Fighting Falcons from the 31st Fighter Wing, Aviano Air Base, Italy, KC-135 Stratotankers from the 100th Air Refueling Wing, Mildenhall, England, and an MQ-9 Reaper assigned to the 52nd Expeditionary Operations Group Detachment 2, Miroslawiec Air Base, Poland, conducted a joint training mission in the Black Sea, Aug. 2, 2020.

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The guided missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) arrives for a routine port visit. Porter is the 28th ship in the Arleigh Burke-class of AEGIS destroyers. Porter is homeported in Norfolk, Va., currently on a regularly scheduled six-month deployment. (Picture source: U.S. Navy photo by Paul Farley)

The training mission occurred in international waters and airspace within the Black Sea and was designed to train U.S. forces to integrate, operate and communicate while executing surface and air operations.

Participating units conducted training scenarios that included tactical manoeuvring and communications.

Porter and the P-8A Poseidon are currently operating in the Black Sea following participation in the 20th iteration of Exercise Sea Breeze. Exercise Sea Breeze is an annual, multinational maritime exercise co-led by the U.S. and Ukraine and designed to enhance interoperability among participating nations and strengthen regional security in the Black Sea.

Joint training missions like this are vital to the readiness of U.S. military forces and demonstrate our capability to integrate platforms across multiple domains.

U.S. 6th Fleet, headquartered in Naples, Italy, conducts the full spectrum of joint and naval operations, often in concert with joint, allied, and interagency partners in order to advance U.S. national interests and security and stability in Europe and Africa.

An F-16 Fighting Falcon from the 510th Fighter Squadron takes off from Aviano Air Base, Italy, Aug. 2, 2020. F-16s from the 510th FS flew integrated training missions alongside the USS Porter in the Black Sea which were designed to train U.S. forces to operate while executing multi-domain operations. (Picture source: U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Rebeccah Woodrow) (Photo by Tech. Sgt. Rebeccah Woodrow)
David Collins, Attorney, Joins Lake Title LLC David Collins was highly recommended to us and had the experience we were looking for and has a strong legal background. He brings a level of quality control and legal know-how to every facet of what we offer.

Lake Title, LLC is the newest addition to Taylor-Made Deep Creek Vacations & Sales, a full service Deep Creek Lake real estate and vacation rental company. Offering competitive rates, it is one more way that they are making transactions smoother for buyers and sellers.

With the closing of another local title company, Taylor-Made identified a void in marketplace. In order to best serve area clients, this was a natural next step in Taylor-Mades one-stop-shop approach.

David R. Collins joined the team as the attorney for Lake Title. He is licensed in Maryland and West Virginia. His background includes more than ten years in litigation, real estate, and appeals in West Virginia. Mr. Collins graduated from West Virginia University College of Law, where he served as Publications Editor for the West Virginia Law Review. Prior to attending law school, Mr. Collins worked for the Preservation Directorate at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

David Collins was highly recommended to us and had the experience we were looking for and has a strong legal background. He was a natural fit for the company and having him around has been a tremendous blessing so far! He brings a level of quality control and legal know-how to every facet of what we offer. He flat out makes us better and thats better for our clients, said Taylor-Made real estate owner, Jay Ferguson.

Lake Title services include:



Residential Sales

Residential Refinances

Commercial Sales

Commercial Refinances

Construction Loans

For Sale By Owners

Property Transfers

Property Title Searches

Deed Accommodations

Short Sales

Power of Attorney Preparation

Reverse Mortgages

1031 Exchanges  Starker

Flexible closing times

Contract reviews

Taylor-Made is well-known for having a variety of real estate solutions under one roof. Real estate sales, vacation rentals, property services, a loan officer, and title work teams coordinate to make transactions easier from start to finish.

About Taylor-Made Deep Creek Vacations & Sales

Taylor-Made Deep Creek Vacations & Sales is a leader in Deep Creek Lake vacation rentals, real estate and property services. Taylor-Made rental homes and sales listings are conveniently located within a few hours drive from Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Washington, DC.
In one instance, the FAA alleges that between September 2018 and May 2019, members of the ODA unit were subjected to undue pressure of interference from at least four Boeing managers, including three who were not part of the ODA unit. One ODA unit member was pressured to inspect a plane, even though the aircraft had outstanding issues and was not ready. In other instances, the managers pushed ODA employees to rush inspections and to report aircraft ready for inspection faster. The FAA also alleged that managers berated the performance of some ODA employees, and threatened to have them replaced by other employees or other ODA teams.
Sushant Singh Rajput's death has set fire to the topic of nepotism and the unequal treatment of outsiders and insiders in the Hindi film industry. While no one would disagree that this debate is needed to improve the workings of the industry and make it a fairer place to exist, many are questioning the way in which this debate is being conducted.

Kangana Ranaut, an actress whose talent cannot be disputed, made it to the industry as an outsider. However, many are criticizing the manner in which Kangana has driven the outsider versus insider debate. Many believe that bullying others, outsiders and insiders alike, has become her modus operandi.

Television actor Nakuul Mehta offered his opinions on the nepotism debate, in a recent interview. Speaking to Hindustan Times, he said, "The talent of making everything about oneself can be a legit category at every Bollywood award."

He continued, "After Sushant's passing away, the conversation started with mental health, which is important. But then it moved on to this blame game at a time when the industry is facing this huge economic slowdown and everyone should join hands in rebuilding it. Instead this infighting is happening. Sometimes even outsiders who've gone through the struggle, become the bully. I think power corrupts. It's sad how many are using these conversations for self propaganda."

ALSO READ: Ankita Lokhande Refutes Kangana Ranaut's Claim: 'Aditya Chopra Really Supported Sushant'

Nakuul, who is an outsider himself, said that he was aware of the challenges he would face in the industry when he started. "But whether I make nepotism my enemy or concentrate on making my skills stronger, attitude finer, is on me. Nepotism exists everywhere. Outsiders might have lesser opportunities, take longer time, but talent finds its way," he said.

When asked about his recent tweet where he seemed to criticize Kangana's labeling of other actors like Taapsee Pannu and Swara Bhaskar, Nakuul said, "Kangana's opinion is her opinion. But as equal stakeholders in the industry, we must stand up for the right. Commercially, people might be in different levels, doing well or trying to do well but this labeling and categorising is below dignity. These talks can also happen with respect and love."

ALSO READ: Is Taapsee Pannu Backed By The 'Movie Mafia'? Find Out

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
On August 4, the Government of Canada announced that production on the first Armoured Combat Support Vehicle (ACSV) has begun in London, Ontario at the General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada manufacturing facilities. These new vehicles will fulfill a variety of combat support roles such as that of Troop/Cargo Vehicle (TCV), ambulance, command post, and mobile repair and recovery.

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Armoured Combat Support Vehicle in ambulance version (Picture source: Canadian MoD)

The contract for this project was awarded in September 2019, and since then, a number of subcontracts have been awarded by General Dynamics to allow work to start. These subcontracts represent over $137 million in investments to more than 30 Canadian businesses from coast to coast to coast, creating and sustaining over 400 jobs across the country.

This is a big step forward as the government continues to deliver on strong, secure, engaged, Canadas first fully costed and funded defence policy. As per the Industrial and Technological Benefits Policy, General Dynamics will re-invest an amount equal to the value of the contract to create and sustain well-paying jobs across the country.

These vehicles will replace the current fleets of M113 Tracked Light Armoured Vehicle (TLAV) and the LAV II Bison. The first vehicle is expected roll off the production line this December, with deliveries occurring through February 2025. Testing, training, and procurement of spare parts will be required before the initial vehicles are distributed to Canadian Armed Forces bases in 2022.

Training courses and a procedure for the production and purchase of spare parts are provided, so that when the first vehicles are delivered to the Canadian Army in 2022, no logistical and production surprises are expected, which in one way or another disrupts the planned production cycle.

According to Harjit S. Sajjan, Minister of National Defence of Canada these vehicles will form the backbone of the Armys combat support fleet, and be used on a wide range of operations including domestic disaster relief and international peace support missions. Thanks to the flexibility found in our defence policy, Strong, Secure, Engaged, work on the vehicles has started years earlier than expected and ensures that we continue to support well-paying Canadian jobs and critical innovation in communities across the country.

A contract was awarded to General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada on September 5, 2019. This contract has a value of approximately $2 billion for 360 ACSV, initial spare parts, technical manuals, and training. Subcontracts have been awarded to companies in seven provinces, and vary in value from $38,800 to $24,000,000. According to figures reported by Bulgarian Military, key investments include:

 $335,000 in Atlantic Canada to companies like L & A Metalworks Inc. and IMP Group Limited

$26,000,000 in Quebec to companies like Terminal & Cable TC Inc. and Thales Canada Inc. Optronics BU

 $89,000,000 in Ontario to companies like Abuma Manufacturing Limited, Cornell Welding & Fabricating Ltd., and J/E Bearing & Machine Ltd.

 $20,000,000 in Western Canada to companies like Analytic Systems Inc. and JNE Welding

The Canadian armys Armoured Combat Support Vehicles will be available in eight variants: ambulance, recovery, engineering, mobile repair, electronic warfare, troop carrier, and command post.
Prince George County police said they have arrested three people suspected of stealing more than $5,900 from gaming machines in the county.

Police said an investigation coordinated by the Sussex County Sheriff's Office determined that the trio had been traveling throughout Southern states, committing thefts from North Carolina to the Washington area. In Prince George, gaming machines were tampered with at three businesses between July 19 and Saturday.

On Tuesday, police arrested Tio M. Robinson, 36, of Decatur, Ga.; Demekos Anthony Barkley, 38, of Atlanta; and Ateilah Amatullah Janan Toon, 27, of Charlotte, N.C.

They were charged with multiple felony and misdemeanor offenses related to tampering and stealing of monies from gaming machines. All three were taken to Sussex County Jail.
Ron Wyden, one of Oregons Democratic senators, blasted the Department of Justice, Attorney General William Barr and the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security for the use of tear gas by federal law enforcement in Portland over the past month.

Wyden also sent a list of questions to federal officials asking what chemical agents were used in Portland, whether any medical experts were consulted on the use of respiratory irritants during a pandemic and whether officers used expired cans of the gas.

Your agencies deployed a number of federal agents to Portland last month, Wyden wrote. The agents responded to largely peaceful demonstrations by firing less-lethal rounds at protestors and by using tear gas on them night after night.

Residents of downtown Portland, including the houseless community, were exposed to these dangerous chemicals regardless of whether they took part in the protests, Wyden continued. This response would be disturbing under any circumstances but it is completely unacceptable in the middle of a global respiratory pandemic.

Federal agents were deployed to Portland in early July to guard the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse after sustained demonstrations over the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis, systemic racism and police brutality.

The arrival of federal officers appeared to swell attendance at the nightly protests, which had been waning, and thousands showed up on a nightly basis, often peacefully for hours, before clashes with federal officers often began in the late-night hours.

Protesters lit fires, attempted to dismantle a fence around the courthouse and threw rocks at federal officers, who shot pepper balls, threw stun grenades into the crowds and deployed tear gas across blocks of the downtown core. Several protesters have been seriously injured by crowd-control munitions. Federal agents have seen an unknown number of injuries as well, including broken bones, hearing and eye damage and chemical burns, according to federal officials.

Since the federal officials turned over protection of the courthouse to state troopers last week, the use of tear gas downtown has been largely nonexistent, though Portland police have used it to disperse protesters after riots were declared in other parts of the city. Local law enforcement also used tear gas on numerous occasions before federal agents showed up, a practice Mayor Ted Wheeler apologized for.

While the short-term effects of tear gas  coughing, watery eyes, respiratory irritation  are well known, Wydens letter was focused on the long-term health implications of exposure to the gas after it blanketed the area around the courthouse almost every night for about a month.

Kaiser Permanente has begun studying the effects of tear gas on protesters, and Oregon Public Broadcasting interviewed more than two dozen demonstrators who said their menstrual cycles have been irregular since they were exposed to the gas.

Among the questions for which Wyden demanded answers:

What chemical agents have DOJ and DHS agents used in Portland? Please list all chemical irritants and riot control agents.

What processes do your agencies and their subcomponents follow when determining whether to use tear gas or riot control agents? Are DOJ and DHS officials required to indicate that they have exhausted all other options before using tear gas or riot control agents?

How did your agencies assess the risk of using tear gas on protesters during this respiratory pandemic? Did you agencies consider the impact that tear gas would have on protesters who may be infected and asymptomatic?

Has either of your agencies ever conducted an examination of the impact that tear gas or riot control agents has on human physiology? If so, what were the conclusions? If not, why not?

Has either of your agencies asked other federal agencies to examine the impact tear gas or riot control agents has on human physiology? If so, which agencies? If not, why not?

Has either of your agencies consulted with outside medical experts on the impact tear gas or riot control agents has on human physiology? If not, why not?

Press reports and photo evidence indicate that some of the tear gas may have come from expired cans. Did either of your agencies or any of their subcomponents use expired canisters of tear gas or riot control agents in Portland?

Do your agencies have processes in place to ensure that all tear gas canisters and riot control agents have not yet expired? If so, please describe that process. If not, will you create such a process?

The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to an email seeking a comment on the letter. Wyden asked for answers by Aug. 31.

-- Kale Williams; kwilliams@oregonian.com; 503-294-4048; @sfkale

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn after he landed aboard Marine One at the White House in Washington on July 27, 2020. (Alex Wong/Getty Images

Debate Commission Denies Trump Campaign Requests

The commission in charge of presidential debates denied a request for now by President Donald Trumps campaign for a fourth debate between him and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

Trumps lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, also asked the Commission on Presidential Debates to, if a fourth debate wasnt granted, move up the final debate to early September. The commission also rejected that request.

In a letter to Giuliani on Thursday, the commission challenged Giulianis assertions that as many as millions of Americans will have started voting by the time of the first debate on Sept. 29.

There is a difference between ballots having been issued by a state and those ballots having been cast by voters, who are under no compulsion to return their ballots before the debates, commissioners wrote. In 2016, with a similar debate schedule, only .0069 percent of the electorate had voted by the time of the first debate.

While more people will likely vote by mail in 2020, the debate schedule has been and will be highly publicized. Any voter who wishes to watch one or more debates before voting will be well aware of that opportunity, the letter stated.

Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks about his plans to combat racial inequality at a campaign event in Wilmington, Del., on July 28, 2020. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

The commission didnt give a reason for not adding a fourth debate except for saying it would consider a request if both candidates agree they wish to add to the current schedule.

In a reply letter later Thursday, Giuliani wrote: We are disappointed in your response, but appreciate your openness to a fourth, or earlier, debate if the candidates were to agree that they wished to add to that schedule.

We continue to believe that the American people deserve to see their candidates for president compare their records and visions for the United States before actual voting begins, he added.

At present, three debates are scheduled: one for Sept. 29 in Cleveland, Ohio; one for Oct. 15 in Miami, Florida; and one for Oct. 22 in Nashville, Tennessee.

Biden campaign spokesman TJ Ducklo said in a statement that Biden will attend the three debates.

Now that Donald Trumps transparent attempt to distract from his disastrous response to the virus is over, maybe now he can focus on saving American lives and getting our economy back on track, he added.

A separate debate between Vice President Mike Pence and whomever Biden chooses as his running mate is slated to take place in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Oct. 7.

In regards to the Trump campaign seeking information about the commissions backup plans, the commission said it is working closely with the Cleveland Clinic, which it has retained as a consultant, on all aspects of debate planning potentially affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Commission will be ready for any contingency that is necessary as a result of the pandemic, it said.

Finally, the commission said it will stick to its longstanding procedure in selecting moderators. Giuliani included a list of people the Trump campaign desires to moderate, including Fox News anchor Bret Baier and CBS News anchor Norah ODonnell.
Mondi plc

Incorporated in England and Wales

Registered number: 6209386

Tax registration number: 454 12394 14454

LEI: 213800LOZA69QFDC9N34

LSE share code: MNDI ISIN: GB00B1CRLC47

JSE share code: MNP

6 August 2020

Mondi Group - Interim Dividends ZAR/euro Exchange Rate

This morning in our half-year results announcement we announced the Board was pleased to resume the payment of dividends. The Board has declared a dividend of 29.75 euro cents per ordinary share relating to the year ended 31 December 2019. In addition, the Board has declared an interim dividend of 19.00 euro cents per ordinary share for the year ending 31 December 2020.

Both dividends, amounting to a total of 48.75 euro cents per share, will be paid as interim dividends on Tuesday 29 September 2020 to all Mondi plc ordinary shareholders on either the UK main register or the South African branch register on Friday 21 August 2020.

The same timetable will be followed for both.

Mondi plc will pay its dividends in euro. However, ordinary shareholders resident in the United Kingdom will receive the dividends in sterling (unless shareholders have elected to receive their dividend in euro). The last date for euro currency elections will be Monday 7 September 2020. The exchange rate will be set on Tuesday 15 September 2020.

Shareholders holding their shares on the South African branch register will receive the dividends in South African rand cents, converted at a rate of EUR 1 to ZAR 20.80457. Therefore, the equivalent gross dividend relating to the year ended 31 December 2019 in rand cents per ordinary share will be 618.93596 and the equivalent gross 2020 interim dividend in rand cents per ordinary share will be 395.28683.

For shareholders holding their shares on the South African branch register, the dividend will, for South African dividends tax purposes, be taxed like local dividends. As such, for South African tax resident shareholders holding their shares on the South African branch register, dividends withholding tax will be withheld from the dividends payable to these shareholders at a rate of 20%, unless a shareholder qualifies for an exemption, resulting in a net dividend relating to the year ended 31 December 2019 of 495.14877 rand cents per ordinary share and a net 2020 interim dividend of 316.22946 rand cents per ordinary share. Shareholders holding their shares on the South African branch register who are not tax resident in South Africa are exempted from South African dividends withholdings tax.

For the purposes of South Africa dividends tax reporting, the source of income for the payment of the dividends is the United Kingdom.

Additional Information

The interim dividends will be paid from income reserves.

Mondi plc had a total of 485,553,780 ordinary shares in issue of which 135,556,939 were held on the branch register, excluding treasury shares, at the dividend declaration date of 6 August 2020.

About Mondi

Mondi is a global leader in packaging and paper, contributing to a better world by making innovative, packaging and paper solutions that are sustainable by design. Our business is fully integrated across the value chain - from managing forests and producing pulp, paper and plastic films, to developing and manufacturing effective industrial and consumer packaging solutions. Sustainability is at the centre of our strategy and intrinsic in the way we do business. We lead the industry with our customer- centric approach, EcoSolutions, where we ask the right questions to find the most sustainable solution. In 2019, Mondi had revenues of 7.27 billion and underlying EBITDA of 1.66 billion.

Mondi has a premium listing on the London Stock Exchange (MNDI), and a secondary listing on the JSE Limited (MNP). Mondi is a FTSE 100 constituent, and has been included in the FTSE4Good Index Series since 2008 and the FTSE/JSE Responsible Investment Index Series since 2007.

Sponsor in South Africa: UBS South Africa Proprietary Limited.
Former first lady Michelle Obama said on her Spotify podcast Wednesday that it's "exhausting" waking up daily to "yet another story" of a Black person being dehumanized, hurt, killed or falsely accused of something.

The big picture: Obama was speaking in the context of the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests prompted by May's death in police custody of George Floyd. "I know that I am dealing with some form of low-grade depression," she said. "Not just because of the quarantine, but because of the racial strife, and just seeing this administration, watching the hypocrisy of it, day in and day out, is dispiriting."

Go deeper: Barack and Michelle Obama sign podcast production
Washington: A former top Saudi intelligence officer and close US intelligence ally has accused Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of targeting him for assassination and taking his children hostage because he has knowledge of damaging secrets about the prince's rise to power.

In a federal lawsuit filed in Washington, Saad Aljabri said "there is virtually no one that Defendant bin Salman wants dead" more than him because of his relationship with the American government as "a longtime trusted partner of senior US intelligence officials".

Aljabri - now living in exile in Toronto - is "uniquely positioned to existentially threaten Defendant bin Salman's standing with the US Government," the lawsuit said.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Credit:AP

In a detailed complaint running more than 100 pages, Aljabri alleges that the Saudi leader orchestrated a conspiracy to kill him in Canada that parallels one that resulted in the death and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, the dissident Saudi journalist. The CIA has assessed that Mohammed likely ordered Khashoggi's killing himself.
US Intel Agency Urges Military Personnel to Turn Off Cellphone Location Data Over Security Concerns

Sputnik News

20:32 GMT 05.08.2020

The US National Security Agency (NSA) issued new guidance on Tuesday advising military and intelligence-community personnel to turn off location-sharing services on their cellphones to prevent security breaches.

"Location data can be extremely valuable and must be protected. It can reveal details about the number of users in a location, user and supply movements, daily routines (user and organizational), and can expose otherwise unknown associations between users and locations," the NSA bulletin warned.

In the alert, the NSA also noted that even if cellular service is turned off for a mobile device, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth can still be used to identify a user's location. Tech companies can then sell parts of that data to marketers, advertisers or other customers.

"Inconspicuous equipment (e.g., wireless sniffers) can determine signal strength and calculate location, even when the user is not actively using the wireless services. Even if all wireless radios are disabled, numerous sensors on the device provide sufficient data to calculate location," the agency said.

The agency also warned that other gadgets that connect to the internet, including fitness trackers, smart watches, some medical devices and other household smart devices, could be susceptible to security breaches and may reveal sensitive location data.

"While there are countless benefits to using mobile devices, location data exposure can be a risk to users," Neal Ziring, technical director for cybersecurity at the NSA, said in a statement to the Wall Street Journal.

"NSA publishes technical and threat analyses based on our authorities and customer needs. As connected mobile devices continue to expand into more networks, we've received more queries from our national security customers about using them securely."

The warning comes as tensions between Washington and Beijing grow over the Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok, with US President Donald Trump last week saying he plans to ban the app from the US over concerns that China may be using it to collect data on American citizens and businesses.

Most recently, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters Wednesday that the Land of the Free wants to "see untrusted Chinese apps removed from app stores," noting that apps TikTok and messenger platform WeChat post significant threats to Americans' personal data.

Microsoft on Sunday revealed that it is in talks to buy some operations of TikTok. Trump this week said he would allow an American company like Microsoft to buy the app, with the caveat that the US Treasury would get a "very large percentage" of the selling price.

"Whether it's Microsoft or somebody else, or if it's the Chinese - what the price is, the United States could - should get a very large percentage of that price. Because we're making it possible," he said, CNN reported.

A Sputnik

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Poultry Feed Market by Feed Type (Complete feed, Concentrates, and Premix): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20192023." According to the report, the global poultry feed market generated $114.99 billion in 2018, and is expected to reach $157.71 billion by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 6.9% from 2019 to 2023.

Surge in consumption of poultry meat and changes in consumption patterns drive the growth of the global poultry feed market. However, prices of poultry feed and prevalence of diseases from poultry hinder the market growth. On the other hand, increase in global population and rise in demand for fast food & processed food present new opportunities in the market.

Request Sample Report at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/5392

The Complete feed segment to maintain its lion's share by 2023

Based on products, the complete feed segment held the major share in 2018, accounting for more than 85% of the total market share in 2018, and is estimated to maintain its lion's share during the forecast period. This is due to rise in demand for animal protein and surge in poultry exports from Asia-Pacific. However, the concentrates segment is expected to register the fastest growth rate with a CAGR of 8.6% from 2019 to 2023. This is attributed to changes in food consumption habits and trend of vertical farming. The report also analyzes the premix segment.

Asia-Pacific to offer lucrative opportunities

Asia-Pacific accounted for nearly one-third of the total share in 2018, and is estimated to maintain its dominant position during the forecast period. This region is expected to grow at the fastest CAGR of 9.3% from 2019 to 2023. This is due to growth in population, social factors such as traditional poultry consumption patterns, and strong economic growth. The research also offers a detailed analysis on North America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, and South America.

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Leading market players

Leading market players analyzed in the research include Cargill Inc., Tyson Foods, Inc., Land O'Lakes, Inc., ADM Animal Nutrition, Alltech, J.D. Heiskell & Co., Perdue Farms Inc., Hi-Pro Feeds, Inc., Kent Nutrition Group, Inc., and Southern States Cooperative.

About Allied Market Research:

Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of Market Research Reports and Business Intelligence Solutions. AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domains. AMR offers its services across 11 industry verticals including Life Sciences, Consumer Goods, Materials & Chemicals, Construction & Manufacturing, Food & Beverages, Energy & Power, Semiconductor & Electronics, Automotive & Transportation, ICT & Media, Aerospace & Defense, and BFSI.

We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.

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A South Alabama mother has been identified as a woman who drowned while swimming near the Clayhatchee Boat Ramp over the weekend.

The Dale County Sheriffs Office Thursday identified the drowning victim as Anna Waller of Samson. She was 35.

Ozark-Dale County E911 on Saturday received a call about 2:14 p.m. of a person missing at the Choctawhatchee River boat ramp on Highway 92, said Chief Deputy Mason Bynum. Multiple deputies, along with Clayhatchee police, responded. At 5:36 p.m., a rescue diver recovered Wallers body about 75 yards downstream from the ramp.

Others taking part in the recovery process included the Houston County Sheriffs Office, Clayhatchee Fire, Daleville Department of Public Safety, Wicksburg Fire, Houston County Rescue Unit, Dale County District Attorney Kirke Adams, Alabama Game and Fish and the Dale County Coroners Office.

Anna Waller (Facebook)

Wallers body was sent to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences for an autopsy. On preliminary investigation, we believe alcohol played a role in this incident,' Bynum said.

Waller leaves behind three children, according to her obituary. She was a bright star among so many. Her personality flowed from her in abundance. She was a very avid Alabama Crimson Tide fan and you would often hear that beautiful Roll Tide leave her lips,' her obituary reads. Anna never met a stranger and talked to everyone she had the chance to meet. She loved crab legs and could eat her weight in them. She loved makeup, hair, flowers, and music but most of all her children and family. If you ever met her you knew you had met her. And to know her was to love her. She was a warrior.
Official Admitted Iran Ignores Suppression Of Chinese Muslims, Former Lawmaker Claims

Radio Farda August 05, 2020

Outspoken former lawmaker Ali Motahari on Wednesday said a high-ranking Foreign Ministry official has admitted to him that Iran remains silent about the suppression of Chinese Muslims -- mainly Uyghurs -- because of economic dependence on China.

Speaking to Asr-e Iran news website, Motahari said he asked the official about the reason of Iran's silence a while back. "We are forced to silence because of needing [China] economically, the official said according to Motahari.

Motahari has not named the official but he is probably referring to a conversation with Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif.

"I told him why do you have to push relations with the rest of the world to the point that you have to fall in China's lap?," Motahari told Asr-e Iran.

The outspoken conservative figure has recently stirred a lot of controversy among hardliner political figures close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei about the situation of Uyghur Muslims in China.

He has accused the Iranian government of "double standards" and the Chinese government of attempting to uproot Muslims in the Xinjiang Province of China. "They have destroyed many mosques in Xinjiang and do not allow [Muslims] to hold their religious ceremonies. They even sterilize their women to prevent their population from increasing, I have heard," he said.

"Officials have closed their eyes to this gross injustice and are silent because of the need for economic relations with China," Motahari stressed and called on hardliners not to remain silent about the issue. "Enmity with the West should not make us dependent on the East [China and Russia] in a way that we cannot even protest to [the ill-treatment of Muslims in] China," he added.

The three-time representative of Tehran in parliament was disqualified by the hardliner election watchdog, the Guardian Council, from running in the February elections for the current Parliament.

Motahari has come under heavy attacks from hardliners for his revelations about Iran's double standards regarding violation of the rights of Chinese Muslims.

His critics claim that governments such as Saudi Arabia are planning to promote Wahabism in Xinjiang and that ISIS is going to spread in the region if the Chinese government does not confront these groups.

Source: https://en.radiofarda.com/a/official-admitted- iran-ignores-suppression-of-chinese-muslims- former-lawmaker-claims/30768079.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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OP-ED: Taxes and Biden

Let's talk taxes. Those that know me know my career has been in taxes for over 35 years. During that time, I've seen taxes rise and fall. Part of my business is also doing accounting for small businesses. Here's the bottom line, as taxes rise business contracts, as taxes fall business expands. When business expands, more people work and spend their money, and the economy does better everywhere. Are you listening Mr. Biden? Because you clearly do not understand this basic premise. You have stated that the first thing you will do is repeal the Trump tax cuts! Are you kidding me? The Trump tax cuts have done more for the American people and business than any other tax change in my and my families association in the tax business (more than fifty years) than anything else has. Joe, Joe, listen carefully; lower taxes are better for people, jobs, and business. When people work, they pay taxes; when business works, they pay taxes. It's so simple that even you should be able to understand it. John F Kennedy understood it. Go look. He was the original supply-side economic president of our time. Joe Biden's plan raises taxes by over four trillion dollars over the next ten years. That's before he adds the 3.4 trillion in free stuff.



Biden has proposed a 3.4 trillion spending plan. Let me spell this out. $3,400,000,000,000. Joe, look at all the zeros! The American people can't afford that kind of spending! In Joe Bidens' world, everything is free. The problem is someone has to pay for all the free stuff. That someone is the people who work. That's you. As the song goes, "Here in the Real World," people have to work to earn money. This is a concept that Biden clearly does not get. That because he's spent a half-century in Washington DC where all he ever built was his part of the swamp. Any time Joe needs something, he just votes to raise your taxes, or lines up foreign jobs for his family.



Speaking of foreign, Joe Bidens' tax plan raises American tax to a rate higher than Chinas. Who's side are you on Joe. The whooshing sound will be the jobs and money going back to China. Eighty-two percent of Americans will see a tax increase under Joe Bidens' tax and spend plan. This will cripple the American economy. When you look at the numbers, His plan will cost us 585,000 jobs. Or about one and a half percent of our economy.



Then while he's at it, he stated he would reinstate the Obamacare individual mandate. Because evidently, you aren't paying enough through taxes, so he'll raise the cost of your healthcare as well. The cost of healthcare continues to eat up more and more of our paychecks, and Joe wants to go back penalizing you if you can't afford to buy the plan, he thinks you should have.



Joe Biden has a vision for America that looks like he cares more about giving away what you've earned. He wants to raise taxes, shrink the jobs market, send business and jobs to China and then when you can't afford to feed your family, let alone buy health insurance; he'll fine you for that too. Joe Biden might be good for some country, but he is not good for America. Joe Biden says, "Our Best Days Still Lie Ahead" I just wonder who he's talking too.


Law Offices of Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP If you would like to know more about the AxleHire, Inc. lawsuit, please contact Attorney Nicholas J. De Blouw today by calling (800) 568-8020.

The San Francisco employment law attorneys, at Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP, filed a class action complaint alleging that AxleHire, Inc. failed to provide their California employees with accurate wages. The AxleHire, Inc. class action lawsuit, Case No. RG20067350, is currently pending in the Alameda Superior Court of the State of California. A copy of the Complaint can be read here.

According to the lawsuit filed in the Alameda Superior Court, AxleHire, Inc., committed acts of unfair competition in violation of the California Unfair Competition Law, Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code  17200, et seq. (the UCL), by "engaging in a company-wide policy, practice and procedure which failed to correctly classify PLAINTIFF and the CALIFORNIA CLASS Members as employees."

Additionally, the lawsuit alleges DEFENDANT failed to reimburse employees for required business expenses. Cal. Lab. Code  2802 expressly states that "an employer shall indemnify his or her employee for all necessary expenditures or losses incurred by the employee in direct consequence of the discharge of his or her duties."

If you would like to know more about the AxleHire, Inc. lawsuit, please contact Attorney Nicholas J. De Blouw today by calling (800) 568-8020.

Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP is an employment law firm with offices located in San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Riverside and Chicago that dedicates its practice to helping employees, investors and consumers fight back against unfair business practices, including violations of the California Labor Code and Fair Labor Standards Act. If you need help in collecting unpaid overtime wages, unpaid commissions, being wrongfully terminated from work, and other employment law claims, contact one of their attorneys today.

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Taking advantage of a total lunar eclipse, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have detected Earth's own brand of sunscreen - ozone - in our atmosphere. This method simulates how astronomers and astrobiology researchers will search for evidence of life beyond Earth by observing potential "biosignatures" on exoplanets (planets around other stars).

Hubble did not look at Earth directly. Instead, the astronomers used the Moon as a mirror to reflect sunlight, which had passed through Earth's atmosphere, and then reflected back towards Hubble. Using a space telescope for eclipse observations reproduces the conditions under which future telescopes would measure atmospheres of transiting exoplanets. These atmospheres may contain chemicals of interest to astrobiology, the study of and search for life.

Though numerous ground-based observations of this kind have been done previously, this is the first time a total lunar eclipse was captured at ultraviolet wavelengths and from a space telescope. Hubble detected the strong spectral fingerprint of ozone, which absorbs some of the sunlight. Ozone is important to life because it is the source of the protective shield in Earth's atmosphere.

On Earth, photosynthesis over billions of years is responsible for our planet's high oxygen levels and thick ozone layer. That's one reason why scientists think ozone or oxygen could be a sign of life on another planet, and refer to them as biosignatures.

"Finding ozone is significant because it is a photochemical byproduct of molecular oxygen, which is itself a byproduct of life," explained Allison Youngblood of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder, Colorado, lead researcher of Hubble's observations.

Although ozone in Earth's atmosphere had been detected in previous ground-based observations during lunar eclipses, Hubble's study represents the strongest detection of the molecule to date because ozone - as measured from space with no interference from other chemicals in the Earth's atmosphere - absorbs ultraviolet light so strongly.

Hubble recorded ozone absorbing some of the Sun's ultraviolet radiation that passed through the edge of Earth's atmosphere during a lunar eclipse that occurred on January 20 to 21, 2019. Several other ground-based telescopes also made spectroscopic observations at other wavelengths during the eclipse, searching for more of Earth's atmospheric ingredients, such as oxygen and methane.

"One of NASA's major goals is to identify planets that could support life," Youngblood said. "But how would we know a habitable or an uninhabited planet if we saw one? What would they look like with the techniques that astronomers have at their disposal for characterizing the atmospheres of exoplanets? That's why it's important to develop models of Earth's spectrum as a template for categorizing atmospheres on extrasolar planets."

Her paper is available online in The Astronomical Journal.

Sniffing Out Planetary Atmospheres

The atmospheres of some extrasolar planets can be probed if the alien world passes across the face of its parent star, an event called a transit. During a transit, starlight filters through the backlit exoplanet's atmosphere. (If viewed close up, the planet's silhouette would look like it had a thin, glowing "halo" around it caused by the illuminated atmosphere, just as Earth does when seen from space.)

Chemicals in the atmosphere leave their telltale signature by filtering out certain colors of starlight. Astronomers using Hubble pioneered this technique for probing exoplanets. This is particularly remarkable because extrasolar planets had not yet been discovered when Hubble was launched in 1990 and the space observatory was not initially designed for such experiments.

So far, astronomers have used Hubble to observe the atmospheres of gas giant planets and super-Earths (planets several times Earth's mass) that transit their stars. But terrestrial planets about the size of Earth are much smaller objects and their atmospheres are thinner, like the skin on an apple. Therefore, teasing out these signatures from Earth-sized exoplanets will be much harder.

That's why researchers will need space telescopes much larger than Hubble to collect the feeble starlight passing through these small planets' atmospheres during a transit. These telescopes will need to observe planets for a longer period, many dozens of hours, to build up a strong signal.

To prepare for these bigger telescopes, astronomers decided to conduct experiments on a much closer and only known inhabited terrestrial planet: Earth. Our planet's perfect alignment with the Sun and Moon during a total lunar eclipse mimics the geometry of a terrestrial planet transiting its star.

But the observations were also challenging because the Moon is very bright, and its surface is not a perfect reflector because it is mottled with bright and dark areas. The Moon is also so close to Earth that Hubble had to try and keep a steady eye on one select region, despite the Moon's motion relative to the space observatory. So, Youngblood's team had to account for the Moon's drift in their analysis.

Where There's Ozone, There's Life?

Finding ozone in the skies of a terrestrial extrasolar planet does not guarantee that life exists on the surface. "You would need other spectral signatures in addition to ozone to conclude that there was life on the planet, and these signatures cannot necessarily be seen in ultraviolet light," Youngblood said.

On Earth, ozone is formed naturally when oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere is exposed to strong concentrations of ultraviolet light. Ozone forms a blanket around Earth, protecting it from harsh ultraviolet rays.

"Photosynthesis might be the most productive metabolism that can evolve on any planet, because it is fueled by energy from starlight and uses cosmically abundant elements like water and carbon dioxide," said Giada Arney of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, a co-author of the science paper. "These necessary ingredients should be common on habitable planets."

Seasonal variability in the ozone signature also could indicate seasonal biological production of oxygen, just as it does with the growth seasons of plants on Earth.

But ozone can also be produced without the presence of life when nitrogen and oxygen are exposed to sunlight. To increase confidence that a given biosignature is truly produced by life, astronomers must search for combinations of biosignatures. A multiwavelength campaign is needed because each of the many biosignatures are more easily detected at wavelengths specific to those signatures.

"Astronomers will also have to take the developmental stage of the planet into account when looking at younger stars with young planets. If you wanted to detect oxygen or ozone from a planet similar to the early Earth, when there was less oxygen in our atmosphere, the spectral features in optical and infrared light aren't strong enough," Arney explained. "We think Earth had low concentrations of ozone before the mid-Proterozoic geological period (between roughly 2.0 billion to 0.7 billion years ago) when photosynthesis contributed to the build up of oxygen and ozone in the atmosphere to the levels we see today. But because the ultraviolet-light signature of ozone features is very strong, you would have a hope of detecting small amounts of ozone. The ultraviolet may therefore be the best wavelength for detecting photosynthetic life on low-oxygen exoplanets."

NASA has a forthcoming observatory called the James Webb Space Telescope that could make similar kinds of measurements in infrared light, with the potential to detect methane and oxygen in exoplanet atmospheres. Webb is currently scheduled to launch in 2021.

###
Representative image

As the United States and other countries anxiously consider how to reopen schools, Israel, one of the first countries to do so, illustrates the dangers of moving too precipitously.

Confident it had beaten the coronavirus and desperate to reboot a devastated economy, the Israeli government invited the entire student body back in late May.

Within days, infections were reported at a Jerusalem high school, which quickly mushroomed into the largest outbreak in a single school in Israel, possibly the world.

The virus rippled out to the students homes and then to other schools and neighborhoods, ultimately infecting hundreds of students, teachers and relatives.

Other outbreaks forced hundreds of schools to close. Across the country, tens of thousands of students and teachers were quarantined.

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

Israels advice for other countries?

They definitely should not do what we have done, said Eli Waxman, a professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science and chairman of the team advising Israels National Security Council on the pandemic. It was a major failure.

The lesson, experts say, is that even communities that have gotten the spread of the virus under control need to take strict precautions when reopening schools. Smaller classes, mask wearing, keeping desks 6 feet apart and providing adequate ventilation, they say, are likely to be crucial until a vaccine is available.

If there is a low number of cases, there is an illusion that the disease is over, said Dr. Hagai Levine, a professor of epidemiology and chairman of the Israeli Association of Public Health Physicians. But its a complete illusion.

The mistake in Israel, he said, is that you can open the education system, but you have to do it gradually, with certain limits, and you have to do it in a very careful way.

The United States is facing similar pressures to fully reopen schools, and President Donald Trump has threatened to withhold funding for districts that dont reopen. But the U.S. is in a far worse position than Israel was in May: Israel had fewer than 100 new infections a day then. The U.S. is now averaging more than 60,000 new cases a day, and some states continue to set alarming records.

Israels handling of the pandemic was considered successful at first. The country of 9 million quickly closed its borders, shuttered schools in mid-March and introduced remote learning for its 2 million students. In April, Passover and Ramadan were celebrated under lockdown.

By early May, infection rates had fallen from over 750 confirmed cases a day to double digits. The youngest students, grades 3 and under, and older students taking final exams returned in small groups, splitting the week to take turns using classrooms.

Emboldened by the dropping infection rates, the government completely reopened schools on May 17, the day a new government was sworn in.

In his inaugural speech, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised a new budget that would deliver three things: Jobs, jobs, jobs. His new education minister, Yoav Gallant, said that the school systems immediate mission was to allow parents to return to work with peace of mind.

Inna Zaltsman, an Education Ministry official, said administrators also wanted to return the children to routine as much as possible, for their emotional and pedagogic well-being.

Shopping malls, outdoor markets and gyms had already reopened, and soon houses of worship, restaurants, bars, hotels and wedding halls did too. Netanyahu told Israelis to grab a beer and, while taking precautions, Go out and have a good time.

In hindsight, that advice was wildly premature.

That same day, a mother phoned a teacher at Jerusalems Gymnasia Haivrit high school. Her son, a seventh-grade student there, had tested positive for the virus.

By the next day, the school confirmed another case in the ninth grade. Ultimately, Israeli officials said, 154 students and 26 staff members were found to be infected.

There was a general euphoria among the public, a sense that we had dealt with the first wave well and that it was behind us, said Danniel Leibovitch, Gymnasias principal. Of course, that wasnt true.

The Education Ministry had issued safety instructions: Masks were to be worn by students in fourth grade and higher, windows kept open, hands washed frequently and students kept 6 feet apart whenever possible.

But in many Israeli schools, where up to 38 children squeeze into classrooms of about 500 square feet, physical distancing proved impossible.

Unable to comply with the rules, some local authorities ignored them or simply decided not to reopen at full capacity.

Then a heat wave hit. Parents complained that it was inhumane to make children wear masks in steaming classrooms where open windows nullified the air conditioning.

In response, the government exempted everyone from wearing masks for four days, and schools shut the windows.

That decision proved disastrous, experts say.

Instead of canceling school in those days, they just told the kids OK, well you have to stay in the class with the air conditioning on and take your masks off, so you have no ventilation really, said Dr. Ronit Calderon-Margalit, a professor of epidemiology at Hebrew University-Hadassah Braun School of Public Health. You have the ideal circumstances for an outbreak.

The Gymnasia became a petri dish for COVID-19.

When the first case was discovered, the students classmates, teachers and other contacts were quarantined. After the second case, which was not directly linked to the first, the school was closed and everyone was instructed to quarantine for two weeks. All students and staff were tested, often waiting in line for hours.

About 60% of infected students were asymptomatic. Teachers suffered the most and a few were hospitalized, the principal said.

Parents were furious. Oz Arbel told Israels Army Radio that for a school project, his daughters classmates sat at a table and passed around a cellphone with a teacher who was showing symptoms. His daughter and wife became infected.

One Gymnasia student, Ofek Amzaleg, told Kan public radio that a teacher who coughed in class and joked that he didnt have coronavirus was among those who tested positive. Ofek also became infected.

Leibovitch, the principal, said he had no knowledge of any teacher coming in with symptoms.

Seeking to contain the contagion, the Education Ministry vowed to shut any school with even one COVID-19 case. It ultimately closed more than 240 schools and quarantined more than 22,520 teachers and students.

When the school year ended in late June, the ministry said, 977 pupils and teachers had contracted COVID-19.

But the Health Ministry, lacking the infrastructure and resources, did not make contact tracing a priority. In the Gymnasia case, Waxman said, nobody even identified which buses the students had ridden to school on.

Proms were canceled, but graduating seniors in the central city of Raanana held an underground prom party anyway. Dozens contracted the virus.

A nursery schoolteacher, Shalva Zalfreund, 64, sent a note to parents saying she believed she had been infected in her school, where some parents had sent their children from homes with cases of the virus. She died in July.

Outside school walls, the coronavirus returned with a vengeance. COVID wards that had closed with festive ceremonies in late April began filling again, with confirmed infections spiraling to about 800 a day by late June and over 2,000 a day by late July.

Some blamed the hasty school reopening as a major factor in the second wave. Siegal Sadetzki, who resigned in frustration last month as Israels director of public health services, wrote that insufficient safety precautions in schools, as well as large gatherings like weddings, fueled a significant portion of second-wave infections.

But others said singling out schools was unfair when the real problem was that everything reopened too quickly.

The single super-spreader event in the Gymnasia just happened to be in a school, said Dr. Ran Balicer, an Israeli health care official and adviser to the prime minister on the pandemic. It could have happened in any other setting.

Now Israel is confronting the same questions as other countries, trying to learn from its mistakes in planning for the school year that begins Sept. 1.

Public health experts worldwide have coalesced around a set of guidelines for reopening schools.

A major recommendation is to create groups of 10 to 15 students who stay together in classrooms, at recess and lunchtime, with teachers assigned to only one group. Each group has minimal contact with other groups, limiting any spread of infection. And if a case of COVID-19 emerges, one group can be quarantined at home while others can continue at school.

Other key recommendations include staggering schedules or teaching older students online, keeping desks several feet apart, sanitizing classrooms more frequently, providing ventilation and opening windows if possible, and requiring masks for staff and students old enough to wear them properly.

Israel has already moved in that direction.

The government recently appointed a coronavirus czar, Dr. Ronni Gamzu, who transferred responsibility for virus testing and investigation from the Health Ministry to the military. This is an operation, not medicine, he declared.

On Sunday, the government approved plans for returning only grades 2 and lower to school in full-size classes in the fall. Younger children are less likely to become seriously ill, and there is growing evidence that they are less likely than adults and teenagers to transmit the virus to others.

The plans also call for splitting older students into capsules of 18 and for mostly online instruction for grades 5 and above. Principals will have the flexibility to adjust their schools policies based on local conditions.

Even those measures may not be enough.

Menashe Levy, president of the Israeli High School Principals Association, arranged desks 6 feet apart in a standard classroom. It could accommodate 14 students, not 18.

Israel is plunging ahead. Only one option has been ruled out: closing the schools.

This is a long-term pandemic, said Dr. Nadav Davidovitch, a pandemic policy adviser to the government. We cannot close schools for a year.

c.2020 The New York Times Company
Waterfront cottage sale volumes and prices in Peterborough County have significantly increased since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the owner of Ball Real Estate Inc. brokerage.

The market across the board is up, but waterfront particularly is being sought after. I would say sale prices are up in the neighbourhood of 15 per cent over last year, which is insane, said owner and broker Greg Ball.

In terms of sale volumes, Ball said their counts are up month over month from last year.

Our little firm had 81 solid sales in June and 90 in July. That is essentially three solid sales a day, every single day during the month, he said.

The majority of properties are being purchased by people from the Greater Toronto Area, Ball said.

A lot of things have changed, like work-from-home programs and a re-sense of life in general  whats important and getting out of the city, he said. As I say to any sellers, if they were in lockdown on a 13th floor condo, were looking pretty attractive on a two-acre lot with no neighbours.

While theres an abundance of people wanting to buy cottages in the region, there arent as many people willing to sell, Ball said.

Its a nice safe haven with COVID going on, with the lake and being away from everything, and prices are bating a few people to sell, but not near as many as we have wanting to buy, he said.

Despite summer coming to an end, Ball believes sale volumes and prices are going to continue to climb in regards to waterfront cottages.

I do not think were going to see a hiccup in waterfront, I think its going to continue to move as strong as it is, he said.

The Trent-Severn Waterway  or simply access to it from other lakes  has been the desired cottage location for many buyers, Ball said.

I mean anywhere to get on the Trent-Severn, so Stoney and Clear have been extremely sought after, but theres very little inventory, he said.

Buckhorn Lake, Chemong Lake, Pigeon Lake and Big Bald Lake have also been very desirable Ball said, but all waterfront properties regardless of their locations are being sold because of the eagerness buyers have to simply own a cottage in the region.

Things are moving. Small lakes, big lakes  just whatever their price point can get them, Ball said. They love the Kawarthas. How could you not? Ive always joked that everybody in Toronto has one thing in common, and thats to make their money, retire and get out of Toronto.
Four Good Samaritans who raced to rescue an 87-year-old man from his sinking car amid floods caused by Storm Isaias ended up getting sucked into a drainage pipe and washed out in a creek hundreds of feet away - but miraculously survived.

The elderly man was in his car at the Lantana Square Shopping Center in Hockessin, Delaware, when it was trapped by the rising flood waters, and began to get sucked into a drainage culvert.

The dramatic rescue attempt was caught on video, showing the four wading out into the flooded parking lot to rescue the driver.

But the courageous strangers soon discovered that they were no match for the swift torrents of water when all four were sucked into the drainage pipe and carried hundreds of feet through it to a creek.

The drainage pipe is the same one that claimed the lives of two men in their 20s during Hurricane Irene in 2011.

Heroic Good Samaritans are pictured atop a sinking car in the flooded parking lot of the Lantana Square Shopping Center in Hockessin, Delaware, during Tropical Storm Isaias

People rushed into the water to try and rescue the submerged car's 87-year-old driver

The victim's vehicle is seen lodged in the drainage pipe the following day after the waters receded, having been sucked into it by the current

The rescuers were washed through the pipe to where it drains out into a creek hundreds of feet away

This time, luck was on the side of the victims, who were found clinging to trees in a creek located several hundred feet away from the parking lot.

Officials said all five people involved in the emergency situation, including the trapped motorist, survived the harrowing ordeal.

The incident began unfolding at 11.45am, when the 87-year-old driver returning home from an appointment missed a turn and found himself in the flooded shopping mall parking lot.

The water level was quickly rising and the driver was unable to escape. Soon, his vehicle was submerged in several feet of floodwater.

Hardware store owner Phil Aeschleman and a 17-year-old employee were two of those involved in the rescue attempt, WDEL reports.

The young employee, who did not want to be named, grabbed a hammer and a crowbar from their shop and tried to break into the sinking car, but was swept into the drain.

'He went out there with the hammer and just went under,' Aeschleman told WDEL.

Hardware store owner Phil Aeschleman (pictured) and a 17-year-old employee were two of those involved in the rescue attempt

A surge sucked the rescuers into a drainage pipe, which carried them to a creek located several hundred feet away

Firefighters arrived by boat and extracted the trapped driver from his vehicle

Firefighters are seen inspecting the vehicle protruding from the culvert the following day

Fearing for his employee after he disappeared under the water, Aeschleman waded in too and also got sucked into the pipe.

'It's probably 15 ft. from where I go under the car and get sucked into the pipe,' Aeschleman said.

'Then all of a sudden I'm in this pipe, and it's dark but then my head pops up and there's air. The pipe's not completely filled up.

'With my head bumping along the pipe as we rode the current and then I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. So okay this is gonna be alright.'

Luckily his employee was hanging from a tree at the other end of the drainage pipe, and managed to grab him before he was swept into the fast-moving creek.

Another of the Good Samaritans was a store worker named Jose who attempted to break the car windows and free the man inside, reported 6abc.

The driver of the vehicle was returning home when he made a wrong turn and found himself in the flooded parking lot

Firefighters Jordan Edgerton and Bill Krupa extracted the driver from the vehicle seconds before the vehicle was sucked into the underwater pipe

The 87-year-old victim was brought to safety by inflatable boat. He was described as sore but unharmed

Then a surge came and sucked the Good Samaritans into the large drainage pipe.

Fran Leary, who works at the shopping center and captured a portion of the rescue attempt on his cellphone, said he later spoke to Jose, who was not seriously hurt but was left shaken by his brush with death.

'He said he had no control,' Leary told the station. 'It sucked him under. He was getting banged up and tried to grab onto anything he could. He thought his life was over. He saw himself at his funeral. He said goodbye to his wife and it was very scary.'

Jose lost his wedding ring and watch to the unforgiving current, and he and the others suffered scratches to their limbs, but everyone involved was just happy to be alive, according to Leary.

Meanwhile, firefighters arrived on the scene by boats and managed to pull the trapped driver to safety through the back window in the nick of time.

'Just as his feet cleared, literally, the car sank out from underneath,' Deputy Fire Chief Randy Broadwater told Delaware News Journal.

Speaking to DailyMail.com on Friday, Broadwater stressed that had firefighters Jordan Edgerton and Bill Krupa been just a few seconds late pulling the man from the car, the outcome would have been different.

He also noted that if there had been a grate on the drain in the flooded parking lot, the Good Samaritans would have been pinned against it and drowned, instead of being sucked into the pipe.

The vehicle was later photographed partially sticking out of the drainage pipe, having been sucked into it by a whirlpool, according to First State Update.

The four Good Samaritans were found clinging to trees, with their arms and legs scratched up

Tropical Storm Isaias brought severe flooding to the area. The town was also hit by Hurricane Irene nine years ago

The driver's daughter, Theresa Craparotta, said the first time she heard of what happened was when he father called her from an ambulance taking him to Christiana Hospital, and asked her to pick him up.

Craparotta said on Wednesday her father was sore from his ordeal but was otherwise unharmed. She added that her dad told her he was praying inside his sinking car that he would be rescued.

The daughter expressed her gratitude to the firefighters and Good Samaritans who put themselves in harm's way to save her father's life.

The same drainage pipe in Hockessin claimed lives of two friends, Christopher Valentine (left) and Jean Baptista (right), both 25, during Hurricane Irene in August 2011

'Just to know that so many people were willing to risk themselves and jump in just to try to get him out before rescue got here is just amazing,' she said.

Hockessin was hit by Hurricane Irene in August 2011, claiming the lives of two friends, 25-year-olds Christopher Valentine and Jean Baptista, who were somehow sucked into the same drainage pipe as the Good Samaritans were this week.

According to reports published at the time, Baptista and Valentine went missing after texting friends they were running through the hurricane on the night of August 28, 2011.

Their bodies were found hours later in a tributary of Mill Creek behind Lantana Square.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 10:56:03|Editor: huaxia

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LOME, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Togo's tally of COVID-19 cases reached 1,001 on Wednesday with 13 new cases reported in the last day, according to the latest report from the Health and Public Hygiene Ministry.

So far, 690 recoveries and 21 deaths have been recorded, the report said, adding that in recent weeks, the country saw a rise in new infections.

Togo is experiencing new outbreaks of the epidemic in the central and northern regions, Djibril Mohaman, the national coordinator for COVID-19 response, told a press conference on Wednesday.

"Over the coming two weeks, there will be an increase in confirmed cases after the monitoring of the contacts," he said.

In mid-July, the Togolese government began to gradually lift preventive measures, as data then showed that the COVID-19 situation in the country had stabilized. Enditem
Karyn Keith says she isnt asking for much. All she wants is the same support shed receive if she was out of a job because of the pandemic, rather than unable to work because of her disabilities.

The 44-year-old mother in Brampton, Ont., said she lives with constant pain and fatigue from multiple chronic conditions, including trigeminal neuralgia, a debilitating nerve disorder characterized by searing spasms through the face.

She was forced to leave her career in supply chain and logistics management in 2013 when her health deteriorated after the birth of her daughter. Since then, shes received $1,150, plus $250 for her child, every month in federal disability benefits based on her contributions to the Canada Pension Plan.

Even with her husbands income as a mechanic, Keith said most of her familys spending is geared towards survival.

Still, some essentials fall through the cracks.

Theres a molding hole in her ceiling thats needed repair since 2014. Her husbands teeth are breaking because they cant afford to fill his cavities. Every month, they have to dip into their dwindling savings to pay the bills.

Now, with the added financial strains of COVID-19, Keith says she doesnt know what else they can live without. Were on the precipice, and literally, its going to take one thing to kick us off the edge.

Keith says these shortcomings have become starker as the federal government doles out $2,000 a month to millions of out-of-work Canadians under the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit, while shes supposed to make ends meet on a little more than half that amount.

If people who work need this money to survive on, what about people who cant? Keith said. Dont we deserve a standard of living?

Many advocates point to CERB as a concession that Canadas disability assistance rates have failed to keep up with the costs of living in much of the country, and in some places, fallen below the poverty line.

But for a number of Canadians on disability assistance, CERB has also come to symbolize the extent to which their lives are devalued, even during a pandemic that puts them at disproportionate physical and financial risk.

For some, its just reinforced the profound sense of cynicism of how theyve been treated for much of their life by the government, said Michael Prince, a professor of social policy at University of Victoria.

Prince said COVID-19 presents a case study in the pitfalls of Canadas motley patchwork of disability income programs, and a model for how a unified nation-wide support system like CERB could fill these holes in the social safety net.

Shortly after the pandemic hit, Ottawa rolled out the $82-million emergency benefits package to offer workers who lost their jobs $500 a week.

The governments latest figures show $62.75 billion in benefits have been paid to 8.46 million people. Last Friday, federal officials announced that CERB will wind down in coming weeks as the government shifts many people over to a revamped employment insurance system.

Prince said the speed and simplicity of CERB marked a bitter contrast for many disability assistance recipients who must navigate a Byzantine set of eligibility requirements and rate calculations before their benefits kick in.

In late July, Parliament approved a one-time $600 payment for people with disabilities facing additional expenses during COVID-19, including the increased costs of food, medication, support workers and personal protective equipment.

Prince commended the government for including an estimated 1.7 million Canadians across a range of disability support programs, and giving people 60 days to apply for the disability tax credit, which would qualify them for the one-time payment.

Unlike CERB, the payment is tax-free and non-reportable, Prince noted, so it wont be subject to clawbacks or offsets at the provincial level.

Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion Carla Qualtrough said in a statement that the government remains committed to a disability inclusive pandemic response.

But Prince hopes this resolve will extend beyond the immediate crisis to address the long-standing lapses in the system that have forced so many Canadians with disabilities to live in poverty.

Andrea Hatala, recipient co-chair of the ODSP Action Coalition, said the discrepancies between provincial support rates and CERB have galvanized calls to make $2,000 a month the new standard for disability assistance.

Now we have more of a basis for what adequacy is, she said.

Under normal circumstances, Hatala said the Ontario Disability Support Programs maximum individual rate of $1,169 a month leaves many people without secure access to food, shelter and other basics such as winter clothing.

Many people with disabilities have compromised immune systems, she said, so they face a higher risk of COVID-19 complications, and extra expenses to keep themselves safe.

The pandemic has restricted several services that low-income people rely on, such as food banks and public transit, Hatala said. In addition to retail markups on groceries and other goods, she said the high costs of delivery and private transportation have pushed many to their financial limits.

There has been more light shining on these things, noted Hatala.

It doesnt just happen magically. People have to try to make society better.

In 2017, more than a quarter of Canadian adults with disabilities  or 1.6 million people  said they couldnt afford a required aid, device or prescription medication, according to Statistics Canada.

The study also found that 28 per cent of people with severe disabilities aged 25 to 64 live below Canadas official poverty line, compared to 10 per cent of their counterparts without disabilities.

In a report on welfare incomes in Canada in 2018, the anti-poverty foundation Maytree found that annual incomes for individuals on standard disability assistance ranged from $9,800 and $12,500 in most provinces. Ontario had the highest rate at $14,954, followed by British Columbia at $14,802 and Quebec at $13,651.

At these levels, the organization says many provincial programs dont cover the costs of living in their biggest cities.

According to the governments market basket measure, the poverty threshold for a single person in Calgary was $20,585 in 2018  double Albertas standard disability rate of $10,301. Even at the higher end of the spectrum, B.C.s support payments fall $5,882 short of the $20,684 poverty threshold in Vancouver.

Vancouver activist romham gallacher, who spells their name with lower-case letters, is part of the grassroots group 300ToLive thats pushing B.C. to extend its $300 supplement to disability assistance beyond the COVID-19 crisis as part of a broader effort to bring benefits in line with a basic standard of living.

Even as the pandemic has exacerbated the desperate circumstances many disability assistance recipients live in, gallacher said the $300 supplement has shown how a modest increase can have momentous impacts on peoples quality of life.

In an informal survey of 285 people who received the supplement, 300ToLive found that the overwhelming majority of respondents said they spent the money on healthy food.

Gallacher was particularly touched by one woman who said the supplement ensured that she didnt have to choose between paying rent and feeding her one-year-old daughter, and even allowed her to buy a new bedsheet and underwear for the first time in years.

A spokeswoman for B.C.s Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction said the supplement, which is due to expire after this months cheque, is an extraordinary measure meant to relieve the compounded pressures on assistance recipients who already live in poverty.

But gallacher, a wheelchair user with multiple disabilities that impact their mobility and cognition, said the governments insufficient support rates betray its indifference towards the plight of people with disabilities.

It says what much of society says: that our lives and contributions arent as important, were disposable, gallacher, who has a cognitive disorder that affects how they process auditory information, said by email.

The federal government decided that $2,000 was the amount per month that folks across the country needed to live during this pandemic, so why are we still being forced to live well below that, while often having significant expenses? Do our lives count for less?

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 5, 2020.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said gallacher had a hearing condition.
P rimark's haircare range with the Kardashian and Hadid's hairstylist, Andrew Fitzsimons, is now here.

The line features just three heated hair tools; a high-performance hairdryer, straighteners and a curling wand, all in a millennial pink hue.

And the best part is that all three of the products are just 12.

Speaking about his latest collaboration with Primark, 32-year-old Fitzsimons said: "People often ask me how they can create the looks I deliver for my clients at an affordable price point. Now, Ive created a haircare range that will do just that."

He went on to say: "Its a dream come true to launch my own hair care range. To know I am doing it with a retailer so suited to my vision and so close to my Dublin roots makes it all the more special."

Splitting his time between New York and Los Angeles, Dublin-born Fitzsimons counts the Kardashians, Ashley Graham, Karlie Kloss, Bella Hadid and Georgia May Jagger as his regular clientele.

Browse the range here and find your local Primark store here.
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Lincoln Avenue Capital (LAC) announced today that Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Bronfman has been accepted into the Forbes Real Estate Council, an invitation-only community for senior-level executives in the real estate industry.

A mission-driven business with a savvy team of dedicated, industry-leading talent, Lincoln Avenue Capital is one of the nation's fastest-growing developers, investors, and operators of affordable housingwith more than 9,000 units at 47 properties across 10 states.

"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," Forbes Councils founder Scott Gerber said. "We are honored to welcome Jeremy Bronfman into the community."

As a member of the Forbes Real Estate Council, Bronfman will join a collaborative network of real estate and affordable housing disruptors who provide thought leadership in the industry.

"I am thrilled to have been selected to join leading industry voices on the Forbes Real Estate Council," Bronfman said. "Affordable housing is a major civil rights issue of our time. As the lines between philanthropy and business blur like never before, we believe that mission-driven businesses like ours have a critical role. I look forward to sharing insights from Lincoln Avenue Capital's work on Forbes Councils."

Bronfman was selected by a review committee based on the depth and diversity of his experience. Before co-founding Lincoln Avenue Capital in 2016, he served as CEO of Enigma Technologies Inc., a software company with Fortune 500 investors. Bronfman holds a BA from Stanford University and an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.

About Lincoln Avenue Capital: Lincoln Avenue Capital (LAC) is one of the nation's fastest-growing developers, investors, and operators of affordable housing, providing high-quality, sustainable homes for low-income individuals, seniors, and families nationwide. LAC is a values-driven organization with a portfolio of 47 properties, comprising more than 9,000 units.

SOURCE Lincoln Avenue Capital

Related Links

https://lincolnavecap.com


8/5/2020

Trump played down fears from a Republican senator that him giving his speech accepting the Republican nomination from the White House could be illegal as a violation of the Hatch Act.

more details can be found here

some user comments can be found here

youtube
SpaceX launched a prototype of its Mars rocketship hundreds of feet into the air, then landed it upright in a successful test flight.

The flight lasted barely 45 seconds and reached just 500 feet (150 meters) Tuesday night at the southeastern tip of Texas near Brownsville, but was an important first for SpaceXs Starship. Some earlier tests ended in explosions on the pad.

Mars is looking real, SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk tweeted after the short hop. Progress is accelerating. Musk said several more short hops are planned before a test version of Starship aims for a high altitude. The latest test model is relatively plain: It stands a full-scale 100 feet (30 meters) tall and resembles a steel silo  or stretched-out can  with a cap on top.

The private company plans to launch reusable Starships atop still-in-the-works rockets, carrying cargo or crew not only to low-Earth orbit but also the moon and Musks most desirable destination, Mars. The entire stack will stretch nearly 400 feet (120 meters).

On Sunday, SpaceX safely returned two NASA astronauts from the International Space Station following a two-month test flight. Their Dragon capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico off the Pensacola, Florida, coast.

SpaceX is now the only private company to fly people to and from orbit.

Were going to go to the moon. Were going to have a base on the moon. Were going to send people to Mars and make life multi-planetary, Musk said following splashdown. This day heralds a new age of space exploration. Thats what its all about.
(Newser)  Australian researchers have made an odd discovery: Dingoes are getting biggerbut only in areas where long-term poison campaigns against them have been in place. It seems the bait traps have the unintended consequence of making the surviving animals larger, reports Science Daily. "The most likely theory is that dingoes who survive baiting campaigns have less competition for food," says the University of Sydney's Mathew Crowther, co-author of the study in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. Another factor is that smaller dingoes are more likely to succumb to the poison, which leaves the bigger dingoes to thrive. A logical conclusion might be to increase the dose of pesticides, but another researcher, Michael Letnic, says that would probably just start another cycle and result in yet larger dingoes.

story continues below

In the study, the scientists examined the skulls of hundreds of dingoes from three regions where poison bait traps have been laid for decades and compared them to skulls from a poison-free region, reports Australia's ABC News. They found that the skulls in the poison regions have grown roughly 4mm over the last 80 years, which translates to an increase in body mass of between 6% and 9%. Females had the bigger boost. By contrast, the skulls of dingoes in the unbaited region didn't change much at all over that same span. While previous studies have shown that pesticide causes changes in insects' physiology, this is thought to be one of the first studies to show the same concept in vertebrate animals. (Read more dingo stories.)
Lazio are hopeful of reaching agreement with Manchester City midfielder David Silva over a two year contract.

The 34-year old Spaniard is a free agent at the end of the season and has had interest from clubs such as Valencia and Inter Miami.

The offer from Lazio is understood to be for around 52,000 a week after tax with the option of a third year.

David Silva has been offered a 52,000 a week deal to join Serie A side Lazio next season

The Italian outfit, who have qualified for the Champions League for the first time in 12 years, have reportedly included a vast arroy of added performance bonuses, according to Tuttosport.

Lazio sporting director Igli Tare has been scouring the market for a player capable of raising the level of experience in Simone Inzaghi's side.

And in their attempts to lure the City legend they have also added a private jet and a luxury home into the deal.

Having previously earned 220,000 a week at City, Silva would be taking a 168,000 pay cut to play in the Italian league.

David Silva made his final Premier League appearance for Manchester City last month

He leaves the club after 309 league appearances and a stellar 10-year trophy-laden career

However, it is believed that the Spaniard will accept nothing less then 86,000 per week to make the move, according to Il Tempo.

After winning four English titles during an outstanding stint in the Premier League, the 34-year-old is not short of offers.

The Spaniard has been linked with a move to David Beckham's team Inter Miami in the MLS.

Silva has also garnered interest from Shabab Al-Ahli Club and Al-Nasr SC in Dubai, who will offer a much more lucrative deal.

Silva has also been linked with a move to David Beckham's MLS side Inter Miami and the UAE

Silva made his last Premier League appearance for Manchester City last month after making 309 appearances during a stellar 10-year career at the club.

The 34-year-old is yet to confirm a club for next season with his sole focus remaining on Citys Champions League Last 16 leg against Real Madrid on Friday.

Serie A side Lazio are among a host of clubs vying for the attacking midfielders signature.
On the Labor side of politics, premiers Brian Burke and Carmen Lawrence were both touted as future prime ministers. Lawrence secured the federal seat of Fremantle before serving as a minister in the Keating government, but never made it anywhere near the Lodge. Kim Beazley is famously considered the greatest prime minister we never had. Across the country, there has been no shortage of state politicians with federal ambitions, but only two premiers have become prime ministers (George Reid in 1904 and Joe Lyons in 1932). And who could forget a former infamous Queensland Premier's ill-fated 'Joh for PM' putsch?

There are always significant roadblocks to even the most popular premier planning a career in Canberra, and McGowan would be no exception. To begin with, he doesn't belong to one of Labor's factions. The party's right wing believes he is tainted by the left-wing United Workers Union  once known as 'the Miscos'  who have provided him with political cover inside the party. They see Burt MP Matt Keogh as a future prime minister and wouldn't give up Madeleine King in Brand to accommodate a shift to federal politics for Mr McGowan; the faction has already surrendered a senate spot for Pat Dodson and handed federal Perth to the left in order to secure the state secretary's position. On the other hand, the left wouldn't give up Fremantle, which aside from Brand would be the other natural geographic fit for McGowan. Even more of a challenge for the Premier would be the skewed perceptions of him held by Labor's factional heavyweights, who do not agree McGowan is the best shot at reversing the Liberal dominance of the west.

Some say privately McGowan is a politician who doesn't change his fortunes, but reacts competently as they change around him. One senior Victorian Labor source noted the Premier had been facing serious political difficulties before the pandemic hit and is at best a prisoner of his circumstances. They dismiss, perhaps unfairly, both his landslide election win against Colin Barnett in 2017 and his management of the pandemic as two political challenges any barely competent politician could've pulled off. They say he is an ordinary politician blessed with extraordinary circumstances and a few good strokes of luck. For instance, it was revealed in the Federal Court last week that three security guards who were meant to be guarding hotel quarantine patients had contracted COVID-19. It's good luck as much as good management that McGowan isn't in the same position as Dan Andrews right now.

"If you picked him up and dropped him in a different set of circumstances, for example the leader of the opposition's office in Canberra, he'd still be the same old McGowan," the Victorian source said. "Twice he's been smacked on the arse by a rainbow, twice he hasn't f---ed it up. "Gillespie made 200 against Bangladesh, but that didn't make him Don Bradman." And then there is the question of who would replace him as leader of WA Labor and Premier? A WA Labor source said there would be factional warfare if McGowan went, with no clear successor.

The three politicians most recently named as potential successors are Health Minister and Deputy Premier Roger Cook, Treasurer Ben Wyatt, and Housing Minister Peter Tinley. The source said there were problems with all three. Loading "Ben's already tried to retire, so there's questions over his ticker, Tinley is asleep at the wheel and Roger is all Teflon," they said. There are also personal reasons McGowan would eschew a federal political career. He has a young family that already doesn't see enough of him. And he is one of the last politicians on the old superannuation scheme, which means if he does a term and a half as Premier, he could be earning more in retirement than he would as a federal politician. More than this, the Premier's authority in the Labor party is now without question.

He was once an outsider, shoehorned into his seat at the insistence of then-federal leader Kim Beazley. Now he dominates the state. "He owes nothing to anyone," the WA Labor source said. "Not to a faction, not to his caucus; in fact people will end up owing him. "He's demonstrated strong leadership and the political capital he's built is incredible."
New Delhi: Markets surrendered early gains to end flat on Wednesday amidst profit-booking.

The BSE Sensex slipped in the red to end 24.58 points or 0.07 per cent lower at 37,663.33 while the NSE Nifty inched up 6.40 points or 0.06 per cent to close at 11,101.65.

Here are Stocks in focus on August 6, 2020

HDFC

Mortgage lender HDFC Ltd has set the floor price at Rs 1,838.94 per share for its qualified institutional placement (QIP) issue that opened on Wednesday, according to a regulatory filing. On July 30, the board of directors of HDFC had approved raising funds by way of issuance of equity shares and secured redeemable non-convertible debentures simultaneously with warrants aggregating up to a cumulative amount of Rs 14,000 crore on a QIP basis.

Apollo Tyres

Apollo Tyres on Wednesday reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 135 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, hit by lower sales due to coronavirus pandemic. The tyre maker had reported a net profit of Rs 142 crore in the April-June last fiscal. Net sales during the quarter under review declined to Rs 2,828 crore, from Rs 4,272 crore in the year-ago period, Apollo Tyres said in a statement.

Canara Bank

State-owned Canara Bank on Wednesday reported a standalone profit after tax of Rs 406 crore for the June quarter, helped by improvement in net interest income. The bank amalgamated Syndicate Bank with itself effective April 1, 2020.

DLF

India's largest realty firm DLF on Wednesday reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 70.65 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, as construction and sales activities were badly hit due to coronavirus pandemic.

JK Lakshmi

JK Lakshmi Cement Ltd on Wednesday reported a 5.80 per cent decline in consolidated net profit for the June quarter at Rs 50.63 crore as sales were muted due to the coronavirus lockdown.
Hitting out at Pakistan for its "singularly unsuccessful" attempt to broach the bilateral issue of Kashmir in the United Nations Security Council, India said Islamabad's narrative had lost steam and did not "deserve the time and attention" of the world body.

Speaking to ANI, India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador TS Tirumurti said, "Pakistan has once again been singularly unsuccessful in making any inroads into the UN on Jammu and Kashmir and their narrative has lost steam on the Council members."

'Another attempt by Pak fails!'

He had earlier said that almost all the countries at the meeting had agreed that Kashmir was a bilateral issue of India and Pakistan. Taking to Twitter, Ambassador Tirumurti said that another attempt by Pakistan failed in Wednesday's meeting to UNSC which was closed, informal, not recorded and without any outcome.

Another attempt by Pakistan fails!



In todays meeting of UN Security Council which was closed, informal, not recorded and without any outcome, almost all countries underlined that J&K was bilateral issue & did not deserve time and attention of Council.  PR UN Tirumurti (@ambtstirumurti) August 5, 2020

According to ANI sources, at the UNSC meeting, the United States had taken the lead and stood strong for a "no outcome" meet for which there was a consensus among member countries with agreement by even the Chinese.

Imran Khan's 'Naya' Pakistan has been using the United Nations to raise the issue of Jammu and Kashmir ever since India abrogated Article 370 and Article 35A stripping the former state of Jammu and Kashmir of its special status under the constitution and bifurcating the state into two Union Territories last year.

READ | Kashmiri activists slam Farooq Abdullahs call for probe into exodus of Kashmiri Pandits

READ | Jammu-Kashmir admin allows reopening of all religious places in Valley from August 16

Meeting under 'Any Other Business' category

Islamabad escalated its campaign against the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A, and had persuaded China, a permanent member of the UNSC to hold a meeting on Kashmir at the UNSC. Following this, the 15-member UN body on Wednesday held a closed-door informal meeting under 'Any Other Business' category, which means literally anything can be brought up by any of the members.

No record is maintained and there is no press statement issued for closed-door informal meetings and neither is any formal outcome or resolution taken by the UNSC. Typically, no country objects to a discussion under the 'Any other Business' category. India has categorically told the international community that the scrapping of Article 370 of the Constitution was its internal matter.

READ | Transformation underway in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh: Jaishankar

READ | PDP to stage 'Black Day' protest on August 5 over 'Kashmir losing its special status'

(With ANI inputs)
Morgan Stanley has expanded its insurance offerings to include property & casualty insurance coverage for its high net worth clients through insurance brokers HUB International, Marsh Private Client Services, and Willis Towers Watson.

The coverage will target risks associated with property loss and general liability.

Through the arrangement with HUB International, Marsh Private Client Services, and Willis Towers Watson, Morgan Stanley clients will have access to risk exposure assessments and options to protect their assets.

Services will include:

Continuous policy reviews

Client alerts of situations (e.g. hurricane/wildfire) for which extra precautions should be taken to help protect their assets;

Support from dedicated service teams

Claims processing services

In addition, Morgan Stanley clients now have access to the following personal and commercial insurance lines such as:

Personal Lines: Inland marine (i.e. Fine Art, Jewelry), watercrafts, umbrella/excess liability, aviation, flood and cybersecurity

Commercial Lines: Inland marine, general & professional liability, aviation, crime and umbrella/excess liability

Morgan Stanleys P&C insurance platform is in addition to its traditional insurance offerings that include life insurance, long-term care insurance and disability insurance currently available through the Firms Wealth Management Investment Solutions Insured Solutions business. Insurance products are offered in conjunction with Morgan Stanleys licensed insurance agency affiliates.

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, provides access to a range of products and services to individuals, businesses and institutions, including brokerage and investment advisory services, financial and wealth planning, cash management and lending products and services, annuities and insurance, retirement and trust services.

Morgan Stanley is a global financial services firm providing investment banking, securities, investment management and wealth management services. With offices in more than 41 countries, the Firms employees serve clients worldwide including corporations, governments, institutions and individuals.
BRANDON  A worker at the Maple Leaf Foods Inc. pork processing plant in Brandon has tested positive for COVID-19.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 6/8/2020 (530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON  A worker at the Maple Leaf Foods Inc. pork processing plant in Brandon has tested positive for COVID-19.

According to an email Tuesday from United Food and Commercial Workers Local 832 to its members, the worker in question has not been at the plant since July 28, and all employees who came in contact with the individual have been sent home for 14 days of paid self-isolation.

A copy of the email was sent to the Brandon Sun and subsequently verified by UFCW Local 832 communications director Chris Noto.

Noto said the union was made aware of the issue during the long weekend. He said its believed the case was isolated.

Because of the long weekend, Maple Leaf had three days to deep-clean parts of the plant before workers returned Tuesday, union secretary-treasurer Bea Bruske told the Sun during a phone interview.

"The timing of things was somewhat fortuitous in that regard," she said.

The worker who tested positive received their test result Friday, and was not active on the production line.

However, unlike previous cases detected among employees at Asian Spices of Brandon or at Blazers Mini Mart in Minnedosa, Manitoba Health has not yet made official note of any cases at the Brandon plant.

Bruske said there are approximately 70 Maple Leaf workers either self-isolating due to possible exposure at the plant or in the community. So far, all have tested negative for COVID-19.

Bruske and Maple Leaf vice-president of communications Janet Riley said the employee passed a health screening and temperature check when entering the plant July 28. Bruske said the employee started exhibiting symptoms later in the day.

"Upon learning of the positive test, we immediately implemented our COVID-19 response plan," Riley wrote in an email to the Sun. "We also informed our team members and the union.

"In addition to our regular daily cleaning of the plant and our multiple times per day high-touch point cleaning, we also deep cleaned all areas of the plant, including employee welfare areas and offices, over the weekend and the plant is continuing to operate."

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Riley said a review by Maple Leaf, in co-operation with public health authorities, concluded the worker likely contracted COVID-19 in the community. The individual was wearing a face covering and personal protective equipment while working, as is current company policy.

A Maple Leaf plant in Montreal had an outbreak earlier this year that led to the death of at least one employee.

Bruske said operations have not yet been affected at the Brandon facility due to the positive test nor absent workers self-isolating.

In May, a security contractor who worked at the Maple Leaf plant in Brandon tested positive for COVID-19, but it was believed he came in contact with the novel coronavirus two days after his last shift.

"Regardless of whether its in a workplace or in public, people need to be mindful that this is a serious issue and they need to be following the proper protocols," Bruske said.

 Brandon Sun
Chinas unlawful, belligerent territorial aggression says US in letter of support to India

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Aug 06: The United States has said that the closer relationship with India is all the more important in the wake of the tensions with China.

The US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs chief, Eliot Engel in a letter to Foreign Minister, Dr. S Jaishankar said, " we are writing jointly to demonstrate the strong bipartisan support for the US-India relationship. Members of both parties recognise that a strong US-India partnership will have on the trajectory of the 21st century. As PM Modi said in February this year, our ties are longer just another partnership. It is far greater and closer friendship."

Hard talk on the hotline: India snubs China on step back suggestion

This closer relationship is all the more important as India faces aggression from China along your shared border, which is part of the Chinese government's consistent pattern of unlawful and belligerent territorial aggression across the Indo-Pacific. The US will remain steadfast in support of India's efforts to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity, the letter also said.

RBI: Repo rate unchanged at 4%, Reverse Repo Rate unchanged at 3.3% | Oneindia News

We acknowledge the ongoing serious security and counterterrorism concerns in the region and look forward to working with your government to address these concerns while upholding our shared commitments to the democratic values of freedoms on which are countries' bond was built, the letter also said.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, August 6, 2020, 9:11 [IST]
People accused of sexual offences could be given anonymity for life, unless convicted of the crime, under proposed reforms of how sex crimes are dealt with.

The recommendations contained in the review of protections of vulnerable witnesses in investigations of sex crimes also address issues around a victims identity being revealed on social media.

The review, chaired by barrister Tom OMalley, comes in the wake of a high-profile rape trial in Belfast.

Rugby players Paddy Jackson was acquitted of rape and sexual assault while fellow player Stuart Olding was cleared of rape, following the trial at Belfast Crown Court in 2018.

Two other men were also acquitted in connection with the case.

The trial and its outcome brought attention to the conduct of rape trials and the experiences of complainants on both sides of the border.

At present, in the Republic of Ireland, only those accused of rape are granted anonymity, and the new reforms would see it extended to people accused of sexual assault.

The report recommends updating legislation that is used to prosecute people for revealing a complainants identity in the media to also include social media.

Among the reports 50 recommendations includes the establishment of preliminary trial hearings as soon as possible to deal with legal issues and reduce delays in the judicial system.

The report also states that, if the accuseds defence team wants to question a complainant about his or her previous sexual experience, that it should be made clear at a preliminary hearing.

It also said there should be any statutory provision restricting the questioning of complainants about their sexual history it must strike a balance between ensuring a fair trial for the accused and respecting the victims rights to personal privacy and human dignity.

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It said that an outright ban on such questioning could create the risk of an occasional miscarriage of justice and would therefore be unacceptable.

The working group also recommended a formal code of practice to govern the collection and disclosure of a complainants text messages, social media and internet usage.

It also called for a government-sponsored programme of public education on the meaning and importance of consent in the context of sexual relationships and sexual activity.

The group also said that a website containing comprehensive information for victims of sexual crime should be set up and regularly promoted to the public.

It said the information on the website should be presented in a clear and accessible manner and deal with matters such as the reporting of sexual offences, the trial process, the availability of legal advice, and the availability of counselling, therapeutic and other assistance for victims.

It also called for all gardai working in front line policing to be trained in how to engage with complainants of sexual crime and with other witnesses, including suspects, who may be vulnerable because of their age or disability.

Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC) chief executive Noeline Blackwell said: This report is a clear recognition from Government that it is not appropriate to treat crimes of sexual violence just like any other crime.

Such crimes are a deep violation of the dignity and the person of the victim and can cause sometimes lifelong harm.

This marks out the trial of such offences from other criminal trials.

She added that the positive reforms will greatly improve the process for victims.

The council of The Bar Of Ireland welcomed the publication but said that the provision of adequate resources and funding is critical to make the changes.

Minister for Justice Helen McEntee said that the report focuses on the victims and ensures that there is a system where victims of sexual assault and sexual crimes know what information is available to them.

Most importantly if they come forward that they will be listened to, that they will be heard, that they will be treated with respect and dignity, and that they will be supported through what is a very difficult process, Ms McEntee added.

She said that her department will spend the next ten weeks putting in place a clear implementation plan.
Most believe the explosion in Beirut on Tuesday was an accident, as reported, Defense secretary Mark Esper said Wednesday after President Donald Trump called the incident an attack one day earlier.

The U.S. is still getting information on what happened and reaching out to the Lebanese government, Esper said in a discussion at the annual Aspen Security Forum. He said he spoke about the explosion with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Wednesday morning.

Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab said Wednesday that the blast had been caused by about 2,750 metric tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate that had been stored at a port warehouse for the past six years without preventive measures.

Trump, however, on Tuesday evening had called the explosion, which killed at least 135 people and injured thousands, a terrible attack.

It would seem like it based on the explosion, Trump said. Ive met with some of our great generals and they just seem to feel that it was not a  some kind of manufacturing explosion type of event. This was a  seems to be according to them, they would know better than I would, but they seem to think it was an attack. It was a bomb of some kind.

Three U.S. defense officials have said there is no indication that the explosion was an attack, CNN reported.

The prime minister has launched an investigation into the deadly blast, saying, I will not rest until we find those responsible for what happened, hold them accountable, and impose maximum punishment.

It was unacceptable that so much ammonium nitrate had been stored while endangering the safety of citizens, he said.

Pompeo had spoken with Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab after the incident on Wednesday, expressing condolences and offering assistance.

The secretary reaffirmed our steadfast commitment to assist the Lebanese people as they cope with the aftermath of this terrifying event, a readout from State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Cale Brown said. Secretary Pompeo further stressed our solidarity with and support for the Lebanese people as they strive for the dignity, prosperity, and security they deserve.

Story continues

Esper said the U.S. would offer assistance to Lebanon: Were positioning ourselves to provide them whatever assistance we can, humanitarian aid, medical supplies, you name it, to assist the people of Lebanon, Esper said.

More from National Review
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 21:06:32|Editor: huaxia

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TIRANA, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Six Albanian nationals were arrested while transporting 14 illegal migrants in the Korca region, southern Albania, State Police said in a press release Thursday.

According to the press release, the six Albanian nationals, aged 20 to 24, were detained while transporting 14 illegal immigrants in four different vehicles, promising them help to travel toward European Union countries in exchange for money.

The operation, dubbed "Perimeter," was organized by Korca Police Directorate in cooperation with Albanian Border Police, Traffic Police, as well as Police Directorate in Pogradec, central Albania.

According to the police, the six arrested will face charges for the criminal offenses of "assistance in illegal border crossing, committed in cooperation" and "disobedience to the order of police officer." Enditem
Our president wants you to believe I am a terrorist, a professional agitator stalking the Pacific Northwest.

Four days before federal agents shoot me in Portland, Ore., I riffle through the garage, shooing spiders from my sons snowboarding helmet. Will it buckle beneath a steel baton? I press my daughters swim goggles to my face, testing the fit. Can they repel tear gas? I run my hands over my husbands life jacket. Can it stop a bullet?

I dont yet realize how many other moms are slipping oven mitts into backpacks (to minimize burns when tossing aside flaming grenades and tear-gas canisters), how many dads are hoisting leaf blowers from sheds (to clear tear gas), how many teens are gathering plastic toboggans to shield themselves from officers in combat fatigues aiming stun-grenade launchers through temporary fencing around the federal courthouse. This is what happens when you rattle the barricade that policymakers hide behind, screaming Black lives matter, protesting for 60-plus nights the brutal tactics officers use to kill Black men on camera and Black women in beds.

The night I am shot, the sky shimmers with a leftover Fourth of July firework lit by a privileged son whose college closed in the spring. He is here because Black lives matter to him but also because he senses the video game he now plays nightly has sprung to life and he wont be left out. That boy is pretext, he and his friends tossing plastic water bottles at stone walls, justification for an elite force to quell a gathering of Black people and their allies at the door of the same courthouse where four years earlier the white militiamen who led an armed takeover of another federal building in Oregon were acquitted of any wrongdoing in a 41-day siege.

Courtesy Joan Henderson-Gaither/Ellen Urbani

I listen to a Black man on the Justice Center steps invoke the memory of John Lewis while thousands of doctors, veterans, teachers, attorneys stand peacefully, our hands in the air. It is Lewis wordsFreedom is the continuous action we all must take, and each generation must do its part to create an even more fair, more just societythat echo as the gas swallows me. I feel men crashing into me as they flee pepper bullets and fires from flash-bang grenades, dragging choking, bleeding bodies away, but I hold my ground because I know the law: a federal injunction prohibits the use of gas unless the lives or safety of the public or the police are at risk, and that is obviously not the case here. I listen and am prepared to obey dispersal orders from authorities, but they never come.

Story continues

But I am also naively stunned by the suspension of my lifelong privilege. Those federal agents are the brothers-in-arms of men I lovemy father the Navy submariner, my former father-in-law the disabled Marine, the police officer I swooned over in my youthand I am a white woman, the high school cheerleader those feds once fell for, the sorority girl they courted, the one person those officers truly referred to when they swore an oath to serve and protect. If they are willing to turn on me, to fire on me, for finally breaking my silent complicity and standing with and for my Black neighbors, what havoc will be wreaked on the Black bodies left behind if I vacate this street?

For a second the gas lifts, and it seems there are only a few women left, standing arm in arm in the yellow shirts those agents know mark us as mothers, just empty asphalt between us and the men some other mothers raised.

And that is when they shoot us, point blank, with impact munitions. The woman on my right falls forward; the woman on my left is struck in the head; I feel my bone break. My right ankle is encased in a bulky cast after a fall the previous week, and those American sons shoot my other foot out from under me.

Today, now that federal agents have withdrawn, our protests go on peacefully. But America, be wary. Forget Portland at your peril. Everyone thinks theyd have joined the Resistance if they lived in 1940s Europe, when we know that most stayed inside, served supper, tucked the children into bed with a kiss and a lie: All is well, close your eyes.

Dont wait to be knocked off your feet. It may be you they aim for next.
SELBYVILLE, Del., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the latest report "Medical Oxygen Concentrators Market by Product (Portable Oxygen Concentrators, Fixed Oxygen Concentrators), Application (Home Care, Non-homecare), Technology (Continuous Flow, Pulse Flow), Regional Outlook, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast 2026", by Global Market Insights, Inc., the market valuation of medical oxygen concentrators will cross $5 billion by 2026. Rising prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) and asthma will accelerate market growth.

North America medical oxygen concentrators market accounted for around 39.5% revenue share in 2019 owing to significant awareness, larger elderly patient pool and better spending capacity.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected a significant number of people across the globe. Coronavirus infection mostly affects the respiratory tract and patients may face difficulty in breathing. Thus, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended oxygen therapy for all patients in severe and critical condition. As an oxygen concentrator is a rich source of pure oxygen and has the benefit of portability, its adoption rate will expand in the upcoming period.

Request a sample of this research report @

https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/449

Technological advancements in oxygen concentrators to provide more effective and convenient oxygen therapy will drive its demand in the near future. Factors such as the need for smaller, noise-free, light-weight, durable and cost-effective devices have driven innovation in these devices. In November 2019, Caire company introduced a portable oxygen concentrator deployed with autoSAT technology, FreeStyle Comfort. The technology helps patients through an enhanced supply of oxygen bolus in line with their breathing rate. Moreover, better ergonomics assist patients with convenience and will thereby impel the demand for innovative concentrators.

Portable medical oxygen concentrators market is estimated to show a growth of -7.6% through 2026. Portable oxygen concentrators offer a wide range of advantages to its users including continuous oxygen supply with advanced technology, use at homecare settings and undisrupted use during traveling. Most of these devices are also cleared by the Federal Aviation Administration, which allows the carrying of oxygen concentrators during flight travel.

Pulse flow technology segment in the medical oxygen concentrators market valued at more than USD 804 million in 2019. This technology automatically increases or decreases the oxygen supply with a patient's breathing rate. Oxygen concentrators that are equipped with pulse flow technology are better suited for patients that follow a busy lifestyle involving frequent traveling. Growing preference for this technology coupled with a changing lifestyle of the population will assist in market expansion.

The non-homecare application segment held over 34% market share in 2019 due to a growing geriatric population prone to various respiratory and cardiac conditions. Moreover, increasing prevalence of respiratory tract infections leading to higher hospital admissions will further influence the segment growth.

The North America medical oxygen concentrators market accounted for around 39.5% revenue share in 2019 owing to significant awareness, a larger elderly patient pool and better spending capacity. Also, the presence of established industry players offering novel devices influences its availability and adoption in the region. Furthermore, the rapidly increasing number of COVID-19 patients, especially in the U.S. will augment North American market value.

Request customization of this research report @

https://www.gminsights.com/roc/449

Prominent players operating in the market include Philips Respironics, Teijin Limited, Inogen, Invacare and Inova Labs (ResMed) among other players. These players are expanding their footprint by adopting several strategies such as product launch, acquisitions, and marketing campaigns to encash business growth opportunities. For instance, in January 2019, ResMed announced the availability of Mobi, a portable oxygen concentrator across the U.S. The product availability will enhance company's revenue stream by catering to a large COPD patient base in the country.

Table of Contents (ToC) of the report:

Chapter 3. Medical Oxygen Concentrators Market Insights

3.1. Industry segmentation

3.2. Industry landscape, 2015  2026 (USD Million)

3.3. Industry impact forces

3.3.1. Growth drivers

3.3.2. Industry pitfalls and challenges

3.4. Growth potential analysis

3.4.1. By product

3.4.2. By application

3.4.3. By technology

3.5. COVID-19 impact analysis

3.5.1. Impact analysis of COVID-19 on 10 major markets

3.5.1.1. U.S.

3.5.1.2. Italy

3.5.1.3. Spain

3.5.1.4. China

3.5.1.5. Germany

3.5.1.6. France

3.5.1.7. UK

3.5.1.8. Japan

3.5.1.9. India

3.5.1.10. Canada

3.5.2. Impact of COVID-19 on industry segments, by 10 major markets

3.5.2.1. Portable Medical Oxygen Concentrators

3.5.2.2. Fixed Medical Oxygen Concentrators

3.5.3. Impact of COVID-19 on industry value chain

3.5.3.1. Research and development

3.5.3.2. Manufacturing

3.5.3.3. Marketing

3.5.3.4. Supply

3.5.4. Impact of COVID-19 on industry competition

3.5.4.1. Strategy

3.5.4.2. Distribution network

3.5.4.3. Product portfolio

3.5.4.4. Business growth

3.6. Regulatory landscape

3.7. Technology landscape

3.8. Porter's analysis

3.9. Competitive landscape, 2019

3.9.1. Competitive market share analysis, 2019

3.10. PESTEL analysis

Browse Complete Table of Contents (ToC) @

https://www.gminsights.com/toc/detail/medical-oxygen-concentrators-market-report

About Global Market Insights, Inc.

Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider, offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy, and biotechnology.

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Related Images

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Global Oxygen Concentrators Market value to reach USD 5 Bn by 2026: GMI

North America medical oxygen concentrators market accounted for around 39.5% revenue share in 2019 owing to significant awareness, larger elderly patient pool and better spending capacity.

Related Links

Homecare Oxygen Concentrators Market Size

Therapeutic Respiratory Devices Market Size

SOURCE Global Market Insights, Inc.

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MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A meeting of ministers from a trans-Pacific trade bloc will discuss measures aimed at reviving economic growth after the coronavirus pandemic, the Mexican government, which is chairing the virtual conference, said on Wednesday.

Top officials from the 11-member Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) are due to hold a video conference on Wednesday evening Mexican time, coinciding with Thursday morning in East Asia.

The economy ministry of Mexico, which as president pro tempore of the group will chair proceedings, said ministers will discuss strategies to achieve "a rapid economic recovery" as well as compare notes on how to deal with the pandemic.

Earlier, Japanese Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said the meeting would be a good time to stress that encouraging free trade will be an important part of the recovery.

The CTTPP, which came together after U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal in 2017, comprises Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

In June, the United Kingdom said it was seeking to join the bloc.

Mexican Economy Minister Graciela Marquez said in an interview with Mexican media on Wednesday that the possibility of accepting new members would be analyzed during the meeting.

Ahead of the meeting, 15 committees held sessions to look at different aspects of the accord, including goods trade, state-owned enterprises, regulatory coherence, rules of origin, financial services and the environment, Mexico said.

(Reporting by Dave Graham and Sharay Angulo; Writing by Dave Graham; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Jonathan Oatis)
Washington: US President Donald Trump has defended his controversial proposal to accept the Republican Party's presidential nomination with a speech from the White House, saying it would save taxpayers' money.

Several Republicans have expressed concerns about the legality of the idea, while House Speaker Democrat Nancy Pelosi said the prospect of staging such a party-political event at the White House should be "rejected right out of hand".

Donald Trump said he would "probably" give his acceptance speech at the White House. Credit:AP

Trump's advisers have been searching for a suitable location for the President to deliver his acceptance speech after he scrapped plans to hold the Republican National Convention in Jacksonville, Florida, because of a coronavirus flare-up in that state.

The Republican and Democratic conventions represent the official start of election campaigning ahead of the November 3 election.
Nine members of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, as well as 35 employees of the legislative body, have tested positive for coronavirus, parliamentary speaker Mustafa Sentop said on Thursday.

Nine of our lawmakers have been infected with the coronavirus, four of them are receiving treatment in hospitals.

In addition, the coronavirus was detected in 35 of our employees, Mr Sentop said while addressing the parliament.

The country has seen an increase in the daily increment of COVID-19 cases since late July following the removal of the majority of the restrictions imposed due to the pandemic.

According to the health authorities, Turkey has so far confirmed more than 53,800 infections, including 1,015 fatalities.

(Sputnik/NAN)
Vice President Pence told the Christian Broadcast Network in an interview to be broadcast Thursday that Chief Justice John Roberts "has been a disappointment to conservatives."

The state of play: The conservative Roberts has this year sided with the Supreme Court's more liberal justices on abortion, LGBTQ discrimination and the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Roberts wrote last month's ruling permitting Manhattan prosecutors to subpoena Trumps taxes and other financial records.

What he's saying: In the interview with the network's David Brody, Pence described Roberts' joining the more liberal justices to strike down abortion restrictions in Louisiana in June as "a wake up call for pro-life voters around the country who understand in a very real sense that the destiny of the Supreme Court is on the ballot in 2020."

"Several cases out of the Supreme Court are a reminder of just how important this election is for the future of the Supreme Court," Pence said.

Of note: Roberts was appointed by former President George W. Bush. In November 2018, the chief justice issued a rare public critique on President Trump, who said an "Obama judge" was to blame for temporarily halting his asylum ban.

"We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges," Roberts said, per AP. "What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them."

The big picture: Pence's comments come just a day after he attacked New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) on Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle."

"[O]ur hearts grieve for the fact that one in five of all of the American lives ... lost in the coronavirus pandemic were lost in the state of New York. And some of that was because of poor decisions by the state and by Gov. Cuomo."

"Gov. Cuomo has been on again, off again," Pence added. "He's complimented the administration's response, and then he pivots to criticism. I think people see through that."

Go deeper: John Roberts' long game
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Japan has marked the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bombing with a memorial service led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as survivors urge for a ban on nuclear weapons.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was joined by survivors, their relatives and officials to mark the 8.15am blast anniversary with a minute of silence at Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park before laying a wreath.

An upsurge of coronavirus cases in Japan meant a much smaller turnout than had been expected.

The bombing survivors that did turn out, who now have an average age is about 83, continued to press for nations to abolish their nuclear arsenals - with their own government refusing to sign a nuclear weapons ban treaty.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (pictured) was joined by survivors, their relatives and officials to mark the 8.15 am blast anniversary with a minute of silence at Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park before laying a wreath

The United States dropped the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, destroying the city and killing 140,000 people.

A second bomb was dropped three days later on Nagasaki, killing another 70,000.

Japan surrendered on August 15, ending World War II and its nearly half-century of aggression in Asia.

But the decades since have seen the weapons stockpiling of the Cold War and a nuclear standoff among nations that continues to this day.

A man was seen praying in remembrance at the Hiroshima Victims Memorial Cenotaph ahead of the ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bombing

A young boy and his mother arrived at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima earlier today in order to pray in front of the cenotaph

An upsurge of coronavirus cases in Japan meant a much smaller turnout than had been expected at the Peace Memorial Park within view of the Atomic Bomb Dome (pictured)

Amid the solemn remembrances at Hiroshima's peace park, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was confronted by six members of survivors' groups over the treaty.

'Could you please respond to our request to sign the Nuclear Weapons Prohibition Treaty?' Tomoyuki Mimaki, a member of a major survivors' group, Hidankyo, implored Abe.

'The milestone 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing is a chance' to change course.

The United States dropped the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, destroying the city and killing 140,000 people (aftermath pictured)

Smoke pictured rising 20,000 feet above Hiroshima, western Japan, after the first atomic bomb was dropped during warfare in August 1945

Abe insisted on Japan's policy not to sign the treaty, vaguely citing a 'different approach,' though he added that the government shares the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons.

'Abe's actions don't seem to match his words,' said Manabu Iwasa, 47, who came to the park to pray for his father, a bombing survivor who died at age 87 in March.

'Japan apparently sides with the United States, but it should make more efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons. It's frustrating, but there is not much we individuals can do.'

An elderly woman wearing a face mask bowed her head as she prayed in front of a cenotaph earlier today to honour the thousands of victims killed in the attack

Younger members of the community also laid flowers for the victims of the 1945 atomic bombing during the memorial ceremony held in Hiroshima earlier today

There were thought to be fewer than 1,000 attendees which was one-tenth of those who had attended in past years (attendees pictured observing a minute silence)

Even though Tokyo renounces its own possession, production or hosting of nuclear weapons, Japan is a top U.S. ally, hosts 50,000 American troops and is protected by the U.S. nuclear umbrella. This complicates the push to get Tokyo to sign the treaty adopted in 2017, especially as it steps up its military role amid North Korea's continuing pursuit of a stronger nuclear program.

Abe, in his speech at the ceremony, said a nuclear-free world cannot be achieved overnight and it has to start with dialogue.

'Japan's position is to serve as a bridge between different sides and patiently promote their dialogue and actions to achieve a world without nuclear weapons,' Abe said.

Earlier, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui urged world leaders to more seriously commit to nuclear disarmament, pointing out Japan's failures.

'I ask the Japanese government to heed the appeal of the (bombing survivors) to sign, ratify and become a party to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons,' Matsui said in his peace declaration. 'As the only nation to suffer a nuclear attack, Japan must persuade the global public to unite with the spirit of Hiroshima.'

Thursday's peace ceremony at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park was scaled down because of the coronavirus pandemic.

There were thought to be fewer than 1,000 attendees which was one-tenth of those who had attended in past years.

Abe (pictured) made a speech during the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bombing during the ceremony that was scaled back significantly due to coronavirus

Families arrived to burn joss sticks in front of the cenotaph in memory of the atomic bombing victims before the start of a ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of the tragedy

Women wearing face masks amid the coronavirus crisis were seen praying in front of a cenotaph to honour the 140,000 who were killed when an atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima in 1945

Some survivors and their relatives prayed at the park's cenotaph before the ceremony. The registry of the atomic bombing victims is stored at the cenotaph, whose inscription reads, 'Let all the souls here rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the mistake.'

'The only way to totally eliminate nuclear risk is to totally eliminate nuclear weapons,' U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a video message from New York for the occasion. Guterres' expected visit to Hiroshima had to be cancelled because of the coronavirus.

'Seventy-five years is far too long not to have learned that the possession of nuclear weapons diminishes, rather than reinforces, security,' he said. 'Today, a world without nuclear weapons seems to be slipping further from our grasp.'

Attendees sat for a socially distanced ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic earlier today amid the coronavirus pandemic

An elderly couple visited the site last night ahead of the ceremony as they prayed in front of a cenotaph at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima

Workers prepared a series of wreaths for the atomic bombing victims before the start of a ceremony which were later laid in Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park

An aging group of survivors, known as hibakusha, feel a growing urgency to tell their stories, in hopes of reaching a younger generation.

Many peace events, including their talks, leading up to the anniversary were cancelled because of the coronavirus, but some survivors have teamed with students or pacifist groups to speak at online events, sometimes connecting with international audiences.

The bombing's survivors lamented the slow progress of nuclear disarmament and expressed anger over what they said was the Japanese government's reluctance to help and listen to those who suffered.

An elderly man was seen holding up a sign that read 'Don't let children cry because of adults' war' as he queued to pray in front of a cenotaph at Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima

Amid the solemn remembrances at Hiroshima's peace park, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was confronted by six members of survivors' groups over the government's refusal to sign a nuclear weapons ban treaty

A woman prayed in front of bouquets of flowers in remembrance for the victims of the atomic bomb attack in Hiroshima in 1945

They want world leaders, especially those from nuclear-weapons states, to visit Hiroshima and see the reality of the atomic bombing.

Keiko Ogura, 84, who survived the atomic bombing at age eight, wants non-nuclear states to pressure Japan into signing the nuclear weapons prohibition treaty.

'Many survivors are offended by the prime minister of this country because he does not sign the nuclear weapons prohibition treaty,' said Ogura.
One of the cultural changes ushered in by the COVID-19 pandemicworking remotely rather than commuting to an officehas the potential to help Americans curb their carbon footprints during an important moment in the climate crisis, said Ben Kirtman, professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

In the first six months of 2020, the economic shutdown of COVID-19 prompted carbon dioxide emissions from surface transportation and aviation to be cut by about half, Kirtman said, which translated to an 8 percent decrease in Americas overall carbon emissions. Although the concentration of carbon dioxide in the earths atmosphere is still high, because there is a lag for the gas to exit the atmosphere, Kirtman was encouraged by the data.

Thats pretty impressive, Kirtman remarked. It gives you a sense that we could, if we came together and had some coherent policies worldwide about how to handle emissions, make significant reductions.

Kirtman

Kirtman made these comments during a virtual discussion Wednesday about Climate Science in the Age of COVID. It was the first of three Climate Cafe webinars hosted by the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science to spread awareness of the schools research on climate change.

As part of the discussion, Amy Clement, a professor of atmospheric sciences who also focuses her research on climate change, explained to the more than 150 participants that the University hopes to share its research, so that it can help shape environmental policy.

Our goal is to inform you about the many different aspects of climate science that are happening here at the Rosenstiel School and how our research activities can be used to inform policy, she said.

Second year Ph.D. student Sisam Shrestha, provided an overview of some of the most harmful extreme weather events this year. She highlighted the Australian bushfires, which just ended in May. They destroyed a fifth of the nations forests, created the highest wildfire plume ever captured on satellite images, and caused unprecedented damage to the atmosphere, Shrestha pointed out.

In addition, the Siberian heat wave, which stretched through the first half of 2020, prompted temperatures to rise above 100 degrees in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk.

These are the highest temperatures recorded inside the Arctic Circle to date, she added.

Clement

Shrestha also spoke about the Saharan dust outbreak that traveled across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa and arrived in Florida recently. It managed to make it all the way to New Orleans and Texas, which was the longest distance seen. It was also the thickest and largest dust outbreak on record.

Locally, she cited some 2020 Miami record numbers collected by Brian McNoldy, a senior research associate at the Rosenstiel School. According to Shrestha, the first third of the year was the hottest on record. In addition, Miami also saw its wettest May and hottest July this year.

As part of the discussion, doctoral student Marybeth Arcodia summarized the research of students working under Kirtman, Clement, and Brian Soden, a professor of atmospheric sciences. The studies help understand and predict more accurately future climate fluctuations, extreme weathersuch as hurricanesand precipitation patterns.

Kirtman, who works to create models forecasting the effects of climate change, such as sea level rise, said the Universitys new partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies is already allowing them to get more refined data. For example, a few weeks before Hurricane Isaias formed, their models predicted a disturbance. They were able to deploy data collection drifter in the Caribbean before the storm arrived.

Regardless, the challenge of anticipating the exact ways that climate change will affect our environment is massive. Therefore, participants asked what they can do to stem the acceleration of global warming.

Clement urged participants to get involved in their local communities to ensure that government is preparing for the inevitable impacts of climate change, and mentioned that she serves as chair of the City of Miamis Climate Resilience Committee, but that local organizations like Miami Waterkeeper, the CLEO Institute, and Catalyst are also very productive. She also indicated that consuming less meat could counteract carbon emissions as well as choosing to drive a low-carbon-emissions car.

Kirtman agreed, adding how essential it is that the world safeguards its rainforests and that people plant trees, which work to offset the harmful effects of carbon emissions by producing oxygen.

We have these enormous biological sinks of greenhouse gases and these are the rainforests around the world, he said. We need to do everything we can to protect those.

The next, one-hour Climate Cafe is scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 20 at 11:30 a.m. It focuses on Building Climate Resilience for Floridas Reefs and Coastlines. Register for the session here. The final Climate CafeEconomic and Societal Impacts of a Changing Climateis slated for Sept. 2 at 12 p.m. Register here to attend that seminar.
The established site for our new facility and multi-phase expansion strategy enables VGXI to continue to grow and support the success of our clients products as these industries mature.

VGXI, a highly regarded CDMO supporting the gene therapy and DNA vaccine industries, announces it has closed on the purchase of greenfield for a new, expanded manufacturing facility. The site is located in Deison Technology Park in Conroe, TX and includes over 21 acres in the initial acquisition, with an option to purchase an additional 21 acres for future expansion. In collaboration with design-build partner BE&K, the Design Development phase of the project is well underway with groundbreaking planned in 3Q 2020 and substantial completion targeted by 3Q 2021. The first phase of the facility is expected to be operational by January 2022.

Multiple manufacturing trains are incorporated into Phase 1 of the design to achieve over 500% increase in capacity immediately upon completion, with established timelines for continued, rapid growth in the facility and production capabilities. In addition, there is flexibility within each GMP suite to support a wide range of projects from early clinical through commercial supply. The facility will also include micro processing suites for small scale projects and dedicated areas for GMP RNA manufacturing.

Demand for high quality and reliable plasmid manufacturing services has increased dramatically as DNA immunotherapy and gene therapies demonstrate success in clinical studies, stated VGXI CEO Young Park. The established site for our new facility and multi-phase expansion strategy enables VGXI to continue to grow and support the success of our clients products as these industries mature.

ABOUT VGXI, INC.

VGXI, Inc. is a leading provider of manufacturing and development services for DNA vaccines and gene therapies. The company has a reputation of success in manufacturing DNA products under cGMP conditions for clinical trials in the US, EU, Asia, Canada, and Australia, and its cGMP and non-GMP products have passed rigorous reviews by several international regulatory agencies. VGXIs ability to work with unique requirements and create custom manufacturing solutions is based on its patented manufacturing process, flexible cGMP production facility, and experienced development team. VGXI, Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary CDMO of GeneOne Life Science, Inc. To learn more or request a quote, visit http://www.vgxii.com.

ABOUT GENEONE LIFE SCIENCE

GeneOne Life Science Inc. (GeneOne KOSPI: 011000) is an international DNA vaccine and product developer, and leading contract manufacturer of DNA plasmid-based agents for pre-clinical and clinical trials for global companies and institutions. It researches and develops DNA vaccines and products to prevent and treat incurable diseases in South Korea and internationally. The company is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. VGXI, Inc., GeneOne's wholly-owned manufacturing subsidiary located in Texas, is the largest pure-play cGMP DNA plasmid manufacturing facility in the world. For more information, visit http://www.genels.com.

CAUTIONARY FACTORS THAT MAY AFFECT FUTURE RESULTS

Materials in this press release contain information that includes or is based upon forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements relate to expectations or forecasts of future events. These statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. They include words such as anticipate, estimate, expect, project, intend, plan, believe, and other words and terms of similar meaning in connection with a discussion of potential future events, circumstances or future operating or financial performance. In particular, these include statements relating to future actions, prospective products or product approvals, future performance or results of current and anticipated products, sales efforts, expenses, the outcome of contingencies such as legal proceedings, and financial results. Any or all of our forward-looking statements here or in other publications may turn out to be incorrect. They can be affected by inaccurate assumptions or by known or unknown risks and uncertainties. Many such factors will be important in determining our actual future results. Consequently, no forward-looking statement can be guaranteed, and forward-looking statements may be adversely affected by factors, including general market conditions, competitive product development, product availability, current and future branded and generic competition, federal and state regulations and legislation, manufacturing issues, timing of the elimination of trade buying, patent positions, litigations and investigations. Our actual results may vary materially, and there are no guarantees about the performance or valuation of GeneOne stock. It is also important to read the disclosure notice contained in many of the individual GeneOne documents available on the website, as many contain important information on such cautionary factors as of the date of the individual document. We undertake no obligation to correct or update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. You are advised, however, to consult any further disclosures we make on related subjects in our reports.
Inside Hook

Rumored Jeffrey Epstein ex-girlfriend and alleged accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell is a household name at this point, but it turns out there may have been another woman in the picture as well. The trove of new court documents unsealed last week suggest Epstein was also romantically linked to childrens book author Shelley Anne Lewis, the New York Post reported.

The British-born author was reportedly a frequent passenger on Epsteins private jet, often accompanying him on trips to New York and his infamous private island of Little Saint James. Lewis is thought to have begun dating Epstein in 1999, when she was a 22-year-old working in the contemporary art department of Christies auction house in New York. According to the recently unsealed court documents, Maxwell previously attempted to get Epstein to publicly announce Lewis as his girlfriend instead of Maxwell.
May & Baker Nigeria Plc. on Thursday, reported a profit after tax of N438.9 million for the six months ended June 30, 2020.

The company stated this in its half year result, published by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

The result showed that the profit after tax increased by 51 per cent when compared with N290.8 million achieved in the comparative period of 2019.

Its pre-tax profit stood at N645.4 million in contrast to N427.7 million recorded in the corresponding period of 2019.

The company posted an operating profit of N687.8 million in contrast to N504.7 million posted in the comparative period of 2019.

Similarly, gross profit rose to N1.6 billion from N1.3 billion achieved in 2019, while cost of sales dropped slightly to N2.5 billion from N2.7 billion in 2019.

In the period under review, distribution, sales and marketing expenses increased to N618.7 million from N513.3 million posted in 2019.

Further analysis of the result showed that administrative costs dropped to N265.7 million from N362.5 million recorded in the comparative period of 2019.

Also, finance costs dropped to N41.3 million from N109.9 million as a result of lower interest paid on bank loans and overdrafts.

The company posted an interest income of N6.9 million during the period under review from N28.8 million in 2019.

The company attributed the significant decline to lower interest earned on short term investments (fixed deposits) with commercial banks in the country as a result of low yield environment.

(NAN)
Dr. Babak Azizzadeh Fascia adds extra padding to help conceal bumps or minor imperfections on the nose. At the same time, fascia can help give the nose a nice, smooth look.

Dr. Babak Azizzadeh, a globally recognized facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon and Chairman and Director of the CENTER for Advanced Facial Plastic Surgery in Los Angeles, is sharing his unique perspective on fascia and its impact on the outcomes of rhinoplasty surgery.

Rhinoplasty is one of the most popular facial plastic surgeries, and it is used to reshape or resize the nose or treat functional defects of the nose. Yet, much in the same way that no two people have the same nose, there is no standard approach to rhinoplasty surgery.

Fascia refers to connective tissue that holds nerve fibers in place. When used during rhinoplasty surgery, fascia adds padding to smooth the appearance of the nose.

Many physicians underestimate the value of fascia in rhinoplasty procedures, according to Dr. Azizzadeh. However, Dr. Azizzadeh frequently uses fascia during nose surgery, particularly when he works with older patients or patients with thin skin on the nose. He believes fascia can play a key role in helping nose surgery patients achieve a balanced, natural-looking facial appearance.

If Dr. Azizzadeh reconstructs a rhinoplasty patient's nose, he may have to add a bone graft to help his patient achieve their desired results. But, in older patients or patients with thin skin on the nose, Dr. Azizzadeh places fascia over a bone graft during rhinoplasty surgery. In doing so, Dr. Azizzadeh can hide his patient's bone graft and ensure that their nose complements their eyes, cheeks, and other facial features.

"The benefits of using fascia during rhinoplasty surgery can be significant," Dr. Azizzadeh says. "Fascia adds extra padding to help conceal bumps or minor imperfections on the nose. At the same time, fascia can help give the nose a nice, smooth look."

For patients who are considering rhinoplasty surgery, Dr. Azizzadeh conducts a full evaluation prior to treatment. If a patient qualifies for rhinoplasty surgery, Dr. Azizzadeh crafts a custom treatment plan that may require the use of fascia.

Dr. Azizzadeh is available to discuss rhinoplasty surgery and other facial plastic and reconstructive procedures. To learn more or to schedule a consultation with Dr. Azizzadeh, please contact the CENTER today.

For more on Dr. Azizzadeh and the CENTER for Advanced Facial Plastic Surgery, visit http://www.facialplasticsbh.com.

About Dr. Babak Azizzadeh and the CENTER for Advanced Facial Plastic Surgery:

Dr. Babak Azizzadeh, Chairman and Director of the CENTER for Advanced Facial Plastic Surgery, is one of the leading international experts in facial plastic surgery. His expertise in cosmetic and reconstructive plastic surgery has made him one of the most sought-after physicians. Dr. Azizzadeh's client list includes not only celebrities, executives, physicians and dignitaries from around the world, but also amazing people from all walks of life. He has been featured in The Oprah Winfrey Show, People Magazine, New York Times, Discovery Health, Los Angeles Times, Beverly Hills Courier and numerous other media outlets for his expertise in facial plastic surgery. Dr. Azizzadeh is one of a select group of surgeons who are double board-certified by the American Board of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery as well as the American Board of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. His plastic surgery colleagues have consistently chosen him as one of the Top Doctors in Beverly Hills, CA. For more information, please visit https://www.facialplasticsbh.com/

Media Contact: Chloe, CENTER for Advanced Facial Plastic Surgery, 310-657-2203, chloe@facialplasticsbh.com
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it has introduced a dedicated online portal, INEC Result Viewing (IRV), that will enable Nigerians to view results from polling units in real-time on election days.

In a statement signed by its spokesperson, Festus Okoye, on Thursday, INEC said the development aims at strengthening the entire electoral process and enhancing the transparency of the system.

INEC said the innovation will be piloted starting from the Nasarawa Central State Constituency bye-election in Nasarawa State scheduled for Saturday. Thereafter, it will be extended to the Edo and Ondo governorship elections as well as all subsequent elections.

The electoral umpire, however, stressed that the innovation does not constitute electronic collation of results.

It added that the collation of results shall remain manual as provided by law  until completion of relevant result sheets and their upwards collation of the final results are determined.

The commission had in 2017, inaugurated a 20-member inter-agency committee to assess a possible e-voting system.

The House of Representatives had in 2018 rejected the use of an electronic voting system for the 2019 general elections.

In the wake of the 2019 general elections, President Muhammadu Buhari had also declined assent to the 2018 amended Electoral Act empowering INEC to conduct and transmit election results electronically.

The Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, has also introduced a bill to start the process for a comprehensive amendment of the 2010 Electoral Act.

Read INECs full statement

INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION

PRESS RELEASE

INEC INTRODUCES ELECTION RESULT VIEWING PORTAL (IReV Portal)

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) met today 6th August 2020 and approved the introduction of a new step to further strengthen its election management process and enhance the transparency of the system.

The Commission is aware that result management has remained a major source of mistrust in our electoral process. Citizens are often concerned, and sometimes rightly so, that results may not always be consistent with votes cast.

READ ALSO:

INEC is determined to address any source of this concern through enhancing the level of transparency in the conduct of elections, more so in the process of releasing results of elections.

It is a fundamental principle of democracy that in elections, votes are not only correctly counted, but that they also count. Consistent with its commitment to transparency in election management, the Commission introduced the Form EC60E, which is a poster version of the primary result sheet, the Form EC8A. This replica of the polling unit result is pasted at the Polling Unit after votes are counted, recorded and announced. This poster, now widely known as the Peoples Form EC8A, has increased transparency in result management. The form enables the citizens to photograph the results and project the outcome of elections, even before the final results are announced. Unfortunately, this has also led to abuses, as unofficial and at times false results are known to have been circulated, particularly via social media, leading to tension and casting aspersions on the final outcome of elections.

To further strengthen the transparency in the election result management system, the Commission has decided to introduce a dedicated public portal, the INEC RESULT VIEWING (IRV), that will enable Nigerians to view Polling Unit results in real-time as the voting ends on Election Day.

The Commission wishes to emphasize that this does not constitute electronic collation of results. The collation of election results shall remain as provided for by law, a manual process of completion of relevant result sheets and their upwards collation until the final results are determined.

This innovation will commence from the Nasarawa Central State Constituency bye-election in Nasarawa State scheduled for Saturday 8th August 2020. Thereafter, it will be extended to the Edo and Ondo governorship elections as well as all subsequent elections.

The Commission hopes that this innovation would improve the transparency in election result management and therefore further consolidate public confidence in the electoral process.

For the Nasarawa Central State Constituency election, the Result Sheet can be accessed thus:

1. Visit https://inecelectionresults.com

2. Click on Create a new account?

3. Fill in your details in the form provided and click on Sign in

4. Provide your State of Origin and click on Continue

5. An account activation email is sent to the email address provided in the form

6. Check your email and correctly copy out the activation code which will be entered into the textbox provided on the portal

7. Click on Activate

8. This logs you into the portal and you can select the Election whose PU results you are interested in viewing

9. You can use the filter buttons to make the search easier.

10. Please remember to log out of the portal after use.

The Commission appeals to the public to make judicious use of this facility and looks forward to continuing to work with stakeholders to improve the quality of electoral services in our country.

Festus Okoye Esq

National Commissioner and Chairman,

Information and Voter Education Committee.

6th August 2020

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Emirates Glass, one of the leading processors of architectural flat glass in the Middle East and a subsidiary of Glass LLC, a wholly owned by Dubai Investments, has secured three major projects worth AED12 million in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region.

Announcing exceptional performance by its Emicool Sun T Series, the Dubai group said it is supplying 165,000 sq m of the EmiCool Sun T series glass for these projects.

Among the three projects, Emirates Glass has provided 80,000 sq m of EmiCool Sun NN40T glass for The Gate Towers project, opening glass supply doors in Egypt for the company; 40,000 sq m of EmiCool Sun NN30T glass for the Al Dar Properties Waters Edge project in Abu Dhabi; and 45,000 sq m of EmiCool Sun NN25T glass for the Mirfa Beach Villa Housing Complex in the Al Dhafra Region, Abu Dhabi.

On the supply contract win, Executive President Rizwanulla Khan said: "Growing demand for high-performance glass that meets architects and authorities requirements with competitive prices along with the market knowledge remain the key success factors for Emirates Glass."

Emirates Glass has an excellent portfolio of different in-house-developed performance coatings, from solar control coatings to low-emissivity single and double-silver coatings across the entire colour spectrum.

"To meet the glass requirements of these three prestigious projects, we continued production amidst challenging business times, to ensure timely delivery of materials. The Emicool Sun T Series meets inspiring architectural framework of building regulations requirements in terms of performance and aesthetics and these coatings are produced with the highest quality standards," stated Khan.

The EmiCool Sun T series provides a range of high-performance glass coatings highly preferred by consultants, architects, glass manufacturers and processors for not only commercial, residential and office towers but also for private villas, providing a wide range of optical and thermal properties.

With low indoor reflectance and excellent neutral coating, the Emicool Sun T Series ensures an excellent interior and exterior day and night view through the installed panels, said the statement from the Dubai group.

The EmiCool Sun T series was an ideal fit for The Gate Towers project in Egypt, with the architecture of the towers crafted to create gorgeous wide-angle sea views from every point of the project, it stated.

The series is providing similar benefit to The Waters Edge project in Abu Dhabi, consisting of 13 residential buildings located on the eastern shores of the Yas Island, also designed to offer beautiful views over the canal and to the Mirfa Beach Villa Housing Complex in the UAE capital, offering spectacular views of the community and the wide-spread desert, it added.-TradeArabia News Service
OTTAWA - A House of Commons committee examining the governments ill-fated deal with WE Charity probed deeper into the organization itself Thursday, but with partisan clashes over witnesses from a charity watchdog.

Charity Intelligence has previously raised alerts about WEs practices and drew rebukes from WE and its co-founders, Craig and Marc Kielburger, who testified before the committee last week.

The controversy around the grant program has raised questions over WEs complex structure and accounting mechanisms, its use of high-profile corporate sponsors and celebrity endorsements and its workplace culture.

The managing director of Charity Intelligence, which is a small charity itself, told MPs she found concerns in two days of reviewing WEs financial data that prompted her to call its management with questions.

I would really hope that if someone were making an investment of this size, that the government would have felt confident to ask questions and pick up the phone and seek clarification on anything that they were unclear about, Kate Bahen said.

She spoke off the top of the meeting about the need to help cash-strapped charities suffering from a general decline in giving due to the pandemic, including increasing the amount of money foundations have to disburse to charitable causes.

She then said her group has no partisan affiliation and outlined her disdain for partisanship itself  just before it took over the committee.

Liberal MPs questioned her groups findings about WE, and wondered why Charity Intelligence was even at the committee if it couldnt offer insight into the timeline of events surrounding WE and the student-volunteer program the Liberal government selected it to manage.

I have nothing against you or the organization, Liberal Peter Fragiskatos told Bahen.

But, he want on: Its hard for me to understand how an organization of four people can judge 250 organizations on a range of criteria, delve in and offer an enormous set of judgments, and for us to look at that as MPs is a challenge.

Opposition MPs argued the groups conclusions, made from poring over public reports, raise new questions about how the Trudeau government decided to hand WE Charity the reins of the student-volunteer program.

Absolutely no due diligence has been identified in terms of all of the myriad problems, things that should have been a red flag and things that for any other charity in the country would have meant that there was absolutely no possibility of them being considered for funding, said New Democrat Peter Julian.

The agreement with WE was to pay one of its foundations up to $43.5 million to administer a grant program designed to encourage students to sign up for volunteer work related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ottawa budgeted $912 million for the program and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau billed it that way, but the deal with WE was for $543 million. WE itself expected it would cost perhaps half that, the Kielburgers testified, emphasizing they only expected to dispense the money and have their administration costs covered.

In a statement issued after the meeting, WE said its multi-entity structure is partly because of its operations in numerous countries, partly because of a small number of sub-entities to fulfill donor wishes or operational ease for allocating funds, and partly to manage liability risks.

WE had a foundation with no other activities sign the agreement with the government to fulfill the government of Canadas request to assume the liability for up to 40,000 youth participants and not-for-profits during a global health pandemic, the statement said.

A controversy has simmered since late June over the sole-sourced nature of the deal and the charitys ties to Trudeau and his family.

Trudeau has been a featured speaker at six WE Day events since becoming prime minister, and his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau hosts a podcast for the group, for which they and WE say they have not been paid. However, Trudeaus mother and brother have been paid almost $300,000 for appearing at numerous WE event over the years and been reimbursed for some $200,000 in expenses.

Trudeaus wife has also had expenses covered.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau has also been embroiled in the affair for his familial ties to the group, and his acknowledgment last month that he repaid WE about $41,000 in sponsored travel for him and his family to view the charitys humanitarian projects in Ecuador and Kenya in 2017.

Both Trudeau and Morneau have apologized for not recusing themselves from the cabinet decision to have WE Charity administer the student grants.

Opposition parties are hoping the imminent release of government documents will shed some new light on how the deal was awarded. The government has until Saturday to table with the committee all memos, briefing notes, correspondence and other documents related to the now-cancelled agreement.

Theres been so many contradictions through this that I think its fair to say that the documents, hopefully, will start giving us some answers, Julian said in an interview Wednesday.

I think in terms of the next witnesses to get answers, the documents will help point us in the right direction.

The committee is also looking to hear from WE Charitys chief financial officer, Victor Li, and Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough.

Another motion adopted by the committee seeks witnesses with knowledge of WEs operations and offers parliamentary privilege as a shield against potential lawsuits.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 6, 2020.

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Residents use their mobile phones to document the restoration of electricity in Tolali, a village in Marawi, a city in the southern Philippines devastated by a five-month battle in 2017 between government forces and pro-Islamic State militants, July 15, 2020.

A coronavirus lockdown has hampered the delivery of humanitarian aid for thousands of residents of Marawi who remain displaced nearly three years after fighting between government security forces and pro-Islamic State militants left their southern Philippine city in ruins, relief agencies, uprooted people, and community leaders say.

The lockdown, which authorities in surrounding Lanao del Sur province imposed in mid-March amid a nationwide viral outbreak, barred non-residents including aid workers from entering Marawi, disrupting and complicating efforts to deliver basic services such as water and electricity for months, according to a range of sources interviewed for this report.

Our COVID-19 lockdown is stricter than during the five-month siege in Marawi City, Zia Alonto Adiong, a member of parliament in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BAARM), which governs an area including Marawi, told BenarNews.

We are both trying to heal the wounds of the siege and also trying to keep our people from infection, he said.

More than 125,000 people remain displaced and are waiting for the government to rebuild the city, according to the United Nations. Marawi was bombed during the fighting in 2017, when IS-linked militants seized the city for five months before government forces chased them away and killed the top leaders of the siege.

Nearly three years on from the end of the battle, thousands who were uprooted by it live in cramped, squalid temporary shelters that dot areas outside the city.

One hundred fifty-three of us IDPs share one faucet for water, Bai Mikmik Pumbaya, who lives in a temporary shelter in Saguiaran town outside the ruined city, told BenarNews. She was referring to internally displaced persons  a term that was once unknown to her but is how she refers to herself and her neighbors nowadays.

We do not even have enough water to wash our hands, and for our kids to take a bath, said Pumbaya, 48, a mother of five.

While she and her husband, a tricycle driver, worried about the coronavirus, she said there was little else they could do.

We cant even afford face masks, she said.

On Thursday, the Philippines overtook Indonesia as the country in East Asia with the most number of confirmed COVID-19 cases  119,460 and counting.

We are now facing a bigger problem because of COVID-19, which has compounded the situation of the displaced, Drieza Liningding, a community leader from Marawi, told BenarNews.

We are faced with a bigger problems every day, said Lininding, who heads the Moro Consensus Group. He was among residents of Marawi who lost their homes during the fighting in 2017.

A store owned by an internally displaced person is lit by solar power in Tolali village in Marawi, Philippines, July 16, 2020. Froilan Gallardo/BenarNews

In Marawi last month, locals rejoiced as the lights came back on in Tolali, one of the 22 villages in Marawi, when power was restored there and in another village, after authorities in June eased the COVID-19 movement restrictions on relief workers.

Relief has started to trickle in since then.

It has been slow because of several factors, including that personnel with aid agencies are required to show documents authorizing their travel inside and around the former war zone, and many of the agencies are based in places elsewhere in the southern region, where local COVID-19 lockdowns restrict their movements as well, leaders of aid groups and officials said.

Our assessment is that we were only able to serve 8,000 IDPs after the lockdown was eased in June, Rey Barnido, executive director of Duyog Marawi (Help Marawi) of the Catholic Relief Services, told BenarNews.

Because of the lockdown, he said the group had fallen far short of its target of delivering food and medicine to 35,000 displaced people in the area.

Mobile phone costs have doubled during the pandemic and internet service is patchy in the Marawi area, further complicating the logistics of communicating with staff and sending aid to people in the city, he said.

Online apps like Zoom are next to impossible because of the poor internet signal in Marawi, Barnido said.

Jasper Llanderal, executive director of the Action Against Hunger, a global humanitarian organization, said most of its staff were working from their homes instead of going into the field during the lockdown.

This [pandemic] is entirely new for us. We are crawling along the way because we have to address the safety of our staff, Llanderal told BenarNews.

In June, he said, his group was able to resume operations to deliver aid to Marawi after the movement restrictions were loosened. Action against Hunger was able to supply 15,000 kits of soap and alcohol to displaced families and was looking to distribute another 150,000 kits.

In nearby Iligan city, Zahabudin Guro, who heads the local office of the International Committee of the Red Cross, told BenarNews that the COVID-19 lockdown had caused delays in the construction of water pump stations vital for supplying potable water to temporary camps in Marawi.

Empty streets, highways

An official from Task Force Bangon Marawi (Rise up Marawi), an inter-agency group created to supervise the citys post-war recovery, acknowledged that the first phase of the COVID-19 lockdown, which lasted from mid-March to the end of May, had negatively affected humanitarian relief operations there.

The streets and highways were empty of vehicles during that period. The entire Marawi City and Lanao del Sur were deserted, said Felix Castro Jr., the task forces assistant secretary, confirming that humanitarian agencies were also restricted at the time by the travel ban in Marawi.

Only a few humanitarian agencies were able to resume their development work among the Marawi IDPs after the task force eased the travel restrictions on them in June, he said.

Castro said aid agencies that resumed their operations have had to rely on frontline workers who are residents of Marawi and Lanao del Sur.

Almost all the humanitarian agencies are based in Iligan City  an hours drove from Marawi  but which also strictly limits travel outside the city limits, he said.

These humanitarian agencies, especially the international agencies have very strict standards on health protocols. Many have opted to work from their homes instead of coming into Marawi and Lanao del Sur, Castro told BenarNews.

Aie Balagtas See, Jeoffrey Maitem and Richel V. Umel contributed to this report from Manila, Cotabato City and Iligan City, Philippines.
YEREVAN.  The court session on the criminal case against third President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, Flash fuel company owner of Barsegh Beglaryan, former Minister of Agriculture Sergo Karapetyan, former Deputy Minister of Agriculture Samvel Galstyan, and Gevorg Harutyunyan, Head of the Plant Breeding Department of the same ministry, adjourned Thursday.

Defendants Sargsyan and Harutyunyan were not in the courtroom.

The presiding judge read out the petition by Serzh Sargsyan's lawyer Amram Makinyan, in which it was stated that Sargsyan had taken a COVID-19 test Thursday, but its result had not been received yet, and therefore the attorney asked the court to reschedule this court session.

The judge also read the petition by Serzh Sargsyan's other lawyer, Ruben Hakobyan, asking the court to recognize Sargsyans absence from this court hearing as respectful.

The court did not agree with the defense lawyers' assertion that the court hearings should be rescheduled due to the growth rate of the coronavirus in Armenia, saying that the respective dynamics were decreasing rather than increasing.

Also, the court considered it disrespectful that Serzh Sargsyan was absent from the court session.

The next court hearing in the case of Serzh Sargsyan and others was scheduled for September 3.

According to the indictment of this criminal case, being organized by Sargsyan, pushed by Beglaryan, and assisted by Galstyan and Harutyunyan, Karapetyan had wastedfrom January 25 to February 7, 2013AMD 489,160,310 of subsidy allocated from the government's reserve fund for the 15,391,765 liters of diesel fuel that was used during the implementation of state assistance programs.

Serzh Sargsyan, however, does not accept the charge against him. His lawyer Amram Makinyan claims that the charge is concocted. According to media reports, Sergo Karapetyan's testimony is at the basis of the charge. He and Sargsyan have confronted each other along the lines of this criminal case.
TOKYO  Shiseido said Thursday that difficult business conditions brought on by the pandemic resulted in the company posting a first-half net loss of 21.37 billion yen, or $198.8 million. It also posted an operating loss, and sales for the period were down sharply.

The company said losses were related to COVID-19, such as compensation of employees on leave and maintenance costs for shops and production facilities. The company had reported net profits of 52.45 billion yen during the same period the previous year.

Shiseidos operating loss for the six months was 6.35 billion yen, despite efforts to reduce costs. It said the main factors for the loss were a drop in margins resulting from a plunge in sales, and deterioration in productivity of factories due to decreased production volume. In last years first half, the companys operating profit totalled 68.98 billion yen.

Sales for the six months ended June 30 declined by 26 percent on the year, coming in at 417.81 billion yen.

Shiseidos sales fell in each one of its business segments, with all markets except China posting double-digit percentage decreases. In Japan, sales declined by 31.9 percent to 150.52 billion yen.

In the domestic cosmetics market, consumer traffic decreased as a result of consumers staying at home, temporary retail closures and shortened operating hours following the lifting of the state of emergency, Shiseido said in a release. Other factors included restrictions on entry into Japan issued by the Japanese government, such as the cancellation of visas to citizens of approximately 100 countries and regions, as well as requests to international airlines to reduce flights, all of which significantly decreased demand from inbound tourists.

The companys sales in the Americas dropped by 42.1 percent to 36.74 billion yen, which it attributed to lockdowns and stay-at-home orders, as well as an increase in retailers filing for bankruptcy. But one bright spot in the market was Drunk Elephant, which Shiseido acquired last year. The brands strong e-commerce sales meant its performance remained solid despite the challenging environment.

Story continues

In China, Shiseidos sales fell by 7.1 percent to 100.04 billion yen.

The China business was largely affected by COVID-19 from the latter half of January. However, due to the decline in infections from late March, nearly all retail stores have resumed operations, marking the fastest recovery among all regions, particularly in mainland China, Shiseido said. Net sales growth in the second quarter of the fiscal year 2020 turned positive, mainly for prestige brands. The prestige category recorded especially high sales in e-commerce, an area of strengthened investment which enjoyed substantial growth in this quarter.

The current fiscal year is the final one in Shiseidos medium-term strategy it calls Vision 2020. At a livestreamed press conference on Thursday, the companys representative director, president and chief executive officer Masahiko Uotani announced a new strategy called Win 2023, which calls for strengthening digital marketing, increasing the product share of skin-care items, accelerating innovation and raising productivity while reducing fixed costs.

Uotani said that in light of the current pandemic, Shiseido will shift its focus to becoming a premium skin beauty company. While the sales ratio of skin-care products was 60 percent in 2019, the company aims to increase this figure to 80 percent by 2023. It is targeting becoming the worlds number-one skin beauty company by 2030.

As a part of its new strategy, the company will work to drive the global expansion of some brands. It hopes to roll out Drunk Elephant in in key markets in Europe, travel retail, Japan, China, South Korea, Mexico and Brazil between 2021 and 2022. Baum, a new sustainable beauty brand that launched in Japan this year, will enter the Chinese market in 2021.

Shiseido also announced a new joint venture with Yaman Co. for skin-care and beauty devices, called Effectim Co. The new company is due to start operations in October, with an investment rate of 65 percent from Shiseido and 35 percent from Yaman.

Yaman is the number-one Japanese brand in Chinas beauty device market, and the new company will initially focus on the Chinese market, while also developing cross-border business targeting Chinese consumers who are interested in antiaging and beauty devices. Products developed through the joint venture are planned to be launched in Japan and China in 2021.

Uotani said he expects COVID-19 to subside next year, with the overall recovery of the beauty market predicted for 2023.

For the second half of the current fiscal year, Shiseido does not expect any additional lockdowns or emergency declarations. It sees no recovery within the year for inbound travelers to Japan, especially from China. But it does expect to see a full recovery in the Chinese market, with further acceleration of e-commerce sales. In the Americas, it expects most stores to resume operations but with shorter hours, e-commerce sales to expand further and its factory to operate at about 80 percent of its full capacity.

Uotani said Shiseido will continue to strive to meet the needs of customers, which have drastically shifted since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. He said that because people are going out less frequently, there are fewer opportunities to wear makeup, and because of masks, lipstick in particular is not being used as much. On the other hand, he said the pandemic has also led to new skin-care needs, such as skin issues the result from several hours of mask wearing. He said the company will respond to these needs over the coming months and years.

In addition to changes to its product offering and marketing methods, Shiseido will also reevaluate how it sells its products to consumers. While its e-commerce sales ratio for the group as a whole was 13 percent in 2019, it aims to increase this number to 25 percent by 2023. In China, this ratio was 34 percent in 2019, and the company is targeting 50 percent by 2023. Uotani also mentioned livestream shopping as a possible new sales channel.

After having withdrawn its previous forecast in May, Shiseido also released its guidance for the current fiscal year. For the 12 months ending Dec. 31, the company is expecting a net loss of 22 billion yen.

It is predicting that its operating profit for the year will be zero.

Full-year net sales are forecast to fall by 15.8 percent, totalling 953 billion yen.

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A Virginia Coast Guardswoman is celebrating a historic milestone in her military career.

After being promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander, Chanel Lee became the first African American female pilot in the Coast Guard to be sent to flight school and the first to fly an MH-60 Seahawk helicopter.

Lee, of Richmond, Virginia, is one of five African American female pilots in the Coast Guard nationwide. During her July 25 ranking ceremony, Lee claimed she felt blessed and fortunate to have her loved ones by her side.

Lt. Cdr. Chanel Lee, pictured at an Air Medal award ceremony in Tuskegee, Alabama, on Feb. 21, 2019 (Petty Officer 1st Class Jetta Disco/U.S. Coast Guard)

She credited all the people that were there with me through those moments when I thought maybe my career might be over, or I might not be able to do all the things that I had aspired to do, reported WTVR.

So to be able to stand here on the other side of it and actually have each of those people here to share with me is just, its beyond a blessing, she added. I really cant even put it into words.

Lees socially distanced ceremony, attended by guests wearing face masks, took place in the backyard of her mothers home.

Adm. Charles Ray (far right) pictured with Lee and four of her colleagues on Feb. 21, 2019 (Petty Officer 1st Class Jetta Disco/U.S. Coast Guard)

Just before the ceremony, Lee completed a tour in San Diego as the Guards assistant engineering division chief in efforts to manage Southern California wildfires. In a prior mission, she contributed to the relief efforts after the 2018 mudslides.

Thinking back to the time of her enlistment, Lee credited the U.S. Coast Guard for its open-minded attitude.

When I joined in 2003, the Coast Guard was the only branch that looked past my distinctive identity and offered me every opportunity that it presented everyone else, Lee stated in a post on Facebook. The Coast Guard dared me to soar as we conquered the most honorable missions.

Lee and four of her colleagues standing on the historic Tuskegees Moton Field on Feb. 21, 2019 (Lt.Cmdr. Ryan P Kelley/U.S. Coast Guard)

Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Paul Zukunft claimed it was imperative for the organization to continue to evolve a culture that provides all individuals the opportunity to prosper, advance in their careers, and contribute to Coast Guard missions.

In terms of her future ambitions, the trailblazing pilot is reaching for the starsin the pilots seat and also in the classroom, as shes enrolled at the Georgia Institute of Technology and hopes to earn a Masters degree in Aeronautical Structural Mechanics and Materials.

Ahead on the radar, she could be literally headed for the stars. Space would be cool, she said, referring to a possible career next step.

Lee and the aircrew pictured together at Air Station Clearwater in Florida on July 13, 2015 (Petty Officer 3rd Class Ashley J. Johnson/U.S. Coast Guard)

We would love to hear your stories! You can share them with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.nyc
The Centre finally accepted the Bihar Governments plea of transferring Sushant Singh Rajputs case to the Central Bureau of Investigations. A day after, CBI said it is in the process of registering a case and is also in touch with the Bihar Police.

The Centre finally accepted the Bihar Governments plea of transferring Sushant Singh Rajputs case to the Central Bureau of Investigations. A day after, CBI said that it is in the process of registering a case and is also in touch with the Bihar Police. A copy of the FIR will be uploaded on their website soon.

According to the latest developments, CBI has registered a case against Rhea Chakraborty, Indrajit Chakraborty, Sandhya Chakraborty, Showik Chakraborty, Samuel Miranda, Shruti Modi, and others in connection with the Sushanth Singh Rajput death case.

According to some CBI sources, the SSRs death case has been given to the agencys elite special investigation team. This team has been probing fugitive business tycoon Vijay Mallya and the AgustaWestland chopper deal.

It is the first time that CBI has officially released a statement in Sushant Singh Rajputs case, according to the reports.

Bihar cops have returned to Patna from Mumbai, the reports added. The team was sent to Mumbai for the investigation after Sushants 77-year-old father, Krishna Kishore Singh, filed an FIR in Patna.

Also read: Education insurers need to be worthy of their image, says Rajesh Kumar Singh, Chairman of Kunwar Global School

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Yesterday, dismissing the arguments by Maharashtra Government against the CBI investigation, the Supreme Court transferred the case to CBI. The step one of the case will be the accumulation of all the case files, diaries as well as statements that Bihar Police has recorded.

Nitish Kumar, Bihar CM, recommended a CBI investigation on Tuesday at the request of the late actors father, KK Singh. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who is representing the Union of India in the case, had said that the Bihar Governments plea was accepted by the Centre and investigation of the SSRs death case was transferred to the CBI.

Sushant Singh Rajput, aged 34, died by suicide at his Mumbai residence on June 14.

Since the actors death, the Mumbai police have been investigating the case keeping in mind various angles.

Also read: SSR death case: Call details of Sushant Singh Rajput and Rhea Chakraborty revealed
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sent a team of hit men to North America to assassinate a rival's top spy, after taking his children and his brother hostage, because he knew secrets about the young royals brutal palace coup that brought him to power, a new lawsuit alleges.

Saad Aljabri, who once held a cabinet-level intelligence post under deposed Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, has been living in exile in Toronto since bin Salman, also known as MBS, ruthlessly took power in 2017 and became the de facto ruler of the desert kingdom.

Aljabri on Wednesday filed a lawsuit with the District Court of the District of Columbia in which he alleges that there is virtually no one that defendant bin Salman wants dead more than him.

The lawsuit names MBS as well as other senior members of the Saudi government.

Saad Aljabri (left), who once held a cabinet-level intelligence post under deposed crown prince Mohammed bin Nayef, has been living in exile in Toronto since Mohammed bin Salman (right), also known as MBS, ruthlessly took power in 2017 and became the de facto ruler of the desert kingdom. Aljabri alleges in a lawsuit that bin Salman wants him dead

Aljabri alleges that the Saudi government has kidnapped his two adult children - son Omar, 21, and daughter Sarah (seen left with her father), 20 - in an attempt to lure him back to the country

Aljabri is seen right in this undated file photo with his son, Omar, who along with his sister has not been heard from since March

Last month, a bipartisan group of four United States senators called on President Trump to make an effort to secure the release of Aljabri's two children. Sarah Aljabri is seen in the above file photo

DailyMail.com has reached out to the Saudi embassy in Washington, DC, for comment.

Aljabri is a former top aide to Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who was edged out as heir to the throne in 2017 by MBS, the kingdom's de facto ruler.

Prince Nayef and Prince Ahmed - King Salman's brother - were also detained by authorities in March. They have been charged with treason.

They are among a wave of royals detained in recent months as MBS eliminates potential rivals to amass power unseen by previous rulers.

Aljabri, who relocated to Canada with six of his children, is known to have connections to senior American government officials and is viewed as a longtime trusted partner of senior US intelligence officials.

According to the 100-page court filing, Aljabri is a marked man in Riyadh because he is uniquely positioned to existentially threaten defendant bin Salmans standing with the US Government.

The alleged plot to assassinate Aljabri evokes memories of the 2018 killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a former Saudi regime insider who became a critic of MBS while writing columns for The Washington Post.

Khashoggi, a US resident, visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, to receive marriage documents. It is believed that his body was dismembered and removed.

His remains have never been recovered.

The CIA believes that Khashoggis murder was ordered by MBS.

Aljabri alleges in the lawsuit that one of the reasons MBS wants him dead is because he provided intelligence to the CIA pointing to the crown prince as responsible for the death of Khashoggi.

The murder caused a global uproar, tarnishing the crown princes image.

The alleged plot to have Aljabri assassinated was thwarted less than two weeks after a Saudi columnist for The Washington Post, Jamal Khashoggi (seen above in February 2015), was killed while visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018. The CIA believes MBS ordered the assassination of Khashoggi

Aljabri was considered a close ally of former Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef (seen above in March 2016), who was heir to the throne before MBS orchestrated a palace coup with the support of the Trump administration in 2017. Saudi King Salman is seen right

Some Western governments, as well as the CIA, said they believed he had ordered the killing.

Saudi officials say he had no role, though in September MBS indicated some personal accountability, saying it happened under my watch.

Last December, Saudi Arabia sentenced five people to death and three to jail over the murder of Khashoggi, but a United Nations investigator accused it of making a mockery of justice by allowing the masterminds of last years killing to go free.

According to the lawsuit, MBS dispatched a team of agents to the US to locate Aljabri.

The agents managed to pinpoint Aljabris location by implanting malware on his cell phone, the lawsuit alleges.

Less than two weeks after the Khashoggi killing, a personal mercenary group known as Tiger Squad traveled to Canada to kill Aljabri, the complaint alleges.

The members of the Tiger Squad were carrying two bags of forensic tools.

They also had forensic personnel experienced with the clean-up of crime scenes - including an instruction in the exact same criminal evidence department as the forensic specialist who dismembered Khashoggi with a bone saw.

The lawsuit alleges that the team tried to enter Canada covertly while traveling on tourist visas.

They tried to enter the country individually while seeking to avert the detection of Canadian border security by entering through separate kiosks.

Upon approaching the kiosks, the Tiger Squad Defendants aroused the suspicion of Canadian border security officials, who asked them whether they knew each other, the lawsuit says.

They lied and said they did not. On information and belief, shortly thereafter, during secondary screening, Canadian officials found a photo of some of the Tiger Squad Defendants together, revealing their lie and thwarting their mission.

Who is the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman? The Crown Prince - known simply as MBS - (pictured at a conference in Riyadh in October) was warmly embraced by the West for his liberal reforms, but the murder of Jamal Khashoggi has left his reputation severely tarnished Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is known as the true power behind the throne in Saudi Arabia. His father, King Salman, was made ruler in 2015, and his son has been given a huge amount of say in how the country is government. He won plaudits from Western leaders after he introduced some moderate reforms - allowing women in Saudi Arabia to drive for the first time ever and introducing cinemas to the country. The Crown Prince - known simply as MBS - also reigned in the country's fierce and ultra conservative religious police. Leaders including Theresa May and Donald Trump have rolled out the red carpet for him during his lavish visits. But the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi has severely damaged his reputation. MBS has been accused of ordering the journalist's murder, and the killing sparked calls for him to be replaced as Crown Prince. While the Saudi authorities have publicly insisted the Prince does not have blood on his hands and did not order the killing, his reputation has been badly tarnished. He also has directed the Saudi war in Yemen, were the kingdom has been accused of breaching international human rights law and plunging millions into famine. And questions were already raised about how ruthlessly he will crush opposition after he imprisoned Saudi royals in the country's five star Ritz hotel last year. He said he locked them up in a massive anti-corruption drove. But his critics said that the move was a way for MBS to purge his political rivals. Advertisement

According to the lawsuit, MBS remains determined to once and for all...eliminate Aljabri.

The Saudi ruler now plans to send agents directly through the United States to enter Canada by land, the lawsuit alleges.

MBS is alleged to have received the blessing of Saudi religious authorities who issued a fatwa, or Islamic edict, calling for the death of Aljabri.

While MBS has allegedly been plotting Aljabris assassination, his government has also reportedly been using secret diplomatic backchannels in an attempt to pressure the Canadian government to extradite Aljabri.

According to The Globe and Mail, the Saudis tried to have Aljabri arrested by issuing a red notice through Interpol, the international law enforcement organization, in late 2017.

When that didnt work, the Saudis pressed the Canadian government in Ottawa to extradite Aljabri last fall.

But Canada does not have an extradition treaty with the Saudi regime.

In 2018, a Saudi delegation visiting Canada asked the government to turn him over. But at the time it was not known that Aljabri had asked for asylum in Canada.

Perhaps the most shocking allegation contained in the lawsuit involves Aljabris two children, who have allegedly been seized by the Saudi government in an attempt to lure [their father] back to the kingdom.

Aljabri is considered a close ally of the US intelligence community whose assistance saved American lives after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Last month, four US senators urged President Trump to help free Jabris two detained children.

Two adult children and a brother of Saad Aljabri, who is said to hold key state secrets, were detained in Riyadh in March, with a source close to the family telling AFP they were victims of a Saudi game of thrones.

Aljabri, credited by Western officials for playing a pivotal role in the kingdom's fight against Al-Qaeda, had earlier attempted to get his children to leave Saudi Arabia but authorities had placed them under a travel ban, the source said.

We write to express our urgent concern about the abduction in Saudi Arabia of two children of a close US ally and friend, Dr Saad Aljabri, Democratic Senators Patrick Leahy, Tim Kaine and Chris Van Hollen, joined by Republican Senator Marco Rubio, said in a joint letter to Trump.

The Saudi government is believed to be using the children as leverage to try to force their father's return to the kingdom from Canada, where he currently resides.

We believe the US has a moral obligation to do what it can to assist in securing his children's freedom. We urge you to raise this issue with senior Saudi officials and press for the immediate release of Dr Aljabri's children, said the letter, posted by Leahy on Twitter.

Saudi authorities have so far not publicly commented on the case.

The source close to the Aljabris said the whereabouts of the children - Sarah and Omar, who are in their early 20s - remain unknown and the family's repeated appeals to Saudi rulers have gone unanswered.

In May, Saad Aljabris brother, Abdulrahman, was also arrested.

The Aljabri family source said the two children were caught up in the dangerous power plays and being used as pawns.

MBS, who has faced repeated allegations of human rights abuse, is a close ally of Trump.

In their letter, the senators pressed Trump to help Aljabri, describing him as a highly valued partner of American intelligence agencies.

As a top intelligence officer in Saudi Arabia, Dr Aljabri has been credited by former CIA officials for saving thousands of American lives by discovering and preventing terrorist plots, said the letter.

His development of a modern forensics system in Saudi Arabia reportedly contributed to the significant curtailing of terrorist groups including Al Qaeda.
Social Cohesion Project Coordinator (SC8), Sittway, Myanmar

Organization: UNDP - United Nations Development Programme

Country: Myanmar

Field location: Sittwe, Rakhine State, Myanmar

Office: UNDP in Sittwe, Rakhine State

Closing date: Wednesday, 12 August 2020

Job ID: 31855

Practice Area - Job Family: Peace Building - SOCIAL COHESION PROJECT COORDINATOR

Vacancy End Date: (Midnight New York, USA) 12/08/2020

Duty Station: Sittway (Sittwe), Myanmar

Education & Work Experience: G-Bachelors Level Degree - 2 year(s) experience, I-Masters Level Degree - 1 year(s) experience

Languages: English

Grade: SB4

Vacancy Type: Service Contract (SC)

Posting Type: External

Bureau: Asia & the Pacific

Contract Duration: One Year

Background

The Peaceful Communities Project has been designed to respond to the urgent need for enhanced social cohesion and community resilience in Myanmar. It adopts a multiprong strategy through working on alleviating immediate pressures for the most conflict-affected populations while tackling some of the long-term challenges that present the root conflict causes. It engages hands-on with building social cohesion in the targeted locations in Rakhine state through a combination of hardware inputs that improve economic wellbeing with software measures that promote community safety, enhance the culture of dialogue and build stronger social bonds. This approach is accomplished through an establishment of engines for local development, where social cohesion issues are most at stake. The project also addresses the social cohesion needs of the returning or resettled IDPs and assists the local society in overcoming the legacy of past conflict through collaborative efforts. It engages both with the grassroot communities and with the state and Union-level authorities, as it is determined to advocate solutions to the challenges which require a higher-level change. For that, it will create accelerators in order to upstream the issues from the ground up to decision-makers.

To this end, UNDP seeks to appoint a Project Coordinator to support the implementation of the social cohesion pilot activities in Rakhine state. The Social Cohesion Project Coordinator will work under the direct supervision of the Project Manager based in Yangon Country Office.

Duties and Responsibilities

Provides quality technical assistance to project and counterparts focusing on achievement of the following results:

Supports the development of project guidelines and tools, including community based consultation, problem identification, resource and stakeholder mapping and social cohesion;

Leads on community dialogue interventions and provides facilitation support

Supports data collection and analysis of field activities to gather evidence and support a review of social cohesion strategy and approaches

Facilitates and implements workshops with township and village tract administrations, village leaders, NGO implementing partners and community based organizations

Works in close support and partnership role with the international and national consultants, and with Yangon-based project management team.

Supports creation of partnerships with government counterparts and strategic partners focusing on achievement of the following results:

Develops relationships with township and state-level authorities, and governments departments of the line ministries in the working area

Develops relationships with development organizations in and social cohesion related works

Represents UNDP in inter-agency coordination meetings and working groups.

Competencies

. Competencies and Critical Success Factors

Functional Competencies:

Advocacy/Advancing A Policy-Oriented Agenda

Level 2: Analysis and creation of messages and strategies

Creates effective advocacy strategies

Performs analysis of political situations and scenarios, and contributes to the formulation of institutional responses

Results-Based Programme Development and Management

Level

2: Contributes into results through primary research and analysis

Assesses project performance to identify success factors and incorporates best practices into project work

Researches linkages across programme activities to identify critical points of integration

Monitors specific stages of projects/programme implementation

Building Strategic Partnerships

Level

2: Maintaining a network of contacts

Maintains an established network of contacts for general information sharing and to remain up-to-date on partnership related issues

Analyzes and selects materials for strengthening strategic alliances with partners and stakeholders

Innovation and Marketing New Approaches

Level

2: Enhancing processes or products

Generates new ideas and proposes new, more effective ways of doing things

Resource Mobilization (Field Duty Stations)

Level

2: Providing inputs to resource mobilization strategies

Analyzes information/databases on potential and actual donors

Promoting Organizational Learning and Knowledge Sharing

Level 2: Developing tools and mechanisms

Makes the case for innovative ideas documenting successes and building them into the design of new approaches

Identifies new approaches and strategies that promote the use of tools and mechanisms

Job Knowledge/Technical Expertise

Level 2: In-depth knowledge of the subject-matter

Understands more advanced aspects of primary area of specialization as well as the fundamental concepts of related disciplines

Keeps abreast of new developments in area of professional discipline and job knowledge and seeks to develop him/herself professionally

Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments

Demonstrates comprehensive understanding and knowledge of the current guidelines and project management tools and utilizes these regularly in work assignments

Global Leadership and Advocacy for UNDPs Goals

Level

2: Preparing information for global advocacy

Identifies and communicates relevant information for advocacy for UNDPs goals for a variety of audiences

Client Orientation

Level

2: Establishing effective client relationships

Researches potential solutions to internal and external client needs and reports back in a timely, succinct and appropriate fashion

Organizes and prioritizes work schedule to meet client needs and deadlines

Core Competencies:

Demonstrating/safeguarding ethics and integrity

Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment

Self-development, initiative-taking

Acting as a team player and facilitating team work

Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively

Creating synergies through self-control

Managing conflict

Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others. Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing is the responsibility of each staff member.

Informed and transparent decision making

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

University degree in development studies, public administration, social science, business, agriculture or other relevant discipline.

Masters degree preferred

Experience:

Two years experience with a bachelors degree (or less than two years with a masters degree) in the implementation of community development, peacebuilding and/or social cohesion programmes and projects OR with Master Degree, in the relevant field of work

Demonstrated experience with interventions in dialogue, community consultation, mediation and dispute resolution

Experience in coordinating with a wide range of stakeholders including local communities, state and local government, civil society and UN/INGOs

Knowledge of delivering capacity-building programs for CSOs and government counterpart is an asset

Computer literacy - MS office applications, web-based management information systems

Demonstrated strength in interpersonal skills

Ability to work well in multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural teams

Work experience in Rakhine State strongly preferred

Strong verbal and writing competencies in English and local languages

Ability to listen, understand and speak local languages and dialects commonly spoken in northern Rakhine

Disclaimer

Paper-based applications will not be accepted.

Only those candidates who has qualifications and experience the Organization has further interest will be contacted for subsequent interview(s).

UNDP is an equal opportunity employer. UNDP regrets its inability to reply individually or attend to telephone queries on the advertised posts.

Women are encouraged to apply the post.

Thanking you for your kind cooperation.
By Jacques Morisset - Lead economist and programme leader for Vietnam World Bank

The countrys GDP was still growing at a 0.4 per cent in the second quarter of 2020, but it was the worst performance recorded over the past 35 years. The magnitude of the economic slowdown, a drop of almost seven percentage points, was equivalent to the one observed in most affected countries  except that Vietnams economy, like a healthier body, was in a better initial position to resist the pandemic.

The magnitude of the COVID-19 shock might have been bigger than captured by the slowdown from the perspective of jobs and income. The authorities estimate that over 30 million Vietnamese workers  approximately half of the labour force  were affected at the height of the lockdown during the month of April.

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs also reported that urban unemployment rose by 33 per cent during the second quarter, while the average income per worker decreased by 5 per cent. Granted, thanks to the easing of social distancing since late April, most family businesses have resumed their activities, and almost all wage workers are back to work, according to a recent phone survey conducted by the World Bank Group.

However, one can argue that the economic shock has been unexpectedly large for a country used to recording full employment during the last two decades.

Looking ahead, Vietnams economy remains vulnerable to new waves of coronavirus outbreak and, even in their absence, it could be stuck in what we can label as the COVID-19 economic trap.

In the immediate future, we believe that the Vietnamese economy will not be able to fully rely on its two traditional drivers of growth  foreign demand and private consumption. Given the uncertainties in the domestic and international contexts, risk-averse households will limit their investment and consumption plans, while exporters will continue to suffer from international mobility restrictions and falling global income.

For example, the tourism sector is likely to miss the 20 million foreign travellers that were expected to visit Vietnam in 2020. The export manufacturing industry will face a further decline in orders from abroad. All manufacturing exports  with the notable exception of computer parts  have contracted in the past six months.

According to the World Banks latest economic update on the new normal for Vietnam, the country is nonetheless in a good position to escape this economic trap for at least two reasons.

Firstly, the government has created enough fiscal space to implement an ambitious fiscal stimulus. At the end of 2019, the level of public debt to GDP ratio was about 7 per cent  lower than in 2016  and the authorities had accumulated massive cash reserves. The government can therefore enhance both the aggregate demand in the short term and the aggregate supply in the longer term by spending more and better.

Of course, such a tool should be used with caution to maintain fiscal and debt sustainability over time. It will also require an effort to improve the allocative and financial efficiency of public expenditures. The positive impact associated to the fiscal stimulus can be maximised only if the authorities are capable of selecting and rapidly implementing the projects with the highest multiplier effect on jobs and the entire economy.

Concurrently, to further stimulate the aggregate demand, this fiscal drive should also provide smart support to the private sector through tax relief and financial assistance.

Because Vietnams performance has been uneven in these aspects, our economic update offers a series of recommendations on how to improve them. While the fiscal stimulus can boost Vietnams economy in the short term, the return to the pre-crisis trajectory of sustained and inclusive growth might require more effort.

Fortunately, the country can count on a second, and perhaps unique, advantage. By staying ahead of the curve in the fight against the pandemic, Vietnam can increase its footprint on the world economy by attracting foreign businesses that are now looking to diversify their activities and mitigate the risks.

Vietnam can also diversify its trade by forging alliances with countries that have also low rate of infections, while exporting rice and other agriculture products to the increasing number of countries facing higher food insecurity. On the domestic front, Vietnam can accelerate contact-free, digital services such as e-learning, e-commerce, e-government, and telemedicine.

Such a move will help meet the growing demand for quality services by the emerging middle class and also improve the countrys competitiveness.

Escaping the COVID-19 economic trap has become the priority for Vietnam, as it will be for many other countries. Vietnamese policymakers have the opportunity to move faster than others. Not only can this opportunity help Vietnam adapt its own economy to the new realities, but also inspire other governments in their efforts to define what will be the new normal in the post-pandemic world.
WASHINGTON - The Justice Department on Thursday accused a Ukrainian oligarch who has been considered an ally of that country's president of stealing billions of dollars from a bank he once owned, then using a vast array of companies to launder that money in the United States and all over the world.

In a civil forfeiture complaint seeking to seize commercial properties from the men in Kentucky and Texas, the Justice Department alleged that Ihor Kolomoisky and his business partner, Gennadiy Boholiubov, stole so much from PrivatBank that the country's national bank had to give the institution a $5.5 billion bailout "to stave off economic crisis for the whole country."

Kolomoisky, one of Ukraine's richest men, has ties to President Volodymyr Zelensky, and he played a role in the events that led to President Donald Trump's impeachment last year. He made a fortune in the rough-and-tumble capitalism that swept Ukraine after the Soviet Union's collapse, amassing assets from airlines to financial institutions, and created a larger-than-life image for himself, going by the nickname "Benya," and keeping a shark aquarium in his office.

Kolomoisky and Boholiubov were the two major owners of PrivatBank before it was nationalized in response to the fraud, the Justice Department said, and the men basically used it as a personal account to build a business empire in the United States. They requested money from PrivatBank - which they always received because they were owners - then moved the money through a vast network of companies to "thoroughly disguise their nature, source, ownership, and control," the Justice Department alleged.

Experts have expressed increasing concern that U.S. real estate - including factories and facilities important to American industry - has become a magnet for foreign money, including proceeds of overseas criminal activities. Among Kolomoisky's and Boholiubov's purchases were more than 5 million square feet of commercial real estate in Ohio, steel plants in Kentucky, West Virginia and Michigan, a cellphone manufacturing plant in Illinois, and commercial real estate in Texas, the Justice Department alleged. The forfeiture complaints sought to seize a roughly 19 1/2-acre office park in Dallas and the PNC Plaza building in Louisville.

Michael Sullivan, an attorney for Kolomoisky, said in an email: "Mr. Kolomoisky emphatically denies the allegations in the complaints filed by the Department of Justice." The allegations, which are not criminal charges, are similar to those in a civil lawsuit filed by the bank in a Delaware court. An attorney for Boholiubov did not return an email seeking comment.

Kolomoisky also has long been facing a criminal probe by the U.S. attorney's office in Cleveland for possible money laundering. As a part of that case, the FBI raided the office of Optima Management Group in downtown Cleveland on Tuesday, as well as another Optima office in the Southeast Financial Center building in Miami.

In court documents Thursday, the Justice Department alleged that two Miami-based business associates of Kolomoisky and Boholiubov - Mordechai Korf and Uriel Laber - helped acquire and manage the oligarchs' holdings in the United States, which often bear some version of the name "Optima." Optima Ventures at one point became the "largest holder of commercial real estate in Cleveland," using stolen funds to buy major downtown office buildings and a hotel, the Justice Department alleged.

Last year, Marc Kasowitz, a New York lawyer who also represents Trump, signed on to represent the two men in the Delaware case. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Under Ukraine's last president, Petro Poroshenko, the government nationalized PrivatBank, alleging that Kolomoisky and one of his business partners had defrauded the bank of billions of dollars. Kolomoisky denied those charges but decamped from Kyiv to Israel, where he also holds citizenship. He retained political power in Ukraine through his business holdings, which include a major Ukrainian television station.

Kolomoisky is seen as an ally of Zelensky, who was an actor before his election, starring in a comedy show that aired on Kolomoisky's network. When Zelensky was elected, it was widely seen as a boon for Kolomoisky, particularly after the new president made Kolomoisky's personal lawyer the head of his administration. Some in the United States were suspicious of Zelensky's ties to the mogul, thinking the connection ran counter to Zelensky's promises to pursue an anti-corruption agenda.

Since then, however, Zelensky has not supported returning control of PrivatBank to the oligarch, and he fired that top aide. Still, Kolomoisky has been comfortable enough with Ukraine's current leadership that he returned from a self-imposed exile in Tel Aviv and is again based in Kyiv, where he maintains connections to members of the presidential administration.

In spring 2019, when Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani embarked on a mission to press Zelensky to assist Trump by opening politically charged investigations into former vice president Joe Biden and his son, Giuliani's associates met with Kolomoisky to request that Giuliani get a meeting with the rising Ukrainian politician.

Giuliani associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman met with Kolomoisky in April 2019 in Tel Aviv and, by all accounts, it did not go well.

After the meeting, the two Florida-based business executives accused Kolomoisky of physically threatening them and filed a lawsuit against him in Ukraine. Parnas and Fruman, who assisted Giuliani in his Ukraine project, were charged with campaign finance violations last year. They have denied all wrongdoing.

Giuliani has said he provided legal advice to Parnas and Fruman in their fight against Kolomoisky. He also tweeted repeatedly about his displeasure with Kolomoisky in May 2019, just as he was pressuring Zelensky to assist Trump with the Biden investigation. At one point, he complained that Zelensky was being advised by "Kolomoisky's representatives and enemies of President Trump."

Meanwhile, a lawyer for Kolomoisky has told The Washington Post that during the meeting, Parnas and Fruman claimed that they could get top U.S. officials, including Vice President Mike Pence and Energy Secretary Rick Perry, to travel to Ukraine around the time of Zelensky's May 2019 inauguration - if Kolomoisky paid them several hundred thousand dollars. Kolomoisky did not pay the money, instead throwing the two men out of his office, his lawyer has said.

The attorney, Bruce Marks, told The Post that Kolomoisky had predicted to friends at the time: "This is going to end up in a bad scandal."

- - -

The Washington Post's Paul Sonne and Julie Tate contributed to this report.
Intercredit Bank, the Miami-based commercial and consumer financial institution founded in 1992, has been sold to Dr. Fidel Egas, an Ecuadorean businessman and banker.

The sale closed on June 16. The sales price was not disclosed.

Intercredit Bank employs 76 workers across its four branch locations around Miami-Dade. Its assets have an estimated worth of $373 million.

The change of ownership and projected capital infusions will allow Intercredit Bank to grow its footprint and remain competitive in South Florida, said Simon Cruz, Intercredit Banks president and CEO, in a press release. Completing a purchase such as this during a pandemic is a vote of confidence about the Bank, our loyal customers, and the strength of the South Florida economy.

Cruz will continue to serve as president and CEO of the bank.

Egas purchased Intercredit Bank personally, so the institution will not become a part of Banco Pichincha Holding Group, which owns banks in Spain, Colombia, Peru and other countries. Egas is also the majority owner of Banco Pichincha, the largest private commercial bank in Ecuador, founded in 1906.

His son Fidel Esteban Egas will serve as the new chairman of the board for Intercredit Bank.
On Thursday, India slammed Pakistan over the latter's statement on Ram Mandir Temple, asking Islamabad to desist from interfering in New Delhi's internal affairs and refrain from communal incitement.

India on Thursday hit back at Pakistan over the latters statement on Ram Mandir Temple, asking Islamabad to desist from interfering in New Delhis internal affairs and refrain from communal incitement. In a statement, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said such comments by the country that denies its own minorities their religious rights are deeply regrettable.

Pakistan on Wednesday criticised the foundation laying of the Ram temple. Srivastava said that they had seen the press statement by the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on a matter internal to India. It should desist from interfering in Indias affairs and refrain from communal incitement.

He added that while this is not a surprising stance from a nation that practices cross-border terrorism and denies its own minorities their religious rights, such comments are nevertheless deeply regrettable. Many Pakistani Hindus have expressed their happiness with the Bhoomipujan event. Indians across the globe including in the United States of America celebrated and offered prayers to Lord Ram on the day of Bhoomi pujan.

Also read: SSR death probe: Bihar DGP calls out Mumbai Polices unprofessionalism in Sushant Singh Rajput case

Also read: India-China standoff: Defence Ministry admits transgressions by Chinese Army in Ladakh

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday laid the foundation stone for the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya. This foundation stone laying ceremony called bhoomipujan marked the start of the construction of the Ram Mandir.

Also read: J&K Guv GC Murmu resigns 9 months after assuming charge, Manoj Sinha to take over
Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan.

FICTION

Sex and Vanity

Kevin Kwan

Hutchinson, $32.99

Kevin Kwan's luridly fun and hedonistic trilogy that began with Crazy Rich Asians became a publishing bravura, with the first in the series also made into a blockbuster movie. This latest novel bears the same blueprint of its predecessors with the title offering an obvious clue as to the contents within. Sex and Vanity is unmitigated soap-opera escapism, and should be considered as such. Those after in-depth psychological insights and dour pronouncements on the human condition are advised to look elsewhere; here, Kwan joyfully skates on the surface, the more glittery the better.

Loosely based on E.M. Forster's 1908 Edwardian period novel A Room with a View (as well as the Merchant Ivory produced film in 1985), Kwan's book moves the action to 2013-18 and sets his melodrama on the jewel-like Italian island of Capri and, later, in New York.

Once again, the Singaporean-born, American-raised author both indulges and satirises the the world of the rich and idle, who are laid out for display like delectable hors doeuvres.
Hitting the big 4-0 can mean a lot of different things to different people. Unfortunately, it can also mean age spots, which generally start popping up after the age of 40. They're sometimes called liver spots, which is a bit confusing considering the fact that they don't actually have anything to do with the liver. Perhaps a more fitting name would be sun spots -- sun exposure is what causes them in the first place. No matter what you call them, they're all the same thing: dark patches people get on their skin as they get older.

Age spots are usually brown or black, and they pop up on areas of the skin that are constantly exposed to the sun, like your hands and face. If you're good about protecting your skin from ultraviolet rays, you might be able to prevent them, but if you go out regularly without any sunscreen you'll probably develop them early on in life. Either way, they're painless. Aside from being unsightly, they won't really bother you -- but if you don't like the way they look, there are a few things you can do to try to get rid of them.

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If it's too late for you to prevent age spots, you're not out of luck. The good news is that they affect only the outermost layer of your skin, so there are several treatment options available to get rid of them. Think about it like spilling coffee on a pad of paper -- if you remove enough pieces of paper, you can get rid of the stain and the pad will look brand-new. Treatments that get rid of age spots work in a similar fashion -- they involve everything from freezing the top layer of your skin to getting underneath it with a laser. There are also a few homemade treatments you can try. Either way, you don't have to live with age spots unless you want to.

Keep reading to find out what specific treatment options are available.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- How can Gov. Mike DeWine not have contact tracing data showing how the coronavirus is spreading through Ohio?

Were talking about the states claim that it doesnt keep information that way 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) Why isnt Mike DeWine releasing the full contact tracing data that would show how the coronavirus is spreading? The Ohio Department of Health said the way the Ohio Disease Reporting System works prohibits more extensive aggregate contact tracing data.

2) Whats going on with the United Way of Greater Cleveland, which just reduced its workforce while announcing a redefined mission? The United Way has eliminated 12 positions to align with the agencys transition to a digital and data-driven focus, including on fighting racism and helping families who face eviction.

3) With all the debate about whether children should return to school buildings, why arent we talking about outdoor classes, at least in the beginning of the year? Doctors say holding classes outdoors is worth considering, but administrators say the concept comes with complications, added expenses and danger.

4) Are bar owners making any headway in their battle against Mike DeWines order that they stop selling alcohol at 10 p.m. each night? No. A Columbus judge on Wednesday ruled against a request from a group of local bars seeking to block the order from going into effect.

5) Theres a group that wants to create a property tax to support RTA. What are these people thinking? They want to decrease fares and increase service. The community relations board recognized by the city of Cleveland passed a resolution at its July forum backing a greater taxpayer investment in RTA service.

6) Whats the point of the sales tax holiday happening this weekend? Consumers get a break. The holiday runs Friday-Sunday, exempting state and local sales tax on qualifying items, including clothing priced at $75 or less and school supplies or instructional material priced at $20 or less.

7) What are the new plans for Ohio by Democratic candidate Joe Biden and Independent candidate Kanye West? Bidens campaign will spend $280 million on television and digital advertising this fall across 15 states, including Ohio, compared to President Donald Trumps $147 million fall purchases. West on Wednesday filed petitions to appear on the ballot in Ohio.Want more? You can find all our past episodes here.

Do you get your podcasts on Spotify. Find us here.

If you use Stitcher, we are here.

RadioPublic is another popular podcast vehicle, and we are here.

On Google Podcasts, we are here.

On PodParadise, find us here.

And on PlayerFM, we are here.
SEATTLE, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Pandemic Action Network, WHO, Africa CDC, CDC and CDC Foundation, Facebook, Google, Global Citizen and 40+ partner organizations announced today the launch of World Mask Week from August 7-14, an effort to increase the use of face coverings in public across the globe.

Given the alarming exponential increase of infection rates across the globe, sustained community masking in public is critical to stop the spread of COVID-19, even as situations vary around the world. And until we have vaccines or medicines to fight COVID-19, face coverings are one of the best tools we have  particularly where social distancing is not practical.

"COVID-19 is a respiratory disease caused by the transfer of droplets. As the pandemic continues to gain momentum in Africa, we must increase compliance to the public health and social measures so we can protect ourselves and protect our economy. We must increase mass wearing of masks as we expand testing and treatment services," said Dr. John Nkengasong, Director of Africa CDC.

The initiative encourages people and organizations around the world to rally behind the importance of wearing a mask to stop the spread of COVID-19 during World Mask Week and every week until there is a vaccine available. People can show their support by sharing a statement, picture or video on social media, tagged with #WorldMaskWeek.

"Slowing the spread of COVID-19 requires everyone to play a role to keep themselves and their communities safe and healthy. Health experts have made it clear that wearing a mask is a key and simple preventive measure," said KX Jin, Head of Health, Facebook. "We're proud to partner on World Mask Week with leading health organizations as part of our commitment to connecting people to the expert guidance of those working on the frontlines."

"Google is committed to helping share one simple message: Wear a Mask," said Dr. Karen DeSalvo, Chief Health Officer, Google. "From our homepage doodle, to providing information on Google Search and Maps, we are connecting people to helpful, authoritative resources that explain how wearing a mask can help reduce the spread of COVID-19 and save lives."

The CDC Foundation is another Pandemic Action Network partner marking World Mask Week. "We're committed to supporting the response to the public health threat posed by this virus, and wearing a face covering consistently and correctly is one of the most important things we can do as individuals to fight COVID-19," said Dr. Judy Monroe, President and CEO of the CDC Foundation. "The CDC Foundation is helping organize and support a number of campaigns, including campaigns with CDC and the Ad Council, focused on the importance of face coverings to crush COVID-19."



Face coverings block the spray of droplets from sneezing, coughing, talking, singing or shouting when worn over the mouth and nose. They serve as barriers that help prevent droplets from traveling into the air.1,2,3 Since people may have COVID-19, but not know it or have symptoms, consistent mask wearing can reduce the spread of the virus.4,5 Mathematical modeling shows that masks worn by 80-90 percent of the population coupled with social distancing could eventually eliminate the disease.6

"Inconsistent policies on masking have caused confusion and there is mounting evidence that failing to wear masks is contributing to the spread of COVID-19," said Eloise Todd, Co-Founder of the Pandemic Action Network. "Leaders should make clear and consistent policies around the importance of wearing a mask outside the home when in public. If nearly everyone wears a mask, practices handwashing and social distancing we can end the pandemic more quickly, prevent suffering and save lives."

Global Citizen is supporting World Mask Week by encouraging Global Citizens to wear a mask. "We are proud to support World Mask Week as our supporters take action in every corner of the globe to push their leaders to adopt clear rules on wearing a mask in public," said Michael Sheldrick, Chief Policy and Government Affairs Officer, Global Citizen. "We also need global leaders to govern by example. When we all wear masks, citizens become more focused on listening to the guidance of the medical community, and together we are better suited to help save lives."

The Pandemic Action Network was launched in April 2020 to drive collective action to help bring an end to COVID-19 and to ensure the world is prepared for the next pandemic. Since launch, the Network has been working with influencers to promote mask wearing along with social distancing and handwashing  to help stop the spread of COVID-19. World Mask Week provides the opportunity to continue to sustain this momentum, uniting disparate parties around a single message.

World Mask Week partners and activities represent a broad spectrum. For example:

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus launched the #WearAMask challenge to mark the beginning of World Mask Week, asking people to share their mask photos and videos

launched the #WearAMask challenge to mark the beginning of World Mask Week, asking people to share their mask photos and videos Africa CDC will announce World Mask Week at their press briefing today and follow-up with a presentation by Pandemic Action Network during a training on infection prevention and control for COVID-19 being organized for journalists later in the day. Africa CDC is also posting messages about World Mask Week on its social media platforms

The gaming industry, under its #PlayApartTogether initiative, is integrating World Mask Week messages and images into its games

iHeartMedia is integrating World Mask Week content into their programming

World Economic Forum and their Global Shaper and Young Global Leader networks will join the campaign via social media

For more information, visit worldmaskweek.com.

About the Pandemic Action Network

The Pandemic Action Network drives collective action to help bring an end to COVID-19 and to ensure the world is prepared for the next pandemic. The Network consists of 40+ organizations aligned on the mission to promote policies that save the most lives and protect livelihoods by ending the cycle of panic and neglect on pandemics.

References

CDC. About Cloth Face Coverings. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/about-face-coverings.html. Prather KA, Wang CA, Schooley RT. (2020). Reducing transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Science 368(6498):144-1424. Lyu W, Wehby, GL (2020). Community use of face masks and covid-19: evidence from a natural experiment of state mandates in the US. Health Affairs 39(8). Chan TK. (2020). Universal masking for COVID-19: evidence, ethics and recommendations. BMJ Global Health 5:e002819. doi:10.1136/bmjgh-2020-002819. Lai CC, Liu YH, Wang CY, et al. (2020). Asymptomatic carrier state, acute respiratory disease, and pneumonia due to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2): facts and myths. J Microbiol Immunol Infect 53 (3):404-412. doi:10.1016/j.jmii.2020.02.012. Kai, De, Goldstein, Guy-Philippe, Morgunov, Alexey, Nangalia, Vishal, Rotkirch, Anna, Universal Masking is Urgent in the COVID-19 Pandemic: SEIR and Agent Based Models, Empirical Validation, Policy Recommendations, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340933456_Universal_Masking_is_Urgent_in_the_COVID-19_Pandemic_SEIR_and_Agent_Based_Models.

CONTACTS:

Jessica Ross (US)

[email protected]

+1-267-254-5577



Connie Bunch (UK)

[email protected]

+44 7557 1954511

SOURCE Pandemic Action Network
SAN RAMON, Calif., Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Accela , the leading provider of cloud-based solutions for government, today announced continued momentum in developing and delivering innovative SaaS offerings to help government agencies navigate the challenges of delivering services amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Last quarter, Accela introduced its new Civic Application for Fire Prevention to help fire departments modernize fire prevention practices and keep communities safe as a follow-up to its Civic Application for Environmental Health .

Accela's growth trajectory is demonstrated by new customers, implementations, and go-lives including Abu Dhabi Department of Health; Arlington, VA; Baltimore County, MD; Charlotte, NC; Denver Fire Department; Fort Lauderdale, FL; Milwaukee, WI; Rochester, MN; San Diego, CA; and Shelby County, TN. The rapid adoption of SaaS underscores the importance of digital technology within modern governance to increase agility, efficiency, and productivity.

"Accela exists solely to serve governments, who are now on the front lines of keeping communities safe and healthy during these unprecedented times. Over the last quarter, our teams mobilized quickly with government agency, department and IT leaders to stand up SaaS solutions to empower remote staff and help them deliver vital services to their constituents," said Gary Kovacs, CEO of Accela. "2020 has been one of the most transformative years for Accela, and I'm looking forward to continuing our partnerships with governments across the world to keep tackling the challenges before us and help them best prepare for whatever comes next."

In April, Accela introduced its COVID-19 Response Solutions to address accelerated customer demand for digital service capabilities to adapt to new modes of business operation during "shelter-in-place" and "social distancing" mandates. Within a matter of weeks, the company developed a suite of 13 solutions built to solve the most critical challenges of the pandemic, including support for online citizen services, virtual inspections, mobile capabilities for agency staff, and more. Through its agile SaaS infrastructure and deep industry expertise, Accela was able to onboard existing customers to these new solutions within one to three days and offer 14-day-or-less implementations for new agencies to meet essential community needs rapidly. The company also offered free, live, instructor-led video training courses to further help agencies utilize the solutions. From the beginning of May through July, Accela donated 1,190 free training hours and anticipates to donate an additional 700 hours in August. The Response Solutions recently received a 2020 Microsoft US (MSUS) Partner Award for "Community Response," further cementing Accela's leadership in empowering its customers with best-in-class SaaS technology to rapidly adapt in the face of unforeseen circumstances.

"The COVID-19 outbreak posed significant challenges to our operations and service delivery," said Anthony Fajardo, Director of the City of Fort Lauderdale Department of Sustainable Development. "Working with Accela enabled us to quickly adapt to a changing environment by implementing a virtual inspections program that was responsive to our customers' needs and allowed us to keep construction projects moving forward."

Fort Lauderdale, Florida is one of Accela's customers that was able to quickly pivot as the crisis evolved by transitioning to virtual inspections . By completing all inspection workflows via remote interface, the city can also continue to drive important community development projects and business operations, without compromising staff or citizen health.

The COVID-19 Response Solutions build on Accela's existing suite of out-of-the-box Civic Applications , which make product evaluation, procurement processes, and implementations easier and faster, and give agencies the tools to meet their community development and public safety modernization needs with certainty and ability. In June, Accela released its Civic Application for Fire Prevention to help fire departments increase their capacity and effectiveness.

Baltimore County, Maryland rapidly transitioned to Accela's solutions to create an online payments system and process outdoor dining permits. The solutions were implemented in just four days and one day, respectively. The County's online payment system processes anywhere between 100 to 500 transactions daily to keep important community development projects moving forward without compromising staff or citizen health. By completing all permitting and payments digitally, Baltimore County was able to successfully transition from 200 employees working from home at the start of Maryland's "stay-at-home" order to 3,500 remote employees within just three weeks.

"Like our counterparts throughout the country and across the world, we have been on the frontlines of local government response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly overnight we saw an exponential influx of emergency requests to put critical processes like payment processing and permitting online," said Rob O'Connor, Director of Information and Technology for Baltimore County. "Having the tools in our toolkit and the enterprise system in place made it easy to look at the business requirements and build something out of the box to meet our needs in a matter of daysnot weeks. We were glad to see that our expert teams, end users, and our constituents agreed that this process was simple and allowed us to move faster than many other jurisdictions."

According to GovTech Navigator, government technology spending was originally expected to reach $111 billion in 2020, and while declining revenues have impacted budgets, IT spend is prioritized as agencies adapt to the "new normal." To further accelerate state and local governments' move to the cloud in this environment, Accela launched its new SaaS Upgrade Program to provide a cost-effective framework for agencies of all sizes to bolster resiliency, scalability, and efficiency. The initiative helps agencies transition from both on-premise systems and Accela's previous hosting environment to its robust and easily-configurable SaaS solutions powered by Microsoft Azure as seamlessly as possible.

Other major customer, product, and partner milestones over this past quarter for Accela include:

In April, Accela announced its Spring 2020 Product Release , including the launch of Accela Civic Platform V20.1 to modernize service delivery and support evolving agency needs. The latest updates to Accela's SaaS technology were designed to enhance user experience, system management, and mobility to deliver the next level of citizen engagement.

, including the launch of to modernize service delivery and support evolving agency needs. The latest updates to Accela's SaaS technology were designed to enhance user experience, system management, and mobility to deliver the next level of citizen engagement. In May, Accela partnered with DigEplan , a global leader in electronic plan review, to create a streamlined, cost-effective end-to-end automatic plan review process to keep critical services running remotely, enhance government IT staff productivity, and reduce manual processes.

, a global leader in electronic plan review, to create a streamlined, cost-effective end-to-end automatic plan review process to keep critical services running remotely, enhance government IT staff productivity, and reduce manual processes. In June, Accela held the first of its new state-focused event series, Govern the Future Academy , for the States of California and Texas in partnership with fellow govtech leaders Microsoft, Esri, and KPMG. The roundtable panel discussion focused on the role of transformation, technology, and trust in reimagining government to meet increasingly unpredictable service delivery demands amid an evolving digital landscape.

, for the States of and in partnership with fellow govtech leaders Microsoft, Esri, and KPMG. The roundtable panel discussion focused on the role of transformation, technology, and trust in reimagining government to meet increasingly unpredictable service delivery demands amid an evolving digital landscape. On the heels of its Q2 momentum, Accela announced its annual conference, Accelarate , will be 100 percent virtual. The event, which will take place from October 5-9 , will center on themes of transformation, trust, and technology in reimagining government. For the first time ever, Accela is opening the doors of the conference to all govtech leaders, influencers, and media.

To learn more about Accela solutions, please visit https://www.accela.com/solutions/ .

About Accela: Accela provides market-leading cloud solutions that empower the most innovative state and local governments around the world to build thriving communities, grow businesses and protect citizens. More than 275 million citizens globally benefit from Accela's solutions, which are powered by Microsoft Azure, for permitting, licensing, code enforcement and service request management. Accela's fast-to-implement Civic Applications, built on its robust and extensible Civic Platform, help agencies address specific needs today, while ensuring they are prepared for any emerging or complex challenges in the future. The company was recently recognized as a 2020 Microsoft US Partner Award winner for its innovative SaaS solutions to help governments respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Accela is headquartered in San Ramon, California, with additional offices around the world. For more information, visit www.accela.com .

Contact: Kate Helete, (805) 458-5093, [email protected]

SOURCE Accela

Related Links

http://www.accela.com


CAMBRIDGE  Police have recovered $500,000 worth of Pirelli winter tires stolen from a Cambridge company.

The theft of a truck and trailer carrying the tires happened in May. On Wednesday, Waterloo Regional Police and Peel Regional Police searched a storage facility in North York where the tires were found.

The investigation is ongoing and anyone with information is asked to contact Waterloo Regional Police at 519-570-9777.
Gallion has been responsible for developing and growing successful SBA 7(a) loan programs at several regional and national banks and joins Western Alliance Bank from Radius Bank.

The SBA Enterprise Lending Group offers financing solutions through the United States Small Business Administration "SBA" 7(a) and 504 loan programs1 to help small business owners restructure their balance sheets, purchase new equipment to expand operations, acquire businesses to increase market presence and to purchase owner-occupied commercial real estate.

"I look forward to leading and growing our SBA 7(a) loan program, to help our small business clients grow and create jobs with the goal of becoming one of the top SBA lenders in our markets," said Diane Gallion, who will lead the SBA Enterprise Lending Group from its Phoenix Headquarters. "We are fortunate enough to be in the position to grow our current team and I look forward to adding the necessary talent that will help us serve even more clients."

An accomplished banker with more than 40 years of experience, Gallion most recently served as executive vice president, national director of the government guaranteed lending division at Radius Bank in Chicago. She has also held senior leadership roles at other large financial institutions including Bank of America, Comerica, First National Bank of Arizona and Wells Fargo. Gallion is also on the board of the National Association of Government Guaranteed Loans (NAGGL) and is one of its instructors.

"With Diane's expertise and proven track record in leading and scaling multi-region SBA lending teams, along with technology investments to more efficiently process SBA 7(a) loan requests, Western Alliance Bank is well-positioned to meet the needs of our business customers throughout our markets," said Michael Cunningham, senior managing director.

Diane Gallion can be reached at (602) 346-7384, or [email protected]

About Western Alliance Bank

Western Alliance Bancorporation is one of the country's top-performing banking companies. The company has ranked in the top 10 on the Forbes "Best Banks in America" list for five consecutive years, 2016-2020, and was named #1 best-performing of the 50 largest public U.S. banks for 2019 by S&P Global Market Intelligence. Its primary subsidiary, Western Alliance Bank, Member FDIC, helps business clients realize their ambitions with local teams of experienced bankers who deliver superior service and a full spectrum of customized loan, deposit and treasury management capabilities. Business clients also benefit from a powerful array of specialized financial services that provide strong expertise and tailored solutions for a wide variety of industries and sectors. A national presence with a regional footprint, Western Alliance Bank operates individually branded, full-service banking divisions and has offices in key markets nationwide. For more information, visit westernalliancebank.com.

1. All offers of credit are subject to credit approval.

SOURCE Western Alliance Bank

Related Links

https://www.westernalliancebancorporation.com


As the COVID-19 pandemic rages in America, our senior citizens face extraordinary risks. In fact, 80 percent of coronavirus deaths in America are people over the age of 65. But in spite of that fact, Congressman Scott Perry continues his relentless efforts to strip Pennsylvanians of their health care and is using debunked data to play politics with the health and well-being of our seniors.

Congressman Perry has spent years in Washington taking votes that recklessly endanger seniors health care, in blind service to an ideological agenda out of step with reality, and now more than ever, their lives are literally on the line. Scott Perry has undermined Medicaid expansion, proposed steep Medicare budget cuts, voted against decreasing prescription drug prices, and repeatedly voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which would cause older Americans to lose coverage and pay higher costs for care. At a time when millions of insured people are facing the possibility of coronavirus infection and devastating health care bills, the need for critical health care programs like Medicare and Medicaid has never been more important.

The fact is that older adults face unique risks as the country grapples with this health care crisis. We know from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that the groups at high-risk for severe illness from COVID19 are people 65 years old and older and those who live in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. Ahead of the pandemic, Perry was silent when steps were taken in Washington to weaken the federal governments oversight of nursing homes and rolled back critical protections for residents. In 2016, far before the current pandemic, I launched an audit on Pennsylvanias elder care network and identified serious problems and after doing a follow up audit just last year, I warned our state had an eldercare crisis.

Now, nursing homes and long-term care facilities across the country have experienced a surge in outbreaks, with more than two-thirds of Pennsylvanias coronavirus deaths having occurred at nursing homes.

Congressman Perry throughout this pandemic has loudly pushed for a new set of protocols for housing elderly coronavirus patients, but a closer look at the data Perry used for his argument, and the efficacy of his endorsed alternative actions, showed that the state with the highest lethality rate in nursing homes in the country, followed Perrys exact guidelines. When asked, Perry couldnt answer for the inconsistencies in his own data. Perry clearly didnt do his homework, and played politics with the health of our seniors.

While Congressman Perry continues his ideological war on health care, he continues to put seniors at risk in the process. Elderly Pennsylvanians deserve a representative that understands the complex needs of health care for older Americans, and will take concrete action to lower costs and help them during this crisis.

In Congress, I will work tirelessly to lower prescription drug prices by empowering Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for lower drug costs and strengthen the Affordable Care Act. Americas seniors, and all who love them, desperately need Congressman Perry and his Washington allies to end their assault on Americas health care, now.

Eugene DePasquale is Auditor General of Pennsylvania and is the Democratic nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives for the 10th Congressional District.
By Thomas J. Healey and Jay Webber

Gov. Phil Murphy signed a law last week authorizing the State of New Jersey to borrow an additional $10 billion for the unprecedented purpose of covering operating expenses in next years budget. The move is not just bad policy, its unconstitutional.

The executive action comes on top of existing state borrowing of $46 billion, not to mention additional liabilities for public employee pension and healthcare benefit programs of $194 billion, which hang over the state as much as traditional debt. Excessive borrowing is always bad, but particularly dangerous for New Jersey given its chronic fiscal straits. The state is already the most indebted in the nation per-capita. And estimates of interest costs on the newly accrued debt could add tens of billions of dollars in debt and interest payments over the next several decades  obligations that would fall squarely on the shoulders of our children and grandchildren. Indeed, the governors latest borrowing spree raises the real possibility of a statewide property tax if traditional sources of taxation arent sufficient to cover the new bond indebtedness.

The warning signs couldnt be more obvious. New Jersey is already subject to negative outlooks from the major credit-rating agencies, and any additional debt could trigger further credit rating downgrades. Most disturbingly, the state now faces the real prospect of a junk bond rating that could result in substantially higher interest costs down the road.

In a recent editorial criticizing a similar borrowing proposal by New York City, The New York Times put it this way in an editorial: Borrowing $7 billion without smart spending cuts will leave the City in a yearslong fiscal bind.

New Jersey is about to go down the same rabbit hole.

If theres a hopeful sign in this fiscal brinksmanship its that New Jerseys State Supreme Court has the power to stop it. In a highly unusual move, the court quickly took up a lawsuit filed that aims to block the borrowing. The suit argues that New Jersey, like virtually every other state (but unlike the federal government), requires its budget to be balanced. In fact, the authors of our 1947 State Constitution wrote a balanced budget clause into the document with no room for ambiguity. And for good reason. The restriction is meant to prevent the Legislature and the governor from recklessly spending beyond the states means by merely borrowing money.

Our governors justification for the latest round of borrowing is the financial instability wreaked by COVID-19. But its not like the generation that wrote our state constitution  fresh from World War II and the Great Depression  wasnt aware of fiscal and social hardship. Its members bequeathed us a set of laws that requires us to balance our books precisely because they knew it was the most prudent course over the long run.

To be sure, our coronavirus-induced troubles are real and demand action, but they pale in comparison to what our constitutions framers faced 75 years ago. History shows that weve faced up to similar fiscal challenges before without resorting to dangerous and expedient short-cuts like runaway borrowing. And we can do the same for the latest crisis, as well.

Its also worth noting that our balanced budget requirement has withstood the test of time through repeated court challenges. The primacy of that clause in Article VIII, Section II, known as the Appropriations Clause, cannot be overstated. The State Supreme Court has called it the center beam of the states fiscal structure. In ruling on the issue 16 years ago, the court held in the landmark case Lance v. McGreevey that the Legislature and the governor could not count proceeds from bonds as revenue in order to balance the budget. The courts ruling was unequivocal: borrowed monies, which themselves are a form of expenditure when repaid, are not income (i.e., revenues) and cannot be used for the purpose of funding or balancing any portion of the budget pertaining to general costs without violating the Appropriations Clause.

Yet, in the face of this plain language and legal precedent, a spendthrift governor and his legislative allies seek to do an end-run around the constitution and muscle their ill-advised borrowing scheme onto every citizen of the state.

As the case travels to the State Supreme Court, we find ourselves grateful for a system of checks and balances in which an independent judiciary enforces the law when the other branches of government have egregiously flouted it. Lets hope the highest court acts to restore fiscal sanity to a state that so desperately needs it.

Thomas J. Healey is a senior fellow at Harvard Universitys Kennedy School of Government. He was an assistant secretary of the treasury under President Ronald Reagan.

Jay Webber is an attorney who represents the 26th Legislative District in the New Jersey General Assembly and represented the plaintiffs in Lance v. McGreevey.

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The BBC is putting tens of millions of pounds towards chasing pensioners for their license fee payments as the corporation has said it plans to enforce the law.

And bailiffs could even be sent into the homes to seize and sell their possessions if ministers decide to support replacing the criminal sanction for licence-fee evasion with a civil penalty.

New call centres manned by 800 staff are being set up to deal with questions and some expected resistance from the over-75s about the fee.

It is estimated that it will cost the BBC 38 million in the first year and 13 million in subsequent years, reported The Daily Telegraph.

The BBC is putting tens of millions of pounds towards chasing pensioners for their license fee payments as the corporation has said it plans to enforce the law (stock photo)

Over the next five years setting up the additional services to make sure people pay their license fee will cost 90 million.

There are around 4.5 million over 75s who will have to pay the licence fee this year. If all of them do it will bring in around 700 million to the corporations coffers.

However the BBC faces a humiliating stand-off with tens of thousands of pensioners who will not pay for a TV licence as result of its controversial new over-75s scheme.

A campaign group for pensioners revealed many thousands of older people could rebel against the fee.

The National Pensioners Convention predicted the ranks of those refusing to pay is likely to be swelled by pensioners under the age of 75 who would also not pay the charge in a show of solidarity.

Bailiffs could even be sent into the homes to seize and sell their possessions if ministers decide to support replacing the criminal sanction for licence-fee evasion with a civil penalty

But charities have aired their concern about the prospect of bailiffs being used to enforce payment of the fee if it changed from a criminal offence to a civil penalty.

Age campaigners told The Times that the prospect of debt collectors turning up at pensioners doors was 'distressing and frightening'.

And yesterday, charity Age UK criticised the BBC for sending out 'long and complex' letters to the over-75s about its new TV licence scheme.

The documents fail to make it clear when the elderly will get a demand for payment after millions lost their right to a free licence.

The changes in who pays the licence fee came into force on August 1 but the broadcaster has only just sent out the first letters telling the elderly what to do.

They will tell pensioners that if the BBC has not heard from them within two months, their licence will be cancelled automatically.

Bosses intended to launch the scheme in June but delayed it because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

What will the letter to the over-75s about the new TV licence say? The letter will tell pensioners that their licence will cover them from August 1 to the end of July next year. But it says those spreading the cost of the licence will have to do so over a shorter period 'for this licence only'. These payments will depend on 'when you respond and how long it takes us to set up your payment plan'. It adds if it has not heard from them within two months of them getting the letter their licence will be 'cancelled automatically without charge.' If people contact TV Licensing after the licence has been cancelled to say they need one, the new licence will be 'backdated to 1st August 2020' and they would need to 'pay the full licence fee over the duration of the new licence'. Advertisement

Age UK criticised the switch as 'complex' and described the 'bundle of papers' explaining it as 'quite long'.

It warned that those with dementia would face particular problems.

Charity director Caroline Abrahams said: 'The BBC can't be criticised for not giving older people much information about their new TV licence scheme but the problem is their plan is complex and the bundle of papers explaining it quite long.

'It's likely that some older people will get lost in the detail and wonder what they are supposed to do.

'The over-75 population is hugely diverse so while some will no doubt navigate the documentation with ease, others may find this impossibly hard.

'If they have families or friends to help, that will make a big difference but there are many older people on their own who cannot rely on support.

'The BBC's pack omits the one piece of information many older people will most want to see: When they are likely to receive a letter asking them to pay.

'In the absence of this, some will be concerned that they have somehow missed their letter and are liable to be found at fault.'

She said others will be 'adamant' they are not going to pay for a licence 'come what may'.

The community organisation Silver Voices is urging all over-60s to cancel their TV licence direct debits and instead offer to pay with monthly, backdated cheques.

The aim is cause chaos for TV Licensing's administration systems, which will make collection and enforcement unworkable - but avoid protesters risking prosecution by refusing to pay.

A group spokesman told The Times: 'It defies belief that, as a second wave of coronavirus marches over the horizon, the BBC are doing this. It shows a lack of compassion, a lack of empathy, a lack of understanding.'

And Jan Shortt, of the National Pensioners Convention, added: 'We cannot condone people breaking the law. But, individually, each member will take their own choice. There will be people who refuse to pay.'

The BBC says it has 800 additional staff to deal with queries from the over-75s and has dealt with more than 300,000 calls on the issue since March.

A spokesman said: 'Over-75s will start to receive letters about how to set up their new TV licence from today.

'No one needs to do anything until they have the letter, whether that's paying or applying for a free licence, and no one needs to leave their home.

'We are also working with hundreds of money advice and community organisations to reach older people.'

The BBC said 450,000 older viewers have applied for a free licence and those who have to pay can choose instalments.
State-wise Goods & Services Tax (GST) collections in July showed an 11.1 percent month-on-month dip in most states, except a few small ones, government data revealed.

State-wise GST collections is a proxy for manufacturing and services activity in the economy.

Last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited global companies to set up businesses in India, and said that the country is already seeing green shoots of an economic recovery.

GST collections account for almost 60 percent of states' revenues. The nationwide lockdown imposed to contain the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic led to falling GST collections. Though the lockdown restrictions have been mostly lifted, rising number of cases have resulted in a rise in the number of containment zones, which have continued to hit supply chains.

Other indicators like Purchase Manager's Index point to a slowdown in economic activity, as manufacturing PMI fell to 46 in July, for the first time in four months, from 47.2 a month ago due to the extension of the lockdown.

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

State-wise GST data shows that the dip in collections is true for both consumer and manufacturing states.

Consuming states like Punjab and Kerala have seen a significant month-on-month decline in GST collections. Punjab and Kerala saw a 11.5 percent and 13.8 percent fall in collections month-on-month, respectively.

The scenario is similar for manufacturing states too. GST collections in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu fell 19.8 percent and 7.8 percent MoM, respectively. For Delhi, GST collections in July fell 23.8 percent.

Most of these states have seen a huge rise in the number of positive coronavirus cases, forcing states to reimpose lockdowns. In Punjab, on an average, new coronavirus cases almost tripled in July compared to June. Kerala, which had earlier successfully containing the virus, saw a six-fold increase. Average number of new cases has more than doubled in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu in July from a month ago.

The data indicates that consumer spending have been hit in July due to rising number of COVID cases in states and re-imposition of restrictions to curb its spread.

The Indian economy was in a slowdown even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit India. This was reflected in the weak economic indicators and slowing GST collections. In October, payments to states got delayed as collections were lower-than-expected.

Though the Centre has paid states their dues for FY20, falling collections and bleak growth expectations for FY21 have put the Centre in a fix on how to continue compensating states.
Canada Goose killed after dog attack

A Canada Goose has died following reports of a dog attack.

Manx Wild Bird Aid says the bird was found by volunteers in Ramsey.

The charity said the bird was left to suffer after the attack.

A statement on social media said: "Please keep your dogs on leads around waterfowl, you may think your dog just wants to play but the birds are terrified, and even a little nip can cause infection and a slow, painful death for the bird days later."
A former Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Ashaiman Constituency of the Greater Accra Region has been charged for voter registration violence.

Shaddat Umar Jallo was said to have physically assaulted by slapping Electoral Area Co-ordinator of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in Ashaiman.

Information available to DGN Online indicates that a man showed up with a paper note to register at a registration centre located at Nii Doku Electoral Area in Valco Flat, a suburb of Ashaiman.

However, the applicant could not speak any Ghanaian language including Hausa but spoke only French when he was interrogated by officials of the Electoral Commission.

Immediately, the party agent at the centre called the party coordinator, Abdul Rahaman to report the issue to him.

The coordinator who dashed to the centre decided to interrogate the applicant when the former NDC chairman and some of his party supporters at the scene got peeved as to why the coordinator was challenging the applicant.

Without any further provocation against the former Chairman, he gave the coordinator a hefty slap from behind which dazed him.

The coordinator therefore reported the matter to the Ashaiman Police and medical report form was issued to him to attend hospital for examination and treatment.

The medical report form fully endorsed by the medical officer, according to Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) George Antwi Tano, the Crime Officer of the Ashaiman District Police has confirmed the barbaric act of assault.

He noted that the suspect has been arrested and charged with assault to be arraign before court but has been granted police enquiry bail as a result of unavailability of sitting judge at the court.

The Crime Officer however served notice that the suspect would be put before court immediately a judge is assigned to the court.

It would be recalled that this same former chairman threatened to disrupt Ghana card registration at Ashaiman if the officials refused to accept voters ID for registration.

---Daily Guide
For Bishop Roberto Gaa, efforts to thwart the coronavirus wont work unless the public does its part. Let us not pass this responsibility to others he warned. Starting 1st August, the Archdiocese Manila and the Dioceses of Cubao and Paranaque have suspended public liturgical services for two weeks. So far, the Philippines has reported more than 112,000 cases and 2,115 deaths.

Manila (AsiaNews/CBCP)  A Catholic bishop said efforts to thwart the coronavirus wont work unless the public does its part. The fight against the pandemic is everybodys responsibility, Bishop Roberto Gaa of Novaliches noted. First, we should take care of ourselves. Let us not pass this responsibility to others. And if we do that, we also take care of our family and all the people we meet, he added.

The Philippines has imposed a new lockdown in the capital and surrounding areas to fight another viral outbreak. Tens of millions of people are once again stuck in their homes; thousands are grounded at Manila airport, unable to leave for the cancellation of internal flights. So far, the Philippines has reported more than 112,000 cases and 2,115 deaths.

The bishop urged the public to strictly follow the health protocols and avoid going out if not necessary. In his view, this is a time to work together in order to fight a threat of this magnitude. If we do our part, we are also helping our [medical] frontliners, Bishop Gaa pointed out.

Metro Manila and the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal are currently under the stricter modified enhanced community quarantine until 18 August. The decision came after the health workers called for a time out to review pandemic control strategies as COVID-19 cases continue to surge.

Before the government ordered the new lockdown, the Archdiocese Manila and theDdioceses of Cubao and Paranaque announced the temporary a two-week suspension of public liturgical services.

In a pastoral note issued last Saturday, Bishop Broderick Pabillo said the decision was taken in response to the appeal of the medical community for a time out to stop the COVID-19 surge.

We share the compassion of the medical frontliners for the many sick people being brought to our hospitals. We have witnessed their dedicated service to those who come to them, Pabillo said. Many among them are tired and even discouraged by their heavy responsibilities. So we support their appeal for a time out, he added.
Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell, speaking as the city marks the 70th consecutive day of protests, said the police response to those dedicated to just provoking a police response through vandalism or violence is draining police resources and needs to stop.

An aggressive offshoot of protesters has veered away from the downtown federal courthouse after the state made a deal for federal officers to stay inside the downtown building and some demonstrators have intervened to stop vandalism and violence.

Instead, a smaller group has marched over the last week to the Multnomah County Sheriffs Office in the Penumbra Kelly Building in Southeast Portland and the police union office in North Portland.

Lovell said hes sent mobile field forces of Portland officers to those two sites, pulling officers from patrol. That leaves fewer officers on the night shifts to respond to emergency calls at a time when shootings are skyrocketing, he said.

Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell speaks to media about protests. Posted by The Oregonian on Wednesday, August 5, 2020

Police recorded 99 shootings in July, up from 35 in the same month a year ago, police said. There were also 15 homicides in July, the largest number of killings in a single month in the city in three decades, police said.

In a move to deescalate their responses to protests, police have tried not to be present at the demonstrations or to remain out of sight if they do go, Lovell said. But they must respond when people try to break into a building or damage it, he said.

He contrasted the scene of his news conference  near the Hawthorne Bridge along the west side of the river as people biked or walked by  with fires, objects thrown and break-ins late at night into the early morning at the police buildings.

Enough is enough,' Lovell said. This is not forwarding the goals of the Black Lives Movement, he said.

Lovell said its one thing if people have a desire to speak out against racial inequities, but if youre trying to burn, burglarize buildings or throw Molotov cocktails, rocks or other things that injure officers ... to me, theres no message there.

The national attention on the violence on Portlands streets has tainted so much in our beautiful, vibrant city, he said.

On Tuesday night, police reported that some people broke into the Portland Police Associations office on North Lombard Street. Police declared a riot.

The demonstration began as a march from North Portlands Peninsula Park and ended with a pair of shootings in the area and tense moments as a pickup truck driver raced through a street where the crowd had assembled. Metal sparks flew from the trucks undercarriage as it pushed a motorcycle dropped in front of it before it took off.

No injuries were reported in the shooting.

Police didnt arrest the pickup driver and false rumors on Twitter quickly erupted that the driver was the son of a retired Portland police lieutenant. The retired lieutenant told The Oregonian/OregonLive the driver was not his son nor related to him.

Lovell and bureau spokeswoman Lt. Tina Jones said they dont know much about the circumstances of the truck driver or why no arrest was made. They said the matter remains under review and investigation.

Police said they arrested three people on allegations including riot, disorderly conduct and interfering with a police officer. They said protesters started several fires on the streets around the police union building, tagged the office with graffiti, tried to pull plywood off the doors and windows and eventually broke in to the building. Some people threw rocks and bricks, hitting several officers, police said.

Police used crowd control munitions but not tear gas, they said.

Multiple civil lawsuits are pending against both the Portland police and federal law enforcement, alleging they have engaged in excessive and indiscriminate force against peaceful protesters, medics, journalists and legal observers in the crowds, stemming from the use of tear gas and impact munitions. In recent nights, there have been complaints of officers trampling protesters, and in one case, puncturing the tires and breaking the window of one persons car that had press written several places on the outside as well as messages in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Union leader calls on City Council to refund Gun Violence Reduction Team

Police recorded 15 homicides in the month of July, the largest number in a single month in 30 years, police said.

Also Wednesday, Officer Daryl Turner, who heads the Portland Police Association, called on the mayor and City Council to once again fund the bureaus Gun Violence Reduction Team.

The City Council, led by Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty who had long called to eliminate the team, in mid-June removed money for the specialty team from the Police Bureaus budget -- $5.7 million from the overall spending request of $248 million.

The move has led to the rise in shootings, Turner said.

It is time for the Mayor to support the Portland Police Bureau and the community and fully reinstate the GVRT before more blood spills on our streets, Turner said in a statement.

It is time for City Council to set aside their self-serving agendas and egos and correct this terrible wrong before more die from this senseless violence. It is time for our elected officials to keep Portlanders safe and stop the knee-jerk reactions that look progressive when, in fact, they could be costing lives, the statement said. And it is time for our leaders to consider that statistics do not matter when mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters are being gunned down in unprecedented numbers.

Lovell said he also believes the elimination of the Gun Violence Reduction Team has been detrimental to public safety and the minority community.

He said the Police Bureau has lost the relationships that officers from the team built with community members and youths to try to solve shooting cases and noted that Black people are overrepresented as victims of gun violence.

Of the 99 shootings reported in July, 38 people were wounded, police said. Of those, 34 were men. The racial breakdown of those shot: 25 were Black, four were Latino and nine were white, police said.

In 2019, Portland logged 388 shootings, not including suicides. So far this year, there have been 366 shootings not including suicides, police said.

While homicides, assaults, burglaries and vandalism are up this year compared to last year, total person-to-person crimes and property crimes are still down from prior years, according to bureau figures.

Lovell said he favors having a dedicated team of officers to respond to the most serious violence in the city.

But he said he tries to focus on what he has the power to do as chief.

Some of these decisions are outside of my control, the chief said.

-- 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.

-- 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.
Definitive Feasibility Study for the Kakula Mine, and an updated Integrated Development Plan for multiple expansions of the entire Kamoa-Kakula mining licence, nearing completion

Surface stockpiles now contain an estimated 116,000 tonnes of ore grading 6.08% copper, plus 446,000 tonnes grading 2.73% copper, including satellite stockpiles at Kakula South and Kansoko

Kamoa-Kakula moves to level 2 of its COVID-19 safety measures, in line with lifting of restrictions by the DRC government

Kolwezi, Democratic Republic of Congo--(Newsfile Corp. - August 6, 2020) - Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN) (OTCQX: IVPAF) Co-Chairs Robert Friedland and Yufeng "Miles" Sun announced today that underground development at the Kakula Copper Mine continues to exceed expectations with more than 18.7 kilometres now complete, which is 5.5 kilometres ahead of schedule. In July, the mining team achieved 1,638 metres of underground development - 257 metres ahead of plan for the month.

The majority of the development headings at the Kakula Mine currently are traversing medium-grade sections of the orebody, with average grades ranging between 3% and 5% copper. Several development headings are in higher-grade zones averaging between 5% and 8% copper, and this ore is being placed on a dedicated, high-grade surface stockpile at Kakula North that currently totals approximately 116,000 tonnes grading an estimated 6.08% copper. The lower-grade surface stockpiles at Kakula North, Kakula South and Kansoko together contain an additional 446,000 tonnes grading an estimated 2.73% copper.

As Kakula's underground development progresses over the next few months, the majority of the working areas are expected to transition into the higher-grade ore zones near the centre of the deposit that have copper grades approximately 5% to 8%.

The high-capacity ore conveyor system at the Kakula North declines, which has a capacity of 2,000 tonnes per hour, is undergoing final commissioning and is expected to begin continuous operations shortly. Once this happens, the ore mined in the northern portion of the Kakula Mine will be combined and be placed on a blended surface stockpile. The Kakula South and Kansoko declines are not equipped with conveyor systems; as such, the ore mined from these deposits will continue to be placed on separate surface stockpiles, based on copper grades.

First copper production at Kakula approximately one year away

Initial production at the Kakula Mine is scheduled for Q3 2021. Kakula is projected to be the world's highest-grade major copper mine with an initial mining rate of 3.8 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) at an estimated average feed grade in excess of 6% copper over the first five years of operation.

The Kakula Mine will have one of the most favourable environmental footprints of any tier-one copper mine. It will be powered by clean, renewable hydroelectricity and be among the world's lowest greenhouse gas emitters per unit of copper produced. It also will have a relatively tiny surface footprint as approximately 55% of the mine's tailings will be pumped back into underground workings.

The Kamoa-Kakula Project is unique as it combines ultra-high copper grades in thick, shallow and relatively flat-lying deposits - allowing for large-scale, highly-productive, mechanized underground mining operations.

More than 300 truckloads, consisting mainly of structural steel and equipment for Kakula's initial 3.8-million-tonne-per-annum processing plant, are expected to arrive at the mine site before the end of August. Fabrication of the plant's largest components - two ball mills, each measuring 9.75 metres (32 feet) long and 6.1 metres (20 feet) in diameter - has been completed at CITIC Heavy Industries' factory in Luoyang, China, and the third and final shipment of ball mill components is expected to be on-site by the end of September.

"The construction team at Kakula, led by Mark Farren, Kamoa Copper's CEO, has done a fantastic job of keeping the project moving ahead at a rapid pace despite the logistical challenges posed by COVID-19," said Mr. Friedland. "With each passing month, we are getting increasingly confident that we could be producing copper at Kakula ahead of schedule."

"We're in a good place at the moment, with the vast majority of the major equipment needed to build the mine and processing plant already fabricated, and either at site, or en route to site. Full credit goes to our entire team for implementing and adhering to early and extraordinary measures to safeguard our workforce and mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the mine development and construction operations," Mr. Friedland added.

The Kamoa-Kakula Copper Project is a joint venture between Ivanhoe Mines (39.6%), Zijin Mining Group (39.6%), Crystal River Global Limited (0.8%) and the DRC government (20%).





Image 1. Mark Farren, Kamoa Copper's Chief Executive Officer (left), and Rochelle De Villiers (right), Kamoa Copper's Co-Chief Financial Officer, with one of the mine's new Sandvik 63-tonne haul trucks. Mr. Farren and Mr. De Villiers are key members of the mine's on-site management team driving the project towards completion.

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Image 2. Several of the recently arrived truck loads of equipment for the Kakula Mine. An additional 300 truck loads are scheduled to arrive by the end of August.

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Image 3. Aerial view of the Kakula Mine showing the tonnes and grade of the main pre-production stockpiles. The high-grade stockpile currently contains approximately 116,000 tonnes grading 6.08% copper, and the medium-grade stockpile currently contains approximately 325,000 tonnes grading 2.94% copper.

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As underground development progresses at the Kakula and Kansoko mines over the next few months, the grade of the project's three medium-grade stockpiles is forecast to increase to between 3% - 5% copper.







Image 4. Kakula southern decline and medium grade ore stockpile currently containing approximately 75,000 tonnes grading 2.18% copper.



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Image 5. Kansoko decline and medium-grade ore stockpile currently containing approximately 46,000 tonnes grading 2.17% copper.

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Kakula Mine development progressing towards zone of +8% copper in centre of deposit

Underground development of the Kakula Mine, the first of multiple near-surface copper deposits that are planned to be put into production on the 400-square-kilometre Kamoa-Kakula mining licence, is well ahead of schedule. Mine access drives 1 and 2 (interconnected, parallel tunnels that will provide access to ore zones) continue to advance towards the southern portion of the orebody.

Development also is well advanced on the eastern perimeter drives and the room-and-pillar mining area. Development from the southern portal has reached south access drives 1 and 2, with mining crews working to establish the connection of these drives with mine access drives 1 and 2 from the north side of the orebody. The northern and southern access drives are expected to be joined in Q4 2020.

Once the northern and southern access drives are connected, the majority of mining activities will focus on the initial drift-and-fill mining blocks in the centre of the Kakula deposit, where the average grade is higher than 8% copper. Drift-and-fill stoping is a highly-efficient form of underground mechanized mining and will allow the operation to recover significantly more tonnes from the orebody.

Underground mining also is taking place at the Kansoko Mine, located at the Kamoa deposit, approximately 10 kilometres north of the Kakula Mine. More than 220 metres of advancement was achieved at Kansoko during July by a young Congolese mining crew undergoing training. A second mining crew will be added at Kansoko in August 2020 as the project increases the pace of training new Congolese miners.

The construction of Kakula's second permanent underground water-handling system is progressing well and commissioning is expected this month. The new system will add 800 litres per second of underground pumping capacity, bringing the total installed capacity to 1,400 litres per second. As mine development progresses, additional underground water dams are planned for the northern and southern perimeter drifts.

The independent Kakula definitive feasibility study (DFS) and an updated Integrated Development Plan for the entire Kamoa-Kakula mining complex is expected to be finalized shortly. The Integrated Development Plan will include details on the planned expansion phases for the greater Kamoa-Kakula mining complex, incorporating updates for mineral resources, production rates and economic analysis.

Basic engineering design and costing for Kamoa-Kakula's planned Phase 2 expansion, taking production from 3.8 Mtpa to 7.6 Mtpa, also is complete. The scope of facilities for Phase 2 includes underground expansion at the Kakula Mine to reach an annual production rate of 6 Mtpa, the expansion of mining operations at the Kansoko Mine to a steady state 1.6 Mtpa, a second 3.8-Mtpa concentrator plant at Kakula, as well as associated surface infrastructure to support the expansion at the various sites.





Figure 1: The 13.3-kilometre-long Kakula Deposit showing the first five years of planned underground development and production (in the black box at the eastern end of the deposit) focused on the pink area containing average copper grades greater than 8% copper.



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More detail of current underground development progress and planned development to the end of September 2020 and to the end of December 2020, is shown in figures 2, 3 & 4.





Figure 2: Underground development completed to the end of July (in black) and scheduled development (green, brown, blue & black) until September 30, 2020. Shown are the 3%, 5% and 8% copper contours and the location where the northern and southern access drives are scheduled to join in Q4 2020 (red star).



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Figure 3: Underground development completed to the end of July (in black) and scheduled mine development over the three months ending December 31, 2020. Majority of the development during this period will be in the initial drift-and-fill mining area within Kakula's high-grade zone (+8% copper).



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Figure 4: The eastern portion of Kakula Mine - representing less than half of the overall 13.3-kilometre-long Kakula Deposit - overlain on southern Manhattan Island to give a sense of the enormous scale of the underground operations.



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Image 6. Geologist Kally Mbumba showing ultra-high-grade, chalcocite-rich ore at Kakula Mine. Chalcocite has the greatest percentage of copper of all the common sulphide-copper-bearing minerals - almost 80% copper by weight.

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Image 7. Development ore is loaded into a haul truck from one of Kakula's two northern access drives. The northern access drives currently are mining ore averaging +5% copper, and soon will be entering the +8% copper zone near the centre of the Kakula deposit.

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Image 8. Blaster Polydor Numbi loading explosives into drilled blast holes at the face of one of Kakula's 6-metres-high by 6-metres-wide access drives.

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Construction on the processing plant and other surface infrastructure remains on track for initial production in Q3 2021

Construction of Kamoa's 3.8-million Mtpa concentrator plant is progressing well, with more than 16,000 cubic metres of concrete being poured to date. Concrete bases for the ball mills, flotation plant and the concentrate thickener have been partially handed over to the mechanical contractor to commence installation work, and steel erection is currently underway in the flotation and thickener areas. Approximately 3,600 tonnes of structural steel had been shipped by the end of July.

Beijing-based CITIC Construction has been awarded the construction contract for Kakula's phase 1 backfill paste plant. The backfill plant will be used to blend tailings from the processing plant with cement to produce paste backfill. The backfill will be pumped back into the mine and used to help support mined-out areas. Approximately 55% of the mine's tailings will be sent back underground, significantly reducing the surface tailings storage.

The Electrical & Instrumentation contract was recently awarded to T3 Construction, a leading South African construction company. This is the final major construction contract required for Kakula's processing and backfill plants.

Construction of the tailings dam has commenced and is progressing well. The aim is to complete most of the earthworks before the rainy season starts in November.





Image 9. Ongoing construction of Kakula's initial 3.8 Mtpa processing plant.

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Next two pictures showing the first flotation-cell grillage being lowered into place - a 44-tonne lift.





Image 10

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Image 11

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Image 12. Wei Sun, paint foreman with Modern Heavy Industries, based in Taicang, China, polishing structural steel beams that will be used in Kakula's processing plant.

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Discussions underway for the marketing of Kakula's copper concentrates

Kamoa-Kakula is in detailed discussions with a number of parties with respect to the marketing and smelting of its copper concentrates. Kakula is expected to produce an extremely high-grade and clean copper concentrate that will be highly coveted by copper smelters around the world. Metallurgical test work indicates that the Kakula concentrates contain extremely low arsenic levels by world standards - approximately 0.01%.

"In roughly one year, the Kakula Mine will be producing extremely high-grade concentrate containing over 55% copper with essentially zero arsenic - it will be the 'beluga caviar' of copper concentrates," Mr. Friedland commented. "We expect that there will be intense competition amongst copper traders and smelters to acquire the product before our joint-venture with Zijin Mining builds our state-of-the-art, direct-to-blister smelter."

Clean, sustainable hydro-electric power for Kamoa-Kakula

Construction activities at the Mwadingusha hydro-electric power plant, where all six turbines are being replaced, is progressing well; as is the associated 220-kilovolt (kV) infrastructure to supply Kamoa-Kakula with clean hydro-power. The mine is scheduled to be energized with permanent 220kV hydro-generated power in early 2021, well in time for first copper production.

The temporary construction power supply for the Kakula Mine was recently upgraded, including the commissioning of five new 2MW generators to provide back-up power, and the installation of an 18MW/120kV mobile substation to increase the capacity of grid power available at the mine. This will provide sufficient power until the main 220kV power supply is energized.

Construction of the 220kV supply infrastructure is in progress, including: a new 220kV distribution sub-station for the power utility (SNEL); and a new 35-kilometre, 220kV power line and a consumer substation at Kakula with two 80MW/220kV transformers.





Image 13. Aerial view of the Mwadingusha dam and hydro-electric power plant that will soon be delivering 72 megawatts (MW) of clean, sustainable hydroelectricity to the national grid.



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Image 14. Pile rigging for a tower foundation for the new 35-kilometre, 220-kilovolt power line that will deliver clean, sustainable hydro-electricity from the national grid to the Kamoa-Kakula Project.

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Kamoa-Kakula's COVID-19 readiness initiatives focused on risk mitigation

In accordance with new health guidelines from the DRC government and in line with the country's lifting of restrictions, Kamoa-Kakula lowered its quarantine and lockdown measures from level 3 to level 2 on July 27th. This means that the mine's Congolese workforce have gone back to normal rotation. Rigorous testing, physical distancing, wearing face masks, frequent hand washing and contact tracing measures are still in place to protect the safety and health of the workforce and community members. All expatriate employees are still required to quarantine for two weeks upon arrival at Kamoa-Kakula.

In July, the Kamoa-Kakula Project donated 10,000 Covid-19 rapid test kits to local community health clinics and placed an order for 15,000 fabric face masks for donation to local communities.

As part of Kamoa-Kakula's COVID-19 readiness initiatives, the project has procured a polymerize chain reaction (PCR) device from German-based Bosch (a similar device to the GeneXpert). The device arrived on-site at the beginning of July, with an initial supply of 500 tests. The device's capacity is 15 tests per 24-hour period.

PCR tests are used to directly detect the presence of the genomic material of SARS-COV-2, rather than the presence of the body's immune response, or antibodies. By detecting viral RNA, which will be present in the body before antibodies form or symptoms of the disease are present, the tests can tell whether or not someone has the virus very early on.

Early detection of potential cases based on symptoms and contact tracing is imperative.

PCR tests give the project's medical team a good indication of who is infected. This allows for fast isolation, and contact tracing of potential additional cases for quarantine.

The project has established a COVID-19 isolation facility at the Kamoa camp. Any potential symptomatic patients are moved to this facility, where they will be isolated, tested and treated. Once the patient has recovered and is deemed no longer infectious, they can return to work only after an additional quarantine period determined by the project's medical staff in dedicated quarantine.

As the pandemic evolves, the medical team at Kamoa-Kakula is purposefully reviewing and updating its risk mitigation protocols. The project's preventative measures are at the highest international standards and if there was a case internally, the risk of spreading or cross-contamination is very low.

Qualified Persons

Disclosures of a scientific or technical nature regarding development scenarios at the Kamoa-Kakula Project in this news release have been reviewed and approved by Steve Amos, who is considered, by virtue of his education, experience and professional association, a Qualified Person under the terms of NI 43-101. Mr. Amos is not considered independent under NI 43-101 as he is the Head of the Kamoa Project. Mr. Amos has verified the technical data disclosed in this news release.

Other disclosures of a scientific or technical nature in this news release have been reviewed and approved by Stephen Torr, who is considered, by virtue of his education, experience and professional association, a Qualified Person under the terms of NI 43-101. Mr. Torr is not considered independent under NI 43-101 as he is the Vice President, Project Geology and Evaluation. Mr. Torr has verified the other technical data disclosed in this news release.

The stockpile grade estimates contained in this release are based upon bulk ore sampling from underground headings. Sampling is done on each heading every second blast and three 5-kilogram samples are taken. The samples are pulverized at the project's onsite laboratory and analyzed used using a portable XRF (pXRF) instrument. Kamoa Copper has routinely analyzed its exploration drill core for copper using pXRF, in addition to analysis at a commercial laboratory using four acid digest and ICP-OES. This data has demonstrated that pXRF results can be relied upon for grade control and run-of-mine sampling.

Ivanhoe has prepared a current, independent, NI 43-101-compliant technical report for the Kamoa-Kakula Project, which is available on the company's website and under the company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com:

The Kamoa-Kakula 2020 Resource Update dated March 25, 2020, prepared by OreWin Pty Ltd., Wood plc, DRA Global, SRK Consulting (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd and Stantec Consulting International LLC.

The technical report includes relevant information regarding the assumptions, parameters and methods of the mineral resource estimates on the Kamoa-Kakula Project cited in this news release, as well as information regarding data verification, exploration procedures and other matters relevant to the scientific and technical disclosure contained in this news release.

Information contacts

Investors: Bill Trenaman +1.604.331.9834 / Media: Matthew Keevil +1.604. 558.1034

Forward-looking statements

Certain statements in this release constitute "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Such statements and information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the company, its projects, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. Such statements can be identified by the use of words such as "may", "would", "could", "will", "intend", "expect", "believe", "plan", "anticipate", "estimate", "scheduled", "forecast", "predict" and other similar terminology, or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. These statements reflect the company's current expectations regarding future events, performance and results and speak only as of the date of this release.

Such statements include without limitation, the timing and results of: (i) statements regarding the Definitive Feasibility Study for the Kakula Mine, and an updated Integrated Development Plan for multiple expansions of the entire Kamoa-Kakula mining licence, expected to be issued shortly; (ii) statements regarding as Kakula's underground development progresses over the next few months, the majority of the working areas are expected to transition into the higher-grade ore zones near the centre of the deposit that have copper grades approximately 5% to 8%; (iii) statements regarding initial production at the Kakula Mine is scheduled for Q3 2021; (iv) statements regarding Kakula is projected to be the world's highest-grade major copper mine with an initial mining rate of 3.8 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) at an estimated average feed grade in excess of 6% copper over the first five years of operation; (v) statements regarding the Kakula Mine will have one of the most favourable environmental footprints of any tier-one copper mine; (vi) statements regarding the Kakula Mine will be powered by clean, renewable hydroelectricity and be among the world's lowest greenhouse gas emitters per unit of copper produced; (vii) statements regarding Kakula will have a relatively tiny surface footprint as approximately 55% of the mine's tailings will be pumped back into underground workings; (viii) statements regarding more than 300 truckloads, consisting mainly of structural steel and equipment for Kakula's initial 3.8-million-tonne-per-annum processing plant, are expected to arrive at the mine site before the end of August; (ix) statements regarding the third and final shipment of ball mill components is expected to be on-site by the end of September; (x) statements regarding as underground development progresses at the Kakula and Kansoko mines over the next few months, the grade of the project's three medium-grade stockpiles is forecast to increase to between 3% - 5% copper; (xi) statements regarding the northern and southern access drives at Kakula are expected to be joined in Q4 2020; (xii) statements regarding in roughly one year, the Kakula Mine will be producing extremely high-grade concentrate containing over 55% copper with essentially zero arsenic; and (xiii) statements regarding the Kakula mine is scheduled to be energized with permanent 220kV hydro-generated power in early 2021.

As well, all of the results of the pre-feasibility study for the Kakula copper mine and the updated and expanded Kamoa-Kakula Project preliminary economic assessment constitute forward-looking statements or information, and include future estimates of internal rates of return, net present value, future production, estimates of cash cost, proposed mining plans and methods, mine life estimates, cash flow forecasts, metal recoveries, estimates of capital and operating costs and the size and timing of phased development of the projects. Furthermore, with respect to this specific forward-looking information concerning the development of the Kamoa-Kakula Project, the company has based its assumptions and analysis on certain factors that are inherently uncertain. Uncertainties include: (i) the adequacy of infrastructure; (ii) geological characteristics; (iii) metallurgical characteristics of the mineralization; (iv) the ability to develop adequate processing capacity; (v) the price of copper; (vi) the availability of equipment and facilities necessary to complete development; (vii) the cost of consumables and mining and processing equipment; (viii) unforeseen technological and engineering problems; (ix) accidents or acts of sabotage or terrorism; (x) currency fluctuations; (xi) changes in regulations; (xii) the compliance by joint venture partners with terms of agreements; (xiii) the availability and productivity of skilled labour; (xiv) the regulation of the mining industry by various governmental agencies; (xv) the ability to raise sufficient capital to develop such projects; (xiv) changes in project scope or design, and (xv) political factors.

Forward-looking statements and information involve significant risks and uncertainties, should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results and will not necessarily be accurate indicators of whether or not such results will be achieved. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements or information, including, but not limited to, the factors discussed below and under "Risk Factors", and elsewhere in this release, as well as unexpected changes in laws, rules or regulations, or their enforcement by applicable authorities; the failure of parties to contracts with the company to perform as agreed; social or labour unrest; changes in commodity prices; and the failure of exploration programs or studies to deliver anticipated results or results that would justify and support continued exploration, studies, development or operations.

Although the forward-looking statements contained in this release are based upon what management of the company believes are reasonable assumptions, the company cannot assure investors that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this release and are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Subject to applicable securities laws, the company does not assume any obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this release.

The company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of the factors set forth below in the "Risk Factors" section in the company's Q1 2020 MD&A and its current annual information form.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/61185
Australians might not be able to travel overseas on a Virgin Australia flight for the next three years, the airline's boss has predicted.

CEO Paul Scurrah told 2GB radio he can't imagine Virgin Australia operating long haul flights for the foreseeable future, after announcing it would be laying off 3,000 workers on Wednesday.

'We do aspire to fly long haul again, we just can't see it coming back in the next few years,' he said.

Mr Scurrah said the cuts had been 'heartbreaking' but secured the future of the remaining 6,000 employees.

Virgin Australia has revealed it will cut 3,000 jobs amid the coronavirus pandemic. Pictured: Virgin Australia employees are seen at Sydney Airport in April, after it was revealed the airline had gone into administration

Two women wearing face masks and protective suits walk their luggage to a taxi rank at Sydney Airport. International travel has been halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Long-haul international flights will remain suspended until further notice, as the beleaguered airline moves to operating a Boeing 737 domestic fleet only.

Tigerair will be scrapped as 'there is not sufficient customer demand' to support two airlines in the market, the company said on Wednesday.

But the budget airline's Air Operator Certificate (AOC) will be retained in the hope the low-cost carrier can return to the skies when the domestic market picks up again.

About 3,000 workers - primarily in operations and corporate roles - will be impacted by the airline's announcement and voluntary redundancy, redeployment, leave without pay and flexible work arrangements are to be explored.

Virgin Australia said the changes will secure the employment of its remaining 6,000 workers, with the opportunity to expand the workforce to 8,000 when the market recovers.

Tigerair will be discontinued as 'there is not sufficient customer demand' to support two airlines in the market. Pictured: A Tigerair flight attendant looks out an aircraft door

Chief executive officer Paul Scurrah told 2GB radio he can't imagine long haul flights for his airline returning in the foreseeable future

Those who lose their jobs will get a signed photograph from Sir Richard Branson and CEO Paul Scurrah as a 'parting gift'.

Mr Scurrah said the changes came after some 'very tough decisions'.

'We expect approximately 3,000 roles will be impacted as a result of the changes announced today,' he said on Wednesday.

'To those that leave the business, I want to thank them for the role they've played in making this a great airline.'

Mr Scurrah said demand for domestic and short-haul international travel is likely to take at least three years to return to pre-COVID-19 levels.

'Our aviation and tourism sectors face continued uncertainty in the face of COVID-19 with many Australian airports recording passenger numbers less than three per cent of last year and ongoing changes to government travel restrictions,' he said.

The business needed to make changes to ensure Virgin Australia Group would be successful in this 'new world', Mr Scurrah said.

Virgin Australia will move to an all-Boeing 737 mainline fleet for domestic operations and international flights to LA and Japan will continue to be suspended amid bans on overseas travel

'In a country as big as Australia, strong competitive airlines are critical in helping restore the economy, which is why in the face of the worst crisis our industry has ever seen, a well-capitalised Virgin Australia Group with a solid and sustainable future is a great outcome for Australians and the nation's economy,' he said.

Mr Scurrah said the airline will accelerate their plan to deliver a strong future by working with Bain Capital.

All travel credits and Velocity Frequent Flyer points will be carried forward under the ownership of Bain Capital.

Virgin Australia Group has been struggling under billions of dollars worth of debt and the impact of the pandemic on the passenger jet market, which has led to the near-collapse of international travel and a huge slump in domestic markets.

When it was forced into voluntary administration in April, the airline's woes attracted a pack of private equity firms and other parties keen to acquire the airline before Bain Capital came out on top.

While the binding sale agreement with Virgin's administrators is still to be ticked off by creditors, it's expected to be completed in coming weeks.
Aug 5 (Reuters) - Albemarle Corp , the world's largest producer of lithium for electric vehicle batteries, warned on Wednesday that its third quarter sales and profit will dip as automakers produce fewer EVs due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The warning came after the company posted a 45 percent drop in second-quarter profit due in part to low prices for the white metal caused by global oversupply.

Lithium producers boosted output last year in anticipation of a demand rush from EV manufacturers going into 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic upended those plans and dented global automobile sales, effectively pausing the EV revolution. Albemarle said it now expects low "automotive production to be felt more acutely" in the third quarter, with prices sliding as stockpiles rise.

Despite the sagging outlook, Albemarle said it does not plan to cut its dividend, but it won't buy back shares for the time being and will continue with previously announced cost cuts.

"While our strategy has not materially changed, the environment in which we operate has changed dramatically," Kent Masters, who became Albemarle's chief executive earlier this year, said in a press release.

The company posted second-quarter net income of $85.6 million, or 80 cents per share, compared to $154.2 million, or $1.45 per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Excluding one-time items, Albermarle earned 86 cents per share. By that measure, analysts expected earnings of 73 cents per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Albemarle's shares rose 1.6% to $90 in after-hours trading on Wednesday.

Sales in the company's bromine division, which makes fire retardants, and its catalysts division, which makes materials for oil refining, also fell during the quarter.

Charlotte, North Carolina-based Albemarle plans to host a conference call with investors on Thursday morning to discuss the results.

(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Richard Pullin)

+1-713-210-8512; Reuters Messaging:

ernest.scheyder.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
The Centre for Democracy and Development,Thursday, condemned the attacks on and arrests of protesters affiliated with the #RevolutionNow movement in three states in Nigeria.

The group spoke on the development through a statement signed by the director, Idayat Hassan.

The protesters were arrested in Abuja, Lagos, and Osun by operatives of various Nigerian security agencies.

Arrests

PREMIUM TIMES reported how scores of protesters were arrested in different states as security agencies forcefully stopped the largely peaceful #RevolutionNow protests on Wednesday.

The protesters were demanding better governance in Nigeria, an end to corruption and improvement in the security and welfare of citizens.

The actions of the security agencies have been condemned by civic groups and many other Nigerians.

In Lagos, a journalist, Agba Jalingo, and 18 other protesters who were arrested during the protest were released Wednesday evening in Lagos. Inibehe Effiong, a lawyer and activist, told PREMIUM TIMES that all the 19 protesters had been freed.

In Abuja, Deji Adeyanju, one of the organisers of the protest confirmed that all the arrested protesters had been released. Also, Festus Ogun, another activist in Ogun, confirmed the release of five protesters arrested in the state.

But it was a different story for seven protesters in Osun who were kept in custody after their arrest.

Olawale Bakare and six others arrested at the #RevolutionNow protest in Osun State spent the night at the State Security Service custody, PREMIUM TIMES learnt.

Condemnation.

According to the statement, the Centre warned against the breach of trust and the abuse of human rights by Nigerias security agencies.

The CDD said the street protesters were exercising their fundamental human rights as enshrined in Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

Further, the Centre emphasises that by the actions of security operatives on 5th August 2020, at least three fundamental rights of the protesters were infringed upon: the right of association, right to peaceful assembly, and the right to freedom of expression, it said.

Additionally, security operatives have on this day, trampled upon citizens rights as provided in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and Articles 10, 11, and 12 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, to which Nigeria is legally bound, it added.

The statement said it is alarming that security operatives saddled with the responsibility to protect citizens have turned against the people and have contradicted the letter of the nations sacred law.

Warning

The Centre said the use of lethal force and tear gas, and the abuse of the peoples rights  as seen at the #RevolutionNow Protest  can no longer be condoned, particularly from those called to serve.

Also, the CDD warned the federal government against using the Coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to shrink the civic space.

This repression of citizens is an objectionable trend which has become more prevalent across the globe, as governments restrict civic freedoms under the shield of the pandemic.

A people-oriented government would focus on engaging its citizens, rather than abusing an opportunity to listen, learn, and most importantly, to engage with the issues of governance raised by peaceful protesters,.

While we commend the release of protesters in Abuja and Lagos, the CDD calls on the Federal Government of Nigeria, and the heads of the security agencies which have toed the path of this inhumanity to redress their steps and unconditionally release all others arrested during the course of the protest, with assurance and commitment that this sort of action will never be repeated.
By Akbar Mammadov

The High Technologies Park of Azerbaijan under the National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) has discussed a joint project with South Koreas Science and Technology Policy Institute (STEPI), ANAS reported in its website on 6 August.

At the meeting held in the High Technologies Park (HT Park), a report was presented on the results and the current state of the project "Technology transfer and promotion of commercialization of science in Azerbaijan" jointly implemented by the two institutions in 2019-2020.

Furthermore, it was noted that the initial version of the interim report on the project has been presented to STEPI by HT Park experts.

As part of the next phase of the project, the interim report will be discussed online with the participation of experts from both countries.

During the meeting, proposals were made to organize a joint seminar in August. At the same time, it was decided to listen to lectures by Korean experts on "Digitalization of Technoparks", "Business Model for Technoparks", "Financing Mechanisms of Technoparks", "Development of Clusters in Technoparks" and "Attracting Residents to Technoparks".

It should be noted that STEPI has been cooperating with Azerbaijan's National Academy of Sciences since 2017.

---

Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
NHS Test and Trace is getting worse at tracking down contacts of infected Covid-19 patients, the government today admitted amid mounting pressure to improve the system before the winter.

Data shows that 72.4 per cent of close contacts were reached by NHS call handlers in the week ending July 29  down from 76.2 per cent during the previous seven-day spell. The figure has now dropped for two weeks in a row.

The Department of Health's report on the statistics said: 'The overall percentage of contacts reached has been declining since Test and Trace began.'

Labour said it was 'deeply concerning' that the numbers are heading in the 'wrong direction', calling for ministers to address 'huge holes in the contact tracing system'.

But Boris Johnson repeated his claim that the NHS Test and Trace system was 'world beating'  even though ministers have accepted the struggling operation must improve amid fears of a catastrophic second Covid-19 wave this winter.

It comes as cold callers were today blamed for failures in the service because people do not want to answer 'unrecognisable' 0300 numbers.

And it was revealed ministers will finally unveil the long-awaited and long-delayed coronavirus phone app as early as this month  but the scaled-back software will not be used for contact tracing as originally planned.

The proportion of recent close contacts handled by call centres that were contacted

More people are being referred to the NHS tracing system reflecting an increase in cases

Testing turnaround times have also dipped since the record high at the start of July

Today's report from the Department of Health and Social Care showed 19,150 people were identified as close contacts during the week ending July 29.

But the proportion of close contacts who are successfully being reached and told to self isolate has dropped from 90.7 per cent in week one.

Ministers claimed the drop was 'primarily due to the reduction in contacts relating to local outbreaks', which are known as 'complex cases'. They are managed by local health chiefs who have 'a higher success rate than those dealt with by contact tracers,' the report said.

The figures come after Local government minister Simon Clarke conceded there is 'more to do' on bolstering the contact tracing scheme.

His comments came after a major study warned a resurgence of the disease could be twice as bad as that in the Spring, unless the system improves.

Scientists from University College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said the only way of bringing back schools and avoiding another crisis around Christmas was to ramp up dramatically the operation.

Mr Johnson today repeated his claim that the NHS Test and Trace system was 'world beating'  despite the figures showing it is getting worse.

He said: 'If you look at what we are doing, actually I think it certainly is  it certainly does fit that description of "world beating".

Boris Johnson repeated his claim the NHS Test and Trace system was 'world beating'  even though ministers have accepted the struggling operation must improve (pictured at a gym in his Uxbridge constituency today)

Mr Johnson today repeated his claim that the NHS Test and Trace system was 'world beating'  despite the figures showing it is getting worse (pictured during a visit to a construction site in Cheshire)

COLD CALLERS BLAMED FOR FAILURES IN TEST AND TRACE Cold callers are being blamed for failures in the NHS Test and Trace service because people do not want to answer 'unrecognisable' 0300 numbers. Call centre staff trying to reach people who have come into contact with positive coronavirus cases say many people ignore their calls because the 0300 prefix is often used by cold callers. The Local Government Association is now calling for staff to go out 'on the ground' in local areas to speak to people who are not being reached. The LGA said today: 'For some hard to reach people, answering the phone can bring problems being chased for a debt or faced with language difficulties. 'We would encourage anyone called by the 0300 013 5000 number to answer and do their bit to help defeat this virus. 'But it is also crucial that missed calls can be followed up on the ground by public health experts experienced in contact tracing.' Advertisement

'I think I'm right in saying that we are now testing more - per head of population  than virtually any other country in Europe, certainly, in America they are testing a huge number of people.'

He said the test and trace system was 'absolutely crucial' for the Government's coronavirus strategy.

'If you look at what we are doing with some of the local social distancing measures that we are bringing back in, that's entirely driven by our ability to detect cases through local test and trace, working with our local authorities and taking the right local measures.

'That is how we hope that we will be able to keep the lid on the disease.'

Justin Madders, Shadow Health Minister, said: 'Its deeply concerning the numbers are heading in the wrong direction again this week, with so many of the close contacts of people who have tested positive, and over 40 per cent of people in the same households, not being reached.

'We now need a plan of action from Ministers that sets out what they are doing to address these huge holes in the contact tracing system.

'If this means supporting local areas to establish their own local contact tracing systems and ending the failed contract with Serco  as Labour has been calling for, for some time  then Ministers must get on and implement this without delay.

'We urgently need to get test and trace back on track.'

Data also showed local health teams have been more successful than call centre workers because they are able to try alternative ways of contacting people, for example knocking on doors.

Over the past nine weeks, 98 per cent of close contacts of people who tested positive for Covid-19 have been reached and asked to self-isolate by local health protection teams.

By contrast, for those cases handled either online or by call centres, 56.1 per cent of close contacts have been reached.

APP TO CONTACT TRACE STRANGERS WILL FINALLY BE LAUNCHED THIS MONTH Ministers will unveil the long-awaited and long-delayed coronavirus phone app as early as this month but the scaled-back software will not be used for contact tracing as originally planned. The app was originally scheduled for release in May but was beset by technological problems that saw it kicked into the long grass. Now it is finally due to go live, but will provide only limited information about local infection rates allowing people to gauge their risk factor using personal details, the Times reported. The smartphone app was intended to keep track of who people have been in contact with in case one of them becomes infected with the virus. In Britain an app was for months hailed as a crucial to stamping out the coronavirus in the population, but it soon become clear the plan wouldn't work when officials realised their app didn't work on iPhones. Officials now hope the new app will be helpful in avoiding a devastating winter recurrence of the virus. Officials admitted on June 18 that the NHS app, once praised by the Health Secretary as vital for lifting lockdown and described by Boris Johnson as a central part of the UK's test and trace system, did not work on Apple iPhones. The health service's digital arm, NHSX, has now ditched plans to create its own app and will work with Apple and Google to improve their existing technology. The app  which was originally promised for mid-May and the NHS spent months to develop  was unable to spot 25 per cent of nearby Android users and a staggering 96 per cent of iPhones in the Isle of Wight trial. Meanwhile, the Apple and Google technology can spot 99 per cent of close contacts using any type of smartphone  but it cannot tell how far away they are, which could be crucial given it may require people to isolate for 14 days. Advertisement

Reports have suggested that some contact tracers working for the NHS Test and Trace programme in England are making just a handful of calls a month.

Some councils have taken matters into their own hands and launched local contact-tracing operations to supplement the national system.

Calderdale Council, which covers Halifax and surrounding areas, is the second authority to make the move after Blackburn and Darwen said it was setting up a locally focused system to utilise community knowledge.

But senior officials insist that the Test and Trace programme is not at odds with local systems, and is working in partnership with local authorities and their local health protection teams.

The Department of Health figures released today  which only cover England  also revealed turnaround times have also dipped since the record high at the start of July.

Around three in four people (77.9 per cent) who had a so-called 'in person' Covid-19 test in the week ending July 29 received their result within the 24 hour target.

It's up from the 76.4 per cent in the previous week but down on 90.8 per cent in the week to July 1.

The PM had pledged that, by the end of June, the results of 100 per cent of all in-person tests would be back within 24 hours.

Experts say getting test results fast and carrying out contact tracing immediately is vital to stopping the spread of coronavirus because there is only a short window to alert people that they are at risk of infecting others without yet knowing they're ill.

There have been concerns that both testing and tracing is not robust enough in the UK to prevent a second wave occurring this winter.

This week scientists said that without appropriate levels of testing and contact tracing, the reopening of schools in September together with gradual relaxing of the lockdown measures are 'likely to induce a second wave that would peak in December 2020'.

The study by researchers from UCL and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), published in The Lancet Child And Adolescent Health, warned that in a worst-case scenario a second wave could be 2.3 times higher than the first.

But it could be avoided  with pubs remaining open and no draconian lockdowns needed  if testing is dramatically ramped up and the contact tracing system becomes better.

Three quarters of people with Covid-19 would need to be tested and self-isolate to prevent a second wave caused by schools reopening.

Experts found that, to prevent a second wave when schools reopen, the NHS contact tracing system must reach 68 per cent of cases and their contacts.

But the current NHS system is 'not good enough'. It reaches half of contacts and only a fraction of symptomatic cases are tested, according to the researchers.
Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

What can impacts from space teach us about the red planet?

NASA's Perseverance rover launched last week, on a mission to collect the first samples of Mars to return to Earth. To pull that off, they'll have to nail a precision landing on autopilot  and then figure out how to pull off an even more delicate take off.

But spacecraft aren't the only thing landing on the surface of Mars. It's also regularly smashed by rocks from outer spaceand those landings, while much messier, can tell us just as much about what Mars is really like.

Moving Mars

Andrea Rajsic is Ph.D. candidate at Curtin, trying to help NASA detect meteorite impacts on Mars using seismometers on the InSight lander.

"We expected that a lot of seismic events will be caused by meteorites, by bombardment," says Andrea.

When something hits Mars' surface, they figured, the impact should show up on the lander's earthquakeor Marsquakedetectors. To be detected, the impact has to be big enough, and close enough to the lander.

So far, they've detected nothingnot even an impact from last year that was just 40km away. It seems like Mars's surface is a better shock-absorber than anyone thought.

"That also helped us to understand more about Marsbecause it's different to what we predicted based on the Earth and the Moon," says Andrea.

Date a crater

But fresh impacts aren't the only ones that can teach us more about Mars.

"In planetary sciences, we estimate the age of the surface by looking at how many craters it has. So basically, the more craters we have, the older the crust is," says Andrea.

Here on Earth, forces like wind, volcanoes, earthquakes, and slow movement of the tectonic plates tend to erase all but the biggest craters. On Mars, scientists are realising, all those processes still happen.

That little black scorch mark should have been detectable from NASAs lander  but it wasnt. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

"Mars is not actually as dead as people previously thought," says Andrea.

But Mars has a thinner atmosphere, less gravity pulling things down, and less seismic activity. That means those craters stick around longerand this lets scientists date different parts of of the planet.

"So we know, for example, that southeastern part of Mars is older than the northern plains, because it's got more craters," says Andrea

"But is this dichotomy due to tectonics or not? We don't know. So there are many open questions still about the geology of Mars."

Free samples

Craters are also responsible for bringing us our only samples of Martian rocks.

A big enough impact can blast tiny bits of Mars all the way out into space and back down to Earth. Once they're here, they form part of the puzzle too.

Some team members find and collect those Martian meteorites. Others, like Ravi Patel, analyse those rocks to see what they're made of. Once they know that, they can start to retrace its journey across the solar system.

"What Ravi detects in a rock, our colleagues try to see in spectral images so they can figure out where that rock came from on Mars," says Andrea.

One planet, two planet, red planet, blue planet

It's lot of detective work to do from a long way away. As always though, it can teach us a lot about our own planet. Earth and Mars formed in the same solar system, from the same material. Just like siblings, what happens to one can tell you a lot about what happens to the other.

"We usually think of Mars as Earth, but in the far future. So what is currently happening on Mars is probably going to happen to Earth," says Andrea.

"Some processes that we cannot understand on Earth currently might be just because we don't understand what's happened on Mars."

Explore further 2020's final Mars mission poised for blastoff from Florida

This article first appeared on Particle, a science news website based at Scitech, Perth, Australia. Read the original article.
Seasoned journalist, Kweku Baako has slammed Prof. Kwamena Ahwoi for making some claims about the late President John Evans Atta Mills, in his new book titled ''Working With Rawlings''.



The book by Prof. Kwamena Ahwoi, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs and former Minister of Local Government and Rural Development between years 1990 and 2001, outlines accounts during the era of former President Jerry John Rawlings.



In the book, he is quoted as saying the former President loved late Professor Atta Mills so much that he (Rawlings) squeezed the testicles of a former member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Bede Ziedeng for opposing Mills' candidature to lead the party in 2002.



According to a Ghanaweb publication, Prof. Ahwoi recounted that ''Bede Ziedeng and others had formed a human shield to protect dignitaries going into the Trade Fair Site. As Rawlings was going in, the crowd moved closer to see him and cheer him on. This made it nearly impossible to see whatever was going on. So Rawlings took advantage of the situation. He held Bede Ziedengs testicles, squeezed them hard and left them in record time. This caused Bede Ziedeng to faint immediately. He was taken away and given attention until he recovered. An unperturbed Rawlings accessed the hall and the proceedings went on. Mr Ziedeng later reported Rawlings to some leading members of the NDC, including Prof Ahwoi. When Rawlings was confronted on the matter, he merely laughed it off. But the incident nearly led to Mr Ziedeng leaving the party for good''.



He is also quoted as saying the late President refused or failed to prosecute some alleged corrupt officials of the erstwhile J.A Kufour's government, although he (Mills) promised to clamp down on corruption.



Making his submissions on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'' on Wednesday, Kweku Baako appeared scandalized by Prof. Ahwoi's account of certain actions and inactions on the part of the late President describing it is an attack on his memory.



He told host Kwami Sefa Kayi that it is never true that Prof. Atta Mills did nothing, in terms criminal prosection, to Ex-President Kufour's government officials.



He questioned what Prof. Ahwoi sought to achieve by making those claims in his book.



''...that Professor Mills refused or failed or both to allow prosecution of NPP. That's a fallacy. That cannot be true but they all appear to believe it and they're articulating it.''



''It is unfair to Professor Mills' memory and he's not here. Dead men don't talk, don't defend themselves. So, he's not here even to make an input...It's an attack on the man's memory and his integrity. And it is seen as a light thing in a book of this nature by a great man like Mr. Ahwoi and it's released at this time?''



Watch full submissions below:





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The police officer slashed across the face with a knife suffered a "horrendous injury" that will be a "life-long reminder" of Wednesday night's incident, Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski says.

The male officer was expected to recover. The man accused of attacking him had surgery overnight after sustaining multiple police-inflicted gunshot wounds.

The visit to the man's home on Hillgrove Road in Upper Mount Gravatt was a routine matter to serve documents, with "no reason" for police to suspect the situation would escalate about 5pm.

The man has been accused of arming himself with a knife and lunging at the officers.
Evan Osborne, an economics professor at Wright State University, says he is not being allowed to teach a course critical of Marxism to the wider general student population

An economics professor at a public university in Ohio claims he is being censored because the administration wont let him teach a class critical of Marxism to the general student population.

Evan Osborne, a professor at Wright State University, teaches a course entitled Marxism: A History of Theory and Practice, at the Dayton, Ohio, campus.

The course is described in its syllabus as both an introduction to Marxist economic thought and the history of political power exercised in the name of that thought.

The syllabus assigns students to read material on how communism was applied in Russia and China. It also critiques Westerners who viewed communism sympathetically.

But the course is only available this fall to honors students. Osborne has taught the class once before - in 2014 - but that was also exclusive to honors students.

Osborne says he has been denied a request to make the course available to the wider student population even though he says there are multiple classes taught by professors who praise Marx.

According to The College Fix, Osborne asked to teach his course about Marxism for the spring, summer, and fall 2020 semesters, but was rebuffed by Zdravka Todorova, the chair of the economics department.

Todorova told Osborne that the department was already offering a course about radical economics that term and there wasnt room for any other class, The Fix reported.

DailyMail.com has reached out to Todorova for comment.

Osborne told The Fix that he was being denied the opportunity teach his class to more students because we have an angry, radical-left cohort in the department, they praise Marxism in the classroom, they will not let me teach critically about it, and numerous people in the university have refused to do anything about it.

That my department is full of extremists who probably dont belong in a business-college economics department, to be sure, is a manifestation of academic freedom, Osborne told The College Fix.

And I do not want to change how economics is taught at WSU, broadly speaking. I just want my academic freedom to offer a different view to also be respected.

Both Wright State University and Osborne have been contacted by DailyMail.com for comment.

Osborne said that it is easier for Wright State students to take courses that look critically at capitalism, including one class called Socialist and Radical Economics.

That course, which Osborne said is taught every spring, aims to give students the opportunity to learn the rich history of critical analyses of the dominant form of capitalism (i.e., historical evolution of capitalist ownerships, capitalist labor process, and its socioeconomic outcomes) and to engage in a critical debate on the prospect of socioeconomic reform, according to its syllabus.

Wright State also requires students majoring in economics to take an institutional economics course.

This class is consistently skeptical of free markets and capitalism, Osborne told The Fix.

Given the way Marx is favorably assessed in our curriculum, and Marxisms actual historical record, I really thought our students deserved an alternate perspective.

Osborne claims that the economics department on the Dayton, Ohio, campus (above) has 'censored' him by limiting his course about Marxism to honors students only

According to Osbornes CV, he earned a Ph.D. and an M.A. in economics from the University of California-Los Angeles.

He also studied Mandarin at the National Taiwan University.

Osborne told The Fix that his peers complained anonymously to the department chair, accusing him of teaching Marxism incorrectly.

He said his colleagues, whom he called dissenters/censors, demanded that he include in his syllabus material that provided an alternate view of Marxism even though Osborne said these points of view are already included in our curriculum in other courses.

In my quarter-century at Wright State this kind of anonymous, secret criticism has not happened to anyone besides me, he told The Fix.

Osborne said that during his tenure at Wright State, elective courses proposed by other faculty members have always been approved without fuss - except for his Marxism class.

Institutions of higher learning are now almost all in crisis, according to Osborne.

The indulgence of unapologetic leftist censorship, at Wright State as elsewhere, is now impossible to justify.

If faculty want to preach that Marxism is a triumph of human thought, so be it.

If other faculty want to argue that actually it was a disaster, and a crime against humanity, this view should no longer be fanatically censored.
Shenzhen Kangtai one of Chinas top vaccine makers will produce 100 million doses of British pharma company AstraZenecas potential Covid-19 vaccine by the end of 2020, the two companies separately announced in China on Thursday.

The vaccine deal is the first to cater to China, the most populous country in the world, the statements said.

The potential coronavirus vaccine developed by the company with Oxford University has produced a promising immune response in a large, early-stage human trial, medical journal The Lancet said in a report in July.

AstraZenecas China arm on Thursday announced the deal on the social media app WeChat, saying it has signed an exclusive authorisation cooperation framework agreement with Kangtai Biology in the Chinese mainland market to actively promote the development, production, supply and commercialisation of the adenovirus vector vaccine AZDI222 through technology transfer.

The Chinese company posted a statement on the deal on the website of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

As part of the technology transfer deal, the Chinese company will ensure the annual production capacity of at least 100 million doses of the new coronavirus vaccine by the end of 2020.

The deal adds that the vaccine design capacity will be expanded to at least 200 million doses by the end of 2021 to meet the needs of the Chinese market.

The two companies will also explore the possibility of cooperation on the vaccine candidate in other markets, AstraZeneca said.

In May, the British company and the University of Oxford partnered to develop and produce the potential new vaccine for Covid-19, which has triggered the worst pandemic in decades.

The experimental Covid-19 vaccine is probably the worlds leading candidate and most advanced in terms of development, the World Health Organisations chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan had said in late June.

Certainly in terms of how advanced they are, the stage at which they are, they are I think probably the leading candidate, Swaminathan had said, adding:

So its possible they will have results quite early.

The company has signed manufacturing deals globally to meet its target of making 2 billion doses of the vaccine, the Reuters said in a report Thursday.

The British company, according to Bloomberg, has struck deals to supply hundreds of millions of doses of the experimental vaccine for the UK, US and Europe.

Shenzhen Kangtai is one of Chinas biggest vaccine makers, with shots against diseases such as pneumonia and measles. Many of its products employ more sophisticated techniques, including genetic engineering. Its also a major supplier of hepatitis B vaccine.
OTTAWA - Canada is joining France and other countries in emphasizing the need for economic and political reform in Lebanon over the long term as it looks at immediate ways to help the country following this week's deadly explosion in Beirut.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 6/8/2020 (530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Karina Gould, Minister of International Development, holds a press conference via videoconference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday, Aug. 6, 2020, regarding Canadas humanitarian aid to Lebanon following the explosion in Beirut. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

OTTAWA - Canada is joining France and other countries in emphasizing the need for economic and political reform in Lebanon over the long term as it looks at immediate ways to help the country following this week's deadly explosion in Beirut.

Canada has so far pledged $5 million in emergency aid after Tuesday's blast in Lebanon's capital, and International Development Minister Karina Gould said the federal government will continue to help the country when it begins to rebuild.

Yet Gould also repeated long-standing calls from the international community for economic and political change to address the underlying problems that have left Lebanon heavily indebted  and which some have blamed for the explosion.

For many Lebanese, Tuesday's giant blast was the last straw after years of corruption and mismanagement by a political elite that has ruled for decades.

The blast is believed to have happened when a fire touched off a stockpile of 2,750 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate that authorities left sitting in a warehouse for years  despite a customs official's repeated warnings.

"We are ready to provide assistance to Lebanon," Gould said during a news conference Thursday in Ottawa when asked about concerns with corruption and poor governance in the country.

"However, we recognize that that has to come with significant fiscal and political reforms to ensure that that assistance goes to benefiting the lives of the Lebanese people, and that is something that we have been very firm in."

Canada isn't alone in highlighting those concerns following the explosion, which killed more than 130 people and injured thousands more. It also destroyed Lebanon's main port and caused damage to much of its capital, leaving many residents homeless.

There have been widespread pledges of international aid to Lebanon, which was already mired in a severe economic crisis that has crippled its ability to rebuild from the blast.

However, the global community has been reluctant to offer direct support to the notoriously corrupt and dysfunctional government.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced during a visit to Beirut Thursday that France will organize a conference with European, American, Middle Eastern and other donors to raise money for food, medicine, housing and other urgent aid.

But he warned Lebanon's political leadership that he wouldn't give "blank cheques to a system that no longer has the trust of its people." He called on them to create a "new political order."

Macron, whose country was once the colonial ruler of Lebanon, also promised a "clear and transparent governance" so that the aid goes directly to the population and aid groups.

Lebanon's various political factions, including the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group, have ruled the country since the 1975-1990 civil war.

Almost all the country's public institutions are divided up among the factions, which use them as patronage generators for themselves and their supporters.

Little actual development is put into the institutions and anything that requires joint action often becomes mired in bickering. As a result, even basic services like electricity and trash collection are in a shambles.

The first $1.5 million in emergency assistance from Canada is flowing through the Canadian Red Cross to its Lebanese counterpart. Gould said officials are now assessing the situation in co-ordination with other countries for the rest.

However, she did indicate that the money would not be given to the Lebanese government.

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Meanwhile, Gould said Canada's embassy in Beirut managed to escape the explosion relatively unscathed and will reopen on Monday to begin offering consular assistance to Canadians in need.

While the federal government previously evacuated thousands of Canadians from Lebanon in 2006 during a war between Hezbollah and Israel, Gould could not say whether the government expected a massive influx of people from Lebanon this time around.

"We are still assessing the situation," she said. "We haven't received a huge number of requests for assistance, about 64 at this point in time, and those people are being assisted through our consular support services here in Canada."

Gould referred questions about whether Lebanese-Canadians will be able to bring relatives in crisis to Canada to Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 6, 2020.

 with files from The Associated Press.
CLAY COUNTY, Mo. - The outcome of some races in Clay County are in doubt, after election officials in the county discovered voting irregularities in some races. "During the verification process discrepancies were discovered in the Unofficial Election Results. It was later discovered there was a programming error on the tabulators that affected some races," [...]
The violent death of a transgender asylum seeker in Guatemala last weekend highlights the need for effective protection to be granted to people forced to flee their countries, including members of the LGBTI community, urges UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency today

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and related movement restrictions, violence and persecution against people on the basis of their gender and sexual orientation continues unabated.

The 27-year-old asylum seeker, whose name is being withheld for the protection of her family, had fled gender-based violence and persecution by gangs in her native El Salvador and applied for asylum in Guatemala in 2018.

"We express our deep condolences to the family and loved ones of this woman who was trying to rebuild her life in Guatemala after being forced to flee her country due to violence and persecution," said Giovanni Bassu, UNHCR Regional Representative for Central America and Cuba.

UNHCR urges states to bring to justice those responsible for crimes against people on the basis of their gender and sexual orientation while taking decisive steps to prevent future crimes of this nature. In El Salvador, three policemen were sentenced to 20 years in prison last week for the murder of Camila Diaz Cordova. This is the first ever conviction in El Salvador in a homicide of a transgender person.

UNHCR also reiterates its call on governments to ensure that all those who are not able to receive such protection in their countries have unhindered access to full and fair asylum procedures, in line with international law.

In the north of Central America transgender people are often subjected to brutal harassment and violence, especially by criminal gangs. According to a 2019 report by Salvadoran-based LGBTI organization and UNHCR partner COMCAVIS Trans, the majority of LGBTI people  particularly transgender women  are often initially forcibly displaced within their own country, escaping gang threats, murder attempts, and physical and sexual violence. Many often endure years of violence and persecution before seeking asylum in other countries.

UNHCR is alarmed that the risks of violence are heightened as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Of the 160 people assisted by COMCAVIS Trans since the start of the pandemic, 79 had been forced to flee persecution and threats by gangs.

In addition to increased Sexual and Gender Based Violence that has been documented during the strict lockdowns across the region, LGBTI people in Central America have also had limited access to support.

In collaboration with partners in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, UNHCR has continued its regular community-based protection initiatives despite the difficulties imposed by the pandemic, in an effort to create the conditions for effective protection for those forcibly displaced both in countries of origin and of asylum. UNHCR has also increased its assistance programmes to provide cash support to LGBTI people in vulnerable conditions.

For more information contact:
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has warned that political parties branded face masks/coverings would not be allowed at polling units on election days.

INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, said this on Wednesday during a town hall meeting in Nasarawa state with political parties and other election stakeholders.

The meeting was organised by INEC ahead of a Nasarawa Central constituency state House of Assembly bye-election.

It had in attendance the opposition PDPs representative, Abdullahi Zubairu, and the governing APCs representative, Muhammed Abdulmumin.

Others in attendance were INEC commissioner for voter education, Festus Okoye, and a representative of the Presidential Covid-19 Task Force, Assad Hassan.

The electoral umpire had announced August 8 for the bye-election.

The election, however, comes amidst a continuing spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Nasarawa state has 341 cases of the infection, according to data from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control NCDC, on Tuesday.

The Nasarawa poll is one of 16 other upcoming bye-elections across the country  and two governorship elections in Edo and Ondo scheduled for September 19 and October 10 respectively.

Mr Yakubu said the Nasarawa election would be used to test run the two governorship elections.

We are on course for the Saturday elections, every material that ought to be delivered has been delivered, including the sensitive materials

We have had a good interaction with the political parties and security agencies, my overall assessment is that we are good to go.

This coming election is very important for us because this is the first election in Nigeria to be conducted in the context of the coronavirus pandemic.

And we deliberately decided to start with Nasarawa Central bye-elections so we can learn the vital lesson that we need ahead of Edo and Ondo governorship elections, as well as 15 outstanding bye-elections and two-state governorship elections.

So with everything I am satisfied and sure, we look forward to the elections on Saturday.

The INEC chairman also called on political parties and voters to adhere to the COVID-19 presidential task force protocols, as well as coming along with their own face masks on election day.

No face masks, no voting, but there is a need for clarification on this. The commission is not insisting on a surgical face mask. But any face covering would do on Election Day.

Face mask and face covering that are branded with a political party logo would not be allowed because it would look like campaigning.

INEC had released election guidelines for COVID-19, part of which is the compulsory use of face masks at polling units.

Mr Yakubu also warned that Anybody who thinks that he can influence peoples choice through violence is wasting his time.

We would apply the provisions of the law on whoever disrupts the electoral activities.

Edo/Ondo Elections

We are carefully monitoring what is happening in Edo and Ondo elections, the commission is meeting tomorrow,(Thursday),

But given the urgency particularly the situation in Edo State, we would have to call a meeting immediately. But whatever we need to do to curtail the ugly reports of violence we would speak to the actors.

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There were reported violence, shootings, and disruption of public peace that trailed the flag-off of the incumbent Governor Godwin Obasekis electioneering campaigns, on Sunday, ahead of the September 19 governorship elections.

In reaction, the two major parties, APC and PDP, traded blames on the violence.
Trade unions have called for Northern Ireland's furlough scheme to continue beyond October to protect vulnerable workers.

As shielding was paused across the UK last week, concerns were raised in England that 2m vulnerable employees could be forced back to work.

The Trade Unions Congress (TUC) said employers should not be able to give unreasonable ultimatums to shielding workers, and that the job retention scheme should continue after October where working from home is not an option.

In Northern Ireland around 240,000 workers had been furloughed by the end of June, and the advice remains to work at home where possible. Shielding was also paused for around 80,000 vulnerable people here last week.

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Owen Reidy, Assistant General Secretary for the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), said it was likely the job retention scheme here could be needed until at least 2021.

"I think things are a lot more nuanced here in Northern Ireland. We would argue that where people can work from home they should.

"What we're seeing now is a mix, and good employers are engaging with unions and giving workers choice especially over the summer months."

He said it was "crucial" for employers to negotiate with their unions and draw up working from home policies.

"For us the new normal should be giving workers a range of options. Some medium companies may also be able to adjust their rents if they have more people working from home.

"Where there are good industrial relations these things can happen."

He welcomed that the Economy Minister Diane Dodds was promoting a working together document, which was drawn up with input from trade unions and employers earlier this year.

"It's quite black and white about what has to happen which is good as there are lots of workers who are particularly anxious about returning to work and feeling vulnerable."

On extending the job retention scheme beyond October for those who are shielding and can't work from home, he said: "I think it does need to be kept, and I think you're seeing an argument in the developed world that these schemes will need to be kept for a number of months and possibly into 2021 and kept under review.

"We need to avoid redundancies where possible, and if we can furlough people the connection with the employer and the workplace remains.

"Redundancy is incredibly damaging for those people and their families trying to maintain their living standards.

"It's also a loss of revenue for the state coming through the tax system."

A spokesperson for the Department for the Economy said the Executive's recovery plan included the steps for returning to work.

"Working from home will be the new normal for many employees and businesses," they said.

"Others will already be back in their workplaces because of their business needs or personal circumstances. Some people may now be moving to a hybrid of working from home and the office. Employees and employers need to find arrangements that suit their needs in safe workplaces. These decisions will be individual to businesses, workplaces and employees."

The spokesperson added: "The Minister for the Economy has visited businesses in Northern Ireland to see how this practical guide can be applied to workplaces, and has seen the impact that the collapse in footfall is having in our town and city centres."

Large numbers of workers across Northern Ireland are still working from home, including around 10,000 civil servants and thousands of workers in the IT sector.

While the Northern Ireland Civil Service yesterday said it had no up-to-date figures on the percentage of its staff who have returned to offices, in June it revealed that just over half were at home.

In response to an Assembly Question, the Finance Minister Conor Murphy said that 52% of the NICS's workforce of 21,500 were working from home. It's understood that number has fluctuated since.

Allstate, one of Northern Ireland's biggest employers in the IT sector, has said it moved quickly to set up its 2,400 staff to work from home. And they said staff - who usually work from offices in Belfast, Strabane and Derry - would stay at home until the end of the year.

The company said: "As Allstate thinks about a phased return to the office the company will follow all government guidelines and the safety of our employees is our priority."

Ulster Bank said that while branches had stayed open during lockdown, office-based staff in its headquarters at Donegall Square were working from home and would remain there "into 2021".

Danske Bank said it was starting to bring staff back to its head office, also in Donegall Square in Belfast.

"Danske Bank has had a large number of staff working from its physical locations right throughout the crisis, including keeping all 40 of its branches and its contact centre fully operational.

"A phased return for all head office staff in central Belfast is planned over the coming weeks."

Novosco, an IT firm based in Catalyst Inc in Titanic Quarter, told BBC Radio Ulster that it's now giving staff the option of coming in. Susan Hill told Radio Ulster that the decision followed a survey which found that around one third of its workers wanted back in the office.

Meanwhile, business advisory firm PwC told the BBC that around 100 of over 1,000 staff were now back in its Belfast offices.

A practical guide for making workplaces safer, including advice vulnerable employees, is available by visiting https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/sites/default/files/Covid-19-Working-Through-This-Together.pdf
Days after India went on lockdown to control the coronavirus crisis, some Indian media started blaming a Muslim group called Tablighi Jamat for the rapid spread of the virus. Even some of the so-called intellectuals interviewed at these channels also joined the voice against the Muslim minority of India in the name of the deadly virus.

Television anchors vitriolic description of the Muslims in connection to the spread of the virus helped intensify Islamopohbia in India. This created a sort of anti-Muslim sentiment even among a small section of Nepali civilians as Indian television channels have deep penetration into the television audience of Nepal.

However, many non-Muslim Nepalis, including this writer, started raising voices that the virus has nothing to do with any faith, geography, and gender. This collective social media campaign quelled unnecessary criticism of Muslims vis-a-vis the deadly virus on social media platforms.

Mainstream Nepali media outlets also reported the truth about the stigma attached to Nepali Muslims simply because of biased Indian media reporting. Social media campaigns and mass media reporting worked well. Now, nobody blames Muslims as virus spreaders in Nepal.

Nepal: Muslim-friendly country in South Asia

There is not any official survey done to measure which Muslim-minority country in South Asia is how much friendly to the Muslims. However, some social events and circumstances suggest Nepal is one of the most Muslim-friendly countries in this region.

Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka are countries of South Asia. Among them, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka are Muslim-minority countries. India has a tumultuous history of many instances of communal violence including recent violence targeting Muslims and killings dozens of them in the national capital, New Delhi.

The bloodiest riot of Gujarat in 2002 is another deadly example of Muslim-targeted violence in India. Probably because of the partition of India and Pakistan on religious lines of Hindus and Muslims respectively on August 15, 1947, the Hindu nationalistic tone is so tough in India that it triggers many incidents of anti-Muslim rhetoric and violence. This has troubled the secular population of the constitutionally secular India.

Since the Easter bombing on April 12, 2019, by extremists, Muslim civilians in the island nation Sri Lanka are demonised. Some international media have reported that ordinary Muslim civilians are not optimistic about the current President Gotabaya Rajapaksas administration for his alleged anti-Muslim election sentiments.

The story of Myanmar is much depressing. Organisations like Human Rights Watch have termed the violence against Rohingya as the crime against humanity. The Myanmar government is even sued by the African nation Gambia at the International Criminal Court for the violence against Rohingya. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims are compelled to leave their homeland of Rakhine state of Myanmar.

So far, Bhutan and Nepal have not witnessed very anti-Muslim sentiments and targeted communal violence against Muslim minorities drawing international condemnations like their other neighbours of South Asia.

Nepali majority in tandem with the Muslim minority

Nepal is the oldest sovereign and independent country in South Asia. It does not have its Independence Day because any global emperor never colonised Nepal. Since the unification of present-day Nepal by the then king Prithvi Narayan Shah of the powerful Gorkha principality in the latter half of the 18th century, Muslims were an integral part of Nepal.

Many historians say Muslims were very instrumental to the formation of modern Nepal with their artisanship in the weaponry and other technical skills.

Prithvi Narayan Shah won the present national capital Kathmandu that was controlled by the then Malla dynasty in 1769. However, the first Mosque in the valley was built in 1524.

The landmark Kashmiri mosque located at the heart of Kathmandu is known as Kashmiri Taquia. This mosque, situated in front of the then royal palace of the only Hindu kingdom in the world that time never faced any anti-Muslim hatred even at the era of the Hindu monarchy in Nepal.

Nepal is a Hindu-majority country where Buddhists constitute the second-largest portion of the population. According to Nepals latest census of 2011, the populations of Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Kirants, and Christians are 81.3%, 9%, 4.4 %, 3%, and 1.4 % respectively.

From the establishment of the government-funded Muslim Commission to the official Haj Committee, Nepal has seen a remarkable presence of Muslims in several sectors, from politics to press and from film fraternity to technical entrepreneurship.

One of the chief ministers of seven provinces of the country (Province 2s Mohammad Lalbabu Raut Gaddhi) is also from the Muslim community in the new federal democratic republic.

Due to friendlier ties between Nepals majority Hindus and minority Muslims, there are voices for more inclusion of Muslims in Nepals state apparatus. This voice has gained both political backing and progressive civilian approval in Nepal. Once this voice is materialised further, Nepal will be widely praised as the most inclusive country than its neighbours in the sub-continent.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  The Cuyahoga County Sheriffs Department has purchased nearly twice as many less lethal munitions as deputies used during the May 30 protest-turned-riot in downtown Cleveland, a cleveland.com review of records found.

Including a purchase approved this week by the countys Board of Control, the Sheriffs Department has bought roughly 1,100 rounds of less-lethal munitions since June, after having used at least 626 rounds on protestors and rioters on May 30.
Mainland warns of "dangerous" DPP collusion with U.S. - China.org.cn

A Chinese mainland spokesperson said on Wednesday that it is very dangerous for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in Taiwan to collude with the United States.

In response to media reports about a U.S. health official's upcoming trip to Taiwan, Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, said the Taiwan question is China's internal affair that brooks no external interference.

Ma urged the United States to honor its commitment to the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques, and voiced strong opposition to official interactions between the United States and China's Taiwan region.

The DPP's attempts to collude with the United States to seek political gains at the expense of the common interests of the compatriots across the Taiwan Strait are doomed to fail, Ma added.
Students coming from restricted states will have to quarantine for 14 days under Wells College's plan to reopen campus.

Wells Director of Communications and Marketing Christopher Pollock said Wednesday in an email there are 387 students currently registered for fall courses. He noted most students live on campus, outside of a handful of commuters.

The district's new protocols include masks being used by every person on campus while in public areas and while around others, six feet of social distancing, frequent hand washing and everyone taking a brief screening questionnaire every day.

Under a phased-in method for getting students back on campus, students will be asked to pick a specific date and time for arriving at campus. New first-year and transfer students will arrive Aug. 21 or 22 and returning students can come back Aug. 25-28. All students will have an opportunity to ask for a specific date and time.

People showing up from a state on New York's list of travel restricted states or from outside the United States will need to quarantine for 14 days. Those who need to quarantine will be allowed to arrive as soon as Aug. 17 in order to finish self-isolating before classes begin two weeks later. Students coming from restricted states may also quarantine elsewhere in New York at their discretion. Classes are scheduled to start Aug. 31.

Pollock said that 50 roughly students are set to come from states currently on the advisory list, though that could change as states are added or removed. Half of the residence hall Dodge Hall will be used as quarantine housing for the out-of-state students. Those students will have their own bedrooms and have food delivered to them on the same schedule as Wells' regular dining hall. Pollock said staff will be trained on how to check on those isolated students daily and resources for mental health and academic support will be available.

Students who want to stay at home and take courses remotely can apply for special accommodations, provided they supply documentation of them having a medical condition listed on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's website that could increase their risk of severe illness from COVID-19, Pollock said.

Every student will need to take a COVID-19 test within 24 hours of getting to campus, the school's website said, and "campus community members will be required to participate in mandatory testing, regardless of symptoms, on a recurring basis."

Any student with a positive test result or "is experiencing severe COVID-like symptoms" and doesn't want to go home will be given an isolation room and daily meals, and the college will report any positive test results to the Cayuga County Health Department.

Wells has created a Title IX and COVID-19 Compliance Officer position to handle the daily logistics of working with quarantined students and communicating with them.

"If a student tests positive or has symptoms, then obviously they have to be placed in isolation. It's a more severe situation than even quarantine," Pollack said. "Being in isolation, obviously, that is hard for anybody and so we want to be absolutely sure that students who are in quarantine or isolation can get the mental health support services and other services that they might need.

"Obviously we want to do everything we can do to preserve the safety and health of everybody on campus and by extension, everybody that these people would come into contact with," he said. "So it's not just about us here on the Wells campus, it's about everybody we're connected to in any way. We're part of a broader society and we all play our own part."

Staff writer Kelly Rocheleau can be reached at (315) 282-2243 or kelly.rocheleau@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @KellyRocheleau.

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The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh, has re-affirmed government's commitment to reclaiming all state acquired lands encroached by individuals and groups.



He said out of 7,000 acres of lands at Adenta Katamanso, which belonged to the state, only 1,000 acres had not been encroached.



Mr Asomah-Cheremeh made this known when he inspected some state lands at Adenta and Atomic Energy in Accra.



"All lands belonging to the State had been properly acquired under the Executive Instrument of which some private developers ignore what the law states, he said.



"Government will protect the interest of the citizenry at all times and will not countenance any act to compromise the security of the State."



Mr Asomah-Cheremeh said anyone who wished to acquire a land should contact the Lands Commission Secretariat for the needed assistance and guidance.



The Ministry has issued notice to reclaim lands belonging to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Animal Research Institute, and Atomic Energy Commission that had been encroached.



The Minister was accompanied by Mr Benito Owusu-Bio, a Deputy Minister of Lands in charge of Forestry, and Mr James Dadson, the Technical Director of the Ministry.

Source: GNA









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DUBLIN, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Automotive IGBT Industry Report, 2020" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor) is a fully controlled and voltage-driven power semiconductor device incorporating BJT and MOSFET, superior in small drive power, fast switching speed, low saturation voltage and large current density. IGBT is critical to electrical and electronic system and deemed as the 'CPU' of the electrical and electronic industry.



IGBT is given full play under varied voltage class, like its exertion under 650~1200V in electric vehicle, 650V in home appliances and industrial fixing, either 650V or 1200V in new energy vehicle, and above 1700V in PV, industrial motors, high-speed railway, bullet trains, smart grid, etc.



Power semiconductors are exponentially utilized as automotive technologies are transferring to focus on new energy vehicle. Vehicle performance and costs are imposed directly by the technical level of motor control system as an essential part of the NEV industry chain. IGBT, the centerpiece of electronic control system, has the merits like high input impedance, high switching speed and low conduction loss and plays a vitally important role in the high-voltage system. IGBT module serving as high-voltage control switch component constitutes about 40% of motor controller costs. IGBT devices make up about 10% of NEV cost and share roughly 20% of charging pile costs.



In a new energy vehicle, IGBT is found in battery management system, motor control system, electric air-conditioning control system, charging system, positive temperature coefficient (PTC), etc., acting (in master inverter) to convert the direct current (DC) of high-voltage battery into the alternating current (AC) to drive three-phase motor, and (in onboard charger, or OBC) to join conversion of 220V AC into DC for charging the high-voltage battery.



Also, IGBT gets widely used in DC/DC converter, PTC, electric air-conditioning compressor and other systems. In addition to its use in battery electric vehicle, IGBT is required in the high-voltage system independent of the low-voltage system in the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), so is the case (but used on a small scale) in the ICE cars partially packed with 48V hybrid system, such as the control module in BSG.



Concerning its use in electric vehicle, a high demanding on IGBT is asked by voltage level, power level, limiting condition, reliability, service life, costs, among others. It remains a big challenge.



IGBT packaging technologies concern chip surface interconnect, tape-up interconnect, and conductive terminals interconnect, securing high reliability and high power density, and the running of electric motor controllers under high temperature. IGBT module packaging is now studied mostly on parameter optimization of new interconnection materials and interconnection modes in a bid for better heat dissipation, smaller footprint and higher reliability.



Market Competition



The global IGBT modules market is ruled by giants like Infineon, Mitsubishi Electric, Fuji Electric, ON Semi, and Semikron. The Chinese player Starpower is in the eighth place globally.



Electric vehicle (EV+PHEV) IGBT market share is learnt from those vehicle sales data, after a survey by the publisher on the IGBT suppliers for EV and PHEV models on offer. Infineon stays far ahead of others, commanding 49.2%, followed by BYD 20.0% and StarPower 16.6%.



IGBT Industry Chain and Business Model



China has long been independent on importing IGBT chips and modules from abroad. It is since 2005 that a large number of overseas IGBT talents has come to China and devoted themselves to IGBT undertaking in China, where a sizable IGBT industry chain has already taken shape.



There are three IGBT business models, including Fabless, Packaging, and IDM (Integrated Device Manufacture).



Fabless refers to the company that is only specialized in chip circuit design and sales with production outsourced, such as StarPower Semiconductor, and Jiangsu CAS-IGBT Technology.



IDM refers to the company that involves in chip design, fabrication and packaging, such as BYD, Infineon, Mitsubishi, and Silan Microelectronics.



Packaging model is to purchase chips and then do encapsulation independently, such as Danfoss that is engrossed in packaging technologies. Bosch, Continental and Delphi also have IGBT packaging business.



Danfoss wins support from chip vendors like Infineon and ON Semi. In June 2020, Infineon inked a multi-year deal with Danfoss and would provide the latter with IGBT and diode chipset used for power modules of electric vehicle inverter. In July 2020, ON Semi announced it would provide Danfoss with high-power IGBT and diodes for the inverter drive module of electric vehicle.



Development Status Quo and Future Trend



IGBT has been much sought after amid the trend of vehicle electrification. The IGBT vendors like Infineon, ON Semi and Microsemi now has a supply cycle from 13 weeks to 30 weeks, with a tendency of prolonged delivery, in contrast to the normal IGBT supply periodicity lasting seven weeks to eight weeks, according to Future Electronics.cn.



The publisher studies the supply relations and prices of main automotive chips and founds it that StarPower's IGBT product P6 is about half price of Infineon' product of same sort.



Infineon's automotive HybridPACK family falls into HP1-DC6 and HP-Drive packaging platforms, among which HP-Drive covers 80kW to 180kW applications. HP-Drive modules were in short supply in 2018, and the orders have a supply cycle of 39 weeks, and it will be first delivered to who first places an order. Due to supply inadequacies, NextEV paid RMB100 million in advance for ordering Infineon's HP-Drive capacities in 2019.



Allured by robust market demand, the IGBT vendors are raising capital to ramp up production.



In April 2019, ON Semi acquired the proprietorship of Global Foundries' 300mm wafer fab at East Fishkill, New York, to expand production of MOSFET and IGBT chips.



In April 2020, Semikron made a capital increase of more than EUR8 million to ramp up production in China and introduced the state-of-the-art MiniSKiiP manufacturing line to meet the burgeoning market demand in China.



In April 2020, Shenzhen BYD Microelectronics Co., Ltd., an exclusively funded subsidiary of BYD, was successfully reshuffled. BYD Semiconductor fulfilled the series A funding of RMB1,900 million on May 26, 2020 and A+ fundraising of RMB800 million from the investors on June 15, 2020.



StarPower went public on the A-Share market in February 2020 and a total capital of RMB510 million raised via IPO is earmarked for the performance improvement of its existing IGBT module portfolio and for the research and development of new-generation IGBT chips with lower conducting voltage drop and lower switching loss. Since it debuted with an issued price at RMB12.7 on the A-Share, StarPower has skyrocketed by 1073% in 23 days after successive twenty-one +10%trading limits.



Technically, it is an effective approach to improve the charging power and efficiency and reduce energy consumption during the driving of electric vehicle as concerns addressing the bottleneck of EV battery capacity and extending the mileage endurance. The general automotive silicon-based power devices are thus possibly replaced by the third-generation semiconductor power devices represented by SiC that has such merits of high voltage resistance, low loss and high efficiency that breaks through the limitations of silicon and brings better conductivity and electrical properties. All players are aggressively making deployments in SiC.



Tesla is a trailblazer in the use of SiC MOSFET (offered by ST) in Model 3 inverter module, for which Infineon also later became the supplier of SiC power semiconductors. In May 2019, CREE became the exclusive SiC partner in Volkwagen's FAST (Future Automotive Supply Tracks) project. In September 2019, CREE and Delphi announced to collaborate on automotive SiC devices.



In 2020, BYD HAN EV motor controller was first packed with the self-developed SiC MOSFET module, significantly improving motor performance.



Bosch is developing SiC products as well and will commence production in 2020.



The global SiC industry is a tripartite pattern, i.e., USA, Europe and Japan, among which the United States takes a lion's share since 70% to 80% of world's SiC capacities come from American companies like CREE, ON Semi, and II-VI. In Europe, there is a complete SiC industry chain from substrates, epitaxial, devices and applications, where the typical companies are ST, Infineon, etc.



Although SiC is a long-term trend, SiC MOSFET is hard to substitute for IGBT in the short run. SiC epitaxy production encounters the inconformity of material stress, resulting in epitaxy layer bonding surface stress beyond tensile limit amid wafer size enlargement, which damages crystal grating and lowers the good yield. SiC chips now have a low yield, and wafer sizes are still mainly 4 inches or 6 inches, which makes it hard to achieve cost efficiency of large-size wafers and the production costs rather high. Of the same kind, SiC MOSFET has the cost eight to twelve folds of Si IGBT. The automotive SiC solutions has the about $300 higher cost than traditional Si IGBT.



SiC devices are costly to date owing to substrates and wafer sizes. With the technical advances in future, the cost of substrates will be ever reduced, while the wafer size will be bigger and bigger, which will undoubtedly lower the price.



SiC single crystal substrate suppliers consist of CREE, Dow Corning, SiCrystal, II-VI, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal, Norstel, etc. Epitaxial companies are represented by DowCorning, II-VI, Norstel, CREE, Rohm, Mitsubishi Electric, and Infineon. Devices providers include Infineon, CREE, Rohm, ST, etc.



As for single crystal substrates, Chinese vendors focus on 4 inches. 6-inch conductive SiC substrate and high-purity semi-insulating SiC substrate have been developed in China. SICC, TankeBlue Semiconductor, Hebei Synlight Crystal, and CISRI-Zhongke Energy Conservation and Technology all succeeded in developing 6-inch substrates, and CETC Beijing Electronic Equipment already developed 6-inch semi-insulating substrate. Additionally, the competitors including EpiWorld International, Tianyu Technology (TYSiC), and Chengdu Guomin Tiancheng Semiconductor are all competent for supply of 4-inch to 6-inch epitaxial wafer.



Key Topics Covered



1. Overview and Technology Trends of IGBT Industry

1.1 Definition and Classification of IGBT

1.2 Single Tube Structure of IGBT

1.3 IGBT Module Structure

1.4 Operating Principle of IGBT

1.5 Features and Prices of IGBT Modules and Single Tube

1.6 IGBT Module Packaging

1.7 Future Trend of IGBT Packaging Technology

1.8 Applied Fields and Scenarios of IGBT

1.9 Automotive Applications of IGBT

1.10 Applied Scenarios of Automotive IGBT

1.11 Evolution of Power Semiconductor Technology

1.12 Development History of IGBT Technology

1.13 Development Trend of IGBT Technology

1.14 Development of Power Semiconductor Materials

1.15 Features and Advantages of SiC Materials



2. China's Automotive IGBT Market and Industry Chain

2.1 Chinese Passenger Car Market Size

2.2 Chinese New Energy Vehicle Market Size, 2016-2025E

2.3 New Energy Vehicle Charging Pile Ownership in China, 2017-2025E

2.4 Domestic Electric Vehicle Cost Structure and % of IGBT

2.5 Chinese IGBT Market Size, 2012-2019

2.6 IGBT Supply and Forecast of Infineon and Renesas

2.7 Chinese Automotive IGBT Market Size, 2019-2025E

2.8 Competitive Landscape in IGBT Market

2.9 Competition among IGBT Module Suppliers of Chinese BEV Models, 2019

2.10 Competition among IGBT Module Suppliers of Chinese PHEV Models, 2019

2.11 Competition Pattern of Chinese IGBT Automotive Market

2.12 Automotive IGBT Prices in China (by Supplier)

2.13 Composition of IGBT Industry Chain

2.14 Analysis on IGBT Industry Chain

2.15 IGBT Industry Chain: International Enterprises

2.16 IGBT Industry Chain: Main Product Models of International Enterprises

2.17 IGBT Industry Chain: Chinese Companies

2.18 IGBT Industry Chain: Overview of Main Chinese Participants



3. Next-generation SiC and GaN Power Devices

3.1 Comparison of Next-generation New Material Power Semiconductor Technologies

3.2 SiC Devices Will Replace Silicon-based IGBT

3.3 Development Trend of Power Semiconductor Devices in the Next 5-10 Years

3.4 Technical Performance and Applied Scenarios of SiC and GaN Power Devices

3.5 Much Lower Switching Loss of SiC Power Devices than IGBT

3.6 Global SiC Power Device Market Size and Competition between Key Vendors

3.7 Global SiC Power Semiconductor Market Size (by Application and Product)

3.8 Advantages and Applicable Fields of SiC and GaN

3.9 Enterprises in Global GaN Power Device Industry Chain



4. Global IGBT Companies

4.1 Infineon

4.1.1 Profile

4.1.2 Operation in 2019

4.1.3 Business Layout

4.1.4 IGBT Market Share

4.1.5 Automotive Electronic Product System

4.1.6 IGBT Iterations

4.1.7 Seventh-generation IGBT Product

4.1.8 Automotive IGBT Product System

4.1.9 Features of Automotive IGBT Modules

4.1.10 Automotive IGBT Single Tube System

4.1.11 Automotive IGBT Module System

4.1.12 Automotive Power Module Portfolio

4.1.17 Distribution of Main Customers

4.1.18 Dynamic of Power Semiconductors

4.2 Semikron

4.3 Fuji Electric

4.4 Mitsubishi Electric

4.5 ON Semiconductor

4.6 Denso

4.7 ROHM

4.8 Hitachi

4.9 Toshiba

4.10 Renesas

4.11 STMicroelectronics

4.12 Littelfuse

4.13 Danfoss

4.14 Vishay



5. Chinese IGBT Companies

5.1 BYD Semiconductor

5.1.1 Profile

5.1.2 New Energy Sales Volume and Electronic Control System Installations

5.1.3 Products and Business

5.1.4 IGBT 4.0

5.1.5 IGBT Development Plan

5.1.6 Dynamic

5.2 StarPower

5.3 Zhuzhou CRRC Times Electric

5.4 Jiangsu MacMic Science & Technology

5.5 CAS-IGBT

5.6 Jilin Sino-Microelectronics

5.7 HHGrace

5.8 Hangzhou Silan Microelectronics

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/6w6wjx

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]



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Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 02:11:19|Editor: huaxia

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RAMALLAH, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- A senior Palestinian official unveiled on Wednesday that some parties mediate between Israel and the Palestinian leadership to revive the peace process.

Mahmoud al-Aloul, deputy chairman of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Movement, declined to say which parties mediate between the Palestinian and the Israeli sides to resume the stalled peace talks.

Al-Aloul told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah that "there are many parties who are in permanent contact with the Israelis, us and the Americans, trying to find a solution."

"The Palestinian side is ready to sit wherever the mediating parties want, but we refuse to discuss anything on the table related to the American Deal of the Century or the Israeli plan of annexing parts of the West Bank," he said.

Al-Aloul clarified that the Palestinian side "is ready to talk with all parties linked to the international law and the resolutions of international legitimacy." Enditem
U.S. health secretary to meet Tsai on visit to Taiwan: MOFA

ROC Central News Agency

08/05/2020 02:24 PM

Taipei, Aug. 5 (CNA) United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Alex Azar will meet with President Tsai Ing-wen () on an upcoming visit to the country, according to Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA).

Azar's visit, which was announced Wednesday by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), will be the first by a U.S. Cabinet official since 2014.

Though the exact dates and itinerary of the trip have yet to be released, the ministry said Azar planned to meet with Tsai, as well as with Foreign Minister Joseph Wu () and Health Minister Chen Shih-chung ().

"Dr. Azar is also scheduled to visit the Central Epidemic Command Center and take part in a discussion with medical experts, in order to strengthen the ties of medical cooperation between Taiwan and the U.S.," the ministry said in an English-language press release.

The ministry went on to praise Azar as "an unwavering friend of Taiwan," citing his support for Taiwan's participation in the World Health Assembly (WHA) and promotion of its "model" for fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

Presidential Office spokesperson Kolas Yotaka also welcomed Azar's planned visit, calling it "a testament to the friendly ties between Taiwan and the United States."

In response to Azar's planned visit, China has already expressed its objection and requested that the U.S. halt all government exchanges with Taiwan.

A spokesperson from China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wang Wenbin (), made the statement during a routine press conference on Wednesday and urged the U.S. to strictly adhere to the "One China" principle.

The U.S. must not "send any wrong signals to Taiwanese independence forces, so as to prevent harming U.S.-China relations and the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait," Wang said.

In the U.S., meanwhile, Republican Congressman John Curtis tweeted that he was "delighted" to hear of Azar's planned visit to Taiwan.

"Especially fitting to send the Health & Human Services Secretary, given Taiwan's incredibly strong handling of the COVID-19 pandemic," Curtis wrote.

Randall Schriver, a former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs and co-founder of the Project 2049 Institute, a foreign policy think tank, told CNA he hoped such visits by U.S. Cabinet officials would become routine.

"Taiwan has been a global leader in combating the pandemic, and it's entirely appropriate for our top health officials to discuss the way forward," he said.

Meanwhile, former AIT Chairman Richard Bush said public health is an issue on which the U.S. and Taiwan have "much to discuss."

"Given the Trump administration's mishandling of the pandemic, perhaps Secretary Azar should learn how Taiwan handled it so well," he added.

Regarding the logistics of the trip, MOFA said Azar's delegation would follow special guidelines set by the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) -- suggesting that they will not be required to observe the 14-day quarantine currently required for all travelers entering the country.

In accordance with the guidelines, members of the delegation will submit negative COVID-19 test results before departing, and will be tested again upon arrival in Taiwan, said MOFA spokeswoman Joanne Ou ().

They will also take additional precautions, such as having their temperatures taken daily, wearing face masks, observing social distancing and traveling in designated vehicles, Ou said.

For safety reasons, the dates of the visit will not be announced at present, and information on the delegation's lodgings will remain private, she said.

(By Chen Yun-yu, Stacy Hsu, Chiang Chin-yeh and Matthew Mazzetta)

Enditem/ls

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WASHINGTON, Aug. 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- EB5 Capital joins Huntington Hotel Group (HHG) in celebrating the grand opening of the LA-Agoura Hills Marriott Hotels in Agoura Hills, CA. The property is a 225-room, dual-branded Marriott hotel complex, approximately 30 miles from the City of Los Angeles. The development features a 129-room Courtyard by Marriott and a 96-room TownePlace Suites by Marriott, with separate indoor lounges for each hotel brand, a courtyard bistro, and approximately 7,000 square feet of meeting space.



Many of our investors are fond of the Golden State and we are delighted about the opening of another Marriott hotel project with HHG in California, said Brian Ostar, EB5 Capitals President. We have experienced continuous success in our five partnerships with HHG and the opening of LA-Agoura Hills Marriott Hotels is a rewarding milestone for us and our investors.

EB5 Capital funded $20.5 million in the project as a preferred equity investment, creating over 550 EB-5 qualifying jobs for its 41 investors. The hotel includes an outdoor swimming pool with patio, fire pits, and barbeque areas. The project is located off the 101 Freeway just minutes from Calabasas and Conejo Valley corporate offices, and the beaches and vineyards of Malibu. It is the ideal hub for business trips or family vacations.

We are excited to see this project become a driving force in drawing visitors to Agoura Hills as the state reopens, said Jon Mullen, Senior Vice President of Investments. We are looking forward to welcoming our investors for site tours whenever they are in the area.

About EB5 Capital



EB5 Capital is a leader in the EB-5 immigrant investor industry, raising over $750 million in foreign capital from investors in more than 65 countries for investment in job-creating real estate projects across the United States. EB5 Capital owns and operates five USCIS-authorized Regional Centers that serve 14 states and the District of Columbia. With a portfolio of 28 projects, EB5 Capital maintains a 100% project approval rate from the USCIS. For more information, visit http://www.eb5capital.com.

Story continues

Contact:

Ben Carter

(202) 652-2437

media@eb5capital.com




RALEIGH, N.C., Aug. 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The opening of the new SECU Veterans Residence on Saturday brought a long-term vision to reality for Veterans Life Center (VLC) and great hope for at-risk veterans in North Carolina. A Ribbon Cutting event held at the Butner facility drew supporters and officials from VLC, State Employees Credit Union (SECU), and the SECU Foundation. The significance of the project, the first facility of its kind in North Carolina, also drew several dignitaries to the event, including U.S. Senator Thom Tillis from North Carolina, Robert Copeland, NC Secretary of Commerce, and U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie. The member-funded SECU Foundation provided a $1 million capital grant to complete fundraising efforts for the construction of the SECU Veterans Residence.



On behalf of all Credit Union members who fund the SECU Foundation, I would like to thank our veterans and active military personnel for their service and commitment to our country, said Jo Anne Sanford, SECU Foundation Board Chair. This project is a dream come true for the Veterans Life Center and ultimately the underserved male and female veterans in our state who will benefit from the programs and resources they need to successfully transition back into their communities. We are proud to stand in support of these American heroes through the Foundation grant for the SECU Veterans Residence.

Veterans Life Center provides a residential program offering physical, mental, and spiritual therapy necessary to help veterans in need reintegrate into civilian life with success and avoid crises such as homelessness, incarceration, suicide, and premature death. Veterans participating in the program will be housed at the 100-bed SECU Veterans Residence and have access to supportive services for a period of 90 days to 2 years depending on individual needs. The facility will serve veterans in all 100 counties and provides close access to VA facilities in Durham, Salisbury, and Fayetteville.

SECU President and CEO Mike Lord and SECU Foundation Executive Director Jama Campbell presented the ceremonial grant check to VLC officials. Mr. Lord noted, This project truly embodies the People Helping People philosophy of both State Employees Credit Union and the SECU Foundation. The veterans of our state have given so much for all of us and we are happy to give back to them through this SECU Foundation initiative that will bring tremendous support and assistance. We wish them great success!

The support we at the Veterans Life Center have received from the SECU Foundation is a game-changer for our project. Because of the Foundations generosity, our ability to provide services to at-risk 21st Century American veterans is now assured, said John Turner, Veterans Life Center Founder and Senior Advisor. In addition to clean rooms and nutritious meals, we will be able to see that they receive the therapy, counseling, life skills and vocational training they need to find a constructive and personally-satisfying role in civil society. All that will be coordinated in the SECU Veterans Residence.

About SECU and the SECU Foundation

A not-for-profit financial cooperative owned by its members, SECU has been providing employees of the state of North Carolina and their families with consumer financial services for 83 years. The Credit Union also offers a diversified line of financial advisory services including retirement and education planning, tax preparation, insurance, trust and estate planning services, and investments through its partners and affiliated entities. SECU serves 2.5 million members through 270 branch offices, 1,100 ATMs, 24/7 Member Services via phone, a website, www.ncsecu.org and a Mobile App. Members can also follow and subscribe to SECU on Facebook and YouTube. The SECU Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization funded by the contributions of SECU members, promotes local community development in North Carolina primarily through high impact projects in the areas of housing, education, healthcare and human services. Since 2004, SECU Foundation has made a collective financial commitment of nearly $200 million for initiatives to benefit North Carolinians statewide. In addition to the website, highlights are also available on the SECU Foundation Instagram page.

Contact: Jama Campbell, Executive Director

Office: 919-839-5562 | secufoundation@ncsecu.org

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/5907b20b-a309-441f-b66c-3c005f8175b8
Photo credit: SpaceX

From Popular Mechanics

At 1:12 a.m. ET, weather permitting, SpaceX will launch its 10th Starlink mission from NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

SpaceX is launching 57 Starlink satellites and two Earth-observing satellites for BlackSky Global.

This batch of satellites will be equipped with special foam shields to help mitigate the satellites' reflectivitya major source of concern for the astronomical community.

Update 8/6/20 5:55 p.m. ET: After six weeks of delays, SpaceX is finally launching its next batch of Starlink satellites. Two BlackSky Global satellites will also be hitching a ride on the Falcon 9 rocket. It's an early launch, with lift-off scheduled for 1:12 a.m. ET. A live stream will begin 15 minutes prior to launch. Watch it here:

Update 7/8/20 11:53 a.m. ET: Due to weather concerns, SpaceX has cancelled todays launch. The company said on Twitter that it will announce a new launch date shortly.

Standing down from todays mission due to weather; proceeding through the countdown until T-1 minute for data collection. Will announce a new target launch date once confirmed on the Range  SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 8, 2020

SpaceX is preparing to launch its latest cluster of Starlink satellites, as well as two Earth-observation satellites. Liftoff, if weather cooperates, will be at 11:59 a.m. ET from Launch Complex-39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

A live stream will begin 15 minutes prior to launch. Watch it here:

This is the 10th scheduled launch for Starlink, which already has almost 600 satellites in low-Earth orbit. A pair of Earth-observation satellites developed by BlackSky Global are also hitching a ride on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.

Since SpaceX launched its first batch of Starlink satellites last May, astronomers have complained that the satellites are too bright and interrupt critical observations. The company has tried darkening the satellites with a special black paint, but it proved too warm a solution for the sensitive satellites.

Story continues

SpaceX also tried reorienting some of the satellites, but this reduced efficiency too much in some cases, according to an April 28 statement.

This latest group of Starlink satellites will feature a brand new device designed to address the reflectivity problem. SpaceX has attached a foam visor to the satellites that allows radio signals to pass through, but will attempt to limit the amount of sunlight reflected by the antennas. The new foam shade will flip down once the satellites are in orbit.

Photo credit: SpaceX

For its part, SpaceX has been working with several major astronomical observatories to mitigate the issue. Only time will tell if this latest method works.

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India witnessed the highest single-day spike of 56,282 cases and 904 deaths in the past 24 hours, as mentioned by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Currently, India has 19,64,537 cases including 5,95,501 active cases, 13,28,337 discharged and 40,699 deaths. With this India is inching towards the 2 million mark that has only been surpassed by Brazil (2,859,073) and the US (4,823,891).

As testing continues to increase, number of cases surfacing has also increased. So far India has conducted 2,21,49,351 tests, with 6,64,949 tests conducted on August 5 alone.

The government has said that the recovery rate continues to improve and has reached 67.19 per cent. The fatality rate has dropped to 2.09 per cent. "With increasing number of COVID-19 patients recovering, there has been a 63.8 per cent increase in recovered cases in the last 14 days, indicating that the COVID-19 response and management driven by the Centre's 'TEST, TRACK, TREAT' strategy is yielding the desired results," said the ministry in a statement.

However, states continue to report an increase in the number of cases, with Maharashtra topping the charts. Maharashtra has 1,46,268 active cases, 3,05,521 discharged and 16,476 deaths. Tamil Nadu has 54,184 active cases, 2,14,815 discharged and 4,461 deaths. Delhi has 10,072 active cases, 1,26,116 discharged and 4,044 deaths.

Meanwhile, at a virtual meeting with regional directors of WHO South-East Asia, Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said, "Within 10-20 days, with the help of DRDO, we were able to create 1,000 to 10,000 beds for COVID19 patients. We are ensuring mental well being of populace amid pandemic."

Also read: Coronavirus impact: Banks, NBFCs to face asset quality distress, says ICRA
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Washington, United States  Thu, August 6, 2020 09:26 531 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066beb4fb 2 World US,Johnson-and-Johnson,coronavirus,COVID-19,COVID-19-vaccines,deal,pandemic,SARS-CoV-2,virus-corona,novel-coronavirus Free

The US government Wednesday announced a new $1 billion investment in a COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Johnson & Johnson, guaranteeing 100 million doses.

J&J, via its subsidiary Janssen, had already received $456 million in March.

The new money will allow the company to ramp up production so that doses are ready for shipping if and when the drug receives regulatory approval.

The government also has the option to acquire additional doses sufficient to vaccinate 300 million people.

With the latest deal, President Donald Trump's administration has spent $9.4 billion on vaccine agreements, with five companies agreeing to provide at least 700 million doses, according to an AFP tally.

These deals, under Operation Warp Speed, foresee launching production in parallel with clinical trials, with the government taking the financial risk away from the private sector.

The US has also spent billions on building manufacturing sites, on companies that make syringes and vials, and on the development of treatments.

Washington has bought up almost all stock of the antiviral drug remdesivir that will be produced until September. The medicine is the first treatment with proven benefit against COVID-19.

Also Wednesday, Canada signed an agreement for undisclosed financial terms with Pfizer Canada and BioNTech SE for 100 million doses of their experimental vaccine in 2020, and more than one billion in 2021, under "Project Lightspeed."
05.08.2020 LISTEN

A statement signed by 16 Regional Youth Organisers of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has described Prof Kwamena Ahwois Working With Rawlings book as one that undermines the partys founder, former President Jerry John Rawlings.

The book contains many controversial issues that subtly undermine the great and selfless service the founder of the NDC has rendered both to the party and to the country, the statement said.

It further seems to betray the trust and confidence of leading members of our party, the statement further added.

Also, it said: The timing for the release of this book is very callous and inconsiderate on the part of the writer, adding: What could be more important than our preparation to rescue this nation from the hands of unrepentant divisive despots? 

Certainly not a literary piece filled with self-gratifying accounts of events many aeons ago.

Read the full statement below:

WE WILL NOT TOLERATE ANY OLD TIMER WHO HAS NOTHING TO LOSE, 2024 NOT AN OPTION; RESPONSE TO WORKING WITH RAWLINGS

We have read with deep concern, the litany of issues coming from the release of the book, Working With Rawlings by Prof. Kwamena Ahwoi and what it means for our party in these crucial times.

While we find it refreshing that one of the elders of our great party will offer us a glimpse of his time in public service, especially working with H.E Jerry John Rawlings, we have cause to question his motive for writing this book and releasing it at such a time. We are also concerned about how the book can derail our focus and what seems to be a direct attack on the founder of our party.

The NDC is preparing to cause the biggest political upset in the history of this nation and the last thing we need is a piece of inaccurate historical accounts that will distract us.

The book contains many controversial issues that subtly undermine the great and selfless service, the Founder of the NDC has rendered both to the Party and to the Country.

It further seems to betray the trust and confidence of leading members of our party. The timing for the release of this book is very callous and inconsiderate on the part of the writer. What could be more important than our preparation to rescue this nation from the hands of unrepentant divisive despots? Certainly not a literary piece filled with self-gratifying accounts of events many eons ago.

We are in the middle of a Voters Registration Exercise; at a time we are battling an existential threat of tribal and ethnic marginalization by this administration and the party now has to turn to deal with issues from the past. Some of which we have found to be false and vain claims by the author.

Let me state on account of young people of our party that, we will not tolerate such subtle overtures to undermine our efforts in this election year because 2024 is never the option to us. We will not tolerate any old timer who has nothing to lose and will rather implode the party with needless bickering and fictitious stories.

In less than two weeks since the book was launched, the book has been served with many rejoinders and disassociations from cited individuals who have disproved some claims made by the writer. This is damning and points to the inaccuracies of accounts stated in the book.

We must add that we have nothing but respect for the old Professor. Indeed, it no secret that no other family has been involved in governance and benefitted more from politics under the Fourth Republic than the Ahwoi family.

We also do not downplay their contribution to the cause of our nation and party, but he got it wrong this time. Whatever is to be achieved with this book is not greater than the salvation of this nation and the future of its youth come 7th December 2020.

We want to assure Papa J that, we will defend his legacy in the party and in this nation. No book or folklore will water down his legacy.

This year, as we have discussed, the youth of the party are campaigning with him. We reassure him that we will remain the vanguards of his legacy. This election is for the youth of the Party and we are poised for Victory and nothing, absolutely Nothing shall come between us and the Victory of the Party.

We will no longer tolerate divisive figures or commentaries and all must be assured that we will crash any individual or group of persons who act as such.

---classfmonline
A pharmacy student in Belfast who grew up in Beirut and a Northern Irish explosives expert have spoken of their shock at the devastating blast in the Lebanese capital.

The explosion on Tuesday killed at least 135 people and injured more than 5,000 - with another 100 people still missing.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun said 2,750 tonnes of unsafely stored ammonium nitrate was to blame for the blast.

Zina Alfahl (29) grew up in Beirut and moved to Belfast in 2018 to study for a PhD at Queen's University.

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She said friends at home were worried about their future.

"A lot of them will live in the mountains or other cities, but this will affect everyone in the country," Ms Alfahl added.

"It's heartbreaking. I was shocked. You can't imagine something like this happening in a beautiful city like Beirut."

Ms Alfahl was in Beirut in 2005 when then prime minister Rafik Hariri was killed by a massive car bomb near the scene of Tuesday's explosion.

Tensions had been high in the city this week ahead of a verdict on his death due on Friday.

"Our house was in the area at the time (of the bomb) and my grandmother said it felt like an earthquake," Ms Alfahl said.

"I've asked many people and they've said what happened then was only 10% of the explosion on Tuesday.

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"You can't imagine the damage. In just a couple of seconds, people lost everything.

"There are many people who are missing. I'm seeing a lot of pages where they're putting up pictures, but people are recognising that they're dead."

Lebanese hospitals were already struggling to cope with coronavirus before Tuesday's massive explosion.

"Another problem is that many people are starving and can't take their money out of the banks. That was already happening," Ms Alfahl said.

"I'm not sure, but from what I've seen before, I don't think the government can support them.

"They need outside help now. Without it they cannot survive a huge explosion costing millions of dollars."

Philip Ingram, a former military intelligence officer and explosives expert from Northern Ireland, said he believed the blast was "a tragic accident with a series of circumstances that have come together to cause a massive explosion".

"The trouble is that a lot of countries in the Middle East are not well known for applying regulations (on dangerous substances)," he added.

"The facility in Beirut is unlikely to be a specialist one, which in itself can lead to very dangerous circumstances.

"The crazy thing is, this was an official facility. The government had seized these goods from a ship. Over time it became a disaster waiting to happen.

"To say the government is weak and unstable is an understatement. It has real difficulty managing what's going on in the country and this will probably not have even been on its radar."

The international community promised to send Lebanon aid as it struggles to recover.

French president Emmanuel Macron is due to visit the country, a former protectorate of France, today. His government has already dispatched two planes full of specialists, rescue workers and supplies to Beirut.

The European Union has activated its civil protection system to round up emergency workers and equipment.

The EU commission said the plan was to send more than 100 firefighters with vehicles, sniffer dogs and specialist equipment to Lebanon. The Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Poland and the Netherlands have signed up to the relief effort, with other nations expected to follow suit.

The EU's satellite mapping system will also be used to help the local authorities establish the extent of damage.

Cyprus, where Tuesday's blast was felt, is sending in emergency personnel and sniffer dogs.

Help is also coming from closer to home. Iraq is sending six trucks of medical supplies and an emergency medical team and Egypt and Jordan are supplying field hospitals.

Israeli prime minister said his country was ready to help the Lebanese even though the two nations are technically at war.

The World Health Organisation is sending medical supplies to cover up to 1,000 trauma interventions and up to 1,000 surgical interventions following a request from local health chiefs.
If steady updates are your priority when choosing which Android phone to buy, you basically have one option: the Google Pixel. Google famously promises three years of Android version and security updates with all Pixel purchases, which is at least a year more than any other Android phone maker. Now Samsung is stepping up to change that.

As part of its Unpacked announcements Wednesday that brought the Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, Samsung announced that its new phones will receive OS updates for up to three generations including the latest features and latest security. Thats a huge commitment over the two generations it previously promises and excellent peace of mind for anyone buying a new Galaxy phone.

Samsung said that the guarantee applies to all (Galaxy) S, N(ote), and Z series devices starting with the S10. That unfortunately means its biggest sellers, the mid-range and budget Galaxy A phones, which recently hit the U.S. with affordable 5G models, wont get the same promise due to their slower processors. Samsung promises to support those phones until hardware allows.

Samsung clarified to PCWorld that its use of the term generations applies to generations of Androidi.e. Android 10, 11, 12 and not Samsungs One UI schedule. So that guarantee could actually be better than an annual promise since it isnt dependent on when you buy the phone. Whether you buy a Galaxy Note 20 today or next June, youll still get Android 13 in when it arrives, whenever that may be.

With the pandemic messing with development schedules, its possible that Android gets pushed back by weeks or months, which could cause issues with Googles three-year guarantee. The Android 11 preview period has already been delayed by a month, though its unclear whether that will affect the public release this fall.

For example, if Android 13 releases in December 2022, someone who bought a Pixel 4 in March 2020 might not get it, but a Galaxy S20 owner will, even if they buy their phone today. Thats an excellent way to handle a world thats very much in flux, giving Galaxy buyers confidence that their phones will stay fresh for years to comeor at least until theyre ready to trade it in for a new one.

Samsung didnt say whether they will be pushing those updates quicker, but all signs point to yes, they will. Security updates for the Galaxy S20 have arrived incredibly quicklyin some cases arriving before the Pixel 4and just today it launched a beta for One UI 3 based on Android 11. So if youre thinking of buying a new Galaxy Note 20, theres one less thing to worry about.
WASHINGTON - The Federal Aviation Administration has proposed fining Boeing $1.25 million, alleging that senior managers at the company's plant in South Carolina pressured employees to rush aircraft inspections and in at least one instance retaliated against a worker who reported the harassment.

In a pair of letters sent to the company Wednesday, the FAA cited several incidents in which Boeing appeared to violate rules designed to insulate employees who conduct safety inspections on behalf of the agency from harassment and "undue pressure" from those outside their specialized unit. Boeing allowed managers who were not part of the Organization Designation Authorization (ODA) unit to oversee the work of employees who were, another violation of the company's agreement with the FAA, the agency said.

The ODA is a system under which specially designated Boeing employees are responsible for performing certain functions on behalf of the FAA. Under the arrangement, those employees work independently of Boeing and the FAA has rules in place to shield them from potential conflicts of interest.

But the system has come under scrutiny since the crashes of two Boeing 737 Max jets in late 2018 and early 2019. The crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia, respectively, killed more than 300 people and led to the worldwide grounding of the 737 Max. The crashes have also prompted lawmakers to re-examine the ODA system and propose legislation to improve it based on lessons taken from the Max certification process.

The concerns outlined in the FAA letters do not involve the 737 Max, but rather the system for overseeing and certifying Boeing's 787 Dreamliner.

In one instance, the FAA alleges that between September 2018 and May 2019, members of the ODA unit were subjected to "undue pressure of interference" from at least four Boeing managers, including three who were not part of the ODA unit. One ODA unit member was pressured to inspect a plane, even though the aircraft was not ready. In other instances, the managers pushed ODA employees to rush inspections and to report aircraft ready for inspection faster. The FAA also alleged that managers berated the performance of some ODA employees, and threatened to have them replaced by other employees or other ODA teams.

At times, the senior managers would stand outside an aircraft to monitor how quickly ODA employees responded to inspection requests and how quickly those inspections were completed, according to the FAA.

And in at least one instance, senior managers retaliated against an ODA manager who reported the pressure employees were facing by refusing to interview "the highly qualified manager" for a position that would have been a promotion. The FAA proposed a fine of just over $1 million for the alleged infractions.

In a separate incident that took place in February, the FAA cited Boeing managers for pressuring employees to approve an airplane that was nearing an inspection deadline despite the fact that fixes still needed to be made. When members of the ODA team asked for documentation for work done on a light fixture, "Non-ODA management became agitated and pushed back on the ODA's request," according to the FAA letter. In addition, the FAA alleged that Boeing did not take the necessary steps to ensure that the light was installed properly, a violation of its own quality system. The FAA proposed a fine of nearly $185,000 for this instance.

"The FAA's proposed civil penalties announced today are a clear and strong reminder of our obligations as an ODA holder," said Bradley Akubuiro, a Boeing spokesman. "Undue pressure of any type is inconsistent with our values and will not be tolerated. In both instances, the allegations were appropriately reported, investigated, and disclosed to the FAA. Boeing implemented corrective action in response to both incidents and cooperated fully with the FAA's own independent investigations."

Even so, the fact that one incident took place as recently as February, is certain to raise questions about whether changes initiated by the company's top executives are taking root.

In an internal memo, Stan Deal, chief executive of commercial airplanes and Greg Hyslop, Boeing's chief engineer, sought to underscore the message that safety is the company's top priority.

"Boeing's status as an ODA holder is a privilege, not a right, and we have an obligation to work to earn that privilege every day," the executives wrote in the memo to the company's engineering managers that was obtained by The Seattle Times. "When exercising delegated authority, Boeing-badged ODA representatives are the FAA, and must be treated with the same respect and deference that is owed to our regulator.

"We know the vast majority of our team appreciates this," Deal and Hyslop added. "But just one mistake, or one Boeing employee engaging our ODA representatives in a way that is inconsistent with our values, can undo years of hard-earned trust with the FAA."

Boeing has 30 days to respond to the FAA's preliminary investigation.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said the fine underscored the need for legislation she and Commerce Committee Chairman Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., have filed. Their bill would give the FAA greater control over members of Boeing's certification office.

"Clearly there is a problem, and clearly there is intimidation and we want an independent workforce who is going to basically let the engineers be engineers," she said during a committee hearing Thursday. "Let them do the work and not have fear of intimidation or reparation."
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Paris, France  Thu, August 6, 2020 07:05 531 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066be1468 2 Science & Tech Science,space,scientists,debris,space-junk,satellite,Austria Free

Scientists said Tuesday they had discovered a way to detect space debris even in daylight hours, potentially helping satellites to avoid the ever-growing cloud of junk orbiting the planet.

Defunct rockets, satellites and spacecraft parts continue to orbit Earth after they are discarded.

The estimated 500,000 objects circling the globe range in size from a single screw to an entire rocket fuel tank.

Travelling at thousands of miles an hour, they pose a huge and rising collision risk to satellites.

Using lasers, it is possible to detect the debris from the ground. But until now this method only worked for a few hours around twilight, when the detection station on Earth is in the dark and the debris still illuminated by the Sun.

A team of researchers based in Austria now think they've extended the window in which the space junk is visible using a combination of a telescopic detector and filter to increase the contrast of objects as they appear against the sky during the day.

Read also: 'It came alive': Astronauts recount wild ride home on SpaceX's Crew Dragon

The team also developed a real-time target detection software system that predicts when certain objects could be observable and used sightings to hone its accuracy.

Overall, the new technique could increase observation times of space junk from Earth from six to 22 hours a day.

Michael Steindorfer, from the Austrian Academy of Sciences Space Research Institute, said the technique, while experimental, should drastically reduce the fraction of sky teams need to search with lasers in order to locate the debris.

"We see our results as a starting point towards increasing the output of the space debris laser ranging community in the near future," said Steindorfer, lead author of the study published Tuesday in Nature Communications.

He told AFP the technique "could significantly contribute to improving orbital predictions in case of (collision) warnings or for future space debris removal missions."
In March of 1965, Amelia Boynton Robinson walked with hundreds of other protesters across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Boynton Robinson, who planned the march from Selma to the Alabama capital of Montgomery along with Rev. C.T. Vivian and others, was struck with a baton by Alabama state troopers that day.

They came from the right, the left, the front and started beating people," she told The Crisis, the official magazine of the NAACP, in 2005. The second time I was hit at the base of my neck. I fell unconscious. I woke up in a hospital.

A photograph of the incident was widely published in newspapers, and the march, which came to be known as Bloody Sunday, was part of the campaign that pushed President Lyndon B. Johnson to sign the Voting Rights Act months later.

The marches drew civil rights icons including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and late Georgia congressman John Lewis to Selma, but long before their arrival "women were the engine of the civil rights movement right from the beginning," according to Lynne Olson, author of Freedom's Daughters: The Unsung Heroines of the Civil Rights Movement from 1830 to 1970.

"Men always got the attention, but the ones who were really organizing it and were really making it work were women," Olson said. "And that was true going back to the time of the time of abolitionists."

Brilliant and politically savvy': The roles of African American women in the fight to vote 100 years ago

Boynton Robinson's mother was a suffragist and she grew up in a "culture of justice," according to Faya Rose Toure, a fellow activist and lawyer. She said Boynton Robinson and her husband Sam, also a voting rights advocate, came to Selma in the 1920s where they started their own insurance business.

"They saw [voting rights] as a key to the road to justice, to equality. They saw it as the key to end Jim Crow segregation in the South," Toure said. "They lived long enough and were smart enough to know that voting rights may not be a panacea, but it was certainly something that could be fought for."

Story continues

The couple worked with sharecroppers, teaching them about voting rights "in an underground manner," according to Verdell Lett Dawson, board chairman of the Historic Tabernacle Baptist Church Selma AL Legacy Foundation. When Boynton Robinson's husband died in 1963, she used his memorial service at Tabernacle Baptist Church as the first mass meeting for voting rights in Selma.

Women of the Century: These 19 black women fought for voting rights

Also in attendance at that meeting was Marie Foster, the sister of a dentist who became interested in voting rights after being denied the opportunity to vote multiple times early in her life. She began holding voter registration classes and teaching people to read in the basement of Tabernacle, Dawson said.

Both women became the first two female members of the Dallas County Voters League, a group that led a voting registration campaign and some of whom would eventually be known as the Courageous Eight.

The group requested the assistance of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and on Jan. 2, 1965 King formally launched the Selma Voting Rights Campaign, which was led by organizers including Diane Nash.

"Mrs. Boynton really was the organizer of this and I think the person who actually wrote the letter that invited Dr. King and SCLC to come to Selma to help them with the voting rights movement," Dawson said.

Black leaders march down Jefferson Street at the head of a group of 3000 demonstrators April 19, 1960, and heading toward City Hall on the day of the Z. Alexander Looby bombing. In the first row, are the Rev. C.T. Vivian, left, Diane Nash of Fisk, and Bernard Lafayette of American Baptist Seminary. In the second row are Kenneth Frazier and Curtis Murphy of Tennessee A&I, and Rodney Powell of Meharry. Using his handkerchief in the third row is the Rev. James Lawson, one of the advisors to the students.

Nash, one of the founding members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, had organized sit-ins in Nashville and pushed to keep the freedom rides movement afloat, according to Janet Dewart Bell, author of Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement.

Nash told Bell the campaign in Selma was a "direct result" of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, a white supremacist terrorist attack which killed four Black girls in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 15, 1963.

"We made a conscious choice, no matter how long it took, to work on getting the right to vote. So, the right to vote, the Selma movement, was a direct result of the little girls getting killed," Nash told Bell. "I think getting the right to vote was the best that we could do."

Not sure if youre registered to vote?: Check your status.

Olson said Nash, who also co-led the Alabama Voting Rights Project, led the charge for voting rights in Selma alongside Boynton Robinson.

"She was the general," Olson said. "They were incredibly important in having Selma turn out the way it did and you know in terms of the Voting Rights Act."

As the registration campaign and acts of civil disobedience continued in Selma, Boynton and Foster planned the first Selma to Montgomery march for March 7, 1965, Dawson said.

Foster was also clubbed by a trooper during the march. After the footage of the march was broadcast, an influx of people came to Selma to protest putting pressure on the federal government to take action, Dawson said.

Days after being beaten, Foster, who later founded the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute in Selma, walked the entire 50 miles from Selma to Montgomery.

U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga.; SCLC President Joseph Lowery; Evelyn Lowery; Coretta Scott King; U.S. Rep. Eve Clayton,-D-N.C.; and Marie Foster cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights march in 1995.

"That was the feeling of commitment after Bloody Sunday," Dawson said. "We cant go down like this, we have to keep fighting."

The Voting Rights Act was introduced in the House and Senate 10 days later and on August 6, 1965, President Johnson signed the legislation. The effects were almost immediate, with Black voter registration increasing by nearly 70% by the next election, according to James Cobb, history professor at the University of Georgia and a former president of the Southern Historical Association.

Research has shown that the preclearance requirement substantially increased voter turnout, driven by minorities, as recently as 2012, but in 2013 the Supreme Court struck down its key enforcement provision, which advocates say paved the way for the return of widespread minority voter suppression.

"We knew that it was not a complete victory because that was simply just one phase," Dawson said. "It is a victory, but its not a complete victory. It's a bittersweet experience."

The call to restore the Voting Rights Act has been in the spotlight following Lewis' death in July after a battle with cancer. But Dawson agreed that the women who drove the movement of the 1960s largely have not been acknowledged.

"Definitely, their stories are largely untold," Dawson.

Follow N'dea Yancey-Bragg on Twitter: @NdeaYanceyBragg

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Voting Rights Act 55th anniversary: How Black women led the movement
(Natural News) BREWSTER, Wash.  In the summer months, this tiny community on the shores of the Columbia River becomes the heart of Americas apple industry, ripe fruit weighing down branches in the surrounding orchards before theyre loaded onto trains and shipped around the world.

(Article by Reid Wilson republished from TheHill.com)

Hundreds of migrants flock to the sunny high desert each summer, where they live in riverside dormitories and camps as they harvest apples, peaches, cherries and grapes for Gebbers Farms, one of the biggest fruit growers in the Pacific Northwest.

Those workers are now at the heart of a massive surge in coronavirus cases that has made Okanogan County one of the hardest-hit areas in the world. In the last two weeks, almost 1 percent of the county has tested positive for the virus.

On a recent afternoon, several middle-aged men sat under a shady tree outside the emergency room at Three Rivers Hospital, seeking relief from the 100-degree heat. Most visitors to the hospital come to get tested for the virus, said Scott Graham, its CEO.

Were seeing people who are much sicker than in the past. Theyre waiting longer, and when they get here theyre sicker, Graham said during an interview in his office that looks out on a crowded parking lot. Weve had some COVID patients come here and it was too late. They died here, in the ER.

As harvest season approaches in other parts of the country, residents and migrant laborers in agricultural communities are particularly at risk of widespread infection. Across the U.S., rural communities have been largely spared the worst of the pandemic, but the influx of new people who live together in tight quarters where social distancing is difficult is raising fears of viral outbreaks.

Youre talking about a working community that doesnt have the funds to support their family from home, said Manny Hurtado, whose family owns a grocery store and restaurant here. When you cant stay home because you dont have the funds available to feed your family, its hard.

Brewster is the epicenter of the latest surge. It is home to just 2,600 residents, about 6 percent of Okanogan Countys population. But it accounts for more than 62 percent of the countys 724 confirmed coronavirus cases, the vast majority of which have been confirmed in just the last two weeks.

On Friday, a 63-year-old guest worker died at a Gebbers camp, two weeks after showing the first symptoms of COVID-19. He was the fifth person in Okanogan County to die of the virus.

The coronavirus came here in late March, well after it began to devastate early epicenters. The county reported its first confirmed case on March 25, around the same time New York City hit its peak. Months later, some are still convinced the entire pandemic is overblown at best, or at worst a figment of the imagination.

People think its a hoax until they get it, Graham said.

The potential for widespread transmission in rural agricultural communities threatens to overwhelm health systems that are already stretched thin. When the pandemic roared to life in March and April, rural hospitals suffered as patients began canceling regular check-ups and procedures and states banned elective surgeries to free up capacity.

In Brewster, Three Rivers Hospital relied on federal grants just to keep the doors open.

We came really close to closing back in March, April, Graham said. This hospital, like a lot of rural hospitals recently, has struggled financially.

In big cities, robust public health systems are well-financed and armies of contact tracers can deploy to track down those who might be infected. In smaller communities, public health systems are run on shoe-string budgets, supplemented when necessary by state and federal grants. Some of the nations smallest counties share a single public health officer between them.

Okanogan County budgets just $1.4 million for its public health system annually.

Public health in Washington state, and Im sure other states, just doesnt get the credit that it deserves. And theres definitely not enough funding thats put into public health by the state, said Andy Hover, the county commissioner whose district includes Brewster. Its not equipped to deal with the 24/7 of trying to do this.

Early in the pandemic, meat-packing facilities in states like Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota were epicenters of substantial outbreaks. Now, public health officials worry new outbreaks will spread in orchards, fields and farms that feed the nation  and spread from there.

We are learning a lot of lessons about making sure that folks have face coverings not just on the job, but if theyre in more congregate or tight-living quarters, said Mandy Cohen, who runs the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Were trying to get at the high-risk industries, but what happens is those folks also go home, so they bring it back to their communities.

Much of the onus for containing the outbreak in Washington will fall on companies like Gebbers Farms, a family-owned business that is Okanogan Countys largest employer. The company has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars testing its workers, and it has set up a separate dorm space for workers who need to be quarantined.

Agriculture feeds the world, so its really tough to try to put things on hold, Hover said. Theyve been doing a really good job of taking temperatures and segregating people that are ill.

The outbreak in Brewster also shines a light on the disproportionate impact the coronavirus pandemic is having on communities of color, and those on the lower end of the economic spectrum. Black, Hispanic and Native American people have died of the virus at a higher rate than whites, according to data compiled by the Covid Tracking Project.

About three quarters of residents in Brewster are Hispanic, according to Census Bureau data. Signs are printed in English and Spanish, with the Spanish version displayed first.

Just up the road, tourist enclaves like Winthrop and Twisp, where the virus has been virtually absent, are almost entirely white.

I see people wearing their masks, I see people trying to do their distancing and follow what the health department guidelines are. I havent seen anybody not follow the regulations, Hurtado said. Everybodys taking precautions. Like many other places, we didnt really expect this to take off.

Read more at: TheHill.com
- In a cute post online, Njoro introduced his one and only daughter to his fans

- The beauty and his dad were clad in beautiful African outfits as they smiled for the camera

- His fans and fellow actors took to the comment section to appreciate the beauty

Papa Shirandula actor Ken Gichoya alias Njoro is slowly welcoming the public into his family's life following the many social media post.

Njoro who has always kept his family from the limelight no longer fears to show that he is a proud daddy to his three adorable children.

READ ALSO: TV presenter Willis Raburu discloses he scored D+ in Maths

Ken Gichoya is commonly known for his role Njoro in the local drama Papa Shirandula. Photo: Ken Gichoya.

Source: Instagram

READ ALSO: Man United vs LASK: Lingard, Martial score as Man United reach Europa League quarters

Posting on his Instagram account, the actor left his fans and team mafisi thirsting for more after sharing photos posing with his daughter.

"It is on a Wednesday let me introduce you to my Lovely daughter," he captioned the post.

READ ALSO: Uchaguzi Tanzania: Rais Magufuli atarajiwa kuchukua fomu ya kugombea tena urais

Whoever said that a picture speaks a thousand words was not wrong at all. Njoro and his daughter appeared to have a very strong bond.

The funny dad was dressed in yellow African wear while his daughter rocked a kitenge dress. Interestingly, Njoro's outfit had some piece of material similar to that of his daughter's outfit.

READ ALSO: Help me God: TV anchor Zubeidah Koome shows off her investment in Kajiado

From the comments, fans could not stop gushing over the girl's beauty with many saying she has really grown.

His co-actor Daisy Netia alias Naliaka commented:

"Ooooh my, this girl has grown."

Another fan identified as griffins_kenya wrote:

"Team Magunia ...says ..Blessings Blessings all the way."

Instagram user isabella6701 added:

"Wow, a beautiful daughter."

READ ALSO: Groom's baby mama storms wedding ceremony with his child as pastor blesses marriage

Earlier on, Njoro introduced his handsome sons to the public in a post shared on his Instagram account.

The proud dad and his sons were clad in similar outfits which screamed on love and a strong bond.

The oldest boy had dreadlocks on while the other one had a trendy haircut.

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My husband's family took everything from me after he died and called my children garbage | Tuko TV

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The Kogi State Government on Thursday commenced the fumigation of its schools ahead of resumption of students for exit classes on August 10 in the state.

Addressing journalists at Crowther Memorial College, Lokoja, to launch the exercise, the State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Wemi Jones, commended the governor for his pro-activeness in dealing with the Coronavirus pandemic.

He said Governor Yahaya Bello had always been proactive on the issues of the pandemic, saying, the fumigation exercise is a continuation of how proactive our governor has been.

This has been the reason the State did not suffer the devastation of COVID-19 like other States.

Even before the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 gave the protocol to be observed in reopening schools, Kogi was already prepared.

This is why you can see what we are doing today. I can assure you that no school in Kogi will be left out from this exercise.

We have also instructed all private schools to fumigate their schools and ensure that they observe all established protocols by NCDC for safety against COVID-19.

READ ALSO:

His Excellency has given the marching order to fumigate all schools to ensure that the lives of learners and teachers are not endangered in Kogi, he said.

The commissioner urged parents to take personal responsibility for their personal hygiene and that of their children by observing all safety protocols against COVID-19 pandemic and to support the government.

Also speaking, the States Commissioner for Environment, Victor Omofaiye, said one of the requirements for schools reopening was to ensure that schools were properly disinfected against the virus.

We must do the needful for the safety of the learners and teachers in the state.

We are partners in progress and the ministry of environment will always be ready whenever we are called upon, and we will do our work diligently.

We thank the governor for being proactive in dealing with COVID-19 pandemic, Mr Omofaiye said.

On his part, a member of Kogi House of Assembly and Chairman, House Committee on Education, Moses Ododo, commended the governor and the commissioners for their proactiveness, assuring them of the necessary support from the State Assembly.

The Principal of Crowther Memorial College, Mabel Ogunmola, said she felt highly elated and excited especially when she heard that her school would be the first to be fumigated.

With this fumigation now, the news will go to the students and even their parents and they will be happy that schools now are safe for reopening under a conducive and safe environment, Mrs Ogunmola said.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that other schools fumigated included: Bishop Delisle College, UBE/JSS Holy Trinity School, Police Nur/Pry Sch, Govt. Sci. Sec. Sch., among others.

(NAN)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-07 04:08:45|Editor: huaxia

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Algerian workers load supplies onto a truck in Algiers, Algeria, on Aug. 6, 2020. Algeria will send aid and rescuers to Lebanon after deadly explosions in Lebanese capital Beirut, the official APS news agency reported on Thursday. (Xinhua)

ALGIERS, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Algeria will send aid and rescuers to Lebanon after deadly explosions in Lebanese capital Beirut, the official APS news agency reported on Thursday.

Saida Benhabiles, president of Algerian Red Crescent, which supervises the aid operation, said the aid consists of foodstuffs, medical and pharmaceutical supplies, tents and blankets.

She added that the aid will be transported by four military planes on Thursday night.

Benhabiles said an Algerian ship loaded with construction materials to help rebuild what was destroyed by explosions will sail to Lebanon soon.

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has sent a message of condolence to his Lebanese counterpart, Michel Aoun, over the huge explosions in Beirut.

Two huge explosions rocked Port of Beirut on Tuesday evening, killing at least 137 people and injuring nearly 5,000 others, while causing massive damages in the city. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-06 10:55:11|Editor: huaxia

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WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday doubled down on his unsubstantiated claim that he thinks the deadly explosions in the Lebanese capital of Beirut could be "an attack," dismissing his own Pentagon chief's assessment.

"I mean, somebody left some terrible explosive type of devices and things around, perhaps it was that, perhaps it was on attack. I don't think anybody can say right now," Trump said at a press conference. "You have some people think it was an attack and some people think it wasn't."

Trump previously claimed at the White House on Tuesday that he had "met with some of our great generals and they just seem to feel that this was not some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of event."

His claim was contradicted by U.S. defense officials, including U.S. Defence Secretary Mark Esper, who said on Wednesday that while the Pentagon was still gathering information about the explosions, "most believe that it was an accident as reported."

Two massive explosions rocked Beirut on Tuesday. Primary information reveals that they might have been caused by ammonium nitrate stored since 2014 in warehouse No. 12 at Port of Beirut.

Lebanese Health Minister Hamad Hassan said on Wednesday that the explosions had left at least 135 people dead and 5,000 others injured. Enditem
By Elaine Paul Schaefer

Times Guest Columnist

Today marks the 55th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, the landmark legislation that worked to fight systematic racism at the ballot box and create a more equal America. As President Lyndon B. Johnson and civil rights advocates reminded us on that day, the right to vote is a key pillar of our democracy. Unfortunately, the VRA was needed because of attacks on that right  attacks that have sadly persisted.

In 2013, a conservative-controlled United States Supreme Court gutted key parts of the Voting Rights Act, voting along party lines, making it easier for states to discriminate against Black and brown voters, seniors, and individuals with disabilities. Since that decision, more than 70 new bills restricting voting access have been introduced nationwide. And to no ones surprise, President Donald Trump and his followers have seen an opportunity to save his presidency by joining in.

Unfortunately, voters in Pennsylvania have become a prime target of Trumps desperate and undemocratic agenda. As we speak, the Trump Campaign isin court trying to suppress the vote in the commonwealth. Further, a pro-Trump activist group is leading efforts to illegitimately purge voter rolls in Delco. Make no mistake: Trump is trying to save his campaign by disenfranchising everyday voters. Regardless of your party affiliation, we all know that this type of behavior is unacceptable. So let todays anniversary be a reminder for whats at stake this fall  equality, fairness, and the rule of law  and plan to exercise your right to vote on Nov. 3.

Elaine Paul Schaefer, a Radnor Democrat, is a member of Delaware County Council.
(Natural News) Recent research from China has demonstrated that higher amounts of certain nutrients and hormones can slash the risk of metabolic syndrome (MetS), a cluster of conditions that heighten the risk of diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

In a recent article published in the journal Menopause, Chinese scientists found that higher amounts of calcidiol (25-hydroxyvitamin D) and estrogen corresponded to better markers of MetS, including lipid profile, blood pressure, cholesterol and blood glucose, in postmenopausal women.

Their findings underscore the potential synergistic role of calcidiol and estrogen deficiencies in the pathogenesis of MetS in postmenopausal women.

A combination of high vitamin D and estrogen levels can improve markers of MetS after menopause

MetS affects 3060 percent of all postmenopausal women worldwide because it is tied to estrogen, the female sex hormone. Post-menopause, estrogen begins to drop and its production starts to decrease, thus resulting in a greater risk of MetS.

Menopause also leads to a greater chance of becoming obese and susceptible to heart disease. In turn, this can trigger other markers and conditions linked to MetS. The researchers note that both of these conditions also appear to be related to estrogen loss post-menopause.

In addition, numerous studies offer strong evidence that vitamin D supplementation can reduce MetS risk.

To understand the influence of both estrogen and vitamin D over MetS risk post-menopause, the researchers studied 616 postmenopausal participants aged 4986 years from southern China. None of the participants had been taking either estrogen or vitamin D supplements.

In particular, the researchers examined calcidiol and estradiol levels in the participants. Calcidiol is a prehormone produced by an enzyme in the liver. It is also the major circulating form of vitamin D. Experts measure calcidiol levels to determine a patients vitamin D status.

Estradiol, on the other hand, is an estrogen steroid hormone. It is one of the four estrogens that the ovaries produce. Healthcare professionals might prescribe estradiol supplements to help ease symptoms of menopause, like hot flashes and vaginal dryness.

Upon analysis of the cross-sectional data gathered, the researchers found that higher amounts of calcidiol corresponded to a better lipid profile, blood pressure and blood glucose.

On the other hand, the researchers found that decreased amounts of estradiol corresponded to high cholesterol, high triglycerides and high blood pressure.

Taken together, these results suggest a possible synergistic role of both calcidiol and estradiol deficiencies in MetS risk among postmenopausal subjects. (Related: Are plant estrogens really the answer for postmenopausal women in need of natural hormone support?)

Vitamin D supplementation can slash MetS risk in men

MetS might affect postmenopausal women on a larger scale, but past studies confirm that MetS can affect the male population, too.

Hui-Hua Li, a professor at Dalian Medical Universitys School of Public Health in China, notes that epidemiological studies suggest high MetS risk corresponds to deficiencies in serum concentrations of vitamin D. But other studies fail to replicate this inverse relationship, Li added.

To this end, Li and his colleagues conducted a cross-sectional examination on a total of 2,585 adults aged at least 50 years. Li and his team assessed the participants cholesterol, blood pressure, blood glucose and serum calcidiol concentrations.

The team identified a total of 326 cases of MetS among the participants. Interestingly, the team only found significantly reduced serum calcidiol concentrations in men that had MetS. Men that did not have MetS had normal serum calcidiol concentrations.

In addition, the researchers found that men that had the highest serum calcidiol concentrations had the least risk of MetS even after adjusting for age, exercise levels and smoking and drinking habits.

Moreover, men younger than 65 years that had high serum calcidiol concentrations also had greater reductions in MetS risk than those aged at least 65 years.

Based on these results, Li and his team noted that decreased amounts of serum calcidiol concentrations are not just indicative of vitamin D deficiency but also of MetS risk in men of middle-aged categories.

Read more articles about the health benefits of vitamin D at VitaminD.news.

Sources include:

ScienceDaily.com

Journals.LWW.com

Healio.com
Paul Albano, a passionate writer, social studies teacher, and real estate agent in southern Connecticut, has published his new book Hope Is the Last to Die: a spellbinding drama that keeps the pages turning until the stunning conclusion.

Con-artist Jimmy Ford has coerced, stolen, and cheated. Now, in the aftermath of an unspeakable chain of events, Jimmy lands in Naples, Italy, to clear his conscience and dismiss the poisonous notion of inevitable misery from his life. He seeks the help of his cousin Nina, who resides in Naples, all while keeping the truth of what really brought him to Italy away from Nina for as long as possible.

But past lives are difficult to forget, and old tricks are even harder to dispose of as Jimmy accidentally witnesses a brutal act committed by the local mafia, the Camorra. Aiding him through his initial struggle of what to do next is Arianna, a woman who is a prisoner of a failing relationship and whose life ambition is to find happiness and beauty. It is only when Jimmy decides to use his con artist tactics on the Camorra do both he and Arianna try to discover a lost hope in their respective lives. What stands in their way of success are past mistakes, which pull along familiar friends and foes as Arianna and Nina inadvertently get tangled into Jimmys greatest web of lies and deceit in order to not only save himself but his new love and old.

Hope Is the Last to Die shines a unique perspective on the Neapolitan saying La speranza e lultima a morire as this crime thriller examines how one man attempts to battle fate while taken on a journey through the past, along the present, and into the future of a protagonist the literary world has not seen since Jay Gatsby and a conclusion that will leave readers utterly shocked.

Published by Page Publishing, Paul Albanos engrossing book is a fast-paced and superb choice for avid crime fiction readers.

Readers who wish to experience this engaging work can purchase Hope Is the Last to Die at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708.

About Page Publishing:

Page Publishing is a traditional, full-service publishing house that handles all the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing knows that authors need to be free to create - not mired in logistics like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes, and so on. Pages accomplished writers and publishing professionals allow authors to leave behind these complex and time-consuming issues to focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com.
Press Release

August 6, 2020 POE WANTS GREATER PROTECTION, BENEFITS FOR OFWs Sen. Grace Poe pressed for the immediate passage of a bill that would provide greater protection to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who have unjustly or prematurely lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 crisis. Senate Bill No. 1476 or the proposed Act to Further Assist Filipino Migrant Workers will entitle the OFWs to the full reimbursement of their placement fee with 12-percent interest per annum plus their salaries for the unexpired portion of their employment contract, amending the current law that states that they may receive only three months' salary for every year of unexpired term, whichever is less. "We must guarantee that our OFWs who were found eligible in keeping their jobs are shielded with social protection and fair benefits," Poe said. The bill, which seeks to amend Section 10 on Money Claims of Republic Act No. 8042 or the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipino Act, also mandates the Department of Labor and Employment and attached agencies to provide new skill trainings, re-training programs, livelihood and technology assistance, seminars for micro-finance assistance, and similar opportunities for the returning OFWs. "While we acknowledge that COVID-19 has hit a number of industries worldwide, it should not be flagrantly used as an excuse to lay off our Filipino workers without just cause, sufficient notice, and fair compensation," she added. Poe underscored the need to institutionalize increased protection to OFWs as thousands are cut from their employment and sent home due to the slowdown in economic activities worldwide amid the coronavirus pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated their vulnerability as they struggle to gain access to healthcare, testing or treatment to ensure they remain fit to do the job and continue to have income to provide for their families. "Our OFWs have contributed to keep the economy afloat. Their sacrifices in the hope of enjoying the fruits of their labor when they come home should not be taken for granted," Poe said. Under the current Migrant Workers Act, the OFWs may file complaints before the National Labor Relations Commission and seek claims for actual, moral, exemplary and other forms of damages. The complaints will be heard and decided within 90 calendar days after the filing.
KITCHENER, ON, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Quarterhill Inc. ("Quarterhill" or the "Company") (TSX: QTRH) (OTCQX: QTRHF), announces its financial results for the three- and six-month periods ended June 30, 2020. The Company historically prepared its consolidated financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP and in U.S. dollars. Effective January 1, 2020, the Company has adopted IFRS and the Canadian dollar as its reporting currency. The Company has consistently applied the same accounting policies in its opening IFRS statement of financial position at January 1, 2019, and throughout all periods presented as if these policies had always been in effect. All financial information in this press release is reported in Canadian dollars, unless otherwise indicated.

Second Quarter 2020 Financial Highlights

Revenue was $16.8 million , including recurring revenue of $5.6 million

, including recurring revenue of Adjusted EBITDA* was ($2.0) million

Net income was $9.5 million , or $0.08 per basic and diluted common share, which included a $17.7 million gain on the sale of VIZIYA

, or per basic and diluted common share, which included a gain on the sale of VIZIYA Cash used in continuing operations was ($4.3) million

Cash and equivalents were $143.1 million at June 30, 2020

Second Quarter 2020 Operational Highlights

Appointed Mr. Paul Hill as President and CEO of Quarterhill, effective June 1st

as President and CEO of Quarterhill, effective Completed the sale of VIZIYA for total cash proceeds of $49.4 million

A Final Judgment was issued in WiLAN's case against Apple for US$108.98 million

Announced a Substantial Issuer Bid and subsequently completed it on July 7th , returning $5.8 million to shareholders via the purchase of 2.7 million common shares

, returning to shareholders via the purchase of 2.7 million common shares Appointed Mr. Paul Hill and Dr. Michel Fattouche to Quarterhill's Board of Directors

and Dr. Michel Fattouche to Quarterhill's Board of Directors Appointed Mr. Rish Malhotra as President and CEO of International Road Dynamics ("IRD"), effective June 1st

Announced today a Normal Course Issuer Bid to acquire up to 10%, or 11.3 million, of the Company's common shares in the public float for a twelve-month period ending August 9, 2021

"Q2 had several positive operational developments including the previously announced sale of VIZIYA for a significant gain, the Final Judgment in WiLAN's case versus Apple for US$108.98 million, and the return of $5.8 million to shareholders via the Substantial Issuer Bid that was completed in mid-July," said Paul Hill, President & CEO of Quarterhill. "Today we announced the next step in our 'return of capital' commitment to shareholders with the launch of a Normal Course Issuer Bid to purchase up to 11.3 million of our shares over the next twelve months."

"Financial results in the quarter reflect both the steady performance at IRD and the variability in the business model at WiLAN, as well as the impact of COVID-19 on both businesses. At WiLAN, the COVID-19 impact was related to certain court closures in the U.S. as well as the inability to hold face-to-face meetings to conclude agreements. WiLAN's fundamentals remain in place and it continues to advance its pipeline despite the pandemic, although some deals may be delayed as was the case with certain opportunities we had expected to close in Q2 that were pushed out. These are not lost opportunities and they remain in our plan for completion. As we've said in the past, at WiLAN, performance over a longer time frame is a more accurate gauge of its potential compared to its quarterly business results. Case in point, while WiLAN had negative Adjusted EBITDA in Q2, it has had positive Adjusted EBITDA in five of the past seven quarters."

"At IRD, some impact from COVID-19 was felt in the quarter, but overall, the business continues to generate solid margins and results, and its prospects remain strong with both order backlog and order intake high and near record levels. On June 1, we announced Rish Malholtra would be taking over as CEO at IRD in a planned succession. Rish has deep knowledge of the Intelligent Transportation Systems, or ITS, industry and he has led many of the key functions at IRD during his tenure. These are exciting times at IRD and it is expected to play a significant role in our strategy going forward."

"While not a radical departure from Quarterhill's strategy of recent years, our go-forward strategy has a sharper focus. Foremost, the strategy involves executing on a M&A plan. While the M&A strategy was previously on hold, when I joined in June, we began discussions around how we could leverage the strong cash position of the business and the cash flow generating potential of our portfolio companies to drive long-term shareholder value. Ultimately that discussion coalesced around a strategy intended to drive organic growth from our existing businesses and M&A-related growth focused on the IRD business and the opportunities in the ITS market."

"The ITS market has attractive growth and market dynamics with reasonable valuations and IRD is an established and well-respected player in this market, which helps differentiate us as an acquirer. IRD serves as a well-run growth-oriented platform that acquisitions can be integrated into, which also opens up the prospect of greater revenue and cost synergies. As the broader ITS industry becomes more connected, we also believe there is an opportunity to leverage WiLAN's deep technological expertise; in particular in 5G, which may become a critical enabling technology for ITS in the future."

Mr. Hill concluded: "I will discuss our strategy in more detail on our conference call this morning at 10:00 a.m. EDT. The discussion will include accompanying slides that can be viewed via the webcast."

Subsequent Event - Normal Course Issuer Bid

In a separate press release issued today, Quarterhill announced that the Toronto Stock Exchange has accepted a notice filed by the Company of its intention to make a new Normal Course Issuer Bid. The notice provides that Quarterhill may, during the 12-month period commencing August 10, 2020 and ending August 9, 2021, purchase on the Toronto Stock Exchange up to 11.3 million common shares in total, being approximately 10% of the outstanding common shares in the public float. For full details regarding the Normal Course Issuer Bid, please see Quarterhill's related press release also issued today.

Approval of Eligible Dividend

The Board of Directors has declared an eligible quarterly dividend of $0.0125 per common share payable on October 9, 2020, to shareholders of record on September 11, 2020.

Q2 2020 and Year-to-date Consolidated Financial Review

Financial statements for the three- and six-month periods ended June 30, 2020 and for the respective comparison periods, have been prepared to reflect continuing operations and therefore exclude results during those periods from VIZIYA, which was sold by Quarterhill on May 15, 2020. The current quarter and year-to-date operating results from VIZIYA, up to the date of sale on May 15, 2020, are reported as net income (loss) from discontinued operations in accordance with IFRS 5.

Consolidated revenues for the three months ended June 30, 2020 ("Q2 2020") were $16.8 million, compared to $52.9 million in Q2 2019. Consolidated revenues for the six-month period ended June 30, 2020 ("YTD 2020") were $38.4 million, compared to $102.7 million in the same period last year. The majority of WiLAN's licenses are one-time in nature and significant fluctuations in revenue, gross margin, and Adjusted EBITDA can result when the volume or dollar value of licenses changes from one period to the next. Revenue was lower in the Q2 2020 and YTD 2020 periods due primarily to the closure of a greater volume, and value, of licensing contracts in the prior year periods.

Recurring revenue for the Q2 2020 and YTD 2020 periods was $5.6 million and $9.5 million, compared to $6.0 million and $11.7 million in the same periods last year. Certain revenues characterized as recurring have a timing component to them and are recognized when the related work is completed. As such, the decrease in recurring revenue in 2020 is primarily a timing-based issue and does not reflect lower renewal or retention rates.

Gross margin for the Q2 2020 and YTD 2020 periods was 25% and 30%, compared to 46% and 47% in the same periods last year. Gross margin was lower in the Q2 2020 and YTD 2020 periods due primarily to lower revenue at WiLAN as described above, offset in part by higher gross margin at IRD. IRD and WiLAN's cost of sales benefited by $0.6 million and $0.3 million, respectively, via the Government of Canada's Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy ("CEWS") program.

Operating expenses include selling, general and administrative costs ("SG&A"), research and development costs ("R&D"), depreciation and amortization of intangible assets and special charges. For Q2 2020, Quarterhill had special charges of $0.7 million compared to $15.0 million in Q2 2019. YTD 2020, special charges were $0.9 million compared to $16.7 million in the same period last year.

Excluding special charges, operating expenses for the Q2 2020 and YTD 2020 periods were $11.9 million and $24.3 million, compared to $14.0 million and $27.9 million in the same periods last year. Operating expenses were lower in 2020 due primarily to lower SG&A and R&D and a CEWS benefit at IRD of $0.7 million.

Adjusted EBITDA for the Q2 2020 and YTD 2020 periods was ($2.0) million and ($1.8) million, compared to $17.1 million and $34.2 million in the same periods last year. The decrease in Adjusted EBITDA reflects the lower revenue at WiLAN, offset in part, by higher Adjusted EBITDA at IRD and lower corporate expenses.

Net income for Q2 2020 was $9.5 million, or $0.08 per basic and diluted common share, compared to net loss of ($5.9) million, or ($0.05) per basic and diluted common share, in Q2 2019. Net income for the YTD 2020 period was $4.4 million, or $0.04 per basic and diluted common share, compared to net loss of ($6.0) million, or ($0.05) per basic and diluted common share, in the same period last year. Net income in the Q2 2020 and YTD 2020 periods was driven primarily by net income from discontinued operations of $14.5 million and $14.3 million, respectively, which included a $17.7 million gain on the sale of VIZIYA in Q2 2020.

Cash generated from (used in) continuing operations for the Q2 2020 and YTD 2020 periods was ($4.3) million and $5.4 million, compared to $45.0 million and $29.2 million in the same periods last year. Cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments increased to $143.1 million at June 30, 2020, compared to $89.4 million at December 31, 2019. The Company had debt of $7.4 million at June 30, 2020, compared to $4.4 million at December 31, 2019.

Conference Call and Webcast

Quarterhill will host a conference call to discuss its financial results today at 10:00 AM Eastern Time. Management slides that accompany the conference call can be viewed via the webcast.

Webcast Information

Live webcast: https://produceredition.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1348487&tp_key=00592de315

Dial-in Information

To access the call from Canada and U.S., dial 1.888.231.8191 (Toll Free)

and U.S., dial 1.888.231.8191 (Toll Free) To access the call from other locations, dial 1.647.427.7450 (International)

Replay Information

Webcast replay will be available for 90 days at: https://produceredition.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1348487&tp_key=00592de315

Telephone replay will be available from 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time on August 6, 2020 until 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on August 20, 2020 at: 1.855.859.2056 (Toll Free) or 1.416.849.0833 (International). The telephone replay requires the passcode 4283448.

The table below highlights financial performance for the Company's Licensing and Intelligent Systems segments. For detailed results and discussion related to these segments, please refer to the Management's Discussion and Analysis document, which will be filed on SEDAR and at www.quarterhill.com in the investor section.

Segmented statements of (loss) income for the three- and six-month periods ended June 30, 2020 and 2019 are included below:



For the Three months ended June 30, 2020 CONTINUING OPERATIONS Licensing

Intelligent

Systems

Corporate

Total Revenues







License $ 68

$ 

$ 

$ 68 Systems 

11,138



11,138 Recurring 252

5,366



5,618

320

16,504



16,824 Direct cost of revenues 3,062

9,594



12,656 Gross profit (2,742)

6,910



4,168 Depreciation of right-of-use assets 63

159

15

237 Depreciation of property, plant and equipment 16

225

6

247 Amortization of intangibles 3,588

1,260



4,848 Selling, general and administrative expenses 746

2,333

2,747

5,826 Research and development expenses 

555



555 Impairment losses of intangible assets 233





233 Special charges 

659



659 Results from operations (7,388)

1,719

(2,768)

(8,437) Finance income (22)

(6)

(132)

(160) Finance expense 38

74

6

118 Foreign exchange loss (gain) 342

(235)

(110)

(3) Other income 

(431)



(431) (Loss) income before taxes (7,746)

2,317

(2,532)

(7,961) Current income tax expense 56

22



78 Deferred income tax (recovery) expense (4,582)

167

1,363

(3,052) Income tax (recovery) expense (4,526)

189

1,363

(2,974) Net (loss) income from continuing operations $ (3,220)

$ 2,128

$ (3,895)

$ (4,987)









Adjusted EBITDA $ (3,419)

$ 4,041

$ (2,614)

$ (1,992)









For the Six months ended June 30, 2020 CONTINUING OPERATIONS Licensing

Intelligent

Systems

Corporate

Total Revenues







License $ 9,817

$ 

$ 

$ 9,817 Systems 

19,141



19,141 Recurring 703

8,776



9,479

10,520

27,917



38,437 Direct cost of revenues 8,831

18,012



26,843 Gross profit 1,689

9,905



11,594 Depreciation of right-of-use assets 124

327

30

481 Depreciation of property, plant and equipment 32

428

11

471 Amortization of intangibles 7,071

2,519



9,590 Selling, general and administrative expenses 1,724

5,817

4,580

12,121 Research and development expenses 

1,424



1,424 Impairment losses of intangible assets 233





233 Special charges 

659

213

872 Results from operations (7,495)

(1,269)

(4,834)

(13,598) Finance income (122)

(7)

(253)

(382) Finance expense 78

125

11

214 Foreign exchange loss (gain) 1,596

(929)

(1,252)

(585) Other income 

(809)



(809) (Loss) income before taxes (9,047)

351

(3,340)

(12,036) Current income tax expense 1,242

102



1,344 Deferred income tax (recovery) expense (5,971)

(608)

3,098

(3,481) Income tax (recovery) expense (4,729)

(506)

3,098

(2,137) Net (loss) income from continuing operations $ (4,318)

$ 857

$ (6,438)

$ (9,899)









Adjusted EBITDA $ 64

$ 2,709

$ (4,528)

$ (1,755)









For the Three months ended June 30, 2019 CONTINUING OPERATIONS Licensing

Intelligent

Systems

Corporate

Total Revenues







License $ 32,807

$ 

$ 

$ 32,807 Systems 

14,035



14,035 Recurring 292

5,744



6,036

$ 33,099

$ 19,779

$ 

$ 52,878 Direct cost of revenues 16,035

12,692



28,727 Gross profit 17,064

7,087



24,151 Depreciation of right-of-use assets 82

182

15

279 Depreciation of property, plant and equipment 40

391

5

436 Amortization of intangibles 4,703

1,257



5,960 Selling, general and administrative expenses 451

3,255

2,869

6,575 Research and development expenses 

779



779 Special charges 711



14,244

14,955 Results from operations 11,077

1,223

(17,133)

(4,833) Finance income (52)

(5)

(332)

(389) Finance expense 10

349

5

364 Foreign exchange (gain) loss (236)

74

249

87 Other income (4)

(237)



(241) Income (loss) before taxes 11,359

1,042

(17,055)

(4,654) Current income tax expense (recovery) 54

(19)



35 Deferred income tax expense (recovery) 2,564

(489)

(1,132)

943 Income tax expense (recovery) 2,618

(508)

(1,132)

978 Net income (loss) from continuing operations $ 8,741

$ 1,550

$ (15,923)

$ (5,632)









Adjusted EBITDA 16,628

3,089

(2,635)

17,082









For the Six months ended June 30, 2019 CONTINUING OPERATIONS Licensing

Intelligent

Systems

Corporate

Total Revenues







License $ 69,527

$ 

$ 

$ 69,527 Systems 

21,483



21,483 Recurring 963

10,711



11,674

$ 70,490

$ 32,194

$ 

$ 102,684 Direct cost of revenues 33,038

21,596



54,634 Gross profit 37,452

10,598



48,050 Depreciation of right-of-use assets 381

355

30

766 Depreciation of property, plant and equipment 95

793

10

898 Amortization of intangibles 9,394

2,515



11,909 Selling, general and administrative expenses 983

6,395

5,441

12,819 Research and development expenses 

1,517



1,517 Special charges 2,435



14,244

16,679 Results from operations 24,164

(977)

(19,725)

3,462 Finance income (76)

(8)

(574)

(658) Finance expense 14

443

8

465 Foreign exchange (gain) loss (491)

329

527

365 Other income (4)

(335)



(339) Income (loss) before taxes 24,721

(1,406)

(19,686)

3,629 Current income tax expense 5,248

207



5,455 Deferred income tax expense (recovery) 5,129

(1,285)

(777)

3,067 Income tax expense (recovery) 10,377

(1,078)

(777)

8,522 Net income (loss) from continuing operations $ 14,344

$ (328)

$ (18,909)

$ (4,893)









Adjusted EBITDA $ 36,456

$ 2,761

$ (4,996)

$ 34,221

Non-IFRS Disclosure

Quarterhill has historically used a set of metrics when evaluating our operational and financial performance. We continually monitor, evaluate and update these metrics as required to ensure they provide information considered most useful, in the opinion of our management, to any decision-making based on Quarterhill's performance. This section defines, quantifies and analyzes the key performance indicators used by our management and referred to elsewhere in this press release, which are not recognized under IFRS and have no standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS. These indicators and measures are therefore unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers.

In this press release, we use the Non-IFRS term "Adjusted EBITDA" to mean net income (loss) from continuing operations before: (i) income taxes; (ii) finance expense or income; (iii) amortization and impairment of intangibles; (iv) special charges and other one-time items; (v) depreciation of right-of-use assets and property, plant and equipment; (vi) effects of deleted deferred revenue; (vii) stock-based compensation; (viii) foreign exchange (gain) loss; and (ix) equity in earnings and dividends from joint ventures. Adjusted EBITDA is used by our management to assess our normalized cash generated on a consolidated basis and in our operating segments. Adjusted EBITDA is also a performance measure that may be used by investors to analyze the cash generated by Quarterhill and our operating segments. Adjusted EBITDA should not be interpreted as an alternative to net income and cash flows from operations as determined in accordance with IFRS or as a measure of liquidity.

About Quarterhill

Quarterhill is a growth-oriented company in the Intellectual Property and Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) industries. Our goal is to pursue an investment strategy that capitalizes on attractive market trends in both ITS and its adjacent markets. Quarterhill is listed on the TSX under the symbol QTRH and on the OTCQX Best Market under the symbol QTRHF. For more information: www.quarterhill.com

Forward-looking Information

This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other United States and Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements and forward-looking information are based on estimates and assumptions made by Quarterhill in light of its experience and its perception of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and the expected effects of new business strategies, as well as other factors that Quarterhill believes are appropriate in the circumstances. Many factors could cause Quarterhill's actual performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements or forward-looking information. Such factors include, without limitation, the risks described in Quarterhill's February 27, 2020 annual information form for the year ended December 31, 2019 (the "AIF"). Copies of the AIF may be obtained at www.sedar.com . Quarterhill recommends that readers review and consider all of these risk factors and notes that readers should not place undue reliance on any of Quarterhill's forward-looking statements. Quarterhill has no intention, and undertakes no obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

All trademarks and brands mentioned in this release are the property of their respective owners.

Quarterhill Inc. Condensed Consolidated Interim Statements of Income (Loss) and Comprehensive Income and (Loss) (Unaudited) (in thousands of Canadian dollars, except share and per share amounts)



Three months ended June 30,

Six months ended June 30,

2020

2019

2020

2019 Revenues





License $ 68

$ 32,807

$ 9,817

$ 69,527 Systems 11,138

14,035

19,141

21,483 Recurring 5,618

6,036

9,479

11,674

16,824

52,878

38,437

102,684 Direct cost of revenues







License 3,063

16,035

8,803

33,038 Systems 6,594

9,181

12,574

14,224 Recurring 2,999

3,511

5,466

7,372

12,656

28,727

26,843

54,634 Gross profit 4,168

24,151

11,594

48,050 Operating expenses







Depreciation of right-of-use assets 237

279

481

766 Depreciation of property, plant and equipment 247

436

471

898 Amortization of intangibles 4,848

5,960

9,590

11,909 Selling, general and administrative expenses 5,826

6,575

12,121

12,819 Research and development expenses 555

779

1,424

1,517 Impairment losses on intangibles 233



233

 Special charges 659

14,955

872

16,679

12,605

28,984

25,192

44,588 Results from operations (8,437)

(4,833)

(13,598)

3,462 Finance income (160)

(389)

(382)

(658) Finance expense 118

364

214

465 Foreign exchange (gain) loss (3)

87

(585)

365 Other income (431)

(241)

(809)

(339) (Loss) income before taxes (7,961)

(4,654)

(12,036)

3,629 Current income tax expense 78

35

1,344

5,455 Deferred income tax (recovery) expense (3,052)

943

(3,481)

3,067 Income tax (recovery) expense (2,974)

978

(2,137)

8,522



Net loss from continuing operations $ (4,987)

$ (5,632)

(9,899)

(4,893) Net income (loss) from discontinued operations $ 14,455

$ (306)

14,255

(1,092) Net income (loss) $ 9,468

$ (5,938)

4,356

(5,985) Other comprehensive income (loss) that may be reclassified subsequently to net income (loss): Foreign currency translation adjustment $(11,188)

$(4,290)

9,875

(8,869) Comprehensive (loss) income $(1,720)

$(10,228)

14,231

(14,854)













Net income (loss) per share











From continuing operations $(0.04)

$(0.05)

(0.08)

(0.04) From discontinued operations $0.12

$0.00

0.12

(0.01) Net income (loss) per share - Basic $0.08

$(0.05)

0.04

(0.05)













From continuing operations $(0.04)

$(0.05)

(0.08)

(0.04) From discontinued operations $0.12

$0.00

0.12

(0.01) Net income (loss) per share - Diluted $0.08

$(0.05)

0.04

(0.05)

Quarterhill Inc. Condensed Consolidated Interim Statements of Financial Position (Unaudited) (in thousands of Canadian dollars)







As at June 30, 2020 December 31, 2019 January 1, 2019 Current assets





Cash and cash equivalents $ 141,515

$ 87,870

$ 87,029 Short-term investments 1,551

1,550

1,551 Restricted short-term investments 



2,995 Accounts receivable (net of allowance for doubtful accounts) 11,858

42,925

14,719 Other current assets 218

108

124 Unbilled revenue 11,260

8,965

5,432 Income taxes receivable 353

137

270 Inventories (net of obsolescence) 10,242

8,570

8,114 Prepaid expenses and deposits 3,287

2,242

2,927

180,284

152,367

123,161 Non-current assets





Accounts receivable 682

3,846

565 Right-of-use assets 3,906

4,502

3,972 Property, plant and equipment 2,941

2,826

3,614 Intangible assets 70,760

89,534

119,015 Investment in joint venture 6,210

5,233

5,203 Deferred income tax assets 36,877

33,270

36,948 Goodwill 17,274

32,977

34,446

138,650

172,188

203,763 TOTAL ASSETS $ 318,934

$ 324,555

$ 326,924







Liabilities





Current liabilities





Bank indebtedness $ 7,036

$ 4,026

$ 3,537 Accounts payable and accrued liabilities 12,106

25,755

24,644 Dividends payable 1,462



 Income taxes payable 285

203

 Current portion of lease liabilities 884

998

1,120 Contingent liabilities 



1,265 Current portion of deferred revenue 4,544

8,638

6,357 Current portion of long-term debt 41

59

407

26,358

39,679

37,330 Non-current liabilities





Deferred revenue 1,522

1,513

1,954 Long-term lease liabilities 3,002

3,550

2,604 Long-term debt 285

271

236 Deferred income tax liabilities 

3,297

5,905

4,809

8,631

10,699 TOTAL LIABILITIES $ 31,167

$ 48,310

$ 48,029







Shareholders' equity





Capital stock $ 570,591

$ 570,553

$ 570,553 Contributed surplus 32,207

32,011

31,252 Accumulated other comprehensive income 20,811

10,936

22,112 Deficit (335,842)

(337,255)

(345,022)

287,767

276,245

278,895 TOTAL LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY $ 318,934

$ 324,555

$ 326,924

Quarterhill Inc. Condensed Consolidated Interim Statements of Cash Flows (Unaudited) (in thousands of Canadian dollars)



Three months ended June 30,

Six months ended June 30,

2020

2019

2020

2019 Cash generated from (used in) Operations









Net loss from continuing operations $ (4,987)

$ (5,632)

$ (9,899)

$ (4,893) Non-cash items







Stock-based compensation expense 221

285

196

507 Depreciation of right-of-use assets 237

279

481

766 Interest expense on lease liabilities 56

54

112

103 Depreciation and amortization 5,095

6,396

10,061

12,807 Foreign exchange (gain) loss (478)

(45)

(194)

(127) Equity in earnings from joint venture (431)

(241)

(809)

(339) Impairment losses on intangibles 233



233

 (Gain) loss on disposal of assets (6)

785

(10)

785 Deferred income tax (recovery) expense (3,052)

943

(3,481)

3,067 Long-term accounts receivable 





(85) Embedded derivatives 121

39

(101)

132 Contingent consideration adjustment 

14,244



14,244 Changes in non-cash working capital balances







Accounts receivable 5,949

36,744

26,559

1,697 Unbilled revenue (2,762)

(3,027)

(2,026)

(3,504) Income taxes receivable (252)

(72)

(209)

195 Inventories (1,952)

(213)

(1,340)

(185) Prepaid expenses and deposits (1,474)

(278)

(1,296)

(4) Deferred revenue (539)

(771)

(52)

(331) Accounts payable and accrued liabilities (282)

(4,423)

(12,911)

4,269 Income taxes payable 45

(35)

92

49 Cash (used in) generated from continuing operations (4,258)

45,032

5,406

29,153 Net cash flows attributable to discontinuing operations (2,478)

928

(3,075)

869 Net cash (used in) generated from operating activities (6,736)

45,960

2,331

30,022 Financing







Dividends paid 

(1,473)

(1,481)

(2,975) Bank indebtedness 4,796

2,467

2,984

2,566 Payment of lease liabilities (271)

(420)

(586)

(871) Repayment of long-term debt (13)

(276)

(120)

(300) Exercise of stock options 14



14

 Common shares issued from Performance Stock Units 



24

 Cash generated from (used in) continuing operations 4,526

298

835

(1,580) Net cash flows attributable to discontinuing operations 

(8)



(19) Net cash generated from (used in) financing activities 4,526

290

835

(1,599) Investing







Proceeds from disposition of a subsidiary 49,400



49,400

 Cash sold on disposition of a subsidiary (1,825)



(1,825)

 Proceeds from sale of property, plant and equipment 12



16

 Purchase of property and equipment (586)

(381)

(887)

(499) Purchase of intangibles (8)

(98)

(25)

(125) Cash generated from (used in) continuing operations 46,993

(479)

46,679

(624) Net cash flows attributable to discontinuing operations (11)

(31)

(81)

(123) Net cash generated from (used in) investing activities 46,982

(510)

46,598

(747) Foreign exchange gain (loss) on cash held in foreign currency (4,853)

(1,951)

3,881

(3,622) Net increase in cash and cash equivalents 39,919

43,789

53,645

24,054 Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period 101,596

67,294

87,870

87,029 Cash and cash equivalents, end of period $ 141,515

$ 111,083

141,515

111,083

Quarterhill Inc. Condensed Consolidated Interim Statements of Changes in Shareholders' Equity For the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019 (In thousands of Canadian dollars)

Capital Stock

Contributed

Surplus

Accumulated

Other

Comprehensive

Income

Deficit

Total Equity January 1, 2019 $ 570,553

$ 31,252

$ 22,112

$ (345,022)

$ 278,895











Net loss 





(5,985)

(5,985) Other comprehensive loss 



(8,869)



(8,869) Stock-based compensation expense 

507





507 Dividends declared 





(2,975)

(2,975) June 30, 2019 570,553

31,759

13,243

(353,982)

261,573



































January 1, 2020 $ 570,553

$ 32,011

$ 10,936

$ (337,255)

$ 276,245











Net income





$ 4,356

$ 4,356 Other comprehensive income



$ 9,875



$ 9,875 Stock-based compensation expense

196





196 Exercise of options 14







14 Common shares issued from performance stock units 24







24 Dividends declared





(2,943)

(2,943) June 30, 2020 570,591

32,207

20,811

(335,842)

287,767

Quarterhill Inc. Reconciliations of Net loss to Adjusted EBITDA (Unaudited) (in thousands of Canadian dollars, except share and per share amounts)





Three months ended June 30,

2020

2019

$

Per Share

$

Per Share Net loss from continuing operations $ (4,987)

$ (0.04)

$ (5,632)

$ (0.05)



















Adjusted for:















Income tax (recovery) expense (2,974)

(0.03)

978

0.01 Foreign exchange (gain) loss (3)



87

 Finance expense 118



364

 Finance income (160)



(389)

 Special charges 659

0.01

14,955

0.13 Impairment losses on intangible assets 233





 Amortization of intangibles 4,848

0.04

5,960

0.05 Depreciation of property, plant and equipment 247



436

 Depreciation of right-of-use assets 237



279

 Stock based compensation expense 221



285

 Other income (431)



(241)

 Adjusted EBITDA $ (1,992)

$ (0.02)

$ 17,082

$ 0.14

















Weighted average number of Common Shares















Basic

118,861,166



11,817,466

Quarterhill Inc. Reconciliations of Net loss to Adjusted EBITDA (Unaudited) (in thousands of Canadian dollars, except share and per share amounts)



Six months ended June 30,

2020

2019

$

Per Share

$

Per Share Net loss from continuing operations $ (9,899)

$ (0.08)

$ (4,893)

$ (0.04)









Adjusted for:







Income tax (recovery) expense (2,137)

(0.02)

8,522

0.07 Foreign exchange (gain) loss (585)



365

 Finance expense 214



465

 Finance income (382)



(658)

(0.01) Special charges 872

0.01

16,679

0.14 Impairment losses on intangible assets 233





 Amortization of intangibles 9,590

0.08

11,909

0.10 Depreciation of property, plant and equipment 471



898

0.01 Depreciation of right-of-use assets 481



766

0.01 Stock based compensation expense 196



507

 Other income (809)

(0.01)

(339)

 Adjusted EBITDA $ (1,755)

$ (0.02)

$ 34,221

$ 0.28









Weighted average number of Common Shares







Basic

118,861,166



11,817,466

SOURCE Quarterhill Inc.

Related Links

www.quarterhill.com


Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jai Ram Thakur on Thursday contradicted a state police panel report that pointed towards the exodus from border villages along China border, stating that no migration was happening.

I dont know where did you get these this inputs, the CM said while replying to a query.

No migration is happening in border villages of the state. People there are highly patriotic and are ready to fight the enemy and even make supreme sacrifice if need arises, he added.

The CM said a panel of five superintendents of police (SP), who are battalion commandants, visited four dozen border villages of Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti after the Chinese aggression in Galwan valley last month. They talked to people about the issues. The residents of these frontier villages have said it on record that they are going nowhere. Nobody talked of migration, Thakur claimed. He, however, said that locals had some issues related to development which will be resolved at the earliest.

On July 25, while citing the police panels report during a press conference, director general of police (DGP) Sanjay Kundu had said migration from border villages was a threat to the national security. He had said the panel implied that people were migrating from the border areas due to poor infrastructure and a lack of economic activities. Besides strengthening road and communication infrastructure, the panel specifically recommended increasing economic activities, like tribal tourism and marketing of local flowers and produce, to repopulate the areas.

Meanwhile, the CM also said the development of border areas was top priority of the state government. A lot of development projects in these areas are ongoing which I think should not be discussed in open, he said.

Foremost is the Rohtang tunnel inauguration of which is expected to be inaugurated in last week of September. The tunnel will facilitate quick movement of forces to the border areas, he added.

TEMPLES TO REMAIN SHUT

Replying to another question, Thakur said as of now, there is no plan to reopen temples in the state.Once, we were almost ready to reopen the temples but the decision was withheld in wake of rising Covid-19 cases, he said. The CM said monsoons are here and the threat of viral and bacterial diseases outbreak always looms large. So, the temples are not opening in the rainy season at least till August 31. After that, the government will consider reopening the shrines when the situation is under control, he added.

CM GETS ROUSING WELCOME IN KANGRA

The chief minister was accorded a rousing welcome on his arrival at the Gaggal Airport in Kangra district for a three-day visit. Vidhan Sabha speaker Vipin Singh Parmar, Industries Minister Bikram Singh, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Sarveen Chaudhary, Forests Minister Rakesh Pathania, MP Kishan Kapoor, MLAs Vishal Nehariya, Arun Mehra, Reeta Devi, Arjun Singh, Hoshiar Singh, Mulkraj Premi, Ravi Dhiman, former MLAs and other dignitaries were also present on the occasion to receive the Chief Minister.

BJP workers flouted the social distancing norms while welcoming the CM at Kachehari market of Dharamshala town as the police watched helplessly. Police had told the BJP workers to line up keeping in mind the social distancing norms. However, as soon as the CM arrived there, the upbeat BJP workers almost mobbed him trying to hand over bouquet and flowers.

FOLLOW UP DEVELOPMENTAL PROJECTS TO ENSURE TIMELY IMPLEMENTATION: CM TO MLAS

Chief minister Jai Ram Thakur on Thursday urged the MLAs to follow up on the ongoing developmental projects in their respective constituencies to ensure time-bound execution of these works.

He was presiding over a meeting of ministers, MP, MLAs and district-level officers of Kangra to review the progress of ongoing projects in the district.

Thakur directed the officers to ensure time-bound completion of all the developmental projects to check price escalation, besides ensuring that people could harp the benefits of development.

He said special focus must be laid on implementation projects announced by him.

The CM said various departments must ensure that all the announcements are implemented within the stipulated time period. He said the government is laying special stress on development of Kangra since it the biggest district in the state.

He said though the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the pace of development, the government is striving hard to meet the deadlines.

The CM said the Covid-19 situation is under control in Kangra despite being the largest district population-wise. Authorities must ensure that people follow social distancing and use face masks. All social, cultural and religious gatherings must also be avoided, he added.

Vacant posts of doctors and paramedics will be filled up at the earliest in health institutions of the district. Efforts will also be made to provide specialist doctors in all major hospitals of the district, he added.

The chief minister said the state government has constituted a cabinet sub-committee for finding the unspent money under different projects. He said mechanism will be evolved to divert the amount with the consent of local representatives.

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Deputy Communications Director of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mame Yaa Aboagye says NDC flagbearer and former President John Dramani Mahama will lose the 2020 Presidential elections even if he calls fire from heaven.



According to her, John Mahamas desperation for power has blindfolded him to reality.



Speaking after an NPP press conference, Mame Yaa said we are all aware how desperate John Mahama is, hence using tactical means to create a negative impression against the Akans and the Ewes but it will not hold because we know what he did when given the opportunity to serve as the leader of this country. Therefore, his own lies will give him up in the long run.



To her, the former Presidents abysmal performance cannot be forgotten.



His performance was poor not to talk about constant dumsor for more than 4 years, the mismanagement of the economy and corruption. So, all he is trying to do is to incite the people of Volta Region against the NPP party. What we are asking for is for Ghanaians to register Ghanaians, not foreigners. He can call forth fire from heaven but Ghana cannot fall for him.





Source: Josephine Acheampomaa/[email protected]









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